In spite of walking hand in hand, Izuku and Mina were still in a relative silence. Mina's hand was tightly gripped onto her boyfriends, even if it were without exchange of words. After having heard all about what Izuku had said, Mina felt that she understood his passion towards Quirks and Heroes a bit more. It was undeniable that he had that passion anyway, and that being Quirkless, mixed with the adoration that someone like Izuku had...
The pain that he would feel was something that she just hadn't even considered before in her life. She was used to having a Quirk - Everyone she knew had a Quirk. Even Izuku had a Quirk, though it wasn't one he was born with. She honestly hadn't ever met someone who was Quirkless, unless the faction of the police that didn't use them counted. Even then, the vast majority of them had Quirks. They just didn't use them like Heroes did. She had no other frame of reference. No way to see how the Quirkless felt about their situation.
The ability to attract objects - That belonged to his mother. The fire breathing that he talked about must belong to his father, whoever and or wherever he was supposed to be. Neither of them were particularly potent, but combined, they might make something impressive. And in either case, for Izuku? It was something. It was a Quirk. Something that he could work with. And he'd been deprived of that for his whole life, bar the last few months.
The way he talked about trying to use on of his parents Quirks as a small child... It was something that got to her. Maybe it was the fact that when she was younger, she'd see her siblings playing, pretending to use her and her brothers Quirks before they developed their own. The image of seeing Izuku with tears in his eyes as he desperately tried to activate a power he simply didn't have...
He'd been robbed of what was, to everyone around him, a birth-right.
Her hand gripped even tighter around his. Every time she thought that she'd figured him out, he kept on surprising her, again and again.
It made his actions in the Sports Festival make even more sense. It made his empathy make even more sense. It made why he was trying to reach out to Kota make even more sense. It may be because of his own stance in the world, that Quirks were something that were special and needed to be treasured, that people should be immensely grateful for their Quirks, that they shouldn't reject the things he longed to have - Even now, Mina noticed that he never referred to One For All as 'His' Quirk. Only in front of others to help hide its origins. To him, it still wasn't his own Quirk. Not yet.
So it was clear why seeing someone reject Quirks hurt him. What was less clear though...
"... When you left..." She said, suddenly, catching Izuku's instant attention. His head turned to face her immediately, waiting, simultaneously curious and nervous as to what he was about to hear. Mina paused for a second, trying to find the right words for it. "...Why didn't you say anything?"
The holder of One For All blinked twice, before he looked at the trail before him, watching his feet move, taking him and his girlfriend closer and closer back to the campsite where everyone else was. He thought for a while on how to phrase his own answer. His reasoning was a lot simpler than Mina honestly expected. "I... I thought you were still angry with me..."
Such a simple answer. So uncomplicated. It was such an Izuku - like answer made the pink girl smile gently. She tucked her middle finger behind her thumb on her left hand, and leaned over, flicking a few strands of green hair from his face. "I'm not angry to the point of not wanting to talk to you, you green headed dope." She joked lightly, looking him in the eye once she'd finished her joke.
A massive weight looked like it had been lifted from Izuku's mind, as his hesitant frown of neutrality lit up into a soft smile of pleasant surprise and relief. Apparently the whole 'No Talking' had him worried and anxious, no matter how much he might actually agree with it. "I-I thought that you didn't want to..."
"I mean, I'm still really ticked off." She admitted, though her lips didn't change their position from an upturned curl. "Not... Necessarily with you though." It was no lie, either. Granted, Izuku might have irritated her, and absolutely baffled her beyond comprehension, but he wasn't the cause of her anger, but rather, he was the catalyst of it. What had brought about her annoyance along a lot quicker, not that it was his intention, or fault in any way.
That all belonged to Bakugou.
Izuku's face fell slightly, and looked back down to the ground again. It wasn't hard to infer where Mina's fury rested, if not with him.
All admiration for Bakugou aside, if he considered things from the perspective of someone who didn't understand his perspective and how much he looked up the blonde explosive teen, he could easily see why. He knew that Bakugou was a bully. He wasn't stupid, nor was he blind or delusional. The ruthless way he assaulted the green haired boy on a regular basis, the absolute disregard of him as a person altogether, not to mention the literal years of physical abuse. He wasn't unaware of these facts. He didn't turn a blind eye to it.
It wasn't worth fighting over. Not for him. He wasn't worth starting a completely avoidable fight over. Years of abuse my people who had Quirks had conditioned him to think that way, no matter who agreed or disagreed with him. He was used to it. He accepted it. He was aware it was wrong, but he didn't want anyone else to fix his problems for him, even if that was the mark of a Hero. That wasn't to say he just ignored it happening though. He didn't forget.
He just didn't want to keep fighting for no reason.
But for Mina? Or anyone who looked at the two of them? It would look like a pretty clear cut scenario. He understood why Mina did what she did. At least, he felt he had a pretty good idea. What she actually felt, he couldn't be sure. Even though they dated for a while now, they didn't understand one another that intimately.
Especially not now. This being their first actual conflict, there wasn't really a way to be sure about anything right now.
Ultimately though, it came down to the simple fact that, outside of his own resignation to it, he didn't want Mina in the line of fire - Particularly not Bakugou's. That was it. That's what everything came down to at the end of it all. Heroes faced danger in the line of duty every second of every day. Keeping her out of the way of harm was to ask her to not be a Hero, something Izuku couldn't do to anyone, and wouldn't do even if he had the capacity. But he could keep her out of this particular crossfire. He wanted her safe from his childhood friend's wrath.
Heroes shouldn't go looking for fights that didn't need to happen. If any of the staff learned about it…. What would that mean for Mina?
This, he felt, was something he should tell her. Maybe then, even if she didn't like it, she could at least understand things from his perspective...
After a couple minutes of them back-tracking their way to the lodgings site, they eventually returned to their destination. It was mostly the same as it was before their twenty minute departure, though multiple groups had formed around areas of the tables, even when all the food had been devoured. A couple of people noticed the return of the pair of them, sending over a few waves in greeting. The Zero Gravity and Frog Form Quirk users in particular seemed relieved. Thankful that the two for them were at least on social terms again, supposedly.
There was still an air of uncertainty between the two of them, since nothing had been particularly resolved. They had just managed to reconcile slightly, but nothing, at least in the long term, had actually changed. Both looked towards one another, and then looked to the floor before them.
"...We... Should talk." Mina suggested, gently tugging on Izuku's hand as she did so, to get his attention fully. A nervousness that she hadn't expected hit her as she spoke. Her familiarity with the need for emotional and honest conversation was the result of her parents doing the same thing many times. Though, that didn't necessarily make her feel better. The situation didn't help her much, as she still feared the general outcome, and the possibility of another, this time far more heated argument... But to not do so would almost certainly condemn them to another fight down the line. If they solved this sooner as opposed to later, then they would be able to avoid a long series of trouble. "I know I already said that we needed to talk when I calmed down... But I think we need to do it soon. As soon as we can."
Instead of what he traditionally would do in this situation or anything even vaguely resembling it - Deny that there was a problem of any kind and insist that everything was okay - He nodded. Not everything was okay. Far from it. There were issues that they needed to discuss. He needed to explain his side of things to her. For the two of them to get past how things stood right now, this talk needed to happen, regardless of if he liked that fact or not. "...Yeah." His grip tightened around her hand in response, trying to offer some comfort as he vocalised his agreement.
"Remedials!" Cutting crisp through the chatter and noise of all the students, and immediately grabbing the attention of everyone within the clearing, Class 1B's Blood King called out those who had extra sessions. "You're with me and Aizawa, right now!"
The ever threatened additional classes were about to start. On the day of their arrival, the pupils were given a day to settle in, to get into the swing of things, to get started on their training the next day with absolute gusto. All things considered, from a school like Yuuei, they had been lenient in allowing them this amount of freedom. Now it was time to attend the extra academia they needed. A series of groans could be heard from those who had said additional classes due to low scores. Kirishima, Sero and Kaminari in particular let out exasperated moans of anguish before rising from their sears and plodding their way towards the Blood Manipulation homeroom teacher.
Mina's groan joined them, loudly, and long winded. Her face fell, and her head literally dropped as she let out her noise of depression. "You've gotta be kidding..." Of course, as a remedial student herself, the Acid Quirk user herself had to remove herself from the current conversation, regardless of her will or desire to. And she had absolutely no desire to do so.
Not when the two had actually agreed to talk. Had Mina gotten her way, they would have solved this matter, right then and there. Fate, as it turned out, had other plans, and if Aizawa's warnings were anything to go by, these lessons weren't only going to be brutal - They were going to be extraordinarily long, until every single syllable that either of the tutors there spoke was drilled into their heads and could be repeated from memory.
Izuku looked towards the horned and frustrated girl with pity for her situation. Excluding the talk that they agreed they needed to have, preferably as soon as possible, he felt bad that she needed to take the additional classes in the first place. While it was a fair price to actually be allowed on the school trip in the first place, that didn't exactly make it an easy one to pay. While the green haired boy knew that he couldn't really have done anything more to help her - After all, he had helped her study for the written exams, the physical was down to her and her alone, which was what she had failed - He still felt guilty for it. And felt terrible that he couldn't have done more to help. Almost like her failure was his fault. Had he been more knowledgeable when it came to long range in Emission Type Quirks, he could have tutored her there. Of course he was aware how ridiculous an idea, and how skewed a logic it was. The tests had been based on the things each student lacked. In Izuku's case, this was teamwork with Bakugou. In Mina's case, this was strategy.
That wasn't something that he could just teach. The key to be able to formulate a competent strategy while under pressure and on the fly was knowing and understanding all the elements of Heroism fundamentally, and knowing how to assess a Quirk and situation just at a glance. To learn that required a long time, and a lot of patient explaining and tutoring. Every person learned at a different rate to every other person. Mina was one of those who had a slower rate. It didn't mean she was stupid or unintelligent in any way. She just needed a bit more time, and a certain approach towards learning to totally get it. She was really just unfortunate that her test had been based on strategy.
But he still felt that he could have helped her. Wished he could, if only he'd known ahead of time. But unfortunately, One For All wasn't a Quirk that allowed him to see the future, and as such, he just couldn't have helped her in any way.
Additionally, neither of them had any idea how long these extra lessons actually were supposed to be. They could be an hour of absolute hell on Earth, or four hours of slow, drawn out torture. Simply put, Izuku could be fast asleep by the time Mina was finished, for all they knew.
It couldn't have come at a physically worse time.
"You had better go, before Aizawa gets annoyed with you…" Izuku said, though he could tell just how upset Mina was for having to do so, even disregarding the current state of their relationship. Academics were just not her thing.
"Urgh…" The pink girl groaned again, though she nodded her head, and plodded her way towards the remedial group.
With her head in her left hand, Mina struggled to even pay attention to the things on the board in front of her. Everything just blurred into one big greyish blur. She couldn't focus on anything like this right now, she lacked the motivation to even try to care about anything to do with the fundamentals of Quirks or how each type should combat each other type. She'd already been in the room an hour, and not a single note had made its way onto the pages in front of her.
In her head, she knew that really, she should be listening to what Aizawa had to say, but her heart just wasn't into it. Too much had happened over the last few hours to even make her remotely want to listen to more lectures that she had already zoned out of in the past. She knew she was behind… But she could be behind by a full year and she doubted that she'd be too bothered right now.
There were more important things to worry about.
She took a small glance over to Kirishima's pages. He had been making notes like it was going to make his heart start beating again. He must have already finished up at least four pages, and was just finishing up his fifth. That made a lot of sense though. Even back in middle school, Kirishima had been pretty serious about becoming a Hero, a transformation that she'd witnessed first-hand.
To be frank, it was still sort of weird to see him like this in Yuuei. They only had a limited interaction before the school year started, and even then, they weren't exactly friends. They weren't close. They were just two people who were aiming for the same high school. She knew him when his hair was straight, shoulder length, and dark black in colour. Before they ended up as 'Horn Buddies'. Hell, the guys Quirk wasn't even that impressive when they first met. His spirit, sure, but his actual physical abilities? Not so much.
Not like she had a right to critique it now – The fact he was even in Yuuei at all was a testimony to that. She had trained with the guy as he developed his simple power into something quite impressive.
And she was dating a guy who was inherently Quirkless. She didn't exactly get much right to judge someone based on their Quirks.
Still, she had no doubt as to his determination to be a Hero, and to the nature of his character. He was a good person, someone who, even though they barely spoke these days, she considered to be a friend. Someone she trusted, and someone she knew was genuinely Heroic, and wanted to be a Pro, not for glory or valour, but because his heart was seriously in the right place.
Which just made his friendship with Bakugou that more… Vindictive. Counter-Productive? She couldn't think of the right word, but it seemed like a backwards sort of notion.
Mina had absolutely nothing against her Horn Buddy, but the company he kept just was totally juxtaposed to the sort of person he himself was. Granted, the two of them had fought together at the USJ, which might explain why the red dyed teenager was willing to tolerate the short tempered boy. Perhaps he'd seen a side that Bakugou didn't display anywhere else, or maybe it was a Brothers in Arms type deal. Whatever the reason, it just felt weird to her. Almost wrong.
She shouldn't judge, and she knew that she shouldn't. It wasn't like her in any way at all, and she felt bad about doing it, even when she caught herself doing it without even thinking about it. She didn't feel like she had the right to judge anyone. She was a social person, and did engage in gossip from time to time, but she never allowed herself to stoop to badmouthing people behind their backs, and nor did she ever make a judgement on someone before she knew what they were like.
But she just couldn't stop herself from doing so, not when it came to her boyfriend's bully. One could argue that she did know what he was like, and that it was justified to think this way, but Mina disagreed. She didn't like having these sorts of thoughts herself, and generally tried to avoid having them.
There was one major question that she had that she desperately wanted to know the answer to, though.
If Izuku wanted to, he could tell everyone in Class 1A about Bakugou's true nature. He had every right to, and some would even argue an obligation if he wanted to become a Hero. To stop bad people from getting into positions of power was just one of the many duties that the Heroes had to abide by. Another Endeavour could only lead to bad things happening for the greater society of Humanity. And there wasn't any doubt that if Bakugou went Pro, he'd wind up as another self-serving, aggressive and angry type like Endeavour. The guy was one of the few Heroes Izuku seemed to have disdain for, for there couldn't be any doubt he was an off sort of Hero.
Izuku had the power to end Bakugou's dreams of Heroism before they even started. One explanation that he was an opportunistic bully that tormented Quirkless people, and those he thought he could get away with, one explanation of the nature of his superiority complex, and his brutally violent tendencies, and he'd be gone. Thrown out of the country's most prestigious school. People would turn on him, call out his crap and demand he explain himself.
Even Kirishima, a person who hated bullies, would give Bakugou the cold shoulder. There wasn't any doubt that it would put a huge strain on their friendship – If one could even call it that – And even possibly bring it to the snapping point.
He didn't though. Mina wanted to know why. Why did he put himself through this sort of hell all the time? Why did he make things so difficult for himself? Why did he show Bakugou such leniency? Aside from submission, it was more than likely empathy. Izuku's own dreams had almost been crushed, and he was too nice a person to do the same to Bakugou's.
That was the best guess she had…
She had always wanted to be a Hero. She'd grown up wanting to use her Quirk to help people, despite the danger that her powers inherently held. She wanted to be the sort of person who stayed true to themselves, and went with their honest thoughts. She truly did believe in all of these tenant, like she knew Izuku did. So to see him roll over to someone who seemed more like a villain…
It just felt wrong. It actually hurt her to see it happen to him…
Should she be the one to expose Bakugou's crap, if Izuku wasn't going to?
Was that something a true Hero would do?
"Ashido."
Mina's eyes shot wide open, and her body jumped, making her sit up straight and snap her eyes towards the front. She swore to herself inside her head when she saw Aizawa stood over her, his own Quirk activated as a sort of intimidation tactic. How long he'd been stood there for was a matter of debate, but since, from the corner of her eye, Mina could see Kirishima and Monoma – The latter of whom seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the display – Looking at her along with their main tutor of the day.
"S-Sensei?" She asked, knowing full well that she was in trouble.
Her punishment for not paying attention?
An extra hour for her own lessons, to catch up on everything that she missed. Mina felt more dead than alive afterwards, and her eyelids felt like they had dumbbells attached to them. She seriously had to fight to keep her eyes open at all. Everyone else seemed to have already gone to sleep long ago, so she was the only student awake in the whole building, most likely. While she would have loved nothing more than to immediately crash into the girl's room and fall onto her futon without a single care, she had another thing she needed to do before she went.
She needed to remove the bandages that she had around her forearms. The ones that had been applied after her training session against the rocks that had cut her up.
It only took her a couple of minutes to find the nearest female bathroom, which she entered promptly. She flicked the switch on the wall to turn the lights on, and then made her way towards the mirror. She had instructions to wash her forearms as soon as the appendages came off, to make sure that nothing lingered on her arms that could cause infection of any sort.
Looking at herself, she remembered back to the first time she actually spoke to Izuku that wasn't in introduction. The day of the Sports Festival, and he had his shattered limbs in casts. The irony of the current situation wasn't lost on her. She looked like he did that day, only her injuries were far, far less serious. And she hadn't broken her bones in her self-inflicted pain. And her scars weren't going to be nearly as bad.
For a second, she hesitated, before she committed to unravelling the white medical supplies. Her moment of hesitation came from her sudden worry regarding the scars she now would have on her hands. In the heat of her wrath, she hadn't given a single crap, just wanting to unleash havoc to vent her annoyance out of her system. Now she was a bit worried as to what she now had to live with.
Once undone, the cloth just unwrapped itself.
Revealing a small series of small scars up her wrists, while some more obvious ones resided around her knuckles and palms. They were a slightly lighter shade of pink than the rest of her skin colour, making them difficult to spot unless they were actually being looked for. A particularly nasty one however was on her right hand, and was a single jagged line from underneath her thumb, that travelled to the centre of her palm, where it thinned out and died. She looked like a much more tame version of Izuku actually, In terms of scars, anyway.
Their circumstances weren't even that different, when she stopped to properly think about it. They had gained their scars through training and battering themselves to the point of self-harm. The primary difference was that Izuku had been doing it a lot longer, and his skin had grown more durable from it. Mina had only done this the once, though even Aizawa, in spite of his anger at her for not paying any attention, did concede that if she continued to train like that, her Quirks power would improve dramatically.
Mina did want to become stronger, to be able to become a Hero, and she knew that Izuku wanted that too, more than anyone else here, for certain. He had the motivation and the need to learn how to better use his power. This trip was all about training to become stronger and stronger. Anything else could be seen as a distraction to those goals.
So, if they were going to talk… It should be later. When they get back home, after all the training has gone down, and they've returned stronger than before. When there are no distractions to be had, and they are all alone, and can relax, not needing to worry about interruption.
Maybe for now… They should just act like it hadn't ever happened. That was what Mina thought to herself. If they just acted like things hadn't happened until they got back home… Then they could talk as much as the needed to. Away from possible prying ears, where they could have an honest and open heart to heart.
In that moment, an idea made its way into the pink girl's head, one that made her grin to herself as she left the bathroom, dumping the bandages in the trash as she left.