"What the hell..."

"What's with that OP quirk?!"

"Awesome! Girl power we go!"

Tenya watched with amazement at Akemi's application of her quirk.

"Oh my God Iida-kun!" Uraraka-san turned towards him, "Akemi-chan is soooooo cool! And that skating! How did she know how to skate?"

Part of the class turned to him, and a few of his classmates started bombarding him with questions. Tenya blinked for a moment before smiling proudly.

"Akemi isn't exactly a champion." He stated, "but she did make it into the finals of the figure skating regionals so she is rather good at it."

"Woah, talk about skills!" One of his classmates, Kirishima, he believes, commented, "Man, as expected from the no. 1 of the entrance exam!"

At the corner of his eye, he frowned as he saw Akemi standing in the corner, as if trying to hide in the shadows.


When Izuku woke up, he was in the infirmary.

Again.

His head hurts and he couldn't really remember what happened. He started at the ceiling, blank-eyed as he wrecked his brain for his memories, then his eyes widened.

'Right... The battle trails...'

"I am the 'Deku' who can do it!"

Running down the halls in blind panic, powered by One for All charged into his legs.

Fighting with Kacchan, his explosions and screams.

"If you can do it, then why are you relying on that shitty Golden-eyes' quirk, huh?!"

Reaching the room directly underneath Uraraka-san's...

'I'm sorry, Akemi'

The golden energy of Akemi's barrier shattering, along with his bones.

"—Smash!"

Izuku sighed and slapped a hand on his forehead. "Dammit..."

The curtains were pulled open.

"Izuku."

Izuku turned, standing by the curtains was Akemi, she looks fine, no injuries or whatsoever. Changed out of her hero costume and hair in a style she called a twisted Chignon updo.

"Akemi..." He blinked, the look on her face is... Unusual. Akemi always looks cheerful, he've seen her break and cry, he've seen her angry but never... like this.

She is calm. Calm and a little sad. It looked like disappointment but not quite. She is averting her eyes and staring at the ground, and finally, he realised what this look is, and why he've never seen it before.

True to Iida's words, Akemi is partially shameless. She jokes openly and doesn't avoid sensitive topics, but she does it in a way that is considerate. She is a very open person who can just screech embarrassing things at the top of her lungs or view them indifferently and objectively.

So he've never seen her look like this before.

This isn't disappointment.

This is guilt. This is shame and Izuku couldn't help but feel surprised. Why would Akemi look like this? Why would she feel guilty? Or ashamed? Is she ashamed of herself? Is she ashamed of... Him?

"How long?"

The words jolt Izuku out of his thoughts. He looked up and saw that Akemi is looking back, the sad look still in her eye but softer, less striking but in her amber eyes they still stood out.

"What?"

"How long has this been going on?" She asked, "you and Bakugou."

"Kacchan?" Izuku asked, and his eyes widened. She saw everything— "No! Nothing! Kacchan was just angry! It's really—"

"Angry at you for getting a quirk?" Akemi interjected, "angry that you are catching up and getting stronger? Angry for what, Izuku?" Her expression twisted, "the way he was treating you, Izu, it reminded me of my father."

Izuku stopped.

"Izuku this is... this is..." she shook her head, searching for a word for it then finally sighed, "abusive." She said in english, seemingly giving up on finding the word in their mother tongue, taking a seat next to him, "I... I know I'm always loopy and loony and messing around but Izuku, I'm not stupid and definitely not an airhead." He glanced at her, "Of course, I might be wrong about Bakugou. But there's something so terribly wrong between you two, something rotten and I... Izu I don't want you to go near him ever again."

"Akemi..." Izuku started, "you... You're right, in a way."

Akemi looked up.

"There's— there's something so terribly wrong between Kacchan and me I don't even know where to start. I used to call him my friend but... Well, you crashed into the picture and then I have a friend." Akemi looked close to tears, "But Akemi, I want to fix it."

"Izuku—"

Izuku shook his head. "Akemi, I don't want to fix it. I need to. There's so much wrong between me and Kacchan I don't even know if we can go back and fix everything but I want to at least, try, I—"

"There's nothing wrong with avoiding your problems, Izuku!"

Izuku looked up; there's a tremor in Akemi's voice that made him feel like she's about to cry but he then noticed that she wasn't about to cry because she already is. "The relationship between me and my father is so rotten that I turned away and ignored it, it wasn't so bad at first but I don't want to face it and I let it be." She sobbed, "I shut him out. Ever since the first time he threw me down the stairs I shut him out and left it there. It's better this way because it's so bad that I don't want to fix it any more! And there's nothing wrong with it!"

Izuku stared blankly at Akemi's face, at her crying face, twisted with pain and hate.

"I hate him, Izuku." She finally said at length, "I hate him so much and so I left it be. You can't control what others do, Izuku. You can't control what they think about you. So please, I... I don't want you to get hurt. So if it's all you can do, please, just leave it be."

He said nothing when Akemi curled in on herself and sobbed, all he did was offer her a shoulder to cry on.

Cause for Akemi, it's all he could do.


Outside the door, Toshinori leaned against the wall heavily.

Just what happened? What had happened between Kimura Geikyō and Kimura Akemi to make this girl cry like this? To make her feel so vulnerable and alone?

He didn't like what he just heard. Not one bit.


Please RnR for tissues for Akemi.