Today I learned that spell check corrects words from British English to American English. I'll just let Grammarly do what it wants bc I'm too lazy.

- Chapter 13 -

Perspective

Out of all people, Tsunotori was not someone Megumi had expected to encounter outside of school.

The pony girl had reluctantly offered her a box of wet wipes, her eyes looking anywhere but at Megumi. Could she fault her for that? She was covered in a thick layer of gore, and she didn't need a mirror to know that she looked unhinged.

When Megumi didn't give any indication of accepting her offer, Tsunotori pulled out a wipe from the box and waved it in front of her face imploringly. Then, after receiving no reaction, she simply lifted one of Megumi's wrists with her fingertips and slipped the wipe into her hand.

They both stared at the wipe as it got soaked in less than a second, sticking to Megumi's glove like a second skin.

Tsunotori wordlessly put the box of wet wipes away.

They stood there in morbid silence.

If it weren't for Tsunotori's distinct facial features, people might have thought the two of them were related. Megumi inadvertently found herself eyeballing the pair of spear-like, sharp horns adorning the top of the pony girl's head.

The unwelcome image of someone getting impaled on them crossed her mind. Not to mention looking at them for too long brought back the phantom pains of stabbing headaches that still afflicted her at times.

If Tsunotori was made uncomfortable by her muteness in any way, she didn't show it. Megumi could see and hear her talk, but whatever she was saying went into one ear and out the other.

It wasn't Tsunotori's thick English accent that made it hard for Megumi to focus. The same had happened with the paramedics, the police officers, and the heroes on scene- she couldn't comprehend anything in her current disposition. She was far too disoriented to function.

Megumi distinctly remembered Aizawa telling them during a training exercise that the best way to handle victims in shock was to keep them grounded by talking to them.

It left a sour taste in her mouth. Her hands curled into fists, frustration pooling in her gut. She… she was the victim?

Eventually, X-Less came to pick her up. He draped his red cape over her shoulders, uncaring of the flakes of dried blood and guts that would most likely contaminate it.

Megumi didn't know whether it was due to the shame or the familiar burn of anger that had suddenly overcome her, but she found herself capable of words again.

She ignored her internship mentor's out-stretched hand, standing up on her own. She locked eyes with Tsunotori, her vocal cords grating out an abrasive "Thank you," before she motioned for X-Less to show her the way.

She didn't want pity. She didn't need help. She was not the victim.

"And would you say they were fairly proficient at using their quirks?"

Megumi blankly stared at the detective sitting across from her. His tired eyes and sunken cheeks gave off a very different impression from detective Tsukauchi.

"Proficient enough. Unlicensed mercenary level. Too erratic." She responded dryly.

He noted down her answer on paper, the other two of his four arms typing something up on his laptop.

"Erratic, you say. Could you elaborate on that?"

She had her hands clasped in front of her, posture as rigid as a rock. "Fidgety hands. Poor situational awareness. Rapid eye movement."

Sounds of scribbling and typing.

He paused.

"I suppose you've learned to pay attention to such things, considering your family's line of business."

The corners of her mouth curved downward ever so slightly.

Leaning back in his chair, the detective tapped his pen against his notepad. "Did your internship supervisor deliberately send you on that chase?"

The ticking of the wall clock was starting to irritate her ears.

"I don't know."

"When did you realize you were caught in the illusion user's quirk range?"

"Not sure."

"Were you aware that you would be accompanying X-Less on this case?"

"No. Excuse me, sir, how long is the usual procedure for situations like these?"

Translation: 'Can I go now?'

A drained sigh left the detective. He seemed to slump into himself. "Look, to be quite honest with you, we have bigger fish to fry. This is just a formality. You'll be let go once we're done here."

Then, he started leisurely skimming the pages of his notepad.

The wall clock kept ticking.

"Sorry. I just... aren't you going to…" She made a reluctant handcuff motion with her hands.

The detective glanced up from his work, fixating on her with a probing eye.

"What? Arrest you? For what?"

Megumi's mouth opened before closing again. Was it not obvious why she would expect to be taken into custody?

His expression gradually morphed into an amused sneer. "You thought you were going to jail because some good-for-nothing junkie died?"

The laugh that escaped him made goosebumps break out on her arms.

"As if we don't have enough of those! Who's gonna complain huh? His non-existent family? Is he going to sue you from six feet underground?" He wiped away a stray tear from his eye. "Rich brats can be so naïve."

When his amusement was met with silence, he coughed into his hand and leaned forward on the desk conspiratorially.

"Tell you what. You don't seem like a bad kid, so I'll share some words of wisdom with you. Even if you got into trouble with the law," A mocking smile grew on his face, his index finger firmly jabbing her shoulder. "I'm sure your folks have enough money to settle it out of court."

A queasy feeling formed in the pit of her stomach.

"So, let me just ask you one last question." The detective sat back and let his smile drop back into the neutral scowl he'd been sporting previously. "Do you recognize these from anywhere?"

Megumi glanced down at the photo he slipped in front of her. An orange pill bottle, some of its contents emptied out for a better view. Off-white, 500mg pills. Seemingly ordinary painkillers for common aches and pains. Except, they had no drug imprints. Unidentifiable.

"No. I don't."

Nobody seemed to… care as much as she thought they would.

As accidental as the whole thing had been, she had still killed someone. Megumi couldn't wrap her head around why no one was freaking out about some unlicensed high schooler causing someone's death.

Maybe something was wrong with her. After all, she knew she was not a mere high schooler, that she should have known better- but they didn't know that.

She asked the police officers who had initially brought her to the station whether the thief's identity had been established, and if she could request to be notified. They had simply shrugged, cast conspicuous looks of pity her way, and handed her a small paper with all his non-private information.

Why was she the one receiving pity when he was the one who had died?

He had been in his mid-forties, divorced 18 years ago without kids, and had no blood relatives who came to claim what was left of him. Furutani Yoshito had been a recovering drug addict, graduating from rehab two years ago – before he fell back into his old ways. Drugs, petty theft, aggravated assault, a whole list of crimes. It was all on his public record.

But that didn't mean he deserved what he got. And putting a name to his face only served to further fuel her guilt.

She hated to say it, but there would most likely be a lot of such casualties in her oh-so-heroic future.

Even while reading My Hero Academia, it had been unclear what became of minor villain mobs after they got their shit kicked in by heroes. A bunch of them probably croaked off-screen, to be honest. None of the characters seemed perturbed by that fact though.

Megumi didn't think she was any better. The first and foremost thing she had felt while talking with the detective had been relief. Followed by repulsion at her own selfishness, then guilt.

She had never labeled herself a good person. Be that as it may, such thoughts truly made her feel like scum.

The shock she had received by his death did not mean she had cared for that man. It had been the fear of the consequences she would have to face that had shaken her to her core.

But there were no consequences. Because this place didn't adhere to Colby's definition of justice.

Villains were often the instigators of violence. Therefore, heroes were presumed to kill for self-defense. It was a regular occurrence. Black and white. Very clear-cut.

Therefore, Megumi had no reason to feel guilty. And people around her would rather label her the unfortunate hero apprentice than mourn the person on whom she had dropped a family of steel beams.

She did feel pretty shitty about it though.

To top it off, her extremely eventful evening had coincided with the day on which Hero Killer Stain was officially arrested. Japanese news wouldn't be talking about anything else for a solid week or so.

Again, the relief she had felt when she realized that her fuck-up wouldn't be broadcasted on national television as a five-minute news segment was astronomical.

She only later realized that Midoriya had sent all his contacts, including her, a message sharing his location. Megumi had no idea where he even got her number from (if there was a secret class group chat, he wouldn't have gotten it from there, right?) but the only form of apology she could offer for responding to his SOS message 24 hours later was a frowning sticker.

Not that she could've done something from all the way in Osaka. It also wasn't like his internship had gone as badly as hers, so she was finding it a bit difficult to sympathize. She would have rather faced Stain and let him break a few of her bones than deal with this mental torture.

X-Less was a good mentor. He had taught her stuff that other heroes probably wouldn't bother explaining to her. The reason he had been disappearing so often was due to the investigations he had been carrying out regarding allegations of a local drug ring. She didn't think he deserved the undue stress she had caused him.

In fact, she could have committed the worst acts imaginable, but as long as she was under his responsibility, he would have shouldered the brunt of the blame. She really hoped his teaching license wouldn't be affected by this ordeal.

She remembered his words to her when they had seen the news of Stain's arrest on one of the huge broadcasting screens that seemed to be glued on every other building.

"In your future battles, remember that mercy is most often a disadvantage. Many rookies make the mistake of idealizing this profession. The one mistake you should not commit is letting your own moral compass reflect on the justice you serve."

Undoubtedly, X-Less was painfully aware that Stain's little speech could snowball into something more large-scale. Especially if the wrong people got pulled into such an ideology. She also liked to think he had been trying to comfort her in some way.

Stain's manifesto had been filled with the kind of rage and discontent that many people secretly harbored, but never voiced out loud. Sure, the Hero Killer had a pretty intense range of vocabulary, she would give him that.

But she found it hard to be impressed by his ideals when it all watered down to justifying the murder of imperfect heroes. It was as if he was incapable of comprehending that human nature was subject to change, be it hero or villain, for better or for worse. His thought process was just as black and white as he claimed the hero system to be.

Megumi couldn't care less about some loser who prided himself on exposing the hypocrisy of heroes when his own hypocrisy was laughably palpable in his actions. His version of justice was exactly the kind of extremism that was better off being squashed out of existence.

But what would she know? She hadn't experienced enough of this world to ever understand such a perspective.

She had also killed someone. Whether it had been intentional or not didn't matter. There wasn't much room for her to preach moral superiority.

Her internship would end soon, and the news of Stain would eventually dwindle. Megumi would go back to her school life and try to make the best of the events that would befall her class.

Quite frankly, she didn't want to go back home.

Spending the past week in her own little hotel room had been freeing in ways she could have never imagined. Not having to deal with her family, not having to stress over her behavior in school, the knowledge that no one here knew-

Everyone she had met in Osaka had gotten to know her, and not the version of Megumi prior to the USJ incident.

Megumi had finally gotten a taste of freedom, but she had marred its memory with her stupid bullheadedness.

She didn't think she would ever forget the sight of that man's body. It had been seared into her eyeballs as she had tried to scramble away from it.

But something kept pricking her curiosity ever since that night.

That man had not been using his quirk to its full capacity.

Or maybe he couldn't.

The length of his arms had been significantly longer than the size of his 'wings', and his balance while gliding had been off. For the aerodynamics of gliding to work, he would have needed a tail and lankier body proportions. At his age, his quirk should have been done maturing.

The salt crystal thief… his skin had been flaking off. That trail had not been intentional, because she'd been caught in the illusion before she fully entered that construction site. The hero he had turned into a statue had reported that he hadn't been fully crystallized, that the salt crystals had simply formed a restrictive sheet over his body.

It was common knowledge in this world that one's body had to accommodate one's quirk for the quirk to be viable. Anything other than that would require intervention by quirk specialists.

Even thinking about it made the feeling of wrongness tug at the edge of her sanity.

Megumi pulled out the bottle of iron supplements from her blazer's pocket. Her eyes narrowed in scrutiny at the small, pink-tinted white pills mixed in with the larger iron tablets. She absentmindedly played with the bottle in her hand, giving it a shake or two as her thoughts wandered.

Something was inexplicably amiss.

Midoriya didn't really have that many people on his phone, but at least one person had shown up when he sent off that emergency message.

Even under extreme duress, he had the good sense to exclude his mom from the list of people he had shared his location with. Not even the threat of a Hero Killer could force him to let his mother know what kind of dangerous nonsense he was up to. If she ever caught wind of what he had gone through during his internship, she would beg him to drop out. Again.

He paused his scrolling when he saw a reply to his message from Airashi. Trepidation struck him, finger hovering above her name. What could she possibly have to say? Since when had he added her to his contacts? Was it when he had been debating whether to send her a formal apology through text after the USJ incident? Speaking to girls was hardly his forte.

As if ripping off a particularly painful band-aid, he tapped on the chat.

She had sent him… a frowning sticker of the messaging app mascot. He turned his phone screen every which way, making sure there wasn't a hidden message somewhere that would bite him in the ass later if he happened to ignore it.

Nope. That was it.

His brows furrowed at his phone. 'What does this mean?'

There was something weirdly funny about the simplicity of their very first text conversation. He had assumed Airashi would be the kind of person who typed out a whole paragraph in response.

Midoriya flinched when he felt someone brush against his arm from where he was seated in his hospital bed. He looked up to see Todoroki, who had come up next to him to observe his phone screen. Iida was still fast asleep in his own bed across the room.

The green-haired boy suddenly got the urge to hide his screen. Not that he was doing anything incriminating, he just felt extremely uncomfortable about anything concerning the relationship between his two classmates.

"Is that Megumi?" Todoroki inquired neutrally, not fazed in the least.

Midoriya took that as a sign that he wasn't about to become confrontational. "Yes, I suppose… it's from when I shared my location with all contacts…"

Todoroki paused, before pulling out his own phone from under his pillow and offering it to Midoriya. "Actually, I may need your help. I think my phone's malfunctioning."

Sitting up straight, Midoriya curiously took Todoroki's phone despite his better judgment. "What's wrong with it? I'm not really that great with phones though."

Todoroki's deadpan face did not move a single inch when he said, "My messages aren't going through."

Midoriya side-eyed his classmate before returning his attention back to the phone in his hands. He had a bad feeling about this. Hesitantly, he opened the messaging app and decided to check Todoroki's conversation with Airashi.

His mouth straightened into a knowing grimace.

"Todoroki… I think she blocked you."

"Oh."

A week and a half, gone in the blink of an eye.

Secretary Jia had jokingly teased, "If the hero gig doesn't work out, give me a call sweetie!"

Despite the obvious jest in her tone, Megumi couldn't help but seriously consider it.

Alas, she had experienced enough atrocities for it to render her incapable of giving up heroics. Trauma-bonding with the shaky vision she had for the future had to be one of the absolute worst ways to deal with her emotions, but there weren't that many options when it came to coping mechanisms.

The atmosphere in the family mansion had been just as cold and oppressive as always. The only difference was that mother dearest had given up on acting all cute around her. After all, Megumi had made it perfectly clear by embarking on her internship journey that she would not be giving up on UA.

She couldn't help the smugness that overcame her at the thought of having annoyed that woman merely by continuing to attend school. Maybe if she kept up with this, mother would give up on her for good. A disownment sounded pretty nice.

Maybe not too soon though. Just until she became of age and could open a bank account in her own name. Adulthood couldn't come fast enough.

Seiichi had been moping in his room, so Megumi didn't get to rub her return in his face. She only saw him come out to demand a few Mandarin language books from the servants near her doorway. 'What a fucking nerd.' She hatefully mused.

She couldn't help being bitter. While she was out there battling villains and committing murder for the greater good, he got to do his fancy homework in his fancy room for his fancy school.

The word 'fancy' didn't even feel like a real word anymore after having crossed her mind so often.

The same went for Yuka, although to a lesser extent. At least she seemed like she still had a soul left in her. Not if mother had anything to say about it though.

On a slightly better note, mother stopped insisting that she go to school with a chauffeur. Her newfound neglect of Megumi was better than anything she could have asked for. Not that it wasn't suspicious, but it was hard not to feel relieved when that monster of a woman finally stopped watching her like a shark during dinners.

Returning to UA's school gates after her internship experience was strange.

She didn't feel like the same person who had woken up on that day after the USJ incident, nor the person who had promised to make Todoroki regret the callousness he had treated the Original with during the sports festival.

It all seemed so far away. She had met so many new people, seen new places, and done things she had never imagined herself doing.

And she wasn't even halfway through her first year. 'What…'

Megumi's thought was briefly cut short when she sensed someone step in front of the classroom's door at the same time she did. She looked up.

'… the actual hell?'

She couldn't take her eyes off of Bakugo's gelled blonde hair, his bangs neatly tucked into a horrific side part. The mere sight of him looking like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was enough to activate her fight or flight instinct.

They stared at each other, her in pure distress and him in a way that dared her to comment on it.

Awkward eye contact seemed to have become the norm between them.

She wordlessly turned away, opened the door, and slipped inside. She would rather keep her opinions to herself regarding that.

Almost immediately, Mina waved her over to Tsuyu's desk where they had been conversing with Jiro. The earphone jack girl didn't seem too excited about having her join in, but that was a reaction Megumi had grown accustomed to.

"Did you know Jiro got to do villain clean-up? And Tsuyu-chan captured a foreign stowaway!"

From the other side of the room, Sero and Kirishima's rambunctious laughter rung out, followed soon after by Bakugo's death threats.

The classroom was louder than Megumi remembered it to be. Maybe she had grown far too accustomed to the calm mornings near Osaka's seaports.

Kaminari shifted in his seat, pointing a finger at Iida, Todoroki and Midoriya. "Y'know, I had fun and all during my internship, but those three had the craziest experience ever."

Almost immediately, half of the class turned their attention toward them.

"Dude, yeah, the Hero Killer!" Sero choked out in the middle of being wrangled onto the floor by Bakugo.

"Glad you guys are alive man, that's the most important thing," Kirishima added on.

Yaoyorozu piped up from her seat next to Todoroki. "I was really worried when I got Midoriya's message."

They started speaking among themselves about Stain, but Megumi could neither take part in the conversation nor listen to it.

Instead, she felt herself break out in a cold sweat.

They didn't know. They didn't know what she had done.

It was easy to go on with her life, pretending nothing had happened. As long as nobody asked, she wouldn't have to answer. Almost every one of her classmates had gone through their own brand of challenges during the internships; she couldn't be the only one who had seen the less-than-ideal side of heroics.

Right?

What would they say if she told them? Would they brush it off? Would they claim that the villain had deserved it for not surrendering?

Maybe they wouldn't be surprised in the least that she had been the first one in their class to cause a casualty.

Whenever she closed her eyes, the broken corpse of that villain came to her mind. It didn't matter whether she was in the middle of doing some mundane activity, the image flashed behind her eyelids like a sadistic reminder of her incompetence.

The three boys at the back of the classroom were getting praised for surviving an encounter with Stain. The Hero Killer had most likely not taken them seriously in the first place, but that was what had cost him his freedom. Did they have the same abhorrent daydreams she did? Did the sound of sliding metal startle them the way it did her? Did they feel the frequent need to look over their shoulder to make sure nothing was behind them?

No, she wouldn't get praise nor admiration. All she would get was pity.

But she didn't want pity. God, she wanted anything but pity, despite the guilt that ate her from the inside out.

If she acted proud about it, would they praise her too?

No. Because Megumi had ended up being the executioner, not the survivor.

And she would never forget her first kill. She would keep the memory close to her heart, as a reminder of what she was capable of. Quirks or not, human life was truly fickle.

"Megumi?" A pink hand waved in front of her face. "Are you okay? We were asking how your internship went."

As if she'd been doused in cold water, Megumi suddenly became aware that she hadn't spoken a single word since entering the classroom. She looked up at the expectant faces of Tsuyu, Mina, and Jiro.

Her throat briefly closed up in response to her stress levels, before she forcefully swallowed down the anxiety that had constricted her vocal cords.

"They let me help with logistics. Nothing that interesting."

And the conversation carried on.

It was so easy to lie. So incredibly easy to omit the truth in favor of her own peace of mind. Megumi wasn't sure if she ever wanted anyone to know what had really happened during her very first internship.

She would need to have a little chat with Tsunotori when she saw her around.

Once the bell rang, 1-A was ushered into their changing rooms in preparation for their daily training exercise. As per usual, Megumi gathered her costume suitcase and made her way inside the bathroom stalls. Making friends with some of the girls didn't mean she suddenly felt comfortable being naked around them.

She left her mask untouched. It still didn't feel right putting it on.

When she came out to the training field, most of the class was already gathered in front of All Might. She approached the spot between Tsuyu and Uraraka.

Some of her classmates spared her superficial glances. Some of them did a double take. Regardless of their reactions, she could feel the scrutiny in their gazes- the silent evaluation they graced her with.

"Oh? Megumi-chan, did you redesign your costume?" Tsuyu voiced out loud.

The blonde adjusted the chains on her left wrist, at the same time inspecting the length of her nails. She hoped they wouldn't break through her gloves. "I didn't actually design the previous one. I made someone else do it. This one I sketched and submitted myself."

She didn't bother mincing her words. It was kind of true. Neither she nor the Original were good artists. The Original had given one of her maids an extra allowance to sketch a design for her.

The bright pink, the frills, and the exorbitant amount of lace had been her ideas, but she had made someone else draw it. After all, there was no rule dictating that the costume concept they submitted had to be painted by them.

The Original had a pastel Lolita thing going on, which did look cute. But it didn't fit the current Megumi- it wasn't hers to wear.

"I almost didn't recognize you," Mina said truthfully, pinching the fabric of Megumi's cropped overshirt. "You, Kirishima, Yaomomo, and Koda all have that red theme going on now."

Megumi shrugged. "It's a good color."

"It sure is!" Kirishima agreed from Mina's right. "It's the manliest color there is. The vivid color of passion!"

"That's not really what I was going for, but I suppose you're not wrong." Yaoyorozu noted, Koda shyly tilting his head in agreement next to her.

When the last student emerged out of the changing rooms to join the class, All Might launched into his explanation of the lesson.

Megumi was confronted with the fact that this was the first time she was seeing All Might in all his superhero glory. He was huge. If she punched him in the gut, it would probably break every bone in her hand. He was like a life-sized roman statue that had come to life. She definitely didn't want to be on the receiving end of whatever he dished out to criminals in his prime.

All Might declared, "Today, we're doing a rescue-training race in playground gamma."

The whole class got an eyeful of dense construction beams and buildings stacked on top of each other like building blocks, with narrow alleyway gaps that looked as complex and confusing as a labyrinth.

Megumi stared blankly at the familiar sight, her palms turning clammy.

The first group to go consisted of Mina, Sero, Iida, Midoriya, and Ojiro. All Might had chosen the students who had the most maneuverability in their class. His favoritism of Midoriya was very obvious considering that Tsuyu should have been in that group instead of him.

Predictably, Sero came in first. He had barely broken a sweat, while the rest of starting group had to collect their bearings for a few minutes afterward. Especially Midoriya since he had slipped and fallen all the way down. They actually had to wait for him to climb back up, which was mildly entertaining to watch.

A pinprick of discomfort set in when someone came to stand next to her. Unfortunately, Uraraka had been pulled away into a discussion with Shoji and Kaminari.

Annoyingly, she could recognize the presence that had approached.

Todoroki's stupid blue jumpsuit spoiled a corner of her peripheral vision. Without even looking, Megumi was as sure as grass was green that he had his usual dull expression on his face.

He was just... standing there. Not saying a word. She wanted to physically crawl out of her skin.

Megumi inched away a little.

Was he trying to come across as threatening? She didn't recall antagonizing him since the Sports Festival ended. Was he subtly demanding her to move over so he could stand closer to the front? Was this some sort of power play?

As if to make a point, he shuffled closer to re-establish the previous distance.

Oh hell no.

This was starting to resemble one of her nightmares of being turned into shaved ice a bit too much.

When his quietness dragged on, her apprehension was replaced by vexation.

So he came to stand all up in her face for what exactly? Was he trying to creep her out on purpose so she would make a scene in the middle of the training exercise and look insane in front of All Might? Ridiculous! He should have learned within the last month that such a tactic wouldn't work.

Again, she was overcome with the regret of not having bashed his head against the floor one last time before withdrawing from their match. She must have incorrectly assumed they had a silent understanding that neither of them would associate with each other outside of school work. Judging by his current behavior, Todoroki did not know how social context cues worked.

If only he knew what she had done to the last guy who came far too close for comfort.

She stopped that line of thought as soon as it entered her mind. 'Shit. I was doing so well not thinking about it.'

When her name was called, she powerwalked to stand at the starting line, eyes spelling hellfire and brimstone.

"Someone's eager to race!" All Might remarked innocently, ignorant of her inner turmoil.

The rest of the class could only spectate Airashi's cutthroat way of competing.

She made the training exercise look like a battlefield.

Not only was she moving through the lower levels of the construction labyrinth devastatingly fast, but she was also sabotaging her competitors. Whether it be pulling their feet from under them with her chains or cutting in front of them while they hung off a particularly precarious edge, she was a nightmare of an opponent.

They weren't even supposed to make each other fall, but the blonde seemed to have made it her personal challenge to do exactly that.

"Oh my… maybe she's a bit too eager…" The symbol of peace chuckled nervously, dabbing away the sweat that had broken out on his temple.

Mineta had resorted to sticking himself behind large constructs to hide. Yaoyorozu had decided to fight back with an invisibility cloak, while Shoji created an abundance of fake limbs to throw her off. Kaminari was left to his own devices.

"They're in it to win it… that is so manly!" Kirishima cheered, almost tearing up with emotion.

Sero squinted to see what was happening in the distance, watching as Kaminari took a particularly nasty stumble. "Dude, you keep saying that and I still have no idea what it means."

"I'm gonna win even harder once it's MY turn, just you wait, extras!" Bakugo yelled out, looking left and right as if to make sure everyone had heard him.

Jiro leaned toward Mina, appearing mildly afraid. "Are we sure logistics is the only thing she did during the internships?"

Midoriya watched on as the carnage continued. He had already been listing off in his head all the new information he would have to add to Airashi's page after seeing her costume, but it seemed like that would not be the only thing he would have to update. In any case, when it came to disregarding his own greed for the pursuit of hero analysis...

He wearily glanced at his heterochromatic friend.

"Todoroki… I don't know what you did, but I think you made her mad."

"Oh."

A/N:

We're finally starting to approach the summer training camp. Now it's just Megumi and her attempts at coping with the awful curveballs I keep throwing at her. But such is life!

This doesn't even scratch the surface of her character development. In fact, we are just getting started. It's taking a lot longer for me to get this story where I want it to be bc I don't want the pacing to get all messed up. There are some bits of foreshadowing so anything that happens in the future doesn't seem too out of pocket.

Not sure if line breaks are enough to convey a change in scene. They're usually enough for me when I'm reading other authors' works, but when I'm reading something I wrote myself I cannot look at the chapter objectively for the life of me. But that's okay, I'm not making a masterpiece.

To be very honest, romance was the last thing on my mind when I uploaded this as a one-shot thing. That's why it's not in the genre tags. I'm more of a platonic relationship enjoyer that turns romantic very later on. Repairing Megumi's friendships and showing her progress seemed a lot more appealing than gunning it for love interests. I enjoy reading romance stories, but I've actually never been that comfortable writing in that genre. It is a sub-subplot, but I can't promise that it'll be lovey-dovey and cutesy. Plus nothing can happen for as long as Megumi considers herself an adult around teenagers. That would be pretty wrong lol.

2019 to 2020 was probably my biggest MHA phase. I used to wait every week for leaks, then another few days for official chapters to come out so I could analyze the absolute crap out of each individual panel. My biggest mistake was probably associating too much with the fandom, which burnt me out. When I randomly saw the latest manga chapter on my Twitter feed, it kicked my motivation into gear.

To add, I find it really funny that JJK kicked off in late 2020 and I was haunted by the knowledge that I should work on this fic every time I saw Megumi Fushiguro's name. For what it's worth, his name means "blessed child" while Megumi's name is written with the kanji for "love, affection". That's all for now, until next time!