While the others were busy tying Bakugou to a chair in the main area of the hideout, Yuka marched upstairs to her room. She had a spare mask stuffed into her duffle bag. It wasn't as efficient as the one she had lost at the training camp, but it would serve her for the time being while she made arrangements with Giran to get her a new one. She figured she would contact him in the morning regarding a replacement. In the meantime, she would make due with the one she had with her. Once the mask was affixed to her face, she took out a breathing capsule and stuck it into the receptacle. The small cylinder hissed as it injected the medicine directly into her mask like a nebulizer. She breathed in deep, relieved that the burning in her lungs was slowly dissipating. She then lowered her eyes towards her bag and checked to see how many capsules she had left. To her horror, she realized there were only three left. She had hoped to use a lot less of them until she could manage to afford some more, but her condition had gotten worse since she joined with the League of Villains. Maybe it was the sudden change in lifestyle or the fact that she was using her quirk a lot more frequently and a lot more dangerously for the sake of the League, but either way, it still meant that her condition was getting worse and exponentially so. At this rate, she couldn't tell how much time she had left before her lungs would give out completely.

She pushed that worrisome thought out of her mind. She had more important things to take care of. Besides, she couldn't do anything about it right now. Maybe tomorrow, when she would call up Giran to have her mask replaced, she could ask him about getting her a couple of capsules in exchange for a favor, but for now, she needed to stay focused on the task at hand. So, after thoroughly soothing her lungs, she descended back towards the hideout's bar area, where she heard Bakugou screaming his lungs out on her way down the stairs.

"GO TO HELL, LOSERS!"

Yuka shook her head as she sighed disapprovingly. He was already starting to get on her nerves even though she hadn't even reached the main room yet. Once she crossed the curtain door leading into the main area, she saw that all of her colleagues including Shigaraki were busy watching a news coverage on TV. Yuka quietly entered the room and slid past Bakugou to see what was going on. An urgent press conference had been held right after the attack on the training camp. Teachers from U.A. as well as the principal were on stand answering questions and apologizing for their gross lack of security back at the training camp. Their responses were everything but reassuring to the reporters that were at the conference asking questions, which only served to bring a smile to Shigaraki's face.

"Isn't that strange?" he started to say as he turned towards Bakugou, shutting the television off behind him. "The heroes are becoming the bad guys! Seems like they're not dealing with this very well at all..." He paused, staring at Bakugou through his hand-shaped mask. "So much criticism... but everyone makes a mistake or two, right? It's not like they're supposed to be perfect, after all... Modern day heroes sure have it rough, don't you think, Bakugou?"

But they were expected to be perfect. That's the image U.A. had so diligently tried to maintain ever since they had become the Symbol of Peace's alma mater. All Might was the shining example of what a true hero should be, therefore it was paramount that they maintained a pristine track record so that others would be inspired to attend just like he did and become great heroes themselves... except where All Might truly had good intentions from the very beginning, others flocked to U.A. for the prestige of attending the same school as him, to satisfy their delusions of grandeur and become heroes only satisfied with the wealth and glory that came with the title of hero.

"Once a hero receives payment to protect people, they aren't a real hero anymore," Spinner proclaimed. "That's what Stain's actions taught us."

"A hero in this current system only cares about money and glory," Shigaraki continued. "And since society buys into those idiotic rules, any one deemed a loser is shoved aside..." He stared more intently at Bakugou. "... so we want to pose some questions. What is a hero? What is justice? Is this society truly fair? Soon, everyone will be asking. That's when we'll know we've won... and you like winning, don't you?"

Yuka turned her gaze towards Bakugou, who had remained surprisingly quiet since Shigaraki had started speaking. After a long pause, Tomura turned his attention over to Dabi.

"Let him go, Dabi," he asked him.

"Huh? Are you serious? You know he'll just fight," Dabi protested.

"It's fine!" Shigaraki reassured him, holding his arms up to the side.. "We're recruiting him! So we should treat him as an equal. Besides, he's smart enough to know he can't take on a room full of villains... Afterall, U.A. students are so clever."

There was a slight silence as Dabi turned his gaze towards their captive. He seemed to be debating something in his head, then he turned his head over to Twice.

"Twice, you do it," he asked in a flat voice.

"Sure thing!/No way..." Twice replied, waving him away with his hand.

"Do it..." Dabi repeated in a lower tone.

"Aww man..."

Twice stepped up to Bakugou's chair, undoing his restraints one by one. For once, Yuka was with Dabi on this one. She didn't trust that Bakugou would be smart enough not to attack them, and his unsettling calm expression gave her absolutely no solace, so she stayed on her guard while Twice untied him from his chair.

"I do apologize for such forceful methods," Mr. Compress spoke from the other side of the room. "But please understand that we aren't some kind of unruly mob committing crimes without a third act in mind... We didn't kidnap you by accident."

Shigaraki then stood up from his seat. "Even though our backgrounds are different, everyone here has suffered, because of people, rules and heroes who try to hold us back. I'm sure you're the same..."

Before he had time to fit in another word, Bakugou stood up from his chair and punched Twice square in the face, making him fall backwards. He then set off a small explosion from his hand directed at Shigaraki, which knocked the mask off his face. The eerie white hand flopped to the ground next to him as Shigaraki stared at it with shock.

"I'm done listening to your endless talking," Bakugou growled. "Can you not get to the point or do you just like the sound of your own voice?" He stared up at Shigaraki, who still hadn't moved. "Basically, you're telling me you want to cause some trouble and you want me to join you... well, screw you."

He shot a hateful look at Shigaraki as the members of the League of Villains stood motionless around him. They were unsure how to react. They had been given strict orders not to harm the young man.

"You were right about one thing..." the blond boy continued. "I like to win. I wanna win just like All-Might. No matter what you have to offer me, that will never change, do you understand?!"

He flashed a smug smile as he looked over at the rest of the group. His smile was short lived though, as suddenly, he was struck hard by something in the stomach. The impact was so sudden that it forced him to his knees and made him wretch. He vomited on the floor in front of him as an imposing presence stood over him and watched.

"You want to be just like All-Might? That's probably the most deluded thing I've ever heard..."

Yuka had somehow moved without anyone noticing her and had been the one to deliver the punch to Bakugou's stomach. Katsuki tried to muster up another explosion in his palm, but soon found his hand skewered by Yuka's sword, pinning it to the ground. Bakugou cried out in pain as blood started to trickle out of the wound in his hand. Some of the other members were moving to stop her, but Dabi gave the order to stand back while Yuka did her thing.

"Do you honestly think you have what it takes to become something akin to the Symbol of Peace? Don't make me laugh."

Her voice was ice cold as her stormy eyes stared down at him with utter disgust. She grabbed him by the throat, forcing him to look up at her as her eyes turned from dark gray to red, turning the air around her into an agonizingly painful gas that wasn't meant to kill him. Not rapidly, that is...

"You're about as far away from being like All-Might as you could possibly be. Just look at you..." Her words were infused with so much venom, it was almost too scary to watch. "You are no different than how you were at the Sports Festival: a rabid dog unable to control the basest of impulses! Do you honestly think you'll be anything like All-Might with such a pathetic display?! The fact that you would even compare yourself to him makes me utterly sick..."

Bakugou was seething on the inside but he couldn't help his body slowly shutting down from Miasma's quirk. He tried to hold back his whimpering and his cries of pain, but the excruciating burning in his lungs and the pain from his hand was all too much for him to handle. Since they had been so eager to have him join their little gang, he hadn't anticipated that they would try to harm him, much less torture him. But when he looked into Yuka's cold, ruthless eyes, he could tell that she was on a completely other level than the rest.

"You're no hero, Katsuki Bakugou..." she continued, voice still dripping with poison. "You're barely anything at all with how weak and pathetic you are."

She threw him back as she released him from the effects of her quirk. Her eyes reverted back to their original dark color as Bakugou started to cough profusely. He cried out in pain as she pulled her sword out of his hand and returned it to its sheath. The rest of the League stared in complete and utter shock at what she had just done to him. His previously smug attitude had been completely replaced by a sad and pathetic expression as he whimpered and groaned painfully at the sword-shaped hole in his hand. His bravado had been completely extinguished in a matter of seconds which made it all the more impressive.

Contrary to the rest, Dabi had been looking on with surprise at first, but then his surprise had turned into enjoyment as he delighted in the young man's agony. He knew Yuka could be cold and calculating, but he had never imagined she could be this ruthless. Her little display had truly impressed him and had subverted all of his expectations of her in a matter of seconds.

"Someone should put a bandage on his hand," she finally said after a long pause. "Tie him back up. We'll try this again at a later time..."

And with that, she walked out of the room without as much as a glance in their direction. What she had kept hidden from the others all this time was the wave of emotions that had been bubbling up inside her during her whole exchange with Bakugou. While she had been assaulting him verbally, the image of her father had suddenly spawned into her mind. In her youth, she had been the one in Bakugou's shoes as her father brutally and mercilessly berated her whenever she made a mistake or didn't meet his demands. As she spoke to him, the only thing she could hear was her father's voice and not her own and the further away she walked from the common room, the more her body started to shake uncontrollably. The halls of the hideout started to eerily resemble the ones she had grown up in. The floor suddenly turned into tatami mats right before her eyes and her breathing became more labored. She felt like she was suffocating, much like Bakugou had been before when she had been berating him just like her father had done with her. Hiding away in her room was somehow not enough to quell the storm of emotions that roiled and writhed inside of her. She needed air. She needed to breathe. She needed to get out of this place and the only place she could think of to go was the roof.

At this point, Yuka was no longer walking. She was full on running up the stairs towards what she hoped would be her sanctuary. She felt like her mind was falling apart as memories of her father's abuse came flooding back in. Whenever she would misbehave or fall short of his expectations, he would punish her with violence and psychological torment. She had pushed those memories back so long ago, not wanting to tarnish the image she had built of him in her mind. This man had been the only family she had ever known her entire life. He had taken her in when no one else wanted her, not even her parents. He trained her, made her into the deadly weapon she was now. It was easier for her just to forget the past, otherwise what would be the point of going through all of that? She had convinced herself that what he had done, he had done it out of love, out of a sense of responsibility to make her stronger. And it did. It made her into the cold, calculating woman she had become thanks to him. It made her so much stronger than the other children she had trained with. None of them could surpass her by the end, but at what cost?

She pushed the door leading outside haphazardly as she stumbled onto the roof. She ripped the mask off her face and threw it across the floor, gasping for air. Once the polluted air hit her lungs though, she immediately started to cough. Between the emotions she felt reliving her childhood abuse and the distress of her lungs struggling to breathe, Yuka fell to her knees, her hands clenching her chest as though she could claw her way into her lungs and let the air enter directly through her chest cavity. She could also feel her face growing wet with the tears that had been streaming down her cheeks since she had started climbing the stairs to reach the roof. She hadn't even noticed that she'd been crying until now, and now that she realized it, she couldn't stop the sobs that were erupting from her throat.

She wanted to fight it. She desperately wanted to empty her mind and become a lifeless husk devoid of emotion, because she'd rather feel nothing than feel what she was feeling right now. Alas, the emotions were too strong for her this time and she cursed at herself for being too weak to control herself and her thoughts.

"DAMN YOU!" she yelled into the void. Her sobs had distracted her somehow from the burning sensation in her lungs as she breathed in polluted air from the outside.

She hadn't noticed the door swinging open behind her, nor did she notice when someone came onto the roof. She only noticed someone else was there when they handed her the mask she had so carelessly discarded previously. She lifted her eyes to see who it was, but just by the look of their hands, she could already tell who it was.

"I figured you'd probably need this."

Dabi looked at her calmly as he held out her mask to her. Yuka stared in disbelief for a moment, her mind still reeling from the intense pain it had conjured. She shakily grabbed the mask with one hand before resting it on her thighs. She lowered her head, her chest still hyperventilating a bit as she quickly wiped away the tears that were still clinging to her cheeks.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a flustered tone. She couldn't believe that someone had seen her in such a vulnerable state, much less Dabi.

He let out a soft chuckle as he flashed her a crooked smile. "I always come here, sweetheart. It's the only place I can smoke in peace..."

He walked over towards the edge of the roof, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket. Grabbing one in between his lips, he pulled it out of the pack before placing it back in his jacket. Blue flames erupted from the tips of his thumb and index finger as he pinched the end of his cigarette to light it. Once it was lit, he pulled on it deeply before letting out a long stream of smoke into the air.

"That was some intense shit back there," he finally said to her after a long pause. "And judging by how you're crawled up in a ball on the floor right now, I'd say it was even more intense for you..."

Yuka averted her gaze as she cursed at herself mentally for being so careless. She couldn't believe she had let her emotions get the better of her, in front of someone else no less. Had her father been there in that moment, he would have severely punished her for being so soft.

"I am a failure..." she uttered in a low voice. "I shouldn't have let my emotions run wild like that... I'm still so weak when it comes to controlling them."

She slowly got up from the floor, contemplating the idea of putting her mask on, but it seemed utterly pointless now. Her cough had subsided and she had to admit that the fresh hair, even though it smelled heavily of exhaust fumes, felt somewhat refreshing despite the discomfort it brought her.

"What are you talking about?" Dabi asked in an exasperated tone. "Nobody said anything about you being a failure, and what's this talk about controlling your emotions?"

Yuka let out a deep sigh as she walked over to him to lean against the railing on the edge of the roof. She peered down at the lit up streets of the Kamino Ward, slowly losing herself in the steady motion of cars zipping by under them.

"Emotions are what make or break people," she started to explain. "It's something my father taught me long ago. Learn to control them, eliminate them completely if you must, lest you be controlled by them..."

Dabi shot her a glance as he continued to smoke his cigarette.

"Sounds like a load of bullshit to me..." he said to her in a dull tone.

Yuka looked back towards him. His response angered her initially, but as she thought of her father, she slowly started to feel herself slip away as the memories started pouring into her mind again. She quickly dismissed them by shaking her head furiously, then turned her attention back onto the streets below.

"I don't expect you of all people to understand..." she said to him.

"Sweetheart," he spoke as he let out another stream of smoke from his mouth. "I'm probably the one person in this group who can actually understand..."

He threw his cigarette off the roof and turned to face her. While she usually had no trouble meeting his gaze, she somehow couldn't bring herself to look at him now.

"My old man tried to teach me the same thing." He let out a sarcastic laugh. "He thought that by shackling my emotions, I would become stronger." He looked pensively at the cityscape sprawled out in front of him. "But we're not made to hide away our emotions. It's not how humans were made, as frustrating as that can seem sometimes..."

He turned towards her once again, stepping forward as he looked straight into her eyes.

"I have no idea what's going on inside that head of yours..." He took another step towards her. "But from what I saw today, I can tell that you're just overflowing with pent up emotions. So..." Another crooked smile stretched across his lips. "Why don't we help you blow off some steam a bit."

He stepped back and took a fighting stance, inviting her with his hand to strike at him. Yuka didn't know how to react at first. She had despised him when they had first met, but now, she didn't know how to feel about him. Maybe it was just the fog that clouded her mind right now, but one thing was certain: he had been right about her emotions spilling out. She needed to get it under control and one way to do it was by expending some of that pent up energy she had been accumulating all this time. So, she took her mark in front of him, setting her mask down against the base of the railing, and readied herself.

Her eyes scanned him for a moment. She hadn't really seen him fight before, not with his fists anyway. She pondered letting him make the first move, just to see what he could do, but decided against it. She struck first, starting things off with an underhanded hit to the ribs. She was curious to see how he would fare against her. Surprisingly, he blocked her with ease and riposted with his own attack. He grabbed her fist with one hand and went to smash her face with his elbow. Yuka arched her back backwards to avoid his counterattack and twisted her fist out of Dabi's hand, chaining her movement with a second attack to his left side. This time, though, Dabi took the hit gladly. He seemed a lot more resilient than she had initially thought and countered her by hitting her square in the mouth. Yuka fell back a little, slightly dizzy from the attack. She could taste the blood that was pouring out from the small split in her lip. She wiped it with the back of her hand, shooting a serious glance in Dabi's direction. His lips were still permanently curled into that amused smile of his as he beckoned her forward. His cocky attitude was making her blood boil and she cracked her knuckles, signaling that she was done messing around. If he wanted her to let loose and fight him, she was going to give him everything that she got. She had no idea what kind of training he had received, but she had been training her entire life and she wasn't about to back down now.

After recovering from Dabi's last punch, she charged towards him with greater speed. She delivered a few quick punches to his sides, forcing him to close off his guard. Once his arms were closed off in front of him, she lifted her arm up and smashed her elbow into the side of his face. Dabi gasped as he fell behind a few steps. She had split his eyebrow with her last attack and a small amount of blood was trickling down his face. He lost his cocky smile for a few seconds, but once his turquoise eyes met with her again, it came back with a vengeance. His eyes seemed more excited now as he stared smugly at her.

"Good... You're becoming more serious now," he said in a low tone. "That just means I don't have to hold back anymore."

He suddenly lunged at her with equal speed, delivering a series of attacks that Yuka had trouble parrying at first. Once they were locked in battle, though, she quickly took charge of the situation and started attacking back. The two of them were surprisingly evenly matched. Despite her many years of combat training, Yuka was still having trouble against him. It was clear by how he moved that he had also received extensive training. She would never have thought that he was as good as she was from the way he conducted himself. She hadn't really taken him seriously up until now. It didn't help that he was taller than her and more imposing, but she was used to fighting bigger and stronger people. Being the only girl in the Shie Hassaikai, she was constantly pitted against the boys in her cohort. It was why her father had pushed her so much harder than the rest. He refused to have her fall short simply because she was a girl.

Memories of her father started pouring back into her mind and Yuka did her best to push them aside so as not to get distracted while she fought against Dabi. But the momentary distraction was enough to set her off balance and Dabi immediately took advantage of that. He kicked her legs out from under her, making her fall to the ground. He then swiftly got on top of her, pinned her face down to the floor as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders to keep her from moving.

"I have to say, sweetheart, you're feistier than I thought," he said to her, slightly out of breath. "But you should know better than to let your guard down..."

Yuka struggled against him, trying to free herself from his grasp. This wasn't the first time she was pinned down by a man, not by a long shot. She stared daggers at him from over her shoulder as she tried to wiggle away from him. But it was no use. He was putting his entire weight on her and she could barely move. She was trapped, just like she had been countless times when she trained with the boys from her cohort. They would always pin her down, face down or with her back to the floor while they towered over her. They enjoyed making her feel helpless and for a long time, she had been completely powerless to stop them... until she learned how to overcome this obstacle in her training.

When Dabi thought that she had given up, Yuka jerked her head back and smashed his face in with her skull. The sudden attack made Dabi flinch as he cried out from the pain. His nose suddenly erupted with blood and Yuka took advantage of the opening. She managed to wrestle an arm out from under her, sending it backwards as she delivered another hit to Dabi's head with her elbow. Once her elbow connected, she lifted her other arm from under her and pushed herself up against Dabi, lifting him up and rolling him off to the side. He was still reeling from her previous attacks. His nose was bleeding profusely now, and before he knew it, she had flipped him over and was now sitting on top of him. Her legs had immobilized his and she had pinned his wrists down with one hand while the other was clenched into a fist, ready to pummel him to the ground. He looked up to see her towering over him, out of breath with eyes full of intense anger. He worried for a moment that she would cave his face in, but after a few seconds, he felt her relax against him as she calmed down and lowered her fist.

"Huh... Didn't think you had it in you," he chuckled, his crooked smile returning to his face once again. "In the end, I guess I was the one who let my guard down."

Yuka didn't say a word. Instead, she focused on recovering from the adrenaline that was pumping through her system. She could feel her heart pumping loudly in her chest. Her breaths were shallow and raspy. She had channeled all of the anger she had felt every time she had been overpowered by her brothers from the Shie Hassaikai, all of the anger she felt towards her father remembering all of the awful things he put her through. She had never allowed herself to feel any of these feelings. Instead, she had pushed them away, buried them so that she wouldn't have to face the harsh reality of what she had been through as a child. But going through the motions and allowing herself to feel made her feel ten times lighter, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Dabi watched her intently as she caught her breath. He watched as her heaving chest rose and fell rapidly beneath her shirt, as the pearls of sweat slid down her neck. He had to admit he didn't dislike being in this position with her, and the fact that she still hadn't released his wrists amused him deeply.

"Are you... going to let me go now?" he asked in an amused tone.

Yuka's mind snapped back to reality as she heard him speak again. She looked up at her hand still grasping Dabi's wrist and realized in what position she found herself in. She promptly let go of his hands, feeling a flush of heat washing over her face as she quickly got up and away from Dabi.

"I-..." she started speaking, but couldn't find the words. She looked away, trying to mask the color that had taken over her entire face.

From the floor, she heard Dabi laugh slightly as he stood up. He then walked over to her, wiping the blood that was coming out of his bloody nose with the back of his hand.

"That was some impressive fighting you did there," he complimented her. "I guess I should've expected no less coming from an ex-Yakuza member..."

Yuka quietly calmed down and let the color drain from her cheeks and she felt Dabi growing closer to her. When she turned back to look at him, he was standing awfully close to her. Her eyes looked up to see him watching her intently, which only served to make the color return to her face in force. She looked away from him again, trying to keep her composure as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well..." she finally spoke. "It was quite foolish of you to underestimate me in the first place."

"I guess it was," he said as he laughed once more. "Bet you it felt nice letting all of that pent up rage out though..."

After a long pause, she nodded. She hated to admit it, but it felt good to let all of that frustration out. A part of her felt guilty that it made her feel that good. She had learned a long time ago that emotions were to be avoided at all costs and that it was wrong to let them out in the first place. It was something she had done ever since her father had instilled that lesson in her all those years ago, and now that she was finally letting them out, it somehow felt wrong but in the best kind of way...

Dabi could see all of these emotions going through Yuka's mind. Now that her barriers were down, he could read her expressions like an open book. The guilt she felt, the doubts that clouded her mind, but also the relief she felt when she finally found release for all of the emotions that had been spilling over before. He could see it all and he delighted in seeing the mask finally come down before his very eyes. He wondered how far he could push her, how far he could go with this little game they had going on together.

"You know..." he said in a gravelly voice. "There are other ways we can release all that pent up energy..."

He stepped even closer, sliding his hand along the edge of her jawline as he lifted her head gently. She looked up to see him looking down at her with a crooked smile, his thumb tracing the shape of her lips softly making her body shiver. A host of emotions ran through her mind. Confusion, disgust, intrigue... and something else. She remembered being utterly repulsed by Dabi's appearance when they first met, but now, she was feeling some other way about him. It was like her whole image of him had been shattered in an instant and now, she had no idea how to feel about him. She wanted to push him away, but at the same time... she wanted him to grow even closer to her, and it both excited and scared her to think that.

Dabi could feel her hesitation when she didn't say anything or push him away. As much as he wanted to go further with her, he wasn't in the habit of forcing himself on anyone, so he backed away with a sly smirk, his hand leaving her face.

"But we'll see about that if and when you need to blow off steam," he said with a slight chuckle. "I think you've had enough excitement for one night."

Yuka seemed a bit stunned by his sudden withdrawal. She looked at him with a shocked expression, then turned away as she felt the heat return to her face once more.

"Agreed..." she answered simply.

She turned away to walk towards the edge of the roof where she had left her mask. She picked it up and placed it back on her face. It felt good to have it back on. She had grown so accustomed to having it hiding her face that she always felt more at ease when she had it on. It felt like a shield protecting her from onlooking eyes.

"Thank you for-"

When she turned back to thank him, she noticed that he had completely vanished. She looked around for a moment to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her, but once she realized that he was truly gone, she felt a strange sensation growing inside of her. Was it... disappointment? Yuka shook her head. It couldn't be. Why would she feel disappointed that he was gone? It wasn't like he was bound to her in any way. He was free to do as he pleased the same as her and yet... she couldn't help but feel something. After pondering what that feeling was for a moment, she shook her head again. She had enough feelings for one night. The only thing she wanted more than anything now was to retreat back to her room and sleep. She was feeling exhausted from all the emotions and adrenaline she had felt previously and wanted nothing more than to pass out in her bed and fall into a dreamless sleep.