Well…

Shit.

For once, Masami was actually surprised. She couldn't believe that Shigaraki had actually been so stupid as to actually make a move on U.A. in broad daylight. It was like he was purposely raising a red flag that said ‘Hello, I plan on attacking the school soon. This is just a warning, so won't you please increase your defenses?’ It's not as though she had much of a problem with him making such foolish moves, but it was still concerning.

Taking such actions probably meant that he was pretty confident. And a confident Shigaraki was never exactly a good thing. Plus, it didn't help that the school had yet to learn about the man child. Which, unfortunately, was the reason why Masami was staying after school, freaking out as she stood in front of the teachers conference room.

Doing what she was about to do was a huge risk. She was practically exposing herself for having a hella amount of secrets. And not even the good kind of secrets. If those exist. No, these were secrets that affected the lives of others. Oh, how she was regretting not telling anybody about Shigaraki in the first place. She could have had this all over and done with already. Plus, there probably wouldn't be a giant hole in U.A.'s wall if she had just spoken up.

Oh, just how did she know she'd end up with a big pit of regret?

She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to put it off any longer and finally knocked. The noise in the room came to an almost complete halt at the sound. Clearly, they weren't expecting visitors.

“Come in!” Nezu's voice rang out after a few more seconds of silence.

Cringing as the large door creaked upon opening, Masami was close to running away as she stepped into the room. All the attention was on her. And not even the good attention. They were probably wondering how the hell she knew that they were all in the conference. Either that or why she was there. Actually, it was probably both. In any case, she wasn't exactly pleased with all the stares that were on her.

Originally, she had just planned on going to speak with Nezu. Masami didn't know the other teachers very well yet, and she wasn't sure who exactly she could trust. However, Nezu was already in this meeting by the time school ended, so she didn't have much of a choice. It's not as though she was gonna wait until the meeting ended. That would have been even more awkward. You know… just sitting around the empty school building… waiting.

Yeah, no. This seemed like the easier choice.

"Masami?" Midnight raised a brow, for once, not cooing over the girl. "What are you doing here?"

"A-ah, um, well, about th-that, um…" And here Masami thought that she had planned out what she was going to say, but noooo. The moment she walked in, all the words just seemed to disappear from her head. So, she guessed that she would just be winging it. "I-It's about the, um, the s-security breach…" She paused for a second, glancing up ever so slightly from her hunched position while wringing her hands. All the teachers were paying attention now, and the majority had frowns. "I, um, I th-think I know who m-may have caused th-the hole in the barrier."

Oh great, and now they were suspicious. Well, that's to be expected, she supposed.

Masami began rubbing the back of her neck nervously. She always seemed to be getting herself into the worst kind of situations.

"I see," Nezu lost his cheery smile as he, too, began to frown. It wasn't as though he was suspicious of Masami specifically. However, he was quite curious as to how she would obtain such information. "And who exactly may that be?"

They weren't just going to deny any chance to get information on these guys. The teachers had actually been discussing the break in just prior to Masami knocking on the door. None of them had any leads so far. Well, technically, they had some information from Shirokage, but none of them trusted her enough to take it seriously.

"Um, well, h-have any of you g-guys heard of the name Sh-Shigaraki Tomura?" At the all around consensus of shaking of heads, Masami frowned. She knew that Shigaraki was pretty underground, but still. For a whole room of heroes to not know who he is… She wasn't sure whether that was just sad or impressive. It takes a lot of work or no work at all to hide from the heroes and police. "O-oh, um, well, h-he's a villain," Obviously. "With a quirk known as d-decay. He can b-basically turn things to d-dust, or decay them, with a s-single touch from all f-five of his fingers…"

Masami was pretty sure he gained a lot of inspiration from Thanos.

"How do you know all this?" She flinched at the question that came from Snipe. That had really been the question she was hoping wouldn't come up. Now, don't get her wrong or anything. She knew that sharing was caring and all that jazz. But, sometimes, sharing was a pain in the ass.

The other teachers had nodded in agreement. Some looked concerned. Others looked suspicious. But they all looked curious.

Didn't they know that curiosity killed the cat?

Not that they were cats or anything. That would be really awkward. Like, what if Masami had walked into the room only to be greeted by a load of cats? She had actually met somebody with cat ears and a tail before, so she supposed that it probably wouldn't be the strangest occurrence she'd ever witness. But still…

"W-well…" And here comes the awkward part. She'd probably leave out the whole seeing him before school thing… "H-he's tried to kill m-me a few times. And, um, well, h-he does that wh-whole stereotypical villain thing where h-he explains his entire plan and life story and all that shiz b-biz." Seriously though, do all villains do that? "I-It's helpful in some w-ways and annoying in o-others. Like, um, it h-helps give me a chance to run away, b-but if he notices m-me leaving, he only g-gets angrier. H-he's quite the s-strange little, but not, like, actually l-little, man child… And, um--"

Masami paused upon noticing the incredulous looks she was receiving and blushed, realizing that she had been rambling almost as much as Midoriya. It was times like this that she wondered if she spent too much time with the green haired male.

Of course, in the midst of her rambling, she had yet to realize that her words had been very concerning. Yes, she realized she was awkward as hell, but Masami was a little bit dense. Well, not exactly dense, but she had grown accustomed to adults not showing much concern for her words when she spoke about such things. In fact, the only worry wart of an adult she really knew was probably Kiyoko.

So, yeah, the teachers were now mildly concerned to say the least.

"D-Did I say s-something wrong?" Masami looked at the teachers worriedly as the silence prevailed. She was now back to rubbing the back of her neck out of nervous habit.

She silently wondered if she'd broke them.

"Dear child," Recovery Girl was one of the first to break out of their stupor and sat there with a frown and furrowed brows. Masami really hoped that it wasn't National Frowning Day or something, or she was completely out of the loop on this one. "A villain has been trying to kill you. I think it's a surprise to us that you haven't been killed. It's also a wonder why you haven't bothered to tell anyone."

"I h-have."

"Huh?" The teachers looked confused at the simple statement. Well, except for Nezu. He was kinda just sitting their in thought, only partially paying attention. He was thinking every little piece of information over and trying to connect the puzzle.

"I-I have told someone," Masami wasn't sure why they were so confused. Of course she had told someone. She wasn't that secretive. Well, she kinda was, but that's beside the point. "I-I went to the police in the n-next town over, but they just ignored m-me. I mean, th-they actually kind of laughed in m-my face, but ya know…"

She was pretty sure that those policemen were drunk. On second thought, maybe she should have gone a couple towns over. The town next to her own didn't exactly have the best reputation, either, after all.

"Why'd you go to the next town over?" Midnight asked, trying to reign in her anger towards whoever had laughed at the young girl in front of her. All the teachers were a bit peeved upon hearing Masami's words. The police were supposed to be there to help, not laugh in a kid's face. Of course, they knew that a majority of cops would help, but Masami had been unlucky. And because of that, she no longer thought it would be worth it to search for help when she needed it.

"O-oh, Shirakumo doesn't h-have any police stations." Masami stated simply, striking silence and incredulity into the heroes once more. They… they weren't sure how to respond anymore…

Now, to explain why they were so shocked.

Shirakumo is a place that's quite infamous. It was known for its lack of law enforcement and vast crime rate. From what most outsiders understood, it was a place that mainly held villains and homeless miscreants. Of course, this wasn't entirely true. While there was a lack of law enforcement, crime in the area had been dropping significantly over recent years. Furthermore, many of Shirakumo's citizens have been working on revitalizing the city. Not that any outsiders would bother to notice.

"You… why… Shirakumo…?" Present Mic scratched his head in confusion. A lot of them were confused, actually.

"How the hell are you still alive?!" Everybody's heads snapped towards the Blood Hero: Vlad King. He had spoken the question that was basically on everybody's minds. If this villain was as dangerous as they thought him to be, they had no clue how Masami had managed to survive multiple encounters. Especially since… "Aren't you quirkless?"

"Mhm," Masami nodded, blinking innocently. She could sort of understand where they were coming from. A lot of quirkless didn't put the effort into honing their strengths, physical wise, anyways. "But, um, t-to explain… I, uh, I'm g-good at causing distractions. Th-then there's running. L-lots of running. Especially considering h-he normally has a warp g-gate dude with him."

"Warp gate?" Aizawa was able to catch, the other teachers looking at Masami in alarm. People with warping quirks were fairly rare. For the villains to have one of those people on their side… It was alarming.

"O-oh, um, right, his name is K-Kurogiri, I believe," Masami tried to explain. "I-I think he's sort of l-like Shigaraki's babysitter."

"Um, Masami," Midnight caught her attention with a cough. "How old exactly is this Shigaraki?"

"Hmm," Masami looked up in thought. It wasn't exactly information that she just kept at the top of her head. She wasn't sure of his exact age either. "Around t-twenty, I th-think."

The teachers sweat dropped. From the way Masami spoke, they had almost expected Shigaraki to be a teenager or something. And yet, at the same time, discovering that Shigaraki was indeed an adult was almost just as concerning. Masami had described him as a man child, and they were all too aware of how dangerous that could be.

"What exactly were you doing in Shirakumo in the first place?" Toshinori asked, not caring so much about the villain's age. As long as the villain wasn't a kid, it didn't matter much. A villain was a villain. And this villain had been targeting Masami.

That was enough to make him frown.

"I-I live there."

The casualness in her voice almost made the teachers want to sigh in exasperation. This wasn't exactly something to be taken lightly. And yet, here she was, talking about it like an everyday conversation. Midnight may adore the girl, but she also swore that she'd be the death of her.

"What are you doing living in Shirakumo?!" Present Mic exclaimed, voicing the shock of all the teachers.

"What was your mom thinking?!" They always knew that Akemi was a bit of a daredevil, but this was beyond that. To live in Shirakumo with a kid… That was too much.

"Okaa-san is d-dead."

They all froze, looking at the girl in shock. Masami was frowning, rubbing the back of her neck once more as she tried to look away from the stares. Out of everything they had been expecting to hear, this was not it. Most of them had known Akemi. Been friends with her. To hear that she was dead…

It was sudden.

It also brought up the question of how they hadn't even heard about it. It was strange. Akemi had once been apart of the top five heroes, but now… Well, it was almost as though there was a gap in their minds concerning her. They hadn't even thought about her once over the years. Nor had they wondered where she had disappeared to. Not till now, anyways.

The only ones unsurprised were Nezu and Toshinori, who Masami had already told.

"What… What about Itsuki?" Midnight asked, remembering the girl's brother and growing evermore concerned. She loved Itsuki just as much as she loved Masami, so she was hoping that the boy was still alive and well.

"D-dead, too," It was a simple answer but it made almost all the teachers look at her in pity. They weren't entirely sure who Itsuki was, but they were sure that Masami probably had a good deal on her plate already. Probably best to steer away from those kinds of questions.

On the other hand, Midnight was silent for once, angry with herself in contemplation. How had she never realized? Never noticed? She used to go over to the Hideyoshi household almost every week until she just stopped. She couldn't even remember why she had stopped. She just had. And now she finds out that Masami has been left alone for who knows how many years!

Despite the regret swirling in her chest, Midnight did her best to gulp it down as she looked at the frowning Masami. "Who have you been staying with then?"

The brown haired girl froze, refusing to meet anybody's eyes as she glanced away whilst answering. "A f-family friend."

Silence.

As ironic as it was, Masami was brilliant at keeping secrets but was an absolute shitty liar. It's one of the reasons why she was thankful that not many tried to pry into her personal life. She was a very straightforward person despite her shy demeanor. The only time she ever gets away with lying is when she bends the truth or tells a slight truth. Basically, she gives so little information that she can keep her secrets but still give a satisfactory answer.

"Masami, sweetie," Midnight spoke with a bit of a deadpan wearing a similar expression to the other teachers. None of them had believed her lie. "You're a worse liar than your mother."

Yeah, okay. Masami couldn't exactly deny that.

"So," Masami flinched at the glare she was receiving from Aizawa. Sure, she understood that him glaring was kind of his default, but still… "Are you going to tell the truth or not?"

Somehow, Masami got the feeling that she wasn't going to get out of this situation so easily.

But seriously, though, why were they even talking about this again? She had come for the sole purpose of warning them about Shigaraki, not sharing her life story. What? Was she supposed to be in some cliche fanfiction or something? Oh, man, that would be terrible. Knowing her luck, the author would probably kill her off or something.

"W-well, um," Masami scratched the back of her neck with a sweat drop. "I, uh, I k-kinda live alone…"

Somehow, the teachers weren't surprised.

It didn't make them any less happy about it.

"What about your Uncle Daisuke?" Midnight recalled the childish man that shared a name with Masami's guitarist. She knew for a fact that he wasn't dead. He caused too much mayhem for them not to realize he was dead. He never did anything illegal of course. However, he did almost cause a tear in time and space a couple of years ago. "Is he not taking care of you?"

While the man was irresponsible, he did care for his niece. If he knew about Akemi and Itsuki, Midnight was pretty sure that he would be taking care of Masami.

"Uncle D-Daisuke, huh…?" Masami sweat dropped at the thought of the exuberant man. "He's, uh, h-he's kinda t-traveling at the moment, s-so to say, anyways."

Traveling through dimensions, anyways, along with his wife.

"Oh, did I hear my name?!"

****

2910 words excluding A/N's

Finished- 7:45 pm on July 6, 2019

Bye~