The rest of the day was a pretty normal one, as Izuku went out to buy groceries(Not to mention replacing everything else he'd taken from the fridge), finally bottoming out every Yen he had for his allowance this month. After that, he went home and read some news on his phone, checked out some articles about hero work, while Venom was on the couch watching TV as he usually did.

He was checking out some news about a murderous vigilante named Stain, when he got a message. For a moment he froze until he read the name of the sender.

Ashido Mina.

He quickly opened it, to find the words:

-You there?

-Yes.

-How's the teeth?

-Pretty good. Venom fixed them up nice and fine. Way easier than bones he said.

-Awesome:D

-What about you?

-Eh, doing way better. I don't heal nearly as fast as you, but my body finished taking care of the poison sometime while I slept. Really damned hungry, but otherwise I'm fine.

-I know the feeling. Wait, you have a healing factor?

-Not like yours:P I heal quicker, but I can't regrow my teeth or anything amazing like that. Anyway, so you're feeling just fine then?

Izuku's fingers halted, the memory of the strange psychic visions that had hit him, coming to mind. He felt a strong urge, a wish to talk about it, with someone, anyway who wasn't likely to just blow it off like Venom did.

-Yes.

He said instead of saying anything about the vision.

-So, you're up for the movie night then?

Izuku froze.

-Movie night?

-Yeah, we agreed to have a great old marathon of the good Alien movies after the tournament was over, remember?

Izuku wrecked his Brian trying to remember what she was talking about, before remembering that yeah, Mina had said something about that.

He couldn't remember if he had agreed to it or not though.

"Venom, did we say yes to Mina's offer of an Aliens movie night?"

"Yes." The alien replied without even bothering to turn around from the star wars movie he was watching.

Izuku wasn't sure if he was just bulls hitting him cause he wanted to go, telling the truth, or he just didn't care.

Instead, he just sighed.

-What about you, you sure you're feeling up for it?

-Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. No need to mother me-_- I got enough of that at home thank you very much. Anyway, you free tomorrow? When's your curfew?

-22.00 or so. But, I'll have to get home by that time, so I'll have to go way earlier. Where do you live exactly? I need to know how long it'll take to get back home.

-Eh, it's fine. I'll get you a taxi, that way, you won't have to worry about it getting here or back home just mail me the address, and I'll have a taxi at your place at…

Izuku was about to protest about her hiring a freaking expensive taxi, just to come pick him up when Mina interrupted him with the next message.

-Let's see, every Alien movie worth watching is 2 hours long, and with 23 movies to watch… if you get here 15.00, we'll get through 3 of them in one go.

-... There are 23 Alien movies?

-LOL:D No, there's 94 different Alien movies. But only 23 that's actually good.

Izuku nodded to himself. Yeah, that made sense. He didn't know much about the Alien franchise, but he did know the franchise predated quirks. And like all such products, that meant everything the original creators had ever made, was long, long since in the public domain.

Which meant that there were bound to be filmmakers out there who had just decided to make their own version.

It was the reason why there had been 4 different adaptations of the DC animated universe over the years, of varying levels of quality, depending on who took a shot at it.

What surprised him, was just how many people had apparently decided to take a crack at Alien. He honestly hadn't thought a film series without superheroes or quirks would be that popular.

-Anyway, this will be a long-time project. Anyway, your address Midori?

-I could just take a train you know?

-God, you're just like Uraraka-_- Seriously dude, I get 100 000 Yen in pocket money every month. I'll be fine.

Izuku suddenly felt an incredible sense of awkwardness and self-consciousness wash over him. He got a whopping 5% of that every month.

Izuku didn't normally feel much shame at the fact his family wasn't exactly well off. It was just something you learned to live with, and always act in accordance with how much cash you had on hand.

In that moment though, the difference in wealth between his and Mina's Allowance really, really stung.

Not wanting to dwell on that feeling, and wanting this chat over with, he quickly tasted in his address, hoping it would satisfy Mina, so they could move on to something, ANYTHING else.

-Alright, I'll have a cab at your house then. Also, no need to bring snacks, I'll get everything we need for the movies:)

-You're not planning to prepare a ton of chocolate are you?

-Nah. I'm getting the old school stuff, like popcorn and soda. Speaking of, you want sprite, cola, or Fanta?

-Fanta, I guess?

-Alright oranges it is. Also… You a fan of Ramen? Like, hardcore old-school ramen?

-...Yes?

-Awesome. We eat dinner at 17.30. Shoyu Ramen.

-Sounds great.

-OH it will be. Dad always pulls out all the stops when Guests come. Anyway, it's a date3 See you tomorrow.

With that abrupt ending to their conversation, Izuku lowered his phone, and let out a long sigh.

An entire day watching horror movies. Greeeeeaaat… Just what he wanted…

Well, at least Mina and Venom would have some fun.

I

Actually having to talk with his mom when she returned from work was a rather awkward experience.

Apparently, she hadn't had too much of a good time watching him compete, being absolutely terrified at every single bad moment for him. Especially in the way she talked about Mei, who Inko spoke of with a tone of underlying anger, completely unlike her normal, friendly self.

"I think the absolutely worst was when you two were lying together being electrocuted. Shouldn't Yuei have stopped the match, or stepped in at that point?"

Izuku opened his mouth to reply in some attempt to soothe her, then blinked as he realized the implications of what she had said.

"That… Was the moment that looked the worst? What about the… The part near the ending?"

"Oh, it was horrible too. I fainted in terror at that. But… well… As awful as it was, I… Well, I thought that was the end you know. You were hit by that… Taser ball, screamed then collapsed. It was like when you were intertwined, only much shorter. I really thought that was it dear. It was amazing you managed to actually win against that… Terrible girl, in the end."

Huh… Izuku would have to take a look at the recording of the fight. From how she described it, it seemed like Eren had only been active for a brief, brief moment.

He vaguely remembered Recovery Girl saying something along those lines. He hadn't exactly been at the top of his game in the aftermath of it. Either way, to think that Eren could inflict such incredible agony over just a few seconds was… beyond terrifying.

"And then there was your fight with your friend Uraraka…"

She shuddered. Then quickly glanced over at Venom who was still watching TV as they ate.

He really should go and have look at that recording.

"So, did you two… Make up or…"

"I haven't really talked to her since I woke up. And Venom-" "She's fine. The girl didn't hold any anger or resentment over her brutal, and unavoidable loss. Only sadness."

Inko did not look at Venom though, instead looking at Izuku instead with a worried, inquisitive look on her face.

"You're not… Bothered about how it turned out?"

"Should I?"

"She caved in your teeth Izuku. That's not something most people just shrug their shoulders at."

He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, then almost shrugged his shoulder(Barely stopping himself in time), as he replied.

"We both went into this knowing how it might turn out. And besides, it all turned out fine in the end right?"

Inko's worried look did not disappear, instead she simply looked down at her food as she continued eating.

"I suppose…"

The rest of the dinner was rather awkward, until the end, when Izuku suddenly remembered he should probably tell his mom about his plans for the morrow.

"By the way, mom… I'm heading out tomorrow, at around 14.00."

She turned her head sharply and replied in a rather incredulous tone.

"Please don't tell me you're planning to go train again, you've barely recovered from the tournament!"

"Oh, no, no, no I'm not going training. I'm heading out for the day to hang out at a friend's place."

Inko visibly relaxed.

"Oh, well… That's good. Who're you hanging out with?"

"I'm Heading over to Mina's place. We're… going to do a movie marathon."

Inko froze.

"Mina. The pink girl right?"

"Yeah, that's her."

Inko's face turned into a bright, happy smile that was such a tonal whiplash from Her earlier expressions, that it caught Izuku completely off guard.

"So, how long will you be out then?"

"Fro-from two-thirty to ten, or about that."

At that she nodded, then just went on in silence as she finished eating, still grinning to herself.

As he also ate in silence, Izuku felt like… He'd missed something in this conversation.

He almost questioned it, but in the end, he shrugged his shoulders, and just went on with his day. If his mom was happy about him going over to Mina for a movie marathon, then that was a good thing… Wasn't it?

I

As he watched the videos of his bouts on his phone, Izuku picked up a lot of details he hadn't noticed in the moment.

For one thing, his mom was right. Eren didn't LOOK nearly as devastating as it felt.

It looked like Mei had thrown a baseball at him, which then exploded into a short burst of red, electrical power. Said power then burned it's way through his body visibly, then after a few seconds, it petered out.

The part where he and Mei had been interlocked together as he broke the gauntlets looked way, way worse, as the two teenagers screamed their lungs out from the pain.

He'd screamed while he suffered under Eren too, but it was not particularly louder or more frantic than when from the gauntlets. And it had been way, way shorter, before the terrible orb had burned itself out, leaving him lying on the floor, broken and silenced.

It… Was probably best not to give a thorough explanation of just how horrible the pain had been to his mom. She was worried enough as it was. Not to mention he didn't want to break her strangely good current mood.

Beyond Eren though, Izuku also got to watch his and Venom's fight against Uraraka. He winced at his obvious mistakes in the battle. Being high did not make for a good performance in battle.

He had been sloppy, overeager, way too eager to just throw himself into going fisticuffs with Uraraka.

It was a flat-out terrible performance on his part, and looking at it objectively, he realized he could see a whole host of what-if moments where he could probably have turned in a win, without having to rely on Venom to carry the day.

Speaking of…

What surprised Izuku the most about seeing the footage of Venom taking control, was the fact that he could see one thing crystal clearly.

Venom was just as affected by the high as Izuku had been. It was just that with all that additional muscles that could be broken apart without any harm to Venom himself, he was able to tank blows way, way better, and so, a battle of Endurance had really favored him.

He had made a grave error by standing there to Tank Uraraka's power blow, when Izuku knew that had it been him in his right mind in that position, he would have dodged instead. It wouldn't have been hard, there was plenty of space to work with.

Instead, he had decided to weather the blow head-on.

If there was a lesson to take for all of this, it was that not only did the sweet, amazing siren call of Chocolate drain his meager cash reserves at an astonishing rate, the high they produced was liable to get him killed in battle too.

Something to watch out for that was.

After having watched the fights through to a level of personal satisfaction, Izuku was struck by an idea. Or rather a question.

He quickly typed in the Kanji for Eren, curious to see what Mei had named this horrible, horrible orb of pain and suffering after.

The answer was an anime villain who had caused horrible pain and suffering by committing total genocide on the entire world in some old shonen series.

Well… It was a fitting name for something that caused nothing but pain and misery.

The gauntlets in turn were named after another character from the same series, though he didn't really get the reasoning as he had with Eren.

And finally, there was Luke, which was an obvious nod to Luke Skywalker, the main character of the various star wars universes.

Even he knew that much about non-hero pop culture.

Then there was Mei herself.

Early after she came home, He'd asked his mom about whether she knew her from some time they might have met sometime before.

Inko's answer had been a decisive no.

She had never in her life seen or heard about the girl before Yesterday.

That left him in the dark again, with his most likely source for an explanation of what the hell she had been talking about out, being as clueless as he was.

He did learn a bit about her on the web though. Mostly about her inventions, as her private life wasn't very well known.

As it turned out though, the girl was quite well known in the robotic community and had had a presence there well before she joined Yuei.

So, he could add her and everything about her to the list of things he didn't know. Along with the plans and organizations of All for One and the Big Man.

Izuku had been kinda worried that Mina would do something over the top with his taxi, and send a limo or something, but no, it was just a regular taxi, with a gruff older driver that asked for his name, took one look at his poofy green hair, and told him to get in.

The trip took half an hour or so, accompanied by the sights of Mustafa, and Venom's complaints that they could have made it way earlier by soaring above the city.

Finally, Izuku spotted the sight of Mina by the edge of the street playing with a cat.

She looked up at the sight of the taxi and burst into an adorable grin as she waved at Izuku.

As he stepped out and took in the sight of the street, Mina quickly paid the taxi driver behind him. The man quickly drove off after that, leaving the two teenagers, and an old, orange cat behind.

"Yo Midori! How'd the trip go?"

"I-It went fine."

Izuku had been expecting something big, maybe a house or manor, but instead he was greeted by the sight of a set of bigass stone walls on one side, and a police station on the other side. Black cat seemingly took her security very seriously.

"Do you like our walls?"

"They're… Pretty big."

And they were. At least 6 meters tall.

"Yeah… back when I was a kid, I used to pretend they were castle walls as I climbed them. Drove my parents completely bonkers. By the way, Midori, this is Johnson."

He turned, as Mina presented him with the big orange cat, which she had picked up while he was surveying the walls.

" Oh, um hi Johns-" He was cut short, as the cat tried to bite him as he reached forward.

His reflexes though made him pull back his hand instantly, leaving the cat to simply hiss at him, leaving Mina to awkwardly hold him as he began pushing himself off her, and the moment she let go he was up at her shoulder, angry face at Izuku.

Mina looked like she was about to chastise the feline, but before she could do so, the orange cat had leaped from her shoulder and disappeared off into the neighborhood.

"That's strange, he's usually such a sweetheart." Mina said as she pouted, hands-on-hips as she looked after the feline.

Today she was wearing a similar outfit to the one she had worn back when they had hanged out at the arcade, only now her hair was loose, and she had exchanged the t-shirt for a top that covered her upper chest and arms, but left her toned stomach bare.

Izuku felt his cheeks go red again as he realized what she was wearing, but he managed to hold it together without making a fool out of himself.

Mina's annoyed look changed to a smiling one, as she waved for him to follow towards a set of the wall with a couple of straight lines going up from the ground to the top.

"Anyway, you sure you're feeling up for this? Like, if you're not we can do this some other time."

And have her waste more money on two taxi drives.

"No, I'm fine. Really."

"Well, if you're sure dude."

She clicked on a small pink device she had been holding in her hand, and with a whirr of mechanical sound, part of the wall itself, the spot between the lines, lowered itself down into the ground.

"Welcome to Hardy-Ashido mansion Midori."

She turned and grinned, a wide-toothed grin, her arms to the sides as if she was showcasing something behind her.

What was behind her… Was a pretty large western-style house with 4 stories, and a pretty massive courtyard of grass all around it, with a few buildings here and there. A shack, a garage, a greenhouse, and what seemed to be a storage building.

It was a pretty luxurious house, but if it hadn't been for the massive walls, there was nothing that was truly unique about it.

"It's really…"

"Big? Outstanding? Spectacular?" The pride in Mina's voice was obvious.

"Yes, it is all of that." Venom piped in. "It sure beats your crappy, compressed, rundown apartment Izuku."

"Oh."

Mina faltered a bit. She had apparently not considered that this could look like it was her rubbing her wealth in his face.

"It-It's nice Mina. It looks great to live here." Izuku hastily interjected.

Her grin came back. Then she waved for him and Venom to follow as she closed the wall behind them with a click of the door opener.

"Well… To the right, we got the garage, not much to say about it, but over there we have the greenhouse. Dad grows all sort of dangerous and cool plants there, and over there is the shack tha-" She immediately stopped herself, and after a brief pause, she continued on in the stiffest, forced tone Izuku had ever heard her speak." That's full of our garden equipment and stuff like that. And over there we have our storehouse. That's where we keep all the spare parts that dad uses for his research. It's connected to his lab, below the house so you can just drive the stuff in above, then lower it through an Elevator."

That was all interesting stuff, and Izuku would be lying to himself if he didn't want to see the Lab Black cat used for her tech for himself. At the moment though, his curiosity was more peaked about what was in the shed.

As they stepped up to the terrace, the head of a young, white-haired girl suddenly popped up over the rail.

"Oh, so he came after all!"

Mina's eyes narrowed at the girl in scrutiny.

"Yeah, yeah, he came just like I said he would. Anyway, Midori, this is my little sister Mana."

The little girl(Who Izuku guessed was 12 years old), was unfaced by her sister's scrutinous eyes, and instead waved at Izuku.

"Hiya Midori!"

"H-Hello Mana…"

The girl adopted a "Contemplative" look, one hand under her chin in a classic thinking pose, as she looked Izuku over.

"You know, sis, you weren't wrong. He really is a cutie."

Izuku, who had been managing to keep his blushing to a minimum, immediately flushed up again.

Mana grinned in a way that really reminded him of Mina.

"Yep, totally adorable, the way he turns red like that, at the slightest teasing."

Mina lightened up a bit at that comment, instead joining in her sister's smile at seeing Izuku getting flustered.

"Yeah, it doesn't take much to fluster him."

"Yeah, I think he's gonna be WAY more fun than the last guy you brought home."

"Planning some horrible prank are you?"

"Nah, wouldn't dream of it. I'm way too interested in seeing if this time actually goes anywhere." And with that, she waved and walked away whistling.

"Cheerful kid."

"Yeah, well don't be fooled. She's a nice girl, but she's really devious at heart. She LOVES her pranks."

"Is… Is that something I should watch out for?"

"Not today… Probably. Anyway, let's go in."

As they stepped inside the big building And took off their shoes, Mina continued.

"Mom and my youngest sister aren't here today, they're out at a birthday party for one of her friends, so that leaves dad, Ben, and his girlfriend Tomo."

At that, Izuku's interest was immediately peaked.

"Your dad, he's the man behind Black Cat's famous silk right?"

"Yeah, that's him. His one and only product, but damn if he isn't invested in improving the stuff. Anyway, I'll introduce you to him at dinner."

"Why… Not now?"

"Cause I'm pretty sure if I do that now, he'll insist on taking you down into the lab to show off the stuff for an hour or so, since you've shown a modicum of interest in it."

That… Didn't actually sound too bad in Izuku's opinion, but Mina motioned for him to follow her down the hallway, and he did.

Walking inside the corridors, Izuku got a sense of the house being truly massive, in a way looking at it from the outside didn't quite convey.

As they walked down the corridor, Mina suddenly called out.

"Oh Ben, perfect timing man!"

The person she was talking to was an older guy, maybe late teens. He had a face with American features, short brown hair, and casual clothing composed of training jeans and a black t-shirt with the words: Forced idleness is a terrible thing.

He had a steaming coffee mug in his hand, and an expression of a man who was tired, and sleep addled beyond, WAY beyond the level any human being should ever be.

He actually swayed as he stopped walking, and turned to look at the two of them.

"Yo Ben, wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine." Mina said as the two walked up to him.

Ben was taller than Mina by a fair bit, and by extension, taller than Izuku as well. Despite being very lean, he could also tell that Ben had some really ripped arms.

As he looked over at Izuku, he saw that the man's eyes had trouble keeping focus on him.

"Morning… What did you say his name was?"

"I'm Midoriya Izuku."

"Right, right…"

He extended a shaking hand that Izuku took and shook. As he did so, he was surprised that despite the way he shook, the man had a real power grip.

"Nice to meet you… Midozuku."

Mina laughed, as Ben shook his hand up and down for quite a bit longer than was real propriety.

Then he gave a nod and began making his way to his past them down the corridor.

"Is he… Well?"

"What, Ben? Yeah, he's just really, really sleepy. Gotta chase those stock prices you know."

"... I think he would be happier as a hero."

"Don't let him catch you say that. Though…"

She looked down the corridor, where Ben had gone, seemingly to make sure he hadn't stopped to linger.

"I have to agree at that point. The dude really needs a less stressful job. Maybe become a construction worker or something. In any case..."

She waved for him to follow and eventually they stepped into what was clearly a kitchen.

"Ben's girlfriend Tomo is sleeping, so I'll introduce you to her later. For now, just help me carry the stuff for the movies."

Said stuff was 4 large bottles of soda, 3 large boxes of popcorn, 4 bags of chips, and two bags of some sugary orange fish-shaped, soft, sugary candy.

As they carried up the food to Mina's room, Izuku's was genuinely surprised as Mina opened the door to her own abode.

His first thought was that it was completely different from how he'd imagined it.

Maybe it had been a sign of naivety at his part, but to be honest, he had expected her room to be somewhat similar to his own, only with All Might Memorabilia swapped for Black Cat's.

Mina's room was nothing like that at all.

The room didn't have a shred of anything that was in any way related to Black cat.

What it did have was a color scheme of black, and dark pink, with everything, from the walls to the floor, to the roof having those two colors.

The floor, walls, and roof were colored black, with large pink hearts on the black. Her bed had pink circles, while the large, massive curtains, had a pink and black tiger pattern on them.

The overarching color scheme was pretty consistent, but there was plenty of things that broke it here and there. On the wall was a poster for some singer Izuku had never heard of, while beside it, in a glass-covered frame, was a very old and faded movie poster for the film they were about to watch.

Both the title and the subtitles were still plenty visible, however. Alien. And below the picture of a strange, egg-looking thing: In space, no one can hear you scream.

Yeah, that wasn't ominous at all.

It was as his gaze went over from it to the rest of the room, that Izuku realized something.

He was alone with a cute girl in her room.

That fact hadn't really sunk in before then, and he immediately felt his cheek blush.

"So, kinda late to ask, but how much do you know about the Alien movies?"

Mina asked cheerfully as she clicked the remote for her TV, and pulled up a Playlist.

"It… Involves an alien monster? I think?"

"Yeah, this is gonna be fun watching for you then."

She turned and grinned.

"Alien is a really enter… You okay there Midori?"

Izuku, who had put down the snacks, was now standing really, really awkwardly, not at all sure about what to do, or where to sit.

And of course, his damned cheeks just had to be burning red, giving away how awkward he felt being in this room.

" Y-Yeah, it's just been…" A what? "A while since I hanged out at someone's place." He said very stiltedly. Then immediately mentally facepalmed.

Mina just cocked her head.

"Really? How long?"

"10 years." He blurted out, before thinking about it.

-Wow. We had almost forgotten how bad you could be at this.-

Venom's tone was an exasperated sigh. His brain did not disagree with that statement though, feeling like a complete idiot.

Mina's look, however, was genuinely shocked.

"Seriously? You haven't visited a friend's house in over a decade?"

"No…" He squeaked. In hindsight, he really wished he had taken Tenya on an offer the guy had made to come to visit his house.

"You… Didn't get out much before Yuei did you?"

"Not… Really no. I mean… I left the house plenty enough, I just… Didn't hang out with people."

She nodded slowly, and Izuku got the distinct impression something clicked for her, a look of realization dawning on her face.

"You… Didn't have many friends before Yuei did you Izuku?"

"He had us." Venom piped in. "But no one else."

As they talked Izuku felt the warmth in his cheeks fade, as his embarrassment quickly faded for something much more melancholic, as more painful memories began to surface.

Damn the mood in the room had changed fast.

Mina looked at him with concern, then went over to her bed and sat down, motioning for him to sit down opposite her.

He hesitated for a brief moment, then did so.

Her bed was really, really soft, much softer than his, but at the moment, he didn't focus much on it.

"So… You haven't had a friend in 10 years, is… that right?" Her tone was much, much softer now, with a level of subtle concern that was completely different than Mina's usual bombastic way.

"I…"

He felt a real desire to just say no, or argue that he had family friends like David-San.

"No."

Mina leaned forward, and hugged him.

It was completely unexpected, and once again with a softness that he didn't usually associate with Mina.

More than anything, it reminded him of the gesture of Kindness that Stick-San had once shown him in the woods so long ago.

This time, he did not bawl his eyes out though, instead just… Slowly reciprocate the hug.

They sat like that, for a while, Mina not letting go, at least not until he pulled back.

It was… nice. Nice in a way that didn't bring him horrible embarrassment.

As he looking into her face, he almost heard the words before she opened her mouth.

The same question Stick had once asked him.

Instead, she asked. "It was Venom, wasn't it? You… Manifested Venom when you were a kid, and then… Things changed."

Her tone was soft and full of genuine compassion, but the question completely caught Izuku off guard.

"No, it… It wasn't like that, I… I didn't have Venom until… I… until I was 14…"

Shit. He did begin to tear up. It wasn't like it had been in the forest so long ago when he'd just completely broken down, now it was more a few drops of water came to the corners of his eyes. The prelude to something greater just waiting to break through.

As he looked into Mina's eyes, he saw the moment when it clicked for Mina.

"Oh. Ohhhhh…. You… You were quirk less."

Izuku bit his lip, as the tears did begin to flow. Damnit! He was just visiting a friend, why, why was he suddenly crying? This was his problems, he didn't need to bother other people with them!

Once again, two strong, pink arms closed around him in another hug.

Izuku did not start completely bawling his eyes out, but… he did return the hug, as the tears began to flow.

The two teenagers sat there in silence for a long while, before Izuku finally did stop crying, and pulled away from Mina. This time, the girl was a bit more hesitant to let go, but she eventually did.

"You… Wanna talk about it?"

He began slowly, haltingly. This… was really not how he had ever imagined telling anyone this story.

No… He had never wanted to tell this story to anyone. He had wanted to bury it away, and never ever, talk about it again.

But once he got going… It was so much easier to continue. To just keep talking.

He didn't tell her everything. He didn't reveal where Venom had come from, he didn't tell her about… Katsuki trying to get him to kill himself. He didn't tell her about his training, and the time in the woods.

But… He did tell her a lot. He told her about that day so long ago when he'd visited a doctor and been labeled quirkless, a genetic throwback, a failure of evolution. He told her about how things had changed with Katsuki, how he had kept following him around for years even afterwards. He told her about how being quirk less had meant everyone at every school he had ever attended had labeled him a useless person and not only made it clear they didn't consider him to have any worth as a human being.

Mina kept her silence through the entire thing, having a concerned and sympathetic look on her face the entire time. The only times when that faded was whenever he spoke about Bakugou, when she would get a furious look at her face as he talked.

But she kept her silence until he was finished. Then she gave him another, big (this time much stronger) hug, before saying anything else.

I

As Mina waved at the cab driving away, she kept doing so, until it turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

Then her hand slowly dropped, and she slowly walked backwards, until she was leaning against the wall, she took a deep breath, taking in the night air.

Well, her grand plans for the evening had… Not gone according to plan. To say the very least.

After he had told her everything, Mina had quickly canceled the movie night of watching the Alien franchise, in favor of something less depressing. In this case, a DuckTales marathon.

It… Might not have been her cleverest move.

Thankfully, Izuku's mood had picked up substantially thanks to her dad, who as she had predicted, had latched on to the boy's interest in his silk at dinner.

What she hadn't predicted, was that Izuku would really be into that. She was so used to him boring the crap out of her friends, that she hadn't considered that Izuku might actually find his science stuff fascinating.

Not that she would complain. After he had visited the lab for a good hour after dinner, his mood had picked up drastically, turning the end of their marathon of the last great Hurrah of the Original Disney company into a much more positive experience.

As she stood there, just thinking about the entire story, and just how ableist people could be, she also had come to a realization.

She really wanted to punch Bakugou in the face.