Mina felt her palms, her knuckles, and her fingertips all throb and bleed. There wasn't a huge amount of blood, just enough that one would expect from punching and attacking a punching bag until ones fists were raw and cut, but it was enough to have an effect on her Quirk. Only in this particular case, the punching bag was a rock that she'd spent the last while beating down. Thanks to Acid, each impact she made against it was slightly cushioned, a bit like padding from a boxing glove. Only slightly though. At the end of the day, she was still attacking a solid composite of minerals. Whenever she created more Acid, it mixed in with the blood, turning it from a greenish-clear substance to a reddish one.
It wasn't pleasant to look at, or to feel for the Quirk user. The stinging of her wounds was becoming more and more prominent when she actually took half a second to notice her battered hands.
But she wasn't in any particular mood to care about something like that. When anger got into her system, it stayed there, and it burned there for quite a long time, unless she had some sort of release for it. It was so rare an emotion to her that Mina hadn't particularly learned to deal with it in a healthier way. Hard to annoy, and slow to reach her limit, actually losing her cool took a lot of time. Days, or even weeks had to be stacked on top of one another before she'd reach her limit, under normal circumstances. She could easily tolerate each and every one of her siblings doing their best to annoy her, all at once. That was easy.
Watching and hearing about Bakugou's abuse of the boy she loved, and the terrible things that he'd done to him for so long - That did it. That was something that did get under her skin. That was something that dug so deep into her skin, it felt like it was buried in there for all eternity, and was near impossible to get out, that triggered her anger and made her lash out in a frenzy of furious rage.
Hence why she was still here, an hour after everyone else had left. Her body was feeling the negative effects of her Quirk, but her mind was just ignoring it, blanking it out. Physical pain wasn't something that she was in the mood to even acknowledge. So put simply, she refused to do so. It wasn't worth paying any mind to.
And it wasn't going to help her vent this aggression out.
She could not, for the life of her, get why Bakugou acted the way he did. It just didn't make any sense to her. What on earth was going on inside his head that made him act like this? What part of him thought that this was all okay? What sort of upbringing did he have that made him believe himself superior to everyone else? What did he even get out of being such a jerk to everyone else? Did he find pleasure in it, or did he seriously believe that he simply had the right to act like a scumbag because he was just lucky enough to have a powerful Quirk?
After having been unleashing her anger towards this rock pile for the better half of five hours now, and having had enough time to think about everything that had transpired, she felt she had a guess ready. Not that she had any way of confirming it, but based on what she knew about the turbulent relationship that he and her boyfriend shared, Mina felt that she could, at least, get parts of his resentment right.
Bakugou was scared of Izuku.
More accurately, of how quickly he'd caught up to him. From Quirkless, to having such a powerful, flashy, and versatile Quirk that made Explosion look limited in comparison, and, when used at 100%, One For All made Bakugou's Quirk look like splattering of paint next to such sheer, earth shaking, shattering and raw power, Bakugou felt his superiority slipping, and lashed out at those whom he felt were threatening his place at the top. In the same vein, perhaps that was why he resented Todoroki for essentially giving up during the Sports Festival. It was one less chance to prove he was better than everyone else.
But he wasn't better than everyone else. He no longer had that firm, iron belief in his own strength anymore. Mina finally going up and outright demanding him to explain himself had been just one of the many triggers to outrage he seemed to have. The fact he was now being called out to face the consequences of his actions was something he just hadn't ever considered, or wanted to consider. Now that the time was here, he was going to fight off any sense of responsibility towards his past that he could.
Verbally, or violently.
That, at least, was her best guess. Without confirmation from Izuku or anyone else, any frame of reference from anyone who also shared classes with the two, or anyone who even knew them, it was all she had to go off of.
So it wouldn't be a surprise if she was wrong on a couple of things. The fact did remain though, that no matter the reasons, Bakugou was frankly a scumbag, who had no right to even have a Quirk like he did, never mind train to be a Hero. All he was was fortunate, blessed with good genes and two parents who had suitable Quirks to create the monster that was the Explosion Quirk. He was lucky.
He was born lucky, not superior.
But…. In spite of her fury towards the red eyed teen, that wasn't what was frustrating her so much. That wasn't why she was so angry, and beating down anything strong enough to withstand her Acid. He might drive her up the wall, but that wasn't even close to the full reason behind her frustrations and irritation.
That belonged to Izuku.
"Uh… Hey, Mina?"
Stopping from attacking the boulders before her, the pink skinned girl turned her head, looking towards Tsuyu and Uraraka, both of whom had approached her with looks of worry in both their black and brown eyes.
"What is it?" The yellow eyed girl questioned, ceasing her secretion of the corrosive liquid from her skin. She hissed as she did so, feeling the cool gust of wind hitting her cuts and bruises. She wasn't in the mood to really interact with anyone else right now. She wanted to be left on her own, to unleash this burning pit of rage inside her on her own terms, so no one could see it.
"Um… We were just kinda getting worried. Are you, uh… Alright?" The Zero Gravity user questioned, looking down at all the rubble that surrounded the Acid Quirk users feet. A total of about fifteen to twenty boulders, with a far higher number of chunks of rock pulled straight from one of the artificial cliff sides made by Pixie-Bob, eroded by the unending power of Mina's superpower.
It could not be more clear that she wasn't even close to anything even remotely resembling 'Alright'.
Letting out a small growl, Mina turned back to the boulder she'd been working on. Down the centre of it, a crack had begun to form, weakened by the volley of strikes she'd used against it. Now it threatened to split into two jagged, uneven parts. She let out a long winded sigh, before closing her eyes lightly shut. "No, I'm not. I'm really freakin' angry."
"We'd gathered that." Tsuyu flatly stated, glancing around the area. Evidence of Mina's Quirk at use was everywhere. Erosion in random sedimentary rocks, none-acidic goo laying in places, cracks in the walls and rocks, and a mess of debris all along the cliff side. It looked like a Villain had been here and just smashed things up with a Strength-Enhancement Quirk. "You've been training for well over the required amount of time. You've barely stopped for a break all day. To be honest, I'm amazed that your Quirk had held out this long. Everyone else was out of it after just a couple of hours."
It's an improvement, I guess." Mina shrugged. The only reason that she wasn't continuing to unleash hell upon the rocks that were around her was because she didn't want to accidentally hurt either of her friends with her Quirks lack of overall control. All it would take was one stray drop of Acid to give one of them a nasty burn. She let out another sigh. "Bakugou got to me earlier." She admitted, folding her arms, and looking at her hands. With the number of self-inflicted injuries covering her knuckles and palms, she wasn't going to even be slightly surprised if they started to scar lightly. "He was just born lucky. He just got lucky to have a powerful Quirk like his, but he treats everyone else like they're garbage because of it. He treats people he used to be friends with like dirt because of it. I just… I don't get it. What pleasure does he get from it?"
These were questions that pretty much everyone in Class 1A wanted to know, and the only person who would reveal the answers – Bakugou himself – Was tight lipped, refusing to utter a single word about his reasons. It wasn't like Mina was asking any seriously philosophical questions.
"I don't get it and it's driving me crazy. Why does Izuku just let it all happen to him? He barely ever even says anything back to the guy. He just lays down and accepts all of it, and even stopped me from giving him what he deserves. What sort of person defends their childhood bully like that?!..."
"Are you upset because of that argument with Deku – "
"Stop calling him Deku!" Mina sharply and violently snapped, turning her glare right towards Uraraka, unrepressed fury lashed out with her yelling. "That's not his name!"
The Zero Gravity Quirk user almost literally jumped back in reflexive shock, and genuinely flinched at the scowl Mina had on her face. The naked anger was clearly visible to all who saw it, looking like Mina was one step away from actually just outright attacking. Though it hadn't been directed towards her, the Frog Form Quirk user had shuddered herself, and frozen in place at Mina's surprisingly loud voice. Rare as it was for Mina to get angry, never mind the over-the-top levels of lividity that she was expressing, she ever lashed out at her friends like this before, for any reason at all.
And when she herself realized what she'd done, her eyes shot wide open in shock.
Rationality made its way back into her head. She knew that Uraraka and Izuku had been friends long before she and him had even spoken to one another, never mind actually started dating. Even though Bakugou used it as a slang word, as an insult, to the green haired boy, Uraraka saw it as anything but. She saw it as endearing, almost, using it like a compliment and affectionate nickname rather than a way to try to hurt Izuku's pride and person.
More to the point, Izuku was totally fine with her calling him 'Deku', and she meant absolutely no harm by it at all. There was no reason to be angry.
She'd just reacted towards that word, because she associated it with Bakugou trying to upset Izuku. As him barely regarding him as a person of worth in any way.
"…I'm sorry." She said, quickly once she'd realized that she'd lashed out for no reason. Taking a deep breath, and looking away from either of the two girls, she repeated herself, after a very long sigh. "I'm really sorry…"
There were a few seconds of silence between the three of them, none sure of what to say, or what to do right now. Suddenly, Mina felt all of the anger in her body wash away, replaced primarily with guilt. Two of her fingers found their way to the bridge of her nose, where she pinched down, hard, as her eyes firmly closed themselves, scrunching up tightly. The last few weeks had been filled with little more but stress and apprehension for her – The fear of not passing the Semester's Exams, which she didn't. The obstacles on the way to becoming a Hero Team with Izuku, and that whole Initiation thing, which, once again, they failed at. Then merely getting to their lodgings, and then that whole mess with Izuku not too long ago….
Not that it was any sort of excuse for shouting at people who hadn't done anything wrong whatsoever.
How much anger did she have packed into her? How much had she just let slide, bitten her tongue over, and had to simply accept Izuku's word on things? How much frustration had just…. Built up to the boiling point?
There weren't words. Mina hadn't felt like this before, ever. Not this badly. It was just absolutely surreal to even her. Now she just felt badly about it.
"What's…. What's wrong with you today?" When she found herself able to question her friend, Uraraka found herself wanting to know what was going through the horned girls head. Nothing about how she was acting today was like her.
At all.
"Urgh… Bakugou's been getting to me, I think…." Explained the Acid Quirk user, lowering her head as she did so. "I guess I just reached my limit on how much of his crap I'm willing to tolerate. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lash out at you like that, Uraraka."
"Don't… Worry about it." The brunette said, gulping as she did so. Not that she blamed Mina in any way. After having pent up so much, it was only natural that she would reach a breaking point.
The main question was, was that point reached because of Bakugou, or Izuku?
The pampering, as the Pussycats put it, ended on the second day, just as they had warned the students. At around four PM, after a short break from their training, Ragdoll and Pixie-Bob had hauled out a tables worth of ingredients in front of the students, and told them to get to work if they wanted to eat tonight. All cooked and mixed together, the food would add up to a curry. Not exactly a mind-blowing, chef's choice assault on the taste buds curry, but an edible one, and the difference to a group of starving, exhausted students was negligible at best.
Izuku barely knew anything about cooking. Frankly, it wasn't one of his small list of talents or life skills. He had always been so worried about his future career path due to his lack of a Quirk, he just hadn't been able to absorb any other skills necessary to survive. His brain wouldn't let him. He had a rough idea on what to do, but he felt he'd be lucky if he only burned it.
A real disaster would be if it set on fire… An event that Izuku wasn't proud to admit he'd caused in the past.
Still, he'd made sure that he'd put all the ingredients in the right way, based on his limited knowledge on cooking. He'd also made sure he made more than enough for two people – For when Mina retuned. If she returned.
While he'd said to Aizawa that Mina was still at the training grounds well after everyone else had packed it up for a break, the Erasure Hero didn't seem too phased by the news, or see it as any cause for alarm. In fact, he almost seemed pleasantly surprised by the news, and told the rest of the students to leave her to it. Since they were supposed to be cooking for themselves, he said, if she chose not to eat, it was her choice. Izuku didn't like that logic though, so he'd made sure that he'd made enough for her to get her fill too. All he'd have to do was reheat it.
He'd wanted to go and drag his girlfriend back to them camp… But Uraraka and Tsuyu had already beaten him to it.
Above everything else, a loud crack and boom was suddenly heard from within the campsite, not that it was an unusual sound to anyone in Class 1A anymore. Bakugou was just using his Quirk. That was the point they were all at – A literal explosion wasn't a ceremonious occurrence for them.
"Bakugou, for the third time dude, you can't make a fire with explosions." Sero told the hot headed blond, sounding resigned and exasperated, knowing full well that his words were falling on deaf ears.
"Just watch me, damn it!" Another detonation came a few seconds later. It would be a hot day at the bottom of the ocean before the spiky haired boy would just back down and ask someone else for help, or even just go and get a match to light his firewood with.
It almost made Izuku want to laugh.
Before he could though, his attention got pulled by the corner of his eyes picking up a hint of pink to his left. Quickly looking up, he saw Mina, stood next to him, and looking down on him as he crouched by the fireplace he'd been assigned to light up. Her face was vacant, unusually void of expression, and she didn't say a word, another abnormality.
Uraraka and Tsuyu both gave the green haired boy a worried look each, and then made their way back to the section that they'd been working on before they'd left. While initially, Izuku had planned on going to find out where Mina was himself, both the girls had talked him down from it, saying that they felt it was better if they went to get her. Since the argument was between the two of them, any negative feelings that Mina may still have in her system may begin to boil once Izuku showed up once more.
And it was pretty clear that she wasn't exactly happy with him right now, from just a glance.
"M… Mina…"Unsure of what to say, or what to do in this situation, Izuku desperately tried to find the right words to convey his feelings and emotions to her. To say that he felt remorse, that he wanted to understand things from her perspective, that he wanted her to talk to him about why she got so angry.
They didn't come though. All that came through was her name.
For her part, Mina simply crouched down, picked up a pair of rocks, and began to strike the two of them together over the pile of wood that Izuku had gathered. Her hope was to create a spark that would catch flame on the wood, and spread to heat up the ingredients Izuku had thrown together into the pot hanging on the metal pole between the two ends of the outdoor stove.
In doing so, Izuku noticed her hands.
Raw, cut, and now, after a quick stop by the house for medical supplies, wrapped up in bandages. Some of the cuts ran up her forearms, but these ones were lighter, and less noticeable. It also told in the way that she touched things – Lightly, and carefully, since application of too much pressure was going to sting her. The wounds were minor, of course. Some disinfectant and a good night's sleep later, and she'd be fine. Mina tended to heal fairly quickly anyway.
But it was still a point of concern for Izuku.
"Wha…. Mina, where did those injuries come from?... That's…. That's not from your Quirk, is it?"
No answer came from the pink girl. Once more, she tried to create sparks, but found herself failing constantly, no matter how hard she tried to create the needed ignition. Her attempts became more and more rapid, until she finally gave up, realizing that she wasn't going to start a fire that way, dropping the rocks back in the pile with a defeated sigh. "Damn it."
"Mina?...I - "
"Izuku."
The Acid girl's word was crisp and clear, showing that she had, in fact, been able to hear all of what had been said by the Strength-Enhancement inheritor. She raised her head to look at him, with eyes, void of emotion, an expression that was still freaking Izuku out. He'd never seen her like this before, and he still wasn't sure what to make of it.
She sounded annoyed. Angry at him, although at the same time, Izuku felt that there was a lot more to this particular irritation of hers. More like it was something that she just didn't want to talk about right now, or felt was pointless in discussing. Like it would just prove to be a waste of time, and would only serve to irritate her more.
Moving her pink hair out of the way of her golden irises, she looked him in the eyes, and spoke simply and softly. "Just… Not right now, okay? We'll talk about it later. When I'm less mad." An expression was making itself known in her eyes.
Apprehension. Hesitation. Anxiety, all mixed in with the still present, but less obvious, and less intense than before. This was the first time that the two of them had had a major disagreement, no matter how minor or small it may be, and it had wound up in outright shouting, worse, one-sided. Like Izuku, Mina had no clue how they were supposed to deal with this now.
With all of this as fact, Mina was feeling just as awkward about things right now as he was. Their lack of problems in the past, and the always happy tone between the two of them throughout their relationship…
Neither of them had the first clue what to do in this situation. There were only two things that Mina knew for certain. One of those things was that she was still angry, and number two was that she didn't know how best to resolve this issue.
So she simply opted not to. Instead, she pushed the problem aside for later, hoping that things between her and Izuku would eventually just cool off on their own.
Standing upright, and then looking down at the pile of timber before her, she glanced around, and then raised up her hand. "Hey, Todoroki, could we get some fire over here?"