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. He couldn't help the regret he had thinking back on the situation. He should have been stronger to never leave Juniper behind. He should have been better at talking, to say something that got her on his side. He should have been nicer to the girl who was breaking.

Maybe he shouldn't have ignored her, instead face the consequence of his actions.

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, defeating 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 brave 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. As for her severe hypoxia, a few hours on oxygen would greatly improve her state.

Eraserhead woke up first, immediately looking around for the girl who needed his help, "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. He should have protected her better.

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." Even despite her words, he believed in the girl. He believed that she wouldn't do such a thing without just cause.

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 used that new technique for something so disgusting and evil. 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." She felt nervous as soon as he mentioned him. That's right, Touya. She ran away and left Touya there to clean up her mess. He promised that he wouldn't leave her but she was the one who ended up running away like a coward. She couldn't believe she left him like that, regret and shame filling her body. Her free hand tightly gripped onto the bed sheets below her as she started crying harder.