Welcome back! I'm surprised I updated this quickly tbh. My muse is just kicked into high gear right now oop.

This is the last chapter before the Sports Festival arc. This first arc dealt with a lot of set-up of Nomi's background and Quirk, so now that she's been immersed, I can't wait to get into the rest of the story and have her interact more with the canon characters.

As always, thanks for reading!

Chapter Six

Unexpected Encounters

Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi had seen many things in his years on the force, but standing outside of U.A. High School's Unforeseen Simulation Joint with dozens of unconscious and injured criminals, twenty or so heroes-in-training, and a smoking hole in the domed roof of the complex where a freak of nature had plowed through after one of All Might's mighty hits certainly claimed the top spot. It was surely one of the boldest moves he had ever seen villains make in his career. It reminded him of the lawless, anarchic days before All Might appeared as the Symbol of Peace, and today's attack did not bode well in his heart.

He tapped the rim of his bowler hat in tandem as he counted the U.A. students to make sure all were accounted for, sans the freckled and green-haired boy with the broken legs they had found next to All Might's deflated form in the center of U.S.J. They were all there—rattled, shaken, but fine—except for one more until he spotted her being carried out on a stretcher.

One of the U.A. girls gasped, her round face creasing in worry when she saw the prone form of her classmate. "Nomi? What happened to her?"

The U.A. students watched, worried, as the paramedics took the dark-haired girl toward an ambulance. Blood coated one side of her face and an oxygen mask rested over her nose and mouth, but Tsukauchi had been assured that she wasn't injured, merely unconscious. The blood was simply a side effect of using her Quirk too much, he had been told by a paramedic, and the oxygen had been given to the three students who had been trapped in the conflagration zone.

"I think she used her Quirk too much," a boy with a fleshy, fur-tipped tail said quietly to the girl who had spoken earlier. "Her right eye had tears of blood coming out of it. It was freaky."

As Tsukauchi watched, the girl on the stretcher suddenly opened her eyes as if she'd overheard the conversation about her. One of the paramedics yelped and dropped his half of the stretcher, and the girl audibly groaned when it rattled against the pavement.

"Sorry, sorry!" the paramedic said, rushing to grab the stretcher again. "Your eye—I just—"

The girl groaned again and sat up, ripping off her oxygen mask. "Yeah, I get that a lot. What happened? Where am I? Are the others okay?"

"Your classmates are fine, miss," Tsukauchi said, holding up a hand. The paramedics stopped walking and stood back as the detective gave her a kind smile. Her right eye—her Quirk, he assumed—was squinted shut, but her left eye, clear and a pale lilac color, looked back at him in relief. "In fact, they're just over there."

He pointed, and the round-faced girl from earlier jumped and waved. "Nomi! You're awake! Thank goodness! Are you all right?"

The girl—Nomi—gave her friend a reassuring grin. "Fine. Thanks, Uraraka." She turned back to Tsukauchi before any of her other classmates could say anything, and he was taken aback by the look of utter seriousness she pinned him with. "All Might? Did he come? Is he safe?"

Tsukauchi nodded slowly. "Yes, All Might arrived shortly after the attack began. He's with Recovery Girl now, along with your classmate, Izuku Midoriya."

Her eye widened in alarm. "Midoriya? Is he okay? Is All Might? Is he injured?"

"Only minorly," Tsukauchi assured. "And young Midoriya will make a full recovery, as well. You can relax."

If anything, his words only served to agitate her more. She swung her legs off the stretcher and snapped "I'm fine" to the paramedic who tried to stop her.

"They were after All Might," she said, pointing to a group of bound criminals that were being led toward a squad car by several police officers. "They had a leader; a guy covered in hands. He talked about killing All Might."

He nodded. "Yes, your classmates were saying the same things. We're going to get you all back to the school and take your statements there after contacting your parents."

She nodded as well, taking in the scene with one squinted eye and pursed lips. There was still blood on the side of her face, but Tsukauchi found it prudent not to say anything. The girl was taller than most of her classmates and looked far more severe, especially with the scars around her Quirk-eye. Instead, he cleared his throat and gestured to her classmates. "If you're cleared with the paramedics, you can join your friends."

"She's cleared," one of the paramedics said hastily when the girl turned to face him. It was the one she had spooked earlier, and he looked uneasy, refusing to make eye contact with her. Tsukauchi wondered what her Quirk was to inspire such fear. "She can go."

Tsukauchi nodded again, giving his assent, and she left to join the cluster of her classmates. She made a beeline to the boy with the tail and a boy wearing an obnoxious set of gleaming armor, dulled by soot, and he watched as she put her hands on each of their shoulders in clear relief.

Tsukauchi couldn't help but smile to himself. Between the brave actions of Izuku Midoriya, this girl, and the rest of Class 1-A of the Hero Course, he had high hopes for the next generation of heroes.

By the time they were finally escorted back to U.A.'s main campus, school was over, and the grounds were deserted save for a few faculty members and Principal Nezu, who had ridden back with them. It felt like hours before they were released to change back into their school uniforms and go home.

The girls' changing room was quiet as Nomi stripped off her costume. The bubbly, exciting atmosphere from earlier that day—had it really been the same day? Nomi wondered—was gone, smothered with tension and subdued by a nagging worry. Aizawa and Thirteen, they had learned, were in the hospital being treated for injuries they had sustained protecting the class, and All Might and Midoriya had also been injured. Though they'd been assured their teachers and classmate would all make full recoveries, the shock of being attacked by villains was still like fresh salt in their wounds.

Mina closed the lid to her costume case and loosed a shaky breath. It caught the attention of all the girls, and they stopped and looked at her.

"That was scary," she said, her voice tremulous, but she forced a smile onto her pink face, nonetheless. "I'm glad you're all okay, though."

Uraraka nodded. "Me too."

Asui frowned. "I hope Sensei will be all right."

Nomi turned, finished changing. "Asui, you said he fought that thing…the Nomu, right?"

"Yes. And call me Tsu."

Nomi hadn't seen the creature called the Nomu that had fought Aizawa and All Might, but based on her classmates' descriptions, it had been a nightmarish beast—an experiment bred with multiple Quirks in order to defeat and kill All Might. The notion sent a cold trickle of fear down her spine.

"The police and paramedics both assured us that he would be okay," said Momo Yaoyoruzu with confidence, but there was still a pinch between her eyebrows as she slid on her hallway shoes.

"Well, like Mina said," Kyoka Jiro said. "I'm glad we're all safe now."

Hagakure shivered. "Thank goodness they're giving us some time off. My stomach is still in knots."

"Same." Nomi shut her locker and sighed, rubbing at her eye.

Uraraka noticed and gave her a concerned look. "You should go home and get some rest, Nomi. Ojiro said you used your Quirk a lot today."

It was true; her head pounded, and her demon eye felt like she'd squeezed a lemon into it, but she only gave the other girl a small smile. "You guys, too." She picked up her costume case and waved as she left. "Get home safely. Keep in touch. You have my number now."

She returned to the empty classroom to put her case away, casting an anxious glance to the teacher's podium as she did. Despite the assurances that Aizawa was going to recover, she still worried. Tsu had told them about the Nomu fight, and Mineta hadn't skimped on the bloody details, and imagining her teacher broken and battered made her stomach churn.

Less worrisome was that she would now have to wait to talk to Aizawa about how her Quirk acted up at U.S.J. She was still frightened over what had occurred, and she didn't quite know how to process it, either. During her questioning, Detective Tsukauchi—the man she'd met after being carried out of U.S.J.—had informed her that the villains she'd stunned in the fire zone were responsive, meaning that her Quirk had eventually worn off. But for it to suddenly go haywire like that and be able to still affect people after she'd broken eye contact…

She shook her head, coming back to reality when her phone vibrated in her blazer pocket. She fished it out and opened the new text message from her dad: Outside whenever you're ready.

She stashed her phone and turned to leave just as Katsuki Bakugo slouched into the room, his own costume case in hand. Besides a few scrapes and bruises, he looked untouched, only bestowing her a passing glance as he returned his case. Nomi lingered, uncertain if she should say anything to the foul-tempered boy. He'd already proved himself volatile and coarse, but he was still her classmate.

"Hey," she said, turning back to him. He glanced over his shoulder as he stored his case on its rightful shelf. "You okay?"

"What's it look like?" he retorted. He hiked his bag up his shoulder and brushed past her again. She rolled her eyes and followed him out of the classroom.

"Sorry," she said to his back as they walked down the hallway. "Just trying to show some common courtesy. You know—like a decent human being."

He scoffed without turning around. His voice was deep and raspy as he spoke, and she realized it was the first time she'd ever heard him not yelling.

"I know you only have one eye right now, but it's clear that I'm fine. Worry about someone else."

She ran a finger over her eyepatch in agitation. "Wow. You really are a piece of work."

"At least I haven't failed the hero course."

"Yet," she snapped back. "It's not like that attitude is gonna get you far."

They'd reached the school's entrance by then. Bakugo paused, one hand ready to push the door open, and finally looked at her, his crimson eyes were narrowed.

She stopped, too, her muscles tensing. She was sore and fatigued from the day's events, but if he wanted a fight, he'd get one.

But all he said was, "Just watch me."

He pushed his way outside and left her standing alone in the golden glow of the sunset before the door shut again, sealing her inside.

"Villains attacking?!"

Her father's mutterings punctuated the air of the small car he drove with Nomi in the passenger seat. Some talk show played on the radio, and she had half a mind to turn it up just to drown out the same five things her father had repeated a hundred times in the last ten minutes: "Villains attacking?!" "But you're okay, yes?" "Did the police catch them?" "Are you sure you're okay?" "You're positive that you're fine?"

Nomi sighed, perching her elbow on the windowsill. "Dad, I'm fine. I promise. Detective Tsukauchi already told you everything. The perpetrator is still at large, but at least two dozen or more villains have been rounded up." She held up a hand when he opened his mouth. "I'm fine. Eyes on the road."

Her father swerved back into his own lane, narrowly missing a parked car on the edge of the street. Yu Katsuragi was a man on the smaller side, both in terms of stature and personality, but his stress over his daughter was enough to swallow them both whole.

He shook his head in disbelief, thankfully adhering to the traffic laws again. "Sorry, honey. I'm just…shocked. U.A. always seemed so safe…"

"It still is," she said quickly, just in case he started thinking about pulling her out or something. "Principal Nezu said they were going to strengthen their security measures, anyway, right? So, nothing to worry about."

Her father didn't look convinced. In the streetlights, the bags under his eyes were more pronounced than ever, the gray in his black hair starting to show just a little more than usual. "I just want you to be safe, Nochan. More than anything. You know that."

She sighed again, turning to the window. "Yes, I do."

Her phone buzzed again in her lap. It had been blowing up ever since her dad had picked her up from school.

TAE MOMOTE: OMG ANSWER YOUR PHONE ALREADY!

SENZO WATASE: Please text back. Or call. Something. Are you all right?

CHIZURU SANDA: Respond to Tae and Senzo before they lose their minds completely and annoy me more.

Nomi picked up her phone and fired off a quick text to all three: Sorry. Just left school. I'll call when I'm home. I'm fine.

She wondered how many more times she would possibly say that phrase that day as her dad pulled into the cramped garage just underneath their apartment. He shut off the engine and tried for a reassuring smile. "Curry for dinner?"

She nodded. "I'll help. I just have to call Tae, Senzo, and Sanda first." She gestured to the garage door. "Go on ahead. I'll close and lock up."

"Nochan." Before he went up the stairs to their building, he wrapped her in a tight embrace. Nomi hugged him back, feeling some of the tension leave her shoulders as he kissed her head. "I'm glad you're safe."

She pulled back and gave him a cheeky grin. "It's the hero in me."

He chuckled and ruffled her hair. "See you in a few."

When she heard the door above her head shut, she pulled out her phone again as she manually rolled the garage door down and padlocked it. She straightened, about to dial Tae's number before someone spoke behind her.

"U.A. High School?"

"Huh?" She met the turquoise gaze of the half-burned man she'd seen before and froze. "Sorry?"

She blinked, wondering if she was hallucinating. She thought for sure she'd never see the man who had caught her attention at Tatooin Station ever again, but there he was in the flesh. And what unusual flesh it was, shriveled and purple and held together with his regular skin with metal bars.

He pointed to her school uniform. He was young—in his early twenties if she had to guess. "Your uniform. It's the one for U.A., right?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. She stared at his eyes. She'd forgotten the color of them. "I've seen you before."

His eyebrows raised. He stood casually on the sidewalk—a mere passerby, but something about his gaze stuck with her. "Oh?"

She nodded. "At the station. You just happened to pass by me one day." She then shook her head quickly. "Sorry. That sounds totally weird. I just—"

"Remembered the face, eh?" he said.

Her cheeks heated. "Um—"

"Relax." He waved her off with a hand that was burned until his knuckles, leaving his fingers normal and pale. "It was a joke." He put his hands in his pockets and began to walk away, leaving her gaping. "Anyway. Enjoy your evening, U.A. student. Maybe we'll see each other again someday."

Before she could even formulate a reply, he was gone, vanished down a side street like he'd never even been there. She stared at the place where he'd been, that same churning feeling she'd gotten when faced with the villains starting up again, deep in her gut.

Without looking back, she turned and fled up the stairs into her apartment.

Let me know what you thought!

Also, I know they're not 100% canon, but I've been toying with including the movies in this fic. If you'd like to see them included (or not), I'd love to get your feedback for it!

Until next time!