Work studies hadn't been as bad as Kou thought. She ended up with Edgeshot, the #5 hero. It was only a short train ride to his agency, and their quirks worked rather well together. Edgeshot was a man of few words, but he did teach her a lot through his training and hands-on experience. In fact, she'd picked up a few new tricks over the course of the week.

Walking into 1-A was still a bit weird to her, as she'd only been there for a couple days before immediately beginning her work study. As she entered her classroom, she was greeted with the sight of a tame Bakugou, hair gelled into submission. His friends were standing around him, laughing uncontrollably at his new look.

"What the hell is wrong with your hair Baka-Gou?" Kou greeted, laughing harder when he turned around to reveal it in its entirety.

"SHUT UP! I TRIED GETTING THE GEL OUT BUT NOTHING'S WORKING!" He yelled, earning more laughs from the 3 boys. This caused his hair to puff up to its original form and the 4 of them to just about die from the hilarity.

"So how was your guys' work studies?" Kou asked, approaching the group. She was in a surprisingly good mood today.

The boys shared stories of their weeks, Kirishima talking about his newfound friendship with her old classmate Tetsu. Bakugou grumbled something about how he'd been put through torture and barely got any work done, causing Kou to snort.

"What the hell are you so cocky about?" Bakugou snarled, teeth baring, "I doubt your useless ass learned anything worthwhile either!"

She raised her eyebrow at that, "Oh really?"

Before they could continue their argument, Midoriya and Iida walked into class and all attention diverted to them.

Soon a crowd had surrounded them, asking questions and causing the green haired boy to blush furiously.

The only person left sitting was Bakugou, who had his arms crossed and a scowl on his face as he sat at his desk.

"What's all the excitement about?" Kou asked, taking her seat in front of him and turning to face him.

"Tch, do you not watch the fucking news?" He asked, "They fought the Hero Killer Stain during their work studies."

Katsuki clearly looked pissed at the attention his rival was getting, and Kou looked curiously at the boys in question. She'd actually heard of Stain long before last week but she wasn't aware that he was back in action.

Growing up, Kou had never looked up to any heroes. Where she lived, nobody did. They were seen as an annoyance, an obstacle; something that got in the way of people doing their jobs. Roppongi was infamous for having the highest crime rates in all of Tokyo, and the city was teeming with villains and thugs.

Everyone she'd gone to school with were raised to hate heroes; the dream job most of them had was much different from the average kids. Could you blame them? If you weren't related to a villain, you certainly knew of one.

When Stain had risen in popularity a couple years back, many idolized him. An assassin who specifically targets heroes? That was exactly what everyone in Roppongi wanted. Her friends back in middle school would huddle around and read articles about him, cheering on the villain's pursuit of some backwards version of justice.

Kou hated to admit it, but she actually agreed with some of his ideals. The media liked to portray heroes in the best light possible, but from first hand experience she knew they weren't as noble as they were made out to be.

She's seen heroes bribed into silence, working alongside villains and thugs for a bit of extra cash. She's heard of heroes who abused their power to get what they wanted, trampling over those weaker than them. Even if they didn't do anything outright immoral, the whole system they'd created for society was just plain fucked up.

By putting heroes and their quirks on such a pedestal, it left people like Kou (weak, from a less fortunate area) to pick up the scraps. The best opportunities were given to those who had the better quirk; they were given the money, the fame, the respect that people from her town could only dream of. It's like your entire life was determined before you were even born, just because of something you had no way of controlling. What kind of 'just' society is that?

Even looking at the news, it was a constant goddamn circus parade of heroes and their accomplishments; their lives, their scandals and gossip surrounding them. Who the hell cares? Why couldn't they report things that were actually important?

Still, Kou couldn't get behind murdering anyone, even if they were corrupt. If she wanted to change this messed up society, she was going to do it the right way. Once she became number one she'd do everything in her power to fix the damage heroes had done to her community.

If you can't beat them, join them- right?

A hard slap on the back of her head broke her out of her reverie, "We're going to train outside, Garbage Girl. Pay attention."

Kou growled at the nickname, begrudgingly standing up from her seat and following her classmates. This would be her first time training with 1-A, and she was curious to see what her classmates were like in battle.

She filed into the girls change rooms behind everyone else, hero suitcase in hand.

"Kou!!!!" Her pink haired classmate called from the other side of the locker room, "What are you doing hiding in the corner?"

The Nen user was indeed tucked away, out of sight from the other girls. It's not that she was particularly shy, but she did have a couple scars on her body she'd rather not explain to strangers.

"Maybe she's just shy, Ashido," The frog girl said, "She'll come out when she's ready."

Kou tried changing as quickly as possible, but her hero costume was a bit hard to put on. The loose white tank top with a spade and heart on either side of her chest, and loose white pants were simple enough but she had red wrappings along her stomach, upper arms, wrists and ankles that took time to do. Her hero costume looked a bit like a clown's, but she didn't really mind.

Quickly putting up her hair in a high ponytail, she rejoined her female classmates. Their hero costumes were much more..flashy than hers.

"Wow Kou, your hero costume is so cool!" Uraraka complimented, gushing at the small girl's appearance.

"Thanks," she replied, "Yours is pretty nice too."

"How about me?" Mina jumped in, hands on her shoulders, "do you like my costume?"

Kou nodded curtly before observing the rest of her classmates, eyes gawking at how much skin they were revealing. Not that she hated it; she thought they all looked pretty good. She just didn't know how they didn't feel shy, especially around perverts like Mineta creeping around.

They all eventually left the change room, meeting the rest of their classmates outside on the training field. Kou stuck close to Mina and Uraraka, who were towards the centre of the group.

"Okay class," their home room teacher said with his usual tired tone, "Today we're doing some simple sparring. I'm assigning partners- and no you cannot switch. Feel free to use quirks."

With that, Aizawa began announcing the pairs: Uraraka vs. Asui, Kaminari vs. Iida, Bakugou vs. Kirishima, Todoroki vs. Tokoyami, etc. When they finally got to her name, she heard a surprised gasp from her green haired classmate- now partner.

"You better not break your damn arms again, Deku. I want to fight you properly." Kou said, referencing his habit of injuring himself constantly. Even though she'd only ever seen him during the Sports Festival, that was enough to figure he was reckless. This earned a nervous laugh from the One-for-All user, and a snort from a certain blond who overheard the conversation.

They walked over to their designated area, standing a couple metres away from each other. Kou activated her quirk, a white barrier surrounding her. She concentrated, making her aura surround a larger area, projecting it outwards explosively. She knew her opponent was strong- she could feel his aura even when he was just sitting in class.

Izuku looked at the girl in front of him, amazed at her unique quirk. He'd seen it briefly when she fought Kacchan and Kirishima, but this was his first time seeing it up close. Using the techniques she learned with Gran Torino, he activated Full Cowling, a green lighting-like glow surrounding his body too.

Kou immediately began sending a flurry of kicks and punches to the boy, not stopping to rest. She used her short size to her advantage, aiming low and sticking close to the ground. Midoriya barely had enough time to formulate a plan between her attacks, focusing only on blocking her.

"You think too much, Midoriya," she grunted, landing another kick in the ribs, "Just focus on fighting me."

The One for All user knew he was getting distracted, but in his defense he'd literally just learned how to use his power without breaking his fingers (every time...), and he was still trying to figure out how to fight the girl without losing control.

Deciding to try his best, Midoriya jumped back slightly to avoid Kou's flying spin kick. He activated full cowling again, jumping and aiming to punch her with 4% power. He hoped the lessons he'd gotten from Gran Torino paid off.

Kou felt a second of fear, changing her aura to defensive. Trying to create a barrier of Bungee Gum around her, Midoriya's punch was absorbed and weakened with her aura.

Izuku's Full Cowling rippled throughout her Nen, the white cloud slowly tinted green.

"Holy shit!" The girl screamed, startled at the sudden green current flowing through the Nen surrounding her body, "Is this part of your quirk or something?"

Midoriya looked at his opponent in awe, completely baffled as to why One for All was suddenly being used by her. "Uh Kou-chan, what are you-"

His sentence was interrupted by a punch that sent him flying about 20 feet back, tumbling and crashing straight into a tree. The impact knocked the wind out of him, leaving him heaving for air.

Kou quickly deactivated her quirk, running over to the green haired boy. Their other classmates who witnessed the ordeal followed, worried for their seemingly perpetually injured friend. "Midoriya! Are you okay?"

Coughing a bit, he looked up at the girl and his classmates behind her. "Yeah I'm good...I think, haha. You guys don't need to worry! I don't know what just happened but that was really cool!"

The short brunette laughed in disbelief, both at herself and her partner. "I think your quirk temporarily transferred to me. I just tried absorbing it with my Nen and then directed it back at you."

"What?! You can do that?!" Izuku asked, amazed at the versatility of her quirk, "why didn't you do it sooner?

"How the hell would I have done that? I just figured it out, idiot!" She yelled, a scowl on her face. "Get back up, I wanna try that again!"

Sticking a hand out to help her partner up, Midoriya was back on his feet and walking back to their spot with her. "Your quirk is pretty cool, Kou-chan."

She shrugged nonchalantly, a light flush on her cheeks. "It's really not. I'm just creative with it, that's all."

"Still!" He said a bit more confidently, "The fact that you could use my quirk without injuring yourself was really impressive! I wonder what else you could do with your Nen..."

The green haired nerd went on a rant about the possibilities of her quirk, making her punch his arm harshly. "Stop talking and start fighting! You're wasting my time!"

__

The duo had spent the rest of the period sparring without a break, Kou trying again and again to redo what she'd done with Izuku's quirk the first time. She wasn't always successful, but considering it was the first time she'd done anything like that Kou was still pretty happy.

Midoriya even learned a few things from her, as her strategy of distributing her power to the body parts she attacked with was very similar to Gran Torino's advice.

Re-buttoning her shirt, she took a final look in the mirror before opening the door and making her way back to class.

"How the hell does your quirk work anyways?" Kou heard a voice come from slightly behind her, low and serious. She'd been the last to exit the change room, and a certain blond teen had been waiting outside for her.

"What's it to you?" She retorted, wanting to piss off her explosive classmate a bit before answering. Of course, he started yelling curses at her almost immediately.

"Whatever!" He huffed, already walking ahead of her, "Your quirk is fucking stupid anyways!" Bakugou usually had no interest in other people since he was the best already, but seeing her beat the shit out of Deku using his own quirk piqued his interest. Not that he cared.

Kou laughed, running to catch up to the blond boy. "Here, I'll show you."

Bakugou decided to stop being petty and give into his curiosity, waiting with his arms crossed to his chest. "Go ahead, garbage girl."

Ignoring the degrading nickname, Kou activated her quirk. Her aura surrounding her in a white cloud, she began explaining: "I'm not really all too smart with this, but basically I can control the aura around my body. I call it Nen.

"I can use it to block attacks, if I do this..." the white around her seemed to stop moving, a static cloud encapsulating her body.

"Or conceal my presence..." when Bakugou made a snide comment about still being able to see her, she further explained that it wasn't in the literal sense; it would just be harder to notice her if she was hiding.

"If I try really hard, I can force it out with more power and move it to different parts of my body for more strength." Bakugou was reminded of their fight during the Sports Festival, and how much those punches hurt.

"What's that thing you did with Shitty Hair and Deku then?" He asked, still confused as to how her quirk allowed her to do those things.

"Oh, well I can basically make my aura sticky and elastic, kind of like gum. It sounds weird, but once I attach it to a person or object and I can use it how I like; when Midoriya punched me earlier I tried to absorb the shock but it ended up...transferring into my aura for a bit.

Here, throw these at me." The blond used his fast reflexes to catch the bunch of coins Kou had thrown at him from her pocket.

"This is fucking stupid," he grumbled, but still did as she asked. To his surprise, the coins seemed to stop in mid air at her face.

"I learned this during my training with Edgeshot," she bragged, and suddenly the white around her changed to a darker pink colour, "Maybe this'll help your blind ass see better."

Kou had made each coin stick to a string of aura that seemed connected to each finger, the objects dangling from her hand. She started spinning them in a circle, getting faster and faster until Bakugou could barely see what was going on. "Cool, right?"

He admitted it was definitely impressive, but he'd rather die than tell her that. "Whatever, you're doing a stupid circus trick, not like that actually proves anything."

The girl immediately sent the coins launching into the door behind him, small bullet-like holes littering the wood. "Still just a circus trick?"

"You better hope no one finds out you did that." he said, already stalking back to class. He paused for a second before turning his gaze towards her and continuing.

"And just so you know," Bakugou glared at her, "my quirk is still better than yours."

Kou rolled her eyes, "You're a fucking asshole, you know that?"

They walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence, Kou reflecting back on her training. She'd definitely have to find a way to absorb one of Bakugou's explosions and send it back at his stupid face one of these days.

___

A/N: Bakugou calls her garbage girl because the Japanese word for garbage is "Gomi" so "Kou-mi" ? Idk I thought it was funny lmao