"It's been a month now, and she still hasn't said a word," Kazumi's mom murmured, concern filling every word.
Kazumi glanced up from her drawing, but only briefly so that she still looked unaware of her parents' conversation. They were talking about her again.
"Perhaps it's still too soon. Kazumi went through something traumatic, after all," her dad replied. "We just need to continue letting her know she can come to us at any time."
"Maybe you're right…."
The conversation shifted to a lighter topic—one about their next dancing class. Meanwhile, Kazumi continued coloring her picture. If only she could make Honami look as pretty in her drawing as she had looked in real life.
Everyone in 1-A seemed so lively. Despite the fact that this was only the first day of school, their teacher, Aizawa, had brought the class outside and announced that they were going to do a quirk apprehension test. After porcupine quill boy—or rather, Bakugou—had demonstrated an astounding ball pitch of 705 meters, everyone else began to clamor in excitement.
"What's this? It looks fun!" a girl with pink skin and curly pink hair exclaimed from next to Kazumi, causing her to wince at the other girl's loud volume.
"We can use our quirks as much as we want!" shouted a raven haired boy with tape dispensers as elbows. "As expected from the hero course!"
The teacher glowered at the students, disapproval flashing in his tired eyes. "'Looks fun,' huh?" he echoed. "You have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time?"
A chill ran down Kazumi's spine as a menacing smile stretched across Aizawa's face. A foreboding mood settled over the class.
"All right. Whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion."
Everyone's eyes widened. "Huh?!"
Expulsion? It seemed like such a drastic punishment—especially for the first day—but according to Aizawa, he was perfectly capable of doing such a thing due to UA's trademark lack of restrictions when it came to teaching. Plus, the scary expression on his face made it seem all the more believable. One of them was at risk of getting kicked out on the very first day of class—and Kazumi was afraid it could be her.
After all, her quirk situation made things a bit complex. Her quirk was called Counterpart, and it allowed Kazumi to take on the complementary opposite of another individual's quirk upon touching them. She could hold on to a counterpart power for twenty to thirty minutes, depending on her stamina. In theory, this would give her a huge advantage in combat. Instead, it came with many limitations.
Her quirk couldn't create counterpart powers for those with mutations as quirks. On top of that, in order to use her quirk, she would need to get within a close enough range for her to touch someone, and when it came to villains, she couldn't expect them to kindly stand still for her. In truth, her skill set made her better as a support rather than a solo fighter, because without anyone else nearby to take the counterpart ability of, she was pretty much quirkless.
Hence why Kazumi was feeling anxious right now. At the moment, she had no power. It would be difficult to obtain a fantastic score on any of the tests unless she had the help of one of her classmates.
As the students spread apart to warm up before starting the official tests, Kazumi shuffled to the side to do some stretches. It also gave her a good vantage point of everyone else, which allowed her to observe them. Everyone with a mutation was immediately crossed off her list, leaving a handful of students for her to potentially ask for help.
Among them, a particular boy caught her eye. It was the one with hair in two different colors—much like hers—but judging from his heterochromatic eyes of grey and blue, his hair was likely natural. He too stood off to the side as he prepared, a cold, serious look on his face. Sometimes one could just sense power, and in this particular case, Kazumi could feel loads of it radiating off of him. Now if she could just work up the courage to ask to touch his hand….
The class went through the first few tests pretty quickly. Kazumi took this chance to further observe her classmates' abilities. Many of them had impressive quirks, and she found herself growing more and more anxious as she witnessed her peers obtain incredibly high scores. Her only comfort came when—in the cases where a quirk wouldn't be useful in completing the task—Kazumi showed to at least be a little more athletic than her classmates.
Knowing from very early on that she could not depend on her quirk as much as others could, the girl had instead pushed herself physically in the years leading up to high school. If she could not keep up with heroes in terms of power, then she had been determined to at least be on par in skill, endurance, and technique.
Her effort had paid off. For example, during the sprint, when running alongside the girl with curly, pink hair and horns and a boy who could shoot out a laser from his navel, Kazumi had finished first by a large enough margin that her worry was temporarily banished by a small spike of pride.
"I can only activate my quirk for a short while or else I'll get a stomachache," the blond explained afterward with a shaky grin.
Kazumi smiled timidly. "You still looked pretty cool flying through the air for those few seconds," she reassured him.
"Ah, mademoiselle, I see you understand true elegance!"
What a flamboyant personality, Kazumi noted with amusement. And yet, despite that odd personality, she found herself waiting beside that boy whenever she wasn't called up for another test.
Knowing that he now had an audience—or at least a listening ear—he spoke more, making comments about the others' performances and repeatedly stating how they didn't sparkle like him. Kazumi nodded regularly to show that she was listening, and multiple times she smiled or giggled at his words. Aoyama, as he had introduced himself, helped calm her nerves as they went through the other tests. In fact, he managed to make her loosen up so much that before she knew it, they were nearing the final couple of tests and she still hadn't managed to do anything spectacular yet.
The girl pursed her lips as they began the ball pitch test, her eyes drifting to each of her classmates, trying to find someone whose counterpart power she could use. By now she had at least an idea of each student's quirk, and from what she had seen, the best people to go to for this type of test would be either Bakugou or the boy with two-toned hair.
"Something troubling you, mademoiselle?" Aoyama asked, noticing how her gaze was flitting back and forth between the two boys.
"I, uh… I kinda need to ask someone for help in order to use my quirk," she admitted. Her hands subconsciously began to fiddle with the hair band that she usually kept around her left wrist. "And the two whom I'm thinking of approaching are both pretty intimidating."
"Ah, yes," the blond nodded in agreement. He glanced at Bakugou. "Though at least one of them appears to be calmer than the other."
"Right… Then I should ask the one with candy cane hair?"
Aoyama didn't reply, choosing instead to encouragingly pat her shoulder as he went up to throw the ball.
Now alone, Kazumi timidly shuffled toward the boy with white and red hair, tapping his shoulder to get his attention.
The boy turned to face her with his unnervingly cold expression. "Yes?"
"Uh, hi. I'm Chinen," she introduced. "And I was wondering if I could touch your hand for a quick second."
The boy raised a brow. "Pardon?"
"Sorry, it's just… well, you see… uh, my quirk allows me to use the counterpart power of whomever I touch. I know you're really strong with your ice, so I was hoping that you would let me, uh… touch you… and probably get a fire ability that I could use for this test."
Oh gosh, that came out really weird. Kazumi cringed at her own words. Her fingers were rapidly twisting her hair band at this point as she waited for the boy's response.
He sighed, his eyes shifting away from her to the teacher, who was marking down another student's score. Several moments had passed now, and Kazumi's shoulders drooped as she realized that he was probably going to turn down her request. She doubted that she would have a better chance of convincing Bakugou to let her touch him, so she would just have to hope she did better than the one other student who had yet to show his quirk—the one with curly, green hair and freckles. Steeling her resolve, the girl prepared for the worst but prayed for the best.
However, just as she was about to turn away, the boy extended his right hand to her. "It can't be helped," he muttered softly. "If that is the nature of your quirk."
Kazumi's face brightened.
It was just a brush. One finger gliding softly against the length of his own before her hand quickly retracted back to her side. The touch had not lasted long, but she felt embarrassed for their first interaction to be one like this.
An odd sensation filled her, causing her right side to feel warm while the left side ached for the feel of water. Her right hand twitched, now holding a power that she could use.
"Thank you again… uh…." Her brows furrowed in a silent question for his name.
"Todoroki."
She smiled. "Thank you so much, Todoroki."
He nodded silently and turned away. Kazumi took this as her cue to leave, so she quickly scurried back to Aoyama, who had finished his turn by now. The blond greeted her with a dazzling smile and a wave that also served to dramatically flick his hair.
"How did it go, mademoiselle?"
She gave him a thumbs up and a nod. It had gone surprisingly well. And just in time, too. She was called up to go next.
Stepping into the circle marked on the ground, the girl accepted the ball from her teacher. Taking a deep breath, Kazumi activated her power. Her right hand began to feel hot, sparks forming around the ball as she pulled her arm back.
Better make Todoroki's help worth it.
With a grunt, she threw the ball as hard as she could, producing a burst of flames to further propel the ball through the air. The technique mimicked Bakugou's method, but it was weaker due to the lack of explosive power behind her temporary pyrokinesis. Still, the burst of fire did its job. The ball landed 250 meters away.
Kazumi's face lit up in a proud smile, her eyes instinctively finding Todoroki in the crowd. He noticed her gaze, but didn't do anything to acknowledge it. However, his expression seemed to soften just the tiniest bit.
"Yes, yes. Great job or something," Aizawa drawled as he marked down her score. "Move along, Chinen. There are other students who still need to go."
The girl quickly complied, returning to Aoyama's side as the boy with freckles replaced her in the circle.
The blond gave her a thumbs up. "Ce n'est pas mal, oui?" (That wasn't bad, right?)
Though Kazumi didn't understand the words, she could hear the message behind it and nodded with a smile of relief. She wouldn't make the top of the board, but at least there was a chance she wouldn't be dead last either.
They turned to watch how the freckled boy would do. He was still preparing to throw the ball, gripping it tightly in his hand as he stared at it with a determined gaze. Then, with a loud shout, he threw the ball with all his might. Kazumi watched as it landed a rather normal distance away—a very anticlimactic result when compared to the battle cry that the boy had started it with. He blinked in confusion.
"I canceled your quirk," Aizawa said, answering everyone's silent question as to what had happened.
The teacher called the boy over, speaking quietly to the boy, but from what Kazumi could see on the latter's face, it wasn't a pleasant talk. A sinking feeling filled her chest. Was the boy getting scolded for not doing well? Perhaps he too had a difficult quirk that needed the right conditions or help in order to be at its best use. Even though she was still hoping to get an overall better score than him, she also couldn't help rooting for him. Birds of a feather flock together and all that.
The conversation appeared to have ended, and the boy went back to the circle for his second attempt on the test. His expression seemed clouded for a moment, but then he straightened up with an even fiercer determination than before.
The world moved in slow motion as he pulled his arm back, then swung forward. A spark of light radiated out from his finger along with a sudden, short gust of wind. The boy grunted as the ball launched away from his hand and rocketed far through the air. Several students gasped in awe, Kazumi included. It was an amazing throw, far better than she expected from him—and once the score was revealed, clearly a better throw than hers.
If he's this strong, he's going to beat me.
The boy turned to the teacher, ignoring the awful bruising that had turned one of his fingers violet. "Sensei," he called. "I'm still standing."
For a moment, Kazumi thought the world had frozen, as if allowing everyone to marvel at the sudden turn of events. Even the teacher looked shocked.
Kazumi suddenly found it hard to breathe as the boy's throw replayed in her mind over and over again. He was… so cool. How could she ever compare? There were only a couple tests remaining. If he pulled off more scores like this, he would overpass her marginal lead for sure. Her vision began to grow hazy as her mind spiralled into a chaotic mess, but it was suddenly forced back to reality by a loud explosion.
"Deku, you b*****d! Tell me how you did that or you're dead!" Bakugou lunged toward the freckled boy, one arm outstretched threateningly as he ran.
The green haired boy shrieked in fear, raising his arms to shield himself. However, just before the blond could reach him, tendrils of grey latched around his body and forced the angry boy to a halt. At the same time, the sparks that had been flashing from Bakugou's palms disappeared. Kazumi's wide eyes followed the long strips of cloth to the wielder—Aizawa himself. Despite how flimsy the teacher's scarf appeared to be, it was doing a fantastic job of keeping Bakugou in place.
"Geez, don't make me use my quirk so much," Aizawa muttered, his eyes glowing a bright red. "It gives me serious dry eye."
The teacher managed to handle the situation, but there was still some heavy tension in the air between the two boys. Kazumi subconsciously shivered. To think that Bakugou would be willing to attack a fellow student like that….
At the end of all the tests, everyone gathered in front of the board to see their placements. Kazumi knew she wouldn't be anywhere near the top, so she started searching for her name from the bottom-up. Luckily, her name wasn't at the end of the list. In fact, to her delight, she placed 17th out of 21.
However, as she took a closer look at whose name was at the very bottom of the scoreboard, she couldn't help but feel a spike of pity. There at the bottom was Izuku Midoriya. And just as she had expected, the freckled boy visibly wilted at the results. However, just before he could break down even further into his sadness, the teacher spoke up.
"By the way, I was lying. No one's getting expelled."
"Huh?!"
"It was just a lie to trick you all into doing your best on the tests," Aizawa explained.
Midoriya face quickly lit up in relief as a girl with short brown hair and a boy with glasses comforted him.
Kazumi smiled as well. Just imagining the disappointment he would have gone through had he been kicked out on the very first day was enough to make her go through a bout of second-hand stress. She gazed up at the teacher. It was a cruel trick, but maybe he was kinder than she had first thought.
Although the start of the school day had been rather unorthodox, the rest of it was rather calm. Almost boring. However, they were still just students, so it was a given that they would need to take normal classes alongside their hero coursework. In a matter of time, school was over and Kazumi returned home.
As soon as she stepped into the house, a small figure ran into her, quickly latching onto her waist. "Kazu-nee!" the cheerful boy greeted, though his voice was slightly muffled due to his face being buried against her shirt.
Kazumi smiled softly and patted the boy's head. "I'm back, Hiroki."
Her brother shifted so he was now gazing up at her with bright, amber eyes, which were partially hidden by raven locks that were growing a bit too long. He was due for a haircut soon.
Their mom stepped into the hall while drying her hands on a towel. "Welcome home, Kazumi! How was your first day of school?"
The girl hummed softly as she slipped her shoes off, then made her way into the kitchen alongside her mom. The boy remained clinging to her waist the entire time, shuffling along and giggling about how his socks allowed him to slide around the floor.
"It's not like other schools. The home room teacher had us working hard from the very beginning," Kazumi explained. "He made us take the basic fitness tests and we were allowed to use our quirks. Everyone in 1-A was amazing. They all have strong quirks."
Her mom smiled and patted her shoulder. "Sounds like you'll fit right in, then, dear."
Ha, I wish.
"Kazu-nee is the strongest in the world!" Hiroki suddenly exclaimed, finally releasing the aforementioned girl so he could jump ahead, spreading his arms out for exaggerated effect.
Kazumi giggled at his confidence. She set her backpack down on one of the counters, then swept her brother up into the air and spun him around. "Silly, Hiro. You're the strongest, remember?"
She ran around the house with her brother in her arms until they got to the living room where they flopped down onto the couch, Hiroki laughing giddily the entire way. Kazumi activated her quirk, taking the counterpart to his power and using it to drape a blanket of darkness over them.
"Hey, Hiroki. Show me that strong quirk of yours again," she whispered with an encouraging smile.
At five years old, he had manifested his quirk a year ago, but was always too shy to use it unless she asked him to. Now, with just the two of them together in a cloak of darkness, he found his courage. Kazumi watched as his small hands reached up and began to glow like a beacon in the night. It dispelled her darkness, once again revealing their surroundings. It was a quirk he had inherited from their mother, though his ability to use light was beginning to become greater than hers.
"Great job, Hiroki. Your light is getting stronger," she praised as she ruffled his hair.
The boy giggled softly and wrapped his arms around her for a hug, which she happily reciprocated. Whenever she closed her eyes, she recalled how Honami would hold her the same way. But this time, things were different. Now, Kazumi was on track to become a hero, and if she could do that, then she could protect everyone she cared for. Especially Hiroki, her one light in this world.