"Can you believe the nerve of that girl!" Someone said snidely. "I mean, if she isn't a student or a hero in training then who the hell is she to try and teach us anything? How presumptuous can one person be? And can you believe that Aizawa-sensei and the other teachers just allowed her! What could she possibly know about being a hero?"

"I know. But even so- she did make quite a few valid points," Another person said. "Knowing hand to hand is important to a lot of pro-hero's in training. And there's also the fact that we can't always rely on our quirks either. Relying too heavily on them makes us look weak."

"And predictable to villains!" Another person chimed in. "Don't forget that either!"

"I can't believe that they allowed her to beat the hell out of Bakago." A boy said with a shake of his head. "I mean, I know the guy is a jerk and all, but that was too much even as a punishment."

"Well...he did sort of rip her shirt off in public." A girl said with a slight frown.

"Yeah I know but still..."

Izuku listened to everyone talk until he felt the nearly irresistible urge to snarl angrily at the lot of them. How dare she? He thought to himself. His mind turning the words over and over and over again in his head until everything was sort of a jumbled, seething mess. How dare they talk about Ichigo like that. The girl didn't even do anything wrong and these assholes thought that she had no right to beat the snot out of Kaa-chan.

After he had jerked her shirt up and exposed her body. Her scars? Was he crazy or was he the only one that had seen just how freaked out she'd been? For fuck's sake, she'd had a panic attack and froze up!

How could anyone ignore that?

How could they think that she had no right to beat Kaa-chan after that stupid stunt? Even he knew better. These people obviously had neither any respect for- nor right to train to be pro-hero's. Not if they could think such terrible things about a fucking civilian girl who was not only physically damaged but mentally fragile as well.

For god's sake... He thought as his stomach lurched dangerously and bile burned the back of his throat. "What if last night had caused her to try and kill herself again?" He said aloud without meaning too. And was obviously heard by a few people seeing as they quickly converged on him and scared the hell out of him since he hadn't been paying any attention.

"What do you mean she tried to kill herself?" One guy asked curiously as everyone else fell silent so that they could listen. No doubt to listen and twist everything he managed to tell them so that they could start senseless rumors. Assholes.

"Did she do something last night after Aizawa-sensei took her away?" A girl asked almost gleefully. Izuku's stomach lurched again at the mere thought of Ichigo adding another scar to both of her wrists. Or worse. What if she was still upset about it and someone set her off to the point where she decided to hang herself in the woods?

He didn't think that he would be able to hold himself back much longer. So he didn't bother. The same 'gleeful' girl asked him the same question again and he threw up on her shoes.

She shrieked in outrage and horror and Izuku had to resist the urge to smile or laugh. Because honestly, she had that coming. Instead he vomited a couple more times after which he used the back of a shaky hand to wipe his mouth and then slowly straightened his spine and looked at everyone like they were the most loathsome creatures in the world.

And considering how they had been acting, he wasn't that far off the mark.

"How dare you," He said the words in a deceptively calm tone. Low, dangerous- anyone who had ever heard him speak in such a manner before would know that he was just a heartbeat away from flying into a rage that would put Kaa-chan to shame. However no one in this group seemed to know him. Well, not well enough to know his temperament anyways. Which was lucky for him. But not so much for everyone else. "How dare all of you stand here and talk shit about a civilian girl. For fuck's sake- how can all of you be so damned petty and cruel? Kaa-chan crossed a fucking line! A line that never should have been crossed in the first place."

"We're all here to train to be future pro-hero's, but you people have your heads shoved so far up each other's asses that you don't even think that she has a right to defend herself. To demand justice of some sort?" He looked everyone in the eye and spat, "All of you aren't any better than villains."

Everyone looked at him with a mixture of hurt, and stunned disbelief as he then turned and walked off. He'd rather train alone than with those losers.

Katsuki had been following her around since she had split from Aizawa and the others. His curiosity was finally starting getting the better of him if he was being reduced to stalker-ish tendencies. But to be honest...after what he had done last night, he owed her an apology. A verbal one.

And not just because she kicked his ass earlier. But because he'd done something that he never shouldn't have done.

Izuku had been acting oddly lately. Now don't get him wrong, he sort of liked the change in the normally meek mannered guy. Until he'd punched him in the face for what he'd done to the girl.

And then he'd from 'like' to flat out amazed. Maybe even a little bit impressed.

After all, the Izuku that he'd grown up with wasn't a violent person. He was nice. Fucking precious even. But for some reason that Katsuki couldn't really fathom, he'd been absolutely livid with him for exposing the girl like he had. And to be honest, Katsuki hadn't felt bad about it until he'd seen the horrible scars littering her flesh.

All of it overlapping. All of it vicious and agonizing looking.

He'd only been able to identify a couple of scars or their possible creators anyways. But some of the scars were incredibly difficult to identify, even for him. All he knew was that whoever had put those scars on the girl- they hadn't done so in one day. They'd done it over a extended period of years.

That was years of no one helping/saving or even protecting her. Years of struggle and abuse and god knew what else. His hands fisted tightly at his sides as he peeked around the tree that he was using to hide himself to see what she was doing now since she hadn't moved out of the immediate area.

He couldn't help the funny look of confusion that flitted across his face as he watched her run after something small. It took him a moment to totally understand what she was doing. Somehow seeing a total badass like her running after a small furry baby rabbit simply didn't register with him.

Which was why he felt at such a loss at the moment.

He...hadn't expected this. He'd expected her to climb trees, splash around in a creek, maybe try her hand at fishing without a fishing pole or training. But not this.

She seemed to be having fun though.

There was simply a sort of...innocence present in her that he hadn't seen earlier as she scooped up the rabbit and carefully held the thrashing and crying little thing in her hands. And softly petted it's head for a couple of seconds before then bending down, and gently placing it back on the ground and laughing softly to herself as it bolted away from her like a bat out of hell.

Still filled with indecision, he didn't know if he should leave her be and simply find her later or-

"You should come out and join me," She called out to him. The sound of her voice startling him so badly that he nearly brained himself on a low hanging tree limb just trying to hide himself from her. And she must have seen him almost brain himself too since she called out to him again. "You okay there blondy?"

He growled in annoyance and stepped out from behind the tree he'd been hiding behind.

"My name isn't blondy!"

"It isn't?" She said in a teasing tone that completely threw him for a loop. Not even his mother teased him. She smacked him in the head and nagged him and crap. But she didn't tease him. Not anymore. "But you're blond. So you must be a blondy!" She called back. As if her reasoning made any damned sense at all.

He growled again as he felt his anger start to rise, but just as swiftly as it started, he squashed it and simply said, "My name is Katsuki!"

"Well then Katsuki, is there a particular reason that you've been stalking me for?" She asked. He stood perfectly still, trying to figure out the best way to go about apologizing to her for what he'd done. But came up blank.

Wracking his brain for the information that he needed only one thing came to mind- it was sort of extreme and he wasn't proud of it either, but the situation sort of called for it.

So he walked over to her and stopped several inches from her and abruptly dropped to his knees and bowed his head. If his actions startled or confused her, he didn't see it. But he was polite, like his mother taught him to be, and his words were sincere.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done what I did, and I'm a jerk. I'm sorry-" He may or may not have said a few other things as nicely as he possibly could but he faltered and finally stopped talking when he felt long slender fingers gently carding through his wild blond hair.

He held himself perfectly still, not exactly knowing how to react to her touching him in a non-violent manner. But he sort of couldn't help but like the soft touch some.