A Chance for the Better: Chapter 4

## Chapter 4: October

*"What kind of man would love a woman like Miss Sato? I mean...look at her. She's so average!"*

*"I heard that Miss Sato got pregnant from sleeping around whenever she's not on duty."*

*"She must be a whore then if she refused tell us who the father is."*

Each rumor was different. Each rumor was worse than the last when it reached her ears, but still, she moved onwards with her day, smiling. The smile was forced and fake beyond belief, but it was enough to get Toshinori to stop worrying for the time being. That was good. She didn't want him to worry about her more than he already had.

The rumors were crippling and sometimes Katsuko couldn't even find it in her to get up some mornings and was often late to school- something that quickly became noticable. She was no longer the usually happy and excited teacher everyone was accustomed to. She was tired and ached all the time.

*"Hey, did you see Miss Sato? She looks dead almost!"*

She wanted to seek help, to seek out refuge from the pain and the horror of it all. She sought refuge with her sidekick, Dimitrios, but even then, his kill-now-ask-questions-later attitude added to her stress and so she couldn't trust him even with these worries. She loved these kids too much to sign their death certificate.

Today, unlike other days, she had slept in. She made no effort to get up out of bed and to wander herself to getting dressed. Putting on clothing was ridiculously hard for her now that the baby bump was more like a sphere, so she made her way to school in her pajamas.

She walked into her rather loud class, wearing her very oversized bunny onesie like it was her hero costume. She didn't care less about the murmurs that befell her class and instead just drank her coffee in silence with the hood over her head. She looked at her students with tired eyes.

"What are you looking at?"

*If this is what awaits me, I'd rather get an abortion,* was the only thought that came to Atsuko's mind when she saw her teacher come to class in such an attire, earning a laugh from all of her students. It looked like she wasn't even trying anymore. Not that Atsuko could blame her for that, seeing as the class' ambience had kept on growing nastier and nastier. *They're stressed from exams and the pressure put on them by hero work, and they need a target to let their pent-up frustrations on, so they chose her.*

There was relief in seeing that she had been sneaky enough to hide her sickness, and in the fact that no one had yet thought of digging their nails into her past to look for naught to be done. But with this relief came disgust, disgust at herself for being glad of her teacher's suffering since it meant she wouldn't be taken for target. *Having two targets at the same time isn't unheard of, you fucking moron,* bit back her thoughts, ugly as ever since she had learned about her own pregnancy.

Truth is, she was terrified, terrified and terribly mad at the world, at herself, at Tomoe for putting her into this mess, at her teachers for allowing such a *good-for-nothing, crybaby, useless brat* to go into Heroics with such a *terribly useless* quirk. She was terrified out of her mind that they'd pick her as the next target and that it would get so bad again that she'd want to die. She knew how nasty bullying could get. *She had already been forced fed its bitter taste.* So, for her own sake, she had decided to keep quiet: she wouldn't take part in the mockery, but she wouldn't really stand against it either. She already had her share of bullying for a lifetime.

Problem was, if she kept the baby, she would eventually be targetted. Miss Sato looked two months shy of giving birth – if not sooner because of stress – and by then Akko herself would have gotten big. It was only logical that she'd be next, considering she had even less legitimacy in getting pregnant, since she was still very much a *student*. A solution would be to get rid of it, but she'd have to tell an adult first, and the simple thought of going through the operation made her sick to her stomach – it was a *life*, not just any but *Tomoe's* and *hers*, a byproduct of their love no matter how stormy it may have been, and she'd be damned if she pretended not to feel anything for him anymore – which she did a pretty good job of hiding. She had gotten better at it, in the month of silence and avoidance that she spent.

*"I heard Miss Sato slept with All Might to get her job at UA, and that's why she's still here while being so bad at it..."*

The whisper shot through Atsuko like a bolt of lightning, bringing all of her cogitation to a screeching *halt*.

Katsuko froze, her body sweaty and rigid.

*Did they think she wouldn't hear?*

*Did they think she was that stupid?*

She held a hand to her forehead and she sucked in a breath, stumbling to take a seat. It wasn't the onesie that was bothering her, it was what they said and it was finally taking it's toll on her already frail body.

She let out a shaky sigh, struggling in to punch letters into her phone in the form of a text. She needed him now whether he'd shoot her students dead or not, she needed to get out of there.

When he had arrived, guns and all, she had him help her out of there before sitting in her stead, about ready to shoot everyone and then himself.

He just glared at them.

The class fell silent. Atsuko believed, for a split second, that she was about to puke all over her desk.

No one knew who this guy was, but everyone could tell from the guns that he was dangerous, more dangerous than any of the students in this class, and everyone started fearing for their life. Miki even laid still on the ground, so frightened that she had collapsed.

"Alright you useless sacks of flesh and bone, I wouldn't have to be here if you hadn't made her upset like that." He started messing with his gun, cleaning it. "My name's Dimitrios Kuznetsov. One wrong move from any of you, one more murmur of Katsuko and her baby and I'll shoot you dead. See, I used to be a bad guy and I'm not afriad of killing some people for the sake of a friend so I expect you all to be on your best behavior. If not, I can just shoot you. Sato can afford to lose students."

Shit had just gotten real.

When Dimitrios had entered the room and uttered his threat, Tomoe had felt his face lose all color, not only from the weapons he was holding – which were supposedly prohibited on school grounds minus for the teachers but nevermind he guessed – but also for the 'no chill' attitude the guy emited from every pore of his body. *Another public danger I'll have to keep an eye on,* he sighed internally. It's not like he already had too much to do with his little brothers... He suddenly felt glad to be away from his family for a while, he simply couldn't bear to have to watch over one more of his kind at the same time.

He could only pray that the teacher's aid would never, in any way, know that this rumor had been born thanks to his own stupidity, otherwise he could already give up any future dream he had because he knew for sure he wouldn't be there to live it anymore.

Glancing to his beloved Akko, pale as ever, he felt a pinch to his heart as he saw how vulnerable she looked. It has been two months since they've been together, none of which had been particularly successful for them. Since he had confessed his second biggest mistake to her, she barely even talked to him anymore, avoiding him in hallways, in their dorm and even in the cafeteria. Boys in his class wouldn't stop asking him if their 'power couple' had broken up already, and he was getting tired of shrugging them off without an answer. He didn't even know if she loved him anymore.

So, later on, as he walked down the school's hallways while waiting for the next period, somewhat looking for his beloved, he decided to try and ask her for a clear answer out of her. It couldn't go on anymore. He sure didn't expect, all of the sudden, to hear her name hushed behind him and, from what he could hear, not in a friendly manner.

What was going on?

Dimitrios felt his phone ring in his pocket and he let out a quiet gasp and looked around to make sure no one was watching or listening in on him. He answered the call and greeted Toshinori with a hesitant 'how is she'. He was quiet for a long while before his eyes flared with a newfound rage that the students of Katsuko's class would have to endure.

"This'll teach them to spread shit about a woman who's anything but rude and disrespectful." He loaded his sniper and stomped down the halls, ready to find the kid who started this.

He asked around, well, more like he threatened murder to anyone who walked by, wondering who would do this. He was fueled by his hatred and in the end it worked out because he had a vague idea on who had done this. Now he just had to find them before Katsuko came back and told him no.

He ran down the halls, gun in hand as he terrorized the students he passed by jabbing them in the side and into the walls. Oh how hey feared him. The power of being feared was wonderful and drove him mad, well, even more so.

When he neared his final destination, he was about ready to shoot. But he didn't. He took note that something important was going on. He listened and watched intently, ready to shoot if he had to.

"Tomoe-" Atsuko begun.

"Akko-" he said at the exact same time. "No, go on first. It can wait. You wanted to tell me something?"

"Yes," came the reply, straight but meek and barely spoken at an audible tone. *Damn, she was still as cute as ever, even when she was sad she managed to look like a kitten with the way her big, upturned eyes glanced away shyly. It made him think back to the night they confessed their love to each other.* "But first, I wanted to say I'm sorry. I haven't exactly been nice to you, or to anyone for that matter for the past month... It's just that there's been something big going on, and I thought that I could keep it to myself, all this time..."

"Akko-"

"I was mad, I was so mad after you for getting me into this, I was mad after our teachers for even allowing us to meet, I was mad at the world for even letting me exist! I was so mad and so afraid I couldn't think straight, at least, before I realized I was actually mad at myself for being such a fool and a moron and- I want to get rid of it all, I wanted to stop it all from happening but I realized I couldn't, I couldn't do it in silence and not let you know, you had ought to know because it's also yours, it's also your decision to take and I couldn't just do it without you-"

"Akko, honey, please, what are you-"

"Tomoe, I'm pregnant. It's yours," she finally cried, ugly tears rolling down her cheeks as she was shaken by heavy sobs.

The world stopped for a second.