Thanks for the lovely reviews! It was very encouraging so I was fast with this chapter! Please continue to support :)
Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia characters and plot events belongs to Horikoshi Kohei.
To Be a Hero
do the best with what you have
.
.
.
Today was the beginning of Shiro's high school career at U.A.
"I can't be believe how big this place is..." she mumbled as she made her way down the hallway. Aizawa had told her that the admitted students were split up into two classes for the hero course, and she was assigned to class 1-A. When she found the classroom, she was caught by surprise upon seeing a familiar curly haired boy standing before the giant door. "It's you!" she blurted. Walking up to the boy, she proceeded to examine him like a wolf circling around a defenseless sheep. "I didn't think you'd actually make it this far since you couldn't even keep yourself from tripping on your own feet... Just who are you?" she was mumbling more to herself than anything, but of course the male under scrutiny heard and cowered even lowered under her ruby gaze.
"I-I'm Midoriya..."
"I guess I was wrong about you, Midoriya-san..." she said at last with her lips quirked. He still looked slightly hesitant, though, but it was because he was staring at what's behind the door. "What? You can't possibly be scared of..." she nonchalantly pulled open the door and her eyebrows shot up at the scene before her.
"Don't put your feet on the desk! Don't you think that's rude to the U.A. upperclassmen and the people who made the desk?"
I can't tell if he's inherently lucky or unlucky, Shiro gave the curly haired male long stare, understanding now why his nerves where so high upon seeing the face of the two people who weren't the nicest to him during the exam. Speaking of rude people...
"Not at all! What junior high did you go to, you side character?" the blonde sneered as his feet slammed on the top of the desk. The bespectacled male frowned and gestured at himself stiffly while extending his other hand out.
"I attended Somei Private Academy. My name is Iida Tenya."
"Somei? So you're a damn elite, huh?" the blonde leaned forward threateningly. "Looks like I'll have fun crushing you!"
"He doesn't even sound like he wants to be a hero," Shiro rolled her eyes.
Midoriya squeaked at her blunt and loud comment that garnered both of the males' attention towards the door. Iida recognized the head of curls right away and marched towards them. "Good morning! I am from Somei—"
"W-We heard!" Midoriya said before waving his hands in front of him apologetically for the abrupt reply. "Nice to meet you, Iida-kun. I'm Midoriya Izuku."
Shiro binked when she realized that the bespectacled male was then looking at her expectantly. "I'm Aisaka Shiragiku," she introduced herself formally to the entire class. It was full of unfamiliar faces. I didn't see any of them at my battle ground except Prickhead. I wonder what their abilities are...
"Hey, she's the person who tied with Bakugou on the leaderboard!"
Kaminari Denki, another blonde with a black bolt across one side of his hair, called out, nudging his red haired seatmate. "Dang, I was bumped down to third because of her! Cool!" Kirishima Eijiro raised a hand and it immediately hardened like blocks. "Bakugou, you have a rival!"
Prickhead, now named Bakugou, snorted as he drew his piercing eyes to the red haired male with contempt. "I'm a hundred times stronger than Pigtails!"
"Stop calling me that!" Shiro narrowed her eyes as her left one flashed, causing the chair he was leaning back on to topple over. Regrettably, he was able to catch himself with a hand and pushed himself off from falling.
He glared at her as sparks started flickering from his palms.
"K-Kacchan—" Midoriya tried to stop the fight but that only made Bakugou grow angrier.
"Shut the hell up, Deku. I'll beat you up too!"
"E-Eep!" the boy jolted. Taking a few steps back with fear, he accidentally bumped into a cheery brunette walking through the door.
"Ah, you're the plain looking one! You passed just like Present Mic said!" she mused and went on narrating the awe she felt during the entrance exam animately to Midoriya, not realizing that the tension was extremely high between her two other classmates. "But of course, that punch was so cool! It was like—! And like—!"
"I'm not done with you!" Bakugou scowled in annoyance, raising his palm again but this time the sparks didn't come out. His fiery eyes immediately darted to Shiro. She's like that shitty nerd Deku! Getting on my nerves! "Did you use dirty tricks like this to get in, huh?"
Shiro got ready to dodge whatever he was going to throw at her, but she also furrowed her brows critically. That certainly wasn't my doing...
"Go somewhere else if you want to recklessly start fights."
The all too familiar drone of a certain Pro Hero made Shiro and the others turned their head towards the entrance of the classroom. Wrapped in a yellow sleeping bag like a cocoon, Aizawa stared at his students coldly before unzipping the bag to reveal a juice pouch. "This is the hero course."
Don't tell me Eraserhead's our homeroom teacher?!
"It took eight seconds before you were quiet. Time is limited. You kids are not rational enough," he said. "I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota. Nice to meet you." Small murmurs of surprise sounded within the classroom as the worn out man got out of his sleeping bag and pulled out what looked like a gym suit. "It's kind of sudden, but put this on and go out onto the field."
One by one, the students grabbed a suit and quickly filed out of the classroom. Shiro was the last to take hers and stopped briefly to question the Pro Hero. "Since when did you become our homeroom teacher? And you were the one behind erasing his Quirk, weren't you?"
"Since always. Did I forget to mention that to you?" Aizawa stated unapologetically before giving her a disapproving frown. "It's my job to prevent you brats from getting carried away with using your Quirks. You of all people should know that, Shiro."
"It's not like what I did back there would actually hurt him," she puffed her cheeks stubbornly before leaving to catch up with the rest of her classmates. Aizawa watched her go with a sigh.
Her emotions are still as irrational as ever.
"A Quirk assessment test?!"
"What about the entrance ceremony? The orientation?" The brunette with the round face, Uraraka Ochaco, asked with wide eyes. Shiro remembered that the girl was excitedly talking about that at the start of class, but it seems like U.A. doesn't run things the conventional way.
"If you're going to become a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events. U.A.'s selling point is how unrestricted its school traditions are. That's also how the teachers run their classes," Aizawa explained tiredly and motioned to the training ground that was set up to do various tests. "You kids have been doing these since junior high, too, right? Physical fitness tests where you weren't allowed to use your Quirks. The country still uses averages taken from results from students not using their Quirks, but that's not rational. Well, the Ministry of Education is procrastinating. Bakugou."
At the sound of his name being called, the male stepped forward with a raised brow.
"You were going to use your Quirk earlier against another classmate," he stated with hands in his pockets. "While this is a hero course to train your Quirks, the classroom still runs normally. You are only to use your Quirks freely during training sessions," he started to reprimand but then continued to his point. "Well, this is one of them. What was your best result for the softball throw in junior high?"
Bakugou stared at the Pro Hero with a slightly confused scowl but answered nonetheless. "67 meters."
"Try to do it with your Quirk. Do whatever you want as long as you stay in the circle. Hurry up."
The blonde picked up the ball and stepped into the circle. A smirk was present on his face as he stretched out his arms. "Well, then..." he concentrated and swung his arm back before adding a fiery blast behind his throw. "Die...!"
Everyone seemed to blink at the blonde's unconventional expression but Aizawa merely clicked something on his recording device as the ball soared far into the distance before dropping. "Know your maximum first," he said and turned to the rest with the score. "That's the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero."
"Woah! He hit 705.2 meters!" Kirishima and a few others chorused in awe.
"Show off," Shiro muttered among the chatter, but she was impressed as well. Next to her, the pink haired and skinned girl jumped with excitement.
"It looks fun!"
"So we can use our Quirks as much as we want for these things," another one of her classmates grinned. "As expected from the hero course!"
The Pro Hero stared at the students with boredom. "'It looks fun', huh? You have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time?" he asked, his tone and expression all too familiar to Shiro and she knew he was going to say something that would put pressure on them all. "All right. Whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion."
"W-WHAT?!" the students cried altogether.
That's how Eraserhead is, Shiro sighed. She knew he was serious about it, so she was definitely not going to risk being expelled after the first day.
On the other side of her, Midoriya was gripping his hand with an indescribable look of dread and anxiety.
"I'll have you know that for the next three years... U.A. will run you through the wringer. That's 'Plus Ultra'. Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it!"
Test 1: 50-meter dash!
The students of class 1-A were paired up randomly and all lined up behind one another to wait their turns. Since they had an odd number of students, one of them was to go alone. A robotic camera and timer stood on the other side to record their scores, and Shiro watched carefully to observe her classmates before her turn.
Iida and a frog-like girl named Asui Tsuyu prepared themselves before the clicker sounded and they both took off. With his engine like calves, Iida passed the finish line in 3.04 seconds while Tsuyu hopped over in 5.58 seconds.
Iida Tenya, Quirk: Engine. Asui Tsuyu, Quirk: Frog Form.
Next, Uraraka and Ojiro Mashirao went. Shiro saw that the girl was tapping her body to lighten herself up before starting, and she was just a few seconds off behind Ojiro when she reached the finish line.
Uraraka Ochaco, Quirk: Zero Gravity. Ojiro Mashirao, Quirk: Tail.
Aoyama Yuga, Quirk: Navel Laser. Ashido Mina, Quirk: Acid.
"On your mark..."
It was Shiro's turn now, and she bent and raised her body up slightly to get a good starting form. Looking ahead with her ruby eyes focused, she took off when the clicker sounded.
"6.17 seconds."
"Not too bad," she huffed at the other side; Jiro was just a second behind her. It was a good thing that she's been training her body physically throughout the years, otherwise she was going to be the one to get left behind with all these amazing Quirks around her.
Then, she watched as Bakugou and Midoriya stepped up to the start line. She looked curiously at the curly haired male, wondering what kind of Quirk he had. If she remembered correctly, he was the one who received 60 rescue points while not gaining a single villain point during the practical exam. Loud explosions from Bakugou boomed as the blonde used his sparks to propel him forward; on the other hand, Midoriya was just running with all his might. The two reached the finish line with a two second difference.
What is his Quirk, exactly? Shiro wondered.
The following three tests went pretty well for Shiro in terms of matching up in strength and agility against the classmates who didn't specialize in it as a Quirk, but for each of those tests she found a different classmate who really excelled and rose above the others.
The fifth test was the ball throw again, and after Uraraka threw an infinity, she realized that using her own strength wasn't going to cut it for this test if she wanted to keep herself out of the bottom ranks.
Stepping up to the circle, she took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She could feel the gazes of her classmates, along with Aizawa's, on her. Her Quirk wasn't physical like Bakugou's or gravity-defying like Uraraka's, but there was one thing about it that can assist her with this test. Making herself concentrate fully, her eyes then opened up to reveal the markings in both of her ruby orbs spinning wildly. Everyone felt weird waves around them for a split second before it disappeared as she drew her arm back and shot the ball forward.
Everyone watched with eyes growing bigger as the ball disappeared the second it was in the air. They whipped their heads to Aizawa just as he showed them the final score. It wasn't an infinity, but...
"299,791,819 meters?! That's the second highest score!" Kaminari gasped. Were the girls in this class all this amazing?!
"What kind of Quirk is that?" Kirishima asked, seemingly fired up with her display. "It's awesome!"
"Did you make the ball disappear?"
"Yeah, how did it get so far?"
At the onslaught of curious questions from her classmates, Shiro shook her head at their assumptions and tried to explain what she did. "It wasn't that the ball disappeared... I just changed one second of the ball's original velocity to that of the speed of light."
"...Huh?!" they all chorused.
Aisaka Shiragiku, Quirk: Probability Manipulation.
She is able to calculate the probability of anything happening with this Quirk as well as changing it. When her right eye spins with a white dial, she can increase or decrease the probability of good luck while the black dial in her left eye can increase or decrease the probability of bad luck/harm. This is limited to how many times it can be used with a given reserve of energy, and the possibility of a given event must be above 0%.
However, as demonstrated, activating both of the dials in her eyes twists the probability field in a way that she is able to briefly rewrite any reality on a desired object upon contact. The more extreme the change, the larger the amount of stamina and emotion is required, so she is currently only able to perform this sparingly...
Shiro gave them all a small shrug and stepped out of the circle. "You're up next..." she called out to Midoriya, but then she noticed that he had a look of panic and was sweating bullets. "Hey, my Quirk isn't always the most useful because it isn't physical, but I make do. If that's the case for you, just do your best with what you have."
Midoriya trudged to the circle at her attempted encouragement. It's not something simple that I can just do... He picked up a ball and stared at it nervously. All that's left is this, the long-distance run, sit-ups, and the seated toe-touch. If I want to use it...
It's now or never, he thought and made up his mind.
"It doesn't look good for Midoriya-kun if he continues like this," Iida commented, his arms crossed with worry. All of the boy's scores had been average at best, so it was certain that he was one of the bottom few scorers. Bakugou snorted.
"Of course not. He's a Quirkless small fry, you know!"
"He's really Quirkless?" Shiro repeated with a blink. Iida immediately shook his head and gave them an astonished brow raise.
"Are you two not aware of what he did in the entrance exam?!"
"We had a different exam location..." Shiro mumbled as she focused back on Midoriya with interest. The boy had taken a step up in the circle while drawing his arm back and she saw the veins under his skin glow with power. She could practically feel the growing strength behind it; but just like that, it disappeared right before he threw the ball out. It landed unimpressively at only 46 meters, and she looked at Aizawa to confirm her suspicions.
The man's eyes were unblinking.
"I-I was definitely about to use it just now..." Midoriya stared down at his two trembling hands. "Why...!"
"I erased your Quirk," Aizawa stated simply as the bandages around his neck unraveled to reveal the signature goggles under it; his black hair waving up with the floating bandages and his eyes shone red. "That entrance exam was definitely not rational enough that even a kid like you was accepted."
"You erased my...? Those goggles!" the boy gasped in realization. "You're The Erasure Hero: Eraserhead!"
Shiro was surprised that Midoriya knew who the Pro Hero was, since most of her other classmates seemed to not have much recognition. It was to be expected since the hero worked underground and captured villains in the shadows of the night so he could avoid the media and limelight... But back to her concern at hand. Why did Aizawa erase the boy's Quirk if he was the one who said that they could use it any way they wanted during training?
"From what I can tell, you can't control your Quirk, can you? Do you intend to become incapacitated again and have someone save you?"
"Th-That's not my intention—"
The hero's bandages shot out and wrapped around the boy and pulled him forward threateningly. "Whatever your intention, I'm saying that's what those around you will be forced to do. In the past, there was an oppressively passionate hero who saved over a thousand people by himself and created a legend. Even if you have the same reckless valor, you'll just be decked and turned into a useless doll after saving one person. Midoriya Izuku, with your power, you can't become a hero."
There was a second of silence as Midoriya's head drooped in defeat.
"I've returned your Quirk. You have two turns for the ball throw. Hurry up and get it over with," Aizawa said before walking away.
"It looks like he got some advice...?" Iida wondered and Bakugou rolled his eyes.
"Tch. Probably just telling him he's expelled."
The discouraged male in question was currently mumbling to himself with doubt, and as he mumbled on, Shiro could tell that the other students were growing restless and Aizawa was getting impatient. Her impression of Midoriya Izuku hasn't been all that impressive if she were to tell the truth, but if there was anything to learn from Aizawa's constant "let-downs" in the past, it was to never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
If he can just keep in mind to do the best with what he has... she mused as he stepped up to the plate again. Then I think he'll have a higher probability of overcoming it.
It was a similar scene before her, but this time, only Midoriya's index finger seemed to be emitting that powerful glow and when he released the ball, there was an incredible force behind it. It took a few moments for the device to register the total distance, and when it did, it read 705.3 meters.
"Sensei..." Midoriya staggered slightly as he lifted the arm he used to throw the ball. Clenching his lips from the pain emitting from his index finger, he looked confidently at Aizawa. "I... I can still move!"
Well... I'd say he did it, Shiro was clapping internally for the boy after she saw the look on Aizawa's face.
The hero was impressed.
But Bakugou? Not so much.
"What is the meaning of this?" Sparks exploded from the hot-head's palms as he dashed over to the cowering boy. "Tell me what's going on, Deku, you bastard!"
What's up with him always being so against Midoriya... Shiro rolled her eyes as she counted down the seconds before the male was apprehended by Aizawa's bandages. She's been on the receiving end of the hero's weapon of capture many times before, and she knew how hard it was to escape those carbon fibers as she watched the blonde struggle fruitlessly.
"Jeez..." Aizawa sighed in annoyance before letting the stunned male go again. "Don't keep making me use my Quirk over and over. I have dry eye!"
After the ball throw, the fitness tests continued on in relative peace. However, while fighting against the pain of his swelled finger, Midoriya consistently scored at the bottom for the remaining three tests. At the end, the students of 1-A gathered around Aizawa as he announced the results.
Shiro searched for her name on the digital list that was projected before them and found herself ranked tenth out of 21 total students. I made it, she let out a sigh of relief before looking at the list again for another name. Just as she thought, the person at last place was Midoriya, and like they were warned earlier...
"Last place will be expelled...?" Midoriya whispered besides her with trembling hands. Shiro empathized with the curly haired male, but there was nothing she could do to help when it came to Aizawa's high expectations and rules.
"By the way, I was lying about the expulsion," Aizawa clicked on his device and the screen disappeared before them. His expression morphed into a smug grin, "It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your Quirks."
"WHAT?!" Many of them, and especially Midoriya, screamed in shock at the realization. A busty girl with a spiked up ponytail voiced her concern at her classmates' surprise.
"It should've been obvious if you just thought it through," she claimed. The others who were stunned into silence continued to silently mule over their homeroom teacher's nerve-wracking ruse. They really thought it was real!
He was definitely serious about it, though, Shiro thought to herself as Aizawa dismissed them back to the classroom for the regularly scheduled curriculum. But Midoriya managed to impress him, so maybe...
"Midoriya," Aizawa called before leaving and handed the boy a slip of paper. "Have the old lady fix you in the nurse's office. Tomorrow will be packed with even more rigorous tests. Prepare yourself."
Watching the determined look on Midoriya's face grow as he gripped the sheet of paper, Shiro gained a new impression of him that day.
Whether Midoriya Izuku was inherently lucky or unlucky in getting into U.A., it doesn't change the fact that he did. He's not that impressive and he still has a lot to learn if he wants to make it in the hero course, but he was a noteworthy individual if Aizawa thought he had potential to stay.
I don't think I've come across any OCs with Probability Manipulation as a Quirk, so hopefully I'm original enough ^_^ Also, 299,791,819m=distance of the speed of light/second, which means that Shiro's throw landed halfway across the world because that distance=7.5 times the length of earth!
Get hyped for the next arc ;) Please review ~