The first day of school at UA was a fair representation of how Toshinori's entire three years went while attending. He got lost.

"Wait...was the turn back there?" Toshinori turned the school map over again. It'd come with his acceptance letter but it was ultimately useless when the halls were this big. The doors to each room were massive and he wondered who taught here to need a door like that. He'd at least made it to the hall where his class should've been, but by the time he made it to 1-A, he got lost again. Toshinori huffed out and continued down the line. If he was going to be late, then he had a good excuse. How did they expect people to find their way around?

"Hey! Are you in the hero course?" A gruff voice asked.

Toshinori turned around to see a teacher -or who he assumed was a teacher- peeking out from the door. "Ah, yeah. Is 1-B around here?" He held up his map. He doubted a teacher needed it but it was nice to offer, right?

"That's us. Get on in here." he gestured towards the inside of the class, a playful smile showing on his lips.

Toshinori shoved the map into his pocket and jogged over. There hadn't been anything printed on the door when he passed. "Why isn't there a number on the door then?"

"The door's relatively new. We just didn't get around to printing it on before the year started. Don't worry, you're not the only one who's gotten lost."

As Toshinori walked into the room, he nearly jumped back at his teacher's quirk. He hadn't expected a centaur, though the idea seemed interesting to him. There weren't any comic heroes -that he knew of- that were centaurs. Those were mostly saved for mythology and fantasy novels, but anything was possibly with quirks. Part of him wanted to ask how his teacher did daily things, like riding on buses or in cars. Was his bed low to the ground? What about his bathroom-

"Hey, get inside and quit staring." His teacher's smile turned soar and Toshinori ran to the first seat he saw. The centaur closed the door and started walking toward the front. He'd obviously ruined the man's good mood. Great. "Alright, 1-B. Welcome to UA. You've all earned your way here through your knowledge and fighting skill, but it's obvious to me that you're all far from true heroes."

A few eyes turned to Toshinori and he sunk in his seat. Why did he sit in the front?

The centaur continued. "My name is Seicho and I expect you to address me properly. Now, I know that my quirk is a bit different than others may expect but I do not tolerate horse jokes, under any circumstances."

The rest of the class went a bit more smoothly, but it was obvious that some classmates were forming harsh opinions on him. Once homeroom ended, Toshinori let out a long sigh and sat up straight. He had a quirk now. He wouldn't get pushed away or dismissed as useless. He was going to become a symbol of peace, so he had to stand out. He'd train harder than anyone else. With renewed confidence, Toshinori sat up tall and gave the person behind him a peace sign and a bright smile, like Nana's. They gave him a grimace and turned around to see who he was looking at. Toshinori's smile fell and he turned back around. He could've planned that better.

There was little to no class work assigned and they went to a special ceremony for all of the first years. They were told more about what it means to be at UA as a student. The principal was a nice guy but tended to ramble on. He made a joke about his force field quirk that no one laughed at but Toshinori. He'd gotten more stares.

By the time lunch came around, Toshinori was tired and hungry. He'd gone through the lunch line, flashing a smile at the lunch ladies as he went, and hovered. He could see several friend groups forming, but it seemed like everyone was just meeting each other. If he didn't find the right people to sit with today, then it's only get more and more awkward to sit with someone else. After a quick review of the area, he decided to sit next to a smaller group of mutant quirk students. Well, he would've sat down with them, if he hadn't been stopped.

"Hey, you can't sit with us." A student with a bear quirk roared. "This is for people with mutation quirks only."

Toshinori tilted his head, feeling a drip of anxiety build in his chest. "Why's that?"

"Because we don't want you stupid telekinesis kids sitting with us." Another student snapped. This one had spider legs.

"Oh! Thank goodness I don't have telekinesis, then." Toshinori beamed. "Can I sit with you now?" He moved to sit but got cut off again.

A pair of big hands pulled him away by the shoulders roughly. He nearly dropped his entire lunch tray but managed to keep a good hold on it. Another mutant student huffed smoke in his face before taking his seat. Toshinori coughed and took a few steps away. He gave one last look at the group before moving away. He decided to sit alone instead. His energy had all but run out. He ate in silence, wondering why mutant quirked people felt like they needed to be by themselves. No, he knew why. People were cruel and evil. Those with physical quirks were often treated like the fall of society. Like someone who had a different look would hurt more people then someone without. It was just another reason for Toshinori to become a symbol of peace. He could help outcasts become a welcomed part of the world.

Toshinori jumped when someone sat down across from him. She gave him a quick smile before going back to her food. Her hair was tied up in a long ponytail that flowed over her shoulder. The most notable thing about her, though, was the fact that she had an entirely unnatural color scheme. Her skin was a dark blue and her hair was a brighter tint of the same color. She had white dots all over her face and Toshinori assumed those were freckles. The inside of her eyes were black, then red.

"What?" She looked at him long and hard.

"Um...what exactly...is your quirk? It's really interesting, don't get me wrong! I'm just…" toshinori rubbed at his neck. He was ruining everything he did today.

"It's called Invert. I see the real world's inverted color." She answered shortly.

"Oh, really? That's really cool! I've never seen anything like it! Does it help you fight or see things that no one else can?"

She didn't respond for a while, chewing on her mouthful of rice. "I saw you trying to talk to the mutation table. I still can't tell if you're determined or just stupid."

Toshinori felt thrown off at the sudden change in conversation. "Um, well...I just wanted to sit next to someone." The truth was always a good plan. "I don't really like to sit alone and figured they seemed friendly enough."

"You don't know a lot about quirks, do you? Are you a late bloomer?" She leaned forward, almost dipping her tie into her sauce.

"People with mutant quirks shouldn't be treated so differently." He decided to change the subject instead of answering. With a quirk this secret, he'd have to get good at it. "It's not their fault and no one should treat it like it is. That's why I'm here at UA. I want to become a hero that everyone can count on! A symbol of peace!" He stood up dramatically and raised his fist in the air. A few others looked but he didn't care. He wanted them to know too.

The girl looked at him in embarrassment and disbelief. "You really are crazy." She muttered. When he was seated again, she slipped him a small smile. "It's cool though. To have ideas like that. I'm just here to work with my dad. He's the hero Techno." She said it as if Toshinori would know who that was.

"Hey! Maybe we could help each other out! Like in The Mudman Adventures three! He made his own team of heroes with dirty themed powers!" Toshinori couldn't help but ramble. Someone was willing to listen to him, so why not share a bit of his passion?

"Wait, you read comics? I thought those were only for old people."

Toshinori stopped talking but held his smile. "Well, they are older but that doesn't mean they're not good. In fact, I designed my hero costume off of a few heroes from them! Wanna see?" he was already pulling out his small sketchbook and flipping through pages. "This one is just a sketch of Electro Class, the high voltage hero! I liked the way her boots looked so I decided to take that and…" He flipped to another drawing. "Crystal Gore's helmet. See?" He showed her the picture.

She looked at his sketch with wide eyes. He continued to flip between pictures until he made it to the sketch of his hero costume. Nana had complimented it the moment she saw it but suggested he dropped the extra gadgets. Smoke bombs wouldn't be necessary with his quirk.

His costume was mostly armor based. If he was going to be wide open, then he'd need protection. It was mostly red and white to represent Japan. If he was going to protect them, then he might as well use their country's colors.

"Why didn't you go into a drawing school? This is really good!" She grabbed the sketchbook and began looking through it. Toshinori felt a spike of anxiety rise up. He had some bad pictures in there too and some unfinished ones. He didn't really want her to see those…

The bell for lunch rang and Toshinori realized two things. He didn't eat any of his lunch and he still hadn't gotten this girl's name. "Wait, what's your name?" Toshinori shot up before she could even leave her own seat. She stared at him for a little while before smiling.

"You can call me Hanten." She turned back to her book bag and stood up. "It was nice talking to you, but I'll have to think over the idea of teaming up. I have a hard time staying dedicated to other people. I'll tell you when I have an answer." She started walking away.

Toshinori shoved a handful of rice into his mouth and rushed to walk beside her. "That's okay. I'm new to this whole friends thing too. I can walk you to your class in the meantime, though. Which class are you from?"

She gave him a smirk before nodding toward a large door. "I'm in 1-A with Yasaki-sensei. She doesn't like most other hero course classes. That much is clear already."

As if summoned a tall woman glared at Toshinori from her room. "I'm glad you found your way back, Miss Hanten. Please try to get back a little sooner next time." Hanten nodded and threw Toshinori a subtle wink before walking into class. He smiled back and decided to head back to his own homeroom. He was already in trouble with his own teacher. It wouldn't help to get in trouble with someone else's as well.

…

Over the next few days, Hanten and Toshinori ate together but every time he asked if she'd made up her mind, she told him to wait. It was a bit strange, to think about something so simple for so long, but he was willing to wait for her answer.

Her answer didn't come after the sports festival, which Toshinori not third place on -he'd lost to someone with a telekinesis quirk. Her answer didn't come after their first set of finals either. By that point, Toshinori had decided to stop asking and just let her come to him whenever she had her answer. They were close enough that Toshinori visited her house every weekend for study sessions. He helped her train in martial arts, with a few pointers he'd gathered from Nana. She helped him study quirk history and English. Hanten was a master at learning languages and Toshinori almost wanted to say it was part of her quirk.

One time, during their weekly study session, she cracked the funniest joke that Toshinori had ever heard -or he was just so tired that it made it ten times more funny- and they both ended up laughing their guts out on her bedroom floor. When she tried to calm down, Toshinori snorted and it all started again.

"Stop! Stop!" She laughed. "I'm gonna vomit!" They actually managed to calm down to soft giggles before relaxing. Toshinori's ribs still hurt from it. "Toshi, I wanna know something." she whispered in the silence of her room.

He turned to her with a small smile. "Yeah?"

She wasn't smiling back. Her face was serious and it made his smile drop. The mood no longer felt calm and relaxing. The tension between them stretched until she finally spoke. "Toshi, why don't we ever meet at your house? I know you don't live alone because I saw your parents with you at the sports festival."

Toshinori felt a shrill go down his spine. His parents? Dad didn't go to the sports festival. He didn't even respond when Toshinori told him later that evening. The memory made his chest ache, but he shoved it away. Toshinri looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure out who she'd seen- Nana. Both Nana and gran Torino had gone to the sport festival to watch him. Did she think...those were his parents. "Oh, Hanten, those are-" He stopped.

Was Nana his parent? No, not biologically. She felt like a parent to him, though. When he sees her after school for training, and tells her about the things he did at school and learned, she felt like a mother. Gran Torino wasn't really a father to him, more like a close uncle. He'd never had one before, but that sounded right to him. The question came up again. Was Nana his mother? If he admitted that she wasn't to Hanten, what would he say? That Dad was too drunk to support him? To even acknowledge that he existed? No. That wasn't an option.

"My parents." he finished. "Yeah. they're my parents." His chest felt lighter as he said it.

"Then why don't we ever meet at your place? I mean, I like coming here. I'm comfortable here, but why?

That was another problem. Toshinori decided to tell her the truth. "It's a really long story." Well, the vague truth. "It's really complicated and you'd probably just end up more confused than you are now. I…" How could he phrase this as simple as possible? "It's not good for both of us to be at my house."

Her eyes went wide and here gaze flicked to the bruise on his shoulder. He'd gotten that during training, but she didn't know that. "Toshi...are you safe at home? Should we tell someone?" She said it in a near whisper, her voice tense and scared.

"No, we don't need to tell anyone. It's not dangerous or anything, I just...I don't know how safe you'd be there. It's different and confusing, I know, but I promise that I'm okay."

Hanten nodded slowly before letting out a long sigh. "Well, I'm okay with staying here then. I trust you, Toshi."

They didn't talk about it for a long time. The Monday after that conversation, Hanten told him that she wanted to join his little team and Toshinori nearly spit his rice all over her. They were a team! When the time for their pre-licensing exam came, they signed up as a team. They called themselves Team Hope.

Since they had signed up as a team but weren't in the same class, they would sometimes have to skip certain classes to train with the other hero course class. Both 1-B and 1-A teachers ended up deciding to transfer the two of them to 1-C so that they could train together.

Toshinori and Hanten did everything together after that. They had matching costumes -Toshinori's was a bright red color while Hanten's was a darker purple color- and their very own symbol. The Hope Heroes, Almighty and Indigo would be the best Japan had ever seen. At least that's what they told themselves.

During the summer of their second year, they trained together but that all stopped when Nana was called in for a special mission on the Northern coast of japan. Gran Torino, Nana and Toshinori all had to attend a hero ranking conference and wouldn't come back for a week or so.

"Call me everyday, Toshinori." Hanten made him promise. "Don't get fat while I'm gone." She puffed out her cheeks and wobbled. Toshinori laughed and gave her the biggest bear hug he could.

"Alright, but you better not shrink. If you get any smaller, I might have to carry you on my shoulder."

She gave him a playful slap on the side. He was nearly 200 cm already and still had a few extra years of growing to do. He gave her one last hug before heading out to meet Nana and Gran Torino at the train station.

Toshinori didn't return for nearly a month after and didn't answer a single call from Hanten for the rest of the summer. He didn't show up to a full week of school when the school year started again. Whenever she called his number, the line went dead immediately and when she checked nearly everywhere they've ever been together, he was never there. It was as if he'd disappeared.

The new 1-C teacher was a gruff man with frizzy white hair. His hero name was Gran Torino and insisted that they would become true heroes before the year ended. Hanten didn't like him but she didn't care to focus on it. Nearly every second of her time was spent thinking of where Toshinori had gone.

When Toshinori did come back, he walked with a slight limp and a dark aura. Something was seriously wrong.

Hanten tried to talk to him during lunch. "Toshinori, what's wrong? I know you better than anyone. You'd never ignore my calls and just...not show up. UA means everything to you!"

He felt his chest press and he tried to keep from crying again. His mind wouldn't let him forget. He could still see her face, covered in blood. "I…" Toshinori swallowed a thick wad of mucus. "I don't know what to say." His hands shook. This was dangerous. Gran Torino had already told him what to do about his team, but he was too scared. He had no choice. Just sitting here could kill Hanten. "I want to talk to you after school, alright?"

Hanten stayed quiet for a long time, only nodding. She knew something big was happening, he could see that in the way she respected his space. He would always be grateful for her, even years after he'd left.

…

"I'm leaving to America as soon as I graduate." Toshinori admitted. He felt relieved to finally get it out, but he also hated the look on her face.

"You...You're moving to America? Well, then I'll build the funds and we can go. I can work longer shifts. We can even-"

"Hanten. I...I can't bring you with me. It's too dangerous. I'm moving to America alone." He hoped that she would just agree and let it be, but he knew she was a fighter. He wouldn't have teamed up with her if she wasn't.

"No. You promised that we would be a team!" He tried to calm her but she slapped his hands away. "No! I'm not letting you run away! Whatever this thing is, we can fight this. Together."

Toshinori gently laid his hands on hers, pressing them to his cheeks. Her hands were warm but made the sting behind his eyes worse. "Hanten, we can't. She's gone and I ca-" He gasped and struggled to keep his voice even. His jaw hurt with the effort it took. "Please, just trust me. This is for the best. You'll die if we don't split up."

"But Toshi...This was our dream." She was crying now, small streams of tears rolling down her cheeks. "I don't know if I can just give this up. I...I don't want to lose you, Toshi. You're so im-important to me."

"I'm sorry." He whispered, letting a single tear fall onto their joined hands. "Trust me, If I had a choice, I wouldn't do this; but I don't."

They stood there for a long time, grieving the hopes and dreams of their past. The first to speak was Toshinori. "Hanten…?"

"Y-yeah?" She sniffed. "What is it, Toshi?"

He bit his lip and let go on one hand. He then wiped a tear from her face, though it was useless against the tears that replaced it. "I want you to be happy without me. Can you do that?"

Her lip twitch and more tears came but she didn't sob. She lowered her head. "I don't know, Toshi. You're all I've ever known and-" She cut herself off, wiping away her tears. He let out a long breath and looked up at him again. "I'll try. I'll try for you."

He gave her a weak smile, not feeling it in his heart. It would be the first of many to come. "That's all I ask."

Toshinori didn't see Hanten at the airport before leaving to America. He could never blame her for not seeing him go.

Author's Notes: Sometimes, the best thing you can give someone is your trust.