"I took the train, I took the call

I didn't know just where I'd fall

Or where it's take me"

Fever Dream by mxmtoon

Aina Suzuki had never wanted to attend a school for heroics. Growing up in a small town with no real crime she had never understood the hype of hero culture. Her parents had moved away from Tokyo before she was born, and never had anything nice to say about heroes. Her mother especially seemed to resent how heroes were often placed on such high pedestals inside the city. So, it hadn't surprised anyone when one day her parents had uprooted and moved to run a small farm, miles away from the city.

Because of this Aina had lived her life surrounded by fields and pastures. The town had a town hall, a library/museum, supply store, and small gas station all sitting on a single intersection with single red light. Because of this isolation Aina had been homeschooled by her mother and spent the rest of her day in the fields helping her father as best as she could with crops.

Her plans for her future had been modest, finish school online and just live a peaceful, quiet life with her parents far away from the noise of city life, and the dangers of hero society, in her middle of nowhere small town. That all changed with the fire happened.

No one knew how it started, but it had devastated her little town. Fields burned, animals either ran off or died in their fields. Of the four buildings only the town hall now stood, only barely, and the few families that lived there felt as if they would never be able to afford to rebuild.

Now Aina's parents had simple quirks, but when her father's green thumb and her mother's healing quirk combined Aina had been born with something much more complicated. It had started when things in their house started to grow uncontrollably. Everything from the house plants her father kept to the mold that had been hiding in their attic, but as Aina's mother worked with her on her school work something became alarmingly evident during their biology labs. Aina's power was far more molecular and complicated, than a simple growing quirk. After having a doctor come and visit Aina they coined the phrase 'nutrient transfer' as her quirk.

It had been her mother's idea to use Aina's quirk to use the burnt, decomposing bodies of livestock to rapidly grow the town's crops. While it had taken multiple days of Aina using her quirk on the fields, eventually it had worked. The small town turned out a full harvest in 2 months, the most profitable harvest they had had in years. Suddenly the idea of rebuilding did not seem so far away.

What had started as a desperate attempt to save her hometown ended in a headline, 'Young Lady Gaia Raises Town from Ashes'. Her parents tried to slow the press attention, but by the time the paper reached them it had been too late. People began to visit their town hall, leaving donations, asking the "Young Lady Gaia" for blessings of all kinds.

While the town had benefitted from all the donations, her parents quickly resented all the newfound attention. It hadn't taken long for them to decide to sell the farm and move to another more remote area. Aina's connection to the property had helped it sell faster, a fact that probably irritated her mother more, and all of that led to Aina to where she was at that exact moment.

The envelope in her hand was made of high-quality paper and sealed with a logo she did not recognize. The big blue UA caused a strange stirring in her gut, or maybe it was the fact that it was addressed specifically to her. She never received mail, had no reason to receive mail. She assumed it was a high school, but she had never applied anywhere, so why would she get a letter?

When she read the enclosed papers, she was even more surprised. It was from a school of heroic's admissions department. A letter saying, she was being accepted on special request for a new, mixed curriculum program, Rescue Hero Specialist. Her whole life, she had never wanted to be a hero, never wanted anything more than the simple life she had.

Aina looked around at the moving boxes surrounding her and thought something that her mother would have dubbed a poisonous thought. 'What good is a quirk if I can't use it to help the people around me?' Her town had needed her help, and the donations in the town hall were proof that other people thought they needed her help too. Her mother had decided it was time for a change, and in that moment, it only took Aina a second to decide that the acceptance letter in her hand was the change she needed.

Of course, her parents were not very happy. Her father, while mildly supportive, remained reluctant to accept his daughter's decision. Her mother on the other hand was adamantly against it, and when the day came only her father went to see her off at the train station. "My little flower, I'm so proud of you, never forget that." He said before leaving her on the platform.

And that was how she found herself on some packed train heading into Musutafu City. She had packed three matching pink and white grided bags; a backpack filled with a mixture of notes and science textbooks, a roller luggage filled with some of her favorite clothes, and a duffle bag that she had carefully filled with some starters of her favorite plants from home.

Nervously her lavender gaze shifted around at the crowd around her as she tucked a shoulder length brown lock behind her ear. She had never seen so many people squeezed into such a small space. She looked down at her oversized, distressed jean overall shorts and the white, short sleeve tee shirt she had on underneath. She had thought they would be comfortable travelling clothes, and that the little potted cactus pouch on the front pocket would have been cute. But what she had deemed as "comfortable travelling clothes" proved to be anything but. The fact that her overalls were rolled up shorts made the bottom of her legs stick uncomfortable to seat of the train, and her outfit made her stick out like a sore thumb in the train cart.

'It'll be okay,' she tried to internally comfort herself, 'the environment may not be super quiet, but no one is intentionally crowding you.' When the train finally stopped at the station, she nervously navigated her way off the train and out into the streets. She looked around at the crowded streets surrounded by buildings as she moved with the stream of people.

'Musutafu City,' she thought, 'I've never seen a place with so much life look so lifeless.' She appraised all the concrete pathways and buildings. For a second, she felt a small ache for her small, country hometown, but quickly she strengthened her resolved. Even if she backed out now, her family had moved. Besides she wasn't sure how she could face her mom after this if she didn't have something to show for her rebellion. She didn't have a home there anymore. She would have to make this work.

She clutched her bags close and began her walk towards UA High School, the school that would be her new normal. The walk had been faster than she initially expected, and soon she found herself in front of a large blue concrete arch. 'How disappointing, more concrete. At least they painted some of it.' She took in the path lined with more arches that lead up to a stairway ending in three doors. Each door was marked with a large golden number marking which point of entry each school year was supposed to take. The courtyard was empty, which she expected seeing as school didn't technically start for another week. She was moving into one of the small, on-campus dorm rooms that the school offered to their non-local students.

Aina took a deep breath as she took in the 4 large glass towers, each connected by what she assumed were glass hallways. 'At least it'll be sunny inside,' she thought as she began her ascent up the stairs to the door marked with the large golden 1. She opened the door to reveal a large entry way, "there you are, I was wondering how long you would keep me waiting." Aina blinked at the short older lady in front of her.

The lady gave off strong grandmother vibes and was wearing a white dress with two orange stripes with yellow outlines going down her sides. The belt may have once kept the outfit in, but Aina suspected it was now mostly for show, like the long white coat that dragged around her on the floor. Her eyes were shut in a squint behind her purple visor, and she leaned lightly on her syringe shaped cane. "Recovery Girl," Aina questioned, that paper had mentioned that she was to report to Recovery Girl upon her arrival, perhaps she had come down to meet her instead.

"That is Recovery Girl Sensei to you, young lady," Recovery Girl sounded extra stern with her reply.

Aina felt the back of her neck flush as she rushed to defend herself, "oh of course, sorry Recovery Girl sensei, formal customs weren't really enforced at my home. I'm not really the best with-"

Aina never finished her defense before Recovery Girl's hardened mask melted away as she began to erupt with laughter, "I'm only kidding dear, we'll be spending a lot of time together, feel free to call me Shuzenji, or just sensei if you wish."

Aina felt a weight lift from her chest. She had been very nervous about coming to UA. Her parents had always drilled that arrogance of pro heroes into her head. Saying they were more celebrities than people, and demanded more respect than the average person, but Recovery Girl, now Shuzenji sensei's, words had offered her some much-needed assurance that perhaps they were wrong about that. "Thank you Shuzenji sensei."

"My pleasure young one, now if you'll follow me, I can give you a brief tour with a smidge of orientation thrown in. Then I can show you to your room. Feel free to leave your bags here, I can have someone take them up to your room for you." Aina blinked as Shuzenji briskly turned to walk away, the sounds of her syringe shaped cane were the only noise that filled the hall. Who was going to take her bags up, there was no one else here? "Well, come along," her new sensei called back snapping her from her thoughts.

"Yes Shuzenji sensei," she called before gently setting her bags down against the wall. She rushed after her sensei all while taking in how high the ceilings were and how strange the street like hallways were. 'It's like the designed it to feel like you were outside,' she thought, a design choice she could appreciate given how much natural light was flooding the spacious halls.

"This is class 1-A, and further down the hall there is 1-B, these are the hero courses. Technically I am your home room teacher, but you'll likely be spending a lot of time with these two classes for combat training. Admittedly you are our first and only mixed curriculum student, but your background demanded a more unique approach than our average student."

"What do you mean Shuzenji sensei?"

"Well, your courses have an emphasis on Disaster Relief and Combat Medic applications. At most school you would just be any other hero student, but your quirk registration suggests that you would benefit from a more broad-spectrum education. So, while you'll be spending time with the hero classes, you'll also spend time with me learning more specialized healing applications for your quirk, as well as with our support students to strengthen your science knowledge, and a few days a month with the management students. In a crisis situation not everyone will be happy to see you, which can often result in a lot of complicated situations that the Management courses can help you eventually navigate. Now, this way is the gym-"

Aina began to space out for the remainder of the tour, only making small mental notes of key locations. It was a lot to take in considering she had never attended a brick-and-mortar school, let alone one of this size. As they were walking down a hall Aina paused catching sight of an overgrown green patch outside of the school. 'Even in a concrete jungle there are still rarely touched patched of green,' she found it relieving in a way, 'maybe if those small patches of green can thrive in this city I can too.'

Author's note: Had to delete this and repost it because of a formatting error, sorry if you're having a strange sense of déjà vu. Anyways welcome to my new story! I don't have a beta reader so I'm sorry for any grammatical errors, I'll fix them when I see them/know about them. Hope you enjoy.