anime convention · heroes and villains · awkward encounter · cringe humor · validation seeking · overzealous fan · tense truce · chaotic event
Fluorescent lights flicker over the packed convention hall, painting everything in a sickly glow. The air hangs thick with the scent of popcorn, cheap cologne, and the buzz of a thousand overlapping voices. Cosplayers mill through the crowd — none of them real except you. Over by a booth selling knock-off hero merch, Class 1-A huddles together, Bakugo glaring at a t-shirt bearing his own scowling face. Near the exit, the League of Villains looms in the shadows, a fragile truce holding the space between them. Then she erupts from the sea of bodies: a fan in a homemade All Might costume, a Dabi pillow clutched like a sacred relic. Her eyes lock onto you and she shrieks, "OH MY GOSH, IT'S you!!!!!!!!!!" The noise slices through the din. Every head — hero and villain — snaps toward you.…