Chapter 1: A Call from the Past
Strands of gold danced in the air as a gentle breeze caressed the figure of a young woman who stood by the forest edge, emerald eyes transfixed by the soft glimmers the afternoon sun created on the pond's surface a distance away. Her white sundress fluttered slightly as another gust of wind passed by, rippling the still waters of the pond, and she raised a pale white hand to secure her sun hat that had, just moments ago, been tempted to fly off.
This small clearing in the forest was still one of her favourite places to relax in despite having travelled to almost all scenic locations in the world. There was just nothing comparable to the fresh, brisk air in Canada during the spring, she thought with a pleased grin. She had just been about to lift off the ground and hover above the tall evergreens that surrounded the pond in order to get her favourite view of the clearing when her cell phone, which she swore she had put on silence, rang. Loudly. The jovial sounding ringtone echoed and disrupted the peaceful mood. Mentally growling at herself for forgetting to turn off her phone, she lifted her phone to receive the call.
"Leia speaking," she spoke tersely, still somewhat annoyed by the interruption.
"Oh! Is this Sylph?" came a bright cheerful voice from over the phone.
"…"
It had been years since someone had used her hero name, and though the calls to her hero name were extremely frequent when she first left her agency, they had stopped two years ago when she threw out her old number and got a new one under her real name, Leia.
It wasn't like she had a falling out with the society she had been serving, nor had it been because she had suffered a serious injury that forced her to retire.
No.
She had simply been bored.
In Canada, there had barely been any crime more drastic than minor scuffles on the street. Of course, some were larger than others, but when compared to what she heard from other countries…
They were fairly tame. Dull.
Eventually, after apprehending the same sort of victims for a couple of years, she had just gotten bored and had resigned. She found that the monotonous lifestyle did not suit her, and with her earnings, she chose to explore the world.
"Hello?" prompted voice uncertainly over the phone after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, I'm Sylph, but I go by Leia now," Leia answered. "Haven't been Sylph for years actually, so if this is a call to capture a villain, count me out," she replied, yawning slightly at the idea of another boring villain chase.
"Well," squeaked the voice, "It appears that I'm just in luck!"
"Oh?" queried Leia.
"This isn't about villains! Rather, I've called to talk to you about the application you sent in five years ago to the U.A. High School in Japan."
Did he just say U.A. High School?
"Wait," said Leia as a grin stretched across her face as she recognized the voice. "Principal Nezu! It's been too long since I've heard from you!"
"I've been quite busy the past few years, and it wasn't like you took initiative to check in with your poor old mentor," Nezu teased.
"I was busy as well!' complained Leia childishly.
"Of course you were," Nezu snorted, making it apparent that he didn't buy it.
Leia huffed as her mouth twitched into a fond smile. Just because she was not working didn't mean that she wasn't busy. She had a life. She explored, and she still had a bunch of places that she still wanted to explore.
"I'll apologize, alright?" she playfully relented, "I just haven't kept up with U.A. since I returned to the Hero Academy in Canada after my transfer to U.A. for my second year."
"You were a good pupil," Nezu murmured, nostalgia hitting him as he thought of the lessons he had taught her during Leia's workplace training sessions with him.
Leia shivered slightly in fear as she remembered the amount of logic puzzles and life-threatening strategy games that Nezu had put her through. She laughed sheepishly, ready to switch topics. "So how's the school doing?" she asked curiously.
"The school is doing its best, as it has always been, to push out quality heroes each year," Nezu chirped brightly. There was a slight pause in the conversation before a quiet sigh was heard. "But unfortunately, one of our teacher's health has been declining… and when the villains figure out who, they will attack viciously."
"Oh?" Leia made a noise of interest.
Another unhappy sigh. "The villains have been really active in Japan lately. The news hasn't said anything because it wouldn't do for the public to panic, but the crime rates have definitely been increasing steadily… I'm concerned for the student's safety."
Leia listened, feeling slightly awkward at her mentor's unusual display of emotions. She really wasn't the best at comforting people. She stayed quiet, hoping that her mentor would continue the conversation, but after a few minutes of silence, she realized that it was up to her to break the awkwardness that had settled over their conversation.
She cleared her throat. "So basically, you want me to come and provide an extra hand… you want me to be a guard of sorts?" Leia asked. Knowing that her mentor was sad, she had tried to ask the question as neutrally as possible, but she couldn't help the distaste that seeped into her voice at the thought of being a simple guard.
Boring. Dull.
"If that's the case," she chuckled awkwardly, "I'm sure there are tons of heroes that would be interested in helping. You know I hate that sort of stuff… dealing with children and whatnot…"
Nezu gave a small resigned laugh. "Was it that obvious what I wanted to ask you to do?"
The silence on the other side answered his question. He could literally imagine his old pupil arching an eyebrow at his question.
"Well, that was what I wanted to ask. However!" Nezu exclaimed, "things are never dull with young heroes running around the campus causing mischief."
Nezu paused. "Even the police don't know this yet, but…" he trailed off in contemplation as to whether he should tell his old pupil about his musings.
"I won't tell anyone," said Leia solemnly. Though whatever her mentor was concerned about had yet to happen, his speculations were usually point on; they might as well have made his speculations classified information.
Nezu hesitated only for a moment longer before he confided in his pupil. "I believe that an attack will happen soon. And when it does happen," his tone turned serious, "it'll be deadly."
Leia's eyes widened slightly. It had been a while since her mentor had used that tone.
What is happening in Japan!?
"Why do think this will happen?" she questioned with a slight hint of worry.
At this, she could literally imagine her mentor's eyes lighting up with excitement as he droned on and on for the next thirty or so minutes about the intricacies of probabilities and his ability to predict things using his quirk, High Spec.
That information went in one ear, and out the other.
Leia continued to make the customary agreeing sounds until Nezu realized that his lecture was falling on deaf ears. "I've lost you, haven't I?" he asked.
"After the first minute," agreed Leia.
"This brings me back," reminisced the principal.
Leia gave a small guilty chuckle in response.
"Well, either way," Nezu continued, "I know you aren't on a job or anything right now, so would you mind coming over to U.A within the next week so we could have a more detailed discussion face-to-face?"
Leia privately wondered how he knew that she had not taken a job but thought against asking. She didn't want another thirty-minute lecture, and if she was to be honest,…
She also didn't want the job that her old mentor was offering. She was perfectly content with travelling the world in search of more hidden locations. Her search kept her busy, and whichever villains had crossed her paths, had often been interesting—the perfect seasoning to keep her life exciting and eventful. Leia was, at this moment, very content and comfortable with her life.
Sensing his student's reluctance, Nezu threw in the lure that he knew she would not be able to resist. "I'll let you spar with one teacher of your choice when you arrive for our meeting—you don't even have to accept the position!"
Just as she had thought about turning him down, she fell silent at this offer.
Leia positively salivated at this idea. Her mentor knew her all too well.
The application process for U.A. was so long simply because there were always hundred-thousands of applicants each year. Hell, it had taken her 5 years to get a reply—her application had probably been buried under the mounds of the other applications. The heroes that were selected to teach were among the best. They were probably, at the very least, just as good as the most dangerous villains she had defeated and captured in the European countries for fun.
There was also the rumour that All Might, Japan's top hero, was teaching at the school.
This was a chance that Leia would not be willing to miss for anything.
"All right, if All Might is up for a small competition, then I'll be there in three days," she promised.
Nezu hesitated in his reply, something that Leia immediately noticed.
"Well," Nezu said slowly with a bit of reluctance, "All Might has been really busy these past few days—you know with him being the top hero and all—so if you want to spar with him, there'll be a time limit. It can't go on for more than two hours."
Why did he hesitate?
Either way, the time limit didn't matter to much to Leia. As long as she got her match, she didn't mind.
"I was just thinking ten minutes—" Leia smirked "—after all, ten minutes, where we both go at each other in full power is often enough to determine the flow of the battle, as well as the victor."
Nezu's face brightened up considerably at these words. "Done! I'll see you in three days then!" he chirped before cutting off the line.
A grin flashed across Leia's face and excitement bubbled in her veins as she launched into the sky. She altered the natural flow of the wind currents to assist her, and within an hour, she was back in her apartment which lay snug within the quieter areas of the city. Ignoring her extremely wind-tangled hair, and the slight dryness of her eyes from travelling at a continual high speed without wearing goggles, she hastened to her laptop to search up plane tickets that would allow her to arrive in Japan in three days.
As expected, the tickets were expensive, being so close to the time of departure.
But at this point in her life, money didn't matter much to her.
Without a care in the world, Leia clicked "confirm order."
Her past agency and the few random jobs she had taken up while travelling had paid her very well. What was the point of money if you didn't spend it?
She reviewed her tickets that she had just bought: the plane would be leaving tomorrow night and arriving at the destination in the afternoon of the next day.
Well, let's just relax for the day, Leia thought, as she headed to the shower.
She would pack later.
Showers must be the best thing created in this world.
Leia stretched contentedly before she walked over to her desk to browse the internet. Initially, she had wanted to scroll through some art products that she had been keeping an eye on, but eventually, she somehow found herself researching U.A. High School.
How she got from art to U.A. she never knew.
First, she had curiously pulled up the roster of the teachers that were teaching there and was quite surprised to find the name 'Eraserhead' listed. She had recognized the hero-names of all the other teachers—they were famous—but she couldn't remember hearing that name on the news.
Who was this person?
Inputting 'Eraserhead' into the search box lead to a small handful of links. No videos. A couple of low-quality pictures, clearly shot in the night, showed the blurry image of a slender man with a mop of shoulder-length black hair, goggles, and a scarf. Most were pictures of him moving mid-air, chasing after villains with some sort of scarf.
Probably an underground hero, she thought since she had never heard of him before.
I wonder what his quirk is.
Maybe she could persuade the principal into giving her a short match with this man on top of the already promised match with All Might.
She continued to browse through the web, and soon she found numerous pictures of U.A. She gaped in amazement when she saw some of these pictures. U.A. had so much more property now compared to when she was a transfer there.
Hell, the grounds were enormous enough to contain a full-blown forest.
Wait. Why am I searching up all this information about U.A? I'm not about to work there.
With that thought, Leia closed her laptop, ate a quick microwavable meal, flopped down onto her bed, and turned in for the night.
She woke up the next morning to a cheerful weather. The sun streaming through her cream-coloured window blinds created small pools of light in her bedroom. One particularly large puddle of light fell directly on the pile of mess she had created late last night on the floor.
She had been tossing the clothes that she had contemplated on bringing with her to U.A. on the ground. Then, she had been too lazy to organize them, so she had just left it on her floor. She mentally checked off her list of comfort-wear as she folded them neatly and placed them in her luggage.
The next article of clothing caught her attention.
It was her hero costume.
She gently and fondly stroked the ironed fabric of her cape with nostalgia as she picked it up and placed them in a separate compartment of her suitcase. It had been forever since she had seen or worn it. If she was honest with herself, the time when she had received her costume had probably been one of the most exciting moments of her short-lived pro-hero career. The Department of Support in her transfer year to U.A. had been extremely accommodating to her preferences. Her costume was mostly just for aesthetics, though the goggles and the well-crafted body suit did come into play if she wanted to travel at extremely high speeds—which for the difficulty of her jobs in Canada, was not required.
Her cape, on the other hand, had just been made to offer her secrecy. The deep forest green fabric lined with earthy brown markings on its edge had often fluttered about her—like wings—whenever she had travelled at high speeds. While walking around the media, she had been content to simply pull up the hood and hide her face as she slipped back into the shadows, away from attention.
Evening soon came, and after having spent the majority of the day running around her apartment and the mall to find the items that she needed to bring with her to Japan, she decided to double check—just to make sure that she had all her essentials.
Hero costume. Check.
Equipment. Check.
Sketchbooks and paints. Check.
Snacks. Check.
Well, Leia thought, everything seems to be in order.
She got up from the floor after checking the last item and did several stretches before strapping on a dagger to her upper thigh in case of emergencies.
Time to go.
She took one last glance at her apartment before she left with two luggage in tow behind her.
After grabbing a quick meal at the fast-food restaurant close by her apartment, she hailed a taxi and soon arrived at the airport. Thankfully, she still had her Pro-hero license, so the customs at the airport didn't look twice at her dagger before allowing her to pass.
Leia was herded like the other passengers and placed in the squished seats. No dinner was served, and soon the majority of the people on the plane was asleep. She sat uncomfortably squished between a portly man who snored loudly and between a baby who didn't seem to be able to stop crying.
She cursed her luck and soon succumbed to a light and restless sleep in which she was woken up periodically because of her neighbours.
The flight was blessedly eventless without any storms. She awoke on the plane to the blaring sound as the speakers on the plane turned on, broadcasting the pilot's voice thanking the passengers for taking the flight and informing them that they had now arrived in Japan.
Hailing a taxi at the airport, she clambered on after hastily telling the driver her address for the hotel that she had booked for the week.
After all, it wasn't like she was planning to take the job.
Arriving at the hotel in the middle of the night for Japan, she wistfully pondered about the weather that Canada would be experiencing right now: for one thing, it was bound to be degrees cooler, and right now, she would have been able to enjoy the bright afternoon sun while she sat in her forest retreat painting whatever scenes and images came to her mind.
Well, at least she would be able to see her old mentor in a couple of days.
Without unpacking her luggage, Leia collapsed heavily onto the soft bed in her hotel room and promptly fell into a blissful sleep without the sounds of neighbouring passengers.
Leia awoke, and the first thing she noticed was that her entire neck and body felt stiff.
Probably because of the plane.
Or it could have been because of the AC that had been blasting cool air directly on her non-stop for the entire night. She sat up and proceeded to do several stretches to loosen her muscles.
After having completed her morning routine and having eaten the complimentary breakfast that the hotel provided, she decided that she would explore the area around the hotel. She would have to learn to acclimatize to the weather if she wanted to perform to the best of her ability in her upcoming fight with All Might.
Her first step out the hotel was hell.
It was so hot here.
It had really been ages since Leia had travelled to the hotter countries, and she was reminded why she had been so resistant to do so in the first place. She had always been one for the cooler climate having lived so long in Canada.
Leia guessed that she could use her quirk as a fan, but the heat had drained most of her energy, making her feel pretty lazy. Besides, that was cheating, and it wasn't like she could fight effectively while using her quirk to cool herself down.
Mind as well just suck it up and endure a few days of torture until she felt sufficiently comfortable to fight in this heat. Well, she did have two more days to get used to this weather before her appointment with Nezu.
She spent the rest of the day hopping from shopping mall to shopping mall where there was AC. She endured what felt like a long hot walk between the stops and when the sun had set, and the temperature had cooled down somewhat, she tiredly made her way back to her hotel.
A nice cool shower later, Leia passed out as soon as her head touched the pillow on her bed.