Tapping her pencil against her desk, Mina attempted to do up basic calculations and add up logic in her head. Two books open with both Mathematics and Heroic theory stared right back at her, their glares meeting halfway, intense hatred so strong on both parts it threatened to generate pure electricity. It'd put Kaminari out of commission, for certain.
Quadrilateral equations, the usage of Quirks in public areas, Algebra, and Hostage Situational reports. Mina had a vague, very vague idea on how the Hero stuff worked, but not even close to enough to figure it out before the tests would start rolling in. All around her, by instruction of Aizawa-sensei before he'd left the room to do something else that had required his attention, whatever the heck that was, were students doing independent study, figuring out things that they still struggled with before the next set of examinations and tests began.
When it came to physical performance, Mina was pretty damn good. She was more than capable of keeping up with her classmates, her reflexes and skill with her Quirk was well documented. She was a capable individual, and she was in a good state of fitness too. Better than most of the other girls in her class.
But academically...
With a smile, the pink girl put her pencil down, rested her hands behind her head as she leaned back, and laughed lightly. "I'm absolutely screwed here, aren't I?" She didn't even know where to begin! How the heck was she supposed to figure out Quadrilateral's and Surface Area?! She had signed up for the Hero course, not Maths class! She didn't get Maths! It had played a minor part in why the course had looked so appealing, the idea of barely having to touch the damn numbers again.
Instead, here she was with a long list of arithmetic questions that she knew the same amount as she did about a nuclear reactor. It was such a huge bunch of nonsense to her she couldn't help but laugh to herself, like it was all some sort of joke on paper. Because this - This! - was apparently the heart of Heroism!
Obviously everyone in Japan was required by law to have at least a high school grade when it came to Maths and English, much like most other modern countries, but that still didn't mean Mina understood it in any way. English wasn't too bad. She understood that surprisingly well. Maths was what was screwing her over though, royally.
As for the Hero stuff, she had a better idea on how that worked, but not anywhere near as much as she'd have liked. Her confidence in this sort of area was lacking, to say the least. Obviously the basics of what the subject matter was would be fairly obvious - Heroes go in, protect civilians, ensure their safety, and kick the bad guy's asses. That was about as complicated as butter on bread. That was pretty much ethics in a nutshell.
What she wasn't entirely confident on were the specifics of those. How one was supposed to go around doing such a thing, what practices were considered acceptable and logical in this particular situation, what she should use in said situations. She understood the overview, but it was the details that were dragging her down.
To be perfectly honest, it surprised her that she was even spending the time to revise at all. She'd never particularly been the kind of person to sit down with a textbook, read it, and try and make sense of all the ramblings that it contained. Under the circumstances, she'd probably have spent the time talking to the people around her, or just staring off into space out of sheer boredom.
Maybe Izuku was having a good influence on her.
Speaking of Izuku, Mina had certainly had a fair amount to process since yesterday, and still dealing with coming to terms with the truth today. It was taking up a bit of her brain power, but she couldn't stop thinking about it all. Learning the truth about everything had been a... Surprise to say the least. All Might, Quirkless Izuku, One For All... The thing that surprised her the most was how much it all made sense. It all fitted seamlessly together, like the Lego Mina was sick to death of standing on. It all made perfect sense out of absolute nonsense, like the ridiculous drawback to his Quirk - Well, not his.
The thing about it all was... Mina had come to admire him all the more.
She looked over at Bakugou, and thought about him for a moment. She knew the kind of person he was. The best word to describe him would be volatile. No one really knew what might set him off next, though they knew it was hilariously easy to piss him off. Say something positive about Izuku, imply Bakugou was even slightly crazy or anti-social, or imply that someone else might be stronger, and that would normally be enough to set him off. If everything Izuku had told her about him was true, and it didn't seem unlikely, given his personality, then if she had been in Izuku's position that day, then she might have been honestly tempted to leave Bakugou to the mercy of that sludge Quirk holder. After all, bullied for most of her adolescence? She had no doubt she'd be at least a little bitter. Not to mention, Explosion was objectively a very powerful and impressive Quirk. Even amongst the people who had Quirks, some were jealous of Bakugou's. Izuku must have been... Words wouldn't even begin to describe the feelings he would have had in that not-so distant past. To Mina, life without a Quirk was just unthinkable. She couldn't even begin to imagine the resentment Izuku had felt.
Except... He hadn't actually had any. He'd always looked up to Bakugou, and when he needed help, he'd tried to save him. Quirkless Izuku had tried to save his childhood bully, though he had every reason in the freaking world to leave him. How that was even slightly... Mina would have called her boyfriend absolutely insane if she didn't know him better... And even then, she wasn't convinced he was totally sane.
No one she knew would be capable of constantly using a Quirk that would break their bodies. She didn't think she would be able to. Most people took steps to avoid the drawbacks to their Quirks, like logical, sensible individuals. Izuku on the other hand kept using his Quirk while his bones were already broken. Nothing else mattered in that situation, anyone who could willingly use an attack that they knew for absolute certain would break them was someone who deserved serious credit.
Again, she wasn't one hundred per-cent certain he wasn't just completely insane. But either way... She couldn't help but admire her awkward boyfriend all the more. When it was all said and done, Izuku was someone who proved selfless at every turning point he'd ever gotten himself into
Angling her head just a bit more, so she could see behind the classes resident violent maniac, she looked over at Izuku, as expected, buried into the textbooks, and writing in those notebooks he always carried around. He was so different to Mina, she couldn't point at any one thing that made them two of the most diametrically opposed people in the room.
He was book-smart, where she really wasn't suited to studying. Where he was awkward, she was open and social. He was shy where she was outgoing.
He originally had no Quirk. And her Quirk made her stand out so much.
Could they be more different? Was it even possible for them to share so few personality and genetic traits?
And somehow, they were dating, and he was constantly making Mina happier than she'd ever been. Her playfulness and her jokes, her teasing and her energy all reached tenfold whenever she was around her boyfriend, and it was like a dream come true to her, to be happy alongside someone who made her happy.
She hoped she made him happy too. At least, she liked to think that she did.
Rewinding back just a few seconds, she remembered her previous thought, regarding his intellect. That he was very book-smart. It was true, he was one of the smartest people in the entire class, probably up there rivalling someone like Yaoyarozu or Todoroki. He understood a lot of theory when it came to Heroism, and in particular the exact applications of actions that were supposed to be taken. He probably had a hell of a lot more understanding of Mathematics than Mina did as well.
Would he be willing to help her with her studies?
Well, of course he would. The real question on Mina's mind was if she wanted to bother him with such a request. Looking over at him, he was practically shoving his face into these revision books. He barley even seemed to be acknowledging what was happening around him, like he'd fallen into some kind of reading based dimension. When it came to his studies, he'd been routinely rigorous in what he'd done. Seconded really only to Yaoyarozu, he had sort of a reputation regarding his intellect thanks to his studying habits.
What concerned Mina was that her asking him for what amounted to private tutelage was that it would affect his own grades. There wasn't really a point in them both getting dragged down because of her. That would just be unfair.
It was a catch twenty-two, damned if she did, and damned if she didn't.
As she thought that, the final bell for the day suddenly rang throughout the entire school, to a chorus of sighs or cheers of relief, depending on the student, that the day was out. The students began to pack up their things and file out of the room, some far faster than others, eager to return home and take a nap or do something as a way to numb their brain cells after such a hard revision session.
Mina did the same thing, but as was now routine, she would wait outside the classroom door. She and Izuku now always caught the trains back home together, the idea being Mina's. Sometimes, it would cause her to be a bit later arriving home than she normally would, but she didn't particularly mind that too much. She enjoyed the trips back with him, since it gave them plenty of time to talk.
Normally, they'd walk back with Iida and Uraraka, since they all went to the same station before splitting off to catch different trains to one another, Izuku and Mina being the only two that stuck together afterwards.
Today was a bit different though. Today was a day where Iida had to stay behind a bit later than everyone else, to perform certain duties, since he was the class president. Mina had no clue whatsoever what those duties entailed, but now that she knew it would have required her to stay back for longer, she was sort of glad that she hadn't gotten the nomination.
So, it would have just been her, Izuku, and Uraraka.
Mina hummed a tune while she waited, trying to stay out of the way of her classmates as much as she could, offering waves and promises that they would see each other the next day, until she had seem most of them go.
One of the final people that she saw leaving the room, and making her way out was Uraraka. Though she clearly saw Mina, she just waved like she was saying goodbye for the day, and hurried her way down the corridor after everyone else, but she seemed to be moving a bit faster than the others. Almost like she was scurrying away.
"Hey, Uraraka!" Mina called out to her, without really thinking about it. "Where you going? Aren't you gonna walk back with me and Midori?"
When she was called out, Uraraka stopped instantly, like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck that was speeding towards her. Her eyes widened and she stopped dead in her tracks for a moment, and when she finally did turn around a few seconds later, she was wearing a smile that was so clearly fake, even Mina could see it.
"I-I'm really sorry, but something came up. Family stuff. I've got to go on ahead, catch a different train." She did sound genuinely apologetic... But something was off about her, how she was acting. Almost like she was avoiding the question altogether by deflecting it onto something else - So lying, basically.
This wasn't the first time either, Mina had noticed how their classmate had been acting a bit oddly for a while now. Not really like the Uraraka that everyone knew and was fond of. She wasn't even acting like what Mina liked to dub as 'battle-raka', where she'd be almost in some sort of combat induced trance. This was something else entirely.
It wasn't Mina's place to get involved, but still, she noticed these things... And she did worry about her friends. But she smiled and nodded back. "Alright, I'll let Midori know!"
And just like that, Uraraka was gone.
Mina passed the time by returning to humming her favourite song and tapping her foot to the beat that she could recite completely from muscle memory, and keeping an eye on the outside world by looking through the window of the floor she was on. From here, she could see the entire courtyard, and the entrance to the school. Right now, she saw all the students pouring out of the gates, heading home and various other places, some headed for part time jobs, or leisure activities to kill the time doing before returning home.
She remembered one of the first days that she had spent at the school. It had been the first week that classes had started, and it had been the session after Battle Practice. Everyone was getting ready to review the sessions, waiting on a certain someone who had captured the respect and attention of most people in the class.
It was weird to think back on that moment, when Izuku stepped back into the classroom after having been in recovery for the last hour, and when she had introduced herself with her usual friendly zeal, complimenting his dodging again and again, that she was greeting her future boyfriend.
When she looked out at the courtyard now, she remembered being with Uraraka and Asui, watching the exchange between Izuku and Bakugou. The 'fated battle between men' as Uraraka had described it. It had been a couple of tense moments, and to this day, Mina still had no idea what was said between the two of them. It was something she wanted to ask, but forgot fairly often to bring it up, and when she did remember, it never seemed like the right time to do so.
She remembered that she respected Izuku back then. It was difficult to find anyone who didn't. With such a flashy Quirk, and an awesome fight to show it off, he was already catching the attention of his classmates back then. But she'd never really been attracted to him. Physically, anyway. Then again, she wasn't particularly right now anyway. Yeah, he had some damn fine muscles on him, and he was a cute guy, but if she was going by something like looks alone, she'd probably point to Todoroki. Admiration was very different to romantic infatuation... Though she did suppose that admiration of him had led her to these days.
Thinking back, she never would have guessed that she'd have fallen in love with the other curly haired person in the class, the one who was shy and awkward, and quiet as a mouse. She'd never have guessed that Izuku was someone that she'd end up dating. She'd just never really considered it until it was happening to her. Not once.
Yet she was in love with him now. And it made her smile.
"Sorry that took a while..." As she thought about how they had wound up together, Izuku's voice finally came from the real world, while he was still half inside the classroom, stepping out of the doorframe. He was lightly scratching the side of his head and smiling lopsidedly, his voice apologetic for having taken up too much time.
It was only a few moments later that Izuku left the classroom, having done whatever it was that he had needed to do. Probably checking review notes or something along those lines, but whatever the reason, he was done now, and Mina and he were alone.
"Hey." She cheerfully greeted him with a huge grin on her face. She had been hurtled into a good mood by thinking about all of this stuff, and with that positive attitude, her peppy energy had been surged through her veins and into her system, leaving her as a giggling girl who was ridiculously in love.
Before Izuku had even fully left the classroom, Mina skipped up to him and, without any warming, threw her arms around his neck and gave him the biggest hug he'd never expected before in his life. She hadn't been considerate of her weight, or how much force she was using either, and the force from her tackling him almost shoved him right back into the room he was just leaving, only stopped by Izuku quickly grabbing hold of the doorframe and using that to keep him upright.
"W-Woah!" A noise of surprise shot from Izuku's mouth as Mina threw herself at him, tightly enwrapping her arms around his neck. Her head was rested on his shoulder, which left their cheeks rubbing together lightly. In spite of his shock, once he regained his balance, Izuku was happy to return the hug to her.
In spite of his awkwardness, even when they were alone, he did enjoy these affectionate moments they had. They were nice. Mina was an impulsive girl, so he never knew when to expect them... But the more he was able to grow more and more comfortable with her, the more he found himself not minding not knowing when the next display of affection was going to arrive. He was getting used to his girlfriend and all her traits, no matter how awkward she made him feel at times.
When she eventually let go of him, smile still spread across her lips, he asked, "What was that for?"
"Just remembered the first few times we met is all." She responded, twirling around to start making her way down the corridor, but not before slipping her hand into Izuku's. "Uraraka went on ahead. Something about family issues she needed to deal with."
Going slightly red at her swift motions, Izuku nodded his understanding, and the two of them made their way through the corridors of the school, quickly making their way outside the building altogether. A warm day thanks to the sun's rays greeted them, blasting their skin with heat. Their heat-absorbing grey jackets doing nothing to keep them both cool, they both let go of one another's hands, undid their jackets and tied them around their waists before re-intertwining their fingers again.
"Gahhh... I hope it's cooler on the trains... They've got air conditioning, right?" Mina asked, looking over to Izuku, praying that he nodded. Being cooked alive inside a metallic train was certainly not going to be a fun experience. She visually sighed in relief when he did so, confirming that their method of transportation did indeed have a way of keeping the, cool and not melting alive while they travelled. "Oh thank God. Hopefully Micha knows how to work the AC back home. Mom and Dad are out all day, and I don't even know where the damn boiler is in my house."
"What're your parents doing?" Izuku asked with a curious tone.
"Dinner or something. Didn't tell me anything, just that they were going out, and left some food for us all in the fridge..." She smirked at her own joke before she'd even told it. "So essentially they left us with poison for our meal, while they're living it up in some fancy restaurant. So that'll be fun. Studying on either an empty stomach, or one that's filled with what may as well be liquid mercury."
"Speaking of studying... How're yours going?" The curly haired boy asked, showing genuine interest in her progress. He'd taken note of her actually attempting to study during the session in class today, before giving up and staring into space for the remainder of the lesson.
Mina blinked for a second when she realised that she had brought up studying accidentally. It had honestly been a slip of the tongue, a complete mistake when she had said it. She hadn't even thought about it, but since she was speaking with honesty, she hadn't even noticed herself until Izuku had brought it up.
Scratching the back of her head with her other hand, Mina chuckled awkwardly. "Eh heh heh... It's not exactly... Going... Great... I mean, I get pretty much all of the basic rules and ideas and all of that for Ethics and Heroism, but I just... I dunno. Doesn't seem to click with me. Don't even ask about Maths, I'm failing that one no matter what I do."
While she tried to play to play it off as a joke, that it was amusing in some way, she didn't seem to be getting the desired results from Izuku. He wasn't really smiling or anything else that even slightly indicated humour of any kind. He looked… Worried, more than anything.
That was nice, Mina supposed. She was truly grateful that he seemed to have such genuine concern for her… But she didn't want him to worry about this sort of thing when it came to her. She was the kind of person who would just wing it at the last moment and get a scraping pass, or she'd fail miserably. In the long run, it wouldn't make too much of a difference either way. Mina would have preferred Izuku to worry about his own grades, since she knew that his intellectual abilities were the ones he was more proud of, and ones that he had constantly refined and developed over the course of his life. If he took a hit to his grades, that would definitely show. It'd probably be a shot right in his already fragile levels of self-confidence.
"Really though, it's not a big deal, Midori, don't worry about it!" She waved her hand rapidly to the sides as if she were trying to sweep away the very issue itself from the air, to make room for more important, more interesting and jovial topics that needed to be discussed.
"You know, I could… H-Help you with studying, I-if you wanted." Izuku offered with a shake to his voice. He'd been handling himself fairly well when it came to his stammering lately, although now that he was blushing it came back like a falling brick. In spite of his voice betraying how serious he was in that situation, he was able to meet her gaze, and he didn't turn away.
The pink girl felt her chest tighten, and she needed a second to confirm in her head that she'd actually heard what she thought she had. "You really don't have to, y'know Izuku. I could probably figure it out on my own after a while... Besides, you should focus on your own grades. I don't want you to fail 'cause of me."
"I-It's fine! I've already done a load of studying a-anyway. I-If you need the help, I-I'm more than happy to."
Asking to receive help, and being offered help were two different subjects in Mina's mind. If she asked for help, then she ran the risk of inconveniencing Izuku's work plans and getting in his way. But being offered said help was a different matter. If he was offering, then it meant he had enough time, and was confident enough to support her in this.
The truth was, Mina would have been incredibly grateful for pretty much any help that she would be able to get right about now, and if it was anyone else offering, she'd jump at the opportunity to get half of this stuff explained to her. The only reason she was hesitant to accept from Izuku was because she didn't want him to fail because he'd lost time studying.
At the same time, if she failed, that wasn't going to do her much good either. If she kept failing so much that she flunked out, not only would her father give her hell on earth to pay, but there was a risk of Mina just getting dropped from the course altogether. It wouldn't honestly surprise her when it came to someone like Aizawa-sensei. For someone who claimed to act on logic and rational all the time, he was very unpredictable and erratic at times.
And if she thought about it like that...
"...A-Are you sure you don't mind?" She asked, still hesitating when she asked.
Izuku nodded and gave her a smile that was still shaky, but he didn't hesitate for a second with his response. "Y-yeah, of course I am! I-It's no trouble, really!"
Mina replied by tightening her grip around Izuku's hand, and resting her head against his shoulder. "Thanks."
Both of them wound up deciding to study at Izuku's house, since it would be a far calmer atmosphere than the one of total energy that the Ashido household tended to reside under pretty much all the time. There were less people there, according to Izuku, only his mother and himself, which meant that it was far less likely for them to have to deal with any sorts of distractions.
This led to a fairly relaxed train journey ride back to the usual station that they both got off of when Mina had to switch trains to catch the one that would take her to her station. Instead of rushing to the platform where she would be able to catch her train home, she followed Izuku up and out of the subway, and found herself in an area of Tokyo she barely even recognised. The area seemed a lot calmer, yet still had the towering skyscrapers that littered the Japanese city landscape, managing to be busy and calm at the same time somehow, like walking through the city at night.
At one point, they passed a building that Izuku pointed out as his old middle school. A public one, nothing fancy whatsoever. It even looked a little run down. Still, Izuku looked at the building with a mixture of emotions that Mina couldn't even begin to try and figure out. He looked almost pained to a certain degree... Though Mina had a feeling she knew why.
"It... Must have been hard." She quietly said, "Growing up Quirkless in a school like that."
Looking down at the slightly shorter girl with a look that now barely even conveyed any emotion, he locked eyes with her for just a brief moment, before he looked back at the school itself. He was remembering all the bullying throughout his life. It felt impossible not to remember all of it now that he was back here, like the memories were just barging in uninvited. Those hard times were in the past... But they still affected him to this day. Part of him thought that they always might.
"...Yeah." He confirmed, with a sad nod of his head.
"Come on, let's keep going." Mina encouraged him with a slight tug of his hand and a small smile.
Her gesture was appreciated, and Izuku nodded in agreement with her, and began leading her by the hand through his neighbourhood, away from the hell that had been his old middle school.
From there, it hadn't taken them too long to reach the area where Izuku said he lived. Unlike Mina, who lived in an actual house with her family, Izuku resided in an apartment floor in a complex. Even the building itself in which he lived was flanked on either side by two other tall buildings that also served as complexes that a large number of people lived in. Considering that Izuku and his mother lived alone, it made sense. No point spending a ton of cash on a house when it was just going to be empty all the time.
They traversed up several tens of staircases, and found themselves fairly high up when looking over the edge of the railing and down below. Izuku was used to the height, so he didn't think twice about it, but Mina felt some very mild vertigo looking down now.
After a short walk, they finally reached the front door to the floor.
"U-Uh... J-Just let me uh..." Izuku stammered suddenly, rapidly trying to find the words that he was going to need to explain this particular situation. "B-Before we go in, uh... H-Heads up, my mother's kind of..."
With an eyebrow raised, Mina encouraged him to continue. "Kind of?..."
"...Like me?"
"...That's not exactly a lot to go off, Izuku."
"You'll see... Just... Be ready for that."
The green haired boy gulped, before reaching out and lowering the door handle, opening the door to his home. He held the door open for Mina by stepping to the side and blocking the door from falling back into its frame, and politely gesturing for her to enter his home. Though still giving him a quizzical look after his warning, Mina nodded, and took a step into Izuku's home.
Once inside, and the pair of them had taken their shoes off and enter the apartment proper, Mina made sure to have a glance around the place. Before they reached the first room at the end of the corridor, they walked past a set of two doors, one of them with no label, and the one directly across it, was Izuku's. The sign on it that had his name printed on it, the sign itself being some sort of All Might merchandise gave it away practically instantly. He hadn't kept it a secret that he was a huge admirer of the world's number on Hero, so Mina had expected him to have some stuff like that.
Once they were in the main room of the apartment, which was basically the kitchen- living space-dining area all merged into one multi-functional room, Mina saw a middle aged woman standing over a switched-on stove, presumably boiling water for some sort of meal she would cook later in the day. Obviously Izuku's mother. Even if Izuku hadn't mentioned that the only other person he lived with was his mother, she would have figured it out anyway. The green hair was a giveaway sign in that regard.
"Hey Mom, I-I'm back." Izuku greeted with a nervous shiver running down his spine.
Having heard her son enter the building, his mother didn't seem too surprised by his voice suddenly cutting the silence of the living space. She glanced up to look at him, giving him a welcoming smile. "Welcome back, Izuku! Did you -" That was the moment her eyes registered Mina standing a couple of inches behind Izuku.
The older woman just froze in place like she'd seen some sort of ghost or spirit when she looked at the pink girl. Her smile dropped and she seemed to stop even holding onto any utensils that she had in her hands, and her jaw just dropped entirely as well.
It was an awkward few seconds before Izuku broke the silence again.
"U-Uh, Mom, th-this is M-Mina. I-I've told you about her, r-right?" Any anxiety that the inheritor to One For All had seemed to multiply with every second that passed without his mother responding in any way whatsoever. "I-I - She needed some h-help studying, s-so I offered to he-help her out."
Cheerfully, Mina waved at the frozen woman. "Nice to meet'cha, Mrs. Midoriya!"
"My little boy's finally brought a girl home..." A quiet whisper said. After that, Izuku's mother promptly burst into what could only be described as an abnormally ridiculous level of happy tears, to the point where they seemed to resemble a waterfall in a certain way, and threatened to make the pan on the stove overflow with liquid. She seemed to be holding in some sort of squeal or burst of excitement or something, whatever it was, that her son had brought home someone he'd apparently spoken about.
Quickly, Mina realised how this woman was like her boyfriend. Awkward, and prone to comically large emotional outbursts at things other people might had considered to be minor things. Izuku's warning made a huge deal more sense now.
After discarding aside a hilariously large number of tissues and handkerchiefs that Izuku handed her at a rapid rate, the older woman firmly grasped hold of Mina's hands and began to shake them like it was going to make her heart monitor start working again. "Ashido Mina, isn't it? My name is Inko! Izuku's said so much about you!" She was still speaking through a cracking voice, glazed eyes and a warm, motherly smile. The same sort of pride that Mina's own parents had used to tease her with when Izuku had finally left that night was reducing this woman to absolute tears. "Oh, oh, it's so lovely to finally get to meet you!"
Mina couldn't help but laugh at the older woman's sudden enthusiasm, not too sure what she was supposed to say in response. She wanted to be polite so as not to offend the older woman, but it felt like she was about to dislocate Mina's arms with this amount of force going into each shake.
When she finally let go, she seemed to be tearing up again, prompting Izuku to get a handful of tissues ready to use like some kind of poorly constructed shield, in case she burst into tears again.
"U-Um, l-like I said, I'm helping Mina study, s-so..."
"O-Oh, of course!" Inko smiled widely at her son and his girlfriend. "I'll have dinner ready in a couple of hours. We're having Kattsudon! Ashido-san, you're more than welcome to eat with us for that!"
"It's just Mina." The Acid Quirk user said with a smile. "And that sounds awesome."
Given the drive that Izuku had when it came to becoming a Hero, Mina had always suspected that he was a huge fan of comics and manga and the likes that related even slightly to the profession of Heroism. This had been confirmed on their first date, when they had gone shopping through that bookstore, and they had selected their chosen literature, Izuku's being Hero related comics.
As it turned out, she wasn't giving Izuku nearly enough credit.
To call him a fan of Heroes was the understatement of the year, and she'd called Mika insane. Posters, comics, DVD'S and action figures, and a large percentage of those were directed towards All Might, were pretty much all over the neatly organised room. That wasn't to say All Might was the only Hero plastered around the place, but it was very clear who Izuku's favour lied with.
And yet, at the same time there were some pieces of physical training equipment that was organised on the floor. Dumbbells, grip boosters and a lifting bag, all pushed into one corner in which the largest piece of equipment was placed to the wall, and the smallest piece being in front of it.
The room almost looked like two people shared it, but it was just Izuku in here. Mina jokingly came up with 'the legendary Otaku Weight-lighting Hero' as his official alias in her head.
"I knew you were a nerd, but damn, Izuku." She smirked while she looked around the room. "And I thought Mika was obsessed. You really know how to turn it up to eleven, huh?"
If blushing made a sound, Mina was certain she heard it. Incidentally, it sounded like bacon frying in a pan. "I-it - A-A lot o-of this stuff is f-from when I was a kid!"
Wandering into the room, and looking at an All Might action figure that he kept on his desk, Mina allowed her grin to widen. "Dude, I'm pretty sure this came out like, last month."
"What - How -"
"Did you even see my sister's room?" Mina looked over towards his crimson face and laughed and his embarrassment. "It's All Might's Silver Age costume, the new model that came out after the media told everyone he was teaching at Yuuei." Her looked fell despondent though after she had finished laughing. "Kinda makes me wonder though, why d'you even keep buying this stuff? I mean, the guy teaches us and you got his freakin' Quirk -"
"Sssssh!" Izuku frantically hissed. "My mom doesn't know about that!"
"You didn't even tell your mother about that?"
"A-All Might asked me not to..."
It made sense, Mina thought to herself. She had another look around the room, seeing what else she could spy out. It was a basic bedroom, but it did speak volumes of his personality. The one thing that stood out to Mina about the entire room at that point was the weights, which didn't even seem like something Izuku would have bought, unless it had something to do with his Quirk...
Squatting down, Mina reached down and attempted to pick one of them up, to test how heavy it was. While she was able to stand up with the piles of metal in her hand, that was all she could accomplish. Unlike Izuku, she hadn't toned her entire body for feats of physical strength. She had well-toned thighs, but that hadn't exactly been something she'd done as a conscious effort. It had just sort of happened.
This thing though - It weighed a ton! Just keeping it by her side felt like it was straining her arm, and her legs were starting to give out the longer she kept hold of it. "G-Good grief, Izuku, h-how freaking heavy is this thing?!"
"Gaah!" Izuku quickly ran over to the pink girl and retrieved the dumbbell before Mina wound up dropping it. Unlike her, he had no real issues with holding onto it, on account of the muscular frame that he had. Bending down to place it back where it was, he answered her question. "I-its thirty-five kilograms."
"Damn, you can lift." Mina whistled in her impressment. "Is it to do with your Quirk?"
"Y-Yeah... I have to keep refining my body, or my Quirk could end up blowing my limbs off."
"Talk about motivation to keep up a workout regime." The girl said with a slight chuckle, though in reality, that news was freaking her out. It took her a moment to realize and fully process that she was actually concerned. "W-Wait a second, how dangerous is that Quirk?!"
"Well... I-It's not mine... So my body isn't totally used to it yet... So it's dangerous to use it at full power... I could end up killing someone... Or breaking my bones." He explained. "That's why when I first started at Yuuei, I kept trying to avoid using it."
"Yeah, I figured that all out when you told me you inherited it. I mean, can this thing kill you?"
"...If my body becomes weak enough, it could end badly for me. I explained how One For All works, didn't I?"
He had, Mina recalled. From what she understood, it acted like a crystalline of power between nine different generations, each one adding on their own physical prowess to the Quirk before passing it on to the next one. Essentially, it gave Izuku the strength of eight very physically capable fighters that he could call upon to deal damage onto his opponents with. Kind of like an Olympic torch, which was also how All Might was still using the Quirk despite having passed it on to Izuku.
"I'm still amazed by how much sense that all makes." Mina admitted with a happy sigh. There was a certain level of joy that Izuku was the one who had been given this incredible Quirk. Without it, they might not have ever met, which would have been awful. It might be a deadly, dangerous Quirk... But it was one that Izuku was capable of handling, she had absolute faith in that. And that aside, knowing that he had made an exception in his promise to All Might to tell her... Made her feel special. "And you've only told me about it?"
"I uh... I told Kacchan once." The Acid girl froze. "I told him that the Quirk wasn't mine... But I didn't say it was All Might. He... Didn't believe me though... In fact, I'm pretty sure I just made him angry."
"Hang on a second, was that the fated battle between men?!"
"H-Huh?!"
"That talk you had with him after the first battle assignment! By the gate! When we first met!"
"Y-You were watching that?!"
"Me, Uraraka and Asui! We all saw it! We really thought that -" She shook her head rapidly. "Forget that - Why Bakugou of everyone?!" This was one aspect that Mina couldn't even begin to comprehend. From what Izuku had told her, Bakugou had made his an absolute hell throughout their middle school lives once his Quirk had developed. The things she'd heard he'd done, Mina had developed a minor animosity towards the Explosion Quirk user for what he'd done to her boyfriend, but Izuku didn't seem to care. How Izuku even tolerated him these days was a mystery in itself, but why on earth did he feel the need to explain how he had gotten his Quirk? He didn't owe Bakugou a damn thing! If there was one person that Izuku would have wanted to flaunt his newfound Quirk to, surely it would have been Bakugou!
Looking to the ground and sighing, Izuku stayed silent for a few moments before he answered, "...I admire Kacchan. He's strong, and determined, he doesn't give in, and his Quirk is incredible. When we were kids, we used to be really good friends. We used to want to be Heroes together... I don't really know... Why he became like he did... But he isn't a bad person. He was just really confident when we were kids. Now... He says he's going to do something, and he does it. He got into Yuuei. And... I don't know." Izuku looked back up at his girlfriend with a weak smile. "I guess I just... Didn't want him to think I'd been lying to him about not having a Quirk. He accused me of that. I don't really like fighting with him. I want to surpass him, sure, but... Eh heh, I'm not really sure how to explain it."
"...Yeah, you're weird." Mina agreed with a weak smile right back. She didn't really get it, but... She closed the gap between the two of them, and rested her head comfortably against his chest, careful that her horns didn't tear up his clothing. "But you're my quirky boyfriend, Izuku. You know what you mean. I'm gonna trust you know what you're doing."
In an attempt to return the gesture, Izuku attempted to hug Mina, but couldn't. It was in this moment that they both realised, they'd entered the room, and not actually proceeded to even begin to prepare for the studying they had to do. They hadn't even taken their bags off yet.
They both shared an odd laugh, since neither of them had noticed, or even knew why they were laughing. It wasn't a particularly funny occurrence. Politely, Izuku told her to make herself at home, and offered her the seat that was tucked underneath his desk, while he perched himself on the edge of his bed.