Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Where’s the Springer Hero Agency?”

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“Why won’t you tell me…?”

The man…monster…villain…cracked the wall above the girls with nothing but his fingertips, the implicit threat that the same would happen to the girls soon.

“Go…! I said, go!” A boy with black hair and sharp teeth yelled desperately to himself in his mind, and yet his body was paralyzed with fear.

Before the situation could escalate though, a pink-skinned, pink-haired girl with horns saw the predicament that her friends were in, rushing between them and the cloaked villain, pointing down the street.

“Turn that corner and then make a left at the big street! The agency’s about two kilometers down that street!”

“Thanks.” The monster replied, walking away, leaving Mina to collapse to her knees as her nerves caught up with her.

“That was so scary!” Mina wept.

“Mina, thank you!”

“Why…didn’t I go…?”

Mina was so excited to be at UA! Sure, their homeroom teacher was a grump, but no matter what he said, she wasn’t going to stop trying to make this a good time and make friends!

She had already convinced all the girls to share contact info; Yaomomo was so prim and proper and smart, but she wasn’t stuck up or anything like that, so Mina thought she was cool. Hagakure was basically a girl after Mina’s own heart, and she could already feel that they were going to become besties. Jirou acted all aloof, but she gave off major tsundere vibes and Mina was so going to tease her when she found her crush. Asui was hard to read, but she seemed nice and friendly in her own way, so she was cool too. She was really close to Mongoose (wasn’t that confusing…she looked like a snake but her family name was Mongoose? Didn’t mongooses eat snakes? Wasn’t that in that one book Mina read that one time with the weird name? Mina was going to see if she’d be okay with her just calling her Habuko faster than she planned with everyone else’s personal names), which was nice because she seemed so shy. Mina was going to make sure to be extra nice to her so they could all be great friends! Habuko even had fluffy hair like hers! They could start a Fluffy Hair Club! She was already getting a read on some of the guys. Kaminari looked like he was trying too hard to be cool, but he was also a goof like Mina, so they’d probably get along. Mineta…Mina didn’t like Mineta. Tokoyami gave off super emo vibes…but didn’t she see a girl with telekinesis at the Entrance Exam that gave off ghosty vibes too? Just file that in her shipping projects for later. Shoji was big, but seemed nice too, and heteromorphs have got to look out for each other, right? Oh, and Kiri got in too! That was the best! He’d always seemed so shy and unsure of himself, but lately, he had been getting super into self-improvement, even dying his hair to make himself look more like his personal idol, Crimson Riot! Mina was looking forward to what he was going to become! And then there was Bakugou…who just gave off “major asshole” vibes. Granted, Mina had dealt with bullies in the past, she’d even managed to get them to make up with some of the other students that they had picked on, but Bakugou…he just treated everyone like garbage and Mina wondered if he liked the idea of hurting people. Maybe she was wrong though, maybe he was just a little intense. Heck, that kind of guy could be fun to tease just to show what a big softie they were underneath!

Only, that wasn’t how Mina was feeling about Bakugou at the moment, as she watched as All Might chastised Bakugou for his actions in the Battle Trial. He didn’t seem that concerned, only giving the Explosion boy a talking to and taking his gauntlets, so her classmates probably weren’t hurt too badly…at least she hoped so. Still, the fact that Bakugou had gone and done something like that in the first place, releasing an explosion right at Rin and collapsing the entire building, and the fact that he seemed more angry at All Might than guilty for what he did, didn’t paint a good picture.

“Man, what a jerk!” Mina said out loud, though even that felt like she was underplaying it.

“It’s probably not that bad.” Kiri pointed out. “I mean, All Might doesn’t seem to be that upset, so maybe this kind of thing just happens? But man, that’s some serious power Bakugou has packing!”

Mina reluctantly shrugged in agreement, though she also noticed Kiri’s eyes were still as wide as they were when the class had first seen the explosion. She thought it was kind of weird that he was focusing more on Bakugou’s power than what he had actually done with it, but maybe that was just a guy thing.

Mina had felt numb walking out of the USJ. It was like that time she had tricked that giant villain into leaving her friends alone, only so much worse. There had been villains everywhere, that Kurogiri villain warped so many of them all over the place, and they had been trying to kill them. It was only because of Sato’s quick thinking that she hadn’t been warped too.

But it was done, it was over, All Might beat the villain like he always did.

It was supposed to be over.

But then Mina saw the police carrying two stretchers, covered with black sheets out of the building.

Every night afterwards, Mina saw those stretchers in her dreams, imagining Habuko and Tsuyu crumbling away or getting crushed by the monster the League of Villains brought with them. She’d wake up, screaming, sobbing, and only able to get ahold of herself when her Mom and Dad came in to give her a hug. Then she’d spend the rest of her night flipping through her phone, hoping to find someone to talk to. Sometimes she’d chat with Kiri if he was awake. Apparently, he had been warped with Bakugou somewhere and had tried to confront the villains on their own. Kiri would talk about how ‘manly’ Bakugou had been, charging at the villains without fear. Mina still thought he was a bully, but maybe she wasn’t being fair.

She questioned that idea though when Bakugou made them all look like huge jerks when the other classes came to confront them after the USJ, issuing a challenge to them (though admittedly, Mina was so mad that she wanted to slap the two boys who had made that challenge. Tsuyu and Habuko were dead, you stupid assholes! They got murdered, we had almost been murdered, and you’re coming to rub that in our faces! Go straight to hell!) and then again when the Sports Festival actually started, showing how he still thought that he was better than everyone else.

Mina herself managed to do pretty well in the Obstacle Race, but then they got to the Second Round of the Sports Festival, which turned out to be a Calvary Battle. At first, Mina was super excited about this! She thought fast, and got Sero Hanta to agree to team up with her, knowing that his Tape Quirk would be useful in slowing down the other teams. She then moved on to Kirishima; sure, it was mostly because they were friends, but that meant that they knew each other and would work together more easily! (Suck on that, Aizawa!) But it turned out Kirishima had also found someone to team up with…

“Oh, hey Mina! Serobro! Come team up with Bakubro and me!”

Mina did not like the idea of teaming up with a guy who would spend the match screaming abuse at them, and tried to pull her friend aside.

“Kiri, do you really want to team up with him?” she said jerking her head towards Bakugou. She’d worry about being subtle, but all his attention was focused on Todoroki, whom he was glaring daggers at for beating him in the Obstacle Course. Another reason not to team up with him; a grudge like that was just going to make things harder for the rest of them. Kirishima though just looked confused at Mina’s reluctance.

“Well, yeah, sure! Bakubro’s really strong, I bet we’d do really well!”

“He’s also a huge jerk.” Mina answered. “If we team up with him, he’s just going to spend the whole thing screaming at us.”

“Aw, c’mon, Mina!” Kirishima said with a pained frown. “I know Bakubro’s rough around the edges, but he’s actually a super manly guy if you give him a chance!”

Mina sometimes wondered what her friend thought the word “manly” meant. However, by that point, Ms. Midnight warned everyone that they only had one minute left to make their teams, and Mina accepted that she didn’t have any choice but to go along with Kirishima.

To Kirishima’s credit, being on Bakugou’s team did get them through to the Third Round of the Sports Festival considering how aggressive he was in taking other people’s headbands, but it was still a miserable time for them. Bakugou treated them all like idiots, ignoring anything that they said, and his tendency to not even use their real names, calling Mina “Racoon Eyes,” really grated on her. She didn’t try to talk with Kirishima about this any further since she was grateful to move on to the Fighting Tournament, but part of her couldn’t help but wonder why he was so insistent on hanging out with Bakugou. If Mina was being honest with herself, Bakugou acted more like the kinds of guys that would bully Kirishima in junior high, only he’d be even meaner about it. And yet Kirishima didn’t seem to care! It wasn’t that it didn’t seem to bother him being called “Shitty Hair”, but rather he didn’t seem to see anything wrong with it in the first place. That just…didn’t sit well with Mina, and it made her worry for her friend.

Mina’s internship was fun, even if she ended up sharing it with a bunch of other students since she had to choose from the 40 workplaces that had contracts with UA rather than get an offer for herself (heck, she had technically ranked 7th place overall. Maybe people found it hard to take her seriously, maybe people were being judgy to her for being a heteromorph, but whatever.) Unfortunately, it got cut short pretty quickly.

Mina wasn’t super friendly with Iida, him being a little too stuffy for her liking, but she thought he was a good guy. If she thought about it, he had probably saved all of their lives when he had run out of the USJ and had alerted the teachers to what was going on. It turned out though that he had tried to use his internship as a way to track down Stain and get revenge for crippling his brother, only to get murdered himself.

Why? Why did he do that? He seemed so much smarter than that! And why did everyone keep on blaming them for what he did?

Aizawa hadn’t taught them much (in fact, while Mina accepted that she wasn’t the best student, could barely remember her sensei really teaching her anything; he usually just dumped them in their exercises and told them to figure it out on their own), but she had to admit that he was right about the world being unfair. She knew three dead people her age, and they had all been killed in the last month.

Could that happen to her? Could that happen to one of her other friends? They kept on running into villains, so what were they supposed to do?

Mina’s Mom and Dad had sat her down after Iida’s death and talked to her, asking if she was sure if she wanted to do this, to keep being a hero. She had answered immediately ‘Yes!’, but it was something that she was still thinking about. Being a hero was dangerous. She needed to be prepared if something like this happened again.

Unfortunately, Finals were still coming, and if Mina wanted to stay in the Hero Course, she needed to score well. There were two parts to the Final that Mina needed to prepare for; a Practical, and a written exam. Mina had been doing pretty well physically; she did well in the Sports Festival and she was probably the most athletic girl in 1-A (dancing really paid off!) In most cases, she wouldn’t be too worried about the Practical, especially with the rumor that it was just going to be them fighting against robots. So yeah, it wasn’t as much the practical that she was worried about, but just…life, and whatever might hit them next.

Thankfully, Yaomomo announced that she and Shoji (their Class Rep and…new…Vice Rep) had been meeting with someone from Gen Ed who had been helping to analyze their Quirks. Apparently, whoever this Midoriya guy was, he was smart enough that Principle Nezu took him on as his personal student, which meant he must be super smart! So, when Mina got a packet with ideas about her Quirk, she made sure to read it carefully.

It was…kind of complicated stuff, and Mina had to reread it several times to make heads and tails of it, but a lot of the stuff Midoriya had written about sounded really cool! Like the idea of using a hose to spray her acid over long distances, or to store it in capsules for later use as grenades (there was a note there that Power Loader would only add those to her costume once she had proven that she could use them safely.) Some of it sounded kind of…ordinary, like the idea of using her acid as an antiseptic, but hey, she would have never thought to use it that way! It was kind of boggling to have someone point out all the different ways acids could be used; making fertilizers, making medicines, removing rust…honestly a lot of it went over her head, like how acids act as “reagents,” making Mina think that she should ask Yaomomo for help explaining all this stuff.

Which brought her to dealing with the second (actually the first) part of the Final, the written exam. Mina hadn’t been studying as much as she should have, considering everything that had been going on lately, so she knew that she wasn’t ready for this. However, once she and Kaminari (both at the bottom of the class) moaned about this, Yaomomo came in and offered to tutor them! Mina was right, Yaomomo was so cool! And when Mina asked her to help explain some of Midoriya’s notes, she made things so much easier! For once, Mina felt excited about studying!

It turned out though that it wasn’t just going to be her and Kaminari either. Ojiro and Jiro (ship?...Ojirojiro?...nah, no chemistry) had also asked to come along, much to Yaomomo’s delight. This gave Mina an idea, and she zeroed in on Kirishima walking up to Bakugou, who had followed Yaoyorozu back into the classroom. She paused for a moment, realizing that neither Yaomomo or Bakugou looked particularly happy. Of course, Bakugou normally didn’t look happy, but here he looked outright pissed, and Mina was wondering whether it was a good idea for Kirishima, let alone anyone else to talk to him. As for Yaoyorozu, though she still looked calm and composed, it was almost scary to see her of all people angry.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT, SHITTY HAIR!?”

Bakugou’s shout jolted Mina. She was about to go and pull her friend away from the jerk, but Kirishima just kept talking to him as if nothing bad had happened. He didn’t seem bothered, so Mina kept her distance as Kirishima continued to talk to Bakugou, eventually walking away happy, though Bakugou had barely looked at him beyond first shouting at and insulting him. Mina felt uneasy about this for a moment before she shook her head and sought her friend out.

“Hey, Kiri! Some of us are going to be studying with Yaomomo, you should come!”

“Thanks Mina,” Kirishima answered, albeit awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, “but I already asked if Bakubro could help me study.”

Mina winced, and she was pretty sure that Kirishima noticed, as he frowned at her reaction. She needed to try to do some damage control; she really didn’t want her friend to be around Bakugou, not when he was like this.

“Are you sure? Yaomomo would probably love to help you, she seemed really excited to set a study session up for everyone. And she’s also the highest scorer and the Class Rep, so if there’s anyone who could help us with studying, it would be her. I was also thinking that she might be able to give me some advice on how to work with Midoriya’s analysis, you know, learn about different acids, how to use them, that kind of stuff. I bet she’d be able to help you a lot with your Quirk and the stuff that Midoriya has in his analysis for you, too!”

Kirishima didn’t look convinced.

“And…well…” Mina looked awkwardly at Bakugou and Yaoyorozu for a moment, “Yaomomo is just really nice. It might be better if you studied with her instead of Bakugou, you know, someone who isn’t as intense?”

“I want to study with Bakubro because he’s intense!” Kirishima answered. “I think he’d really get me to focus, you know?”

“Okay…it’s just…Yaomomo could probably help you to focus too, and she’d probably be nicer about it…”

“Mina.” Kirishima interrupted. “He’s my friend. I want to hang out with him. Actually,” Kirishima’s eyes widened in excitement, “how about you study with us! You could get to know him better and clear things up between you two!”

Mina backed off with her hands in the air. She seriously doubted that studying with Bakugou would actually help her, and she didn’t want to put her grade at risk just because Kirishima wasn’t listening to her.

“I’ll just stick with Yaomomo.” She answered in defeat. Kirishima actually deflated at this somewhat. Mina just couldn’t get it. Just looking at Bakugou now, he looked and acted like the slightest noise would get him to literally explode. He acted like a huge abusive jerk to Kirishima, and yet Kiri kept on acting as if he was cool. Kirishima kept on insisting that Mina just needed to give Bakugou a chance, but there was nothing to indicate that he was anything but a self-absorbed, abusive asshole. Mina knew that the way Bakugou was treating her friend was wrong, but she didn’t know how to get him to realize that.

“Just…if Bakugou does something that’s mean while your studying, don’t be afraid to call, okay?”

“He’s not going to do anything mean…” Kirishima answered with a frustrated exasperation. “I’m going to be fine! We’ll probably have a really great time!”

“…If you say so.” Mina said, turning around and sighing once she was away from her friend. She hoped that he was going to be okay.

Yaomomo was a great tutor…but there was soooo much material to go over, and Yaoyorozu just seemed to get it so much easier than anyone else. Mina felt like her brain was a wrung-out sponge…actually, that would be after a test. Mina felt like her brain was a sopping wet sponge…filled with glue. Thankfully, Yaomomo, bless her heart, was patient enough to repeat herself as many times as Mina and the others needed.

Oh, also apparently Yaomomo was rich. Like, super rich. Mansion and servants rich. Like, premium tea and French snacks during their breaks rich. For anyone else, Mina would think that they were flexing their wealth, but Yaomomo just seemed so happy to have them over that it was clear that she really didn’t know how overwhelming this could come off to anyone else, and Mina wasn’t going to do anything to damage her Class Rep’s innocent smile. Also, caviar was actually pretty tasty!

In addition to their study period for the written exams, Yaoyorozu set aside an hour to go over anything that had to do with Midoriya’s analysis. The way that her focus became so much more intense at this though made Mina wonder if she wasn’t the only one scared by what had been going on, and looking for any opportunity to get stronger. She gave Mina a crash course on everything that she knew about acids and how they were used. Surprisingly though, she asked Mina for a sample of her acid to analyze herself, as Midoriya had suggested that she might be able to replicate it. This was one of the few times that Mina ever felt serious about something, as she made it clear to Yaoyorozu that she needed to be careful; she didn’t want to create acid that she lacked a resistance to. While Mina was looking through some chemistry books that Yaomomo let her borrow, she was interrupted by Kaminari.

“Hey Ashido, can I ask you for help with something?”

Mina liked hanging out with Kaminari. He was a funny guy, and that felt important to have around in times like this. It was nice knowing that there was another goofball in the class.

“Sure, what is it?”

Kaminari brought out his own packet of analysis, along with his own science textbook.

“One of the big things that Midoriya’s analysis says is that I need to learn how to channel my electricity in ways that it’s not just blasting everywhere through the air, so I’ve been trying to learn about conductors. One of the things he mentioned was that acids are good at conducting electricity, and his notes say that I should talk with you about it.”

Mina chuckled awkwardly.

“Sorry…I’m still trying to figure all that stuff out myself…I always just used my acid to dissolve stuff and skate around, Midoriya was the first person to ever point out all the other stuff I could do with it…” Mina laughed, but she was actually a little embarrassed. Almost everyone else seemed to have a much better understanding of the ways that their Quirks worked. Jiro knew a lot about sound, Uraraka (one of the new students who had joined after the Sports Festival; she was bubbly and fun to be around) knew a lot about gravity, but she hadn’t actually bothered to learn that much about acid itself until now. She was trying to fix that, but she kind of felt dumb and a bit guilty that she couldn’t help Kaminari much. However, hearing this, he laughed himself.

“Yeah, I know what you mean…I always just blasted my electricity everywhere even though it always overloaded me and made me go ‘derp mode.’ I feel kind of dumb for needing someone to point out how electricity actually works.”

Mina grinned. For all the times that Kaminari worked hard to be cool, especially towards girls, it was refreshing to see someone else admit that they didn’t quite have it all together. Again, nice to know that she wasn’t the only goof in the class. Still, it would be best if they tried to help each other out.

“Well, hey! Let’s figure this out together!” she said, flipping to one of Midoriya’s pages of analysis, finding notes that she hadn’t quite gotten to yet.

“Acids are used as conductors in batteries; when they ionize water, they produce charged particles (ions.) The stronger an acid is, the more ions there are, and the more electricity they conduct. NOTE: Possible combo move with Kaminari? Create trail of acid towards target, force current through trail to electrocute. WARNING: Test in controlled environment first. Obviously, Kaminari should not directly touch acid; he should instead stick something into the acid that he can conduct it through, such as a bar of metal.”

“Oh yeah,” Kaminari commented, “Midoriya said that I need to include something that I can use to conduct electricity more easily in my costume; the Support Department got me these cool designs for a collapsible staff or a whip!” He showed off pictures of some of the equipment ideas Midoriya drew. “Do you think I should ask Yaoyorozu to give me staff fighting lessons?”

“Oh, totally!” Mina answered. “We’ll turn you into some electric ninja!” She opened up her own folder to show off. “He gave me ideas for hoses to spray my acid farther, and acid grenades!”

The two ended up spending a lot of time simply talking like this. It felt a bit like goofing off, but while they were talking about their studies, it actually felt a bit easier to understand stuff, simply by filling in the gaps that each other didn’t get, or encouraging themselves to look up the answers, like what kind of acid was best at conducting electricity, if it could be conducted through an acid mist (that was a bit of a mean idea that Midoriya had come up with, suggesting that Mina could create a cloud of acid mist to act as pepper spray,) or the kinds of foods that would be best for their Quirks. Apparently Midoriya recommended that both of them eat a lot more foods with electrolytes in them like avocados, bananas, citrus fruits, and milk. There was actually a weird amount of overlap between their Quirks that was fun to get into.

It was funny; if Mina said that she was going to study with Kaminari with all people, she would have thought that meant they were going to end up goofing off, but they ended up working well together, so much so that Yaoyorozu was really happy with their progress and praised them for their work. The whole thing ended up being so much more fun that Mina had expected, and she was so ready for the Finals!

Mina was so not ready for the Finals!

First off, they were not fighting robots, they were fighting their teachers!

Secondly, she and Kaminari were matched against Nezu!

Mina could still hear the principal cackling while all the buildings in the zone they were being tested in were crumbling like dominos.

She couldn’t tell whether it was better or worse that besides her and Kaminari, five other students had failed the Practical. It might have been depressing if it was just her but…no it was still depressing. Super depressing. It was a surprise to her though that out of everyone who was taking the exam, Todoroki and Bakugou, the two strongest students in the class, had failed. Sure, they were up against All Might, but…actually never mind, that kind of explained it. It was just weird; Mina didn’t like Bakugou, but she could see that he was a good student; he was strong, had a powerful Quirk, he worked hard, but he failed just as badly as she did. That was just…that actually made Mina feel a bit of petty pleasure, but it was still weird!

Bakugou was definitely still angry about failing though. His teeth were gritted, his fists were clenched, though he kept on making small “pops” with his explosions like they were a nervous tic; he just looked like an angry guard dog. Even Kirishima was keeping his distance from him.

Still, it was so depressing that she had failed…Aizawa had warned them that anyone who failed wouldn’t get to go to the Summer Camp! Everyone was going to have so much fun, making smores, looking at the stars, playing games…though it might be depressing for them to be missing almost half the class…and now Mina felt guilty on top of depressed.

Aizawa was giving his announcements on the results of the Final. Mina and Kaminari still finished the written exam at the bottom of the class, but they had passed along with everyone else! In fact, Mina had actually moved up a slot…but that was because Kirishima finished at 19th. Maybe she should have worked harder to get him to study with Yaomomo; it didn’t seem that working with Bakugou had been worth it.

“I told you all that anyone who doesn’t pass the Final Exam will not be allowed to go to the Summer Camp…” Aizawa was saying, before giving one of his shit-eating grins. “That was a logical ruse.”

Mina, along with Kaminari, Kirishima, Sato, and Sero all somehow groaned and cheered at this. They really should have seen this coming.

“If anything, the students that failed will be needing this training even more. However, to make up for your performances, you will be taking Remedial Lessons with Vlad King and me.”

Everyone who cheered just groaned at that, but something kept Mina from doing the same. She instead raised her hand.

“Do we need to bring anything extra for these lessons?”

Aizawa stared at Mina for a moment, and she wondered if he was surprised.

“No. That is all. You’re dismissed for lunch.”

Lunch was a bit depressing for Mina, as she sat with the other 1-A students that had failed the practical (except for Todoroki, who had gone off to eat on his own because he was edgy like that,) made worse when she saw her classmates who did pass go and thank Midoriya (who, if Mina was in a more cheerful state of mind, she would have definitely drafted into the Fluffy Hair Club.)

“We…really should have paid closer attention to what Midoriya wrote, Kirishima…” Sato said as he watched this.

“How can he expect us to run away though?” Kirishima gripped back. “A man faces his problems head on!”

Mina would have sighed, thinking that was an attitude that they all needed to get out of, when she noticed Bakugou staring daggers at Midoriya. Thankfully, the little Green Bean didn’t notice, but it put Mina on edge that Bakugou was glaring at Midoriya as if he wanted to run across the cafeteria and jump him. She tensed up as she saw Bakugou start to stand, only to freeze, this time looking at Yaomomo, who was glaring at Bakugou herself, almost as if she was saying, “try it, bitch.” Bakugou glared at her, and then at one of the security cameras, and scoffed, going back to digging at his food. Mina shuddered; she had never seen Yaoyorozu look so ready to throw down with someone, but it was nice to know that even if Kirishima and Aizawa weren’t taking Bakugou’s attitude seriously, someone was.

“So…Ashido?” Mina snapped out of it when Kaminari got her attention.

“Yeah, Kaminari?”

“I just noticed…you didn’t seem that upset when Aizawa said we were going to be getting Remedial Lessons. You know he’s gonna run us ragged, right?” he asked, studying Mina. She frowned for a minute.

“I don’t know…I guess I feel like I kind of deserve it…”

“Wait, really?” Sero asked, saying what everyone was thinking out loud. “I mean, good for you for not whining about this like we are, but you two were up against Nezu of all people. I could have handled Ms. Midnight a lot better, but honestly, I think it was kind of unfair for you two to have to go up against someone like him.”

“What, do you think we could have beat him?” Kaminari asked hopefully. “I can’t think of anything…”

“Well…no, I can’t think of anything right now…” Mina admitted, “but we didn’t exactly do anything helpful during the test either, did we? We kind of just ran around screaming like chickens with our heads cut off.” She said, making Kaminari deflate a bit as she realized her point. Everyone else was still looking at her as if they couldn’t believe what she was saying, so Mina tried to explain more;

“It’s just…” Mina looked at everyone awkwardly before looking down at the table. “You remember what Nezu said before the Exam, when he was explaining why we were fighting the teachers instead of robots? There’s a lot more villains now, and we need to be ready if we face them again. I guess I just feel like I need to get better, faster. Yeah, it sucks that we’re going to miss out at the Summer Camp…but I kind of want to make sure that I don’t do what we did when we fought Nezu again.”

The others stared at her. Mina knew that it didn’t make sense coming from her, after all; it wasn’t as if she ever acted like she was taking their lessons all that seriously the way Yaomomo or Todoroki did.

“That’s manly!”

The outburst made everyone flinch, but Kirishima stared at Mina with stars in his eyes nonetheless.

“You’re right, Mina! This is just an opportunity for us to make ourselves better! We can’t get stuck on this!”

If there was one thing Mina had to admit about Kiri, it was that he was a great hype man, as his exuberance managed to perk everyone up as they decided not to let their bad performances get them down.

“All students…the camp is under attack…Eraserhead has given permission to students to use their Quirks to defend themselves…”

Mandalay’s Telepathy came through to Mina and the other students at the Remedial Lesson cabin just a minute after the heroine’s nephew Kota had run in, claiming to have seen fire and heard loud noises off in the forest. Something seemed off about the message though, coming in and out. It sounded almost as if Mandalay was struggling to stay conscious.

“Aunt Shino…” Kota gasped, his eyes wide and frightened. Throughout Mina’s time at the Summer Camp, the young boy had treated everyone at the camp with anger and indifference, and had only barely tolerated his aunt, the Pro Hero Mandalay. Mina didn’t know what made him hate heroes so much, but whatever the case, what he was hearing now scared him. So much so that he would have darted out of the cabin were it not for Vlad King stopping him.

“Stop! I can’t let you go out there with villains on the loose!”

“Shino’s hurt! Something’s making it hard for her to use her Telepathy!” Kota yelled back, startling the students there with the confirmation of their fears.

“Kid, she sent us a message from Eraserhead, so he must be with her, she’ll be safe!” Vlad King attempted to reassure the young boy, putting his hands on his shoulders.

Kota glared at Vlad King, tears threatening to prick his eyes in fear, only just managing to keep himself from kicking the hero in the balls by the logic he had pointed out. All of a sudden though, a bright, hot, blue light blared through the windows of the cabin.

“What is it!?” Monoma yelped. Sero, who was closest to the window, looked, only to recoil.

“The woods…they’re on fire!”

Mina felt her heart beating in her chest. They were under attack. Bakugou bared his teeth and would have rushed out the cabin door were it not for Vlad King blocking the way. Todoroki also stood up.

“What do you two think you’re doing? I’m not sending you out there!”

“And what, wait for the shitty villains to fry us?” Bakugou snarled.

“I can put the fires out.” Todoroki pointed out. “We need to deal with them before they spread too…”

Todoroki’s point was cut off though, as the wall next to the door suddenly exploded. Mina felt herself flying through the air only to hit the ground in a tumble, barely able to make heads or tails of the situation. She had a brief moment to register that the cabin had been completely demolished in some impact, and the other students had been scattered. Todoroki lay nearby, unconscious with a gash on his head. The others, like Mina, were trying to pick themselves up from hopefully less-serious wounds. All around them were splintered pieces of wood and metal pipes from the cabin. Vlad King was the only one on his feet, having shielded Kota from the impact, recalling several tendrils of blood that he had used in his attempt to keep the students from being too injured.

“Muscular…” Mina heard Vlad King growl. Mina felt her heart stop as she saw the villain that had destroyed the cabin. Muscular was a tall, hulking figure, muscles literally rippling out of his body like worms. He had a savage grin on his face that relished the destruction and violence he was going to inflict, and his one prosthetic eye completed the image of a monster in human flesh. To Mina, it was like seeing that giant villain from years ago again, but unlike that time, Mina knew full well that this villain outright wanted to kill them all.

There was a brief halt though as Muscular took in everyone around him.

“Huh…is the brat we’re supposed to grab here? Where is he…?”

Vlad King used the lapse to shove Kota over to Sero, who was closest to him, the lanky teenager wrapping his arms around the boy, before Vlad used the brief period of distraction to generate a blade of blood from his gauntlet, aimed directly at Muscular’s good eye. Before Vlad King could hit the villain though…

“DIE!!!”

The shout and following explosions from Bakugou drew the attention of Muscular to the hero in front of him, as Bakugou blasted in between the villain and Vlad, who only just yanked his blade out of the way before he could skewer Bakugou. Just as Bakugou had thrown his hands in Muscular’s face though, the villain smacked him away with the back of his hand, launching him through one of the trees nearby, bending it at the impact.

“Bakugou!” Vlad King shouted, worried for the student, before feeling two hands grab him by the shoulders.

“SHOW ME YOUR BLOOD!” Muscular screamed.

The villain pulled, and Vlad King screamed as his arms were yanked out of their sockets. Mina almost vomited seeing his shoulder bones sticking out of the mess of writhing blood tendrils that the hero had only just managed to generate to prevent his arms from being ripped off completely.

“Oh, yeah!” Muscular grinned at the sight of gore. “You’re that Vlad King guy, right! I’d always wanted to fight someone who could do shit like that with their blood! Too bad you’re so weak, though.” The villain kicked Vlad King in the head, sending him sliding away.

“B…Bakubro…”

Mina looked over at Kirishima, who saw where Bakugou had been smacked into. He was trembling, unable to move. Everything felt like a nightmare; fire burning all around them, searing like they were in a furnace. The only adult there batted away like a fly, and a grinning, horrible monster that wanted nothing more than to hurt him.

“Wait…” Muscular stopped, distracted by Kirishima and looking over at Bakugou. “Was that the kid I was supposed to grab? Nah, couldn’t be, he was too weak.” He turned his gaze over all the remaining students. “How about all of you though, huh? How about you give me a good time!”

Mina took in everything in a second. She was standing a few feet away from Kaminari. Kirishima was trembling and staring at Muscular. Sero had his arms wrapped around Kota, the two just as unresponsive. Sato was crouched over Vlad King, but looked just as scared as anyone else. Monoma was blubbering to himself on his knees, a few feet away from the knocked-out Todoroki. Mina felt a pipe by her foot…

“Obviously, Kaminari should not directly touch acid; he should instead stick something into the acid that he can conduct it through, such as a bar of metal.”

Thinking quickly, Mina grabbed the pipe.

“Kaminari!” she shouted, throwing him the pipe, praying that he got the message. She had a brief instant of his eyes widening in realization before she turned to Muscular. The villain saw Kaminari holding the pipe and snorted, thinking that Mina had handed him a weapon to fight.

“Alright kid, looks like your girlfriend…”

Muscular’s words were drowned out by Mina, pumping more into her Quirk than she had ever tried before, to the point that she could feel the burn herself on her skin, spraying a line of acid directly at the villain’s face and around his feet.

“MY EYES!!! YOU BITCH, I’LL FUCKING…!!!”

Mina ignored the scream and sprayed the line of acid over to Kaminari and away from the trail of blood Vlad King had left. He lifted the pipe into the air and shouted:

“Everyone get down!”

Mina tackled Kirishima to the ground, hoping that Kaminari could focus his Quirk enough to not hit any of them. Kaminari jammed the pipe into the acid, which gave off a violent hiss before he exerted himself just as much as Mina. There was a loud cracking sound and a smell like burning fish.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

Muscular’s grin was gone as he screamed, his flesh smoking and spasming like a mesh of snakes. Kaminari though didn’t let up, continuing to pour electricity into the pipe in his hands. Muscular seized up and collapsed, his body still spasming and screaming in horrific agony, making Mina clamp her hands over her ears to block out the sound.

Finally, it stopped, and over the sound of burning forest and her own whimpering, Mina heard the sound of a pipe hitting the ground. She looked up and saw Kaminari standing in the same position, slightly hunched over as he had jammed the pipe into the acid, though he was trembling. Mina crept over to him, her eyes glued to the still-smoking body of Muscular,

Oh God I killed him I made Kaminari kill him but what if he’s still alive we can’t do that again he’ll kill us he’ll kill us all oh God what do we do?

“…Kaminari?”

Kaminari didn’t answer, though she could hear a faint giggling coming from him. It wasn’t like the other times he had overcharged himself though, where he would mumble dumbly and stick his thumbs in the air. Here, he was giggling, but he was still staring at Muscular’s body, a faint trail of tears coming out of his eyes, his body shivering.

“Kaminari…” Mina felt her own body shake. “I’m…I’m going to help you over to Sero…okay?”

Mina put her hands on Kaminari’s shoulders as gently as possible. He let her guide him over to Sero where she sat him down. Sero was still staring at Muscular’s body, his eyes almost bugging out of his head, but seeing Kaminari and Mina, he blinked, managing to help Kaminari sit. Kota was also staring at Muscular. Thankfully, he didn’t seem as scared.

Next issue. Keep active. Don’t panic. There are still things to do.

The fire was threatening to spread further. They should be getting away from it, but that would be hard even if they didn’t have to carry Vlad King and Todoroki. Todoroki. He could put out the flames. But he was knocked out. Mina gaze fell on Monoma, who was gaping at Muscular in shock.

“Monoma…can…can you copy Todoroki’s Quirk and put out the fire?”

Monoma blinked at Mina for a moment before snapping out of it enough to speak.

“Yes…yes…I can do that…put out the fire, I can do that…” He crawled over to the unconscious form of Todoroki and tapped his neck. He put his right hand down and created a mass of ice that collided with the blue flames in a rush of hissing mist, but thankfully it was enough to put everything out.

Fires out. Immediate dangers done unless Muscular wakes up is he dead did they kill him should they hit him again…Mina shook her head, forcing herself back in the moment.

People are hurt. Do what you can for them.

She looked down at Todoroki. He was breathing, the only obvious wound a bruise and a small gash on his head. It didn’t look bad. Mina could only hope that it wasn’t bad, she didn’t know what else to do.

Vlad King was gritting his teeth and growling in pain, gasping through clenched teeth. Sato was supporting his head, but didn’t look like he knew what else to do. Mina wasn’t sure she knew much herself. She wasn’t sure that they could do much.

Set the bones. Right. They’ve got to set the bones so they don’t move around too much.

“S…Sato?” Mina whimpered. “D…do you think you can set his arms?”

Sato gulped, probably realizing how much this was going to hurt their sensei, but nodded.

“Yeah…yeah…I bake…I can keep my hands steady…I can do that…”

While Sato set about grabbing splints, Mina noticed a plastic cup on the ground that someone had been drinking from during the lessons.

Right. This was something else she could do. She picked up the cup and walked over the Kota, not seeing a cooler or anything else nearby.

“Kota? Could you fill this with water?”

Kota blinked, looking at the cup confused, but nodded and did what she asked without arguing. Mina held the cup in both hands as she made her way back over the Vlad King, scared to spill it.

“Okay…Midoriya said that just a drop or two of acid at the level of vinegar…”

Mina held her still-stinging finger over the cup, making sure she got the pH as close as possible to acetic acid before dropping one bead of it in, swirling it around to mix. Sato had managed to splint Vlad King’s arms as best as he could. Mina carried her concoction over, picking up a small stick.

“Vlad King…? Sensei…?”

She could see Vlad King’s eyes open just a bit.

“I…I’m going to disinfect your wounds…it’s going to hurt…so…just bite down on this…”

Vlad King opened his mouth, letting Mina place the stick between his teeth. As gently as possible, she poured a small splash onto his shoulders, anywhere he was bleeding. The hero growled like a bull dog, crushing the wood in his mouth, but held still long enough for Mina to treat him and for her and Sato to cover his wounds the best that they could.

What if I got the mix wrong what if I just made things worse is he going to be able to keep his arms is he even going to survive how far away is the hospital how are we going to get him help does anyone even know what’s going on?

Out of the corner of her eye, Mina saw movement in the woods. She prepared her acid again…only to stop as she saw Aizawa running towards them with Mandalay over his shoulder. He looked once at Muscular, but ignored him, for some reason going up to Mina.

Oh, right, she was the only person standing right now besides Kirishima.

“What happened?”

“…Villains…someone set a fire around the cabin…Muscular crashed through it…knocked out Todoroki, Bakugou, and Vlad King…Tried to disinfect Vlad King’s arms…”

Aizawa looked at the cup still in Mina’s hands, to Vlad King, and then to all of the students…

“Where’s Bakugou?”

“Muscular hit him into that tree…” Mina pointed, only to swallow her heart when she saw that Bakugou wasn’t there anymore. When this was pointed out, Kirishima looked at the tree, and then frantically looked around the woods.

“Bakubro? Bakubro?”

“Damn.” Aizawa cursed, placing Mandalay on the ground. Mina felt her stomach turn as she saw that something had hit her that had left long, jagged scars from her face down her torso; Aizawa had bandaged her face to the best of his ability with torn pieces of his costume.

“Bakugou! We’ve got to look for him!” Kirishima shouted, about to run into the woods himself before Aizawa snagged his arm to hold him back.

“I will find him. Stay here, keep out of sight as much as possible.”

“What!?” Kirishima yelped. “We can’t just…”

“There are still villains out there, and someone needs to look after the wounded. I am ordering you to stay here and only fight if you are attacked.”

Aizawa took the cup of makeshift disinfectant from Mina’s hands and smelled it, before sticking the tip of his finger in it.

“This will do. I need you to try to disinfect Mandalay’s wounds the best you can, but keep it out of her eyes.” He announced before running into the woods, following a trail that none of them would have been able to see.

“Aunt Shino…” Kota whimpered, walking up to Mandalay. He got on his knees, taking her by the shoulder, crying.

“Kota…let me treat her, okay?”

Mina knelt down, trying to block Kota’s view of Mandalay’s face the best she could before pulling off the makeshift bandages. She wanted the throw up; it was like Mandalay had been hit by multiple knives at once, almost peeling the skin from the right side of her face. The hero was breathing at least.

“Mandalay…I’m going to try to disinfect your wounds, alright?” Mina said, hoping that the hero could hear her as she gently poured small splashes of antiseptic over her wounds before replacing the bandages. Eventually, her cup was empty, and she had done all that she could.

“We…we’ve got to go after him…” Kirishima said, this time stopped by Sero.

“Not here, dude. Not like this. We don’t know what other villains are out there.”

Kirishima looked like he wanted to fight and argue, but Sero’s expression made it clear that he would use his Quirk to keep Kiri there if it came to that. With the two staring each other down, Monoma standing over Todoroki, either to protect him or to have access to the strongest Quirk possible, Sato watching over Vlad King, and Kota watching over his aunt in a panicked worry, Mina was left with nothing to do but pray that they weren’t going to get attacked again. Slowly, she sat down, hugging her knees to her chest, exhausted and terrified, but unable to calm for even a second for fear that someone else was going to come attack them. She felt movement next to her, and saw that Kaminari had picked up the pipe again. He seemed lucid enough, albeit terrified as her, but he stood next to her, giving her a glance as if to reassure himself that she was alright before looking back over the woods. Mina felt as if Kaminari was giving her a break, and finally, she allowed herself to start to cry.

They took him I let them sneak past he’s gone he might have been a jerk but they took him are they going to kill him are they still here how many others died where is everyone…

A few minutes after he left, Aizawa came back to let Mina and the other students outside of the wreckage of the Remedial Lessons cabin know that the League had escaped with Bakugou. It took hours for the police and paramedics to arrive, or at least that’s what it felt like to Mina. During that time, most of Mina’s classmates made their way back to the cabins. Aoyama brought back Hagakure and Jiro, both unconscious from the gas. Awase, a boy from 1-B brought back Yaoyorozu, who had been hurt by a Nomu. Aizawa came back, carrying Uraraka, who was covered in blood and so pale and she was hardly breathing, and all Aizawa could tell them to do was to keep her as warm as possible and keep her elevated and oh God was she going to die what happened to her? He came back later, carrying Shoji, but he was beaten up almost as bad as Vlad King, his arms and legs broken and he had trouble breathing. Tokoyami was with him, hurt by a bad burn that he had to keep a wet cloth on. He was conscious, but was hunched over, staring off into the distance, and didn’t want to be around anyone else. Despite wanting to just go home, to curl up under a blanket and cry, Mina busied herself making more antiseptic, treating whoever she could. By the time that Aizawa brought back Tiger and Pixie-Bob, both unconscious with bad head injuries, rescue workers had finally arrived and could start bringing in all the other students who had been knocked unconscious by one of the villains’ gas attack.

One of the rescue workers put a blanket over Mina’s shoulders while she sat, waiting for a car to take her out of there, the wounded taking priority. She saw them airlift Uraraka and Shoji away with Mandalay and Vlad King, wondering if that was going to be the last time that she’d see them alive.

Kirishima was fretting, unable to sit still, tapping his foot or pacing as he muttered to himself, trying to talk to any police officer or hero he could about what they knew about what happened to Bakugou. Kaminari had sat down next to her at some point, covered in his own blanket. She wished Kirishima would sit down with them and calm down, she just wanted everything to stop…

Eventually, Mina was taken aside to be interviewed by one of the police; actually the chief of police apparently, a man with a Beagle-like head named Tsuragamae. Mina told him what happened to her and the others at the Remedial Cabin. She wondered if she was going to get in trouble for what she did to Muscular, or for what she tried to do for Vlad King and Mandalay and the others; that wasn’t self-defense, after all. But she was too numb to really consider that, and just answered the man’s questions. He wrote everything down on a little notepad, which he closed once she had finished, Mina faced the ground, too tired and scared to lift her head.

“Ms. Ashido, there’s something you should know about how you acted tonight…”

Was what she did amount to a crime? Did she deserve to be expelled?

“You did everything right.”

Mina picked her head up. Tsuragamae’s expression was hard to read, but he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“You were faced with an extreme situation, and handled yourself to the same standard that I would expect of a pro.”

“But…Muscular…” Mina whimpered, still remembering the man’s screams, the smell of burning flesh.

“You were given explicit permission to use your Quirk in self-defense, and considering the options you had available to you at the time, you neutralized an extremely dangerous villain in one of the few ways possible. As for you using your Quirk for first aid purposes,” Tsuragamae closed his eyes grimly before giving Mina as close to an encouraging smile as possible, “I can make no promises about what will to happen to those you treated, but your actions have given them the best chance possible. As far as I can tell, you did nothing wrong, and you did everything that you possibly could to protect yourself and others. I know that this had been an overwhelming experience for you, but I for one am proud of how you have handled yourself.”

Mina felt her throat tighten up. She didn’t want to cry in front of the chief of police, but everything had been so overwhelming, with the threat to her life and to her friends, that she couldn’t help it and sobbed into Tsuragamae’s coat. The man hugged her gently, allowing her to cry herself out a bit longer before he had to move on to another student.

Mina’s parents hugged her tighter than anything she had felt before when she got home, crying in relief that she was okay. She spent the first night clinging to her mother, wanting to stay where it was safe, where people’s lives weren’t depending on her after just a term’s worth of training.

Eventually, she was able to pull herself away, albeit wrapped in a blanket in her room. Her mom and dad were watching the news in the living room, but Mina didn’t want to listen to it; to hear her class and her school raked over the coals again for being attacked by villains. From the little she could make out, the news wasn’t talking about anything that she didn’t already know, though a lot of it was about Bakugou, as reporters theorized why he had been taken by the League. The information that she most wanted to hear about; how her friends were recovering, she could get from the Class A group chat. Yaoyorozu and Todoroki were cleared pretty quickly. Hagakure, Jiro, and the others that had gotten caught in the villain Mustard’s toxic gas cloud were still in the hospital, though it sounded like they were going to be okay eventually. Uraraka, Shoji, Vlad King, and Mandalay though were still in intensive treatment. Tokoyami’s life wasn’t in danger, but apparently he had to receive skin grafts for a burn that he had received from one of the villains that had attacked. Eventually, she got a message saying that Tokoyami was going to be cleared, and Kirishima suggested that they all visit him at the hospital.

Mina still felt sick, but she wanted to get out, and to see her friends for herself to make sure that they were okay, so she asked her parents to drive her to the hospital where everyone was being treated. She met with the other twelve of her classmates that were still able to move around in the waiting area, where her eyes locked with Kaminari. He sent her a nod, and she managed to smile back to him.

“Awesome, it looks like everyone’s here!” Kirishima exclaimed as Mina arrived. Immediately, Mina could tell that something was off about her friend. He seemed glad to see them all, but he felt shifty in a way that she couldn’t immediately identify. His eyes shifted to Yaoyorozu every now and then for some reason, which the heiress seemed to pick up on herself, looking back at Kiri with a worried and suspicious glance. Kirishima however didn’t explain until they had all gotten into Tokoyami’s room.

The crow-headed boy was sitting in a bed at the far end of the room away from the door, staring out the window, only sparing his class a glance. Mina could see a large portion of his torso bandaged over, but he was well enough to be sitting upright. He still seemed scared though.

“Tokoyami, how are you feeling?” Yaoyorozu asked gently.

“…My doctor says that I’ll be released in an hour.” He answered.

“That’s good.” Yayorozu smiled. “We were worried about you.”

Tokoyami winced for some reason.

“Is something wrong?” Yaoyorozu asked.

“…I hurt Shoji.”

“What do you mean?” Ojiro asked.

Eventually, Tokoyami sighed, closing his eyes.

“…I lost control of Dark Shadow. I saw that villain Moonfish attack Shoji…and I was angered…it…combined with the darkness of the forest and overpowered Shadow…he overwhelmed me, and I lost control. I couldn’t get Dark Shadow to stop destroying everything…and Shoji was hit.”

Mina put her hand over her mouth in shock. She had been worried about hurting her friends with her Quirk when she was trying to disinfect their wounds…but Tokoyami had something just like that happen to him. She noticed also for the first time that Dark Shadow himself wasn’t out, occasionally popping out from Tokoyami to cackle or comment on something. She wondered how the Quirk felt from all of this.

“I…I don’t even know if I can be a hero after what I’ve done.”

“Tokoyami…” Yaoyorozu sat down on the bed and put a gentle hand on Tokoyami’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You were overwhelmed.”

Tokoyami didn’t look any more convinced. Everyone settled into an uncomfortable silence, until Kirishima spoke up.

“Okay…so…there’s something that I wanted to talk about.”

Everyone in the room apart from Tokoyami looked to Kirishima.

“What is it, Kirishima?” Yaoyorozu asked.

Kirishima looked around, making sure that only his classmates were in the room. “I want to try to rescue Bakugou.”

Everyone in the room flinched. Kirishima looked at all of them expectantly, only for Sero to break the silence.

“…Kirishima…I get that you’re upset…” Sero tried to speak, “but I don’t think that this is something we can really do anything about.”

“But we can!” Kirishima insisted. “We managed to get through the Camp attack, didn’t we?”

Mina started to feel sick. She remembered the Camp attack. She didn’t even want to think about the Camp attack, but Kiri wanted them to go through something like that again?

“Kirishima, even if we could do something about Bakugou, we’d have no idea where to look first.” Ojiro pointed out. Him saying this calmed Mina down a bit, and she hoped that Kirishima wouldn’t talk about it anymore, but he kept going.

“But we do!” Kirishima proclaimed, turning to Yaoyorozu. The heiress’ eyes suddenly widened in fear at some realization she had made. “Yaoyorozu attached a tracker to one of the Nomu that attacked us, so we can use that to find out where the League’s hideout is!”

The class turned to Yaoyorozu in shock, but none of them looked as surprised as her. This surprise though was slowly turning to anger.

“Kirishima…what are you talking about?” she asked in an undertone, as if trying to keep the conversation from the rest of the class. Kirishima though didn’t seem to realize this and proclaimed even louder;

“I heard you talking to All Might and one of the detectives; you gave them a receiver to find the League’s hideout! You could do the same for us!”

Yaoyorozu was pale, but stood up and got in Kirishima’s face.

“Kirishima, that is sensitive information! You can’t just blab about that!”

“But we’re training to be heroes!” Kirishima argued, his hands out and pleading to Yaoyorozu. “Isn’t this our job?”

“We are not heroes!” Yaoyorozu hissed in response. “We are students who do not have license to use our Quirks, let alone interfere in an extremely sensitive and dangerous operation!”

“Guys, back me up here!” Kirishima said, turning to the others, making Yaoyorozu even angrier. “We can’t just leave Bakugou with those villains, who knows what they’re doing to him right now?”

“Kirishima…” Sato spoke, obviously disturbed at what Kirishima was suggesting, “Yaoyorozu gave the tracker to the heroes, what do you think we could do that they can’t?”

“I…” Kirishima stammered before shouting, “Look, I can’t just stay here and do nothing! We can’t just sit here!”

“What else can we do?” Sero asked. “Yaoyorozu’s right, if we do this, we’ll just be getting in the way of the actual heroes.”

“If we were lucky, we’d just get arrested for vigilantism.” Rin pointed out. “More likely than not, we’d end up getting ourselves killed.”

“But we’ve fought them already!” Kirishima said, pointing at Mina, making her flinch. “Mina and Kaminari took down Muscular! I saw them! He was one of the most dangerous villains there and they beat him! We could do the same!”

Mina felt her skin crawl as the others all stared at her. Their attention didn’t make her feel good though. They made her feel like she was back at the Remedial Cabin…

“Mina, please, back me up here!” Kirishima said, getting in front of Mina. “Bakugou’s my friend…won’t you help me?”

Bleeding screaming smoking burning I got acid in his eyes he’s going to kill us he’s going to kill us I don’t know what to do I don’t know what to do I don’t know what to do…

Suddenly, Kirishima was shoved away from Mina, letting her gasp for air. When she got control of herself, she saw Kirishima staring in shock at Kaminari, who despite his usual dorky-trying-to-be-cool demeanor, was absolutely furious.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, dude?!”

“Wha…I’m just…” Kirishima stammered.

“Can’t you see how she feels about this?” Kaminari shouted, pointing at Mina. Yaoyorozu went to her and wrapped her in her arms, letting Mina crumple into her and sob as the memories came back. Kaminari just kept tearing into Kirishima.

“We only just managed to beat Muscular! And we almost killed him! We almost got killed! How could you ask us to go through something like that again?”

“But this is what heroes do!” Kirishima tried to argue.

“We’re not fucking heroes!” Kaminari shouted back. “We’re a bunch of kids who barely know what we’re doing half the time! Three of us have been killed this year alone! Two more…” For the first time, Kaminari stammered, noticing Tokoyami cringing, before he focused back on Kirishima.

“What do you expect me to do, then!?” Kirishima shouted.

“I expect you to let the heroes deal with it!” Yaoyorozu interrupted the argument, standing up and stepping between Kirishima and Kaminari. Kaminari backed away from Kirishima, still glaring at him, crouching down next to Mina, flinching for just a moment when Mina started clinging to him, though he hugged her back. She could feel him shaking, either from shouting at Kirishima, or remembering the cabin himself.

“Kirishima, did you invite all of us here so you could try to get people to convince me to make you a receiver?” Yaoyorozu accused Kirishima. The fact that he looked at the floor simply sealed his guilt. “Let me make something clear to you, Kirishima: I will not be doing that. Even if you do convince anyone else to back you up on this incredibly foolish idea, I will not help you. I am not going to send anyone out to do something so blatantly illegal and dangerous. Not after what has happened to us already.”

Kirishima opened his mouth to shout, but was stopped by Yaoyorozu pointing her finger at him.

“I hear one more word out of you, I swear I will bring this up with Aizawa.”

Kirishima gulped, looking once more to the rest of his classmates. Before they were simply unsure. Now however, seeing how what he had suggested had upset Mina so much, quite a few were scowling at him. No one was moving to defend him. He glared back at them and walked out of the room.

Yaoyorozu turned back and bowed to Tokoyami, who was likewise staring at Kirishima in shock.

“Tokoyami, I am so sorry that your injury was used as a justification for this. Truly, I hope that you will get better soon. I promise that I’ll keep you and everyone else up to date on any notices I get of Shoji and Uraraka’s conditions.”

Yaoyorozu and Kaminari helped Mina to stand back up, but she kept on clinging to Kaminari. He didn’t seem to mind anyway. Her parents were worried about why she was so upset when she finally left the hospital, but she didn’t want to tell them.

The next night, Mina still couldn’t sleep, and was trying to distract herself on her phone when she got a message on the chat. When she read it, she collapsed to the floor, sobbing in relief.

Yaoyorozu: I just got confirmation that Uraraka and Shoji have been taken out of the ICU; they’re going to be fine.

About an hour later, another notification, this one specifically sent to her:

Yaoyorozu: Mina, Vlad King and Mandalay are both out of the ICU. The doctors said that they probably survived because of how you treated them.

Mina’s parents heard her crying, and cried in relief themselves when she gave them the news. Her mom made her a mug of hot cocoa, letting her feel like a weight had been finally taken off of her shoulders. When she went to bed, she was ready to finally get some sleep when she got a call from Kaminari.

“Ashido? I just got the news from Yaoyozoru. How are you doing?”

Mina paused for a moment to get her thoughts together so she wouldn’t break down sobbing again.

“I’m better. It’s just…a weight off of my shoulders, you know?

“Yeah…it’s a relief…I was…I was pretty scared for everyone.”

Mina sighed. Even with everything that they had been through, in the end, this wasn’t as bad as the USJ, if only for the fact that no one died. She grimaced though as she reminded herself of Bakugou. He was still out there, still with the League. She tried to distract herself by talking to Kaminari.

“How…how are you doing?”

“…Okay…okay, I guess…” Mina heard something like drumming fingers in the background. “I’m…I’m really glad to hear that…that I didn’t kill him. I know he did a lot of bad stuff…but…”

“I know…” Mina said. “I know.”

“…We really need to thank Midoriya, don’t we?”

“Yeah…we do.”

The two were quiet for a moment. Mina felt so tired, but she was glad to have this distraction.

“You really stepped up, you know?” Kaminari said. “You came up with the plan to beat Muscular, you got Monoma to put out the fires, and you helped Vlad King and Mandalay. I just…after I hit Muscular, I was kind of useless for a while…”

“Hey, that’s not true.” Mina chided Kaminari, “You gave me a break after I helped Mandalay…I…don’t you remember getting the pipe back and standing next to me?”

“Kind of? I just kind of remember thinking that you looked like you needed help.”

Mina managed a small smile at this.

“Well…it was getting to be a bit much for me, so thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome, Ashido.”

Mina grimaced.

“Hey…just call me Mina, alright? It feels weird to be formal with each other after what we’ve been through.”

“…Okay…I…I guess it does. If you want, you can call me Denki, too.”

“Thanks, Denki.”

“Actually…I’ve also been meaning to apologize to you. I think that I might have gone a bit too far when I was yelling at Kirishima…”

“No.” Mina replied, cutting Denki off. “No…you didn’t.”

“…He really got to you, didn’t he?”

“Of course he got to me!” Mina burst out loud. “He was there! He saw what happened, what Muscular and those other villains did to our teachers! But we were the ones who actually had to use our Quirks in a way that could have killed someone!”

Mina had to take a breath, realizing that she had just shouted in Denki’s ear.

“…Sorry.”

“It’s okay…I get it.”

Mina had to take a moment to calm down after being reminded of how her best friend had acted.

“You two were friends, right? You went to the same middle school?”

“Yeah…yeah, we did. He was a little different back then. He was really shy and unsure of himself. He got picked on a lot. But in the year before we went to UA, he got really into self-improvement, making himself stronger. It was a good change. But lately…it just feels like he keeps making bad decisions. I still think he’s a good guy, but…”

“He hangs out with Bakugou.” Denki finished for her.

“Yes! And I just don’t get why!” she said, frustrated. “…Okay, I mean, I kind of get it. Bakugou’s strong and tough, so I guess that would appeal to Kirishima, but he’s also a huge jerk and a bully. He keeps giving everyone mean nicknames, he treats everyone like dirt, and the way he acts in our hero classes makes me think he likes to hurt people. And I just don’t get why Kiri doesn’t see that! I’m not saying that it’s good that Bakugou got kidnapped or anything like that, but I don’t get why Kiri is so fixated on him!”

Denki was quiet for a moment.

“…Well…if I’m being honest with myself, I’m probably not much better, with how I hang out with Mineta.”

“Hm.” Mina agreed wordlessly.

“I uh…I never apologized for the cheerleader thing, did I?”

“No…maybe you should do that.”

“Yeah…I think I will…once Jiro and Hagakure get out of the hospital, I’ll make sure I apologize to all of you. I mean…I’m sorry to you now, if that helps.”

Mina had to fight off a snort at how uncomfortable Kaminari sounded. Somehow, this boy had almost made her laugh even in the midst of everything that had happened to them. He was a good guy.

“It does, a little.”

“…Hey…I know I called to check up on you…but thanks for talking to me, Mina.”

“…Thanks for talking to me, Denki.”

The two hung up. Mina was tired, she didn’t want to go back to the USJ, or find that Muscular was there too. She was worried about what was happening with Bakugou, and what had happened with Kirishima.

Aizawa really was right. Life isn’t fair. But as Mina put her phone on her bedstand, thinking about Denki, she was glad that she had someone else who knew what she had gone through.

Bakugou got rescued, but All Might was forced to retire. Aizawa showed up at the Ashido house, and convinced Mina’s parents to let her live at the UA dorms. She didn’t want to, but she also didn’t want to give up her dream either.

She tried to look on the bright side of things, glad that she got to live with all of her friends, even if things were uncomfortable when they all arrived. Tokoyami was still shut off from everyone else, even more so than usual. Mina had been ready to talk to Kirishima. She thought that seeing that the heroes had the situation with Bakugou under control would have made him realize how crazy his idea was, but he glowered at the rest of the class when he showed up himself. As for Bakugou…for some reason, he was glaring specifically at Mina and Kaminari over most of the other students, which made Mina just want to keep her distance even more than usual. Uraraka acted happy…but Mina learned pretty quickly that whatever happened to Uraraka at the Summer Camp had left her jumpy, so Mina knew that she needed to be gentle with her. Shoji seemed fine once he had left the hospital, which was a huge relief. The worst that Jiro and Hagakure experienced was confusion as to what had happened to shake things up in the class so much. Eventually, Hagakure, or rather Toru at this point, sat down with Mina to ask what had happened. Mina had meant to try to give a bare-bones explanation, but Toru was someone that she had grown to trust, and after a few minutes, she was sobbing again as she recounted everything, though at least this time Toru was there to hug her.

After the Summer Camp, Mina had time to think. Her parents had seriously made her wonder about whether or not she wanted to be a hero. She still did, even if a lot of the glamor had been taken out of it for her, but it was really hitting her how dangerous being a hero was. Midoriya had given her good advice on how to better use her Quirk, but Mina knew that she needed to step up her game, fast. She had only just managed to survive the last encounter with villains, and she knew that it wouldn’t take long for something else to happen. At the same time though, she didn’t want to let all of this wear her down to the point that she couldn’t be happy at all. Denki called and talked to her even though he was probably feeling just as bad, so she needed to do her part too!

Mina managed to cheer everyone up a bit by suggesting they do a Room Showcasing competition. She got to show off her super cool, super pink room, she got to get to know her classmates a little better (who would have thought that Sero was so into the Asian aesthetic?), see Toru’s super-cute room, Aoyama’s super-sparkly room, Kaminari’s…well it was a room, play with Koda’s super-cute, super-soft pet bunny (which also made Uraraka a lot happier, making Koda one of Mina’s favorite people from then on, though he kind of already was,) and got to eat some of Sato’s chiffon cake! (Sato won the competition, even though Mina wondered if that might have been cheating, but she had sprung it on everyone, so he was probably planning on giving cake to everyone anyway; he was just literally sweet like that.)

Tokoyami stayed out of the competition, but thankfully a day later after talking to Midoriya, he seemed a lot happier. Interestingly, from that point on, he had Dark Shadow out almost all the time, so Mina got to get to know him more too. It was kind of weird how later on, she was one of the people that he had opened up to the quickest, but considering what she and Denki had gone through, it actually felt kind of nice to talk about. Looking back on her and Denki’s own meeting with Midoriya, she felt kind of embarrassed that she had basically spent half of their meeting crying on the green-haired boy, but she felt a lot better afterwards.

The next four days, Mina and the others spent their time training, perfecting new super moves. Ectoplasm helped Mina come up with a way to spray her acid farther, and she started working on some of the ideas that Midoriya had brought up, such as using her acid to fill special gas grenades. She still thought the idea of an acid mist was mean, but she wasn’t playing around anymore. She found herself working with Denki a lot too; apparently her acid mist was a lot easier to conduct acid through, so she helped make a few grenades for himself just in case he needed the extra conductor.

Kirishima, Bakugou, and Todoroki were off on their own throughout the training. Part of Mina really wanted to talk to her friend, but it didn’t feel right for her to be the one to make that effort when she hadn’t done anything wrong. She hoped that she’d be able to make up with Kirishima eventually though; she didn’t want to make it so that Bakugou was his only friend.

After their training, they went and took the Provisional License Exam, which was brutal. All the other schools ganged up on them at once, and it took everything Mina had to keep from getting tagged out during the first round. Despite this, and the fact that they were still only first years, Mina got through with the rest of her class…all except for Bakugou and Todoroki. Again, for some reason, he seemed to be specifically angry at her and Denki about this. This was especially weird because according to Denki, he had helped save Bakugou and Kirishima from getting taken out by a student from Shiketsu.

Mina got to find out a bit more of why Bakugou was acting this way the night after they came back from the exam. She and the girls were relaxing in the common room, congratulating themselves on passing, some of the boys including Denki were holding a video game tournament. Bakugou came into the common room and stood in front of Mina, startling her. When he got her attention, Bakugou turned and stared at Denki until he looked up, before looking back at Mina.

“Outside, we need to talk.” He growled before walking away.

Mina looked at the others, a little freaked out by what just happened. Yaoyorozu was glaring after Bakugou, Kirishima was looking at the situation unnerved himself. Denki looked after Bakugou too, since it looked like Bakugou was calling him out as well. Bakugou stopped by the door, glaring after Mina and Denki.

“Well?” he growled impatiently.

Mina responded with as much tact as she could muster.

“Um…no?”

“Yeah…no.” Denki added.

Bakugou rounded on them, though the girls rallied around Mina. Sero and Sato stood up for Denki.

“Raccoon Eyes, Dunce Face, outside, now!” Bakugou yelled.

“I said no, Bakugou.” Mina answered, her sass giving her a bit more confidence. “If you’ve got something to say, you can say it here. Though I might not pay attention, anyway.”

Mina heard Sero snort at this, though the girls grew more tense the harder Bakugou glared at them. Kirishima, speaking for the first time since the hospital, tried to diffuse the situation.

“Mina…I’m pretty sure he just wants to talk…” Mina frowned at her friend. Even if that was true, which she doubted, it was frustrating that he expected her to just go with him when he treated her like that.

“He looks like he wants to beat us up.” Denki spoke up. Kirishima frowned at him.

“Dude, not cool. Bakubro doesn’t want…”

“Shut the hell up, Shitty Hair!” Bakugou growled. Mina noticed that he didn’t say anything to suggest that Denki was wrong. She frowned at him, crossing her arms over her chest. With what she’d been through, Bakugou didn’t scare her. If he wanted a fight, she’d be ready, but she wasn’t going to let him push her around either. Denki went and stood next to Mina, glaring at Bakugou. Before Bakugou could shout at them again though, Yaoyorozu stood up.

“They said no, Bakugou. They’re under no obligation to talk to you if they don’t want to.”

“I said stay out of this, Ponytail! This is between me and these two idiots!” the Explosion teen shouted.

“I don’t think I will.” Yaoyorozu answered, standing between Bakugou and Mina & Denki. “If you try to make a problem with Mina, Kaminari, or anyone else here, you will either be dealing with me, or dealing with Principal Nezu.”

“Yaoyorozu, that’s a bit much…” Kirishima said, trying to step up to her, only for Yaoyorozu to give him a glare from the side of her eyes. Bakugou glared past Yaoyorozu and Kirishima as if they weren’t there to Mina and Denki. Mina just looked unimpressively back.

“You two think you’re so great, don’t you?”

“Well, we did get our Provisional Licenses today, I feel pretty good.” Mina smirked back, her sass just making Bakugou angrier.

“What, you think that just because you took out that shitty villain and pleased a bunch of extras at the License Exam that means you fucking matter? You think you’re better than me?”

“No, but us not calling people ‘extras’ probably helps.” Mina answered with a frown, annoyed to be reminded of Muscular again, but not wanting to give Bakugou the pleasure of knowing that it bothered her.

Bakugou’s temper started to show, popping sparks in his hands as he approached Mina and Denki.

“Listen here, you pink bitch, that stupid test means nothing. I’m going to be Number One, and the rest of you will be nothing but stepping stones.”

Mina rolled her eyes.

“Sure. That all you wanted to say? You really needed us to go outside for me to go through all the trouble of ignoring your temper tantrum?”

Bakugou didn’t take the sarcasm well though, as he stomped closer to Mina and Denki, shoving his way past Kirishima, only for Yaoyorozu to step in his way. Only then did he acknowledge anyone else in the room, glaring at the Class Rep, small pops coming from his hands. Yaoyorozu though was completely unfazed, glaring down at him. The two stared each other down.

“Well, Bakugou? What was it you were going to do?”

Bakugou gnashed his teeth at Yaoyorozu. The Class Rep showed no fear whatsoever, simply staring Bakugou down until he stomped his way back to his room. Kirishima looked overwhelmed, looking at Yaoyorozu, who was frowning in disappointment at him, to Mina and Denki, before running after Bakugou.

Mina sighed, deflating in her seat. She had been outright threatened, and Kirishima was still running after Bakugou.

Once the new semester started up, Aizawa brought in three upperclassmen that were called “The Big Three” to talk about Work Studies, which sounded like internships, just longer and more intense. One of the three was a blue-haired girl named Hado Nejire who was hyper even for Mina. Another was a boy with elf-ears named Amajiki Tamaki shyer than Koda. And the last was Togata Mirio, whom everyone knew at this point, even before he had rescued Bakugou (that last point being something that made Bakugou practically froth at the mouth at seeing Togata, especially when Togata tried to wave good-naturedly at him. It was pretty depressing seeing the sunny faced boy slowly wilt as he realized that Bakugou wasn’t happy to see him.) Togata took point in explaining what work studies were, claiming that they were what made the three of them the powerhouses that they were then. Some of the class questioned this in comparison to the internships, so Togata had all of them fight him at once. The one thing Mina could remember from the fight was Bakugou rushing at Togata, only to see the familiar sight of him getting backhanded away into the wall, and then three seconds of Togata slaughtering them.

Once everyone had woken up, disentangled themselves from each other, and pried themselves off of the floor, wall, and ceiling, Togata explained that in addition to a surprise Quirk Evolution he had experienced before his third year started, most of his talent had come from training through his Work Studies with Sir Nighteye.

Seeing Togata’s power and skill, this finally got Mina’s attention. This was how she could get stronger. It sounded hard, especially on top of all of the work that they had to do already, but when Mina had made the resolution to get stronger and smarter, she meant it!

The tricky part to this though was that in order to get a Work Study, you had to apply for one with a pro hero, specifically one that had made big accomplishments, meaning no one from the list of 40 heroes that UA did their internships would do. This certainly came off as unfair to Mina; if you couldn’t impress anyone in the Sports Festival enough to get a good internship, how could you get a Work Study? (Again, she had made it to the Second Round in the Fighting Tournament, why didn’t she get any internship offers then?) Hearing this, Mina was pretty sure that meant that she was out of luck. Still, she made sure to make an effort to at least try for a Work Study, sending out a few applications, thinking that was going to be the last she’d hear of it and that she’d be better off focusing on improving herself in school.

Which made it a huge surprise for her when both she and Denki found themselves in the office of the No. 8 Pro Hero Wash.

Wash had the most ridiculous costume that Mina had ever seen; he was literally wearing a washing machine. And yet the man was one of the Top 10 heroes of the country, above both Ryukyu and Gang Orca. And he had accepted both Mina and Denki’s applications to work with him. She couldn’t help it, she wanted to be sure that this wasn’t a joke:

“So…Wash…sir? I got to ask…why did you agree to take us on for a Work Study?”

“Well, you’ve both shown to be quite capable when you need to be. You’ve both got a lot of potential and have been working hard. I think that I could make some good heroes out of you!” The walking washing machine answered.

“…Really?” Denki asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m really grateful for this…” he said, waving his hands. “But everyone kind of says that we’re goofs.”

“Yeah? I dress up as a washing machine.” Wash replied. Mina couldn’t really argue with him on that. “But seriously, you’re both underselling yourself.” Wash moved the computer monitor around on his desk to face Mina and Denki, showing them footage from their hero exercises. “Sure, some of your work has been a bit…lacking…”

Mina and Denki winced at the footage of them running around screaming in their Final Exam.

“But it’s clear that you’re both working hard to improve.”

Wash changed the footage to the Provisional License Exam, showing Mina destroying several attacking balls with her Acid Veil technique, and Denki taking out the Shiketsu student holding Bakugou and Kirishima hostage with his weird “Meatball” Quirk.

“However, what really got me convinced to take you two on was how you handled yourself at the Summer Camp.”

Mina and Denki both tensed up and paled, remembering Muscular, the fire, Mandalay and Vlad King half-dead…

Wash stood up and put his hands on the two’s shoulders, bringing them back to the present. He was favoring them with a sympathetic look.

“I know that it was a traumatic experience, but when it really mattered, you both acted as heroes should. You followed instructions to the best of your ability, but when your instructors were incapacitated, you took charge, defeated an extremely dangerous villain, dealt with each of the dangers and threats you faced, established a safe zone for the other students to return to, and treated the wounded in a way that saved their lives. Goofballs though we may be, you two know when to take things seriously when the situation calls for it. So, you ready to work?”

Mina grinned. Yeah. She was ready to work.

Even if Mina hadn’t thought that someone as high-ranking as Wash would have taken her on, she had really been hoping for it. Wash had a reputation as someone who was a bit of a clown, but could be serious when he needed to be, which was exactly the kind of hero that Mina wanted to become. She didn’t want to get bogged down by everything that had been happening to her, and it was so nice to be around someone who had been a hero for a long time, who had seen the world at its worse, but could still find the fun in life. Wash’s Quirk “Clean Bubbler” gave him a knowledge of how to use different chemicals that was a lot of help to Mina’s own Acid Quirk, as well as just being a good crowd-control Quirk, which was one of the reasons why Denki had applied for Wash as well.

The fact that Denki was there too felt great for Mina as well. She appreciated all the times that he had stood up for her (he said the same thing for her) whenever Bakugou tried to get aggressive with them again. He had been going back to his dorky-and-cool self the same as her, and even if they worked hard, he made their Work Studies fun. It was particularly nice since Mina still hadn’t really spoken with Kirishima since the hospital. He had gone off on his own hero studies with Fat Gum, and Mina could only hope that he’d find a better role model with the hero than what he seemed to be trying to turn Bakugou into.

A few weeks into the Work Studies though, Mina got a distressing message about Kirishima from Uraraka, who was working with the Dragoon Hero Rykyu:

Uraraka: Kirishima got hurt during a raid we were doing. He’s alright, but he’s in the hospital.

Mina took the next opportunity she had to visit.

Kirishima was conscious, but wrapped up in bandages like a mummy with both of his arms broken. It almost looked funny, but considering what they had been through, how often their classmates had been hurt, and the fact that three of them had died, Mina didn’t feel like laughing.

Kirishima though seemed more surprised than anything to see Mina in his hospital room.

“…Mina?”

“Kiri? Are you okay?”

Kirishima blinked, shifting around as much as his bandages would allow him.

“Uh…yeah…I just got in a fight with this crazy guy named The Rappa…had to bust out ‘Unbreakable,’ but Fat Gum and me were able to take him down…How about you?”

Mina walked up to Kirishima’s bed, taking in how beat up he really was. Her concerned look made Kirishima wince.

“It’s…it’s been good with Wash…Denki and I took down a giant Snapping Turtle villain with him…”

For some reason, Kirishima frowned and looked away at that.

“That’s…that’s cool…sounds manly…”

Mina took a seat next to Kirishima’s bed, the two staying in an awkward silence, until Kirishima finally broke it.

“Mina…I’m…I’m sorry for what I did at hospital when Bakugou was kidnapped…it was really not manly of me.”

Mina sighed in relief. Better late than never, she supposed.

“It’s alright. Let’s just put it behind us.”

Kirishima nodded.

“Okay…thanks, Mina.”

There was more silence, and Kirishima coughed, breaking it again.

“Also…sorry that Bakugou’s been bothering you. I’ll…I’ll try to talk to him.”

Mina doubted that Bakugou was actually going to listen to Kirishima, but she appreciated the thought. Eventually, Kirishima spoke again, but Mina was shocked to see that as he stumbled over his words, there was a frustrated tear in his eye.

“Mina…also…I’m…I’m sorry I didn’t do anything…back when Muscular attacked.”

Mina blinked, trying to understand what Kiri was saying to her.

“What do you mean?”

Kirishima looked away from Mina, jaw clenched in shame.

“I just…when he attacked…I just stood there…he was going to kill us…and I just stood there, and you and Kaminari did all the work…you put your lives on the line…and I did nothing!” Kirishima shouted out loud, and his tears became more noticeable. As gently as possible, Mina put her arm over Kirishima’s shoulder.

“Kiri…I don’t blame you for that…what Denki and I did, that was just kind of a reflex, just something Midoriya’s notes mentioned that we happened to remember, we were just as scared…”

“But you moved! You did something, and you saved everyone!” Kirishima shouted, breathing hard. “You saved everyone…just like with that giant villain back when we were in middle school…”

Mina remembered that. The villain was dangerous, she was certain that he was about to kill her friends; she had just done the first thing she could think of and gave him wrong directions.

“Kiri…is that why you wanted to rescue Bakugou so much?”

Kirishima winced.

“Yeah…kind of…I just felt like I owed it to him…he’s kind of the man I’m trying to turn myself into.”

Mina winced at that.

“…Excuse me?”

“Whenever we’re in trouble, Bakugou never freezes up; he faces down any threat that comes his way without fear!” Kirishima grinned to himself, unaware of the look of shock and disgust on Mina’s face. “He says what’s on his mind, he sticks to his principles, and he pushes through to victory!”

Mina felt sick hearing this. She had beaten around the bush long enough.

“Kiri…I’ve been dancing around this for a while…but Bakugou’s not a good person.”

Kirishima looked at Mina in shock.

“What? How could you say that? Bakubro’s trying to become a hero just like all of us!”

“Kiri…” Mina buried her face in her hands before frowning at her friend. “I don’t know what kind of hero Bakugou is trying to be, but I don’t think that it’s the kind that you should be. Bakugou treats everyone like garbage, he threatens people all the time, and he keeps on running into situations the teachers tell him not to just to get into fights!”

“But that’s why he’s so manly!” Kirishima argued. “Look, Bakubro’s rough around the edges, and he could tone it down, but that’s just how he is! He’s never afraid of anything, he rushes in to fight threats head-on, like a real man!”

“Kiri, that’s exactly what got him kidnapped!” Mina said, making Kirishima wilt. “Heck, what do you think would have happened if you or me had tried to pick a fight with that giant villain? Do you think that I was being ‘unmanly’ by tricking him, or working with Denki to take down Muscular?”

“No! Not at all!” Kirishima tried to protest, wincing as he moved his arms around and making Mina calm down a bit out of concern for her friend. “It’s just that both of you faced your opponents without flinching, and that’s the kind of man I want to be! Someone who won’t back down, who’ll stand between villains and the people they want to hurt…and I’ve been trying to become that!” He looked at his bandaged arms. “I took Rappa’s punishment…I faced down a Blade Villain high on Trigger…I’m becoming more of a man…I can’t back down now!”

Mina inwardly groaned, realizing that arguing with Kiri was just going to upset him more. This was more than they had talked for weeks, and she didn’t want to make Kirishima isolate himself again.

“Just…Kiri…please…make sure you’re thinking about what you’re doing. If it’s not smart to run into something when there’s a better way to handle it, or when someone, even someone you think is ‘manly’ is doing something wrong…just…think about it…okay?”

Kirishima saw how upset Mina was and calmed down. Neither ended up happy, but at least they were talking again.

Midoriya might have been one of the nicest, coolest people Mina knew, but there were times where she had a bone to pick with him.

Namely, when they had combat exercises, and she was paired off against Yaoyorozu. Mina got a lot of good ideas from Midoriya, but ever since Yaoyorozu had met him, she had been basically kicking everyone’s ass in these fights, because she always had a plan to beat anyone in the class. The Sports Festival was the last time that Tokoyami and Dark Shadow had beaten her, as every other time they fought, she’d just create a flare, or flash her light at them, and Dark Shadow would have to retreat, leaving Tokoyami open for attack. Toru? Create a smoke screen and thermal goggles. Shinso? Create ear plugs and then shoot him with a bean-bag shotgun. Now Mina was fighting against her, and she was covered in some kind of powder that neutralized her acid, making her tap out.

Yaoyorozu apologized and gave Mina something to rub the powder off, while the two of them watched the other matches, leading to Denki get paired off against Todoroki. The Ice user wasn’t really popular in the class considering how closed off and dismissive he was towards everyone, but most of the class (especially Sero, considering what had happened when he had fought against Todoroki in the First Round of the Sports Festival’s Fighting Tournament) were looking at Denki in sympathy, thinking that the Electric-Quirk user didn’t stand a chance against someone with so much raw power. Mina though grinned, guessing what Denki had planned from his smirk and a wink he sent towards her.

“And…go!” All Might shouted.

Todoroki released a massive torrent of ice to envelope Denki as everyone expected. What people weren’t expecting was the surprise addition Denki had made to his costume; a small bit of filament on his shoulders facing outwards. They looked like Denki was just trying to look cool, but the shoulder pads were designed the same way as a high-powered camera bulb. All Denki had to do was pour a bit of electricity into them,

And suddenly Todoroki’s aim was thrown off by the flash of light Denki sent his way. Denki frantically sidestepped the oncoming ice, and threw out one of Mina's gas grenades, making Todoroki flinch again and giving Kaminari a chance to electrify him through the conductive cloud, making Todoroki seize up and collapse. All Might ran over to look at Todoroki before shouting.

“Todoroki is out, match goes to Kaminari!”

“Way to go, Denki!” Mina cried, running up to him as he left the ring, followed by a few of their friends, impressed at their class clown managing to beat the class powerhouse. Denki laughed, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Yeah…Midoriya’s been working with that Hatsume girl from the Support Department to overhaul my costume. When she found out that I can act like a living battery she filled it up with so much stuff I’m not sure I can even remember it all…”

Mina chuckled, having a bit of a similar experience with her costume. Behind her though, she could feel a malevolent presence, one she bet others sometimes felt when she was around them. She knew Toru was smirking as she was talking to Denki, and Mina had to fight off a blush as she talked to her friend.

“Ashido, you and Bakugou are up!” All Might announced.

Well. That was a mood killer. Mina took her spot in the ring, while Bakugou was grinning like a maniac at her, popping explosions in his hands on the other side of the ring. The class all stopped what they were doing, watching the match in trepidation. Mina saw Kirishima watching her and Bakugou with a look of concern, making her sigh. If he knew Bakugou enough to be scared about what he might do in a match like this, why did he keep defending him?

“No running from me this time, Racoon Eyes…” Bakugou growled.

All Might frowned at Bakugou, making sure he was ready to end the fight the moment things went too far, but Mina wasn’t backing down from this. It was time to try out her own trick.

“And…start!”

Bakugou rushed at Mina full speed like a rocket. Mina though released a cloud of her acid mist, thick enough that Bakugou had to fall back, blinking his eyes in irritation. Mina skated across the floor on her acid, spraying another cloud of mist at Bakugou. The blond asshole blasted overhead, firing explosions at Mina and forcing her to continually skate away to dodge. He was faster and stronger than her, there wasn’t any question about that, but Mina had a plan. The mist was meant to do a bit more than hurt Bakugou’s eyes after all…

After a minute, Mina’s plan started to play out, as Bakugou was slowing down, his explosions getting weaker for some reason he couldn’t understand. This was a bit of a weird trick that Mina had worked out between Wash’s training and Midoriya’s analysis; she had altered her acid cloud to make the droplets congeal on solid surfaces. They were at a more neutral pH, not meant to seriously hurt anyone, just collect on someone’s skin like a greasy slime, which had been mixing with and diluting Bakugou’s sweat the more she sprayed out. Eventually, Bakugou couldn’t keep it up any longer and fell to the floor.

“What!? What the hell?”

Mina took her chance and used the momentum from her skating to punch Bakugou in the face.

“You bitch!”

Bakugou wasn’t a pushover without his Quirk, but he couldn’t keep up with Mina’s speed with her Quirk combined with her dancing, and the next minute was her breakdancing over Bakugou’s face, swinging her legs in wide loops that eventually kicked Bakugou out of the ring.

“Bakugou has been knocked out of the ring, match goes to Ashido!” All Might declared happily.

Mina’s friends rushed her the same way they did for Denki, congratulating the other class clown for beating the other class powerhouse.

“Well done, Mina! That’s quite the ingenious use of your Quirk!” Yaomomo praised her.

“Thanks! It’s something I picked up from Wash!”

Yaoyorozu smiled.

“The Work Studies certainly have been boon, haven’t they? Yoroi Musha has certainly been a big help for me.”

Denki laughed.

“You should really see her with Wash, he freaking loves her!”

“Aww, Denki, he loves you too!” Mina joked back, slinging her hand over Denki’s shoulder, again trying to ignore that smug look she knew was coming from Tooru, and the murderous look coming from Bakugou.

“That was a manly match!” Kirishima shouted out grinning at Mina. “You both were so intense!” Kirishima tried to give Bakugou the same grin, but the Explosion boy had already stomped off to rub Mina’s slime off his skin.

Unfortunately, while Tooru had to go up against Kirishima, Bakugou stomped up to Mina, shoving Denki aside and grabbing her arm.

“I’m not falling for some stupid trick like that again, Racoon Eyes! You owe me a rematch!”

“What the hell!?” Mina almost winced at the pressure Bakugou was putting on her arm. “Get off me!”

“Dude, what the hell is your problem!” Denki shouted, trying to grab Bakugou by the shoulder and pull him away, only for Bakugou to shove him off.

“I’ll deal with you later, Dunce Face!”

“Bakugou! Unhand Ashido at once!” All Might shouted out, just noticing what Bakugou was doing as he finished refereeing for the fight between Kirishima and Tooru, both who had frozen at the altercation, Kirishima watching with a concerned panic.

Bakugou let Mina go, but continued to gnash his teeth at her.

“Well, Racoon Eyes? I want my damn rematch!”

“Bakugou.”

Yaoyorozu’s voice cut through the gym, drawing the attention of everyone. She glared at Bakugou, the only person that he would tear his attention away from Mina for, just to glare at her harder. Yaoyorozu stepped up to the ring that Kirishima and Toru had just come off from.

“If you want a fight, I’ll give you one.”

Bakugou gave Yaoyorozu a murderous grin and blasted onto the ring.

“With pleasure, Ponytail. I’ve been wanting to do this for months.”

“As have I.” Yaoyorozu answered.

“Yaoyorozu…are you sure about this?” All Might asked in concern. Yaoyorozu gave him a glance and nodded before looking back to Bakugou with her arms folded. All Might looked between the two, Yaoyorozu completely impassive while the sight of the Class Rep completely unafraid seemed to just make Bakugou angrier. The former No. 1 sighed and stepped away from the ring.

“…Start!”

“DIE!!!” As before, Bakugou blasted towards Yaoyorozu, though the heiress stayed completely still, watching Bakugou with disinterest. Bakugou snarled and at the last minute readjusted his flight so that he was in the air behind Yaoyorozu, his hands priming a massive explosion at the back of her head. “TAKE THIS, YOU STUCK-UP…!”

FFFWWWIIIISSSHHH!!!

Bakugou’s cursing was drowned out by the sound of fire extinguisher fluid spraying out the back of Yaoyorozu’s head. With his explosions cut off, Bakugou dropped to the ground in a heap. As he scrambled up, Yaoyorozu created something on her leg, turned around, grabbed Bakugou by the collar, and drove a steel-padded knee into his crotch.

Asshole though he was, the sight of Bakugou getting a hit like that, crumpling to the ground with his hands over his goods, mouth open as if he was trying to scream but was in too much pain to do so, earned him a sympathetic “ooohhhh…” from the boys of the class.

“Bakugou!” All Might shouted in concern, coming over to the boy’s side, wincing at his state. “I’d…better get some ice from the first-aid…”

“No need All Might.” Yaoyorozu said, creating a large bag of ice in her hands, which satisfied the former hero enough to back away. Bakugou though was trying to reach out towards Yaoyorozu as if he wanted to strangle her.

“You…bi….”

His voice was cut off though as Yaoyorozu dropped the bag of ice directly on his crotch, making him recoil even worse.

“If you attack our classmates like that again, the next knee pad I make will have spikes on it.” Yaoyorozu warned before walking off the ring, a few of the boys edging away from her in fear.

Kirishima meanwhile helped Bakugou stand up, while the blond boy had the ice bag clenched over his groin. Mina would have been fine with this; she accepted that Kirishima had chosen to be friends with Bakugou, and helping him after he had gotten his balls busted was something that a friend would do. Still, it hurt her to see Bakugou immediately shove Kirishima away as a thanks for helping him.

Denki noticed how Mina was clenching her arm and called out to Yaoyorozu:

“Hey, Yaomomo? Could you get Mina some ice?”

Yaoyorozu’s demeanor switched from “Mama Bear” to “Mother Hen” mode as she noticed Mina’s arm, making a cold compress for her. Mina managed a smile towards Denki before he had to run off for another match. Once he had gone, Kirishima went up to Mina.

“Hey Mina, are you alright?” Kirishima asked in concern.

Mina frowned and pulled her ice bag off, showing five finger-shaped bruises where Bakugou had grabbed her. Kirishima recoiled at the sight.

“Oh…did…did Bakugou do that?”

“Yes, Kiri, Bakugou did that.” Mina snapped. Kirishima stammered in response.

“Oh…well…I’m…I’m sorry…I guess he just got a little passionate there…”

Mina was already angry, and here she started to lose her temper.

“Passionate? Kiri, is that what this looks like to you?” Mina asked, pointing at the bruises on her arm. “This is not okay, Kiri! This isn’t him being ‘passionate,’ this is abuse and bullying! This is him being a sore loser and hurting me because of it!”

“Mina…” Kirishima’s voice warbled as he looked at Mina’s arm, “I’m…I’m sure he didn’t mean to…”

Mina had enough, groaning out loud.

“That’s it! I’ve had it! I am sick of you making excuses for him, Kirishima!” she shouted, leaving Kirishima standing alone to sit next to Toru. Quite a few of their classmates heard this exchange and favored him with similar glares. Eventually, he cringed away from them all and sat on the same bench as Bakugou, only for him to snap at Kirishima again and make him scoot further away.

Smug jerk though he was, Mina had to admit that Monoma did pull off a good plan with his team in their Joint Training Exercise. Mineta had been taken out by Shoda (Mina kind of wanted to give him a high-five for that), and Rin and Uraraka had been captured as well, leaving Mina the last member of her team standing. A big part of that though was the freaking Megazord Kodai had somehow managed to grow out of an action figure, smashing through their test site, easily weathering Rin’s scales and being too heavy for Uraraka’s Quirk to affect directly. Even Uraraka’s new tungsten weights had failed, considering how difficult it was for her to pilot the drones carrying them to drop on Kodai’s giant armor in the midst of battle, particularly with Monoma, Yanagi, and Shoda still active. Mina had been forced to hide while the four 1-B students were on the lookout for her.

This reminded her too much of her Final Exam the previous term. Mina was not going to have a repeat of that. For the time being, she had managed to find a place to hide amidst some crates while Kodai’s giant armor was searching for her. She didn’t know where everyone else was.

“What a joke! I would have expected more from the infamous Class 1-A, but it seems that their boasting is all hot air!”

“Monoma…keep your voice down…”

Well, that helped things out a bit.

Mina pulled out one of her gas grenades, pulled the pin, and flung it over the crate she was hiding behind. The next second, she heard Shoda and Monoma coughed and retching on her makeshift tear gas, giving her the opening she needed. She threw herself over the edge of the crate, noticing Monoma’s back was turned to her, and dropkicked him in the head, knocking him out. Shoda was only just able to open his eyes in time for Mina to swing a hook into his temple, taking him out. Quickly, she used capture tape to restrain them.

“Monoma Neito and Shoda Nirengeki have been captured.” The intercom announced. Mina though didn’t have time to celebrate, as she spied Yanagi flinging pipes and industrial equipment at her with her Poltergeist Quirk, making enough noise to get Kodai’s attention; the giant, red, head-finned armor turning towards the two and stomping over to them.

Thinking fast, Mina started skating to avoid Yanagi’s projectiles, pulling the pin on another gas grenade and flinging it at Yanagi, only for the grenade to freeze in midair and burst out a cloud of mist in the next second. However, it provided Mina enough cover to get out of Yanagi’s line of sight. Kodai though was still heading towards her. Mina’s instincts told her to run away, but she knew that she was running out of time and refused to go down the same way she did to Nezu. She pumped more acid out of her feet, skating through the wreckage and hoping she’d be able to dodge anything Yanagi could throw at her. Kodai’s armor reached forward, trying to grab Mina. She used one of her hoses to spray the most caustic acid she had available to dissolve through one of the fingers of the mech before it could close on her, giving her an opening to jump through.

Mina moved too fast for Kodai to grab, and she skated right between the legs of the giant armor, spraying more acid on one of the ankles of the mech.

“Timber!” Mina cried out as her acid ate through the metal of the leg, forcing it to crumple to the ground. Not wanting to give Kodai any chance to get back up, Mina tossed more acid globs all over the armor, which started to burn holes through the suit. Eventually, a panel on the armor’s back opened up, revealing Kodai…an uncharacteristically angry Kodai. Huh. Mina knew though that she couldn’t give Kodai a chance to recover though, and used the momentum she had built up to swing around and throw herself onto the armor’s back. Kodai’s eyes widened, and she desperately reached for her belt for something else to grow with her Quirk. Mina knew she needed to be a bit mean here, and tossed a glob of acid as Kodai’s hands, making her wince. The acid wasn’t strong, but it was strong enough to sting and make it too hard for Kodai to use her Quirk on anything, which gave Mina an opening to kick Kodai in the head and knock her out. She only just managed to tie Kodai’s hands together and get a capture announcement when Yanagi showed up, finally finding Mina through the maze of the testing area. Both frowned at each other. Their two teams were tied with three captures by this point, which meant if the timer ran out, it would be a draw. Neither was willing to accept that.

Mina made the first move, skating towards Yanagi. The ghosty girl was better at range, but Mina was confident that she was physically stronger, and could take Yanagi down if she got in close. Yanagi opened a pouch on her costume and sent a massive net towards Mina, which she cut through with a swing of her arm. Yanagi tried to send more junk at Mina, but she simply skated around it or burnt through it with her acid. She grinned, confident. Yanagi might have a spooky Quirk, but her acid could deal with anything she threw at her!

The 1-B girl threw open another pouch, revealing a handful of ball bearings which she sent towards like shotgun pellets. Mina threw up an Acid Veil, dissolving them all. She made it to Yanagi, whose eyes were wide at the sight of the more athletic girl about to punch her out…though for some reason one of her fingers was pointed behind Mina, only to flick towards herself just before Mina could reach her. Mina felt a harsh, painful impact on the back of her head, knocking her to the ground in a daze, and realized that Yanagi had sent one of her ball bearings out behind Mina when she had blocked her sight of the girl with the last Acid Veil. Stunned, Mina felt capture tape around her wrists, and heard the last announcement;

“Ashido Mina has been captured. Team Monoma wins.”

“Ugh…you got me.” Mina groaned. Yanagi was apparently a good sport though and helped take the capture tape off of Mina’s wrists.

“Perhaps, but you were quite the challenge. I was only just able to stun you at the end.”

Mina pouted, frustrated that she hadn’t won.

“Well…good game anyway.” She said, offering her hand for Yanagi to shake.

“Indeed.” The ghosty girl answered. “Though…I should warn you…you have probably earned Yui’s eternal ire…” Yanagi said, looking over at the fallen giant armor. “She’s quite enamored with Sentai shows, and was very fond of her ‘Megazord.’”

Oh. So that was what that was about. Mina was more caught off guard by Yanagi’s way of speaking, which reminded her of something incredibly important.

“Hey…have you met my classmate, Tokoyami?”

Yanagi looked at Mina quizzically.

“No?”

“I’ll need to introduce you two after the exercise is done.” Mina answered, hiding a smirk as one of her shipping projects was about to come to fruition. It allowed her to distract herself from her loss, until she got to the viewing room with everyone else, where her class suddenly mobbed her.

“Mina, that was incredible!” Tooru squealed, bouncing.

“You took down three of those guys all by yourself!” Sero said with a wide grin.

“And one of them had a friggin’ Megazord!” Denki shouted. “That was seriously the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

Mina blinked at the praise, but decided to roll with it. Sure, it was a loss, but it was still better than the Finals. Everyone seemed happy, so Mina decided to be happy. Even as Yaoyorozu left with Tokoyami, Tooru, and Aoyama, Denki was still chattering about her fight and how cool he thought it was. Mina couldn’t help but grin, remembering Denki’s match, and how he had managed to use one of the gas grenades she had lent him to fight against Shiozaki’s vines, as well as set up a trap that made it easier for him to use his electricity to take down Shishida’s team.

As Mina was talking to Denki though, she noticed Kirishima watching her out of the corner of her eye, looking as if he wanted to talk to. Seeing him though reminded Mina too much of their last talk, and she intentionally looked away. Doing this made her feel like a jerk, but it still frustrated her so much that he was still hanging out with Bakugou even though the bully never called him or anyone else by their real name, would push him around so often, and yet Kirishima kept on making excuses for him. It was just something that Mina didn’t want to have to deal with.

Mina kept up Acidman, the Super Move she had based off of Kirishima’s Unbreakable form, powering through Dabi’s flames as she was leapt in the air towards Gigantomachia’s head. Just as Acidman gave out, she had made it through the flames. Mt. Lady had pried the monster’s mouth open, ready for Mina to throw the jar of sedative into his mouth.

“Wasting my time on these insects is worse than taking a detour.” The monster spoke. “I must do this for Master.”

Mina’s eyes went wide.

“That voice…” she thought.

Mina remembered that day.

“You’re not going to tell me?”

“Why won’t you tell me…?”

She flinched, letting go of the jar just a moment too soon before she could build up any momentum. Gigantomachia grabbed Mt. Lady by the head and flung her off. The jar was suspended in the air above Mina, just out of reach, just below Gigantomachia’s quickly descending hand. She was going to die. She was going to die. She had failed everyone, and she was going to…

Mina felt herself being batted out of the path of Gigantomachia’s strike. She saw Kirishima in his Unbreakable form, braced against the monster’s hand as he was slammed into the ground. She felt herself flung away, rolling on the ground. When she stood up, it was just Gigantomachia’s hand, flattened against the earth.

“KIRISHIMA!!!”

Mina tried to reach for Kiri, the friend that she had abandoned, but was held back by Tetsutetsu. She had failed. She had to be saved by Kirishima. He was dead. It was her fault. She choked up, everyone was going to die, she let everyone down and Kirishima died thinking that she hated him…

“My name is…Red Riot!!!”

Mina’s eyes went wide at the shout.

“I won’t let anyone behind me get hurt!”

Kirishima was climbing up Gigantomachia’s arm, challenging the monster that had scared him so long ago, another jar of sedative in hand. His jar was destroyed, but he caught Mina’s, and threw it into the monster’s mouth.

“…You did it…you did it, Kiri…” Mina thought to herself.

It was probably the most heroic thing Mina had ever seen. Whatever her issues with Kirishima, Mina knew that he was a hero.

Sadly though…it wouldn’t be the happy ending Mina had hoped for.

Mina had gone through the past few weeks in a haze; trying to rescue and treat the heroes caught in Gigantomachia’s rampage, finding Ms. Midnight’s body, hearing about Todoroki’s death amongst so many others, hearing about all of the corruption revealed by the UN and WHA investigations, the funerals, the announcement of the dissolution of the hero system; it all seemed to build on itself, a new tragedy every minute, hour, and day. The USJ, the Summer Camp? Those were nothing compared to the horrors that Mina saw at Jaku. And yet, there was always something else added on top of it. There was no rest, no opportunity to go into a corner and cry, because there was always another horrible thing being revealed. When the Prime Minister announced the dissolution of the hero system, Mina almost felt a perverse pleasure, because it felt to her that at least things couldn’t get any worse.

It was only when Tsuragamae announced that they really weren’t going to become heroes that Mina felt as if she could breathe again. It was like being shaken awake from a nightmare to face a world that was just as tough. At least here, it felt like she had some control over her life, that she had the choice to just go home to her parents, curl up on her bed, and never leave again.

“These are transfer papers to the other courses of UA. If you decide that this course isn’t for you, there is absolutely no shame in transferring to something that would make you feel happier and safer. If you have doubts about whether this is the right path for you, I would encourage you to talk to me as soon as possible.” Tsuragamae said. Mina tried to think about it, and realized that she couldn’t. She had been through so much to try to become a hero, and now that it wasn’t an option any more, was there any point to staying? The thing was, the heroes were still there, still trying to protect and help people, but what did all of that mean with these changes? Mina knew that she wasn’t going to be able to understand all of this in one day, and left the class, thinking that her best option would be to just try to get some sleep, hoping that she’d be able to think more clearly later. She’d talk to Tsuragame, she’d talk to her friends, she’d talk to her parents, and hopefully someone would be able to explain to her what this all meant now. Maybe for the time being she was only staying because she didn’t know what else to do, but she didn’t think she wanted to leave just yet, not with how unsure she was now.

As she was about to head to her room though, Mina noticed Kirishima walking by, carrying a stuffed duffel bag with an excited grin on his face.

“Kiri?” Mina asked, getting her friend’s attention. The fact that they had made up was the only good thing that had come out of the past few weeks. Mina stayed away when Bakugou was around, but she didn’t want to leave Kiri’s life completely. “What’s going on?”

Kiri looked sheepish for a moment, looking at his duffel bag before putting his big grin back on.

“Well…I’m leaving UA.”

Mina’s eyes widened.

“You’re…leaving UA? After everything?”

“Yeah…I mean, Tsuragamae said that we’re not going to be heroes anymore…” he said with a frown, before glaring again with renewed fervor. “But Bakubro and I are going to change that! We’re going to bring back heroes!”

Mina felt her heart drop into her stomach.

“Kiri…what…what does that mean? What are you and Bakugou doing?”

“We’re going to go out and be heroes, even if the HPSC’s gone!” Kirishima shouted excitedly. “We’re going to go out and help people, and stop the villains that have been showing up!”

In some circumstances, Mina might have seen the appeal in this; heading out and fighting against all of the chaos outside rather than just staying behind the walls of UA, but if Kirishima was going out with Bakugou…nothing good was going to come out of that.

“Kiri…I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

Kirishima just shook his head in response.

“I can’t just stay here, Mina. I’ve got to do something!”

Mina felt her heartbeat race, and she tried to keep herself from panicking.

“Kiri…why not just stay here? Why not work with Tsuragamae? I know it’s probably going to be different…but if you want to help people, I’m pretty sure we can still do that. But if you go out like this, you could get in trouble…especially if you’re going with Bakugou…”

Kirishima grimaced, hanging his head before speaking again.

“Mina…don’t get me wrong, the police are manly, but I don’t think that they can do the kinds of things heroes can.” He put a grin back on his face and walked away, shouting over his shoulder. “Don’t worry though! I bet Bakubro and I will be back before you know it! Once we show everyone how manly heroes are, UA will be back to normal and we can all be heroes together again!”

“Kiri…Kiri…don’t do this!” Mina panicked, running after Kirishima, but he had already jumped into a moving van, waving goodbye to Mina out of the window.

“I’ll keep in touch!”

“Kiri!!!” Mina yelled, but the van had already gone away, taking Mina’s friend with her. She was left shaking on the sidewalk, before collapsing to her knees. She heard some footsteps behind her, staring after the moving vans that were taking Bakugou and Kirishima away.

“They’re…actually leaving?” she heard Denki say.

“…I hope they know what they’re doing…” Yaoyorozu said.

Mina doubted that. She seriously doubted it.

Bakugou and Kirishima were not the only ones to leave the Hero Course. Aoyama and Rin’s families both pulled the two and moved back to their home countries, with Mineta soon following. About a week after Kirishima had left, Uraraka tearfully announced to the class that she was transferring back to General Education.

That left just twelve students still in 2-A. They had lost so many; Tsuyu, Habuko, Iida, and Todoroki had all been murdered, Kirishima, Bakugou, Rin, Mineta, and Aoyama had all left. Uraraka and Shinso had joined up early the previous year to fill the class up again, only for Uraraka to be dropping out now. The dorm room and the 2-A classroom felt so empty; it was a relief to Mina that they were spending so much time as a class combined with 2-B. Sitting in a half-empty classroom just didn’t feel right. Sometimes she wanted to just be with everyone, to just hold them together so none of them would leave or die, and there were other times where she just wanted to sit in her room alone. It made it hard for her to focus on the lessons Tsuragamae was trying to teach them.

For the week after Kirishima left, Mina was worried sick. She called Kirishima, begging him to rethink what he was doing, but he’d always shut down after a certain point, reassuring her that he was fine before hanging up to go on some other vigilante spree with Bakugou. She ended up getting more information out of his parents, where he and Bakugou were staying at the time, but everything that she heard from them just made her feel worse. Frankly, they were scared of Bakugou, and tried to talk to Kirishima to make him see sense, but he’d feed them the same lines that he had fed Mina and everyone else, insisting that Bakugou was “manly” and that he was dedicated to bringing the hero system back. However, Kirishima’s mother would tell Mina in conversations that eventually devolved into panicked crying about how Kirishima would often come back bruised or with burns on him, as if he had been taking some of Bakugou’s explosions. Every day he came home, he’d come back a little more scared. He insisted that it was because of how rough society was getting, but his parents noticed that over time he had become more timid around Bakugou and on edge, as if he was picking up on his temper more. Eventually the police started dropping by to try to talk to the Kirishimas. According to the police, Bakugou and Kirishima had been getting into fights far more brutal than anything Mina knew Kirishima would bring himself to do, with some of the victims of these attacks wanting to press charges against the Kirishimas for harboring two people so dangerous. It got to be too much, and Mrs. Kirishima sobbed to Mina that her husband had enough of the two and had one last argument with his son, telling him that he had to either break off his partnership with Bakugou or get out of the house and not come back.

About half a day after that call, on the same day that Uraraka announced that she was going back to General Education, a notification came up on Mina’s phone while she was eating dinner with the class. She looked at what had come up on her feed, and felt her heart stop.

“Mina? What’s wrong?” Tooru asked.

“Mina?”

“Mina? What is it?”

People were talking to her, but Mina couldn’t hear them. She just put her hand over her mouth to stifle the sobs, collapsing to the floor as she saw the image of Kirishima being pushed into a police car.

“…Why?” Mina asked weakly.

Kirishima was sitting on the opposite side of some plexiglass in a prison uniform. He couldn’t look at her in the eye.

“…I thought he was manly…” he mumbled. “He was…he was the opposite of who I was in middle school…” Kirishima picked his head up, his face pale and his eyes hollow as the realization of what he had done was hitting him. “You…you were always so tough…stopping bullies that I couldn’t…stopping Gigantomachia…and I couldn’t do anything…I wanted to be someone equal to you…But…” Kirishima’s eyes filled with frustrated tears. “I…I just wasn’t good enough! I had thought I had gotten better…but when Muscular attacked, I was just as spineless as I was before UA!” Kirishima bent over, his hands over his head, moaning. “I thought…if there was anyone who could make me…change me from the weak coward that I was…it was him…"

“Kiri…” Mina whimpered, “You were a good person…you might not have been that brave…but you knew a bully when you saw one…you tried to stand up to them…why couldn’t you recognize Bakugou as one?”

Kirishima could barely pick his head up.

“I thought…he was training to be a hero…”

That was it, wasn’t it? Heroes were just good. It didn’t matter what they did, as long as they were a hero. It was only in the past year that they had begun to realize how wrong that was.

“Mina…I’m sorry…”

Mina couldn’t take it anymore, and she ran away sobbing. She could barely see anything as she walked out of the prison and rode on the train back to UA. She tried running to her room, but was caught by several pairs of arms hugging her. Somehow, this just made her cry even harder.

“Just let it out, Mina." Toru sniffled.

“We’re here for you.” Yaoyorozu said.

“I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HIS FRIEND!” Mina wailed. “HOW COULD I JUST LET HIM HANG OUT WITH BAKUGOU LIKE THAT!? HOW COULD I JUST LET HIM GO!? ”

“Mina…” Denki spoke softly into her ear, surprisingly being the first one to hug her, “it’s not your fault…you tried to talk to him so many times, you tried and did everything you could…it’s not your fault.”

Mina fell to her knees wailing, still feeling the warm presence of her friends hugging her, letting her cry again, like so many times before.