Mariko walked in silence with Mirio, her brain in hyper-active mode. The thoughts of everything that Mr. Aizawa has said, making her dizzy. Was she a bad influence? Was it because she was an orphan?

When they appeared in front of the Class 1A dorm, Mariko snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Mirio, visibly worried about her state.

'Did you mean that with Mr. Aizawa?' he asked.

'Yea.'

He didn't answer at first, looking for the best way of phrasing his feelings.

'He must have his reasons, I am sure.'

'Reasons to hate me?' she spat out.

Mirio swung his hands in a disapproving gesture, while shaking his head at the same time.

'This is definitely not hatred.'

Mariko looked at the boy and frowned.

'Whose side are you on?' she heard as if some voice whispered in her brain.

They stepped inside the dorm and soon after, were greeted by some of the students sitting in the common area. Mariko waved to everyone and recognized some people from earlier, but most of them were new to her. The second Mariko said the last 'Hi', Iida - the class representative - appeared out of nowhere, with his on-brand, absurd gestures. He introduced all of the students to Mariko and then invited her and Mirio to a dinner.

'Oh yes!' Mirio said and jumped towards sofa, quickly taking a seat.

'Dinner?' she asked, sudden wave of realization hitting her stomach. She has not eaten anything for almost the entire day. Just as she said that, a loud grumbling could be heard. She put a hand on her abdomen, visibly embarrassed.

'OH!' Iida jumped and swung his arm, pointing his hand at the table. 'Please take a seat!'

'I'm sorry, this is so cringe,' she bit the inside of her cheek and put a hand on her shoulder, rubbing her skin in circular motion.

'It's OK, please take a seat, we will be serving momentarily,' Ochaco added, walking from the table to the kitchen island, behind which there were a few induction stoves, with pots full of tasty ramen.

'That smells delicious,' Mariko admitted.

The girl took off her shoes, leaving them close to the door and then stepped inside, walking over a cozy carpet, placed under the sofas around the dining table. The carpet was green like grass during spring, matching slightly yellow walls and beige, wooden floors. There were many tall windows, inviting in the rays of slowly setting sun. The windows had brown frames, nicely contrasting with yellow walls, and some grass-green accents along with more pastel green. Even though she hated green color, the dorm looked gorgeous and very cozy, incomparably more inviting than the orphanage rooms she was so used to be in.

Mariko took a seat in between Tokoyami and Izuku.

'Izuku, Mr. Aizawa told me that you were taking notes of my Quirk?' Mariko asked and Izuku's eyes lit up.

'Yes! It's my hobby, would you like to see them?'

'Yes, please,' Mariko replied and Midoriya immediately got up, running straight to his room. The new student looked around the people sitting at the sofa, trying to memorize their names: Ojiro, Sato, Kaminari, Sero, Ashido.

'STOP RUNNING, YOU NERD!' Bakugou yelled, making Mariko jump.

She looked towards the corridor, above Ojiro's head, who was sitting right in front of her, across the table. Bakugou made eye contact with her, and his expression changed.

'Huh? You still here?' he asked, joining the dining table. 'Did UA start taking in anyone?'

Mariko did not respond, challenging Katsuki with a cold expression. He smirked, enjoying himself as he taunted her.

'She did defeat us in combat,' Todoroki said, placing a few bowls on the table.

'Yes, you did good!' Uraraka showed her thumbs up, while setting a tray on the table, full of bowls filled with ramen.

'Thank you. But I was expecting this outcome, but it's not the one I wanted.'

'Huh? You wanted to lose?' Bakugou frowned, gritting his teeth angrily.

'I wanted to control it,' Mariko explained, and accepted a bowl of ramen from Iida.

'Good thing Mr. Aizawa was with us,' Midoriya said and joined the big group of students at the table. He sat next to Mariko, who saw a flashback of the teacher's red eyes.

'Well! Let's eat, everyone!' Iida announced with a loud voice, attracting the rest of the students from their rooms.

A few minutes later, the entire class 1A with Mariko and Mirio sat down in silence, interrupted by occasional sounds of approval, praising the class effort for their cooking.

'It's so good,' Mariko said, trying to eat slower than usual, but she could barely stop herself.

She looked from above her bowl at the classmates around her. She sipped some soup along with the noodles, one of them landing below her bottom lip. She rolled her eyes and sucked the noodle inside her mouth and wiped the greasy noodle trail with a tissue. As she was done, she looked to her right and saw a small boy, of very common appearance, with weirdly shaped, purple hair. He locked his eyes with her and was visibly drooling.

'Are you OK?' Mariko asked, frowning at the boy.

Sero looked towards the bubbly haired boy and immediately after seeing him, raised his elbow, shooting out a wide tape, which stuck into the drooling boy, wrapping him around it. Sero grasped the tape and threw it behind him, getting rid of the boy from the group.

'Sorry about him, he's a pervert,' Ashido explained.

'So that's what it was,' Mariko said, flabbergasted.

After the tasty dinner, students started cleaning up the bowls. Okaido wanted to help them out, but they refused to, assuring her that they will take care of all the dishes.

'Do you want to see the notes now?' Midoriya asked and Mariko nodded. The boy smiled widely and quickly looked for the correct page.

'You make a lot of these,' Mariko commented, quickly looking over the pages, as Izuku browsed for the chapter with her name as the title.

'It's not the only notebook,' Izuku admitted. 'I do it for years.'

Bakugou hissed, but was ignored by everyone around.

'Do you-,' Mariko trailed off. Izuku looked at her quizzically. 'Do you take notes of the teachers as well?'

'Yes! But not in this notebook, would you like to see?'

Mariko nodded and Izuku immediately got up, leading her across the corridor to his room.

'Well, I'll be going! Thank you so much for the dinner!' they heard Mirio behind them.

'We have so many wonderful Quirks in the school,' Izuku said, as they separated from the rest of students. 'I use all the occasions I get to watch them in action.'

'Yea, I figured. It seems like a lot of effort from your side,' Mariko admitted.

'I got so many new pages during UA sports festival!' he cheered. 'I got to see so many new abilities.'

'I watched you all on TV,' Mariko commented, quickly glancing outside the window as Izuku opened his door. 'Your class is super cool.'

'Yes, it's a blessing to be around them.'

'A blessing?' it ringed in her brain, causing weird sensation that she could not quite describe.

The door opened and Izuku immediately jumped, turning himself around towards Mariko.

'Or ma- maybe you shouldn't come in,' he started swinging his hands in defensive motion.

'Oh?' Mariko looked behind him, seeing some All Might's posters. 'You mean the decorations?'

Izuku blushed and Okaido chuckled with a friendly smile.

'It's OK, I also like All Might.'

'Really?' he immediately turned normal and his jaw dropped open with excitement.

'Yes! Who doesn't right? He's all mighty, after all.'

Midoriya hopped inside his room, opening the door for Mariko. The boy reached towards a drawer that was a few meters away from the door. The drawer matched the rest of the furniture - a wardrobe, a desk and a bed - it was all part of a simple, yet nicely looking set.

'That's a big room,' she commented, looking around the place, admiring all the fan boy's room decorations.

There were multiple posters of All Might from different eras of his hero work, there was a small red-blue-yellow 'I AM HERE!' t-shirt framed, covered with a glass pane for protection. It was hanging on the wall next to a poster of All Might and Nighteye.

On the bed, placed in the right, farthest corner of the room, Mariko noticed a blue-red duvet set, matching every other All Might merchandise in plain sight.

'I found the page about you,' Izuku informed, snapping Mariko out of her thoughts.

She reached and accepted the notebook from the hero, glancing at the two pages in front of her, all covered with detailed information and some sketches.

'Cool drawings,' she said almost emotionless, reading the description of her Quirk.

'Thank you!'

'Quirk of an unknown name, draining the energy of people around. In an interval of 3 seconds, the range of the ability keeps expanding. The closer one stands to the source, the stronger the drain.' the page said.

'3 seconds, huh?' she asked.

'Please take a seat if you want to,' Izuku suggested and pointed at the bed, where Mariko immediately sat down, as the boy was browsing for the pages with UA teachers that he put in some other notebook.

'The drain appears to be an aura that with each 3 second pulsates. When it is active, the user's eyes are covered in bright green fog, that looks like a flame, but emits no heat (please verify).'

'Oh, Izuku, it says here 'please verify',' she read out loud.

'Yes! I wanted to ask you some questions about it, if you don't mind. But would you like to read it all first?'

'Sure.'

Mariko looked down at the notebook in her hands and then there was a knock on Izuku's door. The two of them looked towards the doorframe. Tokoyami, Kirishima, Kaminari and Jiro stood in front of the room.

'Sorry if that is a little bit too much,' Kirishima began. 'But we are very interested in meeting you and wanted to find out something about your Quirk as well.' Kirishima then leaned forward, covering side of his mouth, 'Bakugou was very angry after fighting you earlier today.'

'That's true,' Izuku admitted, smiling shyly at Mariko.

'He rarely looses, are you surprised that he got mad?' Kaminari asked, as the small group entered the room.

'I wouldn't count it as victory, though,' Mariko said, looking down at the notebook.

'Why not, you kicked his ass!' Kaminari laughed.

'Because it wasn't me, it was the Quirk,' she looked up at Denki, whose expression changed.

Tokoyami raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

'So we are not the only ones here to learn about your Quirk?' Kirishima asked.

'Yea,' Mariko responded with a sigh. 'I reached out to Principal Nezu for help.

'He's so manly!' Kirishima shouted with a tear in his eye. 'Helping those in need!' He raised his fist in a victory gesture and a hint of smile appeared on Mariko's face.

Jiro walked over to Okaido and sat down next to her. She played with her audio jacks coming out of her ears, wrapping them around her fingers. The group of students glanced over Mariko's shoulder, reading Izuku's writing.

'The ability appears to be the energy-storing type, it is possible that the shape of it can be manipulated.'

Mariko grasped her chin with her hand and Midoriya joined the group around his bed, holding an opened notebook.

'What did you mean by this?' she pointed at the last thing she read.

'Maybe it is possible to alter the shape of the aura and instead of having it surround you in every direction, it might be possible to direct it at just one person or in a specific direction,' he explained.

'So it's like a debuff,' Tokoyami commented, after reading all the information on the page.

'Debuff?' Mariko asked.

'Have you ever played any video games?'

'No, we didn't have access to that. But I always wanted to,' she said.

'I have a console, we could play some time!' Kaminari offered.

'In video games you have health and mana bars, telling you how much damage can you or your enemy withstand. There are some things, that are called debuffs, that are like spells, that can reduce stamina, health or mana, depending on the effect. So your Quirk is like a debuff.'

'Debuff,' she repeated, thinking about it. 'You know what, this is a great name, Tokoyami.'

'My pleasure.'

'My Quirk is a mutation, I don't think it was named at all by my orphanage.'

'You could submit a form to the people managing population census, so that they could update it,' Jiro suggested.

Mariko nodded.

'Oh? Well then, I guess I could. Thanks again.'

'No problem!' Kaminari shouted.

'You literally didn't do anything,' Jiro laughed and Kaminari crossed his arms on his chest, visibly offended. Mariko smirked to herself, feeling good vibes between these two.

'I wanted to ask,' Mariko started, looking Izuku in the eye. 'Do you know how Mr. Aizawa stopped me back then?'

Jiro immediately hugged herself and Kirishima made a wry face.

'He can erase Quirks,' Jiro explained, sliding her hands on her arms, as if she was cold and uncomfortable. 'When his eyes turn red, he will stop anything you are doing just with a look.'

'Anything you are doing with your Quirk, that is,' Tokoyami corrected.

'Here, take a look,' Izuku placed a second notebook on top of the one with Mariko's Quirk.

'Hero name: Eraserhead. Quirk: Erasure. Real name: Aizawa Shota.

Eraserhead can erase quirk of anyone he looks at. It does not work on mutant-type quirks, but it can lower their offensive or defensive abilities, depending on the situation. The effect of Erasure lasts all the way until the hero closes his eyes, after that, the Quirk goes back to normal, unless it is an energy-storing one.'

'What does this mean?'

'It means that if Mr. Aizawa cancels your Quirk when it gets really powerful and then blinks, you will not jump back into the recent, powerful stage of the drain, but you would need to gather energy from the start,' Izuku explained, sparks lighting in his eyes.

'I see,' she slowly nodded, very interested in the topic.

'Because of the way Erasure functions, it is the best for a one to one, surprise combat with a quick takedown. However, to cover for that weakness, Eraserhead uses at least two supporting items: Binding cloth (scarf like weapon used to capture enemies...'

'No way he fights with that scarf thing,' Mariko said out loud, awe slowly building up in her, as she was reading the description of the hero.

'He's so cool when he does, as well!' Kirishima tightened his fist and threw his head backwards, another tear forming in his eye.

'Sometimes he uses it on us, it's so scary,' Jiro said, closing her eyes and swirling her finger around her audio jack.

Mariko chuckled and glanced back at the book.

'... the weapon is made of some metal alloy, that keeps it light but very durable and throw-able.'

'That sounds so difficult,' Mariko commented, looking quickly at everyone around her.

'Right?' Tokoyami added, Kirishima and Kaminari sitting down on the floor.

'Along with the scarf, Eraserhead uses googles, that cover his eyes to prevent enemies from seeing who is he going to target next, as well as offer overall eye protection. On top of that, he is constantly wearing an utility belt with different equipment like caltrops (more to be added in the future?).

The Quirk causes some anti-gravity effect around the head of the user, making his hair float each time he uses the Erasure and because of the Binding Cloth being light, it is also being pulled up, making it easier to grab and throw it.

Besides his Quirk Mr. Aizawa has incredible pain tolerance and immense stamina.'

'Wow, that's such a good description,' Mariko said, turning the page to see if there is more about Eraserhead.'

She returned to previous page, and stared at a nice sketch of Mr. Aizawa in a very dynamic, action pose with his scarf in one hand, throwing it somewhere in front of him, while being mid-air.

'How do you know about this, though? The stamina and pain tolerance part?' Mariko asked.

Students looked at each other and then started telling Okaido about their first encounter with League of Villains at the USJ. They talked for a long time, not skipping any detail. The students told her how Mr. Aizawa jumped on a group of at least 50 villains, taking them alone in combat, while they sent Iida for reinforcements. They said how later on they got warped to different places in USJ and how each and every group from class 1A was able to defeat the villains they were facing and then Izuku told Mariko how they sneaked on Tomura Shigaraki and saw Mr. Aizawa fighting him. He told her, how badly damaged Mr. Aizawa was, how they had to carry him on his back, as his arms were snapped like twigs and his head was badly damaged.

Okaido listened to the story, reacting to everything she was being told about, not believing her ears.

Then, Kirishima said how, thanks to Iida, All Might arrived and defeated a mutant called Nomu, punching him out of the ceiling and sending him flying straight to space.

'Wow, I am speechless,' Mariko admitted after a long minute, when they finished their story. 'You guys are amazing.'

'Can I quickly ask you some stuff about your Quirk?' Izuku asked and Kirishima stretched his body, stiff from sitting on the floor.

'I will try my best to answer all, fire ahead.'

'Do you need to visualize something to use your Quirk?'

Mariko grasped her chin, staring in front of her, but not looking at anything specific. She frowned, trying to remember the feeling of the Quirk being activated.

'I think it's strongly connected to emotions.'

Tokoyami's eyes lit up and he exchanged glances with Midoriya.

'I remember that the reason why it activated on Ground Beta was because of Bakugou taunting me.'

'So you didn't control it at all?' Kaminari asked.

'You dumbo, she said it in the beginning,' Jiro scoffed.

'I don't remember, OK? My memory is short,' Kaminari slighted.

'No, it's OK,' Mariko tried to comfort him. 'I don't know how to control my emotions, and because it seems like the Quirk activates because of me feeling anger, then I immediately lose control.'

'It's like Dark Shadow,' Izuku whispered, looking at Tokoyami, who nodded.

'Your Quirk?' Mariko asked.

'Yes. Dark Shadow will also get out of control under influence of stress or anger, but only when it's dark. It can be calmed down with light.'

'Well, we were fighting in the morning,' Mariko wondered.

'Oh, Tokoyami,' Izuku scratched his head. 'If you don't mind sharing that, how were you training during our summer camp?'

'I was in a cave, without any light source and I was summoning Dark Shadow,' he started. He then looked away from anyone's face and added, 'after that, I entered a very dark place in my mind and tried to tame the beast.'

Mariko frowned and the flashback of Mr. Aizawa's cold gaze filled her brain, the sounds around her becoming muffled, inaudible.

'Why do I keep seeing it?' she asked herself.

'Mariko?' Jiro placed an assuring hand on the woman's shoulder.

'Huh?' she snapped out of her trance.

'Are you OK?' Izuku asked. 'You had a big frown on your face.'

'Yea, I think that Tokoyami might have led me to something,' she explained. 'But I-' she thought about what she wanted to say. 'I feel like I have issues with realizing how do I feel in the exact moment, if that makes any sense?'

'Have you ever tried writing a vent book?' Tokoyami suggested.

'A vent book?' Mariko repeated, confused.

'Oh, I heard about this!' Jiro added. 'It is better to figure out how and what you feel, if you write it down. I have a journal, where I sometimes write about different things.'

'Show me some time!' Kaminari requested.

'It's private,' Jiro looked to the side, slightly shy.

'Why not. I could give it a shot, right?'

'If you don't have anything to write in, we can go out tomorrow and buy something!' Midoriya smiled.

Okaido looked down, embarrassed. She didn't have pretty much any money, she was not sure if she could afford one.

'We can ask Yao to make one for you! A notebook and a pen or pencil!' Kaminari grabbed Mariko's forearm and dragged her to the corridor. 'I think you could start as soon as possible, mental health is extremely important, right?' he showed her thumbs up and dragged her from the side corridor, to the living room - and because Yaoyorozu was not there, he kept dragging her until they stood in front of her room.

'Hey, she will not make it!' Kirishima said, running after Kaminari and Mariko.

'Let's see!' the boy knocked on the door.

After a few seconds, they heard steps coming from inside the room and a tall girl appeared in the doorway.

'Hi, Okaido,' she greeted. 'And Kaminari and Kirishima; did something happen?'

Kirishima opened his mouth, but Kaminari immediately interrupted. Yaoyorozu leaned on the doorframe, looking at the boy.

'Would you mind creating a notebook with blank pages and a pen or pencil?' Kaminari requested.

'Instead of buying it?' she asked, as if she could not believe her ears. 'As a respected member of our society, I need to make sure that the money stays in the flow, and it is also illegal to craft something just because-'

'No, no, listen!' Kaminari swung his palms, trying to stop Yao's monologue. 'She might need it for her quirk.'

'A notebook and a pen?'

Just when Denki tried to convince Yaoyorozu, Mariko glanced above her shoulder, inside her room. Her eyes were immediately attracted to a gigantic bed with canopy, made out of expensive, high end wood, with silk duvet set and covers.

'It's OK, Kaminari,' she put a hand on the boy's shoulder and turned around on her heel, heading alone to the living room.

'Please don't be mad at her,' Kirishima caught up to Mariko. 'It really is illegal to use your Quirk for such purpose.'

'Yea, I get it,' Mariko said.

That wasn't it. It was the striking difference in their upbringing which struck a nerve deep inside her.

A flashback from today's dinner suddenly appeared in her brain. A kettle with steaming water and some tea placed next to it. No, not some tea. The tea. Golden Tips Imperial. She knew she somehow recognized the brand. It was a fancy brewage, that not many people could afford to drink on a regular basis and Yao was the one offering it during the meal.

'So, do you want to go out tomorrow and get it?' Kaminari caught up to her, after waving the tall, black-haired girl a goodbye.

'I- I might not...' she trailed off. 'I will just let you know, OK? I need to get going back to the teachers' dorm now.'

Mariko faked a smile on her face and turned towards the exit. As she was passing the group of students still sitting on the couch, she heard her name being called out. She looked above her shoulder, seeing Midoriya chase after her. He stopped right in front of the new student and handed her a notebook with a pen.

Mariko's eyes went wide open with disbelief.

'You don't have to, Izuku,' she responded honestly.

'But I want to! I have a few spares, I always try to have some in case I run out. But I never do, so you should have this one, please.'

Mariko accepted the book from the boy. Midoriya gently pushed her towards the door, knowing that she was about to leave and then lowered his voice to say:

'If you will ever need anything, don't be afraid to ask. I know it is easier said than done, but me and rest of my classmates would be very happy to help you. Even if it's about lending you some money.'

Mariko put on a fake smile and nodded. Soon after, she left the building.