Age: 15 (7 months before the U.A. exam - POV Himiko Toga)
The air in classroom 3-A smelled of chalk, teenage hormones, and rotten static electricity.
I was sitting at my desk, swinging my legs and chewing the tip of my pen. Usually, school was boring but tolerable because I had my personal entertainment: the "Katsuki and Izuku Show."
Usually, it worked like this: Katsuki-kun would growl something about the teacher's incompetence. Izu-kun would mutter a technical correction. Katsuki would throw a paper ball at his head. Izu would laugh. I would steal lunch from both of them.
It was a perfect ecosystem. A well-oiled machine.
But today... today the machine was broken.
I looked to my right. Katsuki-kun was staring out the window, jaw clenched so tight I could hear his teeth grinding from here. His pencil tapped against the desk with a manic rhythm. Tap-tap-tap-tap. It wasn't a musical rhythm. It was Morse code for "I want to kill something."
I looked to my left. Izu-kun was taking notes. His back was straight, rigid. He wasn't looking at Katsuki. He wasn't looking at anyone. There was an invisible wall around his desk, built of silence and cold courtesy.
I sighed, dropping my head onto the table with a dull thud.
"Boring..." I muttered.
The lunch bell rang. It was like the starting pistol of a race, but no one ran.
"Let's go to the roof," I said, jumping up and trying to inject some life into the corpse of our friendship. "I brought strawberry mochi! I stole them from the pantry before my mom counted them!"
Katsuki stood up slowly.
"I'm not hungry," he said. His voice was flat.
"You have to eat," Izuku intervened, without looking at him, packing his books. "Muscle catabolism increases if you skip meals after stress."
Katsuki turned to him. His red eyes flashed dangerously.
"I don't need you to quote the biology textbook at me, Deku. I know how my body works."
"Just saying," Izuku replied, with that new calmness that scared me so much. Before, Izuku would have shrunk back. Now, he simply deflected the attack like rain. "Do what you want."
Izuku took his bento and left the classroom.
Katsuki stood there for a second, staring at the empty doorway as if he wanted to rip it off its hinges. Then, he kicked his chair and left in the opposite direction, toward the workshop.
I was left alone in the hallway, holding my strawberry mochi.
"Idiots," I whispered.
(...)
I went to the roof anyway. I ate my mochi alone, watching the clouds. They tasted like cardboard.
The problem with boys is that they are stupid.
Katsuki-kun is a genius, but emotionally he's a porcupine. He's afraid Izu-kun will die, so he tries to push him away to "save" him. Izu-kun is a genius, but he has the biggest martyr complex in the world. He thinks if Katsuki doesn't support him, he has to prove the entire universe wrong, even if he breaks himself in the process.
They are two puzzle pieces that have swollen from humidity and no longer fit together.
I went downstairs when the break ended. In the hallway, I saw some guys from another class bothering a first-year student.
"Hey, shrimp, give us your money."
My hand went instinctively to my pocket, where I kept my box cutter. I felt the familiar impulse. Blood. Fear. Fun.
If Katsuki were here, he'd give me a warning glare. If Izuku were here, he'd tell me it's not worth it.
But they weren't here. I was alone. And I was angry. Angry at them for leaving me alone.
I approached the bullies. I didn't pull out the box cutter. I pulled out my best smile. The one that shows all the teeth and doesn't reach the eyes.
"Hi, guys," I said in a singsong voice. "Are you playing? Can I play too?"
The bullies turned around. Upon seeing me, they paled. My reputation at school was... ambiguous. The "weird girl who lives with the Bakugous."
"Uh... no, Toga. We were just talking."
"That's good," I moved closer, invading their personal space until I could smell the cheap deodorant and the leader's cold sweat. "Because if you take his money, he won't be able to eat. And if he doesn't eat, he gets weak. And if he gets weak, his blood becomes watery. And nobody likes watery blood, right?"
I whispered the last part, brushing the guy's arm with the tips of my cold fingers.
The guy let go of the first-year and stepped back, stumbling.
"You're crazy!"
They ran off.
The first-year looked at me, terrified.
"Th-thank you..."
"Go," I said, erasing my smile. "Before I change my mind."
The boy fled.
I leaned against the lockers. I didn't feel better. Scaring extras was fun, but empty. I missed my pack.
(...)
At the school exit, I tried one last maneuver. The "Hinge" maneuver.
I waited at the main gate. I caught Izuku when he came out and grabbed his arm. Then I caught Katsuki when he came out of the workshop (smelling of burnt metal) and grabbed his other arm.
"Team meeting!" I announced, planting myself between the two so they couldn't run. "We're going home. We're going to study. And we're ordering pizza. I'm paying with Katsuki's card."
Katsuki tried to pull away.
"I have to finish assembling the pistons. I don't have time for pizza."
"I have to go to the park," Izuku said softly, trying to loosen my grip without hurting me. "Today is endurance."
I looked at both of them.
"No," I said, and my voice came out sadder than I intended. "Please. Just one afternoon. Like before."
Katsuki looked at Izuku. For a second, I saw a crack in his armor. I saw that he wanted to say yes. I saw that he missed his nerd as much as I did.
But then he looked at Izuku's hands, wrapped in that cheap tape that protected nothing. And his expression closed up again. It turned to stone.
"I can't," Katsuki said. "Not until the gear is ready. I'm not wasting time playing house while the clock is ticking."
He yanked his arm free and started walking toward his house.
I stayed with Izuku. He watched Katsuki's back walking away.
"Sorry, Toga-chan," Izuku said. He patted my head, but his mind wasn't there anymore. It was somewhere far away, chasing a goal only he could see. "Go with him. He doesn't like being alone, even if he says he does."
"You shouldn't be alone either, Izu-kun."
"I'm fine." He gave me a smile that wasn't real. It was a cheap copy of All Might's smile. "See you tomorrow."
He ran off toward the park.
I stood at the school gate, watching my two favorite people walk away in opposite directions.
The hinge had broken. The door that held us together was falling off.
Katsuki thinks he can fix it with technology. Izuku thinks he can fix it with effort.
But I know the truth. Broken things can't always be glued back together. Sometimes, you have to let them break completely so you can build something new with the pieces.
I pulled out my phone.
Me:Mama Mitsuki, I'm heading home. Katsuki is in a bad mood. Make something very spicy. We need to burn things.
I put the phone away and walked after Katsuki. Someone had to make sure the explosive idiot didn't forget to eat dinner.
But as I walked, I noticed a smell in the air. It came from the direction Izuku had run.
It wasn't sweat. It wasn't sadness.
It smelled like... a storm. Like ozone. Like something electric and ancient.
I stopped and sniffed the air. It was a very faint smell, almost imperceptible, but it was there.
What are you doing, Izu-kun? I thought. And why do you smell like a secret?