Chapter 17

The school remained closed for the rest of the week, although that did not mean that the students were left to their own devices. Homework and assignments continued to be sent out digitally, cementing UA's reputation for constantly demanding excellence from all who attended it. Heroes could not afford to waste time and even a villain attack was apparently not enough to let the kids slack off in their studies.

Kaminari was among those that complained the loudest over the class 1-A group chat. In his mind it was 'totally unfair' and 'downright criminal' to burden them with algebra and English grammar after nearly 'getting squished by a giant crow', as he put it.

Mina found that pretty funny, even if she agreed with his dislike for homework. Sitting in her room and typing up text after text was rather boring and she couldn't even get out, because her parents fretted way too much. They were under the impression that she would get attacked by a villain as soon as she left the house, which obviously sucked. When she told them as much they did not react well and threatened to revoke her pocket money. A disaster! How else would she get into the arcade or buy sweets!

So she reluctantly played her role as a good daughter and spent her free time chatting with her friends online. She learned something new about all of them in the last few days, except maybe Bakugou and Mineta who either spammed uppercase profanities or uncomfortably sexual stuff respectively until Yaomomo, ever the reliable admin, blocked them.

Another exception was Iida who remained eerily silent. Nobody knew what was happening on his end and he answered none of their messages to Mina's growing concern. The rule-loving boy could be a real stick in the mud, but he was also a valued class member, so they all had to stick together and support each other. Such absolute radio silence was highly worrying.

Izuku, or as Ochako called him, Deku, had let it slip that he knew what was going on or at the very least possessed a good theory, but he selfishly refused to share. Something, something, 'privacy' and 'personal matters'. As brilliant as their little broccoli-boy sometimes was, he could also be annoyingly stubborn. Maybe she should bring Ochako to tease her soon-to-be boyfriend until he told them?

Nah, she was not that curious yet.

Then the email came...

[From: UA_Principal ]

Dear students,

I want to take the time to once again personally apologize for the incident on the day of the sports festival and the one at the USJ training facility. None of you should have had to experience what you did and I as the headmaster of this school should have prevented such a tragedy from ever occurring. The fault lies not with the brave teachers who risked their lives for your protection, but with me as the head of security.

For this you have my intense regret and I promise that we as a faculty have taken every possible step to ensure that something like this will never happen again.

Nonetheless, we cannot reliably predict the future, so we will do our utmost to support your transfer to a new school should you wish to quit the hero course here at UA. We understand that you may no longer feel safe in our care even with improvements being made and nobody will judge you if you choose a different place to carry on your education.

Not a chance! As if Mina would give up her dream because of some villains attacking her class! This was what being a hero was all about, wasn't it? She worked too hard to throw her chance of becoming a top hero away now!

Also, by the virtue of these extraordinary circumstances we have opted to reactivate the dorm program. For all of you who choose to stay enrolled in 1-A and 1-B we will be offering rent-free rooms in our freshly built dormitory! This will give us the opportunity to protect you around the cost and eliminates the risk of travelling from your home to school. Your parents/guardians have been informed of this and naturally need to record their permission to allow it. [More information is available by following this link to our website.]

Oooo... That sounded kinda awesome? On one hand she would spend less time with her family, but on the other she could get to know her new friends even better! Furthermore, she could wake up later for school, because she wouldn't have to take the bus! Mmh... Decisions, decisions...

Lastly, I want to mention your internships. Since your performance at the sports festival was lamentably cut short, the pro heroes in the audience were unable to gather enough information and come to an accurate conclusion about who of you they want to invite for the upcoming internships.

Oh snap! She had totally forgotten about that!

To mitigate this, I have personally contacted roughly 150 heroes who I believe would be well equipped to deal with your individual quirks and personalities. Attached to the end of this mail you should find a list of two to four pros which in my humble opinion are the best suited to teach you their particular way of surviving and thriving in the industry.

Mina skimmed over the rest of the principal's message, but what really interested her was who her ideal teachers would be. Someone glamorous? Maybe from the top fifty?

Mina Ashido:

- Clean Angel (Rank 572) Quirk: [Detergent] Produces streams strong biological detergent from her fingertips

- Yakoly (Rank 689) Quirk: [Hot Tongue] Can spew small amounts of lava from his mouth

What? She had never even heard of these guys! This sucked! Life was truly unfair!

~[#҈#]~

"Administrator M, sir?" Tanya announced her presence in her usual impersonal yet attentive tone, specifically tailored to appease superiors, but make it clear that she had not come to chitchat.

The dark-haired, plain looking man pretended to only notice her now as he plastered a smile on his forgettable face that could belong on a hannya (demon) mask rather than a human being. Silently she wondered if it pained him to express any emotion at all.

"Argent! Wonderful to see you. Glad you could come on such short notice."

As if she had a choice.

"It is no issue. I always have time for the Commission."

"Right, right. Let's get down to business."

Once again did he pretend to bring his documents in order, despite them obviously being sorted already.

"Yes, here it is... You have heard of our new occupational proposition, yes?"

She deigned such a stupid question not with a reply, but instead simply nodded.

"Well I am sure you enjoyed spending time with those children and now you get even more opportunities to do that! Isn't it great?"

This guy should have visited a theatre club in highschool. How could he call himself a Human Resource Manager and not understand the basics of manipulation on a basic level? Tanya was not amused to be managed by someone whose job she could do better herself.

"I'm thrilled."

"Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And you know what? Our analysts say that you will fit in perfectly. Hell, Nedzu himself recommended you for the position of 'Autonomous Danger Mitigation Manager' before we could!"

That was indeed surprising.

"Really?"

"Yes. We had to wait for his approval before we wanted to make a more direct move, but he beat us to it. Apparently your profile of him is incorrect, because he welcomed the change with open arms! Or, at least, you made a highly positive impression on him and he wants to keep you."

Bullshit. The higher-ups could not possibly believe that. After years of failed plans to undermine the superintelligent animal they thought that he would cave in just because of the sports festival attack? Laughable. Absolutely ridiculous. Nedzu was so smart that his quirk could be called 'minor foresight' under the right conditions! Not in a thousand years would he reach out to the HPSC without at least a dozen plans in mind.

And she found herself in the middle of these schemes, like a fly trapped between the webs of two particularly hungry spiders.

Damn it!

"Of course you will still need to keep an eye on him, but with your new status you are going to have much greater access to the internal documents of this place. The committee has a vested interest in the youth and the future heroes of our glorious country. Together we can help keep them safe from corruption both inside and outside of society, don't you think?"

"Ah, here comes the indoctrination." she tiredly thought.

Wholly in contrast to her inner disgruntlement Tanya affirmed with a genuine seeming smile:

"I am proud to serve such a noble goal. Freedom and prosperity are mankind's greatest treasures."

"Oh? Have you gone under the philosophers, Argent? He he he..."

M's laugh was awkward and stilted just like the rest of him.

"Hardly. I am a woman of action as my track record should prove. Was that all you wanted to discuss?"

"Yes, yes. Indeed. The finer details are listed in this folder here." he said while sliding a moderately sized stack of paper over his desk. "Continue your duty and I am sure the higher-ups will be quite pleased. You will go far, Argent. I believe in you."

The hungry gleam in his eyes told Tanya everything she needed to know about his intentions to use her achievements for his own promotion.

Wordlessly she packed the documents into her suitcase and moved towards the door. Not once did Tanya turn her back to him in the process.

"Administrator." she nodded as an obligatory farewell before leaving the dingy office.

If she had not been sure that the hallway was lined with invisible cameras, she would have allowed her stoic face to morph into a deep frown. Instead Tanya simply did what she always did in these circumstances: Plunge herself head first into as much work as possible to make the numbness go away.

~[#҈#]~

Come Saturday morning, Tanya was making a traditional breakfast. She enjoyed the simple act of cooking in its peaceful productivity. When leading a life defined by violence, one needed to be careful in balancing out with simpler pleasures such as these. Stirring the rice, cutting vegetables, turning over the fish in the frying pan centred her mind and reminded her of all the positives that her third life still offered.

Not to mention that it was also healthy and cheaper than going to a restaurant.

Suddenly she heard the sounds of the front door to her apartment clicking shut. It appeared that Himiko had let herself in with a replica of her house key that she had managed to replicate by some unknown means. Tanya was proud of her partner's skill to steal her original and return it unnoticed.

"Come in! I made enough for two!" she called over her shoulder.

Bouncing footsteps closed in on her location before a pair of slender arms circled around her form.

"Hi, Senpai! I've got some time to spare! My 'job' is pretty uneventful at the moment and the leader of that silly circus is strangely indisposed. How long can healing one hand take? Jeez... A shame I can't find him, ya know? I bet he has a wonderful singing voice... Would have loved to make his ugly mug a lot cuter with my knifies~" babbled the energetic girl, somehow making her plans to brutally torture a grown man sound endearing.

Normally Tanya was a quite vehement opponent of intense physical torture due to its ineffectiveness at procuring correct information and the target one painted on their back by engaging in such culturally shunned acts. The risks of being discovered were mostly not worth the effort in her opinion.

That being said, if Himiko wanted to let out some of her more violent tendencies on a piece of human garbage then she would certainly not object. Society as a whole would be better off without a man who possessed the power and ruthlessness to turn children into dust for his own amusement. (A small, vindictive side in her also delighted in the suffering of someone who had come horribly close to maiming herself.)

"Won't that violate mission parameters?"

"He is just a puppet! They find a replacement for him within the month. Screw these paper pushers!"

Tanya could only smile at her subordinate's antics for she felt much the same. Many years ago she herself had been a bureaucrat whose view of the world consisted of rules and guidelines, all forming the ultimate path towards a comfy future. Yet the hardships of war and corporate enslavement had shown her that laws and tenets were more flexible than she would have ever believed otherwise...

"So let's use this time for something fun! I know you are free today!"

"What did you have in mind? The Art Museum? I heard that they still have the exhibition about that guy who made sculptures out of artificial meat. Mmmh?"

"Aww, thanks but no. I thought we could go hiking in the woods for a change? After the incident with the squirrel I was never allowed to visit free nature since I was nine. Also... I mean, we would be relatively alone and I could wear my true face? It's not a problem most of the time, but I wanna be myself out in the open again. Feel the sunlight on my actual skin and stuff..."

"I understand." Tanya plainly stated, for what else was there to say?

"Of course you do! Because you're awesome, Senpai!" cheered Himiko, hugging her tighter.

"Get... off..." she wheezed under the crushing embrace of her colleague.

Not letting go, but marginally loosening her hold, the girl behind her continued to giggle. If she wanted to act that way, fine! Two could play that game! Instead of a leisurely walk through the forest, this would be an endurance run! One should never skimp out on training and this was the perfect opportunity to check the fitness of her student!

Tanya wanted to see if the vampiric girl would still have the last laugh after sprinting for two hours non-stop!

~[#҈#]~

"Huff... No fair... Huff... Agh... It hurts... It hurts so much... Huff..."

"We should do this more often. You're totally out of shape! Do you remember that first month of your training? Perhaps a refresher is in order..."

Tanya was not winded in the slightest. She had only covered half the distance on foot to give herself a modest workout which left her sweaty but not exhausted. Being able to comfortably ride along the path on top of an energy barrier akin to a magic carpet was most convenient in this case.

"Please! Huff... Don't! Please! Huff... I'll do anything!"

Pure desperation clung to Himiko's voice as she obviously relived the hellish memories of her initiation in her mind.

"Wonderful. I am glad that you have chosen to clean my apartment. It's gotten rather dusty as of late."

"You are so mean! Huff!"

"Many have said that in the past. Most regretted it deeply." Tanya quipped, although the upturned corner of her mouth showed that she was not being serious.

"Huff... Still... This was nice... Did you see that pretty bird... Huff... who followed us? Huff... It was so cute..."

"I guess it was. Here, drink up!"

Tanya threw an already prepared water bottle at the panting girl, trusting her lightning-quick reflexes to catch it before it hit her in the face. Himiko caught the drink blindly while she flashed a smile in appreciation which revealed her pointed canines.

"Let's get home and change. Afterwards we will see what we can do the rest of the day. We both burned a few calories, so I can treat you to something nice. You've earned it."

Rewarding exceptional behaviour was basic courtesy if one wanted to nourish good work relationships. It encouraged loyalty and diligence. Paired with a few words of praise it could go a long way to raise employee satisfaction. At least that was what Tanya told herself.

~[#҈#]~

Freshly showered and disguised they made their way through the city, visiting wherever they felt like, yet not actually stopping anywhere. They let themselves be guided by their whims and merely appreciated the scenery. Nevertheless they both made sure to actively stay away from areas with high crime statistics or an excessive amount of traffic cameras.

Barely forty minutes passed before Himiko found a charming little establishment to satisfy their growing hunger. Underneath the towering skyscrapers of the office district, tucked away into a side street stood a small European style cafe which served different sorts of cheesecake and carrot cake as this day's specialty.

Despite its relatively hidden nature, business appeared to be going well as many seats were already occupied. The place was not too full to be obnoxiously crowded, but also not too empty as to make them stand out. In a nutshell: It was perfect.

Taking a spot outside to experience the warmth of the summer sun, each girl was fast to order cake and coffee for themselves. Himiko was not usually a 'coffee person', but whenever she was with Tanya she attempted to drink it as well. The pro heroine found that solidarity humorous enough to not comment on her behaviour.

From across the street her sharp eyes caused the flash of a camera. It could be an unknowing tourist or some Paparazzi who had discovered them. Hopefully they would be satisfied with the photo from afar and not come to demand an autograph. Ultimately though, such an occurrence was of no consequence for her, so she quickly ignored it.

"Woah... this is amazing! You should try some, Senpai!"

She turned her attention back to her partner only to find Himiko expectantly holding a fork full of cake in her direction. It looked indeed good, but manners prohibited her to simply eat food from another's cutlery in public.

"Uh, thanks, I-"

"Come on, Tanya! Please! Give it a try! For me?" the momentarily disguised girl pleaded with her lip quivering slightly (a subtle sign that her emotions were spiralling out of control).

This was so awkward! Yet... she had to accept; else her sometimes psychologically unstable protégée would be grumpy for hours. The effects of over a decade of child abuse were slow to heal, so it was completely understandable for the previously isolated girl to become somewhat attached to her and indulge in such friendship-building rituals. After all, Tanya knew better than anyone that no other trustworthy people worked at the HPSC which made her the sole target of those adorable acts of intimacy.

Her refusal of this harmless gesture would possibly ruin the mood of their entire outing. Especially after she had punished Himiko already earlier. Was her dignity worth the hassle?

Hesitantly she leaned forward placing trust into her appreciatively smiling partner to end this embarrassment swiftly. Against Tanya's hopes however the fork remained just out of reach, leaving her hanging over the table like an idiot. Himiko's smile turned into an impish grin as she beckoned her closer with a single finger. Retreating now would be admitting defeat and as childish as the notion was, it bothered the heroine to no end to be so effortlessly outplayed.

Narrowing her eyes in challenge, she lunged forward, attempting to capture the morsel with her lips.

Himiko meanwhile began to snicker joyfully, moving the piece of cake away at the last second.

"Come on, Senpai! Don't be shy~"

"Don't go too far..." she warned.

"Of course not, my dear. Just a bit further~"

Slowly standing up from her chair Tanya glanced left and right to avoid making a scene and bent over to close the distance. This was definitely skirting the edge of what she dared to do while others were watching. People without context might mistake this for a sign of romantic affection or something ludicrous like that!

"Isn't it great? So sweet..." whispered Himiko, wearing an enraptured expression that made Tanya's stomach explode into hectically fluttering butterflies. To be looked at with so much concern and personal interest was a novelty for her. This was not a medical examination or the searching gaze of an employer scouting for talent... it went far deeper than that and she was unsure if she liked this feeling or not.

Undeniably the cake was excellent, nearly melting its buttery aroma on her tongue, but their eye contact felt so much more sensual and tangible that it nearly hurt. For a tiny moment, a split-second, the world around them took a step back and left them be. A small eternity connected the two girls with an untold sense of understanding and longing fascination. Two lives so similar, yet so fundamentally diverse collided in a grand harmony of opposites as they were, for the first time, close enough to fully intersect.

Only to be shattered instantly in a single, overwhelming instant of raw pain and surprise.

White-hot agony spread through Tanya's whole left side before she faintly registered that she got sent flying. In vain she tried to stabilize herself in the air, but her broken body did not obey her commands and so she crashed helplessly into a wall on the other side of the street.

"Crack!"

She was uncertain if that was the feeling of concrete or her bones shattering. Her vision swam, her back felt like it was on fire and for a few terror-inducing heartbeats even her lungs struggled to draw breath.

Through the nauseating ringing in her ears, the heroine could barely make out a smug voice talking to her. It was unnervingly familiar; although she could not immediately place a name on the fuzzy face swimming into her field of view.

"Ha! You are so easy to find! Just skimming over the most popular channels on hero-net and everyone can trace your location! You heroes are so arrogant to believe that you are safe everywhere when in reality you are-"

He was interrupted by a blade of light projected from her fingertips slamming into the space where his head once was. Had he not been suddenly enveloped in purple mist and teleported to a different location then the villain would have received a crippling blow.

Tanya managed to clear her head enough over the course of his little speech to recognize the man who just evaded her attack as the same who ambushed her at the sports festival: Shigaraki, leader of the League of Villains, user of an extremely dangerous decay quirk.

"Hey! How dare you! You NPCs can't just skip dialogue! This is my moment you stupid mini boss-"

Not waiting for his rant to finish, she pulled herself out of the human-sized crater in the concrete and layered as many protective barriers around her form as she could in such a short timeframe. Her busted ribs dug into her flesh, causing her to cough up a handful of blood.

"Internal bleeding... damn it!"

Luckily Shigaraki seemed to be utterly convinced in his victory, because he obnoxiously shouted some nonsense about video games or something. That served Tanya just fine, for she planned to use his egotistical gloating to her advantage. Nobody revelled in their assumed superiority if they did not believe to already have won which bred exploitable complacency.

Looking around she searched for whatever had dealt such a crippling blow to her. Quickly her trained senses locked onto the shadow looming over where her table had been standing just a minute ago. Blinking her eyes to make sure that she was not hallucinating she focused on the... blob?

The black, ooze-like figure was difficult to describe. It was a ball of slime writhing with rippling waves of inky darkness that made it look more like a moving statue than a living creature. Parts of it were hardening and liquefying at random with long spikes erupting out of its centre semi-regularly. Seemingly the League was more crafty or advanced than the reports suggested if they could constantly produce new models of bioweapons.

Either this one was clever enough to catch her while she was distracted or the timing of the villain's arrival was impeccable. Regardless, taking out the beast was priority number two, right after she hospitalized Shigaraki of course. Destroying the chain of command was always preferable to exhausting your limited resources in pointless attrition warfare.

Abruptly her heart was gripped by icy terror. Where was Himiko? Was she okay? Was she in critical condition?

She was the one person that mattered to Tanya in this universe and not being able to determine her wellbeing was horrifying. Beating the enemy could wait. Retribution was unimportant in the face of Himiko's absence. Sooner would she let this city burn to the ground before she let harm come to her friend!

"...- But enough! I made my point. She's regaining her consciousness, I think. Camera, zoom in! I want the entire world to see what ensues when some trash-tier NPC tries to challenge me! Nomu, finish her!"

Tanya winced as she wrapped herself in a skin-tight shield to perform evasive manoeuvres.

Meanwhile the slime merely wobbled vacuously from side to side.

"I said: Nomu, finish her!" shouted Shigaraki, raising the volume of his voice.

Next to him a figure made from purple fog materialized.

"Young master, I believe this is what the good doctor meant with 'unstable' and 'not finished."

"Yeah, no shit. That old fool can't get anything right! How are we supposed to ever kill All Might if they can't beat fucking mini bosses! Nomus were designed to be the ultimate weapons!"

"Complaining is of no use here, Shigaraki. You must adapt to the battlefield." advised the mist man.

"Yes, you're right. I rolled a negative check and now I have to balance my bad luck out with skill... Hey, wait!"

Making the most of that distraction, Tanya had created her own plan. From what she could observe, Himiko was not nearby which filled her with equal amounts of dread and relief. So, in order to find her friend she needed to go higher, but her wounded state weakened her ability to fly. Confusing potential snipers was key here.

In the absence of a smoke bomb she had instead formed a massive opaque barrier in front her and lifted herself into the air behind it. To sustain this construct she had to unfortunately drop a few of her protective shields, but as soon as she fled together with Himiko everything would be alright. She had to believe that…

Propelling herself upwards without gradual acceleration whiplash-inducing, but she needed every second she could get. When she reached the upper edge of obstruction Tanya was barely able to witness a catastrophe unfold itself.

Himiko had jumped out from inside the ruined store window of the cafe, her knife gripped firmly in hand as she aimed for Shigaraki's throat. She swung with untainted murderous intent, all hints of her usual playfulness erased from the calculated motion. Agile like a cat rushing towards a mouse she aimed for the kill and would have ripped open his neck if he had not turned his head slightly at the last second.

The metal bottom of the hand-shaped mask on his face got in the way, redirecting the blade into his shoulder.

"Agh!" screamed the decay quirk user.

Instinctively his hand reached behind him to touch his attacker and Tanya acted.

She drove downwards in an attempt to cleave him in half, because separating them at that close distance was impossible. A deep-violet portal appeared in her path, but she dived around it, certain that the teleporting mist man would not be capable of redirecting his quirk in time.

Which turned out to be a false assumption.

Wallowing tendrils of darkness enveloped her form before she was spat out into even more black. Up or down were completely indeterminable to her as she clawed at the suffocating and viscous fluid that she was drenched in. The thick, inescapable darkness pressed itself against all her wounds, pushing bones further inward or rubbing scraped skin in an agonizing manner.

Then, all of a sudden there was light again and she gasped for air. Blinded by the abrupt brightness it took several long moments until Tanya understood her current predicament. She was trapped inside the slime monster that despite not obeying the commands of Shigaraki earlier was apparently functional enough to restrain her.

"Huh? It works after all! Wonderful! You see, I ordered this one directly to counter you, Argent." sneered the bloodied man. From his cracked lips the title sounded like an insult.

Still, Tanya only had eyes for Himiko who was held to the ground by a burly figure whose naked torso left no illusions that his muscle mass was more than a match for the teenage girl below him.

"This Nomu can harden around you just like that and if you attempt to cut it to pieces then it automatically pierces you with its thorns! Not to mention that it can also reform, because it's made out of goo! A totally OP build to destroy a spellcaster like you!"

Spells? If she had access to real magic from her lifetime of war then she would have wiped that bastard off the face of the earth long ago!

As if sensing her enraged thoughts Shigaraki bent down and roughly grabbed Himiko's face, but left his pinkie raised in an unspoken threat to dissolve her at the slightest provocation.

Tanya's adrenaline-addled brain hyperfixated on his fingers, noting that the fingertips looked brighter than the rest of his ashen skin. They were pink like a newborn, ill-fitting compared to the rest of his rotten persona.

"Who's this? Does she mean something to you? Your girlfriend, ey? Hehe... I'll make her suffer. Like you made me suffer!"

"Noooooo!" she shrieked without thinking, clawing and fighting against her restraints uselessly.

"What the...?" asked the bewildered villain as grey sludge began to stream down between his fingers, exposing Himiko's real face underneath. His confused gaze wandered between his dirty hand and the naked captive on the street.

"Blood Dancer? What are you doing here?"

"GO TO HELL!" spit the now bare girl in an act of defiance.

"Don't tell me... You're with that bitch? No way...

"Let me go! You pig! You disgusting fuc-"

Himiko thrashed against his grip.

"SHUT UP! You're a shitty traitor and I can't tolerate this!"

He splayed his fingers and she knew instantly what he wanted to do and she was powerless to avert it.

No. NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NONONONOONOONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Time slowed to a crawl for the distressed Tanya as soul-crushing anguish set in.

She knew that she would not be able to save her.

Her most important possession throughout all her lives, a real friend, a companion, was about to be taken from her forever.

Survival did not matter to her any longer. Pride even less.

And so, Tanya begged with all her heart!

Tanya pleaded with all her soul!

"Please! Anyone! Being X! God! Whatever you want to be called! Please! Help! HELP ME! SAVE HER! PLEASE! I'LL DO ANYTHING!"

Tanya cried out into the obscenely silent void of her own mind...

And finally her prayers were answered.