I enjoyed writing this chapter a lot.

Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia characters and plot events belongs to Horikoshi Kohei.

To Be a Hero

it's because i admire you

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Shiro made sure that she woke up to her alarm so that she didn't have a repeat of what happened the previous day. Putting on her U.A. uniform and tying her messy silver blue hair into her signature pigtails, she made her way downstairs. Aizawa was sitting at the table with his cup of black coffee, and on the table was a bowl of seasoned rice and an egg for her. Throughout the years, the man always made her breakfast, but he was a simple man with a simple grasp of what is food. Thus, food at the house was never extravagant, but that was perfectly fine with her.

Pulling out a chair to sit, she was half surprised to see a black cat staring up at her with its green eyes glowing.

She raised her brow at the Pro Hero across from her, "Why is there a cat here?"

"It walked in when I went to get the newspaper."

"But you don't even like to read the newspaper."

"I don't," he agreed. Said paper was on the wooden table with the news segment about All Might teaching at U.A. facing up, and she understood why he even bothered to look at it in the first place. It was no wonder the man didn't like the media; they always want to stick their nose into everything.

The black cat suddenly jumped onto the table but with no interest for the food and sauntered over to the hero. He granted the cat enough attention to scratch its chin for a few moments and it purred contently. Shiro couldn't help but grin at the scene.

Aizawa was a simple man with a simple taste. He also had a strange affinity for cats.

"If you don't hurry, you'll be late and I'll expel you," Aizawa claimed before standing up. The feline also jumped off the table and walked along his feet to the kitchen. Shiro stuck her tongue out behind his back.

"Yeah, yeah, sensei," she replied and started to eat her breakfast. She glanced at the man with a mouth full of rice when he walked by again to put on his shoes and opened the front door for the cat to leave. He usually left early because he was a teacher, but this was extra early. "Are you heading to U.A. already?"

"Yeah, I need to get ahead of those news-hounds. They annoy me."

Shiro tilted her head in question as the door closed behind the man, but then she simply went back to enjoying her breakfast. It wasn't until she got near school grounds that she fully understood the hero's motivation for leaving early...

"How are All Might's classes?"

"Can you tell us a little about how he is in class?!"

Surrounding the outside of the school was a whole herd of civilians, reporters, and people with expensive cameras all wanting to get a sighting of the Symbol of Peace or interview the students trying to get to class. By now the news of the hero teaching at U.A. had spread across the nation, and everyone wanted to see for themselves.

A microphone was suddenly thrust under Shiro's nose and a female reporter looked at her critically. "What do you think of All Might as a teacher?"

She blinked as three different cameras pointed her way and the reported urged her to answer. Looking around and seeing that she was completely surrounded, she sighed and attempted to answer as fast as she could so she could leave. "He's great, but can I please get to class so I won't get expelled?"

"Is that one of All Might's expectations? Can you expand on that?"

Not by All Might, but Eraserhead and that's worse, she thought as her brows furrowed in annoyance at their insistence.

"Look, I don't want to be late for class—"

"Then just answer this question! Do you think All—"

"Move out of my way!" Bakugou demanded with a huge scowl on his face as he pushed his way through the crowd where Shiro was. It was a miracle that he hasn't swore or punched someone in the face yet, but it was proving to be a great challenge for his short fuse. To make things worse, a few reporters who saw him seemed even more persistent once they recognized his face.

"Hey, aren't you the one who was caught by the..." one reporter never got to finish his sentence as Bakugou threw him the deadliest glare he possessed. As if the reporter was challenged in the head, however, he immediately turned to Shiro. "Are you perhaps friends with the Sludge Villain victim?"

"...Huh?"

"Stop it," Bakugou sneered at the man and grabbed Shiro's hand, much to her surprise, and started to drag her away from the crowd. Once they crossed to the other side of U.A.'s security gate, they were finally rid of the persistent reporters because the sensors won't let them pass without a U.A. official ID.

This is the one thing I'm not looking forward to when I become a hero, Shiro frowned after giving the reporters one last glance. Popular heroes always have the press coming at them, but All Might was the epitome of heroes, so she could only imagine how he worked with all that. She had to agree with Aizawa's rationality on this one.

The media is a pain, she thought before feeling a small spark in her palm. "Ow!"

Upon realizing that his Quirk slipped out from his anger and the fact that he was still holding her hand, Bakugou snatched his hand away like he had touched the plague. But as embarrassed as he was, he was still ready to tell her off if she mentions the sludge incident—

"I'm not those annoying reporters, so I won't question it."

Her reassurance caught him off guard, but he could see it in her eyes that she meant it. Lips curling into a scowl, he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "You better fucking not, Pigtails."

He heard her scoff before she stormed past him. Trailing behind, his right hand slipped out of his pocket again and he stared at it for a while. He was used to feeling heat on his palms from igniting his Quirk, but the sensation of her hand in his was different.

It was warm.

But a shitty kind of warm.

"Good work on yesterday's combat training. I saw the video and results," Aizawa pointed out after homeroom started. His droopy eyes landed on certain students as he called them out. "Bakugou, you're talented, so don't act like a kid all the time."

The blonde looked offended but muttered out an "I know."

"Midoriya."

The male in question stiffened and stared at the top of his desk nervously.

"You settled it by breaking your arm again, huh? You can't keep saying you can't help it because you can't control your Quirk. I don't like saying the same thing over and over. Fix your control issue and there'll be a lot that you can achieve," the hero critiqued, but his last comment gave the male a burst of hope. "Feel a sense of urgency, Midoriya."

"Y-Yes, sir!"

"And lastly... Shiro."

Some students grew confused as to who the hero was referring to and looked around before their gaze landed on the girl sitting in the row between Midoriya and Kirishima. Shiro looked taken off guard at the hero's blatant use of her nickname, but she prepared herself for his critique.

"I'm sure you came to the same conclusion during the training, but be aware of everyone in your battle vicinity. Don't just focus on one person."

"I will," she promised.

"Now let's get down to homeroom business," Aizawa said, ending his critiques by setting the stack of papers in his hand on the podium purposefully. "It's a late notice, but today I'll have you..."

The class immediately tensed up once again. The last time he said that he was announcing something on a late notice, he made them take a special test and threatened to expel those he found with no potential. What is it going to be this time?!

"...decide on a class representative."

It's actually a normal school activity! they thought happily before a cacophony of exclamations to be picked as class president ensued. In the hero course, this was a role that allowed one to practice being a top hero by leading group, so of course many of them wanted the role. However, there could only be one plus a deputy rep.

"Silence, please!" Iida suddenly shouted and made the class quiet down for a second. "This is a job with the serious responsibility of leading others. It is not a job for just anyone who wants to do it; it requires the trust of those around you! I say we use democracy to decide on a true leader and hold an election to choose one."

He says that, yet his hand is raised the highest, Shiro thought. She didn't care for the role of class representative that much, so all of this didn't matter to her. But she did like Iida's idea.

"But Iida-chan, we haven't known each other for that long, so how can we have trust or anything?" Tsuyu asked. Kirishima nodded along with the girl's comment.

"Plus everyone would just vote for themselves!"

Iida's hand descended and pointed at them in the usual stiff manner, "That's why whoever receives multiple votes here would truly be considered as the most suitable person! What do you think, Aizawa-sensei?" he turned to the hero, who had zipped himself up in his yellow sleeping bag.

"I don't care, as long as you decide before homeroom is over," he merely said before flopping down to the ground.

"Thank you very much!"

And so, everyone was prompted to take out a piece of paper and write down the name of the person they thought should be their leader. Shiro stared at the blank paper for a while before scribbling down a name and dropping the ballot into a box with the others. Good luck, Iida. You have my vote, she nodded.

Immediately, the results were tallied and recorded on the blackboard. She was surprised to see only one tally by Iida's name, which meant that he didn't vote for himself. Wow, he's earnest... Looking at the others, most people expectedly got one vote, but as she scanned over her own name, her chin slipped off her palm.

Two votes?! But I didn't even vote for myself!

She was tied with Yaoyorozu Momo for vice president while Midoriya received three votes, which meant that he was the most popular candidate as leader.

"Why Deku?!" Bakugou shot out of his seat with shock. "Who voted for him?!"

Meanwhile, Iida looked crushed that he didn't get nearly as many votes, but at the same time, he was visibly thankful for the one vote that he did get. To those around him, they expected as much.

"Then, the class rep is Midoriya," Aizawa drawled when he saw the results. "And the deputy class rep will be... Oh," he said after he noticed that there was a tie. He looked at both Shiro and Momo. "That can be decided with a game of rock-paper-scissors. Let's get this over with."

Shiro totally didn't think this was necessary since she didn't want the role in the first place. But in order to not outright offend the two people who so thoughtfully voted for her, she felt that she had to at least make an effort. On her way up to the front of the class, Ojiro gave her a thumbs up while whispering good luck.

Could Ojiro be one of my voters? she wondered. If so, then who was the other voter? But there was no use thinking about it now, because she was face-to-face with Momo. The girl gave her a determined smile before getting ready. Okay, I have a one-out-of-three chance... she paused and got an idea. Keeping her head low, she focused on her hand.

"Rock... Paper... Scissors!"

With one hand showing rock and the other showing scissors, the winner was determined.

"So, Yaoyorozu will be the deputy class rep," Aizawa announced while Shiro walked back to her seat.

Sorry voters... But this just isn't my thing.

"The rice is so delicious!" Uraraka sighed contently at the lunch table as she dug into her food. Today's meal selections looked amazing as usual, as expected of the Lunch Rush hero.

Shiro had opted for a chicken curry dish and was eating it with gusto while occasionally sipping water because of the spiciness. She was sitting between Midoriya and Tsuyu, with Iida and Uraraka on the opposite side of the table and a few other of her classmates sitting down the long lunch table.

"..." Unlike the others, Midoriya wasn't enjoying his meal like the rest as he glanced down with hesitance. "I still don't know if I'm qualified for class rep."

"You are," Uraraka stated simply and Iida nodded.

"Your courage and judgment at critical moments make you worth following. That is why I voted for you."

He's too modest, Shiro tuned in to their conversation. "Even though I voted for Iida-san, I agree with him on that. You'll be fine, Midoriya-san."

"A-Aisaka-kun, you voted for me?!" the Engine Quirk user gasped in surprise. His eyes were filled with indebtedness as one arm crossed his chest and the other pointed at her. "I am so grateful for you, Aisaka-kun!" he declared loudly.

"Eh," she smiled briefly at his enthusiasm. It really was a pity that he didn't get elected; although he was stiff and demanding at times, he had a great sense of duty. "It's okay to call me Shiro, you know."

"Shiro-chan, I've been meaning to ask since I like to speak my mind," Tsuyu chipped in while adapting to her nickname comfortably. "Are you Aizawa-sensei's secret love child?"

Had Shiro been drinking water, it would've sprayed all over poor Iida's face. "A-Asui-san?!"

"Call me Tsuyu, okay?" the girl said before going on about her theory. "Aizawa-sensei calls you familiarly and the way you used your hair ribbons at combat training reminded me of his bindings. If it's supposed to be a secret, the similarity of your family names are kind of a dead giveaway."

At this point, half of the table consisting of her classmates was listening in on the ground-breaking conversation. They wanted to know, too. Kirishima's spiky head of red hair poked out into view as a realization hit him.

"No way, could Aizawa-sensei be the mentor you told us about?!"

Well... The cat's out of the bag now, Shiro thought. "We're not related, but Eraserhead's my guardian," she confirmed, a sense of pride surfacing into her tone at all of the surprised stares that the table was giving her.

"That's amazing!" Midoriya cried out with his expression in awe. "There's never been any information about that... Well, there's never been much information on him in general... But wow...!" he was starting to ramble on and Shiro caught something about writing it in his hero books. "It must be so cool to live with a hero like Eraserhead!"

"And scary!" Uraraka added with wide eyes as she thought about how the hero was like outside of school. "But what about your parents...?" Uraraka's expression turned into panic as she realized the implication of her own question. "A-Ah, sorry!"

"It's okay," Shiro consoled the apologizing girl. She wasn't bothered about not having a biological family since she doesn't remember thing about them anyway. "I'm not sure what happened to my family, but Eraserhead's like one to me. As for his scary side..." she looked thoughtful for a minute with her lips pursed. She should probably tell them that there was not much of a difference saved for the hero's obvious soft spot for felines, but she decided to keep that to herself. "It's not too bad when we're not training. He has high expectations, but that's why I want to overcome them and become a great hero."

So that's Shiro-san's reason why she wants to be a Pro Hero, Midoriya thought, nodding silently.

"I can't imagine Aizawa-sensei being the fatherly type though," Tsuyu remarked bluntly, her tongue sticking out slightly in thought.

To that, a few nodded along as well while Shiro laughed out loud. They stared; it was the first time she expressed her happiness so vocally to her classmates, and that caught them off-guard. However, they all agreed it was a pleasant sound and was mildly disturbed when the blaring of an alarm interrupted the moment.

"There has been a Level 3 security breach. All students please evacuate outdoors promptly. I repeat..."

Immediately, the lunch room was in a frenzy of panic as all of the students jumped from their seats to rush towards the exit. A third-year explained to the confused Iida that "Level 3" meant someone was trespassing on school grounds, and that was enough for the rest of them to add into the chaos.

Shiro found herself separated from her friends and classmates in the large crowd, with the mass of panicking students suffocating her as they tried to squeeze past each other. "Excuse me—ow!" she was roughly pushed to the side, causing her to slam into someone in the process.

"Oi, shove someone at me again and I'll kill you!"

The all too familiar growl made Shiro snap her head up, but that knocked her head against Bakugou's chin.

"What the... Pigtails?! I swear to—" he didn't get to finish his sentence as the crowd behind them forcefully pushed them forward. Bakugou braced his body against the forceful crowd but only found himself being carried along until a rather rough jolt pushed him towards the wall. "Fuck!"

"Hey, do you mind—!"

"What?!" he barked, too irritated to care about what the girl wanted to say until he saw just why she was calling out to him. Shiro was plastered against the wall with him caging her in. And they were extremely close to each other. "Oh, shit... D-Don't move!" he ordered as he tried to lift himself away. But the crowd wasn't having it and pushed back.

"I can't move even if I wanted to," she muttered into his shirt. At least he was actually blocking the jabbing elbows for her... And he smelled like a mix of smokey vetiver and cedarwood...

"When I find out who did this," he growled threateningly, breaking her out of her trance as he tried again to push back against the crowd. "I'll blow 'em up!"

But, both of their cheeks were burning red and it was not because of how hot the room had become from the tight squeeze. It was probably a good thing that they couldn't see each other's faces right now.

"Stop pushing! Slow down!" A voice shouted among the crowd and Shiro immediately recognized it as Kirishima. Like a saint, the male somehow managed to get the crowd to disperse just slightly so that there was a gap, but it wasn't going to last long. Bakugou and Shiro immediately escaped. "Oh hey, guys!" Kirishima looked surprised to see them, but he was wholly unaware of the situation just seconds ago.

Gosh, this is crazy... I need to get us to a less crowded area! Shiro thought as they were still being pushed around. The dial in her left eye turned. "This way!" she motioned for the two males to follow. They complied, understanding that having her Quirk find favorable gaps in the sea of people was probably their best bet at not being stomped like ragdolls. However, it only worked for a few moments. Everyone was just so tightly packed.

A particularly large male in front of them was trying to get past and his strong elbow swung back towards Shiro's head; with her back faced to the danger, she didn't even notice what was happening until she heard a loud impact.

"Wh—?" she widened her eyes.

"I got ya, Shiro-chan!" Her red haired classmate was grinning at her with his hardened arm shielding her face, and the male in front of them was too panicked to even register pain as he kept going. "Everyone, stop! Slow down! Someone'll get hurt like this—!"

Kirishima's shouts fell on deaf ears as the mass made no motion to slow down. Suddenly, they saw Iida float and burst forward above their heads towards the emergency exit. The male plastered himself onto the wall and held on for dear life, and everyone paused as his voice projected loudly throughout the whole lunch room.

"EVERYONE, EVERYTHING'S FINE! It is just the media! There is nothing to panic about. Everything's fine! This is U.A., so let us act in a way befitting the best of the best!"

People immediately calmed down at the male's reassurance and Shiro was able to look out the window and see that police have come to take care of the intruding reporters. "Iida-san saved the day..." she sighed in relief.

"That damn elite is useful for something at least," Bakugou muttered. Another minute of pushing and shoving and he would've just resolved to blasting his way out.

Shiro rolled her eyes at the blonde's rudeness and turned to Kirishima with an appreciative smile. "Hey, thanks for helping me back there, Kirishima-san. That was very hero-like."

The male blushed at her compliment and rubbed the back of his head with a toothy grin. "A-Anytime..."

Bakugou just glared at them before stalking away angrily.

"B-Before we decide on the other class officers, can I say something first...?" Midoriya was a nervous wreck as he stood up in the front of the class with Momo after lunch. He gulped before lifting his head to meet the stares of his classmates. "I think... Iida Tenya-kun should be class rep after all!"

Iida looked surprised to be called out, but everyone listened on to what the curly haired male wanted to say.

"He was able to get everyone's attention in such a cool way. I think it would be best for Iida-kun to do it."

At the suggestion, the class was silent for a moment before individuals started to agree. Iida really was a big help during the securty breach and managed to get everyone to stop panicking after he quicly realized the situation. His fearlessness and quick resolve was a sign of being a great leader, so no one objected to the switch.

"You're wasting time," Aizawa droned from behind Midoriya and scaring him in the process. His expression was dark and unimpressed, but he made no move to admonish the boy's decision. "I don't care what you do, just hurry up and do it."

Aisaka really lives with him...? Some of them thought with a shudder as Iida stood up to accept his role dutifully.

"You told the class about your living situation?" Aizawa repeated as Shiro and he walked back home late in the afternoon. The girl was telling him about what happened during lunch leading up to the security breach and revealed that some of the students in class 1-A asked about their relationship.

"It was kind of hard not to explain after Tsuyu-san thought I was your love child," she visibly made a face at that notion again before sighing. "Sorry if you didn't want them to know..."

The hero's eyes softened before looking ahead of him. "There's no reason why they shouldn't know," he replied. "It's just a pain now that they give you a look of pity when they see me. Do they think I torture you or something? Geez."

"Really?" she blinked in surprise before laughing. "You are pretty demanding."

"It keeps people on their toes."

"Speaking of that..." Shiro turned to the hero. "How did the press get through U.A.'s security gate? They really caused a massive panic to the school."

The expression on Aizawa's face morphed into a critical frown. He was unsure of it himself, since when the teachers went to check out the damage after the reporters were escorted out by police they found the main gate had been completely disintegrated into a pile of rubble. None of the reporters claimed to know anything about that, just that they saw an opening to the school and went ahead inside to find All Might. It was beyond concerning, but after thoroughly checking the premises for threats, they still didn't find an instigator.

"It's under investigation," he stated plainly. "The media just doesn't stop at any opportunity for a story. Like I said, they annoy me."

Shiro couldn't agree more. At least it was a false alarm this time. She knew that U.A. had Aizawa and many other strong heroes, so it was unlikely anything evil would dare to infiltrate the school and get away with it.

"Hey, Eraserhead... Can we go to WacDonalds together?"

"No. You can go by yourself."

"But it's just down the block," she insisted. "Please? I'm starving."

"Fine," the hero gave up right away as the girl dragged him along with a victorious grin. Both of them were unaware of the serious troubles that U.A. will soon be facing...

I really, really love reading feedback and get so excited and motivated when I see them for this story - so thank you and please keep them coming! Now, as an aside...

Does anyone know how old All Might actually is? It was never revealed in the manga I believe, but I know many people portray him as around the same age as Eraserhead and co. (30 y/o). If you really think about it though, he has to be much older than them for three reasons (I've seen theories online):

First, Midoriya always goes back to the video during the hero's prime (and before the first AFO battle) since he was four, which would make the hero at least 20-30 already. Then, it's known that Endeavor has tried to make a name after All Might but could never surpass him, so he "created" Todoroki (Endeavor himself is 45 y/o). Lastly, Gran Tornio looks to be about 70? and he was All Might's mentor.

So... I'd say he's around 45-50? What do you all think?