The class gathered in the clearing outside of the living quarters. Tenya wanted to 'allocate spaces' so that we wouldn't disturb or accidentally hurt one another, which was actually a very sensible idea, as much as I hate to admit it. I also needed someone to waste my time; I have no idea what to train. Strengthen Encase, or start working on Shatter? Which one? If I worked on either moves, I'd need other people. But Shatter specifically needed Father so he could erase my quirk if needed. Luckily, my father and uncle, who were watching from the sidelines, saw my troubled look and offered to help me with Shatter.
Once everyone was set in place, I took out my mirror and put it under my eye, pointing it towards Toshi.
All I had to do was imagine that he was as fragile as his reflection and break him. After taking a deep breath and preparing, I hesitated.
"I don't think it's going to hurt but-"
"Are you stalling?" Father asked sternly.
"Well I've never tried it on a human before! And I always have trouble getting the pieces back together. I just think I should try on a plant again. I don't want anything bad to happen..."
"Don't worry, little one! You can do it." Uncle reassured me. I reset my stance, took a deep breath and focused on Toshi's large outline. My hand shook slightly. What if it really hurt? What if it forced him into his true form and his secret was discovered? What if I couldn't bring him back and he was stuck as shards of glass forever?
Clearly frozen in place and stuck in my own thoughts, my father sighed and patted my shoulder.
"You're going to have to do this at one point." I looked at the ground, hanging my head dejectedly.
"I know."
"Don't look so down. You'll get there eventually." Uncle grinned. I nodded, still upset at myself. Well, not upset. More frustrated, I guess. Why couldn't I just do it? I looked across at everyone else training hard, clearly trying their best to push themselves and improve their quirks. And here I was, unable to even try.
"Let's practice Encase. Try and trap All Might and me." Father instructed, grabbing his binding and throwing it over his shoulders. Taking a fighting stance, I grinned. I love sparring with Father.
"Oh yeah! Get ready to have your asses kicked!"
After a few hours we decided to call off training for an hour to have some lunch and get some energy. I had captured my uncle, then had to fight and capture my father, then hold them both for as long as I could. Then repeat almost as soon as they got out. Long story short, I was exhausted and my quirk was almost completely drained. I don't think I've ever trained for this long with no breaks before. Even Father was feeling the effects of his quirk.
"Whoever's making lunch today," He called, tipping his head back and putting his eyedrops in. "Hurry up about it."
Tokoyami and Aoyama were making lunch today, and decided to make curry and rice. It was easy and filling. I just hoped that we wouldn't end up having curry for every meal.
We all congregated in the dining hall and sat in our seats. I fell heavily in mine and leaned my back against Katsu's arm. I could feel the sweat on him, and heat radiated from his hands and arms. He also smelled even more like caramel than he did before.
"What are you doing?" He yelled, pushing me upright.
"You smell good. Is that from your quirk?" He simply spluttered at me, his face red from what I could only guess was anger. The others laughed, and I saw Mina and Kiri nudge each other out of the corner of my eye. After making idle chat for about ten minutes, Tokoyami placed a bowl full of curry and rice in front of me.
"Feel free to get seconds." He said flatly as I grabbed my chopsticks.
"Thank you!" I yelled as I started shovelling food into my mouth. I was freaking STARVING! Kami giggled as he got his own bowl.
"Smells delicious!"
"Tastes delicious!" I confirmed through a mouthful of rice.
"You're so gross! Eat, then talk! God, you're like a five year old!" Katsu started scolding me. "You've got rice on your cheek." I could feel the rice grain on my right cheek, but started wiping my left to annoy him. When he lifted his hand, I flinched, expecting a slap or something. But to my immense surprise, he gently picked the grain off of my cheek and dropped it back into my bowl. His fingers were warm and soft; I expected them to be cold and callous, like him. I must have been staring or something, because Katsu flicked my forehead and turned back to his food.
"Stop looking at me like that. All of you!" Practically shaking myself, I took the expression off of my face and went back to my food, eating slower than before. I could feel myself blushing. As everyone else picked up their own conversations, I gently muttered.
"That's what I was talking about before..." The blonde turned to me blankly. "Y'know. When we were in your room yesterday." He nodded, but didn't reply for a few moments. When he realised I was still looking at him expectantly, he took a deep breath.
"Yeah, well, I guess I can't be an asshole all the time."
"I don't think you're an asshole. Just. Loud and emotional." Our eyes locked for a split second.
"Hey, Hinami! Bakugo!" Todo called. I snapped my head up and asked what he wanted, a little too quickly perhaps. "Tell us about your quirks."
"I sweat something similar to nitroglycerin and make it explode. Simple."
"So that's why you smell nice!"
"Sh-shut up! Stop saying that you fucking moron!" Did he just stutter?
"What about you, Hinami? Nobody knows a single thing about your quirk." I put my chopsticks down and smiled.
"My quirk is called Mirror. I can 'mirror' people's quirks for a very short amount of time. Only certain quirks though. So you already saw me mirror Katsu-kun. But I couldn't mirror Shoji. I wonder what would happen with Tokoyami? I'd probably get a version of Dark Shadow without getting the bird head?"
"That's so cool!" Mido gasped, scribbling furiously in a notebook he definitely didn't have on him before.
"But what about that other thing you did? When you teleported?" Ochaco leaned forward excitedly.
"I can go inside a mirror and enter the mirror dimension. From there, I can exit through another mirror within a certain range. Time and space are a bit... fucked in there. It's super hard to get used to. So it helps if I know where I'm going. I can also trap people in them by touching a mirror on one of their body parts. Like this." I pulled the hand mirror out of my pocket and tapped it against Katsu's arm. Suddenly, he wasn't there anymore. Everyone gasped. I showed them a little Katsuki, frozen in the mirror, a furious expression on his face. Then, I tapped the back of the mirror, and he reappeared, looking very confused and very angry.
"What the fuck did you just do? I was in there for like five minutes!" I sighed.
"See. Time is weird there."
"Woah! What's it like in there?" Kiri asked, his mouth in an O of wonder.
"Indescribable, really. It's white and empty. It looks never ending. The only things there are gaps where mirrors are, and a bit of what the mirror is seeing. If I trap you in there, you can't leave the reflection space unless I'm in there too. I've only been in there with someone else once though."
"That's so cool!" Kami yelled.
"Does that move have a name?" Todo asked.
"It's called Encase. I'm also working on a move called Shatter."
"What's that?" Mido asked, still scribbling away.
"You better not use me as your fucking bunny rabbit again!"
"Don't worry, Katsu-kun. I can't use it on people yet."
"Why not?"
"Well, it shatters people into shards of glass. And I still have trouble putting the pieces back together without Aizawa there. He has to erase my quirk to reverse it. So I'm just using plants right now. That's what I'll do tomorrow."
"Was that why Aizawa and All Might were with you? To get you to do Shatter?" Mina asked. "Then you couldn't do it and worked on Encase instead?" When we all looked at her, she added. "I took a break and started watching what everyone else was doing." I nodded in confirmation.
"Why couldn't you just do it?" Katsu asked harshly.
"Huh?"
"Bakubro, don't be so mean!"
"You heard me, shithead. Aizawa was there. So it doesn't matter if you can't put All Might back. Just shatter him, it isn't hard." I thought back to all my worries earlier. I opened my mouth, about to express that I didn't want anything bad to happen, but closed it again when I remembered that nobody knew about Uncle's injury. Instead of replying, I just took a deep breath and looked down into my empty bowl, biting my lip.
"He didn't mean to be so harsh." Sero whispered, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"I fucking heard that! I did mean to be that harsh. What do you want me to do, pat her back and say 'aw don't worry! There's always next time!' No. If we're in a battle and she hesitates, she'll be killed. Sorry I won't mollycoddle you, Hinami. Tough love is what most people need, even if they don't like it. And that's all I'm going to give. Stop being a coward and do it." Everyone looked at him in silent shock. His eyes had been closed and an arrogant expression was on his face. When he opened his eyes, they met mine, and his expression slipped. "Or don't do it. I don't fucking care." With that, he stood up and left. The group looked around at each other in a cartoonish way. There was a lot to unpack there. And I wasn't sure where to even start.
"What are you lot doing in here? Get back to training!" Father yelled at us. We all scrambled out of our seats and rushed outside.
Father and Uncle stood positioned a few metres away from me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a large explosion crawling up into the sky. It's height was impressive, but it made my stomach churn. Even from here, I could hear him yelling 'DIE!!!!'
He'd make a terrifying villain.
I took a shaky breath and positioned myself to charge at Uncle. Then, Katsu's words rang in my ears. My jaw set, and almost against my own will, my footing shifted, and my hand raised the mirror to my cheek. Staring at Uncle, I almost felt my fingers vibrate from the power of my quirk rushing through them and into the mirror. As I straightened my arm, pushing the mirror from my cheek and towards my Uncle, I yelled with as much conviction as I could.
"SHATTER!"
For a second, nothing happened and the determined look on my face fell. Then, the mirror shook violently before exploding into pieces. With a squeak, I covered my face, feeling the smaller chunks embed into my knuckles, and a larger piece slice into the side of my pinkie finger. Hissing with pain, I fell to my knees and clutched at my left hand.
"Are you okay?" Father ran over to me, dropping on the grass beside me. I could hear Uncle say to someone in his loud voice.
"It's all okay! Get along with your training now, young one."
"My head hurts." I groaned. "My hands hurt." After examining my hands for a moment, Father sighed.
"You'll be okay. The cut isn't deep. I guess you overestimated how much power you had left versus how much it would take to try to shatter." Nodding slowly, I could barely concentrate on what he was saying to me.
"I did. I think. My- ugh." A sharp pain went through my head again and my ears started ringing, making me bring my hand up to my temple.
"I'll take you inside for a bit." Helping me to my feet, Father gently put my arm around his shoulders, and put his hand over my eyes; he knows that the light hurts my eyes. We slowly stumbled back to my room and he sat me down on my bed. Tears welled in my eyes, and he sat next to me with a concerned look.
"I'm so fucking useless. Everyone else has been doing nothing but their best all day. I chickened out this morning when I had the chance to use Shatter properly. Now I can't do anything. I'm so fucking-" My father grabbed me and pulled me into him. I nuzzled into his scarf, like I always did as a kid.
Suddenly, I was transported to the past. I was a little girl again. I had fallen and grazed my knee - a minor injury that felt life threatening as a six year old. I had buried myself into my father's scarf as he held me close, stroked my black hair, and hushed me.
"Shh. It's okay." He cooed. "You aren't useless. Your quirk is different to theirs, and works in a different way. Don't think of yourself as being worse than them, because you're not. If I didn't think you deserved to be here, do you think I would have let you get in on special recommendation? No. I would have made you do the test like the others and prove yourself. Don't get upset. You still have a lot of room to grow, but you've faced hardships the rest of the class hasn't. I know you'll get stronger. Maybe you'll even be top of the class."
"I wouldn't go that far." I giggled shakily through tears. I felt him smile as he rested his cheek against my head. We sat in silence for a few minutes, holding each other close, him stroking my hair.
"Feel better?"
"Yes. Thanks, Dad."
"I've missed hearing you say that, you know."
"Dad said the same thing."
"It's because we love you." We smiled at each other.
"I know. I love you too."