Text"Damn Mina, even the Pro's noticed that you're getting tougher."
Not that it had been out of any particular concious choice that the class had made, but as they all made their way to the bus to collect their luggage as instructed by Aizawa, the girls had all ended up together, about five meters ahead of the boys. Mina and Hagakure were up at the front, and the invisible girl was complimenting the compliment that Pixie-Bob had given her, before she'd started hissing at her.
It had all been very complimentary, according to Hagakure.
Still, Mina had been left with the distinct impression that the Earth Flow Quirk user wasn't particularly fond of her. Given her marital status and insecurities... It felt very much like the Pro was jealous of the pink girls relationship with one of the boys she wanted to claim as hers.
The Professional's eccentricities aside though, Mina was grateful for the praise that she had received, from sources outside of her boyfriend. It felt good to be recognised when it came to her abilities, to know that she was actually progressing down the right route. It gave her more drive and motivation to try even harder to succeed. The natural response to praise that anyone could understand.
Even though she was grateful though, Mina wasn't entirely certain about what she had done to receive such praise. In truth, it didn't feel like she'd actually improved all that much. Her skills were still the same as every, and her Quirk was just as strong as it had ever been. She had her new idea regarding her damage output regarding her powers, but it was still in the testing phase, and subjected her to serious recoil damage. Was that particularly worthy of note?
Then again, Izuku's entire original usage of One For All had been nothing but shattering his own bones, until he found a way to unleash the power in smaller, less powerful but infinitely more manageable actions. Kind of the exact opposite of her current dilemma.
"I guess hanging out with Midoriya must've taught you a few things." Jirou commented. "You've been improving quicker than anyone else lately."
"You think so?" Mina asked, her eyebrows raising, and her head turning to face the Earphone Jack Quirk user. "I don't really have any of the experience he had though."
"Still enough for the Pro's to take notice." Tsuyu added on, catching up to the group that she lagged behind, and appearing from behind Jirou. "You two are doing Hero Team training too, aren't you? You must have gotten a lot of practice during that."
Mina hadn't really taken any of that into consideration. The truth of the matter there was that she mostly just did things as they happened, going with the flow of things. Actually looking back, all the various accumulations of practice, knowledge she'd absorbed just by being around Izuku, in addition to her own training... She did actually have a lot under her belt.
Still, she'd failed the End of Semester examination. Perhaps that had been a shot to her self confidence, without her ever even realising it. She didn't feel like it had upset her much beyond the now revealed lie of not going on the Summer Camp, though maybe it had hit her harder than she'd expected, and everything that had gone down with Shigaraki had just pushed it aside in her head.
Basically, she didn't even really think she was even in the same league, combat wise, as Izuku, as Todoroki, or Iida or Bakugou. Even though she very clearly was. She'd always been one of the class's stronger students, but compared to the best, it felt like she couldn't hold a candle to them. No one could.
The Pro's disagreed though, apparently.
And so did her classmates.
The girls group made it to the bus first, and Jirou hit the button on the side of the vehicle that opened up the side compartment, where everyone had loaded their bags and suitcases. A single, very feminine bag complete with pins began to float out from the pile, within arms reach of the resident floating standard female Yuuei uniform. "So, you and Midoriya, you're trying to be like these 'Pussycats', or whatever they're called, right?" Hagakure questioned, slinging her backpack over her visually nonexistent shoulders. In doing so, she also made her way to the side, out of the way of their other classmates, but remaining close to the girl with pink skin.
"Yeah, pretty much I suppose." Mina replied, reaching into the pile of bags and pulling her backpack out of the bus, filled even more to the brink with customised pins and patches to the point barely any of the original black fabric that made up the bag were even visible. Izuku's bag was right next to hers, so she grabbed his too. She couldn't find his suitcase though. "Only less cat themed and a little less eccentric."
"You know this is you and Midoriya we're talking about, right?"
"I think it's kinda fun!" Uraraka commented from the side. Just hovering besides her, her suitcase was gently starting to lower itself to the ground as she brought her finger-pads together, thanks to her Quirk doing all the heavy lifting for her. "They're a pretty interesting group, don't you think?"
"It'd be more fun if Pixie-Bob didn't seem to hate me." Joked the horned girl with a smile, though there was some truth in what she was saying. She had picked up on the distinct feel that the Pro wasn't fond of her for having a boyfriend at her age, while she was - According to the other Pro Hero Mandalay - Struggling to find anyone.
The whole cat theme thing probably wasn't helping her case. Nor was spitting on people, marking them, or clawing them. Or hissing at other people who were close to the people she wanted to mark.
That aside though, Mina did agree that they were a rather quirky group. It was kind of entertaining to see them all in action. It was amusing to watch, and may e that was the point. To reassure the people they saved by putting on a show of eccentricity. Seeing a Hero Team with some personality to them would certainly help people feel at ease, Mina supposed. Lot of people felt reassured by someone like All Might being on the scene, and he was as expressive as they came. It was probably part of the reason why he was number one.
"Hey, c'mon, will you guys hurry up?! I'm starving back here!"
Having gotten caught up in the conversation that they were having, the girls had unwittingly caused a line up for the luggage compartment. Behind them were about fourteen equally hungry and battered boys all waiting to grab hold of their various bags and cases, so they could move them into their rooms and finally get hold of some food.
Though she had to be agree - Food, at this point, sounded like an absolute Godsend to Mina right about now. Just like everyone else, she was so hungry she was about three minutes away from just passing out on the spot. She hadn't ever felt more motivated to unpack anything more in her entire life. Fishing out her and Izuku's suitcase, the latter of which had somehow managed to get tossed over to the total opposite side of the storage compartment, and pulled out away from the growing crowd of students.
From the quickly growing and thickening crowd, the horned girl spotted Izuku right at the back, characteristically too timid to shove past anyone in any way, and had been too slow on the draw to quickly get to the front before anyone else could. He would just patiently wait for an opening to grab his gear.
Or he would have done if Mina hadn't grabbed his stuff for him. "Hey, Izuku, I got your stuff here!" She held up his yellow backpack as she waved and called him over, so he'd see what she had for him.
The bright colours of his bag caught the green haired teenagers eyes. He broke off from the group and made his way over to his girlfriend, a small smile on his face. Mina handed him his rucksack and suitcase with a smile of her own. "Thanks, Mina."
"No prob!" She cheerfully responded, getting onto her tiptoes for a brief moment before she dropped back down again. Inexplicably, she was in a better mood after the conversation she had just left with the other girls. A certain level of reassurance and vented frustration had been achieved, and her overall mood had improved by a nice margin.
No other words were uttered before Mina spotted someone whom she hadn't even noticed before, stood, from her perspective, just a few meters behind Izuku. It was a child, who couldnt be much older than five, judging by his size. He wore very plain clothing, with a hat that had metallic horns at the forehead. Black hair, and hands balled up into fists by his sides.
Something about this kid stood out to the pink girl though. Being around younger kids was something that Mina was used to, so she at least had a general idea on how most kids, at least the ones she knew who were that age, or even much older, like her own siblings, were supposed to act. They were supposed to be carefree, joyous. Hyperactive too. Normally once wouldn't stand around in just one spot, at least in her experience.
This kid though, not only was he firmly routes to the spot he stood on, he was glaring. Right at the Acid Quirk user, and beyond her, at every single student that was currently unpacking their stuff. Like he resented them for being here. No, actually, the distaste in his eyes seemed to be something far deeper than that. Intense. Disgust.
She'd seen a lot of anger in her younger siblings, but that was more out of childish rage, stoked further by immaturity and irrationality. This kid though... There was something more there.
Frankly, he was intimidating Mina a bit. Like Mara did when he was on the warpath.
"Hey, Izuku, you see that kid over there?" She questioned, nudging at his shoulder as she did so, to get him to turn and look at what she was seeing. Izuku turned as he was physically instructed, and met with the kids eyes as he turned his head. For a moment, he didn't say a word. "He's just been staring at us for a while now. Kinda creeping me out."
"He was with The Pussycats when we got off of the bus." Izuku informed her, not taking his eyes off the small child. This caused Mina to blink twice and look over at him as he spoke. She hadn't even noticed the kid back then, more focused on attempting an in-vain escape to flee the exercise before being shoved into the Beast's Forest by the moving ground thanks to the Hero Team's blonde member. "I guess he has to be with them. Maybe he's one of their kids or something."
"Excuse me?" Interrupted by a mature female voice to the side, the Pro Hero Mandalay approached the two of them, far more relaxed and refined than the erratic Pixie-Bob had done moments prior. As far as the rationality of Professional Team went, she seemed to be the person to speak to. "It's Ashido and Midoriya, isn't it?"
Both the teenagers nodded in confirmation. "How'd you know our names?" Mina questioned with a quirked eyebrow.
"Erasure-Head showed me the register." A simple answer came, and one that made the most sense. She'd probably been revising the names during the wait they had until the class made it here. "I just felt like I should let you know, Pixie-Bob is a bit eccentric, but she doesn't actually dislike you for your relationship. Please try not to take it personally."
"Oh, it's okay." Of course, Mina was a bit weirded out by the Earth Flow Quirk users irregularities, but she didn't honestly believe there was any genuine malice towards her or Izuku on the part of the Professional cat obsessed Hero. She joked, but she didn't seriously think that there was any reason to fear Pixie-Bob at all.
She was a member of Yuuei. Practically everyone was an eccentric.
The brunette sighed, apparently out of relief, and looked at the pair of them. She then looked ofer to the left, where she saw that her partner had pulled aside Iida, Todoroki and Bakugou, and was giving them a similar talk. She still seemed to be 'Marking' them as she did so, incurring the anger of a spiky haired boy, who seemed to be just a short fuse away from damning her status as a Pro and shoving her away with his Quirk. Mandalay could only sigh once more, and smile in amusement and exasperation at her co-worker. "The both of us are genuinely impressed by the two of you and how you worked together. Erasure tells me that you've had a fair amount of real world experience, and that you both want to become a Hero Team together."
Sharing a small glance with one another, Izuku and Mina both nodded towards the Hero. "Thats right." Izuku spoke this time. "We were... Hoping to learn as much about how Hero Teams work as possible while we're here."
The dedication that he showed off along with his girlfriend seemed to impress the older woman, whom showed a smile at his words. With the concept of a Hero Team slowly becoming more and more obscure as time went on, and the age of Solo Heroes had come full swing into society, seeing a young couple who desired to join the small ranks of the previously esteemed Hero Teams was something that warmed the heart of the middle aged woman.
"Also... We were wondering..." Turning his gaze back to the child, whom was now headed for the entrance to the building, Izuku brought the conversation back to the point of interest he and Mina had held onto just seconds ago. "Does that kid belong to anyone in your team?"
Mandalay's expression fell to one of neutrality as she looked at the child, before returning to the two students. "Ah, that's actually my nephew." Her voice raised suddenly, so the young child would hear her. "Kota! You should come and say hello to everyone!" The rest of the Yuuei pupils also hearing her, and now looking over in the general direction was an unintended side effect of her call. Still, it made the kid, now known as Kota, stop in his tracks. "You'll be spending the next week together, after all."
Kota turned his head to look at the Heroes in training with a mixture of hostility and fury that they were even here. Beyond his very obviously young age were the eyes of a person who had a lot of pain held up within his heart, that he masked with hate. He didn't take a step towards the students, instead taking the opportunity just to glare at each and every one of them.
"Kid seems pretty intense." Mina muttered underneath her breath. She already could tell he wasn't like most kids his age, just from her own experiences with younger children. Something had happened to this kid, she was willing to bet, that had affected the way he acted.
It might have happened years ago. It might have happened weeks ago, or even just yesterday. Whatever the case was, the teenage girl just struggled, beyond all rhyme lr reason, to tear her eyes from Kota's gaze.
Izuku didn't just stare back however. Instead, he made his way over towards the black haired and eyed individual, and bent down to his level. While Kota expressed annoyance and hostility, Izuku showed a friendly smile, and held out his hand for the kid to shake. To Izuku, it was possible that the kid was just awkward or shy. He was used to the feeling himself, so naturally, he was empathetic.
He spoke in as soft, kind, and calm a manner as he could, in an effort to make the child feel more comfortable around him. "It's nice to meet you Kota." He politely greeted. "My name is Izuku Midoriya. I'm training to be a Hero with Class 1-A -"
The politeness and good natured was thrown back into the green haired boy's face, when Kota simply launched a straight forward strike with his fist - Straight at Izuku's groin. The kid didn't hold back in the slightest. Even the furtherest person away from the impact site was about twenty meters away, and the sound was crisp and clear to them as it was to Mina and Mandalay, stood just a few feet from the occurrence.
A clear, loud, smack that rang through everyones ears. Those closest to the sound reacted first.
"Holy - Izuku!" Mina was pretty sure her eyes shot as wide open as her boyfriends when she saw what happened, more out of shock than anything. With speed that rivalled her performances in the forest, she ran over towards her now collapsed boyfriend, not that she was too sure what on Earth she was supposed to do to comfort him in his pain. "What the hell, kid?!"
"Kota, what'd you do that for?!"
Turning to send a ferocious glare at the green haired teenager he'd assaulted, the pink skinned girl who had rushed to help him, his aunt, and everyone else in the nearby vicinity, Kota said the first words that anyone there had heard him say all day.
Those words were a cold, spiteful, "I can't stand jerks who wanna be Heroes."
Ceasing his squirming for just a moment, Izuku looked at the angry child, who stormed inside the building quickly after his outburst. Just for a second, before letting out another groan in pain.
"Are you alright, Izuku?!" Mina asked, while she tried to help him to sit upright. Aside from trying to make him comfortable, she struggled to figure out what else she could do.
"Pfft. Cute kid."
Bakugou's voice.
Because her back was to him, Mina couldn't see him. In her head though, she could already see his face though, a mental image of the blonde loudmouth making itself at home in her mind. She heard him laughing at Izuku's pain despite her lack of visual in him, and frankly, she wasn't even remotely surprised at his response.
That didn't mean she liked it one damn bit.
"You're telling me you don't see any resemblance?" That voice belonged to Todoroki.
It was at this moment that Mina actually turned around to face the Explosion Quirk User, to see him quickly throw his own head towards Todoroki, armed with a list of insults and harsh words for the bi-hair coloured student. "Fuck off! I don't want to hear any of that crap from someone who threw their match!"
"Oh. Sorry." No one could honestly tell if the Half-Cold-Half-Hot Quirk user was serious about his apology or not. After learning that a lot of his cold treatment to other people just came from the fact he'd been isolated for a lot of his childhood, the question had become more of if he was actually trying to be intimidating, was being serious, or just being awkward.
Either way, Mina kept glaring, straight at Bakugou.
And once he'd received that apology from Todoroki, his head returned to its natural position, his red eyes immediately locked with the glare from the horned girls black and gold ones.
Neither of them spoke, or really moved as the daggers in their eyes locked together in a fierce stalemate. With how Bakugou was, his staring at people like he wanted to kill them was nothing new to anyone, but he could still make people shake in their boots if he seriously wanted to. Mina on the other hand was someone who rarely ever seemed to express anger outside of serious situations where it was called for, or emotional scenarios in which she felt personal involvement, both of which were a rarity.
Seeing her now though, her anger was evident, her glare fierce. To anyone who saw her, she looked like a woman possessed. Unlike many people in her position might do, she showed no signs of fear, anxiety, or even hesitation about antagonising the classes resident ticking time bomb. Her hatred towards him was evident, and she was very open about it in those moments.
She could only make it more clear by hitting it in the face and telling her feelings towards him right in front of him. Bad enough that he had done everything he had done to Izuku, but he still found enjoyment out of it?
He wasn't a Hero. Not as far as Mina was concerned.
He was just an immature bully who was lucky enough to have a powerful Quirk. Even now...
He hadn't grown up a bit. Not based on what Izuku had told her. Not a single bit.
Her eyebrows buried themselves further than she'd ever though possible. It was just an offhanded comment, but it showed just the sort of person he was. Her teeth gritted without her knowledge.
Not that it did a thing to make Bakugou even flinch. "The fuck you want, Racoon Eyes?"
As opposed to what a few of the students had been expecting, which had been single rooms, it turned out instead that the students would each be placed into one of four rooms depending on two factors. The first being which class they were in, and the second being biological sex. Since this was the private headquarters of The Pussycats, they only had a limited number of rooms, hence the categorisation of the rooms. Plus, it made fitting everyone in easier, since 1A had a smaller number of girls in their class than they did boys.
So logically, that meant that the girls needed less space, freeing up the larger rooms for the boys, whom had the larger numbers, therefore requiring more space.
"I call this one!" Hagakure called out, dumping her bag on the futon that was the closest to the door, and falling down in what looked like a crossed legged fashion, based on her long-length socks.
Picking out the spot directly opposite the invisible girl, Uraraka claimed the other futon that was set up nearest the door. Without a word, she just collapsed onto the soft mattress, like she was ready just to forget about getting nay food and just going to sleep right then and there.
One by one, the girls began to fill out the space provided by the Professional Hero Team, Mina winding up in between Jirou and Uraraka. She unpacked her belongings, which didn't amount to a huge variety of things other than the essentials, and packing them to the side, like everyone else was doing. She then sat down on her futon as everyone engaged in light conversation before they got ready to head out. Unlike the rest of her friends though, she didn't make any particular fuss or noise about where she was situated, or what went where, or the sight outside the only window in the room.
As a matter of fact, she didn't show any particular enthusiasm about anything at all.
A serious oddity. It wasn't one that went unnoticed by any of the female members. All five of them had exchanged glances to one another regarding the pink girl and her silence, but none had spoken to Mina to try and get a word out of her, as of yet.
The most quickly agreed upon consensus was that something was upsetting her. Since everyone had seen what had gone down before they'd entered the room, it wasn't an unreasonable thing to think. But it wasn't the correct conclusion. The actual reason was emotionally motivated, yes, but it wasn't forced by negative
She was thinking.
More accurately, she was contemplating the relationship between Izuku and Bakugou. Part of her was devoted to thinking of that kid Kota and his unprovoked assault on Izuku, but she knew nothing about him, so that train of thought went nowhere fast.
However, she knew a lot about Izuku. Far more than anyone else knew about him, aside from his mother. This was something that Mina was more than confident in saying. Based on what she knew about his family life, and his childhood, she knew that she had been told and shown things about him that no other person would know. More than any other person could possibly know about him, and more than likely ever would. That made her feel special, but more importantly, right now, it made her the most qualified person to judge his and Bakugou's turbulent relationship.
Both of them had been friends until just after Bakugou had developed his Quirk. A short time after, their friendship fell apart when it became apparent that Izuku simply wasn't going to get a Quirk. They turned from friends to a bully and his favourite victim, and this had gone in for years. Just over a decade, if it started not long after Izuku turned four.
When she thought about that fact, Mina felt her own heart ache. Over ten years of being kicked into the dirt for something biological that wasn't his fault. For just being unlucky. For being Quirkless.
Something that made her more upset with herself... Was the fact that this was normal. In their society, people who didn't have Quirks were seen in the same light as people who were missing a limb. Crippled almost, only to a less life-screwing-over degree. Being Quirkless was something every parent feared their child being. Someone without individuality. Someone without a Quirk...
Many were discriminated against. In work, in housing, in their day to day lives. Being totally Quirkless basically meant that you were weak. A genetic throwback to a time when Humans were weaker. And they were treated like such all over the world.
Mina held no dislike towards people for being Quirkless... But knowing that Izuku had to suffer that kind of pain just for being Quirkless... It made her want to slap herself for not being there. Of course, there would have been no way at all that she could possibly have been there for him when they were both just kids... But she hated the fact that things had to be that way.
Without even noticing, it had made her more protective of Izuku, wanting to protect him from having to experience that same pain again. Because he didn't deserve it, and she loved him.
But then, there was Bakugou.
As she'd already noted in her head, he was just a thug who had been given a lucky hand in life. Well, two lucky hands, on account of his powerful Explosion Quirk. A Quirk that, frankly, Mina felt Izuku could put to better use, since he wouldn't think that he was the best of the best because of it, and nor would be take the power for granted.
Unfortunately, fate hadn't played out like that for him. He'd been given the short straw when it came to Quirks, and just didn't get one at all. And while maybe he could have recovered from that, with some small, slim margin of hope... The bullying began because of the aforementioned thug. Mina didn't even want to think of all manner of things that he used to do to her boyfriend. Beatings, cheap labour, and using him as target practice were terrifying thoughts that came to mind, but not ones that she felt were beyond the blonde teen.
And yet, Izuku still looked up to him. And that was just something, no matter how many thousands of times that Mina would ask, she would never be able to understand. The only way it made sense to her was if it was in the same way that some ordinary citizens looked up to someone like Stain. The Hero Killer was popular, but very few people honestly serious - Like, fully committed to his ideology levels of serious - About following him, or continuing his legacy now that he was behind bars.
Even though she had an intense dislike towards him for the sort of person that he was and what he'd done, denying his skill and power based in that alone would be stupid. Maybe that was how Izuku saw it too.
No matter how she tried though, Mina couldn't see it like that.
Back then, when the two of them had stared one another down, if Bakugou had started something, whatever it was, she would have been ready to face off with him. Not that she thought she was any stronger than him. Not by a long shot. But if that was what it would have come down too, she would have taken him on.
Out of her own frustrations and distaste of him more than anything else. Now that she knew that he was someone who didn't, as she had previously assumed, mock and insult him out of a friendly sort of banter, but out of a habit and past of bullying and beatdowns based solely on his ego... There was only so far she was willing to tolerate him.
And Izuku might be prepared to accept a lot more abuse from him. But she wasn't.
Alas, he didn't do anything besides growl at her, thankfully, so no fists started to fly.
Although, Mina did had to let out a small chuckle of what could only be described as amazement, and a bit of absurdist reflection that made her laugh at herself. She'd gotten all of this from a smirk, chuckle, and snide remark that Bakugou had made. And it wasn't like any of these feelings were new or noteworthy.
Maybe she was the one overthinking things and letting grudges get the better of her thoughts.