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Mina wants more time. More time in a day to get everything done. More time for getting ready and more time with her friends. More free time she can spend with her family that is still searching for a permanent place to stay. After the war destroyed their old apartment building and too many more to make up for it, it’s taking a while.
They have to drive over an hour for a supermarket now, because where they are staying right now, in the empty gym hall of a primary school that somehow still stands and has flowing water, is the only statically safe place in the area.
But more than all of that, she wants more time to be a child.
Sure, she decided early on, that she wanted to be a hero. To help and connect people, to get to know them and spread positivity and hope wherever she could.
And she knew, that there would be downsides. That she would see crime and violence and awful environments and sometimes even Villains that were nothing except desperate people that would need hope instead of a beating. She knew that a heroes life wasn't as glamorous as All Might made it seem. She didn't have his quirk, she wouldn't be able to fly all over Japan and win every fight in just a moment.
But she could be similar to her neighbourhood hero, Glam. Glams quirk was basically everything a Butterfly could do. She had wings and those stick things on her face and lots of eyes if you got too close. But she did her best, always spreading smiles and paying attention to small things whenever she was around.
That should only happen after her graduation though. After all, she would have three years of high school, protected by lots of pro heroes and teachers that would train them. Without letting them get too close to real danger.
But after only a year, she did not only intern - wich wasn't that bad since she mostly walked around and filed paperwork - but she fought a war.
She had to suffer through multiple attacks, joining in a war on what felt like the first day of high school. An abduction and treason and training that was rushed because somehow the government thought sending teenagers, children, into a war was okay.
That it was okay to make her stop being a child at sixteen. Ten years before her brain was fully developed.
They forged her into a veteran by the sheer impossibility to give up. Because how could she? Even through it was only a year, at least she had training. She had the abilities to at least do a little bit. Way more than a normal citizen. Way more than an innocent little child.
Not that she was an adult. Most of the times she had felt more like she was twelve.
Not anymore though. She doesn't exactly feel like tackling insurances or bank accounts. She doesn't know how real life or her own should look.
But she made it through a war. She fought some of the worst people to ever exist. Monsters most people were afraid to think about.
She is somehow still alive. And she feels robbed.
Because her first year of high school was supposed to be different.
Exhausting and challenging, sure. But not deadly.
Yes, she would have to learn a lot. Get to know many new people, find new friend, not fail tests and enhance her quirk as far as she could.
But it should still be school. She should still have a home to return too, parents that don't have fear in their eyes whenever she leaves. A brother that isn't hugging her tighter than ever before, every chance he gets.
She should still be a child. Maybe she would find it shitty, not getting treated like she knows her way around and like she doesn't need anyone.
But she wants that so bad, now. She wants somebody to stand up and say: Don't worry, we've got this. Everything is fine, just leave it to us. Relax and let your guard down for a moment, we won't let anyone hurt you. Don't worry so much, those nightmares are only dreams - we won't let them become reality.
Maybe that's naive. And maybe that's selfish. Because then she would have other people stand in the way of harm, maybe let them get hurt and just stand back.
But she feels so, so robbed. So abandoned.
The most exciting thing in her week should be tests or planning on how to get Bakugou join them for karaoke (the answer was of course: make Kirishima ask him). But instead she fears about who would make it through the week.
Who of her teachers would be the next to lose a limb? Their live? How many hospital visits did she have to pull off this week? How many broken bones, cracked skin, shattered hearts would there be, this month?
She doesn't want to have to care about all that.
She wants more time to just be. To exist with her friends, mock-fight about where to meet up for a hangout (always Seros room. He has the comfiest bed and doesn't explode you for sitting on it). She wants shopping trips with the girls and beg Yao-Momo to pay for their bubble tea (she would invite them for a whole lunch and the teas).
She wants to do Yoga and be able to close her eyes without being afraid of what could happen if she isn't looking (because what if Bakugous heart stops beating?). She wants to be able to sleep without imagining how her friends death will be (if somebody manages to get through Kirishimas Unbreakable, how bad would the body look?). How soon it will be (will they even have time to talk one-on-one before?).
Mina doesn't want to think about how much her skin hurt as soon as it stopped being pink, the darker, natural colour showing beneath.
She wants to be back in middle school where the scariest thing was a faceless giant she could send away. Something she still shouldn't have to deal with, but something that was manageable. Something she could do. It was scary, it always would be. But it also was something that another person could have handled. Something a hero could have taken from her shoulders if she would have called the hotline instead of sprinting to the front herself.
She wants to be back in primary school, where she had big, innocent eyes and still though that crushing bugs was the most awful thing a human could do.
But instead she is sixteen, traumatised and always on edge. She can't relax anymore, her shoulders hurt constantly and her arms are still covered in gauze to protect the burn wounds from her own acid.
She doesn't have more time. It also doesn't quell the want for it in her.
So she tries to take time. To still be a child, to do irresponsible things just because she wants to. To stay up late, have Hagakure paint her nails with little stars and glitter even if it is against the dress code and practise doing her eyeliner that Aizawa makes her take off every morning. To watch horror movies that are allowed for adults only and pretend that the contents shock her.
She makes time to forget her homework and instead hang out with Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Jirou. Sometimes Bakugou. She always tries but isn't as effective as Kirishima. But he joins them often enough. Even if they just bring over Kaminaris console to Seros room and play games on low volume so nobody gets triggered.
They all ignore how Jirou can't hear as good and don't talk about the amount of gauze covering Bakugous face. About how Sero flinches and Kaminari always overcharges their electronics if they don't pay close attention. How Minas smile never seems as careless as it should.
Mina still wants them to have time, before they die. Wich will be too soon. Because this job doesn't let anybody get old. It doesn't let anybody get happy. It isn't easy, it isn't cool. It's really fucking hard.
Because every single day she gets up and goes to training. She surpassed her limits, betters her quirk and her combat skills and everything that can be enhanced about her.
A hero is never perfect. They should always be able to do more. Even All Might wasn't good enough, in the end. Nobody will tell him because it's not his fault. But he didn't protect them from the monster than started a war. He didn't protect them from the people that made them fight in it.
She doesn't blame him. It's not like she could have done better. She will never reach his level. But she can't stop because of this. She doesn't really have a choice anymore.
Because out there, there are other sixteen year olds that still have time to be children. They still worry about exams and weekend plans and dating. And she wants them to have this time. Because she knows how much it hurts to not have it. To grow up too fast and too violent and too cruel.
It is already too late for her. She's only able to pretend now. But it's not like that for everyone.
So she will continue to pretend and to get better. She will train as much as she can and she will become a hero and protect her neighbourhood. She will never be done and never be good enough.
But Mina will stand in the way of every person trying to take away others time. She will stand there and look them in the eye and grin because nothing can be worse that this state of waiting for something lost to come back.
Mina will ruin herself and her body and tear apart whatever she has to. She will go beyond and above and plus fucking ultra if she can give at least one person time to be a child. To draw another breath. To say goodbye. To live.
Because for her, time is only an unreachable dream now. She won't get her childhood back. But she can look ahead and give time to others.
So Mina sits up and wipes blood and acid away, her whole body stinging and itching and burning, to throw herself right back in the battle that is a heroes life.