They were given a day to rest after the sports festival, which Minoko was thankful for. She didn't feel it at the beginning, but once they boarded the train home, she immediately fell asleep, and if it wasn't for Kaminari waking her up at her stop, she'd probably be having an impromptu sleep over at either his or Kirishima's house, as it is starting to get late.
As she made her way down the roads, she could hear people from her neighborhood yelling their congratulations at her as she passed by. She smiled and waved at them as thanks. Finally, she reaches her house.
She opened the door to be met with the lights off. She reaches to open them and, "CONGRATULATIONS!" Her mom, dad, and even Aki, yelled as they popped out of their hiding spots.
The house was decorated with balloons, a small banner with the words "CONGRATULATIONS MIKKO!" on it, and of course confetti.
"Awww, were you guys hiding in the dark the whole time? I got here 20 minutes later than I usually do," Minoko said.
"We don't don't talk about that," her dad said, walking over to her and grabbing her by the shoulders. He ushered her towards the table where a cake was waiting for her.
"Happy 1st Birthday?" Minoko read.
"That's all the bakery had left, sue me," Aki said, making Minoko giggle. He clearly got it last minute as he was still in his uniform.
"Thanks guys," she said, blowing the candle that her mom had lit.
"You have no idea how much my coworkers were fawning over the fact that you got 3rd," her mom started, "they kept yelling, 'I know that girl'."
"Weren't you yelling 'That's my daughter' when we were shopping for decorations?" her dad asked.
"We don't talk about that," her mom said.
With that the four of them chatted, with mostly Minoko recalling the events of the sports festival, as they ate. By the time they finished, her mom ushered her to get ready for bed as she had a very long day.
School came around the day after their one day break, and of course it was raining. "Mom! I'm leaving!" Minoko called out, strapping her shoes.
"Are you sure you don't need a ride? You might miss your train!"
"I'll make it, don't worry!" She grabbed her umbrella, cursing as she accidentally used her quirk on it, quickly swapping it with her bag. "Bye!"
Minoko reached the train just in time, thanks to this guy who held the door for a few seconds, allowing her to get on before the train sped on. "Hey, you're the girl that got third place in the sports festival right?" the guy asked.
"Oh, uh, yeah," she said.
"Woah! That's so cool!" the girl beside him said, "Kaeda Minoko, right? Can you sign this for me?" she said, pulling out a notebook from her bag, along with a marker.
"Uh, sure?" Minoko said, signing the notebook.
"Can I have one too?" A new voice asked.
"Me too!"
Oh boy.
Minoko walked to the classroom as fast as she could. It was eight minutes before the bell and she wasn't in the mood to get scolded by Iida about being at least ten minutes early, right after she'd been swarmed by people.
"Iida, before you start, I promise, it wasn't my fault—" Minoko stops talking when she takes note of the missing class president. "Huh, he's usually the first one here."
"Right?" Ashido said, "I was so ready to get told off," she laughed. "I was stopped so many times though! He can't expect us to be early. There's such a big difference after being on TV."
"Me too!" Kirishima said.
"Yeah, people were staring, and it was sorta embarrassing, actually," Hagakure said.
"A little kid stopped and gave me a 'don't mind' cheer," Sero said dejectedly.
Asui, peeked from where she had her head in her arms on the desk, "Don't mind," she said, making everyone laugh.
"There were these people on the train who even asked for things to be signed," Minoko commented.
"Oh!" Her friends clapped at her achievement.
The door suddenly opened with Iida and Midoriya entering. "Everyone, please head to your seats!" Iida exclaimed.
Minoko hummed as she sat down, eyeing Iida. He certainly looked fine, maybe the emergency turned out alright. Following Iida's orders, the door once again opened to reveal Mr. Aizawa, who was out of his bandages!
"The old lady went overboard with the treatment," Mr. Aizawa said. "Anyway, today's Hero Informatics Period is a little special."
Please don't tell me it's a test,Minoko thought,I haven't touched a book since we started training for the Sports Festival.
"Codenames," Mr. Aizawa continued, "You will think of your hero names. This has something to do with the internship I was talking about before. It will start its proceedings in two to three years, after you've gained experience, and are declared work-ready by the heroes. In other words, as first years, the call that you will receive shows the interest of these heroes in your futures. Though it is possible for these offers to lessen, if the agencies lose interest in you before graduation"
Oh, right, I completely forgot about that part,Minoko thought as Mr. Aizawa displayed their offers on the board. Naturally, the top two had the most offers, funnily enough Tododroki had more offers than Bakugou.Then again, he did put on such a display on the winner's podium.
Following the names as they appeared, her's finally showed up with 32 offers. She slouched slightly on her seat, well, at least she got something.
"Usually they're more distributed but these two really caught a lot of eyes," Mr. Aizawa said.
"They're on another level," Kaminari said.
"Tell me about it," Minoko muttered.
"They are clearly blind!" Aoyama said.
"The ranking got switched," Jirou pointed out.
Sero shook his head, "The pros probably got scared."
"Pros shouldn't be scared at all!" Bakugou yelled.
"Midoriya! You didn't get offers at all," Mineta pointed out, "It's probably because of how reckless you fight!"
"With that in mind, whether you received offers or not, you will be in an internship with a pro hero," Mr. Aizawa said. "Since you've fought actual villains before, by working with pro heroes, you can receive training in a more productive manner."
"So that's what hero names are for!" Satou exclaimed.
"It's temporary, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take it seriously—"
"Or else you'll be sent to hell!" The door opened to reveal Midnight, interrupting Mr. Aizawa. "Since the names you pick as students can still become well-known that it can stick and become your professional name."
Mr. Aizawa sighed, "Midnight will evaluate your choice of names."
They were handed boards where they could write their picks. Minoko hummed, tapping the marker against the board as she thought about possible names.
"When you're done, you can come up and present your names, yeah?"
We're presenting them??Minoko suddenly isn't excited to pick a name.
Moments later, Aoyama walked up to the front. "Here I go," he started, "The Shining Hero: I Can not Stop Twinkling!"
It's a whole sentence!Minoko had to stifle a laugh. Midnight came up and shortened the name for him.Well, if that's allowed, it surely makes me a whole lot better about presenting.
"I'll go next!" Ashido skipped to the front, placingher board in front of her, "I'll be Alien Queen!"
Midnight looked like she was taken aback, "You want to be associated with that blood spitting thing! Stop that."
Dejectedly Ashido walked back to her seat, "To be fair," Minoko started, whispering to Ashido, "That would have been such a badass hero name."
"Thank you! Someone with taste," Ashido laughed.
"Can I go next? Ribbit," Asui raised her hand. She proceeded to the front, "It's a name I've thought of since I was a child, Rainy Season Hero: Froppy!" She showed her board.
"Aww, that's cute!" Midnight exclaimed.
"Alright! My turn next," Kirishima stood from his seat, "Sturdy Hero: Red Riot!"
"This is a homage to Crimson Riot, right?" Midnight asked.
Minoko smiled. Of course, she's heard of Crimson Riot from many instances of Kirishima's fangirling. "Shouldering the name of someone you admire is great pressure," Midnight said.
Kirishima nods at her, "I'm prepared for that," he gave a determined pump of hand.
Ahhh, Kirishima's really cool,Minoko thought,a real making of a hero.She gave Kirishima a thumbs up as his eyes passed her as he took his seat.
Minoko watched as the rest of her classmates had a go. They have very straightforward names like Tailman, Sugarman, and Invisible Girl. There were some really cool sounding ones too like: Tsukuyomi and surprisingly Chargebolt.
"King Explosion Murder," Bakugou said, showing off his name proudly.
Minoko giggled in her seat,Is this what inspired his arcade name?? And also, who puts murder in their hero name.
"You should be Explosion Boy!" Kirishima suggested.
"Shut up Shitty Hair!"
"Well, you really should refrain from using that," Midnight said, sending Bakugou off to think of a new name. "Who wants to go next?"
Minoko raised her hand, "I'll go," she said, standing up. She really doesn't want to go, but it's better than being last, besides, whatever she got shouldn't be as bad as Bakugou's.
She reached the table up front and took a deep breath facing her classmates. With a smile, she flipped her board to show them what she wrote, "I'll be The Swapping Hero: Switch!"
"Ohh," Midnight said, "Sweet and simple, describes what you can do without giving too much away, surely a great name to remember!"
She smiled at Midnight, bowing a bit before going back to her seat. "Ohoho, that's actually a really cute hero name," Kaminari leaned forward to whisper to her, "Maybe you should save it for someone else." Minoko kicked Kaminari's leg that was invading the space under her chair. "Ow!"
The next person to present their name was Uraraka, which was really adorable in her non biased opinion. Which only leaves Iida, Midoriya, and Bakugou without names. Iida went up front and for someone who seemed so enthusiastic about all the hero stuff and making sure to do things right, his name is…"Your own name?" Midnight asked.
Midoriya went next, with a surprising choice of name.Deku,Minoko read in her mind. It was worrying at first due to the connotations that the word could mean, but after his reasoning, she was sure it would be the perfect hero name for him.
"LORD EXPLOSION MURDER!"
Sure, the king part was the problem,Minoko thought as she watched as he argued with Midnight about how it was the perfect name. In the end he was deemed as a lost cause and was stuck with his name for the time being.
"Now then," Mr. Aizawa emerged from the corner he was holed up in. "Since you've chosen your names, let's talk about the internships." He pulled out a stack of paper. "It's a week long, as for where, you will be given a paper listing your options. For those who didn't get any offers, you will be provided 40 agencies that have agreed to take in interns. Locations and special fortes differ."
The papers were distributed just as the bell rang. "Make sure you turn it in by the end of the week. Class dismissed," Mr. Aizawa said as he and Midnight left the room.
"He says that as if the end of the week isn't in two days," Minoko sighed before reading through her paper.
It was mostly filled with agencies that she had heard on the news, or heroes that she's seen once or twice online. Not that she doesn't appreciate the offer, but at this rate, she's gonna have to do some serious research as she doesn't know much about the specialties that they offer.
Personally, she'd like a mix of action and rescue. Rescue, as one of the priorities of heroes are to help civilians, and more often than not that includes rescue, but being on rescue duty doesn't mean she gets off from needing to fight as unfortunate circumstances would call for her to fight and rescue at the same time.
She let her eyes skim through the paper, with one name standing out. Sure she'd only learned of him a couple of months ago, but holy shit, why is Eraserhead in her offers list.
Lunch break finally came along, and Minoko stood up intending to head for the faculty room.
"Oi, Kaeda, you coming?" Kirishima asked.
"I'll catch up to you guys, I just have to ask Mr. Aizawa something," she waved at her friends before heading out the other door.
Now that she was walking to the faculty room, she suddenly remembered it was the teacher's lunch break as well.It would be rude to intrude wouldn't it?She thought to herself, stopping a couple steps before the door.Maybe I should come back later? When though?She thought if she had any free time later, but even then Mr. Aizawa probably had a different class at the time.After school, maybe? Would he even entertain questions by then? Isn't that after hours?
"Kaeda, why aren't you at lunch?"
Minoko suppressed a yelp as she spun around to be met with her homeroom teacher. "Mr. Aizawa!" She exclaimed, "I, uhh…"
Mr. Aizawa narrowed his eyes at her, "Did you do something?"
Minoko quickly shook her head, "No sir," she said, "I was just wondering about this?" She showed him her paper of offers, specifically his name.
"What of it?" He asked.
"Is this like, allowed?" Minoko asked, not wanting to be too straightforward.
He nodded, "Any hero is allowed to send in offers for any student, even the principal. Most don't do it as many of them have hero work and school work already."
A beat of silence passed, Minoko looked down at her paper then back at him, "So this is…"
"It's on your offer list isn't it?" Mr. Aizawa said, "Anyway, you should go to lunch now," he gave her shoulder a small pat as he passed her and entered the faculty room.
Minoko looked down on her paper one last time before practically running to the cafeteria, a sudden giddiness overtaking her body. She fell in line, got some food and spotted her friends at their usual table.
"Yo," she greeted sitting down beside Sero.
"Well you're in a mood," Sero commented, making room for her. "Did Mr. Aizawa smile or something?"
Minoko shook her head, "What? A girl can't be happy?" She asked, as she started eating her noodles.
"You were gonna ask him something, right? What was it?" Kirishima asked.
"Just something about the internship," Minoko said. "Anyway, do you guys have anywhere you wanna go?"
Switching up the conversation, Minoko got them off her back. She swirled the noodles onto her chopsticks as she watched them argue who would have the best internship experience. Silently she wondered if she should go with Mr. Aizawa. Knowing the guy, he was already a rough teacher to them in a normal school setup, how much more if she decides to intern under him. She saw some heroes on her list that would probably be kinder on their internship if she chose them instead.Then again, this isn't something that should be based on how easy it would be. It's supposed to be challenging or else I'm not gonna improve on anything.
Her train of thought was broken with Kaminari saying something to her, "Well, do you know where you're interning? We've said all of ours."
Absent-mindedly, she answered, "Oh, I'm interning with Mr. Aizawa."
"EH???"
The train station was filled with UA students who were going off for their internships. "You all have your hero costumes?" Mr. Aizawa asked, receiving affirmations from everyone. "Make sure you don't drop them. Try not to be a burden to the hero during your internship," he reminded. "Now go."
Everyone chatted amongst themselves, talking about where they were going. "Kaeda," Kirishima called out to her, "Where's Mr. Aizawa taking you for internships?"
Minoko hummed, "Pretty sure he said we're mostly gonna stay at the school."
"So lame," Kaminari commented.
Minoko was inclined to agree, she wanted to go somewhere a bit far too. "Well, he said he has his reasons so who am I to argue," she shrugged. "Now go, the train's not gonna wait for you, ya know."
They gave their goodbyes and goodlucks, and after Mr. Aizawa made sure everyone had gotten on the right train, the two of them made their way back to U.A.
"Mr. Aizawa," Minoko started, "I know you said you have reasons, but uhhwhyare we training in U.A?"
"Change into your PE uniform and meet me at Ground Beta," Mr. Aizawa said, "You'll figure it out when you get there."
Cryptic, but sure. Minoko quickly changed into her uniform and headed to the designated place. However, instead of Mr. Aizawa, she found someone else,
"Shinsou?!"
Notes:
Ohohoo, next chapter will be Minoko training with Aizawa and Shinsou and I am all for it. Hope yome t=u guys enjoyed this chapter!
TRIVIA!!
The author really liked the Japanese pronunciation of the word "Switch" and thought, "Heh, that would be a neat hero name" and thus this fic was born