Summer break also came and went, as time does. With my running getting more serious, I was in the best shape of my life. But my mom was upset with me.

"You always said you didn't want to be a hero. What changed?" Mom asked.

"I did."

I asked my dad to help me train when he got off of work. He was so excited when I told him where I'd applied. He spent his nights looking up training tips and hero fun facts.

"We have ten months until the entrance exam," I said.

"Better get cracking. Should we work with Karma today?"

I nodded. He pushed his glasses up and we went outside together. My mom watched from outside the sliding glass door, her arms crossed and brows furrowed.

"Okay, what should I do?"

I thought for a moment. "What I need to be able to do is release my stored karmic energy when I want to."

He nodded. "Right. Otherwise, you wouldn't have a consistent attack. And you could explode at the worst moment."

It'd happened before in class. Little taps didn't usually set me off, unless it had been awhile since I'd exploded. Mostly I just had to watch out for fly balls in PE.

"So," I hummed. "Attack me?"

"Wait!" I hadn't noticed Mom step outside and onto the patio. "Are you serious? Kentaro, if you just attack her until she blows up, you'll get hurt yourself. She can't control it."

Dad blushed. "Right, so…"

Mom sighed. "She needs to start off by herself, then move on to the finer details."

And then she drove us to a gym downtown.

"Here." She set up a boxing dummy. "Beat that up, Hotaru."

I did. My parents laughed at me.

"What?"

"Nothing," Mom said, covering her mouth with her hand. "You just don't look like you know how to fight."

"That's because I don't," I deadpanned. "That's why we're here."

The next punch, I felt the energy inside of me swirl. Grinning, I swung once more, and a beam of gold shot from my hand at impact. It usually exploded from whichever part of my body it hit like that.

"That was a lot of swings," my dad commented. "I'm worried that you'll have to take a few hits to really fight back. And well, you still take the damage."

"It's going to be difficult to work around," Mom nodded. "But for now, just work on holding back when you're about to blow. Then we can move on to training with others."

Midorya was going through a change of his own. It was evident in the bags under his eyes, in the sudden muscles he put on. He went from scrawny to toned over the break. Seven months into the year, he was ripped. His quirk must have awakened, I thought, but wondered why he would hide it. It would give Bakugou a heart attack for sure, and we all wanted to see that.

I had put some muscle on myself. I could carry my dad down the street and back. Heroes needed to carry people larger than them for evacuation purposes. They couldn't afford to be slowed down.

My biggest change was with my quirk, however. My dad didn't know anything about fighting, but neither did most villains. Either way, there had been two things I had been able to learn. The first was to hold back the karmic energy past my previous threshold. That was what I had worked on first, so no one would get hurt around me.

The second thing was letting it out before the threshold.

"There," Mom said, looking at dad's beat up hand as he iced it. "Now you don't have to rack up so many hits before you can fight back."

It was true—but my power still relied on others to work. I still couldn't send anything out at the first few hits, and even if I did, I only shot out what I had taken. Plus, I couldn't hit under the threshold unless I was the one being attacked. I just didn't have the hang of the gathering energy bit.

And, as my mom pointed out, I was entirely vulnerable to sharp objects. They had too little karmic energy and did too much damage to my body to rack up a couple of punches.

"Since your quirk is more of a countermeasure, you're at a huge disadvantage," Dad noted. "You'll be a sitting duck until they attack you. And your success depends on their power type as well."

There was so much to worry about out of school that I didn't have time for friends. Reiko stopped inviting me out. I went straight home every day and worked out or worked on my quirk.

"Hotaru," Mom frowned. "You need to eat more. You're using a lot of energy."

"Yes, Mom."

And time went on.

I breathed, trying to settle my nerves. UA was a huge school, with crazy funds, and it showed. It was practically an amalgamation of skyscrapers. There was a lot of money in heroes, and in Japan, just as much in education. The front entrance was ornamented with the official UA emblem.

My dad would totally freak.

I headed toward the stairs.

"You've got to be kidding me." All my excitement, crushed under a sudden wave of annoyance. "What are you doing here, Chubby?"

I turned to see none other than Bakugou headed in the same direction. Well. It wasn't like I didn't know he was going to be here. I had just hoped to avoid him.

"I'm taking the entrance exam, same as you." I scowled. "And you can't call me that. I'm not chubby anymore."

"Heh," he scoffed. "Just don't get in my way." He moved to walk past me, which was annoying, but I let him. He would probably freak out and accuse me of trying to get him to follow me.

First was the exam orientation, so I stepped into a darkened presentation room behind Bakugou. There, we were given seating charts.

"Perfect," I groaned, realizing they were organized by middle schools. That meant I sat beside Bakugou. I showed him the paper.

"Whatever."

We found our seats. I was honestly surprised at how chill he was acting. Was he actually nervous for the exam?

I knew I was, but I was used to putting up a front. Compartmentalizing, my mom called it. I was a pro secret keeper. My whole existence demanded it.

Soon after, a familiar face took the open spot on Bakugou's other side.

"Kacchan, Hotaru-chan."

I grinned. "Hey. You ready?"

Midoriya nodded, giving a nervous smile.

Present Mic started then, so we didn't have time to catch up. As it turned out, he explained, we were all assigned our testing arenas for the practical exam on the paper we were given.

"I get it," Bakugou said. "They're splitting us up so we can't work with our friends."

I checked my paper—Battle Center C. "That explains why we're organized by schools."

"You're right." Midoriya laid down his card beside Bakugou's. "Our ID numbers are sequential, but we're all in different Centers."

A vein appeared on Bakugou's forehead. "Get your eyes off my paper, Deku."

"Sorry."

"I was really looking forward to crushing you," the blond muttered.

With the challenge in mind—beat the robots, get the points—I stood with the others.

"Good luck," I waved, splitting off from the boys. Midoriya waved back and Bakugou glared daggers.

I wished his looks added to my energy supply. Sadly, intent without action didn't give me anything to work with. Besides, Dad had helped me stock up on karma before I got here. Bakugou would probably set it all off with a single attack.

I had to do some map reading to find my way to the right battle center, but it was easy to find the crowd of people waiting to be let inside.

Once we were, it was ready, set, go.

I was grateful for the modern setting, if only because it gave me great leverage and hiding spots. But it was also set up similar to a maze, and it slowed others down. This was where premonition gave me an advantage.

I dashed around the corner, ready to take a right, but as soon as I made the decision, my stomach pouted. Left, then. I sprinted forward, the pain gone, and got a one up on the other examinees who didn't have speed boosting quirks.

Finding the robots was half the battle.

I ducked into an alley, but then heard a scream. Bursting through the other end, I saw a girl with green hair made of vines being overwhelmed by a group of bots. Her vines couldn't break through the metal armor, I realized, and she was running out of strands to immobilize them. She didn't have a great quirk for fighting these robots.

I would have loved to swoop in and take all those kills, but there were too many for me to take on, considering I only had one shot. But I didn't feel right just leaving that girl alone to get overwhelmed.

I closed my eyes, deciding to take her down the alleyway opposite me.

My stomach tensed. No? Back the way I had come, then. Not there either? I looked around, but those were my only two options.

Then I spotted a crack in the building behind her. The pain ebbed, and I dashed toward her.

She didn't see me until I was right in front of her. I grabbed her arm. "Follow me!"

She nodded, releasing her hair until it was a normal length. I helped her jump from a pile of rubble just as a level three swung at her previous spot. The force of the blow threw my hair into my face.

Just as I had thought, the crack turned into a hole in the base of the building. I motioned her first, and she slipped inside, feet first. We were just the right size to fit.

We dropped to the ground, the girl using her quirk to lower us in case the distance was too far. We were in the basement, I realized.

"Thanks," she said. "I was in a tight spot."

I nodded. "I think there are stairs over here."

I yelped as my stomach woke up. "Nevermind. This way, actually."

Once we were on the ground floor, we agreed to split up so as not to steal each other's targets.

"See you on the other side." She used her hair to propel her whole body over the huge piles of debris.

But then premonition led me onto the upper levels of the buildings—no one else was inside, I noticed, because our targets weren't.

But a boulder teetering on the edge of an already busted building had a lot of karmic energy, especially when a group of three robots was cornered below it. I used my whole body to push, premonition tightening and then releasing inside of me when it was the right time.

I peered over through the hole, where two examinees glared at me. "Hey! Those were ours!"

Not according to my quirk. I ducked out of sight so they wouldn't get too good a chance to remember my face. Hopefully they didn't pass and I wouldn't have to worry about hard feelings.

I couldn't be in one place for too long. We had moving targets in this race.

My quirk next took me into an area that hadn't been explored or damaged yet. Moments later, a slew of one point robots pursued me around the corner, firing a small explosive. It missed me, probably because they were programmed not to actually hit their targets, but I went flying all the same.

My side slammed into the pavement, bruising my hip. I rolled over, yelping when the robots were already on top of me. I stuck out my arm to swing.

Not yet.

My stomach pulled until I was breathless, and I just barely managed to roll away before I was crushed. I wouldn't have recovered from that type of injury. Plus, I was way past the threshold at this point.

I was desperate to unleash a karmic blast, by my stomach still curled in on itself. I doubled over, my hip sore as well, as they closed in.

Now?

No.

Now?

Now.

My quirk relented, and I shot up unexpectedly, pain free, arms out as the robot pushed forward. It rolled into them.

Gold shot out, and then a series of explosions as one created a chain reaction.

I breathed heavily, checking the results as the dust settled.

Woah.

There had been two three-point bots and one two-point bot mixed in with the seven one points I had been targeting.

Thank you, Karma!

Soon after, the ground started to shake. An earthquake?

I looked around, spotting a group of buildings tipping over toward the center of the arena. Then a giant robot head peaked out from over the skyline.

Holy shit.

It was huge. And that was a zero pointer? I was expecting them to be an obstacle like hurdles on a track, not Godzilla in Tokyo.

I chose to run away from it and back toward the entrance, since our time was running out anyway. No pain occurred as I fled. I didn't need my quirk to tell me it was the right decision—once I used a blast, there was no holding onto increments. I had to stock up again. Besides, it was zero points. There was no reason to take it out.

Anyway, the horns blew before I would have made it. Time was up.

I hadn't been able to catch the first three robots I had crushed, so I had no idea what my score was. I had at least eighteen points. But I was so far away from other examinees that I couldn't compare my score to theirs. I hoped it was enough.

My dad was so excited to get the letter in the mail a week after. He was like a fanboy, jumping up and down.

"Open it with me," I said, handing him one corner.

"Hanako," he called. My mom came running down the hall from the bathroom, her toothbrush in hand.

We opened it together.

A projector fell out, and it started as soon as we set it on a stable surface.

"That's All Might," Dad gasped. "That's a good sign, right? They wouldn't have him do this for all the applicants. Maybe just those who passed?"

I hoped so.

The number one hero went on to explain the point system. "Ryuuzaki Hotaru. Congratulations, young lady. With twenty-four combat points and forty rescue points, you've earned your spot at UA."

I cheered. My parents cried.

It was a good day.

The next day at school could have been better.

Our sensei called me, Midoriya, and Bakugou into his office to congratulate us. "Seriously, kids. I'm so impressed. To have not one, but three of my students going to UA?"

I glanced over at Bakugou, who remained stoic for now. But I knew deep down he was about to boil over.

And as soon as we got away and outside, I was right. Midoriya had been expecting it too, he was such a nervous wreck.

"So, what'd you guys do to cheat?"

"Excuse me?" I turned on him.

Bakugou scowled so deeply I thought he might cut himself with his teeth. "Listen, losers, I was supposed to be the first and only student to go to UA from this school." He glared at Midoriya particularly hard. "And I warned you not to apply."

"That's a pretty meaningless achievement, if you got it because we didn't apply." I crossed my arms. "I think you're just a sore loser."

"Hotaru-chan." Midoriya shook his head. I realized he was trying to be empathic to Bakugou, who was hurt because we took something from him.

Except, we didn't really. He was the only person in the world who cared he was the only person from this school to go. I rolled my eyes. There's such a thing as being too much of a saint, Midoriya.

"Whatever," Bakugou hissed. "Just know, I'm gonna enjoy wrecking the two of you there. You're gonna wish you'd never been born."

All of my problems would be solved if I hadn't been born—that is, Deku wouldn't have died. But I didn't say that.

Bakugou took off, leaving the two of us stunned.

"Why do you bother being nice to him?" I frowned. "He's nothing but awful to everyone. Especially to you."

Midoriya shook his head. "I've known Kacchan for a long time. He's a really amazing person, you know?"

"He's a bully," I said. "What kind of hero does that make him?"

He shrugged.

I realize I've used the word explosion to describe Hotaru's release of karmic energy, but I want to clarify that it's not the Bakugou kind of explosion. It's an unleash of golden energy, so it's not going to start a fire or anything. Her ability to use it makes her uncannily lucky, as her mutated cells basically read the karmic energy of actions as they play out, (since part of the idea of karma is that the future is influenced by an individual's intent and actions). It's not a solid future like Nighteye's, but more of an inertia/potential kinetic energy. That's how I see it, at least. Maybe that doesn't make any sense.

Thank you for reading!