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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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To Be or Not to Be- Chapter four

Lovely Time for Answers

“I must have blacked out at some point.” Nikolaus said as he finished his recollection, “When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar room and some strange looking people were staring at me.”

“Strange looking?” The black-haired scraggily looking man with the scarf asked.

“Well…” Nikolaus tilted his head in thought, “I really only got a good look at one of them. Maybe two. The one I remember the most clearly had gaudy red hair, and it was styled in an… absurd way.” Nikolaus used his good hand to make motions around his head with a slight grimace, as if to demonstrate the spiky hairdo, “He also had spiky teeth.”

The man in black nodded thoughtfully.

Nikolaus looked him over curiously with a raised eyebrow. He was told that this man was here to help with the investigation, but he was never really told who he was.

“Who exactly are you?” Nikolaus asked. The question was sudden, but blunt and emotionless. When the man met his eyes, he seemed to think for a moment, as if he was choosing his words carefully.

“I am Aizawa Shota. My alias is Eraserhead. I’m a Pro Hero.” He stated, matter of fact.

Nikolaus stared at him for a moment. A Pro Hero?

“What in the world is a pro hero?” he asked in confusion.

“Well, it depends on the type of hero, but generally our job is to protect innocents from villains.” Aizawa stated again.

At this, Nikolaus furrowed his brow in confusion. At first, he just thought this man was part of the police force and “Pro Hero” was just a misleading title. But now, he’s talking about protecting civilians from villains? It’s almost like he’s—

“So… you’re like a superhero?” Nikolaus cringed slightly at the childish take on Aizawa’s explanation, but he couldn’t think of anything else that matched.

Aizawa shared a look with Yamada before turning back to Nikolaus, “We’re more commonly known as just ‘heroes’ but basically, yeah.”

“We’re not vigilantes though.” Yamada cut in with a grin. Oh, so the blonde one’s a hero too?

Nikolaus nodded in understanding despite not really feeling like he understood. They’re like superheroes except they’re not vigilantes, which means they were professionally employed and work inside the law. Which lines up with the title “Pro Hero”, implying they were professionally trained as well. Which also means being a literal “hero” is a professional occupation here.

Which, okay, that’s all fine and swell, except for the fact that he’d never heard of such an occupation. And while that would explain their weird attire, it wouldn’t explain any other abnormalities, such as the dog-like police chief. Last time he checked, transformation magic practiced on humans was illegal.

At that moment, Tsukauchi took the pause to ask another question, “In your recollection, you mentioned your attacker and friend using ‘magic’ multiple times.” Nikolaus nodded, not sure where this was going.

“Can you elaborate on what you meant by ‘magic’?”

Nikolaus looked at the detective as if he was stupid, which he was seriously considering to be a possibility, but then he looked around the room and saw the same expectant eyes on everybody else's faces. He turned his attention back on the detective and wracked his brain for the best definition of magic.

“Magic is an energy that exists in the air around us, though it’s impossible for non-witches to tell. Witches and some Impures are able to use it through a mutation genetically passed down from their parents.” Nikolaus answered, reciting from a textbook on magic he’d read once in the school library.

“This is common knowledge.” he stated as if it’s a fact, which it was. He watched their reactions carefully.

Ignoring the added statement, Tsukauchi moved on, “What do you mean by ‘witches’ and ‘impures’?”

Nikolaus blinked before furrowing his brow in thought, “Witches are people who are able to absorb the magic from the air and use it to their will, with some exceptions of course. Impures are just people who have both witch and non-witch blood, though only about half of them can use magic.” Suddenly switching gears, he glared at them suspiciously, “Why are you asking me this? What does it have to do with the investigation?”

A bit put off by the change of tone, Tsukauchi smiled placatingly and opened his mouth to most likely divert his attention, but Nikolaus wouldn’t give him the chance to.

“You know something I don’t. You know I have questions and you know what they are, but you’re purposefully diverting my attention to something else to keep me from asking them. Why?” Nikolaus’s tone was more demanding at this point, but he knew they couldn’t prolong answering him.

After giving him a considering look for a moment, Aizawa sighed, “That’s a fair question. You’re probably even more confused than we are.” Nikolaus raised an eyebrow, annoyed at the continuous beating around the bush, but patiently waited anyway.

“Have you ever heard of quirks?” Aizawa started off, catching Nikolaus off guard. He’s asking if he’s heard of quirks? As in, unique behavioral habits?

“I know the definition of the word. Why?” he asked with the tilt of his head.

Aizawa went on and explained how quirks are unique abilities that over 80% of the population of the Earth had. He explained that heroes were formed to protect innocents from those that abuse their quirks, who were called villains. Tsuragamae jumped in at some point and explained how heroes are different from the police force, who were not allowed to use quirks. Aizawa then explained how magic isn’t a thing; How quirks are unique for every person and work very differently than what Nikolaus described. He also said it all just sounded like a fantasy cooked up by some Potterhead.

Nikolaus glared indignantly at the last comment but didn’t voice his protests.

“So basically, it seems I’m from another world?” he asked blankly.

The adult’s eyes widened in surprise, even though they were thinking the same thing. Aizawa is the only one who seemed to expect this conclusion.

“Well…” Tsuragamae started, a little apprehensive but hiding it well, “From both yours and Keen’s recollections, it certainly sounds like it, but without concrete evidence, we can’t determine anything at this time.”

“But it’s not impossible. I mean, both our worlds, or dimensions, maybe? Both of them contain people with powers, some of them with really powerful powers.” Nikolaus concluded with a furrow in his brow.

They were silent for a moment, unable to answer to the implications of possibly being from another world. Nikolaus felt as if he was getting a headache as he thought about his situation. Eventually he decided that overthinking it wasn’t going to get him anywhere and thought of Occam’s Razor Theory to clear his mind, ‘Simpler theories are easier to verify…’

He’s in another world. Possibly. Well, it would certainly explain the dog chief.

And he should have honestly probably been a lot more worried, maybe even a little panicked, but at that moment, he couldn’t bring himself to do anything beyond accepting the possibility and the fact that if it was true…

‘...then we are monumentally fucked.’ he concluded, passively. He wondered how the others were doing, or what they thought about their predicament.

“Do you have any idea as to why your attackers targeted you?” Tsukauchi asked, moving the interrogation forward.

“Other than the fact that they wanted to know about Ethan, no clue.” Nikolaus said with the shake of his head.

Tsukauchi nodded, “You’ve mentioned him in your recollection. Do you know him?”

“He’s a friend.” Nikolaus furrowed his brow in thought before adding, “Of a sort. Me, Arlo, and another friend of ours lived with him for a couple of years in an orphanage.”

Tsukauchi nodded again, writing down the new information in a notepad. Nikolaus considered clarifying that he’s not an orphan, but decided not to, not wanting to bring light to another implication.

“Well, I think that’s all of the questions we have for you at this time.” Tsukauchi smiled kindly. Nikolaus simply responded with a “’kay” and a nod in acknowledgment.

Tsukauchi and Tsuragamae said their goodbyes and made their way to the door, Aizawa following close behind. Tsukauchi made a surprised sound when he opened the door.

“Keen? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?”

Nikolaus perked up at his friend’s last name. He hadn’t heard any news about him other than that he was awake, and despite having woken up later, he was honestly still a little worried.

“Detective! Y-yeah, I suppose I am, but I heard Nikolaus was awake, and I wanted to see him, and I know I’m still injured, but I thought ‘well, it can’t be that bad, right?’—”

“Boy, if you’re overexerting yourself—” Recovery Girl warned, a hard look on her face.

“I’m not, I’m not, I promise!” Arlo responded immediately, rubbing the back of his neck, “Anyways, I just wanted to see Nikolaus, but I saw you were talking with him, so I thought I’d just wait outside…” Arlo trailed off, “Sorry, should I go back?” he asked, smiling sheepishly.

Tsukauchi smiled reassuringly, “No, no it’s fine. We were just leaving anyway.” He turned to Aizawa, who nodded.

“Before we go though, I’d like to speak to you, Recovery Girl.” Aizawa stayed to which Recovery Girl nodded and started following the rest of the adults out of the room, including Yamada.

Recovery Girl fixed Arlo with a stern glare, “Don’t cause any trouble, young man.”

Arlo smiled at her, “Don’t worry, I won’t!”

As Arlo walked past them and into the room, Aizawa called out before the door closed, “That goes for you too, Problem Child.”

Nikolaus blinked at him, “’Kay? Wait, what did you just call me—”

The door closed before his question was finished.

Before Nikolaus could think about it any longer, Arlo enveloped him in a big hug, “Nikolaus! Man, I was so worried!”

Nikolaus attempted to push him off, but his efforts proved fruitless as the other only hugged him more.

“Yeah, well I’m clearly alive, so can you stop hugging me? You’re on my broken arm!”

Arlo pulled away and took a good look at Nikolaus, “Wow, you’re right. You look terrible.”

“Thank you for your sympathies.” the other said dryly.

Arlo laughed good-naturedly before backing away and sitting on the edge of the bed. They sat there in silence for a while, neither wanting to break the peaceful silence, but the questions brewing in their heads kept them from truly appreciating it.

Nikolaus was the first to break the silence, “How much did you hear?”

Arlo smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck, “Almost all of it. I arrived when they were introducing themselves.” Arlo’s smile turned teasing, and a playful tone filled his voice, “I also heard this really loud slap. Any idea what happened?”

Nikolaus rolled his eyes fondly, “Oh, shut up. I thought I was dreaming.”

Arlo laughed, “I did too, honestly. Except I settled for just pinching myself instead of slapping myself as hard as I could.”

“In my defense, dreams can trick your mind into feeling things such as pain, so if I’m gonna use pain to check. . .”

Arlo just chuckled and shook his head, “You’re a lot, you know that?”

Nikolaus huffed, “Like you’re any different. Remember when Youko dared you to jump off that indoor balcony back at the orphanage?”

Arlo scoffed playfully, “Ah, ah, ah! Like she hadn’t also dared you to backflip off of said balcony and you also complied without a second thought!”

Nikolaus rolled his eyes, “At least I didn’t end up with a dislocated shoulder.”

“How were we supposed to know the couch wasn’t cushy enough to be a proper landing pad?”

“With observational skills?”

The two stared at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing.

“H-hey,” Arlo started through his laughter, “do you think we really entered another world?”

Nikolaus calmed himself down and thought about it, “Well, it sounds like a really crazy theory at first glance but considering how different things are…?”

Arlo nodded mutely, not needing Nikolaus to finish his sentence to know the implications. They sat in silence once again before Arlo’s face lit up with another question.

“Hey, earlier that guy in black, Aizawa I think, called you ‘problem child’. What’s up with that?”

Nikolaus tilted his head in thought. Good question. What was up that?

“I’m not sure…” he trailed off, recalling how he had a strange feeling when talking to Aizawa, as if he knew him, “Actually, now that I think about it, doesn’t he remind you of someone?”

“Remind me of someone…?” Arlo trailed off, thinking deeply, “Hmm, I guess he does give off that same stern, no funny business vibe as Warden, but his uh, fashion… choices are a lot more, uh…”

“You can say ‘poor’, or ‘unkempt’, or even ‘abhorrent’—”

“Okay, you don’t have to list every adjective to describe his bad fashion sense.” Arlo cut off with a look, “And yeah, I guess he does kind of remind me of Warden, but they’re a little too different in other ways, don’t cha think?”

Nikolaus nodded, “True.”

With that, the pair spent the rest of the afternoon conversing about random things, all the while the same question lingered in Nikolaus’s head.

Where do I know Aizawa from?

It wasn’t until he had closed the door that he processed what he’d just said.

The only reason he could think of as to why he’d called a teenager he’d just met “problem child” was that it was instinctual. That, and the fact said teenager slapped himself, threatened to break a man’s arm, and reminded him quite a bit of someone who’s probably the literal definition of a “problem child”.

“What did you want to speak to me about?” Recovery Girl asked once they were a good few feet away from the room.

Aizawa and Recovery Girl were walking in step with each other while Tsuragamae and Tsukauchi were walking ahead of them. Yamada had stayed outside Nikolaus’s hospital room.

“Could you get a DNA sample from each of the kids?” he asked.

Recover Girl turned to him suspiciously, “What do you need them for?”

“There’s something I need to check.”

Recovery Girl sighed, “Since I trust you wouldn’t do something unethical, I’ll get them for you. But I’d prefer it if you’d tell me why.”

Aizawa sighed but nodded, “I want you to compare them to the DNA of three other people. I’ll call you later and tell you who.”

At that point, they’d already arrived at the hospital lobby, where Tsuragamae and Tsukauchi were waiting for them.

“I need to get back to UA and look at some files. I’ll come by the police station later to continue with the investigation.” Aizawa told the two cops, ‘I should also get All Might’s report on homeroom.’ he thought idly.

Tsukauchi nodded and Aizawa left the hospital.

Back at UA in the teacher’s office, Aizawa sat at his desk looking over three student files and compared them to the mystery kid’s files.

It was late evening then, classes had ended hours ago, and All Might had given him a full written report three hours earlier.

Aizawa wondered how he had missed it earlier, especially when he’s spent so long with all his students. Though, he’d never cared about birthdays, and even less so his student’s birthdays, but that wasn’t exactly an excuse now, was it?

Aizawa picked up his phone and called Recovery Girl, “It’s me. Yes, I know it’s late. I need you to get DNA samples of these three UA students …No, I didn’t know you were here earlier. You can get them tomorrow then. Also, I’d like it if you refrained from telling them what the samples are for. …I’m sure you can think of something. The students are…”

It wasn’t until Thursday morning, July 6th, did Elena wake up, still in a state of disrepair such that Recovery Girl didn’t clear her for interrogation ‘til early evening.

The day earlier, Recovery Girl was able to acquire the DNA samples Aizawa asked for and got them tested. The results were simultaneously surprising and exactly what he expected.

That evening, Aizawa, Tsukauchi, Tsuragamae, and Recovery Girl entered Elena’s hospital room. Yamada wasn’t there that time, instead an officer stood outside of the room.

Elena had bandages wrapped around her arms and legs and, aside from a few scratches, those were the only noticeable injuries. Her hair was just below her shoulders but seemed to have been cut unevenly, one side being longer than the other.

Elena’s reaction to Tsuragamae was similar to the others, except this time she didn’t attempt to hurt herself to check if she was dreaming. Luckily, Recovery Girl had informed her beforehand that she was going to see a “person who looked like a dog”, but she was still rendered speechless with surprise, nonetheless.

Before the interrogation, Aizawa and Tsukauchi decided to tell her about quirks, heroes, and how magic was an unheard-of term, so that there wasn’t as much confusion on her part and so the questioning would go faster.

“So, you’re telling me…” Elena said after they were done with their explanations, “That not only does magic not exist but is replaced with what you call ‘quirks’ which is some type of mutation which affects a person’s physical abilities and sometimes appearance?”

The adults nodded.

“And that people are trained professionally to use these quirks to save and protect people as a professional job?”

They nodded again.

“And you are one of those people?” Elena pointed at Aizawa.

“I am.”

Elena sat back in her bed, staring blankly at the wall.

“Wow. Okay. Superheroes exist.” She then nodded to herself, as if confirming something, “That’s… pretty cool actually.”

The adults shared a look with each other but didn’t comment on her words.

“Well, if you’re okay with it, we have some questions for you regarding what happened when you were attacked.” Tsukauchi informed.

“Some questions? Sure.” Elena readily agreed.

Tsukauchi opened his notebook, ready to start the interrogation, “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

Elena’s recollection didn’t really give them much new information, but was informational nonetheless. Unlike the one Nikolaus was fighting, the attacker Elena fought did not have magic, for she would have used it if she could. The woman was also quite skilled at fighting with knives, for she was able to give Elena quite a few deep cuts as they fought. Elena was apprehensive about using magic in their fight, especially since she wasn’t the most skilled witch, but ended up restraining the attacker in vines anyways.

After that, it went about the same as Nikolaus’ recollection, from her throwing the boulder at the male attacker and her passing out.

“That’s about all I remember.” Elena concluded.

Tsukauchi nodded, “And did you see your attacker’s face? Brandt already described what he could, but we’d like to get as much information as we can.”

“Of course!” Elena chirped, “As far as I remember, the one that fought Nikolaus had golden eyes, but that’s it. As for the other one, well, her face was mostly covered but I think her hair started falling out of her hoodie when I used fire against her. It was… blonde? I believe?”

Tsukauchi smiled, “That was very helpful, thank you.”

Elena returned the smile politely.

“Earlier, you said that you were worried about using too much magic on your attacker,” Recovery Girl said as she stepped forward, “and you passed out after using a lot of magic. Why is that?”

Elena tilted her head, “Because in order for a witch to use magic, they need to use energy.”

At the adult’s confused expressions, Elena continued, “Uh, so you know how certain parts of the human body function passively or actively?”

They nodded.

“Okay, well the mutation that allows magic to collect inside of us and then manipulate functions both actively and passively.”

This only served to confuse the adults even more, and apparently Elena could tell as her cheeks flushed from embarrassment and looked away.

She then muttered something to herself, but eventually straightened with renewed determination, “Okay, so the mutation inside witches is actually treated like two different muscles. One allows magic to enter and collect inside the body, while the other allows the witch to release the magic as they wish. To an extent, of course.”

“And that is?” Recovery Girl inquires.

“Well, that extent relies on energy. The more energy you have, the more magic you can use. The muscle that allows magic to enter the body functions passively. No energy is needed for that to happen. It just does. But the other muscle functions actively. You need energy to use magic, and if you use too much of it, you’ll grow tired. When that happens, the best-case scenario would be getting sleepy and maybe a headache, but the worst-case scenario would be if you died.”

The adults’ eyes widened in concerned shock, remembering her pale complexion when she first arrived and her need for a blood transfer because she didn’t have any energy to heal.

“Young lady…” Recovery Girl shook her head in disapproval, “You could have died.”

“But that’s the worst-case scenario!” Elena yelled, attempting to defend herself, “You usually pass out first!”

Recovery Girl fixed her with a stern glare, “Yes, but with that type of overexertion on top of blood loss put you in a very risky situation. If you had gotten help any later, you could have died.”

Elena winced and lowered her head, only now realizing the gravity of the situation she was in.

“There’s no use mulling over it now, as long you don’t do that again.” Aizawa sighed, “It’s fine to want to protect your friends, but you should realize your own limits as well. As a hero, making reckless moves that only hinder yourself further may not necessarily help the situation but make it worse. What if the attackers got out of their restraints and you weren’t there to help?” Aizawa belatedly realized that he was lecturing her like he would his students but decided that she needed to hear this anyways.

Elena pouted slightly, obviously wanting to object but unable to, knowing full well that he was right.

“…I’m sorry.” She mumbled quietly.

Pleased with her answer, Aizawa nodded, letting the matter go.

“Okay, I think that’s all of the questions we have for now.” Tsukauchi said with a kind smile.

Elena returned the smile sheepishly and nodded, “Okay. So, you were able to get all the information you needed?”

“While some things are still a little unclear, we did get the information we wanted.” Tsukauchi said.

“For now, get some rest. It’s late, dear.” Recovery Girl said as the adults exited the room, “I’ll be back in an hour or so for your check up.”

“Okay.” Elena responded before the door closed.

It wasn’t until they walked several feet away that someone spoke up.

“What are we going to do now?” Tsukauchi asked.

“I’d like to have a meeting with the three of you and a few others to discuss what to do with them.” Aizawa responded.

Tsuragamae nodded, “Tell me when and I’ll clear my schedule.”

“I’ll have to make a few calls to confirm that, but I’ll call you all to tell you the details.”

“And not a quarter before midnight this time, I hope?” Recovery Girl said.

Aizawa sighed tiredly, “I’ll make sure to make the call at a more appealing time of day.”

The next day, Friday July 7th, Recovery Girl, Detective Tsukauchi, Chief Tsuragamae, Pro Hero Hawks, Pro Hero Endeavour, retired Pro Hero All Might, and Pro Hero Eraserhead all gathered in Principal Nedzu’s office for their meeting.

“Thank you all for coming.” Aizawa started. He stood holding two files in front of Nedzu’s desk, facing the other’s, not including Nedzu himself who was sitting with his hands clasped together behind the desk.

“And thank you for calling us.” Nedzu says, “What is it you wanted to speak to us about Eraserhead?”

Aizawa nodded, “I wanted to speak about what’s to happen to the individuals that mysteriously appeared here in this school’s dorms.” He opened one of the files and picked up three photos, turning them to show the others.

“Arlo Keen, Nikolaus Brandt, and Elena Bell.”

#mha #chapter 4 #enjoy!#(I hope it starts picking up somewhat...!! ~ Avis)

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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I asked my sister for a drawing prompt, and she gave me "sexy vampire Nikolaus". I... tried? I couldn't visualize what a sexy vampire would look like, so I figured it depended on the pose. I still don't think he looks sexy. My sister likes him, at least.

#my art #c-mha #Nikolaus Brandt #oc #vampire Nikolaus #enjoy!

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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Art by Avis! ---- Comments by Avis will be in pink, from here on out.

This picture is bad but I wanted to draw her characters.... It's not even finished yet but I'm actually excited about the line work!!!!!! Look at it!!!!!!! LOOK AT HIS SHIRT??? HOW DID I DO THAT I HATE DRAWING CLOTHES SO MUCH.... Anyway, from left to right, top to bottom, we have Felix, teasing Ben about his crush for Chika, Chika, who is is shocked about this, Frederick, being amused by everyone, and Ben who is extremely flustered and probably threatening to ... I don't know... Make Microsoft more stupid on Felix's computer and/or just will not help him with his emails.

#c-fnaf #Avis #character art

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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Preview for Chapter 5

(I know chapter four isn't even out but Avis wanted to post this... You can read it after chapter four is posted, it will be soon.)

“Alright.” Elena relented with a sigh before smiling at Arlo, “Maybe you can make me those ‘super special pancakes’ Youko told me about?”

Arlo turned bright red, “She told you about those?!”

Nikolaus laughed, “Oh, you mean the legendary pancakes made exclusively for and only ever tasted by Youko herself?” he smirked, “Yeah, good luck getting him to make those for you.”

Elena raised an eyebrow, “We are talking about pancakes, right?”

The other two fixed her with confused expressions, “What else would we be talking about?” Arlo asked honestly.

Elena chuckled and shook her head, “Nothing. It’s just, you two do realize that when you say stuff like that, it sounds like you’re talking about something perverted, right?”

Nikolaus gave her a dubious look, “If anything, the person interpreting the conversation as something perverted is the actual pervert here.”

Elena blushed and glared at him, “I am not a pervert!”

“Oh, really?” Nikolaus taunted, smirking, “We were just talking about pancakes, but your mind went straight to the gutter, huh?”

“Shut it!” the other yelled, moving to slam her hand on the bed; before she realized how much of a bad idea that was and just awkwardly lowered it, “And we weren’t just talking about pancakes. You were the one who described Arlo’s ‘special pancakes’ as a treat only his girlfriend ever got to enjoy! Anyone could have interpreted that as something perverted!”

Arlo sputtered with a furious blush and Nikolaus just gave her an unimpressed look.

“Wha– Fwuh– You– My pancakes are pure!” Arlo yelled indignantly, a little too loud for a hospital.

At the outburst, both Elena and Nikolaus stared at him for a second before bursting out laughing. Arlo stared at them in confusion, but the laughter was contagious, and he eventually joined, laughing along.

#mha #preview #chapter 5 #Enjoy~!

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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Mock Cinderella Play

“What?!” Elora yelled in indignation. The others in the club room grimaced at the shout.

“It’s not as bad as it could have been.” Frederick said as he shrugged.

“‘Not as bad as it could have been’?” Benjamin asked as he eyed Frederick in disbelief, “I got the Fairy Godmother! The Fairy Godmother! How am I supposed to pull that off?!”

“I demand we go again.” Kenneth stated with a displeased frown.

Multiple sighs and groans sounded throughout the room.

It all started just earlier that day, when Felix Fronius, Elora O’Riain, and Frederick Atonal were assigned to do a Cinderella play for the festival that was taking place in their school, Kuran Private High School.

They started recruiting actors, first going to two of their friends from a freshman class and their club, Benjamin Adley and Chika Kubo.

The three of them then started recruiting those they knew personally. Felix asked his roommate, Daniel Dalisay, and Elora her cousin, Kenneth Haight, who was in his junior year. Frederick tried asking some people but got rejected for one reason or another.

Luckily, Kenneth was part of the student council and was able to convince a couple of other members, Kikka Lebedev and Marnie Lusk.

Having finally gathered enough people, they were all ushered into their club room, where they decided to just draw lots to discern who got which role.

Which was, apparently, a terrible idea.

“Look, I know the results are less than favorable, but we’re gonna have to deal, okay?” Kikka said with a frown, “The play is in a week, and we must not only memorize our lines but get our costumes together and stuff. We don’t have time to fight over our roles.”

“She’s right!” Marnie agreed with an encouraging smile, “If we just practice, I’m sure we’ll be able to get our roles down, no matter how unfavorable they are! That’s the beauty of acting, after all. Saying and doing things without meaning it!”

Everybody made a face at the weird take on acting but no other objections were made.

Benjamin sighed, “It certainly doesn’t help that the only person who actually knows how to act has the one role that doesn’t require acting.” He muttered. Everyone promptly turned to look at Felix, who had drawn the role of “narrator”.

“What’s with the looks? It’s not my fault you all got bad draws.” The red head said with an unimpressed tone, completely unbothered by the situation, which only prompted more sighs of frustration.

“I get that we can’t really complain,” Elora admitted, frustration clear on her features, “after all, we did decide to draw lots. But you can’t expect me to act like I’m in love with Kenneth.” She sharply pointed at the man in question, “He’s my cousin!”

Frederick cringed and nodded, “Yeah, that’s a fair point.”

“So, are we drawing again or not?” Daniel asked, “I mean, I’m actually quite happy with who I got.” He showed them the paper, which read “King”.

Kikka sighed, “It’s true that it’ll be a little awkward for the two of you to act as the romantic couple,” she gestured to the two cousins, “But it’s only you two and Ben who got bad roles.” The others murmured agreements and nodded.

Elora and Kenneth still looked unhappy as they eyed each other in mild disgust.

“What if we just… rewrote it?” Surprisingly, Felix was the one who asked the question.

Everybody turned to him, intrigued.

He shrugged, “What if we just rewrote the play so we don’t have to do anything we’re uncomfortable with? It’s not like Dick gave us rules we had to follow or anything.”

That was true. Dick, the teacher who assigned them the play, only said to try and make it entertaining, which, while obvious, wasn’t at all encouraging if that’s what he was trying to convey.

“So, you’re suggesting that we just rewrite it to our will?” Kenneth asked, skeptically.

“Why not?” Felix responded, “As long as the basic setting and characters are still there, I don’t see a problem. Dick did say to make it interesting, and if you ask me, the original is getting a little boring.” He said with a smirk.

Frederick made a considering noise as he thought it over.

“Yeah… Why not?” Frederick grinned, “That’s actually not a bad idea. Thanks Felix!” He commended, beaming at the red head.

Felix blinked, “Thanks? What do you mean ‘actually’—”

“So, who should rewrite it then?” Chika said.

“Lusk is part of the newspaper club.” Kenneth informed, “She’s one of their best writers. I’m sure she could whip something up right away.” His tone was almost proud. The girl in question blushed but nodded as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

“Then it’s decided!” Chika chirped happily, “We’ll rewrite the story to fit our needs and make the most unique Cinderella play Mr. Dick’s ever seen!”

Several cheers are sounded throughout the room.

One week later, the teenagers were all gathered backstage in the school gym, where a theater was set up.

“Okay, we only have fifteen minutes ‘til showtime, so let’s do one last check-up!” Kikka ordered, “Costumes?”

“Check!” Elora shouted in response.

“Props?”

“All handmade and ready to go!” Chika confirmed with a mock salute.

“Half-baked, last-minute acting skills?”

“Uuh, define ‘acting skills?’” Ben asked nervously before Frederick elbowed him and gave Kikka a reassuring smile, “Check!”

“Great.” Kikka grinned, “Not the best theater troupe you’ve ever seen, but not bad all things considered!”

“I just hope the audience will like it.” Marnie said with a nervous smile.

“The only one you need to worry about liking it is me.” A male voice suddenly spoke, causing everyone to pause and turn to see Advik Dixit, or Dick as the students had ever so lovingly dubbed him. Not that they ever called him that to his face.

“Mr. Dix!” Elora called in surprise before narrowing her eyes and huffing in faux irritation, “You here to make sure we don’t mess up or something? What, you don’t think we can handle a play on our own?”

“In all honesty, no I don’t.” Advik stated blankly, “I’m only here so I can get a closer look backstage. It would make it easier to grade you.”

Frederick nodded in understanding, “That makes se—Wait, we’re being graded?!”

Felix glared at the teacher, “You didn’t say anything about that.”

Advik raised an eyebrow, “I figured I didn’t need to. It says so on the papers I gave you three.”

Elora whipped around to look for the information papers he gave them, “But I thought—”

“Five minutes left!” Kikka announced, causing everyone to pause and then focus on double checking that they were prepared to go on stage.

“One minute!”

“That’s our cue!” Chika said, quickly pushing Elora to the stage.

The latter quickly scrambled to the stage, where the lights were already dimming.

The play started and the lights on the stage turned on to reveal a girl in rags mopping the floor of a mansion. The sparkly decorations and lavish furniture was a drastic difference compared to the girl’s dirty appearance.

“Once upon a time, there was girl named Cinderella,” Felix narrated into a microphone off to the side, “This girl was a beautiful maiden that, despite the dirty rags she adorned every day, lit up every room with her mere presence.”

Elora, as Cinderella, was indeed pretty with her long silky blue hair and purple eyes.

“However, Cinderella was constantly abused by her stepmother and stepsisters, who were jealous of her beauty.”

Elora abruptly paused her mopping, “Abused?” she mused to herself, “Nah, it’s more like the irritating buzzing of three pompous flies who can’t take care of themselves. If I didn’t clean this place, who would?”

“The fourth wall does not appreciate the beating, Cinderella.”

The girl rolled her eyes in response before jumping at the sound of a very loud “CINDERELLA!!” coming from the side.

She glared as Chika, as Anastasia, came running to her, out of breath and in a panic.

“Anastasia.” Elora greeted in a bored tone, “Is there something wrong?”

“Oh, it’s terrible!” Chika, exclaimed, “A mouse! A mouse in my room! Oh, you must take care of it, Cinderella! You were always the best at these kinds of jobs.”

“Don’t you mean the only one with the nerve to do the dirty work? It’s been like this since we were kids.”

“And that’s how it should be.” Another female voice had cut in.

Marnie, as Drizella, walked in from Elora’s other side.

“As the house-maid, you are the only one responsible for chasing away vermin.” She said in a pompous tone.

Elora huffed, “I am not a maid, I’m just the only competent person here.”

Marnie looked insulted, “The only one?! You—”

“Truly evil, as you can see.” Felix narrated in a dry tone as the two fought, “This continued through the rest of the morning until a knock came from the door.” Right on cue, a knocking sound came from somewhere offstage, catching the attention of the three girls immediately.

“I’ll get it.” Elora said as she walked away from sight.

“Good morning, miss.” Said a disembodied voice.

“Good morning. How may I help you?” Elora replied.

“A message from the king, miss. He wants every eligible maiden to attend a ball to celebrate the prince’s return from overseas.”

“A ball?” the girl asked, thinly veiled excitement in her voice, “And we’re invited?”

“Well, yes, as long as you’re not already romantically involved with someo—”

“Are you kidding me? We’ll be there.” Elora assured the messenger. Not a second later, the girl ran back to the others.

“Did you hear?” she asked, grinning widely.

“Of course, we heard!” Chika exclaimed, “We’ve been invited to a ball!”

“And to meet the prince.” Marnie reminded them, smile hidden behind her hand.

“Oh, who cares?” Elora dismissed, “We get to go to a ball!”

“We?” A voice cut in. Kikka, as the stepmother, walked in behind them.

“And who said you were attending, Cinderella?” The woman asked, a stern look on her face.

“Well, why not?” Elora snapped, “You can’t stop me from going.”

“I can and I will.” Kikka declared. Elora ground her teeth and opened her mouth to shout but was cut off.

“Unless, that is, you can get the house completely cleaned before we leave.”

“Completely?” The maiden asked in disbelief, “You can’t be serious! We live in a mansion! You can’t expect me to finish cleaning the whole house in mere hours! It takes days on average!”

“I suppose you better hurry then.” The mother snidely remarked before turning away, “Come on girls, we need to get your dresses ready for the ball.”

The stepsisters hesitated, but ultimately followed their mother with a “good luck” from Anastasia and an apologetic glance from Drizella.

“And so, Cinderella was left to clean, knowing full well she wouldn’t be able to finish before the ball, let alone obtain an appropriate dress.”

The stage grows dark, leaving a stricken Elora in its wake.

After a minute, the stage lights up again, revealing Elora on the floor, absentmindedly scrubbing the floor.

“What to do, what to do…” The girl muttered to herself, “It’s been hours, and I still haven’t finished… Mum and my sisters have already left…” She huffed irritably and stood up.

“At this point, I might as well just finish cleaning tomorrow. I’m not going to the ball anyway, so what’s the point?!”

“Not so fast!”

Elora shrieked as a figure suddenly appeared in a puff of smoke in front of her.

“Who are you?!” She screamed as she fell back to the floor.

“I am your Fairy Godfather!” Benjamin, as the Fairy Godfather, explained.

Elora stared in confusion, “My… what?”

“Your Fairy Godfather. You know, your godfather that’s a fairy?” He explained, as if it was obvious.

Elora just stared at him incredulously, “Aren’t you a little… young to be my godfather?”

“Never mind that.” The boy dismissed with a wave of his hand, “The point is, I’m a fairy, and I can help you.”

“Help me?” she asked, intrigued.

“Yep. You want to go to the ball, correct?”

“Yes!” She confirmed, jumping up from her spot on the floor.

“Then I might have a solution for that.”

Elora tilted her head to the side in confusion before two strips of cloth shot out from the side of the stage and started dragging the girl away.

“Eh?! Wha— Fairy Godfather!!” The strips dragged her away kicking and screaming as Benjamin watched passively.

“The Fairy Godfather cast his spell to turn Cinderella’s dirty rags into a beautiful gown.”

Elora was all but shoved back onstage, tripping on her feet and faceplanting on the ground.

“Ow…” she groaned, collecting herself off the floor.

“Very good, now, you’ll be taking this carriage here.” The boy instructed as a carriage rolled onto the stage. Elora’s eyes widened in surprise.

“A carriage?!”

“Did you think the one your family took earlier was the only carriage you owned?” Benjamin said with a judging look, “What, you thought I was gonna whip up a little convoy for you? Turn one of these oversized gourds your family doesn’t eat into a carriage? My godchild, that’s above my pay grade. This will do.”

She had the decency to least-wise look a little sheepish, “I don’t really use them…”

The boy sighed, “Just… get in the carriage. We’ve wasted enough time already.”

Elora nodded and hurried into it.

“Off you go now!” Benjamin said as the carriage started rolling back off the stage, “Oh, and by the way, you only have until midnight before the spell wears off and you’ll be wearing rags again. So, about an hour.”

“An hour?!” she exclaimed right before she was removed from view.

The stage darkened again before it lit up a minute later, revealing Kenneth, as the Prince, sitting in a chair as he idly drank from a cup.

“Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the ball was thriving in the King’s castle. However, the Prince wasn’t all too enthusiastic about it, sulking in the corner as he was.”

“I’m not sulking.” Kenneth refuted irritably, “And I’m not in a corner. I’m sitting at a table in the middle of the room.” He glared at Felix, who was hidden off to the side of the stage. Though their audience couldn’t see it, Felix glared back at him.

“You may not be in a corner, but you are sulking. Now stop going off-script.” He snapped.

Kenneth turned away with a huff, continuing to glower off in the distance.

“Your highness.” Said a voice, catching Kenneth’s attention. Frederick, as the Grand Duke, walked up to him, stature and voice formal.

“It’s been hours since the ball had officially started, and yet you’ve barely talked to anyone. May I ask why?”

Kenneth shrugged, “Nobody’s caught my eye.”

The other sighed, “Your highness, your father explicitly requested that you find a bride tonight. If he found out you’ve made no effort—”

“What am I supposed to do?” Kenneth snapped harshly, “Walk up to a random girl and ask for a dance?”

Frederick gave him a look, “That is exactly what you’re supposed to do.”

Flushing lightly, Kenneth looked away, drinking more from his cup.

“Oh, come on, son!” Said another man, who walked onto the stage and stood next to the Kenneth. Frederick bowed, saying “Your majesty” in greeting.

Daniel, as the King, took one look around the room, “My, there’s quite an abundance of pretty, single, woman here tonight! Why don’t you talk to them?”

Kenneth glared at him, “You’re speaking as if they’re displays at the market.” He scolded, “Stop that. And I already told you, I’m not going to just marry any pretty woman you throw at me. Marriage is the endgame of what should be slow process.”

“In other words, he wants to marry a woman he falls in love with, not one you picked off the street.” Frederick explained.

Kenneth flushed further and glared at the man, to which the latter only shrugged in response.

“But son,” Daniel started with a sigh, putting both hands on Kenneth’s shoulders, “You’re not gonna find someone to date if you don’t talk to them, and that’s exactly what you’re avoiding.”

“I’m not going to find love by looking for it.” Kenneth said, “I want our first meeting to go naturally, not enforced.”

Just then, Both Chika and Marnie walked up to them, smiles polite and nervous.

“Good evening, your highness.” Marnie bowed gracefully, prompting Chika to follow, “How are you, this fine night?”

Kenneth stared at her for a moment before answering, “I’m doing well, this evening. And you?”

“Delightful.” She answered and then paused, a hesitant glance at Chika, before looking the man in the eye with determination.

“Me and my sister here have been itching to dance for a while now.” She batted her eyes, “But I’m afraid we haven’t found any partners.”

Kenneth visibly straightened, already offering his hand, “Then would you—”

“Oh my, look at her!” Said a voice from behind them. All five of them turned around to see Elora at the back of the stage perusing around the props. Multiple disembodied voices continued to sing her praises, the girl completely oblivious to them.

“She is quite pretty.” Kenneth noted as Daniel smiled widely.

“That she is!” He exclaimed before turning to Kenneth and all but shoving the man towards her, “In fact! I think you should go ask her for a dance!”

“Wha—?! But I was—”

“Come on! Just one dance?” Daniel looked straight in Kenneth’s eyes with the most pleading gaze he could muster.

In the end, the man couldn’t resist them, and said yes.

Kenneth walked up to the blue-haired girl, ignoring the disappointed look on Marnie’s face.

“Excuse me, miss?” He called, catching Elora’s attention, “Would you like a dance?”

The girl gave him a once over and turned away.

“No thanks.” She dismissed easily.

Kenneth blinked, before calmly turning to Daniel, “She rejected me.” He stated.

Daniel had his head in his hand and Frederick looked like he was holding back laughter.

“Wow, the most beautiful maiden here, but she’s unfortunately quite blasé...” The brunette said in amusement, his formal stature cracking.

Kenneth rolled his eyes, “She is indeed, quite pretty, but she’s hardly the most beautiful.” He then turned back to Marnie, who visibly brightened by his attention, until a hand grabbed his wrist, prompting him to look back and see Elora standing there.

“Excuse you?” The girl asked, shaking slightly, “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” She looked Kenneth in the eyes, hot anger burning inside her own.

“I didn’t say you were ugly.” He stated with a frown, “In fact, quite the opposite. Are you so conceited that you can’t stand for anything less than praise?”

That just made the girl glare harder, “You didn’t have to say it in such a rude way!”

The man’s gaze turned irritated, “You rejected me barely a second after I requested a dance.”

“Are you so cocky you couldn’t have imagined a girl would reject you?”

The two glared at each other for a moment.

“C-come on you two…” Daniel started, trying to placate the argument, “Maybe you could settle this over a game or something? In fact, it’s almost time for the midnight dance! You two could dance together to see who’s better!”

At the mention of midnight, Elora gasped and glanced at the clock, only to see that at that moment it was 11:50. All the while, Kenneth shot down Daniel’s idea, saying it would be ridiculous to dance with someone you didn’t even like.

“As much as I would like to continue this delightful conversation,” She started, suddenly yanking her hand from his wrist and backing away, “But I have to leave now. I don’t have time for silly squabbles.” She turned away and dashed towards the food table, grabbing an assortment of treats, before running away in a very non-lady-like manner.

Kenneth jolted at her actions and looked offended, “You’re the one who started this ‘silly squabble’!” He shouted incredulously as she ran away. The man huffed irritably as he walked back to the others.

“Well, that was weird.” Daniel commented, “So, what’d you think?”

“She’s a beauty but it isn’t nearly enough to make up for that personality.” Kenneth scoffed.

“If you say so.” Daniel sighed, “However, I would still like to—” he turned around, only to see that the blue-haired girl had left. The clock’s bells rang, announcing that it was midnight.

“Cinderella ran away that night, her identity a mystery and no clues as to who she could have been, much to the King’s disappointment. However, the Prince and Drizella danced through the night, only leaving the other’s side when the girls had to head back home.”

True enough, Kenneth asked Marnie for a dance, and she eagerly agreed. They danced on stage for a bit before Chika tapped Marnie’s shoulder.

“I’m afraid we have to leave, sister.” Chika said with an apologetic smile.

“Oh…” Marnie looked disappointed, “That’s my cue then. It was lovely to meet you, your highness.” She pulled away and started to follow the other girl, only to be stopped by a hand on her wrist.

“Wait!” Kenneth called, “What’s your name?”

Marnie looked surprised but smiled in delight, “Drizella.” She answered simply before finally leaving.

The stage darkened once more, lighting up again to reveal Elora and her family at the dinner table, drinking tea. A knock was heard from somewhere offstage.

“I’ll get it.” Elora announced as she stood up and walked towards the noise.

“Good morning miss. May we come in?” Said a male voice. Elora watched in surprise as Frederick walked onstage, along with Kenneth. Once Elora met eyes with Kenneth, the two stared at each other for a moment in stunned silence.

“IT’S YOU!?!?” They both shouted, pointing at each other incredulously.

“You’re that stuck-up prince!” Elora yelled.

“Stuck-up—Excuse me?!” Kenneth yelled back indignantly, “Says that rude little maiden who couldn’t take an off-handed comment about your looks!”

“Oh, I’ll show you ‘little’—”

“With all do respect, but you two realize that you have an audience?” Frederick suddenly interrupted, exasperated.

Elora and Kenneth paused their bickering and slowly turned to face Elora’s step-family, who were silently watching in shock.

“Y-your highness!?” Marnie exclaimed, standing up and bowing, “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

Kenneth cleared his throat and collected himself before both him and Frederick bowed as well.

“Excuse us for our intrusion.” Kenneth apologized.

“Oh, not at all!” Kikka responded as she and Chika stood up as well.

Kenneth cleared his throat once more, “I could have come later, but I wanted to do this as soon as possible.” He then got down on one knee in front of Marnie and pulled out a small box, everyone held their breath in anticipation, “Miss Drizella, would you go…” He opened the box, “Go out on a date with me?”

“A date?!” everyone exclaimed. In the box was a small hydrangea brooch.

“Wait, so you’re not going to ask her to marry you?” Chika asked in bewilderment.

Kenneth gave her a look, “I’ve only met her hours ago. Of course, I’m not going to ask her to marry me.”

“But—You—You got on your knees and everything!” The blonde defended herself.

“I admit, it was little misleading.” Frederick remarked. Rolling his eyes, Kenneth turned his gaze back to Marnie.

“Do you accept my offer, miss?”

Marnie immediately dropped to her knees and hugged Kenneth, sobbing and shouting “Yes!” multiple times.

“The heart-warming sight inspired the others to cheer and celebrate the new relationship. Everyone hugging each other in pure happiness.”

True to his word, the others cheered and praised the new couple, throwing flower petals—Which they got from seemingly nowhere—into the air and embracing each other.

Amidst the chaos, Elora crouched beside Kenneth, “Break her heart and I’ll break your legs.” She whispered in a threatening tone.

“I’d like to see you try.” He replied with an unimpressed glare, but then tilted his head in consideration, “…But if I do break her heart, I’d let you.”

The girl gave him a small smile and nodded. The three of them stood up and they all faced the audience.

“And so, the Prince and Drizella started dating and the King could rest easy knowing his son was in a stable relationship. As for Cinderella and Anastasia, they moved away some years later and built their own lives. As the years passed, the couple fell more in love, and eventually got married. They all lived happily ever after. The end.”

The audience cheered as the actors present bowed, followed by Benjamin and Daniel who ran onstage to bow as well. Eventually, they got off the stage and the gym’s lights turned on, signaling the audience to leave.

“That was so fun!” Chika cheered backstage. Several cries of agreement responded.

“I’m pretty sure I was shaking the entire time…” Marnie admitted as she sighed in relief, “You think anyone noticed?”

“I think you did wonderfully.” Kenneth reassured her with a hand on her shoulder. Marnie smiled and nodded gratefully.

“For a play put together by teenagers, I admit it wasn’t that bad.” Advik commented off-handedly.

“Soo, what grade did we get?” Elora asked their teacher, grinning brightly.

“I’m not grading it now. You three will get your grades after the festival is over.”

“Wait, so, what do we get?” Kenneth asked, gesturing to himself, and the five others who helped them with the play.

“Well, since the six of you weren’t assigned the project in the first place, I can’t give you a grade.” Advik stated with an unbothered shrug, “And whether or not you get extra points for it is up to your own teachers.”

“So, we get no compensation?” Kikka asked.

“I believe that’s up to them.” Advik gestured to his three students before walking away, deciding he had better things to do.

“…How about we take you all out to dinner?” Frederick suggested after an awkward silence had settled over them.

“Sounds great!” Chika agreed.

Later that evening, the group found themselves in a French restaurant, lively with chatter, and squeezed around a table.

“I can’t believe we didn’t realize it was graded…” Frederick commented idly.

“Yeah, and I suppose we did see that grading rubric he put on those assignment papers.” Elora huffed as she bitterly took another bite of her food, “But I just thought it was there so we’d know what was expected of the play!”

“Well, this school is known for taking it’s extra-curricular activities stupidly seriously.” Felix commented, “Really, we should have known better.”

“I suppose it was a good thing we followed the rubric regardless of whether it was graded or not.” Marnie laughed. As the one assigned to writing the play, she’d been given the rubric as something to base off of.

“Thank God you weren’t foolish enough to ignore the rubric completely.” Kikka sighed, “I’m honestly glad I’m not actually being given a grade.”

“Here, here!” Daniel yelled in a mock cheer.

The group laughed and chatted until they’d finished their food and it was time to leave.

“You know, all things considered, I had a lot of fun being in the play!” Chika stated as they walked back to their dorms.

“Yeah.” Frederick laughed in agreement, “I suppose, in the end, all that matters is that we enjoyed it.”

#fnaf #oneshot #Not canon to my story #comedy #Not all characters mentioned have shown up in my fanfic yet #The idea behind this was just “what if they had to do a cinderella play?” and then I found it funny so I wrote it.#Enjoy!

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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My sister asked me to draw Elena with fingerless leather gloves and this is the product.

#c-mha #my art #oc from mha fanfic #Elena Bell #enjoy!

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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#ocs from mha fanfic #left: Elena Bell #right: Nikolaus Brandt #middle: Arlo Keen #c-mha #enjoy!#my art

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

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To Be or Not To Be- chapter three

Enucleation V.S. Witch

Aizawa groaned tiredly as he leaned back in the guest chair of Tsukauchi’s office. For the past six hours, the two of them had been going over the evidence, and for six hours they hadn’t come up with any other conclusions than “something is up with these kids.”

He was only made aware that it was past midnight when Yamada had informed Aizawa that his students were all in bed by then. He would have been there to check himself but he needed to go over this mess of a case at least one more time before returning to the school.

Except it had been six hours and there was still little to zero progress.

Aizawa stared at the file before him with frustrated contempt. Tsukauchi had put together three files, one for each kid, of everything they knew about them. Which extended from their ID to their race and practically nothing else.

“Their school?” Aizawa asked in tired repetition.

“Checked the UK and the surrounding countries. There’s no record of there being or ever being a Kuran Private High School.” Tsukauchi calmly responded.

“Their family?”

“No clue. The only one that has contacts labeled as her parents in her phone is Elena Bell and contacting them has come up fruitless.”

“Are the phones still not working?”

“That, and we tried using a quirk to find any blood relatives of theirs. The quirk allowed the owner, if given some DNA, to track down the source. If she focuses, she could even track down close relatives. However, it has a range, so we sent her to Europe yesterday, and then instructed her earlier today to go to the UK.” Tsukauchi sighed, “No luck so far.”

Aizawa hummed as he narrowed his eyes, “What about citizenship? Wouldn’t that narrow the search even more?”

Tsukauchi shook his head, “No luck on that one either. If it wasn’t for the fact we just saw them in the hospital, I would have assumed they didn’t exist.”

A lot of things didn’t seem to “exist” at that moment.

Aizawa scanned Elena’s file repeatedly. It had her birthdate, blood type, race, social security number, and a full report on her injuries. Speaking of…

“It says here that Bell needed a blood transfer.”

“Yeah. Recovery Girl couldn’t heal her much because her energy was practically drained, so they needed to do everything manually. They were worried they wouldn’t be able to save her because her blood type is on the rarer side, but they managed.”

All of her energy was drained? That was odd. Aizawa scanned the file until he found the column labeled “blood type” and noted that Elena’s was type B.

Blood type B was fairly rare, so it was good they were able to manage. If he recalled, some of his students had blood type B as well. If all else failed, they could have called them in, even if they weren't a registered blood transfer; but it probably would have been too late anyways.

His attention moved from her blood type to her birth date. For some reason, he had a feeling he’d seen it before. It was in the middle of the holidays, so it was the kind that was hard to forget. But then again, he never cared to remember people’s birthdays.

Aizawa picked up the other files and scanned the other two’s birthdays. Yeah, he definitely recognized their birthdates, but from where? It was like he learned them from somewhere but didn’t deem it important and let it slip his mind in favor of something else.

Then it hit him.

Her blood type was B.

And her birthday was—

No. No, it didn’t make any sense; they weren’t even the same race! But the way Arlo talked… It was as if he was from a completely different world.

Before Aizawa could voice his concerns, Tsukauchi’s phone rang.

“It’s Recovery Girl,” he told Aizawa before he answered and turned slightly away.

“Detective Tsukauchi. Oh, don’t worry about it, I was up anyway. …I know, I know. …Really? Is he—Ah, that’s good. So, we can talk to him tomorrow? Okay. …Lunch? I’ll ask him.”

Tsukauchi turned to Aizawa, “Nikolaus Brandt woke up. Are you okay with meeting up with him tomorrow in the afternoon? I know you have class in the morning—”

Aizawa sighed tiredly; looked like another questioning was in store, “I’ll have to find a substitute, but I should be able to make it.”

Tsukauchi gave him a grateful nod, “Thank you.” He said before returning to his call, “Around lunch is good. Yes. Don’t worry, I will. Goodnight.”

He ended the call and turned back to his desk.

“Sorry you’ll have to miss your class, but we want to get the questioning done as soon as possible. This case was already strange, but it seems to be getting weirder the longer we wait.” Tsukauchi said with an apologetic smile.

Aizawa gave him an understanding nod, “Don’t worry about it, I could use the extra sleep anyways.”

Aizawa looked back down at the files and grimaced.

Well, that’s only if he’d have the time to get to sleep in the first place.

For the second questioning, principal Nedzu didn’t come along. Understandable, considering that he was the principal of a school and had a lot more to do than interrogate a teenager. However, it seemed that someone else was going to take his place.

As Aizawa approached the hospital room, he noticed Yamada standing outside it. Aizawa eyed him curiously.

“I thought you were kicked out.”

Yamada snapped his head up from the spot on the ground he was staring at with undying boredom and beamed.

“Eraserhead!” Yamada seemed to have had the foresight to not activate his quirk in the hospital; Recovery Girl probably had to beat it into him. “I thought I was gonna die of boredom.”

Aizawa rolled his eyes, “don’t be so dramatic. And you didn’t answer me.”

“I suppose ‘kicked out’ was an exaggeration.” Aizawa turned to see Recovery Girl walking up to them, “I actually just sent him away to watch over this room instead.”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow in mirth, “And I assume you’re the one who got him to be quieter?”

“Hey! She whacked me with her cane at least ten times,” Yamada responded pitifully.

“I wouldn’t have to if you stopped yelling! We’re in a hospital for goodness’ sake!” Recovery Girl scolded as she whacked him once on the head. Aizawa sighed and shook his head tiredly.

“Let’s just get this over with already. It’s past noon and I’m already tired.”

“Gotcha Eraser!” Yamada mock saluted him, “I’ll see if the patient is done with his lunch!”

Yamada turned and barged into the room, loudly announcing his presence, “Yo—"

Suddenly, a plastic food tray flew out of the room, hitting Yamada square in the head.

‘You’d think a pro hero could dodge that...’ Aizawa thought as he stalked into the room behind Yamada, who was crouched on the ground in pain. He sighed, feeling as though the bags under his eyes were growing heavier.

Aizawa stepped around Yamada, who was still frozen in shock, to see Nikolaus who was kneeling on his bed in a semi-defensive stance. In contrast to Arlo, who was completely English, Nikolaus looked to be mainly Japanese in terms of appearance; despite his German name. His right arm was in a sling and his left arm was outstretched slightly, clearly the one he used to throw the plastic tray. A bandage was wrapped around his head and when they met eyes, Aizawa couldn’t help but notice the large scar stretched over his right eye.

“You’re awake,” Aizawa stated.

The boy scanned him scrutinizingly. “And you’re not a cop.”

Aizawa raised an eyebrow inquisitively. Something about his tone reminded him of someone, though he couldn’t quite name who…

“He isn’t, but there’s nothing to worry about,” Tsukauchi said as he stepped into the room with Tsuragamae and Recovery Girl. “He may not look like it, but he’s here to help with the investigation.”

Nikolaus glanced at the detective as he settled back in his bed.

“I’m Detective Tsukauchi,” He gave the boy a small smile and bowed in greeting. Nikolaus nodded in acknowledgment but didn’t say anything before he looked over to Tsuragamae.

His eyebrows drew together in confusion slightly as he took in the dog-man's appearance. It wasn’t until Nikolaus’s eyes flicked to Tsuragamae’s did he speak.

“I am Tsuragamae Kenji, the police chief! It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Nikolaus’s eyes widened slightly, clearly in shock. The police chief bowed in greeting as well, but this time, Nikolaus didn’t nod. He simply turned away from them and slapped himself across the face.

“SMACK!”

The adults flinched, surprised both by how loud it was and the fact he did it in the first place.

Immediately, Nikolaus pressed a hand, the same one he used to slap himself, to his cheek and made a pained face.

“Ooww, that actually hurt. Dammit.”

“Of course it hurts! What were you expecting?” Recovery Girl reprimanded as she approached Nikolaus. “I swear, kids these days. Getting themselves nearly killed and then hurting themselves even more!”

Nikolaus glowered softly but didn't say anything as Recovery Girl inspected his then red and swelling cheek.

Realizing this conversation would most likely go like the one with Arlo, Tsukauchi stepped forward, “We would like to ask you a few questions regarding what happened to you and your friends a couple days ago. Is that okay?”

Nikolaus’s eyes flitted to Tsuragamae for a split second before landing on Tsukauchi.

“Sure.”

Tsukauchi smiled warmly and took out his notepad, all the while Recovery Girl sprayed ointment on Nikolaus’s cheek.

“Okay, first off, how much do you remember?”

Nikolaus tilted his head and furrowed his brow in thought, “Hmm, all of it? I mean, I got hit in the head, so the beginning’s a little blurry, but pretty much everything.”

Tsukauchi nodded, “Good, so could you tell me what happened right after you were hit?”

Nikolaus nodded and began telling his story.

When the object, most likely a large rock, hit his head, it took him a moment to process what had happened. He could tell something hit him, but the shock was great enough that he couldn’t feel it right away. Nikolaus’s knees buckled as he stumbled into the wall. Elena and Arlo shouted in alarm but froze when something else caught their attention; Nikolaus was too distracted by the blood coming out of his head to notice.

(Tsukauchi asked if the cut was deep, but Nikolaus simply shook his head and said, “Head wounds bleed a lot.”)

An unfamiliar voice said something, to which Elena yelled something back. To this, Nikolaus turned his head and saw two figures standing before them, dressed in black hoodies, masks, and glasses, most likely to conceal their identity. Suddenly, the shorter one, who apparently had a knife, lunged at Elena, who easily defended herself with magic.

Nikolaus stood, bracing himself against the wall, as the other lunged at him and Arlo. His form was weak, so Arlo was able to dodge and counterattack with ease. However, when the attacker stumbled back, he lifted his arms and moved them in a way that seemed like he was manipulating something. As Arlo watched in confusion, Nikolaus stepped forward to join him and he saw Arlo floating up slightly. When he realized what was happening, Nikolaus lunged forward to grab Arlo, but was too late as he was abruptly shot up. His back hit the ceiling with a concerning “crack”, and his body fell to the floor limply.

In a panic, Nikolaus kneeled on the ground next to Arlo and began to check his wounds. Arlo’s head was bleeding and his breathing was becoming irregular. He needed medical attention.

“One down, two to go,” said a male voice.

Nikolaus looked up and glared at their attacker, who then crouched in an offensive stance, ready to attack again. Nikolaus stood up and took a defensive stance in front of Arlo.

He glanced at Elena for a moment. She was still fighting the one with the knife and he wondered briefly why she didn’t just use her magic to take the attacker out.

He looked away just in time to dodge a burning projectile their attacker had sent his way. He must have used some sort of fire magic.

Nikolaus kept his distance, dodging what appeared to be blades made of fire left and right. It wasn’t too hard, considering the attacker’s aim was a bit off, but he was still wary, knowing that the fire blades could produce some nasty injuries.

Eventually Nikolaus decided he had enough and ran up to the man. Based on what he saw with Arlo, the other wasn’t that good at close combat, hence why he was trying to take him out with long range projectiles.

The attacker was surprised at the sudden change and reared his arm back to send another fire blade but Nikolaus ducked below to set his aim off. He then reappeared in front of the attacker and sent a punch straight to his jaw.

The man stumbled back, allowing Nikolaus to grab the front of his hoodie and roughly pull him forward as he kicked him in the stomach. The attacker let out a pained yell as Nikolaus grabbed his arm, twisted it, pulled it behind his back, and used it to throw him to the ground.

The attacker’s face was pressed into the ground as Nikolaus pressed one knee into his back. He was still holding his arm, which was twisted and pulled back.

“Why did you attack us? Are there more of you?”

The attacker glared at him and attempted to use fire magic on the arm Nikolaus had a hold of. However, he saw it coming and simply pulled on the other’s arm, causing the guy to exclaim in pain and pause his magic immediately.

“I don’t think so.” Nikolaus pressed his knee hard into the guy’s back further, causing him to grunt, “Answer my question or I’ll break your arm.”

The attacker opened his mouth, about to say something, when a knife flew past Nikolaus, barely grazing his cheek.

Nikolaus swiveled his head and saw Elena angrily attacking the other one with fire. He then felt the one under him shift and he realized he had loosened his grip on him.

The man yanked his arm away, twisted his body, and used his other arm to send some fire in Nikolaus’s face. The attack was weak, it barely made a mark, but it was enough for Nikolaus to jump off of him in alarm.

As soon as Nikolaus released him the attacker got to his feet; not before grabbing the knife, which had landed within reach.

Now that his attacker had a weapon, Nikolaus knew he had to keep his distance. He knew how to disarm someone with a knife but that didn’t mean he could just charge up to him.

The attacker lunged forward, with his knife ready for attack. Just as Nikolaus was about to parry, his body froze. In a panic he tried to figure out the reason why and noticed that the attacker’s free hand was in a fist.

Before he could analyze it further, the attacker stabbed him in the side and pushed him to the ground. As his back hit the ground, Nikolaus let out a pained grunt through clenched teeth.

The attacker straddled him and Nikolaus attempted to throw him off, only to then realize he was still frozen. He surmised that his attacker must have been using puppet magic to manipulate his body.

The attacker grabbed the knife that was still lodged in his side and plunged it deeper. Being unable to move, he couldn’t do much to react to the pain than close his eyes and clench his teeth harder as he tried not to scream.

Nikolaus was panting from pain by the time the other stopped moving the knife. He opened his eyes and glared at the attacker, who didn’t seem to react, not that Nikolaus could tell much when his face was covered. However, he did unclench his fist and Nikolaus felt control return to his body. The relief only lasted a second though as the attacker then flicked his wrist and Nikolaus’s arm twisted back, lifting his shoulder in a weird angle.

“Now, I have some questions I want you to answer,” the attacker began closing his fist again, “or I’ll break your arm.”

He closed his fist and Nikolaus’s arm snapped; his elbow bending the opposite direction. Nikolaus screamed in pain before clenching his teeth again. He opened his eyes, having closed them before and sent another teary glare in his attacker’s direction. Absently, he registered Elena yelling his name in alarm.

“Do you know someone named Ethan Wright?”

Nikolaus blinked, before confusion settled on his face. “What?”

“Ethan Wright. Do you know him?” The attacker repeated.

“Why do you want to know? Who’s asking?” Nikolaus demanded, glaring at him. Even if he didn’t know, he wasn’t about to answer this guy unless he knew the risks.

The attacker twisted his fist, crushing Nikolaus’s arm a bit more, “I don’t have to answer you. Now, I was informed you were friends with Ethan Wright. I’m here to see if that’s true.”

Nikolaus scoffed, though the sound came out sounding more like a gasp, “A little overdoing it, aren’t you? A simple talk over lunch would have been just fine.”

The attacker glared, or at least he assumed so based on his tone, “Don’t patronize me, you—"

He was then cut off by a boulder hitting him in the head, knocking him off Nikolaus.

He turned to his side, the one without a broken arm and knife, and moved away as he attempted to stand up. Elena came to his side and helped him.

“I’m sorry I took so long. Are you okay?” Elena asked as she held his good arm to help stabilize him.

“I’m fine.” He said painfully, “What about you? You’re bleeding a lot there.”

He scanned her body and saw many cuts and gashes on her arms and legs. They must not have been too bad, since she’s moving with only a slight limp.

“These didn’t take as much out of me as my magic did,” she said simply.

The attacker she just hit with a boulder groaned and sat up. When he faced them, they noticed that the attack must have knocked his glasses off because they could clearly see golden eyes glaring at them now.

“I’ll get you for that you little bitch—”

Elena sent him a furious glare and let go of Nikolaus to send a wave of water at the man, only to freeze it once it hit him.

“How dare you refer to a young lady that way!” she huffed once she was done.

‘At least she didn’t freeze his head,’ Nikolaus noted absently as the man yelled at her to release him.

Elena stumbled a bit and Nikolaus reached out for her.

“I-I think I overdid it…” Elena panted as she held her head. She leaned on him for a second before she straightened up and scanned Nikolaus’s wounds. “How are your injuries?”

“They’re…” He looked down at his injuries. His arm was broken, hanging limply at his side and the knife wound was still bleeding. However, he had a feeling that pulling it out would make it worse, so he left it alone.

“I’ll manage,” he said simply. Elena gave him a look and was about to say something when Nikolaus decided to divert their attention somewhere else.

“Arlo is in a worse condition than me.”

Elena’s eyes widened as she swiveled her head around, looking for Arlo. “He took a bad hit earlier, didn’t he? How is he?”

When she spotted him, they both limped their way over and knelt beside him. Nikolaus checked his pulse and breathing; the former was slow and his breathing was ragged and low.

“I’ll call the police. We can’t do much for him now, but we can stop the bleeding from his head at the very least,” Nikolaus decided.

Elena was silent as Nikolaus pulled out his phone, which had cracked a little, and started calling the police.

“I-I think I can heal him,” Elena said after a moment.

Surprised by the unexpected statement, he promptly turned his attention back to her and eyed her in confusion. “You can heal?”

Elena nodded, “My mother taught me. It drains a lot of my energy though.”

Suddenly a loud noise came from the attacker encased in ice, causing them both to flinch.

Nikolaus eyed the male attacker warily, before turning back to his companion. They needed to take care of Arlo first.

“Are you sure? You seem pretty tired already,” he asked, feeling weary and worried.

“I’m sure.” Elena nodded in finality and carefully set her hands on Arlo’s back. A light emanated from her hands, and, after a moment, Nikolaus could see Arlo’s breathing evening out.

Nikolaus was so distracted by her healing that he forgot to call the police for a moment and even dropped the phone to keep Elora upright when she started tipping from exhaustion.

“He… should be… better…” She said in between pants; her magic had taken more out of her than she seemed to have expected. She fell sideways and Nikolaus found that it’s really hard to hold someone with one arm, even if they’re sitting.

As he laid her down beside Arlo, her face seemingly going paler by the second, he deduced that she must have used up too much of her energy. Then he saw blood trickling under her and he paused.

Ah.

She’d been losing blood the entire time.

Hurriedly, he flipped her over and clearly saw the large cut on her back that he somehow missed earlier; probably too busy with other things to notice. He cursed as he attempted to stop the bleeding but then he realized that he didn’t have anything to wrap it up, much less to disinfect it with or any of the other basic medical procedures one would do in medical emergencies.

After the bleeding slowed significantly, he remembered that Arlo had brought a small first aid kit in his bag, so Nikolaus stood up to go get it.

Or, at least he attempted to as he simply fell back on his knees the second he tried.

Nikolaus clutched his side, the pain from the knife more noticeable the more he moved. He tried to ignore it earlier, he’s used to masking pain with a neutral face, but he couldn’t say the same for the rest of his body.

Just as he was about to try standing again, a loud crack came from behind him, and he realized it was the sound of ice breaking.

The same ice Elena had encased their attacker with.

He turned to see the attacker breaking away the ice, all the while shivering. When he turned to the three teenagers, he had a furious glare on his face and if his mask was down Nikolaus probably would have seen him snarling as well.

“Since you refuse to answer our questions…” The attacker started, turning his shivering body toward Nikolaus menacingly, “I suppose we have no use of you anymore.”

Nikolaus narrowed his eyes. His heart raced in anticipation as he propped himself up with one knee on the ground. He grabbed the handle of the knife in his side, ignoring the pain, and decided to stab the attacker once he got close enough.

That, however, never happened.

The man had just started to lunge at him when a strong wind had picked up, causing him to pause because…

…Well, because wind doesn’t exactly blow indoors.

The wind blew harder, swirling around the three teenagers. Forgetting all about the attacker, Nikolaus knelt beside the other two. He grabbed Elena, holding her close, all the while keeping an eye on Arlo. As the wind blew harder and lightning formed, a light started to glow all around them. Nikolaus shut his eyes as the light grew bright and the wind continued to swirl harshly around them. Suddenly, he was falling and all he could do was hold Elena closer as he blacked out.

#mha #Enjoy!#a bit longer this time

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avis-and-panda · 2 years ago

Text

Five Years of Lies-Chapter two

Security Fires

Five years ago, on December 23rd.

Frederick woke up slowly, like he would on any other day. Except the side of his face was aching from where it was pressed to the floor, as well as his hip and shoulder. His arm was also pressed against his side quite uncomfortably.

He opened his eyes, trying to remember how exactly he ended up on the floor, only to see a red-headed boy lying on the floor across from him in a similar position. The boy was squinting at him with bleary eyes, as if he was just waking up too.

Frederick’s tired mind was barely able to process the red-head’s fox ears and peculiar outfit as the latter sat up to look at his surroundings.

“Wha…” The boy started but he cut himself off with a wince and rubbed his forehead.

Suddenly, Frederick was hit by a headache as well and he sat up to see where he was. He moaned in pain as the headache got worse and decided to get some painkillers and water.

…Except he didn’t know where the painkillers were.

After some searching—all through which the headache got worse to the point Frederick thought he was going to pass out—he and the red-head found some painkillers and bottles of water. After that, they spent quite a while sitting on beds they’d conveniently found as well, doing nothing.

“Where the fuck are we?” the red-head suddenly asked, taking Frederick by surprise.

“Uh…” he started, trying to find his words, “I’m not sure?”

The red-head turned to face Frederick with an unimpressed look.

“H-hey, don’t give me that look! The last time I checked I was…” he trailed off, finding that he didn’t remember where he was before waking up.

“W-well, do you remember where you were last?” Frederick asked instead. The red-head narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before answering.

“…No, I don’t.” He scrunched up his face and went to rub his forehead with his right hand, only to gasp when he noticed it was missing. The red-head promptly covered his wrist and pressed it to his chest protectively, all the while shaking his head wildly.

“This doesn’t make any sense! Why can’t I remember anything but my name and birthday?”

“…Frederick Atonal.” Frederick tested out his name on his tongue, confirming that he could remember it. He recalled also his birthday, April 9th.

The red-head paused, and then turned his head to face Frederick, “What?”

“My name.” He smiled wearily. “It’s Frederick Atonal. What’s yours?”

The red-head stared at him for a moment before answering, “Felix Fronius.”

“That’s a nice name!” Frederick responded cheerfully, “Felix means lucky, right? You know, they say that the meaning of a person’s name represents who you are, even though someone else gave it to you. Isn’t that funny?”

Felix gave him a weird look, but seemed to consider his question. “It’s probably because it affects how others treat you or how you treat yourself, even if you don’t know the meaning. A name always has a certain ‘tone’ to it, and that tone will most likely affect how you see a person.” Felix shrugged, “It’s obviously not going to be true in all cases, but in most cases that’s probably why people say that.”

Frederick stared at him, a little taken aback by the sudden wordiness, “Wow, you’re pretty knowledgeable, aren’t you?”

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Felix asked with a huff.

Frederick giggled, “I’m not surprised! So, I guess that means you’re pretty lucky, right?”

Instead of answering, Felix hopped off his bed and started walking around, “Why don’t we just look for clues as to where we are.”

It didn’t sound like a question. Frederick figured it meant the conversation was over and got to searching himself, though he did feel a little dejected.

After a bit of idly walking around and inspecting their surroundings, they found that they appeared to be in a restaurant of some sort. Frederick suggested that they could also possibly be in a bar, considering the large stage they originally woke up in, but Felix refuted that; saying the restaurant’s general appearance was too childish to be a bar.

“Hey, come look at this!” Frederick called. He’d found four letters on a table near the entrance, each letter for a different person.

“There’s a letter for you and one for me.” Frederick observed.

“Whose are the others?” Felix asked, eyeing the letters with suspicion.

“I don’t know…” Frederick frowned in thought, “Let’s just read ours first.”

Nodding in agreement, Felix ripped open his letter, with Frederick following suit.

Dear Frederick Atonal,

I am Father. You and your associates—Felix, Chika, and Benjamin—will be living in this restaurant for the foreseeable future. All your bodily needs—such as food and water—will be provided for you by the staff. This is your home. I will always be watching over you. I created you. Trust me.

Father.

“…Father?” Frederick muttered, bewildered. He felt like he knew Father, and racked his brain, trying to conjure up some reason for this or a memory. The only thing he got for his efforts was a pound of pain in his forehead.

“Who are Chika and Benjamin?” Felix asked.

“And what does it mean by ‘he created us’?” Frederick asked in turn, meeting Felix’s eyes.

Suddenly, a loud “BANG” sounded from somewhere behind them, causing both boys to jump. They swiveled around to see what created the noise.

“KYAA!!”

Exactly five years later…

“CRUNCH! THUD!”

Frederick jumped with a gasp, and almost dropped his watering can in the process. He turned around, only to see no one and realized that the noise must have come from upstairs.

“What on earth did they do?” he muttered to himself, hoping they hadn’t injured the security guard.

After a quick walk upstairs, he was greeted by the sight of Chika and Felix carrying an unconscious man, Chika holding the arms and Felix the legs. Frederick met eyes with Felix and made a pointed notion to the guard, to which Felix rolled his eyes at.

“He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Frederick gave an innocent shrug and looked away, “I didn’t say anything.”

Felix huffed and repositioned the guard’s legs to keep him from slipping, “Well, we’re a little busy, so if you want to know what happened, Ben’s in the security room.”

Frederick nodded and made his way to the security room. Once there, he saw Ben at the monitor, switching through the different security cameras.

“So, what happened with the guard?” Frederick asked. Ben turned to him, apparently just noticing he was there, and chuckled.

“Felix somehow managed to get a chair under the door before it closed. It freaked the guard out so much that he fainted.”

Frederick sighed, “We really need to figure out a way in here that doesn’t lead to someone falling unconscious.” He shook his head and turned to scan the room, “Well, at least the room is cleaner than last time.”

“Yeah. It was so dirty last time, that we almost didn’t want to go through it.” Ben scrunched up his face at the memory, “So gross…”

Frederick laughed. He remembered how they all almost wanted to leave the guard in his filth and pretend they never saw it, but ultimately decided that it wouldn’t be ethical to leave him in that state. So, they carried the guard out and spent the rest of the night cleaning.

Frederick sighed, “We never actually found anything, even under all that junk.”

“We didn’t really know what to look for either.” Ben shrugged, “I mean, not that we know now, but…”

“It’s worth a try?”

“Maybe.”

A moment later, Chika and Felix entered the room as well and the four of them got to searching.

“It’s all the same as last time.” Chika commented, “These filing cabinets just contain reports about us.”

“It seems that the security guard just reports our activities while at night, but not during the day.” Felix sighed in frustration, “There’s nothing related to why we’re only awake during the night.”

“There’s a phone here, like last time.” Ben observed, “But it doesn’t make any calls and the only thing it seems to do is play these recordings.”

“Maybe they’re different this time?” Frederick suggested and Ben pressed a button on the phone, only to hear the scratchy sound of a poorly recorded voice giving out instructions.

Ben sighed and shook his head disappointedly, “It’s not different.”

“Hear, I’ll listen to it and see if we missed anything,” Frederick said, “Why don’t you continue searching the desk?”

Ben nodded and handed the phone to him. Frederick pressed it to his ear and concentrated on what the guy on the other end was saying.

“…And don’t interact with them in any way. Orders from the boss. And I mean any way, like, don’t even let them make eye contact with you. If you see ‘em trying to get into the room, just close the doors. Oh, but don’t use too much power, or you’ll shut the whole thing down. Just observe the mascots and report on their activities after six strikes.”

Judging from the context, the “boss” was probably Father, the one who made them this way. The four of them theorized that Father was the founder and owner of the pancake restaurant chain, who was some mystery man no one could name. However, none of them could come up with solid evidence that Father and the owner was indeed one and the same, so it forever stayed a theory.

“Hey, look at this!” Ben called. The other three immediately stopped and turned to see Ben holding a radio taped to a stuffed animal.

“I didn’t notice it before because it was behind this…” Ben paused as he tried to figure out what exactly the furry purple stuffed doll was, “…unicorn?”

“I think it’s… something dressed as a unicorn?” Frederick suggested.

“Either way, it’s very cute!” Chika exclaimed, “And that tape he put on it is going to ruin it.”

“Well, it’s already ruined anyways, so let’s just cut the tape off and get it out of the way.” Felix stated, slightly annoyed with how they were distracted by a toy. Then again, the restaurant didn’t have any toys, even when they were younger. The restaurant company used to make toys modeled after the mascots and had stored a couple of boxes in the restaurant. The four of them were so creeped out by the toys that Felix and Chika burned all of them and left the ashes in the middle of the dining room. They either stopped making them or stopped storing them in the restaurant.

Chika made a cry of protest, insisting that she could fix it, all the while Ben had found a pair of scissors and started to cut away at the tape, making sure not to damage the toy more. Several minutes later, the four of them had gathered in the dining room, Ben fiddling with the radio, Chika sewing up the toy, and the other two reading a book to pass the time—though they’d already read them a hundred times before.

As Ben fiddled with the radio, a crackling noise filled the air, and he would sometimes press it to his ear to attempt to make out words from the noise, as if it was a puzzle. Unfortunately, none of them had ever used or played with radios before, so they wouldn’t know what a radio sounded like if there was someone on the other end, let alone working. Thankfully, Ben did know how a radio worked, so he would hopefully at least be able to figure it out.

One of the strange things they’d found out early on was that they somehow knew almost everything about anything. They knew how to work out quadratic formulas before they were at the age one would be to learn it as a high schooler. It was a strange phenomenon that they figured had something to do with what Father meant when he said he “created” them.

Suddenly, a loud sharp noise emitted from the radio, causing everyone to flinch and Frederick to cover his ears in pain. Noticing his pain, Felix caught his attention and silently gestured for him to put in his earplugs, to which Frederick gave a grateful smile.

“What on earth was that?” Chika asked once the sound died down.

“I don’t know…” Ben trailed off, perplexed, “But I think I hear someone.” He then turned the volume on the radio up for the others to hear and placed it in the middle of the table.

“…Suspicious figure nearby… code 10-33… Please standby.”

The person’s words were broken up between crackles but the teenagers felt overjoyed to have heard another person’s voice nonetheless.

“It’s working!” Chika cheered.

“I can’t believe it’s actually working.” Ben stated wistfully.

“Wait… what’s code 10-33?” Frederick asked with narrowed eyes.

“That’s the code for—” Felix started but was cut off by more crackling noises from the radio.

“Suspicious figure… closer… Standby—”

“Uuh…” Ben quickly picked up the radio and pressed a button on the side, “Hello? Uh, sir? Can you hear me?” A sharp but smaller noise emitted from the radio again, causing Ben to move it away from his face.

“—ediately! …code 451! …repeat! …451—!”

Startled, the teenagers started backing away from the radio, leaving it on the table. Though, rationally, they knew it couldn’t hurt them, they still felt warry and anxious from whatever the person on the other side was saying.

“…What’s code 451?” Chika asked hesitantly, clutching the toy she’d mended.

“That’s the code the police use for… arson.” Felix answered slowly.

They all stood around the table silently, as if waiting for something. As the radio crackled more and the person on the other side shouted more, the four teenagers felt all the more anxious. The worse part was that they didn’t even know what for.

“…Maybe it’s all just a trick—”

“BOOM!”

Ben’s sentence was cut off by the sound of an explosion from upstairs. The teenagers jumped in surprise and dove underneath the tables in case the ceiling decided to fall as well. From upstairs, they heard several more crashing sounds as well as the sound of fire crackling, and they knew they were right to feel anxious even if they loathed themselves for it.

Someone was trying to burn down the Pancake Plaza.

#fnaf #Enjoy!

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