Chapter 2 - Arrival of the Americans
Several months ago, having completed the America U.A Recommendation Exam, the six chosen students were tasked with preparing to go to Japan. Aside from having their belongings sent to the dorms in advance, the six were also assigned to learn Japanese in a language arts course. The studies soon yielded results, and the six became fluent in Japanese. Afterwards, they were given air fare and went on a flight to Japan. The fight was at three in the morning, and it lasted for eleven hours. Afterwards, they arrived in Japan, went through the airport, boarded a bus to Musutafu, and were now waiting at a bus stop by the road for their assigned person to pick them up (which was Aizawa, though they didn't know that at the time).
At the moment, Milo Shiloh, Sunshine DeMorris, and Annabelle Walters were sitting on the bench at the bus stop. Joshua Graham was leaning against the wall of the bus stop, while Murdock Jenkins and Matthew Noble were sitting at the sidewalk. Their luggage, which was six suitcases and six backpacks, was in a pile next to the bus stop. As they were waiting, Murdock used his 'Stretch' quirk to stretch his neck out and look down both sides of the road. When no cars were coming, he pulled back to normal.
"So, is someone going to come pick us up?" asked Murdock, his voice thick with a southern accent. "I'm getting mighty bored out here."
"Oh shut up, hick; I'm trying to enjoy some peace and quiet without having to hear your dumb accent!" Joshua growled, his eyes closed.
"Leave him alone, Joshua." Matthew spoke up, as he and Jenkins turned to face Joshua. "Besides, I'm getting bored out here too."
"And you can just shut up too, quirkless loser!" Joshua replied, opening his eyes to send an angry glance at the two.
"I don't fear you, jerk!" Matthew replied, his tone defensive.
"Why don't you just shove-"
"Calm down, Joshua…" said Sunshine. "We're all tired from the flight, and the last thing we need to do is kill each other!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Joshua muttered, closing his eyes again.
Matthew and Murdock turned back to face the road as group quieted down, and they all waited in silence. After a few more minutes of no talking, Annabelle spoke up and asked, "Who do you think will be picking us up?"
"I don't know." Milo replied with a shrug. "The guy at the airport said that there would be a hero waiting to pick us up, but I don't know who it's going to be."
"Hope whoever is picking us up will provide good protection. I heard on the news about how villains kidnap students and try to convince them to join us."
"That won't happen, Annabelle. Even if we don't have heroes to protect us, we can still handle ourselves. Besides, whoever is coming to pick us up is probably the best of the best. We got absolutely nothing to worry about!"
As they were talking, a bus appeared out of nowhere and started pulling towards the bus stop. Murdock and Matthew quickly got up from the sidewalk and joined the other four at the bus stop. The bus stopped, and the door opened to reveal a man with long black hair, pale skin, bloodshot eyes, dressed in black with a white scarf (Shota Aizawa).
Aizawa looked at the six students and recognized them from their pictures in their profiles. The one named Joshua Graham wore a black stocking cap, a red and black zip up hoodie, a black t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and white and blue sneakers.
Murdock Jenkins was the real sight to see; He wore a white cowboy hat, a brown buckskin jacket, a blue t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and brown cowboy boots. His appearance practically screamed American!
As for Sunshine DeMorris, she wore a black headband, a white t-shirt, white cargo pants, and white sneakers with white laces. Her clothing made her look like she could blend into a white background!
The last three were pretty usual looking; Milo Shiloh wore a black zip up hoodie, a dark green t-shirt, black sweatpants, and black running shoes with black laces. Matthew Noble wore an oversized grey hoodie, a black shirt with no sleeves, dark blue jeans, and white running shoes. And Annabelle Walters wore black reading glasses, a dark blue sweatshirt, black leggings, and white sneakers.
"You alright, sir?" asked Milo, speaking in Japanese.
"Yes, I am alright." Aizawa replied, also speaking Japanese, and his tone dry and tired sounding. "You six are the exchange students for U.A, correct?"
All teenagers understood what was said, and their facial expressions turned defensive. Milo then responded by asking, "Why do you ask?"
"Cause I'm your teacher and guardian, and the one sent to pick you up." Aizawa replied, his tone still sounding dry and tired.
"How do we know we can trust you?"
Aizawa sighed, and pulled out the file containing their profiles. He held it out, and Milo walked forward and took it. He then opened it and, upon seeing that they were all in it, looked back at the group and said in english, "Well, it appears that this is the guy who has-"
"Grab your luggage and get in." Aizawa interrupted, taking the file from Milo and causing him to shoot a look at him. However, he obeyed, along with the other five students; they grabbed their suitcases and backpacks that contained their luggage and boarded the bus. Sunshine sat with Matthew, while Milo sat with Annabelle, and Joshua sat with Murdock.
"Great…" Joshua muttered to Murdock, as they climb into the bus. "Of all of the heroes in U.A, they send us one who looks like a hungover janitor…"
"Who knows? Maybe he's really powerful or something, and this is all an act." Murdock replied quietly, as he and Joshua took their seats.
"All an act? I think that if your eyes were bloodshot, it would prove that- AHHHHHHH!"
Murdock's expression turned to one of confusion upon hearing Joshua's shocked scream. But when he looked at what he was screaming at, his own facial expression turned to one of shock, along with everyone else in the van! Aizawa was standing in front of them, his hair pointed upward and his eye pupils were glowing red; it was truly a shocking sight!
"I can understand English as well as I can speak Japanese." said Aizawa, his hair going down and his eyes returning to normal. "And as for the comment about how I look like a hungover janitor, comments like that reflect badly on your personality. If you're wondering who I am, I am going to be the teacher for you six; I am Shota Aizawa, also known as 'Erasure Hero: Eraser Head'."
"Eraser Head?" asked Murdock. "You mean like the movie? I saw that once, and it was pretty freaky! Nothing made sense in it and-"
"Quiet." Aizawa ordered, causing Murdock to quiet down. As his hair lowered and his eyes went back to normal, he said, "Now, I had just recently been informed of the arrival of you six, so I want to get a few things straight. For the year that the six of you are here, you will be training under my tutelage. It won't be easy, and it will absolutely painful for you. I will teach you how to be heroes, and I all I ask in return is that you obey and follow my instructions. You will learn to master your quirks, and fight villains." He then looked at Matthew. "And, I read your files, so I know about your quirks and hero licenses. You all have good quirks, except for you, Mr. Noble, whom I have found out is quirkless. There is no place for a hero will can be killed in the first five minutes, so it's best that you leave now and go back to Justice High, considering you won't last a week."
Matthew's expression turned a grin of determination, and he asked, "You want to bet?"
Aizawa's expression turned somewhat surprised, and he asked, "A bet?"
"Yeah." Matthew replied. "How about we have a bet? You don't think I'll last for a week, so let's try it. If you win, I'll leave U.A with the word 'Loser' tattooed on my head in Japanese. And if I win, you'll have to admit that you were wrong about me, and I would like that scarf that you're wearing around your neck. So how about it, teach?"
Aizawa's expression then turned to a grin of amusement, and he said, "Why not? I'll do it. Anyway, enough talking; we need to get to Alliance Heights, which is where the six of you will be staying."
Aizawa sat down and motioned for the driver of the bus, an older Japanese man with elf ears and weird looking fangs coming from his jaw, to drive. The man complied, and the bus started moving. As it was driving, Sunshine got up from where she was sitting and made her way over to Aizawa. When she got to him, she asked, "Uh, Mr. Aizawa?"
"Hmm?" Mr. Aizawa grunted.
"Listen, I don't want to sound like I'm trying to tell you what's what, but Matthew's pretty tough. If you read his file, I'm sure that you read that he got the highest rescue points in the Recommendation Exam back in America. He saved injured competitors, protected competitors who were about to be attacked from behind, and even broke an arm and a leg when he took a hit for one competitor. Which, believe it or not, was me…"
"Quite impressive, but that achievement won't help him with me. I'm going to prove him wrong, and I'm going to give him the hardest training he has ever experienced."
"Okay. But when he wins the bet, don't blame any of us." Sunshine replied, before heading back to her seat.
Aizawa closed his eyes and went deep into his thoughts. In a weird way, he was actually hoping that Matthew would win the bet. He wanted to see if this kid was as great as the file said he was. Plus, the fact that this kid, even though he was quirkless, was able to save students and get 168 rescue points was quite impressive. If he was as great as his fellow student was saying about him, then he was sure to be a great student, despite being quirkless.
Meanwhile, Sunshine went back to sitting with Matthew, who asked, "What did you tell him?"
"I told him that you were going to win the bet." Sunshine replied with a small grin.
"Or die trying." Matthew added, a look of determination on his face. "No matter what he throws at me, I'm gonna give it my all. Even if I break, I'm gonna die trying to show him that I can be a hero. I may be quirkless, but I'm gonna prove to him, and everybody else, that I can still hold my own…"
Even with his eyes closed, Aizawa heard what Matthew was saying; this kid had quite the spirit! It was like he had the fighting spirit of Midoriya, mixed in with the boldness of Bakugo! This kid was pretty interesting, to say the least.
All of the students were interesting in their own right; Matthew was persistent, Sunshine was kind, Murdock was goofy, and Milo was a leader. He didn't know much Annabelle, however, and he had a funny feeling about Joshua. Aside from Joshua's attitude being similar to Bakugo, he seemed to be hiding something. Aizawa couldn't put his finger on it, but there was something suspicious about him. He didn't know what, but there was something.
After a few minutes of the bus driving, the group finally arrived at Heights Alliance. It was a large building with two wings that were colored white and brown, and it had a '1-A' painted on the front, along with a sign that said 'ALLIANCE' on it. The entrance to the building was two double doors, and there was a courtyard with two park benches, a couple of hedges, and a pathway leading to the building with eight lampposts, four on each side of the path.
The bus parked in the parking lot, and Aizawa got out. After him came Sunshine and Matthew, then Milo and Annabelle, and finally Joshua and Murdock. They came out of the bus carrying their luggage, and followed Aizawa towards the building.
"Looks like none of Class 1-A is in the building." Aizawa thought to himself. "That's good, as I wouldn't want to overwhelm the new students when they've just got here."
The group of seven went up the path entered into heights alliance; It had a large interior that looked similar to that of a hotel, and there were five floors. The first floor, which they were on, was a common area that had couches, tables, a television, kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms.
Aizawa stopped, and the American students dropped their luggage tiredly. Aizawa then turned around and said, "Welcome to Heights Alliance. This is where you will be staying for the year. This is the first floor, where we have a common area, kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms. Bathrooms are NOT co-ed. On the second through fifth floors are the dorm rooms, where you will be staying. Left wing is for boys while right wing is for girls. However, since we only have two rooms left for the left wing, two of you boys will have to take rooms on the right wing. Any questions?"
The American students shook their heads; they were too tired to ask any questions.
"Alright, first class is at 8:30 in the morning. At 7:00 is breakfast, and I will be introducing you to Class 1-A at that time. Now, I'm pretty sure you all are tired and needing some sleep, so I will assign you your rooms. Milo Shiloh, you will be on the fourth floor on the left wing, in the fourth dorm. Murdock Jenkins, you will be on the fifth floor on left wing, in the first dorm. Sunshine DeMorris and Annabelle Walters, you two will be on the third floor on the right wing, in the second and third dorms. Finally, Joshua Graham and Matthew Noble, you two will be on the second floor on the right wing, in the first and second dorms. The keys to your rooms are all already in the locks in the doors. As for the belongings that you all have sent in advance, they will be arriving either tomorrow, or in two to three days. Now you can go to your dorm rooms; welcome to U.A and remember, our slogan is 'GO BEYOND! PLUS ULTRA!'"
"Yes sir!" All American students, except for Joshua, said in unison.
In slow and tired motions, the six grabbed their bags and began making their way to their rooms. Aizawa watched them, preferably Joshua and Matthew. Matthew was an interesting case, being quirkless and all, and Joshua was an enigma all on his own. Aizawa felt that out of all the American students that were there, those two were the ones that needed to be kept an eye on. Hopefully, whatever Joshua was hiding would be revealed. And, hopefully, Matthew would prove just how 'tough' he was.