Eri hunched over her bed, packing her clothing into a suitcase.

Tomorrow was the day she moved into a U.A. dorm. It was... terrifying. A member of the League of Villains like herself entering the greatest hero school in Japan as a "transfer student?" It was a bizarre, foreign experience, but it had to be done. A mission was a mission, especially if All for One ordered it. Not that she cared the slightest bit what that monstrous man thought of her. Eri was only doing this for Shigaraki.

Eri loved Shigaraki, and pretty much owed him for where she was now. Shigaraki, unfortunately, highly looked up to All for One, so Eri couldn't make Shigaraki look bad by refusing to do this mission.

It was just that... heroes were bad. They hadn't saved Eri when she needed them; they were fake and selfish; they pick and chose whose quirks to like; and above all, they were dangerous.

Eri had to be careful. She didn't want to get hurt, and of course, she couldn't hurt someone with the curse of a quirk she had that did more bad than good. No one needed to get hurt if she was guarded and focused.

Keep an eye on Midoriya Izuku, suspected successor of All Might.

__________

Before Eri headed to her and Shigaraki's apartment to rest before the big day, Dabi stopped her at the bar hideout when there were only the two of them left.

"Be careful out there, Eri," the scarred man warned as he put his hand in the pocket of his jeans and slouched against the wall. "The heroes are suffocatingly self righteous, and they'll try to convince you that we, the 'bad guys,' deserve prison or worse. They'll say we're maniacs and monsters, and I won't lie, some of us are, but they fail to realize that they are too."

Eri nodded. She's heard this many, many times from various members of the League. "I know, Dabi. Thank you." She appreciated the concern, though, since it was rare for Dabi to show any. She didn't really know much about the man at all, really, because he had only been in the League for a little over a year, but he had helped her get over her fear of using her quirk enough to control it the smallest bit, so that she wasn't completely 'powerless'. (As if she wasn't the best at hand to hand combat out of the whole League.)

Dabi's quirk was extremely dangerous, and so was Eri's, so they had that in common. Eri had a connection with the villain and trusted his advice for that reason.

"Yeah, 'course you do. You've got Shigaraki reminding you every five seconds," Dabi scoffed, his gaze lazily drifting away from Eri. "I don't know what the heroes did to make the guy a total manchild, but we've all got our own problems. That's why we're all in this Leauge, with the dumbest name they could've come up with by the way."

Then, Dabi's blazing blue eyes snapped back at Eri. "You've heard this and that about the heroes well enough, but I've seen the truth of the hero society firsthand."

Eri sharply inhaled and straightened up her posture tensely. This was her first time hearing about this information. "Like... how? If it's okay to ask..."

Dabi's lips stretched into a cold, bitter smirk. "How, huh? Well, I thought it was obvious." He poked the purplish skin around his cheek. "You catch my drift?"

Horror and sympathy struck Eri in the heart. She staggered forward, a hand hovering over her mouth. "Oh, Dabi, I—I didn't know—I'm so sorry—"

"Quit the pity. It disgusts me," Dabi spat, causing Eri to instinctively step back. "And you wanna know something else?"

No.

"What is it?" Eri whispered anyway as a sense of morbid curiosity took a hold of her.

"My own family is the reason I support stain," Dabi answered calmly, though spite leaked through his voice. "He knows the truth. The realit—ugh—!"

Eri threw herself at Dabi and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. She couldn't help herself as tears slipped out of her eyes.

"The hell? Let go of me!" Dabi barked, shoving the horned-girl away from him. As a result, Eri stumbled backwards and fell on her butt, but that didn't stop her from sniffling and rubbing her teary eyes.

As Dabi patted his clothes, Eri said, "I know we're not that close, but no one deserves to go through that!"

Dabi rolled his eyes. "Stop crying. I was trying to give you some insight, not to share a sob story, so quit it."

Eri would have been embarrassed of herself right now for crying on floor if she weren't so heartbroken by Dabi's words.

"And since when do you hug people? Is that a thing you do now? Personal space, kid."

"S-sorry," Eri said quietly, still wiping tears away. "Toga did it to me this morning when she was wishing me luck on the mission, and I liked it... a lot. It made me happy... So, I thought that if I did it to you, it would make you happy, too..."

Dabi crouched down slowly and, to her surprise, patted Eri's head with his large, rough hand. "So, what? If I pat your head, you'll start patting the heads of everyone you meet?"

Eri's gently pushed his hand away. "No," she grumbled, sort of insulted by being spoken to like an idiot. "I wouldn't pat a stranger. And I've been pat on the head before. Lots of times."

Dabi's mouth twitched to laugh, but, suddenly, it froze and fell again. He stared, scrutinizing her. "You've never been hugged before."

Eri furrowed her brows, not sure whether that was a question or statement and why it was even being discussed. "Well, not until Toga did it to me today. Why does it matter?"

Dabi's expression remained solemn. He shook his head, sighing softly and muttering, "rough world." Then, he stood up and offered Eri a hand. "It doesn't matter. Now get up already. You're almost fifteen years old, not five years old."

Eri hesitantly accepted his hand and was pulled up to her feet.

"Now get some sleep," Dabi suggested, trying to act as detached and uncaring as usual, but Eri could see through it.
"And remember, just because a hero is on the top, doesn't make him any better than us, believe me. They could be the lowest of the low deep down inside."

Eri gave him a grim nod. What had previously been a general fear and caution towards heroes had now become a personal grudge.

__________

Eri's first day had started off fine. She had been startled by the atmosphere of the school—large spaces with many students—and her classmates had bombarded her with curious questions that has her head spinning. Other than that, no heroes (or heroes in training) seemed to eye her with suspicion. Meanwhile, Eri kept her ears and eyes open for Midoriya Izuku.

It wasn't until her homeroom class teacher, Aizawa, spoke to the class about an assignment that things began to go downhill.

"You are to reflect on yesterday's disaster at the training course and explain why it went wrong," he instructed. "Then, tell me how you can improve. Half credit is on the presentation and the other half is on how well you do when we re-do that course. This is due tomorrow, so be diligent."

Most of the class groaned simultaneously upon hearing this.

"This will be another partnered assignment, so listen up to hear you and your partner's name."

From Eri's seat, she could hear a few whispers that consistent of, "I want to get partnered up with Eri!" And "she's cute." Eri hoped no one could see how her cheeks flushed at the audible comments.

To be honest, these students were acting nothing like she had expected them to act. Perhaps it was mostly the pro heroes that were corrupt, and this school was just built to teach these young students the same morals and ideologies. A shame. After all, they were the same age Eri was. Maybe it wasn't too late to help them?

No. Stay focused on the mission.

"Jirou and Uraraka," Aizawa called out. Two girls smiled at each other in response.

"Kirishima and Midoriya."

Eri's eyes snapped to direction of the class where two boys high-fived. "We'll be a great pair, Kirishima!" The green-haired one exclaimed.

Target identified.

"Todoroki and Eri," Aizawa said next, approaching her aisle.

"Darn it!" Someone shouted. Laughter followed, then a loud hush.

Eri raised a brow and looked for her partner. The boy next to her, with heterochromatic hair and eyes, raised his hand so she could spot him.

"Oh," Eri said, trying not stare at the bold scar around the boy's eye. "Nice to meet you."

Todoroki simply responded with, "likewise."

When Aizawa reached them, he said, "Todoroki, I hope you don't mind working with our new student. I thought you'd be a good partner since you won't overwhelm her, unlike most of your class."

"It's no problem at all," Todoroki assured.

"Eri," the teacher, continued, "you won't have any particular part of the assignment to actually complete, but I want you to talk with Todoroki and help him in any way you can."

"Of course, Sensei," Eri said, clasping her hands together.

With that, Aizawa returned to his desk and said that the class had the rest of class to do whatever they pleased, but if they didn't use the time to work on their assignments, they'd have to work together after school.

Unfortunately, the class took that as permission to surround Eri and occupy most of her class time. By the time the bell rang, she and Todoroki had hardly gotten any work done.

"I'm really sorry about that," Eri said as the both of them backed their backpacks. "You must be really annoyed with me."

"I'm not too bothered. We have plenty of time after school to work on the assignment," Todoroki explained. "If anything, you should be the one annoyed. Our classmates are too nosy."

Eri shrugged. She didn't mind too much, only because she was able to learn the names of her classmates and, more importantly, watch Midoriya a couple of time. Just from this period alone, she learned his mannerisms and had an understanding of his personality.

If All for One's suspicions were correct, then this was one strange kid for All Might to chose as his successor. This boy was small and almost shy-like. Wouldn't All Might want someone big, strong, and confident? Someone who could inflict fear onto all the villains?

"Anyway, when are you available to work on the assignment after school?" Todoroki asked.

"Whenever you are," Eri insisted. "I'm free all day."

"Okay. Then let's meet at the library at six."

"Sounds great," Eri replied with a small smile before they went to their next class.

Their next class was simply quirk training outside. This wasn't an issue until Eri was asked to show her quirk to the class. She obliged by finding a crushed plant in the grass and retuning it to its previous, healed and healthy state.

"Oh my," Yaoyorozu spoke up, her eyes glimmering, "your quirk... it's—it's similar to Recovery Girl's!"

Eri cocked her head to the side in confusion.

Kaminari shook his head. "No way! It's better!"

"Your quirk isn't suitable for fighting, rhino-looking-ass," Bakugou added, earning multiple looks of disapproval from his peers.

Midnight, the pro hero teacher that had been watching over them, quickly ran up to Eri, her shoulders tense. With wonder and surprise evident in her voice, she said, "Eri, I think you're just the person Recovery Girl has been waiting for!"

__________

Eri didn't understand what had occurred to warrant her being sent to the nurse's office, but here she was waiting outside the door, ready to knock...

This has something to do with my quirk.

Of course her stupid quirk had to draw so much unwanted attention. If it was the reason that the mission was jeopardized, then she'd never forgive herself.

Regardless, Eri knocked on that door.

"Come in!" An elderly voice welcomingly called out.

Eri turned the door handle and entered the room where she found a small, old lady sitting in front of her computer.

"Oh, hello! You must be Eri!" The lady greeted, beaming with excitement. "I am very pleased to meet you!"

Eri gave the woman a quick, tight-lipped smile. "You too, ma'am. But um... why am I here...?"

The nurse's enthusiastic expression softened, and gestured to the bed besides her. "Have a seat, please, and I shall explain."

Confused and anxious, Eri complied. She settled onto the bed and fiddled with her fingers as she looked around the room.

This place seemed fairly safe. So, she wasn't in trouble, right?

"You see, my dear," the woman began, "my name is Recovery Girl as you might know. I am a pro hero, but I spend a lot of my time here at this school, healing the students. However, as you can see, I am growing old, and I will not be here to aid the students forever.

"Nowadays, kids just want to be heroes in combat, so it's hard to find anyone with a quirk that can heal. Midnight informed me of what she's observed... Could I please see your quirk in action?"

"...Yes," Eri managed to answer while her mind was blaring alarms. She didn't like where this was going one bit.

"Wonderful," the old woman commented. "Follow me."

She lead her further across the office and past several best until they stopped at a bed where an unconscious boy rested. Multiple bandages and casts littered his body. Eri's heart ached with sympathy.

"He was severely hurt by a classmate during a training exercise gone wrong. It was all an accident, of course, but the damage remains grave. I have been letting him heal for some time on his own without the use of my quirk, because I fear that if I use my quirk, it may kill him."

A breath caught in Eri's throat. "What? What do you mean?"

"Well, healing takes energy, my dear," the nurse responded, her previous joy having disappeared after looking at the state of this student. "And if he uses too much energy at once, it will be fatal."

"That is... very unfortunate," Eri said, rather dejected. This was a sad thing to hear and all, but for a moment, Eri thought that she wasn't the only one whose quirk would go haywire or out of control. No, instead this woman would only kill someone if she made the wrong decision, and that was all. Eri was alone in her experience of killing and hurting people with her quirk, while this nurse healed them.

"Now, could you use your quirk on him?" Recovery Girl requested.

Eri's blood went cold. "Excuse me?"

"Your quirk is rewind, correct?" The nurse asked. Eri nodded stiffly. "Then, certainly, you can rewind this boy to his healthy state, no?"

"No!" Eri snapped, nearly shouting, causing Recovey Girl to be taken aback. "What are saying— I'll kill him!"

"Calm down, Eri—"

"This is a big misunderstanding. I can't heal. I only rewind. And I only to it to plants and animals because at least if I mess up, it won't be as devastating as it would be with a human. I-I—I'm sorry. I just can't."

"Shh, shh," Recovery girl consoled. "I understand. I shouldn't have assumed." After a brief moment of thought, she asked, "have you ever tried healing a person?"

"No. Nor will I ever, ma'am," Eri responded harshly.

"Is there a particular reason for that?"

Eri didn't answer, because that was her deepest, darkest secret that only Chisaki and Shigaraki knew of.

"Alright," Recovery Girl said in response to the lack of reply. It was foolish of me to expect a student who is still experimenting, training, and discovering her quirk to do a pro hero's job. Forgive me if I scared you for that. But Eri... the truth is, I think your quirk has amazing potential. If you gave it a chance, I would love for you to become my successor."

Repulsion filled Eri's senses so abruptly that she had to brace a hand onto the wall next to her. Repulsion at the thought of anyone actually wanting her to be a... a hero. Heroes were her enemies.

Recovery Girl nodded empathetically, thinking that she understood what Eri was thinking. "I know. You probably want to be one of the greatest heroes, and a hero specialized in medics cant get up to the top like the others can... I won't force you, but, please, think about it. Allow me to teach you and help you learn how to use your quirk on humans. This school—no, all of Japan—could use a quirk like yours."

"—could use a quirk like yours."

A memory of Overhaul looming over her flashed in Eri mind. Her fresh, crimson blood traveling through the tubes... The bandages everywhere... the loneliness... Fear—Pain— Darkness—

Eri shook her head wildly, eyes screwed shut, and walked backwards—away from the nurse.

"Eri?"

"I'll—I'll think about it." As if. "Goodbye."

She speedily left the nurse's office before the old lady could catch up with her and ran to the bathroom where she locked herself in a stall. She slid to the floor across from the toilet as she gasped heavy breaths.

Calm down, calm down, calm down, CALM DOWN.

Eri's wide, red eyes stared at the ground as her hands trembling. More memories of Overhaul took up her vision as a feeling of helplessness and terror consumed her.

Where was Shigaraki? Kurogiri? Dabi or Toga? Where were they to protect her?!

Then, the sound of footsteps entered the bathroom. Eri slapped her hands over her mouth to conceal the whimper that escaped her lips.

Black shoes of the henchman appeared in Eri's peripheral as she curled up under the bed on the cold floor.

"Damn, I know you're in here. Just where? Come on. If you come out, I won't be mad."

Eri stayed as still as stone. Until—

As fast as lightning, the man crouched and snatched a handful of her hair.

"AH! Let—go!" She cried out in pain. "Please!"

"Wait until Overhaul hears about this. You're in deep trouble, girlie."

"Ribbit. Is that you, Eri?" A voice said, bringing the horned-girl back to the present.

Eri jolted to her feet. "Oh—u-um, hi—uh, Tsuyu?"

"Hi, Eri. Are you ok? I saw you on the floor."

"Oh, no—I... Well, I mean, yes." Don't mess this up, Eri! "I feel a little sick, is all. Must've been my breakfast."

"But weren't you just at the nurse's office?"

Eri internally cursed at her mistake. "I was, but it only started hurting now..."

"Oh, I think I understand. Ribbit. Is it a, y'know, girl thing?"

"Yep!" Eri immediately chirped. "A girl thing."

"I don't have any pads with me right now, but I can go ask one of the girls in our class," Tsuyu insisted.

"That's alright; I already have one. Thank you, though."

"Okay. If you say so. Would you... like me to stay with you?"

Eri bit her lip. Yes, please... Don't leave me alone.

"I don't want to hold you up from class any longer," She voiced instead, gloomily leaning her shoulder and head against the stall door.

"I don't really mind, but I'll give you your privacy." And with that, Tsuyu left, leaving Eri alone again.

Eri let out a deep sigh that left her feeling weak in the bones and stayed there for a while to recompose herself again.

Tsuyu was nice. Much better than Recovery Girl, who had been far too intrusive. Maybe it was because she was Tsuyu's peer, while she was Recovery Girl's subordinate.

Or maybe it was just because Recovery Girl was a pro hero who could sense that something was off with Eri.