Code-name: QUIRK. Designation: Weapon.

Chapter 1: Just a Mission

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia (yada yada yada)

This is my 4th Fanfic. It's also my first try at a full Alternative Universe, so I hope my writing style will get better with each chapter.

Also, credit where credit is due, this fic was inspired by "The HERO Project", by Flying Porkchop. Check his fic out! After you finish this one, of course hahaha.

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Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Focus. And don't mess up.

2:58 AM

Pulling herself up, Mina left her hiding spot between the foliage and started sprinting towards the side of the building, leaving the shadows that had concealed her presence. Her breathing was already erratic. Sneaking in the woods for a full hour had been hard enough. Doing it quickly to be where she in position on time had only upped the difficulty of it. And now, her body wasn't reacting so well to the anticipation of what could happen if she was found, or if she was just a second too late or too early. It was her tenth mission. She should have it controlled by know!

As she approached the building nearest wall, she generated a small coat of thick, strong acid on her hands as she readied for jumping as high as she could. When she lunged upwards, she placed her hands on the wall, dissolving part of it and creating holders, to which her fingers hold for her life. She sighed in relief. One thing she had worried about was done. She was on the wall. Now, climbing.

With all the strength her arms gave her, she started generating more holders as she put a hand in a higher level. Left, right, left, right. It was harder than climbing the rope, having to maintain her hands against the wall for a small interval of time to let her acid dissolve enough concrete to let her proceed to the next one. It wasn't until her feet reached the level of the first holder that it became easier. Now, with a stable footing, she could ascend at a higher pace. Her lips curved. 'I'm rocking it!' she though as her unique eyes fixed themselves on her objective: The nearest window, 5 meters ahead of her.

As she approached her window and her muscles started to ache, a soft voice appeared from the communication device on her ear "Ok, Ashido, the signal is going in 20. Are you in position?" asked a female voice, which, although stern, did little to cover its owner's fear. Mina sighed, worried for her. The General had actually let Yaomomo command this mission, after a long time. The decision had perplexed Mina, to say the least, and she knew she wasn't alone on the sentiment. On one hand, it could make wonders for Yaomomo. She needed a victory. They all did, and if all went well it would be cause of celebration. A chance to erase all digital records of known quirks in their country… it would do wonders for them. Not taking account of the possibility of taking out an important target. On the other… she hadn't recovered her whole confidence after her previous defeat, which had taken a toll on both her self-confidence and initiative. Not that Mina could hold her accountable for it. No, there was someone else that holds much more responsibility on that regard, and she blamed her.

"Yeah, just one… more… there we go!" she answered, as she gave a last push and reached the window's height. Looking down would be a bad idea at the moment. However, if she did anything wrong, she would want to had ended with the 6 meter drop she was being offered at the moment.

"Ok, you'll have less than a 5 second window. Mei is sending the code in 5, 4, 3, 2, go in!"

As she heard the command, Mina threw a coat of acid all over the window, covering it entirely. As soon as she heard the sound of glass dissolving, she pulled up and let herself fall inside the building. Luckily, the plan had gone perfectly. She had been there exactly at 3am, moment when the main computer restarted itself as to avoid overloading. While the computer restarted, the less technological sensors had proceeded to activate. Sensors that could be disrupted with the use of a small frequency EMP for a short amount of time, and leave no record of said disruption. Even if she wasn't the smartest person in the team technology-wise, she had a decent grasp of the basics.

Unluckily, she hadn't planned her landing, and found herself falling head-first into the ground.

"Crap! Nice, Mina" she mumbled to herself, sitting down against the wall and rubbing her forehead and her horns. "Ashido here. I'm in. I´ll report once I've found one of the targets. Prepare yourselves to come get me" she whispered to the earphone. Feeling the pain going away, she looked at the former window, now a hole in the wall, and then at her hands, which still had remains of the acid she had thrown. Her own power. Her Quirk.

They were now on the third decade after quirks have first appeared. She had been told only stories about the first years. How some people started to discover they had been granted abilities which made them more than human. No one knew how or why. One moment you could be on your living room trying to reach the TV remote, and the next one the remote flew across the table to your hand. Suddenly, you were using your powers to steal stuff undetected from a block away. Luckily for the non-quirked majorities, quirked individuals were so rare, it was a matter of profiling them and controlling their actions. Many of the initial criminals were put away, but some, the most powerful ones… they couldn't be faced. How do you face a guy who has the ability to level down buildings, and inhabits in a residential area? And worse, how do you do that if you don't even know when he will strike again, or who he is?

The answer came in a beam of light, so to speak: Heroes. Incredible individuals with powerful quirks or amazing abilities who fought against the evildoers. Quirked or non-quirked, the good people had had enough of watching how bad men and women gave the wrong idea: that quirks were evil, and that power corrupted. They used their own power to battle against the crime syndicates, the mobs, the super powered terrorists, and, with that initiative, the world reached a couple of years of peace.

With that thought, Mina picked herself up and pulled out her 'Acid Gun', as Mei called it. A single pistol, somewhat similar to a water one but made out of metal and alloys, connected to a device that covered her left forearm by a tube that ran from said device, up her arm and behind her neck, then offering free maneuverability of the gun. She followed the steps she had been taught to activate the contraption in her left arm, and, after turning it on, she started the process of secreting acid of her forearm to fill it, while she started to run down the corridors of the building, searching at least one of the things she had come for. She had to go downstairs and find the mainframe.

'If only things could have stayed that way' she thought. It wasn't the first time she had that thought, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. After a couple of years of what historians now called 'the Hero days', a madman in a position of power uttered the infamous words that would shape the world to the state it was now. Five simple words, so basic in nature they could have been said by a 4 year old. The difference was that it was said for the media to exploit, for the world to hear and for the government to react: "We have the strongest heroes".

Those damning words, words which started the slope that would destroy families and whole cities. In no time, governments had their armies talking. Did they have the strongest heroes? How strong were they in comparison to their neighbors? Armies, Generals, even Presidents approached their country's heroes and ask them a single question: 'Would they serve?'

Many heroes declined, of course. They were warriors of peace, not of war, and they would keep serving the people as such. Some months passed were the people who wanted peace actually thought their pleas, speeches and protest marches had actually worked. Some governments made their decisions public. They would never think about starting a war, and would actively talk against it. Others just hoped the atmosphere would go away.

That was until a couple of them revealed that the future of peace was just an illusion. They had gotten superheroes to side with them. War was now fought with super powered beings. A normal military occupation, which in the past would have involved tactics, machines and the like, was completely discarded. Because no army on earth alone could face another which had an individual with the power of exploding suns. No tank would be able to even tickle a woman with strength so great she could throw one over her head with her pinky. The countries that were now under attack had no way of assuring any safety for their soldiers on the battlegrounds. Battling one of them was a slaughter. So the heroes who had stand against this, and said no, now were given a reason to serve. Only they had a chance to defeat the powered beings that were being used as weapons, by becoming weapons themselves. They registered themselves on the military and got training and a rank. They were officially soldiers in a war that their mere existence had started. A war most of them never wanted.

A war Mina hadn't wanted either, she thought as she ran, but for her entire life, that's what she'd known. As she ran, a source of light caught her attention. Suddenly aware and with all of her senses focused, she slowly approached to see that it came from inside a room, with chatter behind the door. At least 2 voices came from the room, a man and a woman, probably soldiers. Soldiers who could sound the alarm.

"… little town a couple of miles west, and a nice pub. Would be nice if you joined"

"Thanks, Max, but I don't think I would mix that well with you guys" answered the woman, giggling.

Preparing her weapon, Mina put her hand in the doorknob, and started her countdown. Three. Inhale, exhale. Two. Inhale, exhale.

One.

Pushing the door, Mina found herself in an office, a desk with a computer in the middle of the room and another door on the back, probably going into another one. Tall file drawers against the walls. The guy was sitting on top of a desk, looking directly at her, his expression one of pure shock, hand already going for his weapon still in the holster. The woman was probably behind the computer, as she could not see her from where she was standing. The man put the hand that wasn't fighting with the holster up, maybe trying to beg for mercy. Mina didn't care, nor gave it a second thought. With a serene face, she aimed and pulled the trigger. A single shot of acid at the speed of a bullet flew towards the man and hit his hand. Only it didn't stopped there. The acid continued its straight trajectory and hit him in the neck, finally stopping after reaching the wall behind the man.

Leaving a still standing corpse with two gaping holes, eyes open in surprise, like if the body still hadn't realized it was already dead.

As soon as the man started falling, Mina jumped over the desk and turned her sight to see the female. She was ready to pull the trigger when her outfit got her attention. She wasn't in uniform. More importantly, she was in a suit, common for a secretary. She wasn't a fighter. She was absolutely terrified of her, and Mina couldn´t blame her. She had just killed her coworker, and was pointing her weapon directly at her. She could end any threat from her and pull the trigger. It would make it so much easier…

This was her work, after all. Nearly all quirked individuals, independently of their power level, served their respective governments. However, not all quirked people had the strength of a General, like General Yagi or General Todoroki. Those were the kind of people you could see in the middle of a battleground. Individuals who, by taking a single step into the battlefield, they could change the entire course of a battle. They could obliterate the opposition in a matter of minutes. They were gods among mortals, in a way. However, not all quirks worked that way. Many of them, like hers, could be used for offense but weren't considered as powerful. Quirked individuals like that couldn't be sent into battle, because, if they were recognized, the opposing army would target them specially.

But like any quirked, they were still an important asset. An intelligence-enhancer quirk wouldn't do any good in a fight, but leaving it behind the frontlines and letting its user plan strategies, it was priceless. Mei's quirk, zoom, made her indispensable as a sniper. That's where she and the rest of the fighters who didn't have god-level quirks came in: They could get shit done. Put them in the right place at the right time, and they could make wonders for the war. They were trained to be special ops teams. To get in and out before anyone realized it, and to leave a mess behind.

Letting out a breath she hadn't realize she had been holding, Mina approached the secretary, "Up and against the wall" she ordered, making every conscious effort to not let her knew about the moment of doubt she'd had. This woman wasn't a soldier. She didn't have blood on her hands. She wasn't responsible for the death of any of the people she had known and now weren't there. Pushing her to the ground, she pulled some tape out of pocket in her suit, and used it to make a muzzle for her now prisoner. Tape in her arms, legs, ears, eyes… all standard procedures to avoid her getting any information or making her work here harder.

"Yaoyorozu, I've found a computer" she announced to her communication device, a triumphant tone in her voice. Everything was going well! She couldn't help letting out a small celebration dance, a smile on her face and her arms moving to the rhythm of an outdated song. She practically skipped towards the computer. Her hands on the keyboard, she found the program which controlled the security cameras in no time. She only had to reroute them, make them see another way so they avoided what was coming. "And… you can come in through the south entrance. Ochako, tell Mei to prepare the vehicle for us to get out as soon as Momo is done"

"Okay, Ashido, I'm coming in right now. Good job" said their black-haired leader.

"Right, Mina. We will be here warming it up" said the voice of the gravity-quirk user.

Pulling up the fallen chair the secretary had been using, Mina let herself sat down and started to rub her neck muscles. These last days had been a stress-fest. The preparations, inquiring the contacts, the pre-operation training, and their party should also have been bigger, but their resident hot-head had suddenly gone missing after a fit of rage. He tended to do that. Why he did that, nobody knew, but it amused Mina and did made for laughing matter, for which she was grateful.

"Ashido, I'm inside and zeroing on your position. Any sign of the quirked target?"

Crap. The target. Their contacts had mentioned of rumors of a quirked individual in the base, but none of them could place what her quirk was, or her identity. At least they knew it was a female. That reduced it to half of the known quirked individuals they had on record, a record that was still severely lacking. Putting herself to work, she started to run through every desktop file she could find, but no luck. No female looked familiar from her long hours in which she was ordered to try memorizing the record of quirked humans. No mention of a quirk. They kept it secret even from their own people, as anyone would.

"Negative" muttered Mina, eyes fixed on the screen. "Also… Yaomomo?" she asked, realizing something around her. This was the only computer here. Not even a big enough hardware to keep all the information they were supposed to be erasing. Everything else was in a physical document, filed around the room. "None of it is digital"

"What?!" shouted Momo, opening the door and looking directly at Ashido. She let her gaze wonder around the room to the dozens of drawers along the walls. Walking to Mina's side, she started to mutter. Mina didn't like that. She had to just sit there while Momo walked from one side of the room to the other, sometimes stopping to open a drawer, look at some records and closing it with frustration. It didn't look good. "Nononono… this can't be. The records were supposed to be here! Or at least a way to access them!"

Mina tried to calm her down "Maybe they are here. Maybe they are just hidden. If we burn the documents we could…"

"But we wouldn't be certain!" shouted Momo, interrupting and scaring Mina. Her friend could be a nice girl, but it was at moments like this that she stopped caring about other people. She only cared about the mission, and if the mission wasn't successful…

"Momo, calm down. You are the leader here, you have to…" Mina lost what she was saying when both of them heard a sound they wished they wouldn't hear this night. A sound that drained the color from Yaoyorozu's face, and made Mina stared at her with eyes open in shock: the sound of rapid-fire in the distance.

With near to no time interval between it and the sound, they heard Ochako's voice from their communication devices "MOMO! WE'VE BEEN FOUND! MEI GOT A LOOK AT THE QUIRKED! SUPER-HEARING, YOU COPY?!" her voice was blasting against the loud noises of machineguns been discarded in their direction "WE ARE COMING IN TO RENDEZVOUS WITH YOU! ESCAPE ROUTES ARE BLOCKED!"

Mina's mind started to go at hyper-speed. Super-hearing. That means she had been warned by someone who knew they were inside. Someone who had to either been warned they were here, or had seen one of them. Color drained from Mina's face as realization came, making her turn in fear of being right. Of having discovered what had happen.

"M-momo… I'm so sorry" she whispered, her voice trembling from fear. She was right.

Yaoyorozu turned to see something she hadn't notice when she came inside. Lying on the ground, there was another person. The secretary, although completely immobilized and devoid of her senses, had moved a bit. Enough to let her scratch the ground, and warn the hearing quirk's user. Momo stopped moving as memories ran in front of her. Memories of her last great failure, and the toll they had on them. "It's my fault. It always is. I'm sorry. I'm sorry" she started mumbling, frozen in position.

Mina ran to her friend's side and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her "NO ITS NOT! SNAP OUT OF IT!" to accentuate her point, Mina did something she rarely did, and never to her friends: she slapped Momo across the face. She hated herself for doing it, but it was the only way to get her friend out of her trance "WE NEED TO GET OUT! SOUTH ENTRANCE! NOW!"

Pushing Momo to the door, Mina turned around to throw a coat of acid against the computer with her left. They have to leave no fingerprints or evidence of what they had been doing there. She started the sprint towards the corridor, his right hand holding her acid gun as if it was her life depended on it. Momo opened the door and they run, hearing footsteps and yelling behind them.

"MOMO! Weapons, now!" shouted Mina at the top of her lungs. Get over it, Yaomomo!

"Weapons. Yes, yes" mumbled Momo Yaoyorozu as she opened her jacket and pulled a Glock from her belly. Not the best or the most complicated in design, but at least it was something. Mina kept running, focusing on where to go. There was a window at the end of the corridor! Only 15 meters away! They only had to get there…

As soon as she had finished that thought, a bullet flew past her ear. She gasped, fear invading her thoughts. This was it, wasn't it? She was going to die in a failed mission, and it was going to be her fault. Her fault for showing some humanity to someone she saw as innocent. Her fault for not finishing the job like she had always been told to by her trainers. She was going to die in a shooting range, like hitting an elephant in a corridor, more literal than she had ever wanted. This was it.

The first thing that came was the sound of the rifles shooting bullets in her direction. She didn't want to see it. She preferred to not see death once it came. She was afraid of dying. Mina had always been afraid of dying. Fighting not because she deeply believed in some cause, but only to stay alive in a world where the life she had been given was the only thing pushing her forward. She could feel a tear running down her cheek. Sadness for leaving so soon.

What came next was a surprise for Mina: the sound of metal against metal. Letting herself turn around and see what had happened, she saw Yaomomo, a metal shield on her hand, and a fierce look in her eyes. "Yaoyorozu to Base! We've been compromised! We ask for extraction! Maximum priority!" she shouted in a commanding voice. Mina couldn't stop herself from smiling, looking at Momo with watery eyes. She was back, and they needed her if they were going to have any chance of making it out of there alive. "Mina! Keep running! Break that window!"

"YES!" shouted Mina in a spike of energy, pointing her gun forward, and shooting a number of small streams towards the window, making it easier to break.

"Base to Yaoyorozu! We don't have anyone near you! A team could get to you in 30!"

"What about Bakugo?! Tell the bastard there's no other way!"

"Negative! We haven't found him yet!"

Cursing the blond diva, Mina kept running for her life. It had to be today that he decided to have a tantrum, right!? "Base, this is Ashido! We are being overrun!"

For a couple of seconds, no sound came from the other side of the connection. Each tenth of a second felt like an eternity to Mina. They couldn't leave them here! They were their most effective team! It had to count for something, right?!

"Code Green" they heard being said on the other side of the call, in a hushed, stern voice that could only belong to Colonel Aizawa. It wasn't even directed to them, but more as a statement to all present on the Base at the moment. To Mina, that voice felt godsend. She could have a lot of problems with the higher-ups, but Aizawa had earned their trust in more than one occasion. She knew he actually cared about them. But with that, the call was cut.

"Base! Respond!" shouted Momo, to no avail. The only ones in the frequency were now the four girls. Cursing, she continued to run towards the window. They were near!

'Hope you're there, Ochako' thought Mina as she jumped towards the window, and, with a fist coated with acid, punched the glass surface with every bit of strength she had, breaking it and letting them pass and fall towards the ground, 3 meters below.

They would have hit the ground and probably broke their necks if a known brown-haired girl hadn't been waiting for them, ready to touch them, release them of their weight and help them reach the surface of the back of a truck. Mei was driving. Mina would have advised against that if Ochako hadn't chosen that moment to give them a quick hug. Leave it to Ochako to give affection in both the worst moment possible and right when she needed it.

"Uraraka, Mei, control says there is no extraction plan!" shouted Momo, making them both stare in disbelieve. As soon as she'd said that, she created a more complicated piece of weaponry: a grenade launcher. She had regain control of herself.

"What? They can't leave us here!" shouted Mei from the vehicle's driver seat. Momo turned around and fired the grenade launcher into the building from where they had come from. An explosion signaled that no danger would be coming from that direction.

"ALL, DOWN!" cried Momo as a squad of soldiers who had apparently given chase to the vehicle opened fire on them, forcing all of them to use the vehicle as cover. It wasn't long until another group opened fire from a different position. They were surrounded. "Here, protect yourselves!" shouted Momo as she started to hand out metal shields. She wanted to keep them alive as long as it was possible.

'Aizawa, where are you?' thought Mina, the sound of gunfire and bullets hitting metal around her. For a second time tonight, she felt as if this were the moments just before a bullet found her skull. It filled her with sadness and fear. Sadness of stop living. Fear of not knowing what would happen after that. She couldn't find it possible not to exist. She had fought her way forward all her life…

She could feel how the soldiers were zeroing on them. She could hear Ochako crying, clutching her leg. She had been hit and was bleeding. Momo was mumbling in both fear and trying to find a way out. She was sure Mei was hiding behind the car seat, most likely tinkering with something trying to create a way out. And something she didn't recognize. It sounded like a rocket or a plane; she wasn't sure, flying above their position. Maybe they were going to be blown to smithereens. She let out a sigh, and started to count, trying to regain a bit of calm before what she knew was coming: the end. Just like she had been taught: to make the world go mute.

Three. Inhale, exhale. Two. Inhale, exhale.

One.

As she started to stand up, not realizing her friends were looking at her like she was crazy and shouting at the top of their lungs for her to take cover, a gust of wind with the strength of a hurricane pushed her back, making her fly and hit the side of the building, cracking some ribs. The impact made her expel all the air in her lungs and sent pain through her body, making her open her eyes, sound returning to the world. As soon as her body touched the ground, she looked up to what was happening.

The entire squadron of shooters had been hit by the wind pressure. They were scattered, some knocked out, some hurrying to get up and pointing their guns towards a giant crater that had appeared in the ground near them. The site looked like a bomb had gone off. Earth had been blown away and dust filled the air. Some soldiers were still confused, wondering and attending their comrades. But what took Mina's attention was what climbed out of the crater.

It was a boy. One boy, maybe around her age. He had green eyes and green, wild-looking curly hair, with black highlights in it. His expression was one of anger; he wasn't smiling, his mouth making it clear he was mumbling something to himself, something Mina wasn't able to hear. His freckles took away any semblance of adulthood his face could have, but that wasn't a problem. He was wearing sports shorts and red, oversized sneakers, with the remnants of a t-shirt falling from his torso in shambles, leaving way for Mina to watch his muscles. The guy was built. Even calling him built was cutting it short! Every muscle he possessed looked made of stone. That added to the fact he looked as he came out of the ground, he looked like a war god. He was glowing, energy flowing through his body like electricity, red tendrils of it through his body, and a green electric aura crackling and doing arcs around him. Automatically, Mina knew this guy had the power of a General.

Standing there, however, he was an easy shot. The soldiers aimed in his direction, ready to pull the triggers. For them, as powerful as this guy could be, he was still human. And they were trained to kill both human and superhuman alike. Mina wanted to shout for the green-haired boy to take cover. She didn't know him, she didn't even know if he was there to help them or if he was part of a third party. But move, idiot!

Like in slow motion, the boy pulled back one arm, reading himself for an attack. Placing his right foot in the ground in front of him forcefully, he produced a loud noise that reached the place from where the girls were watching. And so fast that Mina only saw a blur, his fist came forward in the troop's direction, accompanied by a scream.

"SMASH!"

With those words, the world went upside down. Winds even stronger than the ones before fell on the soldiers, lifting them from the ground and throwing them away. Some of them were lucky to be pinned down into the ground. Other flew up and into the woods, falling from meters of height, most likely meeting their demise. The girls were again pinned against a wall, protecting their faces from the dust the winds carried in their directions, not knowing what was happening, deafened by the sound similar to that of a hurricane. With all of her senses impaired, Mina just waited.

"Are you girls' all right?"

Mina uncovered her eyes to discover that the winds had died out. And in front of her was the boy. He stood in such a heroic way it was difficult to describe. Both feet on the ground, his back arched a bit only to offer them a helping hand. He was covered in scars, a detail the glow that had surrounded him hadn't let her see. His eyes show full concern for them, for her, it was unbelievable that he could be a soldier. His lips arched in a smile, as to reassure her that she was all right, that the danger had passed. Stretching her hand, Mina was tempted to take his offer and grab his hand to stand up… until she discovered something that made her jump away.

His arm. The right arm, the one with which he had thrown the punch was covered in bruises. It was also flailing like a pendulum to every movement he made, broken in one… no, it was probably broken in multiple places. How on earth he was still standing was a mystery to Mina, he should have already passed out. His body was probably working by the power of adrenaline alone.

"My name is Izuku Midoriya. I was send here to help your team-"

"YOUR ARM!" shouted Momo, covering her mouth with both hands, eyes wide with terror. Mei had gotten out of the battered up truck, and was watching him with interest. Uraraka was too focused on her leg to watch the interactions in front of her, sweat on her forehead as she covered her wound with some first aid.

"I... uhm…" the guy that went by the name of Midoriya looked at the loss of words. As soon as Momo's words reached him, his smile was gone, lips starting to tremble, color leaving his face. He started to frown, and a tear started to form in his left eye. "I was kind of… hoping to ignore it" he admitted, and let out a nervous laugh as his other hand flew to his right side, clutching the broken arm. He stood there, not knowing what to say as his whole body started to tremble, realizing in how much pain he was. Mina wasn't the best in first aids, but she knew enough to understand that his adrenaline had run dry, and that the pain was hitting him in waves. She jumped to her feet, and covered the distance between them as his gaze went blank and his eyes started rolling upwards. He fell forward, but she was there to catch him, struggling against his weight once it reached her. He had passed out due to the pain of his broken arm, and Mina couldn't blame him. The mere fact that he had stayed awake this long was superhuman.

As Momo helped Ochako with her injuries and Mei fixed the truck for them to get away from there and rendezvous with the nearby forces, Mina didn't left Midoriya's side. She didn't know why, but she felt protective of the muscular guy. It wasn't because she felt special about him saving her. He didn't mean to save specifically her; he was there to help the whole team. She just happened to be part of it, and this wasn't like those child stories of white knights coming to the rescue, Mina had grown to dislike those. And it wasn't because of the impression the guy's muscles had left on her, she knew people as impressive as him, even though a bit less. Shoto, Iida and Bakugo were clear contenders. Mina didn't know why, but, as she was helped by Momo to put him in the back of the truck, she placed his head on her lap. She kept repeating herself it wasn't anything special. It was only to avoid him hitting his head, as the front row was taken with Mei driving and Uraraka not being able to walk that well. It didn't mean anything.

But as they drove away from what had turned into a battleground, Mina saw his face. He was sleeping, exhausted and passed out. His arm was in a plastic cast Momo had produced, the bruises and signs of dead tissue still clear through the holes of it. In his unconsciousness, Mina could see more details about him. His scars were bigger than she had originally assessed. He had three noticeable scars, two of them being one in each shoulder. They ran all the way around each shoulder, making it seem as if they separated the arms from the torso. The other noticeable scar was located in the middle of his torso, and it ran deep and long, separating his abdominal muscles down the center, as well as his pectorals, going on the left side of his neck, and it only disappeared once it reached his back. The rest of his skin had small scars every now and there, it took Mina's attention as she discovered new ones every time he glanced at the sleeping boy.

Suddenly, it downed on her. He radiated innocence, as weird as that sounded. Mina knew he was no soldier. She could tell that his attack had been non-lethal in intent, even if not in results. His sleeping face, with his freckles and his cheeks… it was cute, in a way, even if a bit plain. That innocence was what made her protective of him. If she was right, and she needed to discover if she was, then this guy wasn't part of the army. This guy hadn't gone there with the intent of killing. This guy had entered an armed conflict with the sole intention of saving them. This guy… this guy had been pointed with guns, guns she'd seen kill hundreds of men and women, just to save four girls he didn't knew.

Watching him sleep, Mina couldn't stop herself from letting out a smile. A smiled that appeared because she felt moved by this guy, a guy she didn't knew, but she wanted to know more about; a guy that had saved her, not because he was ordered to do it, but because he wanted to. She wanted to get to know him. She wanted to get to know the guy so selfless that he had jumped right into battle while not being a soldier, just to save them.

That smile only lasted a couple of seconds, and it was followed by a frown. Mina knew that everyone had an interest that played part in deciding what course of action they took. And it was probable, even if the probability was slim, that this guy also had an agenda. Even if every part of her wanted to trust the guy, she couldn't let herself forget that single fact. She had to avoid being careless, and discover what it was.

"Midoriya, you and I have a lot of stuff to talk about"

. . . . . . .

Hope you enjoyed! As mentioned before, this is going to be a continuing series! The AU was hard to get ready, as it started with just a mere concept. I will expand about it on next chapters, this one was mainly to establish who the main characters are (I will also focus more on some characters who were left with little development), the possible routes their relationships will go, and the state of the world in this AU, so follow and favorite if you want to see more! Leave some feedback; you don't know how much it means to me! If you liked it and it's your first time reading my work, then maybe try my other stories, one a bit angst and a full-fluff one-shot hahaha.

As for "Midoriya Izuku: In Memoriam", my other ongoing series, if you know about it then I will use this opportunity to explain the hiatus: the semester in college is near its end and exams are coming. It has been a stress-fest 24/7. That mixed with some personal issues, it left me a bit not-too-able of writing such an angsty series, so I ended up writing "A Couple of Drinks", a fluffier story to help myself cope with everything. I have also been A LOT more active on my tumblr "TheOneHoyle"; I have drawn a lot, including a couple of concept arts for this story! So look me up there, see if my drawings are of your liking! However, I have not forgotten about that story, and will finish writing next chapter once all this madness comes to an end.

Well, thanks a lot for reading! Wear your seatbelts! And to those who are facing exams like me: Sarani mukou e! PLUS ULTRA!