When the students returned to the dorm in the evening, they found Luke playing a video game.
That was a good sign.
Midoriya, Ochaco, Hagakure, Momo, Jiro, and others shared glances.
In the last four days, Luke hadn't left his room after completing his cleaning duties with Midoriya and Bakugo at first, then only with Bakugo yesterday.
For him to still be out and about was definitely a good sign.
One by one, they all entered the Common Hall and crashed on the sofas, Hagakure directly going to Luke and picking another controller.
"Man…" Kirishima groaned. "Snappy's Quirk is… broken!"
That made Luke look over his shoulder, as they had predicted.
"Aina Big Sis came to the classroom near the end of classes in the afternoon," Hagakure hurriedly said. "Aizawa Sensei invited her to talk about Hero Work Studies."
"And then she proceeded to beat our ass," Kaminari said.
"Language, Kaminari!" Tenya shouted across the Common Hall, carrying a bump on his forehead. "We are also upperclassmen now. We should be careful what we say around others."
"There are only us…" Kaminari feebly tried to defend himself.
"No…" Tenya shook his head. "I will have to write you up…"
Ignoring the banter, Midoriya and others, almost all carrying little bruises, began retelling the story.
"Snappy said that Hero Work Studies will be a more… practical version of the internship we did last year," Midoriya said. "In it, we will play the part of Sidekicks to Pro Heroes and be more involved in the fieldwork. Like, they will be treating us like true Heroes, not children learning a few things…"
"Also," Ochaco chimed in, "UA will not help us in securing a Work Study, as they did with Internships. We are supposed to use the contacts we have already made."
"For the entire summer?" Luke asked.
Momo nodded. "There are two Hero Work Studies in UA," she explained. "One for second-year students, which happens during the Summer Break. The second is for third-year students. It lasts an entire Semester."
"Hey… is that why they keep the remedial Provisional Hero License Exams in the second semester?" Jiro asked.
Midoriya and Momo nodded, others making an O with their mouths in realization.
"Anyway…" Deku continued with a wry smile on his face, "… Ashido asked how Hero Work Studies is any different from the Hero Internship Course? Like, why can't we just go on another Summer Camp and work on improving our Quirks?"
Mina, who was lost in watching Luke play the game without looking at the screen, going as far as to beat Hagakure in a fighting match, suddenly winced. "… I shouldn't have asked that…"
Midoriya cracked his neck, too, as if he had knots inside.
"Snappy said that there are many ways to improve a Quirk," Momo said, remembering it. "But the best way to do so is to improve it on a problem-to-problem basis. Problems that we can only face while working in the field. She proceeded to say that Mina asking those questions was a similar problem. And she had already solved it."
"…" Luke looked blankly at them. "She took you all to training grounds?"
Midoriya's lips twitched. "Remember Senior Togata?" he asked.
At that, every single student in the Common Hall experienced another bout of déjà vu; a déjà vu that had been giving them headaches for hours.
"Well, compared to Snappy," Midoriya said, "Lemillion seemed… gentle."
"She had taken hundreds of snapshots of the entire field beforehand," Momo explained. "She went as far as daring all of us to go after her… like playing tag."
"We couldn't even touch her…" Tokoyami complained darkly.
"Yeah…" Mineta agreed, though a touch more sorrowfully. "We couldn't…"
"What about bruises?" Luke asked.
"Sir Nighteye made her learn that," Momo said. "Every time she struck us with it, she kept saying… that's why."
For the first time, Luke smiled.
Then, he laughed.
In the next moment, Hagakure jumped on Luke. "Yay! You are back!!"
Momo glared as Mina also joined, the two girls hugging Luke from either side.
"I am tired…" she hissed and shot off the sofa, Jiro running after her with a wry smile on her face.
…
Luke's mobile rang.
"Nyx…" he called out from the bathroom.
"It's Aina!" she cawed at the top of her lungs. "She wants to talk to you…"
Sighing, and knowing that it was well past the point where he could avoid talking to her about what happened, Luke wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out.
He had just taken the mobile from Nyx when his Spirituality was triggered, making him snap his head toward the balcony beyond the open glass doors.
There, peeking above the balcony's railing, was Aina, her eyes going round as they landed on him.
Her hand slipped.
Luke blurred, reached down to grab Aina's hand, and pulled her up.
"… Are you okay?!" he asked as the girl panted, her face as red as blood.
Aina didn't reply.
With her mouth open, she kept looking at him up and down.
Before Luke could frown at her, Nyx came fluttering to the balcony and slapped Aina's face with her wing.
"Nyx!" Luke hissed.
"No… no…" Aina shook her head. "I needed that."
Slowly, she got up.
Then, narrowing her eyes, she smacked Luke on the head.
"Hey… what gives…" Luke complained.
It was only the beginning, though.
Aina proceeded to pull out a cylindrical tube, which lengthened to become a long pole with a jerk of her wrist.
Loud whacks resounded as Aina smacked Luke with the pole, pushing him into the room.
Nyx, meanwhile, pulled out a bucket of popcorn from under the bed and enjoyed herself as Aina continued to beat Luke, the latter vainly trying to dodge.
By the time she finished, Luke had already gained at least a dozen bruises, mostly on his back.
"I don't care what's going on between you two knuckleheads!" Aina snapped. "The next time you don't pick up my call, I will return and continue where I've left off. Idiot!"
Then, taking a handful of popcorn for herself, she jumped off the balcony.
Luke, wincing, looked toward Nyx, who was laughing her ass off.
"You put the mobile on silent?" he asked, feeling betrayed.
"Haha!" Nyx laughed. "Cryptologist, my ass…"