Chapter Five: Miracles
It was as if time was passing by in slow-motion.
Maybe it was just adrenaline doing its job, but suddenly, Morie found herself dashing forward, trying to get as close to the falling boy as possible. Her limbs burned from the effort as she continued to close the distance, sharp stabs of fear making itself known to her with each second ticking past.
Five metres. She only needed to be five metres near where the boy was going to fall, she had to make it or he was going to die. Morie never claimed to be a saint (or rather, a hero), but she couldn't just can't leave someone to fall to his death, much less the boy with the kind smile who had saved her earlier. It did seem liket he had a hardening quirk, if memory served her correctly, but she highly doubted that his quirk was enough to save him from a fall of that height and magnitude. If his quirk hardened his skin, she didn't see how his internal organs would be able to stand the impact.
Bringing her hands together, Morie stopped, taking in a deep breathe as she tugged at her quirk. Fingertips tingling, she sensed the air particles around her moving, adjusting the force with which they moved, visualising the particles moving in a motion akin to a vertex, traveling from high pressure to low pressure.
It still wasn't spinning fast enough, however- if the winds were to intercept the boy's fall as they were now, he would surely die.
Biting her lip, she pressed her fingers together and tediously pictured the air molecules spinning faster and faster, eyes pinpointing the area with the highest pressure and increasing the speed of the resulting wind by forcing the pressure gradient to steepen. The wind whistled around her, swirling up to receive the boy and slow his fall. Then the air begin to slow down as it swirled some more, the pressure only being released the moment the boy made contact with the ground in one piece- groaning, probably in a daze, but very much alive.
Morie smiled. The robot shifted its arm, causing large pieces of concrete to come crashing towards her. But it was like a tear was ripping through her brain, and her world was spinning- she had long since passed her limit for her quirk use, and clumsily she tried to step out the way.
Someone dragged her out of the way just as the concrete was about to make contact with her, and in a daze she focused (or tried to focus) on the figure next to her. It was the guy with red hair who had recovered quickly, and as she took in red eyes and a concerned expression, she hated herself for her moment of weakness.
"Thanks- and don't worry, just overused my Quirk," she said earnestly, wincing as another migraine ripped its way through her mind sharply, leaving her vision woozy- did the guy just multiply? Which copy was she talking to, even?
The copies did fade back into one eventually as he began to lead her away down a side-road to escape the view of the robot, even helping her move in the process, to which she protested slightly. The buzz in her head grew persistently, and she frowned.
"There's barely a minute left, you shouldn't waste this opportunity to get more points on me." Morie spoke, staring up at him and frowning. Mr Red Hair frowned at that suggestion, slinging her arm over his shoulder as the duo hobbled away from the humongous robot the best they could.
"Nah, I owe you my life," he said in response, firmly shaking his head. "Must have overused my quirk- I could barely get my Hardening to hold as I was falling. I was so sure that I was going to just die like that, for a moment."
"You saved me twice, though. I'm the one who owes you," she insisted, brows furrowing. Stumbling, it was only then did she reluctantly accept his help whole-heartedly, only relaxing slightly when Present Mic's voice boomed overhead.
"And time's up! Any severe injuries? No? Splendid! Please make your way to the assembly area outside so that our medic may tend to you more easily."
Simultaneously, the duo turned to stare at the Arena Trap, which was suddenly unmoving. Both of them let out a sigh of relief, which quickly turned into laughter at how in-sync they were.
Morie smiled at the strange irony of the situation. "After all that, it's hard to believe that I don't even know your name," she lamented out of the blue, before pausing to look at the boy next to her with poorly-concealed curiosity. "What is your name, in any case?"
"You're right- it's pretty crazy, right?" He chuckled. "Kirishima Ejirou, to answer your question."
Kirishima tapped his fist against his chest in a gesture which much resembled a fist-pump. She mirrored it somewhat, placing her hand to her chest as she mock-bowed.
"Minamoto Morie, at your service." A grin appeared on her lips, filled with mirth from her own silliness. "You have my heartfelt thanks for saving my ass countless times in this past ten minutes," she quipped pseudo-seriously, eliciting a snort from the red-haired boy.
"Well, thanks for breaking my fall and saving my hide. And your quirk is really cool, you can control wind and stuff!" He exclaimed, and Morie laughed softly at how awe-struck he sounded. Seriously, she didn't deserve that much credit- not when she could have messed up controlling the pressure of those goddamned air molecules and be the cause of his death.
"Nope, I can't control wind, or anything like that." She corrected gently. It was a misconception many had, an assumption she was pretty much used to. "See, I control pressure- so in a way I can control air direction by changing pressure and making wind flow from one place to another."
"Woah," he breathed, and she smiled at his almost-childlike amazement. It was honestly extremely adorable, not that she would tell him that for fear of hurting his pride. "Pressure is cool too. My own quirk seems boring compared to everyone else's here."
A look of understanding flashed across her expression as that statement hit close to home. "I can understand how you feel," she sighed, before raising an arm to pat him on his shoulder. "But honestly? I think your quirk is pretty cool, too. It's tough and reliable, and it suits you. You know what I mean?"
"So in short, you think I'm ...manly?" Kirishima stated, a wide smile forming on his face, sounding just a tad bit surprised.
You could say that, I guess.
Morie straightened up and let out a small huff at his evident disbelief, her voice not hesitant in the slightest as she replied.
"Manly," she emphasised slowly, "is a massive understatement, Kirishima. You were pretty goddamn brave out there."
His eyes took on a bright shine. After a while, he became so bright that it was almost impossible to look at him, what with the immense joy he was radiating. One glance at him would give the same effect as looking at a particularly adorable and determined kid or cute cat-slash-baby animal pictures.
This guy, Morie thought, taking in his contagious grin, was too good for the world.
"You were brave too, Minamoto," he responded, obviously flattered from her earlier comment. She flushed slightly, unused to being called 'brave'- she didn't really deserve to be called that, in her opinion- not when she was just doing the right thing. Compliments always had their way of making her feel awkward, though Kirishima sounded so genuine that she couldn't help but feel flustered instead.
"Not really," she denied automatically. "Just got to do what you got to do, y'know?
They stopped in their footsteps once they reached the entrance of the urban city. At the lack of life within the city, it seemed that everyone had already made it outside and they were the only ones left. Morie gaped as she saw a small figure approaching the group of students from the distance, holding on to a small walking stick as she walked among the injured, administering the injured and handing out gummies.
"It's R-recovery Girl!" She gasped in excitement. The presence of the said hero made a lot of sense, now that she thought of it- if they didn't have someone who specialised in healing around, it was hard to see how they could have gone through with such a dangerous test without having to worry about suffering grievances from angry parents- not to mention potentially crippling their future generation of heroes.
"Hey, let's meet again in Yuuei. When we make it in." Kirishima stated abruptly, looking thoughtful for a moment. The good-meaning of the statement, however, caused a mild look of chagrin to flash over her features.
Even the sight of Recovery Girl or seeing the red-haired boy gush over the gummies he got from her couldn't lighten her spirits in that moment as a revelation hit her. After all, she had only gotten a measly amount of twenty-four points- and that was hardly enough to pass.
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I feel like shit.
"No swearing, young lady," her father stated, shaking his head. Morie sent him a blank look, before proceeding to kick him out of her mind (she should do this more often), putting up shields against him. Some days, she just was not in the mood to deal with her parent's antics- and today was evidently one of those days.
Minamoto Chika frowned at his daughter. The last time she had blocked him out of her mind was when she was nine and angry at him for making her see her cousin (who she didn't seem to be fond of). Personally he had suspected some sort of mental name-calling going on in that head of hers then, and had felt more proud than offended at the fact that she managed to block off her mind from his probing.
Today, however, was different.
"You're getting back your results of your application today, aren't you?" He asked, as he turned back to brewing coffee.
"Yes, dad." Came the stiff response, and he turned to see her unmoving on the sofa, seemingly reading a book. Interestingly enough, her eyes were frozen, fixed at the same paragraph throughout a span of five minutes. Upon closer inspection, the tips of her fingers were trembling just in the slightest.
His daughter had always had a bad case of nerves, and a startling low amount self-confidence (maybe he was exaggerating, but that was the impression he got from her awkward behaviour and general jitteriness). When he had confided in his wife, however, she had been fairly unperturbed by the revelation, and instead looked like she knew all along.
("She's growing up," had been her only comment back then. "Let her find herself, Chika. Give her time.")
"- The mail's here, kid." Fū called from the doorstep, breaking the man out of his thoughts. "Here's your letter."
With a quiet 'thank you', Morie accepted the letter, trepidation evident in her features. The young girl looked like she was going to be sick- her fair complexion looking like a pasty pale shade. Coupled with her long brown hair, it was not an understatement to say that she could star as some ghost girl from those famous horror movies.
"Will she be alright?" He pondered out loud as his young daughter disappeared from sight without another word.
"I wouldn't worry about it," Fū stated, calmly seating herself at the table as she sipped some tea. "She'll be fine."
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Morie eyed the metal disk that had popped out of her envelope suspiciously after she painstakingly peeled off the red wax seal. Cautiously giving it a flick, she jumped when it blinked with a sort of light and began projecting what had to be a pre-recorded video.
All Might stood in his golden and pointed-hair glory, his signature smile on his face. Her eyes widened as the video played on, and as a scoreboard flashed over the screen, she made out her name almost immediately, shocking her into stunned silence.
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4th Place:
Minamoto Morie
Villain Points: 24 | Rescue Points: 44
Ibara Shiozaki
Villain Points: 36 | Rescue Points: 32
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She was tied with somebody else, and her villain points were on the low end of the scale, but she had earned a decent number of rescue points to make up for it... After all that happened at the Entrance Exam, it was hard to believe that she, of all people, made it into the top few. Surely there were other people who were stronger and better qualified to attain the fourth place?
(Nevertheless, it was like a goddamn miracle.)
Morie turned off the video, All Might's proclamation of welcome fresh on her mind. Lightly, she slapped herself on the cheeks to ascertain that she was not in fact just dreaming. Then she blinked, exhaled her relief, and smiled.
Bzzt!
She eyed her vibrating phone. Reaching out to grab it, she smiled at the name which popped up in her notifications.
One unread message from BAEREN.
(In case you were wondering, no, she definitely was not responsible for the cringe-worthy name that her friend had saved herself as in her phone.)
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BAEREN: omgomg i made it in
rie: Shiketsu? That's good news.
BAEREN: ya
BAEREN: thanks ;;
rie: Good luck dealing with my cousin, he's a handful.
BAEREN: lmao he can't be that bad?
rie: Shh, you'll know when you see him.
BAEREN: lololol
BAEREN: did you get into yuuei, btw?
rie: Yeah.
BAEREN: lololol so proud, my lil baby has grown up! ;;
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At this point, Morie looked up from her phone to roll her eyes, even as the corners of her lips curled upwards. Then her eyebrows furrowed as she took in the sound of loud shouts (whether it was triumph or celebration, she would never know) coming from next door.
Oh yeah, so that Bakugou guy made it in, too. Didn't he get first place? Shrugging, she shook her head before turning her attention back to her phone and resuming her texting.
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(The next morning, Morie didn't have to say a word, what with her unusual good mood doing the speaking for her. No words of congratulations were exchanged, but she could tell that her parents were pleased with the results just from the sheer amount of scrambled eggs stacked up on her plate for breakfast, along with the enthusiastic way her mother ruffled her hair right before she left for work.)
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A/N:
I'm not exactly a fan of the whole 'OC joins cast with no other real-life friends' trope, so enter Ren! Sorry about the textspeak but this is sort of my way of presenting Morie as a teenager, just like the rest of the BNHA cast, I guess? Sometimes she is ridiculously lucky, and other times she isn't.
Here is where I insert another disclaimer: I am not a science student, nor do I take physics, hence it is likely that descriptions of Morie's quirk will be inaccurate in a real-world context. What I can say though, is that the general idea of her quirk resembles Momo's, in the sense where they need to have scientific awareness in order to use their quirk. With that said, there is actually a reason why Morie got fewer rescue points than Uraraka even though they both stopped people from falling, but that will hopefully be touched on later.
So for an announcement, I'm planning to create a side-series of sorts for Selling Daylight, which will feature background information on Rie (in story form), different perspectives, different AU one-shots, random scenes which I never managed to fit in the main story and the like. Hence, my question for you would be: how interested would you be in reading this side-series?
With that said, the short excerpt below is actually me thanking you for a hundred follows- which I honestly didn't expect. Your support means a lot. Thank you.
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(for comic relief, aka shits and giggles you probably will not get.)
"Dang, these gummies are hella good," Kirishima stated abruptly, looking thoughtful for a moment. The good-meaning of the statement,however, caused a mild look of chagrin to flash over her features.
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"Minamoto Morie, at your service." A grin appeared on her lips, filled with mirth from her own silliness. "Add me on Instagram and DM me for commissions," she stated pseudo-seriously, eliciting a snort from the red-haired boy.
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Fuck this shit.
"As much as I relate, you are going to be a hero and that requires plot elements," her father stated, shaking his head.
.
His daughter had always had a bad case of nerves, and a startling low amount self-confidence (maybe he was exaggerating, but that was the impression he got from her awkward behaviour and general jitteriness). When he had confided in his wife, however, she had been fairly unperturbed by the revelation, and instead looked like she knew all along.
("You have to understand," had been her only comment back then. "It's a phase, Chika.")
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Bzzt!
BAEREN: omgomg i made it in
rie: Shiketsu? That's good news
BAEREN: ya
BAEREN: thanks ;;
rie: Good luck dealing with my cousin, he's a handful
BAEREN: lmao he can't be that bad?
rie: hush, you'll know when you see him
BAEREN: lololol
BAEREN: did you get into yuuei, btw?
rie: Yeah.
BAEREN: lololol so proud, my lil baby has grown up! ;;
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Morie sighed heavily, shaking her head as she read through the conversation.
I knew I should have never introduced her to Mystic Messenger.
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