Fair warning, this chapter is about to get a little dark. And I don't mean because it takes place at night. Proceed at your own judgement.

Shiozaki dragged her weary vessel down to the east side of the camp, thin silver rays of moonlight shining down on her dusty skin and clothes. Having already spent two days at the Wild Wild Pussycats' week-long training camp, she could say without a doubt that today had been far worse for her.

Not only had she been berated by Mandalay for slacking off during training (she had barely stopped for five seconds to breathe), Vlad King had summoned her along with some of the boys after dinner to review their performance, making her absurdly late to the girls' scheduled session at the hot springs. It caused her a pang of annoyance to imagine all her friends drying their hair and sharing laughs in their cabin, while she was still trudging down the long dirt road towards the baths.

Well, at least now she had the whole place to herself.

She finally reached the gate to the hot springs at the end of the path. The gate creaked open loudly as she entered. She checked the gap between the walls for traces of a certain dwarf-sized student, then she entered the second gate into the girls' side and grabbed the last towel from the shelf.

The water shimmered through a veil of steam. Shiozaki removed her dirty clothes and placed them by the water's edge along with the towel, then immediately lowered herself into the sizzling water.

Her first thought: It. Was. Bliss. To her weary bones and aching muscles, the soothing heat felt no different from the healing touch of her fabled deity. She took a gulp of air and dived down, allowing the water to wash the dirt cleanly off her face. She swam a lap around the spring and threw her head back as she surfaced, creating a shower of droplets with her vines, which soared over her head in an arc.

She was so immersed in enjoying the spring that she failed to hear the gate opening up behind her.

"Oh - hi, Ibara," came Kendo's voice from behind. "I'm just here to get my...hair...tie..."

Shiozaki looked back in horror, praying that Kendo had only stopped talking because she had seen a spider or a lizard on the wall - but Kendo's gaze was fixed on Shiozaki's lower back, her eyes wide with shock, a pale hand pressed over her mouth.

Springing up like a startled animal, Shiozaki leapt out of the water, grabbed her towel, and wrapped it firmly around herself before turning to face Kendo, making sure she could see nothing but her front.

"You...you saw nothing," Shiozaki said in a panicked tone.

"Oh my goodness..." Kendo said weakly. "...when did you...?"

"Kendo, please." Shiozaki's voice started to crack.

"Does it...hurt?"

A second's pause.

"Please get out."

Shiozaki could no longer bear to look her friend in the eye. She fixed her gaze towards a single spot on the floor, her trembling lips the only part of her still moving. She wasn't sure if she couldn't move or if she just didn't want to. All she wanted was for Kendo to turn around and leave.

She heard Kendo muttering several muted words. Then, there was the crunch of shoes on gravel as she turned around, took something from the shelf, and hastily exited the gate.

There was no point in trying to enjoy her bath anymore after that. Shiozaki quickly finished washing up, got dressed, and left the hot springs with far more weighing on her mind than when she had entered.

Should she go back to the cabin and explain everything to Kendo...? No, she wasn't ready for that yet, nor did she have the courage to face the others at the moment. But she couldn't just pretend that nothing had happened - Kendo was always looking out for her fellow students, there was no way she wouldn't bring up the matter again in private...and how would Kendo look at her differently when she knew...?

Shiozaki pressed the inside of her fist to her forehead in frustration. She needed to do something, anything, to clear her mind...

The only thing that occurred to her was to go for a walk.

She went back up the road to the middle of the campsite, then down onto the southward path which led into the forest. It was the path they would be using the following night for the 'test of courage'.

She ventured into the grove, doing her best to focus on nothing but the softly rustling leaves and the airy feel of dirt beneath her shoes...she was not worried about getting lost - the path was supposed to loop back to the camp after fifteen minutes.

The walk proved to be a good distraction. Shiozaki had all but lost track of how long she had spent in the forest, when she neared a particularly dense thicket of bushes...

"Dude, this is stupid."

"Don't say that, if we go back now we'll have to look at that joker's sneering face early."

Shiozaki stopped and looked towards the source of the voices - they had come from the other side of the bushes. She had not expected anyone else to be here...

She approached the bushes curiously. With each step she took, the voices grew louder and clearer.

"I'm...staying up...for this?!"

"You won't make it up there."

"Sure I will, just watch - oh no..."

"Sero, duck!"

Shiozaki brushed aside the thicket, and right as she stepped through, she was greeted by an avalanche of leaves and a cacophony of shrieks.

After the dust had cleared and the leaves had settled, she had to take a moment to process the scene. Denki Kaminari and Hanta Sero were lying tangled underneath a pile of leaves at the foot of a large tree, a single snapped branch poking out of the pile. Eijiro Kirishima and Mina Ashido were cowering behind raised arms on either side of them. Leaning against the tree was Bakugo, his head hanging and his hand plastered over his face.

Kaminari let out a pained whimper and opened his eyes wearily. The second he saw Shiozaki, all energy seemed to return to him as he sprang to his feet and gave her a clumsy wave and smile, all the while picking leaves out of his hair with his free hand.

"Evening, girl! You, uh...saw absolutely nothing, right?"

Bakugo peered out from between his fingers to see who Kaminari was talking to. He saw Shiozaki and immediately turned away, clearly embarrassed to be caught in the company of his friends.

"Hey, uh - I think we should get going now," Sero muttered, rubbing a spot on his head as he got to his feet. "Mr Aizawa will have us flayed if we're late to remedial classes."

"Good call. Come along, Romeo."

Kirishima pinched Kaminari on the ear as he and Sero headed back towards the forest path. Kaminari gave a comedic jolt, then flashed one last lame grin at Shiozaki before turning to follow the two boys.

This left Ashido standing by the tree with Bakugo and Shiozaki. She turned to her classmate and said, "Bakugo, you coming?"

At this, Kirishima swiftly doubled back, wrapped an arm around Ashido's shoulder, and steered her back around. He gave Bakugo a meaningful wink as he dragged Ashido away, to which Bakugo simply rolled his eyes.

The four of them went back through the bushes and disappeared. An uncomfortable silence stretched out between Bakugo and Shiozaki as they stood by themselves in the tiny clearing.

Bakugo turned and kicked aside some of the fallen leaves disgruntledly.

"Well? I take it our teacher told you to come look for us?" he snapped.

Shiozaki gave him a bewildered look. "What? No."

"Then why'd you come all the way out here?"

"I, um, felt like having a walk." she said, perhaps a little too quickly. She could tell that Bakugo wasn't fooled when his eyes suddenly narrowed at her.

She shied away from his gaze, feeling a sudden urge to turn around and flee. The last thing she needed was for him to ask what she was hiding.

Actually, come to think of it...

She took a sharp breath to steel herself, then turned to Bakugo and fixed him with a serious look.

"Alright, I lied," she said. "There's something I've been keeping secret from everyone, and...well, I've got to let the cat out of the bag now. I came out here to clear my mind before deciding how to do it, but since you're here - Bakugo, is it okay if I tell you my secret first? It'll make me feel better about telling the others."

A slightly puzzled look passed over Bakugo's face, but it was soon replaced by one of great discomfort.

"God, please no," he said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Angel, you know I'm the last person to go to for sugar-coated words. Whatever it is you want to tell me, I don't know how the hell to make you feel better."

"I know that, that's exactly why I wanted to talk to you first."

Shiozaki grabbed him by the wrist, a pleading expression on her face.

"Bakugo, promise me that after I tell you this, you'll still look at me the same way as before. Promise me that this won't change the way you talk to me."

Bakugo stared at her like she had gone mad, clearly unsure what to make of her outlandish request. However, he didn't object. He shook his hand out of her grasp, and his face quickly returned to its usual, hardened expression.

He threw himself down onto the grass by the foot of the tree and threw one leg over the other, then said, "Fine. I'll listen."

Shiozaki sighed in relief.

"This might take a while...I haven't spoken about this in a long time."

"Better sit down, then."

He indicated the space beside him with a jerk of his head.

Shiozaki walked over slowly and sat down, her body rigidly still with her back hunched over and her legs held close to her chest.

"Do your worst," Bakugo said.

Shiozaki stayed silent for a moment as she organised her thoughts. Then, fixing the ground with a sharp gaze, she spoke.

"On the night of 8th April two years ago, I almost died."

She heard Bakugo's hair brush loudly against the tree trunk as he turned to stare at her.

She continued in a grim tone, "I was the only one in the house that night. My mom was...staying late at work or outside buying something, I don't remember. Sai was repairing his friend's car over at her house. I got out of bed to use the bathroom, and on my way there, I passed by my mom's room...and I heard some noises inside."

"At that point, I probably should've doubled back and called someone, but naive little thirteen-year-old me thought it was a good idea to go in and investigate. So that's what I did. And someone was in there, going through my mom's jewellery drawer. I gasped, and he turned around, and he looked right at me."

"I tried to run, but he grabbed me and placed a hand over my mouth. He said, "Don't move, kid." But the strange thing is - I think he felt just as scared as I did. I could hear the fear in his voice, and even though I couldn't see his face in the dark, I could just barely see his eyes. They were wide and full of worry...perhaps it was his first time doing this. Anyway, I was scared to death and I didn't know what to do. Then, I remembered that my mom always kept a penknife on top of her drawer - the drawer I was standing right next to."

"I reached for the knife. The man couldn't see what I was doing, since it was so dark...and then, I slashed his face. I think I got him across the mouth. He screamed, and I dropped the knife and made another run for it. But now I made him angry. He must have used his Quirk, because these weird... things wrapped around my wrists and pulled me to the ground, and then he pounced on me...and stabbed me three times in the back."

Shiozaki said those last few words extremely quickly, clearly wanting to think about them as little as possible.

Bakugo leaned over to see her shadowed face, checking her for any signs of alarm - but she didn't look frightened. She was still staring downwards with a darkened gaze and a furrowed brow, like she mildly wanted to punch something.

She went on, "It was a bit of a blur after that. I knew what had just happened but my mind wasn't letting me acknowledge it. I just laid there, my heart racing - which was probably really bad for me, in hindsight - and I heard glass breaking as the man smashed a window and fled. Even then, I was still in full-on denial mode, but I remember my predicament finally registering for me once blood started coming out of my mouth."

"I was dying. I was dying and nobody was coming to save me. Mom, Sai, the police, heroes...nobody knew I was there. All I could do was lie there on the cold hard floor and wait for God to take me. I felt like I was there for an eternity, just crying and bleeding and coughing blood...until I passed out."

She fell silent.

Bakugo stared at her. "And then?"

"And then I woke up in the hospital with a tube going up my nose and two more in my arm." Shiozaki glanced over at Bakugo. "Turns out Sai was already on his way home when the incident occurred. When he was driving past the back of the house, he saw the broken window and immediately knew something was amiss. He was the one who called for an ambulance the very second he found me. If it weren't for him, I really wouldn't have lived to see the next day."

"I spent about three days in the hospital until I was discharged. But it was a few more weeks until I went back to school, so naturally, my friends wanted to know what had happened - and telling them was probably the biggest mistake of my life."

Up until now, Shiozaki had not shown the slightest sign of weakness while telling her story. But the second she said this, her entire demeanour changed. Her shoulders sank as she lowered her head onto her knees, and her expression turned miserable. She looked utterly tired and defeated.

"Care to explain?" Bakugo asked.

Shiozaki let out a dry, humourless laugh and said, "You know how sometimes you'll see a news article online about some horrific crime or major catastrophe, and there's lots of people in the replies trying to show their pity for the victims? That's sort of what my friends did...except it didn't really come out right."

"I can't remember the last time I walked into class and people waved at me, instead of looking away and falling dead silent. Even when someone tried to talk to me, they'd get so quiet that they were almost whispering, like they thought I'd collapse into tears if the slightest thing set me off. And it definitely wasn't by chance that all the laughter in a room would suddenly cease the second I walked in."

"I know they were just trying to be tactful, but all it did was remind me of that nightmarish incident and make me feel like a burden to everyone. I felt like I didn't belong - actually, that's an understatement. I felt abnormal. And when I told them to stop it, they couldn't understand why. One boy even criticised me for being ungrateful, and there was a big fight between everyone...and, well, I stopped talking to them after that."

Shiozaki tilted back her head and rested it against the tree trunk. She gazed up at the stars in painful reminiscence, her eyes wet and sparkling.

"And then came U.A., and since I had sloughed through my last two years of middle school without any friends or fond memories to look back on, I decided that once I set foot in here...none of my new friends could know about the incident. I wasn't going to repeat that hell no matter what. Wouldn't be too hard, right? But just now, Kendo saw my scars by accident, so now I've got to tell her about this...and hope she doesn't decide to smother me with sympathy."

She looked at Bakugo again.

"Do you think I'm in the wrong? Not wanting people to pity me like that?"

"Not a chance," Bakugo said without missing a beat. "The day I become so weak that I need people to coddle me is the day I change my name and move to a different country. None of that is your fault."

Shiozaki's back straightened up slightly at his words.

"I just want everyone to be themselves around me...that way, I think I could live as though that night had never happened. Especially with all the colourful personalities I've met at U.A. - Tokage's mischievousness, Kuroiro's sheer angst, Tsunotori just being adorable...and you-"

Bakugo's eyes flashed in the darkness. Shiozaki looked mildly shocked at herself, like the words that had just left her mouth did so on their own accord.

She stared down at the grass, blushing.

"...I think I've come to admire your...intense way of doing things. Even when you put on that idiotic scowl and run that smart mouth of yours, at least I know you're being true to yourself around me."

"What's wrong with my scowl?" Bakugo demanded.

Shiozaki grinned at him, and said, "Well, I don't know if anyone's told you this - but when you get mad you look like a chihuahua that just swallowed a chili pepper...oh, there it is."

"Damn you," Bakugo growled as he turned away. Shiozaki burst into a fit of laughter.

It was a blessing, she thought, to be able to laugh so freely when just a minute ago, she thought she might lose another acquaintance to the jaws of her past. She felt like a great set of shackles had been lifted from her shoulders - shackles that she had been carrying for so long she forgot they existed.

After her laughter died down, she took a minute to catch her breath.

"So...it's a promise, then? That you'll-"

"Yeah, relax," said Bakugo. "This doesn't change anything for me. If I thought you were weak, I'd have let you known months ago."

Shiozaki smiled abashedly.

"Thank you...and I'm sorry. Last week I said I wanted to pay you back for all that you've done for me, but now I've put myself further in your debt. If there's anything I can do for you - name it."

"Yeah, tell me two more things," Bakugo said at once.

"I shall do my best."

"One," He turned to fully look her in the face. "The guy who tried to kill you - was he ever caught?"

"As far as I know, no," Shiozaki said. "He managed to escape without leaving a trace. Not any fingerprints, belongings, shoe prints...he even took the knife I cut him with, so they couldn't get a sample of his blood or anything."

Bakugo was silent for a moment after she said this.

"Okay. Two - does this have anything to do with why you came to U.A.?"

Shiozaki stared at him, surprised - then she remembered the lame response she had given him the first time he asked this question. She would have been foolish to think he didn't see right through her immediately...

She nodded.

"It has everything to do with it. But...that comes with its own large mess of issues, so I don't really feel up to talking about it right now."

Bakugo didn't look satisfied with this response, but he didn't prod further - something which Shiozaki greatly appreciated.

"Hmph. Whatever, take your time," he said. "You've got more pressing matters to attend to, anyway."

Shiozaki blinked. "I do?"

"You said you've got to tell your friend about all this, right? Use tonight and think about when and where you want to do it so that she'll listen. When you talk, just repeat everything you said to me. That's all I've got for you."

Bakugo's tone made it clear that he did not think his words to be very useful - but to Shiozaki, they could hardly have been more valuable.

"Thanks for the advice," she said cheerfully. "I mean it - it's a really pleasant surprise whenever you're this helpful..."

"We're not going there," Bakugo growled.

"Sorry," she said with a smirk.

Bakugo looked once around the shadowy clearing and let out a noise of frustration.

"It's getting dark," he muttered. "You want to go back to camp? If you say no, I'm leaving you here."

"Wha-? No! I mean - don't!"

Shiozaki scrambled to her feet to catch up with Bakugo, who had already made it halfway across the clearing. They stepped through the bushes together and back onto the forest path.

They made it about eight steps back to the main campsite when Shiozaki suddenly grabbed Bakugo's shirt from behind.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said, her voice rather high. "It's just getting a bit hard to see. I don't want us to be separated."

Bakugo scoffed. "Nobody's coming to kidnap me, you know."

Shiozaki ignored him. Stepping closer, she gripped his shirt just a little tighter. She noticed a faint scent of burning sugar in the air all the way back to the cabins.

Alright, here's my first ever attempt at some more serious stuff.

It was pretty hard to get this one done, even though I've had the general idea in my head for eons. Was Shiozaki's whole story logical? Did I invoke the right feelings? Was the tonal shift too much? So many things to take note of, so little braincells.

I think the hardest part of this was getting Shiozaki's thoughts and emotions right. I find it really hard to imagine someone's feelings in an extreme situation that I've never been in. Red Sky in the Morning by Elizabeth Laird was a huge help in this regard, as there's one similar scene where the protagonist has to deal with her friends' sympathy after receiving a devastating blow.

Another thing, I'll try my best to separate Bakugo (at least a little bit) from how Shiozaki deals with her past from now on. A common criticism for inexperienced writers is that they love to use romance as an infallible heart bandage for a character who's hurting on the inside, and the whole thing comes off as poorly written. I definitely want to avoid that, so please tell me if I start steering towards that direction!

But that's all from me for now, loves. Stay safe, stay inside, and last but not least, happy holidays! 3

And now, I shall listen to MCR's Christmas song until I fall the fuck asleep.