What she says: I’m fine.
What she means: Horikoshi took the ahegao naughty girl and the cute girl-power-without-plot-significance teen girl and then provided their way out—clawed their way out—of these basic archetypes by developing their relationship with EACH OTHER. “Two girls talking about love” is usually either an insult, a way to devalue women and the space they take up, or a surrender, a catalog of all the ways they’ve been hurt, but Ochaco and Toga are talking about radical love. Self love. Love for what you believe in. They love each other in a way society does not believe should be possible. Their love saves them from their predetermined fates within their world and ours. Is there anything more powerful than to be saved by your own love?