The internship period was over, and Geus was the one member of his class to not participate in it. The facts were kept hidden behind the walls of the detention center. Iroh used his connections to persuade a hero agency to lie about their recruitment of Geus. So for the past week, the school believed Geus to be out of the country. In truth, for his last half of the week was training. He used these three days to gain his weight back and catch up on his breathing meditation. To the inexperienced eyes, Geus looked stronger than before. To anyone else, it was easy to tell he get weaker in this process. Luckily he would be able to hide the mindset of the week behind his baggy clothes.

The day back to school started normally. A sore and painful wake-up, a silent crew brought him above ground and a shaky and quiet bus ride to school. It's not like he expected any different, the days of slight happiness was gone. Iroh's heavy watch placed everyone on edge to follow the strict rule. Geus still feared the man and what he would do. His intentions were purely out of self-gain but he still didn't care about Geus's future.

One of the people that didn't wait for him stood outside in her usual spot. Geus pulled up the collar around his neck to hide the thinness of it before he walked off. She looked almost disappointed once she saw him. Not disappointed in him, at something else he didn't know about. He could tell with the slight glow in her skin upon his arrival.

"What's your deal?" Geus asked as they both started their entrance walk.

"The internship, it was almost a complete waste of time. All my hero did was advertise for products, do interviews, and model. We saw no action what so ever." Itsuka complained with a high spirited tone to it. It was clear she understood the process of it but still hated it. One of many sides to hero work that not everybody liked.

"I never even went out, just trained for a week."

"Even I would've enjoyed that. I'm going to need to get stronger if I'm ever going to beat you." Her smile brightened him up a bit. It was strange he didn't see her in his hallucination. Not even Fumikage or Kirishima, he saw All Might and Midoriya of all people. Any of these guys would've broken him out of his trans-state sooner. "You okay? Your face looks paler and thinner today."

His face cracked a smile. "Just don't rip off my mask okay? Surgery hurts."

"I completely forgot, why aren't you wearing the new mask my classmate helped install on you?"

Geus's eyes widened from shock. He forget that one of the people that made his new mask was part of his class. Geus rubbed the back of his head to hide the panic. "I ah-the uh, the board that usually approves of everything didn't approve of that. Said it was too dangerous in my condition." Geus grabbed the door of the front entrance and pulled it open for her.

"As long as it's on it shouldn't have been a problem. He told me the things he welded on your mouth could only be switched off by your sensor."

"Thanks for the door." Jiro quickly brushed by, her hand grazed his. "You're usually never this early."

Geus nervously chuckled. "Yeah, um. Got ready earlier than I usually do. Had to skip the hair gel you know." Geus got a giggle from Itsuka but nothing from Jiro. Which only made him more nervous, Geus tugged on his collar. The seconds that went by felt like an eternity. She looked at him, her bored eyes appearing more sinister. Her hand lashed directly for him. He closed his eyes for the blow. Only a soft and moisturized hand rubbed the top of his head.

"I missed this, Jumpus."

"Oh you guys would make such a cute couple."

Geus coughed. "Oh uh." His coughs interrupted what he wanted to say. He looked at Jiro for what to say for her to look back at him. "We uh. that's something to think about.

"Even I'm quietly trying to figure out your cross-class lover. During hero name picks, Midnight said you were fixated on someone else."

Geus stopped his attempt for her hand. "Yeah, it's a secret. Not a good thing in our culture to date people. Takes away the importance of our studies."

"Geus, for the month I looked at you in class, I never once saw you studied. I'm pretty sure if Momo wasn't in our class, you'd fail by now." Jiro continued to embarrass him. Whether it was to make him feel bad about the hiding or to encourage it, he didn't figure out yet.

"She's just really nice, that's all." Geus rubbed his two fingers into a circle along the wrinkles of his forehead.

Itsuka's face lit up. "I interned with her! But she never talked about you, she wouldn't be it."

"You can spend the day theorizing it. We got to get to class." Geus pulled his sweater over his head and walked past them.

"We're going to talk about this in class." Itsuka waved goodbye to them.

Geus faced down to Jiro, she didn't see the eery smile under his mask. She proceeded to twirl her jack and looked up to him. "Ready?"

"Hey look!" A student in a two man group pointed out to them both. "Never thought I'd see the kid who killed his parents."

Geus's body flashed to a standstill. "Can't believe he's even allowed to be here." The other snickered. He grabbed his book bag and flipped it over his shoulder as he laughed. "That's a tragedy."

Jiro didn't allow Geus to be alone this time. Her arm interlocked with his and pressed her body on his. "Don't listen to them," Jiro whispered into his ear. "Come on."

A hazy Iroh was behind the boys. Not a second past that Geus knew Iroh wasn't real. It was just what those two said sparked his mind into shock. His own hand gripped so hard around Jiro that her hand lost circulation. He didn't know why his own body freaked this bad at a hallucination. Just to have Jiro at his side was enough.

"Hey! Everything okay between you two?" Kaminari asked, his arms thrust into his sides with his thumbs pointed up. "Geus never thought I'd see you this early."

The figure of Iroh gave his signature yellow smile before he disappeared into nothing. Now he was able to focus on the kid's strange faces. Both of them looked with lower disgust and confusion. The whispered to themselves and proceeded out of the hallway.

"Took four times but we finally saw the freak." They both shared in the laugh.

Kaminari whacked his hand onto Geus's shoulder. "Come on, ignore them. The news has been covering you more since Stain's death. That's all."

"Yeah." Geus felt a cough come but fade away in his throat from the quirk. It was a feeling he almost forgot about, but glad he didn't. Made him feel a bit more human from the whole event.

"We'll meet you inside, Jumpus needs a breather." Her eyes followed Kaminari into the classroom. She turned back to face Geus's blank face. "I was going to tell you another time but I got you a gift. Thought you could use it after knowing the full extent of the warden guy."

Geus didn't answer, his hand untangled around Jiro's and walked into the classroom. It was loud as ever with everyone's attention on each other. Just to hear about what they all did in the internship kept their ears up. Geus maneuvered around everybody and plopped a seat on top of Jiro's desk. His head lowered and eyes to the ground.

"Glad to see you're okay after everything that has happened." Fumikage walked up to Geus. He leaned on the desk adjacent to his with one leg over the other and his arms crossed. "I don't understand everything that is going on in your situation but I get it."

"A jerk said some things in the hall." Kaminari stepped between them to form a triangle formation. "He's kind've out of it."

Fumikage sighed, he felt the same pain that Geus felt. "It's just one comment. Others don't know your inner strength and struggle as we do."

"It's not that. I heard them every time. Somebody was always there to distract me." Geus thought back to his first day. Tried to think of why Kendo even came to him I the first place. It was obvious she only talked to him to hide what others said. Even in the sports festival, his own ego hid the words of many other competitors. No matter how much further he went, the only thing people thought was death.

Ashido smacked her hands on Jiro's desk. "What did you do? Fight any villains?"

Geus lifted his eyes from the ground. He matched eyes with sparkles, his eyes waited for the opportunity to pounce. Jiro was twirling around her earphone jack, she also noticed him and attempted to hide her fear.

"I just helped people evacuate and did logistical support." Jiro answered and made sure her voice was the same tone as normal. "So I didn't do any actual fighting."

"It's still amazing, though!" Ashido pressed. "What about you? I heard about that scary warden of yours."

"I went to America, practiced my quirk in real scenarios. Helped people."

"All I did was go on patrol and clean a ship. There was this one time when we caught smugglers from a neighboring country." Tsu added, she caught on how uncomfortable Geus was. "What about you, Ochaco? How was your week?"

Geus lightly nodded to Tsu, her smile brought a bit of lightness back. He couldn't place it on why he acted like this, it was almost like Iroh still mess with his mind. To be picked on was nothing new to him. Even the comments at school were nulled out on his own. Geus had no idea how Iroh did this, but he knew it was all him.

"Soooo." Aoyama slid inconspicuously around Geus's back, his dainty fingers tickled around his back and shoulders. "Did you open up to anybody over the internship?"

"Yeah." Geus could feel a fourth of the class's presence on him. "I messed up during my internship. I used to quirk to hold a guy in place as my hero finished the job. Only part of my throat stiffened. The hardness around his chest became gas for only a second. And it melted away his ribcage, I saw everything pour out as he screamed in agony. I saw his soul, it begged for mercy on the crimes he committed." Geus spun around and looked directly into Aoyama's scared eyes. His body shook uncontrollably and in a scooby-doo like fashion. "That better not happen again because I'm thinking about you thinking on who I like. Do me a favor and don't bring it up again." Geus waited for everyone to become silent. He began to let out a small chuckle. And then a laugh. He grabbed Aoyama's arm and slapped his own knee from the intense laughter. "I'm messing with you. I just won't ever tell you."

"Geus!" Iida smoked around the corner and stopped in front of Geus. His legs spread out and bent, he cocked his arm up and slashed it down into a straight line at Geus. "Stop the disrespect from out school and sit in your own desk! Let's treat our school with the respect it deserves and prepare for class." Iida gave off a small smile of reassurance.

"Good stuff you're safe after that whole Stain business, you should've stopped him. Maybe it would've been better for my situation."

"For all we know they could've died if it wasn't for Endeavor." Ojiro stepped in.

"Yeah, all thanks to my father." Shoto only sounded convincing for the part of the class that didn't listen to him. Geus easily recalled that tone of voice, it was a partial truth in a lie. It wasn't worth to dive into it and instead let it slide. The minor details held nothing to him.

The return day was a bit of a struggle for Geus, the days of laziness and muscle training ruined his mobility. His agility with his quirk was the only thing that saved him with the rescue training. He was just glad it was all over and had a minute to recover in the locker room.

It was there where he realized the weight he lost, twenty pounds from a ripped 160-pound figure made him look almost anorexic. Kirishima didn't hold back from the teasing, he pinched Geus's loose abdomen skin and pulled it. "Did that big care scare the muscle right off of ya?" He joked. He pulled off his armband and returned to Geus's side. "This is true, unfeared muscle." He curved his arm and flexed his bicep.

"Funny." Geus grabbed his sweatshirt from the bench and pulled it on. "Things just got to me. I'll return."

"Midoriya, come here!" Mineta changed his tone to a whisper but remained to practically yell for his friend five feet away from him. "Look at this hold, Shawshank!" Geus peaked at what the midget had pointed at. Behind a poster's released corner was a hole. And since Mineta pointed it out, it leads all the way through the wall. "It leads to the girl's locker room!"

Iida's hand chopped in the air as he spoke. "Stop this, Mineta! Peeping is definitely a criminal act."

"My little Mineta is already a criminal act!" Mineta tore the poster off the wall and pressed his eye to the hole.

Geus could only shake his head in his disappointing actions. "Jiro is going to kill you." He mumbled.

Aoyama slid over Geus's part of the bench, one leg angled up and his arm propped up his head. "Are you saying that because of your crush with Jiro?"

Geus's eye twitched, he lifted up his own leg and kicked him back into the lockers. "I thought I told you to" Mineta's child scream cut out his sentence. He turned around to see in fact Jiro's earphone jack inside Mineta's eye.

"Jiro's Earphone Jack!" Midoriya screamed. "With its brutal combination of precision and surprise attack abilities, it's super strong!"

'That boosted me a little bit.' Geus fixed the position of his sweater and shoved his hero work into his specialized case.