To Hold the Stars || BAKUGO KATSUKI

An Unexpected Encounter

Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi had seen many things in his years on the force, but standing outside of U.A. High School's Unforeseen Simulation Joint with dozens of unconscious and injured criminals, twenty or so heroes-in-training, and a smoking hole in the domed roof of the complex where a freak of nature had plowed through after one of All Might's mighty hits certainly claimed the top spot. It was surely one of the boldest moves he had ever seen villains make in his career. It reminded him of the lawless, anarchic days before All Might appeared as the Symbol of Peace, and today's attack did not bode well in his heart.

He tapped the rim of his bowler hat in tandem as he counted the U.A. students to make sure all were accounted for, sans the freckled and green-haired boy with the broken legs they had found next to All Might's deflated form in the center of U.S.J. They were all there—rattled, shaken, but fine—except for one more until he spotted her being carried out on a stretcher.

One of the U.A. girls gasped, her round face creasing in worry when she saw the prone form of her classmate. "Nomi? What happened to her?"

The U.A. students watched, worried, as the paramedics took the dark-haired girl toward an ambulance. Blood coated one side of her face and an oxygen mask rested over her nose and mouth, but Tsukauchi had been assured that she wasn't injured, merely unconscious. The blood was simply a side effect of using her Quirk too much, he had been told by a paramedic, and the oxygen had been given to the three students who had been trapped in the conflagration zone.

"I think she used her Quirk too much," a boy with a fleshy, fur-tipped tail said quietly to the girl who had spoken earlier. "Her right eye had tears of blood coming out of it. It was freaky."

As Tsukauchi watched, the girl on the stretcher suddenly opened her eyes as if she'd overheard the conversation about her. One of the paramedics yelped and dropped his half of the stretcher, and the girl audibly groaned when it rattled against the pavement.

"Sorry, sorry!" the paramedic said, rushing to grab the stretcher again. "Your eye—I just—"

The girl groaned again and sat up, ripping off her oxygen mask. "Yeah, I get that a lot. What happened? Where am I? Are the others okay?"

"Your classmates are fine, miss," Tsukauchi said, holding up a hand. The paramedics stopped walking and stood back as the detective gave her a kind smile. Her right eye—her Quirk, he assumed—was squinted shut, but her left eye, clear and a pale lilac color, looked back at him in relief. "In fact, they're just over there."

He pointed, and the round-faced girl from earlier jumped and waved. "Nomi! You're awake! Thank goodness! Are you all right?"

The girl—Nomi—gave her friend a reassuring grin. "Fine. Thanks, Uraraka." She turned back to Tsukauchi before any of her other classmates could say anything, and he was taken aback by the look of utter seriousness she pinned him with. "All Might? Did he come? Is he safe?"

Tsukauchi nodded slowly. "Yes, All Might arrived shortly after the attack began. He's with Recovery Girl now, along with your classmate, Izuku Midoriya."

Her eye widened in alarm. "Midoriya? Is he okay? Is All Might? Is he injured?"

"Only minorly," Tsukauchi assured. "And young Midoriya will make a full recovery, as well. You can relax."

If anything, his words only served to agitate her more. She swung her legs off the stretcher and snapped "I'm fine" to the paramedic who tried to stop her.

"They were after All Might," she said, pointing to a group of bound criminals that were being led toward a squad car by several police officers. "They had a leader; a guy covered in hands. He talked about killing All Might."