Runner Ups

by renren-writes

[Runner Ups Reboot] Even with the League of Villains gone, 20 years later a new threat emerges and terrorizes not heroes themselves, but Hero Academy students. The Boogeyman and his numerous copycats are on the loose and targeting students at all schools, with the latest victim to go missing a Zenshi Academy student. Time will tell if, or when, the others will follow.

8. VIII: Ice Breaker

Hello hello, new chapter time. More slice of life stuff and a refresher of which characters are which. More slice of life chapters to come before we get to the class exercises.

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VIII.

Ice Breaker

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Arc Theme: Hello, World! - Bump of Chicken

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With the strangeness of their collective first meetings with each other over, and with two banoffee pies fresh out of the oven to take with them back to the dorms, class 1-B made their ways back to the dorms and hunkered down in the common area on their floor. 1-A wasn't bothering them, and for that Lyoko was thankful, but there was definitely plenty going on in 1-B to keep everyone's hands tied. Especially the cryptic things Mirato had said to everyone in his rush to introduce himself to them all.

Mazuna would understand? Lyoko had felt his chest cave in at the words. And he wasn't the only one to be hit with such a shock. Ever since meeting the elusive dessert chef, Teru, Mirato's words hung over the air like a guillotine over their necks. Only a few of them had something good to say about his ominous warnings.

"She likes cat cafes, so take her there for the first date!"

"It's a beautiful song. I hope you listen to it soon."

"The bond you two have made always stays strong in every future I see!"

"When you learn to make the sweets, make sure to take notes so you can make more for her!"

But from what Lyoko could gather, they only had good things to say about those predictions because they didn't know what the predictions were about. Except, maybe, Kaiten—who did glance over at Momoiro, the boy he'd entered with initially, and smiled to himself.

Perhaps the most shaken of them were Teru and Lyoko, though not because of his own premonition, but because of Aoi's, and Lyoko had heard the things Mirato had said to them.

"In the first week of July, Quirk marriages will be outlawed," he'd told Aoi after she'd crashed to the ground. "Even the act of organising one before the law is passed will count as a crime under the statute of limitations. Ask Tetsuya-kun for his copy of the contract once you hear the news."

Lyoko had, understandably, been alarmed when hearing that. Aoi wasn't bothered, and if anything she seemed sort of amused and resigned to the fate Mirato had laid out for her, and neither her nor Tetsuya were alarmed by the information. But Lyoko was—ever since the most high-profile Quirk marriage in Japan had birthed a heinous villain, the opinion of the practice had soured among the general public. Now they were seen for what they really were: Horrific contracts that gave away the autonomy of the person sought after by the payer while their parents pocketed all the cash they could get their hands on. A new abuse tactic, especially once it came to light what Endeavour had done to his wife and children in pursuit of the perfect mix of ice and fire, and Lyoko only found one good thing out of Mirato's premonition; the fact that Quirk marriages were going to be illegal by July of this year.

But Aoi and Tetsuya, almost like they knew the day was coming already, just exchanged a knowing look as Tetsuya curtly informed her he'd ask his father to bring it to the school for safe keeping.

Mirato had held Teru's hand gently after addressing Aoi, as though it would break in Mirato's grip, and Mirato's expression had been sombre as he'd muttered, "It won't be gone forever. You're a diamond in the rough, Teru-kun."

It seemed like Teru had understood what Mirato's words had meant. Ever since they got back to the dorms, Lyoko caught sight of him turning his hand—the hand Mirato had held—into a green gem of sorts and exercising each finger, touching each tip with his thumb and rolling his wrist. Almost like he was making sure the limb still worked.

They weren't left to linger forever, though. Almost as soon as they got word that the upperclassmen were coming to do an ice-breaker activity with them, everyone got comfy on the couches and chairs throughout the common area. The upperclassmen arrived in a group—only three, cat included, and a good portion of the class melted at the sight of Bebe dressed in the custom Zenshi seifuku she was given. Aoi had even dragged herself out of her stupor from Mirato's premonition to take photos of Bebe on her phone, one hand over her mouth as she sobbed, "This is the best day of my life, this is the best day of everyone's lives, God is real and He gave us Bebe, she's so cute I could die!"

An appropriate reaction, in Lyoko's opinion.

The two upperclassmen who accompanied their more popular senior were Olivia Mendes, Bebe's handler and a Quirkless girl so talented at making support items and computer hacking that she was awarded one of the few monumental instances of Deku recommending a heroics department student, on the condition she work on a team with Bebe for both her and Bebe's safety, and Amai Ichigo, the student lauded as one of the top heroics department students and who possessed a Quirk that allowed her to split into three perfect clones of herself, with only hair and eye colour as an indicator. If rumours in the grapevine were to be believed, too, Ichigo had been present when the latest hero student was kidnapped by the Boogeyman—or one of his copycats.

Ichigo was a perfect example of a neapolitan colour scheme, with brown, white and pink-streaked hair and mismatched pink and brown eyes. She was tall, too, almost as tall as Lyoko was, and she was the definition of bubbly as she greeted her juniors with a skip in her step.

Olivia, on the other hand, was more withdrawn than Ichigo was—though Lyoko supposed anyone who couldn't meet Ichigo's hyperactive excitement would seem withdrawn in comparison. But the more he looked at Olivia, the more he noticed that one of his new classmates, Yoyo, had the same foreign features as Olivia. Not like they were related, but more like it clicked into his mind that Yoyo might have come from outside of the country like Olivia did. He only paused to consider why her name was Yoyo Yoyo if she was foreign, but then waved it off with a frown at himself at the simpleminded reasoning he had. A lot of Japanese people lived overseas and didn't use English names, and a lot of Japanese citizens had foreign parents and used Japanese names instead of a name from their parents' home countries.

But it was interesting to figure out that Yoyo might have a parent from overseas. How often did you see that, anyway?

"Okay, alright!" Ichigo announced to everyone. "Let's get this started!"

The whole class was sitting on their own couches and chairs, and already there were groups gathering together. Kaiten and Momoiro were sitting together while Shiki sat close to them, though he appeared to be sitting more near Emiko and Ryuichi. Hibana, Yuzuru and Tora were crowding Teru, who seemed more invested in talking with Miyuki, who was splitting her attention between him and her own group—which wasn't really her group, Lyoko noted, but was more the group who'd invited her over with a wave, which comprised of Mugi, Asuka, and Hanabi. Shogo and Hime sat with each other, though every so often Asuka would lean back in her seat and ask Hime something, which Hime would answer with a small smirk. And the ones who tried to be loners in the class—namely Mizuki, Sumie, and Kanon—were all gathered rather forcibly by Mirato onto their own couch while Mirato had excitedly asked them questions about themselves.

Even Lyoko had unintentionally gravitated to a group of his own, comprising of himself, Aoi, Tetsuya, and Kiaria—who'd come towards them sheepishly after confessing she'd recognised Aoi from a meeting they'd once had as kids, though it seemed Aoi didn't remember it all that well. It seemed that Aoi had met both Hawks and his daughter at one point when her mother was out on patrol with her after school, and Aoi's focus had been more on the former Number Two of Japan than his mini-me walking by his side.

The only one not sticking with a single group seemed to be Yoyo, who was still handing out more snacks from the star on her chest to each group she flitted to.

Ichigo held up a box with slips of paper in it, all folded in half, and she was grinning from ear to ear as Olivia and Bebe quietly stood beside her.

"I have with me a box with all of your names and seat numbers inside!" Ichigo cheered. "And in Olivia-san's care, a box with ice breaker questions for each of you to answer! I'll be drawing the name of who gets to answer, and you'll need to introduce yourself to your classmates and give a fun fact about yourself, and then Bebe-chan will draw a question that Olivia-san will read out for you!"

Lyoko could hear the hearts of the cat lovers in the class melting.

Olivia did step forward, though, when Ichigo was done explaining the activity, and she pushed her glasses up her nose. "I just want to make sure everyone knows that you don't have to participate," she reminded the class. Lyoko could see a few students glancing at each other, weighing up whether or not they wanted to participate. There were definitely a few loners, but certainly a lot more people in the class who wanted to make a splash and be memorable. "Zenshi is a school that emphasises teamwork and working with each others' strengths, but you can't brute force it right out the gate. I'm, ah, not ashamed to admit I skipped the ice breaker activity in my first year."

"It's probably for the best," Ichigo chimed in. "Bebe-chan was so rough, she could hardly control her strength."

Bebe looked up at Ichigo and beeped at her. Ichigo beeped back at her, delighting the little calico.

A hand rose, and Lyoko was surprised to see Aoi was putting herself out there to volunteer. Maybe she was the type to rip the bandaid off and have fun with it?

"Yes! Freckles!" Ichigo called, pointing to Aoi.

Aoi didn't have a question for the activity, nor was she volunteering. "Does Bebe-senpai understand human speech?" she demanded, excited.

Ichigo looked to Olivia. Olivia cleared her throat awkwardly.

"She does, but not complicated words," she explained. "You can't hold a conversation with her, but Bebe can recognise emotional cues and vocal cues and respond accordingly."

"What if we talk in a baby voice?" someone else chimed in, likely Yoyo—when did Yoyo move behind the couch seating Mirato's group? Lyoko shook the question from his mind and focused on something more important: The cat's sentience.

"Bebe knows 'good' words and 'bad' words," Olivia explained. "Part of her training in our first year was testing her awareness and adaptability. I'm sure most of you are aware that Bebe possesses a Quirk that makes her very dangerous, and that she knows which aspects of her Quirk are useful for what."

Kaiten held up a hand with a scowl. "She burst my eardrums," he deadpanned.

"Concussive shockwaves produced by her voice are good for taking down large groups of villains," Olivia agreed.

"She spat acid at my vine trap," Momoiro chimed in beside Kaiten.

"She has the ability to coat her organs with a substance that reduces internal damage so she can spit her stomach acid in large amounts."

"Didn't she also launch people several feet into the air? And cross the exam site faster than most of the examinees?" Ryuichi was the one to chime in for that one. He'd likely heard stories of what Bebe had done to the poor examinees.

Olivia laughed softly. "Yes, yes, she's also stronger and faster than the average housecat. But this isn't about Bebe, we're meant to focus on—"

"Can Bebe-senpai say people words?" Kanon chimed in. He didn't seem truly intrigued, but more surprised. But Lyoko couldn't help noticing that he referred to Bebe with the same respect one would a master at a dojo. No gushing while saying her name or anything.

Olivia paused and let out a sigh. She looked down at Bebe and pointed at Ichigo.

"Bebe, who's that?" she asked.

Bebe looked up at Ichigo. Ichigo had one hand over her mouth, already aware of what was to come, but it seemed she still wasn't mentally prepared for Bebe to look back at Olivia and howl, "Ee-oo…"

Olivia pointed to herself. "What's my name, Bebe?"

Bebe was excited as she screeched, "Ooba!"

A solid half of the class doubled over and clutched their chests. Ichigo was included.

With an exasperated look on her face, Olivia turned her attention back to the class and sighed again. "Is that everything?"

No one raised their hand to ask anything—probably because they were recovering from the one hit KO that was Bebe saying Olivia's name. Ichigo took advantage of the pause to jam her hand into the box she held and rummaged through it with a determined shout.

"Back on track! We're here to celebrate 1-B! 1-B!" she insisted. "You only have a first day once!"

She held up a piece of paper with a triumphant pose, and the class stared at her with bated breaths.

"First up! Seat seventeen, Shizu Shogo!" Ichigo announced.

From beside Hime, one of the smaller boys in the class jumped in surprise and stared back at the gazes on him. His skin was a dim grey colour that resembled stone, but Lyoko hadn't had the chance to ask him if his skin was made of stone or if it was just coloured the same. He had a broad, slightly muscular body, but he gave off the energy of a gentle giant who wasn't quite giant. In fact, a lot of his face seemed to follow the same cubic shape throughout—square jaw, square eyes, wide square nose, even the shape of his head was square. Frankly speaking, he looked like the toys that used to be sold of Cementoss that you could find online as collector's items.

An overall solid look to an overall solidly built guy.

At least his bright blue eyes made him stand out a bit, especially since his grey hair was cut into a crew cut and seemed to blend with his skin unless you gave him a second glance.

He was apprehensive about going first, that much was for sure. Nervous and paling at the thought of having so much attention on him, and Lyoko's heart went out to the guy. Poor thing probably had a fear of public speaking, and he just got called on first to do it. Beside him, Hime leaned forward and hummed.

She was a little bigger than him, two inches taller than him at a rounded 5'3, but she had a more delicate look to her compared to Shogo. One single bright, striking orange eye, midnight blue hair that gradiented into light blue, styled in a braid resting over her shoulder while—like Lyoko—she had a portion of her bangs drawn over her patched eye. Her skin was clear and fair, and he was almost curious what skincare routine she used to keep it so blemish-free.

Hime raised a hand and announced, "I'll go first. Shizu-kun can just take my turn when my name gets called out."

Shogo was quick to fuss over her, looking guilt-ridden. "A—Are you sure, Hachisuka-san?" he whimpered. "You really d—don't have to!"

Hime waved a hand dismissively. "It's fine, it's fine," she drawled, smiling at him in a catlike manner. "No one likes going first, anyway. So I might as well leave a big impression with everyone, right?"

Hime stood up without hearing another word of Shogo's guilty thanks, and she skipped over to where the upperclassmen were standing with a hum. Everyone was watching her, but it seemed that Tora and Asuka already had an idea of what she wanted to announce in her introduction. Lyoko hummed to himself, intrigued, and watched as the other three near him shifted in their seats.

"Heyo," Hime drawled, giving a lazy salute. "Name's Hachisuka Hime, and yes, that is my legal name. I'm a special case in our class, because I'm the current host of the former villain Hachisuka Kuin. That is also where I got the name from. If you're familiar with Imasuji Tae, that's my grandma—"

Shiki piped up excitedly, "Oh, a classic Pro Hero! Grandma worked with her back in the day!"

Hime made finger guns at him. "That's her. Anyway, let's see… I'm fifteen years old, I'm actually kinda scared of bees, and… Huh, I can't think of much else to say. Nice to meet you all!"

Ichigo clapped enthusiastically at Hime's introduction. Olivia followed suit, less enthusiastic and more reluctantly trying to match Ichigo's energy with a helpless smile, and some of the others in the class clapped as well.

Bebe stuck her head into the box of questions, and she pulled out a folded slip of paper with a howl to Olivia. Olivia scratched her behind the ears as she took it, and she asked Hime after unfolding it, "Do you have any social media you post on?"

"Oh!" Hime reached back for her pocket and fished her phone out triumphantly. She tapped on the screen a few times, then held it up to Olivia to see. There was a pause, and then Olivia snorted and clamped a hand over her mouth. Her shoulders were trembling as she tried to contain her laughter, and soon Ichigo was tugging at Hime's sleeve to see it.

Ichigo followed suit with the giggling soon after.

"My username on Tweeter is 'not the bees' in capital letters in English, but you group it all together and replace the O with a zero and the E's in 'bees' with two threes." And then Hime pressed on the screen of her phone, and Lyoko heard a video begin to play from the speaker.

"Augh, no, not the bees! Not the bees! They're in my eyes! My eyes!" Followed by incomprehensible screaming.

Whatever film it was, Lyoko wasn't sure he wanted to ask for the name to watch later.

Hime took a bow and returned to her chair, giving Shogo a thumbs up to reassure him that it wasn't all that bad. He seemed a little relieved, and Lyoko couldn't help smiling. Regardless of the challenging first start and the fights some of them were picking, maybe this ice breaker would loosen everyone up a little. Sure, Lyoko was still worrying about things like what might happen if Mazuna saw him when classes started, or whether Mirato's premonition would ever come true, but that could be stuff he tackled later. Right now, as Yoyo handed their table a bag of chips to split, Lyoko could relax and get to know everyone else.

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"Next up," Ichigo announced. "Seat number eight, Kaiyo Ryuichi!"

Ryuichi was surprised to be the one to go next. Everyone else seemed to be more interesting in terms of character, and even Shogo, who'd hesitated to go first and let Hime take his turn, had seemed intriguing. But Ryuichi, right out the gate? Well, how did you follow up a girl who was a host for one of the most despicable villains in the country, apparently reformed?

Ryuichi got out of his seat, though, and Emiko wished him luck as Shiki, who was just a little away from them, hyped him up with a loud, "Woo! Kaiyo-kun!"

He stood at the front of the class with a confident laugh, and when he saw the class in full, he finally realised where he'd seen the boy with the dyed blue hair. Right, wasn't he the one he'd flirted with in the entrance exam? The one with the cute name. Kanon, or something.

Ryuichi threw him a wink, and the boy squinted at him like he couldn't quite see despite the glasses being on his face.

"Hello, hello!" Ryuichi addressed the whole class. "Kaiyo Ryuichi, at your service! Some facts about me… I'm fifteen, and my parents are both Pro Heroes. I'm actually applying to Zenshi as a legacy student, kind of like the Iida family! My mother is the Pro Hero Toyotama, and my father is the Pro Hero Hydra, and I'll probably go for a similar naming convention when I debut. Oh! I also enjoy billiards, so if anyone ever wants to go to an arcade and play, count me in!"

"Oh, billiards!" Ichigo cheered. "Wasn't there someone in your class who enjoyed playing, Olivia-san?"

Olivia was awkward as she looked away from Ichigo. The air became tense, and Ichigo seemed to catch what she'd said far too late.

"O—Oh…" she muttered. "Usamaru-kun…"

She quickly waved her hands, refusing to let the other students linger in the suspense for long, and Bebe dove into the box for a slip of paper. Olivia was right, the cat was good at sensing tonal shifts and emotional cues. It even understood what subject changes were.

Olivia cleared her throat and asked Ryuichi, "Which app do you use most on your phone?"

Oh, that was an easy one to answer. Ryuichi pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen a few times, opening up his settings and looking at the Screen Time setting. Right at the top, instead of one of the games he had on his phone, his most used app was a shopping app.

Even Ryuichi was surprised.

"Ah, according to this, it's my Wishes app," he reported. "I didn't think I bought a ton of stuff on it, though…"

"Just browsing can wrack up hours," one of the students chimed in. Ryuichi looked over, and he recognised Tetsuya from the day's events so far. Hard to forget a guy who launched his best friend into the ceiling over a piece of cake. "You might have a doom scrolling habit."

"I'll have to curb it, then," Ryuichi chirped. "Much appreciated."

He sat back down with Emiko, and when he did, Shiki leaned over and whispered excitedly, "Hey, hey, share your wishlist with me. I'll show you mine, too."

Ryuichi knew someone who liked spending money on their friends when he saw them. He just gave Shiki a chuckle and shook his head, and Shiki seemed to gather that Ryuichi would be a tough nut to crack. He was going to have to make sure no one let slip if he ever needed anything. Otherwise it would turn into a gift-giving battle leading up to Christmas.

"Well, with Kaiyo-kun done, let's do the next one!" Ichigo cheered. She pulled out the next seat number, and she made a very mischievous face when she saw the name on it. "Oho! Seat number nine, Kirameki Hibana! Your turn!"

Ugh, there was an aggressive one. Ryuichi wasn't going to forget the headache that was calming her down over every little thing, from someone bumping into her to someone apparently liking the same boy as her. Ryuichi had met Teru briefly when he'd arrived, and the temptation to tell her he just wasn't that into her was so great. Then again, from the things he'd heard about Teru's temper, they probably would've been a match made in hell.

Regardless of her terrible demeanour, there was no mistaking that Hibana was attractive. Like, insanely beautiful. High cheekbones, sculpted jawline, thin lips, narrow and shapely eyebrows. When Asuka, the redheaded girl who'd come in alongside Tora, had said to Ryuichi that Hibana was wearing makeup, Ryuichi almost didn't believe her. It blended so flawlessly with her face that it looked way too natural to doubt. She was taller than Ryuichi was, too, standing at a good 5'8 compared to his own 5'5, and her emerald green eyes and bright orange hair made her really stand out from the rest of the class. Her hair was styled up in wavy, partial twin tails, and if Ryuichi had to guess, it fell to her lower back when left undone.

Ah, he thought as she turned to glare at the class. How did he miss the little beauty spot under her left eye when he and Emiko had had to pry her away from Tora earlier?

Hibana looked down on everyone like they were beneath her. All but a few, but it certainly wasn't the pink-haired members of her table, that was for sure. From what Ryuichi could gather, she'd gone to the same middle school as Teru and Miyuki, but none of them truly hung out together. They all had their own cliques, and being admitted into 1-B had been the push to make them socialise more.

"I suppose I can grace you all with information about myself," she sneered, and Ryuichi wondered if she ever had an off button for the attitude. "Though you should all already know it. It's public information, after all."

A couple of them groaned. Ryuichi noticed Emiko was one of them.

"My name is Kirameki Hibana," Hibana announced. "I'm also known as the Vermillion Belladonna. Do not call me the Vermillion Doll. I'm not some toy for you all to play with. I'm currently sixteen years old, as my birthday has already passed, and my Quirk is called Let's Play. As the name suggests, my Quirk utilises games—card and board—in an active setting. I'm sure those who witnessed me in the exam are aware of it already. Ask them, if you're dying to know."

Explaining my Quirk to you is beneath me, her last sentence seemed to say quietly.

Olivia was looking at her dryly as Bebe dove into the box and pulled out a slip of paper. She didn't even look away from Hibana, still appearing exasperated by the girl's declarations, as she opened the slip of paper.

"Then, Kirameki-san," Olivia asked flatly, "do you collect anything?"

Hibana looked at her like she was stupid. Olivia didn't appreciate the look, glaring at her in a demand to answer the question.

"I obviously collect games!" Hibana snapped. "I just said my Quirk uses them!"

"Hey, the questions are random," Olivia said airily. "Are you saying Bebe is stupid for picking it?"

That made Hibana pause. She looked down at Bebe, and Bebe stared back up at her with big, round eyes. They were quiet, Hibana's resolve slowly crumbling as Bebe's eyes got bigger, and then the ginger girl clicked her tongue as she turned away from the cat and stormed back to her seat.

"How low, using Bebe-senpai against me…" she grumbled. "Talk about manipulative…"

Ichigo clapped her hands together once, and Ryuichi was surprised to see she was also exasperated with Hibana. But she was quicker at removing the expression from her face than Olivia was, even if her voice took a while to catch up.

"Yes, yes, Bebe-chan is a weapon unmatched by any other in an argument, glad we learned that early," Ichigo deadpanned.

She pulled out the next slip of paper and seemed to perk up a bit at the contents.

"Next up, seat fifteen!" Ichigo announced. "It's Sasaki Kaiten's turn!"

Kaiten was surprised he was called upon. Despite how warm he seemed to be with Momoiro, his demeanour became very cold when he stood up. Almost like he didn't want to get to know anyone, like he wanted to avoid this little exercise, but he almost seemed as though he didn't want to be the odd one out who declined to participate. Not social anxiety like Shogo seemed to have, but more… disapproval of standing out? Ryuichi wasn't too sure.

What he did know, though, was that Kaiten looked familiar. And Ryuichi was nothing if not determined, so when he'd done some digging on the name Sasaki Kaiten during the dessert banquet, he'd found some interesting public records. It was one thing to have a popular model in their class, but also the son of a movie star? And the articles online from years back, all about the actor's death?

Ryuichi couldn't blame the guy for being so closed off when the fiasco with his father was summed up by the press as, Child causes death of beloved film star and father Jonathan Corden. The press hadn't even censored his name, typical of American news companies. Not that Ryuichi was wishing it had happened over here—perish the thought, he'd rather wish it never happened at all—but Kaiten definitely would've been afforded more anonymity for what appeared to be an accident on his part.

He did resemble his father a lot, though, from the pictures Ryuichi had seen. Tall, taller than Hibana had been, and an intimidating and domineering face that was suited for spaghetti westerns. He was well-built and seemed to have put in a lot of work into his physique, almost ready to go into the Pro Hero business out the gate. Intense hazel eyes, black hair that was medium-length and slicked back; compared to Hibana, who looked like a runway ready model, Kaiten looked like the type of actor who didn't need anything more than a costume change to become film ready. A real Clint Eastwood type, even.

He just had to curb that nasty look on his face.

Kaiten was standoffish as he looked over the class. He glanced at Mirato, and the three-eyed boy seemed to give him a thumbs up. It almost looked like it reassured Kaiten, and the dark-haired boy relaxed some.

"Sasaki Kaiten," he announced. "Fifteen. Things I like… I like the Pro Hero Snipe and cowboy movies. I guess we're going to be classmates for the next three years, and then I'll be joining a group with some of you. I hope my theme doesn't clash or anything."

Ah, he was definitely going to go for a cowboy theme. If all else failed, Ryuichi could see him getting recruited by Snipe's agency anyway.

Bebe pulled Kaiten's question out of the box, and Olivia read it out to him. "So, Sasaki-san, what was the best advice you were ever given by someone?"

Kaiten thought about it for a moment. Then he seemed to brighten a little, before reigning it back in and almost shaking the happiness off of himself. Like he wasn't allowed to be happy about it.

Definitely advice from his father, Ryuichi thought with confidence.

"When you deal with a villain, you have to shoot first and ask questions later," he declared. "Since they're always monologuing about their grand plans and goals, they're wide open for a clear shot."

Ichigo let out a cheer at the advice, nodding along eagerly. "That's right! A lot of villains have big egos, so they like to brag about their goals and motivations! It's actually considered a common tactic to exploit Pro Heroes needing to get as much information as possible, but nowadays it's more acceptable to act first and ask questions later if the villain is clearly causing harm. Very good advice, Sasaki-kun!"

Kaiten seemed almost proud of himself as he nodded once in agreement with Ichigo. He hurried back to his seat, nestling beside Momoiro, and Momoiro just chuckled in response. It must've been more nerve wracking to go up there than Kaiten let on.

"Next up is seat thirteen!" Ichigo held up the slip of paper with a big 13 on it. "Nekota Miyuki!"

When Miyuki stood up, Ryuichi noticed she was on the smaller side. Maybe an inch smaller than Shogo, he noted, and it took him a while to notice she didn't have the ears and tail he'd seen on her at the written portion of the entrance exam. Were they a trait she could shift into at will? How interesting. Even her build was small, though, and he supposed it fit with her being more feline-based than anything else. She'd need a more streamline body for the fast movements a feline could make.

Everything about her was very soft, though. Soft face, soft grey hair that was fluffy and reached her mid-back in waves. The only thing that didn't look soft was her eyes, which were sharp like a cat's and light blue in colour.

She had a casual demeanour to her as she approached Ichigo and Olivia, but the casual demeanour dropped when Bebe raised her hackles and hissed at her. Ah, trials and tribulations of being a cat girl—the territorialism that came with other cats. Miyuki moved to stand on the other side of Ichigo, away from Bebe, and Bebe just let out a low, "Rororororo," before backing right up against Olivia's legs.

"Aha, well…" Miyuki awkwardly looked at everyone else. Clear disapproval from the world's best senpai wasn't a good start. "I'm Nekota Miyuki. I don't mind nicknames like Miyu, Yuki, and Miki. I'm fifteen, and sometimes I like to ice skate. It's very calming, but you need a lot of patience for it. Ah, also, I can't really swim. Like at all. So, uh… Sorry if you're an aquatic based Pro Hero who wanted to work with me?"

Olivia laughed nervously. "It's okay, Nekota-san. Bebe can't swim without her Quirk, either, so maybe we can get her used to you and you can work together," she said, trying to reassure her.

Miyuki seemed pleased to hear that. Ryuichi had a feeling she liked animals, but struggled to get close to them because her Quik made her into a big cat herself.

Olivia pulled out the slip of paper instead of Bebe this time, letting the calico cool off at her legs, and she read it out loud to Miyuki. "Do you have a weird tradition in your family?"

Miyuki thought about it for a moment. Eventually, she said, "Well, it's not a tradition, but people have said it's weird. Me and my brother, if we have a cramped leg or our leg falls asleep and the other finds out, we run over and hit each other's leg until it stops. My dad's had to break us up a few times because of it."

From the table she was sitting at, Teru piped up, "Oh, Shu-nee used to do that with me!"

Miyuki snorted a laugh and smirked. "Must be an annoying older sibling thing."

Personally, Ryuichi would sooner choke than hit his precious little sister's leg if it fell asleep. But maybe it was a mutual kind of annoying that they did. Ryuichi didn't feel very tit-for-tat about things, and usually when his sister got aggressive with him, he'd let her get it out of her system and then have a heart to heart with her afterwards. He wasn't sure why she was so jealous of him all the time, to be honest—it wasn't like she was the one having pressure put on her to become a Pro Hero like their parents. She was allowed to be whatever she wanted, whereas Ryuichi had to follow the strict regime he'd grown to appreciate over the years.

Hm. Maybe they were at the point where they could terrorise each other the same way Miyuki and Teru's siblings did.

Ichigo did a little jig on the spot as Miyuki sat back down. She could barely get the next number out before someone else stood up—Mirato, Ryuichi realised—and she paused to give the boy a wide-eyed look.

"Oh, a volunteer?" she asked.

Mirato shook his head. "It's my turn next!" he chirped.

Ichigo pulled out the slip she'd grabbed, opened it, and took a moment to compose herself. Ryuichi watched as Mirato approached her and she held up the slip with his seat number on it, and he recalled the words Mirato had imparted to him when they first got each other's names. It wasn't anything traumatic or something like that, not like what some of the others had been told, but it had been puzzling nonetheless.

"When the fifteen ricochets and hits the eight into the centre left pocket, the wall to your east will go down. Grab Mizuki-chan before it lands on her and don't look the villain in the eyes."

More specific compared to what Emiko had said she'd been told, and when he'd asked Shiki, Shiki's response was that he'd forgotten because he was so used to the topic involving the premonition that it went over his head sometimes. Mirato had clearly described a villain attack, though. One that would happen when Ryuichi was with Mizuki and playing pool with her.

The problem at hand was which Mizuki he meant. Of all things, Ryuichi was stunned that one of his classmates had the same name as his sister. It wasn't like the name was uncommon or anything, but it was even written with the same kanji and everything. Could anyone fault him for the doubletake he did when Mizuki distantly introduced herself to him after he finally got her attention at the dessert banquet?

Despite the distress his premonitions had caused, Mirato was every bit the opposite of distressing. He had the face of a cinnamon roll, if Ryuichi had to find a term to describe how soft he looked, and his chubby cheeks and button nose made him look very baby-faced. He was slender and stood at an average height, a solid five and a half feet, and he was one of the few members of the class with freckles on his face—the other being Aoi, from what Ryuichi could see. His eyes were blue, or at least the two normal eyes were; the third one, in the middle of his forehead like his chi path had been opened or something, was closed off and had clearly just now closed itself. Was that how his Quirk worked? His pale pink hair was unruly and untamed, so wavy that it went in almost every direction, and it seemed to add to his boyish looks a little. Made him look more youthful than his baby face already did.

He looked like the most non-threatening person in the room, aside from Shogo, but even Shogo was built solid enough to be mistaken for actual cement and stone. Maybe that was why everyone was so off-put by his premonitions. No one expected them to come from such a cute boy.

"Then, do you know what your question will be?" Ichigo asked him excitedly. Mirato came to a stop between her and Olivia, and he shook his head innocently.

"I never saw the same question twice, and none of the ones I saw have been asked yet," he admitted. He glanced down at Bebe as the cat moved towards the box, and something flickered across his face. Something pained. "U—Um, Olivia-senpai, may I ask a favour?"

Olivia blinked at him, surprised. "What is it?"

"May I give Bebe-senpai a hug?"

Some members of the class were shocked, almost like they'd never thought to ask, while others were perplexed. Mirato just held his gaze with Olivia, and Olivia searched his face. They were quiet for a moment, contemplative and pleading, until Olivia looked down at Bebe with… a flicker of fear in her eyes? Ryuichi was on high alert now.

"Sure…" Olivia said slowly. She knelt down and picked up Bebe, and Bebe let out a soft mewl in Olivia's arms before calmly being passed into Mirato's. "Play nice, Bebe."

Of all the things Ryuichi expected to see from the boy who apparently knew the future, it wasn't a sincere and frightened hug of their feline senpai. Mirato held Bebe like she was going to disappear at any moment, face buried in her fur, and Bebe just looked back at him with those big round eyes again. Confused, but allowing him to hug her as much as he needed to.

What future did he see for the cat?

Ryuichi leaned forward in his chair, and others seemed to pick up on the air around them as well.

What future did he see for the cat?

When he set Bebe down, Mirato discreetly wiped a tear from his eye and smiled at Olivia. Olivia gestured to him, signalling that he needed to introduce himself, and Mirato seemed to realise what he'd forgotten to do.

"Ah, sorry!" he fretted. He looked back to the class and gave everyone a bright, sunny smile. "I'm Koizumi Mirato! I'm fifteen and I'm sure you all know by now what my Quirk is. I like sweet food and animals, and I do gardening with my aunt in my free time. I also collect bracelets!"

He pulled up one sleeve and showed off half a dozen different bracelets decorating his arm, some of them handmade and others made of silver or leather. Ryuichi even caught sight of one of those braided plastic bracelets peeking through the sleeve still covering his other arm.

Bebe pulled the slip of paper from the box and passed it to Olivia, and Olivia cleared her throat before asking his question.

"Do you believe in love at first sight, Koizumi-san?" she asked.

Mirato's eyes went wide and his smile grew even more.

"Of course!" he gushed. "But I don't think it's a one-and-done thing. I think it can happen multiple times for people, especially if they fall in love easily to begin with! Just because it doesn't happen to some people, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen to others, right?"

A very sound answer. A bit idealistic, but it suited him somehow.

Before Mirato could return to his seat, Olivia said to him, "When this is done, Koizumi-san, can you come with me?"

Mirato nodded eagerly in response, happy to help. Olivia didn't look as happy to have to talk to him.

Ryuichi let out a slow breath and relaxed a little. Whatever he saw for the cat, it was clear Olivia wanted to prevent it. He supposed that was that, but there was no telling what could happen. Ryuichi cast a glance at Mizuki, who was sitting where Mirato had dragged her earlier, and he furrowed his brows. He supposed Olivia wasn't the only one to have questions for Mirato. With any luck, Ryuichi would beat out everyone else and get more answers of his premonition before something happened.

Fifteen ricochet and hit the eight. East wall. Don't look into the villain's eyes.

Somehow those details felt way harder to remember at the drop of a hat down the line compared to everyone else's warnings.

---

Well, well, well, the personalities in this class were starting to get interesting.

She already knew after the entrance exam that there'd be some big personalities to contend with, especially when some of them were more meddlesome and prying, but the ice breaker was definitely smashing that ice with a piping hot sledgehammer so far. Asuka would even dare to say she was entertained by everything so far, though only because she could see some… gratifying moments on the horizon for them.

Like that pompous brat, Hibana? Oh, a humbling was waiting for her after being long overdue, Asuka could taste it. Hime having a villainous bee in her eye? One relapse would throw all of that hard work and trust right out the window, that was for sure. All of these Pro Hero kids convening in one room? The clash of ideals was bound to be monumental. Nothing spelled disaster more than kids of heroes who had different views for what made a good Pro Hero echoing those views to each other.

And then there was the menial relationship drama at play. Not even one day had passed, and already there was a love square starting to bud in one corner of the room. And then there were the ones who seemed to have bonded in the entrance exam, followed by the ones who gravitated towards each other because of similarities. She was looking at the two dragon kids on that front.

Oh well, she thought. That just meant there was less competition to be scouted for the better groups forming in 1-A. There were bound to be a couple of the ace applicants left in search of group members for their debuts, and Asuka was on the fast track to being number one on their lists with all this drama happening in her class.

She wasn't even that worried about Mirato's premonition for her—something about a dumb song, Asuka didn't care enough to remember. Why should she even listen to a song she didn't know the name of? He was a bit useless on that front, not even telling her the name of the song or the band that sang it. She knew he could be a bit more detailed; he'd actually given a good amount of detail to Mugi, who'd been beside Asuka at the time, about her older brother. Mugi had nodded fervently at the instructions and passed them on to her brother via text, but Asuka? Just some vague babbling about how beautiful the song was.

Useless. Useless.

Why couldn't he tell her about a more exciting future?

Why couldn't he tell anyone else about who the Boogeyman was, either?

Useless.

She watched as Ichigo pulled out the next seat number, and she scanned the class for who was left. Only a handful of them had spoken so far, so there was still more than half of the class left to go. But they were getting these done quickly, even with the influx of new information coming every five minutes.

"Seat number twenty-four, end of the classroom, Yumeya Hanabi!" Ichigo cheered.

Asuka frowned. They had a Hanabi… and a Hibana? That was one typo away from a bad time, especially since Hanabi's demeanour made her look way more skittish than Hibana was.

And then Asuka took proper note of Hanabi's appearance, which was similar to Hibana's. Curvaceous body that was more broad and wide at the shoulders and hips, definitely something suited for someone showing off trendy clothing. Hanabi's main difference in build was being smaller than Hibana by a few inches, and where Hibana was all sharp angles and stern looks, Hanabi was all rounded cheeks and doe eyes. Even the beauty spot she had on her face was on the opposite side to Hibana's, under her right eye. Frankly speaking, Asuka found Hanabi more palatable as the face of a brand than Hibana. From her own experiences with— Well, yeah— Asuka could confidently say that consumers liked more welcoming and vulnerable faces in women, and it was only those who fit a certain demographic who wanted someone cold and egotistical.

Hanabi was going to be popular with civilians. Asuka might have competition.

Her skin was clear and her hair was smooth, reaching her waist while two shorter sections framed her face with her bangs. Her hair was cerulean in colour, a perfect foil to Asuka's cherry red, and it was tied in a long braid behind her like some cute girl-next-door kind of look. Even her big green eyes made her look innocent and pure.

Sickening.

Hanabi's smile was gentle and warm when she greeted everyone.

"It's nice to meet you all," she said, and she even sounded like she was in a dream-like state. God, the level of moe on this girl was going to pose a problem. "I'm Yumeya Hanabi, but you can call me Hana-chan, if you want. I'm fifteen, and I want to be a Pro Hero because I want to support my parents and their toy company with the money earned from hero work, but I also made a promise with my best friend to become one with him. Tai-chan doesn't go to Zenshi, but he did make it into UA. He's in 1-A, can you believe it? I wish I was as strong as him…"

She trailed off, seemingly distracted, and Asuka's concerns about her being competition eased up. Heh, the poor thing was a total scatterbrain. Probably couldn't keep a conversation going to save her life—

"U—Um," Hanabi continued, cutting off Asuka mid-thought. "I also, before attending the entrance exam, was almost a victim of a copycat Boogeyman. If Pro Heroes hadn't shown up, Tai-chan and I…" She sucked in a short breath and shook her head, cute features scrunching up in distress. "I want to help catch the Boogeyman! I don't want other kids to feel scared to follow their dreams!"

Asuka was taken aback. No way, was she being serious right now? This was big. Like, big-big. If Hanabi was the only student in class to come closest to a Boogeyman attack, even if it was from a copycat, didn't that give her more experience over everyone else? What Quirk did they have? Did Hanabi actually fight them? Damn it, this experience she already had fighting for her life was driving Asuka nuts… In comparison, Asuka's experience was way too easy.

It was way too intense compared to Aemi—

Asuka caught herself. She kept her expression neutral. No, Asuka had struggled plenty. Hanabi's one experience was nothing compared to a lifetime.

Asuka still had the lead.

"That's very admirable of you, Yumeya-san," Olivia chimed in. Hanabi looked at her sheepishly, smiling like she'd just been praised for giving a correct answer in a quiz. "I'll read out your question now."

Bebe pulled the slip from the box, and Olivia unfolded it.

"What's your biggest irrational fear?" she asked Hanabi.

Hanabi paused. She thought about it for a moment. She laughed nervously as she shifted on her feet.

"It's silly," she mused. "I'm just… really scared of bugs…" Hanabi glanced over at where Hime was sitting, but the other girl didn't seem bothered. "Sorry, Hachisuka-san."

Hime shrugged one shoulder and smirked. "You and me can run away from my bees sometime. Make a day of it."

Hanabi giggled. She hurried back to where she was sitting, back with Asuka and Mugi, and she smiled gleefully at the two girls.

"You did great, Hana-chan," Asuka praised her. Hanabi lapped it up like a little teacher's pet, eager to please.

Ichigo rubbed her hands together and pulled the next slip from the box. She blinked, almost like she was confused, and then let out a soft, "Oh…" as whatever she'd forgotten came back to her.

"This is seat four, Hachisuka Hime," she announced. "So I guess this means it's Shizu-kun's turn!"

Next to Hime, Shogo was rigid and nervous as he stood up and carefully made his way between the seniors. What a nervous wreck, Asuka thought disdainfully. What Quirk did he even have that made his attendance worthwhile?

"Um… Hello," Shogo said softly. He sounded polite and delicate, unfitting of his muscular appearance. "My n—name is Shizu Shogo… I'm fifteen a—and… I really like Pro Heroes?"

He looked to Ichigo helplessly, uncertain of what was enough to say. Ichigo gave him a thumbs up, excitable as ever, and Shogo looked back to his classmates with a more concerned expression.

"I—I also don't like violence or a—arguments…" he went on. "So I hope we can all g—get along…"

He didn't like violence? Seriously, what was he doing at a hero academy!?

Olivia gave him a sympathetic look as Bebe handed her a slip of paper. She was doing her best to be reassuring as she told Shogo, "Hang in there, Shizu-san. Now, your question is… Who was your Pro Hero crush growing up?"

Shogo's face seemed to get darker—and it took Asuka too long to realise he was blushing, full-facial blush and all. The question definitely made him stutter even more than before, almost to the point of being incomprehensible, but the answer was decipherable after a minute. And what a non-answer it was.

How could Shogo pick one when there were so many Pro Heroes to admire?

All things considered, the guy probably got the worst question out of the bunch so far. He should've done his the first time he was called, and just showed off his social media presence.

Ichigo seemed to accept the answer, though, and told Shogo to sit back down with a cheeky expression. Shogo looked ready to cry when he sank into his chair beside Hime, and Hime just snickered as she patted his shoulder.

"I get it, it's hard to pick one Pro Hero crush," Ichigo drawled, still smirking. "I mean, have you seen the current generation of Pro Heroes? Everyone in my middle school class before graduation had a crush on Red Riot—even the boys! Saying he was 'best girl' and all that. If you ask me, the one deserving of being called 'best girl' is our headmistress."

"I'll let her know you think so," Olivia deadpanned.

Ichigo was quick to drop to her knees and crawl over to Olivia, cheeky expression gone in an instant. Instead, she was whimpering as Bebe copied her actions and began pawing at Olivia's legs with a sad yowl.

"Please don't tell her I said that, Olivia-san, have mercy!" Ichigo whimpered. "I'm still on thin ice for my idea for the entrance exam—"

Shiki jumped up from his seat at the words, jaw dropping as he stared down at Ichigo. "That was your idea, pitting everyone against existing students!?"

"Ah! A volunteer!" Ichigo stumbled back to her feet and waved Shiki over. "Get on over here!"

And so Shiki was the next to take the stage, though not by choice. It was obvious that Ichigo was avoiding addressing the fact that she was the one who'd sent Bebe out to attack the poor examinees that day, and what animosity was directed at the cat now found a new target—and in far greater amounts, too, because as pretty as Ichigo was, she wasn't as cute as a cat who called her owner "Ooba".

Shiki towered over both girls and rubbed the back of his neck with furrowed brows. He had to be a good 6'3, Asuka thought, and she wondered if he was the tallest in the class. He was muscular, too, and had a decent enough face that even Asuka would give him a second glance. Everything about him was immaculate, almost, and she wondered if he was one of those vain men who spent more on skincare routines than most women did.

He ran a hand through his messy grey hair, and she managed to catch sight of purple mixed with his blue eyes, almost gradienting between the two colours.

"Name's Shuzenji Shiki, and my grandma's the Pro Hero known as Recovery Girl," he announced. Another legacy student, and that was one big name to follow up from. Recovery Girl was known from a time before All Might, and her healing Quirk was unmatched by many in the industry, even to this day, and Asuka already had theories about what his Quirk was. She'd caught Yoyo complaining about him being a "kissing fiend" when she'd arrived with Shogo and Hime, despite the fact that Shiki claimed it was one kiss on her forehead to heal a grievous head injury. "I'm sixteen, and for the longest time we didn't know I had a Quirk. It's a funny story—I actually found out because I got mowed down by a truck in traffic—"

"Whoa-kay!" Ichigo cut in, sweating bullets. "What a way to find out! Olivia-san?"

"My friends called me Isekai-kun for years," Shiki went on. "I guess I could never stay away from Truck-kun's loving embrace."

Was his whole personality being a walking insurance fraud scheme? Asuka stared at him in disbelief. Screw Hanabi being competition, Shiki seemed genuinely desensitised to the idea of dying at all. Did he play in traffic as a hobby? How the hell did the truck not kill him? How often did this happen since that first moment, that he earned the nickname his friends gave him? Anyone sane and normal would've said it was traumatic and moved on. Did Shuzenji Shiki warp the idea of death by grievous bodily harm in a whole group of kids in middle school?

Yeah, no, if this was a regular thing for him, there was no topping that. Asuka had a brush with death once and the coma had taken so long to recover from. She'd been out for years! Three whole years! Meanwhile this clown was jumping through traffic trying to see how far his head would fly!

Olivia fumbled with the sheet of paper as she unfolded it, and she was sweating as much as Ichigo as she asked, "Sh—Shuzenji-san, what's something on your bucket list?"

Shiki looked at Olivia with a genuine smile. "Oh, that's easy! I always wanted to go into outer space."

Olivia relaxed a little. "Oh, yes, I think everyone would like to do that one day—"

"I wanna see if my Quirk will prevent the vacuum from killing me and if it'll regulate my body temperature enough to circumvent the instantaneous flash freeze."

Olivia dropped the slip of paper in her shock. It floated to the floor, and Bebe dove for it with a beep so she could hand it back to Olivia. Shiki couldn't see it, but behind him, Ichigo looked like she'd been told the most shocking, devastating news in her entire life, and she wasn't sure how to process it other than let her jaw hang dangerously close to the floor.

Great, Asuka thought. Another whackjob to add to the class's collection. He was going to be the most horrific Pro Hero to ever exist, at this rate. Who'd want to be saved by a guy whose body was broken and battered to the point of looking like a zombie while his Quirk kept him half-alive?

Several people in the class were horrified, actually. Asuka didn't miss the shock and horror on their faces, but the disgust on Hibana's face was the most apparent. About the only people who didn't seem outright horrified or neutral were the two idiots sitting with the metal manipulation boy and the girl with the wings. The girl looked ready to jump Shiki and test his durability, while the boy seemed contemplative about whether he could test Shiki's healing factor.

Buffoons, the lot of them.

Shiki excitedly returned to his seat and looked at both groups he was sitting near—Emiko and Ryuichi, and Kaiten and Momoiro—and he asked how he did. The only response he got in return was a soft, "Dude…" from Kaiten.

Ichigo pulled out the next number, and she wasn't as peppy as she announced, "Uh… Seat twenty-three, Yoyo Yoyo?"

Immediately the peppy blonde of the class jumped up and ran to the upperclassmen. She was a small thing, not the smallest in the class but definitely smaller, and the first thing Asuka always noticed about her was that shiny bowl cut she wore her hair in. From what Asuka could tell, Yoyo had a bit of foreigner in her that definitely showed with how ditzy she acted and her general appearance. Bright blue eyes with yellow stars for pupils, fair skin that was rounded and chubby around the face, and most jarringly of all, that even Asuka had to do a double take with when she'd first seen Yoyo, quite possibly the largest chest in the whole of the heroics department first-years. Even with the baggy clothing Yoyo had tried to hide them under, it was very apparent that the poor girl got a ton of unwanted attention because of them.

She'd clearly chosen a loose hoodie for today so as to avoid unwanted stares while unpacking her things, but now that she was comfortable and getting to know everyone, Asuka could see something more cute fitting her appearance. Honestly speaking, Yoyo would make a turtleneck, denim shorts, and thigh high socks look work.

But that bowl cut… Honey, what possessed you to get a bowl cut?

Yoyo was giggling as she looked at her classmates, and she gave a full-bodied wave with both of her hands.

"Hi, everyone! I'm Yoyo Yoyo, your new classmate!" she announced loudly. It was a little cute, how childishly excitable she was. Asuka quickly dismissed the thought. Childish meant stupid, and stupid was easy pickings to overtake in the class exams. "I'm sixteen and my family runs a ramen restaurant! Buffet Bowl! My papa is the head chef, and his Quirk lets him make super delicious food from anything! And my mama is the manager, and she has a void-storage Quirk! That's how you got me, with Deep Space for my Quirk!"

And with a flourish, Yoyo pulled down the collar of her hoodie and reached into the four-pointed, golden star in the middle of her chest. Asuka was surprised to see a demonstration—she'd assumed the food Emiko and Shiki had said Yoyo brought were in containers, but as she watched Yoyo reach inside and pull out a piping hot taiyaki wrapped in a napkin, Asuka realised just how so much food could be transported without spoiling. What a handy Quirk… Could she shoot things from it like a projectile? Could living things be stored in there? Did she only have food? Was there an upper limit to how many things she could put in her storage?

How did someone so stupid get such a versatile Quirk!?

Ichigo's pep was back as she looked at the taiyaki with wide eyes. Yoyo bit into it, immediately snacking on her example haul as she looked at Olivia, and Olivia seemed to find Yoyo's demeanour endearing.

Bebe handed her a piece of paper, and as Olivia read it out, Yoyo reached inside of her star again and pulled out a handful of kibble for Bebe. Bebe rushed to Yoyo's side immediately and began eating it out of her hand like a well-trained pet while Yoyo gleefully munched on her taiyaki.

"Let's see… Okay, Yoyo-san," Olivia announced. "A genie grants you three wishes, with no restrictions on what you can wish for. What do you use the wishes on?"

Yoyo stuffed the last of the taiyaki in her mouth and licked her lips. She didn't seem to need time to think on it—just time to swallow the taiyaki.

"My first wish is an endless buffet that never goes cold or expires," she announced. "My second wish is for utensils to eat the buffet with. And my third wish… Friends to share the buffet with!"

Oh, Asuka wouldn't deny the miniscule urge to coo at such an answer. That was such a well and truly innocent answer, as expected of a girl whose round head only thought of food, and anyone else would've wished for wild things like money or power. Asuka might've been one of them. Yoyo, though? She was proving to be the definition of "pure of heart, dumb of ass".

"That's so sweet, Yoyo-san," Olivia said, genuinely touched. "Thank you for such a delightful answer."

Yoyo saluted her and skipped back to the class. She hadn't quite settled down with anyone yet, more flitting between groups with snacks in hand to replace any that a group might've finished off. Case in point, she pulled out some more taiyaki and began moving through the class one by one, handing them out to her classmates with a mindless smile.

"Okay, next up…" Ichigo pulled out a slip of paper. Then she laughed and chucked it over her shoulder. "Whoops, that was Shuzenji-kun! So after Shuzenji-kun would've been… Ah! Seat eleven, Kousaki Teruki!"

Oh, the only other kid in the whole school to be recommended by Deku? Asuka glanced over at him as he stood up from his table. He was definitely given a lot of hype by the people around him, from his admirers to the Pro Hero who'd recommended him to Zenshi, and Asuka was starting to wonder if the hype was real. He seemed rather unassuming, maybe a little pretty but not drop-dead gorgeous like Hibana and Hanabi seemed to be. Even Shiki had a more handsome pretty-boy face than him.

In terms of height, he was on the shorter side. Maybe a little under five and a half feet? Five and a quarter? His frame was very slender, rivalling some of the girls in all honesty, and his skin was almost sheet white with an undercurrent of mint green sprinkled into it. Under certain light, the mint green was more visible—like a holographic cover for something like a book or trading card—and his eyes and hair matched the same mint green as the sheen in his skin. His hair looked soft and somewhat messy, with a portion pulled back into a half-ponytail while the rest was scattered about at chin-length.

Asuka could vaguely see now why Tora had insisted he wasn't a girl. Though then again, Teru wasn't the only feminine-looking boy in the class; Momoiro had made her pause and take stock of his words and voice, as well as how Kaiten referred to him, and even hearing someone else ask him out of curiosity had been enough to figure it out for Asuka. If she had to venture a guess, Tora had specified not to call Teru a girl because the boy had a complex about it or something. Asuka could see that being an issue for the illustrious recommendation student.

Teru looked at everyone with a serious case of resting bitch face, and he seemed to deliberately try to make his expression softer and palatable. At least he was self-aware of his perpetual glare.

"I'm Kousaki Teruki, though you can just call me Teru if you want," he said. "Less syllables is good for some people, I guess. I'm fifteen, I like to bake, and I would've gone to culinary school if Zenshi hadn't accepted me. UA was top of my list, but, well…" He shrugged one shoulder. Teru looked to his class with less of a soft expression and more of a pleading one, though Asuka didn't miss the determination mixed in. He was going to ask for something, she thought, and he wasn't going to allow for a maybe as an answer. "I have a favour to ask all of you. I don't go around advertising it, because it's not a big thing to show off, but I've come to learn that some people still have issues with it in this field. So I'll come outright and say it. I'm transgender—I was born a girl, but my heart is a man's and everything on legal paperwork reflects as such. For all legal intents and purposes, I am a boy named Teruki. So I just wanna make things clear and only ask this of you guys: If you have an issue with it, let the teachers know so we don't have to work together in exercises, and if you hear someone call me any name other than Teruki or Teru, please correct them. Some of my middle school classmates are in the general studies course, and they didn't want to put in the effort to relearn my name."

A couple of students looked to each other with a mixture of curiosity and surprise. But Asuka was quieter in her contemplation, her expression neutral as she weighed up Teru's words.

So that was how it was, huh? Somehow Asuka felt a little bit of kinship with him. She was never in a situation like his own, where his identity was denied by his peers despite everything being proven on paper, but she could understand the anger he probably carried. He'd fully intended to let the topic come up on its own, obviously, and events leading up to his enrollment had changed those plans. Teru felt he had to be upfront and nip any potential bad faith actors in the bud, and the fact that he was asking for help with his middle school classmates—something he clearly didn't want to do, if he was only posing it as a yes or no request—was something that obviously made him bitter. He'd probably hoped Zenshi would be a fresh start for him, like Asuka had hoped it would be, and remnants of the past followed him in all shapes in forms; he had friends join him, admirers finding him, and now he was spelling out that he had people outside of his friends who'd joined him.

Well, if there was one thing Asuka was good at, it was shaming someone into doing what she deemed was right. She'd probably have a bit of fun with it, too, if they tried to pull some arguments that would easily come back to bite them in the ass.

Yes, she could see it now. She was going to save the five thousand yen haircut insult for the most unfashionable one of them.

A hand rose from one of the tables, and Asuka saw Aoi stand out of her chair shortly after. "My big brother's the same," she informed him. "So I know all the right things to say to a bigot. If you don't want everyone bothering you about it, I'm happy to school them on what to say!"

Teru let himself show a half-smile as he nodded in thanks to Aoi. Asuka huffed softly to herself. There was a disastrous friendship blossoming on the spot, all thanks to solidarity. And if she recalled, Aoi was a very heavy, very strong member of the class. Anyone picking a fight with Teru now had a four hundred pound attack dog to deal with.

"As long as you guys aren't violent about it, it should be fine," Olivia advised them. "But take care not to let it turn into bullying. Zenshi is very strict on that."

Bebe pawed at her leg, having grabbed the slip of paper during Teru's introduction, but the calico had been patiently waiting for Olivia to speak first. Olivia picked it up and read it out, huffing a laugh to herself at the question.

"With all of that out of the way," she said. "Do you believe in ghosts, Kousaki-san?"

Teru snorted and bit back a laugh as soon as Olivia said the word "ghosts". The answer could not be more obvious from that reaction alone.

"No, I don't," he said, and he was trying to keep his voice steady and refrain from laughing. "But you know those ghost hunting shows? Me and Shu-nee play bingo with them, and they're really funny once you realise how much they're trying to convince the audience it's real. My favourite one is Ghoul Adventures—the host, Mack Baggins, is such a drama queen."

Olivia got excited at the mention of the show. "No way, they air it over here?" she gasped. It must've been an American show, Asuka thought.

"No, no, but you can find it subbed online," Teru told her. "I'll give you the website. The latest season was uploaded a few weeks ago."

Teru was back in his seat before long, and Olivia was saving the website to her phone with a giddy look on her face. Even Ichigo seemed interested, having never heard of the show before, and Olivia was visibly holding herself back from explaining what the show was about and why she liked it so much. Ichigo kept her attention on the class when she was done, but it was obvious she was looking forward to watching the show now that she'd heard two glowing reviews of its eccentricity.

Asuka could tell the class was starting to warm up to each other now. She genuinely considered what answers she might give so that they'd vibe with her, especially since she was already solidifying herself as a reliable friend for Mugi following the entrance exam, and Hanabi was warming up to her as well now that her favourite model had rejected her friendship offers twice—once at the entrance exam, and again at the banquet, where Asuka had to pick up the pieces of the broken heart that came with meeting your heroes.

Right. She was determined. She would give the most relatable answer to the class based on their introductions.

---

After an almost disastrous start to their high school careers, Emiko was pleased to find everyone getting along well enough during the ice breaker.

There were a lot of kids related to Pro Heroes in their class, probably more than there were in 1-A, and while Emiko wasn't familiar with the civilian identities of some of the Pro Heroes, she could easily see how her classmates would approach being a Pro Hero with their Quirks and ideals so far. Ryuichi was a hard worker, dedicated to his responsibilities and always wanting to keep the peace one way or another. It was admirable, actually. Something Emiko almost wanted to aspire to be. And then she saw the way the others conducted themselves, the reasons they gave for wanting to be Pro Heroes. She heard Hanabi's story of almost being killed by a copycat right before the entrance exam.

Was it wrong for Emiko to compare herself to them and drag herself down?

Even Hanabi's desire for money was selfless in the end. It wasn't like she was the one responsible for her parents' business struggling—not like Emiko was. Hanabi hadn't done irreparable damage to the people she loved. She'd just wanted to stand up for herself and help protect her family's livelihood by putting herself on the front lines as a Pro Hero. Her friend didn't even blame her for the attack happening, from the sounds of it. Not that Emiko's family blamed her, but sometimes you just knew these things. Correlation may not equal causation, but Emiko's correlating accident certainly did cause the farm to be sold and for the family to move into the city with what savings they had left.

Was it terrible that Emiko might've been the only one in the class making up for a mistake that cost her family everything?

Was it terrible that, upon finding out she was in 1-B, Emiko's first reaction wasn't happiness, but disappointment? That she fell short of being in the class that got more attention from Pro Heroes looking for sidekicks and solo acts?

Emiko had been thankful, when her mind cleared, that she'd even gotten into the heroics department to begin with. Her grades weren't the best, and all she had going for her was her casual personality and her strong Quirk, and it would've made more sense if she'd been dumped in the general studies department. But she was thankful, because putting in the work she had to get into Zenshi's heroics department hadn't been a waste, and she wouldn't be a financial burden on her parents for three years without anything to reap from the course.

But it still weighed on her.

Her classmates were already better than her in terms of motivation.

Emiko didn't want to be a hero to everyone. She just wanted to be a hero to her dad, and only her dad. She just wanted to see him smile again, even if he couldn't see her own anymore.

A foot nudged against her own. Emiko blinked, dragged from her thoughts, and she looked over in the direction of Ryuichi. He was just about the only other person in class who didn't wear shoes thanks to his feet being similar to her own, clawed and scaly and prone to tearing up even leather shoes. He was still facing the front, where Ichigo was pulling another name from the box, but his eyes were aimed at her as he silently conveyed a question. Are you okay?

Emiko just smiled at him and shifted in her seat. She turned away, facing the upperclassmen, and let whatever he took from that hang in the air.

It probably didn't help that these thoughts were circling because Mirato—sweet boy that he was—had given her a premonition that had her doubting everything. It wasn't a bad one. If anything, it was the hope Emiko needed. But she remembered him saying at the entrance exam that multiple futures could come true, depending on the actions taken, and Emiko had done enough movie sessions involving time travel to know that even just the act of knowing the future might change it drastically.

"You'll taste your family's blackberries again. And your dad will enjoy them with you," he'd told her. And Emiko wasn't sure how much she wanted to believe it.

She'd spent so many years convinced that he blamed her, resented her secretly for causing the injuries that ruined his career as a farmer and cost them the farm. He never said it out loud, but he didn't need to. Now that he was blind, he had no clue how much he let the fatigue and depression show on his face. How much Emiko saw it when he tried to force himself to smile for her, so she wouldn't see how hollow he was. He had no idea.

Could you blame her for doubting Mirato's premonition would come true? Doubting that everything she'd ever want would come true? That she could eventually buy back the farm however many years down the line, and her dad would finally be happy again? She couldn't afford to dump all of her eggs in this one basket for a maybe. Emiko had to push herself regardless of the premonition and act like she never heard it, overwise she might end up sabotaging herself.

"Next up is seat twenty, Takami Kiaria!" Ichigo cheered. "I feel like I'm in a room with a celebrity right now!"

Oh, right. There was the child of arguably the most famous Pro Hero in the room, Hawks. The Number Two in the last generation's hero rankings, succeeding Endeavour when he rose to Number One after All Might's retirement. Emiko had seen pictures of her father online before, and she had to admit that the resemblance between father and daughter was striking, right down to the wings on their backs.

Kiaria didn't seem standoffish, but more distant and reserved. Instead of basking in the attention on her, she seemed more interested in taking advantage of her new viewpoint to observe her classmates with her tawny gold eyes. Emiko noticed the little black triangle markings on the corners of each eye, and Kiaria's long blonde hair seemed to have a hard time staying down in front of her face—two pesky strands stuck out where the rest was swept back, and Kiaria had put in the work to tuck them towards the right side of her face, out of her eyes. There were freckles dotting her lightly tanned skin, most concentrated around her nose and cheeks, and despite her large red wings, she seemed to be rather small in terms of build and height. A narrow build suited for a runner than a bird, barely standing at five and a half feet tall overall.

She didn't betray much to what she was thinking, eyes flitting from everyone in the room with equal amounts of curiosity, but she was playing with a necklace resting over her chest—an open heart with a gem suspended in the middle, hanging by a thin chain.

"Takami Kiaria," she introduced herself, and her voice was rather reserved and low. "Sixteen. My father is the Pro Hero Hawks. I plan to take over his role when he retires. Um… I also like cake pops. Does anyone know how to make them?"

A few hands rose in the class. Emiko was unsurprised that Teru and Tora were two of them.

"Are you allergic to anything?" Aoi, the third one to raise their hand, asked.

Kiaria seemed to study Aoi for a moment. Emiko wasn't sure if it was because Kiaria had been sitting with Aoi and didn't know she could bake, or if Kiaria was genuinely thinking about allergies. But eventually she shook her head, eyes wide, and Aoi gave her a thumbs up—a sign she'd make her cake pops one day.

Olivia took the note from Bebe, and Kiaria turned her wide eyes to her next.

"Takami-san, what's the most unusual place you've fallen asleep?" she asked Kiaria.

Kiaria closed her eyes and hummed. After a minute she said more to Olivia than to the class, "I fell asleep in a tree when I was in grade school. My dad was trying to teach me how to glide, but it was almost nap time, so I took a nap in the tree he'd put me in."

"How cute," Ichigo cooed. "I can just imagine it, using your wings as a blanket and your arms and legs hanging off of the branch."

There wasn't much fuss with Kiaria's question and answer, and she didn't hesitate to head back to her seat. Aoi was quick to ask her what flavour cake she liked best, and Kiaria perked up a little at Aoi following through with her promise. Maybe that was it, Emiko thought. She wasn't taken aback that Aoi could bake, she was gauging whether Aoi would actually do it.

"Next up is…" Ichigo pulled out another slip of paper. "Ah! Seat twenty-two, Torihiki Yuzuru!"

One of the pink-haired boys sitting with Teru stood up and made his way over to the front of the group, an easygoing look on his face and his hands in his pockets. He didn't look like a happy-go-lucky type of person, but Emiko knew warmth and acceptance when she saw it. Like Yoyo earlier, Yuzuru seemed to have no issues with any of his classmates and appeared more happy to be among them, regardless of how they acted.

He was a pretty thing, though not Emiko's type by a long shot. Heart-shaped face and neatly-trimmed eyebrows, long eyelashes and babyish cheeks; there were two moles under his right eye that looked like someone had tattooed a colon symbol onto his face, and his skin was fair and clear with the exception of concealer around the edges of his face. Emiko wondered what he might be covering with it, but it wasn't her business in the end. Yuzuru stood at around 5'8, decently tall like most of the boys in the class were, but still not the tallest among them. His eyes were large and seemed to ombre from blue to lavender, and and aside from his wavy pink hair being tousled and side-swept, he seemed to have a strand that was braided and clipped to the right side of his head, out of his face.

He looked lean and toned, but his bishounen appearance—no, wasn't this a different genre, something like ikemen? It definitely didn't emphasise the fact that he was solidly built. Emiko wondered if 1-A got any of the attractive applicants in their class, briefly. 1-B was turning out to be a total pageant lineup.

He cleared his throat and spoke with an amicable tone, the perfect tone for a diplomat or politician trying to keep the peace.

"My name is Torihiki Yuzuru, nice to meet you all. Feel free to call me Yuzu for short," he announced. "I'm what you might call a coffee connoisseur. Most coffee shops in the area have been visited by me, and I know how to make very complicated drinks from secret menus. The coffee jelly from the dessert platter was my idea—I saw a recipe online and Kousaki-san helped tweak it with ingredients I brought to make it myself."

And then Yuzuru bowed to everyone, almost at a perfect right angle, as Ichigo and Olivia looked at him in alarm.

"Due to the nature of my Quirk," he went on, "I can't protect myself and I can't fight for myself. Not in the same way the rest of you can. But nobody said I had to fight for myself, and with Zenshi focusing on teamwork and forming groups at graduation, I kindly ask that you all take good care of me!"

Emiko was a little surprised. What kind of Quirk did he have, that he had no choice but to join a group? Was it a type of copying Quirk? An information-based Quirk? Now she was curious. She'd have to ask him down the line, before they started practical classes.

"W—Well, you came to the right place!" Olivia chirped. Yuzuru stood back up and smiled at her, humming in agreement. "Then, your question… What's your most lukewarm take?"

Yuzuru's eyes went wide as he thought about it for a moment. He shifted on his feet, teeth worrying at his bottom lip as he got lost in thought, and after a while Olivia began to tell him that he didn't need to answer if he couldn't think of one. But Yuzuru shook his head, and he stopped chewing his lip in thought.

"I don't know about lukewarm, but… I don't think summer festivals are all that fun. Everything's all sticky and I can't enjoy some of the stalls," he answered.

Really? Emiko could say the opposite! Winter was when she struggled the most because her body didn't handle cold very well. Maybe Yuzuru didn't like feeling all sweaty from the heat, but that was what some summer activities were for, right? Like swimming and water balloon fights?

From the way everyone reacted, it well and truly was a lukewarm take. Half of the class seemed to agree, nodding along quietly, while the other half seemed to cringe and let out dubious sounds, holding the same sentiments that Emiko did. No wonder Yuzuru had thought so intently on the answer—he must've wanted to pick an opinion that would genuinely divide the class without being troublesome. If people fought over whether or not summer festivals were fun, there were more issues than just passing classes that they had to worry about.

Yuzuru sat back down with his group, and Miyuki gave him some encouragement about how much she agreed. She even offered to take him ice skating during the winter, which Yuzuru didn't seem opposed to.

Ichigo fished out the next seat number, and Emiko wasn't sure what to make of this one.

"Seat six, Irinaga Kanon!" Ichigo announced. "Come on down!"

One of the antisocial kids that had been dragged to the couch by Mirato stood up and fixed his clothes, pushing his glasses up his nose when he was done. His eyes were decently large and bluish-green in hue, and if Emiko could describe his build in one concise term, it would be that he resembled those singers in K-Pop bands she'd heard so much about in middle school. Not bulky, but not scrawny. Long-limbed and slender, if anything. He was tall, the same height as Yuzuru was, and his skin was so pale that it almost bordered sickly; compared to his silvery hair, it was easier to tell his hairline from his skin thanks to the bright blue dyed into the underside of the hair. Some of his hair was pulled back into a half-ponytail, like Teru had his hair up, but Kanon had additional piercings shown off along both ears thanks to the look. How many did Emiko count? Two on his left ear, three on his right?

They were fancy earrings, too. Two of them were linked together by a thin silver chain, and one on the other ear had a cross dangling from it with small blue gems set into its design.

Was this the class's resident delinquent? No, he seemed too withdrawn for that. The resident scene kid? Was he from Harajuku? Emiko would have to ask when they dispersed for their rooms. He couldn't have been all bad, it Mirato was crowding him—especially since Emiko recognised Kanon as the one Mirato said might call out his lie on the day of the entrance exam.

Was he someone who didn't like lies? Someone who called things out as he saw them? Was he willfully cold and terse with others?

Or, she thought as she watched Kanon stare back at the class, was it the secret, third option—was he just at rock bottom in terms of social skills?

His introduction might give away which option seemed most likely.

Kanon sniffed and shifted on his feet. With a flat, emotionless voice, he deadpanned to the class, "Irinaga Kanon."

Then he looked to Ichigo, and he asked her, "Is that everything?"

Ichigo blinked at him once, processing what just happened. And then she was laughing, slapping the boy's back playfully despite his groans and slowly dawning annoyance.

"No way, no way!" she laughed. "Give us some info about yourself! Think about how everyone else introduced themselves and go off of that, Irinaga-kun!"

Kanon let out another displeased groan and shuffled closer to Olivia. He was clearly trying to get out of Ichigo's reach.

"Irinaga Kanon," he repeated, and now he sounded annoyed. "Fourteen. I know the team Troika, who are alumni of Zenshi."

That got the interest of many people in the class. More than the amount of interest held by those with Pro Hero parents, it seemed. Emiko could see why Kanon was so confident going into the exam, and why he hadn't let himself get distracted—he already knew what was going to be asked of him thanks to the team of Zenshi alumni training him.

"They're an up-and-coming team," Ryuichi whispered to Emiko. How did he know she wasn't aware of who they were? "If Irinaga-kun trained with them, he's definitely more prepared for Pro Hero work and Zenshi's routines than the rest of us."

Wow. Even the legacy student was saying Kanon was probably more prepared than him. Emiko was impressed to the moon and back.

Bebe handed Olivia the slip of paper for him, and it took Emiko a moment to realise something else about Kanon. He was essentially the youngest in the class, if he was still fourteen. Now Emiko was even more impressed, especially if Kanon was the ceiling everyone had to reach by the end of the year.

"Irinaga-san, your question is…" Olivia read over it and hummed. "What's your favourite smell?"

A super easy question, if Emiko ever heard one. How hard was it to pick a favourite smell, anyway? Emiko immediately thought of her own favourite—the smell of her family's blackberries, back when they became ripe and were ready to be harvested. She could even wager Yuzuru's favourite smell was coffee beans, maybe freshly grounded ones.

Kanon, though, seemed to struggle. He stared at Olivia, not really blinking, and for a moment it looked like the boy had begun to dissociate. His eyes were squinting into a glare, and Olivia started to get nervous and looked away from him, focusing on the paper in her hand. One minute. Two. Three minutes passed.

"U—Um, Irinaga-kun," Ichigo said, worried. "If you can't think of anything, you can skip the question. It's okay."

Kanon finally spoke, his face scrunching up as his quiet voice cut through the silence.

"A katana?" he muttered, more to himself. "No… A tanto?"

Both upperclassmen looked at him with confused expressions, letting slip a synchronised, "Ah?"

Ichigo was quick to recover—quicker than Olivia, at least. "O—Oh! That's your favourite smell! Ah, but, hold on a minute. What's the difference in smell between them? Aren't they both made of metal?"

Kanon looked over at Ichigo with his brows furrowed. "No, it's like…"

He made a motion of swinging a sword, posture and technique a clear show of experience and practice.

"But then you have…"

He swung in a different posture and movement this time. He looked at her as though he expected her to understand what he meant.

Ichigo stared at him, not a thought behind her bi-coloured eyes.

Ah, Emiko thought. The poor thing really was just that socially awkward. And he was a sword otaku to boot. Thank goodness Mirato already got a hold of him and started acting like they were best of friends—Emiko couldn't imagine how terrible bullying could be without someone to back Kanon up.

Kanon returned to his seat with a frustrated look on his cold face. Beside him, Mirato asked if there were other swords he might like the smell of—he even listed off a tachi specifically—and Kanon seemed to ease up on the frustration a bit more. It looked like he just needed someone to understand what he was getting at, and who better to understand than the kid who saw the future all the time? Mirato probably saw a future where Kanon found the words to explain it properly.

What an interesting kid, Emiko thought with amusement.

The next name was called with some enthusiasm, though the person called was anything but enthusiastic. "Seat sixteen!" Ichigo called. "It's Shinkai Mizuki's turn!"

Mizuki was one of the loner trio sitting on the couch with Mirato, and like Emiko and Ryuichi, she was clearly a mutant Quirk wielder. Like her namesake, she appeared suited for aquatic situations—a round, soft face with chubby cheeks that came equipped with fin-like protrusions on her ears and sharp teeth that poked out of her mouth whenever she opened it. She was thin, if petite in build, and she was on the smaller side in terms of height—maybe 5'3? Maybe a little smaller? Her skin was a tawny brown colour, and her eyes had black sclerae while her irises were a bright, almost luminous gold colour. Her messy, layered black hair fell to just below her shoulders, and Mizuki hadn't bothered to tie it up today. But the most prominent parts of her appearance, in Emiko's opinion, were the antenna protruding from her forehead that had a drawstring bag tied over the end of it, and the webbed hands she used to tighten said drawstring as she stood up and walked over to the upperclassmen.

Mizuki seemed a bit flustered when she noticed just how many people in the class were staring at her. She wasn't standoffish, much like Kanon hadn't been—Emiko figured she was more just unused to being given so much attention.

"Name's Shinkai Mizuki," she said, and her voice was low and almost casual enough to border on informal. Emiko could relate to that, she thought. They'd probably have an easy time talking to each other without having to worry about formalities. "I'm fifteen, soon to be sixteen. I guess I have a pet turtle named Oki. The school let me bring him with me."

There were a couple of interested sounds from the students. Mizuki seemed to sense what they were going to ask, so she preemptively added, "You can't play with him."

Shiki piped up from his spot, "What if I'm really careful and you watch me handle him?"

"No," Mizuki said, firmer this time.

Shiki let out a quiet, "Aw…" and slumped into his seat. Olivia, despite how much Mizuki didn't want her turtle touched, let out a small giggle and took the paper from Bebe.

"Well, Shinkai-san, this is your question," she announced. Mizuki looked at her patiently. "If you could go anywhere in the world without worrying about money or time, where would you go?"

The question seemed to stump Mizuki. She opened her mouth. Closed it. Crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

"Any answer is fine?" she asked.

Olivia nodded. "There are no rules."

"Then… What about the whole world?" she asked. Olivia blinked and let out an understanding sound. "There's a lot to see, so it's hard to narrow it down to one place. If money and time isn't a concern, wouldn't it be best to see as much as possible?"

"A very outside-the-box answer!" Ichigo cheered. "That kind of forward thinking is valuable for a Pro Hero!"

Mizuki looked alarmed—she muttered something about not knowing the question was testing her as a Pro Hero, but from the looks of it, that was just how Ichigo chose to phrase her praise. It was still a good answer, regardless of the kind of outside-the-box thinking that was needed for a Pro Hero. Emiko thought the sentiment was lovely, too; why waste time worrying about one place you could go to, when you could go everywhere without worrying about money and time?

As Mizuki sat back down, Ichigo drew the next slip. There had to be less than ten of them left to take a turn now, right? Emiko hadn't gone yet, and she could tell everyone but Kiaria at the Pro Hero kids table were waiting for their turns.

"Next up is seat nineteen, Suzuki Aoi!" Ichigo cheered. "Come on down!"

Aoi was enthusiastic as she jumped out of her seat and bouldered over to the upperclassmen. She was pretty, with a heart-shaped face smattered with freckles that resembled rust and flecks of metal in colour, and her pink lips were small, but not so small that her face looked disproportionate. She had to be just under five and a half feet tall, Emiko thought, and it was obvious under the jersey jacket she wore that she was toned and well-built. Like Yoyo, it was obvious she would get unwanted attention on her chest area, but Aoi seemed to rock the tomboyish look more confidently compared to Yoyo's feminine clothing style. Her skin was fair, her eyes grey and expressive, and the metal plating on her knuckles was the same shade of grey as her eyes. Her hair was thick and wavy, falling to her waist in length, and streaking through the pure black were portions of rust red and even less strands of gunmetal grey along the crown of her head. Her hair was up in a ponytail, low and loose, but it looked thick enough that Aoi could probably style it into many things Emiko had seen in hairdressing magazines.

Aoi stood confidently at the front of the class, hands on her hips, and she smirked at everyone.

"'Sup, everyone!" she boomed. "The name's Suzuki Aoi, and don't wear it out! I'm sixteen and living my best life! You see that sourpuss over there?" Aoi pointed at the table she'd been sitting at, towards the grey-haired boy seated next to her empty chair. "That's my mom! Love you, Mom!"

And then she posed, making a heart shape with her hands and winking as she stuck out her tongue. From the table she'd been sitting at, Emiko could hear a loud, firm slap—probably from her "Mom" flinging his palm onto his own face.

"I'm a big fan of baseball, so if any of you get your hands on tickets to a Seibu Lions game and don't invite me, I'll never forgive you!" Aoi relaxed a bit after that, and it was like the confidence she'd displayed had been for show. Now Aoi was more relaxed, if reserved, and Emiko could guess that the cheeky nature of her introduction had been solely to tease her friend. How nice that they got to attend the same school, and even got into the same class. "But seriously, I'm a simple gal. I like cats, I like cherry-flavoured things, and I like baseball. There's other stuff, but we'd be here all day."

Olivia took a slip of paper from Bebe, and she was about to read it out—but then Aoi cut her off with a surprised shout.

"Ah, my bad!" she said, apologising to Olivia. "I completely forgot, too! My mom—not the boy mom, my mother—she's the Pro Hero Aerate. My dad isn't a Pro Hero, but he runs a business making metal support items for Pro Heroes like armour and weapons, and his stuff is top notch! So if you're in the market for any armour or accessories, I can give you the friends and family discount!"

From the look on her face, Emiko guessed the friends and family discount was actually twice the market rate.

She couldn't hold it against Aoi. She and her brothers did the same thing whenever they wanted to trade snacks.

Olivia laughed gently and looked at the slip again, and she muttered under her breath that this one did apply to Aoi. Emiko was curious, now. Was it related to Pro Heroes?

"What's the weirdest encounter you've had with a Pro Hero?" Olivia asked Aoi.

No hesitation, Aoi responded, "I saw Lemillion's bare ass."

From the table, the one she'd dubbed "Mom" piped up, "That doesn't count, everyone's seen it at least once."

Aoi pointed at him and snickered. "Seen your mom's bare ass!" she shouted.

"She used to bathe you!" he snapped.

"Look how lively we are!" Ichigo cut in loudly. She clapped her hands once, and Aoi was still grinning as she was sent back to her seat. "Shall we move on to the next one? We're almost done!"

Indeed, Emiko thought. After all the unpacking and snacking and learning about each other, she wouldn't be surprised if everyone wanted to go to bed later.

Ichigo drew the next name, and Emiko waited patiently for her turn to come.

---

What a curious little cinnamon roll, that Mirato.

After her turn was over, Aoi sat back down and started staring at the back of his head again, chin propped up on her hand as Tetsuya silently grumbled beside her. Everyone else seemed to get a mixture of horrific, stressful, or confusing premonitions—Tetsuya even got one that was outright hilarious, because Peewee sounded like a clown's name, and Aoi knew the guy would piss himself at the sight of a clown in public. But her own?

Opportunistic. Specific. Downright petty.

"In the first week of July, Quirk marriages will be outlawed," Mirato had told her after recovering from her drop. "Even the act of organising one before the law is passed will count as a crime under the statute of limitations. Ask Tetsuya-kun for his copy of the contract once you hear the news."

Aoi hadn't been planning on doing much about her father's family. Frankly speaking, what could she do against them? She was just Aoi, and they were practically a legion compared to her. Even her mother didn't have much sway with them, outside of being yet another brood mare to continue their tradition of metal-based Quirks, her pedigree only being passable because she was a Pro Hero. More than anything, her dad's family were more akin to… entitled family members than truly harmful people. But then again, a smaller part of Aoi thought, they were so willing to deadname her brother and treat him like garbage because he inherited their mother's oxygen manipulation, and called Aoi a failure and useless because of the aspects of oxygen manipulation in her genetic makeup. And they were sort of right, in a way. The metal in her body wouldn't be rusting as quickly if she didn't have something of her mother in her, but what could you do?

Aoi was more intrigued by the fact that, even after finding out about the Suzuki family's attempt at forcing their grandchild into a Quirk marriage with him, Tetsuya had held onto the contract for a rainy day. If there was one thing she could count on, it was that her good ol' Mom held on to any weakness someone who'd crossed him could possibly have. She clearly remembered his mother going on a warpath when she'd found out from Aoi's mother that neither her nor Uta knew that her in-laws had planned something so heinous for six-year-old Aoi, and if Aoi had to guess, Tetsuya took his mother's rage to heart and held on to that grudge like a champ.

She glanced at him then, the grouch, and he was glaring at her with a frown on his face. Aoi gave him a pleasant smile, giggling, and Tetsuya just rolled his eyes at her.

To know that he'd always be on her side, after all this time? After what a burden she'd become? At least there was something good going for her there.

"Oh! Seat one, Arashi Lyoko!" Ichigo announced, and Aoi looked back to the front as Lyoko rose from his seat. "First seat in the class, come on down!"

The trio of Pro Hero kids gave Lyoko varying degrees of reassurance and cheers as he glanced back at them. For all his rough and tumble looks and his heavily scarred body and face, the guy was a total softie. Aoi ought to give him a nickname fitting of such a character; maybe coconut, because he was tough on the outside and soft and squishy on the inside, or lobster, since apparently his Quirk had a healing factor to and and lobsters… Well, lobsters had a whole set of issues going on with their pseudo-immortality that could kill them if they were too worn out. No, maybe lobster was too morbid… But he was lobster-coloured… Maybe something cuter? She'd have to workshop it.

Compared to Aoi and Tetsuya, Lyoko was on the taller side—almost six feet even, but not quite there. Aoi had to admit, she could see why someone as vain and snide as that Mazuna bitch was might fall for him; he was a decent mix of cute and ruggedly handsome, a rough and tumble sort of vibe going on with him, and it was hard to find a guy with hair that long who actually took care of it properly. He was fair-skinned, save for the spots where the scarring was most severe, and he was using his bright, scarlet hair as a curtain to hide the gnarliest of the scars on his nose. Aoi had seen it when they'd first met, after getting up in his face and demanding his phone number so they could watch a movie after the exam, and it was obvious some kind of burn that he was self-conscious of. His bangs sat over his nose, partially over his right eye, and if you looked close enough at the hair itself, you'd notice small highlights mixed in that were snowy instead of red, especially at the tips of his hair. Aoi had had fun braiding his hair for him after the movie they went to see with Tetsuya, and even as they sat at the table and listened to everyone, she'd found herself fiddling with it like a piece of rope wound around her fingers.

Really, she didn't know what he ever saw in Mazuna, and she couldn't understand even more why Mazuna was so freaking abusive towards him. Who cared if he looked a little jacked up? Some girls thought scars were sexy, for Pete's sake!

Maybe it was jealousy. She didn't like that her boyfriend was prettier than her. Oh, Aoi could see it now. She knew what game Mazuna was playing. She filed away the new insults that flooded through her mind for a rainy day, knowing full well that the heroics department classes would have to work together. And Aoi was going to be first in line to "team up" with Mazuna.

Lyoko looked at everyone with a sheepish expression, nervous, and he shifted on his feet as he slowly introduced himself.

"Hi, everyone," he said, and the hero kids table gestured for him to keep going when he glanced at them. His wide, red eyes seemed to gain conviction. "I'm Arashi Lyoko! I'm a big fan of Pro Heroes like Deku and Red Riot—" Shogo seemed to get excited at the mention of Red Riot, perking up beside Hime. "—and I also like… Ah! I like muscle cars and skateboarding! I'm really good at skateboarding, actually!" And then Lyoko seemed to pause, turning red in the face as he nervously laughed. "Oh, jeez, I forgot to say how old I am… I'm fifteen, like most of the class."

"Good job, Arashi-kun!" Ichigo praised him. Lyoko beamed at her, seemingly glad to have done his introduction right, and he looked back over at Olivia.

Olivia read the question out to him. "If you hadn't made it into Zenshi, what career path would you have chosen?"

"Oh, good question…" Lyoko brought a hand to his chin and hummed. "Hm… I probably would've chosen to be a stuntman or stunt double, actually. My Quirk is well-equipped for the job, and whatever stunt that might go wrong won't actually hurt me too much in the long run. If not that… Ah, maybe a boxer or something? I'm not too good at much else other than fighting, sorry…"

"No sorries!" Ichigo announced. "It's a very fun answer! I can't remember ever meeting anyone who'd want to do stunts for a living whenever we talked about careers!"

"Is it that weird…?" Lyoko asked, quieter.

"Nope! It's thrilling, brave, adrenalin-pumping, daring!" Ichigo clapped him on the shoulder, a wide grin on her face. "As expected of someone with a face meant for the silver screen!"

That seemed to resonate with Lyoko. One hand went to his heart, and his eyes were wide and watery as his expression seemed to ask, You mean it?

He was in a good mood when we sat back down with the Pro Hero kids. Aoi grinned at him and gave him a nudge, and Lyoko nodded in approval of his answer. Credit where it was due, the guy knew where his strengths laid! And he already thought about where his Quirk would best serve him in a job, especially if he could reduce injuries to other stunt doubles in the process!

Still a bit self-sacrificial, if Aoi looked at it from that angle, but she liked to believe he would've done it because it would be fun!

"Okay, I wager we've got about seven slips of paper left in my box," Ichigo mused. She plucked one out, grinning as she did so, and she struck a pose as she called out the next student. "Seat twelve! Mori Emiko! You're up!"

Oh, Aoi recognised this girl! The dragon girl! She seemed pretty used to finishing fights when they broke out, which was a plus in Aoi's book, frankly. Even if Aoi did enjoy calling shit out for what it was, sometimes you needed a mediator to make sure you couldn't be faulted for picking a fight with someone talking trash.

Emiko was on the smaller side, around 5'3, and despite her humble countryside origins and her self-proclaimed tomboyish nature back at the dessert banquet, Emiko was actually very pretty and feminine-leaning in appearance. She looked athletic, but she also had the same kind of hourglass figure a couple of the other muscular girls in class sported; even the muscles under the scaly skin were built enough to bely her strength as a dragon-based mutant Quirk. Her arms, her legs, the back of her neck, even her cheeks were covered in dark blue scales that seemed to glisten somewhere closer to emerald under the light, and the long tail she sported played into her appearance as a dragon even more. The rest of her skin, though? A warm beige tan that showed just how much she spent time in the sun each day, probably a proper farmer's tan if Aoi had to guess.

Her eyes were light blue and a narrow almond shape, and she'd overheard Emiko telling Ryuichi that her eye colour was known to become less intense and more dull the lower her body temperature got. It was a good signifier of whether she needed to be warmed up, especially given that she was reptilian in nature, and Aoi could admire that Emiko had noticed that detail about herself. Most people didn't pay much attention to their eyes during dire situations. Her hair was short and curly, black in colour, and it reached her shoulders in length; Aoi had seen it tied up in a ponytail earlier, back when she was eating, but now she had it loose and free-falling. Aoi could see a little bit of frizz in the hair, and she wagered that Emiko only did the bare minimum to keep the curls from knotting and degrading.

"Name's Mori Emiko, nice to meetcha," Emiko chirped, giving everyone a lopsided smile. "If you wanna, I'm happy bein' called Emi for short! I'm fifteen, and I'm actually from Sapporo instead of Ararisu like most of you seem to be. My family used to own a farm, but we had to sell it when I was a kid. I'd… like to earn enough money to buy it back and move my family back into the countryside one day. Ah, but that won't be for years yet! So until then, it'll be a pleasure workin' with everyone!"

Aoi stared at her face, brows furrowing. The reasoning was noble, just like Hanabi's had been, but something was off. She was chipper and bright, for sure, but she seemed almost… hesitant? Something in her was being held back when she spoke about buying back her family's farm, and Aoi could recognise the smell of it. Whatever happened for them to move to Sapporo, it must've been enough for Emiko to shoulder the blame on herself, right?

She recognised someone swimming in their own doubts and self-deprecation when she saw them. They were just like Aoi—one bad day away from throwing in the towel despite everything they tried to do to change things for the better.

She'd have to keep an eye on Emiko. Maybe organise a day out with her. Truth be told, Aoi was rather liberal with the allowance she got from her parents. Being a rich kid had its perks, but what was the point of having all that money when no amount of clothing and food would fill a void in the heart? Maybe Aoi should pry into where Emiko had lived and make an anonymous donation to the family to kickstart the fund to buy the farm back.

Was she getting ahead of herself? Possibly. But unlike Aoi, Emiko's problem could be fix with money immediately. Why should Aoi waste her money on funding possible treatments for her ailment when the result was the same? Why not use that money to help a struggling family? They were going to be classmates now. Moreover, they might end up working together in the same agency, or even the same group. What was a little preemptive spending between friends?

"Alright, Mori-san, your question…" Olivia opened the paper. "What's your go-to midnight snack?"

That seemed to excite Emiko. Her eyes went wide and her mouth morphed into a big smile, and she proudly informed the class, "Have you guys ever tried tteokbokki? It's a sticky rice cake made with a gochujang chilli broth that's so chewy and spicy! I always get this instant brand from online for a discount—all you have to do is pour some hot water in it and microwave it!"

Ooh, now there was a new snack to try. Aoi loved spicy food, and she heard food made with gochujang chilli was divine. Now she was definitely inserting herself into Emiko's life for that good shit. If the money didn't go towards the farm, it could go towards a lifetime supply of tteokbokki.

Emiko sat back down with Shiki and Ryuichi, and it was obvious Shiki wanted in on the gochujang goodness as well. Emiko texted him the website she bought her instant tteokbokki from, and Shiki was gleefully placing orders by the time Ichigo called the next student up.

Shuzenji Shiki… You can hear me in your thoughts… Buy enough for the whole class and then some…

Shiki seemed to pause. He looked up, eyes feral like he'd had his animalistic sixth sense kick in, and then he was calm again as he tapped the screen way too many times for the purchase to be just one box of the stuff.

Aw yeah, gochujang chilli time bay-bee!

"Alright, next up we have seat fourteen! Ono Tora!" Ichigo gestured to the other pink-haired boy sitting at the Terubowl table—Aoi wasn't calling it something else, because it was totally a Terubowl—and Tora stood up with a confident smile.

All things considered, when you got rid of the aggressive crush he obviously had on the Minty-Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Tora had a very friendly vibe to him. A bit eccentric, but who wasn't in this economy? He seemed like the type whose emotions were turned up to eleven on a good day, and there was nothing wrong with that. As long as you knew what you were in for, he wasn't unpalatable or hard to deal with; Aoi knew plenty of people growing up who were like him, and while she didn't talk to them much anymore, there was nothing inherently wrong with being a big emoter. When Tora cared, he cared a lot. When Tora got angry, he got angry a lot. When Tora got sad, he got sad a lot. That was all there was to it once you got past that stellar first impression he'd made at the cafeteria.

Plus, all things considered, there were uglier people who could be chasing after Teru right now. Tora was a catch and a half if you were into mentally ill people. (Not that Aoi could talk. She was as depressed as they came, and she constantly hit on herself in the mirror.)

His diamond-shaped face was full of soft features that Aoi could see resembled Pixie-Bob from memory; smooth cheeks, a button nose, a wide smile that was infectious and joyful. There was an impish sort of look to him, befitting of the pink devil tail he sported, and he had a slight feminine lean in his appearance, especially with how he was more wide-hipped than broad-shouldered, but overall he appeared to have the build of a gymnast or swimmer. He wasn't quite five and a half feet tall, maybe about two inches under, but it seemed to add to his impish charm. He had the same eyes as Pixie-Bob did, bright blue and upturned, and his bright pink hair was cut into short spikes that, in particular, seemed to form the visage of cat ears with how much two larger strands stuck up above the rest. And, Aoi noticed as she looked at the swishing tail again, he'd decorated the tail with bands of varying patterns and images like one would adorn their arm with bracelets.

Somehow it made him seem more childish than dangerous, like most would take his aggression over a crush to be.

"Hiyo!" Tora chirped. "My name's Ono Tora! I'm fifteen years old and I'm the son of two Pro Heroes! My mama is a former member of the Wild, Wild Pussycats, Pixie-Bob, while my papa is the new member of the group who replaced her, Lynx! I like camping and cute things, and I'm of the opinion that a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet!"

From the table he was sitting at, who else but Hibana let out a scoff and grumbled under her breath. Tora pointedly ignored her as he turned to Olivia, waiting for his question to be asked.

"Ah, um…" Olivia glanced down at the slip of paper Bebe had handed her. "What would make you walk out of a movie theatre?"

Tora blinked slowly, processing the question, and he let out a hum. "Walk out of a movie theatre…" he muttered. Then he nodded, satisfied with what he came up with, and held up three fingers. "Someone talking over the movie and spoiling it before it can even get underway." He lowered one finger. "The theatre being packed with people who won't pipe down when the trailers start playing." He lowered another finger. "And, of course, if the person I take on a date to the theatre doesn't like the movie as well."

As he lowered his final finger, Tora was clearly batting his eyes in Teru's direction. For the first time since she heard about the Terubowl happening, Aoi actually got to see Teru's reaction—and the boy was confused. So confused that he leaned back in his chair, face scrunched up as though he'd licked a raw lemon as he tried to make sense of the face Tora was making at him.

Poor boy didn't know he was in a romcom movie.

"All very valid reasons to leave a movie, yesiree," Ichigo mused. She gestured for Tora to sit back down, and the pink-haired boy settled back into his seat with a proud smile on his face. Ichigo reached into the box, and she pulled out one of the remaining five slips. "Next up is seat seven! Ishibashi Sumie!"

Now here was another mysterious one. Sumie was actually a genuine loner compared to Kanon and Mizuki, from what Aoi could tell, and her whole vibe just screamed that she didn't want to be spoken to.

She was a good five and half feet tall, maybe a little taller, and she had a thin, lanky body compared to a lot of the other students in the class. Her face was oval-shaped, with low cheekbones and a slightly crooked nose, and her skin was dull and pale to the point of looking dry. Even her lips looked like they were flaking a little, and Aoi absently paid attention to what Sumie might say she liked so she could figure out what flavour chapstick to gift her. The poor girl clearly never had a roll of chapstick in her life, she thought. Sumie's eyes were a bold red, with thick eyelashes and heavy bags under her eyes, and her hair was thick, wavy, and black to her shoulders, appearing unkempt as her bangs hung above her eyes. Despite how raggedy she looked, there was still hints of some "traditional" beauty on the girl—namely the beauty spot under her left eye and the hints to her hourglass figure once you looked past how scrawny she was.

Sumie stood at the front of the class, and the pallour of her skin became more and more sullen. She glanced at everyone, hands clenched at the hem of her shirt, and when her eyes landed on Mirato—supportive, beaming Mirato—a genuine terror in Sumie's eyes flashed for the briefest of seconds.

Sumie burst away from the upperclassmen as she clamped a hand over her mouth. "I—I can't do this," she croaked, and she sounded ready to throw up.

Mirato jumped out of his seat with a concerned expression. "Sumie-chan—?"

"Don't follow me!" Sumie screamed at him.

As she sprinted towards the bathrooms, some of the other girls jumped to their feet and glanced at Ichigo and Olivia. Ichigo nodded, and Aoi watched as Yoyo and Hime both sprinted towards the bathrooms. Aoi was more surprised to see Hime follow Yoyo—she didn't give off the vibe of someone trying to be helpful—but when Hanabi jumped up and hurriedly told Asuka she was going too, it made a bit more sense to Aoi. Clearly Yoyo and Hanabi were going to be the excessive reassurance, and Hime, the more level-headed of the three, was going to keep it from verging into love bombing.

Mirato looked defeated as he sat back down on the couch. There were tears starting to prick at his eyes, and the silence was palpable in the common room.

Eventually, Mizuki was the one to ask Mirato, "Koizumi… What future did you tell Ishibashi?"

Mirato sniffled. "I can't tell you," he whimpered. "I promised I'd keep it a secret."

"Is it a dangerous premonition?" Ichigo asked. Aoi was surprised to hear how harsh her tone was. That was the authoritative tone someone took when they wanted to prevent a tragedy, and didn't have time to be gentle about it.

Mirato shook his head. "It wasn't, I swear!" he insisted. "I just— I wanted her to know I'd defend her… She's not a bad person…"

Well hang Aoi by her ankles and spank her six ways to Sunday, there really was a worst premonition in the class. How bad did it have to be that Mirato had to reassure everyone else that Sumie was a good person he'd defend to the bitter end?

The answer seemed to be enough for Ichigo, but her authoritative tone was still there as she told Mirato, "After you're done talking to Olivia, I want you to head for Skathi's office and tell her Ishibashi-chan's premonition. Just because we students don't need to know, doesn't mean the actual Pro Heroes in the school don't'."

Mirato wiped at his eyes and nodded once. Despite herself, albeit with a bit of hesitation, Mizuki reached over and rubbed Mirato's back soothingly. At least the ice breaker was doing its job, breaking the ice between students. Mizuki was on the fast track to playing nice with the cinnamon roll.

Ichigo let out a sigh and composed herself. In an instant, as though flicking a switch, she turned her chipper tone back on and pulled the next slip of paper. "Right! Next student! I have in my hands seat three, Eguchi Mugi!"

From her spot next to Asuka, Mugi cautiously rose from her chair and walked over to Ichigo and Olivia. She was a little thing, Aoi thought, barely 5'2 and with a petite body. She had big eyes the colour of ashy purple, like a mix of grey and lavender, and compared to Tora's devilish charm, Mugi had a completely cherubic look to her. Her skin was light, and her hair was a brownish-cream mix that Aoi could only call greige, and it was cut short to the nape of her neck while her bangs were neatly swept to the right. One larger strand was left unswept, and Aoi pondered about asking Mugi if she could braid it and pin it back like Yuzu did with his own lengthier bangs.

The vibe she gave off, in a word, would be "submissive". Everything about Mugi's posture, her expression, her hesitation, it all screamed pushover to Aoi. But more than anything, it inspired a desire to protect Mugi from any and all harm. There was no mistaking that Asuka, from her brief interaction at the cafeteria with Aoi, was an assertive type. She seemed to have taken a liking to Mugi despite her ambitious goals of becoming the top Pro Hero candidate in the school, and Aoi could confidently say that Mugi was in good hands as she was. But Aoi wouldn't say no to stepping up and taking Mugi out somewhere nice to wind down.

Aoi did recognise the name Eguchi, though. If she was correct, that whole family was composed of Pro Heroes, like the Iida family in Hosu. What was the family known for with their Quirks, again? Something about vortexes and twisters and gravitational pulls?

In fact, the more that she thought about it, the more Mugi's face looked familiar. Something about it…

Ah. There it was. Aoi distantly recalled, before Jin had quit in his first month as a legitimate Pro Hero, one of his former classmates had gone by the name Eguchi. His name started with a Y… Yuta? Yuki? No, that wasn't it… Eguchi… Yuto? Yeah, that was the one. One of the few good kids Jin actually talked to Aoi about. It was nice to see the guy stuck to being a Pro Hero—his Quirk was very similar to Jin's, though it was less oxygen manipulation and more replicating one of the things Jin could do with his Quirk through the creation of a gravitational pull in the form of a vortex. Versatile for capturing and rescue ops, she thought. Mugi had it set for her if her Quirk was the same.

Mugi shifted on her feet and looked at everyone from under her bangs, and she let out a small sound as though working herself up to speaking. And then, like the angel Aoi had mistaken her for, she smiled in a way that radiated warmth and purity.

"Hello," she said, and her voice was soft and airy. "I'm Mugi. Eguchi Mugi. It's nice to meet you all. I'm fifteen, and my favourite flowers are lilies. I also like fluffy things, like blankets or pancakes. They're very soothing. My family is composed of Pro Heroes, too, and I'm next in line to earn my licence and join them as a pro. My dad is the Pro Hero Magna, my mom is Gloria, my oldest brother is Kalanc—" That was the name the older brother chose! Aoi knew she recognised him through Mugi! "—and my older brother is known as Derringer. I still haven't picked what my name might be though, eheh…"

Her heart didn't seem like it was in it when she said she hadn't picked a name. Aoi tilted her head and furrowed her brows. No way, was her family forcing her to become a Pro Hero or something? Even though she got along with Asuka well enough, it was starting to look like Mugi didn't actually want to be here.

At the rate Aoi was going, Tetsuya was going to duct tape her to a wall to prevent her from meddling in everyone's business. But she couldn't help it—once the layers started to peel and the cracks started to show, it was so obvious some people needed someone to step in! Except for Sumie, she reasoned. That girl clearly broadcast she didn't want to be followed or talked to, and everyone was crowding her at every opportunity. Whatever future she'd been told, it had set her off enough that even Aoi's meddling would cause her distress.

"Well, then, Eguchi-san," Olivia chirped. "Do you have any special skills?"

Mugi blinked at her, dazed. "Like…?"

"Well, for example, I'm really good at mechanics and building contraptions. I also follow a channel online who specialises in making 'useless inventions', like gloves made from Crocs."

Mugi cracked a small smile at that. "Then… I'm really good at needlework. Embroidering or knitting, sometimes sewing. My Quirk makes it easier sometimes."

"Oho! I know who to go to if I have a hole in my shirt, in that case," Ichigo teased.

"You're already dating Toriyama from 3-F," Olivia deadpanned.

"Yeah, but Chuchu is always busy fixing everyone's costumes…" Ichigo whined.

A couple of people echoed the nickname. Some, including Aoi, chuckled while repeating it.

Olivia looked back to the class with a serious expression. "Toriyama Chizuru is one of the people who will be working on your costumes, so make sure to refer to her correctly," she reminded them.

Right. No Chuchu, then.

Mugi sat back down with Asuka, and Asuka clearly looked like she wanted to ask if Mugi actually could sew enough to repair clothing. A fashion-forward girl like Asuka probably had some ideas in the filing cabinet for trendy new outfits, and Mugi was the golden thread and needle handed to her on a silver platter by the heavens.

"Phew!" Ichigo sighed loudly, wiping imaginary sweat from her brow. "Down to the last three! Let's see who's next…" She pulled out one of the three remaining slips, the one from the very top of the pile, and unfolded it. "Seat two! Bara Momoiro!"

There was another one of the pretty boys in the class. Aoi had thought he was a girl when she first saw him, but the more he spoke to others, the more it became clear that Momoiro was just a ridiculously pretty boy. His face was somewhere between round and heart-shaped, with thin eyebrows and a button nose that was ripe for booping. His eyes were wide and doe-shaped, his eyelashes long and thick, and Aoi couldn't blame anyone for mistaking him for being a girl. Even his eyes were the same kind of pastel pink people usually tried to assign to girls—though that argument fell flat when a couple of the boys in class had the same shade of pink for their hair.

He was overall androgynous in terms of build, with a slender physique and fair curves, but his arms and legs were taut in a way that suggested he did a lot of manual labour in his life. He stood at an even five and a half feet tall, and his skin was a fair peachy tone, and he didn't seem to have any blemishes whatsoever on his skin. The only oddity Aoi found was the presence of a slink pink hue to his fingertips, reminding her a little of Uravity in a way, and on his elbows as well. Well, almost blemish-free, she amended. He did appear to have a scar on his right eyebrow that looked like it'd come from a slash wound, and Aoi was willing to bet Momoiro had other scars hidden under his clothing from the hard work he'd put in with his Quirk and training to get into Zenshi. His hair was red, though a more pastel shade of red that bordered on rosy, or perhaps a kind of salmon pink, and it reached his shoulders in a fluffy, layered bob that resembled rose petals in a way.

Very pretty, Aoi thought with approval. He was going to be the face of the class, if his attitude was better than Hibana's was. Or even the face of whatever agency scouted him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Momoiro said, and his voice was pleasant to listen to. "My name is Bara Momoiro, but you're welcome to call me Momo, if you want. I'm fifteen and live with my mother and brother, and my mother owns a flower shop that I used to help out with during middle school. If you ever need help with floral arrangements, don't hesitate to find me—plants are just as important as furniture when it comes to feng shui."

Oh yeah, a real friendly one, he was. Aoi nodded in approval, the boy ticking all her boxes for a walking green flag, and it seemed other people in the class were in agreement. Mugi seemed excited to approach him now, especially since she'd just mentioned earlier that her favourite flowers were lilies.

Bebe passed Olivia a slip of paper, and Olivia opened it up and cleared her throat. "Oh my, an unconventional one…" she muttered. Momoiro tilted his head at her curiously, smiling gently at her. Olivia returned the smile with a hint of apology behind it. "If you don't want to answer it, let me know. Otherwise… What would your plan for a zombie apocalypse be?"

Momoiro seemed to understand immediately why Olivia had hesitated. A gentle-looking boy like him didn't seem the type to have a plan for a zombie apocalypse, and frankly speaking, was it even considered a viable threat anymore thanks to Quirks? Well, maybe it depended on if the zombies could use Quirks, too. Aoi would have to look into those scenarios again in her spare time. They were fun reads.

He seemed to come up with an answer, and he chuckled as he did so. Even his laughter was such a nice thing to listen to.

"Why would I need a plan?" he chirped. Momoiro shifted on his feet as he smiled at Olivia. "My Quirk is plant manipulation, so I'd just need to go into a park and hunker down while I use the zombies as fertiliser. And then I can live off of the fruits my plants can produce."

What? Aoi stared at him in shock. No way, how did he get such a cheat Quirk for that scenario? Boo, this Q&A was rigged, Momoiro had it set for him!

Still, that made him invaluable to anyone else unable to manipulate plant life. He'd be like a messiah for the survivors. This watermelon is my body, and this grape juice is my blood, and all that jazz.

Momoiro made his way back to his seat next to Kaiten, and they both chuckled as they theorised a game plan—Momoiro making the food while Kaiten shot down the zombies with his own Quirk. They'd make a pretty cohesive duo, if Aoi thought about it a little. They already got along, and Kaiten was right to say that Momoiro's Quirk was good for support as well as offence.

Ichigo pulled the last two slips of paper from her box and held them in each hand, looking at Bebe with a smile as she crouched down.

"Which hand, Bebe-chan?" she asked.

Bebe, apparently used to this kind of trick, darted forward and headbutted Ichigo's right hand with a cry of, "Ee-oo!"

Ichigo unfolded the paper in her right hand, and she beamed at the class as she announced, "Seat twenty-one! Takishima Asuka!"

Over at the smaller group of girls, the one with darker skin stood up and fixed her yoga pants and tank top. There was another pretty one, Aoi thought idly, and she looked Asuka up and down with an appraising eye.

Just under five and a half feet tall, with a nimble figure suited for gymnastics, and in the brief moment when she'd hiked up her tank top to adjust it, Aoi had caught sight of a slightly toned abdomen hidden beneath. Her skin was a rich mocha colour, with hints of rosiness in her cheeks, and Aoi wondered if someone in her family came from overseas. The colour was a bit too rich to be from Okinawa, she thought. Her face was oval-shaped, with a moderately sharp jawline and a small beauty spot under her left eye, and just on the bridge of her nose, almost too difficult to spot, Aoi managed to see two little line-shaped birthmarks in a diagonal position. Her eyes were a rich and vibrant shade of red, almost the colour of cardinals, and her hair was a similar shade of red; there were darkened highlights running through to the tips of her hair, transitioning into a dark cherry red shade, and her hair was styled up in two long twin-tails that reached her shoulders in length. Her bangs were long and swept out of her face, reaching her jaw in length, and she looked every bit the ambitious go-getter she portrayed herself as.

Asuka was smiling proudly as she propped her hands on her hips, not unlike Aoi had earlier, and she nodded once to herself before launching into her introduction.

"I'm Takishima Asuka!" she announced, confident. "I'm fifteen, and if you can't already tell, I have a bit of Egyptian ancestry in me from my mother's side of the family. I love all things cherry-related—cherry soda, cherry candy, black forest cake, cherry patterns. I'm fond of K- and J-Pop, as well, so if anyone has any recommendations or wants to trade playlists, I'm totally down."

Takishima Asuka… Somewhere in the back of her mind, something tickled with recognition. Aoi wasn't big on J-Pop, being more of a lo-fi and rock kind of girl, but she recalled the name from posters on the street a few years back. And Asuka's face… The more she looked at her, and the more Asuka's fact of being Egyptian on her mother's side sank in, the more Aoi was positive she'd heard of the girl before. But… Also not Asuka specifically.

Did she have a sister? She remembered there was an idol who was supposed to debut a couple years back, but a stage accident halted her career entirely. She'd said in interviews that her mother's side of the family was Egyptian, too, and her surname was the same. Was it spelled the same way? Gah, what was her name again?

Aoi pulled out her phone and quickly did a search online, using the key words idol and Takishima. The first result that came up was a news article about the stage accident, and Aoi saw the name in bold writing on her screen.

Debut idol Takishima Aemi paralysed from waist down after stage collapse during performance.

Immediately, Aoi raised her hand and interrupted Olivia opening up her sheet of paper.

"Sorry, Takishima-san, I have a question," she called out. Something in Asuka's posture became tense as she noticed Aoi glancing down at her phone, but she didn't stop her. "Could you possibly be related to Takishima Aemi, the idol who was forced to retire before her career even began?"

Ever so subtly, almost imperceptible, Aoi saw the corner of Asuka's eye twitch as though a bug were under the skin.

With a cool tone, Asuka told her, "No relation."

The photo on Aoi's screen begged to differ. Takishima Aemi was the spitting image of Asuka, but she held a more mature look to her beneath all the stage makeup. There was no doubt they were related, even to a moron.

Aoi locked her phone and turned it screen-down onto the table. "Interesting," she said airily.

"Olivia-senpai?" Asuka asked Olivia, no longer paying Aoi any mind. Olivia blinked and cleared her throat, nodding once to get herself back on track.

"Right, um…" Olivia looked down at the paper. "What's the strangest dream you've ever had, Takishima-san?"

"Oh, the weirdest dream I've ever had?" Asuka echoed. She propped out one hip and crossed her arms over her chest, still keeping that amicable expression on her face. Aoi didn't miss the way Asuka glanced at her again, though—at Aoi's phone—before she looked up at the ceiling in deep thought. "Let's see… I think it was… Yeah, that's the one."

Asuka looked back down at everyone and giggled. "Buckle up, it's a funny one," she told them. "It was about me living in my own home, and I was an adult. And this one American actor—Olivia-san, you might know him—he always said things about family in his movies, I think his name was Vin something…?"

"Oh, Vin Kerosene," Olivia supplied.

"That's the one!" Asuka nodded with a satisfied hum. "So he was there, but it was when I walked to my mailbox to get my mail, and he was the mailbox itself. And he was holding onto my mail and said to me, 'Looks like you've got some bills. Would be nicer if they were dollar bills instead, huh?' And then he just handed me my mail. And when I walked back into the house, I woke up!"

"I think you just plain had an out of body experience on that one," Shiki chimed in.

"Man, how fun would that be? Meeting a celebrity in the ether or something," Asuka laughed.

"Wonder what that says about him, choosing to look like a mailbox," Kaiten joked.

As some of the others laughed, Aoi watched Asuka walk back to her seat. There was a glance over in Aoi's direction—not a friendly one, a more wary one—and Aoi saw the smile on Asuka's face dip ever so slightly. But then Asuka trained her expression again, smiling at Mugi as the girl handed her a snack on her way back to her seat, and Aoi hummed once to herself.

Was this baby's first unfriend? No, not her first. Aoi had plenty of people who didn't like her. First tense encounter in 1-B? That was more like it.

"What was that about?" Tetsuya muttered to her. Aoi just flipped her phone over, unlocked it, and she didn't miss the way Asuka's cardinal eyes flitted over to her again. Aoi just beamed at her as she slid the phone—and article—towards Tetsuya.

Something in those mesmerising red eyes seemed to be on the verge of snapping.

Tetsuya didn't get long to read the article. Ichigo called him over, seat five, and Tetsuya just slid the phone back to Aoi with a sigh.

"Don't start shit," he reminded her.

"I never do," Aoi said innocently. "I finish shit."

Tetsuya's expression was as dubious as ever.

He stood up the front, and Aoi looked at him with amusement. Everything about Tetsuya was as sharp as ever—sharp jawline, sharp grey eyes, sharp, spiked hair. Well, no, maybe it was more accurate to say his hair was more wispy; it fell in sections that stuck up, but for the most part his hair was combed into his own version of the comma haircut. It just looked spiky because it stuck out rebelliously. His hair wasn't the same kind of silver as Shiki's, more grey leaning, but the colour always reminded Aoi of how the grey streaks in her own hair were supposed to be. His skin was fair, something girls always seemed to like thanks to how clear it was too, and he stood just over five and a half feet tall overall. He was definitely good-looking, but more in a mature way. If they weren't undeniably platonic life partners, maybe they might've been more romantically inclined in another life.

Nah, never. That was her mom. Dating your mom was gross and irresponsible. She'd settle for third-wheeling whatever relationship he found himself in and teasing him for his wife being way out of his league every chance she got.

Tetsuya stared at his classmates, appraising them slowly as he tucked his hands into his pockets, and he was as charismatic as ever with his calm and cool introduction.

"Yo. It's Hagane Tetsuya," he said. "Nice to meet you all. I'm fifteen. Don't call me Mom."

He rolled his shoulder and sighed. "I also have a warning for everyone in the class," he went on, and Aoi rolled her eyes so hard that they might've gone into the ether to meet Vin Kerosene if she wasn't careful enough. There we went, with his preaching again. "If you all think being a Pro Hero is going to be a walk in the park and something fun to write home about, you need to leave."

A couple of students began to bristle, shifting in their seats in preparation to boo him.

"A Pro Hero has to realise that they can't save everyone, no matter what, and none of us is the next All Might—the next Deku," he went on. "And we're certainly not our famous parents. Pro Hero work has no place for nepotism and lighthearted fun. You have to be the best you can possibly be, improve your shortcomings, and not force yourself to break your own spirit just to breach the ceiling of your skills. If your Quirk isn't suitable for this line of work…" Tetsuya's eyes flickered to, of all people, Teru, and Aoi furrowed her brows. What was wrong with Teru's Quirk? "Then you should just transfer out now instead of wasting your and everyone else's time."

Seriously? Aoi gawked at Tetsuya as Lyoko stared in stunned silence. Kiaria didn't seem bothered by the declaration, more intrigued, and some of the students with "weaker" Quirks in the class continued to glare at Tetsuya from their seats. Even Mugi looked uncomfortable, on the verge of a freakout, and Asuka was rubbing her shoulder reassuringly while she glared daggers into Tetsuya's face.

Ichigo stared at Tetsuya with brows raised, taken aback but keeping her calm as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Hagane-kun," she said lightly. "Wouldn't you argue that you fall under the nepotism category, in that case? Being the son of ArcLight and the protégé of the Pro Hero Misty?"

Tetsuya looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "You and I both know I stopped being a nepo-baby when my mother retired," he said pointedly.

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Olivia muttered.

Tetsuya gave her a sharp glare. Olivia looked away from him, expression bitter, and she opened the slip of paper in her hands. The final question for the final student. Aoi was pretty sure no one was eager to stick around and socialise after such a downer ending to the activity.

"If you had the opportunity to be immortal, would you take it?" Olivia asked him, tone flat.

Tetsuya sighed and reached for his neck, rubbing it with a tired expression.

"If an immortal life hits the same beats as my mortal one, I'd pass," he decided.

Aoi was quick to jump to her feet. She had to diffuse the tense air in the room, and she knew the best way how: Get Tetsuya flustered enough that people forgot how rude he was just now.

She was grinning from ear to ear, and with a booming voice she announced, "Hear that? Mom loves me soooooo much he'd pass up being immortal for me!"

Quick to take the bait, Tetsuya glowered at her and hissed, "Not a single one of those words came out of my mouth."

"A mother's love doesn't need to be said out loud!" She posed, making a heart with her hands, and giggled.

Tetsuya sucked in a long breath. He held it for a second, sighed, and he turned to the class with a less cold expression on his face. This was more exhausted, pleading.

"I am now putting my only daughter up for adoption. Free to a good home. Or bad. I don't care what you do with her," he deadpanned to the class.

"You're not worried it'll be a bad home?" Yuzuru teased, smirking.

"She can take care of herself. Probably a bit too well," Tetsuya grumbled.

"My knuckles have the same effect as wearing brass knuckles," Aoi said in a cute voice.

"I'd happily hand her over to the Thunderdome with full confidence she'd overrun it in a day," he added.

Now that got a few chuckles. Aoi let out a sigh of relief and sank back down into her chair. God, Tetsuya worried her sometimes. Half of the time he was the responsible one, scolding her for doing inane shit on the daily, but sometimes he was the one who had to be pulled back down to earth. It wasn't like he was passionate about being a Pro Hero, Aoi thought as he walked back to the table. He was just passionate about doing the right thing and knowing one's limits, and his way of helping others was tough love to make them reevaluate their priorities.

But man, he had a bullshit way of doing it sometimes.

With the ice breaker over and done with and some of the class heading to bed, exhausted from all the food they'd eaten and the drama stirred by their classmates, Aoi saw Mirato leave with Olivia and Bebe while Ichigo headed for the bathroom to check up on Sumie. Yoyo, Hanabi and Hime weren't back yet, and Aoi wasn't game to go to the bathroom quite yet to see if she was alright. Sometimes you just had to give someone some space, and Sumie had clearly felt pressured enough by Mirato's premonition to be done with people for the day.

She flopped onto her bed with a groan, barely able to put on her pyjamas before the energy began to drain from her limbs. Aoi rolled onto her side, checking her phone messages, and she saw Jin had texted her at some point while Tetsuya had been reading the article about Takishima Aemi. It was a simple good luck text, reminding Aoi to play nice with her classmates and to give it her all, and he signed it off with a reminder to not take shit from anyone. Aoi laughed, sent him back a thumbs up, and she set her alarm for morning as her eyes slowly drooped into sleep.

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Zenshi Entrance Exam Arc: Finish

The Zenshi Experience Arc: Begin

Arc Theme: Again by Yui