Jigoku Midoriya yawned and stretched, as he and his brother exited the doors of their junior high. Around them the other kids cheered, as they rushed out like an unstoppable river. Though all were careful not to trample either Jigoku, or the green haired boy beside him lost deep in thought. With more than a few of the passing students wishing the pair well over the break, as they headed home. Jigoku gave nods and high fives to a few of the kids he knew best, and returned their good wishes. However, his brother Izuku just stood there, stroking his chin and mumbling inaudibly to himself, oblivious to the farewells being thrown in his direction.

"You know, it's a little unsettling when you go all 'possessed computer' on me bro. What's eatin' you?" After waiting a full five seconds for Izuku to respond, Jigoku sighed before snapping his arm into place around his brothers neck and pulled him into an affectionate headlock.

"GHAA! Jigoku! What the heck?!" Izuku demanded, as Jigoku just laughed.

"Let this be a lesson to you about dropping your guard!" He declared jovially, as he gave his brother a light noogie before releasing him. "Seriously though, what's with the zombie mumbling? Don't tell me what Bakugo said is actually getting to you?" Izuku gave a slightly strained smile as he tried to brush his hair back into place with his fingers. Though in truth, his hair was already so all over the place it hardly seemed to make a difference.

"No, it's not that, or at least, not completely. It's just. . . isn't he right though? I've never heard of anyone without a quirk ever becoming a hero. Let alone attending the most prestigious hero school in the country." Here Izuku gave a self deprecating sigh as he gave Jigoku a weak smile. "I mean, I'm sure you won't have a problem getting in bro, your quirk is the strongest I've ever seen." Jigoku just shook his head.

"Only reason I want to attend UA, is so I can watch you show every asshat in the place that you don't need help from a superpower to be the greatest hero who ever lived. For me, it's all about that sweet sweet moment of 'I told you so'." He declared with a grin. "Don't let Baku-bitch get in your head, he just knows that if you get in, no one will pay any attention to him." Izuku gave a small chuckle at that.

"Thanks bro, I appreciate the vote of confidence. Right now though, I think I just need a little time to work things out. If it's alright with you, I'm gonna take the long way home." Jigoku frowned for an instant, before his expression softened.

"Do what you gotta bro, just know I'm always here if you need me." Izuku nodded, smiling as the two raised their fists and brought them together with an easy familiarity.

"See you when I get home." Izuku declared, as he headed for the road that would take him through the nearby park and into the east side of town. Jigoku watched him until he was almost out of sight, before heading in the opposite direction.

Jigoku didn't quite feel like going straight home yet, instead deciding to hit the bookstores and maybe grab a coffee on the wast side of town. Despite still being pretty much the same punk his brother had pulled out of the gutter nine years ago, Jigoku had picked up a few new habits, one of which was reading. He might look like an inexplicable european member of a japanese street gang, but Jigoku was nearly as well read as his brother. Granted, he tended to like stories that featured a lot of action and suspense, while Izuku was more of a popular mechanics and hero biography/history junkie. Jigoku was also a man who loved coffee and tea, hot, no matter the weather. Because as far as he was concerned, cold coffee and tea were straight up heresy. As a result, he was a common fixture at the nearby cafe's, sipping a latte in his leather jacket while he tore through a small stack of scifi/fantasy action and mystery novels.

Relaxing with a good book was one of Jigoku's two favorite ways to relax, the other being beating the snot out of somebody who'd earned it. Maybe it was for that reason that he always took a shortcut through the 'bad part of town' to get to his favorite hangouts. Granted, that part of town had become a lot quieter these days. Turns out, if you beat the crap out of wannabe thugs enough times, they eventually get sick of it and leave, or at least hide until Jigoku had passed. The back alleys and abandon warehouses seemed particularly quiet today. Which suited him fine, like his bro, he needed some time to think.

Jigoku knew his brother was the stuff of heroes. Izuku exemplified everything Jigoku believed a hero should be. He wasn't some poser like Endevor or Mount Lady, he was the real deal, like Allmight. Unfortunately, Jigoku also knew that the world they lived in was all about the power of quirks. It wasn't that they didn't have a point, there were a lot of quirks that made their users all but immune to conventional weapons, and often the best way to counter them was a stronger quirk, or one that in some way nullified the attacker's quirk. However, Jigoku also knew that good tactics and technology could easily make up the difference too. There were plenty of heroes who's quirks had little battlefield application, Nighteye for example. Jigoku knew his bro didn't need a quirk to be the best, but he also knew it was gonna be an uphill fight without one. Fortunately, Izuku had an ace in the hole, his brother. Jigoku swore he'd use every ounce of his power and guile to see his bro become the next Allmight. Together, they'd show the world that even an ant can topple a mountain!

"Look, I don't want trouble, just leave me alone and let me pass." The surprisingly calm and slightly nasally sounding female voice came from the very ally Jigoku was heading towards. Snapping him out of his thoughts instantly. It seemed he might get a fight today after all, and, if he was lucky, he'd get to do a little flirting on top of making the neighborhood a little friendlier.

"Now come on cutie." Spoke an older sounding male voice, that was about as greasy as an oil spill. "Me and the boys just wanna get to know you." Turning the corner, Jigoku frowned as he took in the scene. Four boys, each of which he would peg as being about seventeen, had surrounded a slightly shorter girl about the same age as he was. The boys were all dressed in the outfit of a local private high school that Jigoku couldn't be bothered to learn the name of, but a few of who's students he'd had dust ups with before. Though none of these jerks looked familiar. They were all pretty athletic looking, and the tallest had nearly half a foot on the girl they were all leering at. As far as Jigoku was concerned that was fine by him. These assholes didn't wanna play fair, neither would he, he decided as he altered his stride to silence his approach.

"Not interested. Now move please." Jigoku had to give it to this girl, she had some real brass balls. Outnumbered, and likely outmuscled, she was standing her ground without a trace of fear. Her voice was steady, her slightly larger than average eyes regarding the taller boy in front of her with a commendable coolness. Her feet were planted firmly, in what Jigoku was fairly sure was a martial arts 'ready' stance. Whoever this girl was, she carried herself like a warrior. The young thugs however, didn't seem to notice the signs, as they started laughing.

"Aww, now don't be like that." The apparent leader drawled, as he placed his hand on the girl's shoulder. "Otherwise you might hurt my-" The girl's movements were so fast that even Jigoku, who considered himself an expert on street brawls, was barely able to follow them.

Grabbing the thug's wrist from off her shoulder, she shot her right foot into the gut of the poor bastard with a flawless snap kick. As he doubled over, she pulled him off balance using his own arm, before twirling. Throwing him into the thug directly behind her with power enough to slam them both into the brick wall of the ally with bone crushing force. Not waiting for the other two to react, the girl fell into a crouch, sweeping her left leg in a three hundred sixty degree circle. Knocking the legs out of the remaining pair of her dumbfounded assailants. Then, as the pair tried to scramble to their feet, she rose up to send her right foot streaking into the side of the head of the one closest to regaining his feet. Jigoku actually winced, as the thug's head snapped to the left with a wet smack, before smashing hard into the pavement.

The last of the older teens was clearly a bit smarter than he appeared. At the sight of all three of his compatriots lying there down for the count, he stopped trying to get up. Holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. Jigoku meanwhile, just stared in spellbound awe. Forget 'warrior', this girl was an artist.

"Ok ok! I give up!" The last of the quatro begged. The girl just looked down at him with oddly neutral expression. Before turning and heading for the end of the ally a still staring Jigoku was occupying. Finally noticing the onlooker to her little skirmish, the girl stopped in front of Jigoku, staring at him with an unreadable expression. Jigoku however, just smiled and started clapping.

"That. . . was one of the finest displays of martial skill I have ever had the privilege to witness." He declared sincerely, before sticking out his hand. "Name's Jigoku Midoriya, it's an honor to meet you." For a moment, the girl stared hard at Jigoku, before looking down at his offered hand, as if trying to decide whether this was a trick or not. Eventually, she seemed satisfied, and gripped Jigoku's proffered limb firmly.

"Tsuyu Ausui. Nice to meet you." She replied, as Jigoku took the opportunity to get a better look at her. She had long dark green, almost black, hair, that fell down well past her waist, and seemed to be prevented from hitting the ground due only to being tied in an elaborate bow behind her back. Her slightly oversized eyes were such a dark green they also almost seemed black, positioned above a slightly flatter than normal nose, while her slightly wider than average mouth bore an expression that was neither a smile nor a frown. She was a few inches shorter than Jigoku, and had a thin but athletically muscled frame. Jigoku also had to put a degree of conscious effort into not letting his eyes linger too long on either her well developed chest, or her very enticing rear. Wearing a simple yellow blouse that stretched down to mid thigh, just barely hiding a pair of black shorts. She, unlike most girls of her and Jigoku's age group, went otherwise unadorned, with no jewelry or makeup to speak of. Every inch of her shining proudly without ostentation.

Put simply, this girl, Tsuyu Ausui, was the most beautiful thing Jigoku had ever seen. The thugs she had just thrashed may have been scumbag perverts, but Jigoku couldn't fault their taste in women at least. Deciding fortune favored the bold, he flashed his most charming, devil-may-care grin.

"So, shot in the dark here, you feel like some coffee? My treat?" Tsuyu, stayed silent for a moment, looking Jigoku up and down with what he felt was a scrutinizing gaze. Hard to tell though, as her expression never changed. Finally though, she seemed to reach a decision.

"Ok."

Tsuyu Ausui was not usually a girl given to impulsiveness. Calm and careful consideration followed by decisive action were her watchwords. And while she had no problem thinking outside the box when the occasion called for it, she never let her emotions get the better of her. So it was with some surprise that she found herself agreeing to coffee with a stranger who she had met in an ally after defending herself from a group of high school thugs. Her surprise was further increased, by the acknowledgment that said stranger dressed like an inner city yakuza enforcer. However the most surprising part of the entire situation, was that, about an hour after getting their drinks, the pair were chatting like they'd know each other all their lives.

"So there I am, sitting on the steps of the school with my bro, arguing about Allmight's quirk. And Bakugo just stomps up and demands a fight." Jigoku Midoriya declared, before taking another sip of his vanilla latte with extra cream, as they walked down the street.

"For no reason?" Asui asked curiously. Jigoku, unable to talk with a mouthful of hot liquid, just shook his head as he swallowed.

"Oh no, he's got reasons, just not good ones. Dude's a real section eight egomaniac. You know that saying that goes 'all the world's a stage'?" He asked, as they wove through the mild, late afternoon foot traffic. Tsuyu nodded.

"Yeah, I know it." Jigoku chuckled as he took another sip of his drink before continuing.

"Well to Baku-bitch, all the world's a one man show. He thinks of the rest of us as worthless extras, unfit to share the stage with his greatness. He treated my brother like shit for years just because my bro tried to help him up after he fell in a stream for christ sake! The guy is a straight up loon." Tsuyu arched an eyebrow at that, finding it hard to imagine anybody being that self absorbed.

"So what did you do?" She asked. Jigoku shrugged.

"I tossed the fucker the apple I was holding as a distraction, punched him in the balls, and declared the fight over." He explained with a shrug. "Honestly, I just wanted to finish my conversation with my bro." Tsuyu suddenly burst out laughing, not something she was used to doing.

All told, she had never met a boy like Jigoku Midoriya. He was the most eclectic mix of crude punk and well rounded intellectual she'd ever encountered. His personality was contradictory, swearing out one side of his mouth while quoting Shakespeare from the other. Tsuyu would have called him crazy, if not for a clearly pronounced pragmatic streak, and an obvious deep love for his family. She'd known him for all of three hours at this point, and he'd made her laugh and smile more in that short time than she could remember doing in the last three months.

"So, I have to ask, you're not Japanese are you? How did you end up with a Japanese name?" Jigoku laughed at that.

"It's a long story, but the short version is, that I came to Japan from America when I was seven years old. My brother and my mother adopted me when I was eight, and I've lived here ever since." Tsuyu arched an eyebrow.

"What's the long version?" She asked, curious. Suddenly the smile vanished from Jigoku's face, and he seemed to become subdued.

"No offense Tsuyu, but we don't quite know each other well enough for the long version of that story." Tsuyu nodded, taking another drink of her coffee.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She stated quietly. Instantly, Jigoku's smile returned.

"Hey nothing to be sorry for, if I'm honest I would like to share that story with you, one day." He declared, as he tossed his empty coffee cup into a nearby trashcan. "Assuming you'd care to make this a regular thing?" He asked with a grin. Placing her index finger on her chin, Tsuyu unconsciously stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she considered his words. Something Jigoku found utterly adorable.

"Well, it's obvious you like getting into trouble. You have a bit of a mouth, you're honestly a little arrogant, and to be frank; I think you have a screw loose." She stated, her voice clinical. Jigoku just grinned.

"Is that a 'yes' then?" He inquired, his grin widening. Tsuyu took a final sip of her coffee before tossing the cup into the trash. Turning to favor Jigoku with a slight smirk.

"Let's say it's a maybe." She replied, as they passed in front of an electronics store. Jigoku laughed.

"Sounds good, I'll. . . take. . . it. . . ." Jigoku suddenly trailed off, his eyes widening and his face paling as he stared at something over Tsuyu's shoulder. "Bro?" He asked unconsciously, his expression becoming twisted by a combination of panic and shock. Turning around, Tsuyu stared at the TV screen on display in the shop window.

The television was tuned to the local news, there was no sound, but the image on the screen showed a young boy with an untidy mop of green hair, clawing away at the body of what appeared to be a mass of motile slime. Tsuyu's eyes widened in horror, the boy in the broadcast appeared to be trying to free another young man with a spiky mass of blond hair from the ooze. The camera trembled slightly as it zoomed in on the pair, revealing the mass of slime to have a face that was currently sneering cruelly down at its blond prisoner's would-be rescuer. As the camera zoomed out it showed a crowd of heroes and police standing impotently in a semicircle a good thirty feet distant from the apparent villain and his prey, all of them apparently frozen in horror.

Shocked beyond words, Tsuyu was utterly unprepared when a blast of burning wind accompanied by a flare of what looked like black and red fire, nearly sent her flying. Recovering swiftly, Tsuyu glanced around, trying to discover what had happened, only to realize that Jigoku, had vanished. . .