~Kaiya's POV~

"She'll never walk again." My mind went blank after that as all my dreams of being a hero were crushed by those words.

I'd spent nearly six months in the hospital. Thanks to some of my classmates, I was able to keep mostly up to date on schoolwork and assignments. A few of them would visit me daily and bring me notes and homework. I was able to avoid getting held back a year. Kacchan hadn't visited me once. I knew he'd been with me when I fell, but the whole incident was kind of a blur.

He'd told me earlier that they didn't want me tagging along with them anymore, because I was annoying. I'd thought we were all friends and getting along well. They had always played with me on the playground and we'd all bonded over our favorite hero, All Might. We all wanted to be heroes, Kacchan was determined to be the greatest, Midoriya wanted to be like All Might, and I just wanted to help those in need. We all had somewhat different motivations, but the same goal and we'd bonded over it...or so I had thought. Maybe they'd always thought I was annoying and I just happened to be in all their favorite play spots and they just tolerated me.

I remembered stubbornly following them after they'd told me to go away. Why did I do that? I faintly remembered following Kacchan atop a fallen tree to cross the ravine, but after that I just remember the terror of falling and a split second of agony as my body shattered upon impact, then I woke up in the hospital.

"Kaiya?" My mother was trying to talk to me, but I couldn't focus on anything, I was still processing the 'she'll never walk again' bit. Did hero schools have handicap access? I didn't know of any heroes in wheelchairs, would I still be able to be a hero?

Hot tears streamed down my cheeks.

"Sweetie?" Dad chimed in trying to snap me out of it.

I felt strange sensations in my legs, but I knew they weren't real as I felt them in strange places. Currently it felt like I was holding my legs up straight out in front of me, but they were flopped uselessly down in my wheelchair, not extended, just limply dangling down. The doctor said I'd have these phantom sensations from time to time, a result of extensive nerve damage in my spine from the fall.

"Kaiya?" Mother squeezed my hand tightly, drawing me back.

"Can I still be a hero?" I asked softly, fearing the answer.

My parents looked like they were going to cry. The doctor gave his head a solemn shake, "no, Kaiya, I'm afraid that's impossible."

I shook my head, pulling myself from the painful memory, I'd zoned out. The rest of my classmates were in PE, I was stuck in our homeroom, alone. The school didn't have a lot of resources to handle my disability so I didn't get to participate in PE, instead I was given a study hall to catch up on schoolwork.

I glanced out the row of windows to the practice field below where the rest of my class was having PE. My gaze lingered on a boy with unruly dusty blonde hair and intense piercing crimson eyes. When we were kids, I thought we were friends...until the day of the accident. Kacchan, Midoriya and the others always played with me on the playground and we would sit together during lunch, but things changed. My heart hurt as the memory of the words he'd yelled at me echoed across my mind. Perhaps we'd never been friends. Was it possible I'd just glued myself to them because they were the first kids to talk with me about heroes and not make fun of me for wanting to be a hero because I was a girl? Maybe I had been annoying, maybe I'd just been a burden that followed them around, I hadn't really thought about it much.

What really confused me, was after years of avoiding me like the plague, Kacchan had helped me out earlier. He'd helped get my wheelchair unstuck from a massive crack in the pavement, I'd been about to resort to using my quirk even though we weren't allowed to use them at school. I'd probably have gotten in trouble. Then he helped me again when the elevators were out of commission. He'd carried me and my chair up the stairs. I had no idea he was so strong or that he cared enough to help me out.

I didn't have a lot of friends anymore. Some of my childhood friends tried to stick it out but after our plans always getting changed and the struggle of finding places with handicap accessibility became too much for them, they all dwindled away. I was too inconvenient a friend to have so most of them left. At school everyone coddled me and treated me like I couldn't do anything for myself. They were all friendly but it seemed very fake. Instead of having friends to spend time with on the weekends, I sat at home, by myself. My parents traveled a lot, usually to beaches. They offered to take me with them but after realizing that wheelchairs and sandy beaches don't get along well, I stopped accepting their offers and told them to have fun without me...and they did.

The sound of footsteps approaching the classroom door shook me from my morose thoughts. I looked up to see a boy with a head of unruly deep green hair and bright green eyes with a spattering of freckles across his face. Blood was streaming from his nose.

"Ah! Midoriya, what happened?!" I asked in awe as I reached for the first aid kit dangling from the side of my chair. I pulled it onto my lap and opened it up.

"Sorry to bother you Kaiya." Midoriya tried to stop the blood flow by pinching his nose in the wrong spot.

"Don't do that, you'll make it worse." I wheeled my chair over to him and extended some tissues to him to mop up his face before handing him some gauze to use to catch the blood as it fell. I pulled out a travel safe cold compress and shook it to activate the chemicals inside. The plastic bag in my hand rapidly began to cool.

"Thanks, Kaiya." Midoriya smiled as I offered him up more supplies to help.

"What happened?" I asked again.

"...Kacchan..." Midoriya bowed his head.

After the incident, a lot of things changed, Midoriya and Kacchan were also no longer friends. Part of me wondered if it was because Kacchan found me annoying and Midoriya was the one who would always stand up for me and suggest they let me tag along with them. I felt responsible for ending their friendship.

After ending their friendship, it seemed Kacchan had made it his mission to make Midoriya miserable. He was constantly putting him down and telling him he had no chance of being a hero. Midoriya was quirkless which made his chances of making it as a hero pretty slim, but he still had the heart of a hero and he admired heroes so adamantly he'd learned a lot just by watching them. I wasn't sure if he'd be one of the top ten without a quirk, but I was sure he could still make it as a successful hero with just heart alone.

"My mom said you and your family were going to be moving into our building this weekend." He offered up as the conversation began to die.

I nodded, "yeah, it's a little closer to Dad's office, he wanted a shorter commute." Though it was just going to be me and the movers this weekend as Mom and Dad were off at some resort. My mom worked for a travel agency and got a ton of free vacations every year that she and my dad took full advantage of.

"That's great. Did you need any help moving or getting settled?" He offered politely.

"Mom hired movers, so I think I'll be okay." I smiled.

Midoriya frowned, "aren't your parents going to be there to help?"

"They're on vacation."

"I'll be there!" Midoriya blurted awkwardly.

"Uh...it's really not necessary..." I attempted to protest but he looked so determined, I gave up with a sigh. "Okay, thank you for your help."