"Midori! Midori, you're hereeeeee!"

'Thump!'

Mina crashed into her friend, nearly sending the both of them tumbling through the street. She felt him stiffen up at her embrace, and she pulled back, not so much to give him space but more to see if—yup. Midori's face had gone from its normal pale hue to brilliant, steaming red. She couldn't admire it for too long though, as Yaomomo smashed into them with a wordless squee and pulled them both into a hug, and Mina just enjoyed her spot in the middle.

After a few moments, Yaomomo let them go. "Today really is turning out to be a wonderful day. First Ashido arrives, and now you're here, Midoriya!"

Midori grinned, and Mina caught a hint of those famous Midori tears at the corner of his eyes. "Here I am? Here you are! Beedle had said that he would redirect you guys here, but I didn't think we would find you so soon!"

"Yeah, Beedle helped me get here," Mina said. "He mentioned that you were with All Might too? I don't see him; is he somewhere else right now?"

"N-no, he's here…" Midori fidgeted in place, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. Mina cocked her head to the side, but before she could ask him what was wrong, someone spoke from behind him.

"It's all right, Young Midoriya. There's no way I would have been able to keep my secret here."

'Keep a secret?' Mina looked at the speaker and found herself face to face with what looked like a blond skeleton. She could have sworn that she'd never met him before, but something about his voice was hauntingly familiar. If it were a little more energetic, and if his hair were a bit pointier, he would make a good skeletal impersonation of…

Her eyes widened at the same time as Yaomomo's gasp. "A-All Might?" Yaomomo asked.

The skeleton man nodded. "I'm afraid so, Young Yaoyorozu."

Mina looked back and forth between the two, hoping that they would start joking, but neither of them laughed. "Okay, wow, this is a lot to take in. What happened to you guys? I knew this was a different world, but I didn't know there was stuff here that could skeletize you!"

"This was not a result of anything we encountered on the road," All Might said, shaking his head. "This is from an old injury. It's a long story."

Yaomomo placed her hands on her hips. "Well, I think we all have the time to hear it, especially since it seems Midoriya already knows."

All Might and Midori winced, and Mina nodded internally. Midori had opened his mouth when she had mentioned skeletizing people, but had closed it when All Might started talking. Either All Might had told him, or he had figured it out himself earlier. Either way, Mina wanted to know more about what had happened.

"W-well, we should definitely catch up, but we need to wait until Link gets back," Midori stammered, his blush finally fading.

Mina cocked her head to the side. "Who's Link?"

Midori was saved from having to answer by someone calling his name. The group turned toward the call, and Mina's eyes widened. Link, it turned out, was a hunky blond guy. He looked like he was maybe a little less muscular than Midori, and he had these stunning blue eyes that matched his tunic. There was a dangerous grace to the way he walked—maybe it had something to do with how his hands always seemed ready to jump to the sword on his back, or how he seemed to watch everything—and Mina shivered a little. All Might, Mr. Aizawa, Thirteen—those were heroes. This man carried himself like a warrior.

"Wow. That's a guy right there," she whistled.

"Yes, he most certainly is…"

Mina glanced up at her friend and grinned when she saw the faint blush on Yaomomo's face as she stared at the approaching warrior. 'Looks like Todoroki might have some competition.'

As Link rejoined the group, Mina bounded over to him and shook his hand. "Pleased ta meet'cha! I'm Ashido Mina, and this is Yaoyorozu Momo. You're Midori's friend Link, right?"

The blond recoiled, and from the nonplussed look on his face, Mina was willing to bet that he hadn't met someone quite like her before. "Erm, yes, I'm Link. You two are Midoriya's friends, then? I recognize you from his description, though I didn't realize how… intense the black eyes would be."

Mina grinned. "Intense. Ooh, I like that. I think we're gonna get along just fine. We were just saying that we needed to catch up with these guys; why don't we all head up the road? There's a diner that Yaomomo just showed me that has some tasty food. We can eat and chat there."

"Yes, you all must be hungry. We want to hear about your adventures, and we have some theories we want to run by you," Yaomomo added.

Midori and Link's eyes lit up at the mention of food, and All Might chuckled. "I think that that is a fine idea. Let's go get some food and swap stories. We can plan our next move after."

Mina sat back in her chair. "Wow, that's, like, totally crazy, you guys! I'm glad you made it here all right!"

"Indeed. From your account, the roads are perhaps not as safe as I had been led to believe," Yaomomo added.

Midori rubbed his head, face flushed, and Mina grinned again. She couldn't believe that she had found two of her friends already! And All Might was here! He might have to spend most of his time as a gross lich now, but he was here with them, so that meant that they were totally okay.

Then there was Link. Mina felt her grin slip as she thought about the story that he and Midori had just told them. Not remembering who you were had to suck. Finding out that you were basically the country's only hero and had to stop the Big Bad also stunk. It was probably a good thing that he'd run into All Might so early on; given how his career had developed, the pro probably had some ideas of how to help the knight. Her eyes drifted over to Momo, and her grin returned. The poor girl had barely been able to keep her eyes off Link since his arrival. Todoroki definitely had some competition.

Her attention snapped back across the table as Midori stammered his way into speech. "It-it wasn't all bad. I had All Might and Link with me. It sounds like you two had a much harder time, since you didn't wake up near anyone."

"I mean, yeah, it was lonely," Mina said, "but I got to meet some cool people! If we ever go down south again, we'll have to stop by Lurelin so I can introduce you to my Hylian mom."

"It was disheartening, I will admit," Yaomomo agreed. "Luckily, Miss Purah has kept me busy helping with her research. We've—"

"You know Purah?"

Mina huffed as Link leaned forward, eyes burning with laser-like focus. 'He could have waited until Yaomomo was done talking.'

Yaomomo didn't seem too upset at the interruption, though Mina did notice some red creeping into her cheeks. "Y-yes, I was going to mention it when you said you were looking for her. I woke up on the bench outside her research lab. She and her assistant took me in, and I've been helping to reverse an accident that befell her ever since. Actually," she said, perking up, "wait! You're Link! Purah has been waiting for you to wake up. I need to get back and let her know, as well as bring this flame up. I was gathering the final supplies needed to initiate the experiment when I ran into Ashido."

That seemed to be all the invitation Link needed. He was on his feet and bouncing from foot to foot before Yaomomo was done talking. "Excellent. Let's get going then. Hylia knows I could use some more good news."

Midori laughed and hauled himself up, and Mina followed suit. She fell in behind him and Link as they started up the hill after Yaomomo. She pouted to herself when the two immediately launched into a discussion of some kind—it seemed like a combat analysis, which wasn't too surprising given that Midori was involved. She had wanted to catch up more with her little green friend, but that looked like it wasn't going to happen yet. As she walked though, she started to realize that there was something different about him.

Her time in Lurelin had been peaceful and productive. One of the things Mama Erim had managed to hammer into her was to stop and listen. She had explained that one could use the skill in a multitude of ways, like determining minute changes in the weather, or detecting the undercurrent of a crowd. So as she walked, she tried to just observe her friend.

What she saw surprised her a little. Where before he had been nervous, she now saw confidence. He was more easygoing. He still had his moments—he'd broken down into mutterings at least once while telling his story with Link—but overall he seemed much more in control of himself.

Mina shook her head. She'd seen a little of this when they had gone to save Bakugo, but it was like comparing a sapling with a plum tree.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

She jumped and glanced beside her. All Might was watching her, and he nodded toward Midori when he saw that he had her attention. "Young Midoriya's come a long way. He's learning to trust himself more and to rely on the strength of others. He and Young Link have grown much in these past two weeks—much as I imagine you have yourself."

Her cheeks flushed, and she looked down. "I don't know about that. I was mostly panicking or trying not to panic the entire time."

"Hey," All Might stepped over and crouched down in front of her, forcing her to stop, "don't put yourself down like that. Look at what you've accomplished. You woke up on top of a mountain, wandered your way to a village where you made yourself useful helping with the local fishing and fending off monsters, and then you learned to sail. You've befriended a merchant and found a surrogate mother to lean on in moments of loneliness. You traveled, if I'm understanding correctly, dozens, maybe over a hundred, kilometers to get here, all on your own power. That doesn't seem like panic to me, Young Ashido."

Mina felt her eyes burning and quickly scrubbed at them. "Th-thanks, All Might. I think I needed that," she sniffled.

All Might nodded and patted her shoulder. "We expect a lot from you kids, what with you being our future defenders and all, and I know that you all feel that responsibility. Sometimes though, I think we all—the heroes, civilians, and even you kids—forget that you are still kids. You're doing amazingly well given all that you've been through."

"You know, I think I said something similar when we were concocting the plan to save Bakugo," Mina chuckled wetly, wiping at her eyes again.

"Good. Shows that there's hope for you all yet." All Might stood up and dusted himself off. "Now, let's catch up to the others. I would very much like to meet this Purah."

Mina nodded and, turning, started hiking up the hill. "Well, let's go meet her then! And All Might, I wanna hear more about how you got turned into a gross lich guy. You gave us a bit of a run-down, but I don't think that's the entire story."

All Might chuckled hollowly. "All in time, Young Ashido."

The two hurried after their friends, or rather, hurried as much as All Might could in his emaciated state. Mina grew more worried the farther out of town they got. The hike, while a bit steep, wasn't too challenging for her, but that was probably because they needed to stop every so often to let All Might catch his breath. She could understand—he was missing part of his respiratory system, after all—but she had no idea how he was going to keep up when things started getting crazy again.

At least the view was nice. The path rose well above the town and gave an excellent view of the valleys and mountains on the one side—Mina could even see a small village of some kind at the base of the mountain, probably the one where Midori and Co. had spent the night. On the other side, she could see out into Hateno harbor and beyond to the great ocean. The cliffs dropped away abruptly, and while she had seen the sheer cliff face on the boat ride in, it was another thing entirely to be standing on the other side looking down. She wasn't afraid of heights, but she did stick closer to the valley side of the road, just to be safe.

Eventually, they caught up to the others at one of the standing lanterns that were scattered along the edge of the path every couple dozen meters or so. Like mini street lights, each one they had passed glowed with blue fire, and Mina caught up (All Might had waved her ahead while he paused for breath) just in time to see Yaomomo light another one with the weird fire she had taken from the furnace. The last one, actually. Mina looked further up the hill and realized that they were almost to the lab, and now that she was closer, she could see what a truly bizarre building it was.

It was, Mina realized, probably what she had thought was a lighthouse when sailing through the bay. If it was, then its days of lighthousing were in the past. The central structure was a tower made in the old style, with off-white walls and red roof. There was what looked like a ramp or stairs spiraling around the outside up to the top, where some kind of machine was draped over the roof.

Closer to the ground, it was clear that the occupants had made some additions, expanding the base of the tower into a square-ish structure with the same off-white walls and red roof, though it looked like a few of the walls still needed painting. Mounted on the roof was the single largest telescope that Mina had ever seen. It looked like the outside of that ancient shrine by Lurelin and was pointed down the valley toward central Hyrule instead of up into the sky.

It was, Mina decided, exactly the kind of place that would be the laboratory for a mad scientist. She wondered if the occupants lived up to that reputation.

Midori wasn't talking with Link anymore either. The blond was staring up at the lab with a look on his face that Mina couldn't quite interpret. Wistfulness? Ennui? Come to think of it, could people feel ennui? Mina shook her head and left him to his brooding while she talked with Midori, who looked up as she got closer.

"There you are, Ashido!" Midori said. "W-we were talking, and then I turned around and you weren't there. Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, we're fine," she replied, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. "All Might's been having some issues with the climb, so we took a few breaks along the way."

Midori slapped his head. "Of course he was. I got so caught up in my talk with Link that I completely forgot about All Might's difficulty with slopes."

"I've gotta admit, I'm a little worried for him," Mina said, turning slightly to look back down the hill at her teacher, who was back on his feet and slowly meandering toward them. "From what I've seen, Hyrule seems to be pretty mountainous. I don't know that he'll make it if we keep pushing."

"Agreed."

Mina jumped at Yaomomo's comment, and she turned back toward her friend. Yaomomo was tucking the lantern away again, the streetlight lit, as she spoke. "Based on his account, his injuries are serious enough that he could require serious medical treatment if not careful. If he places too much strain on his body, it might be fatal."

All Might, killed by climbing a mountain. It was a ridiculous thought, but Mina couldn't help but shiver a little. "Could we stick him inside whatever Link was in? That Shrine of Restoration, or whatever?"

Midori opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of what he was going to say, as he instead sighed and shook his head. "I don't think so. L-Link lost his memories going in and was in there for a century. We don't know how long it would take All Might to heal."

"Not to mention," Link added, finally joining the conversation, "that we don't know if it would even work. I was very much dead, or on death's doors, when I was put in. It is the Shrine of Resurrection, after all; I think death is a part of its function."

Yaomomo put a finger to her chin. "We could ask Miss Purah. She seemed familiar with the design of the shrines; it's possible she might know more."

Mina grabbed that thread of hope and clung to it. As the four quietly watched the man who had become a mentor to all of them struggle up the hill, Mina swore she would do everything she could to make sure that the Symbol of Peace didn't die in this far away land.