Awkward Energy - MinaDeku

The Lodges

"Damn Mina, even the Pro's noticed that you're getting tougher."

Not that it had been out of any particular concious choice that the class had made, but as they all made their way to the bus to collect their luggage as instructed by Aizawa, the girls had all ended up together, about five meters ahead of the boys. Mina and Hagakure were up at the front, and the invisible girl was complimenting the compliment that Pixie-Bob had given her, before she'd started hissing at her.

It had all been very complimentary, according to Hagakure.

Still, Mina had been left with the distinct impression that the Earth Flow Quirk user wasn't particularly fond of her. Given her marital status and insecurities... It felt very much like the Pro was jealous of the pink girls relationship with one of the boys she wanted to claim as hers.

The Professional's eccentricities aside though, Mina was grateful for the praise that she had received, from sources outside of her boyfriend. It felt good to be recognised when it came to her abilities, to know that she was actually progressing down the right route. It gave her more drive and motivation to try even harder to succeed. The natural response to praise that anyone could understand.

Even though she was grateful though, Mina wasn't entirely certain about what she had done to receive such praise. In truth, it didn't feel like she'd actually improved all that much. Her skills were still the same as every, and her Quirk was just as strong as it had ever been. She had her new idea regarding her damage output regarding her powers, but it was still in the testing phase, and subjected her to serious recoil damage. Was that particularly worthy of note?

Then again, Izuku's entire original usage of One For All had been nothing but shattering his own bones, until he found a way to unleash the power in smaller, less powerful but infinitely more manageable actions. Kind of the exact opposite of her current dilemma.

"I guess hanging out with Midoriya must've taught you a few things." Jirou commented. "You've been improving quicker than anyone else lately."

"You think so?" Mina asked, her eyebrows raising, and her head turning to face the Earphone Jack Quirk user. "I don't really have any of the experience he had though."

"Still enough for the Pro's to take notice." Tsuyu added on, catching up to the group that she lagged behind, and appearing from behind Jirou. "You two are doing Hero Team training too, aren't you? You must have gotten a lot of practice during that."

Mina hadn't really taken any of that into consideration. The truth of the matter there was that she mostly just did things as they happened, going with the flow of things. Actually looking back, all the various accumulations of practice, knowledge she'd absorbed just by being around Izuku, in addition to her own training... She did actually have a lot under her belt.

Still, she'd failed the End of Semester examination. Perhaps that had been a shot to her self confidence, without her ever even realising it. She didn't feel like it had upset her much beyond the now revealed lie of not going on the Summer Camp, though maybe it had hit her harder than she'd expected, and everything that had gone down with Shigaraki had just pushed it aside in her head.

Basically, she didn't even really think she was even in the same league, combat wise, as Izuku, as Todoroki, or Iida or Bakugou. Even though she very clearly was. She'd always been one of the class's stronger students, but compared to the best, it felt like she couldn't hold a candle to them. No one could.

The Pro's disagreed though, apparently.

And so did her classmates.

The girls group made it to the bus first, and Jirou hit the button on the side of the vehicle that opened up the side compartment, where everyone had loaded their bags and suitcases. A single, very feminine bag complete with pins began to float out from the pile, within arms reach of the resident floating standard female Yuuei uniform. "So, you and Midoriya, you're trying to be like these 'Pussycats', or whatever they're called, right?" Hagakure questioned, slinging her backpack over her visually nonexistent shoulders. In doing so, she also made her way to the side, out of the way of their other classmates, but remaining close to the girl with pink skin.