In her room, Mina simply laid on her bed, and looked up at the ceiling. Her hands were behind her head, and were starting to go numb, not that she made any effort whatsoever to stop this from happening. She didn't know how long she'd been like this. An hour? Two? Maybe five, for all she knew, not that It mattered in the long run. Her mind was filled with thoughts and things that she felt that were important regarding this whole Hero idea of Izuku's, as well as a few other things.

She didn't know what to think about the current situation, if she was honest. The number of people that they had in the group had grown by two, as Todoroki had now agreed to become a Hero with them now that he was sure that they'd thought this out carefully, and that Izuku was going to be able to handle himself with One For All. That increase in power was a plus for them, no matter what way anyone managed to slice it. And now that Katsuki was on board as well as Uraraka…. Their forces weren't exactly weak anymore.

The main issue now though… Was her.

Izuku had been right when he'd mentioned the difficulty that they would have when it came to concealing specifically her identity. Her Quirk wasn't one that could just be hidden easily. Acid was a very unique Quirk. Even Explosion could be concealed as some sort of Combustion Type Quirk, but Acid had no easily concealed category. No convenient lie to hide behind. No half-truth that could trick anyone, unless they got either incredibly creative, or incredibly lucky.

And assuming they could even lie about her Quirk, the fact remained was… Well, her appearance. Izuku was right. She stood out way too much. Her pink skin, her horns, her black eyes, and pink hair… There wasn't a single other person on the planet who even came close to looking even a small bit like her. And the issue wasn't that it was just dangerous for her. It was dangerous for everyone else too. If the Quirkless or the police found out exactly who she was, then it wouldn't take them long to hone in on students in Yuuei who had Quirks like the ones the Heroes were using.

To put it simply, she was a danger to her friends if she went along with the whole Hero idea.

A fact that… Deeply disturbed her.

Living on the streets for as long as she had, having to treat everyone like they were an enemy waiting to happen, watching her back every second of the day…. To actually make some friends had been one of the most incredible things that had happened to her since she was thrown out of her home. People who could look past her appearance. Some people who were just like her…

And others who weren't. But still treated her like a friend…

The idea of putting them in danger now… That wasn't an idea that Mina even wanted to particularly entertain. She didn't want to bring any sort of trouble to the people who she cared about. But going along with this Hero idea…. That would cause a whole number of issues if she was caught, or they traced her back to Yuuei.

But if she didn't help… Then she felt like she was running away. Away from the fight to change the world, and to make a place of equality or, at the very least, understanding and acceptance. A fight she wanted to take part in every single step of the way, because of the people who were now a part of her life.

Katsuki, Todoroki, Uraraka…. Izuku.

Her friends…

Without really noticing when she did so, her mind wondered back to the first day that she met Izuku and Katsuki, and the emotions and feelings she had when they interacted. She remembered being scared of Izuku due to his Quirklessness… Looking back on it now, it was actually funny to think about. Izuku wouldn't hurt a fly intentionally. She didn't know what she was worried about.

That shy, but heroic black curly haired boy was the only Quirkless person that Mina had met that hadn't immediately tried to gun her down, or do something to make her normal. And that included her own family.

Quirk or no Quirk, Izuku didn't care. He didn't profile or discriminate. Powerless in the face of a world where the majority were filled with hate, and the minority were armed with superpowers, Izuku stood between the two forces and tried to calm them down. To stop the pointless, senseless bloodshed between the two. Even if he'd only stop a few cases…

It was admirable. Incredibly admirable. Something Mina truly respected about him, without any question or doubt in her mind.

Her mind then wandered a week later, when they were packing up to move into the Yuuei dorms after rescuing Katsuki from those recently Quirked kidnappers.

When she had nearly kissed him.

Truth be told, she still, to this day, had no idea why she'd tried to do that. She'd barley even known the guy more than a week, but felt the urge to kiss him hit her, hard, and before she even knew it, she'd leaned in towards him. Neither of them had spoken of it since, and she guessed it was because Izuku was too awkward to bring it up again. She was glad, to be honest, because she was embarrassed about it herself.

She had just seen his burn mark, up his arm, and gently ran her fingers over it. She still remembered how the charred skin looked. It wasn't ever going to fully heal, she knew, just from looking at it. Layers would rot and peel away as his skin died and regrew, but it would always be there. It was his mark of dedication to the union of Quirked and Quirkless individuals in this world. A sign that yes, he'd been hurt by the Quirked just as much as anyone… but he hadn't let it change who he was as a person. He hadn't succumbed to hate. He hadn't used it to justify deplorable actions against people who had nothing to do with it. He….

He'd stayed true to himself. He'd stayed dedicated to his ideals, and he refused to allow even the person who had harmed him to blame themselves.

Such selfless altruistic actions… Such kindness…

Mina had just found herself overwhelmed by those qualities about him… And wanted to kiss him because of them. Because she admired him… Because she owed him so much. He'd stopped her from going down a hate filled path…

Because… She'd grown fond of him, in such a short space of time.

Maybe it was because she'd been subjected to such disgust and segregation her entire life… But finally meeting someone who just didn't care about it, and wanted to help her to be able to live a normal life, despite having these abnormalities…

She wasn't under any illusions that she'd grown feelings for him, very quickly.

How couldn't she? The first person she'd met who hadn't treated her like absolute crap… Who treated her like an equal. Like a person... And he was so gentle and sweet with her…

That was all she'd ever wanted in her entire life. To be treated like she was an actual person. Not like some sort of animal. Not like some kind of freak of nature. Not like some sort of horrible, abysmal creature that had come to wipe out Humanity…

Just… To be treated like she was Mina Ashido.

And Izuku had been the first… The very first person to treat her like she was just like anyone else… And he was just so kind…. Of course she'd end up with a crush on him. She questioned who wouldn't, in her position.

Becoming a Hero… That was a way that she wanted to repay everything he'd done for her. To help him achieve his goals, his dreams. He'd brought hers to life without even realizing that he'd done it. So now, she wanted to do the same for him…

But she couldn't, because she'd wind up being a hindrance to him, and a danger to the entire group.

Her hand was now number from having been rested on for too long, but Mina still pulled it out from underneath her head, and help it upwards towards the ceiling, to look at her own pink skin, her most obvious giveaway. And then, she gently lowered her hand, and ran it against her right horn….

Feeling the scratched, cuts, cracks, and sawed out line against it, hidden underneath her hair. She shuddered at the memory.

When she was younger, when he Quirk first developed… Her family was terrified of her. Absolutely petrified of what she was. What she'd become. This was back during the very beginning of Quirks, where they'd only just started to show up in more and more people. The first recorded Quirk occurred about twenty years ago, although Izuku claimed that they had been around for a lot longer. Regardless, this entire event occurred just seven years ago, when she was still a child… And it haunted her to this day…


Mina always knew she was different. She'd spent every day of her life reminded of that fact. That she wasn't normal, and probably never could be. That she'd always wind up living her life as a freak of nature. As something that barely even had the right to exist.

She was something that her parents called a 'Demon', but the news called a 'Quirked'. Her family seemed to believe that she was some sort of denizen from Hell, or something like that, because of her Quirk, totally ignorant to what it was that a Quirk actually was. Stuck in old, religious ways, her parents barely even seemed to acknowledge her as a living creature, never mind as a Human.

Born with pink skin and black eyes, her family never even wanted her. They detested her from the second she was pulled from the womb. Had they gotten their way, the child would have been taken from them, never to be seen again for as long as they lived… But this was before the age of Quirked Orphanages, and laws were still, at the kindest, most lenient points towards Quirked children that it ever was in history. Simply putting a quirked child up for adoption wasn't an option either, unless there were a special set of specific circumstances, such as an inability to care for a regular child, never mind a Quirked one. The Ashido family already had a son, which proved that they were capable. No matter their protests, legally, the Ashido family had no choice but to care for her until she was old enough to at least look after herself.

As a baby, Mina grew up essentially within her crib, barely even acknowledged outside of being changed, or being cursed at, or thrown food because no one wanted to go to jail for her death. She picked up talking on her own, and managed to piece together what she could from the words she was surrounded by, though it took her until she was five until she could properly talk because of this. Likewise, she wasn't able to walk without teaching and encouragement until she was four. Neglect had led to her being self-sufficient, able to teach herself how to do everything fundamental to survival.

When her Quirk itself activated, it was in the form of slime that she could just secrete. Gooey in her hands, it resembled the slime that someone could win at fairground games, or purchase from online stores. It had no acidic properties whatsoever originally, but was rather a harmless substance that she would often create and try to find a creative, fun use for it. She ended up smearing it on the walls a lot when she was four and five, trying to create artwork. Once, she ended up 'Painting' the entire living room wall.

And in response, her father beat her bloody, every single time. He wouldn't stop until he at the very least drew blood, just to make the point hit home.

Harshly yelling at her, screaming at her, telling her not to use those disgusting powers of hers again, until the veins in her eyes were red with tears. When Mina was seven, she got the message, and decided that using her Quirk just wasn't worth it, at all. And she stopped.

On top of this, she had never actually gone outside in her life, confined to the Ashido household and ordered to stay silent by her parents, like a trained animal. When they told her to be quiet, she would immediately shut up until her parents left the room, daring not to speak out of turn. For the most part, her brother just let this happen without a word, looking at her with a mixture of pity and some sort of disturbing satisfaction that came from watching someone below them being dominated and tamed. Mina had no friends, barley even had a family, and little to no experience on the world around her.

She basically had no life.

The way, in her mind, it was supposed to be. The way her parents told her it was supposed to be. The only way she knew… So she didn't complain.

When she was eight, however, her horns began to develop. Tiny bits of bone, growing naturally, just above her forehead, nestled in her hair. The discovery of these extremities was not by sight, but rather by Mina's touch. She felt lumps atop her head, and inspected them in the mirror. Upon seeing that they were horns, growing from her skull… She didn't have any doubt they were to do with her Quirk. Or at least, her Quirk was responsible for these things growing out of her head.

Images of her father beating her until her skin was peeled off entered her head, over and over, and she became terrified of these lumps of bone. Horrified at what her family would do if they ever found out about them…

She decided to hide them. To conceal them for as long as she possibly could manage to. She would hide them from everyone until the last possible moment.

For the longest time, Mina was able to hide them using her hair. Naturally curly, they were able to hide the growths. She grew her hair out longer, so that it would be able to conceal more of the horns without her having to do anything. Cutting it herself with a pair of scissors in the bathroom at night, she was able to pass off her hair as being very slow to grow back, which meant she wouldn't be outed the next time she was forced to have a haircut.

After a few months though, this no longer was a viable way to conceal them. By about the eighth month that she'd had these horns, they were about the size of her hand, jutting out inches above her head. Considerably more difficult to hide them from the rest of the world.

But… She still tried… And failed.

When her family saw the horns… It was by complete accident. Mina tried to hide them by wearing hoodies or hats, the latter of which was knocked down by her father's absolute disregard for her, shoving her out of the way of his path. When the horns were first exposed… They were terrified of her, all the more than they had been beforehand. In their eyes, it was just more proof that the Devil had its claws inside Mina….

And they had to rip it out.

She was pinned against the floor by her mother…

While her father went out to his shed, returning brandishing a hacksaw. His intent had been clear.

Without even the slightest form of mercy, or listening to her pleas for even a second, he tried to cut down through her right horn, sawing as much as he could, as quickly as he could.

The pain wasn't even describable. Like having an arm chopped off. Her horns had some nerves internally, and this made it felt like her skull was being split open, but even outside of this, every single time the saw dug into her, she felt the vibrations throughout her entire body - It made her feel sick. Mina had screamed, shrieked, and begged them to stop. Her brother had just watched this all happen in front of him, doing nothing to help her, no matter how much Mina begged with him.

In the end, Mina, in an act of desperation, activated her Quirk and lashed out in whatever way possible, trying to desperately escape from her father and mothers clutches, clawing for escape.

In the time it had taken since using her Quirk last, her slime had developed its acidic properties. What was previously harmless slime, was now deadly, corrosive acid.

And Mina attacked her parents with it. The end result was that she left them with awful, painful, and horrendous acidic burns all over their arms, and in her father's left eye.

A scared eight year old girl had caused her father's left eye to become completely inoperable, rendering him partially blind for the rest of his life, as well as deforming his face, and her mother's arm….


…And as far as Mina was concerned in the present, her parent's had gotten what they had deserved. They had tried to do that to her, completely unprovoked, so she retaliated, and left them in fear of her. And that was good. That was how things should be. They shouldn't have laid a hand on her in the first place. It was the first time when Mina had learned that actually, she could fight back, that she could protect herself, and that she had the right to exist just as much as anyone else did. It was the first time she had ever been proud of herself.

It made being kicked out as soon as her parents were convinced that she was old enough less of a bitter pill to swallow. Yeah, she missed home sometimes… But not the people.

Yet, for all her pride… Bone didn't grow back. It wasn't ever going to grow back. Her horn was scarred now, just like Izuku's burns, and her body wouldn't ever fully heal. And it wasn't like she hadn't spoken to quirk Specialists, asking them if there was some sort of procedure she could have to repair the horn. The closest that she ever got was a suggestion to glue it, but the issue there was that she didn't have the chunk of her horn that she had lost, and there weren't any materials that could be used as a substitute for it. It was for this reason that she didn't want anyone, or anything, ever touching her horns, for fear that it would cause it to just snap off, leaving her deformed even more than she already was.

Just the idea of losing her horn made her sick to her stomach. She didn't even enjoy entertaining the notion.

"Devils…" She muttered to herself, allowing her arm to flop by her side. "Demons… What a joke... The only Devils and Demons that exist are people like you two…" She spoke to her parents, like they were right in front of her. Venting out the fury she felt towards them that she could never say to their faces… "People like you… The worst kind of people that live in this world… You hated me because you didn't even know what I was… What I am. And what you did to me… You're despicable… "

Even in her imaginary conversation to them, she couldn't quite find the words to express just how much hatred she felt for them, deep down. She just couldn't express the depths of her distaste for the Ashido family she came from. She was never going to be able to express how much she hated them for what they'd done to her.

She'd never felt more justified in her life for what she'd done…

But….

"…Why is it Izuku wants to protect people like you?" She asked, quietly. Unaware that she'd used his first name, just letting it spill out as her thoughts did. She continued, regardless though. "I know he wants to make peace between Quirked and Quirkless… But I don't get it… He knows about people like you…What you do… Why would he want to help people like you…? But… More importantly…" Her gaze went straight back up to her ceiling, where she sighed and thought about everything that had happened to her recently. "…Why does he make me want to save scumbags like you as well?..."

For the longest time, Mina had been dead-set against bigoted Quirkless people, hating every single one of them right down to their very cores. Despising them all because of the things they did…. Because they reminded her of home. Of the things that had been done to her at the hands of her own family. And yet… Izuku made her want to protect those people.

To prove that they were wrong, not that they had a point. To show them that they had a place in society, not that they were animals to be tamed. To show that they were good, not demons.

But she had to protect them too… And she was surprisingly okay with that.

Why? Did Izuku influence her that much? Was it because he was born Quirkless, and he'd proven that not all Quirkless people were bad, or that he wanted to make peace between the two. Was it because he talked endlessly about ending the pointless conflict between the two groups? Was it because Mina held him in such a high regard that she simply just wanted to help him achieve whatever it was that he wanted to achieve, peace between the two groups being one of his goals, without exception?

Or was it simply that his influence was making her a better person altogether?

Without any warning whatsoever, a sudden loud banging on her door caused Mina to shoot upright like she'd just sat down on a pin. Her eyes shot wide open, and out of nothing but sheer surprise and shock, her heart rate started to pump up rapidly. "Ashido? You in there, Ashido?"

It was Izuku's voice calling for her from the other side of the door. Mina felt her heart rate decrease upon recognizing that familiar voice. She let out a long sigh. She could swear that he just materialized whenever she was thinking about the guy. "Yeah, yeah I'm here, hold on."

Making her way over to the door, she quickly undid the lock and opened the door to greet the slightly taller black haired boy with a small smile. Given the nature of her thoughts just moments ago, she wasn't exactly what someone could call happy about seeing him right now, but she couldn't find it in her to just tell him to get lost.

"Sorry I showed up at this time. You mind if I come in?"

"Sure, no problem." Mina widened the door to allow Izuku to enter, hoping that he was just going to be quick about this little visit. It was already late, and she had actually planned on getting some rest before long, hoping to sleep on the subject before coming to a definitive conclusion.

Izuku timidly entered the pink skinned girl's room, and took a look around. He hadn't actually entered her room prior to this day, their usual meetings take place in either his or Katsuki's room. The school provided a certain degree of creativity to each of the rooms, providing materials and some customized textures that the students could apply for, which the resident Design Technology Teacher Tsunagu Hakamata would create with his Fibre Master Quirk. All cynically done so that the students would feel like they existed in less of a prison, but the textiles themselves were woven from a genuine passion for design, as Izuku could tell just by stepping foot inside Mina's room.

It was actually easy to forget that Mina had grown up on the streets over the last couple of years by looking at the place. It was the first time that she'd ever had some space that she could customize to her own desires, and she'd really gone to town with it. The bed duvet, lampshade, and curtains all were of a multi-coloured camouflage-like pattern, combining turquoise and dark purple colours. She had multiple rugs placed down atop the wooden floor, one scattered with love hearts on it, the other once a more traditionally woven pattern, slid half underneath a desk. The desk itself was completely bare, Mina not in possession of anything to actually put atop it. An empty bookcase, courtesy of the school, resided in the corner, without a single piece of paper to occupy it.

"…You… Really took advantage of those textile designs, huh?" Izuku absently commented as he looked around the room, taking in the sight.

"Uh huh." Mina nodded, shutting the door. "Cute, right?"

All Izuku did was nod. He wasn't the best judge of character when it came to things that were 'cute'. He himself hadn't bothered all that much with custom made things. He'd requested some of the materials in their raw, unaltered form for the costume designs, but he hadn't requested anything to be custom made. He hadn't felt the need.

The resident of the room pulled up one of the desk chairs for Izuku to sit at, and set it up opposite her bed, which she then jumped onto with crossed begs. Grabbing her ankles with her feet, she watched Izuku sit down and face her. "So, what's up?"

Reaching into his pocket, Izuku produced a couple of fabrics, and held them in front of Mina. "Uraraka sent me down here. She wanted me to ask you a few questions about what you're gonna want for your costume."

"…Oh." Was all Mina could respond with. Given her indecision about actually joining the Hero Team plan, the costume was sort of a moot point at this particular moment in time. "Why didn't she just come over herself?"

"She said it would be better if I came since we're closer." Explained the young man, passing her the fabrics in her hand. "She just wants to know what you want the costume to be made out of. We can combine it with some other materials to increase the durability, and the outer layer will be the actual design itself, but this is going to be the inner layer, so she wants you to pick the one that's most comfortable."

"This one." Mina answered, passing back the one in her left hand. It was a softer and less irritating texture than the one in her right, by a country mile.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright…" Putting the chosen texture in his trouser pocket, and the one that she hadn't chosen into his jacket pocket, before pulling out a phone from the same compartment. "And…. Well, this is gonna sound a bit weird… But I need to take a picture of your horns, and where they come out of your head."

The only response Mina gave was to look at the guy with a mixture of confusion and downright terror.

"Uraraka says she has an idea for a hood that should keep your hair and horns covered, but the design will need to have these little hooks that go around your horns to keep the hook in place. She asked me to get a picture so she can – "

"You're not touching my horns, Midoriya. You're not going anywhere near them."

This was where Mina drew the line. Her gratitude and crush on Izuku none withstanding, she simply refused to allow anyone to touch her horns. Under any circumstance.

Izuku had to just blink a couple of times at the statement, unsure of what it was that he was supposed to do here. Uraraka had said that the picture was crucial to making sure that the costume was going to be safe for Mina, and to make sure that it was going to work as she had planned. Without the costume, Mina's identity was going to be in serious danger.

Attempting to gently convince her, he spoke in a softer tone than previously. "A-Ashido, I only need to look so Uraraka can – "

"I said you're not going anywhere near my damn horns!"

That time, Mina had yelled at him, and it had been very loud. As loud as when they had first met, and with an equal amount of fury behind it. Her screech had made Izuku jump back slightly in utter surprise, not expecting anything even slightly close to what Mina had just done.

The two looked at one another, Mina's eyes showing an anger Izuku hadn't been sure even existed within his friend, while she looked back at him with hurt shock.

He hadn't meant to offend or upset her. That was the last thing that he had wanted to do. He hadn't known that she was so sensitive when it came to her horns… He had to remind himself that being Quirked was still a stigma, actually having had forgotten briefly for a short while due to being surrounded by Quirked people all the time.

Mina was the one who broke the exchange first, looking down to the floor in a mixture of embarrassment and shame. Izuku had no idea about her horns. She'd never uttered a word about them to any other living being. He had no way of knowing. How could he? He wasn't even asking for himself, but because someone else needed information to keep her identify safe – Everything about this entire situation was totally selfless, but she'd acted out because of simple fear regarding her extremities.

Suddenly, all she wanted was company.

"…I… I'm sorry, Ashido." Izuku apologized, glancing over to the wall, before turning himself around. "I…. I didn't mean to upset you in any way. S-sorry to bother you…. I'll go tell Uraraka to figure something else out."

"Don't." Requested the young girl, pulling her legs up so that she could hug them against her chest, resting her nose just atop her knees, but keeping her gaze downwards. "Don't go yet?"

Looking back at her, Izuku was filled with, primarily, confusion at Mina's actions, unsure of what it was exactly that she was going through. Was she having some sort of mood swing…? Or was something affecting her from the other students, or something that he had no idea about? Either way… Seeing her like this, he couldn't just leave right now.

He turned back around, and made his way over to her bed, and sat down next to her. "…Okay. I'll stay for a while." He paused for a second, waiting to see if Mina intended to say anything. She didn't though, keeping all her attention focused on one point on the floor. "…You want to talk about it?"

"I…. I'm not sure if I can…" The Acid Quirk user said quietly. "It…. It hurts just to think about it."

"… Is it… From before I met you?"

She nodded, slowly.

"Oh." Izuku made a noise to show that he understood. Truth be told, he would have wanted Mina to talk to him about it had she been comfortable about doing so. But he didn't want to force her to do anything that she didn't want to. That she didn't feel comfortable doing. That she just couldn't talk about, for her own mental stability….

He wouldn't force her to.

"…You don't have to say anything." He assured her gently, placing a hand on her shoulder awkwardly on the one nearest to him, unsure of how he was supposed to comfort the girl to his side. "I-If you're not comfortable talking about it…. Then you don't have to."

"I'm sorry…"

"I-It's alright."

"I don't just mean about… That though." The pink girl said with a small sigh to her voice. "I…. I was thinking about what you said… About me being a Hero… You're right…" Though it hurt to have to vocally admit it… "You're right… I know your right… My Quirk… My skin, my appearance… I'd just be in your way, wouldn't I?"

"Hey, I-I never said that!"

"It's true though." Hanging her head in what looked like shame, Mina just began to let her brain tumble out all the worries and doubts that she had about herself without thinking, or reservation. Even when she caught herself doing it, the words just kept tumbling out. "I wanna help, I really do… You've helped me out so much since I met you… And I wanna be a Hero to help repay you for everything that you've done for me… But… Look at me. I stand out way too much – If anyone ever finds out who I am, then you're going to get into so much danger… Everyone will. And even if we could hide what I looked like, and we could hide my Quirk…. There isn't anything that would be durable enough to withstand my Acid. It'd corrode and dissolve anything that it touched, and I'm not gonna be any help to with if I can't use my Quirk… So I can either use my Quirk and risk everyone figuring out who we are… Or I can not use my Quirk and be useless as a Hero… Not gonna be a lot of good if those are my options, am I?..."

The sad truth was, Izuku knew she was right, as much as he didn't want to acknowledge it. Even as he had said it to her himself, he hadn't wanted to accept it. To face that this was something that they had to consider…. Leaving her behind. Leaving her out of the picture because her joining them would be too risky. Would put too many of them at risk…

Feeling his free hand tighten up into a fist, Izuku suddenly felt frustration and anger building up rapidly in his chest. Mina had been nothing but honest and helpful and just a generally good person for the entire time that he'd known her. A person who had quickly grown into a close, trusted friend. The first person to jump on the Hero bandwagon and support his idea without hesitation, simply because she believed in it, and in him.

She was an example of a changed person, someone who showed that hatred could be cured, and that people who harboured those feelings could become better for it. Even when her hate was justified… She had overcome it.

And now, faced with the opportunity to do something she wanted to do, because she believed in the idea and the good it could do… Her appearance was what was holding her back.

It was unfair.

It was unthinkable.

It just….

…It was the way that their world worked.

"…I'm going to find a way to make you a Hero costume that'll work." Izuku said, with meaning behind every word that he used. "I'll figure something out."


…Of course, doing that was something that was easier said than it was actually done.

Research into acid-proof materials was one that didn't bring up any particularly promising results. According to the internet, acid proof materials consisted of poly fabrics, none of which Izuku had easily to hand. Plus, Izuku wasn't certain that he could trust the information that he came across, since many of the sites he came across were Anti-Quirked. Sure specific material had come under scrutiny since Quirks had become mainstream, people quickly figuring out that people who had special requirements needed to have specific material.

Fake counterfeits were common now on the web, and anti-Quirked sites were some of the worst offenders… If Izuku planned on making a costume that Mina could wear without risk, then it had to be authentic material. Something that she could use without risk of the materials just dissolving into nothing while she used her Quirk.

Other information that he came across as he surfed the web were metals that were resistant to acidic qualities. Mostly alloys of nickel-copper and aluminium. There were some pure metals that could be resistant to acidic qualities, but Izuku knew that alloys were inherently stronger. That was basic high school chemistry.

The main issue that he had then was the fact that none of these materials would simply allow acid to seep through them, while retaining their dangerous and offensive qualities. Even if Izuku could get a hold of them, Mina wearing them wouldn't accomplish much for her, if her Quirk wouldn't be able to phase through it… So he needed to come up with a way of combatting that issue too.

Further issue resided in the fact that these materials… He had no way of knowing if they would be able to withstand Mina's Quirk…

"…I guess I'll have to try getting hold of various selections…" He muttered to himself, going over the pages of research that he had written. "See what works best for her… After that, I might be able to figure out the best material combinations for the job…" Rising from his seat in the main living area of the dorms, he made his way just a few feet to his immediate left, facing a bookcase that had been installed for the purpose of allowing the students access to studying sources. He browsed through all the chemistry and physics books on the shelves, pulling out a couple and resting them on the main table where he was working. Immediately he returned to the shelf, and dug out a design book that had fashion advice within it. "I have to consider what sort of threat to use as well… I suppose I'll just have to use some of the acid-proof materials… But then the durability comes into question…"

He blinked, trying to envision the costume that Mina would need… In order to cover her eyes, he already had an idea – She needed a Ski-mask, with a black tinted screen. The logic there was simple – It would hide her uniquely black eyes. Of course, he would lace it with acid-proof materials where he could, but its main purpose was to hide her eyes and as much of his skin as it could.

That was going to be an easy task – He'd just go to a sports store and purchase one. If they refused service because of his uniform indicating him as Quirked, he'd just sneak out again with regular clothing. It wasn't going to be a difficult thing to get a hold of.

In terms of her face, what she needed next was a bandana. Like one that cowboys wore in the western movies he'd seen, that went above their noses and covered their mouths and chins. She could tuck that underneath the ski-mask to keep it in place, and that would at least cover up her face. That would need to be home-made of acid-proof materials, just in case the worst came to worst.

How she was going to secrete her Acid… That was an issue here. Izuku had an idea regarding her arms… But he'd need to play around with it a bit before he had anything definitive.

Sitting back in his chair, he looked at all the resources that he had in front of his, and covered his nose with the palms of both of his hands, creating a dome around the protrusion, and took a sharp inhale. He'd been researching this sort of thing for quite a while now, left on his own while Katsuki and Uraraka were designing their costumes. Katsuki had a clear idea of the costume that he wanted, demanding something intimidating and fear-inducing. He knew how to craft, sure, but he didn't know how to design, which was where Uraraka came in. As for Todoroki, he had already left the school grounds on an errand for Aizawa-sensei, leaving Izuku on his own to design the clothing while Mina studied – Academics were not her strongest point.

Izuku had told her to leave the stress of designing the costume to him while she worked on boosting her academia, which she was grateful for.

Curiosity was filling Izuku's head as he looked over everything he was working with, shifting through page after page. What Mina had done when he'd asked to see her horns… He hadn't expected it. Not in a thousand years had he ever come close to expecting such a… Harsh response.

It made him wonder what had happened to her in the past to make her so hostile to the very notion of someone touching them. Clear trauma seemed apparent to Izuku by the way that she acted and seemed to feel regarding the extremities. Fear, anxiety, hostility towards the notion, an inability to talk about it – All signs of a past event that had scarred her mentally and emotionally.

Some of the things Izuku had seen during his years as a Quirkless 'Vigilante' if one could call what he did that alongside Katsuki, he'd seen some messed up things. Stab wounds, broken bones, burned skin – That was the stuff he saw on a good day.

Mutilated individuals, their various adaptations sawed and cut off to make them look more Human. People missing extra fingers, bones, even arms in some very disturbing cases…. Many Mutant types in particular dared not step for outside for fear of those assaults. Izuku had noticed the various scars all over his classmate Ojiro's Tail Quirk, no doubt from those very same attacks.

When he'd first met Mina, she was the target of such an attack….

Had she received such poor treatment due to her horns previously?

"I do hope you're planning on clearing all of this up once you're done with it, Midoriya."

Unaware of the approach of two people as he'd been lost in thought, Izuku tilted his head upwards to see Yaoyorozu towering over him… And to her side, Kirishima, his hands stuffed into his pockets, and an expression that, for once, expressed neutrality towards him.

"Oh, Yaoyorozu… Kirishima." Izuku hesitated to answer to the presence of either of them, knowing for a fact neither were particularly fond of him anyway.

Kirishima was a no brainer, but Yaoyorozu had made it clear that she didn't trust him either, and that one was because of Kirishima directly, and the way he had acted during their dorm introductions. She had sided with the Hardening Quirk user's anti-Midoriya stance, and had shown little other than distain for him since.

The aforementioned Hardening Quirk user took a step forward towards the table, reaching out and picking up one of the many books Izuku had stacked up in a pile, and read the cover aloud. "Advanced Chemistry, Volume Four….I had a feeling you were the type of person who studied, but damn, this is well above what I was expecting."

"Y-Yeah…"

"What's that you're working on?" the tall girl questioned, looking at Izuku's notes with an interest in her black eyes.

"It's… It's some clothes, for Ashido." Izuku honestly answered, though he left out the part about it being designed to conceal her identity. "She was worried about going into town…" Not a total lie. "…But she wanted to get some clothes that weren't going to get ruined if she used her Quirk… So I said I'd look into it for her. See if I could make anything for her."

This sentence seemed to impress Yaoyorozu, who folded her arms and shifted her weight onto her left leg, shooting a glance towards Kirishima, and then back towards the One For All holder. "You're able to design clothing?"

"Kacchan's the one who taught me. I'm just struggling to find some fabrics that are acid proof…" his brain suddenly stopped, and he reminded himself of who exactly he was speaking to- Two people who had shown him little but disgust throughout the entirety of his time here. Two people who never had a kind word to say about him, instead showing only open contempt towards him, for anything he did.

And right now, they were being friendly, or at least social with him. His suspicion quickly elevated itself, and he instinctively switched towards a more defensive tone. Covering up his work, he looked at the pair of them with an expression of defiance.

"What do you two want?" Not bothering to hide that he was now suspicious of the two of them, for very obvious reasons, Izuku questioned the pair of them with the intention of discovering what it was that they wanted from him. Were they looking for some sort of material to use to make him look bad? Were they trying to discover what he was up to in an effort to spread a fear campaign of some kind? Or did they just feel like messing with him?

He was right to be suspicious of them, of course, and it appeared that both the spikey red haired boy, and raven haired girl accepted this. In fact, they seemed prepared for it, aware that they were destined to receive peculiar looks form the black haired boy with green highlights.

For a few seconds, no one said a word, as they just looked at one another.

It was Yaoyorozu who broke the silence. "Kirishima told us what you did the other day. When those bikers attacked the school."

Blinking hard, the curly haired boy looked towards Kirishima, who was returning the look with stoic expression, denying nothing, and by extension, confirming what Yaoyorozu was saying by his lack of words.

Izuku wasn't sure what to say in response to that, so he simply came out with an "…Oh."

Nodding, the Creation Quirk user continued. "He explained how quick you were to act… To oppose those Quirkless bikers when they attacked. I'll confess, I wasn't entirely certain why you needed me to create you a weapon that day, but Kirishima's explanation fits what he says you did perfectly. It sounds… Rather heroic, in my opinion."

"I just…" Struggling to find the right words, the Quirkless born student paused mid-way through his explanation of his actions before starting up again. "It was just the right thing to do."

"Not a lot of Quirkless people would say that." Kirishima spoke for the first time in a while, locking his crimson red eyes with Izuku's green ones.

"It's like I said… I'm on your side."

"You understand how insane a concept that is to us, don't you?" Yaoyorozu questioned, tilting her head to the side. "A lot of Quirked people have to suffer from unrestricted prejudice, but the ones that are lucky like me are just simply looked down on – So you must understand how hesitant we are to believe that."

"Yeah." Izuku responded without hesitating, speaking with nothing but honesty that even the most jaded individual could identify. "Of course I understand. I haven't held it against anyone since we entered the dorms. Quirkless people… We've done a lot of horrible things to Quirked people. It's not like I can blame you for not trusting me... It's not like I agree with that sort of prejudice that a lot of Quirkless people show towards you…. Kacchan's my best friend, and I had to watch him go from being one of the most popular people in our school to… A bullied drop out, just because of his Quirk. I ended up the same way because I refused to let everyone else treat him like dirt. I know it's not the same thing, but I understand why don't trust me, or other Quirkless people."

Venting about his own middle school persecution because he had stood by Katsuki without thinking, Izuku quickly realized that he'd gone off track with the topic of the conversation, but he stood by his words regardless. He meant it when he said that he was disgusted by the acts of xenophobia towards Quirked He couldn't think of anything else to say to convey just how much he despised the rhetoric that ruled society.

He just couldn't.

"I trust you."

Eyes widening at the words spoken by the black haired girl, Izuku just stopped and looked at her. She returned his shocked expression with a smile of kindness, one that Izuku hadn't received from anyone outside his circle of friends for weeks.

"I don't think you're a bad person. I think I may have been guilty of confirmation bias myself."

Yaoyorozu then took a step forward, getting another look at the notes that Izuku had made. Reading through them quickly, she then opened up her jacket, revealing that underneath it, she was wearing a crop top that left her stomach completely exposed. With a final glance at Izuku's notes, her Quirk activated from her stomach, creating a purple glowing effect as from her exposed skin, a pile of white fabric appeared by Izuku's feet.

"You're making clothes for Ashido, right?" She inquired, making sure of what he was doing. When Izuku nodded, flummoxed by what was at his feet, she proceeded to explain. "My Quirk lets me create anything as long as I know the makeup of what I'm creating, but it also lets me mix materials in order to make my own spin on them – That's a polyester based fabric with acid resistant alloys mixed into the seams. It should be totally acid proof; Perfect for Ashido."

Izuku looked at the pile of fabric, then up at its creator, whom was now zipping her jacket back up, then back down to the fabric, and then back to Yaoyorozu.

"Is it not enough?"

"N-No, it's… Thank you, Yaoyorozu." Izuku bowed his head in gratitude, unable to say anything else to express the sincerity in his voice. With this sort of material…. He'd be able to make the perfect costume for Mina, without question. All it would need is some wool dye and a bit of sizing….

This would work perfectly! Of course, in order to keep up the lie, he'd have to make some casual clothes for her so Yaoyorozu didn't end up questioning where the material for Mina's supposed casual clothes went, but that was a very small price to pay.

Both Yaoyorozu and Kirishima said their goodbyes, reminding Izuku to clean up the table before he left to start work on the clothes. Though Kirishima had barely said a word, his mere presence there had helped Izuku to feel more at ease around him in the future.

Which was exactly the plan the two of them had had.

Once away from the Quirkless teenager, Kirishima activated his Hardening Quirk on both his forehead and his right hand, and proceeded to punch himself in the face as hard as he could – Just to try and vent the built up frustration and anger he'd been holding back. Sparks flew off the contact point at Kirishima displayed his gritted, sharpened teeth. "I hate talking to the damn guy. That was painful to do."

"At least with some luck, that'll make him trust us a bit more…" Yaoyorozu commented, wiping sweat from her forehead. The activation of her Quirk had been a bit strenuous, since mixing materials in order to make new ones wasn't something that she used her power for very often. When she did use it for such a purpose, it left her drained, like always. Part of the sweat was also from the nervous anxiety that she'd had when it came to having to interact with Izuku at all. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't like him… But a lot of what he says does seem to sound genuine."

"Yeah, the Quirkless also sound pretty genuine when they say we're monsters who need to be contained." Responded the red haired teenager, scratching at the spot he'd struck on his face. "Think about it – He wouldn't have gotten into Yuuei if he couldn't tell a convincing lie. Even the Quirkless wouldn't just let someone in who flat out said 'I'm going to cause all hell inside the school'."

"I suppose you have a point…" Sighed the Creation Quirk user, saddened to a certain degree.

As she did so, Kirishima patted her on the back, having to reach his hand rather high in order to do so, offering her a smile as he did so. "You did good. Wouldn't've been able to pull this one off without you, Yao-momo, so thanks. We're gonna figure out what he'd hiding at this rate, I'm sure of it. When we do, we'll expose him and let everyone in the dorms know exactly what kind of a person he is."

"What're you hoping to find, anyway?"

"Notes about us, our Quirks, photos, reports, videos, blog posts, whatever. Something that could be used against us if he handed it to the Quirkless. Proof that he's just been spying on us. Something we can use to show people that he's just like the rest of the Quirkless."

"Right…"

"Speaking of which, is Jirou on board yet?"

"Not yet… She said she still needs to think things over."

"Talk to her again. She'll listen to you. I'm gonna head over to Class B's dorm. I know a couple people there who're worth talking to."