'You are amazing, Mariko!' Izuku complimented.

Okaido turned her head to the boy, away from the direction she was walking towards. Todoroki, Yaomomo and Sero, pacing next to the green-haired hero, showed Mariko their thumbs up or nodded in affirmation.

The young woman felt her cheeks blush and hid her face behind a strand of slightly wavy hair.

'Thank you, it's so nice being appreciated by people like you,' Mariko admitted and peeked at the group from the corner of her eye.

'People like us?' Todoroki asked.

'EXTRAS!' Bakugo shouted from the front. All of them turned their heads to the front, seeing Katsuki leading the group of the entire Class 1A. He was walking next to All Might, who was conducting the battle training which they finished a few minutes ago.

'I meant people appreciated by wonderful heroes. All of you had so many cool work studies, it makes me a bit jealous,' Mariko admitted and laughed.

'You will be seen as well!' Izuku smiled brightly. 'It's just we had the luck to be here during school sports festival, so we were scouted.'

'It's true, young Okaido,' All Might stopped and waited as the rest of the group passed him.

Mariko looked at the man and saw him stroll next to her as soon as their bodies lined up.

'Don't forget that even though you might have not been licensed yet and recruited for work studies, you got experience in dealing with one of the most difficult situations for a hero. The only person from the entire school that lived through the same is young Bakugo.'

'I guess,' she admitted shyly and then shook her head. 'Don't feed my ego, Mr. All Might.'

'Ego is important. Too much is never good. But knowing your worth will also allow you to go beyond,' he advised and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

'That's true,' she agreed and then frowned, concentrating on her own thoughts. The students in the group started chatting amongst themselves.

'I wonder, though, where is Mr. Aizawa?' Asui said, snapping Mariko out of her thoughts.

'Right?' she agreed. 'I hope everything is ok.'

Around an hour later, when the entire class changed back to their casual clothes or school uniforms and had a delicious, filling meal, full of protein - perfect after an entire day of physical exercise - Mariko walked to Lunch Rush and asked if the chef needs some help. The hero gladly accepted her request and thanked her for considering assisting him after the exhausting training.

Mariko put on her new, gifted earbuds and played some music on the phone she was also given, and with a slight shadow of a smile, immediately got to work. She collected some of the dishes, cleaned the tables and once the last person left cafeteria, she swept and mopped the floor, keeping the dining area sterile.

During the next hour, she helped Lunch Rush bake a few cakes and muffins to grab for the tea time and suggested some quick, coconut cookies. After all of that, she helped him with organizing and cleaning the kitchen and then picked up her favorite hoodie.

'Take some with you, if you'd like!' Lunch Rush suggested and handed her over half of the cheesecake with a bottom made out of mass of butter and blended cookies.

With the gift in her hands, she energetically walked to the teachers' dorm and opened the door with her elbow. She turned around and closed the door behind herself, keeping the cold, winter air outside of the building. Her head tilted to the side, as she noticed Hizashi in the common living room.

'Yo!' she greeted him and grinned towards him.

The teacher was laying down with his belly pressed to the couch. His wild hair was pointing upwards. He did not respond, just barely moved his arm, showing her a victory sign.

'Mr. Yamada, are you alright?' she asked him, walking closer to the man.

'Yea...' he said quietly, after moving his face slightly to the side.

Mariko didn't see the usual hyper-energy sparks in his eyes. The man was clearly feeling down about something.

'I have some cake, do you want a slice?'

'Maybe later, thank you, girl.'

'OK,' she responded and frowned.

Okaido slowly turned on her heel and walked to the kitchen, pulling out a few dessert plates from the cabinet above her. She sliced the cheesecake and placed the slices on three separate plates. Then, she reached to grab the electric kettle and boiled some water for coffee.

'Mic was with him,' she thought as she prepared herself to grind some coffee. 'And Mic is now back, so Aizawa might be with Eri. I hope nothing bad has happened.'

Suddenly Mariko heard the kettle's button pop, the sound snapping her out of her worried thoughts. She looked down and noticed that she subconsciously had milled all of the beans and set up the coffee dripper along with the filter. Her gaze travelled back to Hizashi, who was still in the exact same position as the last time she saw him in. Her fingers tapped an uneasy rhythm on the top of the kitchen counter and her frown deepened.

She moved to the side and reached to the dishwasher and saw the mug she had given to Eraser inside of it. A shadow of a smile appeared on her face. She grabbed it and placed the dripper on top of the mug, then made the usual coffee. She filled the filter with the water and instead of waiting for it to empty, she grabbed the third plate with a small fork and headed straight to Eri's room.

When she was on the corridor, she turned her head towards Eraser's room, seeing the closed door. She stood still for a few seconds, as if waiting for him to appear in the doorway, but nothing like this happened. Mariko pouted slightly, still wondering about the weird energy she sensed from Present Mic earlier. Then, she turned on her heel and knocked on Eri's door.

The door opened and she saw Midnight's face, who also looked very worried.

'Oh, hi,' Mariko greeted softly and stepped inside the room, as the teacher let her through. 'I brought some cake, but I didn't know you are here, do you want some?'

'No, I need to keep my waist in shape,' Midnight responded in a quiet, serious tone.

Mariko handed the plate to Eri, who thanked her and sat at her small table, getting ready to eat the slice of the cheesecake. The student noticed a much bigger horn on the kid's forehead.

'Is it sore, Eri?' she asked.

'Yes, it hurts me a lot since this morning,' the kid said with watery eyes.

'Don't be afraid,' Mariko crouched and petted her on the head. 'You are in the best hands possible. All the teachers and students want nothing else but to see you learn how to control it, so that you will no longer be afraid of it. Everyone is here to support you.'

Eri hugged Mariko and the woman wrapped her arms around the child.

'I love you,' the girl said, her voice muffled because of Mariko's hoodie.

'I love you, too.' Okaido kissed the top of the child's head and patted her on the back. 'But now, try to enjoy the cake. I think you will like it. It's called cheesecake.'

The kid moved away from the young woman's body and wiped the tears with her small forearm. Then, she nodded and grabbed a fork, slicing a tiny bite of the cake in front of her.

Mariko stood up and turned towards Midnight, whose eyes were also dimmed, just like Hizashi's.

'What's up with the mood today, did someone die?' Mariko joked and Midnight waved her finger at her, requesting her to come closer.

'Something really bad happened. Or more like, we found out about something bad.'

'Which is?' Mariko asked and saw Midnight glance at the corridor, through the still opened entrance. The older woman's lips twisted in a sad expression.

'It goes all the way back to our school days. When me, Hizashi and Shota were almost your age,' she started, whispering.

Mariko leaned on the doorframe, staring at the older woman, not wanting to interrupt.

'I'm sure Aizawa wouldn't tell you this, at least not now or anytime soon, but I know about this and I feel like you deserve to know.'

'It sounds terrible already, should I really know?'

'Yes, I see it as a crucial knowledge for you. Especially for you.' Midnight nodded slowly and closed her eyes. 'When we were schoolmates, Aizawa and Yamada were in the same class. I am one year older, so we didn't get to know each other right away with the start of the school, but only after a while. Along with Aizawa and Yamada, there was one more boy, Shirakumo Oboro. He was a very bright soul, extraverted, full of energy and he had the true essence of a hero. The three of them bonded very quickly,' Midnight informed and made a long pause before continuing. 'And it might be a bit of a surprise, but all three of them were at the bottom of their class.'

'No way!' Mariko tried exclaiming, while whispering to the woman who nodded at her.

'Mic was in the best situation, he was the least awkward and shy, with a Quirk that could be used in different ways, both in combat and rescue. The rest of the boys, however, didn't have it that easy. No one reached out to them with the work studies offers, they weren't given a chance to prove themselves in the real thing.'

Mariko devoured every word slipping from Midnight's mouth. She knew that the woman is building up the tension for something tragical, but she was there to know all the details; she wanted to get to know the man and his friends as much as she could.

'At the time, I was doing hero studies at His Purple Highness agency. I suggested to the Pro Hero that he could take these two under his wings. And he did. During that time, and since the beginning of school, Aizawa was struggling a lot with himself. He was extremely pessimistic, completely insecure about his Quirk,' Midnight continued and saw Mariko raise her both eyebrows. 'Yes, he was at a very low place at the time. But Yamada and Shirakumo were there to support him on every step of the journey. And Shirakumo, he had a major influence on him. Even the glasses, that he now wears were Oboro's idea. He advised Aizawa to keep his eyes protected from attacks and dust, because of the way his Quirk works.'

'Very smart,' Mariko replied as Midnight took a deep breath.

'One day, at the hero studies in HPH agency, Aizawa and Shirakumo, were patrolling the neighborhood. Out of nowhere, a gigantic villain had appeared. Both of them, because they were in the closest range to the enemy, swiftly evacuated kids from the nearby kindergarten and then, they were supposed to fall back, but it was too late. They started fighting and the villain hit the closest building,' Midnight's voice cracked barely noticeably. 'The debris fell of the wall and crushed Shirakumo on Aizawa's eyes.'

Mariko clenched her jaw, as her nostrils flashed. The tears appeared in her eyes and she placed a fist on the doorframe, staring at the corridor in front of Eri's room.

'Eraser took down the villain and received a lot of approval for his accomplishments from the heroes, but he couldn't care less about that. He lost someone irreplaceable, someone that no appreciation could bring back from the dead.'

Mariko stopped the tears from falling and leaned to her forearm, supporting herself on the doorframe.

'This is when he changed. From the rock bottom, he bloomed like a flower, but only in his hero work. He was never the same since,' Midnight commented, closing her watery eyes for another long pause.

Eri stared at the two, sobbing women, not knowing what exactly is happening. She took another bite of the cake and looked away from them.

'Why am I telling this,' Midnight said. 'Because today, Yamada and Aizawa were called to Tartarus.'

'The prison place?'

'Yes. And the reason behind that was... I am... I-,' she coughed. 'I am not sure if you want me to continue.'

'Please, like you said, it is really crucial for me to know.'

The older woman nodded slowly and looked towards Aizawa's room, as if checking if he's eavesdropping. She moved away from the doorframe, and continued.

'Today, they were called to Tartarus. We have discovered that the Nomus that League of Villains used for their coordinated attacks, aren't just mutants or clones, or whatever else you might think. They are modified corpses of humans, partially living dolls, with their brains forced to obey no one else but All for One.' She clenched her fists.

Mariko felt her soul leave her body and her stomach hit the floor.

'Shirakumo's corpse is one of them?' she asked, her voice shaky.

'It's Kurogiri, the first Nomu that we have encountered,' Midnight finished and wrapped her arms on her chest, closing her eyes.

Mariko hugged the woman with one of her arms and looked at her beautiful face.

'Thank you for telling me,' she said quietly.

With those words, Okaido waved to clearly worried Eri and smiled to the child, non-verbally assuring her that everything is fine. Then, she headed straight to the common living room and crouched near Yamada, still laying down on the couch.

'I am so terribly sorry,' she whispered.

Present Mic slowly lifted his head, the expression on his face melting as he noticed the trails of the tears on Mariko's face.

'Thank you, girl,' he replied quietly and slowly sat up on the edge of the couch.

Mariko stood up and walked to the common kitchen area, staring at the cup of still hot coffee. She removed the dripper from the top of the mug and leaned on the counter, thinking if she should pay a visit to Aizawa, or leave him alone.

Her brain displayed her a memory of her being held by the man.

'Do you wish to be left alone, or comforted?' she recalled him say.

She tightened her fists and grasped the mug and one plate with a cake on top of it. As she climbed the stairs one by one, the lump in her throat grew bigger.

'And I said to him that he seems so depressed. I am the dumbest person on Earth... If I only knew,' she shut down her eyes and felt tears flooding underneath her eyelids.

She stood in front of Aizawa's room and knocked on the door. For a long while, there was no response nor any sound coming from the inside, but she stood there, waiting patiently. Eventually, the man opened the door and looked at her from his dark room, his eyes unusually dried out. Her guts twisted and she could almost feel physical pain in her heart, seeing him in a state like this.

Without a word, she handed him over the coffee and the cake. He looked down at her hands and slowly raised his arms, accepting the coffee and the snack.

'Thank you,' he said, in a raspy voice, as if he was crying for some time.

He looked at her with reddened, exhausted, dry eyes. She gathered all the courage inside of her, and spoke up:

'I know what happened. Do you wish to be comforted, or left alone?'

Aizawa hid his face in the shadow of his room, covering his eyes behind the strands of his raven black hair. He left the door open and turned around, then placed both brewage and the plate on his desk. After that, he slowly returned to the front of his room. Mariko glanced at him with worried eyes. When his shoulder lined up with the door, she was convinced that he will just close the room without a word. She should have not been so curious. She should have not crossed this line.

The woman glanced down at her folded hands in front of her body. He took a step forward, passing the doorframe of his room, attracting her attention back to his face. Before she raised her chin, he grasped her shoulders and picked her up, pulling her body close to himself. She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to step backwards, into his room. He swept his right foot and closed the door, then he leaned his back on closed entrance. She couldn't reach the ground and she did not want to make the man uncomfortable, by grasping him with her legs, so she just allowed him to keep her in his arms.

'I am so sorry, for what has happened,' she whispered to his ear and felt him tighten his hug. 'And I am so, so sorry for what I said a few days ago.' She pushed her forehead to his shoulder. 'I should have never said nothing about your energy being negative. If I only knew... I am so sorry,' her voice cracked.

The vulnerable moment that they shared together, brought new tears into his dried eyes. He placed her back on the floor, but didn't let her go.

'It all makes so much sense now,' she said, fighting the invisible grasp on her throat. 'You are so strict, because you want students to go beyond every obstacle you create to ensure their safety, so that nothing like this will ever happen again,' she sobbed and buried her fingertips in his shoulders.

He gritted his teeth as the tears escaped his eyes. He knew that it had nothing to do with her, and she had all the rights to share her honest thoughts about his pessimistic, depressed mindset, yet the fact that she stood with him, holding him in her arms... It broke him. For the first time in God knows how many years, he just wanted to embrace the warmth of another person and allow them to form a deep emotional connection.

The suppressed emotions that he could only unleash while with Present Mic, burst out through a wall she shattered with her presence. His body leaned back onto the door. She stepped closer to the man and gently guided him to sit on the floor with her. He closed his eyes and let her place his head on her shoulder.

'You deserve the world,' she whispered softly and felt his body tense.

Mariko put her chin on top of his head and slowly caressed his hair. She felt her Quirk activate and a second later, a hardly noticeable aura appeared around Eraser's body. Somehow, the energy focused on his sore eyes, reliving the dryness and stopping the slowly building up headache.

The man deeply inhaled, feeling the Quirk affecting him in real time. Although at first shaky, eventually, they managed to calm and synchronize their breaths. None of them knew how much time has passed, but neither seemed to care.

Mariko glanced at the plate and the mug full of coffee and moved her face a few centimeters away from Shota.

'Would you like to drink the coffee? Or have the slice of the cake?' she asked, when both of them fully calmed down.

'Yeah. Please.'

She nodded and let him rest his head against the door, as she stood up and transferred the mug and the plate next to him, placing both of them on the floor. His gaze trailed from the ceiling of the room to the coffee. He opened the lid of the cup and took a sip of the lukewarm brewage.

'It's perfect, thank you.'

He then took the small fork and the plate into his hand and grabbed a tiny bite of the cheesecake. Mariko lowered her body onto her heels and looked at him softly, still worried about his state. He noticed her expression and gazed at her with his almost fully healed eyes.

'I will be fine.'

'You should get some rest, sir,' she advised, raising the inner corners of her eyebrows.

'Eri's horn has gotten bigger, I should stay awake just in case. She's scared of it,' he responded and took another bite of the cake.

'I will stay with her,' she informed. 'Please rest... At least a small power nap.'

His face softened. He moved closer to her and looked her in the eyes, then stood up and left the mug and plate on the desk. After that, he grabbed his sleeping bag, placed in the corner of the room and swiftly crawled inside of it, zipping himself up. Mariko crossed the room to crouch next to the man. Their eyes connected, as she raised her palm in front of his face.

'Can I help a bit with falling asleep?' she asked quietly.

'Go ahead.'

She closed her eyes and focused, the dark aura surrounding Aizawa's body transferred back to her, and the small green flames appeared, surrounding her eyes. Deep inside of her, she knew she will never hurt him. For the first time, the feeling of the absolute control over her Quirk washed over her body and mind and she was able to drain Eraser just enough to make his eyelids heavy and put him into a sleeping trance. She gently moved a strand of hair away from his eyes and slowly stood up, to leave the teacher's room.