'We should start a competition,' Midnight said, looking at the Mariko laying in the school hospital's bed.

Recovery Girl kissed the girl's cheek and moved away from the patient, observing how her chest moves in the calm, sleepy rhythm.

'Who gets more injuries, Midoriya or Okaido,' Midnight finished.

'Young Midoriya stopped hurting himself a while ago, so Young Okaido might take the lead soon,' All Might responded.

'This is not even funny,' Recovery Girl hit All Might's leg with her walking cane. 'Do not promote such behavior with students. You know exactly what can happen if she keeps ending up that way,' She pointed her cane at Aizawa, leaning against a wall close to the entrance to the school hospital. 'At some point the damage can be permanent.'

'I am aware, it was completely unexpected, even for her. Seems like her Quirk might not be a draining one, after all. Still, I take full responsibility for her current state. I didn't react in time.'

All Might sighed.

'I wish we had some information about the parents. I tried looking for something, but couldn't find anything.'

'Me neither,' Aizawa admitted.

The teachers stood in silence, listening to the sound of the wind blowing outside the building and the calm student's breath.

'Alright, go away, give her some space,' Recovery Girl decided and hit All Might on his leg again, making him twitch in pain.

All of the teachers plus the nurse, slowly headed towards the exit. Aizawa, even though he was in the closest proximity of it, left the room last, his normally tired expression replaced by a focused one.

After a few hours, Mariko opened her eyes, waking up in the dimmed hospital room. She sighed and inspected her now healed arms. She carefully sat in the bed, wrapped in bandages and looked outside the window, trying to figure out what might be the current time.

'It should be early evening,' she commented and slowly slid her feet to the floor. She sighed with relief, feeling nice, warm tiles beneath her.

She took a sip of the water from the glass on top of the nearest bedside table. The thoughts were racing through her head, as she tried to look for the best solution of her current situation. She was completely aware that Mr. Aizawa is a great observant and if not already, he will figure her out soon.

Mariko bit her bottom lip, clearly stressed out. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down her racing heart, swallowing sips of water down her throat, but nothing seemed to have helped.

'Fuck!' she hissed, looking to the side. 'What was I thinking?'

'It's not like you can control that, though?' she thought and nodded to herself. 'And the worst thing is that so many teachers were there. If Aizawa figures it out, at some point, the rest of them will figure it out as well. Plus, Hizashi and Midnight are already aware. Hitoshi knows, Mirio might suspect a thing or two... Oh God, literally entire school might find out, it's so embarrassing!'

She sat on the bed and hid her face in her hands.

'What do I do? What have I done?'

She bounced her right foot, trying to get some stress relief.

'Can I justify it in any way? No, not really. The Drain, or whatever the fuck it is now, requires emotions to work. The fact that I buffed him and not Midnight or anyone else before the exam... it makes everything so obvious... God, what do I do?'

She stood up and slowly walked around the room, grasping her chin in between her thumb and index finger.

'When it happened, I thought to myself 'I don't want to fight him.' I kinda didn't like imagining anyone from the teachers as villains, but I had to, otherwise the Drain wouldn't work, but Eraser? Oh no, there is no way in hell I will be able to look at him and get myself to target him even temporarily.'

She made a loud, growling sound, signaling her annoyance and then tossed herself onto the bed, slowly sliding back to the floor.

'What do I doooo?'

And then, she got an idea.

She immediately stood up and slipped back into her hero costume, taking off the hospital clothes. She quickly tied up the tall shoes and swiftly headed towards the exit, heading straight to the Principal Nezu's office.

'I have to get a transfer to another school, this is the most reasonable way of fixing this situation. That way, not only I do not put his career in danger, because people will not have any kind of reason to start gossiping around, but also I keep my reputation... It doesn't really matter, to be honest, I just don't want any troubles for Aizawa.'

She frowned and kept walking towards the Principal's office. The school corridors seemed deserted and at some point she even started wondering if Nezu was still at the school.

'But I have so many friends in here... And Eri is here as well!' she stopped and then frowned again. 'Yes, that's what I have to do,' she decided and clenched her fists, then continued down the hallway. 'Whatever happens, I will need to talk to the Principal anyway, if not it maybe he will be able to get some other idea.'

As she got closer to the another hallway with the Principal's office, she turned left and looked towards the end of the corridor. The moment she shifted her gaze, her body froze in the spot, making her unable to go any further. At the very end of the corridor, she saw the man who, at the time, she wanted nothing but to avoid. He was casually leaning against a wall, a few meters away from Nezu's office.

Mariko's heart dropped to the floor as the man made eye contact with her, his dark eyes piercing a hole in her soul. She swallowed and blinked, then locked her gaze onto the door she was heading to and took a step forward, trying to regain the control of the situation.

'Where are you going, Okaido?' he asked her, as she made a third step towards the door.

'To see Principal Nezu,' she responded with a forced, calm tone.

'Why?'

She swallowed again and did not respond. As she approached the office, she lifted her fist, ready to knock on the wooden surface, but then a piece of the Binding Cloth wrapped around her wrist, preventing her from reaching any further.

'Why?' he repeated with a harsher tone.

'I just need to talk to the Principal,' she said, looking to the side, not wanting to make the eye contact with her teacher.

She lifted her other hand, trying to knock on the door, but Eraser wrapped his weapon around Mariko's upper arm, immobilizing her, but still being mindful of her recent injury.

'Let me go, sir. Please,' she requested and observed as he stands in front of her, wrapping the cloth that immobilized her around his right forearm.

'I won't until you tell me what is this about.'

Mariko gathered all of her courage and looked him dead in the eye, feeling as if her chest is going to explode.

'I don't have to,' she said.

His eyes turned red and his messy hair started floating. He clenched his jaw muscles and pulled her towards himself, staring her down with his blood-freezing expression.

'Speak. Now.'

She felt her cheeks blush, as the commanding tone of his voice struck her masochistic side.

'God, he's so hot,' she thought and got annoyed at her own thoughts.

She rolled her eyes, shook her head and looked to the side, dropping the eye contact.

'I won't,' she replied in a shaky voice.

He took a step forward and released her limbs. Mariko inspected his face with a surprised expression.

'Fine,' he said in an annoyed tone.

Aizawa took a step back and leaned on the door, covering the knob with his body.

'But-' Mariko started, her hand frozen mid-air towards the door which he was covering.

'Yeah?'

'I... I want to knock on the door.'

'Well, pity I don't feel like moving away from it anytime soon,' he said in a lazy tone.

Mariko stared at the man in disbelief, observing him closing his eyes and sliding his hands back to his pockets. She stood still for a few moments, then moved to the only surface of the door he was not covering and was about to knock, then felt his grasp on her wrist.

'Just let me knock, oh my God!' she spat out in anger.

He smirked and pushed her away from the door, seeing her frustration pile up.

'Fight me over it. If you win, you can go through the door,' he informed.

'What? That's-' she started but saw him dash towards her, swinging his leg in her direction.

Mariko dodged and fell to the floor, then immediately rolled backwards and stood up.

'It's stupid!' she yelled at the man, who threw the Binding Cloth at her, capturing her ankle. 'Fine!' she snapped and small, green flames emerged from both of her eyes.

Aizawa grinned at the sight and dodged her punch, then released her ankle.

'Drain him, come on, drain him!' she kept thinking, but couldn't create a link of the energy between her body and the man.

She sighed with anger and lowered her hand, observing Aizawa's sadistic smirk.

'Some minor malfunction?' he asked her, teasingly.

'Oh, shut up,' she snapped and dashed forward, trying to attack, but the man dodged. He tilted his body backwards and swept the ground with his foot, but Mariko jumped over his leg and tried hitting Eraser at the back of his knee, but missed.

She jumped away and then noticed a faint, black energy swirling around her opponent's body. She looked at her own arms and notice that all the energy has shifted to Aizawa. He saw a sudden change of her expression and extended his hand forward, inviting her for another duel. She rolled her eyes and took a step backwards, but then Eraser threw the Binding Cloth at her legs. Mariko leaned to the side, but in a split second realized, that she had lost. The link of the draining energy was powering Aizawa, but slightly draining her, slowing down her movements.

The Binding Cloth wrapped around her calves and knocked her to the floor. Then, Aizawa pulled the scarf-like weapon towards him as Mariko turned her body around, trying to grasp anything on the smooth, tile floor to save herself from a defeat. The Pro-Hero grasped her arms and immobilized her body, placing his knee on top of her back.

She hissed and felt the Binding Cloth wrap around her forehead, pulling her head backwards.

'Seems like you lost,' he announced in a lazy tone with a hint of a smirk.

'Just let me speak to the Principal, please,' she said and he shifted his body weight to his knee, pinning her down.

She moaned in pain and gritted her teeth.

'What the hell is he doing?'

'I knew you will have an idiotic idea,' he said watching her trying to free herself from underneath him.

'It's not idiotic, this is the most-'

'Logical?' he interrupted. 'How is transferring you to another school any logical?'

She froze and turned her head towards the man, looking at him from the corner of her eye, not saying a word.

'I know you, Okaido. I know how the dumb brain of yours functions. You would either go with this, or running away from UA without saying anything to anyone or lying to everyone around you. And because you want to speak to Principal Nezu, I know what your plan is.'

She looked away and stopped struggling against his grasp.

'Do you think I was not aware?' he asked her and she closed her eyes. 'You offend me by trying to run away somewhere else.'

'I don't want to be a problem!' she spat out, the lump tightening her throat. 'I just don't want to damage your career in any way, is it really so bad?'

'You were my problem the second you stepped into this school, Okaido,' he said seriously. 'And I was aware of some risks of accepting you in, but I still believed you will manage.'

'You almost expelled me, sir,' she said quietly through her gritted teeth with watery eyes.

'No.' He shook his head. 'I had to make you believe that I am. But I would not. I am not heartless, you know?'

'I never even considered you to be,' she whispered. 'I just- I don't want to cause problems. It's so obvious.'

'Yea,' he said and smirked. 'You definitely aren't the best at hiding things,' he teased and heard her groan in embarrassment.

'So what happens now?' she asked him quietly and felt him lift his knee from her back.

She turned around and saw him reach out with a helping hand, which she accepted. As their hands touched, she felt a spark of electricity go through her body. She clenched her jaw, happy at the touch, but embarrased and annoyed with her reaction.

'Nothing,' he simply responded, lifting her up to her feet. He inspected her flushed cheeks with a dark expression.

He pulled her forearm towards himself, making her look at him. His eyes turned red again and he erased her Quirk, which was still empowering him all this time.

'If you think that this is the most challenging thing you will face, Okaido, I am afraid you are getting yourself into a wrong profession. Maybe reconsider? You make some banger coffee after all,' he teased, his eyes still red.

Mariko slowly looked to the side and felt herself shiver.

'But like, what if... you know,' she said quietly, then accidently looked at his lips, just to quickly look away again, annoyed at herself even more. 'People will...'

'Talk? Gossip? If they are fine with wasting their precious time, let them do so.' He let go of her forearm and slowly started walking towards the elevator, Mariko following a few meters behind.

'So, are you ok with it... sir?' she asked when they entered the elevator.

He looked at her, seeing her rub her hands nervously.

'With you being in love with me?' he asked so casually, completely ignoring the fact that Mariko looked like she wanted to evaporate in the spot. 'I'm completely neutral.'

'And how did you know I was going to the office?'

'I asked Principal Nezu for access to surveillance. I was checking the camera in front of the nurse's office.' He pulled out a phone and showed her a live footage on a small display of his smartphone.

She murmured some affirmation under her nose, hiding herself behind the curtain of her dark hair. There was a moment of silence, interrupted only by the sound of the elevator sliding down it's shaft. Aizawa looked at the girl and grinned to himself.

'Though, I must say I am surprised with your heart's choice,' his eyes darkened. 'With so many students slightly below your age and other teachers around, you went for me, Okaido?'

Mariko lowered her head and leaned to the side, supporting herself on the wall. She heard him chuckle in a low, deep voice, as the elevator signaled the arrival at the bottom floor.

'Some small, little masochistic brat you are,' he commented and left the elevator with a smirk.

Mariko, struggling to keep her body up, slowly dragged her feet to the corridor and then leaned onto the nearest window, fighting for her life. Her body was shaky, her cheeks red and her heart was racing fast. She had no idea if he knew what kind of reactions he was causing inside of her, but something was telling her that he knew, and some sick side of him fully enjoyed it.

She took a deep breath and kicked her feet, trying to get some stress relief. Suddenly, she felt a touch on her shoulder, making her jump in fear. Mariko turned her red face towards the person behind her and sighed with relief, seeing surprised Hitoshi's face.

'Oh God, what happened there?' his eyes looked like they were about to fall of their sockets.

'Aizawa knows I am crushing him,' she whispered to the boy, who somehow widened his eyes even further.

Then, Hitoshi threw his head backwards and laughed at the woman before him.

'You look like a tomato!'

'Stop it!' She punched his shoulder.

'Ow, alright,' Hitoshi lowered his voice and rubbed his arm. 'You are lucky you just got dismissed from the hospital, otherwise I would hit you back.'

'How do you know?'

'What?'

'That I got dismissed?' Mariko frowned.

'Eraser told me earlier today.'

'Really?'

'No,' Hitoshi responded with a straight face and couldn't stop himself from laughing, seeing the sudden change on Mariko's face. 'Really, yea. He mentions you sometimes.'

'Oh?' she was shocked.

'Maybe it's not one sided, hmmm?' Hitoshi winked at her.

'Stop, it's not funny. I'm gonna get a permanent of my nervous system because of you and Eraser,' she spat out in fake anger, but then couldn't help but laugh at the awkwardness and ridiculousness of the situation she was in.