It took all of three seconds for Todoroki to realize Midoriya must have forgotten to visit Recovery Girl before class when he spotted the fact her ankle was still taped up.
Unfortunately, so did Bakugo.
"Geez, you hopeless idiot! Did you trip over your stupid feet again?" he said loudly.
Midoriya flinched, and the way she did so brought to mind several unpleasant memories of his mother right before the incident. It didn't paint a happy picture at all.
"Gods Bakugo, can you be any less of a complete asshole?" said Yaoyorozu in disgust. His attitude towards someone as sweet and gentle as Hikari really pissed her off. Especially the way Hikari reacted.
Aizawa walked in, took one look at Midoriya and openly frowned.
"I thought I told you to visit Recovery Girl before class Midoriya."
Hikari winced.
"She's stupid enough to trip on her own feet trying to get there," sneered Bakugo.
Aizawa glared at him.
"One more comment like that and I am downgrading you to General Studies."
That pissed off Bakugo.
"Why?!" he demanded.
"There are many things I do not tolerate, and abuse happens to be at the top of that list. I don't know or care how your previous teachers treated you because of your flashy quirk, but in UA there is a zero tolerance to bullying and harassment. Especially if it's proven to be a detriment to the victim's studies."
Yaoyorozu raised her hand.
"Sir...why would Hikari need to visit Recovery Girl before class?"
"She was practicing her quirk last night under my supervision when there was a minor accident. Recovery Girl had already gone home and it was a minor sprain, so I sent Midoriya home with strict instructions to visit the nurse before class today."
That seemed to ease the worries of the students, but it was Bakugo's reaction that made Aizawa leery.
"She probably tripped on her feet again."
"What makes you claim that?" asked Aizawa calmly.
"She's always coming in with sprained ankles and shit. Everyone knows she's a total klutz," said Bakugo dismissively.
Todoroki was pissed, partially because of his dismissive attitude but also because he was drawing some rather uncomfortable parallels between Midoriya and his mother.
"Actually she was performing a really complicated ice skating set when I startled her and she landed wrong," said Todoroki flatly. He was still surprised there was an ice-skating rink in the UA of all things, but he wasn't going to comment on it.
Ochako spoke up at that point, face brightening.
"Oh yeah! You said you sent the wrong sketch in, didn't you Hikari? I should have guessed you were a really good skater if you were making an outfit to go pro!"
That made the other girls nod.
"That loser, skate? I'll believe it when I see it," sneered Bakugo.
Hikari wilted in her seat. Skating was one of her few hobbies, and she didn't want it tainted by Bakugo's cruel words.
Aizawa's glare was enough to shut Bakugo up, but the damage was done.
Todoroki volunteered to take Hikari to the nurse's office, while Aizawa pulled out a form from his desk. While Bakugo had a lot of potential to be a hero, his attitude and behavior wasn't enough to off-set it.
He could tell keeping Hikari in the same class as the explosive boy was only doing more harm than good, and right now what Bakugo needed wasn't more training but a slap to his overgrown ego.
Aizawa wasn't about to let this abusive behavior continue under his watch, or turn a blind eye to the fact Bakugo's ego and pride was clearly out of control.
The next morning...
It took the students a few moments to register that Bakugo was beyond late to homeroom.
"Has anyone seen Bakugo this morning?" asked Mina.
Hikari shook her head.
Aizawa walked in, looking slightly irritable.
Seeing everyone was in class, he waited for the inevitable questions.
"Quiet down," he said calmly. Everyone settled. "As I'm sure you've noticed by now, one of you is missing. Rest assured Bakugo Katsuki is still a member of UA...however effective immediately he has been bumped down to General Studies until next year at the most."
"Why was he reassigned?" asked Iida, asking the question everyone was dying to know.
Not that they were complaining, mind you. Bakugo was an ass.
Aizawa looked exhausted.
"One of the things UA does not and will not ever tolerate is abuse. The principal hopes that removing him from the vicinity of his main victim will give them both a chance to move past the bad habits formed due to the incompetence of their previous teachers."
Hikari wilted slightly, realizing he meant her. Still it gave her hope that the teachers at UA had recognized Bakugo was rather cruel towards her and had made sure to put them in different classrooms.
What she didn't know was that her previous school was effectively blacklisted from sending in applications, since they had white-washed the fact Bakugo was a complete bully and that she was his primary victim. They never would have put the two into the same class had that come to light.
Hikari found herself surrounded by her incredibly supportive classmates.
After classes...
Hikari approached Aizawa.
"Sir, why did you move Bakugo to the general studies?"
"Have you ever heard of battered woman syndrome?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"You were displaying several of the warning signs of being 'abused' by your former classmate. The only reason he wasn't expelled outright was the fact that there was a chance the main reason he had such bad habits was because the teachers at your last school never corrected his attitude problem and inflated his ego because of his quirk. We're hoping keeping you two in different classes will allow him to mature a bit without having his usual victim around."
The principal had agreed with it only because Bakugo had never physically abused Hikari, only verbally attacked her. The hope was that removing him from the same class as her would allow her to heal properly and gain enough self-confidence that she could fight back against such behavior.
The abuse had done enough damage in the fact that everyone had assumed she was quirkless for so long.
Seeing her expression, he was quick to assure her (in his own way) that it wasn't her fault.
"This entire mess can be pinned on your former teachers. If they hadn't put so much emphasis on his quirk and spent more time doing their jobs, things wouldn't have gotten this bad. Any decent teacher would have noticed Bakugo's obvious bullying and the way he convinced others to join in and put a stop to it long before now."
Hikari was visibly unhappy...but the fact was she believed him. She remembered how the others had reacted to her application being accepted to the UA exam, despite the fact her cramps kept her home that day.
Bakugo had been extra vicious the next morning. And it wasn't hard to recall what a complete bastard her old homeroom teacher had been, with his snide comments about how she shouldn't even try for pro hero because she was "quirkless".
"Don't blame yourself for his behavior," said Aizawa firmly.
"I don't. I blame the fact our current society puts too much emphasis on flashy quirks and the fact our old teachers were all complete idiots who were all too happy to praise him because of his quirk and the fact he had the highest chance to get into UA because of it," said Hikari. "Never mind the fact none of them ever questioned my claim of being 'clumsy' for the fact I kept coming to class with minor injuries that I got from practicing the harder skating moves."
Even so, Aizawa kept a close eye on her. Fortunately it seemed they caught this in time, because she appeared to be healing and developing more confidence in herself with Bakugo transferred to another class. Learning the teachers would never assign them to the same class again had helped a lot too.
"Did something good happen today?" asked Inko. Her daughter seemed considerably more cheerful since yesterday.
"Aizawa-sensei transferred Bakugo to the General Education course and made it clear that the teachers wouldn't put us in the same class ever again," said Hikari.
Inko was not oblivious enough to miss the hidden subtext in her words. Clearly the teachers at UA had finally noticed the bullying her poor daughter had to endure and had taken steps to correct it.
The sheer relief in Hikari's voice alone said volumes of how happy she was that she wouldn't be stuck in the same class as Bakugo ever again.
"What did the teachers say about the outfit mix-up?"
Hikari blinked.
"I completely forgot about that. It was surprisingly easy to move in and it suits my quirk better than the original one I designed, even if I only drew it up for when I got enough sponsors later," said Hikari.
Inko was rather confused.
"I thought your quirk was some sort of strength power? How would an ice-skating uniform suit that?"
Hikari winced.
"That was something I developed later... I never wanted to say anything because of the cat."
Inko didn't need any further clues to guess why her daughter kept quiet. She had always been horribly upset and oddly guilty about the fact Mrs. Ishigaki had lost her cat to unknown circumstances. Inko had put her foot down on the woman's presence after hearing her daughter cry over it.
"Oh dear. I'm sorry you went through being labeled as quirkless for all these years because of that horrible woman," said Inko, hugging her daughter. Hikari hugged her back twice as hard.
A week later...
Aizawa kept silent on the surprise some of the class had in store for Hikari.
Recovery Girl had made it clear she wanted Hikari to get used to using her ice quirk in public. To that end she wanted to slowly get Hikari used to having others watching her quirk in action.
Which to Hikari meant that they had to watch or possibly even join in on the ice skating rink she created with her quirk.
It was lucky that Hikari wasn't doing any difficult moves when five of them came in. And that Recovery Girl knew before hand that they would be interrupting her set. This time if she had an accident she would be on hand to fix her up.
Hikari stumbled a bit, but at least this time she didn't sprain her ankle when her classmates startled her.
"Oh wow! You said you were good, but I had no idea you were this good!" said Ochako enthusiastically.
"Seriously girl, now I get why you said you wanted to go pro!" said Mina.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"Recovery Girl's idea," said Aizawa. "She wants you to get acclimatized to using your ice quirk around others."
"So you used your quirk to make an ice rink? That's pretty creative," said Momo.
"Easiest way to train my quirk without the adults or worse, Bakugo finding out what it was."
"So what all can you do with your quirk?" asked Ochako.
Hikari sent a blast of ice to their feet. It took them a few seconds to realize she had just made ice skates for her friends.
"That is seriously cool," said Mina.
"Can I get a pair of spiked boots? My skating ability isn't that great," asked Iida.
"Sure. You can sit with Aizawa-sensei, since he has a pair too," said Hikari. A quick blast of her quirk had him in spiked boots.
Hikari slowly began to relax as she guided her classmates in a quick skating lesson.
Todoroki had the easiest time of it. Then again he had dabbled in using his quirk to make an ice rink a few times before...at least until Endeavor found out about his hobby and effectively ruined it for him.
Hikari stared at him for a few moments when she realized he was doing some of the harder moves with ease.
"Ever try doing some of the paired moves?" she asked.
Todoroki blinked and stared at her.
"Paired moves...? You mean like partnered skating?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Do it!" said Ochako enthusiastically.
"Yeah! It would be awesome seeing the two of you skate together! Especially with how good you are already solo!" said Mina.
And it might tip the scales towards the two getting together, which would be awesome since it meant the girls would have something to gossip about and watch.
Todoroki looked intrigued at the idea.
"If you're going to do it, then wait till the weekend. You've already spent enough time here today," said Aizawa.