Chapter 1: Is the Grass Greener On the Other Side?

"Realize this, you will never have him. A stuck-up, thinks she's all that will never be good enough for him. So give up and leave us alone."

" I don't know what the hell you're talking about but there is no way I will ever allow you to dictate what I can and cannot do!"

What if that is the first ever true interaction you have had with another classmate at your new school? That would be weird right? Let me explain how I, Alesha Zinski, got into that situation first.

Living in a world where majority of the population has some kind of special abilities that they call quirks, it gets interesting. Life is never boring let me tell you, everything on TV is like a comic book come to life. Does that stop me from living in a fantasy world by diving into books and TV shows and this wonderful genre that the Japanese have created called anime, is that relevant to the story, not really no. Though I hope it explains why I, a young girl, became so fascinated with learning about another place and so in depth that I went out of my way to learn the language as best I could. Most people, including my friends and family, thought it was a waste of time, that I should be focusing on other things. For example, I have a learning disability that makes it difficult for me to read and write in any language. In school I would be with "slow" kids because of my reading abilities, though I excelled with math and science, in additionally remembering dates and geography came easy to me, granted I had to be told the information for me to remember it, reading it myself out of a book somehow the information never stuck. But I digress. My first language like for most in USA aka America, was English, but since I lived in the south of America in Texas, school tried to teach basic Spanish lessons. So technically my second language is Spanish.

One day, I can't remember when exactly, my elder brother had this interesting cartoon on tv when we came home from school. Turns out it was actually an anime called Pokemon. Later he put another on called Naruto. Though it was my brother who put the shows on, it was me who became obsessed with the genre. So much so I eventually started learning the language so I could watch the show in the original language, and watch them faster without having to wait for people to translate it and republish it.

Which leads into my 7th grade year, my father unexpectedly got a job in Japan that made him an offer he couldn't refuse. My brother was about to start his final year of high school and didn't want to get thrown so much by going to a different country. The hope was he was only going to be there for a year while he looked for a better job back at home. So my mother made the decision for her and my brother to stay in America and my father and I went to Japan, and came home the moment he got a job back at home with a good salary. Originally, I was supposed to stay with my mother and brother but I was obsessed with Japanese culture and really wanted to see it in person even if I didn't know how or write Japanese. But I digress.

The moment we got to Japan my father went in search of his first cousin who had married a Japanese man and lived there with their adult son. Hoping they will be able to help us get settled and help explain how to live in this new country. Oh we got help, but not by who we thought. My cousin had married into an extremely wealthy family, coincidently the same family who ran the company my father was now working for. This family, this extremely wealthy, these high class people took in two common people from a different country just because we were related by marriage. Yep, I now live in one of my anime shows. Our first dinner, they decided to have everyone there so my father and I could officially meet everyone and get to know each other. At the head of the table sat Takeshi Toyota, the man who owned the house we were in and my dad's new boss. To his right sat Akari Toyota, his wife and mother of his two adult sons. Next to her sat their youngest and surprisingly the heir to the company Riku Toyota, I have yet to find out that juicy information. After him sat my cousin Karen Toyota, then we sat at the other end of the table Tamaki Toyota, brother to Takeshi and husband to my cousin Karen. Between him and my father is their son, Yuki Toyota, who I learned is a local popular singer (probably had to do with his quirk of wave control, that he could manipulate sound waves into whatever you want to hear, but I digress). Obviously you had my father then me and the man who sat to my right and the final spot of this get together, was Yuuto Toyota. The elder son and yet had nothing to do with the company, I actually knew nothing about him except his name by that point and that he was basically disowned from the family but the fact he was here made me curious about him.

It turned out this disowned older brother was about to become my new best friend. His story is almost cliche in the fact he started rebelling the moment his father put actual pressure on him to lead the company. Yuuto would've been ok if his career choice was to a worthy cause like becoming a Pro Hero, but it wasn't in fact he had no clue what he wanted he just wanted to rebel. So the boy got into drugs, drinking and racing. More racing than the other two. He loved the feel of speeding your way through a course or the feeling of beating someone over the finish line, he mainly did the other stuff to socialize and he never got crazy with it or did the hard stuff. More times than not he basically stayed sober to watch everyone and make sure they were safe. His disownment was more of a formality that the family did publicly to keep the board and backers happy after his first arrest. His father and mother are actually decent people for their wealth, they don't think like most of us do because of their environment, but they had good intentions and good hearts. The youngest though, ugh, he thought he was better than everyone and looked down on anyone who didn't fit into his world. Though we weren't too far in age, we never got along. Karen and her husband came over often though due to his work schedule Yuki hardly ever came around. They all tried to teach my father and I the language and help us find a place to live once we realized my dad's goal of going home in one year wasn't really going to come true. Yuuto surprisingly was the best at teaching me the language both verbal and written. Though I struggled hard with reading and writing in the language, which wasn't surprising since I could barely do it in my first language, nevermind that Japanese is technically my third. After my brother graduated he decided to join the United States military and my mom leased out the house and came to join us in Japan. She wasn't happy about it at all. And made it a point to tell us that at every moment she got. Even though I barely had any friends in Japan and I missed everyone in America, I actually was happy hanging out with Yuuto and my other extended family. The next two years was mainly my learning the underground and it's working with Yuuto as my protector and getting a taste of the finer things in life through his rich family, avoiding my negative mom, and trying to decide what to do with my life. High school was coming up quick and I had to pick a school and take an entrance exam for it. Which was horrible considering my language skills were not at my grade level in Japan, so everything that took off all the good schools and left me with subpar schools that weren't worth it in my extended family opinion and mine but what could I do, I wasn't going to let this family who had nothing but kind (besides the ass Riku) to my family but my way into a half decent school. One weekend, close to entrance exam time, Yuuto took me to this motorcycle race track teaching me how to win at these things both in bets and on the track. Suddenly, one of his friends, recognizing me as I had been brought to these things before, asked how old I was. I explained that I was turning 15 at the end of February and hopefully starting high school come April. The guy was perplexed as to why I was hesitant about going to high school. I explained my situation to him and he pointed blankly said, "hero course exams favor more practical portions than the written, if you're truly worried about your language skills try applying for a hero course at schools." Confused I asked, "what do you mean hero course? Aren't pro hero courses a college level curriculum?" Dude rose and eye brow, "nope high school level in this country, you've lived here for how long and didn't know that?"

"Three years almost, and no I was in this environment or the high class force that Yuuto's from."

"What about school, kids there had to be talking about or your teachers?"

"I mostly tune them all out and just do my work and go home. The few times I talked to my teachers about my future, I told them about my hope of doing medical stuff and they laughed at me and said with my skill set I better hope to get a new dream."

Dude here shook his head at my statement, took out what I believe was a joint and lit it up. I sighed heavily and looked around to notice during our conversation my cousin Yuuto had landed to do another race and was about to go. His friends and him trained me enough to defend myself and use my quirk to win any fight. His friends mostly taught the actual fighting part but Yuuto taught me the other parts of fighting like strategies and how to quickly analyze your opponents quirk and find the upper hand. So my cousin wasn't worried about leaving me alone for a bit, especially when I was with someone he trusted, this past year I've been getting to get some freedom at these things instead of stuck on someone's car hood watching from a distance and barely seeing any action. While I stood up and found a better spot to watch my cousin race, the guy whose name I couldn't remember for the life of me, continued our little conversation. "Hey not to be rude or anything but I actually forgot what your quirk is, can you remind me and maybe we can work out a plan for you to take a hero course exam so you can get into a decent school." After contemplating his offer for a little bit and waiting as Yuuto started his race. Right as my cousin got through the first turn/bend whatever it's called, I replied, "technically it's called water manipulation, have you ever seen the show Avatar The Last AirBender?"

Nameless friend laughed and said, "yeah I've heard of it, haven't actually seen too much of it, maybe a few episodes when nothing else was on, why?"

"The water benders in the show and how they can apply it to other aspects. That's basically what my quirk can do but it's not as pretty and it takes more knowledge like knowing the chemical composition of objects and beings, in order to better focus on what I am aiming for when I "bend" or manipulate the water molecules in something."

"So you can move anything that has a water molecule in it and have it do your bidding?"

"That's a simple way of saying it, sure. But the healing aspect of my quirk, I know it's possible, mainly because I tried it on an animal with a broken leg. The thing screamed bloody murder and tried to run away, but I ended up fixing it good enough that once I stopped and it took off, the animal came back and gave me a gift of food of some sort as a thank you. I have no clue how practical it would be on a human, if it's worth the pain of my healing instead of going to an actual doctor and getting fixed there."

"That's some crazy shit." Before the last word came out of his mouth, Yuuto crossed the finished line and was declared the winner. "Alright let's go congratulate the pain, and after I'm getting everyone together so we can get you through that exam. Hell when we're through I bet you could even get in that top place UA."

"UA? Are you crazy that place is seriously the top school."

"If you know all about UA, how is it you didn't know about hero courses being high school level?" We were hitting the outskirts of the crowd and had to squeeze our way through to my cousin. Once we got into the clearing around him and I was tucked under Yuuto's arm while he used his other to high five everyone, I turned to guy I've been chilling with and responded, "Actually thought it was a college at first, didn't want to believe it was high school until today."