Sometime along the ride Kokoro had dozed off. By the time they had stopped she was fast asleep. She was woken up by someone nudging her shoulder.

"Get up, we have to be ready for when they get here."

Kokoro nodded and rubbed her eyes. "Yes sir." She muttered as she stretched her arms. Once she had woken up a bit more she stood up and stepped off the bus. In front of her there was a building, and a group of Pro Heroes moving around.

Looking towards the forest Kokoro heard the distant roars of Pixie-bob's earth beasts and the loud explosions and thuds as the students attacked them. She felt bad for them, they'd be beat once they managed to get to the camp.

"Kowareta, Eraser, I'll lead you two to where you'll be staying for the week!" Mandalay called out. "You can put your stuff down and relax a bit before the students get here."

"Oh, thank you." Kokoro said, bowing her head before grabbing her duffel bag and following after the pro hero.

"I'm sure you understand why, but you're going to be sleeping the same room as Vlad and Eraser, Kowareta." Mandalay said. "But we made sure there was a screen in the room so you could at last have some privacy."

"Don't worry. I totally understand." Kokoro said. "I'm guessing you were notified of everything before we got here."

Mandalay nodded, "Though don't think that you're only here to be watched. You're going to be helping us out throughout the week."

Kokoro waved her hand through the air. "Of course. I plan to be as useful as I can."

The room they would be staying in wasn't too big. There were two futons laid out next to each other and another one laid out on the opposite side of a large fold-up screen.

"I'm guessing this is where I'm going to be sleeping ." Kokoro said, placing her duffel bag down on the lone futon beside the screen. She watched as Aizawa placed a small backpack on the futon closer to the screen on the opposite side of the screen. "Hm, where's Vlad's stuff?"

"Him and class B will be getting here a little later. They're not going through the forest." Mandalay said. "Speaking of which, class A should be getting here soon, so we thought we'd make dinner for all of them. I'd like you to help out, Kowareta."

"Oh, I'd love to! Lead me to where I need to be!"

As they all worked on dinner, well, everyone except Aizawa, Kokoro was introduced to the kid she had seen earlier on the overlook.

"This is Kota, he's my cousin's son. He lives with us now."

Kokoro looked down at the boy and gave him a small smile, "It's nice to meet you."

Kota huffed and looked away.

"Come on Kota, don't be like that."

"I'm not gonna say hi to a random hero." He said.

Kokoro chuckled, "Well, good thing I'm no hero. I'm just a plain ol' teacher."

Kota just looked at her without saying a word, but the hatred in his eyes faded ever so slightly.

***

A few hours later, Kokoro stepped outside the building, the soft orange light of the evening washing over her.

"The litter is almost here!" Pixie-bob mused.

"That took a lot longer than expected." Mandalay said.

"Well, they are only first years after all." Kokoro said, watching as class 1-A appeared out of the forest, tired, dirty, and beaten.

"You said it would only be, like, three hours!" Sero exclaimed.

"I guess we times it based on how long it'd take us. Sorry!" Mandalay said.

"Now you're braggin' about how much better you are?" Sato asked.

"I'm starving. This is hell." Kirishima said.

Pixie-bob placed her paws up to her mouth and laughed, which sounded more like a stream of meows than laughter. "I thought it would take you kids even longer. But you did ugh better against my first monsters than I thought you would. You guys were seriously great. Especially the four of you!" She pointed towards Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki, and Bakugo. "It seems like you've had quite a bit of experience. I call dibs on these kittens!"

As Pixie bob readied herself to jump, Kokoro jumped forwards and managed to stop her by wrapping her arms around the woman's mid-section, "I'd appreciate it if you kept your paws off of my students, Kay?"

"Mandalay, has she always been like this?" Aizawa asked as he watched Kokoro hold back the blue-clad Pussycat.

"It's gotten worse lately. She's at the age to take a mate."

"Uh, speaking of people's ages-" Midoriya started, causing Pixie-bob to lurch forwards, stopped only by Kokoro holding her ground, though Kokoro was not able to stop the hero from glaring at Midoriya.

"Choose your words carefully, boy." She said.

"I've just been wondering since we got here earlier. Who is that kid? What's he doing here?" He asked pointing at Kota.

"Oh this little guy?" Mandalay said. "He's my cousin's son. He lives with us now. Don't be shy, Kota. Say hi to everyone. You're gonna be around them for the next week."

Kokoro finally let go of Pixie bob and looked over to watch Midoriya walk up to the boy. "Hey there. My name's Midoriya. I'm from the U.A High School hero course. It's nice to meet you!" As Midoriya crouched down to shake Kota's hand, the younger boy reeled his fist back and punched Midoriya right in the groin before walking away.

"What a low blow! You fiend of a child! A punch to the scrotum is unforgivable!" Iida shouted, running forwards and catching Midoriya before he fell to the ground in pain.

"The last think I want is to hand with some wannabe heroes." Kota said.

"'Wannabe'?! How old are you, kid?"

Kokoro chuckled. The boy had guts to say the least.

"Enough playing around." Aizawa said, getting everyone's attention. "Get your stuff off the bus. Once your bags are in your rooms, we'll have dinner in the cafeteria. After that you can bathe and sleep. Tomorrow your training starts in earnest. You'd better get a move on."

"Yes sir!"

Kokoro followed the others back into the cafeteria to set everything up, and Kokoro had to check on something she was baking.

The moment everyone say down, they all immediately started eating. Their chatter drifted around her as she replaced an empty plate of gyoza with some freshly made ones. Seeing everyone scarf down the food made her chuckle a bit. "Hey, make sure to save room for desert everyone! I was able to make some cookies for you all to enjoy!"

"Aw man, you're the best Ms. Kowareta!" Mina exclaimed.

After everyone ate, Kokoro helped clean up both the kitchen and cafeteria with Mandalay and Pixie-Bob.

"They're going to the hot springs, right?" Kokoro asked.

"I would assume so. They all must be aching for a soaking after the forest today."

"Right. I'd suggest you put someone on watch. There's one boy who might try to act up and get a peek at the girls."

"I'll send Kota to make sure he doesn't try to climb over the wall or anything. thanks for the warning."

"Not a problem." With that, they quickly finished cleaning and Kokoro headed towards the Hot Springs. She would be a fool not to go in.

"Where are you headed?" A voice asked, and Kokoro looked over her shoulder to see Aizawa standing not too far behind her.

"To the hot springs. I won't be long."

"Uh-huh. Right."

"What, you want to come with me? Make sure I don't run away or anything?" Kokoro teased.

Aizawa paused for a second before looking away and adjusting his scarf. "Of course not. But if you take too long I'll send Mandalay or Pixie-bob to come get you."

Kokoro waved her hand, "Yeah, yeah. I got ya." With that she walked away and towards the Hot Springs.

***

Once Kokoro got to the Springs, she overheard some of the girls chatting. "You girls don't mind if I join you for a bit, do you?" Kokoro asked, causing the girls to look up at her.

"Oh, we don't mind. Come on in." Yaoyorozu said.

"Thanks!" Kokoro stepped forwards and sat in the warm water, keeping her towel wrapped securely around her. "Please, continue chatting, I didn't mean to interrupt you all."

The girls glanced at each other then they looked at Kokoro, some of them having a scheming look in their eyes.

"Well, we were just talking about the kind of guys everyone is into, which thinking about it, what's your type Ms. Kowareta?" Mina asked, leaning forwards.

Kokoro looked around, seeing some of the other girls had interested looks on their faces. "My type? Well I guess someone who isn't afraid to say what's on their mind, someone smart, and someone who's at least decent in hand to hand combat to spar against."

"What about looks?"

"Do they matter really?" She tilted her he'd back and looked at the stars littering the night sky, "You could have someone really attractive but with the wrong type of personality they could ruin your life."

"Yeah. That does make sense." Jiro said.

"Ribbit, I'm starting to get tired...." Tsuyu muttered.

"Right, right. You girls must be tired. Don't think that you have to force yourselves to stay here just because I got here. You'll all need your sleep if you want to be ready for training tomorrow." In the span of a few minutes the girls had all left the Springs, leaving Kokoro sitting alone in the water.

She leaned her head back and looked at the stars. By now Vlad and class B had probably arrived, and knowing that Vlad was going to be in the room when she got there made her never want to get out of the hotsprings,

Even if she had already been at U.A for two months, she had barely gained the trust of the other teachers. The only people who would freely talk to her other than the students were Nezu, Aizawa, Hizashi, and Nemuri. Some teachers, like Cementoss and Thirteen would give her a quick 'hello' or head bow in the hallway Everyone else seemed to avoid her.

It's not like she could blame them, though. She did, after all, kill a few people in her past. If she was in their shoes she'd probably act the same way. The only way she saw herself getting redeemed in their eyes is if she did something insane— something that resulted in putting her life on the line.