WARNINGS: Homophobia, transphobia (Aki), discrimination (quirk discrimination, Shinsou). Flashbacks/triggering (not on purpose). I've put an in-chapter warning around the worst of this but I have not been able to do it around all of it. So please be careful.

Also grieving/depressive behaviours. But that winds through the whole chapter so I don't have the ability to do in-chapter warnings for that.

There's a chapter summary below if you feel the best option for you is to miss this chapter. It's perfectly understandable to choose this option and I admire your decision to protect yourself. If you'd like some further details on what happens before you make your decision, please don't be afraid to contact me directly and ask. It's really important to me that people are safe while their reading my work.

Chapter summary:

Otsuka is reminded she can't tell anyone about her old school or what happened to it.
Aizawa and Yamada try to convince her not to go into UA on Monday morning. She goes anyway. Her guardians speak to Nezu about what they learned yesterday. When Otsuka identified Mags, the name she wrote was Otsuka 'Mags' Margaret which would imply some kind of relation. Nezu says they are not related by blood but their shared name is not a coincidence before he dismisses the two heroes.
Shinsou, worried about Otsuka from how things ended on Saturday, goes to find her early before class. Grieving and drained, she's unable to speak to him and tries to sign. He doesn't recognise the sign and thinks she's not speaking because of his quirk and is upset. Otsuka leaves the 1-A classroom before lessons begin.
Aki (they/them currently), seeing Shinsou unhappy, goes to figure out what's going on with Otsuka for themself. When they eventually find Otsuka, they know something is wrong and hug her. Quite some time later, they tell Shinsou to get the chip off his shoulder.
Bakugou finds Otsuka in the gym. She's feeling a little better than this morning but not all the way, just enough to see there's light at the end of the tunnel even if the journey will be long. He knows sign language due to hearing difficulties.
Yamada tries and fails to talk/comfort her.
Hoping to talk (write) with Vlad King, she goes to 1-C when she should be heading for her first appointment with Hound Dog, the school's counselor. She hears rumours in the corridor. People are being homophobic, transphobic, and quirkist. Things come to a head when she hears someone call Shinsou, Midoriya, and Aki monsters. She's caught between what's being said now, and what her parents said to her on the day they disowned her. With no TT here to stand for her friends as he stood for her, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

Chapter 36. Lash

Rule 26: Sometimes, people just need someone to hate.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but you will be arrested should you tell anyone about this attack."

What?

"That includes friends, family. Your teachers shouldn't even be aware but it's too late to change that now."

And he glared at Nezu. This officer who clearly didn't give a damn about her or her loss sighed and glared at Nezu. She decided he had a death wish.

"Just keep your lips clamped and it'll all be ok, 'right sweetheart?"

A death wish. Because if Nezu didn't do something, she would. But she held herself together, because she knew if she let herself hit him once, nothing would stop her from the second, the third, fifth, hundredth. Once she let the tiniest bit of anger out, the dam would break and so would bone.

So she took out her little hand-sized notebook and the same pencil she'd used to write out the names of the dead, and wrote a small message for the lovely officer who'd brought her such a cheerful message on this sunny day of her life.

'Officer,' it read, 'kindly fuck off.'

His face alone made it worth it. Beyond worth it. The indignant spluttering was just the added plus she had no idea she needed.

Aizawa and Yamada (mostly Yamada considering the smirk Aizawa was desperately trying to hide under his capture weapon) were immediately on damage control. Yamada put up a sincere barrier of apologies while his husband nudged Otsuka out of the danger zone she'd created.

Detective Tsukauchi personally apologised for the officer's behaviour. Otsuka didn't say anything about it.

She didn't say much of anything.

***

Maybe not in so many words, but her guardians were firm enough in telling her she didn't have to go into school tomorrow that she heard the message loud and clear: they didn't want her in school tomorrow. She felt, realistically, she'd already made it clear that their thoughts on this matter bore no weight on her decisions. Alas, if her choosing to identify what was left of the people she'd known and then punching through a wall— all the while ignoring Aizawa and Yamada's protests and misgivings— hadn't made her point, she supposed she'd just have to keep making it.

She could see the way they looked to one another, desperate for aid in helping this wayward little girl. She remembered, a long time ago and also not such a long time ago, Mags wearing the same look, but Mags only had to turn to her quirk to find the right words.

Otsuka squeezed her eyes shut, throat tightening. Her hands were so tight around her breakfast plate that she could see the bone pulling her skin thin and tight. She made herself place it gently in the dishwasher, unlatched her fingers from it one by one, swearing she could hear the joints creak. The bruising had come up pretty solidly, leaving her fingers stiff and achy. She could move them, at least, even if it wasn't the most pleasant of sensations. Once she'd managed to do up the buttons of her uniform, she knew the worst of the difficulty where her hands were concerned was done— at least until she had to undo them all at the end of the day.

She was booked on for more than one session with Hound Dog, the school's counselor, this week, but it had been on the expectation she wouldn't be in school until later on at least. They really hadn't expected her to take on school at all this week. She probably shouldn't be, to be honest, but the thought of sitting in this apartment with nothing to do felt like the greater of two evils.

She wasn't even entirely sure which event in the last week might be the reason for the appointments. Her grief was the obvious answer, of course. But then, she had been personally targeted by a villain. They'd both seen the bruises round her neck, seen how close she came to not surviving the fight. Or maybe it went even earlier than that, a delayed response to the USJ Incident.

She'd been at UA one term. On singular term. When UA had been her dream school, she remembered imagining it as a much less traumatic experience than she'd had.

Otsuka stood at the door, watching her guardians try not to watch her. She'd thought, maybe, if she acted like this was just another normal day, it might soothe some of their worries. Instead, Yamada looked like he was fighting with one last urge to make her stay home today. Either he decided it would do more harm than good or he realised Otsuka could and would climb out the window to make her own way to school if he tried to force her hand. Whatever the reasoning, he opened the door and gestured her through.

They walked her all the way to the classroom door rather than splitting off the way they usually did. And while she pulled her shoulder back and stepped inside without a word, her guardians remained outside. The gravity of what they'd done as soon as they'd decided to take this child into their home had landed squarely on their shoulders. There was nothing for it now, but to do right by her.

They looked to each other for far from the first time today. "Ready?" Yamada asked.

With one last look to the door, Aizawa nodded. They'd both had a rather important question since yesterday, but Otsuka was far from the person to ask about this, especially now. They had no choice but to settle for second best: Nezu.

"Otsuka 'Mags' Margaret."

The name rang out through the air and Nezu didn't look even remotely unsettled by it. It was the last name Otsuka had given them, the last corpse she'd had to put a name to. The moment Yamada had seen it... He couldn't- It- "Our newest student's last teacher, I believe," Nezu answered, though there'd been no question.

"You knew?" Aizawa demanded, rage pooling somewhere just below his ribs. Of course. The rat-bear had a genius quirk, High Specs it was called, it was irrational to believe for a second he hadn't known the entire time. Which of course meant he'd also been hiding it from them the entire time, an irrational course of action to say the least.

"Yes." Unashamed, it was the most simplistic but also accurate way to describe Principal Nezu as a whole.

"So all this time you spent looking for her parents?" Yamada questioned, understandably frustrated. Nezu had said he'd look for Otsuka Emiko's parents or for an alternative suitable home for her, all the while knowing exactly where Otsuka 'Mags' Margaret could be found.

"Despite sharing a name, the pair do not share blood in any way."

Aizawa frowned. "So it's just a coincidence?" Even saying it, he knew he was about to be contradicted, but he also knew Nezu needed the extra prodding for anything else to be learned from this conversation. He and Yamada were both very familiar with this game.

"Not at all."

Nothing more was said, no matter how much more they needed to hear.

"Dismissed."

And they realised they were going to have to live with that.

***

"I heard a rumour."

***

Shinsou had been worried. Both he and Aki had been worried, they'd texted each other about it even. It might not have been constantly in the forefront of their minds but, they were still anxious. They'd only known Otsuka for a day really (though Shinsou had teamed up with her in the sports festival not so long ago) but even they could see there was something very wrong about her just before school ended on Saturday. Maybe they were just the kind of people who cared too much, but there was nothing they could do about that.

Aki couldn't make it in early today, but Shinsou— despite the loss of sleep he knew it would mean for him— had resolved himself to getting to school in time to at least check on their friend. And there she was, sitting perfectly happy in her classroom, appearing perfectly-

He paused. She didn't look so happy actually. She wasn't even really moving at all. In her short day as a member of 1-C, she'd done a lot of tapping or drawing either with her feet or her free hand. It had been infuriating, honestly, kind of distracting, but it meant he knew for a fact she couldn't sit still the way she was now. So something was up. Something bad was up. Especially since he'd been staring at her for a good half minute and she hadn't stirred in the slightest.

"Otsuka?"

Still nothing. Not worrying at all. A coil of nervousness tied itself in his stomach, pushing him closer to her table at the back of the classroom.

"Earth to Otsuka?"

It was getting almost creepy now, her silence and absolute lack of anything. She looked like a statue, frozen in stone, lifeless. Feeling almost bad for it, he clicked his fingers in her face, crouching in front of her table and continuing to softly call her name.

She blinked, which definitely meant alive, but not much else considering it was a reflex action.

"Otsuka, can you hear me?" By all means, he should be getting the teachers by now, maybe even Recovery Girl because something was very much not right here.

She winced when he clicked beside her ear, flinching away from the sharp sound but also breaking out of her trance and meeting his eye. He dropped his arm in relief.

"Hey," he greeted, relieved, "are you ok?"

Shinsou had never really found himself scared by a look. A certain teacher who could make his eyes glow red had— admittedly— made him want to make like the gingerbread man once or twice, but he hadn't really been this scared by something as weak as a look in all his life. This though, it was so blank, and while she was looking at his eyes, it felt like she was looking at something behind them. He was invisible and she was seeing straight through him to the other side. It was eerie to say the least.

"What's wrong?" He really needed to call a teacher, he had no idea what to do with something like this and he had no idea what had caused it. It really felt like he could tap his fingers against her skin and hear a hollow echo ring out, like the only part of her left was the outer shell of a Russian doll.

Her head shook. That was her first voluntary movement, and then her hands moved limply in gentle motions.

"Otsuka, talk to me, did something happen?"

She clenched her fist, nodding minutely, but the fist was soon open again, moving in tandem with her other hand which was wrapped up in bandages. Those were new, matching the light bandaging still around her neck. She wasn't kidding, something definitely had happened.

"Do you want me to get a teacher?"

A gentle shake of the head later, Shinsou found himself painfully stumped for his next move.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Otsuka ducked her head lower, trying again to summon some strength to speak. He deserved a word from her, something, at least. She wanted to talk, she did. She wanted nothing more than to tell him everything, let someone who wasn't a grown-up who'd assume they knew what was best for her know all about why she hadn't stopped feeling cold since she left her old bedroom last night. But she wasn't allowed to tell anyone anything they didn't already know so there wasn't much else left for her to give him but silence. Inevitably, she shook her head again.

"Can you say something? Please?"

She didn't have it in her. Words felt so far away. She could sign, that was coming without even thinking, she could write when she had to but even that was hard. Her body seemed held down by weights, slowly dragging through the water to the bottom of the ocean and she couldn't fight the pull for her life.

"Did I do something?"

She knew he couldn't help it. He'd lived his life absolutely certain in the idea that everyone would leave because of his 'villainous' quirk, he couldn't be blamed for assuming she'd be just like everyone else, hell, she knew she could be the same way sometimes. She just wished his doubt could've come on a day when she could scream, "No, you idiot!" in his ear over and over until it sunk in. Today, she couldn't even whisper.

"I'm not going to use my quirk on you," he tried to say it with a laugh, like it was a joke between them, like any second she'd find herself with the strength to tell him she was just kidding and he could punch her arm for the cruel prank, but still be so glad it was really only that. "Just say something."

Her hands got more desperate, but the rest of her was still so blank, so indifferent like she'd never given a damn about him, like she'd faked it all for some sick entertainment. Hang out with the freaks, have fun hurting them. For someone like them, it was the worst kind of betrayal.

He scoffed, shaking his head while she willed her body to obey her and failed. She was choking on nothing and her chest tore a little more. "It's fine. I get the message."

Otsuka wasn't there when Aizawa took roll call.

***

"Wow, seriously? Glad I'm not in his class."

***

Today found Aki walking into class to discover one unhappy-looking Shinsou, pretending he was napping to avoid any and all attempts at conversation. They weren't buying it, he was wide awake and they knew it. But hey, if he wasn't in the mood for the world, they weren't going to force it on him... yet. It was still early morning.

After an entire lesson involving the same moping, Aki decided enough was enough and took a seat on Shinsou's desk, crossing their legs. He tried to ignore them, but they'd purposefully placed themself to sit on top of Shinsou's work. Nothing was getting done until he paid attention to them.

Shinsou glared but Aki was quite used to Shinsou glaring at this point, it was practically a sign of affection. Like being headbutted by a kitten. "Aki-"

"Shh, now tell me what's got your knickers in such a twist."

He rubbed his eyes as if still trying to get the sleep out of them, grumbling something under his breath.

"What was that? I don't speak mumble," they pressed on, undeterred by Shinsou's attempts to avoid this conversation.

"It's nothing. Get off my stuff, we've got English next."

Sheesh, even his voice sounded like death incarnate today. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the universe. "Not until you tell me why you're throwing a toddler strop."

He crossed his arms over his chest, narrowing his gaze. And now they were both staring, neither willing to concede defeat first, tension building up but neither breaking under it, faces devoid of any emotion. The pair had already been considered 'freaks' by their classmates, this didn't help their case as the students around them did whatever they could to be at least three steps away from them, all the while whispering about how crazy they were to their friends. All battles of will had an end, however, and theirs came when Shinsou turned away.

"I went to see Otsuka."

Aki's eyes widened, gold glittering in the light. "And? Is she ok?"

"She didn't want to talk about it."

Well, that seemed fair. If Otsuka didn't want to share something, that was her choice and they had to respect it. But they shouldn't stop being there for her if she needed it. "And this turned you into Grumpy McGrumpypants because?"

His next look screamed, 'Are you an idiot?' from Mount Everest better than a thousand words ever could. Then it soured and he shook his head, arms wrapping tighter over his chest. "She wouldn't say anything."

Huh? Oh. Oh. Now the grouching made sense. But, no, Otsuka had spent a whole day happily chatting with them, and she'd willingly teamed up with Shinsou in the sports festival, it was a little late to be changing such an important opinion now. Besides, she wasn't like that, the girl was far too much of a smol bean to do something like this without good reason— which Aki knew with absolute certainty had nothing to do with Shinsou.

Now they just had to prove it.

"Where are you going?"

"To find Otsuka."

And they didn't care if they had to miss English to do it, they needed a little chat with Otsuka, and they needed it now. It wasn't like 1-A's classroom was all that far away, it barely took Aki a minute get there.

"Hey 1-A, any of you lot seen Otsuka? You're her class, right?"

The students didn't quite seem to know what to make of the person poking their head around the doorway wearing the school's male uniform. None of them recognised Aki and they certainly didn't know Otsuka knew the stranger.

"Yeah," a girl with pink skin replied slowly. Aki recognised her from the festival, her name was, Bina? That definitely wasn't right. It was close though. Something like that anyway. "Who are you?"

"Abe Aki, 1-C, at your service." They did something that was a halfway between a curtsy and a bow before straightening again. "Like I said, Otsuka?"

"She isn't in today. Mr Aizawa said she wasn't feeling well."

"But my friend said he talked to her this morning,"