Yuki's POV
Yuki noticed it first during their morning math class. Nejire was sitting perfectly still, staring at her textbook without turning the pages. No fidgeting, no sudden questions, no excited whispers about fascinating number patterns. Just... stillness.
"Nejire," she whispered, leaning over. "You okay?"
Nejire jerked like she'd been shocked, then immediately plastered on a bright smile. "Perfect! Just really focused on these equations!"
But when Yuki glanced at her friend's notebook, the page was completely blank.
At lunch, Nejire barely touched her food. When Akira asked about her weekend plans, she gave vague answers and kept checking the exits like she was planning an escape route.
"Hey," Yuki said gently, reaching across the table to touch Nejire's hand. "You know you can talk to us about anything, right?"
"Of course! There's nothing to talk about though!" Nejire's laugh was too high, too forced. "Everything's great! Super great! Hey, did you guys know that the cafeteria uses exactly forty-seven different spices in their curry? I counted them yesterday and—"
She was rambling now, words spilling out faster and faster, but her eyes kept darting around the cafeteria like she was watching for something. Or someone.
Akira's POV
The next morning, Akira got to school early and found Nejire already at her desk, head down, scribbling frantically in a notebook. When he got closer, he realized she wasn't writing—she was just moving her pen in random patterns, over and over.
"Morning, Nejire!" he said cheerfully.
She slammed the notebook shut and spun around with that same too-bright smile. "Akira! Hi! Good morning! Beautiful day, isn't it? Did you know that morning sunlight has different wavelength properties than afternoon sunlight? It's fascinating how—"
"Nejire." He sat down beside her desk. "What's wrong?"
"Wrong? Nothing's wrong! Why would anything be wrong? I'm just excited about today's classes! We have science and I love science and—"
"You're shaking."
She looked down at her hands, which were indeed trembling slightly. "Just excited! Really, really excited about... about learning!"
During lunch, Akira watched her barely eat again. Every time someone walked past their table, she tensed up. When a group of Class C students laughed at something across the cafeteria, she flinched like they'd shouted at her.
"Nejire," he said quietly, "whatever's going on, we want to help."
"Nothing's going on!" she insisted, but her voice cracked on the last word. "I'm fine! Totally fine! Just... just tired maybe? Yeah, just tired."
But her eyes were red-rimmed, and Akira was pretty sure she'd been crying.
Yuki's POV
By the third day, Yuki felt sick with worry. Nejire looked awful—pale, exhausted, jumping at every sound. Her usual boundless energy had been replaced by jittery nervousness, like she was constantly on edge.
"That's it," Yuki announced during their break, pulling Akira aside while Nejire was in the bathroom. "Something's seriously wrong and she won't tell us what."
"I know," Akira said miserably. "I tried asking her again this morning and she almost started crying. Then she ran off saying she had to help a teacher with something."
"She's lying to us," Yuki said, her heart breaking. "Nejire never lies. She couldn't lie if her life depended on it, but now she's lying about everything."
When Nejire came back from the bathroom, they both noticed the red marks on her wrists that she tried to hide by pulling down her sleeves.
"Nejire," Yuki said desperately, "please. Just tell us what's happening. We care about you."
"Nothing! I told you, nothing's happening!" Nejire's voice was getting higher, more frantic. "Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm fine! Great! Never been better! I just... I need to go. I have to... there's something I need to do."
She grabbed her bag and practically ran out of the classroom, leaving Yuki and Akira staring after her.
"We have to tell Meiji," Akira said quietly.
"But she made us promise—"
"Yuki, look at her! Whatever's happening, it's killing her. And we obviously can't help."
Yuki's POV - After School
Yuki found Meiji at his locker, organizing his books with the same careful attention he'd always had, though now it looked more like normal teenager organization rather than military precision.
"Hey Meiji," she said, her stomach churning. "Can we talk? Akira and I need to tell you something."
Something in her tone made him look up sharply. "What's wrong?"
Akira appeared beside them, looking just as miserable as Yuki felt. "It's about Nejire."
Meiji's entire body went still. "What about her?"
"She's... something's really wrong," Yuki said, wrapping her arms around herself. "She's been getting worse every day. She won't eat, she's jumpy and scared all the time, and she keeps lying to us about being fine when she's obviously not."
"We tried to help," Akira added quickly. "We tried talking to her, being there for her, but she just keeps pushing us away and pretending everything's okay."
"How long?" Meiji's voice was very quiet, very controlled.
"Three days that we've noticed," Yuki said. "But probably longer. She's been... different. Less herself. And today she had marks on her wrists that she tried to hide."
Meiji closed his locker with careful precision, but Yuki could see his hands shaking. "Where is she now?"
"We don't know," Akira said miserably. "She ran off after last period. Said she had something to do, but..."
"She's avoiding us," Yuki finished. "And we don't know why. We know you two are really close, and we thought maybe she'd talk to you? We know she told us about your... about before you came here. About how you needed protection and care. We just... we don't want her to suffer alone."
Meiji's POV
Cold. That was the first thing Meiji felt—a freezing cold that started in his chest and spread through his entire body. Then came the rage, hot and sharp, cutting through the cold like a blade.
Someone was hurting Nejire. Someone was hurting the person who'd saved him, who'd pulled him out of his darkness and shown him that the world could be bright and beautiful and safe.
"Thank you for telling me," he said, his voice eerily calm despite the storm raging inside him. "I'll find her."
He turned to leave, but Yuki grabbed his arm. "Meiji, we're worried about you too. Don't do anything—"
"I won't hurt anyone," he said, understanding her concern. "But I'm going to find her, and I'm going to help her."
The moment he stepped outside, his control shattered. Panic and rage and desperate worry crashed over him all at once. His shadows responded to his emotional state, reaching out in dark tendrils that made other students step back nervously.
Nejire. Where are you? Who's hurting you? How long have you been suffering while I was too happy and oblivious to notice?
He ran back into the school, checking every classroom, every hallway, every corner where she might be hiding. The building was mostly empty now, just a few teachers and students staying late for clubs or extra help.
"Have you seen Nejire Hado?" he asked everyone he passed, his voice tight with barely controlled emotion.
Most shook their heads. A few mentioned seeing her earlier, but no one knew where she'd gone.
His shadows were responding to his anxiety now, creeping along the walls and floors as he searched. He checked the library, the science labs, the art room, even the roof access. Nothing.
Think, come on...! use your brain!!! he told himself desperately. Where would she go if she was hurt and scared and didn't want anyone to find her?
Somewhere private. Somewhere safe. Somewhere she could be alone to fall apart without anyone seeing.
The broken bathrooms. The ones in the older part of the building that hardly anyone used after school.
Meiji's POV
He found her in the third bathroom he checked, on the far end of the school where the older buildings connected to the new ones. The girls' bathroom was supposed to be off-limits to him, but he didn't care about rules right now.
"Nejire?" he called softly, pushing open the door.
A sharp gasp echoed from one of the stalls, followed by the sound of frantic movement.
"I'm fine!" came Nejire's voice, high and panicked. "Just... just give me a minute! I'll be right out!"
But Meiji could see her feet under the stall door, and he could see the dark spots on the floor that looked suspiciously like tears. Or blood.
"Nejire, it's me. It's Meiji."
Silence. Then a broken sob that made his heart shatter into pieces.
"Go away," she whispered. "Please. I don't want you to see me like this."
"I'm not going anywhere." He sat down on the floor outside the stall, his back against the door. "Yuki and Akira are worried about you. I'm worried about you."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not." His voice was gentle but firm. "And that's okay. You don't have to be fine all the time."
Another sob, this one louder and more broken.
"Can you open the door?" he asked softly. "Please?"
After a long moment, he heard the lock click. The door opened slightly, and Nejire peered out at him with red, swollen eyes. Her uniform was wrinkled, there were marks on her arms that definitely hadn't been there this morning, and she looked like she hadn't slept in days.
"Oh, Nejire," he breathed, his heart breaking all over again.
She tried to smile, that same forced brightness she'd been wearing for days. "See? I'm okay! Just... just had a little headache. Nothing to worry about!"
But as she said it, she swayed on her feet, and Meiji caught her arm to steady her. That's when he saw them clearly—the bruises on her wrists, the red marks on her neck that looked like someone had grabbed her, the exhaustion and fear and pain she'd been hiding behind that fake smile.
"Who did this to you?" His voice was very quiet, very dangerous.
"Nobody! I just... I fell down some stairs. Clumsy me, right?" She laughed, but it came out as more of a sob.
"Nejire." He stood up, gently taking her hands in his. "Please don't lie to me. I can see that someone hurt you. And I can see that you've been suffering for days while I was too blind to notice."
Her face crumpled. "I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to worry. You're finally happy, and you're doing so well, and I didn't want to ruin that by—"
"By what? By letting me help the person who saved my life?"
She looked up at him in confusion. "What?"
Meiji took a shaky breath, trying to find the words for everything he was feeling. "Do you remember when we first met? I was five years old, and I was so scared of everything. My shadows were out of control, I couldn't trust anyone, and I thought the whole world was dangerous and cold."
Nejire nodded, tears streaming down her face.
"You were the first person who wasn't afraid of me," he continued. "The first person who looked at my shadows and thought they were cool instead of scary. You asked me about them like they were the most interesting thing you'd ever seen."
"I remember," she whispered.
"You didn't just become my friend, Nejire. You saved me. You showed me that there were good people in the world, people who would care about me just because of who I was. You taught me how to laugh, how to play, how to trust. Every good thing in my life started with you."
She was crying harder now, but she was listening.
"When I was ready to give up, you never did. When I was convinced I was broken and dangerous and unlovable, you proved me wrong every single day. You brought me out of the darkness and into the light."
"Meiji—"
"You're my hero," he said firmly. "Not because of your quirk, not because you're strong or powerful or any of that. You're my hero because you have the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met. Because you see the best in everyone, including me when I couldn't see it in myself."
"But what if they're right?" she sobbed. "What if I really am fake and condescending and manipulative? What if I really do think I'm better than everyone else?"
"They're wrong." His voice was fierce, absolute. "I've known you for eight years, Nejire. I've seen you at your best and your worst, and I've never once seen you be anything but genuinely, completely yourself. You don't have a fake bone in your body."
"But my quirk is so strong, and when I ask about other people's quirks maybe it sounds like—"
"It sounds like you're genuinely interested in learning about people you care about," Meiji interrupted. "It sounds like someone who thinks every person and every quirk has value. It sounds like the girl who spent hours helping me learn to control my shadows, not because you had to, but because you wanted to help me."
He cupped her face gently in his hands, making her look at him. "You are not fake. You are not condescending. You are not manipulative. You are kind, and curious, and wonderful, and anyone who can't see that is an idiot."
"But what if—"
"No what-ifs," he said firmly. "I know who you are. Your real friends know who you are. And the people who are saying these things to you? They don't matter."
"They hurt me," she whispered, fresh tears spilling over. "Every day. They corner me when I'm alone and they say such horrible things, and they make me doubt everything about myself."
Rage flared in Meiji's chest, hot and sharp. "Tell me who they are."
"No! I don't want you to get in trouble, or to fight anyone, or—"
"I'm not going to fight them," he said, though part of him wanted to. "But I'm not going to let them keep hurting you either."
"I don't know what to do," she admitted, her voice breaking. "I'm so tired of pretending everything's okay. I'm so tired of wondering if everything I say is wrong, if every friendship I have is based on lies, if I really am as terrible as they say I am."
"Hey." His voice was soft but firm. "Look at me."
She met his eyes, and he saw all the pain and doubt and exhaustion she'd been carrying.
"You are the most genuine person I know," he said. "You are incapable of being fake, because being fake would require you to hide who you really are, and you've never hidden anything in your life. You wear your heart on your sleeve, and that's not a weakness—it's your greatest strength."
"Meiji—"
"You saved my life, Nejire. Not just when we were kids, but every single day since then. Every time you smiled at me when I was having a bad day, every time you believed in me when I didn't believe in myself, every time you reminded me that I was worth caring about. You brought me into a beautiful world full of good people and amazing possibilities. I love you, Nejire. You're the light that guides me through every shadow."
"You really mean that?" she whispered.
"Every word," he said, his heart pounding as he realized what he'd just said, his face starting to turn red.
The words hung in the air between them, and suddenly both of their faces were burning bright red. Nejire's eyes went wide, and Meiji felt his stomach drop as he realized what he'd just said.
"I... I mean..." he stammered, his face getting even redder. "I didn't mean to... that is, I meant it, but I didn't mean to say it like that, and—"
"I love you too," Nejire said quietly, her cheeks blazing pink. "I have for a long time. I just... I never thought you'd feel the same way."
They stared at each other in awkward, electrified silence, both of them blushing furiously and not quite sure what to do with this new information.
"So," Meiji said finally, his voice cracking slightly. "Are we... a thing now?"
"Yeah," Nejire agreed, looking like she might combust from embarrassment. "We should definitely be a thing."
They looked at each other for another long moment, and then both of them started laughing—nervous, embarrassed, but genuine laughter that broke some of the tension.
"You're really bad at timing, you know?" Nejire said, wiping her eyes. "I'm covered in bruises and crying in a bathroom, and that's when you decide to tell me you love me?"
"Hey, you said it back!" Meiji protested, still blushing. "And honestly, I've been wanting to say it for months. It just... came out."
"I'm glad it did," she said softly. "Even if this is possibly the worst romantic moment in history."
"I don't know about that," Meiji said, reaching for her hands again. "I think any moment where you realize the person you love feels the same way is pretty perfect, even if it's in a school bathroom after a breakdown."
Nejire squeezed his hands, her smile genuine for the first time in days. "You really think I'm not fake?"
"I think you're the most real person I've ever met," he said seriously. "And I think anyone who can't see that is missing out on knowing someone absolutely incredible."
"What do we do now?" she asked. "About... everything?"
"Now," Meiji said, "we go home. You get some rest. And tomorrow, we figure out how to deal with the people who've been hurting you. Together."
"Together," she repeated, like she was testing out the word.
"Together," he confirmed. "You're not alone in this, Nejire. You'll never be alone as long as I'm around."
She leaned against him then, exhausted but no longer despairing, and Meiji wrapped his arms around her carefully, mindful of her bruises.
"Thank you," she whispered against his shoulder. "For finding me. For not giving up on me."
"Never," he said fiercely. "I'll never give up on you. You're my hero, remember? And heroes deserve to be saved too."
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Author's Note: dgfdsdfghjklkjhgfdsfghjkljhgfdfghjkl...!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So... ihgfdghjkjhgfdghj I don't know how to write chummy stories too much yet, ended up doing everything in one chapter, but I wouldn't have it any other way honestly, it was a rollercoaster of emotions writing it, thats for sure.
So now that I have made you feel all up and down... see you around! ciao!
[Author proceeds escaping from a beating]