Prelude

"Kyouka~! Wake up, sweetie! Time for breakfast!"

Fourteen-year-old Kyouka Jirou roused from her slumber, awakened by the sound of her mother's voice from downstairs. Sitting up with a groan, she rubbed the remnants of sleep from her eyes and stretched her arms upwards. Crawling out of bed, she stretched her legs out some before standing to prepare for the day. As she ambled toward the bathroom to freshen up, however, her foot caught on a cord that she had left strewn across the floor. Unable to catch herself, a stack of CD cases did instead, forcing the girl to her knees with a thud and a series of crashes as the cases tumbled to the floor beside her.

Shaking rubbing her head some as she willed away the dizziness from her fall, a call from her father grabbed her attention.

"Kyouka! Are you swan-diving off of your bed again?" Scowling slightly at his jab to her pride, she yelled out a retort.

"Oh can it, old man! I haven't done that since I was five!"

"Don't be like that, Kyo! I've got video of you doing it when you were eight!"

As she began to stack her CD cases back up where they belonged, she looked around her room with a sigh. Instruments sat in stands in the corner beside her bed while various records, CD cases, and magazines lay haphazardly on and around her bookshelf.

Padding down to the dining room, she spotted her father seated at the kitchen counter, watching the morning news story.

While she didn't typically pay it much heed, Kyouka had noticed the story that was being covered this morning involved a boy who appeared to be her age. Seating herself next to her old man, she watched the short clip being played over the reporters' commentary on the terrorizing of a local city district the night prior.

"'Reports say that this villain, whose quirk has been labeled as a Mutation-class quirk, had eluded police custody via the local sewers, hiding there until striking against the public last evening. Taking a teenage boy hostage, he vandalized and set ablaze the entire Eisley Avenue Market before a young man whose identity has remained anonymous rushed in, attempting to free the boy who had been encased in the villain's sludge.'"

At this point, the clip from the attack had started playing again and Kyouka watched it in its entirety. It showed a short piece focused on the villain and hostage, then turned and zoomed in on the boy who charged in. Reckless as it was, Kyouka couldn't help but see how plain the boy looked. Considering everything she saw of him in the short clip, the only 'unique' thing that she noticed about him was his green hair. Everything else that she had seen pointed to this reckless numbskull of a boy being the plainest person she had ever seen.

"'Upon this action, the Symbol Of Peace hurried in, stopping the villain's attacks and detaining him, freeing the boy and allowing local law enforcement and fire departments to close of the street. Shortly after, the fire had been put out. Until further investigation has been done, Eisley Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets has been blocked off from local traffic, barring law enforcement...'"

Kyouka huffed, shaking her head as she averted her gaze from the television to the plate her mother had just sat in front of her.

"Y'know, i feel like reckless numbskulls like that are the reason why there's so many Pro Hero Laws in effect... Rushing in like that..."

"You do realize, Kyo, that some might say that's the sign of a true hero." Kyotoku spoke up beside her as he drank his coffee.

Pondering her father's statement for a moment while she ate some of her mother's homemade omelette, she decided to speak her rebuttal afterwards.

"True hero? Sure, but a lot of good it'll do him when he's dead before he can even get certified as a hero. Besides, he didn't even try to use his Quirk. That's just pure recklessness."

Letting out a chuckle, Kyotoku slapped his daughter on the shoulder a few times.

"Don't worry. You'll learn to appreciate that aspect of people later in life."

As Mika sat down across from her daughter and husband, she interjected a question of her own, her tea steaming from the cup in her hands.

"Speaking of heroes, Kyouka dear, are you still wanting to try the entrance exam for U.A.?"