Disclaimer: I don't own My Hero Academia, everything belongs to Horikoshi Kouhei.

Warning: Language.

- Chapter 1 -

Confusion

Colby Flores had led a relatively modest life.

But that wasn't the only thing setting her apart from Airashi Megumi.

There were no such things as 'quirks' in her world.

(In our world.)

Anyone who claimed to be any sort of hero as a profession would get shipped to the nearest mental clinic, no questions asked. Superpowers were a fantasy they could never achieve: comic books, movies and manga were the closest they could ever get to enjoying such dreams.

Colby had adored the notion of superpowers ever since she was a child. As she grew up, she gradually did let go of the hope of ever getting any sort of powers. Reality was a bitter pill to swallow. However, that did not deter her from watching and absolutely loving anime and superhero movies.

Funny enough, My Hero Academia hadn't even been her favourite anime.

She would've preferred One Punch Man over MHA any day, because she had fallen in love with Saitama's utter deadpan boredom and the confused cyborg child that was Genos. She enjoyed both Marvel and DC, though her favourite hero Spiderman tended to make her biased toward Marvel.

Colby Flores might have been a useless nobody, but at least she had hobbies that could distract her from the depressing reality of life.

Looking back, it was rather obvious why she had fallen out of contact with most of her friends once she graduated from university. Normal adults didn't bother themselves with such childish pastimes. They had a job, a family, and to put it bluntly: a social life. Colby was a recluse who preferred spending time alone even in her adult years.

She had unfortunately not grown out of her awkwardness, and past embarrassing memories riddled her with anxiety. It was pathetic how a voice in her head always whispered not to make a fool of herself whenever her job required her to interact with coworkers and clientele.

But that was the beauty of superhero fiction: they gave her the courage to keep moving forward. To keep her head high and look at the person she was speaking to straight in the eyes without stuttering. They taught her to never give up, drowning out the whispers that told her she couldn't do it; they gave her hope that things could only get better.

But things didn't get better.

Why would "things get better" for a person like her? Nothing went right!

In fact, they went backwards. As if there was a black cloud hanging above her, sucking up all her hopes and dreams until there was only an empty wasteland of hopeless self-pity.

(I must be going insane. That's the only rational explanation!)

She was currently sitting in a hospital room- in some fictional place in Japan. In a body that definitely did not belong to her. Having an existential crisis.

Another desperate keening noise escaped her as she slumped forward with her head in her hands, elbows braced on her knees as she stared at the floor tiles as if they held the secrets to the universe.

It had been about 10 minutes since the nurse had left to get the doctor, and during that time Colby- now Megumi- had taken to pacing around in her room like a madwoman. She would pace, sit down, then start pacing again only to run out of breath and sit down again. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. It felt like she was having a nasty fever dream. A real bad hallucination.

She just wanted to go home and sleep. But she wasn't stupid nor delusional.

The bandages wrapped firmly around her head and abdomen were a thorough reality check.

This was not a dream.

The original Megumi's memories coincided with her current situation. As if the moment her mind was transferred to Megumi's body, the original's memories mixed with her own. Her mindscape had felt like an attic stuffed to the brim with random information, until she had made the effort of sorting and seperating Megumi's memories from Colby's.

She was Colby- but she was also Megumi. It was an alien feeling. She felt like an in-between existence that was both Colby and Megumi: but also something that was neither of those two.

The League of Villains had attacked 1-A during their rescue training in the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. From what she could understand with the help of the original Megumi's memories, Megumi had been stuck with Asui, Midoriya and Mineta in the flood zone. And she had been...

...an absolute nuisance.

Heat rapidly climbed up her neck and cheeks as a massive cringe attack wracked her body. She wanted to drill a whole in the ground and bury herself in it. Oh god, Megumi's memories were a massive embarrassment.

Not only had she complained the whole time they were stuck on that sinking ship, she had also been absolutely useless. Because she didn't want to get her nails dirty and ruin her makeup. Gosh.

(Fucking bitch left me to deal with her shit. I should have just died.)

But if she really had been as selfish and vain as her memories suggested, what had made her sacrifice herself for Midoriya? Someone who had been complaining about getting her appearance ruined just minutes prior couldn't possibly have such a huge change of heart in such a short time.

Moreover, the Megumi she had interacted with didn't resemble the bratty annoyance in those memories at all.

Something wasn't adding up.

Before she could dwell on it any further, the door once again creaked open. The doctor came in along with the nurse who had previously greeted Megumi in the middle of her freak-out session.

She was instructed to sit straight as he examined her injuries. One of the reasons she had always disliked hospitals was that doctors tended to prod at her as they liked, and she absolutely hated being touched all over. She had never been a huge fan of body contact in general, avoiding hugs and kisses whenever she could as if there were going to be giving her the plague. But the doctor's hands were unusually soothing as they hovered over her scrapes and bruises. 'Oh, that must be his quirk.' How stupid of her not to see the faint glow they gave off. What a nice quirk...

He replaced her bandages with new ones as he briefed her on what had been happening ever since the USJ Incident took place.

"The media has been utterly chaotic ever since you guys were attacked- they even tried to get access to our hospital for an interview with Eraserhead!" He huffed, shaking his head in disapproval. "Won't even let a sick man rest for goodness' sake. He was in horrible shape when they brought him in on thursday. Classes were cancelled for hero course students the day after. Those with minor injuries were treated in UA by Recovery Girl, but you had a nasty concussion and some busted ribs. Thankfully you seem to have healed just fine! Although you shouldn't have pulled out your IV drip so forcefully-"

Healed? Didn't he say they were attacked on thursday? Today was saturday, so... no, no matter how she looked at it, it wasn't physically possible to just heal broken bones in 2 days. A regeneration quirk-?

The confusion must have shown on her face because the doctor did a double take. "Ah- haha! I understand your concerns Airashi-chan, under normal circumstances your injuries wouldn't warrant a hospital visit. Heroes deal with worse after all!"

The cheerful exclamation of that statement made chills run down her spine.

"However, it seems your body had an extreme lack of energy in contrast to the magnitude of your injuries, same as Eraserhead. Recovery Girl didn't want to risk putting your lives in danger by using her quirk on you in that state." Say what? "She waited until both of you were fully rested. Visited in the afternoon to give you a good healing. You might have gotten to meet her if you woke up three hours earlier actually! Seeing her in person was such an honor-!"

And then he started to unabashedly praise Recovery Girl with the excitement and adoration only a true fanboy could muster. The nurse looked quite embarrassed on his behalf, but held her head down and continued scribbling down on her clipboard.

Megumi bit her lip, fiddling with her fingers. She had been meaning to ask a question since before, but... "Did anyone come to visit while I was here?"

The doctor stopped his rant, falling eerily silent. The nurse had a pitying expression on her face. Megumi's heart dropped- it was clear what that reaction meant. It's not like she had been expecting anything. Who would even care if someone like her died? Chuckling nervously, she picked at the bandages on her head holding back her fringe. "A-actually um, nevermind. Any word from my parents?"

"...Yes! We've kept your family informed of your recovery. It seems they are too busy to visit... but they've been waiting for you to wake up. We have been told they'll be sending over a chauffeur to pick you up tomorrow."

"I see..."

She had known that Megumi's parents weren't the most affectionate, but she still couldn't help but feel a dreadful sense of disappointment at the thought that they wouldn't even spare time to visit their hurt daughter at the hospital. Really, that was just too pitiful.

No friends, no family- it just made it all the more obvious to her that Megumi virtually had nothing aside from her title as the eldest daughter of a rich family.

Well, technically she wasn't Megumi anymore. So she could do whatever the hell she wanted. Fuck everyone else.

"Doctor, may I see Aizawa-sensei?"

"Now is... now may not be the right time. You woke up roughly around the same time he did, but right now he's having a chat with the detectives about the Incident." Sighing, he muttered under his breath. "Not that he's in any condition to be straining himself. Why must these pro heroes be so stupid and reckless and..."

Piercing green eyes blinked up at him unfazed. "That's perfect. I'm a witness. They were going to interview me anyway, and I can see Aizawa-sensei."

She wouldn't let such an opportunity slip by.

She was escorted past the intensive care unit where Aizawa had previously resided in. They had moved him to a different room, both for the sake of opening up more space for incoming patients and also to give Aizawa the privacy he wanted during his stay at the hospital.

Needless to say, she could feel his burning stare drilling holes into her even with the bandages covering 90% of his body. 'Guess he feels lively enough to dish out a scolding.' Admittedly, it hadn't been the smartest move of Megumi to throw herself right into that 8 ton Nomu fist. All Might would have arrived and saved the day anyway, even without her pulling that stunt.

It made her question whether Megumi really had the intention of saving Midoriya, or if she had purposefully wanted to get maimed by that hybrid-disaster monster for whatever reason.

Currently she was seated in front of detective Tsukauchi while Aizawa watched them from his hospital bed with an aura that promised her they'd be having a long talk later. And that was exactly what she had come here for anyway so fine by her.

She found detective Tsukauchi perfectly pleasant. He went straight to the point with his many questions. "And how much of a threat would you say were the villains you encountered in the flood zone? Did you happen to see any with abnormal mutations and unnatural aggressive tendencies resembling that of the Nomu?"

"Most villains we encountered weren't trained properly with quirks they couldn't control to their fullest extent. Else I'm aware that we wouldn't have been able to escape so easily. Some of them were flying above us though, and they didn't resemble anything human... Just a brain and some eyeballs attached to their heads..." Even thinking about it made her queasy. "Sorry, I can't be sure, I couldn't see them very well from where I was standing."

"No, that's fine. We've gotten similar testimonies." He shuffled through his notebook, writing something here and there while Megumi shifted awkwardly in her seat. It had been around half an hour since her interrogation had started and her teacher's patience seemed to be running out. Tsukauchi eventually shot her a radiant smile and made a move to stand up, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Thank you very much for your cooperation today Airashi-san. I wish you a swift recovery."

"Thanks."

He tilted his hat towards the other person in the room. "Aizawa-san."

The bandaged man replied with a grunt and a lift of his left leg, one of the only limbs unscathed from the incident. Tsukauchi sighed and waved them farewell as he exited through the door.

Megumi dragged her seat next to Aizawa's bed and clasped her hands together firmly. 'I can't believe I'm doing this.' Aizawa Shouta, a fictional character, existing before her in all his sleep-deprived glory. Was this heaven or hell? Then again, she could hardly call it heaven, seeing as Megumi had fucked up majorly before tossing all this bullshit onto her. As much as she wanted to run her hands through that messy black hair and fangirl all over him, she didn't fancy getting smacked into the next century.

Aizawa had sensed something wrong with his student as soon as she had entered his room in the middle of Tsukauchi's questioning, the doctor behind her frantically telling her to slow down. He would have usually chalked it up to her usual antics, but the vibe she gave off was unlike anything he'd felt from her before. His students were a pain in the ass- some more than others- and having Megumi willingly come to him by herself expecting a stern lecture was unusual to say the least. She tended to avoid him whenever she knew she would be getting scolded for something she had done.

He had determined long ago that Megumi lacked not only nervosity and hesitation, but also any notion of shame and modesty. He found it hard to believe that she had now approached him on her own accord. Silent brooding didn't fit her. There could only be one reason she was acting this way, and it made his blood boil thinking one of his students would actually consider something as cowardly as that after a single encounter with villains.

"I'm disappointed in you."

Megumi drooped in her seat. So that was the first thing he decided to say after that long bout of silence. Aizawa's intense anger made her dig her nails into her palms in order to stop the wetness building up behind her eyes. She had never been good at dealing with angry people. 'But it was Megumi who... why do I have to sit through this when I didn't even...'

"What you did back there was absolutely idiotic. I don't even know what to say. Villains won't have mercy for you, no matter how rich or privileged you may be. Did you expect praise for the reckless way you behaved during that incident? You can't save people if you're dead. Get that through your thick skull."

He was right... He was right, but...!

"And no matter how scared you were, that's the daily life of a hero. You weren't accepted into this school just so you could quit when the first encounter with a villain lands you in the hospital-"

What? "No!"

Aizawa stared at her, waiting for an elaboration. Why else had she shouldered her way into his room so urgently with that troubled expression of hers?

"It's true that I was scared and that I did something really stupid. I have no excuse for that." He could feel his brows climbing all the way up his hairline when she stood up and bowed low in a perfect 45 degree angle. "I am so sorry, it won't happen again."

Was he dreaming? The Nomu really must have done a number on him.

She eased back out of the bow, looking at him with such sincerity that he wouldn't have had the heart to look away even he tried. "I don't plan on quitting. It never even crossed my mind."

That was a lie. It had crossed her mind. Why did she have to subject herself to possible death and mutilation by pursuing a profession in heroics? The original Megumi must have been insane to only have Todoroki in her mind, to the extent she didn't even consider her own well-being. Or had she known all along that this was going to happen?

She remembered those sad eyes again, looking at her pleadingly.

"Please live a good life in my stead."

Damn. Stupid Megumi, why did she have to... she couldn't hold in the flood of emotions inside of her anymore.

Slumping back in her seat the blonde hung her head in defeat, hands bunching up the fabric in her lap.

Dumbstruck horror gradually started blooming on Aizawa's bandaged face as her shoulders started trembling with snivels and hiccups.

"I d-didn't... I didn't want to die either!"

She'd been so scared. Terrified. Everyone was leaving her, running away without a single glance backwards, focused on their own survival. She was stuck and helpless and wanted to scream for help, but her voice wasn't working. She had been so alone. Even with nothing but dust, fire and debris littering her vision, she had continued to hope for a rescue. The crushing weight on top of her, her bones and organs creaking in protest, pain so unimaginably unbearable that it made her sick to her stomach just thinking about it-

It had hurt. It still did.

The bandaged arm awkwardly patting her on the head made her sob even harder.

A/N:

Great to see you all again! Thanks for your lovely reviews, they really fired me up.

I'm grateful to all who followed and added this story to their favorites, it makes me so happy! This chapter is just our tragic heroine trying to deal with this situation without becoming a crying, sobbing mess- how well did that work out I wonder?

On an honest note, I'm never sure whether to call her Colby or Megumi, because technically she isn't Colby anymore. I end up calling her Megumi or else I fear it will be too confusing. And what do you think of Aizawa? I tried my best to stay true to his character, I really hope I did him justice. Admittedly I don't know much about Tsukauchi, but I imagine he's a hard worker and a natural at getting information out of people.

I'm excited to write Megumi interact with class 1-A again, knowing how much mayhem the original Megumi has caused.