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Chapter Text

The elevator chimed as it reached the top level. She was pulled from her thoughts.

She needed to pull herself together. In front of the boss, she couldn't appear weak. She straightened up, centered her tie and brushed her hair from her face. In the mirror doors of the elevator she could see her expression turn blank.

The doors opened and she stepped into the giant room Mori used as his office. The light falling through the window gave the room an unreal look.

He was sitting at his desk, his chin balanced on his hands staring at her intently. Eventhough the whole room was bathed in warm light his face looked as cold as ever.

She didn't show her fear. She hated being called to Mori's office. It never meant anything good.
"Sasaki. Please take a seat," he said sweetly.

"Sasaki I have a mission for you."
He slid a manila folder over the table.

Sasaki picked it up. She looked at him.

"Go on, read it."

Sasaki opened the folder. What greeted her was a profile of herself. A picture from when she first joined the Port Mafia, her eyes as dead as her expression. Next to it were listed her name and her ability.

Alongside its name there was a small explanation.
"Death need not apply prevents Sasaki from dying permanently. 2 minutes and 30 seconds after all brain activity stops Sasaki regenerates. There are no lasting injuries and no limit to the ability."

She frowned and looked up at Mori.
Her hands twichted at her sides. She had to forcefully stop them from fidgeting.
"I'm sorry, sir. I don't understand."

"Oh, I don't mean that part, you have to turn the page."

Sasaki unwillingly flinched at his sweetly condescending tone. He always sounded like that when she had made a mistake too. He sounded like that when they were in the basement.

Sasaki obediently turned the page.
Again she was greeted by a profile of herself. It was the same picture and the same name what was different was that instead of listing her ability it listed a quirk.
Instead of a blank space at education it listed a primary school and middle school she had never heard of. Musutafu South Middle School.

Musutafu was far outside of Yokohama's boundaries and she had never even set foot outside the city not to mention visit Musutafu. Nor did she want to. Musutafu was like the hero capital. It housed some of the biggest and most influential hero angengcies of the country, and the most famous hero school, UA.

Never in her life would she want to visit a place filled with naive and idealistic idiots calling themselves heroes.

"I still don't understand sir," she said.

"Ah, I had hoped you'd be smarter. But nevermind. You, Sasaki will infiltrate UA as a first-year student. Your task is to gain information on the school itself and on its faculty. You will have until the end of the school year to accomplish this task. At the end you will fake your death and return to Yokohama with your findings. All further information is in that folder. The entrance exam is in three days. Koyo will brief you on the drive. You leave in two hours."

Sasaki stared blankly at Mori. An undercover operation? She was mostly send on straight forward combat missions or to break into places.

Sasaki couldn't lie very well and she didn't have the patience necessary for such a job. She'd been told by most of her teachers that she wasn't good at hiding her intentions and that she could be read like an open book.

She didn't understand why Mori would want her on such a mission all of a sudden.

"You're dismissed, Sasaki," Mori said coldly when she didn't move.
"Yes, sir," she answered before bowing and turning on her heel.

As Sasaki walked away, she could feel his cold, dissecting stare on her back. She was glad when the elevator doors closed behind her.

Chapter Text

"Hamaguchi, Yamada and Takeda, get your things and go to the principal's office. You can do the paperwork there. The rest of you can go back to class. You have ten minutes."

Sasaki turned to go. She didn't want to change again with the others. They had looked at her strangely because of her scars. If one of them asked she'd have to lie again. The more lies she told the easier it would be to get caught up in them and expose herself as a liar and spy.

"Except you, Sasaki. I want to talk to you."

A murmur went through the class. Smirks and whispers were directed at her. Sasaki ignored them. Inside she was panicking. There was no way Mr. Aizawa had already gotten onto her. He was a hero! Heroes weren't smart.

While the rest of the class awkwardly shuffled to the changing rooms Sasaki stood at attention. Mr. Aizawa wasn't Mori but it couldn't hurt to at least pretend to respect him. Not that she ever would.

"I know that you're hurt, Sasaki. I can see that you are limbing. You are supposed to tell me when you're hurt. Keeping it hidden is dangerous. Untreated injuries make you a liability in the field."

Sasaki frowned. She wasn't hurt badly. In fact she wasn't even bleeding. Her ankle was sprained but she could still walk on it. Why would she waste ressources for something like that?
She also wasn't attempting to hide her injury. If she had her teacher never would have noticed. Her colleagues didn't so a hero definitely wouldn't either. Had she been a more immature person she'd have been hurt by the suggestion.

"It's just a sprained ankle, sir. It will go away in a week or two."

Her teacher glared at her. He seemed angered by her answer. Sasaki was confused. In the mafia no one bothered to get such minor injuries treated. It made you look weak and it wasted time.
"A sprained ankle can cause you to stumble and fall. If that happens on patrol or during a fight you risk not only your own life but also that of your team and civilians. If you can't be trusted to report your injuries and get them healed you can't be a hero, Sasaki."

Sasaki's confusion grew. She understood the logic behind not wanting to be a hindrance to her colleagues but she could fight with a sprained ankle just as well as without. By that logic all her classmates couldn't be trusted with anything the way they fought. And her life wouldn't be in danger even if she wanted it to be. Besides she had never said she wouldn't treat it. She planned on bandaging it at home.

Her confusion must have been visible on her face because Mr. Aizawa's gaze softened slighlty.

"Just tell me next time when you're injured. You can go to Recovery Girl now. I will tell Ectoplasm that you will be late for math."

"Yes, sir," Sasaki answered and turned on her heel.

While she was walking away she could feel his gaze on her. The hair on Sasaki's neck stood on end. She didn't like the look in his eyes when she had turned. She couldn't help but feel like he knew something she didn't.

Chapter Text

"Sasaki, walk with me," Aizawa held her back.
Sasaki was starting to feel like a pattern was emerging. This was the second time he'd wanted to talk to her privately after a lesson.

Her classmates were whispering again. They thought she would be expelled. From what she had been told about high school by Koyo people normally didn't get expelled unless they did something bad. But in the first 5 days at UA Aizawa had already expelled seven people for a "lack of potential" or a "lack of dicipline". He'd even threatened her with expulsion if she didn't disclose all her injuries to him.

It made her nervous that she didn't know other things either.

When the rest of the class was gone Mr. Aizawa started walking. She followed making sure to add a stumble for good measure.

Koyo had told her that she had too much coordination for a high school student. Privately Sasaki had thought that was stupid but seeing all her classmates blunder about she had to admit that Koyo was right.
She didn't know how they were ever supposed to be heroes when they couldn't even walk over cracked pavement without tripping.

Koyo told Sasaki to appear more clumsy and to stumble or walk into things sometimes.

After three minutes of silence the atmosphere was starting to get awkward. Sasaki knew it was three minutes because she had made sure to stumble at least once every two minutes.

She did it again.

"There," Mr. Aizawa said.

Sasaki frowned up at him.
"Sorry?"

"Every two minutes on the dot you stumble. Every time you walk you do it but as soon as an exercise starts you are the most coordinated student in class. You didn't slip once in the flood zone. Yet walking on normal conceret you seem to trip over air."

Sasaki begrudgingly raised her opinion of him. Not many people would notice that she was timing her stumbles. Then again she supposed that it was his job to notice these things.

"What are you hiding Sasaki?"

"Hiding?" she asked keeping the rising panic out of her voice.
"What would I be hiding?"

She was trying to buy time to come up with an excuse. Anything but the truth but under his gaze she was having a hard time thinking.

It reminded her a bit of the way Mori would look at you when he knew you where hiding something.
Only that Mori was ten time worse then this hero high school teacher. If she failed this mission she would become a semi-permanent guest of the basement again. Sasaki didn't fear death but there were things worse than death.

She could hear the blood dripping, the jangling of the chains and feel the prescise and surgical strokes of a scalpel. The lights were white and glaring. They gave made everything too real. It felt like the room should be dingy and dirty. There should be cracked concrete and flickering lights, instead there was only white tile reflecting the light and-

"Sasaki!"

There weren't any voices. It was always quiet. He didn't talk and she stopped screaming after two hours. Now she-

"Sasaki! Snap out of it."

There weren't any voices.

"Hey, look at me," she felt a hand squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.

There was no room for comfort in the basement. And there weren't any voices.

"Follow my breathing. Here."
Her hand was grabbed and placed on something soft and warm.

Slowly she started coming back. The basement was cold, not soft and warm. So she couldn't be in the basement. There weren't any voices in the basement. So she couldn't be there.

Finally Mr. Aizawa got through to her.

"Sasaki, here drink something."

She removed her hand and took the water bottle. It shook slightly. Sasaki took big gulps so she would have more time to think.

Something like this had never happened before. She couldn't allow herself such weakness. If she had been on a mission she would have fucked it up already.
She wouldn't have died but her colleagues surely would have. Mabye he did have a point when talking about hidden injuries. At least debilitating ones.

"I'm sorry, sir. This won't happen again. I promise."

"No that's not- You don't have to apologize for dissociating, kid."

Sasaki slowly lifted her head. Instead of the expected anger she found... concern in his eyes.
It seemed genuine. Sasaki was confused. She could follow the logic of not hiding her injuries. His anger was somewhat reasonable she recognized now. But concern? Genuine, personal concern? That had no place in a student-teacher relationship like theirs.

This time Sasaki didn't hide her confusion. She wanted to know what he was getting at with his concern.

"I don't know what made you dissociate but you don't have to apologize for it. It's a trauma response. You can't control that. Again, I would have appreciated if you had told me or a counselor about it but you don't have to apologize."

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Do you think you can continue this talk or do you want a break?"

"I can continue, sir."

He regared her with a look Sasaki couldn't decipher.

"Okay. My question was why you fake your clumsiness. You don't have to be afraid. I'm not going to expell you. You showed your potential today at the USJ. In terms of fighting capabilities you're by far the best student of your class. I just want to know."

Sasaki gathered her thoughts and focused. As much as she wanted to deny it his comforting words had helped dispell her worries.

"My quirk, it enhances my strenght and my coordination. I can have it activated, essentially as long as I want. The only drawback is that after a certain time my quirk has to... Well my quirk needs a balance, so to speak. It's equivilent exchange. For me to gain strenght and coordination it has to take away strenght and coordination at other time. In training exercises I have my quirk activated the whole time. So the rest of the day it has to balance and take away some of that."

He stared at her like her words had aged him 20 years. Then after a few seconds he sighed and dragged a hand down his face.

"Thank you for the explanation, Sasaki. I would have liked to now that before the year started but it seem like that will be a running theme with you."

"I-"

"No. Just, please tell me about things like this in the future. And now go. I need to sleep, Problem child."

"Yes, sir," she mumbled and turned on her heel.

"And go see the Recovery Girl so she can update your file before the end of the week," he called after her in an exhausted voice.

"Of course, sir."

Again she felt his heavy gaze fixed on her as she walked away.

Chapter Text

Sasaki analyzed the situation in the blink of an eye.
The fire was coming from three sources. One on the top floor, one in the staircase and the last in the entrance.
The building's air conditioning was blowing the smoke upwards through the building and made it look like the fire was coming from the roof.

Mr. Aizawa had said there were 10 "people" still inside the building. She'd guess there were 2 on each. It would make the most sense for this sort of exercise.

Including her there were 13 people left in her class. Two of them had at least partial control of air, one had a water based quirk and another one could control small fires.

Then there was a bulky girl with skin made from heat resistant stone and another boy who could make transparent shields.

The last people with useful quirks were two girls with telekinesis quirks.

With the situation analysed and a solution found Sasaki turned to the rest of the hero students.

They were panicking like headless chicken. Even a low-ranking handyman in the mafia could have figured out a plan by now. Or they'd have started doing something without a plan. But they would never freeze like the other students did.

"I have a plan," her voice cut through the panicked chatter.
All eyes turned to her.
"There are three seperate fires. One on the groundfloor, another in the staircase at about the third floor and the last is on the highest floor. The smoke on the roof is because of the air conditioning. There-"

"How do you know that. You're just guessing," the boy with the shield quirk shouted from the back.

She glared.
"I wasn't finished. Don't interrupt me."
With that she continued.
"There are 10 victims, likely one on each floor. We build three teams. One team consisting of you five"
she pointed at the student with the air quirk, the one who could control water, the rude one, the fire one and the girl with the stone skin
",go ahead of us and extinguish all the fires you come across."

"If you see a victim you can alert us by shouting. The other team consists of the two of you and you over there,"
she nodded towards the girls with telekenisis and the remaining one with the air quirk
",are the most important here. You can blow any smoke out of our way and you can transport any injured victims. And you with the headphones can alert us of anything the first team says."

"The rest of us deal with any debris or structual damage to the building. We either stay behind and make sure that the rescue team can get the victims out or we follow slightly after the extinguishing team to clear the way and inspect the building. If we do this the likelihood-"

"Like fuck. Why would I listen to you? You aren't our leader!" the boy with the shield quirk shouted again.

"Yeah, don't be so pretentious. Do you think you are better than us? I don't need your plan!"

"I don't like Sasaki, but I think her plan makes sense," one of the students with the air quirk spoke up.

"She is pretty weird and yeah, she acts like we're inferior but you have to admit that we have no idea what to do. We were just standing around while she was making plans," the boy with the headphones spoke.

"Fuck this." shield-boy shouted. He ran into the building, the second one followed closely behind.

Sasaki took a calming breath. Depending on the mission such an act of insubordination and sheer stupidity would have given you nothing but a broken jaw and three bullets to the chest.
She absolutely despised the individualism the hero industry shoved down the throats of its consumers.
No one in the mafia trusted each other but at least they knew when to follow orders and how to rely on each other on missions. They could work together even while hating each others' guts. The students wouldn't survive half a day in Yokohama behaving like that.

"We can still follow the plan without them. It will be harder and more dangerous but it is doable."

A ripple of excitement and determination went through the class.
"Let's do this!"
"Yeah, go beyond!"
"Plus Ultra," the rest of the class joined in.
They were wasting time.

For a group of amateurs Sasaki had to say that they weren't half bad. What they lacked in skill they partially made up in enthusiasm. If the fire had been real that wouldn't have been enough Sasaki knew though.

Besides shield-boy and the other one everyone did their job. The got the victims out in 10 minutes, without any "death" and only some coughs and minor burns. The fires had been extinguished after 12 minutes.
It could have been better. But all in all Sasaki was satisfied.

Mr. Aizawa agreed with her assessment in the discussion afterwards.

"Sasaki's plan was smart. There were a few flaws but even pros can't avoid those."

Smiles decorated the faces of most of the students. They weren't used to praise from him. But Sasaki could predict what Aizawa was going to say next. Just as she could predict who would still be here by the end of the day.

"In real life however, there would have been casualties. Some of you treated this like a game. You didn't check for structual damage and you treated the "victims" like ragdolls."

Slowly the smiles were melting of their faces. Sasaki remained impassive. She knew this would happen and recognized that the mission would have been a disaster in real life.

"Let me reitarate. Those of you who don't take this seriously, those of you who don't listen and who refuse to cooperate have no place in this class. Teamwork is a fundamental pillar of being a hero. Without that you don't have any right to be here, do you understand, Himura, Ishioka?"

Mr. Aizawa's gaze settled heavily on shield-boy and the other one.

"What?" Himura squeaked

"You are expelled. Go to Nedzu's office and tell him."

There was spite and shame in their eyes. When they walked to the changing rooms they purposefully shoved past her. Sasaki didn't budge.

She agreed with Mr. Aizawa's words. They didn't fit into a hero class. They wouldn't last an hour in the field. Begrudgingly her opinion of him rose again. She didn't expect a hero like him to be so honset and perceptive. She should have realized that Aizawa wasn't like the other heroes earlier.

He turned again to the rest of the class. His eyes swept over them. They seemed to linger a bit longer on Sasaki. She straightened unintentionally. Her chin tilted upwards with defiance.

A sigh.
"You can go now. And remember teamwork is important."

This time she didn't feel him watching her leave. Sasaki suspected he just couldn't see her through the rest of the students.

Chapter Text

Sasaki could vaguely hear chanting and shouting in the distance. The only time she'd heard a crowd so loud was when the beach sport festival was happening. And even they weren't so obnoxious.
It was all the better for Sasaki though. With everyone being preoccupied by the Sports Festival the school was completely deserted. It was the perfect oportunity to finally get somewhere with her mission.

From sitting in the ceiling panels of the staff room for a week she had learned that there were paper records for every employee of the school in a store room underneath the school. In case the servers went down the principal wanted to have a backup.

This was great for Sasaki who wasn't a great hacker but did have substantial experience in breaking and entering. She wouldn't even have to do much breaking.

Sasaki snuck through the dark tunnels. Her grey attire blended perfectly into the plain concrete walls.
Right now, the rest of her class was brawling in a popularity contest live on national tv. She was supposed to be there too.
But the night before Mori had called. She wasn't allowed to be on tv. It would negate her future potential as an undercover operative. Sasaki fullheartedly agreed. She didn't want to have her face plastered all over the news.

The only way to get out of the festival was injury. Just minutes before the festival started Sasaki had gone into the toilet and broken her own arm.

As planned Recovery Girl refused to let her participate. The break was pretty messy and she wouldn't heal in time for the first round. Sasaki had slept until noon.
Just before the last round was about to start, she had excused herself from the infirmy to watch from the stands.

In front of her the door of the storeroom appeared. It was solid metal and a bit rusted. It didn't slow Sasaki down much. She'd learned lockpicking before even joining the mafia.

Her plan was working surprisingly well as of now.

In retrospect the plan had been working too well. Just when she had photographed all the files she needed, the door squeaked.

Sasaki tensed and threw herself under the table. It was too late. The light turned on and in the glaring brightness it was easy to spot her dark form.

She stood up slowly, taking up a defensive posture. Against the shadows behind the door the silhouette of Mr. Aizawa was clear.
His hands were tensed around his scarf, his goggles were firmly settled on his face and behind them she saw his eyes shining bright red. His hair floated lazily above his shoulders.

Sasaki wondered if he could stop her ability like he could stop quirks. She knew he couldn't but sometimes she liked to play with the thought of it.

"Surrender now and you will not be hurt," he said.

Sasaki supposes he would have been intimidating but he looked so unlike anything threatening Sasaki had ever seen that her fight or flight response wasn't triggered.
Seeing him crawl around like a giant, yellow caterpillar also helped.

When she didn't answer he threw out his scarf. It sailed past her ducked head and wrapped around the stand light behind her.

With his weapon incapacitated Sasaki acted. She jumped across the table and threw herself at him.

Instead of dodging and leaving an opening to the door like she had hoped he threw a punch at her.

Sasaki ducked again. With her body half under him she ellobowed him in the stomach.

He hissed in pain and grabbed for her collar. Sasaki dropped to her knees.
Her leg swept his out from under him.

Before he could use the momentum to pin her to the ground Sasaki elegantly rolled out of the way.

She made a run for the door.

Just as she was through the frame his scarf wrapped itself around her legs.

She fell, barely catching herself on her left arm. Her broken, left arm.
Sasaki couldn't help the scream that left her mouth. The loose bone fragments in her arm grinded against each other as they broke again.

She tried to shimmy out of the fabric but it was to tight.

In front of her Aizawa was blocking the light from the storeroom. His shadow fell over her three times larger than him.

Sasaki scrambled to get her knife out of its sheath.

"You should have surrendered. You won't escape now."

With a defiant look in her eyes Sasaki slashed the knife through the scarf. It cut through like butter.

In the next moment she jumped up.
Her legs hooked around his.

He fell.

Sasaki grabbed his arm. Her legs was pinning his to the floor and his arm was fixated in a painful position.

One tug and it would break.
Another tug and his shoulder would be dislocated.
All her instincts and experience told Sasaki to pull. It was was better for her mission, it was what her colleagues would do.

And then she remembered the concern. She remembered his soft breathing under her hands and the comforting hand on her shoulder.

Instincts against emotions. Instincts always won. They had kept Sasaki safe on the streets, they had helped her complete missions, they had saved the lifes of her subordinates.

But just this once Sasaki allowed herself to be soft. She allowed herself to chose emotions over efficiency and instinct.

She twisted around, jumped up and placed a hard kick in his abdomen.

She tried to ingnore his pained hisses and groans while she destroyed his phone. She tried to ignore the defiant glare that hid fear while she tied him up and she ignored his calls while she ran away.

His gaze on her back was starting to feel familiar.

Chapter Text

In front of her the thief came to an abrupt stop. His dark clothes made him stand out against the lights of the city. He was heaving and huffing, trying to catch his breath.

Sasaki was a bit impressed by his endurance. She'd been leading him to this very point for the last 10 minutes. They had ran up the dozens of steps leading up the cliff and he had not faltered once.

Mr. Aizawa was still somewhere down in the valley however. They had been searching for a particular thief since the beginning of the internship.

Carlos Angeles was an international thief, specialised in information and data. Just like her he would use the reliance on paper backups to steal important, classified documents.
Her break-in at UA had coincided with a break-in at an office of the Hero Commission. The heroes had come to the conclusion that Carlos had taken on an apprentice.

Sasaki thought that conclusion was stupid. Their motives were clearly different, as were their methods. Carlos would never fight anyone. He either ran or surrendered and escaped later.

The Hero Commission had been getting angsty. Apparently the stolen documents were very important to national security. Sasaki was convinced that they were incriminating rather than important to national security.
Whatever the case they ordered half of the country's underground heroes to find Carlos.

Getting back the files was top priority. What happened to Carlos himself was secondary.

So, when Sasaki had randomly seen him walking out of a cafe she had taken of after him. Of course she didn't immediately start chasing him, but somehow he noticed her even while she was hiding. One thing had led to another and now he was trapped between her and the cliffside.

"Hand over the files or tell me their location and I will let you go," Sasaki started of the negotiation.

"Nice offer, but... Y'see I'm gettin' a lot of money for this. No way am I givin' them to you," he smirked at her, condescension clear on his face.

He thought she was just some idiot hero student. He felt safe enough to act condescending because heroes didn't kill people. Heroes were naive and only attacked in self-defense or if someone was in danger.
It could have worked if it hadn't been Sasaki he was talking to.
But he was talking to Sasaki and she had no qualms about attacking first.

"You either give me the files voluntarily or I will make you."

Sasaki started walking towards him with slow and heavy steps. She missed her trenchcoat. It would have added to her intimidation factor.

Unconsciously Carlos took a step back. His hand brushed nervously over his left breast pocket. Behind him some gravel clattered down the cliff. One step more and he would fall.

Sasaki didn't like the way he was looking over his shoulder now. It could be read as fear. But something told her that it wasn't.

Carlos had been escaping custody through what was thought to be a teleportation quirk. If had been able to teleport himself then he wouldn't be here. So he had an accomplice who could teleport.

There were quiet footsteps on the gravel behind her.
Her eyes met with Carlos'. Something in them must have told him that she wasn't a hero.

She knew what he was doing seconds before he actually jumped. Enough time to jump after him, not enough time to think about that decision.

For a few breathless seconds she felt weightless. Her hands almost brushed the back of his jacket. Just a few milimeters more and she had him.

A jerk went through Sasaki's body.
The scarf wrapped around her legs.
Carlos disappeared in a violent burst of light.

She was left hanging upside down against the cliffside. If Aizawa had reacted just seconds later she'd have captured him. And with him she'd have had the files in his breats pocket.

Why would he stop her just seconds before finishing the mission ?

"What was that? Sasaki what the fuck was that? You just jumped of a cliff. If I hadn't been there you would have died!"

He was shouting. He had been shouting since he pulled her over the cliff. Sasaki had never seen her teacher so angry.

It confused her. It overwhelmed her.
"Do you realize that, Sasaki? You could have died."

She couldn't help it. A snort escaped her. A small laugh followed. It wasn't funny. Not from his perspective but for Sasaki? Being told she was in danger of death was like telling a fish they were in danger of drowning.
She would have continued laughing if it hadn't been for the look on his face.

He wasn't only angry. No, he was concerned. And he was afraid, afraid for her. That sobered Sasaki up quickly. There had never been a person who was afraid for her, who worried about her health.

"This is not funny. Do you think your safety is something to laugh at?" he asked.
His tone matched the one he used when someone was about to be expelled.

Sasaki straigthened. This was serious. Her actions had been stupid. She could have blown her cover.

"What you just did was dangerous, irresoponsible and borderline suicidal! You can't risk your life like that. Your safety is important. Your health matters! Do you understand that? Because I don't think you do."

No Sasaki didn't think she did. Why couldn't he pick one, her health and safety or the mission. It confused her.

In the mafia the mission was always more important than the individuals. Maybe it was cruel, but it was simple. You could follow it easily. There were no conflicting objectives or orders.

"But you said yourself that the priority was getting the files back. That was the mission objective. I could have finished it. I had him. I was so close to finishing this and you stopped me."

She was starting to get angry herself. Shouting at a superior was never a good idea. But Sasaki was angry and confused and tired and she wanted answers.

"Why? Why do you care? I don't understand you. You're just my teacher. You shouldn't care, you don't even know me!" she shouted.

Mr. Aizawa looked taken aback. Whatever he thought she would say wasn't that.

"Of course I care, Problem child," he started in a softer voice.
"It's literally my job to care about you. Your continued safety and well-being is my responsibility. If you die that's on me."

"UA has good lawyers though. Your students dying wouldn't affect you."

The look of absolute disbelief on his face was priceless. If the atmosphere hadn't been so tense and serious she would have taken a picture.

"No, that's not what I mean," he started.
"I don't care about the legal consequences of you dying. I care about your life because you're a child and you're my student."

She froze. No one had ever told her that. She was an adult in the eyes of everyone she knew. Her childhood had ended the moment she joined the mafia, if not the moment she ended up on the streets.

"What?" she choked out.

"You're a child. You're just fifteen. Yes, you're going to be a hero soon but before that you are still just a student. And after that you will still be a human. Human lifes are more important than some files. They're valuable. I care about your safety because you are human, you are my student and you are a child. Your life is infinitely more important than the documents Angeles stole."

Sasaki looked at him. She saw the borderline desperation in his eyes, remembered the shaken look from before and the conviction behind his words and came to the conclusion that he was serious.

"Oh," she whispered.
Tears welled up in her eyes. Her life was important. At least one person thought her life was important just because she was alive.

"Did you- You didn't-," his voice was just as shaky as hers.
He took he step towards her, hands held out like she was a cornered animal.

"No one has ever told you that, am I right?"

"Yeah."

"I have something to ask you. I want you to tell me the truth. Do you care about your health? Do you even want to live?"

She stared at him.
Her brain couldn't come up with an answer. Tears were streaming down her face, Mr. Aizawa's eyes were burrowing into her and she couldn't think.

So she ran. Sasaki took of past him.

In one moment she was on the roof, in the next she was running across the street opposite of the train station.
She didn't remember the way and she didn't remember if he watched her go. She couldn't recall if his eyes has settled on her back like they had done so many times.

Chapter Text

It was one day after the disaster that was the Carlos Angeles chase and Sasaki was feeling miserable.

She was emotionally, mentally and phyiscally exhausted. Sometime between her arriving on the roof of the train station and Aizawa calling her to tell her to come home it had started raining.

It wasn't soft summer rain, no it was a veritable storm. By the time she had made it back to her apartment Sasaki has been drenched to the bone. She hadn't had the energy to change out of her clothes.

Now she was regretting that. When Mr. Aizawa had come to check up on her he'd found her asleep on the sofa with a temperature of 39° degrees.

He didn't allow her to get up unless it was to change into different clothes or to go to the toilet. While Sasaki could fight on a sprained ankle and with a broken arm a fever was past her limit.

What she didn't understand was why he was staying. He cared about her, she knew that now but it would have been enough to tell her to stay at home and take it easy. He didn't have to go buy fever medicine or make her food. He didn't have to sit next to her or bring her books to read.

But he did. Sasaki stared at him in confusion. For some reason he always dumbfounded her.

She must have been staring for a while. Mr. Aizawa turned to her and lifted a questioning eyebrow.

"You want to ask me something?"

"I still don't really understand."

"Why I care about you?"
She could see the concern entering his expression again.

"Yes. I don't know. Maybe? It's just-"
Sasaki stopped herself. Her instincts were screaming at her to stop. If she continued her mission could go seriously wrong. He could find out about Mori and the mafia.
But she wanted to tell him. She wanted to know why.

"No one has ever cared for me. No one ever looked at me and saw a child."

Sasaki could feel herself start to ramble. She didn't care. She needed to get it all out.

"They only ever saw my ability, my strenghts and my potential, what I could give them, how they could use me. No one ever cared about me for just... me."

A choked sob left her mouth. She curled up around herself. But she continued. It felt good to to tell someone, to voice her inner most thoughts. Vulnerable but good.

"I'm not anyone's priority, I'm no one's first choice, no one worries about me."

She looked at him. Do you understand her eyes asked.

"Except you. For some reason you care and that's...thats's confusing. I don't know what to do with that. I can deal with anger and dissapointment and apathy but concern? What the fuck do I do with that?"

She had turned towards him with an almost accusing look.
He looked back. There was sadness and anger in his eyes that Sasaki couldn't help but analyze.
He shuffled closer to her so he could grab her shoulders with a comforting squeeze.

"You don't have to do anything, okay?"

Sasaki nodded. A sob threatened to escape and she curled into herself again.

He rubbed comforting circles on her shoulder blades.
"You're such a Problem child," he mumbled
"But you're my Problem Child," he continued louder ",That means you're my priority, okay?"

Instead of answering Sasaki leaned forward and pulled her arms around him. He returned the hug. In his thight and warm hold she felt safe. For the first time in 10 years she felt totally safe.
It wouldn't last her experience told her, I will be hurt again her rationality said, you're putting yourself in danger her instincts whispered. Sasaki shoved them to the back of her mind. Right now this was all she wanted to feel. She deserved to feel safe just this once.

After a while he pulled away.

"The soup should be ready by now. I will check on it and then we can eat."

"Yeah," she mumbled.

In the evening she was feeling better already. The soup had been nice even if it was made with a powederd mix.

When she was about to go back to her apartment he stopped her.

"You know that you can always talk to me when you need someone, okay? My door is always open to you wether you want to talk about your past or about the weather, I don't care."

"I will," she said. And she wished that she could. But she knew, no matter how deep she burried her rationality that she couldn't tell him. It would put him in danger and she didn't want that.

"And not just me. You classmates will be there for you too. Social connections are important and you don't have any besides me. I know teenagers can be annoying but they aren't bad."
"The ones that are left in any case," he said under his breath.

"Just please try and form some connections with them. You don't have to marry them. Just try to get along."

"I will," she repeated. This time she meant it. She couldn't tell Aizawa about her past, about the mafia and about her mission but she could befriend her classmates, she could take better care of herself, she could try. For him she could try.
Somehow his dissapointment had become worse than anything that Mori had to offer. Somehow death had become her worst fear again.

This time his gaze felt warm on her back. Just like his hugs.
Sasaki smiled.

Chapter Text

Sasaki let her gaze run across her classmates. There were only 4 left at this point. Aizawa had expelled the rest. Most had been expelled because of things that happened during the internship almost two months ago. They had caused trouble or put others in danger. She'd expected them to be expelled.

The remainder of the class was waiting to start their last training exercise before the final exams. It was a short tournament with two teams made up of two people each fighting against each other. Support items were forbidden.
Because they were an odd number Mr. Aizawa would participate. He handicapped himself with weights and by not using his quirk.

Sasaki was paired with Tsukomo Hana. She was one of the girls with the Telekenisis quirks. Tuskomo could attract objects that were lighter than her and repel objects heavier than her. In this case her weight didn't mean her body weight but the weight of everything she was wearing or holding as well.

Sasaki appreciated Tsukomo's ability to remain calm under pressure and her willingness to cooperate.

It had helped them win their first fight against Kobayashi and Suzuki.

Her occasional dry comments were also quite funny. And there came a certain solidarity with being the only two girls left in a class full of guys. They became close by default.

In the chalk circle in front of them Mikan and Aizawa were fighting against Suzuki and Kobayashi.

"Mr. Aizawa and Mikan will win," she predicted.
Tsukomo turned to her.
"You think? Kobayashi is pretty strong too and you shouldn't underestimate Suzuki."
"But Mikan is better," she begrudgingly admitted.

Sasaki didn't like Mikan much. He was impulsive and loud. He tended to question everyone and everything but he was the best fighter of the students.
His quirk, which allowed him to summon oranges in any size and of any density sounded stupid but he made good use of it.
She didn't like admitting it but the boy had grown on her.

Sasaki winced as she watched Suzuki get hit in the stomach with one.

His barriers made from perssurized air needed some work.
While his quirk was very useful he wasn't very creative in the usage of it.
Evenso Sasaki could tolerate him. He was smart in the academic sense and he was fiercely loyal. Once you were part of his group he became extremely protective.
Over the last few weeks in which she had shared her morning commute with him she also learned that he was much less serious than he led on.

Kobayashi made up everything Suzuki lacked in creativity with his unpredictability.

She watched one of his fossilized hair strands punch through the ground, almost lobotomizing Mr. Aizawa.

Kobayashi was just as loud as Mikan but he was more friendly. Still Sasaki didn't like him much. His unpredictable and chaotic behavior made it hard to work with him and his shouting gave her headaches.

She had to admit that the way he always egged on any and all fights was funny when you weren't the target. He was also rather bold and his out of pocket comments made for great situational comedy.

While the sides should have been balanced it was clear from the start that Mikan's team would win. Him and Mr. Aizawa just worked together too well.

"How are you always able to tell who's going to win?" Tsukomo complained.
"Bow down before my superior instinct, you peasant," she answered with a bored look on her face.
Tsukomo snorted.
"I can never tell when you're serious."
Sasaki joined her in her laughter.

"So we'll be fighting Mikan and Mr. Aizawa first. Any ideas?"
Tsukomo lightly shoved her, before throwing an arm around her shoulder.

"Mikan is a long range fighter so we have to get him close. Mr. Aizawa prefers to fight short range when he doesn't have his capture weapon, so we have to keep him away from us."

"Mikan is heavier than me and we don't have any projectiles," Tsukomo commented ",I could use Mikan's oranges as projectiles. They're mostly lighter than me, but if I can get one of them to intercept the flight path of an orange, I can knock them out."

"So you try to keep Mr. Aizawa at bay with that. He's definitely heavier than you so you can keep pushing him away too. If you could propel me at Mikan right at the beginning of the fight he wouldn't be able to perpare for close range combat and I can take him out at the beginning of the fight," Sasaki suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Tsukomo grinned, "Go beyond-"
"No, just no."

Tsukomo broke out into laughter after a few seconds of serious staring.
"I will get you to say it at least once."
"You won't."
"I have two years left so I don't think your odds are great."

But Tsukomo didn't have two years left. She only had mere hours before Sasaki would leave. Mere hours before she would be dead to them.

They would be devastated Sasaki knew. In the two months since her talk with Mr.Aizawa she had really tried to intergrate herself into the class. It had worked for the most part. Even the people she didn't like she got along with fine. And the people she liked had become genuine friends.

Sasaki still remembered the way Tsukomo has laughed at her when she saw Sasaki failing at arcade games.
She'd said that for being the second best fighter she knew Sasaki was the worst dancer she had ever seen.
Sasaki had only taken offense to the secon best fighter part. She truly was a bad dancer.

Tsukomo would probably cry for days when she got the news. She would think about thousands and thousands of ways she could have prevented Sasaki's "death" from happening. She'd work herself to exhaustion.

"Hey! I can't beat you fairly if you're sleeping," Mikan shouted at her from across the field.
"I can beat you even while I'm sleeping," Sasaki shot back.
Still she could feel the concerned eyes of Aizawa on her. He knew her well enough to notice her little slip up.

The timer reached zero, the start signal sounded.

As soon has Tsukomo heard the signal she locked onto Sasaki and hurled her towards Mikan.
In flight Sasaki angled her legs towards him.

Mikan dodged. But Sasaki rolled past him. She landed in a low crouch behind him. Her leg swept out towards the back of his knees.

Mikan jumped over it and summoned an orange to his hand. It was promptly ripped from his hand by Tsukomo's quirk.

Mr. Aizawa only barely dodged the fruit aimed at the back of his head as it zoomed towards Tsukomo.

"Oi, that's mine," Mikan shouted.

Sasaki hooked her leg through his. He noticed too late. With a twist he fell to the ground. But he was used to this move. Sasaki liked to use it often.

So he went with the momentum of the fall and landed on top of her.
She kneed him in the groin.

"Fuck! That's a low blow even for you."
His hands clenched in front of his nether region Sasaki had the perfect opportunity to slam her head into his nose.
She heard the crack of his nose breaking clearly.

While he was preoccupied with cradleling his hurt body parts Sasaki got out from under him.

She prepared to kick him in the face when her instincts screamed at her to dodge.

Mr. Aizawa's boot slammed through the air where her head had been seconds before.

Sasaki put distance between herself and her opponents.
"Sorry!" Tsukomo called from outside the bounds.
"I couldn't keep him away, he's too fast to properly lock onto."

Sasaki waved her concerns away. She could win even two against one, besides winning wasn't really the goal here. It was a training exercise. Mr. Aizawa had made it very clear that training exercises were meant for learning. As long as you learned something you had "won".

The fight was harder without Tsukomo keeping Mr. Aizawa occupied. The biggest challenge was hiding her abilities though.

She was used to it by now though. And she was used to her classmates not being good enough to pose a real danger to her.

So when Mikan's fist hit her in the face at full force she wasn't prepared for it.
For a few seconds Sasaki's world went dark.

Then the glaring sun pierced through the shadows revealing two figures standing over her.

She barely heard the smug shouting over the blood pumping through her head. Her heart beat echoched in her ears and her breaths sounded impossibly loud.

The figures blocked out the sun above her and obscured their features. Their stances were relaxed. They thought they had beaten her.

That would be their mistake.

Sasaki jumped up. Lying on your back is dangerous.

She twisted on her heel. Her heel connected with the temple of the taller one.

She ignored the other one's shouts of surprise. Attack when they're not expecting you to.

Something was thrown at her.

Sasaki dodged in what looked like a drunken stumble.
The momentum carried her into her next kick.

He ducked and tried to grab her leg from below.

Sasaki let him.

She relaxed all her muscles and let herself fall backwards.

Instead of landing flat on her back she rolled.
He landed under her.

Sasaki scrambled to get up and readied another kick.

Her foot connected with diaphragm. She heard a choked sound. Then retching.

It didn't reach in her mind.

Instead she languidly walked over to him. She picked him up by the collar and turned him around so that he was lying on his front.
Then she positioned her heel right above his second cervical. Almost softly she rested her foot there. Before raising it again and-

"Wooh!"
Tsukomo. What was Tsukomo doing in here?

"We won!"
Sasaki looked down. Mikan's bright orange hair was mussed under her boots.

She stepped away. She'd been about to kill him. She'd have broken his jaw and then his neck. A port mafia execution without the gunshots.

"Sorry," she wishpered.

Mikan stood up, rubbing his neck.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that. I forgot-"
"Why are you apologizing? You won," Mikan was staring at her like she was stupid.

"That last kick was so cool, you have to teach me," Kobayashi budded in.

"Yeah sure," she answered absentmindedly.

"Before you do that we should propably take Mr. Aizawa to Recovery Girl. You knocked him out cold," Suzuki spoke up acting as the voice of reason.

While Mikan and him started dragging their teacher away and Kobayashi bugged them Tsukomo walked over to Sasaki.

"Are you alright? You seem pretty shaken."
"No, no I'm fine I just sort of zoned out for a bit there."

Tsukomo grimaced with simpathy.
"You took a hit to the head, it looked pretty nasty. No wonder you were confused. Sorry that I wasn't there."
She looked down in shame. Tsukomo felt guilty for Sasaki's episode.

"Don't be. We're all fine, aren't we? No we better catch up to the others. I don't trust them with Mr. Aizawa."

Recovery Girl had confinded Aizawa to the infirmary for the rest of the day. Meaning that their school day ended 30 minutes earlier than it normally did.

The five of them walked out the gates of UA together. Tsukomo would walk to her father's work and wait there to drive home with him. Kobayashi and Mikan would take a bus to Musutafu's central station. They lived a few cities away.

Only Suzuki and her lived in Musutafu. They lived rather close together too. Suzuki had started waiting for Sasaki every morning.

How long would it take for him to stop looking for her every morning? How long would it take to sink in that she wasn't coming? How long until the habit disapeared?

Behind her UA's walls reached up high into the sky. She turned around to look at the four towers. Over the last few months they had become home. She felt safe there. She could laugh freely, she could make mistakes and she could act like a stupid and immature teenager.

In front of her her classmates were squabbeling over something. Mikan was shouting at Tsukomo while she looked down at him with a smug little smirk. Kobayashi grabbed Mikan in a headlock and messed up his hair again. Suzuki was watching them with an annoyed look hiding fondness.

Sasaki didn't want to leave. She didn't want to leave.

She'd come to UA hating heroes and being alone. Now she would leave. In the process abandoning all her little hero friends.

In just three months she had changed so much. She realized that not all heroes were naive dumbasses, she learned that love meant caring for someone just because they were someone and she had made friends.

"Hey, are you alright? You're crying," Suzuki asked.

"Oh," she mumbled ",No, I'm okay. I just realized that you're the first friends I ever had."

"Aww," Kobayashi cooed.
"Don't make up things. We're not friends, we're rivals!" Mikan protested.
"And we have plenty of time to become best friends too," Tsukomo added.
"We'll stick together, the five of us."
Sasaki hated the certainty in Suzuki's voice.

Their pained and crying faces appeared in her mind's eye.
"Yeah, we'll stick together," she choked out. The words tasted like ashes in her mouth.

Behind her UA was getting smaller. Her desire to stay only grew.

Chapter Text

When she had cleared her plate Sasaki stood up.

"Thanks for the food," she said.

"No problem. It's not healthy to only eat cup noodles anyway."

Sasaki nodded placatingly and walked to the door.

"You should go to sleep soon. If you aren't fully rested tomorrow you might fail the exam," Aizawa advised.

"Yeah," Sasaki said.

Her hand tightened around the doorframe. If she walked through the door now she would never come back.

Sasaki let her gaze wander across the apartment. She took in the bare, white walls, the scruffy sofa and the dead or dying plants. It didn't look very inviting but for Sasaki it had become home just like UA had, maybe even moreso.

Finally she moved on to Aizawa. He was the person who had made both UA and this apartment home. She still thought he looked homeless but his messy hair, tired eyes and signature slouch were familiar now.
He was the closest thing to a father she'd ever had. He would be the closest thing to a father she'd ever have and she would never see him again after tomorrow.
She would never hear his worried voice or see his terrible smile. And she'd never feel his eyes on her back again.

"Is something bothering you?"
"No, sorry. I just zoned out for a bit," Sasaki waved his concerns away.
"Okay then. Remember you can talk to me if something is up."
"I know."
"Goodnight and see you tomorrow."
"Goodbye," Sasaki whispered.

Whereas Aizawa's voice had carried its usual tiredness Sasaki's was filled with finality.

Before he could say something she closed the door behind her.

Sasaki ran down the corridor to her apartment. The keys clattered loudly as she tried to open the door with shaky hands.

As soon as she slammed the door closed behind her she slid down to the floor.

Tears started streaming down her face while she tried to hold in her sobs.

That had been her last goodbye, Aizawa wouldn't get more than that.
He'd get a body, a half-hearted goodbye and all of the blame.

When she "died" it would look like his fault. He would spend nights and days blaming himself, thinking about how he could have saved her just like Tsukomo.
He'd build her a shrine just like he did for his classmate and he'd sit before it and blame himself.

And it would be her fault. Hers alone.

Sasaki pressed her hand against her mouth. It did nothing to muffle the sobs wracking through her body. She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to hurt these people she had come to love.

But the least she could do was honor them. She could keep up their hobbies and activities. She could frame their pictures and hang them on her bedroom wall. She could go through their chat logs and remember all the fun they'd had.

Most importantly she could make more friends. She'd take care of herself better and she'd let herself be a teenager from time to time.

Sasaki couldn't make up for all the things they had taught her but she could embody their ideals and teaching as much as she would be able to.

Sasaki vowed to never forget. She vowed that for them she'd change.

Chapter Text

"Hey Mr. Aizawa, who's that?" Kirishima asked brightly.

"What do you mean?" he grumbled back.

The last few hours the whole class had been running amock in the new dorm building. They were supposed to be furnishing their rooms but somehow they had all ended up in the common room anyway. When he had entered the he'd been assaulted by noise.

And all he wanted was to get a coffee.

Standing in the kitchen now he really didn't want to entertain Krimishima's questions. At least not before he'd had his coffee.

"The girl in the picture. You know, the picture you put up in the common room."

He really didn't want to answer that question.

"Yeah, is she another student?" Denki joined in the conversation.
"Maybe she's his secret love child," Todoroki said in a stage whisper to Midoryia.

Todoroki didn't know how close he was with that assumption. Aizawa clenched the counter tighter. The coffee machine gave a beep and started dripping.

"No way. Do you see Mr. Aizawa with a woman?"
Mina whispered loudly.
He should make a lesson on covert missions. 1A was atrocious at being subtle.

"No! Why did you have to say that! Now I can't get the picture out of my head!" Denki whined.

Another beep and Aizawa took the coffee mug.

"I can hear you," he growled.

"Sooo....Can you tell us who that girl is?" Mina asked.

Aizawa took a calming breath. He'd thought that the previous class was bad but this year was that times 4, literally.

"Ok, I will tell you on the condition that you don't interrupt me and that you won't bother me for the rest of the day."

They settled in the living room. Class 1A was strewn across the two couches and the floor while he was sitting on the singular armchair next to the door.
From the opposite wall Sasaki was staring back at him.

In the picture she looked dead. Her eyes had no shine and her face was expressionless. It reminded him of her corspe staring straight up at the sky.
He didn't have any other pictures of her. Sasaki didn't like being photographed. In all the pictures the other students took her face was never in frame.

"Are you gonna start now or what?" Bakugo growled.

"Yes, I'm going to start now," he said before taking a deep breath.

"That's Sasaki Hinata. She was a student in my previous class."

"Do you have pictures of all your former students lying around?" Denki budded in.
Mina hit him in the arm.
"Shh! Were not supposed to interrupt."

"She was an incredible fighter and had a very analytic mind. She was the best students in that class even with all the drawbacks of her quirk. A quirk that didn't give her more than slightly above average coordination and strenght. She could look at a situation and figure out how to deal with it in seconds. Sasaki didn't need strenght or a powerful quirk all she needed was her brain. In some ways she already acted like a professional."

Too professional he thought. She acted like an adult more than she acted like a child. Even later after the internship Sasaki would still take on an adult role, though she dropped many of the formalities.

He braced himself for the more emotional parts.

"She was brave and selfless. She tried to have something in common with all her friends. Sasaki wasn't good at expressing her emotions but she cared a lot. She had many secrets. Sasaki carried a large burden that she never told anyone about. You could see how it was taking a toll on her but she always tried to accomodate everyone despite it."

"Was? What happened to her, Mr. Aizawa," Midoriya asked carefully.

Aizawa looked at the picture again. Her dead eyes looked back. He really didn't want to tell this part.

"This year you have been attacked more than any class in UA's history. And you were always lucky. In all the cases you got away with just a few scrapes and bruises. But you should remember that you aren't immortal, you won't be lucky every time. Some things are out of your control and some day one of you will get hurt. Some day one of you will die. Heroism is one of the jobs with the highest mortality rates. One day you have to realize that that applies to you too."

Class 1A was watching him with increasingly somber experessions.

"Your situation is unusual. Like I said, there has never been a class that has been targeted by villains like this. But even without the League of Villains Hero School is dangerous."

Some of the brighter students seemed to realize where he was going. Momo's eyes widened, she gasped. He just needed to continue now.

"Even I didn't really realize that. I had to learn the hard way that even normal activities are dangerous. Two years ago in the final exams the students were tasked to evacuate 20 people from a city while teachers posing as villains attacked them. Sasaki went into one of the buildings to rescue a civilian. Because of a fight near the building the ground was shaking. The buildings were rigged to collapse to make the exam more realistic. But the collapse was supposed to be controled. We were too negligent and Sasaki suffered for that. She was crushed by the building and died."

The class burst out into shouts and chatter. Aizawa couldn't really hear them. He stood up and mechanically walked towards the door.

"Sorry that I asked, Mr. Aizawa," Kirishima called out. The regret was evident in both his face and his voice.

"Yes, sorry Mr. Aizawa. If I had known what happened I wouldn't have asked," Midoriya added. He was looking down in shame.

Aizawa didn't feel good enough to answer. He didn't have the energy.

"I think we should leave Mr. Aizawa alone for some time," Yaoyorouzo softly said.

He didn't hear the rest of their conversation. Instead he headed upstairs to his own room.

Talking about Sasaki always left him drained. Her potential had been wasted because of his own negligence, her life cruelly cut short just as it was starting to get better. Sometimes she screamed at him in his dreams, sometimes she cried.

Aizawa didn't like remembering her like that. He liked to remember the good days. Her jokes and dry comments, her joy at even the simplest things.

Her joy and happiness had been taken from her too early. He vowed to protect Class 1A better than he had protected her. They should keep their happiness and childhood as long as they were able to even if he knew that it wouldn't long.

He vowed that he would not fail them like he had failed Sasaki. He vowed that he would not let them die like he had let Sasaki die.