"Good morning class, as of you might have heard, today we will be going to a training camp not too far from here, to hone your rescuing skills." Aizawa said as he entered the classroom the next day.
He then told you to go change into your hero costumes and head to the entrance of the school, where he would be waiting with a bus.
A training camp of all things was slightly unexpected. It had barely been a week since school had started. It did seem interesting though, so you were down.
You got up and went with the other girls to change.
"Hey, Y/n, I was wondering, can you show us how your quirk works?" Uraraka asked as you finished changing.
Your eyes lit up a little. "Sure"
You closed your eyes for a moment, and when you opened them again, time was frozen. You quickly ran to Uraraka, who now seemed like a statue, and put a hand on her shoulder.
You then let time continue its usual flow.
You heard Uraraka, as well as Mina let out a yelp as you smiled.
"That's so cool!" they both said as you thanked them.
"So when you activate your quirk, time stops for the whole world, right?" Yaoyorozu asked after she finished dressing.
"Yes. The flow of time doesn't get affected though" you clarified.
***
The bus ride was about two hours. You were glad, since you had time to sort out your thoughts for a while.
You thought about Yui-san. This morning, when she returned from work, you were about to leave. You told her good morning, and that you were going to school.
She only nodded, probably still mad at you.
But you didn't regret what you did though. You weren't going to let her manipulate you anymore. You had done the right thing.
Your relationship probably worsened, but if she wasn't willing to accept your dream, that was inevitable. You had never had an amazing relationship with her anyway.
As the bus pulled into a parking lot, you all got out.
"Hello everyone! Welcome! I am Thirteen and I will be showing you the surroundings." The hero announced, leading you to the training space.
You were all amazed. It was very big, and had a lot of equipment and spaces for different types of training.
As you were admiring the surroundings and Thirteen was talking about what you were going to do, you felt a shiver go down your spine.
You instinctively looked at Aizawa, who was looking over his shoulder, a shocked expression on his face.
As your eyes diverted in that direction too, your body tensed, terror making its way to your face. You took a step back. A very familiar black portal was forming in the centre of the training space.
Most of your classmates were still focused on what Thirteen was saying, except for Todoroki, whose attention was caught by your gasp, and who was now looking at you a bit confused.
Your body started trembling as a hand made its way out of the portal, along with the body of a man you wished you didn't know.
Your breath hitched as more of the villains made their way out of the portal and into the training area. You looked in Aizawas direction. With a frightened expression, he looked at you, then at Thirteen.
"Thirteen! Get the kids out of here! Now!" came his panicked voice.
The colour in your face was basically gone by now, and you were barely standing on your two feet.
"Well, well, isn't that an unexpected familiar face we have there, right, Kurogiri?" a raspy voice was heard.
As if paralyzed, you stared at the man that had just spoken and was approaching all of you with his subordinates. You gulped as you blinked a few times, hoping that that would make him magically disappear. It didn't.
Tomura Shigaraki, along with the rest of the League of Villains, were standing a few feet away from you and your class.
"How have you been, Y/n? I see you've come to UA. You wanna be a hero?" he added, with a disgusting mocking voice.
At that comment, the entirety of class 1A was looking in your direction, some of them confused, while others worried.
Like instinct, and because he was coincidentally next to you, Todoroki put arm on your shoulder, slightly shoving you behind him.
He didn't know why he felt the need to do it. But that wasn't important now.
Villains were attacking. It seemed real, since both Aizawa and Thirteen looked almost as surprised and scared as the students.
They needed to get out of this first, and then Todoroki could wonder about anything else.
You all saw Aizawa run forward, attacking some of the villains, while still yelling at thirteen to get you and your classmates out of there.
There wasn't time for that to be done though, as a black portal-like thing appeared in front of you, with purple sparks occasionally showing.
"Hi there, little heroes. You surely didn't expect this to be happening on your wonderful training camp, did you?" you looked up as Kurogiri spoke, looking mostly in your direction.
His voice sent a shiver down your spine as your eyes were concentrated on him, afraid that if you took them away for even a second, he would do something to someone.
The same black portal appeared under your class' feet, all of them scared and wondering what was going on.
A knot formed into your throat as you recognized that feeling; the feeling of being dragged away, without having the ability to do anything to protect yourself, or the others around you.
Todoroki glanced back at you. He was surprised as well, but seeing the look on your face surprised him even more.
You were more serious than usual, your brows were furrowed. Your face was pale too. Your fists were clenched, slightly trembling.
Why did you... know those people? Those villains.
"Oh, forgot to mention, we are the League of Villains, make sure to remember that" Kurogiri added as all of you began syncing into the portal, darkness surrounding you.
***
You had always hated darkness. It scared you.
Made you think that the only thing around you was pitch-black nothingness. Like you had stopped existing, and were now just floating away, to who knows where; with no one to save you, no one to help you. No one near.
It made you feel alone.
Like everyone had abandoned you. Like you didn't matter to anyone.
Some people like living like that -it makes them feel calm, like they can sort out their thoughts better- not you though.
You were afraid of being left alone. Of that feeling that there wasn't a single soul in the world that cared about you -that needed you.
Being surrounded by the dark -you hated it. Because it reminded you that you were indeed alone. And it wasn't the fact that you were alone that was so scary.
It was the fact that you actually felt alone. Felt the need of someones presence, someone to tell you that you mattered -which was something you didn't have.
So you always surrounded yourself with light. Whether it was a small flashlight in your pocket when you knew you were going to walk home at night, or a small lamp near your bed that you lit up when you went to sleep. You always made sure you didn't let complete darkness surround you.
And ever since that event occurred, it scared you even more.
You would wake up in the middle of the night, gasping for air, cold sweat on your forehead. You'd look around, almost desperately, until you'd see the small lamp on your desk.
The small bit of light.
The small bit of hope, pushing you to move forwards.
Then, a sigh would escape your lips, as you'd let yourself plop back onto your pillow, falling asleep again.
But there was one more thing that scared you about the darkness.
Sure, you felt alone, but sometimes, you didn't.
Sometimes, in the dark, you might not be alone. Throughout all of that pitch-black, there could be someone else, someone dangerous, someone scary.
Someone who could hurt you.
But that wasn't what was actually scary, was it? You had learnt to protect yourself relatively well, even by training alone in that park under your apartment for so long.
Yeah, that wasn't the problem.
The problem was, that because it was dark, you wouldn't be able to see that person. Figure out their plans, their intentions. You could only wait blindly for them to make a move, which was the worst thing one could do.
And there was that place too.
That place you were brought -no, dragged to back then.
It was so dark. So scary.
So empty, yet full of people. Each with a soul of their own, a story of their own.
But those people only wanted to hurt you. They wanted to take your power, for their own benefit.
And you couldn't fight back.
You were weak back then. Unable to make the right decision. You even almost let them take the only thing that gave you power; that made you feel alive.
Your quirk.
But now you liked thinking you were strong; ready to fight them if they ever appeared again with the same intentions.
You had trained, so you would be able to actually do something to protect yourself, or the people around you.
You were strong now. Yeah.
But the memory of that darkness still remained in your mind, like a scar. It still scared you, as much as something could scare a person.
That couldn't change so easily.
***
You winced as your body hit the ground. For a few seconds, you were unable to open your eyes, so you just sat there without moving.
Memories of what was happening around you made their way back into your mind as you forcefully stood up, fear still in your eyes.
You frowned as you put a hand on your stomach; the burn was starting to heal, but it was nowhere near fully scared, so it still hurt when you did sudden movements.
You looked around. You were in a forest area. Probably still in the training space.
So they had scattered you in different places.
Then, you heard another thump behind you.
You turned around, only to see Todoroki sit up, rubbing the back of his head. You stretched out an arm to him, prompting him to take it and get up.
"Are you okay?" you asked as he took your hand and pushed himself off the ground.
"Yeah" he responded, refusing to look you in the eye. "Are you?"
Were you?
Well, you just saw and were attacked by the people you hated and feared the most. You were still pale, your hands were still slightly trembling.
That was probably why Todoroki had asked you back. Because when he took your hand for a few seconds, he felt it slightly trembling, even though your expression was barely showing it.
"I'm fine" you said, letting go of his hand that for some reason was still in yours.
You both turned around as some villains were making their way towards you.
You tried to hide it, but your breath hitched and you took a little, barely noticeable step back.
"I'll handle them" you heard Todorokis voice as ice was already coming out of his right hand.
He froze almost every villain in a few seconds. Somehow, it left you speechless. The precision of his moves, it was almost too experienced for a first year in high school.
You didn't have time to think about anything else, as you felt an arm wrap around your neck. It was probably one of the villains Todoroki didn't get to.
Out of instinct, you stopped time and escaped him. That took you a second.
So, you had one more left. But it was probably going to take you a little longer.
You ran behind him, wrapped your own hands around his neck, and, as time regained its own flow, the villain was left unconscious.
You got off him, letting him fall onto the ground.
You were slightly panting, still not fully used to stopping time for more than two seconds. You looked at Todoroki.
He was panting too, a bunch of villains frozen next to him.
You then heard an explosion. You looked in the direction it was coming from.
"FEAR NOT! WHY? BECAUSE I AM HERE!"
You and Todoroki sighed in relief as you saw All Might arrive. You only realised how tensed up you had been when a large exhale escaped your mouth, making even Todoroki give you a questioning look.
"Should we go there too?" he suddenly asked, as you nodded. Both of you started running towards the area where All Might was.
However, the slight relief his presence gave you was long gone when you locked eyes with Shigaraki for a second.
He smirked at you from under the hand on his face.
There wasn't much you could do without getting in the way, and, with a bit of difficulty and Midoriya helping a little -while breaking a few bones in the process- the fight came to an end, in All Mights favour.
"You got us this time, 'symbol of peace', but we will return" came Shigarakis raspy voice, as he was going inside Kurogiris portal. "Oh, and, Master is still excited about you, Y/n" he added as he fully disappeared.
After they were gone, you slouched down, taking your head in your hands and sighing a shaky breath.
You were overwhelmed. You didn't know how to react.
What if they came after you again? What if they came after All Might again? What if one of your classmates got hurt because of you?
You thought you had gotten stronger, both physically and mentally.
But this encounter -one you hoped wouldn't have happened- reminded you of how weak you felt; how small and insignificant, unable to protect yourself or anyone else.
Unable to do anything.
How foolish of you... to think that you would be able to look that man in the eye and fight him; that you would be able to look in those red, terrifying eyes of his, surrounded by deep, self-inflicted scratches, and have the courage to stand up to him, tell him you weren't scared.
You realized that even now, you were still that little girl who couldn't do anything. That little girl who only knew how to endure things all by herself and hope that someone would come and save her, only to find out no one did.
But you were used to it. Opening up to people was never your thing.
Out of nowhere, you felt tears form into your eyes. You were acting so strange, letting emotions take over.
Suddenly, you felt a warm hand on your shoulder.
"Y/n... are you okay?"
You lifted your head up and saw Todoroki slouching in front of you. This kind of surprised you. His face showed slight worry, and for some reason, it made you calm down a little. You nodded in response
He didn't ask why the villain boss knew your name, nor about his words to you.
You were so grateful for that.
"Come on" he added, helping you get up.
You followed him to where Aizawa and your other classmates were. You saw Midoriya unconscious, probably about to be taken to the nearest hospital.
"You okay, kid?" your teacher asked as you were following Todoroki inside the bus to go back home, since there was no way the training camp would be able to continue.
"I... I think so."
***
The ride home was relatively silent.
But, in spite of it, inside Shouto's mind, tons of questions were floating around, making his head ring.
Why did those people -those villains- know you?
He had never seen them before. Even Mr. Aizawa was shocked when they appeared. They were obviously dangerous.
So, why did they know your name? Why was that weird-looking man -with hands covering his body- speaking to you like he had known you for years?
What was... going on?
Shouto pinched the bridge of his nose.
Why was he thinking about this? He had so many more important things to be thinking about; he had to train -become a hero. That was the top priority.
Yet he kept wondering; were you okay? Did those villains do something to you before? Was that linked to why you showed no sign of remembering him?
Ugh... this was annoying.
Shouto let out a sigh, sudden exhaustion hitting him as he closed his eyes and fell asleep for the rest of the ride, all his questions left unanswered.