Dad and Thirteen were both discharged from hospital without any issues. I was so relieved when Dad opened the door. Father was too.

School was closed for the rest of the week.

When I entered the classroom the next Monday, everyone swarmed me, asking how I was, telling me how proud of me they were. My heart swelled. It was a really great feeling; having everyone compliment me, looking upon me with stars in their eyes.

Like I was a hero.

"Okay, okay. Come on, class. If Hinami laps up any more attention, she won't be able to get her head through the door, and I don't think I could deal with her in my class constantly." Everyone dispersed with a little giggle and we all sat down.

Everything felt so great.

The story of my fight had spread through the school like wildfire. Random people approached me, asking if I was Hata, if I was the girl that saved her class, if I was the hero of 1-A. A smile was plastered on my face each time I shyly nodded and confirmed that, yes, I am Hinami Hata. And each time, glowing with pride, each of my friends announced that they were my best friends. Even Katsuki said it once. It was in the form of 'get your filthy hands off of my friend' to an overly flirtatious guy from the second year. But I still count it as a win! The week went by in a gleeful flash.

"Heya, 1-A!" Nemuri grinned at the class as we all sat down. "How are you all this fine Tuesday afternoon? Tomorrow, we're going to have a visitor! A pro-hero is going to come in and talk about life as a pro. We thought it would be good to hear from him after the, uh, incident, two weeks ago. Make sure you take full advantage of his presence. He'll be here for two days and will be happy to answer any questions you have! Now let's get on with some maths!"

"I wonder what the hero will be like tomorrow." Mina squealed as we made our way home. "I hope he's young and good looking."

"Like he'd go for a high schooler. That's illegal, racoon-eyes." Kat replied flatly.

"Let her dream, Bakubro." Kiri patted her shoulder playfully.

"I just hope that it's informative! I'm looking forward to hearing about his experiences." Mido said.

"Me too. Everyone keeps calling me a hero. It's a lot of pressure." I sighed.

"Why don't you just ask your... informant about heroes?" I whacked Kat's arm and glared at him.

"An informant?" Mina sidled up beside me.

"It's just a joke." I hit his arm once more for good measure. "Isn't this where you go?"

"Oh! See you guys tomorrow."

"Bye guys!" Her and Kiri walked down a side road together. They were going to do school work, but I think they just wanted an excuse to hang out. Eventually, it was just me and Kat. We walked in silence for a while. While I was looking into the distance, I felt something brush against my hand. Then again. When I looked down, I saw that it was Katsuki's hand. He was looking away from me. He did it again, and I decided to slide my hand into his palm and intertwine our fingers. Although he stiffened up, he didn't say anything to me.

When we got to our junction, he simply let go, said a quick 'bye' and walked off.

"Bye, Katsu-kun." I smiled after him.

"Hey, Sweetie. Something good happen?"

"Huh?"

"You've got a big, silly smile on." Dad laughed, tapping my nose teasingly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Dad. Now tell me about the hero coming in tomorrow."

"His name is Zap. He's been in the game for a long, long time. I think you'll all like him. He actually mentored me for a couple of months."

"Only a couple of months?" I looked up from untying my trainers in surprise. "That's nothing. Why such a short time?"

"I joined a different agency once we adopted you. It had more flexible hours and was closer to home." He smiled innocently, but I could see him playing with his fingers behind his back.

"Good morning everyone!" A tall, broad man waltzed into the room, cutting off Father's usual class good mornings. He was wearing a yellow rubbery suit and had salt and peppered hair. He put a large hand on his squared jaw as he scanned the class, his amber eyes settling on me.

"You must be the class hero. I've heard a lot about you."

"How did you-"

"You look just like your father!" He gave a big booming laugh.

"I'm not rela-"

"Now! I must introduce myself! My name is Zap. I've been a pro hero for almost twenty years and have brought down countless villains." He started pacing around the classroom, telling us all about his experience as a new hero, getting into an agency, making his debut. His loud gravitas and overconfident swagger bored me instantly. It was like a bad rip-off of Toshi. Father sat in the corner of the room, still looking unimpressed from when he was interrupted. We made eye contact and I gave a fake yawn. He threw me a small smile and put his finger to his lips.

After a good hour of him waffling on, Zap finally paused for questions. Tsu asked about his quirk.

"My! Did I never tell you? How silly of me. I've been so forgetful recently. I use electricity to make fires." I sat up straight.

"Electrical fires?"

"Yes, you could call it that." My pulse quickened. Even though I knew that I should have shut up and focused on calming my panic attack, I couldn't drop it.

"And how long have you been a hero again?"

"Coming up to twenty years. But my big break was about ten or eleven years ago now." My lungs seemed to be turning the air into syrup. I struggled to breath and my heart was beating so quickly that I could hear it pounding in my ears.

"Are you okay?" Todo asked out of the corner of his mouth. Shaking my head, I stood up and rushed out of the room. I heard footsteps come after me.

"Shh. It's fine. Listen to me. Calm down." Father pulled me into his chest, pressing one ear over his heart and covering the other with his hand. The sound of his heartbeat helped me to slow my breathing again. Even though my pulse was still pretty quick and my hands were shaking violently, my lungs were cooperating again, and it was easier to think straight. It was a good thing that Father was here to stop me before it got bad.

"What happened?"

"I- I don't know."

"You said something about a fire before. When you had that nightmare..."

"I think that's it. The fire in my nightmare. I was reminded."

"It's alright, darling. Nothing will happen to you. I promise." He stroked my hair gently as I nuzzled into his neck.

"Can I just stay out here for a few minutes?"

"Of course. Stay for as long as you need. Come back in whenever you feel like you can. I'll just tell Zap that you felt unwell or something." We nodded at each other and he went back into the room. As soon as the door closed, I leant against the wall and slumped down to the ground.

Electrical fires.

Big break around 11 years ago.

Dad left him after they adopted me.

It can't be a coincidence.

It can't.

Shigaraki's voice replayed in my mind. 'Villains had nothing to do with your parent's deaths'.

Was Zap another piece of my puzzle?

I sat and stewed in my thoughts for a little while until I felt clear-minded enough to come back in. When I knocked on the door and entered, Zap greeted me with his signature smile that, upon closer examination, seemed to be pulled too tightly against his oddly smooth face.

He carried on talking, but I couldn't focus on a single word that came out of his mouth. A note landed on my desk.

What happened? - T

I wrote back.

Panic attack - H

Why? - T

The fire thing - H

Something to do with your parents? - T

Yeah. I'll explain at lunch. Meet me under the big oak out back. Bring Mido - H

Got it. - T

We looked at each other and gave a single, solemn nod, his dual-coloured eyes as hard as steel. I wrote notes for Katsuki, Sero, and Kami telling them to meet me at lunch, and managed to get them passed to their recipients without catching Father or Zap's attention. I felt a bit bad for leaving out Kiri, Mina, Tenya, and Ochaco, but the less people involved, the better. When the bell for lunch rang, I grabbed my bag and practically sprinted to the oak.

Katsuki was the first to arrive.

"Demanding a hug." He wrapped me up before I could even say anything. Not that I would have said no. After a quick hug, he sat down and patted the ground next to him.

"Is this about you running out of class earlier?" I simply nodded as I sat with him and waited for the others to arrive. After a few moments of silence, he gingerly said.

"Hey, about yesterday."

"Sorry it took so long! Zap stopped Kami and was talking about his quirk because they're so similar." Sero groaned as the rest of the group arrived. "We also had to shake Mina, Kirishima, Uraraka, and Iida."

"They'll be fine." Mido practically launched himself next to me and put his arm around my shoulders, much to Kat's annoyance. "But are you fine?"

"I will be."

"That's cryptic." Todo gave a little smile as the others all sat down too. I looked around the circle, working up the courage to say what I needed to say.

"I think Zap is involved in my parents' deaths." I eventually blurted out. They all looked at me with varied expressions.

"The fire..." Kami whispered.

"Electrical. I managed to read something on my father's laptop. It said that it was believed to be from faulty wiring. And even worse. My dad worked under him."

"Mic worked with that dude?" Sero asked in shock.

"Yeah. He mentored Dad for a few months but he left when he adopted me. He said that it was because there was an agency closer with better hours. But something seemed... off when he said it." I looked down, unable to face my friends as they tried to process this new information.

"Surely Mic would tell you if he knew that a hero murdered your parents?" Kat furrowed his brow thoughtfully.

"Let's dance around the m word..." Mido bit his lip nervously.

"Yes, let's. And I'm sure he would. He wouldn't lie to me. Especially about something this big. Would he?" I whispered the last part.

"I'm sure that he wouldn't. Maybe he doesn't know. It could have really been a coincidence." Sero tried. I couldn't tell if he was trying to convince me or himself.

"Or he knew that something shady was up but just left without looking into it. He would have been just starting out then so he wouldn't have wanted to get into any kind of scandal." Todo mused.

"Yeah. Yeah that sounds plausible. My dads were pretty young when they adopted me."

"I mean, isn't Mic only like thirty-something? Why'd they adopt if they were so young?" Asked Sero.

"Mic found me. He saved me when I was like five. I was the first kid he ever saved and he felt responsible for me since my parents were nowhere to be found and he felt like letting me go through the system wasn't saving me properly. Father was really reluctant at first but apparently he completely melted when he first saw me. I don't really remember anything before my first day moving in with them."

"That's a really sweet story." Kami put his hands on his cheeks. "It's like fate that you guys found each other or something."

"I don't think that Mic would press to adopt you if he knew what happened to your parents or was involved in any way. He would feel too guilty. We all know how emotional he gets." Kat said. I thought back to Dad crying over countless kids films and nodded.

"Yeah. I agree."

"So what are we going to do about Zap?" Mido asked hesitantly.

"I... I don't know. When I spoke to my parents about my birth family before, Father didn't take it well to say the least. And this is a massive allegation that's based on some circumstantial evidence and a bad feeling." I admitted.

"If your hunch is right, I'm sure we'll be able to get something out of him." Kat punched his hand, a devilish grin on his face, a small explosion sizzling against his skin.

"But what if he catches on? And what will Mic and her father say?" Sero pressed. I looked down and played with my thumb unsurely. "Zap could do something reckless."

"Hinami-" Kami put his hand over mine, but the bell cut him off. I reluctantly stood up.

"I actually feel better after talking to you guys. I still have no idea what I'm going to do. This is such a crazy situation. But you guys will have my back?"

"Always."

"Of course we will."

"Yeah!"

"No shit we will."

"Obviously!"

"Then I'll do whatever I do with certainty." I gave them all a big smile before putting my hand out and pulling Mido to his feet.

"Sugoi, Hinami. You're so brave."

"Only with my friends beside me. Now let's get back to class."

(A/N)

Hey! As we've reached the beginning of a peak in this book's mini-arcs and a near mid-point in what I've written so far (I'm at chapter 46 as we speak), I've decided to put the updates for the book down to once a week. Would you rather it be on Fridays, Tuesdays, something else, or is there no general preference? I'm posting on AO3 as well, so I'll consider the readers over there too!

Also you can find me on Instagram at lnsanitycipher (with an L at the start) or louser_art if you want some more content from me. I don't post much but I do have a handful of Hinami drawings and I plan on being more active.

Hope you're enjoying everything so far!