We headed out into the city with Ryukyu, Nejire, and the sidekicks. The downtown area was complete chaos; it had started snowing and raining again as we headed into the area, and people were getting into car accidents, running to and fro.

"We need to start by evacuating people!" Ryukyu called, soaring ahead of us in dragon form. The sidekicks gathered around her for instructions on a rooftop.

"I need you guys to work on clearing the area. Nejire and I will find the villains at the center of this, but the rest of you should focus on the people. They're likely scared and disoriented, so we'll need to reassure them, and calm them down if needed. Many of them will be affected strangely, and you may need to move some by force. Froppy, Uravity, can I count on you?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

I was feeling good about my costume innovations. The new designs would help lift people and debris in this situation and keep the victims safe. Tsu and I both nodded to Ryukyu and headed down into the debris.

"Are you Ok, Tsu?" I asked. "With the weather and all?"

"Kero. I've modified my costume to keep me from going into hibernation in winter," she said, though her voice sounded kind of slow. I'd need to work hard to make sure she didn't over-exert herself.

"Look, over there!" I pointed to where some people had gotten into a car crash, on a pass.If I can float the cars, or get the people out before the cars fall over...

We rushed over to the accident. There were three cars, and only two of us...

"I'll take those two!" I told Tsu. "Get the third!"

"Oc-Uravity, I can -"

"Don't worry!" I told her with a smile, though it felt kind of forced. "We got this!"

I headed towards them, tapping the first car with my right hand, and holding the other one up with my left. I could feel the strain starting to pull on me already, but I'd worked out enough to make keeping the car steady just doable.

"It's ok, ma'am!" I called, as I pulled the zero-gravity car towards me with my right hand's tendrils, while Tsu took care of the other car.

From inside, I could see that the driver was...smiling? No, that wasn't a smile. IT was some kind of demented, creepy, unnnatural grin, like someone had put their fingers on her mouth at the corner of her lips and pulled them out.

And she was also laughing, uncontrollably, but not a real laugh...

Right. The villain with the creepy laughing gas quirk. She must feel horrible.

"Here," I said, opening the door, and holding out my hand. "It's ok, miss, I'm a hero!"

"Ha-heh-hah-ahahah! hehe hahaha heee heeAAAA!" She was crying with the pain. I helped her down. From behind me, I heard more sounds. I turned. The bridge was getting crowded with other victims of the laughing quirk. I remembered I'd heard of a hero with a quirk like this. Aizawa's friend Ms. Joke...but this wasn't like clips I'd seen of her fights. No, everyone here looked - scary, and wrong.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA - HEEE HEE HEEE HEE - HA A AAAA!"

They were laughing and smiling uncontrollably, as I tried now to pull the other car up and save the victims in there.

"Please, Don't worry!" I told them as they came closer to me. "We'll find out how to stop her quirk soon enough!"

A memory flashed through my head - me telling my parents I wanted to be a hero so everyone would laugh and smile.This isn't what I meant!

"Ochako!" Tsu shouted, as the people had surrounded her too; they were grabbing onto her, as if trying to make her make them stop.

"Froppy - Please, people! We need to remain calm!" I shouted to them. But suddenly -

I felt something strange happen to my face. It felt like it was being set on fire. And I was starting to -

I turned around. Floating above us was a young woman, not much older than us, in a pale blue shroud. She had a great big scary, wrong smile on her face, and she was holding up a hand and pointing at me.

"Leeet's turn that frown upside-down, hero sour-puss!" she called out.

I was starting to feel that uncontrollable, demented laughing; I slapped my hand over my mouth to try and keep it from coming. The villain raised her hands in the air. "Egao here, to show you all how you don't need to be so miserable, so moany and serious all the time! So get those gross frowny faces out of my way!"

I reached into my back pocket in my utility belt. Please tell me I packed it today.

"Hm, there's still one girly here with a gross frowny face!" she called, looking at Tsu. She wasn't concentrating on me. I could feel my whole body shaking with the effort not to let out those demented laughs. I'd found it - why is so hard to unstick?

"You're not making people happy!" Tsu shouted at her. "It's just your quirk! You're hurting people, and you need to stop!" She was throwing her tongue out at the woman, who dodged and pointed at her.

"Enough raining on our fun, frowny frog! Now, smiiile!"

I'd slapped it on my mouth, the duct tape I'd stored, and though my body was still in pain, I couldn't smile or laugh or make any sound. I tapped myself and floated up, letting my new boots blast me off the ground, and slung my weapon around her.

"What? Why aren't you laughing, you -" she saw the duct tape. "Oh, you think you're so clever. That won't last for good!"

She reached out to try and rip the tape from my mouth. "Smile, darnit, you sourpuss hero buzzkill!"

Tsu's tongue, wrapped around an iron, smacked her in the head, knocking her out. The people around us collapsed in relief, the smiles and uncontrollable laugher gone.

We lowered her to the ground as I released; Once she was secure, I placed the handcuffs on her as Tsu began to create a file for evacuation.

She came to, but I had her hands too firmly pinned for her to use her quirk. She glared at me. "We're just trying to fill this world up with joy and pleasure! What's so wrong with that?'

For some weird reason, I thought of that villain girl, Himiko Toga, and that great big smile she'd worn whenever we thought - smiling for villainy, maybe, but - completely real.

"People should smile because they're happy," I told her. "Making them smile when they're not happy is just wrong."