"You, sir." I said, throwing Moe over my shoulder, "Are in big trouble!"
"Ms. Joke already gave me extra homework." The little tyke seemed unconcerned.
"I bet she did! But do you know what happens if you stop going to class?" He shook his head into my back, "I quit!"
He squirmed.
"Oh yes! Remember, young man, I'm here because of you. So if you don't go to class, neither do I. We pack up and call this a vacation. So you have to promise me not to… Moe?"
He was crying.
I put him down hurriedly, sitting us on the grass.
"Oh, sweetie, I'm not actually mad." I said quickly, "Oh, honey, don't cry." He never cried. He got quiet, sulked, all the angsty hits, he even hid sometimes. But only twice had I seen him cry.
"I didn't mean to." He wept, "It was my fault. We can go back. I'm sorry, Jupi, I'm sorry." He hadn't called me Jupi in months.
"What on earth are you talking about?" I asked, smoothing back his hair, "I know you were just worried about me."
"You... you're here because of me." He blubbered.
Oh.
I grabbed the little ball in front of me into my arms and stormed into the dorm.
"Now you listen here, Morland Manderly." I said, genuinely upset now. A few of my classmates pretended not to see us. "You're right, I am here because of you. I'm here because you pushed me to find something I wanted to do and to do it. I am exactly where I want to be." I marched up the stairs, noisy and stern, "On Monday, villains made their way into the USJ. They were looking for All Might. They could have just as easily looked for him at a convenience store. My being a student had nothing to do with it." I walked right past our room. "I chose to stay behind and help. I chose to confront those villains. They chose to hurt me. My friends Todoroki and Asui pulled me out of the lake. Bakugo got the water out of me. Mr. Aizawa, who you met today, stopped the villain from killing me. I fought them off the rest of the time." I pushed into the showers. "At no point did I wish I wasn't there. At no point did I wish I'd never come to this city. So…" I sat us under a shower and turned on the cold water, full blast. He screeched. "So if you're blaming yourself that has to be because of a bad example I set. We do not blame ourselves for the actions of villains, do you understand me?"
Moe resumed crying, but he nodded, hugging me tightly. I turned the water off.
"Good."
The next day, little to Juniper's knowledge, Moe asked for permission from Ms. Joke to go check up on her during lunch. Relieved he was at least asking, she conceded. Skipping right past the cafeteria, he went straight into the teacher's lounge. It was mostly empty. He stood, waiting.
Mr. Aizawa looked up from his grading when he felt he was being watched.
The small boy stood in front of his desk, waiting silently. How long had he been there? How was he so quiet? So small?
"Moe, is that right?" The boy nodded, "Does your teacher know you're out?" He nodded again. "Well, your sister should be in the cafeteria." But the boy didn't move.
"Thank you for saving my sister." He whispered, gripping the hem of his shirt. Eraser Head almost laughed. They were identical, the pair of them.
"No thanks necessary, kid. Come on, let's go find her." But the boy had already dashed off.
Next it was Asui and Todoroki, who were talking about an assignment right outside the classroom. Moe tugged on Todoroki's pant leg.
"Hm? Oh."
"Hi Moe." Asui greeted kindly.
"…thank you for saving my sister." He said to them meekly.
"Of course." Said Todoroki.
"She'd do the same for us." Asui confirmed. The kid dashed away, almost instantly out of sight.
Finally, it was Bakugo, who was out back taking a nap under a tree. Moe poked his knee until he woke up.
"What?" Bakugo leered at him, not moving. "You lost?"
Moe shook his head.
"Thank you for saving my sister."
"No." Moe blinked, taken aback.
"But…"
"I'm not taking thanks for doing what's supposed to be my job at some point. I barely touched her, anyways." Moe puffed his cheeks out stubbornly.
"Thank you." He repeated.
"No." Bakugo reiterated, "Are you dumb?"
"Thank you for saving my sister."
"Jesus, don't kids have an off button?"
"Than-"
"That's it!"
The sight of Bakugo storming into the cafeteria holding Moe at arm's length, like he was a little bomb, was enough to cause more than a few laughs.
"He won't shut up." Bakugo complained, holding him out. I held out my arms to take him, but Moe turned to look at Bakugo stubbornly.
"Thank you for-"
"For god's sake, you're welcome." Bakugo interrupted, "Are you happy now, you damn brat?"
Moe gave a satisfied smile and hopped into my arms.
"Does Ms. Joke know you're out?" I asked, getting a nod, "At least there's that. Progress." I stepped toward the lunch table to set him down and felt pain shoot up my shin. I stopped, trying to hide my wince.
"Manderly?" Ida asked. I smiled.
"Yeah?"
"Stop playing tough, moron." Bakugo proceeded to kick me, which made my knee buckle.
"What the hell?" I snapped without thinking, grabbing a table to hold myself up. Moe crawled out of my arms and promptly hit Bakugo in the shins was hard as he could.
"HEY!"
"You show him." Kaminari high-fived Moe, "Now let's take your sister to the nurse, yeah?"
"I don't need the nurse." I said, trying to shake off the pain, "They told me to expect this, there's no need to make a fuss. It just doesn't help when someone kicks me!" Bakugo gave an unrepentant scoff.
"Um, Manderly." Deku said meekly, and I realized there was more of an audience than I'd thought, "I think you're better off just listening to them."
"That's right!" Kirishima boasted, holding out an arm for me to take, "No choice!"
"Alright, alright I'm going." To humor then, I put a hand on his stony forearm, keeping my other on Moe's shoulder, and let them lead the way.
.
"How long has this pain been going on?" My classmates had gone back to lunch. Since it was just me and Moe in the room with Recovery Girl, I was honest;
"Day one. I thought it was supposed to hurt for a while. It's just been sore, mostly. But sometimes I'll get those sharp pains." She seemed worried, "All due respect, I expected worse."
"Let's give it one more try, alright?"
"Fire away."
Though sleepy now, I sent Moe off to return to his class. Ms. Joke had been very nice to let him out, so he had to show he'd return without being dragged. I yawned my way to my own class.
.
There were two blissfully boring days full of essays and smalltalk. Even quirk counseling was chill: just focusing on honing my movement, keeping it fluid, making sure to keep strain away from my busted leg. Then, that ominous feeling returned.
"Today," as usual, our homeroom teacher's tone was inscrutable, "We'll be talking about something that will affect your futures as heroes."
We held our collective breath.
"The UA Sports Festival."
I wasn't the only one who deflated, though I freely admit I was relieved.
"Man, you scared me!" Kaminari protested, "That's it?"
"This is one of the biggest events in Japan." Mr. Aizawa said, "Back before quirks, we had the Olympic Games. Since those were abolished due to uneven playing fields, this event is one where the world gets to see people compete by using every weapon in their arsenal." He crossed his arms. "More importantly, many heroes will be at that event, scouting. You have internships later this semester, and it's by impressing scouts in the audience during this event that you'll get offers."
Whispers indicated everyone was taking it a bit more seriously. I hadn't even considered that; being an intern. Competing? Showing off? It sounded exhausting. I chastised myself for being lazy.
"Take the rest of the period to work on some training regimens; what techniques do you want to show off? What weakness do you have that can be easily exploited?"
"Yes, sir!"
I must have been staring at the ceiling too intently because,
"Manderly, your pencil hasn't moved." I gave a sheepish grin at the voice over my shoulder.
"Sorry, sir. I didn't realize we'd be given time for this so I, well, I already did it." I pulled a neat schedule out of my folder and presented it to him, then kept talking as he read it over, "It's similar to the schedule you gave me earlier, the general training one. This one is a bit tougher, but I have a lot more relaxing activities; stretching, walking… I'm doing daily physical therapy exercises with my leg. I figured that's one of the biggest places people could exploit, so I should get it well quickly. I've been brainstorming deterrents from being restrained, but for now I thought I'd work on close combat. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's the idea."
"You made this before class?"
"A few days ago, yes." When I was in the hospital, bored out of my mind.
"Before you knew about the sports festival?"
I didn't answer. Mr. Aizawa sighed and read it over, making notes with a red pen.
"You need to just about double your calorie intake if you're going to attempt this, also it might not be a bad idea to find a partner to work on some things with. Why not ask All Might for a training session? He should be able to muster enough speed to be a challenge, and his strength means you won't have to worry about hurting him."
"That's a great idea!" I said, "I will ask him."
"Alright, then this works. Feel free to work on homework for the rest of the time."
"Yes, sir."
I pretended not to hear the whispered conversation going on behind me.
"I don't get it, how did she know to make a training schedule already?"
"…I think she wanted to get stronger anyway."