Shinsou and Eri sat on a bench in one of the hallways, the latter trying to process the information on what had happened on the previous fight. Shinsou gave her a quick rundown of what went down, while also making sure to keep out any of the more disturbing details.
"Good lord, and that happened on live television?" Eri asked, earning a nod from the insomniac. "I'm glad you covered my eyes, but, now I'm really worried."
Shinsou shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, the one who got the bad end of the stick kinda deserved it."
"How can you say that?!" Eri snapped, glaring at Shinsou. "Ashido lost an eye, an arm, and got her leg punctured!"
"Yeah," Shinsou returned the glare. "And Ashido also gave the hero killer Stain the idea to attack a support student, allowed him to enter the campus and put everyone in danger, injured a member of the hero course, almost destroyed said member's arm on her previous match, and is said to have injured one of her own classmates prior, as well."
Eri's anger was slowly replaced by sheer, shocked amazement at what Shinsou had described. "But, if she did all of that, why was she even allowed to compete in the festival? Getting the hero killer on U.A. should've been enough to ban her."
Shinsou took a deep breath and lowered his head. "It was a tough decision..."
"When I snap my fingers, you won't lie during this entire interrogation."
Shinsou snapped his fingers once, and Mina broke out of her entranced state to find herself in an enclosed room, with one of those one-way mirrors.
Right in front of her were Eraserhead, homeroom teacher of Class 1-A, Vlad King, same but for Class 1-B, and Present Mic.
And of course, right beside her was Shinsou, who promptly asked, "Were you the one who told Stain to go cripple a potential support course student?"
"What kind of question is that?!" Mina snapped, right before her eyes went blank and she spoke with a robotic tone, "I gave him the idea that he could try attacking a support gadget maker, since those tend to help the fakers he seeks to eradicate. I never thought he'd go after a teenager."
"Did you feel any joy from these news?" Vlad King asked sternly, as Present Mic pressed a button on an audio recorder.
"Of all the feelings that the news brought, shock and disbelief overpowered me for a long while," Mina's blank expression slowly transformed into a smile. "But once I processed the information, and had Stain let me know that it was better this way, joy did come back, though it was mixed with a great deal of regret."
"Did you have any connection with any of his other crimes before his incarceration?" Eraserhead inquired.
"Not really, I stayed behind on his house and acted like a housewife: cleaning the apartment, making food, that stuff. However, besides being taught how to throw knives and general knowledge on close combat, I wasn't involved with him."
"Wait, you lived with Stain?"
"Yes, I did. As I said before, I took care of the house while he took care of faker hunting."
"One final question, Ashido: Why did you decide to live with Stain?" Vlad King lowered his eyelids. "Surely, you had to have noticed the guy would be bad news."
"I was desperate. I was alone on the streets... starving... and scared. I would've decided to go live with anyone who would've given me the option."
Present Mic pushed a button on the recorder, ending the recording, and Shinsou snapped his fingers as he said "turn back to normal", with Mina doing just that moments later.
"W-Wait," the pink girl tilted her head. "What just happened?"
"We got what we needed," Eraserhead calmly answered as Present Mic showed the recorder. "A confession from you that, while not being enough to send you in jail, will pretty much get you expelled from U.A., and at the very least some community service for bringing the hero killer on campus."
"And that's if they decide to go easy on you!" Present Mic added.
"But you can't do that! If you do that..." Mina's eyes slowly widened in realization. "You'll lose the chance to get information on them..."
Eraserhead raised an eyebrow, and seeing this as her cue to explain herself, she reached for her back and took out a some documents containing papers, baffling Shinsou as she explained:
"Stain told me about certain groups of villainous organizations, mostly to let me know who could potentially be one of their agents. And I'm willing to share this information with you, especially since I can't really lie anyway."
Eraserhead narrowed his eyes. "What's the catch?"
"Oh, nothing major, it's just something I've always wanted to do," Mina twiddled her fingers. "You see, ever since I was little brat, I always watched a peculiar event on the TV in order to calm myself down. And participating in it was one of the reasons I joined U.A. Simply put..."
Mina turned back to the teachers and smirked:
"Let me participate in the sports festival."
"Absolutely not!" Present Mic snapped. "Keeping her around is one thing, but letting her participate in the most popular event of Japan is another!"
Mina snatched the documents back. "Don't let me participate in the sports festival, and I'm not giving you any dirt on these organizations."
"How do we even know those documents have any information at all?" Present Mic narrowed his eyes. "You could be tricking us into letting you get close to hero students to cripple!"
"Ugh, you give the hero killer the idea to do that to a support student and it's the first thing people expect you to do," Mina rolled her eyes and took out a paper from the document. "Here, see for yourself."
Eraserhead grabbed the paper and took a closer look at it. The paper consisted of information on what looked like a woman, wearing a black bird mask. Age, occupation, and crimes were all registered, as well as some potential hints on who her children could be.
"This is information on the head of the Shie Hassaikai, isn't it?" Eraserhead asked, earning a nod from Mina. "How did Stain find out about them, let alone get this information?"
"Simply put, he goes out often, and people who use villainous actions to make the world a better place as just as fake heroes in his eyes," Mina explained. "Now, if you want the rest of the information, let me continue studying at U.A., and participate in the sports festival."
"How do we know we can trust you?!"
Raging bells were heard across the room as the teachers turned to see Shinsou shooting a glare at Mina, who slowly turned to face him and waited until the bells died down to smugly reply:
"Did you really think that would work on me again?"
Shinsou groaned. "You little-!"
"Alright, Ashido, we got a deal."
Shinsou and Mina turned to face Eraserhead, who narrowed his eyes as he added, "But on one condition: until the sports festival happens, you won't take classes with Class 1-A. You will stay in your cell, and we will teach you the subjects you would've studied otherwise."
"Wait, are you for real?!" Present Mic exclaimed.
"There's no way we're letting you anywhere near the hero course students after what you did," Vlad King sternly added.
"Are you listening to me?!"
"Furthermore, once the sports festival is over, you're out," Eraserhead added. "No begging, no pleading, you're out of U.A. and what happens next will be up to you."
"Come on, guys, you can't be serious! This is a terrible idea!"
"I have to agree with Present Mic," Shinsou said, clenching his fists. "Letting a psychopath like her stay here, even if it's temporary-"
"Is but a small price to pay for the chance of knocking down some villainous organizations," Mina smirked. "Right?"
Shinsou gritted his teeth and growled, but his anger was quickly replaced with disbelief as he saw Eraserhead shake hands with Mina, the boy exchanging horrified looks with Present Mic before he turned back to see Mina's disgusting grin.
"It took me a while to understand Eraserhead only did it because it was the best option, but still, my view on him took a hit that day."
"So, in short, they allowed her to participate just to get some information on some villain groups?" Eri rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Well, now they see how that went down! I bet the documents they got were mostly bogus, too."
"No, they were completely accurate."
Eri flinched and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"You heard me: the information on the documents turned out to be completely true; information on the important members, their headquarters, their latest operation," Shinsou lifted his head and sighed. "Everything was true."
"But, why would she do that?" Eri scratched her head. "Surely, she could've just had one genuine document, have the rest be fake, and the results would've been the same."
"Ashido's a crazy bitch, but she's a crazy bitch who likes to put herself on a pedestal; I bet she figured that by giving the heroes genuine dirt on the villains, she'd make herself look better in comparison," Shinsou smiled. "Little did she know that all she managed to do in the end was help U.A. be better prepared for when they deal with these groups."
Eri scratched her chin. "That's interesting I guess, but what's going to happen now?"
"If my intuition's right, the police will take care of Mina. No idea what'll happen to the vine girl, though," Shinsou stood up. "Anyway, we've wasted enough time. How about we go back to the stands so you can cheer on your boyfriend?"
Eri blushed and stood up too. "Mineta's not my boyfriend!"
Shinsou pocketed his hands and snickered, "Not yet anyway."
The insomniac guy lead the way, snickering to himself as Eri desperately tried to convince him that she and Mineta didn't have a romantic relationship.
.
.
.
"Guess you got more than you bargained for, Problem Child."
