It was hard to get into UA. That was a fact. Echiko was proof.

She was the first one from her middle school to make it in years, and the first ever in her family as far as she knew. Her parents had made sure she knew what it took.

It wasn't easy. She'd worked her tail off to get where she was, and now that she'd finally made it, she felt that the rest of her classmates weren't taking it seriously at all. They were too busy befriending each other and having pointless water fights instead of doing their homework or studying for upcoming assignments. She just couldn't understand it.

Not to mention, Echiko felt cheated. After all she'd done to get that far, and then that Wilde boy just got a free pass because his sister worked hard enough to make it? Those two had obviously gone through something, both had more than enough scars to prove it, but that didn't mean they automatically had what it took to get into such a prestigious school.

No one even knew what the Wilde brother looked like in his human form; he was apparently too scared to shift back or something. How was that heroic? Wilde was getting special attention from the principal, for crying out loud. He hadn't even applied to UA.

How was that fair?

Echiko took a deep breath and refocused on her textbook. Right. She was studying. It wasn't useful to anyone if she stewed in her negative thoughts instead of actually working.

The girl took a glance over at the coffee table where the Wilde sister was loudly playing cards with her little friend group. They were laughing at the misfortune of that green lizard boy as he began to draw several cards from the pile in the middle.

"Can you quiet down?" Echiko said, "Some of us are trying to study."

Wilde's ears went rabbit-y in her nervousness. She couldn't even hide her emotions.

"O-oh! Sorry Setsuo! We'll try and keep it down."

Echiko just huffed and went back to her book, though she didn't miss the look horse girl sent her way. It wasn't her fault they weren't using their time wisely.

There were some hushed whispers that Echiko easily ignored, but then-

"Hey… Setsuo?"

"What?" she snapped at Wilde's interruption.

"Um," the girl flushed and her tail curled up behind her, "I… just wanted to ask if you wanted to join our next round?"

Echiko blinked, "...Why?"

Wilde smiled, "Well, you've just been studying for a really long time and you could probably use a break."

Echiko narrowed her eyes, "You think I'm not capable of studying effectively?"

"N-no no no, that's not it at all!" Wilde backpedaled frantically.

"Jeez Setsuo, chill," Nekana said, looking a bit miffed, "She was offering a friendly invitation. Sometimes it's useful to take a break so your brain doesn't overwork itself."

Echiko bristled, "I don't need a break. I'm perfectly fine. I don't need a brainless game to be a better student."

"Setsuo, we're not saying you're a bad student," lizard boy said, "Honestly, you're one of the best students in the class next to like, Tokage. We're just saying sometimes you gotta take a moment to relax, y'know? Give your brain time to breathe."

Wilde nodded, "Yeah! School doesn't have to be grueling, Setsuo! I mean, I had more than enough of grinding through classwork after- um… after…"

She trailed off and her tail curled around herself a little, but she quickly shook it off and put a smile back on her face. Setsuo was genuinely curious as to what Wilde had been about to say, but the girl kept talking.

"Well, I've had enough, anyways," she said, "So I know how stressful it can get! I totally get how you feel about keeping grades up, but it doesn't have to be all work and no play!"

Setsuo was actually speechless for a moment. She looked at Wilde's hopeful face and scoffed.

"You think you're like me?" Wilde immediately wilted at Setsuo's response, "You have no idea how hard I've worked to get where I am. I can't take all that I've done and just… waste it on… on pointless distractions like card games or water fights or movie nights! Life's too hard to waste time on unimportant junk like that!"

She hadn't even realized that she'd raised her voice until she noticed the blue haired girl and Nekana had sat up defensively. Wild had gotten fluffier and was shaking slightly as she curled in on herself.

Setsuo honestly did feel a little bad, but what she said was true. She didn't need distractions. Besides, how could Wilde even think of being a hero if a raised voice scared her that bad?

"Is that really how you feel about it?" Nekana asked softly, "You think we don't care? Don't know how hard it is?"

There was an odd edge to his tone that Echiko hadn't heard from him before, as if he was talking about more than just class. It made her pause for a moment before she huffed and left, going up the stairs to her room.

She dutifully ignored everyone asking Wilde if she was alright.

Setsuo had shut herself in her room. Her parents were going to kill her. She ran her fingers through her hair and stared at the graded test on her study desk.

The red pen marks throughout it seemed to mock her.

It wasn't the worst grade in the class, but that really didn't matter. Her parents wouldn't care. They would tell her that wasn't good enough. She was better than that. Why hadn't she studied harder?

She scrubbed at her eyes when she felt tears building. She couldn't cry. She couldn't. Crying wouldn't fix her grade. It wouldn't make her parents any less mad.

They were going to ask how the test went. She knew they were. She always had to tell them what she was studying for. They knew she should be getting the graded test back soon. She could only put it off for so long before they asked.

What was she going to tell them?

Echiko went and curled up on her bed, feeling sick to her stomach. She couldn't tell them. She couldn't.

But she had to.

Most everyone avoided Setsuo when she stormed out of the dorms, more bristly than usual. Her head was down and she glared at the ground as she took long strides to get to class. She took her seat in homeroom and immediately hid her face behind a textbook.

No seemed to think much of it.

"Alright. Suit up and meet at Ground Beta," Aizawa said flatly once class had started.

Fifteen minutes later, all twenty students stood in their hero costumes at the training grounds, waiting for their teacher to explain what they were doing. Setsuo stood somewhere in the back to avoid being seen by her classmates.

"You're going to be put into teams of three. Two teams will be against each other as heroes and villains," Aizawa told them, "The villains' objective will be told to them on the field. The heroes' objective is to figure out the villains' objective and put a stop to it."

The students murmured excitedly before Aizawa began listing off teams. Setsuo didn't know why, but she felt a mounting sense of dread.

"-Team C: Matsukaze, Hayase, and Teshiko. Team D: Teruyoshi, Scout, and Setsuo. Team E: Tamiko-"

Echiko felt her stomach drop clear to her feet as her thoughts tuned out the rest of the team listings. No. Aizawa couldn't do this to her. She glanced at her now-teammates. Teruyoshi was distracted talking to the other dog-looking student. Setsuo heard them ask her something like, 'Wait, did he call my name? Who's on my team?'

Wilde looked nervous but disgustingly optimistic. She glanced back at Setsuo and gave her an uncertain smile.

This was going to be a disaster.

"The villains have been given their objective. Both teams have five minutes to plan. Go."

"Ok, we need to come up with a plan," Wilde said.

"So uh… what are we doing again?" Teruyoshi asked.

As Wilde wasted time re-explaining their objective, Echiko huffed and started walking away. Was she going to have to do this all on her own?

"Hey, Setsuo! We gotta make a plan!" Wilde called after her.

Echiko sighed and rolled her eyes, but turned around. Plans usually were the best course of action, but… also having competent teammates helped. She supposed she had no choice in the matter though, and trudged back over.

"We're up against Matsukaze, Haruku, and Teshiko," Wilde said, "Which is a pretty strong team up. We're gonna be at a disadvantage since they have a literal bird's eye view, so how are we going to get into the bank? I mean, it helps that they don't know our objective just yet, but if Matsukaze sees us we're basically done for."

"Can't Teshiko do that creepy eye thing too?" Teruyoshi asked.

Wilde nodded, "Yeah, but I don't think he'd use it right at the start unless he knows we're in range. Once he uses that move he can't summon any more wings for a couple minutes."

Setsuo had to admit, she was somewhat surprised that Wilde knew her classmates' quirks as well as she did. Still, knowledge alone didn't make one a good hero.

"What about Hayase?" Setsuo asked, "She's got a pretty short range, so that's not so worrying."

Wilde's eyes went wide, "Oh, no. Haruku just got her gun certification with Snipe. She's long range now, not to mention a lot faster and stronger than either of you… I might be about as fast as her, but definitely not as strong."

Setsuo steepled her fingers over her eyes, "Great. Fantastic."

"So we're up against a bird, a goat, and a weaponized horse," Teruyoshi said.

Wilde snorted, "I suppose."

Echiko pulled her hand down her face. There it was. She knew they weren't going to take it seriously.

"Ok. Where's the bank?" Setsuo asked in an attempt to get them back on track.

"I think it's down the main street," Wilde said, gesturing with her tail, "We're gonna need good stealth to pull this off."

Echiko looked at Teruyoshi's bright, light-up costume with dismay, "Right."

Wilde tapped her chin, "I could maybe scout ahead and see where the bank is at and try and find a good covered path to get there unseen… Then one of you guys can get us in to rob the place. Setsuo, your quirk could probably get us into the vault, but we'll need to be quick, 'cause once we're in, I'm sure we're going to trip alarms."

It seemed like a relatively solid plan, so Setsuo nodded, "Fine."

Teruyoshi shrugged, "Yeah, okay."

Just then, Aizawa's voice came through their earpieces again, "Planning's over. Begin."

Setsuo and Teruyoshi found a spot to stay hidden from Matsukaze while Wilde shifted fully to her chimera form and loped off. Setsuo hoped she did her scouting quickly; she didn't know how long she could sit next to Teruyoshi's headache of a costume.

Wilde returned a few minutes later. She actually startled Setsuo a bit; she slunk silently out of a darkened alleyway, almost appearing out of nowhere.

"I found the bank," her voice came from her collar, "It's really not all that far from here. I didn't see any of the heroes yet, but I think I heard them. I'm sure Matsukaze is airborne."

"Great," Setsuo said, "Did you find a path for us to take?"

Wilde bobbed her head in a nod, "Yeah, but uh… Teruyoshi, can you dim the lights on your costume at all?"

"Uh… no?" Teruyoshi had a look of utter confusion, as though they couldn't understand why anyone would want to turn down the obnoxious lights.

Even with the limited facial expression Wilde had in her chimera form, Setsuo could see the slight exasperation.

"That's… well… maybe talk to support about that later," Wilde said.

"Why?" Teruyoshi questioned.

Wilde, with whatever crazy amount of patience she possessed explained, "Because if you ever need to be stealthy, lights aren't a great idea."

"Oh, well I can just do this!" they exclaimed.

With that, light seemed to condense around themself a bit before Teruyoshi did something with it that mostly obscured them from view. They were sort of blurry and transparent. Echiko was actually rather impressed.

Wilde's ears perked up, "Oh, great! Let's go then."

"Oh," Teruyoshi moved, and the light they'd manipulated shattered around them, "I can't move when I do that."

Ah. The impression was gone.

"That isn't helpful then!" Setsuo said in exasperation.

They were wasting time! The heroes were going to find them before they even did anything! Even Wilde looked like her patience was running low.

"Ok then," she said after taking a breath, "Setsuo, could you transmute something that could cover the light? Like a cloak or even just a blanket or something? Please?"

Setsuo sighed, "Yeah."

She ran a finger across the ground and licked it. Once it registered in her brain what materials made it up, she placed her hands on the ground and activated her quirk. The dirt and concrete swirled around her for a moment as she focused and reconstructed a portion of the ground into a thick swathe of fabric that she managed to shape into a cloak of sorts.

Echiko hadn't quite gotten the hang of shaping things quite yet, as reconstructing matter took enough focus as it was, but she didn't think she'd done half bad. Fabric was finicky.

She handed it to Teruyoshi, "Here. Put this on."

The dog-like teen took the cloak and shrugged it on over their bright leather jacket, though they didn't seem too happy about it. Luckily it was thick enough to mostly block the lights.

"Ok, now let's go," Setsuo said impatiently.

"Thanks, Setsuo," Wilde said, "Now follow me and stay as quiet as you can."

She trotted off and Setsuo and Teruyoshi followed. The chimera girl led them through back alleys and under as much cover as she could. Every so often, she would pause, and her big ears would flick around before she'd start off again.

"We're almost there," she said after a couple minutes, but then froze, ears sticking straight up.

"Hide!" she hissed at the same time as her voice came through her collar.

All three of them pressed up against a wall under an overhanging roof as the sound of wing beats passed overhead. They stayed put for a moment until Wilde relaxed and started on her way again.

Setsuo had to admit, Wilde's reconnaissance skills were pretty good.

Finally they came to a stop.

"Okay," Wilde said quietly, "This will be the hard part. The bank is across the street."

She gestured with her tail, and sure enough, the bank sat almost directly across the street from where they sat under cover.

"We'll probably have to make a break for it," Wilde continued, "There's no cover that I could find."

Setsuo frowned, but nodded. Teruyoshi nodded too.

"Okay. I'll listen for the heroes and make sure Matsukaze isn't flying around and then I'll give the OK. Sound like a plan?" Wilde asked.

"Best plan we've got, I guess," Setsuo muttered.

Wilde gave her a look, but didn't say anything as she perked up her ears and swiveled them around, evidently listening hard. The girl also sniffed the air to cover all the bases.

After a moment, she bobbed her head, "Okay."

The three of them dashed across the street.

About halfway there, Setsuo heard Wilde call, "Setsuo, go left!"

Unsure of why, but figuring it was part of whatever plan Wilde had come up with, she went left.

Wilde looked back, but Setsuo didn't really pay attention, until she heard, "Setsuo, wait!"

Confused, she hesitated, and then someone dropped down right behind her. She spun around, seeing Teruyoshi and Wilde now cornered by Teshiko out of the corner of her eye and coming face to face with Matsukaze.

The winged boy grinned, and in Wilde's voice said, "Hey, Setsuo!"

It was a trap. Had they known the whole time? Setsuo quickly got into a fighting stance, Matsukaze following suit, his huge wings spread out threateningly.

Before either of them could do anything, there was a blinding flash of light with an audible bang. Teruyoshi must've let loose with their quirk. Teshiko and Matsukaze were probably blinded, which was good, but now Echiko was pretty much blinded as well, which was really a big problem. She heard a surprised squawk and felt the air stir as Matsukaze flapped his wings after stumbling back a little from the surprise.

Setsuo heard hoofbeats on the pavement. Crap. Hayase had arrived, and Echiko was still disoriented from Teruyoshi's flash bang. She was a sitting duck.

She heard a gun cock.

Her vision was spotty, but she could see the blurry figure of the centaur girl facing her. Dang it. Dang it!

Everything after that all happened at once.

Someone called her name.

A brown blur leaped in front of her.

A slightly muffled bang of a gun, followed by a yelp and a dull thud.

It took a second to register.

Had… had Wilde just taken a bullet for her? Willingly?

Hayase was reloading. Setsuo looked down to see Wilde lying on the ground, her vision now clear enough to see the dart that hit her in the haunches.

The centaur girl was aiming again and Setsuo was caught. Should she run and save herself and keep trying to finish the objective, or should she try and help her downed teammate?

Suddenly, Teruyoshi stepped up. They aimed a finger gun at Hayase and glanced at Setsuo.

"You uh, may wanna cover your eyes," they told her quietly.

Setsuo quickly did so. She did not want to be on the receiving end of a flashbang again.

"Hey, horse butt!" she heard Teruyoshi call, "Bang!"

There was a shattering sound and a surprised whinny.

"Okay, let's go!" Teruyoshi shouted.

Setsuo opened her eyes to see Hayase staggering back and scrubbing at her eyes. Not wasting the opportunity, she quickly crouched down and picked up Wilde. The chimera was heavier than expected, but considering she was all dead weight at the moment, it made sense. She then followed Teruyoshi as fast as she could to the bank.

She shut her eyes as the dog-looking teen aimed a finger gun at the glass doors. She opened them again after hearing the glass shatter and alarms started blaring. Echiko supposed subtlety wasn't needed anymore since the heroes already knew where they were.

The villains entered the bank. Setsuo handed Wilde over to Teruyoshi and ran back to the vault. She couldn't tell what it was made of by looks alone, so she licked the door.

Once she recognized the materials, she activated her quirk. The door vibrated as the energy of her quirk thrummed through it. She focused on what she wanted to change, and the door splashed down into a puddle, now transmuted into water. To Setsuo's shock, a barrier still stood.

"It's layered?!" she cried in disbelief.

She had no idea how many layers the door was comprised of, and she could only assume that each layer was made of something different.

In frustration, she got to work transmuting the next layer, but she heard shuffling and Teruyoshi barked, "Hey! Back off!"

Setsuo spun around to see Teshiko stepping calmly through the doorway. Teruyoshi aimed a finger gun in his direction as he carefully avoided the shattered glass all over the floor.

"Hey now," he said, putting his hands up in a placating motion, "If you come quietly, nobody has to get hurt."

He glanced at Wilde, still lying on the floor paralyzed from Hayase's dart.

"Well… no one else."

"Except you!" Teruyoshi taunted and then fired a blast of light.

Setsuo barely managed to cover her eyes in time to avoid being blinded again. When she opened her eyes, she was dismayed to see that Teshiko had spawned multiple sets of wings and shielded himself from the attack. He'd been pushed back a little, but he was unharmed save for a few feathers that were now floating loosely to the ground. He unfurled his wings and assumed an offensive position.

"Well, can't say I didn't warn ya'!" Teshiko said and flared out all of his wings.

Two sets of them detached from him and reattached to themselves before spinning. One wheel went after Setsuo while the other headed for Teruyoshi.

Setsuo cursed and rolled out of the way, but the wheel quickly changed direction and continued speeding towards her. She glanced at the water that was still on the floor and slammed her hands into it. The water started forming into a haphazard wall of concrete, but Setsuo didn't have enough experience to build a barrier fast enough. The wheel hit her from the side, cutting her arm with the sharp feathers.

The next thing she knew, Teshiko had her wrapped in capture tape. Teruyoshi lay on the ground by the door, already incapacitated. Wilde was still paralyzed.

They'd lost.

Setsuo's breath caught. She'd lost. She'd failed.

Her parents were going to kill her.

But…

She looked over at her two defeated teammates.

They'd both defended her. Wilde had done so at her own expense. Teruyoshi had proved competent and resourceful with their quirk. They'd had her back.

Would Echiko have done the same for them, if the tables were flipped?

Maybe… maybe she was the one who still didn't know what it took to be a hero.

The thoughts were still running through her head when stretchers came to take the three to Recovery Girl.

Scout and Warren looked up when they heard a soft knock on the door. Scout got up from sitting on her bed to go answer it. To her surprise, she came face to face with Setsuo. The girl looked uncharacteristically nervous.

"Oh, hey Setsuo! Um… can I help you?" Scout asked awkwardly.

"Um… I just uh… I wanted to um…" Setsuo stared at the floor as she tried to figure out what to say.

Scout tilted her head a little and waited patiently for her classmate to figure it out.

"I wanted to tell you that… I'm uh…" she flushed a bit in embarrassment, "that… that you're a good hero."

Scout blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected that.

"Oh! Well… thank you, Setsuo," she said.

Setsuo took a breath, "Yeah. Um… yeah. Thanks for… y'know, saving me in training today."

Scout smiled warmly and took a chance, "Of course, that's what friends do!"

Setsuo's gaze snapped up and Scout felt her ears flick nervously. Had she overstepped?

Setsuo was quiet for a moment and then her gaze dropped back to the floor.

"Y-yeah," she said quietly, "It is."

She turned to leave, "Have a good night, W-... Scout and uh… you too, Warren."

With that, Setsuo hurried back to her room, leaving Scout somewhat stunned.

"Did she just call us by our first names?" Warren asked.

"Yeah," Scout said, closing the door and sitting down on her bed, "I think… I think she just apologized?"

"I didn't hear a 'sorry' in that conversation," Warren chuffed.

"True," Scout agreed, "But… I think this was her attempt at making peace."

Her brother churred softly in thought before responding, "Perhaps."

Setsuo flopped onto her bed. There were lots of thoughts floating around her head and she was trying to sort through them.

First, why had that been so awkward? That was literally the most embarrassing conversation of her life.

Second, Wilde had called her a friend. Even after all she'd done to avoid the pointlessness of friendship.

Which brought up another question…

Were friends really as pointless as her parents had led her to believe?

That was the thought that had really been weighing on her mind. Her parents had kept her from making friends for years, insisting that all she needed to be successful in life was hard work. Making friends was nothing but a distraction in that respect, but… Scout had saved her… and said it was because that was what friends did.

Setsuo frowned as she stared at the ceiling. Had she had it wrong all this time? Sure she'd gotten good grades, but was she happy? She always thought being successful would make her happy, but… her classmates always seemed to be so full of joy, even in the often fearful time they lived in, what with the tartarus incident the year before.

Had she actually been missing out?

Her parents were going to be mad about this last grade. With their last ditch attempt and quick thinking at the end of the exercise, they'd actually managed to scrape some points back even though they'd lost. It still wasn't enough points for her parents though.

Setsuo rolled onto her side.

She had a lot of thinking to do.

Echiko walked down the stairs of the dorms with her textbook in hand. Her eyes were still a little puffy from crying. Her parents had been really upset. She'd known they would be, but their words still stung.

You're better than this.

You're not trying hard enough.

You need to study more.

Focus more.

Work more.

Be more.

She'd just sat and cried for a while after she'd hung up with them before calming down enough to go downstairs and study. She had to study more. She had to…

Her classmates were sitting around the coffee table, playing a card game. They were all smiling and laughing, even the lizard boy, Kyoten, who was once again drawing multiple cards from the deck.

Setsuo hesitated and watched for a moment from the stairs.

She flushed a little in embarrassment when Scout glanced up and noticed her.

They looked at each other for a moment, and Echiko was about to put her head back down and move on, but Wilde gave her a soft smile. She glanced at the cards in her hand and back to Setsuo.

Echiko hesitated once again. She glanced down at her textbook. She thought about the upcoming tests and assignments. She thought about her parents' expectations. She thought about the stress she hadn't realized she'd been building up.

She looked back at Scout. She looked at her smiling classmates. She walked the rest of the way down the stairs. Wilde's little smile turned into a grin when she hesitantly walked towards the group.

"Um…" she faltered a little when everyone stopped playing and stared at her, but she took a breath and kept going, "Could… could you teach me how to play?"

Nekana blinked in surprise and glanced at Scout. Upon seeing her pat the floor next to her with a smile on her face, he smiled too.

"Of course!" he said, "The more the merrier!"

Hayase and Tamiko looked a little hesitant, but they didn't say anything. Matsukaze grinned at her.

"Let's hope you have better luck at Uno than Kyoten!" he teased.

Kyoten stuck his tongue out at Matsukaze, but he laughed when Matsukaze smacked him gently with a wing.

"We can finish this round and then deal you in," Scout chirped, "We can explain how the game works while we play."

"Okay," Setsuo said, and sat down at the table.

As the game started back up, Scout showed Setsuo the cards in her hand and started explaining things as everyone went around adding cards to the pile or drawing new ones.

Echiko set her textbook aside.

She smiled.

Author's Note

This chapter actually got rewritten at least twice and sat unfinished for a long time before I was happy with it. I'm really pleased with how it all came together, in the end! Setsuo was literally the worst in the initial drafts, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Now I feel she's a bit more of a sympathetic character!

Fun fact: Teruyoshi's quirk would be super OP if they just had some more confidence in themself.

As always, feel free to come yell at me on discord! link in my profile uwu

Take care of yourselves! Drink some water!