There's a lot more people here than I thought there would be…

Leinei looks over her shoulder at each of the filled seats, seeing mostly sidekicks from Starlite. Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shoto sat in the row behind her, Natsuo offering a smile while Shoto gave a small wave. She returns the wave, feeling still a little anxious she sees Eia with Noa and his two kids, Backdraft, Kamui Woods, Mt. Lady. A few other heroes had shown like Keigo said, but they were all lower ranked than she had thought. Even Detective Tsukauchi makes an appearance, wearing his trenchcoat with his hat in his lap out of respect.

"Well, alright, this is certainly a lot more people than I thought would show up," Keigo chuckles nervously at the front of the room, standing in the space between the two photos of Reina. "First, I just want to thank everyone for taking the time out of their schedule to come. I know Elementia may have been a pain to work with, or for those who've known her personally know how she can be." A few chuckles ripple through the crowd, even Leinei cracking a smile at the nervousness wafting off Keigo.

"For those who are not aware at this point, or have not read a single piece of media in the past few days, I am her older brother. By just four months, she would tell me," he adds with a small chuckle. He slips his hands into his slacks' pockets, trying to hide the way his fingers are twitching. He glances at Leinei, who's gripping her hands together in her lap. "I'm pretty sure she would kick my ass for the way we're all dressed in black. She always hated the color. As anyone knows, red is her thing. That and not knowing how to cook."

Oh please god don't remind me.

"So, I'm going to leave the floor open if anyone has anything they wanna say. Short or long, or just whatever they feel needs to be said about Reina, or Elementia, or both. I'm going to stop talking now."

Keigo sits next to Leinei, his eyes clenched shut as he cringes in embarrassment. She offers him a gentle pat on the shoulder, trying to force a smile and almost failing. He tugs at the tie around his neck, trying to loosen it before stopping for a moment to think and fix it back in place.

"I usually give much better speeches," he mutters to himself, hanging his head. This sucks. Then again, it's not really like I expected Reina to die. I've been working on the Hero Ranking one for weeks.

"Well, I suppose I should say something," Eia chuckles, standing up and sweeping her short hair behind her ear. She walks up to the front of the room, smiling softly at the pictures of her late boss before clearing her throat and turning to face everyone. "My name is Eia, and I have worked with Elementia since the opening of Starlite. Um, well, I think what impressed me the most about her is that she was so willing to take people with not so heroic quirks who just wanted to help, but anyone who knew her knew who she hired. Despite the stigma against our quirks, and her quirk being what it was, she took us in and trained us to cover any gaps in our knowledge we may have had from our own lackluster training. I wouldn't be in the situation I am in today without her, and it breaks my heart that she died so young before anyone could realize what she was actually trying to do.

'But," she adds, smiling at Leinei. "I know she died doing what she thought was right and had no regrets beyond spending more time with her family. She wanted her agency to be something of her legacy and something to be passed down through her family, something to be proud of. So when you're ready, we'll be here too. Starlite is just as much of your family as anything else."

Leinei bites the inside of her cheek, nodding as Eia takes a breath and heads back to her seat. Keigo nudges her gently, his turn to check on her. A weak smile and a nod reassures him just enough. He leans over quietly.

"If you need to step out, you're fine," he whispers just so she can hear him. "You made an appearance. That's all that the Commission will care about. You don't have to make a speech. You don't have to listen to anything else."

"I think I will," she murmurs, nodding once before standing up and hurriedly walking out. She doesn't want to cry anymore.

'She just abandoned you again,' Dabi's voice hisses in the back of her head as she finds her way to one of the back rooms that were dark and empty. She sits in one of the corners, leaning her head back against the wall as she closes her eyes. 'That's all she has ever done is abandon you. And blamed you for it.'

She can't say anything, scared to even breathe at this point. She was trying to figure out exactly how much attention at that point she had drawn to herself when she ran out the way she did. How many people were going to be talking about the depression she'd start going through due to the loss of her beloved heroic sister who died in the line of duty. How many were going to twist the truth until it became Leinei's fault that Reina died, why the Supporting Star was never going to shine again.

"Salinsa?"

She sniffles and rubs the heels of her palms into her eyes, taking a breath before looking up and seeing Shoto standing there. He tilts his head towards the empty spot next to her before sitting down and crossing his legs in front of him.

"Hey, what's up?" she asks, clearing her throat after hearing how pitiful she sounds. "Sorry your siblings dragged you out of school for this."

"Eh, it's fine," he replies, shrugging and leaning his head back with his eyes closed. "Bakugo was pretty mad he didn't get to go. Why isn't he here?"

"I asked him not to come," she shrugs, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them. "He has enough to worry about. I didn't want him stressing himself out about this too."

"I guess that makes sense. I never would've guessed Hawks was your brother."

"I know, it's a surprise huh?" she laughs, the noise strained. "Yeah, Katsu was shocked too."

"I bet. Are you going to Sir Nighteye's funeral tomorrow?"

"Sir Nighteye died?"

"I thought Midoriya told you."

"No, I've been kinda preoccupied. He might've texted me, but I dunno. He and I don't talk much either way."

"Yeah I could've guessed that from you being with Bakugo. He and Midoriya have never gotten along as far as I can tell."

"They used to be friends when they were younger, but you guys have watched them longer than I have."

"I mean, not really. You did still transfer in early enough. You missed Bakugo almost exploding Midoriya during a training exercise during our first week."

"Isn't that normal?"

"I suppose so. They seem to be getting along a lot better now."

"Yeah, I've been told I'm a good influence on him."

"Could you use some of that influence on my family?" he asks, partially cracking a smile. "I mean, Natsuo still has middle son syndrome."

"So what? You want me to come quirk him until he's nice?"

"Just until he stops cracking cringy dad jokes."

"He does cringy dad jokes? Keigo does ever cringier bird jokes. Half the things out of his mouth are bird analogies."

"Are you serious?" he gasps, his eyes wide as he leans off the wall. "There's no way."

"I'm dead serious." She flinches at her own choice of words, the humor suddenly lost from the conversation. Shoto notices the shift and looks down at the floor peeking between his legs, starting the pick at a not so loose thread in his slacks.

"I never thanked you," she murmurs after a few minutes. "For I Island."

"You don't have to," he dismisses, shaking his head. "Your quirk isn't suited for combat against robots. Bakugo's and mine are. Besides, you held your own where you could."

"Yeah, I guess," she murmurs, hugging her knees tighter. Shoto glances at her, unsure of what else to say in this situation. He lifts his hand and gently places it between her shoulder blades, just like he did that day in Hosu. He almost takes it away when she stiffens.

"You're not going to throw up because I touched you again, are you?"

"No," she assures, rolling her eyes at his shitty excuse for a joke. "No, I'm not, Shochan."

"Good," he chuckles, rubbing her back in circles for a few seconds before taking his hand away. "Can..I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"...do you not like being around me because of Touya and what happened?"

"What?" She looks up at him, confused. "No. What? Why would what happened to Touya have any effect on our friendship?"

"Because it did when we were younger. And you were one of the first people then to reach out to me, and it just ended up backfiring because of what happened. And I saw how you flinched and stuff when I came to see you after we moved into the dorms and it kinda just bugged me, I guess. Fuyumi keeps bringing up all these memories and Mom talks about you and your sister too, and I just feel like I missed out on a lot because of what happened."

Seven hells, what is with people unloading trauma on me? Is this because of my quirk?

"Touya and I were close, yeah, but I wouldn't let that affect us now. We're friends, regardless of what happened in the past. Yes sometimes you remind me of Touya, but you're still you and you're not him. You'll always be the Shochan that made me porcupines in the middle of the night."

"..." He can't help but smile a bit, nodding his head slightly as he tilts it to the side. They both can hear shuffling in the other room, low voices talking amongst each other as the funeral seemingly wraps up. "Are you ready to go back out?"

"Not really. I didn't even want to do a funeral. Keigo said we had to."

"That's fair."

"Shochan, can we make a promise?"

"Hm?"

"No more funerals? Not until we're adults and old?"

"Yeah," he agrees, nodding. "I think we can make that promise."