Hi again! Can't believe I got another chapter up so quickly after posting the first, but again, I wanted to get something out before I lost my nerve.
As usual, this is unbeta-ed and all mistakes are my own.
Please enjoy! I don't own My Hero Academia.
...
Katsuki Bakugou scowled at the scrawny figure hiding behind Mr. Aizawa. What the fuck was the school thinking, allowing a new student to come in on their last year? Who the hell even home-schools their kids anymore?
He exchanged a look with Todoroki, who, like Bakugou, stood a little bit apart from the rest of the class, leaning up against the wall. They'd come in together just a few minutes earlier, Bakugou from training outside, Todoroki from his sister's house.
"Kaylee is here to observe only, she will not be participating in any of the hero courses or trainings," Aizawa continued, moving slightly to the side so the girl could be seen. Bakugou finally got a good view of her, the light from the kitchen illuminating the frail girl. Shit, she reminded him of All Might with the way her baggy clothes fit her. Her hair was a shaggy blond that fell just around her shoulders. Her skin was extremely pale. She looked like she needed a solid month of good meals and some sleep. She stood with her shoulders scrunched, as though she was trying to be a turtle. Maybe that was her quirk, he thought. Her head was bowed, but Bakugou could see her eyes moving around through the hair that hung down around her eyes, shielding most of her face from his view.
"Everyone, say hello," Aizawa ordered.
The class called out a greeting. Bakugou heard a soft "hi," from the girl. Pathetic. She finally glanced up far enough that he could see her more clearly. Fuck, she did look like All Might with the dark bags under her eyes, her face haggard.
"Yaoyorozu will escort Kaylee to her dorm room. She's on the 4th floor." The class representative rose and smiled at the girl, who in return gave the tiniest of smiles, lips slightly curved upwards on one side. Bakugou rolled his eyes. Great, she's on the same floor with him.
"Come with me Kaylee. Uraraka and Asui helped me get your room ready earlier this evening." Uraraka and Asui both stood and gave a friendly wave to her, who returned the greeting by raising her hand and waving a few fingers at them shyly.
Bakugou scowled deeper. There was something about this girl that rubbed him the wrong way. He wasn't sure why, she looked like a slight breeze would carry her off, but there was something off about this whole story. Aizawa wasn't exactly known for being the most truthful with his class, and this had some sort of scheme all over it. Maybe she was some sort of plant, designed to test them or something. Hell, she could be that creepy-ass bitch with the League of Villains for all they knew.
He watched the girl follow Yaoyorozu up the stairs, the former giving her a brief tour as they walked. Occasionally the shaggy head would nod, and he thought he heard a soft whisper in reply.
The moment the two cleared the stairwell, the room erupted in chatter.
"A new student?"
"Why, Mr. Aizawa?"
"What's her quirk?"
"Is she hot? I couldn't get a good look at her!" Bakugou snorted at the last comment from the purple pervert, Mineta. Typical.
"Everyone, please!" shouted the class president, his arms raised to get their attention. "Please, Mr. Aizawa, this situation is so odd. What does she gain by being here if she's not going to take part in any of our hero courses?"
"As I just said, she's been home-schooled for most of her life and from a very sheltered upbringing. Mineta, if you so much as look at her wrong and I'll expel you," Aizawa eyes flashed crimson at Mineta, who swallowed and looked away quickly. "Her family wanted her to be enrolled in UA High in her final year."
"But why the hero course, sir?" asked Four-Eyes. "Surely she could have been placed in General Studies…"
"That's not for you to know," sighed Aizawa.
"It's probably because her family gave UA enough money to place her anywhere they wanted," Todoroki sighed. Bakugou sneered. The damned Icy-Hot bastard was probably right. Although, he thought, the girl didn't look like someone that came from wealth. She had the look of a frightened rabbit.
Deku raised his hand. "What's her quirk?" Of course the nerd would want to know that. Bakugou rolled his eyes, despite his own curiosity.
"Her quirk," Aizawa replied, "Is something we're keeping private at the moment. None of you are to ask her about it."
Yep, there was some definite bullshit going on here.
"I know you have more questions, but it's time you all started heading to bed. It's been a long day for me," Aizawa turned and left.
Silence followed him. "This isn't right," Sero said after Aizawa left. "Something's not right here."
"Maybe it is like Mr. Aizawa said and she just wants to come here," wondered Ashido.
"Bakugou," Kirishima called to him from the sofa. "You've been unusually quiet. What's your take on this?"
Bakugou shrugged his shoulders. "I think we just got handed a bunch of bullshit. I think that new girl needs to have a cheeseburger or two and a month at a spa."
"Bakugou! That's horrible to say, even for you!" shouted Hagakure from somewhere on a chair.
"It's true and you know it!"
"I wonder why we can't ask about her quirk," wondered Kaminari.
"I bet it's something dangerous!" said Aoyama, giving a shudder.
"Or she just doesn't have one and they don't want to tell us that," said Todoroki.
"Look," Bakugou raised his voice even louder to be heard over the talking. "It doesn't matter why she's here. I'm not letting some scrawny girl get in my way of becoming the greatest hero! And none of you should either. Just ignore her, which shouldn't be hard to do."
"Yaomomo," said Jiro, noticing Yaoyorozu as she came down the stairs. "What do you think about her?"
"Um," she said thoughtfully, "I think she's scared, which makes sense if she's never been to a high school before. She barely said a word to me."
"We think she might be from a super-rich family who must have paid a shit ton of money to get her here," Kaminari told her.
Yaoyorozu bit her lip. "That's a possibility, but I don't know…." She trailed off, looking away. "She didn't bring that much with her. Just clothes really."
"But you agree that something's fishy with all of this," said Todoroki as he walked up to Yaoyorozu.
"Oh absolutely," she said. "But I don't think Kaylee is in on it. She seemed really lonely."
Deku scratched his chin, while he muttered. "She reminded me of Eri, in a way. You know, when we first met."
"I don't see anything about her on the internet." Sero had his phone out, scrolling through it, frowning. "No social media, nothing. If she was from a wealthy family, looks like there would be something out there about her."
"Not if she was sheltered," replied Uraraka.
Bakugou had enough. "Look, just keep an eye out on her, it's not like she's going to be able to overpower any of us. Whatever her quirk is, she can't use it. Aizawa is here so he's probably keeping an eye on her too." He stomped towards the stairs. "You extras can stay up all night debating this, but I'm going to bed."
…...
Kaylee fidgeted nervously on the green sofa in Aizawa's office, her eyes darting about to make sure she could see the exits. There were four windows. One door. His office was on the second floor of the building. It had rained that night; the ground would be soft. She could survive the fall.
He was sitting in a chair opposite her, steaming cup of tea in his hands. Kaylee had a death grip on the matching cup in hers, the heat burning her palms, but somewhat soothing on her scars.
He told her last night as they were entering the dorms to please meet in his office before class started. She'd hardly slept the previous night, especially after she discovered her own private veranda. It looked out over the massive school grounds. There were so many different buildings, some of them the size of airplane hangars. Unfortunately, the bright security lights above and to the side of her room prevented her from seeing the stars. She still loved being able to enjoy the chilly air and just wrapped herself up in a blanket, curled up in one of the chairs.
"How was breakfast?" he asked. His tone was somewhat a cross between stern and bored. Now that she got a good look at him, she noticed he had a scar of his own under his right eye. His eyes were somewhat red, like he didn't sleep very well. He wore the same clothing as last night, minus the long thin scarf.
In the past three months since her escape, she'd met more people than in the past eleven combined. Doctors, nurses, government agents—all of them were either afraid of her or in awe of her, or a combination of the two. Not the man in front of her. She'd been told by the agents he was a hero, although he preferred operating off the grid, avoiding media at all costs. He didn't look like a hero, but there was an aura about him that made her feel as though he was at least trustworthy.
"Um, it was ok. I didn't eat much," she replied. "There were too many choices, so I didn't really know what to pick." In truth, she came downstairs before everyone else. She was in her school uniform which she found to be itchy and uncomfortable. The skirt was too short, the jacket was too long. Somehow, she'd managed to make a decent knot in her tie. She felt weird looking through all the cabinets for food, since most of it were things she'd never heard of. She settled on some kind of protein bar.
"I suppose you weren't given many choices, were you?"
She shook her head.
"Kaylee, if you're going to blend here the first thing you need to learn is to look someone in the eye when you're talking to them," Aizawa said firmly, but not unkindly. "I'm not going to even pretend to understand what the past years have been like for you, but you're going to have to be a quick learner."
"Yes sir," Kaylee managed to look directly at him.
"Good. Now, I know this is uncomfortable, but I need to know as much information about you as I can." He took a sip of tea. "The agents told us enough about you to get us to agree to having you here, then they were busy rushing off."
"Afraid," she said quietly, taking a tiny sip of her own tea.
"I know you're afraid…" he began.
"They were afraid of me," she finished, looking him dead in the eyes. "They were all afraid of me."
"Should I be afraid of you, Kaylee? Should my students?"
"I killed people."
"You're not the only one in this room who has," he said bluntly. "Are you afraid of me?"
She looked at him, thinking. "No," she said after a good pause. "I think you're probably a good person."
His lips curled. "I try. Tell me about your quirk."
"Um, I can make diamonds," she told him, putting down her cup and clenching her hands together. "The size and quality depend on the amount of carbon contained in the object I hold."
"Will you show me? I need to see what your quirk looks like."
Kaylee grabbed a pencil from the table in front of her where he had various notes and files scattered about. She held it in her hand and felt the familiar tingling as it was absorbed into her body, then the stinging pain as the diamond formed. "Here," she said, holding it out to him. "It's small, only a quarter of a carat. It's a brilliant cut, grade D color, grade F clarity. It's not much, but you could probably get a few thousand USD for it if you could find the right buyer." She handed the stone to him. "Sorry about the blood."
He grabbed her hand, turning it over and examining her palm. "Fuck, this hurts you?"
"Every time," she replied, startled at his warm touch as he gently traced the scars. Her palms looked like a spiderweb of scars, eleven years of having to use her quirk daily, for what seemed like hours on end. There was a slight cut from the diamond she just created, not very deep, and certainly not anything to get worked up about. "Doesn't your quirk hurt you?"
"No, not unless I over use it." He bowed his head in apology. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. Thank you for showing it to me."
"Now," he continued, grabbing a tissue and handing it to her. "I'm going to assume you have complete control over your quirk, right? No accidentally dropping diamonds in class, or anything?"
Kaylee couldn't help the grin at the image. "I'm in control."
"What about your other quirk?" Aizawa asked.
She sighed. "I don't know anything about it. I didn't even know I had another one until they told me at the hospital, once they did the blood work. The doctors said it was a drug given to suppress a quirk, but they couldn't tell what."
"And the kidnappers, they never said anything?"
"They said it was a vitamin shot. I got one every morning. I don't know where they got it from."
"The feds said the quirk could have been inherited from your mother, do you remember anything?"
Kaylee felt tears burn behind her eyes. "I didn't know I had a family until much later. They kept me secluded in a cabin. One of the captors, he told me to call him Rusty, he had a girlfriend who helped watch me. Her name was Beth. She was nice."
She was also dead. Rusty snapped her neck when he caught her letting Kaylee go outside one summer day. He buried her body in the woods. Kaylee buried a knife in his back.
"How did your captors treat you?"
"At best, I was like a pet to them," she stared out the window. "As long as I did what they wanted, they treated me ok. I was given food, clothing, a bed, and they left me alone until they needed me to create the diamonds." She swallowed. "When the diamond market started to fail, they got angry."
"Did they beat you?"
"Occasionally," she shrugged. "The times I tried to escape. It wasn't so bad, they always made sure to not break any bones or do anything that they couldn't repair. They couldn't afford the risk of taking me to the hospital. I was punished in other ways."
He looked angry. "Kaylee, did they do anything sexual to you?"
"No. They had no interest in me that way," she replied, her face heating up with embarrassment.
Aizawa nodded, clearing his throat and taking a sip of tea. "Let's move on to your test scores. They're some of the highest in the class for basic subjects. Did they educate you, Kaylee?"
"When we got to Hong Kong, they hired a series of tutors. They were paid well to teach me all the subjects. I can also speak Japanese, English, French and Dutch."
"Why?"
"Rusty and Steve, I never knew their real names, they were both Japanese. They had a lot of underworld contracts with various yakuza and other criminal organizations. Florian, he was from Antwerp. He negotiated the sales. They thought if I learned more about diamonds, my quirk would improve. It did."
Aizawa shifted in his chair, and looked at the clock on the wall. "We're almost out of time, but I think we should meet once a week to check in. I think for this first week you need to keep as low of a profile as you can. With that bullshit story that the feds came up with, Class 3-A is already suspicious. I had a hell of a time trying to throw them off the scent last night."
Kaylee nodded. She could hear some of their questions as she and the class representative walked up the stairs. For her part, the class rep raised her voice to drown out the sound. "I'll try not to attract any attention. One of the CIA agents said to try and be forgettable. I'm not to excel in any courses, nor should I fail anything."
"Excellent. We had a faculty meeting earlier this morning and Principal Nezu explained why you are here. None of them know the real reason, however, they do understand that you are in protective custody and it's only for the year at the most. They also know not to ask about your quirk."
She sipped her tea, frowning slightly at the cold taste. "Ok."
"Your therapy sessions are on Wednesdays," he said as he stood up. "Now, let's get to class."
As they both stood up to leave, the door flew open and Kaylee jumped. A small blur raced in and smacked directly into Aizawa.
"Sensei!"
"Eri," Aizawa recovered quickly enough to grab the small form. It was a child, around eight or nine, Kaylee couldn't really tell. She was dressed in a dark school uniform. Her hair was almost white, her big reddish eyes taking up most of her face. She was adorable.
"You left before I could say goodbye," she scolded the man. Kaylee noticed she had a small horn protruding from her forehead.
"Sorry, I had to meet with a new student." Kaylee was surprised at how gentle his voice became as he squatted down in front of the girl. Was this his daughter?
The girl gazed up at Kaylee in awe. "Oh, hi! My name is Eri, and I live here too. What's your name? Are you in sensei's class? Have you met Deku yet?" Eri's rapid fire questions had Kaylee stunned for a second.
"Eri, meet Kaylee," said Aizawa, smiling fondly at the girl. "Kaylee, this is Eri. She lives here at the school. I'm her guardian."
Kaylee felt her lips curl in the first genuine smile she'd made in years. "Hi Eri," she replied, bending down to face the girl at her level. "It's nice to meet you. And yes, I'm in your guardian's class. I guess I live here too now. And no, I don't think I've met everyone in the class yet. I got in late last night." Kaylee's voice became a little raspy at the end. She'd talked more in the past two days than she had in years combined.
"Eri," Aizawa said, straightening out the girl's uniform. "You need to be headed to class. I'll see you this afternoon, ok?"
Eri nodded, smiling up at him. "Yes, Sensei. Goodbye! Goodbye Kaylee, it was nice to meet you!" She waved eagerly as she skipped out the door.
Aizawa faced Kaylee as Eri left. "You and Eri have a lot in common," he told her. "She was also a captive for several years."
"Really? What happened? How did she get free?"
"We can save the story for later," he replied, escorting her from the room. "She was saved by a bunch of pro-heroes. And some of your soon-to-be classmates."
Kaylee's jaw dropped.
…..
Goddamn it all to hell, Bakugou thought. He was not going to look back. He wasn't.
Fuck. He did.
The new girl sat in the back of the classroom, just behind Uraraka. Earlier that morning, Aizawa introduced her formally to the class. The morning sunlight shining through the windows only highlighted how frail she was, proving that his assessment of her last night was not incorrect. Even in a school uniform, she managed to look two sizes too small for the clothing. As the instructor introduced the class to her, she at least managed to hold her head up, although her hair still covered most of her face and her shoulders were still up around her neck. He watched her dark eyes dart around the room quickly, looking at the windows, the room.
The first two classes passed as they did every day. The faculty took little notice of the new girl, other than giving her a slight nod of acknowledgment during the roll call. For her part, she barely said a word in class, although he did hear her say a few words here and there as classes changed. Her voice was soft and raspy.
And why in fuck's name is he even noticing this?
He turned back to his work, running a hand through his hair, frustrated as hell. Despite his words in the common area last night, he wasn't just ignoring her. She bothered him. The whole bullshit story bothered him. Aizawa just acting like everything was fine, and it was just another day at UA. That bothered him.
He looked down at his phone. Typed in her name again, not trusting Tape-Arms to do a proper internet search. He scrolled through several pages, looking for something, anything. Nothing at all.
"Pencils down everyone," Ectoplasm said. Damn, Bakugou hadn't written a thing on the last problem. Shit. Math wasn't one of his favorite subjects, but he excelled at it and now he never finished the last problem. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuuucccck.
Once the class was over, the students began chatting at their desks.
"So, Bakugou, what did you think? Pretty tough test, huh," asked the human spark-plug. Kaminari leaned up against his desk, his usual good natured smirk plastered on his face.
Bakugou shrugged as he stood up, gathering his books and shoving them into his bag. "Tch. It wasn't that hard."
"How do you think the new girl did," Kaminari whispered, leaning forward slightly so he wasn't overheard. "Imagine having a test on your first day of school!"
"Who cares, she's on her own," he replied, rolling his eyes. Fuck, he really couldn't stop himself from glancing over at her. She was surrounded by Uraraka and Asui, who were both talking quietly to her. The girl's hands were clenched so tightly together on top of her desk, her knuckles prominent. She looked uncomfortable for some reason.
"Let's go! It's lunch time!" Kirishima called, motioning everyone towards the door. "I'm starving!"
"I'm coming," Kaminari yelled back. "Come on, Bakugou."
Fifteen minutes later, they were in line at the cafeteria.
"So, Class 3-A, tell us all about the new girl!" Bakugou turned to face the most irritating student in their grade. Nieto Monoma stood behind the three of them, arms going around Kaminari and Kirishima as though they were good friends. None of them liked the fucker. Hell, half his own class barely tolerated him.
"Nothing for you to concern yourself with, asshole." Bakugou sneered, throwing the boy's arm off of him.
Monoma pouted playfully. "Oh, don't be like that. Rumor has it she's some sort of secret spy. Where is she?" He looked around, trying to find her. "Oh, is that her?"
Bakugou followed his gaze over to where the new girl was sitting. Of course the damned nerd was sitting across from her, chatting animatedly. Uraraka and Asui flanked her on either side.
"What's her quirk, to creep out everyone?"
Before he could think about it, he grabbed the asshole by the throat, slamming him into the wall. Bits of plaster fell around them as his head made contact. Despite the fact that Bakugou said the very same thing the previous evening, he was not having it from that smug bastard.
"Bakugou!"
"Take it back, fucker!" Bakugou ignored Kaminari's warning shout. He grinned at the look of fear on Monoma's face, which was slowly turning red as he gasped for air.
"Is…she…your…girlfriend?" he gasped out.
"What's the problem here?" Bakugou turned as Cementoss walked up. He tightened his grip on the fucker's throat, then immediately let go, watching him slump to the floor.
"Nothing sir," Bakugou said. "Just having a chat."
"Monoma?" Cementoss turned to the student on the floor.
Bakugou glared at Monoma, who was gasping for breath. He was pleased to see some slight bruises appearing around his neck. You better not say a word, asshole.
Redness finally fading from his face, Monoma nodded at the teacher. "I'm fine. We were just talking."
Cementoss glanced between them, then turned. "I'll keep an eye out on both of you."
"Better watch what you say about Class 3-A, mother fucker. You've not grown a brain in the three years you've been here." Bakugou twisted and headed for the nearest exit. "I've lost my appetite."
Of course he couldn't help but glance over in her direction as he marched past the tables. Used to his outbursts by this point, most of the students quickly went back to their lunch as if nothing had happened.
She, however, was looking right at him. Fuck.
