Chapter 17:

"I don't know how I feel about this." Yaeko mumbled into the phone.

She was sprawled out on a cot in the on-call room, with her phone propped up her shoulder. She had barely managed to settle Aizawa in his room before she started feeling the full effects of the drawbacks. One of the nurses had helped her the couple feet to the on-call room and ordered her to rest.

Her eyes had barely shut when her phone had gone off. Yaeko had been tempted to ignore it, but one look at the caller ID had her picking up. Noriko was one to text instead of call, and part of her had freaked out a little when she saw her call coming in.

Thankfully, Noriko sounded okay, just telling her about her exams, training, and the festival she was invited to go to tonight. At first, she really though that her baby sister was going on a date with Shinso, until Noriko had told her who had extended the invitation and who all was going.

"I think you're fine with it, and what's bothering you is actually the discomfort of such a long surgery." Noriko quipped, making Yaeko roll her eyes.

"Just because I feel like crap doesn't mean I'm not worried about you."

"What's there to worry about? I'm just going to a fair. Hundreds of people go all the time."

"You're going with Class 3A."

"Yeah, and they're very well known in Japan because of how badass they are."

"Yeah, that's the problem." Yaeko muttered, worried about the class calling too much attention to themselves. "I don't like you going to the festival alone without an escort."

Her biggest worry was the Kobayashi family. If they sent anyone looking for any of them, it wouldn't be hard to find them. Yaeko was becoming very well known in the medical field and Akari in the media with her hero work. Noriko was the only one that was technically laying low. But she wouldn't be hard to find if she continued to hang around Class 3A.

Realistically, Yaeko was fully aware that Class 3A was more than capable of protecting her baby sister. She was just extra worried because of what could happen because of the Kobayashi family.

"Class 3A literally fought in the war and came out fine, for the most part, have a little faith in them." Noriko muttered dryly, picking up a pair of black ripped jeans, contemplating if she wanted to wear them or not. "And if it makes you feel better, apparently Endeavor asked Hawks and Akari to patrol the area. Which, might I add, is a big reason why he agreed to let me go to begin with."

Chewing on her lip, she thought about it. Having Akari around just in case did make her feel better, especially since Hawks was also going to be there. He was incredibly fast, which is part of the reason he rose through the ranks so quickly.

"Okay, I guess that makes it better." She muttered, shifting on the cot, only to flinch when she felt the sharp pain in her leg.

"Glad we got through that. Now tell me, how did the surgery go?" Noriko asked as she continued to go through her clothes.

"It went just as expected. His eye was the hardest part just because of the location and the delicacy of the process."

"How long was the surgery?"

"Almost 11 hours?"

"I know you've been working on your quirk a lot these past couple weeks, but how the hell did you manage to work for so long?" Came her response after a short pause.

Yaeko let out a sigh, moving to sit up on the couch. "I had a nurse with a numbing quirk help with the drawbacks during surgery."

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?! What if you would have overdone it?!"

"They were monitoring my vitals the entire time, and I was fine. I still am, I'm just feeling the effects harder than I should be because the numbing effect is now gone." She winced a little once she was upright, but pushed passed the pain to reach for the ibuprofen the nurse had also left for her.

"You need to stop being so reckless."

"Look who's talking." Yaeko teased back, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm the baby sister, I'm bound to be reckless." She snipped back. "But, knowing what I know now, I'm going to let you go. You need to get some rest before you go check on your patient. Are we still on for tomorrow? There's something I need to talk to Akari and you about."

The change in her tone made Yaeko pause. "Everything okay?"

"Peachy, no big deal. We can discuss it tomorrow."

"Well… if you're sure. You go finish getting ready and have fun. And please for the love of all that is holy, be safe!" Yaeko stressed into the phone.

"Yeah, yeah, quit worrying. Love you!" She hung up when she heard Yaeko return the sentiment.

Yaeko rubbed her hand over her face wearily, thankful she had decided not to wear makeup today. She had known today was going to be a pain in the ass and had planned accordingly, no makeup and no heels.

The pain behind her eye was causing her a headache, and she could help but rub her face in an ill attempt to relieve some of the pressure. Her leg was also throbbing, which was making her limp around.

Hearing someone knock at the door, Yaeko called out for them to come in. She figured it would be one of the nurses coming to check on her. The room had been separated specifically for her to rest in since it was the closest to her office and the room Aizawa was staying in.

The door opened to reveal a smiling Hawks and an amused Akari. Caught off guard, Yaeko could only just blink up at them.

"What are you two doing here?"

"You're looking as lovely as ever. We were in the area and decided to come see how you were doing."

"He's lying, you look like shit." Akari stated dryly, moving past Hawks to stand in front of her older sister.

Hawks sweat dropped, his hand coming up to rub his neck due to his discomfort. He hadn't wanted to vocalize his concern for her, but clearly Akari had other plans. Yaeko was pale with heavy bags under her eyes, leaning heavily on her left leg. Her right eye was also twitching occasionally.

"Thank you Akari, as always you do wonderful things for my ego."

"I'm your sister, I'm here to tell you how shit is, not boost your ego."

And it was moments like these, that Hawks could see the resemblance between Noriko and Akari. For the most part Akari, was the fun one from what he's noticed. She was always cracking jokes but sweet at the same time. Noriko on the other hand, was pretty ruthless, something he knew firsthand. He had been on the receiving end of her biting comments back when Akari had been hurt.

"You seem to be doing well, nonetheless." Hawks cut in, with a half-smile. "I take it that the surgeries were a success?"

"Yes, thank you. He's currently resting and won't be up until probably late tomorrow morning. It was a long surgery."

"That's good to hear. Although I thought he'd be awake by now." Hawks cocked an eyebrow curiously, standing close to the door.

"The surgeries took just over 10 hours, and of course his body is tired from the stress it was put under. He will need well over 12 hours of sleep to recover."

"How are his vitals? Any signs of rejection or low functionality?" Akari asked, crouching down to examine her sister more closely.

"Good, no complications or anything. We tested his knee's unconscious reflexes and so far, so good. His eye passed all our general exams, but we won't know for sure until he wakes up. It was a good call on the blood transfusion, by the way. Once we were a quarter into the leg reconstruction, the regeneration slowed down due to diminishing number of blood cells."

"Figured it would be like dad's quirk. You can regenerate molecules as much as you want, but creating the correct type of blood cells and all that would have been too complex for you. You probably would have only been able to do half his leg."

Yaeko hummed her agreement, glancing over at Hawks with narrowed eyes. "Noriko called me to tell me you guys were going to be patrolling tonight. I don't recall the hospital being on the way to the area where the festival is being held."

Hawks smile slowly faded until he was meeting her eye with a somber look. "Yokumiru mentioned that the board was getting a little angsty with the lack of report on Eraserhead. And since Akari had been worried about you, thought it be a good chance to knock two birds with one stone. She got to see for herself how you were doing, and I get to help get the HPSC off your back a little."

Yaeko's eyebrows shot up at the casual way Hawks said Akari's first name but decided not to comment on it. Instead, she shot her sister a look, secretly enjoying seeing the light blush on her cheeks. Akari refused to meet her eyes, though, so Yaeko let out a light snort before turning to address the pro-hero.

"How nice of you, but there is nothing to report just yet. Maybe tomorrow you can come check on Aizawa." She pushed Akari towards the door. "For now, I'd appreciate it if you went and made sure Noriko is okay."

"Alright, alright, I can catch a hint." Akari chuckled, grabbing Hawks arm on her way out while looking over her shoulder once last time at her older sister. "But honestly, you worry too much, Yaya. Noriko is with the strongest hero class UA has seen since All Might's class. What's the worst that could happen?"

*Meanwhile, at Endeavor's Agency*

"Maybe someday I'll be on time." Noriko muttered, throwing on her blood red fanny pack on, double checking her keys, phone and wallet were inside.

She had agreed to meet Midoriya in the lobby 10 minutes ago, but of course she was running late. Being on the phone with Yaeko, she had lost track of time and taken much longer to choose an outfit. In the end, she settled for jean shorts and a black tank top that ended just shy of the waistband of her shorts.

She had originally been wearing the black ripped jeans, but changed because it was still very hot at nights. She didn't feel like wasting her energy on constantly regulating her body temperature to keep cool. But she was finally ready, and hopefully Midoriya wouldn't have minded waiting those extra minutes.

She was shoving her feet into her sneakers when someone started banging on her door so hard it shook the whole place. Confused, she finished putting on her shoes before walking over to look through the eyelet. Noriko's eyes widened in surprise before throwing the door open.

She raised an eyebrow when she saw the angry blonde standing in the hall with a sheepish Midoriya standing slightly behind him. Hearing someone talking in a low tone, she peered around Bakugo's other side to see Todoroki a few feet away, talking on the phone.

"Uh, hi?" Noriko raised an eyebrow at them.

"You were going to bail, weren't you?!" Bakugo snapped, glaring down at her.

And miss seeing you look this good? Never, Noriko coughed and looked away after that thought crossed through her mind.

"What? No!" She sputtered out, genuinely confused.

The boy was a menace to society, and it should be illegal to look as good as he did. He was in black loose cargo pants, and a matching black t-shirt that was tight on his chest, but slightly loose the rest of the way down. It was too distracting, and she could concentrate on what he was saying.

"Could have fooled me." He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Do you know how long we've been waiting?"

He crossed his arms, making the chain hanging on his neck shift. Her eyes immediately zoned into it, and she briefly wondering how it would look dangling over her face in a different scenario.

"I'm just a few minutes late." She managed to croak out, shoving him back a little so she could close the door behind her. "And I was just about to come down."

"You're over 15 minutes late, short stack." She sent a glare over her shoulder as she locked the door.

"Yeah, exactly, a few minutes. Anyways, I thought you two would be long gone and that I would be walking over with Midoriya." Bakugo couldn't help but give her a once over.

"Disappointed?" Bakugo's eyes narrowed down at her, while Midoriya edged away from them. "You know he has a girlfriend, right?"

Midoriya sweat dropped, backing up until he was standing next to Todoroki, who was wrapping up his conversation with Yaoyorozu. He raised an eyebrow at Midoriya, who just waved him off with a shaky smile.

"No not disappointed, surprised more like it. And yes, I do know he has a girlfriend." Noriko brushed by him, not noticing the way his eyes had zeroed in on her right shoulder blade. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"You have a tattoo?" Bakugo blurted out, not only curious about the tattoo but also wanting to avoid answering her last question.

"Yes, Akari did it for me on my 17th birthday with her quirk." She reached over to rub her fingers over it. "Yaeko has one too, but obviously she got hers way before I did. Akari has our corresponding tattoos behind her ears. If we were ever in trouble, we can easily reach her to let her know."

"Your sister Akari is Inkfinity right? I saw her on the news the other day and I couldn't really tell how her quirk works. Would you mind telling me about it?!" Midoriya's eyes lit up, and he moved to walk right next to her.

"Of course, I'd expect nothing less from you." She smirked, ruffling his hair affectionately, which irritated Bakugo further. "The three of us essentially had the same quirk. But Akari's is mostly focused on liquids, she can manipulate any type of liquid, be it water, gasoline, ink, blood, etc. But there is also a second part to her quirk, which is called three dimensional. Anything she draws or paints can be manifested at will, which is how she uses her tattoos. She came up with the formula herself. These tattoos between the three of us were one of her experiments with her quirk. She mixed her formula with a bit of our own blood to establish the connection which we can easily activate to call to her."

"That's actually pretty cool." Bakugo muttered, begrudgingly earning himself a proud smile from Noriko.

"I know, my sisters' a fucking badass." Noriko grinned, sidestepping a sidekick as she got out the elevator.

"Are only you able to activate it?" Todoroki asked, finally joining the conversation, moving to walk on Noriko's other side.

"No, her quirk activates when her blood mingles with any of her creations. So, since her ink formula has her blood mixed into it, all I have to do is pierce the tattoo and it instantly activates. It'll act lie a compass, guiding her to the general area of where I am. She can also tell if I'm hurt or not."

"Her quirk is very powerful." Midoriya mumbled quietly to himself.

"It is, though she doesn't believe it." Noriko sighed, following after Bakugo, who was leading their little group. "She thinks she has the weaker quirk because it's not like Yaeko's or mine. While she can control liquid molecule, it doesn't work like mine where I can literally change the composition from gas, to liquid, to solid. She can only manipulate it as liquid without giving it shape or form essentially. She views that as a weakness, something none of us can convince her otherwise of." Noriko frowned at this.

"That's ridiculous, her quirk is so versatile, especially with the way she incorporated her tattoos. Not a lot of heroes can say that about their own quirks. Look at Mount Lady for example. Yeah, she's a strong hero, but all her quirk does is make her grow into a giant version of herself." Bakugo stated matter of fact, making Noriko gape at him.

"I think that's the nicest thing I have heard you say." She commented after a moment.

"Fuck is that supposed to mean?! I'm always nice!" He snapped loudly, making her howl with laughter.

"Whatever you say Lord Explosion Murder." She chuckled, just now noticing they were now in a parking garage. "Are we driving there?" She sobered up, turning to look at Todoroki who was closest to her.

"Yeah, Bakugo usually drives over for work study." He nodded at an all-black jeep wrangler with orange accents.

"Sick ride, hot shot. Can I drive?" Noriko asks, throwing a sly smirk at Bakugo.

"Fuck no."

Noriko pouted, about to argue that she was an amazing driver when she noticed Midoriya headed for the passenger side. She sped up a little, waiting for him to open the door before she slipped passed him and seated herself in the passenger seat.

"Thanks Sniffles." She blew a kiss to his confused face, laughing when he started blushing at the sound of the nickname. She had given it to him after his appointment with Yaeko, much to his disappointment.

"Who the hell said you could ride shotgun?" Bakugo grumbled, for once, quietly.

"Oh, I'm sorry are you disappointed? You do know Sniffles has a girlfriend, right?" Noriko asked, with feign concern.

Bakugo glared at her, his red eyes blazing, knowing she was throwing his words from earlier back at him. He decided to bite his tongue and not say anything, barely waiting for the two dumbasses to hop in the back before he sped off.

The festival wasn't far, but the nerd and icy-hot took the chance to point out certain spots to Noriko. She had admitted she hadn't ever stepped out of Sapporo, her hometown, so everything was very new to her. For that reason, Bakugo drove slower than what he usually did, to give her a chance to take everything in.

"Kirishima said he saved you a spot next to him, said he dropped you a pin." Midoriya called out from behind them, typing quickly on his phone.

Bakugo just grunted to acknowledge he had heard him, reaching for his own phone without taking his eyes off the road. He fiddled with his phone for a second, before dropping it on his lap.

"You want me to be your co-pilot and tell you were to go?"

"Are you going to get us lost?" He raised an eyebrow but didn't take his eyes off the road to look at her.

"Man of little faith." She tsked, reaching over to grab his phone without thinking.

She didn't realize what she had done until her fingers brushed against his leg. Her eyes flew up and connected with his vermillion red ones. They were smoldering as they scanned her from head to toe. It wasn't until he turned back to the road, jaw ticking, that she realized she had been holding her breath.

Taking a deep breath to control her racing heart, she concentrated ton guiding him to the location he had been sent. Thankfully, she managed it without any problems, getting them there within 5 minutes. A red jeep, much like Bakugo's was holding up two parking spots, moving when he flashed his lights to announce their arrival.

The red jeep moved accordingly, and suddenly she saw the large group of people standing off to the side. She had known that class 3A was a decently large group- but for some reason she was still caught off guard. She felt a little nervous, wondering if they would like her or if they would judge her like everyone else.

A hand on her shoulder, brought her out of the dark thoughts in her head. Turning she faced a smiling Midoriya, his eyes filled with understanding. She felt herself relax under the calming effect of his green eyes and easy smile.

"Ready to meet class 3A, Imai-san?" He asked softly.

"Sure, let's get this over with so I can beat Lord Explosion Murder in some booth games." She smirked, side eyeing the blonde as he shut off his car.

"You fucking wish, sweet cheeks!" HE smirked back, his eyes bright from the thought of a challenge.

Noriko chuckled, hopping out of the truck and turning to face her future classmates. They all looked excited to see her, so she felt some of her nerves melt away.

*LOV POV*

"They came to the summer festival just 20 minutes out from Endeavor's agency. She's got no escort, but she's with the kids from UA… all of them." Spinner said into the phone the minute Dabi answered the call.

"Is our little informant with them as well?" Dabi's voice drawled, the smirk in his voice evident even if the lizard man couldn't see him.

"Yeah, we can have the little shit help with getting her away from the rest."

"I don't want to accidentally expose our hidden card, so I'll be showing up soon with a little back up."

"Backup?" Spinner was confused.

"Yes, but don't worry about it. You just be ready for some action." Dabi hung up, leaving Spinner to continue trailing the UA Students, waiting for the moment things went into motion.