Chapter 1: The Transfer Student
"Jasmyne I just don't understand why you have to go all the way to Japan for this, there are plenty of excellent schools right here at home."
Jasmyne rolled her eyes not looking forward to having this same discussion with her mother for the fifteenth time in a row. "Because mother, UA high school is the top hero school in Japan. It's a miracle I got in, especially as a transfer student."
"Yes, but I don't think you remember but we live in the USA, not Japan."
"Cute joke, I'm still going," she replied, slamming the lid shut on her suitcase. "Every school within a 500-mile radius is specialized for people with physical quirks, not mental ones like mine. They don't know how to help me; I've been basically teaching myself for the past three years. Whether it's Japan or somewhere in America I'm not going to be able to stay anywhere close to here."
"But you've improved a lot!" her mother exclaimed as if she had thought of this brilliant new point and not just regurgitated the exact same thing she always said. "I know the teachers aren't much help, but you've always learned better when left to yourself. You taught yourself to read, to tie your shoes- "
"To ride a bike, to drive a car," Jasmyne continued for her. "Yes. I did do all that. But this is beyond the scope of what I care to deal with by myself. TSJ is a good school, it's not number one in the US for no reason, it's just not good for me and my quirk. It's getting out of control mom. If I don't go, then… I really don't want to think about what's going to happen."
"And what exactly are you supposed to do for money while you're there? How are you going to eat? Where are you going to sleep? For God's sake Jasmyne you don't even want to be a pro hero so what is the point of going to a school meant to train you to be a hero."
"The hero classes have dedicated dorms for students, I'm going to be living there. They have cafeterias for food. And I have plenty of money saved up from babysitting and my part time jobs over the past few years. I'll have enough to get me through to next summer. And it has nothing to do with wanting to be a hero or not mother, it has to do with controlling my power. I tested into the hero course, and they have real pros teaching them. Whether or not I get my hero license isn't relevant. I don't have to use it."
Her mother was silent for a moment before she responded to her daughter's monologue. "And when all this is said and done, you'll come home, right?"
Jasmyne hoped her mother didn't notice the half second hesitation before she answered. "Of course, mom."
Jasmyne and her mother had the same conversation another 6 times since then until Jasmyne boarded her flight to Tokyo. It would take her a grand total of seventeen hours (not including wait times between each different mode of transportation she took) for her to reach Musutafa and UA high. That was seventeen hours that she could safely dodge her mother's panicked phone calls wondering if she had made it safely to school. She might even be able to push it a full day if she pretended that she passed out as soon as she got to the school. Maybe not though, because her mother was liable to throw a fit and make the flight herself to drag Jasmyne back home.
She put in her earbuds and pressed play on her phone and her ears were filled with the sound of metal music at top volume. She wasn't the biggest fan of metal music, but it was one of the few genres that was loud enough to drown out her quirk; at least most of it. So, with the bass pounding into her ears she settled into her much too small seat and lowered the shade on her window and waited for takeoff.
By the time the plane touched down at Haneda airport, Jasmyne felt like her body had gotten stuck in the position she was sitting in. It seemed to take even longer for her to disembark than it did for her to take the damn flight in the first place. Cram two hundred people on a plane and they all lose their collective minds.
Then came baggage claim, which was an even bigger nightmare. The same 200 people plus however many hundred more coming off other flights whose minds were already lost then seemed to lose all manners too as they were pushing and shoving to get their bags off the carousel. They acted as if they were dying of thirst and their bags were an oasis in the desert
Finally, a three-hour train ride to Musutafa, which was so far the easiest part of her trip. By the time she arrived in Japan it was relatively late in the evening, well passed the rush hour traffic but still light enough that the streetlamps weren't on quite yet. She spent her entire ride on the train just staring out at the passing scenery, taking in the beauty of the landscape until it was too dark to see everything clearly. It was blessedly quiet unlike the airport and the plane so she could actually focus on what she was looking at instead of having to try to drown out the sounds banging around in her head. She was so entranced by the view and so engrossed in the silence that she almost missed her stop, snapping out of her trance just before the train doors closed.
Now was going to be the hardest part, getting to the school with all her bags in tow. With one bag on each shoulder, she grabbed her rolling suitcase in her left hand and held her phone with her map open in her right. The GPS was estimating about another fifteen minutes for her to make it to the school.
So, with that she pushed her bag further back on her shoulder and started walking. It was much quieter here than it was back home, you could hear everything and yet nothing at the same time. She grew concerned when she started hearing voices around her but was quickly reassured when she saw the people talking. They were walking towards her but engrossed in their own conversation in Japanese.
That reminds me, I should probably pick up on the language here, so I don't embarrass myself.
Jasmyne focused on one of the girls and her quirk began to do its magic. What sounded like distant muttering a moment ago suddenly became a clear conversation in her mind.
"Ano benkyō-kai wa oso sugitanode, watashitachi wa hontōni ie ni kaeranakereba narimasen…. My parents are going to kill me if they get another fine because I couldn't make it home before curfew."
The language itself flew threw her mind, her quirk storing it wherever there was room. She could practically see the language breaking itself down in front of her. The grammar and syntax, the nouns and verbs all made immediate sense in her head. What would take a normal person years to learn, she was able to break down and process in a second.
"Excuse me, but what curfew are you talking about," Jasmyne asked when the girls were close enough. In her head she was speaking English but the words that came out were Japanese.
When one of the girls answered her, it was the same thing; the spoken words were foreign but in her mind, it was clear what she was saying. "What do you mean what curfew? The prefecture curfew, did you hit your head or something?"
"She's a tourist Ayano, obviously she wouldn't know," the second girl said to her friend before turning to Jasmyne. "Your Japanese is very good for a tourist."
"Thank you but I'm not exactly a tourist," Jasmyne replied. "I'm a new transfer student to UA high, I was just on my way to the dorms."
"Well, it's a good thing you're close," the first girl, Ayano, told her. "There's a mandatory curfew in Japan in most of the prefectures. Here in Musutafa its ten o'clock, so you're right under the wire."
Jasmyne looked down at the clock on her phone. It read 21:45, which left her with about fifteen minutes to curfew with another five minutes time to get to campus. "Oh, shoot I better get going too then." Jasmyne gave both girls a deep bow as she'd learned to do before coming to Japan. "Thank you so much for your help, get home safe!"
The girls both gave her a short bow back and went on their way again, as did Jasmyne who started walking double time just to make sure that she would make it to campus before curfew. She didn't know exactly what fine the school would get if she got caught or if she would get caught at all, but she was not going to risk making a bad first impression like that her first day.
The lights of the school finally came into view, and she took a second to take it all in. The large H-shaped building shone bright against the dark background, so much so that Jasmyne wondered how she didn't see it earlier. She quickly made her way down the path leading to the school entrance. Either she was in such a rush or just so tired from the flight that she didn't immediately pick up on the tall dark-haired man leaning against the pillar near the top of the steps.
"Good evening Aizawa-sensi," Jasmyne said, just slightly out of breath, giving her new head teacher a respectful bow. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, there was some delays at the airport."
"You're just in time," Mr. Aizawa said with a yawn. "Good thing to because if you'd been any later I would have left you out here all night and gone to get myself some sleep."
Jasmyne couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but for some reason when she tried to use her quirk to confirm it, her mind was silent. Not in the sense that she couldn't hear him, but for the first time since her quirk manifested she couldn't hear anything besides her own thoughts.
"Jasmyne Keane," Aizawa said pulling a relatively thick folder out from seemingly nowhere. "Third year transfer student from TSJ high school in America. Age: 18. D.O.B: 15th of August. Quirk: Transcription; you hear the thoughts of everyone around you and can use those thoughts as an instantaneous way to earn knowledge including, but not limited to, complex problem solving and language retention. Am I missing anything?"
"Not really," Jasmyne mumbled more focused on enjoying the internal silence than really listening to what her teacher was saying to her.
"Well, that's a lie, because I also have this," he pulled out a sheet of paper from what Jasmyne now understood to be her student transcripts. "A letter from your last homeroom teacher to explain to me that you've taught yourself how to use this quirk to copy and make use of other quirks too."
"Well, I said not really, not no," she retorted.
"Good attitude kid, you'll fit right in here," he said with a smirk. "I suppose you're wondering why all of a sudden those voices stopped?"
"Not particularly."
"No? I'm surprised, why not?"
"Pro hero Eraser head, Shota Aizawa," Jasmyne started in the same monotone Aizawa had when reading her file. "Homeroom teacher class 3A, UA high school. Age 28. D.O.B: November 8th. Quirk: Erasure. You can disable almost any quirk you come into contact with simply by maintaining eye contact with the individual who holds the quirk. The quirk effects end when you blink. And all due respect sir, the quirks I transcribe aren't simple copies, they're exact replicas."
Jasmyne wouldn't know it from the stoic look on Aizawa's face but he was impressed. "So your quirk activated before I could use mine. Quick reflexes."
"No sir, I'm just not the type of person who starts something without doing her research."
"Midoriya will love you," Aizawa muttered, holding back a chuckle. He saw Jasmyne's questioning look but shook his head. "Never you mind, lets get you settled into the dorms. It's late but I'm sure most of the students will still be up. Come on."
Aizawa released his quirk and the thoughts ran back into Jasmyne's head, hitting her like a truck going 100 miles an hour. She physically recoiled from the sudden influx of noise and Aizawa stopped walking to check back on her.
"I'm fine sir," she reassured him rubbing her temple. "Just a lot to take back in at once."
"Fair enough, I should have given you some more warning. Do you need to see the nurse before we go to the dorms."
Jasmyne shook her head; she was already beginning to readjust. "I'll be fine, it'll pass."
That was good enough for Aizawa, and he motioned for her to follow him. As he passed the landing, he grabbed one of her bags and hoisted it onto his shoulder without a word.
Jasmyne picked up the remaining bag from the ground and followed quickly behind him. But not without first activating her own quirk to take a peek at how Erasure worked.