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I fell to the ground hard. I pushed the heel of my palm into the cement and pushed myself up and forward. My hand went to my bare thigh to help me stand upright. I ran ahead, dodging and manoeuvring around the trees using my quirk as little as possible. My feet tangled up in themselves, and I fell forward on top of a bush. My atoms quickly broke apart before impact, returning me to the start of the obstacle course laying on the cement.

My bare skin pressed cold against the cement. I pushed myself upright again, hands resting on my bare thighs. My clothes sat in a pile a few feet away. I huffed, taking off running once again. I ducked under branches, dodged around trees, and leapt over shrubs.

I stopped with a wheeze in front of a tall maple tree. The dewy leaves glistened under the moonlight. My naked form breathed heavily as I stared up at the face in the knots of the tree. I took a deep breath, "Midoriya, do you mind if I eat lunch with you today?" I hung my head and dissipated my body back to the start.

I slunk over to my clothes and pulled on the sweatpants and white oversized shirt I had been wearing. I swallowed hard. I need to ask him tomorrow. I needed to ask him tomorrow. I could not ask him tomorrow. I padded barefoot across the cement of the vast expanse between the main home and the guest house. Grandmother and Akari stayed at the main house while I spent most of my time outside of dinner at the guest house. Behind the homes and massive cement walk was a vast forest with a lake at the base of the mountain. Akari and I learned how to skate with Grandfather on that lake. Grandmother taught Akari to swim, and she, in turn, taught me there.

Our family had built this mansion generations ago as we were one of the original hero families in Japan when quirks first started to appear. It was nice having some seclusion from the other residences, but it was an hour trek to get to school. Iida's family lived ten minutes down the road. I slid the rice paper doors open, entering the large building. I closed the door and made my way through the house to my bedroom. It was dark, and the thin doors would rattle with the smallest breeze.

I pulled out the scrapbook I hid in my futon and laid across the tatami, browsing the photographs. I always wondered what our life would be like if one or both of our parents were alive. Would we be heroes? Would we be villains? Would Grandfather be alive too?

[B&M]

The bell for lunch rang. I stared down at my closed notebook. If Akari could make friends with her classmates, I could too. She was bright and bubbly. I was not. She could talk your ear off. I would run. I let out a loud sigh. I needed to stop comparing myself to my sister and just do it. Just do it without running away and hiding. A hero never runs away. A hero always runs in.

I stood up from my desk, took my wrapped bento box out of my bag and walked over to Midoriya, who was putting the finishing touches on his notes, "oh, hi Satoshi!"

I bit my lip and closed my eyes. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My feet tried to turn, but I willed them to stay, driving my heels into the ground. I needed to ask! "Can I eat lunch with you today?"

I peeked up through my lashes to see a beaming smile on the freckled boy. "Of course! Let's head to the cafeteria." I followed after him as he joined Iida and Uraraka on the other side of the room.

Iida looked around Midoriya to me. "Satoshi, are you joining us, perhaps? You never eat with anyone but your sister."

I bit my lip and nodded, my oil slick hair moving to shine with blues and purples. We made our way to the cafeteria – the three of them chatting the entire way. I felt bad for interrupting their time as friends. Maybe I could sneak away without anyone noticing and let them have their time alone.

"Satoshi," Uraraka linked her arm with mine, "I brought my lunch today as well. How about we go and find a table to sit at." I tried to protest, but she dragged me across the bustling cafeteria to an empty table in the centre of the room. I sat down in a seat a few away from her. She puffed out her cheeks and sat down across from me. "What did you bring for lunch?"

I lifted the top off the bento box and pointed to each item, "rice, kimchi, beef tips, and seaweed salad."

She started to drool before wiping her chin, "that looks amazing. I have an egg salad and mochi. Cheap and delicious." I smiled at her before we both dug in.

I heard a voice whisper behind me. "Hey, is that your sister?"

"Her? No. She's too weird to be in the cafeteria."

"But I thought I saw you with her on the first day of school."

"She's too weird to be with normal people."

"That weird?"

"Let's go Honenuki."

"Right."

I sighed and put my chopsticks down, placing the lid on my bento.

Midoriya slipped into the seat beside me while Iida sat beside Uraraka. "Done already? That's a shame."

I stood up from my seat. "I forgot I needed to meet Aizawa." I picked up my bento and hurried out of the cafeteria. A large blonde boy stopped me with wide eyes and a matching wide smile.

"Principle Nezu asked me to find a girl named Makoto Satoshi who always runs away from everyone – you wouldn't happen to be her, now, would you?" He placed his hands on his hips and leaned over the top of me with an even wider smile.

I nodded slowly, holding my bento close to my chest. Why was his smile so big?

"Perfect, come with me!" He led me back into the main halls of the school and up the stairs towards the top floor. "I'm Mirio, one of the third-year hero students. You're in 1-A, aren't you? How was it going up against villains for the first time? Where you all scared? I know I sure was scared when I saw my first villain – but it'll become second nature after the first few."

I frowned as I walked after him. Boy, could he talk. How could he keep up such a one-sided conversation?

"Are you excited about the sports festival? What kind of quirk do you have? I bet you have something cool like control over earth or something – am I right? I have permeation. I can move my body through matter. I told you mine, so you have to tell me yours, so, what is it?"

"Space dust," I answered, watching my feet move against the tiled stairs.

"Space dust? That is a cool quirk name. What can you do with that? I've never heard of it before. Does anyone else have that quirk?"

"I can break down objects into its components."

"That's so cool!" Mirio smiled even wider at me once we reached the top floor. We walked down the halls to a large wooden door in the back of the building. "Principle Nezu – I found Satoshi." He knocked on the door before opening it. I entered the office. Mirio gave me a wave before leaving us alone.

"How are you today Makoto," the Principle asked from behind his desk.

"Good," I said, lowering my arms and bento to my waist.

He smiled, "I heard from some of the teachers that you've been going through some financial hardship lately. You've been trying to provide for yourself and pay for your schooling while working on your own. Aizawa has briefed me on your situation, and we've come to a conclusion on the matter. We will allow you to work for the time being. You will be able to obtain your provisional license this year, and once you are placed in a work-study, you will be expected to use that as your source of income. The faculty has decided to award you a scholarship as well to pay your tuition and fees in full for your time here at UA. You will be expected to maintain top grades and take care of yourself."

My jaw fell, "you can't be serious." He nodded and took a sip of his tea. "Thank you."

"I see I interrupted your lunch – go have fun with your friends. I look forward to seeing how you do at the sports festival." Principle Nezu waived.

"Thank you again," I bowed before exiting his office. I started down the stairs and exited the school, eating my lunch alone in the forest like usual.

[B&M]

I tugged at the hem of my gym jacket as I leaned against the wall of our waiting room. Everyone was sparsely seated in their friend groups at varying tables. A few students were hanging their personal effects in the lockers. Iida swung open the door, "everyone, get your game faces on!" Those seated at the tables began to stand. I lifted my eyes and watched Midoriya start to exit the room. Todoroki stopped him.

"Hey Todoroki, what's up," the green-haired boy asked uneasily. Everyone turned to eavesdrop.

"From an objective stand point I think it's fairly clear that I'm stronger than you."

"Yeah."

"However, you've got All Might in your corner helping you out. I'm not here to pry into what's going on between you two. But know that I will beat you."

"Yeah, what's the big deal? Why're you picking a fight all of a sudden?" Kirishima stood and placed a hand on Todoroki's shoulder.

"We're not here to be each other's friends. Don't forget – this isn't a team effort." Todoroki brushed him off and began to exit the waiting room.

"Wait a sec Todoroki. I don't know what's going through your head or why you think you need to tell me that you'll beat me. Well, yeah, you're better than me. In fact, you probably have more potential than anyone in the hero course. That's why you got in so easily." Midoriya began to state as he eyed Todoroki's back.

"Hey – you don't need to be so hard on yourself and us," Kirishima spoke.

"No. He's right, you guys. All the other courses are coming for us with everything they've got. We're all going to have to fight to stand out. And I'll be aiming for the top too." Todoroki turned to face Midoriya.

"Fine." Everyone uneasily rose and headed through the halls of the arena to the open grass of the stadium. I followed at the back of the pack as Present Mic refreshed everyone's mind of the USJ situation as he introduced us. The stadium clapped as he introduced the other classes.

"Now, for the speech!" Midnight raised a hand, her whip snapping. "For the student pledge – we have Katsuki Bakugo."

The blonde boy lazily shoved his hands in his pockets and crossed the grass to the raised platform that Midnight stood on. He stopped in front of the microphone – looking bored out of his mind. "I just wanna say, I'm gonna win." The other classes began to boo him, and Iida chastised him. I felt a hand bump my hip. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see Akari's platinum hair.

"Let's begin; this is where you start feeling the pain. The first fateful game of the festival, what could it be?" The large screen behind Midnight began to roll like a slot machine. It stopped abruptly on an obstacle race. "Tada. All courses will participate in the race. It is a four-kilometre race around the outside of the stadium. You can do whatever you like. Good luck, contestants!"

Akari and I watched as everyone ran forward, trying to push past each other to get through the narrow passage to the outside of the stadium. We began to hear murmurs from the audience as they began to question why we were not moving. After Midoriya entered the stadium in first place, my sister held out her hand to me. I took it and gripped it tightly. We nodded to each other as our bodies dissipated and we swirled together—her shining light with my fathomless darkness. We shot through the top of the passage and out over a path of ice, past the frozen robots, over the tightropes, and the exploding confetti bombs. We entered the stadium, reappearing from the top down. We were both placed twenty-eighth.

"No," I heard Mineta scream, "why are you wearing your hero costume? That defeats the purpose of your wonderful quirk!" I walked; arms intertwined with my sister to our gym uniforms. We picked up our own, draping them over our free arms.

"Who the hell is that?" My sister whispered in my ear as she eyed the small boy.

I lowered my voice, "just the class pervert." We watched as a few of the students pointed to us and spoke in hushed whispers. We had just finished the course in less than minute after all. That was in part to Akari's quirk; she had the speed of light on her side. Instead of breaking her body down to its subatomic level as I did – she turned her body into light waves. Her favourite trick to do when we were kids was to make herself into a rainbow. Akari patted my shoulder and rushed off to join her classmates that passed. I watched her laugh and hug them. I stood at the edge of the grass, shrugging my gym jacket back on while ignoring my pants.

"Don't worry if you didn't make the cut – there will be other opportunities for you. Now, the fun is about to begin," Midnight licked her lips. "The chance to fully move yourselves into the limelight – give it your best!" The screen began to roll again. It stopped on a cavalry battle. I swallowed hard. I had to make a team – again. Why did UA require us to work with others so much?

"You'll make teams of two to four people. Each placement has been assigned points, forty-second has five points and so on. The top spot is worth ten million points!" Everyone instantly eyed Midoriya. "Take another team's headband, and those get added to your score. Even if your headband is stolen, you can keep fighting until time is up. The top four teams will move on to the final round! You may use your quirks as much as you like. But, there are some rules. Make a team fall, and I'll slap you with a red card. You have fifteen minutes to build your team – get started!" I did not want to go on to the final round. There was so much going on that there may be a chance that people missed what Akari and I had done, but if I made it to the one on one battles our parent's relationship was out.

"You – you're on my team," Bakugo said as he stopped in front of me. I looked up at him through my bangs. He reached for my bicep and pulled me closer to him as the crowd around us began to grow. He had already joined up with Kirishima and Sero. "Red-head's going in the front, Tape and Satoshi are in the back."

Kirishima and Sero looked at Bakugo with an offended opened jaw. Kirishima spoke first, "how do you know her name but not ours?"

"Whatever. You can take the brunt of my explosions and tape-boy can make his elbows useful. Satoshi can use that quirk of hers to sneak in and steal headbands when I'm busy!" Bakugo sneered.

"Hey – it's Sero, not tape boy." He pointed to himself with his thumb.

I rocked my head side to side while I took a hair tie and pulled my dark hair into a ponytail. I could not hide my face for this, unfortunately. "It's not that easy." I held out my right arm and let my hand break down, a small ball of black dust floated at the end of my forearm. My hand rematerialized with a matching dust cloud two feet away, "that's my limit."

Kirishima frowned, his neck jutting forward, "what? But you were all over the place at USJ."

I licked my bottom lip before explaining. "Yes, but that's breaking down my entire body. I'm still inexperienced with being in two places at once."

Bakugo growled in the back of his throat, "we'll make it work. Just don't fuck up." The countdown timer ended on the screen. A few of the groups around us were experimenting with placement. We walked over to the edge of the dirt. Kirishima stood in front of us. Sero took the rear left, placing his right hand Kirishima's shoulder and held onto his left. I mirrored their stance. Bakugo climbed on top, his feet rested in our joined hands and sat on our arms. Akari had gone to a team with Honenuki and two of her other classmates. Midnight handed out our headbands. Bakugo tied the six hundred and sixty-five point band on his head.

"Are you all ready?" Present Mic called out over the speaker, "Three! Two! One!" A loud horn sounded.

"Begin!" Midnight snapped her whip. Everyone took off running for Midoriya's team. He had paired up with Uraraka, Tokoyami, and a pink-haired girl from another class. They jumped into the air and floated high above us.

"Sero, get ready," Bakugo yelled as he jumped off our arms. He used his explosions to propel him through the air towards Midoriya's team. Bakugo let off a large explosion as he overtook the group, but dark shadow shielded the team from attack.

"Aw man," Sero sighed, shooting a long strand of tape out of his elbow. The end attached to Bakugo and Sero was able to reel him back in. We caught up, awkwardly resetting without letting his feet touch the ground. I huffed on the impact – he was far too heavy for my weak muscles. We took off running after Midoriya's team again.

"Let's check in on the teams so far," Present Mic called out over the speakers. "Class A doesn't look so hot. Besides for team Midoriya, everyone else is losing – including team Bakugo." I watched as a blonde-haired boy smirked smugly and took our headband quickly from behind us.

"Your class is too small-minded. Think bigger," the blonde said as his team scampered away.

Bakugo's head snapped around to face him. "What did you say? Come back here!"

His team stopped. "Midnight said the obstacle course was just the first event, and we figured that they would not cut that many of us right off the bat. Would they? Assuming they'd keep at least forty contestants from that group, we just had to make sure we stayed in that group as we ran. From our spots in the middle ranks, we could fully observe the quirks our rivals had and judge their capabilities. Only a fool would obsess over winning the preliminary rounds."

Bakugo straightened himself as we turned to face his team. "Did you plan this as a class?"

"It wasn't completely unanimous," the boy shrugged as he tied our points around his neck. As you can see it's playing out well. It's better than chasing after a temporary front running like a horse with a carrot waiving in his face. Oh, while I have your attention, you're kind of famous for being attacked by that sludge villain. You'll have to tell me about it sometime. It must be strange to always find yourself in the roll of the victim."

I looked up at Bakugo's back. He was seething with rage. "Kirishima, we have a change of plans. Before we take down Deku – we're going to take down every last one of these B-list idiots." Damn it. I had heard how Akari spoke about her classmates and the boy she liked at dinner. What were their quirks? Softening, copy, big fist, steel – but there were others I were forgetting too.

"We have reached the halfway point of the game!" Present Mic announced.

"Monoma, don't provoke him, man!" One of his classmates at the rear of their set up shushed him. "That's the kind of thing he would do."

"Right," the blonde, Monoma, shrugged, "that's not very heroic of me. Besides, you know how these things work. Heroes are always being hounded by some moronic villain for revenge." He cocked his head and looked at me, smirking. My lips tightened into a thin line. No way, Akari must have told her class about our parents already.

"Bakugo – you've got to keep a level head, or we'll never get our points back." Kirishima tried to calm him down as his anger rose.

Bakugo yelled and let off his explosions, "shut up! I've never been calmer, can't you tell? Now get after them Kirishima. You think you're tough? Die!" We rushed forward – Monoma's team did not move. He let off an explosion in Bakugo's face and forced him to lose his balance a little. Bakugo turned back to face him again, another explosion was set off in his face.

"Huh, wow. I see why you like this quirk." Monoma smiled and touched Kirishima's head.

"Whoa! Weird, that guy has your quirk," Kirishima gawked.

"He has copy," I gasped, letting my hand at Bakugo's foot dissipate.

"Damn it!" Bakugo growled and threw an explosion at Monoma again. The explosion set off but Monoma was unharmed. He had hardened his arm using Kirishima's quirk. I was close enough to steal one of his headbands. I grabbed onto the middle strip of fabric and dissipated it and my hand.

Monoma shrugged, "your sister already told you all about our class, didn't she? Too bad you're too weak for this fight. You two both have impressive powers, but I think you'll agree that mine is better." His group backed away from us. I brought my hand back, handing the band to Bakugo. He took it and hung it around his neck. "Where did you get that from?"

"Look down. After all, I'm too weak – right?" I gave him a half-hearted smile. A gush of liquid poured out in front of us. I turned to see a tall, muscular class B student. Monoma's team began to move away from us with their last headband.

"Get after them Kirishima! We need to get ours back," Bakugo growled and pointed after the group.

"I can't, it's too sticky." Kirishima could not move. I let go of Kirishima's hand and Bakugo's boot, squatting down to touch the glue that encased Kirishima's leg. I changed the structure – all the atoms melded into a ball on the ground and freed his leg. "Thanks, Satoshi!" We took off running after them once again. Bakugo leapt up once we neared them and shot his explosions to get on top of them once more. The rear boy blew out, a solid disc of air appearing in Bakugo's way. He landed on top of it and began to punch the wall.

"Let's get closer," I spoke to Kirishima and Sero, "if Bakugo's stuck I could still get their headbands." The two nodded and we ran forward. Bakugo kept hitting the disc of solid air while Monoma's team laughed.

"You look pretty stupid fighting air," the boy said as their team turned to leave. With one final hit, the disc shattered and Bakugo reached forward and grabbed the two remaining headbands from around Monoma's neck. He had no more points. Sero pulled Bakugo back with his tape. We had over a thousand points now. We were going to the final round.

"We're not done! Let's get those ten million points damn it!" Bakugo began to hit Kirishima over top of his head. We started off towards the large glaciers at the edge of the arena. Once we entered the edge of the ice, Bakugo let off his explosions and headed towards Todoroki's team. I took a look at the scoreboard quickly – Todoroki's team had stolen the ten million points from Midoriya. There were less than five seconds on the clock. Regardless of if we did gather more points or not – we would be in the finals.

"Times up!" Present Mic screeched over the speakers. Todoroki's team relaxed while Midoriya hung his head.

Bakugo hit the ground hard, pounding at it with his fist in anger. "Damn it icy hot!"

"Let's take a look at the scores! First place is team Todoroki, second place is team Bakugo, third is team Shinzo, fourth is team Midoriya." Present Mic announced. Tokoyami held up a headband he had taken from Todoroki during one of their last attacks. I looked over my shoulder at the rest of the teams. Akari had her arms crossed and glared at me. I swallowed and slowly turned away from her. I had never seen such a look of death on her face.