Third person pov

Lillian has decided that she doesn't like being shot at. At all.

It's the USJ all over again. A snapshot frozen in time, the world still even though she was not. As though she were leaving time itself behind, existing on her own plane. The world within her line of sight had not been the only thing to freeze this time. There were no sounds from her left or from her right. Not from behind her or above her. It was like she'd stepped into the middle of a photograph instead of just taking one. As far as she could hear, everything had simply... stopped. Not limited to what her eyes could see, defying the strict rules her quirk usually followed.

For a moment she just stands there, breathing hard and staring at the gun pointed at her with a visceral fear she can't seem to shake. Maybe she should've taken up Hound Dog's offer of therapy. If only Chad were around. He'd have let her hold a pistol until it stopped scaring her so much, but he had to go join the Kidnapped Club with All Might, putting a real dent in the possibility of positive character development. Yeah, her social anxiety was generally nonexistent amongst 1-A these days, but at what cost?

The frozen world around her was quiet in an eerie sort of way, and that made her own breaths sound all the louder. The girl could hardly form a thought through her emotional spike. She was vaguely aware of her hair drifting upwards, her eyes burning harder than they had in a while now. Wasn't pleasant. Wouldn't personally recommend, in all honesty. She'd gotten fresh avocado where she'd wanted fre sha vaca do. Perhaps it was all just a sacrifice to the cause. The cause being the deterioration of her mental health and her advance towards semi-successful heroism... or something.

Seriously, just what was up with her lately? They were checking off all the boxes. Kidnapped as a toddler and as a teenager? She had a third time to look forward to in adulthood if this kept up, and a fourth as an elder. People were getting shot at, students were getting murdered, classmates were betraying their boyfriends. Lillian didn't even want to think about Hitoshi's hand or Neito's sudden and not-super-permanent-but-still-concerning death. There as also the moderate separation anxiety she now had with Katsuki, which she'd been successfully distracting herself from up until this moment.

"O-Oh." Lillian squeaked out. Her voice seemed to echo in the stillness. How cash money. Very pleasant. Alright, she could do this. She's a fully... okay, almost fully functioning, maybe-capable hero student. If she froze up like this they might boot her from the internship, and she'd be letting a lot of people down in that case. Her freezing Chisaki Kai was going to be their best bet at this whole thing.

The gears in her brain... lubricated, or whatever you want to call it. She (kinda?) came to her senses is what she's saying. The pain in her gut was what brought her back to the reality of things. The fact that she had actually managed to accomplish the anomaly that was freezing everything in her surrounding area settled like an uncomfortable stone in her chest. It hurt like a bitch, and seemed to have been triggered by extreme, very sudden fear. Her birth mother's quirk had been activated by extreme rage, right? Maybe this was the same thing in its own way. Speaking of which, fuck her for leaving her in a hospital. Not the biggest issue right now, but it needed to be said.

Maybe she could carry a photo of a pistol around with her to glimpse at anytime she wanted to freeze everything. Okay, was that too dark? That was too dark. She should move before this entire thing stopped and she got stuck with a bullet to the head.

Lillian reminded herself very surely that this was, in fact, not Kamino Ward. That wasn't Izuku Midoriya pointing a gun at her and Tamaki had not been shot in the chest. In fact, he looked like he'd perhaps caught himself with his arms, or had at least been beginning to push himself up right before she flipped her absolute shit. Deep breaths. We're relaxed people, right? Absolutely not, but that's okay. Chad used guns all the time! She'd seen them-- even cleaned a few. It was no big deal. Totally no big deal. This was fine!

She moved. Everything stayed entirely still, even with the way her stomach was twisting and even with the way her fear had tapered down. How long was this going to last? She was walking slightly off to the side just in case. Getting shot was not super high on the agenda. In fact, one could even argue that it wasn't on the agenda at all, but who is Lillian to say? Clearly she was not in charge of the agenda. However, she would love to have some words with whoever was. Genuinely, because what the actual fuck?

The man holding the gun looked more scared than she did, somehow. It made Lillian feel a little better, even if her breaths were still coming out short and her hair was still floating. She inched forward and swiped her hand out at the guy, snapping the gun up in one hand. His finger slipped off the trigger, and it hit Lillian that he must've managed to pull it just as she froze things. As in, she was holding a gun that could go off at any time. As in, fuck.

Lillian immediately pointed it up and at the sky, her hands shaking more than she cared to admit. Okay, no. Not admitting things was Katsuki's shindig. She was scared shitless. What the fuck was going on? She just wanted to hunt the Yakuza-- not get shot in random streets. Like, if she'd expected the gun, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. She sure hoped not. Because they were going to face the literal mafia and what mafia member wouldn't have a firearm of some kind? Besides the point. She's holding a gun that's about to go off, Amajiki got literally shot, and everything is frozen.

Lillian steps away from the man and blinks. And then she does it again. There's a pause, she glances around, and she does it even harder.

Lillian stands there and she blinks. Frantically. 

Only... nothing changes. Like, nothing. It's all still frozen and her stomach still hurts like a bitch. It feels like someone let a honey badger loose in there. It's not unfreezing. She keeps blinking and activating her quirk and nothing is changing. Why isn't it unfreezing? Okay, wow. Okay. She would absolutely just-- really, really love for this to work out right about now. Seriously, the gut pain is real. She's about to start hacking up part of her lung. It isn't a good look for her, or a good feel.

Going over the facts, it was obvious what was happening yet not obvious at all. Like at the USJ, her quirk had activated itself and frozen everything. Cool! It had kept her from getting shot, so good for it. Only now it wasn't turning off. Lillian physically could not get her quirk to deactivate. This was bad for several reasons, one of them being that the inside of her abdomen felt like it was being shredded. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Lots of people are frozen, which is also bad, and... what's going to happen if she can't unfreeze it? She already feels like she can't move, her feet rooted in place as her stomach turns.

It feels like the frozen faces are all staring at her with pity, almost. Lillian knows its a mental thing. Would her phone work right now, or is that frozen too? Lillian thinks checking would only make her panic more. Ignorance is bliss, right? There's a pressure building in her throat and behind her eyes, her breaths coming out even shorter than before. Because it isn't unfreezing. Her quirk isn't working. Her quirk is not fucking working-- why can't she turn this shit off? She's not stewing in visceral fear anymore! Hello! Hi! Her quirk could totally turn off now and she wouldn't be offended in the slightest. It went off at the USJ pretty fast, so why not here? Why not now?

The freckled girl urges herself not to panic, instead fumbling with the firearm a bit. Upon closer inspection, it's not a pistol. In fact, it doesn't look like any gun she's ever seen or heard of. Lillian doesn't consider herself an expert by any means, but prolonged exposure to Chad had given her more experience than most, especially considering this is Japan and firearms here are few and far between compared to other countries. Lillian popped the revolver-like barrel out, squinting and trying to ignore the blood crawling up her throat. The implication of not being able to unfreeze things was making her heart pound. She felt sick. She wanted to cry, but she was trying to hold on so she didn't end up murking herself. Losing it now was a death sentence.

The gun wasn't full of bullets. It was full of darts. And she knew what they were, too. She's seen them before, in photos, no matter how brief. This is what Eri had been used for. 

She knocked one out of its chamber and into her palm, still trembling as she inspected it, if only to give herself something to do. She kept blinking-- kept pointing the gun up-- but nothing changed. Her eyes burned, and they were still glowing. She couldn't turn that off either. It was starting to seriously worry her. And by seriously she meant she was actually about to freak the fuck out. Lillian wondered where her dad was right now. Probably not close enough to erase her quirk before she died. Was she going to die?

A small cough bubbled from her throat, and blood pooled between her lips, dribbling down her chin. Lillian once again questioned who was writing the agenda. There were too many people here. The radius that she'd frozen seemed wider than before, no distant sounds pervading the space. How many blocks had her quirk reached for her not to hear a single sound? For no one to wander into the street curiously? Why had it done this here and not in Kamino? How... How did she stop it?

Her quirk was malfunctioning, or something. It wasn't working. Or maybe it was working a little too well. Either way, her eyes were beginning to droop under the strain of keeping so many frozen. Her heartrate was slowing, the ache in her stomach building up and into to her chest. Would knocking herself out stop it? Or would she instead pass in her unconsciousness? Lillian didn't want to find out. It seemed too risky, and she was... she was so scared. She was scared. Why wasn't it turning off? This made no sense! 

This couldn't be happening, right? No, it was. She was blinking and it wasn't working. The gun slipped from her hand and clattered on the pavement at the defining realization, the tiny dart still resting in her trembling palm. More blood bubbled up her throat. She couldn't believe this. Her PTSD-induced quirk activation was going to be the death of her. Her fear of guns was going to get her killed-- not because she froze up and got shot, but because she froze and failed to deactivate it. That was... so incredibly impressive. In the worst way. In what world was this a thing? How... she...

Recovery Girl had told her once that the side effect of her quirk was her organs slowing down. The harder it was to keep someone frozen, the faster the slowing went. Basically her body was shutting down and she was about a minute away from becoming a vegetable. Normally... normally her quirk shut itself off by now. Tons of quirks had fail safes like that. Aoyama's laser would stop working as to not collapse his stomach, and he needed a brief cooldown before he could use it again. Mina's acid thinned if she began to burn herself, and Momo's body stopped creating before she could take it too far, even if there were still lipids left to be used. 

But Lillian's wasn't doing that. Was she not calm enough? Was there a different way to deactivate it that wasn't blinking?

More blood bubbled up her throat, and she clenched her teeth, something desperate and panicked flaring to life in her as what was happening to her dawned. No. There was no goddamn way she was dying now. She didn't want to-- wasn't ready. She had shit to do, and she had been through too much to go out now! To go out because her shit ass quirk had decided to... to be shit ass! 

Everything was so still. Amajiki was still right where she'd left him, and so was Fatgum. The crowds eyes were all wide and rounded with fear, and Lillian gasped for air, a wet cough escaping her. What the fuck? Of all the times for this to happen, now was it. Was it... at the USJ, she'd felt extreme fear. And then she'd gotten her shit together and dragged them away, and then she could recall feeling another spike of extreme fear. Did she need two? Because... no, it wasn't working. Holy shit. How much of a failure was she? 

This wasn't supposed to happen like, at all. She had things to do-- Yakuza to hunt! She'd been excited for this internship, but instead she was stuck here, dying from her own quirk. Non-consensual suicide. There was... fuck no. Fuck no. Neito had survived death and had made a bet with them that he'd outlast them all, and there was no goddamn way she was loosing that. He'd read her diary out loud at her funeral if she did, and then all judgements, deep dark secrets, and her crush would be revealed! 

The dart in her palm rolled. And she suddenly felt really goddamn stupid.

"This better be temporary." Lillian muttered mournfully, glaring at the dart with disdain. More blood poured from her mouth, but at least her tears had dried up. "Fuck. This is going to suck."

She stabbed herself with it, grimacing. And the world exploded with sound around her. Her quirk snapped back into her like a rubber band, her hair dropping messily around her shoulders. She stumbled backwards, her quirk fizzing out. She could still feel it there, but she got the distinct impression that she couldn't use it.

She heard Fatgum call her name just as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her quirk gave another pathetic wiggle. 

It almost felt like an apology.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Is this Shota Aizawa?" The woman inquired, voice a little warbled over the phone. 

"This is he." Neito responded. You know, like a liar.

Hitoshi glanced at the blonde with an arched brown, eyes almost immediately zeroing in on the phone he was holding. It was definitely not his by any means. In fact, according to the official Lillian merch sticker on the back, it was actually Aizawa's phone. The purple-haired teen pressed his lips together and kept his trap shut, mentally going over his and Neito's funeral plans. Maybe he would've intervened if he weren't handcuffed to a table. 

So the whole press fiasco had sort of spiraled out of control and long story short, Hitoshi had gotten arrested and they were maybe trying to charge him with assault. Emphasis on that maybe. Aizawa was begrudgingly negotiating with the victim and Chief of Police for his freedom, which was honestly really flattering considering the underground pro had been ready to murder them both in cold blood out of sheer annoyance alone. Wait, was he even an underground hero anymore? Everyone knew his name since he was Number One, which was still super weird by the way--

"Great! This is Esuha City General Hospital-- we're contacting you regarding your daughter, Lillian Aizawa?" The woman's voice was polite in that clinical, over-the-counter sort of way. Neito's smile froze on his face, and Hitoshi felt his heart begin to sink at the expression. "We received her just thirty minutes ago from quirk exhaustion. She seems to have stabilized for now, but she did receive a dose of an experimental, highly illegal drug that's concerning us just a bit. We have you listed as her primary contact?"

Holy shit. Was catching a break just not a thing? Neito wondered what absolutely batshit insane, out of the ballpark bullshit reality had come up with this time. He wasn't even going to try and guess. There was no way he could. All he knew was that she'd chosen Esuha City because of the increased drug activity and because of Fatgum's connections to the many interconnecting Yakuza cases.

"Oh my god, is she okay?!" Neito yelped, already on his feet and reaching for his coat. Hitoshi jolted too, moving to stand before realizing his remaining hand was currently stuck to a desk drawer handle and he couldn't. Neito didn't seem to process, hastily tying the jacket around his waist and pushing his actual phone into his back pocket. 

"She's in stable condition and is currently expected to make a full recovery. The hero she's interning with-- Mr. Fatgum, I presume you know-- was at the scene when it happened." The secretary hummed. Neito heard rustling papers over the line. "He gave me permission to share his statement. Apparently they were in a downtown district of southern Esuha when they ran into a small group of criminals. Though most were incapacitated easily at the scene, one straggled and was able to fire a round off at--"

Bro.

"She was SHOT at?!" Neito shrieked in absolute horror. He pulled the phone down briefly, whirling on Hitoshi. Hitoshi stared with wide eyes as the undead teen all but bared his teeth at him, looking like a snarling dog. "Get your shit. We're going to Esuha."

"I'm stuck to a drawer." Hitoshi responded in a very small, slightly-terrified manner. Neito's glower was incredibly threatening. And what was this about getting shot at? Wait, Lillian was in Esuha, wasn't she? Holy shit! 

"Then bring the fucking drawer, you idiot!" He sounded like an enraged banshee, absolutely fuming. Hitoshi wouldn't have been surprised if his eyes started to glow red and his hair began to float. "Lillian got shot at and was dosed with some drugs!"

The blonde didn't elaborate, pulling the phone back up to his ear and responding to whatever the woman on the other line said in an impressively calm tone. Hitoshi scrambled up to his feet, tugging the drawer out of the desk and clutching it. It was chock full of files that looked important, but you know who else is important? Lillian. Lillian, who'd apparently gotten shot at. Like, Kamino had not been that long ago. She was in no condition to be getting shot at. What sort of reaction had she had? To have quirk exhaustion bad enough to hospitalize her... and an illegal drug? Was it trigger? Or the other one?

"We need to get Aizawa-sensei." Hitoshi clutched the drawer to his chest as Neito turned towards the door with the clear intent of leaving.

"Leave a note, bitch! We're going and we're going now!" Neito called back to him before he was once again returning to the phone. "What do you mean nobody knows what happened? Lillian was just suddenly falling ov-- you think she drugged herself to erase her quirk? What, did it get stuck or something? Are you sure nobody saw it? Nobody behind her, or off to the side, or..."

Hitoshi stopped listening at that point, his mouth feeling awfully dry. His mind flashed back to her retelling of the USJ. If nobody had seen what happened, and if Lillian was just suddenly falling over out of nowhere, moved from where she'd been before... well, he had to wonder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bakugo and Nightfuck are talking about the League of Villains when Mirio's head pops through the wall, his smile just as wide and creepy as it always has been. The only difference now is that his brows are furrowed, his gaze uneasily trained on Katsuki. The explosive blonde bristled immediately, red eyes narrowing suspiciously as the third year welcomed himself into the room without any prompting. 

It makes him nervous, Katsuki admits. Something has been nagging at him, and maybe that's just his anxiety talking, but something just... genuinely doesn't seem right. There's a sense of foreboding that tells him something has gone wrong, and Mirio's pinched expression is only more proof of such. He stares and tries not to let his concern show on his face. Nighteye arches a questioning brow, but Mirio still only seems to have eyes for Bakugo. The third year seems to be having some sort of internal debate.

"The fuck's the look for, Tintin?" Katsuki bit out after the staring went on for a second too long, shifting in his seat. His phone is laying face up in his lap, waiting for any sort of text from Lillian that may indicate how she's doing. Her last check in had been two hours ago, and though he knew she was probably busy, he couldn't stop his worry from festering. She had been texting in thirty minute intervals, and he'd been doing the same. Most of the time all he'd get from her was a random emoji of some fruit or a reaction image, and he'd send a simple thumbs up in return.

"Ah, I got a text from Amajiki. Er, Suneater, I mean." Mirio's smile turned a little sheepish, but Nighteye didn't seem like he was going to scold him for the slip. The sunshine blonde cleared his throat a little, straightening out his posture. "They ran into a... bit of trouble. He and Lillian are both okay, but Amajiki was shot, and--"

Katsuki's palms let out a deafening crack before he could get anymore words out, his eyes popping open wide. He bolted to his feet in an instant, reaching out and grabbing Mirio by his upper arms tight. The sudden movement was such a surprise that Mirio didn't even have time to go incorporeal. Instead he went very still, blinking in a surprised manner, though he really shouldn't have. He... He didn't know the full story behind what 1-A had gone through at the summer camp or what the aftermath looked like through their eyes, but he knew it hadn't been good.

This was a great display of that. Katsuki Bakugo was a very irritable individual. His typical response to just about anything and everything was rage. His anger mirrored his explosive quirk, and it worked for him, honestly. Mirio had definitely expected an outburst. Lillian and Bakugo were both friends, he knew for certain. They'd approached him and Amajiki together after all, insisting that they were going into this plan together with more of their other friends.

Only Katsuki didn't look angry, or annoyed. He was gripping Mirio so hard it hurt, holding him in place, and his eyes were filled with a fear Mirio would've expected to see in the eyes of someone in mortal danger. Katsuki appeared as though he'd just seen a ghost, ghastly pale and shaking.

"What hospital?" He breathed out, a tremble in his tone. And what could Mirio do but tell him?