"Erasure-Head says to all students, it's okay to fight back!"
Izuku was already back in that clearing, Mina realised, when she heard that Telepathic call ringing in her head once again. He had only left a few minutes ago, but had already made his way back into the fight with barely any time to breathe. That speed increase that she had noticed was definitely partially responsible for that. How he had managed to increase his speed while his body was in such a shattered, broken, and battered state, she had no idea.
But he'd done it. And now he was back into the battle.
While she was still stuck here, wrapped up in the capture weapon that Aizawa-sensei had decided she needed to remain in, so she wouldn't run off to fight. Even despite the fact he had given express permission to all his students to fight back against the Villain invasion, he wasn't permitting any of the students at the lodge the ability to go out in order to support to Pros and their classmates. Mina in particular, he apparently felt, was most likely to run off into the battle in order to locate Izuku and try to support him in some way. The point of his allowance of their Quirks was to allow them to protect themselves, not to go out looking for fights.
Something that Mina was very determined to do.
"Let me go already!"
Since being dragged back into the building by Aizawa-sensei, she had been anything but complacent or silent, squirming and struggling and fighting and yelling in order to try and make some kind of escape attempt. With Aizawa's Quirk activate on her, fully aware that she would have used her Quirk to destroy his capture weapon if he gave her the chance, she couldn't take the easy method of escape, not that it dissuaded her. It earned her a number of stares and looks from everyone who was within the building, though it wasn't like the vast majority of them didn't understand her feelings.
All the remedial students had been trapped inside the building from the word go, with Mina being the only one of them to actually get a look at what was happening outside. They all agreed with her, that they should be going out there to fight, instead of being kept in a building while everyone else kept on fighting for their lives. No one there wanted to be protected. They had all faced Villains before. They knew what it was like. And they were unable to do anything to help fight them off.
No one wanted to be cramped up in the building, just waiting for the Villains to come to them. No one liked sitting down and being a stationary target.
They wanted to help repel the attackers. Be actual Heroes.
But they couldn't.
For her part, Mina was totally frustrated beyond all belief. Izuku had been there – He'd been right there, in front of her – And she hadn't been able to do anything about it. She hadn't been able to stop him from going off to carry on fighting, even in spite of the numerous injuries, and hammered-to-smithereens arms.
She hadn't been able to do anything. And the same question kept ringing through her head, over and over again.
Why?
Why had Aizawa-sensei let him go, but kept her back? Was it because he felt she wasn't strong enough to fight against actual Villains, even when she had poured literally her own blood into the fight earlier? Was it because she would slow him down, since his Quirk granted him enhanced strength? Was it because Izuku had a history of doing this story of thing, and he wasn't going to stop now? Had all that training just been a waste of time?
Why?
Why was Izuku persistent on doing this kind of thing, again and again and again and again and again? He wanted to be a Hero, more than anything else in the world, and he was going to do anything that he could to live up to the word – She respected and loved that about him, about just how far he was willing to go in order to achieve such a goal. An admirable and selfless goal, one that she shared with him… But he had no concept of self-preservation. He didn't take into account how these injuries could affect his body. He didn't even think about it. He just did it anyway.
Heroes were no use if they got themselves killed in the line of duty. It was the best way for a Hero to go, sure…. But it also meant that there would be a thousand people that they wouldn't be able to save in the future.
Why?
What the hell was so important to him that he was willing to go so far, push himself to the literal breaking point, tear himself apart and batter his own bones to dust?
What was it that just made him charge right back into the fight without even being able to look her in the eye and tell her why?
What was so damned important that –
"One of the Villains targets has been identified! It's one of the students! Their name is Kacchan!"
Mina just blinked when she heard that. Hard. Just the once.
There were other sentences and phrases that were going on, but even though they were being directly broadcasted into her head, they were little more than white noise to her, as her eyes shot wide open, and everything fell into place. Her own thoughts were louder. Much louder. They practically screamed at her, blocking out everything else.
No way.
No.
Fucking.
Way.
Bakugou was the Villains target? How exactly that had happened, she didn't have even the first idea. How they even knew about him, or what they wanted from him, again, was information that bypassed her at this point.
Everything else made sense now though.
And that was what was sickening Mina right now.
It was Bakugou that Izuku was doing all of this for?
There wasn't any doubt that it was Izuku who had relayed this message towards the Telepath Quirk user. Not only did this message come mere moments after the first one, but Mandalay had used Izuku's nickname for the Explosion Quirk user, so any possible doubt that it might have been info that the Heroes had gathered themselves was completely vanquished.
Izuku had said that there was something that Mandalay needed to hear…
Was that it? Was that what Izuku had so desperately needed to do that he had left Mina on her own during all of this? That he had gone against her desperate pleas for him to just stop pushing himself like this while he was in the state he was in, and to just, for once, think about himself before anyone else.
Was that why he had battered himself into the state that he was in? Because he felt that Bakugou – The person who had, and continued, to this day, to treat him like a worthless pile of dirt – Was important enough to do these things to himself? Because he still felt like the temperamental, explosively angry and furious boy was still his friend in some capacity?
Was that why he had left Mina all alone? Why he had run off and disregarded her, tried to avoid her gaze, why he had tried to dash away without telling her why?
For Bakugou? For the person who made his life a living hell? The person who, by Izuku's own admission, had treated him like nothing more than a doormat, a bug, an insect to just be crushed and blasted away like he wasn't worth anything. The person that Mina had seen to show no remorse for the things that he had done, and the way that he had treated people. The person that saw himself as being above everyone else, and thought that he was the best at everything. The person she had confronted, and even when he was presented with everything that he had done…
He couldn't provide a reason as to why. He couldn't justify it – He couldn't even explain it.
That was what Izuku put so much value in?
Just…
All attempts by Mina to escape from Aizawa-sensei's capture trap ceased when these thoughts began to enter her head, as she stared down at the floor, aghast at everything that was placing itself together. This was Izuku she was thinking about. Things made way, way too much sense, at least based on the actions that he was taking. The logic he was using, she didn't even slightly understand… But this was something that he would do, without question.
That was the sort of person he was….
And Mina didn't even understand it anymore. Not even slightly.
How could she?...
She could understand helping Todoroki during the Sports Festival, even at a cost to himself.
She could understand him running off during his workplace training to help Iida from the Hero Killer.
She could understand his compliance with Shigaraki during the Kiyashi Ward incident…
But he had chosen Bakugou – His childhood bully – Over her, in this mess of a situation?
That was what she had to work with. That was her perspective…
Izuku had chosen Bakugou over her….
That was what had happened… It made her want to throw up.
She couldn't understand this. Not one bit.
It just was compacted worse and worse when Mina remembered the thing that she had only just allowed herself to let go of. Izuku hadn't ever told her that he loved her. He was willing to leave his girlfriend like this, someone he was supposed to love and care about, but was willing to go fight literal Villains, to protect his childhood bully?
What was she supposed to make of that?
Did he… Did he even care about her?
When presented with a scenario like this, what else was there to think? Mina didn't like to doubt him in any way at all. She wanted to have total faith in him. She wanted to just be thinking too much. That was what she wanted, so badly, for this to be the case…
But he wasn't giving her any other way to see things. He couldn't even say that he loved her… What was she supposed to think?
What was she supposed to think…?
"Damn it…!" She muttered to herself, fighting to hold back against the tears that she could feel coming. A mixture of the danger of the situation, and all of these questions that would just not stop screaming at her inside her head…
The doubts. The fears. The insecurities. The questions
The things that she thought she had managed to just put behind her. The worries that she had about her and Izuku.
The fear of losing him…. No, now it had evolved into something that messed with her head even more.
Did she ever have him to begin with?
When all was said and done… He'd done this. And it didn't matter how honest she knew his intentions were bound to be… She couldn't take it. Not like this. Not anymore.
She needed to know. She needed to know why he was like this. Why he still gave a crap about what happened to Bakugou so much…
And she needed to hear it. She needed to hear him explain why he did these things, even when it drove a wedge between the two of them. She needed to hear him tell her how he felt about her, honestly and truthfully, and she needed to know why he hadn't been able to say it before. She needed to know… Because not knowing anymore was going to drive her insane.
But above all, she needed to make sure that he was okay. She needed to make sure that he was safe. And to do that, she needed to get out of this building, and away from the Pro's, trying to stop her.
She needed to get out of here.
When she finally managed to lift her head to have a look around, she noticed that Aizawa-sensei was gone. Completely having vanished from the room without a trace. Why and when he had done this, she had absolutely no real idea, but if she had to take a guess, she assumed that he had gone back to the clearing, to help with the Pussycats, or to try and scout out the Villains that were probably hiding out around the area. To try and figure out the methods behind the enemies strikes. Maybe he had done this when he realized that Mina had stopped fighting against her capture, and had to make a choice between making certain that this wasn't a temporary state for her, or go out and do what he could to protect everyone. Either way, since he wasn't around, that meant his Quirk wasn't either.
So she activated her own, around her arms, to dissolve the capture weapon that she was wrapped up in. A special alloy combined with capture cloth it might have been, but it was mostly effective because it was combined with a Quirk that rendered other powers useless. Without Aizawa-sensei there to make sure that his captured target was unable to use their powers, the capture cloth became just that – Specially designed, but still just a piece of cloth, easy to destroy with a Quirk like Mina's.
She tore off some of the stray threads of weapon with her left hand, before getting onto her feet. Only a few people seemed to notice her, Blood King being one of them, though he made no mention of it, perhaps because he felt that he could suppress her if the need arose with his own Quirk, or perhaps because he just wasn't aware of the reasons why Mina had charged out in the first place. Regardless of why, he didn't seem to call any attention to it. No one else mentioned it either, probably since they understood that being pinned like that by a capture weapon was bound to be uncomfortable… and they had much more pressing matters to deal with.
"You've got to let us go! They're after my buddy!"
Kirishima. Easily the most vocal person there, Mina quickly noticed. She'd been zoned out for the last couple of minutes, not paying any attention to her surroundings at all, though she quickly grasped what was happening.
With Bakugou listed at the Villains primary target, the Hardening Quirk user had practically leaped up, begging to be allowed to go out to try and help the guy. He was probably the only person there that actually considered Bakugou to be a friend at all, and given the kind of person that he was, he was more than willing to do whatever it took to help rescue him from the attackers.
It was something that Mina could use to both their benefit.
Quickly, she made her way over towards the red haired boy, and placed a hand on his shoulder, to get hold of his attention. She was rewarded very quickly, with her classmate turning around to face her almost immediately.
"Ashido?" He seemed surprised that she was up and moving around again. The majority of the surprise probably came from that she had escaped from the capture weapon. "When did you – "
"He's right, Kirishima."
For a moment, Kirishima just stared at her, before his eyes widened dramatically. "What?!"
"I said, Blood King's right."
Suddenly, a lot of the noise in the room just ceased. Everyone, except for Monoma, still confused and having no idea what was even going on, looked towards the Acid Quirk user in a mixture of astonishment and bewilderment. Given how she had charged out the way she had, her relationship to Izuku, and the way she'd been kicking and squirming to get out of the Capture device not just a few moments ago, many would have expected her to be shouting and screaming at Blood King to let them charge onto the front lines. Some even expected her to just use her Quirk to melt through the walls and make a run for it.
Instead, she was capitulating to the Heroes orders?
"What the hell are you even saying, Ashido?!" Kirishima's attention suddenly flipped away from the Blood Manipulation Quirk user and towards the pink skinned girl, with an expression that fell somewhere between absolute gobsmacked confusion, and barely concealed horror. "We got permission to use our Quirks to fight! Bakugou's being targeted – And Midoriya is still out there too! You don't think – "
"I know!" Mina yelled back in response. The anger that came with her voice was explosive, making the spiky haired boy back off by a single step, mostly from surprise. "I know that Izuku's still out there – You think that I just forgot that my boyfriend went off again and nearly got himself killed yet again?! In case you're forgetting, I'm the only one in the building right now who's actually fought against the Villains here! So let me tell you the honest truth about what us going out there would do – "
Taking a step forward to close the gap between the two of them, Mina made a point to glare directly into Kirishima's red eyes, and have her fists clenched. There was a lot of emotion in what she was doing. The frustration was real, and she was using that to fuel her angry performance.
This had to look real.
" – We'd just be in the way of the Pros…" She grimly stated, through gritted teeth. "That's all that happened when I went out there with Aizawa-sensei. I was in the way. I nearly got him killed, just because I wanted to be part of the fight… That's all that we'd be to the Pro's right now. And – And what if Bakugou isn't their only target? If we actually care about this… We can't get in their way… We just can't…"
"But – "
"Do you think I like it either? Knowing that Izuku is out there, and that I can't do anything about it? Do you honestly not think I feel like dirt myself right now? I feel like crap about even suggesting it, but if we actually want to help… We just can't do anything like that…"
"…Ashido makes an excellent argument." Iida's voice suddenly emerged from the gathered crowd, though he clearly was uneasy about saying so. Like he was forced to swallow his own beliefs on the issue himself, like Mina's statements had actually persuaded him. "In addition to having to combat the Villains, the Heroes would have to devote resources to making sure that us students remain unharmed… Which would hamper their ability to fight without restriction."
"Iida!" With an expression that looked almost completely betrayed, Kirishima looked over towards the Engine Quirk user. "You were just saying that it'd make sense for us to go and help fight!"
"The points Ashido makes are valid, however. And if we would end up becoming a hindrance to the Pro's…"
"She is the only one of us who did actually see what's going on out there… She's the only one who has even a slight idea on what's going on… Though pained, Kaminari seemed to relent as well. His hand covered his face, pinching the bridge of his nose out of nothing more than frustration. "Damn it…"
"Those Villains back there looked tough..." Commented Ojiro, arms folded, and eyes firmly grounded. His tail was slouched, laid out on the floor without any strength or weight to it. "If we go and we aren't strong enough… Then the Pros are just gonna be put in danger as well… And if some of us are their targets, then we'd just make the Villains job easier…"
One by one, people seemed to start agreeing with the statement that Mina had made, as Kirishima more and more became outnumbered by people who felt, that against their own feelings and desires to go out and try to do something to help in any way, that staying put as instructed was the best course of action. Clearly, the logic given by Mina hadn't affected Kirishima's opinion on the subject in any way, shape or form whatsoever, since he clearly was still willing and ready to go to fight…
But without the support of his classmates… With them just choosing now to abandon Bakugou in favour of playing it safe…
"God damn it!"
With a loud shout of pent up frustration and anger, he made a retreat from the group altogether, kicking one of the tables in his way aside with a scary amount of force behind it, and marching towards one of the separate storage rooms, away from everyone else. Built up frustration, rage and now combined with helplessness, something that Mina knew that he hated himself for being at times, just left him with an inability to even be around people any more right now. He didn't know what to do.
And that frustrated him. Angered him.
It made him angry mostly towards himself and his own helplessness. And Mina did feel bad for it. Him running off like that was just a sign that he was frustrated beyond all measure, and needed to remove himself before he ended up hurting someone out of rage, something he was extraordinarily unlikely to do… But he didn't even want to risk. He was a good guy like that, and absolutely, Mina felt awful for intentionally doing that to him…
"I-I'll go talk to him." She told the rest of the building, quickly following her middle school ally before anyone else did so.
…But she absolutely had to do it, and she knew that he'd understand. Him of all people would understand. That was why she had done it specifically to him. Because he'd get it.
At least, she hoped so, anyway.
"Is that really a good idea?"Ojiro questioned, though he was too late to get an answer before Mina had entered the same area as the Hardening Quirk user.
The storage room was only small, enough for maybe four people to fit into it if the need arose, for whatever reason. With his fist already hardened, Kirishima had slammed it straight into the nearest wall, the force knocking over several of the stationary equipment packed onto the shelves. His sharpened teeth were gritted bare, centred tightly against one another, locking perfectly with the opposing row. Mina could have sworn that she saw tears starting to form in his eyes, though it could have just been a refection from the only light in the room.
She made sure that the door was shut before she said anything to him, hoping that it would mean as few people as possible would hear the conversation that was about to happen between the two of them. She took a deep breath, before she said anything.
"Kirishima – "
"I don't know what the hell your problem is with Bakugou."
Looking over his shoulder, Kirishima had a narrow glare, full of fury towards Mina. Fury she hadn't quite ever seen him to have before. He was a passionate sort of person, and she knew this about him extraordinarily well. He obviously felt incredibly strongly about rescuing Bakugou, no matter what anyone else thought about him for it. He was just that kind of person by default. An honestly good person.
"I don't know what Bakugou's problem is with Midoriya. I don't get it, I'll admit it – But that doesn't mean that we should just be giving up on him! We're supposed to be training to be Heroes, damn it! We can't just stop trying to save someone because it's dangerous! We cant' – "
"You don't seriously think I meant any of that crap I said, do you?"
Disappearing as quickly as it had appeared in the first place, Kirishima's expression lightened up by a considerable amount. His narrow glare stopped immediately, and his Quirk deactivated, and fist returned to his side.
"Huh?"
"Everything I said was a lie, Kirishima. You don't seriously think I'd just leave Izuku out there without at least trying to help, right?" She offered a small smile, though her heart really wasn't into it. "Sorry I said all of that out there…. But I needed you away from everyone else without it looking weird. I don't want anyone else to hear us talking, so… I needed to make sure you got frustrated and left… I need your help."
She then looked at him in the eyes once again, this time, without any fake anger, or real frustration behind it. This was a look that conveyed her honest feelings – Fear, and a plea for help. Trust, and confidence in her friend's abilities. Belief that he could help her.
"I think that without Aizawa-sensei here, I can make a quick getaway by using my Quirk to slide out of here… But I need someone to distract Blood King. To keep him out of the way so he won't chase after me for just a short while, so I'm far away from him. Enough so that if he left, he'd leave everyone else defenceless. He'd choose to protect more people rather than chasing after me. I think I have an idea where Izuku went… And if I know Izuku like I think I do, then Bakugou is probably there too."
"…You… You think so?"
Mina nodded firmly, without breaking eye contact with the Hardening Quirk user. "I'm sure of it. Aizawa-sensei will probably give us hell, but if I can just get over there…"
"I'm in then." Kirishima affirmed, bringing both his clenched fists up in front of him. He didn't have any hesitation in showing his support once it was all explained, nor did he show any reservations about what was going to need to be done. He had been told what needed to happen, and he was already prepared to do whatever was required of him.
"You are?"
"Yeah. You're faster than I am. You're more athletic, and your Quirk'll help you get further… Besides, I already have a pretty good idea on how I'm gonna distract 1B's homeroom teacher. Besides…" The next look he gave Mina was far more empathetic, more understanding, than the looks that she'd gotten from people previously in regards to the subject. "…Midoriya means a lot to you, doesn't he?"
It was more a statement than it was a question, though the tone of it was soft, genuine. Like, despite not knowing either of them all that well, Kirishima understood why she was so worked up, why she had torn him down like she had. He held no ill will towards her, that was abundantly clear, now that he understood why she had done what she had.
Somehow, he understood.
All she could do, when faced with such an honest question like that, was give an equally honest answer. "...He means the world to me. He keeps doing all of this crazy stuff, and I don't know why… But I still love him to death… I need to know why he's doing this. "
"…If this plan of yours works, only one of us is gonna be able to go off to help." Kirishima let loose a small sigh. "Even disregarding how you're quicker than me, if only one of us is gonna be able to go and help, it should be the person here who has someone they care about that much."
It was like a huge relief hit Mina's system that she hadn't realized that she had been in dire need of. Like a breath that she had been subconsciously holding had finally been allowed to escape.
Without even realizing it, Izuku had begun to influence her and her thinking, she thought to herself. Before him, she probably wouldn't have come up with a plan like this.
Just a couple of seconds passed, in relative silence, before the entire room began to shake, knocking over far more stationary than Kirishima ever did. The whole building felt like it was rattling, almost like an earthquake had struck the building. Hundreds of pieces of stationary, rulers, pencils and paper all collapsed onto the pair of them, making moving in such an environment an even more difficult affair.
Both of them knew that there was no way that it was a natural disaster though. Neither of them had a single doubt about that. Not now. No way.
Glancing towards one another, Mina clambered over a small swamp of various school equipment, and virtually fell out of the door once she swung it back open. Immediately greeted by the sight of Blood King having one of the Villains pinned against the wall, utilizing his Quirk as a hardening shell to pin down his target.
What shook her in that scene however, was the Villain.
It was the same one that she had supposedly killed not even a few minutes ago.
"It's another fake…" She muttered to herself, residing on the line between being relieved that she hadn't actually ended someone's life, and terror for the absolute same reason – Someone out there had some kind of power that let them duplicate things?
So she had ended someone else's life? If someone duplicated a life, was that duplicate alive?... She shook her head. It didn't matter.
"What the hell do you mean, a fake?" Kirishima questioned with a tilted head, now having escaped from the storage room himself. "What're you talking about?"
"That Villain… He's the one I fought outside. I used my Acid on him, and turned him into liquid… But he's here again. I think that there's a real Villain somewhere, and that these are just fakes, somehow…"
"That's perfect."
Looking over towards him now, Mina saw that Kirishima's lips were formed into a shaky, nervous smile, which reminded her of Izuku's to an extent. She could see a single drop of sweat running down from his forehead as he thought up what he was about to do.
"Ashido." He simply said, accompanied by the clicks and sheen of his Hardening Quirk activating around his arms. "Get ready to run like hell."
Mina gulped, but nodded.
And then, Kirishima went to work.
"Aaaaargh!"
Even though she had known that he was about to do something to attract attention, the horned girl was surprised by Kirishima's sudden, loud scream, that was on the verge of becoming a shriek for help, and a war cry against enemy tribes. His face suddenly became solid as rock, to which Kirishima's already Hardened fingers began to drag themselves down, causing a sickening scratching screech as he ran them down the side of his face, like a nail against class, or against a blackboard.
"Kirishima?!"
"What the hell, dude?!"
"What the hell're you doing?!" Mina demanded, partly to stay out of the suspicion of everyone else, but also because she honestly had absolutely no idea what the actual hell this was even supposed to accomplish. She just stared at him, eyes wide open, while she covered her ears to try and block out the stomach churning noise.
"I can't freakin' take this anymore!" The Hardening Quirk user yelled, before he made a beeline straight for the Villain Blood King had captured. Withou a single second of hesitation, Kirishima raised his fist, and slammed it straight through the fake, turning him into nothing but a gross liquid that encased him.
"A fake?!"
But he didn't stop there.
Without waiting for Blood King to even register that the Villain he had captured to be nothing but a fake, Kirishima made a mad rush for the doors himself, still screaming at the top of his lungs. He smashed down the doors while his skin was rock hard, and began to slam his fists together the second he got outside, making a mad rush for the treelines.
"Get the hell out here, Villains! I can't take this cat and mouse crap anymore! Fight me like a man!" He made his voice as loud as he possibly could, half hoping to actually attract said Villains towards him, so he could actually engage in a fight, and contribute to ending this entire escapade of madness. All he needed to do was make sure Blood King was distracted, to give Mina enough time to get away. "Get out here and fight me!!"
Once he had made it to the treeline however, he was grabbed by the Pro Hero's Quirk, ejected from his wrists and used as a net to keep the hard-headed boy from getting any further away from the lodge. A thread around both of his wrists, and around his legs, tugging at him to prevent him from making any movements towards the forest with ease. "You need to calm yourself! Get back, before the Villains get out here!"
The treeline was about thirty five meters away from the lodge's front door. And it had taken about seven seconds for the two of them to run.
Which was absolutely perfect.
At the absolute top of his voice, Kirishima screamed, as loud as he could possibly manage, the shortest, and most basic instruction that he could possibly think up. "Run for it, Ashido!"
Taking advantage of the distraction, Mina made a mad dash straight out of the building and back towards the clearing – Without anyone to stop her from running, and no Aizawa-sensei to erase her Quirk, her Acid allowed her to slide off at speeds that someone would need a pair of roller-skates to catch up with.
She sent a mental thank you towards Kirishima. Both of them were going to get into a mountain crap-pile of trouble for doing this. She didn't even like to think about the possibilities that were ahead of them. Suspension, maybe? She wouldn't put it past Yuuei to be that strict… And there was no way that Kirishima hadn't considered it either. He had to have thought about it.
And he was still doing it.
"Wait!" Blood King yelled out towards the Acid Quirk user, but before he could make any movements towards running after her, Kirishima piped up again.
"You've only got two choices now, Blood King-Sensei…" He said with a strained voice, still trying to charge off into the treeline. His only goal now was to convince Blood King to leave Mina alone., through whatever means he could manage it. "You can either just focus on taking me back to the lodge… and letting her get away. Or you can go after her, and I'll definitely run off… And she'll probably get away anyway… Take me, and I'll go quietly… Which is it gonna be?"
It only took Mina a few moments to escape from the lodge's sight, and there wasn't a single person chasing after her. Iida was too busy making sure none of the other classmates got past the site of the explosion, and he wasn't going to chase after her and abandon everyone else to the possible risk of a Villain attack.
She had a feeling that he was going to be pissed with her when he figured out that her whole speech about not getting in the Heroes way had been nothing but a load of crap… But she wasn't too concerned with that right now.
Using her Quirk more as a lubricant than an Acid to help her slide along, she quickly made a considerable distance away from the lodge. Aizawa-sensei was probably going to be at the clearing where the test of courage was going on, since there were already Villains around that location. He'd probably run off to offer some sort of tactical support if they needed it – Probably erasing the Quirks of the villains there.
Which meant, the smartest and most direct way of getting there was to cut through the forest. Which is exactly what she did.
She'd reach the Test of Courage's pathway much faster. And assuming that Izuku had caught up to Bakugou, then they'd be almost certainly cutting through the forest themselves, to get there in the shortest amount of time.
It didn't take her long at all to reach the path at all. After running halfway down the pathway to the clearing, and then cutting through the woods, she found the return path in no time at all.
Only to find yet another battle going on – This time between Uraraka, Tsuyu, and a blonde with a knife.