Level Zero - Villain!Bakugou Rehabilitation

18 || Momentary Mishaps

Mina's eyes switched over to Miss Midnight as she appeared from behind All Might's hulking form.

"I'll take your class from here Eraser. We've got the first lesson together anyways!" She chimed in, before directing a wink at Mina and her peers.

Mina watched as indecision flashed across her suddenly serious teacher's face. He stood still for a moment, suspended in time, before moving to join his fellow Pro Heroes.

But not before turning back around with a single parting sentence.

"Ground Zero, you're coming with us." He paused momentarily, as if thinking something through. "Midoriya, you too. And also...L/N."

—  —  —

That had been just before the end of homeroom. It was now the beginning of lunch, and nobody had either seen nor heard from any of those three since. It would be an understatement to say that Mina was worried.

The group that Y/N usually sat with consisted of the clowns from Class 1-A; Kaminari, Kirishima, Sero, and of course Mina herself. Because they'd all banded together in the care-free way they had, normally their singular table was responsible for three quarters of the noise in the entire courtyard.

But the absence of Y/N had muted the festivities, their normally happy-go-lucky attitudes overpowered by the mutual concern for a close friend. Midoriya's companions, two tables over, were no different.

Eventually Mina broke the heavy silence that had descended over them all.

"I'm gonna go look for N/N." Was all she said, but it evoked a surprisingly large reaction out of them.

The three boys seated around her immediately replied with heartfelt exclamations and even an enthusiastic fist-pump. Their sudden declarations earned some odd looks from the surrounding tables, but none of them really minded.

"We must divide and conquer!" Exclaimed Kaminari, propping one leg up on the padded bench and pointing grandly to the doors labelled 'Exit.'

"I concur." Agreed Sero soberly, placing a hand over his heart.

"What are we waiting for then, let's go!" Cheered Kirishima.

"Wait, wait, wait." Mina said, reeling the three others back in. "If we're going to go look for N/N, shouldn't we search for Midoriya too? And maybe Ground Zero if we can?"

Kirishima's face lit up. "That's so manly Mina, great thinking!"

"Well if that's the case we could ask Midoriya's friends if they want to help us look too." Suggested Sero.

Quickly deciding on a plan of action, Mina approached the other group that thankfully weren't seated too far away. Kaminari, Kirishima, Sero and Mina herself explained their thoughts in under half a minute, while it took Uraraka, Iida, Asui and Todoroki less than ten seconds to agree.

They all paired up, one person with someone from the opposite friendship group; Kirishima with Todoroki, Kaminari with Iida, Sero with Uraraka, and Mina herself with Asui. From there, everyone split up to search the different corners of U.A. High.

Mina had a good, solid friendship with the frog girl as they sat quite close together in class. Despite this, Mina had never really had a chance to work with Asui very much, so she was quite excited even though one could easily consider this a somewhat morbid situation.

"So Asui, where do you think any of them might be?" Mina asked, enthusiastic to hear where Asui's undoubtedly logical train of thought would have lead her.

Asui paused walking for a minute, opting to place a finger on her chin and hum in thought.

"Well, excluding all the deduction behind it, I think that both Y/N and Midoriya would've wanted to go somewhere secluded, kero. Though I don't really know enough about Ground Zero to be sure about what he'd do or where he'd go."

Mina was about to ask why they'd need someplace to themselves, but Asui continued.

"The Third Year floors are always less crowded, because they have free periods, so they could have gone either East or West. From the direction they all headed when they left the classroom, I'd say our best bet are the upper floors in the West though, kero."

Mina blinked.

"Well I was just gonna say that we could walk around and check what we come across, but that sounds way more thought through Asui!" She laughed, scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Thanks, kero. But please call me Tsu." Tsu said, before setting off again at a steady gait.

"Sure thing Tsu!" Mina said with a grin as she picked up her pace too.

—  —  —

After wandering around for a good fifteen minutes, ascending and descending uncountable stairways, combing through numerous halls, and peeking inside many deserted classrooms, Mina and her partner had no luck in finding their peers.

"Where could they be? There can't be that many places left to check!" Mina groaned as she slumped against the wall and placed the back of her hand over her face dramatically.

"Well, technically-"

"Tsu, I beg that you withhold your inner smartness from me, just this once. I don't even want to know how many floors there are in this accursed school..." She sighed deeply.

"Oh hey, who's that?" Came Tsu's curious voice.

"I'm normally more than happy to hear jokes Tsu, but please, I'm too close to having a mental breakdown for this right now."

"It looks like N/N, kero." Tsu said, and Mina didn't need to open her eyes to see the contemplative index finger being placed on her chin.

"Mina-Chan, give me your opinion on this. It looks an awful lot like Y/N, but they're too far away for me to be sure."

"Come on Tsu, give me a br-"

Mina stopped talking mid sentence as her acrylic black and yellow eyes blinked open and finally inspected what it was that Tsu had been talking about.

"It's N/N!" She gasped, jumping back up.

Mina moved to run towards them as they walking absently through the empty corridor with their eyes fixed on the ground, but was stopped in her tracks as Tsu held her back. Mina turned a questioning gaze to her companion, fluffy pink locks bouncing.

"Y/N isn't alone." She said.

Mina looked back up in time to see an arm reach out from the conjoining passageway, and watched helplessly as Y/N stumbled and was dragged out of their sight.

Mina didn't see who the arm belonged to, but the sinking feeling in her gut was more than enough to go by.