'What is your plan, then?' Principal Nezu sat on his bed, looking at the tall, tired teacher leaning against a wall close to the room's entrance.

'Ask yourself if you really want to know,' Aizawa smirked, shooting him a playful glance.

'At least some overview, please.'

'I will have her separated from the class. She's behind everyone, another week or so of a delay will not cause her any issues,' Shota explained. 'She has to hit the rock bottom to realize many things about herself and if she really aims for what she claimed during conversation with you in the school hospital - she will rise very high, I am sure of it.'

Nezu looked at the ceiling, thinking for a short moment.

'Have you considered her feelings, though?'

Aizawa wrapped his arms on his chest and smiled devilishly, closing his eyes.

'Especially her feelings.'

'I am not sure if I should allow that,' the rat hopped to the ground and walked over to his desk close to the window.

'You have to trust the process, Principal. Have I ever failed with my methods?'

'You haven't, that's true.'

'So? Green light?'

'Yes, you are fully responsible for her development now.'

'Thank you for your reliance,' Shota said and nodded, then opened the door and left the room.

He stood in the corridor, sliding his hands in the pockets of his black pants. He grinned to himself, forming a sadistic plan in his mind and turned on his heel, walking towards the staircase, which led to the living room and the kitchen of the teachers' dorm.

As he stepped in the common area, he glanced outside through the window and saw Mariko taking a turn towards the entrance door. He looked at the couch, where Hizashi and Ectoplasm were sitting, and patiently waited for the new student to enter the dorm.

'Spoilt, rich kid,' she thought, remembering Yaoyorozu denying the request of crafting her a pen and a notebook. 'Keep money in the flow... God...'

She clenched her fists and bit her inner cheek, looking down at her feet as she climbed the stairs in front of the building. She sighed and reached towards the handle, pushing it down. The second she stepped inside, she noticed that unlike the students dorm, this one had just one main staircase straight ahead from the entrance. She looked around and saw three teachers hanging out in the living room. Or, at least two of them were. Mr. Aizawa was just standing in between sofa and the staircase, as if waiting for her.

'Good evening,' she greeted everyone. 'Mr. Yamada, Mr. Ectoplasm and Mr. Aizawa.'

'What's up, Okaido?' Present Mic greeted and Ectoplasm nodded.

'Evening,' Shota responded and Mariko looked in his direction, avoiding eye contact with the man. 'I will show you to your room.'

'Alright,' she responded.

Eraserhead turned around again and started climbing the stairs. Mariko quickly walked past the couch, joined him and looked up at his face. He was wearing a nice, black, long-sleeve shirt with a V-neck. Just like before, his hair was loose, a strand of it in between his eyes. She quickly eyed his silhouette, noticing his nicely toned body.

'He seems more fast than strong, but with a weapon like this, his strength must be on a high level as well,' she thought.

He stepped onto the first floor and turned right, then again in the same direction, walking past two doors. He stopped at the third one and opened it, inviting her inside with a gesture.

'Here,' he said.

She stood beside him and looked inside, her lips parted in disbelief. It was so huge, so spacious! She even had a window and a glass door leading to the balcony.

'What's that?' she pointed at the closed door inside the room.

'Toilet. Bathroom is downstairs, it's a common area, same for kitchen, laundry room and living room.'

'Oh,' she said surprised and stepped inside her new place, looking around with a soft expression on her face. 'And where is yours?' she asked without a second thought.

Shota shot her a raised-eyebrow-glance, slightly changing colors on her cheeks.

'Like you know... when the Quirk...' she mumbled.

'Don't rely on me with cancelling it,' he reprimanded her.

She frowned, self-defense mechanism kicked in. She gritted her teeth and tapped the notebook with her fingertips.

'I am not.' She instinctively stood in an offensive position, putting her foot further than the other.

'Then you do not need such knowledge,' he simply said and put the hands back into his pockets, turning to the side and leaving.

Mariko's expression dropped, not believing that he actually left. She expected escalation of the conflict, not that. She quickly jumped to the corridor and swallowed her pride.

'Mr. Aizawa,' she called with a quiet voice. The man stopped, not looking at her. 'Can you please tell me where your room is?'

He tilted his head, enough to be able to look at her.

'So you do know some manners, it's just you are ignorant enough not to watch them,' he commented, clearly displeased.

She looked to the side, holding her chin high. Shota smirked to himself, getting an affirmation that the plan that he originally prepared will most definitely succeed. Well, at least the part of him absolutely crushing her sense of current self.

They stood in silence for a while, Mariko still avoiding his gaze. She trembled and when she realized, confusion washed all over her body.

'It's the first door straight across the corridor,' he informed and walked to his room.

Okaido blinked, staring at the space where the man was standing a second ago. She stepped backwards and walked to her toilet. It was small, but was more than enough. She looked at the sink and left the notebook with the pen at the toilet seat, turned on the tap and splashed some water on her face.

'He is so incredibly frustrating,' she thought to herself.

Mariko looked up and saw her reflection in the mirror. She had black, neglected, long hair, a hateful look in her bright green eyes and straight, unkept eyebrows. Her eyelashes were dark, but were contrasting with the unhealthy-looking skin under her eyes. She quickly looked away and noticed two small, brown towels hanging at the racks mounted on the toilet's door. She grabbed both of them and wiped her face with one and covered the mirror with the other.

After that, she grabbed the notebook and left the toilet. She headed straight to the entrance and closed the door and then sat on the bed with a very comfortable mattress. She laid down and sighed.

'Vent book,' Mariko said to herself.

She stared at the ceiling and then rolled on her belly and opened the very first page.

'Aizawa,' she thought. 'So far, first impressions are absolutely garbage,' she wrote. 'The man is a dick, he seemed nice maybe for like a split second... when he didn't say anything.'

She released a very mean laugh.

'And on the bus, yes. On the bus he seemed to be cool as well. And then...' she thought of the battle with students.

She crossed out the beginning of the sentence.

'I found out all about his Quirk, or at least all that Class 1A knows. And I assume they know a lot. It's called Erasure. As much as it hurts to admit it, it's pretty cool. Pity the user is so lame. He is super lucky as well, like, he can literally ERASE your quirk. That's just so powerful.'

She wondered for a second, hitting her mouth with the side of the pen.

'He didn't want me here. Didn't want to give me a chance.'

Her mean smile faded away.

'It's not my fault that the Quirk is this way, the Debuff or whatever I should call it. If I had such a flashy Erasure, it definitely would be different. Or at least I would have less scars.'

She subconsciously rubbed her left arm, while frowning.

'Some people just have it so much better and easier. I wish he could see that.'

She closed the notebook and fell to her side. After some time, she placed the notebook under her pillow and the pen on the desk, right next to the bed. Then, she checked the drawers in her room and was surprised to find some clothes. She was given three sport school uniforms and three regular school uniforms. She grabbed one of them and examined the size.

'How did they know?' she asked, looking at the label. 'Maybe they checked when I was in the hospital.'

Just as she thought about that, she reminded herself of the task that Mr. Aizawa gave her. She pulled the notebook from under the pillow and flipped to the last page, grabbing the pen and starting a sketch. Late in the night, she silently went to the common bathroom with some dark blue pajamas she had found in the drawer and took a shower. After that, she quietly returned to her room and got as much sleep as she could, but she ended up having a hard time sleeping at all.

She got up early in the morning and sat on the bed. She stared at the door for a few moments, and then got up to open the drawer. She found an oversized, pastel yellow t-shirt and a grey pair of pants, that she decided to put on. She then brought her arms in front of her chests and stared at them with a long face. Her skin was covered in countless knife scars, some of them barely visible, but some deep and long, noticeable at first glance. Mariko sighed and gritted her teeth.

'I look so unattractive,' she thought, shutting her eyes for a long moment.

She then took the pastel shirt of and found one with long sleeves, which she decided to wear. After that, she went to the toilet to brush her teeth and her hair and just as she was done, she heard a knock on her door. She spat out the toothpaste and rinsed her mouth with water, before jumping to the front door.

'Good morning, Mr. Aizawa,' she greeted the sleepy looking man dressed in his hero costume, standing in front of her.

'Morning. Get dressed in school's sport uniform.'

'Oh.. Alright.'

She closed the door and did as was told, then joined the man, still standing in the corridor.

'Just the school uniform,' he said and pointed at her long-sleeve shirt under the sports top.

'I'm- it's cold outside, isn't it?'

Aizawa eyed her suspiciously, but didn't say a word. Under his gaze, she subconsciously pulled the fabric all the way into her hands and held it there.

'Are you self-harming?' he asked her eventually.

She looked at him, panic in her eyes. She quickly took a long step back and put her arms behind her back.

'No,' she said silently, twisting her head to the side.

As soon as she shifted her eyes away from him, he grabbed the end of his Binding Cloth and threw it at her, grasping her left forearm. She leaned backwards, trying to resist his grasp. He took a step forward and wrapped his hand around her wrist.

'Show me,' he requested, a commanding look on his face.

'I don't do that,' she resisted, but his expression did not change. 'Please.'

'I want to see your arm,' he said in a quiet, rough voice.

She stopped struggling, knowing that there is nothing she can do. Mariko lowered her face; her eyes piercing a hole through the floor. She relaxed her left arm and stood there, awaiting what was next. Aizawa pushed the fabric of her left sleeve. She clenched her fists, as she felt his touch on her skin. It made her uncomfortable, but it was different than what she normally experienced - there were no hostile intentions.

Shota looked at the side of her face and pulled her arm closer to himself, examining her scars in the morning sun, coming from the nearest window. He slid his palm across a long, thin pit, starting about a centimeter below her wrist and twisting around her forearm all the way to her elbow.

'No?' he asked her.

She didn't respond. She thought that if she was to tell him the truth, he would think of her as weak.

'Okaido,' he said, his voice a lot softer.

Mariko swallowed and pulled her arm, while shaking her head. He let her go and watched as she pulls the fabric down and steps away from him, completely avoiding his gaze.

The wounds looked unusual for someone who would self-harm. He knew that the size and the completely random directions of the scars also did not match this kind of a scenario; but he could not be sure, unless she was to tell him.

'It will affect a thing or two, but ultimately, it does not matter. Logically speaking, if she really wants to become a hero, I have to treat her equally to everyone else,' he thought.

'Let's get going,' he sighed and turned on his heel, Mariko following quietly behind the man.

Soon after, they stood next to the school gym. There was no one around and at first, Okaido thought that they will enter the building, but that didn't seem to be the case.

'We will stay here,' Aizawa informed and reached towards his utility belt, taking out some weirdly looking bracelets. They stood in the middle of a grassy spot surrounded by oak trees and western wall of the gym.

'What are these?' she asked him.

'Weights. I want you to fight me, so I need to be slowed down,' he explained, seemingly ignoring her lack of respect when addressing him.

'Are you sure you want them on?' she asked him, shooting him a confused look.

Aizawa didn't respond. Instead, he turned around, hiding his smirk. He grabbed his Binding Cloth and googles and put them aside, close to the nearest tree. He walked over to the center of the wild arena and looked down at the student in front of him. Mariko looked at the man, her gaze quickly sliding across his chin and jaw, then back into his eyes. He made sure his bracelets on his ankles and wrists are locked in, then he put one of his foot forward and invited her with a gesture of his fingers.

She clenched her jaw and put her guard up.

'I will give you seven days to defeat me in hand to hand combat. We will be fighting each morning for 10 minutes,' he informed and slowly started walking around her, forcing her to move. 'On seventh day, if you will not succeed, I will expel you from the UA.'

'You cannot possibly do that.' She frowned.

'Would you like to find out sooner?' He grinned at her.

Mariko dashed forward, going for the low blow with her left hand. Shota dodged easily, taking a step to the side.

'These are surprisingly heavy,' he pretended to be shocked, as she turned around towards him. 'I was slower than I expected.'

She clenched her fists; her fingernails cut into the inside of her palms. Mariko jumped towards her enemy, trying to bait him with a right punch. Before her blow landed, she withdrew her hand and rotated on her heel, putting all force into a high kick. Aizawa grabbed her ankle and kicked her feet supporting her balance. She immediately fell to the ground, anger boiling her blood.

'Maybe I should re-evaluate your abilities and lower the requirement to at least landing a punch.'

Mariko hit the ground with her fist and stood up, breathing heavily. He saw the rage in her eyes, knowing damn well that his plan was working exactly as he wanted. She shook her head and placed her hands on her knees, trying to calm herself down.

'I'm not gonna release it, I can do this.'

'Don't loose the sight of your opponent,' she heard and a second later she saw his leg flying towards her stomach.

Her hands were too low to react in time. Mariko tightened her abdomen's muscles, trying to reduce the impact of his kick. It wasn't enough. She folded over and tried to throw up, but there was nothing in her stomach. She looked up at the man with glossy eyes and launched forward, full of rage. The second she dashed, she felt her Quirk activate. The familiar tingling appeared, spreading from her fingertips to the rest of her body. The green, cold flame covered her eyes up and the dark aura spread around her. It was small, but she knew, she was certain, that it will be enough. No matter who she was facing, the very moment her Quirk activated it always tipped the scales of victory in her favor.

As if in slow motion, she saw a smirk appear on the teacher's face. Right after that, his hair went up and his eyes flashed red and her Quirk was gone. She didn't stop, but slightly changed the direction. She slid on her feet across the moist grass and aimed with her right fist at his left kidney. Shota avoided the punch with ease and redirected her with her own momentum. He grabbed her forearm and jolted her toward himself, swinging his knee at her ribs. She gagged on air as he pushed her body to the ground.

'Time's up.'

She turned her head around, shocked. It was so fast.

'Same time tomorrow. I heard that Lunch Rush wants you to help him,' he said and simply gathered his stuff and left.

Mariko laid her head on the ground and some time after stood up, heading to the teacher's dorm.