AN: This isn't a finished product, I'm putting it up to see the reception it receives, if even a few people find it interesting I'll expand on it and most likely rework it and add on to it. Post reviews please! 3
Staying quiet isn't so bad when you really think about it. At the age of four, Cassidy Clarence awakened her quirk. She was a loud, happy, active girl before that day, then she learned that her quirk imbued her words with power. Any command she spoke, whoever and however many heard it, had to be followed. Quirk Designation: Commander.
Following the advice of the doctor, she stopped speaking unless absolutely necessary. It was difficult, but if she wanted to be a hero like she'd always dreamed, she'd have to make some concessions.
U.A High, Entrance Exam
It was finally time, everything in her life had led up to this point. She hadn't exactly grown that much physically, standing at a grand four foot eight inches, but mentally and academically she was one of the best.
Walking up to the U.A High gates, she could feel her heart beating fast, her long, blonde hair blowing in the wind. Hundreds of students passed her as she psyched herself up to go inside.
As she was about to move she heard a slight commotion before her, an angry, blonde teen pushed past a nervous, green-haired teen who was now…floating? Seemingly caused by the brunette girl next to him, her quirk she assumed. Curious, she walked over to see what was happening.
Reaching him, the girl released her quirk's control allowing the boy to touch the ground, the girl looking over at her as she did and introducing herself. "Hi there! My name is Ochako Uraraka, what's your name?" Cassidy held out her hand to the green-haired boy to help him up, looking to her side at the girl as she did.
Saying nothing, she waited until the boy was up before taking out her phone and typing something out. Once she finished she turned her phone around to the two who had begun smiling nervously at the awkward moment. 'Sorry, my quirk is activated by speech so I only ever speak if it's absolutely necessary, I don't mean to be rude. My name is Cassidy Clarence.'
"Oh! Of course, no problem! It's nice to meet you, Cassidy. I'm Izuku Midoriya. We should get moving, we don't want to miss the opening ceremony." Nodding in response, the three continued walking to the entrance hall.
After around ten minutes of shuffling around and being directed to seats everyone was seated and awaiting the beginning of the exam introduction. Present Mic explained the rules to the deafening silence of the potential student body. Rules that did not appear to favour her skillset.
Izuku and Ochako were assigned to battle centre B whilst Cass was assigned to centre E, a shame but she could meet her new friends again once they got into the school. Well, here goes nothing, all she could do was try her best and hope to impress the judges.
Battle Centre E
A slightly stressful wait as all the students arrived at centre E, suddenly a shout echoed out. "BEGIN!" The doors to the arena opened and she ran forward, ignoring the confused students. "GO, GO, GO! THERE ARE NO COUNTDOWNS IN REAL LIFE!"
After a few seconds the rest of the students started running and quickly passed her, courtesy of her small frame. Moving through the arena she came across many destroyed robots, even the single point robots towered over her and with no physical quirk she quickly realised there was simply no chance she could destroy them. She looked down at her hands, what was the point? The test didn't accommodate her skillset, so she would fail automatically.
Hearing a scream her head whipped around, spotting a young boy cowering in fear of a two pointer robot. 'Damn it, if I can't destroy any robots I should at least try and help others.' She ran over and put her hands over his ears. She croaked out the words, "Stop. Sit.", her voice hoarse and unused. It was a risk, she didn't know if the robots would respond to her quirk, but luck was on her side. The robot sat down and she released her hold on the boy's ears. He looked at her funny then stood up and started laying into the robot she had subdued as it sat there doing nothing in response.
'Really…how heroic of you…'
BOOM
'Urk…' A piece of debris whizzed past her head. 'Is that what I think it is?' She turned around to see the zero pointer robot, an absolutely colossal beast of a robot, as tall as the buildings surrounding them. The students immediately began running the opposite way toward her.
"Help! Help me, someone! Please!" An entirely unremarkable looking boy shouted, his lower body trapped under some rubble with the zero pointer fast approaching. 'He's going to get crushed, can I even command something that big? Will my voice even reach it?' As the students ran past her she ran towards the boy to the utter confusion of the rest of them.
Standing in front of him she tried her best to lift the rubble but it was just too heavy. 'Fine, all I can do is try, if I get disqualified for doing what a hero is supposed to do, then so be it.'
"ST-" She cut off, coughing heavily, unused to even regular speech, let alone shouting, 'I have to do this.' "STOP." The giant robot stopped moving, the light behind its eyes fading as its system shut down. All the students in earshot also stopped moving. 'Ack' She coughed, looking down at her hand to see blood. She could feel her nose bleeding too. Huh, was the world always red? She fell back, hitting her head hard on the asphalt road, knocking herself out.
U.A Infirmary
Cassidy's eyes shot open. 'Where am I? What happened?'
A nice looking old lady stepped into view. "Ahh, you're finally awake. You suffered quite the injury, the backlash from your quirk seemingly burst a great number of your blood vessels, luckily we managed to heal you in time. I'll let you fully wake up before we send you home."
Watching the old lady walk away she pondered her results on the test. She'd maybe gotten two points, if and only if they counted her non-violent takedown of the two pointer. Even if she got full marks on the written test she probably isn't making it into U.A.
She slipped out of the bed, stretching out as fatigue hit her, she would be heading straight to bed when she got home. 'Ahh, I never got those two's contact, I guess I'll see them again at some point.'
She began walking home through the main streets, it was a little later but not totally dark yet. That didn't however seem to deter an opportunistic villain from approaching the seemingly defenceless little girl. 'Haaah, I can't catch a break…'
He pulled out a knife and stopped in front of her, "Heya girlie, why don't you give me all your money and maybe I'll let you live." He licked his lips with a grin.
With a sigh she opened her mouth. "Don't move." Immediately a splitting headache returned but the villain's body locked up. She winced at the pain, clearly she hadn't fully recovered yet. "Turn yourself in at the nearest police station." She coughed up some blood and her vision blurred as the villain turned and walked away wordlessly.
She staggered around the corner and unlocked her apartment door, immediately gravitating toward her bedroom and flopping down on the bed.
…
Cassidy slowly opened her eyes once more, the headache still present but milder than it had been. She heard a knock at the door and reluctantly got up to answer it. A letter, with a U.A seal on it. 'The test results are back already?' Pulling out her phone to look at the time, she did a double-take. 'THREE DAYS?' I SLEPT FOR THREE DAYS?'
She ran to the kitchen to grab a drink of water. Thirst quenched she sat down at the kitchen table, letter in hand. Opening it up, a small metal disk fell out and projected a holographic message with a little rat creature on it.
"Hello Ms. Clarence, my name is Nezu, principal of U.A High. I would like to congratulate you on your results, not many students achieve a perfect score on the written portion of the exam." She let a small smile form at that. "Now, for your practical exam results, you are in quite a unique position. You gained two villain points for your non-destructive takedown, even if it was stolen after you subdued the robot. On its own, this would not be enough to pass."
Her smile fell, and her gaze dropped down.
"Luckily for you, villain points were not the only way this exam was graded. A panel of judges watched how you acted and graded you with 'hero points'. Your actions in protecting some of the young students from injury, especially with the zero point robot at your own peril perfectly embody what we stand for here at U.A. You sacrificed your own wellbeing to keep others safe and we would be unjust to not reward that. The panel has decided to award you 58 hero points, bringing your total up to 60! This not only passes the exam, but brings you all the way up to joint seventh place, congratulations!"
Her smile returned and a tear ran down her face, 'I did it mama, I got in.'