[Kill Your Heroes]
Rin started looking at hero magazines, rather than the fashion. Fashion didn't matter, all she wore were hoods and clothes to obscure her body. She had ten months before U.A. If she got in through recommendations, and it was going to take more than her quirk. Ten months before an entrance exam that would no doubt be testing core skill, rather than the bulk presented to those without recommendations. She noted her heavy reliance on her quirk to move her around in the first place, which was not a good thing. That would have to be worked upon. If she was stronger too, she'd have stronger control over things like the wind, her electricity, and when it came to it, water too.
So she started to admire the hero's who were more toned, and strong. Not All Might hunk, but people with control. She started to train, not doing anything like ancient martial arts but picked up boxing, which fixed her evasion quite a bit.
She started to eat properly, instead of dainty meals and being sworn off dairy and gluten. Didn't go so well for her stomach, throwing her into shock. She fixed that by consulting a clinic.
Runs became a practice, as Rika suggested. And her legs looked better than when she was on her random diets. She liked her motivation.
When she wasn't at home eating chocolate over her homework. No matter how strict she tried to be... she couldn't help but eat an entire bar at least three or more times a week. The convenience store- which was repaired- was a little too close.
She'd tried to learn to manipulate the friction from anywhere but her hand, learning to extract her electrons from somewhere else other than her body. This resulted in frying her TV cables, and a big hole in her wallet. She got money once a month from her parents, they'd send it to her through a series of people and accounts to avoid tracing their identity, or letting Rin know how they acquired it. She didn't ask, she couldn't complain as they were letting her pursue education at the U.A.
And then the day came where she was set for an exam that those with official recommendations took. The written part was out of the blue, but she passed it because of her dedication in ingesting all knowledge she could for ten months. Then it was a race course, four kilometers and all you had to do was make it through obstacles. She didn't take note of the day events, moving through six phases of giddiness (pre-exam "I'm here!", "I know this answer!", "I passed!", "A race! I'm good at those!", "I'm good at this!", "I did well!") save for the few people who tried to talk to her and she awkwardly denied any praise. She managed third in the race.
She waited a week. She waited, trained, weighted, ate, studied, and waited. She was just hoping for the letter.
It came, and she nearly pounced on the mailman outside her apartment. She tore apart the letter in the light above the stove, beaming as bright as the glimmering pot with a boiling egg in it.
She nearly dropped the pre-recorded hologram into the pot, saving it with a gust of wind but her egg hit the wall, while the hologram clattered to the counter and began to light up. Since the wall cracked the egg, she began to peel it while watching the hologram.
It was Midnight, one of the female teachers at the U.A. Wearing a skin tight outfit with garters, her glasses on her head and her black hair curled to perfection.
"Hello, Hinata Rinko. Your performance during our practical exam was just as we hoped, after the police reports. We also reviewed your school reports and so... we accept the recommendations and will allow you into our school. By the way... your style and the way you move... it's just so cute and full of youth!"
The hologram shut off, leaving the silence to be filled with Rin choking on her egg in strange glee. She coughed it out, pumping her fist with a short, "Yeah!"
Her first day started with her routine, minus the mirror gazing before her hood made it on to her head. She submitted her costume idea the week before, which took many nights to draw since she was so shaky about it. She wouldn't get it now, but it didn't stop her from being excited.
It had been a while, since she'd been so happy for weeks on end. Now the day was here. She had her hood, her uniform, and was assigned to class 1-A. She stood before the large door, remarking how large it was for no apparent reason. Then she stepped in to a mostly empty classroom, not having been filled up yet. She checked the clock in the back and realized she was early, as she had planned, but a little earlier than expected.
She chose a seat in the back, part of habit for avoid direct looks. She took out one of her manga, beginning to read as the class began to fill up. Some boy sat on her left, and her eyes wandered over to look at him. He had hair color split between right and red, and eye color split between brown and blue. And his blue eye, around it he was burned. Though she didn't pay much mind to that, just wondered if it was all natural. He looked like a main character, unlike herself.
She looked over beside him at a girl with a lot of dark hair swept up into a ponytail. There was not much else striking features to her, she had regular brown eyes and a cute face. Most girls she ever saw had cute faces, it wasn't anything new.
She eyed the group clustering at the front door, made of a boy with curly green hair, big green eyes, and freckles. A little plain looking, but eyes don't come that big unless you're clearly meant to be younger or a main focus. He was joined by a girl with brown eyes and bobbed brown hair, with very rosy cheeks, and a taller, very muscular boy with clean cut hair, rectangle glasses, and thin eyebrows. He seemed so robotic it was frightening.
But something else also was, as they were all staring at a man in the doorway with faces of slight-disgust and surprise. The man there had scruffy black hair and a thin scarf layering his shoulders. He had stubble and his eyes looked like he was just asking for death... He looked at worn out as Rin did when she was training.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota," The gruffly man said. He was carrying a yellow sleeping bag, and pulled what looked like the P.E. uniform out. "I know this is sudden, but please put this on and go outside."
The students did as told, of course with Rin keeping her hoodie over her head. She avoided even talking to the girls in the locker room, feeling as nervous as she did in middle school all over again.
"Won't you be a little hot from that hoodie?" A girl piped up behind Rin.
She turned around, seeing the brunette that had been in the doorway earlier. "No," She said, "I'll be fine, I prefer it this way."
"Really? You must be brave, looking super cool like that," The girl said. "My name is Uraraka Ochaco."
"Hinata Rinko," Rin replied, "Yoroshiku, Uraraka-san."
"Let's do our best! Whatever we're doing," Uraraka said.
Rin couldn't quite catch on to her optimism, "... Yeah," She agreed.
She walked outside with the girl, putting her hands into her hoodie pockets as she gathered with the class outside at a pitch site.
"This is Midoriya-san, and Iida-san," Uraraka introduced.
"Yoroshiku. I'm Hinata Rinko," Rin blatantly added. Midoriya was the green haired one from earlier, and Iida the robotic body-builder boy.
"You got in from recommendations, I see. I didn't see you at the practical exam," Iida said.
"Yes," Rin replied. "I come from Shiga Prefectual. It's nothing special."
"I see, you are not local either. Good job," Iida congratulated. "I look forward to class with you."
Rin awkwardly shifted her hands out of her pockets. "You're very earnest," she admitted. "I'm surprised someone like you was not recommended."
"We're doing a quirk assessment test," Aizawa interrupted.
All the students repeated back in surprise. No orientation? Names? Getting to know each other? All out the door.
Rin liked it already.
Aizawa told them they had no time for leisurely events like that, like you'd figure. He explained it like a fitness test that you'd usually take in junior high, but this time you were allowed to use your quirks that way it was easier to assess true ability. He ordered a boy with spiky blonde hair- like he'd survived a bomb incident or severe electrification- to come into the pitch circle and handed him a ball. His name was Bakugo Katsuki, and Rin couldn't help but think he was the cockiest bastard she'd ever met. But he'd finished at the top, so there must be a bit to back that up.
Bakugo chucked it, a blast of fire trailing behind it. Fire or explosion? Not much difference... he did say die in an aggressive way though, Rin noted, and to a ball at that. So not a guy she wanted to deal with.
Seven hundred and five metres.
"I'm not athletic at all, so this will be a challenge," Rin admitted. Well, she just wasn't. She trained, but it wasn't like she enjoyed it she just thought it was necessary.
Then they were told that whoever came last out of all eight tests would be expelled.
Now the real challenge began. Go beyond. Plus Ultra.
The first test was a fifty metre dash. Running, what made Rin's legs look good but she dreaded it. At least she was strict about keeping in shape, but she'd never actually sprinted. She was lucky it involved quirks, because she could easily. She stood next to a boy with spiky red hair, not caring to ask for his name as he ran regularly. She, on the other hand, flicked her fingers for a fast whirlwind to push her past the line. Four seconds, on the mark.
The next was a grip test, which wasn't anything she could help with her quirk. A 23.9 for her. She wasn't all that strong still, so she scratched the back of her head. She should find something she liked, after all, to make her stronger...
Standing long jump. She just propelled herself and ended up past the sand pit.
Side steps were not in her favour, but she didn't mind that.
And then they were back to the pitch. Eight hundred metres, by letting a gale sweep it away until it was out of her control. She sighed, going back to the waiting group.
Then there was Midoriya. She couldn't tell anything from his nervous gulp before making his mind up. His hand began to light up, and he threw the ball with as much power as possible, and at the same time none of his power at all. His quirk completely disappeared.
Rin's eyes traced over to Aizawa-sensei, her mouth quivering in surprise. Eraser Head, in this place of all... His hair was standing up wildly, goggles hidden under his scruffy scarves with were not swirling above him. Makes sense for an undercover and hidden profile type of hero to have looked so harmless.
"I erased your quirk," Aizawa told Midoriya, his eyes a bright and terrifying red. "The entrance exam was not rational enough, since they let in a kid like you. From what I can tell, you can't even control your own quirk. Do you want to hurt yourself so someone can save you?"
"That's not my intention," Midoriya replied, to be grappled by the scruffy, thin scarf.
"Whatever your intention, that's what those around you will be forced to do," Aizawa warned. "In the past, there was an overly oppressive and passionate hero who saved over one thousand people by himself and created a legend. Even if you have the same valor, you'll be beaten before you can save one person. With your power, you can't become a hero."
Rin traced her eyes back to Midoriya, who struggled to find words, or prove his resolve.
Then he made up his mind with a hard look, taking his second turn in the ball throw. And he threw just as hard as the first time, the ball rocketing through the air. Whatever his power, or his quirk, was, it was pretty great even if it did hurt him. Clearly, his index finger was broken from whatever move he pulled off but Rin couldn't help but admire him.
He walked back over to Iida and Uraraka, who she'd naturally flocked to. So she had to tell him.
"Hey, Midoriya-san. You're really cool," She said with a thumbs up.
The next were sit-ups, toe touches, and the a long distance which she couldn't help much but regulate the air through her lungs by used of her quirk, just so she wouldn't feel winded. Whatever she happened to be, she just couldn't be last and that was good for her.
Aizawa displayed the results of their fitness. Rin glanced over at one side, seeing the eleven through twenty and her name not among them. If it weren't for her convenient quirk, she'd have been dead last so she liked the U.A. a whole bunch now. But being dependent on her quirk was nothing to be proud of.
"Also, I was bluffing about the expulsion. It was all to being out your best performances," Aizawa grinned at his joke.
Rin paused, turning away as she headed back to the change room again. "Liar," she muttered.
Classes were like normal, with short orientations following until the end of the day. Rin dawdled around the school, coming back to 1-A to ensure she hadn't forgetting anything, then she headed back.
She decided to walk— the prison compound being closer to the U.A. in case of emergency, so it was easy access. Though of course, if there was ever a mass prison break the students would also be in danger.
She checked in with a lady inside her office, cut off from touch by clear plastic. She pulled off her hoodie, waving sheepishly. She was regularly here. "I hope it's not passed visiting hours. I just came from school," Rin said. "I'm here to see Tempest. Or Sayaka Akito, since he can't really be a villain here anymore."
"You're fine, you can go over to the telephone booth," The lady pointed so Rin headed there, knowing the place well.
She strolled over, waiting for the police officers to usher in a man in a straight jacket and a muzzle. It wasn't even enough to keep him down, no way, there was nothing that could hold Tempest in its place but a death sentence, but he was not worthy of that, nor did he cause enough trouble to ever get there. His hair was long and white, not because of old age but because of a permanent damage from his own, powerful, and feared quirk of wind and lightning. Swift.
He was a brute, large with muscle that hadn't even began to degrade since he arrived four years prior for a lifetime sentence. They still could not wear him down, and he had learned to yearn for things of the outside world again, which he wouldn't have had he been his younger, troubled self.
His yearnings were one thing: Rin. His hard look, the stormy blue eyes— an instant homicide if looks could kill— immediately softened to the tender and care of a father looking after his first born in a lonely world.
He was not unreasonable, so they complied to remove his straight jacket and muzzle so he could sit normally on the other side of the booth, opposite of Rin. Before even picking up the phone, he placed his hand on the glass, and in response a hand half his size and a quarter of his strength reached the glass and imprinted itself in the line of its own.
Rin looked with eyes of pity, disappointment, but mostly compassion and loneliness at her father. She loathed that there was such negativeness when she saw her eyes reflected against his own, but she could not help it. Even if he wasn't a villain to her, the negativity surrounding his incrimination constantly haunted her.
"Ten minutes," The officer said.
"The season is coming to an end. You're graduating junior high and moving on now, right?" The father asked expectantly.
"Yes," she replied. "I'm attending one of the best schools in Japan. Mother also sent a letter of congratulations, I think, but I've neglected to open it."
"Really?! I knew you were smart, but this smart?! That's amazing! Where? Tell me," Her father demanded in excitement.
"You told me that what sets apart a villain and a hero is that the hero can reverse a situation, right?"
His eyes dropped. "Yes but, what does that—"
"I've made it into the U.A. on recommendations, no surprise. But I accepted," she said, freezing her dad in place and his tenderness was replaced by the stormy cold again. She breathed in as his hand slowly dropped, "I want to be a hero who can reverse situations. Because my mom is guilty when she looks me in the eyes at dinner, and drank for every time she was forced to look at my scars. Because my father was a criminal at large, and is now in jail when he'd finally reversed himself. Because he's a burden now to his family, and they will have to carry the haunting for the rest of their life but I don't want that. To lead the same life, I don't want to be a burden, or to be disruptive to others lives and either make people guilty, or hurt them emotionally or physically. I don't want to be feared, I just don't want to be afraid. I have nothing to hide my cowardice except under the guise that I help other people. It's selfish, but that's the only way for me to feel good."
"Is that all you wanted to tell me?"
Her hand dropped a few moments after his. "Yeah," she breathed.
"I don't want to burden you. I don't want people to look at you and only see me, the villain. If you want to be a hero, go for it. But you have to reverse yourself too," Tempest said.
Rin's eyes slowly glided up to the storm again. "So... you really support me?" She asked, her voice cracking with an unknown emotion at the end.
"You're my only daughter, my only relation to the outside world. I just have to trust you," Tempest replied.
"Then... I'm going to become the best hero in the world!"