𝐇𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐢 『Bakugo Katsuki』

◆Chapter 115◇

How many times had she stopped herself from forgiving herself for a crime she had no control over?

Miyuki exhaled shakily, shaking her head to rid herself of these thoughts as she picked up the last of the items. She paused, her eyes drifting upwards when she caught sight of Katsuki stopping in front of her. He knelt down across from her as he began silently helping her put the stuff away into the trash bag.

Just how much more...

Katsuki paused, his hand around the same can Miyuki reached for, their fingertips gently grazing. He looked at her, but her bangs hid her eyes from him.

"At that moment... when I let the commission use me to get to my brother..." she whispered. Her hold around the can tightened as she clenched her teeth. "I hate to wonder, but... could Aoyama-Kun feel as if we're doing the same with him...?"

Slowly, he picked up the can and pulled it out of her grip, revealing the indentations her fingers left behind. When she looked at him, Miyuki saw nothing in his eyes but steely resolve as he picked up one of the plastic bags, throwing the can inside.

"Whether it was right to trust him or not..." Katsuki gruffly stated, never looking away from her as she stood up, too, the other bag in her hold. The both of them walked into the common area, "the dice are in that b*stard's corner now. No matter where they end up, one way or the other... I'm gonna blow 'em all to hell for what they did to us."

"...Well," Ejirou spoke up, looking at his untouched glass of juice on the Chabudai, "it's time to gear up then, huh?"

"I've got to do something about my hero costume..." Tenya admitted solemnly.

"Me, too..." Izuku said. Miyuki looked down at her fingerless gloves and gauntlets, thinking she needed to do the same as well. It was in tatters, after all.

A tense silence filled the room once more. Suddenly, Miyuki heard a sound like sniffling and she looked over her shoulder to see Toru's gloved hands balling into fists.

"We will..." she muttered, but her voice rung clearly and loud enough for all her classmates to pause in what they were doing to listen to her. "...Definitely defeat them!"

With those words alone, the quiet, sullen faces of Miyuki and her classmates darkened with determination as a new resolve formed and hardened in each of their hearts.

"Yeah!"

◇

Later, a short time after they returned to the dormitory building from Yuga and his parents' interrogation, Miyuki, Tenya, and Izuku informed their classmates of where they were going before heading to the Developments Studio to have their costumes worked on - especially Miyuki's, seeing it was still in terrible condition from the battle at Gunga mountain and her time chasing the Tartarus escapees.

Izuku walked slightly ahead of her and the blue-haired boy beside her, and Miyuki couldn't help but feel worry gnaw at her gut as she watched her best friend marching up to the doors of the Support Course's workshop. They hadn't had much time to catch up since her return, but she knew the responsibility he was feeling then and there was immense.

She had gone out to protect him from the seemingly eternal threat her brother and All for One posed, but in doing so, Miyuki now realized she might have only been delaying the inevitable - the one in which he still shouldered the heaviest burden out of all them.