When Akiko walked outside the front entrance with Shinso, they arrived just in time to rescue Izuku from All-Might. All-Might appeared to be pressuring him for info about something, but Izuku seemed visibly uncomfortable. Akiko also noticed Bakugou walking off in the distance - something must have happened between the two of them.

"Hey, Izuku!" Akiko called out, blatantly interrupting All-Might. Both Izuku and All-Might turned to face Akiko and Shinso. "Shinso and I were just going to go and grab some food! There's this diner near where I live that I go to all the time, and it turns out Shinso also lives near there! Wanna come with?"

Izuku nodded straight away, without even hesitating to think about if the location was practical. "Yeah!"

Taking that as an opportunity to run away, Izuku joined the other two as they left the school grounds. They had to take a train downtown, and then a short walk to the diner, which was mostly spent in silence. It had been a long day, and all three were exhausted - especially Izuku, who had sustained another injury that had to be treated by the school's healer, Recovery Girl. Her quirk worked by using a person's own stamina to heal them, and Izuku had sustained a pretty large injury that wasn't even fully healed by her quirk.

Once they arrived at the diner, they went inside and sat down at a booth. Or, more like they crashed into the seats and slumped against the table. One of the waitresses brought two menus, one for each of Izuku and Shinso. Since Akiko had been coming here since they were a child, everyone at the diner knew them and knew they didn't need menus anymore.

"Hey, Akiko! How was your first day at school? UA, right?" The waitress asked.

"It was pretty full-on," Akiko admitted. "These are my friends, Izuku and Hitoshi. Wait, can I call you Hitoshi?"

Hitoshi nodded. He also blushed a bit, which made Akiko's heart skip a beat. There could be any number of reasons why that happened, and they didn't want to jump to conclusions, but they certainly had hopes for one such reason. The waitress must have noticed, because she smirked. "Just wave when you're ready to order and I'll be right over."

Akiko took a deep breath to regain their composure. "So, I can definitely recommend the curry, which is what I'll be ordering, but their burgers and ramen are also pretty good! Otherwise, just have a look at the menu and see if there's anything you like. Whatever you order, chances are it'll be decent."

The other two took a few minutes to look over the menu, and once they were both ready, Akiko flagged the waitress down. Once she was at their table, they stated their order. "I'll have the curry, with a bit of extra rice as usual!"

"I'd like a crispy tofu ramen, please," Hitoshi requested.

"Just a cheeseburger for me," Izuku said, face planted firmly on the table out of sheer exhaustion.

"No drinks for any of you?" They all shook their heads. "Alright, well I'll bring a jug of water over in just a moment!"

Once the waitress left, Izuku turned his head so he was facing the others. "What a day, huh?"

"Yeah," Akiko agreed. "I'm glad we got to do a class where we properly used our quirks. After the assessment test I was a little bit worried, not gonna lie."

"I didn't even get to use my quirk at all then, but my quirk is pretty limited in its applications anyway," Hitoshi added.

Izuku turned his head to look up at Hitoshi. "What is your quirk, by the way? I didn't get to see your fight since I was in the medical bay."

Hitoshi hesitated, and looked towards Akiko for guidance.

"You can tell him, he'll be fine about it!" They reassured him.

"My quirk is mind control, basically - if a person responds to anything I say, I can order them around," Hitoshi explained.

Izuku's eyes lit up, in the same way they did whenever he got excited. Quirks and heroes were his special interest, after all. "Woah! That's incredible! With a quirk like that… you could stop fights before they get serious and people get hurt! You could… you could… You're gonna be an amazing hero, Hitoshi!"

A wide grin crept onto Hitoshi's face - he probably wasn't used to receiving affirmations like that, especially with how quick people were to judge him. "Thanks."

Izuku looked out the window. "So, you two grew up near here?"

"Yeah," Akiko confirmed.

"It looks kinda…" Izuku began.

"Run down?" Hitoshi offered. "This is the part of Mustafu City that people don't care about as much. There are plenty of villains who take the opportunity to get away with crime here, because they can. And it makes things hard for people who live here - many people barely live paycheck to paycheck."

"And the reasoning is even worse," Akiko jumped in. "Hero agencies need funding to operate, and they get that funding from the government and wealthy donors who are grateful for their support. People here can't afford to donate to the agencies, and so there aren't many heroes who work around these parts. It's not to say that they don't help at all, but they're usually late to arrive on the occasions that they actually do come."

Izuku looked crestfallen. "That's… that's terrible. When I become a pro hero, I'm not gonna be like that! Everyone deserves help from heroes, not just people with money!"

Akiko smiled, and nodded. "That's why I wanted to go to UA - I want to be able to change the system, so that people aren't so heavily disadvantaged like this."

Akiko stopped it there - Izuku wasn't ready at all to hear Akiko's hopes of dismantling the entire hero system and replacing it with something more equitable, and as much as they would have loved to info dump about their aspirations, it wasn't the right time.

"That's really cool!" Hitoshi exclaimed. "If… if you want, I'd like to help you with that."

Both Akiko and Hitoshi blushed, and looked away from each other quickly. If Izuku noticed, he didn't say anything about it. They changed topics, chatting for a while about what they looked forward to most about their days at UA, until the food arrived. After they finished, and paid for the food, Hitoshi and Akiko walked with Izuku to the train station, and waited with him until his train arrived. Once he was gone, Akiko turned to face Hitoshi, blushing furiously.

"Hey, Hitoshi? I'm just gonna put myself out there right now and maybe make a complete and utter fool of myself but hey do you want to maybe go out on a date sometime?" Akiko rambled, forming one long uninterrupted sentence and getting it all out quickly as though that would make it easier. "If you don't, that's totally fine and we can just be friends! I won't make it weird or anything but I think you're really cute and have really enjoyed spending time with you today!"

For a moment, there was silence. And then, Hitoshi responded, also blushing furiously and messing with his hair. "Umm… I'd really like that. You're amazing and so passionate and I never thought someone like you would be interested in someone like me, but clearly you are and I definitely want to spend more time with you."

The silence returned, since neither of them really knew what to say next. After a few minutes of just standing awkwardly, Hitoshi offered to walk them home and they set off. When they arrived at Akiko's doorstep, they exchanged mobile numbers and said goodbye. Akiko closed their front door behind them, ran to their room, dove face first into their pillow and screamed.

Once that was done, they grabbed their phone and started messaging Izuku.

AKIKO: IZUKU I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!

IZUKU: What happened?

AKIKO: AFTER YOU GOT ON THE TRAIN I ASKED HITOSHI OUT

IZUKU: WHAT

IZUKU: OMG WHAT DID HE SAY

AKIKO: he said yes 3

IZUKU: That's amazing!

IZUKU: I'm not the best at social cues but I saw the way you two were looking at each other and knew it was gonna happen eventually, but damn that was fast. Neither of you are lesbians but I really thought you'd take the useless lesbian route and spend like a month wondering if you liked each other lol

AKIKO: Hey! I have too much audacity to not just go for it lmao

AKIKO: Enough about me though, do you want to talk about what happened with Bakugou today?

IZUKU: pls, but lets talk at school tomorrow?

AKIKO: Sure. U ok though?

IZUKU: I think so… lets talk tomorrow, I'm gonna go get some rest.

Just as Izuku sent that message, a notification popped up on Akiko's screen. It was a message from Hitoshi.

HITOSHI: Hey, if we're gonna do this, I need to tell you something…

AKIKO: Sure, what's up?

HITOSHI: I'm ace, do you know what that means?

AKIKO: Yeah :) Me too!

HITOSHI: Wait really?

AKIKO: Yeah! If we're having this conversation right now I also want to tell you something - I'm nonbinary and transfeminine. That ok with you?

HITOSHI: No problems here! I don't really know much about trans stuff though, can you suggest any resources so I can understand a bit better?

AKIKO: omg yes, give me a second and I'll send you a bunch!

Akiko spent the next few minutes finding links to pages that summarised a bunch of the basics, and sent them to Hitoshi.

HITOSHI: Thanks! I'll read it all tonight!

HITOSHI: Do you want to come by my place after school tomorrow? There's someone I think you might want to meet :)

Hitoshi then sent a picture of the cutest puppy Akiko had ever seen. It was a little white dog with a big brown blotch around its left eye. The puppy was looking straight into the camera, and there was a blur at the back of the image that betrayed its wagging tail.

AKIKO: omg

AKIKO: It's a date! What's the puppy's name?

HITOSHI: His name is Spot! Only a few months old now

HITOSHI: I'm gonna go read the stuff you sent me now. Wanna go to school together tomorrow? Your place is on my way to the train station so I can meet you at yours?

AKIKO: Yeah! See you tomorrow!

At this point, Akiko was overflowing with emotions that they needed to deal with. So, their headphones on, started playing some loud music and began jumping on their bed and dancing around the room.