Passerine's Cafe

"You got this, babe." I said, trying to encourage him, before we all cheered him on.

"Lost child in the shopping center! Is there anyone available to come with me?" Uraraka asked and I stood up rather quickly.

"I got eyes in the back of my head, I'm in."

"Hard pass." Bakugou said.

"Yeah, obviously you're real busy, Bakugou." Kirishima said sarcastically. "Count me in, let's find this kid."

"Yeah? And how's your dumb quirk gonna help find anything?" Kirishima froze and I gave him a pat on his shoulder.

"We got a missing kid? Sounds like a great job for me and Tsukare." Jirou said and I leaned over to give her a high five.

"I'm free, I can help look too." Izuku chimed in and we got ready to leave.

"Oh, I do not like the look of this jerry rigged mode of transportation." I mumbled as I grabbed onto the lifesaver that my best friend stood in, Uraraka made us float before he took off sprinting. "This is horrible!" I yelled with my eyes shut tight. "Oh dear gods, get me off!" Izuku jumped and I screamed loudly. "That is not what I meant! Izuku I'm gonna kill you! If you don't get this over with I'm gonna puke on you!"

As soon as we touched down, I used my wires to get me to a vantage point so I could see everything. We all moved around, talking to locals until Jirou heard him almost an hour into searching.

"Hey, are you Shimano Katsuma?" I asked in a light hearted voice as Izuku and I jogging up the hillside.

"You got separated from your big sister, right?" Izuku asked him, extending his hand before the sister in question came down the slide of the small play structure.

"There you are! It's about time!" She huffed and I looked at her curiously. "What're your names you slow pokes!" She asked aggressively while pointing a finger in my friends face.

"Hey kiddo, why don't we chill out? Yeah? Then maybe we can give you guys some piggy back rides back home." I said and watched as the brother poked at her, wide eyed at the offer. "My name is Sonus and that's Deku, sorry that we didn't get here sooner, I think we got a little lost. We don't know your island too good yet." I told her and she pouted.

"I'm Mahoro, Katsuma's older sister." She said with her hands on her hips.

"You're his big sister? Well that's an important role! I have a little sister." I told her and she looked at me skeptically. She started going off on Deku, talking faster than I could keep up with. "Woah woah woah, I think we need to have a talk." I said, sitting down gently. I gestured in front of me and she stomped over, sitting down about a foot away from me. "Mahoro, are you the one who made the phone call?" I asked and she glared at the ground.

"Yeah, so?"

"Well by the looks of it, Katsuma wasn't really lost. And I can tell you aren't too happy about the last guy that was here. Right?" She nodded and I nodded with her. "Did you know it's bad to make an emergency phone call when there isn't an emergency?" She looked at me in shock and I waited patiently, picking some of the flowers as I waited.

"No." She admitted.

"Do you know why it might be bad?" She shook her head. "Do you wanna take a guess?" I asked softly and she watched what I was doing, watching curiously as I wove the flowers together.

"Cause it's not real?"

"That's a big part of it. But if there's a big emergency where they need a lot of us, we won't be able to know cause we're out here instead of back where we can find out." I told her and she hummed.

"That makes sense. You guys were still super slow though. It took you over an hour to get here."

"Well, we were told the shopping center. Plus, we don't know your island as well as you do. I think you know it a lot better than us. It's hard trusting strangers sometimes, huh?"

"Yeah, that old guy didn't help too much." She pouted and I nodded.

"That happens sometimes. But I promise we'll do our best and work on getting places faster, but that means you can't make anymore fake emergency calls, okay?"

"Okay." She mumbled, only perking up when I handed her the flower crown I had loosely woven together.

"Here, this is for you." I said and she smiled brightly, putting it on top of her beach hat.

"Thank you!" She said, shooting Izuku a glare before dragging her brother away.

"Are you guys ready to head back?" Deku asked and we all agreed.

"I'm just gonna walk, I can't handle that thing again." I told him and Jirou jokingly bumped my shoulder.

I took my time walking back, by the time I returned, the sun had almost set and I saw a group of people walking towards our headquarters.

"Sonus, right?" One of them asked and I recognized him as the mayor.

"Hello sir, nice to see you outside of the office. Would you like to come in?" I asked and some of the little old ladies went to pinch my cheeks. "Right this way." I opened the door and walked in first, everyone else gathering in the entryway. "We have company." I mumbled under my breath so all my classmates could hear me.

Everyone came in and said thanks to who helped them today, each person carrying food that soon covered several tables and made a buffet of sorts.

"Just a little something to show you how thankful we are that you're helping us. One of the old ladies said.

Momo and Iida went outside to say our thanks and I ran to the guys side of the place to change and wash up as quickly as I could. I tossed on a long sleeve shirt and some sweats, my curly hair all over the place, but I didn't care cause there was food and I was starving.

And that food, it was absolutely delicious.

"Kacchan of the Bakugou's! We're gonna go hit the sack." My boyfriend said and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Night watch is all yours." Kirishima said and I watched Bakugou break a bit.

"What!? Why me?" He yelled and I laughed a bit. "Earbleed, you take night watch!"

"Because you sat around the office all day." Sero said and I nodded.

"And I wouldn't be good for solo night watch, I'll be in the auditory dark. Not smart." I told him. "Have any of you seen my brother?" I asked and Kirishima pointed towards our sleeping area. I gave him a thumbs up and walked over there.

We gotta go say goodnight to Dad and Pops soon.

He sat himself up and followed me outside a little while later. I called our Dad on a video call and waited for him to pick up, him and Pops sat in frame.

"How's it going on the island?" Pops asked.

"Pretty good, all minor things that were more just helping the elderly." Hitoshi said and I nodded, agreeing with him.

"That's good. Well, we'll let you two get some sleep. Goodnight, we love you both, be safe." Pops said, all of us saying our 'I love you's until Hitoshi looked over somewhere.

Izuku and Bakugou are talking.

We shouldn't eavesdrop.

Too late.

I sighed but followed him, my eyebrows furrowing as Bakugou spoke about something called One for All and Izuku making the quirk his own.

We got caught.

I looked at Hitoshi with a dreadful stare but followed him out from behind the bushes. Izuku looked terrified and Bakugou looked annoyed.

"We'll talk about it more when we get home." I said and Izuku gulped nervously.

"I'm going to bed." Hitoshi mumbled and I nodded, knowing he needed space to process whatever he heard and minorly filled me in on. Izuku turned and I followed his line of sight to Katsuma.

"Hey kiddo, what's wrong? Are you okay?" I asked gently, crouching down to the boys level.

"There's a villain!" He blurted out and Bakugou was ready to go, immediately scooped the poor kid up and rushed towards where he was guiding us.

Izuku and I ran with him and I was struggling to keep pace, but I made sure to stay as close as I physically could. Bakugou blasted the two of them away and I jumped onto Izuku's back, knowing without my gear I wouldn't be able to physically keep up. Izuku and I got there to see the giant praying mantis slam down on Bakugou. Only for him to walk out.

"What the heck?" I said aloud, watching my language with Katsuma there. Bakugou sent a large explosion and I saw Mahoro fly backwards and the monster disappeared. I sighed and ran over to the girl that Bakugou was currently scolding. "Bakugou, walk away." I said in a low tone. He went to argue but I put a hand on his shoulder. "Walk. Away." He scoffed but shook his shoulder away and stomped back towards where we came. "Mahoro." I said in a tone my Dad reserved for when Hitoshi and I misbehaved.

"Hi Mr. Sonus." She said meekly.

"Can you look at me? My ears don't work that good and I need to see what you're saying." I said softly and she looked up.

"You can't hear?" She asked and I shook my head.

"Only a little. So I'll give you a choice right now, you can talk to me, or the guy that was just over here." She scooted back at that and I nodded. "He can be scary at times but what happened? We just talked about this earlier." She sat in silence and I let out a breath. "Mahoro, where are your parents? It's late, they must be worried."

"My dad's out of town for work." She said and I chose not to ask about their mom.

"And how do you think he'd feel if he knew what you were up to?" I asked and she frowned. "Look, if you keep doing this, then eventually nobody is going to believe you when you say there's a villain."

"Heroes always come, even if they're a couple of high schoolers." She quipped and I looked at her curiously.

"Y'know, you remind me a lot of my nephew. The kid hates heroes." I said and she looked at me in confusion.

"And he should." She said and I backpedaled.

Bakugou came back and started yelling again, so I physically held him back, restraining him from making the kids cry and watched as they ran off into the tree line.

"Dammit." I mumbled and flopped onto my back.

——————

I scrolled through my phone the next day, my stomach churning as I saw the reports of the villain attack.

"Shoji wants to know if anyone's available to back him up at the beach." Yao-momo said and I considered going.

"No problem, I can do that." Ojiro said.

"I'll hang back in case something else comes up then. I can't outmatch any of you guys in the water." I said and Ojiro gave me a quick fist bump.

Nothing came up for a while. I sat there waiting, making small talk with some of my classmates, until one of the phones started ringing.

Bakugou answered and he wasn't happy that it was Mahoro. Thankfully, Izuku came in and snatched the phone.

"What did she tell you?" Izuku asked in a dark tone.

"The brat said there were villains at the harbor, I'm not falling for that again."

"I'll go with Izuku just in case. Let's go." I said and Midoriya and I ran off. I used my support gear to fly myself forward to keep pace with my friend, a dreadful feeling settled deep in my stomach as I started to smell smoke. "This isn't good." I said, grabbing my phone to call into our home office but I saw the dreaded no signal symbol. "Zuku, we're in the dark. No signal."

"What?" He yelled, grabbing his phone as we ran side by side. "I don't have any either."

"Do you think they took out the cell towers?" I asked and he didn't answer. We got to the play structure from yesterday and saw the destruction in the harbor. All of the ships destroyed.

"I'll find Mahoro and Katsuma, you should try and see if anyone else on the island needs help." Izuku said and I nodded. Once we made sure the kids weren't there, I grabbed my necklace and placed a kiss to it with a heavy breath and took off towards the shopping center.

I swung in on my cords and broke apart two of the red monsters, my brother, Aoyama and Hagakure all there.

"Someone wanna fill me in?" I asked loudly, seeing a man in the dust controlling the monsters.

"Twinkles is at his limit and I can't use my quirk on him." My brother said while he took down another controlled monster with his capture weapon.

"Any news on his quirk?" I asked while I used my pinpoint accuracy to break the red cloth controlling one of the things.

"Anything he grabs with the cloth he controls." He told me and I nodded.

"I might be able to knock a few out." I said while focusing my quirk on the red cloth from his body that was floating between him and the objects. All three of them collapsed. "We're flying blind today! Cell towers are down!" I told them, tumbling back as an explosion cut through.

"The four of you can't even handle one villain? You guys are pathetic." Bakugou taunted and I let out a breath. I watched as Kirishima and Denki tag teamed, knocking out a few more. Mina, Jirou and Momo all came as well, helping Aoyama to the triage area.

"Hagakure, go with 'em! Help with triage!" I yelled back and she gave me a thumbs up.

Kirishima punched through more, I broke more cloth, Hitoshi destroyed some with his capture weapon and Bakugou exploded multiple.

"Red! Watch out!" I called out, snapping the red cloth that barely wrapped around his arm before Bakugou got wrapped up in them.

"Objects wrapped in my bandages move according to my will." The villain said and I looked at my brother.

"Dammit." I gritted out.

"I can't control living things, but your body is covered by much that is inanimate." I looked at my brother and he nodded.

"Pretty weak restraints." He said loudly and the villain looked at him.

"Your scarf looks pitiful." I watched as he stopped moving. Hitoshi wrapped him in his binding cloth and Kirishima freed all of the red cloth. Bakugou dropped and I helped Kiri unwrap him.

"This guy's dead." He barked out but I held up my hands, pointing to the villain.

"That's a neat quirk." The villain said after a minute, his red bindings wrapping around Toshi's binding cloth. He quickly tossed it off as the villain engulfed the material. "You stopped your friend from becoming your enemy." I looked at my brother and his eyes were wide in fear.

Rooftops. Go.

He nodded and made it look like he was running towards the triage area.

"Such little morals." He said, shooting out more of his bindings.

I ran forward this time, dodging every bit of cloth he threw at me, tearing apart the ones that I could. I saw Kirishima and Denki covering me, Bakugou blew up one of his gauntlets when another cloth grabbed him. I managed to get in a swift kick to his side, a cloth wrapped around my ankle and dragged me into the air upside down, my glasses falling off my face.

'You practiced for this. You trained with Yoru for this. Make it count.'

"Pinpoint accuracy!" I yelled, zoning in on the spot I wanted to break, dropping me to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me and I watched as Bakugou blasted the villain through a small wall, knocking him out. Everything he was controlling fell immediately after. I sat myself up and ignored the radiating pain in my ankle. "Shit." I mumbled once I got air back in my lungs.

"You okay?" My brother asked, sliding in next to me.

"Fucker screwed up my ankle." I said under my breath while I brought myself to my feet.

"Go to triage with Yaoyarozu." He said but I shook my head.

"Midoriya's still out there. We have to keep him from doing anything too stupid." I said and he sighed, knowing I was unfortunately right. Bakugou went flying off and I managed to ignore the pain. "Am I seeing things? Or is that a giant Izuku?" I asked and everyone around me nodded. "We gotta go there. You two, go with Momo to triage and help with any other villains, Toshi, you're with me." I said and sent out my wires, Hitoshi by my side with his binding cloth. I saw the lightning bolts come down, a guy in a mask, eerily similar to All for One curled over, a girl with red hair beside him.

"I need... the boy." He said.

"Understood." She said.

"Get them out of here!" I yelled to my brother and he nodded, picking both of them up and using his scarf to get away quicker. Crows made a wall in front me and I looked at my classmates who arrived in time, Shoji now had the kids, Uraraka and Tsu grabbed Bakugou and Midoriya. "I'll stay on the rear guard. Let's move." I said and took off running over the hills. "Who the hell is that?" I asked, watching in my glasses as the villains didn't move.

We made it to something similar of a fall out shelter, all of us trying our best to recoup. I sat down and took off my boot, my ankle was disgustingly swollen and throbbing. I grabbed one of the first aid kits and wrapped it up, a somber mood filling the building.

"Onryo. Bakugou and Izuku are still out." My brother told me and I nodded. "We need to figure out a plan."

"I know." I whispered, my brain going a thousand kilometers a second.

"Your ankle looks like shit."

"It's either a sprain or a hairline fracture. I'll live." I said and he nodded. We walked down the hallways and I checked in on the two that were unconscious. "Okay. I'm gonna try and play damage control for the rest of the class. We need to have a meeting later." I said and gave him a pat on the shoulder, hobbling through the hallways. I walked to the breaker room and saw Momo making an abundance of supplies, Jirou holding supplies while she was clearly worried and Denki trying to charge all of the back up batteries. "Denki. Take a break." I said softly and his hands dropped.

"If I don't do this now, I won't get to."

"You need to recharge yourself before charging anything else." I told him softly and he slumped over. "Momo, don't burn through all of your lipids. Take a break, have a snack and pick back up. What can I do in the mean time?"

"But we don't know when the villains will be back." She said and I crouched in front of her, resting a hand on her own.

"And if they come back when you're outta juice, then it'll be worse." I said softly and she stopped, slowly nodding. "So what can I do to help?"

"Could you help us bring back these supplies?" She asked and I nodded, grabbing as many as I could. I walked out to the main area of the deserted factory turned emergency shelter and set down some of the supplies. Ojiro and Kirishima were handing out food in a mini soup kitchen, multiple beds were set up throughout the area and I made my rounds, hoping to calm people's nerves.

"What if the villains attack here next?" The mayor asked Iida as I walked over to them.

"There's no need to be concerned. If that happens, I promise, we will do our best to protect you." Iida said but the mayor still looked hesitant.

"Sir, we've seen what they can do now and they're down a guy. We have more of an upper hand and will be able to handle any situation that arises better." I said and he nodded.

"Thank you all for helping as much as you have." He said and I nodded.

"Of course sir." He gave me a sad smile and walked away. "Iida, we're going to have to have a class meeting later to try and come up with a plan."

"Agreed. I'll let everyone I see know, would you mind informing everyone else as well?"

"Yeah. I got it." I said and circled back to the medical room. "Mahoro, Katsuma." I said softly, the siblings turning towards me. "How are you two holding up?"

"We're okay." Katsuma said shakily and I nodded. "I want to go help Mr. Deku." He said.

"Well then, let's get to him. No time like the present."

"Mr. Sonus? Can I still get a piggy back ride?" He asked and I smiled a little.

"I don't see why not." I said and crouched down. He placed his hands on my shoulders and jumped up, one of my hands supporting him around one of his knees. Mahoro slowly grabbed my free hand and I acted as though I didn't notice. They were kids. They needed comfort, they shouldn't have to see anything they did. I walked us to the medical room and knocked softly, Mahoro opening the door for us when I didn't react. "Katsuma said he wanted to make Deku feel better." I said and set the kid down.

"He might be able to help. His quirk is cell activation. We're not really sure if it can be used to heal injuries though." Mahoro said and I looked at them in disbelief, not expecting him to want to use his quirk.

"They were hurt because of us! I can't just let them suffer like this!" Katsuma said and it broke my heart hearing those words.

"Katsuma. Look at me." I said softly, the boy turning towards me. "None of this is your fault. It's always going to be easier to blame yourself than someone else, but none of this was your fault. And none of this was Mahoro's fault. So if the doctors say so, then you can try and help Deku as much as you can. But I pinky promise, none of this is your fault." I said and he nodded, walking over to the doctors.

"I'd appreciate your help, little Katsu." The doctor said and I watched the boy run over to them.

His hands glowed a bright green as he touched their arms. We all sat and watched, eventually everyone else left but I decided to stay with the two for a bit. I saw the kid start to sweat and his hands start to shake, his sister saying something about him being tired.

"Katsuma. Your sister is right." I said gently, resting a hand on his back. "I'll make you a deal. You got ten more minutes to work your magic, if they aren't fully healed, then you take a break and start again, deal?" He nodded once and I left the room, heading to one of the storage rooms where we were going to have a meeting. "Sorry I'm late. I had to talk to Katsuma." I said, immediately walking to Denki so he could lean on me for support while I combed my fingers through his hair.

"Here's the current situation. Communications are down and the electrical grid is destroyed. We can't call for help." Iida said, I watched as Jirou went to support Momo while she sat up.

"I made a drone earlier. It'll send an SOS message once it's close to the mainland. The flight is at least six hours, plus after someone comes across it, the heroes will need time to assemble and travel to us." Momo said and I let out a breath of relief.

"Smart thinking." I said. "The only way anyone might get here sooner is if our parents hit the point of worry and insanity once they realize Hitoshi and I didn't check in for the day and none of their messages are going through. Either way, we're looking at probably eight to ten hours minimum. Between the drone reaching land and someone contacting a hero, it would take time to fuel something and to fly here, and that's if Nedzu gets word and can pull any strings." I added and my brother nodded.

"I doubt the villains are going to sit around and wait." Ojiro said.

"Right now, our top priority is to protect the people of the island. If that means fighting villains, so be it." Iida said and we all agreed. Everyone went on about the strength of the villains and I relied on my brother to keep me in the loop.

"And our numbers are dropping. Yao-momo and Kaminari both used up a lot of their quirks already." Jirou added in.

"I have a theory on why the villains are here. I heard the guy with the mask say he needed Katsuma but I think I figured out why." I said, everyone turning to me. "Katsuma's quirk is cell activation. That guy was wearing a mask just like All for One's, so we can assume it's a life support mask. I think he's after Katsuma so he can have a stockpile of cell regeneration to keep him alive."

"That's despicable." Iida said and I nodded.

"He's right." Katsuma said as he ran into the room. "That bad guy said he wanted to steal my quirk." I felt a pang in my chest and my blood run cold. Toshi and I made eye contact and I took a shaky breath. I couldn't keep up with everyone pitching in, Todoroki was worried about threats and everyone had their own concern. "You have to hand me over to the villains!" Katsuma said and we all froze. "He said he wouldn't kill me. And it's fine if I end up losing my quirk! As long as it means everyone on the island is safe."

"No, we can't do that." Izuku said as he walked in. He kneeled in front of Katsuma and started talking to him but my mind was going too fast for anything to process with lip reading. Bakugou showed up and we all took a breath. Midoriya gave us a pep talk and we all joined in.

"We got this." I said softly, my mind still cloudy.

"Spit it out, earbleed." Bakugou said while signing.

"You all know what to do if you think I'm not me?" I asked and only a few nodded. "Look, the guy has All for One's quirk. Yet we've never crossed his path until now, never even heard of him. This has the League written all over it. We're worried about more villains showing up. So if they show up, and for any reason one of you thinks Toga took my place, I need to know for my own sanity everyone has something foolproof to ask and what to do if you don't."

"We will." Iida said and I nodded. "And we're going to go beyond! Plus Ultra!" We all cheered at the same time.

"Izuku! I got an idea!"

"I think I have the same idea. Castle ruins." He said and I nodded.

He pulled down a map and we got to planning, using the castle ruins as our main base so the villains have one route in and out. The cave will be the safe place for everyone and have someone guarding Katsuma.

We spent the rest of the night relocating everyone to the new stronghold. All of us ready at daybreak, everyone in their positions. I was sent on the team with Ashido and Tokoyami to handle the girl with the red hair.  We waited patiently for the fight to start.

"Tokoyami? Would it be weird if I talked to Dark Shadow?" He looked at me curiously but his quirk pointed to itself before coming towards me.

"This is a first." Dark Shadow said and I nodded.

"I gotta go over something with you." I said and the shadow nodded. "I know the darkness is your territory and you thrive in it, and I know you're protective of people. Especially your friends."

"I am." The shadow said and I nodded.

"I need you to promise me that if I get hurt, you won't lose control in rage. I'm prone to it."

"I'll do my best." The shadow said and I awkwardly stuck my hand out for a fist bump, surprised that I actually received one.

We felt the ground rumbling above us and waited, all ready when she finally fell into the trap. Mina melted some of the stalactites at the ceiling, the villain narrowly dodging them as they shot down towards her.

"Shattering waves!" I yelled as loud as I could, watching the rest of them fall. She used her acrobatic skills to get through them, sending out a wave of pins from her body, a decent amount of them slicing me.

"Naughty boy. Did nobody ever teach you how dangerous that was?" She asked as we circled around each other, her hair hardening into points, looking like mechanical spider legs and she had gloves with needles on the end of them, or maybe those were just her fingers.

"Guess I missed the lesson in personal safety." I said with my quirk on full blast, watching her face contort in pain.

"You have a fun quirk, Nine might have fun with you. Maybe he'll add it to his collection." She said, going to swipe at me with her needles for nails. I rolled forward and swept her legs out. "Or maybe I'll just have fun with you."

"If you can find me." I said before dark shadow grabbed me and pulled me back, Tokoyami stepping forward.

"Darkness is my domain." He said while dark shadow covered his body.

"You cheeky boy."

I snuck around the sides and used my wires to get out of the cave, rushing to the front line to fight Nine. Bakugou and Midoriya were going against him now, and I couldn't see anyone from the original defense.

"Let's surround him!" I said and Bakugou and Midoriya immediately jumped on that plan. "A few shields can't stop sound!" I yelled to Nine, his shields immediately going up. "Both of you back up! I'm about to level the playing field!" Bakugou went high, Midoriya taking a few steps back so he could get a running start as soon as I did my part. "Shattering waves!" I yelled as loud as I could in one breath, watching as a large amount of the earth deformed and crumbled. "Now!" We went back and forth, attacking in sync to try and get him to spend his quirk. "Again!"

Bakugou and Midoriya dove in, but Nine already had shields up as well as haphazardly shooting out those purple beams, and more than one of them struck me. I fell to my knees and yelled in pain, utilizing the yell against Nine. I had to make everything count. A piece of tape grabbed me and pulled me away from the immediate line of fire.

"Tsuka, where'd you get hit?" Sero asked me, his mask half broken. I moved my hand to show him my side, blood seeping out, along with other parts of my body. "I'm worse for wear, get to the back lines where the kids are." I got up and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

"I'm not leaving you here. Hold on tight." I said, shooting out a wire. We raced through the air and Shoji caught us.

"I got you two." He said, setting us down.

"Shoji. They're getting pushed back. You have to... you have to move them. Before it's too late." I told him and he looked at me panicked. "I'll be okay. I'll support them from here. Get them out of here. Follow the escape route." I told him.

"Tsukare." He said softly. I looked to the sky, watching as it turned into a cloudy vortex. The same one from the lightning he used.

"Lightning. He's gonna.. he's gonna use lightning. Get down." I said as loudly as I could. Shoji extended his arms over us and I felt my body starting to go cold.

"Tsukare." Ojiro said, patting my arm. "He's bleeding out." I looked down to see I was sitting in a pool of my own blood and it made sense as to why my reactions were slowing down.

"Torniquete." I said, barely audible. A gash across my thigh, one on my side, another on my arm, along with all the places the girl sliced me. "Grab a stick." Jirou moved and grabbed one off the ground. "Ojiro, tear off part of my pants." He nodded and did so. I talked them through getting the torniquete on my leg before grabbing a piece of medical wrap and tying it to my side. "Major bleeders are under control. Now get the kids out of here." I said again while Nine started walking towards us. Shoji ran and I got up on shaky legs. "Hanta. Act like you're unconscious. He won't touch you if he doesn't think you're an active threat." I told him and managed to speed hobble towards Jirou and Ojiro. "Now where do you think you're going?" I asked the villain and he scowled, sending another purple beam at me. I keeled over and bit my tongue, blood pooling in my mouth.

I watched as Jirou and Ojiro were knocked out by the blue dragons. I used my quirk again before the dragon came towards me, smashing me into the ground. I felt multiple bones in my body snap before I stopped trying to move. I could feel a few of my ribs break. I wouldn't be any help if I punctured a lung. I barely remember anything else, the world eventually went black. It faded in and out. I saw a mirage of colors, shadows, and a glimpse of sunlight. I remember the ground under me broke. I remember struggling to breathe. But when I started regaining some consciousness, I saw those red wings from all those years ago.

"Hawks?" I croaked out. "Are we... gonna go flying?"

"One day kid, when your bones aren't broken. We gotta get you and your friends to the hospital."

"Is everyone okay? Katsuma's safe?"

"Onryo?" I saw my Dad and I looked over. "Hawks. Is he okay?"

"I'm breathing." I said through the struggle of it. "I'm tired. Do I.. still have my leg? Am I me?"

"I think you're you. Let's get you patched up." Dad said and I let my eyes fall shut.

I woke up in the office we'd been using, my body bandaged beyond belief. My breathing was still labored and everything hurt.

"Dad? Pops? Where's Toshi?" I asked once I fully came to.

"He's resting. You have a visitor though." I looked at Pops confused, slowly I sat up and he propped a pillow behind me. Dad handed me my now charged hearing aids before going to the door, Hawks walking in.

"Hawks?"

"The one and only. Your parents asked me to stay until you woke up, said you've been itchin' to talk to me."

"Yeah. I've been wanting.. to thank you."

"To thank me?"

"Yeah. For flying me.. off the roof that night." His face softened a bit.

"You don't have to thank me for that."

"I do. You saved my life.. even though I didn't know I needed someone to."

"I'd do it again. You're a good kid."

"And thank you for.. being friends with Yoru. He can be a bit of a doofus."

"Vine Mind?" He asked and I nodded. "Ah, so you're the kid he was tellin' me about. Said you put it together we were buds but didn't tell me how. Care to fill me in?"

"Known him since I was born. He's picked up a lot.. of your mannerisms. Gave it away."

"He said you were a smart kid, now I see what he means. Gotta say, I'm still kinda bummed that you didn't take my offer from the sports festival." He said and I laughed a little, grabbing my chest from the pain.

"You're smart. You should know why. Our quirks would clash.. in a way where I wouldn't.. learn a lot. You're too fast." I told him and he chuckled a little.

"You got me there. Hey kid, what'd you mean earlier when you asked your old man if you were really you?" He asked and I licked my lips, aimlessly feeling for the inevitable glass of water until I found it, the cool refreshment soothing my throat.

"Toga. She has a lot of my blood. And Nine. The main villain. He had All for One's quirk. Figured there was a connection. I don't take chances." He hummed at that, a calculating look in his eye. "Yoru took your thinking face."

"You're a smart kid. Expect the unexpected and nothing's a surprise."

"Exactly." I said, however a new puzzle was in my brain and he saw it fairly quick.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"Might freak you out. People don't like when I can read them." I said and his brow furrowed.

"That's the most unsettling thing I've heard a kid say, but now I'm curious. Lay it on me."

"Just remember, you asked." He splayed his palms and I took a shaky breath. "I've seen you in press conferences and stuff, you're known for wanting pros to.. be able to relax and have nothing to do. But you don't seem like the type to be able to sit still. You get bored easily. You keep on the move. It's a major contradiction and it hurts my brain." His eyes darkened as he looked at the ground.

"You're pretty observant. What makes you think that?"

"Your response alone. But it's just the vibe you give off. You're seen everywhere. You're the fastest for a reason. You have the freedom to fly. Doubt you know what a day off is. But your response? If there wasn't any truth behind it, you never would've called me observant." He crossed his arms and leaned back while smirking.

"You're clever. I hope you reconsider my offer when you have another work study. Rest up, kid. Still gotta take you flying one day." He said and I nodded, giving him a mock salute as he left.

My family came back in soon after, Hitoshi with our parents who looked pretty rough and Chiyo right behind them.

"You need to learn when to slow down."

"Please be quick." He said before walking inside.

"How much sleep did you get last night?" He asked softly and I shrugged. "Hey, don't give me the cold shoulder, little listener. I'm worried, so is your Dad and I'm sure Hitoshi is too."

"I got an hour or two of sleep." I softly admitted and he nodded.

"And for the last week?" He pushed gently.

"About the same."

"Okay. It's better than nothing right now. I hope you know that you owe your Dad an apology?"

"I know. I feel guilty, I shouldn't have talked to him that way." I said and he nodded.

"Okay, we'll talk later, alright? I think we need to have a family talk and clear the air, set whatever straight." I nodded and he ruffled my hair. "I love you, have fun in class."

"I love you too." I said and gingerly walked back into class and took my seat. A few sets of eyes were on me and I tried to ignore them.

All of math class, I was checked out. If anything, I scribbled a few notes at best. Until my head started to dip every few minutes and I was struggling to stay awake towards the end of class. Soon enough, it was time for lunch but I was exhausted.

"I think I'm gonna go to the sensory room for lunch today." I told Denki as I stood up and he nodded along to what I was saying.

"Okay, I'll swing in there a few minutes before lunch ends so you aren't late to class." He told me cheerfully and I smiled a little.

"Thank you." I said sincerely and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

I trudged over to the sensory room and dimmed the lights before plopping onto a giant bean bag. I set a few alarms to be on the safe side and it didn't take long for me to take a nap, or for the nightmares to start.

My psyche was tormented with Shiroka.

The league.

Middle school.

Anything my brain could piece together in my subconscious to wake me up with a jolt and dysfunctional lungs.

Instinctively, I searched around for my bag but realized I didn't have it. I forced myself up and managed to get to Recovery Girls office. She quickly got up from her seat and rushed to get me my inhaler she had.

"There you go dear. Take it easy now. Deep breaths. Here's a glass of water once you're ready." She said softly while I heaved in a few breaths.

"Thanks. I left my bag in class, my inhalers in there." I explained through a breaths.

"If you weren't in class, then where were you?"

"Sensory room." I breathed out and took a sip of the water.

"I see. I also see that you haven't been in to take your medication in the morning." She said and I stared at the floor. "I'm not blind, I can see clear as day where you're at mentally. I can't force you to take medication, but I hope you realize you not taking them is adding onto how you're feeling right now."

"I'm fine, Chiyo." I mumbled and she scoffed.

"You skipped therapy last week, if you were fine you wouldn't skip it, now would you?" She badgered and she had a point.

I just didn't want her prying.

"Well, I'm fine. I gotta head to class, it's starting soon." I rushed out and walked out of her office before she could interrogate me.

Denki was walking down the hallway as I stepped out and immediately started waving to me.

"Everything okay? I thought you were gonna be in the sensory room." He asked once I was in ear shot.

"Asthma started acting up a little, nothing major." I told him and he seemed to relax hearing that.

"We better get to class before Iida has our heads on the wall." I chuckled softly under my breath and walked beside him mindlessly, basking in the momentary peace and comfort he brought my mind. He rambled about a new game that was coming out and truthfully, I didn't know what he was talking about, but his happiness made my smile a little bit bigger, along with the way he spoke about it and the way his voice relaxed me. "Sorry, I just talked the whole way here, huh?" He asked abashedly, reaching up with his spare hand and rubbing the back of his neck.

"You know I like hearing you talk." I admitted once again, ignoring the blush on my face as I said it.

"I wanna hear you talk though! I think you just need to remember to tell me when to shut up if I start rambling too much." He said and I rolled my eyes sarcastically.

"Tsukare! I see those dark circles! Don't think you can fool me! I know you have not been sleeping the proper eight hours every night yet again!" Iida yelled as we walked in and I sighed.

"Thank you for announcing my insomnia for anyone who didn't know." I said with a mock salute and he seemed to not know what to say.

"Maybe you could try some melatonin or natural supplements to improve your chance of sleep, it could be beneficial for your overall health." He said and I gave him a thumbs up.

The painful irony to me was my overall health was shit. I'm sure that some lavender, chamomile or something else would benefit my overall health and my demented shopping list of health problems.

The rest of the day went by like I was watching a movie, simply watching it through someone else's perspective. As soon as the final bell rang I was out of my seat and ready to leave, but as soon as I stepped out of the classroom door, Hitoshi grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side.

What's going on?

Nothing.

Come on, don't give me that bullshit. You almost fell asleep in class. You skipped lunch today. You and Dad have been acting weird around each other. Pops pulled you out of class to talk to you. You haven't been sleeping, you haven't been taking your meds, you snapped on Auntie Nem, you've been off since the festival ended. What the hell is going on?

Dad tried to talk to me and I snapped, I shouldn't have. He was just trying to help. I said something and I could tell it hurt him and I've just felt guilty about it this whole time. I was going to let you know on the way to the dorms that Pops is calling a family meeting.

Okay. He signed with a sigh. Okay. Then let's go get changed and head over to Dad and Pops'.

I gave him a small thumbs up and fell in step with him to the dorms. I ignored Takai staring me down in the hallways and kept my head forward.

It didn't take long to get changed, tell Denki where I was going and get to our parents place. Dad wasn't back yet but Pops was already there, he was dancing around the kitchen while he made a cup of tea. Hitoshi just walked right in without saying anything, effectively startling our Pops to the point that he almost dropped his tea.

"You are the carbon copy of your Dad any day of the week scaring me like that!" Pops exclaimed, making Hitoshi laugh. My brother awkwardly danced around the kitchen with our Pops as he started making a pot of coffee and I stood off to the side. It was nice to see the first shot at anti-depressants seemed to be working for him, his dark circles even looked a shade lighter. "I need my carbon copy in here too!" Pops said as he played the music he was listening to a little bit louder. I hesitantly entered the kitchen and somewhat danced around with them, slowly enjoying the family bonding moment until I saw the light from the front door opening. Dad walked over to us curiously and watched for a second before Pops grabbed his hand and dragged him into the kitchen. I could see the love in Dads eyes as he swayed ever so slightly to appease Pops.

"Well this is something pleasant to come home to." He remarked and Pops gasped dramatically.

"I'm always pleasant to come home to!"

"Yes you are, Sunshine." Dad said before pulling Hitoshi into a side hug. He went to give one to me, but seemed hesitant and I felt the guilt churning around in the pit of my empty stomach. I stepped forward and gave him the tightest hug I could muster. He slowly hugged me back with the same force and I could feel my nerves calm down.

"I made coffee." Toshi said plainly and Dad and I grabbed our mugs before we all migrated to the living room. My brother and I sat on the floor with Spots while Dad and Pops were on the couch with Mittens

"Before anything else, are you two ready to go to Nabu Island with your classmates for the week?" Dad asked and Toshi nodded.

"I got my stuff packed and ready to go."

"Same here." I mumbled awkwardly. "Do we know when they're getting a new hero?"

"Not yet, but this should be a good experience for everyone. So take it as it comes." Dad reminded and I hummed, tapping my mug nervously.

"I'm sorry for what I said." I said weakly, truly regretting all of it.

"I forgive you." He said gently and I could feel some of the weight lift off my chest.

"Wait, what did you say?" Toshi asked and I took a sip of my coffee.

"I told him he couldn't help me." I weakly admitted and he looked at me like I had grown a third arm.

"It's Dad and Pops." He said pointedly and I nodded softly.

"So, care to tell us what's been going on?" Dad pressed and I shrugged, feeling myself shut down a bit to get away from the situation.

"I don't wanna talk about it." I feebly said.

"Stop going in that circle already." My brother sighed and I stared at the warped reflection of myself in my drink.

"I'm allowed to not want to talk about things." I murmured.

"Little listener, I know that you feel alone and like you have to do whatever it is on your own, but we're all here for you." Pops said softly and I nodded a little.

"I know and I appreciate that a lot. I just don't wanna talk about it."

"Does this have any relation to you not wanting to be called problem child anymore?" Dad asked and Hitoshi's head whipped towards me again.

"Excuse me? What is he talking about? Dad, what are you talking about?"

"I called him that, and he told me he doesn't want to be called that anymore." Dad said in a lax voice but I could hear the underlying grief and confusion.

"Bro talk. Now." He said firmly and I looked at our parents confused but followed him nonetheless to the music room. "Who?"

"What? Where? When? Why? How?"

"Don't. You know what I mean. Who?" He pressed.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Clarification might help."

"Who got in your head?" He asked and I forced myself not to recoil at the direct question.

"Nobody."

"Who got in your head?"

"Nobody got in my head." I reiterated but he wasn't having it.

"Bullshit. Tell me who got in your head." He demanded.

"Nobody got in my head. Is it so hard to believe that I just don't want to be called that anymore?"

"You and Izuku have always been 'problem child', we had to think about who to call one and two. There's nothing wrong with that."

"I don't want to be called that anymore." I said in a dull voice.

"What did we bond over when we first met?" He asked and I felt my heart clench behind my lungs.

"Our parents being our favorite heroes, they're the reason we want to be heroes, and our love of cats, it was what Pops used to convince you to come home because of Spots and Mittens." I told him and he stared at me.

"So then who got in your head? You're clearly you, that's the only logical reason I can think of for whatever the fucks been going on but I don't know what happened. Was it Bakugou? Takai?"

"I'm not doing this." I mumbled, not wanting to get aggravated again. I walked out of the music room and back into the living room, Hitoshi right behind me.

"That was quick." Pops commented and I tugged on my sleeves, barely slipping them over the palms of my hands.

"I think I'm just uh," my voice trailed for a moment as I felt the telltale buzz in my back pocket, "I think I'll just go back to the dorms." I mumbled and hesitantly stood up, ignoring the second buzz. Pops looked defeated for a moment, Toshi looked irked still and Dad looked concerned.

We said our 'I love you's' and I slowly made my way back to the dorm. Everything was just starting to feel suffocating and overwhelming. I understood that they wanted to help, but I had this under control. I was doing what I was supposed to for the most part. Don't engage, don't give a reaction because that's what these people want, delete, block, ignore, repeat. Even if I did want help, there's nothing they could really do anyways. It was simply out of their control.

"Hey babe!" Denki yelled from where he sat on the couch with Momo and Jirou.

"Hey." I said softly once I walked up behind him. I gave him a hug from behind the back of the couch and a kiss on the cheek. "Working on math homework?"

"Yeah, Yao-momo was trying to help me with it but I'm still kinda stuck."

"Let me go grab my homework, I should probably get it done." I told him and he nodded contently.

It didn't take long for me to grab my bag and my assignments and get back downstairs. I sat on the ground and leaned against Denki's leg a bit, not wanting to crowd the others on the couch while we did our homework. I got my english homework out of the way first, then my math and whatever else I could focus on after that. Which wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

My attention strayed further when I felt my phone buzz in my back pocket and I just ignored it, hoping if I did so, that meant it wasn't an issue. But that's all I could think of. I no longer knew what to expect when I checked my phone, and for so long, I had it down to a science. A lot of buzzes back to back meant a group chat. A single buzz meant Izuku or Denki sent me something off of social media to the account I used for nothing else. Two buzzes meant a text, usually my family, Izuku or Denki.

Now? Now any of them could mean anything and I hated it. Aside from the discomfort found in the predictability being broken, it was usually also filled with detest.

"Babe, your phone buzzed again." Denki said and I hummed, looking up at him.

"Oh, yeah, it's probably just 'Zuku sending me a post or two about heroes." I brushed off but the best friend in question just had to chime in.

"What about me?" He asked and I could feel some of the blood in my veins tun cold.

"He was just saying you probably sent him something about heroes." Denki explained lightly and Izuku simply looked confused.

"I'm doing homework right now, I haven't been on my phone actually." He awkwardly said while rubbing the back of his neck.

"You should probably check it then." Denki suggested and I nodded along.

"I'll just check it later. Don't wanna fall down the doom scroll rabbit hole while I'm trying to get this done." I used as an excuse and he quickly seemed to understand.

"I hate when that happens, it's like you're just frozen and the only thing you can move is your thumb!"

"Executive dysfunction strikes at the worst times." I said and he nodded rapidly.

"I'm so glad that my boyfriend understands ADHD shit." He said and I laughed slightly.

"Babe, on our second day of class you handed me a fidget cube. What else do you expect?"

"True, very true. Do you need one right now? I have a few in my pockets."

"I'm okay, but thank you." I said sweetly and he smiled brightly before returning to his work. I only returned to my thoughts though, completely spacing out as my mind delved down the rabbit hole of what may have been sent to me today.

More name calling?

A new insult?

Another slur?

Who knew what to expect at this point.

I rested my head on Denki's leg and without realizing, started scratching my forearm. The urge today was ever present and suffocating, verging on all consuming.

"I think maybe a change in scenery might help us with our homework, Onryo, do you wanna go up to my room?" Denki asked me and I slowly lifted my head.

"Uh, yeah, let me just get my things situated." I said slowly, confused on the abruptness of his suggestion. But I followed him up to his room nonetheless and he set his bag down. "I thought we were doing homework?"

"Figured we both could use a break." He said and I nodded slowly, eventually sitting down on his bed. He soon sat in front of me and I waited for him to speak since I could tell there was something on his mind. "Can I ask you something? Without like, upsetting you? Cause I know it's not an easy topic for you and stuff, so I don't wanna like, overstep or anything." He rushed out and I nodded. "Okay. So uh, I don't know much about what it's like to struggle with self harm or anything, but after the hot water and stuff I looked into it a bit so I might be able to understand without overwhelming you with questions cause I know it's not your favorite thing to talk about cause you never talk about it. I remember that I read something about it being addictive and some of the stuff I read was people talking about their struggles with it and stuff and I saw that you were scratching your arm earlier and I know the last week at least you've been in a slump and I guess what I'm trying to get at is, are you having any urges?" I felt my brain lag as I processed everything he just said.

'He cared enough to look into it?'

'He wants to understand?'

'Why is he being so patient? I don't deserve this.'

"Sorry, just uh, caught off guard I guess." I mumbled, quickly clearing my throat to buy time. "Sorry." I whispered, ducking my head to hide the onslaught of emotions.

"It's okay. Take your time." He whispered and I took a deep breath.

"There's almost always a little bit of an urge. Usually it's just a lot easier to ignore because it's barely even there, it's like an after thought for lack of better words. Being in a depressive episode makes the urge more known for me, harder to ignore and stuff."

"Did the itching have anything to do with it, or was I just reading into it way too much?" He asked softly and I hesitantly nodded, feeing guilty about the truth. "Can I try something to help?"

"Uh, sure, yeah." I mumbled and he got up and grabbed his pack of gel pens and a few markers.

"Roll up your sleeves." He said in a light hearted tone and I could feel myself start to clam up and retract. "What's wrong?"

"I just, uh, I've been really self conscious about my scars lately." I explained weakly and his head tilted to the side like a golden retriever.

"You know I won't judge, right?" He asked me softly and I knew he didn't mean any harm. I knew that. But my brain took it in a way where it was a trick question, like no matter what I said, the answer was wrong.

"I know." I mumbled and he looked concerned.

"I won't judge." He said in a reassuring tone. Nervously, I pulled the ends of my sleeves to my palms and folded my hands in my lap. "Hey, you can talk to me. I wanna be able to understand better."

"Rationally, I know you won't judge. You haven't been that way any other time and you've never made me feel bad about them. I just, I hate how they look. I hate how they feel. I hate seeing them. I hate everything about them. And I'm scared that if you look at them enough or I talk about them at all, then you'll realize that..."

"Nothing could ever make me hate you or your scars. I'll tell you that as many time as you need to hear it. Nothing could ever make that happen." He told me and despite all my hesitation and discontent towards the marred skin, I pushed up my sleeves some and found myself staring at my forearms. Criticizing their existence, appearance, what I had done to them. I did this to myself and I knew I'd have to live with it, but it didn't make it any easier.

I watched as he slowly started drawing on my arms, entranced by how his bangs hung in front of his eyes as he focused on every line he created. He didn't complain about the divots or raised lines making his personal task more difficult, nor did he look at me with disgust. On one arm, he drew planets and stars. A cluster of them were turned into a rocket ship, a few of the concaving ones became shooting stars and meteors, two raised ones became saturns rings. On the other arm, plants were drawn a top everything. Vines, leaves, petals and stems disguising what was beneath.

For once, I thought my arms looked pretty.

"I read about how some people would draw on themselves to kinda redirect it and I figured it might help." He said softly, the first thing he said since he had started almost an hour ago.

"I love it. You did a great job." I almost whispered, and he smiled brightly.

"Did it help at all?"

"Yeah, it did actually." I said and his smile only got wider.

The day after the festival, Denki and I walked around Shizuoka, got some ice cream and had a movie night in as a cute little date night. Then the crash started as a minor bump in the road, Takai messaged me again which lead to me finally blocking him. But on the second day, the other messages started coming in. From people I didn't know. People from my old schools. Kids from old foster families. Old bullies. The messages just kept coming over the course of the week.

'Scar face.'

'Fag.'

'Predator.'

'Liar.'

'Mutilated.'

'Disgusting.'

'Worthless.'

'Mistake.'

'Problem child.'

'Monster.'

The list only grew as the insults and messages multiplied. One managed to stand out amongst all of them once I read it.

Lose the victim complex. If you can't accept any help then don't go and cry about it. It's almost like you were asking to look like a cutting board if you act that way. All he wanted to do was help you, if you can't accept that then it's your fault. You getting adopted was a fucking mistake, I hope you know your parents are disappointed in you and made a mistake with adopting you.

I wiped the tears that spread across my face as I read it again. So many emotions ran through me and the first one I held onto was the anger.

I slipped on my shoes and walked out of my dorm, only saying a small 'I'll be back soon' before storming over to class C's dorm building. My fist rapped against the door brutally, and Tanigawa was the person to answer.

"Tsukare! Hey, is everything okay?" He asked gently and I took a breath, not wanting to misdirect my anger and frustrations on him.

"I'm fine. Is Takai here? I need to talk to him." I said quickly and he nodded. I waited as he went back inside and Takai came out soon after.

"Hey, Sweetheart." He said but all I could do was glare at him.

"Who the fuck did you tell." I gritted out and he backpedaled, clearly not prepared.

"What are you talking about?" He asked and I took a shaking breath. "Swee- Tsukare, I don't know what you're talking about. Is this about in the hallway? Cause if it is, I didn't tell anyone." He told me, his voice hushed and strained as he tried.

"Don't fuck with me." I spat out.

"I'm not fucking with you, if I was then I'd call you short stack or something." He told me and I pulled out my phone, showing him the text.

"Then what the fuck is this?" I asked harshly and as soon as there was a crack in his resolve, the split second I needed to read him and his realization, he knew as well as I did that he couldn't shirk away this.

"That's my best friend. I want to be able to help and it was eating away at me that I couldn't, so I reached out to him for advice. That's all. I told him not to bother you because he's one to confront people, I didn't think he would do this though." He told me and for a moment, I almost believed he was remorseful.

"Lemme guess, he has friends that went to Fujinomiya, or maybe Aldera." I asked him rhetorically, watching as he pieced it together. "I told you to forget you saw me that day. I told you to drop it. That's what you should've done. So leave me alone." I said firmly, my tone nearing venomous. I turned around and started to walk away before I did something I would regret while seeing red, but then he grabbed my arm. I whipped around and grabbed the collar of his shirt, the hand that he quickly let go of, was ready to punch him.

"What's going on over here, boys." I heard my Auntie Nem and I felt my muscles go lax. "Onryo, let's go. Now." She said in a stern voice and I let go of him, watching as he backed away before I walked over to her. She walked down the path with me for a moment, not saying anything. "I'm sure you've figured that we're going to your parents place by now. Care to fill me in on what just happened back there?" She asked softly and I stuck my hands in my pockets.

"Doesn't matter." I mumbled and she sighed.

"Onryo, we both know that's far from the truth. Despite these glasses, I'm not blind. I can tell you haven't been sleeping and your parents aren't ignorant to it either. So what's been going on, young man?" She pressed.

"Nothing. Okay? Absolutely nothing and I'd really love if we could drop this now." I said curtly and she huffed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk to you that way. I also shouldn't take anything I'm feeling out on you. You don't deserve that." I said softly.

"I accept your apology. Now, inside." She said and I begrudgingly walked into my parents place with her hot on my trail.

"Little listener? Nem? What brings you two around this way?" Pops asked as he popped out of the kitchen wearing an apron with music notes all over it.

"Is Shouta here? I feel as though this may be a family discussion." Auntie Nem told him and he looked at me confused.

"Sho! Can you come here please?" Pops yelled and Dad slowly came shuffling out of his office.

"Nemuri, Onryo, what's going on?" Dad asked and I just looked at the floor. "Onryo?" He pressed slightly.

"I don't wanna talk about it." I said as though it was the simplest thing. "There's nothing to talk about, okay?" I said softly, almost rhetorically but Auntie Nem knew better.

"It must have slipped my mind that you almost punching that boy in class C is nothing." She said and Dad and Pops turned to me, now more serious about the situation.

"Problem child, what happened?" Dad asked and I felt something in me withdraw, along with physically.

"I don't want to be called that anymore." I whispered and Dad looked like I just spat on his grave with how confused he was.

"Little listener." Pops said softly.

"I don't wanna talk about it. Okay? I didn't actually punch him so no harm, no foul. I'm gonna go, love you guys." I said and walked out of their place.

I took out my almost fully charged hearing aids and put them in their case before walking into the dorms. I went up to my room and grabbed my duffel bag, signing on my way up that my ears were out for anyone who might've been trying to talk to me.

On my way back down, Denki stepped in front of me and I took a slow breath as his hands cupped my face, gently tilting my head so I could read his lips.

"What's going on?" He asked gently and I looked off to the side, hoping to compose myself.

"Nothing, I'm just really worked up right now and need to go blow off some steam. I already snapped on my Auntie Nem and I don't want to snap on anyone else. I promise I'm not mad at you, I just need to go clear my head and if that means I need to go at a punching bag, then so be it." I told him gently and he nodded. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and all but rushed out of the dorms.

I walked into the school and to the work out area, completely done with this last week. I quickly changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a thin long sleeve and the first thing I did was run on the treadmill. I burned off as much energy as I could that way until I moved to the punching bag. I didn't bother wearing gloves or wrapping my hands like I know I should but I didn't have it in me to care.

I didn't care as my fingers bruised and the skin around my knuckles started to crack and bleed.

I cared about making this anger go away.

I cared about feeling something else.

I didn't care about the consequences if it meant I got to feel something, anything, other than this.

I couldn't handle this again.

The longer I got lost in my thoughts, the longer it took for me to notice my Dad standing there until he flicked the lights a few times. I let out a sigh, knowing exactly what this was about, and steadied the punching bag before grabbing my hearing aids. As soon as they were in my ears, he started talking.

"So, you almost punched Takai. Care to explain what exactly's been going on?" He asked and I shrugged, stalling this.

"Nothing." I said like it was the truth.

"And suddenly a nickname I've had for you and Midoriya for years makes you upset. Are you telling me there's no correlation?" He pressed and I shrugged again. "Onryo." He said sternly.

"What? I'm sorry, okay? I already apologized to Auntie Nem for snapping on her earlier, I don't know what else to tell you other than I turned to a healthy outlet for being aggravated. There's nothing going on that's worth talking about, alright? So can we please just drop this?" I asked him, completely exasperated.

"No." He said plainly and I rolled my eyes. "Suddenly my sunshine child has an attitude and is clamming up, so I'm not dropping it."

"Well I'm done talking about it." I told him and went to go shower, but he stepped forward and walked in front of me. "Dad, please, just drop it. Family rule."

"Family rule was thrown out the window when you failed to protect your hands and began to bleed. Stop trying to shut people out." He said and I didn't say anything. I simply stayed silent. "Onryo, I want to be able to help you with whatever may be going on, but I can't do anything if you don't tell me."

"You can't help." I told him weakly and he froze. "I'm gonna go shower." I mumbled and walked past him.

I grabbed my duffel bag and walked out of the gym, my knuckles quickly started to throb as I got closer and closer to the dorms. Once I got inside, I walked straight to my room and set my bag down, grabbed some clothes and went to go shower.

I made it quick, not wanting anyone to come in here looking for me, especially if I put the water too hot again. Denki was already waiting for me, though. I slightly ducked my head as I rushed to the cubby area to get dressed, feeling very self conscious about him seeing my scars.

Nobody could seem to let me forget that I was mutilated, disgusting, a monster, and I didn't want to give the one person outside of my family who saw past all of that any reason to think differently. I hesitantly tucked my hearing aids back into place and his eyes instantly fell to my bloodied knuckles.

"Babe, what happened?" He asked and I stared at the floor.

"Just forgot to wrap my hands. It was my fault." I mumbled and when I stole a glance at him, the look on his face made my guts twist and turn.

"That doesn't hurt?" He asked, audibly concerned.

"It kinda does." I said softly, trying to make it seem like less of a problem. "Okay, yeah, it hurts a bit, but it's not a big deal. I just gotta disinfect it and wrap it up."

'And ignore the urge crawling up my arms and into my throat.'

"Do you want any help? I'd offer to do it, but I've never really punched anything enough where I needed to know how." He said awkwardly and I nodded.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. Thank you." I said and grabbed the first aid kit. I went through cleaning and disinfecting everything first before asking him for help. "Could you hold the gauze and the end of the bandage in place?" I asked him, my voice barely a whisper but he heard me nonetheless and quickly did so.

Meticulously, I wrapped the bandage around my wrist to stabilize it and followed it all the way up. Once I was done, he placed a tender kiss to my bandaged hands and pulled me into a hug.

"I wanna be able to help you, but I don't wanna push you to open up if you don't wanna." He admitted and I pushed away the burning tears brimming my eyes.

"I'm sorry." I whispered into his shoulder, hoping to hide my warbling voice.

"Do you wanna talk about any of it?" He asked and I sniffled.

"I think I hurt my Dad, and I feel guilty. I said something I shouldn't have and he's probably really upset with me now." I weakly told him, and he waited to see if I would say more.

"I'm sure you two will get past it and talk it out when you're both ready. You two have a good relationship." He said trying to console me but I only held onto him tighter.

"I'm sorry." I told him and he hesitantly rubbed my back.

"What're you apologizing for?" He asked and I took a shaky breath.

"Because you deserve someone better, and I know that. And I just break things and I don't wanna hurt you." I told him and he leaned back to look at me, and the evident hurt on his face only made my heart seize even more.

"Are you saying you want to break up?" He asked and I shook my head.

"No, no, I don't want to break up. I l- I care about you, so much. I'm just scared that I'm gonna hurt you. I don't want to hurt you." I admitted, and his thumbs rubbed against my hips, the small gesture soothing me ever so slightly.

"I don't think you'd hurt me, especially on purpose. I don't care if you hurt me. You're worth that chance, I don't see it happening, but you're worth it. I promise." He said and my lip started to tremble.

What did he mean I was worth it?

"I-" The words died on my tongue and he simply pulled me into another hug.

"Babe, hey, breathe. We did the dress rehearsal yesterday, it's gonna go off smoothly. Okay?" Denki said, gingerly grabbing me by the waist to ensure he had my full attention.

"What if I mess up again? I know I got it close yesterday but what if I mess up the part?" I rambled, shaking my hands between us to try and settle my nerves.

"You're gonna do great." He told me sincerely but my brain just couldn't believe him.

"I'm gonna fuck up. So bad. What if I do actually faint and fall off the stage?" I asked him and he waited, ensuring I was done before talking.

"You know what to do if you feel like you're gonna pass out. It's gonna be okay, we're all gonna kick ass up there." He told me.

"Language, little listener!" I heard Pops say sarcastically and I turned around, completely frazzled. "I figured you might be getting cold feet, so I had your Dad save us a good spot before I have to go patrol. You okay?" He asked gently and I nodded without thinking. "'Ryo, you look as nervous as I did the first time I stepped on stage."

"Seriously?" I asked and he nodded. "What did you do? To make the nerves go away?"

"I took a few deep breaths and I reminded myself how much I loved music. I was shaking until I played that first note on my axe. Then it all kind of, melted away. It helped that your Dad was there, so was your Auntie Nem and Uncle Oboro. But your Dad is the one who really got me to calm down." He told me and I nodded slowly, trying to shake these nerves. "You and your brother and your friends are gonna do great. No matter what happens, just remember that we're all so proud of you guys."

"Thank you." I whispered and he pulled me into a hug.

"I love you, little listener. Go kick some ass."

"I love you too, Pops." I said and watched as he left from behind the curtains.

"Feel better?" Denki asked and I nodded.

"A little. I'd feel a lot better if I knew where Izuku fucking went. He should've been back a while ago." I mumbled and gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking around to try and calm my shakiness.

Stupidly, I decided to peak out of the curtain and I wanted to vomit on the spot.

There were so many people. It was a full house.

"There are way more people here than I thought there'd be!" Uraraka said as she came up beside me.

"Yeah." I whispered.

"At least everyone sounds like they're in a good mood!" Sato said, trying to lighten the mood.

"This is nauseating." I said and took a step back.

"Let's get in our places." Jirou said and I nervously followed suit, ignoring the blood pounding in my ear canal from how fast my heart was beating while I got in position.

Izuku ran on stage and narrowly made it in his place beside me just before the buzzer went off and the curtains were drawn.

The lights faded to black and I took a final breath.

"Now! Start, dammit!" Bakugou yelled before letting off an explosion as our cue. And as soon as I made the first dance move, it started to come naturally.

"Thanks for coming out today!" Jirou said into the mic before she started singing.

The smile that fell on my face felt natural, especially when I saw Eri and Mirio in the crowd watching. Midoriya and Aoyama launched into the air, and his lasers shot out like glittering fireworks, illuminating the shock on Eri's face.

I caught Aoyama so Midoriya could take his leave for stage crew and I knew what part was coming.

I turned my head slightly and shared a look with Denki. His golden eyes that were shining brightly under the stage lights, looked into mine for a split second. We signaled to each other with a head nod and his guitar was soon in the air.

Our switch, that we practiced so many times, went off flawlessly. I ran over and caught it just in time to play my small riff while Jirou slightly belted her note before the second chorus. And with a single moment of hesitation, I slid over to the mic and sang the chorus with her like she asked time and time again. Both of our eyes lit up as I got the chord that I had been fighting for the last month right, and for that single moment.

All of us on stage, dancing, singing and playing our hearts out, and Eri smiling genuinely for the first time in the crowd, I wasn't scared.

It felt magical.

It felt right.

——————

As soon as we were off the stage, I had tears rolling down my face from how happy I felt in the moment. Hitoshi came running over to me and tackled me in a hug.

"You did it!" He yelled and I nodded, still crying with a giant smile on my face.

"That was amazing!" I told him and he pointed over my shoulder.

"Those are my brothers!" Eri yelled from where she stood with Mirio. Hitoshi and I crouched down and waved her over. She came running as fast as she could and pulled both of us into a hug with her tiny arms. "That was so cool!" She told us and I wiped the tears off of my face.

"I'm glad you liked it!" I said and gave her another hug.

"That was crazy!" She exclaimed.

"At first when there was a loud noise it was scary, but then everyone was jumping with the dance and then there was a flash and Deku, you went away for a little bit and Onryo was there the whole time but I didn't see Hitoshi. And a guy started flying in the air. That's when it started to get cold and I saw birds and there was a spinning light and a bunch of people said 'Wow!' and you know what I said? 'Wow!' too. It was so fun!" Eri repeated everything she was saying to Hitoshi and I earlier, but this time to Izuku once he got back towards the end of clean up. And this time, Mirio, Hitoshi, Denki and I were half-assed acting it out behind her.

"I'm glad you had such a good time, Eri." Izuku told her, effectively making her smile, and before she stopped, I hurriedly got a picture for Pops.

"We have to finish cleaning up, but do you wanna wait here with Mirio and then we can go have some fun around the festival?" I asked Eri and she nodded excitedly.

I helped break up the last few chunks of ice, letting Izuku carry them, only to be curious when I walked up to the front for people to be standing out there telling us we pulled it all off.

"Mirio!" I yelled, catching his attention. "The beauty pageant! We gotta be there for Hado! We gotta go!" I told him and he gasped.

"You're so right! We gotta be there for our girl! Let's go!" He agreed as our class was pretty much done with clean up at the same time and we all rushed to get decent seats.

Kendo added martial arts to her performance. Then the winner from last year came out on a golden robot.. of herself.

"What kind of dance is she doing?" Eri asked from where I was holding her in my arms so she could have a decent view.

"Maybe I'm not the person to ask about these things 'cause I'm totally lost." Mirio said and I nodded.

"I don't know if she's dancing, Eri. I think she's mostly just spinning." I told her and she hummed. Nejire was announced and we watched as she floated down. "We gotta cheer for her, so yell as loud as you can, okay?" She nodded firmly and yelled as loud as she could along with me, Mirio, Amajiki, Hitoshi and Izuku.

Nejire used her quirk to float around, the yellow beams of energy swirling around her and she looked in her element. She almost looked like a fairy as she painted a flower in the sky with her quirk.

I put in my vote for Nejire and slowly started walking around with, Midoriya, Mirio, Amajiki, Eri and Hitoshi, hoping to find others in our class and see what there was to do.

The first person we found was Denki.

"Onryo! There you are!" He called out to me. "Can we do the haunted maze? It looks crazy!" He asked me.

"If you want to we can." I told him and he was practically bouncing in front of me.

"Eri." Hitoshi said, making both of us turn towards him. "Wanna come hang out with me for a bit? I think Kaminari and Onryo are going to go do their own thing." He said and she nodded excitedly. I set her down and she quickly grabbed onto Hitoshi's hand.

"Can you take my jacket? I'm overheating right now and I just need to breathe." I asked my brother and he held out his free hand tiredly. I quickly removed my suit jacket and handed it to him. "Thank you!" I said cheerfully and he rolled his eyes.

"You two go have fun." He said and I grabbed Denki's hand with a giant smile on my face before we left to find the maze.

While we were waiting in line, I loosened my tie, undid the top two buttons on my shirt and rolled my sleeves up to my elbows.

"I think we beat a lot of the line, there's only a few people ahead of us." Denki commented, his eyes practically glued to me as I adjusted my clothing.

"I'm surprised you wanted to do this." I told him and he rolled his eyes.

"I feel safe doing this type of thing when I have my super hot boyfriend here." He said and it was my turn to roll my eyes. "You're not scared, are you?" He asked and I shook my head.

"I already have a feeling of what's going to happen in there. So, not really?" I said awkwardly and he dramatically sighed.

"I never thought I'd be the scaredy cat in a relationship." He said and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Woah, is that Tanigawa?" He asked and pointed down the line to where he was admitting people.

"Oh, yeah. I'm glad he's liking his haircut. Hey Tani!" I waved to him and he waved back as soon as we were in front of him.

"Hey! I'm glad you both made it!" He said happily.

"If you don't mind me asking, do your classmates know?" I asked softly and he shook his head. "Got it, I just didn't wanna accidentally out you."

"Much appreciated. Are you two ready to go in?" He asked and I looked at Denki. He was starting to look a little nervous but he ultimately nodded and I followed him inside.

The students popping out from behind walls and corners didn't really scare me, let alone phase me. I was more focused on Denki who was clinging to my arm and side.

The most difficult part of it all, was not reflexively punching Takai when he dropped out of the ceiling. Instead I just glared at him and kept walking through the maze with Denki.

I kinda wish I didn't hold back that reflex though. The detention or suspension would've been worth it.

"Tsukababes! Kami! There you two are! Did you go through the maze? It was so spooky!" I heard Mina yell to us from where she stood at a crepe stall with Momo, Uraraka and Aoyama.

"Yeah, it was okay." I said awkwardly, not appreciating how Aoyama's gaze stayed fixated on me.

"It was crazy spooky!" Denki said and I shrugged. "Totally worth taking 'Ryo in there, he almost punched Takai."

"Tsukare, you shouldn't punch people." Momo lectured softly.

"It was more of a reflex that I had to forcefully stop from happening." I explained gently. "I'm gonna go get some crepes. Denks, do you want one?" I asked him and he nodded happily, moving to sit beside Mina and Momo.

I waited patiently in line, ignoring one of the sets of eyes on me, Aoyama seemed to have a staring problem today and it was starting to give me the creeps. I looked back at Mina and Denki, my boyfriend smiling widely when I looked at him and I couldn't stop the small smile on my face.

It didn't take long for me to get the crepes and bring them over to Denki. We both took a bite and hummed at the amazing taste.

"Très bien. C'est délicieux." I said contently and Aoyama looked at me with an even wider smile, while Mina and Denki looked slightly confused. "Crepes, french, seemed fitting." I brushed off but Aoyama was staring at me like I cracked a secret code.

'The engraving he made on the rock. He probably knows I read it. Did he want me to find it? It would make sense as to why he left it where it could be found. But him leaving it there could also mean it wasn't anything that should be a secret. I still have to figure out what the original meaning is. It had something to do with latin I think. Maybe an old king or something?'

"Babe?" Denki asked and I looked at him confused.

"Sorry, I blanked out. What's up?"

"Do you want a fidget? I'm sure I have one somewhere." He said and started patting his pockets.

"I'm okay, thank you though."

"We should totally take pictures in the photo booth!" He said out of nowhere, everything about him making it impossible not to smile.

"Yes! That would be amazing!"

"Tsukabro! Kami! Mina!" Kirishima yelled and I waved to him and Tetsutetsu. "Any of you guys doing the obstacle course?"

"I don't know." I brushed off, not too concerned about making it in time.

"You definitely should! It looks like fun, man! Kaminari, you in?" Kirishima asked him.

"I'd be up for watching Onryo do it." He said and I rolled my eyes playfully.

"I'll do the obstacle course if you do." I said and he stuck out his hand. I shook it once and he smiled coyly.

"Deal." He said with a smile.

The rest of the festival was amazing. A bunch of us went through the obstacle course, Denki and I took pictures together, followed by pictures of me, Toshi and Eri. Dad and Pops both managed to slip away for a few pictures with us as well. Izuku, Mirio and I played a few rounds of tag with Eri. We all cheered as we watched Nejire win the beauty pageant. She earned it.

Mirio and I watched in excitement as Izuku presented her with a candied apple that he made with Sato. My sisters face lit up in delight as she tried the first bite.

"It's the best thing ever!" She said.

"Then we can make them again! And if you want, when you're older, you can learn how to make them too!" I told her and she bounced in place.

"Can we really?" She asked and I nodded happily. I gave her and our Dad a hug goodbye before I went back to the rest of my class.

Today seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, but it was almost perfect.

In the left corner, there was a light pink princess style bed with sheer curtains and fairy lights around the bed posts. Red flowers were painted on the walls near the baseboards, a doll house was set up in the corner, a small table with tiny chairs and a child tea set was in the center right of the room and a toy bin was at the foot of her bed.

"We tried not to splurge too much given that we don't know any of her interests, but Sunshine figured this would be a good start." Dad said and Pops rolled his eyes.

"Sho, you just didn't want us to buy a bunch of art stuff until she showed an interest in it!" Pops retaliated.

"It'd be best to not overwhelm her. This isn't something she's accustomed to just yet." Dad told him gently and Pops turned to us exasperated.

"It was a big change when I first got here, I had to hide all of my stuff and then I was able to have it out on my dresser and got to actually have stuff revolving my special interests." I reasoned.

"Great change, but definitely a new pace that I had to adjust to." Hitoshi added.

"I'm going back for those art supplies." Pops said and we all laughed a little.

"Sunshine, the doctors office is calling." Dad said after he grabbed his phone. All of us sat down and Dad answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, am I speaking with Aizawa Shouta or Yamada Hizashi? This is Doctor Nonaka." I faintly heard him say. Pops shuffled to sit closer to Dad to hear better and I silently asked one of them to interpret for me, Dad offering to do so after he passed the phone to Pops.

"This is Aizawa Shouta, I currently have the phone on speaker, Hizashi, Hitoshi and Onryo are all present."

"Perfect, I have everyone's results in front of me for the nerve testing." He said and I could feel my stomach churn. "Mr. Yamada, your back does have some residual nerve damage, however, it is for the most part, completely healed. Given your history and occupation, your nerves that we viewed on the nerve conduction study looked almost perfect aside from a few spots." The doctored started and Pops breathed out a sigh of relief. "Shinsou's results were a little concerning, he has a number of damaged nerves but they will heal with time. I'd like to see him back in six months to a year to track the progress of recovery, some nerves are still healing currently, but there were one or two nerves that do appear to have permanent damage around his shoulder blades, and we can talk about treatment options for that if you would like." I gave him a pat on the back and a small smile as I watched some of the stress leave him. "As for Tsukare, there's a lot of concern for me. The perimeter of his back is essentially fully healed, but the closer we get to the center, there are still quite a few nerves that are in the process of healing, there are some spots that have been unaffected for the most part, but it does appear he already has some permanent damage in certain spots, specifically where there is thickly layered scar tissue near his shoulder blades and lower back. I would like to see him back in six months to a year as well to see how some of the nerves are healing and if there truly is any permanent damage." He said and I licked my lips nervously as my. either pulled me into a side hug. "By some miracle though, everyone's sciatic nerve was avoided and looks to be in perfect condition." He added and I could slowly feel myself spacing out as it sunk in, and from what I could tell, Hitoshi was too. Dad came over and sat next to me once the doctor got off the phone, and Pops sat next to Toshi, each of them placed an arm around us.

"It'll be okay." Dad said to us while signing. "It's just another obstacle, but we can all handle it." I mindlessly nodded along and leaned into his side, only moving to pet Mittens once she jumped into my lap.

I don't know how long we sat there, it had to have at least been an hour. Eventually, Hitoshi and I left to go to the dorms, as soon as our friends saw us though, they didn't hesitate to come over to us. Denki looked at me curiously and I took a few steps over to him, immediately I plopped my head on his shoulder and his arms gently wrapped around me. He tapped me twice and pointed to Mina.

"I think we should have a Disney night!" She cheered and I smiled softly, as much as I would normally love to have a movie night, I wanted to curl up in my bed and vegetate even more. I went to try and get myself out of it, but Sero, Kiri and Izuku were all giving me the same look.

"That sounds like a good idea. I'm going to get changed, you guys can choose a movie, just no fighting and can someone let me know where we're watching it?" I asked and Mina clapped her hands excitedly.

"I should go get changed too." Hitoshi said. Izuku followed him to his dorm room and Denki followed me to mine.

"Hey, what's going on?" He asked while signing carefully. I licked my lips and busied my hands by digging through my dresser for pajama pants. His hands gently slid over mine and directed them away from the clothes. "You can talk to me. I don't want you to shut me out." His face was relaxed, mimicking his voice I would imagine.

"We got the test results back while we were at our parents place." I mumbled and he waited for me to get the words out. "Our Pops is okay, Toshi's back isn't the best one out there but mine raised a lot of.. concern, for the doctor. It's not looking good." I told him weakly and he didn't say anything, he just pulled me into a tight hug. I held onto him with equal force and tried to let myself relax into his embrace but everything felt overwhelming outside of him. "This sucks." I said under my breath, and he finally pulled back so I could see what he was saying.

"I know, babe. Better late than never right?" He asked and I let out a weak laugh, hoping to hide my emotions. "Let's just distract our minds for a bit, okay? So get changed, maybe put your ears on." He said whilst swaying us from side to side.

I nodded a little and moved back to the dresser, I grabbed a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt. I quickly got changed, not wanting to even think about the visual repulsion of my back, took my hearing aids off the charger and took a deep breath. My phone buzzed and I assumed it would be someone in the group chat letting me know where we were watching a movie but instead it was another message from Takai. Denki noticed my mood shift again and looked at me curiously. I completely shut off my phone and tossed it on my bed.

"Sorry." I whispered and tried to steady myself emotionally. "I texted Takai back earlier today, just telling him to leave me alone and that I don't want him trying to reach out to me. He just sent me a message and I just, I can't do it right now. I can't deal with it." I managed to explain and he reached his hand out to mine, slowly and playfully pulling me towards my door.

"Then let's go watch a movie." He said and I smiled softly.

Denki and I talked the whole way there, enjoyed each others warmth in the cool autumn weather and managed to find our snacks. So the day was a success outside of band practice. Dancing went fine, at this point it was more going through the motions and timing my exit to join the band, but I still couldn't get the right notes down, despite me practicing in my free time to try and nail it.

"I just hope this music block ends before the festival, I don't wanna let anyone down." I told Denki and he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm sure it'll happen, and you won't let anyone down. You can't help it if you're having a block. You didn't go bippity boppity block the beats." He said and I couldn't stop my laughter until it died in my throat without any warning.

"Onryo? Is that you?" A woman asked, my hand gripped tighter around Denki's and he looked at me confused.

"Who's that?" He asked and I took a deep breath, ignoring my heart that was beating its way into my throat.

"Mrs. Toyama." I mumbled, trying to control my facial expressions.

The shock, the fear, the appreciation of her trying to protect me, the concern of who was surely lurking nearby. The memories and the residual panic of a five year old boy still living inside of me and starting to make its appearance.

"Onryo. Oh, honey, it's so good to see you again. You're all grown up. I- I saw you on the news, I saw you and I thought there's no way but it was you. You're even taller than me now." She said, her eyes watering as she spoke.

"'Ryo?" Denki asked softly, mostly out of confusion but I could also see the look of concern laying underneath.

"Mrs. Toyama and her husband fostered me at one point when I was five..." I mumbled, trying to steady my emotions.

"So, who's this?" She asked cheerfully, her hand gesturing towards Denki.

"Kaminari Denki. I'm his boyfriend." He said, clearly trying to be neutral in how he spoke.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kaminari." She said, a kind smile on her face like normal.

"Amaterasu, there you are. I've been looking everywhere for you." I heard him before I saw him. The man I saw in a flashback merely two weeks ago, now standing in front of me. "Onryo." He said pointedly, not asking but confirming his thoughts.

"Rokuro." I mumbled and he paused.

"You can talk now." He breathed out.

"I could always talk, I just couldn't control my quirk. But if memory serves me right, you didn't want to hear anything from me." I got out, my voice strained and weak.

"I don't know what you're talking about, you must have us mixed up with some of your other foster parents." I moved my hand out of Denki's, not wanting to concern him as my hands started to shake.

"Don't play that game with me. We all know what you did. We know what you did to me. And I know what you did to her." Venom was laced through my words and he took a step forward, so I matched his move.

"You don't get to play pretend hero and then come here and threaten me. Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" He asked loudly, his voice raising and gaining the attention of people on the street.

"I didn't forget. I remember every day and I carry those scars with me everywhere I go. I'm just not scared of you anymore. You don't have any power over me anymore. I'm not a scared little five year old that you can beat into behaving." He was seething as I spoke. Denki stood beside me and I saw his hand reach for mine.

"Onryo." My boyfriend said softly and I took a deep breath.

"Back off blondie, we both know you won't do anything." Rokuro snapped at him.

"You don't have the right to talk to him." I bit back and the man shook his head.

"It's been eleven or so years, and yet you're still just a dumb fucking kid. I was right though, I don't want to hear you and nobody else does either." My chest constricted and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"You're wrong." I said firmly and he let out a fake breath disguising a laugh. "You were wrong then and you're still wrong all these years later. I may be a kid, but even at five years old I was more of a man than you could ever fathom being. Because never in my lifetime, would I ever think it's justified and condonable to lay my hands on my partner or a child of mine or simply in my care. You're pathetic." I spat out and he came stomping towards me.

"Why you little-" He grumbled and stopped when he was inches away from me.

"You don't scare me anymore. You have no more power over me. You wanted me to take lashings like a man, then you can take the truth like one. Do yourself a favor and leave." I said callously.

"Is that a threat?" He asked and I shook my head.

"You would know if I was making a threat." I told him and he rolled his eyes. "I'd like to make one thing clear. If she ever decides to press charges, I will testify. If you ever lay a hand on her again, I will find out and I can assure you, you'll spend the rest of your miserable life behind bars. I'm showing you mercy, but even criminals have standards and morals, especially when it comes to a child being a victim. But even worse when you caused your wife's miscarriage." I spat out and he took a step back.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I do. Just because I didn't understand when I was a child, doesn't mean I forgot, or fail to understand what happened today. I remember every gruesome thing you did in those few weeks. Amaterasu has endured your violence for significantly longer."

"Are you happy? You finally got that chip off your shoulder?" He asked sarcastically.

"I am proud of myself. I don't care if you're proud of me or not. Your opinion hasn't mattered to me in ten years, and it doesn't matter now. The only thing you ever taught me, was the man I didn't want to become. So I'm proud of myself for getting to where I am today, and I'm sure as hell proud that I never turned out like you. Have a nice life." I told him and grabbed Denki's hand, he guided us up the street and back towards the school. He lead us to the dorms and up to his room and immediately pulled me in a hug.

"Are you okay?" He asked and I nodded once, the tears starting to well in my eyes as I clung onto him. "I'm proud of you. You did amazing." He said softly and my teary eyes quickly grew into tidal waves and broken sobs. Denki rubbed my back and held me close to him, whispering comforting words to me. "Do you want to go see your parents? I think it might be good if they know what happened." He suggested delicately and I nodded. His hands moved up to my shoulders, past my neck and up to my face, his slightly calloused palms cupped my face as he wiped away the stray tears. "Let's get over there."

"But our snacks." I said in a warbled voice. He reached over and grabbed them, waiting for me to start walking. Once we stepped out of the elevator, Hitoshi was up and running towards us.

"Just come with us." Denki said and Hitoshi struggled to get his shoes on while he was walking.

The moment we walked in the door, Dad was already up to meet us half way. He pulled me into a hug and I sobbed into his chest.

"What happened?" He asked calmly.

"What's going on, little listener?" I heard Pops ask.

"We ran into some of his old foster parents." Denki said, loosely explaining it.

"Hitoshi, Kaminari, do you want to come get some reinforcements with me?" Pops asked them and I assumed they agreed.

"It'll be okay." Dad told me softly.

"I thought I forgave him but I don't. I can't forgive him, Dad." I told him through stuttered breaths.

"You don't have to forgive him. You aren't expected to and you don't have to by any means. As long as you've forgiven yourself for whatever you felt you had to, then you'll be okay." He said, which only spurred another round of tears and sobs. "Take deep breaths before you have an asthma attack." He told me, enunciating his breathing slightly. I did my best to follow his breathing and after a few attempts it started to work. "Do you want to tell us what happened?" He asked and I took a step back, wiping my eyes and face harshly. We slowly moved further into the living room and sat down. Denki sat next to me on the floor, he set our snacks from earlier in front of us and passed me my coffee. Dad and Pops sat on the couch and Hitoshi sat in front of them on the floor.

"It was Mr. and Mrs. Toyama. Uh, Amaterasu and Rokuro, they fostered me for a few weeks, maybe a month when I was five. Amaterasu was always kind, Rokuro was a monster." I said weakly, my stomach churning.

"You've never talked about them, little listener." Pops said softly and I nodded.

"He's the one that I had a flashback of." I admitted. I explained the interaction today, Denki helping out and filling in for the moments I started shutting down and getting overwhelmed. "I wanted to punch him when I saw him." My voice was hoarse and strained as I spoke. "He had me convinced that nobody would ever want to hear me. He drilled it into my head. But I just wanted to protect Amaterasu. He was the second or third one to grab a belt."

"'Ryo, I think you should tell them about the other thing..." Denki said softly.

All I could hear were her screams and cries.

All I could see was the blood.

I could feel the fear flooding me.

I should've moved in front of her.

I should've taken it again.

"Onryo." Dad said, snapping my mind back to the present.

"Sorry." I whispered, biding my time by taking a sip of coffee.

"I think we need to know what he did." Dad said softly and I nodded.

"She was pregnant." I said and my words got stuck in my throat. "He was mad about the dishes being done wrong and flew off the handle. He kicked her in the stomach, more than once and he left. She.. lost the baby." I mumbled and the room grew tense. "They didn't think they could have biological kids, it's why they fostered me. I guess they already got their license and Amaterasu, she wanted a big family, it was one of the dreams she talked about a few times. It was more that she wanted to foster and adopt me than it was they both wanted to. She was a few months along. I should've taken it. I did my best to make sure that he just left her alone but I couldn't move. I was in so much pain, and I was so scared. She told the EMT's that she tripped going up the stairs and fell all the way down. I should've done more." I whispered, the guilt eating away at me.

"That's not your fault. You were five." Denki told me and I shook my head, dismissing how he was trying to help. "Onryo, it's not your fault. None of that was."

"Kaminari is right." Dad said and I looked at him through my teary eyes. "You did everything you could have done. It was never your fault. I promise you that."

"Is it bad that I hate him?" I asked weakly and Dad shook his head.

"I hate him too and I haven't even met the dickwad." Toshi said and I let out a broken laugh.

Hitoshi laughed when he saw the picture of me crying.

"You had such a grouch face." He pointed out and I rolled my eyes.

"I didn't think these would ever actually exist. Do you think Dad and Pops will be happy?" I asked him and he looked at me in disbelief.

"Do you hear yourself? It's Dad and Pops. Pops has so many photo albums and scrapbooks that they could take up an entire room. Of course they're gonna love the pictures." I nodded slowly and took a slow breath.

"I can't believe these are real." I mumbled, staring at the picture of newborn me sleeping soundly with my baby blanket wrapped around my tiny body. I could tell by the quick picture, Azuna had to sneak the pictures, the scenery alone telling me I was put in the NICU.

"It's weird being able to see you when you were a baby. The earliest pictures I've been able to see are from when you and Toshi were eight." Izuku commented and I nodded. My phone buzzed a few times in my pocket and I glanced at it, my stomach churning as I saw another notification from Takai, the fucker was still trying to send me messages.

"Everything okay?" Denki asked after he tapped my arm so I could see him sign as well. I quickly put my phone down and I nodded.

"Yeah. Everything's fine." I said quicker than I intended and he looked at me curiously. My stomach churned with guilt, I wasn't sure what to do. "Everything's okay." I said softly and I watched he licked his lips, clearly trying to figure out how to approach this.

"I want you to feel comfortable talking to me." He said and I could feel my heart starting to clench.

"Onryo." Hitoshi said, his expression firm and unwavering. "What just happened?"

"Nothing." I told him and he shook his head, quickly, he stood up and walked towards the door.

"Onryo. I love you. So I'm just going to step away instead of pushing the issue." He said and I felt like throwing up when Izuku followed after him.

"'Ryo. Talk to me." Denki said and I licked my lips, my nervous habit kicking in.

"It's nothing. Really." I said, hoping to dismiss it.

"Well, I'm worried." He told me and I started fidgeting with my fingers.

"I'm sorry." I whispered and his eyebrows pulled together. "I don't want you to worry."

"Then what was that about?" He asked, and I could only imagine how soft his voice was based on his facial features.

"Takai... He saw my scars yesterday and he found my instagram, he's been trying to send me messages and I've been ignoring him. I just didn't want anyone freaking out because of it." I admitted and his face contorted into one of confusion.

"Is he bothering you again?"

"Not really, he hasn't been following me and he hasn't tried anything." He took a breath and moved a bit to sit more comfortably.

"Why didn't you want to tell me?" He asked but paused, turning to the door that slowly opened.

"Hey uh, someone's here for you Tsukare. Someone with blue hair?" Sero said and I looked at him confused, not understanding why Tanigawa would be here. I put my barely charged hearing aids back in my ears and started the trip downstairs with Sero and Denki. As soon as I opened the front door to the dorms, I saw Tanigawa standing there with wide eyes.

"Sorry to just, come here unannounced, can I talk to you?" She asked. "Alone?" I looked Denki and he gave me a kiss on the cheek before he went to the common area. I stepped outside and gingerly shit the door behind me.

"What's up?" I asked awkwardly and I could see her grow nervous.

"This is so stupid, and awkward and now I'm starting to ramble but I didn't know who else to really go to because you might be the only person who might understand and I'm sorry for- for how abrupt this is and just out of nowhere but I didn't- I didn't know who else to talk to." She rambled out and I was glad that I decided to grab my hearing aids.

"Okay, why don't we sit down and take a breath." I offered softly and she nodded, followed me to the nearest bench and gripped the hem of her shirt tightly. "What's going on?"

"I'm pan." She blurted out and I nodded slowly. "I haven't come out to anyone and you met my friends, Tomita can be a bit abrasive and opinionated and I can't talk to them about this stuff because I don't know how they'll react but I know they won't understand at all." She took a deep breath and I could almost see it catch in her chest. "I've come to terms with that and accepted that. That I'm pansexual. I just, okay, super hypothetical, but is it okay that I don't feel like a girl?"

"I don't think I'd be the best help with that, but do you want to maybe try and explain it more so I can grasp it better?" I asked gently, not wanting to cross an invisible line I didn't know of.

"I hate my body. Not in the self conscious way, but I hate looking feminine. I hate being called a girl. I want to grow facial hair and have a flat chest, I want an adam's apple and for my voice to be lower. When I look in the mirror, and I see a girl, it makes my stomach churn and makes me want to curl up in a ball and disappear." They told me and I nodded along.

"I might not be the best help, I haven't experienced that and I don't want to give you advice on something I know little about because for all I know, it could be the wrong advice. So, if you want, I can grab a friend who might be a little more help." I offered and they hesitantly nodded. "Okay, wait here." I quickly got up and cracked open the front door.

Can you have Sero come over here? I signed and my boyfriend nodded, having a quick conversation with him before he came to the door.

"Tanigawa is questioning their gender and I don't want to say the wrong thing. If you're comfortable with it, would you be able to talk to them? If not, that's okay, I know you're going stealth but I wanted to ask." I asked him in spanish so nobody else could make out what I was saying and he quickly agreed and came outside. "Okay, Tanigawa, this is Sero Hanta. He might be more help for you." I said and sat next to them while Hanta leaned against the railing in front of us.

"I hope you don't mind but Tsuka filled me in a bit on what's going on and said I might be able to help. How long've you known?" He asked and Tani looked confused but shakily answered.

"A year or two. I started questioning it but my parents said it was wrong and being a tomboy is weird." I watched Hanta's face fall.

"I have family like that, but I lucked out and my parents were more accepting. There's nothing weird or wrong about it, it's who you are. The only choice you have to make is if you let yourself be happy." He said and they sniffled, wiping at tears that didn't fall yet.

"I don't want to be the outcast again." They said weakly.

"I thought I would be an outcast here, but I actually made some pretty great friends. I don't think I have much room to talk though, only a few of them know, aside from that, I'm going stealth." He admitted. "So, what's your name?"

"I want it to be Mikio." They mumbled and Hanta gave them a warm smile, a hand held out towards them gently.

"Nice to properly meetcha, Mikio." He said and they looked ready to cry but shook his hand happily.

"Nice to properly meet you."

"So what are you feeling pronoun wise?"

"He."

"Cool. So what do you want to do with how you look? I know when I had hair that length I just wanted to chop it off."

"I want it short, I just, I hate it. I want it gone." He said and Hanta got a wicked smile on his face.

"Wanna go cut it off?" He offered and Tanigawa looked baffled.

"Like- Like right now? I'd get in so much trouble! My parents would be so mad!"

"Hair grows back. Ya live and ya learn." Hanta brushed off and Mikio got a small smile on his face.

"Let's cut it off." He said and we cheered for him.

"Come on!" Hanta encouraged and we followed him inside. "Hey Tsu, do you know where Uraraka went?" Hanta asked and my boyfriend gravitated towards me, slowly wrapping his arms around my waist to hold me to his chest.

"I think she went to brush her teeth, ribbit. Who's this?" Tsu asked and Tanigawa paused, not knowing what to say.

"This is Mikio. And I was going to see if Uraraka would cut his hair." He said and Tsu looked confused but nodded. Denki tapped my arm and sent pointed looks to Tanigawa and Sero before turning back to me and I nodded, understanding the silent question.

"Oh em gee! I so knew you were fruity! I should probably introduce myself, I'm Ashido Mina! What course are you in?" She spit fired and Tanigawa seemed slightly overwhelmed for a moment.

"I'm in uh, general studies." He mumbled and Mina seemed enthralled by that.

"That's so cool! It must be so much easier than the hero course! But you guys also probably get a lot of tests and pop quizzes, huh?"

"Uraraka!" Sero called and she spun around almost comically. "Would you be up for giving someone a hair cut?"

"I'm a little tired honestly..." She mumbled and Todoroki stepped in.

"I'll give you ¥4,500." He said and she popped up happily.

"Who's hair am I cutting?" She asked and Sero gestured to Tanigawa. "Someone grab me a chair while I grab my stuff!" Hanta grabbed a chair from one of the tables and Mikio slowly sat down, clearly nervous.

"Don't worry, we don't bite. The only one you have to worry about that with is Bakugou." I said jokingly and he cracked a small smile.

"Shut it, ear bleed! At least I know how to think on my feet and not back down against All Might!" He snapped and I rolled my eyes.

"He's more harmless than he looks." I said softly and they slowly nodded, clearly skeptical about that statement.

"I'm back! Okay, so what do you wanna do with this? It's such a nice length! Are you thinking a trim or maybe some layers?" Uraraka spit fired and Tanigawa seemed to freeze at that. "Actually, do you have any reference pictures? That might help more." He slowly pulled out his phone and eventually showed her. "I- uh-" Uraraka spluttered for the right words. "Shouldn't you look at pictures of uh, girls hair, for inspiration instead? And I mean, it's such a nice length, are you sure you want to look like a boy?"

"Uraraka." I said and everyone looked at me with wide eyes. "His name is Mikio." I watched as the wheels started turning in her head. "Give it a minute." I mumbled and watching the lightbulb turn on.

"Oh! Oh my goodness! I didn't know! I'm so sorry! Oh jeez. I feel so bad! Please forgive me!" She yelled with a bow and we all watched her with cartoonishly wide eyes.

"It's okay. I only really came to terms with it recently..." Mikio mumbled while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Someone grab the clippers!" Uraraka yelled and I saw Izuku run towards the washroom for them. "I really like that one!" She said and pointed to something on Mikio's phone.

"Me too."

"Uraraka! I must lecture you on cutting a minors hair without parental consent! It is an appearance modification and should be supervised by an adult!" Iida yelled with his hand chopping motions.

"Iida, chillax, bodily autonomy and all that. Plus, it's not like he's three. And you can supervise, who better than the class rep?" Sero said and Iida mulled it over for a moment.

"I suppose you have a fairly decent point. Uraraka, do you have any experience with this?"

"Oh yeah, I've cut my friends hair and my parents hair loads of times, I learned how so we could save money on going to a hair salon." She explained to him and he seemed content with that answer. "Do you want to do the honors of the first chop?" Mikio nodded in excitement and as soon as the scissors cut through his hair and the ponytail was in his hand, we all cheered for him and we watched as a bright smile emerged on his face. My phone buzzed and I started laughing when I saw it was my Dad that texted me.

From Drowzee: Who is in the dorms?

To Drowzee: A student from class C

From Drowzee: Why?

To Drowzee: So there's actually a really good explanation for that

From Drowzee: Onryo.

To Drowzee: He came to ask me for advice and Hanta ended up helping with it and he came out to us so now we're doing gender affirming care by cutting his hair for him :)

From Drowzee: Okay.

From Drowzee: Sunshine says he's proud of you and your classmates.

"I would like to make an announcement!" I said loudly when Uraraka didn't have scissors near his head. "For our actions here today, by cutting Mikio's hair and Todoroki paying Uraraka to do so, we have earned approval from not only Present Mic, but our homeroom teacher as well." A round of cheers went throughout the commons again and Denki gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Isn't your homeroom teacher your Dad?" Mikio asked, Hitoshi and I's heads snapped towards him in shock. "Sorry, uh, I overheard someone talking about it one day. I wasn't sure if it was a rumor or not, so I didn't put much weight behind it and figured I'd just ask from the source instead."

"He is, we try and keep it private for safety reasons. It hasn't worked the best in the last few months though."

"Noted. I'm just kinda shocked, I guess. I mean, I would've just, pictured him to be Aizawa's son." Tanigawa awkwardly said while pointing to my brother.

"I am." He stated tiredly and I watched Michio grow even more confused.

"You two look nothing alike."

"We're both adopted, I'd be more confused if we did look alike." Hitoshi commented and the boy with blue hair hummed and looked to be content with that answer.

"Hey, Jirou, you got a little bit of free time?" I asked and she nodded once.

"What's up?" She asked and I walked over towards her in hopes of not having to yell across the commons.

"Do you think we'd be able to do a one on one practice? I just, I don't get why I can't get that part of the song down and I'm hoping that a different approach might just make it happen." I asked her, exasperated at the fact that I couldn't get the string of fairly simple notes.

"Yeah, meet me in my room, I'll get the guitars set up." She said and I silently agreed.

"Hey babe, I'm gonna go practice with Jirou, maybe break this fricken mental block already." He smiled warmly and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm gonna go see if Tokoyami wants to practice together at all." He told me and I smiled fondly. "What's that look for?" He asked cheekily and I looked down, my face growing warm.

"Nothing." I mumbled and he rolled his eyes. "You make me happy, okay?"

"You make me happy too. Go have fun. I'll see you later?"

"Your room?" I asked and he nodded. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and made my way up to Jirou's room. I knocked once and after she opened the door, I stepped inside and saw the two guitars waiting for us.

"You ready to rock out?" She asked and I nodded slightly. "Okay, but we're talking first. What's been going on? You were doing fine and then that one part got you."

"Just been in a funk, I guess." I mumbled, rubbing the side of my neck awkwardly.

"Tsukare." She pushed gently and I sighed.

"I don't know. I know the notes I have to play, when to switch, how I have to strum, all of it. I- I can picture it in my head as I'm talking about it, but as soon as I try and play it, I choke. I don't know what's going on with me and it's just stressing me out even more." I told her and she slowly nodded along, clearly not knowing what to say to that.

"If anything else is going on, I just want you to know you can talk to me about it. I might not understand but I'm here for you. Okay?" She pushed softly, clearly not wanting to overstep anywhere.

"I know, and thank you. I'm here for you too. I mean, I sat in front of your flag for you." I reminded her, hoping to veer away from the topic.

"It's so nice to see all of you again. Where's your brother?" She asked me, ushering all of us into her parents house.

"He was feeling a little under the weather and figured he'd stay at the dorms for the night." I bullshitted, but she quickly believed it.

"Well I hope he feels better. Aizawa, Yamada, it's nice to see you both again. And Kaminari, I'm glad you could make it." She rambled on almost nervously.

"Thank you for inviting us." Pops said and she smiled warmly, leading us back to the living room.

"Yuto! Can you bring Sota out here? I'm sure he'll be happy to see Onryo." She yelled back somewhere. Shikadai rounded the corner first and gave me a hug. I awkwardly hugged him back, but he seemed enthused that I even did that much.

"Hey, kid. Long time no see." He said jokingly and I let out a tense laugh.

"Yeah, it's been ages." I mumbled. "Hi Ren, hi Keiko, it's nice to see you both again."

"Oh, hello dear. Kaminari, you look lovely today."

"Thank you, Keiko. You look radiant as ever." He said with a warm smile, helping her up out of her seat. She gave him the grandma pat on the arm and came over to me.

"You better hold on tight to that one, he's a keeper." She told me and I laughed under my breath.

"I'll definitely hold onto him."

"Azuna, dear, would you mind helping me in the kitchen?" She asked her daughter and she happily followed.

"Please, have a seat, no need to stand." Shikadai said, somewhat rushed. Denki took a seat on the couch, Pops sat on the other end while Dad stood next to him. I was going to sit until I saw Yuto come in with Sota, the one year old quickly made grabby hands towards me. His Dad set him down and he came waddle running towards me and I let him fake tackle me to the floor. His never ending giggles seemed worth it though.

"Happy birthday, Sota." I said and he giggled, clapping as I spoke. "Well, he seems to know what that means."

"He's been hearing it all day, I'd hope he's grasped what it means by now." Ren said jokingly.

"Yeah, and uh, I'm sorry, for how I handled things at his birthday party. I should've gone about it in a better way." I said awkwardly, Yuto shot me a dirty look but everyone else seemed to just wave it off.

"She's going to rehab soon." Yuto said dryly and I slowly nodded.

"I'm glad she's getting help." I said softly and he scoffed.

"I think given the high emotions, you handled it as well as you could. You handled it better than most of us would've in my opinion." Shikadai said and I gave him a small smile.

"So, Aizawa, Yamada, you're both teachers. Are your students giving you any grief this year?" Ren chimed in, redirecting the conversation skillfully while I played with Sota, the baby babbling and pterodactyl screaming while he gave me a multitude of high fives.

"My students tend to. Our son likes to give us the most scares, however." Dad said and I awkwardly smiled.

"Love you."

"I'm an english teacher, so my main difficulty is just getting everyone to understand what I'm saying."

"Is that why Onryo and his brother are fluent in english?" Ren asked and Pops nodded.

"Onryo wanted to learn english at a young age. One day, him and I were having some extra lessons and Hitoshi asked if he could start learning, too. They both picked it up so fast, we were really proud of them."

"Kaminari, how's your english?" Shikadai asked him and he froze up.

"I'm probably the worst in the class. Onryo's really helped me a lot though, so my grade has gone up."

"That's great. I can't speak a lick of english, so you're already doing better than me. I never had an ear for languages, but I certainly had a hand for them." Shikadai said, Kaminari and Pops laughing at his dad joke. "I'm glad someone here thinks I'm funny."

"Shikadai, would you mind getting the door?" Ren asked, most of us looked at him confused, but he agreed. "I don't think I should have some of the best ears here, that seems a little concerning." Ren said sarcastically, making me laugh.

"Mom, Dad, you remember Onryo and his boyfriend, Kaminari. These are Onryo's parents, Aizawa Shouta and Yamada Hizashi. Aizawa, Yamada, these are my parents, Raiden and Azami." Dad and Pops got up, Pops more made Dad get up with him, but when Pops went to bow, Raiden waved his hand.

"None of that formal crap. We're too old to be worried about that. It's great to finally meet you both." Pops stared at him, shell shocked and Dad gave him a pointed look that was subtle enough for everyone else to miss. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Raiden said and Pops fixed his face.

"Sorry, I just wasn't prepared for any major resemblances." Pops said bashfully. "We've always had the running joke that he was my carbon copy, and he looked a lot like his late Uncle. Hitoshi has always resembled his Dad, and was always his carbon copy. It's just, a bit of a shock to see so much resemblance."

"Genetics will do that. All three of us got the same quirk and matching hearing aids to go with it. Was a hero myself back in my day." He said proudly and I looked at him in disbelief. "The people weren't a fan of the fact that I could make some ears bleed, so I was always lower ranking until I got on disability. I suffered from a TBI, so I took the settlement and made a house for my beautiful wife." He said and gave Azami a kiss on the cheek. "Check this out." He said and showed Dad and Pops the pictures he showed Denki and I. "Unfortunately, it looks like I gave those two my height. My bio father was over six feet tall."

"What was your hero name?" Denki asked.

"I was very original. I was the sound hero, Sound Wave." He said proudly and Azami patted his arm.

"There there, dear. Don't throw your back out now." Dad and I laughed a little at the interaction.

"Do you want a very exalting moment?" I asked and everyone looked at me curiously. I grabbed my phone and called Izuku with a video call, after three rings he answered. "Hey, Zuku, I have a random question. You got a minute?"

"I was just finishing up my homework, what's up?"

Can you hear him?

Raiden gave me a thumbs up and I turned back to my phone.

"Have you ever heard of the pro hero Sound Wave?" I asked and he paused for a minute.

"Yeah, he wasn't a really high ranking hero but he had a quirk pretty much identical to yours, I figured that was where you got the name of your quirk for. He was active probably, shoot, forty years ago? His most notable fight was in Nagano at Lake Suwa, he made a tidal wave out of the lake with his sound waves that completely disoriented the villains and gave him the big edge he needed to win." I looked at Raiden and he looked near tears, jaw slacked and a hand on his heart. "He ended up getting really overshadowed with all the heroes rising because he would've been in the second generation to do so and All Might coming in overshadowed a lot of smaller heroes coming into the job outside of the top twenty maybe. I don't know what happened but I know he got injured and he was out of commission after only a decade max. I know a lot of people painted him in a bad light because he also made people's ears bleed. Why do you ask?"

"Cause I found out, he's my bio grandpa. Say 'hi', I think you just made his day." I said and walked over and got him in frame. He waved happily to my best friend, a bright smile on his face.

"Oh my gosh! It's really you! You- You were one of the first few heroes I researched when I started researching the origin of heroes and when they started becoming popular, you had such a unique fighting style! It's amazing to be able to meet you!" He rambled, making Raiden smile wider.

"Azami, Shikadai, do you hear this? This little green haired boy knows who I am! I'm Kodoku Raiden, it's a pleasure to meet a friend of Onryo's."

"I'm Midoriya Izuku, sir!"

"Loosen up, son. I won't burst your ear drums, I'll leave that to your friend here."

"Right!"

"He's a bit of a fanboy, he won't loosen up for quite some time." I said and Izuku froze up.

"Well then, I'll let you get back to your homework. Thank you. Hopefully I'll be able to meet you one of these days." Izuku said his goodbyes and I hung up the phone. "It's been decades since someone said they knew who I was in my glory days."

"I figured if anyone would know, it'd be him. He's basically a search engine when it comes to heroes. Can you guess who his favorite is?" I asked sarcastically.

"All Might?" Shikadai asked sarcastically with an eye roll. Pops and I broke out laughing, Sota found it hilarious and started laughing too. "Didn't realize that was hilarious." He said after a moment and I tried to catch my breath.

"It's not- Oh my gosh- I need to stop laughing! Where's Hitoshi when I need him!" I said while laughing harder. "Nobody in our family likes All Might! I almost got him fired!" I managed to explain, Shikadai soon joining in on the laughter. Azuna and Keiko came back in, confused as to why half of us were laughing.

"Serves the bastard right. He's full of himself." Raiden said, only fueling our laughter.

"Raiden, be nice." Azami said lightly. "Even though he's a crap wagon, we should still be nice."

"I'd say those are fairly nice words, I could say plenty worse about him." Dad said, making everyone let out some form of laughter.

"Should I ask what we walked in on?" Azuna asked.

"They're all bonding over their hatred of All Might." Denki explained.

"Ass Might." I coughed out, not being too discreet. "Wow, did someone hear something?"

"No, I don't believe I did." Raiden said, taking out a hearing aid and scratching his head.

"So, how did you almost get him fired?" Ren asked.

"You never really did go into that, all I know is that he was suspended from teaching and was made an aid for a while." Denki said.

I picked up Sota and sat on the couch between Denki and my Pops, Sota contently sat on my lap as I explained everything as to why I didn't care for him. Only sparing a few of the gruesome details of the final exam. I had a feeling nobody wanted to hear about how I broke quite a few bones that day.

"Why does Midoriya like him so much? Isn't that like, against bro code?" Denki asked and I sunk into the couch.

"He started idolizing All Might since before he could properly talk. We met in junior high. Also there's the fact that All Might's his main mentor outside of my Dad." I said and he hummed.

"That makes a lot more sense." He mumbled.

"Did all of you really sit out here and just... bond over disliking the previous number one hero?" Azuna asked and we all nodded.

"And made Raiden's day. My best friend knew about him being a hero." I said and she hummed.

"I wasn't involved in that." Yuto said and that's when I realized that he had been watching me like a hawk.

"Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom." I said softly and set Sota on the ground near his toys.

I took a moment in the bathroom after I was done with my business, needing a minute to wipe the feeling of someone staring off of my body. I splashed my face with some cold water and took a deep breath. I understood fully well why Yuto wasn't enthralled with me. I got his sister in law sent to rehab. Let alone how I went about it. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I saw the door crack open. Denki had one hand on the handle and the other over his eyes.

"Babe? You okay in here? Can I open my eyes?" He asked.

"You can open your eyes, I'm decent." I told him, leaning against the sink counter top.

"I knew you wouldn't really hear me knock unless I banged on the door and I didn't want to freak you out. You okay?" He asked softly, one of his hands reaching out to hold one of mine.

"Yeah, just, I needed a minute away from being stared down. I can tell Yuto isn't too happy with me and I don't blame him, I just hope he realizes that if he crosses a line, he'll have to deal with my parents. I more wish that he would just talk to me about what happened and ask me what he wants instead of just glaring at me." I explained and he nodded along, seeming to understand what I meant.

"That makes sense. Maybe you could pull him aside and ask him what his deal is." He suggested, his voice still quiet.

"That's a pretty good idea." I mumbled and he rubbed his thumb back and forth across the back of my hand. I took a deep breath and let my head fall to his shoulder, my eyes falling shut. We stood there in silence for a moment, my social battery recharging ever so slightly.

"Ready to get back out there?" He finally asked and I nodded, standing up straight. He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead and we walked out, most of them were talking amongst themselves, seemingly getting along.

Everything okay? Dad asked me and I nodded.

Yeah. He sent me a cautious look but dropped it.

"I think it's great that all of you know sign language." Keiko said, breaking any tension. "When Shikadai came into the family, Ren and I tried our hardest to learn, but we just couldn't wrap our brains around it. Azuna seemed to take our genes on it, as well."

"It was one of our largest concerns when we had kids, that they wouldn't be able to learn sign language. But Hitoshi and Onryo both knew sign language when we adopted them, so that took away our fears completely." Pops told her and Keiko smiled softly.

"When Shiroka started dating Shikadai, he told us about his hearing already starting to fade. Yuto and Shikadai learned together actually, such a sweet friendship, they really motivated each other." She explained.

"I tried learning but I was horrible. Honey, what signs did I mix up the one day?" Azuna asked, turning to her husband.

"I believe you accidentally said 'shit you' instead of 'I love you'." He said and we all giggled a bit.

"Yep, so that was when I gave up. Even after when I would try, I always mixed up some signs and it ended horribly. Even when I tried to learn English, it was just atrocious." She said.

"We just have ADHD wordplay, sign language edition." Denki said, making Pops and I laugh.

"Shit, I didn't mean to give you my ADHD." Shikadai mumbled, making me laugh more.

"What was your best ADHD wordplay moment?" Pops asked him and Shikadai gestured to his parents, both of them already excited about this.

"One time, he couldn't remember the word for thirsty." Azami started, a wicked grin on her face. "Shikadai, dear, tell them what you called it."

"Water hungry." He mumbled. "It's been over twenty years and I still haven't lived that down." He admitted.

"I have a few of those. Inside sun control."

"The light switch?" I nodded and he cracked a smile.

"Yep, my brother still hasn't let me live it down." I told him and he laughed a bit.

"Good one."

"Dinner's ready, Azuna, Yuto, would you both mind helping me set the table?" Keiko asked gently, slowly standing up and heading to the kitchen.

We all eventually sat down, said our thanks and started eating.

"So, you both are teachers, what's that like?" Shikadai asked, signing as he spoke.

"Torture." Dad lamented and I gave him a bright smile.

"It's eventful some days, just like any job I'd assume. I like being able to see my family while I'm at work, it's an added bonus." Pops said, the two of us nodding along.

"I'm a homeroom teacher for one of the hero courses, so I only work with twenty one students a day, but some of them like to be problem children." Dad grumbled and I smiled at him again.

"In my defense, Izuku would be a lot worse if I left him to his own doing's. At least I reign him in a bit." I pointed out and he nodded.

"I work with all classes and all grades for the most part since I'm an english teacher."

"I was a teacher for many years, I taught elementary school and some of those kids were little heathens." Keiko said with a small huff.

"That sounds debilitating." Dad said and she sighed.

"It was, there were days where I wanted to just up and quit. But I stuck to my guns." She said and Dad nodded, the glint in his eye showing the bit of respect he had gained for her. "I retired about ten years ago, though."

"I don't think I could ever be a teacher." I mumbled, the profession seeming more intimidating and daunting than hero work.

"Me neither." Denki said and I nodded.

"Why do you think I went with hero work?" Raiden asked sarcastically.

"So, Shikadai, what do you do for work?" Pops asked, diverting the topic of interest off of them.

"I work in IT. Computers always seemed interesting to me and the added bonus is I can work from home if I'd like."

"That sounds like a blessing." Dad commented.

"It can be, it's definitely infuriating at times, especially when it comes to dealing with people who know nothing about technology." Shikadai sighed. "However, it is nice being able to make my own schedule. The only time I don't get to, is if I have to be in the office for a meeting."

"Sho, you're not switching to IT. You wouldn't have the patience." Pops told him, resting a hand on his and Dad sighed.

"Fine." He grumbled.

"Yuto, what do you do?" Pops asked, Yuto looked at him uninterested and let out a sigh. Dad shot him a look, clearly perturbed at how he had been acting today.

"Yuto, just tell them about your job. Relax." Azuna softly chided, patting his hand with her own. He scoffed and stood up rather abruptly.

"I'm not doing this. I'm not gonna sit here and play pretend to make you happy. I need a smoke. Excuse me." He practically stormed out and the atmosphere completely shifted.

"I'm sorry about him, I don't know what's gotten into him today." She mumbled and I slowly stood up.

"I uh, I think I'm gonna go talk to him. At least try and make amends after last week." I awkwardly said and Azuna stood up, gave me a brief hug and sat back down. I slowly and cautiously walked in the direction he did until I found the door to the back porch. "Yuto? Can I talk to you?" I asked gently, he let out a loud sigh but gestured to one of the chairs as he took a drag of his cigar. I stood on the other side of him, opposite of where the wind was blowing the smoke and he rolled his eyes.

"What? Scared of a little cigar?"

"No, just don't wanna set off my asthma if I can help it." He slowly nodded. "I uh, noticed that you haven't exactly been happy today, especially with me."

"Yeah, well why the fuck would I be?" He snapped and I sucked in a breath through my teeth.

"I want to make amends, or, at the very least, be on decent terms with one another." He rolled his eyes and took another drag.

"It's too late for that, kid. You don't seem to be able to understand the damage that you caused." He said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry. For how I went about it. I- I let my emotions get the better of me. I should've pulled you and your brother to the side and voiced my concerns. I could have and should have gone about it differently, and I'm sorry that I didn't." I told him honestly, the guilt starting to ease ever so slightly.

"Yeah. You shouldn't have put that target on her back. You shouldn't have even mentioned it to anyone. You don't seem to realize how much you screwed up her life with a single accusation." My eyebrows furrowed and I tried to process what he said.

"Are you saying I should have just let her take my medication?" I asked, baffled at what he seemed to be insinuating. He shrugged and took another drag of his cigar. "Wow." I scoffed and he glared at me.

"She's not like your mother, and that's how you keep trying to paint her to be." My jaw set in place, his tone alone was venomous.

"Shiroka is not my mother. I have made that very clear. Unless Azuna told you what happened, then you don't know the half of what she's done to me."

"That's my problem. You want to make amends so bad, be on decent terms and all this? Fine. You want to be a part of this family, then admit to who your family really is. You have a mother and a father, just like everyone else and just like you're supposed to. Blood is thicker than water." He spat, the cigar now in the ash tray, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at me.

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. If you're going to try and lecture me, I advise you don't cut out the important details of what you're saying. I have two Dad's. I have a brother. I have a myriad of aunts and uncles and relatives. I didn't even know I had biological family outside of Shiroka until two months ago. It's been a major change and adjustment. Shiroka lost her right to ever be called my mother. She tortured me. She broke half of the bones in my hand. She stalked me. I'm still trying to recover from what happened. I'm not saying that Suzu is the same as Shiroka, but she has a problem, it just happens to be one of the same ones." I said and I saw something flash through his eyes and puzzle pieces fell in place. "You knew. Maybe not all along, but you knew about it for a while."

"I thought I could help her. She was doing better. She just had a slip up." He said, the wall he put up starting to crumble.

"She got better at hiding it. There's only so much you can do to help a person who doesn't want help. Once she gets sober, maybe she'll have a clearer state of mind and will be more committed to staying clean. That's not on you, though." I told him and he shook his head.

"She doesn't need a rehab facility." He said and I looked at him sadly.

"It could help her a lot. There's a difference between the help you want and the help you need. She might want your help and her husbands help because it's easier, it's family, she has more control. But a controlled facility where she's made to face the reality, it might be what she needs."

"You wouldn't get it, you're just a kid." He mumbled, leaning against the railing. I moved next to him, standing the same way.

"I tried to kill myself when I was twelve. I was done. I was found and rushed to the hospital before anything could happen. Even after that, there were times where I still wanted to end it all. To give up. Some of those thoughts were serious. I didn't want help. But I needed it. I hated myself for a long time because I still had thoughts and I still wanted to hurt myself even after I saw the looks on my parents faces when I woke up in the hospital." I told him solemnly. "It wasn't until the building collapsed on me that I had my major wake up call. I thought I was going to die, and my heart stopped twice on the table. At that point, I wasn't actively trying or planning anything, but it made me realize that I wanted to live. So yeah, I'm just a kid, but I get it."

"You had a building collapse on you?"

"It was more an old yakuza planted bombs and tried to kill me but failed, but yeah." He huffed out a breath and stood up a little straighter.

"I just wanna see her be okay." He told me and I nodded.

"I get it. She's not like Shiroka, but she needs the help that she never got." He licked his lips and took a deep breath.

"She used to be really good friends with her and Azuna." He told me.

"I kinda already put together that she got Shiroka started on drugs." I told him and he looked at me confused. "I can read people. I can also tell when most people are lying. I freaked out your wife with it, too."

"Right, the whole uh, curious or cross checking thing." He said and I nodded.

"Yeah." I slowly stood up and got ready to go back inside. "I'm gonna head back in. Take your time to collect yourself."

"Can you ask Azuna to come out here?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll ask her for you." I said and grabbed the door handle. "And just so you know, if you ever try and disrespect my family like that again, you'll regret it." I told him and walked back inside. I took a deep breath before walking back to the kitchen. Everyone looked at me, all with different emotions on their faces. "Uh, Azuna, he was wondering if you could go out there for a few minutes." I said and she nodded. I outreached my hands for Sota and she let out a deep breath, clearly relaxed at that aspect. I sat him on one of my legs and alternated between taking a bite of food and giving him a bite of his purée blend stuff. It looked like mushed carrots.

"You seem to be a natural with kids." Keiko said, pulling my attention away from my fork that I was grabbing.

"I've had a few people tell me that. So, yeah, I- I guess I am." I managed to get out and she smiled at me sweetly.

"It's a good trait to have." She told me and I returned the smile.

"Just wait, with the color of his purée, next thing you know he'll be trying to eat our hair." Shikadai remarked and I couldn't help but laugh. Sota was laughing too and I noticed Pops take a picture.

"Keiko's right, you've always been a natural with kids. You're the main person to get Kota to smile." Pops said and Denki nodded in agreement.

"Who's Kota?" Raiden asked.

"I think I got this." Denki said and I couldn't stop my smile as he started thinking about it. "Mandalay and the rest of the Wild, Wild, Pussycata are honorary relatives..?" He paused and turned to me, I nodded and he gained some more confidence. "Kota is.. Mandalay's cousins son, his parents.. passed in the line of duty, so he's Onryo's honorary nephew."

"That's a lot." Raiden mumbled and I nodded. "So why are you the only one to really get this kid to smile?"

"As you can imagine, Kota has had it rough and grief is still new for him. Onryo more managed to connect with him on a level that not many of us have been able to despite our efforts." Dad explained as gently as he could.

"Well, it's good that he has Onryo in his life." Kazumi said softly.

"We're all thankful for that, I believe." Dad confirmed.

We all eventually moved out to the living room and it didn't take long for Sota to fall asleep on me. His breathing steadied out and I felt his body weight drop. Denki's eyes were focused on me, a faint blush stained on his face and I looked at him confused but he only blushed more.

"It looks like he wanted to take a nap." Azuna said as she stood in the doorway to the living room. "Do you mind putting him in his pack and play? I'd take him off of you, but I don't want to chance waking him up. He's been fighting nap time this whole week." I nodded along to what she said and slowly stood up, an arm under his thighs and a hand cradling the back of his head.

I followed her to his play room and carefully laid him down. I waited, holding my breath in hopes that he would stay asleep and I let out a breath in victory when he only stretched but otherwise, enjoyed his nap.

"Thank you. That takes a weight off of me, he's been a terror at nap time lately. Looks to be he's falling back into a rhythm though."

"Sleep is a mysterious thing that we all need." I said and she nodded.

"While I have you here, I got some of those pictures you asked for." She whispered and I looked at her excited. She handed me an envelope and I gingerly opened it, almost hesitantly.

I let out a stuttered breath as I saw pictures I never thought could even exist. I flipped through the sonogram photos, all appropriately marked for how far along the pregnancy was until I saw pictures from the day I was born. Emotions I could never have prepared myself for hit me like a brick.

There was a picture of me screaming and crying, a dusting of topaz hair sitting on my otherwise bald head. A picture of me sound asleep in one of the cribs in the hospital with my baby blanket swaddled around me. There were a few others thrown in there and I didn't bother trying to stop the tear from falling down my face.

"Thank you." I whispered as I pulled Azuna into a hug, clearly shocking her at the action but she didn't object.

"You're welcome, and if you're getting emotional, I'm sure your parents are going to be just as choked up, even your stone cold Dad." She said and I laughed a little. "We better get back out there. So if you want these to be a surprise, I suggest you hide them." I nodded and slipped them in my hoodie pocket, placing my phone on top of them to hide edges of papers.

"I know. What uh, what time is it? Hold on." I said and checked my phone. "Shit, I have therapy in ten minutes. I gotta head out or Recovery Girl will have my head on a stick. I'll make sure to work on it tonight so I have it down for tomorrows practice." I told her and she gave me a thumbs up. I put my guitar back on it's stand, gave Denki a kiss on the cheek and practically sprinted to the school grounds.

"Tsukare, it's good to see you, dear. Come in, have a seat." Recovery Girl said once I got there. I took a deep breath and got settled in a chair. "I heard you and your brother passed your tests yesterday and have your driving permits. Congratulations." She started and I smiled awkwardly, managing to mumble a small 'thank you'. "Now, what's been going on? And don't you try and tell me nothing, I've been alive longer than your parents combined, I've seen it all and I know that look." She said and I nodded slowly, swallowing the lump that formed in my throat. "Bit by bit, give me the run down then we'll break it down." She reminded me.

"Jirou wants me to sing with her for the festival since we're doing a concert, and I shut down on Monday when everyone was trying to talk to me about it and standing around the couch I was sitting on so I went and took a shower because I thought maybe giving myself a little bit of alone time in a somewhat productive way would be better than shutting down and locking myself in my room or something, but then I had a flashback of one of my foster homes and I think I get why I have stage fright now but I like hot showers but I turned the water on too high and I think I accidentally relapsed with it and Denki saw my back after and he was really worried but now I keep messing up in band practice." I said all in one breath and she looked at me in disbelief. "Sorry, I kinda word vomited." I said and she gave my hand a small pat.

"Okay, one thing at a time. We are circling around to that back of yours though for something else. Let's start with the flashback. What was it about exactly?" She asked and I took a shaky breath, my hands starting to tap against my leg since I didn't have a fidget toy.

"Uh, one of my first few foster families, the second or third one that got violent." I started, explaining more on what happened.

"I see how that could connect to your stage fright. I'm starting to think it's not actually stage fright, but more of a trauma response, dear." She said but I shook my head. "Yes, now hush up and let me explain before you look at me like I'm looney tunes. How long did it take for you to feel comfortable playing in front of your family despite how excited you were to learn more instruments?"

"A while." She nodded along and I started to see where she was going with it.

"Why didn't you want them to hear you play?" She asked and I took a deep breath.

"I was scared, I guess, scared that they were going to hate it and regret it, regret me for being a disappointment, someone that wasn't good enough to keep around." I admitted and she gave me the look I knew all too well by now.

"How did you feel when your friends heard you play?"

"I was nervous. Worried. I was scared of being judged." I said, trying to figure out the best way to word my emotions.

"I believe this is less stage fright and more of a trauma response, Tsukare." She said and I grew silent, staring at the ground. "Now, the hot water, you said you think you accidentally relapsed?"

"It was hot enough for me to feel it and after I got out, I realized that I accidentally chased the itch to relapse. I just wanted to relax more and feel something but I didn't realize I was hurting myself." Chiyo sat there for a moment and mulled it over.

"In my opinion, there's still parts of your brain that muddle the two feelings together. Harming yourself is addicting to you, it gives you a bit of a rush, and your brain still craves that bit of a rush however it can get it."

"That makes sense I guess."

"Do you still have thoughts of hurting yourself?"

"Not right now, aside from the other day, I've been doing good at not acting on anything."

"Okay. I won't tell your parents. I know this wasn't something you intended to do, I would say this was an accident. I'm proud of you for telling me and being honest." She said and I rubbed my neck awkwardly. "We're going to go out to the cots and I need you to sit on one. I'm going to check for how your back might be fairing in nerve damage." I took a deep breath but followed her out of her personal office and sat myself on the cot. I slowly took off my shirt and sat nervously. I watched as she grabbed a few different things and set them on her tray. "I want you to tell me if you feel something soft or sharp, and if you feel something cold, warm or hot. Can you feel my hand, dear?"

"Kinda? It's weird, I can feel the sensation more than actually feel your hand if that makes sense. Parts of it I can fully feel your hand, other parts I can't."

"Okay. Tell me what you feel now." She said and I thought about it, even asking her to do it again.

"Soft?"

"And this?"

"...Cold."

We went through this multiple times on different parts of my back before she came around the cot and I could tell by the look on her face what she was going to say.

"It's not looking good?" She rested a hand on mine and I nodded, ignoring the tears coming to the surface from the stress and frustration.

"I'm going to go call up your parents and get them down here." I nodded once and stayed seated, staring at my hands while she called them. It wasn't long before they came in, Chiyo tapped my arm and pointed to them once they arrived so I would turn around.

"What's going on? Little listener, are you okay?" Pops asked quickly and I nodded.

"Why don't you both have a seat." She said softly. Pops sat down next to me, an arm wrapped around my shoulders while his left hand held Dad's. "Tsukare had an incident the other day with some hot water. He put it a little too hot and it raised some concern with a classmate of his. But that raised a bit of concern with me given the state of his back. I did a sensory test to see and it looks like he has a bit of nerve damage in his back. I noticed parts of his back were perfectly fine or faring better than other spots, however I'd like for you to make an appointment with his neurologist for further testing and diagnosing, I'm not at liberty to do such things."

"Is it from.." Pops started but faltered once he saw Recovery Girl nod.

"I suspect it's from the years of physical abuse he endured as a child. How a medical professional hasn't caught this sooner, I'm unsure. It should have been caught when he was much younger, however a handful of things were overlooked in his youth." I sat there and listened, my face blank as I stared at the tiles on the floor.

"We'll call and make an appointment with his neurologist as soon as possible." Dad told her and she nodded in approval.

"Tsukare, dear, I do want to ask, why didn't you say anything about your back not having that much feeling in it?" Chiyo asked me, my parents turning towards me as they waited for an answer.

"I didn't know." I said plainly, my voice holding no weight or emotion behind it. "I don't remember a time when it wasn't really like that, I thought it was normal. Especially because I have a high pain tolerance. I didn't know this wasn't normal." Pops looked ready to cry and I wanted to hide myself from the potential reality. "I uh, I'm gonna go blow off some steam." I mumbled and gave my dad's each a hug before leaving. I held my shirt tightly in my hand as I made my way down the halls to the fitness rooms and took a deep breath when I saw Takai walking down the hallway. His eyes darted to me before growing into the size of UFO's, he started walking towards me and I gripped my shirt tighter.

"Woah, are you okay? What happened?" He asked as his eyes bounced between my multitude of scars.

"Don't. I don't wanna talk about it. Just drop it and leave me alone."

"I can't just leave it alone when you look like you've been through hell. Who did this to you?" He pressed and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Takai, just drop it." I bit out but he followed me.

"Swee- Tsukare, I know what those are from. I can't just drop it. What happened?" He asked again, pressing more and I could feel my eye starting to twitch as I stopped walking. I turned around as his hand reached out to grab me but he slowly retracted it.

"What happened is in the past and quite frankly, none of your business. So please just drop it and leave me alone." I gritted out and he faltered. I went to turn around, but his hand grabbed my wrist. I promptly shook it off and glared at him.

"I want to be in the hero course and a hero wouldn't just leave it alone. So what happened?" I scoffed and shook my head.

"Like I said, it is none of your business. At least my friends in the hero course can respect that. So just drop it. Forget you ever saw me today." I snapped and turned around, I stormed off towards the weight room and let the door slam behind me. I texted the group chat to let everyone know where I was if they needed me and got to wrapping my hands.

I may be driven by anger right now, but I'd be damned if I fucked up my hands too much to break my promise to Jirou.

I plugged my phone into the speaker and blasted rock music, put in my mouth guard as an extra precaution, and went to the machine. It was a training machine based on what people in the UFC and MMA used to train with, a stand with different pads to strike to resemble the main areas to hit a person, except this one was programmed to hit back based on multiple sensors throughout the padding.

I took a deep breath, hoping to focus myself, before letting out my building anger on the training equipment. I sent the first strike, a classic right hook and slowly built up a pace with the automatic sparring partner.

Dodge. Hit. Kick. Dodge. Dodge. Upper cut. Jab. Block. Kick. Dodge.

This went on for well over twenty minutes, I wasn't sure how much time had passed anymore. All the while, my frustration only grew further. I hated this. So much of this, I despised with my very soul. I used it to stay in the zone. To express all of my emotions with every hit.

Eventually, I went to get a sip of water and was shocked to see Denki, Hitoshi, Kiri, Hanta, Mina and Bakugou all standing there. I took out my mouth guard, put it in its case and tried to form a sentence.

"Your ears are out, dumbass. Ya didn't even hear these extras yelling for ya."

"Sorry. I was kinda in the zone." I mumbled, taking a sip of water.

"What happened?" Hitoshi asked and I could feel the emptiness settle again as my heart calmed down and my blood stopped rushing.

"Just spit it out, earbleed. These dumbasses dragged me here, at least make it worth somethin'."

"I bumped into Takai in the hallway, he saw my scars and tried interrogating me." I said, swerving around the main issue.

"And?" Hitoshi pressed. I licked my lips and took another sip of my water, hoping to bide my time.

"He already told us though." Mina said and my brother shook his head.

"No. He's my brother. I can tell." He said and she looked baffled.

"As one of the other ones here with siblings, I can agree. You can usually tell when your sibling isn't saying everything," Hanta told her.

"What else happened?" Denki asked, a soft look on his face.

"Recovery Girl said my back most likely has nerve damage. I won't know how much or the severity until I go to the neurologist." I said plainly, my voice bland and monotonous. Everyone seemed to shut down, not knowing what to say to that. "Look, it's whatever, I'll be fine." I mumbled, trying my hardest to wave it off as something minimal. I walked over and grabbed my phone, seeing that a lot of them had texted the group chat in response and I had been here for over an hour. Denki slowly walked up to me and cupped my face.

"Let's get you cleaned up." He said and I looked at him confused. "Your lip is split open."

"Shit. It's probably from when I spaced out earlier, the machine must've hit the same spot that asswipe did this weekend." I mumbled, starting to notice the pain. He rubbed my cheekbone before dropping his hands entirely and letting me get my things. I tossed on my shirt from earlier and stared at my phone when I saw a notification from instagram.

Takai.Surei wants to send you a message.

I felt my blood run cold.

I barely even used the app. I mostly used it to watch and send cute animal videos to Denki and my family, or to watch videos of pro's with Izuku.

I quickly pocketed my phone and looked up to everyone else in the room. Kiri looked ready to work out and by the looks of it, he was going to.

"I'm gonna stay with Kiri, keep him some company." Hanta said and I gave him a thumbs up. My assumption was correct. Mina looked confused about something, Bakugou looked bored, Hitoshi looked tired as usual and Denki was entranced by one of his spare fidget toys.

"Are you still going to Dad and Pops'?" Hitoshi asked while signing, effectively catching Denki's attention.

"Yeah, but after I clean up and stuff." I mumbled and he nodded once.

Denki delicately grabbed my hand, our fingers weaving together perfectly. I let my brain shut off for a little bit, my boyfriend keeping me grounded enough to reality to make it back to the dorms. He slowly guided us to the washroom on the first floor, I stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do as he moved around. He grabbed the first aid kit and set it on the counter near the sinks, digging through it to pull a few things out.

He held out his hand again, silently asking me to come over to him. Once I got close enough, he picked me up and set me on the counter. I let out a soft, semblance of a laugh, my hands finding his shoulders to steady myself.

"I'm okay." I whispered and he licked his lips before speaking.

"I just want to help however I can." He admitted.

"I probably stink. I worked up a sweat." I told him and he shrugged.

"Nothing smells as bad as one of my nieces diapers." He said, adding in a dramatic shudder.

"You have a niece?" He nodded and grabbed the packaged alcohol wipe, some gauze and a small tube of antibacterial. He moved and stood between my legs now that everything he needed was laid out on the counter.

"Yeah. I haven't seen her since the summer." He said and I let him clean my busted lip. I hissed in pain once the alcohol wipe made contact with the open wound. "I know, I'm sorry, baby." My hands fell to his hips and I took a deep breath. He grabbed a piece of gauze and wiped up the stray bits of blood, delicately cleaning around it until he grabbed the tube of antibacterial and a cotton swab, gingerly spreading a bead of it on the cut.

"Thank you." I mumbled and he placed a kiss on my cheek.

"Any time, babe."

"I should probably get to my parents place. They're.. probably worried right now. I kinda dipped out and shut down right after Chiyo told all of us about the damage." I explained weakly and he nodded. His arms wrapped around my waist and he buried his head in my chest. My arms gently wrapped around his shoulders and I placed a kiss on top of his head.

We sat there for a few minutes, simply enjoying each others company and relaxing a bit. I felt my shoulders slouch and my back loosen, half of the tension escaping my body in a breath. My jaw was no longer clenched, my muscles weren't as taught, and even though it was only for a few minutes, I felt like I could take a proper breath without fear of drowning.

He slowly stood up, moving so I could get down. My brother stood there, waiting outside of the washroom before he walked with me to our parents place. We walked in and our Pops walked out of the kitchen while Dad walked out of the bedroom. I put my hearing aids on the spare charger and stood there awkwardly, unknowing of how to start whatever conversation they wanted to have.

"I think I'm gonna take a shower, I kinda stink right now." I mumbled, signing loosely with what I said.

"Woah, hold on, little listener. What happened to your lip?" Pops asked, turning on the living room light to get a better look.

"The revamped MMA sparring thing. I lost my focus for a second. I'm fine, doesn't even hurt." I brushed off, not wanting anyone to worry over something minimal. "Can I borrow some of your clothes? I forgot to bring some." I asked softly, redirecting the conversation. He nodded once and I bee lined to their bedroom.

I grabbed one of Dad's black hoodies and a pair of Pops' sweats before heading to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and let it warm up a little before stepping in. As soon as I did, I felt my chest lock up and my finger tips start to tingle.

'What if I burn myself again?'

'Can I not trust myself to shower? Or even enjoy them anymore?'

'I just need to rush through this and worry about it later.'

'Stop panicking. Not in danger.'

I rushed through the lukewarm shower, dried off, got dressed and sped over to the kitchen to take my panic attack meds. I put my arms up, crossed them behind my head and tried to focus on steadying my breathing. Dad walked to the doorway of the kitchen and looked at me, waiting for me to start once my head was back to my body.

Panic attack.

Do you know what triggered it?

Maybe? I think? I'm not sure.

Okay. Whenever you're ready, we want to talk a bit about earlier. Just to keep you in the loop.

Let's get this show on the road.

He walked up to me and gave me a hug, somewhat squishing me, but I found comfort in it before we went to go have a small family talk.

"Hitoshi, has your brother filled you in on what happened?" Dad asked as we all sat down. I took my spot on the floor in front of the couch, Pops decided to join me this time while Dad and Toshi sat on the couch.

"He told me about Takai and the nerve damage." He said and our parents turned to me, curious as to what he meant.

"Can we talk about him after?" I asked weakly and Dad nodded.

"Little listener, do you wanna talk about how you're feeling instead of shutting it out?" Pops asked and I took a deep breath, fidgeting with the ends of the sleeves in my lap as I tried to organize my thoughts.

"I'm... mad, and aggravated. Not with anyone around me but just, in general. It's just another shitty situation. I'm mad at myself, for not realizing it sooner. And the fact that this means more doctors appointments and more tests and maybe more medication. It's just frustrating." I managed to explain while signing.

"What do you mean by not realizing sooner?" Hitoshi asked, clearly confused on how I worded it.

"I always take hot showers. It helps me relax. I didn't- I didn't think that it was abnormal to walk out of a shower with my back red. Between how many hot showers I take and my high pain tolerance, I just, I didn't think anything of it. I always knew my back was fucked but I didn't know it was this bad." I whispered, the emotions that I was trying to ignore piling to the surface.

"Which is why we'd also like for you to get checked out, Hitoshi." Dad said, taking a lead on the conversation. "I'm not too concerned about my back, seeing as how my parents didn't turn to physical abuse until after I told them I was gay and I stayed out of the house as much as possible for the last few years. On top of the fact not many people have been able to sneak up behind me on patrol."

"I'm pretty sure I have a bit of nerve damage. I wouldn't be surprised if I had some, but my back is very sensitive to touch. So I'm considering talking to a doctor, just to know if I have any permanent damage." Pops said and I nodded, taking in what he said. I fidgeted more with the sleeves of the hoodie, my anxiety from earlier returning. "Hey, what's going on, little listener?" Pops asked, immediately noticing my change in demeanor.

"How do I know when to trust my gut?" I asked quietly.

"Is this about Takai?" Hitoshi asked me and I nodded.

"I bumped into him in the hallway earlier and I didn't have my shirt on. He kept pressing on what happened and I told him to leave it alone and just forget he ever saw me today, but I just- I have a bad feeling.. in my gut. I don't know what it is but I just have a really bad feeling about him seeing it."

"My best suggestion would be to keep your guard up around him until it's safe to relax. This could be a bit of paranoia and insecurity over him seeing for all we know. If it isn't, and something does happen, then you're prepared and can handle it better." Dad told me slowly and I nodded.

"Okay." I said and took a deep breath. "Okay. That makes sense."

"We made appointments for both of you next week." Dad followed up with and I flopped backwards. Mittens jumped on my chest and I cradled her as I sat up. "Are you ready for Sota's party tomorrow?"

"Should be lovely." I said sarcastically.

"Why did Fumikoto invite us?" He asked and I shrugged.

"Do I have to go? No offense, but I want to enjoy my friday relaxing a bit." Hitoshi asked and I looked at our parents.

"We'll make an excuse for you." Dad said and Hitoshi let out a deep breath.

"I'm excited for it! It could be fun." Pops said and I looked at him plainly. "Don't look at me like your Dad! I'm serious!"

"Is Denki still allowed to come?"

"Of course!" Pops cheered, clearly very excited about this.

"Okay, cool." I said, relaxing a bit.

"It's nice seeing you so happy with someone." Pops said and I smiled awkwardly, not knowing what to say to that. "Toshi, how's it going with the green bean?" He asked and Hitoshi went bright red.

"We're still friends." He said and Pops nodded, clearly wanting more.

"Come on, I want to be able to have boy talk with you, too." Pops pleaded and Hitoshi sighed.

"I like him. A lot. And I don't think he likes me in that way. So I'm just going to stay friends until he says something or I have reason to think otherwise." Hitoshi said and Pops groaned.

"You are the carbon copy of your father." He said and Dad nodded once.

"And Onryo is your carbon copy, Sunshine. I think he took after me, however, in the emotional vulnerability department."

"That I did." I said, shooting him a finger gun.

"I lied. He's your carbon copy, through and through."

"Random, but do we know when Eri's moving in here?" I asked and Hitoshi perked up hearing that as well.

"We don't have an official day, but we're aiming for a week or two after the festival. Which means next weekend, your Pops and I are going to head back home so the renovations can be made here for Eri's room." Dad explained.

"That's going to be weird, like, not having both of you two minutes away." I said and Hitoshi nodded.

"Yeah, but I guess it would be similar to spending the weekend at Izuku's in a sense."

"I guess. It's just gonna be weird." I said, not entirely unsettled by it, but it was still setting in. "Anyways, you two can have boy talk. I have to go practice this part of the song." I tried to get out of anymore serious talks but Dad quickly stopped me.

"Go have some dinner, I know you just took your meds on an empty stomach. Hitoshi, if you haven't had dinner or if you're still hungry, get some food. There's leftovers, or we could make something." Dad said and I nodded softly.

"Or we could go somewhere! Go out and have a little family dinner?" Pops suggested and we all agreed.

"Oh! Hey, Togata!" Midoriya yelled, making me looking over to where he was waving. Mirio was hiding in the bushes, Eri stepping more into view and I bit my tongue so I didn't laugh when he stuck his butt through the leaves behind the small girl, while Dad stood on the other side of the bush.

I couldn't help but smile seeing her here, it was a great surprise. I crouched down and opened up my arms, hesitantly she made her way over, clearly wary of all the eyes on her before she ran the last bit and jumped into my arms.

"Hi, Eri! I love your dress, it looks great!"

"Thank you." She mumbled before letting go so I could stand, but she still stayed next to me.

"Eri!" Izuku said as him, Uraraka, Tsu and Ojiro came over.

"Hi, Deku."

"Wait, don't tell me you've got a secret kid!" Ojiro said and I started laughing.

"That dress looks great on you." Tsu said.

"You. Are. Precious!" Uraraka exclaimed.

"We got full permission from the principal." Dad said and I couldn't contain my excitement. "In order to avoid additional stress, we're letting Eri explore the campus before the festival."

"That's a good idea." I said and he nodded once.

"Well hello. You must be Eri from the work study. Very nice to meet you. I'm Iida." Iida said and she stared at him before sliding behind me, gripping onto her bag tighter.

"She's kinda shy." Mirio explained and I nodded. He went on to explain how he wanted to show her as much of campus as possible and extended the offer to Izuku and I.

"Dance team! New idea!" Kirishima yelled as he opened the door, freezing in his tracks when he saw Eri. "It's Eri!" He exclaimed, rushing over to us. "We were never actually introduced, were we?"

"Okay team! Why don't we grab a little break!" Mina cheered and we all agreed. "It's tea time!"

Since most of the class decided to have a snack break, I used the time to walk around with Mirio, Izuku and Eri. We walked down a few hallways first, showing her the classrooms and introduced her to a few students. We slowly made our way outside, a majority of the students were already setting up and carrying supplies. Izuku was marveling at the sight.

"I keep forgetting this is everyone's first festival in our year except for Toshi and I. Set up is always chaotic, we have to outdo the previous year." I told him, a small smile making its way on my face when Eri held onto my hand. Less of my hand and more my pointer finger.

"Totes! Tsukare's right, and you really gotta work hard to pull off something Plus Ultra." Mirio added and I nodded, my attention straying as a dragon was being ran toward us, Eri jumping back as small amount.

"Sorry! Hey, it's Midoriya and Tsukare from Class A!" Tetsutetsu said, leaning over to see us.

"How's it going, Tetsu?" I said kindly.

"Why am I not surprised, huh? You're walkin' around like you've got nothing to do while we're all hustling." Monoma said, clearly just trying to antagonize.

"Eri, are you okay?" Izuku and I asked her at the same time. I crouched down beside her but she was staring at the dragon in awe.

"I thought it was that dragon from before." She said and I thought about what she meant.

"You saw a dragon?" Izuku voiced my thoughts.

"Oh. You're talking about Ryukyu." I said, finishing them.

"So you're just gonna ignore me?" Monoma pressed.

"So the dragon you saw was actually a hero. Her name is Ryukyu. She's a nice dragon. This is a nice dragon too, but this one isn't real." I explained, loudly ignoring the annoying blond.

"Talk about rude." He said, the crazy look coming back in his eye. "I heard Class A is doing a concert or something for us. That's so cute. But to put it bluntly, Class B's stellar performance is gonna make you wish you hadn't even shown up." Monoma said, slowly inching closer to my green haired friend. "We're doing Romeo and Juliet and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Return of the King. It's a completely original play written by us. A super spectacular fantasy epic! You should make sure you come prepared. Bring a hankie to wipe the tears from your eyes when you realize how superior we are!" He managed to yell before dissolving into a cackling fit. I saw Awase sneaking up with a stick so I turned Eri around and covered her eyes for extra measure when Monoma got knocked out.

"Sorry about that, guys. Kendo isn't around, so there's no one to keep him in line." Awase said, picking up Monoma.

"Hey, I'm Mineta." I heard someone say and I looked down to find the grape head talking to Eri, the girl scooting closer to my leg. "I can tell you're gonna grow up nice." He said and I guided her to Midoriya. He covered her eyes again while I picked up the perv by the back of his shirt, lifting him to my eye level.

"Listen here. You talk to my sister again, you touch her, you look at her, hell, you even breathe in her direction. I will unleash the nine levels of biblical hell on you before you can even fathom a thought about scurrying back to the cave you crawled out of. I will ask you one time, do I make myself clear or do I have to repeat myself." I seethed, watching as he started shaking.

"Loud and clear." He trembled and I dropped him back on the ground.

"Move it." I barked and he took off running. "So where is Kendo? I noticed she wasn't here." I asked Tetsutetsu.

"She's off prepping for the beauty pageant. I'm sure she's gonna win! We're all gonna be there cheering her on!" He said and I smiled softly.

"Well, I wish her luck." I said and waved goodbye to him. "Mirio, is Nejire going again?" I asked and he nodded.

"The Big Three's Best Girl, I wouldn't watch if she wasn't in it! We gotta cheer her on!" He said and I agreed.

"Hey, I'm gonna head back, I've missed the last few days so I have a lot to catch up on." I said, rubbing the back of my neck before crouching back down to Eri's level. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay." She mumbled and I gave her a hug. She returned the gesture and I made my way back to the dorms.

The next hour, I spent practicing with the band. Thankfully, Momo made a back up guitar for Denki and I to practice the switch out, that way we weren't sacrificing anything early on.

"Tsukare, would you mind helping me finally conquer my musical enemy?" Tokoyami asked as we started doing more solo practice, working on getting our parts down.

"Sure."

"Mind if I join?" Denki asked and I gestured for him to sit by me.

"I'm going out on a limb, but I take it having smaller hands made the dreaded 'F' even harder?" I asked and he hung his head.

"You'd be correct."

"Okay, so, I've been bordering on having baby hands most of my life, it's not going to change. It's something I've accepted. But if Iida showed you, it'd be easier for him. Cause his hands are larger. So show me your 'F', you don't have to play it. Just show me how you put your hand." He slowly did so, checking his form and I could see his frustration starting to build. "Okay, so you'll find what works for you, but just to get you in the mindset of adjusting to your body, try holding the neck how I do." I suggested, showing him the angle I put my hand at. It wasn't a major change, it was so minor it blended right in, but the small change of angle gave me more room to get to the chord I needed. "Can I?" I asked awkwardly, gesturing to his hand and he nodded. I helped angle his hand how I meant and he hummed.

"That makes more sense. I feel foolish for not thinking of that sooner."

"My Pops is a rocker pro hero with his own radio show who taught me how to play. It would've taken me ages to figure out if he didn't suggest that." I admitted.

"That makes me feel slightly more content in my lack of realization."

"I'd say the next step, is practice just switching your hand from one chord to the death sentence. That way you get a better feel for it and it becomes more natural."

"Thank you. I shall let you know how my progress goes." I gave him a thumbs up and went back to my guitar, slightly strumming to the half where I came in.

"You're a good teacher." Denki said after a few minutes, a smile falling on my lips.

"I try. I just don't like seeing people struggle more than anything." I explained and he leaned back.

"Me too, but I'm usually not much help, I don't know much book smart wise." He told me and I set the guitar in my lap, giving him my full attention.

"I think you're smart." I told him honestly and he shook his head.

"You're the smart one in this relationship." He said and I paused.

"Something my parents told me years ago that I still believe is that there's three types of smart. Common sense, street smarts and book smarts. Very few people in the world have all of them. Occasionally, people have two, and there's a decent chunk of people who have none. So if you even have one, you're doing pretty good smarts wise. So I think you're pretty smart." I told him and watched as his features softened.

"You think so?" He asked and I nodded, reaching up a hand to cup his cheek, my thumb rubbing back and forth across his cheekbone.

"Of course."

"Okay love birds, back to practicing." Jirou called out, effectively making both of us freeze for a moment before we returned to our instruments.

Denki and I kept practicing our guitar toss, slowly adding distance between us with the last dance move I would be doing before we switched spots. I didn't even realize when my hearing aids died, I was more invested in perfecting this as best as we could for future practices.

We practiced for another hour and a half before sitting back down on one of the couches. I was talking with my brother until I saw him point to my boyfriend.

I don't know enough to interpret everything yet. Jirou started talking and didn't notice your hearings aids died.

"What's up, Jirou?" I asked, watching as she walked over in front of us.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this but Kaminari, I need your help convincing Tsukare on something." She said with a hand on her hip. "Shinsou, I might need your help too."

"What's up?" Denki asked her while signing.

"I want Tsukare to sing with me, just the part of the chorus after he jumps in with the guitar. I figured if we're pulling out all the stops, we should actually pull out all the stops. And he has a good set of pipes, but I'm asking for your help on convincing him." She said and I sighed, having a feeling this is what she was going to ask them, especially when she asked my brother for help.

"Tsukare can sing?" Todoroki asked, popping into the conversation.

"Technically yes, singing is merely the ability to hold a musical note, so therefore everyone can sing to some degree on that technicality. But I'm not good at it." I told him and he stayed quiet.

"You're singing is great. Shut up." Jirou said, pointing a finger at me.

"Tsukababes, Jirou's right, you can sing." Mina told me and I took a deep breath.

"I'm staying out of this." My brother said, walking into my line of sight. "Yes, he can sing. But I'm not going to push him on something he isn't comfortable with."

"Thank you." I said and he paused.

"I think he should sing, but I won't be involved in swaying him." He added quickly before walking away.

"Traitor!" I yelled after him and he gave me a thumbs up. "Look, I.. appreciate that you think I would be a good addition. But I can't."

"Can't or won't?" Bakugou pressed and I looked at him, dumbfounded for a moment. "It's a simple question, earbleed. You can't or you won't?"

"I can't." I whispered and he rolled his eyes.

"You won't. Don't bullshit. You're too scared to."

"Yeah, I'm scared. I'm fucking scared shitless. I haven't denied that once. I have.. horrible stage fright. Even agreeing to go on stage and play an instrument is way out of my comfort zone, but I just, I can't. Okay?" Everyone fell silent and the amount of people standing around the couch was starting to feel suffocating. "I'm going to go take a shower." I mumbled and made my way to my room. I grabbed a random shirt and sweats, along with my shower caddy and a towel before sneaking back downstairs, ignoring the sets of eyes on me.

I took a deep breath, stepping into the stream of hot water. I rested my forearms on the wall, leaning there for support as my muscles relaxed and I let my mind wander.

"What did you do in school today?" My foster father asked begrudgingly after I got back from school. It was my second day there, my third or fourth foster home when I was only five years old.

We played instruments, I really like them. I wrote on the white board my foster mom gave me.

"Sounds fun." He said blandly.

Do you want to hear me play one of them?

"Hear you play one of them?" He asked sarcastically and I weakly nodded, now fearful of how he might respond. "Why would I? You're five, you haven't even learned how to play anything properly. Why would you ask me that?" I went to write something on the board, but he ripped it out of my hands just to chuck it across the room. The sound of something breaking making me curl in on myself. "I don't get to hear you, my potential waste of a son, speak. But you want me to hear you play a silly little instrument?"

"What's going on?" My foster mom asked, walking in the front door.

"Your 'son' is ignorant. That's what's going on." He snapped and she looked at him, deeply offended.

"You watch your mouth, he's done nothing wrong!" She snapped and I watched as he punched her in the jaw, her body falling to the floor.

"Don't you dare speak to me that way." He sneered, glowering at her.

"Onryo, honey, go to your room please." She said and I stood in fear. He went to hit her again but I stood between them.

"Out of my way, runt." He barked at me and I shakily shook my head. My body tensed as he grabbed my wrist, dragging me to the center of the living room while he undid his belt. I bit back my yells and sobs of pain as his violence and temper only grew. "You want to get in my way? Then you're going to take her beating. You want to be a man? Here's your first lesson. Know your place. You're nothing but a stupid fucking kid who's too ignorant to even talk. You think I want to hear you? Let alone hear you play a silly little instrument like you even can? Nobody is ever going to want to hear you. Nobody is going to want to hear you play something. Nobody is going to want to hear you talk. You're a good for nothing, waste of space, little shit of a son. Get that through your head."

I reached an arm back and turned up the heat of the water, wincing when I set it a little too high, but I left it there. I needed to feel something on my back. I needed to drown out the flashbacks and memories. The hurtful words and lashes he gave me. What him and other foster parents drilled into my head.

The lights flashed on and off after a while, I lost track of the time that had passed. Quickly, I washed up, wrapped a towel around my waist, and stepped out of the shower. Denki stood there, waiting patiently.

"Sorry, you were in here for a while and I was starting to get worried. Usually your showers are pretty short." He said and I ran a hand through my wet curls.

"Yeah, sorry, I uh, I got lost in thought. Guess I didn't realize how much time had passed. Let me get dressed real quick." I rushed out and he looked at me curiously. I walked to one of the cubby's, quickly threw on my boxers and sweats, and walked back over to the counter area in front of the mirrors so I could fix my hair. Denki came up behind me and gently rested his hand on my back, his soothing touch cool against my skin.

"Woah, how hot did you have the water? Did that not hurt? That looks painful, baby." He said, looking at me in the mirror. My mouth ran dry as I realized what I had done.

I chased the itch.

"I- uh, it wasn't that hot, I think." I mumbled, I could feel my face lose all of its color, I didn't need to look in the mirror to know. My anxiety spiked and I nervously started wringing my fingers, not daring to look at my boyfriend as his thumb rubbed back and forth on my marred back. The lights flicked on and off, making me look to the door where my brother stood. He wasn't there long, taking quick strides over to us, his eyes staring at my back.

What happened?

Nothing.

My room, now.

I swallowed the lump in my throat nervously, my heart pounding in my chest. Denki passed me my shirt and gave me a kiss on the cheek before I left with my brother. I silently followed him to the elevator and down the hall to his room. He gravitated to his coffee maker and I sat on his bed, legs bent towards my chest while I stared at the blanket I sat on.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled as soon as he sat back down with his mug off coffee, my voice breaking despite how quiet I was. "I don't- I didn't mean to."

"So what happened?" He asked and I tried to steady my emotions, knowing if I didn't talk about it, he'd probably turn this into a family meeting.

"I got overwhelmed. And I felt trapped and I know they weren't trying to make me feel that way but everyone was standing around the couch and I just needed an out so I said I was gonna take a shower. I got stuck in my head, from one of the bad foster homes I was in. And I just, I wanted to feel something and distract my mind, and my back is so used to the hot water and stuff, I can't tell what's too hot most of the time but I could actually feel it all the way, which should've been a sign to me. I just, I wanted to feel something else, and I spaced out. I didn't realize I was chasing the itch." I sniffled, tears starting to pool in my eyes. "The urge, to- to relapse isn't there right now, and I didn't realize. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry." I cried, biting my tongue to stifle my emotions. "I promise I didn't mean to. I promise. I'm sorry." I thought I was doing better with it. I was fighting the urges. I was ignoring the itch in the back of my brain.

Hitoshi pulled me into a firm hug, rubbing my back soothingly until I calmed down a bit. I took a deep breath before leaning back.

"We're just gonna have to keep an eye on it. Is this the first time with the hot water?" He asked gently and I thought about it, trying to see if I ever had any other lapse in judgment with it.

"I don't know. I like hot showers. They're relaxing and it just feels nice on my muscles, especially with how little I've been sleeping. I don't.. I don't think so? I haven't really thought about it before." He nodded slowly.

"Okay. I think you should talk to Chiyo about it. But if it happens again, then I think we should bring it up to Dad and Pops." He said and I nodded.

"I'll talk to Chiyo about it this week."

"Go make your coffee, let's relax for a bit. You looked like you're on the verge of a mental break." He said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes but got up and made myself a cup of coffee, stirring in my creamer and sugar to my liking.

"I think Denki's going to want to talk about it later." I mumbled and Toshi took a sip of his coffee.

"Probably." He said, but pointed to my phone that I didn't realize had buzzed.

From Pikachu <3: Are you okay?

From Pikachu <3: I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I didn't mean to

To Pikachu <3: I'm okay. I'm sorry that I worried you. Toshi pulled me into his room for an impromptu bro talk

Hitoshi grabbed my phone out of my hand and I watched as he typed something. After a brief moment he tossed it back to me and I looked at what he said.

To Pikachu <3: Come to my room. -Shinsou

"Way to be ominous." I mumbled and he rolled his eyes.

"It worked." He said and walked to his door, opening it to reveal my boyfriend, keeled over and panting like he just ran a mile. He held up his pointer finger, taking a few deep breathes before he stood up.

"Is everything okay?" He asked and I slowly nodded, looking at my brother curiously.

"I was about to ask him about how it went with the meeting with Nedzu, figured you'd ask him about it later so I texted you to come here so he won't have to talk about it a dozen times." My brother said and Denki nodded along.

"Monoma is a fucking headache. I can't stand him." I grumbled, waiting as my brother sat back on his bed and Denki sat next to me at the foot of it. "He made a fuss about how I get to have a parent there because our homeroom teachers were there, and he thought he should be able to call his mom in. Vlad explained what happened and Monoma tried to defend himself, saying that because I'm openly gay, that he's at risk changing in the same locker room as me because he feels that I might try to assault or harass him."

"He's a fucking idiot." Hitoshi said, pausing to take a sip of his coffee. "Continue."

"Nedzu asked him why he was concerned with that, and Monoma said something about statistics that was clearly just lied about and Nedzu asked the lovely question of if I had anything I wanted to say."

"Oh gods." My brother mumbled.

"I told him that neither of those things would ever have a chance at happening because I want him to leave me alone. I also told him that the 'statistics' he pulled out of his ass were bullshit and horrendously incorrect. I said that I was actually taught how to respect people growing up and maybe he should take a few lessons on it. I reiterated that I have a boyfriend, who I adore, and would much rather be around than him. I also told him that not every straight girl is attracted to him, therefor not every gay guy would be attracted to him. But to just really pour some salt to the wound I had made on his ego, I told him that if he genuinely felt threatened by me changing in the same locker room as him because he was scared of what I might do to him, I said that I was profoundly sorry for making him feel how almost every single woman in the world does, how one of his classmates makes women feel on an everyday basis, and how someone made me feel at one point in time." Denki and Hitoshi stared at me in disbelief. "He kinda shut down after that, so I went on to explain statistics and he looked like he was going to have a very early midlife crisis."

"What'd Dad do?" Hitoshi asked.

"Well uh, we're going to have a joint class with Class B on how to approach and help victims who have been harassed or assaulted."

"That should be fun." Denki said and I sighed.

"I left after that and I think he's still a little broken, he didn't antagonize me as much as normal when I bumped into him while giving Eri a tour with Mirio."

"Well shit." Hitoshi mumbled and I nodded. "Now that that's over with, both of you go somewhere and talk about whatever, I want to take a nap."

"Love you too." I said and he returned the sentiment. Nervously, I followed Denki into his room and sat at the foot of his bed, my fingers starting to pick themselves apart as my anxiety on the topic grew. My boyfriend slowly grabbed my hands and pulled them apart, waiting for me to look up at him.

"Can we talk about earlier? I'm worried." He said and I nodded.

"I like hot showers, they're.. relaxing and calming but I got stuck in my head. And I turned up the heat, I thought I was just trying to help myself relax in the moment." I mumbled and I watched as his lips pressed together while he searched for the words.

"Can I open up a can of worms for this that we've never really touched on? If it gets like, too uncomfortable for you, just tell me to shut up and I won't bring it up ever again." He rushed out and after a moment of contemplation, I slowly nodded. "I know that you used to hurt yourself, and that you haven't done that in a long time. But I think the hot water today counts as hurting yourself and I don't- I don't want to see you hurting." The guilt churned in my stomach, and I let the words fall out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"I need to tell you something." I whispered, trying to steady my nerves over what I was about to admit to him. He waited patiently as I worked up the courage, whatever I could scrape together to tell him. "I.. I relapsed. About two months ago." I told him and my stomach ripped itself to shreds as I watched his face fall. "I haven't done it since. But the urge is there. A-And I didn't realize it until after you pointed out how the hot water must've hurt that I was chasing that urge, with- with the hot water. I didn't mean to. I'm not trying to make excuses, it hurt a little bit but not a lot, but I can't fully tell because of my pain tolerance and because I always take hot showers, I can't really tell what's too hot." I rambled and he took a moment to collect himself.

"Did something happen that made you want to do that?" He asked softly, his own eyes teary as they bounced back and forth between my hazel ones.

"It was after I came back to the dorms crying. I'm not- I'm not blaming Monoma, because he didn't make me do anything. He told me that I should go try and attempt again and I broke down." I told him and a single tear slid down his cheek.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, and I licked my lips nervously, not knowing how to explain this.

"I didn't want to burden anyone. My family knows, Izuku and Bakugou know. Aside from that, Nedzu and Vlad know because they had to be there for the meeting and Kendo was there when he said it. I just wanted to try and act like it never happened after. I didn't want to keep burdening people, especially the people I care about."

"Onryo." He said, moving his hands to cup my face, his thumbs swiping over the apples of my cheeks to wipe away my tears. "You're never a burden. I promise you aren't." His hands moved down to my thighs, pulling me onto his lap so he could hold me.

"He told me that I should have the League kill me so it actually gets done right and I can get attention." I admitted after a few moments, the guilt of not telling him eating away at me.

"I only recently learned how to fight, but I'll kick his ass." I sniffled and let out a weak laugh.

"I'm sorry. For not telling you sooner."

"No sweat. I'm just glad you did tell me." He said, looking directly at me. I wrapped my arms tighter around him and curled into his sturdy form.

"I'll be okay, just, kinda regretting my decision now." My leg bounced harshly into the floor and I was sure that if I had a strength enhancing quirk, there would be a hole by now. "How many people are going?"

"It's going to be Ren, Keiko, Yuto, Sota, Azuna. Plus Shikadai and his parents, Yuto's parents, Yuto's brother, his wife and kids, Keiko's twin, and a few cousins." I felt my stomach churn as Pops slowly listed more and more people.

"I feel like I'm gonna pass out just hearing that." I grumbled, heavily regretting agreeing now.

"It'll be okay, and if you wanna head out then we can leave early." Denki said gently. I simply nodded and felt my heart stop when I saw the balloons outside this place. The party was being held at the Fumikoto household, a large two story house with a fenced in backyard and the mountains in view.

"You ready?" Dad asked as we got out of the car.

"Not in the slightest." I sighed, reaching through the window to give him a hug.

"You two be safe. Let us know if you need anything. If not, then we'll be back at six." I nodded and grabbed Denki's hand to tether myself to reality. We made our way up to the door, as soon as I rang the doorbell, it opened swiftly to reveal Shikadai standing there with a small smile on his face.

"Hey, come on in." He said warmly, pulling me in for an awkward side hug. "You must be Kaminari! It's great to meet you." I glanced at my boyfriend, his eyes wide as he gathered his bearings.

"It's nice to meet you, sir." He managed to get out, bowing in the process.

"Ah, don't bother with the formalities, Kodoku or Shikadai is just fine." He quickly nodded and we kicked off our shoes, slowly making our way inside the palace of a house. "Onryo and Kaminari are here." Shikdai announced for us, and I wanted to bury myself alive at the attention being placed on us.

"Onryo! It's so good to see you again!" Azuna cheered as she came over, pulling me into a stiff hug. "It's a pleasure to meet you Kaminari, I'm Onryo's Aunt Azuna." My mouth pulled into a tight line, still unsettled with her persistence on how she's addressed.

"Hey Azuna." I mumbled out. Yuto, Ren and Keiko all made their way over, each giving me a hug and introducing themselves to Denki. "Uh, here's Sota's present, is there anywhere I should put it?"

"The table would be lovely, it's just over there. And if you want to place your drawstring in the kitchen so none of the kids reach it, then go ahead." She said, gesturing to the table piled with presents in the corner. I gave my boyfriends hand a squeeze and rushed over there, swung into the kitchen and put my drawstring on the counter out of the way so no kids got into it. I quickly went back and grabbed his hand again. "Oh, Onryo, let me introduce you to everyone. This is Kiyomi, my mother's twin sister. Yuto's parents, Kazuo and Tamayo..." My brain felt foggy as she listed well over a dozen names that I surely wouldn't remember.

"It's nice to meet all of you." I said politely with a small bow.

"So, how do you and Kaminari know each other?" Yuto asked, breaking the ice.

"We're in the same class and he's my boyfriend." I confirmed, watching a lot of the extended family get uncomfortable and some even scoot their kids away. Denki held my hand a little tighter, his nerves clearly starting to kick in as well. Luckily, we had the talk about this before coming here about how I would address him during this for safety reasons.

"Are you two happy together?" Ren asked, chin resting on his knuckles while he propped himself against his knees.

"Yeah." I confirmed with a small nod, Denki nodding quickly beside me.

"Then that's all that matters, dear." Keiko stated with a warm smile. A small weight was lifted off of my shoulders hearing that, relieved that not all of them were perturbed by it.

"You okay?" Denki asked me as we gravitated to the corner, neither of our social batteries high enough for this.

"Yeah, are you?" He nodded and leaned against me.

"Not big party people?" Shikadai asked as he moved over towards us.

"I wasn't expecting this many people, but usually I'm pretty fun at parties." Denki said and I jokingly rolled my eyes, smiling at him.

"I'm not really a party person." I said lightly.

"Me neither, I only go to family parties." Shikadai said. I hummed and nodded.

"Hey babe, I'm gonna go grab a drink, you want something?"

"Can you grab me a soda, please? Any will do." He nodded and placed a swift kiss on my cheek before bouncing off to the kitchen area.

"He seems like a ray of sunshine." Shikadai commented, taking a sip from his own cup.

"Yeah, he honestly is." I said leaning back into the corner more. The tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. So I decided to be the knife. "You can just say what you're thinking, you won't hurt me or anything." He looked at me with wide eyes, clearly unprepared for that.

I never met anyone who was gay until now, so it's a little odd to witness a public coming out moment.

I've been out for a while, it's not something I actively try to hide.

I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to express yourself here.

I'm comfortable with who I am, I'm not comfortable with the stigma people try and latch onto.

What do you mean?

A lot of people think that gay people are naturally predators, and it shows. The second I said Denki is my boyfriend, I saw the looks on their faces and some even moved their kids away.

I didn't realize, I'm sorry.

You don't have to apologize for something you didn't contribute to.

Still, nobody should have to go through that.

You're right, nobody should. But it happens. That's why I don't go out of my way to announce it, if it comes to light, I'm not going to hide who I am, but I'm not going to hold a sign over my head that says 'Homosexual! I have a boyfriend!'

Maybe I can take you to a pride parade so you can.

I laughed lightly at his returned humor, Denki coming back with a cup and a can, passing me the soda.

"Thank you." I said gently, placing a kiss on his cheek.

In all honesty, I don't want you to sugar coat your answer, do you think anyone's going to give us any shit by the end of the party?

A few of them might, but it depends on how much sake they drink to get ballsy enough to do so. However, I know someone brought wine, so it might happen.

Okay, I can handle that.

He went to sign something but stopped when two people came towards us. I couldn't remember their names, but I remembered they were his parents.

"Onryo, it's wonderful to finally meet you." The woman said, coming closer and giving me a hug. The man, using a cane to walk, gave me a pat on my shoulder. "You really do look like our Shikadai, I heard you even got his quirk too."

"Thank you, Mrs. Kodoku, it's great to meet you." I said awkwardly.

"Oh, please, call us grams and gramps or Azami and Raiden, none of that formal crap. We're too old and you're family." I gave her a small smile and nodded. Azami was short, easily four foot eight (142 cm), she had her hair pulled back in a bun and her small rectangular glasses perched on her nose.

"I'm glad to see our quirk still runs strong." Raiden said proudly. The older man was about five foot one (154 cm) and had noticeable gray streaks through his hair.

"So does the height apparently." I said jokingly, watching him crack a smile.

"You have a good sense of humor, I'm glad to hear it. But we aren't hearing much after all." I laughed softly. "You can't fool me, I saw those hearing aids of yours, we all got 'em."

"I think I got 'em the earliest though." He laughed whole heartedly and smiled warmly at me.

"Our genes run strong apparently." He pulled out his wallet and showed me a picture of him and Azami getting married. "Used to look just like ya." Denki and I stared at it in shock. "And now you look just like your dad here." My lips pressed into a firm line hearing this.

"Actually, uh, Onryo doesn't call me Dad." Shikadai said, breaking the ice.

"Oh. Well why not?" He asked and I knew this would be difficult, but Shikadai quickly intervened.

"It would be like if you stopped calling Grandpa Kei 'Dad' cause he's your step father and you just met your birth dad after he finally came back into your life." This seemed to resonate strongly with Raiden, his eyes widening significantly.

"I didn't even think of that, my apologies." He said, bowing in my direction.

"No worries, Raiden. It's alright."

"Onryo, I hear that you're enrolled in U.A. What's that like?" Azami asked politely.

"It's pretty fun, most of the teachers are honorary aunts and uncles to me and my brother, plus our parents are teachers there, so it's not terrible." I stated the half truth, leaving out the bitter details of Takai and Monoma. "We're both in the hero course, actually."

"Oh, isn't that dangerous? I heard about some of the things on the news that's happened. Was that your class or was that the other class?" She continued.

"That was our class, yeah." I confirmed calmly.

"I heard about you getting kidnapped, dear. How are you doing after that?" I bit my lip and Denki squeezed my hand.

"I'm doing better." I said softly.

"Would you excuse us for a moment?" Denki intervened, the three nodding along oblivious to the visceral reaction my body was going through. He walked us down the hallway and pulled me into a hug. "You're okay, baby. Just ignore them." He whispered to me.

"I just wish everyone would forget that happened, they aren't even supposed to know that much." He nodded and held me close.

"I know, babe. To take your mind off it, can I say something? Just once and I'll never say it again." I nodded, confused at where this was going. "You and Shikadai and Raiden, holy shit you three look so much alike. Like, terrifyingly alike." I laughed and weakly flicked his arm.

"Shush." I whined, a broken laugh emitting my body.

"I had to! Just this once, I won't ever say it again. Promise!" I couldn't contain my laughter and held onto him as I laughed, the two of us swaying back and forth in the hallway. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah, crisis averted." He smiled widely and sent me a single finger gun.

"Sweet. Let's get back out there before they think we're doing something else." I rolled my eyes but stepped back and held one of his hands.

A little kid ran in front of us and stopped, staring up at me in shell shock.

"Why are there lines on your face?" She asked. She couldn't have been older than six. I crouched down to her height and went to explain until a woman interrupted. Grabbing the kids hand and yanking her back from me.

"Sakura, that's rude, don't ask that! I'm sorry for her, she has no filter." I looked up at her confused.

"No need to apologize, I'm used to getting those questions. Plus, kids are fairly blunt, but it's just a form of their curiosity." She sighed and rubbed her face tiredly.

"Sakura, do you want to try asking again in a nice way?" She prompted, a small irk mark forming on her forehead. Sakura turned back to me and thought about what she was gonna say.

"How did you get those lines on your face?" She asked sweetly. The older woman simply face palmed and sighed very loudly.

"Well, these are scars. I got the one on my nose a long time ago. This one on my neck I got this summer."

"So you weren't born with them?" She asked, her head tilted to the side and the woman seemed to ease up a bit.

"Nope."

"So then, how did you get them?" I paused for a moment, trying to figure out a way to explain this.

"You know how there's heroes on the streets fighting the bad guys?" She nodded excitedly. "Well, I had to fight a bunch of bad guys cause I'm training to become a hero and this happened."

"Does it hurt?" She pondered.

"Not anymore." She hummed at this and slowly raised one of her small, toddler hands. She rubbed one of her cold fingers on the bridge of my nose and my cheek, giggling slightly.

"It feels funny." She laughed out.

"It does?" I asked jokingly, my voice lilted a bit. She nodded and giggled more. "I think they feel funny sometimes too." This made her laugh harder until the woman snatched her hand away, the sudden motion making me flinch so hard I fell backwards on the floor.

"That's enough Sakura." She snipped, Sakura waving as she was dragged off. I let out a shaky breath, Denki moving to help me up. I dusted the imaginary dirt off of me and sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm fine, sorry." I mumbled, dismissing the issue further.

"If you want to leave early at all we can always text your parents." I nodded and hung my head, taking a few deep breaths. Past anger slowly starting to bubble in my stomach. "Breathe, baby. Breathe it out." I took another deep breath, longer this time.

"Onryo, are you alright?" Azuna asked as she trotted over, Sota on her hip.

"Yeah." I quickly answered, biting back my emotions. "Mind if I take him?" I asked with a small smile on my face. She handed Sota off to me and stood, watching in amazement as I bounced him on my hip. He happily squealed and grabbed at my face. I smiled genuinely and tried to contain my laughter.

"I still can't believe how much he likes you." Azuna commented.

"You're a natural with kids, 'Ryo." Denki said, agreeing with her.

"Thanks, oh, Azuna, I had a question for you." This seemed to pique her interest, all the while Sota was giggling away.

"What's up, honey?" She asked.

"I was wondering if you had any photos or spares or if copies could be made of pictures from when I was born. I don't need them today but I was wondering if you had any." I trailed off and she looked at me softly.

"My sister doesn't know but I managed to get a few pictures. And I kept all of her sonogram photos. Why do you ask?" So I explained what I wanted to do for my parents and she smiled warmly. "That sounds like a lovely idea. I'll see what I can find and get together for you by the twenty fifth."

"Thank you so much, and can you just hold him for one second? I almost forgot that I brought Shikadai's shirt to give back to him and if I don't give it to him now, I probably won't remember until next time." She nodded and grabbed her cheerful baby. I made my way to the kitchen and saw the lady from a few minutes ago digging through my bag. "None of that's yours, put it down." I stated brashly. She jumped and pushed the bag back, tucking her hands behind her back. "Give it to me." I demanded, holding out a hand.

"I don't have anything." She said innocently.

"Bullshit, whatever you swiped, just give it back." She glared at me and held her ground.

"No, none of that's yours! No sixteen year old has that many pills naturally, you're just like your mother and you're too ashamed to admit it." My face darkened at her words and she quickly regretted them.

"You've got five seconds before you really regret what you just said." She finally moved her hands and I saw two of my pill bottles in one of her hands. I moved closer, hoping to be able to just grab them back, but she firmly pushed me. "Don't you dare lay your hands on me." I barked out, a little louder than I intended. Shikadai and someone else came running in, the former moving between us and making some space.

"What's going on?" He asked calmly, looking between me and the woman. "Take the kids upstairs." He asked the man that came in with him. "Tell me what's going on."

"He's a little drug addict like his damn mother." I glared at her, I was fuming.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about cause I don't have a mother." She pursed her lips, finally seething. Denki came running in, waiting to see if he had to intervene.

"Oh shut it you little fag." She sneered.

"Sorry that I don't enjoy people stealing my shit."

"Cut it out!" Shikadai yelled, using his quirk. "Suzu, you had no right to be going through his bag to begin with, let alone insult him." She went to interrupt but he held up a hand, silencing her. "Both of you, living room, now." I glared at the ground and stormed out of the kitchen, Denki catching my hand and stopping me for a moment.

"Look at me." I took a heavy breath and looked into his golden eyes, already feeling my body relax a bit. "She's just another person trying to get a rise out of you. Don't play into her game. She's falsely accusing you and we all know it. Just take a minute. Relax. I'll keep talking, but you need to calm down before you explode in there. And if we really need to, then we can get your parents here and your Dad can scare the shit out of her. Okay?" I nodded slowly and felt myself calming down until my chest started locking up. I let out a harsh cough and signed to him for my inhaler. Denki quickly understood what I meant and ran out to the living room, my coughing unrelenting as I tried to get more air in. I slowly slid down the wall to the floor and let the wheezing coughs out into my arm, barely any air coming back in. Denki came rushing back with Shikadai, the man giving me my inhaler. I quickly took a dose and held it for five seconds before trying to breathe again.

"There ya go. You alright?" Shikadai asked and I gave him a small nod, a few coughs following up into my elbow. "This one came running in asking where your bag was and saying you needed an inhaler. Gave all of us a good scare."

"Sorry, I'm alright." I whispered, my boyfriend helping me stand up. "Can we just get this over with?" I asked and he gave me a solemn look before walking into the living room. Denki and I made our way in there soon after and everyone was sitting in there minus the kids. "So why is this being brought to the living room?" I asked, confused and mildly irritated.

"Anytime there's an argument that escalates, it becomes a family issue. Everyone hears out this issue and weighs in on it before picking sides and tearing people apart from what could've been a misunderstanding." Ren calmly explained. "Onryo, would you like to start? Just simply tell us what happened and we'll go from there."

"I went to the kitchen to grab Shikadai's shirt out of my bag to give back to him and I saw Suzu digging through it. I told her to put it down cause none of it was hers and she tried hiding my stuff behind her back. It ended up being two of my prescriptions." I stated calmly, not liking how it felt like they were interrogating us.

"Suzu? What do you have to say to that?" Keiko asked softly.

"Yeah, I was going through the runts bag. But I didn't take anything that belonged to him, those drugs aren't his." I glared at her intensely, Denki resting a hand on my thigh.

"I intervened when I heard Onryo raise his voice, I asked Hideki to take the kids upstairs incase it escalated. She accused him of being a drug addict, pushed him and.. called him a fag, so I called the meeting." Shikadai said, beating around saying the slur.

"Because he's a dirty fucking addict just like his mother!" Suzu yelled.

"I don't have a mother, Shiroka is not my mother and never will be, wrap your brain around that already. It's not a hard concept to grasp. You're accusing me when you don't even know me because you're too prejudicial and high strung to properly talk to me." I shouted, standing from my seat abruptly.

"Look at him! He's irate and nonsensical! He doesn't even know what he's talking about!"

"You're just mad because I caught you before you could get your fix!" The room fell silent and the three sets of grandparents looked at me in disbelief.

"Onryo, that's a large accusation to make." Yuto's dad, Kazuo, said calmly. I wish I had his patience right now, especially since this was his daughter in law we were talking about.

"She put makeup over her track marks. She's already drunk, my guess is from the wine. She's trying to shift the blame on me because she doesn't want to admit she's got a problem, and she has over half of the withdrawal symptoms. It's some of the oldest tricks in the book." I huffed out, until a missing piece of the puzzle came to my mind. "Who has my prescriptions that she took?" Shikadai passed me the bottles and I felt my blood run cold when I realized they were my anti-depressants and ADHD medication. I took the first bottle and dumped them out on my hand, counting the small pills and repeating the process with the other. "Suzu, gimme my meds back."

"Onryo, what are you talking about? I just gave you your prescriptions." Shikadai said softly.

"And I just got these refilled, I should have twenty five, I have twelve in one and seventeen in the other. They're also my two prescriptions that are heavily restricted. So where are they?" I asked her in an eerily calm voice.

"I don't have them." She quickly retorted.

"Bullshit."

"I don't."

"Then turn out your pockets." She stood there with a solemn look on her face.

"Suzu. Give him back the pills, now." Kazuo said firmly. She dug through her pockets and handed me the pills like a child who just got caught sneaking candy.

"All of them." I said firmly. She huffed and grabbed the rest, I counted and did the math in my head, satisfied with the numbers matching where they should be.

"Apologize." Shikadai said to her.

"Don't bother. If you're not actually sorry, then don't bother. You're only sorry that you got caught because this means you can't sneak anymore of your relatives' meds. You're upset that you have to finally reap what you've sewn. This is dangerous. You won't just lose yourself, but your daughter too." I said in a cold tone, watching her wall finally crumble.

"She still has something else to apologize for." Tamayo said sadly.

"I'm sorry for calling you a slur." I rolled my eyes and sarcastically thanked her.

"Thanks, and one last thing, for everyone here who immediately looked disgusted and moved their kids away when I said Denki's my boyfriend, get your priorities straight. Who I date is none of your concern, you're delusional if you think I'm going to convert your kids or try and harass them. They're negative stigmas used to try and criminalized gay people. So respectfully, get your act together." I took a deep breath and reigned myself in. "It was great meeting everyone and seeing you again, I'm sorry for what happened today. However, Denki and I are going to leave now. Azuna, Yuto, I hope Sota enjoys his present, give him a birthday hug for me. Shikadai, here's your shirt." I handed him the shirt and he gave me a pained smile. The two I addressed first both nodded and Denki and I made our exit.

"Onryo!" I heard Shikadai call out as we walked down the driveway. "I'm sorry for how she treated you, that wasn't right of her. And I'm going to sit down and talk to everyone because how a lot of them acted today wasn't right. You're a good kid, both of you are and neither of you deserve that treatment. I just, I want to be a part of your life if you'll let me, and I hope that how everyone else acted today doesn't permanently scare you away from coming around." He said and I looked at him in shock and disbelief.

"I'll uh, I'll see you on the twenty fifth?" I asked hesitantly and he seemed to start beaming at that.

"Yeah, and Kaminari you're more than welcome to join. Onryo, your brother and your parents are welcome to come as well so we can maybe start getting to know each other all better." I nodded and gave him a small verbal acknowledgement before we started walking, the brisk autumn air feeling refreshing against my warm skin.

"That was something." Denki commented as we walked down the road. I held his hand a little tighter and tried to fight the residual stress from earlier.

"I'm sorry that all happened." I mumbled after a minute.

"Don't apologize for standing your ground. Who knows, maybe you just got her to start trying to sober up." I turned and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I should call my parents." I mumbled, grabbing my phone. Dad picked up on the first ring. "Hey Dad."

"Do you need to be picked up?"

"Yeah, a lot happened and Denki and I weren't going to wait for you both to get there before we left, so can you grab us from the corner store we passed half a mile down the road?" He was silent for a minute before I heard his engine start running.

"We'll be there soon." I silently agreed and ended the call, Denki and I making it to the store just as they pulled into the parking lot. We piled in and Dad parked, turning off the car. "Care to explain what happened?"

"Caught Yuto's sister in law trying to steal my meds." I grumbled, not enjoying how this would go.

"What?" Pops asked in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"Anything else?" Dad pressed. I stayed silent and glared at the ground. "Onryo? What happened?"

"She pushed me, accused me of being a junkie and called me a fag. But I got my pills back and cleared my name, don't like how I went about it, but oh well. Problem solved." Dad's knuckles turned white on the steering wheel.

"Onryo, we need the full story, please. I think details are important in this." I licked my lips nervously and kept my gaze drawn to my shoes. "Okay, Kaminari? Do we have to go back there?"

"No, Mr. Aizawa, Onryo handled it all pretty good." Dad hummed and paused for a moment.

"Onryo, can you please give us details? I'm not pressing the matter because I'm curious, I'm only pushing this because if it comes to your safety, I would like to know."

"Can we talk about it later? Please?" I said in a weak voice, no strength behind it.

"Okay. We can talk later." I nodded and ran a hand through my hair. My phone buzzed and I almost laughed while reading the message. "Should I ask?"

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