Unexpected Support

Estelle awoke with a jolt; her breathing was heavy from the nightmare she had to endure. A single tear slipped down her cheeks as she attempted to regain her bearings. Unknown to her, Bakugo was already awake.

Estelle was still resting against his lap, which she had completely forgotten about. She had woken him up a few minutes before her due to the whimpering she let out when she was still unconscious. Bakugo watched her with tired eyes, a hidden worry underneath his exhaustion from staying up later than usual.

Attempting to steady her breathing, she was surprised to find Bakugo's face come into view.

"Hey, it's fine. We're just in the living room of the dorms. You had a nightmare." The blonde gruffed out a matter of factly.

Estelle nodded back like she understood but had not fully come back to herself. Bakugo had feared she would sock herself in the face like last time. So, to help soothe her, he placed his fingers back in her hair.

The repeated action made Estelle relax slightly. Bakugo followed alongside her, the tenseness of his shoulders letting up from the calm that was arriving.

He thought the episodes only happened with Endeavour around, but it seemed more frequent than Estelle let on. He was starting to understand the unseeing look in her eye. It was like she wasn't mentally there. The concern within him grew at that thought.

Finally, when she had slackened entirely, he could see that Estelle wouldn't get any more sleep after that—nudging her to open her eyes. Bakugo queried if she wanted breakfast.

With a shrug from her, he decided to go for it. The two shuffled into the kitchen, and Estelle watched Bakugo cook with hidden fascination. The way he made food was utterly different from Nona's as he moved around the kitchen with lightning speed.

"You gonna help me?"

"Uh, I don't know how to cook."

"Hah?! How did you survive in your world then?"

"We ate plant-based food. We ate it raw most of the time, and sometimes we would make soup under the fire, but it was bland."

"That sounds disgusting."

"Yeah, well, it was all we had. I do enjoy the food here, though."

"Considering what you had back home, I'm not surprised. Just stay there. I don't want you ruining it from your cluelessness."

"Gee, thanks."

"Tch."

Estelle watched as he placed the meal onto the plate in record time and took a seat across from her. Without wasting a second, the two of them wolfed down their meals like it was their last. If anybody were watching, they would have laughed at how identical they looked at that moment.

When they were nearing the end of their meal, Bakugo spoke up. "So, was it just a nightmare?"

"Yeah, well. it's more like memories."

Bakugo raised a brow and took another sip of his juice. "Like what?"

Estelle's lips tilted down at that as her fingers twitched. "Ah, it's nothing."

"Tch, you can bullshit everyone else, but you can't bullshit me. I can see right through you. spit it out."

Estelle's frown was now visibly prominent. She hated how Bakugo always seemed to notice her at her most vulnerable. Why did it always have to be him? He was loud, arrogant and annoying, but Estelle could always detect the kindness beneath it when she evidently struggled. She wondered why he bothered. Estelle was a lost cause; she always would be.

Estelle was brought out of her musings when the blonde poked her head. "Hey! Answer me!'

Estelle sighed. "Do you remember the day I trained you?"

"Hah!? You didn't train me! But of course, I remember that day. Why?"

"You asked me what I meant by war?"

"Go on."

"Sometimes memories of war are hard to forget."

Bakugo understood that was the most he would get when she turned back to the remaining food on her plate. Still, he had to try.

"How long was the war?"

Estelle looked thoughtful at his question. If she was being honest, she wasn't entirely sure.

"I guess it would've been a few years. It had only finished about six months before I arrived. My world was still recovering."

"A few years!?"

"War is a lengthy process when either side refuses to give up," Estelle uttered back. Before Bakugo could voice another word. The class slowly began to trickle in for breakfast. Those entering gave a started look to the duo who had finished their meals but issued a light good morning. Estelle nodded back to them in acknowledgement.

"Hey! Estelle, what's on the agenda for today?"

"Murder."

"Oh."

Due to the intensity of the last few days, Estelle decided to take Mr Aizawa's advice and take some time to relax.

'I still have to hunt; I don't want to have to deal with more spirits tomorrow just because I feel like being lazy.'

Before Estelle set out to work, she recalled that she promised her class to stop by if they needed support. Estelle had failed a lot of promises; she wouldn't fail a simple one like that. Putting the hero work for later, Estelle headed to Gym Gamma.

Mr Aizawa was surprised to find Estelle entering the training room. Raising a brow in question, Estelle answered his silent query.

"I told the class that I would stop by in case they needed any help, so here I am."

"I never knew you could teach."

"Meh, I've helped a few people."

"Hm, go on then."

Estelle took his acceptance and trailed further into the room to where her classmates separately trained. Sero was the first to notice and immediately jogged over to Estelle with a wide grin.

"Hey! I wondered if you would ever stop by," He stated whilst he made his way over to her.

Estelle shrugged and answered, "I was busy."

Nodding his head in understanding, Sero kept his broad smile as he said, "I get it, no worries. I still haven't figured out my second move. Can you help?"

"Of course, that's why I'm here. Lead the way."

Estelle followed Sero back to his training spot as he immediately began to explain his quirk and training. "So you know my quirk is tape but stronger. I can swing around with it and capture people easily." He started only to be cut off by Estelle.

"What did you create for your first ultimate move?"

"I can use my tape to grab everything in my vicinity and then launch them at the villain to attack!" Sero exclaimed proudly.

Estelle nodded back at him with a small smile. At this point, most of the class noticed that Estelle had arrived and eyed the pair in nosiness. They had assumed it was a false promise that she made, but they were mistaken. It was a pleasant surprise from the unexpected support. Estelle gave a thoughtful hum as she gazed at Sero's tape before speaking.

"So you have made a move for offensive battle. Have you thought about defence?"

Sero looked down at Estelle in surprise and asked, "Defence?"

"Yeah, like protection when someone is trying to attack you."

"No! I never thought of that!" Sero jumped, excitement brimming his eyes at the revelation.

"What does someone make or do when they are being attacked?" Estelle started to get the ball rolling.

"A shield or they find cover!"

"Exactly, and what can your tape do?" Estelle prodded further.

"Make a shield!"

"Exactly, How far does your tape extend?"

"Pretty far, I trained the capacity at training camp."

"Okay, good. I'll stand here, and I want you to try to create one."

"Gotchya!"

Estelle stood back as Sero attempted to create a sphere of tape to surround him. It wasn't perfect, but the potential could be seen for a mile away that he had a second move on the way. Sero beamed at Estelle as the tape retracted back into his arms. Estelle didn't reciprocate it, but she didn't have to. Sero could see the glimmer in her eyes.

"Thank you, Estelle! I mean it. I would have been lost without you."

"You would have figured it out. You just needed a push in the right direction," Estelle responded in truth. Sero shook his head and chuckled at her reply.

"You train on it, and when I come back. We are testing it, so it's foolproof. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Estelle chuckled as she walked away from the now determined Sero. The class and Mr Aizawa eyed the female whilst she walked away.

'She helped him so easily. It was like she was a teacher herself,' They thought. They were always surprised at the enigma in their class. Bakugo was the only one who had expected it from Estelle. He had experienced first-hand how amazing she was at analysing a person and coming up with ideas to improve their battle.

"Good job", Mr Aizawa praised once Estelle reached him, her hand playing with the kunai from her belt. "You probably shouldn't play with knives, though."

Before Estelle could give a retort, she felt the vibrations of someone heading her way. Turning to the new arrival, Estelle stared at nothing.

'Ah, Toru Hagakure.'

"What can I do for you?"

"Huh!? How did you know I was here!?" She shouted since she was completely naked.

"I felt the vibrations on the ground, Hagakure."

"Oh. I forgot about that. I was wondering if you could help me?" She asked unsurely. Estelle looked up to Mr Aizawa to ensure it was okay, and he nodded in approval. Turning towards the invisible girl, Estelle gestured to the training spots ahead.

"Lead the way."

"Yay! Follow me."

Estelle spent a lot more time training the students in her class than she expected. One last individual stopped her when she was about to leave to let the students work.

"Estelle, may I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, Tokoyami. What do you need?"

"Back when the league attacked us in training camp, I lost control. There was something you said about managing my quirk."

Estelle turned still and then relaxed. She felt a little more at ease with Tokoyami. He wasn't the type to pry or even be loud. Estelle had found his company decent from time to time. She guessed that was why she had offered to help him. Giving him a small smile, Tokoyami took a step back in shock from the unexpected reaction.

"Why don't we go for a walk?" Estelle asked with her head tilted to the exit. The male gave a perplexed expression, but he knew she always did things with purpose.

Nodding, Tokoyami followed Estelle out of the gym after Mr Aizawa gave a questioning glance. The teacher seemed to trust Estelles methods since he nodded immediately as they moved. When they reached the outside, it was silent as they walked.

"I don't know all the details of your quirk. I have enough understanding to know the general aspects of how it works. "

"You said that you knew what it was like to lose control as I have."

"My own experiences differ from yours, I lost control under mental turmoil, but that doesn't mean that it can't work for you too."

"What is it?"

"When you feel Dark Shadows raging emotions in the dark, you try to combat them on your own, correct?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Dark Shadow isn't completely you; at least that's my guess. It could be part of your subconscious or completely separate. Either way, he has a mind of his own which is heavily connected to yours."

"Go on."

"So you are always working as a team. It's a balance between you; you work together to facilitate your moves. The balance becomes tilted when Dark Shadow is within the dark, and you no longer work together. Instead, you work to soothe him down as he submits to his rage."

"The issue is, negative emotions feed off the positive. When you try to keep yourself positive to calm Dark Shadow, it doesn't work, and you struggle to contain it because you feel his overwhelming amount of rage."

"How did you know?"

"I just observed. What were you trying to achieve at training camp?"

"I was working to keep our emotional states in sync the darker it got. It didn't work out too well."

"Were you trying to keep yourself positive?"

"Yeah."

"So, if we hypothesis that Dark Shadow is a separate entity with a mind of his own and that you usually tend to work as a team when he is stable. What do you think a good course of action would be?"

"Oh, It needs to be balanced. Dark Shadow needs to work on positive emotions too, rather than me counteracting them."

"Bingo, counteracting them is good, but if someone is not cooperating. It's useless. You need to connect and help Dark Shadow gain techniques with containing emotions."

"I see; how would I do that?"

"Meditation would be a great start. Working through your own negative emotions and experiences would help. Investigate breathing or thought techniques, show them to Dark Shadow, start light, and slowly progress in the darkness. He needs to strengthen his resolve in the dark. You need to be a team, even when he is amidst the dark."

"Wow, you certainly have thought a lot about this."

"When I saw you at training camp; You were kneeled over apologetically for losing control. I understand your frustrations. There were times I felt like what I was experiencing were uncontrollable. I allowed those feelings to consume me, and I hurt others in the process."

"What happened?"

"The enemy had the skill of persuasion. It was always there, always tugging at me to commit violence, and there were times I lost grasp of who I was. Only when the dragons taught me purity of mind could I rid that for good. If you would like, I can show you some techniques they taught me."

"I would like that very much."

"Good. Sit across from me."

The two teens sat under the trees, cross-legged in the sunlight. Estelle felt some semblance of happiness. They were things she could teach these kids. They wouldn't have to experience the hurt like Estelle did to gain knowledge like she had to. Estelle was somewhat content to provide guidance, especially when they would use it to help others. Estelle could never deny them aid when lives were in the picture.

"Okay, let's begin."