The 9 Millimeter Kiss - Chapter 76: Chapter 76

"Satori Yuki please report to the teachers lounge... Mr. Aizawa is looking for you."
Yuki stared up at the ceiling in contemplation.
"Yuki-kun," Uraraka whispered from her seat, "Is it because of the blackmail?"
"Bla–! Yuki-kun!" Iida quickly snapped back towards the two, startling Koda.
"Don't mind them Koda," Yuki tiredly sighed at his poor classmate. Placing a hand on his shoulder, "They've become more demented since we became friends."
"No we have not!" Iida chopped.
Yuki gave him a stare.
"If not because of that, then why is Aizawa-sensei looking for you during class?" Uraraka asked again.
Yuki glanced across the class, briefly meeting Bakugo's before landing on the empty seat in front of him. The blond raised an eyebrow at him in question.
"Might have a clue." Yuki scrunched his nose in annoyance. He really should have thought everything through before acting impulsively.
"Back to the blackmail–" Iida diligently pushed his glasses back up. "What is this and who was it you blackmailed?"
Yuki looked over at Iida, forcing himself to go into a light daze. "I'll go see what he wants."
"Good luck, Yuki-kun." Uraraka clenched her fists in support despite not knowing the situation.
"Thanks." Yuki smiles, grateful for her support. He turns to Iida and sticks his tongue out,
"I blackmailed a political figure, Iida-kun~"
Yuki books it for the door before Iida's second microreaction is given. The shouts of the class president mixed with Uraraka's laugh.
"You wanted to see me?" Yuki feigned innocence.
Aizawa sat at his desk, a red pen in his hands, grading homework. Kaminari looks to be leaving the 30s and entering the 50s where points are concerned.
"I heard you assaulted your classmate in the showers?"
Yuki tensed, looking around the lounge hoping it wouldn't be interpreted the wrong way.
"N-no– I wouldn't say assaulted... more like interrogated..." Yuki mumbled.
"In the showers?" Aizawa still hadn't looked at his way and it didn't seem like he would.
"Yeah... I wasn't in the best state of mind–"
"You haven't been in the best state of mind for over a month, Satori."
"I'm getting better!" Yuki insisted. "I swear I am working on it and I think I'll be able to get back to my work study–"
"You're not going back to your work study." Aizawa interrupted, placing the pen down. "Have you heard anything from Dr. Nozawa?"
Yuki sharply inhaled, "No but he promised I'd go back even if–"
"Satori," Aizawa sternly interrupted, finally turning to him. "When was the last time you heard from him?"
"2 weeks... maybe 3 weeks by tomorrow. Why?" Yuki wondered if Dr. Nozawa was really going to forbid him from going back after all.
"Dr. Nozawa went missing 2 weeks ago."
Yuki froze. His eyes widening and going out of focus. "But he– He was still doing research."
"Dr. Nozawa completed his work ahead of schedule with your help. He turned the report in and a couple days later went missing." Aizawa explained.
"He was last seen leaving his car in the parking lot but never returned to the lab."
Yuki's numbing confusion didn't allow him to respond, let alone react.
"I've been told there's a chance he might have been found out by who we're currently after." Aizawa continued. He wouldn't hide that he knew Yuki was fully aware of the ongoing Shie Hassaikai case. "Dr. Nozawa called me out of concern about how close this case was to the one of the past..."
"Yeah." Yuki managed to say. "I want to help."
Aizawa couldn't say he didn't see this coming. "No."
"Please," Yuki clenched his hands into a fist, "I can help. Let me help."
"Help with what exactly?"
"There's a kid isn't there?" Yuki whispered. "They'll need someone–"
"You don't know how much more there is to this. And I won't allow my student to relive something similar." Aizawa sternly stated.
Dancing around the topic of a case that wasn't meant to be public knowledge. Perhaps Aizawa should have asked to meet him somewhere more private.
"I've told you many times. I'm not in any position to bring some outsider into the investigation."
Yuki bit the inside of his cheek. He knows. Yuki knows he wouldn't really be able to help in the investigation. What help he could provide was already done, and what was left to do wouldn't happen until the day of the rescue.
"Then, let me be there after." Yuki whispered, his voice shaking.
"Let me be there when you get them out. I won't be in the front lines, but I'll be there. In case the worst happens. I can lessen the damage on that at least, please, Aizawa-sensei."
Yuki took a step back before taking a deep bow, "I beg of you, sensei."
"Satori–"
"They're dangerous, aren't they?" Yuki asked, "Then let me offer my support."
Aizawa turned back to his desk and picked up the red pen,
"I'll let them know. I'm not the one who gets a say in the final decision."
Yuki kept his bow, "Yes, sir."
"I'll let the rest of the students know after I get the green light."
"Yes."
"If in any way you can't do what you say you'll do, I'll have you removed from the case." Aizawa warned.
"Yes. I promise it won't happen." Yuki proclaimed.
Having things settled and a new student possibly on board with the case, Aizawa dismissed him.
Yuki made it back to class on time for Ectoplasm to assign homework at the end.
"So was it blackmail?" Iida was the first to pop the conversation back up once the bell rang. "Are they taking matters into their hands after all?"
"Why? Are you gonna let me borrow a couple lawyers and a couple million for hush money?" Yuki leaned against his desk with a smirk. "I'm nearly swooning over such gentlemanly behavior of yours. Hide me from the law, Tenya-kun~"
"So it wasn't." Uraraka smiled at his antics.
"No." Yuki gratefully sighed. His mind however brings up the fact that Dr. Nozawa was in fact missing. And for a lot longer than suspected so it seems.
Iida on the other hand was a new shade of red, "You mustn't joke about these things, Yuki-kun." he sternly and rapidly chopped.
"Well at least help me get rid of the evidence." Yuki pouted.
"Yuki-kun!"
"Fine!" the healer huffed, "Don't come to me when you want something to be taken care of quietly."
"I think I just walked into a misunderstanding."
The three looked over to the door, to see a pair of tiered panda eyes staring back at them.
"Oh, Hitoshi." Yuki waved at him.
"Yo."
"Do we have training today?" Yuki frowns.
"We have training everyday," Shinso grumbles. "But I was kinda wondering if we could train together with the capture weapon."
"Ah." Yuki scowled. "I haven't been doing that."
"Figured."
Yuki quickly gathered his things, "Well, it was nice plotting with you two– keep this a secret will you Koda?"
Koda, unconsciously leaning over his desk, intrigued, gave a firm nod.
"We are not 'plotting'!" Iida stressed with one firm air chop.
"Who should we go after next?" Uraraka dreamingly smiled.
"We're going after someone?" Tsuyu piped into the conversation.
"Yeah, Iida's in charge of the hush money." Yuki did his best to keep a straight face, explaining nothing to Tsuyu.
"Cause he's got lawyers." Uraraka whispered, repeatedly raising her brows at her.
"Oh." Tsuyu tilted her head, "Lawyers..."
"I do not know what is going on anymore!" Iida looked like he wanted to cry.
"See you guys later!" Yuki grinned, making his exit swiftly.
Hitoshi glanced over to him, "You guys are fucking with him aren't you." he stated.
"It was getting boring." Yuki shrugged, "And a couple of us were looking a lot more stressed than usual. We need something to laugh about."
"And fucking with one persons mental stability is one way?" Hitoshi grinned.
"He's far from this mental stability you think he might have." Yuki lightly grimaced, recalling their internships a couple months ago.
Both headed to one of many small secluded areas on campus. They didn't need much space since neither could rival Aizawa's reach with the capture weapon.
"I've been meaning to ask but," Hitoshi hummed, stretching his quads, "You looked like a mess last time I saw you. Did something happen?"
Yuki slowly stretched his arms back. "I'm gonna need an estimate of this 'last time I saw you' thing..." he apologetically grinned.
Hitoshi narrowed his eyes, a slight pout appeared as he thought about it. "Maybe last month?"
"Then, work study." Yuki sighed, leaning down to touch his toes.
"Did something else happen?"
Yuki grimaced, making sure his legs were properly warmed up. "Um... yes. But it's classified. Sorry."
Hitoshi began stretching his arms. "I see..."
They return to a comfortable silence, continuing their own warm-ups.
Their training goes on without much trouble. Hitoshi was able to repeatedly latch onto things without much issue using the capture weapon. The calluses on his hands, from daily climbs compared to Yuki's own small and nearly disappearing ones, are more than used to it.
"You still can't catch moving objects." Yuki huffed, reaching the top of a tree.
Hitoshi swung on his capture weapon, upside down, with a grin. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to teach you when I figure it out."
Yuki hugged the branch, "I'm not saying I'm scared of heights...But I'm tired and I swear my arms are just about ready to give out."
"Use the–"
"If you suggest the capture weapon I'm gonna swing myself into you and we'll both be stuck up here." Yuki lightly scolded.
"Okay." Hitoshi shrugged, pulling himself upright and back to the branch. "You should use the capture weapon."
Yuki glared at him with a severity of a thousand curses threatening to leave his tongue.
"Help me get off the stupid tree." he settled with a complaint.
His fellow peer laughed, "What happened to your agility?"
"I stopped training for a while." Yuki pouted.
"Why?"
"I got sick, I got sad, and then I got rejected." Yuki huffed, waiting for Hitoshi to climb down from his side of the tree and climb up to Yuki's side.
"Who'd you confess to?" Hitoshi grinned.
"I was rejected for a mission." Yuki clarified. "But I managed to convince them to reconsider so I'm now waiting on the final decision."
Hitoshi reached Yuki's branch and held out a hand. "Well if it makes you feel any better I haven't gone to any missions besides turning in homework to the teachers office."
"No! Don't say that!" Yuki holds back a laugh, "Don't make it sound like I'm just shoving all my hero course stuff at you!"
"I was the one who asked." Hitoshi shrugged, not really bothered but amused by Yuki's reaction.
Yuki takes Hitoshi's hand, "You'll be taking the same classes as me next year, don't worry."
"Who says I'm worried?" Hitoshi smugly grinned.
"Oh~ When did you get so confident?"
"When did you get so whiny? I recall you being more...collected?" Hitoshi tied the tall healer onto his back. "You weigh more."
"Thanks. Recovery Girl was gonna get on my case more if I didn't gain a few." Yuki slumped over Hitoshi's shoulders. "But– Hey! You can carry me now?!"
"Of course." Hitoshi threw the capture weapon, wrapped it around a tree branch, and gave it a good tug, "I'm not the one who's slacking off."
"Yeah, yeah." Yuki's arms were truly sore.
Bakugo didn't show up. For three days.
In fact, Yuki felt the familiarity of 'being avoided' spring onto him like a weighted blanket. Of course now he wasn't as haunted with the fresh knowledge of his work study and was instead working on getting more sleep than usual. (Being temporarily banned from using his quirk until further notice.)
"Ne, Yuki-kun." Uraraka popped up beside him, grabbing two small ice cubes.
"Hey," Yuki threw the ice into his mouth, shutting the freezer. "Can I borrow your notes for math?"
"Why don't you ask Deku?" she smiled.
"That was a polite rejection but I cannot talk to him until I complete the self-deprecated process of my unfortunate actions." Yuki sighed, a crunch following shortly after.
"Does this involve the shower incident?"
Yuki nodded, "Yes, it does–"
Pause.
Uraraka grinned, "He mentioned it to Iida-kun and Tsuyu made him talk."
Yuki crunched on his ice. "Well, I was hoping he wouldn't bring it up to anyone."
"You'd really corner someone in the showers for answers?" Uraraka mumbled, "Didn't take you to be that kind of person."
Yuki swallowed the smaller pieces of ice before clearing his throat, "I wasn't but I had reason. Besides, it was either someone who was too soft to fight a classmate in defense or Kirishima."
Uraraka raised a brow, "Any...particular reason?"
"Do you know?" Yuki returned.
The two stared down one another, working out how they would approach it if they did know.
"Are you done standing in front of the fridge?"
The two looked over to Sero, holding an empty glass, "I've been waiting for a few seconds and in those seconds I find out Yuki is a perverted ice cruncher who wanted to go after Kirishima and Uraraka just confessed of Asui-san using questionable means to get information out of our class pres."
"I'm not a pervert, just a misunderstanding."
"You tell anyone about Tsuyu-chan and you'll be next."
Sero unfazed but amused chuckled, "I'm as silent as an air raid siren."
Yuki scowled, "That's not in any way–"
"DENKI! KIRISHIMA'S NEXT!!"
"BRO!"
"I'm what?"
"GET DOWN!"
The healer and his dear friend watched as Sero and Kaminari ran and pounced on Kirishima.
Uraraka pulled Yuki to the elevator, making for a quick get away.
"He'll keep quiet." she assures him as the doors closed on Kirishima crawling over the couch away from the others.
Yuki doubted it, but hoped she was right nonetheless.
Now with the safety of his locked room he sat across from Uraraka who waited for an explanation. And he told her, with full trust about what he knew. Leaving out only how it related and impacted him.
"This was all while Bakugo was ignoring you–? Which by the way, I've noticed he started doing again after you told me you were going to confess." Uraraka tactfully pointed out.
"I'm aware." Yuki solemnly nodded. "But I did confess, and we agreed to go out. Though Bakugo's going out of his way to avoid me."
"Aizawa-sensei isn't letting you use your quirk, you're not keeping up with all your training, you asked him to be a part of the missions– which he was right about needing to ask– Bakugo's avoiding you. Again. And you haven't cleared up the shower incident with Deku." She listed.
"Gee, air out my dirty laundry to the student body already." Yuki droned before sprawling out onto the floor.
"You're overwhelmed–"
"No shit, Sherlock."
"Shut up, Watson. If you need Bakugo or Deku alone to talk I'm sure Tsuyu and I can help out." Uraraka offered.
Yuki lifted his head, "Really?"
"Of course! She and I have been talking about your situation and we both have no idea how you get yourself into these situations."
"Tsuyu knows... Well, I guess all we need is Todoroki to also know and we'll be able to have some group therapy among friends."
"And Iida." Uraraka noted, "He doesn't know about the case either."
Yuki hummed, "I might know a way to isolate Midoriya."
"What do you have in mind?"
He grinned and shrugged, "Something simple and predictable."