Well, I finally watched the Goblin Slayer movie, and it was like I expected. Now, I can watch the first episodes of season 2 which if are as gruesome as season 1, means that I best balance stuff out with Spy x Family whose first two episodes of season 2 are just as wholesome and fun as season 1. Also, a heads up, this story is coming to an end including this chapter, there are 4-maybe 5 chapters left. After that, there'll be a break before I release anything for the 3rd story.

Chapter 15: Fateful Encounters

Izuku remembered hearing the old saying that there are centuries in which nothing happens and years in which centuries pass. She supposed that to her, laying on her bed in the Bakugo's guest bedroom, that saying applied to her. 2 days since the hell that was the Dagobah attack, she found herself with little to do as with school still out, it wasn't like she could keep herself occupied with work or training, Eri was also off with her aunt for the weekend which she was only slightly jealous about.

Work, that she had in spades, even if what she was doing at the moment counted. She had spoken with Curious the night after the attack, and the woman had been a bit…too pleased to hear about it from an inside source, but she assured her that she wasn't happy about the death, but that it could be spun to their narrative which she didn't like, but she could understand.

"Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems." That was what she told her, explaining that for their message to reach people, for them to change the world, they had to be proactive when it came to spreading it, using any situation that could be used to their advantage.

Because she gave such detailed information, Shoowaysha-owned news sites, blogs, channels and magazines have been slamming the HPSC and to an even greater extent than before, heroes. Curious was sure to not use anything too incriminating, if only to ensure no one could be able to tell who talked, but what she did use was devastating, fueling people's resentment, disappointment and fears about current affairs. Sparring her phone a glance, she saw that the top news articles and other recommendations she was getting were all related to that, with one being a poll that stated that 43% had unfavorable views of heroes, the highest it's been in 30 years.

It looked nice, but she wasn't so foolish to think it was anything close to accurate, not when it's been just 48 hours since the attack happened, and a little over 36 since Shoowaysha owned papers started leaking details of just how bad things got. Perhaps she'll check back with that article in a week when it has time to properly gauge the waters.

But that meant she didn't have much to do, other than wait for U.A. to start up for the second semester, which they announced would still be happening. She could try and call her new friends, but Intelli and Shishikura said they'd be busy for the next few days in their last group chat.

"Is it weird that I make friends with students that don't even go to my school? I'll have to ask Curious about that." Maybe it was, as she was meant to infiltrate U.A. to gather information and hopefully, recruits. Thinking about that, she recalled that they'd certainly have much to talk about as she wasn't present, but she knew that many were injured so maybe she could try and bond over scars, that was what friends did, right? She remembered she and Bakugo used to compare cuts and scratches as kids when they played hero, she even had a fresh scar across her side from the blowtorch sealing her wounds shut. Yeah, that would make a good opening for a conversation.

Still, there wasn't much she could do in her room, so she got up, changed into more presentable clothing and went downstairs where she found Uncle Masaru cleaning the living room.

"Heading out?" The father of the home asked her, turning off the vacuum so that they could speak.

"Yeah." Midoriya kept it short, wishing to head out and explore quickly.

"How long will you be gone?" HE asked her, curious but also concerned which in most cases, would come off as him not trusting her to take care of herself, but she understood that this wasn't like most cases, especially when it came to her, a girl that was taken from her own home.

"A while, I'll probably be back before sunset, but I'll call if something changes." She reassured him, waving her phone for him to see, getting a short laugh from the man as if nothing else, she was far more well-mannered than his son. Don't twist it, he loved the boy-but he knew he had some serious issues when it came to attitude and temperament, some he got from his fireball of a mother, some entirely his own.

"Remember to send a text every 30 minutes, with how bad things have gotten lately…" He looked at the TV, it wasn't on, but both knew what it would be playing it was.

"Trust me, if anyone knows how bad things are, it's me. I'll send the reminders that I'm still okay." She agreed, making a note to also send texts to her mother who might not be in the prefecture, but would no doubt appreciate those reminders that she was alright. As she walked towards the door to get her shoes as the man went back to cleaning, she asked another question.

"By the way, where are Auntie and Katsuki?" The house had been far too quiet for the last hour or so, as even at home, Katsuki was as loud as ever, only amplified by the screaming matches he and his mother got into seemingly every 20 minutes…she wondered how Auntie still had a voice if that was the norm.

Masaru replied over the vacuum, speaking louder than normal to be hard. "Mitsuki had to step out to handle something with work, Katsuki went out with some of his friends, though it seemed like they had to drag him out." He couldn't help but laugh when he recalled that nice boy, Kirishima dragging his boy out while the rest of his friends just watched amused.

"Yeah…he's like that." Midoriya could see that with Bakugo, he wasn't the most social unless he was the clear top tog, but from when little she had observed with class A, most weren't playing into that idea which must have messed with him, but he seemed to be…functioning, she didn't know how, but he wasn't screaming at the top of his lungs or slinging threats to get people to comply with his wishes.

Strange.

But that was more thought than she wanted to give Bakugo, so she cut things there as she finished tying her shoes on and stepping out.

It took a while, but she finally found herself somewhere where she could relax, a little café which had an alluring smell of coffee and cakes flowing out of it. She didn't plan on coming here, she had never been here before, but now that she was, she couldn't just leave, not without at least trying what was on offer. Entering the place, with the little bell above the door ringing, the sweet smell from outside only grew, as if the entire place was made of sugar and flavoring.

Finding a small line, she waited for her turn to make her order, reaching into her pocket to ensure she had her wallet as she had heard from her mother how embarrassing it is to reach the till, and not have a way to pay. Still, while she had cash, her mind couldn't leave the smell of the place as it seemed far too strong to be normal, but before she could figure that out, she reached the counter.

"Welcome to Jaune's, what would you be having today?" The receptionist, a tall boy around her age greeted her with a smile, but not an honest one and more a work-related one.

"Oh, um?" She blinked for a moment, having been caught wondering about his smile and its implications as she didn't think it meant anything, but also that he wasn't being rude by merely presenting a false front. With a little red on her cheeks, she looked over the menu that hung overhead, along to the small display case which held several different kinds of cakes, most missing at least a couple of slices. "I'll have two slices of cake, one vanilla and the other whatever you would recommend. I'll also take a decaf coffee with that, two spoons of sugar." She ordered, with the man nodding as he rang her up.

"Come right up, and will this be a sit-in or takeaway order?" He turned back to her from the screen on the register.

"Sit-in, the place has a nice atmosphere." She wished to soak in the atmosphere, and maybe learn why the place stood out when compared to a regular café.

"We get them a lot, but we do our best to ensure it's accommodating and welcoming." The receptionist continued to smile as he input her order, a smile she could recognise as him merely being polite, with no connection to her or her history. There was a ding as he finished and the machine gave out a little slip which he handed to her. "Here is your receipt, and at the bottom is your table, your cake and coffee will be there shortly." She could see it at the bottom, looking towards the table arrangements, she could see that above each was a number plate, so she nodded her thanks to the man and walked towards hers.

As she moved, she passed up the small hallway that connected the main café to the kitchen area where she made out what appeared to be one of the cooks, there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy about him other than the large gut paired with the beefy arms, giving him the body of a dad that happened to lift. But before she passed by, she saw faint white mist flowing off of him, it didn't seem to be for cooking.

Reaching her table, which happened to be close to the back by the window, she took her seat and soaked in the privacy as there was some distance between her and the other patrons seeing how the two tables closest to her were absent. As she waited for her order, she noted that the white mist from before was floating into the main area from the kitchen, it wasn't clear and was close to the ceiling so one wouldn't notice it unless they were actively looking for it, or observant, but she did. As he dispersed over the place, her nose picked up a familiar scent.

Right as she put it together, the cook, or was it the baker? Anyway, he approached her table with her order balanced on a platter he held with one hand and the confidence of either a child who didn't know any better or an expert who had done it enough times to be near capable of it in their sleep. Along with him, the scent from before increased, only proving her suspicions. "Here you are, one decaf coffee with two spoons of sugar, and two slices of cake," The man placed her cup of tea before her, before reaching for the two plates that carried her cake slices. "One vanilla and the other caramel."

With her order before her, she smiled at the baker. "Thank you, and this place… it feels nice."

"We try our best," The man smiled back, but he wasn't prepared for what she said next.

"Yes, I'm sure your quirk works wonders for that." Izuku took a sip of her coffee, humming as the familiar bitter yet sweet taste met her tastebuds, meanwhile, the baker shivered at her comment, the man starting to sweat as he looked about to see if anyone had heard that.

"E-excuse me?" He asked her, hoping to play it off or maybe that she'd drop it, but if there was one thing that Izuku Midoriya knew and loved, it was quirks and if given the chance, she would say her piece.

Which she did, placing her coffee, she turned to address the man. "Your quirk? I saw you in the kitchen when I walked over, you release something from your body, I would say it works similar to Midnight's quirk, but instead of putting your targets to sleep, it releases a sweet, alluring scent akin to well," She gestured to the overall space, meanwhile, the baker looked like he was about to pass out from stress, his nervousness radiating off him nearly to the point where others could pick up on it.

"A bakery. I don't feel any desire to remain or to pay you more than what I would normally do for a good meal and good service, so I'm guessing that it only makes this place more appealing rather than some sort of subtle neural signal to swing potential clients into doing something that otherwise wouldn't." She would have gone on, about her possible theories for its applications, limitations and area of effect but the baker stopped her.

"Man, can you please keep that down!" He hissed as he leaned forward, his face filled with sweat which he quickly wiped away with a handkerchief he carried in his pocket. "I don't need people thinking that I'm breaking the law to make them enter." Oh…oh, that was what he was worried about, she could forget that this wasn't Deika, where something like this would be the norm.

"Oh, no no no, I'm not trying to hurt your business or get you in trouble with anyone, provided that your quirk does what I think it does." She told him, as while she had no ill will towards him if he was using his quirk to force or compel people, then she'll report him.

The baker was quick to nod. "It does! I can make the area I'm in smell like a bakery filled with sweets, that's it. I can't control how it spreads, nor increase its volume past anything when it's active." He gave a brief explanation of his quirk to her, getting her to hum, pleased that it wasn't anything worth making an issue over, and feeling slightly guilty for making him nervous.

"Then you have nothing to fear from me," She picked up the fork and cut off a piece of her vanilla cake, bringing it to her lips, she tasted it and felt her mood improve greatly from how good it was. "Provided that I can become a repeat customer, this cake is delicious! It just melts in your mouth and hits you with a flavor explosion." Her enthusiasm for his baking seemed to give him some confidence he lost when he thought she was gonna rat him out.

"Yeah, baking kinda runs in the family, my cousin is a student at U.A." He mentioned as she continued to happily eat the slice.

"Cousin, hold on," She recalled the festival and then the ride to the exam, she had a classmate that would fit the description of this baker. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about Sato."

The man's lit up at the mention of the name. "Rikido? Yeah, that's him. Man, I remember when he was still a little squirt. You know he couldn't decide if he wanted to be a baker or a hero, spent most of his summers in my kitchen." He laughed, recalling how the boy who got hit by puberty hard would always follow him around, soaking up whatever he could learn.

"He worked here?" The man shook his head.

"Not here, I didn't have my place back then, still worked with my father till about a year ago. That's when I bought this place and opened it." They came from a family of bakers, with both their parents having been born to bakers, so it was sort of in their blood. Rikido only followed after him as he didn't have siblings and his parents owned a much larger and busier bakery, so they didn't have time to supervise him like he did.

"Then why did you name it Jaune's?" She asked as she continued to enjoy her cake, finding the name choice odd since as far as she knew, which wasn't much she could admit, the only foreigner in her class as Aoyama, yet the name 'Jaune's' was very much not Japanese.

The baker got that question a lot, so like with those times, he merely shrugged. "Believe it or not, I got it from a story I read as a boy, just stuck with me and when I had to name the place, it felt right."

"Well, I hope that you continue to have success in the future. I'll let you get back to work, wouldn't want to annoy other customers by taking too much of your time." She stated, her curiosity satisfied.

"Enjoy your meal, mam!" The man waved as he went back to the kitchen to handle other orders, leaving her behind, bemused by just how strange the encounter was.

"Small world." She muttered as she went back to her meal. However, her good mood was ruined by the TV mounted up in the corner as it switched to the latest news, namely the police releasing an official casualty count for the Dagobah attack. Once that number was stated, she could feel the mood shift in the café as people first were horrified over such a loss of life, comparable to a natural disaster or a high-rise collapse than any villain attack, at least any from the last quarter century.

That horror turned to outrage, at the villains that committed the acts, to the commission for not seeing something like this coming and taking the necessary 'precautions' to stop him, to the heroes that weren't strong enough to stop the villains and save lives. She had to hide her snort with her sleeve as she wondered what the fool thought those precautions could have been. How could one prepare for something so unprecedented, so unlikely? However, as the horror shifted to outrage, it soon gave way to fear.

That was…quite the experience, seeing so many people display such a primal emotion. Fear might as well have been extinct in the age of All Might, in the age of a crippled God that protected the world, or at least, shined a light so bright it was easy to ignore the shadows that it cast, the darkness that it couldn't destroy. She recalled what he told her that day, on that roof. He did what he did to keep this fragile peace and ensure that people didn't realize just how dangerous the world was, but the way she saw it, he kept them blind to the dangers, helpless. And now?

Now, at least partially, that blindfold was slipping, and the people were realizing just how unprepared they were for the dangers that lurked in the shadows that slowly grew with each successful attack from the League. Fear was a fertile ground for change, for radical transformation.

Or perhaps she was letting Trumpet and Curious's ideas change her point of view, as she liked to believe that there was more to people than that, but what she saw around from the other patrons, even the staff was fear, anger and shock. She saw that in this moment, they could perhaps see the hints of the cracks in the current system, and might even support a radical change to it. To a better world.

'But did it have to come at such a cost? Does history need to repeat itself in that we need a tragic and great purge of life and happiness?' She knew that the MLA had no clue about the attack, she had no time to learn anything that could have hinted towards it, but she still felt like she could have done more. She had seen how those students, people her age fought and died, how they just wished to be worthy of the title of hero, to save lives in these trying times for their lives to be cut short by selfish villains who couldn't care for them, for the lives they took, the stories they cut short, for the families that would grieve.

She growled and, in her anger, she heard porcelain crack and shatter. Blinking, she saw to her embarrassment that she had broken the teacup, her finger snapping the handle like a twig, sending the rest of the cup to the tiled floor where it smashed to pieces. Looking up, she saw that others, including a waiter, saw this as she dug into her wallet and put a couple thousand yen into the table.

"Sorry."

After she scarfed down her meal and paid for her meal, with a large tip to apologies for the mess her tea made, she left. Walking through town, she couldn't help but find herself at old sites of memories, the apartment building she lived in for 14 years, the park where she used to play with the other kids, the forest where Bakugo fell into the steam where she tried to help him. While she sent messengers every 30 minutes as she promised, she found herself feeling…little at the sight of these old places. She expected fear, sorrow, rage, and even slight joy at the good times most of them represented, but she felt…content.

It was only when she came across the last place, that she felt anything major. As she stood outside the gates to her old middle school, which was closed for the summer, she felt both pity that a place of learning had fallen to such a cesspit, and joy at the fact that it was doubtful that it would last any longer. But that was it, leaving her wondering when she lost her emotions in connection to these places, or perhaps she had gotten to a point where such things didn't matter as much as they used to. Besides her mother, it wasn't like any of them meant any special to her, Bakugo hadn't been her friend for years, those old places were where a much younger Izuku would have had fun, but as she was now, they only brought bitter memories of a time long gone.

"No…I've changed, I'm not that girl anymore. I'm not the person that dreamt of being All Might's side-kick, of being close to Katsuki like we used to." She muttered, her eyes trained on a building that once brought her dread, now brought her apathy, if it were to crumble to dust right that second, she wouldn't lift a finger to stop it. However, as she turned to leave the misery place behind, she couldn't help but chuckle before laughing to herself as she recalled that if nothing else, it was here that her small crush on Bakugo died, she couldn't n believe she held onto such a thing for him till their first year in middle school.

As the afternoon went on, she found herself amongst the trash that was Takoba Municipal Beach Park. It was a familiar place, as she used to hide here from Bakugo and his lackeys whenever they found her on the weekends, they never bothered looking for her once they realized she vanished into the trash piles and discarded appliances. She cut herself more than a few times too. Lucky for her, she could thank the fact she had mutated blood as to why she never got sick, as she just saw it as blind luck the first time, and her treating the cuts with disinfectant afterwards. Having nowhere to sit, but seeing an old couch sticking out of a pile, she bulked up and pulled it free, sitting in a spot which had a good view of the water before plopping down, taking in the sight of the slowly setting sun's rays on the water's surface.

All that led to her in the present moment, relaxing as she took this moment of calm for all that it was worth. She felt calmed by the slow, steady movement of the water, her bulked form having long since faded as she. But her calm was interrupted by she heard what sounded like a plastic bottle being stepped on. Turning, she wondered who that could be, and why they would come to this place when she saw the knife coming her.

Reflex saved her left as she leaned back as far as she could, the knife sailing past where her throat just was. Landing in the sand and rolling to get back into her knee, she blinked but saw…no one. She saw what appeared to be the bottle that caused the noise, but it was quite a distance away, clueing her into the speed or reach of her would-be attacker.

She couldn't see or hear a thing but still bulked up to be on the sake side, her clothes being costumed made for her so that they grew with her just fine. As she looked about, trying to spot something, anything, she felt a disturbance behind her. Before she could react, she felt a weight-a person jump onto her, their legs crossing over her waist and an arm around her neck, she felt her haggled, labored breathed on her shoulder before a knife stabbed into her side, followed by what she interpreted by surprise from the fact the expected attack didn't penetrate nearly as deep as her assailant expected.

Using that surprise born from the fact her muscles were far stronger than most, she jumped with her back facing the ground, her assailant groaning as her full weight came down on them, pushing the knife deeper, but that was manageable. Rolling off them, she brought a kick down on where they should have been, only for her foot to crash into empty sand.

Her attacker, a girl going from her voice, was a fast one. Even when caught off guard, she still managed to move but this time, she didn't vanish, not immediately as Izuku saw a head of blonde hair before she disappeared from her sight again. Pulling the knife from her back, she tossed it into the water, far away from the reach of her attacker as she dashed off into the trash, it might limit her vision, but it would also limit from which direction she could be attacked. From what she could gather, whoever was trying to fight her was by themselves, had a meta-ability that seemed to allow them to vanish from sight, even when she was looking at her, and they favored bladed weapons, most likely due to the fact they couldn't hope to fight without one, and against her, one would need a strength augmentation style meta-ability to stand any chance.

Turning a corner, she found herself trapped, not unless she wished to climb over the piles, but that was part of the plan. As she thought, her attacker again tried to strike her back, and she was ready for it. As soon as felt their presence, she lowered one knee, before shoulder-checking them, getting a surprise and pained groan from them as they were sent rolling away, kicking up some dust from their body's impact with the sand.

Turning, Izuku was given a chance to view them in their entirety for the first time and was surprised by what she saw.

She had expected a league member, perhaps someone that had spotted her and managed to escape during the last attack, there to either try and capture her, in which case, she'd break them before handing them to the police, or they were there to try and take her life, which she would do onto them instead.

What she saw didn't match that.

Her attacker was shorter, shorter than her and wearing what appeared to be a schoolgirl uniform underneath a dirty beige cardigan, though her right sleeve was missing, revealing a bloodied arm that was poorly wrapped in bandages. It was the same story for her right leg only it appeared that the girl used the missing sleeve to wrap up her leg wound. She could tell the blonde wasn't putting much pressure on it as her knee looked like it was nearly smashed in, how she was still standing was anyone's guess at this point but Izuku would put her money on pure adrenaline and distress numbing whatever pain she must have been feeling

Her blonde hair was just as messy, styled into what must be two balls but one had fallen, covering parts of her face while the other was frayed and looked close to following suit. But what got her was her eyes. She didn't look like a villain from the Dagobah attack, she didn't even look like Overhaul's goons did, they each had some level of smugness, violent intent, malice or some combination of the three. This was one a crazed desperation, like she didn't so much see her as a person, but as something that she had to do, hard to kill to survive much like a starved predator might turn on its kind if it meant it could get a meal.

Izuku was wondering how this girl, who was in dire need of medical attention and seemingly running on fumes was able to sneak up on her when she drew another knife, this one from her thigh holster. She barred her teeth at her, revealing that her canines were unusually long, combined with the feline-like eyes added to that image of a cornered, injured and starved tiger she had in her mind.

"You're cute, that makes this even better." The girl spoke, her voice despite the circumstances, being pleasant and social, like they were about to just have a friendly chat about the weather and not battle as the blonde attacked her before she could even reply.

However, with the element of surprise gone, and the blonde not trying to sneak up on her anymore, her attacks were much easier for Izuku to handle, more than that, as she dodged one strike, a slash that would have hit her side, she noted that she fought like a feral animal as well as there was no rhyme or reason to her strikes, they just came with no plan on where or how they'll land them. Even when Izuku slipped up and swung too widely, leaving herself open, her attacker didn't take, couldn't take it as she was more focused on trying to go after her arm. She wasn't fighting in a way that allowed for the exploitation of openings unless by chance.

Izuku didn't even a win as it become clear in the first 20 seconds of the fight that she could just outlast her, as she did was keep her distance, swing at her to keep her from building any momentum, and forcing her to have to remain on her uninjured left leg, which meant that if Izuku focused on her right, she was constantly on the back-foot, her breaths coming out with an increased effort to them, growing labored as her already unrefined attacks grew sloppy and far too predictable to even dodge as Izuku caught her last one, grabbing her extended hand tight enough that she hissed and dropped her weapon, Izuku didn't need to wait this long, but she didn't wish to make the girl suffer more then she already did and cocked back a fist to knock her out and then hand her to the police.

That was her plan, but then she looked into the girl's eyes and saw within those yellow feline eyes something different. She didn't just see crazy, or bloodlust, she also saw a deep sense of fear, exhaustion, anger and desperation for someone more than what she had, to what life gave her. Those eyes… reminded her of her own, every time she looked in the mirror, she saw that look. She didn't know this girl, she didn't even know her name but at that moment, a part of her told her that if she didn't act, she'll be turning her back on someone in need, and she refused to do that, to be like the people that left her to dry because she was the quirkless brat with delusions of grandeur, of rising above the station society thought was her place.

She dropped her fist, much to the shock of the girl but she surprised her yet again as she pulled her in and tossed her over her shoulder onto her stomach, climbing on top of her to keep her from trying to flee. The blonde started to struggle, but Izuku wrapped her arms around her neck, putting her into a classic sleeper hold, from there it didn't take long for the already injured and exhausted blonde to fall prey to it, passing out. Izuku didn't take chances and ripped her sleeves to tie up her attacker's wrists and ankles together, before she did a quick check to inspect for more weapons and found that she had another 4, one an old box-cutter.

Getting up, she allowed her bulked-up form to fade as he pulled out her phone, common sense dictated that she report this, and call the heroes or the police, but this wasn't a common situation and she didn't trust them anywhere near enough to believe they could help this girl like she believed she needed. So instead, she went into her phone's files, searching around through multiple other folders before, buried deep into one, she saw a little digital note. Opening that, with needed a password and fingerprint scan, she found the numbers for a list of MLA safehouses and agents which Curious had given her, looking through the addresses of them, she found the closest one and dialed it.

"Hello, who is this?" The person on the other end asked, getting straight to the point and sounding incredibly annoyed that someone had called, which made sense as the odds of this being important and not a wrong number case were pretty low.

"It's Midoriya." She identified herself, looking around to ensure that she was alone.

"Who?" Oh yeah, she nearly forgot. It took a moment, but she recalled what she was meant to say in this situation.

"I'm a Curious girl, one that believes clubs should serve more drinks from the southern regions of France." She started the code password check, which she could tell got the attention of the other person as their tone shifted. Not enough to alert suspicion unless you were listening for it, but enough.

"How come."

"Because they always have a nice little taste of blue to them." She found it funny that her password was a joke based on the fact her Lady and mentor, Curious had blue skin and the tib-bit that she hated alcoholic drinks.

She'll have to laugh about that later as her password worked as the man's tone shifted to a professional one. "What do you need?"

"I need a pick up from the location I'm sending you. Get her quirk but it's not an emergency, prepare for two as I'm bringing someone that needs to get a doctor to look at them." She looked up the address to be right before telling the man where she was. If he had any thoughts on how she was asking that he pick them up from what was a junkyard, he didn't say, nor did he question why she wanted to bring someone that attacked her to a secure secret safe house. Hopefully, it wouldn't take much explaining once there as she had her suspicions that her…guest wouldn't appreciate being kidnapped but if she could give her a chance after she tried to kill her, then her attacker could try and give her a chance for the kidnapping.

"We'll be there in 15." The man replied, getting Izuku to nod.

"Got it, see you then." She hung up on him, looking towards the sea and the sun that now looked to be minutes away from setting, wondering if this only happened because she wanted to have something to do in her spare time.

Hopefully, this didn't become a thing as she would rather be bored than get attacked every time she left the house.

Shorter than normal yes, but the chapter managed to convey what I wanted which was the first onscreen appearance of Himiko Toga! No joke, she is one of my favourite villains, in between Shigaraki and Dabi as while Flame Demon is the physical form of Endeavour's mistakes, and Decay-Despot is the representation of the failure of All Might's ideals for society, Toga is the representation of the failure of that society, with little input from heroes. Her past stems from the very real idea that people would try and box off quirks into 'normal' and 'not normal', something that most people don't think about when they think of a world of superpowers. Sure, we got that with Shinso, but his strong desire to be a hero is what kept him above water, so to speak.

Toga as far as we know, ever wanted to be a hero, she wasn't allowed to want anything because her wants included things society, even over a century since the first quirk, was too outdated to see as anything but 'bad' or 'villainous' so she wore a mask, a false front for the world because that was what the world wanted from her and she wore it…till it broke. My only issue with how she's handled, at least as far as the anime is concerned, is the narrative choice to make her rival Uraraka as there's really nothing there. No deeper connection like with Shoto and Dabi, or thematic parallels like Shiggy and Izuku, there's just…their shared love for Deku. Maybe, but that's pretty weak and barely factors into things, a better choice, at least to be would have been Shinso primarily for how society viewed their quirks, quirks that are a part of them-but not the entirety of their characters.

Next chapter will be out November 8th , but if you want to read it early, head on over to my p-a-t-r-e-o-n at p-a-t-r-e-o-n / Ducksmakegreatminers, every cent counts and even if you join at the lowest tier, it will help me a lot in improving this.

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