Edit: Whoops! Forgot the line breaks got deleted! Thanks to Fshield96 for pointing that out!


Mina dropped into her seat at the dining table with a heavy sigh. Yesterday's party had worn her out completely, and the somewhat fitful sleep she had gotten afterwards had not fully recharged her batteries.

"Morning sweetie," her mother said, stepping out of the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?

Eiko Ashido was slightly taller than Mina, with long red hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Unlike her daughter, her skin was an average shade of human pink, though her sclera were the same pitch black. She was dressed in a strange combination of a business suit, a pink "Kiss the Cook" apron that her husband had bought for her last Christmas, and a pair of Mirko-themed bunny slippers, complete with floppy ears and signature smirk.

"Mrphgble," Mina mumbled, unable to form any sort of real response without a dose of caffeine.

Thankfully, her mom was well versed in pre-coffee grumbles and quickly handed Mina a cup of black gold to sip on while she threw together some breakfast for everyone.

The coffee worked quickly, and before long Mina felt like an actual person again. When her mom set a steaming plate full of pancakes down in front of her a few minutes later, she was even able to say a proper "Thank you" before she began attacking the stack in earnest.

As she ate, her mind drifted back to the previous day, and the shocking revelations that had come from it.

Midoriya had already told her and Uraraka about being misdiagnosed with an invisible Quirk when he was a kid, but she hadn't really realized what that meant until he'd laid it out. The abuse and judgement he'd received, his classmates thinking he was lazy or stupid for not being able to do something they took for granted. Apparently even the teachers had looked down on him, something that absolutely infuriated Mina. The only one who'd apparently been in Midoriya's corner was Bakugou, which explained why the two of them were so close.

He'd also explained why the creepy shadow guy, Shindo, had been stalking them. He seemed like a grade A-dick to Mina, and she had said so, which had earned an approving look from Bakugou. Even Uraraka looked ready to take a bat upside the guy's head after hearing some of the things he'd said and done to Midoriya and Bakugou.

And then Midoriya had dropped the real bomb of the night; the fact that he hadn't had access to his Quirk as he stepped into the entrance exam. He'd looked sheepish when he admitted that, and for good reason. Once they'd gotten over their shock, both Mina and Uraraka had joined Bakugou and gave Midoriya a smack upside the head for being so reckless. It was what he deserved for pulling a stunt like that.

At the same time, Mina found it just a little admirable. From the sound of things, Midoriya had been told that he couldn't be a hero for his entire life. Bakugou too, albeit in a different way. And yet, they had never let that stop them. The continued pushing forward, no matter the danger, and in the end they had succeeded. They were going to be heroes, just like Mina and everyone else in the class. It sounded like the plot out of some comic book, one of the ones that Kirishima would love for how "manly" it was.

"What's got you all pensive, Fluffles?" Mina's older brother said, dropping into the seat next to her and immediately taking a swipe at her breakfast.

Tsune was the tallest member of their family by far, a little over six feet tall even before you included his horns, which added another couple of centimeters to his height. Contrary to his size, his horns were even smaller and dantier than Mina's, something he was more than a little sensitive about. Like Mina, he had dark black eyes with golden irises, though his peered out from behind a pair of not quite stylish glasses. He had also inherited the same curly hair, though his was the same shade of red as Eiko, and he ritually slicked it back with a ludicrous amount of hair gel every morning.

Mina batted his hand away reflexively, hardly even having to look at him while she did so. They had done this song and dance, or at least something similar to it, practically every morning since they were kids.

"Piss off," she snapped, earning a laugh from her brother and a glare from her mother for the language.

"Whoa, someone's touchy! Guess those bags aren't just a fashion statement!"

Mina winced at that. She was well aware that the bags under her eyes this morning were nearly as prominent as Aizawa's, despite her best efforts to conceal them. Makeup could do a lot, but it wasn't a miracle cure, and she could only layer on so much before she started to feel ridiculous.

"Tsune," Eiko chastised, taking her own seat at the table, "You know it's rude to criticize a lady's appearance."

Instead of a traditional breakfast, she was drinking a deep green health smoothie that was so foul smelling that Mina and Tsune both unconsciously scooted to the other side of the table. Each of them had been pressured to try a sip of the concoction, and had sworn that they would rather jump out of the window than ever take a second. Even their mother couldn't quite push past the taste, grimacing with every swallow she took. That didn't stop her, though, and she kept right on drinking them every morning. It was the latest obsession of hers, and so they were stuck breathing through their mouths until she moved on to something else in a few weeks.

"Sorry," Tsune said, sounding anything but. He did shut up, though.

"Are you doing okay though, honey?" Eiko asked, concern evident on her face.

"'M fine," Mina replied. "Just tired."

"You were up awfully late last night," her mother said, "I noticed your light was still on when I was grabbing a drink of water."

She winced again. After coming home from the party, she'd tried to go straight to bed but had just ended up tossing and turning for a while. Finally, she'd given up on going to sleep at a reasonable time and had just played around on her phone while she tried not to think about Midoriya, Bakugou, invisible Quirks, or anything remotely hero related.

Texting Todoroki's sister had helped significantly. As it turned out, Fuyumi Todoroki also kept late hours, and had been delighted to hear about her brother coming out of his shell at the party. She'd given Mina plenty of ideas for dragging him out even further, as well as the promise of cute stories and baby pictures of the youngest Todoroki sibling.

Mina was sure the other girls in the class would love to get their hands on a few of those, Hagakure in particular. She had confided in Mina that Todoroki was totally her type, which had been part of why Mina had tried to push them together during the karaoke party. Nothing really major had happened, sadly, but it was early days yet, and Mina could totally see them getting together at some point. The energetic girl and the stoic yet awkward boy who couldn't help but smile at her silly antics? Now that sounded like the kind of storybook romance that Mina just couldn't wait to see play out!

After texting with Fuyumi, Mina had debated sending some good night texts to everyone, Midoriya, Bakugou, and Uraraka in particular. She had nearly everyone's number thanks to her party preparations, so she could have easily sent them something. She'd even started to type up a message, but her fingers had hesitated over the send key.

It wasn't like her to be at a loss for words. She usually just went ahead and said what felt right in the moment. People usually appreciated the honesty, or so they told her. But what exactly did you say to something like Midoriya and Bakugou's stories? "Thanks for telling us about your trauma, hope the whole kidnapping attempt didn't ruin the party for you!"

In the end she had thought about it for half an hour, about twenty-nine more minutes than her texts usually took, and eventually settled on a simple "Thank you for coming, have a good night!" followed by a string of emojis that she hoped would get her feelings across.

Not that she could tell her family any of that. Tsune would tease her for days on end if he found out that she had stayed up late trying to figure out what to say to a couple of boys, even if it had been strictly platonic. She'd do the same to him, after all, so it was only fair.

"Was just jazzed up from the party," she lied.

Both Tsune and her mother cocked an eyebrow at her words, and Mina knew she had been caught out. Normally she was out like a light the second her head hit the pillow, regardless of what she had been up to before. Not even a healthy dose of sugar from dessert could keep her from snuggling her pillow for long.

To Mina's immense relief, she was saved from having to come up with any other explanations for her behavior by the arrival of her father and younger brother.

Hirose Ashido was tall, which was probably where Tsune got it from, standing just under six feet without counting his horns, which were the largest in the family. They were closer to a ram's horns than the antennae-like horns that Mina and Tsune sported, sweeping back from his forehead and over the top of his head. They weren't particularly durable, especially when Mina compared them to someone like Tsunotori, but he did joke that he had a built in hard hat, just in case.

He was still in his pajamas with a set of Mirko-themed slippers that matched his wife's, and his glasses were slightly askew as he shuffled into the dining room. Mina recognized the look on his face, as did Eiko. After all, Mina had been wearing it just a few moments prior. It was the expression of someone who had gotten far too little sleep and needed a healthy dose of caffeine.

Subaru Ashido, on the other hand, looked like he needed a sedative. Mina's younger brother had sandy blond hair, average colored eyes (albeit with yellow pupils), and a large, gap-toothed smile. He also had a runny nose, which their father quickly wiped away with a special tissue. It still hissed and smoked from the potent Acid it had been doused in, but didn't melt away like a normal tissue would have.

Subaru's Acid Snot was as potent as it was gross, and he had reveled in that fact ever since his Quirk first came in, using it to torment his classmates whenever he could. The rest of the family was hoping that he would grow out of the habit soon, but Mina got the feeling that he would be doing the exact same thing when he was old and grey. He was a joker, through and through.

The thoughts about Subaru's Quirk, and his current lack of control over it, reminded Mina of why she had been questioned by her brother in the first place, and brought her mood down a little bit once more.

"Mom, Dad, have you ever heard of someone with an invisible Quirk?" Mina asked suddenly, the question just slipping out before she could stop it.

The two of them, plus Tsune, frowned at the question, but took a moment to consider it. Eventually, both Tsune and Hirose shook their heads, but Eiko spoke up.

"I had a client with one, once. A young woman who said she couldn't use her Quirk at all, and didn't even know what it was. Made it very hard to get to the actual arguments, since we had to spend a day debating whether or not she actually had a Quirk."

"Sounds boring," Tsune commented.

"It was a lot of back and forth," she replied. Then, she put on a deep, mocking voice as she imitated the various arguments. "She is registered as having a Quirk, therefore she has a Quirk! No, being unable to use it means she doesn't have one! Well my expert looked at her feet, so she has a Quirk! Why are you bringing your expert's foot fetish into court?"

That got a chuckle out of them, except for Subaru, who looked annoyed at missing the joke.

"So, how'd you win?" Tsune asked.

"We didn't," Eiko said, shrugging her shoulders.

That brought them up short. She was one of the top lawyers at her firm, and hardly ever lost a case that wasn't totally stacked against her. She always found some super creative solution to whatever problem was facing her client that usually left the other side looking ridiculous. Or at least, that was always what her stories made it sound like.

"How come?" Subaru asked, sounding devastated.

"The judge wouldn't accept our pleas," Eiko said, idly sipping on her smoothie. "Since she didn't know or display her Quirk, he ruled that she hadn't been fired because of it. But since she wasn't Quirkless, she hadn't been fired because of that either. She was just… fired."

Well that sucked. Mina idly wondered if Midoriya had ever been in a situation like that. Caught between being unfortunate, but not quite unfortunate enough to have people care about what you thought. It was a terrible thought, and Mina pushed it away as quickly as she could. Imagining Midoriya like that was just going to make her depressed, and she'd had quite enough of that for one morning!

"Well that sucks," she said quickly, "but I guess you can't win them all, huh?"

"That's right," her mother replied, oddly upbeat considering the subject. "But we fought hard, and we did a lot better than people thought we would. And next time, I'll hit 'em where it counts!"

"Right in the foot fetish," Hirose added helpfully.

And like that, they descended into laughter once again. He had that effect on them, able to reduce the entire family into giggles with a single comment. Or, the entire family when Subaru was able to get the joke.

"Daaaaaad," he whined, tugging on their father's shirt, "you said we could go to the park after breakfast!"

For emphasis, Subaru shook his now empty plate with his free hand.

"All right, all right," Hirose said, shaking his head. "Let an old man finish his eggs. Geeze, with how fast you kids eat, you'd think that you had some speed-eating Quirks!"

Mina rolled her eyes. He was always the last one done at every meal, even when they went out to a restaurant, and refused to hurry up no matter how much they prodded him.

At least the two of them going out to play meant that Subaru would be occupied for the time being. Mina needed some time to herself, time that didn't involve being constantly interrupted by her whirlwind of a little brother trying to take back the TV right in the middle of her favorite show. She needed some time to spread her stuff out, watch trashy shows, and just relax for a while without having to think about her crazy classmates or whatever training they would be going through come Monday.

With her plan set, and a smile on her face, Mina polished off the rest of her breakfast and made her way into the living room to begin her destressing TV marathon.


The following Monday, Mina pulled up short as she turned around the last corner and saw the UA entrance gate. The entire area was swarmed with people, many of whom were carrying large cameras or microphones. Every time a student came near the mass of people they would be surrounded for several seconds. The lucky ones were pushed to the side, around the bulk of the crowd, and made their way to the gate only a little worse for wear.

The unlucky ones, however, suffered a far worse fate.

Before Mina could take more than a few steps towards the gate, she saw Kaminari approach the crowd. Like the others before him, once the crowd of reporters spotted him, they converged like hungry sharks. However, the frenzy seemed to only grow in intensity as Mina watched. Reporters began shouting their questions at the guy loudly enough that Mina could hear them from down the street. The words overlapped, but she distinctly heard the words "Teacher," "All Might," and "Statement." Kaminari didn't even have time to respond to any of the questions, too preoccupied with being pulled in a half dozen different directions by various reporters hoping for a quote.

Mina slipped by as quietly as she could while they were distracted. Under normal circumstances she would have been thrilled to be on TV, giving some snappy sound bite about how cool it was to have All Might as a teacher. Maybe, if they had asked real nicely, she might have even given them the inside scoop on some of his less heroic moments, like how he'd totally been reading from a cue card during their first training exercise, or that he had jetted off at the first opportunity, leaving Aizawa with the clean-up. He'd probably gone off to fight some villain somewhere; Mina couldn't imagine him actually being the type to slack off, but she felt confident that a sound bite like that would have gotten her on the news somewhere.

However, she wasn't quite willing to risk the crowd just then, especially with what was happening to Kaminari. He emerged from the other side of the crowd with his tie askew, his shirt ruffled, and his book bag missing. It followed him out a moment later, tossed by a reporter who may or may not have rifled through it in search of a clue about All Might as a teacher. The bag smacked Kaminari full in the face and sent him stumbling to the side, spluttering in surprise.

Somehow, Mina managed to skirt the crowd without getting spotted and came up next to him. A notebook and a few pens had fallen out of the bag when it was tossed, and she quickly bent down to help him stuff them back in.

"Thanks," he said, once everything had been collected.

"Don't mention it," she replied, "Crazy out here, huh? Think it's gonna be like this every day?"

"I hope not. Once was enough. I think I'm going to have nightmares about cameras trying to eat me tonight."

Mina snickered. "Better get that under control. Don't wanna end up like Aizawa!"

Kaminari visibly shuddered at that. They may have only known him for a couple of days, but he had already made quite the impression on all of them.

"No thanks," Kaminari said, "I wanna actually like my job. Plus, I don't think I could pull off the hair."

She liked Kaminari. He was outgoing, fun to joke around with, and seemed to get along with everyone. He'd even been buddying up to Bakugou at the party, which was excellent. He hadn't been put off by the spiky exterior that the blond put up most of the time. Mina had heard through the grapevine, (Hagakure, once the battle trial was done) that Tsunotori had called Bakugou a tsundere, which was hilarious accurate. He acted like he hated everyone, but there was a soft side under there. Buried very deeply, of course, but it was still there.

"I dunno," Mina replied, staring thoughtfully at Kaminari, "I could see you looking like a homeless bum. Maybe after a tough test or something."

"After hero training last week, I don't even wanna think about what the tests here are gonna be like," Kaminari groaned.

She had to agree. Based on how their first couple of days had gone, tests were probably going to be horrendous. They'd probably have to do push-ups while reciting the tenets of heroism, then climb a rope and design a hero costume at the top. Or so Mina pictured, at least.

"Same," she replied, "Total downer. But hey, at least they aren't until waaaaaay later, right?"

"Right," Kaminari said, "We've got tons of time to prepare for that stuff. Don't have to think about it right now."

"Nope."

"No way."

"Nuh uh."

"So," Kaminari said quickly, "head to class?"

Mina nodded her agreement. "Yep. Let's see what sort of crazy stuff we're doing this week!"


"Let's get down to business," Aizawa said, laying his papers down onto the podium, "Our first task will decide your future."

Mina felt her stomach clench in alarm. Seriously? They couldn't have just one day to relax before they jumped back into the heavy stuff? She'd just been joking with Kaminari before and hadn't really expected them to jump into something crazy right from the get-go.

'Is it another Quirk test?' she thought, 'Or something worse?'

"You need to choose a class representative."

The relief washed over the entire class. Shoulders dropped, hands unclenched, and a massive, collective sigh whooshed out of them. Compared to the first few days of class, this was both normal and familiar. They'd been through the process plenty of times before in middle school, and while the pressure was higher now, it was nothing compared to what they'd been expecting.

Hot on the tail of relief came excitement. Mina could feel it bubbling in her stomach. Here was her chance to stand out a little from the class and really strut her stuff. She'd been sidelined in the battle training, spending most of her time chasing Midoriya around the battlefield, only to get tied up and soaked through at the climax, followed by losing the whole thing. She wasn't the only one who had lost, of course, but she had been hoping to do a bit better than that since one of her opponents had been Mineta.

Thankfully, it seemed like the universe was giving her a chance to make up for her loss. She popped out of her seat and waved her hand as high as it would go, hoping to get everyone's attention early.

Sadly, she wasn't the only one with that strategy. More than a half dozen other hands popped up as well, including Kaminari, Jirou, Mineta, and Aoyama. Mina could even see Midoriya hesitantly raising his hand, though it didn't get any higher than his chest. It was a pretty wide spread of people, which meant that Mina would have a lot of competition, but that was fine. She could totally handle it!

"Silence, everyone, please!" Iida shouted. "A representative's duty is to lead others, which isn't something just anyone can do. They need to have the trust of the entire class, the ability to work with everyone's best interests in mind, as well as the willingness to put in the work! As such, the most logical way to fill the position is to hold an election."

His point was undercut a little bit by the fact that he was raising his hand as high as it would go, his entire body quivering with nervous energy. It reminded Mina a lot of his behavior from the night of the karaoke party. He'd been the first one to insist on a set of rules then too, partially out of nerves, but partially because that's just who he was. You could see it in the way he moved, talked, and did everything. He was precise, measured, and diligent. Basically, he was a pretty good person to have on your side, even if he was kind of grating from time to time.

But Mina didn't really think he was the right choice for class rep. Sure, it was an important job and it would be best if they were diligent, but they were also supposed to represent the class. And in her mind, there was only one person who did just that. They were crazy, noisy, and a bit wild, which matched her to a T. Plus, she could learn how to do the hard parts on the job.

"Hold on a second," Kirishima said, grabbing everyone's attention, "If that's what we're looking for, isn't there really only one option?"

"Only one?" Iida asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, it's gotta be Ashido," Kirishima said, pointing directly at her.

And that reminded her why Kirishima was an awesome friend! She should totally get him a present for sticking up for her like this, especially if she ended up winning!

"Could you please elaborate?" Yaoyorozu said.

"Well, if you're looking for someone who can lead, then she's the only one who managed to get everyone to decide on the same thing. I mean, she managed to organize the party, then convince everyone to go, didn't she?"

"She did," Iida admitted, "though that alone does not qualify her to lead the class."

"Does to me," Kirishima replied. "I kinda like the idea of the rep setting up stuff like that outside of class to help everyone get along. Plus that shows she was already thinking about everyone's interests, rather than just herself like the rest of us."

Mina preened under the praise. She had been hoping that the party would help everyone get along a little better, and knowing that someone else understood that really validated her. Plus, having Kiri stick up for her was a real ego boost!

"What about the paperwork part?" Jirou pointed out. "No offense, but you don't really seem like the type, Ashido?"

She had her there. Mina had never been one for boring stuff like paperwork or long meetings. She tended to get pretty antsy when there wasn't anything interesting going on, which made things like that pretty difficult. And while that might normally present a problem for taking the class rep position, a solution to the problem was staring her right in the face.

Or was trying to, at least. He looked away when she caught his eye, seeming embarrassed to have been caught staring.

"You're right," Mina admitted, "But we need to pick a vice rep too, right? What if I pick someone who's good at that stuff? So we, like, cover each other's weaknesses?"

"So basically you just wanna pass the work off onto someone else?" Jirou said in a deadpan voice.

"I wouldn't make him do all of it," Mina defended. "Besides, it's not like Midori wouldn't get anything out of it. We've gotta work with other classes a bunch, and I'm great at talking to people, so I'd be able to take over there!"

Midoriya spluttered at the sudden mention of his name, and even more when he realized what she was proposing. It was honestly kind of funny. He'd definitely been thinking about putting his own name in the running, but now that he was actually out there, he was acting so bashful.

"T-that's… I'm not—" he began, only to be cut off by Bakugou.

"Fuck off, Raccoon Eyes. Planning to steal his work, and take the title for yourself? Sounds like bullshit to me."

"Hey, I'm not stealing anything! I just think Midoriya would make a good vice rep!" Mina said, crossing her arms in exasperation. She understood that Bakugou was just defending his friend in his weird, aggressive way, but it still hurt to be accused like that.

"Language aside," Iida said with a glare at Bakugou, "I do agree that Midoriya would make an excellent representative candidate. In fact, I intended to cast my vote for him when I first proposed the election!"

"Wait, you were going to vote for him, even though you wanted to be the rep?" Kaminari asked, ignoring Midoriya's continued protestations.

"Of course!" Iida replied, "If my own single vote would sway the election in my favor, then I would not truly deserve to have been elected in the first place!"

"How noble, kero," Tsuyu croaked.

"Very manly!" Kirishima agreed.

"So, did everyone just agree on Iida, or are we still picking candidates?" Mineta interjected, "Because I know I'd love to work underneath Ashido…"

"Not a chance!" Mina snapped. She'd had enough of him ogling her while she was soaked from Midoriya's plan during the battle trial and didn't want that to become a regular thing.

"Returning to the topic at hand," Yaoyorozu said, grabbing everyone's attention once more, "We really should move this along if we want to get things done today. Does anyone else have anything to add?"

Mina glanced around the room, and saw Hagakure bouncing up and down to get everyone's attention.

"I think Mina should be the rep," she said, once she had their attention. "Like, no offense Iida, but I can't say I really know you yet. Mina got to know everyone right away, and she was super helpful. She was the one who got Todoroki to talk to people instead of sitting in the corner all night during the party, right?"

Every head in the room turned toward the boy in question. Somehow, he didn't even bat an eye at the extra attention and simply continued tapping away at his phone. Finally, after a very long moment where no one spoke, he looked up and addressed them.

"She's fine," he said simply.

"Is that an endorsement?" Yaoyorozu pressed.

When he shrugged and returned to his phone, everyone was forced to just assume that the statement was his version of hyping her up for the class.

It was actually a little touching. Thanks to Fuyumi, Mina knew that Todoroki wasn't great at expressing his feelings or making friends, so having him acknowledge her like that was actually pretty special.

"So, that's me, Hagakure, Iida, and Todoroki for Mina and Midoriya as reps," Kirishima said, ticking them off on his hand. "Oh, and they probably vote for themselves too, so that makes six votes. You still going for it, Iida?"

"Actually I never said I'd—" Midoriya began, only to be cut off by Iida.

"No, I believe the results speak for themselves. As you said, I endorse Ashido and Midoriya as our representatives, although I still maintain that Midoriya should take the primary position as I believe he is the more responsible candidate."

"Ashido," Yaoyorozu said, turning to her, "What do you think?"

Mina hummed for a moment, as she mulled it over. She really liked the idea of being the representative, and getting to know the other classes. Plus, it would have been fun to leverage her position to get everyone together for more fun stuff. That said, having to do all the responsible stuff would probably be a major drag, and Midoriya would definitely be better at it than her, so maybe Iida had a point…

"Can... can I talk for a second?" Midoriya said, finally standing up from his seat and projecting. When no one interrupted him, he continued. "I, uhm, I don't really think I'm qualified to be the class rep. I've never really done anything like this before."

"I think you are!" Uraraka piped up with a smile.

"I would agree," Iida said, "You have proved to be both courageous and quick thinking so far, and I have faith that you will continue to demonstrate such abilities going forward.

"Yeah, you're pretty great, Midori," Mina added helpfully.

He flushed under their praise, but didn't sit back down just yet. "E-even if you say all that, I'm still not very good with… talking to people. Or leading them."

"That's a fucking understatement," Bakugou said with a snort. "Walking around with you is ridiculous. Always so concerned about what people think about you. It's like walking around with the mayor of fucking nothing."

"You've got one minute left of homeroom," Aizawa cut in, suddenly sitting upright in his sleeping bag to address the class. It was a little terrifying how quickly he switched between the two states, like a zombie suddenly coming to life. "Pick your reps now, or I'll pick for you."

They all glanced around at each other before Mina raised her hand to get his attention. If she was going to be one of the reps, she'd have to get used to speaking for everyone anyways.

"It's gonna be me and Midoriya. We just haven't picked who's the main rep and who's the vice."

"Well you're first in the alphabet, so congratulations on the position, Ashido," Aizawa deadpanned, "You can pick up the first bits of paperwork in the teacher's lounge after lunch today. In the meantime, homeroom is over. I'll see you all later for hero training."

With that, he slithered out of his sleeping bag and sauntered out of the room, leaving the class feeling more than a little exasperated, with a few notable exceptions.

Mina, for her part, was excited. Looming threat of paperwork aside, she couldn't wait to get started on her new position. She was gonna plan tons of fun activities, meet tons of new people, and stand out in a class filled with stars.

Plus, it was going to be fun to hang out with Midoriya a bit more during school. The little she'd gotten to know him already indicated that he was a pretty fun guy underneath that shell of anxiety. Once she'd had some time to pry it open, he would make for an excellent partner and a pretty excellent vice rep. And that was a Mina Ashido guarantee!


He stood outside of the main gate with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, careful not to actually touch the fabric of his hoodie. The ever present itch in his body swelled, concentrated on his neck, and he idly reached up to scratch it, eyeing the crowd before him as he did so.

They milled around the gate, wanting to get over the barrier that had risen when one of them pathed a little too close to the entrance, but not quite able to figure out how to do it. Their programming wasn't nearly that sophisticated, so they just stood there, staring emptily up at the wall before them.

Tomura scoffed at their helplessness. He always hated NPCs, no matter what game they were from. They were absolutely useless on their own. Instead of going out and doing the quest for themselves, they just waited around for a player to do it for them, nagging the whole time with their pre-recorded lines. It was enough to make him sick.

Unlike them, he was here for a purpose, to fire a warning shot that would shake the school and the entire hero system to its core. Then maybe a few of the NPCs would wake up and figure out what was going on.

Or not. It was no skin off his back.

Tomura strode forward casually, the sea of nobodies parting unconsciously before him. They might be ignorant, but they could still sense a player character when one got near them, and moved out of his way. It was almost enough to bring a smile to his face, but not quite.

Gently, he pulled his right hand from his hoodie, and brushed it against the barrier. His fingers itched where they touched the steel structure, but the sensation quickly began to flow away as his Quirk took hold. He kept moving, letting the Decay spread out behind him as he walked, until he reached the far side of the gate.

Behind him, he could hear the exclamations of surprise and excitement as the NPCs noticed his handiwork. By the time the barrier had finished disintegrating, they were pushing their way into the school, clamoring about All Might.

That did bring a smile to his face as he slipped away, completely ignored by the surging crowd.

'Enjoy him while you can,' he thought. 'It will be the last chance you get…'


Mina let out a long sigh when class finally ended. She and Ectoplasm apparently had very different definitions of fun, since he seemed to have been enjoying himself as he rattled off formula after formula to the class, most of which went entirely over Mina's head. The homework that weekend had been hard enough, and that was mostly review. If these were the kind of lessons she had to look forward to, she didn't know if she'd make it through the entire year.

She'd made it to lunchtime, though, and that was worth celebrating. She'd already been planning on swinging by one of the school's vending machines and picking up something special to celebrate becoming class rep, and her exhaustion with the lessons only made the desire more potent.

"Hey Midori, wanna come get a snack with me?"

"Huh?" he replied eloquently.

"You, me, something delicious and unhealthy, celebrating our new positions. Sound like fun?"

"Oh, uh, t-that sounds really nice, but I'm supposed to eat with Iida and Uraraka, a-and I don't wanna stand them up or anything."

She pouted a little at that. She totally understood that he wanted to hang out with them, but come on! They'd won fair and square, and that was totally worth celebrating!

Thankfully, Uraraka chose that moment to sidle up to them.

"Me 'N Iida won't mind if you two go celebrate for a while. We'll even save you a place! Just grab me something too, okay?"

Mina didn't waste any time. Before Midoriya could say anything about it, she grabbed his arm and began to pull him away, shooting a quick thank you to Uraraka over her shoulder. Uraraka, for her part, seemed happy to let them go, giving the pair a small wave as Mina dragged her new partner away.

Once they were out of the classroom, Mina eased up a little bit. She didn't actually want to drag Midoriya away against his will, just wanted a buddy to celebrate with. To her relief, he adjusted his uniform a little then moved to walk alongside her.

They reached the vending machines before too long, Mina guiding them expertly through the halls. She'd managed to corner an older student from the business course on the first day and had extracted the location of the best vending machines from him. The set that the business student had pointed her to were located outside of the building, just out of sight of the main gate. It was also just outside of the teacher's lounge, which made it the teacher's go-to destination for snacks while on the job. That meant these machines were always stocked up first and had the best selection on campus. Those few students in the know guarded the location jealously, and Mina was incredibly thankful that she had managed to corner someone with a weak will

She already knew what she wanted, and quickly punched in the code. A packet of gummy bears dropped down and she snatched it up without hesitation. They were her absolute favorite, but they were also Subaru's favorite, so she was used to having to fight for them. Having an entire bag to herself, without any threat of them being stolen when she wasn't looking, was quite liberating, and she intended to enjoy them thoroughly.

After a minute to look over the selection, Midoriya ended up picking out a packet of plain vanilla cookies. It was a little bit of a boring choice, but he seemed to be enjoying them.

"To us!" Mina said, raising her snack for a toast.

Midoriya looked at her, confused, and she shook her bag of bears, then indicated his snack. Tentatively he raised his snack up, and touched it against hers.

"Cheers!" she said, drawing a smile from his lips.

"Cheers..." he echoed. It was a bit hesitant, but it still counted!

"And thanks for your help, Midori."

He frowned in confusion. "My help? With what?"

"With becoming class rep. Couldn't have done it without ya!"

"I didn't really do anything…" he said, eyes downcast.

"Sure you did!" Mina said quickly. "I mean, people liked me, but they weren't really sure about me being the rep until they knew you were helping out 'cuz everyone already thinks you're reliable."

"I'm really not…"

"Sure you are! You're always keeping Bakugou from blowing up at people, right? Plus you helped organize everyone during the party on Friday. I'd say that's pretty reliable."

"Kacchan isn't that bad. He just… takes a while to warm up to people. And Yaoyorozu helped out too. She made a whole notebook, and a pen. I just used a page in my notebook."

"Yeah, but your notebook is really important to you, right?" Mina said.

He nodded at that, then frowned. "How did you know?"

"I mean, it's kinda obvious. You've always got it on you, and whenever you whip it out, you cradle it like it's your baby."

He blushed at that. "I… I guess I do. I've never really thought about it like that. I… it doesn't… creep you out too much?"

"Nah," she said, waving a hand dismissively. "I mean, it's a little weird. I think you know more about my Quirk at this point than I do. But, we're training to be heroes, right? Dealing with Quirks is kinda our thing, so it makes sense to know a lot about them. Just promise me you'll tell me if you come up with any cool moves I can do, okay?"

He seemed stunned for a long moment, then began to nod furiously as a massive smile blossomed across his face. It was infectious, and before long Mina felt her own lips curling into a grin.

"Seriously, though, thanks for being willing to help me out. And I promise not to pawn all of the paperwork off on you. Just the hard stuff!"

Somehow, that didn't kill Midoriya's mood. He continued to smile even as he responded.

"And I'll try not to make you talk to everyone for me. Or let Kacchan get too angry at you."

"I think that ship has already sailed. I know you two went through a lot and have been friends for forever, but I have no idea how you handle him all the time."

That did cause his smile to fade a little bit, but he forced his way through.

"He really isn't that bad, especially not when it's just us. He… has trouble trusting people after…" He gestured vaguely with his hand

"The whole villain thing?" Mina asked, remembering his story from the night before.

Now there was a mood killer, and she had no idea how to bring the mood back up after something like that. They were supposed to be celebrating, not moping!

Before she could say anything, however, a massive commotion caught her attention. People by the front gate were shouting, and she was pretty sure she could hear the sound of groaning metal. A moment later, an alarm began to blare in the distance.

It sounded slightly different than the fire alarms Mina was used to hearing, although that could just have been due to it being muffled by the walls. Both she and Midoriya looked at each other in confusion. She shrugged, then peeked around the corner to see what was going on. Her old middle school had a notoriously temperamental fire system, so she (and by extension, Kirishima) had plenty of experience with calmly ignoring the distant alarm as she tried to figure out where to go. They were already outside, after all, so they didn't have to worry about getting stuck inside.

To Mina's surprise, the reporters from earlier had somehow managed to force their way inside the school and were barreling down the main walkway. None of them were paying any attention to where they were going, everyone simply following the person in front of them, while those at the front of the pack were being pushed along by the people behind them.

It was total anarchy, and someone was going to get hurt if they kept acting like idiots. Especially if the students in front of the crowd didn't get out of the way! But they were just standing there, staring at the oncoming herd of reporters in slack-jawed horror. Maybe it was the chaos, maybe it was the alarm, or maybe it was just good old fashioned indecision, but they were sitting ducks.

Not on Mina's watch.

She dashed forward as quickly as she could, willing her legs to pump faster. She wished she could use her Quirk to slide faster, but she wasn't wearing the right shoes for it, and kicking them off would take too much time.

A moment later, she heard footsteps pounding behind her as Midoriya took off as well. He was fast, but she was faster. She reached the main walkway just before the crowd was going to barrel into the students, sliding to a stop in a way that felt oddly familiar, though she couldn't quite remember why.

Lacking any sort of plan, she put her fingers to her lips and let out the loudest whistle that she could. It washed over the group of reporters, and seemed to shake them from their crazed state. They didn't stop moving, though, and for a moment Mina thought she was going to be trampled.

To her absolute surprise, Midoriya jumped in front of her and spread his arms wide, as if he was standing in front of a charging bull. She had no idea if he could actually stop the crowd, but then again, she'd seen Midoriya pull off some pretty crazy stuff, and heard that he was the one who had stopped the zero pointer during the entrance exam. If there was anyone who could stop a crowd of rampaging reporters, it was probably him.

Thankfully, he didn't have to. With just inches to spare, the reporters came to their collective senses, and ground to a halt.

Mina let out a breath she didn't even realize she had been holding. Now that the immediate danger was over, her knees felt like jelly, and her heart was pounding at a mile per minute. Yet again she was struck by the feeling that she'd been in a situation like this before, but couldn't quite remember when that had been.

The immediate danger might have been over but there was still an issue staring them right in the face. The reporters seemed to be recovering from the effects of her whistle, and a few of them were eyeing the UA building hungrily.

She needed to do something, but Mina couldn't quite think of what. So, she said the absolute first thing that came to her mind.

"Hey! No running on school grounds! That's how you get detention!"

The instant she said it, Mina felt like an idiot. She'd heard the words so many times over the years, mostly aimed at her and her friends, that they were pretty much ingrained in her psyche. She'd had dreams where monsters chased her through school, shouting at her not to run in the hallways. And here she was blurting them out to a bunch of reporters who didn't even go to their school. It was probably going to go down in history as one of the dumbest things ever said in a stressful situation!

And yet, somehow, it seemed to work. The reporters all turned their attention to her, disbelief written large across their faces. A few seemed a little incensed at being told off by a high schooler, even one from UA's hero course, but they were in the minority. Whatever their reaction to her sudden statement, all of them seemed to be waiting for her to say something else, which was a problem since her mind was completely blank, and she had already proved that her first instinct was not what she wanted to go with.

"She's not wrong," a deadpan voice said from behind her.

Mina turned, and was, for the first time, deeply relieved to see Aizawa walking towards her. Present Mic was trailing a few steps behind him and looked more irate than she had ever seen him. Normally he was pretty jovial, and was even willing to joke around with the class, which Mina appreciated. Now, however, he looked like he was ready to break some heads. Or eardrums, considering his Quirk.

"The press has a duty to report the news!" a generic-looking woman near the front of the pack called out. "You can't just hide All Might away from us like this!"

"Can and will," Aizawa replied curtly. "You lot are trespassing, and you're disturbing the students while doing it. We're well within our rights to throw you out, right here and now."

"Just try it!" a different reporter called.

"Yeah, we'll put your face all over the news, assaulting innocent reporters!" a third shouted.

Aizawa sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ashido, Midoriya, you two can head back inside while we deal with this. Lesson for your careers in the future: best way to deal with the press is not to deal with them at all."

And that explained why no one outside of Midoriya had really heard of Eraserhead before. Honestly, she really should have seen that coming. He acted like doing his job was a chore, and dealing with the press was probably a job in itself.

A part of her was tempted to stick around despite Aizawa's words. Present Mic was a lot more media savvy. Mina had listened to his radio show a few times before, and it would have been cool to see how he handled the press.

On the other hand, she was still feeling the effects from nearly being trampled, and having a nice sit-down sounded really good at the moment. When Midoriya put a hand on her arm and gave it a gentle tug a moment later, she allowed him to pull her back towards the main building.

"Be sure to get some rest!" Present Mic called after them, "You've got some exciting training this afternoon!"

Well, that was interesting. Hopefully it would be something a little more fun than battle training. Mina had enjoyed the trial, for the most part, but it would be nice to start the week off without combat. Maybe they'd be learning heroic posing? She felt like a proper heroic pose would have helped when she was trying to tell the reporters off. Her mom had gone through a whole period where she was obsessed with power posing, and had told Mina about all the ways a good pose boosted your confidence and made it hard to argue with you.

Well, she supposed that no matter what they were doing in class, it would be better than nearly being trampled to death by rabid reporters.

"We will!" she called back, her voice a little bit shakier than she would have liked.

To Mina's relief, they didn't have to go too far. There was an empty bench just inside the building that they gratefully claimed, dropping down with twin sighs of relief.

A moment of silence passed between them, the school alarm having been shut off once everyone realized it was just the press stampeding onto campus. Mina was about to suggest they make their way to the cafeteria to grab some food in the time remaining, when Midoriya spoke up.

"Y-you were really cool back there, Ashido. I, um, I think you'll make a really good class rep."

Mina snorted in disbelief. "Cool? Were you listening to me back there? We nearly got trampled, and I told them off for running in the halls. I think that's about the furthest from cool you could get. It sounds like something Iida would say!"

"He probably would," Midoriya said with a small smile. "But I think that just makes it cooler. You got through to them, even if it wasn't the same way most people would. I know I would never have thought of something like that."

"I wasn't really thinking about what I was gonna say. I just kinda blurted out the first thing that came to mind," Mina admitted.

"You moved without thinking…" he said, almost wistfully.

"More like spoke without thinking, but I guess so, yeah."

"Then I know you're going to be a great hero," he said, with such finality that for a second, Mina didn't even question the statement.

"Huh?" she said, once she processed that a little bit. "How do you figure that?"

"Well… the day we did battle training wasn't the first time I met All Might. A few months before the entrance exam, Kacchan got caught up in a villain attack. I rushed in without thinking, trying to save him even though I couldn't use my Quirk at the time. It went… pretty badly. But All Might was there, and he saved us. And afterwards… afterwards he told me that when someone needs saving, and your body moves on it's own, that's the mark of a true hero."

The awe in his voice spoke volumes. It was obvious that All Might's words had meant the world to him, which made it all the more touching that he had extended them to her. And, truth to be told, they made her feel a lot better about the encounter with the reporters. She still cringed slightly at the memory, but there was a hint of pride there as well. She had handled things, and no one had gotten hurt in the process. That was definitely a win.

"Awww, thanks Midori!" she said, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "And you were pretty great out there yourself. Having backup meant a lot."

He flushed at the sudden contact and praise, but didn't pull away. After a moment he even relaxed a little, which she took as another win! Man, she was on a roll all of a sudden!

She let go of Midoriya, then hopped to her feet.

"C'mon Midori, let's go catch up with Uraraka and Iida and grab some real food. And you can tell us all about your meeting with All Might! I wanna know what he's like in action!"

Midoriya flushed and looked down at his feet. "Th-that's really it. He left right after that because he was so busy!"

Mina narrowed her eyes at the sudden nervousness.

"Midori, did you weird out All Might talking about his Quirk?"

"I didn't do anything weird!" Midoriya protested. "I didn't even ask for an autograph! Not technically."

"Not technically? How does that work?"

"He signed my notebook while I was unconscious, so I didn't have to ask…"

"Okay, now I really have to hear the story!" Mina said with a grin.

Slowly, the two of them made their way to the cafeteria, Mina pestering him the entire way, where Uraraka, Iida, and Bakugou were waiting with their own story to tell.

The five joked, chatted, growled (in Bakugou's case), and generally had an excellent lunch. It was an undeniable bright spot in Mina's day, and she enjoyed every second of it.


I'd like to thank you all for being patient with the very slow pace of this story. I'd love to get these chapters out to you sooner, but I'm not great at keeping up with a schedule for it.

So, originally, this chapter was going to be the first part of the greater USJ chapter. However, I decided to split it into a couple parts so that you would be getting something a little bit earlier. That doesn't mean you'll have to wait as long for the next one, though. I'm already hard at work on the chapter, and will have it done as quick as I can. I don't wanna blue ball you guys any more than I already have, and I'm looking forward to finally writing the scene that inspired this fic in the first place.

Finally, I'd like to thank you all so very much for reading. I don't really talk about stats much, but it means so much to me that so many of you are willing to give this story your time, especially with how infrequent the updates are. This is by far my biggest story ever, and I love and appreciate every single one of you so much. Thank you once again, and I hope that you have an excellent day!