I genuinely can't believe that this story has over 200 followers ;-; thank you all so much! Here is an early update (and the longest chapter so far) to celebrate the milestone! And Happy Family Day to my fellow Canadians!

Chapter Thirty: Little Sister

The ringing in her ears had been dulled to a faint buzzing, but the silence in the Recovery Girl's office made it deafening. Bandages were wrapped thoroughly around her chest and arms, hiding the worst of her healing burns from the stale air. Recovery Girl had been unable to ease the strain on her aching eyes, so only Koharu's head was left throbbing.

She would recover. Koharu would be just fine. She could even go join her classmates to see the rest of the matches, if she wanted, Recovery Girl had said.

But all she really wanted to do was sit there and cry. She had lost. She was pathetic. She had only managed to land one hit before her stupid, reckless, dumbass-self had lost all control. She had no one to blame but herself for the condition she was in.

Still, her empty eyes stared up at the white ceiling, not a single tear fallen. Koharu raised a bandaged hand to her cheek, her wrapped fingers trailing a path a teardrop might have taken if she had been allowed to cry.

She couldn't feel it. She couldn't feel anything.

Koharu's gaze remained on the ceiling tiles. She released a heavy breath. "My fingers are really tingly," she remarked aloud.

Recovery Girl harrumphed and approached Koharu's bed. "It'll be a few hours more before the feeling in your hands returns to normal," she explained for the second time. "Your burns were serious. I did the best I could with how much stamina you've already used. You're lucky that you didn't blow your hands off completely, young lady."

"It wasn't on purpose," Koharu quietly replied. "I've never done something like that before."

"And you shouldn't do it again," the doctor scolded. "That was an incredibly dangerous and reckless move. I have been seeing far too much of your class in my office, don't you know? I don't understand what you reckless kids are thinking these days!"

Koharu's stare slowly turned from the ceiling to the older woman. "Well, I wanted to win."

Recovery Girl sighed, and reached out to gently pat Koharu's knee. It didn't bring any comfort. "You'll feel better soon," she said.

"Of course," came Koharu's robotic reply. "I've seen worse. This is nothing." Despite her words, Koharu's tired body screamed in protest as she forced herself to sit up. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and her short legs dangled over the edge.

The cracking of concrete over a solid white lined played before Koharu's eyes. With a shake of her head, the scene disappeared.

She could feel Recovery Girl's eyes on her. "Your body still needs to rest," she reminded the girl. "You've used a lot of stamina, so you shouldn't push yourself. You're welcome to stay here."

"I'm fine," Koharu lied. "I don't want to miss the rest of the matches."

"Alright," the elderly doctor sighed. "But you had better take it easy, young lady!"

With a nod of her head, Koharu dropped carefully onto her feet. She breathed a quiet sigh when the linoleum stayed perfectly intact beneath her heels, and hid her expression of relief beneath a curtain of hair as she bowed politely towards Recovery Girl. "Thank you very much."

"Yes, yes," Recovery Girl responded with a smile and a dismissive wave of her hand. "You'd better get a move on if you want to see the rest of your classmates' matches. I'll see you tomorrow morning to check on those hands."

Koharu left with another quiet mumble of gratitude, and a promise to return early the next day. However, she had no intention of watching the rest of the matches.

Her feet took her down the hallways, around corners, and through the building until she reached the exit. Koharu passed students and visitors alike, their eyes lingering on her bandaged arms but no one daring to intercept her purposeful stride. She kept going until she hit the walls surrounding the campus, and she started running the second her feet hit the sidewalk.

Koharu didn't know where she was going. All she knew was that she knew that she couldn't possibly face her friends after making such a grand fool of herself.

Despite her exhaustion, Koharu ran until her legs buckled beneath her, and then she ran for a few blocks more. It wasn't until she lost complete recognition of the surrounding streets that she finally allowed herself to collapse onto the curb, her legs weak and her chest tight as she heaved in desperate breaths.

But no matter how far or how fast she ran, Koharu wasn't faster than her thoughts. The questions running through her head had chased her there, and they stomped on her back as she struggled to catch her breath.

What was happening to her?

It felt like she was the only one without any answers.

Koharu thought about Aoi, and the vision of their future that she had shared with her. What happened at the Sports Festival had only confirmed that Aoi was telling the truth about her Quirk. There was no way Aoi could have known about the full extent of Koharu's Quirk before Koharu herself did. In fact, Koharu wondered if she would have been capable of using Bakugou's Quirk at all without Aoi having first put the thought into her head. And if what Aoi had shown her really was her future—

Koharu remembered the scar along her face, the skin still pink and healing, and wondered how she would get it. She wondered when she would change her hair, and if her future would remain the same if she shaved it all off. How long did she have before she needed to figure out the other half of her 'we're here'? What would happen to Aoi if Koharu couldn't find whoever it was in time? What would happen if she chose the wrong person?

And Shouta—

How had Shouta known that something would happen to her? Why had he wanted her to throw the tournament? And why couldn't he have told her? What secret was he holding over her head, and how high would she have to jump to reach it? Koharu had trusted him. Why had he made a fool of her? Why was any of this happening to her?

A single, frustrated tear slid down her cheek. Koharu angrily wiped it away with a bandaged hand.

"Hey, little sister."

The voice was unfamiliar. Koharu's head jerked up to see a strange woman watching her from across the road.

The first thing Koharu noticed about the woman was her long, pastel pink hair as it fell down in waves to her mid-back. She was a tall woman with smooth tan skin, a large scar running along the arch of her nose and her twinkling eyes only a few shades darker than her pink hair. The woman was wearing all black, including a leather jacket unsuited for the warm weather, and she stood with her arms crossed over her chest.

None of this rang any bells for Koharu, and so she stared dumbly, wondering if she was about to be kidnapped by someone with an older sister complex.

"Aizawa, right? I recognize you." The woman laughed like a breeze. "I was just watching your fight," she said, jiggling her smartphone in her hands. Koharu assumed she had been watching the broadcast. The woman, her legs stretching for days, crossed the street with easy strides, and Koharu pushed herself up onto much shorter legs in case she needed to run away.

The woman made a show of running her eyes up and down Koharu's frame. "You know, you might have won, if you had been serious about it," she suggested.

Koharu stood up a little straighter. "I was serious," she defended with narrow eyes.

The woman scoffed. "Kid, you could have easily beaten him. Come on, you stopped to wiggle your fingers at him!" She shook her head in apparent disbelief. "If I didn't know any better, I would almost say you wanted him to beat you."

"That's not true!" snapped Koharu. "I wanted to win!"

"Then why didn't you?" she replied sharply.

"I—" under the woman's intense stare, Koharu wilted. She felt strangely compelled to respond to the woman. "I guess I had a bad day?"

"'Bad days' like that get people killed, baby hero," the woman said firmly.

Koharu flinched.

"The way I see it— " she continued. A strong hand clasped onto her shoulder, and another lifted Koharu's chin to look into the woman's fiery eyes. She was close enough now to see six long, silver earrings, and a thin cigarette tucked behind her left ear. "You never should have let that foolish man teach you a thing," she scolded, her voice rolling over Koharu like honey. She smelled like rose petals and sunshine.

Koharu was enraptured.

She met the woman's stare with wide eyes, her jaw held from dropping by the firm hand on her chin. The woman smiled at what she saw in Koharu's expression, the curve of her painted red lips melting the harsh lines of her face. Koharu suddenly thought she had never seen someone so beautiful in her life.

"You don't need to cry anymore, darling," the woman said, her voice unnaturally soothing. "I'm here now." The hand on Koharu's chin moved to finger a clump of Koharu's hair, critical eyes examining the split ends revealed between her fingers. Koharu hadn't realized that her hair had been burnt by Bakugou's explosion. The woman clicked her tongue distastefully and dropped Koharu's damaged hair from her grasp.

"Our first lesson will be proper hair-care," she declared with a firm nod as she leaned backwards out of Koharu's space. Koharu felt her senses slowly start to pull back into place as the woman continued, "You coloured your hair yourself? I can tell. It looks terrible."

Koharu tugged at the ends of her hair, pulling it in front of her face to examine the burnt ends. "...I thought it looked cool."

"Maybe it used to," the woman acknowledged. "But the boss won't like it. No, the hair simply must go."

"Boss?" Koharu's face was rapidly turning red, the temptation to cover her hair with her arms overwhelming. "Who are you?"

"Haven't I introduced myself?" the woman said, touching her fingertips to her smiling lips. "This isn't the first time we've met, you know."

"I would remember someone like you," Koharu disagreed with a shake of her head.

"You would think," came the pouted reply. "But you weren't charmed by me at all back then, so I suppose I understand. Children are really such fickle creatures. You're lucky I'm so nice, because I'm still going to train you, anyway."

"Train me? What are you—"

"Sango," called a loud, feminine voice. Koharu was only able to briefly glance towards another woman approaching the pair before the strange pink-haired woman grabbed her chin again, forcing Koharu's attention to remain on her.

"We'll have our first lesson soon, little one," the woman promised, a smirk on her face and her eyes locked on Koharu as the teen squirmed in her grasp. "I can tell your brother's been a bad influence on you, but I'll be your new favourite soon enough."

"Sango," the voice repeated. "I believe I've told you to stop sexually harassing people on the street."

With a sighed 'yes, sensei', the woman released Koharu's chin and took a large step out of her space. Koharu didn't hide her sigh of relief, feeling as though her head had been lifted from a fog. The pink-haired woman was smirking as she said, "I was just saying hello, introducing myself. No one is being harassed! Right, little sister?"

Koharu scowled. "Actually, I feel very harassed."

The woman laughed heartily. "Well, that's your prerogative. Say, sensei—" she turned her eyes to the new woman, and Koharu followed her gaze, finally feasting her eyes on the newest addition to the strange conversation.

The woman stood before them with one of her hands on her hip, only half a foot taller than Koharu and yet radiating the confidence of a giant. Her blonde hair was cropped close to her face and her bright blue eyes were defined by years of wisdom. What really drew her focus, however, was the large baseball-bat slung over the woman's shoulder with ease.

Koharu's jaw dropped. "Y-you're Double-Punch!"

Double-Punch, who was currently ranked the Number 6th Pro-Hero in all of Japan and who had been active for longer than Koharu had even been alive. Double-Punch, whose face most definitely resided on a pair of well-worn pajamas in Koharu's closet next to her old All Might dolls. Double-Punch was looking right at her.

Koharu felt faint.

"Holy shit. Holy shit! Oh, wow! Your biceps are even more spectacular in person, y'know…" Koharu jabbered with hearts in her eyes. "Can I have your autograph?"

Double-Punch laughed, and Koharu went directly to heaven. "What would you need an autograph for?" she asked, stunning the teenage girl.

Double-Punch just talked to her!

"Well— it's just—" Koharu stammered, fumbling her hands against her body as though she would magically find a pen and paper in her gym pants. "I really look up to you, and Midor— uh, my friend is going to be so upset that I'm meeting you without him— we have this, this uh, Bingo card thing—"

"Relax, little sister," the pink-haired woman drawled as she dropped her palm onto Koharu's head. "Let me introduce you, 'kay? Ol' Double-Punch here is my mentor and meal-ticket. Officially, she'll be the one training you."

"What?!" yelped Koharu, looking rapidly between the two women. She half-expected someone to pop out with a camera and a big sign reading 'you just got pranked!'.

However, Double-Punch's blue eyes only narrowed in on Koharu. Her expression remained perfectly neutral as she openly scanned her from head to toe, lingering on Koharu's dishevelled hair and the bandages loosening over her chest and arms. Koharu's jacket had been destroyed after her match, leaving her thickly bandaged arms exposed for open examination.

What did Double-Punch see what she looked at her? Whatever it was, it was certainly not the first impression Koharu wanted to be making.

"My name is Koharu Aizawa," she blurted out, "I'm a first year in the Hero Course at U.A.—"

"I know who you are," Double-Punch interrupted with a raised hand. She dropped the top of her bat against the sidewalk and the metal clanked loudly against ground. "And I want you to know, Koharu Aizawa, that I don't have any interest in training losers."

"...what?" Koharu said, her stomach dropping painfully to her feet, hoping that she had heard wrong and that one of her idols hadn't just called her a loser directly to her face.

Like rubbing dirt in a wound, Double-Punch made sure to look straight into Koharu's eyes as she slowly repeated, "I don't. Train. Losers."

It was worse than a sucker-punch. She might as well have swung her bat straight into Koharu chest, because it was aching for reasons entirely unrelated to her injuries.

"You don't have to be so hard on her, sensei." The pink-haired woman clicked her tongue and pulled the cigarette from behind her ears. "You know I'm never wrong about these things."

Koharu took a wide step backwards, away from the strange women and the terrible feelings they raised in her chest. "I never— I never even asked for you to train me! Either of you! I— I already have a teacher, and—"

A humourless laugh cut her off. "Right." The woman with pink hair was smiling at her with condescension in her eyes. "Look how well learning from that guy turned out for you, little sister. You lost, didn't you?"

Stop it! Leave me alone!

"I—"

Koharu felt like she was back in the stadium, burning flesh in her nose and the ringing in her ears renewed. Every breath felt like a marathon, air pulling into her lungs in quick, short bursts.

"I'm not a loser," she spoke through water, the words sounding garbled to her ears. "I—I'm not, I just… I—"

I can't breathe—

Long fingers caressed the side of her cheek, and Koharu looked up to meet stunningly pink eyes once more. The scent of tobacco and rose petals wafted around their heads, bringing with it an unnatural sense of serenity.

"I know, darling, I know," the woman purred. Her unlit cigarette hung limply from between her plush red lips, and Koharu watched them move with unrestrained fascination. "We won't let that bad man bother you again. Us girls have to stick together, don't we?"

"That's sexual harassment, Sango," someone huffed from beside them, but Koharu was too busy swimming in a sea of pink and red to care. "Just take her back to the school already and make sure she actually goes in, won't you? And I want that hair fixed before I see her again."

"With pleasure, sensei," responded Sango with a devious smirk.

"I don't know what's happening," Koharu whispered, her eyes distant and her voice faraway.

"So much, little one," Sango sighed. "But don't you worry your pretty little head about it, okay? We'll take care of you now."

That's not right—

Through a heavy tongue, Koharu mumbled, "I... can take care of myself..."

There was a hearty laugh from beside them. "You heard her, Sango. Let her go. "

Sango stepped away from her, and Koharu's senses returned to her like a splash of cold water. Her edging panic attack was nowhere to be found, the only feeling left in her chest an amalgamation of confusion and tremulous hope. She ran Double-Punch's words back again in her head, struggling to find sense in them through her still foggy brain.

Koharu managed to tear her eyes away from Sango as the woman lit up her cigarette, and she turned her eyes instead towards the hero. Her words felt heavier than normal as she tried to juggle them into something sensical. "You're... going to see me again? Why? I thought…" she hesitated a moment before continuing, "I thought you said that you didn't train losers."

The blond woman snatched the cigarette from between Sango's lips, the filter now stained red. She looked at the small stick in her hands with clear distaste as smoke rose from its tip. Without looking at Koharu or the quietly whining Sango, she said, "I don't. So I hope you're ready, Aizawa—" With a flick of her wrist, Double-Punch dropped the cigarette to the ground. Effortlessly she raised her bat just inches off the ground before dropping it onto the burning cigarette; thick cracks spider-webbed through the concrete below on impact, stopping just before Koharu's beaten sneakers.

Koharu gaped at the blatant property damage, and slowly raised her eyes to meet Double-Punch's. Her blue eyes were shining with promise.

"—because my girls don't lose."

end of act one

"I can feel the flames on my skin
Crimson red paint on my lips
If a man talks shit, then I owe him nothing
I don't regret it one bit, 'cause he had it coming."

I Did Something Bad — Taylor Swift

...

February 26, 2020 - February 15, 2021 | 65k | 111 Reviews | 158 Favs | 203 Follows

This story is not over! We'll be moving onto Act II under this same title. There will be lots of fun growth for our favourite baby Aizawa coming up, and I'm excited to share it with you all. I'm also going to be changing the cover art for this story for the next arc! It's a piece I've done myself and I'm rather proud of how it came out, so you can look forward to that next week.

I know that everyone is desperate to see Bakugou's reaction, and we will definitely get there! But unfortunately we have to deal with Koharu's reaction first. I stupidly ran away from a lot of my problems as a kid, so Koharu gets to enjoy that same trait. In the meantime, I would love to hear your thoughts on Sango and Double-Punch :)

MayNura — It was a classic compromise, where no one gets what they want and everyone is unhappy! I promise Shinsou's contribution to the story is far from over. I hope you'll keep reading and enjoy! xo

Ema333 — Bakugou is next chapter, I swear! Thanks for your review!

eun — I'm so honoured that you liked my story enough to binge-read it! I'm a little sad too, but I'm not here to write about a perfect character, so even Koharu has to lose sometimes. And you're right, she'll definitely get much stronger for it! I'm hoping you'll enjoy the Bakugou x Koharu interactions coming up!

thumbdash05 — I looooove your predictions. We'll be exploring the new limits of Koharu's Quirk in this next act, which I think you'll enjoy!

M — I'm glad that I am keeping you on your toes! Further reactions are absolutely coming up, and I'm just as excited as you are about it. I'd also really like to thank you for being here from the beginning and taking the time to review every chapter. I always eagerly await your reviews, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy the story! xo

Fahdza — wb! I'm glad you're still reading. Bakugou's reaction will come in the next chapter! xo