"Are you sure it's okay for me to go out wearing something like this!" It's been a full week since I moved in with Rose. I've missed a week of school and now I'm returning. Returning as a girl. I know I'd never have been able to do this if I had stayed with my mom. I still miss her, but maybe it's for the best.

Aya drops me off since she's the one that looks most like an adult out of everyone there, Lynx excepted, and Lynx is would get recognized easily enough as a pro-hero. She opens up a portal and pats me on the head, "do good in school! We'll pick you up back here! The portal'll open again at 4pm! Don't be too late and make us search for you!" I nod stiffly, trying to hide my anxiety about the whole situation. I was now wearing a uniform I'd never worn before, had long hair, and started getting practice from Aya the past week on voice work. It was a lot but I could still blend in fairly well, I thought. I walked through the gates of the school without a problem. Either nobody recognized me, or they did and just didn't feel up to commenting on it. The problem game when I stepped through the gates and approached the door. Someone laid a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tightly. I heard the voice of a devil speaking, "OI. Where have you been, DEKU!" I hesitantly turn out and see burning eyes staring at me, through me. The head brings itself closer and shark's teeth appear from the mouth, "OI DEKU, ANSWER ME YA LITTLE SHIT" comes out of the mouth, as easily as "Nice to meet you," or "Thank you for the meal" should in a normal person.

"H-h-hey Kacchan…" I stammer, my heart racing and my ANALYSIS going overdrive in an attempt to determine if this hostility poses an actual threat to me or not.

"We're talking during lunch. Don't be late." An explosion pulses behind me when he says this, emphasizing his point with explosions instead of grammatical structure or tone of voice.

"O-okay…"

I walk into the classroom and sit down, keeping my face approximately pressed against the table all the way through role call. "Midoriya, Izuko" is called and it takes a moment to register hearing that name called instead of my old one before I respond "aah! Present!" I look and find Kacchan equally surprised; that's one more thing I'll have to explain to him, for sure. "It's good to have you back after you were sick for so long" the teacher says remotely before proceeding to the next name. Wait but if my mom was calling in sick for me… How would she have known to stop today, hm.. that's something I'll have to ask Aya about maybe she knows…

Lessons proceed fairly typically up until lunch break when before I can get out of the classroom one of the guys stops me and asks, "Izuko… aren't you just Izuku? Weren't you a guy? What're you doing with this ugly girl's uniform on? Comeon… why don't you change back into sensible clothing or something?" One of the guys in the background laughs at that and I hang my head, looking for a place to hide, somewhere to escape to. Luckily for my safety, ANALYSIS is working fine. I see several escape routes from the situation and duck out of them and into the hallway past the crowd of guys when Explosions fling them ring back into my path. I, a second later, find myself being dragged by a spiky-haired demon.

I'm dragged all the way out of the building, nobody bothering to interfere. This is Kacchan after all… he's kind of scary when he wants to be. "Explain yourself."

"Eh? Huh?"

"I said, explain yourself. According to the teachers you were calling in sick yet when I climbed up to check in your room to see if that was actually true cause I mom wouldn't say anything you. Weren't. there. I went back the next day and you weren't there either. So tell me, Deku. Why haven't you been home. Nobody in the neighborhood has seen you leave your home or go back in, I've asked. So. Tell me now." He raises one fist and lets small blasts pop from it harmlessly into the air, the other one picking me up by my shirt. I wriggle out of the grasp,

"Okay okay Kacchan. I. Don't live with my mom anymore. I'm.. kind of surprised you didn't think of that, honestly. But that's why nobody's seen me be home or seen me leave. I haven't been there since Thursday night, around eight pm I'd say? That's about when I left."

He hands unclench and the explosions quickly die down. "Yo. What. You aren't living on the streets right? Are? Are you okay? Shit. Fuck. What the fuck." His voice turns nearly monotone, the only emotion left in it a mixture of despair and confusion. He starts pacing back and forth frantically, "I. Seriously? What. What happened?"

"I…" I tense up, not enjoying the direction this conversation is going. "She found out a while back, about the whole transgender thing. Me not being a guy, all of it. She saw my plans I discussed with you about trying to get on those medicines in the future, remember me going through the plan about that?" He nods. "I… she said no. She said she wouldn't accept me doing that. I thought that maybe she just. Meant that she wouldn't be willing to pay for it, so I saved up for a month's dosage of the injectable kind of T-blockers. It was less expensive for whatever reason than buying a full month's dosage of pills and it was a lot easier to hide. That was… about three weeks ago I did that. I got nervous about lying to her about everything and about having done that and.. I told her. She got upset and told me to leave."

Kacchan is now staring and gaping at me. "She said that?" I nod slowly. "Where are you living now?"

This was a question I had been prepared for. Although Rose was a criminal organization, by technicality really, they also had a half of the business that operated as a legal front for the place and was what Aya and Terra credited to them never being caught by authorities. I gave him the name of the address and told him I'm staying as a helper, officially an intern that's unpaid, at Rosaries' Bouquets. "It's kinda weird staying there but a lot of the others are transgender too and it's a nice place. One of them has a warp quirk, which is how I'm going to be able to get too and from school every day."

"Just. Stay safe okay. And get a cell phone so we can keep in contact."

"I will. They said after I do some more help around the shop they'll get me a phone."

"Okay. Okay. I. God. Let me come visit some time, I want to make sure you'll be okay. I can't just lose my shitty rival like that know."

The rest of the day went by without incident. Kacchan got a lecture by the teacher before class but his outburst rather reinforced the notion in others that they shouldn't mess with me too much. It was nice, even if the lesson was taught through violence…

When I returned back to Rose later that afternoon I saw that Taz was still around, reading the same book again, but this time with a sketchpad. "Huh, Taz, did you get back from school already?"

"I don't go to school" she says distractedly, and as if the statement wasn't ordinary.

"You don't go to school? Why not?"

"Because I'm not going to achieve the dreams I had. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a hero. I suppose every kid wants to be a hero. All I have is a strong constitution and a quirk for killing. Besides, being a criminal takes less effort. And I'm lazy." She looks at me and blinks twice, "I didn't sleep last night so I'm gonna go to bed now. Goodnight Izuko…"