AN: Thanks for the interest and reviews everyone!
Ricardo Valencia - yeah, there's gonna be a name change. I'm sure three of them will workshop it while Tamaki keeps trying to run away from the meeting.
Maximum Rhapsody - We'll see what the future has in store for everyone else!
The trio managed to avoid any mishaps, and it didn't take long for them to reach the base of the cliff. Raising his hand, Izuku called for the girls to stop as he pressed the brake on his pogo stick.
"We should probably walk the rest of the way."
The girls nodded as they stopped next to him and dismounted from their pogo sticks as well.
"So, um, what do we do now?" Ochako asked as she looked at her vehicle.
"That's easy, you just pick it up like so," Melissa picked up her pogo stick to demonstrate, "and press this switch." As she pressed the indicated switch, her device began to glow red before it turned into a ribbon of light and collapsed down to its original pen-sized cylinder. Izuku and Ochako followed suit and offered their devices to Melissa, who quickly stored them back in her case.
"If we hurry we can watch the sunset!" Ochako pointed to the sky.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Melissa said as she put the case in her bag.
"Follow me!" Izuku found the girls' enthusiasm infectious, and was smiling as the three climbed the hill.
The grassy hill was an easy climb for the three, and it didn't take long for them to reach the metal fence at the top, preventing anyone from falling off the cliff while still providing a stunning view of the beach and ocean.
"Wow," Melissa breathed as she took in the view, before turning to Izuku. "Why didn't you tell us about this before!?"
"Um," Izuku rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I kind of forgot about this place," he glanced off to the side "most people don't come up here because they don't want a view of all the garbage."
"But look up! The view is amazing!" Ochako said as she tilted her head to take in the pinks and oranges of the evening sky. "I hope we can see the stars from here!"
"I'm glad you two like it," Izuku said. "I guess I never really had a reason to come up here before now."
"Well, now you have two!" Melissa said as she crossed her arms. "After the excitement of today, this is exactly the kind of place I need right now. Wish I brought a blanket though."
Ochako went to the fence and wrapped her hands around two bars, careful to keep her pinkies extended. "Now I'm even more motivated to clean that beach!"
Izuku walked up next to her and looked out at the sea of garbage. Off to one side, in the distance, he could already see where the mountains of trash vanished, their effort to reclaim the beach already visible even from this distance. "It'll still be a few months before we get here."
"It'll be worth it!" Ochako turned toward Izuku and pumped her fist in the air.
"Hopefully people won't remember this spot exists," Melissa added. Turning around, the two saw she had lowered herself to the ground and was sitting there staring up at them. "I kind of like the idea of having our own private getaway."
"If they do, we'll just have to fight 'em off!" Ochako said, punching her fist into her open palm.
Despite his nerves, Izuku found himself laughing alongside the two girls.
The three sat and talked until the sun finally set and the stars filled the night sky, much to Ochako's delight. Even though the light of the city drowned out the starlight behind them, the sky over the ocean was bright and clear, and Ochako laughed in delight as she pointed out the various constellations to her friends.
Unfortunately, their evening was cut short by a loud yawn from Melissa announcing that it was getting late.
"Sorry guys," Melissa said as she felt her cheeks heating up. "I've had a long day."
"I bet!" Ochako said. "That sports festival looked intense!"
"I guess we'll know what it's like in a couple more years?" Izuku asked helpfully.
"Yeah!" Ochako nodded her head. "I can't wait!"
"You might regret that when you actually participate," Melissa laughed, before smiling at the pair. "I had a lot of fun though." She pushed herself off the ground. "We should hang out more often!"
"Sure!" Ochako bobbed her head. "This was fun."
"Yeah," Izuku felt himself smiling, his nerves long forgotten. "It was."
Golden week was far too short for Melissa's liking; the time seemed to disappear once her dad arrived in Mustafu and before she knew it, it was Monday morning and she was back at UA. Coming in early, she saw Tamaki sitting at his desk along with several other students.
Walking over to her desk, she dropped off her bag and quickly unpacked it. Once her task was complete, she crossed the room to Tamaki's desk, and lightly rapped on the desk next to him to announce her presence. "Welcome back Amajiki."
"H-hey Shield. Have a good weekend?"
"Mhm! I had a great time with my dad! Too bad he's gotta return to I-Island today."
"That's too bad," Amajaki looked up long enough to give her a sympathetic look before looking back down at his desk.
"What about you?"
"Yeah, it was nice and quiet. Gave me lots of time to think." He flipped open a notebook and offered it to her.
"Notes about our fight?" Melissa asked in surprise.
"We're trying to improve your quirk, right?" Tamaki asked, his voice laced with worry.
"No– you're right!" Melissa said. "I'm just– surprised is all. I didn't think that was serious."
"Mirio really meant it," Tamaki said. "There's more - check the next page."
Curious, Melissa flipped the page and saw the notes for Rika and Nejire.
"I noticed it during our fight. But it made me think," Tamaki continued. "Did you ever notice how tired Hado always seems to be?" Tamaki asked.
Curious, Melissa glanced over and saw her classmate. Nejire's chin rested on her hand as she wrote something in her notebook. Now that Tamaki mentioned it, she couldn't help but notice the bags under her eyes and the heaviness of her eyelids.
"I missed that," Melissa admitted quietly.
Tamaki briefly looked over at the girl, before he returned his gaze to his desk. "It was hard to miss when we were fighting in the sports festival. She just seemed so tired. Unlike you and Akari, it felt like she was already worn down before our fight even started."
"I wonder why that is…" Melissa couldn't help but look toward Arabele, curious if the girl would offer any insight.
Juno opened an eye to stare at her, before swaying side to side - its way of saying it's not talking, she had discovered. Despite making it clear that it knew a lot more than it was letting on, the sentient quirk had a strong policy of non-intervention. Melissa assumed it was Arabele's doing, because Juno gave the impression that if given the chance, the normally chatty quirk would be even more talkative.
"Maybe she needs a friend?" Tamaki asked.
"A friend?"
Tamaki nodded. "Y-yeah. She just seems… lonely."
"Oh."
Melissa looked back toward the other girl. Now that she thought about it, she never saw the blue-haired girl spend time with anyone at school. Just something about her made her feel unapproachable. She put her index finger on her chin as she thought about it. In many ways she could relate - thanks to her accident, she didn't exactly leave a good impression on the first day of school either. If it wasn't for Tamaki, Melissa could have easily ended up in a similar situation.
Much like she was in middle school on I-Island.
"We should talk to her!" Melissa said, turning back toward Tamaki.
"Y-you think so too?"
"Mhm!" Melissa nodded vigorously.
"W-what could we even talk about?"
"Isn't it obvious? Heroes!" Melissa said cheerfully.
Tamaki groaned. "Why didn't I think of that," He mumbled to himself, before looking up at Melissa. "It's such an obvious answer."
Melissa giggled. "Exactly! Which is why it's easy to miss."
Tamaki looked at the clock. "Still ten minutes left before homeroom begins," taking a deep breath he pushed his chair back and stood up. Clenching his hand into a fist, he turned toward Melissa. "I can do this."
"You can do it!" Melissa said encouragingly.
With a single nod Tamaki walked over toward Nejire. Melissa saw him faltering as he approached, turning to look at her nervously. She responded with an encouraging smile and a thumbs up, which did the trick as he smiled back nervously before he turned around and finished his journey.
"E-excuse me," Tamaki said between cupped hands.
"Hrm?" Nejire said, looking up from her notebook to see Tamaki standing there nervously.
"I-I was wondering - who's your favorite hero?"
"My favorite hero…?"
"Y-yeah!" Tamaki smiled nervously as he lowered his hands. "I-I was a big fan of O'Clock back before his retirement. What about you?"
"Selkie," Nejire replied.
"Selkie?" Tamaki sounded confused. "I've never heard of him."
"Really?" Nejire turned toward him with surprise written all over her face. "But he's so cute!"
"C-cute…?"
Melissa saw Tamaki losing his nerve and quickly crossed the room to give him support. "That's ok, most people don't know my favorite heroes either. Currently, it's Nyikang."
Nejire touched an index finger to her cheek as she tilted her head. "Nyi- Nya- who?"
Melissa felt her cheeks heat up. "H-he's a pro hero from Sudan, actually."
"Melissa grew up on I-Island," Tamaki said, his face once again covered by his hands. "So she knows a lot of international heroes."
"I know Japanese heroes as well!" Melissa protested.
"I don't know much about international heroes," Nejire admitted, before looking at the pair.
"Do you want to meet up after school and talk about it?" Melissa asked.
"O-on Mondays we meet up with my friend Mirio and do our homework at a local cafe," Tamaki forced out. Glancing over, Melissa couldn't help but feel proud of him - even though he looked like he was ready to run away and hide in the bathroom, he wasn't abandoning her.
"That sounds fun!" Nejire said, and for the first time since school started Melissa heard a note of happiness in her voice.
Perhaps all she needed was a friend after all?
Morning classes seemed to take forever as the students anticipated their afternoon Heroics lesson. Finally, lunch came and went and the students were sitting with rapt attention in their classroom as the door slid open and Nezu walked into the room, pushing a cart stacked with tablets.
"Good afternoon class! Today begins an important part of your school career - internships!"
Melissa couldn't help but feel excited as Nezu walked up to the desk and pushed a button, revealing the number of offers everyone in the class received. "As you can see, we had a fairly even distribution of internships this year, with a few standouts. And for those of you who aren't on the list - don't worry!" Nezu turned toward the class. "Everyone will have access to a list of forty heroes that run the full spectrum of options - so hopefully everyone will find someone to fit their goals."
Melissa was only half paying attention to the principal as she saw her name on the list:
Melissa Shield - 305
That's a lot of internships!
She was surprised by the number. With her reliance on support gear, she thought that most of the heroes that were watching would consider her a liability and avoid giving her an offer. But the number proved otherwise - she had a similar amount of internships as the other students, outside of Tamaki and Rika, of course.
After he finished his introduction, Nezu began pushing the cart around the room, handing each student a tablet. Taking the tablet, Melissa turned it on and swiped the screen to unlock it, and felt her eyes go wide as she began to scan the names on the list.
I don't even know where to begin with this!
As Melissa pulled out her phone to shoot Izuku a message, she felt the familiar feeling of inadequacy as it crept into the edges of her thoughts. Despite being his senior, she's once again forced to rely on him for help.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. No - that's not it. She's asking a friend who knows way more about Japanese heroes than she does for advice. If Izuku had a question about an international hero, she was the first person he asked. What was so wrong with her doing the same?
Opening her eyes she started typing out her message.
Me: Hey Izuku! We got internship offers today! I'm a little lost by most of these heroes though - do you mind if I come by after I'm done with homework?
After sending the message, she turned her attention back to the list, searching for any familiar names until Nezu returned to the front of the room and spoke again.
"Now then, you'll have until Thursday to finalize your choice of internship. In the meantime, we have the second important matter to go over - your hero names."
Melissa's neck snapped up as she looked at their homeroom teacher with wide eyes. Already?
"Choosing a hero name is an important step on the road to becoming a hero. It will embody how citizens and villains picture you - even before you arrive on the scene! Therefore it is important to choose a name that fits the image of a hero you wish to become."
The room was suddenly silent as the students realized the weight of their decision. Nezu briefly examined the students under his care before he continued.
"The good news is that the name you choose today is not your final name - that will be chosen next year when you receive your provisional license. However, the name you choose today will follow you until then, and most students ultimately opt to keep the same name that they initially chose."
Melissa heard several audible sighs of relief around her. While she was fairly confident in her own choice, she can understand how nerve-wracking it was to come up with a good name. It took her several months to come up with something different from the name Aegis she gave Risa in her fanfiction, after all.
"Now then, since I'm not the best at these sorts of things, I will be deferring to another teacher to handle the selection of your hero names," Nezu gestured toward the door, which opened to reveal Nemuri Kayama.
"Good afternoon class, I'm the one who gets the final say over your names," Nemuri said as she walked to the front of the room. "If your name is inappropriate or just bad, I will veto it and make you choose another."
Melissa heard classmates mumbling to each other while she waited for the boards to get handed out. Silently taking hers, she set it down on her desk and began writing out the English word for her hero name, before writing out the kanji.
After all, she planned to operate internationally once she graduated. Izuku was already there to act as All Might's successor in Japan, and Japan certainly didn't need two All Mights.
When she was done Melissa looked around the room. She heard some students mumbling to themselves, while others looked like they were about to panic as they failed to come up with a name. Fortunately, it seemed like many of her classmates at least had some idea and many were busy writing down names on the board.
After a few minutes of this, Nemuri finally spoke again, breaking the silence. "Do we have any volunteers to go first?"
Melissa began raising her hand but Rika was faster. "I do!"
"Oooh, such enthusiasm. Let's see what you've got."
Rika jumped out of her seat and walked to the front of the room. "I thought of a name to embrace my fiery nature!" With a confident grin she flipped over the board to reveal her name.
The Fiery Hero: Blaze
"I can feel the passion flowing in that name, I accept!" Nemuri said before looking back at the class. "Is anyone else ready?"
Melissa shot her hand up. "I'm ready!"
"Oooh, another one. What do you have for me?"
Smiling, Melissa stood up and walked to the front of the room. "This encapsulates the hero I wish to be."
Sentinel
"And what is it you wish to guard?" Nemuri asked curiously.
"Opportunity," Melissa said confidently. "Japan has been able to flourish under All Might's watchful eye. I want to give that chance to the rest of the world - to people who don't have an All Might to look up to."
"Oooh, ambitious. I like it!" Nemuri smiled at the blonde-haired girl. "If you think you can live up to the name, I approve!"
With a smile on her face, Melissa returned to her seat.
"I'll get it!" Izuku called out as he heard Melissa knocking on the door.
Opening the door, he saw Melissa standing there, a bag of food in hand. "Hey Izuku!"
"Hi Melissa," Izuku said as he stepped aside to let her in.
"Thanks for letting me come over on short notice," Melissa said as she slipped off her shoes.
"It's fine!" Izuku insisted. "How was your study session?"
"It was fun! We actually invited Hado to join us."
Izuku led the girl back into the main area of the living room where they sat on the couch. "Hado? The quiet girl with the spiral energy quirk?"
"Yep! Although I think this afternoon was the most I've ever heard her talk."
"What got her so excited?"
"Heroes, of course!" Melissa saw Izuku's eyes light up, causing her to giggle and punch him in the shoulder. "Of course that got your attention too!"
"I-it makes sense though! I think everyone at UA would have some interest in heroes."
"True," Melissa nodded in agreement. "She ended up asking me a lot about international heroes. Apparently she doesn't pay much attention to anyone outside of Japan."
"I didn't either," Izuku pointed out.
"That's because you only cared about Uncle Might!" Melissa teased, watching in satisfaction as Izuku's face turned a bright shade of red.
"I-I wasn't that bad!"
"Izuku," Melissa stared pointedly. "The day I met you there were 78 action figures of All Might staring at us when we were in your room. I counted them."
Izuku rubbed the back of his head "I put most of them back into storage since then! A-anyways, internships! That's why you're really here, right?!"
Melissa laughed at Izuku's plight before she took pity on him and dropped the topic. Grabbing her bag, Melissa pulled out her tablet and turned it on, before offering the device to him. "Here's the list. Other than their ranking, I don't know anything about most of them," she admitted.
Izuku took the offered tablet and his eyes went wide. "305 offers! There's no way I know that many heroes!"
Melissa laughed. "I've seen your notebooks, remember? If you don't know about the heroes on the list it's because you've probably forgotten about them!"
Izuku laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "I… guess you're right."
"Of course I am! Now what can you tell me?"
Izuku unlocked the tablet and began scrolling through the list of names, his brows furrowed in concentration. "There's a lot of people here! Is there anything you're looking for?"
"Hmm," Melissa pressed an index finger to her cheek. "I could use some training on how to fight! Uncle Might taught me how to throw a punch but I don't know much beyond that." She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "There's a few times where I would've broken my hand and wrist if I didn't have OFA."
"Fighting, huh?" Izuku thought about it before he began looking through the list again. "Oh, Celica is on here!"
"Who?"
Izuku highlighted an offer and showed Melissa. "Her quirk absorbs kinetic energy and allows her to release it back at her opponents. I'm pretty sure she's got her own dojo, too!"
"That would be amazing!" Melissa said, feeling her excitement growing as she grabbed her phone. "Let's check!"
A quick search revealed that the hero had a small agency located on the outskirts of Osaka. She was a rising star until an incident three years ago, where she lost her right arm in a fight with a particularly nasty villain. However, she refused to let that stop her.
Since she couldn't do active hero work while she was recovering, she opened a dojo, both to further her own training and to teach others her custom martial arts style. After almost two years she finally returned to active duty as a hero, but she continued to run the dojo, training a small number of students in addition to performing her duties as a hero.
"So, what do you think?" Izuku asked.
Melissa looked up from her phone. "She sounds perfect! I knew you'd have the answer!"
AN: Hey guys! That was a great week off. Spent Golden Week catching up with my dad and now I'm all energized and excited to write these next chapters ~SupportGrrl47