The hulking bird-man hovered over my guardian. The only man I have ever trusted, the only family I had now, the only person who cared about me. I thought I had known what eternity felt like; all those instances when my father had beaten me or sold me, time felt like it moved at a snail's pace, but this-this felt like time had stopped all together. I could see the exposed muscle and tendons on Shota's elbow and blood pooling around his head. Somewhere in my mind I had heard Todoroki calling me, but it was nothing compared to the screaming rage that made my blood boil. Shota's scream of pain when the creature smashed his other elbow into the ground sent me flying. Before I knew what was happening, I was in front of the creature with my scythe-the blade bigger than I had ever made.

I swung the blade into the creature's stomach and forced it a few feet away from Shota. It let out a grunt in response, but I knew it was meant to be a growl. It didn't like that I was getting in the way of it's orders and I could feel it, but I couldn't let up. The crusty villain with a hand over his face seethed with anger and ordered the monster to kill me, saying that it would be great to make things hurt. As the creature took a step towards me, I readied my scythe, but before I could do much else, I felt my back make contact with the plaza wall. However, I would not be deterred. Screw my body, all it had ever done was cause me pain and suffering. I would fight until the bitter end. Using my shadows I made wings on my back and flew to the creature, this time creating a kusarigama with my scythe blade. I was able to restrain him with the chain and the scythe cut into its back near vital organs, but it broke through once I tightened it. The break in my shadows cut me deep and old scars opened to shed my blood on the plaza floor. Midoriya's voice cut through some of the violent screaming in my own head telling me to kill every villain in front of me, but I didn't have time to tell him to get away. The nomu was at me again before I could blink and this time grabbed my torso, squeezing tightly.

The hand villain began his taunting, "What a stupid little girl, you'll be much better broken in half!" The nomu's grip tightened and I wailed as I felt a couple of my ribs break. I could feel blood run between the monster's fingers and down my body, but it was short lived as it dropped me to the ground when Midoriya hit him from the front with a powerful punch.

The nomu didn't seem to be affected, though I wasn't in much shape to fight at this point. Thankfully, the doors blew open as All Might made a very angry entrance. Taking out a few small fry villains on the way to where Midoriya and I were standing over Shota, All Might grabbed Asui and Mineta from the water where they had been watching and told us all to get Shota out of the center as fast as we could. Midoriya mentioned the strength of the beast and I confirmed, but All Might was insistent that we get out of there. Asui and Midoriya took Shota and started their way to the stairs. Mineta offered to hold me up since I was having a hard time moving, but I held myself back. These villains were not to be taken lightly. It was rare that someone could break my shadow objects, let alone break them to the point of physically hurting me.

At first, I thought it was a stupid idea to stay behind as All Might was taking on the monstrosity, but something felt off. We all knew him to be infallible, but I couldn't help but feel like he may need help. Just as the thought crossed my mind, the warp villain trapped All Might and I sprinted back through the pain. Ice soon encapsulated the nomu and I realized that Todoroki had finally stepped into action. I had honestly forgotten that he had been there, but I had never been more thankful. Coming back the few meters to the fight was hell on my body; I would still fight, but I wasn't sure how much of my movement was by pure will.

Bakugou and Kirishima soon flew in and restrained the warp villain and I desperately tried to create my chain once again to restrain one of the other villains in front of us, but found myself bleeding more and more and the shadows solidified. Todoroki, as the classmate in closest proximity, heard my winces as I tried to fight, and put himself in front of me. A voice resonated in my head: you're weak. I tried to shake it off.

"Stay behind me" Todoroki ordered. I could feel the shame rising to my face. I had to be protected.

Once out of the nomu's clutches, All Might thought he had the upper hand, but upon seeing the creature try to attack one of us, he jumped back into action. Bakugou, the student in question, was about to be decimated, but All Might had scooped him up and left him with the groups of Midoriya, Todoroki, Kirishima, and myself and the boys had to question how fast everything had happened. The next part happened very fast and in all honesty, I mostly just saw All Might punching the monster at lightning speed until he was able to force it out of the USJ entirely Team Rocket style.

As he stood in his signature pose, we were speechless. I had just watched a man punch a monster through the ceiling-you would be speechless too. As I tried to catch the breath I didn't know I was holding in, my body was wracked with pain. My broken ribs made it painful to breathe and I fell to my knees again. Todoroki was quick to side, asking if I was alright. I tried to smile and say yes, but instead I coughed up blood. Bakugou stormed over to us.

"Of course she's not." he growled. I lifted my head to see him crouching in front of me, "Get her on my back Half n' Half." he ordered. Todoroki did as he said, muttering that that wasn't his name. I winced at the pressure on the outside of my torso, but Bakugou was gentle as he stood up and walked towards the stairs. He spoke again after the first flight.

"That thing really fucked you up." he didn't turn his head, but I could hear him loud and clear, "You realize how stupid it was for you to fight, right?" he scolded.

"I couldn't let that monster take Shota away." I mumbled into his neck. He scoffed and kept climbing the stairs until we got to the top. Hound Dog tried to take me off of Bakugou's back, but I winced in pain.

"Just take us to the ambulance. I'll put her down there." Bakugou barked at the hero teacher, who literally barked back. He did however lead us to the ambulances that were waiting outside. A paramedic helped Bakugou set me down on the stretched in the back and began inspecting me. For once, I was glad my torso was so visible; it made it easier for the emergency worker to see the intense bruising that was developing thanks to the broken ribs.

"Looks like you've got three broken ribs on top of all these cuts." the paramedic confirmed, "Must have been one hell of a fight. Looks like your cuts are healing up okay, but we should take you to the hospital to heal those ribs." Bakugou opened his mouth, but the paramedic cut him off, "You should get back to the rest of your class. She's in good hands now." Bakugou glared at him and turned to hop out of the ambulance. I just barely heard a grumble of "she was in good hands before" as he walked towards the bus full of our classmates.

I was thankful that my cuts were healing already; normally when I would get woozy like this, it would take a couple days to heal and I would at least need stitches. During the ride to the hospital, I was bandaged up with a thorough scolding from the professionals taking care of me. Extra emphasis was put on the fact that I was a student and shouldn't have put myself in danger. One of them even said that I should get used to being yelled at about this incident since my parents were probably going to be furious with me. Oh boy, were those paramedics right. It might not have been my biological parents, seeing as they were both dead, but Shota was going to put me through the wringer over this. We had gone over safety so many times and yet I ran into a hopeless situation only to get hurt in the process.

Once at the hospital, one of the doctors with a bone repairing quirk fixed my ribs and I was discharged.

"I'm sure your folks are just downstairs, but I was told to let you know that your teacher wanted to talk to you first. In fact, he's refused to rest until you come to his room." I hung my head and sighed in shame.

"Where is Mr. Aizawa's room?"

I was directed two floors up, into the ICU recovery. Of course I knew things would be bad, but to see Shota all wrapped up like an extra from The Mummy wasn't the funny sight it should have been. The lights were mostly off in his room, so I cast a dark shadow as I stood in the doorway.

"Get in here. Now." he ordered. I slowly walked up to his bedside and felt myself shaking as I looked on at my caregiver. This is your fault. Was this my feeling or his? It didn't matter; it was the truth. It was my fault he was in such bad shape. If I hadn't jumped in and lost control, I'm sure he could have gotten out of it-

"Explain yourself young lady." his voice cut through my thoughts and I realized that I was staring at his broken arms, bundled up and hanging in slings in front of him. "Well?" I lifted my head and looked him in the eyes, though it was difficult through the bandages that held his face together at the moment.

"You're all I have." was all I could muster. How else could I explain what I was thinking? "That's all that was going through my head." I hung my head, disappointed in myself. "In the moment, my life didn't matter; only yours did." I could feel the tears spilling out onto my cheeks and I knew I couldn't look at him, but I heard him strain to take a deep breath.

"Do you understand how reckless your actions were today?"

"Yes sir."

"Do you?" I lifted my eyes and watched him as he interrogated me, "What kind of life do I have if my student is dead? What kind of life do I have if my ward is gone?" His voice softened like when I had nightmares and would need him to sit up with me, "Is that a life you want me to have?"

"What kind of question is that?" from shame to anger in a moment, I couldn't stop myself from judging his own anger, "What kind of life do I have without you?" Hot tears streaming freely down my face now; we were never very expressive, but I was desperate for him to understand. "You are the only friend and only family I have. You take care of me, working long hours so that I can have whatever I might want. Training me for hours after you've worked all day and still have patrols later. Teaching me everything you can on how to be a hero so that I can actually make it. Keeping me out of harm's way and pushing me past my limits so that I can be a real person and not the destructive puppet I was made to be!" I was hysterical; I could hear it in each crack of my voice, "You've been a better parent to me than I ever had. Really, you're the only parent I've ever had and you mean a lot to me; I couldn't let that thing take you away from me." I was sobbing now, hyperventilating next to his bed.

"Shh" he quieted me, "I can't hold onto you right now, so try to take a deep breath." I looked at him as best I could between my tears and his bandages, "You mean a lot to me too. Why else would I be so mad about this? I don't want anything to happen to you; that's why I taught you how and when to run and why I had hoped you were up there with Thirteen. I couldn't see much of your fight, but I heard your screams." his voice shifted again, "Hearing you in that much pain made me want to die. It always has." I began to cry harder.

"I'm sor-ry" I blubbered out. "we g-got sep-arated and I just-wanted to get b-back to you." I cried out; I was an absolute mess. Shota had been my caregiver for four years since he had rescued me and in those years, we had never had an emotional talk like this.