Chapter four: Spreading Information
The slow clicking of the keys echoed through the hollow walls of the dorm rooms. His lazy hands dragged across the keyboard as the bright light of the screen burned his retinas. Darkness surrounded the corners of his eyes, the only illumination in the room came from the screen of the computer. Sleep sat at the top of his eyelids, pushing them down to the best of their ability but he fought against it. His mouth hung open too tired to keep it properly closed. Hunched over as if weights were pulling him to the ground, he struggled in a losing battle of keeping his gravity; The only thing keeping him steady was his hands on the keyboard.
His index finger lazily slid the scroller of the mouse, as links to different websites flew past his eyes. The hours on the clock seemed to move slower as Midoriya ran page through page of the search engine. Occasionally, he would stop and open another tab for a website if they caught his eye. Midoriya's eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of interesting characters which linked to a school site.
Tiredly, he dragged the mouse across the pad and double clicked the site. Eyes winching, a ferrel hiss escaped his mouth as the pastel colors jumped off the screen and pierced his eyes like injection needles. The pastel pinks and blues were reminiscent of the uniforms the two high schoolers from the alleyway were wearing. At the top of the page, the words, " Heavenly Highs High School For Disturbed Children," were printed neatly. Just below the text, was a picture of the school. From what it looked like the walls were painted a pearly white, no stain in sight, while the window frames and the roof were painted a powder blue. Adding to the childish charm the architecture was more similar to a castle than an actual school building. Vines crawled up the walls with flowers scattered in its greeness. The garden in the front of the school was well maintained, not a single plant out of line. The only striking detail was the barbed wire fence surrounding it, trapping it as if it were an animal.
Hanging underneath the picture, were displays of different tags, which led to different parts of the site. The tag that stood out the most was a students' attendance list. Clicking on it opened the door to a page of a thousand faces. The five rows had an endless line of various faces, they were only separated by their grades.
Hastily, Midoriya scrolled past the first year section and made it to the upperclassmen. Scrolling too quickly unable to stop, he caught a glimpse of a color. An amber orange. Like pressing the breaks on a car, the scroller came to an abrupt stop when it collided with the tip of his nail. Midoriya focused his tired eyes on the color and the details started to slowly appear. Beads of sweat formed on his temple as his eyes connected with the fiery brunette girl that he met in the alleyway.
With a skip of his heart, he clicked on her school photo and pulled up her student ID. After the page was done loading, he was greeted with her school records displayed on the screen. The school pictured looked a bit younger, but without a doubt it was still the same girl. Besides looking a few years younger, she also distributed a different aura. Her condescending smirk was replaced with a gloomy smile and her once mischievous eyes looked emotionless. Just to the side of her photo, was a small chart of basic information.
"Name: Namika Okumura. Age: 16; Grade: 2nd year. Height: 5'7. Weight: 156lbs. Quirk: Unsolid Touch," Midoriya quietly read aloud to himself. Clicking in his head, he realized he could find out the identity of her companion. The two of them wore the same uniforms, so it made sense that they went to the same school. After recording the information in his head, he backtracked to the student attendance and scrolled through the countless faces to find the green haired boy.
His pastel colored hair stuck out like a stubbed toe in the columns of other students. Similarly to Okumura, he clicked on the boy's image. Leaning in closer to get a better view, his blurry eyes read, "Name: Imai Yuriko. Age: 15. Grade: 1st year. Height: 5'3. Weight: 132lbs. Quirk: Technopathy."
Leaning back in his chair he massaged his temple while soaking up the information like a sponge. His original questions were answered, but in return he only had more. Even though he knew the names of their quirks. The descriptions of them were left out of them in the school IDs. His next question was how a prestigious school would not have caught them doing illegal things or tried to stop them. The last question that was a thorn in his side was what were they planning.
Flicking his forehead, he realized that he forgot a small piece of information; the name that initially led him to finding the schools attendance page. He didn't find the face that belonged to the name Enki. Quickly, he clicked the corner of the page and reorganized the students attendance in alphabetical order and not by year. Going to the 'E' section, he scrolled through a few faces before he arrived at the one he was looking for.
The picture above the name Enki Chikemuri was a tall, slim student with rather pale skin; his skin was unnaturally white, almost looking discolored to the point where the blush on his cheeks looked artificial. His upturned eyes were an off-white with thick, feminine eyelashes attached to the ends of them. His shaggy combed down hair was colored a clearer white, but his hair had a gradient which made the tips appear slightly yellow.
"So this must be the person they were referring to. Is he the mastermind behind them? Or is he like Darth vader, just a puppet of a puppet? Ugh... I can't wrap my head around this." Midoriya mumbled as he clicked on the image of the pale boy. Similarly to the other he read the description, "Name: Enki Chikemuri. Age: 16. Grade: 2nd year. Height: 5 '10. Weight: 149 lbs. Quirk: Possession."
Closing his laptop shut, his eyes stung when the light faded away. Stumbling with his feet, he tried to make his way to bed before waiting for his eyes to adjust. A thud noise followed as he fell into bed. Cocooning himself in his blankets, he tried to run off into dreamland, but his thoughts kept him at bay.
~
The ticking of the clock symphonized with the sound of pencils dancing on the paper. Marks of ink stained the pages as students continued to copy the notes off the board. Numbers and letters lined up in rows on the pages like prisoners on a cell block, crammed with huge spaces to separate them in groups. The chestnut colored desks were dirtied with doodles reminiscent of a biker's arm. Despite that they shined like a newly polished shoe. The same couldn't be said about the floor, dust stuck to the tiles and groves of the floor like a needy child, refusing to let go no matter what.
The green words on the white board popped out against its backdrop, signaling the class to write it down. The dry erase markers illuminated the words on the board, each color representing how important they were to copy down. Despite the hierarchy of colors, Midoriya wrote down each word, believing they were all important. His pencil raced across the paper attempting to catch all the words before they were erased. His eyes swung like a pendulum between the screen and notes, taking in information and then writing it. Like a fat kid running the mile, his eyes struggled to keep up.
The wrinkles on his face felt like they were being pulled down by weights. His eyebrows arched and his eyes hung open. Jagged lines of red formed around his sclera, a clear sign of coffee being injected into his system. His hand twitched, nsync with his foot tapping like it was a planned choreography. The rhythm made for an interesting melody that was white noise to the green haired boy.
Turning to the next page of his notebook, he loosely wrote down a title for the page; his pencil too loose in his grip to make dark or steady writing. The hands on the clock reached a quarter to twelve as the note taking time slowly thinned. The marker in Mr. Aizawa's hand glided across the white board leaving a trail of colorful words in its wake. A squeak followed as he closed the marker signifying the end of the tedious note taking.
Sloppily, each student rushed to finish their notes as if they were racing to be the first one finished. The decrease in handwritten quality was evident as the once prestiges writing became jagged further down the page. Before Midoriya could finish his notes, the lunch bell chimed as Mr. Aizawa erased the last words on the board. Shuffling to put their stuff away, the students of 1A placed their notes in their bags before rushing down the halls to the cafeteria; all except for one, Izuku Midoriya. Leisurely, he slowly cradled his notes in his hand before sliding it into his open bag. He had no reaction as he watched his notebook struggle to get in like a fat girl trying to fit into something two sizes too small. With his left hand he brashly pushed his notebook in, not caring if he folded or smudged a paper. The sound of the zipper clicking together kept Midoriya's mind from wandering.
His attention was only pulled away from the bag when he heard a female voice call out, "Are you okay Deku? It looks like you haven't slept in ages! Are you sick or is there something the matter?" Uraraka begged to know the answer.
"O-Oh...it's nothing to worry about. I just spent a little time last night doing some research." he grumbled as he slung his bag over his shoulder. Quickly he proceeded to walk out the door as Uraraka followed behind.
The halls were filled with students from different classes. Like a cheesy sitcom you would see on TV, there was the couple that was always making out on the left side of the hall. A couple of feet down the hall from them was a group of preppy girls with frilly skirts and stylish hair. Opposite them were the jocks, and between them, tech kids who never did anything but make paper airplanes.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Uraraka shyly spoke, "I know you said it's something not to worry about, but it's hard not to get worried about you. Especially when you're not going into detail about what you were 'researching.' Usually when you search up information about a hero, you spend every single second, minute, and hour talking about the cool facts you found...you never act grouchy or tired"
"Wow, I didn't know you paid that much attention to me...And like I said earlier, you don't have to worry so much. I'll tell you, Todoroki, and Iida everything that happened last night. I promise." Midoriya flashed her a tired smile as the brunette girl merely nodded. Ochako's worrisome expression softened as her eyes warmed up whilst the two of them made their way to the lunch areas.
As they made their way in, a gate of people blocked them from going any further. The gate they formed was uneven due to the variety of heights in the group. They were too loud for "excuse mes'" to be heard, so they took a more tedious path. Being squeezed between the wall and various different people, the two class A students hugged the wall as they made their way through crowds upon crowds. As the cluster of students started to clear up the two of them stopped their intimate action with the wall and headed to their usual table as normal.
Sitting at a round table shoved into the corner of the room, were the two other members of the friend group, Iida and Todoroki. Taking a seat on the bench and placing their bags next to them, Midoriya and Uraraka joined the rest of their friends. Sitting at the left side of the table was the dark blue haired glasses wearing boy Iida. A sandwich was firmly held in both of his hands, almost mechanically. Several clean bites were taken out of the sandwich, it was too perfect that someone could have easily thought it was photo edited. On the opposite side was the boy with heterochromia, Todoroki. Taking more of a traditional approach with his lunch, a pair of chopsticks were wedged between his fingers as he ate from his Bento Box.
"You two are late, you know this is the only time during the school day where we have permission to eat, you two are missing out on important nutrients," Iida said, passive aggressive as he clenching his sandwich tighter.
"I'm...i'm sorry. I just have a lot of things going through my head right now and I totally forgot about the bell," Midoriya's response was just above a mumble. His eyes radiating with tiredness.
Chiming into the conversation Todoroki questioned him, "What's so important that's going through your head, that you would miss out on munchi time?" Despite his childish words, he still contained his monotone voice.
"...Do you guys remember those high schoolers I mentioned," he asked while flashing a nervous smile. Once everyone nodded their head he continued. "Well i'm unable to shake this bad feeling about them off, so I did a little snooping and I found out a lot of things last night."
The three of them sat in silence as they listened to their green haired friend rambling. It was the kind of thick silence that would normally chill Midoriya, but it was somehow comforting and spoke for itself. It was peaceful in a way where you could feel at home. Like a comforting blanket, It lingered in the air, thick and heavy.
His voice was no more than a soft murmur as he continued to speak, "Remember those high schoolers I saw in the alleyway, me and Todoroki saw them in the mall and we confronted them, but while we were talking, one of them had a phone call. Before they answered the call though, I looked at the contact and saw the person's name was Enki. Using his name, I browsed a bunch of online forums and found the attendance list for a school called, 'Heavenly Highs High School For Disterbed Children' and they were on the list!"
Taking a break in the middle of his rambling, he glanced his emerald eyes up to see their reactions. Shock flitted across his facial features. With his eyes as wide as the moon, he looks at the disturbed faces of his friends. Their faces as if their insides curdled like milk with lemon. Lips curling upwards, each of their faces were drained of color like their brain couldn't turn fast enough to take in the information.
"That's nice and all..." Uraraka slowly spoke, "But, don't you think you're getting a little--!"
"--Wait, That's not all of it though!", he cut Uraraka off, "On the attendance list, I finally learned what their names were and other basic information! Apparently, the girl with the ponytail is named Namika Okumura and her quirk is called 'Unsolid Touch.' Also the pastel green haired boy is named Imai Yuriko and his quirk is 'Technopathy'. Sadly though, it didn't tell me what their quirks did, but I do have a few theories. Starting off with the boy, I think his quirk has something to do with electricity or technology. First off, when me and Mirio were fighting them, he was able to send off green electric sparks and he has the word 'tech' in his quirk's name. For the girls, I don't have--!"
"Stop, that's enough!" Iida bursted out, eyeing his green haired friend a little too harshly.
"W-What, did I say something wrong?" He innocently questioned, glancing up words at his glasses wearing friend. The feeling of confusion crept into the crevices of his face as his eyes fixed onto him. Like a ball of tangled yarn, He was lost and confused as the words rocked his mind.
With less force in his tone, Iida tried to explain, "Midoriya, people shoplift and steal all the time, but cops don't hunt down all their information. The reason they don't do that is because it's wrong and creppy. You wouldn't want someone stalking you, right?"
"Of course not!" His tone was full of bewilderment, not understanding where his friend was coming from, "...B-But, they leave a bad taste in my mouth and I know they're planning something. I just don't know what it is yet."
"You're being hypocritical Midoriya," Todoroki noted sternly, "When Iida was hunting down the hero killer, you thought it was wrong, but when you're doing the same thing to those two kids, it's somehow right? And to add more to it, the worst thing that we know they did was steal. What they're doing is very tame compared to what other villains are doing, but you insist on stalking them? At least with Iida it makes a bit more sense since the hero killer hurt his brother, but there's no reason for you to be doing it."
His shamrock green eyes clouded over as they darted around, looking for answers. An unsettling feeling began swelling inside him, the feeling is that he was in the wrong. The feeling of a dozen needles danced their way across his forehead as he repeated the words "No" in his head. He searched through his library of a brain to find a single answer to justify himself, but as he cleared each shelf in his mind, the thumping of his heart got louder and louder. It's volume was so loud that Midoriya was sure everyone around him could hear it.
Still in denial, he reluctantly agreed with them, "Y-You're right...it is kind of creepy. But my gut is telling me there's something off about them, Like they're planning to do something really bad."
"If you're right and they are planning to do something bad, leave it to the authorities. You're still a student, you shouldn't be wasting hours of your time just to hunt down some petty criminals. You should be spending that time training or babbling to others about your hero's obsession." The teen with heterochromia remarked with subtle mirth.
Midoriya nodded his head, his lips slightly pursed. "I get it. You're right and I'm wrong...I promise I won't do this again. And by 'this' I mean the whole searching up information about people who I think are shady."
There was a moment of silence, but it was quickly filled up with Uraraka joking, "Now that's all said and done...Why don't we talk about the equations we just did. They were super hard, and I barely have a grip on them. Can you guys be so kind and help my dumb little brain understand this!" With that, everyone started talking normally and forgot about Midoriya's previous stalker like rambling.
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