(( Hey guys! I'm back haha!~ SO! At this point we will be getting into possible/light spoiler territory for Anime only people! Nothing explicit, as I've been trying to keep it light on that and avoid re-hashing events that have all-ready occurred in the manga!

Just putting out that warning, that some character reveals may be spoiled. ))

Chapter 13

"The Unicorn and the Hell-hound"

Extra-training had resumed, but Alarice was off the hook today, having been invited to go with some of the other kids to a small festival that was in town. She had barely asked when Aizawa had just said fine and shooed her away. Now that she had time to kill, she spent it thinking about her classmates, and things she needed to work on.

There was still the small matter of a Super Move to be resolved: She didn't really have one. Alarice had some ideas of what to pursue now that she had real progress on partial transformations, even shown just a bit of it off while working in extra-training, with Shinso of course. Still...most of her classmates had one, and she could feel Aizawa was expecting her to have one soon.

There was the other matter of her 'approach' ability. Admittedly, she wasn't sure on how kids, non-hero trained kids, would ever react to her, but she knew how adults tended too. She tried to picture herself, as she shifted for practicing purposes, into her hell-hound shape, as just another big dog. Pawing gently at a dandelion since she really didn't have any one to practice on. Practicing a gentle touch on a flower in the grass would have to do.

As Alarice lamented not having a real partner to practice this on, she noticed movement to her left. Looking over, she and a small child with white hair locked eyes. As they stared at each other in mutual confusion, another older teen walked up next to them. His dark, oval eyes and button nose made him look cute. Either way, now he was looking at her, too.

As Alarice was considering dropping her form, so as to not scare the kid, the young girl started talking. She could hear her, but only faintly, especially compared to the older teen. "She looks like a big dog, doesn't she?" she heard the teen boy say, his voice sounding warm and fun.

Alarice's ears flicked up and she found herself falling into line, acting... well like a dog. "Really big." She heard the kid say in agreement as they moved closer.

"You must be Stone, 1-A's Transfer." Alarice gave a nodd. "Mirio Togata, this is Eri. I'm kind of surprised we haven't run into each other yet!" She cocked her head to the side and let her ears 'flop' a little. The feeling was not mutual, she had no idea who he was, or why UA had a small child on its campus grounds. Maybe she had been too distracted with her own affairs to notice, or ask, at an earlier time.

Her attention was pulled back to Eri, who was giving her a wide-eyed look that Alarice couldn't place. Her tail shifted the grass as she looked back the kid, before lowering her head down to the ground, to seem less towering. "You're really big."

Alarice just snorted, or something like a snort any way. The Hound gave a look back at Mirio, and his very likable face. "She's like my little sis, but we aren't related if that's what you're asking."

She threw her head to the side in a kind of acceptance, shifting a little in the grass, unconsciously aware that she was pulling off the 'giant dog near a small thing' look.

"She's got a thing on her back" Eri commented quietly, pointing, and looking at Mirio to come over and look with her. Which he did, and nodded. "She does. I take it it's so you can carry people on your back?" Alarice wanted to tell him yes and that she hadn't tried it yet, however Eri looked so interested in her in this form, she just couldn't. He seemed to get it anyway, nodding knowingly.

Eri seemed content with cautiously reaching out, and after looking between Mirio and Alarice, watching her ears flick, before patting the scales on her side. Alarice barely felt it, and then remembered she had a hand on the end of her tail. She pointed and gestured her to back, if the kiddo wanted a ride.

"She's offering to carry you; do you want to go for a ride?" Mirio put the question to Eri, who didn't seem to know what she thought of.

She gave a nervous nod, before taking a hold of his shirt and realizing that Alarice was sentient enough, asked, "Can...Mirio ride, too?"

He was comically pointing to himself to emphasis the question. He seemed willing to give it a go, and despite looking kind of bulky, Alarice was pretty sure she could carry both. She gave a nod of approval.

With that Mirio scooped Eri up easily and got up close. "See that handle, Eri? Grab on to it." The little girl did as she was told and held on tight as Mirio put her up. The space forcarrying passengers was padded, and relatively comfortable. The young man pulled himself up next, with physical ease and settling himself so he could make sure Eri stayed on Alarice's back. She looked to her back to make sure they were fine. Mirio giving her a thumbs up and Eri adorably mirroring the motion. She stood up carefully, focusing on keeping the weight on her back from shifting. Standing all the way up, before beginning to move.

"Think you can carry us all the way to the Gardens?" Mirio called, amused as one ear flicked towards him, and then back before she gave a nod. Eri was at least a bit excited, and in all fairness, this was as close as she'd ever gotten to getting to ride an animal. Even if it was actually a lower-classman, and a human with a quirk. Mirio wasn't bothered in the slightest. He'd give an excuse to whatever teacher stopped them, if they were stopped.

Alarice was surprised, and yet, not, as their weight eventually didn't feel like much at all. Perhaps her Adaption was doing its thing again? After her entire life almost never paying attention that acutely to her quirk, now she was, and things were very noticeable. Or maybe she was getting used to their weight.

A familiar face stopped her in her tracks. She couldn't help that she was staring down at her homeroom teacher, and how weird that felt.

"Heya, Aizawa!" Mirio waved down at him in a friendly manner. A small hi from Eri followed his louder one. "Alarice is given' us a ride, we were heading to meet you!"

Aizawa was quiet for a moment, looking at his student, looking at his…adopted child and Mirio waving emphatically. "I can see that." Alarice's ears lowered for a second.

"You wanna come on up? I bet she could carry another person!"

"No." Aizawa just turned and walked, Alarice following him since he was apparently going where she was taking Mirio and Eri. She followed behind him to avoid jostling her riders. That was, of course, until she caught a whiff of her teacher's scent and she moved to walk beside him. Some people, naturally, had particularly strong or unique 'scents'. He was one of them for sure, and it wasn't a thought Alarice wanted to dwell on.

It was a quiet walk, where she only spared one glance at her teacher, and upon seeing that he was looking back at her she kept her eyes forward. Did he know!? They made it to the gardens in no time, laying down to let off her passengers. Eri giving her a polite bow that Alarice imitated, before changing back to her human self.

"Your welcome, Eri." Alarice said calmly, she noted the kid's eyes going to her hair. The little one didn't say anything, running over to Mirio and Aizawa before wandering away, but within eyesight.

"Hey, you did pretty good there, Stone!" Mirio patted her shoulder, and she looked at him, a little startled. "Uh…thank you, I hope it wasn't too uncomfortable?"

"Nope! It was just like riding a scaly horse!"

Alarice didn't have much response for that. She confusedly watched Aizawa and Mirio talk to each other following that exchange, seeing Eri run back to them, carrying a leaf that looked like a cat head. Handing it to Aizawa, who to Alarice's even bigger surprise, handled the leaf gift gently. Even patting the small child on the head. When she ran off again, the question just kind of rolled out Alarice's mouth.

"Aizawa...are you her dad?"

Aizawa looked towards his student, perplexed as to why she would think that. Mirio put a hand to cover his mouth, he was definitely smiling and trying not to laugh. Alarice felt like she was going to turn to stone under that gaze. "I mean…it just…kinda...looks like you're her dad…that's all."

More silence. More staring. Double the confusion.

"You're not her dad?"

"I'm her caretaker, for now." He was her foster dad. He sighed and re-adjusted himself just a tad on the bench. "She's in a situation where she's under UA's care, Mirio helps."

"Oh! Well she's very sweet... I thought she'd be scared of me, but she wasn't."

Mirio smiled broadly, hand pulled away now, though the smile remained on his face. "Yup, Aizawa is a busy man, I heard he was giving you extra-classes, that's why I was surprised we hadn't met yet."

"There was no reason for you two to meet Stone." Aizawa mumbled. The conversation paused as the little white-haired girl came back. Arms full of flowers, some a little crushed. While Eri showed Mirio her recently collected wild flowers, Alarice decided it might be time to head back so she could change. "Well…um…I should go I think, I was going to go with Uraraka and them to a little festival...thing."

Aizawa just nodded, but Eri looked up quickly and despite clinging to Mirio again, urged her to stay, "wait!"

She waited, the small child pausing for a moment before trundling over, flowers still in her arms. Alarice crouched down to make conversation easier, without even thinking about it. "Flowers, for you. 'Cuz you were a good horsie-dog." Eri said, sweet as could be.

Alarice's face screwed up as she tried to figure out how to respond to being called a horsie-dog, and also being offered flowers. She took the first one, and heard Mirio put his thoughts in. "Ohhh, like that picture book we were looking at where the carriage horses had flowers in their manes." Eri nodded to him.

Upon hearing this, Alarice stuck the first one into her long braid. Eri continued to offer her flowers for her hair after that, one after the other that were placed into her braid. Eri putting the last few into her braid for her. Aizawa just stared at them, before remembering his poor dried out eyes.

"Wwwwwwwwwhat is goin' on out here?" A louder voice that demanded attention announced itself from the other side of the walkway. Present Mic found his way over to the group, as Eri and Alarice put the second to last flower that would fit into her hair. Alarice, taking the very last flower, since it didn't fit in the braids, and put it in Eri's hair. "Oh my gosh, we're playing with flowers again, huh?"

Mic was a bit surprised to see Stone there, but he brushed it off, she lived on campus like the rest of them. "Hey, Mic." "Mirio-listener." The two high-fived, while Eri ran up, clearly unafraid of him, too.

She threw her arms into the air, dramatically imitating him, and both Mirio and Mic did the same, while she let out a little 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah' at him. Mic doing a surprisingly very soft imitation of her quiet little 'ah'. The whole scene was so ridiculously cute. Aizawa was watching, but his face was hidden from Alarice's view.

"So, what have we got here, Eri?" Mic asked the kid quietly, mindful of his volume around a smaller human, walking over to inspect the girl's handiwork on the flowered braid.

"I was putting flowers into Stone's hair." Eri answered, pointing to Alarice.

Alarice stood there little awkward, probably because she hadn't expected to see her scary homeroom teacher in what would be considered a 'family scene'. Seeing Mic just added in more emotions. "She's ready for a parade, that's for sure. How are you doing, Listener?"

"Better, I have some cool scars now I guess." She shrugged a little, a touch of pink on her cheeks. It wasn't fair that it was so hard to talk about anything music related at 'school'. "I tried finding one of the groups you mentioned, and I can't recall their name... like…crisis? Christian?"

"Christine!" Mic remembered, nodding. "Decided to search up some of the artists I suggested huh, Listener?"

"Yeah, thank you, I don't know why I couldn't remember the name." A phone appeared in her hands and she began to note that down so she wouldn't forget again.

"Same name as the American Killer Car movie." Mic said with some enthusiasm. "Have you ever seen it, Listener?"

"No, I don't think so... have you?" Alarice questioned, putting the phone back in her pocket.

"NOPE! Never have!" Mic just smiled extra broadly. There was a rough sound of Aizawa clearing his throat to get Alarice's attention. "Weren't you going to the go with Uraraka and them to that traveling carnival?"

"OH RIGHT. Uh, it was very nice to meet you, Mirio, Eri." She gave a nearly respectful half bow to her new friends, before bolting off. Barely catching the sight of Eri and Mirio waving in tandem, which she gave a short wave back. Forgetting to say anything to her teachers in the sudden embarrassed rush to get back to her friends.

"Aaand off she goes. She'd make a good racer, for a Cryptid-pup." Mic's lips turning his toothy grin into an impish one.

"Don't care." Aizawa growled from the bench, not bothering to readjust himself out of the slouch. "And don't call her a Cryptid, Mic. Or a Pup."

Mic smiled mischievously back at him, clearly not really listening to him. Mirio looked a little puzzled about what they were talking about, and Eri was the one to ask vocally. "What's a cryptid?"

Aizawa regretted immediately not having his sleeping bag. He satisfied himself by just laying down the bench completely, as Mic smiled widely and immediately began to tell the kid all about what a Cryptid was. Then, since he still had Mirio's ears, followed up with the recounting tale about the Cryptid hunt of 1-A, and, of course explained that Alarice wasn't a monster. She was just a little shy, like Eri was. Mic just seemed to go on forever, but it was less than a half hour before Mirio waved goodbye to the teachers, leaving Eri with Mic and Eraser for the rest of the day.