Introduction: Elena Haiba
Elena is a first year, and today is her first day at UA High School where she is transferring into the Hero Course, Class 1-A.
Her quirk is Empathy, the ability to feel and alter the emotions of people around her.
Her mother was a psychologist, and Elena had always dreamed of using her Quirk to help others in the same way that her mother did. Then her mom got sick. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Having already lost her father to a villain as a child, Elena braced herself for the worst. When she fell into a coma, Elena began working full time at the hospital to pay for her mom's treatment while homeschooling herself.
The head surgeons were opposed to hiring such a young girl as a full-time nurse, especially because she had never received any formal training. However, by combining her Quirk and her natural intelligence that had been boosted by the constant exposure to complicated academic material, Elena quickly demonstrated great talent for treating patients, especially mentally ill patients and villains. By manipulating the emotions of her patients, she was able to administer treatment and evaluations for patients who other doctors refused to treat, gaining her the favor of the head surgeon at Japan's top hospital.
It was the head of surgery who recommended her for a long term work study with Recovery Girl, the school nurse of the prestigious UA High School. Elena was stunned when she was summoned into the head surgeon's office and came face to face with All Might, Recovery Girl, and Principal Nezu. They explained how the recent attacks on the school by the League of Villains had caused unrest throughout the student body. They needed help providing mental health and general treatment for their students, especially the ones who had gone through such traumatic events. Not only would she receive a free education at the finest high school in the country, but the school was offering to pay for her mother's hospital bills. The catch was, she would have to use her ability to search for a potential mole and evaluate the mental state of her classmates without them knowing.
This is the beginning of her story.
Chapter One
Elena POV
UA High School is everything that Elena has ever dreamed of. After passing through the heavily protected security gate with her brand new ID card, she walks in the main walkway on the campus of Japan's top high school. She soaks in the trees around her, the freshly cut grass emitting an earthy fragrance, and the bustling courtyard, full of students clad in the same uniform. Everything is so bright and warm, unlike the hospital that she knows all too well with its dreary, metallic coldness.
When she arrives at the door of Class 1-A, she feels her heart pounding in her chest. She hasn't interacted with kids her age in years, besides the few clinically insane kids in the psychiatric ward. They weren't very chatty. She quietly rehearses her class introduction once more, as the countless repetitions in front of her mirror at home suddenly feel insufficient.
Hello! Too friendly.
Greetings. Too formal.
Sup yall? Way too casual.
She groans, closing her eyes and tilting her head back towards the ceiling. This is her only opportunity to create a good first impression on her classmates who she so desperately wants to be welcomed by. The prospect of being a part of something somewhat normal, like going to school and making friends, albeit in the most strenuous hero course in all of Japan, is finally attainable. Her new school uniform clings uncomfortably to her body and she loosens her necktie.
"Why aren't you opening it?" a voice asks. She jumps, startled by the sudden presence of another person beside her.
Elena's Quirk enables her to sense people approaching her by detecting their emotional outputs unconsciously on her radar, sort of like a whale emitting sound waves which bounce off an object then return. In her state of distraction, she has failed to notice that Shouto Todoroki stands beside her. She had extensively researched her fellow students' profiles and watched countless footage of their battles before coming to school but seeing a real UA hero-in-training in the flesh catches her off guard.
His half-and-half quirk is well-known, but the striking duality of his appearance is incredible up close. His eyes are two smoldering pools, one of frigid ice and the other of burning embers. She immediately feels the battle between heat and cold swirling in his chest through her Quirk, and the sheer exposure to his emotions causes a sweat to break out on Elena's forehead. He stands a few inches taller than her with a lean and toned build, clad in the same school uniform that she is wearing. He also seems reserved, standing a safe distance away from Elena but watching her attentively.
Elena can't help but notice his face and the dark gloom he exudes. She feels her own heartbeat quickening and the secretion of hormones by her thymus gland under the strong gaze of a real boy. She internally cringes at herself for being so easily swayed and hopes he cannot tell how awkward she feels.
Elena abruptly turns back towards the door.
"Because once I open it, I have to move forward," she responds, her voice tinged with sadness. Her honesty catches her by surprise, as she savors her last chance to enjoy what her life has been before transferring to UA.
Todoroki cocks his head to the side, peering at her with confusion. His mop of white and red hair slightly shuffles with his movements, and the aroma of freshly fallen snow wafts towards her. Of course this boy smells like a magical snowy field in the winter time.
"What's wrong with moving forward?" he asks. She pauses, unsure of how to phrase her thoughts and unsure of why she even feels the need to say anything at all. She detects a rising sense of amusement towards her in this boy. He isn't sure what to make of her either, this mess of a girl too afraid to open a door.
"It's a big door," she says after a moment of hesitation, half joking and half serious. While she knows that he cannot understand, she isn't talking only about the literal size of the huge door looming before her. The path ahead, of becoming a hero and fighting crime, terrifies her. She has always intended to become a doctor, but it was as if her Quirk had begun demanding more from her than just that. She wants to fight villains and heal people, and this is her only chance to do so.
"So take big steps," he responds with striking sincerity. Elena inhales sharply, taken aback by his bluntness. However, the sharpness of his words seem to slice away all of the excess fear and insecurity that are weighing her down, leaving her with just her foundations that she knows are enough.
He opens the door and walks through it into the classroom.
Elena pauses, soaking in the moment of feeling incredibly known and seen by this stranger and the anxiety in her chest begins to dissipate as she follows him in.
Shouto POV
Todoroki never pays attention to any of his female classmates. He doesn't really see them as girls, moreso as just classmates. But this girl seems different.
When he sees her standing in the doorway, it is impossible not to notice her. Firstly, he has never seen her before. Secondly, she looks.. like how girls are supposed to look. Todoroki doesn't know what it is but he wants to keep looking at her.
Her long hair is a deep chocolate brown which slightly becomes lighter towards the ends as if it has been dipped in light. Her skin is very tan, almost to a honey golden color. Her cheeks are dusted with a rosy blush similar to Uraraka's. However, the comparisons between her and Uraraka stop there. While Uraraka looks like a girl with her round features and slightly chubby physique, this girl with her elegant figure and perfect posture looks like.. a woman. She occupies the space around her with much more presence than any of the other girls Todoroki has seen.
Todoroki waits for her to open the door, only to realize that she isn't budging. After offering to help her open the door, they share a brief exchange.
Shouto notices that her eyes are narrow and long like a cat, with tiny specks of yellow light swimming in green irises. Her cheeks are dotted with freckles and sunspots, as if the sun cannot get enough of her. He searches her face for any familiarity, and concludes that he doesn't know her.
Figuring that she is just a guest, possibly an upperclassman here to talk about another training opportunity, Todoroki walks to the back of the class and takes his usual seat.
As his classmates notice this girl standing in the front of the class, small hushed whispers begin circulating about who she could be. Todoroki figures that she will likely be gone just as suddenly as she has appeared, and he has no interest in figuring out who she is. He doesn't even recognize her from the Sports Festival the year before so he isn't all that concerned.
Yet, for some reason, his eyes keep darting back to her face. All the features of her face are positioned in such a way that he can't think of a single improvement that could be made to her appearance, from her cat-like eyes to the sharp contours of her cheekbones. She doesn't seem to mind the awkwardness, simply standing and looking around the classroom.
Aizawa-sensei enters the room as the bell rings, trudging in slowly with yellow sleeping bag in hand. Silence envelopes the classroom as the students await an introduction. They are staring at her expectantly as if she will just spontaneously combust on the spot.
"Class, this is our new transfer student who has been admitted through recommendations. She's also doing a Work-Study with Recovery Girl," he announces with an expressionless face.
An audible gasp escapes from Deku's lips, as the entire class gawks at this unexpected new student. She stands quietly, returning the stares with that slight smile that Todoroki had seen in the hallway.
Todoroki is stunned, his mind racing with questions. He knows from personal experience that it is hard enough to receive a recommendation for regular admission, but to be admitted as a transfer student through recommendations is unheard of. For the teachers to admit her into the Hero course, she has to be incredibly strong and he feels his competitive side flaring up. He isn't the only one as Bakugou releases a low growl from his throat.
"I'll kill you," Bakugou declares, instinctively shooting small-scale sparks out of his palms. That viciousness in his voice, usually reserved for Midoriya, is directed at this girl who slightly frowns at his threat. "What's your goddamn Quirk transfer student?"
She remains silent, and looks to Aizawa-sensei as if for permission to engage. He simply rolls his eyes at Bakugou, shrugging his shoulders. The tension in the room is palpable, until Elena breaks it.
She darts her tongue out of her mouth, sticking it out at Bakugou and slightly scrunching her face like a toddler.
Uraraka can't help but let out a snort of laughter, quickly covering her mouth as soon as the laugh escapes. Before Bakugou can unleash another tirade of swears in response, Aizawa-sensei begins speaking.
"I have decided that Elena will demonstrate her quirk in a series of sparring matches against a few of you. It is certainly outside of usual protocol to admit a student in this manner, and I want you all to have an opportunity to see why we decided to admit her," Aizawa says, rubbing his sleepy eyes. Todoroki's hands instinctively curled into fists, the heat on his left side rising. "I'll take three volunteers. Who wants to fight her?"
"ME!" Bakugo and Midoriya both shout, jumping out of their seats. Bakugo immediately releases a string of expletives about Midoriya's inferiority and how he will destroy him, while Midoriya nervously placates him by waving his arms around and backing away. Kirishima attempts to calm his friend down, while the rest of the class breaks out into a nervous flutter of noise as the other students express their shock.
One more volunteer.
One opportunity.
"Me," Todoroki says, slowly standing up. He looks at this girl whom he had met in the hallway and their eyes briefly lock. He can see a mischievous light dancing in her eyes, like she knows something that they all don't. It makes his heartbeat race. Quickly, she averts her eyes to the ground and a slight smile tugs at the corners of her lips.
"Then it's decided. We're heading out to the field now then," Aizawa-sensei says, already walking away. Elena follows him, not saying a word to any of her challengers.
Elena Haiba, Todoroki thinks as he stands up to follow the rest of the classroom out. Her name rolls around in his head.