#research paper publication for high schoolers

[cactidu]

Cancer Research Opportunities for High Schoolers - Cactidu

Explore ways high school students can get involved in cancer research. Find programs, internships, and resources made just for you to learn about fighting cancer. Try hands-on lab work or online classes to study cancer, biology, and new medical ideas. Learn about the latest ways scientists study cancer and help find cures. Whether you love science or want to make a difference, these chances let you learn, work together, and make an impact. Begin your journey into cancer research today and join the next group of people changing the field for the better.

[flamingpudding]

Drake's family secret

A/N: Another story idea I had and I probably will keep working on. I kinda want to continue on it I just have no idea how or with what yet.

Tim had a secret. Well, he had many secrets but this was one he had kept closed off for a very long time now. It was one of the reasons he fabricated a fake uncle to avoid getting adopted. After all, if you were put into the system how could you possibly get found or find your last living blood relative? His family didn't know and he never intended for them to know anyway. It was a secret well-kept of the Drake family, one that even the public didn't know about. His parents hadn't thrown around money to keep anyone involved silent for nothing after all.

But Tim had had vague memories as well as found the last remaining documents years ago. The problem had been that he hadn't been Robin yet at that time and couldn't do research like he can now. Tim had often wondered if one of the reasons he had followed Batman around back then was to see if he could help him with that matter too, yet he had never brought it up to Bruce nor any of his other siblings.

In a way it made Tim feel guilty now as he looked over that old piece of paper. The only hint he had until now.

He looked over the security video of Wayne Enterprise again. Watching that group of high schoolers that was there on a school trip visit. His eyes tracked one specific student among them. If things were different Tim would joke about how the boy looked like perfect Bruce adoption material. But as it was, Tim was not going to make that joke.

Because as much as the boy fell into the stereotype of Bruce's adoption problem, the boy had facial features that looked very much like one Jenet Drake. Tim could honestly see it, sure his memories were not the best in regards to his parents but he had kept at least some photos for references. But recognizing that threw in a whole other set of problems.

For one he would need to find a way to make sure the Drake Family secret doesn't get exposed to his family too soon. Second, he needed to find a way to approach the boy without looking suspicious. Third, he was on a time limit, according to what he found the school trip the boy was on lasted for a week. Once the boy was out of Gotham it would be even harder to find a passable excuse to approach him. Fourth, he would also need a blood sample. As much as the boy's looks alone could make Tim believe it, the rest of his family was paranoid and if he was completely homestead, he also would need it for his reassurance that he wasn't wrong. Which again he kind of doubted even with this little amount of evidence. The fifth problem in this was, how was he going to break it to the rest of his family.

Because the best kept Drake's Family secret, he was pretty sure he was the last remaining person in the know, was that Tim had a little brother. A brother that was born when he was around 3 or four years old. A little brother who had never gotten to grow up with him because Jack and Jenet Drake had used their constant traveling as cover so the public wouldn't know about him. They already had an heir with Tim, they didn't need a second child. So the moment his little brother had been born he was given up in a closed adoption. Never to be seen again and never to be connected to the Drake family.

Tim only knew about him because he had vague memories about his mother's pregnancy and also had later found the papers in his parents' office when he was around ten. He remembered how upset he had been at the discovery but also how he hadn't been able to do anything about it. Though it was back then that he had also decided that the moment he could he would do everything he could to find him. Things only started to change when he became Robin and then Red Robin. Now he had the resources and knowledge to find the little brother he had never gotten to grow up with.

But too much time had passed and his parents had been thorough when covering their tracks, which resulted in Tim having been unable to find that little brother of his. Having no name and no idea who adopted him, didn't help either. But Tim had had less to work with before, yet the search had given him massive troubles, to the point that he HAD contemplated getting the rest of his family in on it.

But now that wasn't necessary anymore, there was an actual chance again.

Thankfully he had come in late today, if he hadn't he wouldn't have seen the group of High School students on a school trip in the Lobby waiting for their tour guide. He wouldn't have seen the group of teens that lacked behind their fellow students a bit. But most importantly he wouldn't have seen that kid that looked like adoption bait for Bruce. That then by closer inspection had so many facial similarities to his mother that Tim had first thought he was hallucinating.

Now he was sitting in his office, watching the group of High Schoolers getting a tour through the building through the security cams while trying to come up with the perfect plan that didn't look too suspicious as he watched the boy who could be his blood-related little brother. Oh, Damian would throw a fit if he learned about having another brother, Tim mused for a moment as he noted down the boy's, Danny's, excitement about their aerospace department. He had already decided, if Danny was not living adequately he would pull all the strings he could to get his little brother home.

So far Tim had found out that the boy's name was Danny Fenton. He would dig into that later more. He would also make sure that if Danny was his little brother, he saw to it that he was getting treated right. He had noticed how his little brother appeared overly tired and there was a bandage hidden below his shirt plus through the security camera footage, he had also seen that there was a hint of scarring on his left arm.

For now, though he had sent a message to the tour guide to end the tour in his office, for something like a surprise introduction to Tim Drake-Wayne. He would continue to build up his plan of getting to know and confirm his little brother's status from there.

[astriiformes]

I'm part of a program at my university where college students can sign up to serve as mentors for middle and high schoolers doing History Day projects (think historical research projects, with the opportunity to submit them for a big national competition) and had my first morning helping students on a field trip find sources in our library for their research and I just want to say... these kids had such fascinating topics, I am so impressed.

I helped a girl find a bunch of sources on Hedy Lamar, another look for publications on the history of using DNA as evidence in policing and criminal trials, several kids find resources on the impact of nuclear fallout in places like Hiroshima and Chernobyl, a boy find and download PDFs of academic papers on the history of Palestine... every single project sounds like an awesome thing to be researching, and they all picked these topics themselves!

The kids really are alright, and if you're a younger person who follows me with similar interests, I hope you know you rock. I'm so excited to be a part of all this.

[thehours2002]

this makes me mad for many reasons. one such reason is how long and protracted the peer review process is, and these little teenyboppers want to jump the line????????

[blossoms-and-petrichor]

i love public libraries.

stacks and stacks of books. the look of kids making a beeline to their favorite author, eagerly searching for the next in a series. tired high schoolers and college students working on papers. being fascinated that librarians could know where everything is until you go to that library enough times that now you can find anything. group tables for studying or planning. the one group of old ladies who book a meeting room every sunday for their reading club. the regulars who spend hours in the library, whether it helps them focus or whether its the place they can best access wifi. kids who go there because they love that they can love learning without being judged. kids who go there to escape. the one person in the corner constantly researching and writing for a novel. the ones who read books inside because they can't bring them home. the librarians who get swarmed with kids asking for homework help. the ones who are always reading a different books. adults typing furiously at computers chugging coffee.

[ikingsley]

Ina x MC: That Day

Ina x MC: That Day

Loosely based on chapter 6 of QB. Read the other parts of the series here: The Dance, A Small Detour, One Chance.

Summary: Ina and Luna discuss their past.

Warnings: Sadness, I guess. Warning for coming out stories?

Tag: @samanthadalton @domakir @kulaykape @hellyeah90sbaby @dopeyouth @kwaj05 @thedaft1​ @swimmingshoebakerydreamer (Let me know if you’d like to be added or removed)​

Author’s Notes: Sorry, I’ve been real busy, but here’s another installment of my series.

——————————————————————–———–———–———–

Luna strolled into Ina’s office at a quarter past seven. It’d been a long day for both of them. Ina had a full day of lectures and quizzes while Luna had midterms approaching. 

“Professor,” Luna said, putting down her bags.

“Good evening, Luna. How are you?”

The two made small talk while Ina pulled the stack of quizzes she needed graded. But as well as Ina could hide her emotions, Luna felt there was something off about Ina.

“Here’s the answer key,” Ina began. “It’s all multiple choice so it shouldn’t take too long.” 

Ina handed Luna a red pen. But Luna wasn’t paying attention to Ina. Instead, she scoured through the stack of papers, pulling one out and comparing the answers.

“Whose is that?” Ina peered over Luna’s shoulder. “Oh, that’s right. You took this quiz today.”

Luna hummed in reply. “Aww man. I got one wrong.”

This time, it was Ina’s turn to tease Luna. “Nerd,” she scoffed.

“Shut up.”

The two worked in silence, except for Ina going ham on her keyboard. That research paper wasn’t going to write itself.

“Why are you typing so vigorously?” Luna commented absent-mindedly.

“Hmm...I don’t know, maybe because this paper’s due at midnight,” Ina said quite uncharacteristically. Ina, the polite and beloved anthropology professor, was not one to be so brash.

Rude! For no reason! Luna thought. While Luna was pondering the true reason for Ina’s disrespect, Ina stood up and began pacing back and forth. Finally, she stopped, slumping onto the couch that sat at the corner of the room.

“Ina?” Luna questioned, getting off of her chair. Like usual, her initial intuition was spot-on, something was, in fact, off. 

Ina laid on the couch, her head resting on the couch’s arm. When Luna finally approached it, she took a look at Ina. Her face was slightly glossy, tear-stained.

“Scoot over,” Luna said firmly.

Ina huffed a little, but she moved further into the couch. Luna faced Ina, acting as a handkerchief, wiping away Ina’s tears.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Luna finally broke the silence.

“No.” 

“Okay. We can just lie here together. It’s okay.” Luna wrapped her arms around Ina. Ina subsequently buried her face in her shoulder, her tears falling slowly, wetting Luna’s shirt.

The two stayed like this for a few more moments, until Ina sat up, wiping the lasts of her tears. “I apologize, Luna. I owe you an explanation.”

“You don’t need to-”

“Please, I want to. I feel like you should know.”

“Only if you’re sure.”

“I am.” Ina had gained her confidence back. “I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I trust you. Maybe it’s naive or too early, but well...I feel like I could tell you anything, and you wouldn’t judge me. So here goes.” 

And boy, did Ina open up. It was unlike anything Luna had ever witnessed from the mysterious professor. But she wasn’t complaining. This was arguably what she loved most about Ina. 

“It was my freshman year of high school and I was sitting in my US history class. I was such a little nerd,” Ina recalled fondly. “Anyway, this girl walked into my class and god, I was smitten. What she made me feel...I’d never felt before. I mean, I hadn’t been with any guy, but this was different. Sure I’d thought some guys were attractive, but every time I looked at her, I got butterflies.”

“Aww! I’m imagining a little nerdy Ina staring at a pretty high schooler now.”

“Mhm. Well, we got assigned each other for a project. And we hit it off. She was brilliant, passionate, caring...I really liked her, but I thought it was just as friends. One afternoon, we went to the library together to prepare for the presentation of the project. She asked me if I liked girls, and I hadn’t really considered it. Some sort of internalized homophobia, I guess. I went home that day just deep in thought. But God, she made me feel so alive. It was something I’d never experienced before. And then I just started thinking of kissing her and I never wanted to stop. I think I knew then and there that I liked women.”

“Well? What happened after?” Luna asked, invested in Ina’s anecdote.

“A few days later, some teacher was berating her for not knowing an answer to something rather trivial and I found myself defending her. I guess my protective side came out.”

“Not the only thing that came out then...” Luna smirked.

Ina scoffed but had a huge grin on her face. But just as quickly as it appeared, her smile faded.

“When we left school that day, she uh thanked me with a kiss. And that’s how I knew for sure that I liked her. A lot. I asked her out a few weeks later and we were together for a little over a year. At the time, she meant the world to me. We’d do everything together and she was my first for a lot of things, my first kiss, my first love...”

“A year? That is...surprisingly long for a relationship at that time. Why’d it end?”

“Her parents were incredibly supportive. They knew about us since the beginning of the relationship. Mine...did not know. I had told Lilian, and she listened and supported me a lot. We were always pretty close. Well, after a year together, Emma asked to meet my conservative parents. I was both giddy and nervous, but I thought I was ready. I truly thought love was unconditional. Maybe I was naive to think acceptance was guaranteed. And well, I told my parents that I had someone special for them to meet. In retrospect, I should’ve told them more details. Maybe they were expecting a dashing young man that could escort me to Prom in the following year or whatnot. And well, Emma came over for dinner and I told my parents about us. They...were shocked. Their perfect little nerdy daughter was gay. They didn’t handle themselves well that night. They said some unforgivable things to Emma. We tried to work through it, but we were young and broke up a few weeks after that.”

“Ina, I’m so sorry.”

 “I...it’s okay. It’s been a while now. They didn’t throw me out of the house, but they didn’t talk about my sexuality at all. Emma was always my ‘friend.’ No one in the extended family knew. It was like they were ashamed of me. Lilian was the wild child and I was the apple of my parents’ eyes, but they never looked at me the same after that dinner. It was a tough time. Lilian and my friends at school supported me. If it weren’t for them...I don’t know where I’d be now.”

Luna caressed Ina’s check, wiping away the flowing tears.

“I just existed in their house for a while. I had a brief period of dating guys who were’t too good for me, probably out of my parents lack of support. Trying to be straight. But there was never any feelings between the two of us. They just...weren’t Emma. The last guy I dated was sweet, but I felt nothing for him romantically. And then Lilian was pregnant. And that was the last straw for my parents. They kicked out Lilian and I left with her. After all those years of her supporting me, I needed to support her. They said some inexcusable things to her and I’m glad we left. But it was incredibly difficult. Lilian and I struggled a lot. We had to work odd jobs just to pay rent whilst still going to school. Today’s the anniversary of them kicking us out. Today I have to be strong for Lilian’s sake, but I lost my parents that day too. I guess it all just hit me now.”

“You don’t need to apologize. Come here.”

Luna wrapped Ina in her arms once more. Then, she held Ina’s face, staring intensely into her eyes.

“You are the strongest woman I know. Strongest person I know. But it’s okay to not be strong too. You don’t need to pretend to be strong 24/7. Strength and weakness...that’s what makes us human.”

Ina smiled at Luna, tears falling freely. For a moment, they just stared at each other. Ina then leaned in, closing the gap between them. She captured Luna’s lips slowly, but as the kiss prolonged, the passion increased. When they finally pulled away, both women were out of breath.

Ina cleared her throat, standing up and beckoning Luna to get on her feet.

“Dance with me.”

Luna took a second to play a song on her phone, but she then gratefully accepted, leaning into Ina’s arms as they moved slowly.

Tu cabeza en mi hombro 

Quiero yo tener siempre

Acaríciame, cielo

Si me quieres tú

Ina smiled again at Luna, a hand rising from Luna’s waist to cup her cheek.

“I hope your coming out story is better than mine,” she jested.

“Well, yeah I guess. When my family moved to the States from Venezuela, my mom always emphasized the importance of getting a good education, being prudent, all of that. I was very involved in high school, and I was a part of a lot of science extracurriculars. My freshman year of high school, my mom forced me to join mock trial to improve my public speaking. I thought it was useless since I knew I wanted to do neuroscience. She drove me to every practice, every conference...I fell in love with it. The more I did research for trials, the more passionate I became about public policy, law, and civil rights. And of course, gay rights. I guess that’s how I knew. Mind you, I was one of those kids who cuffed their jeans and got called out for not sitting in chairs properly.”

“It makes so much sense now. And you are...extremely well-spoken. Anyway, how’d you tell your parents?”

“We were at a mock trial competition. I had just used Obergefell v. Hodges as legal precedent to win the trial. My parents picked me up and I told them all about the case. My dad kinda stopped me mid-sentence and asked me if I had anything to tell them.”

“And?”

“I told them, but they said they already knew. They didn’t care who I’d be with, as long as they’re someone decent, kind, protective...the whole nine yards. The only problem is that they’re just very nosy about my love life. If I texted someone and smiled they’d look to see who it is. They also acted as if each person I’d bring home to meet them was the love of my life.”

Unreasonable jealousy flashed through Ina’s eyes, but her voice remained steady. “Did you bring a lot of people home to meet your parents?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Luna smiled smugly.

[tejungtao]

Social Media Journalism: The New Wave

Social media has taken the world by storm in the last decade. With the rise of social media giants such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok, the younger generations are some of the most active online. From the moment we wake up to the last few moments before we sleep, our phones are usually always within reaching distance (Twenge 20). First thing in the morning, we get up and go on our phones to see if anything interesting among our social circle has happened overnight. We are constantly taking in content and information. Social media has become a vital part of our culture that “defines us, our world, and our place in it” (Baran 9). Social media tells us what’s trending and happening in our world. For millennials and Gen Z-ers, social media has become embedded in our daily lives and routine – and that is exactly why I think the new age of journalism belongs with social media. 

The unfortunate truth is that print news and magazine journalism is dead. While the older generations may still value print journalism, most millennials and Generation Z-ers  have never even picked up or bought an actual newspaper. Not only is print journalism a complete waste of resources such as paper and ink, our generations also do not even have the attention span for it. 

The new generations revolve around succinct and efficient ways of life that have no time or patience to sit down and read a forty page or so newspaper to get their information. Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Tik Tok have conditioned us to receive information in bite-size pieces. For example, Twitter has a 280 word count limit; Snapchats are usually around 10 seconds or less; Tik Tok videos are at most 60 seconds. So, you can see how print journalism is dead to our generations; we do not even have the attention span for it. 

We are the future of America yet we are missing out on a lot of important information and decisions that would directly impact us. Why? Because the majority of our youth either pays no attention to the news or does not take enough time to thoroughly do their research. I, along with many others of my generation, often can not even sit through a five to ten minute read article without getting distracted because of how long and boring it is. If news companies were to create a more active presence on social media platforms that would appeal to younger generations, it would create massive change. For example, younger generation voting turnouts in the past have always been significantly lower than the baby boomer and Gen X turn outs. Had our generations been more informed about what was happening during the presidential elections, maybe the turnout would’ve been drastically different. 

While many news platforms are already using social media to an extent, they often do not give you the main points of the news article on the social media page. Instead, they post titles of articles followed by a link to the actual article on their website – this is where they lose many of their readers. I propose that news companies focus more on creating and releasing bite-size paragraph posts that give you the main points. My hope is that they can educate us enough through social media platforms that we build up an adequate foundation of knowledge on current events that we can then take the initiative to do further research ourselves if we wanted to. I am not saying that news companies should only share news through social media, but that they give us enough news through there to get us started. And the best part is, with so many people already on social media, news companies would not even have to advertise very hard to gain followers. 

Not only is social media a great way to educate our younger generations, it is also an extremely easy and accessible way to get our information. The average high schooler spends about six or more hours on media per day (Twenge 51). During that time, they will come across loads of news and information on their different social media platforms. Information spreads like wildfire online. If news companies were to post more content on these platforms, they could reach a huge audience of youths without even really trying. In an age of “retweets”, “hashtags”, and “tagging”, it would not take much for important information and news to spread. To relate it to current social issues, the recent protests that have happened in the United States in support for George Floyd and the #BlackLivesMatter movement has been heavily covered on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. The organization of protests and updates on the situation can be found there as well. Many youths who normally don’t watch the news on television are able to get the same information, if not more, from scrolling through social media. Looking at just how much information has been shared during this time is proof alone on how powerful social media can be as a news outlet. 

In his article, Robert McChesney claims that in the future, news may be aimed at the affluent population and may even require a subscription (226). However, the right to knowledge is something all people should have. With the internet and social media being a public good (McChesney 226), it would provide equal access to vital information for all people, regardless of their socioeconomic status. Nowadays, almost everyone has at least one social media account. In 2016, it was reported that “ 59% of 18- to 29-year-olds used Instagram and 56% used Snapchat” (Twenge 57) and I am sure the numbers have only risen in recent years. It was also reported that now people of all different races and classes have access to social media as opposed to before, when it was more predominantly white and higher social class people who had access (Twenge 55). By creating a bigger presence in social media, news companies would be able to reach and inform so many more people who previously were not able to access such information. 

To play devil’s advocate, there might be some critics who question the reliability of social media. While this is a completely valid concern, I think this critique could be applied to all sorts of news media outlets. There will always be a question of how reliable a news source is. What I propose is that news outlets create a team within that solely focuses on editing their social media content, to make sure it goes out with the same quality that you would expect from more traditional news outlets such as magazine and newspaper articles. Of course, it will be hard to make sure all the comments and feedback from social media news posts are reliable as well but I think that is the beauty of social media. People are allowed to have their own opinions and thoughts about the news and the comment section allows for them to educate others on various other viewpoints of the same subject. 

Social media is an untapped gold mine for journalism. Its ability to spread information, create trends, start movements, and so much more is incomparable. The younger generations are our future and journalism needs to update itself to cater to us in order to succeed in the years to come. Change is inevitable and we can either embrace it or let it take us over. 

References

Twenge, Jean M. Internet: Online Time – Oh, and Other Media, Too. ilearn.ucr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3785718-dt-content-rid-34740246_1/courses/MCS_005_001_20S/McChesney - Rejuvenating American Journalism_Some Tentative Policy Proposals.pdf.

McChesney, Robert. Rejuvenating America Journalism: Some Tentative Policy Proposals. 2011, ilearn.ucr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3785718-dt-content-rid-34740246_1/courses/MCS_005_001_20S/McChesney - Rejuvenating American Journalism_Some Tentative Policy Proposals.pdf.

Baran. Mass Communication, Culture, and Media Literacy. ilearn.ucr.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3785714-dt-content-rid-34740239_1/courses/MCS_005_001_20S/Baran - Ch 1 - Mass Communication_Culture and Media Literacy.pdf.

[morekersunil-blog]

Childhood and future of India down the drain? Not if experts can help it ,by mobilising community participation in searching for  solutions

A child , all of eighteen months, goes down the drain and disappears during the ongoing monsoon and subsequent floods in Mumbai . It is not only one child but many who suffer , not on just a particular day but every monsoon, throughout the monsoon ; not just affected by floods on the day but also days after the floods;  due to leptospirosis , dengue and other diseases which follow the rains 

 What policy changes are necessary  , what community  action is essential and  who are the stakeholders  involved who need to act for this vulnerable age group to be better cared for, across all economic strata , since this is the age group which is our country’s future ?

 Early Childhood Association President Dr Swati Popat speaks to us about important issues this event brings to the forefront about early childhood care.

“ Mumbai floods” is now a buzz word in Mumbai but it is a  regular affair. Deaths have been so many that most of us are probably now numbed . 268 events of flooding were reported between 1995 and 2015 and it has affected 825 million people and left 17 million homeless  and has killed 69,000 people all over India .Greater Mumbai has a population of 12 million as per census 2011 figures and the most vulnerable are slum dwellers who comprise 41 % of the city’s household. The world bank policy research paper number 7481 examines the vulnerability of the poor in Mumbai with respect to their displacement during floods. Floods affect not just the poor but also the affluent . Brain drain is something that many hear of but the best of brains Dr Amrapurkar dying by drowning in a drain shocked Mumbai a couple of years ago.Many efforts were made to make sure  such an event doesn’t occur .  Yet just two days ago yet another child was lost as the child slipped down an open drain as seen on a cctv footage of an adjoining mosque .

The following picture from India Today speaks volumes about toddlers in rains and floods 

The drains are wide open like shown in the accompanying picture 

And when it rains children are walking along the flooded roads not knowing where the drains location is 

( Picture : School going children looking for manholes ) 

The flood water enters everywhere , even in homes 

Sushmita ( name changes on request )  is a home help whose husband is a jobless alcoholic , who has abandoned her and she makes a living as a cook in the high rise buildings next to her dwelling in the slums . She cooks at five households earning three thousand rupees from each household , that is an income of fifteen thousand rupees a month with which she keeps her life afloat. When the rains came this year her life drowned , like every year , year after year. 

“ The water came rushing in , drowning everything .I do not have a life at all and I live only for my children and it hurts very much, when they were really affected. All the clothes  got wet, children’s  school uniforms , books , everything got wet .They still went to school since the school had not declared a holiday .Till they come back home I am really worried , ever since the news of the child drowning cake out, we all are extremely worried” said Sushmita . “ I am most worried about the toddlers my relatives  leave behind in a play school or with neighbour when they go to work “

She has a good idea of why these issues plague the area,  because  she is a little more informed ,due to the conversations she has, during her work at an educated household . She takes us to a nullah which is overflowing . She points to an area where the drain is blocked. We see  numerous plastic bags blocking the drain . The sewage is overflowing. The water supply and sewage lines are overlapping and the sewage contaminates the water supply line . “ When the water flows and the children wade through these waters , they come back home and have a fever three to six days later . Three children in our locality were identified with fever” said Sushmita.

After the rains , one can see dead rats along the pavements and roads. 

Picture : Dead rats along the pavement near the manholes 

These rats cause Leptospirosis 

According to the National Health Portal of India, leptospirosis is one of the world’s most widespread disease  transmitted by animals to humans.In 2014-15, 179 cases were reported and  seven people died across the state of Maharashtra of which Mumbai is a part. In 2016, 367 were people infected and 13 had died. In 2017, the cases increased to 398 with 18 succumbing  to the disease.Mumbai has recorded the highest number of cases, with 218 of the 309 cases recorded in 2018 coming from Mumbai.To address the rising burden of the disease the Government of India in started  a Pilot project on Prevention and Control of Leptospirosis as a “New Initiative” under XI Five Year Plan.” Radio spots and Radio Jingle under Programme for prevention and control of Leptospirosis (PPCL) were  prepared. Although the programme is still in its nascent stage , it has been able to sensitize the state Governments about the significant public health impact of the disease. The surveillance of the disease has been strengthened and cases and outbreak are regularly reported through IDSP portal.” says the program website . A recent meeting was held on June 13 th . But would it fair to expect only the government to act . 

The Center  for Disease Control and Prevention , USA on its website explains that  leptospirosis cases are seen more often when there are floods ( https://www.cdc.gov/leptospirosis/exposure/hurricanes-leptospirosis.html) A large increase in the number of patients seen with leptospirosis was reported from days 7 to 12 following a deluge in Mumbai. In 2005 at one of the hospitals 432 patients were diagnosed with leptospirosis (  Maskey M, Shastri JS, Saraswathi K, Surpam R, Vaidya N. Leptospirosis in Mumbai: Post-deluge outbreak 2005. Indian J Med Microbiol 2006;24:337-8.) .

So prevention of wading should be a first step

The next step would be treating the ones who waded in rain water , literally wading inti trouble.

A community prophylaxis program prevented Leptospirosis. “ There were reduced number of cases of leptospirosis due to community chemoprophylaxis with 432 confirmed cases in 2005 v. 128 [59 confirmed] in 2017 “ reported the research paper ( Supe A, Khetarpal M, Naik S, Keskar P. Leptospirosis following heavy rains in 2017 in Mumbai: Report of large-scale community chemoprophylaxis. Natl Med J India 2018;31:19-21)

“I saw my employer’s children being given some medicines when they came back home after wading in the water . Our children in the slums did not any medicines which many of the children in the houses where I work received  “ said Sushmita when we asked her if any prophylaxis was given to the children in the area of the slums. The government has a policy under which free Leptospirosis prophylaxis is given to anyone who waded through flood water. There are print articles in prominent dailies. But Sushmita who doesn’t read them is not aware of these facts. 

There are so many issues . Who has the solution ? Is it all the responsibility  of governments? What can be done in the community ? How can private professionals make a difference ?. What role do schools play? . How can school teachers and doctors guide government policy and how can they generate public opinion , which can further guide policy, through inputs of various stakeholders? .

Dr Swati Popat is a pre school director and an advocate for  the extremely young students education , and she is the one who represented India at eye annual conference of World forum in early care and education in Macao , China where  over 80 countries had sent their representives ; all of them gathering to network and discuss challenges and innovations in early childhood development and safety .

(Picture : Dr Swati Popat at the United Nations Global Goals day for pre schoolers which she organises at Mumbai every year )

Disasters like floods need a different policy at government level, especially when school children may be stuck during floods in schools . On this issue Dr Popat said “We need to change the summer holidays in India to suit the climate of the state/city! Mumbai should be closed in June and July as June is extremely hot and July is extremely wet. Government can come out with standard operating procedures for disaster management but the schools will ultimately implement it, so it is better if parents and schools work together for the safety and security of young children and work out solutions to prevent and take care in the aftermath. Where preschool children are concerned, sadly our government departments are still figuring out, who will take care of the early years!!!We have a School Development Committee for this reason, this committee has representatives from each class and they meet with the head of the school regularly and recommend, advice etc.” That is the democratic structure for welfare of pre school children with involvement of all stakeholders.

Dr Swati Popat said “ In a family we first ensure that our youngest children are taken care of and safe, whereas in government policies and budget we ignore them, literally!Pre-schoolers are ‘nobody’s child’ ! Human Resource department HRD feels they come under WCD (women and child development ministry), WCD ministry struggles with women and child problems and is either able to cater to health or nutrition, so education goes for a toss. Urban planning ministry chooses to ignore that extremely small children also live in a city. And the lesser said about the Municipalities of every city!! These young pre-schoolers who are growing up in our city today, what are they learning when they see the city flooded, drains open, people dying? They learn to become immune to this and tolerate it because that is what they see their parents do! We need to take our children more seriously , they are our human resource, and they are the ones who will take care of our cities and country. If we give them polluted rivers, choking drains, substandard infrastructure then they will not know quality and will never uphold it. We cannot ask them to save the world when we give them a world that is already destroyed.We need the government to understand that children maybe 20% of our population presently but they are going to be 100% our future, invert the pyramid, invest in early years, in their health, hygiene, education and you will  need lesser investments when they grow older.”

A quick response and declaration of holidays saved the lives of many children in Mumbai .But sometimes the whole city may not be involved and a section of the road in front of schools may be afeected and that is when the schools have act in time .

Dr Swati Popat , President of the Early Childhood Association of India said “It is important that’s we  take a quick call whether to keep the school closed, and then we inform the parents accordingly . Sometimes the rain gods play a trick and it is bright and sunshine in the morning and suddenly torrential rains, then we keep the school closed for second shift,  for parents of young toddlers and children not to leave their children unattended during the rains, especially in a city that is close to the sea or prone to frequent flooding. Sadly our urban planning ministry and municipalities never think of children (or the disabled) when planning cities or investing in infrastructure. Due to this the entire responsibility of the safety of children falls on parents and schools. I would advice parents to hold the hand of their child while walking in the floods and to keep a long stick or an umbrella and keep tapping the area in front of you so that you come to know if there is a pothole, manhole open etc. Teach this to the attendant that takes care of your child too. Also umbrellas are useless in rains like Mumbai, raincoats are the best for children and parents who are walking with children because it frees you from worrying about holding the umbrella, getting wet, holding the child and looking for potholes!”

Early childhood pre school children are easily prone to infections which are common when children wade in waters .Regarding this issue of infectious diseases post monsoon, Dr Swati Popat said “Health and hygiene are the most important aspects of early childhood education. Sadly parents today do not give enough importance to health and hygiene and that is why we regularly release these posters to warn and educate parents about what they can do for their little ones. Children may be small but that does not mean that they are not susceptible to all illness and health issues that ail adults. We also want parents to understand that precaution is better than cure and hence release these advisories often on all subjects like Hand Foot Mouth Disease ( HFMD), Dengue, Malaria, etc.”

Routine health education programs help parents know what to expect and what to do and what not to.

( Picture : The health education pictures that the school puts up on social media and as posters at prominent places where parents can see them as they wait at school to take their kids home  )

If schools are proactive and declare holidays , potential drowning events and wading in flood water events can be prevented . Speaking about the use of technology as a policy while declaring holidays before the situation turns dangerous Dr Swati Popat said “We use whatsapp, Facebook, between us portal on the school website”.

So what are the causes of flooding ? 

Following the deluge and floods and massive death of over one thousand people in the 2005 floods of Mumbai , the concerned citizens group gave its report available on India Environment portal . This is the link http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/Mumbai-Marooned.pdf Following this the civic body did some wonderful ground work and made excellent laws but yet the situation seems worse .

 The main causes for flooding are tidal variations , flat gradients and mud flats with many reclaimed areas vulnerable to floods . Other contributory factors are unsanitary methods OT solid waste and sewage disposal and problems with drainage syste  (Sherbinin, A., Schiller, A., Pulsipher, A. (2007). The Vulnerability of Global Cities to Climate Hazards. Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 19(1). International Institute for Environment and Development. Sage Publications.)  Manmade factors like  inappropriate levels of outfalls, loss of holding ponds due to land development, increase in the run‐off coefficient, encroachments on drains and obstructions due to crossing utility lines are well known (MCGM (2014a). Greater Mumbai City Development Plan 2005 to 2025. Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portal/anonymous?NavigationTarget=navurl://095e1c7b9486b1423b881dce8b106978)

This shows that part of the problem lies within the communities and the practices within the communities . Changing this needs community participation . Community participation cannot be elicited without awareness campaigns of a larger scale . 

Schools organise events like UN Global days ,events which create awareness of such issues . On this Dr Swati Popat said “advocacy is the best tool to create awareness in adults and pester power is something that we use to ensure that parents listen! When we teach children about eco friendly festivals or reduce, reuse and recycle or harmful effects of plastic, we are creating powerful crusaders who will not only go and tell their parents about the message but will pester the parents till the parents change! Children have that power and through our UN goals day celebration we are ensuring that the goals are not only on paper but become a part of a child’s every day life and living. This is true life skills education or experiential education.” Through such events they also educate community through indirect education of the parents . So the involvement of various stakeholders including parents , teachers , doctors through parents and teachers all is essential 

The issues which need urgent action are as following 

a) Mangrove destruction :30 percent of mangroves along the river Mithi and Mahim Creek have been destroyed between 1995 to 2005 . Mangroves are natural barriers against flooding . Satellite maps of Mumbai comparing mangroves in 1998 vs 2017 shows this destruction .( https://qz.com/india/1065455/satellite-photos-reveal-how-mumbai-killed-its-rivers-and-mangrove-forests-to-risk-epic-floods/)   The mangroves are used for building construction . Rampant construction with total disregard to law has occurred . This needs to be checked .

The example of a village near where the child just died down a drain. The village ( gaon ) is called Charkop . Here are two pictures comparing the village charkopgaon in 2004 and 2018 which shows the massive loss of mangroves 

Milind Deora  a former Minister of State (MoS) with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and also a former MoS with the Ministry of Shipping within the Government of India who is now in opposition party , tweeted in support of mangroves 

b) Sewers and industrial waste from Construction buildings force tremendous waste into Mithi River . The drainage system is old and for buildings which were four storey and housing four families per storey and are now catering to reconstructed buildings with 8 to 11 floors and each floor having four families each on an average consisting of four people . The drainage systems made for 64 people in one building now  carry domestic waste and sewage from  128 to 178 per building and are obviously going to overflow . This is further damaging the fragile ecosystems around Mumbai .

“Mumbai’s drains have the capacity to carry only 25 mm water per hour, and siphons and other utility services create numerous obstructions in the larger drains” , a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) recently tabled in the state parliament . 

c) Plastic usage by people : This causes blockage of drain pipes and sewers . The Bombay Municipal Corporation did good by banning plastics since it clogs drains and contributes to flooding . But the issue remains becuase slum dwellers continue to use plastic , since it doesn’t address behavioural change in public . https://hwww.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-mumbai-plastic-ban-goes-down-nthe-drain-bmc-blames-it-on-slum-dwellers-2754420.  

d) Food waste and other waste dumped into river and sewer : According to a report in  USA , Smithfield Foods  was fined $ 12.6 million for dumping hog waste into river tributory of Cheasapeake Bay Area in virginia , USA . In Pattaya , Thailand food vendors were fined 1000 baht each for dumping food waste into sewer system . This waste can be used to generate electricity and biogas instead of choking drains and causing flood . The decision to penalise ( https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/mumbaiites-to-be-penalised-for-dumping-trash-in-nullahs-near-railway-tracks/story-zFHHK32NbLs2ijAa8Rb72M.html)  those dumping waste in nullas has been welcomed by experts  but the fine is too small at Rs 1250 to act as a deterrent . The fine against firms has also been welcomed  (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/case-filed-against-mumbai-firm-owner-for-dumping-debris-causing-flooding-1560041-2019-07-01) if they dump thrash . But just levying fines on  them may not be a final solution because they will find other ways to stealthily dump somewhere else . Sending a person to jail is also does not solve the problem but making the offenders do community service may help feel experts . 

Even the larger picture also should not be missed , that  of climate change . From 1995 to 2015 a three fold rise in extreme rain events have been seen in Mumbai ( Reference : Roxy , MK et al A three fold increase in widespread extreme rain events over central India . Nature  Communcations 8 (2017 ) . All this will require behavioural cat a national level, 

The Swatchh  Bharat ( Clean India )  campaign  has been successful in eliminating open defecation in Mumbai and a similar large behavioural change campaign is needed. Who will do it ? Shouldn’t all stake holders do their bit ? 

Dr Swati Popat and her schools as well as the chain of schools attached to the Early Childhood Association she heads have made a huge contribution in this area.

The preschools and schools organised program, the United Nations Global Goals day is an event where every year  the students make projects which address  these climate , plastic and water issues and the parental involvment makes  sure community awareness improves 

Considering the vast network of schools that Dr Swati Popat and Dr Vandana Lulla work with , the effort should work indeed . 

The future is not so bleak but action is necessary right away . One child went down the drain , but India’s children in Mumbai and their futures will not go down the drain. It is the citizens who should be doing their bit to ensure that besides the civic authorities and government .The private players in addition to the government are doing their bit . What have we done ? That’s the question all of us need to answer .

[gottawriteanegoortwo]

Becoming The Host

“The Author took up a new name when he realized that he wasn’t actually writing the stories. He realized that he was just a host to the guests in this world...”

Michael, the man known as The Author, finds destiny is something he can’t avoid. No amount of narrating skills can help him escape the fate someone else has decided for him.

Warnings of eye horror and mentions of blood and facial injury.

Word Count: 2,082

-

Michael was afraid of going blind.

He had been, ever since he was a child. Sometimes, he would wake up in the middle of the night and have to immediately turn on the light to make sure he could see anything but darkness. It was likely a result of something he had read in a horror novel he was likely far too young for, and it was something he forced himself to grow out of. It was silly and unreasonable. Even so, the thought was in the back of his mind, the fearful ‘what if’?

As he grew up, instead of cowering like he would have as a child, Michael faced it head on as a challenge in university. He taught himself braille. He researched how to navigate unknown areas with no sight. He even purchased technology to aid those with visual impairments when he had earned enough cash from his early publications. It did prove helpful, allowing him to adapt his craft for those who would normally struggle to access it, but it was his way of finding some sort of relief. If it ever happened, he would be ready. He would adapt, he would thrive.

And it worked. Soon, the fear faded to a passing thought on a rare occasion, and it would be silenced by Michael simply revising what he already knew by heart. He was the master of his fate. He could conquer any challenge if he could defeat a long-held fear.

The years went by. Michael fell in with a group of individuals collectively known as ‘Iplier Egos’ of some internet celebrity. It was dull for the writer, but it gave him plenty of inspiration for new pieces of work. Several prominent Egos became sources for short stories, and he soon knew them as well as Mark did. It was something he’d use to his advantage when in the building all the Egos frequented when summoned. Simple side comments, ‘accidental’ slips of tongue, the ominous ‘pen to paper’ threat without vocalising it, and the uncommon use of his preferred baseball bat. He never went as far as sticking Egos into a story (an act that could cause more trouble than it was worth) but he didn’t need to. In time, he became someone the others were wary of, and it was just how Michael liked it. The Author had no interest in running this ‘organisation’. All he wanted was the liberty to do what he wanted without anyone else thinking they could hold authority over him. Then again, there would always be an exception to that.

“Author.”

Dark approached calmly, hands behind his back. Even though his eyes didn’t leave the page of the classic novel he was reading, Michael was paying full attention.

“You have been threatening other Egos again.”

Michael only turned a page in response, not even bothering to grace Dark with an answer. Being ignored was something that irritated the entity, and the simple action was working wonders.

“We have a larger job at hand, and having you be nothing but a termite is only hindering matters.” Oh, Dark was even trying to keep calm. How adorable! At last, Michael put the bookmark in and placed the novel aside.

“You exaggerate. I have done nothing to put anyone in danger.” Michael pulled himself onto his feet to look Dark in the eye. How did anyone find the creature that was a mix of an emo kid and a broken TV scary? “Why waste your time interrogating me when we have a high-schooler threatening to stab anyone who goes near Bim? Or what about the android who almost shut down the entire internet system in the building because he was having a ‘bad day’? I imagine a man who only brandishes a baseball bat in self-defence is low on your list.” He stopped at that, the hint of a cocky grin beginning to form as he noted the visual hints that Dark was grasping to hold onto his composure. “Unless I hurt your widdle feelings by telling Wilford he can’t be a main character in a story I’ve been working on?”

“You know why I am here, Author. I do not approve of others attempting to seize control from under my nose.” Dark tilted his head left, then right; the second movement accompanied by an audible crack that made the aura ring out with a brief shriek.

“Who said anything about wanting control? I work alone. I’m only here because I’m forced to be here. I’m just making sure the others know to leave me be.” Before he could say more, Dark smirked.

“That is exactly what I mean, Author.” The entity took a step forward as he spoke. “You are here for a reason. You have a specific set of tasks you are to complete. Your actions are only interfering with the greater plan, which I believe I have already stated. You think you are the only one who watches everything that goes on around here, and knows how everyone else works. But I know you far better than you think I do. My normal tactics to keep others in line will not work on you, and I do commend you for that. It is not often I have to think outside the box.” Michael noted how sinister the smile on the entity’s lips was. Dark continued walking until the pair were face to face. “I know your weakness, Author. You have hidden it well from the world... But did you ever think it was there for a reason?”

“You bluff,” Michael smugly countered. “That sort of word play suggests I would let slip some deep, dark secret. You are getting me mixed up with another.”

“Oh, don’t play the fool. It is a role rather unsuited for one such as yourself. You would be much better to work alongside me, rather than opposing me. It is, after all, your destiny. Have you ever tried to look into that, Author? Surely one with powers such as yours attempted to peer into their future?” Michael’s current notebook and pen were in Dark’s hands, being offered as a friendly invitation.

“That isn’t how Narration works. I don’t set the future. I create the present.”

“Are you sure about that? I was led to believe that something that is created requires some sense of foresight.” Dark placed the writing utensils in Michael’s hands. “What if you are in a situation you cannot change? What if everything you have ever done was observation, and nothing more? All you write happens moments before you see it. Would it happen regardless?”

“Of course it wouldn’t. Don’t try to explain my own powers to me, Dark!”

“I am only making you see that you are viewing them incorrectly. Here... Let me provide a sense of illumination.”

With his right hand now free, Dark quickly reached out to grab Michael’s face, sharp nails digging into his temples. When the entity spoke again, his voice was low and sinister as it bounced around Michael’s head. Were Dark’s lips even moving?

“I know your fear. It is one you have always had, but could never say where it came from. It was something inevitable, Author. No matter how you try to hide, or try to deny it, you have spent your life preparing for your true purpose. All you have ever done is guide others as they continue their lives. You Narrate, yes, but you do not create their story for them. You are an idle bystander. Nothing more. Let us remedy this mistake on your part, shall we?”

Dark’s grip tightened, and all Michael could feel was pain. The hand blocked his vision, but he could feel something seeping into his eyes. He tried everything in his power to pull away, but Dark was stronger. Something was filling his head, making it feel heavy and bloated with pressure. It was numbing, cold. It was becoming difficult to think straight. The pain was constant. He lifted his hands, finally able to break through the icy wall of pain in his head and think coherently enough to grab Dark’s wrist to pry it off him. He could ignore both the burning sensation around his eyes and the iced pangs in his head. Yet, no matter how hard he tugged, the entity’s hand didn’t budge.

“Even now, you try and struggle. You are ignoring your fate. You were always meant to be a background character, Michael. No one was ever going to care about you, or your significance. I admire your stubbornness, but it is pointless and only causing needless pain. Your role in this world has been suitably adjusted to how it should be. A shame you could not simply co-operate. Such a shame...”

The pressure was lifted, and Michael opened his eyes. He hadn’t forgotten anything, nor did he feel any strange undying loyalty to the entity. Whatever Dark was trying to do failed! Yet, the other Ego looked calm, as though he knew something Michael didn’t. Something warm ran down his cheeks, and one hand slowly pressed against the cold skin to reveal he was bleeding from his eyes. Once he knew the entity wasn’t planning anything, he hurried to the bathroom to check his reflection.

The skin around his eyes was raw and clearly burned. It almost looked like a grotesque domino mask. A small section of hair appeared to have a hint of blond at the roots, which was a little strange. He always had dark hair. His hands lowered to rest on the counter, and he jumped in surprise as the pressure of holding a pen and notebook registered in his thawing mind. He found it easier to think after a few slow breaths. The notebook was opened to the back, and the pen was held in a trembling hand.

The Author knows all this will heal. Flesh wounds may scar, but the pain subsides. Dark’s tricks will not work on him. Dark never has scared him, and he never will. The Author

Something was wrong.

His vision was blurring. No amount of hard blinks could rectify this. His head lifted to the mirror, only to realise what was wrong. His eyes were changing. It was starting at the edges - a hint of black was beginning to seep across his pupils. His peripheral vision was fading as the black spread. It was almost like ink spilling across an empty page.

The Author can see. The Author’s eyes are reverting to their normal appearance.

It wasn’t working. A quarter of his vision in both eyes were gone. He was powerless to stop it.

“Did I forget to mention the change of role would be gradual?” Dark’s voice called from outside, taunting him and his supposed ‘fate’.

The Author makes sure he remembers this moment. Dark has no power over his mind. Dark cannot turn him into a pawn.

Those words brought comfort as the darkness continued to spread. He would save himself. He could do it.

His ability to Narrate remains unaffected by the changes. He just needs to allow himself a moment to figure out how to adapt them.

Blurry eyes quickly scanned that writing. It didn’t sound like his normal Narration, but it seemed to fit. It was growing harder to read the page. Everything was going out of focus. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t stop this. Even so, Michael looked at his reflection for what he knew would be the last time.

“He has prepared for this, as much as he loathes to admit it. Dark may have crippled him, but he has not been silenced. The Author may be dying, but he will change and still remain. He is not the mindless puppet Dark expected, one who is hollow and ready to obey. No... He observes, just like Dark said, and he is independent. He will adapt and thrive.”

He was no Author anymore. Could he even call himself ‘Michael’? He watched his reflection disappear into the darkness, accompanied by a resurgence of the pain engulfing his head. With a cry, he fell to his knees and passed out.

-

Michael was afraid of going blind.

It was unreasonable, and seemingly sourceless.

Maybe it was his destiny to lose his vision. Maybe it was some metaphor about being unbiased while Narrating. But he would not allow himself to be blind. No one controlled him. He was still his own individual.

He would adapt.

He would thrive.

[jthmarco2691727-blog]

Marijuana Comes From The Hemp Plant

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[cactidu]

Summer Programs for High School Students: What You Need to Know

As summer approaches, many high school students and their families begin to consider how to effectively spend the months away from the prototypical school routine. The sun-soaked days provide an ideal environment for growth, learning, and discovery. Summer programs, in particular, may be a great learning experience that sharpens students' talents and broadens their academic profiles. Read More !!

[brick-boat-blog]

There’s Only So Much Time Ch.2

Summary: It’s not knowing too much that’s the problem.

It’s what you do about it.

Word Count: 31.1k

FF.net: Here

AO3: Here

Ch.1: Here

A/N: Me: You know, we should really make that second chapter already it's been awhile. Also Me: Okay but what if we made it twice as long as the first. Also Me: And sat on it for a year and a half. Me:

Anyway, I'm done. Take it. TAKE IT, I SAY.

Jirou stared wide-eyed.

Gran Torino glared back.

Silence hung in the air between them.

.

Seconds ticked by.

Jirou grimaced.

Her breath got caught in her throat.

.

Well.

This was it.

She was here.

She found who she was looking for.

And now they were alone.

In a building.

And the only way out was blocked.

There really was no turning back now, was there.

She looked to the side. Then behind her. Partly because she wanted to get a better look at her surroundings. Mostly because she'd probably crack if she tried to keep eye contact any longer.

The room looked more like an apartment than any kind of hero office. There wasn't a reception desk or anything that would normally be used to greet clients. The closest thing to it were a pair of blue couches with a coffee table in between them to her right – maybe the table for two behind it as well. To the right of them was a small kitchenette with a fireplace next to it. And all the way in the back stood a shelf stuffed with books, with various papers and newspaper clippings spanning from a single corkboard next to it.

It wasn't a fancy establishment (actually, to say it was run-down would really be an understatement), but it also wasn't a place she'd expect a pro hero to work – or even live in. If anything, it seemed like the kind of place she'd expect to find a college student tight on cash. Or even a small fry villain who wanted their own secret hideout. Not a professional hero.

Though décor aside, there was a worrying amount of cracks and dents in, well, everything. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling had what looked to be impact damage. Was there some kind of fight in here recently? Gran Torino didn't look like he had any injuries. Maybe he just got the building that way. But whatever it was, Jirou guessed they weren't too bad, since he'd never bothered to patch them up.

Speaking of which – Gran Torino tapped his foot impatiently.

“Go on.”

Ergh.

She fiddled with one of her lobes, letting it stretch down to her waist. She rubbed her neck with the other hand. She could feel her face stretch into a nervous grin.

“Man, where do I even start?”

There were the conversations she wasn't supposed to listen in on. There were the meetings everyone knew about, but no one knew what they were about. There were things like how Midoriya's body wasn't acclimated to his quirk and couldn't draw out its full potential. There were other like how All Might was still in on an investigation despite being retired.

What was important?

What wasn't important?

How was she supposed to know?

Were there things even he didn't know?

There was a lot of information to go over.

There were a lot of questions to ask.

But what was it he really wanted to know?

...

Gran Torino sighed.

He began to close the gap between them.

Jirou flinched.

Her hands were in front of her before she realized it.

But instead of attacking, interrogating, or even yelling at her, Gran Torino gestured to the couches. His voice softened, but remained stern.

“Go sit down. Make yourself comfortable.”

He made his way to the microwave. She followed orders and took a seat on the couch facing the door, setting her bag down by her feet. An open manila folder sat open on the coffee table between them, papers stacked neatly on top of one another in two piles inside it. She peered down.

The paper on top had a picture of a guy not too much older than her with white hair. He was wearing sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt. A detached hand covered his face, and more hands were latched onto various parts of his body. The picture itself was a little blurry – like it was taken in the field; not a mugshot or anything. The name next to the picture identified the man as 'Tomura Shigaraki'.

...

Huh.

She'd never actually seen him before, but that wasn't what she expected based on everyone's descriptions. The hand was an obvious thing Tsuyu and the rest all recounted easily, but Jirou had expected him to look more, well, villain-like. Not that he didn't look weird at all (see: hands). It's just that more often than not villains were generally, well, big and buff and super scary-looking. This guy looked like he'd have trouble just being a mook.

That aside, the fact that there were so many pages in the stacks themselves said there was a fair amount of information on the case. Too bad she couldn't just pick of the folder and leaf through it. Though one thing she did notice on that top page was another name under the first-

A plate of taiyaki was unceremoniously dropped on top of the very paper she was just looking at.

She flinched.

Gran Torino sat a glass of water next to the folder, then took a seat across from her with a cup of his own. He motioned to the plate.

“Take one.”

So she did.

One bite. Then another. Not bad at all, but it did make her realize how hungry she really was. She hadn't had microwave taiyaki since she was a kid. And this was the last place she expected to have it again. It took more than a bit of self-restraint to stop herself from wolfing it down all in one go and chugging the water with it.

Gran Torino didn't say anything as she ate, and waited until she finished to ask:

“Feel better?”

She nodded.

“Yeah.”

Gran Torino folded his arms. His voice was calm and even with underlying focus. He hadn't let his guard down entirely, but at least it looked like he didn't think she was some kind of villain.

“Alright, start from the beginning.”

So she did.

She told him how she overheard some of the conversations between All Might and Recovery Girl earlier on in the year. How she thought that it was just a disease All Might had. How the mentions of old injuries made that option seem less and less likely.

She told him how she told one of her friends that she thought All Might was sick. How the class came together and gave him a card. How she was called into the principal's office and had a talk with him because of it. How he didn't tell her anything else. How certain areas of the school were now soundproofed.

She told him how Recovery Girl called Midoriya All Might's successor. How Midoriya's childhood friend had called him quirkless at the beginning of the school year. How she came to the conclusion that Midoriya got All Might's quirk, but didn't have any evidence to back it up until much later (and even then, it was nothing physical).

And she told him that now there wasn't any explanation she could think of but that. And that she knew there was way more to this than even what she overheard. And that she wanted to know more – because this was huge, and she had a feeling things weren't quite over yet when it came to the Villain Alliance.

Gran Torino stayed quiet through the whole thing, but kept his eyes fixed on her. He gave the occasional nod and kept up a poker face. But things like the heartbeat, breathing, and small gulps were enough to show he hadn't become a statue (even if he didn't like what he was hearing). At least her explanation didn't activate any fight-or-flight instincts.

And when she finished, she stopped talking. Silence hung in the air for a few moments. Until Gran Torino cut through it with another question.

“And how exactly did that bring you here?”

There was an perplexed edge to his voice. Jirou couldn't blame him. She'd be weirded out too if some stranger showed up on her doorstep talking about things no one besides a select few should even be aware of.

“Your name was mentioned once when All Might-sensei and Detective Tsukauchi were talking. I also heard your conversation with Midoriya about the internships.”

He frowned.

“Eavesdropping's real rude, kid.”

“I know. I just-” She didn't mention the promise, and she wasn't going to try and justify what she was doing. It probably wouldn't make any difference in however he reacted. “I did research of my own too.”

“That doesn't explain how you found my address. I don't have a website or a public number. It keeps the riffraff away.” Yeah. Things would've been way easier if he did. And she wouldn't have had to waste countless hours on google and other search engines instead of doing something more productive with her time.

“There was this little hero forum I found – I can give you the link if you want.” Though she'd have to check her bookmarks for the name again; it wasn't Lurkers or even one of its offshoots. “But all it had was a map someone drew in Paint. I didn't expect to actually find you here.”

It was almost surreal how things managed to turn out this way. Here she was sitting on a stranger's couch an hour away from anyone she actually knew chatting about things with more weight than anything a high schooler should be in on. Said stranger being one of the few people in the whole world in the know about the greatest secret of Japan's (former) #1 hero. And Jirou had somehow managed to find vague directions to his home, managed to follow those vague directions without getting lost, and managed to find the right person on top of it. And she was lucky enough not to get immediately booted out and reported to the authorities. Instead she was let in, and fed taiyaki of all things.

Maybe she should spring for a lottery ticket on the way home.

Gran Torino snorted, but his face stayed solemn.

“And you know you can't tell anyone else about any of this.”

“Yes.”

“But you want to know more.”

“I do.”

“And that's why your here.”

“It is.”

Gran Torino paused for a moment, pondering, then asked:

“So whaddaya wanna know?”

Jirou blinked.

“Just like that?”

“Don't get me wrong, Kid. I'm not gonna answer your questions outta the goodness of my heart.” The fingers on one hand rapped on his upper arm. “You already know enough to be dangerous. Might as well sate your curiosity before you do something stupid.”

Well that made her feel a whole lot better.

A small bit of apprehension ticked at the back of her mind, but she pushed it down. This was her only chance to get some answers. She had to make it count.

“Well... I'd like some clarification on a few things first, if that's okay.”

“Alright. Shoot.”

“Well... I guess to start...” She clenched her fists at her knees. Her gaze drifted to her left. “So Midoriya got his quirk from All Might-sensei, right?”

She knew the answer to that, but it was as good a lead-in as any.

“He did.”

“Did All Might-sensei get that quirk from someone else?”

“Yep.”

So it was a line of succession thing. But if she had to guess where he got it from...

“Was it you?”

“Good lord no.” She could see him stifle a laugh at that. Hey, it wasn't like she had anyone else to guess.

“Then who?”

“A close friend of mine.” It was his turn to look away. “You wouldn't know her.”

Okay, but a name would've been nice.

“Well she was a hero, right? Did she do most of her work underground?”

All Might had been a hero longer than Jirou'd been alive; and from what she could gather, that power was slowly leeched from the former user after they transferred their quirk. That coupled with the fact that she'd never heard anyone so much as mention this mystery predecessor said she was retired at the very least.

Though the lingering ache in his voice said the reality was likely not so good.

“She was a hero, yeah; but you're not gonna find much more info for her than you would me.”

“So pretty much nothing.” That probably sounded almost callous knowing that this predecessor was probably, well, not alive. But it would also be presumptuous of her to jump straight to sympathy for 'Gran Torino's loss'.

“Yep.” Thankfully, Gran Torino didn't seem to think anything of it.

It was weird, though: Why would he make a point not to mention neither her hero nor real name? Jirou knew better that to press that one particular issue when there was so much more to ask. That meant she would have to look up female heroes with quirks eerily similar to All Might's if she wanted any info. And it would all be decades old at the very least.

“Is there any way we could get in touch with her or even any of the other people that had that quirk?”

This woman had never been mentioned before in any of the conversations she'd listened in on, but that didn't mean she was gone entirely. After all, Gran Torino was old – it was rare-enough (relatively) when heroes continued working past their prime; but continuing until they were old and grey was nearly unheard of. And anyone that had the quirk before her would be straight-up ancient. For all Jirou knew, one or a few of All Might's predecessors could be living it up all retired somewhere despite the signs that made the answer as obvious as a megaphone blaring in her ear.

But Gran Torino sighed.

His looked down at his cup.

Ah.

“Sorry, kid. All the others died in battle.” A grimace flickered across his face. “All Might's the exception, not the rule.”

And All Might was retired. Which meant he wasn't going to be doing anymore hero work. Which meant no more battles. And no more saving anyone. And everyone else who had that quirk probably never lived to an old age.

And coupled with everything she knew from before...

“So does that mean...” She gulped, but continued on.

“Is All Might dying?”

She knew the answer to that – no one lived forever, after all. She wasn't sure why she even bothered to ask. No one had said it outright. Maybe in a way, she just wanted someone else to confirm it so she could brace for the inevitable.

Gran Torino quirked an eyebrow.

“...I take it that means he still hasn't told the kid yet.”

So that was a yes.

He hadn't stated it directly, but Jirou wasn't sure how else that statement could be interpreted. She ignored the hollow pit that began to form in her chest.

“Well... I can't listen in on their conversations-” anymore “-but I don't think he has. Or at least, nothing about Midoriya says that he knows.”

Gran Torino grimaced at that.

“So what gave you the idea then?”

“Well... Recovery Girl said he'd be lucky to make it to Midoriya's graduation.” Though All Might himself had beaten worse odds before. “I don't know what it is, exactly; but it has to do with his old injuries, right? I mean- transferring his quirk isn't gonna be what kills him, right?”

“It's not likely.” Though his tone said that was a straight 'no'.

“If the transfer's not what's doing it, what is it? Shouldn't his retirement be enough to stop his condition from worsening if it was just his hero work?” All Might wasn't beating up baddies anymore. The most exercise he got now was the walking he did around campus. If anything, that meant he should make it to their graduation with a few years to spare.

“It ain't that simple, Kid.” The dread that came along with it said that was a real understatement.

“How come?”

A simple-enough question.

“...Let's change the subject.”

Or not.

“Okay...” As suspicious as it was for him to avoid saying that, Jirou wasn't going to argue just yet. “What about the quirk itself? I've never heard of a quirk able to be passed down to other people.”

A pause.

“I'll probably regret telling you this, but...” Gran Torino grabbed a taiyaki off the plate and continued. Jirou leaned in slightly closer and listened quietly.

“His quirk: It's called One for All.”

“Its user aren't exactly known for their permanence.”

“The kid's number nine in a line of users. Think about how long quirks have been around and do the math.”

Jirou gulped.

“What happened to them...?” She knew they died fighting, but they way he was describing it made it seem like more than just a coincidence.

“You know that villain All Might fought? That one in the Kamino ward?”

“Yeah?”

“That guy? His quirk is its counterpart: It's called All for One. The whole purpose of passing down One for All is taking 'im down eventually.” He took another swig from his mug and continued.

“I'm sure you can figure how they kicked it.”

“But All Might did that.” She saw the fight on TV. He won. That villain was carted off in an iron maiden. Everyone saw it live.

“And with any luck, all the kid'll have to deal with is the 'Symbol of Peace' mantle when he graduates.”

What?

“'With any luck?' That villain's in a maximum-security prison! He's in Tartarus!”

She hadn't meant to raise her voice like that, but that guy even took out Endeavor like he was nothing. How was anyone supposed to beat him now that All Might himself was out of commission?!

But Gran Torino didn't even flinch.

“We're talking about a quirk that can steal other quirks and compound them. You really think they're gonna be able to keep him there forever?”

What?

“All for One can steal quirks...?”

“M'hm.”

“Is... that what happened to Ragdoll?” She heard the news. Ragdoll couldn't use her quirk anymore. And if it was stolen, it probably wasn't coming back on its own.

“It is.”

“Then is there any way to make him give it back?”

“All for One can bestow quirks too, but good luck ever getting him to do it willingly.”

Jirou knew full well that real life quirks weren't balanced like they would be in a movie or videogame, but this was just ridiculous. Some people had super hearing. Jirou had super hearing and stretchy ears and the ability to channel her heartbeat to blow things up. But here's a guy who could take quirks, use them (if the Kamino footage was any indication), and give them to other people. How was anyone supposed to take that down?

“Who's he given quirks to then?”

“The first user of One for All, for starters. It's why the quirk exists in the first place.”

“What? How'd that even work?”

“One for All was created when All for One forced a strength quirk onto his younger brother, who unbeknownst to him had a quirk that could pass itself and nothing else. The two somehow combined and now here we are.”

“Wait what? Seriously, what?”

“Yep.” Not helpful.

Ugh. Okay fine. So All for One's the big bad and his brother was One for All (for lack of a better name). Apparently quirks can combine now. All for One's so old he was around back when there was no way to test if someone had a quirk or not. Which meant he had some kind of immortality quirk as well.

Great. Just. Great.

Though that did make her wonder.

“Then how'd he figure out he could pass it on?”

“Let's just stick to the stuff that's relevant for now. I'm telling you how the first user got it in the first place so you'd have context on just why we're doing this, but there's nothing else I could tell you about the other early ones in general that would help you now.”

And that was the truth. Even if she managed to get that specific bit of info, it would probably be extraneous at best. And like he said, all the other users but All Might and Midoriya were dead. At this point it mattered more the fact that the quirk could transfer at all than how the first user figured out how to do it.

“Okay... But if All for One did that, couldn't he just steal the quirk back?”

“It's funny you ask that. One for All's the one quirk he can't steal – he'd have done just that otherwise. Lucky for us, it can only be given willingly.”

Lucky indeed, since basic logic dictated that One for All was one of the only quirks that could take him down. And she wasn't sure if there were any others.

It was a little weird, though. You'd think transferring a quirk would make you unable to use it at all. But both Midoriya and All Might used that super strength during those first few months.

“So Midoriya got that quirk, but All Might was still doing hero work through the school year. Does that mean it's a gradual process?”

“Nope. The way the quirk works is that the power each user gets stacked from user to user; but once you transfer it, you're left with a finite amount and that's it.”

“So that incident with All for One...”

Gran Torino grimaced.

“Yep. Kamino took out what was left.”

Which didn't make her feel any better.

Now that All Might didn't have One for All, the source of the power that made him the strongest hero in all of Japan, he probably wouldn't be able to take on any other villains that strong even if he was perfectly healthy. Top that off with all his injuries and it's no wonder his retirement was permanent.

So then if All for One was going to break out...

That meant it would fall on All Might's successor to take him down again.

But All Might's injury was old. Midoriya clearly hadn't had the quirk for that long. Which made her wonder.

“So then... why Midoriya?”

“Huh?”

“I mean- All for One's been around for what, a century? More? What made All Might choose Midoriya of all people to be his successor?”

Midoriya was doing really well for someone with a quirk he didn't grow up with, even if his body wasn't used to it. But his inherent quirklessness was already a strike against him. Sure, there were a few quirkless heroes here and there, but they were really rare and none of them had ever made it to the upper echelons of the hero rankings. And most of them relied on gadgets. And he, well, didn't.

Wouldn't it make more sense to give it to someone who already had a quirk? Someone like Todoroki, for example, would go from being the class juggernaut to straight-up terrifying.

It wasn't like Jirou thought Midoriya was undeserving or anything. He was one of the quickest in class to throw himself headfirst into danger, consequences be damned. He was one of the best strategists out of all of them. He was great at adapting in team exercises and coordinating everyone's quirks. He was making steady progress at controlling his own quirk. He was one of the most motivated and hardest working kids in a department of 40 kids per year that regularly had almost 11,000 applications during the entrance exams.

It's just that he didn't have the obvious build or charisma one would expect from the Symbol of Peace's successor. And apparently he'd only gotten into U.A. because he rescued Uraraka from the no-point robot during the exam and shattered most of his limbs in the process. He was, to put it bluntly, a total dweeb at the beginning of the school year. It didn't make sense that All Might would choose someone like that with the threat of annihilation looming over his head.

Gran Torino sighed. He knew what she meant.

“Well, we thought All for One died six years ago – same time All Might got his injury. It wasn't until a couple months ago we realized that wasn't the case.”

“And by then, the quirk had already been transferred...” Jirou said to herself, soft but still audible.

“Yep.”

That made sense.

Wait- she wasn't trying to sound like she didn't want him to have that quirk or anything. Or trying to argue that it was a bad idea. Man, that's not what she was going for.

“Oh- I didn't mean anything by that, by the way.” She shook her hands in front of her chest, then moved one to the back of her head. “It's just- well-”

Gran Torino just sighed and waved a hand dismissively.

“Nah, I understand. Kids your age almost all have quirks and you're at U.A. to boot. Makes sense to wonder why he's the chosen one.” There was a little bite to that sentence, but nothing scathing. In fact, it brought a small smile to his lips instead.

Anyway, whether Midoriya was originally quirkless or not didn't matter anymore now that he had One for All. Sure, he didn't have anything to augment it, but that wouldn't be much of a problem once he was strong-enough to punch through buildings and propel himself forward faster than even some people with speed quirks.

But how was All Might going to fight if the villains attacked again if he didn't have it anymore??

“Actually, speaking of quirks...” She brought both hands back to her lap. “I know All Might-sensei's never told the media what his quirk really is, but is his other one at least something he can use?”

Maybe he had a really powerful healing factor? Maybe he had something completely useless like bendy fingers or nose extension? Whatever it was, she hoped it was something he could at least utilize to some degree.

“Seriously, kid?” What? It's not like she had any idea of what it actually was.

“I mean- I've only ever seen his super strength. And that's what One for All is, right?” She scratched her head. “And it's not like the other one got overwritten, right?”

“Doesn't matter. He's not going back on the front lines.”

Both sentences had hidden subtext, but Jirou wasn't sure how to parse it. Of course he wasn't going back on the front lines. He technically wasn't a hero anymore, after all. But certainly did matter what his quirk was. How else was he going to fight if he had to? Gadgets? Martial arts? A gun?

“Well I mean- I know he's retired, but what is he supposed to do if we do get attacked again?”

She gulped.

Her hands balled into fists.

More words fell out her mouth before she could even think to stop.

“What are we supposed to do?”

Gran Torino stared at the table for a moment.

Then sighed.

“Guess you think I've got all the answers, huh kid.”

“I mean... You've told me more than anyone else has. And you seem to know everything that's going on.” And are actually willing to answer questions about it. “So that means there's gotta be some kinda plan, right?”

“Like you said: All Might's retired, so he's focusing on teaching. But otherwise the plan is to just round up everyone affiliated with the Villain Alliance before they can do any real damage – including going after you kids again.”

“And what about Midoriya?”

Gran Torino blinked.

“What about 'im?”

“Well... Midoriya's the center of all this, isn't he? What's his role specifically?” Obviously he wasn't going to be hunting down league members on by himself or anything like that, but he could potentially get in on the lighter end of the action right now.

“He's All Might's successor. That's his role.” Nothing else? “But the idea is to get all this nonsense settled before he has to deal with it himself. Can't do much with just a provisional license anyway.”

“Yeah.” And being confined to U.A. meant he wasn't going to be able to sneak out and do hero stuff on his own regardless. “I'm pretty sure he's interning with Sir Nighteye, though. Are they targeting the league?”

“Sir Nighteye and All Might haven't coordinated anything in years.” The annoyance in his tone said that there was a reason for that. “Even so, I doubt he's gonna let the kid get in too much trouble on his own.”

“So right now he's just focusing on getting stronger.” Simple enough. That's what everyone else at school was doing too. And seeing as how they were in the country's top hero school, there wasn't going to be any question on how much that education would benefit them all.

“Yep.”

“Makes sense.”

Gran Torino paused to grab another taiyaki.

Then took a bite.

Then suggested:

“And you're figuring that since he's a good friend of yours, you'll help him out with that.”

…

Huh.

'Friend.'

Gran Torino had said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and his logic made sense, but...

“Well... He's not, to be honest.” She did consider Midoriya a friend, yeah; but only in the same way she considered everyone else in Class A her friend. It wasn't like they went out of their way to talk or get to know each other. They were friendly acquaintances at most.

“You're going this far to help him.”

Anyone would if they knew what she did.

“I'd have already told him I knew if we were. Everything I know about this is from hearing it secondhand.”

It wasn't that she avoided him or anything. It was more that their friend groups didn't really overlap. Jirou mostly hung out with the other girls, and Uraraka was the only girl Midoriya talked with on a regular basis. Midoriya mostly spent time with Iida and Todoroki; Jirou never had a reason to getting buddy-buddy with either of them.

She continued, gently waving her hands in front of her.

“Don't get me wrong – he's a really good guy! We've just never had any reason to get close.”

Gran Torino's eyes furrowed.

“...Then just what are you planning on doing with this information, kid?”

Indeed, what.

She came for answers. She was getting those answers. But in hindsight, she hadn't actually put much thought into what would happen after getting those answers. Part of it was because she didn't know what she didn't know. Another was because she never expected to get this far in the first place. So...

“Well... I don't know, to be honest.”

Gran Torino just snorted at that.

“You tracked me down, found out where I live, rode a train for god-knows-how-long, and you don't know.”

Well when he put it that way...

“I mean, I want to help him.” She grimaced. “I just don't know how.”

“So what're you expecting to do? Follow him around and protect 'im without 'im knowing it like some kinda guardian angel?”

Hah. That would be a sight to see.

“I know he can take care of himself.” And she knew she would be the one getting saved if there was another attack at this point. “It's just... I know this is something big. If there's anything I can do to help, I want to do it. And I know more than pretty much anyone else at school.”

More than Midoriya himself, at this point.

“Users of One for All usually have a close friend they can trust to keep their secret. I was Nana's. Toshi- All Might has that cop friend of his. Who's the kid got, if not you?”

Good question.

She thought back over the school year. There wasn't anyone who actively disliked Midoriya (anymore, at least), but of the people he hung out with the most...

Uraraka was his closest female friend, and was apparently the first person in their class (Bakugou aside) that he'd met in the beginning of the school year. She wore her heart on her sleeve, even if she was trying to change that; but Jirou had never seen anything that said she knew more than she was letting on.

Iida was the class president and next in line to take on the Ingenium name. He was earnest to a fault and there was no way he would refuse Midoriya if asked for assistance. Plus trusting a secret with someone with that kind of lineage would have its benefits. But there was no way he wouldn't have mentioned it at least once behind closed doors.

Todoroki was the kid of the now-#1-hero. Jirou didn't exactly know the context of what Midoriya yelled at him during the sports festival; but whatever it was, it got through to him and he chilled out after (for the most part; he still had some latent anger issues he really needed to work on). And now the two of them were best friends. And yet he never said anything suspicious either.

Those three looked to be the kids he was closest to, and Jirou knew they were all good people; but not one of them had ever given any hints of knowing anything more than the others. Which was nothing. Apparently Todoroki thought Midoriya was All Might's kid at one point, but that was the closest thing any one of them had and it was still way off the mark.

But if they weren't in on it, who else could...

...

Memories of the night following the license exam crept back into her mind.

The fight that occurred while seemingly no one else was awake.

How it was All Might himself who put a stop to it.

How it took the two of them a strangely long time to come back to the dorms after.

How the strain on their relationship was almost gone now, even if it didn't look it at a glance.

…

That was probably the answer.

“Well... there's Katsuki Bakugou. I think.”

Gran Torino cocked an eyebrow.

“That spiky ball a' TNT?”

Yes that spiky ball of TNT.

“Yeah. I'm not a 100% sure on it, but if there's anyone else our age that knows about Midoriya's quirk, it's probably him.”

She continued. “But besides maybe him, I don't think anyone knows but me. He's got some close friends, but it doesn't sound like he's told them yet.”

“So you think you're gonna do it in their stead?”

Could she?

She shrugged.

“I guess so.”

Gran Torino locked eyes with her.

She froze.

He spoke.

“You don't sound too sure.”

She really wasn't.

Jirou wasn't useless, but there was no chance that Midoriya would choose her over any one of his actual friends to carry his secret on if he had any say in the matter.

And given the gravity of the situation, it made sense he hadn't told any of them yet. He didn't like it when people worried about him, after all.

But Jirou knew his secret, and there wasn't anything he could do to change that.

She wasn't the strongest.

Or the fastest.

Or the smartest.

She just had a quirk that let her hear things she shouldn't and enough of a brain to put two and two together.

But if he really didn't have anyone else...

She gulped.

Then nodded.

“I will.”

Gran Torino reached over to grab the last taiyaki off the plate.

“You're gonna get a lot more than you bargained for, kid.” He took a bite. “I can tell you that.”

Gee. Thanks. Not like she wasn't already getting more than she bargained for.

“So what can I do in the meantime?”

“Get stronger and give 'im support when he needs it.”

“Nothing specific?”

“Not unless yer' planning on being his sidekick or his secretary.”

“Yeah no.” She had her own plans for the future and they didn't revolve around Midoriya, as much as she was worrying now. There wasn't even any guarantee that things were gonna get worse from here on out. She wasn't to put everything on hold for something that wasn't even certain.

“Just make sure you two actually have a talk sooner than later. The middle of a fight's not the place to be droppin' a bombshell like that.”

That... was something she had to do, wasn't it. Midoriya wasn't exactly a mind reader. He wasn't going to know she knew unless she told him directly. And unless she did... well... how else was he gonna know?

She swallowed, then looked Gran Torino in the eye and said in the most determined tone of voice she could muster:

“Got it.”

But she broke eye contact as soon as she finished that sentence.

Gran Torino looked like he was considering something. He brought a curled finger to his chin. It was a few moments before he spoke again.

“...Tell me, kid. What's the range of that quirk of yours?”

Huh. That came out of nowhere.

“If you mean the surveillance part: it depends on where I am and the noise around me; but if I'm in a building, I can usually hear everything going on inside.”

Gran Torino nodded, then reached into his pocket.

“Alright, gimme your phone.”

...

“Huh?”

“And put your number in mine.” He tossed the smartphone onto her lap and finished the last bite of the taiyaki in his other hand. “You're still a brat now, but that power could be useful later.”

There was an implicit 'for this investigation' at the end. She chose not to have him confirm that.

Instead she unlocked her phone and handed it to him with a small “okay.”, then went to fill in her contact info on his.

It was quick. Just her name and number. No selfie pic or anything extra.

She hit finish. Her contact was open. She instinctively hit the back button.

There were only a few names on the list. She saw Midoriya's and Detective Tsukauchi's among them, but didn't recognize any of the others. Shouldn't All Might's number be there too? Well- he probably wouldn't be labeled 'All Might' if they'd known each other that long. What was his real name again?

Though one name did catch her eye. It was located right above her own.

'Nana Shimura'.

Huh. Where had she heard that name befo-

Oh.

Gran Torino had mentioned a Nana before.

And the context her name was used in said she was All Might's predecessor.

There was only one Nana on that list.

It couldn't be her, could it?

That Nana was dead. And likely had been for a very long time.

And Nana was a pretty common name, right?

It was probably someone else.

Except...

Something else clicked.

The surname.

Jirou's eyes were on the now-empty taiyaki plate before she realized it.

...

She grimaced and reopened her own contact page. Best to pretend she didn't see anything. She wasn't even trying to snoop this time.

Thankfully Gran Torino's eyes were focused on her phone.

He looked up a moment later. They locked eyes.

“Y'done?”

There was really no reason for that to startle her. But it did.

“Um- yeah.”

“Alright. Give it here.”

They traded their phones back (without any tossing this time). Jirou looked at the name on the contact page.

Jii Torino.

That wasn't his real name, was it? It wasn't often that heroes used their own names as their aliases, though there were kanji here as opposed to the normal katakana (if pages upon pages of google search results with that name were any indication). Though the fact that the Jii used the kanji for 'old man' was a good indication that the spelling for his name was different, if nothing else.

Gran Torino seemed to read her mind.

“It's not my real name, but you should be able to remember it's me.”

She probably should've done the same thing.

“Oh, I put my real name in yours. Should I change it? I can-”

“Forget it. I'll do it later.”

“Okay...”

So that was that. She was curious about that contact and the potential connections that came with it, but obviously she couldn't just bring it up directly.

Hopefully the next weird segue wouldn't give him that much of a clue.

Jirou gulped.

“So, if I can ask...”

“Yeah?”

“Just... who is Tomura Shigaraki?” Her eyes flicked to the plate again.

Gran Torino frowned. It didn't get past him.

“Those documents're classified.”

Truth, but also a deflection.

“All Might and Detective Tsukauchi were talking about him.”

“And?”

“And it doesn't make sense that All Might would be asking about just him if he were being kept up on everyone else All for One was associated with.” The league wasn't huge, but there was a number of members. Those members were equally deadly in their own right, but they didn't seem to be a bunch of zealots blindly spreading the word of their leader. In that case, nabbing Shigaraki wouldn't lead to much if they didn't get all the others with him.

“...You're real observant, kid. I'll give you that. But he's a criminal – one who's hurt a lot of people.”

“He doesn't look that much older than us.”

An observation more than any kind of argument. She knew what he was capable of. He was the one who led the charge on the attacks against U.A.. He didn't see anything wrong with trying to kill literal teenagers if he meant getting to All Might. Aizawa took weeks to recover after USJ even with Recovery Girl helping with the treatment. Anyone who knew that would be an idiot to underestimate him.

“He isn't. But that doesn't make him any less dangerous.” Gran Torino laced his fingers together. “It looks like All for One's propping him up to be his successor, which means Shigaraki is going to try and rebuild his empire. The sooner he's behind bars, the better.”

He said it as if it were certain, but his tone said otherwise. His words were calm and controlled, but Jirou could hear the tiny ounce of strain that came with them. The strain of regret – that kind that things didn't have to be this way. He didn't want a criminal running loose in the streets if he could help it, obviously.

But even with a few words alone, Jirou could tell he had far too much emotional stock in a man that shouldn't be half as hard to deal with as his predecessor was.

Which all but outright stated they had some sort of connection.

So then...

“It's really weird, though.” Jirou brought a curled finger to her chin, and focused her eyes down on the table. “All for One's gotta be ancient. Why would he choose a guy so young to succeed him? What makes Shigaraki so special?”

A bit on the nose, but they were perfectly valid questions on their own right. A guy over a century old would have all the time in the world to find and groom the perfect successor. And nothing about Jirou's (admittedly limited) knowledge of Shigaraki suggested he was a particularly rare breed of genius or a prodigy. Someone in the business that long wouldn't choose a random kid to do it, so there had to be some reason.

But the answer she'd get would tell her what she really wanted to know.

“...No idea. There's no real background info on him.”

Yep.

Two lies in one go.

Gran Torino knew something about Shigaraki's backstory. And the small twist inside him said it was something big.

And yet he wasn't willing to share it, even though he shared pretty much everything else freely.

If Shigaraki had a normal rage, greed, or wrong-side-of-the-tracks backstory, it wouldn't make sense to hide it. Lots of villains were like that. It didn't make any difference in whether they were gonna be arrested or not. At most it would get them mandatory therapy and maybe a lighter sentence. Though Shigaraki would be lucky if ever saw the light of day again given what he'd done.

Which made it all-the-weirder that Gran Torino had misgivings about arresting him.

Maybe Gran Torino knew him.

Maybe he knew someone related to him.

That case file on the table was for Tomura Shigaraki, after all.

But Tomura Shigaraki was just an alias.

He had a real name.

'Tenko Shimura'.

And there was a Shimura in Gran Torino's contact list. The kanji were the same. Shimura wasn't exactly a common surname. That alone gave the possibility of some kind of connection.

Nana was the name of the previous One for All user.

Shimura was the only Nana in a contact list with barely any numbers.

If they were the same person, then that Shimura was a close friend of Gran Torino's.

And it would also mean that that Shimura was dead.

It could be a coincidence – Jirou didn't have any actual hard evidence one way or another; but something in her gut told her it wasn't that simple.

If Shigaraki was her son or related to her in some other way, it would only make sense for Gran Torino to feel the way he did. A lot of people looked out for their friends' kids when something happened to said friends. Obviously it would hurt to see them fall as far as he did. Even more so when their parents were such good people.

But if that was the case, then why would Shigaraki choose to become a villain? He was related to a hero. And said hero was such a good person that she was granted what had to be one of the strongest quirks in the world. She wasn't some asshole in it for the glory who couldn't care less about saving people. She was one who was, well, the complete opposite of that (considering she'd gotten One for All and everything). If anything, he should want to emulate that kind of altruism.

And even putting that aside, how come no one was able to stop him before it got to this point? People rarely became villains for no reason. Shouldn't the people around him have seen the warning signs? Did no one try and help him? Were his problems ones that even could be helped? Though it was obviously too late for that now – what, with Shigaraki being a murderous psychopath leading what was probably one of the most dangerous villain organizations in all of Japan.

Even though she wasn't there to witness All Might's fight during the USJ incident, she knew he didn't just let Shigaraki leave. And no one ever mentioned that kind of connection either even though that would be the most obvious thing to bring up if anyone was talking about him. Shigaraki's real name was right there in the police file. Sure, Shimura was dead, but wouldn't they have already made the connection anyway if there was one? Wouldn't someone have at least tried to use that to get a hold of him?

One thing the hero program always tried to hit home was that there were a lot of villains with sympathetic backstories; but just because they had their own reasons didn't mean that excused their actions. Stealing in order to help feed your family was still stealing. Murder in order to avenge a loved one was still murder. A criminal committing a crime needed to be arrested, and the judgment dealt to them needed to be through the legal system. And that included people you were related to or friends with.

But theory rarely translated perfectly into reality. Jirou wasn't sure what she'd do if she were in Gran Torino's shoes, to be honest. Ideally, she would put those feelings aside and do her job to catch the villain, regardless of how they were related to people she knew. But she also knew that she'd be a lot more willing to give someone a second chance if she knew them beforehand, and knew they were a good person despite, y'know, being a criminal.

Gran Torino was a seasoned and experienced hero (if almost completely unknown). He wouldn't make the same mistakes a rookie would – including letting someone he knew get away if he had the opportunity to catch them. Because being related to a loved one didn't lessen the impact of his crimes, or change the fact that he tried to murder people (including kids). Even if some small part of him made him think it was still possible to make Shigaraki see the light.

The regret in his voice made that clear enough.

...

“Kid, you keep starin' at that plate. Just tell me if you want me to make some more.”

That jolted Jirou back into reality.

She regained her focus. Right. Still in the middle of a stranger's apartment. Still in the middle of a conversation. Not the time to be overthinking things. Play it cool.

“Oh um- No, I'm fine.”

Jirou would be lying if she said she didn't want to know the whole story. But like Gran Torino said, that information was classified. He probably gave her that tidbit because it was related to All for One. And Jirou had a feeling that it also doubled as a way to remind himself that his friend's relative wasn't Tenko Shimura anymore.

So instead...

“Does he know about Midoriya? Shigaraki, I mean.” The attacks on U.A. were on their class in general rather than concentrated on him, which indicated that he probably didn't. But it couldn't hurt to make sure.

It was Gran Torino's turn to have an uncomfortably long pause.

“I don't think Shigaraki knows, no.” He grimaced. “But All for One does.”

Shit.

“So... how long has he known?”

“He made the guess during the Kamino incident. But it was long after Shigaraki was out of the area. And he was arrested right after. So Shigaraki shouldn't have any idea yet.” Yet. He sent her a pointed look. Everyone had managed to keep it a secret for this long. If it got out now it probably would be because of her.

She couldn't blame him for thinking that.

“Does Midoriya know he knows?”

“Only if All Might told him, so probably not.” She knew Gran Torino didn't mean to sound scathing, but ouch.

“So if All for One is in prison and he's the only one who's figured it out, that means Midoriya's safe for now, right?”

“It should. Though that depends on whether or not he keeps sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.”

Which probably meant 'no' since sitting on the sidelines doing nothing was not how Midoriya rolled.

So then...

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

She knew he said to support Midoriya when he needed it. And that was something she could do (and would if she needed to). But her role wasn't automatically gonna be that of the trusted friend Midoriya willingly shared his secret with. And unlike Detective Tsukauchi and Gran Torino, she didn't have any way of otherwise helping on her own time. If Gran Torino had an idea, she'd be all for it.

Gran Torino shifted slightly.

“Part of why I'm telling you all this is in case All For One does get out before you graduate. The second that happens Midoriya's gonna have a bigger target on his back than he does now.”

He continued. “You want a job? If All Might hasn't told him that by then, you'll have to. I don't care how fast the kid learns. There's no way he'll be able to survive a concentrated villain onslaught unprepared if he's still in high school.”

Concern. Frustration. Tied hands. Exasperation. The thin layer of harshness in his voice would be audible to someone at even a normal level of hearing, even if the nuances weren't clear.

And Jirou agreed with its implication.

“Alright I will, but-” There was probably a reason he hadn't done it himself, but- “Shouldn't we let him know now then? So he can prepare just in case?”

“I may have given him his field training, but All Might's his mentor. So it's his call what to tell the kid and when, even if I don't agree with it.”

He continued, crossing his arms. “Not to mention it wouldn't do him any good right now unless All for One decides to break out of prison tomorrow. You know the kid. He's finally started to not break his arms at every turn. Last thing he needs is to think he has to again for a scenario that's not even likely to happen.”

“So... what doesn't Midoriya know, then?” All for One knowing he was the successor was the obvious answer, but she probably shouldn't start blurting out things Midoriya didn't know right after explaining that his secret was safe with her.

“It'd make more sense to ask what he does know.” Which was not much, apparently. “But I don't see him much for obvious reasons, so I dunno how much All Might's told him. Just have 'im tell you what he knows when you tell him you know about One for All and go off that.”

Simple-enough.

“Alright.”

He looked unconvinced.

“Look, I can't stop you if you really want to, but use your best judgment. You can't take it back once the cat's out of the bag.”

He didn't need to say that. Jirou knew more than most just what the consequences of telling people the wrong things at the wrong time were.

“I'll keep it on the down low for now, don't worry. I just gotta tell him I know about his quirk and the line of succession thing, but I'll hold off on everything else until the prison break unless he tells me about it first.”

It was weird thinking of it as an inevitability. Because again: Tartarus. But she wasn't going to dismiss the possibility. At best, All for One would die in prison. At worst, he was just biding his time waiting for the right moment to go on another rampage. And Jirou knew which scenario would be best to prepare for.

“Good.” Gran Torino sounded a bit relieved, and a touch disappointed; but didn't let it change the stern look on his face.

Another pause between them.

So they'd gone over the quirk itself.

The line of succession.

Supporting the successor.

Midoriya, the successor.

Shigaraki, the villain successor.

All for One, the reason behind this whole mess in the first place.

All Might-

…

She never did get an answer, did she.

…

Well, seeing as how pretty much everything else did, and seeing as how she didn't really have anything else to ask...

She grimaced.

“Um... Would it be alright if I asked one more question?”

Gran Torino's eyes narrowed.

“Something tells me I'm not gonna like it, but shoot.”

Based on how he dodged giving details before, probably not.

It had an obvious answer too.

And the only reason she wasn't going with that obvious answer was the few bits that didn't make sense.

And sure, she knew she was nowhere near qualified to actually do it herself seeing as she was only 16 and nowhere near as strong as a pro hero. And she wasn't a doctor. And really, she didn't have any skill set that she could use otherwise.

But how would she know for sure without asking?

She clenched her fists at her knees.

And pushed back the ache beginning to form in her face.

And swallowed.

“Is... there any way we can save All Might-sensei?”

...

A pause.

“From what?”

Playing dumb. Hoping she'd drop it.

She wasn't going to.

“From whatever's going to kill him.”

All Might was dying. Anyone would guess natural causes. But it wasn't going to be that alone. It couldn't be.

“No one's gonna live forever, kid – not even the Symbol of Peace. The sooner you accept that, the better.”

Deflecting. Stating the obvious. Implying inevitability without giving a reason. Avoiding saying that exact reason.

But he didn't end the conversation right then and there.

And she would keep going until he did.

“I know, but-” It would be easier if it was just his health, but- “You said it wasn't going to be because of his injuries.”

“I said it wasn't that simple.”

And those kinds of roundabout answers weren't going to convince her.

“The only health issues All Might-sensei has are related to his injuries. Recovery Girl would have mentioned them otherwise.”

“...What's your point?”

That something was off. That there was something missing. That natural causes were out of the question, but nothing else she was aware of could be that much of a ticking timebomb.

Which meant it had to be something else.

The question was what.

“My point is that if it were, you'd have said so.” She caught herself before she began to yell, forcing here voice back to a more even tone. “But you didn't. Why?”

A pause.

Gran Torino laced his fingers together.

Then set his elbows on his knees.

Then hunched over.

And rested his chin on his hands.

His eyes fixed on the table.

“Tell me, kid: Do you believe you can change the future?”

...

Her eyebrows furrowed.

Wasn't something that people – usually heroes – said was that the 'the future is in your hands'? It sounded mindlessly optimistic more often than not, but there was a kernel of truth to it – especially for heroes: It was their duty to save as many people as possible during crises. People needed all the help they could get when in danger. One more person stepping be could be the difference between life and death. Wasn't that just common sense?

So then why did that question sound rhetorical?

Her gut said to take the hint and drop it.

Her gut was what got her here in the first place.

Her gut would have to deal with it.

She gave the most obvious response she could think of:

“Well, can't we?”

Even as a question on it's own, that was the answer, right?

But Gran Torino took a deep breath.

Then exhaled. A small, airy noise hissed out of his shoes.

“Even if it's been preordained?”

Why would it be?

Why was he already making it sound like a lost cause?

“Where are you going with this?”

He didn't look up.

“Sir Nighteye's quirk let 'im see how it's gonna happen, and he's never been wrong.”

If Sir Nighteye could see the future...

And if Sir Nighteye was never wrong...

...

Gran Torino continued:

“If you what's going to happen, and that nothing you do can change it, do you really want to live with that knowledge?”

…

No.

She didn't.

Old age was one thing. She could deal with All Might dying because of that. Heck, she could even deal with him succumbing to years upon years of compounded injuries that never fully healed. It would hurt, but those were peaceful, natural causes. Anyone could take solace in that kind of inevitability. Eventually.

But this...

She'd already confirmed it wasn't going to be because of his health. Gran Torino would've said it by now if it were. Jirou wasn't a medic and as far as she knew, All Might would've already been healed by now if there were some quirk user capable of doing that. It wouldn't make sense to treat that kind of situation so gravely. It would be depressing, but not any cause for alarm. It was... well... just life.

There was also the possibility of an accident. Or some kind of natural disaster. Things that were seemingly random, but could really happen to anyone. It... really didn't fit to think of All Might as a random casualty in that kind of incident. And again, it wouldn't make sense for Gran Torino to keep indirectly asking her if she was really okay with knowing what was going to happen if that were the case.

There was an ache in Gran Torino's voice when he asked that question. That alone should've been enough to make her take the hint and change the subject to something less bleak. But all it did was give her the urge to come up with every worst-case scenario she could. Because if it wasn't going to be random and it wasn't going to be due to natural causes, it was going to be planned. Which was bad.

Very very bad.

And clearly something way beyond the level anyone but the strongest heroes.

Which Jirou clearly wasn't one of.

…

There probably wasn't anything she could do.

She was in high school.

She wasn't even near the top of her class.

Of course it would make sense that there wouldn't be.

But if there was...

And she chose not to...

...

She swallowed.

Her mouth was dry.

She picked her mug up off the table and took a sip of what was left.

It wasn't a good idea. She knew it wasn't a good idea.

But...

“If I don't know, I can't even try.”

A pause.

Another sigh.

Gran Torino looked at her with tired eyes.

Another few seconds passed.

He grimaced.

And said:

“Okay, kid. But don't say I didn't warn you.”

She nodded, and leaned forward.

He nodded in turn, and continued.

“The easiest way to put it is that a villain's going to kill All Might sometime this year or next.”

Ah.

Death by villain.

That... made sense. All Might didn't have his quirk anymore, so he wouldn't be able to fight at the level he used to. His body had to be strong-enough to use that power in the first place, but he wasn't the force of nature able to move kilometers in mere seconds or punch hard-enough to change the weather anymore. It stood to reason that he wouldn't be able to take everyone he used to. Which meant he wasn't essentially invincible anymore. Which meant there were fights he could lose now.

But he was retired, which meant he wasn't going to be hunting down villains like he used to. And he lived on campus with all the other teachers. And he never seemed to leave on his own (though it wasn't like she could follow him that far with sound alone). So the hardest part for any villain would probably be getting to him in the first place. All Might had a number of enemies, but almost all of them were in prison now. And any that weren't shouldn't be strong-enough to breech U.A.'s security (which included a number of active pro heroes).

But even then, who would be strong-enough to-

...

God dammit.

There was only one villain she could think of off the top of her head that would be able to do that. And that villain wasn't going to be in prison forever.

“It's going to be All for One, isn't it.”

Gran Torino shook his head. Thank god.

“All I can tell you is that it won't be All for One, because otherwise we'd have known he was still alive in the first place.”

Which was... good...?

All for One could only be defeated by All Might back at Kamino, but he was the only villain like that, right? That meant whatever villain it was could at least be defeated by other heroes. Which would hopefully make it mostly a matter of just finding that villain in time.

“Is there anything else? Like place? Time of day? Description of the villain?” Really, wouldn't it be enough just to get a location and make sure All Might NEVER EVER goes there until like three years from now? Or maybe keep an eye on all villains that fit the physical description? Or make sure he has an escort during those weather conditions? Heck, why not use the national quirk database to narrow down potential suspects if they had an idea on how it was gonna happen?

“S'far as I know, Sir was never able to pinpoint anything but the timeframe. And even when he's had that kinda info in the past, he still never managed to change the outcome of what he saw.”

“But he saw something, right?”

Something? Anything? That's how Sir Nighteye knew, right? Jirou didn't know exactly how that quirk worked, but wasn't there something he could go off of? Couldn't he 'trace' All Might's steps back to a point where he was in a recognizable area? See who he was around? See what they talked about?

Gran Torino shifted uncomfortably, but continued to look straight ahead.

“I didn't go pressin' for the gritty details.”

What the hell?

“But why not?” Jirou's hands slammed the table. She didn't bother trying to reign in her volume. “You've known for years, haven't you? Isn't there something you could've done by now?”

Gran Torino didn't even flinch. Jirou went on.

“All Might is going to die. We only have until next year at most. Why isn't anyone doing anything to change that?!-”

“You think we haven't tried?”

Her mouth snapped shut.

She didn't know how to respond to that. Her body went rigid. Not even from some kind of quirk. Just the ice in that one sentence.

She screwed up. Gran Torino clearly hadn't been sure whether or not to tell her, but he did anyway. And the first thing she did was snap at him for it like some kind of idiot. Which was probably the dumbest thing she could've done outside of outright attacking him.

So what was she supposed to do now?

Apologize?

Beg for forgiveness?

Run?

...

Gran Torino took a deep breath.

Then continued, voice back to it's normal tone.

“Look, I wanna stop it as much as you do. But if we can't, it makes more sense to mitigate the fallout instead.” His eyes flickered to the paper stack. “Crime's already been goin' up since All Might retired. What do you think's gonna happen when word gets out a villain got him?”

Which was... a logical way to look at it.

Even though All Might was retired, he was still known as the former Symbol of Peace. A number of people still thought he would come back some day to continue his hero work. None of them knew he no longer had the quirk that made him so strong. None of them knew what Jirou did now. All Might losing to some villain – potentially in an incident as destructive as Kamino – would take most people by surprise, to put it lightly.

Jirou didn't even want to think about what would happen after.

“But... Is there really no way around it?”

She'd never put too much thought into how much of her own fate she controlled, but she'd always assumed it was something she could if she knew what was supposed to happen. And as far as she was concerned, knowing things ahead of time could cause some kind of butterfly effect and change the outcome even if she tried to make everything turn out exactly as predicted.

But if Sir Nighteye's quirk really was never wrong, then that meant there was nothing anyone could do.

…

Was it really that hopeless?

“If you change the future, or the kid does, or even All Might does, it'll be something no one else has ever managed to do before.”

She looked down at the table. He continued.

“I won't say it's impossible, but be realistic.” His fingers clenched closer together. His gloves made a small noise as they rubbed against one another. “If you can pull it off, great. But don't expect whatever plan you come up with to work out just because you put in the effort. It'll only hurt that much more if you do.”

Then what was she supposed to do?

Of course it wouldn't be as easy as coming up with a plan, doing some training, and hoping for the best. She was a kid. And on top of that, she didn't have any resources or potential leads beyond Lurkers and whatever other publicly available sites she came across. There really wasn't anything she could do that, say, Gran Torino or any other hero couldn't (aside from super hearing, which wasn't going to be of much use at the moment since there was only so much she could listen in on at U.A). And she couldn't leave campus without having a reason (and 'I wanna go home for the weekend' would only work so many times, if even once more).

She obviously couldn't follow All Might 24/7 like some kind of bodyguard. She obviously couldn't recruit heroes, teachers, or classmates to become some kind of 'All Might defense force'. That was a simple-enough idea that Gran Torino or All Might had probably considered it. And then ditched it because of all the ways it couldn't possibly work.

There wasn't anything she could think to do.

But she couldn't just let him die.

Just... Ugh...

“Kid, you feelin' alright?”

No. She really wasn't.

How could she be?

None of this was okay.

All Might was going to die if he didn't get some kind of miracle.

Sir Nighteye predicting such all but made that a set-in-stone fact.

Gran Torino, one of the closest people to this, didn't think there was any chance of stopping it.

If they couldn't do anything about it, why would she be any different?

But she couldn't freak out.

That wouldn't solve anything.

.

Deep breath.

.

Reel it in.

.

Calm down.

.

Freaking out wasn't going to solve anything.

.

She went a more reasonable volume, and rubbed the back of her head apologetically.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for getting carried away.”

She didn't know what anyone else had been doing about Sir Nighteye's prophecy. She didn't know how many people knew at all. Even with all this new information, she knew it was only the tip of the iceberg.

It wasn't fair to snap at Gran Torino. He gave her a quick rundown on pretty much everything she needed to know; and even though he obviously hadn't planned on telling her the worst parts, he went through with it anyway instead of kicking her out or making up insultingly blatant lies. And that was a good thing, right? For all Jirou knew, he was the only person that was willing to do that. What idiot would throw that kind of goodwill back in someone's face?

So what should she do, then? Change the subject and ask about something else?

She hadn't even been there an hour, but she'd already learned so much her head was spinning.

All for One was going to break out of Tartarus.

Midoriya had to defeat All for One.

And that was bad enough without adding the fact that All Might only had a year and a half left to live at most. And that even the pro heroes seemed to have given up on changing it.

Jirou was not a pro hero. Jirou was not a master strategist. Jirou was not a prodigy in any way, shape, or form and she definitely didn't have accesses to the kinds of resources that could guarantee she'd accomplish something everyone apparently no one else had ever managed to before. She was as close to a normal high school student someone in U.A.'s hero course could be.

That aside, she had to to think:

Was there anything she still needed to ask?

Was there anything she still needed to know?

This trip had been nothing but revelation after revelation. She had her questions go down rabbit holes she neither expected nor wanted to know about. There was so much information swimming in her head that she wasn't sure she'd even be able to remember all the the important stuff. And Gran Torino had already made it clear that he only expected her to support Midoriya when the time came. So there wasn't any point in trying to come up with a plan right now. And god forbid she start trying to make small talk.

So... the next course of action was fairly obvious:

“Well... Actually... I think that's just about everything I wanted to ask. So I think I should be going now. Thank you for answering my questions. I really appreciate it.”

She didn't have to leave just yet. There was plenty of time left before she had to meet her friend. And a little niggling at the back of her mind said she hadn't gotten everything she could yet.

But a bigger part said she needed to leave. Now.

This was a safe place. She was with a pro hero. There weren't any villains around. There wasn't any danger and she didn't feel like she was in any danger.

But discomfort lurched through her chest.

And staying wasn't going to make it go away.

...Yeah, that would be the best thing to do for now.

Gran Torino nodded.

“Yer' welcome.” He hopped off his couch. “And by the way, you should tell All Might what you know when you get the chance too.”

Yeah. She needed to tell Midoriya. After that, All Might would be the next logical person to explain herself to. Hopefully he wouldn't be mad that she not only broke her promise, but also rode a train into a whole nother prefecture in order to get the answers she knew he wouldn't give himself.

Though it'd probably be best to hold off on certain parts until they were needed.

Man, she really wondered how she was going to explain that, though. Whether to All Might or Midoriya. Honestly, if someone from the future gave her a blow-by-blow account of everything that just happened within the last hour, she wouldn't believe them. Well- they could always call Gran Torino to clarify, but it wouldn't make the situation any less weird.

Though she could conveniently forget to mention Gran Torino for now. It wasn't like they needed to know about her blatantly breaking school rules just a few weeks after everyone moved into the dorms so they wouldn't get into situations that could turn deadly if they weren't careful.

“Okay. I will.

Oh and before she could forget:

“Oh yeah- um... Could you not tell anyone about me coming here or what we talked about?” She twiddled her lobes together. “No one knows I'm in Yamanashi.”

Gran Torino had a laugh at that. A good portion of the heavy atmosphere permeating the room dropped instantly.

“Seriously, kid? You either got guts or no brain.” He reached over and picked up the taiyaki plate. “You're lucky I didn't turn out to be some sorta whackjob.”

And he was right about that. Jirou had spent the whole trip covering her tracks to get there, and she didn't see any surveillance cameras when she came down the street leading to this building.

If she'd been wrong and wound up at a villain's house, she would've been screwed.

Gran Torino continued.

“That being said, I'm not gonna go around tellin' people how some high schooler just came to my door askin' about things she shouldn't know even exist.” He unceremoniously tossed the plate in the sink. It made a clattering sound as it hit the other tableware inside. “But I'm not gonna lie if they come askin' about you.”

Fair enough.

“I understand. Thanks again.” Jirou nodded and pushed herself up off the couch then grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Anyway, I'll be heading out now. It was nice meeting you, Gran Torino.”

“Alright. See you 'round.”

Jirou headed to the front entrance. Gran Torino moved to where she had just been sitting. He began to spread the papers inside that manila envelope across the table.

So that was the end of their conversation. Gran Torino had work to do. Jirou had an appointment to keep. There was no reason to stay any longer. Only thing to do now was go.

But right as she grabbed the door handle...

“And kid?”

She froze, and turned back just-enough to see Gran Torino in her peripheral vision.

“Yeah?”

He didn't make any effort to look at her, despite being the one to say more. He just grimaced.

“Don't let it get to you, okay?” His voice was softer. Gentler. “We've got time before things go South. Enjoy the peace while it lasts.”

She gulped, but kept her voice even as possible.

“Alright. I will.”

A few moments went by. Gran Torino didn't say anything else. Jirou pulled the door open, then stepped out and shut it behind her.

…

...

Phew.

Walking out that door and past those blockades was almost like stepping into another world. One with a clear sky, blinding sunlight, and nothing related to supervillains that could potentially murder everyone she knew and cared about.

A few people walked along the sidewalk. Their footsteps reverberated between the buildings. A car rolled by. The driver had on some sugary pop song that recently made it into the Oricon Singles Chart. No one seemed to notice the high school girl coming out of the sketchy building. No heavy atmosphere permeated the surrounding air. Everything was completely normal. Nothing out of the ordinary except maybe her if anyone was paying attention.

Without skipping a beat, she took to the sidewalk. She grabbed her phone and typed in a new address – one for the Kofu Showa Aeon Mall. It was gonna be a bit of a hike to get to the bus stop, but she had time to kill and it would do her some good to clear her head. And she'd probably make it to the bus in time. If not, the next one would arrive in half an hour. No biggie either way. Everything was gonna be fine.

After all, it wasn't like some crazed mass murderer was going to break out of prison and start slaughtering next week.

And it wasn't like Shigaraki and the Villain Alliance were gonna try and attack U.A. again for the umpteenth time tomorrow.

And it wasn't like All Might and Midoriya were going to be vulnerable and alone with no support of their own today.

And it wasn't like All Might was going to face his apparently inevitable demise within the next few hours.

And it wasn't like there was anything Jirou could do to prepare the future right this second anyway.

…

Huh.

…

Her lungs felt heavy.

…

She took a deep breath.

…

Pressure formed above her throat.

...

Her vision blurred.

…

An itch prickled in her eyes.

...

She blinked and rubbed it out.

...

Then looked down at her hands.

...

Sunlight bounced off the wetness left behind.

.

The two of them agreed to meet at the Mister Donut at the mall's west sakura entrance.

The signage made it easy enough to find from the east hotaru entrance. But even without it, the mall's layout wasn't very hard to navigate. Beyond a quick trip to the bathroom to make sure she still looked alright, she didn't make any pit stops on the way to her destination.

It only took a few minutes to get there, grab a coffee and donut, and find a seat that gave her a clear view of either shop entrance. And the only thing she had to do in the meantime was mess around on her phone. But she made a point to not look up anything related to the conversation she had not too long ago. The last thing she needed was to get wrapped up in researching crimes and conspiracy theories when she was supposed to be having fun.

She tapped a jack to to the table.

Her parents didn't have any GPS tracking on her phone, but she guessed if anyone was gonna track her down, that would be how. She'd considered leaving it back in her dorm for a time to make herself as untraceable as she could possibly get, but smacked that idea down quick. Putting aside the fact that she'd have to then buy maps for all the areas she'd be going to, she wouldn't be able to call anyone for help if she did get into trouble. And the last thing anyone needed was for her to go missing, U.A. student or not.

Maybe she should invest in a faraday bag. Then no one could track her with her phone since no signal could get in or out. And she could still get to it if she really needed to. But those things had to be ordered online. All packages to U.A. were screened; so whether it got shipped there or to here parents' house, she'd get questioned on why she would ever need one of those things. Nothing in her hero costume would warrant one, so she couldn't ask for one from the support department (and it wasn't like she could just swipe costume stuff for daily use as she pleased). Maybe Yaoyorozu could make one; but if she told anyone else about it, it would raise way more questions than she was comfortable with.

Not to mention she wouldn't be able to get any texts while her phone was inside, which could make people think she was in some kind of danger if they tried to contact her at the wrong time. Which would be even worse than just letting the government track her like they did everyone else or whatever.

Why was she even thinking about this? She probably wasn't going to go off campus alone again anytime before the holidays.

Sigh.

She opened the online floor guides for the Kofu Showa and Hamamatsu Shitoro Aeon Malls in two separate tabs. She was at the former, and the latter was the closest one to where she lived. Might as well compare them to keep her story straight. And see if there was anything interesting she hadn't gone to in awhile.

In the end, she was just using her friend as an alibi; but not even trying to hide it would be a real dick move. As far as anyone else knew she was just Kyouka Jirou: Regular high schooler out hanging with an absolutely ordinary friend on a completely uneventful Sunday afternoon. Nothing weird about her. Nothing weird about her plans. Absolutely no suspicious activity going on at all no sirree.

...

She hadn't expected to be fed taiyaki of all things. And now she had the crumbly remnants of a donut and a cup of coffee that was probably half sugar at this point. Probably should've considered that before getting what she normally did. She liked sweets as much as the next guy, but even this was a bit much. Plaque-y fuzz was already forming on her teeth. Blech.

She looked down at her phone. Ten more minutes until the time they were set to meet. So ten minutes until her friend would arrive. So ten minutes until she couldn't keep stewing even if she wanted to.

“Kyoukaaaaa!”

Or not.

Well, there she was. Coming right at her. No mistaking those rabbit ears and long white hair anywhere, though the hair clips were new. Jirou slapped on a beaming smile to greet her, and shoved her phone back in her bag.

“Hey Usa!”

Usa Yokugami. Quirk: Ear wings. She could expand and flap her ears to fly short distances. She was Jirou's classmate for their second and third year of middle school. Now she was going to Kofu Daiichi High School. She and Jirou were part of a fairly large friend group that made up a good portion of the girls in their year. And while they weren't particularly close themselves, pretty much everyone in it was on a first name basis with one another. So it wasn't that weird that they'd hang out together.

But dang. High school hit her with the puberty stick, that's for sure. And the blouse+skirt combo contrasted with Jirou's top and shorts. Not like it mattered, but it did make her feel a little underdressed.

Though Usa didn't seem to notice. Instead she began to fret.

“Oh my gosh! I thought I was gonna be the first one here. You weren't waiting too long, were you?”

Jirou chuckled and waved it off.

“Nah. I just got here a couple minutes ago, myself.”

Which was a lie, obviously, but Usa didn't have to know that. Though that was assuming she didn't immediately realize that as soon as she saw the coffee.

And it seemed she didn't, thankfully.

“So how come you came all the way out here, anyway? Is U.A. doing something here?” Usa scanned the area around them, probably looking for anyone else from her class.

Ha. If only.

“Nah, it's just me.” And she made damn well sure of that. “I just had to get off campus, y'know? And I figured 'hey, why not come here?'”

“Oh right. You guys gotta live at school now, huh. Sounds rough.” Usa nodded with understanding. No matter how much you liked your teachers and classmates, being cooped up with them 24/7 could get tiring. And thankfully she didn't think to press the issue; mostly she seemed happy to see an old friend for the first time since they graduated middle school.

“Yeah. But I don't have to commute anymore, so that's good.” And a 5 minute walk beat an hour commuting both ways any day of the week.

“Yeah I know that feeling. Moving here was the best thing I could've done!”

Mr. and Mrs. Yokugami were pretty overprotective, if Jirou remembered right. Not so much that Usa snapped or rebelled or anything, but enough that her newfound freedom took a load off her. Even in those first few minutes, anyone who knew her would be able to see how much more relaxed she was. Even though she was going to one of the best schools in the prefecture and entirely responsible for her own well-being now.

Jirou was gonna wait until the subject came up before even alluding to it, though. It probably wasn't a sore spot, but it wouldn't hurt to be careful.

“So how long's it take you to get to school?”

“Not even 20 minutes by bike! I don't need to take a train or a bus!” And considering how long commutes could get for some people, it's no wonder she was so happy.

“Nice! So you got your own apartment, right?” She knew the answer, but it was as good a lead-in as any.

“Yes I do! It's wonderful!” And she seemed pretty proud of herself for it. Good for her. And that wasn't sarcasm.

Usa changed the subject before Jirou could respond.

“Oh by the way- you're in the same class as Shouto Todoroki, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

Usa seemed to light up at that.

“Oo! Can you, like, get me an autograph?!”

Hoo boy.

“Maybe?” Jirou scratched her head. She didn't know how he'd react to being asked for one. He didn't seem like the type to revel in getting attention from fangirls. “Can't say I know him too well, though. Why, you need one?”

“Are you kidding? He's so cute!”

Jirou wondered how Todoroki would feel knowing he had fans already. Usa continued before she could make a remark about that.

“And his quirk is amazing! And he's got those dark brooding eyes like his dad, but they give him that adorable bad boy look and it's so hot! And cool.”

Jirou wondered how Todoroki would feel knowing he had a fans because of how much like Endeavor he was. He hadn't exactly been Captain Daddy Issues (what, with his weird choice in hero costume design and goal to use nothing but ice ever) since the sports festival, but he never had anything good to say about his father beyond the fact that he was an effective hero.

Ashido and Hagakure were the closest thing he had to fangirls in their class, though even they just remarked that he was the class pretty boy once in a while. And Jirou was well-aware that some of the kids in their class were well on their way to having fanbases of their own straight out of high school. Still, it was kinda weird to hear someone gush about a classmate in-person like this.

But regardless, Jirou chuckled at the pun; then steered the conversation in another direction without giving Usa a definite answer. Maybe she could do it if they got merch or sold pictures or something. But she wasn't sure how she would even breech the subject before they got that far.

So they talked a bit. Then Jirou grabbed her bag, got up, and downed the rest of her coffee. Then she tossed the empty cup and wrapper as they left the shop together.

The two of them spent the next few hours traversing the mall.

From Lashic to Wego to Axes Femme. From DHC to Wabi x Sabi to Minipla. The browsed the various different types of clothes and knickknacks the mall had to offer. The tried on different outfits. They checked out the new stuff they hadn't seen yet. They chatted about classes and life and the friends they'd made as freshmen at their respective schools.

Usa was doing pretty well. She'd found a solid group of friends among her class, and she'd joined the school orchestra. A few classmates were impressed that she knew someone that went to U.A., though Todoroki and Bakugou were the only two the hero geeks were keeping tabs on at the moment. Nothing too exciting ever really happened, but that was (thankfully) the norm for high schools. The juiciest gossip was that one of the seniors was dating an older guy. So nothing that bad.

Jirou was doing alright too. The hero course was pretty rough, but she got her provisional license as a first-year. She usually hung out with the other girls in her class, and had gotten closer with everyone overall since they were living together now. She was also a liiiiittle farther off-campus than she should be, so any mentioning her on social media was a no-go. Usa was a bit disappointed at that last part, but was thankfully understanding about it. It just meant that they wouldn't get to post silly selfies on Twitter or check in on Facebook.

The weekend bustle reverberated along the walls no matter where they went. Moms with their kids. Couples on dates. Groups of friends. Loners doing their own thing. There would always be a few people who radiated doom and gloom no matter where she went, but none of them were actually dangerous. No villains. No fighting. Just a peaceful day of people taking care of their business without a care in the world.

It was a nice distraction. She even bought something herself: A simple striped tanktop from Lovetoxic (since she was still committed to being cash-only in this prefecture). The Hamamatsu Shitoro Aeon Mall had that store too. And since she didn't take the receipt with her, she could rest easy on that too. Because there was nothing in that bag that would say she went anywhere outside the Shizuoka prefecture today.

Usa was having a ball. She didn't get to go out like this too often – most of the girls were focused on schoolwork and clubs right now. Which made sense since it was one of the best schools in the prefecture. So she was going a mile a minute and getting it all out of her system and loving it. It would be hard not to catch some of that giddiness.

Though the conversation would lull once in awhile. Maybe Usa'd be sifting through a clothes rack. Maybe Jirou'd be looking at tags. Whatever the reason, their responses would slow a bit as something else grabbed their attention. Which was totally normal! Can't be completely focused on one person 100% for hours on end, after all. And the conversation would naturally pick back up in a matter of minutes.

And she was thankful for that.

It kept the thoughts lurking in the back of her head down to a dull roar.

Nana Shimura was murdered over thirty years ago.

Her husband too.

Neither case was ever solved.

It was almost embarrassing how quickly Jirou dove back into her research after she and Usa parted ways. The latter had plans for dinner with her parents, so they couldn't stay together the whole day. Which was fine with Jirou, because she had to get back to her folks too; and it would make more sense to go home while they were still awake.

Usa had asked her if she wanted to walk to the station together. Jirou appreciated the offer, but told her she should be fine; Usa's bus was in the complete opposite direction anyway. And though she didn't say it, even as a U.A. student all by her lonesome, Jirou could probably handle herself seeing as how a) she highly doubted anyone would've followed her this far for this long without attacking her by now, b) even though she'd been on screen during the sports festival, she was still pretty much unknown as far as U.A. hero students went, c) she wasn't gonna be going anywhere sketchy, and d) she wasn't even wearing her uniform.

Though maybe she should've taken her up on it. Even without the danger, hanging around other people was still the most effective distraction she'd found. It didn't help that Jirou had nothing else to do while she waited for her train. She was still 'hanging out with her parents', so she wasn't going to be the first to text anyone from school. And she wasn't going to 'utilize social media' for the same reason. And it would just be rude to start bugging Usa again right after they just said goodbye. And Lurkers was moving at a snail's pace; obviously there was the usual rumors and theorizing, but the weekend itself had been pretty uneventful altogether.

Might as well start looking up random cat videos at this point.

...

The husband's obituary said he was survived by his wife and son.

But Shigaraki was way too young to be her son given the dates.

So was he her grandson? Nephew? Long-lost relative twice-removed?

Something else entirely?

Did Midoriya know?

Did anyone else know?

What was she even supposed to say? Midoriya had never met Shimura for obvious reasons. His only encounters with Shigaraki were as enemies. Jirou had no actual proof the two of them had any connection beyond surnames and putting two and two together. For all she knew, she could just be seeing things that weren't even there.

…

She closed the app as her train rolled in. There weren't too many people on it, thankfully, so she was able to quickly grab a window seat.

...

Hanging out with Usa made her feel a lot better, but companionship only worked as a distraction when the person in question was actually there. Which meant she'd have to make a conscious effort to lighten her thoughts on her own. Her parents would notice if something was wrong. Jirou was able to read people really well, but her folks made that ability look like child's play. Her mom was the one who could do it with her quirk (which is where Jirou got it from). Her dad just had one of the most scarily accurate gut instincts she'd ever seen. They'd probably notice something was off regardless of what she did, but she could at least minimize it enough that they wouldn't worry too much.

She put on one of her more upbeat playlists. She tapped a finger to her thigh on beat. She stuffed her head full of happy thoughts: like finally having her provisional license, getting a good grade on her last English test, and getting to check out that Aeon Mall with a friend she hadn't seen in forever.

She was all caught up with her homework, so she was free to relax as she pleased. It wasn't going to be too late when she got home, so she and her parents could hang out and have a jam session. Or maybe they could fill her in on what new plans they'd made for their next album. Or they could even just pop in a movie and relax with snacks without saying much of anything!

There was still a few hours left in the day. Her worries could go piss off in the meantime. This conspiracy wasn't going anywhere. All Might wasn't going anywhere. Midoriya was fine. Everything was fine. There was pretty much no chance the Villain Alliance would make another attack before the end of the year. Maybe not even until they all graduated!

So why waste time thinking about it when she could be happy?

She cleared out her head and slapped a big goofy smile on her face. The buildings and trees passing by sure were interesting weren't they. Almost as interesting as all those different things she and Usa browsed in all those different shops! And all those things they talked about too! They were great! This day was great!

…

…

…

Who was she kidding.

It wasn't too late when the train reached her hometown station.

She got off the train in no particular hurry. The machine ate her ticket as she passed through the gate. The Lovetoxic bag with her new shirt dangled from her fingers. The bag with all her other stuff hung from the opposite shoulder.

Her house was within walking distance. It wasn't too late for another detour, so she stopped for an espresso macchiato at the Starbucks a few blocks away. Then chugged it for some extra energy. Then tossed the evidence at the store itself. Then mentally kicked herself for pretty much dooming her sleep schedule for that night.

She was drained, but no one needed to know that. Her parents wouldn't mind (and they'd see right through her anyway), but she didn't want to give them any reason to worry too much. Her emotions leveled out a while ago, but she still wasn't in the mindset of someone who just spent the whole day relaxing without a care in the world. Best to make it look like she was just tired from walking and chattering away all day with her friends.

The Donki a few blocks down from her house had some supplies she needed to get, so she swung by on the way. Not that she couldn't get them later, but it made sense to get it over with while the idea was fresh in her mind. And while she was still alone. And while she had a window of plausible deniability where there was no chance of anyone asking why she needed what she did.

The sun had just about set when she got home. Some of the lights were on already. It felt like she'd just come home from school on a normal day. She let her body run on autopilot like it used to every day. Punched in the key code for the gate outside. Hear it click open. Close it behind her. See if the front door is unlocked. Go straight inside instead of fishing for her keys since it was.

She kicked off her shoes in the entryway, then looked around for a pair of slippers before remembering that was a home habit she picked up in the dorms. Socks were fine. She stepped onto the wooden floor. It creaked softly under her feet.

She glanced at her phone. It was half past 19:00.

It wouldn't be too long before Mom-

“Honey! Kyouka's home!”

Jirou was all but tackled by her parents in a matter of seconds.

They had a knack for getting her just hard-enough to make her feel it without knocking her over, and those first few months at U.A. hadn't made her any more immune. Jirou returned the favor. Obviously they didn't do it very often when she still lived at home, but now was enough of an event to warrant it, she guessed.

They pulled back after a few moments. Dad was the first to say something after they exchanged their normal greetings:

“All right, Kyouka. Show us that license!”

Straight and to the point. And Jirou was only too happy to oblige. She grabbed her wallet out of her bag and hung it open.

“Right here!”

“Atta girl!”

She and Dad high-fived. Mom made a comment on how fast their little girl was growing up. Dad sprung off that how it felt like only yesterday that she was a little kid with a yellow hat and randoseru afraid of walking together with the other elementary schoolers for the first time. Jirou let out an exaggerated groan, and reminded Dad that he cried twice as much as she did that day. They had some back-and-forth banter, but it was all playful teasing. Really, they were all just happy to see each other again.

The three of them moved to the living room. Mom asked if there was anything she wanted for dinner. Jirou was fine with whatever. They settled on pizza, and talked about what had been going on while she was away as they waited for the delivery guy. The new semester was pretty rough so far, but she was still getting along great with everyone. Mom and Dad were still composing and making music. They were making steady progress on their latest album. Dad lamented about them being empty nesters already. Jirou made a joke about him getting old. They all had a laugh at that.

Mom flipped on the news. Jirou took the chance to check her phone. Thankfully no one had texted her to ask why she never showed up to at Yaoyorozu's study party, which meant either Iida or Mineta (or Kaminari) had told them. Nor had anyone texted here about being in Yamanashi (not that she expected it). No one had texted her at all, which at least meant nothing had happened on campus while she was gone.

So she should take the chance and just relax.

A couple hours and a jam session later it was time to hit the hay. It was kinda weird how quiet taking a bath was now. She almost expected one of the other girls to start chatting next to her. Instead it was just her, herself, and a rubber ducky Dad had gotten as a souvenir overseas. Ah well. At least she had the tub all to herself.

All her stuff had been moved to U.A., which made her room look pretty barren. There was still a few instruments left, a nightstand, some posters, and her old bed was where it always was, but that was about it. Which was fine, really. She doubted that she'd be coming back again any time soon. Though there was enough stuff left behind that she'd be covered for holiday visits and the like.

Her bag was by her bed, and her phone was charging inside it. The sky was dark. The moon was shining. The house was quiet. Jirou threw on an old pair of pajamas she didn't bother to bring with her to school.

And though she should probably try and sleep (caffeine or not), she couldn't go to bed just yet.

Instead she pulled a thin notebook out of the Lovetoxic bag she'd slipped it in. The donki she stopped at before had a few, and she figured it'd be her best option. She didn't have anything on her to write in at the time besides her phone, and her phone was probably the worst store anything she couldn't have anyone find out.

If she had an embarrassing secret or something and someone looked at her phone, it'd suck for sure; but it wouldn't be the end of the world. This would be. Even if it would look more like a twelve-year-old's shitty fanfic than actual facts, she couldn't risk someone that could actually put two and two together being able to read it – even if that chance was one in a million.

But though she liked to think she was decently smart in her own right, there was no way she could keep all this information in her head alone forever. Even Yaoyorozu would have a tough time with it on a long-term basis. Jirou had no idea what would be happening and when. And she didn't know when or if she'd ever be an active part of this conspiracy. But if she didn't want to be completely blindsided, she'd have to record every last detail she could.

She fished a pencil out of her bag and opened up the notebook. She laid face-down on her bed and set the notebook in front of her.

The first page would probably have to have some kind of 'abandon hope all ye who enter'-type message. The other side too. So she flipped to the next page, and began tapping out lines of dots and dashes.

People who know about Midoriya's quirk:

-Midoriya

-All Might

-Recovery Girl

-Principal

-Detective Tsukauchi

-Gran Torino

-Sir Nighteye

-All for One

-Bakugou(?)

-Togata-senpai(?)

-Midoriya's Parents(?)

-Other police(?)

-Shigaraki(?)

She surrounded those words with other lines, and connected some of the dots with faint pencil marks – light-enough that she herself could still clearly see the message underneath. The result was a psychedelic-looking zombie marching to the right with some bullshit forest of fish and triangles behind it. Not the best thing she'd ever drawn by any means, but it definitely did the job of making the information look like nothing more than a doodle by an artsy teen.

And that was probably the best way to hide information in plain sight: No one in their right mind would go through a teenage girl's sketchbook expecting to find those kinds of secrets. And even if they did, they probably couldn't read Morse and wouldn't even see it unless they were specifically looking for it.

Her parents weren't the type to look through her stuff (and wouldn't be able to see it even if they were since she lived in the dorms now). And Kaminari wouldn't be able to get to it since since she wasn't planning on taking it out of her dorm (which the boys wouldn't have access to unless she specifically let them in); and she wasn't planning on telling him about it in the first place. And the three of them were the only ones who could possibly find out.

Anyone else? Not a chance. Even if someone somehow came across it, they'd probably just think it was her 'secret sketchbook' or something. Which Jirou would happily play along with. Because now was definitely not the time to make people start panicking.

She wrote the date under the picture in normal numbers, then turned to the next page and kept going.

Midoriya's quirk is called One for All. Strength quirk. Passed from person to person. The goal is to eventually defeat All for One.

All Might can't use One for All anymore. Used what was left in Kamino. Other quirk unknown, but probably useless. Predicted to die sometime between now and the end of next year. Predicted by Sir Nighteye. Sir Nighteye has never been wrong. Will be a villain that does it. No information on that villain yet. Only that it won't be All for One. Need more information to stop it.

And she didn't even know if she had a chance of stopping it.

It was weird thinking like that. Moving on.

It was time to write about people in particular.

Nana Shimura: Probably All Might's predecessor. If so, previously wielded One for All. Was murdered over 30 years ago. Husband was murdered not long before. Had a son. Status of son unknown.

Sir Nighteye: All Might's former sidekick. Quirk lets him see the future. Has never been wrong. Contact him after telling Midoriya and All Might what I know. Get more information.

Gran Torino: Midoriya's field training teacher and Shimura's friend. Knows everything related to One for All. Told me All Might would die. Did not tell me about the potential connection between Shigaraki and Shimura. Address: 400-XXXX Yamanashi-ken, Darlo-ku, Dagobah-chou 8 Choume, 9-6. Phone number 055-XXX-5249

Tomura Shigaraki: Bad guy. All for One's Successor. Likely leading the Villain Alliance now. Potential relative of Nana Shimura. Relationship unknown. Real name: Tenko Shimura

She wrote down the kanji in Shimura and Shigaraki's names in different areas of the page, then drew a few lines to connect so she knew which went with which. When she was done, she went back to tap out one more line.

All for One: Immortal. The guy All Might beat in Kamino. Knows Midoriya is the successor. Will likely escape Tartarus after All Might dies. Midoriya has to defeat him when that happens.

And she'd have to do what she could to help him when that happened.

They'd all have to help him when that happened.

She just hoped they wouldn't still be freshmen at that point.

…

She drew over the text again before she could get distracted by her own thoughts again. The picture this time was a bazaar. The kanji were on the signs of various stalls. The dots and dashes were on everything else. It was a little harder to make out the words, but she'd manage. And she could always redraw it if she really had to.

She wrote the date at the bottom of that page too. Knowing when she recorded the info could be useful if she wanted to reference it.

Actually...

She tapped out another few sentences at the bottom of that page, hidden within the cobblestones:

Midoriya doesn't know I know at all yet. Only Gran Torino does. I have to tell him and All Might I know as soon as possible. But I can't tell him All for One knows he's the successor just yet or anything else he doesn't already know. It's All Might's job to do that.

After she told Midoriya, she'd need to keep a tally on who else would know she knew. Obviously there was no one in class but Midoriya (and possibly Bakugou) who knew about One for All and the whole successor thing, but there was a chance that some school staff were in on it now too (besides Recovery Girl and the Principal, of course).

She closed the notebook, slipped it inside the shirt she bought, and stuffed both in her bag.

Then let her face fall onto her pillow with a 'fwump'.

And groaned.

aaaaaaaa

...

Maybe if she had an actual deadline she could make a real plan.

Was there any way to gauge how strong All Might still was? Even without his strength quirk, it stood to reason that he could still probably take out most everyone at U.A. with a couple hits. He didn't break his arms like Midoriya, so that meant his body had to be strong-enough to handle the One for All at it's full power, right? But how long would that last now that he was retired? How much more would his old injuries eat away at him? What would he have a tough time facing now? What would he have a tough time facing in a  year  ? How strong would a villain have to be to actually  kill  him?

Would he be alone? Would there be heroes too weak to stop it? Would it happen too quickly for anyone to react?

The only thing she could really guess is that this villain wouldn't be as strong as All for One. And as far as she knew, there weren't any others as strong as Endeavor. Which meant that villain could be defeated with the right set of heroes.

Jirou knew she herself wouldn't be anywhere near as strong as All Might next year unless his health really took a turn for the worst, but there were ways to cut corners when trying to get stronger.

Focusing on nothing what you're good at would improve those specific areas way faster.

Jirou was good with her jacks and shockwaves.

She could really do some damage in the future if her potential was anything like Present Mic's.

But becoming an expert at those so quickly would mean she'd suck at everything else. She'd just be a glass cannon.

Which would be worse than just going at a normal pace if she couldn't help All Might and All for One broke out some time after she graduated. Because she'd still be useless at CQC and would only be able to take a couple hits before going down.

And she didn't want anyone else dying just because they had to save her.

...

There was a knock on the door.

“Kyouka?”

The voice was unmistakably her mom's.

Huh. Usually she'd be downstairs practicing or jotting down ideas or something about now.

“Yeah?”

“Can I come in?”

“Sure. You're fine.” She didn't have anything out in the open. She sat up and swung her legs off the bed.

The door creaked open. Mom stepped inside. She smiled softly.

“Hi, Honey.”

Jirou did the same.

“Hey Mom.” She tilted her head a little. “What's up?”

“Got everything squared away?”

“Yep.”

Mom looked her over for a second.

“Is everything alright at school?”

Dammit, Mom.

There was enough sound insulation in the bedrooms that they couldn't hear each other through the walls without the other side making a real effort. Her parents made sure of that. Which meant there was no way that Mom was able to hear what she did in her notebook. Which meant that the concern in her voice must have been caused by something Jirou did earlier.

She thought she stayed perfectly in-character for the past few hours. She even managed to keep her mind off the conspiracy (for the most part). Like sure, she was tired; but she hadn't stewed at all. She swatted those thoughts away every time they bubbled up. Whether by talking or thinking up guitar riffs or focusing just a little too hard on the TV when something interesting popped up.

She should've known Mom would hear the subconscious cues regardless.

But she waved her hand and nodded.

“Oh yeah, everything's fine.”

“You don't sound fine.”

Oh come on.

It wasn't that she didn't trust her parents – Jirou could trust them more with a secret than anyone. But it wouldn't be fair to tell them where else she went today. How she went to a stranger's house in secret and lied to everyone about it. How she was in an entirely different prefecture from where she said she'd be. How she learned things about the Symbol of Peace that only a select few were supposed to know.

Putting aside the fact that she would have to unload everything on them all at once for them to have even an clue of what she was talking about, there was nothing they could do about it either. Okay so the guy All Might beat in Kamino's breaking out. Okay so he's so strong he swatted away Endeavor like he was nothing. Okay, so All Might himself isn't even going to live long-enough to see that happen. Gee, how could that possibly make things go to shit and ruin the livelyhoods of people they cared about?

Mom and Dad already had a suitcase each with the bare essentials for when they needed to travel in a hurry. It was never anything so sudden they had to have it ahead of time, but the prep always made things easier. And if Jirou kept her mouth shut and played her cards right, they never would need them for real. Because loved ones were always a potential target when you pissed off the wrong people. And said wrong people were ones she hopefully would never have to face.

She took a deep breath, and unclenched her fist. How long had it been like that, anyway?

“It's just... A friend of mine is going through some rough times right now. I wish I could help them.”

Keep it truthful. Keep it vague. Mom didn't use her quirk for combat, but when it came to reading emotions she blew Jirou out of the water. And Jirou knew she herself would be giving off bad vibes as it was. She'd have to be careful if she was gonna make sure Mom wouldn't be hinted the actual gravity of the situation. Good thing she was a teenager with hormones she could blame all the weirdness on.

“Have you tried talking with them about it?”

Hah. She wished.

“Not yet.” But she remembered what Gran Torino said. Sooner was better than later. She should just get it over with.

“Would you like to talk about it?” Mom asked. 'With me' sat at the end of her tongue.

“Nah. It's not something I should even know.” And it definitely wasn't something she should be talking about with anyone not already in the loop. “And it's nothing I can do anything about at the moment, anyway.”

She already knew that her mom would be able to tell something was wrong. She was just glad her mom was hand-off-enough that she wasn't gonna try and meddle. There was no immediate danger, after all. All Might was still on the U.A. campus. And even teachers often used the buddy system now when they left. The Villain Alliance weren't dumb-enough to attack the school directly (yet).

“I understand.” Though there was still concern in her voice. But nothing about it or anything else suggested she heard what Jirou just tapped out, or that she had sensed just how bad things were. “But you can tell me if you feel overwhelmed. I'll always be here.”

“I know.” And she appreciated it. “Thanks, Mom.”

“You're welcome. Good night, sweetie.”

“Good night, Mom.”

Mom shut the door. Jirou was left alone.

She sighed.

She should go to sleep.

She had school tomorrow.

But she was still in the tail end of her caffeine buzz.

So it would be a while before she'd be able to nod off.

But what was there to even do in the meantime?

Mom and Dad were going to bed too. And even with the sound damping, Mom would be able to hear her if she went downstairs.

She looked at her bag. Then grabbed her phone out of it.

No new messages. That was fine. Everyone else was getting ready to snooze too. Probably.

She suppressed the urge to go back to hunting for information. As far as she knew, she had found everything related to this that was publicly available. Maybe if she could think of something she would, but for now it was just a matter of just... waiting. Because it wasn't like there was some villain registry high school students could access on a whim at god-knows-when in the morning when they had nothing better to do.

...

There was watching Youtube videos, but doing that this late would probably keep her up the rest of the night.

So music it was.

She plugged in her jacks and scrolled through her music choices, eventually deciding on Sejd's first album. Hopefully that would be long enough.

One deep breath. Then two.

Clear mind.

No thoughts.

Just sleep.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

It had only been a few weeks since she'd moved into the dorms, but it was weird how unfamiliar her room at home had become.

She woke up expecting the ambient sounds of 19 other kids her age. Instead she got nothing but the faintest traces of two adults. Even though Mom and Dad slept in the room next to her, she could never hear them. Thankfully they took the extra soundproofing precaution when it came to the bedrooms when they first bought the house.

Roll out of bed. Get up. Get dressed. Throw pajamas in the hamper. Go downstairs. Get breakfast. Her morning routine hadn't really changed since she got to U.A.. The only major difference was that she had her own hamper at school. And that she had some extra time to sleep in. And no train commute. Really, beyond having to do her own chores now, she was living the high school dream.

Dad was already up, like usual. He grinned and raised his mug with a “Mornin', sunshine.” as she entered the kitchen. Then went back to reading the news on his tablet. Mom was more of a night owl (which Jirou took after), so she usually slept in a bit.

Jirou grabbed a bowl and a pair of chopsticks and spooned some rice out of the cooker, then cracked an egg over it. Dad grabbed her a cup of coffee as she stirred her breakfast up. They both took their coffee the same, which hadn't changed since she moved into the dorms. The commute was why she started drinking it in the first place. Now it was just a force of habit.

She mentioned that she'd be leaving a little early so she could stop by the dorm before class, but otherwise didn't say much. Dad didn't try and start any conversation either, though he did glance at her once in awhile. They both talked up a storm last night. Nothing wrong with just enjoying the morning peace in silence. That tranquility was one of the few things she couldn't get during daily U.A. life. She'd be lying if she said she didn't miss it.

Mom came down to see her off just as she was about to leave. Jirou got a big hug from both her and Dad, and then headed out the door waving goodbye.

She normally would've taken the train after the one she boarded at the station, but she had to get back to her dorm and change into her uniform. She wore the shirt she bought yesterday with a pair of capris and carried the notebook in her bag.

She got a few curious glances – probably because of how she as a teenager was dressed on a school day, but no one asked any questions. No one seemed to recognize her either; and even if they did, the whole 'U.A. is a boarding school now' thing meant that the students that went there wouldn't (in theory) ever commute there unless it was a special occasion. Well, that and the fact she wasn't on her normal train too. The regulars she always rode in the same car with might have noticed if she was.

It felt a little lonely making the trek back. Nowadays she always went together to and from class with at least a few other kids. Contrast that with the relative silence of a rush hour train: No one to chat with, nothing to listen to outside her phone – and she had to stay in it for almost an hour. And there was nothing else to do but go straight to the school after she reached the station unless she wanted to get a snack. Thank god for unlimited data plans.

There wasn't any fanfare as she got back to campus and went through the front gate. The sensors inside it read her ID and that was that. Maybe if she did this a few weeks ago, she would've run into one of the last straggling reporters itching for the scoop on U.A.'s new boarding system; but it seemed they finally gave up after barely anyone entered or left anymore.

A few kids were already outside; some taking walks, some jogging, and some just getting a breath of fresh air. Jirou passed them as she made a beeline for the Class 1-A dorm building. She gave a small nod to a few she recognized, but no one else paid her any mind.

She took a quick sweep as she walked into her class building. Some of the guys usually got up early to exercise before class, so a few people missing made sense. She said hi to everyone on the first floor. Ashido told her she really missed out on Yaoyorozu's study session. Jirou said she'd go next time. Iida welcomed her back and asked how she was doing. She said she was feeling pretty good. Hagakure asked if she'd finished “that thing with her parents” (looks like Kaminari or Mineta spilled the beans – thanks, guys). Jirou said it was all taken care of.

Buuuut as much as she'd like to stay for awhile and keep chatting, she had to get in her uniform. Some of the others were wearing theirs. She'd already eaten, so she might as well get hers too. So she headed up the elevator and into her dorm. The first order of business was to get her notebook somewhere safe. It was a bit awkwardly bent when she removed it from her bag, but it was easy enough to straighten out. And it wasn't like it was going to affect the contents inside.

She threw it in a record sleeve: No One Can Ever Know by The Twilight Sad. A bit on the nose, but at least there was enough of a connection so she wouldn't forget where it was. Too bad she was the only one who would find any humor in it.

A phone could be hacked or stolen easily, but she doubted anyone would go after her vinyls. It wasn't likely that anyone else on campus had anything that could even play them. And most of them weren't anything valuable that a potential thief would think they could pawn off for a good chunk of change. It was another layer of security, and probably the best she could do short of hiding it under the floorboards.

The sleeve went back on the shelf. She took off her casual clothes and threw on her uniform, then headed back down the elevator and left for the main building together with everyone else. She chatted with the other girls. It was like she'd never left in the first place. Time ticked by until it was time to go to class. Then everyone still in the dorm building headed out.

It was just another day.

The scuffs Bakugou and Todoroki had from their training were the first things anyone mentioned.

Ashido led the charge with commenting on Bakugou's appearance. Kaminari piped in that Todoroki wasn't any better. And yep, that provisional training really roughed him up too, didn't it. Jirou could safely say she didn't envy either of them there. Kinda weird seeing scrapes and bruises this early in the morning. People would usually take a quick trip to Recovery Girl and get it taken care of ASAP instead of letting them heal naturally.

Iida didn't know where Uraraka and Tsuyu were, but it looked like they at least told Yaoyorozu. The two of them hadn't been in the dorm building when Jirou got back. But no one else was worried, so she didn't think too much of it herself. Probably meant their excused absence was them doing an internship too.

Huh. Kirishima was a no-show too. He was one of the guys who would sometimes jog in the morning, so him not being in the dorm wasn't actually that weird either. Though the fact that Iida didn't mention him probably meant that Kirishima told him ahead of time.

Which was fine! He wasn't the one Jirou was worried about, anyway. Because... Well...

Midoriya looked like hell, to put it lightly.

He wasn't injured or anything, but Jirou knew full well that wasn't the only type of pain that existed. He was hunched over his desk, staring down. But there wasn't anything there for him to focus on. His heart rate was elevated. His breathing was slightly heavier. The palpable anxiety emanating from him eclipsed anything else in the room as far as Jirou was concerned.

And it was more than a little tempting to go over and ask just what the hell happened.

A few of the other kids seemed to notice this, though maybe not the complete inner turmoil part. Mineta and Ashido in particular peppered him with questions about his internship as cheerily as she'd ever seen them. Though they decided it would probably be best to leave him alone after they realized he was giving the same apathetic groan of a response each time. They probably thought internships really were that exhausting. Jirou knew better, but she wasn't going to correct them.

After all, it's not like there was anything she could do for him either.

All she could do was work on herself.

Which meant getting stronger.

That was her goal for now.

She was one of the weakest in class when she got to U.A.. The only people she did better than in the initial evaluation were Hagakure, Mineta, and Midoriya, the latter of which had long since made it to the upper ranks of the class in terms of power. Sure, that was because said test was biased in favor of those who could use their quirks to augment their physical strength, but that wasn't an excuse when others like Ojiro and Ashido managed to score well even while barely able to use theirs.

Was she jealous? A little. But it didn't matter how she compared to her classmates as much as it did actual villains. If nothing else, she wanted to be confident she could take those thugs she, Yaoyorozu, and Kaminari faced back at USJ on her own. They were the type she'd probably have to face if she encountered any during her next bout of field training. And she had to be at least as strong as them before she could even think of taking on villains with any level of notoriety.

U.A. had a gym – multiple gyms, actually. During free training she usually just went with cardio on one of the treadmills and chatted with whoever was next to her. Or she chilled on her phone while do the bare minimum of work on one of the weight machines no one ever used. Lazy, but it was an easy time-waster and she didn't exactly have excess stores of energy like some of her classmates.

But she couldn't afford to waste time like that anymore.

She was weak. She knew she was weak. Hatsume's gadgets and the other tech built into her costume helped with that, but earthquakes and shock waves alone wouldn't be much help if whoever she was fighting could get in close-enough for hand-to-hand combat. Her jacks couldn't do much beyond pierce, stretch, and channel her heartbeat; and Togata-senpai showed her just how easy it would be to use them against her if her opponent was way stronger than her. And she needed to cover as many of her bases as she could before villains attacked U.A. again (if they attacked again; best not to jinx it).

But man, where to even start?

She wasn't Midoriya. She didn't have a teacher she could go to for special one-on-one training. If she were to choose someone, it would probably be Present Mic just because of the similarity in their quirks. But she wouldn't even know what ask beyond how to better train her sound output. And said sound output was probably fine for what it was – she needed to increase her other physical capabilities in order to make the best use of it.

Her lobes were an obvious choice to work on. She didn't know how much weight she could carry, or how much force it would take to tear them (since she rarely bothered with more than small weights). They were thin and nowhere near as strong as Tsuyu's tongue, but said tongue was probably the best idea of what her lobes could do should they reach their max potential. Whipping her jacks without any sound behind it was an alright attack against little things like drones, but it wasn't anything she could reasonably use against actual villains one-on-one yet.

But other than that, she wasn't sure what to even do for actual attacks. Maybe learn some martial arts? She'd have to ask someone if she decided to go that route. She knew there was a judo club, though it was populated almost entirely by Gen Ed kids – not that there was anything wrong with being one; but she knew that most, of not all, of them wanted to get in the hero course eventually. And trying to join them would probably make things more than a tad awkward.

Then again, her feelings were nothing compared to the ever-looming threat of whatever Midoriya was going to face in the future. All for One was going to break out of prison. He knew Midoriya had One for All. And there was no way that Midoriya would be strong-enough to take him by the end of the year. She wasn't even sure he'd be able to use all of One for All's power by the time they graduated.

But if there was any way she could even give him even slightly better odds, she had to do it.

Because, well, there was an actual chance she could help him.

The more she thought about that conversation with Gran Torino, the more insane a task she realized helping All Might would be. There was only about a year and a half left tops. Jirou was not going to be at the level of an experienced pro hero in a year and a half. She had no leads on who this villain could potentially be. She had no leads on where it could happen. In all likelihood, she wasn't even gonna be anywhere near All Might when he'd have that encounter. And she obviously couldn't try and avoid that by puppy-guarding him 24/7. And even if she did: If Sir Nighteye really wasn't ever wrong, what if that was what would get All Might killed?

Sure, she'd still keep her ears open. And sure, she'd keep researching if she found any new leads. But with nothing else to truly go off, everything she did would just be another shot in the dark.

There weren't any downsides to getting stronger, so obviously that was the way to go right now since she didn't exactly have a plan to work with. And she couldn't just make one of her own. She wasn't a strategist. Information gathering? Obviously her thing. But actually using that information? She'd only just started working on that when she came to U.A.. And even then, she'd been coasting and letting other people do the thinking for her during team exercises.

If it were up to Jirou, the first thing to do would be to tell people who had an actual chance of stopping it. Endeavor, Hawks, the other staff at U.A. not already in the know – making some kind of large-scale announcement would obviously cause mass panic, but letting a select few heavy-hitters know about Sir Nighteye's prediction would increase the odds would be able to figure out who or what was supposed to take All Might out. Then they could do something to actually stop it.

But All Might hadn't told anyone outside his circle for a reason. Jirou didn't know what that reason was, but a man who'd been doing heroics longer than she'd been alive would probably be a better judge of when and whom to tell extra-sensitive information like that to. So glaring logistical issues of a high schooler trying to lead experienced professionals into potentially mortal combat aside, that meant no telling Aizawa-sensei to be ready for Japan's greatest supervillain to break out of Tartarus. And no asking Destegoro about any possibility to get a hero bodyguard specifically for one person. And no telling any other heroes that it would probably be a good idea to be on extra-high alert wherever All Might was for the next year and a half.

Which didn't exactly leave her with many options.

Gran Torino, Sir Nighteye, and every other adult in the know seemed to think All Might getting killed was inevitable. And Jirou doubted she'd be able to come up with a plan any of them would be willing to follow. If Midoriya knew too (or found out soon; hopefully), he'd obviously want to stop it too, which made it two kids versus a foresight quirk that had never once been wrong ever. If Bakugou was in the know too, that would make three of them.

Three kids.

In high school.

With nothing but provisional hero licenses.

Had to come up with a plan to stop a villain from killing Japan's former number one hero.

Because otherwise, a villain was going to kill Japan's former number one hero.

And just... she wasn't any kind of math whiz and there weren't even numbers to calculate, but god dammit those odds were terrible.

Other heroes didn't know what was going to happen, so just relying on them and hoping for the best wasn't going to work. Changing the future required knowing about it in the first place. That meant the only people who could do that were people in the know.

She wasn't even an optimist, but what choice did they have?-

Dee dee-dee dee deeeee...

Jirou's phone alarm sounded snapped her back into reality.

She'd set it to 18:15. 19:00 was the latest clubs could stay, so heading out a little earlier would let her avoid running into anyone else for the most part. And the people she would see wouldn't be anyone she knew; and she doubted they would stop her to ask any questions. Maybe she'd run into a teacher, but it wasn't against the rules for U.A. students to use the gyms of their own volition after class. It's just that most didn't bother since only the hero kids needed exercise and they got more than enough of that during class.

She stopped the treadmill and hopped off. Then took a big swig of water and a few deep breaths to clear her head. Her legs already felt like jelly even after just an extra two hours of on-and-off running. Her clothes were damp from all the sweat. She didn't even wanna think about how it would feel as she did it with other exercises. Especially the ones that dealt with upper body strength. Looks like here noodle arms were gonna come back to bite her.

There were a few bots that worked for the basics in combat. Some for hand-to-hand. Others for various weapons. And they were made of much stronger stuff than the robots in the entrance exam or sports fest 5k, so she doubted she'd be able to destroy them even if she wanted to. Maybe she's take one on on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday would probably be open too. Though all three in a row might be a little much.

She stopped in the locker room for a quick shower and blow dry. She wasn't sure when the janitors or whoever washed their non-hero gym uniforms, but she'd know if hers still smelled funky tomorrow.

And speaking of tomorrow: she wasn't sure what she was gonna do about that. Tuesday's last class was P.E., which meant leaving the locker room to go back to the dorm together with other girls. She felt bad enough that this arrangement meant she would always make a beeline for the gym instead of walking back with Yaoyorozu like she had been (though she was glad Yaoyorozu was nice enough to accept “hey Yaomomo I got something to take care of go on without me” as a reason without questioning it). But the girls always made the journey from gym to dorm as a collective. And they always waited if someone needed to take a few extra minutes. Ashido and Hagakure would probably grill her if she tried to ditch it with some lame excuse.

It wasn't like Jirou wanted to do this whole training thing alone or anything. Exercising by herself sucked. But she wasn't going to be the one to ask anyone to stay with her. If she managed to stick to the plan, she'd be staying after school every day for hours. And on top of that, she wasn't one of the kids who usually went off to do their own thing. Normally she just went home and hung out with the others. Now she was staying late by herself alone.

It shouldn't be too alarming as long as she stayed normal otherwise, right? Shouldn't be too hard to just socialize like she had been with the time she had left. And if anyone asked, she was going to try for an internship next year and she wanted to prepare in advance. Because man, the intern crew had guts to do that as freshmen.

...Which was pretty flimsy reasoning, all things considered. But it's not like they had any reason to doubt her. If someone pressed, though, she could always say she saw a hero-vs-villain showdown and it made her realize how much catching up she had to do. She'd have to look for any incidents that happened in her hometown and choose from them then. And she'd have to come up with an excuse for why she was there to witness it in the first place. And one for why she wasn't in any of the photographs or videos. Even though she reeeeally doubted they'd treat the conversation like a cross examination, she knew better than to leave any of her bases uncovered.

Man, fake alibis were hard work.

But the only alternatives were being cagey about information (bad idea) or telling them the truth (even worse idea). She was from Shizuoka. She'd spent most of the day in Yamanashi. Talking about Gran Torino was off-limits for obvious reasons. Hanging out with Usa would seem like a safe subject at first glance, but Jirou would have no way of limiting the details of their meeting should the stars align and Usa somehow find herself talking to someone from Class A.

Actually, she should probably make sure Usa wouldn't tell anyone that they met at all. Not that Jirou didn't like hanging out with her – but information had it's own way of making its way down the weirdest grape vines. Strangers didn't recognize her when she wasn't in her school uniform (and even when she was, they only saw her as some random kid from U.A.), but all it would take was one person saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to blow her cover story into tiny smithereens.

Not that she should even have to plan for the possibility of someone looking through her texts and asking about a random friend from middle school.

Or any of her classmates meeting a girl living in another prefecture who wasn't even going to be a hero.

Or anyone pressing her that hard to begin with.

…

Anyway, people would probably think Jirou doing something like 'super secret solo training' would be weird and maybe even funny, but it shouldn't raise any red flags on its own. Writing down everything in her notebook helped her shove those thoughts to the back of her mind, so she probably wasn't acting any different than normal (and she'd been paying a lot of attention to what she was doing and why). So if anyone saw or found out, they'd probably just think of it as her trying to do some self-improvement.

Heck, maybe they'd be inspired to work out more after school too. And in a perfect world, everyone else in her class would follow her lead too (minus the feeling of impending doom, of course). They were all getting stronger at a steady rate, but doing even more couldn't hurt, right? Especially when their class of freshmen had somehow encountered actual villains. Twice.

Obviously Jirou alone wouldn't be much help against the Villain Alliance right how. She was just one person, and she wasn't particularly talented (compared to everyone else in the hero program, at least). But any amount of assistance was better than no assistance. Nineteen kids together were going to be able to do more than just one alone. So if anything, she should be trying to get everyone else to push past their limits – even more than what Aizawa-sensei normally made them do.

Which, well, she obviously couldn't force anyone to do. She wasn't a teacher. She didn't have any authority over the others. And she didn't have any way to try and 'scare them into action' besides telling them what Gran Torino told her or making up some other tinfoil conspiracy. Which was a stupid idea and no one anyone in their right mind would ever seriously consider. And asking anyone out of the blue to come train with her for hours after school every day would just set off warning bells. Which meant all she had was herself and her own self-discipline. If she was lucky, maybe it would motivate someone else. But that was the most she could hope for.

So for now? Plus ultra. That's all she could do.

Because... well...

...

She was really going in circles, wasn't she.

She should stop doing that.

But she knew she wasn't the worst in class when it came to overthinking things.

That distinction belonged to Midoriya.

She'd hoped Midoriya's apathy and exhaustion on Monday were gonna be temporary, but the days after made it clear that wasn't the case.

He just got worse. Anxiety festered inside him. He clearly wasn't getting enough sleep. He often didn't finish his food. The teachers had to call his name multiple times for him to even register that it was his turn to read. He almost drowned during hero training once.

Aizawa-sensei was even ready to stop his internship if it got any worse.

Though Jirou had a sneaking suspicion that that was the worst possible thing he could do. Midoriya's exhaustion was almost entirely emotional. And a lot of it comprised of what seemed to be guilt. If this mental strain was caused by something he saw, removing him from his internship was going increase it exponentially.

Though leaving him to his own devices wouldn't be much better.

Jirou needed to tell him what she knew.

He needed to know she knew about his quirk.

And he needed to know she was willing to do whatever she needed to to help him.

But now wasn't the right time.

To even breech that subject, she had to get him alone. Then she had to tell him what she knew.

And she knew better than to confront him over something he clearly didn't want anyone to know about while he was in this state. Despite what she'd observed, he was actually doing a pretty good job functioning (distractions aside); but that didn't mean it was a good time to unload on him. He felt guilty about something now. He'd feel even guiltier that he wasn't even able to protect All Might's secret. And it would open up the possibility that other people knew too. Which would just make him paranoid on top of all that.

Sigh.

Midoriya wasn't the only one who had problems. There were a fair number of kids in Class A with baggage their own baggage:

Aoyama went out of his way to avoid people despite unequivocally being the loneliest member of Class A. Part of it had something to do with his belt – he was the only kid in class that needed support gear to help guide his quirk. And because of it, he seemed to think he was nowhere near on par with everyone else in class.

Uraraka had a metric fuckton of latent anxiety and was hell bent on pretending that nothing but happy emotions exist. Something had been a little off about her ever since the midterms, which Ashido seemed to think was a crush; but honestly, it sounded more like a bad feeling than any springtime of youth nonsense. It reminded Jirou of her dad's gut instincts in a way, though she had no idea what it was for. And Jirou had a feeling Uraraka didn't know either.

Bakugou was wired almost constantly and did whatever he could to make sure any feelings he considered 'weak' were covered by anger, grouchiness, yelling, and more anger – even if he had cooled down a bit. His heartbeat always spiked whenever they had lessons that involved getting captured or restrained. His nightmares were so common that Jirou literally filtered his reactions out entirely when she slept now. Though if nothing else, at least that fight he and Midoriya had after the license exam set his mind a little more at ease.

Iida was always afraid that one of them would go missing. A stern expression would always flash across his face whenever the tally came up short. He even counted the kids in Class B when they were in the same area. The forced retirement of his brother still weighed heavily on him. And while everyone who went to U.A. knew that hero work was dangerous, Iida was one of the few who truly grasped what was at stake. He was lucky his studious nature and 'class prez instincts' distracted him enough from going down a mental rabbit hole of his own.

Tokoyami was- Jesus Christ where to even begin.

Even the more relaxed and easygoing classmates had their own concerns: Shouji often appeared to be a blank slate, but he laser focused on any unfamiliar noises. Tsuyu seemed unflappable, but she kept a worried eye on kids that were sick or injured. Mineta was, well, Mineta; but he always got antsy whenever they left campus now.

If someone named a classmate of hers, Jirou could tell them what nervous behaviour that student gained since the beginning of the school year. Every. Single. One.

They were all affected by it, even if they didn't realize it. Even if they didn't acknowledge it. Even if they didn't put two and two together.

Point being: Almost everyone came into U.A. bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And part their education was supposed to ease them into learning the grim realities almost all heroes would have to face at some point in their careers. But Class A was thrown into it directly. Twice. With death was a real possibility in both cases. In places that were supposed to be safe. Only an idiot would think they would be completely unaffected.

But what could Jirou do about it? What could she do for any of them?

Nothing, that's what.

People with problems did what they could to hide them. And the only reason she knew what she knew was because of what she heard behind closed doors. She could only listen to their problems, not fix them. And even if she offered to help, the chances that it would do any good were next to zero. Telling them just what she knew would make them close themselves off even more, which would make things even worse. And Jirou wouldn't be able to live with herself if she was the reason someone got expelled, or killed.

She'd long-since learned that it was best just to leave other people alone. Everyone had their own coping mechanisms and they seemed to be working well-enough. She might tell a teacher if she was completely absolutely 100% sure that they were going to hurt themselves or do something that would otherwise get themselves killed, but anything less than that wasn't worth the classwide paranoia that would inevitably follow.

Jirou might've at least asked Midoriya how he was feeling if they were closer. But she had enough tact to at least hold off on it until he didn't have so much on his plate. Obviously something happened that day, but whatever it was he wasn't venting to anyone else – for better or worse. If he wanted to confide in someone, he'd do it himself. Or maybe one of his closer friends would press him. Or maybe nothing would happen and he'd just decompress overtime once he wasn't so overloaded.

She even wrote it down in her notebook on a new page, drawing a new picture overtop as well:

I still haven't told Midoriya what I know yet. The internship's hitting him hard. Better not make things worse. I'll tell him when he's feeling better.

Yeah, the internship was the reason he was like this. It wasn't like it was gonna last forever.

There wasn't anything in the news about him or Sir Nighteye's office, so Jirou had no way of knowing what happened unless Midoriya started mumbling about it under his breath. And it also meant the incident probably wasn't over yet. Hopefully he'd get closure before the internship itself ended.

She could wait until then.

He was training under All Might's former sidekick, after all.

He'd be okay.

Thankfully, as predicted, no one seemed too concerned those first few days when Jirou came through the front door a couple hours after pretty much everyone else.

They had homework. The kids on dinner duty did their thing. Some of the slackers had the TV on. It was just about time to eat, so everyone was on the ground floor. About half of her classmates were sitting in the dining area. Most of the others were lazing on the couches. Some were looking at their phones. Some were talking. A few of them were even getting some of their homework done ahead of time. Jirou pulled her jack away from the door, and was careful not to make too much noise as she grabbed the handle and gently pulled it open.

Yep. No cuts in conversation. No comments about the door. Nothing about her. Just a few glances from people who then went right back to whatever they were doing. Good.

Class A tended to go back to the dorms together in batches, but it was pretty common for a kid or two to fly solo on any given day. Tokoyami sometimes went up to the roof (though more recently, Aoyama often went up with him). Shouji and Kouda too sometimes. Sometimes someone would forget their bag, homework, jacket, or whatever else and rush back to the main building to grab it before the locks automatically activated. Sometimes they'd want to go ahead or hang back or go for a jog do whatever else.

Point being: someone (her) coming back this late wasn't going to set off any warning bells. Heck, Kirishima and Ojiro got back after her yesterday. As long as everyone was in the building by dinner, no one would question it.

Speaking of which: Food time (soon). She took a look at what spots were still open.

There were a few of them that tried to always sit at the same table, but most of them just sat wherever while tending to gravitate toward their respective friend groups. Midoriya usually hung around Iida, Uraraka, and/or Todoroki. Kaminari usually sat with Sero or Mineta. Jirou herself tended to sit near Yaoyorozu, and that's whose table she grabbed a seat at.

Which was all well and good. Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and Shouji were chatting about something or other. Jirou injected herself into the conversation when she found an opportunity. Time passed. Dinner was ready. Everyone got their food. Jirou got a second helping. She didn't have much of an appetite, but eating more should give her more energy, right?

It was nice just chilling like this. She chatted between bites of her food. No one was talking about anything heavy – just class, homework, heroes, and some stuff trending on twitter. The atmosphere was peaceful and relaxed. It didn't seem like anyone was stewing or anxious – enough that it really stuck out as abnormal, anyway.

Though all good things must come to an end, she supposed.

The class usually had a quick 5-minute meeting on Sunday to distribute who got what chores. They were generally assigned in pairs. Anyone who wanted to do something in particular got to choose first. Anyone not present got assigned chores at random (and usually got scheduled for an extra shift or two – thanks guys); Bakugou and Todoroki were going to be stuck doing that until they got their licenses, and Jirou was gonna be in the same boat this week. The people left who didn't care either picked from what was left, or got assigned at random themselves.

So tonight, Jirou had dish duty with Kaminari.

Which wasn't a bad thing. Kaminari did his chores just like the rest of them. And given their recent trend of not having one-on-one conversations with each other at all, the two of them would probably finish pretty fast with nothing to distract them.

Jirou got a head start after most of the class had thrown their dishes in the sink. She turned on the tap and started rinsing of the plates that still had a lot of stuff on them. Kaminari was chatting with Kirishima, but he'd probably get up and join her when the last of them finished eating. A few more minutes passed and he did just that. Jirou scooched over to the other half of the sink. Kaminari grabbed a sponge and squirted some dishwashing liquid on it. Jirou grabbed a towel.

Kaminari scrubbed. Jirou did the final rinse and dry. Neither of them said anything to each other. Instead Kaminari bantered back and forth with his normal crew. Jirou stuck a jack in her phone, and used the other one to start up one of her playlists; she'd done it enough times that she didn't need to look at the screen unless she had something she wanted to listen to in particular.

Kaminari's conversation soon died out. Jirou focused on finishing the chore. They worked without saying anything. Which was fine. They both knew how to do dishes. They both knew what the other preferred doing. It wasn't hard to fall into a steady rhythm.

Then she noticed a glance in her peripheral vision.

Then a second.

Kaminari exhaled through his nose.

He clearly wanted to say something.

It wasn't the first time he'd been like that. Probably wasn't going to be the last either. And while Jirou didn't consider herself to be a mind reader, she had a few ideas of things he could want to discuss – most of which Jirou would have to be an idiot to go along with.

It wasn't like she was going out of her way to ignore him. And it wasn't like she refused to respond whenever he did say something (because, y'know, going mute during a team exercise or regular group conversation was just dumb). Really, she wanted to talk to him again. Because he was a good guy and they did get along really well before this whole silent period. They always walked to the station together after school, bantered with about everything under the sun, and talked in class using Morse code. Not that she couldn't do that with a lot of her other classmates (well- besides the Morse code), but Kaminari wasn't replaceable. No one in Class A was.

But if this was how things were gonna work out, this was how things were gonna work out. If Kaminari didn't want to let it go, Jirou wasn't going to try and make him. Because that would only encourage him. And they didn't need to fight again. All it would do is stress them both out and not resolve anything because Jirou wasn't going to be the one spilling secrets this heavy.

So silence it was.

“Jirou.”

…

Huh.

So he actually said something. It was the first time he'd directly addressed her alone in days – weeks if she didn't count team exercises or conversations involving at least one other person.

Might as well respond.

“Kaminari.”

He began tapping on a bowl with a fingernail. The sound reverberated out of the water.

You're back late.

She lowered her own voice to a level only he'd be able to hear.

“Yeah.”

Again.

Jirou's eyebrows furrowed.

“I guess.”

You really missed out on the study party before. Even I managed to learn a few things.

Great. Good for him. Except there was a reason he was tapping it out instead of shouting it from the rooftops.

“I'll manage.”

Yaomomo was really bummed you didn't show up.

That was days ago. Yaoyorozu didn't hold a grudge. She was one of the most understanding kids in their class. Jirou already apologized for not telling her she'd made plans ahead of time. Neither of them had mentioned it since then. It really wasn't a big deal.

Though the bigger question was: why he was only telling her this now?

“What's this about?”

Todoroki and Bakugou had those remedial lessons.

Kirishima, Uraraka, Midoriya, Tokoyami, and Tsuyu-chan all went and got internships.

Oh for the love of-

“Do you seriously think I'm doing either of those.”

Kaminari snorted.

You went off campus. Alone.

“Yeah. To see my parents.”

Not just that.

“Yes just that.”

Did something happen?

Was it really that obvious?

“No. Everything was normal.”

Is everything alright at home?

...Okay, that came out of left field.

“Well yeah. Why wouldn't it be?”

You haven't come home with anyone else after school since you got back.

“I did on Tuesday.”

You know what I mean.

Sigh. She should've known Kaminari would suspect something so soon.

”Look, I'm just getting some extra exercise.”

Your parents aren't threatening to take you out, are they?

“No.”

Then why?

“Why aren't you?”

Kaminari paused for a moment. His eyebrows furrowed. He glanced at her. Then went back to scrubbing the forks bunched in his hand.

It's not like we have any big tests soon.

She didn't respond to that. For the first few seconds it was because she was trying to decide which excuse would be the most believable to him. The next few after was deciding that anything she said then would sound suspicious.

Kaminari handed her a plate, then another, then a glass. She dried and placed them in the rack in turn.

Kaminari broke the silence by tapping on another bowl.

Is it about All Might?

God dammit.

“Not everything is about All Might.”

She couldn't blame him for thinking that, though. Everything they'd gone through that year was because the villains were after All Might. They wanted to kill him. They wanted to kill the people he had any connection to. And since he couldn't fight anymore, crime rates were spiking and everything was going to hell in a handbasket. It would make sense to be worried about him. Lots of people were.

But really, it was all about Midoriya now. Midoriya, the successor. Midoriya, the user of One for All. Midoriya, the carrier of a legacy spanning over a century. Midoriya, the freshman interning under All Might's former sidekick. Midoriya, the hero intern who already had something eating away at him. Midoriya, the U.A. student who would have a bigger target on his back than everyone else if the wrong people found out.

But most importantly: Midoriya, the one who had to defeat All for One once and for all.

It wasn't like All Might was chopped liver or anything. It's just that... well... she'd rather not go down that line of thinking until she was alone. She hadn't come up with any new ideas. All the overthinking involved did was stress her out, and no one needed that kind of negativity right now.

And regardless, Jirou knew she was nowhere near the top of the list of 'people who need someone to talk to now.'

“All Might's fine. If you want to worry about anyone, worry about the intern crew.”

Really just Midoriya; but drawing attention to just him would be stupid.

What's wrong with them?

“Nothing I know about.” Lies. “But they got a whole extra workload. They don't look it, but they're really tired. I think it's wearing on them. Heck, add in Bakugou and Todoroki. It's gonna be awhile before they get any days off.”

Kaminari shot her a flat look.

You're exercising for hours after class every day now because a few of our guys are tired.

Jirou snorted.

“I'm doing it because I wanna do what they're doing.” Not really. She liked having free time and lazing about. It's just that working towards a nebulous something let her feel like she wasn't just dead weight spinning her wheels overthinking the same thing for weeks on end. And it made for a pretty good cover story. Because Kaminari knew better than anyone else in their class that Jirou wouldn't just start doing extra training on her own out of nowhere. “But I know I'm not ready for it yet if even they're having trouble with it.”

Losing a few hours every day was fine. Losing a few days every week was not. She knew full well she didn't have the endurance or the drive to actually work out in the field while still going to school, even if it would be more useful as experience than just fighting robots. Panic was a good motivator, but she'd be lucky if what she was doing now didn't burn her out in a month or so. Better to play it safe now than have a meltdown later.

So you got rejected from getting an internship, is what you're saying.

She'd have facepalmed at that had her hands not been full of cutlery, but boy was it tempting. Lucky her for having an iota of self-restraint.

“My parents aren't heroes, dude.”

I never said they were.

Jirou grimaced.

“Look, I didn't go looking for an internship.” She shoved a plate onto the rack. “I just wanted to go home and spend some time with my folks, okay?”

And yet now you don't get home until hours after everyone else.

“Going home has nothing to do with why I'm doing more training now.” It really didn't. Her mom knew something was up, but she didn't say anything that factored into this. Why was Kaminari so fixated on her home life, anyway? “If I want a chance at getting an internship next year, I need to stop slacking off. That's all there is to it.”

A pause.

A stare.

Kaminari's mouth pressed into a thin line.

“You know what? Fine. Keep being all weird and secretive. See if I care,” Kaminari grumbled under his breath. Jirou wasn't aware that the mere act of handing over a cup could be so passive-aggressive.

A minute passed in silence.

Then two.

Yep.

He was pissed.

And Jirou'd be lying if she said she wasn't irritated too. Because not only was Kaminari trying to get more information out of her when she clearly told him no before: he was doing it while she was trying to appear totally normal and not paranoid about the inevitable breakout from one of the most secure prisons in the world and death of one of the greatest heroes the world has ever known. And clearly she was failing on some level seeing as how they were talking about this now.

Seriously, why couldn't he just let it go?

…

He was the one to start the conversation, though. And it wasn't even about All Might at first. And he also had enough sense not drag in anyone else. And had enough sense to talk to her 'alone', while not leaving a paper trail or giving anyone else a reason to be suspicious. A quick glance back confirmed no one was looking at the two of them; and no one had approached Jirou or acted weird around her at all in the past few days either, which meant he hadn't told them anything or even brought it up.

And... well... she appreciated that. Kaminari was a good guy – he really was. And his quirk would be really useful if they ever had to fight a villain (especially now that he could actually direct his electricity). But that was the same case for literally everyone else in their class. The only thing that really set him apart in this case was that he had something resembling an idea of what was going on. And even then it was just from the tidbits that Jirou had let slip. And Jirou obviously wasn't going to give him anything else to latch onto if she could help it.

All Might had managed to keep his secrets secret because he only told people that had to know. He, the man who was probably the most well-known face in all of Japan, somehow never had a single leak of information. Even his age was unknown. The only reason Jirou herself managed to fall into the thick of it was because no one had ever thought to take her quirk into consideration and prepare accordingly. And Kaminari was somewhat aware of it too, even if he lacked anything he could use to put two and two together and come to the same conclusions she did.

She knew he had only the best intentions, but he wasn't a part of this.

And if Midoriya wanted either of them to know, he would've told them by now. And considering they almost accidentally exposed All Might's secret all those months ago, Jirou wouldn't blame him if they were at the bottom of his 'most trustworthy people to tell secrets in case of an emergency' list. And it was bad enough that Jirou did all that other stuff behind his back.

But that didn't mean the two of them couldn't talk about things completely unrelated to it. They were still friends, right? There were plenty of things they could talk about.

“Hey, you know the Spark Sisters, right?” Her voice went back to its normal volume. No sense in staying quiet when she was just trying to make small talk. Regular small talk about heroes. Nothing weird about it.

“Hn.”

Well uh... Points for acknowledgment?

“You see that zap whip Akaring's got now? It's pretty cool. Maybe you could ask Hatsume to fix you up something like that. You wanted a sword, right?” Or was it a spear he wanted? Some kind of weapon, at least. That'd be pretty neat.

“Yeah. I guess.” Kaminari didn't even bother trying to hide the annoyance in his voice.

Okay fine. Be that way. So much for starting a different kind of conversation and talking like normal human beings.

Jirou wasn't going to push it if he really didn't want to (because even with only a few responses, she could already tell he wasn't going to say much else), but it'd be nice if they could quit it with the silent treatment. Though she doubted that would happen without some kind of miracle. Because nothing else was gonna fix what was making him cranky in the first place. And Jirou wasn't going to try and start conversations if he was going to be like that whenever they were alone (well- in a way; most of the class was still on the ground floor, after all).

Maybe when Midoriya didn't have so much on his plate and she told him what she knew, she'd ask if Kaminari could join in too. But she wasn't going to say anything until she got the okay. In the end, it was Midoriya's call what was okay to talk about and that was that. Not Jirou's. Midoriya's.

Speaking of which, she honed in on Midoriya. He was in a conversation with Iida and some of the others. The news was running a story about a hero stopping a villain on the loose. Said hero was apparently one of Ingenium's former sidekicks, and Iida had spoken to him a few times in person. Midoriya chattered about how his method of apprehending the villain with a spiderweb made of vines was a creative use of his quirk. Mineta mentioned that Sero could probably do that with some practice, and Ashido built off that observation with a Spidertape joke. Talking with friends helped calm the swirling vat of anxiety inside Midoriya; and it helped everyone else too.

Everyone had their own unique set of worries. In Class A there were obvious things like grades, tests, and practical exercises they weren't suited for – things that any kid in their shoes would feel the same about. Then there was the underlying fact that they'd been attacked by villains twice and knew that it could possibly happen a third, which she was sure lingered in the backs of everyone's minds to some degree, even if they weren't aware of it themselves. Then there were things like insecurities and past trauma she could clearly see the aftereffects of, but couldn't do anything about.

Those last ones were the worst by a landslide. And she'd long-since learned that they were the types of problems you don't try and help with.

Not because she didn't want to – things would be way easier if she could be some magic fairy godmother able to fix people's problems with a swish of her earlobes. But that wasn't how reality worked and people generally didn't want their worst fears and memories casually brought up as a conversation topic; and they'd only tell their closest friends or therapist if they had any choice in the matter.

If she tried to coax out those feelings to address them, it would only lead that person shutting themselves off even more. No one liked being hurt. No one liked the effects it had on everything else they did. And if it was so obvious that even someone they could barely call an acquaintance (read: her) could see what they were going through, they'd feel even worse because that meant they really weren't coping as well as they thought.

She really had to wonder what happened to Midoriya that first day of his internship. He left the dorms excited. He came back exhausted. And whatever experience he went through had been eating away at him ever since. But he wasn't allowed to talk about when went on in during his internship – no one was. Maybe it was tougher that he'd expected. Maybe he had to fight a villain that really took a toll on him. Maybe he just got reamed out for not being at All Might's level yet.

Maybe Sir Nighteye told him just what was going to happen to All Might.

But guilt was guilt. It wasn't like she could make any real educated guesses without context.

...

Regardless, the stars had aligned and decided 'no Jirou, you're not telling him you know he's All Might's successor and that you know everything. You waited too long and now you missed your chance. Way to go, dumbass.' She couldn't waltz over and ask questions, and she couldn't try and exchange info to make sure they were on the same page. The most she could do is sit back and wait for him to be in just the right emotional state that they could hash things out and be done with it. And who knew when that would be.

Midoriya wasn't the type to flip out by any means, but the last thing he needed was the stress of knowing that someone had managed to learn his secret on top of everything else he was going through. And Jirou didn't even wanna think about what would happen if she let something slip that even he didn't know about. Even with everyone around cooling him down now, his anxiety would come back with a vengeance after a few minutes alone if he wasn't careful. And she needed to catch him while he was alone. In person.

Even in a best-case scenario, texting something ominous like 'we need to talk' would leave a paper trail. She didn't think anyone would start rummaging through her phone, but the last thing she needed was someone catching a glimpse of her message history. Or Midoriya asking one of the others about it himself. Ashido might think she had a crush, which Jirou would either have to play along with or come up with a different explanation (and the last thing she needed was to have a whole nother set of lies to keep track of). Iida would question them and ask if everything was alright, which could get him roped in this too. Kaminari would take it as evidence that there was really something else going on, and in a worst-case scenario would either bug Midoriya for answers or go straight to All Might.

Hell, she could probably come up with something for everyone.

And, well, any of those happening would be worse than doing nothing at all.

So that was it. Midoriya had a lot on his mind. Jirou would have to wait until he felt better to bring up everything else. Really, the best thing she could do now was keep her mouth shut and pretend everything was just fine until the timing was right.

She just hoped it wouldn't keep getting worse.

And thankfully it didn't.

Midoriya stormed off straight to the staff room after classes one day. If Jirou had to hazard a guess, it'd be that he was probably looking for All Might. The only other teacher he could possibly have any business with was Aizawa-sensei, but Aizawa-sensei hadn't told Midoriya to see him later or anything similar, despite what he's said before.

But All Might wasn't in the main building anymore, and she couldn't track him outside once he got far-enough away. The fact that Midoriya then raced out of building all but confirmed that suspicion. But Jirou couldn't track him anymore either without leaving as well and following him like some sort of stalker. Not that following him in meatspace would be any worse that what she'd been doing.

Why would he need to talk to All Might, anyway? Something to do with his internship? One for All? Sir Nighteye? More training? A smack from the combat bot she was facing would bring her back to reality whenever her thoughts got too focused on it. Which served her right since that's what she should've been focusing on.

She wondered what Midoriya was doing about his own limitations. All Might couldn't just punch his way to victory every single time (even if it seemed like it). What what he going to do long-range opponents? Just go so fast that they couldn't get away? She knew he got some new gloves and leg thingies, but those seemed to be just another stopgap to keep him from breaking his bones. Which was a small victory in itself, honestly.

Right now, Jirou herself was focusing on hand-to-hand combat (and weapons-based too), keeping her jacks in a makeshift bun behind her neck. Like pretty much everyone else in the hero program, her quirk was the cornerstone of her fighting style. And like a lot of them, she was screwed when she couldn't use it. So a fair amount of the extra combat training she was doing (with robots, obviously) was to help with her ability to fight close-range. It wasn't that she expected to have to fight Aizawa-sensei anytime soon. More that if she was up against someone sound wasn't effective against, she needed more than just shockwaves and fleshwhips to hold her own. And the multitude of hair ties she used to hold her lobes together helped curb the urge to whip them about at every opportunity. So she had to rely on her fists, legs, and whatever weaponry she could find.

In the end, she decided the glass cannon build wasn't right for her. Gran Torino did say they had time, so it made more sense to work on her strength and endurance after hours than quirk, quirk, and more quirk. Then she'd utilize those gains in class and be stronger for it. That was the plan, at least.

She just hoped Gran Torino was right. There wasn't anything on the news or whatever phone calls she overheard that said otherwise, but she was aware it was a real possibility and that she needed to get as strong as she could as fast as she could.. And she hoped whatever extra power she got from this would be enough to make a difference when shit really hit the fan.

Because if it didn't...

Well...

She pushed those thoughts to the back-burner.

The first thing Jirou noted when she got back to the dorms that night was the weight that had lifted off Midoriya's chest.

It was easy to guess that he'd talked to All Might, or at least someone. People rarely random epiphanies that suddenly fixed their mental state – not that things were totally fine now. But he was at least feeling a little better now. His near shell-shocked expression was gone, at least; even when he wasn't a part of any conversations. He joked around a bit too. Acting more like a normal teenager. On a surface level, he had totally gotten over his funk.

But inside him was a much more subtle dread.

It permeated his actions the next day. He practically radiated determination. He wasn't spacing out in class anymore. He was functioning as well as he ever had. Not that Midoriya was a slouch, but his attacks and movements during their training days had an edge to them now. There was more power behind them. More speed. Not as much precision, but more attempts at trying new things to see what would work.

Almost like he was desperate to...

...

So should she just chance it?

On one hand, he was already feeling a lot better.

On the other, that dread inside him wasn't something she wanted to mess with; especially since there wasn't any real indication of what it was about.

It wasn't about any of their classmates. He wasn't treating any of them differently, or focusing on anyone in particular. He still had his friends he talked with the most. He still had friendly acquaintances he had no problem sharing conversations with. Once in a while someone would ask how he was feeling, but other than that, it didn't seem like anything had changed within his interactions. Well- nothing that gave her any weird vibes, at least.

It could be All Might. She was almost completely certain he was the one Midoriya talked to, though it wasn't like she was gonna ask him to clarify. Midoriya had calmed down, obviously; but All Might seemed to be the one that was invigorated, if she were to be honest. All she could really say there was that Midoriya didn't seem to be in a rush to prepare for any kind of deadline. It wasn't something she could rule out entirely, though.

Last was the internship: most plausible answer, in her opinion. Midoriya'd been wound up ever since he came back to school that first Monday. Maybe it was something Sir Nighteye told him. Maybe it was something he encountered. No one doing an internship could talk about anything not already public knowledge, so she had nothing to actually go off of. All she knew was that he was really worried before, said worry wasn't filling every fiber of his being anymore, and that he was still worried regardless.

He was feeling better, but there were still too many uncertainties for her to feel comfortable just waltzing over there and dumping everything she knew on him. On top of that, his internship was still draining the absolute hell out of him, emotionally or not. Putting more on his plate when it wasn't anywhere near necessary at the moment could send him right back where he was. Maybe.

She needed to tell him eventually. And she would. Really.

But now wasn't the time.

After he was done with his internship, schoolwork would be the only thing taking his attention.

He might still be anxious, but they would have enough time to work things out.

She could tell him she knew about his quirk and the fact that he was All Might's successor.

And that she didn't tell anyone else.

And that she would keep his secret too.

He just needed to finish his internship and they'd be good to go.

It would only be a few more weeks at most.

Then there wouldn't be anything else standing in her way.

She'd do it then.

He'd be okay then.

A/N: [sad trombone]I was looking for vinyl albums Jirou could hide her notebook in and now I'm into post rock send help.

[kellyblatter]

2/1/21

I submitted my IRB proposal with a research topic about the perceptions of greenwashed products by American high schoolers. I am in the pursuit to understand how harshly teenagers will judge a product after being exposed for greenwashing depending on how dominant green marketing is in the product advertising strategy. Finding sources for this is honestly not too difficult because the topic of greenwashing is becoming more well known and talked about compared to previous years. However, I am worried that I am being too broad with my question, since I refer to greenwashed “products,” which can be many things, such as food items, toys, cleaning supplies, etc. In my survey, I used toothpaste as the product (so I will be analyzing results of people’s perceptions specifically on toothpaste). Although, the main focus of the toothpaste was the labels presented on it, so I feel that toothpaste could be interchangeable with mostly any product and would result in the same results. I think I should specify that I’m not talking about food though.

In this research study, I will focus on the sin of no-proof, sin of irrelevance, and the sin of vagueness. According to TerraChoice, an environmental marketing agency, there are “seven sins of greenwashing” (TerraChoice 2010). The sin of no proof is an environmental claim made by a product that cannot have its claim confirmed by a reliable third-party or easily accessible information (TerraChoice 2010). A common example of the sin of no proof is a product reporting certain percentages of it being post-consumed recycled, despite having no evidence to support it. Another sin reported by TerraChoice is the sin of vagueness. This is committed when a claim is very broad and does not have a specific definition, which leaves the high possibility of misinterpretation from consumers (TerraChoice). Examples of this sin are the usage of phrases such as “all natural” or “green. The last sin of greenwashing that this paper will be focusing on is the sin of irrelevance. This sin happens when an environmental claim made is true, but useless for consumers who are seeking to purchase products preferable for the betterment of the environment (TerraChoice 2010). A common example of this is the claim “CFC-free.” This statement is true for all food products, since using CFCs is against the law (TerraChoice 2010). It misleads uninformed consumers into believing this product is inherently better for their health and the environment since it does not contain this chemical, which is true, but it is true for every other product as well.

Ages under 18 have not been specifically targeted in research regarding green washing. Furthermore, there are lack of studies showing how teens will react towards a product after it's exposed for green washing, and how that affects their opinion on the product. Covering this gap in research is important because it can bring awareness to how misled people are on a daily basis by labels. Lessening the risk of public confusion, and harmful environmental and health impacts (increasing risk because greenwashing is becoming more popular and used) could happen by ensuring people are aware of the impacts of the products they are purchasing.

I find it interesting that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a United States government agency that protects the public from “unsubstantiated or unscrupulous advertising,” does not have tight regulation on environmental advertising. The FTC has environmental advertising regulations called Green Guides, which were published under Tide 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations (Dahl, Richard). Why is there not tighter regulation? Do Green Guides have an significant purpose or are they simply performative? I wonder if it is because the FTC values companies profiting more than the safety of the environment? FTC Green Guides cautioned marketers from using broad and uncertified claims, such as an “environmentally friendly” or “eco-friendly” product because those were too misleading to consumers, since it suggested the product would greatly benefit the environment (www.ftc.gov)

Lastly, a “study found that participants ranking themselves High environmentalists in comparison to Low and Moderate environmentalists, despite being skeptical, fall into the trap of identifying greenwashed products as sustainable.” (Urbański, Mariusz, and Adnan ul Haque). This displays how deceptive greenwashed products can be, regardless of level of knowledge regarding the environment. Furthermore, this is also an example of the unethical facade of greenwashing. “High environmentalist” consumers attempt to shop sustainably and reduce their individual harm towards the earth, but companies value profit over the environment. Exaggerating or lying about a product’s impact on the earth, with the intent to sell more of the products, directly misleads consumers to unintentionally harming the environment. Essentially, greenwashing is a marketing tactic used to fuel corporate greed and manipulate consumers at the expense of the environment.

[kiralamouse]

I’d say that really depends on a number of factors. An awful lot of office/software engineering jobs can be done anywhere with a computer and an internet connection, and you don’t really lose anything thereby. I’ve been working from home since before the pandemic, and it’s not a big deal for my company to keep me there after everywhere else is safe. The benefit of working in-person is so slim that any risk tips the scales into “better work from home”. I’d work from home instead if there were a minor head cold going around.

My father is a lawyer working with involuntary commitments to mental institutions. He can work from home as long as the courts are still willing to work via Zoom and as long as he has a good phone setup with his clients, but it would really be nice if he could meet them in person, since a number of his clients believe that people on phones aren’t real. He wouldn’t avoid them for a minor head cold, but the fact that visiting in-person means visiting multiple hospitals (and therefore multiple possible places to pick up disease) means Dad was the first to drastically change his work habits when the pandemic struck, and will probably be one of the last to go back to in-person work.

My mother runs a private preschool. She strongly believes that the benefits of preschool hinge entirely on in-person interaction. (”Go play educational games online if you need distance learning! Small children can’t learn to socialize with each other and follow group norms via Zoom.”) She and the school struggled through the end of the last year on the grounds of finishing what they started, but that was after months of building up relationships and routines in-person. Full distancing here means shutting down. She and her staff are currently trying desperately to see if there’s any safe-enough way to stay open this year (masks, holding class outside, and other precautions are being considered). It’s just one preschool, and being attached to a church it’s probably easier to reopen if it shuts down for a year than if it were independent, but that’s still a year of children missing their friends, a year of staff being suddenly jobless (and therefore many seeking other employment, forcing Mom to rebuild almost from scratch at a point where she’s trying to leave a well-run machine to her successor when she retires). Still, at least it’s just a private preschool; no one’s going to be entirely broken if (worst case scenario) it disappears. Just a tiny, beloved institution evaporating.

What about grade schools? I am 100% behind the teachers and students threatening to strike if we try to force them back into a plague pit, don’t get me wrong. A pandemic makes many sacrifices necessary. But I see a lot of outsiders not realizing exactly how much will be sacrificed if we close in-person schools. For some students, this is effectively the same as closing schools entirely. When I taught public high school, I had students writing 10-page research papers on their phones, with research done over the school wifi when the school was open. Those students would be entirely locked out of livestream lectures and meetings, and would face astronomical obstacles to anything else. These were high schoolers who at least had their own smartphones; what about their three younger sibs who don’t even have their own devices, let alone an internet connection? What do we do when dinky single-class sets of textbooks can no longer be shared among half a dozen classes rotating through each day? What happens when they come back in a year or two, with classmates who’ve gotten custom tutoring to keep up, and they’re behind even where they were when they left off, because who remembers what they learned two years ago?

And that’s leaving aside the question of how effective it would be to close the schools by themselves. I know many parents who are so desperate for childcare that they’re planning on sending their children to various camps, actually INCREASING their children’s risk beyond what a well-run school would do. This wouldn’t be a problem if the state shut down all such activity externally, but as long as the state is keeping its hands off, the school has to consider what power it has by itself to improve matters by shutting down.

That’s the cusp. By the time you get to my friend who works in a medical lab, you’ve tipped over into “work that absolutely has to be done, and done on-site”. But we already know about essential workers. Too bad we haven’t also thought about how to ensure they have childcare and transportation when the systems they usually rely on are shut down for the pandemic.

All this to say: tech companies could decide to keep working from home forever at very little loss. Some workers are needed in the field daily to avoid catastrophe. And there are a HUGE range of possibilities in between. Go ahead and watch Google for when it’s worth the risk for Google to go back to work, but don’t assume they’d be making the same risk assessment if they were actually sacrificing something by telework.

[argumentessay317]

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