Chapter 2

Bakugou Masaru and Bakugou Mitsuki had been dead for at least forty-eight hours by the time they entered the house. That's what the detectives told Hitoshi and the others.

He and the others spent Monday night and a good chunk of the next morning at the police station answering every question the police could throw at them about the Bakugou house. Why they went there, how they discovered the bodies, whether they knew the family at all. Hitoshi couldn't speak for the others, but he'd never seen either of the parents until the police showed him photos taken from their house.

He felt numb as he sat at his desk on Wednesday after another full day off school, the bags under his eyes deeper than ever. Witnessing a murder scene really didn't help with his insomnia. Given the others also had bags under their eyes, he wasn't alone in that at least.

When the door opened Aizawa didn't come in alone, but was followed by Recovery Girl, a hulking man he recognized as Hound Dog, and... a tiny mammal in a suit? It took a moment to realize that the last figure must be UA's principal, Principal Nezu. Everyone was silent as the trio went to the front of the room, the air heavy with anticipation.

"As all of you know by now, Bakugou's parents have been murdered," Aizawa started. A few kids gasped, the rest of the room deathly silence. "I will confirm now that yes, six of your classmates discovered it." Hitoshi flinched at the blunt confirmation, feeling several pairs of eyes instantly zero in on him. "You are not to bother them for details, or discuss it with them. If anyone tries to pester them, you will be suspended effective immediately and given a week of detention on top of that. Am I clear?"

The harsh warning had everyone nodding mutely, and Hitoshi felt himself relax just a bit while Aizawa continued. "Moving on, I will also confirm now that Bakugou Katsuki is currently missing. Only the bodies of his parents were found, and none of the blood at the crime scene belongs to him. If anyone has any information on him, report it to me or any other faculty immediately."

"Between this and what happened at the USJ, we will also be mandating emergency counseling for your class," Principal Nezu added. "Hound Dog is the primary counselor at UA, but we have brought in some outside specialists to ensure everyone has a session today. This will not be a continuous arrangement for everyone, but we decided everyone should have at least one session to help deal with the stress, as this is far from normal for any of you. Hound Dog will determine whether those sessions will continue for each of you on an individual basis."

Once more he got several nods. "Your morning classes have been canceled so everyone can see one of the counselors before lunch," Aizawa said. "Are there any questions?"

Hands instantly shot into the air, and Aizawa called on Todoroki. "Do they think this was related to the villains from USJ?" he asked, making Hitoshi flinch.

"At present, we do not know," Nezu replied. "The scene is still being analyzed. We cannot divulge any further details due to the nature of the case."

"Do they think Bakugou was a victim?" Shouji asked next when Aizawa called on him.

"As I stated, Bakugou's whereabouts are unknown," Aizawa drawled. "We cannot say any more on the matter."

Kirishima didn't wait to be called on as he half-rose from his seat. "Wait, he's not a suspect, is he?" he asked. That was enough to snap the class out of the tense silence, several students gasping and quickly coming to the blond's defense as they denied the accusation. As their voices blurred together Hound Dog growled and slammed a fist on the wall.

"Quiet!" he barked, and everyone promptly fell silent.

"As I already mentioned, we cannot divulge any details about ongoing investigations," Nezu said. "That said, right now the police are prioritizing the search for Bakugou. So if any of you have any information you think could be helpful, please tell a teacher immediately." There was a tense silence as everyone shifted in their seats. Uraraka finally raised her hand.

"Are we still having the Sports Festival?" she asked, making Hitoshi perk up. With everything that happened, he forgot that was a thing.

"At present, we are still on track to host it," Nezu confirmed with a nod, leading to a quiet murmur of surprise from the class. "At the moment there is no evidence that the murders are related to UA or any villains, whether involved in last week's attack on the USJ or not, so the board of directors have elected to move forward with the festival. However, we will likely implement even stricter security measures than already planned."

"Most likely, we'll only broadcast the first two rounds and limit commentary," Aizawa added. "The main benefit of the festival is showing off your skills to hero agencies, so they'll still get the full footage if they request it. So if you're looking for national glory, this won't be your year for it." That suited Hitoshi fine. As the battle trial demonstrated, his Quirk lost its effectiveness when it became known.

There weren't many questions after that, and soon enough students started getting called out to meet with the counselors. Hitoshi was mercifully among the first called up, sparing him from staying with his classmates just a little longer. Though Aizawa threatened people not to ask about the murders, that didn't change the fact they knew he'd been there. He wasn't looking forward to today.

Thankfully no one bugged Hitoshi about what happened during the morning. Iida ended up organizing an independent study group for the morning block, which a lot of students joined just to have something else to talk about. Everything still felt just a bit more tense than usual, and by the time the lunch bell rang Hitoshi was ready to go home.

The cafeteria proved to be little better. Hitoshi claimed what had become his usual table, and was unsurprisingly joined by Ojiro and Iida. After Monday, it felt natural to try to stick together. He noticed Yaoyorozu, Mineta and Asui sat with Jirou and Kaminari at another table. He knew Yaoyorozu had been with them at the USJ, and Mineta and Kaminari seemed friendly enough, so it made sense they'd stick together.

What did surprise Hitoshi was that Hagakure and Uraraka sat down at his table too. "Well, this is a sucky day," Hagakure announced. "And it's only week two!"

"Yeah, I really hope this doesn't set a trend for the year," Uraraka sighed, slouching in her seat, and Hitoshi whole-heartedly agreed with that sentiment. He didn't think he could stand every week being this... eventful.

He felt a bit on-edge by the girls' presence, wondering if they'd ask about Monday despite Aizawa-sensei's warnings, but that turned out to not be a concern. "So, are we still on for training later?" Hagakure asked. "Ojiro texted me on Monday that might be a thing."

"Oh, right, sports festival is still a thing," Hitoshi muttered. That kept slipping his mind given, you know, everything else going on.

"I for one think that would be a wonderful idea," Iida declared with a nod. "If we can't get permission to use a gym here, perhaps we can use my family's facilities instead. Shouji-kun also expressed interest in training last week, so we could ask him if he wants to join too."

"Fine by me," Hitoshi said with a shrug. Honestly, training might be just the distraction he needed right now. He couldn't exactly ask Aizawa-sensei for pointers like he originally planned either, considering he was still in mummy mode.

"If we're gonna invite him, we might as well invite some more people from 1-A," Ojiro mused.

"We talked about it a bit on Monday when we went to get ice cream," Hagakure added. "All the girls are interested, and so are Kirishima and Kaminari!" Hitoshi raised his eyebrows. Sounded like they'd have a full house at this rate.

"Is that a good idea for us to all train together though?" Uraraka asked. "I mean, won't we be competing at the festival...?" That made them lose a bit of steam. While they'd obviously know each other's Quirks, revealing all their tricks in advance would probably make things harder. Better to have some trump cards hidden up their sleeves.

"Perhaps we can organize smaller groups, then?" Iida suggested. "We could at least do some basic endurance and stamina training as a group, but you're right about not showing too much of our training since we'll ultimately be rivals. We can't all make it to the final round."

"Honestly, I don't really care if I make it that far," Hitoshi admitted with a shrug. "I'm better off going underground after graduation, so the Sports Festival would just draw too much attention to my Quirk." It felt weird to admit and realize that he really didn't care. Had he gotten into General Education like he'd expected, he would have been all over the Sports Festival. Before getting the exam results, he'd actually spent a while scouring previous festivals to try to get an idea of what to expect so he could prepare for it.

The Sports Festival had been part of his plans for getting into UA since his second year of middle school. But since he'd somehow made it into the hero course, Hitoshi found he had barely any interest in it anymore. Especially since he'd learned firsthand how big of a disadvantage it was if people knew about his Quirk.

"I guess if you go underground, the festival would make things tricky," Uraraka said. "Even if they don't broadcast the tournament, if someone notices you use your Quirk in an earlier round, you won't have the element of surprise anymore, huh?"

"That still doesn't mean you should skip out on training though," Iida pointed out, and Hitoshi snorted.

"Please. I know I need it. Especially after watching Ojiro take down all those guys bare-handed back at USJ."

"Then you should totally train with us!" Hagakure declared, bumping her shoulder against Ojiro. "I'll probably go underground too since I'm the stealth hero, but I can't really hide my invisibility, so I still want to try to reach the last stage. But my Quirk doesn't really help with fighting either, so we gotta stick together!"

Hitoshi found the effort at solidarity... nice. Out of everyone in Class 1-A, he and Hagakure really had the least combat-ready Quirks of all. Still, he couldn't help but remark on something. "Really? Being invisible to your opponents doesn't give you any advantages in a fight?"

"Eh, you know what I mean," she replied dismissively, waving a hand. Presumably anyway, he couldn't really see it aside from her raised sleeve shaking a bit.

"I'm cool with you training with us too," Ojiro added. "I was gonna invite you either way."

"Works for me," Hitoshi agreed. He couldn't have picked a better teacher. Seriously, Ojiro had some awesome moves.

"Then in the interest of encouraging competition, do you want to train together?" Iida asked Uraraka. "We shouldn't let the groups get too big, as you suggested. Perhaps we can invite someone else to join as well." Hitoshi expected Uraraka to jump on the opportunity, but she hesitated, biting her lip.

"Actually, I... don't know if I'll be in the Sports Festival?" she replied uncertainly. The lighthearted mood faded instantly, everyone turning to look at her in surprise.

"Huh? Why not?" Hagakure's voice rose close to a whine, and Uraraka shrugged, poking at her food with a frown.

"Honestly, after everything that's happened... I don't know if I'm cut out to be a hero?" Hitoshi sat up straighter, as did the others.

"Really?" Ojiro asked. "But from what Tsu and Mineta told us, you helped save Aizawa-sensei back at USJ."

"And you were totally fine on Monday!" Hagakure added. "You were so optimistic about it!"

"I know," Uraraka said, "but that was... before ." All at once Hitoshi felt whatever traces of his good mood remained vanish, the memories of Monday crashing back in an instant. After talking about the Sports Festival for the past few minutes he'd managed to actually forget about it for a little bit, but now he couldn't think of anything but that too-pale arm. He swallowed thickly and put down his chopsticks, appetite officially gone.

"I see," Iida said grimly, and Uraraka seemed to hesitate.

"It's just, I wanted to become a hero for the money, y'know?" she blurted. "My family's always been kinda poor, so I wanted to do something that would help guarantee a big, stable income. But, between getting attacked last week and... a-and the, the murders..." She trailed off, sinking into her seat as the others sat in awkward, stiff silence. Hitoshi didn't blame her. He'd had plenty of second thoughts since last week, and even more after Monday.

Ojiro pushed his bowl away as he looked up. "Do you guys think it maybe was those villains?" he asked lowly. "The ones from USJ?"

"Wait, are we even allowed to talk about this?" Iida demanded. "Aizawa-sensei threatened to expel us!"

"Only if people asked us," Ojiro countered. "He said nothing about us bringing it up. And bottling this up won't do any good." He turned to look at the others as he continued, "Uraraka, you had the most contact with the leader and his cronies here. Do you think they'd do it?"

Uraraka frowned, seeming to shrink a bit as she hung her head. "I... don't know," she said quietly. "I mean, maybe? I mean, that one guy was covered in hands. And when I got that close, they looked..." She shook her head, taking a deep breath as she whispered, "They looked real."

Once again Hitoshi's mind flew back to the bathroom, and the bloodied hand dangling over the edge of the bathtub. He had to swallow down the taste of bile. "Please don't talk about severed hands around me," he pleaded, and Hagakure startled in her seat.

"Wait, do you mean—?" She stopped herself short, quickly tacking on, "Sorry, forget I said anything! Not supposed to ask. But... I don't know," she added dejectedly. "It just seems so weird that they died right after villains attacked us at the USJ. I wonder when Bakugou got withdrawn..."

That made Hitoshi frown. "Why does that matter?" he asked, but saw Iida suddenly become noticeably stiffer.

"His parents had to be alive to withdraw him from UA," he realized grimly. "They were dead for at least forty-eight hours on Monday, so..."

"That might have been the last time anyone talked to them," Ojiro finished quietly. There was a tense silence after that.

In the end, none of them finished their lunch.

Thankfully, getting permission to use the gym went smoothly. An improvised training group consisting of nearly everyone appealed to Aizawa-sensei right after school, and he agreed on the condition they had a teacher to supervise them. So they spent an hour after school that day just running laps and doing some basic exercises under Aizawa's watchful eye.

As far as Hitoshi could tell, the plan for today was to have people try to figure out some smaller groups for training. He could tell that a few others had already decided on their own groups or pairs, like Shouji, Tokoyami and Kouda, or Jirou and Kaminari. They still mingled with others, but it seemed obvious they'd train together. Others were clearly putting out feelers on potential partners. He almost felt a bit bad for Aoyama and Satou, who seemed to be struggling to find someone to work with.

But then, not everyone was there. Todoroki was noticeably absent, though that didn't surprise Hitoshi. He was pretty standoffish. Uraraka also bowed out pretty early though, coming over to where Hitoshi, Iida, Kaminari and Kirishima had gathered to do some sit-ups. "I totally forgot, but this store by my apartment is having this sale today," she said with a sheepish smile. "Like I said, money is kinda tight, so I want to stock up while I can."

"That's perfectly fine," Iida assured her while he held Hitoshi's feet, and Hitoshi could only grunt in agreement. Beside him Kirishima gave only a short huff as he sat up, pausing in his sit-ups to grin at her.

"Yeah, it's super manly you're trying to keep stocked up on stuff! I didn't even think to check the stores by me for sales."

"Maybe I should look into some sales too," Kaminari said. "I kinda used up like, half my junk food over the weekend... I need some snacks."

"Dude, seriously?" Hitoshi deadpanned, and the blond shrugged.

"What? I'm a stress eater!"

"In any event, we won't hold you any longer," Iida said to Uraraka. "We'll see you tomorrow, I hope?"

Her smile grew a bit strained for a second as she nodded. "Yeah. See you." She headed out after that, and Hitoshi noticed Kaminari and Kirishima look briefly confused.

"Dude, is she okay?" Kaminari asked. "She seemed kinda... off, at the end." Hitoshi let his back flop onto the ground and didn't try to sit up again, taking a moment to catch his breath.

"Uraraka's thinking of dropping out," he confided once he could speak again. "Told us at lunch." That had them frowning and shifting uncomfortably, no doubt realizing why.

"That kinda sucks," Kirishima said. "She seems like a cool girl. She was super manly back at USJ going after that one villain that almost got Aizawa-sensei."

"Manly isn't the word I'd use for her," Hitoshi snorted, and Kaminari snickered.

"What? It's a compliment! Really!" They continued to snicker while Kirishima protested, or at least until Iida told Hitoshi to get back to doing situps. After that he had too much trouble catching his breath to laugh.

The next day, Hitoshi was pleasantly surprised to see Uraraka still there, though she seemed a bit quieter than before. Word had spread about her decision to potentially leave UA, so everyone seemed eager to hang out with her and try to be supportive. That suited him fine, grateful he wasn't the center of attention. It also gave them something else to talk about at lunch.

"Do you think anyone else might be thinking of dropping out?" Ojiro asked. Today their table had Iida like usual, but with the surprising additions of Shouji, Sero and Mineta for some reason. They hadn't sat together since last week (or at all, in Sero's case), so he hadn't expected them to show up. Hagakure had ditched them today to sit with Uraraka along with all the other girls, while Kirishima, Kaminari, Aoyama, Tokoyami and Kouda had all claimed another table near that one to provide further support.

"It's hard to say," Shouji responded with a shrug. "It might just be because it just happened. She might get over it soon."

"Yeah, I'm kinda spooked but I don't want to leave," Sero agreed.

"No offense, but why are you here?" Hitoshi asked curiously. "I don't think we've even really talked before."

"Eh, usually I sit with Kaminari and Kirishima, but they're focused on Uraraka today," he said with a shrug. "Don't really want to deal with that today, and this table seems pretty chill too."

"Fair enough."

"Well, I hope Uraraka doesn't leave!" Mineta declared. "We'd be down to only five girls!"

"That's what you're focused on?" Ojiro deadpanned, echoing Hitoshi's thoughts, and the smaller boy wavered.

"I mean, it's better than thinking about her reasons for leaving," he muttered. "I just... I was super-scared at USJ too. I was right there with her! But she was super-cool when she went after that Noumu guy, even if she was scared. I don't know if I could do that. If she drops out too, then what am I even doing in the hero course?"

There was an awkward and tense silence after that, the mood officially lowered. Hitoshi couldn't believe he was even thinking this, but he might prefer Mineta talking about perverted stuff to thinking about that. It reminded him of how he felt on Monday when they first found out Bakugou dropped out after the USJ.

(He hoped he dropped out because of USJ and not something else.)

"I suppose it ultimately boils down to your reason for wanting to be a hero," Iida said after a few moments. "Ultimately, this chain of events is highly unusual for UA. This is the first time any villains have successfully infiltrated UA, let alone what happened to Bakugou's family. However, in a way this also reflects the true dangers of being a hero. Not many people realize just how dangerous being a Pro Hero is when they're still in school."

"But you do?" Sero piped up, and Iida nodded.

"I do. My family has been in heroics for four generations now after all." That got Hitoshi's interest.

"Your brother's Ingenium, right?" Ojiro said thoughtfully. "Your Quirks and costume seem similar, and your name kinda reminded me of the 'Idaten' thing too." Now that he mentioned it Hitoshi realized Ojiro was right. He hadn't really noticed since he didn't pay too much attention to Pro Heroes, or at least not more than the average person. Ingenium operated in a different city from where he lived, so he didn't see the guy on the news often.

"Indeed, you are correct!" Iida confirmed, chest puffing out with pride. "My brother has been a hero for nearly as long as I can remember, as have our parents and even our grandparents! But because of that, I also grew up hearing about the dangers of fighting villainy. More than a few of the sidekicks under my brother had to retire due to serious injuries. While the attack at USJ was unfortunate, I suspect this is the first time many of our peers have thought about the actual dangers of heroics."

No kidding, Hitoshi thought, but didn't say. He knew he'd face villains eventually if he became a hero, but he also thought he'd have some more time to actually prepare. He still felt lucky to have even survived USJ.

"You're probably right," Shouji said with a nod. "I noticed Aoyama seemed a bit more quiet today than usual."

"He has?" Hitoshi asked, glancing around the lunchroom in search of him.

"A bit. He's usually a bit more flashy, but he's been keeping to himself today. I haven't known him for long, but something just strikes me as... off." Hitoshi hummed. Aoyama had sat by Uraraka with the other guys over there, but he did seem a bit more subdued than usual. The guy had a noticeable presence, and something today felt... weird.

"Now that you mention it," Sero said, "he has been less... uh, sparkly, today." Ah, that was it. Weird to use "sparkly" to describe a person, but it definitely fit.

"Anyone know where he went during USJ?" Hitoshi asked curiously, but was met with shrugs.

"Not really," Sero said. "I know he got warped somewhere because I was still by the doors and he wasn't, but no one I talked to mentioned seeing him."

"I went to fetch help, so I didn't see where anyone went," Iida admitted, frowning.

"Pretty sure he wasn't at the landslide zone," Ojiro said. "Hagakure ended up there, and said Todoroki just froze over all the villains."

"Well, that's not terrifying at all," Hitoshi deadpanned.

"He definitely wasn't at the flood zone," Mineta added. "Didn't see him by the plaza, either. Oh, but Kirishima showed up later around the same time as Todoroki! Maybe they were in the same place?"

Iida hummed and crossed his arms. "Perhaps. A few of the areas simulate urban environments, so he may have hidden himself in one of the buildings and avoided other people."

"Good luck if he tried that in our area," Hitoshi snorted, thinking of all the flames and smoke. Half the reason he and Ojiro kept moving was because the fires made it too hot and hazardous to hide in one place for long.

"If he hid, maybe he's just embarrassed to admit it?" Sero suggested. "I mean, it sounds like pretty much everyone else who got teleported were fighting pretty hard. I'd feel kinda crummy if I managed to get away with just hiding, too."

"There's absolutely no shame in that though," Iida said with a frown. "We hadn't even been at UA a full week before that happened. It was only natural to get overwhelmed without any training." He stood up sharply, mind apparently made up. "We should go assure him right now that he has nothing to be ashamed of!"

That prompted everyone to quickly grab Iida before he could march off and publicly reveal Aoyama's potential source of shame. Hitoshi offered Aoyama silent sympathy as they got to work talking him down.

Despite the nightmarish beginning, the remainder of the week passed peacefully enough. They had hero training for the first time since the disaster at USJ, and this time All Might gave them a light exercise to help them get back in the swing of things. During that time Hitoshi did notice that Aoyama seemed a bit less enthusiastic than usual, largely keeping to himself. After school ended Hitoshi opted out of the second day of training, still feeling sore from hero training and pushing himself a bit too hard the previous day.

Friday still found a decent amount of attention focused on Uraraka, but not as much as the previous day. Hagakure and the other girls still sat with her at lunch, but the nearby boys' table seemed to disband. Mineta and Sero joined Kaminari and Kirishima elsewhere, while Tokoyami and Kouda came over to their table. It was an odd balance, with so many of them introverted, but Iida and Ojiro helped keep conversation going.

Saturday was a half-day. UA had a six-day week, like many high schools, and the hero course also had an extra period every day. Hitoshi had thought Saturdays would be the same, but apparently they got that last period off. And today they got more than just that, as the faculty needed to have some important meetings. In any event, they were given the afternoon to use on-campus training facilities as they saw fit, so he joined Ojiro and Hagakure for some light sparring after lunch. After asking around they discovered that UA actually had a proper dojo on campus.

That was also how he finally met someone from Class 1-B for the first time.

"Oh, so you're here to practice martial arts too?" the orange-haired girl asked. She wore a white gi like Ojiro, which faintly surprised Hitoshi since he didn't expect anyone else to actually bring one to school. Behind her a guy with black hair and a headband groaned painfully on the ground, having been clearly flipped just before they arrived.

"Yeah, we are," Ojiro agreed, side-eying the moaning boy briefly. "Is there a problem?"

"Not with me," the girl said with a shrug. "I don't really think the rivalry is really as big as Monoma makes it out to be."

"Who?" Hitoshi asked.

"One of our classmates. He's been kinda jealous of all the attention you guys got after last week. Vlad-sensei forbid us from going anywhere near your classroom though, or I bet he would've gone over there at lunch."

"Count yourselves lucky," floor-boy moaned as he struggled to his feet. "Guy's been insufferable all week. Sheesh Kendo, couldn't you have been more gentle?"

"You said not to hold back," she replied with a shrug before turning back to them. "Anyways, I'm sorry in advance about anything Monoma says. We've been trying to keep him in check given everything else that's happened to you guys this week, but he seems like he can get really competitive."

"Uh, thanks, I guess," Hitoshi replied, not sure what else to say. Hagakure didn't seem too bothered by the awkward atmosphere, her gym uniform bouncing over to Kendo.

"So you're in 1-B, right? This week must be really weird for you guys too!"

"Not as weird as it is for you," Kendo replied with a feeble-looking smile.

"Yeah," the other guy said. "First a villain attack, and then that murder thing..." Hitoshi and Ojiro both winced at the reference.

"Can you not?" he said, a bit more sharp than he'd usually be. Kendo smacked the other boy's arm with a scowl.

"Awase, Vlad-sensei said not to talk about that!" she scolded, and turned back to them with a sigh. "Sorry about that."

"It's... fine," Ojiro said after a few seconds, a clear sign it wasn't completely fine. "It's just a weird week for everyone. I don't think this year is remotely normal."

"You can say that again," Kendo sighed. "I can't imagine how bad it is for you guys. I think it's even gotten to one of our classmates, and we weren't even involved in, well, any of that."

"It did?" Hitoshi asked curiously, and she nodded.

"Yeah. One of our classmates, this guy named Kuroiro, called out for the second day in a row today."

"Kinda a bummer," Awase added. "Guy seemed kinda weird, but also kinda cool in an edgy kind of way. Didn't really seem like the type to chicken out. He better be planning to come back..."

"Hopefully he does," Ojiro agreed while Hitoshi found his thoughts straying to Uraraka and Aoyama. It still seemed hard to say whether either would stay at UA; both seemed rather torn and dismal this week.

"Well, enough about that depressing stuff!" Hagakure declared with a clap. "You're here to do training too, right?"

"Yeah, we are," Kendo said with a nod, relaxing at the topic change. "Awase asked me to show him some moves."

"I didn't think you'd go straight to freaking flipping me," he grumbled, and she rolled her eyes. Ojiro however narrowed his eyes.

"Hold on. We'll be competing though. And this is the only room in the dojo that wasn't signed out by second or third-years." That made everyone else pause, realizing he was right. The older students had the monopoly on signing up for rooms for private training, this one left open purely as a courtesy to first-years. That meant one thing.

"Someone's gonna have to leave," Hitoshi said, and the tension reached peak levels.

They didn't have time to start debating before a phone suddenly rang, making them all jump. "Sorry, sorry!" Hagakure apologized as she fumbled with her bag to pull out her phone, pausing to check the caller. "Huh? Ashido? That's weird..." She answered the call and they all jumped as they heard incoherent shrieking from the other end, Hagakure nearly dropping the phone. Considering her phone didn't seem to be on speaker, Ashido must be very loud.

"Uh, is everything okay?" Ojiro asked wide-eyed while Hagakure put the phone back to her ear after turning down the volume a bit.

"Ashido, calm down! What's going—" She stopped short, suddenly going very, very still. At the same time another phone also buzzed near the edge of the room, and Awase ran over to grab it.

"...Oh," he said after a moment, voice quickly rising in pitch as he said, "Oh, fuck."

"Awase?" Kendo demanded sharply just as Hagakure dropped her phone, hands presumably flying to her mouth. Hitoshi felt hundreds of alarm bells ringing in his head, blaring so loud it almost gave him a migraine despite being purely metaphorical. Awase turned to look at them with wide eyes, face pale and rapidly draining of even more color.

"Kendo, that was Kaibara in the group chat," he said, and the next words would live in Hitoshi's memory forever. "Fukidashi is dead."