7- The Teacher
Today was the day. Soon, hero hopefuls would flood the mock cities and fight for a place in UA. Few would dominate and destroy any robot in sight, some would just barely scratch by to make it in, but most would go home with barely a point.
For the past seven years, she had seen the kids who couldn't manage to take down a single bot or score a single point leave, heads cast down and shoulders racking with sobs. But it was necessary, Kaina supposed, to make sure they didn't get into the hero course and get killed.
The students who did pass, and were placed in her class, she would do anything to help them.
Of course, the more volatile students would go to Aizawa, and the students who were calmer and whose quirks required a bit more precision would be placed in her class. And it seemed this year, Aizawa would have quite the handful.
Huddled around in a small theater, UA staff watched the practical exams. There was a blond screaming and letting out massive blasts, he would definitely go to Aizawa. A girl using vines that seemed to be her hair was quickly and efficiently putting down bots, Kaina would probably get her. A boy blitzed through the city, unleashing devastating kicks to any bots he could find, someone with that raw power would likely go to Aizawa. A boy quickly maneuvered around a bot, fusing its legs to the surrounding environment to immobilize it, then brute force attacking it until it was destroyed, she would likely get him.
The exam was practically over at this point, with barely a few seconds left and the zero pointers wreaking havoc and causing panic across the cities, nobody would be getting any more points. Kaina stood up from her seat, ready to leave.
From the corner of her eye, a blur jumped into the sky and punched a zero pointer so hard its face caved in- another student for Aizawa.
A small, creature, a mouse, rat, and bear all at the same time, rose from his seat as well, addressing the staff in an unsettlingly happy tone. "This concludes the entrance exams! Plus Ultra!"
Most people responded enthusiastically with "Plus Ultra!" while Kaina slipped out of the room. The rat, principal Nedzu always disturbed her. He was never angry at her, never outright hostile, but she sensed this underlying caution from him. It was like he knew she was with the HPSC.
It took a year of badgering the president, but she had been allowed to become a teacher. She could help children, prevent them from hurting themselves and help them save people in the future. The only drawback was having to report any important developments within the school or any students with high potential to the HPSC. She was just happy to help her students.
–
Aizawa hadn't shown up to orientation, as usual. He was probably torturing his new students with some tests.
Her students had behaved for the most part, her getting mostly quite calm students, except for a few. A blonde boy swept his hair out of his face, dramatically ranting about the "unruliness" of 1-A. It brought a smile to her face as they walked down the hall, emerging in the expansive fields to perform a quirk apprehension test.
–
He had cleansed the world of over two hundred heroes. It didn't matter what they had done, who they were, or what their goals were, he took their quirks and left them flailing around like a fish out of water. He tried to publicize his cleansings by attacking heroes in the city while they were on patrol, however, most attacks were carried out in the dead of night.
He donned the judge's mask every time, making sure they knew who he was. He was recognized in the mask and was feared amongst the C-class heroes, though he had never been able to go after any hero in the top one hundred. They would simply be too powerful. If one could make it to the top one hundred, they would carry themselves with strength and confidence, making it easy to resist his quirk.
For the past eight years, he had always been thinking and searching around the underground, trying to find something that could help him get to the number one, the big guy in blue, the hero every villain and criminal feared, All Might. To turn someone so strong, the pillar of the hero community, into some weak animal, would be a massive achievement. It would destabilize heroes all over, allowing him to take out the strongest. He needed to take out the strong, he needed to make them all equal.
He had just cleansed some hero from the top two hundred and decided to go to a bar to celebrate. He didn't care much for the drinks, more so for the people there. His team, consisting of just a dozen people, often gathered to celebrate and have fun after a job well done.
He had carefully researched each member before letting them in the group. Each member was skilled in a field to help them subdue and capture heroes, after which they would join with Noatak to cleanse and drop off the hero somewhere. Two of them were skilled in fighting, three of them skilled with capture, and the rest were merely fodder to help Noatak escape from a fight should he need to, which had come in handy on occasion. They would occasionally take some job to disrupt heroes while a heist went on, just to get some money, but he knew they all had their own jobs and lives outside the group.
He didn't really care about any of them, except for Kuroi. He considered her his best friend, the only person he really felt comfortable around, she even had him call her by her first name. He smiled as he walked into the bar, spotting her black hair. He sat next to her as the rest of the group filed in, drinking and laughing while he and Kuroi had a mostly private conversation.
Kuroi didn't have some extravagant quirk or fighting ability, but she was smart. She was the one he went to for information, she could always figure out a hero's patrols and schedules in just a few days, could tell him their weaknesses, and knew how to navigate the underground.
He could hear steps coming towards their table and looked away from her to find a man with crooked teeth in a purple suit, easily grinning as he approached.
"Hey," he said, "You're villains, ain't ya?" Everybody at the table tensed, some reaching for their pockets. "Relax, relax," the man chuckled, jokingly putting his hands in the air, "There's this job I'm recruiting for. We're gonna kill Allmight."
The table erupted into laughter, telling the man to piss off, except for Noatak. He looked at the man. He stood lazily, but there was a self-assured confidence only a good broker would have, he was confident in whatever group he was recruiting for.
"How do you plan on doing that?" He asked.
The man's smile widened. "Guy in charge has got a lot of funding, and says he's got some weapon that'll definitely kill the big blue."
"Hm, you sure you're gonna kill him?"
"Yeah," he took a puff off a cigar, "That's the plan."
Noatak sighed, slumping down. "Nah, we're good."
The man sighed and bid them goodbye.
The group went back to normal, laughing and joking, many jokes mocking the broker for thinking they could kill All Might. Noatak took part, nursing his drink and joking along.
By the end of the night, it was just him and Kuroi left, her lightly chatting with him as helped him out of the bar. "So, why'd you say no?"
"Hmm?" He stumbled on his feet, leaning against her. "Don't wanna kill the big guy," he mumbled, "Don't wanna kill anyone." The moon shined down on them, illuminating the small smile on her face.
"That's good," She said. Her voice was gentle and he was just sober enough to stop himself from completely leaning against her. "Alright," she grunted, sliding opening a cab door to drop him in, "See ya soon." She went to the cabbie, telling him the address of his apartment to drop him off at.
He stared out the window, admiring the shining lights of the city passing by until he passed out.
–
Kaina, along with her class representative Kendo, pushed through the crowd of students. Word about the villain attack on class 1-A had spread and caused a massive horde of students to form around the entrance, and exit, to class 1-A, blocking off the students from leaving.
"-but you're just a bunch of snot-nosed brats! I'm gon-" She laid a hand down on the student's shoulder, causing him to freeze.
"Tetsutetsu, that's enough. There's no need to antagonize them." He turned around, head hanging low and shamefully nodding. "The same goes for the rest of you too," She said, louder for the horde, "The day's over, go home. Yelling at class 1-A won't help you."
As the crowd dispersed, she let Kendo and TetsuTetsu go and walked into the classroom. Aizawa was slumped in his chair, completely covered and wrapped in bandages. Her eyes shifted to the floor as she approached him. "Hey, you uh, you doing alright?"
Through a slit in the bandage mask on his face, he looked at her. "I'm fine."
She twiddled with her fingers, rubbing one between her thumb and index. "I'm sorry, I should have been there."
"Huh?"
"I should have been there, I should have come to help." She quickly spat out.
"It's fine, there was no way you could have known, and no way you could have gotten there in time to prevent," he gestured to his wrappings, "this."
She squeezed her finger until it hurt. "I'm sorry, I should have helped."
"It's fine Tsutsumi, nothing you could have done. Go home or on patrol or whatever."
She left, pinching at the material of her flowy dress as she did so. She still felt like shit.
–
She had spent so long preparing and helping her students, helping them hone their quirks and abilities, helping them study, helping them mentally prepare for the sports festival, only for them to be completely outshined by class 1-A. Maybe if she had been a bit better Tetsutetsu would have knocked out Kirishima before they both passed out. Maybe Shiozaki would have beaten Iida.
Nobody was talking about her class. The one thing they wanted from the sports festival was recognition, and while they had gotten some, they were still completely outclassed and outshined by 1-A.
Nearly everyone in her class had gotten an offer for the internships coming up, and she was happy about that. But those kids from 1-A had gotten thousands of offers. She was glad for them, of course, but she could have done better for her class.
She slumped against her desk, twirling her hair around her finger as she absentmindedly went over the request forms for internships her students had given her.
Kayama had helped her students pick hero names, and she was rather good at lifting her mood, but she still felt… Weak.
Fourth Kind. Uwabami.
She authorized the internships, finishing up and tidying her desk.
'I'll do better.'
–
"The sea is beautiful, isn't it?" Kuroi leaned against his shoulder, the waves lapping at their feet. They were on some recently cleaned beach in Musutafu, sitting by the ocean.
The moonlight seemed to glint off her teeth as she smiled. "Yeah," she said, "It's so… free."
"Kuroi, should I cut my hair?" He asked, fiddling with the strands just barely reaching his chest.
She grabbed a strand, playing with it. "Nah, you take good care of it and it's pretty like this, I like it. Hey Noatak," she hesitated, locking her beautiful violet eyes with him, "if you could do anything in the world, what would you have?"
"I guess, make a world without quirks. We would all be equal, the strong wouldn't stomp on the weak and we could all be ourselves."
"I could be myself?" She asked, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. "But this," she pulled off a chunk of the strand like putty, twisting and shaping it to her will, "Is a part of me. If I didn't have this, I wouldn't be me."
He turned his eyes back to the ocean, hesitating with his words. "Do you… Not like my cause? My goal?"
"No," She said, "I think it's wonderful, at your core, you truly want to help people."
He gulped. "But?"
"It's misguided, Noatak. How can someone be themselves without their quirk?"
He kept his mouth closed, processing her words. His whole life, he had seen the strong pick on and oppress the weak. The rancher and the cow, the eagle and the pigeon, the hero and the civilian. If everyone were equal in strength, everyone would be free to be themselves.
Kuroi got to her feet, laying a gentle hand in his hair. "I'll see ya' later, bye Noatak."
"Bye." He replied, looking up at her.
–
AN- idk what to say for this chapter without spoiling other plotpoints i have planned
-if you've got literally ANY thoughts on the story or chapter just leave a review it makes me giggle like a dumbass when I see one
-tried to kinda explain Noatak's quirk but idk if it came out well so ill explain it here
-the stronger one's willpower/confidence is the harder it is to use his quirk. This is so hes not overpowered because overpowered characters are so sos sos osossoss sososo BORING
-Pretty short chapter but I like shorter ones because with the way I write it sections out the story better and to me makes it feel like it flows better
-Im fr just gonna skip over anything I dont feel is important to Noatak or Nagant (cuz shes important :3 and i love her) because youve probably already seen all this and just a quick recap is better than 4 whole ass chapters dedicated to the same thing but with Nagant plus her having no impact on that is important for where i want her character
-Im gonna rant about how horikoshi fumbled mineta SO bad. During the exam thingy arc he genuinely had some development, going from if i can get girls Ill be cool and awseome like all the other guys, to, if im cool an awesome like the other guys girls will like me, so ill just be cool and awesome, but then Horikoshi just makes him act like old mineta right after? Fumble of the century bro
-Kuroi is inspired by Kuroi from jjk hidden inventory (she probably wont die like her though) because I thought Kuroi was really cool and pretty
-I fucking hate the word Word like why do it look like that
-transitions between scenes r kinda bad but whatever
-I love you :DD