Mina was running. And she was blind.
She wasn't sure how she knew that she was running. She was entirely numb, unable to feel anything, nor could she see anything around her. The entirety of the space that she was in was nothing but blackness and emptiness. Nothing was there, and all she was, well, was her. And she wasn't even sure what she was. She couldn't see or feel her arms, yet she knew that she was moving.
The nothing that was around her felt like water. Black, murky water that her own equally black eyes couldn't see through. Yet she could breathe, and at the same time couldn't.
She didn't feel anything. No anxiety. No fear. No joy, and no worry. She just simply was there, running throughout absolute nothingness.
For how long, she didn't know. It might have been five minutes, or seven hours. Fatigue wasn't a factor, and nor was time.
Yet as she moved, she just saw nothingness. So she kept moving, feeling like there was something that she was supposed to find at the end of this nothingness.
Nothingness. Just nothingness. There wasn't any other word to describe it. Emptiness implied that there was something on the outside of all of this, and she couldn't be sure that there was. She couldn't even be certain that anything, or herself, existed. None of it all made sense, but she seemed to know where she was all at once.
After however long of aimless running, the first thing that she saw made her lips curl. The first thing that actually made her feel something. Some emotion. Some Control suddenly returned to her. She felt her legs stop, and her arms swung and flopped by her side as her eyes began to focus on the only thing that wasn't this empty void.
She saw Izuku, standing just a few meters away from her.
His face was battered and beaten, his arms shattered beyond all measure. His eye was swollen and barely even able to open, and he had cuts and scratches all over him. Blood ran from his forehead over his face, spilling over his eye and dripping from his chin. He probably had some broken bones around his ribs It was amazing that he was even still alive, never mind standing upright.
But it was him.
Without words, she ran towards him, her arms reaching out to him, wanting to grab onto him as tightly as she could and not let go of him, ever. Suddenly, she felt tired, and her brain told her that Izuku would make that all go away, that the moment that she got close to him, all of that would fade away into the nothingness that surrounded her. And she listened, without hesitation.
One foot in front of the other. Again and again and again.
She got closer.
And his face suddenly began to melt.
Mina wanted to stop running towards him in that moment, sheer horror finally taking place in her heart, but her legs refused to stop. She lost control of them all of a sudden, and once again she was moving without knowing how and against her will. Izuku's eyes began to turn to goop and abandon his eye sockets. His skin and what had previously been his eyes dripping off of his face as his body decayed away into nothingness. What was happening to him? Why was it happening to him? Why wouldn't it stop? How could she stop it? What was happening?
The melted flesh began to fall off of a sudden silhouette that stood within its centre. When Mina got close, it turned its head to face her.
A psychotic smile from Toga Himiko.
Mina ran face first through the Transformation Quirk users face, and came out the other side, covered in the goop that had been Izuku. Her whole body was covered, and her heart was now pounding like crazy.
Suddenly, she was falling.
She had experienced it before. That falling sensation before waking up. Only this time, it was far more prolonged, and a thousand times more terrifying. She couldn't scream. No air existed within her lungs. No words would escape her lips, caught by her own clenched throat.
How long she fell for, she didn't know. It felt like ten seconds, but it could have been a month. She had no idea what time even meant anymore.
The ground finally came into view – And the ground was again, Izuku.
Lying face down, his body battered and beaten. Only this time, he was face down, lying in a pool of his own blood. Unmoving. The only part of him that seemed to move was the strands of his hair, moving along with a non-existent wind.
All over his back rested stab marks. Deep, blood-soaked stab marks that tore out his innards. A serrated knife, designed to rip his flesh up and apart. Chunks of said bloody flesh scabbed along the edges – All of which formed a word.
Fault. All in capital, bloody letters. Below the word, a circle.
A finger? It was pointing towards Mina.
Her fault.
Her fault that this happened to Izuku. Her fault she couldn't do anything about it. Her fault that she let this happen.
Her fault. Her fault entirely.
As she fell, suddenly, she felt pain all over her hands and arms.
More blood, seeping from the wounds she had suffered during the Training lodge. The injury she had suffered from Toga Himiko, the blade through her palm, secreted the most blood of all. The pain throbbed. It was all she could feel.
Her fault for being too weak to do anything to stop any of this from happening.
From the mutilated corpse that was Izuku, suddenly, his spine began to lurch, to bend, and to grow into a mound that reached towards Mina. His skin reached the breaking point, busting as soon as it came close to her.
Once more, Toga Himiko. This time, a knife, lunged right for her eyes.
Nothing she could do to stop it from –
Mina felt her body lurch as she woke up. She found herself suddenly sitting up straight, wide awake like she had never been before. It took her a few moments to figure out that what had happened had been a dream. A disturbing, visual one, but a dream nonetheless. All in her head. A viciously realistic dream, that felt so real her scars throbbed, but a dream.
Her breath was shaky, and she felt sweat run from her forehead down her cheek. She took a moment to calm herself down, to figure out exactly where she was.
A small squeeze of her hand reminded her exactly where she was. And she quickly felt her heartbeat relax.
Izuku was still asleep. He'd fallen asleep a while ago, the effects of his medication still kicking in. Mina had kept hold of his hand the entire time, and hadn't let go even in her own sleep. Her head had been rested on his lap, using it as a pillow. They were still in the hospital room, where Mina had been by his side for what was nearly a full week now.
The Sports Lodge, the kidnapping, All For One, and the fight after… It all quickly returned to Mina. She let out a sigh. She never thought that she'd wake up one day, thankful that this was the reality she'd been given. Her heart rate slowly returned to normal, and she rested her free hand over it, feeling it calm down. Feeling herself calm down as her heart calmed. She took in a deep breath of cold air, and then exhaled it. She was fine. Her hand was still shaking, but it was fine.
Now that Izuku was out of his medically induced coma, things were bound to begin to move quickly. Recovery Girl had come as soon as she had heard that the boy was awake, and gave him an extra-large dose of recovery, which she claimed would help give him a boost on fixing any minor or lasting internal injuries. Along with that, she had given him a small bottle of pills, stuff that was going to help him sleep when he needed it. She also gave one to Mina, saying that night terrors were probably going to be a common occurrence after everything that they had both been through. Trauma was unavoidable, but these would help them on the road to recovery. Or at least on the way to helping them learn to cope with it.
Recovery was an amazing Quirk. Mina had said it before, and she would say it again. Izuku was cleared to be discharged from the hospital as soon as he woke up in the morning. His mother wanted to come to pick him up, to come and see her son. Mina had a feeling that she knew why.
The Yuuei dorm rooms. Technically, neither of their parents had actually given express permission for them to attend Yuuei as a boarding school, so that whole thing was still something that needed to be sorted out, and she somehow had the feeling that Mrs. Midoriya wasn't going to be all for her son heading over to live on Yuuei grounds after everything that happened.
Mina couldn't blame her either. Her son had been kidnapped by Villains. Dangerous Villains. In fact, probably one of the single most dangerous Villains that the country had ever seen. The entire world was talking about it, and All Might's subsequent retirement. America had been in uproar, as had the British and Europeans. Japan was at the center of the world right now, especially in terms of Hero critique. Especially those who worked at Yuuei. No matter how hard the Heroes had worked, the fact remained that his capture would fall on Yuuei's hands, even if it wasn't their fault, and they had done everything within their power to prevent such an attack.
She hadn't even spoken to her family since the night of the rescue. She assumed that they knew she was okay, since they hadn't called her back. Maybe the news, or a school representative or something. The reason didn't entirely matter. If they didn't know that she was okay, she would be hounded by calls and texts every second of the day. The Ashido's were close knit. Even her extended family were close to her, and she'd heard nothing. They were waiting for her to call, because they knew where she was now. And they weren't going to push it until Mina called them.
Dealing with them again…. It wasn't going to be a fun experience, she could already tell. Especially not after the way that she'd yelled at them. Her family were a forgiving bunch a lot of the time, and worried about her. She knew everything was because they were just worried… But they didn't understand what things were like for her. They weren't Heroes. They hadn't studied Heroics, or been in the line of fire that was Heroism. How could they understand?
She loved her family. She really did. But it was impossible to make them understand the true extent of what her life was now. It just couldn't be done. They had a different mindset to her. Civilians and Heroes, they had different ways of thinking.
After all, what other students would fight tooth and nail to continue studying at their school of choice? What other sorts of students would go to drastic extremes to do that, even when faced with danger, attacks at said school, and danger at every turn?
Only Hero students would do that. Because they just thought differently.
Classes at Yuuei were due to start in the next couple of days, so if both Izuku and Mina were going to attend for the full semester, a decision had to be made as quickly as possible. There wasn't any doubt in Mina's mind that this was part of why Izuku's mother was coming tomorrow. To pick up her son, and actually, seriously discuss the dorms with him and the teachers. Well, teacher. All Might had let Izuku know that he intended to visit in the morning too, and his visit would coincide with Mrs. Midoriya's. A debate was inevitable. Mina wanted to take part in that debate though. After everything that had gone down, she felt like she had a voice that deserved to be heard.
And she sure as hell wasn't about to let Izuku go after she had just got him back.
"Touch starvation?"
Mina nodded with an awkward half frown on her lips. The right side curled downwards, while the rest remained indifferently horizontal. Her eyes also did a slight roll to the side that came from the awkwardness of the conversation.
The entire series of events that had gone down were entirely due to their inability to be honest and talk to one another about various things. Izuku's inability to express his own emotions to Mina, and Mina's own emotional withdrawnness. Despite being an open person, Mina often held back when she felt Izuku was going to be uncomfortable about a certain topic, and that had ended up causing friction between the two of them. She cared about Izuku and never wanted to upset or hurt him, but it had the opposite effect. Everything could have been avoided if they were just able to talk to one another. If they could just be honest with each other. If they could just truly trust one another, with everything.
So, that was what they decided that they needed to be.
No secrets, no holding anything back anymore. They just had to be up front, and be honest. A clean slate where everything that needed to be brought up was brought up.
Touch starvation being one of them. "Yeah…" Mina looked a bit awkward, glancing down to her phone, and typing in a few keys, before handing the device to Izuku. "One of my old middle school friends, she has a girlfriend and she says has the same deal. Her girlfriend was kind of awkward about, the whole, you know… Physical affection kind of thing…"
"…Like me?"
"…Kind of? I think less so. I've barely seen either of them since we got into Yuuei, but she seems sort of awkward, so... I guess so."
"Okay…"
"Well, my friend, Miki, she wanted advice on how to, you know, get her girlfriend to do the whole touchy… Affection thing. She sent me this article on it and, I read it, and… Well…" She nodded towards her phone, indicating that she wanted Izuku to look over what was on the device.
So he did so, scanning over the words quickly and taking everything in that it had to say. It was a short description, going over exactly what being touch starved meant. Mina was usually very physically affectionate, and Izuku was one to normally return that. But rare was it that he was the one to initiate it. Which seemed to be what this article was implying.
"…I like it when you hold me." Mina said, a mild blush on her face. "I feel like I need you to, sometimes. I don't mean like in a you know, 'fun times' way." She made finger gestures with her index and middle fingers on both hands, and allowed herself a small smirk, unable to resist the opportunity to lightly tease him. "Although that one time was fun."
Izuku blushed, knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"...I know I'm kind of clingy sometimes, and I know you're a bit uncomfortable with it sometimes too… But I just…" She trailed off, and looked towards her own hands again, wiggling her fingers along and letting out a small sigh. "I guess it was just that, you never said that you loved me before… So it felt like touch was the only way that… You ever showed you cared…"
Making Izuku feel guilty wasn't Mina's goal. It was the last thing that she wanted to do. But she had to be honest with him and be up front with the things that were bothering her, that had been bothering her since they even began their relationship. That was really the only way that they were going to get around avoiding this sort of thing from happening again.
Even if that meant upsetting him.
She could tell that he was upset. Not with her, but more with himself. She could practically see his face fall, and his own head rush to call him an absolute moron for not noticing this all sooner. It wasn't his fault. Well, it was… But she knew he hadn't meant to upset her. That had never been his goal.
Izuku was just…. Well, Izuku. Awkward with girls, especially with his girlfriend, and oblivious at times. Never malicious. Just unsure of himself. Of everything. After all, it was difficult to forget that this was still all new to him. It was easy to forget that this was all new to Mina too. In the grand scheme of things, they hadn't dated for long. Only a few months, when they looked at the actual dates.
The look in his eyes said it all. Spoke volumes about how upset he'd gotten over hearing this. How annoyed he was at himself for missing something so important that had caused Mina so much grief. Annoyance at himself for just being unable to voice his emotions to her, of all people.
That not being able to do so was the catalyst for everything. "…Mina, I… I'm sorry…"
"You don't need to be." She smiled softly. "It's okay. Just… Now you know, so…"
Affection, Izuku had long since realized, was a difficult thing to actually pin down. To figure out exactly what it was, and how to show it. To different people, it had different meaning, and different people felt it in different ways. From his own prior life experience, physical affection was just something that he rarely ever got. From his mother, sure, but that was it. And even then, when he would actually need it, when he actually needed reassurance, he would rarely ever go to her, unwilling to make her worry or fret over him.
She was showered with enough guilt for his Quirklessness as it was. He never wanted to add anything to it. So he had just learned to get by without that contact, and it made him awkward about initiating it a lot of the time. He could get by just from being in someone's company. Really, that was all he particularly felt that he wanted for the majority of his life. Just someone close to him. A friend. A girlfriend hadn't particularly crossed his mind until Yuuei.
And yet here he was now. With Mina. And he cared for her far more than he'd ever cared for anyone else. He loved her.
A girlfriend who understood and felt affection in an entirely different way to him. She felt it through touch. Mina was a very forward person, and that sort of affection was just second nature to her. He should have figured it out.
They both had a lot that they needed to work through. A lot to figure out. A lot to understand, and still, had a lot to go through together.
"…Even not counting the whole, Villain attacks…" Izuku said, slowly. "…We've been busy a lot, haven't we?..."
"…Yeah."
"We haven't even been on a date in… A while." He couldn't even remember the last time when they had last just gone out on an actual date. They were Hero Course students at Yuuei High, of course their free time was going to be limited. That said, they had to try to make exceptions for themselves, for them to just enjoy one another's company. To be allowed to grow closer and bond as a couple. Or they would just run into more problems like this. "We… We should do that. Like… An actual date, when we get everything settled."
In the corner of his eye, he could see Mina smile lightly. "You… Think so?"
"After everything we've been through?... Yeah." He allowed himself to smile too. "If you want to…"
"Yeah." Mina nodded, though her smile faded slightly. "…Though I guess we should worry more about making sure we can stay at Yuuei together tight now, huh?"
Both of them knew that they were just killing time until Izuku's mother showed up. She was going to be armed with a list of questions and an oceans worth of tears. When she had been around Mina, they hadn't discussed Yuuei in the slightest. Mina had been too focused on Izuku to even entertain the discussion, so she simply never brought it up.
Likewise, Inko never did either. It was like an unspoken rule between the two of them not to argue about it until Izuku was awake. Likewise, when they had called Inko to let her know that Izuku was awake, her wails of joy could be heard throughout the entire room. Her relief and joy that her son was okay was palpable. But she clearly wasn't going to be in a hurry to let son go back into the world that had stolen him from her and landed him in the hospital.
Neither of them were looking forward to the argument.
Connecting the green-haired boy's room was a smaller bathroom. It was just a small room, put still large enough to fit in a sink with running water. Izuku let out a small sigh, and then made an effort to stand up. He swung his legs off of his mattress, and then attempted to stand up.
The moment that his legs were called upon to support his body weight, he felt them rattle and shake. Not having used his legs fully for a while, he wobbled, grabbing hold of his bedside table for support.
Recovery was an incredible Quirk. Even though he hadn't used them for a full week, his limbs didn't feel all too bad at all. A bit shaky, yes, but it certainly wasn't going to be something that would impede his walking ability for long. A day or two at the most.
"Woah, Izu, you okay?" Mina immediately jumped up and made it to Izuku's side, ready to catch hold of him should he fall.
"I'm okay. I - I think." Izuku assured her, finding his firm footing, before letting go of the bedside table, and tried standing without support. "I... I think I'm okay."
"You need some help?"
"I... I'm alright. I... I just want to get some water."
"You want me to get it for you?"
"No, it's... It's... Sort of a ritual for me."
Mina's eyebrow raised up. She didn't even need to speak for Izuku to understand how odd what he just said had to sound to someone who didn't understand what he was talking about.
He blushed gently in embarrassment. "I-It's... It's just something I used to do. Back when I kept breaking my bones with One For All... It was... It was silly. But it just sort of made me feel better. It felt me know I could do things on my own again..." He explained, gently biting the inside of his lower lip as he did so. "It... It made me feel like I wasn't broken anymore."
"Izuku..." Was that how he felt right now? Like he was broken? Like he was a hindrance on people when he was like this? Then again, Mina couldn't blame him.
Aizawa had always told him that when he was like this, he wasn't much more than a hindrance on people. That sort of rhetoric had been battered into him by one of Yuuei's strictest, yet most experienced instructors. By a Hero who knew what he was talking about. Who had seen this sort of thing, time and time again.
Of course Izuku would take that to heart.
...Although, there was something that separated Izuku and Mina from Aizawa. Something that separated them, from All Might, and so many famous Heroes in the modern age.
"...Don't be dumb, Izu." She said calmly. She bent down so she could look him in the eyes, letting him know she was there, but she moved her hands behind her waist. "I won't help you if you don't need it... But you don't need to think of yourself as being broken, you know. You're not broken, and even if you were... It's my job to help you."
"I... I don,t want you to have to keep looking out for me like this. I... I want to be able to do things on my own... I don,t want to hinder anyone... Or be a nuisance to you."
"We're a team, remember?" She smiled. "Team Awkward Energy, remember? It's part of being on the same team. We get to lean on each other."
The green-eyed boy looked back at his black-eyed girlfriend, a mixture of emotions filling him all at once. Gratitude. Shame. Pride. Joy. Sadness. After everything, he had honestly managed to forget somehow. Forget that he was allowed to rely on Mina. Not just as his girlfriend. But as a teammate too.
"...I'm sorry." He said gently, blinking and looking towards the ground.
"So as Team Awkward Energy's Team acting leader -"
"L-Leader?"
" - I hereby order you to rely on me when you need to." The pink girl gave him a playful smirk. "Don't feel bad about asking me for help when you need to."
Somehow, he managed to let out a small laugh. This whole short act was a very Mina thing to do, he couldn't help but be used by it. She understood him incredibly well. More than he felt he understood himself sometimes. And how to both make him see the right way when he made mistakes, and to make him remember, his burden wasn't his own. Not anymore.
"...Thanks, Mina." He said, looking back at her. "...But I still want to do this on my own. For my sake."
"Of course." Mina nodded. "But I'll go with you. Make sure to catch you if you fall down."
"Thank you."
She smiled and took a step back. Her arms went to her sides, ready to catch him if he fell. "I'm ready whenever you are."
Izuku nodded and made himself stand up straight. He took a deep breath, then started to put one foot in front of the other. The first few steps, he focused on figuring out if he was going to need to readjust himself again. His footing was fine, as was his balance, so he kept putting one foot in front of the other. His muscles hadn't been used in a while, so they reacted accordingly. It was more like they were numb, but the feeling quickly returned with actual activity.
"You doing okay?" Mina asked. She walked alongside him, just in case.
"I'm okay." Izuku assured her again. Her concern was easily understandable. After the hell made real that she'd been forced through because of him, she was bound be worried over everything he did. All things considered, she was being incredibly supportive and understanding of his quirky desires and requests. He gave her a smile. "I promise. I'm okay."
It didn't take him too long to reach the bathroom. Once in there, he found the nearest glass, filled it up to the brim with as much cold water as it could handle, and drunk it all down in one long breath. He gasped one he finished, his body refreshed and himself feeling calmer and accomplished. He looked at himself in the mirror. Anyone who didn't know that he was injured wouldn't suspect a thing from his face alone. His body was another story.
More scars to add to the list, as well as an unsightly, enormous burn that ran right down from his shoulder all over his bicep, visible from the cut off of his hospital robe. On impulse and curiosity, he rolled up his sleeve, to view the damage in full.
Third degree burns meant that this was going to remain with him for the rest of his life. He couldn't help but flinch at it. Scars, he could deal with without any issue. They served as reminders of the lessons that he had w ere small things too, and he never felt like he was damaged afterwards. This burn... He felt he suddenly understood Todoroki more than ever. He had known he had it, but he hadn't seen it in full until now. It hadn't been possible through his robe. Right now, he wasn't sure if that had been a mercy or not.
He hadn't gotten this burn from saving someone. The entire mission to rescue Bakugou had ended in absolute and total failure. It had gotten himself kidnapped to boot. He hadn't accomplished anything. In fact, he'd done less than nothing, he'd gotten himself kidnapped as well. All he'd done is cause more trouble for everyone. For the Heroes. For Mina.
This burn was going to remind him of that for the rest of his life. Every time he looked in the mirror, he was going to remember that he was nought but a burden for that operation. That he'd only caused more pain than needed.
"Izu?..." Mina came into view in the mirror behind him, her concern clear in her expression.
"I... It's the first time I've... Seen it." His eyes were firmly focused on it. "I'll... Have to wear some sort of sleeve or something. To make sure it doesn't get injured again... For a while, at least."
"...Are you okay?"
"... It's not the same as my other scars." He said, not showing a change in emotion. "I'm... I'm not too sure how I'm supposed to even describe it. It just... I don't know. I'm not... I'm not sure what to even say about it."
There wasn't much Mina could say to him to try to reassure him. There wasn't any way she could really say she understood. She couldn't. Not for something like a burn. "...if it makes you feel better, it doesn't bother me."
No response.
An idea quickly jumped into Mina's head.
She held up her right hand in the mirror for him to see. Her own scars, the wound through her palm being the most prominent, were all on display for him to see. Izuku had bigger, but less scars. Mina had more, but smaller ones, in a more concentrated area.
When he saw them in the mirror, he quickly turned around to look at them directly. He hadn't even seen them before - Since getting back, he hadn't paid all that much attention to her hands. Not close enough to notice all the scratches and blemishes around them. "M-Mina..."
"See, we're scar buddies!" She smiled and joked playfully.
"S... Scar buddies?"
"Like how me and Kirishima are Horn Buddies. Only about eighty percent more painful." She pointed to her horns, where the other twenty percent supposedly had come from. "These things didn't grow painlessly, y'know. It was like my brain was teething."
He couldn't stop himself from laughing gently at that. Mina allowed herself a small giggle, before she returned to a more serious tone.
"You've got a nasty injury, yeah, and a lot of scars... But you're not alone." Mina slid her right hand into Izuku's. It was a slightly awkward grab, since she decided to interwind their fingers at an odd angle, but she managed it somehow. Her fingers squeezed against his hand as she spoke. "I know you're gonna get sick of me telling you that sooner or later, so just... Remember that you're here. And I'd rather have you with a nasty scar than not have you here at all."
Izuku's fingers squeezed Mina's hand in response, a small smile on his lips. Mina just had this skill to say something simple to him, put her heart into it, and make him smile and feel better about himself. About the situation that he found himself in. She made him just feel better about things in general. How she did it, he really didn't know. It was just something she managed to do.
She always managed to say things that he needed to hear, that he needed to be reminded of.
He was grateful. He was always going to be grateful for her. For her words, her support. Just for her being here. Still willing to be here, after everything that she'd been through. After everything that the pair of them had gone through, she still wanted to be with him. Still accepted him, broken and battered. She wasn't a superficial person. Not at all, and he never thought that she was... But it was nice to have that assurance from her. That relaxing feeling, that comfort and serenity of unconditional acceptance, despite his Quirklessness, despite his various personality ticks and traits, and his scars and injuries.
It made him just all the more happy to have her. She made him feel better. He couldn't ever repeat that enough to her.
As the pair of them returned to the main room, both were startled as they hear a light knocking on the door. "Midoriya? Are you decent, my boy?"
His voice was unmistakable. It wasn't quite as boisterous and loud as his Hero form, but All Might had a voice that was instantly recognizable to those who heard it.
"All Might?" Izuku sounded briefly surprised, before he made himself calm down. He knew All Might would be paying him a visit today, but he had still been caught off guard by his arrival. He blinked twice before instantly patting down his hospital robe for creases and wrinkles like it were a uniform, and then vocally answering. "Y-Yeah, come on in."
Exactly one second later, the door opened, and the skinny, tall form that was the true All Might walked in. Even though she had known for a while now, Mina couldn't help but feel nothing but disbelief that this was what All Might really was underneath all that muscle and that famous smile. He looked like an entirely different person, which was probably why he had managed to keep his identity hidden for so long.
Even though she knew, she still didn't recognize the guy. It was eerie. And now, the whole world knew who this was. It would take a while for them all the adjust, but eventually, this skinny, brittle man would be as hailed and revered as the leaning, muscular American themed Hero. Which he was.
It was confusing to think of All Might as being two separate people, but he almost was, to a certain degree. Even though Mina understood it all perfectly well, it didn't make it easier to get her head around it.
Once he saw the green-haired boy, All Might stopped for a brief moment to just look at Izuku, and all the many injuries that he'd accumulated. He clearly was as shaken as Mina by the sight of them all, taken aback even though he'd seen far worse in his time. Suffered far worse, from the enormous life changing injury that took out his insides. He seemed to inspect them for a singular moment, before looking his protégé in the eyes.
"…Are you alright, my boy?" The former Pro asked. He didn't bother to try and hide the clear concern that existed within his voice. The sheer care that he had for his student couldn't be more obvious. The pair of them had a bond though their joined use of the same Quirk that Mina wouldn't ever be able to fully comprehend.
Compared to how he normally was around the legendary Hero, Izuku seemed calmer. More reserved and civil than he did a fanboy. Maybe it was just the sheer magnitude of what he'd been through that had impacted him. "I'm okay, All Might. I'm… About as well as you could expect, I guess..."
"Uh… Should I leave you two to talk?" Mina asked. "I'm guessing you two have One For All things you need to talk about."
Izuku had come face to face with the true evil that One For All had originally been created from, and was used to fight against. He'd been through an experience so traumatic, if he were a less determined person, he could have given up on Heroism and no one would blame him for a second. He'd faced against unspeakable evil and managed to survive. And now, without All Might there to save him, he realized that if that ever happened again, he could well be on his own.
All Might might have student teacher… Things he wanted to share with Izuku. It seemed like it was right to leave them to it if that was the case.
"If that wouldn't be too much trouble, Ashido." The skinny All Might said, nodding his head in appreciation of Mina's offer.
The pink girl exchanged a look with her boyfriend, who gave her a soft smile and a nod of his own in return, before Mina made her way past All Might and out the door. As she turned around to shut it, she saw the tall Hero suddenly embracing his young student, apparently totally overcome by the relief that he'd barely been able to hide.
Izuku looked like he had no idea how to react to the situation, blankly staring with his eyes wide open over his teachers shoulder and towards Mina like a deer caught in the headlights.
Mina smiled softly and closed the door. She leaned against the now shut door, and let out a small, soft sigh.
Outside this hospital, the world was a vastly different place. She'd been out of the hospital before, but she'd never really stopped to look at how society was changing. All thanks to the loss of one single Hero. All Might was an incredible Hero, there was no doubt about that whatsoever, but without him active now, how would that impact the world? What would that change about society, and how would the world be impacted by the loss of one of their greatest Heroes?
From inside the room, behind the door she leaned on, she could hear the muffled voices of All Might explaining the situation to Izuku. She couldn't hear the exact words that were used or tell what they were even talking about. Secret things, probably.
Meanwhile, what were the options that she had? What was in front of her that she could do?
Izuku had One For All, and he received it because All Might seemed to believe that Izuku was capable of succeeding him as the next big Hero that would shape the world. That he was going to be the next symbol of peace. Mina had complete confidence in her boyfriend and knew that he was absolutely more than capable of becoming the next champion of Heroes.
But he was her teammate just as much as he was her boyfriend. And she wanted to help him achieve that goal. And to do that, she was going to need to be stronger. A lot stronger.
What options did she have ahead of her? She could focus on trying to increase her output before her skin gave up on generating her Acid, and trying to increase the corrosiveness and the viscosity of it too. Maybe there was something that she could do with her costume. Maybe some equipment or something to help her out. Maybe she could finally start focusing on those special moves that she had been thinking of beforehand.
The next few months were going to end up being important for Izuku. And by extension, they were going to be very important to Mina as well.
She remained outside the room for a minute. Two minutes. Five minutes. She couldn't hear anything that was being spoken about inside, although she could be certain she heard Izuku crying at one point. Somehow, she wasn't surprised. That was a pretty Izuku thing for him to do. Whatever All Might was saying in there, it was having a profound effect on him, without question.
"Ashido!"
Mina wasn't sure how long she had been waiting outside Izuku's room when she was approached by a larger woman. She recognized both her voice and her appearance within a split second.
"Mrs. Midoriya!" Mina noticed that the older woman looked for more haphazard than she had done when she had visited her son previously. Her hair was a mess, and her eyes looked to somehow be wider than normal. She looked like she'd been rushing around everywhere trying to get here in the midst of a hurricane.
Inko was also out of breath. Clearly, she had run throughout the building to find her sons room. Her face was red from the rush, and Mina could have sworn she saw tears already welling up at the corner of her eyes. The care that she showed towards her son was heart-warming to say the very least.
"Ashido, Izuku, is he – "
Th door slid open from behind Mina, Izuku poking his head out. "Hey, Mina, we're–" He stopped as he saw the older woman with tears streaking down her face as soon as she saw him. For a brief moment, neither of them said a word, until their brains registered who it was they were looking at. "M - Mom?"
"Izuku!" Without warning, Inko practically threw herself at her son, pulling him into one of the tightest hugs that Mina had ever seen. She couldn't stop herself from smiling, happy for the older woman and her clear relief at her son's improved state.
Mina had watched the poor woman go through hell and seeing her so happy that she was reduced to the trademarked Midoriya happy tears brought her to the verge of joyful crying herself.
At this point, Inko was openly sobbing as she hugged her child as tightly as she could. "Oh Izuku, oh my baby boy…"
"…I'm sorry…" It was all Izuku seemed to be able to say. To just apologize to her. To say he was sorry for causing her so much grief and worry. To say he was sorry for forcing her to go through this, even though it wasn't his fault. None of it was his fault, but he still he apologized. "'I'm sorry…"
All Might looked like he was about to say something, but Mina made a waving hand gesture to persuade him not to. To instead, just allow the mother and son to hug it out after being separated for so long. They needed it, more than the older man was ever going to know. Mina knew though. It hadn't been long since she had needed to just hug the guy more than anything else.