Quick note because this has crossed my mind recently: I've gotten two comments (nothing bad!). One asked me to make sure I don't follow canon too closely, and the other asked that I don't let Hotaru turn into an OC in which the world revolves around them/the replace character's words and actions (ie, stunt their character development). These are both very, very, very fair points. If I don't change things up, why read it? It's just the show again. If she takes too much 'screen time' she's become a Mary Sue. I don't want either of those things.

I think, though, that these two comments show the tricky balance I'm pressured into walking. And not just pressure from you guys, but pressure from myself. On the same note… I won't be able to please everybody. The last thing I want is to go through episode by episode, copying the dialogue from ear. It's hard enough finding the balance of change that I feel comfortable/satisfied with. And well, this is supposed to be fun, not stress me out.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. Thanks for reviewing and reading, of course. I love that you're invested enough to care for the fic's future, and to follow it and stuff. I guess my defense is that Hotaru is the POV character of the story, so her world DOES revolve around her. (You could argue it revolves around Deku, but this is a purposeful plot point/character development set up, and I'm more so talking about why it seems like she gets so much dialogue). (On another note, I've gotten comments (again, very fair and helpful!) both saying that she's too focused on Deku and not focused on him enough. So, I guess I just hope you guys see the pressure I'm kinda feeling).

I just wanted to get that off my chest before this chapter especially... In which I've tried to correct each one and therefore committed each sin the comments have warned about...

Enjoy?

"Oh!" Inko Midoriya gasped when she saw me outside her door in my street clothes. "Ryuuzaki-chan. What are you doing here?"

I peered inside her house, hoping to catch sight of her son within the door. "Is Midoriya-kun home?" I'd been over before for study groups in middle school, but I wasn't there often. I would have been surprised his mom remembered me if we hadn't lived so close. My mom was kind of her friend.

"He's in his room. Come on in!" Inko smiled, gripping my hands kindly and leading me inside. "His bedroom is up the stairs and on the left there." She pointed. "You just go right on up."

I tried not to laugh, because it was quite trusting to just let a girl up in her son's room, but also because Midoriya was obviously not expecting me. "Are you sure you don't want to call him down? He never really liked people in his room."

Inko giggled. "He'll get over it." She waved me up. "Go on. He'll be surprised to see you."

Still, I knew better than to barge into a teenage boy's room. I knocked. The door swung open.

"Were you working out?" I asked, and I didn't know why I was surprised from the muscle he'd put on in less than a year.

Midoriya, his cheeks flushed and his athletic shirt damp, blinked. "Ho-Hotaru-chan?"

I beamed. "Can I come in?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, stuttering. Then he nodded. "Yeah. What's up?"

I stepped past him and immediately froze at the walls. His whole face turned red, and I couldn't help but grin. All Might was everywhere, from the everyday souvenirs that even I had to the rarer merch that must have cost all the allowance Midoriya had ever saved. It would have been easy to say something, but I left it at the knowing smile. He was so nerdy. It was kinda cute.

"A-anyway, go ahead and sit down." For a teenage boy, his room was also pretty clean, except for some stray laundry kicked under his bed. I knelt on the floor at a coffee table, glad I was wearing shorts instead of a skirt. Midoriya stayed standing. "Do you want a drink or something? We have juice pouches."

I waved him off. "You don't have to be so polite. It's just me."

I waited until he found the spot across from me to start, and by then my smile had faded to worry. "How're your arms?"

He glanced down, where both of his arms were bandaged from wrist to shoulder. He looked like he'd just gotten released from the hospital.

Had Deku's path to herodom always been this dangerous? How long was he going to keep breaking his arms to follow his pipe-dream? Before that distant future became a reality. Then why was I even here, living this life?

I was almost expecting a platitude, but instead, his fist tightened. "If I were stronger, this wouldn't have happened."

I frowned. "You mean because your quirk hurts you."

He looked away as if he was ashamed and nodded.

"I can't believe Bakugou did that to you," I seethed. "Actually, no, I'm not."

"I think he was hurt," Midoriya sighed. "This whole time he thought I was tricking him."

"He couldn't have asked you?" I cleared my throat, realizing I had been close to yelling. "I didn't come here to talk about him. I actually wanted to talk about your quirk—you can't train because of it, but you can't control your quirk until you can train," I said. "It's essentially a catch 22."

"Yeah."

Guess I didn't need to remind him of what he already knew. Now I'd gone and gotten his mood down. But, well, why else was I here?

"My quirk is similar, in a way."

He perked up at that to listen.

I leaned back onto my hands. "I needed to train with another person to build up the karmic energy, but sparring with someone would just hurt them."

"I'm sure." he nodded. "You've got such a cool quirk."

I found myself blushing at the genuine compliment. No one but Midoriya would ever or had ever said that to me, except maybe my dad.

"Anyway—" I cleared my throat. "It was tricky to get past that first milestone, where I could hold in the blasts so that my parents didn't get hurt. And I guess you could say I have some experience in the department of tricky training solutions."

He stared at me until the words sunk in. Then slowly his face lit up. "You have an idea."

I shrugged, hoping I hadn't gotten his hopes up for no reason. "Well, I don't know exactly how your quirk works. Could you explain it to me?" I only knew the end product of insane speed and strength, but that was hardly what made him the number one hero in another world. His control and combat skills were out of this world when he was an adult.

"I—" He looked away again. "I don't know how much I can tell you. It's not that I don't trust you!" he added quickly. "I'm just not sure how much of it I understand yet."

I frowned and brushed him off. "Don't worry about it, then. But to stop beating around the bush, here's my idea—visualization training. My dad did a lot of research on hero techniques, and that was one of the main recommendations for quirks that you can't get out to practice right away."

He tested the word in his mouth, his brow furrowed because, yeah, that was vague. "Do you mean imagine myself using my quirk over and over?"

I nodded. "Characterize your power. When I feel the energy in my cells, I like to picture a power bar filling up, like a video game. It helps me keep what would usually spill over inside."

He started nodding slowly like he was warming up to the idea. "Okay, I'll give that a try."

I smiled. "For my sake, I'm sure." I waved off his denial. There was something else itching at my skin, and I couldn't not ask anymore. "By the way—what did you and Bakugou talk about?"

To that, he wouldn't tell me either.

"Ryuuzaki—" I looked up from my desk, shoving my books into my backpack as Ashido bounded up to my desk. "Yo, Uraraka and I thought about having a get-together with all the girls in class. Are you free tonight?"

I grinned, hefting my bag over my shoulder. "I can make myself free. What time were you thinking?"

"Awesome! We know it's late notice, but we figured tonight would be perfect because we didn't get any homework. Meet outside Mariko station at five?"

I told her I'd be there and hurried home so I didn't have to skip out on training. With that done, I put on a yellow sundress and a matching hair ribbon around my bun.

"Where are you headed?" Mom caught me before I rushed out the door. "So cute. Do you have a date?"

I blushed hard. "Mom, ew, no—"

She laughed. My dad peeked his head around the corner.

"Did you just say, 'date'?"

"I'm hanging out with my new classmates. Just the girls," I added when Mom started smirking. I knew she just wanted to embarrass me. But it worked.

My cheeks didn't cool down until I got to the first station. My destination was close, the second stop from my home station headed north. I boarded with the crowd, clutching my bag to my stomach to make as much room as possible. It wasn't as full as it could have been, but considering it was before most adults got off of work, I was surprised to see the car so cramped. Without so much as a creak, the doors shut behind us, sealing us in, and we started moving.

Then I saw familiar blond hair peeking through the crowd. Bakugou? Outside of school, he wore a black T-shirt and baggy jeans. I hadn't seen him in street clothes since elementary, since I usually tried to avoid him. I saw him and Midoriya on the train quite often since we lived in the same area, but usually on the way to school. It was a Thursday night. I was surprised his mom let him out.

I peered at his face through the corner of my eye, lest he spot me. Ever since the day Midoroya beat him, he'd been uncannily quiet in class. Right now, he looked pretty annoyed at the guy beside him who kept swaying into his shoulder. Annoyed, but not ready to blow up at him.

Well, as long as we didn't try to talk to each other, it wasn't like I could get on his nerves from the other side of the train car.

And then a wave of pain shot up my abdomen. It was so out of the blue that I swayed in place, my muscles contracting.

A premonition right now? But the train was moving so quickly, my cells shouldn't have the wherewithal to pick up on the energy as I traveled. Distance and personalness all played a role. I was more likely to pick up on energy directed at me, but not across a city. Which meant the problem was on the train.

It was a little cramped as I checked my surroundings. Nothing looked out of place, although there wasn't a whole lot for me to see with all the bodies in my way. The pain wasn't subsiding

Wait it out?

Nope.

Well, what was I supposed to do with that? I grew more desperate the more I looked around and nothing stood out. The people next to me noticed my panicking, but since nothing seemed amiss, they quickly dismissed me. It was better that way. If I told them something bad was about to happen, it might cause a panic.

My stomach tightened more and more, and I stumbled into someone beside me and then the side of the train, less from the pain and more from my muscles refusing to work.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I almost screamed.

"Oi." I craned my neck to see Bakugou fighting his way through the passengers. There was just enough room for him to break into the same space as me, and then both our backs were to the wall.

Shocked, I almost didn't hear his words when he leaned closer so only I could hear.

"Something coming?"

I nodded, finding the strength to straighten my spine a little. "Whatever it is, I can't find it."

Then his eyes narrowed and his head shot up. "Are we going to crash?"

I shook my head. "The karmic energy would have alerted me as soon as I stepped foot on the train."

"Shit," he sighed. "Guess we'll have to search." He peered out across the passengers as if looking for a place to start.

"Split up?" I suggested. It was an understatement to say that I couldn't believe he wanted to help. But I guess he did want to be a hero. I was just the first one in line to question his motives.

He was quiet for a moment. "No, we don't know what we're dealing with. And I wouldn't be able to tell if I found anything." He frowned, back to the death glare I was accustomed to. "What are you looking at?"

And here I was thinking something was wrong with him. I realized I had been staring at him like he had turned into a purple dragon, so I was basically asking him to get mad. But he was right. He didn't have premonition predicting events and actions before they occurred.

Then the pain stopped.

"Um," I said, finally able to stand straight. "The energy's gone." And great, now I couldn't use my quirk to get to the bottom of it all.

Bakugou gave me the most annoyed look, his eye twitching.

"What?" I said. "I can't control it. The event must have been diverted somehow."

I could tell he was trying not to blow up. Probably literally. "What kind of stupid quirk is that?" Several heads turned at his yelling, even though it was quiet for Bakugou.

I stuck a finger to my lip. "Can you yell at me another time? We're on a train." Social faux pas in Japan; disturbing people on the shinkansen. You couldn't even talk on the phone without becoming public enemy number one. I wouldn't be surprised if you were labeled a villain for going over 60 decibels.

This pissed him off even more, but he managed to bite his tongue.

"Anyway," I whispered, then hesitated. I had been about to thank him. For what, coming to check on me? That's not what he was doing. Besides, I thought back to the hero/villain challenge. This was Bakugou, the kid who terrorized my elementary and middle school, who beat my classmate to a pulp practically because he looked at him funny.

Besides, he wasn't even listening to me. I couldn't tell if he was sulking or not, but he was staring at the far end of the train. I craned my neck to see what he saw, but I was too short to see over a row of men in the middle of the car.

"My quirk relies on people's intent and actions and how those bring upon events," I said, contemplatively. "So if someone intended to rob me, but then saw you walk up…" I shrugged. "You might have deterred them already." Quickly, I added, "You can be really intimidating sometimes." As if the compliment, if you could call it that, would placate him.

"Whatever," he said.

It wasn't another minute before the train stopped at Mariko station. Awkwardly, I shuffled to the door with the crowd. When I glanced over, though, so was Bakugou.

I frowned. "This is your stop, too?"

He answered with a 'tch' that told me he didn't want to get into it. Fair enough. Not my business. But it got even stranger when we took the same left, further into the station instead of town. I didn't say anything lest I make it awkward. Besides, he was enough steps behind me, hands in his pockets, that I wasn't even sure he was walking with me. He definitely seemed more interested in the wall as we passed.

Soon I saw a floating outfit: pink shorts, a frilly blouse, and strappy sandals. "Hagakure-chan," I greeted, jogging up to her. Asui, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, and Jirou were there as well, closer to the wall.

"There you are, Ryuuzaki-chan, kero."

The other girls waved and smiled.

"We're only waiting on Ashido, now," Yoayorozu said.

"She went ahead to rent a karaoke room," Jirou explained.

"Oh, fun!" I smiled. Karaoke wasn't nearly as fun without booze, I somehow knew, but I was still looking forward to it.

I turned then and saw Bakugou stalking back the way we had come, his hands in his pockets.

What was that about?

"You've got to be kidding me," Bakugou groaned as we turned the corner—Midoriya and I weren't purposely walking to school with him, but we had once again gotten on the same train to the same station. It was an accident. If it was anyone's fault, it was Bakugou's because he didn't take the early train like he usually did.

I peered around UA's brick gate, frowning. "The press heard All Might was faculty, huh?"

"This is gonna be a pain."

Midoriya frowned. "There's no other way in because of the gate." UA had crazy security and had also built a huge brick wall around the whole of campus.

I hefted my bag over my shoulder, shrugging. "Keep your heads down and keep walking." Bakugou had already started toward the entrance. Luckily there was already a flow of students and the press was more or less letting us through—until they recognized Bakugou from the slime monster incident. Midoriya and I used his threats of violence as a distraction to dash inside. I would have loved to be on TV, but I could wait until I was a real hero.

Bakugou barely made it before the bell, just in time for Aizawa-sensei to announce it was time to determine class representatives. Iida suggested a vote, and with all the students raising their hands to volunteer, the methodology was hard to argue. Even Bakugou wanted the job.

I thought about it—I in no way wanted to be a class rep. It was a lot of work, and while it came with perks, my mission wasn't to make sure I had the most job offers after graduation. My mission was Midoriya—which was why I cast my vote for him. Anyone with two votes would be sitting pretty, I figured, since most of the class would vote for themselves.

"Woah," Kirishima gasped. "Midoriya got four votes?"

I peeked over at Bakugou to see if he was plotting murder. He did look annoyed, especially at Midoriya, but I was surprised to see him behaving for the most part. He must have known he wouldn't fare well in an election. Time to prepare himself for defeat, I guessed.

Otherwise, it was pretty easy to see who had voted for who; if you had zero votes, you didn't vote for yourself, so you either voted for Yaoyorozu (Jirou, if I had to guess) or Midoriya. Iida and Uraraka were the other two with zero. I guess I wasn't that surprised, except for that it was pretty obvious Iida really wanted the job.

The process filled up our time until lunch.

When I stood with my food, looking for somewhere to sit, Asui motioned me over. I sat next to her and Tokoyami, who ate his rice quietly.

"You didn't want to be the class-rep, Ryuuzaki-chan?" Asui slurped her soup. "You didn't vote for yourself."

I took a sip of my juice. If UA got one thing right, it was the food. "Sounded boring." I shrugged.

"That's true, kero. I'd be worried about the responsibility."

I laughed. "Really, Asui-chan? I think you would have been just fine."

She blushed at the compliment. "Please, call me Tsu-chan. But thanks."

"So," I turned to Tokoyami, feeling chatty. "What do you guys think we'll be doing in the hero course next?"

The birdman hummed. "I think we'll break away from the testing."

Asui nodded. "We've been testing a lot, kero. I think it's so they can see where we are at the start."

"That makes sense," I took a bite of egg. "Can't expect us to swim when we don't yet know how to crawl."

"They can expect me to swim, kero."

I laughed, and even Tokoyami chuckled.

Then I felt the briefest tug in my gut, the softest pull I'd ever experienced. So subtle, I wasn't sure if I'd imagined it or not until the school's sirens went off and all hell broke loose.

"That was—" I started, not sure what word I was looking for exactly.

"Fucking ridiculous?"

Kirishima had at some point joined me, Asui, and Tokoyami when the crowd of students had freaked out. A bunch of heroes-in-training, and they had almost smothered me and the other first-years. It was a little off-putting how quick they were to panic. Thankfully, Iida had learned to fly and got everyone's attention. Turns out it was just the press.

Uraraka had such a cool quirk.

I was once again grateful for my training with my parents. I was just about at my threshold, but I'd managed to hold in the karma from being knocked around in what was essentially a mosh pit. It could have been bad.

Not that it was great. When Karma didn't shoot, I was left to absorb the damage. So my whole body was covered in bruises.

Asui had a big one on her cheek from when some second-year accidentally elbowed her.

"Let's head to the nurses," I offered. "That looks like it hurts." The two boys waved us off and headed back to the homeroom.

We came to class late, though with a note and a bandaged Asui to prove we'd had nothing but the purest of intentions.

Aizawa-sensei was tucked in the corner in his sleeping bag, asleep, so I stuck the note onto his forehead.

"What did we miss?" I hustled to my desk, whispering to Uraraka, who had the seat on my right.

She leaned over her desk. "Midoriya resigned as class-rep, and Iida took his place."

"Eh?" I was surprised. Midoriya had seemed to have wanted the job. He had even voted for himself. "Shouldn't we revote?" I frowned. I would rather have had Yaomomo as the class rep, since Iida went a little overboard sometimes. I'd sat on top of my desk for two seconds to tie my shoe and he yelled at me and called me a degenerate.

Uraraka shrugged. "It just sort of happened. I think people were impressed with how he whipped everyone in shape today."

"Sure," I conceded. "He did good. So why's Aizawa-sensei still taking a nap?"

Later that week, the hero course was scheduled to take a field trip to an off-campus training facility, but Aiwzawa-sensei didn't tell us what we'd be training for until the day of.

"We'll be focusing on rescue missions for natural disasters," he explained, opening our uniform lockers. "Me, All Might, and another pro hero will be monitoring."

In the islands of Japan, natural disasters were often more prevalent than villains. The class was excited. As early as it was in the school year, all of our hero training was pretty novel.

Once I was geared up, I joined the others onto the bus, sitting next to Asui. I was comfortable with her. I hope she didn't find me annoying because I was still too shy to sit with anyone else. We'd bonded during karaoke when we both realized the two of us had the least musical talent. She had an excuse, as her quirk made her sound like she had a frog in her throat. I didn't.

"By the way, Midoriya," Asui started. "I've been meaning to ask, kero. Isn't your quirk oddly similar to All Might's?"

I wouldn't have thought much of the question until Midoriya started to stammer.

What did that mean?

"Uh, Thanks, Tsu-chan," he rubbed his neck. "That's flattering. But I don't think they're that similar…"

My eyes narrowed. Yeah, they were, Midoriya, but power quirks were all over the country. Except his quirk wasn't just power, I knew. It was that speed that he used to save me, the ability to be there in an instant and protect everyone. But why wasn't All Might's number one fan playing up the similarities?

What was I even thinking? People could have similar quirks. It didn't mean anything.

Kirishima sighed beside me. "I'd love to have an augmentation quirk like that. You're gonna be a really popular hero." He brandished his arm, showing off his hardening. "I mean, mine is useful, but it doesn't look all that cool."

Midoriya smiled. "I don't know, it's a pretty good hero quirk in my opinion."

"You think?" He retracted his mutated cells.

"Yeah. My quirk practically just gives me stomach aches," I agreed.

"If anyone has a hero quirk," Kirishima said, blushing, "it would be Todoroki and Bakugou."

Which was true, even if I didn't want it to be. I tried not to look too annoyed at the comment but couldn't quite wipe the distaste from my face.

"Sorry," Kirishima added sheepishly.

"Sure," Asui said, "but Bakugou's always angry, so he'll never be that popular."

I couldn't help myself from giggling because I hadn't expected it from Asui.

Bakugou stood in his seat, fuming and apparently able to hear us the entire time. "What did you just say? I'll kick your ass!"

Asui shrugged. "You see?" Yeah, he was pretty much proving her point. I clapped my hand over my mouth, realizing he heard what I had been laughing at. I was worried the next time we did match-ups he'd remember that laugh.

Then even Kaminari chimed in, talking right to the blond. "It's kind of telling that we just met you but already know you have a shit personality." He said it light-heartedly, but it was hard for Bakugou to take anything lightly.

As I thought he would, Bakugou turned on him instead and the two threw insults at each other.

I shared a glance with Midoriya, acknowledging how wild this situation was. Katsuki Bakugou was the one being teased, not Nerdy Deku or Chubby Ryuuzaki. High school really was a different world.

Hey, shouldn't I believe in Karma? That Bakugou was finally getting what was coming to him?

Then I thought back to the train the other day, and a part of me kind of felt bad. A small part.

"By the way," I turned to Midoriya, covering my hand with my mouth. "How's the training going?"

From the bleak look that followed, it couldn't have been going well.

The boys didn't calm down until Aizawa-sensei finally shouted at them to shut up. They would have had to stop anyway because the bus slowed outside a giant dome facility.

We marched inside eagerly and were greeted by a figure in a spacesuit, who we all knew as the pro hero Thirteen, a rescue specialist. The facility was equally as impressive, at almost the size of a theme park. Instead of attractions, there was every natural environment you could think of.

"I don't think UA has a budget," I breathed, awestruck.

"Hey," Midoriya nudged me. "Do you see All Might? I thought he was coming."

I frowned. "No, but Aizawa-sensei did say…"

Speaking of, I saw our teacher having a hushed conversation with Thirteen. Midoriya noticed, too.

"I'm sure he's on his way," I told him. Then my stomach clenched so hard I stumbled. Midoriya caught me and kept me on my feet.

"You okay?" he asked in my ear, alarmed.

I nodded. But. No, I was not okay.

My classmates either looked concerned or they hadn't noticed.

Aizawa-sensei was suddenly at my other side. As a pro, he was the perfect balance of urgent and calm. "What's wrong?"

"Something's coming." I winced. "Something big."

Got any theories from the train scene? :)

During lunch, premonition reacts because, as it is heavily implied, Shigaraki let the press in. The action itself was one of ill intent that indirectly affects Hotaru, but he wasn't expecting it to actually hurt anyone, so it is a tiny reaction. Because it was small, she forgets about it.

Kurogiri's portals have the advantage over premonition because of the distance they utilize. So she didn't get a shot of the karmic energy until the portals connected to USJ.