Chapter 17! I had to alter some things so I'm posting a bit late. Also, I'm writing a lot of fluff and regular not plot things because hey, I don't want to write the sad stuff yet. Next chapter August 12th.

Yes, Ashido was a little salty that they celebrated Yuudai's birthday without the entire class. It isn't too big of a deal but Yuudai promises to spend a day with her to make up for it over summer. She also starts talking about Yuudai using Mina instead of Ashido-kun because Ashido-kun feels a little stiff. Yuudai can't really remember the specifics. There was something about best friends or friends or names or nicknames or something. He doesn't think it's too important, friends are friends and that's really all.

Yuudai ends up passing his written exams. Barely. But he still wasn't allowed to participate in the practical exam so he failed that. Yuudai did, however, enjoy watching everyone fight against teachers. It made him feel a little more comfortable around everyone afterwards. Basically, trust built up after seeing how strong someone was.

Apparently, everyone is going to the forest lodge. Yuudai didn't know what the whole deal was with some people not going but to begin with, that didn't make sense.

"Failing grades are still failing grades," Aizawa announces, "So you've all earned yourselves special remedial periods."

Kirishima, Sato, Kaminari, Sero, and Ashio freeze their celebration. Yuudai just groans and knocks his head on his desk. He didn't even deserve to have a remedial period because he didn't even get a chance to take the practical exam. Life can be cruel.

"And to put it bluntly, they'll be harder than they would have been had you stayed on campus," Aizawa says, "Now I'm going to hand out the lodge guides so pass them back."

Yuudai only flips through the guide for a second before stuffing it in his desk.

"Well, everything being equal. I'm happy we all get to go!" Ojiro says with a smile.

Iida reads the guide, "A one week boot camp, eh?"

"Looks like we'll be needing pretty big bags for all the stuff we need to take," Midoriya looks over the list of suggested supplies.

"Like night vision goggles!" Mineta says.

Kaminari sighs, "I don't have a bathing suit and stuff. I need to buy loads."

"Ah, in that case, since tomorrow's free and exams have ended," Hagakure pipes up, "Let's, like, go shopping! C'mon, everyone in Class A!"

Yuudai groans, shopping malls and large groups of people. Fun but ugh.

"That's a great idea!" Kaminari grins, "Actually, won't this be the first time?"

Kirishima turns to Bakugou, "Yo, Bakugou, you come too!"

He replies with a scowl, "Like I could stand going shopping…"

"You should come too, Todoroki-kun!" Midoriya smiles at Todoroki.

"I visit the hospital on free days."

"What about Yuu-kun?" Ashido leans on Yuudai's desk, "Are you comin'?"

Yuudai lifts up his head, "I'll need to ask…"

"C'mon, Kojiko," Kaminari bounces, "It'll be fun!"

Yuudai bites his lip, "I'm not sure…"

Midoriya pats Yuudai on the back, "I'm sure it'll be fine, Kojiko-kun."

"The Kiyashi-Ward Shopping Mall!" Ashido announces excitedly.

It's a huge shopping mall. Nothing like Yuudai has ever seen before and there are way too many people to even think about how many people there are. It's nothing extremely overwhelming just very, very...okay it is a little overwhelming. There's people from different shops shouting about unique apparel and Midoriya's super distracted by everything so there's not really anyone for Yuudai to grab onto to ground himself. That is until he randomly reaches for the nearest person, that person being a random stranger which makes Yuudai freak out even more.

"Kojiko?"

Yuudai spins around and is greeted by Kirishima, that was good. A familiar face at last. Yuudai takes a deep breath and sticks to Kirishima's side.

Kirishima looks sideways at Yuudai, "Are you okay?"

Yuudai nods quickly.

"Yo, Kirishima!" Kaminari waves from a store.

Kirishima waves back, "One second, dude!"

He goes back to focusing on Yuudai, who's calming down a little. Sure, he doesn't really know how to handle someone with anxiety but Kirishima knew how to talk to his friends. So he does that.

"So, Kojiko," Kirishima walks towards the others and Yuudai follows closely, "what're you thinking of buying?"

Yuudai stares at Kirishima and replies quietly, "I'm not sure."

"Did you look at the guide? There was a boatload of recommended stuff but I'm thinking of only bringing the necessities," Kirishima smiles.

Yuudai nods.

"Do you have shoes? For outdoors and stuff."

"I...none of my things fit me anymore," Yuudai says softly, "I need new things."

Kirishima nods his head, "That would make sense. So I guess we can start with shoes, Kaminari is already there. Then maybe we can move onto clothes and gear."

Yuudai nods, that would work.

"Oh! Kojiko," Kaminari waves, "Check these out!"

He's wearing a pair of mountain boots, for some reason they have neon green laces and the rest of the shoe is a navy blue.

"Super trendy, right?" Kaminari asks and examines himself in the mirror, "Right?"

"Whatever you say, bro," Kirishima pats Kaminari on the back.

Kaminari fakes offense, "Hey! These shoes are great!"

"I think the neon laces scream popularity," Kirshima replies.

"Yes, and I think your red crocs shout that you're five years old."

Kirishima gasps dramatically, "How dare you insult my crocs and my age!"

Yuudai raises an eyebrow, "Age?"

"Dude, we all know that we're all like five years old inside," Kaminari says in a different tone.

Kirishima drops the dramatics, "You're right."

"But seriously," Kaminari points at Kirishima's shoes, "Enough with the crocs."

"But these ones glow in the dark!" Kirshima exclaims and holds up a pair of bright red crocs from off the shelf.

"You already own those!" Kaminari shouts.

Kirishima tuts, "One can never have too many glow-in-the-dark crocs."

Yuudai smiles and picks out a pair of shoes to try. The only pair of shoes he owned were chosen by the hospital before he woke up. None of his old shoes fit him anymore which sucked because some of them he didn't even get to wear. Not to mention all his old clothes. With some help from Kirishima and some not so useful help from Kaminari, Yuudai manages to pick out two shoes. One regular and one outdoor. They start to walk to the bags shop next but then…

"Please be aware that the shopping mall is temporarily closing," the speakers flare to life, "There has been a villain encounter. Please do not panic and exit the mall in an orderly fashion."

Yuudai's head raises, villain encounter? Not attack?

Kaminari nudges the two of them, "We'd better meet up with everyone."

Kirishima nods and the three of them run back to the meeting place. While going there they found out it was Midoriya who encountered the villain. Yuudai felt the smallest little pool of guilt form at the bottom of his stomach.

"Midoriya-kun! Are you alright?" Kaminari shouts.

There were police almost everywhere. One of them was talking to Midoriya and a few others were gathering people in a different area, away from Midoriya. Yuudai bites his lip and looks at Midoriya. He seems fine, other than the way he has his hand over his throat, he's completely fine. Midoriya can only send Yuudai a small thumbs up as he's talking to the officer.

"Kojiko Yuudai?" An officer approaches Yuudai, a little scary but Yuudai calms himself quickly.

Kirishima stands unmoving next to Yuudai. It's comforting. Maybe that's how Bakugou feels…

Yuudai nods.

The officer nods in return, "There's someone who would like to speak with you."

The officer gestures over his shoulder at a man wearing a suit with no jacket. Detective Tsukauchi. Yuudai faintly remembers, the man had only visited a few times after he'd woken up.

"Kojiko-kun?" Kirishima searches Yuudai's eyes for something.

Yuudai nods and steps towards the officer, giving Kirishima and Kaminari a reassuring smile before walking away completely.

"Kojiko-kun!" Detective Tsukauchi greets with a smile, "It's great to see you're doing well. A little less great considering the circumstances that we meet again."

Yuudai forces a smile and nods.

Midoriya runs to Yuudai, "You good?"

Yuudai frowns and points at Midoriya's neck.

"Oh this?" Midoriya rubs at his neck, "It'll bruise but it'll heal in no time."

"I'm sorry that we had to meet like this," Detective Tsukauchi sighs, "But we'll need to head to the police station for questioning."

"Hmmm," Detective Tsukauchi scratches his head, "From what I'm hearing, I'm not getting a clearer picture on our perpetrator…most of this information is nothing new…"

Midoriya bits his lip.

"Alright, before you go, did he mention anything about Kojiko Yuudai?"

Midoriya sits up straighter, did he?

"Um," Midoriya starts, "He didn't mention anything about him, no."

Detective Tsukauchi hums before going to stand up, "Thank you anyways, Midoriya-kun."

Midoriya bows his head, "Well, if I had been able to stop them...I would have been more help to you…"

Detective Tsukauchi smiles and rattles off a few sentences of how Midoriya actually helped before going to the door. Yuudai was sitting in the lobby, Midoriya was glad that he didn't need to be questioned.

"Kojiko-kun," Midoriya goes to sit next to him, "Are you okay?"

Yuudai nods, "Sorry, I couldn't help."

Midoriya frowns, a little taken aback, "Kojiko-kun, you weren't there. There's nothing to be guilty about."

Yuudai bites his lip and nods.

"Kojiko-kun, Midoriya-kun," Detective Tsukauchi nods towards the door, "There's someone here for you."

The three of them head outside, along with a cat officer.

"Midoriya-shonen! Kojiko-shonen!" All Might waves.

"All Might! Why…" Midoriya exclaims.

"I had a personal errand to attend to," All Might pats Midoriya on the head, "Glad to see you're both alright, first and foremost. Apologies for not being there to assist you."

Midoriya manages a small, "Uh."

"All Might," Midoriya meets his eyes, "Were there times when even you failed to save someone?"

All Might pauses, "Of course, many times. Even now, somewhere in this world...someone is injured, broken, and needs my help. It sucks, but I'm only human. I cannot help or aid those who are not in my immediate vicinity. So that is why I stand and laugh…"

All Might looks up at the sky, "'The symbol of justice.' The people, the heroes, even the villains. I stand to set fire in their hearts."

Yuudai looks over All Might's shoulder. Maybe something moved or but Yuudai looked there either way. It's Aizawa, not a villain or anything. Is that his ride back to the hospital?

"Well, it's getting late," Detective Tsukauchi turns to the doors, "Your ride's here."

The doors open and a short, chubby lady with tears in her eyes walks out.

"Mom!" Midoriya exclaims and runs towards her.

"Izuku," Midoriya's mom says with tears, "Please stop this, you almost gave me a heart attack…"

"Sorry, it's alright Mom, it's really nothing to get worked up about...please don't cry," Midoriya slouches a little, "The heroes and the police have been doing a fine job of protecting me."

Yuudai watches as Midoriya's mom sobs and Midoriya tries to comfort her. He wonders for a second if his mom would be crying and worried like she is. Probably not, she'd probably try to comfort him instead.

"Kojiko-kun," Aizawa greets as Yuudai watches Midoriya, "It's late."

Yuudai nods.

"We should head back to the hospital," Aizawa says softly.

Yuudai waves at Midoriya, who only half sees it, and then heads back to the hospital. He only has the same amount of trouble sleeping as normal. It's the same as normal. It's too quiet. It's too empty. And Midoriya is being choked by a villain. Okay, a little different than normal.

Kojiko Yuudai P.O.V.

I'm still asleep around noon when my phone rings. It's the default ringtone because I can't decide between 'The Phone is Ringing!' and 'Screaming Cats.'

"Yeah?" I rub his eyes and pull the sheets back onto my bed.

I recently discovered that nightmares make me throw my bedsheets everywhere. Also, apparently I talk in my sleep because sometimes I wake up and things are frozen or floating in the air. Probably something I should tell Aizawa.

"Yo, Kojiko!" Kaminari shouts.

"Kaminari-kun?"

Kaminari chuckles, "Who else would it be? Did you just wake up, dude, it's like two in the afternoon."

I roll my eyes, "It's 12 and also summer, it's not like I've got anywhere to be."

"Au contraire, my friend," Kaminari says happily, "You've got somewhere to be today."

"Never say 'au contraire again' and I thought I already told you that I wasn't allowed of the hospital without supervision-"

"After last week, yeah, I remember."

I shake my head, "The fact that you invited me to a microwave experiment right after the mall incident did not help."

"Hey! It was your decision to sneak out even with the risk of getting lectured."

"You got grounded, didn't you?"

"One week and my allowance is going to the new microwave...but you have to admit that it was worth it."

"So, what're you doing this week?"

Kaminari grins, "Actually, me and Mineta signed up to use the pool for endurance training."

"And?" I ask, knowing full well that they signed up to see girls in bikinis.

"And the whole class is here except you! Come on, it's the pool at the school so technically it is supervised."

"I dunno, Kaminari-kun."

"Please, Kojiko?" Kaminari begs, "I know you're bored, sitting around and doing nothing in a hospital alllll day. Come on, the pool closes at 5pm. We can get dinner afterwards."

I smirk, "Smooth, Kaminari-kun."

"Hey! You know what I mean," Kaminari says defensively.

I laugh quietly, "I'll be there in an hour."

"See ya."

I packed a few pool things into my backpack then walked to the garden to sneak out. I don't have swim shorts but I figure I can just wear regular shorts in the pool. The bus ride is as boring as usual, although the screaming children did make it a little better. Hopefully Aizawa won't be too upset when he finds out I've snuck out again. And hopefully he doesn't assign those guards like he threatened to last week.

"You made it!"

I wave at Kaminari, who's sitting with his feet dipping in the pool. Half the pool is being used for what looks like some sort of race? And the other is just for fun?

"Yuu-kun!" Ashido waves her arms, "Took you long enough!"

I nod my head towards her and set down my stuff at a wall. I need to buy swim stuff… I shuffle over to where Kaminari's sitting. He's watching the girls play with a beachball while Iida tortures directs everyone through an exercise.

"You're not doing that?" I point to Iida.

Kaminari chuckles, "I already did. I'm on break."

"Riiight," I draw out.

"It's true!" Kaminari exclaims and holds up a can of orange juice, "Look, I'm finishing my drink before getting back to the group!"

"Sounds fun," I say as I flick the water with my feet.

He nods and hits the beachball back to the girls when it flies towards us, "It's alright."

"You not a big fan of pools?" I ask offhandedly.

Kaminari smirks, "I'm the biggest fan of pools."

"I think Mineta has you beat in that," I point over to the glowing-with-happiness grape, "I thought you weren't good around anything that conducts electricity."

Kaminari hums and kicks the water, "I haven't gotten in the water yet so everything should be fine."

I tilt my head, "Can you swim?"

"Ah," he avoids my eyes, "I'm not the best at it…"

"Kaminari-kun," I nudge his shoulder, "If you don't like pools then you shouldn't be here."

"But girls in bikinis, Kojiko!" Kaminari whispers, "Don't you understand?!"

"Sure."

"Kojiko-kun, you do know the greatness of girls in bikinis, right?!" Kaminari says in a hushed voice, "The-"

I slap my hand over his mouth, "I'm going to stop you before you turn into Mineta-kun."

His eyes soften and I put my hand down.

"Sorry," Kaminari gazes at the water.

"You don't have to talk about it," I shrug and trace my finger through the water, "I've only known you for a month so it makes sense if you don't wanna talk about it."

Kaminari smiles, "I just get a little nervous around large bodies of water. I need to focus super hard to make sure no electricity leaks out so no one gets hurt."

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"As long as I don't overcharge then it should be fine," Kaminari drinks the rest of his juice, "What about you? Do you have any water-related anxieties?"

I huff, "Not yet, no. So for now, rely on me to be there for all your water-related anxieties."

Kaminari laughs and bumps me on the shoulder, "Thanks."

"Kojiko-kun!" Midoriya waves at me and runs, then gets scolded by Iida for running near the pool.

I wave back and he sits next to me.

"Sorry I didn't invite you," Midoriya sighs, "I thought you might be sleeping late because-"

I narrow my eyes at him. I tell nearly everything to Midoriya, he's just the type of person that you tell everything to. At least for me he is. Okay, sometimes I don't tell him everything but somehow it always ends up with me breaking down and spilling everything. And yes, he has directed me towards a therapist. Midoriya and about five other people. It's not that I don't like the therapist...it's just that I'd rather sit in a room and color than talk about my feelings to some stranger.

Kaminari tilts his head, "Because?"

Midoriya glances at me, asking if it was okay to talk about it. In terms of "friends" and "closeness" Kaminari is probably only second to Midoriya but that's just because Midoriya is easy to talk to. I bite my lip.

"I just have trouble sleeping sometimes," I try to say it as no big deal, like sometimes I just have trouble sleeping and not sometimes I can't sleep because I think everyone is dead.

Kaminari nods, "That happens to me sometimes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, my Quirk is electricity so it's a little hard to sleep if I'm too charged up."

His Quirk sounds like a lot of trouble… I try to listen to the conversation but eventually my brain just drifts away. I fall asleep.

I wake up leaning against a wall, there's cheering and shouting so maybe something's happening. Once I rub the blurriness out of my eyes I can see that the races have gotten a lot more competitive. It's Midoriya, Bakugou, and Todoroki. The final race? I stretch and walk over to the crowd.

"You're awake!" Kaminari clears a space next to him so I can watch.

I gesture to the rest of the class, "What's up with this?"

"It's a race. We're seeing who can get across the pool the quickest using their Quirks."

"Don't kill anyone!"

"Do your best, Deku-kun!"

I smile, "Sounds like a lot of fun. What time is it?"

Kaminari shrugs.

"I should probably get going anyways. I'll need to sneak back into the hospital," I say with a sigh.

Kaminari frowns, "But what about dinner? I thought we were going to get something."

"Sure, only if you take the heat from Eraser Head."

Kaminari sweats a little, "Actually I think I'm good."

Iida raises his arm, "Get set…"

He blows the whistle and the three of them jump off the platforms. Then plummet straight into the water.

"What?" Kaminari raises an eyebrow.

"Their Quirks were erased?"

"It's 5pm," Aizawa's voice says.

Everyone turns to the door to see him, hair raised and hands in his pockets. I shrink back and try to hide at the back of the group. Hopefully I won't get caught…

"Your pool use time has now ended," Aizawa walks forward, "Hurry up and go home."

"Come on, Aizawa-sensei!" Kaminari protests.

"We just got to the good part!"

Aizawa's eyes glow, "Did you say something?"

"Nothing!" The class shouts and starts hurrying to the locker room.

And once everyone scurries away...I'm left without a visual block.

"What are you doing here?" Aizawa asks.

I scratch my head, "Swimming?"

"You snuck out. Again."

I smile nervously, "Yeah...sorry?"

His eyes glow again, "If you're going to apologize then mean it."

"Sorry, Eraser Head," I bow my head and hurry to gather my things.

Aizawa stops using his Quirk and sighs, "Honestly you can at least tell me before you sneak out."

"Then that won't be sneaking out," I saw with an 'that's obvious' tone.

"Just get back to the hospital," Aizawa says and walks out the doors.

"You're not gonna drive me?" I call after him.

He doesn't reply so I take it as a no. Oh well. I walk to the lockers to see if Kaminari still wants that dinner. He does but so do the rest of the class so everyone goes out together. It's a little chaotic with 21 of us but it's fun.

We end up going to the mall, a different mall, and eating at the food court. I ended up getting the beef skewers because Kirishima declared that it was time I tried them. Then everyone split up afterwards to go to different shops. We met back up at the food courts when it got really dark and then everyone just headed back home. Apparently, it's a little late to take the bus so Midoriya insists that his mom drops me off at the hospital.

She must not really remember me from the last mall visit because she introduces herself. Midoriya's mom is a really sweet lady and she doesn't mind driving me to the hospital. Midoriya walks me to my room and helps me clean up a little before leaving. I only wish I would have actually gotten in the water to swim instead of falling asleep.