December 24 - Day 12

"Midoriya, we need to leave. Now," Chitose sternly repeated as she hurriedly buttoned up her singed jacket straight to the base of her neck. It may not fit properly, with the chest portion already looking stretched-out beyond belief (and the buttons may not even hold on for the next two hours), but it will have to do for now, what's important is that she leaves as soon as possible.

Her thoughts then immediately went to her thighs, and the injury she inflicted onto them. Without hesitation, she quickly raised and dropped them in the same manner as she did earlier when she first discovered the sting of pain in the first place. Surprisingly (and very lucky on her part), the pain is noticeably not as intense anymore as she was expecting. Maybe the anesthetics just took a while to mostly numb the pain? It's not the same as what she can remember anesthetics work on her but either way, they're dampening the pain and working as she wanted them to work in this situation. Good. If she wants to get out of UA as fast as she can, then she must take advantage of that.

'But what about the possible side effects?'she suddenly stopped and asked herself. But before she can even make a single coherent thought, she quickly brushed everything off. There is just not any time to think. She needs to get out of UA now.

Swiveling sideways from her bed, she got into a sitting position in which her legs are dangling off to the side closest to the door. And now with two arms planted onto both sides, she pushed herself up. But what Chitose is expecting as a relatively painless experience turned out to be the opposite – there is a sudden sharp sting of pain (far exceeding her expectations) on both of her thighs, making her immediately fall back onto the bed.

'What the hell?!' she yelled in her mind, gritting her teeth in frustration as she glared at her suddenly-painful legs. How could it be? They're not as painful seconds ago! Shouldn't the anesthetic be dampening the pain already?! Are these anesthetics made differently? Or is it just her unique anatomy once again ruining everything? Or both? She wondered further, at the same time desperately trying to recall her memories on ways to reduce the pain for the upcoming journey, but no matter what she does her mind now just keeps going back to escaping UA as soon as possible.

"Dammit!" she whispered out loud, her annoyance growing even further. Her legs are aching now, how is she ever going to escape? "Why do all these things keep happening to me?!" she continued at the same time random thoughts about all the unfortunate things that have happened to her so far began resurfacing: starting from her getting younger, to getting lost, to getting sick, to her bank account suddenly going empty, all the way to a Nomu appearing on her extraction point instead of the promised speedboat…

'Oh great I can't recall anything about ways to reduce the pain but I can remember all my bad luck so far… great… juuuuuust great…'

But still, pain aside, she knew she shouldn't waste this moment. Toshinori and Recovery Girl already left her alone (for some reason), the time for escape is now. Re-planting two hands onto the bed and bracing again for the upcoming pain, she pushed herself up once more. As expected, the pain shot up to unimaginable levels, but this time she managed to grab onto a metal pole and kept herself standing. Surprisingly, just after a brief moment, the pain somehow suddenly significantly lowered. While it is still definitely painful, she noticed it's now far more manageable and she can actually stand now.

Good.

"Let's go," Chitose said, her voice shaking.

"Hey Kizuki calm down! The Giraffe scientist is not real! It's just in your imagination! Relax!"Izuku immediately walked in and reached up, planting both of his mittened hands onto the much taller young woman's shoulders, following it closely with a hearty chuckle in an attempt to calm her down. "We're just in the UA clinic!"

"That's the prob- DAMMIT!"Chitose was cut off mid-sentence as a sudden jolt of pain shot up on both of her thighs, sending her back to the bed. In frustration, she slammed both of her hands down. "Oh great! Now what?!"

"Hey calm down!" Izuku released his grasp and backed off one step.

"Midoriya, listen…" Chitose sighed, sweat continuing to form on her forehead. "So Mr. Yagi said the psychedelic slugs can only affect the mind right? What I do inside the hallucination is what happens outside, correct? There's no explosion, right?"

"Yes?"

"Then how come the front side of my jacket is singed? How come there's this huge swollen bump on the back of my head?" Chitose paused for a bit, running a palm down her face in nervousness. "I told you, there was a bomb, and it detonated… I was thrown onto the floor and hit the back of my head pretty hard… there is NO hallucination at all, the psycho slugs are made up!"

"But how come I didn't hear anything?" Izuku asked with a very confused expression.

"Exactly," Chitose said, quickly looking both directions as she slightly leaned forward. "You know the building right next to this? It has soundproof walls. The detonation happened there, which you just didn't hear because it has soundproof walls!" she paused a bit and sighed heavily. "Everything's real, isn't it? I'm totally screwed, am I?"

"Uh… maybe you're just finding loopholes here and there because Mr. Yagi didn't tell us the whole extent of what the slugs really do? If you want I could go ask him-"

"No, we need to leave this place…" Chitose's voice trailed off, quickly thinking of a good excuse to convince to Izuku to leave with her. "My most expensive dress is torn apart, I got defibrillated, my jacket is singed, my brain is slugged, and now I got these stupid injuries. I don't trust these heroes, I want to go home. And since Mr. Yagi is currently nowhere to be seen, we should make a run for it!"

Izuku lightly scratched the back of his head. "But you can barely stand, how are you supposed to run?"

Chitose blanked out, all her fingers twitching, and her frustration levels rapidly rising. Izuku is right, how is she supposed to run when she can barely stand? How is she supposed to get out of UA at her current condition? She can't just ask Izuku to carry her since she is obviously taller and heavier than him. What now? What to do?

"Ow!" she yelped out in pain, only now realizing she's already grasping her head tightly and some of her fingers accidentally pressed onto the swollen bump on the back of her head. "Dammit!" she looked around again, sweat already starting to rain down her forehead as her eyes dart around everywhere: every corner, every window, every crevice, looking for anything she could use to escape.

In the middle of thinking, she randomly stopped and just ran a palm down her face. What's the point? While she may have avoided the authorities for around two decades now for being part of the MLA, suddenly all things point that she's caught now. There is no more point to escape. The heroes got her. She's in the middle of UA, and ALL MIGHT - out of ALL heroes, is the one who figured her out.

There is no leaving. Her story ends here.

With a defeated sigh and slightly watery eyes, she put her head down and gestured for Izuku to check the outside of the clinic, fully expecting an entire unit of cops and heroes already waiting for her with drawn weapons.

Grasping the nearby blanket, she braced herself the moment she heard Izuku opening the door. And as expected, the sound of boots immediately filled the room, followed closely by the sounds of guns pointing at her, and then heroes talking one by one about how she's caught now and it's only feasible for her to surrender so no one gets hurt-

"What's wrong…?"

Chitose snapped out of her thoughts, slowly moving her head upwards and eventually just seeing Izuku in front of her with a concerned expression. And just beside him is an open door. While she cannot see what is outside, all she can hear are birds chirping and the sounds of tree leaves being ruffled about by light wind. Slightly looking around and ultimately lowering her already-raised hands in surrender, she realized that she is just imagining things. "I… uh…" she stuttered and immediately wiped the tears off her face. "Is there an army of heroes outside waiting?" she asked amidst her shaking voice.

Izuku shook his head. "There's no one there…" he then went in closer and sat on the bed beside her, placing one hand onto her shoulder again. "You know… my Mom's got the magic touch when it comes to clothes. She can patch up your dress and repair your jacket in no time. And based on what I can remember, she also said she has a co-worker than can actually remove the traces of repair in fabric, making it look like the dress is brand new and never been torn off in the first place!"

Chitose wiped the remaining tears on her face, one eyebrow raised at Izuku's strange answer. It took her a short while but she eventually pieced together that Izuku must have thought she's crying because her dress is torn off and heroes might see her outside, and not because she's a villain that's about to get caught. Good thing she does not need to think about a silly excuse anymore.

"If you want you can borrow my 5th layer," Izuku said as he repeatedly pointed at his outermost layer of clothing, which is a simple green sweater. "Normally I like to get my greens on, but this time I'll make an exception… " he added as he took it off and handed it to the young woman beside him, in which she sheepishly took. "You deserve going green today."

"A-are you sure there are no heroes outside?"

"There are no heroes outside, just the UA staff walking about. Not even Mr. Yagi or Recovery Girl though, I wonder where could they be?" Izuku stood up and walked towards the door, closing it after a quick peek outside. "Now why don't you go change in that while I go block the door…" he said as he went in and closed in the hospital bed curtains before walking back up to the door.

Chitose, on the other hand, took almost an entire minute just processing what happened. So there are really no heroes outside? But isn't she already caught? The interrogation happened! Her jacket is singed, there is a painful swelling on the back of her head, and there is a small painful spot on her forehead where she can remember All Might punched her! Even Toshinori even talked about interrogation!

But…

There are no heroes…?

All Might is never the person to let a known criminal walk around free for more than ten seconds once figuring them out. But how come she's just here and not in prison? And how come All Might himself is nowhere to be found?

?

So why…? Her thoughts faded out as her gaze landed onto the green sweater given to her. She held it up, immediately noticing how small it is, although quite on the flexible side. She stared at it for a few seconds, all while once again being overwhelmed with strange heartwarming feelings she once again couldn't properly explain. Could it be because Izuku just casually handed it over to her without her even saying anything? She eventually shook her head to clear off the thoughts. Now is not the time for staring at green sweaters.

Hurriedly taking off her jacket, she then put the sweater on.

It is small, obviously tight, and definitely not something made for her height. But still, it managed to reach her waist and look normal enough, although she needed to untie her torn off dress and re-tie it at the back first to get rid of an awkward bulge on her midsection.

Once done, she took a moment to stretch around in it. It's a little too much on the form-fitting side, maybe even a little too form-fitting, but luckily not tight enough for the outline of her bra to stand out. She took her jacket and put it over again, this time not buttoning it over, before pushing off the hospital bed curtains onto one side. "Are there heroes outside?" she immediately asked, in which Izuku quickly responded by peeking out the door.

"Nope," he said as he closed the door again. "So how does the 5th layer feel?"

"I feel… naked…"

"Looks pretty normal to me. Maybe you're just not used to tight clothing and just more used to dresses? You've been wearing nothing but dresses ever since you arrived here."

Chitose only answered with a slight nod as she stood up again. Almost instantaneously, she is greeted back with a sharp sting of pain on her thighs, but significantly even lesser than before. She immediately grabbed onto a nearby metal pole, bracing for the imminent sudden sting, but somehow did not come to pass. Is the anesthetic finally working properly now? She doesn't know, but if it is, whatever possible side-effects that can occur later because of it, she will just have to deal with it later.

Quickly, with the current manageable pain on her legs, she estimated the chances of her making it out of UA while limping. She felt stupid just thinking about it, there is obviously no way she can get out of UA fast enough at her current state, but since the pain is significantly lower now, and Toshinori is nowhere to be seen, might as well give it a try. Better this than not doing anything.

"Hey hey hey take it easy!" Izuku said, immediately walking closer. "We don't need to rush!"

"Yes we need to," Chitose panted, quickly planting one free arm onto the young man's shoulder to support herself. The pain is manageable but now she can also feel a little bit light-headed. Is it because of the swelling on the back of her head or her frustration merging with her confusion that is causing it?

But whatever it is, the entire scenario with All Might figuring out her affiliations to the MLA just felt a little too real. But whether it's really just a vivid imagination caused by the psychedelic slugs or within the realms of reality. She's not taking risks, she must leave immediately.

'But what happens next? All Might already knows I'm staying at Midoriya-' she shook off the thoughts. One issue at a time. She will cross the bridge when she gets there.

"Are you sure you can walk?"

"Yes I can," Chitose said as she took one last glance over the clinic she's about to leave. And seeing that she did not really bring anything in except her wallet anyways (which is luckily still on one of her jacket pockets, although a little singed as well), she proceeded forward, stumbling along but successfully grabbing the door knob to open the door. Almost immediately, a massive surge of nervousness welled within her, but quickly dissipated upon seeing that there are, in fact, neither heroes nor police there – just the UA staff walking about and minding their own business.

She carefully peeked out to re-confirm her thoughts, and yes, there are neither heroes nor police officers anywhere to be found. Raising an eyebrow, she quickly glanced over at Izuku afterwards. "I'm not too heavy am I?" she asked.

"Well not too much since you're technically just using me as a pole," came the response of the young man beside her, followed by a quick gesture on his shoulder where Chitose is holding onto.

"Good." Chitose nodded. It is a good thing that she can stand slightly better now than compared to just a while ago. Is the anesthetic really finally starting to work or is it just something else?

Taking steps forward, she finally led Izuku out of the clinic, who then promptly closed the door behind her. Upon hearing the door snap shut, Chitose immediately scanned the surroundings again to check for anything, but still so far no heroes nor cops in sight. "Midoriya, how can you tell if you're not inside some psycho slug's world anymore?"

"As far as I know I'm not affected at all. I did not get interrogated by some scary being so yeah we're in the real world, why?"

"But what if you just answered that but actually I'm still within the – nevermind…" Chitose turned to her right and set her eyes directly on the boxy multi-pupose hall right next to the clinic – the same place she could clearly remember she got figured out by All Might, and then proceeded to stumble towards there.

"I thought we're supposed to be leaving?"

"I have to see this first… and then we can leave," Chitose said as she pushed on. Upon taking a few steps, she saw that the doors to the building are slightly open, which encouraged her to walk faster despite the light pain to finally at least get an answer to one of her many questions so far.

Upon getting close enough, she could see the interiors. There seemed to be sizeable black singed spot right on the middle located on the floor and with all the chairs seemingly scattered around like an explosion blew them apart-

"Kizuki! Wait!"

Both Chitose and Izuku turned around to where the voice came from. There was Toshinori, sprinting as fast as he can towards them, with his cuboid VECTRE phone floating behind him. Upon reaching the scene, he immediately positioned himself between the two and the doors to the multi-purpose hall, panting and catching his breath by the time he got there.

"I apologize for suddenly leaving earlier, the slugs are everywhere! And it's-" he turned around and re-opened the door, giving Chitose a full view of what's inside. And indeed there is a massive singed spot in the middle and the chairs definitely look like they're blown away from the center point. "Ugh!" Toshinori said out loud, slapping his forehead before either of the two people behind him can speak. "Dammit, those slugs!"

"Uh-"

"Kizuki is there anything in your hallucination that involved an explosive? Because as it turns out whatever happened inside is also somehow happening outside!" Toshinori spoke out loud, grasping the sides of his head, his expression looking like a mix of frustration and panic. Almost immediately, a strange explosion sound is heard in a distance. "Even if I just watched you collapse outside, an explosion still happened here! I probably just didn't hear it because of the soundproof walls!"

"Uh… Y-yes…?" Chitose replied nervously, which is caused even more so at the odd way Toshinori is talking. She was about to gently nudge Izuku to at least hopefully get him to move while Toshinori's attention is turned towards the mess, when the middle-aged man suddenly spoke out loud again. "I should be having a day off right now but – GOTCHA!" he yelled as he slammed something from behind the door.

What he pulled out is a strange alien slug-like creature, around two feet in length. It has a texture of a mix between a gummy bear and a plushie and is bright neon blue in color, with yellow striped patterns on its back. It also occasionally glows green every few seconds. Toshinori held the shaking thing with his right hand away from the two. "I suggest you two stay in the clinic for a bit while I get these things sorted out! Don't worry about me! We already found a way to not be infected!" he said before quickly slamming the doors shut. And from within, the two could still clearly hear the man cursing at the apparent slug he caught, followed closely by repeated slamming sounds.

"Well looks like the slug issue's already getting worked on," Izuku commented.

"Midoriya, quick! Let's get out of here-" Chitose was cut off when her attention was suddenly caught by yet another strange-sounding explosion behind her. What comes next is a flash of blue and orange that eventually landed onto a patch of grass just meters in front of them. It was a girl, a student of UA from the looks of things (which Chitose found odd considering it's the middle of the Christmas break), lying face down onto the soil and seemingly unconscious - and with one of those slug creatures Toshinori caught earlier lodged into her right shoe. Almost immediately, she raised her right hand and planted it forward, in which it immediately grew to a massive size upon impact. The fingers then wasted no time in 'crawling' forward, dragging its body along.

Chitose and Izuku did not get any time to react for another set of shockwave-like explosions happened just nearby them, launching trash cans forward – with one of the trash cans containing yet another slug.

"Midoriya, let's lea-

"GAH! PEANUT BUTTER!" The orange-haired girl in front of them that is getting dragged onto the grass by her own upsized hand suddenly yelled out, although she still seemed unconscious. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"The slugs are going loose-" Chitose quickly nudged Izuku to move, mind racing with so many strange thoughts. Is she once again in yet another 'illusion' or is it everyone else who's on an illusion-?

Two UA staff visible in a distance suddenly dropped to their knees – one of them has a slug on the back.

"Oh crap!" Izuku yelled out as he pulled Chitose away towards another direction, changing mid-flight upon seeing another slug crawling about on their path.

"Midoriya! To the exit, you're just taking us deeper into UA! We need to leave, now!" Chitose yelled out and shoved Izuku back to get him going where she wants him to go. In a distance there were more of the US staff dropping to the ground, but that doesn't matter, all what's important is to get out of-

A sudden gust of wind caught the attention of the both of them. But what they are expecting as yet another strangeness brought upon by the so-called Psychedelic Slugs, it was All Might – in full costume. Almost in the blink of an eye, all the glowing slugs nearby suddenly explode in a messy bright orange goop.

At the same time, Recovery Girl came rushing into the scene as well, going straight for the girl laying on the grass getting dragged along by her giant right hand, and getting her out of there and taking her straight to the clinic with the help of a hoverboard that she summoned in from a device from within her sleeves.

"These slugs are getting out of hand!" Chitose said out loud amidst the chaos unfurling right before her eyes. She can feel her thighs starting to ache horribly, but so far it is still manageable. She can hold, if only there are no more slugs blocking their path…

"UA should really know their kids' Quirks before they allow them to train!" Izuku replied, voice sounding like he is half-confused and half-annoyed.

Chitose nodded before gently nudging the young man beside her to keep him moving. There were more strange-sounding explosions, and more strange sounds in general. There were also people screaming about getting interrogated, and uniformed UA staff running around (with some just dropping to the ground unconscious because of a nearby slug), but the two of them eventually reached a point where there is now relative silence (as well as close to the exit).

Chitose looked back, almost immediately feeling proud that she actually managed to push herself to her limits and get out of the general vicinity of the clinic in a relatively short amount of time.

But now her thighs are now aching too much to go any further. "I need to take a rest for a bit," she weakly said, double-tapping Izuku's shoulder and pointing at a nearby wooden bench. There were some strange explosions still, but now far fewer than before.

It appears that All Might had finally gotten the situation under control for the most part.

…

Chitose sat down onto the bench, immediately feeling relief from her aching legs in the form of most of the pain suddenly disappearing the moment she stopped exerting force onto them. Now relatively calmed down, her thoughts then automatically went towards the incredibly strange slug incident that happened just a while ago. Basing off of Toshinori's comment after he saw the mess inside the hall (and backed up by the current strange events), it really does seem that whatever is happening within the 'Slug Illusion' world is being mirrored outside.

And if there are explosions within an infected individual's mindscape, then an explosion will also happen outside… although Chitose couldn't help but wonder why there is an unusually large amount of explosions…

'So did the All Might interrogation really happen or…?' Chitose mused as she looked around, noticing that there is still no swarm of heroes and cops ready to take her down, 'Also how come the entire chaos only happened coincidentally after I left the clinic? If there are slugs crawling about all this time, wouldn't that mean the chaos should be already underway even before I left the clinic?'

?

Chitose wondered some more, random thoughts spinning inside her mind. While the slug-chaos may just be coincidental, but she just couldn't shake off the fact that All Might just interrogated her at it might be real. The young woman continued thinking, one hand automatically going towards the back of her head to feel the painful swelling. But at the end of the day, if she's already found out, wouldn't that mean she should be already in jail? And not just left alone with Izuku in the clinic, and now already halfway through her escape?

So did nothing really happen? Is she really just 'Slugged'?

So is she safe now…? There's nothing to worry about anymore? All Might didn't get her, she's not in jail, there are no heroes ready to take her down…

…

"Ow!" she let out a soft yelp of pain as she accidentally scratched the swelling on the back of her head.

"A slug attack huh? Out of all the things that could attack UA… it's just got to be slugs…" Izuku muttered to himself as he kept his attention towards the infected UA staff just running around the general area of the incident, and All Might jogging after them and stomping any slugs he can see. "UA should really get their training regimen patched up."

"Yeah… totally article worthy don't you think? This will totally make it in the headlines."

"What do you think a good title would be?"

"Oh it's easy! It's-" Chitose suddenly stopped, her face immediately going blank. "Wait… I think I cannot…" her voice trailed off. For some reason, she cannot think of a possible title for the event that just went down, when normally she would have had a hundred ideas by now. Not only that, she noticed that she didn't even feel the need to make an article about it in the first place. "I cannot think of any ideas... I think it's because I'm not full-journalist mode at this age yet..."

"Let's hope UA will fix that. Hopefully your memories will come back." Izuku nodded as he sat beside her, but still keeping his focus on the general area of the clinic.

Chitose, mind still considering whether to rush to the exit or not, turned to look as well. "What if All Might gets affected by the slugs? Would he go mad like Peanut Butter girl earlier?" she suddenly asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Did Mr. Yagi already tell him how to counter the slugs…?"

"Pffft! The slug makes whatever affected by it get into an interrogation with the thing they fear the most! What is All Might even afraid of anyways? The slugs SHOULD be the ones afraid of him!"

Shrugging, Chitose turned again to observe All Might. While he is a powerful hero (he IS the Number One after all) but as far as she knows he does not have any form of defense against hallucinogenic and other various non-physical attacks, a weakness most commonly exploited by villains that challenged him over the years, and to great effect.

-Which is all the more odd why Re-Destro chose to go for Claustro, a giant mech, to fight him in the near future once Liberation starts instead of other various non-physical alternatives. But then again, she is not the one to question the decisions of the Grand Commander, he IS the Grand Commander after all. He knows what's best for himself.

"So uh… should we continue leaving or you want to rest some more? I mean the exit's not far from here." Izuku's sudden question snapped Chitose out of her thoughts.

The young woman blanked out for a brief while but eventually shook her head. "My lap hurts too much now… at least we're out of the chaos zone and All Might's already here…" she said, her voice trailing off. She was about to continue when she happened to look into the path that would lead straight to the exit.

She thought about pushing herself further but eventually decided against it. The entire interrogation is just a hallucination anyway. She is safe. All arrows are basically now pointing towards she's safe and there's nothing to worry about anymore.

…

'Great I just made a fool out of myself…' she thought, realizing that there is not even a point of leaving the clinic in the first place. But at least her thighs are still relatively-

There was a sudden sharp sting of pain on both of her thighs, centered directly on the wounds she supposedly clawed in. And before she can check on what could be causing it they suddenly stung again, the pain much more intense than the previous one.

And then there was a third one that felt like a needle going through, and it made her hunch forward and plant both of her hands on her knees, her fingers grasping downwards.

'Out of all the side-effects I can possibly get…'

"Uh… what's wrong…?"

"Remember the thing I told you about anesthetics giving me random side effects… aside from my taste buds going numb? Well I'm getting one now…" she paused a bit, reeling from the pain. "The anesthetic only delayed the pain… and now I'm feeling my lap getting re-stitched!" she inadvertently said out loud, immediately gritting her teeth as to try and force herself not to yell.

"W-what can I do?!"

Chitose, amidst the ongoing pain, tried her best to remember. She had been beaten up and cut so many times in the past than she could count, especially in her younger years. What does she use to numb the pain and disinfect the affected area? She thought has to be something she uses, right? Something…

It took a while because of the ongoing sting coming from her thighs but she eventually remembered something. "Lemon Juice. Orange juice. Lime juice. Any citrus juice," she said as clear as she can while she shook in pain.

"Are there any drug-based alternatives?" Izuku asked, immediately standing in front of her. "Maybe I can get something from the clinic?"

Chitose paused for a bit, trying to remember if there are any drug-based alternatives she knows that would help her in her current predicament. Her thoughts may be clouded from the pain, but still she tried to peer into her memories. She can faintly recall that there is, in fact, a drug that she discovered that functioned as a very effective pain reliever for her (without any side effects). But what is it? How did she even discovered it? She cannot remember.

"I cannot remember-" Chitose abruptly stopped as she latched her right arm onto Izuku's shoulder to prevent her from slumping further. "All I know is Citrus juice. That's it."

"Do you need fresh oranges or the-"

"I prefer the fresh ones," she said, trying her very best just to sound normal despite feeling every single sting of pain from how the medi-bots stitched her wounds. "Do try to be quick, okay?"

Almost immediately Izuku scampered off, presumably towards the school canteen.

Another painful sting happened again, making Chitose immediately look at the nearest wall clock visible from her location, absolutely horrified upon finding out that Izuku only left a few seconds ago. To make matters worse, she can feel that her making pained facial expressions coupled with the fact that she is stuck in a bench is making her look like she is in desperate need of a bathroom. Luckily no one is there… or maybe there is? She doesn't know. And if ever someone is there, she doesn't care.

She turned her gaze towards the nearby wall clock again, feeling herself already internally screaming at how slow the seconds go.

There was yet another painful sting. This time she gave up and pulled her dress back to check whatever is going on at her thighs, neverminding if she looked awkward during it. She's frustrated and annoyed and at the same time in great pain and nothing else is currently mattering-

She blanked out for a brief while, mouth agape as to what she just saw. The wounds are swollen, and the skin around them is tinted in a bruise-like dark purple hue. Looking closer there also seems to be dark tendrils branching out from them, reaching as far as around her entire thigh.

"Dammit! Out of all the side-effects I could get! I really just had to…" Chitose's voice trailed off as the pain intensified further. 'Why do all these things keep happening to me?!' she yelled mentally, recalling every single bit of injury she had prior to this – the bump on her head, her facial injuries, her black eye and bruises… None of those have even healed yet and there are now even more injuries piled onto her. 'What did I even do to deserve this?!' she continued as one hand clutched her chest in frustration, feeling her heart pound wildly within, still with mismatched and irregular beats caused by her defibrillatory shock earlier.

There was another sting of pain.

Chitose grabbed onto her knees, feeling every single needle piercing into her lap.

'WHERE ARE THOSE GODDAMNED ORANGES-?!'

"I got the oranges!"

Chitose immediately turned her head towards the familiar almost-angelic sounding voice. And there he is, in all his ever-so-adorable penguin-like glory, Izuku Midoriya, running to her holding onto a small bag of oranges.

Salvation has arrived.

"What took you so long?" Chitose asked, trying to make her voice as harmless as possible as he arrived, before immediately grabbing an orange straight from the plastic bag the young man is holding onto.

"I'm only gone for five minutes and what the…"

The sound of Izuku's voice trailed off within Chitose's mind, even though she is sure he is still talking. But whatever it is he is talking about her mind cannot process it any longer. The pain on her thighs is excruciating and she just wanted it to end as soon as possible. Rolling the orange around in her hand, she realized that it was not even sliced! But instead of going mad, she instead just held it tightly and then sunk her teeth onto its side and viciously ripped off the peel, before quickly squeezing its juices over both of her wounds.

There was an almost immediate effect. The pain rapidly disappeared within seconds.

"Are your thighs supposed to be like that or uh…?" Izuku asked, still reeling from the imagined pain of having orange juice squeezed over wounds.

"No…" Chitose replied, still hunched over and breathing heavily, but finally relieved. Her thighs may now smell of oranges but at least the pain is gone. "It's a side-effect of the anesthetic. Like I said I develop side-effects depending on the ingredients used… and this is one of the many possible side-effects… don't worry, it may look scary but it's generally harmless…"

"It looks… it doesn't look harmless… It's uh…"

"It will heal in a few hours. The only bad thing is that I cannot properly walk for the time being…" Chitose said as she pushed the dress back down again.

"But hey at least we managed to get out of the clinic. With all the slugs that spontaneously appeared I wouldn't be surprised if a slug also manifested inside and infected both of us."

"You think so?" Chitose, still with feelings of relief washing over her, slowly rose her head up to face Izuku. She was about to say something about the rest of the oranges that he bought when she noticed that Izuku, despite only his eyes visible from the thick clothing he is wearing, is looking unusually extra handsome for some weird reason. Is it because he technically saved her with the oranges? Maybe? She doesn't know the real reason why but she could definitely feel her face rapidly heating up.

"Is there something wrong with my face?"

Izuku's sudden question snapped Chitose out of her thoughts, only then making her realize she was actually staring at him for a full minute. Quickly looking around to say something that could get her out of the embarrassing situation, she eventually landed her gaze onto the plastic bag of oranges and decided to just talk about that instead. "Nothing, I just realized you got more oranges left," she said, immediately filling her mind with repeated mental notes about Izuku already fancies someone else and she should NOT be butting in.

"Yeah I bought about seven of them. By the way two of the oranges here are already pre-sliced, you kinda pulled out one of the intact ones…"

"What…? So I just looked stupid for nothing?" she slowly said to herself, her gaze drifting downwards towards her now-orange-stained dress. At the same time she can feel an unusually high amount of embarrassment for tearing open an orange using her teeth in front of Izuku, but she quickly brushed the feeling off.

"But at least you got the pain out, and that's what matters. So shall we leave now?"

"But what about my stained dress-?" Chitose abruptly stopped noticing she is not wearing her sunglasses and face mask anymore. "Where's my mask? And sunglasses…?"

"I don't really know. I entered the clinic and you're not wearing them anymore."

"I… I lost them…?" Chitose's voice trailed off, feeling panic slowly setting in. 'You only borrowed the items! And now you lost them!' a thought echoed inside her mind, followed by flashes of vivid imagery of all the times she got in trouble for it-

"Hey hey hey Kizuki! It's just a face mask and a pair of sunglasses! Calm down!" said Izuku in a joking tone as he placed both mittened hands onto the tall young woman's shoulders in front of him.

Chitose stared on for a while, slightly trembling, until finally responding with a trembling nod. "I promise I'll pay you back," she added weakly, at the same time getting heavily annoyed at the (once again) sudden feelings of negativity. "I'll pay you back," she repeated.

Izuku nodded, giving a playful massage on the young woman's shoulders he is still holding onto. "So, shall we go home? Want me to assist you to the bus stop?" he asked as he took his hands off of her shoulders and sat beside her.

"I think we should just stay here for a while," Chitose replied, adjusting her dress.

"How long are you going to be in this state?"

"Around maybe an hour… or maybe even more since the anesthetic could have way more active ingredients in it than those from 20 to 30 years ago."

"If you didn't exert yourself up to now, would you be able to walk again faster?"

"Exert or not, everything is the same. It's just the side-effects that keep ruining everything," Chitose gently said, remembering all the times the exact same question is asked to her.

"So we're stuck here for the time being?"

"I'm sorry. I promise I'll pay you back-"

"I got an idea! All Might took us here, right?" Izuku suddenly stood up and immediately started walking around, one hand up to his chin. "And it's technically UA's fault why you're the way you're now, so that means we have leverage to-

A loud thud is heard nearby, followed closely by a gust of wind that surprisingly did not even blow up any dust on the ground. Flabbergasted, the two turned to see what it was.

It's All Might.

He is posed in one of his typical heroic poses. But what stood out this time is that he has straps on his shoulders as if he's carrying a knapsack. After doing yet another heroic pose, the two confirmed that yes, he is wearing a knapsack – although just an ordinary-looking one that looked strangely worn-out.

Chitose just watched him do a third pose, and was about to go complain about whatever happened to her today when the Number One seemingly teleported in front of her and immediately kneeled down and apologized profusely, saying things like he was sorry for everything and that he will agree on a two-hour interview…

Chitose is sure he said more, but he is talking so fast that she can't even process what he's saying. And going by the looks of Izuku just beside her, it seems that he too also cannot even understand what's going on. She was about to talk when a relatively thick stack of cash seemingly spontaneously appeared on her lap.

"Uh-" she spoke, and abruptly stopped as All Might suddenly stopped as well and turned up to face her while still kneeling. How did he happen to hear what she said despite him talking so loud? She doesn't know. "I'm not in the mood for any interview. In fact I haven't even gotten a single urge to interview anyone ever since I turned back into this age. I-uh… uh… I just want to go home."

"Yeah All Might! UA screwed up big time today! Look what happened to her, she cannot even stand!" Izuku said in a dramatic way, complete with dramatic poses rivaling All Might. "The least you could do is to bring us home!"

"CANNOT STAND?" All Might said as he instantaneously stood up, a curious look etched on his face.

"Human anesthetics and mutant anatomy don't go well together…" Chitose muttered, feeling slight nervousness on the presence of the Number One, and thinking whether All Might would just suddenly abduct her and put her in prison.

All Might paused for a bit, face contorting into multiple expressions as if he cannot find the correct word to say about it. After a short while, he opened his mouth, but only froze, and instead he just disappeared in a flash and just put another bundle of cash on the young woman's lap.

Chitose felt strange upon seeing the second bundle of cash placed beside the first one on her lap. For some reason, she can't even feel an ounce of frustration on all the things UA put her through, it's as if seeing the cash is enough to dissipate all her anger towards them. She tried to get mad, like her adult self would, and then thought about possible articles she can write to trash UA's handling of mutant anatomy… but for some reason just like the slug articles she thought about earlier – she also cannot think of anything (and not even feeling the urge to type out an article about it in the first place). All she somehow cares about are the two bundles of cash on her lap, a definite trait of her money-lacking younger self.

"I want to go home," she suddenly said.

"Don't you want them to take a look at your legs first?" Izuku asked, accompanying it with a small gesture towards the direction of the clinic.

"I don't want to get randomly defibrillated again. I want to go home. My wounds will heal on their own." She was about to continue when All Might launched into another massive apology spree, on how he apologizes on behalf of UA, and how he accidentally slammed her into the ground two nights ago, and many more… until she's now worried on how big of a scene All Might is creating and how it would be likely to be on the news.

And right now it is a bad time to be on the news, especially as someone who's already apparently dead. But luckily for her no one is around except for the UA staff, but they are just mostly situated on the general area of the clinic and none of them are even looking towards them. While definitely strange, but all the more better for her-

"Sweet!"

The sound of Izuku's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. As it turned out, All Might gave the two of them limited edition hoodies that apparently haven't even hit the markets yet.

"KIZUKI…" All Might weakly said, although it still turned out with a booming tone. "MAY I ASK WHEN WILL YOU BE AVAILABLE FOR MEETING AGAIN? WE WOULD REALLY LOVE TO HELP YOU OUT ON YOUR CURRENT AGE DILEMMA," he added, fidgeting with his fingers and giving out an awkward smile.

Chitose tensed up. As much as she wanted to refuse any further meeting, seeing that the entire UA trip just resulted in her receiving even more injuries and accomplishing nothing, but the person in front of her is All Might…

"Er… I'm not sure…" she stuttered out an answer.

"DO YOU HAVE A PHONE WITH YOU, MISS KIZUKI?"

"No, why?"

"Y-you're going to give out your phone number Mr. Might…? Just like that?" Izuku weakly asked in total shock.

Chitose was about to speak up when Izuku quickly grabbed onto her shoulders. "You don't have a phone right?" he asked her, in which she responded with a simple nod. Without wasting any time, Izuku turned to All Might. "As you can see Miss Kizuki doesn't have a phone with her right now so uh… can I have your phone number instead? Please? Pretty please? Promise I will not spam you with messages. Pleeaaaase…?"

"HMMM… I DO SUPPOSE THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT… MISS KIZUKI, HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO BE STAYING WITH HIM?"

"She'll be staying with me until she gets things sorted out!" Izuku answered immediately and then turned to Chitose, "that Nomu on the beach is really something, huh?" he then turned to All Might again, "can I have your phone number please?"

All Might straightened his posture, seemingly deep in thought. After around five seconds of thinking, he took the phone Izuku is holding up, tampered with it for a few seconds, and then gave it back.

"Also can you get us home?" Izuku asked again as he slung over the two hoodies. "Poor Kizuki over here cannot even walk! Think about her! Think about the tall blue lady!"

All Might paused a bit.

Chitose, on the other hand, just kept quiet, now beginning to feel a lot more nervous because of how the way All Might is seemingly just focused only on her and not on Izuku. But then again she's the only one there who's not only aged down, but also suspiciously attacked by a Nomu one night on Takoba Beach among many other things so it does make some sense-

She didn't get to finish her thoughts when she felt something grab hold onto her and lift her off. "Wha-?!" she yelled out in surprise before realizing it's just All Might who held her up. After a brief while, she immediately saw the sweatered limbs of Izuku wrap themselves around the Number One hero's neck.

"ALRIGHT BLUE LADY, AND THAT ONE GENTLEMAN ON MY BACK, YOU TWO MAY WANT TO HOLD ON TIGHT! IT'S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE!"

"Uh… wouldn't he fall-" Chitose didn't even finish her sentence when All Might dashed straight towards the front side of the clinic before taking off to the sky in one massive leap. Instinctively, before she could even process anything at the speed the Number One is going through, Chitose wrapped her arms around her chest. She's not wearing a sports bra and-

She suddenly paused upon noticing that, for some reason, despite moving so fast through the air, not only she can't feel any sort of fear of falling down and getting knocked out, but Izuku – who's just casually clinging onto All Might's neck, is somehow not even being blown away (maybe he's riding on AM's backpack?). Furthermore, every time the hero jumps back up, she somehow can't feel any of the effects normally associated with rapid changes in velocity.

Is this related to her own anatomy? Or is this just normal with All Might? She turned her gaze towards Izuku still clinging onto the hero.

'How is AM doing this?' she thought to herself, mind thinking about the possible ways AM is accomplishing such displays that seemingly do not follow the laws of physics despite only having a Super Strength Meta Ability. In the end she just settled with the fact that he probably just had someone cast a Metapower on him to achieve this-

"WE'RE HERE!"

"What…?" Chitose muttered to herself, suddenly recognizing her surroundings as the Midoriya apartment room. Immediately looking behind her, she raised an eyebrow in confusion upon seeing that, based on where All Might is at currently and the direction he's facing, he apparently went through the front door of the apartment, went all the way up the stairs, unlocked the door without using any keys, and abruptly stopped in the middle of the room without her and Izuku flying off.

"KIZUKI, ONCE AGAIN I APOLOGIZE FOR EVEYRYTHING. IF YOU NEED ME IN CASE OF ANOTHER NOMU ATTACK, YOUNG MIDORIYA OVER HERE HAS MY PHONE NUMBER." All Might said, still with the usual bombast in his voice as he set Izuku down (Apparently he's not riding on the backpack). "AND ABOUT THE WOUNDS ON YOUR LAP, DO YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE ON THAT?"

Chitose shook her head. "All Might I had a long day and uh… I prefer to be left in silence for a while," she said, nervously raising both hands to the level of her face as if an instinctual gesture of surrender but quickly put them back to where they were previously again. "My wounds will just heal on their own."

"But Kizuki! Your-"

"Midoriya, I know how my body works. It will just heal on its own in a few hours."

"But-!"

"Calm down, I'm going to be fine," Chitose said before slowly glancing up towards All Might. "Uhm… you can put me down now."

"OH SORRY! IT'S JUST UH- I FORGOT!" All Might chuckled as he wasted no time putting the tall young woman down. "APOLOGIES!" he said and then paused a bit, fidgeting his fingers. "SO UH… DO YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE NOW…?"

"All Might I'll just give you a call if I need anything, okay? Does that sound good to you?"

All Might did one weak nod, followed closely by one heroic pose, before turning around and dashing straight through the (now open) window behind him. Once again he's far too big to be able to fit, but he somehow did.

"Kizuki!" the loud voice of Izuku caught Chitose's attention and she turned to face him. "All Might is asking you if you need anything, why didn't you tell him about the lap wounds? He could've helped! You could have said something that would make All Might stay for more than five minutes!" he kneeled down and grabbed onto her shoulders, but not before tossing both the hoodies and the bag of oranges aside first. "Five minutes! That's a lot of time!"

"Hey calm down! I had a long day and I need some peace and quiet!" Chitose responded, her voice equally loud. "Besides he already gave you his phone number!"

"Holy crap you're right!" Izuku quickly pulled out his phone from one of his sweater pockets and started fidgeting with it. "Oh my god! He really put in his number! I thought he just meant it as a joke and he'll delete it after we got here!"

"Are you sure it's even his?"

"I dunno! But it's AM so it's got to be real-" Izuku stopped, his expression suddenly on confusion. "Uh, Kizuki? Why are you holding your chest like that? When All Might told us to hold on tight he meant we hold onto him…"

"What-?" Chitose's eyes went down to her chest, to which they instantaneously widened in shock. "The heck?! All Might saw me in this-?" she abruptly stopped, only now realizing that she just held onto her chest for the entirety of the trip, and held them back after making a surrender gesture to All Might just minutes ago. "Crap."

"Why are you even holding it like that?"

"I uh… it's uh…" Chitose's voice trailed off as she put her arms down. "Look pal, we're moving too fast and I have no sports bra on me today. Figure it out, it's not that hard." She sighed, feeling her nervousness immediately replaced with a staggering amount of embarrassment. "It's instinctual, okay?"

Izuku simply nodded. "I guess that's understandable…"

"Okay now that we got that sorted out…" Chitose straightened her posture up as she sat on the floor (now only wondering that not only All Might somehow didn't put her in any of the nearby sofas, but the two bundles of cash he gave her is still somehow placed on her lap).But as she was about to continue, the light sting of pain on her orange-drenched wounds suddenly set her mind on the strange events that happened so far, ending up with her (or Izuku rather) receiving direct contact with the Number One hero of Japan for the second time.

She gulped nervously. Once again the thoughts and memory of All Might figuring her out entering her mind once more. She knew at this point that can't be true anymore and everything is just a hallucination, but something just keeps telling her it's real…

'Nothing normal happened in this day so far… it's making my head spin…' she thought to herself at the same time feeling a light headache. 'Calm down. You did not get caught. All Might is just trying his best to help out…'

She took a deep breath and sighed. So many things may have happened, but the good thing is that she's not in prison, and just back within the Midoriya apartment. But the calm thoughts didn't last long, as her mind just randomly switched to worrying about giving back to Izuku after all the things he did for her so far.

"Hey Midoriya."

"Yes?" Izuku spoke up in the middle of trying on one of the hoodies All Might gave them.

"You've been very good today and deserve to be rewarded." Chitose did a small nod. "Take me to your bedroom."

"…What…?"

Chitose blanked out, realizing the extremely awkward set of words she just used. Slapping her forehead in annoyance, she spoke again, "I mean I'm going to type out some articles. Your computer just so happens to be in your bedroom. Got it?"

"Oh."

Notes:

So I asked a friend of mine, "who is the most likely to be infected by a psychedelic slug?"

She answered Monoma.

…

Okay, so Kendo it is!