Suri has drive, she's ready to go. The Entrance Exams are starting and she meets some new people, some good and some not so much. But her journey is only just beginning.

The ramen shop was not, in fact, open by the time Suri had finished her shower and gotten dressed at her uncle's gym. She did have to pass up the urge to climb into the ring with several guys who had come for some early morning sparring matches, though. Instead she threw in a pair of headphones and occupied her head with some music while she waited for the shop to open.

The ramen shop opened at eight, the exams started at nine. Was she cutting it close and should've gotten something else for breakfast? Sure. But how can you pass up a fresh, steaming bowl of katsudon ramen?

She didn't.

Better yet, she downed two bowls of the fried pork cutlets, broth, and noodles, a couple fried eggs and another mug of tea before she took off jogging towards the train station. As she rounded the corner to the station, she saw the tail ends of other teens in school uniforms passing through the gates to board the cars. She wouldn't be far behind. Provided the ticket machines didn't take too much time reading her card and printing her pass. They did. She heard the final boarding call for UA over the intercom and panicked, grabbing the ticket as soon as she could and took off in a bolt. She ran for the gates and jumped, somehow managing to scan her boarding pass as her body vaulted onto the crowded boarding platform. She quickly snaked her way through people as best as she could, getting to the edge of the crowd as the doors began to slide shut.

"Fuck!" she shouted frantically and jumped, barely squeezing her body and backpack through the last sliver of opening she could have fit through.

Panting, she laid her back against the train car's door, sliding down until she plopped heavily against the floor. Her chest heaved, oddly enough more than when she had run full bore for nearly five miles. Nervous? Her? She shook off the thought and looked up to see several of the teens that filled the car looking at her. Most were in bewilderment and curiosity. A few felt like they were disgusted by her presence. She flashed the kinder of expressions, a toothy, awkward smile and pushed her back against the door to lift herself into a standing position.

Once she was back on her feet she leaned over, brushing off the backs of her dark grey thigh high stockings and pulling on the chartreuse rings that encircled the tops of the stockings to make sure they fit snug around her thighs. Why these stockings and not something plain white or black? These matched her eyes. She then patted down the backside of her matching plaid skirt, fluffing it a little so it didn't cling so much to her hips. The pattern stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the uniforms the other girls wore. One, it wasn't a flat grey, or black, or blue, it was a little on the loud side being a black and dark grey plaid pattern with thin lines of white and yellow green mixed in. Two, it was obvious she didn't have a school uniform that she could have worn and this was her best attempt at trying to make one. The disgusted looks probably thought she was mocking them. She wasn't. Brownie points for having a white button down shirt like the rest of the girls. No brownie points for the black and green basketball sneakers, matching skinny tie, and the black zip up hoodie she wore over top.

Once the students that were still looking at her took another once over on her, they turned back to what they were doing, some of them doing nothing. Her smile faltered and faded in an instant and she stuck the ends of her earphones back into her ears and spent the rest of the ride lost in the beating thuds that poured in. She hated that in some part of her it bothered her to no end that none of them struck up a conversation or even offered a hello. It bothered her that some of these kids had been friends for a long time and had their circles and she was just the odd duck out. Jealous? No. But then again, it would have been nice to be able to go to school with one friendly face. So… jealous? Okay, maybe a little.

Her wallowing stopped as soon as a glint of sunlight hit her eyes, forcing her to flinch, slam her eyes shut, and then slowly open them to adjust to whatever hit her. As she did so she found where the reflections came from. Just after a break in a thick forest of tall trees, the mountainside gave way to a clearing with dozens of buildings among shade trees, she could see at least one gymnasium, half a dozen small office or administration buildings and in the center of it all stood four massive glass towers that peaked the horizon. Now that she was paying attention she could see a stone wall, at least three meters high, that stretched for miles, surrounding not only the thicker forest they had passed but what seemed like the entire crest of the hilltop upon which UA was built. The school and its campus looked like a fortress, its own private kingdom.

Because that's what it was.

She had been the first to notice the building and soon the entire train car filled with the sounds of 'oos', 'awws', and 'wows' with the students piling closer to the window. As the car grew louder with the excited teenagers and piled closer, she was pushed and her beast rose in defense. She gritted her teeth and bit into her bottom lip to take control and push her power back down into the recesses of her body. And even though she was able to keep under control, her senses flared open and her nose was overwhelmed with the array of scents, she could smell every individual body spray, lotion, or cologne each person wore, she could taste the excitement and fear throughout the confined space. The fear tasted delicious. As soon as the thought crossed her mind she pressed one of her fangs into the corner of her tongue, inciting a sharp and immediate pain.

"Get a hold of yourself, Suri," she growled to herself.

A much needed distraction was pushed into her and as Suri was about to go on the defensive she noticed that she couldn't see who was pushed into her. Not really anyway. With her eyes partially rolled to wolven she could see… a ghost? No, ghosts didn't wear fully materialized school uniforms. A figure just shorter than her was being pressed into her back uncomfortably and whining about the pressure. Suri moved to the side letting the… person... through. Her eyes could tell someone was there, could make out a vague shape that bent and dimmed the area they inhabited, like a solid, nearly transparent shadow.

"Ow~" the ghostly girl whined before turning to face Suri. "Thank you for letting me squeeze by! People kinda forget I'm here, haha!"

"Sure. Not a problem," Suri replied, her eyes still trying to find any focus point on the figure. She could barely make out the shape of a head, possibly short, messy hair, and then just a filled out, floating set of clothes.

"I love your uniform! I've never seen schools use this style before, it's super cute! What school did you go to?"

"Oh umm, I'm actually a transfer," she smiled awkwardly, reaching up to scratch the back of her neck nervously. Japanese students liked foreigners, right? "My school never had uniforms. So… I kinda just put this on…"

Suri felt something grab her left hand, encasing it in warmth as it moved seemingly on its own towards the center of her chest. She could feel fingers around her hand, the weight of soft palms pressing into her hand and then a squeezing sensation followed by a joyous shouting.

"Oh my god, that's so cool!"

"Heh, umm, thanks I guess."

"I love your style! We gotta go shopping together sometime!" The invisible girl was absolutely ecstatic as she stepped back and from what Suri could make out in her movements, continued to inspect the taller American girl. "Oh! My name's Tooru Hagakure!"

"Suri Kuroyashi."

She gave up on trying to search for Hagakure's eyes. She knew where they would - or rather should - be and focused on that area. It struck her that she might be rude to continue staring at the girl as intently as she was. Her dad always told her it was respectful to look the person you were talking to in the eyes. Could she fault her for not being able to see them? She wasn't being disrespectful right?

"I'm super nervous about the exams! What about you, Kuroyashi?"

Suri let her gaze travel back to the school as she felt the train slowing to enter the station in front of UA. Truthfully? Yeah. In the very very back of her mind, she was scared to death.

"Yeah. Especially since I'm new here. Hell I've only been in Japan for three months and now," Suri shrugged and chuckled as she waved her left hand, now free of Hagakure's grip, motioning towards the monolithic high school.

The invisible girl laughed in response. Suri couldn't exactly tell what she was doing, she guessed that she was nodding and smiling. Suri then watched the floating uniform move in close and felt the girl grab a hold of her sandwiching the American girl's right arm between a floating sleeve and Hagakure's chest.

"No worries! We've got this!"

The two laughed as the train came to a stop and the doors opened and Suri let a fanged grin curl from ear to ear. Tooru was right. Why the fuck was she nervous and letting doubts creep in? Nah, she didn't travel thousands of miles to bitch out now!

Suri and Hagakure were about to exit the train when Suri was shoved violently from behind. With Tooru still clinging to her, the two fell to the ground, Suri falling on top of the invisible girl. She had managed to curl the arm Tooru had been holding upwards, quickly cupping the back of her head so it didn't make friends with the pavement. Her knees however made great friends, sending surges of pain throughout her body and her knees began to throb. The surge made Suri curse and mentally scream, rage beginning to spark to life, until her hand flexed and she felt a curtain of soft silk. Her hand flexed again, letting the smooth waves of hair fall between her fingers and her rage was swallowed back in that moment.

"You all right?" Suri whispered.

"My butt hurts," Tooru snickered in response.

It made Suri giggle and she forced herself not to let the comment that came to mind escape her lips. No! Bad Suri! Instead she began to move, getting her feet underneath the both of them and helping Hagakure to her feet. Once she had the other girl on steady footing, her expression soured to straight business.

She turned towards the culprit who was already walking away. His face was as grimaced as her own, his back slouched from how deep into his pockets he had his hands shoved. His tongue clicked and he huffed at the pair of girls.

"Out of the way, fuckin' extras."

Oh hell no!

"The fuck you say?"

Rage boiled to the surface as the raven haired girl and the ash blonde boy stared daggers at each other. A shared animalistic fury flashed over their eyes, a knowing that the two of them would tear each other to pieces. Then again, only one of them was a wild animal and the other was for show. Guess which one of them wasn't peacocking?

"Tsch," he rolled his eyes and turned to walk away. "Stay the hell out of my way."

"Asshole," Suri growled as she moved to brush off the knees of her stockings. She turned back to the floating uniform who, from what her eyes could vaguely make out, was fidgeting nervously.

"T-Thank you… for catching me."

"Eh, it's not a problem," Suri shrugged and turned back towards the campus entrance. Her eyes lingered on the invisible girl, watching until she began to move.

"What a jerk!" Tooru exclaimed, returning to her energetic self.

Tooru changed the subject to shopping as the two began plotting out their 'epic' shopping adventure. What stores they'd go to, what they needed to buy, what outfits would look cute on each other. They had talked about when they'd go to the food court and what sounded good to eat. Suri explained that, as long as there was meat, all food was game. The invisible girl mentioned that there would be a few girls from her middle school that could go with them and that they'd love Suri. Probably.

The conversation carried the two girls through the dozen arches that lined the entrance walkway, through the campus plaza, up the entrance stairs, and into the four tower structure. They did pause their walking as they got to the top of the stairs in front of the front doors to admire the giant UA logo over the doors, both of them swelling with excitement.

Once through the doors they found that even though each door had a number over it, they all led to the same massive lobby. That fact was… curious. Once inside they filed into groups to pick up their exam tickets and luckily for them they ended up in the same line for last names. With their tickets in hand, the two set off to find the auditorium in which orientations were being held.

Wherever that was.

As the two wandered the hallways Hagakure spotted a friend of hers just about to enter the auditorium. The invisible girl shrieked loudly, calling out to a pink skinned girl with two small horns sticking out from a mass of curly pink hair. Suri watched the floating uniform rush forward and latch onto the other girl, the two hugging tightly and giggling. So Hagakure was a little clingy to everyone. Good to know.

"Oh my God, your uniform!"

And just like that Suri was being inspected again and having her clothing choice gushed over. Apparently she was one of the friends Tooru had mentioned about going shopping with. Could she really handle shopping with two chaotic balls of energy? Probably? She introduced herself as Mina Ashido and quickly grabbed hold of a hand from each of the other two girls and dragged them along into the auditorium, and down a set of stairs to a row that had just enough open seats.

Their soon to be seats were next to a teen boy that was waving them down with an ecstatic grin full of sharp pointed teeth. His hair nearly matched his teeth with it done up into a spiked mass of crimson red, sharp and standing tall. And as the three girls got closer, Suri noticed him slightly puff out his chest and put on an even deeper air of confidence and she had to guess he was one of those 'tough guy for show but really a puppy dog' kinda guys. As long as he wasn't an asshole like that blonde kid, she wouldn't mind it. Still the puffing out his chest for three girls and thinking no one noticed? Oh, she noticed and it made her grin, one that showed fangs to his shark-like smile.

"Kirishima, you remember Hagakure right? Mind if our new friend sits by you?" Mina spoke in her energetic fashion. Suri eyed the pink girl who placed herself between her and Hagakure, promptly taking their seats and giggling like school girls amongst themselves waiting for the orientation to start.

"Suri Kuroyashi," she introduced herself, bowing a little at the waist. "Nice teeth."

His grin widened as he spotted the pair of sharp fangs. There was a don't worry, I don't bite… hard joke in there somewhere, wasn't there? She wondered what his reaction might be if she threw it out there. Eh, maybe another time.

"Eijiro Kirishima. I dig the hair," he replied, mimicking her bow of formal introduction.

Suri reactively ran her fingers through the mass of raven curls and remembered she was still more or less going natural. Still, she was glad her more natural style was widely appreciated thus far.

"Likewise. You did it last night right?"

Kirishima looked puzzled for a moment as the two began to sit down. Suri tapped her nose and his eyes went a little wide as he understood what she meant. Or at least what he thought she meant. Underneath the hint of musky overly masculine cologne he had used, she could still smell the faint traces of ammonia and bleach in his hair. Nope, not a natural redhead. Pity.

"So how long have you been in Japan? You're not…"

He paused and let the question linger, he may have thought he had just been rude with the question. He wasn't. Honest.

"Three months. I've been living with my grandma. My mom's side of the family lives here and around the prefec-"

The lights dimmed save for the stage and everyone went silent. Oh yeah, they were at an orientation. She didn't momentarily forget. Nope, not at all.

"What's up UA candidates! Thanks for tuning into me, your school dj."

"Yo, it's Present Mic!" Suri grinned wide and leaned forward in her seat, her eyes glued to the man on stage. 'Wow, he hasn't changed a bit from those old photos,' she internally cringed. Hell, the sunglasses alone were over twenty years old.

"C'mon lemme hear ya!"

Silence.

Suri was literally the only one or two students in the entire auditorium showing anything more than a blank unamused or confused face, drawing the attention of the three teens she sat with. As soon as she noticed she shrunk back, slumping back into her seat with a blush burning against her cheeks.

"You know him?" Ashido leaned over and whispered.

"How?" this from both Hagakure and Kirishima in unison.

"Him and... my dad teamed up a couple times back in the day," Suri answered hesitantly. She then had a thought and let a sadistic grin curl across her lips. "I wonder if he's got any embarrassing stories I can hold over my old man's head."

"Let's get straight to the main show and talk about how those practical exams are gonna go down, okay? Are you ready!?" the blonde pro hero screamed with excitement and struck a pose. It was meant to get the students hyped up but instead earned the DJ another round of silence.

"Jesus… now I know where he got those awful poses in the silver age promos," Suri groaned under her breath and once again cringed, reminded of some of the… cheesy - not in a good way - photoshoots her dad did back in his prime.

"You rockin' boys and girls will be conducting ten minute mock battles in super hip suburban settings!"

She and Kirishima lit up with wide toothy grins, their eyes wide with excitement at the mention of live battles. The two shared a glance, nodded in agreement, and realized that the two of them shared a love for a good brawl. Their eyes shared a spark and they both silently mouthed their utter bliss. Hell. Fucking. Yes!

"After I drop the mic here, you'll head to your specified battle centers. Sound good?"

Poor guy. He was up there giving it all he had and was getting nothing in return. The American girl shook her head and, like all of the other students in the auditorium, turned her attention to the exam ticket.

Examinee No.: 2336

Test Location: Battle Center E

"E huh?"

"I got C, what did you guys get?" Ashido looked over their tickets curiously.

"I got A," Hagakure and Kirishima spoke in unison.

"Guess we're on our own, huh Ashido?" Suri frowned a little. She had been hoping that she'd have a friendly face or two. In Kirishima's case, she wanted to see what kind of fighter he was and it kind of soured her mood that there wouldn't be a little… friendly competition.

"There are three types of faux villains in every battle center. You'll earn points based on their level of difficulty so you better choose wisely! The goal is to use your Quirk and shred these faux villains and build up your score. But check it! No attacking other applicants, that's a big no no at UA, ya dig?"

"Excuse me!"

A stiff and stern voice erupted from the student body, catching everyone but Present Mic off guard. Suri turned and noticed the source was sitting almost directly behind her with his glasses sitting high on the bridge of his nose, his navy blue hair done up neatly, and his squared jaw showing off his overly serious and none too impressed expression. Definitely uptight.

"On the hand out, you've listed four types of villains! Not three! With all due respect, if this is an error or UA official materials, it is shameful! We are exemplary students, we expect the best from Japan's most notable school. A mistake like-"

Suri, grumbled and laid her chin on the back of her hands, trying her best to tune the boy out. High strung people like that were an annoyance. Sure he has good intentions but, kid, come on, try to relax a little. She wondered if he knew being that tense was problematic on his body. If he kept this up, he'd have a heart attack in his twenties.

"That fourth villain is worth zero points! It's more of an obstacle we'll be throwing in your way. There's one in every battle center and you do all you can to avoid it. It's not that it can't be beaten, there's just kinda no point!"

"So, like, is it just so small and weak or something?" Ashido pondered, tilting her head in curiosity as she thought about it.

"Nah, he said it's a hurdle so it's probably gonna be bigger than the others. Like," Suri's mind flickered to her beast, the she-wolf giving her images of hunting and tearing prey down and tearing into their flesh. "There's no point in going after prey like that. It's either something you can't hunt alone or if you do try and go it alone, it takes so long to wear down that, by the end, the enjoyment of the hunt is just shot."

The three looked at Suri with dumbfounded expressions strewn across their faces. Way to go, Suri, make all the kids think you're the weird foreigner.

"Actually that makes sense."

The three girls turned to Kirishima who was looking at the screen, focusing on the zero pointer. Suri took a deep breath and sighed, exhaling said breath. At least someone didn't think she was too crazy, right?

"I mean for me… I think of it like fishing. It kinda sucks when you think you've been reeling in a big fish with a ton of fight and it ends up being a tiny fish that just gave you a hard time."

Actually, that's not a bad analogy.

"Exactly."

The rest of Present Mic's presentation was drowned out by the four talking about the practical exams, theorizing about how big or powerful the villains were. Their conversation was soon interrupted by the student body cheering as the pro hero finished his speech. They followed the crowds out of the auditorium and towards the locker rooms for the students to get changed into gym clothes for the practical exams. And soon enough, Suri was on her own once again.

There was a sting in her chest. She hated the feeling of loneliness and it hadn't reared its ugly head since she got to Japan. The plane ride over was the loneliest stretch of fourteen hours in her life; though the first half of the flight was spent wallowing in bitter rage. She was lonely getting off the flight, lonely walking to the Kuroyashi compound, lonely waiting in the rain, and then, once Grandma hugged her, it was gone. She'd only met Hagakure what, barely more than an hour ago? Ashido and Kirishima a half hour ago. Was she really already attached to them? Since when did she get so goddamn clingy?

"Hey kid!"

Suri shook her head out of her daze and looked up. The bus was empty. Well one person was on the bus and that was her. She looked to the door, seeing the driver leaning into the entrance and staring at her. Oh yeah, they got on the buses to go to the battle centers for the exams. And she was the last one off the bus. Great, they probably thought she was chickening out. She growled at herself for being that out of herself and shot up out of her seat and out the door.

"Sorry. Kinda spaced-"

"YOUR TIME STARTS NOW!"

Wait, what?

Her eyes went wide and flashed up to the loudspeakers over the massive gate into Battle Center E. The gate reminded her of that movie Jurassic Park she used to watch with her dad and brothers. She growled again, cursing herself that her thoughts were going every which way instead of focussing on what she needed to do. The students in her training grounds were already ahead, already through the gate. The gate which was now closing!

"Ah, god-fucking-dammit!"

She bolted. Running. Running as fast as she could towards the gate. This was just a swell time for her beast to still be asleep. It had been trying to poke its head out for an hour now and right now is the moment it decides it wants its cat nap. Great! She closed her eyes, screamed, and ran as fast as her legs would take her. She was either going to make the gap into the battlegrounds, or she was going to run full speed into a wall and break her nose.

Bright side; it couldn't get worse, right?