MHA Demons Tale

Chapter 5: First Day Blues: Part 2

A/N: This chapter was originally planned to be in chapter 4 as well but that chapter was getting close to five thousand words long so we decided to split it up between two chapters instead rather than try to condense it down and reduce the quality of the chapters. Once again please leave a follow, a fave and a review and enjoy the chapter.

Kira stepped out into the training area of U.A., his heart pounding in anticipation underneath his new gym uniform. He admitted that he liked the design of it, the white lines travelling up his shoulders to form a letter U, and identical white lines going across and down his torso in a letter A.

He wasn't sure what to expect. His class was already turning out to be far different from what he had imagined: while there was no torment, they also weren't exactly welcoming him with open arms, the only exception being Monoma, who had taken a place right next to him while they waited for the rest of the class to finish changing.

"This is exciting," Monoma muttered to Kira, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I can't figure out what's going on, keeps me guessing and I love it! Just what I'd expect from the most prestigious hero school in Japan!"

"I . . . guess," Kira whispered, not sharing his enthusiasm at all. He was starting to feel wholly unprepared for whatever Vlad King had planned for them.

The other boys present whipped their heads around at the sound of two voices, both speaking English. Kira cringed: Elliana was approaching, and given the extra voice, so was Yamamoto. He hoped they would stay well away from him, because he had already seen the other boys shooting dirty looks at Yamamoto for being close to her, and he wanted no involvement in that.

Before long, the rest of the class had joined them. Kira had spotted four of the boys, Yosetsu Awase, Sen Kaibara, Kosei Tsuburaba and Hiryu Rin, attempting to cosy up to Elliana, however Vlad King broke that up with his booming drill sergeant's voice.

"That's quite enough out of you, you vultures!" he bellowed. "Break it up, put your eyes back in your head and PAY ATTENTION! We're about to begin a Quirk Assessment Test!"

The class unanimously replied in shock, "A Quirk Assessment Test?!"

The tall, beast-looking boy in the class, Kira remembered his name to be Jurota Shishida, raised his hand. "But sir, don't we have orientation?" he asked, clearly confused.

"Maybe, if you were in one of the other courses or a different school. But you're not, you're in U.A.'s Hero Course. And work begins on day one, no sooner and no later!" Vlad King barked, folding his arms. "Unlike the tests you did in your old schools, you were never allowed to use your Quirks. Well, on this course, not only do we encourage it, it's required in order for you to become competent Pro Heroes!"

Vlad King turned to the girl with vines for hair. Ibara Shiozaki, who Kira recalled, had a strong religious faith. This fact made him highly uncomfortable, and he stood as far away from her as possible because she reminded him of a certain blonde from Fukuhara.

"Shiozaki!" Vlad King called. "You had the highest score in the entrance exam in this class, so you'll help demonstrate this exercise. What was your further softball throw in Junior High?"

Shiozaki clasped her hands in front of her and laced her fingers together. Kira cringed at the sight, anxiety bubbling in his stomach at the memories that mere gesture brought back.

"Twenty metres, I believe, sir," she replied, her voice soft when she spoke, something Kira was not expecting.

"Well, now we're going to see how far you can throw it WITH your Quirk," he told her, tossing her a softball. She caught it easily, winding some vines around it as though they were extra fingers.

"Yes sir," she said, her voice still soft. She stepped up to the plate, bowing her head towards her interlaced fingers and closing her eyes. She was clearly concentrating, as the vines on her head reeled back and positively catapulted the ball away.

The class's jaws collectively dropped at the display. Shiozaki may have been soft spoken, incredibly quiet and unassuming, but the vines she manipulated made her quite the opposite of all that. She was not one to be underestimated in a fight.

Vlad King held up a phone to the class, showing them her distance. "Two hundred and thirty nine point seven metres!" he announced. "Not bad, considering it's likely not what you're used to using your Quirk for."

Shiozaki nodded, rejoining the class. Some students' jaws were still dropped open, practically nesting with flies as she walked past them. They had clearly assumed Shiozaki was weaker than she appeared.

"With these tests today, we can get a better understanding of your Quirks and set a good benchmark for improvement. Now, who's next?" he asked, his gaze sweeping the class, who appeared to shrink away from him. It was clear that nobody wanted to follow up Shiozaki's performance.

His gaze settled with a sigh. "Fine, if no one steps up, then I'll make one of you! Yamamoto! Front and centre!" he boomed at the blond, who pointed at himself in shocked confusion. "Now!"

Yamamoto walked stiffly over to Vlad King, clearly scared of his muscular homeroom teacher, but unable to argue either. He handed Yamamoto the ball, and told him to get moving as they didn't have all day. Kira couldn't help but wonder what exactly Yamamoto had done to draw Vlad King's ire in this particular moment, as he hadn't seen the blond doing anything to warrant it.

Yamamoto held the ball in his hand, and closed his eyes in concentration much like Shiozaki before him. He inhaled deeply, and his body appeared to glow with a golden light as he reeled back and threw the ball with everything in him.

"One hundred and eighteen point four! Not bad," Vlad King mused. Kira couldn't help but notice that the way Yamamoto had pitched the ball, had been rather simple. The blond had clearly never watched Hero League Baseball, and Kira wondered that if he'd done an official baseballer's pitch, he could've gotten close to a hundred and fifty, possibly even more.

"While we're on the subject of recommendation students, Shiro! Why don't you go next?" Vlad King asked, his eyes easily seeking the pink-haired girl as Yamamoto rejoined the class.

The aforementioned girl smiled widely, showing her pearly white teeth. Unlike the warm smile Kira remembered, this smile was all but dripping with arrogance. "Thought you'd never ask," she said rather brashly, practically skipping over to the plate. The crowd seemed to part as she walked past, and Kira could've sworn he saw a line of drool descend from Tsuburaba's bottom lip. Disgusting, he thought, his nose wrinkling in revulsion.

Vlad King went to hand her the ball, and she snatched it clean out of his hand. Kira saw Yamamoto's eyes widen in horror at the sight, as Vlad King appeared to puff up in indignation. However Elliana paid him no mind, readying herself for her throw.

"Before I do this," she piped up, pointing at the ball, "no one's too attached to this, are they? There's definitely spares?"

"Yes, there's spares! Now hurry up!" Vlad King snapped at her, narrowing his eyes in annoyance.

"Okay," she chirped happily, satisfied with his answer. Like Shiozaki and Yamamoto before her, she reeled her arm back and threw the ball. However, the ball didn't seem to lose altitude the further away from Elliana it travelled. It appeared to travel in a straight line, never ascending or descending.

Kira turned his attention from the ball back to Elliana. She was staring at the ball as it moved away from her, and he could see the furrow of concentration in her brow.

After about twenty seconds, everyone had lost sight of the ball. The furrow of Elliana's brow disappeared and her smirk returned to her face. "How'd you like that?" she asked cockily, planting her hands on her hips.

"One thousand and fifty four feet, point three! Very good, Shiro," Vlad King congratulated her. Elliana's smirk widened at the praise.

"However," at his next words, her smile shrank, "I was ready for you to send it into space. So in that category, you came BELOW my expectations."

Elliana's jaw dropped open with a gasp of horror, before morphing into the brattiest pout Kira had ever seen. "Rude!" she replied sulkily, marching back to her place next to Yamamoto, who was clearly trying his hardest not to laugh at her misfortune.

It appeared to Kira that Vlad King's words were intended to put the spoiled idol in her place, and judging by Elliana's reaction, he'd achieved that and then some as she folded her arms over her chest, her expression rivalling that of someone who had bitten into a lemon.

Yamamoto couldn't hold it back anymore, and began to chuckle behind his hand. Elliana shot him a death glare, snapping something in English to him. He wasn't listening, more focused on smothering his guffaw with his hand and not drawing Vlad King's attention. Kira couldn't blame him for that, as he'd somehow found himself on Vlad King's radar enough so far.

One by one after this people in the class took their turns throwing the ball, with some like Kendo scoring around the same level as Yamamoto, though hers was in the high one hundreds. While others like Awase couldn't really use their Quirk in this test to help throw the ball, and got what they probably had gotten in Junior High, if not more.

They were all shocked when they saw Monoma had used the same Quirk as Yamamoto but he quickly explained, his Quirk allowed him to copy certain Quirks of people he touched for five minutes, so naturally he went for one he thought would be the best choice for this particular situation. Monoma revealed to Kira afterwards that he wanted to get Elliana's Quirk, but couldn't get near her thanks to all the other boys hogging the space around her. Kira didn't dignify this with a comment at all, as he found it somewhat creepy.

Eventually it couldn't be put off any longer, and the only person left to go was Kira. To say he felt nervous was the understatement of the year, as he walked up to Vlad King and took the ball.

While he wasn't as opposed to using his Quirk as he used to be, he was still rather nervous about showing it off in front of his new class. The last time he had done that, all he had gotten from his peers (mainly Sasaki) was utter ridicule, which led to him vowing not to use it at school.

But here at U.A., as Vlad King had told them at the beginning of the exercise, Quirk usage was encouraged in order to ascertain areas of improvement. Kira knew he had to give it his all or he'd never live up to his father's words. With that in mind, his fist clenched around the ball and his arm reeled back, kicking one leg up like he'd seen in Hero League Baseball.

Purple flames engulfed the space between his hand and the ball as he swung his arm overhead and his leg back down to the ground. At the moment he released the ball from his hand, he also released a powerful blast of fire which propelled the ball away from him like a rocket.

The rest of the class could only watch in shock and somewhat awe, as none of them had expected him to have such a Quirk. Kira closed his eyes, only just hearing his score of six hundred and eighty one point eight as he rejoined the class, and awaited the inevitable ridicule that always came with using his Quirk.

However, it never came. All he could hear was comments of incredulity about how he'd gotten the second highest score in the class, or about his pitching technique being spot on. The one that shocked him the most was the praise from Shiozaki, of all people. The one person, he thought, would denounce him in this class.

Monoma was also particularly impressed. "Dude, that was awesome! I guess I did copy the wrong Quirk for this test after all!" he told him with a laugh.

Kira was completely dumbstruck. He'd never gotten such praise for his Quirk outside of his family. "Th-thank you," he replied with a nod, not knowing what else to say.

However, he could feel someone's stare practically burning holes in the back of his head. Turning around, he saw a pair of narrowed golden eyes in his peripheral vision, belonging to none other than Elliana Shiro. However, from what he could see, she didn't seem jealous of his score, or disdainful of his appearance. She seemed to be squinting at him contemplatively, while Yamamoto appeared to go on a tangent down her ear, but she wasn't listening to him.

Did she recognise him? She couldn't possibly, he hadn't seen her for nearly a decade and he knew he looked vastly different from the last time she had seen him. Thankfully, Kira didn't need to worry about it for any longer, because he noticed Tsuburaba sidling up to Elliana and attempting to flirt with her, which distracted her from her thoughtful staring.

It didn't last long, though, because someone else had seen this exchange, and they were not about to let it continue.

"Oi, piss off!" Yamamoto ordered the other boy, getting between him and Elliana and puffing himself up: a clear intimidation tactic. The two boys were the same height, but Yamamoto was stockier and easily more muscular than Tsuburaba, meaning he would hit harder, and Kira got the feeling that Yamamoto wasn't a stranger to physical altercations if the situation called for it.

"Hey, what's your deal, man?" Tsuburaba sneered, annoyed at being interrupted. His nose wrinkled in disgust, as he looked Yamamoto up and down with disdain. "You've been stuck to her like glue all day. What, you hoping to get in before any of us, is that it?"

Yamamoto's glare intensified at the insinuation that he wanted Elliana as well. Given his reaction, that couldn't be further from the truth. "Get fucked. You're walking on thin ice, ya bastard. She's got more important things to worry about than your wet dream, so fuck off!" he snapped haughtily, taking one step closer to Tsuburaba.

"Thank you, Sean," Elliana replied in a clipped tone, obviously not happy about him speaking for her, if the way she rolled her eyes was anything to go by. Kira had a feeling she was going to try and handle it herself, before Yamamoto did it for her. She always was very independent.

Vlad King's eyes bulged at Yamamoto's swearing. "YAMAMOTO, LANGUAGE!" he bellowed at the blond, the other students wincing at the volume, Shiozaki clamping her hands over her ears. Yamamoto glanced over and apologised swiftly, although he did fix Tsuburaba with a death glare until the other boy was an acceptable distance from Elliana. Only then did he seem to deflate, and engage in a hushed conversation with Elliana while the rest of the class took their turns.

That was interesting, Kira thought, turning away from the English speakers. Yamamoto didn't seem to be staking his claim on Elliana like Tsuburaba had assumed, if anything, he seemed to be protecting a friend. It was quite obvious that the male percentage of the class was split down the middle of those who did have a crush on Elliana, like Monoma, and those who didn't, like himself and Yamamoto.

After Vlad King had regained the class's composure, he led them on to the next seven tests for that day. They involved a 50 metre dash that Shishda did in the best time, a grip test that Kendo did the best in, to which she explained that she had martial arts training and a Quirk that made her hands larger. When it came to the long jump, repeated side steps, and seated toe touch, unsurprising to those who knew, Elliana did the best there thanks to her gymnastic training. Kira had to marvel at the unnatural flexibility she possessed, while he watched her bend practically in half, her forehead on her knees and the palms of her hands on the soles of her shoes.

In the sit up test, Tetsutetsu had dominated that one, to an extent that even Vlad King was surprised by the result. The final test was a distance run that, much to his surprise, Kira found he did quite well at. All that time pushing his dad up hills in the last year had finally paid off, he thought to himself.

After all was said and done, Vlad King gathered everyone up. "All right class! You all did very well today in those tests. Now I'm aware that not all of you got to shine here today, but just note that if you came low in the scoring for these tests it doesn't mean you're bad, it just means that your skills lie elsewhere or you know where you need to improve on. Now let's take a look at those scores."

Vlad pressed a button on his phone which brought up a holographic display with everyone's name on, in order of where they scored. When Kira looked for his name, he was shocked to see that he had gotten ninth place. He honestly thought he wouldn't have made the top fifty percent of his class. Upon inspection of the other names, he saw that Monoma had placed in twentieth of their class, but he understood why.

Monoma's Copy Quirk meant he either had to go each part of the test without using a Quirk, or pick one he thought was best for that particular situation, which was a gamble in its own right, as he secretly told Kira that he couldn't use all Quirks.

Unsurprisingly, Kira saw that Elliana had gotten first place in their class, because she had gotten the top score in half of the tests they had just done. He could see in the corner of his eye, that she had the biggest and smuggest smile on her face while she leant her arm on Yamamoto's shoulder, who was getting more irritated by the second, until he couldn't take it anymore.

"GET OFF OF ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!" he yelled at the pinkette, pushing her arm off, which only seemed to amuse her more, given the toothy grin she sent his way afterwards.

However unbeknownst to them, they had once again drawn the ire of their teacher, who looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel at their antics he had been putting up with all day.

"SHIRO! YAMAMOTO! ENOUGH! Either behave yourselves or I'll split you up like kindergarteners!" he bellowed at them, causing Elliana to look at him in disgust and offence and Yamamoto to shrink into himself. Kira wondered when they'd learn that their antics would do them no favours here.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," Vlad King continued acidly, narrowing his eyes at the English speakers, "don't worry too much if your scores aren't what you expected them to be. It's only day one, so don't beat yourselves up too much. This just means there's room for improvement. We're finished for the day, so everybody get a copy of the syllabus from the classroom and read it over before tomorrow. Dismissed."

The class dispersed, some gathering into groups while they walked to change out of their gym gear. Kira spotted two boys, Rin and Kaibara, attempting to subtly sneak closer to Elliana, but a single death glare from Yamamoto sent the two boys on their way.

Kira rubbed his eyes tiredly. While he had come in ninth place, he still felt completely unprepared for all of the tests. He knew he had some improvements to make, but he had to start from somewhere.

He set off towards the boys' changing room to put his uniform back on, but a voice from behind him stopped him in his tracks. Monoma had caught up to him.

"Hey, Takahashi! Nice work, making ninth place! Good for you!" he said jovially, clapping a hand on Kira's shoulder.

Kira blinked, confused at Monoma's high spirits despite being in last place. "I thought you'd be more, disappointed you came in last," Kira replied.

Monoma's smile faltered for a second, before it returned in full force. "Others would be, but I just see this as me needing to make improvements. Besides, nobody suspects the underdog, and everyone will likely underestimate me because of that ranking," he told Kira, his smile becoming sneaky.

"Y-you think?" Kira asked, pondering what he'd said. He hadn't thought about it like that.

"Yeah, of course! The way I look at it: we're all side characters in someone else's story, but we're the main characters of our own, meaning we have control over our own actions," Monoma explained. "I spent most of my life being put down by others, and now I'm here, I don't intend to let it happen again."

Kira had to hold back a wince. He wanted to tell Monoma about his own experience with that, but it was a lot and he had no intention of scaring away his new friend. He didn't want him to pity him, he'd been through enough of that.

After changing back into his uniform, Kira collected a copy of the syllabus from the classroom per Vlad King's instruction. A few others were there, doing the same as he was. He froze in the doorway when he saw Elliana, a syllabus in one hand and furiously tapping away on her phone with the other. Her brow was creased in annoyance, while her thumb moved swiftly over her phone screen. She was muttering angrily under her breath, and Kira thought he heard her say the words "Tomoya" and "studio." This told Kira that it was likely idol business she was dealing with.

Kira quickly grabbed a syllabus for himself and exited the classroom, not wanting to engage with her. He almost crashed straight into the stocky form of Yamamoto, who had just finished putting his own uniform back on and was entering the classroom himself.

"Oi, watch where you're going, ya daft bastard," Yamamoto said irritatedly, dodging around Kira and going through the door. He could hear the blond practically hollering at Elliana in English as he went into the classroom.

"Jeez, that guy's got no business being as loud as he is," Monoma grumbled. Kira practically jumped out of his skin: he hadn't seen or heard him come out of the classroom.

"Monoma! You can't sneak up on me like that!" Kira panted, his hand over his racing heart. "But I agree, he's too loud. Don't know how she deals with it."

"She deals with it because she's perfect," Monoma proclaimed with a smile. Kira wondered if Monoma had missed the moment where Elliana had stood with a bratty pout on her face, or if he was just pretending it didn't happen in order to preserve the image of her he'd created.

"If you say so," Kira muttered, his heart rate thankfully back to normal. "Do you . . . want to walk with me?" he added nervously.

"Sure, why not?" Monoma agreed, smiling as he slung an arm over Kira's shoulders. Kira tensed up, not knowing what to do. This was all new to him. "You're not bad, you know, Takahashi."

"Th-thank you," Kira said quietly. The two boys walked to U.A.'s entrance in comfortable silence, Monoma's arm still slung around Kira's shoulders. Kira found that with each passing moment, he was beginning to get used to this.

They walked out of the school to see the rest of the students finishing for the day. Kira could see tall third-years, stuck up second-years and fresh-faced first-years, much like himself and Monoma. The appearances of the students were all incredibly diverse, most due to their Quirks. Kira inwardly admitted that he didn't feel too out of place amongst them. If anything, Monoma looked out of place more than he did.

"I really enjoyed hanging out with you today, Takahashi," Monoma's voice distracted him from his thoughts, taking his arm off his shoulders. "I've got to go now, see you tomorrow!"

Kira returned Monoma's wave as he began to walk in the opposite direction. He connected his headphones, put on his favourite playlist and began his own walk home.

In what felt like no time at all, Kira was back on his doorstep, his first official day at U.A. done. He sighed, knowing his parents were going to be relentless in their questioning. However, he also knew there was no point in putting it off.

He unlocked the door, Hoshi excitedly greeting him as he entered the house. "Hey, you big polar bear," he said happily, petting Hoshi on the head which caused the dog's tail to wag even more. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!"

Fey practically flew out of the kitchen, Kai wheeling after her. "Hello, Kira!" she cried, wrapping her arms around him. "So, how was your first day?"

"Interesting," Kira stated bluntly, pulling away from his mother's embrace. Kai raised an eyebrow at his son's deadpan tone, while Fey paled.

"Did anyone say anything about, you know?" she asked frantically, putting her hands on his shoulders.

"No," Kira replied, shaking his head. He was thankful that that was one thing he didn't have to report back.

"I figured it wasn't that," said Kai thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "If it had been, you'd have gone straight upstairs without so much as a word. This is something different."

"Yeah, you could say that. Different as in, you both knew, didn't you?" Kira asked, folding his arms and fixing his parents with an accusatory glare.

"We know a lot of things, Kira. You're going to have to narrow it down," said Fey, who now bore a look of confusion.

"Two words. Elliana. Shiro," Kira said, his gaze hardening.

Fey's eyes widened in shock and a small gasp escaped her mouth, while Kai sighed, placing a hand to his temple in annoyance. "I told you this would happen," he said to his wife, who shot him a glare.

"If you knew this would happen, why didn't you tell me?" Kira asked angrily. He'd opened the floodgates of his irritation, and now everything was pouring out. "She's in my class! I haven't seen her in nearly ten years, do you have any idea how on edge it's made me feel today?! I should've been enjoying my first day, but instead I've been panicking that she might recognise me and fly off the handle wanting answers! I remember all too well what her temper's like!"

"Okay, first of all, calm down," Kai ordered sternly, narrowing his eyes at his son. "We knew she was going, but we didn't know she'd be in your class. This is news to us, as well."

"We had our reasons, Kira," said Fey gently, hoping this would pacify the angry boy. "We wanted you to enjoy yourself and not have to worry about anything."

"And by "we," she means her," Kai interjected jokingly. "I had my reservations, but you know your mother's a stubborn old goose."

Fey's gaze snapped over to her husband, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat at his words. Her only response was a swift smack upside the head, which earned an "ouch!" from Kai.

"Big words for someone who's barely waist-height at the moment," Fey growled at Kai, who rubbed his sore head with a groan.

"Can you two not?" Kira asked, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "This isn't giving me any answers!"

"Okay," Fey sighed, breathing deeply to calm herself after Kai riling her up. She placed her hand gently on Kira's shoulder. "It's as you said yourself, you haven't seen her in nearly ten years. Both of you have changed drastically since you last saw each other. You may have been inseparable when you were five, but things might not have been the same, and we didn't want to force you or her to be friendly if that wasn't what you wanted. We considered both of you in this situation. Elliana is . . . different now."

"If by "different," you mean stubborn, stuck up, spoiled, bratty and disrespectful, then yes. I saw that," Kira scoffed, rolling his eyes. He still couldn't quite believe how she'd snatched the ball from Vlad King the way she had. He was quite surprised Vlad King hadn't yelled at her for that.

"I meant she's an idol, Kira," Fey clarified, somewhat annoyed. Not that he could blame her, Elliana was her beloved goddaughter and Kira knew well that she'd defend her to the ends of the Earth. Although Kira had a feeling that if Fey had seen the way Elliana had behaved at school, she'd have been horrified.

"He isn't wrong though, Fey. You know he's not," Kai chipped in, shaking his head in disgust. "I always said Holly did her no favours by pandering to her, and let's not even get STARTED on her useless father!"

"You're right, let's not," Fey agreed quickly, hoping to quell any impending ranting from Kai. Normally when he ranted about the Shiros, it took him a while to stop. "But do you understand now, Kira?"

"I, guess," Kira said, contemplating what his mother had told him. A thought suddenly struck him. "Wait, does that mean Aunt Holly knows I'm at U.A. as well?!"

"We didn't say anything to her," said Kai, frowning. "Did you speak to Elliana today?"

"No, I kept my distance. Not like it was hard to, anyway," Kira shrugged. Elliana's bratty nature was half of the reason, and the other half was her unofficial blond bodyguard, Yamamoto. "I did catch her staring at me today, though."

"Despite all her flaws, she isn't stupid, Kira," Kai warned. "She was admitted through recommendations, so don't be surprised if she's figured it out. She is a smart girl, I'll give her that much."

There was silence as Kira digested this new information. His parents had known his estranged cousin would be at his new school with him, and while he wasn't happy they'd kept it from him, he now understood that they had legitimate reasons to do so. And the fact that Elliana herself had probably figured out everything, he didn't like that either but couldn't do anything about it.

Kira nodded slowly. "I get it now," he told his parents. "I understand why you did it."

Kai and Fey exchanged a quick glance. "So, what else happened today?" Fey asked in anticipation.

Kira huffed a laugh. "Where do I begin?" he said, waving them into the living room before launching into a recap of the day's events, his faithful hound at his feet.