The First Generation

by QuirkQuartz

The First Generation of Quirked individuals had it rough. Yuuei is built as a school for the Quriked, but is in reality, just a way for the Quirkless to keep the Quirked in one place, contained. Faced with a world that despises and hates them, Midoriya Izuku and Ashido Mina and others join the very first generation of Heroes to change this worlds hatred of Quirks. MinaDeku,Kacchako

14. Trauma's Surface

Midnight, no one else awake but Izuku and Mina both. Past curfew, but they knew the routes that the guards took to check for anyone who was out. They stuck to a routine, always going down the same routes and paths at the same times. They patrolled the school like it were a museum, or a place of wealth, sticking to routine times. It made them surprisingly easy to avoid, due to their predictability. Maybe those times worked when it was in a place that had to be broken into to steal the valuables, but when it was noticed by a great many students who lived on campus, the idea fell flat on its face.

With this all in mind, Izuku and Mina quickly made their way over towards the training rooms, Mina's crafted costume tucked underneath her arm. They moved carefully, within the shadows, and behind whatever they could get behind. If they were spotted, it was going to result in a huge amount of problems for the two of them. Of course, Toshinori could always just bail them out, but if it happened one too many times, things would start to get suspicious.

Not to mention, they hadn't even explained the plan to Izuku's tutor… There was no way to tell how he'd react to the plan. He could be on board… Or he could shut it down entirely.

Hence why Izuku hadn't mentioned anything to him yet. If on the off chance, Toshinori hated the idea… Then Izuku wanted them to have at least done one good thing as Heroes. Given the world at least one taste of what it was like to see people with Quirks doing something good. Protecting the Quirkless form the increasingly common rampages by angry Quirked people who had nothing to lose.

If they could at least inspire others to follow suit, to become Heroes in their own rights… Then they would have done something to help end the oppression of Quirks. It wasn't a likely scenario… But it was one that Izuku was determined to give his all to. That was why, all risk aside, he was going to go through with this plan, even if his tutor didn't want him to.

But he needed to at least do this one thing while he could.

And to better do that, Mina needed to make sure that her costume was ready and prepared. The durability of the material that Yaoyorozu had made needed to be confirmed. Now that the costume was ready, going over it with stronger, more acid proof materials wouldn't be that big an issue. There couldn't be too few precautions when it came to Mina. One slip up, one show of skin, and it could totally screw everything up and expose them as Yuuei students.

There couldn't be any room for failure, no chance for the plan to backfire in their faces. They had to be sure, beyond any doubt whatsoever.

Which was why they were even taking this risk in the first place. To make sure that, when they went out for the first time, Mina would be totally safe. That any chance of her giving them away due to carelessness, to injury, or to her costume simply not being able to withstand the effects of her Quirk was gone. It had to be failsafe.

Doing this in their rooms was also a no go. If something did go wrong, Mina's Acid could burn a hole straight through the floor. Even disregarding the structural damage that this could cause, which, in a worst case scenario, could totally cause the floor to collapse underneath her, use of Quirks was forbidden in the dorms. No one really paid this rule any particular mind, but they were all careful not to leave evidence of their Quirks use. A few eroded holes around Mina's room would give away her usage, and lead to a swift punishment.

The only safe way to do this was to use the practice rooms.

Poking his head around the corner to the practice rooms to make sure no guards were on the patrol patterns, Izuku confirmed that the coast was clear, and the two of them quickly, and quietly, ran to their chosen room, which had the broken camera inside it. That way, they wouldn't be tracked. No one would ever know they used the room.

"Come on." He quietly hissed towards Mina underneath his breath, holding the door open for her. The longer that they were out in the open like this, the less at ease he felt. While he knew that, if the guards patterns that they had monitored were anything to be trusted, they were safe, he still felt vulnerable when out of cover. Like they could be caught at any moment.

The pink girl hurried into the room, and Izuku followed, closing the door behind him. He let out a breath that he hadn't even known he'd been holing, knowing that now, they were safe, and that no guards would bother the check inside the training rooms unless they heard a large amount of noise from inside one. For a few seconds, the two were in total darkness, until Izuku felt at the wall, and, once he found the light switch, flipped it on. A few seconds later, a series of lights on the roof began to illuminate the room, revealing all the cracks and rubble from when Katsuki had been training in the room with the One For All inheritor.

None of the five students there had thought it would be a good idea to tell Ishiyama-sensei about the room. If they did, there was always a chance that he would notice the broken camera, and order it replaced, eliminating a free place for the students to train without people noticing their growing strength, and linking it to the Heroes who were about to show up and take Tokyo by storm.

Letting out a small sigh herself, Mina looked up and grinned at Izuku. "Stealth mission, success."

Smiling lightly back at her, Izuku decided that the less time they spent out of their dorm, the better. "We'd better hurry this up, before anyone notices that we're gone. Get into your costume."

"I'm pretty sure Todoroki and Bakugou can cover for us for as long as we need." Still, the Acid Quirk user agreed that the less time they spent here, the better. "Yeah, you can turn around any time now." She joked, a bigger smile making its way onto her face.

Izuku's face quickly turned a shade of red that far surpassed his friend's natural skin tone, and turned around immediately. "S-Sorry." He apologized, covering his eyes for extra added measure and certainty that he definitely wouldn't be able to steal a peek, even if he tried to.

Not that Mina didn't trust him. He wasn't even close to someone like Mineta. Teasing him was just a fun thing to do.

Ever since she had talked to Uraraka regarding her feelings towards the black haired boy, she had found herself feeling a lot more jovial around him, and around other people in general. Without having to bottle up those emotions any longer, she felt like she no longer had anything to hide or keep secret. Just the liberation of letting one person know had brought a lot of peace to Mina's mind.

So she was quite comfortable just making more jokes and being casual around him. She no longer felt the need to hide anything or be reserved anymore. Not that she was particularly good at that anyway.

Hurriedly, she changed from her casual nightwear into the Hero costume prepared for her, as quickly as she could. This wasn't the first time that she'd tried it on, having worn it previously to make sure all the measurements were correct. The costume was designed for her to be essentially naked when she wore it though, requiring only her to be in a bra and underwear to do so, which made sense, since if she used it while wearing clothes, not only would it be incredibly uncomfortable, any Acid that she used would simply destroy her clothes underneath the costume anyway. It was for this reason that Izuku looked away, to give her the privacy that she needed to feel comfortable while changing.

Once she was finished, she clapped her hands together. "Alright, Midori, I'm good."

Removing his hands from his eyes and turning around to see Mina's Hero costume, Izuku had to show off a big smile. The costume was perfect for her, in measurements, in fitness, and in terms of concealing her identity. With the hood over her horns, the ski mask over her eyes, and the bandana over her nose and mouth, and the ribbons around her arms, she wasn't showing off a single bit of pink skin, or any other Quirked abnormalities or mutations.

The costume even offered support for her chest. The sheer number of back pains that Mina received from having to lug around the pair of fleshy fat bags…. She felt like she had Uraraka to thank for that particular addition.

"Perfect!" Izuku couldn't help but say as he grinned. "If I didn't know it was you under there, I wouldn't be able to guess that someone with pink skin and horns was hiding in plain sight."

"Could have used with something like this when I was travelling." Mina said, removing the ski goggles from her eyes so she could see better, the bandana from her nose and mouth to better speak and breath, looking at the long ribbons that dangled from her wrists as she did so. "Would have made hiding a lot easier."

Tilting his head and giving a more bemused smile towards his friend, he asked, "Wouldn't that make you hot during the day… And more suspicious? In fact, isn't that how you got into the mess me and Kacchan had to save you from?"

"They thought it was a burqa I had on." Mina corrected him. Then again, that particular religion was a very small minority, far smaller in number than the number of Quirked individuals, making it exceptionally rare in itself. "Or, that's what they said anyway. Still, it'd better than everyone looking at you like they want to murder you."

"How's it feel?"

Making her hands into fists, Mina grinned underneath her bandana, and her eyebrows burrowed downwards underneath her ski goggles. "Awesome. Comfy. I feel like a badass. So… How're we gonna go about testing things?"

Looking around, Izuku quickly made up a short testing regimen in his head. Three things had to be tested when it came to Mina's Quirk – That was durability, effectivity, and improvement.

Durability spoke for itself. How much Acid could the costume withstand, if any at all? Would it require constant maintenance, and trading in favours for materials with Yaoyorozu to do so?

Effectivity was how well that Mina's Quirk worked with the costume. Did it require her to adjust her aim? Did it mean she could fire off less Acid then she would normally secrete? Was it comfortable to run around and use her Quirk in?

Improvements would be based on the previous two factors. If one was weak and lacking, Izuku would take it on himself to improve the costume to better work.

Mina's Quirk was the only one that he had to do this much testing with. Katsuki's might be just as destructive, if not more so, but his design called for his arms entirely to be free, and Todoroki was doing the same thing. Since he was getting an idea for how to handle One For All, Izuku himself didn't need to worry about getting hold of hyper durable clothing, but instead could focus on making his costume practical and aesthetical.

Using his Quirk, Izuku jumped from one side of the room to the other, picking up big chunks of rubble, and bringing them back to the front of the room. Doing this several times, he moved about five large rocks into a line, with about a metre and a half spacing between them.

"Okay… That should do it, at least for until we see how much the ribbons affect accuracy…" He muttered under his breath, static electricity still crackling off of his body from his use of his powerful Quirks recently dubbed technique, Full Cowl. "Once we test out how the ribbons affect the use of your Quirk, we should then test to see if the gloves work any better. Depending on the results we should then be able to determine how good your costume is, from a practical standpoint, and see if there are improvements that need making. The best case scenario is that the ribbons don't bother your overall Quirks effectiveness, but that's what we made the gloves for, the worst case scenario. If the costume can at least withstand the strength of the acid…"

"You're muttering." Commented Mina, chuckling at the personality quirk of his. What he had planned here was fairly obvious, so she didn't feel the need to question it. "Lemme guess – Throw Acid at the rocks, see if I can throw in a straight line?"

There was a faint blush on Izuku's cheeks when he was caught in his ramblings, as there was every time that it happened. Years of doing it however, meant that he had somewhat grown used to it, and he was able to respond clearly and with a level tone of voice in spite of his fluster. "Yeah, that's the basic idea. Try from about… I'd say maybe ten paces."

Nodding at her friends instructions, Mina followed them exactly, running up to the rocks next to the Quirkless born boy, and then taking ten paces away from them. This wound up being about seven and a half meters away from her targets, which was a distance Mina was absolutely confident with, under normal circumstances. When she'd been forced to use her power to protect herself when she'd lived on her own, she'd developed a pretty good pair of throwing arms.

Minus the costume, anyway.

Jumping behind her with his Quirk, Izuku gave her a meters radius of free space, so she wouldn't accidentally hit him with her acid. That being said, he was cutting it close, getting as close as he possibly could that was both within a safe radius, and a good view of what was going to happen when the Acid and ribbons interacted with one another, in order to get the best information and detail on how the costume would affect the Quirk.

"Whenever you're ready, Ashido."

With that, Mina activated her Quirk within her costume for the first time, focusing on secreting corrosive liquid from her palms. Wearing gloves on top of her hands was a weird sensation to her. Normally, she was used to feeling her Acid within her palms, but in this costume, the Acid was, successfully, seeping through the fabric of the gloves, and resting atop them. That at least was a good sign, but Mina wasn't at all used to not being able to feel her Quirk on her skin in any way.

Another good sign was the fact that her costume was actually still intact – It hadn't faded and eroded like every other article of clothing that she wore! It was working, at least from a durability standpoint!

Now, she just had to test the accuracy of the costume.

Throwing her arm back like she were readying herself to pitch a baseball, she generated more Acid from her skin, and took aim with her free hand. Next came the pitch, as she threw the ball of Acid with as much force as she could muster.

The end results, however, weren't even close to being as satisfactory as the durability.

It wasn't exactly clear what had happened, other than the fact that her Acid had hit the costume's ribbons – Had it hit the edge, or barely even left her hand? Was it due to the gloves hitting the ribbons before Mina had even tossed her Quirk? Or was there some other factor? – But the end result was clear. All that came out of the costume's end was a splatter that pathetically exited the costume, dripping like melted chocolate come straight from a microwave at Mina's feet.

"Well…" Izuku said, voice void of any sort of emotion. "…That could have… Not gone any worse." Blinking at the sight of the Acid just lying on the floor in a gelatinous puddle, he wasn't quite sure what to say.

For the most part, it was a fairly smart idea of Mina's to use the least corrosive Acid that she could create without it being totally ineffective. It helped Izuku get a better idea of what he was working with, since he wasn't in a race to observe the remains before they destroyed whatever they were in contact with. Still, the mere sight of it was just something that left him speechless. He had expected a failure, if he was completely honest. Ribbons in the way of aim was bound not to work. It had been an experimental idea from the start, just for added security. He hadn't expected that though.

He then looked at Mina, and then to her costume. "So, the ribbons don't work. I guess we might as well just get rid of them."

"Yeah…" Mina nodded, walking towards him, and holding her arms out.

From the small cross-body bag that Izuku had brought with him, he produced a pair of scissors, sharpened at the blade. Quickly and carefully, he snipped off the shreds from the wrist, making sure not to accidentally cut Mina's flesh as he did so. The entire thing only too about two minutes, and once everything that wasn't required on her costume was gone, he packed up all the snipping and shoved them into his bag, along with the scissors.

In spite of their absolute terrible effectiveness for combat, the removal of those ribbons did actually have some negative connotations when it came to security. The gloves, yes, they allowed Acid to pass through them, but that wasn't to say that they were perfect. They could fall off. They could be destroyed. They could also be eroded over time. Possibilities did exist, and those possibilities, if they ever became realities, would leave Mina's skin colour exposed to the world. Thankfully, she had pockets on her costume that she could stuff them into if that were the case, but all it took was a second, or someone with a video camera to review footage of her, and they'd learn that the Corrosive Liquid Quirk user was someone with pink skin.

"Okay, there." Izuku said as he stuffed the final shred into his cross-bag. "I guess you're just gonna have to be really careful when it comes to your gloves. Tuck the sleeves of your costume underneath them, and it should give you some extra security."

"Gotcha." Mina nodded, following Izuku's suggestion immediately. "Hey, I have a question about the whole Hero thing."

"Go ahead."

"So… How do we do it?" Mina asked, now shifting her attention to Izuku after she had completed her task. "I mean… How do we announce that we exist to people? Do we just show up in the streets and declare that we're watching Tokyo from now on, or, what, do we just wait? How do we… Introduce ourselves?"

A question that Izuku was, honestly amazed that he hadn't been asked sooner. What was the idea time for Heroes to arrive on the scene? How did they show off the potential that they had in the least amount of time? What way would stand out to announce to the world that they were there?

The most effective method that Izuku could come up with was fighting away someone who had gone rouge and was rampaging with their Quirk. It was getting more and more common, as the number of Quirked slowly increased, and anti-Quirked sentiment quickly rose higher and higher. Recent studies estimated that one person out of every thousand people inside of Japan possessed a Quirk of some kind. With a population of over a hundred and twenty seven million, that wound up meaning that, if the estimates were correct, that a hundred and twenty seven thousand people in Japan were Quirked.

While that was a high number, to be sure, when compared to Japan as a nation, it wasn't a lot at all.

Furthermore, it was estimated that less than a single percentage of the entire world possessed a Quirk, based on similar numbers from other countries, including China, the United States, and Europe. Statistics that showed, parentage wise, similar ones to that of the Japanese consensus.

As it stood, Japan was a world leader when it came to researching the origins of Quirks, and if there was any 'Treatment' to them. Their attitudes towards Quirks, seeing them as dangerous people and terrorists waiting to happen, less than Human and monsters was also a global consensus. No nation on the planet held any particular regard for the Quirked. The only reason they even had basic Human rights was because of the fear of them. No one wanted to anger Quirked citizens. No one wanted to make people who had superpowers at the tips of their fingers angry with their governments. Not even an army would be able to stop a large group of angry Quirked.

Regardless of the numbers though, Quirked people still were a persecuted minority, although this did suggest something though, that was the subject of a lot of public debate.

The numbers of people who were manifesting Quirks were growing. The numbers of people who were born with Quirks, developing Quirks at young ages, and even older ages, was growing. What this meant was that people, who had often supported more laws and measures to make life more difficult for those who had Quirks, now had to reap what they had sown themselves when they developed a Quirk.

In many cases, this caused outrage to them. In many cases, these people then went on rampages against the cities, unleashing their powers in full until the police, after a long, drawn out conflict, usually involving either bullets or tranquiliser darts, took them down.

Not that every Quirked arrest was just. Many were arrested by officers who had total distaste for the Quirked for merely existing. And given the terrible state of the Japanese legal system… Barely any of them ever got out. Unless they used their Quirks to escape, and by that point, they really were criminals.

It was for these reasons that first impressions of Heroes, people using their Quirks to protect the innocent, and save the lives of those who had done no wrong, had to be impactful. It had to be effective. It had to catch everyone's eyes and ears. Hence Izuku's belief that the most effective way to catch headlines would be to stop someone wreaking havoc in Tokyo. In addition to it being snappy, the Japanese capital was the single most populous metropolitan area on the globe. Geographically, it was perfect. A huge number of people would see this new side to Quirks that they had never seen before. Word was sure to spread.

However, the question was, how did they align themselves with the next rampage?

Predicting when people with Quirks would go on a rampage was a pseudo-science at best. It just couldn't be done, due to the random nature of Quirks and who was born with them. Plus, since Quirks were beginning to manifest in people who were well past the age of four - Which in the most recent generations, if a person hadn't developed a Quirk by this age, they weren't going to. For older generations, the rules were still being explored. Why this was, no one really knew – It was totally impossible to guess who was going to go crazy with their new power next.

Did they just go on patrol, and wait until someone showed up? Did they risk getting caught before they had even done anything of value? Or did they wait until the media delivered news of more attacks by recently Quirked individuals?

To be honest, Izuku wasn't sure. If hiding their identities wasn't a problem at all, then patrolling would easily be the best option…

"…I don't know." He honestly admitted with a sigh. "I've been so wrapped up in thinking about the costumes and getting the hang of my own Quirk, I haven't really thought about how we'll begin operating."

"That's cool. I was just askin'." Mina dismissed, generating another pool of Acid within her hands. She was trying to get a feel for controlling her Quirk without the usual physical feedback.

"It needs to be flashy and eye catching." The black haired boy muttered to himself quite openly. "We need to show people that Quirks can be used for good. How do we do that and catch people's attention while making sure that everyone around us is safe?..."

"You'll figure it out." The pink skinned girl said with a bright smile. "You're smart. You always come up with cool ideas. We wouldn't even be doing this whole Super Hero thing if it wasn't for you."

The compliment cause Izuku to blush lightly, and to smile sheepishly. He scratched the back of his head in a timid, embarrassed fashion, while he looked down to the floor. "Um, thanks, Ashido."

"Mina."

"Huh?"

"Mina. My name's Mina." She kept smiling at him, but the feel this time was different. It was warmer, kinder, and more intimate than any previous one that she'd given him. "You've been calling me by my last name this entire time. By my family name. You know, the family that I… Am not exactly close with right now." Jokes still being used as a common method for the acidic to lighten the mood whenever she deemed it got too dreary, she made one at the expense of her family name, chuckling lightly in doing so. As she did so, a gloved finger absently twirled her curly hair from her cheek. "There never really seemed like a good time to bring it up again… But, if you don't mind… I want you to call me by my first name."

The curly haired boy felt his throat tighten up and go dry at this request of his friend's. Being the rather reserved person that he was, even when surrounded by the people he knew deeply and closely, he almost never referred to anyone by their first name. The only exception to this was Katsuki, someone Izuku had known his entire life, and had developed a strong friendship with throughout their childhood, and had spent years next to, trying to stem the tide of anti-Quirked mentality. Even then, he didn't do it often, only doing so in situations in which he felt it appropriate, or to simply enunciate a point he was making.

It wasn't something that he did on a regular basis. He was, by default far too polite an individual to do something like that.

Yet, Mina's justification for her desired name made absolutely perfect sense.

As she had explained to him before, her family had thrown her out when they no longer felt they would be held accountable should anything happen to her in the harsh, cold, uncaring wider world. She had suffered immensely, without home, shelter or companionship since. It made total sense that she'd want nothing to do with them in that regard. Referring to her by her family name would only serve to remind her of them.

At the same time…

"…Is there… Some reason you're only telling me this?" The green eyed boy asked, fidgeting with his fingers absently.

"Hm?"

"If this is something that bothers you…. Then why're you only telling me? Wouldn't it make more sense to tell everyone at once? Did you tell anyone else to refer to you by your first name?"

"Nope, just you."

Only when they were alone, had Mina finally decided to bring this up, and after a short costume experimentation lull. She'd not breathed a word of this to the others, but instead to him, and him alone. That was what had Izuku confused more than anything else, if he were perfectly honest.

Granted, he was fond of Mina. The pink girl was one of his closest friends, one of the few Quirked that he'd rescued who had decided to stick around. What was more, she was supportive, and even eager to help him in his provably unpopular dreams regarding the current society. Even though initially, she had been opposed to it, by her own admission, she had come around and was now trying to become a Hero alongside him in order to change this world for the better. She was a person who could see further than the end of her own nose, a trait that was becoming, sadly, more and more rare in the current climate. Willing to go to these extreme risks just to be able to offer her help when the time finally came. The dedication that she'd shown towards the concept of Heroism was one that rivalled Izuku's own.

His appreciation for that had no limits.

Excluding these facts about her though, as a person, she was one of the sweetest people that he'd met, even in spite of her dark past, and dreary life until just recently, fun loving, probably due to that same grim history, and empathetic and kind. She'd been in those horrible positions, and she knew what it was like to be an outcast. As such, she easily befriended those who were the same as her, and tried to extend that hand to those that weren't. When people rejected her, and posed danger towards her and her friends, she became a woman of action, someone who wasn't afraid to fight, to put themselves on the line, and use her Quirk to its full potential.

Underneath it all though… Izuku could sense the hate that she felt, underneath that entire façade of endless joy and happiness. The state of the world had affected her greatly, more than most others, due to her appearance, and the effects of her Quirk. Someone who had been rejected by nearly every single person that she'd ever met for these reasons, treated like she was on the same playing field as some kind of animal. Like she was a monster. And for the longest time, it caused her to hate everything around her…

Including herself. Behind that smile was someone who held a lot of self-loathing throughout their life, someone who had grown up, raised, and treated like they were worth nothing. That was the feeling that, even now, Mina almost certainly felt, deep down. It wasn't uncommon for people who had Quirks to hate themselves. Katsuki was another example…

But in spite of it, Mina pushed on. She was genuinely a person who knew that the current state of the world wasn't something that could continue this way, and she wanted to change it, and where she could, she enjoyed her life. She enjoyed it, in spite of the persecution and prejudice. She enjoyed it, in spite of the whole world trying to keep her knocked down and keep her contained.

These were all the things that Izuku admired about Mina. She was a person who, in spite of everything, in spite of the world hating her, and in spite of her hating herself, she chose to keep on fighting, to change the world. She hadn't given up on it yet.

Or on herself. She was an odd mix, one that combined the gritty, dark, depressing realities of the world, and one that still held out hope. In that sense, the light she shone was all the brighter if it managed to get through that darkness.

She was his friend. One of the closest friends he'd had since Katsuki, and without her, the group simply wouldn't be the same. She was new, compared to Uraraka and Todoroki, but she was already established as one of the most active members, and with here there, their conversations just felt that much more noticeably fun and optimistic. He valued her, and cared for her.

More than he was willing to admit.

But above all else, the main question was… "…Why just me, then?" He asked quietly, looking towards the pink girl, and making eye contact with her, firmly. Despite their closeness, it wasn't even that long since they had met. Lowering the formalities so early in their friendship was, culturally, a rarity indeed, especially so when Mina hadn't informed anyone else that she wished to be referred to as this.

If it was an announcement to everyone, then it would make sense. This was a private revelation. Only Izuku would be calling her by her first name in this case.

Her response was cheerful, and simple. "Because you're my best friend, that's why!"

Crimson made its way rapidly onto the freckled boy's cheeks. "A-Ashido-"

"In fact… You're the first friend I've ever had." She said, flatly, before taking off the glove on her left hand, to show off her inhumane complexion. "You don't tend to make my friends when you look like me. People tend not to stick around."

While Izuku knew that this information shouldn't have surprised him as much as it ended up doing, that didn't change the fact that it still had caught him off guard. Of course, it made complete sense though. Mina was probably the victim of some of the worst sort of discrimination out there because of her obvious alterations. It was yet another huge difference between both of the July born teenagers.

Still, there was just something about hearing it. About hearing those words from someone who had been part of that world. Who had faced that reality. Something soul crushing and disheartening. Something that honestly hurt the empathetic boy to hear.

Mainly because, it reminded him of himself, back in middle school. When he had been picked on by those in the playground and in the classroom. There were a few reasons for it, one being his lack of skill at regular activities like sport, though he always tried his best. Some of his classmates just found him plain weird. Never outright hated though, he was more like the runt of the litter, always the one teased and picked on, but never kicked aside. He knew what it was like to lack companionship, to lack the simply feeling of having a friend, to understand another person.

Comparatively, he was fortunate. When the young had begun to learn about the world, and the dangers of those who had Quirks, they all seemed to band together, accepting even someone whom they had considered to be a wimp into their circle because they felt it was safer to be in large numbers for the unlikely, but very real possibility that they ended up running into one of society's new super powered members. The teasing suddenly stopped, and everyone was kind to one another, though banter remained. Katsuki and Izuku grew closer, as did many other students.

Mina never got that opportunity, and she was aware of how much she had been robbed of.

"I mean, I'm used to it." the horned girl carried on, as she put her glove back on, generated some Acid within her palm, and tried throwing a handful of her Quirk towards her targets. Without the ribbons, it was a far more successful affair, actually making it past her hand. In fact, it even made it past the targets – The potential was there to make this work, once Mina had a feel for how using her Quirk in conjunction with these gloves worked. "Everyone at Yuuei has to be used to being on their own. Even someone like Uraraka has to know how it feels to know that we're fundamentally different from people who are Quirkless."

"Your Quirks are the only thing different about you." Izuku told her, looking at where her ball of Acid had landed. It had missed by a few inches to the left, but again, with practice, Mina could make it work. "I used to be Quirkless, and now I've got One For All inside me. If that's the case, then doesn't that mean that you're just the same as the Quirkless, aside from having a Quirk?"

"It's a pretty big difference, dude." Another throw, this time, a bit too far to the right. "Come on, it's pretty dumb to say that there's no fundamental difference between someone Quirkless and someone who can generate fire from their body."

"You have the same thoughts. The same feelings. The same hopes and dreams…"

"A lot of our hopes and dreams involve hoping we don't get killed on our way to the store."

Sighing, Izuku nodded. "We're really going to have to work at this Hero thing… It can work. I know it will."

"Quirks are the future." Mina said, taking careful aim as she secreted more of her Acid. "Our job is just to help people accept that and accept Quirks in society, when we get right down to it."

"You're sounding like Kirishima."

"I mean, he's an arrogant prick who I'd love to give some hydrofluoric burns, but objectively speaking, he's not wrong when he says we're the next stage in evolution." Shrugged the shorter girl, this time, taking her time as she prepared to throw the ball within her palm. "That's how it works, right? Creatures with mutations breed and then the mutation becomes common?"

"I'm not sure if that applies to Quirks." Chuckled the young boy. "Quirks are extremely varied for a start, and then you've got someone like Todoroki. His parents have the genes for Quirks, but they're just dormant and won't activate, and he ended up with a mixture of what his parents should have had. We still don't know a lot about how Quirks work. I haven't even heard of two Quirked people having a kid, so we don't know if the same thing happens there, or if the kid would only inherit one. Though I suppose it would be a similar case… And Kirishima isn't a bad guy, you know."

This time, when Mina threw her Acid towards the rock targets before her, she hit it, dead centre

"Hah!" Izuku exclaimed, making fists with both his hands. "Nice one!"

"What the hell d'you mean, Kirishima isn't a bad person?" Shooting a look towards him, from the corner of her eyes, Mina expressed absolute bewilderment at the statement. "You remember that he tried to attack you when you first showed up, and he's been treating you like shit since, right?"

"Kirishima isn't the first person to do that." The boy said simply, while tugging on the green highlights in his hair. "I've met a bunch of Quirked people who've attacked me before when they figured out I was Quirkless. I'm kind of used to it."

"You're used to people trying to knock you out and get everyone to turn against you?"

Grinning gently, Izuku shook his head and looked towards her, without a hint of malice in his expression. "There was this one person I met who was called Shigaraki a couple years ago. He had a Quirk we ended up nicknaming Decay. Whenever he touched something with all five fingers on one hand, it would start to disintegrate. A pretty scary Quirk, huh?" And… Well, he did not like me."

Unsure of where this story was going, or what it had to do with the current point, Mina had to raise an eyebrow. But she was interested nonetheless, so she allowed him to keep talking, to see what this little segment of her crush's past would reveal.

"The guy kept trying to use his Quirk on me for a really long time, so…. Me and Kacchan he to tie him up, and use different materials to cover up each of his fingers to stop him from using his power. After that, we talked to him, a lot. Fed him, made sure he was comfortable. When he finally started talking… He told us about himself, and the things that he'd been through. He had a nasty scar on his lips, and over his right eye. Apparently, his parents had attacked him when they learned about him being Quirked, and tried to kill him, using knives. Shigaraki…. Killed them instead."

A shudder quickly ran down Mina's back. It was true, Quirks could be used as deadly weapons, but the thought of killing someone with her Acid was one she didn't think about. She was more than capable of doing so, she knew, and if it came to it, she was prepared to do such a thing…. But that didn't mean she liked the idea.

"He's the grandson of the person who gave Toshinori-Sensei One For All, so I brought him here when I told him. He left before we came here with you though, for some reason. I don't think he's stable… But, my point is… I don't know what kind of a life Kirishima has had." Bringing the conversation back around to the red haired Hardening Quirk user, Izuku began to explain his point of view when it came to dealing with people who were hostile towards him. "I don't know what kind of life he's had, or what kind of life anyone in those dorms has had. Terrible things have happened to Quirked people because of people who are Quirkless. Terrible things happened to you because of your family knowing that you had a Quirk…. And you're here now, trying to help me stop the fighting between Quirked and Quirkless. I don't believe that anyone is totally irredeemable. I think that, if they're shown a better way, people can change."

He then pointed towards the costume Mina was wearing.

"You know, Yaoyorozu made the materials for that for me. Kirishima told everyone about those motorcyclists, and how we went to stop them, so those two came up to me when I was looking for a way to make your costume acid-proof, and she made those as a thank you."

Mina's mouth opened lightly, although no noise came out. It was actually a question that she had been holding her tongue about for a while now. Getting this much Acid durable material would be expensive, and nearly impossible to just get hold of at the speed that he had. No specialist stores for this sort of thing existed in Tokyo – Certainly not within their price range, anyway. To have it delivered to a school like Yuuei would never work, either. It would be really easy to track, and even disregarding that, many companies outright refused service to Quirked people. Delivery to a school designed specifically for those who had Quirks wasn't going to happen in a thousand years. So, his explanation made sense.

Poor treatment of Izuku was at an all-time low as well. While it was clear that no one was particularly fond of him within the dorm rooms, it was also apparent that none of them were going out of their way to try to harass or cause him anguish, as the first couple of weeks had been. That treatment had ended around the same time that they had fought off the bikers. That was because of Kirishima?

"I… Didn't know." She confessed. In her defence, Izuku hadn't mentioned this fact to anyone. Not that he had intentionally left out the detail, but had instead been more focused on creating the costumes, and informing them of the kindness that the two of them had shown him just slipped his mind.

Giving her another slight smile, he finished off by saying, "Maybe he's starting to get used to the idea of having someone like me around."

"Still don't trust him though." Warned the black eyed girl, getting back to secreting more corrosive liquid in her hands. "Trust me on this one, just because someone does you a favour once, it doesn't mean that they like you, or trust you. Especially when it comes to people who have Quirks."

"Bad experience?"

"Multiple bad experiences, mostly with con artists." She briefly stated, before lobbing the next concoction at another rock, hitting it square on the mark. "Hey, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!"

Just because a person had a Quirk, it didn't mean that they were friendly to those who also had the same powers as them. Indeed, many did indeed try to trick other Quirked people, to rob them of what little they had. Japan in particular was a place that embodied the survival of the fittest and of the smartest, especially when it came to Quirks.

"We'll stop that too." Izuku stated simply, watching as she threw a couple more clumps, hitting her targets each time. "We'll stop all of it." A bold promise, though not even close to his other promises.

"I'll hold you to that one, Hero."

There was a lull in the conversation after that, as Mina kept practicing and successfully getting used to her Quirk and gloves combination. She had about an eighty percent accuracy rate, hitting eight targets out of ten consistently. There was room for improvement, yes, but it was a very good sign of what was to come with enough training, practice, and experience.

However, the gloves were near perfect for her. Once she had gotten used to them, they'd be just as good as using her actual hands.

Next on the list, were the Acid-proof boots. As Izuku and Uraraka had pointed out, the dark scarlet and tan coloured boots were customised for her use specifically. Laced with the same materials that made her gloves and costume acid-proof, they were too. At the bottom of the boots, as well as on the midsole, were a series of cut out holes. These allowed the girl to eject her acid from her feet, for added offensive testing.

And, as Mina had practiced in the past, it allowed her the ability to slide alone the ground. By ejecting a slightly corrosive, but majorly harmless substance, that was more like a lubricant than it was a deadly serous, she could glide along the ground like she was ice skating. This wasn't anything particularly new to Mina. She had figured out that she could do this when she was ten years old. These boots simply allowed her to do so when she was supposed to be concealing who she was. The amount of time taken on the boots was probably far longer than any other single piece of the costume, due to having a much more rough, thick, and intricate surface than any other part of the design. Izuku had spent a full two days on them, one for each boot.

For the most part, everything about the costume was in working order, the materials that Yaoyorozu had made for them durable, and reliable. It caused the fifteen year old to let out a sigh of relief that, for the most part, the costume he had made was good enough for the pink girl. He had been worried that something had been overlooked, that something would go wrong, and that the costume was a total failure. Instead, he was confronted with the fact that his design was, in reality, very failsafe, and totally a perfect match for the girl concerned.

His final verdict came after just an hour of experimentation – The costume would suffice. If he had any ideas in the future, he would see about integrating them, but for the current moment, he was convinced that his friends costume was going to hold out.

"I think that's good, Ashido." He said, looking at his phone, and realizing that the experimentation process has killed a full hour. The time was now one in the morning. All he could be thankful for about that was the fact that they didn't have any classes today. "We should get back to the dorms."

"Mina." Mina reminded him.

"S-Sorry, uh…. Mina."

His use of her first name caused the pink girl to give him a great big, unrepressed smile from ear to ear. Sliding over to the side of the room using her Quirk, the teenage girl outstretched her hands to avoid crashing into the wall, turned around, and began to undress from her costume without a word of warning to the awkward boy. He quickly turned around when he realized what she was doing.

In his mind, his use of her first name was to be polite and to comply with her request, and her reasoning was so good that he didn't need to justify it to himself. Mina's family was abusive, she wanted nothing to do with them. Calling her Ashido was just habit. He was her best friend, according to her, a statement which made him blush on its own.

Mina was an incredible person to Izuku. That was the long and the short of it.

And he liked being her friend. Her best friend, according to her. That put a smile on his face whenever he thought about it.

Proactively, as she changed, Izuku peeked outside the door, looking as far to either side as his vision would allow. He saw no movement, on the right or left, and no signs of anyone being awake, or around. Their schedule had said as much, so this was perfect. If they left before the next rotation, they would be able to walk right through the dorms front door, and no one would be the wiser.

"Ready to go." Whispered the pink girl, careful so her voice didn't carry off into the dark night to alert someone that Izuku hadn't seen.

Flicking the switches to turn the lights off, both pupils made their way out of the training building, as quickly and quietly as they possibly could. The route back to the dorms was a simple one, albeit rather inconvenient. It was directly opposite the other side of the school. All they had to do was go around the building, and they'd be completely fine.

Taking the lead, Izuku walked, lightly on his feet, past the wall where the gas canisters that the motorcycle group had thrown over the walls, a few weeks prior. There were still some marks on the walls and pavements where they had exploded. How it hadn't been considered an act of domestic terrorism would have been beyond Izuku had he no knowledge of the general media biases against individuals with powers.

Todoroki had made very sure to keep him informed on that particular front.

When he reached the corner of the building, he stopped, and pressed his back against the wall. Mina did the same, only crouched down, so her body was closer to the ground. Daring to peek around the corner, Izuku spotted nothing out of the ordinary to worry either of them, so he left his cover, and Mina followed.

Better safe than sorry.

They remained close to the walls, though this was more a psychological protection. It didn't matter that they were filled with shrubbery. Walking in the open without anything near them felt like they were too vulnerable. To the side, they would have a slightly higher chance of being unnoticed. And it felt safer too, just knowing that there was one direction that they couldn't possibly be spotted from.

Both of them were also used to navigating in dark areas. Mina's came from having to live in alleyways and less savoury places, while Izuku's came from multiple occurrences happening during the night that he and Katsuki had gone out to try and stop. One particular incident involved an individual who had a Quirk that let him gain superhuman strength during the night, that he used to try and mug people. That was one of the rare events in which the two of them decided that it would be best if the police got their hands on the Quirked before them. Either way though, it had helped Izuku get better at relying on his other senses to find his way around in pitch darkness, and had also helped his eyes adapt a small bit better.

"Look, all I'm sayin' is that if we put in a request for tranquilisers, we'd probably have a better chance at getting away with shooting these kids if they cause us trouble."

"That's what a Taser is for."

Wide eyed and terrified, Izuku grabbed hold of his female companion, and shoved her to the ground, landing just next to her, and praying to Gods that he didn't believe in that the bushes they were now laying down in would provide them with enough cover.

Voices. Guard voices. From behind them.

Silently, both of them looked at one another in terror. There weren't supposed to be any guards out this early! Their schedule stated that they were due another patrol in fifteen minutes from now, not one right now! Had their count been off, or was there simply some other factor at play?

Did they know what the two of them had been doing?

Had they seen them?

Why were they here?

Questions and more questions all bounced around inside the walls that made up Izuku's skull. The chances were that this was a changing off the guard, as it were, employees heading home for the night. But they were still uniformed, armed, and they had flashlights.

Flashlights they were using the find their way to the exit gate.

Izuku held his breath. He didn't even want to chance his own respiratory cycle given the pair of them away. Mina did the same, judging from how still and pale she had gone. Given the natural tone of Mina's skin colour, her going pale was saying a huge amount. It was clear why. She had a genuinely good reason to fear guards like this. Abuse from those in authority wasn't rare.

Without thinking about it, Izuku slipped his hand over hers, and clasped onto it tightly, to try to provide her with some comfort. For a moment, there wasn't any response from her, but she quickly wrapped her fingers around his hand, and held on for dear life.

"Besides, you know tranqs aren't legal in Japan, Fudotoku."

"Not against humans, no. Do Quirked count?"

"They're just kids, Fudo. Take it easy."

"You know one of those kids can literally blow stuff up just by thinking about it, right? And one can cover his body in Electricity. What makes you think a Taser is gonna be enough to stop that?"

"I mean, he's got a point there, Seiji."

Three of them, judging by the voices and the footprints. The references to Katsuki and Kaminari's Quirks' were notable too.

Looking towards Mina again however, Izuku saw something that he'd only seen in people who were absolutely terrified. Her eyes were wide, and her skin was white as a ghosts. For someone of normal complexion, that would be a scary sight as it was. For someone like Mina though, it was downright horrific. Her hand trembled within his, and her lips moved, silently repeating a single word over and over again.

The word, 'No.'

Over and over again. Like she were possessed by some sort of demon, cursed to repeat the same phrase until its soul was exorcized.

But now, the guards were stood practically right next to them. Izuku couldn't say anything, or move, or breathe, lest he risk uncovering them both and suffering the wrath of the guards.

"You seen the list of Quirks here? These kids can do weird, freaky shit. Buncha freaks."

"Hey, here's a question – How d'you think Quirks even became a thing, anyway? Like, you think it was some sort of experiment by the government, or aliens, or what?"

"Aliens? God damn it, Seiji, you really do think some weird stuff up, you know that?"

"You got a better suggestion?"

"Evolution, maybe?"

A Series of laughs came from all three guards. Two sets of footsteps kept walking right by, but one set didn't, and came to a stop, right next to both Izuku and Mina. The boy's heart stopped.

"Really though. What do you think?"

"Huh?" The other two stopped now. "About where Quirks came from?"

"Yeah."

"Doesn't really bother me. So long as I get paid to guard the freaks, I don't really care where they come from."

"I'm guessing it's an illness or something. Like that whole Ebola thing that made the US piss itself for no reason."

"How would an illness cause Quirks though?"

"You're asking me to explain a phenomenon that the top scientists can't explain. What were you expecting, a PhD and a framed certificate of 'I know what the fuck I'm talking about'?"

"Piss off."

"What's got you so interested though? Someone you know Quirked?"

A pause.

"Yeah. My little sister."

"Ouch."

"Yikes."

"Sorry your sisters a freak, dude."

"Don't worry about it, its fine."

"Kid try to do anything stupid when you knew her?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Lucky guy. I'm just marking the days until one of these student fuckers tries to get smart."

"Seriously, lay off, Fudotoku. I haven't seen them try anything clever."

"Why would they where they're right in front of you, Seiji?" As this one spoke, blinding light hit Izuku and Mina both directly in their eyes, causing both to silently close them as tightly as they could, temporarily blinded by the sudden harsh light source directly to the pupil. "Most bullies don't do it right in front of their teachers."

"They're still kids though."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you like kids. Shoulda become a teacher if you like the little shits so much."

"Yeah, why did you even apply for this job, Seiji? This doesn't seem to be something that you'd wanna do. Never took you for an Anti-Quirked sorta guy. What's that story?"

"Money."

"Ah. The route of all evil."

"Mhm."

"Well, on the bright side – If this fails, maybe you can get a job working in a Pre-school for the Quirked. That's gotta be what comes next, right?"

The group of guards began walking once again, a couple of soft chuckles as they did. The light finally left the two students, though Izuku couldn't open his eyes, still stinging and painful, and tearing up from the bright light.

Although, his ears worked perfectly fine.

And what he heard next made Mina's actions make perfect sense.

"Pft. Whatever you say, Ashido."

---

"Deku?!"

"Midoriya? What's wrong with Ashido?"

Katsuki and Todoroki both stood before the green eyed teen, guiding a solemn Mina, one whom barely even seemed to register the presence of the other two as they spoke. She made no effort to move her head, and was barley even making an effort to walk as it was, taking tiny steps forwards as opposed to long strides like she normally did. There was no life, no energy.

The second that they saw her, both the Half-Cold-Half-Hot and Explosion Quirk users felt like they were looking at a completely different person, and not Mina Ashido.

"Just get her door open. I'll explain later." Izuku whispered as loudly as he dared. Until Mina was in her room, they couldn't risk waking up anyone else. If they saw her, questions would raise as to what the two of them had been doing.

Todoroki quickly made his way over to Mina, helping her, and trying to offer some kind of comfort with his presence, for whatever good it did. As he did so, Katsuki followed the instructions given by his childhood friend, and used the key that the pink girl had provided him with an hour before to unlock said door, and open it ide, so all three of his friends could enter at once if the need be.

Mina was shaking by the time Izuku managed to get her back to her room. Quite literally shaking. She wasn't cold in any particular way, but her body was jittering back and forth, out of outright terror. Trauma, more than likely, Izuku had to guess. It was a disturbing sight to have to witness from her. One that he wished he hadn't inadvertently caused.

There was a certain amount of blame that he did place on himself. After all, it was his idea to go out tonight, and to train with the costume, to find faults in its design. Faults which, aside from the ribbons, simply hadn't existed, so they hadn't gained all that much at all. Of course, there was logically no way that he could have known that those guards would show up when they did. They weren't even on the patrol listing that he had been given, so he had absolutely no reason to suspect such a thing.

But it was still his fault that this had happened to her. Had they not left…

He sat her down on her bed, where she continued to shake, and stared silently, with dead eyes, at the wooden floor beneath her. Unresponsive to any form of stimulation from the world outside her head. She seemed to have completely shut herself down.

And Izuku couldn't blame her. Of everything that could have happened today, of everything that could have been revealed, this hadn't even been something that he'd considered. The possibility that something like this could happen just didn't exist in his head, and now his failure to consider that chance had caused his friend to become shaken and wrecked beyond all measure.

Another Ashido, here on the Yuuei campus, working as a security guard to keep the Quirked in line. Her own brother…

She remained tight lipped when it came to what had happened to her before she was thrown out of her family house. Considerably, and violently tight lipped. The first time he'd ever had Mina yell at him with genuine malice was when he asked to see her horns. When he questioned if it was from a time before the two of them knew one another, he took that as a sign that she was referring to an incident with her family. He didn't have proof…. Until now, anyway. Now he had too much proof.

What exactly happened remained an answered question…. But given her genuine horror at her brother being here, and her resentment towards anyone inspecting her horns….

He felt himself swallow. He had a sickening feeling that he was starting to get what had happened.

Suddenly, not going by her family name became so, so much easier. "Oh, Mina…" He whispered, quietly and dejectedly. He didn't know what to do or say to offer her some comfort. To make her feel safe and happy again. He had an explosively strong Quirk at his fingertips, but was powerless to help his friend. He was absolutely powerless when it counted the most.

"Midoriya." The bi-hair coloured boy said, standing on the inside of the room next to the door frame. Behind him, Katsuki stood in plain sight. "Leave Ashido alone for a minute. You need to tell us what happened."

"Kacchan." Izuku then focused his attention on his childhood friend. "Where's Uraraka?"

"Already on her way." He responded quickly, holding up his phone, which showed a small, unreadable message from the Zero Gravity Quirk user in response to one that Katsuki had sent of his own initiative.

With a small nod, Izuku stood up. "Good. I think you'll all need to hear this."

As he made his way to leave the pink girl in her room though, he was quickly stopped by her hand suddenly reaching out and grabbing tight hold of his jacket's sleeve, and refusing to let go. She had a grip that put a vice to shame right now, one that literally pulled Izuku back as he walked from her. An iron grip, with strength that Izuku was surprised that she was even physically capable of having. She was scared, there wasn't a shadow of a doubt about that, and she was clinging onto the smallest things that gave her comfort, and she wasn't going to let them go if she had the power.

Right now, that was Izuku.

For a second, he just looked at her grip, and then towards her. Her head still hadn't moved an inch, a fact that would be slightly creepy to an outsider. If her expression had changed or not was something that Izuku wasn't able to tell from this angle. Still, this single gesture pulled at his heartstrings, making him hesitate to leave the room at all, all of the sudden. Companionship, warmth and care was what she needed right now, more than anything else in the world. Izuku would be very happy to provide these things for her…

But Katsuki, Todoroki, and Uraraka needed answers. They needed to know, and he needed to report their success in regards to the costumes. He needed to act like the leader the group had decided he was. He couldn't let them down.

"M-Mina, please, let go!"

"Stay." She quietly spoke, for the first time since the run in. There was a tremble to her voice, one that was holding back chokes and cries. "Please… Don't leave…"

"I'll – I'll be right back, I promise."

"Don't leave me on my own…"

With a huge sense of guilt running throughout his entire being, Izuku slipped his dark green jacket off – It was his favourite one, and one that, when it was cold out, or in the more recent months, needed to go unseen, he always took with him. Once it was off of him, he quickly tuned around, and took his jacket back from her as best he could – Her hand still tightly clamped onto it. He then flung it open, and wrapped it around the stiff pink girl, putting it over her shoulders as comfortably as he could.

He then knelt down, so he could see Mina's face. When he came into view of her eyes, her iris and pupils looked towards his. She was on the verge of tears, but was holding them back as much as she could.

Izuku offered her as warm a smile as he could. "Hold onto my jacket for me, okay? I'll come back to get it once I've finished talking to everyone else. I won't go away from your room, I promise."

Mina stiffly nodded. It was the best that she could do in her current state. She responded croakily with an "Okay.", which was barely even audible.

Trying to offer the most comforting smile that he could, and feeling like he'd failed once he'd done so, he stood up and turned around, exiting the Acid Quirk users room. Once he had left, he looked towards her again, to see her finally moving her head up to lok at him, and trying to return the same smile, and failing herself. Katsuki then shut the door, and locked it as soon as he was able.

With any luck, that would help her to feel more secure. Once done, he passed the key over to Izuku, for him to unlock when he was ready to head back into the room.

"What was that all about?" Todoroki questioned, blinking twice, like he'd just watched someone perform a magic trick in some weird eastern European language that he didn't understand, but was still expected to applause anyway. He was utterly baffled, yet concerned at the same time.

Two small shakes of his head indicated that Izuku wouldn't say. "Not until Uraraka gets here. This is… Some really heavy stuff, and I don't want to have to say it more than once." He confessed. While he still didn't have all the details… He had a pretty good idea on what was happening.

Immediately after finishing his sentence, the rapidly approaching footsteps from behind them indicated the arrival of the brown haired girl. They both turned around to see her, running towards them with look of panic on her face.

"I got your message, Katsuki!" She called with worry, a bit too loudly for the liking of those present. Before she could say another word, Izuku quickly made an X shape with his arms, while Todoroki pressed a finger against his lip, and hissed quietly, to indicate for her to be silent. She blushed lightly, and lowered her volume when she spoke next. "What's going on?"

Three pairs of eyes suddenly fell on Izuku, who sighed and put his hands into his pockets. "Okay, you're all here…This can't leave our group, got it? This kind of thing is personal for Mina." He was honestly surprised that no one made comments about him using her first name. The seriousness of the situation probably made such an observation redundant though. The time for teasing wasn't now.

"Understood." Todoroki nodded.

"I got it." Uraraka commented.

Katsuki simply nodded his head without a word. To Izuku, that was all the confirmation needed.

He let out a deep sigh, and carried on. "On the way back from testing out Mina's costume, we nearly got spotted by some guards. We managed to avoid them seeing us by hiding in some bushes." Further proving this fact, he gestured towards his trousers, covered in dirt and splinters from twigs. "When they passed us, we heard them talking to each other… One of them was called Ashido."

Brown, red, and heterochromic hazel and blue eyes widened at this sentence. Uraraka and Todoroki looked towards one another, while Katsuki simply buried his face within his left palm.

"A few… About a week ago, Uraraka," Izuku called up the attention of the brunette, who turned to meet him in the eye. "You remember that you asked me to check with her horns for the hood requirements?"

Hesitantly, she nodded. "You said that she wouldn't let you see them."

"Right… She also said she wouldn't let me see them because of something that happened before she met any of us. It was the first time I've ever really seen her lose her cool like that before…" He gulped before continuing, his throat feeling like it was getting tighter as he spoke. "I can't prove anything without Mina telling us so… But since both you guys grew up in households that hated Quirks, and me and Uraraka have seen what that leads to…"

A long pause, before Izuku could bring himself to finish.

"I… Think Mina was abused back at home. Something that went beyond just being kicked out, or having boiling water thrown in the face. No offense, Todoroki. I'm not trying to throw your injury under the bridge."

"None taken. At all." Todorooki said, though he did use his right side to generate some ice to cover up the scar left over, soothing some of the stings that he occasionally still got from it. "I… Think I see where this is going though."

"I thought you might…" Izuku commented heavily. "If I'm right, then you're probably the only person that really understands what's happening to her right now."

"Trauma." Came the response from the half burned boy. "If you're right about all of this, she's got a form of trauma that she associates with her family and her horns. A bit like how I see my scar and my fire powers as associations to my parents. Some burns are easy to get over though, depending on the person, the location, and once the pain has gone. Aside from it identifying me as Quirked, and stinging sometimes, mine doesn't really bother me." Glancing to the pink girl's door, he sighed lightly himself. "If horns are the cause of her trauma though… I imagine something a lot less… Adaptable happened. And now, one of the causes of that trauma is back in her life."

"She'd come here thinking that she'd be at least safe…" Katsuki commented, tightly grabbing the bridge of his nose and scowling, showing the softer side that he rarely ever allowed anyone else to see – The side that showed he cared deeply about every one of his friends, despite the shouting and the swearing and the violence he displayed at all times. "This place can't even fuckin' do that right…"

"I-Is she okay?" Uraraka questioned, her concern apparent in her voice.

"She's… As good as you could expect." Izuku carefully worded. She wasn't hurt, at least not physically, and she was, for the most part, seeming to recover from the revelation. "I think it might have just been immediate shock."

"Even so, trauma can still mess with a person." Todoroki explained. "This could be something that sticks with her for her whole life, like Post Traumatic Stress…"

Those words were the ones that seemed to trigger Katsuki's rage. Letting loose a few sparks in the hand that hung to his side, he then turned away from the group, and storming his way towards the exit of the dorms, intent on hunting down the young girls older brother and beating him within an inch of his worthless life.

"Kacchan, wait."

And those words were all it took to get Katsuki to stop dead in his tracks. He didn't turn to face Izuku though, his hands trembling in pure fury.

It wasn't that Izuku didn't understand Katsuki's anger – He felt it himself. If he could, he would hunt down Mina's brother, throw him at her feet and make him beg forgiveness. Whatever his role in Mina's trauma was, he was guilty of making her the wreck that she was. That whatever his role had been, an innocent girl who, by her very nature, was cheerful and life loving, now had regressed into a ball of fear and terror. Even if it was just for the night. Even if it was just initial shock…

Whatever he had done, it wasn't excusable. It was the very first time in his entire life that Izuku wanted to go out and make someone outright pay for their actions…

But he couldn't let that happen.

"…Deku, you're the one who saved me from living on the streets. You're the one who rescued everyone here, including Ashido. You're the one talking about this idea of being Heroes. We all owe you our fucking lives, and I get that." Small explosions detonated from Katsuki's palms continuously, the crackling sound in the air, heard only by those in the corridor. "You fucking know that we'll all do anything that you ask from us. That's because we all fucking trust you and believe in you. You got that?"

"I know…"

"Then do something for me." Turning his head to look Izuku square in the eyes, his blood red irises small and focused, and his teeth bare, scowling at his best friend like he was looking for an excuse to blast him out a window. "Give me a good fucking reason why you're stopping me from finding her brother and making him fucking pay for what he's done!"

"I want to do it too." Came the shocking response to Katsuki's question. "I really want to find him too. I understand how angry you are, Kacchan. And in a perfect world, I'd be on your side."

"Then why – "

"Because this isn't a perfect world. Because if we do, we prove the entire world right." Izuku closed his eyes, remembering all the things Quirks have been accused of in his memory. "Quirked individuals cause violence. Eighty percent of all violent crimes in Japan are caused by Quirks. Quirked people are evil. Quirked people are dangerous. Quirks are the same as terrorist bombs." His eyes then opened, looking toward his friend with a mixture of genuine agreement, and resignation to the fact it couldn't happen. "It's not fair on people who have Quirks. It's wrong, and it's not fair. But… If we prove them right, then we're only going to hurt our cause of proving that Quirks can be used for good. Because if we do that… Then we aren't Heroes."

Crackling still existed within Katsuki's hands, sparks jumping out of his palms and onto the ground below them. He scowl remained, though it strained itself as he considered Izuku's points.

"Please, Kacchan… Don't do it. Trust me?"

"Katsuki."

His eyes then bounced off of Izuku, and then towards Uraraka, giving her the same angry, ferocious glare. His blood red eyes were seen by many as an indicator of the danger that he represented, the damage he could cause, and the unrepressed fury that he had within him. While all were technically accurate explanations of parts of his personality, his friends knew that they weren't the only parts. Not by a longshot.

Trying to give a soft smile, Uraraka spoke calmly towards the raging blond haired boy. "I know you mean well…. But Deku's right. If we do that…If we want to prove our Quirks can be used for good… We can't keep adding onto the amount of Quirks that are used for selfish reasons."

Glancing between the two of them, before his eyes finally landed on his hands. Internally he fought himself, before the sparks finally faded away. Still angry however, he turned on his heel, slammed the side of his fist against the wall, and went off towards his room. If his random act of violence against the nearest solid object had woken anyone else up was a question that would need clarification later on. Since Mina was in her room, and out of the prying eye however, this wasn't as much of an issue as it had been a few minutes ago.

"I'll uh, go make sure he doesn't punch a hole through another wall." Uraraka quickly said, before jogging off in the same direction that Katsuki went, catching up with him before he entered his room.

Izuku let out a long winded sigh, during which he used his left hand to cover his eyes. He understood why Katsuki wanted blood. He did. Truly. Even he did, and he was never the sort of person to want to do such a thing. But he had to reign in his friend when he crossed the line, before he ended up getting himself thrown into a prison cell. It was reassuring to know that he wasn't the only person with a vested interest in doing that. "Thanks, Uraraka." He then took a look towards Todoroki out of the corner of his eye. "So… What should I do with Mina?"

"Best thing I can recommend is comforting her." Todoroki simply suggested. "It helped me when I was taken to the orphanage for Quirked after that whole mess with my parents. Just… Be there for her."

"Yeah… Okay… Thanks, Todoroki."

"Good luck." The half red half white haired boy offered, patting the black haired boy on the back before making his way towards his own room, leaving Izuku on his own to enter Mina's room again at his own leisure.

He took a moment to take a deep breath and collect his thoughts. Todoroki's advice had been good and logical, atypical of someone who had himself been subjected to that sort of terrible abuse and treatment at the hands of relatives. Izuku couldn't even begin to imagine that sort of pain, more grateful than ever for his own mothers support and unconditional love and care. He made a mental note to remember to call her the next day, to let her know that he, Katsuki and Mina were all okay. With everything going on, he'd neglected to do so. Refocusing on what he was doing, he let out the air he was holding in, and inserted the key into the lock. He twisted it a full three-hundred-sixty degrees, unlocking the bolt, and allowing him to enter the horned girl's room.

As expected, she was sat in the exact same place, barely having even moved since Izuku had left her there. When Izuku entered, her head slightly looked up, and she looked towards him, with what was technically a smile, since her lips curled upwards ever so slightly. No tears seemed to have fallen.

Not yet, anyway.

Shutting the door behind him, and locking it as he did so, he then tossed the key onto the nearby desk, and then went over to the still shaking girl. She seemed to have, at least a little bit, calmed herself down. Ever so slightly. Sitting down next to her, he tried to think up the right words to say, but struggled. What was he supposed to say to someone who was like this? What was he supposed to say to console her?

"…Are you... Okay?" He asked, hesitantly. It was all he had.

She wasn't okay. That wasn't anything that even remotely resembled okay, but it was honestly all he could even think of to say.

He just couldn't think of anything else.

Mina didn't respond for a couple of seconds, before turning to look at Izuku. The colour had returned to her skin, a light pink in lieu of the ghostly white she had turned into. She didn't say anything to him. Not a word.

Instead, she simply lowered her head, and pulled the hair away from the base of her right horn.

Revealing the sawed off segment that ran halfway through the extremity.

"Oh my… God…" Izuku stammered, wide eyed and horrified by what was in front of him. In the time that he'd known her, he hadn't once seen this before. She never let him get close to her horns.

Now he knew why.

"…My parents did this." Mina said, raising her head back up slightly, and looking to the wall in front of her. She gulped as she remembered the saw blade to her horn, feeling queasy as she did so. "I was nearly nine when it happened… They pinned me to the ground and just…. Got a…. Saw. They wouldn't stop…I begged them…. But they wouldn't stop…"

She shuddered.

"My brother… The guard. His name is Mara. He… Saw everything happen to me. He watched it happen… And he didn't… Do anything. He could have stopped it. Our parents listened to him… Did anything he asked them to…. They were just glad that one of their kids wasn't a freak. But he… Didn't. He watched it happen to me… Wanted it to happen to me… The only person who could have stopped it… He just sat there and watched…" She looked at Izuku in his eyes, and revealed, "That's why Quirkless people scared me when I met you. You… Always got what you wanted. You always won. And those of us who have Quirks… We're just your playthings…"

"M-Mina…" No longer was it just Mina who was shaken by all of this anymore. It had a very clear impact on Izuku himself.

"You showed me that's… Not always the case. I'm… Sorry, that I thought you were like that… I'm sorry for…. Mara being here. I'm… I'm sorry that I've been causing you all so much trouble…"

"Whe-Where is all of this coming from?" Aghast at the things she was apologizing for, Izuku simply could not just remain silent and listen to her any longer. "Mina, it's – I totally understand why you thought about Quirkless people like that. Even without your brother and family in the picture, I understand why, but why are you apologizing for that now?"

"…Even though everything about me is just another risk to add onto the pile of risks that being a Hero has…You're still going out of your way to try and help me..." Was this… All of the guilt that she had secretly been carrying all this time? All the things that she felt bad about, even though she had no direct control over them?

Could it be due in part to the fact that, as a Quirked, she just wasn't used to the idea of people wanting to help her? Was it because, deep down, she did still feel some self-loathing and blamed herself for the stress and worry that each one of her friends went through on a regular basis?

Did she just think that everything that happened to them was her fault?

Or was this her trauma talking, making her say things she didn't understand or mean? Either way…

"…Mina, you're… You're our friend. You're my friend. You don't need to feel this way about things… We're doing all of this because we want to help you. The Hero idea… I came up with it because of you. Because of what you've said to me… and because I want to help change things so that you can have a better life."

"But, if you – "

"I don't want to hear it." He cut off whatever Mina was about to say, placing his hands on her shoulders as he did so. A stark contrast to the way he normally was that surprised even himself, he thought of the absolute best way to try to get her to see things in a different light. With confidence and determination to get his point across to her that he hadn't felt even for the idea of Heroism, he spoke, "I don't want to hear you saying that you think you're a burden to us. You're not even close t anything like that! No one thinks about you this way! You're the one who's at the most risk out of everyone here, but you still want to do this! You're someone who is brave, someone who isn't afraid to fight to make the world better, and we're all happy to help you because you're our friend! You're one of us!" He then blushed lightly as his words. "Well… More accurately, I'm one of you…"

There was a brief moment where neither of them said anything, pausing, like they had just frozen one another in time, as Mina took Izuku's words in. Her trauma had made her reveal things that she wouldn't have otherwise, as she had become prone to overthinking and extreme anxiety from the shock of learning her brother was close by. Still, with those things out in the open now…

She looked at Izuku.

And then hugged him as tightly as she physically could.

---

This was a difficult chapter that sort of evolved into its own thing. Mina's brother was always going to show up, but I just kind of put him in here because I thought it would be fun and more interesting.

We're finally moving onto the actual acts of Heroism in the next couple of chapters. I've got a few ideas that I think will be fun. I've been looking forward to these ones for a while now, so get hyped!

I deleted the previous announcement chapter, by the way. If you didn't read it – I'm changing my user name to QuirkQuartz, so, there's a heads up.

Second note – I have a Pat reon now under the name of Quirk Quartz, and you can find the link in my profile. Donations are heavily appreciated, but by no means are they required. You can find a lot more information on the actual Pat reon, but in brief – I don't try to pry your wallet open with rewards, I'm very open about where your money goes, and you're welcome to donate as much or as little as you like, if you choose to donate at all. Any donations at all would be highly appreciated.

Thanks for your time, and I'll see you all next time – See ya!