Training Battles
Estelle woke up with a frown on her face. The upside-down smile stayed on throughout her shift at The Beanery. Thoughts rushed through her brain too quickly for her to catch up. Nona had noticed that Estelle was off today, smiling sympathetically towards her throughout the day and offering chocolates to lift up the young girl's mood.
She had a late start to school today due to UA accommodating her shifts. Estelle was currently in her room getting changed for class. She couldn't seem to shake the feeling that she wasn't doing enough or wasn't trying enough to reach her goal of getting back home.
Estelle has only been here for a few weeks. The simple fact that she was still here showed that she had made no progress. She looked down at her UA High School uniform with furrowed brows. Going to a school for heroes sounded right up her alley. It almost made her feel complacent. Her mind was running a mile a minute as thousands of thoughts shifted through her head.
Estelle raised her hand towards her face calmly before taking a deep breath and striking herself across her face. The noise bounced off the walls, and a red mark glowed on her cheek.
'It will fade in a few minutes, most likely.'
She shook her head to shake the negative thoughts away and pulled her bag over her shoulder. After saying goodbye to Nona with a small smile to ease the old woman's worries, Estelle made her way towards UA High School and Class 1A.
Estelle reached the classroom with no interruptions. When she pushed the door open, she faced the class sitting quietly with All Might standing at the front. His big beefy body moved to look down at the intrusion before beaming out a wide smile. Estelle deadpanned towards the man.
"Hello, young Estelle! I was informed of your schedule! please! Take your seat!"
Estelle silently nodded before taking a step to the side to move around the monster truck that was All Might and made her way to her seat. The class silently watched as the girl who was missing from their classes all day just showed up without any care.
They all stared down at her. Estelle avoided any eye contact and calmly walked with confidence towards her desk. A few people within the class narrowed their eyes at her.
'She's definitely an oddball, isn't she?' They think.
Estelle noticed her desk was vandalised as soon as she reached her desk. She guessed nobody detected it or even cared since it was new. Trying to wipe the image away, Estelle was surprised to find it wouldn't budge. Leaning back on her seat, she let herself look at the drawn picture. It was an hourglass, the sand mainly at the top with a few grains trickling to the bottom. On top of the hourglass was a raven cawing to the sky.
Estelle figured it had to be a coincidence and ignored it when All Might cleared his throat to gain back the class's attention. "As I was saying, I teach Hero Basic Training. It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You'll take the most units of this subject! Let's get right into it! This is what we'll do today," he said, pulling out a sign. "Combat training!"
The class murmured in excitement and anxiousness. All Might continued talking whilst pointing towards a bunch of briefcases that were numbered. "Also to go with that are these! Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started!"
The class rumbled with another wave of excitement. "After you change, gather in Ground Beta!" All Might finally finished.
"Yes, sir!"
The members of the class grabbed their respective hero outfits before heading out the door. Estelle watched as they all made their way to the changing rooms. They have already begun to find their groups within the class.
Within the changing room, Estelle was met with the same scenario as last time. The girls were talking amongst themselves while they eyed the loner across the room. Estelle was happy with that; she liked her bubbles.
Unfortunately, her happiness was cut short when the bubble burst into smithereens. A girl with pink skin and horns on her head ran to Estelle with a wide grin, placing her arm over her shoulder as if they were old friends. Estelle scowled at the position she was now in.
"Hi! My name is Mina Ashido; let's be friends!"
"No", was all Estelle said back. The girls listening in winced at the cutthroat response.
"Aw, come on! Don't be such a Debbie Downer. Come with me!" she yelled out, dragging along the disgruntled girl towards the group of friends across the room. Before Estelle could voice her displeasure, Ashido immediately went into introductions with the rest of the girls.
When everyone had been introduced, they all looked towards the girl that still held no expression and sweatdropped.
'This isn't going well,' they all thought.
Estelle sighed visibly at their disgustingly obvious disappointment. "I'm Estelle", she forced out in politeness.
The people standing in front of her brightened up, Estelle's calm face completely hiding the fact that she was furious inside that she had to do this at all.
"No last name?" Tsu asked with a tilted brow.
Estelle turned away, her back facing the naive girls who seemed too soft for the world. "Yeah, no last name. Now come on, we need to move."
The girls exchanged glances, silently communicating their thoughts. At this point, it was becoming the norm when it came to the stoic girl before them. They trailed behind her while they walked to Ground Beta.
Once Estelle reached the grounds, she stood back and allowed herself to look at her classmates' choices with their hero outfits. Some were decent such as the blond boy that had a black stripe in his hair; others not so much.
'Why does the guy with the two-toned hair have ice on one side of his costume? That would make it so difficult to manoeuvre around on missions,' Estelle wondered.
Estelle turned down to view her own outfit since she was so impolitely interrupted earlier. The black skin-tight material allowed her to use her flexibility to the fullest extent. She had also requested it to be resistant to fire; she didn't want any accidents happening, thank you very much. The great thing about her suit was that even though it covered everything up past her neck, it still allowed her 'quirk' to be used with any part of her body without issue. She also held a small utility belt that contained a few small trinkets like kunai and smoke bombs. Estelle couldn't help but think about requesting a katana.
The class examined each other's hero outfits, some vocally voicing their approval whilst others silently appreciated it. Eyes were drawn to Estelle and her outfit; although it was simple, it was incredibly efficient, and they couldn't lie to themselves. She looked exquisite.
Her long black hair that usually rested on her back was now tied up in a high ponytail with her bangs and a few short strands of hair framing her face nicely. She had a midnight mask on with golden detailing that complimented her caramel skin. The steel plate covered her usual sharp and calculating gaze that glimmered brown. The piece rested on her button nose that laid above her plump lips that were naturally stained cherry. They could see a glimpse of a scar going from her neck to the back of her ear. Most of it was covered by the turtleneck.
Classmates averted their gaze when they realised that they were staring.
"They say the clothes make the man, young men and ladies. Be fully aware... From now on... you are heroes! You all look cool! Now, shall we begin, you zygotes?" All Might announced.
Estelle noticed a small man with purple balls on his head staring up at her with drool falling from his lips. His eyes scanned her with revolting appreciation that Estelle could not stop her sneer from showing on her face.
She turned to the small boy "Was there something you needed?" she asked, danger underlying her voice. The class quivered when they heard her speak.
The purple idiot looked up with a smirk, completely missing the warning in her tone. "What I need is a date with you tonight."
Estelle's repulsion grew, causing her to pin the weasel under her foot, pressing down while he flailed around. Bakugo smirked in approval before dropping it altogether when he realised he was under that boot only yesterday. Estelle looked up at All Might, who watched the scene with a sweatdrop. "He'll be fine. Continue" was all she said.
"Anyway, for this class, you'll be split into villains and heroes and fight in 2-on-2 indoor battles!" completely ignoring the girl squeezing the pervert into a doormat.
The class fell into a mania of questions. Estelle overlooked them because she was still locked in the moment of teaching the weakling beneath her a lesson. All Might gazed down at the class in frustration as they clambered over each other.
"The situation is that the villains have hidden a nuclear weapon in their hideout. The heroes are trying to dispose of that. The heroes have to catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon in the allotted amount of time. The villains have to protect the nuclear weapon for the whole time or capture the heroes." The number one hero explained further.
The class drew their lots and paired up with their team member. Estelle pulled out the letter L, leaving her with Mashirao Ojiro and Toru Hagakure. Walking up to her team, Estelle stood beside them silently.
The first two teams were up. Estelle held no interest in the battle. She saw Bakugo forgoing the mission for his own personal vendetta and Midoriya attempting to validate himself. Estelle closed her eyes; she had seen enough.
The class was invested in their discussions about the match, Estelle heard the buzzer ring, and All Might declared Midoriya's team the winner. Regrouping, Momo Yaoyorozu intelligently explained the battle and Estelle's team was up for the next round.
The three of them stand around the fake explosive, and Estelle's two teammates turn to her. "Do you have any plans? If not, we can use mine?" Ojiro asked like she was listening to them the whole time. She probably should have been.
Estelle looked at her two team members, viewing their quirks for the best course of action. "Hagakure, I'm sorry, but you're going to be our scapegoat. I want you on the opposite side of the building to confuse them. You'll be frozen, but at least there's a purpose. Ojiro, you're sticking with me, I'll be able to unfreeze you, and then I want you to hide and attack when the time comes. Now go."
After a few minutes, Estelle and Ojiro stood in the middle of the room, awaiting Todoroki's ice. The quick trickle of his quirk shot around the room, causing Estelle to stand close to Ojiro with enough heat to melt the ice whenever it came close.
Estelle nodded her head up to the roof when the ice stopped to let Ojiro know it was time to hang and hide. She then relaxed in the middle of the room when Hagakure voice rung out through the earpiece, "He's here!"
Estelle let her mouth tilt up into a smirk. The other team was falling for this hook, line and sinker. The time reached its halfway mark when the door opened with a squeak, and Todoroki made his way inside. He stared down at Estelle with a coldness that rivalled her own. His ice immediately streamed out of his hand and encased Estelle's feet.
Estelle remained docile, with her hands placed in her utility belt whilst she gazed at the two-toned boy. Todoroki walked forward towards the fake bomb with the words, "Don't worry, I'm just out of your league."
Before reaching the fake bomb, Ojiro dropped from the roof and in front of Todoroki with a grunt. His tail flicked out and slammed into his opponents' stomach before he could register that Ojiro was not trapped in the ice like he had thought. He struggled to get back up from the ground with Ojiro's tail pressing down on him.
The buzzer rang, signalling that the time given had reached its end. Estelle immediately melted the ice on her feet and turned to leave.
Todoroki was now standing behind her, radiating heat to allow the building to melt from the ice rink he had created. He turned towards Estelle with furrowed brows. "How did you do that?" He questioned.
Estelle's face turned bitter, the answer so obvious those within basic rank would know the answer. She responded nevertheless, "Teamwork. Don't worry though, I'm just out of your league."
When Estelle and the others from the mock battle strolled into the surveillance room, they were met by classmates vocalising their awe at the scene they had just watched. Estelle ignored them and walked towards the line to receive their observations.
"So, who was the MVP of this match!?" All Might queried the class.
Tsu raised her hand before asking, "For team L, who was it that created the plan?"
Estelle remained quiet. Ojiro looked towards her in amazement for not immediately jumping forward and taking credit. His morals wouldn't allow him to take it for her. "It was Estelle. She came up with the plan to confuse the hero team and gave us all a part to play."
Estelle audibly sighed before speaking, "I could have taken them out on my own, but that's not the point of this. It's teamwork."
All Might straightened up. "Great job Estelle, spoken like a true MVP! You never know who you'll be teamed up with and adjusting plans to accommodate that is a huge part of hero work! Well done!"
Estelle deadpanned and walked away from the observation line and towards the other members of the class. All Might sweatdropped at the reaction of the young female before announcing the next group participating in the mock battle.
Estelle stood back, carefully watching whilst her classmates took part in their mock battles. Bakugo stood near her on the right with a frustrated expression like he had just been told something he did not want to hear. She ignored him and everyone else while All Might finished up the class.
Quickly changing and ignoring the rest of the girls, Estelle returned to the classroom to pick up her things and left, not giving anyone time to approach her. Estelle bumped right into Midoriya when she was at the door.
"Apologies," she muttered whilst stepping around him to continue her exit.
Midoriya's cheeks blushed red. He opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by some classmates that were introducing themselves. Estelle had already left by the time Midoriya turned back around to speak. He was a little dejected that he didn't get the chance to talk to the mysterious but cute girl from his class.
He then turned and ran outside when he realised that Bakugo had already left. Rushing past Estelle and the doors of UA High, he managed to reach Bakugo. Midoriya word vomited the truth about his quirk as if he was trying to get Bakugo to understand where he was coming from.
Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful since Bakugo turned around with a sneer, completely disbelieving the words that left the male's mouth. He expressed his frustrations of not being the strongest, comparing himself to Todoroki and Estelle. The boy turned emotional, trying to hold back his tears before storming off.
All Might rushed up to the teary-eyed Bakugo in hopes of comforting him but was rejected. He made his way back to Midoriya before asking, "What were you saying to Bakugo before I arrived so heroically?"
"Oh! Ah, nothing really. I've forgotten?"
Estelle stood around the corner with a contemplative look on her face. It seemed like she wasn't the only one keeping secrets in her class. Estelle couldn't help but feel a bit better knowing that. She technically was lying to the whole world about who she was.
Estelle went back to Nona's with her thoughts in a jumble.