Rinko woke up smiling the day after her three day break, stretching after she slipped out of bed and walked over to her bathroom.
Shaking herself before searching for the light switch once she saw she forgot to turn the light on.
Once she did have the light to see Rinko grabbed one her gel tubs, popped the lid and dumped the powder in her tub, then turned on the water and put on her elbow long gloves.
Grabbing the large stirring spoon and mixed the contents of the tub until she had the texture was right and turned the water off.
Her gel bath ready she grabbed her bottle of special shampoo, undressed then got into her bath and got to work cleaning herself.
The non-conductive gel mix keeping her from getting an electrical burn when she brushed against any of the metal fixtures while she carefully got her dry shampoo all over her hair, making sure to get as much of the powder in it.
Finishing up she got out and used wet wipes to get all of the gel off before shaking and brushing out all of her dry shampoo, getting her U.A. uniform on afterwards then putting her hair into two low ponytails.
Walking downstairs she practically hopped down the stairs and turned into the kitchen, and she hugged her dad from behind.
"Hey, hey! Calm down kiddo! You almost made me spill the whole bottle in the pot." He told her pushing her off of him gently.
Rinko pouted for a second until she saw her dad was making and perked up "Ooh, we're having stew for breakfast?" she asked, and he chuckled ruffling her hair.
"Sure enough, now sit your butt down Princess and let me finish, will you?" he jokingly told her to do as he added some more paprika to the pot.
Rinko huffed bemused but sat at the aisle in the kitchen either way.
"Considering you're up at a reasonably time I guess your excited to get back to school today?" her dad guessed glancing back at her.
"Yep! You remember the girl I told you about from my class? The Russian girl? Turns out she speaks English too and I can't wait to actually talk to her for once." Rinko answered.
"Hm, the Gromova girl, right? She placed third, didn't she?" He asked to make sure he was thinking of the right person.
"Yeah her! I'm hoping now that we can talk, we can be friends." Rinko confirmed, grabbing some bowls since her dad would be finished soon.
"Just try not to overwhelm the girl, Princess." he playfully warned her and she punched him on the shoulder.
"I won't dad." she replied then sat down and enjoyed breakfast together.
Once she was finished with breakfast she got her bag, double checked it was packed with everything she'd need, then she hugged her dad before leaving to walk to school.
She could've waited for her dad to drive her, but she wanted to get herself more used to walking around for longer distances like she would for patrolling.
She had a pretty good sense of navigation so long as her vertigo didn't make her topple over.
An unfortunate side-effect of walking though was seeing a lot more people than normal and the tv broadcasts talking about the festival still much to her irritation.
She couldn't believe that people were still talking about it.
Rinko just felt it all really outlined the problems with Japan since everyone just seemed to be upset over Deku-Sensei being quirkless, which was so stupid.
The only things that people seemed to want to talk about now days was how Deku-Sensei shouldn't be employed at U.A. and that he was somehow corrupting their children.
It would be comical how much they were trying to blame everything on Deku-Sensei if they weren't being serious.
She hoped that Deku-Sensei would accept her apology for stirring the pot so much at the festival.
She did not regret her stance nor the protest she led, but she did feel bad about Deku-Sensei getting even more heat from her actions.
As strong as he was Deku-Sensei wasn't invulnerable, it was something she forgot at times with how collected and professional he was, but Deku-Sensei was kid like her and younger than her to boot.
And having just about everyone talking shit about you could not be pleasant in any way shape or form.
At least he had some people that were on his side.
Hawks for insistence defended Deku-Sensei every time someone brought him up and was even more passionate on Mic-Sensei's radio show.
And the other people on staff at U.A. also backed him up.
So, he had them and the students at least.
However, Rinko reserved the right to be miffed every time she saw someone slandering Deku-Sensei, and to pout about it without being called childish.
She was able to make it all the way to the school building without being jumped by the swarms of reporters.
She did see them in front of the gates, but Machida had quietly waved her over and led her to another entrance.
"Geeze, those bloodhounds are still out there? They better clear out soon cause I don't think Principal Nezu will tolerate them for much longer." Machida commented, looking much better than when she did after the festival.
"Have they been out there long?" Rinko asked the other girl.
"Yeah, nearly two hours now, dad and I only got past them cause of the staff entrance this way." Machida told her, jabbing a thumb over to... Lunch Rush?
"Lunch Rush? Your dad's Lunch Rush?" Rinko exclaimed and Machida nodded.
"Yep, don't really tell people though, they get all weird about it and ask me why I don't want to be a hero like him since he adopted me when I was pretty young." Machida explained crossing her arms.
"Or try to use me to get food from him." she blatantly added, wincing when she couldn't stop her tail from moving due to her irritation.
"Your tail, okay? I heard it wasn't broken-broken but still," Rinko asked eyeing the cast like sleeve on the appendage.
"It'll take a couple weeks to heal up enough to take the cast off, some of the vertebrae got cracked bad but Recovery Girl fixed most of it and I want the rest to heal naturally." Machida explained with a shrug.
Rinko nodded, it probably be for the better to let the rest heal up naturally.
Her dad had warned her that while healing quirks did help people that she should only use them as a last resort.
Mainly since a healing quirk usually only sped up the process and if there was a problem it could cause who knows how much trouble.
Her dad for instance had to get out of the hero game himself because of one such case, though she should probably be thankful for that since she wouldn't have been born otherwise.
Shaking her head she didn't focus on that and said goodbye to Machida before rushing up to her classroom.
Spending the next half hour greeting her classmates and asking about what they did over the break.
Making sure to pull Gromova into the conversation by switching over to English, letting the rest of their class know she was fluent so they could talk with her too now.
She was not the only person happy to finally have a conversation with Gromova, Chen even let Gromova borrow her talkie since it had an English setting so she could reply without opening her mouth.
She and everyone else in class noticed that Gromova didn't like opening her mouth, and of course, they all respected that... well, if someone in their class didn't, then they knew better than to say it at least.
Regardless, they spent all of the morning before sitting down at their desks bonding with their Russian classmate whom they couldn't speak with before.
She was even planning to do a class-wide watch party for the cartoon that Gromova mentioned when they were talking, with Machida to be invited as well, of course.
However, like normal they got to their seats two minutes before class started, Bullet-Sensei had already made sure to get the importance of punctuality across to everyone in class already.
And sure enough, before the bell rang, the door to the classroom slammed open, making a few of them jump out of reflex while Bullet-Sensei and Deku-Sensei walked into the room.
"Good morning, brats. I saw the spectacle you lot turned the sports festival into." Bullet-Sensei commented, her cold blue eyes landing on her specifically.
"If you plan on having any more protests like that, Haku, save it for next year so I don't have to deal with the vultures clogging up the gates." Bullet-Sensei told her pointedly.
"Hai Sensei." she replied, slightly guilty cause most of the classes probably did have to deal with the reporters harassing them because of what she said.
"Normally, I'd be telling you a lot about the number of offers you have gotten from the festival and then some big speech about how you need to be careful with choosing your codename." Bullet-Sensei stated, then crossed her arms.
"However, I clearly need to give you lot a different but equally important talk." Bullet-Sensei commented, grabbing the white pen and writing on the blackboard, making her heart sink a little.
'When to take a stand?'
"Now, before you brats get ahead of yourselves," Bullet-Sensei said as she leaned back against the board.
"What Haku did was mind-numbingly brave to the point of sheer stupidity, and god knows those idiots in the stands needed someone to back hand them long before now." Bullet-Sensei spat, making Rinko feel slightly better.
"However, it is important to understand that taking a stand like Haku's could also end up hurting the people you're trying to defend." Bullet-Sensei explained.
"As counter intuitive as this might sound, there will be times bringing more attention to an issue will only end up in making things worse." Bullet-Sensei told them.
"For instance, take the animal rights movement," Bullet-Sensei said then brought up a graph that was prepared in advance for them.
"In the beginning it was an issue that needed much more attention to save animals from fighting rings, factory farms, and breeding mills." Bullet-Sensei commented, pointing to the first pie chart.
"But in the early 2100s the animal rights movement reached peaks where complete crap started being circulated and eaten up, leading to people abusing their animals. I am sure you all know the 'Herbalism group' in one way or another." Bullet-Sensei continued to explain, pointing to the other pie chart.
Rinko frowned, hearing the group name come up, oh, did she know them...
The 'Herbalism group' was one of a few that protested carnivorism in every way, and were famous for stealing animals from farms that supply live prey and releasing them into the 'wild', and even going so far as to vandalize the homes of predator-quirked people and claiming that predatory animals were just herbivores forced to eat meat and could survive on plant-based diets.
"One of the major problems with speaking out on an issue, especially the ones you care the most about, is how it could affect the victims. Every time a minority issue is brought forward, it will face opposition. This is inevitable." Bullet-Sensei warned, turning off the screen.
"Interracial marriage, equal rights regardless of your skin color, slavery, and in more modern times human rights for the those with, or without quirks." Bullet-Sensei listed off for them, waving her hand dismissively.
"And as someone that will be treated as a public figure, whenever you drag such issues to the public forefront, you risk incentivizing radicals from both sides of the fence," Bullet-Sensei informed them.
"Or worse, you risk infantilizing the minority or the group, forcing pity onto people that don't fucking need it. Many disabled people have been through such a thing, and I will be requiring you to read a book about this problem specifically." Bullet-Sensei told them, then snapped her fingers, and Deku-Sensei started going through the rows, putting a book on each desk.
Rinko glanced down at the book once it was placed on her desk and saw the pink and white silhouette of a woman in a wheelchair and a title that read.
'Surviving life'
"It's written by a woman that survived one of the big villain fights in the last decade. I expect an essay on this book when you lot come back from your internships," Bullet-Sensei instructed them.
"Hai Sensei." they replied together as a class.
"Good, now get your ass in here Midnight and help the brats pick their names." Bullet-Sensei shouted at the door, which Midnight-Sensei did, though she was more subdued than normal.
"Heya kiddos, ready to pick your codenames?" Midnight-Sensei asked.
No hate of vegan/vegetarian folk out there, but you have to admit there are some crazies in the community that make Sam Manson and her ultra-recyclable vegan diet look sane in comparison, and that for all she was eating sandwiches of grass she never tried to convince a cat to go vegan.