Dig Deep: A UA Tale

Amplified

An alarm rang out from Bani's phone.

"Oh. No worries; it's the perimeter alarm, but it goes off all the time from animals. My moms haven't gotten it fixed yet."

I wasn't sure we should just ignore it, but suddenly I couldn't focus properly. All I could think of was the ways my friends had wronged me.

When I looked up, I saw a hostile look in Bani's eyes.

"You think you're better than us, don't you?" they demanded.

"What?! Of course not!" I replied, as other thoughts broke their way to the surface of my mind. Nothing positive, lots of self-loathing.

"Yeah, right. You've been training forever. Well guess what, I have too! I bet I could beat you in a fight; your only advantage is how complicated your quirk is, and I know it through-and-through!"

I couldn't even reply. Awful memories swarmed in my brain. My mother in the hospital. Her funeral. My stepdad crying. My guilt. Maybe if she hadn't been so focused on getting me into training programs, she would have realized something was wrong sooner. My first year at UA. Kids telling me they knew I thought I was better than them. And now one of my best friends was saying the same thing.

"See?! She can't even reply! Come on, let's have a battle! I'll prove that all the training I've been through wasn't for nothing!"

"Stop!" Hana cried. I hadn't even noticed the tears running down her face. "Can't you see she's upset?! I know you both think I'm weak since I don't have a strong quirk and I'm not in the hero course, but I'm not! And neither of you has to prove your strength! Just stop!" With the last word, she collapsed onto the ground, sobbing. Why were we all so upset?

When I started to snap out of my thoughts, I noticed a faint black smoke in the air. Was it a quirk making us so emotional? Was this why Bani's perimeter alarms went off?

"You're taking her side?! Of course. You should both leave," Bani demanded.

"Wait, I think there's a quirk-"

"LEAVE!"

And we did.

I was going to tell Hana what I'd noticed, but when I started to head for where Kiri told me to meet him, she was still recovering. I offered to use my quirk to cheer her up, but she declined. I decided I'd just text her later.

About half the class showed up to celebrate. Even Bakugo (or- could I call him Kat now?) showed up, probably dragged by Kiri. I also saw Mina, Sero, Denki, Izuku, Shoto, Yaomomo, Jiro, Uraraka, and Iida.

Denki jumped up when he saw me walk in.

"ROSIE! Guys, Rosalie's here!"

"Hey! How'd I do today?"

"You did awesome, Mina! I'm so proud of the progress you've all made!"

"I appreciate that, but I know I still have things to improve!" Iida stated.

"Well, of course, but that's what the rest of your time at UA is for!"

"She's right, Tenya! Be proud of what you did today!" Uraraka said, her smile beaming.

Kat was fuming.

"Come on, Bakubro, you and Todoroki will get yours soon!"

"YEAH BUT I SHOULDN'T BE BEHIND ALL OF YOU EXTRAS!"

His outburst was unnecessary towards the people who care about him, but I knew where he was coming from. Kat had horrible conflicting superiority and inferiority complexes. He'd felt useless when he was kidnapped, making it even worse. He couldn't handle feeling like he was falling behind.