#I did see my other underclassmen since my Japanese teacher called me over to discuss the exchange student

[ayakashibackstreet]

Anyone placing bets on whether our math professor lets us out early or nah? I think he's not letting us out early because there's only gonna be three of us linguistics survivors, the rest are gonna be newbies and all

[ichigopanhpff]

BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 4

Read Ch. 3 | Masterlist

This part takes place near the end of season 3 in the anime. Once we start getting into spoiler territory in the manga (since s4 isn’t out until October), I’ll put a nice warning :D

--

“Whoa, Ren-Ren. You look tense?” Seri pointed out.

“Do I?” she replied with clenched teeth. Her back was slumped over and her hands were balled up in fists. From an outsider’s point of view, she looked like she was looking for a fight.

The two walked with the masses for the opening ceremony. Tomoe’s voice could be heard not too far back from them.

“Hey, I was calling and—Whoa.”

Tomoe was taken aback by the look on Ren’s face. A light outline of dark circles could be seen under her puffy lower lids.

“Did somethin’ happen?” she asked with a tone of concern.

“Rumor mill says two students from 1-A got into a fight last night,” Ito caught up to their pace and interjected.

“Goddamn it, Ito. You jinxed me,” she huffed out.

“Hey, not my fault the first years hero’s course are so unruly,” the boy swiftly replied in an uppity manner. “And weren’t you supposed to rope them in when stuff like this happens? Some R.A. you–”

She immediately turned around and swiftly grabbed a fistful of Ito’s shirt by the collar. At this point, she was glaring at him with the intent to knock him out cold.

“If you wanna keep your tongue, I suggest you stop using it,” she growled out in a low voice and released him with a shove of her hand before walking away.

“It’s been a while since she’s been in this bad of a mood, huh,” Tomoe noted to Seri, watching their friend walk on ahead by herself.

As the opening ceremony went on, Principal Nezu briefly mentioned the recent change in the hero world with All-Might’s retirement and the elective hero internship before giving the mic to Hound dog-sensei. All he could get out were guttural growls and howls, to which Vlad-sensei had to translate; as expected, it was about Midoriya and Bakugou’s fight last night.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ren face palmed with eyes on both her and class 1-A. But in reality, it’s not herself or the class she’s worried about, it’s him.

Filing back into their respective classroom, the day went by as usual. When lunch break came about, she told her friends to go on without her. She wanted to be alone for a bit.

“You lookin’ glum there, Ren-chan.”

The girl turned to see a boy’s face phased on the wall. She could only stare at him blankly.

“Mirio-senpai...” she tiredly greeted. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing my walls have eyes joke. Is it working?” the boy happily replied.

“… Not really.”

Mirio’s face disappeared off of the wall and fully reemerged from the classroom through the door to the far right.

“Aw, man!” he sheepishly laughed aloud and came up to her. “Guess I gotta try harder.”

“It’s rare of you to be so free,” Ren casually brought up and placed her hands on her hips. “Don’t you have your internship today?”

“Sir told me to take a day off and go back tomorrow. It is my last year here, so I wanna make the best of it!” Mirio responded and casually flexed his right arm. “So why are you so glum?”

“I’m not.”

The tall blond boy bent down and started poking her on the cheek like a child.

“Yes you are. You’re not smiling.”

“I had a long night, is all,” Ren blurted out from annoyance, trying to swat his finger away in failure.

“Ah I heard you’re an R.A. for the first years’ hero course now,” he suddenly remembered and stopped poking her. “The two underclassmen who got into a fight were yours?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Are they strong?”

Ren took in a breath to answer and paused. Her eyes slowly traveled up to Mirio’s usual unsuspecting happy and confident grin, catching onto his real intentions with that question. Her eyebrows immediately raised with suspicion.

“Mirio-senpai. No.”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“I mean it.” She warned again and emphasized it with a pointing finger. “Don’t.”

“I just wanna get to know them.”

“No.”

“But–”

“They’re not on campus, so you can’t see them anyway,” she blurted out to get him to stop talking.

“So that means they’re at the dorms,” he concluded with his trademark smile. “Okay, bye!”

Before she could stop the phasing senior, he ran down the hallway and turned the corner. She growled and gripped her hands to her hair out of frustration and yelled in English, “What the fuck is wrong with everyone today?!”

All could be heard were the dropping of some books further down the hall. Ren slowly turned to meet the shocked face of Present Mic.

“Ah! … S-Sorry, Mic-sensei,” she meekly apologized in Japanese.

“Holy… shit,” was all U.A.’s English teacher could say.

Never in her life had she felt so physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. The moment class finished for the day, her entire form slumped over her desk. If she had the energy, she would teleport back to the dorms. She was just tired of everything and wanted to curl up in her bed. Heaving a drawn-out sigh, her classmates surrounding her slowly teetered away.

“Rough day for you,” Seri hushed out sympathetically and patted her elbow.

All Ren could do was sigh again. There were literally no words that could be said to comfort her. Dragging her sorry state off her desk, all she muttered out was, “I’m going to the library to study...”

“Damn…” Tomoe let slip. “She really is going through it.”

She could’ve gone back to the dorms and locked herself into her room to do work, but she knew herself best: no work would be done at all, knowing the two delinquents were there. En route to the building, a familiar man’s silhouette wearing a wraparound gray scarf around his upper body could be seen walking toward her.

“Takahiro, just the person I was looking for,” Aizawa greeted. “Come with me for a sec.”

Letting out a heavy breath through her nose, she knew she had no choice in the matter. The two spoke of nothing en route to his office; Ren knew what they were about to discuss isn’t for anyone else to hear. It was also one thing 1-A’s homeroom teacher appreciated her discreet nature. Naturally entering the now empty 1-A classroom, the door silently slid close by the teacher. The girl looked around with a small sense of nostalgia.

“Oh you replaced that seat back there,” Ren noted. “I remember when it got scorched by Hideyuki’s quirk.”

“Right, that happened...” Aizawa recalled, scratching this scruffy chin. “You already know what I want to talk about.”

“Bakugou and Midoriya’s fight at Ground Beta.”

“Can I ask where you were when it happened?”

Not wanting to lie to someone who trusts her, Ren told the truth on her whereabouts last night and summarized it for him.

“This could’ve been done within the dorms. So why didn’t you?” the brooding man asked, clearly annoyed.

“While that’s true, there was something there I needed to show Todoroki for perspective and to help better guide his way to being the hero he wants to be,” she defended.

Aizawa heavily sighed and scratched the back of his head, looking at his former student. Knowing vaguely of Todoroki’s hang-ups about his left side, he could give little sympathy for the road she took to resolve his problems. Quietly analyzing Ren, she looked like she barely had any sleep, obviously stressed about the whole situation with Midoriya and Bakugou. She was the type to take her responsibilities seriously.

As temperamental as she was today, judging by her friends and classmates reactions, he could only assume one thing on what she’s feeling: guilt.

“While I understand your frustration in not being able to help, I hope you won’t do something like this again,” he sighed. “The responsible parties already have their punishments and they’re reflecting on it. And honestly, I don’t think you could’ve done much either without taking down Bakugou.”

“His quirk is exceptionally powerful based on the videos I’ve seen from the Sports Festival. But if he is to be an efficient and reliable hero in the future, he needs to keep his temper and ego in check.”

Ren sighed heavily and threw her head back in exhaustion.

“Is this why you picked me to be their R.A., sensei?” she blurted out. “Other than making me confront close-range fighters to improve my offense?”

“That’s what you thought?” he answered with a tone of surprise. “Well… you’re not completely wrong.  The way you strategize fights can help the first years develop their quirks and abilities way beyond what they are now. And to improve your own fighting skills.”

“You think my current style isn’t suitable,” she assumed. “You having Snipe-sensei keep tabs on me?”

“It’s incomplete,” Aizawa corrected. “You’re only using the long range fighting you’re so used to doing. It makes you predictable. You’re copying Togata.”

“It’s only natural since we trained together last year.”

“But the difference is he’s physically stronger to pull off the execution; you let too many chances slip by playing the long game,” Aizawa argued. “It may work as a defensive tactic for rescue missions, but–”

“Depending on the situation, that’ll end up being my disadvantage with a villain,” Ren concluded. “Fair point.”

“Just keep that in mind when you have your next practical. You’re dismissed.”

As Ren grabbed her bag to head out, the black-haired teacher called for her once more.

“If you’re gonna go to your spot, at least do it during school hours. Otherwise, I’ll have to put you on house arrest too.”

“Yes sir,” she sighed and closed the door behind her.

What a day.

–

Three days passed since Beta-gate, as majority of U.A. students dubbed it, Midoriya was now a free boy. During that entire time, he had been lifting weights to keep his body in shape for One For All while fulfilling his cleaning duties and thinking about his written apology to Aizawa-sensei. But what went through his head on repeat were Ren-senpai’s words.

“You’re the ones who have to earn back their trust.”

Those words were like a dagger to his heart. Not only did he and Kacchan act selfishly, they basically threw everyone’s trust out the window. He realized just because he got a little better at controlling One For All, it didn’t mean he could get overconfident about it. It’s a borrowed power, after all. And it’s not like he’s gotten a full understanding of it yet either. He’s still in the midst of his second step. Not only did he need to get physically stronger, his emotional and mental state needed to evolve with it. And he was going to start with putting his all with his fellow classmates.

While he thought today was going to be another day of school, 1-A got the pleasant surprise of being greeted by the Big Three. Ren nearly choked on her lunch when she caught wind of it. As if by instinct, she looked up to see the defeated and sullen faces of the first years filing into the cafeteria.

Abandoning what’s left of her food, she jumped out from her seat and ran out, her friends calling after her. It didn’t take her long to find the Big Three sauntering down the hallway.

She immediately teleported from her spot and launched a surprise air attack at Mirio, her fist ready to connect to his face. Being the way he is, he caught it just in time as he was saying hi to someone else and then turned around to see a disgruntled pink haired girl dangling from his grip. She looked like a rag doll being held by a limb.

Hadou bursted out belly laughing; Amajiki simply stood stationary and face palmed.

“Did you see that?! Did you see that?!” she cried aloud in between her laughter, smacking Togata’s bicep in the process. “She was gonna punch you and you just took her down instantly!”

“You should’ve known this would happen, Takahiro,” Amajiki blurted out, staring at your vulnerable form. “His sixth sense is monstrous.”

“Hello, Tamaki-senpai. Nejire-senpai,” Ren flatly greeted, still soaking in the flavor of defeat while swinging loosely from Mirio’s grip. “You guys look well.”

“Ah, Ren-chan.” The tall blond boy lifted his arm up so he was face to face with her. “Why were you gonna punch me?”

The vicinity of his face was so close to hers, she couldn’t help but let out a light blush with widened eyes.

“Probably because you beat up the class she’s in charge of,” Nejire deduced. “And she wanted to ask you why you didn’t hold back.”

“Took the words right outta my mouth as usual, Nejire-senpai,” the hanging girl agreed. “Mirio-senpai, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m losing circulation to my arm...”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry.”

Mirio chuckled and set his small underclassman back down on the floor. Rubbing her right shoulder to regain mobility in her arm again, she looked away with a look of grimace. “And to answer your question, I was holding back. No one was unconscious.”

She tried forming words, but none seemed to have come out with the way her mouth was moving. The fact that he used ‘no one was unconscious’ to defend his actions was okay? In a normal situation, that wouldn’t fly. But this was Togata Mirio we’re talking about here. The man who can be the next number one hero.

And the only thing she managed to get out was, “So, why were you guys even at 1-A today?”

“They wanted us to explain the hero internship to them,” the tall boy responded. “Even though it’s not required for them to take it. You’ve got a lively bunch to take care of this year, don’tcha Ren-chan?”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she sighed heavily and put her palm to her face. Her expression right now made her look more like Amajiki.

“Hey, hey. Have you applied to any agencies yet, Ren-Ren?” Nejire asked in her usual perky manner. “If you haven’t, you can always come to mine! I can put in a good word for you.”

She shook her head.

“I wanna make my quirk stronger first before I apply,” she solemnly answered. “I’m no good the way I am right now.”

“Ren-chan, you should still apply,” Mirio firmly stated, making her look up at him. “The practical experience you get is how you’ll get stronger.”

“I haven’t even nailed down a good offensive style and–”

“Are those just excuses you’re making for yourself?”

His honest but harsh statement jolted her head up to meet his blue eyes. Togata Mirio’s determination and resolve always got to Ren. It was also those qualities of his that made him admirable in the eyes of his peers and pro-heroes; she was no exception to that charisma. All she could do is stay silent.

“You’re more than good enough. So why are you holding yourself back?” he gently asked and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re strong or weak.”

“You can’t be a hero in-training forever and hesitate, Takahiro,” Amajiki added bluntly. “Doing that in the field means death. You of all people should know that.”

“Tamaki, that’s going too far,” Mirio pointed out and turned back to her. “But you know he’s right, don’t you?”

All she could do was nod, staring down at the floor and trying not to cry.

“The truth is, I’m scared...” She slowly brought her arms up to hug herself, her shoulders shaking from what she’s about to say. “Scared of what I’ll do when I find him. I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”

The three could only look at their junior, trying to find anything to say that’d be helpful. All Ren could do was let out a wry chuckle.

“I came here to punch Mirio-senpai and I get a lecture from the Big Three,” she sniffled and wiped away the crocodile tears before facing them again with a lopsided smile. “Looks like I still got some growing up to do. And I’ll take some time this week to look into some agencies to apply.”

The school bell chimed to indicate lunch was almost over.

“Ah, crap! I held you guys up! And I left my bag with Seri and Tomoe! Gotta go!”

As their junior ran off, Mirio couldn’t help but wonder: what did she mean by ‘controlling herself’?

–

“So I heard you guys met the Big Three today,” Ren casually brought up at dinner time. Tonight’s menu was oyakodon* and miso soup.

“We totally got our asses handed to us,” Kirishima groaned out and winced at the lingering pain on his torso from being punched by Togata. “It was so lame.”

“None of us could even react,” Tokoyami added with a sense of defeat. “We all went down before we knew it.”

“No one except Midoriya,” Todoroki commented and took a bite of his food.

“Seriously?! No way!” Sero exclaimed.

The hetero-chromatic boy turned to their R.A. and asked, “Have you fought any of the Big Three before, Ren-senpai?”

“Well...” she hesitated and swirled her soup with her chopsticks. “Define ‘fight.’”

“When two or more people engage in a physical altercation caused by–”

“I-I was kidding, Todo-kun,” Ren immediately stopped him. “I was being facetious.”

“Oh.”

“’Todo-kun’?” Ashido pointed out with a sly grin, nudging her with her elbow. “Aren’t you two getting cozy?”

“Anyway, back to your question,” Ren ignored the pink girl’s comment and turned back to Todoroki, to which she got annoyed at and fumed. “I technically did.”

“Technically?” Midoriya’s ears perked up. “What do you mean?”

She let out long breath and knew she had no other way in explaining this.

“So Mirio-senpai has this habit of only phasing parts of his body through a surface,” she began. “When he was practicing his quirk to get better at it, he started with his face.”

Midoriya’s face suddenly grimaced, remembering he did the same thing to him a few days ago when he was taking out the garbage.

“I was walking down the hallway one day and he did that to me as I was passing. For some reason, he thought saying hi like that would be fine. And he did...To my right fist...On his face. And I kinda, sorta ended up giving him a black eye he had to nurse for three days.”

Iida, Ochaco and Midoriya faces drained of blood and could respond with a look of horror, mouths ajar and all; Todoroki remained stoic upon the reveal.

“Just how hard did you hit?” the green haired boy blurted out.

“It was a ‘scared to death plus adrenaline pumping in my body’ strength, so… pretty hard.”

Between the four of them at the table, she was sure they made a mental note to not scare their R.A. As dinner ended and everyone cleaned up after themselves, Ren suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, Todoroki-kun, Bakugou-kun,” she called out, prompting the two boys to turn their heads. “Come by my room in half an hour.”

“Why do I haveta go with this half-and-half bastard?” the ash blond boy barked out.

“It’s about your provisional lessons, so please kindly tolerate his presence,” Ren replied with an acidic saccharine tone and a matching smile. “Unless you don’t wanna be heroes, that’s fine too.”

“Whatever,” Bakugou scoffed and made his way back to his room.

With the day winding down, the R.A. sat at her desk, struggling with her Hero Law homework. No matter how many times she’s read the same passage, she couldn’t come up with a concrete way to explain the clause about full-fledged heroes turning vigilante. There were just too many loopholes!

Last time she turned in her assignment about the general dos and do nots of a hero within the word of law, she got chewed out for being too far-fetched with her theory of ‘in the event police are indisposed, the hero can take the law into their own hands and deliver justice.’

Groaning, Ren slumped over her desk and bumped her forehead at the edge of it. A soft rap at the door roused her back up and looked at her clock; it was time for the meeting. Prompting the person to enter, the door opened to show both boys showed up on time. This was the first time Bakugou had seen her room, second for Todoroki.

It was dimly lit with smaller and softer lights glowing from her desk and the shelf by her bed. Piles of school books stacked neatly on her desk with an open notebook with scribbled notes. Floating wooden shelves hung above her desk, holding random figurines, photos and books. Soft instrumental music could be heard playing from the laptop perched on top of an aluminum stand. A small, collapsible floor table separated the three.

She stood from her seat and turned on the main light with a pulling line. The ceiling lamp flickered on, making her eyes flinch from the sudden onslaught of brightness to her orbs and blinked a few times to readjust. Prompting the two boys to sit on the floor, she turned the music off and grabbed some papers from her desk before sitting down across from them.

“Aizawa-sensei gave me a copy of your evaluations from the exam,” she stated. “I’m not gonna repeat what’s already been said, so I want you two to tell me what you think you did right and wrong on and what you plan to do to improve on your shortcomings.”

Todoroki looked pensive while Bakugou had his arms cross, looking agitated as usual. The silence was thick and super uncomfortable.

“O...kay, I guess we’ll do this the hard way,” she sighed. “Bakugou-kun, you had zero compassion during the rescue phase of the test. Not only did you not reassure victims, your aggression towards them was what led you to failing. I get all you wanna do is blow shit up and beat up villains, but there’s a time and place for that.”

“That phase was fuckin’ garbage!” he huffed out and slammed his fist on the table. “If it weren’t for that, I would’ve gotten my license already.”

“But you didn’t, so here we are,” she pointed out tersely. “Let me ask you this: what if your parents were in that disaster zone? Would you still say the same thing?”

Her words suddenly made him look up straight up with widened crimson eyes, her expression unchanging. His anger was slowly stirring his insides. A vein could be seen slowly protruding from his temple.

“Look, you’re obviously not an idiot, but if you can’t do a simple search and rescue with a team, then what kind of hero would you be in the eyes of citizens?” she questioned. “You already have a reputation around U.A. for your shitty attitude and I’d like for that to not go beyond these walls for your career’s sake.”

The usual loud and proud boy was now quiet and reflective; his usual scowling lips formed a small pout. Thinking back on his internship with Best Jeanist and how everyone else had gotten further than him during that one week, he knew he had to change his ways; it was his fragile ego that veiled his eyes and heart from accepting that part about him, the part that’s awkward with approaching things in a non-violent way.

Being used to the status quo, things that made him step out of his comfort zone really scared him. He doesn’t like being taken for a fool or messing things up.

Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t do either one of those options.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come off lecture-y,” Ren let a short breath out of her nose and rested her arms on the table. “Just… keep that in mind and make baby steps, okay?”

“… Fine,” he muttered, not making eye contact with her and rubbed the back of his neck.

Shocked at his sudden change in demeanor, she quietly thanked him for listening before turning her attention to Todoroki.

“Todoroki-kun, you’re already aware of where you went wrong...”

The bi-coloured hair boy nodded and stared at a random spot on the table, unable to look at her directly.

“Because of my inability to cooperate with Inasa from Shiketsu due to personal reasons, we put the disaster victims and other heroes in jeopardy with our quirks,” he confessed. “Had I realized this sooner and worked with him, we could’ve suppressed the villains and then assist with evacuating the rest of the injured much more efficiently. I will do my best in remedying this during the supplementary classes and work on building a better relationship with everyone. I’ll definitely get my license this time.”

“That’s the spirit,” Ren encouraged with a small smile. “Don’t get me wrong: you’re both capable heroes. You two have really strong, compatible quirks with your bodies and you have full awareness of its power and limitations. But. You need to learn to rely on others,” she emphasized the last sentence.

“There’s only so much you can do by yourself. Everyone thinks heroes are all about the one-on-ones, flashy moves and taking down the bad guys with it. That’s not what makes a hero; they’re heroes because they also do the little things that make a bigger impact.”

The two boys listened intently to their R.A.’s constructive criticism, absorbing what knowledge she could bestow upon them. Even though she was only a year older, the words she spoke made her sound like a sage who’s trained many heroes before them. The clacking of Ren straightening the stack of paper in her hand brought his attention back to the present.

“Okay, I think we’ve covered everything,” she finalized. “Aizawa-sensei just wants me to do small follow ups with you two after each class. Just come on by whenever you can for that.”

Bakugou and Todoroki nodded and stood up, excusing themselves out of the room. The moment her door click closed, she let out a long sigh and leaned back.

“That was easier than picking an agency to intern at,” she said to herself aloud.

--

*Chicken and egg rice bowl.

Read Ch. 5