As far as the eye could see, there was fire.

They were naive. They never expected the League of Villains to rebuild their strength, and especially not under everyone's noses.

But suddenly, one day, a prerecorded message was displayed on every television screen in the country.

"Midoriya Izuku. We are coming for you."

A young woman wearing the oh-so-familiar mask of hands sat proudly atop of a Nomu.

The sight sent chills down their spines.

How could this happen again after everything that they'd been through? Everything that they had fought for?

"You have to go back," Eri's entire body shook as she tried to hold back her sobs, "we can't hold them back for much longer."

The young girl they rescued all those years ago had blossomed into a powerful heroine in what felt like the blink of an eye. She was a third-year student at U.A., and so close to finally graduating.

"I don't have a lot of strength left, senpai. And even if I did, I wouldn't even know what to do. I wasn't there for all of it; not like you were."

Her eyes burned with unshed tears. She didn't want to acknowledge the younger girl. She wanted to keep fighting.

"Senpai!" two arms wrapped around her torso, halting her movements. "Look at me!"

She shook her head and her eyes squeezed shut. She couldn't face reality.

"You have to stop." Eri cried, "don't you understand? You need to go back."

"I can't." Her voice was barely above that of a whisper. "How can I face them after we've failed so badly."

When did her limbs begin to feel so heavy?

Eri followed her to the ground when her legs gave in.

"Nonononono," she whispered, wiping the older woman's tears, "you did so well, senpai. You fought until the end."

Neither women turned their heads to acknowledge the approaching Nomu.

"Now it's my turn to save all of you, alright? Don't try to argue with me. It's my dying wish."

The last thing she recalls before reawakening is Eri's blood-curdling scream, then suddenly, a bright light.

It's a scream that haunts her every waking moment; one that she hears at the end of every nightmare, and she awakens with a gasp.

At first, she chalks it all up to be a nightmare.

But then she looks around her room, meets her own gaze within her mirror, and promptly leans over the side of her bed and retches.

Ajisai Ren wakes up inside of her fourteen-year-old body and is tasked with saving the world. She doesn't know if she can do it.

4:43 AM.

The numbers blink mockingly at her. She hasn't had a good night's sleep in weeks.

She chews on her bottom lip, brows furrowed as she goes through the motions of preparing a cup of tea. It's almost muscle memory at this point. Her head aches and her hands shake. She wonders when...if she'll ever learn to move past it.

She's never had a good sleep schedule, even before, but it hasn't been so consistently bad since she was nineteen and just starting out as a hero. There's an odd feeling in her chest when she realizes that that hasn't happened yet in this timeline. Her memories don't align with her body. Her body isn't what she's used to. Her hands lack calluses and scars, and her arms aren't the least bit muscular. Her feet lack the coordination that she had once spent years training. She takes a sip. Her height is the same, but she somehow feels much smaller. She sits at the dining table and stares blankly at the honey-colored liquid. She finds comfort in the way the steam caresses her face.

She doesn't know when her eyes come to a close, but when she finally allows herself to relax, her shoulders convulse violently and her mouth is agape with a silent sob. Her nails dig painfully into the palm of her hands, and her nostrils plug with mucus. She can't breathe and she doesn't force herself to.

It's the first time she's cried since she'd arrived.

She cries until her head hurts so bad and her mouth is so dry, she can't take it anymore.

When she opens her eyes again, the sun is out and it's nearly eight in the morning. Her mother finds her on the couch, scratching her dog behind his ears with one hand and her second (or is it third?) cup of tea in the other. She sends Ren a concerned look upon noticing the girl's dark circles but says nothing. She won't add to whatever stress her daughter may be experiencing. If Ren wants to talk, she will.

"You're up early," Daitan murmurs with a soft smile on her face, "want to help me prepare your bento?"

Two pairs of strikingly yellow eyes meet, and after a long, dragged out sip, Ren nods.

"Do you want to make the entree or the dessert?" Daitan asks.

The girl thinks for a moment. "Dessert."

Daitan hums knowingly as she scoops some rice into the lunchbox. Neither of them are breakfast eaters, so preparing lunch together in the morning had become their routine once Ren started middle school. "Going to make some for Katsuki and Izuku too?"

Daitan has always been quite fond of the boys, although Katsuki was sometimes a little too rough for her liking, especially when the kids were younger.

Ren grins as she places some fruit atop of a few pre-made tart crusts that Daitan had brought back from the bakery. "Always." She responds.

"Then I'll pack some extra side dishes for you to share with the boys too, alright?"

The woman almost beams when the corners of her daughter's lips quirk upward.

"Extra pineapples for Katsuki, and kiwis for Izuku," Ren sings under her breath to the tune of All-Might's theme, "peaches and mangos for me."

The mother-daughter duo loses track of time as they bustle about the kitchen, occasionally interrupting the silence to ask their counterpart to 'taste this,' or 'season that,' or 'hand that to me.'

Delicious odors waft through the house and the pair has just a moment to look self-satisfied before their home is polluted by sounds of frantic doorbells. "Oi!" A familiar voice shouts, "I'm going to leave your lazy ass behind if you're still asleep!"

Ren's wide eyes immediately snap up to those of her mother, and the woman has the audacity to turn the other cheek and laugh. Ren pouts at her in betrayal. Her eyes are a little misty, but Daitan isn't exactly looking at her, so it's fine. She's missed the safety of her family home. Where she came from, both she and her brother had long since left the house.

It's probably not as warm there anymore as it is now.

She wonders what the world looks like in the future. How are her parents? Is her brother safe?

Is Eri alive? Are her classmates? Her teachers?

Does anyone know that she's gone?

Another particularly pugnacious pounding to the door snaps her out of her thoughts. Ren isn't dressed, and Daitan doesn't seem to want to bail her out. A muffled thump and a groan sounds from another room, signaling that her older brother has awoken. He aggressively (albeit, not purposefully) slides his door open and stares groggily at his mother and sister.

He takes one look at Ren and scoffs.

"I'll open the door," he announces, ears twitching after their neighbor decides to start kicking it, "you had better get dressed."

"And I'll box up your tarts," Daitan chimes, breath still airy from her laughing fit, "I'm sure Kin can hold him off for a few minutes."

Kin maintains eye contact with Ren as he shouts "Coming!" at the door, snorting when the girl takes off running. He makes sure to get to the entrance as sluggishly as possible, but at least the kicking and the barrage of bells ceased once Kin acknowledged their visitor's presence.

"What's up, shortie?" He greets, to which the blonde boy responds by flipping up his middle fingers.

"Took you long enough." Katsuki sneers, "I'm surprised you managed to go pro despite being so fuckin' slow."

Kin ruffles the fourteen-year-old's hair with a large palm before rolling his eyes. "Are you trying to get your ass dusted again? Because I'm always down to bully some children in a race."

"You're on, loser," Katsuki juts his chin up challengingly, "I won't lose again."

Katsuki lightly shoves the older teen away and sticks his head under Kin's arm when he blocks Katsuki's entrance into the home. He shoots the nineteen-year-old a glare. "Nope," Kin laughs and sticks out a foot when Katsuki tries to shove his way through. "I'm playing Gandalf today and you shall not pass. Sister's orders."

"Why."

"Dunno," He says with a shrug.

Katsuki clicks his tongue. "You suck at lying," he says with squinted eyes, and Kin only responds with an infuriatingly smug smirk.

"Fuckin' aye," he grumbles, "I am leaving in ten, nine, —hi, auntie,— EIGHT," he accepts the wrapped bento Daitan hands him under Kin's stupidly lanky arm. "thanks, auntie,— SEVEN, SIX—"

"I'm ready! I'm ready."

Annoyance bubbles inside him as he discovers Ren having just left her room, still buttoning up her shirt.

"What the F—" he glances at Daitan, "fHELL, Frankenstein! Did you sleep in again?"

"My bad," she yawns as she gives her mother and brother both hugs goodbye, all the while Kin guffaws, "Hah! Fhell? Nice save, squirt!"

Sparks pop from the palms of said squirt's hands. "I'll kill you-"

Daitan stands on her tippy-toes and tugs on one of her son's ears, "Be nice to your sister's friends!"

"Yeah, be nice to my friends!" Ren points an accusatory finger at her brother.

"What? Now, who's bullying who?"

"Whatever!" Katsuki grabs Ren by her sleeve and drags her out the door as she finishes adjusting her tie, "Bye, auntie! I hope you lose your game today, Foxface!"

"Have a nice day at school!" Daitan waves, "Say hello to Izuku for me!"

"That's hurtful!" Kin shouts at the pair as they run down the sidewalk. "I'm going to hit a homer tonight just to spite you!"

"Oi!" He screams when both his sister and her friend stick both arms up in the air with their middle fingers raised.

He turns to look at his mom. "That boy is teaching your daughter bad manners."

"Maybe you shouldn't tease them so much."

The happiness radiating from Ren almost makes Daitan forget about the state she had found her daughter in earlier that morning.

She closes the door with a chuckle, watching through the window as her daughter and her friend become smaller and smaller in the distance. A third figure (Izuku, she presumes, by the mossy green curls) joins them as they near the end of the street, almost out of her sight.

Whatever Ren is going through, she's going to be alright.

Ren is uncomfortable, to say the least. She fidgets under her homeroom teacher's scrutinizing gaze. It's just as she remembered it. She averts her eyes to the window and her mind races as she recalls the events that are bound to happen later that day, completely drowning out her teacher's monotonous voice.

She feels the weight of the world pressing against her chest.

"Ajisai-kun!" The teacher slaps his hand on the surface of the desk sitting between them, "This is what I'm talking about. This absent-mindedness. I truly don't think that you are suited to be a hero; you just don't seem to have the level of focus for it. Now, U.A.'s entrance exams are famously difficult," he rambles, "and—"

"With all due respect," Ren interrupts, "I think I know what I want."

Her voice is deeper than most girls' and somehow lazy. It seems that no matter her state of being, Ren is never able to actually sound completely awake, and it's one of those things out of her control that just rubs her teacher the wrong way. Would it kill her to actually open her mouth when she spoke?

He flips through her papers once more. "Honestly, your personality is lacking and you're always sleeping in my class, but you're quite intelligent. You've never dropped below fifth in the entire grade. You could get into any of the prestigious traditional schools that you want. Why don't you consider becoming a doctor like your father?"

"No, thanks. S'boring. I'd fall asleep."

"Then what about an athlete," the man huffs, "like your brother? Wasn't he just drafted for the Nippon Professional Baseball League? That can't be boring."

Daitan and Kin are each gifted with a fox mutation quirk, which works perfectly in their favors as far as their careers go. Daitan is lithe and fast, and his exemplary vision, hearing, and animalistic instincts have made him one of the most sought after catchers and one of the strongest batters in Japan.

"I like baseball, but unfortunately, I wasn't gifted with my mother's quirk."

He should have expected an answer like that. The girl sleeps about eighty percent of her day; he doubts she'd want a long-lasting career in sports, even if she is rather athletic. He's seen her performances at their school's sport's festivals, and when Bakugou gets her going, she goes.

He resists the urge to drag his hand down his face. That's exactly what he's afraid of though if Ajisai were to pursue a career as a hero.

"Culinary school, then?" He suggests hopefully.

"I've already applied to take the entrance exams at U.A., and I don't plan on applying to any other school. If I fail, I fail."

She knows she won't. She's passed it once before, although, barely. But the stakes are higher now, though.

Her teacher just stares at her. He's never realized before just how stubborn Ajisai is, but if she's so set on becoming a middle-school drop-out, it isn't as if it's in his power to stop her. He can't help a student who doesn't wish to be helped.

For the first time during the entirety of the meeting, Ren finally looks away from the window and into his eyes. Her chest is tight when she inhales. "I know what I want."

She cannot fail.

"Then I suppose this interview is over." He sighs.

"Thank you." She bows before heading back towards the classroom.

She doesn't mean to be rude. She's just been through all of this before and her mind is too busy thinking of other things to put up a farce. Every time she so much as glances even remotely in either Katsuki or Izuku's directions, her anxiety spikes and she feels the need to puke.

Nineteen pairs of eyes look expectantly at her. "So? Where did you say you were applying?" A girl asks.

Yellow eyes meet red. He scoffs at her before looking away. She then meets a pair of green eyes, and Izuku smiles encouragingly at her before giving her two thumbs up.

She wants to throw up.

"I applied to U.A." she says, and her classmates murmur among themselves.

"Oh, yeah!" The girl responds, "you're really smart, aren't you? Did you apply for general studies or business?"

Ren seats herself at her desk, and to the right of her, Katsuki pretends not to be interested in her answer. This subject's been somewhat touchy for him since in the past, she'd always responded with a shrug and an 'I don't really care where I go as long as I'm not bored.' He'd gotten mad at her several times, and with increasing frequency the past few weeks because he, in his words, didn't want to be friends with her if she was just 'going to be some useless extra.'

"Actually, I applied for the hero course."

Katsuki doesn't even try to hide his surprise. His chair screeches as he scoots it back and turns to face her. When they were kids, Izuku and Katsuki always played the heroes. She never had the energy to, and always opted instead to sprawl lazily across the ground and play the damsel.

The first time around, Ren didn't even really want to become a hero. She didn't have the motivation for it.

She just didn't want to be left behind.

"Since when the hell did you want to become a hero?" Katsuki asks at the same time Izuku exclaims, "That's great, Recchan! We can all be together in high school, too!"

She yawns. "Yeah, I decided this morning," and to not be out of character, she adds, "my quirk is strong so I can handle it, but you should worry about yourself, Izuku."

At that, his grin falters, and she feels her chest heat up with guilt. If she doesn't get out of this conversation right now, she's going to throw up.

"A-ah, well, I think if I work hard..." His voice trails when he realizes that she's no longer listening and is instead crumpling her blazer into a familiar ball. He knows it's a lost cause at that point.

"Oi! Don't fucking ignore me!" Katsuki kicks one of her desk's legs.

"Be quiet, Katsuki, I'm trying to sleep." She places her crumpled blazer on top of her desk, folds her arms over the makeshift pillow, and burrows her face into the crook of her elbow.

He clicks his tongue in annoyance but decides not to wake her. He doesn't know what's wrong with her, but she's been acting differently as of recent. Neither he nor Deku has missed the bags under her eyes, and they've only gotten darker as the days progress.

What kind of epiphany did she have, to so suddenly feel inspired to apply to U.A.?

"Just because we're all applying to the same school doesn't mean shit, Deku." He spits instead, directing his annoyance toward the green-haired boy. "How do you even expect to get in? Maybe if you're lucky, you can land your ass in a gen-ed class."

"Honestly, if everyone could be a hero, there would be no villains and thus no need for heroes."

The homeroom teacher finally makes his grand entrance. "But a lawless society like that would be far from perfect. Could you imagine if everyone were free to use their quirks in public like that?"

Ren breathes deeply, already knowing what's bound to happen next.

"You all need to start taking your futures seriously. I would hand out these career quizzes, but after sitting through your preliminary meetings, I assume you all want to become heroes."

The class bursts with energy as one after the other, each student begins to activate their quirk.

"You know it, teach! We're all going to become heroes!"

It's like they don't even listen to him.

"You guys know the rules!" He scolds, "quirks are wonderful, but you can't use them at school!"

"As if," Katsuki scoffs, "don't lump me in with these extras. I'm clearly the only one here with a quirk strong enough to be a hero."

Ren shifts slightly, turning her head so that she can view her childhood friend with a single eye.

When their classmates begin to shout in offense, she smiles to herself. It's bittersweet. Some things never change, no matter where she was in the timeline, and Katsuki's overwhelming self-confidence has always been something that she envied. Even in the future when they had all made their debut, Katsuki always found ways to stand out. Both he and Izuku.

She supposes that she did get left behind after all. She should have tried harder.

"Shut up, you stupid extras!" Katsuki screams over them, "I aced all the mock exams at U.A. I'm going to surpass even All-Might and become the number one hero, and I'll be the richest man alive to boot!"

"Come on, Deku!" He slams an explosive palm down against Izuku's desk, sending it flying, "If you need a quirk like mine to ace the exams, what chance do you think you'll stand to even pass? You think you could rub shoulders with me?"

Ren squirms in her seat.

"That's enough, Katsuki." She says quietly.

He only barely hears her and turns to quirk a brow at her when she sits up and shakes her head at him. "You know how he feels about this."

The class watches in bated breath as the two have a stare off as if they were in an old western movie. It's as tense as it is uncomfortable.

Ren doesn't want to allow things to escalate as far as they did last time. What Katsuki did...what he said to Izuku made her furious. They had gotten into such a big fight about it that she left him to walk home alone and the events that ensued after scarred him for life.

She wasn't even there to see it first hand.

Katsuki wanted to slam his head against a goddamn wall.

Ren defending Izuku isn't new, but he knows that she knows better than anyone. The dweeb is quirkless, and if he tries to become a hero, he'll die. It was one thing to push him around and stop his dumbass from getting hurt when they were younger, but now he has to face reality.

Heroes get hurt, and Deku is only going to get in the way or get himself killed if he keeps following them around like a lost fucking puppy all the time.

"Whatever." His mood now thoroughly killed, Katsuki blows another desk away and stomps to his own seat. Ren looks up at him tiredly and he sneers at her.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

She shrugs and lays her head back down. "Wake me up at lunch. I made you guys fruit tarts."

"What the fuck, Deku?" Katsuki flips through the pages of Izuku's notebook, "This is fucking creepy."

He knows that the dweeb takes notes on every quirk, but there's a significant portion of the notebook dedicated to just him and Ren. He tears the pages out of the notebook, despite the boy's cries, and burns them in his hand.

"What the hell do you need these for? Trying to find our weaknesses or something?"

"No, Kacchan, I jus—"

"You're even more pathetic than I thought if you think some fucking notes are going to help you rub shoulders with me."

He blasts the rest of the notebook out the window.

"Katsuki," Ren warns, "I will be mad at you for the rest of your life if you don't stop it right now."

He grabs Izuku by the collar. "I guess I'm a perfectionist so I'll only say this once. I'm going to be the first one from this shitty school to make it into U.A., so don't you even dare to imagine that you can do it."

A few of Katsuki's goons throw nervous glances at Ren who watches the scene unfold with pursed lips.

A slender vine wraps itself around one of Katsuki's wrists, and both boys freeze as she approaches. "Katsuki, you're going too far."

"Recchan…"

"Why the fuck do you care?" Katsuki hisses, "You don't even think that he'll make it. What was it that you said this morning? My quirk is strong, worry about yourself?"

"You don't know what I think," she rebuttals, tightening the grip of her vine around his wrist. "Why are you so against him applying? I applied too."

"You're not a fucking threat. You don't even want to become a hero." Katsuki tugs at his wrist, "Let go, Frankenstein."

"No."

Izuku's eyes look as if he were viewing a tennis match with the way he keeps glancing between his childhood friends, waiting for one of them to lose it and activate their quirk.

"Let go of me," Katsuki demands. He's hesitant to blast her vines because he knows what that does to her.

"Let go of Izuku."

Izuku could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

"Hey, guys," one of the goons laughs nervously, "why don't we just forget about this and go to the arcade, huh?"

Slowly, Ren unwinds the vine wrapped around her friend's wrist, and Katsuki lets go of Izuku after one last shove. "This isn't even fucking worth it."

She scoffs when he leaves with his minions. "Look at him, parading around with his posse. He thinks he's the lead of some delinquent manga or something."

"Thank you, Recchan." Izuku says and she straightens his collar.

"I told you to worry about yourself. That's not the same as saying you can't do it." She clarifies.

He beams at her.

"I know. You never say something you don't mean."

A stop at McDonald's puts Katsuki in a better mood, but Ren is on high alert.

"Haven't the three of you known each other since you were kids?"

"Yeah, weren't you a little too harsh on him today?"

She freezes in place. Her senses are screaming at her.

Years of training have built up to this.

Years of training have her instincts telling her that something is wrongwrongwrong, but her body hasn't the slightest idea of how to react.

"If I'm not harsh on him, he'll never fucking learn."

They turn the corner.

"Speaking of which," he throws his empty cup at the other teen's head, "didn't I tell you to quit fucking smoking? If you get caught, it goes on my record too!"

A dark shadow looms over all of them and she screams, alerting all passersby on the street as thick vines rip through the palms of her hands. She hasn't done this yet; not in this body. The pain is so much worse than she remembers. Katsuki ducks and rolls out of the way as she attempts to grab the sludge with her vines.

The thing has the audacity to laugh at her as it melts out of her grasp.

"Katsuki, run!" She cries as she splits her two large vines into several super thin ones, webbing and braiding them into one another to create somewhat of a net to hold the villain down. This level of concentration isn't something her current self can manage. She doesn't have the speed, nor the explosive power, nor the combat ability that she is used to. She can maybe restrain the villain for five or six seconds before he'll explode through the netting, and if she can run, she will. If she can't...she'll wing it.

The other two boys in their class have already booked it, but Katsuki can only watch in horror as the mud man grows larger than Ren's quirk can handle. She cries in pain and he knows her quirk hurts her to use. He makes a decision then and there.

"Like fucking hell!" He loads his palms with nitroglycerin and takes a running start.

He jumps. "Heroes never run!"

"Katsuki, no!" She screams as he lands in the villain and attempts to blow it up from the inside. He's so stupidstupidstupid. He always does the exact opposite of what she tells him to. His explosions only allow for the mud man to get bigger, and their incompatible quirks render Ren useless as her netting falls apart. Katsuki blasts a hole through the middle of the villain, only for it to reform and mold a Katsuki-shaped center, perfect for a hostage situation.

Kamui Woods, just turning around the corner, uses this opportunity to wrap branches around her waist and drags her towards him. She screams.

"No!" She leans as far forward as she can while ensnared by Kamui's branches. Katsuki reaches for her, and she shoots more vines from her fingertips and intertwines them to make one, large, braided vine. If he could grab on; if she could make her vines just a bit longer—

She screeches as she's snatched just out of Katsuki's grasp and his fingers meet the air.

"FUCK!" He shouts, and she loses it.

"No! No, no, no! I had him!" She flails and struggles against the wood, "Why did you do that? Why?"

"You may aspire to be a hero, but you aren't one yet." Kamui responds.

But she is. She is.

"I made a decision to keep you from danger. What if the boy grabbed you and the villain dragged you in as well? One hostage is already more than enough."

Tears blur her vision as she listens to his screams, listens to all the pops and explosions. He's fourteen. He's going to be traumatized. He's going to shut her out again. It's all going to happen again. She scratches her nails against Kamui's branches. What did she come back for? To watch the same shitshow unfold again?

What if Eri was wrong?

"He's doing a good job. Someone will come for him, he just has to keep resisting. Someone with the right quirk will swoop in and save him."

Why couldn't she do it? Why couldn't she save him?

"Bakugou Katsuki!" She screams. He can't respond, but she knows he can hear her. The sludge has it's filth covering his mouth. "You're my hero!"

He roars and releases another explosion. The biggest one yet and the infuriated squeezes Katsuki's body, suffocating the boy.

Katsuki clamps his mouth shut and closes an eye, but a consistent stream of explosions pop from his hands. His eyes water. He can't breathe. How much longer…how much longer...is that fucking Deku?

"Kid come back!"

Ren turns toward the direction of the shouts, only to find Izuku running toward Katsuki, book bag in hand.

He has tunnel vision.

He doesn't even glance in her direction.

"Kacchan!" He yells as he throws the bag at the villain.

"Deku!" Comes out of the villain. It sounds garbled and ugly, and Ren wants to vomit after just hearing it. "What the hell?"

"I dunno!" The green-haired boy screams, "My legs just started moving, and you looked like you needed saving!"

The explosions grow bigger and bigger, and again, Katsuki roars.

"I didn't fucking ask you to save me! Not you, and not her!"

"Izuku," she screams, "Get out of the way—"

"DETROIT… SMASH… !"

All-Might lands on the villain, appearing from seemingly nowhere with a punch so resoundingly loud, it rings in her ears, and so strong that the pressure itself causes a downpour of rain.

The Symbol of Peace in all his glory is a sight that she hasn't seen in well over ten years. Really, it's this that is the last straw; the last thing to overwhelm her with so much emotion that she doesn't know what to do but sob. She cries both in relief and in mourning.

Kamui drops her and at first, she falls, but then she realizes that she's regained the ability to run, and she pushes past all the paramedics, reporters, heroes, and policemen, and she beelines straight toward her friends, snot dripping out of her nose and all. Katsuki's yet to gain consciousness, and Izuku's so scared his whole body is shaking, but they're both safe and she is so grateful. She dives for them and the pavement scratches against her knees and shins, and her hands are covered in blood, but she doesn't care. She holds her boys against her chest.

She was completely useless then and now and something has to change.

She has to change.

After dropping the girl, Shinji gives her one last considering look before a police officer approaches him for a statement. He'd only caught the tail end of her confrontation with the villain, but the girl's vines had potential.

She maneuvered them much like he does his own branches.

He'll have to put in a word with Nedzu to keep an eye on her. He wants dibs.

The next generation of heroes is hopeful.

BREAKING NEWS!

All-Might Saves The Day When Villain Takes Local Middle Schoolers Hostage

Thursday, April 16th, 20XX began with a peaceful, sunny morning. Birds sang and flowers danced in the light spring breeze. It all just seemed too peaceful, and quite frankly, just too good to be true.

The Sludge Villain began its reign of terror amongst the residents of Musutafu just afternoon at approximately 12:02 PM. Initial crime? The robbery of a convenience store located in downtown Musutafu. Local law enforcement immediately reached out for reinforcements, and instantaneously, All-Might a.k.a The Symbol of Peace himself answered the call.

After an initial confrontation, The Sludge Villain (perpetually living in a somewhat-solid-somewhat-liquid state) slipped out of our hero's grasp! But fear not, citizens of Japan, All-Might would soon deal a worthy punishment to this villain.

At approximately 1:37 PM, there were several reported sightings of the villain lurking near Aldera Junior High (Could This Choice of Terrain Possibly Have Darker Connotations?)

All-Might got his hands on the villain once again at approximately 1:43 PM. After a short scuffle, the tricky villain escaped from our number one hero yet again!

At approximately 2:05 PM, the villain attacked a group of 4 middle-schoolers. Brave aspiring hero, Ajisai Ren (who also happens to be the younger sister of teenage heart-throb and professional baseball player Ajisai Kin) (Click Here to View Ajisai Kin's Top 5 Hottest Instagram Posts!) engaged in a short battle against the villain and provided a distraction for two of her classmates to escape. Her effort is commendable, and if it weren't for just a measly couple of seconds, she would have held out just long enough for Kamui Woods of The Lurkers (a hero team consisting of Kamui Woods, Edgeshot, and Mt. Lady) to detain the villain.

Sensing his childhood friend's control slipping, Bakugou Katsuki charged toward the villain declaring, "Heroes never run!"

The next ten minutes would become the longest ten minutes of young Bakugou's life. He held out extremely well for someone so young and provided ample time for All-Might to arrive.

This was when Ajisai Ren, struggling against the branches of Kamui Woods proclaimed, "Bakugou Katsuki, you're my hero!" Could this be? Childhood friends to lovers? These kids sure do make my heart skip! (Check This Out: Top 10 J-Dramas to Binge this Spring!)

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MIDORIYA'S NOTEBOOK.

FOR MY FUTURE, VOLUME: MY BEST FRIENDS (cont.)

Name: Ajisai Ren

Hero Name: TBA (It's going to be something cool, I know it! I asked Kacchan what he thought it would be once and he told me that she'd name herself something stupid like Lady Frankenstein but I don't think that's true!)

Quirk: Vine Muscles

Ren does not have organic "human" muscles and instead has vines. These vines can rip through her skin (which hurts like hell, by the way, she'd like to add) and can be utilized as extra appendages (ie: tendrils or tentacles) or whips. Once Ren is done with her vines, she can use thinner vines to stitch together her damaged skin. This is why her body has lots of scars and stitches (hence the nickname Frankenstein.) Her skin will heal over time like normal. Severed vines cannot be reclaimed. This leads to lots of fluctuation with Ren's weight since losing vines means losing muscle mass. Ren's limbs technically can't be severed, since her vines can just reattach said limbs. Even decapitation won't kill her right away; however, she still feels pain from severed limbs and can still suffer from wounds if she is excessively hurt. Ren can accelerate her healing time by photosynthesizing(?) in the sun. Ren's biggest weakness is fire.

Author's Note: aHAha. Lots of crying this chapter. Ren is kind of a crybaby atm but she's under a LOT of STRESS ok

Anyway, y'all learned quite a bit about Ren's family today. Her mother, Daitan, is a patissier. Her dream is to achieve a Michelin Star and eventually franchise her bakery/cafe.

Her father, Ken, is a doctor but he works more often in labs than with patients. They don't see him very much. He's a bit of an eccentric guy and very perfectionistic so he spends a lot of extra time in the lab to make sure his assistants are doing their jobs right.

Ken and Daitan are high school sweethearts and Daitan was actually pregnant with Kin when they were seniors in high school. Nobody knew about it though, but when she was more than just a little bloated at their graduation ceremony, people were pretty sus.

Kin is a borderline prodigal baseball player. He plays catcher, but he's an all-rounder so he could play any position he wants without much trouble. He's also super popular with the ladies because he's so young and really handsome.

(Yes, Daitan and Ken were very creative naming their children Kin and Ren.)

Kin is literally Ken's twin, except buff, and he has his mother's quirk. Ren looks exactly like her mom, minus the fox ears, and has her dad's quirk. Kin is also supposed to have slit pupils, but the app I used to make these portraits didn't have that as an option for male characters. Ren also inherited enhanced senses and animalistic instincts, but not to the extent of her mother/brother since she doesn't actually have the fox quirk.