After all the lessons, when Kimika started gathering her things to go home alone, since her mother wrote that neither she nor her father could pick her up because of a lot of work, she told Kimika that she was already grown up and could try to go home alone. But she also said to stick to the same streets and not to talk to strangers.

As she left the classroom, Izuku approached her.

"Kimika… Um, are you still mad at me?" he asked, looking at her hopefully. He realized that his actions were really bad but didn't think they would lead to such consequences. His heart was filled with anxiety — he just hoped that his friend, as always, would be cheerful and simply forgive him.

But, getting no response, he added, "Don't you want to walk home together?"

Again, he was met with silence. Before leaving and saying goodbye to her, he thought, 'Maybe tomorrow she'll be back to her usual self... She never stays mad for long...'

After Izuku left, Kimika stood in the hallway, reflecting on his words. She felt anger and disappointment intertwining in her heart. 'Why can't he just apologize? Just say he was wrong?' But despite her anger, deep down, Kimika realized that Izuku was her only and best friend. She enjoyed spending time with him and cherished every moment they had together.

If she had received a simple apology and an acknowledgment that he had made a mistake, maybe she could have forgiven him. They would have become close friends again, like before, but he just walked away, leaving her alone.

But suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a slap on her back. Kimika turned around and saw the last person she wanted to see at that moment — Bakugo. Although she was surprised that he was alone without his two friends who were always by his side.

"What do you want?" she said fiercely, unable to hold back. It was because of him that all of this had happened.

Bakugo, hearing that tone in her voice, couldn't hold back his anger but tried to keep himself calm. He hadn't started this conversation just to mock her again, although the urge to do so hadn't left him.

"You… I just got curious — how does it feel to get a knife in the back from the one you protect so much?" he smirked, taunting her. But, not giving her a chance to respond, he continued, "But that's not why I'm here. You know that Izuku wants to become a hero, right?"

Kimika, though she wanted to walk away or even start a fight because of the emotions boiling inside her, felt curious about where he was going with this. She tried to keep herself under control, but inside, everything was bubbling with anger and disappointment. So, with obvious reluctance, she replied:

"Well, yeah, so what?" Her voice sounded determined, but there was a hint of nervousness in it. She tried to appear confident, though deep down her heart was beating faster with excitement. 'Why can't he just leave them alone?'

"Would you like to see Izuku get hurt?" Bakugo asked, his voice turning more serious, with a spark of challenge in his eyes. He moved closer to her, trying to catch her gaze to convey the importance of his words.

Kimika felt her blood start to boil. "I don't want him to suffer! Why are you asking such obvious questions?" her voice rose, revealing her anger and anxiety.

Hearing her words, Bakugo only smiled, but it wasn't a friendly smile. "Do you really think being a hero is just putting on a costume and telling everyone about it?" he asked, leaning in closer, his eyes gleaming as if waiting for her response. "A hero risks their life every day! Do you really think they fight villains and always win like All Might? Sometimes they get hurt, and sometimes… even worse!"

"So what? What are you getting at?" Kimika, though trying to stay confident, began to suspect Bakugo's intentions.

"How do you imagine a quirkless Izuku — not Deku, but Izuku — as a hero? Any villain with the worst kind of quirk would already be stronger than him! In this world, there are quirks that can destroy an entire city! And what can your friend Izuku put up against that?"

At these words, Kimika remained silent; she could see the sense in Bakugo's words.

"See? Even you understand that I'm telling the truth! In our class, he's the weakest. But even they have their quirks, and Izuku has none! Even so, they can't all become heroes; only those like you and me can, with quirks like explosions and time control. So, tell me, what could Izuku possibly do against you or me?" Bakugo paused, giving her a moment to absorb his words.

"That's why I set a goal: to convince him not to become a hero. I started with words, but he just doesn't get it. Even now, after everything I do, like today, he still wants to be a hero! And it's all because of you, because you always protect him! So tell me, what will you say to his mother when he becomes a hero and dies on his first mission? Or were you planning on being his babysitter for life?"

Pausing again, Bakugo concluded, "Now, think about my words. But remember, he himself doesn't want you to protect him."

With these words, Bakugo walked away, leaving Kimika deep in thought. She stood still, feeling the weight of his words lingering in the air. 'Why can't I shake off his words?' she wondered, watching his figure disappear around the corner.

Her heart filled with anxiety. She didn't want Izuku to get hurt or, even worse, killed, but at the same time, she didn't want to destroy his dream. Kimika began contemplating the most challenging thoughts that haunted her: 'Maybe I really don't need to protect him so that Bakugo can make Izuku understand that he can't become a hero.' However, she immediately dismissed this thought; Bakugo's methods, his cruel methods, she couldn't stand to see him using them on Izuku.

'I don't want to be the one who makes him give up on his dreams,' she thought, feeling the weight of these thoughts pressing on her mind. The fear of losing Izuku if he decided to become a hero intertwined with the fear of seeing Bakugo torment him, trying to force him to abandon his aspirations. These thoughts caused her pain, like a heavy stone on her shoulders.

With these heavy reflections, Kimika slowly walked home, her mind filled with conflicting emotions that weighed on her heart. She tried to find an answer to the question that wouldn't leave her alone: 'Is there really a point in my protection if it might harm him?' This inner struggle between wanting to protect her friend from Bakugo and trying to shield him from possible injuries if he decided to become a hero entirely consumed her.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Kimika felt her thoughts swirling like a storm in the ocean, each bringing new doubts and fears.

~~~ Four years later ~~~

Four years had passed since that day, and Kimika had recently turned ten years old. On her birthday, of course, her parents and Izuku's family were present. Over these four years, she had managed to forgive her friend; after all, she was only six years old then and couldn't hold onto anger and resentment for long. Although their relationship was no longer the same as it had been, they continued to visit each other, hang out, and play together. However, Kimika no longer protected Izuku from Bakugo and others, which had put an end to all the teasing directed at her, but not at Izuku. She often wanted to go and tell her parents about it, but each time she remembered that day when Izuku himself had prevented her from protecting him by telling the teacher everything.

As for school, she still hadn't made any new friends among her classmates or children from other groups. Although she had good relationships with some of them, and they could talk or do homework together, it was only at school; outside of that, they were like strangers. Even when she invited some of them to her birthday, they all refused, claiming they had other commitments, even though when she accidentally overheard their conversations, she found out they had no such commitments at all.

Kimika also felt strange emotions regarding her homeroom teacher. At first, she was friendly and kind to everyone, especially to her and Bakugo. However, over time, that special treatment disappeared, and Kimika couldn't understand the reason behind it, as well as why she had seemingly become a favorite. It even began to seem to her that she must have done something wrong, but she couldn't figure out what it was because Bakugo himself did much worse things and still remained the teacher's favorite.

The strangest thing was that, despite Bakugo's behavior, the teacher always justified his actions, calling them "games" or "carelessness." When Bakugo mocked Izuku, she simply walked by as if nothing was happening. Yet, if someone else did something similar, she might impose punishment or give a whole lecture on the inappropriateness of such actions. Kimika was bewildered by this ambiguity: on one hand, her homeroom teacher seemed kind, smiling, and fair, but when it came to Bakugo, all of that suddenly vanished. She could ignore any arguments without hesitation to justify his behavior.

Sometimes, Kimika couldn't understand what was going on in their teacher's mind at all. For example, during a lesson, she could call Bakugo a future hero to look up to. What was most absurd was that everyone in the class didn't see this as a bad thing; on the contrary, they nodded in agreement and listened attentively. Even Izuku, who suffered from Bakugo's teasing, saw nothing unusual in it and also listened as if it were important. Sometimes, Kimika caught herself thinking that maybe Izuku even enjoyed being teased by Bakugo. She didn't know whether it was her who was unusual compared to the others or if, on the contrary, she simply didn't fit into their norm.

~~~

Today, Kimika was spending time alone in her room since Izuku couldn't come over. His mother, Inko Midoriya, had told her that he was out with Bakugo. Although the girl was a bit upset by this — how could he hang out with someone who bullied him? — she had started to get used to such strange behavior.

But she didn't feel sad about being alone; for her, this day was unique because she had planned to come up with training for her quirk to become stronger. Over the past four years, she hadn't been able to significantly improve her skills or develop her strength, despite all her efforts. She dreamed of creating all the exercises for this training with her father, who draw up her physical training plan, which worked very well, and she was always one of the best in physical education. However, as always, he was at work, something Kimika had long since grown accustomed to. So, she wanted her mother to help her, but after her promotion, she started spending more time in the office, and the girl had gotten used to being home alone.

Although Kimika could wait for one of her parents to advise her on exercises to improve her quirk, she couldn't resist the urge to do it herself. 'A hero shouldn't rely solely on help from others!' she thought, gathering her determination to do it on her own.

The girl began to think about what exercises could help her. First, she recalled her previous training sessions with her mother, which involved activating her quirk on a ball, such as slowing it down and maintaining the effect for as long as possible, or applying the effect as quickly as possible. At first, these exercises really produced results: Kimika learned to apply the effect quickly and hold it for a long time. But over time, these training sessions became ineffective, and it felt as if she had hit a wall that prevented her from progressing further.

Then Kimika started generating new ideas that she thought could make good exercises. She decided to try applying effects not to one ball but to several at the same time since criminals were often not alone, but rather in larger groups. Next, she thought about activating acceleration and deceleration on different objects so she could speed herself up while slowing down the criminals. Previously, she hadn't been able to apply opposing effects simultaneously: for example, if she slowed down one ball and then tried to speed up another, the first ball would lose its slowing effect. So, she decided to add this exercise to learn how to apply two effects at once.

Kimika also planned to try applying effects to several moving objects. Previously, she had only trained with stationary balls, but now she wanted to raise the level of difficulty. She knew that when objects started moving, it would require more endurance and concentration, but the girl was ready for the challenges. She had a feeling that this training could help her finally overcome the wall and become much stronger, proving to everyone that she could become the number one hero like All Might, able to protect everyone, easily emerging victorious from battles through hard work, and bringing smiles to everyone.

So, having compiled her training exercises, Kimika began to test whether they would truly be beneficial for her. Starting out, she chose the exercise of activating effects on several balls. Out of ten balls, she managed to apply effects to only seven, and those were stationary. Although she couldn't activate effects on all of them, it felt relatively easy for her, and she considered it just a matter of time before she could apply effects to all the balls, which would also mark progress in her training.

However, when she pushed the balls to make them roll, four of them immediately lost their effects. Kimika thought this likely happened because maintaining effects on moving objects took a lot of energy, and it seemed her quirk automatically deactivated some effects as if to protect her. So, she also planned to overcome this automatic deactivation.

Next, Kimika decided to throw the balls in different directions and try activating effects on already moving objects. After throwing a few balls, she tried to activate slowing on the first one, which she accomplished easily. But when Kimika applied the effect to the second ball, she seemed to forget about the first one, losing her focus on it, and the first ball instantly lost its effect. She realized that she needed to keep all the balls with active effects in her mind constantly to avoid losing concentration on them.

After several attempts, she finally managed to slow down two moving balls simultaneously, but as a result, her head began to ache severely. Despite this, Kimika knew that over time — maybe not today or tomorrow — she would succeed.

The next step was training with acceleration and deceleration. Kimika activated the effect on herself, feeling herself become faster, and threw a ball while trying to slow it down in the process. But every time she attempted to activate the slowing effect, the acceleration effect disappeared, even after several tries. However, Kimika didn't get discouraged because she knew that sooner or later, she would succeed. Her mother always told her, "If you try hard and put in the effort, you will succeed sooner or later!"

Understanding that she still had room to grow, she incorporated these exercises into her daily training, knowing that they worked. Kimika always remembered the importance of breaks so her horns could regain clarity, signaling accumulated energy. But for some reason, whenever she reached her limit, she felt as if someone was watching her. She heard a faint whispering behind her that she couldn't make out, and she began to feel a certain satisfaction that was hard for her to explain.

Still, remembering her promise to her mother not to exceed her limits, Kimika always stopped, despite these mysterious feelings and her incredible desire to find out what would happen if she crossed the limit, and whether she would be able to hear and understand the whispers.