Chapter 37
.::Real Talk Time::.
Shouta opened his eyes when he heard the door open, the noise rousing him from his uneasy sleep. By his estimates a couple of hours had passed since Shigaraki's brother left, most of it spent trying to ignore the pain in his leg and nap. When he turned his head he spied the kid—Izuku, apparently—scurry inside holding a book and a plate with a sandwich on it. "Um, I got lunch," he said lamely. "Uh, d-do I have to help you eat it, or..."
"Just leave it on the floor," Shouta sighed, carefully sitting up. This wouldn't be the first time he'd eaten without use of his arms, and getting hand-fed by a kid would be a wound to his pride. At least the sandwich would be simple and clean enough to eat.
The kid must agree, because though he grimaced he set down the tray by him and quickly retreated to a corner to read. Shouta eyed Izuku warily as he moved closer to the plate, his mind racing and analyzing the teenager. He very pointedly avoided looking at Shouta as he ate, and the few times he glanced over he would quickly wince and return his attention to his book.
So far, Izuku did not meet his expectations. He thought Shigaraki's brother would be relatively twisted due to his upbringing, or at least used to scenes like captured heroes with broken legs. Instead the boy showed minimal hostility; if anything, he seemed uncomfortable with the situation, or at least unsure how to handle it. Shouta had only spent probably a cumulative ten minutes around the kid at this point, but he could already tell Izuku lacked his elder brother's malicious streak.
It was unexpected, but not unwelcome. If he was as nervous as he appeared, then Shouta could potentially use that to his advantage to get out of the situation.
If Shouta was going to survive this, he needed to get on this kid's good side. Not just because of Shigaraki's implied threat that he would be killed if the kid didn't like him, but because this might be his only way out. His previous captors had no interest in talking to him beyond beating and questioning him, so there had been no value in trying to establish a rapport with them.
Stockholm syndrome might be more famous, but Shouta knew that the attachment could go both ways. If he could get this kid to like him, he might be able to earn some small freedoms that could ultimately work towards escaping.
"I didn't think Shigaraki's brother would care about heroes," he commented once he finished eating, breaking the silence. To his faint amusement Izuku jumped in surprise, fumbling to catch his book as it slipped out of his hands. Wide, green eyes turned towards him, before Izuku quickly swallowed and averted his gaze.
"Um, y-yeah... Heroes are just, really cool, you know?" Shouta raised an eyebrow at the comment, familiar with the admiration but not expecting it from this kid of all people.
"And I'm your favorite?" he asked, and the boy flinched, his cheeks coloring.
"Um, I g-guess?" he stammered anxiously, not looking at him. Shouta kept his expression cool as he considered his next question. The wrong thing could end up making his position worse, but more than that he needed to try to get information, if only for his own peace of mind.
"How did you even hear about me?" he asked casually, grunting as he shifted to sit up. His broken leg ached a bit of course, but he ignored it. "I try to keep a low profile, I'm surprised anyone knows my name." The boy paused, glancing at him with a frown.
"I... How did I hear about you?" he mumbled, a distant look in his eyes. "I mean, I looked at my notebooks earlier and I wrote about you in what would be middle school—well, if I'd actually gone to one, I mean—so I knew about you at least two years now. But you don't go in the spotlight much, even less than other heroes, so there's not really any records compared to them... It might've just been word of mouth, like, people complaining about you, and then I got excited and started researching you..."
As he mumbled to himself Shouta just listened silently, analyzing his words closely. From the sounds of it, the kid didn't actually remember how he learned about him. He filed that information away to contemplate later, deciding to steer the kid's rambling back on topic.
"Then why am I your favorite?" he asked bluntly, skipping straight to the point. Izuku jolted, jarred from his mumbling, and looked at him in surprise before his eyes seemed to glaze and he grew contemplative once more.
Izuku, as a dimension-traveler, would say the reason was just that Eraserhead was Aizawa-sensei. They had been through a lot together, and he'd learned to count on the man to keep him and his classmates safe, even at the risk of his own life. Even now, seeing his teacher restrained and looking at him with the eyes of a total stranger who didn't know him, his presence made Izuku feel safe. In a world without All Might, Aizawa had definitely earned that spot.
But he couldn't say that, and he couldn't say for sure why this world's Izuku liked Eraserhead either. But if he had to guess...
"It's because, your Quirk is Erasure, right?" he asked after a few moments, his eyes losing that distant gleam as if snapping back to reality. "It's just, erasing people's Quirks, right? But it's only temporary, and it's got a lot of limitations, like it can't work on mutations, and you need to be looking at them."
Shouta's eyes narrowed at the accuracy of the description, wondering how he had so many details, but he nodded anyway and the kid pushed on. "It's not a combat-oriented Quirk on its own, it's something that would probably work better as support. But you—you don't let that stop you. You trained to fill in the gap with your own skills, designed your persona and fighting style to optimize the surprise element and take on all kinds of Quirks. You basically fight Quirkless, and I just—"
He paused briefly then, glancing down at his hands. "...We don't really have heroes of our own," he finally said, voice barely audible.
Shouta's eyes widened at the quiet admission, recognizing the hidden truth within his words. He was Quirkless. That information was new. How did a Quirkless kid end up in the Villain Alliance? Was he actually Shigaraki's biological brother after all? The probability seemed more likely now, since he couldn't imagine why else the Alliance would take in a Quirkless kid. Especially when he and Shigaraki were obviously so close.
That did explain why Shigaraki didn't worry about leaving them alone together though. There wouldn't be a point in using Erasure on someone without a Quirk, even if Shouta wasn't the type of person to attack a kid anyway. Not that he could, with his hands bound behind him and all. Which reminded him, he really wanted this stuff off, but it was too soon to ask the boy to try to remove it.
He needed to take his time, try to establish some form of rapport between them and get a feel for the kid's personality before making any big moves like that. Fortunately for him, the kid had given him a perfect opportunity.
"So you're Quirkless," he said, and noted how the boy flinched. "If you're looking for a role model, I'm the wrong Pro. You should be looking at Rare."
"Rare?" The boy perked up, looking at him in surprise. "I've never heard of them, who's that?"
"The first Quirkless hero." Izuku startled at that, his jaw dropping open.
"Wait—wha—?" He sputtered in shock, eyes large and disbelieving.
"To be fair, she wasn't common knowledge," Shouta continued nonchalantly. "She was an underground hero active when I first started out. She was a genius who used support gear to simulate Quirks, most people didn't know she was Quirkless. I only know because I interned under her during my final year. She retired a couple of months before All Might died, got in a car crash and couldn't work anymore." She ultimately died from those injuries, but he saw no reason to mention that.
Izuku was silent now, just staring at him in even more shock. Shouta didn't blame him, it wasn't every day a Quirkless kid heard of a Pro Hero just like them. Rare had kept her Quirkless status as secret as possible and kept a low profile, not wanting to get involved in activism or become sort of symbol against discrimination since that recognition would diminish her ability to do her job. She had been well-respected in the underground hero community though, known to be a talented tactician and fighter who could keep up with the best of them.
Rumor had it that even Endeavor respected her, the two having worked together on a human trafficking case shortly before her death. At the very least he'd shown up at her funeral, which had been quite the surprise. It had been a small affair, mostly family and a few colleagues, so to see the then-Number Two Hero show up to pay his respects had nearly caused Rare's grieving mother to faint.
"I wonder," Izuku finally said, gaze falling to his lap. "If she..." He trailed off then, letting the thought hang in the air unfinished. After a long while he looked up, smiling at Shouta almost sadly. "Thanks for telling me about her. I never would have imagined there was a Quirkless Pro. You said you interned under her? Can you tell me more?"
Shouta sighed quietly as he nodded. "Yeah, sure." Telling him wouldn't do any harm. After all, she was dead now. And besides, maybe hearing about a good influence would make him more amenable to leaving this place.
Mina was going to explode.
Hands-down, she would absolutely blow up in the next five minutes if she didn't do something, she was too full of energy to stop pacing around her apartment. Kirishima looked a bit uncomfortable watching her walk in circles around the couch where he sat, his legs folded onto the cushions to keep them out of her way.
"Uh, Ashido, are you okay?" he asked, and she whirled to face him.
"I'm awful and better than okay!" she responded with a grin, and he blinked.
"That... doesn't make sense though?" he said timidly, and she bobbed her head.
"I know!" she proclaimed cheerfully, and then resumed her frantic pacing with a pensive frown. She felt great, but she also felt awful and anxious and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Well, no, there was one thing, but she couldn't actually do it on her own.
Jirou and Kaminari were here. She had absolutely zero doubts that they were the 1-A Vigilantes. The article had popped up in her phone's feed randomly, maybe because she'd spent so much time looking up heroes from her own world lately, and since then she couldn't get them out of her mind. Those costumes were so similar to her classmates, down to the gauntlets on Jirou's gloves.
Also, she'd heard Jirou call Kaminari "Taser-brain" like three different times in training. That name was totally from Jirou calling him that in the field to get his attention than something he'd pick for himself.
But even if she knew they existed, she couldn't contact them. She'd searched FacePage endlessly and couldn't find either of their personal accounts. She found a few fan pages for the 1-A Vigilantes, and a couple that even claimed to be them, but she couldn't tell if any actually belonged to them. It's not like they had any pictures that she couldn't find on other people's social media or news articles.
At this point she felt like her best bet would be to go to Hosu herself, but she couldn't do that because she was under house arrest!
Mina wanted to scream, but she knew that would just get Oracle all freaked out because he was guarding her and all that. So she did the next best thing and texted her friends to text-scream at them. Kiri had come over pretty much right away because the string of random letters freaked him out, and since then he'd been watching her frantically pace around the apartment. He looked really worried as she passed him on her tenth lap around the couch, but she couldn't bring herself to care.
A knock on the door interrupted her desperate pacing, and she practically flew over to fling it open. There stood a weirdly wet-looking Kumiko and Anjou, Kumiko looking a bit cool (and maybe a little pissed) while Anjou just raised a single hand in greeting. "Yo," she said with a nod and held up her bag. "I brought all the homework and notes you missed."
In other circumstances Mina would probably whine at that last part, but for now she just stepped aside. "Just get in here!" she said, quickly ushering the pair inside and peeking outside to make sure Oracle hadn't followed them before closing the door.
"How did you guys get here already?" Kiri asked from the couch as they removed their shoes. "It's only third period! And also, uh... why do you guys look wet?"
"Anjou got school canceled early," Kumiko responded dryly.
"No, Nijisaki in my second period class got it canceled," Anjou corrected. "He was freaking out over a test this afternoon and looking for an excuse to get out of it. I just asked him to get school canceled instead of faking he was sick. He has some kind of smoke Quirk, so he used it to trigger the sprinklers."
"I hate you," Kumiko seethed, stalking to Mina's bedroom. "Mina, I am borrowing your clothes!"
"Okay!" Mina agreed quickly. She didn't mind, but she also just wanted Kumiko to be a little less mad at her. She could tell her best friend was still a bit pissed for what she did on Friday, and Mina hated having Kumiko mad at her. "An-chan, you can borrow something too."
"Thanks," Anjou said, dropping her bag by the door and following Kumiko.
Five minutes later both Kumiko and Anjou returned to the living room in their borrowed clothes. Mina and Kumiko were similar enough in size that she had no problem finding a shirt and sweatpants that fit, but Anjou was a bit smaller than Mina. The t-shirt she wore was definitely baggy on her, and maybe none of the pants fit because she opted for a long skirt instead.
"Okay, we're here and we're not dripping wet anymore," Kumiko said, crossing her arms as she stood by the couch. "Now explain what's up with the keyboard mashing." Mina nodded, fidgeting nervously with the hem of her shirt as she averted her gaze, feeling suddenly weirdly anxious and unable to talk.
Now that they were finally here, she realized she had no idea how to even talk about this. There was just so much to talk about, she had no idea where to even start.
Screw it. Overthinking this would waste way too much time. Just get it all out at once. She nodded to herself, firming her resolve as much as she could. "Okay, so, I haven't been totally honest with you," she began anxiously, and she could see them all tense at that. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to look at them again. "I don't really have sudden amnesia. I'm actually from another dimension."
Total silence followed this proclamation, three perfectly blank faces staring at her. "What," Kiri finally said.
"It's true!" Mina exploded. "One day I went to sleep in the dorms and I just woke up here and I have no idea how it happened but it did and everything is different and wrong here, the first thing I saw after waking up was smoke from a villain attack and apparently that's normal, and then I got online and UA is gone and so is All Might and every time I look stuff up online it just gets worse and worse! I had no idea what was going on and I still don't but I thought maybe it would fade away after a while so I tried to just wait it out but it didn't and—"
"Mina, stop with the word vomit!" Kumiko almost yelled, and Mina obediently clamped her mouth shut. Her best friend just pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly taking a few seconds to try to process it. "Okay, I got the 'I'm from another dimension' bit and something about dorms and smoke, but literally nothing else makes sense to me."
"Uh, could you maybe try again?" Kiri asked tentatively. "And do it, uh, slower this time?" Mina nodded, taking a deep breath as she tried to organize her thoughts. Yeah, she should probably try to figure out a less messy way to explain it.
"Okay, so remember that day that I didn't show up to school, and school got canceled anyway because of that villain attack?" she asked, and the others slowly nodded. "That's when I woke up here. I was super-confused because I don't recognize anything here, and whenever I looked up stuff on my phone everything was different, like UA is gone which is so weird and freaky, then I saw Kiri and I was so relieved but his hair was black—"
"Mina, rambling," Kumiko cut in, and Mina promptly stopped talking with a sharp nod.
"Uh, what's so weird about me having black hair?" Kiri asked now that she'd gone quiet, and she whirled to face him with sparkling eyes.
"You dyed it red when we got into UA as a promise you're a manly man!" Okay, maybe not that exactly, but it was obviously a real character building moment so close enough.
"Wait, is that why you're so obsessed with manliness now?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed in exasperation. "You're all about manliness and being a hero back in our world, but here you're like you were in middle school, but worse somehow!"
"Gee, thanks," he muttered with a grimace, and Mina winced guiltily. Oops, now that she thought about it, that sounded really bad.
"Sorry Kiri," she said. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that. You're getting better though, so don't worry about it! Like on Friday, you running in to help save that guy was so cool and awesome!"
"Back up," Anjou said. For once she had her full attention focused on Mina with no sign of her phone, just looking at her intently. "What was that about UA?"
"Kiri and I are both in the hero course!" Mina said as she spun to face her. "That's why I was so excited to see him at first, but then I realized he didn't recognize me! So I had no idea what was going on, just that everything's different here. I thought maybe it'd wear off but it never did, and I didn't know what to do. But then Infinity Girl found me on FacePage and I'm like ninety-nine percent sure she's Uraraka, because my FacePage name is based on my hero name there! Well, the Pinkie part anyway. I originally wanted to go with Alien Queen but Midnight-sensei said that was too villainous."
"Uh, who's Midnight?" Kirishima cut in, and Mina turned to him with her jaw hanging open in horror. How couldn't he know her!?
"Isn't she that hero who got in trouble for basically trying to be a nudist as her costume?" Anjou asked, and Mina had to pause to think on it.
"I don't know, but probably." Mina didn't know that one for sure, but that definitely sounded like something Midnight would do. But still, how could they not know her—oh. "Oh yeah," she said aloud, "she said she had to basically stop being public a while back, so I guess you guys wouldn't know her since she was the R-rated hero."
"And she told you that... when?" Kumiko asked slowly, and Mina froze.
"...She might have come with a detective to talk to me about Uraraka," she admitted. "And I'm probably not supposed to tell anyone."
"And yet, you're telling us," Anjou deadpanned, and Mina threw up her arms.
"Gah! We're getting off-topic!"
"Is there even a topic?" Kiri muttered, and Mina spun to glare at him.
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
"It means you sound freaking crazy," Kumiko answered before he could, and Mina turned to gape at her best friend as Kumiko put a hand on her hip. "Mina, are you even hearing yourself right now? Another dimension? UA? Heroes who don't even exist anymore? Do you have any idea how insane this all sounds!?"
The heat in Kumiko's voice made something snap in Mina, and her own face twisted into a furious scowl as she glared. "I know it sounds crazy!" she countered. "Why do you think I just said I had amnesia!? Even I know that's way more believable than I'm from another world!"
"Then how can you actually believe this!?" Kumiko snapped back. "Mina, multiverse stuff is, like, sci-fi! Emphasis on the fi! What are the chances a Quirk like that actually exists! You're obviously under the effects of some other Quirk screwing with your memories!"
"I'm not!" Mina roared, stamping her foot.
"You don't even have any proof!"
"I do too! I already told you, Infinity Girl found me randomly on a profile I made using my hero name ideas, the very next day after I made that profile! She's got to be Uraraka!"
"We don't even know who Uraraka is!" Kumiko all but roared.
"Uraraka Ochako!" Mina snapped. "We called her Infinity Girl because on the first day of classes she threw a baseball with her Quirk and it just kept going and Aizawa-sensei's tracker-thing just had an infinity symbol! This Infinity Girl said she has some kind of gravity Quirk too, and there's no way that's a coincidence!"
"If she's really from your world, then why didn't she ask you about it!? Hell, why didn't you!?"
"I don't know!" Mina exploded, throwing up her arms with a frustrated shout. "I was just scared that maybe I was wrong and I didn't want to freak her out if I was, but then she ran away and ever since then I've been even more sure, except now I can't even ask her! I don't know why she didn't ever talk to me about it though!"
"Or maybe she's the one who planted these memories in you!" Kumiko yelled. "Maybe she ran away so she could help people get ready to kidnap you!"
"No way! That's not true!"
"It makes more sense than you coming from another—"
"GUYS, STOP!"
They both startled as Kiri's voice rang through the room, and they whirled to see him standing up from the couch with an almost desperate-looking frown. "Just—stop shouting at each other!" he rushed out in an almost panicked hiss, his voice pitched quieter but still high with anxiety. "You two fighting like that isn't helping! Seriously, look at Anjou!"
"An-cha... oh." Mina turned to look and promptly felt her stomach sink as she saw Anjou standing with her hands pressed over both ears and her eyes screwed shut. Several seconds passed in total silence as they all stared at her, watching her breathe heavily through her nose, before she finally opened her eyes and lowered her hands.
"Not cool," she growled. "You guys know I get sensory overload when people start yelling all at once like that." Mina and Kumiko both flinched guiltily, because they did know it. It hadn't happened since Mina came here, but Anjou had told her about that specifically just to remind her not to get too loud if they were in smaller rooms.
"I'm so sorry, An-chan," she said miserably. "I didn't mean to get that loud."
"Me too," Kumiko agreed quickly. "Even if Mina's being totally crazy—"
"No," Anjou cut in sharply, and this time it was Kumiko's turn to close her mouth. "Stop saying insults and spouting judgy bullshit like that, you'll just start fighting again."
"She's right," Kiri agreed with a nod. "I mean, yeah Ashido sounds crazy, but we really shouldn't be fighting right now. That won't help anything." He turned to her with a frown, adding, "But Ashido, if you've believed all this for this long, why are you telling us now?"
Mina perked up at that, grateful for the subject change. "Because today I found out we're definitely not the only ones!" she answered. "Just—look!" She whipped out her phone and showed them the article that had gotten her so worked up: the article about the 1-A Vigilantes, complete with the photo showing off the 1-A on their backs.
She stood expectantly as they all leaned forward to look at the phone, practically vibrating with anticipation. "Mina," Kumiko finally said after a few seconds. "Your screen's too small for us to all see."
"Uh, could you maybe just text it to us?" Kiri suggested, and Mina pouted over ruining the dramatic moment, but quickly did just that. Soon enough the other three had opened the article on their own phones while Mina quickly launched into more explanations.
"Those two are totally Jirou and Kaminari from my class!" she told them as they looked at it. "Those costumes are like dead ringers for theirs, down to the gear! I've even heard Jirou call Kaminari taser-brain in training a couple times! I bet she just called him that while they were taking down a bad guy and everyone thought that was his official vigilante name or something!"
"Well, that answers who's who," Anjou muttered under her breath.
"And that 1-A on their backs—we're in Class 1-A back at home!" Mina barreled on eagerly. "They're totally trying to get the attention of everyone else who might've come over too! There's just too much stuff for it to all be a coincidence!"
"Or they're part of whatever group messed with your memories," Kumiko muttered, and Mina shot her a furious scowl.
"Actually, this seems like it'd be kinda a lot if they're trying to kidnap just one person," Kiri piped up before she could respond. "I mean, it made sense when it was just Infinity Girl, but now we've got three people Ashido thinks are from this other dimension? Doesn't that seem a bit, I don't know, much if they're after just one person?"
Kumiko wavered a bit at that. "Mina's Quirk is pretty strong, though," she muttered, but it sounded pretty weak and doubtful. Next to her Anjou hummed, her gaze focused on her phone.
"Ashido, what other students are in your class at UA?" she asked, and Mina perked up, always eager to talk all about her UA friends to her other-universe friends.
"Okay, so there's twenty of us total. Along with me and Kiri, and obviously Uraraka and Kaminari and Jirou, there's also Yaomomo, Iida, Midoriya, Tsu-chan—"
"Just so you know, those names mean nothing to us," Kumiko deadpanned, and Mina shot her an irritated scowl but ultimately conceded the point.
"Okay, fine. Starting over, Yaomomo is Yaoyorozu Momo, she's like super rich. Iida—Iida Tenya—is the class rep and Ingenium's brother—and by the way, in our world Ingenium got paralyzed by Stain so now Iida's Ingenium instead—"
"Okay, that last part's actually really freaky, but I have no idea who Stain is," Kiri cut in awkwardly.
"Me neither," Kumiko agreed, and Mina gawked at them. She turned to look at Anjou to see if the name meant anything to her, but the teal-haired girl just looked at her with narrowed eyes, turquoise pupils boring into Mina.
"And Midoriya?" she asked, and Mina blinked before nodding.
"Right. Midoriya Izuku. He's green and cute and made of sunshine, and he also breaks his arms a lot. Tsu-chan, Asui Tsuyu, is this frog girl, and she's really cool and collected all the time and super-blunt but really nice. Then there's Bakugou, Bakugou Katsuki. He's always kinda grumpy and scowl-y, but you're his best friend Kiri!" She beamed at him, but deflated when he didn't really react beyond just staring at her.
"Anyone else?" Anjou asked, and Mina blinked again before refocusing on the task.
"Well, let's see... I mentioned all of the Bakusquad, and most of the girls, so... Oh, there's Tooru-chan, Hagakure Tooru, who's super fun and invisible all the time. She basically has no costume, just gloves and boots, haha! You should've seen her exam with Snipe-sensei, it was hilarious! Oh, and she's best friends with Ojiro Mashirao, who's got a tail and is a total martial arts master. His costume is just basically a—I think you call it a gi? Oh, oh! And Kouda!" She perked up at the last name and broke into a grin. "He can talk to animals and has the sweetest pet bunny rabbit!"
She lit up at the memory of holding Kouda's rabbit in the common room the day before this mess began. The rabbit had been so sweet and soft, and Mina had cuddled it for a good fifteen minutes. Ojiro and Tooru-chan had to pry it from her arms to return to Kouda, and she would've followed him back to his dorm if Midoriya had not intercepted her and mentioned Satou was making some dessert bread in the kitchen.
She perked up even more at that memory, her mouth salivating. "Oh my gosh, and Satou makes the best desserts," she said dreamily. "I have no idea what that thing he made was that last night, but it was amazing. Even Todoroki was smiling, and he like, never does that!"
"Wait, Todoroki like Endeavor Todoroki?" Kumiko piped up with wide eyes, and Mina bobbed her head vigorously.
"Yeah! Well, his kid anyway. His name's Todoroki Shouto, and he's got this crazy hair that's split down the middle, it's totally red on one side and white on the other! I don't think he likes his dad though, so if you ever meet him, uh, don't call him Endeavor's kid," she added sheepishly, losing some of her steam.
"What's his Quirk like?" Anjou asked, and Mina pursed her lips.
"It's called Half-Hot, Half-Cold I think? Like, so basically he's got both fire and ice, right? But he can only use each one with half of his body. The fire's on the red half, the left, and the ice is with his right half. And it's so strong!" she added with wide eyes. "During the Sports Festival he went up against Sero first, and Sero couldn't even do anything! Todoroki just went woosh and suddenly there was a gigantic iceberg that was taller than the stadium!"
"Woah," Kiri breathed, awestruck and wide-eyed.
"If you think it sounds awesome, you can't even imagine it!" Mina told him excitedly. "The cameras couldn't even get all of it, it was so big!"
"That sounds cool, but is it really possible for someone to have a Quirk with two elements like that?" Kumiko asked skeptically. "I mean, I guess it might be, but even if he's the son of the Number One Hero, isn't it a bit much for one half to be that strong?"
"Number One...?" Mina turned to look at her blankly before it clicked and she slumped dejectedly. "Oh right, All Might's dead in this world." That made Kiri and Kumiko startle.
"Wait, are you saying he's alive in this other world!?" Kumiko yelped, and Mina nodded, her mood a bit more subdued compared to before.
"Yeah, but he just retired a couple months ago. He used up all his power in this gigantic fight, and now he's got this super-skinny skeleton form. He looks so different, guys," she confided with wide eyes. "The first few Heroics classes we had with him after that we were all worried that we'd knock him down with just the wind from Iida running! And one time Iida actually did knock him down, but the wind knocked down all of us though so, yeah. But Ojiro had to help him up!"
"Wait, back up again," Kiri said. "What do you mean, 'heroics classes'?" Once again Mina paused, and she felt herself grow sheepish and awkward.
"Oh, right. So, uh, All Might's kinda our Heroics teacher at UA." Dead silence followed that as everyone stared at her with their eyes bugging out, even the usually deadpan Anjou looking wide-eyed and shocked.
"...Mina," Kumiko finally said. "Someone is definitely screwing with your memories. There's no way that's possibly true."
"It is!" Mina whined, whirling to face her with a scowl. "Ugh, this is why I didn't tell any of you right away! You're never going to believe me!"
"Actually, I think I might," Anjou interjected calmly, and Mina started to say something only to freeze as she processed the words. Even Kiri and Kumiko turned to look at Anjou in shock, while Mina felt her biggest grin yet split across her face.
Just like that, light had finally shined upon her world once more.
And Ashido is officially the second person to break and tell people everything! And unlike Todoroki, her audience isn't afraid to call her out.
Little bonus note on Rare: I imagine she could exist in the canon/prime universe too (Izuku was wondering that when he said "I wonder if she..."), and in both worlds she died from that car crash. She got her start making support gear, and figured going into the field would help her better understand what heroes needed. From there she turned out to just be good at it, so she kept being a hero. She was more active on the investigative side of hero work, and Endeavor did in fact respect her and acknowledged the role of her intellect in taking down the trafficking ring mentioned here. Aizawa interned under her to learn more about combat (maybe she's the one who designed his capture weapon?).
She won't appear in the story or probably even get mentioned again after this, but just felt worth mentioning a little world-building detail.
Also: a lot of people have shown up in the Discord, and it's been fun! We're mostly just sharing fic recs and discussing MHA. The link is still the same (I mentioned last chapter), so feel free to join!
Question for next time: what would be the most chaotic point in the canon universe and timeline for an AU version of themselves to swap in? (Excluding Shigaraki. Literally swapping him at any point would cause chaos.)