Chapter Text
The last bell had rung almost fifteen minutes ago, and Kagume was only just going to meet Izuku. She held the two halves of her broken mask to her face as she slipped to the back of the school building, no one was around to see her but she didn’t let the mask slip anyway.
At least not until she ducked under a low hanging tree branch and made her way into her and Izuku’s meeting spot. It was a secluded area, the school building forming one wall and dense trees hiding the area from view.
Kagume took her hand off her mask, catching it by the strap as it slipped from her face. “Sorry I’m late, Izu,” she said as she walked over to her friend and dropped down to sit on the ground next to him, shrugging her backpack off and taking a closer look at the damage done to her mask.
“I was getting a bit worried,” Izuku said beside her, and she absent-mindedly mumbled another apology. “I wanted to- hey wait is that blood?”
Kagume glanced up at him with a frown, one hand coming to her face and gently feeling around her nose - she’d gotten punched there a little while ago, which was how her mask got broken. She swiped her fingers under her nose and her frown deepened at the red smudge of blood.
“Aw man, I hadn’t even noticed,” she sighed, hearing Izuku rustle around in his backpack. He pulled out his water bottle and a pack of tissues.
“I thought Kacchan left earlier today?” He said as he uncapped the bottle and poured some water onto a tissue. Kagume tilted her head towards him as he carefully started to clean away the blood under her nose.
She waited till he was done before answering. “He did, some of his friends did it instead. They cornered me in class when I tried to leave, just the usual bullshit- you know how it is.”
“I’m sorry, I should’ve come to look for you,” Izuku said quietly, and Kagume shook her head, drying off her nose with the sleeve of her uniform.
“Don’t worry about it, really.” She assured him, smiling slightly, “it doesn’t even hurt anymore, really! Those guys don’t really know how to throw a proper punch.”
Izuku returned the smile, but it was still obvious he was worried. “They broke your mask, too.” He said with a sigh.
“Yeah. Sucks.” Kagume said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a roll of tape. “I’ve got spare ones at home, so it’s not that big of a deal. Just made me panic a bit.”
Izuku nodded, and the two of them fell into a comfortable silence as Kagume carefully taped the two halves of her mask together, her hands shaking just a little. Wearing a mask wasn’t a necessity for her, technically speaking, but she’d worn one daily since she was six, going without one made her feel vulnerable.
Having a mask makes it easier to put on a front and push any insecurities away, she’d gotten used to the comfort. Izuku was one of the only people she willingly took her mask off around, and he was joined on that exclusive list by… two people, maybe.
“Are you going to your grandmother’s this weekend?” Izuku asked as Kagume finished repairing the mask. She set it down on the ground next to her and nodded.
“I am, yeah!” She said with a smile, “she said she might take me to go see that new All Might movie tomorrow.”
Izuku looked at her with wide eyes for a second, before he lit up with excitement. Though before he could break off into a tangent, Kagume spoke up.
“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind you coming along,” she said, then shrugged. “If you want to, of course..”
“Are you kidding?!” Izuku gushed, “I’d love to! Oh I’ve been waiting for it to come out for so long, it’s supposed to be about All Might’s earlier days, back when he worked in America. It sounds so cool.”
Kagume clapped her hands together with a grin. “Great! I’ll talk with my grandma about it and let you know what she says, yeah?”
“Yes! Thank you so much, Kagume.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but hesitated when she felt a drop of water land on her hand. Both she and Izuku looked up past the leaves at the now grey sky, clouds obscuring the sun.
Rain. Definitely not ideal, considering they still had an entire walk home.
Kagume threw her tape back into her bag, and Izuku got his own things in order with the same haste.
“Do you have a jacket?” She asked, glancing over at him as she got to her feet and slung her bag over her shoulder.
“Nope.” Izuku said, brushing his uniform off and looking annoyed at the raindrops hitting his face. “Do you?”
“Nope!” Kagume looked up at the sky again as she carefully tugged her mask on - not covering her face entirely with it, instead adjusting it so it sat more to the side. “Guess we’re running home then.”
“Aw man,” Izuku sighed, following Kagume as she ducked back out from their meeting spot.
She grinned at him over her shoulder. “Don’t be like that!” She scolded jokingly. “Think of it as training for UA! It’s good endurance practice.”
That seemed to do the trick. Izuku took a deep breath, steeling himself, then looked at Kagume with a determined expression.
“Okay. Let’s do it!”
Kagume gave him a thumbs up and started running, Izuku close behind.
Neither of them lived far from Aldera, though it felt like miles with the rain beating down on them and only seeming to get heavier. Embarrassingly enough, the run home also revealed just how unfit the two of them were, really, gasping for breath as their legs barely managed to carry them forward after maybe three minutes of continuous running.
By the time they split off to go their separate ways, they’d both slowed down a significant amount, rain-soaked clothes be damned.
Kagume gave up on running completely when her house came into view, figuring it was the weekend and she’d have time to wash her uniform, or deal with any cold she might get from this all, so it was totally fine. Yeah!
As she walked, she wondered how she was going to manage to get in shape in time for the UA entrance exams, granted, she still had over a year to do so, though she figured it was good to get a start on it now.
Maybe she could look for a gym to go to, maybe with Izuku too, it’d suck to be somewhere unfamiliar alone, and she didn’t want to prepare for UA without him. It was kind of their thing.
Two quirkless kids with dreams of being heroes.
It was hard going, what with all of the bullying and the discrimination and general dislike people had for quirkless people - but that’s why Kagume and Izuku stuck together. Things felt a little less impossible, a little less far-fetched if the two of them worked with each other.
She had a little smile on her face as she pushed open the front door of her house and stepped in, toeing her shoes off quickly by the entrance and tugging her slippers on. Looking into the mirror in the hallway made her frown because she hasn’t realised she’d gotten this soaked.
Her blue hair seemed way darker, and looked like it usually did when she got out of the shower, her uniform clung to her skin and her mask still had droplets of water rolling off of it.
She pulled the mask off - not that she wanted to, but because her parents didn’t like seeing it - and tried to fluff her hair up a little with a hand, only succeeding in making the short strands stick out all over the place and look more messy than before, so then she attempted to smooth it out again, but all that did was make her look like a rat and squeeze cold water onto her shoulders.
Kagume sighed, turned away from the mirror and opted to instead just shake her head and go with whatever style that left her with.
As she moved down the hallway, she heard movement from the living room, which prompted her to turn away from it and head towards her bedroom instead.
It wasn't that she had a bad relationship with her parents! Because there wasn't really a relationship there at all.
They were super important workaholic business people and Kagume was just a kid they got stuck with. They fed her and gave her a place to stay but it was a stretch to call them parents, honestly.
She had vague memories of not hating them, but not surprisingly those memories took place before she was declared quirkless.
She was pretty sure - read: 100% sure - that they never wanted a child and Kagume was just an unfortunate accident.
It's not as if she cared, though. She had her grandmother and Izuku, who made her feel like she wasn't a burden, and she felt like that was enough.
Kagume wiped her hand off on her skirt - which didn't help much considering her skirt was also wet - and grabbed the door handle to her room. Though just as she was going to open it, the living room door opened and Kagume's mum (Yori) stepped out, her dad (Sadao) standing behind her in the doorway.
"Kagume." Yori called down the hallway to her. Kagume took a deep breath, then turned to look at her. “I need to speak to you.”
“Uh. Okay.” Kagume blinked, looking between Yori and Sadao. This was far from a common event - normally there was no communication at all, so she wondered what was so important that it made them abandon their precious work just to bother her.
Yori opened her mouth to speak, but she looked Kagume up and down and frowned. “You’re soaking wet.”
“Well, yeah,” Kagume raised an eyebrow. “It’s… raining outside.”
“Did you have a jacket?”
“If I had one I would’ve worn it.”
Neither of them said anything for a moment, it was awkward and uncomfortable, so Kagume spoke up again, breaking the short silence.
“I’m gonna change before I head to gran’s anyway, and I’ll grab a jacket for the road, so.”
Sadao stepped out from behind Yori, “Actually, that’s what we needed to talk to you about.”
“Your grandmother had a heart attack two days ago.” Yori followed up quickly, and Kagume’s eyes widened with panic.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!” She asked as she hurried towards the front door to get her outdoor shoes back on again. There was a hospital not far from her grandmother’s house that she probably would’ve been taken to- it was half an hour away from Kagume’s house but if she managed to catch the right bus she could be there in ten minutes max.
Before she even reached her shoes, however, Yori continued.
“She didn’t make it, Kagume.”
Kagume froze, the words echoing in her head.
“She’s gone.”
She didn’t even react, staring blankly at the floor as her mind struggled to process the information.
Surely not, right? They have to be lying. She can’t be gone.
But her parents weren’t liars, they hardly ever spoke to her anyway so whenever they did it was always something important. Knowing that made her more inclined to believe them, but she didn’t want to.
She tried to figure out what to say, or how to react, but she pulled a blank, she didn’t really feel anything, couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to feel at that moment.
Anger? Sadness? Fear?
Kagume resumed her earlier movement, grabbing her outdoor shoes and pulling them on after kicking off her slippers. She adjusted her bag and fidgeted absently with her mask briefly.
Pulling her mask on and holding her bag in one hand, she opened the front door. Her parents didn’t say anything as she stepped back out into the rain and shut the door behind her quietly, not that she’d expected them to.
Kagume barely gave any thought to where she was going now, her feet carrying her someplace familiar as she got lost in her own head, trying desperately to make sense of the information she’d been given.
She’s gone.
Technically there wasn’t much to try and make sense of, but Kagume struggled to let it sink in, she didn’t want it to be true and so her mind was refusing to accept it.
She trudged along in the rain, feeling only cold, both on the surface and inside.
It didn’t take her long to arrive at the apartment complex she’d been heading towards, she made her way up the stairs slowly and soon found herself in front of a door. She raised her hand and tapped her knuckles on the door three times, then let her hand drop back to her side.
A couple seconds passed, and the door was opened, revealing a surprised Izuku.
“K-Kagume?” He said, confusion evident in his voice. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were going to your grandmother’s.”
She couldn't go to her grandmother’s because she was- gone. She was gone?
“I-” Kagume struggled to speak past the sudden lump in her throat. “Can I- Can I come in, please?”
“Yeah- yeah of course,” Izuku nodded, stepping aside and letting Kagume slip past him into the apartment. “Here- I’ll take your bag. Oh jeez you must be cold, I’ll get you a towel!”
Izuku quickly shut the door and set Kagume’s bag on the floor before disappearing around a corner.
She was left standing in the hallway, staring at the wall through the eye holes of her mask, doing her best to prevent the tears threatening to pool in her eyes.
Her uniform clung to her uncomfortably, making her skin itch. It had her wishing she’d changed before leaving her house, or maybe even grabbed a jacket at the very least instead of just walking out into the rain like an idiot.
Footsteps drew her attention away from the wall and towards Izuku, who was heading towards her again this time with a towel in hand and his mum behind him. Both of them looked worried and Kagume instantly felt guilty.
“Thank you,” she said quietly when Izuku handed her the towel. Her hands shook as she did her best to dry them, then dry her hair as much as she could too, the whole time her mind racing because she had to tell the Midoriyas something so that they would stop looking so scarily concerned but what could she tell them?
The truth, probably, would be the right way to go about it but just she couldn’t make her mouth form the words. She tried to think of a plausible lie that wouldn’t raise anymore questions but her mind drew a blank on that too.
“Kagume?” Inko said gently, carefully taking the towel from her and helping her dry her hair off just enough that it wasn’t dripping water everywhere. “Can you tell us what’s wrong, please? You’re worrying us.”
“Sorry.” Was all Kagume could mumble, and she was instantly reassured that no it’s okay, there’s nothing to apologise for, really.
“Did something happen?” Izuku asked, taking the now wet towel from his mum and frowning at Kagume, trying to get a read on her. She only just then realised she still had her mask on, and maybe for good reason, maybe she should keep it on for now.
Especially since Izuku’s question was making tears well up in her eyes. She couldn’t make herself lie to him, something did happen, something horrible, something she’d never imagined would happen so soon.
Something she didn’t know if she’d be able to recover from.
“She-” Kagume finally said, the words feeling clumsy in her mouth. “She’s- gone.”
She watched their expressions go from worry to more confusion, and she took a deep breath to try and explain.
“Heart attack,” she whispered, “two days ago.”
It seemed to finally click for Izuku, and a quick look to Inko clarified it for her too, and Kagume quickly found herself wrapped in a warm hug.
She hadn’t realised how cold she’d been until that moment.
Her body went almost limp against Inko, she hid her face in the woman’s shoulder. Speaking the words had made it properly sink in for the first time, a wave of anguish washed over her, bringing tears to her eyes.
A sob left her, then another, and another, making her shoulders shake and her chest hurt. She faintly felt another pair of arms wrap around her, but she hardly paid it any mind, unable to make herself focus on anything but the painful reality she was now living.
Her grandmother was gone. Her only source of constant support and love and reassurance and happiness was gone.
Kagume didn’t know what she was going to do.
She didn’t know if she wanted to even bother trying to figure it out.
“You can stay here if you’d like,” Inko said above her, her voice soothing. “For as long as you need to, okay?”
There was a spark of relief in Kagume’s chest. She knew, logically, that the Midoriyas wouldn’t have turned her away, but it was good to hear the reassurance nonetheless.
She nodded into Inko’s shoulder and breathed a quiet thanks through her tears.
Kagume spent the majority of that weekend on the Midoriyas’ couch, curled up in a blanket, stuck in her own thoughts. She didn’t cry again after the initial bout of tears, not because she was trying to hold anything back, she just didn’t feel the need.
She didn’t feel much of anything, really.
Except for the sliver of guilt she’d get whenever Inko would coax her off the couch to get some food, or whenever Izuku brought her glasses of water and had to remind her to drink. They were always kind, gentle, but Kagume still felt like a burden.
On the Saturday, she got a text from Yori’s number, all it had was a date and time - Monday, four o’clock - and an address. It took a few minutes of frowning at her phone screen to realise it was the funeral arrangements, probably, and a quick search of the address online confirmed it.
She kept staring at the phone, resting her head against the arm of the couch. Did she even want to go? Kagume wasn’t sure she could make herself get up and go outside, but she thought about it a little more and almost felt like slapping herself.
Her grandmother had done so much for her, the least she could do was attend her funeral.
The only part she’d been hesitant about was having to see her parents there-
But it turned out not to be a problem, because they never showed up.
Kagume stood in the rain, wearing a black blouse she borrowed from Inko and some scruffy jeans she’d left behind from her other visits, holding an umbrella over her head. And Kagume stood there alone, staring at her grandmother’s grave.
They didn’t even bother to show their faces.
They didn’t- fucking- they didn’t even try to make an effort.
She finally felt something again and it was anger.
It was something she clung to, almost, used it to pull herself out of the empty pit she’d fallen into. A desperate grab at some sense of normalcy.
It was a quiet anger, something that simmered under the surface as Kagume walked home from the graveyard that day. It was an anger that grew in silence under the surface as she returned to school with Izuku the next day and endured another day of name-calling, taunting and getting pushed around by Katsuki and his goons.
Instead of returning to Izuku’s house after that, Kagume made her own way home with a fresh black eye hiding behind her mask, making her whole head ache.
The front door was locked when she tried to open it, and Kagume had to take a second to find the spare keys she had to let herself in. The house being locked up meant her parents weren’t home, and she was silently glad about the fact.
She kicked her school shoes off when she finally got inside and stuffed her feet into her slippers, ditching her bag by the door as she made her way down the quiet hallway. Her initial destination was her own room, but after a moments thought she ventured deeper into the house and stepped into her parents’ shared office space.
There were two desks on opposite sides of the room, a laptop on each and folders of documents piling wherever there was space. There were tall bookshelves lining the walls and filing cabinets hidden away in the corners.
Kagume always felt uncomfortable coming in here, probably because she’d been told multiple times that it was off limits for her; but there was no one around to tell her off so what did it matter, really.
She shuffled over to her dad’s desk and sat down in the worn chair, opening the laptop with little care and tapping the spacebar until it showed her the desktop - her parents didn’t have passwords on the laptops they kept at home, figuring they were safe enough, or something.
There’d been a reason Kagume had come in here, a simple one, really. She opened up her dad’s planner on the computer, it was a mess of writing and dates and times and addresses, making it so that finding what she was looking for took a little longer, but she found it nonetheless.
Yesterday’s date, the day of the funeral, funnily mentioned nothing about it, instead the spot was occupied by some kind of business trip reminder.
It explained a lot! Of course they brushed off a family member’s funeral for the sake of a business trip. And it’s not like they had an excuse really because they were the ones who arranged it.
Kagume couldn’t really say she was surprised, but she still clenched her fists in annoyance, feeling a slight prick of tears at the sheer disrespect, the fucking audacity.
She slammed the laptop shut, standing up so quickly she nearly knocked the chair over, then promptly stormed out of the office, leaving the door opened behind her.
Kagume made her way to her own room, carelessly throwing herself onto the bed and lying there for a moment, staring up at the ceiling blankly through the cracked eye holes in her mask. She shifted, bringing her hand up pulling the mask off her face, wincing slightly when a sharp edge caught on the bruised skin around her right eye. The mask was dropped onto the floor next to her bed - it was too broken at this point for her to even consider trying to fix it - and she gently prodded at her black eye.
The skin was puffy and had obviously begun to swell. Kagume pushed herself up from her bed and took a couple steps over to her desk - her room really wasn’t all that big. She hunched over and looked into her desk mirror, prodding the eye some more and grimacing at the yellow and purplish tint her skin around her eye took.
She let her hand drop to her side as she sunk into her chair with a sigh.
It had gotten to the point that the injuries were more annoying than painful now, which Kagume thought was definitely fucked up. She was still just a kid, she didn’t think it was right that she’s dealt with so many injuries on her own.
Well- not on her own.
She’d always had- her grandmother. Who would always brush aside Kagume’s reassurance that she was fine, really! Her grandmother who’d always taken gentle care of her and the injuries she got, however small they were.
Something painful sprouted in Kagume’s chest as she reminded herself she couldn’t have that anymore. Reminded herself that her grandmother was gone. She clenched her fists so hard she could feel her nails digging into her skin.
What was the point of staying here anymore? She asked herself as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. The only reason she’d stuck around before in this hell of a house was for her grandmother, to make sure she didn’t worry, but she didn’t have that holding her here anymore.
She could leave, she should leave. Her parents would probably thank her if she did.
For a brief second she tried to think of anything that would keep her in this house anymore and drew a blank.
Food and water? She could pack a lot before she left and ration it, and after that ran out she was confident that she could come up with something.
Shelter? She could find somewhere to set up, honestly even an alleyway sounded appealing to her at that moment.
The more Kagume thought about it the more likeable the idea became. Why should she stay somewhere stifling and draining when she could go out and take a grab at freedom?
She stared at herself with a frown for a little longer, before pushing herself off the chair and getting to work. If she was leaving, then she was leaving today, before her parents got home, but she wasn’t planning on rushing, she wasn’t an idiot.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and plugged it in next to her desk to let it charge as she packed, starting with clothes; from the limited choices she had, Kagume only grabbed the essentials, figuring it was stupid to pack too heavily.
After her clothes were folded and ready, she managed to find an old duffel bag under her bed. Deciding to reserve it for food, Kagume went to pack that next, and by the time she was finished raiding the kitchen, the pantry looked significantly emptier. She didn’t take a ridiculous amount, but she did stuff the duffel bag with as much as she could manage.
On the way back to her room Kagume took the chance to grab her school bag from where it lay by the front door… and then she also made a quick stop at her parents’ office again, figuring they wouldn’t miss a power bank or two.
Back in her room, she lay out everything she’d prepared so far on her bed, then went to grab just the last few things.
The bottom drawer of her dresser was home to her masks, old and new. She tossed in her busted mask that she’d worn that day before pulling out two that were in better condition.
One of them was plain white with eye holes (most of her masks looked like this, they were easier to make and replace when they inevitably got smashed), the other was a little more detailed, it was one she’d been really proud of when she made it. It was grey, had cat ears and purple highlights, the only downside is that the bottom right part of the mask was shaped in a way that exposed her mouth, but she chose to ignore that.
She placed the two masks on her bed along with everything else, taking a moment to assess what she had and go through a mental checklist to make sure she had what she thought she’d need.
Deciding she had what she needed, Kagume grabbed her school bag to start packing. She unzipped it, then flipped it upside and shook it, watching her school books and other junk fall out onto her bedsheets. She went to push it all to the floor, when she paused for a second.
What about school? The thought hadn’t occurred to her yet, and Kagume just about slapped herself for it. She didn’t want to go back there either, she’d be so much happier if she just stayed away for good.
But there was still UA. She had made a promise to Izuku that they’d apply together, that they would get into the hero course together, and she had no chance of doing any of that if her grades dropped and she gave up on school altogether.
So much for not packing too much, she thought to herself as she pushed the junk to the floor instead and kept her school books on the bed, sorting through them and figuring out what she needed to keep and what could be left behind. She thinned out the pile of books as much as she could, then put them back into her bag, pushing them to the very bottom.
She grabbed some of the clothes off her bed and got changed, folding her uniform up and putting that into her bag too instead of throwing it to the side like she’d wanted.
It took a while to fit everything else into the bag, but Kagume managed it eventually, zipping up her bag. Her heart sank a little when she picked it up and realised just how heavy the damn thing was with her school books inside, but they were essential so she just took a deep breath and quietly told herself to stop complaining.
Not that it really mattered yet since she couldn’t leave just yet. She should probably eat some food before she did so, and her phone still had fifty percent to go - her charger sucked.
By the time she was properly ready to go, it was nearing seven in the evening.
Kagume pulled on a hoodie and her plain white mask, adjusting it so that it was comfortable before grabbing her bags. She heaved her school bag onto her shoulders, already knowing it was going to be a pain to carry around - literally. The duffel bag was heavy too, and she couldn’t help but think like she’d set herself up for failure here, not like it mattered anyway.
She was leaving, no matter how hard or annoying it would be.
She opened the front door, stepping outside into the cool air and shutting it behind her. Setting down the duffel bag for a second, she locked the door with her keys, then dropped them into the mailbox, because she wouldn’t be needing them anymore.
Pulling her hood up and picking back up her duffel bag, Kagume set off away from the house.
She didn’t know where she was going yet, didn’t really have much of a plan at the moment, she just let her feet carry her and relished in the new found freedom.