Chapter 36 – What's in a name

Mika had never been gladder than she was now for getting her hands out of those massive marshmallow bindings. It was the first day back at U.A. after the sports festival and as per instructions her Brother had come in with her extra early so that she could have a round of healing from Recovery Girl. Even though every visit to Recovery Girl is awkward in the sense that nobody really wants to be smooched to health by an old lady, at the same time Mika was incredibly thankful.

The feeling of being useless without her hands and being completely cut off from her quirk meant that she was starting to get a bit ratty. Yet, Recovery Girl said that she was happy with how Mika had been caring for her hands and that they were looking like they were healing very well. Although she was going to be left with a few scars, it was looking good. Her hands had to be wrapped once more to keep them secure and to avoid infection, but the massive bindings were now officially a thing of the past.

As she strolled up to homeroom, she couldn't help the small smile settle on her face at the feeling of being able to move her fingers. She had been able to open the door and let herself out of Recovery Girls medical office and had even been able to use her fingers to tuck her hair behind her ear.

She was halfway to home room when she heard some fast footfall approaching from behind.

"Ah Yamada-san… best pick up the pace, class starts soon!" Ida called as he sped towards her. She smiled warmer to him and raised her hand to wave, but he merely rushed straight past, making her hair swish as he went.

"Hey Mika-chan" Izuku called out to her as she dropped her hand and looked after their class rep.

"Hey Izuku, what's up with Ida-kun?" She frowned as Izuku fell into step with her. "He called me Yamada-san again and looked different!"

"Did you not hear about his Brother?"

"Oh, of course… my brain is a little fried from my session with recovery girl this morning…" Mika looked on ahead with worry, embarrassed that she had temporarily forgotten about what had happened. Hizashi had been the one to break it to her in the end. They had come home and Mika had been musing out loud about why Ida had not been around for the end of the festival only for Hizashi to explain Ida's Brother had been attacked by the hero killer. Mika had immediately messaged Ida to send him and his family her best wishes, she didn't get a reply though. "Did you speak to him? Is his Brother going to be ok?"

"Well, we didn't speak a lot about it, all he said was sorry for worrying me…" He tapered off looking sadly down at his feet as they approached their homeroom.

"Well, that's silly, of course you were going to worry about him" Mika sighed. "We need to look out for him, he is trying to be strong when he really doesn't need to be!"

She didn't blame him though. As she was saying that she knew that she would have been doing the same thing. Pretending to be strong so that no one could see her weaknesses. It was a textbook coping mechanism, and one that she knew she was just as guilty for. Yet still, it was different when it was happening to someone you cared about in front of your eyes. It was painful to see someone hurting and know that there is nothing you can do.

Herself and Izuku walked in silence through into their homeroom then, with Mika promising herself that she would always look out for her friends, no matter what because if there was anything she could do to take their pain away, to stop them from feeling like she had, then she would do it. Whatever the cost.

"Morning"

Everyone slammed their butts into their chairs as Aizawa-Sensei strolled into the room and took his usual place up the front. The class was beside themselves with excitement. Mika looked him up and down from her seat behind Kirishima and frowned, because he really still looked rough but then she supposed he did look like he needed a nap before he was brutally mauled by a Nomu monster.

"Good to see your bandages are off, Aizawa-sensei!" Tsuyu ribbited.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive…."

"Say that again" Mika snorted, catching Aizawa's smirk at her.

"But never mind all that, today we've got Hero informatics class, and a special one at that!"

Mika sighed, she had known that classes were going to be difficult to get back into. There was a very small part of her that had thought they would go easy on them. Especially because a few of them had been really hurt and had to go through healing sessions with Recovery Girl. She began pulling out her notebook and glittery pencil case.

"You'll be coming up with your hero aliases today!"

Mika couldn't help the flinch that lurched through her when the whole class erupted into cheers. She even had her own smile that broke out on her face when she saw Mina leap out of her chair and into the air with a 'whoop'. She had not realised how much she needed to hear her classmates let loose and cheer and laugh with each other. Even though it was for those few precious moments. After the mood that had overtaken them before the sports festival it was a relief to see everyone back to normal.

"YES, TIME TO SHINE" Denki cheered.

"BUT FIRST…" Aizawa-Sensei broke over the top of the cheers. His eyes flashing and his hair flaring up to let them know his Quirk was in play. Everyone fell back into their seats, but a low level of excited chatter remained. "… concerning the pro draft picks I mentioned the other day. It's based on who the pros think will be ready to join the Hero workforce after another two or three years of experience…"

The class was leaning in now, Aizawa-sensei picked up a chalk and began writing on the board. Class member names started being written and as more and more names appeared the more intense everyone was paying attention. Mika spotted her name and zeroed in, waiting to see what was happening.

"… so you could say that it's a way for them to show interest in your futures. There is also ample time for their interest in you to wane before you graduate. And any and all offers can be arbitrarily revoked. It happens quite often" Aizawa-sensei paused and turned to eyeball a few of the students. His eyes bored into Mika's and she felt herself swallow nervously before he turned back to the board.

"So, if we're picked now, that just mean there'll be higher hurdles in the years to come?" Hagakure piped up from the front. Everyone's eyes snapping to where they thought she was in her chair and then back to sensei.

"Yes… now here are the complete draft pick numbers!"

Everyone watched with bated breath as he went down the list of names and added numbers next to them.

At the top of the list there was Todoroki with 4,123 and then Bakugo in second with 3,456. Mika couldn't help her smirk as she spotted her name next with 1,666, Tokoyami coming in next with 360.

That means…

"There is usually more of a spread but a few of you stole the spotlight!"

… that means that Pro-Heroes think I can make it?

Mika couldn't pay too much attention to the class around her as her mind slowed right down. She thought that she might get a few, some of the lesser-known Heroes that felt like they could give her a go. There had been no thought in her head that so many heroes would think that much of her. She had tried her hardest and had fought with all that she had, she had tried to show that she was good and by the board before her, she had done it. A swell of warmth pooled within her and she could feel her cheeks heating up.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE THE PRO'S DOING GETTING INTIMIDATED!?" Katsuki roared, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"They can tell you are going to be a handful, Sunshine… that's why" She rolled her eyes to him,

"Still got more than you, Curly!" He bit back, but there was a smirk on his face. She snorted at him realising her verbal backhand was a compliment to him.

"Yeah yeah… you just wait! When these are healed, I will show you what a real handful is!" Mika grinned to him, holding her fists up in faux attack mode.

"Are you guys flirting?" Kaminari piped up.

"Ew, what the hell?" She span round with a look of disgust on her face.

"SAY THAT AGAIN PIKACHU!" Katsuki roared at the same time, this time his fists crackling with the threat of explosions.

"Woah ok ok, sorry… sheesh" He held his hands up.

Mika twisted back around into her seat then avoiding all eye contact anyone might be trying to get with her. Her cheeks burning a little at Kaminari's insinuation.

Flirting… with Sunshine! What the hell, I was literally telling him I was going to beat him up?

"Hero names… They're only tentative, but you still want to pick something appropriate…" Aizawa broke through her internal combustion and she shook herself and steeled her glare as she levelled Kaminari with it before paying attention once more.

"OR ELSE YOU'LL KNOW TRUE HELL!" Came a voice from the hallway.

Everyone snapped their attention towards the door as Midnight sauntered in, the brightest gleam in her eyes as she looked over the class. She was wearing her usual hero outfit which was borderline at best for a class of school kids to be witnessing.

"The name you pick now may be what the world ends up calling you… That has happened to plenty of pro-heroes out there" She said, casting a wink at Aizawa-sensei who merely rolled his eyes at her.

"Yes, true enough… Midnight here will be assessing the suitability of the names that you pick… I'm no good at that" Aizawa-sensei all but mumbled as he let Midnight take over standing at the front. Everyone watched him pull out his battered yellow sleeping bag with almost visible sweat drops." What future do you see for yourself? The name you choose will bring you ever closer to cementing a certain image, like with 'All Might'…"

Midnight ended up giving them fifteen minutes to start thinking about their first draft of their hero name, after that time was up they were to come to the front and share with the class ready for critique.

Mika left her embarrassment behind and let herself get stuck on Aizawa-sensei's words. 'The name you choose will bring you ever closer to cementing a certain image'.

I need something that encapsulates me, but also states who I am going to be… yeah, easy peasy….

Mika had always put off figuring out what her name would be. It was something that almost felt like a tease. When she was younger, she had never even entertained the idea of becoming a Hero. It was not on the cards for her then and thinking otherwise would have been cruel for her to hold on to.

Most kids think of names when they are growing up and they are almost settled on one. Hizashi had said that he had known his Hero name from the moment he decided to become a Hero. Present Mic had always been in his head and Mika was jealous. She smiled softly as she imagined her Brother going through this exact same class and excitedly scribbling his name down on the white board as soon as it hit his desk. Mika had not had the same reaction however. She had placed the white board and pen down and had not made a single move to pick them up since then.

She peeked up at the clock and spotted that she only had a few more minutes and began to panic.

Shadow girl… Nightcrawler, oh no that's not it at all. How about a name to do with when shadows are more prevalent… dawn or dusk…?

Mika sighed and laid her head down onto the table so that she could close her eyes and really concentrate.

"Hey… pstt!"

She didn't even lift her head, she just turned and let her hair fall away from her face. She peeked out and saw Izuku looking over at her with his usual cute, worried face.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, just trying to think…" She sighed, lifting her head back up and swatting her hair back over her shoulder.

"Oh, well… I am sure you will think of something amazing!" He smiled brightly to her and she couldn't help but smile softly back to him.

"As will you, have you settled on anything yet?" She asked, eyeing him as he hovered over his board with the pen out and ready to go.

"Well… not really, I am hoping inspiration will hit… soon" He winced, and she chuckled at him.

"I believe in you!" She sent him a quick thumbs up.

"OK… times up, who will go first?" Midnight called out.

The chatter immediately died back down, and Mika grabbed at the pen and wrote down a load of names and started scratching ones out to get to the winner.

First up was Aoyama and he jumped straight in with a whole sentence for a name that Midnight helped him breakdown more into a hero name rather than a hero statement. Mika watched and listened to the critique before looking back at her own and then scratching off a few more that seemed too long now that she had mentioned length as a thing to worry about.

Then it was Mina's turn and she was completely rejected. Something about her name making her seem like something scary and immediately Mika froze and looked down at all the names she had thought of. They were all dark centric names with her quirk being so tightly bound by shadows. It made her feel like all her names were going to be good villain names and nothing that would inspire hope and light like she wanted it to.

Well I guess that's just the crux of the issue… you are not light, you are dark!

Mika sighed and scratched off two more of her names before coming to the last one. She wiped the rest of and neatened up the board. Mika was fully expecting to be told go think again, to try and come up with something heroic.

She sat and plastered her unaffected and bored look onto her face as she watched a few more of her classmates go up and get praise for their cool and heroic names.

"How about you… Yamada-san, come on up!" Midnight finally called out and Mika took a deep breath and made her way up to the front of the class and looked out across her friends. They all looked excited to see what she had come up with, so she sucked in a breath and flipped the board over.

"Umbra kinetic Hero: Shadow Surge…" Midnight read out.

There was a brief pause where everyone was reading it and taking it in where Mika felt like she wanted to throw up, but it passed in a split second. Nearly the whole class started cheering her, some with her name and some with the hero one.

"That is perfect!" Midnight all but screeched as the class cheered Mika on.

"Oh… really?" Mika stammered before she could stop herself.

"Of course, it suits a budding hero like yourself… be proud of that name kid" Midnight-sensei smiled warmly down to Mika, tapping her on her shoulder, and then nodded with her head to dismiss her.