Chapter Text
Bad news, Bendy was still bleeding.
But, good news, his internship application has been accepted! Weirdly enough, though, it had made Aizawa stop, looking as though he was questioning his entire life.
But, who cares, right? Aizawa was nothing like the demon, so his opinion of Ms Joke would be nothing like what Bendy would think by the end of his internship.
So, with his things in hand, Bendy entered the train that would take him to his place of living for the next week.
***
Bendy arrived at the area where she had asked to meet him. From what he had researched, it was her Hero Agency but he was more surprised that a teacher would still work at one. Well, it made as much sense as her having a week-long internship despite having students to teach.
A loud and slightly irritating voice interrupted Bendy’s thoughts, “You know that building right in front of this one,” he turned his head to see Ms Joke, “Your teacher used to work there! I bet he told you all about our great times there!”
Bendy thought back to Aizawa’s reaction to seeing her name, “Yeah…, he’s got great memories about you,” he chuckled awkwardly.
Ms Joke took the demon’s hand and started shaking hard, “You’re Yaoyorozu Bendy, right?”
Despite seeing stars, Bendy still managed to give a response, “Yep! I’m really excited to meet you. Though, how could you make the time when you’re a teacher?”
She stopped shaking his hand and motioned for him to follow her, “My students can deal with a substitute for a week,” she waved her hand, “But, I couldn’t miss out on the chance to help someone with such a cool quirk!”
“And also because it's a more humorous quirk, like yours, right?”
“Yeah!” she stopped at the entrance and dramatically opened both doors, “Welcome to my agency! The other heroes who use this place and their sidekicks are all on a mission so it’s just me, you, and the staff”
“That’s… oddly convenient,” Bendy commented.
Ms Joke slapped him on the back, “Yeah, I totally didn’t cause a bunch of environmental disasters that were conveniently in their skill set so that we could be alone, haha!”
And Bendy started laughing too, even though he didn’t feel like the joke was all that funny. Hell, even the secretary and a couple of other people in the room started laughing.
Wait. That wasn’t right. Bendy closed his mouth and stopped breathing, which caused him to have his default smile, “You’re using your quirk!” he pointed out.
Ms Joke clapped quickly, “I’m surprised you noticed that quickly!”
He rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah…, it’s kinda easy when everyone in the room is laughing… especially when the joke isn’t funny,” Bendy awkwardly laughed.
She dramatically sighed, “Darn it, I was gonna turn that into a lesson”
“Maybe you should look into another profession if that’s the lessons ya make,” he joked.
Ms Joke laughed, “Anyways, let’s get to the real Lesson 1!” she grabbed Bendy’s hand and dragged him to a large, cluttered room with her name plastered on the door. The demon would think it was her office, but the clutter was mostly gag objects and… was that a photo of Aizawa?!
“Oh yeah,” she let go of his hand after closing the door and took the picture he was staring at, “I remember this! It’s a picture of your teacher when he had hope behind his eyes”
Bendy squinted his eye, “Wow, he still looks so depressed”
She put down the picture and went to go get a chalkboard from one of the larger piles of clutter, “Show me your magic, kid!”, he pulled a helicopter from his back, “Impressive. But, I know plenty about your hammerspace skills. I wanna know how you use your cartoon logic!
“My cartoon logic skills…? Like,” Bendy was interrupted by a pipe bursting over his head, causing both him and his bandages to become soaking wet.
“Yeah! Like that”
The demon looked up in horror to see a large hole in the ceiling, “Oh geez, I wrecked your building!”
“Nah, don’t worry about it! I’ve had things explode in this room enough to know that no pipes are running through it”
“Then, how…?”
“That’s your cartoon logic! It does whatever suits the moment,” she grabbed one of the props laying on the floor and threw it into the pipe’s hole, causing it to close, “If it was funnier to keep the water going, that would’ve not stuck. But, your quirk sees it as a good time for the joke to end”
Bendy put a finger to his chin, “That does explain the logic behind some stuff…,” he attempted to take off the ruined bandages, “But, if I don’t find this funny, why does my quirk do it?”
“I don’t know, I find it pretty funny!” the demon frowned at her, “You may just be the butt of the joke in the eyes of your quirk, kid. You’ll either have to find a way to work with that or find ways to work around that,” she paused, “And I’ll show you how to do that after you replace those bandages”
***
After he finished bandaging himself, Ms Joke decided to continue the office tour, “I’m not allowed on the 2nd and 3rd floors which means you aren’t either, so we’ll just ignore that,” she pressed the button to go to the highest floor, the 5th.
Bendy looked up, “I think you missed a floor”
“There’s something special on that one,” she laughed. The trip upwards was slow, the doors opening even more so. It was as if the elevator had been used millions of times before and couldn’t bear to move again.
The 5th floor was simultaneously clean and messy. Underwhelming and overwhelming. There were no rooms, but, instead, there were possibly hundreds of compartments and very basic mannequins that were mostly empty and bare. But, the mannequins that did have something on them had hero costumes. And the compartments that did have something in them had gear and weapons.
Exploring more, Bendy also realized that the open room in front of him was only half of the floor. From what he could currently see, there were also a changing room door.
Ms Joke had gone to get one of the smaller compartments, “The mannequins are pretty flexible, normally, but we need to get custom-made ones for any sidekicks with unusual body shapes. So, you’ll have to fit everything in this box,” she gave it to him.
The box itself was strange, to say the least, different than what they had at UA. It looked big on the outside, but inside were multiple sections. No wonder Ms Joke said he’d have to “fit” everything inside this. Not only that, but those sections were hard to open, each with a different way to open them.
However, when Bendy opened the compartment in the middle of the bottom, he was sprayed with water.
Ms Joke could be heard laughing from a distance before she came to join him, “I pull that prank on every new guy, even the ones not hired by me. It’s always a riot!”, she noticed that his bandages were once again soaked, “Maybe I should’ve waited until after you stop needing bandages to do that,” she chuckled.
The pro hero went to get another compartment, this time it had two open sections, “You should do your bandages again before touching your costume”
Bendy tried finding it in his pocket, but no luck, “I think I left them in the bathroom downstairs”
She shrugged, “I’ll get them while you go look around,” she stopped, “But try to keep an eye on dripping. The others will kill me if they come back to a stained floor,” Ms Joke took his non-costume bags and went back to the elevator, “I’m gonna give this to reception until you need it,” she said as the door slowly closed.
The demon decided to go look inside the changing room. Inside was a very small, fully enclosed room, with a tall mirror, a painting, and a bench. It was tiny for such a big agency but it was the only door on this floor.
Bendy looked at the mirror and looked a lot better than he’d expected, seeing as his bandages were falling off. He pressed his hand to the mirror to get a closer look only to fall into a dark room, the mirror having flipped over.
He tried standing up, but the ceiling was too low even for him, so he resorted to crawling. Bendy tried to get back to the mirror, but it seemed like the floor was at such an angle that going back up proved extremely difficult. So, down it was, then.
After crawling for a bit, Bendy noticed a sliver of light coming from the right. After awkwardly rotating himself, he soon was able to investigate the area. With a light push, what could now be identified as a door opened. He went inside and could finally stand.
The room looked like a regular hotel room. A single bed in the corner and a nightstand at its side. On it, there was a ridiculously bright lamp. There was another mirror on the wall parallel to the door. And on the floor, there was his luggage.
“What the…”, it was then that Bendy noticed the giant sign that was on the left wall,
‘WELCOME TO FLOOR 3.5, THE SPACE BETWEEN THE 4TH AND 3RD FLOOR.’, it said in large lettering. In smaller lettering, it said, ‘To access the 3rd floor, push the mirror. To access the 4th floor, use the ladder above you’. Bendy looked up to see an open trapdoor on the ceiling with a ladder peeking out.
“You know, I’m still wondering why the changing room is so small,” he suddenly felt something hit his head, knocking him to the floor.
Bendy picked up the object and saw that it was his bandage roll. He then looked back up and saw Ms Joke looking right back.
“When you finish doing that, come join me on the fourth floor,” she yelled.
“But wait, I can’t reach the lad-,” the trapdoor on the 4th floor was closed, “Looks like it’ll be an interesting week,” he sighed.
Bendy redid his bandages as quickly as he could and tried jumping to access the ladder. Predictably, that didn’t work. So, he tried summoning a ladder of his own to reach said ladder, but it crumbled as soon as he reached the top.
The same thing happened when he tried making stairs and the pile of blocks he made never stayed stable long ago, “Damn it!” Bendy kicked one of those blocks and it bounced off the walls, causing it to hit the ladder and making it expand.
He would swear, but he was, 1 , not able to do that, and 2, too stunned to do so. Bendy shrugged and climbed the ladder.
“Hey, you finally figured it out!”, Ms Joke exclaimed, sitting on a chair positioned right out of what he could see below.
“But, why did my quirk do all that? It just made things longer for no reason,” he complained.
She patted him on the shoulders, “To complete my lesson! You learned to use cartoon logic instead of your hammerspace!”
The demon scratched his head, “But I didn’t do anything consciously…”
“Don’t question it!” she took her hand off his shoulder, “Now, go put on your costume and I’ll show you Lesson 2!”
***
The two walked the seemingly peaceful city streets. Ms Joke called it patrolling, but she didn’t seem to be all that vigilante. Both she and himself were in costume.
It was very loud, so much so that Bendy deeply regretted not having brought any pain medications for this trip. It hurt to stay as attentive as he was, but he couldn’t afford to miss anything. Especially with how nonchalant the pro hero seemed.
It was only after an hour of patrolling that a crash could be heard from somewhere down the road on the other side of the street. Two robbers ran out of a bakery, bags full of cash. The most shocking part of it all was that the bakery had enough physical cash to stuff all those bags.
“Watch this,” Ms Joke said as she ran off. It didn’t take long for her to reach the crime scene and she quickly took action.
She tapped one of the robbers' shoulders, “You know,” the masked guy turned, “I’m really into fitness, “ she gestured to the shop window, “Fitness whole doughnut in my mouth!”
The robber burst out laughing and his partner did the same, too. In seconds, they were laughing so much that they were practically immobilized. Immediately, Ms Joke threw a punch at the initial victim of her joke and then slammed him on the wall, all while he still laughed. The other robber tried running away, but he was too paralyzed with laughter to be fast, which let Ms Joke have the time to take him down.
The police had apparently been called and she handed the criminals off to them when they arrived at the scene. She made it back to Bendy. All the events above having happened in only 3 minutes.
“See, that’s how you take down the average low-life!”, she cheered.
Bendy applauded, but was a little confused, “I’m pretty sure that only applies to your quirk. It’s not like I can do anything to paralyze people, and I’m not exactly very funny…,” he sighed.
“The most important thing is that you distract them! Some of my coworkers can take down even the toughest of baddies, but people like me and especially you need to catch ‘em off guard”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean-”
“You gotta learn the flow of comedy, kid! Both for the sake of knowing how best to use your quirk and also to distract a villain. You can get hurt easy and any strength you have comes from your quirk, which isn’t always on your side by the looks of things,” she snapped her fingers, “I think we’re done with this whole patrolling thing for now. The sun’s setting already and I think you’re already struggling enough to see with those bandages”
***
Bendy got settled in his weird room when he heard his phone ring. He picked it up to see that Momo was calling. As fast as he could, which was embarrassingly very slowly due to his difficulty with using a cell phone, he answered, “Hey, Momo-chan! Miss me already?”
She sighed a little, “I guess you could say that…,” she suddenly took on a much more cheery tone, “So, how are things going?”
“They’re going great! Well, not great, but good. Ms Joke can be annoying but I like her. I don’t like whoever built this building, though. There’s a bunch of weird pathways and the elevator seems 50 years out of date! They have a bedroom here for some reason that they call the 3.5th floor. I have to either crawl or climb a ladder to get in, I think Ms Joke designed that. Oh yeah, and the changing room is also super small. She didn’t use it when we changed so I’m kinda assuming that there’s another one somewhere, but why would a fake one even be built?”
Momo chuckled, “That sounds…, interesting. And did you eat anything yet, it's getting a bit late”
“Yeah, there was this restaurant on the way back from the patrol we did so we ate there. It was fine. But how was your day?”
There was a pause, “Mine?”
“Yeah! I’m really excited to hear what you did. That snake lady seemed interesting”
“I’m glad you’re enthusiastic about my internship, Bendy-kun. But really, it’s nothing special. Uwabami-san does modelling as her side job so she’s showing us how she does things”
“But that has nothing to do with heroics!”
“Sure it does. She’s showing us how to balance a side profession on top of hero work,” she sighed, “At least, I hope she is…,” she suddenly went back to her previous tone, “I’m not alone, though, so that’s nice. Itsuka-san received the same offer so we’re both in this together”
“It’s probably nice having someone your age be with you,” Bendy looked at the time in the corner of the screen, “I think I need to go to bed. I’ve got plenty to do!”
Momo audibly nodded, “Well, goodnight, Bendy-kun”
“Goodnight”
***
The day after that night was similar. More patrolling, and more endless jokes. Bendy did get to handcuff one of the criminals she beat, so that was nice. He didn’t get a call from anybody that day, so Bendy went to bed without any interruptions.
The ding from his phone woke the demon up the next morning. Bendy was a bit worried that he may have missed a call from either Momo or his mom, but instead, it was a notification from his email, “I really wish I’d brought a computer here,” he said as he struggled to open the app, “Wait,” Bendy reached behind his back, only for an empty pizza box to show up instead, “Nevermind”
The email was from Aizawa. Looks like Bendy couldn’t escape the guy even 120 km away. Hesitantly, he opened it.
‘Next week there’s going to be an exercise in class on quirkless fighting where I turn off your classmates' quirks while they duel in a tournament. At least, that was the original plan.
But, as you know, erasing your quirk would cause more trouble than it's worth, but cancelling this assignment, which is graded, would mess with the curriculum and also cause more trouble than it’s worth.
I can’t have you just opt out of the assignment all together as it's graded and it will last a few days. Plus, I can’t just make you do a separate assignment since that would raise suspicion in your classmates. And I don’t think either of us want to deal with the endless questions of nosy teenagers.
So, I’m going to give you a related assignment and change what your classmates will be doing while their quirks are erased. I’ve decided to change from sparring to challenges. You will not only have to evaluate and analyze your classmates’ strategies, but you will also be making the challenge plans and executing them with your quirk. I’m giving you freedom and also letting you choose who is paired together for the first round. Of course, I will be approving these plans.
This is not optional,
Aizawa.’
Better than being called to the police station, Bendy supposed. But it kinda sucked that he had to do homework on top of the internship.
If he remembered correctly, Ms Joke had told him that they would stay in the building the whole day, she even said that she had bought frozen meals just so then they would never step foot outside.
After doing his morning routine, Bendy climbed up the ladder and joined the pro hero on the first floor. She noticed him and immediately shoved the demon in her office, “I normally hand off all the agency’s paperwork to my colleagues, but the other heroes and their sidekicks aren’t in the area and the others are gone since they were advised to not show up to work today,”
“Wait, why were they advised not to show up to work today-”
“So, you and I are in charge of all this paperwork,” she shoved a huge pile of papers on her desk, “It’s my duty as your supervisor and temporary teacher to show you all the aspects of heroics! Even the really boring parts…,” she grumbled the last part. Ms Joke put half the pile on another desk with a computer on it, “Your labor will be greatly appreciated, kid,” she gave a big thumbs up.
Bendy went to go sit down and began sorting. Even just glancing at the first paper in the pile, it looked like these were supposed to have been completed months ago. Hell, as he looked at more, some dated back to before he came to this dimension, “You sure your co-workers actually do this stuff for you?” Bendy handed her the oldest one, which dated back to 2172.
Ms Joke looked at the paper with an uncertain face, “Guess I’m not the only one who hates this stuff…,” she handed it back.
The paperwork was pretty simple to understand. It was mostly just filling in details on things Ms Joke did, which was easily accessible on the database found on the computer. The files in the database were even accessible by date, and the dates all coincided with the dates found on the papers.
There were some deviations to this, but for the most part it was smooth sailing. Sure, it was taking a while because of the sheer amount of work to be done, but Bendy was sure that he’d be finished before lunch.
But, it seems like the hero had other ideas, “Hey kid, since no one’s here, do you wanna sneak in on the 3rd floor?”
Bendy turned his head, “Why?”
“I always hear the others talk about the cool stuff there. And do you really wanna do that paperwork all day?”
He looked at the pile, “A break wouldn’t hurt…”
“Thanks, kid!”
They both went to the elevator and Ms Joke pressed the button for the 3rd floor. Going up was slow but went smooth enough. Suddenly, just before the elevator stopped at the 3rd floor, an earthquake began.
The doors refused to open, so both were trapped in the elevator, “Hey, kid, you know how the others were advised to stay home? This is why”
Bendy began panicking, “And you didn’t tell me?!”
“It said this would happen at 10 pm, I figured we had plenty of time!” she yelled over the rumbling sound, “You gotta stay calm, these happen all the time in this area so the building is made not to fall. At most, my office will be a bigger mess than it already is,” she laughed.
Snap.
It took a couple seconds to realize what had just happened, but it was really obvious when two other cables snapped, “Or that”
Despite being told to calm down, Bendy began hyperventilating, “The elevator’s gonna crash!”
“I really should’ve replaced that old elevator when I was doing the renovations,” Ms Joke said.
“How could you be so calm?!”
She sat down, “Even if all the cables snap, the brakes are gonna stop us from falling. All you gotta do is sit back and relax until mother nature calms down,” a boom was heard, “Shit”
The elevator still wasn’t falling, so that meant that at least one cable was still standing. And that meant…
“I’ve got an idea,” Bendy said, panic still clear in his voice, “But, I gotta know, how many cables does the elevator have?”
Even Ms Joke began to worry, “Can’t answer that for you, hopefully enough to last us!”
The demon created a door and pushed it on the wall parallel to the elevator doors. But nothing happened, so he grabbed a pencil and began drawing a door. This time, a door to the elevator shaft appeared. He opened the door and created a ladder.
Ms Joke immediately knew what her intern was doing, “It’s too dangerous, you’ll get knocked off the top by the shaking!”
Bendy turned to look at her, “I’m just gonna have to trust that my quirk won’t let me be killed,” he nervously chuckled before climbing on the ladder.
The elevator shaft was mostly dark, so Bendy made a light and attached it to his head. The ladder he had made only let him get inside the shaft, but getting on the top of the elevator would require another ladder or a leap of faith. But, the shaking was making the ladder he was currently on very unstable, so the choice was obvious.
With as much confidence as he could, Bendy jumped on the other side. He only made it to the edge, but with a push, the demon was standing on the top of the elevator. Well, for a few seconds, anyway, because he soon had to start crawling due to the shaking.
On the top, there were 4 cables, all but one was broken. Bendy tried thinking of how he’d fix the cables, but his thoughts were interrupted by him almost falling off the side. This had to be short.
Bendy grabbed the two ends of one of the cables and quickly made a knot. He made quick work of the other two cables and hurried back down, the ladder thankfully still being there.
As he took the ladder back inside and removed the door, Bendy collapsed on the ground, “That was a bit harder than I expected,” he struggled to smile.
“I appreciate that you aren’t panicking anymore, but you could’ve died. You need to listen to your superiors”
A snap was heard, “I know, but I think you would’ve died if I hadn’t done that. I could’ve probably, I don’t know, squished into a pancake, but you’re only human!- I mean, you have bones and stuff”
Ms Joke sighed, “You’re right. Still, you can’t be reckless like that”
“I’m not my friend, he’s way more obsessed with being reckless”
After about a minute, the shaking finally stopped. The elevator went up a little and opened its doors.
Ms Joke took the first step outside, “This things has dramatic timing!” she laughed
Bendy also got out, “Or maybe it was too weak to handle moving with all the shaking,” he paused, “Hey, wait, how did I tie those cables?” he scratched his head.
“You really shouldn’t question it”
“No, but those cables were super thick and stiff, it’s nothing like rope. So how-” a crash was heard, “Was that the-”
“On the bright side, replacing a broken elevator is easier than replacing an intact one,” her tone was surprisingly cheery, “Plus, you got to learn one of the basics of cartoons, don’t question it”
Bendy went to see the bottom of the shaft, but the elevator doors that were still connected to the wall prevented him from seeing the wreckage, “I guess you’re right about me needing to listen to my superiors”
Silence followed for a good while. Despise Ms Joke having originally wanted to explore the third floor, she didn’t seem so eager anymore. Especially with how much stuff was on the ground, “I hope they weren’t hiding a TV from me,” she slouched and sighed dramatically, “Or any other cool stuff”
“Hey, so how are we supposed to get down?”
She stood straight, “I remember when I was installing the 3.5th floor-”
“Wait, you did that?!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty funny right? “ no response, “Anyways, I remember the builder guy saying there was a way to access it through the 3rd floor. And I know there’s a set of emergency staircases starting on the 4th floor outside”
Bendy thought back to the sign in his temporary room, “Oh yeah, there is an entry from the 3rd floor. But, shouldn’t there be a doorway to the emergency stairs from the 3rd floor as well?”
Ms Joke paused, “I think we should split up. I find the emergency stairs if they exist and you find the entry to your room. Whoever wins gets to choose what frozen meal I’m reheating first!”
***
10 hours later, Bendy went to climb the stairs outside that they had found. As it turns out, Ms Joke was a very big fan of corn dogs, which she had chosen once she won her little race. But, before he could do so, Ms Joke stopped him.
“I know it’s kinda late to say this, but you did a good job back there,” she gave a big thumbs up.
“It was nothing…” Bendy chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.
“No, but it was. You’ve got tons of potential. But you also got tons to learn, kid. About comedy, about heroics, about how to work with your quirk,” Bendy frowned a little, “And, I don’t think UA’s gonna teach you any of that. Especially not your teacher, who I’ve never seen laugh, even when I tell him my hilarious jokes!”
“Yeah, he is a bit of a stick in the mud. On our first day, he even threatened to expel the worst performer when someone said they were excited about doing our physical tests,” Bendy reminisced.
“I’ve got an offer for you, kid. Despite the bad luck, you did really well at the Sports Festival. So I think it wouldn’t be that hard for me to convince Ketsubutsu to transfer you. I wouldn’t be your teacher this year since I only teach the second years, but I can still help you outside of class”
“I don’t know, I-”
“And at the end, I’ll give you a guaranteed spot at being my sidekick. Getting a hero job after graduation is hard so this is a huge chance!”
Bendy became silent, “I’ll give you until the end of your internship to answer that. Just, think about all the advantages,” she went back inside.
A chance to run away from the people who knew his secret. Interesting.
***
His room was thankfully spared from any destruction, only a few objects having fallen on the floor. Bendy was about to get settled into bed when his phone rang. It was Momo, “Hey, how’s your internship been going, Momo-chan?”
“It’s… been going. I just wished we did more stuff outside of modelling. I’m fine, though! It’s really nothing. I just want to know how you’re doing”
“Oh, pretty fine. I’m actually pretty excited!”
“Are you sure? It said on the news that the city you’re in was in an earthquake”
“It went well! I even saved the day! Eh, well kinda. I just stopped the elevator me and Ms Joke were on from crashing”
“That’s very impressive, Bendy-kun!”, a little clap was heard from her side, “So, what were you excited about?”
“Eh, for now, I’m still pretty mixed on whether I’m gonna do it, so it’s best that I tell you once I know the results. Don’t wanna worry you!”
“I guess we both have that in common…” Momo whispered.
Despite the low volume, Bendy still heard it. It’s not like his hearing was bad. Still, though, Bendy hadn’t had too many hearing attacks for this entire internship so maybe that whole issue was finally balancing itself out, “I’m gonna head back to bed! But, please tell me how your internship is going. If we ever get separated, I wanna know what’s going on with you, ya know?”
“Bendy-kun, is there something you need to tell me?”
“Nope! Goodnight, Momo-chan”
She sighed, “Goodnight”
***
There were only two days left before Bendy needed to make a choice. And on the fourth day of his internship, he was starting to skew towards saying yes.
The day started off with a morning patrol, “Waking up early may suck, kid, but the night shift it the worst,” Ms Joke informed him.
The two were still walking in the same part of the city they always had, both in costume, of course. They were an hour in when a villain with wings flew out of an apartment window, having stolen an exotic-looking cat.
Ms Joke directed Bendy to follow her up to the apartment’s fire exit. Once they got high enough, Ms Joke began to shout at the villain, “That cat looks a little hungry, aren’t you worried that it’ll think you’re a yummy bird?” she began releasing laughing gas.
Bendy started feeling the effects, but quickly shut his mouth.The lady above didn’t seem to feel those effects, however, which worried him.
Ms Joke tried again, “I’ve heard of a cat burglar, but this may be the first time I’ve seen a burglar steal a cat!”, no response, “I know air shipping is pretty common nowadays, but I think a key part of the whole delivery process is dropping off the package to the rightful owners!”
She almost looked as though she would give up, reaching for a radio in her pocket to call another hero. But, all her jokes gave Bendy an idea.
He made a rock, one large enough to throw the robber off her balance, but not enough to severely injure her. He threw it with surprising precision and caused the villain to stop and lower herself, the rock having apparently stuck somewhere in her feathers.
Ms Joke stopped reaching for her receiver and yelled one last joke, “Killing two birds with one stone is impressive. But, I think hitting a bird and a cat with one stone is a lot more impressive!”
The thief burst out laughing, letting go of the cat. Thankfully speaking, it was a cat so it landed safe and sound. She lost control of her flight and conveniently crashed right in front of them.
“What do you call a winged thief that’s about to go to jail?”, she tried fleeing to no avail as Ms Jokes put on some handcuffs that Bendy had given her, “A bird in a cage!”
Three minutes later, police arrived at the scene so it was their cue to leave. The patrolling continued, with the occasional conversation here and there.
“Hey, is the changing room that leads to the 3.5th floor the actual changing room?”
Ms Joke shook her head, “There are “laws” that “can’t be broken” when it comes to hero agencies. Making an “adequately sized changing room so that heroes can easily change into their costumes in times of emergency” is one of those laws. That’s what the guys who installed my plans said, anyways. There’s a way to access the actual changing room from inside the fake changing room, though I think it’s funnier that you just guess”
“Wait, does the painting have anything to do with that,” Bendy said while thinking back to the room. Ms Joke simply laughed in response, which seemed to confirm it.
It was after a good 10 minutes of walking that another conversation arose, “I really would’ve been lost there if you hadn’t given me a hint with that rock of yours”
“I hope the cat was okay”
She laughed, “That thing gets stolen every few days. It’s one of the few cats in the world with a quirk, and it’s exotic too. I think the lady who owns it is that apartment’s least favourite tenant with all the destruction,” she stopped talking which led Bendy to believe the conversation was over, but after a minute she continued, “I used to partner up with your teacher all the time when we were younger. He’s got a real soft spot for cats”
Bendy was suprised, “I didn’t think he would have a soft spot for animals”
“I know right! He’s super grumpy, but one of the best teachers I’ve personally worked with”
“But, you said he wasn’t a good teacher?”
Ms Joke waved her hand, “Nah, he’s pretty good if I say so myself. We have some friendly competition, but his class almost always wins so that means he’s pretty good. Definitely not a comedy guy. Present Mic is pretty funny, though, but he doesn’t teach any heroics class”
“Pftt, you’re not really convincing me about joining your school if you guys keep losing,” Bendy chuckled.
“True, but UA’s a pretty competitive bunch. My school isn’t nearly as obsessed with all that, we don’t have much prestige so it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. It just matters if you’re learning”
Bendy began to wonder, “And, you guys don’t interfer with students personal lives?”
Ms Joke looked a bit confused, “What, are you some type of villain outside of school?” she joked.
“No, I just needed to know that’
***
Ms Joke was in her office, doing some of the leftover paperwork from yesterday when she received a call, “Hey, Shota! You miss me?”
“No, you know I’m legally required to check in on Yaoyorozu, right?”
She laughed, “You seem so grumpy about it! I’ve been enjoying getting to talk to you again before the exams”
Aizawa groaned, “Did anything go wrong today?”
Ms Joke waved her hand, “Nope! I told you already, I would’ve called if things went wrong. Look, if nothing has gone wrong since he’s attended school nothing is gonna go wrong for the week he isn’t there,” she dismissed, “Oh! But, something is going very right. For me, anyways. So, remember the bet we made when you first called to talk about “the info””
“I tend to ignore most of what you say”
“You know, the one where we betted on if he decided on changing schools?”, Aizawa made a sound of agreement, “And where you said you’d marry me if I won the bet?”
“False”
“Well, I think I’m gonna win this! He’s been asking plenty of questions all day about the school, so I think he’s actually interesting in transferring”
Aizawa paused, and then sighed, “You know he’s only considering it because he thinks that he’ll be able to run away from the people who know his secrets, right?”
Ms Joke made a choking sound, “What? No! I think the kid is actually interested. Besides, I would’ve thought that he knew that I knew of his condition already. His freedom conditions require any heroes who have supervision over him to know that”
“I… haven’t told him about the results the Hero Public Safety Commission gave”
“I think he deserves to know that, Shota”
“He does, but if he finds out the conditions of his freedom, he’s gonna view that as an injustice since those conditions aren’t fair. And the more he hates the system behind heroics, the more likely he’ll hate heroes as a whole. Which doesn’t spell anything good for his future,
It’s why I’ve been trying to make him think that the reasons why we aren’t punishing Bakugo for maiming him is because it’s a normal occurrence. I don’t want him to know about why we can’t really do anything”
Ms Joke hummed, “I think that’s just making things worst. If he thinks it’s normal for hero society to brush off it’s members injuring others for no good reason, that’s not gonna paint a good picture. I don’t really know why you can’t punish the explosion kid, so I’m not gonna judge you not being honest about that. But, you gotta tell him about the conditions from the HPSC, or else he’s gonna wonder why you’re treating him the way you’ll have to”
Aizawa sighed in agreement, “And you have to tell him that you know about his transformations, his origins, and the kidnapping issue and that Ketsubutsu will have to know about that, too”
“What? But, if I tell him that, my chances are gonna drop!” Ms Joke pouted.
“It’s going to be a whole year before you can even see him. And don’t say you’ll volunteer to be the one who’s responsible for him, I was assigned that job because I’m his homeroom teacher. And the only reason why I have to continue that job until graduation is because I’ll have more experience. You’re possibly altering the course of Yaoyorozu’s life just to be able to teach him for a year”
“I said he’d have a slot to be my sidekick if he transferred”
“Are you going to reject him if ever he applies even if he stays at UA?”
“Nope!”
“Then, you’re still altering the course of his life to teach him for one year, no sorry, the chance to teach him for one year. If he decides to transfer, that’s fine, but he has to do it because he thinks the school will give him better chances and not because he thought he could avoid things”
Ms Joke sighed, “I’ll tell him. I’d be a pretty big hypocrite if I scolded you about lying and then lied, right?”
“I do not care”
“Sure you do! But, you know, if he does accept, then that means I won the bet. And remember what you agreed to doing if you won the bet…?”
“I never agreed to marrying you if you won the “bet””
“Just in case I win the bet, we should start talking about our wedding plans!”, click, “Eh, I’ll convince him one day!”, she looked at the paperwork she had to do, “And one day I’ll finish this,” she sighed.
***
Bendy began to redo his bandages when he realized that there was no ink on the ones he was removing so that meant there was no reason to put more.
Still, the demon checked his reflection and saw that the white parts of his face that had been blown off were still the yellow they had been when they first started healing. And, much to his disappointement, the blank and sketchy look his other eye had taken since it had started healing had not gone away. That whole part of his head seemed to be disconnected to his brain, as he couldn’t see or feel anything from that side.
Bendy was starting to lose hope that he would ever appear normal again, so he knew that he needed to start thinking of ways to cover up that weren’t bandages. The demon could only wear them for so long before people began questioning if he actually needed them. The best option seemed to be makeup, but he didn’t have that so Bendy decided to keep wearing bandages until he got home.
After finishing, Bendy went downstair for his final day interning for Ms Joke. Like usual, she dragged him into her office, and began another lesson about comedy.
“A big part of comedy is revealing what you’ve been hiding. That prank with the box I pulled on ya needed me to hide the fact that water was gonna spray at you. If I had told you what’s inside or didn’t control my laughter, the prank wouldn’t have worked. The element of surprise that’s important in battle applies doubles to you”
She drew a poor rendition of himself holding a box and a villain on the whiteboard she had brought out, “Let’s say someone is trying to rob a place with civilians and is looking for something. You place this box nearby, they take it and run off,” she drew that before erasing the box, “Once they open up the box in their secret base,” she drew a syringe coming out and injecting the robber with a tracking device, “Boom! The robber got out of the place where civilains are and whoever’s in charge of looking over that tracking device knows where the villain is! That couldn’t have been possible if you had made it obvious that it was a tracking device”
Bendy nodded. Ms Joke continued, “And, I know I just made a lesson about hiding things, but I think I need to reveal something to you. I kinda always knew about the fact that you can transform into a big monster involuntarily”
A pit started to form in Bendy’s stomach, “And… you didn’t tell anyone right?”
“Of course not! But, I’ll have to tell pretty much the whole staff about that if you decide to transfer, “ the demon looked shocked, “I found out because your teacher legally had to tell me this. It’s not anybody’s choice,” she sighed, “Speaking of your transfer, you’ve got until tonight to think about it”
Ketsubutsu seemed like a great school, but… his friends weren’t there. And, it was a lot further away from home than UA. It was embarrassing, but a big reason why Bendy was considering it was because he wouldn’t have anybody know his secret. But, now…
There were a lot of values that Ketsubutsu seemed to have that Bendy liked more, but maybe they weren’t worth transfering and changing his life for. Heck, even the sidekick opportunity wasn’t all that appealing now if she always had to be vigilant of him, “Actually, Ms Joke, I don’t think I’ll be transferring”
Ms Joke sighed and became dejected, “Yeah, I thought you’d say that,” she straightened up, “But, I respect that decision! Now, let’s use this final day of us being together and have the best day possible!”
***
Ms Joke had offered to drive him to the train station as a sort of last goodbye. With his stuff in hand, it was now time for them to depart.
She sat with him on the bench. From the schedule Bendy saw, they only had a few minutes to say their goodbyes, “I know I said I don’t wanna transfer to your school, but I’ll miss your lessons”
“Yeah, I’ll miss you, too. But, we’ll get to see eachother pretty soon!” Bendy was confused, “At the liscense exams! They’re happening not that long from now, so I’ll get to bother you in a few months”
Bendy gave a small laugh, “Guess I’ll have to look forward to then! I’ll try to up my comedy game till then. I’ve been trying to apply your advice in these challenges I’ve been making”
“Challenges?”
“Yeah, I can’t participate in Aizawa’s normal quirk erasure exercise so he put me in charge of making the challenges themselves with my quirk! It’s been pretty difficult to come up with stuff, but I’m not doing badly”
Ms Joke snapped her fingers, “Oh, yeah! I’ve got one final piece of advice to share with you”
“Hmm?”
“I kinda forgot to mention this as it doesn’t really apply to me, but try treating longer things as an episode of a cartoon. It’ll probably help you get in the flow with your quirk and it’s definitely gonna help you execute those challenges”
Bendy nodded, “Thanks!” the train arrived, “Ah, shoot. I gotta go,” he stood.
“I’ll see you soon, kid!” Ms Joke said as he started to go away.
Bendy waved, “I really enjoyed our time together. Bye!”, he got on the train.
After 5 days, it hurt to say goodbye, but it would hurt even more to say goodbye to UA. So, he didn’t feel any large regrets about not taking her offer. Bendy did wonder why Aizawa had to legally tell Ms Joke about his issues. Ah, well, he was sure it was a safety issue.
Right?
