Things still hadn't really gone back to normal for Eijiro Kirishima. Ever since the second round of the combat test thing, his best friend, the explosive Bakugo, had been more surly than normal. Eijiro wasn't 100% aware of all the history between his best friend and the nicest guy he knew, Midoriya, but the fact Bakugo had actually lost to the person who seemed to get under his skin more than anyone else hadn't been good. He hadn't answered any of Eijiro's texts, and even though he was sure that Bakugo had been in his room all of Sunday, no matter how many times he came by to knock on the dorm door, there was never any response. Bakugo had seemed a little better in class on this particular day, but no more talkative to the person he was closest to in the class.

It wasn't exactly like Eijiro was exactly up in the clouds either. He hadn't even gotten to participate in the fight, since his team had lost in the first round, and it had been tough just sitting in the stands, waiting and watching other people do what he'd wanted to be doing. It had also hurt to see Jaime Reyes, his assigned partner and seemingly all around cool guy, lose his fight. That was why, right after class ended on this Tuesday in question, Eijiro went to go see Jaime at his dorm room, after first grabbing a quick snack from a vending machine.

Not always the one with the best manners, Eijiro just straight up opened the door and walked in without knocking first. He was lucky Jaime was fully dressed, but unlucky in that he was busy. Namely, he had a laptop open on his desk, and Eijiro quickly realized that Jaime wasn't the only one with eyes on him. On the laptop screen were two teenagers who looked to be around their age, one a guy tall and built like Iida, if not a little wider and buffer, the other a girl slender with red hair and a freckled face. There was also the smiling face of a kid, probably ten or so, who Eijiro quickly realized was probably the younger sister Jaime had told him about. Feeling a little awkward, Eijiro waved a hand and said, in his best attempt at English, "Uh, [hello]?"

His pronunciation was probably weird, because both Jaime and the people on the video call with him started laughing. Jaime turned back to the screen and said something in English, but Eijiro's English was pretty bad, enough that the only thing he really caught were the words [friend] and his own name. Then, his assigned partner turned to look at Eijiro and gestured to the figures on the screen. "Kirishima, these are my friends Paco and Brenda, and my little sister Milagro. You can wait in here if you want, I just want to finish talking to them."

Feeling bad for interrupting, Eijiro nodded and told him it was fine, before sitting on the ground. Jaime went right back to speaking English, with a little bit of Spanish mixed in with it, or at least Eijiro thought that was true. Both languages were so foreign to Japan that Eijiro honestly had a lot of trouble distinguishing between the two of them. While the conversation went on, Eijiro pulled out his phone and checked his messages, but Bakugo still hadn't replied. But when he looked up from the device, Jaime had closed the laptop, and was looking over at him, an eyebrow raised. "What's up?"

Getting up from the floor, Eijiro offered Jaime a handshake that turned into a hug. It was so weird, Eijiro couldn't help but think: his friend was probably one the leanest, thinnest guys he knew. But thanks to the Reach tech embedded in his spine, he might also be one the most powerful. When the armor was up and he was Blue Beetle, Eijiro wasn't even sure if Bakugo, Midoriya, or Todoroki could go toe-to-toe with him, and they were 1-A's powerhouses. But he was getting off-track, he'd thought of a question shortly after coming into the room. "I never asked, but how is your Japanese so good? You almost sound like you've been speaking it your whole life." It wasn't just Jaime either, all the American students spoke really good Japanese.

Tapping one finger to the side of his head, Jaime started to explain. "I wish I could say I'm that good at studying, but none of us had to really put any work into it. Telepaths like M'gann or her uncle the Martian Manhunter can basically transfer languages between people. The whole class had Japanese implanted in our heads from someone who had it as a first language. Well, except for Starfire and Orphan. Cass doesn't even really know English, and Kori can permanently learn languages from oral contact with a native speaker." When Eijiro took a moment to put together what that actually meant, and blanched once he did, Jaime laughed and nodded. "Yup, she can just kiss people to learn languages. Aliens, man."

That brought up why Eijiro actually had wanted to talk to Jaime in the first place, but rather than jump topics just yet, he did have one last language question. "That's crazy. So, are you guys also going to keep knowing Japanese and stuff?" If that was true, Eijiro wondered why telepaths didn't offer the service more often.

But a shake of the head from Jaime gave a clue why. "No, it only lasts a few months, at most. Plus, they can only do it with people our age, since we have enough space in our head to stuff in a language without really messing anything up. They did the same thing with your class, who went to Manchester School for Gifted Youth, so they could know English." Now that it had been brought up, Eijiro had to wonder how the other class was doing in America. He'd heard weird things about that school, where current and former members of the Hero team the X-Men taught the students. Like UA, they also only took students with Quirks, or as they called them on the East Coast of America, Mutants.

Once again realizing his head was getting off-track, Eijiro thumped himself lightly on the head. "I almost forgot! Dude, the reason I came here, I've been doing some research." Then, leaning in closer, Eijiro whispered, "About the Reach." He knew he had to be careful. After all, from everything Jaime had told him, the aliens who were responsible for his powers were also planning Earth's conquest, and had a watchful eye to make sure no one noticed what they were doing. He had to wonder what the aliens thought, when they rolled up to Earth and discovered most folks had superpowers now.

Suddenly looking a hell of a lot more serious, Jaime nodded, so Eijiro pulled out his phone, to show some of what his research had dug up. There wasn't a lot about them online, but while other people didn't expect it of him, Eijiro actually was a tenacious guy, ready and willing to dig as deep as he needed to find something of value. Ever since Jaime has shared his burden with him, Eijiro had done everything he could to reward that trust, by being helpful. They went over what he found together, and started planning out how they'd take down secret Reach installations, together.

While some of her teammates, especially Karen, were upset at the fact they'd been knocked out in the first round of the combat trainings, Antonia Monetti was far from it. Nia got a lot of flak from her classmates from the fact she was a lot less eager to get into fights, but she didn't care about that. (Yes she did. She hated what they whispered behind her back. She knew they were right. She was a coward. Why was she studying to be a hero?)

It was getting pretty late, close to sunset, and all of Nia's friends were busy with other things. (Lies. They hated her. They'd always hated her. They weren't her friends. She had no friends.) She was going to just study all evening, but a rumble from her stomach sent her out into the dorm, to grab something from the stomach. (She was getting food? After already eating a salad for dinner? Looks like she was going to get fat now. Another reason for everyone to despise her.)

There was nothing in the dorm kitchen, though. At least, nothing healthy enough that Nia wanted to eat it. But remembering what Cassie had mentioned a few days ago, about the Class 1-A dorm's kitchen having a ton of apple slices, provided by Yaoyarozu as a study snack. Tempted by the siren call of something sweet and tasty that wouldn't make her hate herself (more than she already did), Nia left her class's dorm to go to their partnered building.

Any hopes of minimizing personal interaction were dashed, as her own assigned partner, Hanta Sero, was already in the kitchen, and threw her an easy, toothy smile. "Oh, hey Nia? Heard about the apples, right? I'll make you up a plate." Unable to bring herself to do anything else, Nia nodded. "Want anything to dip it in? We've got caramel stuff, but some people wanted ranch, so we have that too." Sero made clear his own thoughts on that idea with the expression on his face, almost enough to make Nia honestly laugh. (Almost.)

Still, she faked a laugh that she thought looked convincing. (It didn't. Everyone saw how broken she was. They were hated her.) "I'll just take it plain," she told Sero, and he nodded. Soon, there was a plate of apple slices at a table, and Nia was sitting there, Sero still up and about in the kitchen. Feeling awkward, Nia hesitantly tried to start a conversation. "So, what's up with you, Sero?" (Stupid. She sounded stupid.)

His immediate response was just to shrug. "Just trying to make sense of this week's math homework. Oh, and make sure I'm ready for the rescue test coming up. It's probably what I'm best at as a hero, at least so far, so I don't want to do bad if I can avoid it." Nia nodded, but she didn't know exactly what that entailed. Heroes in America didn't study a lot about rescue, there were other professional people for that.

Giving her best (fake) smile, Nia told him, "That sounds interesting! I'm sure you'll do well." (Of course, she was terrible at combat, terrible at investigating, she'd probably flunk rescue too.) Then, she noticed Sero was looking at her weirdly, something he did on occasion, so she asked, "What's up?"

Rubbing the back of his head, Sero looked embarrassed by whatever it was he was about to say. "I really hope I'm just overthinking things but...are you okay, Nia?" She froze. "I was talking to some of your friends, and we're kind of worried about you. It's clear you're not sleeping well, but that's not just it. Sometimes, when you don't think anyone's looking, you look really miserable."

More than anything, Nia just wanted to give him false reassurance. Tell him that she was fine. (She wasn't.) But instead, looking at the genuine empathy on his face, knowing (hoping) that he actually cared, Nia let the mask fall. The bright, happy Nia was replaced with the real her: on the verge of crying, exhausted beyond any repair sleep could offer. "I just...have a lot going on," she admitted. "I haven't seen a doctor about it, but I think I'm depressed." She didn't say what she also thought, that she probably had something anxiety related as well.

Instead of looking shocked, or upset, (or like she was a pitiful disgusting waste of time) Sero just nodded. "Yeah, that tracks. You should probably see someone about that, though. Both so you can know for sure, but also so you can get some treatment." She was about to tell him that there was no way anything could actually help what was wrong with her, when he continued, "More than a few of my classmates are taking antidepressants, antianxiety medication, some of them more serious stuff." He didn't name names, probably to protect their privacy, but it still blew her mind.

Who? How? No one in Class 1-A looked like they were like her (broken inside) (irreparable). "What if it doesn't work?" was all Nia could whisper, wishing she could cry but no tears coming (they'd run out a long time ago) (tears meant release, she didn't get that comfort). Instead, Nia wrapped her arms around her shoulders, her body suddenly tense. "What if it doesn't work, and it turns out I'm right, and this is just how I'm going to be, for the rest of my life?"

Sero just shrugged. "What if it does help? Shouldn't you try it?" Nia...didn't have a good rebuttal to that. Then, he went further. "If you want, I can go with you, to Recovery Girl after class is over, tomorrow. If that would make you feel better." It did. Nia nodded, and the tentative plan was made. Her doubts still whispered that it would be pointless, just wasted effort, but she felt compelled to try anyway...