Izuku really was the most adorable person ever.
That wasn't exactly a controversial statement coming from his girlfriend, but that didn't make it any less true. He really had to be the single cutest person on the face of the planet. In terms of looks, he wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't what anyone pointed to him at in awe over.
No, that came down to how he acted, and the kind of person that he was.
Even thinking back on it, Mina couldn't make herself not grin from ear to ear.
Yesterday had been one hell of an eventful day for her, and for their entire class as a whole. After training like their lives depended on it for the full week since they got back to Yuuei, the ends to which it served finally arrived – The Provisional Licence Exam.
Pretty obviously they were the odd ones out. Not only were they from Yuuei, which was just about as legendary as schools came, but they were also the only first years that were taking the examinations. Just about everyone else was in their second years – With a few exceptions, like that one windy guy who had seemed to have a personal beef with Todoroki – they had all trained for this moment for a lot longer than any of them had done. Given how many times they ran into Villains, and needed some kind of legal defence if they had to use their powers in case they ran into more, Mina wouldn't argue that it made sense, but she also wouldn't say that this knowledge filled her with a ton of confidence.
All the training in the world wouldn't help when who knew how many schools out of how many desperate people were gunning right for them from the beginning. Izuku had pointed out that the major disadvantage Yuuei students were at was that everyone in the country knew what their Quirks were, and given that only a small number of applicants would be accepted, they were going to take every single advantage that they could get, no matter how small or how out of the way it was.
The entire thing had been one miasma of conflict and drama, one thing after another. Originally, everyone except Bakugou, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Kaminari all stuck together to act with a safety in numbers mentality, although their enemies quickly took that advantage away from them. Skill and teamwork ensured that they managed to get all the points that they needed to pass onto the second stage – Rescue operations.
Long story short, it took them a lot longer to get going there, but just about everyone managed to pass that segment too – Except for Todoroki and Bakugou, who had failed. In Todoroki's case, quite spectacularly. Ironically, given the sort of loud person he was, Bakugou's failure was fairly quiet. Besides them, everyone in 1A managed to get hold of their Licences.
What tickled Mina was the fact that pretty much the moment Izuku got hold of the licence itself, he started crying and took a picture of it to send to his mother and All Might. She could only imagine what messages he sent along with those pictures, but she could only assume that they were pure gold.
You couldn't get cuter than that. He was the biggest, most emotional dork she knew. Everyone else was celebrating and cheering about how fantastic and proud they felt, and he was in the corner quietly crying out of happiness and sending a picture of his accomplishment to his mother and his mentor. No doubt he was rationalizing away in his head that he owed this achievement to so many different people, when he was the one who had put the effort in and truly earned it.
The guy was so happy that he cried and wanted to share that with people he felt the closest to.
Mina suggested that they take one together, and showed off their licences. She knew that her brother would love some ammunition to tease her with, and her parents would enjoy hearing from her.
Izuku didn't hesitate either, like she thought he might have done. No, he was completely on board with the idea the moment that she suggested it.
The pinkette girl looked over the picture she took of them. They had one arm wrapped around one another's waists, and they were holding up their licences with their other hands, Izuku's just in front of his chest, and hers right to the side of her head, like she was comparing the image they used, and her own face. Mina was the one who squished her face against Izuku's, but he didn't seem to mind it at all. She opted to wink for the camera – She probably would have had her own eyes shut if it wasn't due to a need to actually see the picture she was taking. Combine that with a setting sun around them?
She was tempted to print it off and hang it on her picture board. If she could find a printer, she absolutely planned on doing so. It was a lovely picture that just made her smile.
After everything they had been through their term break, after everything that the pair of them had gone through together, and after how their world had been so drastically changed in the span of just a month, Mina knew that she wasn't going to forget this summer, ever. She doubted that anyone honestly would.
Having something to remember their achievements, even if it was something as minor as a single photo of them showing off their licences – It felt great. It was hard to explain.
So much had happened this summer. So many important things, so many things that changed not only her personal life, but the lives of pretty much everyone not only in Yuuei, but in all of Japan. Maybe even the entire world. And she would remember it all. But this photo was maybe the only physical thing she would have to prove that she had been there through it all. And she was in it with Izuku. And there was something insanely comforting about that.
Tomorrow, it was back to their regularly scheduled classes, and she wouldn't mind admitting to a certain feeling of apprehension. After everything, would their classes be the same as they were before, or did Yuuei have even bigger changes in the curriculum in store for them? They were already being pushed beyond the established limits of first years, so who knew what else was going to be thrown at them.
Izuku had to have rubbed off on her though, because she couldn't help but find herself looking forward to seeing what came next. No matter how difficult it was going to end up being. She felt optimistic, eager, hopeful.
Ready to prove herself, now more than ever.
"Hey, Izu, y'want me to send you a copy of this picture?" She asked, smiling at him and holding up her phone to show him.
Looking up from his own phone, Izuku took a second to glance over the photo again. He smiled. "Yeah, please."
Mina smiled, and loaded up his number on her phone and began to send the photo. "All Might said anything yet?"
"Nothing yet. He might be busy… My mom messaged me though."
"What'd she say?"
"Uh… Imagine crying, but through a text." Instead of elaborating further, he just showed Mina his phone screen – His mother had sent him about seven messages, four of those just being random combinations of letters and symbols and numbers in various combinations. Izuku and Mina both immediately thought the same thing – That as opposed to using her fingertips to type messages, she had ended up crying, and the tears had reacted with her phones touch-screen and created incomprehensible messages. The remaining three legible ones being incredibly emotional, clearly hastily written messages telling her how proud she was of him.
Both he and Mina laughed. "Seriously Izu, your mom has the best reactions ever." As she wrapped up her sentence, Izuku's phone made a dinging noise, indicating he had a new message. A tiny icon of Mina's face popped up in the corner of the screen. "Ah, looks like the picture sent."
Izuku turned his phone back around to him, opened up the messenger app screen and saved the image onto his phone. Quickly he typed in a few keystrokes, and, presumably, sent the picture to his mother alongside s short message. He then paused for a moment, and then tapped the screen a few more times.
He then turned his phone back so his girlfriend could see it – He had set the image as his screensaver.
"It is a really nice picture."
Once more, Mina smiled at her boyfriend, with a hint of a blush at her cheeks, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Dork. That's the kinda thing I'd do."
"I thought you already had a picture of us as your screensaver?"
"Nah, I changed it a few days ago to a picture of you snoring."
"W-Wait, what?!"
"You were very loud, dude."
"W-Why?!"
"Cause if I had to suffer though that, you're gonna suffer the embarrassment of it."
Apparently considering that to be a defeat, Izuku allowed his head to slump on top of Mina's. his forehead gently tapped against one of her horns. Despite it not hurting in the slightest, he still decided to say, "Ow."
Looking up without moving her head, Mina asked, "You okay up there?"
"….I didn't know I snored… I-I'm sorry."
"You spent like, a week on IV tubes dude, don't worry about it. You're not too bad anymore." She smirked. "I kinda lied anyway. It's not really a picture of you just snoring."
"O-Oh. Wait, then, what is it?"
Unlocking her phone, Mina showed him. "It's a picture of you snoring, and also me laying next to you."
In image, Izuku was sleeping, and his mouth was hanging open. Mina was laying next to him, glancing at him with her golden eyes, and with a smiling-grin on her face that showed both exasperation and amusement. At the bottom, her hand could be seen, pointing towards Izuku as if to say, 'Check out this guy'. It looked exactly like the kind of image one would send to friends…
….He decided he didn't want to know who had seen that picture.
"…Why, though?"
"Cause A, it's funny, and B, you're adorable."
"Um, excuse me?"
Both teenagers looked up from their back-and-forth to see who it was whom had addressed them. For a moment, they half expected it to be Iida, giving them a lecture about Public Displays of Affection – They were in the middle of the lounge, after all.
They were close though – It was Yaoyorozu, looking somewhat embarrassed at interrupting the two of them.
"Oh, hey Yaomomo." Mina greeted, resisting the urge to pop her head up to address her face to face in case she poked Izuku with her horn accidentally. "What's up?"
At the start of the year, Yaoyorozu had seemed to be very uptight and by the books a kind of person. Intelligent, but almost to the point of showing off. Like everyone else had done, she had relaxed with time. Nowadays, there always seemed to be two very distinct Yaoyorozu's at any one time – The one who was still zealous, yet helpful and caring about her classmates, while the other seemed to still battle with bouts of no confidence, and concern about her own ability.
The worries of the latter were unfounded, especially after the help she had been in the rescue operation regarding Izuku and Bakugou. She might have internal struggles with herself, but as far as Mina was concerned, they had been disproven in every way that mattered.
Right now though, it seemed like the latter was the one in front of them. "I, um… I'm sorry to interrupt, but… I was wondering. Midoriya?"
Izuku blinked. "Yeah?"
"I was… I was wondering if I could have a word with you in private."
"Huh? Uh… S-Sure, Yaoyorozu. I-Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just…" The Creation Quirk user glanced at Mina, and blinked awkwardly a couple of times. "Its… Just that it's a personal matter."
Neither Izuku nor Yaoyorozu on poor terms. In fact, since Yaoyorozu was friends with Mina, the two of them had had a fairly good relationship early on in the year– They just didn't talk to one another all that much. It wasn't like there was some big reason for that. It just didn't happen. So understandably, he was a bit confused by her request.
It seemed that true to his nature though, he wanted to assist her if he could, even if that boiled down to just giving her advice. He nodded at her, and got onto his own feet. "Will uh, this take long?"
"I… Can't imagine it will take too long."
"Okay." He turned to Mina. "I'll uh, be back shortly."
"Alright."
The Acid Quirk user smiled and gave a gentle wave as the two of them walked off. Mina wasn't particularly upset that Yaoyorozu didn't want her involved in whatever personal issues she had going on. She'd had her own issues that she'd more or less spilled out onto everyone, whether they had wanted to her them or not. Some people just weren't as open as she was about their issues, and she intended to respect that.
Not that that was going to stop her from theorizing though. She couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she already started coming up with all the possible odd and weird ideas regarding their conversation.
Quickly though, and probably unsurprisingly to just about anyone who knew her, she homed in on the focus being 1B's Kendou.
During their first term, Yaoyorozu and Kendou's friendship was something just about everyone had noted. Being in similar positions within their classes, and serving under the same tutor in the internships, the two had had the chance to get to know one another fairly well. And they seemed to actively keep this friendship going when they returned to their regular classes at Yuuei.
Lately though, Mina had caught onto the hints of deeper feelings running between the pair of them. Active, cheerful conversations between the two of them, almost always finding them together, a degree of skin ship that neither seemed uncomfortable with.
Yaoyorozu's face going a light shade of red just being around Kendou. Kendou seeming about fifty percent more fidgety when around Yaoyorozu.
Stealing glances at one another.
The writing was on the wall. The only people who probably didn't see the signs were hermits living in caves away from all known civilization, and Mina doubted any of them really existed in this day and age.
So, was Yaoyorozu asking Izuku for advice on how to attract or date girls?
That'd certainly be one hell of a good reason to want to speak to him, and him alone.
If that was the case though – Oh boy, was Mina going to have fun teasing her about it once everything got sorted. She was already lining up the jokes and jibes she'd be able to use. Excited giggles made their way from her lips. She just needed the excuse.
"Racoon Eyes."
Her good mood found itself cut short when she found herself being addressed with that term.
Even if she didn't recognize the voice, there was only one person who referred to her by that name, so she knew who it was without even looking around. Her head did turn on instinct anyway, and saw that in her thought process, Bakugou had approached her.
As well as Kirishima, right by him. Considering what had happened over the last few days – Kirishima seeming to patch up his friendship with Bakugou even in spite of the revelations – Mina had plenty of conflicting thoughts about him that she didn't know what to do with. So either way, she wasn't exactly keen of who was in front of her right now.
"Ashido." Mina flatly said, almost exasperated that she had to re-inform Bakugou of her name. Others might be fine with his nicknames for them. She wasn't. "What d'you want?"
For all the annoyances and resentment that's he held towards Bakugou, Mina didn't want to piss him off, or start a fight. While that was more for Izuku's sake than her own, she wasn't a big fan of fighting to start with. And as negative a view on him as she held, he had been through just as much as Izuku in the last few weeks. She wasn't in the habit of kicking people while they were down.
But she was going to be firm. That wasn't going to change in the least.
"Where's Deku?"
"His name's still Midoriya."
"His name could be Marrow the Martian, for all I care. I just want to know where he is."
"At this exact moment, he's busy. He's talking with Yaoyorozu."
"Yaoyorozu? What the hell is he talking to her for?"
"What difference does it make? What d'you want him for, anyway?"
"Just tell him to find me once he's done with whatever he's talking to Yaoyorou about, would ya? I need to speak to him."
"What about?"
"Did you grill creatie chick this much about what Deku talks with them about?"
"Yaomomo doesn't have a 'colourful' history with Izuku."
Throughout the exchange, Kirishima seemed to have grown more and more uneasy, watching the pair of them exchange jabs and words like he was just waiting for one of them to launch at the other with Quirks at the ready. At no point in this had he seemed calm, but there was something about Mina's final sentence that made him quite visibly flinch.
Right now, the topic of Bakugou's treatment of Izuku was a sore subject for anyone. People wanted to keep on living their lives without being subject to guilt for even associating with the Explosive teenager, but none of them wanted to hold what he'd done before they even knew him against him. Didn't the fact that he got into Yuuei say something about his Heroic values?
No one really knew. That was why no one really spoke of it. Really, the next move belonged to Izuku. And he didn't seem to be in much of a rush to make the next move. He tolerated Bakugou still being involved in classes. He spoke to the teachers in defence of letting him stay in classes.
But did that mean he would hold it against people who wanted to give Bakugou a fresh chance? How long was long enough for a person to be punished and made a pariah over something like this?
Really it came down to Izuku to make that call. Kirishima knew this, and right now, if this conversation went poorly, and Mina spoke to Izuku of it, that could affect his judgement of that, if he wanted to exercise that right. And what came out of Bakugou's mouth next would determine what Mina said to Izuku. And given Bakugou's temper and abrasive personality….
….No one really expected what came out of his mouth next.
"…You know what Deku told me? Back when we were being held hostage by the League?"
Both Mina and Kirishima felt their breaths hitch. Neither Izuku nor Bakugou really spoke about their time with the league. They explained it to the officials, relayed information, yes.
Never about it though. Never about what they did during that time, and certainly never about one another. To be kidnapped in the way that the pair of them had been, to live like that for what to them must have felt like weeks, terrified and uncertain about what was going to happen to them… No one blamed them for not talking about it.
And now Bakugou was talking about it.
"After I learned everything about One For All and where he got it, he told me he told you about it not long after you two started going out. And he told me why he never told you he gave a damn about you." A pause. "He's fixed that now though, hasn't he?"
Mina didn't say anything, but she didn't really need to. Anyone who saw the pair of them over the last week knew that there was a new spark in their relationship. Something that had happened that revitalized everything, and brought them even closer than they had been before. Izuku admitting once and for all, verbally, that he did love her had been the cause of that, and them finally talking to one another, and making certain rules and agreements between one another to avoid the kinds of anxieties and troubles their prior lack of which caused… In the long run, it made them happier. Much happier.
"….I've got my own shit I wanna say to him." Bakugou stated firmly.
There was a lot less aggression in his voice with that one. Noticeably so. Whenever Bakugou spoke, it was often filled up with a background feeling of seething anger or annoyance that he even had to be speaking to anyone at all, anti-social as he was. Irritation that he had to ask anyone for anything at all. But that wasn't here.
Not today.
Something about him seemed… Different. Calmer, in a sense. Given the fact that just today, he'd failed to attain his Provisional Licence, that said a lot. Mina had expected half the dorm building to have been torn apart by him. Now he was just…
…Calmer.
Was this something to do with Kirishima's influence? Or was this something that he'd reached entirely on his own? Or a mixture of the two?
What did he even want to talk to Izuku about?
Why?
Many questions existed in her mind… But none of them were particularly hers to deliberate.
"…I'll tell him you're looking for him." She conceded with a gentle nod. "What he does then is up to him. That's the best I can do."
It seemed to satisfy Bakugou. He nodded back at her. "I'm gonna be in Gym Gamma. For a few hours. Tell him that's where I'll be until later this evening."
"Right."
Bakugou grumbled something underneath his breath, before he turned and walked away, shovelling his hands into his pockets and marching to no doubt train like it was the last night of his life in preparation for his second chance at attaining a Provisional Licence.
Undeniably, something was different about him, but Mina couldn't for the life of her, pinpoint exactly what that was…
"I think that was a 'Thanks'." Kirishima said, letting out a sigh and folding his arms. "Well that… Went better than I thought it would."
"What, did you think we were gonna end up throwing punches at each other?"
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it were possible. It wouldn't be the first time."
The Lodge, Mina remembered, both she and Bakugou had come very close to actually straight up attacking one another. She blinked as soon as she realized that.
What a difference a few weeks made.
"He seems…. Different." Mina noted, tilting her head slightly.
"A good different or a bad different?"
"A… Calmer different. I don't really know what to think otherwise to be honest."
Kirishima nodded in his understanding. Anyone could tell that this wasn't the same Bakugou that they had entered the year with. There was something about him that had changed. For the better or the worse.
Given that he seemed to have toned down his language, and was trying to be amenable… It couldn't be all that bad a change, at least.
"You say something to him?" Mina asked.
"I mean, we talked a bit. Us and Kaminari."
Like Kirishima, Kaminari seemed to be one of the people in 1A who voted to give Bakugou another fair chance of things. Kaminari claimed that Bakugou seemed to regret things had gone the way that they and suggested that they give him a clean slate. That was why he had joined Kirishima and Bakugou during the Provisional Licence's first trial.
At least, Mina assumed that was why Kaminari had gone with them. She was half sure that he'd just joined them out of panic, but that didn't depend entirely on his stance towards Bakugou.
"I dunno. He seems to have his own stuff he wants to say to Midoriya though. I don't know how much help we were."
"I don't think it could have hurt."
"Yeah, well…. I figured that I owed Midoriya one. Especially after the last couple times."
"Couple?" Mina raised an eyebrow at that particular word, and glanced at the Hardening Quirk user. "What's that supposed to mean"?
Kirishima shoved his own hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Y'remember the week before our semester exam?"
"The one we both failed?"
"That's the one." The sharp toothed boy nodded. "Y'know he and I studied together. He tutored me on a few things. I'm pretty sure that he helped me actually pass the written portion thanks to that."
"I remember you saying something about that."
"... What I didn't mention was that we ran into some of his old classmates once."
Old classmates of Bakugou's. By extension, that meant old classmates of Izuku. The people who had tormented Izuku. Mina remembered running into some of them during the early days with Izuku.
And that was an experience Kirishima had shared?
…
…Where exactly was this going?
"We talked for a bit, and well…" Kirishima bit his lip between his teeth. It was hard to fully gauge what emotions he was feeling himself at the time. There was conflict in his expression, and both morning but optimism in his eyes. "…We talked a bit about what their middle school lives were like with both Midoriya and Bakugou there. Bakugou was getting drinks, so, he couldn't really stop us… The long and the short of it is that the two of them more or less admitted to bullying Midoriya." A sigh. "Actually, they admitted to pretty much their entire class picking on him because they thought he was Quirkless."
Mina had seen the school herself. She remembered seeing it while walking along with Izuku to visit his house for the very first time. She remembered his expression clearly.
One of poor memories. An apprehension to the building altogether. He remembered it all clearly.
"The two guys who I spoke to – They seemed to really regret everything that happened. I told them that they'd make Midoriya's day if they got in touch with him and let him know. I don't know if they ever did…." Kirishima paused for a moment, before he spoke again. "….I didn't think Bakugou was involved."
This time, Mina look right at him. "You what?..."
"I mean, I know they didn't get on, but I didn't think that Bakugou was involved in…. That. He got into Yuuei, didn't he? Wouldn't his middle school keep a record if he acted like that? They wouldn't let him in, right?..." Kirishima sighed. "…I didn't realize that he was actually involved until that shapeshifting Villain revealed what she did."
Thoughts ran rampant inside Mina's head. Kirishima knew?
Kirishima had been basically told right to his face about what Bakugou had done, and still chose to side with him? Time and time again, even since the semester exam, he'd been shown proof of Bakugou's hostility towards Izuku.
And he somehow believed that Bakugou was the exception in a story told from an involved, third source?
This was the guy who had tried to fight against bullies in middle school, and made some big statement about how he was moving past everything that had held him back?
And he was seriously, for the second time now, getting buddy-buddy with a bully? Someone who he now knew for a fact had tortured a Quirkless kid for over ten years?
"….Lemme get this straight." Mina said quietly, pinching the bridge of her nose. Hard. "You got told by people who went to middle school with both Izuku and Bakugou that Bakugou tormented Izuku for having a birth defect, said nothing about it to anyone, assumed he wasn't involved, got told by a shapeshifting Villain that it was true, freaking slapped me when I thought that shapeshifter was Bakugou and was revealing a bunch of important crap about One For All."
She moved her hand. Now her voice was rising.
"And now you're hanging out with him again even after you know all of this?"
When it got put laid out like that – None of which was untrue – It sounded bad. Really, really bad. And as far as Mina was concerned, it was bad.
Made worse by the fact that Kirishima looked like he was going to defend himself. For a moment. For one moment, he looked fully really to justify himself. "I…"
Then he stopped. He bit his tongue, and closed his mouth. Because he realized exactly how it sounded, and when put as bluntly as that, what defence even was there?
For her own half, Mina couldn't, frankly, believe what she had just heard, or witnessed. "You didn't think to, I don't know, ask Izuku? Get his opinion? Check if they were telling the truth?... Forget that, did you even ask Bakugou about it?! To even check if he'd own up to it?!"
Kirishima gave her no response.
"What… What the hell do you expect me to do with this, Kirishima?" She asked, looking at him with a mixture of…. She didn't know what.
Misunderstandings happened. Miscommunications happened. False assumptions happened – All of those were easy enough to do, and easy enough for absolutely anyone to make those simple mistakes. And when they were mistakes, all one needed to do was correct one's self. There was no harm done in that alone. That was easily forgivable.
But if she was understanding this correctly, Kirishima hadn't done any of that. Worse, he hadn't even attempted to do any of that. He'd just… Decided that faith was apparently good enough. Good enough to not even question Bakugou.
This from the guy who spent his middle school years acting as a wannabe mediator against bullies?
This from the same guy who told her to her face that he was leaving that kind of crap behind him?
This from the guy whom she'd had disagreements with, yes – but she had developed respect for, owed a great deal to, and worked together to rescue both Izuku and Bakugou?
She…
She didn't have the words. She didn't have the emotions. She had emotions, certainly, but none that she understood.
She didn't have even the first clue what she was supposed to feel.
Anger? Betrayal? Confusion? Understanding? Hope? She felt all of them to at least a measure. No person was perfect, no – But how the hell did you screw up this badly when you had each and every opportunity to correct your mistakes? Even now, he refused to lay down the law with Bakugou – Instead running to re-join him like nothing had changed.
Instead, now she didn't know what she saw when she looked at Kirishima.
They both spoke at once.
"….I don't even – "
"I thought that I – "
"Hey, Mina, look what Kacchan just gave me."
Both of them turned to see a perplexed looking Izuku holding up a pink slip of crumpled up paper with some scribbled writing on the front. He was scratching his head at the paper in his hands, like he was trying to figure out some kind of puzzle.
Then he looked up. "Oh, hey, Kirishima. I – I'm not interrupting, am I?"
Mina and Kirishima looked at one another, and for the first time, Mina didn't recognize the person she was looking at. She recognized him even when he dyed his hair and restyled it – Now she didn't know who she was looking at.
In the back of her mind, she knew that she might just be overreacting to a mistake Kirishima made…. But a larger part of her knew that Kirishima had had nearly every single opportunity to correct his wrong, and still didn't do it. She didn't know what to say to him anymore.
…She didn't know if she wanted to say anything to him anymore.
"…We're just about done anyway, Izu." She said, turning her back on Kirishima and walking towards her boyfriend. "C'mon, I wanna see if I can beat you at Hero Fighter tonight." She put her hand on his shoulder, and gently pulled him back into the corridor, leading him away from the room.
"Eh? Uh, sure. Uh, bye, Kirishima!"
Mina didn't spare a look back.
Up, down, kick at the legs.
"So, you ran into Bakugou?"
Deflect, punch, punch.
"Yeah. Me and Yaoyorozu had just finished talking and we kind of ran into each other… Literally. He said we needed to talk, so…"
Jump, drop-kick, back.
"Well, I guess that explains why you took so long."
Drop-kick, drop-kick. Player two wins. At this point, Mina wasn't surprised anymore.
She put her controller down, and tilted her head. "So, what'd he give you?"
Izuku held up the pink piece of paper. On it, were two words.
'Baku-Token.'
The pink girl raised an eyebrow. "Baku-Token? What's that supposed to mean?"
"It came up when he mentioned me talking to the teachers on his behalf. He said, if I needed something… I get one." He pointed at the paper. "…Then he crumpled it up, threw it at me, and left."
"That… Sounds about right. I'm amazed he didn't call it a 'King explosion murder Token' though." Mina sighed. "I seriously can't believe I missed him apologizing. I've been harping on at him to do that for months."
It had been quite a remarkable story, and made Mina wonder just what it was that she had missed. For someone like Bakugou to swallow his pride like that…
There was no doubt it had to be something to see.
"I'm as… Surprised as you are." Izuku admitted, though he couldn't hide the smile that was on his lips. "It… It felt good to clear things out a bit more."
"You forgive him?"
"I… I'd like to give him a chance."
"Of course you do."
"W-What's that mean?"
"Nothing." Mina sighed, and smiled. "It's just… That's a very you thing to do. It doesn't surprise me all that much, that's all."
"Oh. You uh, want to play another round?"
If she were being honest, Mina wasn't all that interested in games right now. Her thoughts were more or less entirely focused on what she had just more or less dragged Izuku away from. The more she thought about it, the more concerned she became.
She wouldn't mind admitting that she did admire Kirishima's determination. He hadn't gotten into Yuuei without hard work and sheer passion. Even with a simple Quirk, he had outranked her in the entrance exam without even breaking a sweat. He had surpassed her in nearly every area for most of the year, and it was thanks to Izuku's help that she was starting to catch up again.
To learn about this, like she had done… She hadn't known if she was angry or disappointed more. If she was more betrayed than she was hurt. She couldn't be in the same place as him. She had needed to put some distance between him and her.
No pleasure came from remembering all the times he had helped her. The Lodge, the hospital, the rescue operation – All of them had led her to conclude that he was a good guy, who put his money where his mouth was. That he wasn't like some other guys, who talked a big game, but couldn't walk the walk. That he was a friend.
And what she learned made her question that.
…No, she was beyond questioning it now. She had calmed down. And she had decided.
She was angry.
Angry that despite having had every chance to prove himself a man of his word, he had turned his back on the conviction he spoke of. Angry that when given all the information and proof he could ever want, he still went back to Bakugou like he was still a friend and a good person – What had happened between Bakugou and Izuku just now was irrelevant. Kirishima didn't know Bakugou was going to apologize! He would have mentioned that if he knew, surely!
Angry that she had considered him a friend in the first place.
He claimed he and Kaminari had said something that made him want to talk to Izuku. That was all fine, but that didn't change the fact Kirishima had known about this for months, and had only now decided to actually say something. He had even been prepared to just let Bakugou go off when it seemed like their relationship had reached an all-time low, without ever confronting him about what he'd done.
How was she supposed to take that?
She had left him in that room the way she did because she hadn't wanted to hear his excuses. She wanted to try and see if there was, in any way, some sort of thread of logic that she could find that she could use to justify his inactivity. And then she wanted to see if what she came up matched what he said.
But she couldn't think of anything. Because she couldn't justify it in any way. She just couldn't.
Part of her had wanted to. And she had jumped through some loops to try to justify it herself. Tried to see things from the point of view Kirishima might have had – Maybe thinking he could change Bakugou by being his friend? Maybe thinking he'd be worse if someone wasn't there to hold him back? Maybe thinking that if he just had someone to talk to…
…That was all speculation though. And even if it were true, it didn't justify it.
It didn't justify not even asking Izuku about the truth. Not when he knew something was up. She couldn't think of a single reason why he wouldn't at least ask.
…Unless he just didn't want to hear the answer.
Of everything she had considered, that was what really sold her on anger. The idea that Kirishima had just decided that he hadn't wanted to hear the possible alternative. Of knowing that he could be associating with someone with a past like that, who hadn't made even the slightest effort to amend that.
And just refusing to because he didn't want to believe it.
Yet the more she thought about it… The more likely that seemed.
"Mina?"
"Huh?" Mina blinked, and turned to Izuku. "S-Sorry Izuku. I was… Thinking, is all."
"What about?"
"Uh… Just, stuff. Something me and Kirishima talked about is all." She smiled, and picked up her controller again. "Another match?"
"Uh, sure." Izuku blinked, and asked again, "…Are you sure you're alright?"
A pause.
…
"Yeah. Everything's fine, Izu."