Chapter Three

"Ow, ow, okay!" I snap, attempting to yank my arm away from Recovery Girl, the school nurse. The old woman looks up at me through her eye gear with a grimace and tightens her grip, making me wince.

"It's broken. Stop moving" she orders and I make a face, closing my eyes tightly as she leans down to kiss the injury. I grit my teeth at the feeling of my arm stitching itself back together and then slump over, immediately worn out.

"Yikes..." I mumble, holding my head. At the same time, it seems my nose has stopped bleeding and my headache has dissipated.

"Feel better?" the old woman asks, a mischievous smile on her face and I nod, even though I feel like passing out right here.

"What about Shiori? Where is she?" I demand. I've been asking ever since Aizawa dragged my ass here but everyone I talked to refused to answer until I was healed up.

"She's in her room. She just needs rest" Recovery Girl assures me but it doesn't ease the tension.

"I have to go see her" I blurt, starting to stand.

"Sit, Ito" Mr. Aizawa orders, scaring me back onto the bed with his sudden appearance.

"Mr. Aizawa..." I start but the look on his face makes me hold my tongue. Great. It's only day one and I'm already in hot water.

"Your team may have won the challenge today, but you showed a major lack of discipline and self-control out there. What are you trying to prove, Kaida?" he demands, getting straight to the point. I gape at him.

"P-prove? I did what you told us to" I argue and he shakes his head.

"At what cost? Your recklessness put your teammates in impossible positions. Your sister got herself hurt trying to back you and you charged ahead without thinking. You used too much of your quirk in a short amount of time and got yourself injured in the process. I don't know if you realized, but those pulses you were sending out there? You tossed around the entire field" he scolds and the revelation stops me cold. No. It's not possible. I have more control than that... I've trained for this. I shake my head.

"I couldn't have" I try but it comes out half hearted.

"You're lucky you had Ochaco and Asui on your team. They've been doing work together for the last two years and they've faced more real time battles than most their age. They were able to handle the corners you backed them into and they're why you won. At best, you were showing off. At worst? You were sabotaging your team without even the decency to realize it" he replies, a dark look in his eyes. I grit my teeth, thinking about that flag floating own out of the sky. He's right...

"You have talent, Kaida. You have real potential to be one of the top heroes when you get out of here but that will never happen if you can't control yourself and put your teammates before your pride" he finishes. I don't reply but when I look up, he's already walking away. I clench my fists, body shaking. Damn it. I slam my fist into the table I'm sitting on.

"Hey! Enough of that! I won't heal you again!" Recovery Girl warns and I rub my knuckles absently. So what if I wanted to prove myself? Prove that I could do it? They're why you won. So much for proving myself if that's the case, huh? I didn't win anything at all.

_____________

It's a few hours before Recovery Girl actually lets me get back to the dorms and as I walk back in the dark, I feel my anger swimming. I'm such an idiot. I'm smarter than that. Better than that. Shiori and I have been out in the real world, fighting real villains since we got our hero licenses and I've never put her in nearly as much danger as I did today. Even if it was fake danger, it was real enough to hurt her. That's on me. The guilt suffocates me as I make my way up the front steps to the dorm and it drives me insane.

"Hey, Kaida. How are you feeling?" Ochaco asks as soon as I enter the common area. I sigh, exhaustion sweeping through me.

"Tired" I admit and I can see the worry in her eyes. Thankfully, she doesn't say anything about the match, just offers an understanding smile.

"You should get some sleep" she tells me and I nod in agreement. That's for sure. I give her a wave before I start towards the girls' dorms but once I get upstairs and start down the hall I see Todoroki pause at the door to his room. He stares at me a moment, expression unreadable, then disappears into his room without a word. Yeah. He probably saw how sloppy I was today too. What a joke.

My next stop is Shiori's room but when I get to the door, I hesitate. How do I face her after all of that? How do I explain myself? I was too weak to protect her during a stupid school exercise and it wasn't even because of the strength of our opponents, but my own eagerness. I take a breath and knock before walking in. Shiori isn't asleep like I expected her to be, but instead, sitting up in bed with her laptop open in front of her and a notebook in hand.

"Hey" I say softly and she raises her eyebrows.

"Hey" she replies, not unkindly. I make a face, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"You okay?" I ask, but I don't look at her. I'm too angry at myself and ashamed.

"Nothing a long nap couldn't fix. How's the arm?" she wonders and I look at the previously fractured limb, flexing my fingers.

"All healed..." I tell her. Silence falls between us for a few moments as I try to find the words to say.

"Look, I..."

"Hey, listen..." we both start at the same time and laugh together, some of the tension relieved.

"I'm sorry, Shiori. I know I'm always getting you into messes. I just... I wanted to really prove myself here. These guys... all of them are so strong and capable. I don't know how to compete with that. I feel like I've gotta work twice as hard to fight for that number one spot, you know? And I can't help but feel like if I don't make it... if I don't then..." my voice fizzles out, the reality of my next words too sharp to make myself speak them.

"Then you'll feel like you're disappointing her" Shiori finishes quietly and I meet her eyes with a heavy pain in my chest.

"That's all I've been doing, Shiori. I've been letting her down over and over again since the day she died. You're all I've got. I can't let you down too. I'm so sorry I got ahead of myself today" I tell her sincerely. Shiori makes a face I've seen a million times.

"I forgive you... of course, I forgive you. How can I hold a grudge against you when I feel the same way? You need to do better if you want to be a better hero here... but so do I. I don't know where our heads were at today... but tomorrow will be different" she insists and I smile a bit.

"Tomorrow will definitely be different" I agree and she smiles back.

"But seriously? You going up against Todoroki? Kind of badass. Even if I did want to kill you for it" she grins and I laugh, shrugging my shoulders.

"Go big or go home, right? Besides, what better way of getting Endeavor's attention than kicking his son's ass? I'll make sure the number one hero notices me one way or the other" I promise and she shakes her head.

"Always violence with you. I swear, you finally met your match with Bakugo" she replies sardonically and I gape. Even if she turns up her nose at the mention of his name, there's still way too much insinuation in her tone.

"Will you maybe stop trying to set me up with literally every male student at this school?" I demand and she shrugs.

"The tension is just so palpable. Plus, if you have a boyfriend, you're less likely to drag me into any more of your shenanigans" she notes. I place a hand over my heart in feign disbelief.

"You wound me" I gripe, tossing my head back dramatically.

"Oh my God, get out of my room!" she orders, laughing at my antics despite her mild irritation.

"Wait, wait, wait! You can't kick me out yet!" I protest, throwing myself down on the bed as she tries to kick me from beneath the covers.

"No! I'm busy!" she complains but I nudge her over a bit, grabbing her laptop.

"Nope. Not too busy for this" I reply shortly, pulling up the webpage for her favorite band.

"OhmyGod!" she gasps, snatching her laptop and practically gluing her own nose to the screen as a giant timer counts down from six minutes.

"You really forgot?" I ask her. She just nods, eyes wide.

"Well you're welcome. Now you can't break our sisterly tradition for the sake of homework or whatever the hell you were just doing" I add and she nods.

"Best sister ever" she tells me. I laugh, settling in and grabbing a bag of chips from the stash I know she has in the drawer beside her bed.

"Chip?" I ask, offering her the bag. She takes one absently from the depths, refusing to take her eyes off the screen.

"New song, new song, new song" she mumbles excitedly to herself and I grin, popping my own chip into my mouth. If nothing else in the world feels normal, at least this moment does.

"What do you think this one's gonna be about?" I wonder. Shiori sits back then and for the next four minutes, she animatedly goes on and on about the last album and how she thinks this new one is going to take a different tone completely. She goes over clues and hints left online, cryptic status updates and sneak peaks into filming, and before she even has a chance to finish, the timer fades away.

"It's starting" I say and her attention is immediately consumed by her computer again. She grabs my arm and squeezes.

"This is the best day of my life" she whispers and I roll my eyes.

"You say that every time" I tell her but she ignores me, reaching for the chips again without looking. I smile at her. Shiori and I have been through a lot in the last year but even all of that hasn't been able to touch this part of her life. I'm thankful for that. Shiori spends so much time trying to hold herself together and take care of me when I don't care enough to take after myself, but it's moments like these that remind me that I take care of her too. Even if it's only sometimes. And it makes me happy to know that somewhere inside of her, that carefree heart still exists and still shows itself from time to time. That's something I know Mom would be proud of.