The lunch bell rang and Izuku got up from his seat. His plan for today was to find Honoka and check up on her, see how her first day at UA went yesterday. He hadn't seen her at all. If she ate lunch in the cafeteria, she must have sat far away from him and his friends. He wanted to make sure she felt welcome to join them, though he suspected she ate in her classroom and avoided other students altogether. Not that surprising when he thought about it. She hadn't been to a proper school since elementary.

Needless to say, with his mind occupied, he was startled a bit when he nearly ran into one of the school's female uniforms. Hagakure had somehow stood between him and the door without his immediate notice, presumably to talk to him.

"Midoriya-kun! Is it okay if we eat lunch together today? I—" she stopped for a second as Katsuki passed them.

Izuku wouldn't have noticed anything had she not been mid-sentence since he couldn't see her expression nor where her eyes were looking.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," she picked up almost immediately after stopping.

Okay, so that was a bit weird, but Hagakure was a hard girl to pin down. You know, with the whole not being about to see her thing. Izuku didn't really know whether to consider this suspicious behavior or not. From the corner of his eye he saw Tsuyu watching them carefully. This could either mean that she was suspicious of what Hagakure was doing, or she was merely curious. If Tsuyu was watching she would for sure tell him as soon as she felt something was amiss. So, reassured, Izuku decided to see what this was about.

"Sure, Hagakure-san. Do we need to go somewhere else?" he asked politely.

She linked one of her arms in his and started to steer him out of the classroom. "Oh, nowhere special, let's just go to the cafeteria and buy lunch before anything else."

Izuku was about to try and question her but she immediately starting talking about something entirely irrelevant too quickly for him to get a word in.

Once Toru was off with Midoriya, Mina parted ways with Kyoka having already given her her instructions. The plan in action, Mina traversed through the moving halls until she found room 1-I.

Before going in, she looked through the window of the door and saw Honoka with her face down on a desk. Maybe what she had heard earlier was true.

She opened the door and walk right up to Honoka. Honoka didn't move to acknowledge her presence. Bending down to get a closer look, she took note that Honoka's eyes were scrunched up and in one of her hands she was holding her cell phone.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Mina asked.

"I've already tried to get her to eat twice today," said a voice from behind her.

Mina was startled as she whirled around to see a middle aged man eating a bento at the large desk at the front of the classroom.

Without moving anything but her empty hand to gesture with, Honoka introduced them. "Ashido Mina, Hijikata Katashi-sensei." She dropped her hand again, both arms draped dramatically over the desk.

"I'm the new professor hired to head the Medicine department," Hijikata clarified for her.

Mina thought of several questions at once, but of course, the most important one was, "Wait, is it the same 'kata' in both your surname and your given name?"

He almost choked on a bite he had yet to swallow trying not to laugh. He pulled himself together and put his bento down. "No, my name is actually written like this," he demonstrated by writing it on the board.

Mina blinked at it. "Aw, that's less fun. Can I call you Kata-kata-sensei?"

Honoka's head shot up from the desk and she gave Mina a look that was unreadable but intense. Mina had no clue whether she was bothered or maybe embarrassed.

Hijikata-sensei laughed outright this time. "Will you be attending my class?" he asked in response.

"But, uh… I'm in the hero class," Mina pointed out, tilting her head to the side.

"I believe there was an announcement made to each of the other classes that for the current semester I will be offering a class that's more like a club after school for anyone who wants to learn about medicine and general first aid. Next semester it will be an actual elective, but for now, since it's mid-semester, it won't be all that structured."

This was actually interesting. Maybe Mina should have paid attention whenever it was that this had been announced. "What are you actually planning on teaching?"

"Well, for now it depends on the students who attend and what they want to learn."

"Wouldn't you talk about how to treat acid burns?" Mina asked, her interest piqued.

"If you attend," he replied.

"When is it?"

"Every school day immediately after school and Saturdays at three. Attend when you can, not everyday. I wanted it to be as accessible to the students as possible since everyone has busy schedules. How the class goes will be determined by the makeup of the students that attend. Different each day."

That sounded really cool. And just the type of class for Mina since she loved to talk. She could pay attention in a class structured like that.

"Wow."

"So, you'll attend?" Hijikata-sensei asked.

Mina nodded. "Yeah," she smiled.

"Then you may call me what you wish."

At this, Honoka also gave Kata-kata-sensei an unreadable look. Mina just beamed, liking the doctor and his attitude.

"Thanks, Kata-kata-sensei!"

Honoka threw her arms up in the air looking forlorn toward the ceiling and slouched back in her seat crossing her arms. Mina couldn't help but smile watching this. Why? Because it was fun.

"Um, sensei? Could I talk to Honoka-chan?" she asked in the politest sounding voice she could make.

Kata-kata-sensei looked over at Honoka knowingly for some reason Mina didn't understand. "Sure, Honoka-kun could use some friends," he put in some earbuds and started some music, presumably to drown them out.

"Kun?" Mina looked back at Honoka with a smirk on her face and mirth in her eyes.

Honoka's face had turned bright red and she was avoiding eye contact. "He's been making fun of me ever since the one time I cussed at a patient at the hospital," she explained.

Mina bursted out laughing. "You did what?!"

"There… was an… old man who said I was a… nice young man for helping out at the hospital," Honoka fought through her embarrassment to say.

Mina laughed even harder, taking the seat next to Honoka so that she wouldn't collapse to the floor. She stabilized herself on the desk smiled at Honoka's pinkness.

"You don't look anything like a boy."

"I had shorter hair then." She thought some more. "And puberty hadn't hit me in certain areas yet."

Mina snorted a giggle at that.

"And he might have been half blind."

Mina hit Honoka on the arm.

"Ow!" Honoka yelled, but that got her to look at Mina smiling at her.

Mina just kept smiling and not breaking their eye contact, so eventually Honoka melted into a soft smile herself.

"You're not eating," Mina pointed out.

Honoka looked away again.

"Does this have anything to do with what the second year girls were saying?" Mina poked her.

"What do you mean? What were they saying?" Honoka turned back to Mina.

"That Bakugo-kun was seen carrying a girl around against her will yesterday. They didn't know who the girl was but, come on, a younger student they hadn't seen before? Bakugo-kun never talks to any of the other classes so it had to be you."

Honoka sighed and sunk back down until her face hit her desk again. "Yeah, that was me," she told the desk.

Luckily, Mina was always prepared to interpret a muffled voice. "So, was it really against your will? And how did you get yourself in a situation like that in the first place?"

"It was against my will but it doesn't really matter. He was actually helping me in the end. Aaaaand, I really don't want to talk about the rest," Honoka said in a defeated voice.

"So then, what? Is this not a good thing?" Mina frowned a bit.

Honoka rolled her head to the side to look at her. "A good thing?"

"Because of your crush on him?"

Honoka looked back at the desk. "I don't know."

"What has you so unset?" Mina asked with a little more concern.

"It was mortifyingly embarrassing! I couldn't help myself get out of the situation!"

"So you need to know how to fight?" Mina sat up straighter.

Honoka held a hand up to appease her. "Don't worry, I've got that covered now. It's just…" Honoka searched for the right words. "Can I tell you something without you asking more questions?"

Mina nodded fiercely, "Probably. Maybe."

Honoka gave her a flat look.

"Yes," she emphasized.

Honoka made several false starts before speaking. "I was so mad at Katsuki the whole time I was with him. I know he was doing it on purpose, but it surprised me. He made me so angry, to the point where all I wanted to do was punch him. It made me forget about all the other things that were bothering me and I felt relaxed afterwards," Honoka explained to the air vaguely.

Mina processed for a moment. "He's teaching you how to fight!" she shouted in epiphany.

Honoka jumped up and grabbed Mina's arms that had gone up as if she had achieved some great victory.

"Don't say anything about it," Honoka said very seriously.

"Honoka-chan, do you want this to stay a secret?"

Honoka looked like she was torn between answers.

"Because if so, I already have you covered for today."

"Huh?"

"You see," Mina leaned in conspiratorially. "Toru-chan is distracting Midoriya-kun as we speak. Probably talking his ear off if I had to guess. And Kyoka-chan is making sure that any of our friends that would tell Midoriya-kun don't hear anything from the second years," Mina winked at her.

"Wait, but why would you do that? Didn't you say the second years didn't know who I was?"

Mina gave Honoka a deadpan look. "Have you seen the way Midoriya-kun and Bakugo-kun fight?"

"No."

"Well, even if Midoriya-kun doesn't figure out it was you right away, he'll confront Bakugo-kun about it as if everything Bakugo-kun does is somehow his business," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Honoka searched Mina's eyes for a while as if trying to find truth in them. She smacked her lips. "And Katsuki wouldn't even think about lying about what happened."

"Exactly," Mina agreed.

Honoka thought some more.

"It wouldn't be that hard, really. The second years rarely ever talk directly to us first years, so it's mostly just a matter of keeping him and his friends from overhearing things," Mina offered, trying to help her make a decision.

Honoka sighed, sitting down and letting Mina's arms go. "In that case, just let things play out naturally. In the mean time, I'll think about what I want to do."

There was a pause in the conversation in which Mina took the time to wonder if enough conversation had taken place in between now and when she had promised not to ask more questions to make Honoka forget about it. She decided to chance it.

"So, if Bakugo-kun was teaching you to fight, are there plans for a next time? Is it a date?"

Honoka let out an exasperated sigh. "No plans, and I don't want a date."

"Don't you?" Mina remarked.

"Shut up."

Mina looked at the clock. "Lunch is almost over and I haven't eaten yet. Eat and give me half to make it up to me," Mina insisted.

Honoka pointed to the front of the classroom where all her stuff was piled on and around a student desk conjoined with the professor's desk. Mina found the bento and looked over at Kata-kata-sensei who still had earbuds in and was humming a tune leaning back in his chair having long since finished eating.

Sensing Mina's eyes on him, he looked over between the two girls and then gave Mina a wink.

Mina grinned and put her hand on her hip. "Kata-kata-sensei, that's practically sexual harassment."

He took out one of his earbuds. "You wish."

Mina pointed at him and beamed at Honoka. "He's awesome!"

"That's only because you're not his apprentice."

"And I've been trying to teach Honoka-kun bedside manner for years now."

Mina looked back at Kata-kata-sensei. "You poor soul."