fear. || { bnha }

twenty one.

"Are you alright?" she asked, giving off the impression of a concerned mother — a look Valui didn't often see.

Valui forced out a small nod, though she doubted she was telling the truth. "I... Yeah. I'm fine." She would have to be; she couldn't let her emotions control her — not to the extent they had done before. She needed to get braver; she needed to get stronger, at least to the point where people wouldn't die protecting her.

"Valui," Nezu said from where he was sitting, drawing her attention away from her lap and over to him. "When you came in here... Did you say you wanted to become a hero?"

Her first instinct was to say yes — that she meant what she said to the fullest; every word, every syllable, every letter. She wanted to pretend that she hadn't already traded in her childhood dream for something more logical and achievable; simply gaining even an ounce of success in a world where she was at the bottom of the food chain was her goal now. As much as she tried to will herself to lie — both to herself and everyone around her — Valui couldn't. She shook her head slightly. "I... I didn't mean it exactly like that. I could never be a real hero."

"Why do you say that?"

Valui gave a sad smile — a smile of resignation; of something she'd been forced to become accustomed to. "I don't have a Quirk. I'd never be able to be a hero."

"But you can." The second voice made her turn her head, eyes meeting those of the man she had met at the sports festival. "I didn't tell you otherwise just to be nice."

Valui glanced to her feet — hovering just above the floor as she was too short to reach it with her back against the couch — and gave a small shrug. She didn't want to argue, nor admit out loud that she had already given up on that dream. "I...guess not," she said as she looked back up. Her head tilted off to one side, a questioning look filling her eyes. "Who are you, by the way? I never got your name."

His eyes flickered between Recovery Girl and Nezu before landing back on Valui. "Toshinori." He paused, then added on, "You're...Valui, right?"

She nodded, half forcing a small smile onto her face. The air around the small group fell quiet, as if waiting for Valui to continue talking — and she did, after a moment of figuring out what she wanted to say. "I... I mainly meant that I wanted to get stronger. S-so people don't have to risk getting hurt because...of m-me."

Her voice wavered at the end; images and recent memories she'd done her best to bury for the moment resurfaced and made themselves painfully vivid. A soft squeeze to her shoulder grounded her before she had the chance to go back into hysterics. As Valui's mind slipped back into the present, she became aware of how her ears had filled themselves with white noise — as it died down to an annoying ringing, she heard the end of Toshinori's and Nezu's conversation.

"...Midoriya could help."

"They would get along well, wouldn't they? It'd probably be good for both of them. Where is he right now?"

"Probably going to lunch right now."

"Are you talking about Izuku?" Valui asked, her question drawing the attention of both males toward her.

"That's even better; they already know each other," Nezu said, looking away from Valui and back to Toshinori.

That didn't really answer my question. 

"I guess so." Toshinori glanced out one of the windows of the office, then looked at Valui. "You know Midoriya, don't you?" When she nodded, he glanced to Nezu and back again, then continued, "You should ask him your question. He'd be a better help than any of us."