The next day came, and Aina started the morning with her normal routine. After reporting to Shuzenji she was sent to the support department to study for the day. That is where she met Mei Hatsume.
"Nutrient exchange," she exclaimed, "oh I love it, I have so many ideas for babies for you! Oh we're going to make such beautiful babies together Suzuchan."
"Um Hatsume, please don't say it like that," Aina said feeling a flush creep up the back of her neck. For the most part the course work wasn't super difficult. Their teacher Powerloader hadn't given her any long-term projects and assigned her some book work to do outside of class then stuck her with Hatsume for the class time.
"So, tell me Suzuchan, if you were to have any custom babies, what would you like them to do?"
"I don't know, if I had something to store wastes in it would make using my power more practical at times," Aina said thinking back to when she crumbled during the quirk assessment test. "Something to pull and store chemicals from or in or being able to easily transport certain plants would be cool too."
"I like it," Hatsume, "just you wait Suzuchan, I'm going to make some beautiful babies for you. Give me your number." The girls exchanged numbers, Aina wasn't sure how long she could handle Hatsume at any one given time, but the girl's willingness to help create support items with her was something she really appreciated.
Once class was over for the day Aina reported back to Shuzenji. Aina was surprised to see Midoriya in the nurse's office again. The boy was laid out on the hospital bed with an IV drip in his arm.
"Shuzenji sensei, is Midoriya okay?"
"Oh, welcome back young one. Midoriya is fine, he just had a rough day of combat training."
"Is their combat training normally like that," Aina asked nervously. If that is what their combat training looked like she really wasn't looking forward to it.
"No no, they aren't supposed to go this far. Midoriya just has a habit for getting himself injured it seems," Aina felt herself smile a little at how exasperated her teacher sounded. "How was your day with the support class."
"Interesting, Powerloader paired me with one of his students so I could study with her. Her name is Mei Hatsume."
"I've heard that name. She is such a promising new student, I'm happy he paired you two together. Now tomorrow I'll have you with the management course, so you can report to them, when they dismiss you, you'll be free for the rest of the day. On Thursday you'll be joining multiple classes for their gen ed courses so you can get all of those out of the way. Friday you'll report back to me."
"Sounds good, thank you Shuzenji sensei," an awkward silence hung in the air. Aina felt like she was dismissed, but leaving her teacher with a student still out cold in the infirmary felt wrong, "um, can I help you here at all?"
"Oh no that's fine dear, young Midoriya should be waking up soon. Enjoy the rest of your evening."
Aina bowed and thanked her before departing for the gym. She had been carrying her gym uniform around all day in anticipation of joining her new friends there. By the time Aina had changed and walked into the main gym area she could already see Kirishima and Kaminari stretching on the opposite side of the gym.
Kirishima looked up and waved her over, "Hey Suzuchan, you ready for some intense training?"
"I guess," Aina shrugged as she joined the boys for their stretches. It wasn't long before Mina had joined them, and the group began to joke around while deciding on a routine for the day.
"Okay Suzuchan, any idea what you want to focus on most," Kirishima asked, ready to think of a custom workout plan for her.
"Well, I got these notes from Aizawa sensei this morning saying what I should work on. It mostly said breathing and endurance." There had been a little more to what Aina's notes had said. Aizawa wanted her breathing and quirk to be so well controlled that she would eventually not have to breath at all for extended periods of time while in combat.
With how her quirk worked Aina knew she would need one of Hatsume's support items to make that happen. She couldn't just pull things from the air like that. Whatever substance she used she had to pull from a specific place, and she would have to give something up to take that substance from its original source. It was a give and take, not a pull.
Eventually they all decided to start with cardio. They group would run in pairs, with Mina and Aina running together first, and Kirishima and Kaminari running not far behind. The goal for that day was to see how far Aina felt she could reasonably run at one time. That way they had some sort of starting point before they set any goals for improvement for her.
"I'm telling you Suzuchan, dancing is such good cardio, you should let me teach you sometime," Mina smiled at her as Aina attempted to keep up pace with the girl.
"I'm not big on things like that Mina," Aina said through her controlled breathing.
"You're no fun Suzuchan, but I bet I'll get through to you one day. I'm telling you, it's a great way to work on a lot of different things at once- "Aina began to tune out her enthusiastic friend as she tried to focus on her breathing.
The run had been going okay, and they were halfway done when Aina felt her eyes drawn to a particular form. Off to the side there was a muscular blonde doing pull ups. She remembered what the boy's name was from the Quirk Assessment Test, Katsuki Bakugou. Aina had never been super interested in boys, which she supposed was partially due to the fact that there weren't many other people her age around in her hometown. Let alone any attractive boys her age.
Since her time at UA she had found herself looking at them way more than ever had before. Being surrounded by so many attractive people would do that to a person, and Bakugou was definitely an attractive person.
He wasn't attractive in the same way Kirishima or Kaminari were. There was something distinctly intense about Bakugou's energy that she felt demanded her attention. Even in the school's gym uniform she could tell the boy was in tremendous shape. Between his exposed sinewy arms and calves to the way his sweat dampened shirt clung to his shoulders he was an impressive figure. One that was hard for her to look away from before her friend could catch were Aina's gaze was locked.
"Bakugou huh," Mina said snapping her friend from her trance while wiggling her eyebrows.
"What," Aina gasped before she tripped over her own feet landing face first on the track.
"Woah Suzuchan you okay," Kaminari asked as he and Kirishima caught up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Aina said as she grabbed the hand Kirishima had offered her.
"I'm sorry Aina, I didn't mean to throw you off like that," Mina quickly examined her friend for any potential injury, "Aina, your nose is bleeding."
"Wha-what," Aina reached up to her face and sure enough a thin trickle of blood was dripping from her left nostril.
"Geez Suzuchan, maybe you should go to the nurse. We can always meet up to train another time," Kirishima said as he watched Mina show Aina how to properly pinch her nose and tilt her head back to slow the bleed.
"Um, yeah probably," Aina sighed, "sorry guys, I can be a little clumsy at times."
"All good Suzuchan, we'll just have to keep a closer eye on you," Kaminari winked at her. This whole situation was beginning to become a little much for Aina, it wasn't even that bad of a nosebleed.
"Alright guys, I think I'll go with Suzuchan to the nurse's office. Would hate for her to knock herself out somehow on her way there," Mina teased, "I'll see you guys tomorrow." The group said their goodbyes before Mina began to lead Aina out of the gym.
'Ugh, what is sensei gonna say when she sees I can't even run a lap on the track without hurting myself,' Aina sighed, dreading having to face her teacher like this. Even with her current thoughts she still found herself subconsciously sparing a glance at the explosive blonde from class 1-A, still doing pull ups, completely unaware of what just happened.
Once they were out of earshot of the gym Mina let out the laughter, she had been holding in. "Geez Suzuchan, if I had known you were this nervous about boys, I wouldn't have said anything."
"It wasn't like that Mina. I was just a little caught off guard okay."
"Uh huh, looks there is no shame in it. I just had you pegged as someone that would be more into the strong silent type. You have seen Todoroki right?"
"Really Mina, it isn't like that. I've just never seen so many different people around before. It's disorientating, my eyes are just drawn people whose names I can remember."
"Or so you remember Bakugou after having only attended a single class with him? Even though you guys weren't even introduced," Mina waggled her eyebrows suggestively, "maybe you didn't hit the floor as hard as we thought. Maybe the nosebleed is a different kind of response."
Aina simply glared from around her hand that was still pinching her nose, "stop."
Mina chuckled before lifting her hands in defense, "just messing Suzuchan, besides who in their right mind would like Bakugou? Talk about a death wish. You know what this whole thing has proved to me though?"
Aina glared at her friend warning her to pick her next words carefully, "you need dance lessons. It would help a lot with your balance and reflexes. You could easily catch yourself when you fall, if you even ever fall again after my expert teaching," Mina gave her smile.
Aina just sighed, Mina was never going to drop the dance thing, "fine, but just you and me please. No additional people tell I feel more comfortable."
"Of course, Suzuchan," Mina reassured her friend before talking about all the ideas for dance things she wanted to do together.
When the two girls finally reached Recovery Girl it hadn't taken long for her to begin scolding her about how it was too early in the school year for her to be hurt. Shuzenji sat Aina down on the bed that was now empty and stood on a chair so she could look at Aina's nose. "It doesn't appear to be injured; however, you should be more careful. I won't have my student be a frequent patient of mine. If you make this a habit, you'll need to learn how to heal yourself." Aina apologized to her sensei as the nurse tended her nose. "Now miss Ashido, you're dismissed. Miss Suzuki will have to talk to again tomorrow.
"Um okay, later Suzuchan, glad you're okay," Aina waved after Mina as her friend quickly fled the nurse's office, eager to escape the old lady's clearly agitated presence.
"There is a change of plans, tomorrow you'll be reporting to me in the morning. You should know some basic first aid before you train with the hero courses. I should have realized that before now," Shuzenji inwardly cursed herself, she hadn't had a student in so long she forgot how to properly adapt to their needs, "Tuesday you'll still be with the gen ed students, but Friday you'll be back with class 1-A, I'll make sure to inform Aizawa this time so he can have you in his lesson plan."
"I'm sorry Shuzenji sensei," Aina felt as if this was her fault. She had clearly done something wrong and upset her teacher.
"Hm, don't worry young one, it's an oversight on my part. Now go get some rest dear, I'll see you in the morning." Aina quickly left, she was halfway to her dorm before she realized her uniform was still in a gym locker. She groaned before turning around and heading back towards the locker rooms.
After retrieving her uniform and phone from her locker Aina began her long walk back to her dorm. She looked at her phone screen to see an unread message, most likely from Mina. Aina was so distracted by her phone she didn't even notice the other student walking by outside the locker rooms.
"Hey, watch it extra," she didn't even have to look to know who had just shoved her shoulder so hard that she thudded against the wall. Her phone hit the floor with a clatter that echoed throughout the hall. She gazed at his retreating back, he didn't hesitate for a second to see who he had ran into or what had fallen to the floor.
Mina's words from earlier rang in her mind, 'who in their right mind would be interested in Bakugou? Talk about a death wish.' But even though the warning was fresh she couldn't stop herself from staring just a little too long as he walked away.