"Todoroki. Kirishima. Midoriya. Yaoyorozu. Iida. On that night, you five headed to that place to rescue Bakugou." Aizawa's words drew shocked expressions from all of their classmates.
"Judging by your reactions, you all knew full well that they intended to do so. Up until now, I've been shelving things left and right, but let me say this clearly: Had All Might not been forced to retire...save for Bakugou, Jirou, and Hagakure, I would have expelled every single one of you."
Everyone grew more tense as many of them bit their lips in discomfort. "I'd be grateful if you restore that trust by going through the proper channels of becoming a hero legally. That is all! Now let's go inside with a spring in your step." Their homeroom teacher finished. Although, with a lecture like that, it wasn't really possible to fulfill his last request.
Despite the nearly unbearable atmosphere, Midoriya had to address something. "A-Aizawa-sensei!" The boy called out, causing the man to stop. He simply turned his head enough to look at his student.
"A-Aya-chan...what's her condition?" Bakugou's shoulders stiffened, wanting very much to know the answer to that as well.
Neither of them had seen her since the big battle at Kamino. Bakugou had last seen her in the embrace of her parents. She had fainted then, adding to his worries. Neither of the boys were able to get into contact with her or her parents. Even when they each went to the hospital, her room was completely isolated and barred from visitors. Doctors and nurses refused to answer any questions, further raising their suspicions.
Aizawa fully turned around, feeling that Midoriya had the right to know about his childhood friend. "Sasaki Ayano is..." The green-haired boy gulped, mentally preparing himself for the ensuing answer.
"...in perfectly fine physical condition." Midoriya released a great sigh of relief, gulping down air to help calm himself. Bakugou had also relaxed, the stiffness in his shoulders lessening but not completely gone.
"She still has some scratches here and there, but luckily Recovery Girl was able to prevent much scarring. In fact, her rate of recovery was incredible, even with Recovery Girl's quirk. Are you sure she doesn't have some sort of secret endurance-type quirk? Or a stamina quirk?" Midoriya shook his head as Aizawa explained.
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A group of men entered the hospital, each of them bearing grim expressions. All Might, Aizawa, Tsukauchi, Vlad King, Principal Nezu, and Junk Master all waited patiently in the lobby. They came to check up on Ayano's condition as well as to ask her questions about her time in captivity.
Their heads turned towards one hallway where there was a commotion. "Sasaki-san! Please! You shouldn't be moving around yet! You need to get proper rest!" A nurse shouted, frantically trying to follow after the girl.
Ayano was slowly limping down the hallways, one hand against the wall for support. Her eyes were bloodshot, deep bags underneath them. Any part of her that wasn't covered by the hospital gown was covered by pristine, white bandages. In her other hand, she tightly grasped onto something.
The site of his student in such a state reignited the fires within Junk Master. The rage and guilt he felt when seeing her tortured body at the League of Villains' hideout came back in full force. His eyes met the exhausted ones of his student.
"...There is no rest for the weary." Ayano offered the simple reply to the nurse, referencing Junk Master's words from the first day of school.
The anger he had was still there, but died down a little after hearing her cheekiness. She was still so stubborn, even in this condition. He smirked, but quickly hid it. "Sasaki, kiddo. The nurses are right. You need to rest! Won't you listen just this once?"
Recovery Girl appeared behind Ayano, looking disgruntled. "Good! You're scolding her! If you weren't going to do it, I certainly would have!" She harrumphed, steam blowing out of her ears. "As soon as she heard that you lot would be here, she bolted out of the room! I'm starting to see why you and that Midoriya are friends."
Ayano bowed her head in apology. Normally, she would have done a proper bow with her whole body but her recovering wounds made that a little difficult. "My apologies. I just needed to get this information to the police as quickly as possible. I will rest afterwards. You have my word."
"Hmph! Well, I'm not going to praise you for reckless behavior but at least your heart is in the right place. Next time, I'm strapping you to the hospital bed!" Recovery girl huffed. Ayano gave a small smile, but it soon disappeared as she addressed a more serious matter.
She handed a small USB flash drive to Tsukauchi. "This contains everything I experienced and everything I know about the League of Villains due to my captivity. It includes names, faces, quirks, personalities, and so on. Please keep in mind that it is largely incomplete since I was unconscious for much of my time there. I apologize for any gaps in information."
Tsukauchi gaped. She did all of this!? In her condition? "N-No, it's quite alright! In fact, this is wonderful."
Ayano nodded to him. "I made this in the hopes of saving both of us some time. Instead of questioning me for hours about what happened, all I know is in this flash drive. Of course, if you still wish to question me further after going through all the files, I will absolutely comply with your request."
Tsukauchi smiled at her. "Thank you. We will be sure to go through this thoroughly. You really have saved us a lot of time and effort." He turned to Junk Master. "You have an amazing student, Junk Master. Especially after going through so much." The teacher was about to agree when Ayano's cold voice responded.
"On the contrary, I believe this to be the bare minimum..." Her gaze shifted to the floor, her brows furrowing in frustration. "This is the least I could do. This cannot compare to the trouble and pain I have caused to others due to my foolishness. The pain that I caused to their families...because of the support items—weapons—that I made." She clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms as her knuckles grew more and more white.
Junk Master firmly placed his hands on each of her shoulders, but she didn't look up at him. "Sasaki, none of this is your fault and nobody blames you. Not even one bit. Hell, you even fought them to the very end!" The man pulled out a small disk. It was one of her tracking devices. The one that she had given to Midoriya before the break. They had retrieved it after the villain invasion. Despite his phone being completely shattered, the tracking device was completely intact.
After finding the location of the training camp, Shigaraki had destroyed Ayano's matching device. When she was able to move and help in making the support items, she had secretly made another identical one.
"You helped us confirm one of the bases of the villains. It matched with the tracking device that Yaoyorozu made, giving us confidence that we caught them red handed." He sighed when she still refused to look up at him. "And I know you would never fully agree to help them, even if your life depended on it. All these injuries are proof of that. Every support item you made for the villains had some sort of hidden malfunction or something that we could exploit."
All Might walked up to the two. "He's right, Young Sasaki. You distracted All For One during my fight with him. You gave me the opportunity to defeat him and the opportunity to save Bakugou. If it weren't for your quick thinking and meticulous planning, there's no telling what would have happened."
Aizawa joined in. "We captured that villain with the quirk that produces a toxic gas. You hid an antidote for it in his gas mask. If it weren't for that, Jirou and Hagakure would have been in much worse condition."
Nezu smiled at her. "Don't you see, Sasaki-kun? Your actions have saved so many people, be it directly or indirectly. For that, we thank you." The principal bowed deeply, the rest of the adults following his example.
Ayano looked at each and every one of their bowed heads, conflict swirling in her eyes. "...Still, the root of many of these problems stems from my shortcomings, but...thank you." Her voice wavered a bit towards the end, worrying them.
Before Junk Master could question her, she bowed to them in return. "As promised, I will return to my room for more rest. Thank you for coming all this way to see me and my apologies." With that, she turned around to slowly limp back to her room.
The U.A. faculty members looked on in concern as she stumbled a few times.
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"She has completely recovered and was discharged two days ago." Aizawa stated. Relief flowed through Midoriya, but a small piece of unease remained in the pit of his stomach.
"Then why the hell hasn't anybody heard from her." Bakugou's gruff voice interrupted, questioning in a way that sounded like a demand. Aizawa looked at him with a perfect poker face. "If she's as fine as you said, then there's no way in hell she wouldn't have let people know by now."
The small piece of unease in Midoriya was beginning to grow. The boy looked desperately at his homeroom teacher, hoping that Bakugou hadn't hit on something.
Aizawa spoke slowly. "All of you went through psychological testing, to ensure your mental stability before letting you come to school again." The boys nodded, remembering the testing.
"We're still putting Sasaki through that psychological testing. She was held captive for around a week and tortured immensely during that time. She's being evaluated longer to make sure that she doesn't have any trauma before returning." Bakugou grit his teeth, not having anything to say in response.
He clenched his hands, his frustration showing. Just being reminded that she was kidnapped and tortured for that long angered him. To know that she had to undergo even more psychological testing because of that...he couldn't even begin to describe his frustration.
"If everything goes well, then Junk Master should be doing his home visit to her house today." Aizawa continued, this time addressing his entire class. "Speaking of which, Sasaki will not be living in the dorms with her 1-H classmates. In light of recent events, it has been decided that she will be living here with the rest of you. It's for her safety. We would like to say that she won't be targeted again, but that is too optimistic and unrealistic. The same goes for you, Bakugou. In the event that something happens, it'll be easier for everyone if you both are in the same place."
Everyone nodded, understanding his reasoning. They all walked into the Heights Alliance dorm building as Bakugou continued to let his thoughts brew.