'Have you ever read the Meta Liberation War?' Mariko asked Hitoshi, as both of them turned their back to the training grounds, heading towards the school campus. The UA High building was already visible in the distance, overlooking the woody area around the Hero Academy.

'The Destro autobiography? Or whoever that was who wrote it?' the student asked and she nodded. 'No. Why?'

'I was interested in it because of the recent events. People are going crazy over their ideology.'

Mariko looked at the pavement in front of her and made a swinging motion with her foot, as if trying to kick an invisible rock with her steel-capped shoe. The still-naked trees danced on the wind, as the chilly spring breeze blew in their faces. Hitoshi squinted his eyes and looked up, checking the state of his wild haircut, then looked at the older student walking beside him.

The two teachers, Ectoplasm and Thirteen, were walking around ten meters ahead of the students, giving them some space to talk and discuss their exhausting rescue training.

'Do you agree with any of it?' Hitoshi asked quietly.

Mariko tilted her head to the side and gazed at the boy from the corner of her eyes.

'I mean, it would be kind of cool to have some of the current laws changed. But I don't think that free Quirk usage is a good idea. Well, at least not in the current shape of our society.'

'Yea.' He nodded.

Another wave of wind blew at them, making a swooshing noise around their ears. Mariko pouted and put her hands in her pockets, while hunching slightly forward. For a few seconds, she looked like a female, much shorter version of Aizawa.

'Why did you mention it, then?' Hitoshi asked, then wrapped his right hand around the Binding Cloth, playing with the weapon.

'Because there is something that has been concerning me for a while,' she announced as the pavement tilted to the left, leading the path in between the trees. 'It was mentioned briefly in the book, but they have some other Quirk theory, it's not just the free usage, but something like um... Quirk evolution?'

'Evolution?' his interest visibly peaked.

She looked at the purple-haired young man and nodded vigorously. As she opened her mouth, both of them heard two different phone notifications from the teachers walking in front of them. Slight frowns appeared on both of the students faces, as they glanced at the Pro Heroes, taking their phones out from their pockets. The teachers inspected the screens and then looked at each other without a word.

'Yea,' Mariko murmured, still glancing at the two in front of them as they continued walking towards the dorms; the building of the school constantly growing on the horizon. 'It basically says that in life-threatening situations, your Quirk, or as they like to call it, Meta Power, is supposed to evolve to save the user from the demise. In theory it is supposed to work like adrenaline.'

'So what does that mean, in practice?'

'I have honestly no idea,' she replied. 'I can't imagine how can a Quirk evolve. I just wanted to discuss it with you.'

'Hmm.' He cupped his chin while looking up at the slowly darkening sky. He saw a few birds flying above his head, possibly working on creating a new nest on the branch of an about-to-start-blooming cherry tree. Hitoshi returned his gaze back to Mariko. 'Could it possibly mean that the ability mutates and grows in power?'

'I was thinking about that. But if that is the case, then wouldn't that mean that if the Meta Liberation Army or whatever they were, was still around... Wouldn't that make them stronger than most of the heroes?'

Hitoshi frowned, then unwrapped his hand from the Binding Cloth and straightened the edge of the weapon.

'Didn't the guy who kidnap you have some connection with that... community?'

'So I heard the rumors.' Mariko nodded. 'You know, the Quirk ascension and the Quirk Doomsday theory? It seems to me that they were trying to brainwash the kids to recruit some powerful soldiers. It's crazy.'

'Tch,' Hitoshi clenched his jaw.

'And you?'

'What?'

'Do you think that it can be true, mutating quirk on purpose?' Mariko asked.

'Remember how Endeavor fought Nomu? It felt like he was about to loose at one point,' Hitoshi started and noticed Mariko nodding with approval. 'And yet, he won and since then we haven't seen him fight any other Nomu, at least not a more powerful one. Do you think that he surpassed his limit at the time and evolved?'

'It could be. But I am not sure if all Quirks can evolve equally. Maybe there are just some that can't?' she was thinking out loud.

'But then again, the entire UA has this motto, Plus Ultra, right? Isn't it kind of the same thing?'

'That's what I thought as well!' she got excited. 'But then again, did anyone mutate? We kind of just keep getting better, it's like with working out to build your muscle mass... so I still don't get it, the Meta Ability theory that is.'

Hitoshi shrugged and dropped his hand to the side, then inhaled the chilly air into his lungs.

'Imagine, though, if you could evolve your Brainwash so that you don't even need to speak to another person.'

'That would be awesome,' Hitoshi smiled slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. 'I hope to achieve it one day.'

Okaido smirked to herself and turned her attention to the teachers in front of them. For some reason, both of the students felt uneasy. They couldn't quite place the reasoning behind such feeling, but the atmosphere seemed suddenly tense.

'I wonder what was the text message they got,' Mariko whispered to Hitoshi who frowned and nodded slightly.

They went quiet, walking on the right side of the pavement, avoiding stepping on the runners path. As they approached the first hedge surrounding the dorm of third class of the general studies, Mariko slowed down. She stopped and watched Hitoshi turn his head towards her.

'What's up?'

'What would you say to a race to the dorms? We are right next to the trees, we could swing on the Binding Cloth a bit.'

Hitoshi smirked and grasped the end of the scarf-like weapon.

'I'm in.'

'Should we tell the teachers?'

'Probably,' he replied.

Mariko launched forward and swiftly caught up to the Pro Heroes heading towards the dorm.

'Mr. Ectoplasm and Ms. Thirteen, could we race to the dorm with Hitoshi? The shipwreck rescue training didn't give us a lot of chances for mobility test, could we do that now?'

'Oh, of course,' Thirteen responded and showed Mariko a thumbs up. Ectoplasm closed his eyes and nodded once, granting his approval.

'Thank you.' She bowed before them and adjusted her grapple glove on her left forearm, then turned around on her heel, swiping the cobblestone surface with her right foot.

Senchi rejoined Hitoshi and both of them leaned forward, placing their hands on the cold ground. As they got closer to the pavement, they smelled the scent of the damp soil underneath the school forest.

'Do you want a countdown?' Ectoplasm called and they both nodded vigorously. '3...'

Hitoshi put on his voice modifier and adjusted a knob.

'2...'

'You can use your Quirks as well,' Mariko heard the teacher say.

'Alright!' she responded and felt the Brainwash activate on her, flopping her body to the ground. Before she lost complete control, the flames burst out of her eyes.

'GO!'

Hitoshi launched forward, throwing the Binding Cloth on the thick branch of the nearest tree. He swung forward, leaving her behind.

'HOW DUMB ARE YOU?!' she screamed at herself in her mind, inflicting pain upon herself through the drain ability, breaking free from the Brainwash.

She pushed her body upwards and fired the grapple at the tree, a wild grin appearing on her face. Mariko extended her right arm, creating a weak link of energy with Hitoshi, which was getting more powerful with each second. After recalling and firing the grapple again, she used a small energy boost to swing above one of the trees, gaining some more momentum. While in air, she pushed her head backwards, rotating around to do a backflip.

Hitoshi landed on one of the tree branches, grasping the side of his voice-modulating mask. Mariko shot the grapple towards him, pulling herself closer to the ground. The boy dodged to the side and grasped the fabric of the weapon, swinging his leg towards Okaido. She blocked the mechanism of the grapple and shifted her body backwards, avoiding the impact. She wrapped her right forearm around the Binding Cloth and slid on her knee across the ground, feeling the energy link getting stronger.

Hitoshi jumped down from the branch and attacked her, trying to prevent her from recalling the grapple to make her partially immobilized. With one hand, she blocked his punch and redirected his body to the side, dodging another blow.

'How did you even use the Persona Chords?' Mariko grinned, then jumped and swung backwards on the grapple, still attached to the branch. 'Ectoplasm was so far away and yet I couldn't tell the difference.'

She recalled the grapple back to the glove and dashed towards the young hero, trying to swipe his feet. He jumped towards her aiming at her knee. She moved away and pushed herself off the ground.

'I turned my head away from you and spoke with the wind,' he explained.

She nodded, visibly impressed. As much as she felt the urge to compliment him on what he did, she knew she should not respond. Hitoshi's eyes lit up, and despite him wearing the vocal chords mask, she knew he was smirking.

'Why don't you just drain me?' he asked her.

She tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow with a slight smile curving the corner of her lips.

'Not fun enough, ey?' with those words he threw the Binding Cloth at her and dashed forward.

The energy link, which was still active between them, powered up Mariko's jump. She leaped backwards and shot the grapple on a branch far above her. Senchi pulled her body off the ground and barely avoided the Binding Cloth, about to immobilize her left ankle. Clenching the muscles of the entire body, she pushed her legs towards the tree trunk and changed the trajectory. She jumped down and swung around the tree, trying to kick Shinso with additional momentum. The boy ducked down avoiding the impact and turned around, watching her land on the ground. She dashed forward, leaving him behind, as she chased the objective in sight - the teachers' dorm was right around the corner.

As she drew away from Hitoshi, the draining link disappeared. He chased after her, but she had a major advantage. Mariko swung her body towards the dorm and as she was about to land on the pavement, she felt a tight grasp around her thigh. Hitoshi yanked her towards the ground and she extended her arms and bent the elbows minimalizing the fall. Her hair flew in front of her face, almost completely covering her vision.

She swung her head to the side and curved her lips to blow at her face, getting rid of the strands in front of her eyes. The second her vision cleared, she noticed a pair of two, very familiar shoes standing a few meters in front of her. She smirked to herself and quickly twisted her body around. Mariko grabbed the scarf wrapped around her thigh and used it to knock Shinso to the ground. Boy fell to his knees and she dashed towards him, pushing her hand into his messy hair. Just as she was about to perform her ultimate move, she heard Aizawa:

'Damn, what a show-off.'

She snapped her head to the teacher, frowned at him and said:

'What? I literally ju...'

She froze in place, as the Brainwash took control of her body. Hitoshi rotated on his knee and punched Mariko at the bottom of her jaw. The effect of the brainwash disappeared immediately but the power of the strike sent her flying backwards. Shinso leaped after Mariko and grabbed her forearm before she painfully landed on her back.

'The weak point still didn't change, from what I can see,' he said and she noticed the same kind of smirk lurking in his eyes. With the other hand he slid the Persona Chords down, revealing his proud expression.

She blushed slightly and smiled back, allowing him to assist her in standing up.

'Some things never change,' she responded and nodded at him. 'Good race. Thanks.'

'Thank you, too,' he replied back and let go of her forearm.

Both of them looked at Aizawa, standing still at the pavement leading to the entrance of the teachers' dorm and the parking lot. He held his hands in his pockets and leaned backwards as if trying to perform a little stretch. Mariko rubbed her jaw and adjusted her vest, looking shyly at the tall man.

'Good work, Shinso.' His gaze landed on the purple-haired student.

'Thanks, sensei.'

As the two students got closer to the Pro Hero, Aizawa glanced at Mariko. His intense, piercing gaze sliced through her soul, temporary affecting her heartbeat. It seemed that even after their first kiss some of the tension remained unchanged. They stared at each other, not saying a word; leaving Hitoshi bounce his eyes from one to the other.

'Um, I will be leaving, yea? Catch you later,' he said and turned on his heel to continue walking to his dorm.

Mariko dropped the eye contact with Eraserhead and turned her head towards Shinso, who visibly sped up his walk.

'You could have drained him,' Aizawa spoke up.

She glanced back into his eyes.

'But then he would lose.'

'You are doing more bad than good not treating him equally to others,' he snapped.

'But that's not it,' she argued and frowned. There was something off about his energy. 'It's literally just a quirk difference, it would be highly unfair.'

They went silent, looking at each other, a weird tension filling the air in between. The wind blew at the sides of their faces, carrying the fresh scent of moist ground and a smell of incoming rain. Ectoplasm and Thirteen's footsteps got louder and a moment later the two teachers interrupted the unusual staring contest.

'Have you received it as well?' Ectoplasm asked Aizawa, who just nodded.

The teachers left them alone at the pavement and headed inside the building. Mariko waited until the wind carried the sound of the closing door, then spoke up:

'Did something happen? You seem... a bit off?'

She looked to the sides, checking if there are any students around.

'There has been some information surfacing,' he said quietly. Her eyes snapped back to his face as a frown twisted her eyebrows. 'The Hero Public Safety Commission has reached out to Principal Nezu. They want you to be on a mission in a few months.'

'Wait, but I am not licensed,' she said, happiness mixed with confusion.

'They are making an exception.'

'But why?'

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath in. Something was off and Mariko could feel it, but she had no idea how to identify the underlying problem. Once his eyelids lifted half-way up, he sighed.

'They took a look at your recent quirk change submission and realized that you could counter one of the villains we believe we might face.'

'That's awesome, I am so honored!' She couldn't help but grin.

He looked at her completely unimpressed, then hid his chin behind the Binding Cloth and turned around, walking away towards the dorm.