BLOW.

ROCK BOTTOM

fallen down, toby fox

Once the Kamino Ward fight was over, Bakugo explained what had happened to the police and went home. Him and the rest of the involved students had a day solely dedicated to resting with family.

The pro heroes had to try and figure out where Juniper had disappeared to, worried about her safety yet trying to manage the media and public as best as they could. It was sad to say but they had to take the win they had over All for One and saving Bakugo.

Despite the time they had, the police had no leads as to where the villains could have gone.

So when Juniper came back on her own, the public rejoiced over her accomplishment of escaping from the villains.

Aizawa and Juniper were both brought to the nurse's office when they fell unconscious, meaning that Juniper's hands tightly holding onto her teacher were carefully removed from him. The students weren't allowed to see either of them until Nezu gave them clearance.

Juniper's wounds were treated by Recovery Girl who bandaged her torso up and gave her oxygen. Luckily, her quirk was able to deal with most of her wounds aside from the stab wounds from AFO's tendrils.

Eraserhead woke up first, immediately looking around him, "Where's Juniper?"

Nezu smiled and gestured to the bed on his left, "Right here. She's been treated and will wake up soon."

The teacher looked at the girl, who had curled up into fetal position while sleeping. She had tear stains under her eyes and was tightly hugging her knees to her chest. Aizawa's heart ached for the girl who he knew he should have taken better care of and watched over carefully. She never should have dealt with any of it.

And so, they waited for the girl to wake up.

It took an hour before Juniper began stirring, opening her eyes and immediately beginning to panic. She frantically looked around before noticing the large quirk nullification cuff on her right forearm.

Aizawa's voice broke her out of her thoughts, "Juniper, you're okay now. We've got you."

Her eyes welled up with tears once more as reality came crashing down on her once more, quickly breaking into a sob as she covered her face, "Ai-Aizawa... I'm a murderer... I need to go to jail."

The pro hero gently grabbed her hand and sat on the side of her bed, "You won't be going to jail. Everything will be okay."

She didn't believe him, face scrunching up at his words, "No it won't!! You don't understand, I killed Shigaraki Tomura." As soon as she made that confession, she couldn't help but explain the rest, "It's all my fault!!! I snapped and took the air out of his lungs. I made his lungs collapse. I killed Shigaraki Tomura, I deserve to go to jail."

Nezu hummed upon hearing the information, inquiring further, "What happened after that?"

Juniper's eyebrows furrowed together as she replied, "Th-Then... Dabi set him on fire and... and told me to run."

"Then you didn't kill him." Nezu stated it as if it were a matter of fact. He explained, just like Dabi had before she fled the scene, "Ultimately, Shigaraki Tomura was burned alive. He could have survived if someone gave first aid, but instead he was set on fire. You did not kill him."

Her eyes glazed over, tears still falling as she tightly held Aizawa's hand and whispered, "Does it matter? Even if I didn't kill him, I almost did. And the worst part is that I wanted to do it."

Aizawa couldn't help it, knowing the look of a child who needed support. He carefully pulled the girl in for a hug, "Juniper. I will always be on your side supporting you. I promise you will be okay."