If there was one thing that Mina longed for when it came to this revision summer class hell, it was excitement and stimulation. Something that made it less of an absolute chore. Something that just didn't make her want to split her head open on a desk in a desperate attempt to add some colour into the absolute tedious dreaded bleakness of the whole escapade.
Of course, naturally, she was pretty pissed off when it came to Aizawa-sensei, promising to let them off the hook with revision sessions, and then just yanking the carpet from underneath them. She should have been used to it by now. They all should have been used to it by now. They all collectively blamed their fatigue for their inability to deduce the 'Logical Ruse'. None of them were in the slightest bit happy with their current predicament. They all had only themselves to blame for having to take these sessions in the first place, that was true, but that didn't mean that they had to like it, in any way.
She knew it would serve to help her in the end. In the back of her mind, she did acknowledge this, and she thought that everyone else did too, even though none of them liked it. None of them wanted anything to do with it, but they all did know that it would help, in the long run.
To use Aizawa-sensei's metaphor, it was like a carrot at the end of a stick.
A carrot that was bitter, rotten, and filled with sleep-inducing pills, but a carrot nonetheless.
"Isn't it funny?!"
Mina very audibly groaned, making absolutely no effort whatsoever to hide her exasperation. This dude again…
"The amazing Class A, producing a whole five failures, while class B only had a single one!" Neito Monoma, again, proving that he was odd beyond all sense of the word. Erratic and frankly, not all there.
"What the hell is your malfunction, dude?!" Kirishima posed the question that literally everyone else in the room was thinking, sounding more exasperated than he did angry. His eyes were just as wide as anyone else's, before he just gave up, allowed his face to fall, and plodded over to a seat behind the Copy Quirk user.
Whom was still laughing away, now facing the board, like he was remembering the most hilarious joke that had ever been conjured by a human being. It bordered the line from being irritatingly smug – Even in the face of his own failure - Into just outright creepy.
"What is wrong with that guy?…" Mina muttered towards her red haired classmate, seriously unsure of what to even make of this guy. He was reaching a point where he was straight up starting to freak her out. She didn't think she'd lose much sleep if she never saw him again.
"He was going on about this yesterday too…" The Hardening Quirk user recounted while he pulled a chair from under the table and began to sit down. His expression was more one of resignation and an adamant refusal to even question the situation anymore.
"I wanna know what makes him tick." The pink girl said, before she sat down in her own seat with a long sigh. All the bizarre eccentricities that came from the blonde boy in front of her put to one side, she still was fully aware that she was looking at maybe another four of five hours of a lecture.
Note taking. Listening for hours. Unable to move aside from to write more characters. Bored out of her skull.
Another sigh. "Just focus, Mina…" She whispered to herself as she clapped her hands against her cheeks to try and sharpen her senses, attempting to motivate herself, or just convince herself to pay attention. "Just gotta get through this if you wanna be a good Hero…"
Three seconds passed.
And then she sighed again. "This is gonna suck."
"Attention, everyone!"
No sooner had Mina finished her exhale than she received a sharp jolt to the heart that came from the voice that shot through her head. It surprised her since it was so sudden, so loud, and directly within her brain, to the point where she actually jumped back in her seat, slightly knocking her off balance. From the reactions of everyone else in the room, it seemed to indicate that they all had heard it too, some of the other pupils having similar reactions to hers, while some remained slightly more composed.
For a brief moment, everyone looked around in confusion, until they quickly realized what the source was.
"That's Mandalay's Quirk, isn't it?" Questioned Kirishima, though he continued to look around, like he was half expecting the auburn haired girl to show up from behind them or something. To be fair to him though, having voices emanate from inside one's head was a bizarre feeling.
It was a small and overall needless note, but, with a grin on her face, and a hand over her heart, the horned girl said, "I love that. Always gives me a shock!" A fan of the horror genre and the likes for making her react in the ways it did, anything that made her heart race was good by her.
Kaminari mentioned something about the fact that the communication was one way, and Aizawa-sensei mentioned something about keeping quiet.
For some unknown reason, there was a gap in-between communications, a brief silence before the next message from the Telepathic woman arrived. It was just about five seconds, before the next bit of communication came through.
And when that particular message arrived, that was when the bombshells were dropped.
"We're under attack by two Villains, and there's a possibility there are more out there!"
Any noise, amused, curious, or anxious in nature, or outright noise full stop, ceased immediately. Eyes became wide open, and students looked towards one another in a mixture of confusion and terror. It took a few seconds for some of them to even register the words that they were hearing, Rikido and Monoma looking more confused than they did horrified.
Horror was something Mina usually loved, when she knew there was no actual risk of anything bad happening. A movie, a game, a book, a Haunted House. It was suffice to say that she was a fan of being scared in that respect. This wasn't even close to that feeling though.
This was actual fear. Horror in this scenario, real, actual horror that was the human races survival instinct in action, was something that she had only felt a few times in her life, and the majority of which being from her time in Yuuei, used its insidious claws to sink right under her skin, and into her heart. While it seemed to do that for everyone… For her in particular….
Hadn't Izuku been left with Mandalay? Wasn't she one of the ones who had been overseeing the Test of Courage?
Wasn't he with her?
"Everyone who can should get back to the camp immediately! Do not engage any Villains you run across – Just retreat!"
Izuku was in danger.
That feeling just hit the acid girl like a sledgehammer. That feeling of dread, or fear, not for her own safety, but for the people that she cared about. Her heart began to race.
It didn't matter how many times someone came into contact with this particular feeling. That sense of dread was always there. You didn't just become numb to it because you had felt it so many times. People didn't grow numb to happiness because they felt it over and over again, or sadness for the same reasons. The same was true of this sickening feeling of dread when Villains were nearby, and everything suddenly had turned into a dangerous battle.
All that changed in that moment was the fact that people became able to act in spite of that fear.
Aizawa-sensei was already moving, bolting towards the door like his life depended on it. In this scenario though, the lives of others was certainly at risk. Like a true Pro Hero, the homeroom teacher was gone, and Erasure Head was brought out in his place. "Vlad, take care of these guys! I'm going out to protect the students!"
"How did our location get leaked?!"
"Wait, sensei!" Without any input on her part, at least not consciously, Mina shot straight out of her seat, knocked her chair down in doing so, and shot straight for the door herself, before anyone could stop her.
The sheer speed that she moved at caused her to run into the wall in the corridor, though she softened the collision by using her right arm as an impact dampener. As soon as physics allowed her to, she then darted right off down the same corridor towards the entrance way, with as much speed as she could muster.
It wasn't a conscious choice. Her body just moved before she even knew what was happening. There wasn't any conscious thought in what she was doing at this point. She was just moving, because her body told her to move. To get up and get ready to fight. To be prepared to do whatever it took to end the sudden conflict that he been placed in front of her.
To get ready to be a Hero.
"Ashido! What're you doing?!" She heard the calls from Kirishima back in the study room, though she paid absolutely no attention to them whatsoever. She just kept moving with all the energy and strength that she had, charging like her very life depended on it. "Ashido!"
One could argue that, in a way, it did.
Where was Izuku? Was he okay? What was happening to him? If he was with Mandalay, didn't that mean he was in the middle of direct contact with the Villains already? Was he fighting, or as he running?
A dumb question. If Mina knew Izuku even slightly, then she knew that he was going to be there, to help fight off the Villains before they could even lay a finger on anyone. But…
That meant he was in danger. Serious danger. If these were actual Villains…
He needed her help. She needed to be there. She was supposed to be there. She needed to back him up! They were supposed to be a Hero Team! Team Awkward Energy!
Teams were supposed to stick together in this sort of situation! She needed to be there for him, right now! Otherwise, what was even the point?!
Each one of these thoughts raced through her brain as she barged out the front door, stood merely a few inches from the back of the Erasure Quirk user. Capture weapon in hand, he had stopped dead in his tracks, merely frozen for just a second
Bellowing dark flames were towering right over the trees that made up the forest, catching onto more and more flammable woods and spreading at a rapid pace, destroying the forest that was supposed to be protected by law. The wind battered against it, and the whooshes of the pyro could be heard, along with the snapping and crackling that came whenever wood caught on fire. Absolutely no chance whatsoever of this being a natural occurrence, Mina instantly knew. The flames were darker than any natural flame that she had ever seen in her entire life, and she had gone to school with several fire type Quirk users, each of which didn't have flames like this. The possibility of it being accidental was also removed. Todoroki's flames looked different, lighter, and all the stoves that relied on fire to heat up food from earlier had been put out to avoid such a scenario.
There wasn't any doubt. This was a Quirk related fire. This was a deliberate action from the Villains.
"Holy crap…" She said aloud in a tone that barely concealed her fear, her eyes wide open at the mere sight of the blaze. She felt a shudder run down her entire spine with such force it felt like it paralyzed her movement altogether, freezing her into place. In that moment, the only thing that she could think about was how this was different to the USJ invasion. This was different than tangling with Overgrow. This was different to everything else that she'd done, either with Izuku by her side, or not.
Because these were people who weren't messing around. This wasn't a ragtag bunch of crooks assaulting a location in the hopes of making a quick buck. This wasn't some maniac who couldn't control his Quirk lashing out while in an unstable frame of mind. This wasn't a training exercise.
These were people who had a plan. Dangerous people. Actual Villains who were serious. Who knew what they were actually doing.
Her comment made, the Professional Hero looked back over his right shoulder, with an expression that bordered between barely concealed terror, to strict Heroic stoicism, and anger at her refusal to follow instructions and active part in following him into direct danger. "Ashido, what're you – "
"Always worrying about others, huh, Erasure Head?"
One new voice. Not belonging to anyone that either the older man, or the young girl recognized. Mina's heart stopped for a brief moment when she began to hear the flicking of flames - Whilst a thin, bony hand came into view around the corner of the doorframe, aimed right at the Pro, tiny candle sizes fires bouncing off of the fingers and palms, yet growing every thicker and more plentiful.
"Get back - !"
With a loud crack and spark, almost like an explosion going off, an enormous blast of dark tinted flames engulfed the entire area in front of the stitched up hand, causing it to be pushed back by sheer recoil. The Quirk seemed to reach the same height as the building and the trees, soaring high into the sky with emission.
Sheer heat and force caused Mina to stagger back and cover her face in an effort to protect it from burns. She wasn't able to retreat too far, as she found her back against the now closed door. The door only opened one way, and the pink skinned girl was more focused on not getting roasted to even remember that fact.
And on the fact that it looked like Aizawa had just been blasted into absolute smithereens.
"Sensei!" Activating her Quirk into her palms, Mina readied herself to unleash a strike as soon as she had to. If Aizawa-sensei had been injured, or even just burned to death thanks to that attack, it suddenly meant that the students were now on their own.
Both equally horrifying, but she couldn't worry about Aizawa-sensei, or that daunting possibility right now. If she wanted to stay alive, she had to focus on what was happening right now. Pain still screamed in her palms from the earlier training as she pooled her Acid, but she forced herself to totally ignore it. Pain, right now, could keep its mouth shut. This was life or death.
"You Pro Heroes need to just stay out of our way .You're not the ones we've got a quarrel with." Taking a few steps forward, the Villain finally revealed himself to Mina, though he didn't turn to face her for a few seconds, only acknowledging her due to her bright pigments catching the attention of his peripheral vision.
Frankly, this particular Villain looked like a broken, shrivelled, burned up husk of a shell. Several parts of his face and arms seemed burned into a purplish brown colour, charred by something, possibly by his own Quirk. The charred skin was held together to his healthy skin via stitches, including a series around his chin that made his face appear to have somewhat of a permanent smile. In spite of his numerous scars, he couldn't have been older than his early twenties, at the most. He was unsettling just to look at.
He looked like Villainy incarnate, armed with a burning Quirk. It couldn't have gotten more fitting than that.
"I remember you." He addressed the first year student directly, his disturbingly contradictory bright blue eyes glaring right back at her black and gold ones. He didn't seem particularly surprised by her presence there. Part of him almost suggested that he expected it. "You're pretty high on Shigaraki's kill list."
A bead of sweat ran down from Mina's forehead all the way down to her chin while he eyes narrowed into a glare. Acid dripped from between her fingers onto the ground, dissolving in a small pool by her feet. "Shigaraki?!..."
She remembered that particular name far, far too well. The person who was commanding the League of Villains. The person responsible for the USJ, and, the one she hated him for the most, holding Izuku hostage just little over a week ago. That memory was still fresh in her memory, fuelling her anger towards the Villain. More than any reasonable Hero probably should have towards any one individual, not that anyone could blame her though.
But there was a lot of what this fire using Villain said in his proxy that she did not like.
Kill lists. Remembering Mina. And Shigaraki's name. Not that it took someone particularly smart to put the pieces together, but she quickly summarized that that translated to something that was downright terrifying – The league of Villains was here, and they had a list of targets that they were here to kill. Apparently Shigaraki had just completely given up any sort of pretences and was outright plotting to murder those who got in his way, or just those he didn't like.
With a lunge, Mina charged straight for the Villain – She could either try, and fail, to run back into the building, only to end up being turned to charcoal alive, or she could launch an attack and have a slim chance at getting out of this mess alive. With those options before her, there wasn't much choice to be had. Hr right hand was filled up, corrosive liquid spilling out of her palms as she shot straight towards her target with as much speed as she could muster.
Reacting to the incoming student, the Villain threw his hands down the short corridor, charging up a blast of fire which danced within his hands. In a small space like this, he wouldn't need much fire at all to totally engulf the entire area, leaving the pink girl with absolutely no means of escape. He would easily burn her to death, leaving behind only a skeleton, if she was lucky.
At the last second however, once the flames were reaching their peak, they suddenly stopped.
In that very same moment, Mina slammed her palm straight into the centre of the Fire Quirk user's chest, without mercy or hesitation. She felt her palm dissolve straight through the clothing and into the chest of the Villain. Within the back of her mind, she knew that what she was doing would actually kill the Villain. She knew this, beyond any shadow of a doubt, and it wasn't like she was proud of the fact that she was doing this, or even wanted to do it. Heroes weren't supposed to kill if they could help it. They were supposed to capture and turn them over for arrest, and if that was within her capacity to do so, she would have done gladly.
That wasn't an option though. Not with this guy. A fire based Quirk from his hands that could easily kill someone? A Villain who was here with the goal to kill others? Someone who had possibly killed her homeroom teacher already? In a scenario when they had nearly no idea what was going on? And a feeling that this guy wasn't going to spill his secrets, even if they managed to keep him as a prisoner?
Capture wasn't going to work. She repeated it to herself, again and again while she felt the inside of this person cover her hands, soaking it with blood and God knew what else. This was something that she had to do. In her position, anyone else would do the same. Any other Hero would understand, and no one could fault her for choosing to fight to stay alive rather than to run and die.
Heroes had to do unsavoury things sometimes to protect others. That was their jobs.
Not that those facts made her feel any less sick, though. She could feel her stomach churning, making her want to vomit up everything she'd eaten today.
This was something that she had to do.
"Guess that's a Pro for ya…" The Villain, through what seemed to be a choke, managed to croak out, while looking past the one with their hand within his ribcage. What he was referring to in that moment, Mina only had a small hope that it was what she thought it was. Before she was able to check though, the Villain then seemed to address her. "You're quite a government sponsored tool of violence, aren't ya?..."
Small adjustments in both Mina's and the Villain's heads allowed them to look at one another. Showing the Villain's smug grin, and how his entire body was falling apart, like he were disintegrating from within. Chunks of him seemed to just be falling off of his face, and even his clothing, like he were all one big piece of flesh. He looked like he was almost like a zombie, dressed up for one of the early twenty first century's most popular television shows, complete with rapidly rotting flesh and burns.
Only about seven times more terrifying.
Sheer shock and horror made Mina jump back, ripping her hand from the Villains chest as she did so. It was still covered in blood, though her Quirk made quick work of dissolving it off. As she pulled back, and got a clearer view of the Villain, she saw his entire body fall apart, melting into some kind of weird semi-brown and red paste on the floor.
One final crooked grin came from the fire Quirk user, before his final words followed. "Hope the rest of your friends are as tough as you are, Heroes. See ya later."
And with that, the Villain became nothing but liquid, leaving Mina perplexed, and slightly horrified at the ominous sentence that she had been left with. A small bead of sweat ran down from her forehead, this time running down the bridge of her nose, while she took in a few deep breaths.
She wouldn't hide it or deny it – She had been incredibly scared throughout the entirety of that encounter, almost to the point of tears, which threatened to spill out from her eyes. Her heart was still beating like crazy, and just wouldn't calm itself down. It wasn't the first time she'd ever faced off against a Villain, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but that feeling was always going to be there, she predicted. It would always be there for every day until she was no longer a Hero.
Villains were the incarnate of fear and evil, after all.
"Ashido!"
Turning her head around, and up to a slight angle, another set of tears threatened to escape from the relieved girls eyes. Using his capture weapon as a harness, there was Aizawa-sensei, completely unharmed.
Facts quickly fell into place after that. The sudden halting of the flames from that Villain, and why he stopped his attack against Mina. That had been Aizawa-sensei, using the power of his Quirk to protect her, and prevent their enemy from launching any more attacks. The Villain just hadn't spotted him on his perch, since he was too distracted by the schoolgirl and her wide variety of mutations, and her high standing within the 'Kill Listing'.
Circumstance had saved both of them.
"Aizawa-sensei, you're okay!" The relieved Acid Quirk user allowed her shoulders to relax, feeling the virtual ton of weight that had befallen her lift right back off. The strength that was in her knees left her, though she still remained stood up, even if she was shaking slightly.
The Pro Hero allowed himself to fall, landing on his feet and tugging his capture weapon back towards him once on solid ground again. Before he spoke again, he looked down at the goo on the ground that was once the Fire Quirk user. Inspecting it visually, he seemed to blink a couple of times, before activating his Quirk once again on it. Nothing occurred, however, which seemed only to confuse the long haired Hero.
"So that fire attack wasn't his Quirk?..."
"I…" The pink girl stammered, not sure what there was to say to defend herself in this situation, other than the truth. Still, the words struggled to come out, catching in her throat and refusing to just flow like she wanted them to. "I didn't… Want to. I just…"
"Don't worry about it." Came the immediate response as Aizawa scanned the trees, like he were expecting a surprise attack to follow the flame Villain. For all they knew, it was a distinct possibility. Now that they knew Villains were there, the chances that more were watching them became more and more likely. "Worry about that when we're out of danger."
Shaking her head to try to clear it, Mina then nodded. "Yes sir."
"Get back inside."
"Huh?!"
"If this Villain was the only one to be sent forward, then that means that he was probably just a scout. We know that other Villains are located where Mandalay and her group were, so that means that there's more than just one Villain here. If there's a group engaging the Pussycats elsewhere, and they sent this guy ahead, then that makes it likely that they either sent him to keep reinforcements from backing up the Pussycats… Or, the more likely scenario, there are more Villains that have all split into groups." Aizawa explained to her. "Meaning, it's not safe for you to be out here. Get back inside. Report this to Blood King, and let him know the situation."
Report to Blood King, Mina would happily do. Go back inside and just huddle up while there was still a fight on? Absolutely not.
Yeah, the Villains were terrifying, but she knew that when she followed her homeroom teacher out here. She'd encountered Villains before first hand. She knew how horrifying seeing them was, how terrifying it was to fight them. She'd faced off against one though, and won. Izuku wouldn't run if there were people in danger.
And Izuku was still out there. So she wasn't going to run either.
Before she could day a word of this though, a rapid series of rustling began to emirate from the treeline. Mina's forearms quickly coated themselves in Acid, while Aizawa-sensei's capture device began to hover as he manipulated it. Both were on high alert, with the possibility of more Villains so high, neither wanted to take the chance of getting caught in an ambush.
Mina's eyes darted from branch to branch, shrub to shrub, tree to tree, searching for something, anything, that might give away the source of the rustling.
When she found it, she was nothing less than horrified.
"Sensei!"
It was Izuku.
And his arms were virtually nothing by shattered skin bags at this point.
He himself looked beaten up to holy hell. Torn off skin and exposed muscle covered Izuku's arms all over, cutting off just at his shoulders. Those limbs were broken, like never before. He didn't even seem to have the slightest bit of connection to them anymore, just letting them dangle by his sides. It was like his bones had been grounded into nought but dust. How he was even able to move with the amount of pain he had to be in was a mystery. That wasn't where it ended though. Grazes and cuts covered practically every part of his body, and his left eye had taken a solid strike, leaving it swollen, and its owner only able to keep it half open. A blood trail from his mouth ran down his chin, revealing a busted lip.
There wasn't any other way to put it – He looked like he had been hit by a car. Actually, it would have been better had he been hit by a car, because Mina knew, without even asking what had happened.
He'd done it to himself. At least if he had been run over, he would have had the sense to avoid it again.
Around his neck was the child the two of them had encountered earlier, Kota, whom Izuku was leaning slightly forward for to accommodate his security, since he had no arms to hold the kid up with. Things quickly fell into place after she saw that…
"Izuku?!"
Managing to stagger from the treeline, Izuku came into view of both the Acid Quirk user, and the Erasure Quirk user, experiencing the same look of stressed, almost pitying glare from Aizawa, and the look of dumbfounded terror from Mina. Of the two looks, he much preferred the one the older Hero was giving him. He tried his best to avoid even acknowledging Mina there. "Sensei, glad I found you!" He said, quickly emerging into nothing but blabbering and explanation. "A lot's happened, and it's really bad out there!... There's a lot I need to tell you… But…"
"Izuku!"
"Midoriya."
"Mandalay needs to hear that Kota's okay, first of all…" Kneeling down, the green haired boy allowed the young child to get off of him, and walk over towards the black haired teacher. "Take him with you. He's got a Water Quirk, so please make sure that he's protected…"
"Wait a second –"
"Midoriya, wait."
With that, Izuku turned around, preparing to run off at top speed. Whatever was going on apparently required his attention far more than just sitting down and explaining what was going on to either of them, at least from his perspective.
But was stopped by Mina grabbing his shoulder. "Izuku, what the fuck have you done to yourself?!"
His girlfriend's abrasive language quickly made him turn around to actually acknowledge her for the first time since emerging from the greenery. It was clear that it had caught him off guard, even when he had heard Mina losing her temper at Bakugou just the other day. His eyes were wide open when he turned around to face her.
Seeing the tears that had been on the verge of falling finally escaping her eyes.
"M-Mina, there's still – "
"No, are you out of your mind?!" She yelled at him, through tears and a rapidly constricting throat. "Look at yourself! For just five seconds, look at yourself! I – I don't even want to know how you managed this, b-but you can't go back out there! Are you insane?! Do you want to die?!"
"Those bones…" Aizawa-sensei commented, sighing loudly at the mess of a sight that was one of his top students. No matter how many times he repeated this to him, he just didn't seem to learn. "You've done it again, Midoriya."
Izuku was aware of the damage that he had done to himself, and he was fully aware of what the implications were here. Not only had he broken his arms to this level, but he'd gone against the fundamental laws of Quirk use – To never harm another person unless those in charge gave express permission. Since there were Pro's nearby, it didn't matter that they had all been in danger – The Heroes would be expected to deal with the situation, without account for the various scenarios that happened. That was how the law worked, even if it made absolutely no sense.
He didn't regret it for a second though. "But…"
"You're not going back out there, Izuku!" The Acid girl yelled, doing her best to try and pull him back towards the lodge. "You just got back here, and you're gonna drop dead if you go back out! You're not – "
Stopping her from just dragging the battered Quirk inheritor away from the current mess, she found herself being pulled away from her boyfriend, via the capture device used by Aizawa. Within seconds, she was wrapped up in the capture weapon, unable to move in any way at all.
The first one to respond was Izuku, with a mixture of shock and confusion. "Mina! Aizawa-sensei, what are you – "
With a tug, Aziawa dragged her towards him. "As I was saying Midoriya – Tell Mandalay to broadcast to everyone that it's okay to fight."
"What?!" Mina squirmed rapidly, trying to wriggle out of the sturdy device with every single fibre of her being. Without a way to balance herself, however, all she accomplished was making herself fall right into the dirt at the Heroes feet. Rolling over to look at the older man, she held nothing back. "You're seriously just gonna let him run off in the state he's in?!"
Aizawa didn't look down to the pink girl, instead remaining focused on Izuku. Trying to stop him from running off was absolutely pointless – He was going to run off anyway. The difference between him and Mina though was that Izuku had the power to move quickly, and to fight when he had to. He knew the situation much better, and even if he didn't… Stopping him was impossible.
The message needed to be relayed somehow. If Izuku was going to go, then logically, he might as well take the message with him.
And it looked like Izuku understood this, simply nodding as he turned away, ready to run towards the fight again.
"Izuku, please, don't…"
Once more, he turned around to see the girl he loved so much, in tears on the ground, looking towards him, pleading with him with her eyes alone. Hot water ran down her cheeks while she struggled to find her voice. Just looking at him like this – That was hard enough. To know he was going to go further into the fray, while already hammered to the point of barely being able to stand up straight…
"It's too much… Izuku, don't go…" She practically begged him quietly, just incapable of even finding the strength in her voice to speak louder than a quiet whisper. Kota looked towards her with a mixture of pity and shock at the amount of care he could easily see from the pink girl. "If you go, you'll get more hurt… I can't take it…"
For the briefest of moments, Izuku hesitated to move. For a moment, he considered acquiescing to her requests…
But he couldn't. Not with what he knew. "…I'll be back soon."
With that, he activated his Quirk, and charged away.
As Mina watched him run away, past the incoming group of students, she noticed one thing.
He was far faster than he normally was