𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐄 | 𝙗.𝙠𝙖𝙩𝙨𝙪𝙠𝙞

𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙂𝙐𝙀 𝙊𝙁 𝙑𝙄𝙇𝙇𝘼𝙄𝙉𝙎

Kou couldn't remember the last time she cried.

She figured it was sometime before she'd gotten her quirk, but even that didn't sound right. As far as she can remember, she never let anything faze her enough to lose her cool- not even when she was alone.

Kou was anything but level-headed, but she was prideful. Sure, she got upset over things and tended to lash out in anger more often than not, but crying? That was too much. Getting sad over something only served to make you look weak and give whatever 'it' was power over you, and Kou would rather die than do that.

She had plenty of reasons to cry during her life; her brother dying, her mom's negligence, her dad going to jail, her step dad's abuse. People definitely cried over a lot less, but Kou was different. She didn't let that stuff affect her, she didn't let it make her weak; she used her hardships to grow stronger and push forward- that's all she knew how to do, all she could do.

But when she awoke from the state Mr. Compress had put her in only to discover Bakugou had been kidnapped by the League of Villains, Kou felt closer to crying than she had in years.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" she screamed at the group of her guilty-looking classmates. She ignored the pitiful state of Midoriya, who looked agonized he was unable to save his childhood friend. "Why the fuck didn't you save him instead of me? Why the fuck-"

Kou couldn't even finish her sentence. There was way too much going on: her injuries were only getting worse as time went on, the pain almost paralyzing her. She was tired, exhausted, and most of all completely broken.

Why was she so weak? She was almost taken down by Muscular earlier, and the two villains she'd fought after that. She couldn't save anyone, not even herself; not even the person she considered her closest friend.

"Fuck," she almost whimpered as she crumpled to the ground, holding her head in between her knees in an attempt to calm herself down. If she lost her cool now that would be pointless; what gave her the right to cry when she didn't even try helping? When she couldn't even save him?

She felt herself get carried off the ground and escorted back to the base to tend to her injuries, almost numb to what was going on around her.

Kou had never felt so fucking weak in her entire life. She was supposed to become a hero, she was supposed to make her brother proud and accomplish his dreams. She had gone through so much in life, carried so much hatred towards heroes, and for what? She wasn't even strong enough to live up to her words.

Maybe everyone was right. Maybe she'd never amount to anything, maybe her dreams were too far out of her reach.

"Shinobu, we're going to have to ask you to remove your sweater so we can assess your injuries," she heard one of the paramedics on sight tell her, but Kou only slapped his hands away from her.

"Don't fucking touch me!" she screamed, backing away like a cornered animal, "I swear to god if you come near me I will fucking fight you!"

She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't bring herself to ask for medical help, even if she so desperately needed it.

"Shinobu, you have to calm down." the paramedic pressed on, trying to comfort the clearly unstable girl to no avail. She jumped up off the makeshift bed that she was sitting on with the other injured campers, stumbling in an attempt to escape the man trying to help her.

The other students were now observing her outburst, clearly taken aback by her violent reaction. "Kou-chan, just-" Midoriya tried to reason with her, but the girl was inconsolable.

"Nobody fucking talk to me!" she yelled, hands covering her ears. She was clearly delirious from the pain and fatigue but to her, everyone else was the problem. "Just fucking leave me alone!"