chapter 1: the encounter
author's note: it's back! wolfsbane is back and (hopefully) better a year after it last ended :D more angst. more strained family relationships. more anxiety. and of course, more tension - you can't have a romance fic without tension. hope you enjoy this new vers of chapter one! (1989 words cough cough)
I do up my school tie in the mirror, fumbling with it like I always do.
How is it that even after three years in middle school, I still haven't mastered the art of tie-tying? Resisting the urge to just flop down on my bed and just not leave the house, I steel my resolve and bring my aching fingers up to my collar, for what seems like the hundredth time. I go through the familiar motions slowly and steadily.
There. Done. Maybe it was just the nerves.
My school's career guidance counselor told me that I'll definitely make it into UA's Hero Course, because of my Quirk - not like I haven't heard that sentence a million times already. I want so badly to believe it, but this exam could easily determine my future. UA's acceptance rates are shockingly, almost impossibly low, and that's for all ten classes across the four courses. The number of spots open for Hero Course students? Thirty-six.
What are the chances that I'll be one of those talented thirty-six? What if I can't be as good as Takaro or Dad or Uncle Nagu?
What if I can't be good enough?
I feel my breathing start to quicken, my gut clenching painfully from the anxiety. I clench my fists tightly to push all that out of my headspace. Watching the color drain from my knuckles, I count to ten. It won't do well to get so in my head this close to the entrance exam.
Faces flash before my eyes. Mom and Dad telling me that no matter what happens, they'll always be proud to have me as their daughter. Takaro and Suzume promising that we'll head down to Takoba Beach together after exam season's over. Inasa flashing his signature positive smile, saying that he's looking forward to seeing me in our new high school.
You need to have a motivation for everything you do, or else you'll be doing it in vain.
Dad says this a lot. And that living by this principle made him a better Hero, a better father, a better man. Maybe I should do that too. And I'm making all these important people in my life my motivation.
I can do this.
"Crap!"
The smartphone with the pastel pink case and fuchsia charms flies through the air, from the hand of a pink-skinned, pink-haired schoolgirl who's just managed to stop herself from landing face-down on the hard ground. Her eyes - golden pupils with black sclera - widen in hopelessness and anguish.
Time slows down for a second as my Quirk-given reflexes kick in. I see the world in colored lines - trajectories, speeds. The phone falls in slow-motion, its rectangular frame rotating as it plummets towards the pavement. I push off the ground and the resulting force pushes me forward. Knocking it upwards with my hand to increase its time in the air (and by extension the time I have to catch it), the charm falls perfectly around my wrist.
Saved. Good to see my libero reflexes haven't left me yet.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I hold out the phone as its owner bounds towards me excitedly, welcoming it into the (questionable) safety of her arms once again.
"I could not thank you enough. I would not be able to live without this precious little thing," she says earnestly, almost maniacally. A true golden retriever soul.
"Well, take care on your way to wherever you're headed," I say cheerfully.
Her smiley expression fades slightly at my words and she laughs anxiously, stashing her phone in her uniform skirt pocket. "I usually get clumsier the more nervous I get," she confides conspiratorially. "It's UA I'm heading to, you see. For the entrance exam." She shivers in nervous anticipation, her grip on her pocket-bound phone tightening.
"So am I! We can head there together - if you don't mind, of course…"
"I would only mind if you didn't, my phone savior."
We set off back down the street, exchanging questions as we go. The girl, also applying for the Hero Course, is Mina Ashido, a third-year from Mustafa Private Middle School, which I remember vaguely from my time in the city. I tell her about what it's like playing volleyball, and my music taste - vastly different from hers. She tells me her Quirk is Acid, meaning that she can expel acid from her palms, and can vary its viscosity and acidity.
"I've always wanted an Emitter Quirk," I say enviously. "They seem strong."
"Ah, so yours is Mutant-class! That makes sense, I guess. With the ears and all."
"Well… not exactly." I explain to Ashido how my Quirk is officially classified as both Mutant and Transformer, because I have the features of a wolf, as well as the ability to turn into one. Typically, this kind of Quirk would just be considered as a Transformation one, but I can't make my animal features disappear - I was born with them. Most of my family on my dad's side has animal-related Quirks, all Mutant-Transformer ones, but the animal varies from person to person. For example, Dad has a Falcon Quirk and my brother has a Hawk Quirk, but me? Definitely not a bird. "So you could say my family's Quirk is still kind of a genetic anomaly."
"That's so cool! I don't see why you'd want an Emitter Quirk, given the one you already have."
"I mean…"
I chuckle awkwardly, reaching up to scratch the back of my ear, hyperaware of every movement of every person in the bus, every time the vehicle slows down or speeds up some. "It's not really useful in combat. Boosted senses and increased speed for half an hour max and… yeah, that's about it. Compared to yours - or any Hero's, for that matter - it's kinda pathetic."
"Aw, don't say things like that." Ashido smiles at me. It's a warm, comforting, soothing smile. "You wouldn't be holding that entrance pass if they didn't think you were good enough."
Her sincerity moves me to tears. I blink back the moisture in my eyes, praying they don't look bloodshot as I meet Ashido's gaze. The familiar burning sensation in my eyes makes me frustrated, frustrated that I can't do anything to stop it, because I fall apart much too easily. God, this is embarrassing. Crying over my own insecurities to a person I met not ten minutes ago? What is she going to think of me?
"I don't know what expectations people've put on your shoulders, and I don't think it's any of my business to ask," she adds softly. "But I think you're amazing! And I think you'd be a great Hero student. All we gotta do is believe in ourselves, and then go out there and kick some ass. You with me?"
I smile. "Yeah."
Mentally, I add another point to my list of motivations. Highlighting it in bright, hot pink.
"You… look familiar. Have we met?"
The guy snorts, sending me the biggest eye-roll I've ever seen. "Trust me, you'd remember if we had."
I should, but I don't.
I blink twice, trying to shake away the unsettling feeling building in the pit of my stomach.
He appears in my dreams, always the ones where I seem to be in some kind of life-threatening situation. He saves me, every time. Ash-blond hair. Beautiful blood-red eyes. His calm voice calls out to me, telling me that he'll always be there, ready to catch me when I fall. But there's something more, something I'm missing. He can't just be a fantasy. He's too real, larger than life. No, I've definitely met him before.
I just can't remember when or where or how or why.
"Where're you from?"
"Musutafu. Born and raised here," he says curtly.
I glance over at his uniform - he's from one of the city's public schools. "We crushed Aldera Junior in girls' volleyball this year. Made it to regionals," I say proudly.
"You're that crazy libero from the team with the navy jerseys, aren't you?"
"You say crazy, I say dedicated," I retort indignantly. "That match was a tough one, and diving for receives isn't exactly unheard of. Especially when opposition brings out their high-and-mighty pinch server in the fourth set. And when right wing keeps playing dirty-"
"Cool your jets, I know my volleyball well enough. And I watched that match. No foul play going on over there," he remarks bluntly, seemingly amused at how worked up I've gotten in a matter of seconds.
He watched the match?
Maybe that's where I saw him, and my brain is subconsciously feeding me the memory of his face in my dreams. But the match was just four months ago.
I've been having these dreams for twelve.
I glare at him, embarrassment and frustration and confusion swirling in my stomach - not a nice combination. "Not if you count the faces your ace was pulling at my team."
His face breaks into an infuriating grin - the first I've seen. It's condescending and taunting, which makes me want to wipe it off his stupid face with a punch. "You really got bothered by that, huh."
"As if, pretty boy."
His stupid grin only widens. "Yeah?"
Realization sets in and I lean back against my seat, face flushed. He fixes me with his intense red-eyed gaze, leaning against his right armrest, nearer to me. The distance between us suddenly seems smaller than it was before. Much smaller.
"You know that's not what I meant," I mutter.
The lights in the auditorium turn off, prompting the stragglers to hurry to their seats in a furious scramble.
"Deku. Get your hand off of my face."
"I'm-I'm so sorry, Kacchan! It's just that the-the lights went out and I couldn't see anyth-"
Kacchan? My childhood nickname?
My brain kicks into high gear - or just really, really low gear, I have no way of telling. I reel in shock at this latest revelation. The guy who appears in my dreams… is called Kacchan too?
This can't be a coincidence. Not anymore.
"Excuse me, sir, I have a question!"
I've only been half paying attention, preoccupied as I am, but the loud voice (that isn't Present Mic's) echoing through the auditorium is sure to wake everybody up. It's a voice I know all too well.
How annoying can someone be? Not as annoying as him, I guess. I glare at the blue-haired teenager as he pretty much chews out a Pro Hero teacher and the school he works at.
I groan inwardly. First I have to deal with exam nerves and trying not to break down in front of strangers, then the realization that the nameless person I've been dreaming about for months is sitting right next to me. And now this? It takes every ounce of self-control I have to not tackle him to the ground and teach him a lesson he'll never forget. If only Mina was right by my side. She'd give him something to think about the second she so much as saw me tighten my jaw.
Unfortunately, to my right is the person I want to see the least as of now. Especially after what happened on the last day of middle school.
I breathe in deeply.
This is going to be a long, long briefing.
a/n: who's the dude on her right? dun dun dun