chapter 18
"Her placement requires further evaluation." Shota Aizawa told the other UA instructors at the conference table. "She's the only one with such a versatile quirk out of all the applicants both recommended and non." He advocated for the pink haired girl who had immediately caught his trained eye at the recommendation exam.
"A healing quirk as well as a power up quirk?" All Might scanned the file in front of him. "Do you know how many heroes wish they could heal themselves in the middle of battle? If this girl learned how to use her quirk efficiently..."
"Yes." Aizawa set his own small stack of papers down. "Endeavour recommended her after he recommended his son, apparently she is his son's girlfriend."
"Hum." Principal Nezu tapped his paw against the surface of the conference room table. "I confess Endeavour told me the young woman was his son's girlfriend but he was so excited about her potential I overlooked it. Depending on their personalities, it could become a problem."
"Yes." Midnight agreed. "All those hormones at their age, it could cause trouble." She looked down at the photo of Sakura Haruno in front of her on her file.
"She's very pretty and with a quirk like that, I can see the boys fawning over her." Midnight's eye's gleamed. "The lucky thing."
"Usually, we would separate them. Put one in Class 1-A and the other in Class 1-B, however, I think by doing that we could potentially stifle their development." Aizawa didn't like doing this, placing himself in the spotlight, advocating for others, but the girl had impressed him and he wanted her to get her fair shot. "Her development."
"Yes, I agree, because we can't put Endeavour's son in Class 1-B." The entire table nodded their heads in perfect understanding. "Even if the boy didn't deserve his place, it would cause a disturbance among the alums." Principal Nezu rubbed his face with his paws.
"Exactly." Aizawa placed his hand over the papers in front of him. "Which is why I propose she come in for a secondary evaluation, with not only myself, but Recovery Girl as well so there is no doubt she belongs in Class 1-A."
"I don't think I've ever seen you this excited about a first year Shota." Recovery Girl smiled down the table from Aizawa. "As it happens, I've met the girl before. She seemed rather lost at the time. You know, it's youth like her that worries me. Multiple quirks, this new generation is even stronger than ours. It would be a shame if she went down the wrong path, just because we didn't give her proper guidance."
"I agree!" Principal Nezu clapped his paws together. "Aizawa, if you will, please test Miss Haruno more extensively on her combat and healing skills. You noted in her evaluation she wasn't even winded at the end of the test?"
"Unlike the other participants, she was not fatigued in the slightest, her endurance must be vast. I believe she has had extensive prior training. I did not, however, witness her healing quirk as it wasn't needed during the exam." He told the room.
"Impressive." All Might looked back down at the paper in front of him. "At such a young age too."
Shota didn't say it out loud, but he had gotten the impression that there was more to Sakura Haruno than what he had seen in her recommendation exam. Yes, he wanted to place her properly into Class 1-A, his class, but he also wanted to fully test her abilities, before the start of the year, away from the other students.
"I believe she is in a class of her own." Aizawa looked down at the photo in his file.
Principal Nezu cocked his head at Aizawa. First Endeavour and now Aizawa. He looked forward to witnessing her second exam himself.
"Hum, yes. Make the arrangements. Dismissed." Principal Nezu jumped down from his chair. "I look forward to seeing what this year's first years can do!"
"They want me to take another test?" Sakura looked down at the now silent disc in her lap. "Why?" She turned to Shouto who was sitting beside her on the park bench by the fountain.
Shouto picked the letter up from her lap that came with the disc and read it over. "This says Recovery Girl will be there. They didn't get to see your healing quirk during the entrance exam, that's probably why."
The letter had come for her yesterday but he hadn't had an opportunity to get it to her until now.
"Probably." Sakura tucked the letter and the disc in one of her pouches. She felt Shouto's arm slide along the back of the bench, behind her head and hang over her other shoulder. Leaning into his body, she rested her head against his. "Should be easy enough."
Shouto nodded as they sat in silence for some time, finally breaking the silence with a word of encouragement. "You'll do fine. You did great on the first exam. They just want to see your healing abilities because it is so rare."
"Um hum." It was getting warmer during the day and more mild at night, but there was a slight chill in the not quite April air that made Sakura shiver.
"Cold?" Shouto moved closer to Sakura and wrapped his arm around her upper arm, holding her tight.
"A little." She confessed, snuggling closer to him, enjoying the warmth of his left side. "You're so snuggly, like a small furnace." She smiled up at him as he smiled down at her.
"Too bad one of your quirks isn't fire." Shouto said good naturedly, happy to warm her.
"Well, I have a minor fire uh, quirk but nothing special, nothing like yours." Sakura laughed, her fire jutsu was pitiful, she could light the campfire and do some other small meaningless fire jutsu but that was it.
"You can...make fire?" Shouto looked at her, eyes slightly wide. "You have three quirks? That's impossible."
"You keep calling what I can do a quirk, but from what I've seen quirks are one maybe two sided powers. What I do is more, it's different." How could she explain this to him? "It's life energy, I can manipulate energy in the earth, in the air and turn it into, um...power I guess you'd call it. Same with my healing, it's the same concept."
They had talked a little about this before, but she hadn't pushed the differences between quirks and chakra manipulation. If they were going to school with other quirk users the difference in her 'power' and theirs would be clear, even if they didn't know what chakra manipulation was..
"Energy." Shouto recalled how she had walked on water during their exam. "Like natural energy?"
"Sort of. I focus it inside of me and just…" She moved her chakra around her hand, swirling it over the surface until it formed a very small ball of chakra, then let the tension go. A small flame erupted from Sakura's palm, making Shouto gasp in surprise.
"You can make fire!" Shouto stared at his girlfriend. "Can you make ice?" He asked excitedly. If she could make ice, and if they had kids...
"No, I mean I haven't tried, but I can manipulate water." She told him. "See?" Out of seemingly thin air, Sakura pulled a stream of crystal clear water from her fingers, then took a deep breath. It was exhausting. They watched the small stream of water fall to the ground, little drops spattered their shoes.
"Are you okay?" Shouto asked her. He had never seen her worn out before, not after the first day he had met her. "Does it take a lot of energy?"
"I don't really have an affinity for fire or water, so yea, it takes me a little more effort than manipulating my chakra to control earth. My affinity is earth, like my first sensei and uh, life energy like my second sensei." She explained as well as she could to someone who didn't know what chakra was or how it could be used.
"Your first sensei, Kakashi Hatake?" She had told him a little about some of the people she knew from back home, about her team and Ino. "Affinity is a form of a quirk?"
"You could call it that, yeah." Sakura shrugged. It was the best explanation she could give him.
"Are you coming to the house for dinner tonight or will you be going to see Shi and her husband Haru tonight?" Shouto kissed the side of her head and continued to hug her close, he didn't care that they were in public, if he wanted to hug her, he would.
Sakura pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. "I'll be having dinner with Shi and her family tonight, Shouto, then helping out at the store for a few hours. I'll text you when I get home?"
"Okay, but I still don't see why you took a part time job. My dad said he would pay for everything. I can give you money too and…" Sakura cut him off.
"I'm not a charity case Shouto. Look I know you said it wasn't charity, that your father owes you, but it still makes me a little uncomfortable accepting such generosity without doing anything in return. I only work there two nights a week. I'm more like family now than extra help so it doesn't feel like a regular job." She told him, and not for the first time.
"I like being there, and Shi likes the extra hand in the evenings. When school starts, I won't be working there anymore, so I want to help out as much as I can now." He wanted her to spend all of her time with him, he didn't seem to understand she needed time away from him, for herself sometimes.
"Fine." He didn't like it, hadn't liked it for the last two weeks she had been working there but he couldn't stop her from doing it, yet.
Every time he told her she didn't have to work she looked at him like he was crazy, like he was being unreasonable. He didn't understand. His mother never complained about such things. She stayed home and took care of the kids, cooked for them, cleaned the house and made sure their father had everything he needed when he got home from work. She was a pillar of support, respectable.
Shouto didn't understand why Sakura wanted a job, why she wanted to earn her own money and why she never wanted to stay home with him and just spend time together. She always had to be doing something, going somewhere, moving and he was starting to get really annoyed by it.
Every time he offered to pay for something when they went out, she got mad.
It didn't make any sense to him.
Once, since their time in the coffee house after they had just met, just once he had seen her pay for something with her gold card. When he had asked her about it, she told him the purchase was for someone else. A shogi board, probably for the guy who gave her the card.
He still didn't know who that was or if he was still stalking her. They had come to an unspoken agreement of sorts. He didn't ask her too many invasive questions and in return she told him more about her friends and family, where she had come from and ate dinner with him at least three nights a week.
She never played Shogi with him though. One time after dinner, he asked her to play, knowing she knew how to play, but she just smiled a soft smile at him, and declined.
He didn't understand, and he didn't like it.
"I should get going, Shouto." She rose from the bench, bent over and kissed him on the mouth. "I'll text you when I get home from work?"
"Okay." Shouto stood up, walked her across the street, to the end of the small set of stores before the bookstore. "Have fun at work."
"Thanks." Sakura turned to leave when he grabbed her hand back, pulled her to him, and kissed her hard over her mouth.
"Don't forget to text me when you get home okay, I want to make sure you made it home." Shouto kissed her again hard, ignoring her protests.
"Shouto what are you…" She began.
"You're mine Sakura. Don't forget that." He turned abruptly, and walked away.
Sakura stared after her boyfriend, slightly annoyed.
"Everything okay Sakura dear?"
Sakura turned around to find Shi standing a few feet away, baby Kenma in her arms.
"Yeah, that was just my boyfriend." Sakura smiled and took Kenma from Shi's arms, smiling and making cross eyed faces at the baby to make him laugh.
"He's a passionate one isn't he? Lucky girl, those are the best you know?" Shi had her hands clasped to her chest, a dreamy look on her face.
"Yeah, Shouto can be really passionate and intense, but sometimes it can be a bit stifling." Sakura laughed as Kenma pulled on her hair. "He means well though. He cares."
"Honey, some men just show their love differently. As long as it works for you, that's all that matters." Shi smiled at Sakura. "Dinner's ready. Let's eat before the evening rush."
"Good idea. Are you hungry, little guy?" Sakura tapped baby Kenma on the nose who blew a snot bubble in her face.
Sakura stretched and yawned after her shift at Shi's bookstore. She had a new book in her belt about the nature and development of quirks, both past and modern day discoveries, theory and argument. She couldn't wait to get back to her cave to start reading it.
"Sakura." Shigaraki was leaning up against the brick wall of the abandoned bar next to Shi's book store, his hands in his pockets. "I heard you got into UA."
Sakura stepped into the narrow alley. "You're well informed. Yeah, they want me to come to the school for another test next week." Sakura took in his slumped form, his twitching fingers. He seemed off tonight.
"Congratulations." His voice was tight, controlled. "Going home? I'll walk you."
Before she could protest he was pushing her out into the alley. "When you start your classes, you probably won't have a lot of time to stop by the bar will you." He sounded disappointed, almost depressed.
Is that what was bothering him?
"I'll still stop by on Saturdays, maybe just not during the week anymore." She told him.
"Right." He walked beside her, his eyes on the ground as they continued down the walk way. "Why are you doing this again? Didn't Kurogiri tell you everything there was to know about his quirk?"
Tomura didn't want her to go to UA, he had made that quite clear over the last month.
"UA might know more, might have an idea I never thought of, or someone I can talk to that could help me find my way back home, or at least tell me how I got here." They've had this conversation before.
"Sure." He stopped with her at the light and waited for it to change. "You still think you're lost huh." He was muttering to himself under his breath.
"It's important to me, Tomura." She laid a hand on his arm, like Shouto, Tomura always seemed to calm a little if she touched him. Just a reassuring friendly touch on the arm.
Tomura looked down at her hand on his arm, then up into her face, her eyes shining, sparkling in the traffic lights. He took a calming breath. Patience had never been one of his strong points, understanding others feeling, even less.
"I know, that's why I haven't tried to stop you." The light changed and they crossed the street together.
They walked in silence for the next two blocks. Tomura seemed to be deep in thought and Sakura didn't want to push him. He was more sullen today than his usual snappy self, but he wasn't being hostile so she considered it progress.
"What if UA doesn't have the answers you're looking for? What then, what will you do then?" Tomura stopped at the forest's edge, his eyes still on his shoes.
Sakura thought about his question. It was a question she had asked herself. "I'll look somewhere else. I'll look until I find my answers."
"What if there aren't any answers? What if you never find what you're looking for, will you settle, can you accept that there may not be an answer to your questions?" He demanded, his voice getting more and more heated.
She had thought of that too. She had already accepted the fact that there might not be any answers, that she might not be able to get back home, that she was stuck here for good. Tomura could probably guess what she was looking for, they had never spoken of it bluntly, but he was intelligent, he was clever. He probably knew.
She realized then, that's what this was about. He was worried she would leave if she didn't find what she was looking for at UA, that she would never see him again, that she would leave him. What could she say to him?
Like Shouto, she had nothing to give him that would reassure him of her place in his life, because nothing was a certainty for her.
"I'll deal with that when the time comes, but for now I'm going to keep looking for those answers. I'm not going to give up just because it seems hopeless, just because I have no idea what I'm doing." She laughed.
"Without hope, there is only despair." She patted his arm.
"What is it you're hoping for Sakura?" Tomura moved closer to her. "What is it you're hoping to gain by going to that ridiculous high school? Playing hero with those kids, I don't get it. I don't understand why you would do something so pointless."
"I…" Sakura bit her bottom lip. Answers of course, she told herself right away, but no that wasn't really it, that's what she told Shouto, what she told Tomura. What she was really looking for was a way home, to find out how she had gotten here, answers to...
Tomura watched the thoughts fly through her head, watched her mouth open and close to answer him, then stop as another thought came to her.
"What is your ultimate goal? What do you want most in this world Sakura, if you don't want money, or glory, what is important to you?" He leaned forward, his chest brushing hers, barely touching, pressing his advantage. His question had thrown her, he could see it in her eyes.
"Justice." Sakura whispered without thinking. "I want justice. I want to know that everything I've done in my life wasn't a waste, that I'm not worthless." It was said in disbelief. She swallowed.
Tomura smiled against the side of her cheek, turned his head so he could whisper in her ear. "Pity. You won't find that at UA. Let me know when you're sick of playing hero Sakura. I'll be here waiting for you."
Sakura swallowed again. Heat was starting to burn behind her eyes. Was he mocking her, or was he right? She hoped not.
Shigaraki took a step back, turned and walked away. "See you Saturday. I've got a new game to show you. I think you'll like it. Be at the bar at 6pm."
Sakura watched as he disappeared into one of Kurogiri's warp gates.
"Right." She ran her hands through her hair and stepped into the woods.