These Stones We Skip

by miraimisu

Uraraka, as a newcomer to the most powerful guild in this forsaken village, had not only one, two; but three responsibilities: grow stronger until she was able to pin the world down, untangle the mystery that her past was and survive under the eyes of a crowd that watched over her as night chased the sun, the charade going on and on until the thread... suddenly snaps. [MEDIEVAL!AU]

9. Ch äp t er 15

[A/N]: Actually, plot twist and all, this chapter was going to be incredibly long—so long in fact, that I decided to chop the contents of the original plan in half and it's two chapters now! This arc was going to finish this chapter but you know :9 I suck. Either way, I also wanted to give a big thanks to the peeps sending support in the reviews ;; you all are super nice and your words made me super happy, thank you so much! Please enjoy this chapter, it was pretty entertaining to write! And it has a few pleasing surprises in store :) hehe.

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When dawn had rolled over the hills of the Capital, the guild had already set off away from those doomed lands. Bakugou had expressed his desire to personally barge into Gunhead's office before they parted with the intention of beheading that bastard, but Uraraka and Kirishima had had to remind him that to the eyes of the Council they didn't know anything, and were just going to disappear like a footprint washed away by the sand.

There was no need to make things too complicated. From now on, they were headed to a better overkill than the stupid pawn of a organization that Gunhead was. If they dismantled the bigger part, the general would break down as well and crumble to a pitiful man without leadership. Like Midoriya had said, smart was a better suit than being a brat. Uraraka couldn't agree more in this situation, even when she had her own set of things to discuss with him herself.

But after the last day and how blurry things were, the crippling wave of new information about that part of her mind, that alternate corner within her, her heart was a mess. Everything was an absolute mess. Somebody had let the pieces linger unbroken for two seconds before they were kicked up and destroyed the beautiful, harmonic, almost completed puzzle. The story was complete, but now emotions had to take over and that was a tricky place to go to.

Admittedly Uraraka was never emotionally idle to start with, but even in her most solid, calm times she struggled to keep it cool. There was always something nagging in the back of her mind: what about timelines? what about Bakugou? what about her master? what about her friends, her staying by their side? where was Shinsou?

Could she really afford another burden that big? she didn't know. She wanted to think she could, but it was becoming clearer that she absolutely couldn't when they were headed to defeat an entire dark, illegal clan. She had to stay focused as her mind entered a tunnel phase, running straight for the goal with frightening precision. Her friends would aid her, help her take over that necromancer—the Hive Queen. The nickname itself screamed grand challenges in a powerful woman. A wicked one.

Back at the residence, Uraraka had still been packing her things when she found that dreaded book of Aizawa's on her desk, pristine and big as ever. It didn't even have a single speck of dust. She didn't even remember having carried it with her anywhere after the showdown against RampAge, she had deemed it to be destroyed back then. Yet, she took the hint and took it with her, securing it deep within her bag and carrying it away with her.

She pretended to not notice how the bag seemed a thousand tons heavier, and just blamed it on her lack of sleep.

Kirishima had offered her a ride on his horse and somehow the idea didn't sound appealing. Granted he was not that Kirishima that some part of her felt a burning frustration for, but that little girl in her dreams that was somewhat rubbing her feelings on Uraraka, and it was still a serious hassle. When she got on the horse behind him, she felt the complicity between them was gone. To him, nothing had happened—but for her, a lot had happened. Her mind was probably playing tricks on her all along but it was becoming harder and harder to tell if her feelings were induced by her own judgement or Ochako's.

The oracle had said Ochako was her. Did she mean it as if Ochako was a figment of her imagination? It had to be, right? Those increasingly clearer dreams had to be just a made up world and sure those negative feelings within her were a consequence of mixing exhaustion and hardcore revelations. It was all becoming so complicated.

Regardless, she let Kirishima take them there, following his short attempts of conversation when he wasn't being given orders from Bakugou on his horse ahead. Sometimes, his face would look… funny, like a grimace as if he knew he had screwed up. Like Ochako's Kirishima had. Maybe he knew the truth and was holding back, or could read in her face that something was wrong. Did anyone share these dreams with her? She felt something deeper ran beneath their nature, but who knew?

So she just went along with the flow and let the redhead take her wherever. This was the first time Uraraka didn't even try to meddle with the way the leaders handled the situation. For now, she had some other things to think about, and this was by no means the most important part of the mission. They could handle it. Nobody would really notice anyway.

So the current situation was: they had some sort of tents set up, Asui was preparing her potions in her caldron as usual, but Kaminari realized along the way that they had forgotten to bring wood when he saw Asui's alchemy set was sort of… dark. "Wait, we didn't bring any wood here?"

Bakugou was lying on a tree's branch (he argued there was a good view of the sky up there and everyone was too tired to argue) and even from up there his grimace was palpable. "Does it look like we can carry a fuckton of wood just for a night? We can cut it ourselves."

Yeah but everyone was tired and half of the members were passed out in their tents. Uraraka and Midoriya were supposed to share tents but Kirishima had fell asleep on her place while he had been discussing stuff with the leader. Tokoyami and Mina were sleeping soundly under the shade of Bakugou's tree, with Iida managing to stay awake by them knowing he was a lifesaver if there was an emergency and he could rush to the nearest village. Yaoyorozu was in her tent, one she was supposed to share with Jack, place taken by Todoroki.

Uraraka was supposed to wait for Sero to come to their current base and guide them to the Jirou lair the day after. The problem is, they had little to no light and everyone had been too tired to realize this sooner. Bakugou was acting somewhat ruder than usual and that was a lot to say when he was just a crude bastard in general. Lurking up the vines wasn't his style, above all in crucial times like these.

The sorcerer was so tempted to ask. But he'd probably bark at her to leave in his state of exhaustion. At this point, considering she hadn't been paying attention to anything else other than herself during their travel out of the Capital, she was probably the one with the most energy left. She could either use it to ask him what was wrong (something she should do with everyone, yet her feelings somewhat told her there was something else with him specially) or go cut down some trees.

Iida quickly sprung up but even then he looked tired as hell. "I shall go do that. You guys look exhausted."

Exhausted was a light term for their current state. Uraraka rarely saw them this beaten up and at times like these she remembered they truly did shine in the battlefield, yet probably sunk down at dusk. They brimmed with sparks and energy for a while before sinking down and needing some rest. The mental pressure and long travelling had had to merm their spirits, above all for the sleeping and sulking leaders.

The brunette's head sprung up at the mention. She had been sitting under a tree across from Bakugou's practicing cura making with some spare leaves and berries that Asui had brought with her. The alchemist had recommended her to spend her leftover energy on something useful in a way so uncommonly stern Uraraka was actually frightened by how everyone's attitude could change when their minds were so numb. It left little room for imagination about how terrible Bakugou would be.

The sorcerer got on her feet with a long sigh. "It's fine, Iida. I'll go get it myself, but I need an axe." while Uraraka wiped some dirt off her dress, Iida was already fixing to complain or disagree. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I could use the distraction before we go against them and before it goes completely dark. Besides, Asui needs the fire."

Kaminari pointed at her now naked hands, stepping to her with an eyebrow arched. Her gloves had been forgotten behind her. "You could help her with that."

At this, Uraraka curled her fingers into fists. Being praised (in her mind) for her ability controlling fire didn't exactly make her feel comfortable after what had happened. "Yeah, but I can't give a lasting support for the fire without burning my hands off, y'know."

Asui interjected from behind, stirring a wooden spoon in her small cauldron. It was barely half her size, just the appropriate size to be carried easily, enough to create some potions. "I'm going to need fire in a little. I don't need it for much, though, so some logs should be enough."

The blonde guy nodded and turned to the tree where he knew Bakugou was perched. "Yo, can we borrow your axe? We gotta go get some wood."

There was a faint, but gruff voice coming from up there. "Nobody touches my fucking weapons. Tell Uraraka to cut them down with her own bare hands." which she could do by using magic, but him implying that was unlikely. "Besides I need my axe nice and sharp to heads roll tomorrow."

The boy's shoulders dropped inch by inch until he sighed audibly at his leader's stubbornness. Were Midoriya or Kirishima awake and either one of them would have convinced Bakugou to stop being an asshole, but again, exhaustion was getting the best of everyone that night. Upon seeing the blonde's defeated expression, too tired to banter with the brazen barbarian, she frowned and walked to the very same tree where Bakugou rested, and took his axe from Tokoyami's side.

There was an offended grunt from above her and dangerous rustling of leaves. "I'll polish the edges when I'm back. Kaminari, could you finish the potions I was mixing for Asui? You're probably more experienced than I-"

"I know nothing about potion-making, Uraraka."

There was an almost dark chuckle coming from the cauldron. "That's fine, ribbit. I'll teach you." Kaminari spun to look at the exhausted alchemist, teeth gritted in annoyance because taking a nap was much more appropriate than taking alchemy classes. "Don't pull that face. If Uraraka got to learn, you should be able to as well."

Uraraka glanced back once more to hear Kaminari let out a not so subtle groan and saunter to his peer's side, making the sorcerer giggle slightly. He could use the extra lessons—in fact anybody could. She had used them herself during her runaway rush to the Capital with Shinsou and it had been a lifesaver at times. Her male sorcerer companion had also taken notes when he saw Uraraka brew quick, chaste yet useful small potions.

What had become of that man? Was he alright? She had to find him quickly once the Jirous were history, or maybe he'd be there once her guild arrived to the lair. Uraraka quickly got rid of those thoughts, shaking her head and realizing that she was somewhat wobbling her way deep into the forest as the axe chained her down to the earth. It was ungodly heavy, that thing—how did Bakugou manage to carry it around (and swing it) so easily?

Uraraka tried to put it on her right shoulder and it almost ended with her falling backwards, so that wouldn't do either. She ended up carrying it in her arms like some kind of child, and only then it occurred to her she could make it float as she walked. Still prideful and wanting to do it without the help of her powers, she summoned her leftover strength and attempted to carry it further without tripping with her own feet and not staggering too much.

She could do it.

"I can't do this…" she mumbled, hissing a bit as the weight of the axe weighed her down. It wasn't that much of a big battling axe compared to the terrifying stuff she had seen barbarians wield during her grand voyage—god, those were horrible. Bakugou was already frightening on his own, she couldn't imagine him with one of those things. This one was fairly mild for what she knew her leader could manage.

Uraraka was strong. She had some muscle after doing so much staff swinging and arm maneuvering. It was nothing compared to the beef arms her male companions had —Bakugou mostly —but she could do this. She was tired, but she just had to find a tree and cut it down. It shouldn't be that hard to at least get to her destination.

She was surrounded by trees but not any tree would suffice. Uraraka was aware that forests weren't made to be cut down by some self-seeking humans, so she needed to find a tree that was decaying and wouldn't be of use to any animals. Asui didn't need much wood anyway, just a few logs. It could be just a very small tree. She didn't want to waste a tree's life and only cut a pair of logs out of a giant sappling.

Uraraka only needed some wood. It wasn't that hard to ask for. She hoped it wouldn't be the same damn irony as being thirsty near the ocean, because she was too tired to deal with this. She could still hear Kaminari and Asui bickering—she wasn't too far away. There had to be a tree she could cut down. Just one, at least.

One minute later, the girl padded to a tree that was looking kind of dry, and didn't seem to have any animal living inside upon closer inspection. It was a few meters taller than her (hat included), but considering trees in that specific area were remarkably tall, she'd make do with this one.

Now, how to cut it.

She set the axe's head on the ground and supported herself with the handle of the weapon, looking at the tree like a big enigma. She had figured out which tree to cut, yet felt nervous about doing the chop chop. She had taken down enemies far more ferocious than this defenseless tree and that was maybe why she felt so confused. Nobody was telling her how to do this and her instincts weren't helping either.

She wasn't cut for the job. No pun intended.

"What the hell are you staring at?"

The sorcerer jumped in her spot at the gruffy voice that was managing to chase her anywhere she went. Uraraka turned around swiftly, prompting the axe to fall and the leader to, again, let out a grunt of displeasure at that airheaded attitude of hers. "What are you doing here?" shrieked she, surprised by his sudden appearance. "I thought you were too high up your ass to come help out."

Bakugou had been leaning on a tree a few feet away until he stepped towards her and, in his way to pick the axe up, he gave her a strong hit on the head. "Careful with the sass, Uraraka. You don't fucking learn, do you?"

Uraraka looked at him over her shoulder with a self-assuring smile. "If I had learned my lesson, I wouldn't be where I am now."

Bakugou could ask many things now and act clueless, but he wasn't in the mood to mess around right now. Instead, he smiled to himself, picking the axe up and examining it. "I guess you're right." after that, he looked at the small, thin tree she had planned on cutting. "Is this the best you can do? Don't tell me this is all you can do."

"I'm not a professional, you know. I'd use my magic but I'm trying to save that stamina for tomorrow. Don't wanna waste my energy on something like this."

Bakugou looked at her with an annoyed set of squinted eyes, teeth gritted in his characteristic grimace of disdain. "And I thought that magic of yours could be of use."

Uraraka tried her best to mirror his expression. "And I thought you were starting to be nice. What is it now?" turning to him as he now inspected the tree, she crossed her arms. "Can't you cut that little tree down? Are those arms only gum?"

There was a breeze of silence in which there was only a challenge between them, the anger in his voice replaced with some kind of arrogant cockyness that was so him and familiar to her she found herself drawn to whatever he was up to at the moment. He had that ability to draw her in like a moth to a flame. She almost always ended up burning herself but… that was merely a side-effect.

Taken over by his pride, Bakugou swung the axe with an ease she wished she had. She was so powerful yet so weak at the same time, at least compared to him. Again, she had some muscle, but that was nothing compared to the massive arms he had. And she definitely couldn't handle a weapon so big that at times she was sure he could only barely handle.

So she just waited for him to get cocky and do something about it, for a change. They glared at the other without malice, but it was for once him who broke the eyelock. "Tsk. You're a fucking handful."

And he swung the axe towards the thin tree with a might she had sure not seen before —or never stopped and stared at, because he only did this stuff at battles and while this wasn't a battle he sure made every issue in his life seem like one. The result was a dent on the bark that was deep enough for her to introduce her whole palm in, but still far from enough to bring the tree down.

Uraraka had a complaint. "Don't act all cocky and mighty—the tree's dry as hell. I could have done-"

Bakugou let out an unsightly growl of power and slammed the axe into the dent, making a deeper mark, but before Uraraka could rile him up further he was ramming his weapon into the poor tree over and over, his growls growing in volume until he was wishing the tree a very ungraceful death for probably putting him in a bad spot before Uraraka's eyes. His pace never decreased and the girl watched the spectacle with an amused expression.

Before long, the tree was struggling to stand, and that was when Bakugou stopped. The hunter let out a blow of air in what could be a pant, letting out remaining adrenaline. Then, he shot a perverse shit-eating grin at her, wiping a single bead of sweat off his jaw. "Your turn." he saw her blink in surprise. "If you thought I was gonna finish the job for you, think again. Use your little dainty terrorist hands for something more humble than blowing corpses up, will you?"

"Your mistake for thinking I was going to even let you finish off the job. You're such a brute you'd have ended up destroying the entire forest." Bakugou drove the axe into the soil and watched her step forward, seething at the proud air she carried with her. It wasn't a necessarily bad one, as he appreciated her being this competitive and he wanted to keep those moments well and alive—but she was so irritating sometimes.

"Beats me. Just fucking get the thing down."

Uraraka shook her head before positioning herself behind the tree and at the opposite side of Bakugou's dent, and made a similar one just some centimeters higher than his had been, sending slices of air into the tree and making several dents that dug into the bark deeper and deeper with each motion of her arms. However, in the background, Bakugou seemed displeased.

"Is that all you can-"

"Don't you dare!"

In a similar fashion that what Bakugou had done before, Uraraka's arms started flopping out of control as she sent dashes of air thanks to the breezes between trees and making dent after dent into the bark, making disgruntled noises of impatience as she tore her way through the tree and, eventually, a crunch, tearing noise was heard and the tree stumbled in place.

Bakugou took a step aside only a second before the tree fell in his direction, making a deaf echoing noise that made the few animals left run away and the blades of grass shake at its wake. He inspected her work and noticed the uneven cut of her craft, unlike his which was polished despite how brash he had been.

"Can't believe you were calling me a brute earlier. It's just a shitty tree, Uraraka." he gave the tree a small roll with his feet and took his axe back again. "You were too harsh."

The girl crossed her arms with a huff of annoyance, yet her expression remained innocent. "And you're too rude!"

"Whatever. I'll just cut these and get the job over with." he said, and swung his axe back in such a way that made her breath hitch. Uraraka had never really noticed but since when had Bakugou been… like that? He was tall and his muscular frame went without saying, but in such rough tasks like that his figure looked overly masculine. It was so, so weird to see him in such a light.

He was an intelligent, focused man—but seeing him being so fixated on seeing it done gave him a tender, almost calm hint to his movements, to his brazen, squinted eyes that were probably cursing the log's sturdiness and Asui's profession for needing wood, but he wasn't complaining like he would have before. Uraraka knew he would have never cooperated in the past—hell, he wouldn't do much more than protecting them in the battlefield, but daily tasks like these? Dream on.

Her heart warmed up for things that should go without saying, yet she couldn't complain. He was making progress and the sole fact that they had this kind of camaraderie made her feel safe and very much proud of how he was evolving and developing thanks to the help of his peers and discovering the wonders of the world. No one had decided to change him but himself.

No one could help him sort out his angry façade but himself.

But then she realized, again, that she couldn't stick to these feelings. Uraraka felt stupid for daydreaming about him again and in front of him, no less. She slapped her cheeks with a bashful expression, and looked anywhere but at him, the object of her affections. It felt like she was behaving rather dodgy and quite frankly, even she knew she was somehow trying not to stay alone with him for too long because of this: the daydreaming, the weird fuzzy feeling in her stomach and how she overthought all that was him, curious and proud.

She was overcome with the want to run away. She had better things to think about and none of those were Bakugou. "Um…" she started, stammering a little. Bakugou didn't seem to be paying attention to her. "I'm gonna try to find Asui some herbs she can work with. I'll come back in a little bit."

Her voice was so pitched and nervous even Bakugou knew something was not right. He finished his swinging to look at her with an arched eyebrow. "Oi, what the-"

She instantly jumped a few steps away, looking for a path to take. "I'll be right back! I just wanna look for some berries and leaves and all that! Don't get too tired." she somehow managed to keep herself down and not too jumpy, which seemed to appease him as he took the axe again and resumed his posture from before. "I was hoping you'd have it done by now, you are getting slow."

Her voice was quivering and she knew it but before he could say anything about that she flew away into the forest. She ran like a squirrel jumped from tree to tree while the panther gave chase under at ground level. She leaped across fallen, mossy empty logs and splashed her boots on mud. The dark, lonely atmosphere made her go way back to her confusing beginnings.

There were no other stepping noises other than hers in the forest, so she knew she was alone for now and let out a relieved sigh. It wasn't that she didn't like his company —oh she totally did —but it was best for both of them to not indulge into the feeling. He was too intoxicating with his words, confusing, and too hypnotizing with his acts. It wasn't destined to end well.

Uraraka basked for a moment in her appeased heartbeat and her normalized breathing, and carried on walking deeper into the forest.

Her main focus was to find berries but she couldn't exactly concentrate on that since her mind was cluttered with his presence. The sorcerer was working hard to push him out of her mind, but considering he slipped into her heart in a very mean, sneaky and intense way, he wouldn't be easy to get rid of. He was almost like a stain. A very abrasive, brazen and spicy stain.

She was getting better at telling herself that such silly crush —it was more than that but it took time to hammer that into her mind —and realizing that she had a bigger task to accomplish and silly love stories weren't in her book yet a part of her wanted to give in, to see what he hid behind that shield of his and marvel in the flames of his heart.

But it wasn't that easy. Nor she or he were that easy. And Uraraka had duties that at the end of the day always outweighed the silly desires of her ironclad heart. She could move on from this after tomorrow. In theory, she was supposed to be able to flee the day after but would it hurt to stay a bit more?

Yes. She knew the answer was yes. She would be fooling and leading them all on, as if she would stay forever. Dragging that time beyond necessity was absurd and would hurt more than heal on the long run. Her mind was set on making things right with the world. She was bound to do great things and carry her wishes to whatever destiny waited for her.

Uraraka would endure it.

But at times, deep into the night, she wondered if he… felt anything for her. Their relationship had grown considerably since last time they fought blade to blade —or magic —and, honestly? She wanted to believe the special place he had in her heart existed in his, as well, exclusive for her. She deceived herself, daydreaming about what it would be like if he ever corresponded her doomed feelings.

She knew he had no space for love in that armor of his, so full of corpses and traumas she had long ago lost count of—and even if he did feel for her, it wouldn't work. At times, she wondered if he had an answer to her problem, if he knew any way to make it work, and she became hopeful because after all hadn't he been covering her back all along? Maybe he did have a solution to fix this and find a way to be together.

Perhaps the situation was better. Perhaps not. Regardless, she knew better than to be deceived by her own foolish hope and slapped her cheeks again for some grounding. She continued walking until she felt a stronger, damp breeze coming from between trees.

Ah, that natural tune. She wished she had a flute with her to lull the fireflies out to dance along to the tranquil, silent yet peaceful night. Her hand grabbed her hat to hold it in place as her eyes snapped to a gap between trees that seemed to look out into the sky and the sea. There was a faint smell of salt and the sound of seagulls saying goodbye.

It had to be the sea. No more rivers, just the ocean and the rocking of the waves at the shore. Uraraka walked fast to the edge of the forest —apparently she had been walking out of the forest and not really into it. She was met with a gust of air to her face that faded quickly, as if the tides were greeting her with animosity.

The sky was dark, yet held a purple hue to it. Stars littered the vast space of the sky that she couldn't quite reach no matter how high she soared, or how tall she felt. Her eyes fell shut in bliss, feeling the ambient envelop her like a warm blanket. She saw a dry log laying before her, mushrooms peeking from under it with grass and dew, all looking out to the horizon of the night.

Uraraka sat down on it to take in the misty air around her. Mint, flowers, dew, water and the silence. She should be collecting those berries but at the same time she didn't really need to, so for now, she just wouldn't. Palm on the log and another on her thigh, she shed a small smile. It felt like she had come to a bed after a harsh battle.

In a way, she had. Her life seemed to be an everlasting battlefield that right now, didn't seem to matter. Like a small special corner of the universe unscathed by the corruption that ran deep under the surface, one that nobody had fleshed out yet.

It didn't matter now. For a second, she let herself believe nothing mattered.

"Oi."

Of course.

"Didn't you say you wanted some berries or some shit?" she felt something collide with her back and, bemused, she leaned back to pick the small fabric bag up. "Found these. I'm doing all your damn tasks today. Aren't you supposed to be useful?"

Uraraka only turned around to look at him and make a tired, annoyed face she was again taking from him. "You shouldn't be this rude to anyone near a cliff. Accidents happen."

Uraraka had expected him to go away after that, give her some peace and quiet after throwing out his daily nasty remark by complaining about how much he despised her, how useless she was despite him having made her stay with his own stubborn and rude ways. Weirdly enough, his legs walked him to her and his ass hit the space by her side shortly after.

"You're getting too full of yourself." he mumbled to nobody in particular, sighing and stretching his arms up before lying his elbows on his knees, looking forward like she had been doing before his sudden interruption. "Don't be sassy to the man who cuts the wood for you."

It was worth noting he had left his axe behind him. And she knew that was no mistake. He didn't go to her to fight, and that was new and exhilarating. She chuckled. "I could have managed."

"Sure you fucking would have." grumbled Bakugou. They refused to look at each other. Uraraka had expected him to have another sarcastic remark to make to allegedly sink her in humiliation, yet nothing came out. He stared into the abyss of the universe just as she relaxed by his side.

They were invaded by an uncommon, comfortable and easy silence. Or at least, that's what she thought, for when he spoke again he sounded weirdly annoyed, suddenly. "You're being jumpy lately."

At this, she actually jumped a little. When Uraraka looked back at him, his eyes were looking at her differently. It wasn't full of negativity, anger, or any kind of animosity and disdain… it was something purely different. For once, Uraraka couldn't read him as well as she thought she could. His eyes were vacant in violence and flames, his crinkled eyebrows almost looked solemn, worried, or concerned.

Uraraka felt out of place in times like these. He wasn't being himself, like that opposing force that was always against her and sort of complimented her existence in his stupid ways. In the silence of the night, looking out into the darkness of the night and the howling moon above them, she felt almost threatened and cornered. She had never really dealt with these kinds of feelings. What was she supposed to do with them now that they were alone and intimate?

These circumstances brought up an uncertain type of fear, not to the unknown but to the warmth he was letting himself radiate, so silent and so cautious with his voice. Seeing him be so calm made her nervous. It was as if something important was weighing him down and if something was weighing Bakugou down, the king of the wolves and the most stubborn and brazen man on Earth, then it was something worth fearing.

Was this the feeling he dealt with every single day, holding his feelings back from surfacing to not confront that kind of fear? It didn't excuse his behavior but she sure understood his seemingly heartless appearance if he was as afraid as she was in that moment. Afraid of the size of her feelings, of just feeling in general. Uraraka felt she was too small for everything and would never be ready to face all in its entirety.

In the emptiness of her mind, she found peace and words. "You're being weird lately, too." her voice was just as calm but considering she was usually that calm, it didn't seem out of character. She, though—she knew better. Uraraka knew she was nervous. Because he was nervous.

And she hadn't really thought about it much but he had been acting nicer than ever when anyone would have thought he would be angry, livid at her after what she had done with RampAge. Had Uraraka seen somebody she had grown to care for die in front of her and if she discovered it had been all a lie, she would be damn furious, or at least feel betrayed. Perhaps he knew it was more worth it to forget about everything and move on to be comrades instead of enemies again.

The sorcerer had never thought about fighting him in a long time. She hoped he hadn't, either.

"I guess it's more worth it to suck your ego up before losing an important member of an operation. Even if she's a damn bitch and can't swing an axe the right way."

Bakugou knew it was a very badly fabricated lie. Not even she would believe it and Uraraka was terribly naïve when it came to believing in people's good will. He knew he didn't need to keep her around with sweet words because he had her from the beginning. After all, she would be gaining profits from this when they pulverized that forsaken clan, so she had more reasons to stay than to leave. He could say he was just making sure she didn't leave but that would be a lie too.

The hunter knew he'd lose her. At the end of their journey, one that was coming to a close way too soon, Uraraka would leave. It was obvious she would. His pride was a bit damaged by her endless and reckless shows of power and just her thawing her way into his heart. It was shocking to realize he wasn't as heartless as he pretended to be. And with the shock, his pride somewhat lowered, too.

Did he want to go back that lane and redo all his walls? Not anymore. Being more appreciative of others' work and seeing them grow a little bit each day had become something new to take pride on. Everyone around him had faith in each other and it was high time he joined the fun as well, even if it took a push from a newcomer for him to realize. It took him a long time to see that he could still be great while standing in similar levels to his peers.

Uraraka hadn't triggered this, but he knew she had helped him. She had kind of slammed the door open and forced him to accept her in a similar way he would have done if he had had half the interest she had presented at the beginning of their journey, way way back in time. They weren't as different as he thought. Uraraka by herself was pretty spectacular.

And with his world flipped upside down he found himself thinking that maybe, he was being nicer (still a jerk, but much better) in general but it was undeniable that being nice to Uraraka felt different. He wasn't only humoring and encouraging somebody he supported and admired. He was humoring, encouraging and loving somebody he supported, admired and wanted to spend time with. Her unmovable faith had finally broke him. A faith she never needed to have, a faith that would have saved her lots of trouble yet he was ever so thankful for someone to make him feel the warmth of feeling cared for.

The ghosts telling him it was all lies were long gone. Instead, she had soiled a beautiful sunflower within him, brimming with the serenity and radiance only a girl like her could provide. She wasn't a damsel for him to protect, nor was he a wounded brute for her to save. Instead, they were equal rivals that had found themselves drawn to the other in given time, protecting the other not because they were weak when separated, but because they were stronger together.

It was a matter of time one of them sat down and realized they had to do something about it.

Her small voice filled the space of what seemed to be an ocean between them. "Well, that's good to hear. I thought you'd be the hardest one to deal with."

Forgetting his inner turmoil, his eyes turned skeptical at her statement. "Why's that?"

A tiny gap of silence formed yet again within them, but unlike earlier, Uraraka tried to convey a mute message of regret and apology with her crinkled eyes, her head cocked to a side, as if confused he didn't get it. They never really stood in the same planes of existence, but it was time they defined where they stood with this situation.

So despite her personal promise to not feed her feelings and the situation, Uraraka spoke up. "After what happened with RampAge. After what I did. After I ran away."

Too graphical, and that surprised Bakugou, somehow. He shouldn't be taken aback by her blunt words yet she was always unpredictable, wasn't she? He chuckled without humor, remembering the cold carcass that her body had once been. "Yeah. Had a great fucking time back then."

Uraraka considerably shrank at his words, but really what could she expect? She was lucky enough he wasn't being as violent and crude as he was some days ago, because she'd be leaving their little sanctuary if that was the case. This time, though, she knew what to say. And it wasn't some stuttered half-assed apology to get out of the situation. "I think I already apologized to everyone but… I think I owe you more than that."

The brunette slid a bit closer to him. He didn't flinch back, and listened to her while gazing out into the infinity of the darkened horizon.

"What I did… I had to. I was feeling pressured by people around me to make a decision about what path to take next and nobody was making the task easier. It was hard for me, Bakugou. I never meant to hurt you, or the guild. In my mind, nobody would mind me being gone because nobody was paying attention to what people were telling me from the dark side of the story." her voice had turned somehow choked, but she wasn't stopping. "You were pinning on me with your silly ego and your stupid words and I didn't feel it'd be right for me to be there, for some reason. So I took the easy path."

Bakugou gritted his teeth. "You call Shinsou the easy path? I'd say he hardened you up a lot, didn't he?"

"Well, yes. But at the same time, it was easy because it seemed to be the obvious choice. Nobody offered me anything there other than… nothing, just, nobody offered anything. But all I saw around me was actually bad with little room to wiggle for the good things." she explained, eyes almost pleading for him to understand. "I know me being a pawn to destroy that monster could have somewhat hurt the others but it was just a transition point-"

One of her hands, that had loomed over his shoulder, stopped mid-air when he grabbed her wrist. Bakugou wasn't looking at her yet.

"Could have somewhat hurt others? Seeing a comrade die before us is more than hurting!" and he spoke with the confidence of the man who had held her in his arms as she froze to death, her skin clad in ice and frost as she faded away. Was he supposed to say he was fine with that? "I don't expect you to own up to it because you got the right to have ambitions, but you could have chosen a less shitty way to go about it."

The sorcerer broke free from his grasp and cradled her hands to her chest. "I hadn't expected to go back. If I hadn't been told to investigate the Jirou clan, I wouldn't have had the guts to go back to you guys. I know I have a mission and going back to people I abandoned would only make the situation messier." Uraraka sighed. Before Bakugou could snap back, she spoke again. "I missed you guys, don't get me wrong. I missed you, too. But I can't expect to be greeted warmly when I did more harm than good."

Deeming the little coziness in the air to be gone, she looked at her palms on her thigh with a dejected expression. She thought she had moved on from those feelings but yet again she felt she hadn't owned up to that mistake she made. Uraraka was surely bound to make worse mistakes in the future, but this one was one she couldn't move on from. She had been so sure back then, so why were they making her change her mind?

Bakugou let out a grumpy sigh, one of those he did when he knew someone was right, and regarded her with eyes that finally conceded the solemnity she had reached out for earlier, no matter the butterflies that erupted in his belly when she admitted he had been missed as well despite his behavior.

"Y'know, you defeated the bastard that killed my mother. I can't build a sculpture for you, but you will always have my gratitude for avenging her death." his confession was almost whispered, eyes closed to not let any more feelings seep out, frowning. "It was a bad way to do it, and I can't fucking believe you would be so stupid to almost die just so that bastard could rest in peace."

Speechless, she grimaced. "Well-"

"And there's no way you're gonna have me bowing down to your feet. But you have my thanks. In fact, you have everyone's thanks for shoving a heavy boulder off our shoulders." he lay his palm on the bark, dangerously close to touching her dress with his fingertips. "We were sad, yes. But we were never grieving a brat. We were grieving someone who had fallen in battle."

It was then when she realized that she had been in the wrong all this time. Perhaps Bakugou was violent and brash and rude and just a jerk, but he was nothing near to heartless as she had suspected. He was more than an armor with a brain. He had skin, bones, power and a pounding heart. He was like her. Bakugou was human, too, and had to bend to admit he admired her in ways he never thought he would.

Uraraka thought he was beautiful that way. "I… thank you. You're just a brush with death and a runaway late, but it's still appreciated." both chuckled, her a bit more audibly and him more subtly but it was fine that way. "I just wanted to make things right badly. I know I have a business left to do still, I knew and know I have things to do and I believe that was the right path."

Because sometimes, the easy path is also the right path, she thought. Maybe in time she'd make him realize that no matter how tough the path had been, that had been the right choice, for a change. In his own roundabout way, he agreed. "Well, you're hella badass now. I owe you a beating for what you did at the tournament, you caught me off-guard. Whatever business you gotta do will keep you busy."

"Yeah…" his words started dripping with a reality she hadn't seen in him before, making her shoulders drop as she stared into his sharp eyes, as if he was acknowledging that he knew she'd end up leaving in the end. "it definitely will, won't it?"

It would. Uraraka knew it would. Bakugou knew it would. Everyone knew it would. As they gazed into the other's eyes in a moment of debility, it was only the more evident neither of them wanted her to leave. If Bakugou were to be selfish, he'd drag her down and make her stay, and give in to what he felt and he'd make sure the little sunflower within him never died. He was addicted to the shine in her eyes and the innocence she had given back to him, one he had lost long ago.

But that world was too small for her. She had been given a bigger task than the life he and their friends could give to her. He wanted to be selfish so, so badly. But he couldn't. Bakugou couldn't bring himself to do that to her. He could tear her apart physically and send her to a deathbed, but in the end he'd never damage her more than what she was willing to. He could see it in her eyes that she wanted to see the world, but that if it were for her she'd even take them with her.

Uraraka was doomed to be alone and fight this alone. He knew only her had the powers, contacts and mind to dismantle this havoc that surrounded them silently, threatening to break whatever thread that joined their hearts in twain if they moved, if they touched the other too much. But for now, the universe, the gods and time watched over them in silence, unmoving.

The world always stopped spinning when they met. But in the end, the world couldn't stay motionless forever. And Uraraka knew that no matter how much she wanted to stay, she couldn't. And he wouldn't want it, either. Even if Bakugou felt the same for her (she knew he didn't, wrongly) he had just admitted she would have to leave, eventually.

"I don't want it to be over." she confessed, slowly and in a small voice that didn't suit her. He inched a bit closer to her, and he realized their hands, slanted on the tree bark under them, were brushing. "I want to stay with you guys and have fun."

He scowled a little at her sad voice, but he couldn't refrain from giving in a little to the lonely atmosphere he'd deal with when she was gone. "You got stuff to do. I guess the guild will be a tad less noisy… it's a relief, actually."

She offered an awkward smile. "I guess so."

But god, wouldn't he miss that fucking noise. "And I'll have no more jumpy brats around me, either."

"I'm not jumpy."

"Then why the hell are you so tense, lately?" it wasn't as if he couldn't read the situation and she remembered that at times, he actually couldn't. "Is it…?"

Uraraka pushed her eyes to the sea under them, that rolled against the cliff under the forest, ignoring that his fingers had sneaked between hers when he was asking his question. "It's… complicated."

"I ain't stupid, I know something is going on in that airhead of yours." in any other scenario he would have given her head a small smack. He didn't, this time. "So you better tell me now, because tomorrow's probably the last day we got."

She looked at him with a hurt expression, because using that guilt-tricking reminder against her was a low blow, but she knew he was right. She wasn't afraid of speaking, but a knot had tied itself, latched to her throat and she was losing the ability to be coherent. A mild blush splashed across her cheeks and god forbid her from confessing anything but she could at least speak in a less blunt way. Just… a hint, maybe?

After all, she didn't want him to live with the thought of what could have been. "I just… well you've been acting nice to me and the rest lately and, well, it's confusing to me." the hand that wasn't tangled with his on the bark rested on her chest, looking at how his formed a fist on his thigh. "I just feel… weird and I don't want any of this to be over."

Bakugou stared at her in silence, then clenched his jaw in frustration because he could only offer one counterargument. "Yet, you've only been tense with me."

"Have I?" asked she, lying.

"Yeah. And call me jerk all you wanna but I notice this shit, too."

Uraraka gulped thickly at how affected he actually sounded and it wasn't like him to sound this way. He always acted almighty and powerful; but that was all it was, after all, just an act. Maybe he thought it had been enough acting and he now wanted to speak his mind just as much as she wanted to.

Could she say he loved him when she knew it was bound to be over? Could he say he loved her when he knew it was bound to be over?

Uraraka knew the answer. Bakugou knew the answer. But this time… she didn't let herself think about it. The fear to be rejected, the thought of it being destined to be destroyed no matter how much she protected it. "I, uh… feel nervous about you, sometimes, because you are too nice, or at least just nice." she offered with the face of a liar, yet the heart of a truther. His sincere, listening eyes somehow told her he could read her just as good as she thought she could.

"And I don't wanna stay away from you."

Too blunt, but why did it feel so good to say that, finally? "I wanna stay by your side. I want to fight with you, both by your side and against you. I don't want to leave, Bakugou. I want to say I don't care about the world and stay with you until it's destroyed, but I do care."

When she blinked, her eyes turned desperate, a brink away from asking for help because she loved him but what were they supposed to do? "I wanna be with you. I wanna bicker and smash heads with you, I wanna hug you again, I wanna hear you laugh someday, I just want to stay by your side for much, much longer than this." she thought she heard him gasp quietly, but she had probably imagined it. "I wanna be with you. In a different way." she was speaking too much, but before she could stop, the truth was rolling off her tongue like waves roll against a castle. "I wanna stay with you, take care of you… I just-!"

Uraraka didn't silence herself willingly.

Before she could say anything else, something warm and chapped was covering her mouth and pushing her back momentarily before her focus returned and she found herself in his arms, one hand covering hers and another cupping her neck with a grip so possessive it brought the word desperate to her mind, and made her realize that Bakugou was, indeed, kissing her.

His touch was almost hesitant, as if afraid she'd leave if he didn't keep her close, almost too faint in case she shattered like glass. Her eyes were wide open, leaning against him just as reluctantly, frozen to her place and almost unable to move. He was holding like craftsman held a masterpiece. His lips were chapped, but tender, and when they connected with hers, it felt like fireworks were erupting in the far distance, sparks flying like cackling electricity. Everything had stopped spinning around them, and for now, it was only her and him.

Uraraka's eyes fluttered close, the hand that wasn't holding his clutching the fur on his shoulders for dear life, waiting for him to move, to get her out of that position, just anything—but instead, the kiss was gone too soon and he was pulling back from her with his eyes still closed, holding her just as delicately. When he broke away, he didn't bother going too far away, and pressed his forehead to hers. His eyes were asking her to tell him what to do.

Uraraka had two options: she could run away and leave the warmth he provided, or make the mistake of giving in to that small nirvana that was clouding in her head.

Her eyes stayed shut, processing what had just happened and somewhat holding onto the warmth that was slowly leaving her body as the kiss evaporated. It was only when he broke away that she realized she wanted more of it. Almost shyly, she reached for his neck to bring him down again, and he understood the gesture. A second later, their lips met again halfway, but his hold was now stronger than before, igniting soothing flames on her skin.

The kiss was silent and tender, tainted with the want to never part and be together until death caught them, wrapped in the silence of the night and the light of the moon. Their lips moved in sync, slowly, taking their time, conveying a thousand feelings with each touch of their hands, each breath they drew from the other. The brush of their lips was like a chasing game, not allowing the other to get too far away. His body molded against hers and sheltered her in a shell of affection and intoxicating warmth.

For some reason, Uraraka felt like she has surfaced from slumber within the ocean, yet the more he kissed her, the more she sunk down. His teeth nip into her bottom lip playfully, making her inhale a shaky breath at how teasing he was being, yet ultimately gently. The hand on the bark travelled up to grasp the fur on his shoulders, and he followed her loyally, covering it with his own calloused fingers. She needed to be closer to him, cover all the gaps between their shifting bodies.

He took the time to worship every and each of her little cuts on her lips, and caressed the small scars on her soft cheeks. Bakugou tilted his head to a side to deepen the kiss a notch, and pulled her closer by the tall neck of her uniform with an impatient growl. She tasted like berries and fresh spring air, he tasted like lemon and ashes. Her heart clapped soundly within her chest, fluttering like the dawny wings of a newborn bird that was soaring towards the sky.

She felt weightless.

His lips caressed hers in a private dance, as if scared she'd leave if he was too harsh—but she wanted the harshness, the touch of his fingers all over her body in a way she never expected to ever wish for. Their lips lingered over the other for two seconds before reconnecting again, and again, satiating that mutual thirst that was only growing stronger with each touch of his lips with hers.

The more they kissed, the closer she pulled him and the tighter he embraced her, tasting and drinking from her like a dying man on a dessert. He caressed her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue and she gasped in surprise, but he swallowed that gasp fully. They were basically holding onto the other, not wanting to part and refusing to even breathe, because as long as they had the other, they would be fine. Death sounded like a sweet serenade if it meant never breaking away, never parting from the other's arms.

That tight knot, so deliciously pleasant knot that was forming in her belly and how the kiss was slowly turning a bit hungrier, his teeth piercing into her pink lips a bit stronger, small hums of pleasure erupting from her throat —she was forgetting how to think, mind blank and drawn to a point where all she knew was that she needed his touch more, to get drunk by his small growls and the not so innocent way his hands held her close to him, so selfish yet so, so intoxicating.

His hold was possessive, unyielding, tilting his head even further to very carefully caress her bottom lip with his own, giving her one last squeeze to the hand on his chest and another last tender touch of his lips with hers before breaking away , both breathing unevenly and not really knowing what to say but knowing that they really didn't need to say anything other than chuckle against the other's lips, their breaths mingling and mixing and holding onto the other while they slowly came to.

When he realized what had happened and that he was probably hurting her by holding on so tight, he didn't dare let go. Uraraka also saw she had dug some nasty marks on his chest through the pierced fur, but she didn't have the wit to feel guilty about it. In fact, she leaned up to give him a small peck, almost unsure this had actually happened by the way she pulled back so slowly, gazing into his eyes so intensely.

It was like a child that had just seen the stars for the first time and he didn't know if he should be proud of himself or worried. Instead of saying some cheesy ass line about how much he had liked the kiss, he focused on following the line prior to it. "You gotta seriously stop rambling on your own before fucking listening to me."

By the way his thumb brushed the skin of her cheekbone, he wasn't being harsh intentionally. Or, he was trying to memorize the feeling of her skin under his hand before she vanished forever. It kind of felt like it was… love.

Dumbstruck, Uraraka's voice hadn't grown in size, but it was thicker with emotion and wonder. "Why did you… kiss me?" she was making it sound as if she hadn't kissed him back and the lust and desire that was still stirring in her stomach was not real. Her blown wide eyes and blemished cheeks told another story, though, and it was probably what kept him anchored to her like this.

However, his touch faltered at her words, and his hands fell to her shoulders in a fashion that screamed disappointment and fear and rung all alarms in her head. Still, his words made her realize that, maybe, she was not the only one afraid of rejection. His cheeks weren't red or pink, but his eyes became guarded and looked to a side. "You told me how you felt." her breath hitched and got stuck in her throat. "So I just did the fucking same."

It was a way so very like him to say things, roundabout and confusing until the very end. Uraraka sometimes forgot that under all that fragile ego hid a small child afraid of expressing his feelings if they were as compromising as this was, but now that they were probably at the very end of the story and they didn't really have much to lose —other than each other, they knew, but it was better to not think about it —it was worth a shot.

Uraraka had been close to spilling the beans, but the one who had stopped being the coward had ended up being him, the emotionally constipated bastard. Perhaps the coward one had always been her.

Should she say she felt the same? Was it really necessary? He had specified she had spoken out her feelings and he had expressed his, but did he realize they were the same? Maybe she was overthinking, maybe he knew that she had feelings for him even before this happened. You never knew with Bakugou. Right before the chaos began and when they had no time to actually explore what they could be together, bravery came out in the worst yet also best of moments.

The sorcerer wondered if he knew that confessing now was killing her, but she had attempted to do the same, too. It could also be that he knew a solution to fix this mess—rather, the mess that they'd have on their hands when the time came for them to part again.

She was inexplicably happy that despite not being able to be together, they'd at least know they could have been together, had her duties not come in the way. Deep inside, she wanted to trick herself into thinking it would never work even if they felt this burning love for the other, but it wouldn't help the situation to think this way, either. Now, all she wanted to do is spend all night with him like a normal, lovestruck little girl with her beloved stubborn leader, talking about the world, looking at the stars and dreaming together.

But she wasn't a normal girl.

And he wasn't a normal guy, either.

So it looked like this little exchange was all they'd get for now, and she was content with that. Judging by the appeased look behind his eyes, he seemed happier than she had ever seen him. His eyes had the sparkle of a child waiting for Christmas, clouded by his own thick layer of stubborness and denial, but time would give leeway for that sparkle to shine more if they got another chance to be together.

Uraraka wanted to be selfish more than ever. But she wasn't like that, and he knew it. No matter how much he wanted to bask in the sunshine that she carried with her, he knew it wouldn't be long until the night came to swallow him whole again. He wished he knew how to keep her by his side but frankly, he knew she was bound to grow out of the soil that tied his kind down and touch the stars.

Uraraka wished he had the solution to this, a way to never part from the other, that he could even reach out and ask for her to stay, but he wasn't selfish either, at least not that way. She wished he knew how to stay together despite everything—a huge part of her knew she was hoping he knew how to be together. Just like she had expressed. In the end, she had ran out of reasons to believe anything around her was worthwhile—that she would find happiness, the joy she so desperately sought for all along.

But he didn't have this solution. And sadly, she didn't know this.

For now, she'd hold out for hope and focus on what mattered, which was the dark clan that was, in her mind, her last place to land on before she took flight forever and never came back. He let go of her eventually, taking in her warm smile and how genuinely happy she looked to be by his side, no matter what happened the day after.

They worldessly decided to stay out a bit more, hands entwined on the tree bark looking out at the stars, but none of them spoke a word. Instead, Bakugou focused on wishing for her to stay with him, just as Uraraka wished for him to give her a solution, to give her a reason to believe in this world again, to have something in her life that anchored to a beautiful planet of colors submerged in corruption and humankind withering.

But in the end, they were just star-crossed lovers.

And that was all they'd ever be. Bound to tug at the red ribbon before it snapped and left them wondering what it could have been.

---

After that event at the house, Ochako had ran away. It had been hardly something she thought about at the time, because the sight of her friends standing there in the rain without doing absolutely anything made her blood boil. So, a second later, after that sorrowful clap of thunder had struck the Earth they were in, she quickly leaped away from scene and disappeared into the forest to never be seen again.

Those were her original plans.

They had tried to give chase, but she was so driven by anger and confusion that there was no way she'd let herself be caught. She needed to be alone, think about what all of this entailed—both sides of the story had actually collaborated to destroy her family, the only thing she was supposed to have in that clear, gray world. It was always drowning in rain, but it was her home after all, her little nest. It had once been her only source of joy, when the world was too small for her to know there was more out of her home.

But she didn't like this world. She didn't like this world where people around her were only focused in bloodshed, in having their way with some petty revenge that, in the end, wouldn't fix anything but steal their souls and rob them of the sense in such tunnel-driven lives. Ochako detested this world where there was no happiness, just corruption—and even the person she loved that lived across the river had been born to be a soldier against the people who had at least raised her up.

How hadn't she seen all along that he was her enemy? At the end of the day, the battle between clans would remain and they were from different places. She was human but the 'aliens' had raised her, so there was no way she could side with the other clan, right? But things had changed now, and it wasn't a clan versus her family, but two clans that had stolen her family away and basically kidnapped her to use a weapon.

She wasn't anyone to anybody. She was just an object. She didn't have a home anymore.

So she set her plans into motion.

In the meantime, Katsuki was running around the pink village searching for her. His assumption had been to think she had to go home for food or something eventually, because after the tough travelling they had endured, he was expecting her to have rushed home for things to then run away again. Yet, no one had seen her anywhere in that village. Everyone had become frantic when hearing that Ochako was missing.

However, if his assumptions of her being the so desired magician were right, perhaps they were just worried their powerhouse was nowhere to be found. In hindsight, it kind of made sense that she felt as betrayed as she did. Katsuki just hoped she knew he had nothing to do with the war. Katsuki hoped she would realize that shit about his clan having killed her parents had to be bullshit.

He hadn't killed anyone close to her. Maybe some animals, maybe some small fishes and a few bears but how could she think anyone had killed her parents? Her parents were in the village. Those pink bastards. Still, he didn't want to think about the issue lest it became more complicated than what it seemed to be.

All he knew was that something had broken within her and provoked her to escape, further and further away from him, from them. Nobody had seen her anywhere, and he was afraid of stirring anything back home by mentioning that the mage that was supposedly under control was on the loose. Katsuki was leaving house by house without any trace of her.

And it was driving him nuts to just think that something could have happened to her. Something dangerous. Ochako had always been the fastest of them all, the mightiest but above all the sweetest—but what he saw that night made him absolutely terrified. The truth behind that dead stare didn't matter, but the way her heart had broken so hard that probably even the gods above had heard.

It hadn't stopped raining ever since then. It was like somebody was actually angry and was encouraging Ochako to carry out whatever she was planning and that was terrifying, for she was the bluntest and the quickest to act when given a good reason to. The face she pulled back there screamed good reasons, and above all, evil reasons.

Katsuki didn't like any of this. However, things were about to get worse, but above all, weirder. He heard hurrying steps behind him that were being met with the gasps of the agitated crowd looking for the girl, and was met with a familiar mess of red hair followed by another familiar set of horns and pink hair, the trademark look of the people around him.

"Yo, Katsuki!" Kirishima's hands were on his knees, trying to control his ragged breathing. Katsuki walked to him decisively, immediately alarmed when he saw that his friend's eyes were crinkled with worry and, above all, urgency. "We've heard Ochako has landed on your village!"

Upon hearing this, the already anxious crowds around him started raising their voices to whisper among each other in worry. Again, Katsuki was left wondering if they were worried about her wellbeing or her political position as of now. But that wasn't the main point here. "What do you mean she's in my village?"

Mina spoke up this time. "She has handed herself to the head of your clan willingly. She went straight to his residence and bowed her head to him, even kneeled down! Ochako has sworn loyalty to them now." she spoke carefully, knowing that the people around her would instantly get angry at these news. Somehow, nobody said a word, just listened intently to the story. "We tried to reach her but a bunch of guards caught us and kicked us out."

They hadn't been beaten to a pulp but they did have some ugly marks on their cheeks. Some ice would do, probably. "Are you guys alright? How can you be so fucking stupid to go there without knowing the way or just plain without me? You are from the other side of the river!"

"That doesn't matter right now!" Kirishima had a very valid point. "The thing here is she has handed herself to them! Just like that! What the hell is going on?"

People around Katsuki started talking again, the whispers sounding angry and harsh from what he could make out between the cloudy, white noise that didn't reach his brain, as it was overloaded with fear and trepidation with what Ochako could be planning. He never took her for the cunning, sly type, and a part of him knew she actually was not like that. There had to be something else he didn't know, that only she knew.

But for now, Ochako had handed herself to the opposite force for free, like a slave surrendering to the force of a meteorite. And Katsuki was, for once in his life, scared fucking shitless.

---

Fear had taken over everyone's sleep that night, the warriors had found slumber hugging either their pillows or their comrades close to their tremoring bodies. Countless thoughts ran through their heads at the speed of light, knitting an endless net of insecurities and fears that let absolutely nobody off the hook. Instead of being filled with confidence after finding the so seeked lair, after knowing victory could finally be theirs, they were overcome with the thought that now that they were at the gates of hell, it could be that they wouldn't be able to handle the heat.

It was terrifying. In a sense, they knew they could do pretty much anything they put their strength into. They had demonstrated to countless foes that if they teamed up for real, they could be a frightening bunch of kids to play with. Several dark guilds had had to kneel down under their might and ferocity that contrasted with their candid personality and appearance. Asui's childish looks had led to several leaders falling down and missing the bloodshed that lay behind her dead gaze, just as Bakugou's brutality could be mistaken with battlefield rashness.

Uraraka knew what deception was like. Guards at the walls of the Capital had tried to get cocky with her seeing how round her cheeks were and how soft her gaze melted under the light of the sun. Nobody had survived that misunderstanding without a scar on their skin to prove they had made a grave mistake.

She wasn't a fool, and after all these encounters with people being so judgemental and mighty, she had been cautious enough to never let herself be deceived by this trait. She never let Shinsou's scruffy looks forget he was a rather sophisticated sorcerer, just as she never let Todoroki's elegance forget he could be rather violent when his dearest peers were in danger. Now that she was organizing her potions and emergency tricks and saw him look around his scattered friends, it was apparent his care for them was big.

But what was also spacious was the nervousness in his glance, and the way his hands trembled ever so slightly when he saw the weapons lying around in case of emergency. Seeing how fearful the serene warrior was, all covered under his cool façade, it made her wonder if those appearances were deceiving the guild as a whole, too, tricking them into a false sense of security. Making them thinking it had been too easy (yet time consuming) to find their lair, as if they were lurking somewhere else.

Perhaps that's why everyone had been wide awake under their closed lids. It was sometimes better to try to find comfort in the darkness, even if it was to no avail. Dawn came rolling soon enough, and everyone started getting up from their sleeping places after what had probably been 1 hour of sleep. Yet, Asui came prepared.

She started taking out small flasks of orange fluids that were still steaming from the day before. Uraraka saw now that the cauldron had most likely been invested in these potions, foreseeing nobody would sleep much when such mission was coming and they were getting close to the end. "Everyone, drink those in one go. They taste pretty strong, but it will feel like a vigorizing slap to the face."

She was far from kidding. Uraraka sniffed the contents of the lukewarm bottle and instantly flinched away from it. The smell was like that of a strong medicine, because all strong medicines had an awful taste. Asui had probably been too hurried to add the berries Uraraka gave to her to add a bit of sweetness, and Kaminari was the first one to complain.

He didn't complain, he mostly whined after following Uraraka's steps and smelling the thick liquid. "You want to kill us before we even get to the good part of the mission!"

Asui drank hers quickly without a single complaint. She was already used to tasting all the bad stuff she created back at her lab in the village, and told them all the sentence that would make anyone drink whatever they were given, if it was beneficial to her. "Better to drink this and cough a little than becoming a corpse for the Jirou clan to experiment with."

Kaminari and Uraraka sweatdropped with a tragic, terrified face if disgust, going cold at the harsh statement. Everyone started drinking the dubious liquids, sips so hard and quick some almost choked on the burning taste. Not wanting to be left behind, the other two gulped and drank it quickly, coughing at the bad taste and thank god Asui wasn't a chef and knew she sometimes had to cook stuff even she admitted that tasted hideous. Asui was rarely angry, but whenever she was, she wasn't to be taken lightly.

Kirishima held the bottle up with a grimace of almost pain. "Yo, Asui, at least make them smaller next time. These hit like a ton of bricks."

Uraraka was grateful for the rush of stamina. The statement made Kaminari shriek in indignation, though. "The effects of the potion aren't the issue here!"

Somebody threw their bottle to the ground, empty, and it rolled away from sight silently. "Do we gotta take anything else? We shouldn't be waiting this long for Sero to come back." said Bakugou with a frown. He had ditched the axe for a blade that he was now dipping in poison. She had seen that weapon in several fights of theirs when sparring, and it was probably his infamous cursed sword that appeared to be sharp as hell today.

Being cut with that had to be nasty. She gulped. He didn't seem to take care of his weapons as passionately as now, so the cause must be inspiring him into work. Midoriya was actually sharpening his as well with a pocket stone. "Sero's gone with the rest of the team to check if there's anything else worth checking there. He gave us the location in the map, but he wants to escort us there."

Todoroki chirped in. "How far is it from here?"

"I'd say 10 minutes, but this forest can be confusing to wander in. It's the biggest one in the whole nation. Our river must look like a mere stream compared to the size of this forest." explained he. "We'll use the river as our main point of guidance and wing it if Sero doesn't come to us. He should be here any minute now."

After her night with Bakugou at the improvised lookout to the sea, neither had waited for Sero to come by. They had been so wrapped up in the adverse faith they were facing that it didn't even cross their minds to ponder if Sero had gotten to base or not. It appeared he either hadn't, or he did get to them and nobody was there to see him go to sleep or leave.

She didn't know and right now she was too focused on being tight and nervous about the final showdown against Midnight to even care where Sero was. Bakugou and Midoriya would care for her. She was no leader after all, was she? All she had to do now was fight and leave, those were her original plans.

Yet a part of her felt tied to this guild and compromised to help with all she could. At the surface, their ties were merely business ones, so she shouldn't really give a damn about anything they did as long as they got the task done. Perhaps it was because of how brazen Bakugou had been in the past that she wasn't as blindly trusting as she was in the past. Although this plan seemed more carefully lay down than the past one…

"You had planned on going against such monstrosity without as much of an attacking plan? Do you even know how tall this guy is?"

Bakugou leant back against the chair, chewing over the defeat. "No."

Ugh.

But now he at least seemed to be trusting more on his peers than on a gut feeling as he did in the past, and was thinking things through instead of relying on brute force. Midoriya and him seemed to be on at least civile terms, even though Bakugou was visibly annoyed by his sole appearance to this day. It was good to know things weren't changing for worse.

It was a poor philosophy but that was all she could say about that.

Yaoyorozu had just finished her potion when she walked to Midoriya's side, just as Kaminari tried to convince Uraraka that Asui was plotting to poison everyone in the guild. Meanwhile, the leader looked at the female knight in question. "How are we going to sneak into their lair, though? I bet they have traps and hidden guards all over the place."

Uraraka and Kaminari stopped their chatter to listen in, focused.

"Well, Sero has the details for that. We only know a vague part of it all but him and Hagakure have been working on a plan to get us in there. We also have to deal with Jack's disappearance which is a pretty unexpected dent in our plans, but Sero said it would only need a bit of a twist to fix." after mentioning their missing comrade, everyone's mood plummeted to the ground.

Bakugou noticed this in how Kirishima and Uraraka looked at the ground in thought, and looked at them when he spoke. "Oi. Why are you all so gloomy so suddenly? That brat was only a fucking traitor to us."

Unexpectedly, Kirishima almost snapped back at him. "You're the one who took her in. I don't know why you are suddenly calling her a brat. Even you know something is not right."

Midoriya sensed an argument coming through so he tried to disperse it by throwing some truth into the situation. "I guess many things start making sense now. The Jirous probably found her a bit too soon."

Everyone seemed to take this information it as if it was a fact, but Uraraka didn't know what was going on. She wasn't much more than a newbie and hadn't had time to speak with Jack lately. "Wait, what's the deal with Jack? Do you guys know why she's gone so suddenly?"

"You probably can sense what's going on here, your face when we told you about this was very telling." said Midoriya, looking at her with a kind expression. She could tell he was just as disappointed as she was, but mostly sad that this had to happen. "Jack is sided with the Jirou clan. She probably has, all along."

Considering how perfect the timing had been, it was the only reachable conclusion. Her very apparent absence lately, her demeanor and her appearance—but why was she even with them in the first place? Was she just a spy? Her eyes met Bakugou's in a search of answers, their private riddle forgotten for the sake of their missing comrade.

The blonde sighed, and dodged her eyes knowing that Uraraka was still a delicate subject. "Jack came running to our guild pretty much like you were. She was looking for food and shelter for one night, scared for her life about stuff she had seen and how her family was apparently too much for her, and she was running away from them. Seeing how the Jirou clan is, it sorta makes sense she was escaping those bastards."

Kirishima nodded, arms crossed. "She had fallen off a high place and has wounded, as well. We had to patch her up and help her recollect her memories from what had happened prior to her fall. Jack probably remembered all along but was too scared to tell us. All makes sense, now. It sucks."

"We never expected for her to stay around much, she was always a bit of a stray cat." said Yaoyorozu with a smile, remembering how she had seen her friend drop in and drop out at times before settling in. "She never really intended to be friends with us, all she wanted was some shelter and to not be found by her family. They caught up with us faster than we could defeat them."

A memory crossed Uraraka's mind really quick. "Wait, does that mean that when we crossed them on our way to the Capital, they were looking for Jack?"

"It's possible." responded Tokoyami from a bit afar, readying his weapons with the help of Iida. "The Jirous rarely do raids like those or target sole groups unless they have a reason to. They don't exactly pillage for goods. They are more of an underground mafia that has been getting more and more known as their influence grew, too. The more powerful you are, the less you need to to do such little attacks."

"So they attacked us for answers?"

"I'd say that. But this is all just a hypothesis." Midoriya agreed with Tokoyami. He had heard the story from Asui and knew how it had went down. He had also seen in what state Midnight had left Bakugou so it surely hadn't been a pleasant situation. "They never really attack you for goods other than big merchants with valuable things. They are not those kinds of thieves."

Kaminari chirped in from a bit further away. "I don't remember much about that but they did mention something about it being their territory. It does make sense that they attacked us just to chase us out of there."

"Yeah, but we weren't even near their circle of influence, which are forests near our village and the Capital, and this entire forest as well. That place right there is of no importance whatsoever—it's a bit of a gray zone. Besides, it was the leader herself who came to attack us, so whatever it is must be of great importance for her." thought Yaoyorozu out loud.

"Well, I'd say a daughter would fit in that criteria." mumbled Todoroki to nobody in particular. He had assumed everyone had seen their resemblance and had put one and one together, but he was proven otherwise with the glances his peers dedicated to him. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed. Those two are like two drops of water. If I was a father I'd be willing to send an army to find a daughter that has run away from home."

Well, that did sound logical, but wasn't that taking it too far? "Still. Wasting soldiers or energy in a daughter when you can be taking over a nation seems a bit too… inconvenient? What value could Jack have that tops the worth of overpowering a big country?" asked Uraraka again. She didn't mean to be argumentative, she was just curious.

This time it was Bakugou who spoke up. "It's not up to us to judge what a mother wants to do with their child, but seeing how passionately Jack has been running away from them and how they have been chasing after us and her, it wouldn't be too crazy to think Midnight has ill intentions. She's a damn wicked witch, that woman."

Yaoyorozu's expression turned grim at the prospect of her friend being in danger. "We have to take her out of there. I don't care if she's a traitor for you all, or if she attacked you Bakugou or whatever. She is not evil!"

"We know she isn't." interjected Midoriya, his tone dead. "I can't forget her trying to attack Bakugou and Uraraka, probably manipulated by her roots, but I can't overlook how much she has helped us grow." his fingers curled into a fist. "Every member of this guild is important. We have to look forward and get her back."

Still, everyone was thinking the same thing: something was off. Kirishima was the first one to speak up, tone innocent and thoughtful. "It is weird that despite having detached herself from her family, she was willing to sneak an attack on Bakugou and Uraraka that way. Her room didn't show signs of anyone forcing her out of there, so she must have run away on her own, too."

That was sketchy. Out of everyone, it was Bakugou who defended her this time, or at least shrugged that off. He hadn't put faith in his comrades to let himself be fooled again. "That's something we can talk to her about later, but for now, we gotta focus on taking Midnight down."

Everyone in that room nodded in decision, and soon enough, there was rustling of some leaves coming from above Tokiyami's head. A second later, a body made its descent from the thick foliage and crashed with Tokoyami's unexpecting stance and plummeted to the ground. A hissing man shook his head and shed a grin at the baffled comitée watching the scene unfold. Meanwhile, Tokoyami cursed under his breath.

"Hey guys!" greeted the spy, getting up from his makeshift cushion and dusting dirt off his uniform. "Long time no see!"

Bakugou gritted his teeth and directed a disdainful glare at him. "You're late, dumbass. What took you so long?"

"I had to figure out my way around here. The clan was moving around a bit more than usual yesterday so I had to stay and hold the fort for the rest of the gang. They seem agitated." then, his eyes fell on Uraraka while he was scanning his peers. "Wait, I had heard you had died."

Uraraka grimaced a bit, not in annoyance but in the poor and blunt choice of words. Anytime anyone reminded her of this occurrence she took that as a small whip to the back, a minor private punishment. Midoriya saw this and tried to back her up, earning her thanks. "She kind of made a secret escape on us, but it was worth it in the end. She's safe and sound now,"

Considering the situation they were in, safe and sound was not the best terminology, but they'd make do with that. Uraraka smiled nervously, waving her hand with an awkward sense of glee. "Yeah, I had to sort out some stuff."

Sero sighed slowly with a frown. These mishaps in timing and getting news quickly from his comrades was what made his job so very difficult to deal with. Having to hear that a comrade had been injured to death weeks after the fact made him feel so out of tune he sometimes felt he wasn't a part of this guild anymore. Spending so much time away from the main headquarters made the spying brigade feel out of time most of the time.

"Well, it's good to have you here. It'll make things easier. I bet they have already told you this, but welcome back!" Uraraka nodded, thankful for his unexpected kindness, and suspecting she already knew who he was and his job, he skipped formalities. "Hagakure is waiting for us at our lookout. We should hurry and get there before the clan comes back from their delivery routine."

Yaoyorozu arched an eyebrow. "Delivery routine?"

Asui nodded. As a part of the spying team, she was more in contact with the brigade than average members. "The Jirous must be out of their lair now, as they act during nights and seem to come back during noon or so, right, ribbit?" Sero nodded. "So we should get there before they get back to the lair."

The captain of the operation nodded again, raising a finger and speaking almost in a proud manner, knowing he knew more than everyone else and god, that was empowering. "The main trafficking gang comes back during noon to check in. Unless she has very important business out there, Midnight rarely goes out—all her information comes from outside. She sorts out all business inside the lair and moves the pawns around from there. Moving her out of her spot won't be easy."

This came to confirm that Midnight only went out for very important operations and that fetching Jack from there could actually be more important than they had expected. Todoroki spoke up. "How do you plan on doing that then? I guess we will have to get past her and her gangs to get to Jack."

Yaoyorozu tensed up when her partner brought Jack up. "Did you see Jack get in the lair?"

The boy sighed and shook his head. "Not really, but Hagakure heard guards talking among themselves about the little Yuuei mistress coming back, so we guessed it was her. Asui sent me an emergency message letter to watch out for her, but we didn't have enough time to look into her situation inside the lair." everyone's shoulders dropped down, again. "You're right about that, Todoroki, we have to get past Midnight to get anywhere. She seems to have everything within arm's reach."

Kirishima slapped a hand on the boy's shoulders. "You sure have everything under control there!"

The boy sighed again. The amount of sighs he was letting out in such little time was worrysome. "Not really. I mean, we guess we do, but they have been close to catching us sneaking in several times. Not even Hagakure can get past those woman's hawk eyes. We have a general floor plan of the building and know ways to get in, but it'll be harder now since we are more of a crowd."

Bakugou shed a proud smirk. "After how long it took you to find the building, you sure have some nice data in so little time."

"I think you are misunderstanding the situation." explained Sero, thinking back to when they stumbled with the dreary building. "We did find the building itself a while back, but we had to make sure this was the right building among others scattered around this huge forest. We have spent more time in figuring out if this was the right building more than actually looking for buildings. It took a lot to figure out the floor plans, but thanks to Asui's maps, we got to work quicker."

Uraraka looked at Asui in question, and the mutant alchemist nodded. "Remember those things I found at the laboratory? There were maps in between some recipes and stuff. They seem to be making tunnels underground this forest for a quicker travel from the Capital to the actual lair."

"Yeah. The building seems to be very small in the surface, but it is enormous beneath the ground. It's more of a deep building dug underground than a tall structure." explained Sero. "The interesting stuff anyone would want to steal is secure under the surface, but that's not what we are going for."

Kaminari's eyes squinted in worry. It was fearsome to hear the Jirou clan had such power to be freely making holes and tunnels under everyone's feet, blind to the public. "They are far from stopping, aren't they? What about the golems, though?"

"We think they might have some sort of makeshift factory deep under the surface. They use very figurative speech among each other to refer to floors and all that, but we're figuring they will also use the tunnels to transport the golems when they are made in the lair. However, the sketches Asui sent us confirm that the main lab is the one you guys got into."

Uraraka shuddered intensely at this information. Thinking that the horrifying room they found could be multiplicated in the span of weeks and that deaths would only become larger made her knees weak. How could it be that such terrible scheme was being carried out without the Council batting an eye, or even just making profits out of it? God, it was so frustrating to not be able to do anything about those.

Well, she could. But that was too complicated.

"We have to work quick and sneak in. It's gotta be a clean stab into the lair and leave as few traces as possible. This is not about destroying the facility, but killing the queen. Once Midnight is off the game, then the clan will fall apart evenly."

Sero failed to realize that he was talking about Jack's mother, most likely, and with this newfound information the truth about having to kill Midnight felt harder to swallow. Nobody knew how Jack felt about her mother, as she had run away from her once to come back again. Maybe Jack was trying to warn Midnight of the offenders that were coming, thus the general commotion Sero spoke about within the clan. Still, would Jack accept that her comrades murdered her mother, no matter how dark her plans were?

They were too deep in to stop and think about that, but their consciences knew it wasn't the best thing to do. Was there any other way, though? They knew the answer was no.

So with that in mind, they had to part. "Can we leave, then? I'd say it's getting close to noon and sneaking in won't be easy."

When Sero made sure everyone had packed their weapons, he nodded and waved at them to follow his lead. The group started to move smoothly between the trees, leaving their makeshift camp behind while Sero explained the situation. "We have Hagakure and Aoyama in charge of surveilling the zone of entrance. At this hour, there shouldn't be much activity in terms of entering and exiting the facility, so we should be able to walk around without many soldiers around."

Uraraka had expected Bakugou to ignore what had been discussed earlier and bark at Sero about how incoherent it was that such a mighty organization had no guards whatsoever outside, but all he did was nod and listen. Uraraka had to keep reminding herself that Bakugou was trying to change and putting him under that light in her mind wouldn't help the situation—not hers with him or just how the guild perceived him for that matter. She slapped her cheeks in frustration.

"Are all valuable goods really that deep within the underground parts that they don't need much guarding?" asked Asui. It was a smart way of planning it, yet it sounded too risky. "It sounds suspicious."

"Again, Midnight has the whole land under her fist. I bet you have realized the many clearings in this land are quaint, and it's hard to guide yourself around here without knowledge of the territory. People always end up in those clearings one way or another, but since not many people get in here either and all goods are underground, she doesn't need many guards. If anything, the guards are inside the building." he pictured the facility vividly, how all security formations were written in stone and strictly planned to not let anyone in.

"So the issue is going into Midnight's office unnoticed?" asked Kirishima, who was cleaning his knives as he walked by Kaminari. He was met with a nod. "What if Midnight isn't there?"

Sero had a plan for that. "Well, she should be there. But in case she isn't, we'll go to destroy the important machinery she could have and damage the clan not entirely, but economically. It will be more of a step-by-step thing instead of the clean stab we are going for, but either will work fine. Destroying the underground factory is pretty important too. We never know who could find the machinery in there."

Midoriya sighed. "Well, as long as we can do some damage, we're good to go. We purposefully left the laboratory unscathed in case they traced our steps and alarmed them. For now, they don't know we know anything—or so we hope."

For once, Bakugou had listened to him and was following his words. "Yeah, gotta make sure those assholes don't follow us. They got better business to mind than a few ants like us, so that's already to our advantage."

Except that Uraraka knew it was never that easy. After all, Jack had once been a valuable asset and it was possible the clan had reeled information out of her, which was a really bad disadvantage. After her showdown with Midnight ages ago, she had felt like a shadow had been looming over them. Gunhead was associated with Midnight after all, and her master was or had been associated with Gunhead, it was like a net of influences that was watching them from afar.

It scared her enough to make her go cold, but fueled her enough to keep going.

"We'll still need to be careful." retorted Asui from Uraraka's side. "We aren't sure of what tricks they got in their sleeve, ribbit. Midnight is not stupid, and considering she has ties with Gunhead it's likely she is expecting us." said the alchemist, voicing the same thoughts Uraraka had had. Her eyes went to Uraraka. "That could be the reason why Gunhead took you away that time. Maybe he wanted to confirm what we knew about the Jirou clan."

Uraraka's brows were furrowed in confusion. "He never asked me about the clan, though."

"All he needed to do was interrogate you about what we were doing there. Jack is at this point one of his comrades, so he didn't take her. It's likely Jack actually told him what we were doing at some point. But I'm trying not to think Jack would uncover us that way up to when she ran away." responded Asui, making her brunette partner nod. It was better to not accuse Jack of past events now. "We can't think they aren't expecting us. Critical thinking is always a better choice."

The red-haired hunter behind them gave Asui a kind smile, appreciating how she was planning so ahead of time. "We shouldn't be tricked into panic, though. Can't be trembling when we get in there."

Bakugou spoke up from a bit ahead, walking in front of Uraraka. "No cowards allowed in this fucking ship. If anybody's gonna get cold feet you better run away, 'cause this place is gonna be set on fire." his words were menacing and rather over the top but it was true that the clan was rather sensitive to heat, hence why they were always seen wearing cloaks during sunlight.

"How are we going to divide into teams, though? It wouldn't be very smart to barge in suddenly with a ton of warriors like us." asked Todoroki, helping Yaoyorozu polish her blade as they walked. Uraraka wrapped her big cloak tighter around her, feeling some breezes push by them. "I'm guessing we will split up?"

"Obviously." retorted Sero, shaking his head with a smile. "Some of us will go search for Midnight, others will look for Jack and the factory chain and others will stay out and take on any gangsters that might want to ruin the fun. The moment we are discovered, Midnight will probably send a troop to wipe us out, so we can't let her surprise us or let us be caught."

Midoriya looked behind him to speak to Sero. "Have you guys planned the teams, then? You didn't seem to know Uraraka was alive, so…"

The boy looked at Uraraka with an apologetic smile Uraraka shrugged off. Not her fault Sero's job kept him away from relevant news most of the time. "That's the issue. We will have to improvise a little in that regard and move you guys around some, but I'll think of it on our way there. We were counting with Jack until yesterday as well, so it's gonna take a bit more to figure how to fit you in now."

Uraraka shook her head. "It's okay. I don't mind being in either team."

However, that barbarian always had to say something and when he sighed gruffly, her cheeks puffed. "She's as blunt as a foot on a puddle. Don't get her in the sneaking team." although he knew she could do it, after all she was an assassin, he didn't want to risk the operation. "Unless she's useful for that, she'll be better to wipe troops of enemies out. Trust me on that."

Even when he was insisting on being rude, something nice had to slip out, making her heart flutter in what she felt was a pathetic blush of something akin to a child being embarrassed. She hated this. She hated feeling so flustered when he said something relatively nice. He had just called her a big-scale murderer but he was acknowledging her abilities vocally, which had never been a small feat. And for that, she smiled privately.

She then remembered again the mess they had to talk about and her nervousness came back in full swing.

In fact, at that very same moment, he looked behind him to lock his eyes with her over his shoulder, as if checking if she was doing okay. She was alright, wasn't she? In reality, she was trying to trick herself into thinking she was fine mentally speaking, that she wasn't nervous and that considering her issue with Bakugou was basically done (even before it started), but a part of her was holding out and hoping he'd somehow make it work when she now couldn't come up with a solution.

Where were they going?

But she still felt like they were done. A part of her knew it was better to start letting go now. Uraraka avoided his concerned gaze by starting to talk with Asui, masking her nervousness with a trembling smile. The brunette heard a low tch of annoyance and the steps of the ashen-haired, brazen leader got heavier and quicker, his frown evident even for the people behind him.

Uraraka sighed, her eyes dropping.

"No need to make the air any tenser, you know." came a voice from behind, with an evident smile in his face that clearly told he understood. Kirishima put his knives to rest. "I know Bakugou's a bit of a jerk but he's nervous as heck right now." except that this was not the reason why they were so dodgy around the other, but Uraraka still appreciated the support. "Give him some time to cool off. Being a leader at this moment must be weighing hard on him."

Well, they wouldn't be talking much about it because she knew she'd be leaving sooner than everyone expected. Her fingers tangled in the back of her head, and out of habit, she started combing through her hair. It was obvious Bakugou and her wouldn't have that much time to talk it out before she set off into an adventure of her own to most likely never come back. Nobody was aware of this fact, yet presumed her and Bakugou would end up together as if destiny would force everything to be alright.

Sometimes, time fixed things. Other times though, it only made things worse.

However, it could be true that Bakugou was feeling extra edgy today, so she would let him off her hook for now and focus on the mission ahead, too. Priorities had to come first, and Midnight was definitely and sadly a priority. Maybe if they survived the battle and had time to tell the story, they'd be able to decide if they'd have a story of her own. Uraraka was holding back from acting out of panic and approaching him to finish this story once and for all.

She could sense their relationship was bound to be killed. A part of her wanted to take the blow as soon as possible.

"Uraraka, are you listening?"

"Eh?" she looked at Midoriya, who was walking a bit slower to match her pace. Bakugou and Sero were a bit more ahead. "Sorry! Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just also kind of stressed about this. I'm scared for what could be lying ahead of us."

That wasn't true but it wasn't a lie, either. Saying she was scared was a bit of a stretch. She was nervous, but after all she had went through this felt awfully normal. It was like her mind was too overwhelmed with thoughts to let such big fear in—the same fear that sparked in Midoriya's eyes when she mentioned the issue ahead of them. Everyone had their heads in the game, clear enough to focus and have proper feelings about it. Uraraka felt weird for having such disoriented focus and she was praying she'd snap out of it by the time they got there.

"We will be okay!" insisted Kaminari, an arm around her shoulder in what seemed to be a bit over the top camaraderie. "We got each other's backs, and we'll also get Jack out of there. We have always been fine, so no need to worry!"

Another hand ruffled her tousled locks. Surprisingly, Todoroki was looking down at her with a quiet smile. "Yeah. As soon as we have faith in each other, we'll be alright. Just gotta focus on not being killed."

It was such a shame that these caring and warm people were the ones she would have to leave behind so heartlessly. Maybe, deep inside, they knew she wouldn't be around forever and were basking in her presence just as much as she was with them, something that their leader was not really doing—even if unbeknownst to them they had certainly basked in each other's presence for some time last night.

Maybe they did understand.

And maybe, that made her feel a bit more at ease, making a bashful yet happy smile show in her expression, eyes twinkling anew.

They didn't realize that Bakugou was watching the entire thing with a fierce frown of distaste adorning his features, yet he snapped his head and eyes back into place a second later. "How much 'til we get there? I'm getting restless. And these fuckers won't stop making noise, I wanna chop my head off."

That sounded more like old Bakugou, but Sero couldn't blame the drop in his mood. Seeing his crush ignore him so blatantly and the mission of facing a national criminal for the last time had to be stressing and heavy in the eyes of a passionate leader like Bakugou was. The spy gave Bakugou a brave pat on the shoulder, which the blonde didn't flinch away from.

"We're getting there. I can hear the river already, so we're almost there. Hagakure should pop up at any moment to give us instructions. With this change of people, she might be able to come up with something quicker, she's a pretty good strategist." well, Bakugou knew the people he recruited. He coughed, his throat felt dry. "But I think she might send Uraraka with the rescue team, I don't think you want her facing Midnight with fire after what happened last time."

If with last time he meant seeing her basically commit suicide in a ball of fire soaring across the cave ceiling to kill his mortal enemy—then yes, that was a pretty traumatic event that Bakugou didn't wish to recreate.

Bakugou's words were thick with a sincerity he wished he had showed that night before the final battle. A sincerity Uraraka had probably asked for badly with her eyes, but not with her words. And thus, a tragedy had been born. "Let's try to not let the reformed terrorist fight much. I have this weird ass feeling her fight with Midnight is more personal that it should be."

A tragedy that, surprisingly, had come back with a vengeance. One with the taste of raspberries and sunlight that he was still trying to keep safe from the howling winds that attempted to destroy her life in the middle of the night. It was hard to keep that little flame she had ignited inside of him alive, the light of an innocence he had long ago lost—yet now that he knew the warmth she had brought along, he would fight to shield it from the darkness.

He just needed to keep it safe. He'd offer his body as a shield if it meant keeping it safe. If it meant keeping her safe. But Bakugou knew she would be alright, was she away or by his side. It was just frustrating to know he couldn't do much about her future absence.

His mind had trailed far off the beaten track, but he was focused enough to hear Sero retort, "Personal? In what way?"

Despite having lost consciousness in the middle of the battle, he had been told Uraraka had fiercely fought with that woman and left relatively unscathed. Still, after how wounded he had been and judging by how Asui had described the passionate fight, Uraraka would undoubtedly take it upon herself to both get revenge and finish off the mission she had been tasked with. All by herself.

She had this awful habit of taking all burdens by herself and shouldering everything on her own. Bakugou didn't know what her past had been before they met, but he had been able to feel this glaring familiarity with the way she talked and the way she moved. He had thought that she was just another regular townsfolk in search of shelter, without any special qualities to make her stand out. He couldn't have been more wrong.

Just like she liked his fiery determination and the loyalty that hid beneath all the fur of his wolfish heart, a wounded yet pure, raw heart that nobody had ever seen, he was in love with the way flowers bloomed at her wake.

"Uraraka and Midnight have fought in the past, and she's got some sort of personal business to sort out with her." he refused to mention she had been the one to save his ass back there. It was frustrating enough to know that Uraraka's business with her probably had to do with him not withstanding that necromancer's spell and being hurt. "I'd rather we took care of it instead of her. This is a cooperative business. It doesn't matter who kill the spider, and making Uraraka feed her resent towards her…"

"You don't want to feed that side of her, right?" completed Sero, nodding with an understanding smile. "That side everyone has."

"Uraraka's… not a killer. She might be a powerful little bitch, but she's not a murderer." explained the blonde, eyes closed as his hand caressed the handle of his weapon, which had been perched on his back. He seemed to be doing it out of a need to relieve his stress. "She's got the title of assassin, and she's told some of our people she's done several amushes with Shinsou on several gangs. She can hurt, I bet she could kill, but I don't want her to burden that. She's got enough problems in her mind to now shoulder that."

"I think you're kind of exaggerating, man." the leader fulminated the spy with a glare that nowadays had a lesser effect on his peers than he'd like to admit. "Uraraka was gone for a long time. Surely she must have done it at some point. All of us have, we just don't think of it—just act out of defense, or to get away with what we want. I can't believe Uraraka hasn't done it too."

Bakugou thought of her to be pretty badass, but for some reason the tag of a killer did not match with that angelic face of hers. "Still, Midnight's too much of a personal case to not leave a mark. After she gets her revenge, Midnight will still chase her. She will chase the mind of any unexperienced killer with enough conscience to not forget. And Uraraka's too considerate to not end up regretting staining her hands like that."

Sero couldn't really deny that truth. And he could now understand why Bakugou didn't want to burden her with that extra charge. In fact, judging by how strong his grip on his weapon had become, it felt like it would be the leader who would carry the deed out. How surprising. What wasn't a surprising was the fierce frown crowning his angered features.

Sero heard the currents of the river swirl even closer, wildly crashing against the shore. It was as if the Jirou blood shed into the water was rebelling at the guild's stride, treading closer and closer to the building between forests. "We're getting there. The vigilant team should go up some rock stairs to meet up with the rest, but we'll get to that in a minute. Hagakure should appear any second now."

In fact, it was only a matter of moments before a pair of black boots swung into the path from a branch above the path. She had been sitting on the tree before the main path for a while now, but nobody noticed her presence until the thud of her boots collided with the dusty path. "Hey there guys!"

"Jesus fucking Christ." murmured Bakugou when she suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them. "Can't you be a bit more cautious?"

"I was being cautious!" her tone was almost chastising, yet she was too sweet of a girl to get much into it. "Good to see you all! Was the walk too long? I have some water at the base if you all need some."

Sero denied the offer even though some of his peers could very well use that water. "We're good. There have been some changes to our plans, though, so you might need to come up with a different plan this time."

"What do you-? Oh my, Uraraka!" she cheerful girl jumped from Sero to be in front of Uraraka, who flinched back a little in impression. Hagakure's enthusiasm was a bit uncalled for considering the situation they were in, but that lightheartedness was a bit necessary to cut the tension among the group. "I was told you were deceased! It's good to see it was nothing as big." her gladness to see her was mildly short-lived. "Is this the change you were talking about?"

"Yeah." responded Sero, looking around to find the path back up to the lookout. He looked unfamiliar with this part of the Jirou territory. "Jack isn't here, either, so we gotta fix that gap too."

"I guess that confirms what we were suspecting." said Hagakure, letting out a sigh that wasn't as cheerful anymore, knowing that one of her companions was in fact missing… and probably betraying them. "But it's alright. We'll try to get Jack back with Uraraka's help. I feel putting her in Jack's spot would be a bit too much so… I need a moment."

Suddenly, Kaminari's voice echoed from behind. His voice sounded worried, almost testing the waters and fearing he'd say something wrong. "Guys… aren't you all looking into Jack's situation wrongly?"

Evidently, everyone turned around to look at the bashful blonde who was fidgeting with his weapon with a small smile, now a bit less willing to speak his mind when everyone was seeing him touch that topic and apparently trying to make a statement that could be extra sensitive. Yaoyorozu frowned and looked at her companion in concern. "Explain yourself."

Her tone sounded more chiding than she had definitely intended, and it made Kaminari and probably the rest of the gang go tense. "I mean… you guys realize she left by herself, right? I am the first one who doesn't want to think badly of Jack, but she has left willingly for all we can see."

It was weird to hear Kaminari out of everyone say this. He was pretty close to her for what Uraraka had briefly seen—though Kaminari seemed close to everyone, but at least Jack seemed more in sync with him and Yaoyorozu than the rest. That being said, all friends had the right or actual obligation to call somebody out when they did something wrong, but it was weird of him to do it under this light.

Midoriya directed an almost stern statement at him, but there was a slice of kindness and understanding in his voice—he was Midoriya, and he could never not be somewhat kind… that is, unless somebody threatened his family and his friends. "Jack is our comrade, and we trust her. However, she owes us some explanations about this, and we won't directly accuse her of treason that way."

Yaoyorozu spoke again, following up what he said. "It could be that her family is manipulating her into coming back now that something could be coming. Midoriya, could it be that they know we are coming?"

"It could be, but we didn't leave hints behind us that implied so. We didn't touch the lab, or made that much of a fuss other than the attack on the shore. Uraraka and I sneaked into one of their ships but I doubt they realized this. It's just highly unlikely they can see us coming." explained Midoriya.

Uraraka turned pensive. "Well, that is unless somebody warned them. Considering that we were making a bit of ruckus at the tournament and that fight against the stingray golem, it's likely they know we know something is going on."

A clap of silence as everyone gave it some thought, but as brash as ever, Bakugou interrupted. "Nah." Uraraka turned to him with a narrowed stare, opposing him instantly. "They got better business to do. I also like being ultra aware of our dangers, but that doesn't matter now. We have to plan how to get in regardless." for once, Uraraka actually gave him that with a nod, admitting he was right, and he turned from Uraraka to the girl spy, who had remained silent in deep thought. "Got anything?"

"I think I know how we can organize the sneak attack, but we're gonna need to be patient and, above all, silent!" she crossed her arms, or at least it looked like that. She was completely invisible to everyone, so that made reading her difficult in a new whole level. "It shouldn't take us much to get Jack out if possible and dismantle the lair. It should be a clean attack, but if we can take Midnight down, then we must."

Uraraka felt like she was a soldier in line for a war and the feeling it gave was that of a sinking stone in a dark, bloody lake. It was as if now that she was there, in front of their captains and near the actual criminal nest, the war was actually real and frightening. The fear was soaking some with some retardation, but the feeling of dread was all the same.

After that brief explanation, Hagakure explained the division plan. Uraraka, Kaminari and Kirishima would sneak into the basements of the lair, where the prisons and small factories were hidden in order to dismount the whole operative basis of the lair. Hagakure thought they had enough potential to defeat the few workers and guards that were there, as Midnight was the only authority supposed to be there at the time. Bakugou, Todoroki, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu and Asui would be in search of Midnight and any valuable objects that Asui could verify to be dangerous.

Mina and Tokoyami along with Iida would guard the entrance once the two teams had sneaked in, making sure that nobody would escape or get in. The exploration convoy would be watching for newcomers from the forest, with the help of Tokoyami if it was needed. "We can't let anyone escape our sight or the facility once they spot us, or it will be over for us. Midnight has guards in very concentrated positions all over the place and we are sure they have secret doors to go directly to Midnight's office. Haven't seen them in action, but the speed they move at is insane." explained Hagakure.

Kirishima rose an eyebrow, looking at Sero. "Have you guys gotten caught before?"

Sero sighed, recalling all those times in which they hadn't exactly gotten caught but had been a second away from being rotten meat. It was a shame those little victories or brushes with death weren't acknowledged often. "Well, let's say they have had their suspicions that somebody was around when we were starting to investigate this place and had to go report all too fast. We have had our various brushes with death, let's say."

Just as he expected, nobody paid much attention to that last statement and moved on from that topic, making the black-haired spy sigh again. Bakugou spoke up. "Well then, I guess that all makes sense. What have you planned to get into the fortress, though?"

They couldn't see the lair from there but Uraraka hoped he was exaggerating with that term, because fortress sounded incredibly big for her, and searching for Jack and Midnight there would be torture. Hagakure pointed her index up as she explained her idea.

"Well, we need to take out the guards outside the entrance, which should be only two swordsmen if they aren't changing shifts, not that strong for such a big clan." it was so reassuring to see that the stealth team knew so much about the lair's guarding shifts and whatnot, it gave a sense of tranquility. "There should be a few more guards at the hall area, and then the way downstairs or upstairs. We haven't had much time to see what's underground completely, but we know there are some nasty factories and jails below our feet."

That sounded like a big deal. In fact, if Uraraka focused, she could feel a tickling corruption beneath her, but it reached way below than what she had seen back at the Council's lab. It was silently chilling. "Is there anything interesting we should stop by at the hallway?" asked Asui.

"Not much." responded Sero. "The building itself is rather empty, it's all stone and little furniture, just like some sort of professional dungeon. The interesting stuff seems to be underground." at that, he looked at Uraraka, Kaminari, and Kirishima, who felt regarded at and saluted in response. "You guys gotta try to get Jack out of there, and if possible, stop whatever they are fabricating down there. Your primary mission is to get Jack out safe if possible. We can take over the factory later. We have to take their leader first."

"For that, we have to be coordinated when we are together." continued Hagakure. "When we take out the guards at the entrance, we can't make much noise, or they'll alert the guards inside. We can't let noise alert the guards that are deeper inside, so we have to be quick and silent about it."

Uraraka raised her hand. "What will we do with the guards, though?"

Sero arched an eyebrow. "As in, how we'll attack them?"

Bakugou didn't like where this was going, and recalled his conversation with Sero a bit earlier. In fact, the spy also spared him a glimpse. "Yeah. Do we have to only tie the workers down? Do we have to slaughter them?"

It sounded a teensy bit too graphic but to Hagakure, it was an actually good question. "As you see fit. It's important we take out all important workers and directors of the factory underground. I'm supposing there will be several generals or bosses guiding the crafting process down there, so it would be convenient to get rid of them as well."

"Then what should we do with the rest? Just knock them out?"

Midoriya nodded, trying to follow Hagakure's plan. "I don't think it would be any better to kill flimsy guards. After all, some could have been manipulated into coming, or by some sort of rapture. In the same way the Council was severely embezzled, we can't say what's the origin of the rest of the Jirou clan. As long as they aren't a severe threat, it's not worth it to shed blood."

Uraraka could instantly imagine what Bakugou was thinking. To him, sparing their lives that way was probably a way of showing weakness by letting the wimps go or an actual act of cruelty by showing them that they weren't even worth killing. She wasn't sure why she thought of Bakugou in that moment, but she did and she was curious about what he thought about this measure. Her eyes moved to look at him, almost in an instinctive fashion like that of a bee attracted to a flower, and found him to be pondering something.

She found out what that was two seconds later. "What if those little shits we spare somehow end up running away like we're trying to prevent?"

"That's for the squad outside of the fort to take care of, and in case they can't manage to hold them back, we'll strike them down from up the lookout. We won't let a single bee out of the hive, I can assure you that." Hagakure's voice was somewhat reassuring to hear, it felt like the spying brigade knew exactly what they were getting into, and that confidence was conveyed perfectly, giving the warriors a moral boost. "We should get going, now. I'm gonna need Mina and Kaminari to come with me to the lookout."

Kirishima realized that she was taking one of his teammates away from him, so he had to call her out on that. "Hold up, what do you need them for?"

Sero put a hand on Mina's shoulder, pushing her forward as Kirishima's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Uraraka and Kaminari dedicated him a knowing smile. "Don't worry about it, you'll see in a minute."

Hagakure pushed Kaminari and Uraraka could see the smile in her voice. "They'll join you in a sec! You guys get ready. If you walk a little bit ahead this faint path, there's a clearing behind that wall of trees. Wait while hidden behind those trees, we can't be seen just yet! Good luck out there, we're counting on you!"

With that, Sero waved and parted with the two warriors, letting the rest walk forward to what seemed to be an incursion off the beaten track—but if Sero and Hagakure were correct, there should be a clearing a bit ahead, and then, the actual Jirou lair. However, as they kept walking through the so called "wall of trees", they only met more forest. Bakugou was almost suspicious about the width of the forest, as there was no real path under their feet, just trees that seemed to lead nowhere.

However, Midoriya made them all stop with an arm swung to the side. "Sh. I'm seeing light. We must be getting close."

Indeed. A few streaks of light shone between the trees, giving view to parts of the clearing. Everyone was dying to run to the light and discover the so important building, like children running into a haunted house, but they knew better than to make noise and alert the guards and give out their position. Thus, they walked a bit slower and scattered across the last layer of trees to peek from behind them, observing the clearing with hawk eyes and a frown at the severity of the situation.

The building itself was just as relatively small as Sero had explained and it was hard to believe there was an underground jail and factory under their feet, seeing how crumbly and decrepit the two-floor stone building looked. It was all cobblestone, as big as the cottage Bakugou and Kirishima had investigated at the woods, with small windows spread on the walls with equally as creepy looking bars that made it look more like a prison than an actual criminal lair. Now that Uraraka thought about it, those correlations weren't mutually exclusive.

Also as expected, two guards clad in black uniforms were perched at the entrance. They almost looked like statues and in fact Asui had thought them to be that at first glance. Their swords were gleaming under the direct sunlight, giving them a fierce appearance. Nobody wanted to underestimate them no matter what Hagakure and Sero said about the matter, it was better to be guarded than sorry.

Uraraka gulped thickly at what those guards could be capable of. She couldn't deny they looked tough and scary, the Jirous seemed to have a picky, elegant yet dark taste. The scene was so silent and so utterly tense in anticipation that it was almost taking them out of situation and making it all seem too surreal. Nobody had probably expected it to be like this, so methodical and… not grand, like, not a show-off spectacle of secret techniques and might.

Deep inside, everyone preferred it that way. It was safer this way, and in the end, just better this way.

"Everything's so silent." spoke Midoriya in a hushed voice, as if afraid of somebody coming from anywhere if he spoke too loudly. "What is the other convoy doing? They sure are taking their sweet time."

Asui interjected with that monotone voice of hers that somehow matched the situation so perfectly. "Can't expect them to be setting off fireworks and stuff when we are in a supposedly secret mission, you know. Let's just wait for them to actually-"

Uraraka heard the noise of a thread being tensed, and instantly panicked, ordering everyone with a hushed voice to "Duck and cover!"

Hurried by the urgent situation, everyone followed suit, hiding and crouching behind the trees in case anything big and spectacular happened. When 5 seconds passed and nothing was really going on, Bakugou peeked from one of the trees to deadpan with a frown. "Oi, what the hell…"

Just as he murmured those words, two darts flashed through the air to land straight on the guards' shoulders, who didn't have enough time to moan in pain as they limped on the wall and slumped to the ground, panting, and then unconscious. Everyone's heads surfaced from behind the trees to blink at the scene, flabbergasted by the smooth, silent attack, and frowning as everything went still for a moment or two in which nobody spoke a word, only waited for a signal to come out of hiding.

Mina and Kaminari jumped off the hill and landed on the clearing like feathers on the sea, and the whole gang observed them share a few words while inspecting the bodies. Mina went to the corpses to make sure they were K.O. as Kaminari beckoned at them to come, making the rest of the guild follow suit, walking in utmost silent to the sneaky archers.

"The coast is clear." confirmed Mina, giving the guards some pushes and smacks to make sure they didn't react to them, which they didn't. Uraraka feared for a moment that they could actually be dead, but the pink archer cleared any fear she could have. "They'll be unconscious for a while, depending on how they react to the nitoria dosis."

At this, the alchemist frowned with severity. She sadly couldn't scream for the sake of the operation but she really wanted to. "You gave them nitoria without the supervision of an alchemist? What were you even thinking?"

"We know it's a strong element, so we just dissolved it with sedatives. We just used it for its powerful characteristics." Kaminari winked an eye. "It ain't like I haven't listened to your lessons. Although… they'll have some nasty nightmares, that's for sure."

Uraraka remembered that somebody had told her Iida once experienced this, and now that she looked at him he seemed to be reminiscing about that experience. That must have been awful for him, and he probably didn't want anybody else, evil or not, to go through the same. He wasn't saying anything against it, though.

"Us three will guard the entrance, you all should start sneaking in before things get crazy. It has officially begun, now." said Tokoyami, walking to the main red doors before them. "These walls are thick as hell, so they won't hear us now. But they could hear us later."

"Right." Midoriya nodded and made everyone follow him, excepting Mina, Tokoyami and Iida who, as expected, would guard the entrance from the outside under the patient vigilant gaze of the spying team. The knight leader walked slowly and very carefully, fearing that any guard would pop out of nowhere. Everyone moved behind him, as if hovering in silence.

After this, they arrived to the corner of the fortress, where there were no windows, no guards, nothing but just cobblestone. The green haired boy turned to Uraraka, who had summoned her staff as if thinking she'd need to actually destroy anything. However, they didn't need that from her this time. "You gotta go up to the roof and sneak into the hallway. Opening the front door would be too blunt now, so you can float up to the roof and then down to the hallway."

Her staff disappeared with a puff of air, and she rubbed her palms with a naughty smile. "And I guess you want me to open the doors from inside after taking care of the guys inside?"

Bakugou held her back with a hand on her arm, but talked to the other leader. He was actually about to complain about how much of a blunt bitch she was and that while she was reliable, sending someone who was more silent could work better, yet the hard grip Uraraka got on his hand caught his attention before he could speak. "I'll be fine." she gave him a warm, confident smile. "Just have a little faith in me for now."

Well, Bakugou trusted her of course, but saying she was the most adequate one for the task was a bit of a stretch and they couldn't be playing risks here. But just because he didn't want her to think he was just being regressive and going back to distrust between them, he let her go and nodded for her to float up. "You better not mess up, Uraraka."

Asui glanced up the tall building. Her eyes reflected concealed concern. "Don't puke your stomach out when you get there. We need everyone nice and clean for the final round."

Uraraka nodded and without further ado, she removed her gloves to touch her shoulders and jump up, initiating her ascending. It had always been weird how slow she climbed, or at least how slow it seemed. She wished she had the wings to actually fly instead of just hovering against gravity's desire. It was a handy ability that only came in handy at casual and very certain moments. The consequences of its overuse was far too severe and she still had some trouble controlling it, but after her time away with Aizawa and Shinsou, she had been practically forced to overcome those

Just as her master said, she had to master her innate powers before focusing on learning something new. But at times like these where she was in an extremely important mission, she kind of forgot about those breathing and focus lessons. And she was starting to get a bit nauseous now that she was three quarters up the distance. If she were to look down she'd see her guildmates as little dots, and the forest would be at her ankles' height.

It didn't take much time for her to leap up the edge of the fortress —because judging by its height it could very much be one —and kneel down to recover her breath. There was a higher tower a bit further, no windows, just a wall of cobblestone, which probably contained the other floors Sero and Hagakure talked about earlier. As she glanced at that tower while panting, she saw the hole her friends had mentioned and she gulped at the task she was about to face.

"Don't start wavering now…" her eyes were screwed shut in an uncanny show of nervousness. This task sometimes looked too big for her, but it wasn't the best time to get cold feet now and doubt herself. Everyone was relying on her, so she encouraged herself to keep on going. "C'mon Uraraka… move!"

With that, the brunette walked to the hole and peeked from above. Four guards were taking shifts to look after the main door, the windows at the sides, and the door that led to what she thought to be the underground factory and Midnight's office. They didn't seem to be reeled up, they all seemed to be calm and quiet, as if nothing was going on. Uraraka thought they would have heard the guards collapse earlier, but it was obviously better this way.

Her best bet was to carefully land with her gravity turned off, yet the guards would obviously see her and would start screaming and making noise, thus ending the mission for them. If she just leaped in without any precaution, the guards would still notice and she'd hurt herself, but there was less risk as she knew she could defeat them faster. Bakugou wouldn't have wanted her to take any risks, so she wouldn't.

It was scary how much she let herself be led by Bakugou's wishes, but he was giving her directions on how to go about it and she couldn't complain.

There was the water of the river nearby, yet she wasn't very confident on her abilities nor how much noise that would make. The easiest and best way around the issue was to somehow knock the guards out and silently open the main door, but how? She didn't have any sort of tranquilizer or bow to throw it with, nor a way to actually trap them, right?

Her hand curled into a fist, frustrated, and casually grabbed a thorny small vine that seemed to run within the walls of the facility. The sorcerer winced, but the pain was extremely short-lived as she got an idea—an idea which only shone brighter when she saw a tiny purple drop slide down her hand, apparently harmless in that small dosis, but plenty lethal when somebody like her needed to sneak into the witch's castle and knew how to use that stuff.

She focused all her energy and focus in her hands to make her magic penetrate through the creases and bricks of the walls, and soon enough, she felt that thorny vine move past her and into the hole of the hallway, silently creeping inside and bending to Uraraka's will. She could feel the whole plant of the vine shift and move around the walls and ground below her and most importantly, below the guards' feet.

Those bandits sure didn't know anything about botanics. She would take advantage of their carelessness around these little evils.

Soon enough, one of the guards cut a part of his ankle with a biggish thorn, and winced out in pain. "Fuck! We should cut those plants, they're a pain in the-"

Another one cut himself too while walking, and crouched down to clutch his bleeding ankle, which was dripping with a darker shade of poisoned blood. "We should get rid of these for a damn change. I know Mistress likes to make lipsticks out of these, but they're in the way all the time."

Wait, Midnight made lipsticks with actual poison? No human being would stand three or four drops of that poison—nitoria poison, Uraraka finally remembered. A lipstick with that essence would need a few leaves with the poison or, in this case, several thorns to make a whole bar work. How did she apply it so casually? Something was off, but it wasn't important now.

Another guard seemed to have been stabbed by the thorn, but before he could wince at the pain the nitoria had inflicted, the sorcerer heard a thump, then another. "Yo… guys?"

Of course they wouldn't have fallen this far down if Uraraka hadn't intervened to make the thorns move and attack the guards so sneakily, but they weren't bright enough to figure out that this was not normal. Two exact seconds later, another guard fell down, and so did the other. The only healthy standing guard was trying to shake the others awake, but before he could find out the truth and call for help, a beam of energy and wind knocked him to the wall.

Right before the guard could tear himself off the wall, a large non-poisonous vine pierced through the bricks to grab the guy's mouth and gag him with a force that was making him squirm on the spot. In that moment, Uraraka leaped from the hole and activated her quirk in time to fall smoothly on the ground, like a graceful fairy.

Yet, her eyes spoke anything but about fairytales, and the determined set of eyes this seemingly upbeat girl had wasn't chilling for its frost, but chilling for its steel resolve. When Uraraka got there, she curled her hand to make one of the poisonous vines surface from the ground and pierce into the guy's skin mildly, enough to poison him without him making a noise because he was gagged, and now that he was immobilized he wouldn't be running for help.

"Thank you for your sacrifice." whispered Uraraka with something the guy almost interpreted as respect. "We'll take over from here."

After those words, the guy slowly dozed off into slumber, and Uraraka jabbed him again with the poisonous thorny vine to make sure he wouldn't flinch or react—which he didn't, so she let the spell finally die and the swaying vine dropped to the ground. As the botanic machinery around her died down, she turned to the door and slowly started to pull them open.

They were heavy, but thank god the hinges were oily and didn't make any noise. She greeted them with a big smile, her hand bleeding a little, everyone staring behind her in amusement. "Done and dusted back here."

Midoriya walked in to inspect the bodies, almost impressed. "You barely made any noise that we heard, we could only faintly hear the guards talking among themselves. What did you do?"

Asui, as the skilled alchemist and botanist she was, determined the reason rather quickly with a quick combing of the room with her eyes. "She poisoned them. This forest is full of poisonous thorny plants. I guess this is where they take the several poisons Midnight uses for some spells."

Now that she thought about it, the guards had fallen down in a similar, yet lighter fashion to how Bakugou had fallen back then when they were fighting Midnight for the first time, and had had nightmares as well. Necromancers sure were scary little witches. "I didn't have much more to do… don't think they'll wake up soon. We should get going before they start stirring and making a fuss."

Asui was checking their vitals by Uraraka's side. "Their heartbeat is getting frantic, so they're probably on stage two already." nobody really understood what she said, yet she was most likely talking to herself so nobody really have it much importance. "We should be fine, but let's be quick. These guys seem to be buffy, so we don't know how much it'll take them to fight the poison."

"How long should it take a regular guy to naturally chase off the poison?" asked Kmainari, kneeling down by the passed out guard and slapping his cheek a few times.

"With this dosis? I'd say a few hours, not more than three. With such relatively small dosis, you can skip phases of the poison's effect. It'd be very rare to not be affected no matter the quantity." explained the mutant sorcerer, looking at Uraraka. "Good job."

Uraraka didn't think much of that, it seemed to be basic biology for anyone. Bakugou spoke up next. "Let's split up here and get business done. The sneaky part should be done here, it's time to make some noise now."

Everyone nodded their heads in unison, and the entrance defense part gave them an encouraging thumbs up to let them know they'd have their backs covered. With that, the groups started walking away deeper into the hallway, towards the big wooden doors, with Bakugou walking behind everyone to ensure there was no other guard trying to sneak behind them.

However, a step away from him walked Uraraka, who had now stopped walking to realize they were right before the beginning of the storm. This would probably be the only sane and calm moment they'd get to talk. As soon as this battle was over… there would be no more. Just darkness. From there onward the only way forward was to roll down a cliff and pray for the best, her feelings facing now a similar turbulence to that of a rollercoaster.

Uraraka looked at his back with a wounded expression, him walking away from her into the darkness, just in the same fashion she had walked away months, weeks, a lot of time ago. It hurt to think that this could be the last time they talked, and, on hindsight, leaving the issue unsolved would save them from unnecessary scars.

Yet, the way his hand swung back and forth as he walked taunted her. It was screaming at her to do something, yet she feared actually taking the step to try and talk things out. Maybe, he didn't want to finish things this way. Not even she knew what she would say if she reached out and asked him for help. How could she ask for help? Could she even ask for it after all this time?

In an impulsive outburst of bravery, Uraraka took a soundful step forward and grabbed his wrist tight, making him turn around with an arched eyebrow, yet not annoyed in the slightest. "Can… could we talk before we move on?"

Bakugou wasn't used to this smaller side of her, and after a few moments of hesitation, he turned back to his guild, everyone looking at them with funny expressions. "Go ahead on your own and wait for us. We'll be there in a minute."

Their comrades shared glances among themselves before obliging, leaving the two lovebirds alone in the hallway with four guard corpses at their wake. When he turned to her with a questioning look, the girl let go of his hand to put hers on her chest. "Sorry to hold you back, I just… I wanted to talk to you."

His brows were crinkled in something akin to worry, weirded out by her sudden shrewd behavior. He thought they had come to the mutual understanding that they had to leave that issue aside for now until they knew what would become of the Jirou guild. He could just see it in her face she wanted to bring the topic up, maybe to actually talk things out and he couldn't say that was irrational, after all they hadn't properly had a talk about their kiss and what it entailed. They could be in completely different pages now without realizing.

It had been a bit stupid of him to think she'd wanna push it back to the aftermath of the battle, but then again, he didn't want to be clouded by what they would tell the other now. "Be quick, we gotta go now before those fuckers wake up."

Her fingers dug into the fabric of her uniform, past her cloak, as if gaining leverage on her now heavy heart. A small bead of sweat fell down her forehead. "I know, I just… I wanted to ask you something before we part ways. It should be very quick."

Yet, he waited. He was always the man who waited for her to speak up and Bakugou sometimes wondered how she had managed to turn him into this mess who was willing to sit still and see what people actually had to offer. Uraraka had somehow managed to tame him slowly and knowing her, she probably didn't know that her current silence was killing him, putting him on edge. She probably didn't know the great control she could have over him sometimes.

One day he'd snap out of it.

Her voice came out small, but it came out so unbelievingly flustered Bakugou thought he'd start blushing like some sort of high schooler. "W-Well…" her eyes were closed to not meet his and he was thankful for that. "What happened yesterday… I wanted to ask… well, you know it will be pretty difficult for us to work anything out and I know this is not the best time for that, to ask, but... "

Bakugou was painfully aware that she was blatantly avoiding talking about her future departure and it somehow made the fact even realer than he could handle. Still, he kept it cool and tried to help her continue, yet his words were stuck in his throat. "Uh… yeah, it totally ain't the best time for that."

"I know! I know." she repeated, her voice breathy and it looked like she was having difficulty to talk. "I just… well, I wanted to ask if… do you…" this was the definitive answer she was looking for, and with that, she threw herself off into the ocean. "do you think it could… work? Do you think there's any way for us to sort this out if… I don't stay?"

Two things happened in that precise moment that went down in a domino effect: Bakugou's breathing hitched as he landed his eyes on her frightened eyes and he hated that sight of her because that thing that was hunting her wasn't any foe outside that he could fight against and protect her from—it was her fears, and in the end, those fears came from his feelings. He would have to fight himself to get rid of those fears plaguing her.

And when he realized his feelings were holding her back this way, that he causing her this pain and torment, he almost felt guilty. But he couldn't keep leading her on in a hopeless direction when he was certain they weren't bound to end this story unscathed. He wanted to be with her but… he knew there was no way out of it.

And as much as he wanted to keep her around fluttering around him and throwing sunflowers over his head, it was time to clip her wings before it was too late.

The way his eyes fell was already a frightening foretelling of what was to come, and it made her heart fall through her stomach and just splatter on the floor under her trembling knees. "I… don't know any solution to this. You'll be gone after this, I know, and… it's impossible to predict what will happen after that."

It was easy to expect Uraraka to come back after she finished her business out there, but he knew the truth: Uraraka couldn't stay in a branch for too long. She'd stay perched there for two seasons and, before the winter came, she'd be flying away to look for a bigger one. She wasn't that wounded girl who came to his guild in search of help, clutching her bleeding side in pain. But right now, her expression was terrifying close to that of a hurt bird being buried in snow.

It was as if something had finally broken within her, and it hurt for him to think he knew that this wouldn't work from the beginning, deep inside. Both of them had been foolish to indulge themselves last night.

Uraraka let go of her dress to look at him with the expression of a lost, dainty bird that needed a direction to fly towards. He didn't know what to tell her, but he could only be drawn to that expression of hers and want to fight the seed he had just planted in her brain, that seed that would surely eat her alive and make her tremble in her step. She wouldn't forget about this. He wouldn't, either. And if he could, he'd chase after her and pray for her to stay so it'd work.

But it was better to discard a new beginning when the end was closer than ever. It was better to hurt her wounded hope now than to strain it on the long run. And it pained him more than it pained her, he knew. Or, at least, he thought.

Uraraka looked at him in silence, as if utterly broken and disappointed but she knew this was coming, right? Then, why did she feel so destroyed by having her fears confirmed? Why couldn't she scratch this ugly feeling away? What the fuck was this about? It was a no. They… they would never be together.

It was messing with her head. She was slowly coming back to her body after what seemed like minutes of silence feeling like hell, but now that she was thinking clearly after the first blow, she didn't feel alive. That spark he had provoked within her was robbed from her too quick, and she was now in a state of limbo, feeling alive but deadly walking.

Before long, she felt a hesitant, tender touch on her jaw, and she couldn't register the care he put on his touch before he was kissing her softly, as delicate as thin silk and cotton candy, bittersweet and tasting like the bitter, awful flavor of an unreachable victory, of an impossible end. She knew he loved her, or she wanted to think he did, but that was not the point there.

They couldn't work. It was impossible. If he had no solution, if he didn't know what to do about them… then, what was she exactly doing there?

Tell me what to do, she wanted to cry, tell me to stay.

Bakugou broke away way before she could answer to the small kiss, and he stroked her damp cheek, coated with a pair of stray tears. "I'll see you when this is over. Be careful, none of those bastards can give you a beating other than me, alright?"

And with that, he turned around to leave her in the cold, his attempt to make the situation lighter making her body go cold and under. The stone of her future grave was starting to feel increasingly real with each step he took away from her.

That was the end for them.

Their happy ending had been robbed from them before it even began, but Uraraka was strong, she would forget about it and… move on. So with that in mind, she took a step forward, further away from the world she had come to believe in, everything growing darker in her heart. As she realized that the answer to her prayers had been in front of her all along.

And with that, Uraraka ran out of things to believe in. With that, Uraraka's final path was finally chosen, like light being shed into a forest after wandering aimlessly in the darkness. There was no other way around it, right?

And with each step she took away from the world she had come to believe in, she started taking steps into the slow, tender but chilling countdown in her heart.