First Sight

87: Better Be

It seemed like everyone at the high school heard Dahlia declaring a fight with an adult and were more than interested in seeing it happen. Izumi on the other hand had more important things to take care of, for instance, like helping Eri's scrapes and cleaning her uniform a bit while in the school infirmary. 

"I can't believe there are people at this school that want to bully you. How long has this been going on, Eri?" Izumi asked, putting a bandaid on Eri's forehead. 

"A couple months now... but I don't know why they're doing this to me." Eri mumbled. 

'A couple months, did this start happening after I helped Kota with the baseball team? Then that wouldn't make sense as to why she'd be bullied this long and what for.' Izumi thought.

"Is it all of those girls that've been bullying you?" 

"Mn, but it's mainly Dahlia who's been hurting me." 

"Hah- why haven't you told anybody? Not even Shinso? I just saw him not too long ago, so why can't you tell your own brother?" 

"Because... I don't want them to hurt him." Izumi froze. 

"If I asked brother Shinso to try and help, it could end up hurting his writing career. And I don't wanna hurt brother Shinso after everything he's worked for. I don't wanna hurt anybody." Eri mumbled. 

Izumi knew exactly what Eri meant, because she had those same thoughts at one point. 

'When I used to get bullied in Junior High, Emra found out but I asked her not to get involved because I didn't want it to hurt her future if something bad happened. And I just accepted all the bullying until Katsuki came into my life.' Izumi thought and sighed.

"Don't worry." she said with a warm smile. 

"I'll make sure they'll never hurt you again, okay Eri?" Izumi said happily. 

"Are you sure? Dahlia is really scary, and she doesn't like to mess around when it comes to hurting people." 

"I'll be just fine, now that I know how long this has been going on, I'm not going to accept it." Izumi said. "But you'll get hurt and it'll be my fault!" 

"Eri-" Eri froze. 

"I used to get bullied and there was no one in my class that was willing to help me until I got to high school. I used to accept all that pain, but now that I'm an adult, I refuse to let anybody hurt you or anybody that's done nothing wrong. So just trust me, okay?" 

Eri felt some relief, but she was still very worried that Izumi could get badly hurt. 

"Please be careful, Deku..." Eri mumbled. 

"Hmph, I'll be fine." Izumi said and left Eri in the infirmary.

Izumi walked out of the school grounds and saw a large crowd of high school students out by the baseball fields. 

'Hah- looks like that's where I have to go. Why do I feel like I'm back in high school standing up to my bullies? Well, at least I'm not nervous.' Izumi thought as she took a deep breath and headed in that direction. 

Once she got closer to the fields, all the students seemed surprised it was an adult and that they basically challenged a student to a fight. 

'Erm- let's see how this goes.' Uraraka thought as she stood at a far distance for none of the students to see. 

'If this goes badly, I could end up losing my job, but I'm more worried about Izumi since she's currently a college student and a writer. This could completely ruin her career if she's not careful.' Uraraka thought.