Chapter 2

Her first year went by quickly, much to Ichika's surprise. She got along perfectly fine with her classmates, even if the start was a bit rocky. Still her closest friend was Mirio Togata. His cheerful personality contagious and his optimistic personality admirable. And of course there was Nejire Hado and Tamaki Amajiki from class 1-A. Or class 2-A now. During their first year, the four of them were always seen together and she was eager to continue their friendship during their second year at U.A. As the teen walked through the gates, she heard her name being called.

'Ichika! Hey!' Her periwinkled haired friend ran up to her with a wide smile, pulling the taller girl into a hug once she was close by enough. 'It's been ages since I've seen you!'

'It's only been two weeks, Nejire,' Ichika replied as she pulled back from the embrace with a smile. 'Not that I haven't missed you too,' she then added as she noticed the other girl pouting at her reply.

Satisfied that she had been missed too, Nejire linked her arm with Ichika as the girls continued their way. Happily chatting as they walked towards their usual meet-up spot

'This year will be my year, Chika,' Nejire stated excitedly as she bumped her fist in the air. 'I'm gonna work hard and study hard! I totally want to get my provisional license and work at a Hero Agency!'

'Yeah, that would be something, alright,' Ichika agreed, slightly less excited, but still eager to learn from a pro.

'I bet you'll be returning to Hawks Hero Agency, aren't you. Hm? Hm? He's so dreamy and close to our age too!'

Ichika laughed, agreeing with her friend. The man was defiantly hot and was fun to work with. Even if he mostly wanted to know about U.A. and had spent little time teaching.

'I'll let him know that you are interested,' she joked while patting Nejire's head. 'Though I would advise you wait until you're 18. You know, with legal issues and all.'

'Oh, sush! Let a girl dream.'

The two of them laughed as they waited for Tamaki and Mirio to arrive as well. Wanting to know what they had been up to for the past two weeks. Especially Tamaki. While Mirio and Nejire had kept Ichika updated and vice versa, she had only received a handful of messages of the timid boy. Though he was clearly more at ease speaking through messages.

'What would two ladies such as yourself be waiting here for, I wonder?'

The girls shrieked at the sudden voice behind them, before Nejire flailed behind her in reflex.

'Ouch, Hado,' came the pained voice from behind the pair. 'That could have actually hurt.'

'Be glad you didn't get fried, Shimada,' Ichika stated crossly as she turned to face the said boy. 'Sneaking up on us like that. Where did you come from anyway?'

'Ah, she cares,' the brown haired boy mocked as he elegantly jumped over the two off them, turning mid-air so he would face them after landing. 'I knew you secretly liked me.'

Ichika rolled her eyes as Nejire giggled girlishly at the boy. Takeshi Shimada sent her a wolfish grin, before his golden eyes found Ichika again.

'You're impossible, Shimada.'

'And you love it.'

'I'd love to roast that annoying ass of yours out of my way.'

Ichika crossed her arms in annoyance as the tall boy refused to leave. Instead his predatory wolf eyes remained focussed on Ichika. For a couple of weeks now, the boy had turned his attention towards the ginger haired girl. Apparently finding her fiery temper attractive, much to her annoyance. And she wasn't even that hot-headed! Only when provoked enough. She could handle Tanaka's friendly teasing. But Shimada wasn't innocent nor friendly. He was just being annoying in his attempts to get her to go out on a date with him – which she profusely refused!

Not that he wasn't attractive or anything. On contrary. Takashi Shimada was quite an attractive boy, probably the most handsome one in her class. With his shaggy brown hair and golden eyes that resembled that of a wolf. And if it wasn't for his big ego, Ichika would have probably gone with him the first time he had asked her. After all, like the other girls, she too had a crush on him at first. But it turned out the boy knew he looked good and was an absolute flirt. And one a regular base he would set his eyes on a new victim he would try and concur. Which, aat the moment, seemed to be Ichika. Something she did not find attractive, at all!

'I admire your bravery, Shimada,' a new voice joined in with a hint of humour. 'Even I would feel humiliated after getting rejected that often. But Ichika has rejected you, what? Four times now? And you keep on trying.'

Ichika smiled at the two familiar faces as they stood still next to the teen. One on each side. Tamaki stood slouched over as always, while Mirio stood tall, his hand resting on Shimada's shoulder. Though his facial expression was friendly as ever, there was something about the way that he held the slightly shorter boy that was intimidating.

'Ah, well you know what they say, don't you, Togata? Fifty times no and one yes, means yes.'

'Or perhaps you could should stop humiliating yourself any further,' came the annoyed yet timid voice of Tamaki. 'She's clearly not interested.'

But Shimada brushed Mirio's hand off. Not feeling threatened by the two teens who stood amongst the lower ranked students of the hero course. So why would he feel threatened?

'You clearly have a thing or two to learn if that's what you think.' His golden gaze held a challenge as he looked at Mirio as he spoke. 'Chicks like Midoriya like to play hard to get-' Ichika scoffed at this, '- so you need to be persistant.'

'I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the advice, Shimada.' Mirio gave him a smile and a thumbs up, before walking towards the two girls to greet them.

Tamaki did the same, minus the friendly reply or acknowledgement. Instead he simply shuffled after Mirio. His moment of bravery already gone.

'Thanks you guys,' Ichika mumbled in exasperation. 'He just can't seem to take no for an answer.'

Closing her eyes to calm herself down, she took a deep breath, before letting it out. When she opened her eyes again after calming down, she greeted the boys properly. Pulling Tamaki in for a friendly hug, which in turn turned the teen red-faced. With a giggle, Ichika released him and turned to Mirio for a hug.

It was when she pulled back, that she noticed something was different about him. His shoulders were broad, but he had trained real hard during their first year, so nothing different about that. He hadn't grown either. No, it was something entirely different, that caught her eye.

'What did you do to your hair?'

The blond usually had his bangs covering his brows, yet now he sported some kind of cow-lick hairstyle. Though the biggest change was the fact that he had cut his long hair. When they had met over a year ago, he wore a low ponytail which he kept growing throughout the year. But now he had chopped it all off! But why?

'Oh, I had it cut off,' Mirio answered her as he rubbed the back of his head. 'For my hero costume.'

'Oh! Oh! That's right,' Nejire cut in as she too noticed the teen his new haircut. 'Your current one keeps falling off, right? Right? So won't that, like, keep happening?'

'Haha, yeah,' Mirio laughed. 'That's usually the case, isn't it? But Power Loader said he could make something more fit for my quirk if the material actually contained my DNA.'

'Oh, I see! Your permeation only works onyou.' Mirio nodded in confirmation. 'Your quirk is a transformation-type, right? So only your body can phase through things, seeing as nothing else can do so. So if your hero outfit is made from fibers of your own hair, you think you can phase through physical matter without getting… Well, you know, naked?'

As soon as the words left her lips, her thoughts drifted to the exposed - and exceptionally fit - body of the teen. The thought bringing a blush to her cheeks.

'Yeah! That's the idea!' The blond smiled excitedly, pumping his fists in the air. 'Wouldn't it be great if I could actually use my quirk without embarrassing myself?'

'It makes sparring against you so much easier,' Ichika mused as she linked her arm with Mirio and Nejire, with Tamaki shuffling next to the latter. 'But don't think you can test it out on me.'

'She's right,' Tamaki mumbled in agreement. His face not even once looking up from the ground. 'Her virgin eyes probably won't be able to handle seeing your naked body for much longer.'

The three others stared at the usual quiet boy. Tamaki Amajiki was, as Nejire often called him, a shy kitten. He didn't do well in crowds and even with just the four of them he liked to keep to himself. Only speaking when he thought it to be necessary. So the roast he had just fired at his female friend had come out of nowhere.

Then Ichika's face flushed red as her other two friends broke down in laughter. Flustered, though amused at his comment, Ichika hid her face as she shouted out.

'Tamaki!'

Excited shouting came from the arena, cheering as the next contestants were called over. Ichika smirked as Present Mic called her name. She had once again made it to the one on one fights of the sports festival and she was excited to aim even higher! Having lost in her second match. And now she was only one match away from the finals! Last year she had caught the eye of the starting Winged hero: Hawks amongst others. She had chosen him over the Wild Wild Pussycats because he seemed cool. And the fact that he was hot helped as well. Well, no. She choose him over the others only because he was hot. But other than helping her with her hero name, the man had taught her little.

This year she had a chance to get her provisional license and with the workstudies that could come from getting the said license, she wanted to catch the eye of a great agency. Even if she wouldn't be able to do any workstudies until after the Provisional License Exams and she would be an intern until then. Nighteye Agency would be an ideal choice. Or Genius Office. So she really needed to give her all if she wanted any of the bigger names to take notice of her. It was Hound Dog who had given her the right motivation though. Telling her she could still pursue her dream of becoming a teacher through the hero course. If she was to become a hero - even for a short amount of time - she could probably apply for a job at U.A. if she wanted. The only requirement was to at least make a name for herself. So with her homeroom teacher giving her new motivation to continue, Ichika took a deep breath and walked in sight of the awaiting crowd.

The moment she entered the arena, loud voices called her name in encouragement and she turned her head to see her friends at the stands. With a quick wave, she then focussed her attention to her opponent. He was lanky built with wavy snow coloured hair and stone coloured eyes. Keiichi Tano, from class 2-B, just like her. While his Air Bomb was a force to be reckoned with, the boy looked as if he was confused why he was here in the first place. And she couldn't really blame him. While his quirk was quite powerfull, he was easily distracted, which resulted in him not even landing a spot in the one on one fights.

'Hey, you doing okay, Tano,' she asked as she took her spot in the arena. 'You don't look too well.'

'Nah, nothing to worry about, Midoriya,' was his shaky reply. 'Just surprised that I landed myself a spot semi-finals.'

'Well, you could always just give up if you have so little faith in your skills,' the redhead mused as she took her stance.'

The boy scoffed, before smirking.

'You wish, Midoriya. No way I'm giving up without a fight!.'

And with that, he raced towards her at lightning speed. Thinking quickly, Ichika quickly raised a wall of fire around herself. That way Tano would be forced to a stop and make a way through her barrier. Which would slow him down enough for her to counterattack. She smirked, he was so predictable.

'I knew you would try and block me!'

Shocked, Ichika looked up. He was right above her! How could he be right above her? Tano couldn't fly, she was sure of it! So how?

There was no time to think. The white-haired boy grinned mischievously as he send a powerfull wind bomb towards her. Aiming her hands towards the ground, Ichika propelled herself in the air with her fire. That was a close one!

After a not too smooth landing, where she almost tripped, her head shot up immediately to search for Tano through the debris and dust.

'Hey,' the said boy shouted in frustration, 'you weren't supposed to do that! You can't fly!'

'And neither can you,' she replied as she found him standing atop a large chunck of cement right where she had stood just a moment ago.

Keeping her eye on Keiichi, Ichika flicked her wrist, just a small movement. To small for the airhead to notice, but big enough for what she was about to do.

'Yeah, wellI have an air related quirk,' Tano continued his whining, not even making any indication that he was going to attack. Too frustrated that she had evaded his surprise attack. 'Of course I can fly - sort of… But come on! That was my best move!'

Another small movement, this time a little shift of her left foot. To him it might look like she was just shifting her stance. But she was actually preparing to attack the unprepared boy as she tried to keep his attention towards her.

'That was your best move,' she mocked at she smirked smugly. 'You should know better than to fight fire with wind, Tano. You'll only create a wildfire!'

And with that, Ichika thrusted both arms out, her hands clenched into fists, before she pulled her elbows in. The flames on the two pillars outside of the arena rose up to an immense heat. Noticing the burning heat behind him, Tano turned around. His eyes big as he watched the two flames become one. Before he had time to react, he was thrusted off the platform by a combustion as the two flames collided.

'Tano is out of bounds,' Midnight announced cheerfully as she pointed her whip at Keiichi Tano. Then she shifted her stance to point at Ichika. Midoriya advances to the finals! This girl is even more on fire than last year and I love it!'

'Hey, not fair, Midoriya!' Ichika grinned as she walked over to her classmate. 'You did that on purpose, didn't you? Distracting me that is!'

'Of course I did,' Ichika admitted as she elbowed him playfully. 'Why fight hard, when I can have an easy win?'

Tano rolled his eyes at this, as he pushed her shoulder, while they walked out of the arena. Stating she wouldn't be able to show her skills with an easy win. But Ichika disagreed with that.

'I have already shown most of my skills during the festival,' she told Tano as they walked up the stairs with Ichika needing to go to the waiting room and Tano needing to see Recovery Girl for the burn he had gotten during the fight. 'But to be able to outsmart your opponent is also a skill.'

'Yeah, whatever. Which hero agency would want to see brain over brawn?'

To prove his point, he flexed his arms to show off his - not so present - muscles. But instead of replying, Ichika decided to waved him off as the parted ways. She knew what agencies would look for a candidate who would use their brains instead of their brawns. Agencies like Nighteye Agency for example. A smart man such as Sir Nighteye would surely appreciate a student who seemed to posses at least a little bit of intelligence when fighting an opponent. And if she wanted to follow Hound Dog's advice, then she needed to do all that she could to gain the attention of the likes of agencies that ranked in the top 10. Then she could perhaps make a name of herself quickly and then return to U.A. as a teacher. Hound Dog himself had offered to take her in as his trainee, should she succeed. With the side note that she needed to study hard as well, for he did not like slackers!

'There she is! Class 2-B's champion!'

The moment the teen had opened the door to the waiting room, she was met with three familiar faces. Mirio and Nejire stood in front of her with a cheerful smile on the faces, while Tamaki just stood their being him. Though he could see a small proud smile on his face as he looked at the ground.

'We're so proud of you, Chika,' Nejire exclaimed as she pulled a surprised Ichika into the room. 'You got to the finals this year!' Then her face got all serious as she pulled Ichika down so they were face to face. 'What's your secret, huh? Tell me!'

'I, ah... I just got lucky?'

She scratched the back of her head, unsure of what to say. Or do. She came here to prepare for the last round, which would happen in about fifteen minutes. She hadn't expected to see her friends down here, waiting for her. Not that she was complaining though! She was just overwhelmed.

Finally getting out of Nejire's iron grasp, Ichika made her way over to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. She needed to cool herself down before the start of the next round. While fighting Keiichi wasn't a real fight, her final round would be a difficult one. One in which she would be at a disadvantage, she she couldn't start the fight close to overheating from the previous fights!

After sitting down at the table, she gulped the bottle down as quickly as she could, feeling the cold liquid cooling her down almost instantly. And at the same time she listened to Nejire as the excitable girl did a recap of the fight.

'What?'

Ichika stared at the blue eyed boy in front of her in annoyance. He'd been staring at her from the moment she sat down in the vacant chair across of him. And next to her, Nejire was no better as she kept touching Ichika's hair. Holding it in between her hands, letting it run through her fingers and brushing it against her cheek, all while she continued rambling.

'And could you please stop that? It's weird, even for you Nejire!'

'But your hair is so pretty,' the girl replied as she started brushing the red locks against her cheek. 'And soft!'

Annoyed with the behaviour of her two friends, Ichika snatched her ginger hair from Nejire's hands and gave an exasperated sigh as she brushed her hair over her opposite shoulder.

'Honestly, you two. You're behaving like you've never seen me before.

'Nah, you we know,' the boy across from her said as he grinned. 'But your hair is a whole different matter.'

'Yeah, Ichika! I don't think I've ever seen you with your hair down! It's so pretty!'

Ichika glared at Nejire, sending her a silent dare to touch her hair again. She knew the bubbly girl well enough now, to know what the small movement of her hand meant. Then she sighed, turning her attention to Tamaki for help. But the indigo haired boy just shrugged.

'Well don't get used to it,' Ichika muttered as she looked away from to two blue stares. Her initial irritation slowly turning into embarrassment. 'My hair tie snapped during the fight thanks to Tano's Air Bomb. Tomorrow I'll be wearing my braid again.'

'No way! Ichika, this look suits you so well! Your hair looks like it's on fire!'

'Hmmh,' Mirio hummed agreeing with Nejire. 'When you have it down like this, it reminds me of the sun. Warm and bright and beautiful.'

Her cheeks started to heat up at the compliment. He thought her hair was beautiful? Like the sun? Embarrassment by the compliment, Ichika lowered her head to look at her table. The movement causing her hair to fall in front of her face and block her view. Which, to her luck, meant he couldn't see her blush either. And she didn't even know why she was blushing!

But upon hearing the disapproving sound from the blond boy, she looked up again.

'Well, that won't do,' he chimed as he reached out a hand to brush her hair out if her face. 'There, now we can see that pretty face of yours again.'

He gave her a playful wink followed by a boyish grin as Ichika's eyes widened, before she looked away again. Her cheeks burning in embarrassment. Why was she blushing like this?! This was Mirio for goodness sake! He'd been making comments like this from the start, throwing a playful, flirty comment at her every now and then just to see how red her cheeks could get. But she's never blushed like this before!

It must be because she was getting excited for the final match. Yeah, that was probably it. She was excited for the match, which was why she was burning right now! It most definitely wasn't because of Mirio's comment, nor the way he had brushed her hair out of her face. Nope! That was most definitely not the reason!

Pleased with her reasoning, Ichika tried to calm herself down and instead switched the conversation towards the last round. Though a strange fluttering in her belly remained whenever she looked at Mirio...

A/NAnd that's where I'll end this chapter. for all my new followers, thank you. For everyone who decided to place a review, thank you! it means so much to know people actually like my writing.anyway, thank you for taking your time to read my fanfics, follow them and/or even review them. I hope I have not disappointed you.Until next time!