Hello everyone, this chapter came out a little longer than I intended (which I think is a good thing!)

It continues from the last chapter basically, but I didn't get a chance to dive into my other OC's. That's for the next chapter!

Anyway, hope you enjoy this one, it's a bit of a filler but it has more Bakugo and Noriko in it, as well as out fav Hitoshi Shinso! :)

Chapter 16:

"Tosh…Toshi…Hello?!" Noriko called after him, having had to jog to catch up to him.

By the time she had finished her conversation with Bakugo, Shinso had sped walked out of the building. She had rushed out to look for him, only to see he was almost an entire block away, walking stiffly with his fists clenched at his sides.

Even jogging, she couldn't exactly match his pace due to how quickly his long legs propelled him forward. He hadn't responded to her since she first started calling out to him, and she wasn't even sure if he cared if she followed or not.

"Dammit Hitoshi Shinso, slow the fuck down!" She finally screeched, throwing her hand up to create a small knee-high crystal barrier a couple steps in front of him.

She smirked when she watched him scramble to stop before he tripped over it, stopping a couple feet behind him with her arms crossed. He whirled around to glare at her once he caught his footing.

"What the hell was that Imai?!" Her eyebrows shot up, surprised that he had switched back too using her last name.

"I get you might be hangry right about now, but you wanna tone it down and tell me what's up with you?" Noriko leaned all her weight onto her right leg, her head cocking back in a manner that made it seem like she was looking down on him even though he was almost a whole foot taller.

"What's up with me? You wanna know what my problem is, Imai? It's your stupid ass Lord Explosion Murder boyfriend!" He snapped, spinning around to continue towards the ramen shop they had decided to eat at.

"Excuse me?!" Noriko was baffled, her jaw dropping in disbelief.

She stood in the same spot for a moment until the jingle from the shop's door shook her out of her trance. She rushed after him, slipping through the door before it closed, still staring in disbelief at his back.

He didn't turn around or slow his stride as he approached the hostess's booth. For a moment she thought he was going to ask to be seated alone, and her chest felt tight at the thought. However, despite how agitated he seemed to be, the purple haired boy had indicated he wanted a table for two.

"Hitoshi, what the hell was that supposed to mean?!" She demanded as caught up to him, the waiter leading them to their table jumping at the loudness of her voice.

The man turned back to look at her, only to look away quickly when he noticed the scowl on her face. He quickly showed them to their table, setting the menu's down and scurrying off to avoid an angry Noriko.

Hitoshi indicated for her to take a seat, but she didn't budge. She stood there, hands on her hips, glaring at him. "I'm not taking a seat until you tell me what your problem is."

His nostrils flared in annoyance for a moment, taking a seat while trying to calm himself down. Turning back to the girl who was his best friend despite him denying it every single time, he frowned.

"Sit down, Noriko, or I won't respond to any of your questions."

"Oh, so now I'm Noriko?" She gave him a withering look, but took a seat anyway.

"I'm sorry, but Bakugo pissed me off."

"And that means you can take it out on me? And what was up with calling him my boyfriend anyway?!"

"The tension between the two of you is so obvious, it's disgusting." He deadpanned. "In all honesty, the fact that he's your type shouldn't even be surprising."

Her jaw dropped again in indignation. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You're both loud, crass and rude." He paused for a moment before adding. "Though he's worse."

"You know what, I'm gonna ignore the past 30 seconds, because you're avoiding the real issue here." Noriko finally said after picking her jaw up from the ground. "Why the hell are you so mad that you stalked off without me and ignored me for majority of the walk here?"

Shinso's eyes immediately dropped to the table in between them, suddenly looking unsure of himself. He looked so dejected that Noriko couldn't help but sit up straight, suddenly feeling agitated.

"Toshi?" She dipped her head slightly, cocking it to the side as if that was somehow allow her to look him in the eyes.

"He told you what my quirk was." He mumbled quietly, still not meeting her eyes.

Suddenly it dawned on her. Hitoshi had been fine, until Bakugo mentioned his quirk. He had gotten pissed, and that was why she had stepped in to avoid the obvious confrontation that was about to happen between the two.

"Oh yeah, he said it was called brainwashing, right? That's actually pretty dope, Toshi, I don't understand why you didn't just tell me from the start." She said sincerely, still slightly confused as to why he went to such lengths to hide that from her.

Hitoshi scoffed, looking up to scowl at her. Noriko's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Oh yeah, of course you'd try and make me feel better by saying that a villainous quick was dope." He practically spat.

Her eyebrows shot up now, surprised at the venom in his voice. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean? That I think it's dope because of my sister's current reputation?"

His eyes widened in panic. "What?! No! That's not what I meant!"

"Then what did you mean Shinso?" Her voice was low as she glared at the boy in front of her.

A heaviness had settled in her chest when he had said that. She had thought that Hitoshi would be different from the rest. He had gotten to actually know her through their time training together, more so than anyone had in a while. She had even come to consider him as her best friend, not that she really had many friends to begin with.

Even back in the states she hadn't really tried to fit in and make friends. She had stayed to herself, though that did cause her to stand out a lot more. Eventually, some rumors about her family started circulating. They didn't have the full story off course, but they still stung when she heard them. Afterwards, it was a daily battle of keeping her temper in check, least she started fighting and gave them reason to believe the rumors.

It had been refreshing to meet Hitoshi, who didn't seem to give a damn about her history, even with what little he had heard like the rest of them. So, to hear him say she basically found his 'villainous quirk' cool, had stung.

"I meant that of course you, as my best friend, would try to make me feel better about my own damn quirk." He sighed, his face showing how upset he was. "I've never thought you were a villain or that your sister was one, you should know that."

"You finally admitted we're best friends, but I'm too upset to gloat right now." She muttered, crossing her arms, and looking away from him.

Despite her words, she felt the heaviness lift from her chest, and she suddenly didn't feel angry anymore. She heard the waiter approach but didn't turn back around to place an order. Her head snapped back to Hitoshi when she heard him place her usual order without hesitation.

Once the orders were placed, he turned to meet her gaze, offering her a small smile. "C'mon, don't act so surprise that I know you so well. And it's my treat for being such a jerk."

Sending him a small smile in returned, she leaned her elbows onto the table. "So why didn't you want me to know about your quirk?"

Letting out a deep sigh, he leaned back into his seat, slumping down slightly. "Because I didn't want you to look at me differently. Most people often associate my quirk with it being a villain's quirk because I can essentially make anyone do whatever I want. That scares most people away, but you being scared of my quirk wasn't so much my concern." He paused, as if looking for the best way to explain himself. "I was mostly afraid you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore because you wouldn't want to be associated with someone like me. You already have enough on you plate with the rumors about your sisters and you. What if people found out we were friends and more rumors about you befriending a guy with a villain's quirk made things worse for you?"

"First off, you're a dumbass." She deadpanned, holding up a finger as she counted out her points. "Second, fuck what people think. Third, your quirk is amazing. Fourth, you're still a dumbass, but more importantly, you're my best friend." She was smirking at Hitoshi by the time she finished listing off her points.

He was trying so hard to glare at her, but his lips kept twitching from fighting back a smile. "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

"Only if you let me see how your quirk works!" Noriko smiled brightly, her smile slowly turning into a smirk as she watched Hitoshi's face drop.

For the rest of their lunch, they went back and forth about Hitoshi using his quirk on her. It took the entire wait for their food, and the time it took to eat, but she finally convinced him. His only stipulation was that they do it somewhere more private, so they opted to walk to the park they passed on their way to the restaurant.

"Alright, no one's around and we still have 20 minutes before we have to head back for my fight with Mister Lord Explosion Murder." She turned to face Hitoshi from her spot a few feet away from him.

Noriko had asked him earlier why he had called Bakugo that. She couldn't help but bust out laughing when Hitoshi explained it was the hero name Bakugo had originally chosen. She had been reduced to tears from how funny she found it, and now refused to call him anything else but that.

"Are you sure you want me to use my quirk on you?" The purple haired boy looked so uneasy, that Noriko couldn't help but send him a genuine smile to calm him down.

"It's perfectly fine, Toshi, I promise. Well, it's fine as long as you don't make me do some dumb shit. Cause then it would only be fair for me to beat your ass."

"Always so good at reassuring a person."

"Stop stalling, Scissorhands. Now we only have 15 minutes."

Letting out another deep sigh, he sent her a half-hearted glare. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Noriko rolled her eyes, feeling irritation start to bubble up inside of her. "Yes, I-" She paused mid-sentence, her eyes glazing over with a white film covering her blue-green eyes.

"Come stand in front of me." She vaguely heard Shinso's command, but she felt her body start to listen.

It felt as if she was having an out of body experience, like she was there but wasn't at the same time. No matter how hard she tried to shake the feeling off and regain control of her body, she couldn't. In fact, the more she tried, the more pressure she felt in her head.

"Stop. Turn around." Suddenly Hitoshi's voice didn't just sound far away, but also distorted.

Noriko obeyed his command, so he didn't see the way her eyebrows began to furrow, or the light sheen of sweat on her forehead. Once her back was facing him, he raised his hands to reach for her hair. He was planning on messing up her high ponytail to give her a wacky hairstyle that he planned to take a picture of.

But the minute his hands touched her head, Noriko jerked violently. Surprised, Hitoshi thought that she had managed to find a way to break out of his quirk the same way Midoriya had done back in first year.

"Hey Nori-chan, how'd you do that?" he tilted his head to the side, trying to get a look at her face, but had to move quickly to avoid being headbutted.

Her whole body started twitching violently, making him frown in concern. He stepped around her, only to see that her eyes had rolled to the back of her head, and she looked like she was having a seizure.

Panic welled up in his chest, and he reached to to grab her arms, only for her to let out a blood curling scream.

While Hitoshi could only see her having seizure like symptoms, Noriko was internally reliving old memories. She was still feeling the out of body experience, but at the same time felt the ghost of unfamiliar hands grabbing her and heard a voice she hadn't heard in years.

"Now, now, Nori-chan, be a good girl and come stand in front of me." A far away deep laugh sent shivers down her spine.

She felt nauseous, slimy and disgusting as fingers ghosted down her arms.

"She won't remember a thing either, right?"

"You should know by now then to doubt my abilities. It'll be just like with her big sister."

"Perfect, after her, all that's missing is Akari-san to complete my collection."

She felt sick as she recalled a conversation she couldn't remember witnessing, but deep down knew was real. Part of her knew that she had these memories all along but was still shocked to see them. How many times had she prayed she could remember? How many times did she beat herself up for not being able to help prove her sister's innocence?

"NORIKO!" She suddenly snapped out of it, no longer in a dark room, but in the park again.

Someone leaned over her, blocking the bright light of the sun. She focused on them and came face to face with a terrified Hitoshi. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, still disoriented from the memories that were still lingering in the back of her mind.

"Toshi?" Her voice wavered, her cheek stinging. "Did you hit me?" She lifted her hand to cup her cheek.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know what happened! I tried to snap you out of it, but you wouldn't stop screaming. I didn't know what else to do." He rushed out the words so fast, she barely understood him.

"I remembered." She murmured, unphased by the fact that the purple haired boy had hit her.

She was still dazed, all the memories from the worst day of her life playing over and over again in her head. She felt sick, the spicy ramen she had for lunch threatening to come back up.

"Remembered what?" Hitoshi asked cautiously.

"I remembered what happened 4 years ago."

*Later, back at the agency*

"Dammit, Hitoshi! For the millionth time, I am fine!" Noriko hissed at the boy trialing behind her.

"Yeah, I'll believe that when your color goes back to normal. You still look like Casper the friendly ghost, minus the friendly part."

She sent him a withering look, but continued towards the training room she had agreed to meet Bakugo in. They were a few minutes late, but that was mostly because they had stayed at the park a little longer while she got her bearings back together.

"I still don't think this is a good idea." Hitoshi continued, despite knowing he was probably just going to piss her off further. "You were literally seizing less than 10 minutes ago."

"Yes, and we established that it was just a panic attack that was triggered by memories I thought I lost." She stated matter of fact, dismissing her friends concern. "I'm fine now, maybe still a little shaken, but I need to clear my mind to fully get over it. Fighting Bakugo is a perfect way to do that."

"Yeah, until you lose because your heads not in the right spot."

"I beg to differ, it's on my shoulders, where it should be."

"Fucking smartass." Hitoshi muttered under his breath. "Don't make me call your sisters!"

"Akari is on patrol, so her phone is on silent, and Yaeko is in the middle of a very important surgery." She looked over her shoulder to smirk at him. "So, she definitely won't be answering her phone."

Hitoshi opened his mouth to respond, but something over her shoulder caught his attention and he snapped his mouth shut. Turning, Noriko saw Bakugo, Midoriya and Todoroki standing in front of the training room.

Bakugo, of course, was the first to notice them, his usual frown deepening when he looked at her.

"What the hell happened to you?" Her eye twitched at his rude tone.

"Nothing, ready to get your ass handed to you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, not stopping her stride as she reached to push open the door.

"You wish you'd be able to beat me, you mini sized extra." He snapped back.

"Just because not all of us are built like skyscrapers, doesn't mean I'm mini sized!" She snapped back, moving to climb into the elevated platform.

"Whatever, short stack." He waved her off with a. smirk, hopping up after her easily.

Her nostrils flared but didn't say anything as she contemplated her next move. They already knew each other's quirks, and as they had already seen, his explosions couldn't really hurt her. Well, he couldn't burn her, but the impact of his combustion could easily hurt her, which was why she had covered herself in her crystallization to limit the impact.

"What's the matter sweet cheeks? Second guessing fighting against me?" He smirked devilishly down at her.

"In your dreams, Lord Explosion Murder." She replied in a mocking tone, enjoying the way the vein in his temple popped. "Think maybe we should fight with limited quirk use."

"What the hell, why?!"

"Because we've already fought using quirks, and I wanna see how big and bad you are without it." She stretched her arms, side eyeing him. "Unless you ain't shit without your quirk?"

He let out a loud growl, fist clenching into tight fists at his sides. "You're gonna regret your shit talking, you little shit head."

Noriko smirked, stopping mid-stretch to drop her upper body right before she rushed at him suddenly. His eyes flashed with surprise, but his arms came up to defend himself. Expecting his quick reaction, Noriko used her quirk to give her a boost of speed and twirled out of the way at the last second, dodging to his right.

Once she was behind him, she spun around quick and jumped up to grab his left shoulder to give her a boost. Using her momentum, she swung her lower body up to hook her legs around his neck, quickly letting go of his shoulder to swing her upper body around his front, while pulling her legs. Her left side lined up with his right, and that coupled with the force behind her legs pulling him down, she was able to toss him down on the ground easily.

She landed easily on her feet; at the same time, he flew face first into the floor of the ring. Noriko immediately fell into a fighting position, ready for when he recovered and tried to retaliate.

It didn't take long for the hot head to recover, barely staying on the ground a few seconds after impact before he was jumping back up to charge at her.

"1-0!" She called out to him with a cocky smirk, laughing when he growled, his red eyes with blazing with barely restrained anger.

Locking eyes with him, she knew she was in trouble because she had already used her element of surprise when she suddenly attacked him. Now he would be ready for whatever she hit him with.

Having analyzed her previous fight with him multiple times in her head, she knew he was quick on his feet. He adapted easily and at an incredible speed. His quirk also helped him with his flexibility.

Bakugo didn't even bother running at her, he used his quirk to propel him towards her. Jumping back, Noriko barely dodged the round house kick he aimed at her. She was so concentrated on dodging his legs, that she missed the punch he followed up with. Jerking away, he clipped her shoulder, knocking her off balance.

She landed flat on her back with a pained grunt, only having a second to raise her hands to stop Bakugo from pinning her down. Catching his hands, she raised her right leg to kick him until he flew over her head.

Rolling onto her stomach, she rose onto one knee, looking over to find him in the same position as her.

"1-1, short stack!" Bakugo gloated; his eyes were bright, his excitement shining through.

Both of them were breathing heavy, sizing each other up. Noriko was the first to move, pushing off to throw herself at him, her shoulder ramming into his chest. Bakugo let himself fall back, hooking his arm around her to flip them until she was under him.

Noriko didn't let him get a chance to pin her down, using their combined momentum to launch him off her. Standing back up, both squared up and went in at the same time. Noriko blocked one of his punches with her forearm, ignoring the pain that immediately radiated through her entire arm.

Not allowing herself to think about the pain, she retaliated with a punch of her own to his neck. Choking a little, Bakugo stepped back giving her an open to send a kick to his stomach. Unfortunately, he was ready for it, catching her leg before it connected and dropping down while pulling her with him. In the same move, he turned so she landed back first on the round with him on top.

He pinned her legs with his larger one and then caught the punch she threw at him. Before he could grab her other hand, she swung it towards his face, multiple sparks popping off. He felt the sting in his cheek, but swat her hand carelessly, not paying attention to whatever else she was planning.

Noriko didn't just produce the sparks on her hand, she had also produced them on her legs, sacrificing her joggers in the process. Bakugo let out an adorable yelp when he felt multiple stings moving up his thighs.

"Oi, watch it!" He snapped, having no choice but to jump back a little when the sparks got dangerously close to the spot between his legs.

Noriko used this chance to kick him in the stomach, using her quirk to give her a boost. He immediately flew back, flailing a little before he steadied himself. At the same time Noriko scrambled to get back onto her feet, not wanting to be left wide open.

"What the hell is going on here?" A shrill voice yelled out.

Noriko and Bakugo froze, turning to look at the door where Burnin' was standing with her hands on her hips. Todoroki, Midoriya and Shinso had also turned to look at her, the former two looked weary while the latter was unbothered.

Noriko was breathing hard and opted to focus on regulating her breathing instead of the sidekick she had already had an altercation with. But then she saw the way her eyes were trained on the blonde across from her. She looked over to see what she saw and couldn't help but grit her teeth.

Bakugo had pulled the end of his extremely tight black shirt up to wipe the sweat from his face. She knew without a doubt that Burnin' was eyeing his perfect muscles the same way Noriko was doing right now.

"You're clearly not blind, so use your eyes and figure it out." Slipped from her before she could stop herself.

Her eyes narrowed when they turned to look at her. "Eraserhead isn't in and won't be back until maybe Monday, so didn't expect you two to still be here."

"Just because he's not here doesn't mean we can't keep training." Noriko responded breezily.

"Whatever, clean up this place when you're done. Though you might want to change before your pants fall apart." She smirked maliciously at Noriko, before looking at Bakugo one last time and leaving the room.

Noriko looked down and cursed under her breath. She had forgotten that she had sacrificed her joggers during the fight until she looked down to see them with multiple holes, some places missing entire chunks.

"Now you owe me a new shirt and joggers." She muttered, pushing her ruined pants down her hips.

"Imai-san!" She heard Midoriya's flustered voice call out.

She turned to him as she kicked her pants the rest of the way off. He was blushing like crazy, his eyes averted, glancing over at Todoroki he was also sporting a light blush from what she could see of his turned face. Shinso was just smirking, used to Noriko doing this during trainings.

"I'm wearing shorts." She laughed, picking up her joggers to toss it over her shoulders.

She always wore spandex shorts under her sweats, knowing she had a tendency of burning her clothes with her quirk. She only had a few pairs that were fireproof, so she had asked Endeavor to get her a couple training suits with her hero suit. She was still waiting on those unfortunately for her current wardrobe.

"Fucking warn us before doing that, stupid!" She turned to look at Bakugo, who also had a light dusting of pink on his cheeks.

Noriko chuckled, holding her hand out to him. He looked confused for a moment before slowly placing his hand in hers. She shook it firmly once, a small smirk on her lips.

"Good fight, maybe we'll be able to actually fight until the end someday."

"What?! Are you giving up?! We weren't done!" He snapped, tightening his hold on her hand.

"I'm not giving up, but I do need to speak with Endeavor about going with you guys tonight." Noriko moved past him, smirking at the dumbfounded look on his face.

"You were going to come with us the whole time, weren't you?" Todoroki asked, finally looking at her as she hopped down rom the ring.

"Yep." She put an extra emphasis on the 'p' to make it pop. "Just knew that Bakubitch back there, really wanted his time in the ring with me."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!"

"Actually Imai-san, I already spoke with Endeavor. He said if you agreed to go, we could be your escorts." Midoriya said, ignoring Bakugo's outburst.

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. She had actually expected Endeavor to shut the idea down because of the lack of sidekicks he had available. Since Dabi and Toga had been spotted, they had everyone they could spare on the case.

"How'd you pull that off?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Well, he said Hawks would be patrolling that area tonight and asked him to ask Inkfinity to partner up with him for backup. So, if we need it, they'll be close by."

"Wow, my sister and her boss will essentially be babysitting me. Lovely." Noriko muttered, turning to Hitoshi. "Will you be joining us?"

"NO! No one invited him!" Bakugo growled from behind her.

"I just did, so suck it up." She snapped over her shoulder.

"Actually, I can't tonight, Sparks. I promised Eraserhead I'd take care of Eri tonight since Present Mic's gonna be work at his radio show until late." Noriko pouted but didn't push further.

She knew Hitoshi and Eri were very close since Eri was always with his mentor. The little girl was often a spectator of his trainings with Aizawa-Sensei and thought of Hitoshi like an older brother. Hitoshi had even mentioned that he overhead Present Mic and Eraserhead talking about the latter legally adopting her.

"Fine, I guess I'll see you three later, and you, never." She pointed at Hitoshi at the end before strolling out of the training room.

"Stay out of trouble." He called after her. When she was gone, he turned back to the other three guys in the room. More specifically, the blonde loudmouth that was still staring after her even though she was gone. "Take care of her, she has a tendency of wandering off."

Bakugo turned to face him, noticing that the purple haired freak was addressing him. He scoffed, brushing past him roughly. "I'm gonna be the number 1 hero, you dumb extra. Of course, she'll be safe with me."

Shinso hid his smirk behind his hand. Bakugo had completely disregarded that Noriko wouldn't just be with him, but their entire class. Between the entirety of class 3A, Noriko would be more than safe. But it said something about how Bakugo felt about her for him to say he would protect her.

Interesting, He thought quietly to himself, only half listening to Midoriya. He was talking about something with Eri, but Shinso was too busy thinking about how much he was going to tease his best friend about Lord Explosion Murder the next time he spoke to her.