Chapter #2: Battle Trials

Tamie

As Tamie stood there looking around the faces of Class 1-A, they were all looking back at her. They all observed her icy blue coloured eyes and long light-brown hair. Her hair was tied into a ponytail for training or any possibility of it though her hair was normally kept this way. Tidy and out of the way. Her figure was mature for her age, toned and already showing to be womanly.

She gave a small bow after pushing her nerves aside and swiftly introduced herself. "Hello everyone. My name is Tamie, I've been accepted into your class as of this morning." It was an introduction that she'd practised many times over just in case this opportunity arose.

What followed was a bunch of surprised sounds from many members of the class. A few congratulated her while many she found were looking at her resentfully. She hadn't gone through the normal channels after all, yet she'd slipped in. She hadn't been through the ordeals they had, the entrance exam and then their homeroom teacher who threatened to expel someone just the previous day.

"Now now students, you're all still in class. Miss Tamie, please join the others and watch your classmates compete in this training match." All Might silenced the room and allowed Tamie to join them. Though she stood somewhat off to the side. She noticed one person leaning against a wall almost in a daze, but as All Might called for the beginning of the second match, her eyes turned to the screen to observe her classmates showing their stuff.

The first person she saw was a boy that had six arms, all attached to each other by a web of skin. Wow! That's got to give him a massive advantage in fights. Tamie thought first, a smile creeping onto her face as she saw ears form on four of the arm-like appendages. Then one transformed into a mouth and started moving which completely amazed her, she'd never seen anything like this back home. Too bad we can't hear them.

But as this boy's shorter teammate put his hand on the wall, her jaw dropped, much like other members of the class. Ice started spreading across the walls, floor, and ceiling at a blistering pace. As the camera changed to get a view from the outside of the building, many of the class gasped as it was completely frozen over. From that moment it was clear to her, this boy was strong, like, really strong.

Everyone watched as the boy with ice on the left side of his body simply walked through the building, right to where the target was. A dummy nuclear weapon that the hero teams had to touch in order to win the match.

"He did not cause any damage to his teammate or the nuclear weapon, and on top of that, he weakened the enemy." All Might stated. \

Well yeah… but he made his teammate sit on the side lines. There wasn't much learning for him. She found herself pouting, but again a small smile crept forth.

"He's so strong!" Someone from the group of students called.

The iced boy touched the weapon and All Might sounded it as a win for the Hero team, apparently two from two as she heard how it was done much better this time around. Her mind went back to the kid on the stretcher while her eyes looked at the expression on the guy with a tail's face. Humiliated… not even able to fight against your opponent. She pitied the boy but wondered where his teammate was, then she remembered the floating gloves and boots that walked by themselves.

"Hang on, that guy has an invisible teammate?" Tamie asked no one in particular and more to the entire class. A girl with eyes coloured warm brown, large and round approached her. Shoulder-length hair about the same colour as her eyes, her hair bobbed and curved inwards at the ends.

"That's right, how did you know?" The girl asked in a friendly tone.

"I ah… Seen the four… three and some gloves and boots... walking before I knocked." Tamie answered.

The girl smiled at Tamie. "You sound a bit funny. I'm Ochaco Uraraka, you can call me Ochaco." She then extended her hand.

"Tamie, nice to meet you, O-cha-co." Tamie answered back, taking and shaking the girl's hand.

"Come on, I'll keep you informed if you have questions." Tamie knew she needed help, and Ochaco seemed more than willing to lend her a helping hand.

At least she's a nice person. As the victorious Hero team left the building, the class began to make more noise.

"W-Wow!"

"What's up with that Quirk?"

"As expected of someone who got through recommendations." Came a third voice that sounded a little off to Tamie.

"All right, everyone gather round for a review of the second match. Then, we will begin the third match!" All Might announced with enthusiasm.

Tamie listened without giving any input into the discussion. She wanted to get on with the class and not make any enemies since her introduction seemed a bit cold. As the battle trials continued she picked up the names of the students, trying to commit them to memory. Each team and their participating members were displayed on the monitor and side screens. It made it easy for Tamie to learn and attempt to remember.

Team J, consisted of Eijiro Kirishima and Hanata Sero. Kirishima has spiky red hair that sort of resembled horns and a little scar above his right eye that could be mistaken for a single long eyelash. Sero was a tall, lean boy with chin-length black hair, spiked downwards, the opposite of his teammate.

They went up against Team H, with Fumikage Tokoyami and Tsuyu Asui being its members. The thing that really struck Tamie was the appearances. Fumikage has a bird-shaped head that includes a yellow beak and red eyes. Despite those traits, Fumikage's body was of normal human shape, while Tsuyu is short compared to the majority of the class and seemed rather frog-like, something that Tamie would come to understand was because her quirk made her that way. During the match Tamie was able to watch Tsuyu and came to understand why she looked frog-like. Team H went on to win the match.

The next match consisted of Team C, Momo Yaoyorozu, another of the recommendation students. Like Tamie, Momo had a rather mature physique. She had long black hair tied into a spiky ponytail, a single bang hanging on the right side of her face, and onyx eyes pointed slightly inwards. Her partner was a very small young man with a large round head. His nose was small and stubby and stuck slightly upwards. Four large purple and black balls in something resembling a mohawk where his hair should be, he went by the name of Minoru Mineta.

They were up against Team G's Kyoka Jiro, a petite, fair-skinned girl with a slender build. Her hair was short, only around chin length and dark purple in colour. Her most prominent features were the flexible, plug-like earphone jacks hanging from each of her earlobes at the end of two thin cords, which acted like extra limbs of which everyone got to see in action during her match. Acting as her heroic partner was one Denki Kaminari. Denki has relatively short orangey-blond hair, parted to the right with a black lightning-shaped streak on the left of his side fringe. The thing Tamie loved about Denki was what they had in common, their quirks were very similar with both having control over electricity in some manner.

The match was very drawn out thanks mostly to Momo's genius, and aid from Mineta's surprisingly sticky balls. The match ended with the villains, Momo and Mineta, winning as the clock wound to zero. It was the first win for the villain teams.

With the final match of the day between team E, Mina Ashido, a girl of medium height, possibly set a little more broadly than some of her other female classmates. Due to her Quirk, her skin is a light shade of pink. She has rather square eyes with their sclera black and their irises bright yellow. She has two thin, pale yellow horns protruding from her head, hooked squarely and leaning slightly to opposite sides. Her partner was Yuga Aoyama, a boy with a slim body and longish blonde hair, worn flattened down around the majority of his head, spiked and sticking out to the sides at the bottom of it, with a side fringe that curves upwards a little before it goes down. He has notably long eyelashes and bright indigo eyes. Tamie couldn't help but think of him as the, pretty, privileged, rich boy, and his hero outfit didn't exactly help sway her thoughts.

And team F. Koji Koda, tall, and has a large muscular build. His head has the form of a rock. And Rikido Sato, a tall, very muscular boy with a wide build. His brown hair is short, and spiked upwards away from his head. Tamie was already dreaming about going a few sparring rounds with him, but as the match ended with his team losing she felt herself losing a bit of interest in him. A shame, perhaps still a good physical sparring buddy though.

With the final match over and done, Tamie figured Ochaco, who had been so amazingly helpful, was a part of the first match. The name pronunciations had been a huge help, but Tamie would need to go over all of their faces again and remember the pronunciation.

"So did you win your match Ochaco?" She asked as they and the rest of Class 1-A made their way out of the training area and towards the large gateway with a massive EXIT sign painted above it.

"Ah… yes my team won. But Deku… Midoriya got badly injured." Tamie saw how concerned the girl was but she quickly bounced back. "But he'll be fine… I saw Recovery Girl fix him when he was in worse shape." The smile she showed let Tamie know she was serious.

Perhaps Midnight was right about their nurse? She wondered.

"Good work everyone!" Came All Might's loud voice from the front as he now stood facing his students just before the exit. "We didn't have any major injuries other than Young Midoriya either! You guys took this on seriously! You all did a good job on your first training!"

All apart from me, standing here in my gym uniform. Tamie looked from the corners of her eyes at everyone's hero costumes. They were all so diverse and amazing, she was truly jealous, but determined to get hers sorted that very night.

"To have such a proper class after Mr Aizawa's class… It's kind of anticlimactic…" said the short girl in green, Tamie was still grappling with learning all of their names.

"We're free to have proper classes, as well! Well then, I must review the results with Young Midoriya! Change and return… to the classroom!" And just like that, All Might sprinted away from his students stunned, amazed, excited, but for Tamie, slightly annoyed. She didn't get to do anything at all, not even talk to her teacher.

"All Might's amazing!"

"Why was he in such a hurry?"

"So cool." Were just a few of the comments on his swift departure.

He's… really fast, even with all that muscle. Although annoyed, she was still impressed with All Might's ability. He is number one. She reminded herself.

As she followed her classmates back with everyone slipping into their changing rooms. Boys and girls, she hid in one of the stalls as she changed, coming out when she was fully dressed. Her hair was now down, showing it as rather long, touching her shoulder blades with the bottom three inches dyed cyan.

She looked around counting six, seven girls in the class including herself and smiled. So the boys have the numbers, and that powerful ice guy too. She couldn't remember their names to save her life and Ochaco had only known them for just a day. Luckily All Might introduced them as he picked the teams which Ochaco then repeated over to Tamie. Both got some learning done there, attempting to memorise their classmates' names.

"Tamie? You got changed already?" Ochaco asked as she buttoned up her blazer.

"I… ah… I'm not used to getting changed in front of people." Tamie said with a nervous chuckle. It was the truth, but there was more to it than just being shy.

"You're training to become a hero, changing your clothing shouldn't be a big deal. I mean, look at Yaoyorozu's hero costume." The girl with the earphone jack ears comment. Tamie remembered all right, Yaoyorozu had a lot of skin showing on her costume which both concerned and interested Tamie.

Why did she show so much skin? She did design it right? "Well… We can't all be that... confident." Tamie looked to Ochaco who nodded. Yus! Right pronunciation. Talking and processing so much Japanese was already hard enough. "I'm Tamie by the way." She extended her hand and smiled.

"You can call me Jiro." The two shook hands while Tamie again tried to memorise the name with the face.

Names are so hard.

"Ooo! Ooo! New girl new girl! I'm Mina Ashido, you can just call me Mina!" Tamie quickly took her extending hand and shook it firmly. She felt a strength behind this pink skinned girl and smiled brightly.

"Your eyes… They're really cool." Tamie commented almost breathlessly making Mina laugh.

"Really? Most people find them a bit intimidating."

"No way, they're awesome." Tamie reassured her, both girls smiling at what seemed to be a quick friendship. That's when another girl wandered over, more accurately, the bodiless U.A. uniform in the shape of a girl.

"Toru Hagakure! Nice to meet you!" Tamie turned facing the invisible girl and held her hand out. When she felt contact she gave a squeeze.

"Now your quirk is amazing. So many uses for being invisible, sucks about your opponent though. He was just…"

"Amazing right!" Ochaco squealed excitedly. "And powerful, he froze that entire building within seconds."

"Don't forget his control. He only froze the building itself, never covering an entrance or blocking a corridor." Tamie turned to the less than five-foot-tall girl and smiled. "Tsuyu Asui." She stated while Tamie again thought of her as frog-like.

That's it! I remember seeing her long tongue during the training. And her movements! She got excited. "I know!" Tamie sounded blissful. "I can't wait to have a sparring match against him." Tamie admitted openly, getting a gasp and several concerned looks from her female classmates. She didn't know why, she'd always had to fight for things in the past and measuring herself against probably the best in the class was something she wanted.

"Shoto Todoroki." Came the final female voice that came from the aforementioned Yaoyorozu. "He was accepted into U.A. through the recommendations." Her onyx eyes stared into Tamie's icy blue and made the girl feel a little uneasy.

"So? That just means he's strong right?" Tamie questioned, assuming she was right.

"He's obviously strong! But like Tsuyu said, controlled. He's amazing for his age." Ochaco added quickly.

"Not to mention fast, intelligent, experienced. He's the son of the current number two hero…" Tamie's eyes widened upon hearing this piece of information. She knew the number two hero Endeavor, Hellflame is his quirk yet his son used only ice. "… Shoto has been raised to be a hero. To fight him would be difficult at the very least." Yaoyorozu buttoned her blazer as she finished speaking.

"Doesn't change the fact that I want to measure my abilities." Tamie added as she walked towards Yaoyorozu and offered a handshake. "I apologise for my odd... behaviour?" Again she looked to Ochaco who nodded. "But I was brought up fighting too. Both training and for the need of survival." Yaoyorozu shook Tamie's hand and accepted her apology.

"It was poor of me to assume you were simply being overly confident. It is clear you have confidence in your quirk too. But please, do not underestimate anyone here. We all got in because we proved ourselves capable, same as yourself." Yaoyorozu was right in that regard, even though Tamie had seen what she considered to be some less than flashy quirks, she didn't know their full range or how the individuals would use them.

"Thank you Yaoyorozu, and sorry. Perhaps you and I can have a sparring match too sometime?" Tamie smiled while Momo sighed, but there was a trace of a smile.

"Perhaps. But for now we should all get to class." Yaoyorozu finished, collecting her bag.

"We don't want Aizawa threatening to expel anyone again." Toru said jumping in, her shirt moving as she hopped towards the door.

She's so… different.

The rest of the day moved quickly for Tamie who was seated right at the back next to Yaoyorozu, who Tamie quickly found excelled at school work too. Even when Mr Aizawa taught English, she was far more advanced than the other students, but given her native tongue, Tamie was called upon to help those struggling. This was something she took to with joy, being able to give back to her classmates, even the ones that showed some or complete disdain towards her.

As far as Tamie could make out it was just a few boys that didn't take to her, judged her, thought her unfit to be in their class, that the rules shouldn't have been broken to allow a twenty-first student. The pretty boy was one such person, another was the guy whose arms constantly moved as he talked, Iida. She remembered his name from his constant questions and arm actions.

The big guy she thought would be a good sparring partner and the bird head, and that Shoto didn't even glance at her. She couldn't tell if they disliked her or that they just didn't care. But the worst two of all were the quiet and smouldering Bakugo still working through his loss to Ochaco and her partner. Whenever she did find his eyes she found them full of anger. Then there was Mineta, Tamie recalled his name with ease, always memorising the creeps and perverts from when her father had some of his pals around. Mineta had vocally said that if it was a girl joining late then he was perfectly fine with it. I'm not meat to look at, boy. She had thought, wanting to snap at him for where his eyes had wandered..

English was her only easy lesson, and as they pressed on she found herself embarrassed and overwhelmed. She couldn't read and translate where she got stuck fast enough and continued to only get pieces of the subjects which did her head in. When the end bell finally rang, she found that she wasn't the only one that let out a pained yet joyful groan. But her textbooks were dribs and drabbles, there was no sense to them and it made her feel cold.

She leaned forwards, head resting on her desk at the back of the classroom. Her eyes were closed but a gentle voice brought her back to the present.

"Did you manage?" The voice was gentle and genuinely curious. "I am guessing Japanese isn't your first language because of that strong accent." It was Yaoyorozu who asked. Tamie immediately became embarrassed and nodded her head.

"I… It was fine… I managed perfectly." She lied, fumbling to try and get her book into her bag but instead dropped it at Yaoyorozu's feet. She shot down like lightning, smacking her forehead on her desk and jumping backwards from the shock, pushing the chair over as she stepped away holding her head. As she moaned painfully and rubbed her head, others laughed while Yaoyorozu flicked through her textbook.

Opening her eyes, Tamie's heart sank. She knew Yaoyorozu would be looking over what was rubbish note taking. She's judging me now too… she'll be like those boys and think I don't deserve to be here with them. Fighting back a growl, Tamie stood carefully and raised a finger while her mouth cracked open to speak.

"How long have you been learning Japanese?" Yaoyorozu asked without looking up from the page.

"Umm… it depends. My uncle taught me for years but there was a lack of people to speak Japanese with. But Present Mic helped me a lot before I started. Still, I'm better at speaking it over reading and writing it." Tamie said, trying to give a good reason for her pitiful notes.

"It shows, you still talk slowly sometimes, processing the larger and difficult words." That made Tamie's cheeks redden and she looked down feeling embarrassed. "How about I copy my notes down in English and bring them in tomorrow. Then you can translate them into Japanese. We can both compare and help each other." With that the book snapped shut and Yaoyorozu handed it back. Tamie just stood there, dumbfounded.

It took a few moments for Tamie to recollect herself and looked at Yaoyorozu with a sense of great respect and appreciation. "But wouldn't that just be unnecessary work for you? Like, a whole lot since you already got everything down in Japanese?" Yaoyorozu nodded and while the two continued talking their classmates started mingling louder. With school out everyone was getting to know one another better.

"It will be good practise, and I can't very well let a new foreign student fail because of bad note taking." Tamie found this to be a little brutal, but she knew Yaoyorozu was correct. Her writing was terrible, she'd focused too much on speaking and less so on the writing.

"Then I gratefully accept your offer. Thank you, Yaoyorozu, thanks a... bunch." Tamie slipped back into English for the final word. It was then that the door slid open from the front end of the classroom. And as soon as someone realised who it was, a crowd gathered.

"Oh, Midoriya's here!" Came a loud, clear voice. "Good work! Man, I don't know what you were saying during the match, but you were fired up!" Tamie asked Yaoyorozu who the loud one was and got a swift response. Eijiro Kirishima.

Tamie just watched from afar with Yaoyorozu as the boy she recognised as the one from on the stretcher earlier was surrounded. He looked out of place and unsure of exactly what was going on, something that Tamie felt happy about.

"I can't believe you fought evenly with Bakugo who was first in the entrance exam!" Tamie had to ask Yaoyorozu who was speaking and got another immediate answer, Hanta Sero. But other than that, she had a newfound interest in this Bakugo guy.

First in the entrance exams! Wow… he's got to be really strong too!

"You did a good job at dodging!" Mina said joyfully, giving the injured teenager even more compliments on his training fight.

"You guys did that in the first match, so the rest of us had to give it our all too." Rikido Sato added.

"You were far from elegant, but…" The pretty boy started before Mina loudly interjected, again congratulating Midoriya on his dodging ability. All of this seemed to overwhelm the boy who had no way forward. The frog girl Tsuyu finally joined the circle of people and Tamie shook her head.

He's a popular one now isn't he. It was then that those gathered around the injured boy started introducing themselves.

Ida then started flapping his arms about as Tokoyami refused to get off the desk, the two with him mocking Ida in his defence. Things certainly got noisy fast… Tokoyami was right, too noisy. Tamie found herself smiling as she watched everyone interacting. She hadn't experienced this back in her home country, she would have been barely educated if not for her uncle. Most people were homeschooled where she was from, it was just lucky she was from a large town with people from many walks of life and many different quirks, a good teacher was difficult to find though.

Yaoyorozu made her way over to the earjack girl, Jiro and began mingling with her, Ojiro and Tokoyami. Tamie didn't want to get in the way so she left through the door that Ochaco and Kaminari just entered. Slipping out was easy for her, it was the getting on with everyone that was the challenge. I'll have my costume ready for next time. Next time I'll get to show my stuff, show my classmates that I am worthy of being here.

Only, on her way out she was tapped on her shoulder and promptly spun about coming face to face with… a floating school uniform.

"Trying to slip away?" The voice asked Tamie.

Feeling a trickle of sweat run down her temple, she smiled nervously. "Maybe… I suppose I'm not as good as it as you though… Toru Hagakure, right?"

"Yup! That's me, but just call me Toru. Are you heading home?" The invisible girl asked.

"I was planning to… But if you want…" Her hand was taken by an invisible one and she was led away. "W-Where are you taking me?"

"There is a café not far from U.A. Jiro is going to meet us there." Toru sounded cheerful and showed no emotion, only because Tamie couldn't see her face.

"Then I'm in your care, Toru." Tamie said squeezing her hand.

"We're two, soon to be three trainee heroes! What can go wrong?" Toru answered with a giggle.