Thankfully for Nanami, she didn't blackout this time. She was, as she said, awfully tired! She fell asleep for a long time after Recovery Girl cured her, given that she had to heal a completely shattered arm and a burned arm, it wasn't surprising that she would feel tired enough to sleep like a rock. What surprised the teachers was that she could be cured at all, from the damage she had taken! So, even though her match with Bakougo was a tie, Bakougo proceeded to the next round as Nanami couldn't participate anymore and then went on to win the whole competition.
All her classmates visited her before leaving for the day, Mr Kan, however, stayed back till she came to her senses and congratulated for her great performance. She was a lot less sad than anyone could have expected, her fight with Bakougo was a lot more fulfilling for her than anyone could have expected. Same couldn't be said for Bakougo. What even further made her day was that Inspector Tsukauchi was also watching the event and had left her a congratulation note before leaving for an urgent "classified" work. The news on the next day threw light on this "classified" information. Nanami got to know that the Inspector left to investigate the case of the attack on Ingenium, by the self-proclaimed 'Hero Killer'.
She didn't know Iida that much or wasn't the biggest fan of Ingenium, but this 'Hero Killer' seemed like a repulsive and pretentious prick to her. After a short break of a few days when they were allowed to let their wounds heal, it was again time for School! People gave a few fleeting glances whenever a student in UA school uniform passed by but this time around it wasn't just a few fleeting glances, people not only knew her name, but they even cheered her on! It was a unique experience, to say the least. Most people were in awe that there were no marks on her that could suggest that a few days back, one of her hand had completely broken and the other one burned off! Recovery Girl's feats were nothing short of magic, but Nanami didn't want to heavily rely on someone like Recovery Girl to save her every time, she needed to be more careful.
Once she made it to her class it felt like everything was back to normal, normal had seemed boring before but after the sports festival, the students could have used some normal. But that wasn't meant to be, as despite being just first years, many of them got a fair bit of offers for the upcoming internship with Nanami getting the most in the section with 1069 offers! Other than the few who were not at all noticeable in the event almost everyone got a few offers, but as it turned out the remaining students would also be given opportunities for Internships this time.
The disparity in the number of offers was clearly visible as Nanami was the only one to cross a thousand in the class but that made sense to most of them. Monoma, however, had a few questions and he didn't hesitate in asking.
"Does Nanami have the highest number of offers in the entire first year?", that was somehow the most Monoma thing to ask but most people didn't see it coming.
"Um… It is the third-highest from what I see here…"
"What's that green mark next to her offers then?"
"It is… wait why are you so interested?"
"Actually, I want to know too!", Nanami intervened before Monoma started with his explanation.
"It is an offer for which the school will have to make additional documents if you choose to accept it… This one will have the school procure a hero student visa for you…", Vlad Sensei was reading this off of his handout as this was the first time he had taught a student who got an offer from a country outside of Japan. "… It's from the Speed Hero: Madame Sonic from Dubai…"
Everyone gasped at the mention of that name! All eyes shifted towards Nanami who hadn't completely processed what she heard, "Huh… Wait a second…", when it finally all processed. "I… Wow!"
"Just a wow?!"
"It's Madame Sonic!"
"She's always in the top 5 heroes list worldwide!"
"Always first in the female heroes' section!"
"Did anyone from A-Section get any offers from other countries?", Monoma was definitely not thinking like anyone else in the class. Mr Vlad too hadn't completely paid attention to what he had read out and just answered Monoma as if it was his duty to do so but when it dawned upon him, he was shocked! Not because of the hero who offered but the fact that they even take internships of UA students or anyone for that matter, especially a student from another country! But by the time the realisation sunk in him, the class was in chaos, everyone was asking Nanami to get an autograph addressed to them or a permanent deal to become her sidekick in the future, Nanami, on the other hand, was still in absolute shock.
"CALM DOWN! You have another thing to do before you decide where you'll intern, choose a hero name for yourself, a name which will represent the kind of hero you want to be and can grow into…"
This temporarily diverted everyone's attention for a short while as they presented their hero names, none was too outlandish to seem hilarious, except a few, but there was a round table meeting going on in Nanami's head. With the bulk of input from the 2.0s and none from Nanami herself, she wasn't good with names.
"We suppress the enemy quirks…"
"But out quirk helps us mirror them too…"
"Ooh ooh, I got it!", Tetsuya 2.0 seemingly had figured out a perfect name!
"Honestly anything works, we can even change it later, a name is just the symbol what we work towards is more important", Nanami said, almost, proud of what she said.
"You are just trying to sound high and mighty because you can't come up with a name!"
"No, I'm not!"
"You clearly are, why would you even think you can lie to yourself?"
"All right, you got me! What's the name then, I still stick with the fact that I can change it later."
"Got it, how's this? Suppressing Hero: Mirror!"
"Sounds a bit menacing, I like it!", Monoma 2.0 agreed without any snarky or annoying comments!
"It's simple, this is great!", Kendo2.0 was a fan of the name too.
"I'll take anything…", Nanami said as she wrote the name down on the board. Presenting was slightly awkward as she felt as clueless as the people she was presenting to in terms of why exactly she chose the name, but she meant what she said earlier, she truly didn't see any value beyond a mere symbol, something she definitely didn't seem to appreciate very much. Their teacher approved of the name and they were effectively done for the time being. The students went through the list of heroes who had offered to take them up for internships. However, most put it off for the moment as they had 2 days to choose from a rather small list and went around to see what others had decided. Nanami ended up in a position where she could do neither!
She had also gotten an offer from Hawks! There was a literal commotion in her head. If it hadn't been a top 10 hero of the country, even if it had been the 11th hero it would've been fine, but Hawks! The most charismatic, badass of the top 10 heroes was completely unexpected! Her face was blank and didn't reflect this commotion and so Kendo assumed that even Nanami had decided where she would intern. Since she didn't know that Nanami got an offer from Hawks, her choice seemed obvious.
"So, have you decided where you'll intern?", Kendo asked Nanami almost sure of the answer.
"Huh, I… No. Not yet, what about you?"
"The best offer I had was from The Snake Hero, Ubawami and I'm sort of a fan, so the choice was obvious. I thought your choice would be even more obvious!"
"Yeah about that, I have another offer here…"
"I doubt it can be as good as an offer from Mada… Hawks! My god, woah… I… DAMN!"
"I know! It's just that, I'd love to intern under Madame Sonic, but Hawks is at least in the same country…"
"Since you'll be a hero in Japan, Hawks should be a more interesting option but its Madame Sonic… I don't know, I don't think I can help with this…", Kendo was in awe of her classmate but kind of disappointed that she couldn't be of any help.
"She thinks Hawks is a better option given everything, but she doesn't want to force you to make a choice just because she thinks it's the right thing to do…", Kendo2.0 added to what Kendo had said and then resumed the in-head meeting which was going nowhere. Despite the 2.0s having personalities of other & more sensible people, since they were all Nanami, their ability to make decisions when given more than 1 viable options, was terrible!
"This is going nowhere, I'll ask the real Tetsuya.", Nanami intervened hoping to break off the chaos in her head for a few moments of peace. While she did that, she simultaneously texted Tetsuya to meet her after school.
"He'll say, 'Hawks is cool but being a Madame Sonic intern would even look better on your future portfolio.', with slight changes here and there. It'll just confuse us even more!", Tetsuya 2.0 sounded very convincing when he said this but Nanami wasn't happy with whatever the hell was going on in her head.
"You know what, if he says that I'll just do that and intern under Madame Sonic! Otherwise, this won't resolve, ever!"
"We are trying to decide as soon as possible but Hawks is cool…"
"But Madame Sonic is legendary…"
"I get it, just keep it down now!", Nanami said as she walked towards Tetsuya. School was over for the day, yet the commotion hadn't settled down. At this point, Nanami would have taken Tetsuya's advice even if he asked her to not intern at either place! Nanami tapped at Tetsuya's shoulder to get his attention, as he was on his phone.
"Excuse me", Tetsuya said before shuffling to the side without looking away from his phone.
"I am here!", Nanami texted him.
"Don't you have plasters or something? I'll meet you somewhere closer to you. What do you mean by here though?", he texted back completely oblivious of the fact that she was in front of him.
"By 'here' I mean in front of you." As soon as Tetsuya read the message, he looked up to find her in front of him. He was shocked to see no marks of the brutal fight she was in a few days back.
"What the hell? I mean good for you I suppose but no marks or scars?"
"I know right! Recovery Girl is truly a miracle worker!", she didn't pay much attention to her cured hand, since it was just normal but this was the second time that someone brought it to her attention in 1 day.
"So, what did you have to discuss?", Tetsuya asked her as they made their way to the subway.
"Ah yes. Are you still willing to be my future manager after my performance at the tournament?"
"Sure, it was a bit self-destructive and reckless but other than that, ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOU WERE INSANE!"
"Nice so here's your first task!", Nanami said as she went on to explain her situation to Tetsuya.
"I said all that but how were the Pros impressed by her? She almost killed herself! Did that Midoriya guy get a shit ton of offers too?", Tetsuya went into a state of pondering and near-silent muttering, much like Midoriya did at the tournament stands before being shouted at by Nanami. Nanami, however, deciphered what he was saying, and one could see her happiness shatter like the most fragile piece of glass, in front of her own eyes. "Hey now, it was definitely good even the top Pros acknowledged that… What do I know heh heh…", Tetsuya tried to de-escalate the situation, but it was all to no avail.
"HA got you! I mean… I knew and agree with what you said. But when you said that you were actually impressed by what I did. I think it all got to my head… The thing is, I know I need to improve but moments like these, when I feel ecstatic due to well several things, I guess I lose sight of the end goal… Okay, I need you to promise me something!", Nanami seemed serious, this made Tetsuya feel slightly calmer.
"Huh! That was sudden."
"So, you'll keep it?"
"I can't promise without knowing what I have to do, now can I?"
"Never lie to me when you are criticizing me, don't sugarcoat it, it's necessary!", Nanami's eyes were burning with conviction.
"All right, I need something in return! Never look like you did back when you heard me muttering, you made me feel like I murdered a puppy for god's sake! And… don't blame yourself for something you didn't do."
"I won't!", she meant what she said.
"Because I'm not the one responsible! But if someone is, they'll pay for it…"
"But did I really look at you like you 'killed a puppy'?"
"Yes!"
"Puppy killer sounds oddly specific…", soon Nanami was at her station and she was off. There was another person who she had to inform before her internship. Thankfully for her Inspector Tsukauchi was not off on any case at the time.
"Um Inspector, are you free right now?", Nanami asked trying to not be a nuisance but her voice still had a sense of urgency to it.
"Just a minute", he replied after looking up for a short while to see whose voice, he had heard. The fact that he had never taken a holiday due to personal health and worked equally hard every day was nothing short of inhuman. If Nanami didn't know that the Inspector had no quirk, she'd think he has a super stamina quirk. But, as he said, in a short while he was done with the work he had to do and was ready to listen to Nanami.
"Yes…", Nanami said as she took out the paper which had the list of offers, "If I was to go on a hero internship abroad, would I be allowed to go, given the… well, circumstances?"
"Abroad? Huh!", he said before glancing through the sheet noticing the name at the top. "I suppose your school has already told you about the Hero Student Visa, other than that you'd have to arrange transport, maybe Madame Sonic would help with that and… there'd be this paperwork, mostly for Madame Sonic."
"That's it?"
"Actually, it is, but they have to do a lot of work before the internship starts."
"What can I do to help them?"
"Nothing… But don't worry, I'm pretty sure they thought this through when they sent you the offer…", Inspector Tsuakuchi, however, was wrong!