Hello everybody! Welcome to what I'm hoping can be a popular chapter for this story, as I can finally showcase a student/Pro Hero dynamic we never got to see that I personally felt could have promise. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on this chapter after you've read it.

I'd also like to let you all know, especially if you may have had any issue with the format of this story on this particular platform, that I've recently start uploading chapters on w.a.t.t.p.a.d. under the same title and author name, so if you'd like, feel free to check it out over there and leave your thoughts on the story altogether there if it's any easier for you there. I'll also be starting to do the same and re-upload the story on AO3 as well. I'll let you all know once I've started doing that. I know the manga is slowly but surely wrapping itself up, but I still want to try and get this story out to as many people as possible, and actually engage with my readers, and this is honestly the only way I can think to do so anymore.

But with all of that being said, I'm always infinitely grateful for all your continued readership and support, and I can only hope this story continues to be an exciting and satisfying alternative to the manga for you all as fans.

I'd like to once more thank my beta readers and consultants, Jonny and Carlos, as well as the current roster of supporting artists on DA: Syyndev, Akane Kahomi, AliceKuroCross, Suki-Chan2509, effasempai, Eliza-Frost, Venera-Taro, Sahlissey-N and Yumake.

My Hero Academia is the property of Kouhei Horikoshi and Shonen Jump. I only own my original characters and the original events surrounding them.

A/N: [[]] indicates that characters are contextually speaking Russian.

Chapter 133

Heroic Approach

(Героический Подход)

A couple of days ago…

The lights were amplified to the point of almost being blinding in a room as sterile white as this. Under those lights and in front of the two-way mirrors lining the walls, Tomura Shigaraki easily could have felt like a lab rat. In a way, perhaps that's exactly what he was right now. But he was a willing one, for he knew, standing here in only his pants, looking upon his one remaining disembodied hand that currently lay in his grasp, that the end results would be far, far more than worth it. He had shed countless amounts of blood and sweat in order for this day to finally come, so he would face whatever was left happily.

Standing in the middle of the room, watching his patient intently, Ujiko was now dressed in full surgical garb, next to a chair that would have looked perfectly in place at a dentist's office. The mask and his thick glasses hid the bristling excitement within his aged body.

"I must say, your Quirk blossomed in full quite beautifully during that last battle. Now, it's not only the object you touch, but the things that are connected to that object that get destroyed as well. You've come to embody pure death and absolute destruction. That being said, though, I have to ask: why is it that you seek even more power?"

Tomura kept his head slouched low; his long pure white hair obscuring some of his scarred, dried and decrepit face, as he barely shifted his blood red eyes towards the old Doctor, grinning wickedly from ear to ear. "When someone offers me something, I take it. You, Sensei, Koschei; you've all been promising me a great deal for a long time now, so it's time for me to finally collect what's due…assuming you all can make good on it."

"You wound me, Tomura Shigaraki. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have to even be in this state if I wasn't a man of my word."

Tomura ignored the mock-offended tone Koschei's voice took in the back of his head, and continued looking back to the hand in his grasp, before he continued thoughtfully: "It's true, I have no more need for delicate moves…but I doubt even this power boost has made me totally unbeatable. Just ask that CEO baldy. He cut off his legs; that's the only reason he's still alive and kicking."

Tomura then proceeded to lift up his right arm, which was still covered in multiple grisly crack-shaped scars that ran far and deep. "And look at this arm. I went all out on time, and this happened. How many of them are we going to have to face from here on, huh? How many times will I have to push myself that far then?

"Plus…I already know this isn't the farthest my Quirk can go. When we were in Russia, we found these really nifty little bracelets, laced with an improved version of Overhaul's little Quirk-enhancing drug. When I used it, my Decay was able to channel through the air itself and kill whoever I saw fit in that moment. If I could be able to destroy anything or anyone just by holding my hand out like that, then I'd truly be unbeatable."

Ujiko gave no visible sign of reaction, but to hear Tomura describe such an extent of his Quirk's true limit had him feeling almost as excited as the young Villain himself.

In fact, the more Tomura thought about what he was liable to become by the end of all this, his smile only seemed to grow that much more chilling. "I'm done taking the Heroes lightly. I'll use everything I've got to obliterate the dregs that All Might left behind, down to the very last trace of proof he and his influence ever once existed. The next time we meet, I'll finish them all off…then with the powers of Sensei, Koschei and myself, make something better than this world. And if that somehow fails, I can just wipe that all out and start over as many times as I want."

Ujiko inhaled deep, unsure whether to just let the satisfaction he felt at such an answer roll over him, or to laugh in anticipation. "So, it's all ultimately to make your enemies miserable, and to make a world where you can do whatever you please without issue. Like master like student, I suppose. In that case, please take your seat, Shigaraki Tomura."

As Tomura began to climb into the chair, the Doctor continued: "All of my research I've accumulated here over the years has been for the sake of All For One. With each passing generation, Quirks become more mixed, more complex, more ambiguous, more powerful, and more numerous. Although our memory expands faster and faster, our hardware doesn't evolve quickly enough to keep up. There will eventually come a point when people lose control of their Quirks entirely. I call this concept: The Quirk Singularity Theory. Back then, All For One was the only person who took it remotely seriously.

"Unless we can find a way to somehow tweak the hardware to accommodate our expanding memory, the human race will become unsustainable. We started seeing early signs of this back in the fourth generation after the advent of Quirks. And since HE held multiple Quirks, he saw this problem as a truly grave one. Of course, the existence of your little inanimate friend dating as far back as my sources say, puts our understanding of the true history of Quirks on its head, but that still doesn't change the fact that they're more plentiful now than they ever were, and thus the threat of my theory being realized is more real than it has ever been."

As Tomura listened to the Doctor's rambling and looked uncaringly into the bright lights overhead, he could hear Koschei's voice emanate once more: "He speaks the truth, my boy. In the countless generations I was sealed away, over the last few centuries, I could feel a similar power emanating from some of the people back home; a power I hadn't sensed anything like since the days of the old legendary Heroes that ultimately left me like this. And with each generation going forward, I could feel that power growing and multiplying until more than three-quarters of the country's whole population possessed such powers…at least, until the day of the Siberian Flash more than a decade ago, as I heard some refer to it as. Then the rest of the people I could sense those powers within were either killed or driven away to where I could no longer sense them. But ever since you and your compatriots took me here, the level of power I've sensed within nearly all the people of this land has been unprecedented. I don't know, myself, how much stronger all this accumulated power could become before it would simply be too much for humanity to handle."

With now two old men practically echoing one another, and one being relegated simply to within his head, Tomura finally cut in: "Blah, blah, blah, how long are both your rambling stories going to last for?"

Ujiko, while initially surprised that apparently Tomura was hearing from his as-yet-unseen beneficiary as well as from himself; quickly regained his professional composure, as he already began setting everything up at his computers. "I swear, you're as impatient as a young child on Christmas morning."

"That's right, with the hopes and dreams of one to match." Tomura answered mockingly in his raspy voice, letting his body loosen up as the operating chair began to tilt back until it was now more like a surgical bed.

With his patient now in position, Ujiko explained further: "Understand, that for the next four months, your body will experience a hellish agony unlike anything you've ever experienced before…or even imagined was possible. But if you can overcome it, you'll find that you'll have everything you ever wanted in the palm of your hand…even One For all; the one power your master couldn't obtain for himself.

"However, before we finally begin, there's only one last request I wish to make…that of your mysterious little friend." Ujiko's voice was as deathly serious as it ever was, which earned him a confused but icy sideways glare from Tomura where he lay.

"What do you mean by that, Doctor? You want me to just fork Koschei over to you like 'here you go'? If you destroy that needle with your little experiments while I'm in here, you could very well be taking away something that was promised me…and you know I don't take that kind of disappointment lying down."

But Tomura's threats did nothing to dissuade the Doctor: "I only wish to know that this enigmatic little man in the needle who claims to be from so long ago, isn't simply stringing you along with all these promises of further power alongside what All For One has already promised you, Shigaraki Tomura! As a man of science, it is only in my nature to seek the answers to that which intrigues me."

Tomura had half a mind to once more tell the Doctor 'no', before Koschei's voice suddenly emanated not only within his own head, but evidently in Ujiko's as well, as the old man visibly flinched with considerable surprise once the voice spoke out to them both: "It's all right, my boy. Countless others have tried to destroy me in this pitiful state, and all have failed. Such is the gift of my…Quirk, as you all call them. Nothing the good Doctor could do would put me at risk. By the time you emerge out the other side of this final trial, I promise you I will be there, ready and waiting, to finally give you what was promised."

Ujiko's initial surprise quickly gave way to eagerness, as Tomura visibly seemed put at ease by Koschei's reassurance. At last, he dug into his pocket and produced the intricate-looking sewing needle, which the old Doctor happily accepted into his possession, as he operated a pair of opposable mechanical arms emerging from the ceiling, to take it out the palm of his hand.

Once the needle was safely in his position, Ujiko motioned for the mechanical arms to carefully place it within a tiny metal support on a pedestal nearby; much like a minuscule version of the same mounted supports one would rest an ancestral sword upon on their wall.

For all Ujiko knew, this tiny little souvenir may indeed have possessed the spirit of a being far more dangerous than that, but from where he now sat, there was but one way to begin to find out. He was past the point of simply taking Tomura's word for it, or even the words of All For One himself. He simply needed to know for sure with his own eyes and ears, even after having heard the voice come from out of nowhere mere moments ago.

With the press of another series of buttons at his controls, Ujiko simultaneously activated the first of the machinery wired around this lab that would finally engage the beginning of Tomura's final procedure, while the portion of the floor the Doctor himself sat at, suddenly retracted like a conveyor belt into an opening in the wall, wherein the wall closed tight b ehind him once he was on the other side; thus finally granting him and his patient their respective privacy.

And Koschei could somehow sense they were alone as well, as his voice suddenly came emanating from the back of Ujiko's mind once more: "So…here we now find ourselves."

Ujiko stifled his astonishment at the realization he hadn't simply been hearing things after all. "So, you really are in there, somehow. Why is it none of the other members of the League ever mentioned hearing you before?"

"Because as useful as they are, it is Tomura Shigaraki that I am invested in. The boy has promise the likes of which I haven't seen in time immemorial. I know you and All For One both see it as well, otherwise none of what's happening right now would be. I'm only granting you the benefit of hearing me, because you are likewise a man driven by incomparable vision, just like them…and since you're the one man who can finally make Tomura Shigaraki physically ready to receive both our powers into himself, it serves no purpose for me to not at least grant your one request. Speaking of, why exactly is it that you wanted me?"

"Because, as I said before, I don't believe in fairytales, or things that can't possibly be proven or explained through science. I want to know from you directly, just what it is that you're offering Shigaraki Tomura that All for One can't possibly provide, himself. Are you trying to veer him away from that glorious man's vision in favor of your own? What's stopping me from simply handing you over to him, so he can take your mysterious Quirk for his own, like so many others?"

Koschei's voice reflected not even a trace of having been intimidated by Ujiko's wayward threat. "Because I don't wish to control Tomura Shigaraki. I simply wish to give him my power, because not only is it far more effective in a younger and far more powerful body like what he stands to gain, but because he has the spirit and the drive to use my power in conjunction with that of All For One, in a way far more effective than I ever could have dreamed back when I had my own physical body with which to act. It would simply be a waste for such potential to not have all the power it needs to achieve true immortal greatness; to make this great new world as he seeks to, behind his desire for pure destruction of what already stands."

Ujiko sat in silent contemplation for a solid minute. Finally, with a sigh of resignation as to what he would have to do, he answered: "I'll offer you a deal, Koschei-san: I won't toss you aside and simply give Tomura All For One's power alone as I'd originally planned…if you can convince me to let you follow through on your apparent plan in all of this. That boy is distrusting by nature, so I want to see just what it is he saw; what it is you can allow him to do once he has your so-called power; that makes him swear by you as strongly as he has been doing."

For but a moment, Koschei didn't answer, and that had Ujiko ready to grin in self-satisfaction that he had successfully called this enigma's bluff.

But then, the voice echoed out again: "Very well, if it will guarantee that you allow me to give Tomura Shigaraki my power when the time comes, then I shall show you what I showed him back in Moscow. I will show you a vision of just what it was I was able to accomplish back when I was in my prime…what he could stand to accomplish a hundredfold with mine and All For One's powers combined within his body. You need only take this needle into your hand to establish a connection."

Steadying himself, Ujiko hesitated for just a moment once he reached to take the needle into his hand…but in the end, he took that chance.

The moment he grasped that unassuming little trinket in the palm of his hand, Ujiko instantaneously felt as though he were being sent through the blinding passages of time and space to a world unfamiliar yet undeniably real, peering into a vast and frigid window of a time forgotten by humanity today, passed off now only as mere stories, but that he could see, hear and feel to be as real as anything could possibly be.

As Tomura endured the mounting tortures and examinations upon that operating table on the other side of that wall, Ujiko was witnessing a vision of the distant past that left him almost feeling enraptured, in a way that no one but All For One had ever been able to make him feel before. If he had tried to describe what Koschei the Deathless had shown him in that moment, no one ever would have believed him. However, for the Doctor himself, it was more than enough to finally convince his skeptical mind of the ancient Villain's sincerity in what he aimed to help Tomura gain the power to achieve once these next four months would finally be over.

Endeavor Agency, Tokyo, January 1st

After a grueling several minutes of carefully combing through the pages bookmarked in the copy of the book Hawks had given him earlier this morning, Endeavor now sat rigid as stone behind his desk, looking upon the apparent results of his colleague's hard work.

By taking the second word in every highlighted section, just as the Wing Hero had suggested he look at, a complete message now stood before him plain as day; a message that left his heart momentarily skipping a beat with shock:

'Opponent is Meta Liberation Army. League hijacked. Over 100,000 members strong. Four months from now. Rise to action. Before then, will send signal. If we fail, bolster our numbers.'

With his fires once again igniting over his face and body with the grim realization of what Hawks had risked his life for who-knows-how-long to tell him, Endeavor steadfastly rose. 'How did he manage to get this kind of information and survive? Has he actually been working undercover close to the League? Was he actually able to manage to convince them he was on their side?

'Why does he say we must wait for four whole months in before we act? Does he not have enough information yet for us to form a solid plan? Just what kind of access does he have to their inner ranks, if any? If he knows where they're based; he could give the word now and we could all mobilize…no. I couldn't be the first person he would reach out to get this message to. The Hero Public Safety Commission must know of this as well. They would have reached out to all of us to prepare for an attack if they felt it was possible. There has to be a reason why he and they are both ultimately telling us to wait.

'If the Liberation Army is truly this numerous, then they must have members rooted in all branches of society, including the Pro Heroes. Is there any way for us to find out who they would be? But if we were to try, and one were to slip away, they could inform the League of our knowledge, then any plan we come up with would be doomed to fail!

'Is it possible that they knew about the League acting out in this covert way for longer than I thought? Could that be why they reinstated the Hero internships after these last few months? Is that what Hawks could be referring to when he says to "bolster our numbers"?'

As he kept running these questions and subsequent theories through his head, Endeavor couldn't help but think back to a distinct conversation he'd shared with the Madam President of the Commission, right around the time the news had spread of the internships starting up again.

"So I'm just supposed to have them work under me?"

When Endeavor had received the news of internships starting up on New years Day, he had been filled with a satisfaction that his son would finally start gaining the field experience he would need in order to become the Hero he was meant to become…but when Shoto had asked to bring three of his classmates along with him as fellow interns, the Flame Hero had been far less than pleased.

But when Madam President had personally approached him with the request to take more than just his son as an intern, she had ended up giving the normally bull-headed Number One Hero with something to subconsciously think about up until this present moment.

"Yes. We want the students gaining real experience facing Villains. Between the numerous incidents that at least some of them have faced throughout the course of this year, they've already gained a decent head start, but the threats we could be facing before too long are too great for them as they are now. They need to gain as much genuine training and field experience under their belts as possible before it's too late. And…I think the experience of training more than just your son will do you some real good in the long run as well, Endeavor-san. That's why I'm asking you to train these kids the best you can."

That talk, now paired with Hawks' parting words this morning, and his secret message, all compiled together within Endeavor's mind, giving him a much-needed igniting spark of greater understanding of just what was happening, and why he was in the situation he was now in. This was what internships were ultimately all about, what they were all meant to prepare students for one day…and now that grave responsibility was his and his alone. His son and those three other boys were counting on him to help them prepare for whatever was waiting for Hero society in four months' time, and as the Number One Hero at last, he would be damned if he was going to bow his head and turn away from such a responsibility.

The only question he had left right now was…what exactly would be the best way for him to teach all four of these kids the most effectively? The others were clearly nothing like Shoto himself, and even that boy, he found himself still doubting if his training before was taking root within him as well as it should have.

There had to be a way to get through to his new handful of students completely, and he needed to find that way sooner, rather than later, if they were to be truly prepared for whatever was coming.

Down in the office, at the same time Endeavor had finally decoded Hawks' message, Nikolay, Izuku, Shoto and Bakugo were still in the middle of having been introduced to all of the Flame Hero's sidekicks, The Flaming Sidekickers, and the kind of insanely hectic work environment they would now be spending the next week in, courtesy of the fiery-haired female sidekick, Burnin' showing them the ropes.

"It's good you're getting this hands-on introduction to how we do things around here early. Since Endeavor personally requested Shoto alone, I'm willing to bet you other three will be solely working alongside us for the next week. It'll be a good way for me to see which of you will break under the pressure first."

Nikolay could feel his skin crawl with apprehension when he could just feel her stare falling on him at that last specific mention. But before she or anyone else could say anything more, Bakugo instantly snapped back: "You'd better be joking, you old hag! I was told I'd get to watch the Number One in action!"

"We will! Please calm down, Kacchan!" Izuku immediately tried to intervene before his old friend could say anything further to put them in worse graces with their technical teachers here.

Shoto, however, could see the apprehension on Nikolay's face, as well as the frustration in Bakugo's tone, and spoke thus: "Either way, working with the sidekicks was not what I'd requested you guys here for. I'll have to speak with my father about this at once."

Suddenly, the large double doors through which they had previously come in here slid open, and Endeavor's imposing and fiery form towered over the four boys, rendering all in the entire office silent as his piercing blue eyes looked them all over.

His son notwithstanding, Endeavor had virtually no idea what to truly expect from these three other boys. That lack of familiarity left him with a strong lingering sense of distaste at the thought of having to take them under his wing to any degree like Shoto. But with the words of Hawks and Madam President still echoing strongly in his mind, he finally lowered his crossed arms from his broad chest as he looked the four students in the eye.

"Shoto. Deku. Bakugo. Solovei."

The four boys remained silent, unable to help but look at the Flame Hero with mixtures of anticipation and anxiety as a result of his natural intimidation factor.

"You four with me."

With that, he quickly turned on his heels and broke into a brisk stride, spurring the four students to hurriedly follow in his wake. As Nikolay was still processing the fact that Endeavor had just referred to him by Hero name for the first time ever; when the two of them had made but split-second eye contact here, he couldn't help but think back to the involuntary flinch he had seen the Flame Hero give in the wake of their battle against Starservant, in response to what the old Villain had said to him.

'That was totally unlike anything I expected a Hero like Endeavor would ever let show. I wonder if he even realized he'd let that slip. Not like I'm going to bring that up to someone like him, though. I just hope his calling us to follow means he's actually going to teach us all personally now. But…what do I have to do to measure up to someone with the kind of expectations he no doubt has? It's not like I can ask any of the others for help with that. We're all in the same boat.'

But as they all made their way down the floors of the building and into the underground levels, Nikolay took in the varying airs given off by his three partners. Izuku looked similarly nervous, but nonetheless prepared to give his all, just as Shoto clearly showed through his air of apathy, and Bakugo definitely showed through his aggressiveness eagerness in his step. They all had their own vastly different feelings going into this, but they were all still going into it head-on. If they were all still that willing to give this their all, then there was no way he was going to have any less willingness than them.

Clutching his book bag as tightly in his right hand as possible, Nikolay could feel his anxiety swiftly melt away inside him, as he set his green eyes on the path ahead. 'It doesn't matter! Whatever Endeavor has in mind to train us, I'll do it! Everyone else out there is no doubt already giving their all with whatever their teachers are telling them to do! I'll make sure I come back just as strong and capable as everyone else, no matter what! By the time we all see each other again, we'll be ready to take on anything the future has in store for us!'

No sooner than Nikolay had made this silent vow to himself, their descent had finally come to a stop, as they now stood before a large wrought iron door, and Endeavor now stood watching them with that intense, unreadable stare. "All of you get changed into your costumes and rejoin me inside."

None of them gave a single word of argument or confusion, instead quickly doing as they were told once they retreated into the separate changing rooms. Once they had all emerged in their respective gear, Nikolay at least felt glad he finally had the chance to break in his new winter variation to his costume, but Endeavor gave neither him a chance to really bask in it, nor Izuku a chance to compliment how he looked in it.

"Pay attention, all of you! I will be supervising you boys myself from this point forward! But before we start, you three gotta tell me about yourselves! I can't know exactly what to teach you if I don't know anything about you! What are you currently working on? What do you hope to achieve?"

Izuku had clearly been preparing for this very kind of interaction, as he immediately stepped forward. "I want control over my power, and to have freedom of movement even while at max performance."

Endeavor stared down the green-haired boy; the fires upon his face hiding the contemplation going through his head as he recalled what he'd seen Izuku do back at the Sports Festival against Shoto. "You…you've got super strength that wrecks your own body, right?"

"Yes, but I managed to find a way to use it without hurting myself."

Endeavor's eyes barely widened with surprise at Izuku's declaration. He almost would've been greatly impressed after what he'd seen previously…had Izuku's steadfast demeanor not suddenly started faltering, as he could no longer maintain eye contact. "But I've reached a point where…uh…how do I put this? I've got, like…a…I guess you could call it a…secondary power?"

"Show me." Endeavor reflected no confusion, but only the kind of curiosity that came across like a rigid demand.

Izuku took a deep breath, and throwing his arm forward, a single black smoky wisp began to emanate out one of the holes lining the knuckles of his gauntlet. "By really focusing, I can juuuust manage this much, but that's all I can handle for now. F I let any more out, I risk losing control altogether."

Endeavor's studious gaze of this strange extension of Izuku's Quirk was entirely unreadable. "You said 'max performance.' What exactly does that look like for this ability of yours?"

With the wisp now dissipating, Izuku pulled his hand back. "The real form of this one is more like a whip. I wanna turn it from a liability into a real weapon. I think I can apply some concepts from my other new technique, Air Force…oh! I should explain that one first!"

Just like that, Izuku suddenly broke into a rapid-fire summation of everything he'd come to know about his Air Force technique; his mouth running like a motor to the point Nikolay, Bakugo and Shoto were all struggling to even follow the movement of his lips, long since past the point of even trying to mentally keep up with everything he was talking about. Even after having personally seen Air Force in action, Izuku's overly wordy way of explaining it still managed to leave them virtually stumped. Nikolay, specifically, was just trying to understand the connection between his friend's well-established super strength and this whip extension of it.

"I suppose this is just Midoriya's way of analyzing himself." Shoto muttered in resignation, while Bakugo was already gritting his teeth in nonexistent patience. "GAAAH, SHUT UP, YOU DAMN NERD!"

"TOO LONG! I'M TOTALLY LOST!" Burnin's voice suddenly exclaimed in similar frustrated disbelief at what a motor-mouth Izuku was, causing Nikolay to nearly jump in surprise that the sidekick had been right behind him this whole time. "WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!"

But before Burnin' could answer that she'd naturally followed the new interns to see how they would measure up, Endeavor suddenly answered Izuku's latest rambling with what could only have been a godlike comprehension. "I see. So you're hoping to make that tricky balancing act between your abilities and your physical movements feel more like second nature."

Nikolay, Bakugo and Burnin' alike nearly had their jaws drop to the floor, before she exclaimed in admiring disbelief: "HE ACTUALLY FOLLOWED ALL THAT?! HE REALLY AIN'T NUMBER ONE FOR NOTHING!"

At the same time, though, Endeavor was simply taking in everything Izuku had just told him, still thinking back to their Sports Festival conversation, and just how crudely he'd used his Quirk back then. 'This boy…in terms of pure power, his Quirk is comparable to All Might's.'

That connection drew the Flame Hero to take another steadying breath, before finally opening his eyes to address Izuku in full. "You've truly suffered, due to your Quirk. So…you're one of us."

Such a vague declaration left Izuku just as confused as Nikolay was, but Endeavor didn't bother to explain himself, as he'd now shifted his attention to Bakugo, who simply looked like he'd been chomping at the bit for this moment.

"Next up is you."

"Unlike him, I came here to figure out what I can't do!"

While Nikolay instinctively rolled his eyes at such a typically arrogant-sounding answer from his classmate, Burnin' couldn't help but laugh, much to the hotheaded boy's indignation. "SHUT IT! WHY'RE YOU EVEN HERE?! I'm serious, dammit! My Explosion can pull off anything I want it to! I've only got that one Quirk, but it's totally the strongest!"

As Bakugo rallied off his confidence in his ability, his three partners were all silently observing him; Izuku specifically looking back and thinking to their youngest years, when his friend had first developed his Quirk, and how proud he had always been of it. To listen to him talk like this, he easily could've assumed the boy hadn't changed one bit since then.

"But then I learned that a strong Quirk's not enough to make me the strongest guy around. To surpass the Number One, I want to find out just what it is I'm missing." Even if Bakugo's tone didn't change at all, the fact he was actually admitting even the slightest fault was downright foundation-breaking for Izuku and Nikolay both; the latter instinctively thinking back to how hard they'd had to work together in order to ultimately succeed at the Joint Training Exercise.

Thinking back to that experience, he couldn't help but feel a strange sensation of warmth in his chest; perhaps nostalgia. 'After spending so much time convinced he had everything he needed, that whole experience of his plans getting dashed could've easily broken him, or made him infinitely more resentful of me and everyone else for getting in the way. But instead, it feels like Bakugo actually took something from it. I mean, he hasn't been nearly as mercilessly harsh to me…as often, since then.'

"Sure."

This was all Endeavor had to say in response to Bakugo's statement. Before Nikolay could ruminate further on how his spiky-haired classmate had visibly changed, he now found himself the object of the Flame Hero's focus, almost literally swallowed up in the shadow of his hulking frame.

Even with the flames upon his face, Nikolay could just feel the distaste reflected in Endeavor's eyes even before he spoke: "And I suppose I must ask the same of you."

Nikolay could feel his stomach twist and his knees start to tremble when under Endeavor's fierce stare. This had to be even just a fraction of what all the Villains who'd had to face him in the field had felt. Again, it felt like it was truly no wonder that he'd accumulated the record number of resolved incidents that he had with this kind of intimidation factor on his side.

But Nikolay was not here as a criminal, but as a student, and he needed to meet his new teacher's request head-on, just as he'd promised himself he would. It was just a matter of getting the words together.

All the while, Endeavor watched as his foreign intern was working up the courage to answer. Under any other circumstance, being left in silence to his question like this would have been far beyond infuriating. Even Bakugo was sneering at Nikolay's struggle to answer in distaste.

But surprisingly, that wasn't what Endeavor himself was feeling. He realized he was observing something more than just the foreign boy trying to answer.

'This kid…he doesn't try to put on a brave façade like anyone else would. Whether that means he's trying and failing, or simply not bothering to, makes no difference. I clearly intimidate him…and yet, he still chooses to stand here and look me in the eye to answer, regardless. That's not foolish stubbornness, it doesn't feel like that, coming from him.

'This kid…is actually embracing his own intimidation, in order to face me head-on. That's…surprising.'

As soon as Endeavor got this thought across, Nikolay finally answered: "I don't have anything as technical in mind as Midoriya-san. What I want the most…is to try and become the same kind of Hero that my father is. I mean the kind that he is now, not what he was before."

Nikolay could just feel the surprised looks on Izuku, Shoto and even Burnin's faces, while Endeavor and Bakugo were both watching him with silent and observant gazes.

"What I mean by that, is that ever since we came here and he got his Pro Hero License…no, even before that, ever since he started teaching at Yuuei, my Dad has been working himself beyond his limit, in order to try and be a better Hero than he was before; the same kind of Hero you saw in action with your own eyes back in Kamino Ward; a Hero that embodies genuine all-around hope for others. That's the feeling that everyone at school helped me to feel again, and I want to become the kind of Hero who's strong, fast and capable enough that he can give that same feeling to everyone in return…like you did during that battle in Kyushu."

If Endeavor gave a nod of acknowledgment of Nikolay's answer, neither he nor any of his partners saw it, before the man proceeded to turn around on his heels. "Right, let's get started then."

"Ahem! What about me?" Shoto suddenly asked, not out of offense of being skipped, but more out of a deeper sense of annoyance, as though he'd actually expected his father to pull something like this.

And his speaking out was what finally got a genuine reaction of annoyance out of Endeavor, as he sharply turned back to address his son: "YOU'RE HERE TO MASTER THE FLASHFIRE FIST, SHOTO!"

His literal fiery temper was able to get a flinch of shock out of Nikolay and Izuku, but Shoto managed to stand completely steadfast, long since used to reactions like this. "All of the Quirk training you beat into me as a kid…I've put it into practice with my right side. You know that."

Looking down to his left hand, Shoto's normally unreadable eyes gave off the subtlest hint of a long-ignored frustration. "Thinking back on it now, it's no wonder, since I couldn't escape my own hatred of you…and then I got into Yuuei."

Shoto finally glanced back to Nikolay, Izuku and Bakugo; his eyes once more completely unreadable as he met his father's intense gaze; his fists clenching tight. "Competing alongside these three…and everyone else…helped to finally open my eyes. Endeavor…in the end, I'm gonna do exactly what you always wanted…but please understand: the Heroes I admire…are the one that Mom and I watched on TV back then…and the father who taught me as an equal to everyone else; not as his personal guinea pig."

Nikolay, Izuku and even Bakugo all couldn't hide the varying looks of surprise on their faces. There was no question Shoto had first been referring to All Might as the first Hero he admired, but this was the very first time any of them had ever heard Shoto express any kind of admiration about Tunguska; his specific description leaving virtually no other options as to who he had to be referring to. In fact, his precise wording left Endeavor internally shaken.

While Nikolay once again found himself wishing his father could have been here to actually hear Shoto's words of admiration; the red-white-haired young Hero himself was now standing tall before his own father with an assuredness and focus that was impossible for his two friends to not feel their own admiration from.

"Midoriya may have been able to help me make peace with using both sides of my Quirk; and in silence, I may have also tried to work on moving on from the past regarding you, like Bezpalov did with his father, so that I could finally work toward becoming the Hero I really want to be…but the truth is that I still haven't forgiven you, and the day might never come when I will. You becoming Number One, and my learning under you today; those things haven't changed what you've done to me. I want to make sure you understand that without question.

"As a fledgling Hero, in order to become a man worthy of the title, I came here of my own free will! You're a rotten Number One. You were just in the right place at the right time; that's all. Sorry this isn't going the way you want it to, Number One. So let's stop that father-son crap in front of my friends."

Nikolay and Izuku both weren't entirely sure how comfortable they felt having Shoto finally address them as his friends out loud as a means to denounce Endeavor; while Bakugo was once more scowling with indignation at the suggestion of being his rival's friend.

But as the boys all braced themselves for however their teacher would react, Endeavor simply stood in stoic silence, looking at how resolute and sincere Shoto's expression was. This was clearly not the same boy who was giving him and his half of his Quirk the cold shoulder out of some childish sense of defiance. For the first time, he truly felt as though he were seeing his son for what he really was now for the first time…and it brought just as much pain as it did pride.

Right now, Endeavor couldn't help but think back to Shoto's parting words, the first day he had come to watch his remedial training, of how he wished to see what kind of father he was going to be now that he was Number One. With Tunguska's own nagging advice of bridging the gap by being the Hero his family would want to save them, he once more found himself at the mental roadblock that had been plaguing him ever since then.

'Shoto…since he was willing to come here again, I thought his heart had finally opened up and was ready to accept me, and that I could finally start to see what direction to head in as Number One. What a fool I was! I had him figured all wrong!'

Endeavor subtly moved his gaze to take in his son's three companions and proclaimed 'friends'; once more finding himself thinking back to the Sports Festival and how much it had changed Shoto as a person. 'These three boys…somehow, some way, they each helped Shoto to grow exponentially since then. Perhaps training them alongside him could prove worthwhile, after all. And that foreign one…if he could perhaps tell me how it was he came to forgive Tunguska for the things he'd caused…it may help me find the answer that's eluded me thus far.'

Without further hesitation, Endeavor turned on his heels to leave. "Right. All of you; come with me."

At his command, Nikolay, Izuku, Shoto and Bakugo hastily followed in the Flame Hero's footsteps, soon finding themselves back outside the Endeavor Agency, where he immediately broke into a purposeful and fast-paced stride, officially beginning their very first round of patrols with him through the bustling Tokyo streets.

"I'll be evaluating the four of you as Heroes. Rescue. Evacuation. Battle. People come to Heroes for those three basic things. Normally, when a Hero sets up an Agency, they decide whether to emphasize rescue, or battle; one of those two. The major difference between my Agency and all those others is that mine isn't picky. We tackle all three in equal measure.

"You have to know your home turf like the back of your hand, so you can detect even the smallest disturbances in a heartbeat. Then you need to get to the scene of that disturbance faster than anyone else. Keep property damage to a minimum, and if civilians get close, use your Quirk to drive them away. That is your starting point. Keep all of those things in mind at the same time as you act at top speed, and make all of those processes your M.O. Practice them constantly until they become second nature to all of you. Think about what it is you're wanting to build up, and what you're actually building up within yourselves as you go."

Nikolay could just feel his skin tingling at just how much sense everything Endeavor was saying, actually made. In so many words, he'd just made what seemed like an insurmountable educational experience, actually seem doable. Any sense of intimidation or uncertainty he had been holding in now seemed to finally lighten in weight within himself.

"At Yuuei, what you give and receive the most in your education is effort. Out here, it's experience. You need a mountain's worth in order to make the cut as a Pro Hero, so your job while you're here is to conquer that experience barrier.

"THIS WINTER, I WANT YOU BOYS TO SHOW THAT YOU CAN JUST ONCE, DEFEAT A VILLAIN FASTER THAN ME!"

Endeavor had at last made his ultimate expectation made undeniably clear, and just like that, Nikolay's own building anticipation and confidence had started to sink. He knew that all four of them had improved in terms of strength and speed, but after seeing what Endeavor had managed to do, how fast he'd managed to act earlier this morning, that sensation of impossibility had come right back.

But Nikolay didn't need to look to his partners to know that they had already silently accepted the Flame Hero's challenge. If there had been one thing that had been hammered into all their heads over the course of the previous year, it was that Heroes were made to overcome seemingly impossible odds, and simply overcome the real ones in the process. It was Yuuei's own slogan, for God's sakes.

With that reminder ringing resolutely within his heart, Nikolay bit his lower lip and clenched his hands into ready fists, thinking to the old ring still hanging on a necklace around his neck under his costume, and lifting his head so he could keep in pace with his three classmates.

'Dad, Mom…everyone, I'm not gonna let you down. I won't back away from this, not now! If the Number One Hero wants us to outdo him somehow, then I swear I'll give it my all and more to do so before we see each other again! I just hope your first days are going just as well, too.'

Meanwhile, in Kyoto…

It had been impossible for Mina to stay still the entire train ride to Kyoto, she had been so incredibly excited. Upon arriving in the city and getting directions to Mirko's Hero Agency, she had to show great restraint to simply sprint over there, and not use her Acid Slide to get there even faster. Even when she'd been momentarily surprised by how much smaller the building itself was than she had imagined for the Number Five Hero in all of Japan, it did nothing to dim her eagerness, as she ran through the front doors and eagerly and repeatedly rang the bell at the empty reception desk, which brought a young woman with purple eyes, long brown hair with blonde spots, cheetah ears and a tail dashing down from the floors above at a blinding speed.

"Good morning, young lady! You must be the intern from Yuuei Academy, Ashido Mina-san! Welcome, welcome! We've been expecting you, please come upstairs with me!" As the smiling office assistant happily ushered the brightly smiling pink young Hero upstairs with her; Mina looked at her host and the building itself like she was walking through the pearly gates.

"Thank you, I'm so excited to finally be here! Is Mirko-sensei here? I totally thought she'd want to be here to try and surprise me for my first day, like at a surprise party or something like that! Are you, like, one of her sidekicks? You came down so fast, just like my class president, Iida-san!"

While the Cheetah Quirk-user was initially overwhelmed by Mina's youthful energy and excitement, she was at least pleased to see she wasn't put off by the numerous stacks of boxes and paperwork lining some of the empty rooms. "No, no, she doesn't really do sidekicks…at all, really. Granted, this office is actually pretty much brand new as far as Agencies go, but even if it weren't, I don't think it would change anything, sidekick-wise. No, I'm just here because I'm really good and fast at my job. Oh, I'm Mishima Chiyuki, by the way, forgive me! I take care of all the upkeep, organizing and filing of the paperwork to the police and the Commission for all of the incidents Mirko-san handles on a daily basis.

"I'm sorry she isn't here right now; I'm sure you've heard this already by now, but her old gimmick was all about going from city to city and fighting any Villains she came across along the way, like a freelance Pro Hero, more or less. However, having an Agency means now staying put, and she really isn't about being stationary. Thankfully, even a city with as many Pro Heroes on hand as Kyoto has no shortage of incidents in a day, as you can probably guess. So, she likes to be out on patrol as often as she possibly can, so she can be the first to react when an incident occurs…even on the day I say her first ever intern is coming."

Chiyuki muttered the last part specifically under her breath, unable to hide her annoyance at how her work as an assistant in regards of scheduling was completely ignored by her currently absent boss, while Mina was still generally star-struck by the fact she was actually here. "Wow…you're so lucky, getting to work under such a cool, tough Hero! My art teacher said that Mirko-sensei never had interns cause of the whole roaming thing before, and probably wouldn't take one on even with an Agency of her own now; so she was totes surprised when I got my acceptance letter! Hey, if you work for Mirko-sensei, like, all the time; then maybe you can answer a question for me! Do you have any idea what made her suddenly change her mind and actually take me on? I mean, I know it's supposed to be a test run for a day so far, but still, I've been so excited, I never even stopped to think about it!"

Chiyuki couldn't help but find Mina's childish enthusiasm very endearing, which made her all the more hesitant to give an honest answer. What would it do to a girl like Mina's confidence if she were to know that Mirko only picked her out of purely random chance?

Fortunately, she wouldn't have to find out, as without warning, the Rabbit Hero herself suddenly came springing up from out of nowhere, landing in the frame of the one open window on this floor of her office in a perfect squat, causing Chiyuki and Mina to both jump in surprise at first, before the young student felt her heart nearly seize in excitement that she was now standing in the presence of the Number Five Hero herself, regardless of the clear annoyance on Mirko's face as she climbed the rest of the way inside.

"Ugh, today's already starting out a total dud! Nothing but pickpockets and total wannabes who can't even put up a halfway decent chase, let alone a fight! Three hours on patrol and I haven't even broken a sweat yet!" Mirko groaned while rolling her shoulders and stretching her arms in preparation to head out again already, before she finally noticed Mina's starry-eyed presence, raising a single eyebrow in response. "Who are you? Obviously a student. There some problem down at your school? A Villain attack, maybe? How many are we talking about here? Any of them look relatively tough to you?"

Just like that, the idea of a potential incident with some challenge had Mirko grinning in anticipation. But before Mina could answer, Chiyuki dutifully did so instead: "Er, no, Mirko-san, this is Ashido Mina-san from Yuuei Academy, the intern you picked for a test run, remember?"

As soon as Mirko's eyes slightly widened in remembrance, Mina was energetically bowing her head over and over, smiling brightly the whole time. "Yeah, yeah! I'm Ashido Mina, Hero Name: Pinky, at your service and ready to go, Mirko-sensei! I'm so excited; you're, like, the coolest! Thank you for taking me on, I promise I won't disappoint you, I wanna be just as strong and amazing as you one day!"

"Okay, okay, kid, give it a rest before you give yourself whiplash! Don't forget this is just a one-day test run for a start." Mirko bluntly answered, reminding Mina to finally stop her bowing, even if her whole body was still squirming with excitement.

"Okay, Sensei! I hope you don't mind me saying, but I thought there'd be a lot more Heroes here, the place is big and new enough for it! I'll bet you got tons of applications for sidekicks or partners, huh?!"

While Chiyuki simply put a palm to her face that her earlier explanation had apparently been ignored or already forgotten, Mirko just gave a slight sneer. "Nah, no need! The way I see it, a real strong Hero is able to handle any and all potential situations entirely by themselves, no sidekicks or team-ups needed; just pure strength, speed and raw skill! Any Hero that actually needs someone else around in order to help them resolve an incident is a total weakling in my book! It gives off the impression that they don't feel the need to go all out when facing a real tough Villain, and I don't need dead weight like that out here! Besides, having to get pinned down to one city alone is bad enough.

"As for this place being as big as it is when it's just me here: this city's always so busy with incidents and Villain attacks, that those Commission bigwigs thought I needed a place like this just to have room for all the paperwork, which Chiyuki-san here is more than useful for with her speed!"

Chiyuki gave the same awkward smile of gratitude that she always did when receiving Mirko's recognition of her own daily work. However, Mina just looked totally confused. "I know that I'm your first intern, like, ever; but you seriously don't even have one sidekick already?"

"Nope, and I don't want one, either." Mirko once again answered with the bluntness of a brick, as she took that chance to approach the nearby coffee machine, filling her cup with a packet labeled as 'Carrot Spice'.

"That just sounds so lonely to me, though, Mirko-sensei. I mean, when you're out going all over the place like you did before, I'll bet meeting brand new people every single day made it all that much more exciting! But now having to stay working in one place while not having a sidekick or a partner; I couldn't handle working as a Pro if I didn't have any of my friends around, either as sidekicks or teammates or whatever else." Mina stated with not a shred of doubt in her own feelings. This managed to get Mirko's bunny ears to twitch in recognition, as the Rabbit Hero quickly turned and strode quickly to her pink intern.

"Really? Is that really what you want my first impression of you to be: that you can't handle a day of working in the real world without your pals to cover for you? What am I supposed to do with that? Come here."

Without even waiting for Mina to do as she was being told, Mirko suddenly squatted down and firmly grabbed onto the student's arms, rhythmically squeezing them from her wrist to her shoulders, much to her speechless bewilderment at what was happening…until Mirko then proceeded to switch her grip from Mina's arms to her legs, once again lightly squeezing at certain spots from her ankles up to her thighs, where the Rabbit Hero's hands really seemed to focus.

With her pink face now turning light red, Mina stammered out: "W-what are you doing, S-Sensei?!"

A momentary glance to Chiyuki for some backup revealed a look of resignation and annoyance on the assistant's face, which sent Mina's mind awhirl. Had this not been the first time Mirko had done something like this? Had she actually done it to her on her first day here?

Mina wouldn't get any answers from Chiyuki herself, but Mirko at least then decided to answer her previous question: "I'm gonna give it to you straight for the last time, kid: I don't do sidekicks or interns. Honestly, the only reason I picked you is because, after having to settle into one town after being given this Agency, having an intern is the next big thing that could help improve my public image and get me closer to becoming Number One after Endeavor. You're far from the only Hero student around who applied to me, but I just picked you by chance.

"However, you saying you need the support and aid of your friends once you go Pro doesn't fill me with confidence. So I wanna see just what kind of muscles I'm gonna be working with here. If you can at least not disappoint me there, then at least we'll have a good starting point. I'm not about to let myself get weighed down by a tumbleweed without the muscle to defend herself. Physical strength can be just as much a game changer as a powerful Quirk, after all."

Mirko's inspective hands finally moved from Mina's thighs to her waist, which thankfully allowed the young girl to recollect herself enough to respond: "I-I'm not all buff like you are, Sensei…b-but I know I can pack a mean punch when I have to."

Moments later, Mirko finally removed her hands from Mina's body altogether, taking a step back as she looked her intern up and down briefly; ultimately forming a semi-satisfied smirk. "Well, your arms and legs certainly feel like they can back that up. Congrats, kid, you're not a complete loss. You're on the right track. However, if you're gonna be training under me, I'll see to it you walk out of here ten times as strong, if you can handle that."

While Mina was definitely happy to know that Mirko at least somewhat approved of her current physique, the implication that followed left her looking considerably worried. "Y-you don't mean I'm gonna have to literally bulk up, do you? I really like the way my body looks right now; it makes all my clothes and both my costumes look so cute and stylish! None of them will fit me if I'm suddenly a foot wider with muscles!"

Mirko immediately answered with a hard flick to her intern's forehead, quickly silencing Mina before jerking a thumb to herself for emphasis. "What're you suggesting here, kid? You saying that's how I look? You see some mountain of muscle with no shape to her here? Hell no! If you can actually measure up enough to stick around here; I'm gonna put you on a diet and a training regimen that'll build your muscles, and help you keep that girlish figure to boot! But we gotta see what you can do before we can even think of that. Now come downstairs with me, kid."

"I have a name, Mirko-sensei; it's Ashido Mina!" she immediately answered as she hurried down the stairs after her new mentor, but Mirko gave no indication that she was even listening, as she continued to descend well into the basement level, if not further down.

Soon, they were stepping through a pair of steel double doors, and Mina found herself presented with an expansive and brightly lit gym setup; the whole room filled with various-sized weights, sandbags and other forms of what she could only assume were stationary and mobile target practice, and what looked like a huge custom-made treadmill standing on a raised pedestal further down the length of the room.

Mirko soon pointed to a walled-off and lowered section of the gym, where Mina could see through the glass, a series of trap doors lined the floors, walls and ceiling.

"In your application, you said that your Quirk is Acid, right? Take off your shoes, get in there, and I'll turn on a moderate-level practice session so you can show me what you're capable of." Mirko instructed.

Mina wasted no time taking her shoes and stockings off before she went eagerly running into this little sealed off arena. The moment she was inside and in the center, Mirko flipped a couple of switches and finally hit the biggest button on the nearby control panel.

Thinking back to this similar scenario back in Arakisu City with the Kapenta Hero Agency, Mina practically flew from the floor the moment she could hear one of the trap doors finally open. Never allowing a chance for her momentum to even begin slowing down, she took off into a blindingly fast Acid Slide that practically took her across the floor and even the walls, as she proceeded to unleash a combination of Acid throws, Acid Shots, and even some hard punches and kicks coated in a build-up of Acid against some of the practice dummies she was able to get close enough to. The young Hero was like a veritable pink blur with how fast she was melting away every target that came up anywhere in the arena, and all while Mirko and even Chiyuki were watching her intently.

After a full minute, a loud electric alarm blared out from seemingly the entire gym, which finally got Mina to slow down and finally come to a stop, hunching over to try and catch her breath while she took in her surroundings and saw the over two-dozen melted practice dummies she'd laid waste to in her proud display of speed and skill. She couldn't stop herself from smiling when looking back to see Mirko's judgment if she'd tried.

But when the Rabbit Hero finally opened the door, Mina was instead met with an expression of total disappointment on Mirko's face, as she held an old-fashioned pocket watch in hand, its chain running into a previously unseen pocket to her costume. "Only two dozen in the span of a minute, and they weren't even the ones that can fight back. That was way too slow, Cotton Candy Girl. You should've been able to take down at least twice that many in that amount of time. Step outside and watch how a real Pro gets it done.

Mina was momentarily at a loss for a response as she did as she was told. The moment she was outside with Chiyuki, the assistant hurriedly hit the same switches and button that Mrko had; causing all the melted test dummies to retreat back into the holes they had emerged from. After a few second of mechanical whirring echoing from all around, the doors started to open from completely different spots than they had for Mina's run.

But that didn't deter Mirko in the slightest; as with a vicious and eager grin on her face, the Number Five Hero proceeded to launch into a blinding white blur that seemed to literally ricochet from every surface of the arena at once, hammering deafening strikes of overwhelming physical force into what looked like half a dozen targets at a time.

It was incredibly difficult for Chiyuki to keep track of Mirko's movements, and by comparison it was literally impossible for Mina to even know what direction to look in order to see just what exactly her mentor was doing, as the dummies seemed to just explode at random with every echoing hit.

By the time the full minute had passed and the alarm once again rang, Mirko came to a stop in the same exact spot she had originally started, looking like she still hadn't broken a sweat while surrounded by easily two or three times as many practice dummies as Mina had made her way through.

Mina herself looked like her jaw would have hit the floor where she stood, once her mind had finally caught up with what her eyes had barely managed to see. Mirko had immediately proven her own point at just how much faster and physically stronger she was than the young pink Hero, and had made it look like second nature while doing so. Mina was absolutely amazed. "Oh my God! That was amazing, Mirko-sensei! Do you really think I could be able to move and fight that fast one day? I mean, that'd be so cool if I could, but it literally looks impossible! How long did it take you to learn to move like that?!"

But as Mirko finally stepped back out from the arena, she had that look of severe disapproval on her face again, looking her intern in the eye. "Hey, we're not here to talk about me, remember? What kind of Pro Hero are you thinking you'll be if you're telling yourself something is impossible on day one? Isn't Yuuei Academy's whole motto about breaking through the impossible or something? Where did you get the gall to come asking me for an internship if you weren't prepared to go beyond your limits? You surely must've seen or heard me in action before if you were so insistent on learning under me, so you must've had some inkling what you were getting into!"

Mina once more found herself being put right on the spot, with no idea which question to answer first, or even how. But Mirko's train of thought was just as speedy as her body, as she once more motioned her head for her intern to follow. "Alright, we've seen how fast you're able to fight so far, but I wanna see now just how fast you can go when out on patrol. You used your Acid to add to your momentum like a slide, so let's see how fast you're able to go when using that same method. It could prove really useful in helping you get to the site of an incident in time to stop or outright prevent it."

Mirko motioned for Mina to step onto the large treadmill. The young Hero had to stifle the instinct to swallow a nervous gulp when seeing how big the machine itself was up close, never mind how wide the track was. If anything, she had to try and look at it from the bright side: such a wide track would surely allow for her to maneuver better while trying to focus on the speed of the release of her Acid through her feet.

The moment Mina was on the track, Mirko hit another button, and the track was already starting to move back from under Mina's feet at the speed of a racing motorcycle, forcing the pink student to start channeling a steady flow of her least corrosive Acid out of her soles in order to meet that pace and keep up with it.

After a few seconds, Mirko began turning the dial on the control panel for the treadmill, causing the track to not only start speeding up noticeably with each passing second, but to also lift up higher into the air, and tilt to provide an incline for Mina to try and overcome by secreting her Acid Slide even faster; visible effort now on her face.

As soon as Mirko could see the focus on Mina's face, she suddenly asked: "So what exactly is it you're hoping to gain from interning under me, Cotton Candy Girl? And don't give me some generic answer; I wanna know what you specifically are hoping to learn."

Mina knew she couldn't allow herself to get distracted from keeping her Acid Slide going. Fortunately for her, her answer came to her out of pure gut instinct: "Every time I've gotten into a battle this past year, there's been at least one point where I ended up freezing up with fear! I wanna change that! I wanna be a Hero who's strong enough that I can protect everybody I love and care about, and everyone else too, without ever freezing up again! When I saw how confident and cool you carried yourself at the Hero Billboard Charts on TV, and how you didn't even hesitate when helping Hawks and Endeavor in Kyushu, I just knew I'd be able to get that strong by learning from you personally!"

Unfortunately, no matter how sure Mina was of her own answer, it didn't have the same effect on Mirko, who simply kept her arms crossed over her chest, rapidly tapping her foot against the floor in frustrated impatience at a speed beyond human capability. "Every time you show some physical promise; psychologically, you disappoint me, kid. If you're focusing your training for the sake of looking after your partners and friends, you're just gonna end up making them your crutch. If you really wanna unlock your true full potential, you gotta go into every minute of training prepared to go your entire Pro Hero career with nobody but yourself alone to rely on."

Suddenly, Chiyuki spoke out: "That's really hypocritical coming from you, Rumi-san."

At the same moment that Mirko glared menacingly to her assistant; Chiyuki's comment had ultimately managed to break Mina's concentration, as she couldn't help but look their way to see if she had heard right. And as a result, she'd ended up losing focus and faltered in channeling her Acid Slide, causing the now lightning-fast track of the treadmill to finally send Mina flying backwards and smacking into the opposite wall behind her; Mirko remembering to slam another button on the control panel behind her back, which caused a large air bag to emerge from the wall at the last second. Afterwards, Mina ultimately crumpled in a pile on the floor below, much to Chiyuki's concern and Mirko's further disappointment.

"Dammit, Chiyuki-san, keep your trap shut when I'm having conversations you aren't invited to. And as for you, Cotton Candy Girl, you gotta work on maintaining focus on whatever you're doing, no matter what's going on or who says what. But…at least you managed to reach a halfway decent speed with your Acid Slide by then. Pick yourself back up, get your shoes back on, and follow me to my office."

Mina quickly recovered and was off like a shot after Mirko, while Chiyuki naturally took it upon herself to see to getting rid of the destroyed test dummies and getting more replacements.

Like any other Hero Agency, her office was at the top floor of the five-story building. Once Mina was inside the comparatively spacious office, her eyes immediately fell on an illuminated display case built into the wall to the left. Inside the glass was an assortment of trophies and medals, as well as a multitude of different photos showing Mirko at various ages from clearly being a teenager onwards. The first of which that quickly caught Mina's attention was one of Mirko dressed in what looked like a luchador's mask while hefting one of those trophies over her head.

"Wow! Were you actually a wrestler before you became a Hero, Mirko-sensei? That's awesome! One of my besties is gonna be so impressed when I tell him!" Mina exclaimed eagerly while pointing out said picture.

Looking back at it, Mirko chuckled. "Pfft, professional wrestlers are a joke, just a bunch of drama club rejects who happen to have some muscle. No, if you really wanna know, I've always loved fighting wherever I could find one to be had…so much so that it kept getting me in trouble with all the different martial art schools where I lived back then, never mind any such clubs at any of the schools I went to. So I decided to just tough it out on my own, and I eventually found an underground Quirk fighting ring to join. It's not around anymore, but those were some real good times I had back there. In fact, the last match I was in during that time, ended up turning into this huge battle with some Villains, and I actually found myself getting to fight alongside All Might himself by the time it was all over, way before he got reduced into that scrawny little twig working at Yuuei now. You and your classmates seriously have no idea what kind of a powerhouse you missed out on getting to see."

Mina, whilst really having to fight to keep from making some kind of disapproving retort towards Mirko's apparent dismissal of All Might's current state, looked even further across the other pictures on the wall. A lot of them still showed Mirko as a teenager, but some also showed her as a young adult, likely just five or so years younger than she was now. Most interesting of all, was that in nearly all those pictures, she was often joined by a multitude of different Pro Heroes Mina didn't recognize, primarily because they were all foreigners, as far as she could tell.

To further add to her curiosity towards that, there were also multiple newspaper clippings and printed webpage articles discussing what had to be Mirko's numerous accomplishments, and a good number of them were in English. That made it impossible for the excited young Hero to not ask: "Did you actually do a lot of Hero work abroad, Sensei?"

Mirko had her arms crossed over her chest as she approached the wall alongside her new intern, looking at the photos pensively. "More like I got my start as a Pro abroad, actually. Throughout all the time I spent in that underground fighting ring, it just made my desire to fight that much stronger…to the point that no Hero school in Japan wanted me. So, right after I got caught up in that battle along with All Might, the Hero Education Commission and my family ultimately agreed to send me off to finish my schooling at the biggest Hero school down in Australia. That continent was already one giant death trap before Quirks came along. Since then, it's now one of the most active places in the world in terms of Heroes actively fighting Villains on a daily basis, especially since the Villains in those parts tend to have Quirks related to the countless deadly animals they have down there. Battle is just about 99% of what Hero work consists of in the land down under, so that place was perfect for me. It was that way then, and it's apparently still that way now. I gotta admit, it is nice to know that some things really don't ever change."

Mina continued to look over the pictures of Mirko with these countless apparent Australian Heroes with her, looking like she had veritable stars in her black-gold eyes. "Wow, I never would've guessed you'd actually officially started in a foreign country, Sensei! That's so cool! Do you ever miss Australia, or any of these Heroes in these pictures? Were they all, like, your classmates or your partners?"

Mirko momentarily tightened her grip on her crossed arms, her smirk taking on a clearly annoyed edge. "You ask a lot of questions, you know that, kid? Anyway, no, those weren't my partners. Yeah we might've been in the same class, but they were really just a bunch of local Pros who insisted on getting in the way when I didn't need them to. Really damn annoying, if you ask me…but it's not like I'm gonna be a spoilsport when they want us to get our picture taken once the dust settles, you know?"

As Mirko explained herself, Mina was still looking over the pictures, and soon came to a realization that she once more couldn't help but point out. "Okay, but is that also the case with that red haired guy in the pictures up top? He's the only one in more than one picture with you."

Mirko momentarily flinched in recognition of what Mina was pointing out. At the top of the whole photo gallery were about a handful of pictures of Mirko, both as a teenager and a young adult, accompanied by a similarly aged Australian man with short red hair, calm brown eyes, a rugged yet charming smiling face lined with similarly colored stubble, dressed in a crocodile scale vest lined with a large furry plumage over his shoulders. But the head and torso was where the human parts of his body ended, as sprouting from the sides of his head were a pair of kangaroo ears, and his arms and legs were likewise those of a kangaroo, only amped up to the absolute limit in terms of sheer muscle, with an equally large tail poking out from his lower back to complete the whole image.

Mina's curiosity naturally drove her to look to Mirko to see if she would answer, and when she saw the look in the Rabbit Hero's eyes, and the smile on her face, it made her heart momentarily seize with delighted surprise, while Mirko actually explained: "Oh, him? That's the Kangaroo Hero, Stampede Hopper, the Number One Hero in Australia today. And yes, we also were in the same class together, so don't bother asking. Anyway, out of everyone else, he was actually the only one I didn't mind having around a lot of the time. He was actually the one to really show me the ropes of how Hero work got done and how Hero society works down under when I first showed up, as opposed to how we do things here in Japan. I guess you could say he's pretty much been my best friend down there since day one."

Mirko's choice of words made Mina visibly perk up with even more curiosity. "'Is'? Are you two still in contact with each other even today, Sensei?! OH! If he's Number One down in his country, is that why you're, like, in such a rush to get to Number One, too?!"

"Ding-ding." Chiyuki's voice suddenly answered from just outside the doorway to Mirko's personal office; leaving the Rabbit Hero sneering angrily that her assistant had been eavesdropping, on top of Mina's constant questions getting further and further under her skin.

But it was too late for Mirko to redirect the conversation, as Mina had already heard Chiyuki's inadvertent confirmation, and was now looking at her teacher with glistening eyes and the happiest smile on her pink face. "That's so beautiful, Sensei! Do you guys have, like, one of those romantic promises of becoming Number One before seeing each other again? Oh, you totes do, I'll bet! How long ago did you both make that promise? Do you ever wish you could just skip the wait and go back, or the other way around?! Do you at least ever talk to each-?!"

Mina couldn't continue her emboldened string of questions, as Mirko's aggravation and embarrassment at her accuracy had finally driven her to impulsively throw her body into a forward roll; going so fast that Mina didn't even realize the danger she was in, until she suddenly felt her mentor's all-powerful legs wrap around her head, wrangling her flat to the floor and at Mirko's mercy, as she began steadily applying the inescapable pressure with her own thighs around Mina's head.

"Listen, and listen good, Cotton Candy Girl! You stop with the questions, you stop with talking about anything having to do with me and any past business that's none of your own, or else I crush your head right here like a watermelon! Don't test me, got it?!"

Since Mina couldn't actually speak with her head trapped like this, she could only desperately start tapping her palm against Mirko's leg the same way wrestlers tapped out to signify their surrender. This thankfully seemed to satisfy Mirko enough, as she just as quickly removed her legs from around Mina, allowing her to finally catch her breath, while Mirko leapt back onto her feet. "I'm done hanging around here. Once you catch your breath, get dressed in your costume and come outside with me for patrol. You better be able to keep up with me, though, cause I ain't slowing down for you or anyone or anything else. You fall behind me, you're on your own, plain and simple!"

Mina was no longer willing to push her luck with her mentor now that she was all fired up again, so she quickly retreated into the nearby changing room. As she got into her Hero costume, she was still considerably shaken by just how quickly Mirko had gotten her into an inescapable position…but her inner hopeless romantic was still reeling from the fact she'd stumbled upon what had to be a real life long-distance lovers' promise; the kind of scenario she simply lived to see brought to fruition.

And of course, there was also her boundless curiosity when it came to just what kind of exploits Mirko got up to during her time as a student and also an apparent Pro Hero down in Australia. In fact, it made Mina so curious, that she simply couldn't resist the temptation once she'd gotten fully changed. Surely one extra minute's wait wouldn't hurt.

With that in mind, Mina proceeded to pull out her phone and start looking up any potential news articles, pictures or videos relating to the Rabbit Hero and Australia. To her delight, a good number of results popped up, but since they were all in English, it was more difficult for her to try and mentally piece together just what the articles were saying Mirko had been involved with.

However, she soon stumbled upon one thumbnail for a video that had her full attention, as it was the last thing she ever expected to see out of someone like Mirko: a still image of the Rabbit Hero sprawled out on the ground in unmistakable defeat, while a large bipedal Villain that looked like a tortoise was standing over her, clearly pointing and laughing.

Looking over the name of the video, Mina soon found herself trying to read the English text out loud phonetically: "Rabbit…Hero…Out…o-outmatch—outmatched…by…t-to—tor…tort…tortoise…?"

SLAM!

With a speed and deafening impact that would have given anyone a severe heart attack, the changing room door was suddenly blasted off its hinges by Mirko's kick, and the look on her face reflected an anger that made her previous aggravation look downright cheerful by comparison.

"DON'T LOOK AT THAT!" Mirko exploded at the very same moment she masterfully threw her body around in order to throw a perfectly aimed skyward heel kick that smacked Mina's phone right out of her hands, with enough force to make it shatter into several pieces against the ceiling.

Mina's mouth continued to hang open, her pink face completely pale, and her black-gold eyes as wide with horrified shock as could be, before she could feel the stinging of tears start to build up once the reality set in as to what Mirko had just done to her phone, and to all the irreplaceable memories inside it.

But none of that mattered to Mirko worth a damn as she started stomping her way out of the changing room, all while muttering furiously to herself: "Goddammit, I thought I'd gotten every trace of that damn video removed! Enough wasting time, kid, let's go!"

Mina's body essentially started following Mirko on autopilot, as her mind and her heart were still trying to catch up the rest of the way, even once they were finally outside and she was taking off into the fastest Acid Slide she could manage, while Mirko was propelling herself up and over at incredible heights and speeds with the power of her kicks. The undeniably impressive acrobatic skills of the Rabbit Hero didn't even inspire the same wide-eyed astonishment from Mina that they normally would have.

And along the way, Mirko was at least getting enough of a rush from sending herself flying high with her kicks and subsequent flips and ricochets, that she was starting to speak out in instruction to her young charge: "Keep in mind that Pro Hero work demands you be at the top of your game not just physically, but emotionally and especially mentally, too. You gotta be prepared to detect even the faintest sign of trouble from any direction, and you gotta come in as quick and hard-hitting as nature itself, especially if you wanna be able to take care of the problem fast enough to where no civilians risk getting caught in the crossfire.

And by this point, Mirko had come to expect that kind of reaction from her temporary intern towards anything she did on the field. So when she was hearing no such response from Mina, she finally looked back to see that, while the young Hero was actually managing to keep up and not run into anyone or anything along the way, her face clearly showed she was mentally a million miles away.

And for the Number Five Hero in the whole country, that kind of lack of focus in anyone learning under her was inexcusable. "Hey, are you even listening to me right now? Don't tell me that business with the phone was enough to get you completely deflated!"

This finally stirred Mina out of her mental slump, and when she looked up to actually meet Mirko's gaze, the Rabbit Hero was surprised to see a look of genuine hurt in her eyes, and the beginnings of what seemed like genuine anger tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Don't talk about it like that, Sensei! You don't understand! It's not just that it was my phone you broke! I had so many videos, so many pictures from the past year of me and all my friends, the people I love, on there! They made for some of the happiest memories I've had yet, and you just went and destroyed all of it like it was nothing, and I don't even know if I can save them anymore after that."

To Mina's confusion and subsequent annoyance, though, this answer of hers only made Mirko smirk, as she never broke her hopping stride. "I didn't think even that would get you this upset, kid. Good; use that feeling the next time you find yourself in a fight out here. See just how much faster and stronger it'll make you in the long run."

Mirko's apparent indifference only made the frustration building in the pit of Mina's chest that much stronger, as she immediately answered: "But that's not the kind of Hero I wanna be, Sensei! I don't wanna be a Hero that acts out of pure anger, I already have a classmate whose whole style and way of life is about being PO'd all the time! I've always wanted to be a Hero simply out of wanting to help people and make everyone as happy as I am!"

But Mirko didn't even look back to grant her intern the courtesy of eye contact as she answered: "Yeah, that's a real sweet sentiment, but you and I both know that a Hero who can knock a Villain silly in the blink of an eye is the only thing keeping those people alive long enough for it to even mean anything."

Mina's mouth went tight with annoyance as she countered: "I'm not afraid of fighting, Sensei! You saw me in that gym; no matter how slow you think I was! I just don't think a Hero should have to let their ability to fight be decided by anger or aggression or any of that ugly-feeling stuff! I think a Hero can also let their desire to help others, or just their love for other people, give them the strength and skill they need to kick butt just as hard, too! I mean, that's what I've always done!"

The sound of Mirko chuckling in response had Mina swearing she could feel her hair start to stand on end, as the Rabbit Hero answered: "I swear you're hopeless. If you're just gonna keep choosing to let the people you claim to care about so much be what gives you the drive to act when the going gets tough, then you're ultimately just gonna make them your crutch. You're never gonna be at your very best if you don't start acting in a crisis with only your own personal victory in mind. Anything or anyone else in the heat of the moment is just a distraction, and it eventually will bite you right in the rear when you least expect it, and then you're really done for!"

For a good moment or two, Mina was silent, and Mirko already felt totally satisfied that she'd made her point enough for it to sink into her considerably stubborn intern.

"Is that really what you think, Sensei, while you've got all those pictures of you and that Stampede Hopper guy in your office?"

Mirko's whole body fidgeted in a knee-jerk reaction, enough for her to almost slip and fall off the neck of the latest street lamp she was about to hop off of, but she barely managed to catch herself and leap into another mid-air roll, before finally landing on her feet on the sidewalk, forcing Mina to come to a stop before the Rabbit Hero glared down at her angrily. "That is not nearly the same thing! We made a halfway decent team together back in the day, but the fact he was able to make it to Number One as quick as he did after I came back to Japan has been a thorn in my side ever since! You wanna know so damn bad why I wanna get to Number One so quick? Because I want us both to see that I could make it to the very top through nothing but my own skills and mine alone, just like he did! Then there won't be any question left between the two of us as to just who's the strongest!"

Suddenly, both of Mirko's bunny ears twitched and her whole body went rigid with focus as they turned in the same direction, down a nearby side street. "Look alive, kid, we finally got some action!"

Mirko launched herself off the ground in another all-powerful hop, spurring Mina to break into another high-speed Acid Slide in tandem with her before she could even stop to think. As soon as she was just on Mirko's figurative tail, she finally asked: What's going on, Sensei?!"

Mirko still had her back to Mina, but if the young Hero had been able to see her face, she would've seen a fiery stare and a smile of pure anticipation. "A lot of angry voices shouting for people to get on the ground, in the direction of a bank just a block from here. We got ourselves a robbery with hostages, kid! It sounds like about four robbers with a little over half a dozen hostages! Trust me, you can't fool my ears! Now you can see what a Hero who focuses solely on the endgame is capable of!"

Mirko ricocheted herself off the corner of another building, and as soon as Mina came skidding around that same corner to keep up, she could only come to a stop in front of the aforementioned bank just in time to see Mirko blast herself through the front doors like a human cannonball, catching the four armed criminals completely by surprise with how fast and vicious she was, smashing their guns to pieces with a single kick to each one; with each hit likewise managing to send the criminals flying and smashing against the walls and ceiling, as the Rabbit Hero flew across the interior of the bank like a white and purple blur, annihilating the small gang in less than three seconds in total, while all the hostages remained firmly glued to the floor throughout all of it.

Once the four robbers had all been taken care of, it was less than two minutes before the police finally showed up on the scene and took them all into custody, while also collecting testimonies from the hostages, employees and Mirko herself. Throughout all of it, the civilians couldn't stop thanking Mirko for her help, while she simply gave a well-meaning smirk and roll of the eyes in response. "Yes, well, maybe see about doing business with a bank with better security next time, okay?"

After then swinging by the local police station to officially fill out the paperwork detailing the incident, Mirko and Mina were once more out on the road; the Rabbit Hero giving a roll of her right shoulder in order to loosen herself back up. "So, you saw how I handled everything in there, right? Four men armed with sizeable firearms with a number of hostages in a tight space? Those kind of situations can go real south real fast if you don't know what you're doing. It's the perfect example of what I was talking about, kid: I went in there with nothing but the goal of finishing the battle as fast as possible at all costs, and that's the reason it went as well as it did. If I'd gone in thinking about nothing but the civilians in the middle of it, it would've resulted in me showing hesitation in acting for even a split second. Then we could've been looking at an injured or dead hostage, if not multiple, right now because of it. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you here?"

"Yeah." Mina uttered; her eyes reflecting an unmistakable thoughtfulness, as well as a trace of that previous annoyance from before.

Seeing this, Mirko continued: "Look, my earlier comments about your speed aside, you've definitely got the makings of a talented fighter in you, kid. You've definitely developed an expertise when it comes to handling a Quirk with the devastating potential like your Acid has. But one thing you need to keep in mind is that if you go into a fight thinking about everybody else around you, but not you yourself; you're leaving yourself open to get blindsided, and then the people you're so worried about really will have nobody to protect them from whatever happens next.

"A Hero needs to be able to act to protect themselves just as effectively as they can protect other people. No matter how skilled you are with your Quirk or your fighting, you're inevitably gonna find yourself in a situation where you're either up against an opponent way bigger, faster and stronger than you, or you're completely and totally outnumbered from more directions than you can protect yourself from at once. Whether you go into a fight thinking like me or yourself, you're simply not gonna be able to keep yourself covered from all sides at once, so you'd better start figuring out a way to make up for that handicap, or else you're not gonna live long enough to go Pro with either approach."

Mina finally lifted her gaze back up to meet Mirko's eyes; her previous annoyance now replaced with that same steadfast insistence from before. "I know you're right about all of that, Sensei! I just…I've just always loved people; helping them and becoming friends with them. I just can't bring myself to think about going into a situation with civilians where I don't think about keeping them safe at least once. My teacher, Aizawa-sensei, showed me and my class just how fast any situations can change, and how civilians are always the first ones to suffer when that happens. I wanna be able to protect them from that if at all possible, and I just can't do that the best I can if I'm just thinking about beating the bad guys super fast, and nothing else."

Mirko couldn't even look annoyed by her intern's clear stubbornness in sticking to her ideals. Now she just looked disappointed. Seeing this for what it was, Mina was suddenly overcome with a new curiosity: "Sensei, you said earlier that you just picked my application to be your intern by chance, but I just can't totally believe that. I don't care if this is just a test run right now or not, I really wanna know what made you pick me over anyone else."

Mirko looked like she couldn't believe the guts in this young girl to ask her something so straightforward, before her expression once more turned to that fierce annoyance. "I oughta be asking you the same question, Cotton Candy Girl! You said you wanted to intern under me after you saw me at the Hero Billboard Charts, right? Well I remember what I said back there, so that means you had to have heard me loud and clear back then! I said to everybody that teams and sidekicks are for weaklings! You knew exactly what you were in for when you applied to me, when you easily could've picked any other Pro in this country who's all about that teamwork and empathy crap you're so adamant about holding onto! So why me?"

As intimidating as Mirko's growing temper undeniably was, Mina refused to shrink in the face of it, never once breaking eye contact with the Rabbit Hero. "I already said: because I wanna be strong enough to fight anything and protect the people I care about without ever once freezing up, like you do! The fact you're so strong and brave, even when fighting all by yourself, makes you the best Hero I can learn that from!"

Teacher and student stood in an uncomfortable silence staring into each other's eyes for a good several seconds, before Mina caught the sight of one of Mirko's tall rabbit ears twitching again, and her red eyes just barely shifting to her right in recognition of whatever it was she'd just heard.

The next moment, a momentary block of the sunlight drew Mina's eyes, and she immediately saw an incoming car come flying through the air like a catapult shot, aimed right where she and Mirko were standing. "SENSEI, LOOK OUT!"

At the same time as her warning, Mina hurriedly stepped forward and brought her hands together to shoot a high-range Acid Shot; having already seen that nobody was actually in the incoming vehicle, so no civilians were in danger of getting hit with her Quirk. But Mirko was just that little bit faster, as she suddenly sprang back up into the air and drove a devastating dropkick into the roof of the vehicle, slamming it hard into the ground, stopped dead in its tracks.

As soon as Mirko touched back down on the ground, the numerous resulting screams of surrounding civilians was punctuated by the sound of an evil-sounding female laugh from further down the road; the source of which making no effort to stay hidden.

When Mirko looked, she was filled with an intense sensation of remembrance and annoyance at who was now standing in the middle of the road while the civilians were all trying to flee the scene: an adult woman around the Rabbit Hero's age, with tightly tied black hair, a deathly pale face with blood red lipstick and pitch black makeup around her entirely red eyes, dressed in what looked like a black feather-laden ballerina's dress, with unnaturally elongated legs that looked to be done up in corrugated steel frames. "Long time, no see, eh, Mirko?!"

Everything had just happened so fast, it took a moment for Mina to mentally catch up. "Wait…do you KNOW that Villain, Sensei?"

The sound of the young Hero's voice and her words made this ballerina Villain's eyes visibly widen with surprise. "'Sensei'? How surprising! I'd heard the rumors in whispers, but I didn't think it would be true! Did you finally soften up a little, Mirko? Or did you finally realize you're just gonna keep getting older and lose your edge now that you have an Agency reining you in?"

But Mirko wasn't having any questions or mockery from either of them. "Black Swan, I should've figured you'd eventually show your face where I could stomp it in again after you broke out of jail! Maybe this time, once I turn you back in, they'll put you in Tartarus where you really belong!"

Mirko's bristling aggressive attitude only made the Villain known as Black Swan's smile grow that much more sadistic. "By all means, you're welcome to try, but I've gotten some reinforcements to aid my Quirk! You're gonna have to try a lot harder to take me down now!"

Before Mina could even think to ask what they should do, Mirko had already sprang herself high up into the air with another kick from where she'd stood, flying in for Black Swan like a human bullet with her leg reared back high over her head for another devastating drop kick…

…only for Black Swan, still grinning all the while, to suddenly kick her own leg directly up into the air, where it proceeded to elongate like either rubber, or like her actual bones were compartmented to extend bit by bit to give her improved range, and the metal casting around it actually extended along with her attacking limb, as her foot precisely met the trajectory of Mirko's; effectively deflecting the Rabbit Hero's attack, before Black Swan proceeded to twirl her body, bringing her attacking leg back down and simultaneously jabbing her other leg straight back up in its place, extending and driving all the momentum behind it into Mirko's side, sending her slamming ino the side of a nearby building.

"HANG ON, SENSEI, I'M COMING!" Mina exclaimed the moment she saw her teacher was in trouble. But just as she began to launch into another Acid Slide to catch up, Mirko was already on the offensive again, launching out the indentation in the wall like a cannon shot, and throwing her kicking leg forward to drive straight into Black Swan where she stood.

But the Villain's reflexes were masterful, as with a split-second squat, she likewise sprang herself unnaturally high into the air with her hands overhead in a typical ballerina's pose, causing Mirko to meet nothing but the ground with her feet, barely managing to kick herself out of the way before Black Swan's steel-encased toes came smashing into the ground where she once stood; an attack that easily would have killed anyone who hadn't gotten out of the way.

Mirko didn't even allow herself a chance to breathe and think, instead using her dodging momentum to spring off the ground and subsequently ricochet off the side of another street pole, diving in and throwing her attacking leg in a lightning-fast roundhouse kick in mid-air, aiming for Black Swan's head.

This time, keeping the toes of one foot on the ground for support, Black Swan once more twirled her body around, throwing up one foot and extending it so that her armored shin met the full force of Mirko's kick; a metallic ringing echoing across the street upon impact; that split second wherein the Hero hung suspended in the air being just the opportunity the Villain needed, as she proceeded to let her momentum carry her the rest of the way through, as she finally pushed her deflecting leg forward, sending Mirko flying like the baseball directly hit by the bat that was the Villain's leg.

Mirko dug her feet and hands in to stop her dragging down the road. Her red eyes now burned with a furious determination at the sound of the Villain's mocking laughter, and Mina's subsequent worried exclamation: "Sensei, please let me help!"

But Mirko wasn't hearing any of it, once again breaking into a lightning-fast sprint for her nemesis, before leaping forward and meeting the ground in a speedy roll, before proceeding to get on her hands in a perfect hand-stand, and throwing her body into a blinding spin on them, extending her legs outward so she was like a devastating human top; much to Mina's wide-eyed astonishment of the Rabbit Hero exhibiting such a powerful variation on such a classic break-dancing move.

But Black Swan, on the other hand, wasn't nearly so impressed, still chuckling to herself as she likewise threw her body into an equally devastating spin, using her feet as the means to keep her balance, as she proceeded to grind across the road to meet Mirko's attack head-on. "You move set is so predictable, Mirko, it's just like what you used the last time! You think I've just been twiddling my thumbs and not honing my craft since then?!"

In another series of devastating metallic clanging echoes; the two high-speed spinning adversaries' legs met in a rapid series of deflecting impacts; neither one willing to give each other a millimeter of ground. It was impossible for Mina to tell how much longer they could keep up such a stalemate, until the two women were eventually forced to jump back from each other. Unfortunately, whereas Mirko was visibly trying to catch her breath while the leggings of her costume had been reduced to tatters; her legs visibly bruising already; Black Swan looked none the worse for wear, grinning sadistically as she took a ballerina's bow; her armored legs glinting flawlessly in the sunlight.

The sight of the Number Five Hero in this kind of situation was too much for Mina to simply stay silent for, as she came sliding in to rejoin her mentor's side. "Just tell me what to do and I'll get it done, Sensei! I don't care how you prefer fighting, I'm not just gonna stand back!"

Mirko, sensing the fierce determination evident in Mina's tone, was suddenly stricken with a bolt of inspiration, grinning internally to herself. "The fact is, Black Swan and I have fought so many times over the years, she really does know my moves by heart. Me rushing towards the finish line of this battle ain't gonna happen…but she doesn't know your moves and style yet. Why don't I tag you in, and you show me how far that altruistic approach to your fighting gets you. Time to back up your words, kid!"

Mina could feel her mouth go bone dry as she looked from Mirko to Black Swan, who was now eyeing the both of them like a snake to two little mice. There was no doubting the seriousness in Mirko's encouraging, even frightening grin. She was seriously going to let her intern take the reins here and see if she could actually measure up.

'Oh my God, this is actually happening! This isn't a test, this is the real deal, she's a Villain that could kill me, her or any of the civilians around! What is Sensei thinking? No, dammit, come on, focus! You can't let yourself get scared now, the people still here are counting on you, Mina! Mirko-sensei wants to see me back up my words? Well then I'll do just that!'

With her once panicked thoughts thankfully managing to settle down, Mina started to breathe deep and steady, squatting down into a crouch, much to Mirko and Black Swan's mutual curiosity, before she suddenly took off in a mad dash with her Acid Slide.

Letting out a high whistle, Black Swan smiled. "Well now, some new blood thrown into the mix? This'll be interesting…but you're going to regret taking me this lightly, Mirko!"

As Mina closed the distance with each passing second, she saw how Black Swan was already starting to reel her body back like a spring, undoubtedly getting ready to send another extending spinning kick right for her. 'She clearly knows how to read break-dancing moves like Mirko-sensei's…but she clearly doesn't have as much practice with the form as I do! Time to show you my moves!'

At the last second before Black Swan finally released the building tension and threw her leg into a wide-reaching and devastating kick, Mina suddenly let her legs go slack and fell to her knees, letting the resulting flow of the same type of Acid from her hands allow her to slide on her knees just under the arc of Black Swan's kick, and thus allowing her to get in much closer, to the Villain's surprise, just as Mina had a handful of citric acid building up in her hands to throw into her eyes for a stunning hit.

But as soon as Mina threw that handful of the thick stinging liquid out her hand, black Swan had suddenly vanished, using the tension in her one supporting leg to launch herself up and over out of Mina's range; leaving the young Hero to have to correct her momentum and roll back onto her feet, just in time for the Villain to suddenly spring herself off the side of the building she'd dug her armored feet into, flying straight for Mina from her blind side with another blinding kick incoming.

Mina was barely able to get her arms up, coated in Acid for extra defense, in time to take that kick; a desperate action she immediately came to regret, as it still felt like she'd been hit with a steel 2x4, roling, bouncing and skidding down the street back towards Mirko before once more using her Acid-coated hands and feet to slow her momentum down to a complete stop.

Looking back up, Mina saw that Black Swan was visibly surprised; looking down at the leg she had just stricken Mina with, as the reinforced armor she had been wearing over it was now melting away, leaving her regular leg completely exposed.

"Acid…well now, this certainly just got a lot more challenging…but you're not going to catch me by surprise again, you little brat! This is between Mirko and I; and if she still insists on you getting in the way, then you have nobody to blame but her for what happens next…and yourself for not being smart and running!"

WRRAAM!

With another lightning fast twirl on her now unprotected leg, Black Swan suddenly kicked another nearby car with her one leg that was still armor protected, sending the whole vehicle flying through the air towards the windows of one of the nearby buildings; the sound of frightened screams of some of the civilians still inside catching Mina and Mirko's attention.

"ACID SHOT!" Mina cried out as she brought her hands together and fired a precise flow of Acid to melt the car down before impact could be made.

"don't take your eyes off the prize, kid!" Mirko exclaimed, snapping Mina at attention just in time to see Black Swan come leaping towards a truck, before driving her armored leg into its cabin with her armored leg with such insane force, that it caused the entire vehicle to explode into a multitude of fast-flying steel projectiles flying straight at the two Heroes and the civilians behind them that were still trying to flee. Even Mirko was gritting her teeth that there were simply too many objects coming in too fast for her to be able to deflect all at once on her own, even with her speed.

"ACID VEIL!"

But this time, Mina was more than ready, as she quickly threw both her hands forward and spread wide to her sides in a circle, creating a wide wall of her Acid for all that debris to fly right into and melt away on impact, leaving the civilians completely out of harm's way so they could escape the rest of the way.

With Mirko for once looking genuinely impressed, and Black Swan now looking only that much angrier, Mina came sliding at full speed through her own Acid Veil unharmed, rushing in towards the Villain in a serpentine motion.

But Black Swan was just as persistent, as she angrily leapt for another car, this time one that was still occupied as it tried to drive down the road to safety. With another resonating kick, she sent the car and the person driving it flying back through the air towards Mina, grinning wickedly to herself. "Good luck melting away an obstacle that has a person inside it!"

"NOT A PROBLEM!" Mirko suddenly exclaimed as she came flying in at breakneck speed, planting the sole of her foot straight into the side of the car in mid-air, stopping its trajectory altogether, before then quickly ripping the driver-side door open and pulling the civilian out in the blink of an eye; before ultimately spring-boarding them both off and away from the car while it came smashing listlessly down onto the ground below, all allowing Mina to proceed further without a single break in her growing momentum.

"THANKS, SENSEI!" she called back just as she leapt to grab onto a nearby street pole, using her speed to send her body spinning upwards before finally letting go, letting herself go flying across the road to meet the vertical face of another building; her momentum and Acid Slid allowing Mina to continue sliding across it in a move similar to a wall run towards Black Swan.

"EVERYONE GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS AND EVACUATE OUT THE FIRE EXITS!" she called to the civilians she could barely glimpse were still inside, and in no better a time as well; for Black Swan's anger had now grown to the point she was rapidly stabbing her strengthened feet in a ballerina's tip-toe step into the asphalt like a human jack hammer; creating a multitude of large chunks of asphalt and rock that she immediately proceeded to send flying up in Mina's direction like a barrage of buckshot with a high-reaching sweeping kick.

Despite Mina's instructions for the civilians to get away from the windows, she still wasn't about to take any unnecessary chances, as she quickly threw up another Acid Veil as she slid along the face of the building, melting away the asphalt chunks and rocks, before finally launching herself in a perfect leap through the air, spinning her body in a corkscrew motion over Black Swan's head, before bringing her hands together to build an especially thick glob of the cloudy liquid between her hands.

"ACID TRAP!"

With another well-aimed two-handed throw, Mina threw the large wad of her thickest and least corrosive Acid to the ground Black Swan was standing on, quickly encapsulating and drying on impact around both her feet, immobilizing the ballerina-styled Villain, to her furious surprise, while Mina finally touched back down on the ground in a perfect roll.

"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME, GIRL!"

Just because Black Swan had been taken by surprise twice now, didn't mean she was off her game any further, as with this furious cry of defiance, she suddenly squatted down, and used that subsequent powered leap with her extending legs to break free of Mina's trap, flying high through the air as she brought both her feet forward in a dropping stabbing motion right for where Mina stood.

The pink young Hero's naturally incredible reflexes really came in handy here, as she immediately leapt into another sideways roll just before Black Swan's legs stabbed mercilessly into the ground she'd just stopped on. The moment she knew she'd dodged it, she immediately followed up by leaping forward into another of her signature hand-stands, before then twirling her body into a lightning-fast break-dancing spin from her shoulders to her back to her knees and all around again; all the while firing one shot of Acid after another from either her free hands or the soles of her feet as she refused to slow down; allowing that momentum of her dancing to keep her mobile across the ground.

Unfortunately, Black Swan's own reflexes were on the same level, as with incredible speed, flexibility and physical control, she was managing to somehow now only dodge all of Mina's Acid Shots, but was like also managing to make herself airborne, mobile across the faces of the surrounding buildings one after the other, and also able to send every car she got close to flying, once more forcing Mirko to be the one to come flying in to swat them away while the last of the civilians finally managed to flee.

And all of this was still nothing compared to the viciousness with which Black Swan was managing to actually fight once she was able to actually get in close to Mina. As impressive as the girl's moves and speed were, even she knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up forever, and that was exactly what the Villain had been counting on. The moment Mina had finally forced herself to slow down in order to keep herself from becoming too dizzy, that was when Black Swan swooped in, nearly taking the girl out altogether with several of her high spinning or low sweeping kicks, all made worse with her extending joints allowing her legs to reach so much further than anyone else.

Mina had somehow managed to keep herself from getting hit at first, but eventually Black Swan had managed to blindside her with the speed and range of her movements; both through her combative dancing and her Quirk. No matter what kind of insane break-dancing moves Mina tried to throw herself into in order to try and get through the Villain's overall defense; Black Swan was simply able to read every one of her movements before she could even follow through on them, forcing Mina's focus to be broken, and leaving her to get smacked about with the power of her extending legs more than once; barely managing to catch and stop herself before she could get sent straight through a storefront window.

"Is this seriously the best you could come up with for an intern, Mirko? This is just sad! You both have no form! Your styles, that break-dancing crap, it's all just mindless gesticulation and spinning, there's no artistry to it! Even my most basic of steps can completely break through it and leave you both entirely at my mercy!"

As Black Swan exclaimed this mockery with a taunting laugh, she proceeded to throw herself into a mid-air cartwheel, swinging her armored foot down with such power and speed, that it was not only able to cleave straight through yet more of the asphalt, but it was also able to rupture the gas line running underneath, producing a furious high-reaching fire from out the laceration in the ground, preventing Mirko from actually being able to step in as quickly as she'd planned to.

All the while, as Mina staggered back onto her feet, trying to ignore the flare of pain in her ribs from those last few powerful hits; her mind was racing. 'Dammit…I hate to admit it, but that Villain's got a point. Her moves are so graceful, so professional…and yeah, she's been able to sidestep and break through my dancing like it was nothing. I've pulled pretty much every step I know out here, and none of it is working! How am I supposed to actually break through this lady's fighting style? I gotta come up with something; or else she's gonna kill me here…and who knows who else she might try to go after if I don't stop her here?!'

Then…a memory came racing back, and with it, inspiration.

Without wasting time, Mina broke into a mad run for Black Swan; the Villain grinning wickedly. "You just don't know when to quit, do you? Yeah, now I see what Mirko saw in you."

Reeling back, the Villain sprang forward and threw her leg outward in preparation to hammer Mina into the side of the building like a hammer to a nail. At that same moment, Mina closed her eyes and listened to the past words of Nikolay's advice from their previous Russian dancing lessons; bending her knees forward for but just a moment.

And with that running momentum and that springing tension, Mina leapt up high in a straight-up jump right above Black Swan's extending leg, even kicking her own legs forward to where she could touch her toes, expertly avoiding that otherwise devastating kick, much to Black Swan and Mirko's mutual surprise.

The moment she touched back down after black Swan had retracted her leg, the Villain immediately let the momentum of her returning leg send her body into another spin, before suddenly dropping down into a split and throwing herself into a high-speed two-legged sweeping spin, hoping to knock Mina's feet out from under her.

But keeping those instructions in mind, Mina bent down and sprang back up in that same manner, avoiding the sweep. Black Swan refused to let her momentum be stopped, as maintaining the spin, she threw her body so that her extending spinning legs were now reaching upward, about to swat Mina out of the air like an insect.

But having expected a counter-attack like this, Mina had Acid coating her hands and feet already, as she extended one hand and foot out to clasp onto the one leg that was still armor-protected, melting it away and letting go before she could cause any serious bodily damage; catching herself on her hands and feet to stop from skidding down the road, while Black Swan sprang back onto her feet, looking on with murderous rage at the sight of both her pieces of armor having been melted away.

With the Villain thrown off her game, Mina broke into another dash, focusing the best she could. 'I can end this quick, just gotta make sure it's strong enough to incapacitate, but not too strong!'

"THAT'S IT!" Black Swan shrieked before she sprang up in an airborne dive at Mina, ready to drive her foot straight into the girl's head…only for Mina to dig her heels in and duck into a deep squat; knees bent and arms crossed over her chest, while Black Swan's jabbing foot met nothing but air just above her head of frizzy pink hair.

But Black Swan was no longer about to let herself be surprised for more than a split-second, as she quickly brought her feet back down to the ground to stop herself, and immediately after swept one of her legs up and over her head while spinning back around in an about-face, ready to bring her foot slamming down where Mina was still squatting, like an axe strike.

Once more, Nikolay's instructions were echoing loud and clear while Mina tried to keep her head in the moment by closing her eyes, projecting more Acid from out her feet, and throwing herself into a squatting spin, keeping her arms folded in order to keep too much air friction from slowing her down, while her posture made her as small a target as she could make herself.

Black Swan's devastating downward leg strike met nothing but asphalt and stinging Acid, prompting her to once more spring herself high into the air, and unleash a vicious barrage of downward jabbing strikes with her elongated legs; each one stabbing deep into the ground, but always managing to just barely miss Mina, as her squatting spinning made her like a human spinning top, moving ultimately in a wide Acid circle while still managing to avoid getting driven or impaled into the ground.

And Black Swan being so murderously focused on Mina ended up making her an unwitting target for Mirko; the Rabbit Hero having by now taken the opportunity to spring herself up from the ground, ricocheting off several buildings in order to get herself up higher, before ultimately spring-boarding off the edge of the highest roof on this street, giving herself a perfect vantage point to go dive-bombing after her Villain, a leg fully extended to deliver a full-powered blow, just as Black Swan caught her approach out the corner of her eye.

WHAAM!

With inhuman force, Mirko drove her foot straight into Black Swan's midsection…but to her surprise, the ballerina Villain didn't fold like she'd expected.

Mirko quickly sprang back and ultimately had to land back on the street, much like Black Swan herself. As the Pro Hero and Villain locked eyes, Mirko could see that her strike had blasted a hole into her black feathery outfit, revealing a bodysuit of the same kind of armor as she had worn on her legs.

Seeing the surprise on Mirko's face, Black Swan could actually bring herself to grin again. "Unlike you, I actually learn from my past battles! You're not gonna take me down as easily as last time; neither of you are!"

To emphasize her point, Black Swan sprang up, but this time twirled her body to where she was able to launch both her legs in separate directions, stretching out and forcing Mirko and Mina both to dive out of the way. With both Heroes now put back on the defensive, Black Swan watched as Mina came sliding forward in that same serpentine fashion; prompting the Villain to extend her legs in two swinging arcs that encompassed the whole width of the street, closing together in a scissor-like motion, with one leg aimed high, and the other sweeping low, making sure that neither of Mina's previous strategies would be able to avoid it.

At first, as Mina lowered into a crouching slide again, Black Swan was certain she'd finally left the annoying young Hero desperate…only to watch with disbelief when, at the last second, Mina sprang up and tilted her body so that she was practically diving forward, parallel to the surface of the street, keeping her body posture as flat as could be, just enough to squeeze through that sweet spot between both of the Villain's attacking legs.

As Black Swan hurriedly spun her body around to get her legs back into normal formation so she could attack again with another rapid series of extended jabs, Mina followed through with another of the moves Nikolay had painstakingly tried to help teach her; using her Acid Slide's momentum upon landing to once more throw herself sideways out of the attacking trajectory, only to immediately follow up by continuing to secrete more Acid from her feet in order to keep herself moving in another circular motion around Black Swan's current position, her whole body practically seeming to cartwheel with just her legs spinning in a full circle off the ground at every second, and all while keeping her eyes on her opponent.

As soon as Mina knew for sure she was moving fast enough to keep from getting hit by more of Black Swan's attacks, she finally followed through alongside her dodging maneuver, by throwing in several throws of Acid from her hands; finally managing to hit the armor protecting the Villain's midsection, to her infuriated howling rage.

"HOW!? HOW AM I NOT ABLE TO HIT YOU?!" Black Swan finally roared as she gave up all of her previous graceful attacks, in favor of just charging at Mina and relentlessly throwing her elongated legs after her in a homicidal frenzy; forcing the pink Hero on the move, but all while she still managed to integrate her break-dancing moves to dodge, and sprinkling in Nikolay's traditional Russian dances throughout in order to give herself more distance, and squeeze in an attack with her Acid to put the Villain on the defensive.

"You said break-dancing is random and easy to break through? Well, I just figured maybe sprinkling in something with a little more structure, but just as much room for improvising and fun energy was just what I needed! Turns out I was right!"

The moment Mina finished her sloppy explanation of her strategy of combining dance-styles, she was standing upright again mid-slide, utilizing the simplest of Nikolay's dance moves by simply skipping sideways and twirling her legs up and over each other with each one, allowing her to just miss getting hit by the last of Black Swan's desperate jabbing kicks, driving straight into the wall behind her back. As soon as that had happened, Mina sprang up into a fast mid-air spin, just like an actual ballerina, using that opportunity to fire a rapid-series of Acid Traps from between her hands as she spun, rapidly piling on her stickiest and least corrosive Acid into the point where the Villain's foot was stuck in the wall, officially sticking her in place, even if just for a few seconds.

When Black Swan realized the precarious position she'd just been put in, she desperately tried to counter Mina's subsequent sliding approach by throwing her one free leg up and over, spinning her whole body with it in order to give her attack a better chance to hit Mina from the side.

But the Ridley Hero had likewise grown too used to the Villain's style to be caught off-guard so easily, as she once again did the same lighthearted sideways skip to avoid the attacking leg slamming into the ground; taking advantage of that brief moment to secrete Acid from her feet even faster, making her whole body move across the ground that much faster so she could close in before Black Swan would have a chance to recover.

"PINKY…PUNCH!"

With a wholehearted battle cry to cap it all off, Mina came sliding in like a pink blur across the road, finally closing in on Black Swan, and ending the whole battle at last with a single resonating and powerful uppercut of her small pink fist straight into the Villain's chin; knocking her out cold in the blink of an eye and sending her body to the ground, unconscious yet momentarily twitching.

Upon realizing and confirming that the fight was finally over, Mina could finally let her tension and adrenaline leave her body, as she bent her knees and began huffing for breath, trying to ride out the euphoria of realizing she'd actually beaten the Villain on her own. The lingering pain in her ribs from the few times she'd gotten hit full-on didn't even seem that bad in comparison.

And as Mina regained her bearings and slowed her racing heart; Mirko finally stepped in, looking over the unconscious Villain, and finally giving her temporary intern a congratulatory, and painful, slap on the back. "Well how about that? You actually managed to pull it off. Not bad for your first solo fight, kid…but seriously? Pinky Punch?"

It noticeably hurt to laugh right now, but Mina did so anyway in response. "It just felt right in the heat of the moment, you know? All the best Heroes give their final attacks some kind of name."

Despite her disapproval at such a basic excuse for a final attack name, Mirko knew it wasn't right to completely rain on Mina's moment; especially as the civilians that had fled the scene were already coming back alongside the police; many of them recording the two Heroes or taking snapshots of them, while others were simply taking the chance to eagerly thank the two of them for their help.

"Enjoy the moment, Pinky. I mainly tried to get the civilians away this time. You did most of the heavy lifting here, so you deserve their thanks right now."

As Mirko this time patted Mina on the back much less aggressively this time, Mina had to do a double take, realizing this was the first time the Rabbit Hero had actually called her by her proper Hero name…with the rest of her praise registering soon after; which brought another joyful smile to her face. "See, Sensei? I told you that fighting while thinking about everyone else's safety could feel just as satisfying."

But to no surprise of her own, Mirko simply rolled her eyes. "Hey, this isn't about me right now, okay? This was about you showing how well you could handle yourself in a fight with your whole approach to Heroics, doing it all while thinking about everybody else but yourself. You may have been able to adapt to Black Swan's style and win while keeping any civilians from getting hurt, but you were definitely still too slow at doing so for my taste. You've got a long way to go before you can convince anyone, Hero or otherwise, to change their mental approach completely."

As the police proceeded to finally take Black Swan's unconscious body away, and she and Mirko proceeded back to the police station to fill out yet another report of the incident, Mina couldn't stop thinking about it: while it was true she'd been able to adapt and ultimately win for it, she still had Nikolay to thank for having taught her the dance moves and opportunities for style-combinations that had helped her to win in the first place. Of course, it had been her own initiative to ask him to help teach her after Nabu Island that had gotten that ball rolling in the first place, but she wasn't about to start debating technical details with herself, now of all times.

Besides, there was one far more pressing detail that she had to process right now, and that was the fact that, at the end of it all, her display of Heroic fighting prowess had ultimately proven not up to Mirko's liking; and after the especially rocky first-impression they'd had together today, it was making the writing on the wall all the more painfully clear for Mina.

Despite her best efforts, a continued internship with Mirko simply wasn't looking like it was going to happen, no matter how much she wanted it to; how much she wanted to prove she could handle their differences and make it work.

As they finally stepped back out of the police station to continue the rest of their patrol at Mirko's insistence; despite the fact that Mina was outwardly keeping a smile on her face, inside she was quickly growing more and more devastated by the inevitability of it all by the end of today. After this, she would once more find herself needing to look for another Pro Hero to apply to intern under. To have managed to achieve a dream, only for it to prove to be the wrong one, was an especially cruel pain for anyone to go through; but especially for her, who had been so sure of herself that this was an internship meant to be.

After carrying on their patrol through the rest of the afternoon into the early evening, the two of them had finally returned to Mirko's Agency, where Chiyuki had long since been waiting patiently for them with tea and snacks at the ready to help them regain their energy.

Rolling her shoulders and popping one of the joints in her neck to relieve the slightest bit of stiffness, Mirko instructed Mina: "Well, that was a slightly more interesting patrol than usual. Being a beginner like you are, I can't really expect you to carry on a 24-hour patrol schedule like me, so go ahead and get changed out of your costume."

Mina didn't dare want to start shedding tears, knowing that this was essentially the final nail in the coffin of her internship dream here. Instead, the best she could do was take a deep and notably shaky breath as she answered: "Okay, Sensei…thank you for…for the opportunity."

She then made a beeline for the changing room from earlier before either Mirko or Chiyuki could say anything else. It was in there that she was finally able to let the tears fall, let all of that disappointment out in full. She didn't care if Mirko's sharpened hearing would allow her to pick up on this outpouring of emotions or not; she simply needed to get this all out for her own sake.

After a minute or two of this, Mina finally finished getting changed back into her student uniform; stepping out only to find Mirko and Chiyuki both standing patiently together just outside the door. As soon as the Rabbit Hero saw how Mina was dressed again, she raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What's all this? I meant get changed into whatever you were planning to sleep in."

"Wait, what?" Mina instinctively asked, just before Mirko suddenly extended an arm she'd been keeping behind her back, presenting her with something that made her black-gold eyes go wide with confusion and immediate astonishment after: a fully framed copy of her original internship application, with Mirko's official stamp of approval on it.

"If you're gonna keep interning under me, I'm not gonna have you wasting precious time this week going back and forth from here to Shizuoka Prefecture every day. There's a guest room I can have Chiyuki-san refurbish for you to stay in for this period, and you could probably hang this on the wall if you want. I need you to be good and rested if you're gonna be of any use to me tomorrow."

Mina's hands instinctively took the portrait Mirko was offering, but she still looked so confused, visibly struggling to find the words. "I…I-I don't understand, Sensei, I thought you said I wasn't fast or good enough for you."

However, such a reaction was all but exactly what Mirko had been expecting, as she smirked knowingly when she answered: "You aren't, but what's the point of an internship if you're already so good that there's nothing for me to teach you? Here's the thing, kid: when I first picked your application out of all the others; that was when I decided to actually read it, and what I saw did not fill me with optimism. Frankly, you came across like any other over-eager, careless and star-struck fangirl, and if I was gonna finally be breaking my own code and taking an intern under my wing, that was the last kind that I wanted.

"I didn't just want somebody who was physically capable of measuring up or keeping up with me: I wanted a Hero who had some actual damn conviction, and the guts to actually back it up. Countless others would've just folded and conformed to what I was saying they need to think like in order to be a Hero, just because I'm the Pro with the experience. You, on the other hand, stood your ground and swore by your own altruistic convictions about all that mushy loving other people stuff making you strong, no matter how many times I argued with you and outright said to your face that you were wrong. Even when you saw how effectively I handled that robbery, you still stood by your own belief in how to be the best Hero you can be, and let that drive you to victory in your battle today. That's the kind of backbone I wanna see in my intern, so…congrats, Ashido-chan, you made the cut after all."

Where Mina had once felt completely overtaken with disappointment and personal failure, she was now finding herself bursting with a miraculous sense of relief and joy; unable to help herself but to leap to try and hug Mirko in her gratitude. "OH MY GOD! THANK YOU SO MUCH, MIRKO-SEN-!"

But Mirko quickly lifted up on leg, stopping her now-regular intern in mid-air so she could land back on her feet. "Don't start jumping the gun, we're not nearly that close."

Frankly, Mina was simply too excited to even care. "Okay! I'm so happy, you, like, have no idea! Oh man, I can't wait to tell Kolya-kun and the others about this! They're gonna be…oh…right." Mina's mind and heart were both racing at the speed of light, but the sudden memory of her phone having been destroyed managed to stop her excited gesticulating, as her shoulders and tone both dropped.

"Yeah, maybe don't go letting yourself get too down in the dumps just yet. SURPRISE!"

To her curiosity, however, Chiyuki looked just as happy as before, as she suddenly brought her own arm out from behind her back, revealing Mina's original phone all back in one piece, much to the young girl's astonishment as the assistant explained: "While you were both out on patrol, I felt terrible, so I had a local repairman with the right Quirk put your phone back together till it was like new. There isn't a single thing you'd kept on it that's out of place, it's all been restored just to how you had it before."

Unlike Mirko, Chiyuki didn't try to resist as Mina instinctively hugged her amid her overjoyed tears. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you so much, Chiyuki-sensei!"

Once Mina took a step back and began perusing through her phone again just to make sure everything was back to normal, Mirko took a moment to glance at the specific background her intern had on the main screen: a picture of her with a young foreign-looking boy, all cuddled up close together on what looked like a sofa; the boy smiling with a strong blush on his face while Mina was smiling brightly, with her arm extending off camera; clearly being the one to take the picture herself.

Knowing now that they would be on a regular speaking basis as teacher and intern; the Rabbit Hero begrudgingly figured it would help to get to know each other just a tiny bit more. Thus, she ended up asking: "So, I'm guessing that's the guy you think of whenever you go on about who you wanna fight for?"

Tucking her phone back into one of her uniform's pockets, Mina happily nodded. "Absolutely! That's my boyfriend, Kolya-kun! He and all our friends back at Yuuei, they're the ones that have been supporting me all this time since I got into Yuuei, just like I've been supporting all of them with everything I've got. My dream is that he and I and all our class can one day become a whole team of Number One Heroes together…which I guess makes us all a lot like you and that Stampede Hopper guy, huh?"

Once again, Mirko had an involuntary twitch of frustrated embarrassment flash across her face, before she and Chiyuki exchanged a silent glance; the look in her assistant's eyes being unmistakable: "I haven't been with you all that long and even I could figure it out. Just tell her the truth."

Sucking in a sharp breath through her nose, Mirko dropped all the pretenses of denial and answered: "Yeah…yeah…but it's not exactly the same. You just said yourself that boy is your boyfriend, but it's not like that with me and Stampede. Yeah, I'm aiming for us both to become Number One Heroes one day, but it's nothing like what you thought it was; one of those crappy lovey-dovey promises you only see in bad TV soaps or girly manga. The fact is that before I left Australia, he ended up humiliating me, and that's why I'm not even gonna think of stopping until I get to Number One all on my own like he did. That's the only way I can make up for it."

Chiyuki could just sense the building curiosity Mina was feeling, and thus urged her employer and semi-friend on with a roll of her finger. "C'mon, Rumi-san, you might as well just get it all out right here, for all our sakes."

With an especially aggravated growl through clenched teeth, Mirko began rapidly hammering her foot against the floor like rabbits tended to do when in a bad mood; but the force with which she did so was enough to start sending earthquake-like vibrations through the whole office.

"Alright, fine! You wanna know why I flipped out and busted your phone earlier? It's because that damn video you were reading about was where Stampede made me look like a laughing stock!"

Mirko couldn't even bring herself to look her intern or her assistant in their eyes, even though the latter was already pretty familiar with the story she was about to recount for Mina.

"Not long after we'd graduated from our Hero School in Sydney and gotten our Pro Hero Licenses, I was out on one of my first solo runs at the Gold Coast. Then…this Villain with a Tortoise Quirk started wreaking havoc, and since there weren't any other local Pro Heroes close by to deal with him, I decided to take him on by myself. I'd taken on guys even bigger than him and made them go running for their mommies afterward…but this guy was something else. It wasn't even that he was stronger than me…well, at least the rest of his body wasn't. It was his damn shell that was the problem.

"The moment he saw me, the friggin' coward just retracts back into his shell. With how strong I'd recorded my kicks to be by then, I thought I could bust him out of there and take him down in no time at all…and that was the problem. No matter how hard I kicked or stomped away at his shell, the damn thing wouldn't even scuff, let alone crack, dent or shatter. But I was just too determined to make my mark to accept that. I just kept wailing away at that shell for minutes on end without stopping…to the point that I ended up completely draining myself of all my stamina, which was just what the bastard had been waiting for.

"The moment I was too tuckered out to keep going, he planted me flat on the ground. Son of a bitch didn't even have the common decency to kill me right there. Instead, he just stood there, pointing and laughing at what an ass I'd made of myself; jumping the gun and landing myself in that pitiful spot like a damn newbie…and it was after that, that Stampede finally came racing in and took the guy down from his blindside…and ended up saving my butt."

Now, Mina could finally understand exactly why Mirko had reacted the way she had earlier, while the Rabbit Hero herself kept her arms crossed firmly over her chest; her cheeks puffed out in an angry pout. "That was when I'd decided it was time to come back to Japan and make my mark here instead. Down under, nobody would be able to let me live down how much I'd embarrassed myself…and I'd especially never be able to match or even outshine Stampede Hopper after the impression he'd left after that fight…and would keep going on to in every fight after. That's why he shot all the way up to Number One as quick as he did after graduation, and still has that rank to this day. That's why I need to make it to Number One on my own over here. Then I'll finally be able to put that embarrassment to rest and have everyone down there know that I'm just as powerful and serious as he is. Then nobody will be able to laugh at me like that again, and we'll finally be able to look each other in the eye as equals and pick up where we'd left off again."

"What do you mean 'pick up where you left off', Sensei?" Mina asked out of genuine curiosity, but with too much of a sly knowing smirk on her pink face for Mirko to willingly humor.

"That's none of your damn business, now is it, Pinky? Look, you got lucky and proved yourself to be worth my time and effort as my first ever intern, so don't push your luck, alright?"

With Mirko's reminder of the upward battle Mina still had to face to prove herself a worthwhile full-time intern, the pink young Hero cheerfully bowed. "You got it, Sensei, I promise I won't let you down!"

"Good." As soon as Mirko gave this acknowledgment of Mina's dedication, she finally lifted her head in eagerness to see what the future would hold…but that enthusiasm was quickly put on hold, as Mirko suddenly leaned in close to a menacing degree; her red eyes burning like hot coals as she stared Mined right in her golden irises, whispering directly into her ear to the point it automatically made her pink skin prickle up:

"But let's get one thing nice and sparkling clear here right now: if you ever; and I mean ever tell any of your little friends, your little boyfriend, or your teachers or folks about what I just told you, or show them the video of it; then so help me God, I will crush your head like a melon like earlier, and this time I won't stop, and there won't be a force on Earth, Heaven or Hell that'll save you from it. Understand?"

The memories of the power of Mirko's legs wrapped around her head that morning were still far too fresh in Mina's head, thus with her sunny pink face having now gone pale, she frantically nodded. "Yes, Sensei, I understand, Sensei!"

And just like that, all of the intimidating menace on Mirko's face vanished, as she gave her intern another hearty slap on the back. "Good! Chiyuki-san, go ahead and order a bed for the empty room that Ashido-chan can sleep in! There's bound to be a delivery service that can get one here within the hour! Then what do you say to us having a real hearty dinner for your first night as a full-time intern? I said I'd get you on a diet and training regimen to build your muscles while keeping your girlish figure, and what better time to get you started on it than now?"

The timely growling of hunger from Mina's stomach gave Mirko all the confirmation she needed, as she began eagerly striding back to the stairs leading to the front door; Mina hurriedly following behind her, with Chiyuki just as quickly following up while placing in the delivery order for a one-person bed.

Mina was still internally shaken by the insanely close call she'd had of nearly losing her internship altogether, as well as the sincerity of Mirko's threat if she'd not learned to keep her mouth shut. But altogether, she was still simply over the moon right now that she was actually good enough to stick around as the first-ever intern of the Number Five Hero in all of Japan.

'Ooh, Kolya-kun and the others are gonna be soooo excited for me! I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when I call them tonight! I hope their first days are going super well, too! Oh, our stories are gonna be so exciting!'

And there it is, everyone! I had a lot of fun writing this one, and I hope it was just as fun for you to read. If so, please be kind and leave an honest review telling me your thoughts and feelings on this team.

I will see you all with the next chapter on 08/05!