Chapter 178. A Moment of Respite.

The rest of the session was nice. It felt good to talk about how I felt about my situation. Especially including stuff a bit too vicious to tell the girls. Having Denki as a part of me gave me a certain instability in my anger. Something that made me angry, let Denki’s more untethered rage come undone. Nemuri didn’t judge me on my feelings, and wanted to understand more of why I felt the way I do. She always had the expression of her desire to understand, helping me feel more at ease from judgment.

An alarm then turned on, causing both of us to look at the source. Nemuri picked up her phone, and nodded. “Our time is up, I’d like to see you again soon.” She smiled at me while I stood up. “Yea. I’d like that.” I nodded with a smile, feeling much better. I left the room before Nemuri since she had more to do, but at this time it was getting dusk, the moon was just over the horizon shining brighter than the sun at this point, enveloping the night in its cool glow.

I made my way back inside the main building to see everyone in class hanging about on the couches. “Oh, hey man. Where’ve you been?” I looked over at Sero, Jin silently standing right beside him. They were both dressed leisurely, but Jin still had his mask covering his face. “Just some teacher’s counseling.” I shrugged, not technically lying, but inviting the misunderstanding. “What? Didn’t we just kinda do that to move here?” I frowned, thinking of what to say, but Jin surprisingly spoke up. “Maybe it’s personal…”

Sero looked at Jin with surprise, then the realization dawned on him. He snapped over apologetically, bowing his head slightly. “Sorry man, if it’s serious-” “It’s fine… Just something I don’t like talking about.” Sero nodded a bit saddened for bringing up the topic. Jin however, nodded in understanding. He knew more than anyone that some things felt better unsaid and unseen.

I staggered to keep myself up from the sudden tackle coming from behind me. “Hi Denki~!” Himiko had dove herself into my back, latching onto me tightly refusing to let go. I smiled, feeling much better as I patted her hair from behind. “Hey Himiko. What’s everyone doing?” I asked, turning back around to see the class play a multitude of games, and having a great time. “Well, since you were gone, Mina said that we should play games together. Then the rest decided to hang out here too.”

I looked around to see most of the boys playing a stage fighting game that I knew quite well. Except Mina who was enjoying smashing her opponents off the stage, and Deku enjoying the card games next to Uraraka and the rest of the girls. “Hey! You gotta try and beat Ashido! She’s nuts!” Sero jumped in the conversation while pointing at Mina throwing Ojiro’s character off. He groaned while she reveled in her victory. “Nice match man!” She yelled while holding her hand out for a friendly handshake. He smiled and like a good sport returned the gesture. “You are too good at this game for me to have a chance.”

He then glanced at me, noticing me as I got closer to see the game. “Hey Denki. You want to join?” With that, everyone looked over to see that I was really here. “Yea! You totally have to play!” Mina yelled while jumping off the couch and dragging me closer, and by extension Himiko who never let go. I was placed down on the couch with Mina on my left and Himiko on my right. Ojiro gave me another controller as he took a seat on the couch as well. Now that I was closer, I noticed that Ida, Shoto, and Bakugo were all gone. ‘I guess Ida is studying, Shoto just doesn’t like crowds, and Bakugo is Bakugo.’

With a scoff at the end of my thoughts our character selection screen popped up. All of the characters were famous heroes, letting everyone brawl with their favorite role models. I picked Snipe as my hero to the lack of surprise to everyone that waited for my decision. The game was fast paced and chaotic. However it was a ton of fun. Mina really was a strong opponent, one that dominated the match as she rarely lost more than two stocks.

The other guys were dying to her, and I was only staying in the game at this point for two reasons. One was that I was running away from the big fights, I preferred staying back shooting. (That’s right, I’m one of those players.) The other reason was only a suspicion, but I felt Mina was saving me for last, not bothering to chase after me on the outskirts of the fighting. “Dude! Get back here!” “No!” I laughed in response to Sero chasing and yelling at me while Mina finished off Sato on the other side of the map.

The game continued on until Sero knocked me off the stage, leaving me with one last stock to fight against Mina’s two stocks. (She attacked him when he was finished with me.) Mina snickered as her character taunted in waiting for me to respawn. “Hehehe. Whatcha gonna do Denki?” She asked while poking my arm. I tried to frown in response, but her arrogant attitude was too cute for me to not smile at. However I wanted to see some of that arrogance topple, just to see more of her embarrassed Gap-Moe I loved so much about her.

Once Snipe’s boots hit the ground I smirked. “Looks like it’s time for me to go all out…” ‘Bullet Time!’ I thought as my right eye dimly glowed. I had Snipe run towards Mina’s hero Mirko, surprising everyone watching. Mirko was faster than Snipe by a mile, but I made sure to be in mid range. Close enough to use some melee attacks, but enough distance to stop Mina from beating me with a flurry of attacks. “How did you-!?” Mina yelled in shock as she glanced over at me, making me smirk at her change in attitude.

I smirked at her as she leaned further to see my right eye glowing. “You’re totally cheating!!” She yelled as she grabbed my controller with one hand while playing. I laughed while keeping a tight grip on the controller. “Prove it!” “Your eye is glowing!” Mina yelled back as she continued to mess with my controller while our characters were both attacking each other on the stage. The match devolved into us fighting in the game, and wrestling in real life.

After some time I ran out of stamina to keep my Bullet Time active and stopped, leaving Mina who’s hand was still messing with my controller, enough of an advantage to throw me from the stage, winning the match. I let out a contented sigh from the match, as did Mina. We both chuckled after we made a truce, until we noticed the stares coming from all across the room. Mina and I looked at everyone who was staring at us with varying degrees of emotions, and then looked back at each other. It was then that we noticed Mina had clammored on top of me during our fight.

Mina’s face turned from pink to deep red as her smile became an embarrassed frown. She leaped off of me with a yelp. “I could totally go for some snacks right now!” She yelled while avoiding eye contact with everyone as she darted out of the room, leaving me to deal with everyone else in the room. With a few sparks arcing through my hair, I sat back up on the couch. I avoided all the guy’s gazes (Especially Mineta’s death glare of bleeding tears), and used Mina’s controller to start another match. “Anyone down for another match without Mina?” I asked as casually as possible. However, that was short lived from Mineta’s screeching, only being held back from Kirishima. “You think you can just sweep this obviously lovey dovey scene under the rug!? Huh!? You $@%# Normie!! How far have you gotten!!?”

My body sparked furiously, even making Himiko who had been strangely quiet this whole time, give me some space. The silence in the room was deafening, and my face felt on fire from remembering my long make out session with all the girls together. My lips tightened despite my fighting to keep my composure, and I didn’t dare look at the girls for fear of dragging them into that discussion. “That’s personal…” Was all I could mumble in defense. Mineta was about to talk back, but Asui smacking him out cold and tying him up ended the conversation early. “Let’s just end with this.” She looked at me with a finger to her chin, and I nodded in thanks for her help.

The rest of the night was plenty fun, making me forget, just for a moment, that there were plenty more danger’s ahead of this class.