Chapter 10. The Beginning of the Road.
A warm bed and warm room. That's all I needed after a long weekend of- Shattering it is my alarm squawking and squealing. I grumpily reach out and turn it off. Rolling back over to sleep in because I didn't feel like moving.
Then moments later I feel arms around me. Mom hoists me off my bed and onto the floor. I flop uselessly out.
"Get up hon! Time to go!" she orders.
"Nuuuh… I'm spaghetti…" I moan. "Moooom…" I raise my head and moan out again. Mom just sighs.
"Listen. You don't wanna be late right? That's a bad look." She gently stands me up and I notice that she's been crying. "Arms. Now."
I raise my right arm and she fastens my band to it. Then the same was done with my left. She also fastens my leg ones. She grabs my undershirt and has me raise my arms again. Her focus is mostly on getting me dressed.
After breakfast Mom helps me with my tie and smiles, "Don't forget Renaru. No fighting and make me proud. I don't want to start a high school album." she says. She kisses me on the forehead and I smile. She seems really happy but at the same time she's reluctant. Considering how long the commute is from here to UA. I grab my backpack and grin at her.
"I'm off! Have a good day Mom!" I exclaim. Heading out the door and on my way towards the train station and through the turnstile. Getting on the train and going off towards the future. Joining yet another train where I found Ibara already sitting down with her uniform on.
She looks up at me with a big smile. "Oh! Good morning Renaru!" She greeted me. I smile and sit down next to her. Feeling her lips brush on my cheek. My cheeks heat up as she grabs my hand.
"Renaru. I… I love you." She says. Her cheeks are cherry red. "O-oh goodness… I'm still not used to that."
"Then say it until you are!" I say. We just hold hands like it's normal. Even though we might need to hide it. I still hold her hand. Mostly because I want to. Ibara's hand is dainty but full of strength. She hums softly next to me. Looking at her new phone with a somewhat dazzled gaze. She seems so happy now. Not because of something I did. But because of something that happened to her. Guess she's an inner city girl now.
Ibara looks over at me. "So… how's my father?" she asks.
"I dunno. Haven't seen him." I answer. "He seems really quiet nowadays and I don't wanna go check because… well ya know…"
"Oh right." She says. "Because he doesn't like you or your mother."
I nod and the train slows down coming to a halt at the station before UA. Ibara stands and tugs me behind her so she could take the brunt of the crowds. She and I muscle through them with her leading the way.
Some of her vines wound securely around my waist. We carefully strolled through the crowd without separating each other as we arrived at our lockers. Everything is hectic around us. Mostly with people settling their things into their lockers. I get my stuff in my locker and keep my bag with me. Ibara sticks by my side. Mostly worried I might tip over. Which she wouldn't be wrong for assuming. We both head towards a large sized door labeled '1-B', which is where we attend our classes. We get into the classroom and it seems our classmates are already waiting to get seated.
From out of nowhere comes Tetsutetsu. "BRO! YOU MADE IT I-" he makes his way over to hug me at a breakneck speed. Suddenly, Ibara single-handedly floors him with her vines. Hugging me tightly.
"Whoa! Ibara lemme go!" I squeak.
"Absolutely not!" She exclaims. "He could hurt you!"
Tetsu stands back up with a grin. "Oookaaay. No hugging my friend. Got it." he says. "Name's Tetsutetsu! What about you?"
Ibara glares at him. "Ibara." She answers.
He nods and even more suddenly comes a girl with dusky green eyes and wavy dark green hair. Well… mostly. A few tiny streaks of pure white stick out. She grins with her sharp looking teeth similar to Tetsu''s. She leans down and she says.
"So this is the boyfriend?" she asks.
Ibara blushes and gently sets me down. "Well… yes. Uh…" she mumbles something.
"Well! He's really cute! Short though." the girl comments. "Nice and muscly!" I go beet red as Ibara glares at her and almost yanks me into her chest. I resist the yanking of her vines and she finally gets the message.
She lets me go and I hear a few snickers. A few minutes pass and I just storm over to a desk and sit down. Not because I was angry. Just because I didn't wanna get coddled and babied. Especially in front of potential friends or even rivals… or bullies. I can't take any chances. Everyone tended to their seats. Ibara tried to sit next to me but Tetsu zoomed to my right and another boy parked himself on my left. Ibara looks visibly frustrated as the blond boy smirks and looks at me. He winks.
"I owe you one." I hissed.
"Yeah. You're welcome." He says. "But you don't owe me a single thing. If it was 1-A, then yes." I notice Ibara sitting behind me though with the strange green-haired shark-toothed girl near Tetsu. There was also a tallish orange haired girl with teal eyes. The other class members sat down and I got out my stuff feeling a slight poke on my shoulder. I turn and Ibara is right there.
"Are you sure you're okay?" she asks.
"Yes. I am. You're sitting right there." I say. "No one will bother me unless they wanna get knocked out."
Ibara still keeps a little vine tied around my arm. But the main event comes when our teacher arrives. Wearing an orange visor and red spandex with a lot of tubing. He has spiky white hair and red eyes with an underbite fit for a dog. He walked inside and stood front and center of the classroom. He oversaw us almost like a drill sergeant.
"Good morning class. I'm Sekijiro Kan. Or Mr. Kan to you all." he says. "Now you all have been selected to be in the heroics course. And it's no cakewalk. For some of you it will be harder." his eyes fall onto me but break away for just a second.
I just sit there feeling the eyes of the others on me. My hands shake a little harder than usual and my pencil breaks in two. Shame fills me like it does every time I screw up. But then he says something interesting.
"You all have issues. You all are the leftovers Aizawa in 1-A couldn't take. In all your files some of you were ostracized cause of differences in your quirks or your bodies. Those called villainous. Those who don't belong. Those who teeter and totter around like they're on a seesaw with the world." I find a laugh bubbling up from my chest because I came up with that. The others all look at a few of the others. A mantis looking guy growls and looks towards the window. A short girl with brown hair curls into a hunch.
The blond kid laughs along with me. "Hahaha! Good one Mr. Kan! Glad to see you're a drill sergeant!"
Mr. Kan blinks. "Uh… I'm not finished." He says flatly but clears his throat. "Anyway. Some of you have latent potential that Aizawa's instruction can't hope to tap into. You all should have fun with this course as well as learn a lot." he smiles and continues. "I want you to go Plus Ultra in your own ways!"
He gets back to the podium. "Since today is the first day and it's gonna be mostly orientation I figured we can do something they do in America. Introduce each other and choosing our class representatives!"
Everyone sort of falls silent and I don't know why. Some of them look shy and the blond haired boy struts up dramatically enough. Almost as if everything was some big dramatic thing. He clears his throat and bows.
"I'm Neito Monoma. I have a quirk that can copy others for a limited time." he says with a lax smile. Almost a smirk. "I'm sure over time we'll surpass 1-A."
And just like that Monoma had his goal. After him came the teal eyed and orange haired girl with the sidetail. She was tall and confident. Almost as if she was born to be a hero. She grins and turns on her heel to face us.
"Hey! The name's Itsuka Kendo! I'm really good at martial arts and other things like that!" Her hands enlarge and she grins. "I can make my hands bigger and it gives em an extra bit of oomph!" She seems really calm and dependable. Then I find myself getting up there myself.
Clattering and clomping on to the front with me muttering. "Shit. Oh fuck." That's when my legs decided to rebel and almost have me slam face first into the podium. My hands smack into the wood and set it on fire. I want to die. I want the ground to swallow me. Everyone bursts out laughing and I close my eyes trying to hold back tears. It's not my fault. Involuntary jolts happen and so do involuntary imbalances!
I stand and hold onto the barely charred wood. "Uhm… Uhhh… uhh…" I mumble. My cheeks are heating up along with my hair. "That's… that's my quirk. I uh… I breathe and flames come out of my limbs. Paranoia fills my head and I twiddle my thumbs. "My… My name is… R-Renaru…" I stammer. My bands gently pressing against my arms as I air out the tops of the ones on my legs. Suddenly I hear a question.
"Are you related to Endeavor?" A big fluffy guy with glasses asks.
"He's my uncle. Before you ask. No. We aren't on good terms." I answer. "My last name is Kaenshita and not Todoroki and if you call me that I will smack a burn on you. Other than that my condition makes me quiver and shake and have balance issues. Even though that has never stopped me in any sense of the word from kicking lots of ass."
"Does that mean you've smacked ass before?" The girl with dark green hair hoots. Making Ibara glare at her and she just shrugged.
"Hey! It's a genuine question!" She exclaims. "Well fine, me and Ibara will go up together." the girl grabs Ibara's hand and yanks her along. I shuffle back to my seat. She bounds to the front with Ibara in tow.
Ibara seethes a little and the girl decides to take the lead. I notice a slight red glow in Ibara's eyes. It's not normal. But everyone seems to ignore it.
"I'm Setsuna Tokage and this is my cousin Ibara Shiozaki!" she exclaims. "My quirk is a really cool Velociraptor mutation!" She whirls her head towards Ibara and she just stands there silently.
Disturbingly enough… Ibara looks rather angry. Her face taut like a bowstring. She stiffly bows and straightens.
"My quirk is my hair. I can move my vines freely." she states with burning red. "Other than that however…" She searches for something and pulls out a hard chair from the closet. It looks old and almost halfway to the scrapheap. Her eyes widen and veins grow on her forehead. With a sound like a soda can being crushed it becomes a ball of plastic and metal.
Everyone gawks at the blatant show of force and she walks back to her seat with a serene smile on her face. Everyone else goes and all I can think of is Ibara. What the hell was that? What shocked me the most is that it came from Ibara of all people. She usually never is this clingy or has any issues with anger. Once the intros were done we went around the school getting familiar with things. Ibara stuck close to me. Even growling a little at the others. Especially Setsuna.
Itsuka seems to be the only one that Ibara lets anywhere near me. Maybe because in some way Ibara respects her or has no reason to go all Alpha Female on her. Come lunchtime and Ibara cheerily walks beside me. Vines binding my arm. She acts as though I didn't see her giving death stares to literally anyone within five feet of me.
"Listen. I don't need a bodyguard." I say.
"Bodyguard, dear?" she asks. "Oh no. I was just protecting you from the sinful ones!" I sigh and shake my head.
"Is this something your dad drilled into you?" I sigh. "Because that's not what our classmates are. You're starting to scare me."
She stops and I look at her. Her eyes glistening and tears threatening to fall. Her lips tremble and her hands squeeze together. One of the worst feelings in the world shoots me in the chest. Guilt flows in me and she suddenly hugs me. Her soft breath hitches and I just feel shitty. She's gotta feel just as bad as I do about it. Especially when I got scared of her. Ibara and I head towards a place where we can talk things out alone. Because I don't want to cause a scene where she loses her shit and I get pretzeled.
We walk up to the roof. The sun shining down on one of the H stems. Ibara and I sit down near the entrance to the roof and she immediately sits me in her lap. Her face buried in my warm hair. Mostly because I'm not alight all the time. Her arms wind around me and I close my eyes.
"Shh…" I mumble into her chest. "Shhh…"
Ibara is sobbing like I shot her dog and I shift to look her in the eyes. She's all teary eyed and remorseful but I notice that she's slowly relaxing. She looks at me with her hand pressing against my cheek. It's soft and warm. Dainty but still strong. Maybe a little rough from whatever crazy stuff her dad had her do. I feel her lips on my forehead. Softly muttering something that sounded like "Something Something Lord forgive me." Then I feel her kiss my cheek. Her arms around my waist. Her kisses are light and they kinda tickle.
"Please forgive me…" she mutters. "Punish me however you want." When she says that I feel my cheeks heat up and I move back so my hair could flare without hurting her.
"Punish you?" I blurt out.
"Yes! I've sinned! I deserve it!" she exclaims.
"No you don't." I say. "I'm your boyfriend, not your father. Whatever he did to you is messed up." I see her settle down a little.
"You didn't do anything wrong." I sigh. "You just were nervous and scared and I guess a weird second quirk took things from there. But in the future just let me fall and make mistakes. If I dont then I won't learn." I knock against my chest.
"You've seen me take a lot more hits. What's got you so clingy now?" I asked. She just sets me down next to her and gets out her lunch.
"I've never had a boyfriend before. What do couples do together?" she admits.
"Well… there's dates and holding hands. Kissing… cuddling… stuff my Mom told me never to look up and if I did she would be very disappointed in me." I explained. "Stuff like that."
"I see." Ibara says. "And the things your mother told you never to look up must be… lustful things." she shudders a little but not in fear. She's… excited. She opens her lunch and I do too. The rooftop is really peaceful. Seeing Ibara's vines gently billow in the wind and the sun shining on her face makes her look really beautiful.
She smiles and her hand squeezes mine. Her beautiful smile shines and I just kind of… stay stuck. Ibara is really beautiful. I wouldn't say prettier than my mom but Ibara is… well… cute. She picks up some food and turns to me.
"Uhm… would you like to share with me?" she asks.
I smile at her and nod. She lifts the sandwich half towards me and I try not to eat the whole thing. It tastes normal enough and Ibara giggles.
"Like it?" she asks.
"Yeah. Tastes good." I replied, "Hey… uh… since we're on the subject of dates, how about we go out somewhere on Saturday?"
"Oh!" Ibara exclaims, "That would be lovely!"
I almost thought she would say no. But if it was Ibara back with Mister Shiozaki she would say no. I almost hugged her out of joy. I feel so light and she kisses me again. That only makes me feel even happier. Even though she got a rocky start, I was proud of her. We eat our lunches without much fuss or trouble. We head back to class and I'm too distracted by the thought of the date coming up. Just thinking about it has me all happy and excited to see what comes next. My first day at UA became something special.
The beginning of my road to become a hero was bright. I just hope to keep it that way.