Golden Repair

by xeveningx

"What is broken is beautiful when one cares to repair it." Nagi disagrees. Nothing that is broken is ever beautiful or whole again. Being that her belief, she holds the pieces of herself together between unsteady fingertips and hunts down those who preyed on her instead. But as new people and friendships come into her damaged world, her grasp trembles. With doubt. With hope. OC/?

1. Titanium

i.| Titanium

— A lustrous metal of silver color, high strength, lightweight, and relatively high heat resistance. Derived from the Grecian myth of the 'Titans', children of the primeval earth goddess, Gaia, and heaven god, Uranus.

---

There existed a world so dazzling and marvelous that one could deem it as mere make believe. One were heroes fought for them and thwarted villains that threatened the peace of their world. One were justice reigned above all and never failed those who were wronged or in danger. One were good triumphed and evil fell. A world as real as the air one could breathe, as true as the sun rising in the east, and as old as time itself. It was the very kind of world that Nagi adored with every fiber of her tiny being—a world of heroes. It ignited a vigorous passion that lit her love for the small world she lived in and had her heart always ready to burst with awe at the mere sight or mention of the heroes she adored and admired.

Happiness surged through her at the successful rescues done by rookie heroes. Her heart stopped at the intense stakes showcased in dire televised struggles and soared higher than her tiny feet could jump at witnessing them overcome scoundrels. The entirety of her tiny world shifted with each happenstance she laid eyes upon becoming much grander, colorful, and boundless. Like most children of such tender age, they captivated her with their stories of valor, selflessness, and compassion, and in turn inspired her to dream of the wondrous and daring life of a hero.

And the little girl just shy of four years held no wish in her heart to see such dream end. It was in fact that exact wish that drove and inspired the opposite: for her to see that dream become a reality.

Many sleepless nights arose from the excitement of what great things the morning would bring, and many more times, in her euphoria, it brought her to sneak out of her room in the quiet of the night unable to wait a moment longer. Tiny feet pitter-pattered quietly across refurbished wooden floors to avoid waking her slumbering parents. They carefully climbed down the set of stairs, an arm stretched above her head to grab the banister and help herself down while the other drew her favorite blanket behind her. Downstairs, she would run to her father's studio where she knew to find a computer still on after another late night of work. Climbing onto the high chair and hauling the cream-colored fleece blanket with her, she stared at keys trying to find her place and where to start.

Pressing key after memorized key, Nagi clicked the familiar video icon on the desktop and made a window pop open. The image took a second to load and it illuminated the darkness of the studio the moment it did. The image reflected itself upon large turquoise eyes that gave off a shine of their own and a broad smile came onto her face as she watched. It was an old video of a hero's debut, one she never got tired of watching. It and the hero it depicted were the very essence of what she loved about her life and the world she lived in; a hero, fearless and selfless, striving with reckless abandon to save others in the wake of tragedy.

A mighty hero. One of many. Yet one of a kind.

Light suddenly burst from the flick of switch, blinding her in her darkness and forcing her to hide her face and cover herself entirely with her blanket out of habit. A chuckle rose in the air and the soft pattering of footsteps followed before arms took her from her spot and lifted her. A hand drew back the makeshift hood of her blanket and eyes like hers yet a slight hue darker stared back at her. A soft smile tugged at the corners of her mother's lips as she carded her fingers through Nagi's hair to brush it away from her face.

"You should be in bed, young lady." The tender and somewhat groggy voice belied what she intended as a firm reprimand.

"But I'm awake." Her reply made her mother's smile broaden and Nagi smiled along with her. Her mother settled her against her hip and Nagi wound her arms around her neck and rested her head on her shoulder. She clicked at the computer to turn it off before heading out of the studio with her daughter in her arms.

"I can see that, but it's way past bedtime."

"But All Might!" Her head shot up with the loud cheer she gave prompting a hush from her mother. She obliged through muffled chuckles before laying her head back down against her mother's shoulder.

"Tomorrow, honey. It'll be another day and you can watch it then. For now, it's time to sleep."

With that said, she let her mother take her away without protest but watched the glow of the screen still on from the video until the screen as a whole faded into black. Wandering masterfully in the dark back upstairs and settling her into bed, turquoise eyes were wide open until a yawn escaped her while her mother tucked her back in. "Close your eyes and rest, alright?"

A soft hum was her reply but as she was about to stand to leave, Nagi called out with a tug of her mother's hand. "Can I have Mi-chan?"

Her mother gave a soft nod before taking the small plush of All Might and tucking it in beside her. With a soft touch that brushed away the hair from her face, she leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead. Nagi took a deep breath and let out a long sigh from how the simple gesture filled her to the brim with a sense of peace and fondness. Tender eyes regarded her for a second longer and the last she heard as she drifted off to sleep was the soft lull of her mother's voice bidding her goodnight.

"Sweet dreams, my little heroine."

---

The morning sun that filtered through dogwood trees blooming in the prime of spring bathed the houses around her in an almost ethereal light and showcased a fantastic scene. The petals swayed down at differing angles as the soft breeze blew them to its whim and glimmered in the same sunlight giving them a wondrous appearance akin to a flurry diamond dust. Bathed in this much beauty, the neighborhood almost appeared pleasant to live in.

Click.

A nimble cat climbed the railings that separated the neighborhood from the riverbank that sat at the end of the small hill opposite of the houses. It stood delicately upon the thin railing, its tail swaying back and forth in tacit delight while keeping a perfect balance. Large, pale blue eyes stared back at her, both of them stopping in their stride to examine each other. The feline blinked and the swaying of its tail stopped as it measured her intentions.

Click.

The cat hissed at the sudden shutter and scattered off without any other warning. Her eyes followed after the feline, hard strawberry candy swiveling through her cheeks, until it disappeared through an alleyway. The moment it was gone, she bit down hard to break it before mindlessly continuing on her stroll. Her lazy biting turned to a harsh nip of the inside of her cheek the instant she took out her phone to read the time. Shit. The camera that hung from her neck by its strap—one of the few lavish things she possessed—bounced a bit more against her stomach as she took to a light trot. When another sight caught her eye, though, she skidded to a stop before taking up her camera and focusing the shot.

Click.

Ugh, blurry. She didn't need to see it to know. She fell a few steps back to get a better view, focused the shot and briskly clicked a few times. In the last couple, a dark blob covered the lens completely turning the snapshots black and made her peek over her camera to the man standing in the middle of her shot.

"What are you doing here, Chitanko-san?"

Oh. Nagi recognized that tone and voice almost immediately; it was just the right balance of annoyed and worried, and she only knew of few that knew her who bothered evening out those scales where she was concerned. Lowering the camera completely, she gave a cheeky grin to the police officer that stood in front of her line of sight.

"Hey, Tsukauchi-san! How's one of Japan's finest doing this fine morning?"

"I'm fine, thank you." Tsukauchi stood back from looking down at her and tilted his hat back, his expression settling on somewhat peeved. "And don't disregard my question, young lady. What are you doing so far out here so early in the morning?"

"A bit of work," she chimed and lifted her camera to emphasize her words. "Stock pictures of the prefecture sell well online."

"Is that so?" he asked with a heavy sigh, clearly not believing a word she said.

"You'd be surprised." Idly thumbing through the pictures she had, Nagi grinned before turning back to Tsukauchi. "Makoto-san especially pays me good money for pro hero shots. Too bad I'm slow to catch those incidents in the city sometimes."

Hearing this about his own sister, Tsukauchi groaned and let his hand fall over his face in admonition."She must simply stop instigating bad habits in others."

"It's not all bad. Chun-chan says it's a good hobby to have!" she responded. Letting the camera fall back against her chest, Nagi adjusted her bag over her shoulder and languidly teetered herself on her back heels.

"I suppose kids these days have way more free time than they did in my days."

"It's not really about having the free time or not, Tsukauchi-san. I make time since it's so enjoyable to do!" When her phone's alarm went off, she turned it off with grimace and looked to Tsukauchi with pleading eyes and clasped hands. "Ah, speaking of time. You think you could give me a ride? I've got an entrance exam to get to."

Tsukauchi chuckled at her scattered sense of time and nodded before he guided her back to his car. Knowing the patrol car a little better than she ought to, Nagi made herself comfortable on the passenger's seat and waited for Tsukauchi to take the driver's side and take off before reaching for her phone again. The whole ride to the school Nagi kept the window rolled down to take panoramic shots of the cityscape that ran past them. Idle small talk went on thanks to him asking how she'd been doing and the school she was applying for. Her response seemed to impress him and he let a low whistle out before chuckling lightly.

"You've set a pretty high bar there, haven't you?"

"Chun-chan said the same thing," she pointed out, sitting back and swiping at the pictures in her gallery when satisfied of the ones she took. "But I don't think it is. If anything it'll be a damn good challenge."

"I don't doubt there's merit to have such high opinion of yourself, Chitanko-san, but is it really prudent to rush forward?"

"The way I see, I'm not getting any younger and with the time I lost, I want to make the most of what I have now." Tsukauchi remained quiet after that, unable to offer a comment to hers. Thankfully, the car ride lasted a few minutes more after they came in the vicinity of the school. The patrol car stopped short of being halfway across the block of the entrance gate and she shot out of it running forward and twirling around to wave at the police officer. "Thanks again, Tsukauchi-san!"

"Good luck, Chitanko-san."

Nagi spun on her heels and dodged a couple of people ahead of her as she threaded through the crowd of muttering students that voiced their worries to friends or to themselves along the way. She didn't know what they thought so impossible about taking this entrance exam, though she supposed that it being a top national academy did make it sound intimidating. It knocked her pride down a little to admit that she was iffy about the written portion, though by all accounts, she trusted herself enough to scrape by. It certainly helped that she had enough confidence in her own abilities to pass the practical one.

Her sprinting came to a crawling stop as her eyes took in the campus that grandiosely stood before them. Towering buildings of glass and metal framing rose overhead in the signature initials of the prominent school and the way the rays of sunlight were caught by the panes gave it a kaleidoscopic semblance. Truly a magnificent work of architecture. Unable to control herself, she took the camera in her hands and focused on the huge vista that the edifices on display gave.

Cli—

"Out of my way." A voice growled deeply from the guy's throat as he shouldered her roughly out of his way. Catching herself before she tripped over, Nagi pouted and glared over at the back of the ash blond that had shoved her so brusquely.

"Could've said 'excuse me'." Her voice traveled loudly over the crowd but he didn't seem to have heard her. That or he simply hadn't bothered to respond. Nagi muttered a quiet 'asshole' under her breath before checking the picture. Sure enough it came out blurred.

Wanting to retake it but knowing she really shouldn't be wasting time when the exam would begin soon, Nagi shelved the idea to the back of her mind before heading to the entrance of the school building.

---

A point based test, he said.

It shouldn't be too bad of a run for me then.

Out of habit, her hands twisted the bracelets around either of her wrists, the metal gleaming silver in the sunlight, and was followed by the flicking of each finger on both her hands and the cracking of her wrists. A whole group of prospects was with her at their assigned location, maybe a good thirty or so and she eyed them all, gauging what awaited her in terms of opponents. A handful of them were mutant-types; one certainly stood out, reminding her of an octopus. The rest, she guessed, were either emitters like her or transformers. Not much competition. The thought of the others took a backseat fast enough when a loud voice boomed over as if coming from loudspeakers somewhere near their opened gate.

"START!"

A handful hesitated at the signal but within a second most of them sprinted into the arena for the test. Nagi didn't let herself fall behind and ran at a leveled speed while being mindful to head in any direction besides the one where everybody else went.

Point based means we're fighting against time and each other. Which means that the less crowded the place, the more chances I have of—

Her train of thought and strut came to a screeching halt when at exiting an alleyway a one-pointer robot skidded from the adjacent road, leaving burn marks on the street and a stream of smoke from its burnt tires. A metallic head with an eye-camera swiveled around before honing down on her; the eye turned from black to red and a robotic voice came from it.

"Target acquired."

"Hey there," she called out, her tone enthused as she grinned at her luck. Not missing a beat, Nagi flicked her index and middle fingers against her thumb in the robot's general direction. The metal on her right bracelet lost its solidity before becoming a liquid in the blink of an eye and shooting out. In the instant it took to close the distance to its target, the metal sharpened and solidified into a thin arm-length spear that pierced the eye of the robot. Sparks erupted along with smoke a moment before it dropped down malfunctioning. "That's one."

The screeching of wheels made her pivot to find a bunch more ganging up against her. A wild smirk spread across her lips as she flicked the same fingers on her left hand to make the left bracelet liquefy out of shape and solidify into another spear to send flying at the robots. Two fell the same way the first did but the third managed to dodge her spear and charge her way. Using the first one she'd put out of commission as a ledge, Nagi ran at it and used it to jump out of the way of the attack before swiping both her hands downward at the robot. At her command, the metal spears turned in midair and shot back at the robot while simultaneously morphing into slick sheets of metal. The two struck inches from one another and slid right through, decapitating the three-pointer robot.

Yeah, she thought with great glee as she landed behind it, if I keep up at it like this, passing'll be a piece of cake.

Waving her fingers closer to her, the spears responded almost satiently and flew over to hover over either of her shoulders. Once she had them back, she went off on another sprint across the arena striking any and every robot she encountered. The secluded area she went to started her off with a good number of points, but as time dwindled down and fewer targets remained, Nagi found herself eventually coming into the battlefields of other people. Fortunately, her style was long-range attacks that with the flick of her fingers or the wave of her hand, allowed her to swipe points from under the unsuspecting or otherwise preoccupied. Avoiding the ones that ran at her after stealing their points or the those that tried nabbing points away from her, she stopped only when she was unable to withstand the burning of her lungs any longer. Damn her shit endurance. But with the the points she racked up, she knew she could afford the rest.

"One minute remaining!"

The announcement got drowned out by the massive destruction that came from behind her that blared so loudly that Nagi found herself covering her ears from the noise. Eyes grew wide as she looked over her shoulder to see what caught everybody's attention and made that horrendous sound. A gigantic robot strode forward decimating the makeshift city; taller than any of the buildings, it made light work of the roads and edifices that it came in contact with. It's stupidly large size and the sheer amount of destruction it caused told her one thing right out off the bat: Zero pointer. There wasn't any point in dealing with the huge chunk of junk. There really seemed to be only one prudent choice to settle on like Present Mic had told them.

Though she decided to take that suggestion for what it was worth, Nagi stopped short just as she turned to retreat when the cries of help reached her ears. The source she found after briefly scanning about were some of the other kids that had been caught in the rubble made by the robot's entrance. Despite seeing that others were trying to help and hurry to get them out, Nagi felt divided. She didn't merit in helping them; surely the school wouldn't allow serious damage to befall their examinees. It was only logical to think that they'd be forced to stop the robot if it came even close to harming them. But the another part of herself—the one she didn't like one bit—told her that she couldn't just leave them be. A good number of kids had gotten themselves trapped in the frenzy and the ones helping were slower than the robot. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that it'd get to them before they could rescue them and haul ass out of its way. They'd be crushed.

It's not necessary. It's not necessary. It's not necessary.

"We don't help people because it's our job. We help people because we want to protect them."

Clicking her tongue, Nagi checked the area around them the sense of urgency driving her to think desperately on her feet. Fighting it was out of the question. That thing was humongous and even if it was a robot made of metal, she didn't know it's exact composition. To make any assumption could end with fatal results, if she guessed wrong.

Then if I just stop it...

She let that random thought sink before nodding to herself and going with it. Yeah, stopping it wouldn't involve fighting...but it would require a lot more than the couple of flimsy spears she could make of bracelets. Good thing this was a modeled city. Nagi ran past the kids trying to help those out of the rubble and along the sidewalk with her hand outstretched while heading straight towards the robot.

"Hey, stay back! That thing's gonna kill you if you fight it!" a girl shouted. Her amber irises against the black sclera of her eyes struck Nagi's photographer eye but it was needless to say that now wasn't the time.

She pushed the urge back, rushing ahead while shouting back, "I'm not gonna fight it! I'm gonna stop it!"

But that would greatly depend on how much of the metal she could scavenge from the building. As her fingers ran across the concrete, she felt its coldness against them but her Quirk felt beyond that and sensed the small traces of it in the mixed alloys that made up the beams of the framework. But it was far from enough.

Come on, I need more than this!

Flicking her other hand outwards to the building on the opposite side of the street, one of her spears pierced and scraped alongside the concrete of its wall to allow her Quirk to search it as well for the metal. Not iron, not steel. Come on, Yuuei, don't disappoint me by having made these shit buildings out of scrap metal! And they didn't. On boths sides, her Quirk finally found the titanium lingering in the framework, the heaviness of controlling it weighing on Nagi's every muscle fiber, and with that much of it, she could certainly stop the zero-pointer. Letting go of the building but not of her control, she ran up to the middle of the street to stand between the robot that kept a steady pace towards her and the kids stuck behind her.

Holding her arms wide open with her fingers outstretched, she forced her muscles to move the gigantic load she amassed. Her arms drew across her body and after the lag added by the weight, her Quirk followed suit. The buildings and the floor trembled underneath her feet as they were torn from their foundations, the concrete falling from its framework as the titanium she took from them jutted out like spikes from a trap. The spikes were slow to form but hard enough to pierce the zero-pointer all through its body once they did. It's engine revved as if trying to escape from its prison but after its futile attempts, died quickly after with sparks flying and smoke fuming from its head. It had one last moment of sputtering before it slumped over completely broken.

"Time's up!"

Nagi took a deep breath as she shut off her control and fell to a sit from the exhaustion. The titanium fell in line after she released it; it brittled and broke after being used by her and losing the backbone that was her control, and the robot followed suit, slumping down against the nearest building with nothing else to hold it up. The hunk of metal falling against it caused a cloud of dust and rubble to lift into the air and got her coughing and swatting at the irritating fumes. But moving her hands so suddenly sent a pang of pain through them, the strain on her muscles from so much weight hitting her quicker than she thought.

Not caring about it for now, she fell back from her sit to lay back on the dirty and destroyed street. While she rested, she heard the ruckus of everybody else when they scampered and headed towards the exit now that the exam was over. Some sounded glad that it ended, others irritated from their lackluster self-score. Frankly, she would've done the same if she wasn't already so fed up with it all. The irritation fueled her and she stood, the joints of her knees and elbows cracking as she went back up. She waited until the crowd walked ahead and thinned out around her before calling her bracelets back with a light wave of her fingers. They rose from the rubble as liquid and circled her wrists before coming back to their original shape. She twisted them in her wrists and fell back from the crowd to give herself sometime to breathe and relax. But even from a distance she could feel their stares and hear their whispers.

"She stopped the zero-pointer on its tracks."

"It got decimated."

"That Quirk of hers is powerful."

Useless chatter. You know how to push them away, Nagi. Her lips curved at the reminder and she met the spared gazes of some who quickly turned about to look away at seeing her, obviously unnerved by her ambivalent grin. Dragging out a long sigh through her nose once she'd ridden herself of their scrutiny, her eyes dropped to her scuffed up shoes that turned a grayish blue from the ash and debris. Guess she'd be doing some cleaning when she got home.

Well, at least it's over now.

---

| One week later |

---

Click.

The beach looked like a completely different place now compared to before. Whoever cleaned out Dagobah Beach really did a service to the community. The setting sun especially reflected gorgeously against the sea's horizon creating a magnificent mirage that she never tired of. It was a beautiful cityscape that she couldn't help but be at awe with.

Click.

The lightest tap on her head made her turn up to eyes the same color as the golden hue of the sun that set before them. A lazy smile spread across unfamiliar lips as her friend stood over her, well over a few inches taller than her meesely five feet and three inches. Huh, it's this one today. In their hands was an envelope, the one they'd slapped her over the head with and which she only noticed when he tapped her with it a second time.

"Guess what you got in the mail today?"

She took the letter from him but scowled all the while doing so. "You know, taking other people's mail is illegal."

"No, opening it is." They lifted a familiar lanyard holding a very familiar set of keys and their lazy smile widened at doing so, "Besides, I have a key."

Eyes wide and taken aback by that, Nagi patted her pockets before grimacing and snatching her keys from their flimsy hold. "I'm getting sick of your antics, Yori."

"You love me too much to be bored of me, Nagi."

"Not bored, just tired of the shit you pull on me." The keys weren't even the worst of it either. Most of the times it would be her food or using her shower or laundry room. They might be friends but that didn't give them the right to be a sneaky fuck. The address on the envelope piqued her interest enough to let her anger die down and focus instead on reading the letter they'd given her. "From Yuuei?"

She busied herself with ripping it open and found inside a written letter alongside a mini projector. Yori took the latter from her hands and began toying with it as she read the letter to herself.

Most of it was courtesy garbage that she was sure all letters had but as she read further she noted the sentence that mattered. "We hereby cordially and proudly inform you that you have been accepted to the Hero Course of U.A. High School." A satisfied grin came to her lips at reading the words to herself. There hadn't been a doubt in her mind even for a second.

"Ah." Her giddiness died a bit at Yori's little utterance. Turning to them, Nagi caught just in time as the projection came on after Yori's fiddling with the mini projector. He gave a soft 'my bad' which she promptly ignored, her attention much more on the projection of a very familiar face.

"Is that All Might?"

There certainly wasn't any mistaking that bright smile that formed from cheek to cheek or that styled blond hair that matched well with the flashy suit he wore. The No. 1 hero stood against a prop background that was just as ostentatious as him and that held an air of important as he announced himself. "Young Chitanko Nagi, it is with greatest prise that U.A. welcomes you to its Hero Course. You were selected from the multitude of examinees due to the results from your exam. Allow us to say as well that, from among the young prospects, you exceeded expectations and went above and beyond the call of duty and of what was required of your exam."

"What's he talking about?" Yori asked but the question went unanswered as the pro hero kept her whole attention.

"This exam tested not only your fortitude to battle faux-villains but also to gauge the capabilities and ethics of the young hero eggs that Yuuei aspires to nurture." All Might lifted a control in his hands and pressed a button that played a recording in the background screen; it was a recording of her stopping the zero-pointer. Yori whistled in amazement beside her certainly from how she used her powers to stop the hunk of metal, but what she couldn't keep her eye away from was the expression she wore that'd been caught by the cameras.

Passionate. Dogged. Fearless.

I can't remember the last time I felt like that.

The letter in her hands crinkled as her grip on it tightened but the tension she felt disappeared when All Might turned off the monitor and faced the projector again. "Not only did you risk your wellbeing to stop the zero-pointer, you did so while putting the safety of your fellow applicants at the forefront. That kind of determination and ferocity to take action and protect others is the very essence of a hero."

Words that she remembered hearing when younger echoed in her head and repeated the same message the No.1 hero proclaimed in the projection.

"I'm sure you'll be a great and brave hero one day, Nagi."

All Might gave his few remaining pleasantries before the projection ended with a click of the projector. It left Nagi speechless, her grip still somewhat tight on the letter. His words and those she remembered twisted her gut and at something that she didn't want disturbed, but there was certainly no helping it. I know... They were my idols, after all.

"Seems like the rumors we got were true. He's really gonna teach at U.A. Lucky you." Yori patted her head but it did nothing to rip her mind away from what she'd just seen. "Let's get rid of this." His words caught Nagi unawares but by the time she turned to them, they'd already thrown the projector as far into the sea as they could manage.

"That was mine," Nagi told him, annoyed by their actions. Yori simply shrugged.

"Not like you needed it." Dragging their feet back to her side, Yori held their arms behind their head and stared down at her. "Congrats on getting accepted...is what I would say if I hadn't known you would already."

That sent a few chills down her spine and she glared at them thinking of the many things their words could imply. "I swear if you interfered with any of this in any sort of way, you'll be sleeping out in the streets."

Yori chuckled at her words, knowing they were mostly empty threats, but took the few steps away from her to assure themselves of their safety. "You know I would never, Nagi. Especially because I know you better. From what All Might just said, you did something pretty great! Surely you kicked ass in that test."

"Not as much as I thought I would," she admitted and reread the letter to make sure. Yeah, not first in the exam. "But that's alright. I got in and that's what matters." She folded the letter back up and put it into her bag before taking up her camera again to continue what she'd been doing before Yori interrupted her. There were only a few more minutes of sunset left and she was determined to get a good shot this time.

"Yep, quite the opportunity that shined down on us, isn't it?" they cheered and threw an arm around her shoulders, throwing her shot off. Again. "But I'd advise on the side of caution, Nagi. That place is crawling with pros. Even if you're the sneakiest person in this world, you wouldn't be able to do anything with a thing you get."

"Not true," she countered with an exasperated sigh and pulled out a small envelope from her pockets without letting go of her camera. Holding it between her thumb and forefinger, she held it up to them with one hand while she clicked away at the falling sunset with the other. "It might take a little longer but it won't be any different than what I do now."

"I suppose you're right." They took the envelope not caring to see its contents and pocketed it in their own pants. "Say, I've been wondering, are you really gunning to be a hero? I thought you said those dreams were for punk ass kids who couldn't grow up."

"That I am doesn't change the fact that they still are." The camera shuttered one last time to catch the sunset fade over the horizon before it left them entirely in a faded hue of light. "But like you said, it's opportune and I'm already in so what's the harm?"

"You sure?" they asked not really out of concern but out of curiosity. "They'll push you to do things you probably won't want to do. And with Blue there, it'll surely dampen your whole 'I'm-a-damn-rock-and-can-weather-through-everything' mentality."

Despite the vein that popped at her temple at the blatant insult, Nagi didn't take the bait and instead took the comment in stride. "I doubt Chun-chan will be allowed to interfere too much. Yuuei's made to push their students past their boundaries to climb higher. If anything, it'll help me have better control over my Quirk and in three years, I'll legally be able to help us do what we want with little to no oversight." Letting the camera fall against her stomach, she gave Yori a sidelong glance and raised an eyebrow at them along with a cheeky lopsided grin. "It's a win-win situation if you ask me. Nothing some little setbacks will slow down, anyway."

Yori had nothing to say to that. "Well, you're right in most of those fronts. Being licensed heroes would allow us more leniency to do what we want. And compared to three years of fruitless endeavors and scampering for scraps, I guess waiting three more won't be too much."

"Then it's decided. I'm going to Yuuei." Nagi gave Yori her back without another word and started walking away from the beach, leaving him behind.

"Ah, but Nagi!" Yori's call made her look over her shoulder at them as they stood still on the shore of the beach by the time she reached the bottom of the stairs. A cheesy grin plastered itself on them but didn't reach their golden eyes as they narrowed somewhat. "Don't go being swayed away, alright? You gotta promise me that at least. I would simply hate having to fight you."

"Same," she replied before giving them her back and waving over her head. "I'd hate to have to kick your ass."

---

The small screen of a phone brightened the otherwise obscure room and from the speakers, a sweet, tender voice came through drowning the quiet sobs in the background.

"So we'll see you soon and we love you, Nagi."

---

| A few weeks later—April |

---

The clanking of metal against metal and the sweetness of cinnamon wafting in the air woke Nagi up in the gentlest of ways. Until she remembered that she lived alone. Before panic flooded her mind, though, another thought came about. Very few people knew where she lived, even less knew the number or the apartment complex. Those who did she could practically count in one hand the people who did and only one of those had the gall to barge in unannounced.

With that peace of mind, she allowed herself time to fully wake up. She stretched once, a few joints cracking and popping back into place, before she walked out of her room to verify her earlier assumption. Yori stood in her kitchen with a pink apron on while attending to the pancakes he had on the stove. This time shorter than her but with nimble hands, they turned to Nagi with a sweet smile and called out a high and accented, "Top of the mornin' to ya, lassie!"

"Do I even want to know how you got in here?" She grumpily groaned in an attempt to sound menacing. Nagi definitely wasn't a morning person and that Yori more often than not tended to barge into her place without notice made it terribly worse.

"I have a key!" they replied, patting at their pocket. Nagi strode over to them and dug her hand into their pocket searching for it. Despite their protests, Yori couldn't leave the food without it burning which gave her enough time to take the key they'd spoken of away from them. "You kicking me out again?"

Nagi spared them a glance over her shoulder as she sauntered back to her room and stopped to glare back at Yori. "Mine better be stacked."

Their muffled voice came through her door as she slammed it shut, "Yes, ma'am!"

A glance at her phone showed a glaring and bright six thirty on the screen—who the hell starts making breakfast at six in the fucking morning? Thoughts of going back to sleep for another half an hour till her alarm rang crossed her mind but she doubted that with the ruckus Yori was making, she would have any luck with that. Begrudging them for what it was worth, Nagi let that fuel her through her morning routine as she rummaged through her room for her clothes. It was messier than she liked it but there hadn't been much time to clean with all the time work and preparing for school had taken up—putting in double shifts before school started might not have been the best of ideas. Well, at least there's a path to walk through.

Finding the clothes she'd changed into after showering, she laid them across her bed and smiled at seeing something rummage beneath it. Picking the blanket off of her bed, she found her Russian blue cat splayed across the mattress that lazily rose and stretched before jumping off and standing around her legs. A scoff escaped her at the sight and she bend over to scratch it behind the ear. "Good morning, Mi-chan."

The gray cat purred and meowed loudly when she took back her hand, its faint green eyes watching her as she left the room. Though getting ready didn't take long, what took most of her time in the morning were her daily adjustments which despite lasting no more than twenty minutes, were a drag to do. But for as boring as she found them, Nagi knew how necessary they were.

Gotta keep myself together.

Walking into the small dining room afterwards, she found Yori with breakfast served for them and that he had complied to Nagi's request having stacked her plate full of pancakes. They ate in relative silence with Yori interrupting it with chit chat she sometimes bothered to respond to. Mi-chan sauntered out of her room to lay next to Nagi and get her to pet her as they ate. It worked eventually since she knew her damn cat had a hang-up about attention.

"You look ready to go." Yori's comment made Nagi glance down at herself. The white shirt was not buttoned or tucked in and showed the white tank top she wore underneath. Her red tie laid around her neck undone and one of her knee-high socks wasn't pulled up all the way. If that was what Yori considered 'ready,' then no wonder he sometimes came to her looking like a bum.

Her eyes wandered off to the only clock in the room, a toy alarm clock of the pro hero Wash that she'd won in a work raffle once. The bright red numbers announced 7:05 and the fact that she was already done with her breakfast so early annoyed her a little—certainly proved that she could've had slept well over a half hour more. Pushing her dirty plate towards Yori out of spite, she stood up disturbing Mi-chan and headed to her room to finish getting ready. She strode out of there with her bag slinged over her shoulder once done and stepped out to find Yori playing with Mi-chan, holding the cat's front paws in their hands while brushing their thumbs over them.

"Let go of her, you creep," Nagi hissed and kicked Yori's knee as she walked over them to pass the dining room and get to the front door.

Yori glanced behind him to the Wash clock before turning back to say, "It's early, no?"

"Might as well leave."

"And you're taking that to school?"

Nagi glanced back over her shoulder to see Yori pointing at her, more precisely to the camera bag that was strapped to her school bag. It was a bit bulky but she was well accustomed to having it around. Shrugging her shoulders, she went on with putting her shoes on. "My phone's memory is getting full and I didn't have time to clean it up last night."

"It'll give you an excuse to stop on the way," Yori teased in a droll tone while stretching Mi-chan's paws over her head without much protest from the feline. "You'll be late."

"I'm not going to lose 45 minutes spacing out and taking pictures, Yori." She turned sideways to face them once her shoes were on and opened the door halfway. "Feed her and lock the door when you leave."

Leaving the apartment and them behind, Nagi focused on the trip to school. It was a bit far since she needed to take the train but once that was over with, she'd have the time to take a leisure walk up to campus. Her mind wandered, with her helpless to stop it, and surveyed the distinct look of the city compared to the small part of the prefecture she lived in. The streets were littered with people and the stores were quite lively as well despite the early hours. The beauty that spring brought along with it made the scenery that much more stunning in her eyes—petals faintly dancing in the passing breeze, the way flower stems bent this way and that following the rays of the suns, and the faint scent that sprung in the air from dew on grass cut perhaps days past now.

How quintessential.

And that idyllic picture was underrated in her opinion. Nobody stopped to enjoy it, no one cared to take in every last detail of such normalcy. They took it for granted. They felt like even if they didn't put attention to it now, there would always be tomorrow. Unable to help herself any longer, she unlatched her camera bag and took it in her hands. Deft fingers went to work to capture the delicacy of mundanity in these people's lives—the same beautiful mundanity that she would never tire of. In her eyes, those moments held a certain beauty she couldn't describe.

"It's ephemerous. That why it's beautiful."

The sights that she never paid attention to came into such a stark focus now that she could hardly let them pass her by. And she was all the more grateful that they were so easily captured by the simple push of a button. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she let her feet take her wherever they pleased.

"I have time to spare," she muttered to herself as she took another photo. I'll only take a few here and be back on my way to school in a few minutes.

---

God fucking dammit! How!? How does this keep happening!?

It was already past 9 o'clock. She'd be lucky if she got there to catch the tail-end of homeroom. Heavily out of breath as she ran through the gigantic gate that was Yuuei's entrance, Nagi dashed straight through the lockers, not even bothering with changing her shoes, and headed right to her classroom. Fortunately, she didn't have much trouble finding it. A small blessing, really. Class 1-A along with the whole first-year building was far from the gate but with everybody certainly in the entrance ceremony, she would only have to deal with the embarrassment of being a whole hour late to the first damn day of school.

"Damn you, Yori." There wasn't a point in cursing them but it did make her feel the slightest bit better.

Drifting around another corner, she spotted the tall door marked with Class 1-A's sign and thanked god under her breath at finally having found it. Nagi slowed down but used a bit more force than she intended to in the end. Her face scrunched up, cringing at having slammed the door open but, fortunately, the classroom was in fact empty. Seeing backpacks and bags strewn on the side of, on, or below desks though made the horrid feeling of lateness sink in her stomach. Her eyes scanned the desks and at finding one devoid of things, deduced it to be hers. Putting her bag down at its side and placing her camera on top of the desk, Nagi felt that despite her tardiness, it was good that she was at least there now. But as she sat down and attempted to calm her racing heart, a rather odd note stuck to the blackboard in front took her attention. Trotting up to it and skimming over the handwriting scrawled on the piece of paper, Nagi instantly blanched at the ominous message.

Class 1-A at the grounds.

The grounds…

They're not at the opening ceremony.

"...well, damn."

---

'The grounds' was a pretty broad name for a place but Nagi refused to stay behind and do nothing about finding it. In spite of the vagueness, she assumed that they had to be at least somewhere that'd be visible. She hoped so, anyway, because otherwise she'd be even more screwed than she already was. Just then, a burst of explosions caught her attention from a field a bit across campus and she rushed there on a gamble, praying that it was indeed her class.

From where she'd seen them, they were nothing but specks of blue standing around doing some physical activities. Once on ground level and closer to the large group, though, the name of the one they were currently on stuck out like a nail when a ball was shot out of the park with enough force to cut through clouds. Softball throwing? Like those fitness tests from middle school? Her eyes followed it briefly before coming back to the group she ran towards. There seemed to be a clear difference from the ones they did in middle school though. That was more than obvious by the fact that they were allowed to use their Quirks.

With bated breath, she dashed through with full speed even when her muscles strained and her lungs burned pleading for rest. In a short minute, she finally managed to catch up to the group just as the voice of an older man—their teacher, she assumed—spoke up.

"Next. No. 22, Kisa—"

"Chitanko Nagi, sir!" Her own name burst from the top of her lungs as she skidded to a stop a few steps behind the class. All eyes turned to her, and although she could only imagine how unflattering she looked at the moment—what, with strands of strawberry hair tipped white messily sticking to her perspring temple and disheveled uniform from the long run she pulled—there really wasn't time to bother. Nagi ignored the blatantly perplexed stares of her classmates and instead searched beyond them in hopes of catching the eye of their teacher.

She didn't know what in hell's name pushed her to announce herself in the middle of their exercises—not only interrupting their teacher but also declaring her own tardiness to boot—but if this was the first impression she'd give then so be it. But even before she had time to excuse herself for the thirty seconds of disruption and counting that she was causing, a cloth struck outwards avoiding the students and capturing her in its grasp. The moment Nagi laid eyes on it and felt its tight hold on her, her breath hitched and her stomach sank. Oh god, no. The cloth wound tightly around her arms snapping them tightly to her sides and pulled her forward through the crowd. Not even digging her heels into the ground helped delay the inevitable. It took close to no effort to fully pull her out from the group of students and to the deadly glare of Aizawa Shouta.

"Decided to join us at last, Chitanko?"

A nervous chuckle was all the reply he got alongside a tumultuous, lopsided smile of hers. No matter how much she tried, there was no hiding the slight uneasiness the man caused her. "Yeah, well, you know," she stammered through her words trying to find exactly what to say. "Ha, the funny thing about that is—"

"Don't bother. I don't want to hear it." Brusquely, he snapped the cloth away and tossed her haphazardly onto the center platform. "We were in the middle of quirk apprehension tests before you interrupted. Last place gets expelled and that's where you're standing at this point." Nagi stiffened at that and the tears pricked at the corners of her eyes at hearing those news. A part of her thought he wouldn't—she got accepted for a reason, damn it!—but she knew Yuuei a school of extreme teaching styles. And besides, knowing how Eraser is, there's no doubt in my mind he would do it.

No, she couldn't get expelled. Not when she hadn't even started. After finally having the chance to do something, she wasn't about to let it die out because of her incompetence. Nagi didn't waste time in standing from the heap of limbs she ended up as. It took a moment for her to take off her jacket and limber up a bit by tossing her arms back and forth before facing Aizawa. "How many tests left?"

"Three. And don't get your hopes up. It's unlikely that you'll dig out of dead last even if you hit perfect scores on all of them."

The indifferent expression disappeared from her face and a lopsided grin took its place. "I'll have to get better than perfect then." Nagi lifted her arm towards him, numerous of its small scars coming into full view as she accepted the challenge with a flick of her fingers. "Improbability doesn't mean impossibility, right?"

"Believe what you want, the facts won't change." Aizawa nodded his head at a student that at spotting him made Nagi's eyes widen in recognition. Large, pale silver eyes mimicked hers at seeing her and floppy skin-colored ears tipped a lighter brown bristled slightly.

A thousand emotions rushed through her mind and boiled the blood coursing through every vessel in her body. All were conflicting with one another, but two won over the rest: bewilderment and joy. The latter made her cocky grin change to a much gentler smile that she sent his way and her hand gestured just as carefully to her classmate.

"Pass it here, Yoh-chan."

Kisaragi Yohsei held onto the ball with both his hands before slightly nodding his head, strands of short blue hair bobbing in time, and showing a shaky smile of his own. "Good luck, Nagi-san." Without another word, Yohsei tossed the ball her way and Nagi easily caught them along with it.

Luck. Now that there was something she'd need if she wanted to put her money were her mouth was. Then again life wasn't all about luck. It was about effort. And this was the first place to show what her determination was worth. Letting the faux confidence from before fuel her, she winked at him. "Who needs luck?"

Pivoting her whole body to face the outer part of the field, Nagi let her Quirk activate let it passively probe her surroundings. Her bracelets were the first she sensed—the distinct touch of her specially made equipment light against her wrists and making her skin tingle. The buildings surrounding them had some too if the faint sensation of it was anything to go by. Guess all the glass was for just show. But what surprised her most and got her grin to broaden was the trace titanium she sensed in the softball. A glance to the device Aizawa held only verified her suspicions.

I love technology.

The trace amounts in the ball would be enough to propel it if she gave it enough momentum to fly. But to transfer a good amount of kinetic energy to it, she needed to have it in the first place. A swipe of her arm would give it a bit of propulsion but a ball was different from her spears. That much more surface area meant more resistance and less velocity.

No, I'm gonna need more than just a hand gesture.

Walking as far as her enclosure allowed her to, her mind reeled thinking of what to do as she tossed the ball into the air. Garnering enough energy in her body to transfer would be quite the task in such tiny space but there had to be a way of doing it without going out of bounds. Besides, if she got herself into this stupid mess, she'd get herself out just the same.

Two will be a tight squeeze but not impossible.

Two it'd be then. Two tight ones but she was sure she would stay in bounds if she did them right. Squatting down with the ball still in her hand, Nagi stared at her shoes and took a deep breath before kicking off. The first backflip landed her at the center of the circle and the second her foot landed, she kicked off again with the second to backflip again. As her body turned, she forced her arm out and threw the ball in mid air, transfering the momentum from her body to the titanium residue inside it in one fell swoop.

A familiar ripple ran along her arm and down her spine, almost as if something had been ripped from her the instant she let it fly. Despite the titanium she controlled always feeling like simply another extension of her body, the sensation that crawled through her bones anytime she let any of it go was one she could never get fully used to. But that feeling was good. It meant she had ahold of her control. Which is why even landing just mere inches away from the boundaries didn't distract her from the ball as it traveled further and further away. It finally dawned on her that the connection broke when she no longer felt it's presence or that rippling throughout her body. She guessed it started its descent by then and stood to look over at Aizawa for the results.

Aizawa remained impassive and stared at the device in his hands for moment. A beep went through and he turned it over for her to see without batting an eye. The bright screen displayed a white '732.2 meters' against an iridescent blue. "First base, Chitanko. Don't strike out."

"Yessir," she said under her breath, picking up her discarded jacket and following the rest of her classmates to the next task with high hopes—

Which were dashed into pieces faster than she could blink.

"Your total scores are a reflection of your performances in each of the events. Explaining how would be a waste of time so all you're getting are the end results."

Just put an end to my misery and chop my head off already.

Nagi expected things to be hard after missing most of the apprehension tests but she hadn't expected the remaining ones to be in areas where her Quirk would be utterly useless. The softball throw had been a good score—the only good score. She somehow managed to force herself past her limits on the upper-body test for once, but the endurance run... Just thinking about the failure of that last one made her curl down into a ball and shudder at her own incompetence.

Her eyes wandered at wanting to avoid seeing the dreaded scores and as they scanned her new classmates, they came to rest on a familiar bluehead and set of floppy ears. The sight of Yohsei distracted her a bit, mostly because of how much he'd changed. How long had it been since she last saw or even talked to him? Any of them for that matter. If she recalled correctly, only a handful of years.

Certainly has felt longer than that.

The corners of her lips lifted up for a brief moment before she was forced to focus on Aizawa and the scoreboard he projected in thin air. Just as he did though, he laid one last snip of information their way that floored almost everybody. "Also, I was lying about expelling someone." He gave them a shit-eating grin that bordered on sadistic at the stunned silence that followed. "That was rational deception meant to bring the best in you all."

A sigh escaped her from breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding and she welcomed the relief after that tiny heart attack with open arms. Falling back to a proper seat on the ground haphazardly, Nagi groaned into her hands from the curved ball he'd thrown their way, "...you've gotta be kidding me." But even if the threat of expulsion had been a lie, there wasn't much to celebrate either. She hit it dead last by default even with how well two of her three tests went.

"Being tied for last—not the best starting line." But at least it's one.

"Don't count your blessings just yet." A looming shadow clouded the sunlight over her and made Nagi look up to meet Aizawa's piercing red glare. "You still arrived an hour late to class on the first day." Taking a note from his pocket he plastered it on her forehead making her slump back.

She took the piece of crumpled paper with quick hands and the instant she read it, her eyes widened at the punishment scribbled. "A week's detention!?"

"You waste my time, I waste yours."

"But I meet with Chun-chan after school!"

"Not for the rest of the week, you aren't."

"We're working on a new things though!"

"Missing a day won't kill you."

"But that's—" Before she could finish her sentence, Aizawa threw his scarf to wrap around the bottom half of her head and neck, effectively covering her mouth completely. The sudden rough treatment startled her into silence and let Aizawa give his piece.

"I simply cannot comprehend how you fail to hold your tongue." Plenty of things wanted to leave her lips to retort to that but seeing as they were shut forcefully at the moment, Nagi could do little to protest. In the end, she resigned to her silence and looked askance. Aizawa glared at her for a second longer before groaning and undoing the hold of his scarf on her. "Let this be the last time it happens, Chitanko. Making Suzume's job harder isn't mine. Don't make it yours."

So...many...puns.

Don't.

"...yessir."

He left her with no further addendum. Nagi thanked the heavens that out of any punishment imaginable she got the least terrible of them. Still...this means I have to wake earlier than I usually do for the next week. She sighed through her nose and settled with counting her remaining blessings instead. At least homeroom is over. With that thought came another, and it made her beeline it to a certain short, bluehead with floppy ears after she picked herself up and her jacket alongside her. She snaked her arm around his shoulders and grinned at Yohsei who jumped in his skin before lifting his gaze to meet hers.

"Hey, Yoh-chan. Been awhile."

"Um, yes, it has. I was, well, shocked to see you here, Nagi-san." Although many obvious things changed about him, it seemed his cordial sheepishness hadn't. He still shrunk down, slouching forward, and his ears still fell down the side of his mess of a head life earmuffs.

"Long story, really, but I decided to become a hero too. Seems you worked up a much tougher ladder I did if you're in our class, though." Not a very far-fetched assumption with him being a year younger than her and all.

Yohsei chuckled at the compliment, his shoulders finally relaxing somewhat. "Y-Yes, I suppose so. Did you, well, catch up too?"

"Yep!" She took her arm back to make her strides fall in tandem with his and walk side by side with him. He hadn't grown much either by the looks of it. Nagi could probably guess that he barely reached to her neck if he stood straight. "Was hard work but I made it happen. Glad I did so even more now that we're classmates. Lucky us!"

"...yeah, lucky..."

"What was that?"

Yohsei vehemently shook his head, his hands reaching up to pull down lightly at his ears and lips turning up slightly into a small smile. "Congratulations on getting in."

"You too," she replied with a lopsided grin of her own. "We shouldn't let our guards down just yet though. We're against others who worked just as hard too, so let's do our best." The small boy gave a subtle nod of agreement but remained quiet through Nagi's nonsensical tirade thereafter. But even as she talked on their way back to the classroom, her mind wondered in a completely different direction at that reminder. It wasn't easy to forget that they were among the best of the best now, handpicked from thousands of applicants. Some even recommended.

Wonder who those lucky ones are?

---

Turquoise eyes trailed after the delicate movements of a dainty hand as it prepared tea. Leaving the pot to broil on the small electric stove in her office, Shishio Suzume—or as she so affectionately called her, Chun-chan—walked over to a particular cupboard to pull out a couple of intricately-designed cups and saucers. It was her hobby, collecting those expensive looking tea sets. Nagi didn't see the appeal. Sure, they were pretty and all but she didn't see anything other than that to them.

Porcelain and glass were too fragile, easily destroyed, and once broken they were almost always impossible to put back to how they used to be—much like people.

"Tea?" the older woman asked once the broil was done, a couple of fingers brushing straight jet black hair behind one ear.

Nagi knew better than to decline.

With the delicacy and grace that reminded her of flowing water, Suzume prepared their cups—hers was a white with intricate animal carvings in silver and a pale red. Nothing special since compared to others, really, since she tended to rotate the ones she used between sessions. Meanwhile Nagi's was always the same—a clear teacup with a gold handle that Chun-chan gifted her their first session almost a year ago. It was one of the least conspicuous ones she had offered from her collection. A peace offering, she had called it. A teacup, Nagi had thought in retort, but accepted the present all the same.

She busied herself in the stillness of the room to serve the two cups, taking Nagi's and placing it before her on her side of the table. The opaque brown liquid seemed dark in the clear crystal and it quietly reflected by light and even something that resembled her face when she peered down at it.

Suzume neared another tray that held two topped cups. "Honey and almond milk. You prefer those, right?"

Her pouring both into the blend was answer enough. Suzume took her time across the table to prepare hers and let themselves settle down in her office. There wasn't a need for that where Nagi was concerned and in her boredom her eyes wandered and took the room in. It was maybe twice the size of the office she had in her agency but by the looks of it, she made use of the space given to her by Yuuei. Simply by the way it was decorated and arranged—shelves across a wall mounted with her collection and another with books upon books of psychology and psychiatry, and furniture kept pristine with only minor signs of wear—there wasn't any mistaking who it belonged to. Nagi had been in and out of that old office of hers for the past year to not recognize the woman's touch.

Her eyes came back to the said person sitting across from her in a tall, deep green armchair that, compared to the wider bronze lounge she sat on, looked cramped. Despite its size, Suzume made it seem comfortable as she serenely drank her tea.

A few sips of hers was all Nagi could muster before impatience started gnawing at her. She never liked sitting across from the woman. Although she didn't hate her—far from it, really—Nagi always found it troublesome to have to gauge her. Beneath that pensive and demure facade of a quaint psychologist laid the Soulful Hero, Bluebird, whose words were as dangerous as her touch. In her opinion, the latter was the deadliest one of two. Fortunately, she could relax somewhat knowing that Suzume'd have to reach over the table to ever come close to touching her.

I may like her but I can't say I feel the same way about her Quirk.

"Well..."

The soft clink of the cup on its saucer rung loudly—or maybe it was just her tense nerves making things sound louder to her ears—and caught her off guard, making her jump in her skin a little. Her hand reached up to the side of her head and brushed back tresses of sleek ebony to expose a gear attached behind her left ear. It was a strange idiosyncrasy of hers that Nagi caught onto after the first few sessions. Anybody would've confused the small apparatus for a hearing aid but from the way Suzume twisted a dial, the distinct clicking of each rotation wholly audible, Nagi thought better than to chalk it up to such simple explanation. Once done, Suzume raised a gentle jade gaze and smiled her way. "How was your first day of school, Nagi?"

"Normal, I guess." Nagi bobbed her head from one side to the other, the free tresses free from her ponytail swinging with each movement and bringing the white tips into view. She followed their metronomic swing to not meet Suzume's gaze. "Well, aside from the fact that I was late because I got caught up taking pictures of the city."

"Yes, your homeroom teacher let me know about the change in your schedule for the upcoming week." The soft chuckle that bounced around made Nagi stop briefly to look at her. Suzume wasn't hard to read since she opted into being an open book to encourage the same out of Nagi, but she often doubted that. Her glance lasted only a moment, enough to gauge her before going back to the methodic sway from before. "I was also told he put the class through Quirk apprehension tests. How did you feel about those?"

"Considering that I came dead last mostly because of my forgetful dumbass, it went as bad as I expected it to."

"You expected that?"

"I'm kidding, Chun-chan." The swaying stopped again, her head ending in a tilt as she smirked. "Frankly speaking, the tests I did weren't bad and the ones before didn't sound challenging in the least either. I'm sure had I gotten to class in time, I would've scored higher. I think where I actually got the short end of the stick was in getting Aizawa as my homeroom teacher." I didn't even know he taught.

"Shouta's a well-rounded teacher and experienced pro hero, Nagi. I'm sure this first impression of his teaching style you have isn't all there is to it and will most likely change over time."

"No, I'm pretty sure he went all out today," Nagi responded and slightly shuddered at the reminder of that clothe wound tightly around her. "His spartanic teaching style clashed a hell of a lot with how I remember him being. And the fact that he knows me only adds to that potluck of bad luck I've been having all day."

"Are you afraid you won't meet his expectations?"

"Not particularly. He was tough on us but I understand why and I'm prepared to surpass those expectations, whatever they may be. Plus ultra and all that stuff, right?" She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and took another sip of her tea. "I guess the good thing with him being my homeroom teacher is that class won't be as boring as I thought it'd be."

There wasn't any real pause after that seeing as the conversation took a more earnest turn. "How was your control today?"

Her gaze fell to her hands and to the bracelets around her wrists. "Can't complain. No hiccups if that's why you're asking. Same as it's been for the last three years." The age of the many scars along the lengths of her arms and legs were proof of that. A pair of silver eyes accompanied the reminder. Now with the sudden idea of him in her mind, it was impossible for Nagi to keep to herself. "Yohsei's in the same class as me."

Suzume impassiveness broke when a knowing smile came to her lips like a mother's who'd been talking her children through a question she already knew the answer to. "I did hear about that, yes."

It annoyed her hearing that sweetness in her voice. "You knew and didn't tell me."

"I didn't see a reason to." The sweetness left her voice and she returned to being as calm as before. The smile didn't disappear though and it bothered her. The woman had an uncanny ability of toeing the line separating genuinity and insincerity—her words as well as her actions held that ambiguity to them that Nagi just didn't like. "Was I wrong?"

"Not really." The annoyance, however, swelled in her chest. She couldn't understand why it irked her so much that Suzume hadn't said a word about Yohsei attending Yuuei, much less being in her class. Perhaps it'd been the lying but then again lying implied that she'd asked about him in the first place. And she seldom asked about any of them anymore.

"...how are they?"

"Who?"

"The others." Nagi lifted her gaze from counting her scars to meet Suzume's jade eyes. "Are they well?"

Suzume pursed her lips as if thinking how to respond. That didn't bode well with her. Her head hung in a slow nod and the smile from before disappeared, showing instead a thin line tugged at the corners. Out of all of them, Nagi liked that one best. "To my knowledge, yes."

"Mm." With that, Nagi laid back fully against her chair and rested her head against one side. So tired. With the exhaustion clinging to her body after a long day like a second skin, her interest wavered and she started playing with the ends of her ponytail to occupy herself. "Are there others I should know of?"

"Not really."

Uh-huh. It dawned on Nagi after numerous sessions that there existed the sort of replies that didn't really answer much but that hid lots of things underneath them. Catching these was the easy part. Deciphering how to get the information out of her was a different story.

"Are there others attending Yuuei besides Yohsei and I?"

"I can't answer that."

"That's not a no."

"Nagi."

"Telling me won't change anything, Chun-chan," Nagi retorted as she lazily flexed each finger by touching it to the end of her palm to distract herself of her mounting ire. "I'm not going to look for them or even talk to them. I have no reason to. Yohsei's the exception seeing as he's my classmate, but that's as far as things will go. So what's the harm in telling me?"

"There isn't any. I was just asked not to divulge information about any of you."

"From the principal or are you just making that up to not tell me?"

"The principal," Suzume confirmed.

"Oh." But that didn't really satisfy her. In that split moment of silence, Nagi went down the list of names carded the depths of in her brain. From one hundred and four to twenty-six and ending on seven. Most of them lived too far to attend Yuuei and she doubted any of them moved just for that. With herself and Yohsei out by default, that left few viable options. The one that came to mind most prominently spilled out of her lips without meaning to. "Is it Ikari?"

Her silence neither confirmed nor denied it. She remained stoic as well so there wasn't anything to take from that either. The sudden and slightly forceful settling of her cup on its saucer though did give off a bit of her mood. "Nagi, we're here to talk about you."

"And I want to talk about them."

"That's not how this works and you know that." At the drop of a hat, Suzume's gentle tone changed and her eyes narrowed down on her. Uh-oh, Blue's here. "May I remind you that it was under my sanction that Yuuei was allowed to consider your application for the entrance exam in the first place? And I know you are smart enough to know what will happen if you refuse me now."

There's the hook, sinker, and whole live bait.

No way in hell was Nagi forgetting that little caveat of theirs. Her decision to apply to Yuuei the year before hadn't been a thoughtless one, after all. And those limitations and obstacles that mocked her back then never deterred her when all was said and done. It took arduous studying through lots of sleepless nights for her to even graduate with the rest of the kids her age. But even that paled in comparison to the highest hurdle: that pesky record of hers. That they were sealed didn't matter either since schools with a hero course required transparency. Despite never being convicted of anything, her records still held weight, and the only one with the power to render them mute was her appointed psychologist.

And dear ole Chun-chan gladly accepted to do that for her—

If she agreed to reinstate their sessions and take them seriously. What's more, if at anytime Nagi refused, Suzume would revoke her agreement which would leave Yuuei with no other choice but to kick her out onto the proverbial curb.

I regret my decision sometimes. Now was one of them with how Suzume effortlessly cornered her with mere words. Maybe she'd been wrong to think her touch deadlier.

Heaving a sigh, Nagi crossed her legs on the seat to lean forward on her elbows and put her cheek against her open palms. "Fine, fine, you win. But at least keep the conversation going for me, will you? I'm kind of tired from the whole of today."

The aloofness disappeared and the amiable demeanor returned; a change at the drop of a hat. "Of course. I see you brought your camera to school. Want to tell me about what you've photographed?"

Scoffing at how easily she changed the subject—and to something she actually liked talking about no less—Nagi picked up the case from beside her chair and took out the camera. As she clicked through the different photos she set the camera on the table before passing it to Suzume. Through her perusal, the corners of her lips tugged upwards with each one she saw. After a couple of minutes, she lifted her gaze away from the device, deep green eyes boring into Nagi's.

"They're fewer than usual."

"Studying and training took a lot of my time these past months. Didn't have much time to take pictures."

A thin eyebrow of hers lifted as if unconvinced by her excuses. "I thought we agreed to make time for things we enjoyed doing."

"And I do, but slacking off a few weeks won't kill me." Or magically make me any better. That last thought she kept to herself though, and instead took out her phone from her pocket. "I did take some with my phone. More of the same though."

"Sceneries again?"

Nagi shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, her eyes focused on a particular spot on the far wall where the paint was uneven. "They're pretty." And sell well with journalists too busy to take their own photos.

"Undoubtedly. And you have real talent too. You capture them in a way that almost seems surreal, like capturing a moment in time in all its beauty."

Suddenly the oddly painted wall didn't seem as interesting. She briefly peeked from under her lashes before quickly turning away to try and hide the dust of pink that crossed her cheeks. Despite how comfortable she'd become with Suzume, Nagi knew better than to let her guard down completely. Bluebird knew how to talk someone down and out of their defenses after all. "I'm not that good."

"You are too," Suzume repeated and chuckled at one picture in particular. "You've got some of Mighty too?"

Although hearing the name aloud did taint the tip of her ears a bit red from the embarrassment of the name, Nagi feigned an aloof expression and covered her mouth with her hand to keep her pursed lips from giving her away. "I was in my apartment a lot and she tends to stay still long enough for me take the pictures. She lets me pose her sometimes when she's feeling lazy enough."

"She's quite the model, isn't she?"

"Yeah."

"None of anybody else, though."

Turquoise eyes wandered up to linger on dark jade, stopping shortly on that motherly smile that came back to her lips. A switch turned back and she threaded her words carefully. "Who would I take pictures of?"

"Friends. Coworkers maybe."

Her shoulders loosened in a makeshift shrug and she sunk as far as she could into the collar of her blazer. "My coworkers aren't the most interesting of people. And friends aren't a thing I particularly have."

"Not even one?"

I suppose Yori but they hate me taking pictures of them. The few she did have were blurry as hell and, well...not really him. Though it soured her mood, she dispelled that thought with a shake of her head and answered Suzume's question in the process. "Not very chatty if you haven't noticed. Don't think people would like to hang around me."

"I highly disagree with that." Suzume mimicked her position, crossing her ankles instead and leaning her cheek against two fingers. "I know if you had the modicum of interest in it, you would make friends as easily as you take those wonderful photographs."

Doubt it. "Maybe."

"Why not try then?"

Not interested. "I'd rather not."

"I'd rather you try once." With her other hand, she mentioned to the case that laid by Nagi's side before sliding the camera back over to her side of the table. "Your homework for our next session: bring at least one picture of a friend you've made."

Nagi raised an incredulous eyebrow at the childish assignment. "You expect me to befriend someone in five days?"

"They don't necessarily have to be best friends with you. An acquaintance would suffice, so long as it isn't Yohsei-kun. Simply find someone, get to know them, and ask if you can take a picture of them."

"You make it sound easy."

"Because it can be that easy, Nagi." Suzume assured with a gentle smile—one that reached her jade eyes, the one that she liked. "If only you try."

---

Try, huh.

She blew a tiny, raspberry at hearing Suzume's words on repeat in her head. Instead of lingering on them, though, she focused on the continuous clicking of keys as she typed away on a keyboard. It irritated her that the sound echoed in the empty computer room more than she would've wanted. State of the art technology in generously large cubicles lined row after row of the vast room she was in. Knowing the brands and just exactly what a pretty penny they cost, it amazed Nagi that Yuuei still found the money to waste on the huge hunks of metal they used in the entrance exam. But she wasn't complaining either. Not when they had what she'd ask Suzume about as well.

"Photo printers?"

"I haven't found the time to empty the other memory card and this one's already full too. I'm short on spare cash this month so I can't buy another one, and printing the bunch I want is kinda pricey too. Do you know if Yuuei has any?"

When all was said and done, trusting and honest Suzume didn't see harm in telling her where to go. Aside from the one she was in there were four others just like this one which meant that, apart from a couple of students sprinkled here and there, the one she stumbled upon first wasn't crowded at all. Spotting a good corner, she took the station the further away from prying eyes.

Her fingers made fast work of taking the memory card out of her camera while sparing a glance or two to log on in between. It was in and loading within seconds but what surprised her was that folders opened automatically including the one that held over a 1500 pictures. Equally parts strange and amazing, she brushed it off for now and instead baffled at the number. Guess it'd truly been a long time since she last cleaned this one out apparently. Exactly a year and a half ago by the last photo in the folder.

A blurry one of Yori. One of them, anyway.

Unnecessary as it was, she went ahead closing the ones that didn't matter and left only the one with her most recent pictures. One in particular of Mi-chan lounging on her bed stood out and she clicked on to export it into the computer. The moment it transferred, the program in it ran—the upload animation she'd made of a pixelated kitten took off on a run as the program ran. Not wasting a second and printing a third of the batch from the folder, Nagi split her attention from that to focus on the windows her program couldn't bypass to do it manually, the noise of the photo printer drowning her digilent typing.

Smart. Their systems were truly advanced with numerous walls to avoid and complicated codes to decrypt if she wanted to pass undetected. An error on her part could very well set off alarms and spell the end before she even started. A big 'if'there, though. The pixelated black cat, having stopped, sat patiently and waited to be allowed to continue its upload. Peeking to make sure she was in the clear and double-checking what pictures still needed to print, she hurried the process along. Half the batch printed by the time she got around the problem, but with no more complicated obstructions in its way, the cat moved along just fine. But I've broken smarter.

Pleased with her work, Nagi leaned her chair back on its hind legs and stretched her arms over her head, the audible 'pop' of her joints reaching her ears through the noise. A sudden window popping up and the cat stopping put a dent on that quickly enough though.

That's what I get for gloating. With a frustrated click of her tongue, she let her chair fall back again to take look at the problem. She grimaced at simply skimming through it and refrained from touching anything while the photos printed behind her with less and less left to go by the minute. Now that's new.

The usual loopholes weren't there. The code was even covered for the few obscure ones she knew by memory.

She was stuck. And there wasn't a way around it; not one she could figure out in the few minutes that it'd take for the remaining photos to print, anyway. For as much as she hated to do so, Nagi backed off. You're staying kitty. Most of it had uploaded into the system, so bringing it back up at any terminal in the school would be easy once she cracked this monstrosity in her way.

You'll fall Goliath, that I promise ya.

That vow made in her head, she closed program itself, the cat disappearing with a flick of its pixelated tail just as the printer slowed down from the load of work. Swiftly taking her memory card and photos and putting them away before logging off, Nagi walked out of the computer room but set off on a sprint once through the gigantic gate.

Despite the setback, she'd done more than she expected to in the end and the giddiness had her skipping all the way to the train station. Once out and on the way to her part time job, she fished her phone out of her blazer's pocket and searched through her contacts for the number. Today should be...ah. A finger hovering over the screen and contact and dialed the number. She stopped short at a red crossing light in the midst of a crowd then as the other line rung once and then twice until Yori picked it up in the middle of the third ring.

"My sweet Nagi! To what do I owe the honor?" they answered perkily through the other line. A female's voice. She guessed it right; Chiharu's day was today.

Skipping across the street once the light turned green, Nagi let the giddiness fuel her on her way to work. It was way too much to contain with how relatively smooth things were going and she couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her at the small pun she said.

"Cat's in the bag~"

---

A/N:

Oh my goodness!This was hell to proofread!But I loved every second of it! (.◜ω◝.)

It took me a whole month to write this, rewrote it through the first edit, and after my friend got back to me about it (Avi, I love you, you're the best!), I rewrote it again and added more! I ADDED MORE! This thing's double what I thought it'd be! I'm losing my freaking mind here!

*lets the rusted circuits of brain cool down*

Okay, I'm better now. I don't want to take much of your guys time away so I'll be as brief about things as I can even when I have tons of things to say (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))

Ahem! Well for starters,let me give you guys a good summary (since ffs is kinda crap with how short they have to be):

Ever since their discovery, Quirks have shone the brightest of lights upon the world. But that light has also cast the largest and most dangerous shadows. Shadows that have grown to evolve over generations, claw at the unsuspecting and destroy the wills and lives of the least deserving. They stalk their prey away from the limelight that created them—they hunt what is whole and beautiful and ruin it, leaving in their wake broken pieces of what they once were.

"What is broken is beautiful when one cares to repair it."

Nagi disagrees wholeheartedly. Nothing that is broken is beautiful nor ever whole again, no matter how it's fixed. Being that her belief, she holds the pieces of herself together between unsteady fingertips and seeks out the remnants of the shadows that preyed on her instead. But as new people and friendships come into the limelight of her damaged world, piecing it into one where heroes are brave and villains defeated once again, her grasp trembles.

With doubt.

With hope.

"How can a world so broken shine so brightly...and how can I shine just as bright?"

Now, let me properly welcome you all to my very first BnHA story! For those of you who are new, I'm Evie For those of you who came over from CoU and TM thinking to yourselves "Ah, here she goes again. Now we're gonna get even slower updates" all I've gotta say is "HA! Joke's on me cuz you guys know me so well" (/ω＼) Jk! For reals! I promise this won't hinder updates as much as you think. They'll still come bundled up (or just a little delayed from one another) of that you can rest assured!

And well, aside from that, all I've gotta say for myself is that I couldn't help myself any longer. I legit was going to wait on publishing this but I just couldn't. Not only was I inspired to write it, a wholesome community that I just joined made me all the more excited to share this with the fandom (ﾉヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ So I have them to thank as well!

But I digress. I've had this idea swimming in my head for a very, very long time despite having 2 other wips to work on already and, well, I've wanted to write it since then. So much so that I'll gladly welcome the added load with open arms if it means I can write it. Tho slots will be shared and this will take a very slight backseat (sort of/not really~) I will be working on it nonstop all the same! I'm in love with this series and this is the only damn way I know how to show it! And hell, ain't nobody stopping me from doing it (۶•̀ᴗ•́)۶

That's all I've got to say for now. Let me know what you guys think about it~ Anyway, hope that you all enjoyed the first chapter of Golden Repair and also that you'll all accompany my little Nagi on this brand new adventure!

Wish all you lovelies a great day/night and hope you stay tuned for the next chapter!

- Evie