Chapter Text
U.A is the top hero school in Japan, and one of the top hero schools in the world. It receives immense funding from both government and private interests. People from all over the world try to get in because graduating from U.A guarantees connections and experiences that will propel you to high places in life, regardless of which department you enter. It totes the highest graduation rate and the highest quality graduates, with the All Might being the most significant.
Chika’s not unused to unusual buildings. After all, the building in the center of her home city is essentially a giant 3D trapezoid. She knew what U.A would look like, thanks to the pictures in Kaneshiro’s packet. But seeing a giant H in person, well, is a bit different. Hyuse too, stares at the building, eyebrows furrowed.
“Stop gawking, loser,” someone says, shoving Hyuse into her. She snaps out of her daze, looking to her left to make eye contact with bold red eyes that drill a hole into her. A boy with bright red eyes glowers at them. He scoffs, stomping away. “Fucking extras.”
They make their way through the building, stopping to receive area assignments and check in. She glances over the hand-out, pausing only when she reaches the area assignment. Her sheet reads area D. Hyuse pushes his own paper towards her. It reads area B.
“They must be separating people who already know each other,” he says.
She watches the various people mill around her. Some have animal heads, others have spikes protruding out of their body, one person even has a speech bubble for a head. She tries not to stare too hard. Kaneshiro had warned both of them about staring. But she can’t help it, especially as she spots a boy made of black shadow. He raises an eyebrow at her and she quickly glances away, heart thudding in her chest.
The arena inside is packed with people, probably thousands of kids from all across the world. She gulps as the two of them get swallowed up by the crowd, into the hubbub and excitement. Somehow, the bubbly nature of the people surrounding her only makes her heart beat even faster. A few people give them odd looks as they walk past, and she’s sure they can tell they’re as out of place as she feels. Sitting down, she lets out a long sigh.
Hyuse glances at her but remains silent. Even with the chatter that surrounds them, the silence between them is as suffocating as ever. In the two weeks that had passed since they arrived here, they’d barely talked. Sometimes, Kaneshiro would bring them out for walks, but even then Hyuse remained pretty quiet. All they had done for the last two weeks was read Kaneshiro’s binder (though that was mostly Hyuse), memorize the answer key for the written portion, and watch TV.
The noise begins to die down, and she raises her head to look at the stage in the center of the arena. A man walks out, with bright yellow hair styled into a tall spike and big yellow sunglasses.
U.A Faculty: Present Mic
Present Mic is a Pro Hero who teaches English at U.A. His quirk, Voice, allows him to manipulate the volume of his voice in order to let out sound-based attacks. Despite the simplicity of his Quirk, it is also extremely powerful, with few Villains used to defending against sound based attacks. His lighthearted demeanor hides a rational, quick thinking mind. He is also the host of a popular Hero centered radio show.
“HELLOOOOO EVERYONE! Welcome one and all to my live show! Everybody say HEY!” Chika grimaces at the intensity of his voice, reaching to cover her ears. He throws his arms out, a wide grin spread across his face. The arena remains deathly silent. “I’ve got shivers down my spine too, listeners!
“All right, examinees, I’m gonna give you the low-down on how this’ll go down! Are you ready?” He takes a deep breath and Chika curls further into her seat, pressing her hands flat against her head. “YEAAAAAAAAH!”
The arena remains silent. Unfazed, Present Mic continues speaking. “Now pay close attention, listeners! We’ll be testing your mettle by running a ten-minute practice run at our replica city-district! You can take whatever you like! Everybody gathers at the designated meeting area after the presentation, ya dig?”
“We’ll be sprinkling a large number of “Villains” over the battlefield.” He makes a wide gesture at the screen behind him. It displays the three robots, looking the exact same as they did in the presentation Kaneshiro had shown them yesterday. “And they’ll appear in three different varieties, with point values scaled according to difficulty! Using each of your individual quirks, dispatch as many “Villains" as you can Your goal, listeners, is to rack up a high score! And don’t think about directly attacking any other competitors or any of that nasty anti-hero stuff, because that’s against the rules, capisce?”
She takes a deep breath. Robots, a fake training area, and even a point based system. It’s a lot like a Border training exercise, thankfully. If she tries hard enough, maybe she can pretend this is all just an elaborate drill.
Someone a few rows ahead bolts up and throws his hand into the air. “Excuse me, may I ask a question!?” Without waiting for an answer, he continues. “On the hand-out, there are clearly four types of villains listed! Such an error would be the height of embarrassment for a top tier national academy of U.A’s caliber! The reason we are seated here today is because we seek guidance on the path to becoming model heroes!”
Chika tries not to stare too hard at the back of his head. Hyuse lets out a quiet groan next to her.
“Moreover, what’s with you? Yeah, you, curly-haired kid!” He jabs his finger in the direction of a green haired boy. “Can’t you sit still for a second? You’re distracting! If you think U.A is some pleasure jaunt, then leave this place at once!”
She sinks a little further into her chair. She really, really hopes that guy isn’t in their class.
“Okay, okay.” Present Mic waves his hands. “Thanks for the segway, examinee 7111! The fourth type of villain you’ll encounter is worth zero points! Let’s call them “arena traps”! Have any of you ever played ‘Super Mario Brothers’ before? You remember those things that’d go thwomp on you!? There’s a thing like that in each area! A ‘gimmick’ that’ll rampage in close quarters!
“Well, that’s enough from me. I’ll leave you all with a presentation on the ‘school precepts’ of this academy of mine! As a certain ‘hero’ by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte once said: "A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life!” His grin grows impossibly wider. “Now, let’s move on to the main event. Plus Ultra! And may you all gladly suffer the trials to come!”
The arena finally erupts into noise, excited chatter washing over the crowd as people rush towards their designated areas. She follows after Hyuse, sticking close to him as the crowd pushes and shoves around them. They pause at the split in the path. Hyuse has to go left, and she has to go right.
“Good luck,” Hyuse says. She smiles at him, gripping her hands tight to stop them from shaking. He pauses for a moment, the two standing there in awkward silence, even as students push past them in streams. She shoots another glance towards the pathway that leads to her area. When she looks back, Hyuse’s first is raised in front of her.
She stares at it for a moment, before it clicks. Raising her own fist, she taps it against his.
“You too,” she says. Hyuse grunts and turns, walking away. She watches him for a second before taking a deep breath and doing the same.
She breathes in and out, trying to calm her racing heart. Just think of it as a normal training exercise. That’s all it is. She’s standing here, with her fellow snipers, waiting for the go signal to start the exercise. All it is is a basic training exercise. One with little consequences, in a familiar trion zone. Not a test of any kind, not surrounded by people whose dreams are riding on this exam, not stealing someone else’s spot for her own selfish needs--She shakes her head. Snap out of it, she tells herself. You can’t keep spiraling like this.
Scanning the city around her, she picks out sniping spots and escape routes in her head. A building at the leftmost part of the map towers high above the rest. Then again, the time limit on the test is much shorter than the Rank Wars. Perhaps she should stick to a smaller building? (Not as if it mattered, with her sniping abilities taken away from her.) Maybe Touma would get her from eight-hundred meters this time. Maybe she’ll be able to get him, for once. And they’ll ea--
“AAAAND START!”
Her heart stops for a moment and she starts running, too caught up in her own world to notice the other examinees haven’t moved an inch except for the blonde she bumped into earlier. She spins to the left to try to get to the leftmost building but a robot crashes through the buildings and charges into her path. It towers over her, big as Tamakoma headquarters. Its shadow blots out the sun behind it and she swallows. Though she paid attention during Present Mic’s speech, hearing about them is different from seeing them.
She summons a shield at the same time she lets off a Hound and it tears through the robot as if it’s made of paper, bringing it down faster than she can blink. With a loud groan, the metal structure collapses to the ground. The motion is familiar, comfortable, and she’s back at Border surrounded by her friends and people she knows. She hears the sound of another robot and she runs, the rhythm of her feet hitting the ground in tune with the beating of her heart.
She turns, making a beeline for a vantage point she spotted earlier. Another robot bursts into her path but her reaction comes with ease this time, Trion slamming into the robot and ripping it to shreds. Heart pounding, she reaches for her Bagworm, only to be met by air.
Continuing to make her way to the vantage point, she destroys any robot that comes across her path. The bullet barrages soar from her fingertips with practiced ease, ripping through target after target.
As she turns into an alleyway, she sees a purple haired guy struggling under the weight of a robot's arm. He pushes against it, face gritted in anger, but his feet dig into the ground.
He spots her. Spinning around, he shoves uselessly at the arm crushing him to the ground. For a second, the cube above her hovers in the air. She knows that it shouldn’t mean anything. He doesn’t have the Quirk to defeat robots, and all she’s doing is saving him. Helping him out. But she’s also stealing his points, just like how she hears the other snipers complain about Touma, but--
The robot pushes him further against the ground and she shoots. Torn to shreds, its broken husk collapses onto the ground. The guy turns to her. He wipes the sweat off his face, eyebrows furrowed. When he sees her, his gaze darkens as he stares a hole into her forehead. Silence settles over them as she stands there, mouth welded shut with anxiety. She can sense the resentment oozing off of him. Her heart starts hammering, hands growing clammy as she watches him.
“I’m sorry,” she blurts.
He opens his mouth, but shuts it after a moment, his face contorting. With a scoff, he walks away.
As she leaves, a yelp of panic draws her attention and she spins to see a girl with dark purple hair seconds away from getting hit by a robot arm. She whips out a shield and blocks the attack. Firing off a Hound, she explodes it into pieces.
The girl turns to her, eyes wide and sparkling. “Thank you!”
Chika jolts and gives her a tiny wave. “Er, you’re welcome.” She tries not to stare too hard at the strings of flesh dangling from the girl’s ears.
The girl waves, running off in a different direction.
Just as she lowers her hand, the ground erupts underneath her and she stumbles forward. She hits the ground with a thump, rolling onto her side as the impact sends slight pain down her body. Absently rubbing at her stomach, she turns to the source of the explosion. All thought of injury flies from her head. A robot towers over her and she steps back, slipping on a stray piece of rubble and falling back to her knees. The robot raises a giant foot and she summons a fixed shield, bracing for impact.
The impact never comes.
Instead, the robot places its foot a few feet away from her, still towering above her but not moving an inch. It walks away from her, almost gently. Almost. She can still feel the shudders of the ground buckling next to her. Taking a deep breath, she stands up and steps out of the wreckage of the crumbled building to see the robot stomping towards the other contestants, all of whom are running for their lives. She breathes a sigh of relief.
Less than a minute later, an announcement blares through the fake city.
“THE TEST IS OVER!!”
-
Yokumiru drums his fingers on the steering wheel, glancing back and forth from the cake in the passenger seat to his phone. The blank screen taunts him, as if daring him to open it and check. Not like anything would have changed, considering it's only been a couple minutes since his last text sent.
A knock on the door snaps him out of his thoughts. He glances over to see Amatori waving at him, a small smile on her face. He unlocks the door and the two crawl inside the car.
“How was it?” he asks. Some part of him dreads the inevitable answer. He knows the two are probably stronger than most of the other participants. He knows that they want to pass, in order for the Commission to cooperate with them. Even so, being forced to work with the Commission is nearly a crueler fate.
“Good,” Hyuse responds. “It’s frankly astounding how ill prepared most of the test participants were.”
Yokumiru starts the car. “Most of them never received formal training.”
“Considering the importance everyone places on becoming a Hero here, you’d think that they would put a little more effort into training,” Hyuse says. “Still, it’s good for us.”
“How about you, Amatori?” Yokumiru asks.
“It went well.” She pauses for a long moment. “What happens when someone doesn’t pass the entrance exam?”
“Well, they might end up in a general ed department depending on their written scores and quirk. Sometimes they get a better offer from a different school and head there. There are a lot of options for people who don’t get in. And anyway, once you guys leave, they’ll move students around to fill your spots. Don’t worry.”
After he unlocks the door to the apartment, he half hopes when he turns around to see air where two kids should be. But they’re still there, looking at him expectantly. Sighing, he swings the door wide open and motions for them to head inside. “I need to grab something from the car,” he says.
He pulls a cardboard box out of the passenger seat, two elaborate cupcakes neatly secured inside. His grip tightens involuntary, crushing the box a little as he walks back into the apartment. Shutting the door behind him, he sets the box onto the center of the table.
Both Amatori and Hyuse stare at him, each looking a bit stupefied. “A congratulations gift,” he explains. He makes a vague gesture at the box. “Help yourselves.” When they continue to stand there, staring at him, he adds, “They’re from my favorite bakery.” He neglects to mention it’s been years since he last went.
When they continue to remain silent, he shuffles over the kitchen and grabs two plates and two forks. He sets them down in front of them, trying not to seem any more awkward than he feels.
Finally, finally, Amatori moves. She sits down, opening the box and carefully pulling out one of the cupcakes. “Thank you, Mera.” She smiles up at him and he nods, glancing away from her wide, sparkling eyes. Hyuse sits down too, face contorted as he looks at his cupcake as if it had personally betrayed him. Still, he picks up his fork and takes a bite
He stares at the message on his phone as the two eat, both of them with smiles on their faces. Well, for Hyuse, it was more of a millimeter twitch upward in his mouth, but still. Their smiles are almost enough to reduce the impact of the message.
We're not letting you access the case. You don't have any legal connection to him anymore.
"Crap," he mutters, running a hand down his face.
"Mera?" He glances up to see both Chika and Hyuse staring at him. "Are you alright?" Chika asks.
He sighs. "I'm managing." A lie, sort of. He knows it won't comfort her, but he still wants to try. "Just some personal issues."
Hyuse raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're suited to being a guardian in your state? You're constantly busy."
Mera blinks. Once, twice. And then, a noise bursts out of his mouth. He realizes a few seconds later it's a laugh. "Thanks for your concern."
Chika giggles and Hyuse lets out a noise of indignation, probably, knowing him. “I was not concerned for your state, but for ours.” Mera knows better than to take it to heart. He’s met kids who act like Hyuse. Although, most of them were under the age of sixteen.
“Of course.” He stands up. “I have some paperwork I need to finish.” He pauses, looking at the two. They’re staring up at him, Amtatori with a look of concern and Hyuse with a look of concern that can be mistaken for annoyance. It might be the fact he's sleep deprived, or the recent news, but he blurts out, "Don't stay up too late."
The two blink. Amatori responds instantly. "We won't!" She chirps, a wide smile on her face. Hyuse stares at him for a second, and no response comes out of his mouth. Mera didn't really expect one anyway.
He leaves the apartment, making sure to lock the door behind him. With a sigh, he pulls out his phone. The offending message remains, taunting him. He knows, logically, that he should ask to be removed from the case. Emotional attachments are never a good thing when it comes to dealing with Commission assignments.
With a groan, he resigns himself to his fate. He's never been a logical person anyway.
-
Keigo watches as Amatori and Hyuse dig into a bowl of fried chicken, Amatori dipping it in far too much hot sauce to be healthy and Hyuse giving her the side eye as he does the exact opposite, eating it without any sauce at all. You couldn’t find two more different people if you tried. Keigo snorts when Hyuse tries a tiny bit of the sauce and his face instantly flushes bright red. He glares at him as he swallows down a cup of water. ‘What?” He asks, the intimidating factor neutralized by the hoarseness of his voice.
“Nothing,” Keigo covers his grin with a wing. “You two enjoying yourselves?”
Amatori nods, her eyes sparkling. “It’s nice to get out of the apartment for once. Thank you, Hawks!” She smiles, almost blinding Keigo.
“I’m surprised the Commission allowed you to take us out,” Hyuse says. He wipes his mouth with a napkin. “Aren’t they worried?”
Keigo laughs. “Not at all. I could take the two of you in a fight any day.” He doesn’t mention that he wouldn’t have the will to harm Amatori. Hyuse he might feel a little less guilty about. “Plus, you seriously think they aren’t monitoring us?”
Hyuse frowns. “They probably are, but I haven’t noticed anyone following us yet.” He crosses his arms. “It’s impossible to know, with the amount of possible quirks that they could have access to.”
Keigo hums. “You’re a smart kid, y’know. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Hyuse bristles, whipping his head around to glare at him. “I don’t appreciate your jokes.”
“Whoa, whoa.” He leans back in his chair and raises his hands in the air. “I was being serious.”
Hyuse doesn’t respond, instead drilling a hole into Keigo with his gaze, something that happens far too often. According to Amatori, he reminds him of someone they used to know back in their home world. Keigo pities the poor guy. “So,” he says, changing the subject, “are you guys looking forward to U.A?”
“No,” Hyuse responds before Amatori even opens her mouth. “But we have no other choice.”
Keigo raises an eyebrow. Huh. “Really? I thought a guy like you would be excited to prove himself against the top teens in our world.”
Hyuse sighs. “Excited to prove myself against a bunch of untrained teens dressed in spandex? Please.” Ah, that makes more sense.
“I wouldn’t underestimate them if I were you.” He grins. “There’s usually some pretty impressive kids. Even if they are dressed in spandex. I can’t defend that. What about you, Amatori-chan?”
She flushes slightly at the sudden attention. “Er, I’m a little nervous. If there’s going to be fights or anything, I don’t know how I’ll…” she pauses, glancing around. “It’ll be hard to fight people.”
Right. Mera mentioned something about her aversion to fighting people. Keigo opens his mouth but stops. With his typical aloof air, he says, “Well, I’m sure you’ll do great.” He grins at her. She doesn’t smile back, only giving a weak nod. “Say, what are the two of you going to do for your hero costumes?”
“We already have designs in mind. You’ll see them eventually, so there’s no need to tell you now.” Hyuse picks up another chicken leg and starts eating it.
Keigo places a hand over his chest, pretending to faint in his chair. “So cruel! I even bought you guys fried chicken.” He hears Amatori giggle and Hyuse let out a quiet groan. Sitting back up, he bows. Amatori laughs and Hyuse sighs into his chicken. “Thank you, thank you.”
“Hawks, I’ve been wondering,” Amatori blurts after a few minutes of silence. “How’d you get involved with the Commission?”
His eyes widen. He expected Hyuse to be the one to ask that question, not her. “They scouted me when I was a kid,” he says. “Not much to it.” An understatement, to say the least.
“How’d they find you?” Amatori asks, genuine curiosity brimming in her eyes. Something akin to worry, too. It’s strange, being pitied by a fourteen year old who probably couldn’t hurt a fly.
“That’s a story for another day!” Hawks chirps, shooting them a grin.
“They probably discovered him through an incident that required government intervention or through a routine comb through that tested people’s power,” Hyuse says. Keigo tries not to flinch, but judging by the look Hyuse gives him, it doesn't work. “I was found through a routine comb-through, but one of the recruits I met was discovered when he got involved with a street brawl. It’s strange, though, that he’s the only one so far. The Commission must have been doing this for decades. They must have found a lot of kids with potential at this point.”
Amatori blinks. “I wanted to hear it from Hawks himself, though.” She glances at him. “Sorry. Hyuse can be pretty blunt at times.”
Keigo closes and opens his mouth. Nothing he can think of to say conveys his reaction properly, so all he says is, “It’s alright.” Keigo laughs and ruffles Hyuse’s hair as best as he can with his horns in the way. “Man, you sure are a weird kid.”
Hyuse glares at him. “Don’t touch my hair.”
“Sorry, sorry.” Keigo leans back. “Say, it’s getting pretty late. I should drop you guys off at the apartment before Mera gets mad at me.” He stands up and they do the same, Hyuse dusting the crumbs off his shirt. “Do you guys wanna take a cab? Or,” he grins wide, relishing in the way Hyuse grimaces and Amatori leans forward expectantly, “would you like me to fly you guys back?”
Hyuse freezes. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope!” Keigo laughs. “C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Amatori nods, looking at Hyuse with pleading eyes.
“If I wanted to, I could just fly myself. I don’t need you to carry me.” Hyuse crosses his arms. “We shouldn’t anyways. It’ll attract too much attention.”
Keigo’s grin widens. “Oh? You can fly? Wanna race?”
Hyuse glares at him. “Don’t be juvenile.”
“I mean, I suppose you’d lose anyway, so there’s no need in trying.”
His eyebrow twitches. Gotcha. “Well, if Chika doesn’t mind, then I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”
You don’t have any right to talk about juvenile, Keigo thinks to himself, still smiling. “Amatori?”
“Sure!” She exclaims. “It’d be fun.”
“Is it alright if I carry you, then?” He asks. She nods. “Alright. Follow me!” He leads them to the balcony of the restaurant/ By now, the owner is used to his antics. The setting sun casts oranges and reds over the city. Picking Amatori up with both his arms, he adjusts her so she’s as comfortable as he can make her.
He jumps onto the railing and Hyuse does the same. “One,” he braces his legs, unfurling his wings, “Two, Three!”
Launching off the balcony, Keigo lets out a whoop as he whizzes through the air, wings flapping. A path of metal shards swirl ahead of him. He glances back to see Hyuse less than ten feet behind him, a look in his eyes that could kill a lesser person and metal wings growing out of his back.
“You’re pretty fast, kid,” he shouts, covering Amatori’s ears. “Let's see if you can keep up with this!” He lets out a burst of speed, putting a decent amount of distance between them. “You alright?” He asks her, uncovering her ears. She nods, a wide smile on her face.
“This is fun!” She says, voice eaten up by the rushing wind. “The city looks so pretty from up here.”
The path of metal shards appears again in Hawks’ peripheral vision and he looks over his shoulder to see Hyuse catching up to him. “Wow, he’s pretty fast.” Still no match for me, though.
They reach the apartment in no time at all. Just as Hyuse is about to land, Keigo increases his speed, touching down just before he can. “Looks like I won this time, Hyuse-kun.”
“You were going easy on me, weren’t you?” Hyuse asks. “Even I know when to admit I don’t stand a chance.” He sighs.
Keigo sets Amatori down. Her hair is ruffled beyond recognition, but she’s got a huge grin on her face. “Thank you, Hawks!”
“Course.” He stretches. “Well, I should get going. See you around, eh?”
“Amatori, Hyuse.” Kaneshiro’s voice calls out to them from the staircase. Keigo tries not to roll his eyes. “Oh, you.” Her voice drops an octave. She saunters over to them, holding a bag in her hand.
“Just you? Aren’t you going to greet me by name?” Hawks beams at her and she glares back.
“Please, you’re younger than me. I don’t need to show respect to you.” She appraises Amatori and Hyuse’s appearances. “Did you take them flying?”
He crosses his arms, bracing for another classic Kaneshiro lecture. She couldn’t go a day without scolding him for something or another. “So what?”
Ignoring him, she hands the bag to Hyuse. “Here. Some old video games and consoles I had lying around. Figured you would need some entertainment. I’ve already prepped next week’s meals for you guys. It’s all in the refrigerator. Yo--Mera’s out, overworking himself like always.”
“Thank you, Kaneshiro!” Amatori exclaims, beaming at her.
“Thank you.” Hyuse nods at her, taking the bag without any protest. Keigo tries not to gawk. Hyuse, thanking someone? Thanking a member of the Hero Commission? Thanking her?
Kaneshiro smiles at them. A genuine smile, not that stupid PR one she gives him all the time. “You’re welcome.” She shoots him a dirty look before spinning on her heel and walking away.
As he tracks her retreating back, a realization strikes him. She lives here? Here? He’d always imagined her in some fancy high-rise apartment. He turns to the two of them. “Is she always that nice?”
Hyuse frowns at him, his somewhat amicable expression morphing right back into one of annoyance. “Yes. Why wouldn’t she be?”
Keigo opens and shuts his mouth uselessly. Eventually, he gives up on formulating his thoughts, letting out a long sigh. “I will never understand that woman,” he mutters.
The two kids step into the apartment, Amatori waving until Hyuse shuts the door behind her.