Engine Boy, I Love You!

#8 (Bonus): For a Future

*Bonus one-shots are not canon to the CoC1-A plot.

There was no stifling that shared look of malice in everyone's eyes.

Even after an hour, the mood settled over class 1-A did not lighten even the slightest. There would be no getting over what had happened anytime soon—no forgetting the tears they'd all seen rolling down Aoyama's terrified face. That sight was something that would remain branded onto their collective minds throughout and even beyond the scope of the final battle that awaited them all.

They were going to defeat All For One if it meant their lives. That much was certain now.

"It's about time to gear up, yeah...?"

Kirishima's voice seemed loud in the common area after such a long period of silence, but his comment was followed up with a few scattered nods. Others merely got up from their seats one by one to start making their way to the exit, but in general, the atmosphere remained relatively cold. They were all thinking the same thing, after all. Remembering the same vivid moment from an hour ago in excruciating detail.

Despite the grim nature of it all though, their faces were not hopeless. Each student, as they quietly made their way outside, carried themselves with an aura of determination that should've betrayed their expected tone.

"We will definitely defeat them...!" Hagakure hissed under her breath, and once again, her sentiment was mirrored by everyone else in the room.

Yes!

At some point near the exit though, as the group was in the midst of departing, Iida hung back for a moment—catching the eye of Midoriya. They both paused as they made eye contact with each other, gazes easing only a fraction before they started to leave side by side.

"I've got to do something about my hero costume first," Iida mentioned as they walked, "It ended up in tattered pieces, after all. I'll need to swing by the support department."

"In that case, me too," Midoriya sighed, squinting slightly down at his feet, "I just about ruined mine as much as I possibly could have. There's no way I'll be wearing it into the next battle."

"Shall we go together then?"

At that prompting, Midoriya nodded, and the two of them broke off from the rest of the class to go and make one last quick visit to the development studio. It was a bit of a detour from here—the others would probably have to wait on them for a bit, but this was necessary. They weren't about to saunter into their patrol armor-less, after all.

It didn't take more than a few minutes to arrive at the doorway to the studio, but the time it took felt a lot longer somehow. Between the palpable tension in the air, and Iida's anxious, swirling thoughts, he hadn't been able to come up with any topics of conversation. After all, even aside from the whole ordeal regarding Aoyama, Iida had been harboring a separate apprehension at the thought of going to the studio; and once the familiar door was within sight, he was hit with a paralyzing pang straight to his heart.

It was enough to almost make him freeze in place.

Memories poured in, stirred up by the sight of that hanging sign above the doorway. Memories of adventures had—long-distant ones now, from back when he was still a bright-eyed first-year. Lots of running and screaming had been involved; the result of countless failed "experiments", that the infamous Hatsume Mei had conducted in his presence. Running from robots, getting locked in the warehouse, crashing into the outside wall of the gym...

But of course, what all of those bittersweet memories had in common, was her.

It had been so long since Iida had seen Hatsume now, that he'd almost forgotten what it'd been like to be near her. Chaotic, yes—their time together often was; but that aside, it was also a fact that he'd been dating her consistently for almost the entirety of that year before everything went south.