ZINNIA'S RECOVERY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ANY SLOWER, even if she had tried to imitate a snail. Her session with Recovery girl wound up with the elderly woman nodding thoughtfully to herself, but uttering nothing that could give Zinnia any indication of progress. Zinnia herself didn't feel any different after Recovery Girl's quirk treatment beyond the small decline of energy that had hit her, and her morning treatment the next day was just as promising.

Whether it was because Zinnia's case was a difficult one, or because the damage was on the inside so one couldn't really tell any difference. All Zinnia knew was that it felt like she wasn't improving, and she was getting worried.

Regardless, Zinnia kept up with the small-scale quirk usages throughout her free time and tried to will the anxiety away.

Though that was a lot harder than it probably should have been.

She hadn't seen her mother when she arrived home, though she had heard the woman, and she was promptly accosted by her siblings, who all hurled abuse at her for her incapacity to heal Kali anymore.

They hissed it at her as if she had decided on her own that she just wasn't going to do it anymore, not that their mother had forbade it. And by the end of it, Zinnia had retreated into her room and stayed there until morning. It took a long time for her to calm herself down enough to sleep, and she was out the front door before anyone else was awake enough to hassle her.

Her arrival at classroom 1A following her morning session with Recovery Girl was met with a few pleasant greetings from assorted classmates, and the excited form of one Ashido Mina springing up in front of her to drag her over towards Kaminari's desk with an excited gush about their work on her so called costume.

The design Zinnia found herself faced with was a giant mess of lines and eraser rubbings, combined with smudges from resting hands and a huge mess of scrawled notes in two completely separate handwritings.

'So! What do you think?!' Ashido eagerly asked.

Umm, nothing really? She could only see eraser pieces and smears.

Though Zinnia let out a breath as she picked up the pages and brushed off the debris that covered them.

The design she found herself staring at was a skin-tight set of clothes that, quite simply, looked like somebody had taken a morph suit, drawn some lines on it to give an impression of the divide between pants and a chinese-themed shirt, and painted it in black and red leopard print.

To Zinnia, who preferred baggier clothes, it wasn't the most pleasant of outfits.

In fact... since when was black and red leopard print a thing?!

'I think you're designing a costume for someone who has the figure to pull off skin-tight.' Came Eijirou's comment all of a sudden, causing the petite girl to practically jump. 'And Zim doesn't really have that.'

Zinnia hadn't even heard him come to stand over her shoulder, but there he was, peering down at the costume sketches with a curious frown.

'What? But Kennedy-chan can pull it off!' Ashido complained.

The girl in mention could only sigh as she handed the papers to Eijirou and pulled the sleeve of her baggy blazer up to her shoulder.

'I have no flesh on me.' Zinnia admitted as she showed her twiggy arm to the healthily figured girl. 'I'm going to look like a blotchy toothpick with bad hair if you put me in something skin-tight.'

'Oh.' Kaminari deadpanned. 'Damn, we spent hours working on that...'

But Zinnia let out a breath as she pulled her sleeve back down, glancing at the pages in her friend's grip for a moment, before she looked up at her friend.

'Did you have any thoughts?' Zinnia couldn't help but ask.

'...Maybe.' Eijirou admitted as he scratched his head with a large hand. 'I just think they completely missed what a Chinese Martial artist actually wears.'

'We did not!' Ashido complained dramatically.

However, Zinnia let out a breath as she plucked the papers out of Eijirou's grip and wandered towards her desk in the back.

'Oi!' Kaminari exclaimed. 'Get back here!'

She did not do as demanded, and instead, Zinnia pulled out a piece of paper and pen from her bag and proceeded to roughly draw what they likely intended to use as the inspiration of the outfit.

A long-sleeved, loose-fitting shirt, a sleeveless, Chinese-styled overshirt with the slits up the side to give it the billowing bottom that most people thought of in a Chinese outfit, and a pair of loose fitting pants that tapered off at the ankle.

'Is this more of what you were going for?' Zinnia asked as she held up the piece of paper for the indignant Kaminari and Ashido to see, which earned her rather dumbfounded stares in response. 'Well?'

'Actually, yeah!' Kaminari was quick to recover as he wandered over to take a closer look. 'Pretty much where we were going with it, but you've got it looking very baggy.'

'Because this kind of outfit is meant to be loose fitting.' Zinnia countered with another sigh. 'I don't really get the reasoning behind it, but it's just the way it is.'

'But we changed some things, like we added a sash around the waist, and added knee-high boots instead of the shoes,' He began to list off, grunting briefly as Ashido bounded over and collided into his side.

'And we added a print to the material!' Ashido chimed in.

'I'm going to say no to the leopard print.' Zinnia cut in.

'Okay! Then tiger-stripes?!'

'No.'

'Umm, then peacock feathers?!'

'I'll rephrase, then. No print at all.' Zinnia amended with a sigh.

'What?! But why not?!' Ashido complained.

'That's more your style.' Eijirou responded.

'Actually, yeah, now that I look at it, printed designs like that would make Zinnia-chan look like she's wearing pajamas...' Kaminari relented with a chuckle.

However, before the discussion could go any further, the door of the classroom slid open, and the mummified form of Aizawa wandered inside. Or hobbled, moreso than anything else.

Eijirou and the others dashed back to their seats the moment Aizawa had cast them a reproachful stare, providing the pink-cheeked girl of brown locks to cast her a cheery smile and a subtle wave, now that the wall of talkative bodies were gone from around Zinnia's desk. Attendance was taken, class announcements given, and promptly, a loud voice belonging to the English teacher rung through the walls, giving Zinnia the clear indication of what first period was supposed to be.

And with a brief, almost mute sigh, Zinnia slumped backwards in her seat and retraced the discussions from the morning before.

Well, guess she had better start acting like a lazy, disinterested student, like Aizawa had offhandedly suggested.

While class was in session, Zinnia had pulled out a blank notebook from within her bag and proceeded to spend all her time drawing away across the pages. Small notes, small pictures that appeared in her head as she half-listened to the subjects themselves, and when she was called out on her lack-lustre attention, she answered the questions with remarkable accuracy, for the most part.

Answering English questions was simple for Zinnia given her upbringing and her perchance for games, movies and television series in either English or Japanese themselves, Math was straight-forward, and when it came to heroics history right before lunch, Zinnia didn't even bother to try and answer anything correctly when she was called upon.

She could feel the glance Eijirou cast back towards her every now and then, tinged with an edge of concern among his upfront disbelief.

And eventually, she had nodded off to sleep in her chair, tumbling through the darkness as the voices around her continued to sound around her.

She dreamed of footprints in a bizarre world, of rain rising from the ground and whispers rising from the rivers and streams. Where scarlet flowers grew in abundance throughout the woodlands, swaying in the breeze with a vibrant glow surrounding their petals. Voices hung in the air, many differing sounds and tones that buzzed against her ears and drew her along in a restless daze.

Until somebody had nudged her awake and roused her back to the world of the living.

Zinnia was mostly silent throughout lunch break, scarcely inputting much to the conversations that were held once she'd sat down in the cafeteria. She prodded at her lunch, which seemed to have been made especially with her in mind following yesterday's explanation. There was no wild Bakugou around trying to scare everyone away from his general vicinity, not that Zinnia had even bothered looking for the explosive bombshell, and there appeared to be a few less people here and there that day.

She'd overheard it mentioned among the group of friends Eijirou had amassed that a lot of people were "training" for the Athletics Festival, and when her friend suggested they all eat up quickly to head out and practice, he was met with complaints of all things.

'But we'll be training right after lunch anyway!' Ashido complained loudly. 'Don't make us skip lunch early, Kirishima-kun!'

'Yeah! We haven't even finished eating!' Kaminari was next to complain.

'I didn't mean right this second, you know.' Eijirou scoffed.

Not that it really mattered, in the end.

When the lunch bell had rung, the group had already begun the journey back to the classroom, and they were back in their seats before the majority of the class had returned.

Faces passed her by as the students talked among themselves, silenced if only for a brief moment when the next teacher for the day arrived and instructed everyone to get changed and meet up at Ground Beta.

It was a hulking large man with blond hair and a beaming grin, one that Zinnia had seen plastered across enough store fronts and collected memorabilia to identify with little thought.

All Might, the top hero. The idol of hero-likened children and adults everywhere.

And unlike everyone else who seemed to brighten quite considerably at the sight of the formidable man, all Zinnia could honestly do was avert her gaze and follow after everyone else.

A massive cityscape stretched out in the distance when they'd arrived at Ground Beta, adorned with skyscrapers and many intricate stores and the odd abandoned vehicle in the streets. It was much like the grounds that Zinnia had wandered through for the Entrance Exam, reminiscent of an empty, abandoned city in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, without the zombies of course.

'Now then, is everyone here?' Came the loud and commanding voice belonging to All Might, bringing Zinnia's attention away from the manufactured landscape before long. 'Excellent! I'm glad to hear it.'

All Might appeared to glance over the twenty one students in the group, pausing for just a fraction longer on Zinnia's form sandwiched between Eijirou and Kaminari.

'First, you'll separate into groups of three and run two laps around Ground Beta.' The giant man announced, seeming to pause briefly when there was a collective whine from a few students. 'Once everyone has completed their laps and returned here, you can split up and get some solo-training in, or you can group up with others. We'll decide that when you return.'

Two laps? Around Ground Beta?

Zinnia could only sigh as she looked up at a rather disappointed Kaminari briefly.

'How big is this place?' She couldn't help but ask.

'It's like a kilometer just to get to the other side!' Kaminari groaned out.

So.... An eight kilometer run?

'This isn't going to be fun...' Zinnia sighed.

'More like this is going to be hell!'

'You can use your quirks during the run if it will help you complete it easier!' All Might continued with that broad grin still in place, earning the attention of the group. 'But two whole laps are still necessary!'

A cheer from a particularly pleased Ashido a few feet away brought Zinnia to let out a weary breath.

'Zinnia-chan, reckon you can carry me with that quirk of yours?' Kaminari muttered as he stared down at his sparking palms. 'Your quirk's more flexible than mine... All I can do is zap things...'

'That's the least manly thing I've heard you say yet, Kaminari.' Eijirou chuckled from Zinnia's other side.

'Oi! I'm just being honest!' Kaminari quipped.

'I can't carry you, anyway.' Zinnia commented with a wry smile.

'Huh? Why's that?' The electric-blond demanded.

'I don't think my quirk can even hold my own weight right now, let alone yours as well.' She admitted.

'...Did you just call me fat?!'

'Oooh! Shots have been fired!' A cackling Ashido cheered as she gave Kaminari a playful shove of the shoulder.

And yet all Zinnia did was shake her head in dismay and shuffle a little away.

Soon, the first group of students were off at a run, with the second group leaving thirty seconds later, right up until Zinnia was in the last group with Ashido and Sero.

'Kennedy-shoujo.' All Might called out just as Sero and Ashido had taken off running, causing the tiny girl to pause in her motions to follow suit. 'I've been made aware of your ongoing condition by Aizawa-sensei. Do what you feel is most reasonable for you. Don't push yourself.'

Needless to say, Zinnia was surprised, but agreed before she took off at a jog after the rest of her class.

A slow jog, one that made her feel horrendously slow and out of shape in spite of herself.

She could run better than this less than a month ago, and she had been learning dance at Rin and Shouko's insistence. What the heck happened in such a short time to reduce her to this state so soon?

Beyond the obvious presence of her heart-condition, of course?

Absolutely nothing.

'What was that about with All Might?' Asked Ashido, who had slowed down enough for Zinnia to eventually catch up with her. 'Are you feeling sick?'

'No?' Zinnia hedged as she fought to find an excuse to run with instead of the truth. 'I just have terrible stamina and endurance, so I'm not very good at running.'

'Because you're so skinny?' The pinkette asked.

Well, she was never very good at running even before her current health complications had arisen.

'We'll go with that, I guess?' Zinnia eventually answered.

That still didn't help the fact that right now, she could feel her chest tightening painfully with every step she took, and they hadn't even passed the first hundred meters. Every breath felt like she was breathing fire.

'You're already looking ragged.' Sero observed from his place standing up ahead in wait.

'I always look ragged.' Zinnia responded.

'Moreso than before we started.' He amended with a wry chuckle. 'Are you even going to make the first lap?'

Honestly?

No, she was probably going to go into cardiac arrest if she tried.

'I'm not... a runner...' Zinnia forced out through her heavy breaths. 'I'm more of a gamer...'

'Ah.' Both Sero and Ashido seemed rather amused by her confession. 'That makes a lot of sense, actually.'

However, a sudden shouting voice from behind drew the group's attention away from Zinnia's pitiful athletic aptitude, and to the others who had already begun to overlap them.

'OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY, EXTRAS!' Came none other than Bakugou's shouting demands, followed closely by the explosive blond's speeding form as he practically shoved past Zinnia to continue onwards.

'Huh, he's not using his explosions.' Sero observed. 'You know, I'm actually surprised he hasn't deafened himself with all his shouting, yet.'

'Maybe he is, and that's why he shouts all the time?' Ashido remarked.

If Zinnia wasn't too busy practically killing herself with her feeble attempts at running, she may have entertained the idea of asking Mitsuki the next time she saw the outspoken woman. But alas, being on the verge of keeling over did little to help her sense of humour at that moment.

'Oi, Kennedy-chan!' Ashido suddenly called out, bringing the already-exhausted girl to lift her head in response. 'Hold still for a sec!'

The poor girl however didn't have a chance to so much as blink before a sudden flurry of pink and blue was right in front of her face, and before she knew it she had been grabbed by the arms and dragged off her very feet. A squeak of fright was all that escaped Zinnia as she was dragged up onto Ashido's back, and a second later, she heard the alienesque girl let out a rather loud peal of laughter.

'Sero! Can you make sure she doesn't fall off?'

'Sure.' The thoroughly amused male agreed as he stepped out of Zinnia's field of view.

The sudden sounds of what sounded remarkably like a roll of tape dispensing shot through the air, and seconds later, Zinnia was horrified when three sudden strips of actual tape hit her back and looped around to secure her firmly to Ashido's back.

'What the heck is this?!' Zinnia almost yelped out as she tried to pry her plait of hair from beneath the massive strips of tape, to no success.

'My quirk of course.' Sero helpfully told her as he tapped a hand against one of his exceedingly broad elbows. 'Yeah. It's basically just sticky tape.'

'But why--'

'Hold on, Kennedy-chan!' Ashido cut in as she began to run down the street. 'We're not going to let Bakugou overlap us again!'

'What?!'

However, any complaints Zinnia could utter out were dashed when the two enthusiastic friends of Eijirou's turned it into a race utilizing both of their quirks. Sero, using his quirk to pull himself over peculiar hazards that had appeared in the streets, and Ashido used her acid to essentially zip throughout the cityscape as if she were snowboarding down a hill.

Zinnia's eyes widened considerably as she stared down at the acid that was pooling at Ashido's feet, which served as a slippery fuel to send the two sliding as if the alienesque girl was skiing down a snowy slope.

Zinnia couldn't help but wonder; Could she learn to do that using her own quirk, too?

It wouldn't be hygienic in the least and it would probably put a lot of strain on her quirk even on the best of days, but still.

It looked interesting.

It looked fun.

Zinnia wondered if the pinkette would be offended if she found somebody else learning to use their own quirk in the same way.

It was food for thought, none the less.

In the end of the two laps, they didn't necessarily catch up to the angry blond who'd shoved past, but they certainly weren't overlapped by anyone.

Except for one disapproving Iida Tenya, who had surged away from his group in a sudden charge mid-way through the second lap and dragged the group to a halt in order to reprimand them for carrying Zinnia's weight of the task themselves. After all was said and done and Iida had gone on his way, Sero had remarked that the class rep was particularly "earnest" with the way he wanted everyone to complete their own tasks, but to Zinnia who'd seen naught but the strict class rep personality thus far, she was finding herself growing less inclined to agree.

'Iida's just a stick in the mud, Kennedy-chan!' Ashido had reassured Zinnia with a beaming grin. 'Let's catch up to Kaminari and totally make him jealous!'

And jealous, Kaminari was.

When Ashido slid right past the electric blond with Zinnia strapped to her back, an indignant cry of betrayal followed their disappearing forms.

'Ashido, why?!' Kaminari's complaints rung with deafening volume. 'YOU TRAITOR! CARRY ME, TOO!'

Entertainingly, when everything was said and done and everyone had arrived back with All Might following their second lap, the blond was too exhausted to complain about the injustices. He just collapsed in a heap on the ground and proceeded to groan.

'Excellent! Everyone's here and warmed up!' All Might announced as he looked over the twenty one students, and thankfully paid no heed to Eijirou and Sero unsticking Zinnia from Ashido's back. 'I'd say that's enough. You all can choose your own groups and get to training for the Sports Festival.'

And everyone did just that, for the most part.

Zinnia collapsed onto the concrete right next to Kaminari's slumped form while everyone did what they wanted.

Eijirou, Ashido and Sero all opted to train nearby while poking fun at Kaminari's exhausted form, and others either divided up or stayed in their groups of three, with some more angrily than others.

And Zinnia?

She played the part of the lazy student and stayed seated on the ground as she watched everyone else. Her chest was still aching and her lungs still felt like they were on fire, but at least it wasn't getting any worse.

Her observations varied, but remained upon identifying the certain quirks and traits her classmates held, especially with the reasons for her presence in mind. She identified the seemingly reckless students from the careful, the hazards each quirk posed for overuse, and so on, so forth. Her observations simply boiled down to a set of thoughts she had already come to following Eijirou's explanations of class instances before her hospitalization.

A certain Bakugou Katsuki, while apparently prodigy-like in the midst of battle was clearly one with a lax hold on his temperament, prone to superiority trips and the like. He sat high on the list, but not the top. Second to the other problem-case she had actually been informed of by Aizawa himself. Second to one Midoriya Izuku, who's quirk was a hazard not only to himself, but to everyone else in a scenario that others were to rely on him.

She eventually made a mental note to visit Seiya and ask him what training books would be best to learn from when she stopped to consider exactly how she could be expected to tend to the various needs of her classmates.

Midoriya would wind up with any number of injuries in varying natures, Bakugou, by Zinnia's observations, might wind up with muscle damage, and a bubbly, pink-cheeked girl was reduced to fits of nausea when her quirk went over limit. One dedicated class representative may wind up with torn ligaments if he weren't careful, Eijirou had confessed that muscle strain in his back had been an issue when he'd overused his quirk, and she eventually learned that a certain electricity-prone male was beyond any medical help as soon as he went over his watt limit.

Of course, the revelation that she had all these different problems to look out for in a worst-case scenario was not pretty for Zinnia.

She decided she would probably need a first-aid kit hidden in her Hero Costume, just in case.

Not that she'd willingly wear it, or anything.

It was enlightening in an uneventful way, and before long, Zinnia was returning to an empty classroom following her after-class healing session with Recovery Girl.

Bags were gone, most students absent, all but Zinnia's own belongings and a lone Eijirou casually waiting for her inside. Her friend greeted her with a brief smile as he gave her a quick glance-over, but beyond that, the two of them were silent.

There was nothing to say. At least, nothing that came to mind.

And so they left, content to walk aimlessly to their usual after-school snack locale like they often did. Footsteps gracing silent corridors through the afternoon, peppered barely by the shift of springtime breezes and the glimpses of birds soaring through the skies.

The grounds were clear as the two stepped out to head through the gate, however there were at least three forms standing out near the front gate to show, and two of them were vaguely recognizable.

One of them was a tall female whom wore a completely different uniform to Yuuei's, with a hefty buxom build and a strangely shy demeanor to go with it, if the tense, recoiling body language was anything to go by.

'What the hell?! Cut it out, dude! You're ruining my chances!' Squawked none other than a nearby Kaminari, and the form that looked recognizably like him had rounded upon the other of a short male with blobby, dark hair.

'I-I'm sorry but I'm here... to see someone?' The female girl whimpered apprehensively.

'Meee!' The tiny male squealed out, much to the girl's dismay.

'Really...?' Zinnia muttered sourly beneath her breath.

'Hey! Harassing a girl like that isn't very manly, you know!' Eijirou called out towards the two with an exasperated sigh, promptly earning the attention of the girl recoiling away. 'You're obviously making her uncomfortable!'

'What--?! MINETA'S THE ONE MAKING HER UNCOMFORTABLE!' Kaminari had practically exclaimed, however the sudden onset of movement had drawn everyone's prompt attention.

Without so much as a word, the tall, buxom girl had quickly bounded over the second she had noted Zinnia and Eijirou's forms and stopped right in front of the tiny girl.

'K-Kennedy-san...!' The girl had squeaked out far more meekly than Zinnia had expected, though she could hardly tell who was talking to her with the sun glaring from behind her form. 'I-I'm glad to see you're out of the Hospital...!'

Out of the... what?

Zinnia had opened her mouth to question the poor girl as to how she knew her name, and even how she knew which school she attended, when all of a sudden a bouquet of what she immediately recognized to be fresh-cut flowers was promptly held towards her.

'Th-these are for you! I-I wanted to get these to you before while you were hospitalized, but they wouldn't let me in to see you!' The buxom girl practically cried out. 'I really hope y-you like them!'

And the three males standing within earshot of the whole exchange practically gaped in shock.

It was then that Zinnia noted that the girl was wearing Sarayashiki's uniform, and that she seemed vaguely familiar in a roundabout way. Something about the two large lumps of silhouette that seemed strangely like animal ears tugged at her attention like somebody was screaming at her.

'You're... an old classmate, right?' Zinnia couldn't help but ask. 'From when I was at Sarayashiki?'

'Y-yes!' The girl squeaked out, more enthusiastically than before. 'I-I know I've never spoken to you before, but you've d-done so much for me already! Y-you didn't need t-t-to, and it means s-so much to me that you have! Truly, h-honestly!'

Zinnia stood there stunned at the display, even as the buxom girl hung her head and continued to hold the bouquet out towards Zinnia's motionless form.

'I-I admire you so m-much, Kennedy-san! A-and I just wanted to tell you th-that I--'

'WHOA WHOA! WAIT A SECOND!' Interrupted none other than an utterly bewildered Kaminari still standing just a few meters away, ripping a terrified yelp from the strange girl standing in front of Zinnia. 'ARE YOU FOR REAL?! IS THIS AN ACTUAL CONFESSION?! A ROMANTIC CONFESSION?!'

Unfortunately, the poor girl standing before Zinnia was mortified by the exclamation.

'That was unmanly.' Eijirou told his friend with a sigh.

And this was where Zinnia had enough of the situation.

She took the bouquet of brightly coloured flowers with a brief mutter of "thanks" before she hooked her free arm around the girl's own and proceeded to tug her away from the two gaping boys. Needless to say, the girl who Zinnia could now recognize to be a certain bunny girl from her class back in Sarayashiki let out a startled squeak as she stumbled along after Zinnia's brisk footsteps.

'Eiji, are you coming?' Zinnia called over her shoulder towards her friend still standing over near Kaminari and Mineta. 'Snacks, remember?'

'Wait--!' Kaminari gasped out. 'What about me?!'

'Sorry, man.' Eijirou called back in apology. 'Next time, though.'

And with little more than that, Kaminari was left standing at the front of the school at a lack of what was even going on.

--=[Submitted 11th July 2019, with 4670 words in total]=--