Just a quick warning about the contents of this chapter. What happens to Mina here may be triggering for some people or just make you uncomfortable, so please be cautious. If you feel uncomfortable, please skip this chapter (though that's your judgement to make) and I'll write a summary of the events in the endnotes. 

TW: Sexual Harassment and non-graphic descriptions of a panic attack.

Mina wasn't a stranger to compliments, whether they be from her friends or from strangers. Whether they be about her appearance, her dancing skills or her hero work. Mina basked in the praise, it was nice to know that people watched you do something and enjoyed it. It was nice to have someone appreciate her hard work.

What Mina wasn't a fan of, however, were the catcalls she would receive on occasion. She was sixteen years old, and yet she had received multiple catcalls during her lifetime, some as young as fourteen. Mina was used to it, by this point, but that didn't make Mina any more comfortable with it.

"I think I'll be changing my costume, I know that Momo is, Kyoka said that they would help us if we needed help with designing a new costume. I think Tsu and Kyoka are the only ones who are actually happy with their costumes." Mina rambled to the boys as they walked together towards the gates of the school. It was one of the rare days when the students were permitted to leave the school's campus and visit the surrounding town. Of course, they had to go in groups and they weren't allowed to go too far away, but it was refreshing to be outside of the school walls regardless.

"That's understandable. I know that Shinso has to design a hero costume. I think they said that they want something similar to Aizawa, seeing as they want to be an underground hero," Kaminari commented as he bounced down the path.

"Why didn't you just design something you would like the first time?" Bakugo grumbled roughly.

"Well, Bakugo," Mina started, "I did design something I like, but I don't like it anymore, plus it was tighter than I had anticipated. Ochako's costume is like that too, she's super uncomfortable in it. And don't even get me started on Momo's costume design! She redesigned it after her original design was rejected, she was thankful for that, but the costume designers completely ignored her!"

"Yaoyorozu needs a lot of skin showing to work her quirk, so having a costume that exposes her herself is necessary for her to be an efficient hero," Bakugo commented.

"No duh," Kirishima chuckled.

"Yeah, but she's not comfortable, there are tons of ways that her costume could be altered so that her quirk is still efficient and she's better protected," Mina sighed.

The group had reached the school gates by this point, they flashed their school ids to the security robot and took the gadget given to them before they were on their way towards town. Since it seemed as though UA students attracted trouble wherever they went, whenever students left campus, they had to take a small device with them no matter what the reason. It served as a tracking device of sorts as well as an emergency signal that would be sent off should the students get into trouble. It wasn't a foolproof method of keeping students safe, but it was a barrier between students and villains.

Students, especially the members of Class 2A, were only permitted to leave the school's campus once a month, so when they did leave, they used their time outside of the school to the best of their ability. Students only had four hours to explore the outside world, so people tended to rush around to do everything they needed to.

"We have to go to the shopping centre, there's no debating. I have to go to the shop!" Sero ordered.

"What's so important?" Kirishima asked curiously.

"I'm running out of underwear. Plus I need another notebook for homework." Sero answered with a surprising amount of candour and detail. There was nothing inherently embarrassing about underwear, of course, but casually bringing such a thing up in conversation wasn't the politest.

"We didn't need that much detail, Soy Sauce Face," Bakugo grumbled.

The group of teenagers arrived at the shopping centre as quickly as they could, desperate to get Sero the things he needed before they could go and do better things with their limited time. Going underwear shopping for their friend wasn't exactly how they had intended to spend their day.

"Hurry up, Sero, I want to go to the arcade, or even the cinema, there's a new action film out from my favourite series!" Mina complained, watching as Sero looked contemplatively at several pairs of briefs. They all looked as though they were the same to Mina, so she didn't see why it was taking him so long to just pick up some underwear. She never took this long.

"Ok. Ok. I'm done," Sero sighed, finally picking up his underwear and turning towards the checkout."

"Took you long enough," Kaminari murmured under his breath, his voice was just loud enough that it carried towards Mina and Kirishima, who both chortled ever so slightly at how grumpy their companion sounded.

While waiting for Sero to be done with his purchase, Mina was browsing through some of the spring clothes on offer. She loved matching random patterns together and flaunting her unique style, she rejoiced in the way that people would look at her on the streets, pure confusion and sometimes judgement in their eyes. It was deliciously exhilarating.

It was while browsing leopard print shirts that Mina had her first encounter of the day. It generally happened whenever she was away from the boys and she was on her own, even if it did occur frequently, that didn't make Mina any less uncomfortable.

Mina had just put the shirt back on the rack, ready to return to her friends when a sharp wolf-whistle echoed through the air. At first, Mina simply continued on her way, not thinking that the whistle had been intended to gain her attention, but she was proven wrong when another whistle split the air and a man's voice called out to her.

"Hey, sexy!" a man called out to Mina. Immediately, it felt like bugs were crawling underneath Mina's skin, invading her and making her feel extremely uncomfortable. It was clear that the man was much older than Mina, most likely in his late 20s or early 30s, and yet he was catcalling and wolf-whistling Mina, who was very clearly a teenager.

"Yeah, you. If you come over here, I can make your skin turn from pink to red!" the man leered, his friends cackled at his crude words, jostling each other and making obscene noises at Mina.

Mina ducked her head down and scurried away, no good would come from confronting them. A plethora of scenarios ran through her head, if she marched over there, they might take her. If she retorted with the words on the tip of her tongue, she'd be making a scene, and more attention would be brought to her, and more people would feel as though they had the right to comment on the situation. No. In this situation, in these circumstances, it was best to just walk away.

"Oi! Don't walk away from me, beautiful. I can treat you real nice, Princess!" the man sneered, Mina could hear her harasser's heavy footsteps getting closer and closer to her. She tried to speed up, but the man sped up as well.

Mina looked around frantically, desperately looking for her friends. If she got to them, then the man was sure to leave her alone. If she got to them, the man was sure to see that she was here with people and that those people were tall, muscular men. He was sure to leave her alone.

Mina knew that she was a hero course student, she could take him out easy enough, even without using her quirk. But doing so would only mean that she would get into trouble. She'd done it before, defended herself, but she'd gotten in trouble with the police, even after explaining that the man had tried to grope her, even after having to resort to showing them her provisional license, she'd still gotten in trouble.

There was no point in trying to defend herself when she would only get in trouble.

"Slow down, beautiful, I don't like chasing people." the man genuinely sounded pissed off by this point, Mina's heart was pounding in her chest like a bass drum, she was desperate to find solace in her friends.

Just when Mina thought she had found them, just when she thought she was safe, a hand clamped down on her wrist. A bolt of fear ran down Mina's spine. Slowly, with the utmost caution, Mina turned around and looked up at the towering shadow of a man.

"Caught ya, sweetheart," the man cooed, grinning so wide his yellowing teeth were on full display, "Now how about we go back to my car, hmm?"

Mina's eyes darted around frantically, she could feel the man's grip getting tighter, she saw her friends just a few meters away. They were all stood together seemingly perfectly content with waiting around for her to return, they were most likely joking about how she always got away with herself when it came to shopping. She was right there. She was a few mere meters away from them, yet they couldn't see her.

"Eiji-" Mina shouted, only to be muffled by the large sweaty palm of her assailant.

"Don't do that, sweetheart," the man whispered in her ear, hot breath wafting over her face and making her cringe away from him.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Kirishima hadn't heard Mina's desperate call of his given name. A confused look passed over his face before he seemed to dismiss the voice as a figment of his imagination.

How was nobody else intervening? There were people walking around them, all of them glanced at Mina and the man before dismissing them entirely and continuing on their way. Could they not see the tears of desperation and pain beading in Mina's eyes? Could they not see how uncomfortable she was? Could they not see how tight he was holding her wrist?

"Come on, Sweetheart, I'll treat you well," the man continued to coo. Disgust racked Mina's body. The man started tugging her backwards, pulling her body into his. There was no way that she could just stand there and let herself be taken. Damn the consequences, she was going to defend herself.

The man's grip on Mina's arm was as tight as ever, but Mina had faced more formidable opponents in her first year. Even Mineta would have posed more of a challenge than the predator attempting to drag her away now.

The man must have assumed that she wouldn't fight back, must have assumed that she had given up all hope, so he hadn't taken his hand off of her mouth. A rookie mistake.

Quicker than one could anticipate, Mina clamped down on the hand on her mouth as hard as she could. She felt skin break under her teeth and blood rushed into her mouth. The metallic taste was repulsive, but the man's reaction was worth the disgust. With a startled yell, the man stepped away from Mina, ripping his hand from her mouth as he did so. Mina had been in plenty of dangerous and serious situations before, so she knew to follow her instincts. As soon as the man had let go of her, Mina spun around, bringing her leg up, and kicked the man in the side. He toppled like a falling tree, slumping to the ground. There was only one thing left for Mina to do at that point. Run.

Mina ran as fast as she could towards her friends, spitting out a chunk of skin and blood a she went. She didn't care that she was dirtying the shop's floor, she was only focused on making it to her safe haven. Making it to her friends.

"Eijiro! Denki! Hanta! Katsuki!" Mina yelled at the boys, fear and relief were prominent in the girl's voice. Head's swivelled all around her, but she didn't care. All she cared about were the looks of shock on the faces of her friends as she came barrelling towards them.

Mina thought that she must have looked a mess. Rumpled clothes from the man's rough treatment of her. Blood dribbling down her chin. A bruise developing on her wrist. A wild look in her eyes, a look which spoke of absolute and genuine fear.

"Mina!" Kirishima yelped as the girl fell into his arms and clung to him like he was her lifeline.

"What happened, Mina?" Sero asked gently, he took one of Mina's hands into his.

"There's a man. We need to go. I need to leave. He's going to come after me. We need to go!" Mina spoke frantically, her eyes darted around their surroundings, constantly on the lookout for the man.

"Woah! What man?" Kaminari asked, his eyes had gained a fearful look. Though his expression spoke of determination. A determination to keep his clearly distressed friend safe.

"This isn't the time. Let's just get out of this place. We need to get out of here and back to the dorms. We need to talk to Aizawa. Come on." Bakugo took charge of the conversation. He turned, ready to lead the group away from the shop and back towards their home when he came face to face with Mina's assailant.

Rage burned like an inferno in his sickly blue eyes. Just the sight of him made Mina want to flinch away, but she pushed off of Kirishima's side and stood tall. She had to appear strong. She didn't want the others to pity her, and she didn't want to appear weak in front of her harasser.

"Can we help you?" Bakugo growled out.

The man didn't respond, simply kept his malevolent gaze on Mina.

"Look, asshole, if you're not going to say anything, how about you move out of our fucking way!" Bakugo snapped, "You seem a bit too old to be stalking teenage girls."

"I'm not moving until that bitch apologises for biting my fucking hand like the rabid animal she is. Look at her, what sort of civilised human has horns? You should be put down!" the man spat with venom lacing his every word. It was funny how fast people tended to change their tune when things didn't go their way.

"The only animal is you, man!" Kaminari snapped, rage colouring his cheeks red.

"Move out of the way before we make you." Sero sneered in a tone that indicated that his words were anything but an empty promise.

"Tch. Fucking brats. The police will hear about you threatening me, and you can bet your ass I'm gonna have that slut prosecuted as well." the man growled, he directed one final scathing look at Mina before he turned on his heel and marched away with a slight limp, uninjured hand clamping his side tight.

The boys didn't say anything on their journey home. They simply walked in a tight formation around Mina. As much as Mina may have wanted to appear unaffected, she couldn't help the trembles that wracked her body. She couldn't stop the way her hands shook and her hands clasped at her arms in a pathetic attempt to hug herself.

She was glad that her friends didn't say anything, she didn't think she would be able to talk properly. Despite the numerous times that she had been catcalled, this was the first time that someone had actually harrassed Mina, borderline assaulted her. She was scared. She was petrified. Mina wasn't blind to the fact that catcalling sometimes escalated to what had just happened to her, sometimes even going farther, but it still felt surreal. Just knowing that some men would go as far as... to touch women as if they were simply their property. Nothing but an object for them to fondle and clutch onto. Mina felt sick to her stomach. She wanted nothing more than to rush into the showers and scrub herself raw. She felt foul. But she couldn't vocalise that. It felt like Mina's voice had been stolen from her, leaving her with nothing but the ability to silently cry to herself, desperately trying to hide her tears from her male companions.

The five of them made it back to the dorm in record time. As expected, the dorms were desolate, it had only been around an hour since the vast majority of the class had left to do their own things. Toru and Ojiro had gone on their date. Midoriya, Ochako, Momo and Iida had all decided to go to the zoo whilst Tokoyami, Shinso, Todoroki and Kyoka had all muttered something about going to an underground shop somewhere. The rest of the class were all busy as well. So when the group of five walked into the dorms, it was eerily quiet, a fact that did nothing to soothe Mina.

Not long before they had reached the dorm, Mina's heart rate had started picking up. Her breathing had followed shortly after. The numbness she had experienced during their walk back to the school had worn off, leaving her mind a mess of fear, panic and discomfort. Mina knew that she was on the verge of having a panic attack. Her chest had constricted, and no matter how hard she tried, Mina couldn't control her breathing. Her hand came up to clutch at her chest, fruitlessly trying to alleviate some of the pressure that was building up there, but it wasn't working.

Somewhere, in the back of her mind, Mina registered that the panicked voices of her friends were echoing. They were saying things, but none of it was registering in her mind.

"Shitty Hair, stay next to her and try and get her to breathe properly. Dunce Face, get her a glass of water, quickly. Soy Sauce Face, go to her room and get that cuddly toy she's always talking about, the one from her childhood. I'll go and get Mr Aizawa." Mina faintly recognised that Bakugo was dishing out orders in a tone that wobbled ever so slightly. As calm as he may have wished to appear, it was hard to do so when you had just witnessed an otherwise cheerful and strong woman running towards you screaming with a hulking figure lumbering behind her.

Everybody was quick to follow Bakugo's orders. Kaminari rushed into the kitchen, Sero darted towards the stairs (the lift would take too long), Bakugo rushed away toward's the teacher's area of the dorms and Kirishima knelt in front of Mina, being sure not to touch her.

"Hey, Mina," Kirishima hummed, "I need you to try and breathe steadily, ok. Look follow my lead. In for five seconds, out for ten seconds. Look at me Mina, you're safe. See it's just me, Eijiro. You're safe with me, Mina. Keep breathing, that's it, in for five seconds, out for ten. Can you name some things that you can see? It'll help you, I promise."

Kirishima wasn't a pro when it came to dealing with panic attacks, sure, he had aided a few of his classmates, but he always got nervous and scared. Terrified that he would fuck up and hurt his classmate more. Luckily, he seemed to be aiding Mina. Her breathing was evening out and her hands were shaking a bit less. Though the steady stream of black stained tears that cascaded from her eyes showed that she was far from ok.

"I-I can see the TV, I can see you, I can see Momo's tea set, I can see... Sero and Todoroki's manga and I can see Kyoka's headphones." Mina replied in a weak voice.

Kaminari had returned with a glass of water, by this point, and he was stood off to the side with a look of fear painted on his face. Kirishima, trying his hardest to maintain an outward appearance of being calm, gestured for Kaminari to hand him the glass, which he did with shaky hands.

"Mina, here's a glass of water. How about you have a drink? It'll help you, ok?" Kirishima hummed gently.

With incredibly shaky hands, Mina took the glance and raised it to her lips, taking a hesitant sip. Just as Mina was bringing the drink to her lips, Sero came skidding to a stop in front of her, a pink and green alien plushie held out to her.

"Here you go, Mina, Ms Alien Queen. She's your favourite, right?" Sero tried his hardest to maintain a jovial tone, but his voice shook and his smile was wobbly.

Mina took her childhood toy with unsteady hands and held it to her chest, staring straight ahead as she did so. Looks were exchanged, but nobody said a word.

When Bakugo finally returned with Aizawa, it felt like an eternity had passed for everyone, however, in reality, only five minutes had passed. Luckily, that was enough time for Mina to gain some awareness after her panic attack, though everything around her was still sort of fuzzy.

"All of you, leave. Go somewhere else, thank you for taking care of her, but you can't be here anymore," Aizawa ordered.

None of the boys argued, they simply exited the common area silently, worry evident in all of the expressions.

"Mina," Aizawa began, he didn't raise a hand to touch his student on the shoulder as he usually would when comforting his students, from the little information that Bakugo was able to tell him, he gathered that such an action would only cause more difficulty.

"Mina, I know that this might be hard for you, but I need you to tell me what happened today. I need you to explain." Aizawa muttered in as soothing of a voice as he could muster. The man wasn't known for his comforting abilities.

Mina knew that she'd have to recount her experience, when it came to things like this, the man had surely gone to the police by this point, Mina was in trouble if she didn't explain what had happened to an adult who she trusted.

"Sero was at the checkout buying some things, so I wandered away to look at some clothes," Mina began, " and I decided to go back to meet up with the guys, but this man catcalled me. I ignored him like I usually would, but he wouldn't stop, so I walked away. He followed me. He called me stuff like 'Princess' and 'Sexy', I was so uncomfortable. He got a hold of me and started trying to take me away," Mina paused, tears were beginning to bead in her eyes again, but she powered on.

"He put his hand over my mouth and he was holding me really tight. People were just passing by, they weren't doing anything! So... I bit him and kicked him in the side to escape. I made it to the guys but he followed me and started calling me stuff. An animal. A slut. A bitch." Mina muttered, she was trying her best to hold back her tears, but it was getting harder. "He said that he was going to call the police. And...and they're gonna come after me and they're gonna arrest me and I'm not going to be able to be a hero anymore!"

The dam finally broke and Mina began to wail like she never had before. She'd always wanted to be a hero, and losing that because of something that wasn't her fault was the ultimate fuck you from the universe.

"Why do you think you'll lose your place in the hero course, Mina?" Aizawa sounded genuinely baffled. As if he couldn't comprehend how Mina had come to such a conclusion.

"It's happened before! Not to this extent! But when I tried to defend myself, the police said I was in the wrong! They wouldn't listen to me, even after I showed them my provisional licence, I don't think they believed me, thought the licence was fake. I just know that when he goes to the police with a bite on his hand and a bruised side, they'll somehow manage to put me at fault!" Mina cried.

Aizawa hadn't heard anything about this before, and the knowledge that one of his students had been harassed and threatened with expulsion from people who had no authority to do so made his blood boil. But he had to remain calm for the time being. He had to aid his student.

"Mina, I can assure you that you will not be expelled, only me or principle Nezu have the authority to do that, and neither one of us would expel you for something that you didn't want to happen. Now, I am going to call the police, and tomorrow we will be going down to the police station so that you can file a report, if you want to, that is. If you're not comfortable with me coming, Recovery Girl or Midnight could go with you." Aizawa explained calmly.

Mina sniffled slightly and nodded, despite it being ever so slightly awkward, she opened her arms in the universal gesture of wanting a hug. Sure, Aizawa was her teacher, but he was also the parental figure for everyone in Class 2A, they saw him as a father, and he saw them as his twenty-one danger prone children. So Aizawa didn't hesitate to gently hug his student, he knew that Mina wasn't ok, and if she needed a hug to alleviate herself of even a fraction of the pain she was in, then he would allow it. 

That was a bit of a heavier topic than usual. 

I'll describe the chapter here for those who skipped it: So the Bakusquad is going off-campus since they can only do so once a month and Sero says that he needs to but underwear, so they go to a shop. Whilst Sero is buying his underwear, Mina wanders off to look at some tops, she's about to join back up with the guys when a man starts catcalling her. She tries to walk away but he follows her and won't let her leave. She bites and kicks him to escape him before she manages to make it back to her friends. The man follows her again, says he's gonna call the police on her before he storms off. Mina and the boys make it back to the dorms and Mina has a panic attack because of what just happened. Kirishima comforts her as best as he can. Aizawa shows up, gets the full story of what happens to Mina and hugs her.

Sorry, that wasn't the best description, but I tried.

This chapter was a bit heavier but I think that it's imperative that something like this occurred in the story given the entire reason I'm writing it. Talking about catcalling and what it could possibly lead to isn't a pleasant topic, but it is one that needs to be talked about.

Thank you for reading, I hope this chapter was ok. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are.