Sam didn't know where he was. He remembers he was with Rumi, but now, he is in a village. A familiar village.
"No…"
'Damnit! Not this one!'
Sam held his ears shut as he then saw the village being gunned down by an army.
"No! Don't make me watch this!"
He heard the cries and screams. And where was Sam? He was hiding with his unit.
He wanted to go and help them. But he couldn't.
Someone was holding him by the shoulder.
He looked back and gasped.
"Z-Zola?"
She had a face of despair and was biting her lip so hard it was bleeding.
He tried to speak but he couldn't. He wasn't in control of his body.
"Let me go! W-we have to do something! I-I can't just watch this!"
"Stop it Samuel. The moment you go out there, you die. Either from Timo, or the soldiers."
Zola and Sam were in their positions. The rest were nearby.
She and Sam were ordered to wait until the signal was given to ambush the soldiers. But he hasn't given the signal at all.
Sam knew why. Timo simply didn't care about the villagers. They were a distraction.
"But…but…"
Zola embraced him.
Sam felt his breath nearly leaving from how strong it was.
"Just hang in there, Samuel. We… we can't save them. Even if we defied Timo, we would be gunned down the moment we appear from behind these trees."
Sam knew it, but still. He couldn't just ignore the evil he is seeing. These soldiers are having a blast, sadistically smiling while they gun down innocent women and children.
"How can someone do this?"
"Likely, they were all pumped full of drugs."
Sam didn't care. Those were true monsters… but he didn't feel better. He thought he was the same.
"Zola. Are we any better than this soldiers? We are literally able to help them. But we won't. We may die. But wouldn't it be right to at least do something?" Zola let go of Sam.
She held his face and looked into his eyes.
"Right and wrong are human-made concepts. You wouldn't see a Gorilla going out of his way to save another group of Gorillas, even if they had innocent females and children in their group. The gorilla would likely use them as a distraction and guide his group away."
Sam processed her words.
"But you're right. This is another sin we must bear, Samuel."
She put her forehead to his.
Both of them refused to close off their ears. This was their punishment. They needed to hear the sounds and never forget them.
Sam looked at Zola and saw her eyes had tears glistening in them. Both him and her just stayed like that, and listened. The moment they heard the flare, they would go and kill the monsters.
'That was one of the worst moments of my life. We were literally just forced to watch a war crime.'
Sam from the present, who was forced to watch this, felt sick.
'This is our greatest sin. We convince ourselves we couldn't do anything. But we could. We were just afraid. Of Timo. Of the soldiers. Of the Pale Hand.'
Sam sighed.
'We could have helped them.'
———
"Ahhhh!!!"
Sam screamed as he suddenly woke up.
He was breathing hard and was sweating through his shirt.
He looked at his shaken hands.
"Another dream."
Sam just held his face.
Despite the traumatic memory, Sam actually felt refreshed.
"It's about time you woke up."
Sam flinched. He knew that voice.
"Rumi?"
"Yup."
Sam looked up and saw her standing at his door. He saw he was lying in the guest bed in the room they went into to watch the stars.
"How long was I asleep?"
"Well… after your little episode last night, you passed right out. It's morning."
Sam's eyes widened.
"Morning?!? Shit! The rat and the hobo will send the cops after me!"
"Calm down! I called them last night. Told them you were staying here."
Sam looked at her with shock.
"You did?"
"Yeah. You… looked like you were sleeping peacefully for the first time in a while. I didn't want to bother you."
Sam was shocked even more. That was why he felt more refreshed. He actually slept through the night.
He still woke up from a flashback, but the fact he stayed asleep through the night was something he never thought possible.
'I guess… I really needed that.'
He looked at Rumi.
"…thank you."
She gave a smirk.
"Sure."
"Not only for calling them, but for being there for me last night… I needed that."
She looked at Sam with sympathy.
"I don't know much about what you suffered. All I know is what I heard from the videos of your fight against All Might."
Sam nodded.
"I'm sure what you mentioned was only a glimpse. I won't pry. But seeing you wake up screaming in despair, it seems it's really plaguing you."
Sam nodded again. Slower this time.
"…if you want to talk about it, I can listen. But don't feel like you have to."
Sam nodded.
"Thanks, Rumi."
"You already did. Now get up, I'll make breakfast."
"Did I wake you up?"
She sighed.
"Yeah, I went to my bed after bringing you into the guest bed. It's something else hearing such a sad scream in the morning."
"Sorry."
"Don't sweat it."
He got up, and looked down. He was wearing a Mirko T-shirt and his boxer briefs.
"Did you change my clothes?"
He just heard her chuckle.
Sam sighed and followed her downstairs.
———
She made a nice vegetarian breakfast. Right now they both just sat in silence and ate.
Sam didn't taste anything, but still ate it.
"So. You really cant taste anything huh?"
Sam's eyes widened.
"How did you know?"
She smirked.
"Because when someone eats fruits, their eyes should at least show some sort of reaction. Just a tiny flicker, recognizing the taste. But you don't. It's like you are just a machine shoveling food into your mouth."
Sam sighed.
"It's strange you were paying attention to that."
She rolled her eyes.
"How long?"
"Since I returned to Japan."
Rumi nodded.
"But still, my compliments to the chef."
Sam said as he raised his glass of orange juice.
"Shut up. Don't say something you don't mean."
Sam smirked and chuckled a bit.
They both continued to eat in silence.
———
After eating, they went back outside and got ready to spar. But Sam was thinking about something that was bothering him since he woke up.
The flashback he saw. It reminded him of something.
'Iida.'
His classmate, Iida, was in Hosu. Most likely hunting that wretched hero killer.
He hadn't heard anything from his classmates group chat that they forced him to join.
'What should I do?'
"Yo! What's the deal?! Are we doing this or what?!?"
Rumi was dressed in her leotard and was ready to scrap.
"Sorry. I was just thinking about something important."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
"What is it?"
Sam looked at her and saw she was curious.
He sighed.
"I… know someone who is trying to do something stupid. He is in an irrational state of mind, and will almost certainly die if he continues his objective. I wouldn't call him a friend, but I would consider him a good guy and at the most, an acquaintance. I warned his friend of his suicidal mission, and they talked, but it didn't seem like he was able to convince him to call it off."
Rumi nodded.
"You're wondering what you should do, right?"
Sam nodded.
She thought to herself.
"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Ingeniums little brother, would you?"
Sam sighed.
"Yeah."
"So. Ingeniums kid brother is trying to get revenge. Didn't think he'd have it in him."
"You know him?"
She shook her head.
"Nah. I do know Ingenium. We worked together a lot. He always talked about his kid brother Tenya. That's who you're talking about, right?"
Sam couldn't hide anything anymore.
"Yeah."
"Did you tell the teachers?"
"No. For two reasons. One, they would likely expel the kid, and I didn't want to ruin the kids future due to his irrational and stupid grief fueled vengeance. Second, the teachers should have known that he was going after stain when he chose Hosu as his internship location."
"Yeah… that's pretty dumb."
She sighed.
"Looks like we aren't gonna be sparring today. We got something more fun on the agenda."
"What do you mean?"
She smirked.
"Let's go hunt that Hero Killer! I wanted a piece of that asshole for a while now! And you can stop your idiot classmate from killing himself."
Sam narrowed his eyes.
"Why?"
"I told you! I want a piece of that asshole. But also, this seems to be eating you. Might as well solve it ourselves."
Sam nodded his head. He had a light smile. That was all he wanted to know.
"Thanks."
"Sure. Now get changed… wait. You don't have a costume."
"No, I'm not really a hero student."
"Yeah, you're quirkless. Meaning you can't be charged for vigilantism and illegal quirk usage. So it should be fine. Go change into your exercise gear."
"Yeah."
Sam went back inside and got his under armor shirt and sweatpants, which she washed for him. He also had Zola's knife. He was ready. He got his steel-toe boots and headed out.
'I'm coming, Iida. I won't just stand by this time.'
Sam thought with a determined face.