Hello crazy, beautiful world. Soooo... yeah, this chapter is a bit late. Like, three days late. I had joined a LARP group last weekend so I didn't have much time to write. Even afterwards, my beta reader was too busy to help out. And this chapter is a minisode.

.

.

.

Please don't hate me!

Borderlands is owned by Gearbox and 2KGames and My Hero Academia is owned by Kohei Horikoshi and Funimation. Lyrics belong to Cage the Elephant. Please support the official release.

Please rate and review!

"This means someone is talking."

'This means someone is thinking to themselves.'

This means it's a flashback.

*This means it's a sound effect!*

{This means I'm speaking in a different language!}

Angel in a Gilded Cage

There are some people in this world who believe that the whole world is one big orchestra. Everything makes sound after all. It isn't that far of a stretch to believe that there could be some order to the chaos, like one giant musical number.

To a certain technomancer, that fact couldn't be more true, at least when it came to modern technology. When the volume of digital devices was not so great as to cause discomfort, she often found herself humming along to the sounds around her, much like one appreciated a band of street performers. The washing machine she likened to a tuba, the widescreen tv a keyboard and the electric oven a guitar.

Of course, growing up to a constant stream of quasi-sound made it all the easier to detect when it's gone and frequenting one place for about three months allows one to become familiar with the members of the metaphorical ensemble.

So when Angel noticed a subtle, soothing whirr abruptly stop, she knew what was coming.

"Ugh… I'm meltinnnnnng…" Ashido moaned, splayed over the surface of her desk.

"Curse you sun… my old foe…" Tokoyami panted, his obsidian shaded feathers doing him no favors, whilst Dark Shadow cowered inside his desk.

"How long is Powerloader going to take?! I'm dying here!" Sero wiped at his brow with a strip of tape.

"Come on guys! It's just a bit of heat! What kinda heroes are we if we let that stop us!" Kirishima cheered, trying to pick up his classmate's spirits.

Angel didn't have the energy to add to the conversation, choosing to fan herself with some papers instead.

That was right. Yūei's air conditioning had suffered a malfunction and was currently shut down for repairs. The end result was that the whole school turned into a hot, muggy cage for the entire day. The students had struggled through all of their classes in a sweaty mess. It was not as bad as being outside, mind you, but it was far from an enjoyable experience.

Angel turned to her friend on the right. "Todoroki-kun… again please…" She begged the bi-colored boy, who was the only member of the class unaffected by the heat. Without looking up from his phone, he held up his right hand and a cool mist drifted over her. She let out a relieved sigh.

"Aaaah… thank you."

He silently nodded, wiping the moisture off his phone's screen.

Angel relished the brief respite, but already she could feel the oppressive weight of the air start crawling back. As horrible as the indoor classes had been, they didn't compare to the hero studies class last period. Heck, even All-Might's hair was wilting.

That being said, it still wasn't nearly as awful as the deserts of Mexico. That was two weeks that Angel never thought she'd survive. But she did, so she will endure the Japanese summer heatwave.

Just then the door slammed open and everyone turned to see Midoriya standing there, bouncing in excitement. "Hey everyone, good news! I got permission from Aizawa-sensei to use the school pool for class exercises!"

The class as a whole went ecstatic.

"Woo! Pool party!" Uraraka threw her arms and her school papers into the air, said loose articles floating there with no sign of coming down.

"Awesome! A swim in the pool is the perfect way to end this crappy day!" Hagakure cheered.

"Yeah! Even if it's under the guise of "class exercises". Good one Midoriya!" Kirishima gave the boy a thumbs up.

"U-Um… but we are doing class exercises." He said weakly, but to no avail as the entire class celebrated the new, refreshing development. All except the girl sitting in the far corner of the room. Angel was glad that it was hot right now, otherwise someone might question why she was suddenly drenched in sweat.

It wasn't that she thought a swim wouldn't be a great method to relax after a long, long day at school. She thought it sounded ingenious, being another in a long list of firsts that she wouldn't mind ticking off.

But… there was still that one problem. A deep, dark secret, that if any one of her friends or classmates found out-!

She swallowed. Maybe she could still sneak out the door while they were still dancing.

Standing up and grabbing her bag, Angel slowly tiptoed behind the back row, making her way step by step to the back exit. She didn't get very fair before Ashido jumped up from her seat.

"Alright girls! Let's get to the change rooms!"

At her command, the class's feminine minority moved as one, piling back through the exit, pushing past Angel in a stampede.

"Come on Angel-chan!" Uraraka ran over and grabbed her wrist.

"W-Wait, I think I-I'm going to sit this one ouuuuuuut!" Angel tried to spit out before she was yanked along, reminding her too much of her first day of classes.

Meanwhile, two individuals watched the girls leave, rubbing their hands with glee.

"Good idea man! Aizawa-sensei would never give us permission to use the pool, but little innocent Midoriya?" Kaminari snickered.

"I told you it'd work! Now we get to see all the girls in their swimsuits!" Mineta cackled, images of their female classmates in frilly one pieces and bikini's bouncing in his head. "High five!"

"Yeah!"

Much to the conniving perverts disappointment, they wouldn't find the girls in such a display, but rather the conservative, skin suits and swimming caps provided by the school.

Of course, even that was too much for Angel's sheltered upbringing. Even though the suit stretched all the way to her elbows and knees, she still felt more naked than she'd ever known.

She stood in the back of the crowd of girls on the edge of the outdoor pool. While the rest of her feminine friends and colleagues were performing warm up stretches, she was several feet back in the shade, blushing as she tried to cover herself with her arms.

Of course she knew that it was very tame as far as swimwear went. NOWHERE near as daring as the outfits she had seen Moxxi showoff for a summer calendar, if you could even call those loops of string and scant patches of fabric clothes. But everything felt so thin and tight, like a second skin. She had never worn anything like it before, it was so alien.

'So weeeeeird!' Angel thought in shame, pulling at the stretchy fabric adhering to her backside. She hadn't even wanted to be here, but the girls had pulled her along to the change room against her will. At that point, it would have been more odd if she hadn't pulled on her swimsuit with them. Now here she was, dressed in the second most revealing outfit she had tried on in her life(the t-shirt and short shorts ensemble back at the mall still held first prize).

"Now for some side stretches! One, two! One two!" Ashido led the girls into another exercise.

Angel's eyes drifted to the clear, cyan pool, light bouncing off the surface of the still water. She watched, transfixed, her heart starting to gallop.

"We have arrived! Class 1-A is now assembled for aquatic exercises!"

Angel jumped at the sound of Iida's blaring voice and looked up.

Big mistake.

Her face immediately caught fire and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Across the pool exiting the boy's change room was, obviously, the male members of her class.

Now this would normally not be cause for alarm. Angel had gotten used to their presence over the last few months (other than Mineta, he was always going to be in her bad books).

That did not prepare her however, for two facts.

One, they were all shirtless and only wearing swimming briefs. Angel had never been exposed to so many near naked people at once, let alone the boys.

The lack of coverage also advertised point two, a large percentage of them were in good shape. Like, ridiculously so. Not anywhere close to the mountain of corded muscle that was Brick, but she was sure most teenage boys were not so, shall we say, sculpted. Sure, Aoyama, Kaminari, Tokoyami, Mineta and Koda were of average slim and rounded builds, but the rest had bodies that looked like they belonged in a superhero comic.

Though that made too much sense considering which school they were in.

Steam billowed from Angel's ears, accompanied by a low whistle. Her thoughts were a scattered mess.

'Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. Too much. TOO MUCH!'

She covered her eyes with her hands. 'I just need to calm down. I can get used to this! I just. Need. To. Calm. Down.'

She breathed in slowly from her nose and exhaled from the mouth, her pulse climbing down to a crawl.

'Okay… now… I'm going to open my eyes and act normal. Completely… normal…'

Angel gingerly widened the gaps between her fingers and peered out.

Only to be immediately met with the sight of her first friend, kind, gentle Midoriya Izuku, stretching his arms over his head, showing off his defined biceps, legs and abs so solid you could sharpen a blade on them.

Her face promptly ignited again. She slammed her eyes shut and shook her head in anguish. It was so surreal. She knew that Midoriya had trained hard to get into Yūei, but one didn't look at his childlike face and assume he'd have that kind of body.

But she couldn't say that he looked bad though. She kinda liked that look on hi-

'Oh god, I'm turning into Moxxi!' She screamed internally. 'I'm staring at my friend's muscles! Am I into muscles?! What's wrong with me?!'

"Yaoyorozu-san!" Iida crashed through Angel's thoughts with the grace of a wrecking ball to address the class vice representative. "You and the girls get in the pool and get started! I will lead the boys here through some pre-exercise drills and workouts!"

"Will do!" The tall brunette nodded and turned to the gathered young women. "Alright! Now, we should probably go over some safety guidelines before we-!"

"Cannonball!" Ashido squealed in delight as she ran right past the lecturing heiress and jumped into the pool, sending a cascade of chlorinated water into the air. A couple seconds later, she surfaced and waved. "Come on girls! The water's great!"

The metaphorical horn blown, the rest of the girls jumped in after her. After a couple seconds of standing in disbelief, Yaoyorozu shrugged and leapt in too, performing a graceful dive.

That left Angel all by herself standing over the deep end. She watched her friends frolic about in the water, some of them swimming from one end to the next and others just splashed about, enjoying the cooling effect it had on them. All of them laughed with smiles on their faces.

She rubbed the wet tile with her foot, at a bit of a loss. She wanted to join in, she really did.

But…

"Hey! Angel-chan!" She jolted, noticing Uraraka waving at her. "What are you waiting for? Jump in already!"

"O-Oh!" Angel stammered. "Y-You know, I-I'm not really feeling up for a s-swim all of a sudden!"

Uraraka looked at her confused. "Really? You're not melting in the sun right there? Just come on! It feels amazing, trust me!" She said, a few of the other girls noticing the situation.

Angel gave her a nervous laugh. "N-Naw, I think I'll sit this one out, yeah?" She took a small step back from the edge and scratching her neck. "I-I'm just going to go and-"

"Surprise!" Hagakure gave her a sudden shove from behind and with a startled yelp, Angel fell face first into the water, disappearing in an instant.

"That wasn't very nice of you Toru-chan." Asui stated, giving the invisible girl a disapproving stare.

"Lighten up! She probably just thought the water was too cold or something!" She laughed back.

"Still, you shouldn't push people into pools if they don't want to." Jiro added from where she was leaning against the wall in the shallows.

"What's going on over there?" Iida called out, the boy's attention turned to the pool.

"Toru-chan pushed Angel–chan in."

"Hagakure-san! Please refrain from rough housing around the pool area! You could cause someone to slip and hurt themselves very easily!" Iida scolded with plenty of arm waving.

"Sheesh, it was just a prank." Hagakure muttered.

"Uh… guys?" Ashido called out. "Is it just me or she taking a while to come back up?" She asked, pointing down.

The girl had sunk to the bottom like a stone. She was moving about in an odd, sluggish manner.

"Heh, I bet she's just being spiteful down there. Trying to get me back." Hagakure reasoned with a nervous laugh.

Then the submerged form stilled and slumped over. A few bubbles drifted to the top of the water.

The entire class watched for a moment before they all paled.

"ANGEL-CHAN!" They screamed as Asui quickly dove under.

A few seconds later Angel was out of the pool, hunched over as she coughed up the water in her lungs. Her classmates stood over her, chattering fretfully.

"Is she okay?!"

"Dunno, she was under for almost a minute."

"Does she need mouth to-" Mineta was immediately cut off by a sudden splash as he was thrown in the pool.

Uraraka knelt down in front of her, trying to assist by holding her wet hair out of her mouth. "Are you okay Angel-chan? Can you breathe? Nod if yes."

Angel let out another burning hack, before giving her the requested signal. "Y-Yes… I'm (kaff) okay. Just need a second."

The classmates around her let out sighs and sagged in relief, except for a levitating swimsuit and cap.

"I am SO sorry Angel-chan!" Hagakure fell to her knees and wailed. Tears leaked out of nothing and proceeded to outline the contours of her cheeks down to her chin.

"I-It's okay Toru-chan." Angel said, wiping the spittle from her mouth. "You're… not entirely to blame."

"I have to disagree Hodunk-san!" Iida interjected, chopping the air. "Poolside safety guidelines strictly prohibits any pushing, shoving or tripping as to prevent serious injury! If Asui-san had not pulled you out, you may very well have died!"

"Y-You are correct Iida-kun, b-but let's not be too hasty here." Midoriya said in a placating manner. "A-Angel-chan has already forgiven her, so there's no point in beating the horse as long as she promises never to do it again."

"Still, something doesn't make sense to me." Uraraka hummed, looking her friend over. "Why did Angel-chan not swim to the surface on her own? It didn't look like she hit her head or anything."

Sweat began to run down Angel's head and mixed with the water from the pool as she watched everyone consider the question.

"Yeah, that is a bit weird." Sero muttered.

"Maybe she got a cramp or something? Happens to me a lot." Kirishima guessed and looked at Angel.

"N-No, I didn't." She replied.

"Well, then what happened?" Ashido asked. "I mean, heh, it's not like you don't know how to swim."

…

…

…

They all turned to look at Angel. She pursed her lips, averting her eyes nervously.

"EHHH?! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM?!" They all yelled in unison. Angel flinched from the volume and the shame, hanging her head.

"Is it true Angel-chan?"

She slowly nodded. "It's… It's true. Growing up, I never, ah, had the chance to go swimming, so I… kinda… just… didn't." She uttered, poking her fingers together.

"Not even with your parents?"

"They… couldn't find the time." She said, giving a technically correct answer.

Uraraka snapped her fingers. "Wait a second, is that the reason why you got all weird about the shipwreck zone at USJ?"

Angel hummed her affirmation.

"Then why didn't you say anything? Why did you come with us to go swimming?"

She sighed, face falling at the fact that she couldn't run around the issue any longer. She wasn't looking forward to this.

"I came along because I really wanted to join you guys. I didn't want to be left out of anything. And I didn't tell anyone because… well… because I was afraid of what you guys would think if you learned that I couldn't swim. I-I mean come on, I'm fifteen years old!" She curled up and hugged her legs. "Y-You guys must think I'm pathetic, right?"

Angel didn't even have a second to dread the incoming answers when they all shouted;

"What?! No! Of course not! You're awesome!" Uraraka exclaimed, wrapping her in a tight, sodden hug. "Everyone has things they wish they were better at, right guys?" She asked about, getting nothing but nods

"Totally! We are all here to help each other improve!" Kirishima gave his usual, enthusiastic, toothy grin.

"That's what friends and classmates do, we push ourselves to be better than we were the day before." Yaoyorozu dutifully pledged.

"Kero, that's right. Starting with learning how to swim." Asui stated, holding out her wide palm.

Angel blinked for a moment, before she smiled. She suddenly felt pretty foolish. She had worried so much that she had forgotten who her classmates were.

"I really need to stop overthinking things." She shook her head in disappointment before reaching up and taking the offered hand. "Thank you!"

Page Break

"Another thing, you'll want to keep yourself straight on the water, this helps you float more." Asui instructed from the front.

"L-Like this?" Angel stammered, pushing off the bottom of the shallows and trying to keep her body straight and rigid, balanced on her front. She craned her head skywards, struggling to keep her face above the water lapping at her neck. Her instructor's hands tightly held her own in front of her, their joined hands helping steady her form and her racing heartbeat.

It was a few minutes into her first lesson with Asui, being 1-A's resident amphibian made for the best teacher. They had dedicated about a third of the pool to themselves, the rest of the class using the remaining area to begin their exercises. All except for Uraraka who was treading water close by, watching intently and ready to help.

Angel felt a bit awkward at being treated like a little kid, with the bright orange life jacket keeping her afloat. But she chose not to complain about how patient and cautious her friends were acting, giving her a free swimming lesson afterall.

"A little too stiff, but that'll work kero." Asui continued. "Now, I'm going to start leading you around and you're going to start kicking your feet. On three, got it?"

Angel gulped. "G-Got it!"

"Okay. One, two, three!"

Angel clenched her teeth and started vigorously pumping her legs, flailing her feet about. Heart hammering in her chest, she kept kicking with all she had, splashing foam over her head. Her eyes slammed shut as she tried to keep the water out.

Was she doing it? She didn't feel like she was going anywhere, was she doing something wrong? Maybe she was still where she started. She was going to sink wasn't sh-!

"Angel-chan." Asui's deadpan voice cut through the errant thoughts running through her head, jostling her and making her open her eyes.

"Y-Yeah?"

"You're doing it."

"I-I-I-I am?!" She glanced about.

It was true! She was definitely a couple feet further down the pool than before!

"Yay! Three cheers for Angel-chan!" Uraraka squealed with joy, jumping up before splashing back down into the water.

A smile crept back onto Angel's face. "I… I'm doing it! I c-can't believe it! I'm actually swimming!"

"Great work." Her helper smiled back. "Now let's see if we can get you doing it by yourself!"

And Angel continued her lesson, spurred on by her success. The more she swam, the more she realized how much fun she was having. After a few assisted laps and a couple of accidental dunking, Angel eventually achieved an amateurish doggy paddle. Definitely lacking any resemblance of grace or speed, but it hardly mattered to her. She was finally swimming and beating the heat with her friends.

After a while, she wore herself out and resigned to the side of the pool, content with watching her classmates go by, promising herself to work hard to catch up to them next time. There was even a bit of excitement at the end where Midoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki challenged each other to a race, quirks allowed. Unfortunately, she and the rest of the students were disappointed when Aizawa came and shut down that plan. Though she had to admit it was kind of funny when the three boys leapt forward, only to be surprised when their powers didn't activate and belly-flopped into the water.

All in all, it made for a great day and summer was just beginning.