The bell rings.
A new year is about to begin at Yuei and the new generation of students is gathered in the huge courtyard of the school.
They have just finished the entrance test and someone has been rejected.
There are those who leave in tears, those who kick their backpack, those who are consoled by friends.
Principal Nezu, a little aged, explains the history of the prestigious Yuei high school from the top of his platform.
At the forefront of listening are two girls who made friends during the month of vacation between the last year of middle school and the first in that famous high school.
The first, Gojo, has the face of a cartoon character, with simplified and cheerful features. She has black cherry skin, thick golden yellow long hair and penetrating frost gray eyes underlined by black mascara.
She clings to her friend's shoulders and hops excitedly.
"We will be in the same class, Chisi-chan!"
She stretches her arms and legs like tapered balloons thanks to her Gummy Elasticity Quirk and laughs out loud of happiness.
Her friend Chisana smiles benevolently and looks at her without moving.
When Gojo and Chisana enter class 1-C, most students have already entered. It is a class of eighteen students, divided equally between boys and girls.
The boys turn to Chisana: the fifteen-year-old girl has dusty pink skin, like that of some hand-painted porcelain dolls, shoulder-length golden blonde hair and large nougat-colored eyes. On the lips she wears a shimmering intense pink gloss. In their hearts, the boys have already elected her to "most beautiful girl of the class", and they haven't even started with the school year.
Gojo is not jealous of the boys' admired looks to her best friend, on the contrary she is delighted:
"You already have a crowd of suitors!"
Chisana shrugs. It doesn't really matter to her.
She wants to study to become a Pro Hero, like her uncle did before her.
She moved to Musutafu just after the end of middle school, with her close relative, in order to attend the Yuei.
She, who challenged her mother's nervousness to emigrate away from her suffocating and sleepy islet.
"Why exactly the Yuei? Can't you go to Nabu High School? It's still good..."
Chisana looked at her with a pitying look just before agreeing with her uncle about the moving.
Why her mother didn't want to see her among the desks that saw the Hero Enabler grow up, that is, her own younger brother, Chisana has never discovered it.
Mahoro is standing in front of the geranium pots, and is filling them abundantly with water.
She is thoughtful.
It is the first of April and it is the first day of school for her daughter.
A daughter who wants to become a Heroine like her uncle Katsuma.
A daughter who couldn't have made a worse choice.
A daughter who should have stayed away from those places.
Mahoro puts down the mint green watering can and returns into her home, ready to begin her shift as a nurse in Nabu Island hospital.
The beautiful Mahoro is thirty-six, but she is not married.
What she has done to have her daughter, the light of her existence, is the most twisted thing the human mind can conceive and very few know the secret of Chisana's birth. Actually, there are only two: Katsuma and Rareta, one of her high school classmates.
Not even her father knows what she did, she has simply sold him the old and pathetic version of the daughter who was seduced and abandoned by a tourist who then washed his hands of the girl that Mahoro carried inside of her. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sixteen years later, Mahoro tightens her lips while rethinking it: it was better to look like a poor naive dummy than the monster that at some moment she sees reflected in the mirror of her bedroom.
The first month of school passes quietly, at least according to the standards of a school for aspiring Heroes.
Chisana and Gojo have settled in well, and study with profit.
But one day in May, more precisely half the month, a surprise arrives to make the beautiful blonde from Nabu Island tremble to the foundations of her being.
"Guys, say hello to Heroes Red Riot and Kacchan. Today they will lecture with us. You can ask them the questions you want, but wisely. Are we clear, Raimei?" Aizawa looks at him, even if he would smile from underneath.
The boy in question, with the Quirk able to transform laughter into energy, is certainly the most playful of 1-C.
The Heroes appointed by Eraserhead enter the room.
The first, Red Riot, is Eijiro Kirishima, who exhibits majestic dyed red hair and eyes of the same color. His costume, which changes from black to red to brick-colored, is epic and shows off the sculpted muscles of the Hero with the Hardening Quirk.
The second, Kacchan, is Katsuki Bakugou, who has exceptionally assumed his child nickname as Hero name. His blonde hair, despite being an adult, is still ungovernable and his intense orange eyes shine with passion. His costume, imposing and frightening, has not changed over the years.
"Well, guys, I leave you alone with the Heroes. At the end of the hour we will resume organizing the program for the next training sessions."
Having said that, Aizawa leaves the room and a very strong excitement pervades the environment.
Needless to say, Raimei gets up first:
"It's an honor to have you here! How does it feel to be so high on the list?"
Kirishima is in fact fourth, with Katsuki second in favor of his eternal rival, Deku.
Red Riot, flattered as a boy despite his forty-two years of age, speaks:
"Well, having a privileged position is always rewarding, but you must not forget that Heroes don't take this path to climb a leaderboard, otherwise they wouldn't be worthy of the name."
"This was Stain's philosophy, wasn't it?"
This time it is Megan, the class leader, to intervene.
"Clever observation. The girl is prepared."
Katsuki smiles smugly and in turn gets up from his chair.
"In a way, it is so. Hero-Killer Stain detested everything that misled the idea of a pure Hero completely devoted to others, without pride or personal gain."
"But not every Hero can be like this!" the girl with black pigtails and glasses still insists.
"Obviously Stain's philosophy is contaminated by his mad desire to slice people. A good Hero must also have self-esteem and self-confidence, or it would end up being only a burden."
Katsuki's eyes get serious. He went through several pains before reaching that stage of maturity, a perfect balance between saving lives and being successful.
Chisana hasn't said a word, and until the end of the hour she has listened silently to the exchange of words between her companions and the two veteran Heroes. She doesn't know why, but there is something that has blocked her breath in her throat and she has hoped that the bell ringing would benefit her all along.
During the hour change, Gojo shakes her companion's arm, who looks ahead as if in a trance.
"What's wrong with you? You're white as a sheet..."
"A bit of a headache, nothing to worry about."
Gojo remains to observe her: she has only known her for two months, but she already knows that behind her entrenching herself there is a whirlwind of thoughts she doesn't want to come to the surface.
"Professor, Shimano is not feeling well, could I accompany her to the infirmary?"
Aizawa looks up at the two girls and then goes back to the sheets placed on the teaching post.
"Okay, Asui."
Along the corridor, Chisana holds her head as if wanting to keep the masquerade she has put up, and Gojo follows her without saying anything.
She leaves her in the care of the nurses and greets her, obtaining in return a feeble but heartfelt thanks from the brown-eyed girl.
Gojo returns to class, but struggles to concentrate for the rest of the lessons.
As for Chisana, she falls asleep on the bed in the medical room, heavily, almost without realizing it.
When she opens her eyes, it's a quarter to two in the afternoon.
"H-Have I slept so much?" she asks, still dazed by the heavy sleep.
"It was probably an overload of fatigue. It can happen, this school is expensive in terms of energy, but you will get used to it."
Suddenly, along the corridor, Chisana hears a voice. She has sometimes heard it on TV, but it's only from that morning that she has been able to listen to it on live.
It's Kacchan, he's talking to his patrol companion, Red Riot. They have just finished making the rounds of the first classes.
The two take a look inside the infirmary.
It is a matter of a moment: Kacchan sets his gaze on the teenager.
"You are the 1-C girl... Shimano, am I right?"
"Yes…"
"Are you a relative of the Hero Enabler?"
"He's my uncle."
Seconds have to flow silently before the blond Hero opens his mouth again:
"Good recovery."
Immediately after there is a whisper; Chisana has good ears, so she manages to catch excerpts from that speech in the distance, such as her mother's name spoken in a low voice by Kirishima.
Do they really know her mom personally? Or is her an acquaintance because of her relationship with Enabler?
Chisana doesn't know, but she wants to go to the bottom of that mystery.
She then grabs her cell phone and types a message to her mother:
"Today I saw the HeroesKacchan and Red Riot. They visited us in class."