"What is it with you and always running off?" Mina's sleepy voice can be heard from not too far behind me. "I woke up to Yaoyorozu talking to Mineta and Kaminari and I asked where you'd gone. She said you'd be out here. I was looking for a while. This place is big."

"You didn't have to come running after me yanno."I pause, thinking about what she's said. "Mineta and Kaminari? Did Todoroki leave?" I question.

"Must have" She comes and sits next to me under the tree. "Yaoyorozu said she was gonna go to sleep as I left so Todoroki must've gotten bored not long after you left." Whilst her two points don't really link together, I let her off because it's late and she's clearly very tired. "Anyway, why you out here?"

"I just wanted to check out her big ass garden." I say honestly. "It's peaceful out here." She yawns and stretches before placing her head on my shoulder.

"You sure like being alone, huh?" She mutters quietly.

"Not really, I just like to have a break from people every now and then. I've not had much time to myself in the past couple of years so I'm making the most of it." I pause. "Then again, at the same time, it makes me paranoid. I wonder how Aiko's doing?" I'm literally just voicing my thoughts because I doubt that Mina's listening.

"Aiko's your sister, right? That little girl that invaded your enterence exam?" I'm slightly taken back honestly, it's not very often people ask about Aiko, or even me.

"Yep, that's the one. She's a precious little shit." I say lovingly, but also trying not to be too serious.

"You really care about her." Mina ends up going down the serious path I was trying to avoid.

"Well yeah, she's my sister." I laugh at her.

"I know, it just seems like you're incredibly protective of her though."

"Yeah." I say sadly. "She's uh, she's all I've really got left. I'm all she's really got left too. We're a duo."

"All you've got left? " She sits up, taking her head off of my shoulder. "What do you mean? What happened to you for you to think like that?" A sad silence settles over us as I don't know what to say to her. "You don't have to tell me anything yanno. It's just that there's speculation about you in the class."

This catches my attention.
"Like what?"

"Well you always wear bandages and we don't know anything about you except that you have a younger sister. People think that some thing's happened to you and that you have some dark, twisted past." I let out a singular chuckle.

"Not quite." She gives me a puzzled look. "I used to have a great home life. My dad left when I was about three, but I'm not really arsed about that because I didn't know him, and my mum met a new bloke. He was great and I had the time of my life with those two. It's only pretty recent that things went to shit in the grand scale of things." I say everything carefully, not giving much away.

"What happened?"

"Well, long story short, some shit went down I ended up going on the run with Aiko because villains are after her quirk." She gives me a very puzzled look. "Her quirk is called 'energy' and it does what it says on the tin basically. She produces energy in any form she wants, which you can imagine is incredibly valuable and villains want to get their hands on her."

"Oh no. That's awful." She clearly doesn't know what to say.

"Yeah." I mutter quietly. "I look at her and she's slowly nodding away. "Mina?"

"Hmm?"

"You should probably go back to bed."

"I'm not leaving you, Kiriko. Not until you know you're not alone. I don't know if it means much coming from me, but I'm staying right here. Hell, I'll get as many people from the class to tell you that as I can if you don't believe me." She slurs her words slightly but I still feel my face heat up. I can't remember the last time someone spoke to me like that. "But you're right, I'm hella tired so I'm just gonna nap here. Wake me up when you wanna go back in." She rests her head on my shoulder and falls asleep in a matter of seconds.

"Not until you know you're not alone." Mina's words echo through out my head. I want to believe her, but she's the only one I actually class as my friend, mainly because she's the only one that's referred to me as her friend. I've spoken to the rest a lot but I have a feeling they don't like me as much as they let on.

Yaoyorozu gives me those vibes more than anyone. I'm probably just being paranoid but I'd like to think I'm a good judge of character, even though she's only ever really called me out once. I'm just being paranoid. After all, no one's really come for me, not counting when I first walked into the class and was attacked in a matter of seconds.

I can't deny that I like a fair few people in the class, Mina at the top of that list. They're such a colourful cast of characters, everyone's unique and rare in their own way all the way from Mineta to Shoji.

I once again find myself staring at the stars.

They're so pretty and perfect but so all over the place at the same time. The universe's own little pattern that only a few get to see first hand. It's hard for me to think that there's a world out there that can be explored, nevermind the galaxy.

But, when I look down at Mina's head resting on my shoulder and her soft breaths and snores as she's at peace with the world, I realise that there's no place I'd rather be.

I have to look after Aiko, and these past couple of years have been stressful, just me looking after a child from the age of three to five was a lot, but I did it. As long as she's alive I know that I'm not alone, and I'm sure as hell going to make sure she's not.