Thursday was the day that Izuku and Mina decided to go on the date they had discussed, both having caught up on as much of their work and revision that they could leading up to this point, which they could use for a break in their constant studies and just enjoy themselves for a while. They had agreed to meet at about six in the evening, which was far later than they normally met up, only really separating from one another at all to change into more comfortable and fitting clothes.
Neither of them were particularly bothered about doing any of the traditionally accepted activities that went along with dates, so neither of them planned to dress up formally or particularly neatly either. Things came as they came, and mostly at Mina's persuasion, they would normally just walk around the city until they found something that appealed to them.
This time around, Izuku had said that he would call round for Mina at her house, his logic for doing so being twofold. Reason one, it would give Mina an additional hour to get herself ready which, if she was sensible, she could use to study some more before they went out. She needed every moment she could get. Were it not for the fact he also wanted to take a break and wanted to spend time with her, he would have refused the date until he was convinced she was completely studied up on everything,
The second reason he gave was that he was abnormally sure if they left from his location, they'd run into Bakugou, which right now, neither of them had the energy or willpower to deal with. Stress from exams was enough, the last thing either of them wanted to deal with was his literally explosive temper. Just the risk was enough to make Mina agree.
These days, she was convinced that she was a step away from scarring the blond Explosion Quirk user.
Mina hooked one of the bands that usually went around a person's wrists around her right horn, the purple beads quickly retracting on the elastic and tightly fastening themselves around the extremity. She'd done this a few times before back in middle school when she and her friends went out, sometimes with ribbons and once with a flag that they had equipped to her for sports day. It wasn't unusual for her to do this with her mutations. Her horns weren't unusual, at least not to her. In the rare moments in which she did worry about them, she didn't consider them much more than visible bone. And at all other times, they were a part of her anatomy, and she felt no different between accessorising her wrists or neck like she did her horns.
She didn't bother with makeup either. There was literally no point, her skin complexion made most traditional uses of the stuff completely ineffective. Pink, as it turned out, didn't help too much when a lot of makeup was either red or pink, didn't go with pink, or just straight up didn't show up against her skin. That last one was partly due to her Quirk, her body secreted Acid at will, but the effects could sometimes linger which messed with chemicals. Sort of like wet paint in a sense. She had ordered some specially designed stuff in the past, balanced and altered especially to suit her, but that was far too expensive for her to bother doing it again. Clothes and the likes, necessities, that was one thing. One could get alterations done cheaply for mutant types, but for things that weren't essential to living, such as cosmetics, they cost dramatically more.
She just went with what she naturally had, and what she had was a large, expressive wardrobe filled with all sorts of unique and colourful clothing. She selected out a bunch of clothes before shifting through them. It was practically summer at this point, so the weather was warm, even in the later evenings, but once the sun finally set, it took the temperature with it, and it would become far colder. It wasn't anything Mina couldn't handle though, so as she enjoyed doing so, she planned to dress light.
Scanning through her clothes, Mina flipped her way past brightly and dimly coloured shirts and pullover jumpers. She thanked God that Izuku was the same as her in that he disliked formal attire for something like a date, because the number of neat dresses she owned was pretty disproportional to the ones that were more expressive and colourful. Now brightly coloured, expressive and beautiful ones, those she had a number of. Nothing too expensive or anything like that, just eye catching ones and ones she thought looked beautiful.
God help her if Yuuei ever had a formal ball or something like that. It wasn't that important to her, but Mina did enjoy stylish clothes that allowed for some sort of expression.
She skimmed past those though, not having a particular interest in wearing a dress to go out when she and Izuku themselves had no idea where they were going. For something more solid, like if they knew for a fa that all they would do that day would be see a movie, for example, Mina might have decided to do so, to indulge a bit, but she was more than aware of how hectic things could get. Especially around Izuku. She could swear that he had some sort of magnet attached to him that especially targeted Villains and drama wherever he went. He was a lightning rod for the stuff.
Eventually, she made the decision to wear light navy blue combination. It consisted of a pair of matching shorts and over-jacket that was cut off just above her waistline. Underneath the jacket however, she sported a cut-off top that covered her chest, and that was about it, par the incredibly short sleeves that barely even went down her shoulders. Said top was covered in a random series of camouflage patterns, just like her Hero Costume, only in duller brown and blacks. It'd keep her cool while the temperature was still high, and with any luck, it wouldn't wind up being too cold. The clothes were loose fitting, but something Mina was prepared to deal with. She wore something similar when she went out dancing back in middle school.
With her clothing selected and equipped, Mina laid down in her bed, having had just about as much studying that she could take for one night. Probably the entire week, had Yaoyarozu not offered to help her and a small group of other struggling students study. She knew for a fact that her help would be immeasurable, and she wasn't going to pass up the chance to get this information soaked into her brain.
That would be on Saturday though. After that, they would have a day or two of written examinations and that would be followed by a full day filled with practical assessments, and the main event on which they would be graded on. Today though, she was looking forward to her date with Izuku.
There was a lot to think about though for Mina regarding her boyfriend, ranging from all manner of things. She didn't have too many doubts about his ability to pass the examinations, he was smart enough that he'd probably be able to get by on that alone, if it were an option to do so. His physical abilities were improving with his slowly growing control of his Quirk though, so he would probably be okay there.
It still did boggle Mina's mind that Izuku was Quirkless originally. The prospect of Quirks having the capacity to be handed down was still an idea she had trouble getting her head around, not to mention that All Might was... The way he was. So much of everything added up with that simple claim that a Quirk could be passed down from person to person that it made Mina want to laugh. She almost felt stupid for not thinking of it herself. Only the knowledge that the rest of her class hadn't figured it out either reminded her that to the rest of the world, it was truly a bizarre set of circumstances, unheard of by anyone else.
And that knowledge really was what made Izuku seem that more special. He'd managed to impress All Might to that extent, to pass down his Quirk onto him.
He certainly did seem to be more heroic than Mina felt right about now. She knew that he'd saved Bakugou from a sludge Villain while said classmate was still bullying him for being Quirkless, an action Mina still couldn't see herself taking, or an action she saw anyone she knew taking. How Izuku managed to out aside the anger he must have had was beyond her, but thinking about it... That had to be good for a Hero, didn't it? A Hero had to be able to put their anger to the side and save everyone they could, regardless of who they were.
The rhetoric that had been used in the beginning of the age of Heroes was that a Hero would never be able to fully set aside biases in their work. Political beliefs, religious ideology, their relationships with the people in question, all these and many, many more would affect a Hero when they had to make a split second decision. So after that point, Heroes had to make sure that they saved anyone and everyone that they could.
Izuku already could do that, it seemed.
But Mina on the other hand... She was still angry at Bakugou. Given everything that she had heard about him, and how she saw him acting these days, everything combined to make this giant ball of disgust she felt towards the Explosion Quirk user. Before Izuku, she might have even considered him a friend, as she respected his skills a lot. Now, she barely wanted anything to do with the guy. Izuku having earned his Quirk had made Mina realise something.
Bakugou was born lucky. Izuku had to fight like hell to even be able to stand up. Bakugou hadn't had to work hard to have even a slim prayer of achieving what he wanted to achieve. Izuku had literally thrown himself into danger more times than reasonable a Quirkless boy.
It spoke volumes as to their characters. And as of late, now that she knew the truth about everything, Bakugou just pissed her off now. At the same time, it made her realise just how lucky she was, and how privileged she and every other person who was born with a Quirk was. It was hard to remember that not everyone was born with a power like hers.
Not everyone was born equal. No matter how much that knowledge upset her, there wasn't anything anyone could do. Quirks were random. She had one of the strongest Quirks in her family by pure luck. The day would come where being Quirkless simply didn't exist... But that didn't remove the prospects of having a worthless power.
Some people would just have to fight like hell. Some people would have to work like Izuku did. That was all there was to it.
Mina sighed and closed her eyes. Her thinking had drifted towards this particular topic due to the upcoming practical exams. Would Izuku be alright? She kept reminding herself that his improvement showed that of course he'd be okay... But she still worried. It was impossible not to.
She sighed again immediately after the first one. She was worrying way too much. She was looking forward to this date to take her mind off of things.
As soon as she thought this, she could hear the door downstairs being opened, followed by Micha calling her name about ten seconds later. "Hey, Pinky, tall and cute adorable fluff-ball's here for ya!"
"Screw you too, Micha!" Mina yelled back down to her brother with a smile, before she practically jumped off her bed and back upright. Scooping up the bag that she always took with her one regular outings that was at the foot of her bed, Mina did a quick scan to make sure she had everything.
Money in her pockets, passes and ID in her bag in case she needed them, and she was good to head out. She debated grabbing a proper jacket from her wardrobe, but she decided that she didn't want the extra baggage.
With everything ready, Mina quickly made her way out her room and around the banister guard that ran around her stairway, and went down a few steps. The balcony of the second floor blocked her view of the doorway on the first floor for a few moments. Until she was about halfway down the stairs, she didn't even see Izuku. When she finally did see him, he was being harassed by Micha, throwing a flurry of questions designed to embarrass and fluster his sister's boyfriend in any way that she could.
"So I'm guessing that the plan is to get Mina somewhere private, yeah?" He asked, his arms folded and a smirk no doubt wide on his face. There wasn't any doubt in Mina's mind that Micha was having the time of his life messing with Izuku. No doubt that her brother was going to jump from persona to persona, from the playful, friendly, banterous friend, to the threatening, intimidating protective older brother. He was having fun seeing the varying reactions that he was bound to get. Of course, he meant absolutely no ill intent whatsoever. He actually rather liked Izuku, and he didn't have a thing against him.
Not that he was going to tell Izuku that, of course.
First time she had seen him that evening, he was already in a scarlet red fluster, his entire face, from the cut of his neck and right to his ears. They were burning right up, standing out so clearly against the black hoodie he had apparently decided to wear. Mina could swear that the heat was going to cause the jacket to burst into flames if Micha didn't let up. "Th - Tha - That's n - not what's - I - I - We don't do.. That..." He quickly fell silent and tried to look away. He hadn't seen Mina yet.
"I hope not, you're both barely past sixteen. And my sister isn't exactly available for that sort of thing."
"I'll decide if I am, thanks, Micha." Announced Mina, making her way down the last couple of steps with a huge grin on her face. "You're really bad at the whole 'Intimidating older brother' thing. You're about as scary as a wasp without any wings."
When she had spoken, Izuku finally threw himself out of his own embarrassment and blushing to see his girlfriend in slightly more revealing clothing than he'd remembered seeing her wear in the past. Loose fitting, yes, but nothing outright revealing. With the clothes she was wearing, her stomach was bare, right down to her waist, where she wore a matching colour set of shorts which were reminiscent of their first hang out together, in that they were ridiculously short, with the sole intention of gauging a reaction from an awkward Midoriya. Though that probably wasn't the case, Izuku sure felt like it was, and he was even more embarrassed at how easily it had worked. He instantly became even more flustered than he had been before, this time out of affection than intimidation. He suddenly lost all of his speaking abilities, and found his eyes glued.
Turning to see his younger sister with the grin on her face, Micha quickly responded with sarcasm. "You sure? He's certainly shut himself up now."
Yeah, I'm sure you had plenty to do with that." Responded the younger Ashido sibling with equal amounts of sarcasm at her brother's attempts at a joke. She bounced her way down the last few steps before she reached their round, greeting Izuku with a tight hug that brought him close. "Hey, Izuku."
"H-Hey, M-Mina."
"Oh great, you brought his stuttering back." Mina mock scolded Micha once she let go of Izuku. "Great work, bro."
"Well, making your life an absolute pain is my job, Mina." Grinned her brother before he stood upright and returned to his normal friendly self. "Alright, Mom said she wants you back before eleven. If you wanna get another hour of studying in, be back for ten. Trust me, leave it too long, and you'll get screwed over. Don't screw up like I did. Otherwise, go nuts you two. Gimme a call if you need a lift back."
"Can you even drive, Micha? You're only seventeen." Mina called out.
"Yeah, but I'm a natural. Work gives me a driver's permit, and I've got a provisional."
"Okay then, lemme rephrase that. Can you even legallydrive?"
"When was the last time you saw a cop around here?"
"You know we're both training to be Heroes, right?"
"If Yuuei staff'll let freakin' Vigilantes off once in a while, I'm sure you can overlook your big brother picking up you and your girlfriend, can't she, Midoriya?"
"H-Huh? M-Me?"
"Just don't get anyone killed, alright Micha? And try not to melt the steering wheel. Someone's gonna need that after you're done with it." Mina sighed before she suddenly took hold of Izuku's hand and turned heel, dragging Izuku down the pathway that he had just walked up, before her brother could get another wisecrack out.
Because she knew he had at least one wisecrack ready to go. He wouldn't be her brother if he didn't.
The two of them made their way in a small silence for a few seconds, until they managed to get out of the Ashido driveway, before they stopped to actually look at one another. Without any real input or words from either of them, they just stared for a brief moment, and then smiled, and then burst out laughing at the absurdity that had just gone down.
"S-Sorry about my brother!" The pink girl managed to apologise between fits of giggles and ear-splitting grins. She managed to suppress her laughter for long enough to inform Izuku that, "He's just messing with you. I think he actually likes you. Normally he just throws things at the guys I'm friends with."
"He - He does?"
"Nah, I was just kidding." Mina hummed, before she closed the gap between the two of them and rested her head on Izuku's shoulder as they walked. Letting out a small laugh, she added on, "Well, half kidding. He once threw a notebook and a pencil case at my poor buddy Kazuto. Joke was on him though. It was his own pencil case he'd thrown. Kazuto just ran off with it. Still has it, I think."
Though her sudden movement closer towards him had made him stiffen up for a brief moment, Izuku quickly relaxed into the close comfort that Mina brought with her. A few weeks ago, he'd still be a stuttering, gibberish mess of a person whenever physical contact of any kind was made with his girlfriend, but now, he was accustomed to it. Slightly. He was getting better at being close to her, and wasn't reduced to a wobbling excuse of meat. Now, her being so close gave him a sense of relaxation and calmness, as well as joy and amusement. She could talk about her friend, and despite having never met the guy she was talking about, Izuku couldn't help but laugh at the antics she and him had gotten themselves into. Mina's stories were often really fun to just listen to. She conveyed all the energy that she must have felt at the time into her stories without even really seeming to try.
He laughed along with Mina as her recalled memory, his hand subconsciously making its way to her shoulder to hold her close. He didn't notice when his hand made contact with her, but she did. "Is he one of your friends from middle school?"
"Oh, nah, he was a friend before I moved. Been a while since I saw him to be honest." Mina snuggled closer into the crook of Izuku's neck, which caused her hair to tickle against his skin lightly. "So yeah, normally Micha loses his shit with the people who annoy him. Literally loses his shit, cause apparently everyone I know is a kleptomaniac."
"Uh... I'm not a kleptomaniac?" Izuku asked, not entirely certain if he was being accused of stealing something or not.
"Stole my heart, didn't you?"
And suddenly, Izuku was thrown into the hottest blush of his life, a record that seemed to keep getting topped whenever Mina was around. The record for breaking records could probably be awarded to Mina, he was sure. His stammer came back like a hit to the back of the head with a hammer, and he became all too aware of how close the two of them were already.
On the other hand, Mina was laughing like a lunatic. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for a chance to use that line!"
"You - You seem to like making me embarrassed way too much..."
"What can I say? Your pain is adorable."
The main city was as busy as one would normally expect from one of the busiest metropolitan districts in the entire world. Packed, totally and completely. People of all shapes, Quirks and sized all packed into a huge city. It wasn't really much of a surprise that the place gave rise to hundreds of thousands of Villains every year. So much raw aggression packed into a comparatively small space, fights were destined to break out, especially with Quirks around.
Although it seemed like the Gods favoured Mina and Izuku that particular day, since there was little in the way of criminal activity that meant that the Heroes had to close down a large number of the streets. Apparently the Villains decided to be on their best behaviour for the young couples date, something that they were both thankful for. The sheer number of times they got thrown into horrible situations was borderline ridiculous. It was nice to be able to not have to worry about some maniac with a sharpening type Quirk trying to cut their hearts out.
"So, what d'ya wanna do?" The Acid Quirk user asked, skipping ahead of Izuku for a few steps before turning around to face him, and walking backwards, somehow able to predict when she was about to hot into someone, and scooted to the sides whenever she was.
"Um... I don't know. I don't know this particular part of the city that well... You probably know it better than I do." Despite being a local, the inheritor to One For All wasn't familiar with the layout closest to where Mina lived. He was essentially a total stranger to the place. He'd need a map before he would be able to properly navigate the area.
"I dunno what I feel like doing. Your call."
"I- This was your idea, and you know the area better. It should be your call on what we do. I-I don't mind anything."
"Well, we aren't gonna get anywhere anytime soon, are we?" Mina smirked. She reached into her pocket, and produced a small coin, which she placed on top of her tucked in thumb. Looking both left and right, and then straight forward, she then turned to her date. "Here's an idea. Heads, we go left. Tails, we go right. If I drop the coin, we go straight ahead. We do that three times, and make a date out of whatever the heck happens to be where we end up. How's that sound?"
There was a part of Izuku that actually really liked the idea. Not only was it totally fair, it added an unknown element to the area that they were at. There wasn't any way for it to be fixed at all, unless what Mina was going to use to humiliate him today was three blocks ahead. He trusted her though to not do something like that.
So he agreed with a smile on his face. "Sure."
A second later, a coin was falling back towards gravity, which Mina promptly caught, to reveal that the coin had landed up heads, meaning they took the left at the crossroads, to what appeared to be almost a perfectly identical crossroads. Two more coin flips had them headed left one more, and then straight ahead.
And Izuku regretted his choices not five minutes ago the very second he saw what was on this street. Worse, it was the only possible place that they could viably make a date of on this entire block, the rest being regular bars and establishments people their age weren't allowed into. The one place they were allowed into was at the corner of the street, almost like some sort of throwaway area for teenagers to go instead of getting drunk.
A Karaoke bar.
"Oh, awesome!" As if to intentionally parallel Izuku's clear horror of this sort of establishment, Mina's eyes were wide open and her smile had become almost childish. If they were to obey the rules of the game they had done, unless one of them had secretly been eighteen the entire time, it wasn't like Mina was just deciding on the location for them. Even if they went into one of the other many bars and stores on this particular street, they wouldn't be able to do much of anything while there. "Always wanted to see if you could sing, Izuku."
"I-I can't."
"Wow, sucks to be you right about now, huh?" His girlfriend teased him lightly, before noticing that in reality, he really wasn't in the best of states right now. He was clearly already dreading the experience, his awkward nature holding true.
In a small enclosed room, with a few of his closest friends, on a sugar rush and late at night, he might - Might - be convinced to join in as one of the singers in one of those band video games. He'd done so once in his life, back in kindergarten before anyone had developed their Quirks. This couldn't be more out of his comfort zone though, no matter how hard someone tried to make him more uncomfortable. The only thing that he'd hate to deal with more in this scenario would be a large group of Villains, but at least fighting a large group of Villains would be constructive to him achieving his goal of becoming a Hero. This places only functionality was to get him to make a total fool of himself.
"Hey, we don't have to if you don't wanna." Mina said suddenly, breaking Izuku out of his nervous thought process. "I know you're normally shy around people you don't know. We could go somewhere else if you're not comfortable doing something here." Her soft smile assured him that she truly didn't mind, but at the same time, he was certain that she had to be at least a little disappointed at the prospect of abandoning the Karaoke Bar. Something told Izuku that she had done this sort of activity before. She was the sort or person would enjoy this kind of thing.
She probably came to a place like this on the weekends for fun, to make an idiot of herself and laugh herself stupid.
"...Lets - Let's go in." He knew he was going to regret this in about half an hour, but with Mina so clearly eager to do this sort of activity, he couldn't bring himself to suggest going anywhere else. Not only had fate decided that he needed to go here, his own soft heart wasn't going to let him upset Mina like that. All he could do was pray to God that he could get away from this madness without actually having to sing. Or make some sort of idiot out of himself.
However unlikely that it was that he'd get away with both.
"You sure?"
"Y-Yeah."
With a small smile of appreciated on her face, Mina slid her hand into Izuku's and squeezed tightly onto it, trying to give him some physical comfort that she felt that he might need. "We'll get a booth to ourselves, y'know. It's not like you're gonna have to do anything that you're uncomfortable with, and you don't have to do anything in front of anyone you don't know."
That made the idea a little easier. A little.
Both of the young students made their way inside, Mina still with her hand firmly wrapped around Izuku's, which he now returned, fighting a serious urge to tightly grip onto her hand like a clamp.
That had to be one of the single most embarrassing experiences of Izuku's life, to the point where he was actively refusing to remember any of the hell he'd just been through. He couldn't sing worth even the smallest damn, and when he attempted to, he sounded like a broken cassette player that had been thrown into a tumble-dryer with a collection of jagged rocks.
It wasn't even worth remembering, and he'd commit to never remembering any of it for as long as he lived.
"Pffffft!"
Mina on the other hand, was having the time of her life, etching his broken tone, incorrect lyrics, fluster, inability to form even the most basic of sentences, and him having bitten his tongue halfway through the one verse he was actually doing half decently. He couldn't have made himself more of a train wreck if he'd actually been in an actual train wreck
"Please stop laughing." He requested, knowing full well how in vain his efforts were. His bright red face refused to cool down, not allowing his blush to just fade into nothing.
"Na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-naaa, na na na na staarliiiiight~"
"Mina, P-Please stop."
After another fit of laughter, Mina latched herself onto Izuku's arm again with a huge grin on her face as she tried her hardest not to burst into giggles at her own impression of Izuku's, for lack of a better word, attempt, at singing. His attempts had done nothing but cause her painful, hard to hold in laughter for the better part of an hour. It had been absolutely amazing. Though she had been as respectful as humanly possible while he was doing his songs, when she got outside, she couldn't help but explode into a massive fit of roaring laughter.
"You're freakin' adorable, you know that Izuku?" The pink girl laughed, increasing how tightly she held onto his arm.
If there was one good thing that had come out of the last hour or so, it was that Izuku had got to hear Mina laugh and sing. She actually had a hidden talent for vocals, which made her performance not only bearable, but actually rather pleasant to listen to. She had been having an absolute blast of a time, it was clear.
It made Izuku smile, even despite his own embarrassment. Him getting flustered and embarrassed seemed to be par for the course in his relationship with Mina. Still, his girlfriend seemed to enjoy the date, even though it was a short time to themselves. He'd had a good time when he thought about it like that.
Not that the date was over quite yet. They still had an hour or so to kill, though that would be their travel time, most certainly, unless Mina wanted to catch the subway trains back home, which she had already stated, she didn't want to go anywhere near those damn things at this time at night. The place stuck at night, and frankly, it freaked her out. She also didn't want to deal with Micha making jokes at their expense in a car that she wasn't sure he fully knew how to drive yet. Even if he could – He was going to be a pain in the neck, no question.
Instead, the couple acquired a pair of drinks to quench their thirst after such a long time singing, and began the walk back home to Mina's home, Mina still giggling lightly, and Izuku using his cold can to cool down his hot face.
"Hey, Izuku, you worried about the exams next week?" Mina asked casually, trying to fill in a lull in the conversation as Izuku took a sip of his drink. "If its robots, I should be pretty much fine. With Yaoyarozu tutoring me and everyone on Saturday and Sunday, I think I'll be okay. You though..."
Her implications were pretty clear with what she was asking. Though she was trying not to show it, she was worried about Izuku. His skill and intellect made him a very strong candidate for passing the written test. In fact, there simply wasn't any doubt. Him passing the written test was basically guaranteed. But the physical was what was causing Mina concern.
Now that his Quirk was developing to give him some use of his power, he had a far better chance than he had a few months ago. One For All was beginning to get used to its new host, and vice versa, but that didn't mean he had total control over it. According to him, All Might said his body could use just five percent of the Quirk's total power. If that was only five percent, full power would be a monstrous force. Not a wonder that it kept breaking his bones every step of the way. But... If he was fighting robots...
Would five percent be enough? Would five percent of his Quirks full power be enough to take out machines made of steel and metal?
Honestly, Izuku spoke with a small sigh. "I'm... A little nervous about them, but I think I'll be okay. I'm a bit worried about the practical exam, since we only know a little about it. And the written exam, we don't know anything about what's on it, so I've been studying all week for it."
"How's your Quirk?"
Since Mina had learned about the power that Izuku had inherited, she had kept reasonably quiet about it. She hadn't told a single person about it, keeping her word to Izuku, but at the same time, she hadn't brought it up too frequently with Izuku himself either. This marked the first time she'd directly asked him about it, referring to it like she would a broken arm or leg. The number of times that Izuku had broken a limb due to his Quirk, it wasn't that surprising.
In reality, she knew it was more like a muscle for Izuku. She didn't think about using her Acid, but he had to think about using his Quirik, or at least, he had had to when he was figuring out how to use it. She wanted to know if he was making progress towards getting more control of his Quirk. Five percent was, in all honesty, a comparatively small amount of Quirk control, which still left him rather susceptible to backlash.
"Oh!" Izuku made an involuntary noise when it clicked exactly what Mina was asking. For some reason, he hadn't expected it, even though he probably should have by now. "Uh… I've been practicing Full Cowl to get used to it… And I haven't broken a bone in a while… So that's nice."
"Heh, I'm scared of the day you fully control that Quirk. You'll be unstoppable! Izuku 'Deku' Midoriya, Number One Hero, throws a punch so hard he knocked down the freakin' moon!" Laughing at the image that she herself had put into her head, and rested her head on Izuku's shoulder.
By this point, the two of them were out of the main city district, and the outskirts were far calmer in comparison to the district they had been in for their date, so they could afford to walk a bit slower than they normally would do. Not that being surrounded by people would have done anything to stop Mina. She would have done this anyway of her own accord.
While it did bring Izuku happiness that Mina accepted that his Quirk wasn't his own… He was also a little bit sceptical about it as well. She seemed to have taken that news a bit too well. He'd needed a few weeks in his training before he'd fully realized that he wasn't just in some sort of elaborate dream, and that he was actually being trained by All Might, and was actually getting a Quirk.
"You… Really accepted the truth about my Quirk quickly." He commented softly.
"Well, if anyone else told me that they had their Quirk bestowed to them, I'd call them a liar. But with you, it makes way, way too much sense." Mina admitted totally openly, not hesitating to answer what could have been interpreted as an off-putting question with total ease. "Why, what's wrong? I've known about your Quirk for a while now. Why bring it up now?"
"N-Nothing, I-I just… I appreciate it. Really." Part of him still felt guilt for hiding his Quirks true nature. He still felt it when it was inquired by anyone, but he'd grown used to doing so by now, much to his dismay.
He hated lying to people about it. But Mina hadn't even brought it up since, accepting his reasons and forgiving him instantly.
As if she was reading his mind, her grip on his arm tightened, and she snuggled her head into his shoulder more. "I don't have any reason to doubt you, Izuku. I'm on your side, y'know. Even if your Quirks secret gets revealed to everyone else and they get mad with you for some reason… I'm still gonna stand by you."
"…Thanks, Mina."
"Love you."
They walked on in silence, comfortably, until they reached Mina's house, and said goodbye to one another.
Although both of them realized something when they were finally lone after their date.
They'd had fun, and they'd enjoyed one another's company. They still had to study, but that was to be expected with their school. They had enjoyed their date.
But looking back… There was something that did strike Mina in particular as odd, and something Izuku began to fret about.
Izuku had never once told Mina that he loved her.