Minh: There’s a few classmates that hanging near helps too. If things get too overwhelming that’s who I try to stand near-- though I try not to be a bother.
Tokugawa also really helps-- her quirk calms me down while only mildly muting my ability to read other’s emotions, so that’s another safety net I have.
The End of Days (pt i. Outbreak)
Zombie Apocalypse AU
[A/N: Oops, I read one too many zombie AUs for BNHA and I just had to explore how some of my gen studies students would handle/react to the scenario. Apocalypse+Quirks is such an interesting concept to me!
(TW: Death, Zombies, Blood and Gore)]
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i. Outbreak (Fumiko, Kaoru, Minh, Kohaku)
If they were asked later, the three of them could have immediately pinpointed the precise moment when the world had gone bad. They wouldn’t recall a news report, or the sight of a shuffling corpse though or even the first time they saw someone fall and disappear under a crowd of writhing limbs, blood covered nails and teeth.
No.
The world came crashing down around their ears the moment that Minh had fallen to the ground screaming during a routine trip to the mall. They hadn’t known it then, but his panicked confused sobbing had been the death knell for their lives as they had always been.
His eyes had been a violent storm of color. Red for anger, orange for fear, muddy and midnight blues for grief. The emotions had filled him so completely that the thin line of orange-yellow representing his own panic was nearly swallowed up completely.
He’d blame himself, his inability to stop his screams, for what came later. Two pairs of hands on his shoulders tried to soothe his guilt with no success. It was hard to talk someone through the same guilt that harbored inside yourself after all.
If they hadn’t needed to go to the store they all wouldn’t have been there.
If she had begged to grab something to eat beforehand they might have left before it all started.
If he had only been able to stop screaming they might have avoided attention.
The if’s haunted them. And they all shouldered that grief alone in their own way. As though that would be easier than speaking about what happened aloud.
The mall had been overrun quickly.
It was downtown, across from the hospital where patient zero had been taken.
Fumiko and Kohaku had pushed and pulled, forcing them through panicked crowds, unsure of what exactly was happening but knowing-- somehow, that they needed to get away. Fumiko used Minh’s sobbing like a sonar, dragging them in a new direction whenever his cries gained volume.
That’s how they had ended up in the stairwell, surging towards the roof. A desperate move, with no idea how to escape if they ended up trapped on top of the building-- but any time they had attempted to get to the ground floor, Minh’s screaming would redouble.
They almost didn’t reach the roof in time as it was. There were people there, attempting to barricade themselves away from the strange bestial sounds that had begun on the first floor of the mall, as well as the streets below. They had forced their way through. Huddling in a corner of the roof, trying to stay out of the panicked adults way.
Trying that was, until Minh’s screams redoubled in volume. Violence simmered in the taut muscles of the man who stalked up to them, intent on silencing Minh with force.
Fumiko had leapt in front of him. “Wait wait-- when he gets louder it means trouble is coming! Stop-- don’t!” The man had already loosed his fist before she had jumped in front of it. She crumpled to the ground in front of Minh wheezing. The man looked somewhat guilty, but there was a desperation in his eyes that didn’t leave room for kindness.
Kaoru swept Fumiko up in her arms, curling protectively around the girl who was gasping to breathe.
Kohaku stood in front of the three of them, their arms akimbo, face stoney and cold. The tension of the moment was redirected though, when the sounds of individuals pleading and banging at the barricaded roof door was replaced by panicked screaming.
Apart from Minh’s screams, the hundreds of strangers on the roof stared at the door with horror in their eyes, completely silent as the sounds of pained screams gave way to wet ripping sounds and growls.
The barricade held firm though. People began to mill around the roof, looking for some method of escape. Desperation and tension heightened for everyone. And guilt. No small amount of guilt.
But Minh’s screams did not die down. If anything they redoubled in volume. Fumiko wrapped her arms around him when she regained her breath, grabbing handfuls of Kaoru’s hair and yanking it to their screaming friend’s nose in an effort to calm him. Kaoru leaned closer, despite the fact that her hair stretched to accommodate the pulling. Her quirk did nothing to soothe him. Kohaku took off their jacket, wrapping it tightly around their still screaming friend, attempting to muffle the sound through their jacket.
But the reasons for the screams volume rising became painfully, crystal clear when someone stumbled towards their huddled group. A man in a suit. The man had been laying on the opposite side of the rooftop, nursing bloody wounds when they had arrived. Blood dripped down his bandaged arm and the groan in the back of his throat sounded feral and terrifying.
Preparing for another altercation with someone attempting to forcefully quiet her friend, Fumiko didn’t register how inhumane sound of the suited man’s cries were until he was already lunging for Minh.
For the second time in what felt like mere moments, she blindly threw herself between a large man and her three friends.
But this time, instead of a fist to the gut, she screamed as teeth sank into her forearm. She struggled, shaking and trembling, one small fist repeatedly crashing into the side of the man’s head. But he appeared not bothered by her attempts in the slightest. He bit down harder and she screamed again at the pain.
Somehow in her struggles with the man, they had managed to twist around. When her eyes opened all she could see were the terrified expressions of her friends. Even Minh-- who was biting down on his hands in an effort to stem the sounds coming from his mouth.
She moaned, a pitiful scared sound as she felt a lancing pain shoot from where the man’s teeth were tightly clasped around her arm. Somewhat dully, through the pain, she saw a veiny mess of black under the pale skin of her arm, similar to a spider-like web of black veins her attacker’s arm.
The man’s head ripped away from her arm, taking skin and muscle with it. She felt faded, like she could faint from the pain. But the man wasn’t done with her. He lunged again, claw-like fingers greedily drawing her arm to his mouth for another bite.
She dodged his attempt on her arm, though it was a hollow meaningless victory, as his second attempt brought his teeth to her throat.
When he pulled away like he had with her arm. She would be dead. She knew that. She’d be dead-- and this monster would still be here, nearly on top of her friends. Her friends who were watching her die right in front of them.
She followed the man-- the beast’s movement as he attempted to rip his mouth away from her throat. It put the creature off balance and she took advantage of that to push-- push him towards the side of the roof, her small, delicate arms wrapped as tightly as she could manage around the creature’s head, keeping them interlocked as she pitched them off the side of the building.
The moment she fell felt like it took forever. She met her friends eyes again, tried to speak, but all that came out was a bubble of blood. The split second she hung in the air wouldn’t have been long enough for a goodbye though. Even if she could speak. She closed her eyes as she fell.
Praying that none of them watched.
The pair hit the ground with a sickening thump. The creature’s teeth slackened around her throat and she rolled over, body screaming as she struggled to open her eyes again.
Above her, blurry and fading fast, she saw Kamui Woods, springing to the top of the roof where her friends screamed her name.
Kaoru: I... don’t think it cheered her up very much Fumi-chan.
Kohaku: I’m inclined to agree.
Fumiko: She’ll be thrilled tomorrow! Don’t worry-- you volunteering to participate is a big help! Thank you again so much!
Yu-mi: Is it still bad Tran?
Minh: Yeah... And it’s both of them now. Though... Watanabe has calmed down a little.
Fumiko: Tomorrow everyone! It’ll be better tomorrow! They just need some rest! Oh I know! We’ll ask Aikawa-kun if he’ll make them something they can eat in their rooms! Lets go!
[A/N: Second in a collection of written character exploration drabbles centering around nightmares and fears of the students in 1-E (TW: Dissociation)]
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Sad.
Scared.
Angry.
Emotions pressed against the inside of him. His skin was glass. The swirl of all of the conflicting emotions were visible to any who cared to look at him. Look through him.
His skin was glass. Fragile. Delicate. Transparent.
The riot of color beat against the glass of his skin and somewhere along his body he heard-- he felt-- something crack. And just like that the color began to drain from inside him.
Glass hands wrapped around the crack. They tried to stem the flow. Fear. The color draining out from the crack was yellow and orange with fear. It slipped between his empty, transparent clutching fingertips, falling and disappearing once it left his hands.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
His fear, his anxiety.
Was it his?
Were any of these emotions ever really his?
It didn’t matter-- if he didn’t stop this, there would be nothing left. Nothing left to pretend was his. He’d be empty and hollow. Just broken glass with nothing inside.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
It was inevitable. Just like he wasn’t strong enough not to crack, he wasn’t smart enough to stop it from all draining away. Not enough. Never enough.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
He was like a cup with a leak. A cracked vessel. Something without purpose, something to be discarded. Something that wouldn’t, didn’t, fulfill it’s function. Without others to fill him, he had nothing of his own to take it’s place.
