Rule #50: Names have power

In the days after the Sports Festival ended, we recovered from our injuries and then our normal classes started right back up again.

Any child will tell you that seeing a teacher outside of school is just…weird, but living with one? That was a whole other kettle of fish, one that Toru still couldn't seem to wrap her head around despite the quick routine that she and Aizawa-Sensei had easily fallen into.

While both typically quiet people, it was much easier for them to keep to themselves in whichever corner of the room that they had commandeered at that time. It didn't hurt matters that Aizawa-Sensei had his own clowder of cats roaming the place.

Currently, Toru sat curled up in one corner of the saggy couch with her back pressed against the armrest and her head and knees tucked into the back cushion, effectively hiding her from view as she methodically stroked the large black maine coon purring in her lap and fluffing up her black bike shorts.

A gentle smile graced Toru's lips as the aptly named, Kuro gently kneaded the front of her school shirt with both front paws; alternating between the two as he softened her (undone tie) up. "Mrroow!" Chirped Momo, the ginger tom wedged in between her right side and the back of the couch as he rolled over as much as possible to reveal his fluffy golden tummy.

And up above them, on the top of the back couch cushions sat Toshi, a rather chubby tabby shorthair that had rather happily nestled into the pleats of her undone school skirt and underneath her grey school vest. Those are gonna need a shave before I put 'em on. Toru mused, aware that the dark green skirt and grey vest were probably covered in cat hair already.

There were also two more cats that just enjoyed roaming around the apartment, Kenta a munchkin cat that was splattered in patches of brown & white and Hinata, an impossibly fluffy ragdoll. Both were probably still curled up with Aizawa-Sensei in his room as Toru had yet to see any of them that morning. Y'know it kinda makes sense that Aizawa-Sensei is a cat person, Toru mused as Kuro purred louder and stretched out further along her chest, I mean if I didn't know any better, I'd say he had a cat Quirk or something.

Despite her best efforts, Toru couldn't help but let her thoughts drift back over the events of the last few days and what it meant for her now. As of yesterday, Lee Tamaki had been declared to be stuck in a coma (medically-induced or otherwise), Uraraka Shiro had disowned her as a friend due to her involvement in Tamaki's injuries, her grandmother had been brutally murdered because she pissed off a Yakuza brat and finally her grandfather had found himself enrolled into a retirement home much to his dismay.

BZZT! BZZT!

With great reluctance Toru extracted her hand from where it had woven itself in between Kuro's fur and she leant over to pull out her phone from the front pocket of her bag that sat on the ground next to her. Clicking the screen on, she thumbed through the numerous game and social media notifications until she reached the message from Ritsu alerting her about the trains that were operating this morning.

BZZT! BZZT!

Clicking on the newest notification, Toru noticed that the next message was from Hitoshi.

GROUP CHAT

GRUMPY: Where r u? Hurry up, I'm hungry!

SPARKY: Calm done Grumpy, I'm just shaving my uniform

GRUMPY: ?

SPARKY: :P

"Guess it's time to go" Toru pocketed her phone as she carefully extracted both herself and her now furry uniform from beneath the content felines before moving to collect her things and headed out the door to meet the impatient telepath outside.

Well, some things were different…

Rain pelted down, hammering the umbrella covered people as they wandered down the streets on their way to work or school. Large billboards mounted on skyscrapers and small TVs hunkered away in corner stores showed the highlights from the most recent UA Sports Festival; most notably those who made it to the finals or who were awarded medals.

A few heads had turned their way as the pair had walked through the rain towards UA; though Toru figured that had more to do with the cat ears atop her cutesy umbrella or her seemingly floating uniform, than anything to do with the Sports festival.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Hitoshi asked as the two shook off their wet umbrellas and stored them away in their seperate cubbyholes once they had arrived at UA.

"Y-yeah, I think so, I-I mean I guess" Toru stammered dreading the walk to the classroom and facing her peers. What will they say? Will they still like me? Will they blame me? And that doesn't even take into account what happened at the festival! She fretted, worrying the end of her braids as she did so.

"Are ya sure?" Hitoshi turned to her, fully facing her, "Cause you're ghosting again" He gestured to her invisible figure that seemed to rapidly shimmer with the slight increase in body temperature.

"Y-Yeah…I mean it's only school, right? Only a couple of hours…"

"If you say so…"


The walk up to the classroom seemed to take both forever and no time at all; guilt ate away at her and her stomach felt like it had dropped to her leaden feet. Standing before the large classroom door now after everything that had happened…it was felt very much like her first day all over again. Only, now you've got no friends… She winced.

Taking a deep breath, Toru gently pushed the door open and slid inside, avoided Ochako's gaze as much as she could and quietly made her way over to her seat. Now nestled amongst spare chairs, Toru tried to hide herself further (despite already being invisible) as she pressed her back to the classroom wall, making sure to keep all her classmates within her sights.

Despite a few odd looks here and there, no one really stopped her to ask why she was shimmering far more than noraml; instead far more focused on the bubbly conversations they had been caught up in when she had arrived.

Besides, Toru doubted that anyone within her class (besides maybe Bakugou) would openly attack her right there and then, still she felt safer with the wall behind her. Even then, Toru couldn't help but self-consciously count the possible exits from the room as she subtly fiddled with the slightly frayed end of the bandages still wrapped around her hand.

Around her, snippets of conversations drifted around the classroom from her classmates as they gossiped like old ladies at a bingo tournament. "…It's so weird that people recognise us from TV! Everyone wanted to talk to me on my way here!" Chirped Mina.

"Yeah, me too!" Kirishima replied.

"You won't believe what a bunch of elementary brats on the street yelled at me!" Sero piped up.

"Nice try?" Asui guessed.

"Ahh!"

"All it took was one Sport's Festival and suddenly we're like celebrities!" Kaminari happily commented.

"This school really is amazing!" Mineta chirped.

Thankfully the door then slid open to reveal a recently bandage-free Aizawa-Sensei looking no worse for wear as he greeted the class and shuffled inside. "Morning"

"Good morning, Aizawa-Sensei!" Chirped 1-A as they all quickly filed into their own seats.

"Ribbit, Aizawa-Sensei you don't have bandages anymore. That's good news, right?" Asui noted.

"The old lady went a little overboard in her treatment" Aizawa fiddled with a strand of hair, "Anyway before we get started; as some on you will have noted we're missing a couple of students" Only Ochako and Toru seemed to known what was going on as the others swivelled in their seats, counting heads as they did so. "Both Lee Tamaki and Uraraka Shiro will no longer be apart of 1-A"

Questions and comments sprung up from the class as Toru sunk further down into her seat, unable to meet anyone's gaze, who didn't even know of her involvement in the incident but that didn't matter. Guilt weighed Toru down as she tried her best not to collapse on her desk in a bundle of tears once more; thankfully Aizawa-Sensei quickly skipped over the topic and onto the day's lesson plan.

"Moving on; we have a big class today on hero informatics" Aizawa-Sensei cut through the ceaseless chatter, bringing the class back to attention.

Aw crap! Informatics? Was there supposed to be a quiz today? Toru fretted, thankful for the sudden change in topic.

"…You need codenames, time to pick your hero identities"

…Eh? That's not what I was expecting! Toru huffed in relief whilst the majority of her classmates cheered, Though I suppose it makes sense; what's a hero without a name, anyway?

"…This is related to the Pro-Hero draft picks that I mentioned last time" Aizawa-Sensei continued once scaring the class back into their seats, "…Normally first year students don't have to worry about the draft yet, but your class is different. In fact, by extending offers to first years like you the Pros are essentially investing indoor potential; any offers can be rescinded if any interest in you dies down before graduation, though"

"Stupid, stubborn adults!" Mineta slapped his desk at the thought.

"W-Wait, so you're saying is that we'll still have to prove ourselves after we've been recruited?" Toru piped up.

"Correct" Aizawa nodded, his eyes narrowing slightly on her invisible form, "Now here's the total for those of you who got offers"

On the board behind him a list of names and offers were displayed on the screen. At the top sat Todoroki with 4,123 offers, then Bakugou at 3,556, Tokoyami at 360, Iida at 301, Kaminari at 272, Yaoyorozu at 108, Kirishima at 68, Uraraka at 20, Sero at 14 and finally Toru at 7.I-I…I got…offers? But they had to be judging off of my tournament fight! And let's be honest, it was crap! Maybe…maybe they liked the tag-team battle more?Toru's eyes drifted over to Asui's seat where the frog girl was happily conversing with her neighbours, But then again, we didn't really do any teamwork…stuff. I just went, well, batshit.

"…Despite these results you'll all be interning with Pros, get it? Even those of you that didn't get any offers" Aizawa-Sensei lectured.

"All of us?" Midoriya perked up.

"Yes, you already got to experience real combat with real villains during the attack on the USJ facility…"

Some of us more than others…Toru winced.

"…But it'll still be helpful to see Pros at work up close and personal, in the field, first-hand"

"For that we need hero names!" Mina chirped.

"Things are getting a lot more fun!" Cheered Ochako.

"…These hero names will likely be temporary…" Aizawa-Sensei warned, "…But take them seriously or else-"

"-You'll have hell to pay later!" Midnight cut in with a snap of the sliding door.

Geez, she could give Bitch-Sensei a run for her money! Toru mused as her eyes grazed over the rather sensual outfit that the Pro was kitted out in. "…What you pick today could be your codename for life; you better be careful or you'll be stuck with something utterly indecent!"

That's ironic!

"Yeah…She's got a good point" Aizawa-Sensei sighed, "Midnight is going to have final approval over your names; it's not my forte" What is his forte? Sleeping? Toru thought as Aizawa-Sensei climbed into his grungy yellow sleeping bag and slumped down at the front of the class, already asleep before his head had hit the ground.

"…The name you give yourself is important; it helps reinforce your image and shows people what kind of hero you wanna be in the future. A codename tells people exactly what you represent, take All Might for example" Midnight smoothly took over.

What would be my hero name? Toru thought as she fiddled with the whiteboard pen in her hand and stared aimlessly at the small whiteboard in front of her as if it would yield some type of answer that way. What do I want to embody? What kind of hero do I want to be? Geez! These are deep questions! Why not throw in the one about life after death? Or why do dogs sniff butts?

Absentmindedly Toru recognised that Midnight had all but demanded that someone go first to present their idea(s) to the class; something that easily set her (and the rest of the class) on edge. Oh my God! These guys are gonna be staring right at me! What if they laugh? What if they think my name is stupid? What if, what if what if…? Studiously she continued to scrawl ideas onto her board as Aoyama got up enough balls to go first. What about Inviso? Lightbulb? Or…Sparkles? Sparky?…Okay now I just sound like I'm trying to name a dog. Why am I so bad with names?

Up the front, Aoyama stood tall with his board proudly facing outwards as he read off his idea, "Hold your breath for… The Shining Hero: I Cannot Stop Twinkling! Mon amie, you can't deny my sparkle" He declared.

…Seriously? Then again, why did we expect any different? After a quick correction from Midnight Aoyama's name was shortened to The Shining Hero: Can't Stop Twinkling! Next was Ashido whose board read Alien Queen! That one was quickly vetoed for being too scary; then Asui presented hers: The Rainy Hero: Froppy!

After Asui's cute codename was given the tick of approval, Kirishima declared his to be The Sturdy Hero: Red Riot! and Jiro's was The Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack! Shoji's was The Tentacle Hero: Tentacole! Sero chose The Taping Hero: Cellophane! Ojiro's was The Martial Arts Hero: Tailman! Sato went with The Sweets Hero: Sugarman! Mina settled on Pinky! and Kaminari chose The Electric Hero: Chargebolt!

Yaoyorozu went with The Everything Hero: Creati!, Todoroki and Iida simply used their own names, Shoto and Tenya (respectively). Mineta picked The Freshly Picked Hero: Grape Juice! Koda's was The Petting Hero: Anima! then Tokoyami declared his to be The Jet Black Hero: Tsukuyomi! and Ochako nervously showed the class hers as Uravity!, a clever combination of her Quirk and name.

Both of Bakugou's options of King Explosion Murder! and Lord Explosion Murder! were denied vehemently much to his dismay. Which left Midoriya with his as Deku! A sweet twist on an old bullying insult typically thrown his way.

Which left Toru still nervously chewing on her bottom lip as she stared at the final name she had written on her board. "And finally, Hagakure? Do you have one?" Midnight asked.

"Uh, I think so…" Toru murmured as she quietly made her up to the front of the class, well aware of all the eyes on her back as she made her way up the aisle and focusing far too much on not tripping on outlying bags and limbs.

All right let's rip the band-aid off…Standing in front of the podium at the front of the class, she turned the whiteboard around in her hands to show her peers the words written there: The Stealth Hero: Prism!