'Tomorrow,' she was thinking the entire day, wiping the tables at the cafeteria, right after sweeping the floor. 'He seems to aim at the feet a lot, I need to be careful of that.'

Mariko's frustration started piling up. She was convincing herself that Aizawa is full of hate towards her and just likes to take it out directly on her; and as she did so, half a page of disrespectful notes appeared in her notebook.

When the anticipation was gone, and it was time for another duel, she made sure not to repeat the same fighting pattern. She had entire twenty four hours of coming up with specific punches, blows, possible dodges and kicks. She was prepared and there was no chance for her to loose. Or, so she thought.

When Eraserhead knocked her down for the second time, she had to spit out the dirt out of her mouth. He pressed her ribs to the grass and announced:

'Time's up.'

Then, just like the first day, he left, leaving her desperate, angry.

'It was the second dash, I did the same thing as previously. He is taller, I cannot charge at him like that, because then he can just use my own momentum,' she was analyzing.

'Tomorrow this will be over very fast.'

She was right. It was indeed over very fast, but she was not the one who was victorious.

She laid on her side, her back pressed to a tree, which she hit a second ago. Her body was aching, but adrenaline nullified all the pain. The teacher looked down at her, observing her heavy breaths.

'Time's up.'

She slowly stood up and watched him remove the bracelets from his wrists. When they made the eye contact, she looked to the side and spat her blood out of her mouth.

'It's time to kick his stupid ass.'

As another page in the notebook appeared, her frustration grew. She made sure not to release the Quirk, but she was on the edge for the entire day.

But the very next day ended up in the exact same way. She was laying on her back, trying to keep her guard up, as he pressed his foot to her crossed forearms, trapping her in between the ground and his body weight. Mariko kicked the back of his right leg that was pressing her body down, finally landing her first hit in four days. Aizawa grabbed her ankle and pressed his hand on her knee. She aimed at his hand and kicked with her other leg, but he just covered himself with her own shank, making her hit herself.

She felt the tears forming in her eyes, both from pain and humiliation. He was toying with her, and every single day, he made sure that she knows how easy it is for him to fight her.

'I will not attack first, I will be on the defensive side and then I will get the advantage.'

She opened her notebook and wrote down her feelings full of rancor. She blamed everything and everyone, but not herself. Each time she faced Aizawa, the complex layers of her toxic personality, were being destroyed, shattered to the smallest pieces, peeled back, undermining everything she was ever convinced of. Was she really strong? Was her Quirk undefeatable?

When on the sixth day, she was biting the ground, she refused to acknowledge everything that Aizawa proved to be wrong.

'It was a lucky hit,' her toxic inner voice kept gaslighting herself.

The second she was done at the cafeteria, she ran all the way to the school's gym, ignoring all the school ethics and the rule of no-running-in-the-corridors. As she entered the room that Mirio showed her one day, she immediately spotted a training dummy, which she started hitting mercilessly. Punch after punch, blow after blow, kick after kick, the skin of her knuckles started tearing off, but she was fueled by her immense rage. She tried multiple attack patterns on the training dummy, various combinations of simple, yet very effective hits or more flashy kicks. She was constantly on the move, her stamina allowing her to practice for hour upon hour, until eventually she has stopped.

She looked at the training dummy, staring back at her completely expressionless. Then, she walked over to the side, trying to catch a breath.

'There was some progress,' she heard his voice in her brain, as her eyes were closed. 'At least you managed to hit me.'

She gritted her teeth and swirled towards the dummy, jumping on top of it. She locked the target's head in between her tights and twisted her ankles, bending her body backwards. Her attack was so strong, she growled through her clenched jaws and soon after landed on her feet, as part of the training dummy detached, hitting the ground with a thud. She stared at the dummy's head on the floor and leaned towards the rest of the target's body, catching a break.

She looked up towards the rest of the gym and froze, seeing Mr. Aizawa standing in the entrance. He was dressed in casual clothes, slightly similar to his hero costume. His arms were crossed at his chest, and his left shoulder was touching the doorframe. As much as she hated to admit it, he looked charming, which in this particular scenario pissed her off even more.

Mariko swallowed and grabbed her hoodie, which she threw aside hours ago.

'I thought you were in the dorm already,' she heard him say, as she put on the hoodie, preparing to go outside. The young woman picked up the detached head of the training dummy and examined it from every side. 'It should be possible to re-attach it.'

Aizawa slid his palms into his pockets. Mariko stood on her toes to try and see the mechanism in the neck of the target, but she was too small. She glanced at the man, a lot taller than she was, but did not ask for help. Instead, she spotted a chair in the corner of the room and dragged it all the way to the dummy. Then, she inserted a hook sticking out of the head into a weird pipe inside the neck of the body and twisted the head back in it's place. She stood at the chair for a few seconds, and then punched the head, testing the hold. It didn't fall off. She nodded and jumped down and left the chair in it's previous spot.

As she walked past the teacher, trying to leave the small gym room filled with various cardio and strength equipment, he stretched his arm, placing his hand at the other side of the doorframe. He blocked her way, so she looked askance at him.

'Treat your wounds,' he ordered.

'I will,' she said dismissively.

Shota looked at her with half-closed eyes and wrapped his other hand around her wrist. She flinched at his touch, but he dragged her back into the gym.

'Sit down,' he commanded and she obeyed without a word.

She sat on a bench press, following the man with her eyes. He walked to the opposite wall, straight ahead from the entrance, where a first aid kit was mounted. He grabbed a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a small dressing and a roll of bandage as well as small scissors. He turned around to the girl and crouched in front of her, taking her left hand in his gentle grasp. Mariko turned her head to the side, unable to look at the man.

Aizawa glanced at her face and unscrewed the bottle to pour the liquid on top of her knuckles. She clenched her knee with the other hand, as her torn skin was being disinfected.

They sat in silence, listening to the quiet hisses of hydrogen peroxide and an air conditioning unit, pouring more refreshing air inside the gym.

Shota pressed the dressing to her knuckles and wrapped it carefully with the bandage. Half a minute later, he let go of her hand, and moved to the other.

'It's ridiculous and irrational how Principal Nezu let you in the school,' he said, breaking the silence.

There were so many things she wanted to say at that time, but none were appropriate. He saw the struggle, written all over her face, as he took care of her other hand.

'Brat,' he commented.

Her jaw muscles visibly tensed. He inspected her face for a minute, while he waited for the scratches to disinfect.

'You know what is your biggest problem, Okaido?' he asked.

'Please, enlighten me.' She turned her head, a hostile look in her eyes.

They sat still, looking at each other, unspeakable tension building up in between the two.

'How you never ask yourself 'why?'.'

She frowned, dropping the eye contact with the man. She stared into space, trying to make any sense of what he just said to her, while he wrapped her other hand in a bandage.

'She will eventually understand,' Aizawa thought to himself.

When he was done, he let go of her hand and stood up. He looked at her from above, tilting his head slightly. She still didn't thank him, at it seemed like she was not planning to. Shota slowly turned around, putting the medical equipment back in it's place and walked over to a pull-up bar, placing both of his hands on it, stretching himself before workout.

Mariko looked at the man's back and then at her nicely wrapped hands. Shota slid his hand to his side, keeping it at a right angle to the rest of his body and then stretched his back. He turned around and switched his arm, making eye contact with the girl. After a few seconds, she looked away and started bouncing her right leg.

'What does he mean by that?' she was still thinking, feeling his heavy gaze upon herself.

Okaido looked at her hands and slowly stood up to leave the gym without thanking the teacher.

'Brat,' he thought again, slowly pulling himself up above the bar.

The morning was cold and foggy. Mariko stood in the center of the arena, where every day for a week she was sparring with her teacher. She was dressed in her UA sports uniform, practicing some dynamic kicks, while waiting for her opponent to arrive.

'The grass is covered in dew, I need to be careful, but he has to be careful of that as well,' she murmured.

She stretched herself, spreading her legs and leaning forward with her body, until she was able to place her forearms on the ground. Then, she bent her left knee and shifted her body weight to the left foot. She breathed deeply, the fresh air stinging her nose. After that, she noticed Aizawa walking towards her. She stood up, tightening and relaxing her fists a few times. She was ready, and he was about to go down.

'Morning,' he greeted her and she nodded, not loosing him out of her sight.

He immediately sensed her hostility. Shota turned his back towards her, trying to put his Binding Cloth and googles on the ground. Just as he expected, she instantly dashed forward, attacking him.

Mariko bounced on her legs and launched a powerful tornado kick, using his height to her own advantage, as he was almost unable to avoid it. He dodged backwards, sliding on the wet grass. She looked at him and retreated to the center of the area, waiting for his response.

'Should I use it?' the question rang in her head.

Aizawa walked towards her and quickly leaned forward, baiting her into thinking that he will attack. She reacted by bouncing backwards and then growled with annoyance, frustrated that she fell for it. As she changed her position, he dashed forward, grabbing her right wrist with his left hand and swinging his right at her neck. She grabbed his forearm as a support and twisted her body, avoiding the blow. When she was slightly below his hips, he used his leg to kick her in the torso. She lost her balance, and he quickly wrapped his legs around her neck, smashing her to the ground.

'My own fucking move!' she yelled in her mind and gritted her teeth until they made a loud grinding noise.

She unleashed her Quirk and struggled with his grasp. The green flame partially covered her vision, but Aizawa didn't seem to get weaker. He hooked both of his ankles together and pushed his knees together, applying more pressure on her neck. She kicked the ground in front of her, fighting for her life, as she felt dizzy because of the lack of oxygen.

'Fuck!' she screamed and glanced at his face, constantly trying to push his legs away from her neck.

This time however, there was no neutral expression on his face. He was struggling to keep her in one place, but he never cancelled her Quirk. She slid her right hand from below his knees and tried reaching towards his face, but she was not able to throw a punch. He leaned backwards, getting outside of her arm's range. Her vision started being blurry and time seemed to fly a lot faster than it actually did. In the next second, her Quirk was gone. She quickly looked at the man again, not seeing his red eyes.

Her heartbeat drastically increased.

He looked her in the eyes, seeing the sudden panic. He did it. He accomplished everything he had planned. He destroyed the very last wall she surrounded herself with.

As the panic started kicking in, she kept booting the ground, her feet sliding on the wet grass. Eventually she managed to dig a small hole, where she put her heel for some additional support. Mariko tugged her body, putting all of her energy into the motion and was able to free herself from the grasp of his knees and with her right arm, reached behind him, pulling out the big knife, he was always carrying with his belt. He immediately let go of her and rolled to the side, avoiding her armed hand.

She took a shaky breath and looked up at the man, slowly standing on her feet. She was still slightly dizzy, but there was no time to loose. She brought the knife in front of her, trying to wipe her face from the sweat and dirt, but just as she did so, his hair floated, the eyes turned red and in the next split second, the Binding Cloth wrapped her armed forearm. She twisted her wrist and cut the scarf-looking weapon, before he managed to pull her forward. After freeing herself, she jumped backwards, but already knew that it was a mistake. As if they were fighting in slow motion, she noticed another end of the Binding Cloth, tying both of her ankles together. Mariko twisted her body to land on her bottom, bringing her feet to her arm level, trying to cut off the bonding. Aizawa knew what she was going to do, so he dashed forward and swung his left leg at her ribcage, kicking all of the oxygen out of her lungs.

She fell to the ground, her eyes covered with fog. He took the knife out of her hand and threw the Binding Cloth above a thick branch, growing just above the girl. He hung her upside down and pulled the Binding Cloth, so that her face was almost at his eye level. He took a deep breath and wiped some dirt of his hero costume. He ran a hand through his hair and noticed her sudden movement.

Her eyes widened with fear, as she looked at the ground.

'Time is up,' he said.

He lifted the hand holding a knife to his face and noticed how she suddenly covered herself with her arms. She clenched her jaw and tightened her abdomen muscles, visibly terrified.

'Is it the knife?' he thought, his frown barely softening.

He suddenly moved his armed hand behind his back, with intention of hiding the knife in the holster, but the girl flinched again, putting one of her hands in front of her face. She was wearing a long-sleeve shirt again, but the memory of her scars flashed in his brain.

'It is the knife, then.'

'I don't have to tell you what that means, do I?' he asked her. She did not respond. 'Free yourself and get your stuff out of the dorm. Principal Nezu told me you can keep some clothes if you feel like it. You don't need to depart today, but as soon as you can.'

She was breathing heavily, feeling as if her head was spinning. She could barely hear his words, as the panic attack washed all over her body. She was trembling, a traumatic memory haunting her brain.

Shota turned around towards cafeteria and started walking to the school. After a few steps, he looked behind his shoulder, for the first time questioning his strategy. Mariko was still hanging where he left her, her body slowly swinging on the cool wind, but she herself was completely paralyzed, still keeping her arms in front of her, as if trying to protect herself from an invisible enemy.

He almost turned around to help her get back to the ground, but then he realized that it would make zero sense. If he was to help her now, all of the effort would go to waste.

He looked at her for the last time and left.

As Aizawa disappeared, Mariko looked up at her feet tied together. She relaxed her abdomen, letting her head fall down. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears. She was no longer angry - she was terrified. Her mouth was dry and even if she wanted to, she would not be able to say a word or scream for help. Mariko's eyelids started feeling heavy and soon after she lost consciousness.

At first she didn't see anything. But eventually the world around her started building and she felt as if she was standing up. Eventually, the image sharpened and she was able to look around. Mariko was in front of a two-story, plain looking building. It was summer and weather was really nice - it was warm but not too warm, as there was some wind blowing at the side of her face. She was standing close to an old oak tree with a big branch growing almost right above her head. The building in front of her was grey and looked very sad, with no color on the walls or in the windows; the glass panes on the ground floor were secured with metal bars.

She turned around on her heel and immediately froze. There was a group of teenagers staring at her. One of them, the one in the front, was their leader. He was taller than Mariko, dressed in a basic, bright green t-shirt and brown shorts.

As she took a step back, she lost the feeling of the ground below her. She looked down, trying to scream, but her mouth was muffled with a cloth gag. A void rift appeared below her, sucking her inside of it. She was falling deep down, until she was covered with complete darkness. Then, she felt a rope being wrapped around her feet and in the next second she was hanging upside down from the oak tree. Mariko felt pain and tightened her abdomen muscles to look up at her forearms. Her skin was covered in cuts. The wounds were open but did not bleed.

'Cursed quirk,' she heard some voices echo around her and faces of people randomly flashed through her brain. It was the leader of the group.

'She can't defend herself if she is unconscious,' someone with spiky teeth and wide eyes said.

It was very common for orphanages to establish a hierarchy between the residents. The employees of such facilities were doing their jobs as best as they could, but they never loved any of the kids. They were all outcasts from the society. A lot of them were never adopted.

'Cursed quirk.'

'Who are you going to kill when you leave the place?'

'Have you seen the public police reports? The villain activity in the area increased and Okaido is not even out. You will have so many friends around!'

The skin on her forearms sealed, leaving multiple scars and then her body was pulled by an invisible force.

She was now sitting in front of the facility owner, in his office. The sun rays sinking through the window behind the man covered his face, casting a long shadow of his silhouette over the desk in front of Mariko. The sun was shining in her eyes and all that she remembered were brick walls and industrial shelves filled with carboard boxes full of adoption certificates and files of the current kids present in the orphanage.

'Why do you always get into fights? Do you wish to be expelled? Kids around are so good to you and you never give anything in return.'

The scene shifted again and she was hanging upside down, tears covering her vision. She sobbed, the wet trails spreading from her eyes, all the way to her eyebrows and then the roots of her hair.

'You always push everyone away and not socialize, what is wrong with you?'

She wiped her face with scarred arms.

Then, an image appeared in front of her. She observed her young self, standing in defense of two, very small siblings. They were holding each other, scared of the teenage group ruling over the orphanage. Mariko was the only one, who didn't stay still and wanted to protect them. She stood her ground, spreading her arms in a defense gesture.

'You will not go past me!' she yelled at the spiky teeth boy, a masculine girl, a boy with ashen-grey hair and the leader, dressed in his signature, bright-green t-shirt.

The leader stepped forward, and activated his Quirk. Two, big blades grew out of his forearms as he dashed at Mariko. She was scared, but she was also frustrated. It wasn't just her, they bullied so many of them. If she was the only victim, she would accept herself as a sacrifice for greater good, but that wasn't the case.

She screamed with rage as his blades sliced across her arms. Then, her own Quirk activated and for the first time ever, she saw fear in the eye's of the oppressor. Her vision was clouded, her body suffering from pain, but she enjoyed it. If she was to be treated with respect, she would take over the group of orphanage bullies and finally make it a place where people don't suffer.

As she drained the leader, putting him down on his knees, she turned around to assure the siblings that they are safe. When she looked at them, they were laying down on the cold floor, their bodies stiff. She leaned towards them, reaching out with a helping hand.

'MARIKO!' she heard a scream behind her. It was the orphanage's nurse. 'MARIKO YOU WILL KILL THEM!'

She wiped the tears from her eyes.

She just wanted to help.