Countdown to reality

Day 3. Dusk. Countdown: 19: 10: 27

Funnily, Chisaki looked annoyed with Kirishima. Funnily was the word, the exact word. He looked about to kill someone, anyone, but Kirishima. It was amazing to witness that much ire and frustration on the villain's face, to know he was the reason for it and not fear the consequences at all.

"Drink," the man ordered.

Kirishima looked at the glass warily. Last time he drank something from Chisaki's hands, the result had been not great.

"It's just water."

"Ah. 'kay, then."

Even if he felt a bit better than before, his entire bedroom was still flashing and he felt no strength to oppose the villain. He drank it all, and put the glass back in Chisaki's gloved hands.

Wonderful. He was acting super natural towards him. Thank you, sweet-Eri's-blood-pill.

Thinking about the pills he had ingested again turned his stomach upside down instantly. Without time to warn anyone, he grabbed back the glass and heaved into it.

"When you heal people, uncle Kai, they are supposed to look better." Eri pointed out.

Kirishima eyed the reaction of uncle-Kai. Pissed-uncle-kai looked like he was making a tremendous effort not to get angry.

"Kid, your Quirk, is it only a hardening Quirk?" He asked instead.

Kirishima looked at his hands, still tight around the glass.

"They won't harden, right now."

"That not what I asked. Do you do anything else, anything else than hardening?"

"No."

"Nothing? Really? Nothing like a mental Quirk or something…?"

"No. I am not Todoroki. I just have one Quirk."

Kirishima did not take in the way Chisaki's eyebrows shot up, and he went on.

"I can get a lot harder than before, but that's all. Having multiple Quirks seems like real trouble. Todoroki looks like he worked too hard and laughed too little."

"Todoroki?" Chisaki prudently probed. "The kid who escaped? How do you know him?"

Kirishima nodded, and then stopped. He had a strong feeling he should not talk about his comrades to Chisaki, but it was hard to focus with the furniture constantly flashing.

"Can't… can't Eri-chan stop playing with the lights?" He pleaded. "It's not helping with my head."

Except that nobody was playing with any lights and that Chisaki looked even more annoyed.

"What…why is this happening to me?" Kirishima asked to no one in particular.

Chisaki did answer, though.

"My pills erase quirks. It worked, and your skin currently cannot harden. However, it seems there was something else to remove. For some reason, your brain is affected by a Quirk, and my best guess is that this Quirk is now unstable, thus playing tricks on your mind."

"Sounds unsafe." Kirishima uttered.

"It is. Your case is special, because that Quirk does not seem to be yours. But many quirks have tight links with major organs and they are still very risky to erase but—"

"…how come you are already selling that drug? Before, you did not start before September this year… It sounds really unsafe, I can't think of many Quirks not having links to some major organs…"

After a long pause, Chisaki loudly sighed.

"Do you remember anyone having a weird behavior around you? Something did happen with your head."

"Everyone has a weird behavior." Kirishima mumbled. "Only Midoriya and Bakugo – no, scratch that, Bakugo had had a weird behavior, or maybe that's just him being himself, I am not sure – so only Midoriya was normal. Or Yaoyorozu… and Kaminari."

"…and who are these people?" Chisaki eventually asked, his eyes squinting into two thin lines.

The room had the curtesy to flash more than before, and Kirishima rambled quickly, not completely taking in how interested Chisaki was.

"Bakugo is the first one. Always the first one. He makes explosions with his hands. Kaminari says he is even the first one to mess up, but that's not true. And Midoriya has weird bones breaking all the time, he likes to be called Deku, but he has taken Eri to a concert, and she enjoyed it very much. There was snow. I made it with Todoroki."

Eri giggled.

"Anyone else?" Chisaki insisted, his face getting closer to Kirishima's. "Someone with a Quirk capable of messing with your brain?"

"No… but maybe it is written on the paper. The recipe."

"What's that now?" Chisaki grumped while Eri giggled more.

"My homeroom teacher. He was in the classroom, in my dream, and he gave us exam sheets or something, we had to read it carefully and then something happened and the old lady…"

Kirishima stopped talking. A violent flash made Chisaki and Eri flicker.

"The old lady." He repeated slowly. "I thought she was recovery Girl but... She is another person. By the way, could you please stop flickering, you two look like bulbs, it is really not funny."

Eri looked at Chisaki.

"Don't try to heal him ever again." She stated.

Todoroki Shoto felt the atmosphere around him change before being fully conscious. There was less smoke. The air smelled like clean leather and brand-new plastic.

His thoughts were almost painful. He remembered a big flash, a loud noise, his eyes hurting, and someone screaming at him… but he needed to focus on the present.

He could feel something being pulled across his chest, trapping him onto a backrest. Among the numerous painful thoughts torturing his neurons, one emerged from the building up anxieties: that thing was a seatbelt. As seatbelts were inside cars, he probably also was inside a car.

Todoroki was starting to think he was concussed. All his head hurt, his thoughts were awfully slow and the loud voice next to him was not helping.

A car?

Todoroki let the question sink in, and suddenly, he remembered it all: the prison roof, the iceberg, the Pink-girl, the bullet… and then, their escape, the forest, the restless days, the hungry nights. The men tracking him, getting closer with every passing hour, and at the end, the two teenagers erupting from the forest. Two teenagers who were faster, stronger and more skilled than the other people after him were.

He was suddenly a lot more awake, adrenaline back like some strength serum. Whose car was it?! He kept his eyes closed, and tried to focus on the noises.

"Can't you fucking go even slower, Ponytail?!" Someone yelled only a few centimeters away from his ears. "There was a goddam helicopter hovering around, and the League used to have a guy with a fucking teleporting Quirk, we need to get our asses out of here, for God sake!"

"… but, the speed limit!" A girl voice shot back from the driver seat.

"Who gives a fuck about speed limits?! You don't even have a license!"

Todoroki recognized the blond boy's voice, but he could not remember hearing the girl before.

"We don't need driving licenses to drive, Kacchan." Another voice stated. "Our provisional licenses cover any— "

"Shut up! Do you fucking think it is the right time for a remedial course on Heroics Regulations, that I fucking don't need?!" He screamed. "And you, for fuck sake, stop faking sleep!"

Todoroki's entire body tensed, and he tried to open his eyes, but everything was too bright. He closed them with a grunt of pain.

"Todoroki-kun! T-take it easy!"

"And don't fucking think about anything funny, bastard!"

Think about something funny? Nothing was funny in his situation, not a chance he would crack a joke any time soon… Or maybe he was being too literal? Did the blond mean that he shouldn't try anything dangerous, instead of funny? Like… escaping that car, saving the pink girl and… He was not there yet.

Until his head had not stopped pounding hard, thinking about escaping was not an option.

His eyes hurt.

His head hurt.

His… long story short, everything hurt. Yet, he could not let his consciousness fade again. There were too many unknowns for that, so he forced his eyelids to cooperate.

The inside of that car was, though, an incredibly painful blur. The speed – was the driver really under speed limits? – was suddenly the source of nausea waves. He wished he could afford to pass out again, because being unconscious was not great, but at least, he could not feel anything.

He tried to take in as much information as one or two blinks could allow, and then, he let his eyes escape from the torture of light.

That car was a big car, a seven seats kind. He was seating at the very back, next to the screaming blond-haired teen. Just in front of them were the unconscious pink-girl and the other boy, the one who had said they were in the forest to help. That word alone could have forced an ironic smile on his lips if his current predicament was not that dramatic. No one ever helped without a reason. That had to be a lie, and a bad one, at that.

Then, in front of help-boy and pink-girl, he had spotted a black ponytail. The driver. It was just them five. No soldiers. No other people, just a bunch of teenagers…

"Todoroki-kun," called help-boy – Deku he remembered… but Deku couldn't be his name, could it? No parents in their right minds would call their child, even their quirked child, 'useless'. He was sure he had used a normal name to introduce himself in the forest. Was it a nickname, a twisted one? A codename? Questions were not helping with his headache, by the way –. "Todoroki-kun, really, take-it easy. I know how it feels. Your head his going to hurt for a short while, but you are going to be okay, I promise."

"My Flash Grenade is not hurting for a short while, shitty nerd!"

"Kacchan—"

"Can't you two stop yelling?" The girl at the front pleaded. "I'm driving Bakugo-kun, and as you said, I don't have a license! I have a fake one, and I do not want to explain my bad driving to the police! Besides, your papers are also fake, and Todoroki-kun and Ashido-san are really recognizable!"

"Don't order me around! And drive!"

Todoroki cracked an eye open.

The previously un-asked question still hanged in his mind: whose car was it?

Obviously, it was not a police car or an army vehicle. The girl could have no Quirk, but the two boys did. They all were very young, too young to be from some official special unit, and yet, both the boys were highly capable of fighting. In conclusion, they had followed some training.

Todoroki knew how to spot it. He had been trained as well before… but thinking about that, about that time, about his family,was more painful that just light lashing at his brain cells, so he came back to the present even before getting a glimpse of the past.

"How can we be sure that no one has spotted our car?" Deku asked. "We haven't seen anyone but—"

"We can't." The ponytailed girl interrupted. "But I've taken roads with tunnels, I've changed the plate for a fake one, and the glass is no see through…"

"Wow, that is great anticipation, Yaoyorozu-san!"

Driving skills. Fighting abilities. Anticipation, planning, teamwork, powerful – dangerous – quirks… Quirks which needed secure and secret training places to train with… they were well trained indeed.

That sort of training was not free, and freedom with such abilities even less. Who was behind all this? Were they taking him and the acid-quirked girl to that person?

Some very powerful people – billionaires, politicians, CEOs, criminals – gathered Quirked people to serve their purposes. His father had warned him and his siblings against such people. They were dangerous.

He guessed it was still better than being back to prison – or being dead, obviously – because so far he was only concussed. Compared to what awaited him if had been dragged back inside a cell, it was a light injury, no pun intended.

He moved slightly his hands and his feet. No shackles. Nothing. So… if he recovered from the pounding in his brain, he was free to try and escape these teenagers' 'employer'… well that was a poor choice of words. Someone asking for any kind of payment in exchange for the right to live could never be called with such a normal word.

Better than prison, still.

He had to believe it.

Better than prison.

"And… what about the League?" Their driver asked. "D-do… do they remember?"

"No. We did not exactly discussed, they attacked immediately when they saw we were carrying Todoroki-kun and Ashido-san, but they really did not look like they did. And also… how to put it… they looked different. Right, Kacchan?"

"Yeah, no fuck. Dabi bugged me, with all his scars in the wrong places… and they were weaker. We do are stronger than last summer… but I guess everyone is weaker here, with no possibility to train and no heroes to challenge. Icy-Hot is fucking weak too."

"He still burned your shoulder, Kacchan."

"He just grazed my clothes, shut up!"

Icy-hot? Since when was he on nicknames terms with Kacchan – well, Kacchan was not his name either. He had heard another name, but not bothered to remember it, though – Todoroki tried to open his eyes again.

Not great yet, but it hurt a bit less.

The blond-haired boy next to him looked profoundly tired. He had ashes in his hair, on his clothes, on his face, everywhere, a burned shoulder and large bags under his eyes.

"What are you looking at, bastard?!"

So many questions.

So little possibility to ask them.

He looked away.

"Kacchan!"

"Bakugo-kun, stop yelling!"

"Kacchan, Todoroki has to trust us, stop—"

"No, you shut up!" The hysteric blond answered strongly enough to make the other boy wince. "He is not the one we know! He set fire to a forest with villages nearby! He put civilians in harm way! We don't know how it happened, but Mina has burns and she is unconscious! He attacked us. So stop pretending he is your shitty friend, because he is not!"

That brought utter silence.

"What we know about him is only what we saw on the fuckingnews, and they are not always perfectly accurate! We have no idea if he is on our side, and we started by knocking him out and take him away when he did not want to! Our rescue is called abducting, from his point of view! So, he is not your friend and we definitely are not his."

He forgot to mention that he attacked first, not Todoroki… but it made some sense.

"Kacchan, he has to trust us…"

"How are you exactly going to do that?!" He half-laughed. "By saying: 'We saw you on TV, you look like a guy who could be on our side, so become our friend even if we fought you, hit you and kidnapped you!?' Fuck you, Deku. Let me tell you something I know from abducting experience: IT. DOES. NOT. WORK."

Deku was looking at his friend – were they really friends, though? – With a clear discomfort. He dropped his chin a little, his hairline hiding his eyes from view.

"What are you saying, Kacchan?" He asked very quietly. "T-this i-is n-not a kidnapping, it is a rescue. He is our friend, a-and this is not about you."

The blond-haired teen stayed silent. Then his eyelids moved unnaturally fast, and he raised a hand to his face. Instantly, his breathing was faster, sweat rolled from his forehead, and he curved a little on himself. Deku looked back from under his hair.

"Kacchan?"

"SHUT UP!"

"What's happening?" The girl asked, but Deku looked too preoccupied to provide an answer.

"Kacchan, are you all – I mean, it happened again, in the forest, I saw it. Have you seen… are you seeing some people again?"

Todoroki was not sure what that question meant at all. The blond-haired one did not answer, he just grunted, and his eyelids continued batting faster than they should.

"Shut up! In that fucking forest." He spat, grabbing the seat to anchor himself to something solid. "When Dabi tried to reach for Icy Hot, it was weird."

"Weird how?"

"I don't fucking know, fuck! It felt like a déjà vu, but stronger. A lot stronger. That fucking fuck forest, I swear, I am never setting a foot inside it again!"

Deku looked overly worried, and so did their driver. The blonde-haired teen did not seem to notice. His sight was still unfocussed.

"…this fucking place… It was like before, but it was not me the League was after, and it was not the League who won in the end…"

Todoroki was lost.

"Fuck. I am thinking about what Aizawa told me…"

"What?! You've met with Aizawa-sensei?!" The girl shrieked. "When, where?! How come you haven't told anyone?! Bakugo-kun, can't we work as a team?! Is it too much to ask?!"

"SHUT UP!"

"Please calm down," Deku said. "He has not met him, well… not really."

The blond's head shot up, eyelids suddenly a lot stiller, and pupils a lot angrier. "I FUCKING DID, DEKU! I FUCKING DID AND HE SAID "DON'T SAVE" SOMETHING. I AM NOT FUCKING CRAZY!"

"I never said you were, Kacchan! I just meant that the street was empty!"

"It was not!"

"It was, and I am sorry, but you look sick! Stop pretending everything is fine!"

The blond's right hand convulsed with rage. The left grabbed Deku's tee-shirt and yanked him up. A few loud sparks popped on both. Deku did not move. He looked in his friend eyes, as if to say: I dare you to hit me.

"FUCK!" He screamed, letting go and popping more sparks.

That was a really dangerous Quirk. More than Todoroki's. More than his siblings'. More than his parents'.

"Why are you not in prison?" Todoroki asked out loud when the question crossed his mind.

All things considered, it was probably not the best way to engage conversation. Especially considering 'Kacchan' was on the verge of hitting – exploding – his friend's face a mare seconds before.

"I mean, you Quirk." Todoroki rasped, prying he was not about to take another light explosion in the retina on a misunderstanding.

"Shut the fuck off, fuck-face! My Quirk is just fine, so keep your dammed shitty questions to yourself!"

"Kacchan!"

"Can't you two quiet a little?!" The girl yelled in turn. "I need to focus, we are entering in Tokyo, the traffic is getting worse! Be quiet!"

Tokyo? Like Tokyo… Tokyo? Their hideout was in the capital?!

Todoroki looked outside the car. Oh. That was Tokyo but… he could not be back in Tokyo! That was cutting short all his hopes of ever escaping them! If their place had been in the countryside, or in a small-scaled town, once he would have been better, he could have busted out of it… but a city like Tokyo was a trap like no other: He would not be able to set a foot outside without being recognized. He would not be able to go anywhere, not without an ID. He would not escape.

He felt his throat tighten.

He closed his eyes.

He wanted home.

"Kacchan's parents pretended he died. In a car crash. That's why he has never been caught." Deku explained, answering to his initial question. "Well… at least that the reason, from here."

Funny how uninterested he was now. He was in another sort of prison, one with no real walls: a city. He leaned a bit more into the backrest, hoping no passerby had the ability to see threw cars.

"Where are you taking me?" He still managed to say, despite his throat being so tight.

Deku looked heartbroken, and it was not an exaggeration. His big, young, round eyes stared at him with an intensity making Todoroki shiver. For a stranger, he seemed to care too much. It was creepy as fuck.

And speaking about insults, Bakugo – That was his actual name, he remembered – looked truly had been abducted as well before, somehow. He had been in Todoroki's shoes. Was it the reason why he was not good with teamwork? Was he now working for that 'employer' – the sensei they had mentioned, for example – against his will? That hypothesis did nothing to calm Todoroki's fears about his own future.

The girl, looking at him through the glass, eventually answered his question.

"Todoroki-kun, you don't have to be afraid." She explained. "We are taking you to my house. We will first take care of everyone's wounds. We will drink, eat something, wash, and rest. Then… we will have to tell you the truth, I think, and you have really nothing to fear of it."

She gave her teammates a short look.

"Stop me if you disagree, Midoriya-kun, Bakugo-kun, but he won't understand us if he doesn't know the truth, and it would be very hard for us to pretend all the time." As none of them looked like they disagree, she went on. "Y-you don't… well, you currently can't know why, but we c-care about you. V-very much. You don't have to be scared anymore, because we won't let anything happen to you."

"He is going to think we are crazy." Bakugo said. "He is never going to believe any of our shit."

Todoroki did not say anything.

Honestly, he was already thinking they were crazy, and they were the dangerous kind of crazy.

Something was weighing on Kirishima's left arm, and he could not feel his fingertips. He opened his eyes and turned his head only to face a blur of blue hair.

"Eri-chan?" He asked, finding the girl's head resting on his forearm as if it was a pillow, reading a large, colorful book.

"You are awake." She noticed, rolling on her side and putting the book on the mattress. "Can I stay here?"

Kirishima looked around the less-blurry, less flashing room. The door was open and Eri's bodyguard was half-asleep standing outside. Chisaki was apparently not around.

"I can't feel my hand." He winced.

Eri lifted her head, sat upright and squeezed an extra pillow in her arms. Blood circulating again in his limb, Kirishima also sat up, resting his back on the wall behind him. That little effort made the room dance a little, but soon, it cleared up.

"You used your Quirk on me, did you?".

Eri looked at her pillow. "Yeah. Uncle Kai tried his Quirk first, like he did at your home, but it was not enough." She quietly kind-of-apologized.

Well, he was still in one and only piece, his thoughts were more or less clear, and he was not dead, so it was, overall, quite a good result. A better one that what she would have probably achieved in their original world, at least.

"I-I have a rewinding Quirk," She guiltily explained. "I can bring people back to the way they were before. The problem is I need to be very prudent with what I think as 'before', or I could…"

He put his hand on her head, and patted her untamed greyish-blueish hair.

"I'm fine. You nailed it, like a true man."

Eri's eyes got a little rounder, and a smile bloomed on her lips.

"I am a girl."

"Like a true girl, then."

"You are still saying really funny things. Maybe I should get Uncle Kai…"

Kirishima patted her head again.

"No need. That's just how I speak… hum… by the way, Eri-chan…. What are you still doing here?" he asked.

She shrugged.

"I was bored."

"… and huh… how are your… bicycle wounds going? Any b-better?"

She looked at her unchanged bandages. She shrugged again.

"Can't you rewind it too? Your own wounds?"

"Uncle Kai do it for me."

As she squeezed the pillow harder, Kirishima saw for the very first time a shadow on her face at the mention of nice-uncle-Kai.

"Eri-chan. These, they don't look like bicycle wounds at all." He very prudently said, keeping his voice quiet and eyeing the guard. "What—"

"I can't tell!" She half-shouted, her hands digging into the pillow and her hair falling in her face.

Kirishima stopped patting her head. He stayed silent for a while, and then, he found the strength to smile.

"Okay. You don't need to." He reassured her. "But… Eri-chan. If someone, anyone is hurting you, it is not normal, and if you want to talk about it later, you can."

Eri stayed very still, her face unreadable. Kirishima decided to change topics. She did not trust him enough for that discussion. He was still a stranger. Got it.

"Eri-chan, do you have any friends, here?"

"I have a teacher." She said. "and him." She added, pointing at the man standing guard. "They are my friends. But they are adults."

"He doesn't look a lot like a friend…"

Eri got a little closer to him, eyes shining with what he could only translate as a question.

"Do you have friends? You spoke about a looooot of people earlier. Uncle-Kai can't tell if it is non-sense or real."

Kirishima was worried about very-curious-uncle-Kai and what Eri could tell him if he were to disclose some pieces of the truth to her. Yet, his first objective in coming to Shie Hassaikai headquarters was to save her and to do that, he needed her trust.

He checked again on the guard, and barely moved his lips when the next words escaped his hesitating mouth.

"I had… err… I don't know what happened, Eri-chan, I really, really, really don't remember my life from here. But… let me show you something."

He leaned over the edge of the bed and grabbed his backpack. In the middle of the clothes he had randomly gathered, he found the picture of the Quirk school.

"I found this in my room, and I don't remember when it was taken, or even ever going to that place." He told her. "But I do recognize some people. That girl, here, and this boy. I remember them… from a very long, very real dream."

Eri took the picture, and then, looked up.

"A dream?" She dubiously questioned.

"I… err, man, this is so difficult. I remember things. They never ever happened here. They… it's a dream, okay? Can we tell it's a dream, it would be so much easier." He half-pleaded, his voice getting a little high-pitch. "And… err… Eri-chan… can you keep this dream-thing-whatever to yourself… I… err… I'm already amnesiac; I don't want people to add the label 'crazy' onto my forehead as well."

She looked puzzled, but her chin made a small approval movement.

"Right. Thank you." He breathed. "So… erm, in that dream, I went to an amazing high school with these people, my friends, a Hero school."

"Hero?"

"Hum, a hero school. It's a place where you learn to help people, save them, fight villains and stuff. All students are amazing people, amazing heroes, with amazing quirks." He proudly summarized, the corner of his lips turning up.

"Like what quirks?" Eri asked.

"Hum… so the guy on that picture has engines in his legs, that girl here, Jirou, you see her ears? That's her Quirk. Among my other friends, one could also use electricity. One had cellophane spurring from his elbows…"

Eri giggled. "How does that even work?"

"Like that." He mimicked Sero while making all sort of "SSchh! PSSSch!" Sounds to add to his performance.

"I'm sure nobody has a Quirk like that! Your dreams are really strange."

"Well…"

"And what about the boy from the news?" Eri asked, putting the cushion aside.

"Todoroki? Ha. Yeah. I rambled earlier didn't I? It's not so clear in my head. But yeah, Todoroki. He was not really close to me or anything, but his Quirk was reallyyyy super cool, and he had his heart in the right spot. When we had to break the rules to help a comrade, he always would do it. Like a true…"

"Man." Eri, completed.

"You got it. Todoroki is a wonderful person, a good friend, and a skilled hero."

She looked like she was enjoying the "dream" story, and her eyes were shimmering with delight. Kirishima wondered if it was the first time anyone was telling her how great Quirks were, but she very soon questioned him again.

"What about the one who you said took me to a concert?"

"Ha… Midoriya, I guess." Kirishima said. "He is a great, great, super great hero. Without him…" He looked at Eri, thought about Bakugo, and smiled. "Without him, my dream would probably have turned to some sort of nightmare I guess."

"Was I a great hero too?"

"Of course you are!"

Eri's face glowed with joy, and she jumped on her feet. Her horn even shortly sparkled.

"In your dream, do you think I will save the world too?"

"Too?" Kirishima repeated, and Eri, transported by her enthusiasm, smiled broadly.

"I am going to save the world!" She said. "I am the only one who can do it. I am the only one who can heal everyone."

"Heal everyone? Who's sick?"

She giggled. "Everyone!"

"I don't underst –"

"Everyone is sick with Quirks, and I'm going to save them all, heal them all, cure the world! I'll be the world first hero!"

What…?

His mouth shut close with a snap.

Her words sank in. That was what Chisaki told her? Was that why she was not looking scared? He was telling her she could be a hero? That was twisting the truth!

What a fucking, shitty, bastard!

Nice-clever-manipulating-bastard-uncle-Kai.

"Quirks are dangerous," she went on, looking at her own hands. "They kill people. They break friendships. They make orphans. And… a true hero don't let these things happen. So I am not going to sit still and watch when I can erase it all."

"Eri-chan." Kirishima coldly said. "The erasing pill is the thing which hurt me."

Eri smile dropped.

Instantly, as if he had hit a sore spot.

Kirishima flung his legs over the edge of the bed, and crouched to her height. He put his hands on her tiny shoulders, slowly, not startling her, feeling guilty. He wanted to turn back in time and un-say what he just told her.

But he could not.

It just…

She had to hear the truth.

"Eri-chan, I mean, no hero can save the whole world. That is super big. Even All Might did not." He softly said. "Being a true hero… it is… how to put it… it is so complex and so simple… in my view it is stepping in when you are very, very scared. It is saying no when everyone else say yes. It is being loud for the people who are forced to silence. It is being in the right place, at the right time, and smile to the person who can't on her own."

She was looking into his eyes.

He breathed slowly.

"What a hero is not, is someone who thinks he can carry everything on his shoulders alone. It is someone who thinks he is doing good without asking if that's what others truly want. It is smiling to cover for something wrong. It is… someone who doesn't doubt what he does as a hero is okay."

He saw her lower lip quiver.

He hated it, but he felt someone had to tell her that she was misguided, even if the lesson was a hard one.

"I-I want to s-save the w-world." She said with great difficulty.

"You don't need to."

"I-I do!" She insisted. "I want to go to a concert! I want to have the authorization to go to the restaurant! I want to go on the train! I want Uncle Kai to stop begging big guys for money! I want people to stop being all angry, all sad, all… I don't want the world the way it is!"

"So… what you truly want, is not saving the world from bad Quirks. What you want, it is for the world to have a chance of changing, of accepting you as normal part of it."

Eri stopped moving, as if Kirishima had said something reaching her like an arrow. Then a tear ran on her cheek, and before he knew it, she was hugging him, crying. He closed his arms on her frail body, and he gently patted her back.

"I-I-I want to be a hero too…" she hiccupped.

"It's ok. You can become one. Just… not like this."

Kirishima could feel the tears on his tee-shirt, and he felt bad about it… but letting Eri believe making the pills for Chisaki was saving people… he couldn't let that happening. Not without giving her at least a chance to think it through.

"Our Quirks, Eri-chan… they are a part of us. Maybe some people dream to part with it, and that's okay, they should get the opportunity to, but that's not everyone. I believe most people don't hate their quirks. I do not. Thanks to my quirk, I even met you! What people hate, what they want to get rid of, it is ugly behaviors. This is what I believe we should try to erase. Not Quirks, and definitely not with dangerous pills…"

"But…"

"Don't worry. You'll figure it out." He added, patting her hair. "You seem like a strong girl."

She sniffed.

"…you do sound like you went to a hero school."

He smiled even more.

"…but how do you know that I… I am linked to the pills?"

Kirishima heart beat suddenly harder and he inwardly swore. Yet the next words came easily to him, his smile no wavering even a split second. "Heroes do their homework, Eri-chan, when they want to help others."

She giggled, and fortunately did not ask for a more concrete explanation.