Tension filled the air as the five girls stared down the elite team sent to capture Fujino. It was clear whoever they are, they weren't going to take no for an answer. And on top of that, they seemed to plan to kill anyone else in the way, meaning the four girls from U.A currently standing with Fujino.

"Damnit, to think they'd send these guys." Fujino cursed. "This is bad."

"So, I'm still a little lost here." Jill said, tensing up at the danger they were in. "Why exactly are these guys after you?"

"It's a long story, and we really don't have time to get into it." Fujino said. "You should get going. I'll deal with them."

"Are you crazy? You can't take them by yourself." Nene said. "You're in no condition to fight."

"Just get going! If you stay, they're going to kill you!"

"Actually, we're going to kill them either way!" Knight said with a laugh as he sped towards them. "Try and make this at least somewhat interesting!"

The girls braced themselves as Knight came towards them. However, just as he made it halfway towards them, the space near him warped slightly. Knight widened his eyes, knowing what this meant.

"Knight, get back!" King shouted.

In that instant, an explosion occurred right where Knight had been standing. Jill and the others stood their ground as they endured the force of the shockwave.

"Was that your Quirk, Fujino?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah." Fujino told them. She hated using it due to her lack of control. But with the situation what it was, she didn't have much choice. She wasn't going back to Paradise, and she wasn't going to let innocent people get killed just because they had the misfortune of saying hello to her.

'There's no choice. I have to fight.'

Before Fujino could make another move however, Sakura grabbed her arm. "Come on, we need to move!"

"What?!"

"We can't inflict harm upon individuals with our Quirks without a license! That includes villains too!" Sakura told her. "We need to run and find a pro hero!"

"So we're just going to run like fish in a barrel?!" Fujino argued.

"There's no time to argue, let's go!" Nene yelled.

Deciding to trust the others, Fujino ran with them before the smoke from her explosion could clear. Meanwhile, Knight leaped back towards his teammates.

"What the hell happened to her not being able to control her Quirk?" he asked.

"You should have read the file on her more carefully, you idiot." King told him. "She can use her Quirk, but she has moments that it activates on its own."

"If you thought about something besides fighting for two seconds, you might have noticed that." the girl of the group added.

"Oh shut it, Queen." Knight said. He glanced at King. "Hey, Rook has us all sealed in here, right? Meaning they won't be able to escape?"

"He should." King confirmed. "Now let's get moving. Prioritize securing the target. If those girls with her get in the way, kill them."

The four of them quickly began to chase after the five escaping girls. They couldn't see them anymore, but given where they had been, the only place they could have gone was under the nearby bridge and towards the exit of the park. They hurried under the bridge, but as soon as they did they found their path blocked by a thick layer of tree branches and bushes that moved on their own. They turned to go back out the other side from under the bridge, but watched as it became blocked off in the same manner.

Past the bridge, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief that her trap had worked. "Phew. That should hold them for a little."

"Nice job, Sakura." Nene said. "Now let's hurry and run."

"Right." Sakura said as she followed her friends.

"Why the hell are you doing all this?" Fujino asked as they ran. "You just met me. You should ditch me and try to get away."

"That's not how we do things." Jill said. "See, we're training to become heroes."

"If someone's in trouble, it's only natural to try and help them." Nene explained.

"Yeah! And we're friends, aren't we?" Rekka added. "Friends should always help each other."

"Friends huh?" Fujino asked. She let out a small chuckle. "Man, you girls are such idiots. But thanks for the help."

Jill let out a giggle. "Once we get out of the park, we just need to- Oof!"

Jill was cut short as she slammed right into something. As she stumbled back slightly, the girls noticed a barely visible transparent wall of light in front of them.

"What the heck?" Nene said. She tapped against it, highlighting the barrier. It wasn't too large. Only about a meter wide and maybe twice as tall. But when she moved to the end of the wall's perimeter, she found yet another wall of light there as well.

"This must be one of their Quirks." Jill said. "But I bet they didn't think we'd go over their wall." Using her Quirk, Jill sprung upwards to try and jump over the row of walls. However, she only ended up slamming into another wall midair and fell back to the ground with a painful thud. "Never mind. They thought of that."

"How far do these walls run?" Rekka wondered.

"They couldn't have planned for us to escape this way ahead of time." Sakura said, glancing back to make sure the villains were still stuck in her trap. "And they can't see us clearly right now. Then does that mean there's another ally of theirs somewhere?"

True to Sakura's guess, another male teen sat on the roof of a building overlooking the park. He was rather bulky for his age and had dark tanned skin with spiky black hair. He sat with his legs crossed, staying so still that birds rested on his broad shoulders. He opened one of his closed eyes. "Seems they got to the barrier."

[Rook. Quirk: Energy Wall. He can create force fields of pure energy anywhere in his field of vision. While they are not very large, there is no limit to the number of walls he can create at a time. However, if he moves at all, every wall he currently has up will vanish.]

"If I had to guess, these walls cover an entire section of the park." Fujino said. "They trapped us in here."

"That certainly raises a problem." Jill said.

The sound of branches falling caused the girls to turn back to the bridge. They watched as Knight sliced through the foliage with his bladed arm. But things only got worse when the blade he had for an arm vanished, only to be replaced with two gun barrels, resembling a musket gun.

"That was a pretty neat trick! But it's nothing my Quirk can't deal with!" Knight grinned.

[Knight. Quirk: Armory Arm. He can transform both his arms into various weapons (swords, lances, guns, etc).]

"Crap, move!" Nene shouted.

The five girls each lunged to the side as they dodged the blast that came from Knight. But now they were split up, with Jill, Sakura, and Fujino on one side, and Nene and Rekka on the other.

"Split up for now! We'll meet up later!" Nene suggested. The others all nodded, running off before Knight could have another chance to shoot at them.

Knight frowned as he watched the girls run. "Aw man, that's no fun. Why can't they stand their ground and fight?"

"I actually prefer a hunt like this." King said, stepping out from the cut branches with Queen and Bishop. "But we still have our mission to focus on. Knight, go right. Queen, you take the left. Message me once you have a visual on them. Bishop, you're with me. We'll cut off their escape route with my Quirk."

Knight groaned. "Fine, just give me a bit of time to have some fun. You're Quirk affects all of us you know."

"In that case, you'd better hurry." King told him.


Jill, Sakura, and Fujino ran together, using an area of the park that had a fair amount of bushes and trees to hide. They were not allowed to fight, and yet there was no way to get help. They were completely trapped.

"So why are these guys after you?" Jill asked. "Just who the heck are you, Fujino?"

Fujino was silent for a moment. She really didn't want to talk about it, but these people were risking their lives to help her. They at least deserved to know why. "Long story short, I was being kept somewhere and being trained as a human weapon. These guys are trying to take me back before the outside world knows about its existence."

Jill and Sakura widened their eyes at this. "A human weapon?"

"Yeah." Fujino nodded. "I wasn't the only one being trained either. And based on the rumors I've heard, these guys are the best of the best out of those trained by the organization that was holding me captive. They go by the name Checkmate."

"Do you know what their Quirks are?"

"Unfortunately, I know about as much as you in regards to that. I never paid much attention to the rumors involving these guys, but none of them ever mentioned specifics about their Quirks."

"Right now, we should try to hide and stall for time." Sakura suggested. "Someone's bound to notice the barriers eventually. After that, they'll send the police and heroes to help."

"Now that I think about it…" Jill said as she looked around. "Even for late afternoon, there's nobody else here. You'd think we would have run into someone by now."

Sakura realized Jill was right. Suddenly, her eyes caught sight of something. A pair of legs sticking out from a nearby bush. She ran over to it and gasped. Two people were unconscious behind the bush.

Jill and Fujino came up to Sakura and were equally surprised by what they saw. "Are they…"

"It seems they're alive. I think they were just put into a sleep state somehow. Probably one of the Quirks from that group." Sakura said.

"At this time of day, there wouldn't be many people in the park." Jill noted. "They were probably able to get them out of the way without anyone noticing so they could focus on us without interference."

"Very perceptive."

Jill, Sakura, and Fujino all gasped as they turned around and saw Queen walking up to them. She smirked as the two large syringes moved about freely while connected to the lines on her back. No doubt they were a part of her body and were related to her Quirk.

"Just one of you? You guys are pretty cocky." Fujino said.

"Oh I'm more than enough for you. Soon you'll end up just like the bystanders I put to sleep." Queen said.

[Queen. Quirk: Injection. She has two syringes attached to her body that she can control at will. One of the syringes contains a drug that will inhibit a person's senses, or knock them out entirely if enough of the drug is injected. The other syringe contains the antidote. Regardless of being administered the antidote or not though, anyone infected by the first drug will recover within one hour.]

Queen put a hand to her ear to contact her teammates. "I've located three of them King, including the main target."

"Good work. Keep them occupied until Knight confirms the location of the others, and whatever happens do not let them out of your sights."

"Of course, King." Queen responded. She brought her attention back to her three opponents. "Now then, who wants to be first?"

Jill and Sakura tensed up. They weren't allowed to fight since they didn't have permission from a pro hero or teacher. The only thing they could do was try to ward off their opponent's attacks and stall for time.

Queen however, had no such issues with inflicting harm on her targets. She moved in, getting her syringes ready to pierce the girls. Even if the liquid in one of her syringes was a cure rather than an inhibitor, it didn't stop the fact that the syringe itself could inflict small puncture wounds.

Sakura quickly manipulated the trees around them and sent large branches flying in Queen's direction in an attempt to trap her. However, Queen skillfully avoided the attack and continued making her way towards Sakura.

"So it was your Quirk that trapped us under the bridge." Queen realized. "In that case, I'll take care of you first!"

Knowing offense wasn't working, Sakura quickly threw up a wall of roots from the ground to cut Queen off. She turned to Jill. "I'll keep her distracted. You hurry up and try to get a warning out."

"How?!" Jill asked.

"You need to create a signal." Sakura explained. "Jump as high as you can and try to shout out a call. It doesn't matter if a hero doesn't hear it, as long as somebody does and realizes we need help."

Jill nodded her head. "Leave it to me."

"Oh no you don't!" Queen said, coming from the side of the wall Sakura created. It was too late though as Jill's legs were already compressed to jump. She rocketed herself into the air to get a warning out. Queen knew that while Rook could create multiple barriers and stack them, doing it on this large of a scale made it far from perfect. There were bound to be cracks in it here and there, which would allow sound to escape from it. Trying to stop her, Queen moved the syringe she had with the drug at Jill. But as it came for the girl, a series of plants rose up. Knowing she'd be stuck if her syringe got caught in it, Queen quickly pulled it back.

'Damnit, I couldn't stop them!' Queen thought to herself. She quickly put her hand to her ear. "King, they're about to get a message out! Use your Quirk! Quickly!"

Jill rose high up into the air. High enough where she could see the entire park. People were still walking around, going about their day. It was now or never.

"HELP!" Jill shouted at the top of her lungs. "There's villains at the pa- Woah!"

In an instant, Jill felt a force push down on her. She flew back down to the ground at a speed far greater than what she was used to when falling from such a height.

Sakura and Fujino were both feeling a similar pressure on their bodies. It was the same as before when Checkmate had first approached them. Sakura gasped as she watched Jill fall. "Hang on!" Her body wasn't able to move much, but she could still move plants with her Quirk. She quickly created a cushion of leaves and flowers for Jill to fall onto. It succeeded in cushioning her fall for the most part, but it hadn't absorbed the force entirely.

Jill groaned, but she was thankful the damage to her had been minimal due to the quick work of her friend. "Thanks Sakura."

With Jill saved, Sakura now focussed her attention on trying to figure out what was going on. Between how heavy her body felt and the extra effort it took in moving the plants just now, she could only assume that this was the work of a Quirk that increased the effect of gravity around a certain area. Queen seemed to be struggling to stand just like them, so Sakura could only guess that the only person that wasn't affected was the Quirk user, which was likely the one they referred to as King.

Sakura's guess was spot on. From the fountain in the park, King stood with Bishop. However, while King stood like normal, Bishop had his body pressed down on the ground by the intense gravity.

"Good. Now they should be immobilized." King said.

[King. Quirk: Gravity Pressure. He can increase the effect of gravity around him, up to a certain area. The gravity affects everything and everyone except for him.]

"Hurry King…" Bishop said. "The effect of my Quirk won't last for long."

[Bishop. Quirk: Prayer. By closing his eyes, clasping his hands, and saying the name of someone, he can increase the power of that person, both physically and Quirk-based. The effect only lasts for five minutes though, and he can only use it once a day.]

With Bishop's Quirk temporarily boosting his own, King's gravity had a far wider reach now. It was likely covering most of the park. He just needed to be careful to to let it go too far past the barrier Rook had set up.

"Time is of the essence. I suppose I'll deal with our top priority of securing Fujino Hatsu first." King said. He quickly took off running towards Queen's location.


"Ngh… Damnit King, give a guy some warning first." Knight grumbled to himself as he found himself barely able to move under the effect of King's gravity. It was a good thing for him that Nene and Rekka were also in a similar state or else he would have gotten chewed out for sure. He had been hoping to have a little fun with his prey before reporting in to King that he had found them, but it seemed lady luck didn't feel the same way.

Nene struggled to stand up, but lacked the strength to do so. "Drat… I can barely move…"

"At least that guy seems to be in the same boat." Rekka said.

Knight looked at the two girls. He wouldn't be able to get to them at this rate, That left long range as his only option. He transformed his arm into the musket gun form from earlier. He sat and used his other arm to lift the gun arm up with all his strength.

Nene widened her eyes when she saw what Knight was doing. 'Crap…'

Knight grinned as he took aim at Nene. "Die."

The gun fired and the bullet flew straight towards Nene. Acting quickly, the student made a clone in front of herself, which took the hit before vanishing into mist.

"Tch. Damnit, the force isn't as good with all this gravity affecting it." Knight cursed. "Oh well. You can't keep up that trick forever."

Nene threw up several clones as Knight fired one bullet after another. He couldn't do rapid fire, but it was still fast enough to fire once every few seconds. If things kept up as they were, Nene's stamina would be used up eventually.

"You're just delaying the inevitable, you know?" Knight said with a smirk as he continued to blast through Nene's clones.

The stalemate continued on. Nene's defense against Knight's offense. But one would have to give out eventually. Once Nene's wall of clones fell, Nene and Rekka would be sitting ducks.

"What do we do?" Rekka asked.

Nene didn't have an answer to that. They weren't allowed to cause injury with their Quirks the way they were right now. Even if they were up against villains. All they could do was wait for help.

Knight fired yet another blast from his arm. Finally, he could see Nene's clone creation starting to slow down. "Heh. You're finished."


Sakura, Fujino, and Jill were all pinned down by the enhanced gravity. They couldn't move. Queen was in a similar state, but she had a smirk on her face as if she had won.

"It's over." Queen told them. "Once King gets here, you're finished."

'Damnit. We won't last long at this rate.' Sakura thought. 'Come on! Think!'

Sakura racked her brain for a plan. Some way, any way for them to continue to hold them off. Even if they tried fighting at this point, she doubted they would win in the state they were in. Suddenly, an idea came to her. It was pretty desperate and would completely back them into a corner. But given their situation, they were pretty much already backed into a corner.

Acting quickly, Sakura manipulated the plants around her. She brought Jill and Fujino in close to her and used the trees in the area to wrap around all three of them. They swirled and curved around until Sakura had a full barrier of tree trunks and branches covering the entire area around them in the form of a makeshift dome.

Queen grit her teeth in frustration. "They just don't know when to give up, do they?"

"It would seem so." a new voice spoke. Queen's expression brightened as King finally appeared. He looked at the wooden dome in front of them. "I assume our targets are in there?"

"Yes." Queen confirmed. "They're trapped like rats."

King estimated he still had another three to four minutes left before the boost he had from Bishop wore off. At the very least, he needed to secure Fujino within that time.

"Little pigs, little pigs, let me in." King said with a grin as he swung his fist at the dome, creating a small dent. Bishop's Quirk boosted more than just his Quirk's power, it also increased his physical prowess as well. So the wooden barrier that normally would be impossible for him to punch his way through was now vulnerable. He swung punch after punch at it, weakening it little by little as he chipped away at it.

Inside the dome, the three girls could hear the wood breaking apart gradually. They had another couple minutes at max before King broke through.

"Screw it, we can't sit back and do nothing." Fujino said. "I'm gonna blow him away with my Quirk."

"You can't!" Jill told her as she grabbed her arm. "We have to wait for the pros, whether we like it or not!"

"Besides, in this enclosed space, we'd get hit with the recoil of an explosion." Sakura reminded her.

While she didn't care as much about not inflicting harm to others rule that Jill said, the point Sakura brought up was a fair one. She had to see the area she was distorting to create the explosion. In this situation, she'd only be able to cause one inside the dome, which would hit them with the blast too.

"You really are stubborn, aren't you Fujino?" King asked as he continued to punch his way through the dome. "Give up now and I may not let the president know how much you resisted."

"I told you already. I'm never going back to Paradise." Fujino told him. "I don't get it. Why do you help them? Weren't you ripped from your families as well and trained to be weapons by those bastards?"

"Heh, who cares?" King said. "Paradise gave me a life where I can go all out as much as I want, without being restricted by society. This life is all I could want."

"But you're nothing but a tool to them!"

"I'm strong because of what I went through there." King told her. "That's how it is for all of us. And now we get to let loose!"

Finally, King threw a punch that broke through the dome. It was a small hole, just large enough for his arm to get through. But soon the rest of it would fall as well.

"And that's checkmate." King smirked.

Fujino felt her body begin to tremble. She didn't want to go back there. To the life of constant pain and torture, all to be someone's tool. "No… someone save me…" As she trembled, a sensation went through her head. Fujino widened her eyes when she knew what it was. "No… Not now… Damnit..."

Sakura saw Fujino holding her head in pain. "Fujino? What's wrong?"

Before King could continue, he received a message from the communicator in his ear. "King, there's trouble. Heroes entering the park. I think they know you're there."

"What?!" King exclaimed. He brought his hand to his ear. "How many? Do you recognize them?"

"Two heroes, but more are probably on the way. I don't know if the barrier will hold or not."

'Damnit, it would have to be now of all times.' King thought. 'What should I do? Do I risk it and grab Fujino quickly? Or do I pull out before the barrier can get broken and we get surrounded?'

"Something sounds wrong." Sakura whispered. "I think we might have just gotten reinforcements."

"I sure hope so." Jill said.

King contemplated his options. This could end up getting very dicey. But prioritizing his own safety above completing a mission was a policy of his. He spoke into his earpiece. "We're pulling out. The mission's a failure."

"King I've spotted another hero. It's Gang Orca."

The Number 10 Hero was definitely going to cause a problem if they stayed much longer. He released his Quirk and the gravity returned to normal. He spoke into his earpiece, addressing his entire team this time. "We're pulling out. The mission's a failure. Fall back." He turned his attention to Queen. "Let's go."

"Right." Queen nodded. She stood up and the two of them quickly took off running.

"King, they broke through the barrier. They're coming your way."

Not wanting to waste any more time, King and Queen quickly took off running and fled. A few tense moments of silence passed before the three girls inside the wood dome heard a voice. "Hey! Is anyone here!"

Sakura widened her eyes when she recognized the voice. She used her Quirk and removed the plants surrounding them. "Mr. Aizawa!"

Aizawa ran up to the girls, along with Gang Orca. "You two? You're Avalon and Suzuki from Class 1-C, correct?"

"Yes, sir." Sakura nodded.

"Tell us. What happened he-" Aizawa stopped short when he noticed Fujino with them too. "Fujino Hatsu?"

"Wait, you know Fujino too, Mr. Aizawa?" Jill asked.

Aizawa noticed the girl holding her head in pain. He quickly realized her Quirk was about to be unleashed once again. Not wasting another moment, he instantly used his Quirk on her, erasing it temporarily.

Fujino soon noticed the pain in her head vanish. "My Quirk? It… stopped?"

"I've erased it for now. But the effect won't last long." Aizawa told her. "Now what exactly happened here?"

"We were attacked by villains." Sakura explained. "They trapped us in the park and were after Fujino for some reason."

"So the barrier was their doing then." Aizawa realized. He turned his head to the Number 10 hero. "Orca. Try and find them. They couldn't have gotten far."

"Nene and Rekka are out there too! We got split up!" Jill added.

"I'll look for them while I try to find the villains." Gang Orca said. "Eraser, you stay here. We'll need you to keep that girl under control."

"Right." Aizawa nodded. As Gang Orca ran off in search of the villains and the other two students of Class C, Aizawa walked up to Fujino. "Now then, Fujino Hatsu, I'll need you to come with me. We've had heroes scouring the city for you."

"Why? You're just going to send me to another facility, right?" Fujino said, looking away. "I overheard the people with the police. You're going to lock me up somewhere because my Quirk's too dangerous, aren't you?"

Aizawa let out a sigh. "It appears there's been a misunderstanding. But it's best you hear the rest from the principal."

"Principal Nezu?" Sakura questioned. "I don't understand. What's going to happen to Fujino?"

"That doesn't concern you right now." Aizawa told the two U.A students. "Now hurry on home. It's getting late."

Sakura and Jill looked at each other, more confused than ever as to what was going on. But they decided to listen to the teacher of Class A.

"Hey… Fujino." Sakura said. "I don't really get what's going on, but you can trust Mr. Aizawa and Principal Nezu. They're good people."

Fujino nodded her head understandingly. If there was anyone in the world she trusted right now, it was the friends she had made that risked their lives to protect her. "Alright. Thanks for your help."

Sakura and Jill both walked towards the park entrance as they made their way home. Now it was just Fujino and Aizawa.

"I doubt I need to tell you this, but you've caused a lot of trouble." Aizawa told her. "We've been looking for you for hours. And on top of all that, you blew a hole in the side of the police station."

Fujino lowered her head. "I'm sorry. I was just… so scared. I was afraid I was going to be sent and locked away somewhere again."

Aizawa sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well, you should also know the police are going to start investigating Paradise soon. If there really is something going on, they'll uncover it. But for now, we have a few more questions for you. Follow me."

Fujino nodded obediently. She got to her feet and followed Aizawa, the two of them walking away together.


There was a lot of chaos to clean up from the park. Several people had been knocked out by Queen's Quirk and were dazed and confused when they awoke. Some of the terrain had been ripped up and deformed, which was assumed to be the work of Sakura's Quirk. Thankfully however, there were zero casualties. Nene and Rekka were located and found to be relatively unharmed with no serious injuries. Things had started to look dicey against Knight, but right after the gravity lifted he bolted. In the end, not a single member of Checkmate was able to be found. They had gotten away.

As for Fujino, she was brought back to the police station. Rather than a cell however, she was put in an interrogation room. The police questioned Fujino with Aizawa present to keep her Quirk erased the entire time to prevent it from causing any more damage. Fujino herself had no complaints with that. She didn't even trust herself with her Quirk, especially when it came to talking about her traumatic experiences at Paradise's facility.

After answering a series of questions regarding what she knew about Paradise, the police left her alone. Nezu then came into the room to speak with her.

"I first want to apologize for the terrible time you must have gone through up until now." Nezu told her. "I went through something similar in the past, so I understand how traumatic it can be."

"So what now?" Fujino asked. "I caused a lot of damage. I suppose I'm going to be arrested now?"

"That is one option." Nezu said. "However, I have a proposal I want to suggest."

Fujino looked up at the principal. "A proposal?"

"You may not know this, but I work as the principal for U.A High School. There, we have several heroes that work as teachers, like Mr. Aizawa here." Nezu explained, gesturing to the tired-looking adult. "What would you say to coming to attend our prestigious institution?"

Fujino blinked her eyes in surprise. "You… want me to be a student at your school? But why?"

"The goal here is multi-layered." Nezu told her. "Firstly, if you accept, you will be put under almost constant supervision. This is to both keep an eye on you and keep you safe from any more attempts from Paradise to abduct you. Secondly, I am aware you are unable to fully control your Quirk. We have plenty of staff that are experts in helping students develop their Quirks. Of course, this includes learning to control them as well. We also have Mr. Aizawa with us to help keep your Quirk from going out of control during this training."

"Your freedom will be rather limited." Aizawa added. "But if you accept this, U.A will deal with the repairs to the station."

"You'd really let me off the hook like that?" Fujino asked.

"Our school is constantly repairing our damaged training fields. We can well afford it." Nezu assured her. "Another reason you'd be getting pardoned is due to the fact that you helped uncover a major criminal activity that society was not aware of until this point. The police have already begun to investigate Paradise in hopes of uncovering all of their crimes. After some discussion with the police, this was the compromise agreed upon."

"So that means you believe me about Paradise?"

"I do." Nezu nodded. "So what do you say?"

Fujino thought about the proposal. It honestly wasn't a bad deal. Actually, it was a really good one. She could live a somewhat normal life again. And on top of that, the damage she had caused would be forgiven. At the very least, it was more than she had been expecting to receive.

However, there was still one thing she felt she needed.

"I'd like that a lot." Fujino said. "But if it's alright, I have a favor to ask."

"What is it?" Nezu asked.

"Those girls from the park. They go to U.A as well, correct?" Fujino said. "If it's alright, I'd like to be in the same class as them."

Nezu showed a warm smile. "I see no problems with that. Very well."

"Thank you very much." Fujino said with a grateful bow.

Nezu hopped out of his chair. "I still have a few things to discuss with the police. Afterwards, Mr. Aizawa and I will escort you to your temporary home."

With that, Nezu and Aizawa left the room and walked together. Aizawa looked down at the principal. "Are you sure this is the best idea?"

"She's been through a terrible experience for someone her age. And before today, she didn't have any real contact with the outside world for the past three years." Nezu reminded him. "I believe this will be the best way for her to gradually readjust and learn to live a normal life."

"What about her Quirk? She can learn to control it while at U.A, but what if she loses control in the middle of class?"

"That's what we have you for. You'll be two doors down after all." Nezu said with a smile. "But I don't believe it will be an issue. From what I can tell, each incident where she lost control of her Quirk was due to a stressful situation being suddenly thrust upon her. She'll be in a relaxing classroom environment, so I don't believe there will be any need to intervene. That is also why I agreed to let her join the class of Miss Avalon, Suzuki, Fukasawa, and Majo. Having friendly faces that she can trust will help her feel comfortable."

"I suppose so. But Yamagori isn't going to be happy about this."

"I'm sure she'll manage." Nezu said.


The morning bell for U.A rang, signaling for all of the students to take their seat. Almost immediately after the bell fell silent, Yamagori walked into the classroom. She walked to her desk and addressed her class.

"Before we begin, there's an announcement I have. Starting today, we'll have another student joining this class."

Whispers of gossip quickly began to spread around the class. They were getting a new student? Who? And why? Everyone quickly fell silent however as Yamagori gave the class a warning glare of her eyes.

"Now then, this will be the new member of Class C." Yamaori said as she turned her head to the door. "You can come in now."

The door opened and a lone girl walked into the room. She had long maroon colored hair, and was wearing the same U.A school uniform the rest of the class was. She was a complete stranger to most of the class, but to four of them in particular, they recognized her right away.

"Fujino?!" Jill gasped as she stood up from her seat. Sakura, Nene, and Rekka also stood up from their seats in shock, catching the attention of the rest of the class.

"Ahem!" Yamagori said with a cough. The four girls sat back down, not wanting to incur the wrath of their teacher. "Now then, you may introduce yourself."

"I'm Fujino Hatsu." Fujino said with a bow of her head. "I… hope we can get along?"

Yamagori let out a sigh. She had been told the girl's social skills might be a little lacking, but this was even worse than she was expecting. "Hatsu here will not be officially joining our class yet. She'll be an official student at the start of the second semester. However, she'll be observing classes for now and will still be learning like the rest of you." she explained. "Now then Hatsu, take your seat and we can begin class."

Fujino obediently nodded and walked over to the empty desk provided for her. As she passed by Sakura and the others, they each gave her a friendly wave. Seeing them helped ease her nerves a little. Because for the first time in a long time she had something she thought she'd never have again. Friends.

'I think I'm going to like it here.'

A/N: And with that, a brand new student has joined Class 1-C's roster. Next up is the Final Exam arc, so look forward to some interesting team ups.