Toyomitsu Taishiro—more commonly known as the BMI hero, Fatgum—tiredly leant back against his crisp pillows as he watched over the children gathered in the hospital room. The furtherest bed from his held his first year apprentice, a mummified Kirishima Eijiro snoring through his bandages. Thankfully the red head had only obtained lacerations and bruises from his courageous fight where he played the almighty role of shield to his spear. Taishiro knew he'd likely ache alter, but he'd live.

In the bed between them lay Amajiki Tamaki, his other apprentice, equally as trundled up in bandages as his junior and just as tired. The only major injury that the third year had sustained was a cracked bone in his face, which explained the ridiculous-looking bandage that covered half of his face like a Phantom of the Opera mask. But other than that, the lacerations he had received were minor enough that nothing would scar.

And at his feet sat Snipe's invisible apprentice and Eijiro's classmate, Hagakure Toru, bearing no more than a mild concussion amongst her cuts and bruises. The heart monitor at her waist had worried him when she had first arrived, shyly pushing open the door with an armful of jelly cups and a handful of multicoloured sharpies in her arms as if they were a peace offering. But she had softly replied that as a transplantee, it was nothing more than routine; mostly just so the doctors could make sure she hadn't overworked her heart. Occasionally she would spare a glance towards the two boys and just watch them snore for a moment of two before returning to her doodles. It was as if she was checking that they were still breathing, a sweet gesture if nothing else. But she seemed fine, especially as she alternated between sucking on the UV wand she had been given and her current jelly cup as she drew random doodles on his cast-bound leg.

A lot had happened over the last few hours; they'd rescued the little girl, Eri, beaten the Hassaikai with minimal damages and all their kids had done so well! Taishiro was so proud! He couldn't help but puff up his chest with pride whenever he thought of how Tamaki had taken charge, throwing his self-consciousness aside for a moment and pushing himself beyond his limits to beat the villains that had threatened them. The blonde had to wonder though, if Setsuno's involvement in the kidnapping of Hagakure didn't have something to do with it. Perhaps, he wondered, he felt a sense of guilt for the junior. For not protecting her in her time of need. But she seems to handling it well—really well—all things considered. For all that Tamaki could be painfully shy and reserved, he could also be rather protective—a good trait for a hero, he'd argue—but to some it may have appeared a little primal. Not that that had him worried.

And then there was Eijiro who had bravely thrown himself in front of his teacher in an attempt to push him out of the way; (of course, Taishiro hadn't known that at the time, only when he had landed atop the boy as he gasped for air & banged against his stomach) before he was confronted by the spear and shield of the Hassaikai. At first, he'd worried that the villains were correct in thinking they were only to play the roles of shield & shield, but then the red head had stepped up to the plate and allowed the BMI hero to land that one critical punch that ended it all. A spear & shield indeed.

Taishiro had only heard bits and pieces about the other heroes, their fights and consequent injuries after he & his apprentices had split from the fight. Snipe had remained out in the entrance of the headquarters as he and the police dealt with the lower level thugs, before he had and all the able bodies had stayed behind to help clean up. Detective Kage, the no-nonsense woman whom had all but chewed up Rock Lock for his whinging, had gone into surgery for her broken leg or so Hagakure had said. In turn, Rock Lock who had been stabbed by Toga of the League, missed any vital organs and he himself had gotten away with only a few broken bones to speak of.

But there was something that remained niggling at the back of his mind, something that had stuck around since the conference, the first time around, but he just wasn't quite sure how to approach it without sounding careless. "Is that an octopus?" Taishiro guessed looking down at his leg where a yellow blob had sprouted tentacles and wore domino mask much like his own. Part of him wondered if it was a crude version of himself, but didn't say anything.

"Mmhm" Toru hummed with a small nod, but didn't say anything further.

"Has he got a name?"

"Uh uh"

"What about…Koro-sensei? You mentioned that name earlier didn't you?"

The pen in Hagakure's hand stilled for a moment and Taishiro worried that he'd pushed too far, too fast. There was clearly some sort of trauma still there, especially considering the villain's demise was barely under a year ago. If what the reports say were true, then this girl was one of 29 students that had killed him and that had to hold a bunch of trauma for the children. Trauma, mind you, that had gone unchecked fort he past seven months.

"…I did" Toru eventually acquiesced, her pen returning to her drawing, although her head was bowed a little lower than before as if she needed to hide, despite being invisible.

"Wasn't he the villain that blew up the moon?" Taishiro asked curiously, trying to keep his voice light and soft so as to scare her (He also didn't want to wake his proteges. He reckoned they'd all earned the right to their sleep). Sometimes, he felt like frightened children and animals had a lot in common.

"I don't know what you're talking about" She stubbornly refused as she furiously sucked on the plastic spoon in her mouth.

"He was your teacher, wasn't he? The villain with the octopus Quirk?"

"I—I mean, I don't know why you're calling him a villain"

"…Because he endangered so many lives by damaging the moon and then threatened to the same with the Earth…?" Taishiro tilted his head, brows furrowing in question.

"You don't know what you're talking about" Hagakure growled, sounding almost downright indignant about the whole thing. Taishiro had to wonder if this was the first time someone had fully broached this topic with her instead of dancing around it.

"Then help me understand—what do you mean?"

"…He—he wasn't a villain" She seemed to struggle in getting the words out. Taishiro assumed that after having kept quiet for so long about it, letting it go was lot harder than she had thought—hoped—it would be. But after teaching Tamaki for so long, he knew that if he waited patiently, then he'd eventually get the answer if they really wanted to talk. Some people just had a harder time with words, he'd come to learn.

"No?"

"A vigilante? Maybe. A pervert? Definitely. Weird obsession with pudding? Absolutely. But not a villain, never a villain" You could hear the fond smile in her voice as she continued. "Actually, we had this bed of tulips we'd planted with Yukimura-sensei, right? But he trod on them and Megu chewed him out for it. I've never seen someone replant tulips so quickly before, or apologise so much…well, except maybe for Deku but I'm pretty that's one of his default words"

That gave him pause (Not the Deku thing, that just made him smile when he thought of the greenette). Everything that he'd heard about the boisterous villain spoke of unwieldy destruction and unstoppable powers that were ended with an untimely death courtesy of 29 delinquents who had been aided by the military & the government. He spared a glanced towards his boys and wondered what he would've done if someone had propositioned his kids with something like that. Across the room, Eijiro snorted in his sleep as he rolled over. It made his lips twitch up into a small smile; it was as if the red head was laughing at whatever she had said.

"And those threats?" Taishiro turned back to the girl at his feet, watching as she added smiley faces and flowers in purple and pink.

"Just empty threats" Hagakure shrugged as if she were talking about the weather and not some overpowered villain threatening to destroy the Earth. "I mean, he could've gone though with them, sure. But Yanagisawa was threatening him with death and stuff. And all he wanted to do was fulfil his friend's dying wishes, y'know?" She spared a glance up at him as if gauging his reaction. "Wouldn't you have done the same?"

"…His friend wanted him to be a villain & endanger others?" He asked, not quite sure how to take the latter question and feeling a little uncomfortable with how it sat with him. Fatgum had gotten odd requests before, sure, but still this one was up there.

"No, she, um, she wanted him to be a teacher" Hagakure returned to her doodles, this time adding something in green and blue. "Everyone else just wanted him dead"

"You seem to be quite certain about this…"

"They were good teachers" Hagakure shrugged, subtly trying to wipe away her tears.

"…Were?"

"They both died…I miss them"

Taishiro sucked in a quiet breath at the watery confession. What had happened to the children who had committed this atrocity? Had they really been left to fend for themselves? He knew there had been a large cash prize, likely the reason none of them had blown the whistle, but if the report was true (as he was starting to suspect it wasn't) then the class had returned at least half of it after taking what they wanted. They had killed their teacher, but still had enough heart to not take the entirety of the money presented to them. Lesser men would've taken the money and run.

"…How'd that get started anyway?" Taishiro mused aloud. "The whole thing's been pretty hush-hush"

"Yeah, well, who wants to admit they commissioned a bunch of 15 years to be wannabe assassins to kill a target they failed to kill multiple times?" Hagakure scoffed in reply, switching from jelly to cup to UV wand. "Honestly it's a wonder the military didn't interfere sooner than they did"

There was a (juicy) story there, he knew, but it seemed unlikely she was going to share despite apparently being in a sharing mood. Instead, he decided to try a different angle now that it was clear the invisible girl wanted to get these things off of her chest. "How'd you beat him, then?"

"We didn't" She simply replied.

"I'm…sorry?"

"I mean, the man could move at 20 machs a secondand people wondered why they couldn't catch him? Seriously? I mean, if the military with their fighter planes and missiles couldn't catch him, what makes you think a bunch of 15 year olds could?"

"Uh…" He blinked dumbfoundedly at the reply. Clearly this had been bothering the girl for a while now. "So how…?"

"Sensei gave up, in the end. He laid down and let us hold him. He took the roll call one last time and—and Nagisa…" Her bandaged hand used the pen to mime stabbing someone. She couldn't say it, it seemed. "B-because of how his Quirk worked, we didn't even have a body to bury. But—but Koro-sensei was smiling at the end"

And that was that. Taishiro sank back against his pillows as he tried to digest all the information that had been thrown at him. He knew from experience (thank you Tamaki), that when the quiet children didn't want to talk anymore, there was nothing you could do to make them. You'd have better luck pulling blood from a stone. But as he sat back in thought, he could've sworn he'd heard her whisper one last time.

"I don't think I've ever cried so hard before"


Sometime later, their room had quickly become overcrowded with Hagakure migrating over to Eijiro's bed alongside a red-eyed and downtrodden Midoriya. Next to Tamaki, Mirio (who was unnaturally quiet) had tucked himself into his side leaving the taller boy a blushing mess and worried for his friend, as he had every right to be. The pair had come baring bad news: Sir Nighteye was dead. Apparently he had succumbed to his injuries some hours prior and the pair had joined his love ones in waiting out his last minutes with him. On the other hand, Eri had been placed into quarantine in an effort to abate both her fever and the effect of her Quirk. Currently, Hagakure appeared to be trying to distract Midoriya by getting the greenette to draw on Eijiro's casts with her.

"Hey Toru?" Midoriya sniffled.

"Yeah?" Hagakure hummed around the light wand clenched between her teeth.

"I—I'm sorry, about before"

"Huh? Before?"

"I hope I didn't kick you too hard"

"Oh! It's okay, don't worry about it!" She chirped, dismissing the apology with a wave of her pen. "It's not like its the first time I've been hit in the head. Probably won't be the last either"

"Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine! It's just a mild concussion"

"Concussion?!"

"Calm down, Deku, I'm fine, promise"

There was a beat of silence filled with Hagakure's pleasant humming as the kids returned to their thoughts and tried to distance themselves from their grief, though it was hard. The grief in the room was almost palpable, like you could scoop it up by the bucketfuls. The jelly cups had long since been depleted and the BMI hero had popped out to pillage the cafeteria in his search for more food, in an effort to lighten the mood somewhat. It seemed to have worked, for the most part, at least he thought so.

"Hey, Hagakure?" Tamaki murmured with his head lolled towards where the invisible girl who sat at the foot of Eijiro's bed with a packet of ume chips between them.

"Mm?" Hagakure hummed as she glanced up from her doodles. The only indication that she was looking that way being the steampunk goggles that Midoriya had returned to her and now sat proudly atop her forehead.

"You—you mentioned that—that Oishii was a part of the—the Yakuza, right?" He stammered out as Mirio curled in closer, intertwining their legs and hugging him close. The koala bear in the tree image made Taishiro smile, especially at the blush threatening to overpower his apprentice's face.

Across the room, Hagakure had completely frozen up, pen stilling and shoulders tense. Taishiro didn't know much about said boy, only what he had caught in between snippets about the nuances of school life. From what he'd heard the third year was an all round nice guy, if a little intense and laidback at times.

"…Y-yeah…?" Hagakure stuttered. Something in her tone made both Eijiro and Midoriya perk up as if they were standing to attention. Clearly something was wrong here, but what?

"Did—did you see him there?" Tamaki pursued. Normally Taishiro would applaud the boy for putting himself out there, but this seemed like a delicate subject with the reactions they were getting. He could almost hear Hagakure swallow audibly from across the room before she replied, the hand still frozen above Eijiro's leg now enveloped by the greenette.

"…L-let's just say, he had an, uh, extra mouth on him and er, leave—leave it at that"

"Huh?" Mirio puzzled, head popping up from Tamaki's side in his confusion.

"It, uh, it wasn't pretty" She swallowed a gag as her classmates shared a worried glance between them and curled in closer providing silent comfort for the quiet girl who seemed unshaken by most things.


Taishiro blearily blinked the fog of sleep from his eyes, letting out a jaw-cracking yawn as he stretched before sinking back into the folds of his bed. Through the fog of sleep, the sound of young voices whispering to each other caught his attention and he peered through a crack in the curtain which had been pulled across between his bed and the kids, giving them some semblance of privacy. It appeared that both Midoriya and Hagakure were the only two still awake as they sat nestled together on the end of Eijiro's bed like a pair of cats.

"…Y'know you're not alone, right Deku?" Hagakure murmured sleepily as she shifted down to lie with her head in Midoriya's lap, finally giving in the urge to sleep.

"Huh?" Blinked Midoriya as his fingers traced the bite marks on Hagakure's free hand. Taishiro felt like he was interrupting a very intimate moment and did his best not to make any noise that would alert them to his presence.

"I know you like to keep things bottled up, but you don't have to do that, y'know?" Her other hand curled around the blankets encircling Eijiro's feet as if she wanted to hold on to the both of them. "We're here, we can help, even if its only ice cream and hugs"

"…Thanks Toru" Midoriya sniffled. He paused for a moment as his own scarred hand traced hers as if he was memorising his failure. "Hey Toru?"

"Mm?"

"How—how do you get over something like this?"

"Something…like grief?" She guessed, rolling over to look up at the greenette as she looked more awake than she had before.

"Yeah"

From Tamaki's bed, he could hear the sound of rustling sheets as someone turned over. A quick glance towards the two third years showed that they were both wide awake and clearly eavesdropping just as he was, but trying to make it look like they were still asleep. Eijiro, it seemed, was the only one still truly asleep.

"You don't" Hagakure's reply was short and contrite as she stared unseeingly into space. As she continued, it sounded like she was talking less about Midoriya's grief and more about herself as she let the words just fall from her lips without a second thought. Taishiro had been right, whatever those 29 kids had experienced, it had certainly left its toll. "You wonder how and why. Why them? Why did they have to die? How could they go so soon? How could they leave you behind? And it hurts—it hurts so much. Hurts 'til you can't breathe, can't think, can't do anything. And—and you wonder how someone was s'posed to live like this—how are you s'posed to live like this?"

Midoriya looked to be having a hard time swallowing her words, as if he had been hoping more for sweet nonsensical words of encouragement and not the feel-good speech that Hagakure was giving. In turn, Mirio appeared just as despondent as he had been when he first arrived. Part of him appeared surprised that someone else knew—and could put into words—what he was feeling, and it pulled at Taishiro's heart strings. It was hard to hear, but it looked like the invisible girl needed it—they all did.

"But you keep going, keep pushing through 'til one day you can breathe a little easier" Hagakure continued. "Until you can look at their favourite colour without bursting into tears or sobbing over a dessert in a bakery window. You don't get over it, not if you really loved them, 'cause that's not how grief works—that's not how loves works. As Grandfather likes to say: It's always easier going first, 'cause you don't get to drown in the grief left behind"

"S-smart man" Midoriya sniffled, furiously wiping at his eyes even as his tears collected on his classmate's cheeks.

"Not really" Hagakure smiled, "He once tried to fight a pigeon for a donut"

Midoriya's wet laugh was deafened by Eijiro's snores as he tried to roll over, barely dislodging the pair sitting on his feet. Taishiro sank back against his own pillows with a small smile and felt like he could breathe a little easier after that impromptu therapy session. Good work, kiddos!