It was mid September when she appeared in their lives. And up until then, none of them had even realized that there was anything...lacking in their lives. They had certainly never expected someone to appear in front of them out of thin air. Nor everything that would follow after.

But there wasn't a day that went by when they all weren't thankful for her presence for some reason or another.

Shota was co-teaching a class with Toshinori that day. Finals were coming up and they were both trying to cram as much lessons into their classes as humanly- or inhumanly as possible- if one dared to look closely at Toshi's lesson plans. The man was totally obsessed with color coding everything that he wrote down.

So much so that his lesson books were filled with rainbow colored and slightly deranged babblings that dangerously mimicked Midoriya's own note books and such.

If not for the fact that the two were certainly not blood related, someone might have thought that Midoriya was the pro-hero's long lost love child or something. They seriously were far too alike sometimes in Shota's opinion.

"Watch yourself Momo!" He called out when he saw his student staggering a little bit before she let out a yelp and tumbled to the ground where she'd been training for the past hour. He visibly cringed a little bit, already betting that she'd probably twisted an ankle or something as Toshinori zipped past him as fast as he could to check on her.

Shota scowled at the blondes back for a moment before calling out to him in a slightly irked tone, "It isn't our job to coddle them All Might." When he caught the man trying to do just that.

Toshinori flushed with embarrassment and quietly apologized and then slowly slunk away from the girl so that she could resume her training.

That small incident aside, everyone was taking to their individual training very well. And would be, hopefully, passing their finals for the year. At least if they didn't want him to personally murder them all in their sleep anyways.

It had been nearly six months since the attack on the school. Four since the attack on the students while they'd been at camp and since Bakugo's kidnapping and rescue and the aftermath that had immediately followed.

And since then their security protocols had been seriously upgraded to prevent Villains from appearing within their school ever again.

So naturally he was beyond startled when he found himself blinking and then suddenly staring down the business end of a very long, and vicious looking wide black blade that looked heavy enough to crush him like a little bug if it were dropped at any second now.

As it was he very nearly got taken out by it before he could throw himself out of the way.

He was in a couching position on the ground to the left of the massive blade, his eyes glowing as he employed his quirk and began to unwind his capture tool so that he could stop whoever- no whatever- it was that was holding the damned thing.

For the moment no one else had seemed to notice the sudden...appearance of the thing. Which meant that he was on his own for now. But he knew that as soon as someone else in the training area saw he/she/it then there was going to be a whole lot of people swarming to pick the thing apart.

And since it hadn't moved just yet, that gave him a little bit of time to look he/she/it over for some sort of weakness.

It didn't even seem human to him at first. At least, he'd never seen anything human that looked quite like that. The bone white mask covering it's facial features was chilling. Honestly it creeped him out. And then there was the clawed fingertips. The torn and bloody clothing that barely hid a very feminine-esque torso.

It had bones sticking out of it's skin here and there. Deep disturbing looking bruises and other injuries that he couldn't quite place.

However he couldn't seem to hold back the foul oath that was resting on his tongue as he finished his quick visual sweep of the thing, and spotted a small person- a child maybe? Could whoever it had be one of his students?- wrapped in one of it's arms.

Growling in anger- after all, how dare this thing grab someone/one of his problem students! He started to move towards it when he heard Toshinori's annoying All Might laugh second before he appeared, his muscle form caving in some of the ground underneath him. And nearly knocking Shota off of his feet as the man placed himself firmly between him and the thing.

"No need to fear! For I am here." Toshi said, his tone laced with barely contained rage as he kept his eye on the thing. "It would seem that we have an unwelcome visitor."

"I noticed." Shota muttered. He didn't bother to say anything about that damned sword nearly taking him out a few seconds ago. Toshi would fuss over him just like a other hen if he knew.

And frankly that was one hit that his pride as a hero just wouldn't be able to withstand. Not gracefully anyways.

"Where did you come from, hn?" Toshinori asked with a slight tilt of his head, as he looked it over almost curiously. It wasn't lost to either of them that the damned thing still hadn't moved an inch just yet. But they also weren't going to wait and see what it could do before they took it out.

The strange thing about it...was that it continued to hold perfectly still up until Toshi used a burst of speed to take it's hostage from it. Once that was done, the thing seemed to finally move.

Wheeling on the blond with a furious shriek that nearly made Shota's ears bleed before it then lunged at him. Dropping the sword as it did so.

Whether it was actually trying to attack him or take it's hostage back, Shota didn't have a clue. But he couldn't let it hurt the man since he had an innocent bystander in his arms and couldn't defect or dodge very well without putting that person at risk.

It barely got close enough to snarl in his face because he had it wrapped in his capture tool and was dragging it back away from him.

The thing shrieked, snapped it's teeth and thrashed about wildly in an effort to free itself when Bakugo, Midoriya, and several other of their students finally seemed to realize that they were under attack and ran to help Shota by grabbing his capture tool and pulling on it hard.

The thing let out a scream as it's feet slipped out from under it and it fell and hit the ground face first.

What followed was a weirdly loud cracking sound. Almost like the sound of glass or ice breaking apart. After which the thing lifted it's head to glare at Toshinori, and part of it's bone mask fell away.

It was difficult to say what happened next. Everything seemed to happen so fast.

But the thing finally managed to get an arm loose from the capture tool, and even with Shota, and several of the kids pulling on it- somehow still managed to drag itself across the ground to where Toshi was and reached up and grabbed the clothing of the small body in the blond's arms. And pulled.

The body was yanked right out of Toshinori's hands and hit the ground shattering into a million pieces and fragments almost like a glass doll.

Toshi was understandably rooted in place from the horror of what had just happened. While Shota and the kids froze up and let the capture tool slip from their numb fingers in shock.

Each of their minds uncomprehending of what had just occurred as the thing screamed. The sound was maddened and painful. Almost as if the thing was mad with grief before finally screaming out.

"Saten Kesshun!"

Tiny little glowing things zipped all around them before finally coming to a stop, hovering around the things head. It reached up with one hand and tugged what was left of the broken mask from it's head and let it fall to the ground revealing one of the most achingly beautiful faces that Shot and the rest of them had ever seen.

It was buried underneath dirt, grime, and caked on dried blood. But even underneath all of that, it was still so lovely that the girl almost looked like an angel.

"Bring her back." She finally said, jarring them all from their shocked stupors. "Bring Rukia back!"

"Your injured Ichigo." One of the little things said. It was a fairy from the looks of it.

"You need to let us heal you." Another chimed in. It sounded worried. And from the looks of the girls many injuries, Shota wasn't exactly sure that he could entirely blame it.

"You'll die if we don't!" Another said.

The girl was quiet for a moment or so before saying firmly. "Good. Then let me die." Oblivious to the world around her, she didn't see the effect that her words had on any of them. "Use my heart. My lungs, my bones, blood and flesh to bring Rukia back..."

"B-But you're essentially telling us to kill you!" A male fairy chimed in this time, sounding both upset and sad.

"Then do it! Let me die and bring her back! I'll die of these injuries in a little while anyways. At least this would make my passing easier. To know that I didn't fail to save her. That I kept my promise to save her even if it killed me..."

Toshinori looked like he were about to collapse to his knees. Midoiya didn't look much better when Shota cast a glance around at the others. Bakugo looked...pale, but still as pissed as he always did.

So he had nothing to immediately fear there. The boy would likely bounce back much easier than Midoriya or Toshinori would.

The fairies and the girl fell quiet again for a heartbeat or so before one of them finally said, "I'm sorry, but we just can't return Rukia to life. She's beyond repair." And then they all vanished just as suddenly as they had appeared.

Leaving her broken.