"Mina…"

"Mina….."

"Open your eyes…. please…"

The pink woman with the acid quirk woke up in what appeared to be a black void, in which every sound seemed to echo. If she squinted, she could make out a few lights. Nine, to be exact. She felt odd, like she should be floating in space. There didn't look to be a floor or walls or anything, just this blackness with distant beacons, and a familiar voice that had softly woke her up.

It felt like ages as she called out, but the voice never answered. She felt like she was floating in space, but there were no stars or planets. Only those faint lighthouses in the seemingly endless horizon. At the very least, she could breathe. All Mina heard were the echoes of her own questions.

"Where am I?"

"Am I dead?"

That last one sent shivers down her spine a little, but also a deepening sense of disappointment.

"If so, man, I went out like a chump, instead of a champ." She pondered. She stretched out her legs and arms and managed to touch ground, shocking her a little. If she was dead, she had hoped she would at least see a Shinigami. More importantly, she hoped she could see him once more.

Mina found herself able to walk, as if it were just a normal room, which was freaking her out a little. Still she shook it off and headed forward, her head in a daze. As she walked, the void continued. It felt like eternity and she wasn't sure if that was her or the void itself. However, after a period that she could not quantify, the void seemed to fill with little tv screens, replaying moments gone by that she had not been present for. Memories replayed that were not her own, like a museum of days gone by. Faintly, she could hear voices calling out to her. None of them were easily recognizable at first.

"Rise up."

"You have a responsibility."

"It is yours now."

They seemed like they should resonate more, but they didn't hold much weight for Mina. Every voice got gradually louder, like a distant whisper drawing nearer. By the 7th voice, Mina could recognize it as that of a woman, one she had never met before, but that had that distant familiarity nagging at the far reaches of her mind like ancestral memory, in a similar way to those that preceded it.

"No matter how scary things get, give a smile and say "I'm A-Okay. Even through the pain, the people who can smile are always the strongest."

The next voice, which Mina referred to as "head ghosts" was far more familiar, as were the void screen images. She had seen a lot of them play on TV and some of them she recognized in person. She had a suspicion she knew what was going on, but this clenched it. These were the previous holders of One-For-All. She was awestruck that she was hearing and seeing all this. Was she dead? Unconscious? In a trance? Either way, she was getting advice from these echoes of wielders past.

"Head ghosts? No. They're musketeers." Mina thought.

"Stand proud, Ashido. You wield a great power and the responsibility that comes with it. You are a beacon to the world now, shining brighter than everyone who preceded you. Get up and show the world you aren't finished yet! ANNOUNCE WITH A SMILE THAT YOU ARE HERE!"

Mina would have been both inspired and frightened by the fact that she was getting advice from ghosts inside her mind, but also inspired because she was talking to freaking All-Might one last time. However, all those feelings were shoved aside by the creeping dread of what would come next. She stopped dead in her tracks as the tears came.

"If…all of those voices were previous owners of One-For-All…."

"Hi Mina." There it was. The first voice to greet her. The one that woke her up. The one she knew the best and the one she missed the most. She turned slowly, daggers digging into her heart. The memories were like shards piercing her soul. Her knees buckled as the tears welled up. Her eyes widened as she turned to face the speaker.

Floating there, in an ethereal light, in the costume she recognized so well, the one he saved countless lives in, the one he died in, was Mina's immediate predecessor: Izuku Midoriya.

His smile just lit up the entire void. She could swear it was white now. Several memories played that she wasn't around for but she recognized, clear as day, those that she was. She could barely stand at this point, the man she loved standing before her like an angel.

"D-did you miss me?" the figure bashfully rubbed the back of his head as he gazed into the wide, tear-filled eyes of his fiancée. She was looking up at him now, on her knees in a heap. She reached up to touch him, but she could not get up. Was all this too much for her? Was she afraid he was as ghostly as he appeared and that her hand would pass through him, causing the man she loved to disappear all over again?

"I already know the answer to that, I guess." He chuckled lightly, framed by images of the day they first met, their first date, their first kiss, and so on.

"I-izuku…." Her eyes clenched shut to keep the tears from falling anymore.

"I wish I could hold you right now…. tell you it would be alright…. But…." Izuku reached out his hand to touch her head and it passed through her head. Her eyes shot open again, disappointed that this was possibly a dream after all. She should have known, but it still hurt all the same.

"I miss you. I miss you so damn much. Please come back." Mina couldn't hold back anymore. She had done her best to stand up to villainy with a smile, even before she had One-For-All. Heck, smiling was her thing before she met Izuku. And yet, now, he had been such a big part of her life, that losing him, and now having him before her eyes was too much to handle. Being unable to hold him once more just made it worse.

"You're a great hero, Mina. You'll be a greater one than me even."

"BULLSHIT!" she yelled, tears fluting freely as she rocketed up and tried to hold him again, her hands passing through again. "I CAN'T DO WHAT YOU CAN! I CAN'T DO THIS WITHOUT YOU!"

Any thoughts she had in her head that this was an after image or some prerecorded afterlife message were dispelled when Izuku's eyes widened, then narrowed.

"I know, Ashi. I know you're scared. I trusted you though. We have been through everything together, and I couldn't think of a better fit."

"I….I need you to save me. I know it seems weird to you, but something is up right now. Something strange, and I need your help."

"But I couldn't save…"

"Stop that. Where's the Mina I know?"

"Right here, dude, crying on the floor in front of her dead fiancée." She sniffled, managing to be sarcastic, even when she could barely breathe right now.

"That's better." The ghost smiled. His face took on a sadder expression. "I…I don't know if it will help, but I'm always here." He pointed to her chest.

"My heart. I know." She appreciated it. She really did, especially hearing it from him. However, this wasn't the first time she had heard that, and even now, it still didn't feel complete. She didn't feel complete.

"Um…yes. Exactly." Izuku's spectral form appeared to blush, despite not being tangible. He coughed into his hand.

Mina laughed through the tears. "You perverted dork!" If she had a pillow, she would have thrown it at his ghostly head.

"There she is. There's my Mina." Izuku smiled again, that angelic smile of his that had been both a comfort and a source of pain to Mina of late, "I know you feel trapped. I understand that…. More than you know. So, I want you to do something."

"Anything…" Mina would do anything for him, to see his smile, but she knew this would probably be some Saturday morning message like "Brush your teeth", "Keep my memory alive", or "Move on." Instead, she heard something more akin to what she wanted to hear. Something that took her by surprise.

"Head back to the scene of the crime." Izuku blurred away into nothingness as the light got brighter and brighter.

"Save me..."

Mina woke up in the rubble, her blurry vision adjusting as she was surrounded by a few concerned citizens and colleagues.

"Are you ok?" asked Kirishima, now up and around, but still worse for wear from his battle with Minus. He looked like he had been through a train wreck.

Mina nodded, got up and headed straight for the cemetery where Izuku was buried. She had dreamed about it. She had seen it in ruins. Now she had some unfinished business there. "I'll talk to you later, Kiri. I have work to do."

She headed there as fast as her legs could take her. Izuku's words echoed in her head.

"Go to the scene of the crime."

"Save me"

She wasn't sure if this was the crime he meant, if this would work, or if it was an end deader than he was. Heck, this whole thing might have just been a hallucination brought on by head trauma. But she had to be sure. She didn't have a real lead besides this dream, but now she had something else that she would not let go of, even if her every instinct was telling her to not get it up.

Mina Ashido had hope.

"I hope I'm not going crazy, Izu. I hope we can be a team again."

Mina thought she heard a voice whisper on the wind "Like musketeers…"