Chapter 2 - First Day
"Oi, Toru, wake up."
Toru rolled over in her bed and looked at Tomo with what he assumed were sleepy eyes. "What time is it?"
"6:30. Get out of bed. We're leaving in an hour and you have to get ready."
"So early," she sleepily mumbled. She then pulled the blanket over her head to block out the sunlight. "Just 5 more minutes."
Tomo sighed. "No, Toru. Get up. You know how long you take to get ready. It's the first day of school. We should get there early."
His plea was met with silence.
"Toru, come on. Don't force me to make you get up."
More silence.
This isn't worth my effort. He decided to instead utilize the most lethal weapon in his arsenal. He walked out into the kitchen to retrieve said weapon.
"Really? Are you sure?" Miyu asked him in a whisper as they both entered the room.
Tomo nodded with a grin. Miyu returned his grin with her own mischievous one before turning to Toru's sleeping form. Then, she jumped onto their sister on the bed, face right next to her ear. "TOOOOOOORUUUUUU! WAAAAAAAKEEEE UPPPP!"
Toru screeched at the sudden loud force of nature that was Miyu in the mornings. She took a moment to gather herself and realize they were not under attack.
"ARE YOU AWAKE YET?!" Miyu screeched in her poor sister's ear.
"Yes, Miyu, I am most definitely awake…" Toru replied with a groan and a gentle shove to keep Miyu out of her face.
"GOOD MOOOOOORNING!"
"Yeah, yeah, good morning to you too, Miyu." Toru let out a defeated sigh. The glare she gave Tomo didn't need a visible face for Tomo to understand how angry she was at him. "TOMO… Did you HAVE to wake me up like THAT?"
"You're the one who told me to wake you up early last night so you 'have plenty of time to get ready!'" he quoted in a higher pitched voice.
Toru's glare intensified. "Hey! I do not sound like that!"
Tomo gave her a smirk. "If you say so. Just hurry up and get ready."
"Yeah! Hurry up and get ready! Slowpoke!" Miyu shouted as she jumped off Toru and ran back into the kitchen with more energy than the both of them combined.
While their mother took Miyu to school in the morning before heading off to work, the twins always rode the train together to go to school together. It was a routine they had going for nearly half of their lives now. As a result, Tomo could always sneak in an extra nap during their commute without worry.
"Psst, Tomo, wake up. Our stop is coming up."
"Huh?" Tomo jerked awake to take in his surroundings. He was sitting down next to Toru on the train, on their way to their first day of class at their new school. Luckily for him, they had managed to find two seats right before the train got fully crowded.
"Did you get any sleep?" Toru asked him quietly.
"Yeah, I did. Thanks for looking out for me," he replied in genuine appreciation. The train slowed down as it arrived at their stop.
"Yeah, whatever." She was still clearly annoyed by the events of the morning but she would never dare to mess with his naps. The two got off the train and made their way towards UA in silence.
"Sooooo," Toru began once they got closer to the building. Her mood seemed to pick up a bit as they approached their new school. "Do you want to plan some kind of flashy entrance? Something to make a great first impression?"
"No," Tomo deadpanned.
She let out a sigh of annoyance. "Come on, Tomo! First impressions are important! We're gonna be with our classmates for three whole years. I don't want to be known as just "the twins" again! Pleaseeeeeeeeee?"
"No," he repeated. "I'm going straight back to sleep until class starts when we arrive. And you'll wake me up before homeroom starts, right?"
"You're no fun," she pouted. After a brief pause, she hummed to herself and spoke again, "And I dunno… You did set Miyu on me this morning. Maybe I should just let you sleep and see how our new homeroom teacher deals with it…"
Tomo sighed, knowing what was coming. "Fine, what do you want?"
"I'll do it… only if you acknowledge me as the more amazing, superior, more beautiful, and funnier twin."
"Wow, I think nothing from that statement was true. Maybe pretty since we're twins, but prettier? That's a stretch. I mean, have you s-"
"Do you want me to wake you up in time or not?!" Toru snapped at him.
Tomo let out an exaggerated sigh, as if what he was about to say was going to cause him physical pain. Which it honestly did a little. "Fine… Please wake me up before homeroom starts, my dear amazingsuperiormorebeautifulfunniertwin," he coughed as he quickly said the words.
"Okay!" she said in an annoyingly satisfied tone and took off at a faster pace towards UA while looking at her phone.
"Hey, Tomo?" Toru asked as they approached the giant gate of UA.
"What?" he replied, not liking the tone of her voice.
"I'm going to introduce myself to everyone as you but more amazing, superior, prettier and funnier. You won't have any problems with that, right?"
Tomo snorted. "You can if you want but no one's going to believe you."
The grin in Toru's voice got wider. "I dunno… You did say it yourself…"
She showed him her phone and tapped the screen. "Please wake me up before homeroom starts, my dear amazingsuperiormorebeautifulfunniertwin."
Tomo stared at her, dumbfounded. "You recorded that?!"
Toru giggled. "Of course! I can't wait to show Mom and Miyu! And all of our classmates! And our teacher! Maybe I should make this my ringtone..."
Tomo groaned. Maybe he deserved it for launching Miyu on Toru earlier. He swallowed some of his pride. "C-can you not…?"
Toru cackled even louder. "Fine! But you owe me in the future."
"What did I get myself into…" Tomo mumbled as they entered the building.
They arrived at their classroom to find it occupied by a few kids already. Tomo walked straight to his assigned seat while Toru stayed behind by the door. Great, I have a front-row seat. Why couldn't I be in the back where it's easier to doze off?
"Hello!" Tomo heard his sister greet. After all that fussing about getting her perfect introduction, "Hello" is the best she can do?
She was met with a couple of replies but Tomo didn't pay any further attention to them. He was pretty sure a few of the people in the room greeted him too. However, his attention was focused on one very important thing. He eyed his seat and walked straight to it. Enough desk space to sleep on. Height is good enough so that resting my head doesn't hurt my back. Surface looks even enough. Perfect. Good thing Toru sits behind me so I can actually nap in the mornings. He sat down in his seat and put his head down to rest. As far as napping places went, this one was exactly average, but Tomo wasn't one to complain; he didn't need much to fall asleep quickly.
Almost immediately, he heard a voice. "Excuse me."
A hand was on his shoulder, gently shaking him. Tomo slowly raised his head to glare at the devil who dared to prevent him from taking a nap. He was greeted by the sight of a tall, dark-blue haired boy in glasses looking at him in disappointment. Maybe it was more karma biting him back for how he used Miyu to wake Toru up that morning.
"Huh?" he replied ungracefully.
"Sleeping before class is highly disrespectful towards our teachers and this institution and reflects poorly on yourself. It demonstrates a lack of preparedness on your end and suggests that you do not wish to be here. If you are having trouble sleeping at home, I can suggest several remedies to help you relax at n-"
Tomo put his head back down as he tried to tune the guy out. This guy talks too much.
The glasses boy clearly didn't like that. "Hey!" The hand shook his shoulder again, more aggressively this time.
Tomo groaned when the boy wouldn't leave him alone after several minutes of trying to get his attention. The glasses boy tried shaking his shoulder for a while before deciding to just lecture him anyway about the etiquettes of respect and other boring topics. He sure is persistent. "Hey, can you just please leave me alone and let me rest in peace?"
Toru made her way over towards them after hearing the commotion. Her convenient tardiness to his dilemma did not go unnoticed by Tomo. "Hey!"
The tall boy turned to her, disappointment plainly written on his face at Tomo's behavior.
"Toru Hagakure, pleasure to meet you. This is my brother, Tomo. He, uh, has... insomnia. So he tries to catch up on sleep whenever possible. Can you please just let him rest. I promise I'll wake him up before homeroom officially starts."
"What she said," Tomo added with a thumb pointing at her before promptly putting his head back down to his desk for the third time. He was glad Toru went with the easy lie they gave whenever people asked about Tomo's constantly tired state.
"I see," the tall boy replied. "My apologies, then. I was unaware of your condition. My name is Tenya Iida. It is my pleasure to make both your acquaintances. I hope that we can… Hey! Don't put your feet on the desk!"
The tall, uptight boy's attention turned to someone a few seats behind Tomo. Finally, some peace and quiet. Another loud conversation broke out behind him. Relatively, at least…
Only a minute later, his sleep was interrupted again when Toru threw an eraser at his head from behind.
"Get up. I think our teacher is here," she whispered to him in a panicked voice.
Tomo raised his head in annoyance. I got to rest my eyes for a grand total of one minute. He turned around to give Toru her eraser back while also giving her a disapproving glare at her chosen method to wake him up.
"Whoops, seemed to have dropped my eraser," she replied innocently.
With a yawn, Tomo then looked towards the entrance of the door to see a kindred spirit standing in the doorway with a sleeping bag in his hands.
Now there's a person with some sense. I wonder if I can get one of those sleeping bags for myself.
Said person turned out to actually be their homeroom teacher, much to everyone's surprise. The sleepy teacher told the class to put on a uniform and meet him outside in a field before leaving the room again.
A few minutes later, Class 1-A did exactly that. Mr. Aizawa, which was their teacher's name, explained to them how, much to Tomo's disappointment and disagreement, orientations were a waste of time and instead, they would more efficiently use their time by doing a Quirk assessment test. Tomo watched an angry looking boy, who he heard was called Bakugo, launch a softball straight into the sky with his Quirk, showing everyone what to expect with the aid of their abilities.
"The one who scores the lowest across all eight tests will be judged hopeless and will be expelled," their teacher added, killing the uplifting mood of the class.
Tomo exchanged a nervous glance with Toru, a silent exchange going through their minds from the glance.
"Excuse me," he said as he raised his hand. Everyone's attention turned to Tomo. He fought the urge to shrink away from all the eyes on him. "What are we supposed to do if our Quirks aren't suited for physical exams?"
"You better hope you're a physically gifted person then," Aizawa replied unsympathetically.
"That doesn't sound very fair," Tomo began to argue.
"Yeah! How is it fair to be expelled on our first day?" another student added.
Aizawa snorted. "Fair? Are villain attacks fair? Are natural disasters fair? You're all aspiring to be heroes? Let this be your first lesson. Life isn't fair. A hero's duty is to respond to these unfair situations and make the best of a bad situation. Learn to go the extra mile in the face of adversity. That's what going Plus Ultra is all about. So, show me you have what it takes."
It was clear there would be no further room for argument.
First up was the 50-meter dash. Tomo was paired with a boy whose hair was evenly split between red and white. It reminded him a lot of his sister Miyu, who also had hair split down the middle, but in black and white. The boy didn't even give him a glance, let alone a greeting. Not that Tomo cared.
How hard do I want to try at these? Man, why couldn't we just have an orientation? At least I could have slept through it. Instead, we're stuck doing physical activities? How lame. Oh well, I might as well try my best. Can't get expelled on the first day.
As soon as they were given the signal to start, Tomo sprouted black wings of Darkness at his back and flew down the track. At the same time, the boy next to him summoned ice that he used to skate across the track.
"3.85 seconds!"
"4.01 seconds!"
Tomo silently congratulated himself for beating his partner. Said boy in question gave him a brief look after seeing how he was just barely beaten. Tomo gave him a smirk, hoping, but failing, to get a response out of him.
"Hey," a new voice greeted him after he made his way back to his classmates. Tomo turned to see a bird-headed boy looking at him. The boy continued, "Your Quirk… Are you a servant of darkness too?"
Tomo blanked on a response, staring dumbly at the boy instead for longer than he felt comfortable doing. The boy patiently stared back at him while waiting for a response. "Uh… I guess so? My Quirk is darkness-related if that's what you were asking."
The boy nodded. "I see. What does it do exactly?"
"It gives me the ability to solidify, shape, and control Darkness from my hands and back."
The boy nodded again. "You can do it even though it's currently bright?"
"Uh, yeah? Why wouldn't I?" Tomo asked in confusion.
"How do you call forth Darkness when it's bright outside? Doesn't it interfere with your Quirk?"
"Not really. Darkness is the natural state of the world. It's always hiding beneath the light and it's always present so I can just call it forward," Tomo said as he reached into the air to form a small stick of Darkness to show the boy.
"I see. That's something I haven't thought about. Very interesting. Oh, by the way, my Quirk is Dark Shadow, in case you were wondering." As he said that, a shadow-like creature came out of the boy and greeted Tomo, much to his surprise.
Tomo's eyes widened, a curious thought crossing his mind at the sight of the creature. "Does… Darkness speak to you, too?" he asked in a hopeful tone.
The boy gave him a confused look. "Speak? Dark Shadow can speak to me, yes."
"N-nevermind," Tomo replied sadly. If he doesn't know what I'm talking about, then it doesn't speak to him like it does to me. He talks about his Quirk like there's nothing to worry about. "So, you can control Darkness too?"
"Not all darkness," the boy clarified. "Just Dark Shadow."
"Interesting," Tomo commented as he inspected the creature that was looking at the two students currently running for their test. What would happen if I tried controlling his Quirk?
"I'm Fumikage Tokoyami, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet someone who also prefers the company of the tree's shade."
"Uh, Tomo Hagakure. I prefer to go by Tomo. And yeah, nice to meet you as well." What did he just say?
Up next was the grip strength test. Tomo spawned a hand of Darkness that he used to do the test for him.
The standing long jump test was easily cleared when Tomo summoned wings again to carry him over the sandbox. The repeated side steps was the first exam Tomo's Quirk didn't give him an advantage in and he performed averagely. For the ball throw, Tomo decided to have a little fun and spawned a baseball bat of Darkness and swung at the ball to send it flying. The distance run was as easy as the 50-meter and the seated toe-touch and situps were both done averagely at best.
The entire time, Tomo's attention was on his sister. Like he expected, she seemed to struggle at every single test. Her Quirk just simply wasn't meant for this and she lacked the athleticism to make up for it. Tomo couldn't help but silently seethe at how unfair this was to her. He didn't know what he would do if she got expelled. Quit? Transfer? Continue?
Luckily for him, he would never know. Not only did Toru finish 19th out of 20, or, not last, but Aizawa also revealed that his threat of expulsion was a "logical ruse" meant to motivate them to try their best.
"Wow, Tomo, look at you, Mr. 4th Place. Nice job," Toru commented once it was all over in a tone that was both mocking and sincere.
Tomo gave her a tired smile. He wanted to lay down and take a nap. "Yeah, thanks. I haven't tried that hard in… I don't even know. Thinking about it is making me tired. Just didn't want to get expelled, I guess." And it wouldn't feel right if I didn't try my hardest when you were trying your hardest and struggling to not get last.
"Hey," someone interrupted them. A pink girl with horns waved to both of them in greeting. Tomo had seen Toru talking to her a few times. She was joined by a purple-haired girl and a blond boy. The pink girl continued, looking at Tomo, "Your Quirk was pretty amazing. Do you practice a lot to learn to fly like that?"
"No," Tomo replied flatly.
Toru coughed. "Please excuse my brother. He can be a bit rude when he's tired." She elbowed him in the side. Tomo chose to ignore her subtle message to act nice. His mind was focused on one thing only.
A few more kids gathered around them, drawn in by the noise. Toru looked elated at all the attention they were getting.
"Oh? Brother? You two are related?" the blond boy asked.
Toru laughed while Tomo groaned, knowing what was coming next. She would never miss an opportunity to tell her favorite joke. "Yeah, you couldn't tell? We look exactly alike!"
Her joke was met with an awkward silence as their group looked back and forth from the normal-looking, black-haired boy to the invisible girl. The blond boy was the only one to snicker.
"Did you have to make that joke?" Tomo complained after he saw that their classmates didn't know how to respond.
"Actually, I kind of liked it," a boy with a tail said.
That seemed to stir the rest of the group.
"Yeah, I thought it was hilarious. I can totally see the resemblance!" the blond added with a grin.
"I'm a bit curious now, though. Do you guys actually look identical?" a frog-like girl inquired.
Tomo and Toru looked at each other. "Yeah, we did according to our mom. At least we did before my Quirk turned me invisible permanently. We used to share the same facial structure, same black eyes, and the same… Well, you get the idea. Identical twins and stuff. Although… the blue highlights on his hair are a more recent addition. He used to have pure black hair while I apparently have pure white."
A red-haired boy made his way up to Tomo. "Hey, I recently dyed my hair too! Blue is a pretty manly color, I respect it!"
"Uh-huh." Tomo replied, unsure of how to respond. He was too sleepy to engage in deeper conversation. He slipped away from the group when their attention was on Toru and walked back towards the building quietly when they were dismissed, hoping to find another pocket of time during the school day to take a quick nap. The red-haired boy followed him, asking him all sorts of questions ranging from hair dye to heroes and manliness.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Any thoughts, comments, or feedback are appreciated.