Waking up slowly, the first thing that Mina had seen the next morning was Izuku sleeping next to her, with his right arm loosely wrapped around her waist. She had needed to blink a few times before the blurred image had become clear, and she was able to make out the details of his face. He still was totally unconscious, lightly breathing. She had been able to feel his breath gently against her skin
Simply put, she hadn't remembered falling asleep, at all. One minute, she had been awake, kicking the crap out of the Izuku during their video game session, and the next, she was waking up like this, with just a gap that apparently classified as sleep between the two of them.
She had taken note that Izuku must have been the one to place her like this, and lay next to her like this. That had made her smile, at least just a little bit. She did remember that she had offered that he could sleep next to her if he wanted. He'd evidentially wanted to do just that, so he just did, once she was totally out of it. When she thought about it, no one had even brought up the subject of setting up a futon or sleeping bag for Izuku in her room the previous night – Not even Izuku had. It had just been decided by her family that he was going to be sharing her bed with her.
And Izuku apparently hadn't complained.
Mina had then moved a bit closer to Izuku, letting herself get level with his face. Since he was a couple of inches taller than her, Mina had been slightly more around his chest than his face, though this had only taken a couple of seconds to correct, and movement that hadn't seemed to bother Izuku in the least.
She hadn't really gotten to see him sleeping peacefully like this before. They'd shared a bed in the past, sure, but the first time, she had fallen asleep long before him. The second time, he had basically rolled over and fallen asleep on her chest – Which she still found amusing – And concealed his face. So that had been the first time that she'd gotten to see his sleeping the way he had been then.
He was a peaceful sleeper, she had noted. She had no idea if she was a particularly peaceful sleeper, but she did know that she was a heavy one. When she was knocked out, it took a lot to get her to wake up, otherwise, her body would have just totally ignored anything that happened around her, cancelled it out, and let her remain asleep. She did know that she turned in her sleep. Had that ever woken him up? Or was he as heavy a sleeper as she was?
Those questions had taken a back wall as Mina came more and more to terms with what all of this meant for her plans that night. She'd failed, to put it simply.
It hadn't been a particularly elaborate plan, but it was one that she felt would have gone down reasonably well. To put it simply, her plan had been to spend as much time with Izuku as possible before he'd gotten sleepy, watching films, playing video games, or even just talking, until Izuku mentioned that he'd want to go to sleep. And then, Mina would have asked him.
Did he actually love her?
Her reasoning for why she had wanted to wait until he was sleepy was simple. Manipulative as it might have sounded, it would have hopefully made him be more honest with how he felt. She wasn't sure if that was wrong of her or not, but the fact that she felt she had to do that at all was pretty messed up in itself, as far as she was concerned. All she wanted was some closure in this particular head-racking question. That wasn't wrong, was it?
An alternative to that would have been to simply set a romantic tone – Not particularly difficult for Mina. Back in middle school, she had managed to help set a romantic mood between two people who had considered one another to be rivals, one with a face like a Mako shark, and another with rocks as opposed to fingers with just a series of instructions for the shark dude to follow. If she could manage that, then she could manage to set a tone between her and her awkward nerd of an adorable boyfriend.
In both scenarios, the plan had also been to just talk things through with him. To understand why it was that he hadn't ever said it before. To help her understand things from his point of view…
And she had fallen asleep long before Izuku had. So that had been a bust.
The thing was, just asking him outright wouldn't work, she knew. He didn't like to lie, but he was fairly good at it when he needed to be, or felt that there wasn't another option. Why he would feel the need to was beyond her… But all the same…
She had out a small sigh of resignation, supposing that she could try again when they got back from the trip…
It wasn't wrong to just want to know these things, was it?
Mina reflected on her thinking as she and Izuku sat in the back of her mother's car as she drove the pair of them to Yuuei. With as early as the group had to meet, they could get ahead of the traffic there, so the streets wouldn't be overly crowded, unless there was a Villain incident so the Heroes had needed to close off the roads.
Thankfully, there was no such incident.
Micha was in the front of the car, having a calmer, and more civilized conversation with their mother, probably about work. Mina hadn't paid much attention to it. Her mother was giving Micha a ride to his work place, since he had volunteered to work through the summer to get some extra money in the bank, and it was just a little beyond the Yuuei boundaries, so to save them the time, she offered the two students a lift as well, which they accepted, because frankly there was no reason not to.
Contemplating everything that she'd thought about this morning, Mina looked over to Izuku from the corner of her eyes. He was just looking out the window as the scenery passed by, looking out for any Heroes that might be on patrol. Out of habit, she supposed. `
Her boyfriend was a person with a one track mind, and he was quiet when he wanted to be. Very quiet. She supposed in this situation, it would be one that he just felt more comfortable being silent in, which was fair enough. She wasn't going to begrudge him in that particular regard.
Really, her falling asleep last night was her own fault. She blamed her own enthusiasm for one-upping Izuku in their video game foray for her falling asleep.
The victory dances probably hadn't helped, either.
And all it had really done was put her back to square one. Sometimes, she felt like she was obsessing over this whole thing… Was it just possible that he just wasn't the sort of person who was able to convey those feelings verbally?
Normally, she would just outright ask him – That was the thing that was starting to get to her. Normally, she'd just go up to him and ask him, and see if they could resolve this quickly and then just get back to how things normally were between them. Were it anyone else, she'd just go for it, ask what she wanted to ask, and then move on with things. But she just couldn't. She didn't have it in her to do it in this circumstance. Partly because she was actually scared of the answer that she'd get. But she wanted to know, which was why she'd set everything up like that the previous night.
Everything felt like a mess way too much for her own comfort, especially regarding Izuku. A big, confusing mess that she had no idea how to deal with. Frustrating didn't even begin to describe it.
Aside from a few comments here and there, the drive to Yuuei was relatively silent for her, while she just went about her thinking. She didn't really talk, rather, she just kept herself silent while. Honestly, there was just a big part of her that just wanted to put it aside, to just forget that she'd ever thought about it, and to just enjoy what she did have with him. Not to stress about three little words.
Surely she'd just be happier for it. Not letting them get in the way of things… Just putting it all aside… That would help her, wouldn't it? Just let it happen if it happened, and if it didn't, then there wouldn't be a problem with that either.
That had to be a way of dealing with this situation, right?
"Uh, Mina?" Izuku's voice brought her out of her thoughts, and looking towards him. His eyes had worry in them, with a tint of confusion on the sides.
"Yeah?"
"We're here."
Blinking twice, Mina then looked outside her window, and sure enough, they were right outside the main entrance to the high school. She'd been so wrapped up in her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed that they had arrived. Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes, she turned back to face Izuku, offering a smile. "Oh yeah, we are. Guess I'm still pretty tired." She excused with a small laugh at herself.
Micha sent a look at Mina, with a quirked right eyebrow to indicate his own confusion with his sister in the side mirror, though she didn't comment on it, and neither did her brother.
Both the students got out of the car, and retrieved their suitcases for the trip from the vehicles storage compartment. Making sure that both of them had their student ID passes so the gate wouldn't just slam them out, Mina found that she'd forgotten hers, but Michiko had already guessed this, and picked it up before Mina could freak out – Leaving her with a couple of sarcastic words for the teenager.
She then pulled her daughter into a caring, gentle hug. "Look after yourself and be good." And then with a more sinister tone, she added, "And try not to screw up on the remedial lessons, kid, or there'll be hell to pay."
Letting out a small laugh – Though she didn't doubt her mother for a second. She could be one terrifying woman when she wanted to be – Mina pulled away from her mother's embrace, and took a couple steps back away from her so she couldn't try to do the same again.
With a kind smile to Izuku, Michiko showed a fondness for the green haired boy that was clear as day. "Take care of her for me, won't you? And make sure she doesn't slack off?"
"Uh, yes ma'am." Izuku nodded, agreeing to do so, and afterwards, shooting a look towards Mina, whom was already folding her arms and arming herself with a retort.
"Hey, I can look after myself, thanks." She said with that same family exclusive smug grin.
"Yeah, but you can't study worth a damn." Micha called out from the car, before waving the pair of them off like they were flies. "You're gonna end up late if you don't get a move on, Hero kiddies."
He wasn't wrong either. With the amount of time that they had taken to get here, they had cut it awfully close. The trains wouldn't have been much better, but they still needed to get a move on if they didn't want to be late. Shuddering at the thought of what Aizawa would end up doing to the pair of them if they wound up being late, both students grabbed hold of their suitcases, and made their ways past the main entrance, waving and shouting goodbyes as they left.
The day was hot, so Mina had just totally forgone her grey school jacket, and for once, Izuku had actually done the same, both within their respective owners suitcases, only in Mina's case, it had been more shoved inside, while Izuku's was actually folded. Of course, both students still had to wear their ties as required, though Mina had the first two buttons undone on her vest in an effort to allow more cool air to hit her body. Izuku kept his done up, choosing to remain neat as opposed to remaining cool.
How Izuku managed it was a mystery to Mina.
Both were excited. Regardless of Mina's requirements to attend the extra study sessions, the pair of them were actually excited to be going on this trip. As Mina claimed, it was one of the few times she'd actually been able to get away from Tokyo – Living in such a big family, the ability to take trips was rare. Even if it was just out into the countryside, it was still going to be a huge amount of fun to the pink girl, whom was already bouncing up and down with anticipation with each step she took.
Frankly, the excitement was keeping her distracted from her thoughts about things with Izuku.
"This is gonna be awesome!" She repeated for maybe the fifth time already, pumping her fist into the air with each syllable. "Campfire! Curry! Truth-Or-Dare! Courage tests! Sleepovers and games!" She seemed to be just listing off a bunch of activities and things to do that she'd gotten from movies and the likes.
Izuku sweat-dropped next to her, amused by her actions. He managed to smile, before he tried to bring her back down to earth. Something had been bothering him all the way over here, and he wanted to get an answer if he could. "Hey, Mina?... Mind if I ask you something?"
"Go for it!"
"…You… Seemed quiet in the ride over here." He pointed out, and as he did so, Mina's actions quickly ceased, and her attention shifted straight over to Izuku, looking him in the eyes as he spoke. The action didn't make him as nervous or anxious as it would for anyone else, since he knew, loved, and trusted Mina, but even so, he was still left feeling a bit outlandish as he continued to speak. "I mean, you're normally so chatty and energetic… So… I didn't say anything in the car, because I thought that you wouldn't want to say anything in front of your family… But… I-I just wanted to check… Are you okay?
He'd actually noticed, Mina thought to herself.
There was a serious part of her that realized internally, that this was probably the best chance that she'd get to ask her question to him. To actually get an answer from him, and for their chance to actually talk things out if there was an issue to be had. He was asking her if something was bothering her. And there was. His neglect to say the three simplest of words.
But then she was also faced with the counter to such a question, that counter being, she had almost decided to just forget about it, to just go along with the flow and let whatever happened between them happen. They were words at the end of the day, holding no real, tangible value…
Would it kill her not to hear them? That was what she had to ask herself. What did she lose by not hearing them?
Although she wanted to hear them…. To know if Izuku really did mean what he said when he said that he liked her.
"…I was…" Mina started, slowly, hesitantly, still debating if she needed these answers so desperately. "I was just wondering…"
Izuku intently listened, showing her a small, kind, welcoming smile, neither encouraging her to speak, nor forcing her to give him an answer. Something he was good at doing was making other people feel comfortable with just a few words and expressions that made them feel like they could trust him. And Mina did trust him…
She loved him, after all. But…
"Are you…. Happy?"
She couldn't do it.
"Huh?"
She couldn't bring herself to ask.
"With us, I mean."
Why, she knew perfectly well… If she had to give an answer, it would probably be because she just didn't know how to ask that sort of thing out of the blue.
"I just wondered… I mean… Are you happy with our relationship? I dunno, I was just thinking about that sort of thing, and I just wanted to know…. How you felt about us."
The real reason was because she was scared of his answer. Scared that he'd reveal something that she just didn't know how to deal with. Scared that he'd just say he didn't love her…
"Of course I'm happy, Mina." Izuku answered, and his voice did suggest he genuinely was so. He sounded almost shocked that Mina was even having these thoughts, even offended to a limited degree. He reached over, and held onto her hand, intertwining their fingers – The first time he'd done such an action himself. "I really am… You're… One of the best things… That's ever happened to me." He confessed, blushing while he did so. "…Are you?"
While it wasn't the words that Mina wanted to hear… They still did make her heartbeat increase, and make her feel fuzzy inside, almost soothing her anxiety regarding the pair of them like a medical pill would calm pain. Regardless of the merits of what it implied or didn't imply…
They were still some of the sweetest words she'd heard in a long time.
They just made her automatically smile, and respond right back at her boyfriend with an enthusiastic nod and a grin. "Yep! Absolutely!"
"What… What made you think about that?"
"I dunno. Just my brain being weird, I guess." She made up, before leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "Thanks."
No, it wasn't the same as saying 'I love you', but it was still inexplicably soothing and calming and sweet and romantic all at the same time, and it gave Mina a lot of comfort about the two of them.
In that moment, she decided to herself, that she didn't need to hear those exact words.
At least not yet. Hearing them would just make her life, but she could survive without it, for now.
"C'mon! Let's go meet up with everyone!" Mina encouraged, picking up her pace and getting ahead of her blushing boyfriend, prompting him to run after her.
Obviously she still wanted to hear him say that he loved her. Nothing would make her happier… But for now, she could at least still keep being herself while she waited for him to find the nerve or whatever it was that was keeping him from saying it.
If he did love her.
"What this?! A bunch of Class 1A's students are getting extra lessons?! So some of you actually failed?!"
To put it as bluntly as possible, Neito Monoma was one of the most flat out crazy people that Mina had ever met. He was bitter, sarcastic and rude, and frankly, Mina was growing more and more concerned that he actually had some kind of mental instability that was driving him down this road of ridiculous bitterness.
He was completely insane.
How loud he was rivalled Bakugou's foul mouthed escapades and the likes when he was thoroughly pissed off, only Monoma just seemed to be entranced at his opportunity to mock their class in any way whatsoever. The fact that she was one of the students getting the extra lessons didn't particularly sit well with her either.
Even his own class was looking at him like he was some kind of lunatic. How did they even put up with him?
"Isn't that strange?! Isn't Class A supposed to be totally superior to Class B! How did that happen?!"
Before another word could be uttered, Class B's Class President Kendo came up behind him and promptly karate-chopped him unconscious with a strike to the back of the neck, before catching him and dragging his suitcase along with her. "Sorry about him."
"Good grief." Mina muttered while she watched the Copy Quirk user get dragged away by one of his classmates and towards the bus for class B. "I feel like he's got some screws loose…"
"Yeah…" Kaminari muttered in agreement while he ran his hand through his hair, scratching his head in absolute perplexion. Izuku stood between the two of them, finding himself only able to nod in agreement with the pair of them over Monoma's…. Unique personality.
As a bunch of other Class B students engaged in small talk with them, Mineta began to basically drool all over his arm at the sight of the multiple girls within the other class… Mina didn't even want to look at the guy. He was actually starting to freak her out.
"There's. So. Many. To. Choose. From."
"You're starting to cross a line here, dude." Kirishima commented, essentially having to drag the Pop-Off Quirk user away from the spot he had essentially filled with drool.
Which again, was disturbing. Even Izuku looked scarred, and he was friends with the guy. Then again, everyone who was in the Hero Course seemed to have a few oddities about them. Mineta was just more… Frank about his.
And had no shame about it.
As Class 1A's Class President, Iida was directing everyone onto the bus, requesting that they follow a specific seating plan that Aizawa had made for the class. Honestly, Mina was expecting her and Izuku to be sat together.
They weren't though. Instead, Izuku was by Iida, and she was with Hagakure.
Not that they were bad seats, at all. Both of them were sat next to friends, so it wasn't like they were terrible places to be seated. In fact, as far as Mina was concerned, her seat was pretty good. And Izuku was merely one seat behind, and on the other row, so it wasn't like they couldn't talk if they really wanted to. Plus they still had phones, so they could text if they wanted to. It was just a surprise, more than anything.
Both of them made their way to their respective seats, Mina immediately seeing that Hagakure had already beaten her to the window seat.
"There you are!" The invisible girl greeted, her arms shooting into the sky as she noticed Mina arrive. "I was wondering where the heck you were! Starting to think you weren't even gonna show up!"
"My mom gave us a ride." Mina explained, sitting down in her seat and knocking down the hand rest to her left. "Took us a bit longer to get here than if we took the train."
"And by we, you mean…"
"Me and Izuku. He stayed over at my house last night."
As she spoke, Izuku stepped into the bus, and made his way past Mina, giving her a look, but not one of any concern, politely waved at Hagakure, and made his way one row behind, and took his seat on the opposing row next to Iida.
While this happened, clapping would be heard from Hagakure, though she didn't seem to convey much due to her invisibility. "Oooh my word, Mina!"
"Calm down, Toru." Mina smiled, relaxing back into her seat. "Nothing like that happened. We just watched a movie and played some games."
"Come on Mina! Gimme some details!"
Before Mina got the chance to even tell Hagakure that she had just given her the full story, Todoroki entered the large vehicle and made his way to the back, followed by Aizawa. Attention quickly fell onto him, as he awaited their silence and full concentration. In his hand, was a clipboard, apparently detailed with all of the plans he had for today.
"Alright." He spoke, once everyone had calmed down. "We're going to be making our way to location that the training will be held at. The journey there shouldn't take us more than five and a half hours, depending on how much traffic there is present on the main roads. You'll be introduced to several of the Pro Heroes that we've contacted for help in your training, and after which, you'll all be admitted into your rooms."
"Wait, so where're we headed?" Kaminari threw his hand up and asked the question that had been in everybody's minds until this point. Even now, they still honestly had no idea where they were even supposed to be headed yet. Everyone was curious.
Since they were already on the bus, and there wasn't a chance of information being leaked, Aizawa finally gave up the location of their lodging. "We're going to be training near some mountains nearby. The Pros who we're working with own the land, so you'll be free to use your Quirks and practice as much as you're required to."
"So we're gonna be pretty far away from any cities?" Uraraka questioned from a few rows further down.
"That's correct."
Suddenly, virtually every single pair of eyes in the bus landed on Kaminari up at the front, and it took him a few seconds to realize what the hell they all wanted. It didn't take him long though. "Get lost, I'm not charging all of your crap for you! I'm not a freakin' human mobile charger!"
"That's like the only thing you can do without turning yourself into an idiot though."
"Quit messing with me, Jiro!"
Suddenly, as the class was accustomed to now, Aizawa's Erasure Quirk activated, causing all of his hair to stand on edge, and everyone instantly shut up, faced forward, and gave him their undivided attention, ceasing any sort of jokes or conversations that they were having.
Once they had all fallen silent, Aizawa deactivated his Quirk and let his hair fall back down around him. "If you've all got everything that you'll need, we'll be setting off once Class B confirms that they're ready to go."
No one made any comments that they needed to grab anything else, or that anything else was needed. "The first break we'll get will be in about two hours, so make sure that you're prepared for that.
Once again, no one moved, so Aizawa leaned over past the driver's shoulders and flipped on the headlights. In response, the bus from Class B did the same.
"Alright, we're clear." The Erasure Hero told the bus driver, giving him the go ahead to fire up the engine and to get out onto the main road.
"So you didn't do anything juicy at all?"
"I told you already, nothing like that happened."
Mina explained everything that she and Izuku had done the previous night in detail to Hagakure. While the see-through girl had been absolutely convinced that some scandalous had been going on, she had been somewhat disappointed to learn about the overall innocence of the night prior.
All the Acid Quirk user could think about in those moment was how she would freak out if she knew about Mina's more… Daring attempts to get closer to Izuku from earlier in the week. She didn't bring these up though, mostly because she didn't want Izuku to deal with any more embarrassment than he had to. Though talking about it did make her realize something… A bit odd that she hadn't noticed before.
"I… Don't think we even kissed once last night." She scoured her head, looking for any memories that might reveal one that she forgot, but found nothing. They hadn't actually kissed last night, at all.
Not that it was a particularly big deal. Just surprising to her.
"Well that's boring." Hagakure complained, leaning back in her seat. Her skirt flipped as she did so, indicating that she was crossing her legs as she did so. She had apparently been hoping for some sort of spicy conversation topic about the two of them being more intimate with one another, but hadn't gotten the chance to gossip with Mina about it. She decided to change the topic instead. "How're things with him, anyway? I'm guessing they've gotta be going pretty well if he stayed at your house."
What was she supposed to say to that, Mina wondered to herself.
How exactly was a person supposed to describe a relationship in which one half hadn't told the other that they loved them, but still made them feel like they were the queen of the world and considered them to be one of the best things in their life without outright saying that they loved them?
She was elated with Izuku's earlier statement, but it didn't fix the main issue she had…
"Yeah, I guess so…" Was the best that she could answer.
"You 'Guess so'?" Hagakure repeated, leaning forward once again and uncrossing her legs at that particular choice of words. "Not a lotta people let their boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever stay overnight if their relationship is 'I guess' good. Is something wrong?"
It was always hard to see if Hagakure's expressions conveyed any real concern, though her voice did seem to waver as she spoke to her friend. Being invisible as she was, it was all Mina had to go on when it came to determining the tone of Hagakure's questions and inquires.
To be honest though, when Mina thought about maybe getting a second opinion on her concerns… It did actually make her feel better about things. A second voice would help her confirm if she was just absolutely insane and thinking stupid stuff, or if she wasn't thinking about this hard enough and should be worried.
An outside opinion. It would help, she felt.
So the temptation to ask was very strong with the Acid Quirk user. The opportunity to vent some of her frustration with a friend that she was close to – It was tempting. Very tempting…
A temptation that honestly, Mina couldn't resist.
"…Hey, Toru, if you were dating someone, do you think that you'd want to hear them say 'I love you' at all? Like, is that something you'd consider to be important, or wouldn't it bother you?"
Remaining still for a few moments, presumably as a look of surprise and curiosity made its way onto her impossible to see face, Hagakure just stared at Mina, before she eventually leaned back into her seat, and her left sleeve raised as she moved her arm. "Uhh, I dunno to be honest. I've never dated someone before."
"But do you think you'd want to hear it?"
"I mean… I guess so." The Transparency Quirk girl answered hesitantly, audibly scratching her cheeks as she was questioned. "It'd feel nice just to know beyond any doubt that I was loved by that person…" Her speaking trailed off as she realized exactly what was being implied here. "Hold on, are you telling me that you've never said that to each other?"
Looking down at her lap, Mina smiled gently, not that she was sure why she was doing this. "Not exactly that, no. I've told him that I love him… He hasn't said it to me though."
"Ah." Hagakure seemed to stand up slightly in her seat, and looked behind her to see Izuku talking with Iida. She did so in such a way that anyone who was looking over at her wouldn't see her uniform rising above the seat she was sat in. She then propped herself back down before Mina could even comment on her actions. "Isn't Midoriya just, really awkward? I don't get what you're worried about."
"We've been together for months though. Isn't it a bit weird that he hasn't said it yet?"
"So, what, you think it means he doesn't like you?" Silence was the answer that Hagakure got, and she followed up on it very quickly. "You're kidding, aren't you?" From the action her arms took, Mina guessed that she was scratching her head in bewilderment. Her bag then started to unzip itself as it rose and began to hover in the air, as everything inside it began to move like they had individual thoughts and wills of their own.
Her friend's phone then hovered in the air, unlocked itself, and began to scroll through a bunch of the photos that were on the device. Hagakure's invisible fingers swiped left a few times, before she ended up passing the device over to the pink skinned girl to her side.
"Here, look through those."
Glancing at the phone, and then taking it into her hands, Mina did as was instructed of her. Immediately, she recognised the photo's that Hagakure was showing her. They were of their trip to the Kiyashi ward, before Izuku was taken hostage by Shigaraki, in the store just before the whole incident went down.
Swiping through the photos, of which Hagakure had a fair amount of, Mina her and Izuku from a third person perspective – Something she just hadn't seen before. One photo had Izuku inspecting a set of all-terrain shoes that she'd pointed out. Another one was with Iida and Kaminari, after the latter had tried to show off to some local girls with his Quirk, and Iida had harshly reprimanded him. Next was one with just the two of them sat down, taking stock of the things that they had already purchased.
The same pattern kept repeating itself over and over again, with every picture that Mina looked through. It was just more of the pair of them within each shot. "…Why do you even have so many photos of us, Toru?"
"Because the pair of you are freaking adorable – And don't tell me you haven't spotted it yet!"
"What"
"Look at Midoriya in all of them."
Mina did so, flipping through each of the photos again, and keeping a particular focus on her boyfriend as she did so. She wasn't exactly sure what it was that she was supposed to be looking for, and nothing stood out to her in particular.
"I don't get it."
"He's looking at you in nearly all of them!"
Glancing up at her invisible friend, and then back down to the phone, Mina discovered that Hagakure was absolutely right.
Par about six photos or so, in which something either ludicrous of hilarious had happened, Izuku's entire focus was basically on Mina. It was something that she'd barley even noticed in the moment, it being a subtle thing that, with her hyperactive personality, just hadn't taken into consideration, or even noticed. Izuku had been paying close attention to her in nearly every shot. Not in a sort of way that made her uncomfortable, at all.
Even in this format, the look in his eyes was one of adoration, affection. It was so clear to anyone that knew the green haired boy, and the sort of person he was, what he was looking at her like that for.
It was just that Mina had been too excited, and was normally way too energetic, to even notice.
"He adores you, Mina. Look at him, for God's sake, he's head over heels with you." Hagakure told the Acid Quirk user, tapping the image on her phone with a pencil in her hand as a substitute for her invisible finger. "Anyone could tell you that he loves you if they saw how you two were for like, ten minutes. I don't even think Bakugou could deny it even if he wanted to, and you know what he's like. Hell, I swear I've heard Todoroki make comments about how well you two go together."
Passing back the phone to its owner, Mina then turned around in her seat, twisting her body so she could look to see Izuku just a row behind and across from where she was sat. He was still engaged in conversation with the people behind him, and had a book in his hands, one that she assumed to be academic in nature. He had that look on his face that he had when he was apprehensive or worried, or something was happening around him. Indeed Iida was yelling at some of the people behind them to remain in their seats, which she guessed was the cause of his expression.
Eventually, he turned to face his front, and his girlfriend caught his eye. He gave her a warm smile, and waved towards her lightly, a gesture that she returned, before returning to sit back down in her natural position.
Was she just worrying over nothing? Did she really need to think about this sort of thing this much? Worry about if it was real or not?
No. she didn't.
Not yet, anyway. She knew she'd come to that conclusion earlier that day, but this time, she was more confident in her decision to do so now, more than ever. Her brain kept wandering back to that same question…. But she decided this time, to silence it for good.
This trip, she was just going to focus on enjoying herself, and not worrying about things like that.
And getting through those extra lessons, God help her.
About an hour and a half later, the bus had stopped, and they had been permitted to exit the vehicle in order to stretch their legs. When they stopped, they were greeted by two of the Professional Heroes that Aizawa had contacted to help out with this trip – Mandalay and Pixie-Bob, according to themselves, identifying themselves as a Hero Team known as The Pussycats.
As one could pretty much predict at this point, Izuku knew a fair amount of information regarding the Hero Team, just off of the top of his head. What interested Mina about the Team however was the fact that she and Izuku were still aiming for something like this. To become a team like this had been the goal of the entire Initiation thing they had gone through… She quickly became interested in learning what she could from the Hero Team….
And about half a minute later, they'd found themselves at the foot of the cliff they had stopped at, thrown down there by Pixie-Bob's Earth Flow Quirk, with the instructions 'Make your way through the Beast's Forest, get to your lodgings before noon, or you won't be given any food.'
Izuku spat out a mouthful of dirt, before he turned towards Mina to help her up. "You okay?"
"Considering we just got thrown off a cliff, I'm fine." She accepted his hand, and he pulled her back onto her feet. She dusted herself down, as everyone else did at the same time as her. "Is it just me, or does our school have like, a million of these sorts of places?"
"You're telling me. I don't even know where they get half the money for this stuff that they do." Kirishima commented, wiping some mud from his face as he did so.
"'Beasts Forest'? What the hell?..." Kaminari groaned, spitting out some dirt from his mouth as he spoke. "What kind of a name is that?"
No one was able to speak before, from behind the growth of leaves, vines, trees and bark, some sort of hideous, quadrupedal creature, that looked like some sort of evolutionary throwback with a Quirk thrown on, revealed itself from the insides of the forest, baring its rooted fangs towards the students, moving quickly, and without even a single sound to alert anyone who hadn't been watching.
The name of the forest quickly became apparent with the appearance of this creature. Home to, apparently, literal beats that defied the laws of nature as they were currently known. An unidentified creature that none of the students had ever seen before. It was aggressive, that much was certain. Anyone could tell that.
Some simply stood there in shock, while some exclaimed their surprise at what was in front of them. Others took a step back, their Quirks prepared for once the creature took a step too close. The person who made the first move was, surprisingly, Koda.
Armed with his Quirk, that would normally serve as the strongest weapon that the group had right now, he raised his voice and issued a politely spoken command. "Please, back down, creature. We mean you no harm."
"Koda?!" Mina simply responded in nothing but surprise at the first time she'd even heard the guy speaking. The only reason that she knew his Quirk was Animal Voice was because of the trial they'd had to go through on the first day of school. She hadn't heard it since.
And the creature apparently hadn't heard it either. Now targeting Koda, the enormous beast raised one of its bulky arms, and readied to attack the rocky-headed student, and eliminate him before moving onto the rest. Whatever the reason, Koda's Quirk simply had no effect on the beast.
Mina reacted quickly, activating her own Quirk and creating two handfuls of corrosive Acid, and stepping in the way of Koda before the creature got anywhere near the pair of them. Once the creature came within range, she would readily attack it, targeting the incoming limb, hoping to scare it away. "Get back, Koda!"
Before he could though, Iida, Bakugou, Todoroki, and Izuku all charged straight forward without any hesitation, unleashing their Quirks to their absolute limits. With a combined, single strike, the four of them utterly obliterated the creature before them, destroying it into ten thousand tiny pieces of dirt.
Dirt?...
"You two alright?!" Izuku called out once he'd landed, looking back at his girlfriend and his classmate.
In keeping with his generally quiet attitude, Koda just gave a thumbs up with his left hand, while wiping sweat off of his rocky forehead with his other hand, indicating that he was unharmed. Mina was a lot more vocal though. "What the hell was that thing?!"
"Some sort of dirt creation by the looks of it." Todoroki answered, kneeling down to pick up a piece of the creature that they'd just destroyed. As he held it up in his left hand, he applied a bit too much pressure to it, causing it to crumble into dry, soft, grain-like soil by his feet. "They aren't overly sturdy though. They are just dirt, after all."
"They must be something that Pixie-Bob made using her Quirk." Izuku analysed, looking around the remains of the creature. "She used her Quirk to manipulate the earth below us to throw us down here, and it looks like she also can use it to make these creatures…. If that's the case, then I think it's a safe call to make that we're going to encounter quite a few of these as we move through the forest." A final spark of electricity flew off of his body as he deceived his Full Cowl technique along with his Quirk.
"You think the entire forest is full of those things to fight?" Iida questioned, taking a look around the surrounding area for any more dirt creatures to come sneaking up behind them for a sneak attack.
"I'd have to guess so…"
The entire class collectively shuddered at the thought. They had an entire forest filled to the brim with creatures made of dirt, and with no other purpose in existence other than hammering them down to conquer if they wanted the simple luxury of being able to rest in a bed that night. It was going to require every single ounce of power that they had within their bodies to pull off this task.
It was going to take them far longer than any three hours. They all knew that already.