Billy's "Answer"

Nothing good in the world ever came from waiting. So you've got to take every chance you can get. Never let it pass you. One chance. You're the third ape on the ramp to Noah's Ark, and it's starting to rain. The ramp is the hallway, right? The bathroom door is the Ark. The rain is the tide of freshman bodies flooding those halls during the late lunch hours. And you're the ape.

Billy didn't care to be late for his usual "private time" in the bathroom. He always ate at the same time every day, so he had to take a shit at the same time every day; a specific window during lunchtime when the bathroom was empty primarily before the usual congregation showed up. A slip of his rubber soles brought him around the corner of a beige school wall, his reflection staring dim-eyed from the polished tiles. It saw a tall, wiry specimen. Deep red fur beneath a black, loose-fitting school uniform. Half-lidded, dull eyes stared at a door at the far end of the hallway.

	"Jackpot," he muttered, looking over his shoulder down another empty hallway behind him. He got that feeling in his spine, a shock that ran down his tail and gave it a twitch. Whatever silence he had now, it wouldn't last. He had to move.

Sweet release soon enough.

---

His thumb bends around the corner of the phone's screen, swiping up with a scowl forming along his mouth at the image of a smiling girl posing for the camera, just above the name on her profile— brown hair, and green eyes. Big... hm. Her fingers -- too small. Those teeth are too big. Pass.  His fangs brux in his mouth, and a low grumble rumbles somewhere in his throat, and he thumbs at the screen again, adjusting his comfortable position in the toilet seat. Pants-up, of course, legs crossed and all lackadaisical-like.

It was going to be Billy's last year at Shiketsu. To think he'd been here for three whole years... it was hard to believe that, actually. But, on the other hand, it hadn't been that long at all. Nothing outside the peace of his training had firmed itself in his mind. There were faces and voices, and people who had tried to become his friend, and women who had really-- *really* had no business looking at him that way (Japan is something else, huh...), but nothing so concrete that he could summon up to mind at any given moment.

It was a blur of colors, sound, and training. A force of will to endure all the bullshit that hadn't mattered. Some colors, a punching bag, more colors, a bo staff. Colors, colors, sounds, screams, harrowing calls, postcards... postcards to home, from home. Too damn much.

Too damn much to think about on the shitter, anyway. Billy snarled. He thumbed the side of his phone and slid it back into his uniform, slipping his feet off the stall door before flipping head-first up into a stand. His head rose above the top of the stall he was in. So, it just so happened. Standing in front of the sink, something brown and fleshy caught his eye. It was hair. Brown hair.

"What does a hero do when two civilians are in a fight... what does a--- damn it," a boy in a Shiketsu uniform grumbled, gripping the sides of the sink like he was about to hurl. His face stared back at Billy from the mirror. Frustrated and young-- one of the youngest at the school, if he had to guess. "It's like she's trying to make me fail on purpose... !"

Billy snirked when he said "her." Oh boy. One of these.

"Oi," Billy's voice echoed from the stall.

"-- UYAAAH!!"

*Crrrreeeak.* The sink groaned in steely pain when the kid jumped, nearly tearing it out of the wall. He spun around on a dime and raised his fist for a fight he wasn't prepared for. Tough for him, though, when Billy pushed open the stall door and emerged with his hands folded over his chest, head tilted, and brow arched.

"What are you doin'?"

"O- Oh. You're... a senior. A--" the boy sputtered, his eyes widening momentarily before his entire torso flipped into an awkward bow. "I'm sorry, senpai! I didn't mean to disturb you!"

Billy squinted. "Uh-huh. Deep breaths, now."

It seemed only natural for the freshman to comply. He sucked in a gulp of air like a pufferfish and spat it back out with similar grace. It seemed to calm him down as his stiff body crumpled against the sink.

"Somethin' bothering you?" Billy's tail flicks at a sink faucet, pouring water onto his hands.

"No! No, It's just," the freshman shudders, turning around and looking at his wrung-out face in the mirror. "I'm... having trouble with a test question. This, uh, test that they're having all first-years do."

"Koh. Rosethorn's, right?"

The freshman scoffed and shook his head, smiling. No teeth, thankfully. "You probably know her."

A stern smile beneath black hair. Sharp glasses reflecting the light. The overpowering smell of expensive perfume and cosmetic makeup. *Familiar* is more than an understatement. Billy kept looking at him from the reflection, wordlessly answering with a quiet "hm" as he wiped his face clean.

"It seems straightforward enough, but some of these questions... I just feel like the answer that I *want* to give isn't the one
they want to hear! So some of this stuff-- it feels *wrong* to say anything other than... y'know?"

Billy chewed at his tongue. He brought his fingers to his chin, rubbing it slightly. Then, grumbling, his lips peeled back, revealing a maw of yellowed, sharpened fangs. He picked a small white spot between some of his teeth with his finger.

The freshman finally broke away from staring at his reflection to grimace at what his upperclassmen were doing. It seemed like he didn't even care at all. Then, suddenly, a pang of realization blooms over his face. "You've done this test before, right, senpai?"

"Yeah," the ape plucks the piece out of his teeth. His nostrils flare with an audible sniff. "Banana, nice."

"How did you go about some of the questions?"

It fell into place, dominoes on the table. Then, finally, Billy had the courtesy to break his staring match with his reflection, glaring sideways at his junior. "Koh. Cheatin's against the rules, y'know. Rosethorn already hates me, kid; I'm not takin' one for you."

"No- no, nothing like that! I mean-- some of the stuff like... what would a professional hero do if there was a fight between a kid with a quirk and a kid with no quirk. Of course, they're both fighting, but I mean-- the quirkless kid is done for, right?!"

Silence fell over the bathroom. This small, porcelain chamber sequestered away from Shiketsu's bright hallway. Billy's eyes held onto the freshman's beady, hopeful little stare. The redness around the boy's eyes had turned inwards, away from his face and into his iris. A small, dim flame lit in the blue of his eyes. He didn't see himself in the fire but in the room just down the hallway where Rosethorn was delivering her address to a sea of seated students. A flimsy piece of paper full of oaths and promises that he wanted to break on principle.

When he looked outside, now and then, he saw the snow falling. He felt the cold metal in his tight grasp. The fresh taste of iron on his tongue. But when he blinked, he just saw the blue sky of a place far from home. So Billy drew his eyes away from the blue sky and back into the burning blue eyes, begging him for his opinion.

"Hm," the ape sniffed, holding his chin thoughtfully. "Easy one. You know what your answer is?"

"Yeah, I'd--"

"Opposite of that."

The freshman's mouth kept moving for a few seconds, but no sound came out. Then, finally, he blinked and tilted his head. "What?"

Billy's lips peeled away into a fanged, simian smile. "It's easy. You jus' do the opposite. That's what they want. They aren't testing you to see if you'll do what they want. They wanna see if you'll do what they *don't* want. Key difference. It's a small window, right? But if you land in it-- you get kicked out."

The flame in his blue eyes flickered. Billy knew that he understood-- he just had yet to process that understanding. "But that isn't real, right? That isn't what I'd really do."

"Koh, I hope not. What kinda hero listens to what a piece of paper tells him to do?"

"So... I just lie?"

Billy's grin faded, and his hand raised. The boy flinched, but Monkey King's grasp fell upon his shoulder. "You're two people, koh. One guy is defined by what you say. The other guy is defined by what you do when the chips are down, and there's nothin' left to say."

	"This world only cares about the first guy."

His fingers held the soft fabric of his uniform's shoulder for a moment more before the King's smile faded entirely. He slipped his hand off and back into his jacket pocket. He savored a last glimpse of the boy's earnest, bewildered face. The fire in his eyes had gone dormant for now. All that was left was the blue-- and that is when Billy kicked the bathroom door open with his knee and slid back into the hallway.

The boy sighs at last. What a damn waste of time! Rosethorn would have him strung up by his uniform if he stayed in the bathroom for a second longer. Well, if nothing else, now's a good time for his snack. He'd made sure to sneak in a clementine from the cafeteria. Some sweetness might help alleviate this stress, right?

There was nothing round in his coat pocket. Instead, his fingers twitched, wrapping around something small and metallic. He opened and palm. He was holding a couple of warm, pristine yen coins.

"... Huh?"