My eyes affixed on the dark, oak coffin. I blinked stray tears from my eyes as the world moved around me.

It didn't feel real. Why did it have to be this way? What now?

I watched as the coffin was lowered slowly into the ground. The air permeated with silence.

So many people came to mourn— and yet I felt more alone now than I had my entire life.

Father, I'll fix things. You can count on it. I said to myself.

After my father's death, my life changed trajectory. My whole life I had lived with my father under his guidance, now my mother had her hands on the wheel.

"Y/N, I know this is a big change— so you need to tell me if you need anything," my mother tried to reassure me as we unpacked boxes in my new bedroom.

We mostly worked in silence, but my mother tried to make conversation.

"Can… can you tell me about anything that happened, Y/N?" My mother said, almost whispering. I stopped putting away things on my desk and faced her completely.

"What are you talking about?" I asked her.

She stared back at me, terror on her face.

"N-nothing."

I wasn't stupid. I knew what she was talking about, but I couldn't say anything. Father and I had made a promise.

I intended to keep our promise.

"Mom, I think I know where I want to finish high school," I told my mother one day while we ate dinner.

"That's great," she said, taking a sip of water, "where is it?"

"It's called U.A. High School," I stated. Her mouth dropped in shock.

"I—I'm glad you're being ambitious, but that's one of the top schools in Japan, Y/N," my mother muttered.

She sighed.

"You're also not entering as a first-year, but as a third-year. It would be one thing if it was a normal high school but—" she began to ramble.

"It's fine," I said flatly. She looked at me blankly.

"Let's just do our best, right?" I continued.

She didn't need to worry so much. Everything was already taken care of.

Despite my mother's valid points, I entered U.A. as a third year thanks to some of my father's connections.

My mother didn't question it, but watched me carefully.

I tried to make my entrance quiet, but it was difficult to control what other students told each other.

My ultimate shock came when I met my class for the first time. My homeroom teacher, Aizawa, tried to warn me of this.

"Hello, I'm Y/N Y/L/N," I said to a room full of wide eyes, "I hope we can get along, despite me joining your class so late."

I gulped. I didn't want to look at their expressions.

"Sir!" A voice said from afar, along with a hand that shot up.

"Forgive my bluntness, but how is this fair? We had to either work to get recommendations or prove ourselves in the entrance exam during our first year," the voice bellowed. I bit my bottom lip slightly. I wasn't surprised, but I knew it would still be tough to assimilate myself into their class.

I gulped. How far should I go to try and get their approval? How was I going to present myself to them? What was the best way?

Before our teacher, Aizawa, had time to respond I fell onto my knees on the floor, placed my hands firmly on the ground and bowed my head.

"I know no amount of apologies can make this fair, but please let me join your class! It's always been a dream of mine to join U.A. I was unable to previously because of family issues," I said loudly.

The silence in the room stung my ears. My head was bowed so I couldn't see their reactions.

Finally, a quiet " tch " reached my ears.

I anticlimactically stood up and looked at my slippers. I was embarrassed, but I decided that the submissive, over-friendly student was my best bet

Aizawa said nothing and let out a small sigh.

"I think your apology was sufficient, Y/L/N, please take a seat," he said, pointing towards the only empty seat in the front row.

I walked to my seat with my head down and face flush. I touched it gently, my fingers filling with heat.

Why am I so embarrassed? I shouldn't care about what they think of me as long as I do what I came here to do.

I tried to pay attention to the lecture but was haunted by my own intrusive thoughts.

Silently, I wondered if I had screwed up everything.

"That's all for today. If you don't come in your uniforms for your hero training after lunch you're all expelled," Aizawa said flatly. I looked around the class for a reaction, but nobody cared.

So he's that kind of teacher.

I packed up my notebook and pencils while the rest of the class quickly filed out the door, eager to eat.

My stomach twisted as I sensed someone behind me who hadn't rushed out with the other students.

"Hi there," the voice said. I turned to look.

I had to hide my shocked expression.

"I'm Izuku Midoriya— nice to meet you," he continued.

I recognized him from the photo that had been provided to me despite him being much older than the photo now. He still had his messy, green hair and eyes, but his eyes narrowed out into a more mature look for his face. Freckles still dotted his face and his optimistic look stayed as well.

"N-nice to meet you," I stuttered, still shocked my target had approached me instead of the other way around.

"I hope you're okay after going up there— I remember having a rough time in school and not really having friends to rely on," he explained his reasoning for talking to me.

"Yeah," I replied, "I already feel out of place and I haven't even been here for half a day."

His face was sad, like it was somehow his fault.

"Wait, I know!" He exclaimed suddenly. "Let me be the one to introduce you to the rest of the class!"

I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn't have a reason to say no.

Midoriya and I headed to the cafeteria. Once we got our food, he pondered who to introduce me to.

"If it's okay with you, I guess we can just start with the friends I usually eat with?" He asked me. I nodded and affirmed his decision.

The table had six seats and four of them were filled. Midoriya introduced us before we sat down.

"Hey guys! This is Y/L/N who joined our class today. Is it okay if she sits with us?" He asked them enthusiastically. He received a neutral response. They looked at me and nodded.

Midoriya introduced them clockwise and I did my best to remember their names.

Tenya Ida, Ochako Ururaka, Tsuyu Asui, and Shoto Todoroki. The last two seats were empty.

"You can call me Tsu, Y/N," Asui mentioned. Midoriya and I sat down and I tried to relax by eating.

My nervousness rose as they began to ask me a variety of questions.

"So, Y/L/N, where did you go to school before this?" Ida asked me as I barely ate my first bite.

I chewed and tried to be polite.

"I'm from Ehime Prefecture, I'm not sure you would have heard of my high school if I told you," I stated. I tried to be truthful. This was the truth.

"Please! Maybe we do know, it's a small world," Ida insisted.

Ugh. I thought. They don't like me.

"It was Komatsu High School," I said. Blank looks all around the table. What a surprise.

"You were right," Ida stated. "Then do you want to tell us why you enrolled so late?" He continued.

The rest of the table had an uncomfortable expression. He was being pretty invasive, especially since I had mentioned family as the reason why I did not join earlier. But, his questions were valid.

"I was being raised by my father who did not want me to go to U.A. He passed away recently. My mother lives here so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity," I explained.

The mood at the table turned from uncomfortable to remorseful.

"I'm sorry, Y/L/N," Midoriya said. I shook my head.

"I'm just glad to be here now," I gave them a simple reply.

Midoriya tried to change the subject to something more lighthearted. I didn't feel much closer to everyone, but it was a start.

Finally, my lunch had settled and it was time to start what seemed to be everyone else's favorite part of the day: hero training.

I was nervous since, as a new student with an unknown quirk, they were dying to see what I could do.

Thankfully for them, we were being put up in a 3v3 situation, so they would be able to witness it quickly.

Out of random chance, my group ended up being somewhat familiar to me. Ida, Ururaka and I were drawn as a group.

We were up against students I didn't meet during lunch. Eijirou Kirishima, Mina Ashido, and Mezou Shouji.

Ida and Ururaka explained our opponents' quirks and then their own. Then they asked me mine.

"What's yours, Y/L/N? Just so we can strategize more," Ururaka asked me.

"Uh… it's consciousness." I stated. They both tilted their heads at me.

"If someone makes eye contact with me, I can invade their consciousness and control their bodies. Everything is the exact same as if I really was them," I explained. They listened in awe.

"The big catch is that my own body becomes completely unconscious and vulnerable," I thought I explained it well— with a few details omitted.

We made our plan fairly quickly.

The teachers explained that our main objective was to "capture the flag". The two teams would begin separated and work to capture the opposing team's flag. Victory would be won if their opponent's flag touched their own.

Our plan was reliant on one fact that existed only for today. Nobody else knew my quirk and would have no idea what was happening.

The beginning of our rendezvous was just finding everyone else. Once we encountered each other, things escalated quickly. We were placed in a city environment which had a mixture of wide and closed spaces.

Ashido began to slide towards us at a very high speed. It took a split second, but I realized that it was already time.

She slid easily up to us, intending to move around us.

But just as the group expected, all eyes were nervously watching me.

The brief eye contact that Ashido and I had showed more anxiety than confidence, but they all did. They were taking a gamble on us, but we weren't on them.

Go.

I told myself, activating my quirk. I blinked and found myself exactly in Ashido's spot, acid slide and all.

I wobbled from the sudden change in position and unfamiliarity of the physical move. My wobble turned into a complete fall. I looked towards my own body, I had fainted, as expected.

I had successfully slid past the group and heard the scene that Ida and Ururaka had planned to make while we strategized.

"Y/L/N! Can you hear us? Are you okay?" Ururaka gasped.

"She still has a pulse, she just fainted," Ida said.

I tested Ashido's quirk on my own while behind a building. The acid generated was unlike anything I had weld before, but it was close enough to other emitter quirks.

I attempted to imitate her original move by attempting to sneak past the group that was occupied by my fainting.

Nobody followed. They probably thought that the match would be called off.

I smiled as I snatched up the flag and wasted no time heading back to our own flag.

"Hey!" I heard behind me while trying to take my alternate route. I stopped in my tracks. Was I caught? How? Someone had followed me?

I turned around, it was Kirishima.

"You okay, Ashido? Uh… did you forget what we are doing?" He muttered.

I gulped. I had to choose my strategy. I could play dumb but be stuck here.

That, or I could make a break for it.

"Don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing!" I yelled and ran away.

I wasted no time continuing with my acid slide to run away from Kirishima. He yelled after me but couldn't move as quickly.

If his quirk wasn't hardening and made him able to get me, I'd really be screwed.

I finished my alternate route from their flag to ours without a soul in sight.

"And that's…! They're done already…?" A voice boomed over the intercom.

A cute trick that would only work once in my academic career.

I opened my eyes again to my own body lying on the ground. I pushed myself up groggily.

"Nice job, Y/L/N. Probably won't be able to do that trick again, but it made sense in this instance." Ida commented. Ururaka nodded, agreeing with him.

I smiled at them. They smiled back in approval.

But their eyes showed hesitancy and they broke eye contact quickly.

"Let's go back to get our scores!" Ururaka exclaimed.

I frowned to myself.

Our review was positive but noted what we already knew— we wouldn't be able to do it again.

Things were quiet as we watched the other matches but I wondered what they would share about me in the aftermath.

The training wasn't too exhausting, but I was glad to go home at the end of the day.

I frowned at the outside as I saw the rain start to pour. It was an April shower.

I had no umbrella and tossed my jacket over my head, preparing for the worst.

"Y/L/N!" I heard before I could step into the rain. I recognized the voice.

"Midoriya," I said out loud, "you're still here?"

"Oh— I had a meeting, yeah. That's why I stayed late. Why are you still here?" He asked me.

"Just things to finish up my first day, I guess they shipped all my stuff to the dorms already? I haven't been there yet," I remarked.

"Let's go together then, do you have an umbrella?" He asked me. I shook my head. He held out his umbrella to share.

We began our short walk but I could tell he was dying to talk about a certain topic.

"So, stealing consciousness with a single glance, that's your quirk?" He asked me. I looked at him in shock.

"How did you know?" I asked him. He should have just seen it happen, not known how it worked.

"Oh, uh… Ida was telling anyone who asked. He was saying something about how it was only fair since we've known each other for years," he explained nervously.

"Oh— based on earlier I'm not surprised," I remarked.

"Sorry about that—" Midoriya started, "I think he thinks it's unfair." I shrugged.

"It might be, but I'm sure I'll prove myself in time," I remarked.

"Yeah! With that quirk you definitely can." He reassured me. We had a brief silence until he broke it again.

"Uh— do you have time this evening for me to ask a bit about your quirk?" Midoriya asked me.

I contemplated it, unsure that it was wise to let my target know so much. But I also had the benefit of white lies.

"Sure," I agreed.

I checked out my dorm room to make sure I wasn't missing anything and agreed to meet Midoriya in the main common area near the kitchen.

I did not realize the extent of Midoriya's interest until he brought a number of notebooks with him to the common area of the dorm.

My jaw dropped as he put them to his side and then opened a notebook in progress in front of me.

"This is kind of a side interest of mine— I just like to research other people's quirks," Midoriya explained. I nodded. He grabbed his pen and looked prepared.

"So… to begin, when did you first start using your quirk?" He asked me.

I began sharing what was essentially an autobiography of my quirk.

"I was in Kindergarten when it first appeared. I didn't mean to activate and I didn't know how I had done it. I thought I had died the first time," I explained. A sparkle appeared in Midoriya's eyes.

"Right, because you witnessed yourself passed out after activating it?" He asked. I nodded.

"I saw myself lying on the ground and our teachers swarmed me out of concern. I thought I had become a ghost. But once I took a moment to observe, I realized that I had actually 'become' one of my classmates. I was wearing their clothes and my hair was changed," I recounted.

Midoriya interrupted with a question I was not expecting.

"I was wondering then, what are your parents' quirks?" He asked me. I blinked at him.

"My father's quirk involved his eyes and lasers. My mother's is… I think something to do with the ability to move things." I explained.

"Your mom's quirk sounds like my mom's—" Midoriya said, laughing slightly. "Anyway, I guess your quirk makes sense given your parents' abilities…" he said, scribbling in his notebook.

I gripped my wrist tightly, becoming lost in my own thoughts about my family. It felt more like business than family.

"Thanks Y/L/N, I've got a bunch of good stuff now," he said. I smiled at him and he smiled back at me. His eyes were genuinely appreciative.

We locked eyes and I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Are you ok?" He asked me tentatively.

"I— I'm fine," I spat out. Despite this, he still looked concerned. I sighed.

"Well, you know a lot about my quirk now, I'm sure you can imagine that people, after learning about my quirk become hesitant to keep consistent— or any eye contact with me," I said. His eyes lit up in understanding.

"That makes sense! But I didn't look away because I didn't really think you would try to use your quirk on me, would you?" He inquired.

I laughed slightly.

"I wouldn't. I usually have no reason to use it at all."

Time felt nonexistent as the days blended into each other. Between the constant studying and training, before we knew it, it was almost the end of the semester.

My mind was anxious about finals, but a looming thought also rested in the back of my mind.

I enrolled in U.A. for one task and one task only. Time was ticking and I knew impatience was rising. I needed to make a move.

One warm afternoon I pulled out my secondary phone from my desk before going to dinner.

I flipped it open and opened the one unread message I had. My heart sunk as I read it.

What are you doing?

I stared at the message and contemplated if I should send something back.

I didn't want to reply back.

I didn't want to talk to them.

I didn't want to do it.

My breathing became more shallow as I abruptly shut the phone.

During the past couple of months, I had felt like a normal student for once in my life. Despite being an outsider, I was making friends. The class' optimism about professional heroism was contagious.

It was so different from what I had originally thought— that pro-heroism was a stain on our society. That it was filled with people with egos too big for their own good.

But now, those people were my friends. They were kind to me and accepting, even though I was an intruder to their established group.

I tried to put on a happy face before going to dinner and forget about the message.

Over time, I meshed into Midoriya's group well that contained him, Ida, Asui, Todoroki, and Ururaka. I found myself able to chat casually among them.

"So, are you guys prepared for exams?" Asui asked us all at the table. There was resounding agreement since everyone at the table was highly ranked. They discussed what they thought might be on the exam while I got lost in my own thoughts again.

"Y/N, are you okay? You look concerned about something," Ururaka asked me during a break in their main conversation.

"Oh—" I said, retreating from my head. I tried to reassure them that it was just stress from finals.

"It's just normal stress about exams, that's all. I've been staying up pretty late!" I tried to say enthusiastically. They still looked concerned, probably because I seemed the most stressed out.

"I know! Why don't we all hang out tonight for tea instead of studying? It'll be a nice break for everyone," Ururaka suggested. Everyone liked the idea.

We finished our dinner and then made tea for our small group to enjoy in the common areas. Ururaka also had us play some card games.

We laughed and enjoyed each other's company, forgetting about any other stressors. We poked fun at each other and focused on relaxing.

Finally, a wave of tiredness came over me. We had been playing for a couple of hours so I decided to head upstairs.

"It's pretty late so I think I'll start getting ready for bed," I yawned.

"Same here, let's all go up together," Asui remarked.

"Oh, if everyone else wants to keep playing though, I don't want to stop you!" I exclaimed.

"Y/N! You're part of our group now too! We will never exclude you!" Ururaka beamed. I smiled at all of them. It felt like I belonged.

Ida and Midoriya agreed to clean up the tea since Ururaka brought and cleaned up the cards. We waved goodbye to them and headed back to the girls' side of the dorms.

We joked around a bit more and then headed to our rooms. I collapsed face first into my bed without turning on my light, exhausted but happy to have spent time with the group.

I closed my eyes, but was startled awake by a knock on my door.

I got up, turned on the light and opened it to Midoriya standing there with my phone.

"Sorry to disturb you Y/L/N, but you forgot your phone downstairs," he said coyly.

"No, thank you! I would have wondered where this was," I replied, grateful that he had brought it up.

Midoriya looked past me for a split second into my room and his face changed into a concerned expression.

"H-hey Y/L/N, w-what is that?" He stuttered, pointing past me and to my balcony window.

I looked at him, confused. I hadn't seen anything when coming into the room, but I had just flopped onto my bed in the dark.

I turned around and my heart sank. The first thing I saw was the blood, then the animal it had come from, then the markings on the window.

Midoriya stepped into the room while I was speechless to get a closer look. He must have deduced from my face that it wasn't my own doing.

"O-oh my god… what is that?" I said under my breath quietly. I had a suspicion of what it could be by viewing it from afar, but I was shaking slightly and couldn't move my body to get a closer look.

I was less afraid of the blood than the symbol drawn in my blood. It was from my father's group. The group that had given me my task.

Midoriya cautiously got closer first and looked out the window to see if there was any trace of who could have done it.

"There's nobody out here, at least right now—" Midoriya muttered. "But what could these markings be?" He looked at the symbol inquisitively.

I finally got the courage to step forward to see that it was the corpse of a large, white rabbit.

Poor thing, I thought to myself.

Midoriya took his phone out to take a photo of the symbol. My eyes widened.

"No— wait!" I gasped. He paused and looked at me.

"I'm sure this is just somebody's idea of a prank, right? There's probably no real danger," I started. "I-I'll just clean it up and then if it happens again we know it's serious."

"Y/L/N... is everything okay? I really think we should tell the teachers about this, this is pretty serious," Midoriya said nervously.

Before I could reply, my secondary phone began vibrating loudly in the drawer. Both of us jumped, but I'm sure my face expressed the pure terror I felt.

I quickly got up to silence the phone and decline the call. I put the phone back in the drawer.

"Sorry— uh… my mom sometimes has me do some work for her on her work phone," I tried to explain why I would have a second phone in the first place

We both jumped again as it began to vibrate for a second time. This time I turned off the phone completely.

Shit, shit, shit, he's totally suspicious. It's too late at night to get two unsolicited calls in a row. He knows something is up because of that and the rabbit. I said to myself. His face was especially concerned now.

"Y/L/N... hey, you can trust me! If you're not safe we can let the teachers know and they can help!" Midoriya said, trying to hide his own fear.

"I-I trust you, I really do. But I think it's best if you just go back to your room and forget this happened…" I said quietly, hiding my face. His face turned from concern to sadness. He couldn't believe that I could brush off something like this so easily.

"Y/N... please, tell me what the hell is going on!?" Midoriya said, more aggressively this time. My eyes widened at his use of just my first name.

I froze, not knowing what to do. I had already screwed up, and if he knew what my plans were my head would be placed on a stake.

We exchanged an intense stare, our eyes locked onto each other's.

Even in a moment like this, he didn't look away?

I could use my quirk at any moment to force him out of here.

But maybe he knew that no matter what I did, I couldn't erase this moment from his memory.

My mind replayed the night and my eyes began to swell with tears. We were having so much fun earlier. Uraraka let me know that they wanted me to be part of their group.

They didn't care about my quirk, they wanted to be my friend.

My eyes wandered to the window.

Izuku planned to tell the teachers— but more than likely one of the teachers was part of the group, considering how I got in at all.

But— if I could convince him to keep it a secret and it stayed between us, it could bring us closer together. Maybe it could provide an opening.

I could delay the inevitable.

"I-Izuku— if I tell you my situation, you can't tell anyoneelse, not even the teachers, understood?" I said, my voice shaking.

"Why?" He immediately asked.

"There's a possibility that they could be involved with— this," I gestured towards the window that still had the symbol on it.

"A teacher?" He inquired. I nodded my head.

I explained in detail how my father had been part of a group called Mokushi. I told him about how the group believed that quirks would inevitably bring the apocalypse and they had a duty to stop it.

"Which— I'm sure you can figure out that it means…" I hinted to him. He looked at me with a clueless face. "It means I know about One for All, dummy." His face turned to shock and his cheeks flushed.

"Wha— you know about One for All!? How?" He asked me.

"Well, there's balance with all things, right? You can give a quirk, but someone can also take them away," I explained to him, sitting on my bed. I gestured him over so he could sit too. He sat down on the bed too.

"Anyway, my mother and father were even worse than a quirk marriage. My father had a high position in the group and my mother was just a civilian who had an interest… they… forced her to become pregnant with me because they thought their mix had the potential to create the mutation they wanted. They wanted something , anything that could allow them to control people at a close level," I recounted the things my father had told me.

"I have a lot of half-siblings too," I said, laughing slightly. "Forget getting married to have multiple children until you get the one you want… just get as many women as you can pregnant until the right one comes out," I glanced towards the window.

Izuku's face was solemn. He said nothing, so I continued.

"I actually had a fairly normal childhood, with just some of my quirk being used for the Mokushi. I was a child so they knew they couldn't push me too much," I explained.

"This is… something only a few people know, and I don't share it very often. But when I take someone's consciousness I can also get a glance at their memories and current feelings. The Mokushi group would occasionally torment people to get information, but if they were really tough they would bring me in to get the answer and more. I would have to endure the same pain they felt for a bit but—" I stopped myself and thought of my next words.

"They gave me that job and then this one. I'm supposed to give One for All to the one who can take quirks away, All for One," I described.

Upon hearing this, Izuku lurched away slightly.

"Me coming to this school wasn't on my own accord, it's because you go here. I would have gone anywhere else if you had been there," I finished my explanation and waited for his reaction.

He looked like he was deep in thought. My hands were sweating and I gripped them tightly.

"Y/N... what are you risking by telling me this?" Izuku asked me with fear in his eyes. I gulped.

"I know they wouldn't hesitate to kill me without a second thought. If a tool like me can't be used by them, it can't be used at all."