Life had developed a rhythm at UA.

It wasn't so much boring, although it lacked excitement, as it was repetitive. Which was fine in her book. Go to class, study for mid-terms and finals, finish her homework, go shopping, cook dinner, hang out with Tsu and Mako, threaten to castrate that little pervert if he so much as snuck a glance at her panties. And last but not least, give absolutely zero shits about Bakugo's nonsense. She literally didn't have time to deal with him. And she certainly didn't have time to explain how she one-upped him on the mid-terms without studying until her eyes bled and her wrists developed carpel tunnel syndrome.

Wham! Wham!

But that had nothing to do with why she was in Gym Beta, quite possibly the only 'normal' gymnasium at UA, wearing a white shirt alongside the lower half of her PE uniform, hands covered in powered chalk and wailing on an abused punching bag at five in the afternoon on a Saturday three weeks after their work-studies finished, two weeks until their finals and a week after she'd proven smart enough to master Vlad King's advanced move. As much as she hated to think it, the guy hadn't been lying. Something like that was goddamn annoying to learn. But to figure out on his own, without anyone to give him hints or direction or tell him if he was doing it wrong?

Wham! Wham!

Her knuckles impacted the heavy bag.

Wham! Wham!

It was hard forgetting what she saw and heard.

And it was goddamn difficult forgetting everything she'd felt.

Wham! Wham!

She'd given one hundred and ten percent of her effort into putting Couturier down once and for all. She'd thrown everything at the wall, pushed herself beyond her limits and ignored her screaming body. And for what? What had she accomplished? Nothing had worked. Nothing had slowed that psycho down for more than a moment. And even that…even her best efforts…had been because the bitch held back.

Wham! Wham!

Couturier had toyed with her.

From the beginning…from the goddamn beginning…Couturier had been holding back.

Wham! Wham!

Something snapped.

Wham! Wham!

Her heart pounded.

Wham! Wham!

Her blood boiled.

Wham! Wham!

Anger crept along the edges of her mind.

Wham! Wham!

She needed to get stronger.

Wham! Wham!

A lot stronger.

Wham! Wham!

Not just for herself.

But to protect her friends.

WHAM!

Her knuckles impacted the punching bag, then twisted. The impact reverberated down her hand, up her forearm and dissipated against her shoulder. As the bag, ninety-kilogram and counting, flew upwards, reaching far enough that the metal chain bent almost in half, she stepped aside, allowing it to swing back and forth. Sweat trickled down her cheeks, pooling against her chin. She swallowed, aggravating her parched throat. Her hair laid matted against her forehead and neck. Exhausted yet not tired, she caught the punching bag mid-swing and scoffed at the picture of All Might's to-scale face she'd taped to the side.

"Hah…hah…hah…"

The water bottle was halfway to her mouth when her phone buzzed.

It was Mina.

"New! Cat! Café!"

That was all.

That was the entire message.

Three simple words.

And enough pink hearts and kitten emojis to give her a cavity.

As her mood shifted rapidly from one corner of the spectrum to the other, she parked her ass down on the nearest bench, clenched the water bottle between her teeth and unlocked her phone as more messages scrolled into view.

"OMG!"

"They have blueberry MUFFINS!"

"So tiny!"

The sheer disgust she felt at the mere thought of a themed café was violently smothered when Mina texted a literal scrapbook of pictures. At least nine. All of her, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Toru at the supposed café. One eyebrow twitching, cheek pinched between her teeth and heart plummeting into bitterness, Ryuko swiped her thumb against the screen. Pictures of muffins. Pictures of other people. Pictures of Uraraka choking on three muffins while Yaoyorozu ran behind her. More pictures of muffins. A couple of pictures of everybody getting together while women dressed as maids with fake cat ears and tails walked behind them.

At least, she seriously hoped they were fake.

"Do. They. Have. Strawberry?" she typed out each word, hit send and yawned.

She didn't even get to finish yawning before Mina telepathically communicated another textbook.

"YES!"

"You should TOTALLY come!"

"UA gets discounts!"

"Almost free!"

"Ugh…"

Revulsion, disgust and hunger fought within her soul as she stared at Mina's misspelled texts. A sour taste built inside her mouth, matched only by the knots in her stomach. Her right eyebrow twitched. God damn it, this sucked. It was an impossible choice. On one hand, she'd rather have dinner with Couturier than go inside a themed café. Especially a cat-themed café. Quite possibly the worst thing to have been invented. A disturbed shiver trickled down her spine. On the other hand, there were freshly baked and delicious strawberry muffins that pretty much melted in her mouth. She felt her stomach rumble. Her tongue licked the corners of her mouth, dragging against her teeth and lips. And the horror behind confronting something she hated almost as much as Couturier shattered in the face of instinctive desire for delicious and mouthwatering muffins.

It wasn't a choice she'd regret.

Not now.

Not ever.

"Sounds. Good," her thumbs were pale blurs on the miniature keyboard, "I'll. Be. There. In. Fifteen."

She was halfway to the lockers when her phone buzzed.

"Awesome!"

"We'll save you some muffins!"

Five minutes after texting a brief and simple 'Thanks' to Mina, hair obnoxiously soaked and PE clothes stuffed into her backpack, she swiped her ID at Gym Beta's front door, waited for the shrill beep, then hurried into the late spring afternoon plaguing Musutafu with unseasonable humid air. Sneakers slapped against asphalt before being replaced by freshly cut grass. One hand holding onto her backpack and the other hurriedly stuffing her phone into her pocket, Ryuko jogged across campus towards the former Security Wall, which was now guarded by actual heroes instead of some high-tech system brought down by a single villain. And it was only as the end came into sight, heart barely above a calm pulse and thoughts focused on whether she actually wanted strawberry muffins or something bolder, like carrot-cake, that karma threw another obstacle into her path.

"HA! HA! HA! HA!"

She must have murdered a puppy in a past life.

That was the only explanation.

"I AM HERE AFTER HOURS YET STILL WILLING TO TEACH!"

Her expression barely changed when All Might landed between herself and UA's main entrance in a three-point crouch. In fact, it didn't change at all. Maybe it was her – actually, she knew it was her. And that's why the world's symbol of peace and justice leaping halfway across campus, and wearing that tacky yellow suit, barely registered. Oh, she saw him. There was no way she couldn't miss All Might. He introduced himself with a friendly grin. Chiseled muscles pushed his cheap suit to its limit. Knuckles larger than her fingers pressed against a waistline larger than most trees as the nearly eight-foot man manifested into existence. But caring? That was a bridge too far.

"Find someone else to annoy."

And with that, she walked around the world's greatest hero.

"I…err…"

A dollop of sweat trickled down Toshinori's shadowed yet sculpted visage when Ryuko stepped around him, "…good afternoon, young Ryuko," if he'd hoped being polite was enough to patch things up, he was sorely mistaken. Ryuko was stubborn. Far more than Isshin. And that man could hold a grudge a mile long, "I was hoping to speak with you about something rather –"

"Not interested."

Ryuko didn't allow him to finish. He could be announcing something impossible, like the end of crime, every villain turning themselves in or Bakugo developing empathy and a sense of humor. It didn't change anything, "Unless you captured that freaking psycho, I really don't care about anything you have to say."

"That's precisely why I've come here."

She stopped, one foot through the entrance and the other hovering inches above the ground.

"There's not much I can say out in the open," the nearly eight-foot-tall wall of muscles and heroism's voice deepened, resembling more his emaciated appearance rather than society's impression, "Sir's implored I keep this information strictly confidential. The less who know, the better. That's all I can say for now," if she didn't know any better, she honestly believed All Might expected someone was eavesdropping on them, "You'll be called to the principal's office on Monday twenty minutes into your fourth period. But instead of going there, go to the faculty lounge."

He paused.

"I don't have all the answers. For that, I'm sorry," despite standing almost two and a half feet taller at the shoulder and strong enough to punch holes through solid concrete without sweating, Toshinori allowed part of his true self to bleed into his public persona, "But one thing I can say is that Sir's made a breakthrough regarding the support item you confiscated from Couturier during your last encounter."

Ryuko thought about answering.

She wanted to answer.

But instead, she kept her mouth shut and kept walking.