Bakugou's hands were slammed in his pockets as they exited into the equipment room. The frantic beeping and fit of hysteria fell behind them as the door between the rooms closed.

Not a few moments later, the doctor waltzed back in followed by a deep sigh. Bakugou got a peak back in the patient room from the glass partition. The girl lay silently on the bed, just as still as she had been before.

"Will she be okay?" Priority was the first to ask the doctor.

"I think she'll be fine after she gets some rest. A little too much excitement I suppose. Not sure what threw her into a fit."

Bakugou gritted his teeth. Useless.

"Hey," A strong hand dropped on his shoulder, as Priority addressed the young boy. "Thank you."

Bakugou shook off the contact and reasserted himself. "What for, I didn't do anything." He scoffed.

"On the contrary." A soft smile etched his rugged features. "I've visited her every week for the last few months. I never felt like she ever truly looked at me. But today…" his voice trailed off. "Well, today I felt a little piece of her come alive. Or try to. It's a small step. But I think it's a good one."

The words settled on Bakugou's shoulders. He too couldn't help but notice how dead she looked. How utterly… broken. It wasn't like he actually cared or anything, but he would never hear the end of it from that shitty haired freak if he didn't do the 'manly' thing or whatever the hell that meant. At least that was what he told himself when he said,

"Would it help?"

Priority's head cocked slightly in confusion. "Would what help?"

Bakugou shoved his hands further in his pockets. "If I came back tomorrow."

"Well, what do you think doc?" Even Bakugou could tell that Priority was ripe with hope.

The doctor shrugged. "I don't see why not. But we have to tread lightly. I want avoid another repeat of today if we can."

Bakugou looked at Aizawa. Ultimately, it came down to him. He sighed deeply. "Hey, don't look at me. What you do after school hours is up to you."

"So it's settled!" Priority's voice was filled with a kind of expectation that disgusted Bakugou. There was no guarantee, so any expectation was just childish wishes.

As they walked back down the hospital hallways, Priority tagged along with Eraser Head and Bakugou.

"So did you know her after all?" Priority asked pointedly.

"No."

"Oh. Well she sure does seem to think she knows you."

Bakugou didn't placate him with a response. Mainly because it was odd. Her eyes seemed to light up with recognition when she saw him. There had to be a real memory there, but it was a memory they apparently did not share. It angered him.

That following day at school, Kiri probed Bakugou with questions again, asking for all the details of his after-school excursion until he finally snapped.

"I told you nothing interesting happened so shut the hell up!"

That seemed to mitigate the circus for the time being.

When the day finally ended, since this was more of a voluntary activity instead of an official request through the school, Bakugou took the train to get to the hospital.

Priority was already there waiting for him when he arrived.

As they entered the room, the girl slowly lifted her head again to face him. Her glossy violet stare met his.

"Bak..ugou." She turned to face the older hero. "Pri..prior..ity."

The hero smiled softly. "That's right."

"School." The words lingered on the air between Bakugou and Vaila.

"Huh?" Bakugou's irritation leaked out through his voice.

"We…met. At school." It could've been his imagination, but Bakugou felt almost as if her voice had become clearer. And it was the first time he heard her string together more than one word.

School. She must've been referring to middle school. Her lanky frame and thin cheeks made it nearly impossible to identify anything about her, so he couldn't remember seeing anyone like her. Her violet eyes were probably her most defining feature, but he could've sworn he hadn't seen them before. But also, there were some other memories of his last year of middle school that remained prevalent in his mind. For better or worse, she was a stranger to him.

The girl dragged her knees back up to her chin. He couldn't help but notice a series of small dotted scars along her palm as she brought her hands around to hug her knees.

"Your hands… what happened?" Bakugou asked, more hoping to kill the silence than actually to hear the answer.

She looked up at him with no response. He could tell she was thinking, pondering his question, but also he thought maybe it was best if she didn't know.

"Nevermind." He backtracked.

"Mmmm… needles." She bit her lip. "I… think." She hugged her knees tighter.

"That much is true at least." Priority's voice was back to his usual dark tone. "When we found her, she had needles protruding from the base of her palms. Likely, they were using it to extract her quirk."

"Her quirk?" Bakugou shifted to face the hero.

"She secretes a drug from her hands. They were extracting it to sell it."

Bakugou gritted his teeth. The whole concept infuriating him. He was sure if someone tried to stick a needle in his hands they would be met instantaneously with an explosion to the face.

Her body shook. Bakugou could tell she wasn't far from a meltdown again.

"Hey, snap out of it!" Her face raised to meet his again. The shaking stopping momentarily. "So what if you were weak in the past. Get over it!" Bakugou saw Priority shifting angrily in his seat, apparently displeased with his seemingly careless words. "You can't change whatever happened back then, but you can do something about what happens now! So man the hell up, and DO something already!"

Priority grabbed Bakugou and was all but going to drag him out. "That's enough! Don't you think she's been through enough already without you lecturing her and…"

"STOP IT!" Vaila covered her ears, tears building at the edge of her eyes. "Please… stop."

Priority loosened his grip on Bakugou.

"I'm… tired... of being… weak." The tears that were building started to fall. "I want to...want to… become… stronger."

She wept, and Priority couldn't help but feel like a fool. How was it that this kid saw what he couldn't. He had always treated her as something fragile. A broken doll that if you touched it, it would crack. But realistically, she needed to be pushed. To break just a little more. Because once she did, she would finally be able to heal.

He reached out a hand, placing it on her head as she cried. It was the kind of raw emotion that she hadn't experienced in so long. But it was time.

Eventually she stopped crying, and when she did, she promptly fell asleep. Just like a child.

Leaving her to rest, the two walked back through the hallways.

"So where's her family then? Why are you the only one who visits?" Bakugou grunted out the questions.

"Her dad's in prison. Drug charges wouldn't stick for lack of evidence but…"

The sudden silence killed Bakugou. "What?!"

"We got him for the murder of her mother. Apparently, she had been dead for a while, but with no family to look for her no one knew she was missing. We found the body hidden in the insulation of one of the houses he constructed."

Bakugou gritted his teeth, a shadow looming over him. How did no one notice? What's even the point of being strong, if you can't even notice if someone needs to be saved.

Her words came back to him. "School. We met… at school."

He did remember. It was only a moment. For a brief second he did notice. That old scumbag, who must've been her father dragging her off the school grounds. She looked terrified. He knew something was off. But he didn't do anything. Damn! Damn it! He really was weak after all.

His fists clenched together in pure rage.

"Hey, you okay kid?" They were stopped near the entrance.

"I'm fine." Bakugou marched in a rage straight through the doors and out to the outside world. Priority ran up to him, all too familiar with the aura of self-deprecation.

"Hey, stop." Priority stepped in front of Bakugou blocking his way across the street. "You obviously remembered something, and from the looks of it, it wasn't great."

"Mind your own business, asshole!"

He sighed deeply as Bakugou shoulder checked him and went to cross the street.

"I did the same thing, just so you know!" Priority's voice echoed across distance between them. "I failed her too!"

Bakugou scoffed, letting the words roll of him, as he crossed the street and set himself to go home. She was never his responsibility, so he couldn't have failed her. It was all just coincidence, and even if he had done something that day, there's no guarantee it wouldn't have ended up the same way.

No matter how much he told himself this, the anger continued to build within him. Damn it! How pathetic!

As he walked the streets, back to the train, and back home, he slowly buried those feelings beneath of mountain of hatred and angst.

The next day when he visited, Priority was noticeably absent. It made sense, he was a pro hero after all. His whole life couldn't revolve around one girl.

As Bakugou walked into the white room, he noticed that a chair had been set up next to her bed. At first, he refused to sit as some childish attempt at defiance, but eventually he gave in, his legs tired from the walk on top of that day's hero course activities.

Slamming into the chair, he noticed there was a tray of uneaten food on the nightstand next to her bed.

"You gotta eat dumbass." Bakugou crossed his arms in irritation.

The girl hugged her knees closer. "I know."

"If you knew then you should've eaten!" A vein seemed to pop from his forehead. He looked over at the tray. Truly it looked like a conglomeration of everything inedible. He wasn't even sure he would eat that. He sighed. "What do you like?"

She looked at him with her hollow violet eyes as if the question itself was gibberish.

"Your favorite food idiot. What is it?"

She seemed to ponder it for a moment, stuffing her face into her knees. Eventually a muffled word escaped past. "Udon."

Without saying a word, he grabbed his bag and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Not but ten minutes later, he returned with a white plastic bag. "Here."

He forced the bag into Vaila's shaky hands before returning to his plastic chair. There was a slight rustling as she opened the plastic bag, finding a black bowl of warm soup. She didn't say a word, but he noticed as her eyes seemed to light up.

Weakly, she opened the plastic lid, and almost immediately there was a slight slurping as she munched on the noodles.

Every day after that, he stopped off and brought her something to eat. Some days it was Udon, or yakisoba. One day he brough her Takoyaki, and he watched her poke it as if uncertain of its origins.

"It's not a toy, just put it in your damn mouth!"

He watched as her fragile frame, and thin cheeks slowly started to fill out. Her motions seemed slightly less sluggish too, and the more they talked, the more her words seemed to flow.

There would be times where she would shut down or stop mid-sentence unsure of where she was going or what the word was that she was looking for. Nothing shut her down more though, then any question about the past or what happened.

Priority would visit about once a week still, in hopes that maybe she would remember something about what happened, giving him some sort of new lead. The case was at a stand still for the most part, as the ring went undercover after their almost bust. And her incarcerated father offered little in the way of information.

Bakugou was told that her lack of memory was likely due to the damage to her brain, and maybe that was it. But the more he talked with her, he felt it wasn't so much that she didn't remember, but that she didn't want to remember.

The rain patted on the room window. Priority stood next to the hospital bed asking Vaila some questions, and Bakugou sat in his chair, irritation growing with every silent answer.

"Are you sure you can't tell me anything Vaila? Anything helps." He sounded exasperated, as if every time she refused to respond a little bit more of his hope died.

There was nothing save the striking of thunder and the clacking of rain on the window.

Bakugou felt something snap within him as he violently raised himself from the chair. "So what? You're just gonna let them win?!"

Priority's face fell, trying to get the boy's attention, "Bakugou…"

"No! Shut up!" He looked back at Vaila, her watery violet eyes and brown hair directly in front of him. "You said you wanted to be stronger, but you aren't even TRYING!" He clenched his fist and jaw. "So what?! Life sucks, it's painful! Suck it up! If all you want to do is sit there, then fine, but don't expect me to just sit there with you!"

He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He gritted his teeth. What a waste of time. This was going nowhere. She was going nowhere.

There was the clicking as the door opened and closed again, Priority following him out. "Wait."

Bakugou stopped, but not bothering to turn around to face the hero.

"Don't be too hard on her. I know she's trying. She's gotten so much better since you started coming."

"Yea, well. I'm done."

Priority's mouth stood open for a minute. "No, don't say that…"

The two men looked back in shock as the door opened once more. She stood there, body shaking, hands tensed against the door frame to support her. Tears streamed down her face.

She panted. "There were two." Her chest heaved between sobs. "Two men in that room."

"….Vaila."

Priority helped carry her back to the bed, and then he listened to her. Her words were choppy, sometimes incoherent. Bakugou listened too with his arms crossed in that plastic chair he had spent so many afternoons in.

He couldn't help but be proud, despite his seemingly grumpy exterior. She was doing it. It may take a while, but she was moving forward, and he would too.