April 10th, 2017 (same day)

Tap. "Hey." Tap-tap. "Hey, wake up miss." Tap-taptap. "Please wake up now." Taptaptaptaptaptap.

God, that's annoying. Who the hell keeps hitting my face? Ayano opened her eyes, but only for part of a second before squeezing them closed again. Ow, fuck that's a bright light.

There was a short conversation around her, but for a few seconds, all Ayano could focus on was how fucking bright it was.

She mumbled, mostly to herself, "Would someone mind turning that damn light off?" Her arm was now covering her eyes as she sat up slowly.

A boy's voice next to her, "Uh, do you mean the sun?"

Ayano cringed at herself. Oops. Wait, why am I outside? She turned to the boy beside her who was talking to the tall guy getting ready to leave. She shaded her eyes from the light reflecting off the buildings as she studied the messy haired pre-teen. Oh, I know him… Izuku, right?

"Hey… Izuku?" The boy looked over at her. She smiled a bit, cool, got his name right, "Uhh, how did I get here?"

Izuku was clearly distracted by whoever was behind him, "All Might saved us from that liquid villain, then waited for us to wake up." He looked back at his friend to see she was still confused, but All Might was about to leave and if he doesn't commit now-

As fast as his fingers were able, Izuku found Ayano's phone and dialed her mom. The same mom that was a hero for eight years named Speedshot before retiring to raise her child. As soon as he hit 'call', he pushed the cell to Ayano and rushed to cling to his idol as he leapt into the air.

Ayano slowly put the phone to her ear as she tried to process that her friend just jumped onto All Might to hitch a ride.

The line went through, "Ayano? I was just about to call you, believe it or not." There was a lot of background noise, she must have been busy with the comic/manga store she managed part-time.

"I'd believe it, Izuku just called you, shoved my phone at me, then rode All Might's back into the sun."

There was a loud laugh, "Oh, thank you Aya-chan, I needed a good laugh right now." Her next words weren't directed at her daughter, "No, no, not there! Those belong on the other side of the store!" Her voice came through clearly again, "Ayano, my favorite child, would you mind picking up some groceries on your way home? I know the shopping center is a bit out of your way but I just remembered-"

"No need to explain, Mama." And the longer I listen the worse my headache gets, "Hey, do you have any tips for a headache?"

"Headache? Did you hit your head?" Her tone changed immediately to worry for her daughter.

Ayano thought through what Izuku had told her of what happened, but he didn't say anything about her hitting her head. "Not that I know, but-"

"Oi!" Ayano's ears rang with her mother's outburst, "You get your drink any closer to the merchandise you're gonna be paying for it!" Her voice lowered a few octaves, "I'm sorry your head is hurting, you can pick up some meds while you're at the store. Tylenol or Ibuprofen, not both. I'll add it to the list I'm about to text you."

"Uh, alright. Love you, mom." Ayano wasn't sure if that outcome was what Izuku wanted when he shoved her phone at her.

"Love you too, Aya! See you tonight. Bye! Takeshi, can you please-" The line cut while her mom was speaking.

Ayano felt like she had accomplished next to nothing. Her phone buzzed and she checked the text from her mom. Ugh, there are a lot of things on here… She would need to go to the shopping center, no convenience store would have everything on the list.

For the sake of her eyes, she pulled out her hoodie and pulled it on. She avoided muscle memory telling her to pull her hair out of the collar, since the next step was to pull the hood up to shield her face. She sighed with relief as her eyes adjusted to the sidewalk. Her figure might have been creepy, if she wasn't wearing a Mirko-inspired sweater with wire bunny ears to top it off. It had been a gift from Inko-san after Ayano mentioned that the hopping hero was her favorite Japanese hero once or twice.

Out of nowhere, there was a huge explosion that vibrated the ground from the direction she was walking. Oh great, some villain had to choose the least opportune moment to attack the shopping center. The black ploom of smoke made her sinuses burn. She might've been more focused on the fight if her head wouldn't pound with every little noise the crowd or conflict made. Ayano would have just tried her best to ignore the spectacle, if a familiar voice didn't make her freeze.

"AHHH! You picked the wrong guy to mess with!" No way… she had just seen the asshole at school, he couldn't be in the middle of a villain attack! But as the hooded girl shoved her way through the crowd, her stomach dropped as she caught a few glimpses of the livid and terrified blonde boy. "I'm gonna send you back to whatever sewer you crawled out of! LET ME GOO!" He used his powerful quirk, but it had no effect on the liquid villain covering his body, the blasts just made the heroes trying to help move further away.

The sludge villain's familiar gravelly voice made Ayano's head pound, "You've got so much power! I really hit the jackpot. With a quirk like yours under my control, I can take All Might down with one punch!"

Ayano was able to get to the front of the crowd, but she couldn't go any further because of the heroes lined up in front of her. The people around her were asking where All Might was, which caused Ayano to remember seeing the number one hero less than an hour ago. Along with a vague memory of Izuku flying away with him, but that didn't seem quite right.

Before anyone had the chance to react, a kid in a middle school uniform zipped right past Ayano and the heroes towards Katsuki. Her pounding headache got worse when she recognized the red shoes and yellow backpack on said middle schooler.

"No, you idiot!" The hero with a caution tape themed outfit yelled out, "Stop, you're gonna get yourself killed!"

"Izuku!" Shit! What kind of dumbass- Ayano took a step forward, her fuzzy and confused mind clouding her judgement.

The hero dressed in white with a yellow cape put his arm in front of her. "Nice try, it's enough of a shit-show as is." He shoved her back towards the crowd. She would have lost balance if it weren't for the wall of people behind her.

"You're toast kid!" The sentient pile of goop-now suffocating Katsuki by stuffing itself in his mouth?!-raised its arm to attack Izuku.

"Take this!" The aspiring hero threw his open backpack with just enough luck that a notebook fell out and hit the villain's eye. The villain reeled back, losing grip of Katsuki's face for a few precious seconds. He took short wheezing breaths, coughing with each intake of air. Izuku was still running towards the chaos, "Kacchan!" He made it to the blonde and immediately started digging into the villain with his fingers.

"What the hell!? Why are you here!?" Even if he's about to die, his ego won't quit… His body was no longer visible, only his face was clear of the disgusting goop. Ayano tried to think of a way to help, but she was barely able to stand, let alone try to trap the huge villain with equally huge bubbles.

"I don't know- my legs, they just started moving!" Despite Izuku's efforts, the sludge was moving back to cover Katsuki's face. Ayano had no idea if her next idea would work, but it was the only one she had. While holding onto a pole for balance, she used her quirk to make a yellow protection bubble surrounding Katsuki's mouth and nose. Not a second too soon, the goop covered his face again. Izuku was hopelessly trying to dig him out, "Kacchan, I couldn't just stand there and watch you die!"

Katsuki was thrashing around as much as he could, "Get the HELL OFF MEE!"

The villain was already confident in his victory, "Just a little bit- wait, there's something in the way?!" Ayano felt a push on her bubble, the villain looked back at Izuku with a glare, "I'll deal with that in a sec. Anyway, I'm done playing with you!"

"Save the boy, this thing will kill him!" The heroes rushed forward, but anyone watching could tell they wouldn't make it in time.

Ayano was already tired from the small bubble fighting off the sludge on Katsuki's face, but she still tried to create a bigger yellow dome to cover Izuku. The villain's arm came crashing down. There was a big blast that created a cloud of smoke, but Ayano didn't feel any force applied to her dome. The smoke made it hard to tell what happened right away, but Ayano's big dome 'popped' out of existence barely half a second after she created it.

All Might's voice in the distance was quiet at first, but it rose in volume, "...That's the true test of a hero!" Ayano coughed as the dust cloud got closer to her, then covered her face with her sweater.

The sludge villain's angry voice came out more distressed than before, "Damn you All Might!" The smoke cleared enough to see the sludge villain was about to try to squash All Might like a bug.

All Might reached into the slime to grab Katsuki, "Detroit… SMASH!" The villain separated and splattered everywhere with the force of the punch. The wind almost blew everyone watching away with the villain, but Ayano held fast to her pole. A few more people crowded the metal pole, hugging it and each other for dear life. The terrifying wind only lasted half a second, then everyone was staring at the number one hero in awe.

He was still bent over from the monumental punch, his hand steaming from the force it just exuded. Both Izuku and Katsuki's arms were in his other hand, a showcase of just how big the hero was. He laid them down as the sky turned gray. The civilians and heroes around Ayano were staring at the sky, amazed that All Might's punch turned the barely cloudy weather into pouring rain.

But the blue eyed girl was focused on one spot. She didn't even realize she was running towards the two boys laying on the ground until she was falling face forward into the cement. Just before she hit the ground, someone caught her. Only then, as she passed out into some hero's arms, did she register the 'pop' from the bubble she made for Katsuki.

She could hear Izuku's voice, then another familiar, much more impatient, tone.

"Ayano? Ayano, wake up, please."

"Damnit, wake up! Ayano! They're gonna stab you with needles if you don't wake up!"

She scrunched her face in annoyance, but it sounded like someone else smacked Katsuki for her. From the sound of their voice, it sounded like Katsuki's mom, Mitsuki-san.

Ayano didn't want to open her eyes, but she spoke to let them know she wasn't dead, "Thank you, Mitsuki-san. I would have done it myself if my head wasn't splitting itself in half."

An unfamiliar voice to her right, "Where does it hurt?"

"Uhh," Ayano regrettably opened her eyes to see she was in an ambulance. That made the thing she was lying on a gurney. Oh, hell no. "I'm fine, no need to go to the hospital-"

"Nice try honey," The medic next to her noticed she had tensed after realising where she was. "As long as it's not too serious, the most you'll have is an overnight stay."

"No, thank you," Ayano made to sit up, but the vertigo it caused made her lay back down with a groan.

The medic ignored her halfhearted protests while she did her check up, "Now, do you remember hitting your head?"

Remembering made her brain hurt, but she nodded slowly, "I think we were… Under the bridge?"

Izuku piped up, "Oh! When the villain attacked us on the way home from school!"

A few of her memories made more sense, "Yeah, um, he hit my bubble, then I hit the bridge." The medic was pushing on parts of Ayano's head lightly trying to find any abnormalities. When her fingers brushed a spot in the back left side of her skull, Ayano sucked air through her teeth. She reached out and held the medic's arm, "Ok, ow."

"You gotta let her do her job, sweetheart." Ayano's nari was poking their brunette head into the ambulance.

Ayano smiled, "Hey, Nari. How was work?"

Sora smiled back as they stepped up next to their daughter, "It was pretty typical, until I got a panicked call from Izuku saying that you were in a coma."

The snort that came from Ayano jerked her head enough to make her wince, which made her nari's face twist into worry.

"Although it's not quite a coma, head injuries are no joke. That headache you told your mom about might have something to do with this?"

Ayano had almost forgotten the conversation with her mom, "Uhh, I guess so? I didn't remember hitting my head then though, so we both just thought it was-" Then she remembered the rest of the conversation, "Crap!" She almost facepalmed but Sora stopped her by grabbing her wrist.

"What's wrong?" Izuku had just gotten scolded for acting the hero when he came back to check on his friend.

"I forgot to get the groceries mom asked for…"

It was Sora's turn to snort and giggle in amusement, "I think she can manage to get them herself. She's setting up the house for you right now, Mimi was nice enough to take over the store for her. If we can convince your incredibly patient medic, we might be able to monitor you at home tonight instead of sticking you in the hospital."

Ayano's smile grew as they spoke, ending with her making puppy dog eyes at the woman wrapping a bandage around her head. The woman sighed before raising three fingers, "There are three rules," She ignored Ayano's fist pump of victory, "One, someone has to wake you up every two hours tonight to ask you questions, where are you, what's your birthday, things like that." Ayano caught her nari making alarms on their phone already. "Two, change that bandage tomorrow morning, very carefully, with this one." She handed a rolled up bandage to Sora. "Three, no moving your head around too fast for at least three weeks, no jogging, no roughhousing, and be careful about turning your head." She seemed to remember something after a second, "Do you have a quirk?"

"Yeah, what does that-"

"Four, no use of your quirk for a month."

"What?! You only said three rules!" Ayano was annoyed as hell, she wanted to at least practice while she was damn near bedridden!

"Yeah, but due to those boys' stories, you using your quirk so excessively is probably what made you pass out in the first place." She pointed out the doors at Katsuki and Izuku, which made Ayano turn to glare at them both. Izuku looked away, but Katsuki just glared back. "And anyway, concusions aren't something to brush off, your brain just pounded around inside your skull. Give it time to heal, using your quirk will only make the healing take longer."

Sora helped a grumbling Ayano out of the ambulance, then supported her on the way to their car. They offered a ride home to the two boys, but they turned him down, insisting that the walk wasn't far. Both of them seemed lost in thought.

"Really? Am I that terrible to be around?" She said it in jest, but when neither of the boys responded, the question lingered in her mind. Ayano's slightly shaky hands closed the passenger door and watched the city pass by on the way home. Did I do something wrong? Nothing came to mind, but a lot of people have told her she can be clueless 'when she wants to be'.

As she finally drifted off to sleep that night, there were many thoughts running through Ayano's mind. One seemed to pop up consistently, however. This month is gonna be hell.

あきら End Chapter 9 あやの