Chapter Two

Battle Lines

The next morning, Nomi kept her eye peeled for any sign of the half-burned man she had seen at Tatooin Station the day before. Surprisingly, she had been punctual that morning, and she leaned against one of the bike racks outside the station and sipped from the canned coffee she had grabbed on the way while waiting for her friends.

As people streamed around her, she couldn't help hoping for a glimpse of purple skin or piercings. She didn't know why she even wanted to see the man again—she hadn't exactly been eloquent before, and she had no idea what to even say to him otherwise if he happened to reappear. He intrigued her, but as she drank her coffee and checked her phone, she could already feel that intrigue slipping away like sand through her fingers. She couldn't even remember the precise color his eyes had been, he had been gone so fast.

"You're on time!" Senzo cheered as he exited the station with Tae and Sanda behind him.

"For once," Sanda remarked, her nose in the air. "It's not as if you don't live only a few blocks away."

Nomi ignored her.

"Morning!" She lifted her coffee can in greeting. "How was the ride?"

"Stuffy," Tae said as they all fell into step together, pushing their way down the sidewalk. "There're always so many people. And I'm pretty sure some creep tried to look up my skirt…"

Nomi wrinkled her nose. "Ew. You should've punched him in the balls."

Tae shrugged. "He quit when he saw Senzo, and we moved to a different part. Good riddance."

"So, how was Aizawa, Nomi?" Senzo said when he heard his name crop up. He grinned. "Did he make you run until you passed out again?"

She repressed that memory with a shudder. "No, but he came close. And he's rolling over all my tardy marks from last year."

"But how was your new class?" Tae asked, excited. "Are they fun? Cooler than us? What are their Quirks like? Any cute boys?"

Nomi sipped from her coffee and thought for a moment.

"They're weird," she decided. "I don't know much about them yet, but they seem all right." She remembered the angry Bakugo boy from before and grimaced. "Well, most of them. A lot of powerful Quirks, too." She smirked. "So, they might be a bit cooler than you guys."

"Rude!" Tae exclaimed with a laugh. She bounced on the balls of her feet while Nomi distinctly heard Sanda sniff in displeasure. "But the boys! You didn't answer! Are they cute?"

Nomi scratched under her eyepatch. "I guess? I haven't gotten a good look at all of them yet. I was too busy with the Quirk assessment." When Tae looked put-out, Nomi sighed. "I walked one to Recovery Girl's office, though. He seemed kind of plain, but in a cute way, maybe."

"Ooh!" She clapped her hands. "What does he look like? What's his name?"

Nomi thought back to the day before, trying to remember the Deku boy's real name. "Uh, Midoriya. I can't remember his first name. Curly hair, freckles. His shoes were red."

"Eyes?" Tae demanded.

"Green."

She sighed. "Oh, he sounds adorable. You'll have to introduce me someday."

Nomi exchanged a look with Senzo. "Uh, yeah. Sure." She turned back to the burly boy walking behind them. "What about you guys? What's the second-year course like?"

She listened with some bitterness as Senzo and Tae launched into a play-by-play of their first day, but she kept her pleasant smile through it all. It pained her to admit, but it hurt to hear about her friends moving on without her—moving ahead while she was held back.

It's your fault, she reminded herself as she chugged the rest of her coffee. If you hadn't held yourself back at the last second, you'd still be with your friends.

They arrived at U.A. early enough that not even Nomi could be tardy if she tried. After bidding Senzo and Tae goodbye and ignoring Sanda, she shuffled to the 1-A classroom, trying to force down that well of bitterness that had opened inside of her on the walk to school. She would pass the hero course this time around. She had to, or else everything she'd done for the past two years would be wasted.

She entered the classroom and headed for her seat in the last row, where it was shoved unceremoniously into the corner and jutted out like a sore thumb as the obvious extra desk. There weren't many people in the classroom yet, but the two boys who sat in front of her in her row were there, one being an extremely short kid with purply balls for hair, while in front of him was the one she had escorted to Recovery Girl, Midoriya.

Seeing Midoriya reminded her of their conversation while walking to the nurse's office, and with a sudden pivot, she plopped herself onto his desk where he was meticulously laying out all his supplies.

"Hey," she said, and he jumped in his seat a bit. He glanced up at her with wide eyes, startled, and she smiled. "Midoriya, right?"

Behind him, the purple kid was muttering something that sounded like "T-th-thighs, a girl's thighs" but Nomi kept her eye on the boy whose desk she was perched on.

"Y-yes, that's right," he said, his cheeks flaring pink. "And you're Katsuragi?"

"Call me Nomi," she said with a shrug. "I just wanted to apologize for yesterday. You were only being curious about my Quirk, and I blew you off, so, sorry for that."

"Oh." He sounded relieved. "That's all right. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

She shrugged again. "Not your fault. This is a school for kids with Quirks, after all. I shouldn't feel weird for talking about my own."

She smiled, and Midoriya shyly grinned back. She opened her mouth to say more before another voice cut in.

"Oi." Bakugo stood in front of her, his bag slung over his shoulder. He glared at her with narrow crimson eyes. "Your legs are blocking my chair. Move them."

"You have plenty of room to sit," she pointed out. "I'll move when the bell rings. Sorry."

His crimson eyes flashed. Behind her, Midoriya began to sputter. "Uh—er—um—"

Nomi held Bakugo's glare. She really wasn't in his way at all, but she certainly wasn't going to let him bully her like he seemed to enjoy doing to the boy behind her, if yesterday had been any indication.

Neither of them moved a muscle until the tall boy with glasses she had spoken to during the Quirk test hustled over, gesticulating with his arms wildly.

"Excuse me!" he said in a pompous voice. "There is no need for pointless conflict! And these sacred desks that were once used by our esteemed upperclassmen and alumni are not chairs, Katsuragi! You should refrain from sitting on them immediately!"

She shrugged. "Okay." She hopped off Midoriya's desk, ignoring the tall boy's lecture about school property and respect and Bakugo's irritated expression as she spoke to Midoriya. "Talk to you later, Midoriya."

He stammered a good-bye while she went to her seat, ignoring the small boy in front of her and what looked like a puddle of drool on his desk. As she sat down and took out her supplies, she realized that her assessment to Tae that morning was entirely correct.

Class 1-A was so, so weird.

Name: Senzo Watase

Age: 16

Quirk: Aftermath – Absorbs Quirk-attacks and can then use those attacks against his opponent at double their strength. He can only use one attack at a time. Does not work on Heteromorphic/Mutant-type Quirks.

Birthday: 2/22

Blood Type: O

Height: 193 cm

Likes: Girl bands, wrestling

"I am here, coming through the door like a normal person!"

Nomi sat straighter in her seat, her post-lunch weariness forgotten at the sound of the confident voice. She'd heard the rumors before, of All Might coming to teach at U.A., but she hadn't gotten her hopes up. Yet now…

The Number One Hero burst through the classroom door, his blue-and-red cape billowing behind him in some invisible breeze. A few seats in front of her, Midoriya looked like he'd been zapped by lightning, and Nomi heard him say in awe, "He's dressed in his Silver Age costume!"

The costume did look a bit outdated, in Nomi's opinion, but as All Might stood before them, tall and proud and flashing his familiar blinding smile, his fashion choices were all but irrelevant when she realized that she was faced with the Symbol of Peace and Justice himself.

Under her desk, she pinched her arm as Aizawa trailed after All Might, looking bored and exhausted as usual. The sharp sting of her nails on her flesh was enough to tell her that she was, in fact, not dreaming.

All Might, she thought, starstruck, as the rest of the class murmured excitedly around her. It's really him. I get to be taught by the All Might.

"Hero Basic Training!" All Might announced in his booming voice. He grinned out at them with sparkling white teeth. "The class that'll put you through all sorts of special training to mold you into heroes! Today, we'll be doing battle training! And for that, you'll need these!"

Along the left wall, closest to Nomi, emerged multiple shelves with numbered briefcases lined up in neat rows. Her eyes snagged on number 21, her new class number. She'd been number 10 the year before. Her excitement grew until Aizawa stepped in with his monotone voice.

"Everyone will change into their costumes and then report to Ground Beta with All Might," he said. His bloodshot eyes locked on to Nomi. "Everyone but you, Katsuragi. You're to train one-on-one with me."

She jumped out of her seat, incredulous. "What?"

"HA-HA! Not to worry, young Katsuragi!" All Might said. Nomi's eye widened when All Might said her name. All Might knows my name! (Well, Aizawa had said it first, but still.) "This is only temporary! I'm sure you'll be reunited with the rest of the class soon!"

She stared at Aizawa, pleading with her gaze, but he only stared back, unimpressed. The others were giving her sideways looks, so it was with some difficulty that she nodded and sat down again, her face hot.

After receiving a few more instructions, All Might departed for Ground Beta, and there was a flurry of movement around her as everyone rushed to grab their costumes.

"Katsuragi," Aizawa said as she followed much more slowly. "Once you're changed, report to Gym Delta. I'll be waiting for you there."

"Yes, sir," she said, dejected. She took her costume and headed to the changing rooms with the other girls, who babbled on and on about how much they looked forward to learning from All Might and speculating what their lesson would consist of.

Nomi tuned them out as she slipped into her costume, the familiar material sliding into place like a second skin. She pulled on her gloves and boots before securing her tactical belt at her hips. Quickly, keeping her demon eye closed, she removed her eyepatch and swapped it for the simple black eye mask she'd gotten customized for her costume. It hid both of her eyes from anyone looking directly at her while she could see clearly out of it, like a one-way mirror. The support company's design had been ingenious, in her opinion (especially since she had only given them the vague instructions Please hide my eyes while giving me the option to still use my right eye for my Quirk); the mask was also retractable, with secret points on her suit she could tap to remove it if she could not do so manually herself in order to use her Quirk.

"Ooh, Katsuragi, I like your color scheme!"

She turned away from her locker, surprised to see the pink-haired and pink-skinned girl from the day before, Mina Ashido, standing behind her. She wore a sleeveless bodysuit in a turquoise-and-purple camouflage pattern that almost hurt Nomi's eyes to look at and a fur-lined waistcoat that she left unbuttoned. A white mask similar to Nomi's sat around her eyes, though the black sclera and yellow irises were uncovered.

"Oh, thank you," Nomi said, shutting her locker. "I like yours, too, Mina."

"Bright, right?" she said excitedly. "I wanted to stand out! But black and red look so cool, especially with the way you have yours alternating like that!"

She pointed to Nomi's costume, where, indeed, her suit alternated between black and red, with her right arm, the right side of her chest, and her left leg covered with black, and her left arm, the left side of her chest, and her right leg covered with red.

Before Nomi could say anything, the other girl was already continuing her chatter, and she just listened, amused, forcibly reminded of Tae.

"It sucks that you don't get to train with us today," Mina was saying, garnering the attention of the other girls as they finished changing. "I wanted to see what your Quirk was!"

"I think one-on-one training with Aizawa Sensei is an honor," another girl said. Her long black hair was up in a spiky ponytail, and her red costume was both sleeveless and legless, with a utility belt of some sorts around her waist. "Training individually with a pro hero is sure to be beneficial, if not more so than the battle training that we'll be doing with All Might Sensei."

Nomi sighed, rubbing her face. "You say that, but Aizawa's a terror. You only got a taste of him yesterday."

"He's intimidating," the girl with the round face said. She carried a pink helmet with a matching visor under her arm that went with her pink-and-navy costume and puffy pink boots. She cringed under the other girls' stares. "What? I'm sure he's a great hero, but he was scary yesterday!"

"Totally," said another girl who was entirely invisible. Nomi wouldn't even have known she was there if it weren't for the random gloves and boots that seemed to be just floating in midair. "Is he always like that, or is he just acting that way to throw us off or something?"

"No, he's always like that," Nomi said without hesitation.

"Well, anyway," Ponytail Girl said with a sympathetic glance toward Nomi, "we should all get going before we're late."

The other girls filed out of the changing rooms, wishing Nomi good luck that she returned as she walked in the opposite direction from the battlegrounds and toward the gyms. It was a short jaunt that only took about six minutes, but when she arrived, Aizawa looked at her like she'd taken over an hour.

"Let's go," he said, motioning her into the gym.

She'd only been in Gym Delta once, the year before, but out of all the gyms, it was the one that looked the most normal, like it belonged to a regular public high school rather than a top hero academy. The fluorescents buzzed overhead, gleaming off the polished plank floors that squeaked whenever her boots scuffed the surface.

"Why are you here, Katsuragi?" Aizawa said, shuffling up to her with his hands in the pockets of his dark green jumpsuit.

She blinked. "Because we're having one-on-one training—ACK!"

She rubbed the back of her head where one of the wrappings around his neck had darted out and smacked her.

"Why are you here, Katsuragi?" he repeated.

She sighed. "Because I failed and got held back, right? I'm guessing this is one of my remedial lessons?"

He nodded. "I want you to be able to work with your new classmates using your Quirk and theirs, but first, you have to get your own Quirk under control." He fixed her with a pointed glare. "A control I helped you cultivate last year before you got scared and let all of that hard work go to waste."

She hung her head. "I know."

"If you know, then why did you let it slip away?" he asked—not cruelly, but she still flinched. He jerked his chin. "Your classmates out there aren't scared of their Quirks. That's why they're there and you're here. Do you think you'd be able to help them in any way during battle training? Or would you just be a hindrance to them?"

She hated lessons with Aizawa. "I'd be a hindrance."

His face softened ever so slightly, and she wondered if she was hallucinating. "Last year, we built up your endurance to withstand sustained attacks while training your eye not to blink during such occurrences. But during your final, you chose not to use your Quirk at all, and you failed. That's how you got here."

"So, we're doing close-combat training again?" she asked hopefully.

"No." She watched, shocked, when he simply sat on the floor, crossing his legs. "Sit. We're going to have a discussion."

"In the gym?" she said, but she followed his instructions, nonetheless.

"Yes." His eyes zeroed in on her. "Why did you not use your Quirk during the final test?"

She shifted on the floor, already uncomfortable. "I…don't know."

"You do. You're just not telling me," he said, his voice stern.

She kept her gaze on her lap. "I swore to myself that I would never use my Quirk on a friend. Only criminals or villains." Her teeth tugged at her bottom lip. "I got by during training with my combat skills alone. But during that test, when we were forced into mock battles with our own classmates…I couldn't do it. I couldn't use my Quirk on my classmate."

"And so you forfeited the match, preferring to receive a zero rather than use your Quirk." He stared at her. "I understand why you would hesitate, Katsuragi, but the world is not just heroes versus villains. One day you may have to use your Quirk on a friend, or a civilian, or someone deemed innocent if you continue on the path to becoming a pro hero. That is what we here at U.A. try to instill in all of our students."

"I know," she whispered.

He studied her for a long moment.

"You told me once that you were born cursed," he said. "If that's true, then all of us with Quirks were born that way. Just because your Quirk feeds off fear does not make you more cursed than the rest of us."

Her hands fisted in her lap. "You don't understand. You erase people's Quirks. You don't have to hear them scream in terror because of the things you're forcing them to see." She shut her eyes. "I've always wanted to be a hero. I thought I could still be one if I swore to myself that only evil would ever be faced with my Quirk, but now—"

"But now nothing," Aizawa cut in. His eyes had narrowed at her, his arms crossed. "You're here to be a hero. You have your second chance. So be a hero or leave."

"I know it sounds that simple when you step back and look at it," she argued. "But nothing is ever that simple."

"Then adapt," he said. "No matter the Quirk, it's still a physical part of you. It's a muscle that needs training. Your Quirk just needs to be trained differently from how we've been training it."

"By training it to utilize other emotions than fear," she said skeptically.

"Would you rather try and know, or give up now and never know?" he countered.

She cracked a grin. "How long have you been practicing that one, sir?"

Her only answer was another slap to the back of her head.

Name: Chizuru Sanda

Age: 16

Quirk: Energy Projection – Generates blasts of energy from her body that can be used in a variety of ways. Works best in daylight or brightly lit areas.

Birthday: 10/26

Blood Type: B

Height: 165 cm

Likes: Sports cars, the beach

Aizawa's training lasted until well after the school day had ended and the campus had emptied. When Nomi pointed this out to him, she only received a blasé "Oh, well" in response and another slap to the back of the head for "being impertinent."

"Get changed and go home," Aizawa told her after putting some eyedrops in his eyes and grimacing. They stood outside the gym in the late afternoon sunlight, Nomi sweating and exhausted while he was as unbothered as ever. "Our lessons won't be daily, but I'll pull you aside whenever I deem it necessary."

She had nothing to say to that. Her head was throbbing, her demon eye pulsing right along with it. Aizawa hadn't told her to test out any "new emotions" that day, but to try and see if she could keep her Quirk from working altogether. She had failed utterly at the task; fortunately, Aizawa was always able to erase her Quirk before it could affect him too much. Not having someone screaming in horror when presented with her Quirk was a nice change of pace, but she still remembered her teacher's wince when she had first unveiled her eye. It made her sick to her stomach.

"Katsuragi."

She looked up at Aizawa, her mask back in place. He put his hands in his pockets and sighed. "Never mind. Go home. Rest up. I'll see you tomorrow."

He shuffled off then, toward the western side of the campus, while she went east, back to the changing rooms. Her feet dragged and her shoulders were stiff, but it was a relief to get out of her costume and back into her uniform. She wondered what Aizawa had been going to say as she headed to the classroom to collect the rest of her things, chewing on a hangnail and so lost in her thoughts that she only noticed another person standing in front of the door when she nearly mowed them down.

"Midoriya!" she said, surprised. "Hey—oh, you're hurt."

The green-haired boy looked significantly worse off than he had that afternoon before battle training with All Might. He was still dressed in his costume—some sort of green jumpsuit that looked homemade—but it appeared burnt, with his right arm in a sling and his left wrapped in bandages up to his bicep. His freckled face still had scrapes and bruises, but they seemed like they were healing thanks to the efforts of Recovery Girl, where he had obviously been.

Nomi reached out and grabbed his chin before he could say anything. He only let out a squeak as she swiveled his head from side to side.

"Jeez, Aizawa wasn't kidding about the nurse thing, huh?" she said. She stepped back and shook her head. "What even happened? Battle training is intense, but not…"

She gestured to him, and he grimaced.

"Um…"

The door slid open then, cutting off whatever he was about to say as a familiar head of spiky red hair poked out.

"Hey, I thought I heard voices!" Kirishima said. He bared his pointed teeth in an excited grin. "Midoriya, Katsuragi, welcome back!"

"Did everyone stay?" Nomi asked as she and Midoriya entered the classroom to find it filled with their classmates.

"Pretty much," Kirishima said as Mina and another boy with thick lips rushed over to them. "Everyone except that Bakugo guy—"

"Nice dodging during the battle training, Midoriya!" Mina gushed, speaking over Kirishima.

"Yeah, we were all super pumped after that crazy first round," said the other boy, who Nomi vaguely remembered had the family name Sato.

"Deku, your arm!" the girl with the round face cried. "Did you get it healed?"

"Uh, not quite," Midoriya said. He shifted toward the door. "I'm pretty worn out, so, um, Uraraka, sorry, I have to…"

He bolted from the classroom, leaving everyone in a brief moment of confusion before Mina spoke again.

"What was that about?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I think it had to do with Bakugo," the girl Uraraka said. She looked worriedly at the door where Midoriya had disappeared. "I'm still not sure what happened between them, but Bakugo was really determined to fight Deku during the training."

"Wait," Nomi said, "that Bakugo kid did that to Midoriya?"

"Not all of it," Kirishima said, though he, too, looked slightly concerned. "Midoriya used his Quirk, and—well, you've seen how it hurts him. But yeah, Bakugo really, uh, toed the line when he was fighting Midoriya one-on-one. All Might Sensei was about to call it off entirely until Uraraka and Midoriya managed to secure the fake weapon from Bakugo and Iida."

"Who's Iida?" Nomi said blankly.

The tall boy with the glasses and mechanical arm movements who had yelled at her earlier about sitting on the desks looked up with a huff from across the room.

"I am Iida!" he said, waving his arm at her. "Tenya Iida! Now, Tokoyami, the desks should not be used as chairs—"

"Anyway," Mina said, bouncing up to Nomi, "how was your training with Aizawa Sensei, Nomi?"

"Brutal," she said truthfully. She rubbed at her eyepatch. "My head and my eye are killing me."

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me," Kirishima said, turning to her quizzically. "What's your Quirk?"

She stifled a sigh. "Demon Eye. When I look at someone, my eye shows them their worst fear."

"Scary," Mina said, cocking her head.

"That sounds awesome," Kirishima said. He leaned closer to her. "Can you try it on me? I don't even know what my worst fear is, honestly."

"Um, no, sorry," she said, backing away a step. Her conversation with Aizawa rang in her head, but she shoved it away. "I don't think I'm comfortable with that."

To her relief, he only shrugged. "All right. Hey, no worries. Do you know what my Quirk is?"

Mina cupped her hand and stage-whispered to Nomi. "He just wants to show off."

"Hey!" Kirishima complained. "So what if I do?"

"Do it later," Mina said, looping her arm through Nomi's. "We should all go get food together! What do you think, Nomi? You can tell us all about the hero course, too!"

The remaining students crowded around, voicing their agreement with Mina's plan and already asking Nomi about what they could expect from their first year. It was odd, being in the spotlight in such a way that stemmed from genuine curiosity and not fear, that she allowed herself to be pulled along by Mina to a ramen shop down the street, the rest of Class 1-A minus Midoriya and Bakugo right behind them.

"I want you to think positively about your future, Nomi," her counselor had told her. "Even if it's only for a moment."

And for that moment, as she sat around a crowded table with her new classmates, Nomi let herself believe in that future once more.