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It wasn’t a secret that Nobara was fond of fashion and beauty.
To her, fashion was just as important of art as any of the others. Clothes and makeup allowed her to be free; it was a representation of who she was as a person. All of her thoughts, feelings, and attitude could be known just by the outfit she was wearing on that particular day.
So when she came back from the mission with a missing eye and looked in the mirror for the first time after getting dispatched from the campus infirmary, Nobara didn't waste a second to immediately point out what was wrong with what she was seeing. “This eyepatch. It doesn’t match with my outfit.”
It was annoying, really. After scrolling through what felt like a thousand and two (1002) websites, she accepted the grim fact that there just weren't any cute custom-made eyepatches she could purchase online. Nobara essentially gave up on searching on the internet any further and decided she really only had one other option left: to make her own eyepatches.
The supply store was far more crowded than she had expected. In her defense, though, she didn't even plan on going to get supplies today since it was a Tuesday morning and classes were supposed to be in session. Keywords: supposed to be. Gojou-sensei, being the way he was, had just decided right there and then to cancel classes for the rest of the day after seeing an advertisement for some weird limited edition pastry sale.
“Why are you all mad? Aren't kids supposed to be happy when they have no classes or something?” Nobara remembered the way her freakishly tall teacher stared in confusion when all of his students looked at him as though they were completely done with his bullshit. She recalled Itadori not particularly minding the cancellation too much, and she didn't necessarily mind it either. They were all in the middle of Tokyo with a full day ahead of them. If there was a perfect time for Gojou to be a completely irresponsible adult, it was definitely now. Megumi, on the other hand, had looked seconds away from popping a vein if their teacher said one more word. "I swear, I'm never appreciated!"
And there went Megumi's veins.
So now here she was, scanning through an aisle and looking for materials she thought were suitable for a quality eyepatch. Nobara could envision several ideas of her ideal eyepatch already: one with a rose design, another that would be decorated with cute ornaments, maybe some varieties in colors depending on what she was wearing that day…
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she felt a group of people brush past by her, followed by low voices.
“Did you see her face?”
“Yeah, I did. Poor girl. Why didn’t she cover all of that scarring up with some makeup?”
“I was just thinking that. It’s giving me the creeps looking at it. That eyepatch is barely covering anything up.”
Nobara wasn’t sure whether the reason why she stopped listening to the conversation was that the two people were walking further away from her, or if it was because the anger boiling inside of her had finally been pushed over.
She didn’t even realize that she had caught up to the two until she was standing right before them.
“Say it to my face.” Nobara’s eye narrowed when her gaze met with one of the strangers, who seemed completely thrown off by her sudden confrontation. There was silent tension in the air as they all just stared at one and another. The young shaman-in-training crossed her arms and waited impatiently for one of them to start talking. “Well? I’m right here. Say what you said back there to my face.”
The young man, who just seconds ago was speechless from her sudden appearance, pushed aside his surprise and instead glowered at the tone used towards him. “I said,” the stranger leaned down at Nobara, who barely stood tall enough to reach his shoulders, “to go and actually try covering up that nasty shit on your face.”
The guy standing next to him looked utterly mortified at what his friend had just said to Nobara. His jaw was left hanging open, but there were occasionally some moments where it looked like he wanted to speak up and say something. Probably to apologize, grab his friend, and leave before things get messy.
But before he could even process what had just happened, Nobara was already speaking.
“Why?” She begins to ponder as if the question itself was strange and random. Suddenly, her hands come up to her eyepatch. The covering that once hid the empty eye socket was then removed, and the reaction she got from the men in front of her was nothing but shock and mild disgust. Nobara just simply stood there, though, with the damage on her face bare in public. “Is this the nasty shit that's bothering you?”
When she got nothing in response from the suddenly silent guy in front of her, Nobara took that chance to grab his collar and force him forward. A cold, dark eye stared back into now terrified ones. She found herself gripping the collar tighter when the other person started to struggle a bit. “It bothers me,” she begins, “that you think I give a damn about what you have to say.”
The strong grip is released from the man’s collar, and she watches as he goes tumbling backward. His other friend quickly reaches out to grab him before he could fall. “Say any more dumb shit like that, and I’ll give you a real reason to be bothered by me.” While the two straightened themselves up and tried recovering from whatever the fuck just happened, all Nobara did was stare in wicked amusement.
A while after the two bums had scurried off and disappeared from the store, Nobara finally put back on her eyepatch. She ignored the other glances she got from wandering customers and was relieved to know that none of the workers saw what had just unfolded. It would be a real shame if she had to go off to another supply store since this one was her favorite.
Before Nobara could make it back to the aisle to get all the items that she came here for, she quickly stopped in her tracks and turned her head to look at the mirror displayed before her. She paused, looked around for a brief second, and then walked up to the mirror.
The eyepatch really didn’t cover much. It covered enough that no one was able to see the empty socket where her eye once was, but the scarring that surrounded her brow bone and most of the top side of her face was just something she couldn’t do much about. Foundation and concealer barely covered just how extensive the damage was. Even though it was annoying now and then, the one thing Nobara realized she hated more than destroyed facial tissues was a nasty cake face.
After straightening out the weird creases on her school uniform, fixing some strands from her hair, and reapplying a nice, glossy layer of lipstick, Nobara took one last look at her reflection. Her reflection smiled back at her.
“Perfect.”