Over the Top

by papireaz

When I died, I expected a few manga volumes. Maybe to learn what the One Piece is. Instead, I found myself in a world that I recognised, a story I had read and what's worse was that it was a story I had no interest in wanting to involve myself in! Then and again, the offer to become a Hero is far too tempting...

2. Issue 2 REMIX

EDIT:

The chapter is finally edited. Was a weird chapter to edit since this was still in the early phases of the story, but I was still changing my style. Another alternative song you could listen to while reading the chapter is 'Red Swan' by Yoshiki and HYDE aka AoT opening 4.

Also, I have created a discord server. And the code is p6HcDQpxuk !

Join it to be kept up to date with the story!

NOW ONTO THE CHAPTER!

Reason for delay on chapter? Apart from it being my second chapter (lol I never thought chapter 1 would get such a response)

Quality checks, not to mention a ton of edits adding things that I thought would flesh everything out some more. Easily the longest chapter I've ever written, but I'll try and make all the chapters like this!

Song for today's chapter… Castelia City OST from Pokemon Black & White, can't go wrong with some Pokemon.

Anyway let's get into this!

Recap:

I died. Sort of. Now I'm called Sora Yamazaki, with tacky light blue hair and a cloud Quirk named Nimbus. My journey starts here, and the only way is up… only do other people want me to climb up? Find out in my week long work experience on the business side of Endeavour's Agency!

---

"Sora…" I surveyed my room, making sure everything was tidy right before I went as I faced Miwa, who stood at the door waiting for me. "You gonna' be alright? It's a trip without us for a week."

"I'll be fine," I replied, before shrugging my shoulders as I added "Probably."

Miwa snorted as she smiled at me.

Not the sort of fake smile you'd see from someone being around someone they dislike, but from someone around someone that they loved. Miwa was still shy and uncertain around me, and I couldn't blame her. I'd been acting like a right cunt in front of her for so long, while she wanted to believe that I could change, it ultimately fell upon me to do so.

"Probably? I suppose that's the best I can get from you. Still, you'll call us every day, right?" I shrugged my shoulders at her. "Please? At least do it for me, the best little sister in the world!" She had the audacity to use her puppy dog eyes on me, but since we were both thirteen it didn't affect me. Not that it would have anyway, and I think Miwa knew that since she sighed right after.

"Miwa, I'll be back before you know it," I told her as I grabbed my bag off the floor. "Anyways it's literally on the other side of the city. Just take the train for twenty minutes and you'll be able to see me. Three stops. Anyways, I'm more concerned about you."

"Why's that? I'm not the troublemaker."

I winced at her tone.

"Listen, whether I like it or not, people hold grudges. Especially against me. I don't want anyone to think that just because I'm not at school they can say or do anything to you without getting their teeth kicked in," I said, placing my hand on her head. I was taller than her, even if it was by only a little bit. "If anyone tries to start shit with you, just message me. I don't care about being a hero if it means I have to abandon you when you need help."

Miwa sighed, pushing me back slightly.

"Dumbass. I don't need help, it's you who needs this chance more than me! I'll be fine, after all, I'm the school's 'darling.' Seriously, who gets better grades than me in science?" I grinned at that.

"No one. But remind me again who holds the top spots in nearly every other subject?" I asked her, tapping my ear as I watched her growl in response.

"We aren't talking about you."

"Whatever, you get my point. U.A. can fuck right off if it means abandoning you and everyone else again," I was done with doing that. Even if it had only been a few days since I realised how hypocritical I had been. Hinata had signed off the trip rather quickly, without any need to be convinced. She could tell from my eyes alone that something had changed within me. "Being a hero isn't worth thinking that I'm better than everyone else."

"You dummy," Miwa shook her head as she hugged me tightly. "As if I'll allow you to act like that again. But I doubt I'll have to step in. You're strong. Stronger than anyone I've ever met, once you've put your mind to something it's hard to stop you."

"...are you calling me stubborn?"

Miwa giggled at me.

"You just realised it? Tsk, you really are hopeless, aren't you? I guess that's why I call you my brother, you're always looking at the future rather than accepting how you currently are." Miwa said as we walked over to the kitchen, where Gekko was setting up the table as Hinata was placing food on our plates. I'd be waking up tomorrow and heading to school early where a coach would drive us to the agency, but Hinata and Gekko wanted a 'celebratory dinner' before I went.

"You excited for tomorrow?" Gekko asked me as he brought over two beers to the table. I sat down next to Miwa and shrugged my shoulders, I was going with seven other 'homeroom representatives' which meant that they were arguably the smartest or most talented people in my year. Not to mention well-behaved. I was sure to be the odd one out there. Was I excited to get work experience at one of the premier hero agencies in the country?

Sorta.

Was I excited to spend it working with people who likely hated me?

No.

Gekko sighed as he passed me one of the beers he had gotten from the fridge. A Peroni. I looked at him in confusion as he opened his beer and began to drink it as he passed me the bottle opener.

"You're giving me a beer?" I asked him, before opening my bottle and ignoring Miwa and Hinata rolling their eyes as food was put on our plates. Chicken katsu with rice and salad on the side, all served with Hinata's homemade tonkatsu sauce. Gekko grinned as he smacked her beer bottle with mine and drank more of it, pouring orange juice for Miwa and water for Hinata.

"Why not? I had my first beer at thirteen."

"Fair enough then, just woulda thought…" I trailed off near the end as I ate some of the food in front of me. More specifically the breaded chicken with tonkatsu sauce sprinkled all over it. "Jeez, this is great! Did you add anything extra to it? Usually, your food isn't this good."

Gekko snorted as Miwa kicked me under the table.

Luckily, Hinata didn't seem to mind as she smiled warmly at me.

"I didn't use store-bought panko, this time I made it myself," Hinata proudly exclaimed as she started to eat her salad first. "I'm glad it turned out alright. I was afraid I missed it up."

"Like you did when you made coconut rice?" Gekko asked.

"Or that time you tried to make a beef ragu with linguini and nearly set off all our fire alarms?" I asked, sipping my beer slowly.

"Sorry Mum, but did you forget about the time you made chicken burritos but didn't add any veggies, just chipotle peppers?" Miwa added, with each passing comment making Hinata flush an ever deeper shade of red.

"T-that's… Oh well, maybe I'm not a good cook when it comes to foreign foods, but-," I snorted at her, knowing full well where she was taking this. "But none of you can cook. Apart from Sora, he only cooks Italian and Spanish cuisine."

"Exactly. Come to me when someone can make a fettuccine alfredo as good as I can," I boasted. "I know you can't. Or maybe I should make my special chorizo pasta? Or how about that time I made homemade pizzas and calzones? Or maybe you want me to cook my paella? I can go on you know, I'm just choosing to be humble."

"Alright, alright, we get it. You're a better cook than Hinata." Gekko said, despite Hinata squawking right after.

"Do you want to sleep on the couch tonight?"

"Er, no?"

Miwa and I laughed at their exchange.

"Come on, he's telling the truth, Mum," For some reason, Hinata's eyes widened as I said that. "Variety is the spice of life. While this is great, I'm sure a restaurant in Tokyo could do the exact same thing but-, Why are you crying?" Hinata tried, and failed, at wiping her tears away. I turned around to look at Miwa, who had watery eyes and a smile on her face, while Gekko simply grinned at me. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Nah," Gekko shook his head as he patted his wife on the back. "You called her mum. It's been years since you last called her that."

I-,

…

"Sorry," I apologised, rubbing the back of my head nervously. It was something I had just picked up on. "I know I've been a bad son. Especially to you two. I failed to understand your lesson, Dad. I failed to be kind, and for that, I made so many enemies. You all tried to help, but I was too arrogant to accept it. I thought I knew better… I'm so sorry." I stood up to try and leave the table, but Miwa grabbed my hand just in time.

"Stay, you idiot," Miwa said. "Can't you see that we want you to stay? Sure you were a bit of a prick, Sorry for the language, but you changed. You are trying to be kind now. The message about kindness can also be applied to you, and I'm sure that if you try, everyone tomorrow will be kind to you as well. You'll promise us that at least you'll try to be kind, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," I shrugged my shoulders, sitting back down. "As long as they don't start shit first, I'll back down. Hell even if something starts, I won't resort to violence or anything first. I'll try to defuse it or something. Happy? It was what I was planning on doing in the first place anyway."

Miwa nodded at that, grabbing my head and putting it in a headlock.

"Good boy, good boy."

"Gerroff!" I yelled, wrestling with Miwa at the table. We ignored Hinata's protests as we continued to hit each other. Eventually, my elbow hit her plate of food and it went flying off the table, smashing right on the very floor in front of us. Miwa and I blanched as we turned to look at Hinata, who was more worried about her plate than us. To be fair, we did ignore her warnings. "Uh… if it's any consolation, Miwa started it?"

The look Hinata gave the two of us immediately made Miwa and I shut up, forcing us to apologise and start to try and clean up the mess immediately.

I guess some things never change, no matter how many years pass by.

---

Chapter

Two

'Feelings Soar with the Wind'

---

Portable games console?

I checked my bag, along with a charger and a brand new game I had saved my money to get, an RPG set in high school. I knew I was going to be bored in the hotel our school had booked, so at least this way I wouldn't be bored out of my mind.

Phone?

It was in my pocket, and my charger was in my suitcase next to my clothes. My headphones were also in my pocket, wireless ones which could also be connected to my PSP 18000.

My phone was at seventy per cent battery, but that was fine.

While the Endeavour agency was in the same city as me, the fact was that one of its protocols meant that we had to stay in a hotel near the building that was actually owned by the agency.

It was also protocol for me to take the train to my school, which was outside of Musutafu, just so they could drive us back to the city. It was annoying. What was even worse was that at the end of the week was my birthday, my fourteenth birthday to be precise, which meant that I'd be spending it with my classmates rather than my family.

That was annoying for sure, but oh well.

Can't really complain.

Or rather I wasn't in a position to complain, after all, this was my one chance to be better. To be greater than before. To change and grow as a person, to become a hero and to be proud of myself. I couldn't mess it up. Even if it meant I spent my fourteenth birthday surrounded by people that could hate me.

It was something I was going to have to deal with.

Despite that, it was a hot day.

Hotter than usual. Here I was in a plain white T-shirt and some dark blue shorts, wearing a white bucket hat to cover my hair. It wasn't "professional" by all means, and in my bag, I had a spare set of clothes if I needed to change quickly. I didn't want everyone to think that I was not taking it seriously…

To be honest I'd rather that than them calling me the 'Devil of Class E.' Or was it 'Demon of Class E'? I was called both, so I guess it didn't really matter. But what's worse? Being a devil or a demon-,

"Yamazaki!" I turned around to look at the teacher supervising the trip. He was the head of the business department, Shinjiro Yanagi, a middle-aged man already balding. He was sweating beads from the heat, ruining his black suit that he had put on.

Dumbass.

"Yeah teach, whaddya want?" I asked lazily, rubbing my eyes. I didn't get enough sleep.

"We're going in about ten minutes. Everyone else is already inside the coach, so get on. I'm sure there is a spare spot next to me, just in case you cause trouble like normal." He sneered at me. I ignored the obvious attempt to try and rile me up, I'm sure the man wanted to get rid of me right away.

But fuck that, I was going to annoy this bastard for the entire trip!

"Yeah, yeah. Got it. Go to the toilet, you look like you're sweating a river you fat bastard," I replied, ignoring his shocked expression as I went inside the coach. It was rather small, but then again there were only nine of us - Ten if you included the driver. I sighed, placing my suitcase on the rack above my head as I looked for a free seat.

All the girls were sitting together, and the sight of a girl with earjacks tripped me up. Wasn't she in my homeroom class? Huh. I shook my head and headed for the only other familiar person I recognised, and luckily he had no one sitting next to him.

Sui Miura was on the same football team as me, in fact, we were both on the starting lineup.

"Yo," I waved at him, "Mind if I sit here?" I asked nervously.

"Sure." Sui shrugged his shoulders, placing the bag that was on the seat next to him on his feet. The coach suddenly grew quiet, and I could feel everyone staring at me. I gulped as I nodded at him and sat down, perhaps a little too quickly.

"Cheers," I muttered, staring at the floor.

"No problem. Anyways, how the hell did you get here?"

"What do you mean?" I cracked a small smile. "I got the letter and signed it just like everyone else."

"As in-,"

Sui was cut off as Yanagi, the teacher supervising our trip, walked along the aisles for a headcount and glared at me for a few seconds before shaking his head. What a bastard. He wasn't even going to try and hide his dislike of me, so why the hell should I try and play nice with him?!

"Alright, alright, settle down now," Yanagi began. "Now the coach will be an hour long, after which we'll go eat at a restaurant. You all have money, yes? Anyways we'll be having pizza so if you have any allergies tell the restaurant, not me. After lunch, we'll be dropping off everything at the hotel and then we'll go to the agency for the rest of the day. Any questions?"

A timid, pink-haired boy raised his hand.

"Yes, Shirou?"

"W-what are we going to be having for dinner?" The boy, whose name I just learnt was Shirou, asked our teacher.

"I dunno. Probably stew. I like stew. Anyways, we'll discuss that later," Yanagi then glared at me once more. "And be on your best behaviour. But you are probably incapable of that considering your past actions."

Tsk.

"Understood, you fat fuck," I replied, mock saluting him, before sitting back in my seat as the teacher spluttered in shock. Sui chuckled beside me, while most of the girls giggled at my antics. Shirou merely chuckled awkwardly while the other two boys were laughing their asses off.

"Nice one. Been wanting to say that to him for over a year now," Sui told me, bumping his fist against my own. "He's always been a bit of a prick. Glad you put him in his place. I think everyone here agrees."

"S'that so?" I asked, grinning as I turned to look at Yanagi, who sat down at the front and pulled a mini fan out of his pocket. "Well he's stuck with me for a week, so let's see how long until he'll crack under pressure. What's your bet?"

Before Sui could reply, the two boys who laughed at my comment turned around from their position of sitting in front of us. They were both players from the baseball team, considering their jerseys.

"I'm saying three days," The blonde one said as he extended his arm out to greet me. "I'm Renji by the way. Renji Aburame. Nice to finally meet the Sora Yamazaki everyone talks about." I shook his head, nodding at him.

"Three days? I dunno what you've heard about me, but I ain't a miracle worker."

"Told ya'," The brown-haired boy next to him said, a smug expression on his face. "Yanagi's gonna last till the fifth day, then Yamazaki here is going to get to him. Oh, I'm Denji Amamiya by the way. We were in the same science class until you dropped a set."

I shook his head as well, briefly remembering him.

"Hey, weren't you the guy that nearly drank acid?"

Denji grinned at that.

"Yep. It was a dare so…"

"That's brilliant, I swear Mr. Cho's face after was priceless," I found myself smiling as the four of us engaged in a conversation. "So, why'd you guys agree to come on the trip?"

"Mostly to skip school," Denji answered, and Renji agreed beside him.

"Yeah. I love going, but I can only take so many literature classes before I want to blow my brains out," Behind us, where Shirou and a pink-haired girl who looked like him sat, I felt the two stiffen in response to Renji's comment. Hm. "What about you, Sui? You love school, I mean you won the one-hundred per cent attendance award last term."

"I love playing football, but to be on the team I have to get such a high attendance to make up for my less-than-stellar grades," Sui explained. "A shame really. Anyways, you didn't answer my question, Sora. How'd you get to go on this trip?"

"I told ya', didn't I? I signed the damn paper."

"I think, what Sui's trying to say, is how did someone as… roguish like you manage to be invited to this trip?" Denji added, making Sui nod.

"Rougish, am I?" I snorted at that. "C'mon. Just tell me what rumours you've heard about me."

"Did you beat a gang leader and take control of their gang?" Renji asked.

"I beat up a leader, but I didn't take over," I answered.

"Wicked," Denji whistled. "Apparently you've also hit a teacher in the jaw with enough force to shatter it. I heard they are now in the hospital permanently eating food through a straw." I chuckled at that.

"If I did that I think I'd be arrested," I replied.

"But you didn't say you wouldn't do it."

"Listen, if fatso over there still treats me like shit," I pointed at Yanagi who was using a towel to wipe the sweat off his brow. "No one will find his body. You'll all help me though, right?"

"Sure."

"Ain't got nothing better to do."

"Sounds like fun."

I laughed at their responses.

"You know," Sui started, taking out a bag of sweets and sharing them between the four of us. "You ain't so bad. I mean just a week ago you were unapproachable. Not to mention the multiple stories we've heard about you from everyone else. When I heard you were going to be on the trip, I paused and thought 'Is everyone going to be all right?' But you seem chill."

I beamed at that.

"Rumours are just rumours, always try and verify them with your own eyes. Sure I was a bit of a twat before, but I think I've changed for the better," I replied, grabbing a strawberry sweat and tossing it in the air, catching it with my mouth. "Doesn't mean I won't beat someone's ass if they start bullying someone in front of me."

"Ha, is that so?"

I nodded.

"Look at you, ex-bully turning his life around. Glad to see it," Denji grinned at me. "I swear you want to be a hero as well? Pretty sure I remember your sister saying something about it once."

"You've spoken to Miwa?"

"Dude, everyone's spoken to Miwa. Most of the boys in our year want to fuck her as well," Denji explained, despite my frown. "But I already got my eyes set on one girl. So don't worry about it."

"Who are these bastards that want to defile my sister?" I growled.

"Woah, woah, take it easy big guy," Renji joked, placing his hands up in the air. "What are you, a siscon or something?"

"She's not even fourteen yet."

"Neither are we."

Tch.

"Fair point," I replied. "Still if anyone even looks at my sister the wrong way, I guess I'll become a super-villain."

"What about you? Got any girl you got your eye on?" Denji asked me.

From the corner of my eye, I found myself gazing for a brief second at a girl. Purple-ish hair with earjacks instead of earlobes. The same girl that was in my homeroom tutor as well as my maths class. I shook my head at Denji in response to his question, because I really didn't have my eye on anyone.

Not really.

"Now who would be dumb enough to date me?" I joked. "Seriously, I'd be an awful boyfriend. Anyway, I doubt a girl would ever sincerely like me cause' of all the rumours about me, not to mention the people I've hurt. I guess if I had to find a girl, either she'd not go to our school or she wouldn't care about the rumours."

"Fairs," Denji replied. "Still, we got an entire trip ahead of us. I'm excited, do you think we'll meet the main boss himself?"

"Pfft, as if," Sui snorted at him. "Endeavour is far too busy to spend his time meeting a bunch of brats like us."

"Oi, you never know," Renji added, "Maybe it'll be like a PR stunt or something? Man, I've always wanted to be a hero. Speaking of, who's your favourite hero, Sora?"

"Hawks," I answered immediately. "He's just cool. Even if he's super young."

"I guess," Renji shrugged his shoulders at me, before pointing at the lock screen on his phone. It was a picture of a familiar hero. "But All Might is way cooler. I mean he's the best hero ever."

I hummed in response as I thought of a certain green-haired boy.

"Maybe now. But who knows in the future," I replied, grinning at Renji. "No one can predict the future. Not even All Might."

---

Heroes.

What could I say about them that hadn't already been said? These larger-than-life characters exist, ones that you see not only on the TV and your phone but in front of your very eyes. The tension could be felt even if we just stood outside the building, let alone walked inside. The boys I had been talking with throughout the journey stood up straighter as they stared at the building with their eyes wide open, jaw slacked and nearly touching the floor.

And then there was me, taking photos of the building in awe of it. It was a big building, a luxurious skyscraper that easily towered over the buildings nearby. A flaming "E" that was also stylised in italics it seems was decorated over the front entrance, no doubt showing the world whose agency this was.

Endeavour.

Enji Todoroki.

The big boss himself.

I may not remember everything about the man himself, but I knew enough. How he treated his family, and the regret and shame that followed. Even if I couldn't remember how the man ended up in the end, I could relate to him on that front.

However in his case, perhaps it was too late to truly reconcile. I suppose I was lucky that my family still stuck to the lesson that they had tried to impart to me all those years home, kindness. Even to those who have wronged you. Even if the students shot me strange looks, and even if Yanagi glared at me, I was still going to try and be kind.

I wasn't going to turn my back on that lesson ever again.

"Oi, teach," I said to our 'leader', who was sweating even more profusely compared to before. "I got a question."

"Yes, Yamazaki?" Yanagi asked me, clearly annoyed that he had to deal with me. I rubbed the back of my head and frowned, but I didn't make another comment about him. I was trying to be respectful after all.

"When are we going to eat? I'm starvin' over here!"

Before my teacher could reply, someone snorted behind me. "Food? Can't you hold it in until dinner?" A student said behind me.

I turned around and was greeted by one of the other chosen students, Sakura Ito. She was your average snobby student, a real rule stickler. From what I remember she was fine a year ago, before she suddenly turned like this. We had gone to the same school before I moved to middle school after all.

She had long dark pink hair and the most unusual blue eyes. Her brother, the shy pink-haired boy called Shirou, stood next to her and refused to meet my gaze. Was he afraid of me? Did I ever beat him up? I tried to remember…

But I couldn't recall a single thing.

And apparently, Sakura was someone who disliked me greatly, judging from the way that she glared at me and rudely cut in.

"Yeah, but we were promised food, Sakura-chan." I returned.

Sakura huffed as she coldly replied "I didn't give you permission to call me by my first name. It's Ito to you, Yamazaki."

I sighed in response.

I had much better things to do with my time than verbally abusing a fourteen-year-old. My teacher agreed with her, however, choosing to try and lecture me in response. What a drag…

"Sakura-chan has a fair point, Yamazaki," Yanagi told me with a smirk on his face. "I'm sure you are hungry, but can't we just wait-,"

"Dude, I'm hungry as well!" Denji cut in, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

"As am I," Renji added.

"I could do for some grub," Sui said as he pulled out his wallet from his pocket.

Yanagi spluttered in response at the three boys backing me up. To say that I was shocked was an understatement, but what was even more shocking was when one of the girls in our group spoke up.

"I agree, I would like to eat some lunch," The girl with earjacks for ear lobes, the same girl in my homeroom and my maths class said with an 'angelic' smile directed to Yanagi. It was also a smile that held contempt for the man as her gaze turned upon me, and softened considerably. "After all, you did promise us food before we went in for our workshop."

Yanagi could only sigh in response.

"Fine, fine," The teacher looked annoyed that he had lost the argument. "We'll go eat. You'll have an hour and a half break then after that we are going into the building, whether you have eaten or not." Yanagi then glared at me for what seemed like the umpteenth time, but I could only scoff and roll my eyes at him.

Was he seriously trying to bully a thirteen-year-old

At least he had some taste as he took us to an Italian restaurant, my favourite cuisine in the world. Even living in Japan since birth couldn't rewire my taste buds into thinking that pizza wasn't the greatest thing ever created, with pasta and lasagna right beside it.

Turkish food was up there as well.

Then probably came Japanese food.

We managed to get a table for ten, but Yanagi left us all alone as he went to 'make an important call.' I only needed to take one look at the man lusting over the waitress to figure out what he was trying to do.

And the girl with earjacks agreed with me as we shot each other a disgusted look.

Denji was sitting on my left, with the earjack girl on my right. I still hadn't gotten her name, but I didn't dare ask her name because it would make me look bad. I mean she had been sitting next to me in maths for over a year, not to mention she was also in my homeroom class - That was something I at the very least remembered her from. Plus the fact that she seemed to like music considering her band t-shirt underneath her school uniform.

"Hey, what are ya' going to order?" Denji asked me, pointing at the menu.

"Why are you asking me?" I asked in confusion.

"Cause you have been pronouncing everything under your breath in perfect Italian," Denji replied, tilting his head in confusion. "I mean considering that, your blue hair and your reputation, you tellin' me you ain't Italian?"

"...what does that have to do with me being Italian?!" I found myself asking. "Don't answer. It was rhetorical." Beside me, the earjack girl snorted at us. "You got something to add, earjacks?"

"Earjacks?" The girl asked me with a bright smile. "Cute name. Say it again and I'll kick your arse seven ways to London." I put down the menu to stare at her, only for the two of us to burst into laughter not even a second later.

"What are you going to order?" I asked her. "Never been to this place, but they pronounced 'fettuccine' wrong. It's supposed to have two t's but they only spelt it with one," I told the two of them. "Personally, I think I'm going to order the burrata and nduja gnocchi. But that's just my tastes."

Denji grunted as the girl read over what the dish entailed.

"Huh. It sounds good. Also, I have to agree with Denji," She said, brushing her left bang behind her ear. "Hearing you say it makes you sound Italian. Are you are you aren't Italian? It would explain the hair colour."

I hummed at that.

"Maybe. Never met my biological parents." I shrugged my shoulders, watching as Denji started to cough violently while the girl winced slightly.

"Oh… I didn't mean anything by it, I swear-,"

"It's fine," I interrupted her, waving it off. "Trust me, it's all good. Not like I go around parading the fact that I'm adopted anyway. Plus, I have a family, even if they aren't related to me by blood."

"So then why the hell did you get so prissy when I mentioned that a bunch of people want to bang Miwa?!" Denji asked me. But before I could reply, the girl's earlobe stiffened before flying through the air to poke him in the arm. The girl then gave a pleased hum when she heard Denji scream in pain.

"Jiro!? What the hell was that for?!" Denji yelled out, causing everyone on the table to stare at the three of us. I buried my head in my hands as I watched the girl, whose name I had just found out was Jiro, twirl a knife in her hands.

"Dude, how about you relax," Jiro smirked at him. "Or better yet, think about what you want to say first. I'm a girl after all. If you say something like that again, I'll do worse than poke you in your arm. It's still his sister. I'm sure that he can do way worse."

"You're a psycho," I told her while trying to hide my smile, and I think she knew it since she pointed the knife at me. "An honest-to-God psycho."

"You won't be saying that when I become a hero," She told me with enough confidence to stun even me. I let go of my menu as I stared at her in surprise, causing her to shyly rub her arm in response. "What? You think I can't become a hero?"

"I didn't say that," I replied. "Just that not many people want to be a hero in our year, and those that do are… how do I say this without offending anyone? Jokers? Clowns? They're the type of people to say that they felt sick after losing a game of football." Jiro giggled at my 'assessment' of them, but she didn't disagree.

"And wouldn't you say that you fit in that group?" She asked me.

"Huh? Why me?"

"Seriously? Listen, half the people here might not be in our classes due to being in the other population, so they only know about the rumours. But me? I've sat next to you in maths for months, we've been in the same homeroom class since we first came to the school," Jiro said. "I know of those rumours, some of them are true and some aren't. I've seen some of them happen. In that sense, aren't you someone who fits into that crowd? Of thinking you can be a hero despite never showing any traits that could be considered heroic."

…

"You're right," I paused, looking her right into her eyes. Jiro flinched slightly, but she didn't fold at all. "You've seen me at my worst. But just because I didn't act like a hero beforehand doesn't mean that I can't become one in the future."

"I never said that you couldn't," Jiro pointed out with a grin, before holding her right out for me to grasp. "Considering you get some of the highest grades in the school, have a pretty good Quirk and are trying to change for the better, I bet you probably can get into U.A. in a year's time."

Huh.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Ya' know, I bet you could probably make it into the hero course as well," I told her, shaking her hand. "Imagine that? Two people from our school getting into U.A."

"Would be pretty cool."

I agreed with her.

After we had ordered our food, with both Jiro and Denji deciding to follow whatever order I had placed, conversation throughout the entire table started in full force. Even if the two pink-haired students stayed right at the edge of the table, both Sakura and Shirou Ito.

"Hey, hey! Sora-kun!" One of the girls called my name. "Do you remember my name?" I scrunched my face in confusion, trying to remember her name. Or the name of any girl with brown hair. All I remembered was her Quirk, something that she couldn't control. It allowed her to detach from her body and become ghost-like, which was what she was currently doing.

"Uh…" Who else did I know that had short brown hair, brown eyes and a Quirk like that? Fuck, what was her name again?! "...Haru?"

"It's Keiko!" The girl giggled in response. "I guess we don't share any classes together, but I thought you'd remember me at least. I mean I go to your house pretty much all the time."

"Huh? Oh yeah. You're Miwa's friend, ain't 'cha?"

"Yep! I'm Miwa's friend. Don't you remember that one time you walked in on her getting changed?" Huh?! I violently shook my head, I think I'd remember that. "You don't remember then? Fairs, it was a couple of months ago anyway."

I sighed at that.

"I think I'd remember if that happened. Anyways, Keiko," I emphasised getting her name right, which made her grin at me and give me a thumbs up in response. "I'll get your name right from now on. Okay?"

Keiko, and her two friends who also looked familiar to me for some reason, nodded at me in response. They were a trio of close girls, Keiko Takahashi, Makoto Tendou and Saki Saki.

Makoto, a short girl with long silver hair and purple eyes, had a Quirk that discharged purple flames for as long as she stopped breathing. And Saki Saki could duplicate her arms. No extra abilities, just four arms. She was easily the plainest girl in the group, with long black hair and black eyes.

Obviously, Denji and Renji were in a deep conversation about baseball, while Sui was on his phone watching the latest highlights from the Champions League. Jiro was also on her phone but was organising her music playlist from what I could see on her phone, and Shirou and Sakura were sitting away from everyone else…

Wait, there were supposed to be only eight people on this trip!

Why the hell was there ten?!

And why was Jiro, who was in my homeroom class, on this trip as well?!

"Hey Jiro," I started, counting the number of heads to make sure I wasn't wrong. "Why are you here? Like on the trip. I thought I was the one selected to go on this trip from our tutor group."

Before Jiro could reply, it was Sakura at the other end of the table who explained it to me.

"It's because you joined the trip," Sakura told me coldly. "The trip was originally for ten people, but since we only have eight homeroom classes, there were two spots left open. Mr Yanagi explained it clearly to me, because of your… 'behavioural issues' the school wanted to fill up those last two spots with some of the 'brightest students' they have. But the reason is to make sure that when you do muck up, they'll be there to make sure that our school still looks good."

"A bit harsh, don't you think?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. "I mean sure, I'm a bit of a troublemaker, but I can behave. Like right now! If I muck up, it'll be because I have a good reason."

Sakura snorted.

"We'll see about that."

And that's when our food arrived.

"So, Yamazaki-san." Someone asked. I had already finished my food and was bored. I looked up to see the rest of the nine students looking at me, some curiously, others thoughtfully and Sakura just downright pissed at whoever spoke considering the massive scowl that had developed on her face. "Are you comfortable being here? With us?" Keiko asked me.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I replied, lying effortlessly. It most certainly was not comfortable, but that was only for me to know.

"Ah, I just thought since we are all friends here, and well you are…" Keiko tried to say, but she trailed off at the end. I simply nodded in response. I was known as the Demon of Class E, the delinquent no one wanted to approach.

Denji backed her up, swinging an arm around my shoulder as he shouted loudly "We wouldn't want you being uncomfortable around us dude, so what she says. We are all friends here, right?"

No, we most certainly were not, specifically after trying to ignore the daggers Sakura was shooting me with her gaze. Sakura was trying to burn me alive, that or she was trying to curse me forever, and her brother Shirou was just trying to do some damage control as he looked at me apologetically.

"Yeah, fair enough I guess. But like I said, I'm comfortable enough as it is, no need really," I replied, shrugging my shoulders at them all. "Still, I should be asking if you guys are comfortable being around me. I'm not exactly the most popular or easy guy to get along with, and if you guys are uncomfortable being around me that's cool."

It would sting, but that's fine.

Not like I helped my reputation in the first place.

Thankfully, no one seemed to care about that or even me in general. Perhaps it was the fact that we lived in two completely separate worlds, I wasn't going to lie and say that I hung out in the cafeteria or 'playground' during break and lunchtime. I was either on the school roof, looking at the clouds, or I was stuck in detention.

The people I beat up were idiots who came to challenge me… and the people that I bullied were people who 'annoyed' me - Because they were brave enough to try and challenge my authority. While I might have shared classes with a few people within this group, apart from that I would never have had the chance to interact with them.

In that sense, for a lot of them, I was just a myth.

Miwa's delinquent brother.

A classmate who's a troublemaker.

The bastard with a million rumours swirling around him.

I wasn't the prick that had broken their arm, the bastard that looked down on them, the smug cunt that pushed in front of them in the queue, the one that constantly belittled them and made them feel like shit. Sure, they had heard the rumours, but they didn't care about them.

I could see it in the way they laughed around me, almost as if I were a part of their group.

Funny that.

"Yamazaki," Sui called out to me. "You saw the game last night?" I nodded. FC Tokyo against Gamba Osaka, leading to a three-nil win for FC Tokyo.

"Yeah, it was a cool game I guess," I replied. "But I was too busy watching Liverpool smack United's arse. Five goals. Five. The last time that happened, I was watching the game at Anfield-,"

Shit.

"You've been to Anfield?" Sui asked me, clearly surprised.

"Uh-, Yeah?" My voice was a higher pitch compared to before as I scratched the back of my head nervously. Fuck. How do I get out of this?! "I support Liverpool, and my dad took me up North-, I mean England once to watch them play."

"Huh. That's pretty cool," Denji said with a big grin on his face. "But I saw the Red Sox play live. And that's way cooler."

After that, everyone seemed at ease with my presence as they all developed into their own conversations, with the only ones not really partaking all that much being the twins, Sakura and Shirou…

The rest of the students sometimes asked my opinions on things, like my thoughts on a celebrity, or a pro-hero stuck in controversy and even my favourite type of drink. It was just small talk, but I couldn't say that I didn't enjoy it.

Eventually, our teacher finally came back and told us to get ready for a late start at one after the agency had their lunch break. As I looked at the time on my phone, a simple one with some random brand I had never heard of before, I saw that we had forty minutes before it started.

And so I did what any normal person would do, I laid my head on the table and slept.

---

-amazaki-san! Yamazaki-san, wake up or we will be late!"

I opened my eyes to Keiko, shaking me, I could see worry on her face. "Jeez, I've been trying to wake you up for the last five minutes. How good was your dream?"

Rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment, I thanked her. "Thanks. To be honest, I can't even remember my dream. I think it was something about a talking cat. "

Keiko smiled a little as she replied "I thought I was going to have to use my Quirk to scare you awake for a hot moment. Miwa said you hate horror movies, however, so I thought I wouldn't scare you this time."

I laughed a little at that joke. "Yeah, probably for the best. I don't think you'd appreciate it if I woke up screaming about murder aiming to punch your face as hard as I can." Keiko giggled some more as she walked with me towards the group.

I was rubbing my eyes as I saw Sakura glare at me once again. Whatever her problem was she needed to sort it out. I didn't even realise she had gone to the same middle school as me before coming on this trip, so what did I ever do to her?!

"Yosh!" Renji shouted, raising his hand up in the air. "Now we can finally begin our training

trip!"

Denji sighed as he smacked his friend on the head lightly. "Idiot, this is work experience. Not a 'training trip'. How the hell did they allow you of all people to get in here?"

Before Renji could reply, Jiro smacked both of their heads jokingly as she muttered, "Didn't you almost fail Japanese literature class last semester?" Denji spluttered as Renji rolled around in laughter, right before our teacher whispered for them to take this seriously.

"So class," our teacher started. "Today begins your week-long work experience, now I expect you all to be on your best behaviour, okay?"

We all nodded.

"Excellent then. Oh and remember, not only do you represent our school but you also represent yourselves. Bad actions here may result in your future being impacted, so keep that in mind. Now, after the day finishes I'll be waiting here for you all as I'll show you the way to the hotel before splitting you all off into groups of two."

I tuned him out as I pulled out my phone and checked my emails. There weren't many games that were on sale, although the Golden Week sales were beginning to start. Unluckily, despite it being a week since my Golden Week, here I was planning to go on a school trip to the Endeavour agency.

Perhaps our trip should have occurred during our reading week, and not a week after, but then and again I was just a student. Tch. At least I was missing out on a normal week of school, that was better than nothing-,

Ping

Wait, that was-

Ping

Sure enough, I just got two messages on my phone. Swiping down, my eyes widened as I saw who messaged me.

Miwa - 12:54

Sora

Good luck with your work experience today!

Miwa - 12:55

P.S I snuck in some extra sweets in your bag :)

Sure enough, as I opened my bag I saw that my stash was extended even further. I grinned as I replied back to her with a thank you.

"Oi, Yamazaki, were you listening?" Keiko asked me. I shook my head and she smiled a little. "Ah, same here. I dislike it when sensei drones on like that, it's not like we misbehave or anything, so I don't see the point in it."

"I guess so," I replied. Pulling out a bag of sour sweets, I opened it before offering some to Keiko. "Want some? Miwa gave em' to me," I asked, offering her a few sweets. Keiko thanked me as she took a few before eating them, her face scrunching up once the sourness kicked in. I laughed at her face, she looked constipated. "Ah, my bad. Should have warned you they were sour." I said, and she nodded in between wiping away her tears.

"You think?!"

As we followed the group into the building, she stuck with me near the back for a while which confused me. Her friends were ahead of us, and sometimes turned back and looked at us before giggling.

Was I missing a memo?

"So, uhm, Yamazaki, are you excited about the work experience?"

I nodded at that.

"I guess. About as excited as I could be considering we'll probably be doing paperwork for the whole day," I answered, throwing another sweet in the air and catching it with my mouth. "Oh, and it's Sora. Calling me by my second name just annoys me. Are you excited? For the trip I mean."

Keiko giggled at that.

"Fine then, Sora," Keiko emphasised my name, before smiling softly at the building ahead of us. "And yeah, I'm excited. When I grow up, I ideally want to go into finance and this is a big step toward my goal. Not to mention I'm away from home and with my friends. Apart from Miwa not being here, what more could a gal ask for?"

I shrugged my shoulders at that.

"I dunno. Why are you asking me?"

"It was rhetorical."

"Oh."

Keiko giggled at me again, this time her smile was directed at me.

"And your frown's returned. I hope it's not directed towards me, or I'll tell your sister and you'll be her problem to deal with." Keiko joked.

"Listen, if you tell Miwa, everything I own will be binned. I'd rather you message my parents instead of telling Miwa. I'm pretty sure she's a sadist and enjoys dishing out pain, or maybe she just enjoys torturing me that much." Keiko and I laughed at that.

"Is that so? Well, maybe next time I come to yours we should see how long Miwa will take me to speak to you without wanting to hurt us." Keiko teased, taking a step closer towards me. Our shoulders were brushing against each other. Huh. I took a step to the right, making sure that we had enough space.

Us…

"Yeah, maybe that would be fun. Haha. Anyway, I have to go and call my parents. Talk to you later, haha!" I told her, pressing my phone against my ear and walking away from her. I might be an idiot sometimes, but I wasn't that dumb. Brushing shoulders? Teasing me? I mean sure, I've never had a girlfriend, but those were signs…

Right?

"Dude, you alright?"

I turned around to see Jiro with her hands in her pockets, headphones wrapped around her neck and a dark purple beanie on her head which complimented the rest of her outfit. A navy blue denim jacket, a black t-shirt about some random band I had never heard of, blue jeans and white shoes. Not to mention the number of pins she had attached to her denim jacket was also music-oriented.

"Yeah. I'm good." I replied, lowering my phone and putting it in my pocket.

"Alright. It's just I saw you run away from Keiko like you had found out she was a fifty-year-old woman or something," Jiro joked, "You sure you good?"

I nodded.

"Peachy. Just… It's weird. Was she trying to flirt with me?!"

Jiro snorted at that.

"Of course. Dude. Have you not heard of Keiko?"

"Uh, should I have?" I asked warily, scratching the back of my head. "I think I saw her once when she visited Miwa like a few months ago. It's not like I really care who Miwa's friends are."

Jiro rolled her eyes at me, but she still stuck around as she explained it to me. We were about the same height, which was fair considering I was pretty short for a thirteen - nearly fourteen-year-old boy. Perhaps it was the way she tilted her head, studying me for a few seconds before smiling at me, or maybe it was the quiet but still present music being played from her headphones.

Old school rock.

Neat.

I was more of a rap fan myself, however.

"Keiko's reputation is… well she's had five boyfriends in the past six months. I don't think I need to spell out what that means…" This time, I tilted my head to the left and stared at Jiro in confusion.

"So what? A thirteen-year-old has had a few boyfriends, big fucking deal. Why are you making it sound like it's a bad thing?" I asked her. Seriously, why would I care about what people did in their own time?

"B-but, you know, I thought boys hated girls who…" Jiro trailed off near the end, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. I sighed, shaking my head as I stared directly at her. I'd explain it to her simply.

"Listen, the boys who say they don't want a girl who 'gets around' are arrogant dumbasses who get around themselves or are insecure," I told her simply. "But in this case, Keiko's thirteen. What do you think a thirteen-year-old relationship is like? Worst case scenario they kissed, that's hardly something to be squeamish about. I get that you don't want to be unpopular or some shit, most girls ain't a fan of rock music in our school or even appreciate your aesthetic, but don't be a pick-me-girl."

"H-huh? What does that even mean?"

Uh.

Fuck.

I forgot I was talking to a thirteen-year-old.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just being a silly cunt as usual," I waved her over to the rest of the group and sighed. "Let's just go and worry about our school trip."

---

Up the lift, up the lift, up the lift!

Perhaps I had undiagnosed ADHD, my fingers drumming against the escalator as we made our way up the building. Keiko was a little bit up ahead, she was now with her friends giggling a bunch, sometimes sneaking a few looks my way, her face flustered.

And then I looked away, probably blushing.

Well, hopefully not.

I was more worried about the trip, however. A business-centred work experience in the Hero industry is what was promised, but how far would it actually go? Would it be in detail? Probably not, but I was still curious.

I mean "technically" we were thirteen, Well the rest of my classmates were since I was turning fourteen in a few days, but even then it's not like we were supposed to understand how the economy works - No matter how smart they may be!

And the only reason I understood it was that I had a previous life's worth of experiences to back me up. We were led into a big room with lots of chairs and tables, and a few people in suits already inside sorting through some piles.

"Uhh - Ah, I forgot the work experience was starting today." A younger man began, he had short dirty blonde hair and green eyes, however, his left eye was covered completely by his hair. "Hello all, my name is Gingko Sorachi, a pleasure to meet you all. Please sit down anywhere. Uhm, I'll sort you into groups later after I'm done with my explanation."

I sat down in front of me, unfortunately, due to a lack of space Sakura also had to sit at my table, However, that quickly changed when Denji also sat down there, brightening my mood a little more as he waved at me. When Jiro sat down at my table as well I felt my soul leaving my body, but it wasn't that bad. But it got worse as Keiko broke off from her giggling group to sit right next to me.

"So," Gingko began this time with a presentation behind him. "Your week-long business work experience will be divided into groups. Despite how I look, I actually work with Endeavour himself when discussing our quarterly earnings, with our accountants included yearly, which is one of the many responsibilities I have as the head of the finance department here. The two people currently sitting with you will be your 'teams' for the next week, there will be no opportunity to change it so please act accordingly."

I sighed.

Keiko I could handle it, but Sakura? At least Denji and Jiro were with me.

"Now, how it will work is simple. Since there are three teams of three, and one left out, that one person will help out my personal assistant in assistance paperwork, with some opportunities to work with a team of their choosing." Ginkgo said to the odd one left out, the other twin.

Great, now I'm gonna have both of them to annoy me.

"But, for the rest of you, I have specifically hand-picked some people who are linked to sidekicks here and you will be working as a team with both for the week. Excited? You should be, not to mention on Wednesday we will have a special surprise for you all."

I was ecstatic, a chance to work with a sidekick? Building links before I'm even enrolled in UA, man, I sure felt like Lelouch right now. I only needed my Suzaku, or preferably my C.2…

"Of course, it won't be easy. We will be testing and developing your entire skill set, something that will be important when you choose to go into the working world." At this point I tuned Gingko out, It wasn't worth paying any more concentration to this. It was standard garble that nearly everyone said, blah blah, let's move on to good stuff.

Eventually, he parted ways with us and three pairs of both sidekicks in their costumes, and normal-ish people in suits came in.

We had to present ourselves as team leaders, each highlighting ourselves in order to attract which pair would want us the most.

An interview.

I groaned as our group was told to go first. I glanced at Keiko who was playing with her fingers nervously, while Sakura was as unfazed as ever. I leaned back on my chair, thinking hard about what to say. Denj could only laugh at my expense as he looked at the expression on my face.

Should I go all in? Or act reserved, but confident? Arrogant? So many ways to present me, and so little time…

Unfortunately, in my past life, I never had an official job, so I had no clue about what to do in this situation. I was too young to have worked, or perhaps that was my excuse so I could be lazy and waste my life away. But this interview…

It was like walking into a battlefield blind, with only twelve bullets and a combat knife, whilst set on fire.

Okay, maybe not that extreme, but it was close.

Once our prep time was done, we stood up and walked to the front, with me going last and Sakura and Keiko being first and second. Jiro and Denji were going to go after us, which made me sigh once again.

Why couldn't I be with them?

"My name is Sakura, I like some things, and I dislike certain people. You should consider picking my team due to my excellent managerial skills, and mental math experience with my father's shop making me an invaluable member of any team."

Very strict, if I was the judge I would disqualify her.

"Hello all, I'm Uzumaki Keiko and, uhm, my team would be a great fit for you all due to my adaptability and ability to think on the spot quickly and efficiently, along with my experience in drama during school I can remain calm and composed in most situations and provide valuable support."

Cool.

Wait, was it me next?

All the eyes in the room shifted towards me, and I gulped. I couldn't mess up now.

"Uhm, yo-, I mean salutations to everyone. You may call me Sora Yamazaki, and ultimately my team is a great pick due to my extensive experience in teamwork from my football club and my determination to be as productive as possible!" I said, lying effortlessly near the end.

My classmates were grinning slightly once they heard the last thing I had said, and well I couldn't blame them.

However, lying during an interview was a necessary skill to have! I think...

As a team we sat back down, while the other two teams went up and presented themselves, however, I was constantly distracted by the pair closest to us.

The sidekick was a woman, with fiery greenish hair, and red-orange eyes, she looked really fierce. And she was staring right at our team with a grin as if she was about the devour us like prey. Probably a hardcore dominatrix-

Please, I was only fourteen! Have mercy!

Her light-grey jacket covered most of her body, with her collar, beaky and wrist guards black with a thin red line through it, and on top of her face was a black mask, eerily similar to someone that I knew was important.

Next to her chair was a fire extinguisher, which was never a good sign, especially with fire Quirks. I gulped once again, this time however Sakura noticed my predicament and glared right at the sidekick, only causing her to grin at us even more.

It was unnerving, unnatural even, Why was I surrounded by a bunch of psychopaths?

Of course, that sidekick and her pair, a middle-aged man that looked both sleepy and depressed with purple hair, and heavy bags, chose our team.

This was either going to go brilliantly, or horribly.

The first thing the sidekick did was introduce herself, nearly making my ears bleed in the process. "Yo, I'm the sidekick known as Burnin. I have a badass fire Quirk, powerful enough to maybe burn down a building in an accident, but also powerful enough to deal with any villain too! That's why I carry this around at all times, to keep me from getting too hot. Plus it fits my aesthetic." She said, pointing at her fire extinguisher.

The other member stood up next to her, his face clearly used to her antics as he introduced himself as Daisuke Shinso, something having sparked within me as he said that name.

It felt… familiar.

"Hello all, I'll be the one you will be working with the most during your work experience trip. Burnin here is my client, on the business side of things, I guess you call me her agent, technically speaking I handle all the damages she may cause, not to mention any branding deal she has, currently or in the future. Our relationship is an important part here, and I want you all to not only understand this but form some of your own bonds with the rest of your teammates since we will be working on group tasks." He explained to us.

I nodded, glancing to my left where Sakura was making notes, and on my right, Keiko was smiling softly, her eyes showing fierce determination. Denji nodded, although I could tell he was distracted and Jiro looked completely in the zone as she stared at the man in front of us.

"Now, I know you all introduced yourselves, but we, that is Burnin and me, would like to know more about your aspirations in the future, and what you would like to learn from this work experience."

Sakura went first, her hands trembling slightly as she looked at the sidekick. Huh, weird. "Well, I wish to develop my skills regarding finance, and in the future, I would like to help my father's business." She said politely, surprising me.

I would have at least thought she would have sneered once, but no, she was polite - Just not to me.

Burnin's face fell slightly, probably hoping for something to do with heroics, but Daisuke smiled slightly. "Well I believe you came to the right place Sakura-san, luckily Finance is my speciality, but you already knew that I hope."

Daisuke motioned for me to go next, nodding as I stood up awkwardly and gave a thumbs up. "Uhm, for this work experience, I don't really have a goal. But for the future, I do want to be a hero."

Burnin grinned at my statement, holding her hand out for a high five. "C'mon kid, I'll show you the ropes… or as much as I can. I can't promise any fighting, but I'll try and find some time to tell you some tips and tricks. That's good for you, right?"

I nodded, thanking her. "Well Yamazaki-san, I can't promise that I'll be able to help you fully, but as Burnin said, I can help you in some areas regarding hero work," Daisuke said to me. "You're next."

Keiko, timidly standing up, spoke softly when it came to her turn. "I-, uhm. I wish to gain links with this agency, so uhm, in the future once I get more experience in finance I could possibly work across the country, just not here in Musutafu."

Daisuke nodded, taking a few notes on the board he was holding. "Yeah, that's fine. It's important to network, especially at your age. Having links is important to the future, so any questions about networking can be asked directly to me." He said to Keiko, before turning to Denji.

Denji didn't need to hear him say anything as he stood up from his seat and told us his goals for the future.

"I want to learn how to manage, sir! And in the future, I want to play baseball professionally, if I'm talented enough to make it to the big leagues." Denji told everyone confidently.

"I see. Neither Burnin' nor I can do anything about that baseball dream of yours, but I can definitely help give you some experience when it comes to managing tasks and people. And finally, you on the far right."

Jiro cleared her throat as she stepped forward.

"Like Yamazaki said, I wish to be a hero in the future."

Burnin grinned at her.

"Awesome. I'll be sure to give you a few tips."

Daisuke hummed in response. "Excellent, now this will be more of an introduction day before we really get you into the swing of things tomorrow. Now, if you will please follow me, we will start your task for today." He told us all.

We followed the indigo-haired man as he led us through the building into presumably his office. It was a small room, with large piles of paper on his desk, enough to nearly cover the one picture he had.

Inside was him, presumably his wife who was a bluenette with gold eyes, while a smaller purple-haired boy who looked remarkably like Daisuke, probably his son, grinning at the camera. "Sorry for the mess," Daisuke apologised to us. "Usually, people don't really visit my office. Honestly, if my wife saw the mess I was in right now she'd have a real pickle. Not to mention my son… Ah, here it is!" He exclaimed, holding three sheets of paper.

He handed us each one, explaining them as he did.

"This is a timetable of what I have decided for you all. As you can see, today you will be helping me file some documents regarding property damage. Nothing important mind you, but it's good to get into the swing of mundane tasks like this, especially if you are thinking of getting into finance. Now, tomorrow through Thursday, you will all be working on a project that you will present to me regarding the financial position of the Endeavour agency, with some predictions for the future. A Cash Flow Forecast would be nice if you know how to do one, and of course, feel free to ask for statistics regarding Burnin from me. After this, Friday to Saturday will be much easier for you all, just some simple information gathering on the internet regarding what you think we can improve on from an outsider's perspective. Questions?" He asked us.

I raised my hand. I was not listening to a single thing he had just said. "Just one," I said. "When do we start?" Daisuke grinned as he pulled three seats next to his desk.

"You already have." Was the reply, his face lighting up as he said that in glee as he gave each of us our own pile.

Great, we had a real riot here.

I groaned. It had been two hours since the start of paperwork duty, and I was already bored out of my mind. Daisuke had already left to get coffee, leaving the five of us in the room without any supervision. Burnin had left ages ago, saying she was going on patrol.

Lucky.

I was so bored I thought of bringing out my phone, or my portable games console. It was no PSP or a DS, but it did the job as I played Monster Island, a knock-off Pokemon with light story elements. Eventually, I chose against it, it would be awkward if Daisuke walked into the room and saw me slacking off work to me either cruising on my phone or catching cute monsters.

"Pst," I whispered to the Ito girl next to me. Sakura barely registered me as she flipped to the next page of her document, making me sigh even more.

Really, ignoring me? Such juvenile behaviour...

"Hey, come on Ito-chan. Please answer me, I'm bored-" Sakura snapped as she chucked her pen at me.

"Oops, I must have dropped it. Say, Yamazaki-san, could please be a hero and pick it up for me." She said venomously.

Keiko giggled at our antics as she retrieved the Ikari girl's pen instead of mine. "Here you go, Sakura. Please do be more careful not to drop it next time."

Sakura glared at Keiko, but what surprised me was Keiko glaring back at her. Uhm, they definitely had a history, that I was sure of. Tensions died and eventually, it all went back to normal, much to my relief. Denji snorted at that as he scrunched up a ball of paper and threw it at me.

I had the decency to lob it back at him, laughing as it hit him square on the forehead.

Jiro giggled at us beside me.

Eventually, I got bored again and hummed to myself loudly.

"Psst. Keiko," I said to the friendly, timid girl on my right. "How are you finding this?" I asked her.

She motioned to her pile with a small frown. "Just like you and Sakura-"

"Don't call me that, Uzumaki," Sakura whispered in cold fury.

Keiko frowned some more as she hesitantly nodded, replying back to the girl "Sure. Whatever tantrum you want to throw today, just make sure not to start a fight again."

Was it just me or did the room suddenly get colder? I whistled nervously as the two girls next to me were staring daggers directly at each other, something that I was positively sure could end in a brawl. Jiro shrugged her shoulders at me, turning back to her work as she ignored the drama unfolding in the room.

Denji was on his phone, recording the whole thing presumably so he could send it to his friends.

I rolled my eyes at them.

Was I really going to have to act like an adult here?

"Now, now children. Remember we are in an agency, not in school. So let's all behave." I tried to say, but it did nothing to defuse the situation. Thankfully, both Keiko and Sakura ignored each other for the time being, instead choosing to head back to their pile of paperwork.

I sighed.

Silently I started to count penguins in my head. Anything to get away from the small print on the palate in front of me.

One Penguin!

Two Penguins!

Three Penguins!

Four Penguins!

Five Penguins!

Six Penguins!

Seven Penguins!

Eight Penguins!

Nine-

"God dang it! Please just kill me now, this pile is not ending." Denji moaned.

"Yeah, dude. I just want to blow my fucking brains out." I added with a sigh.

Snap!

I looked around confused. What the hell was that? Keiko was also looking owlishly around, looking at me confusingly. Eventually, I found the cause of the sound, Sakura Ito, who was holding her pen so hard it broke.

Her knuckles were white as she whispered furiously, "Don't joke about that."

"Joke about what?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head.

"You know what, you bastard," Sakura told me, storming away from her chair. The ink from the pen was mixed with a dark red, presumably her blood. I winced at that, but I was nonetheless confused.

What the hell did I say to get a trigger reaction? Keiko was looking at me sadly as she said "You know that wasn't a nice Yamazaki-kun. Sakura doesn't like those things, I don't need to remind you why."

"Huh, what are you talking about? I'm confused as to what just happened?" I replied. I turned around to look at Denji who shrugged his shoulders at me, equally confused. Jiro had slipped her headphones on and was working while ignoring us all, which was fair, to be honest.

At this rate, she was the only one who was going to get any work done.

Keiko's eyes widened at me as she stuttered out "Uhm, I mean don't worry. It's, uhm, it's nothing. Just… Just don't bring up suicide in front of her again. We may not get along but… Listen I've made a mistake like that as well."

"What about her brother? Shirou, right?" I asked.

Keiko nodded at that as well. "Yes, with Shirou-kun as well. It's… It's complicated."

I nodded before sighing. Now I felt like a prick.

No doubt Sakura now thought I had sided with Keiko in whatever their feud was, I mean I would think of the same thing. From the sounds of it, Keiko made a similar mistake to me as well, which led to their current predicament. I groaned, tapping my pen against the desk as I thought about what to do…

'Be kind, Sora.'

"Sorry, I have to breathe some fresh air for a bit, I'll be back soon," I said to Keiko before following the Ito girl. Being guilty wasn't something I particularly enjoyed, and neither was being an insensitive person. Maybe I did have the emotional range of a read spoon? No, I didn't know.

But that shouldn't be my excuse, right?

It was a tasteless joke in the first place.

I left Keiko, Denji and Jiro alone in the room as I went down the corridor, looking for any signs from my classmate. My shoulders were slumped slightly, and I still felt very guilty. Didn't I say I was going to be better?

To be kinder?

How could I be a Hero when I still hurt people?

"Gah, stupid pen!" I heard someone yell. Sure enough, the staff toilet was wide open with Sakura standing at the sink. Tears in her green eyes as she washed her hands from the mix of ink and blood.

My mouth opened, but it quickly shut at the sight of her. What would I say? Fortunately, I didn't have to say much as she turned to see me, tears trailing down her face.

"Go away."

I didn't move an inch. Blood was still pouring from her wound.

"I said go away-"

I cut her off, "Are you alright?" She blinked at my statement, before chuckling coldly.

"Take a guess? Here to say something else Hm? Maybe talk about my father's business-''

I cut her off again.

"None of that. I just, uhm…" I trailed off near the end. Why was this so hard?

"Great, going to gloat that you made a girl cry?" She spat at me. I winced, from her perspective, I was the bad guy.

No, I was the bad guy.

"Sorry," I managed to say. "I-, I didn't know that you would take it poorly. I, uhm, I didn't mean to offend you. Sorry."

She was momentarily taken back, allowing her face to fall slightly, before huffing out "Yeah well a sorry isn't going to fix this!"

"I can help ya' know? I know some basic first aid." I offered, Sakura paused slightly before hesitantly nodding. Grabbing some tissue, I wrapped her hand around with it, applying some pressure.

It stopped the blood from clotting or something right? Science wasn't, and still isn't my strong suit, even as a self-proclaimed prodigy. Neither was medicine, I barely knew anything about it apart from wrapping up injuries.

"There should be fine. Sorry once again, I was stupid." I muttered to her, shoving my hands in my pockets.

"... it's fine," She said to me after a while. "I-, thank you. For apologising, but also for helping me. Most people ignore me, or laugh at me, no doubt because of her. Did that cow even care, I bet she didn't."

Cow? Who the hell was she talking about-

"You mean Keiko?" I asked.

Ito nodded at me, growling slightly as she brushed her purple hair away from her eyes.

"That cow has always had it out for me. Honestly, I wouldn't have put it past her to tell you about it after she's been flirty with you. Please Yamazaki-san, do not take that cow lightly. She never knows where the limit is, and because of that she can be a nasty person."

I shrugged, not really sure what she was saying. "Uhm, okay sure. But are you okay?" I asked once again.

A small smile crept on top of her face. "Yes. Uhm, I also would like to apologise to you." She said so quietly I nearly missed it.

"For what?" I asked. "I was the prick, and not to mention probably deserved it."

She shook her head.

"No, I antagonised you for no reason. I took the rumours about you at face value, after all, how could a delinquent like you be invited here, Not to mention I accepted them so easily without any regard for your feelings. No doubt it made you angry towards me. Which is why I have to apologise for acting on my assumptions." Sakura said to me, twiddling her thumbs anxiously.

Great, now I feel worse.

"It's okay," I said, scratching the back of my head awkwardly. "I mean, I was a delinquent. I got into fights constantly, disregarded the rules and bullied a lot of people who probably didn't deserve it. But, I'm trying to change, trying to be better than just acting like a prick to everyone for no reason. I want to be kind." I needed to fully understand that these were people and not characters.

Sakura was hurt over my comment, thus she wasn't some random character that had no name in canon.

Miwa texted me today to say good luck, she also was not a side character. Keiko, acting nice to me also wasn't from a faceless character. Denji and Jiro, the two other people in our group, were also a riot to be with.

They were all like me, human.

And I was going to do better.

I was going to be kinder, just like Gekko and Hinata tried to teach me. I was going to be kinder so that Miwa wouldn't have to be ashamed for having me as a brother. I was going to be kinder because I didn't want to hurt anyone else anymore.

"But," I said. "That doesn't excuse my actions towards you. And you don't have to apologise to me, I do deserve it."

Sakura nodded slightly as she raised her bandaged hand. "Uhm, a 'prick' as you called yourself, wouldn't have apologised to me. And a delinquent wouldn't have helped patch me up. You already are an alright person Yamazaki-san. So please, do give yourself credit. As the face of your tutor group, RB, you need to take more pride in yourself." She told me plainly.

I grinned a little.

'Ya know, maybe Sakura Ito wasn't as bad as I thought.

"I guess, so wanna head back, or do you want to stay a little longer?" I asked.

Sakura shook her head as she answered, "I'm fine now, Let's go back before Shinso-Sensei shouts at us, it would be bad if we made the wrong impression."

Right, we were at work experience.

Paperwork…

Fuck.

---

"Tick, tock, the clock ran up the spider~The clock struck one, and it impaled the spider~" I sang while filling the huge mountain in front of me. Keiko giggled at my antics, meanwhile, Sakura smiled a little.

"You can't sing," Jiro told me plainly. "You're tone deaf. Please, don't do that ever again."

"Bullshit! Bro's a great singer!" Denji shot back.

Inwardly I grinned, things were so much less awkward now. Daisuke on the other hand… well, he was a big pain in our arses.

"Yamazaki-san, please do not disturb the rest of us. I understand this isn't the most interesting thing in the world, but it's still important. So please, do try to concentrate."

I rolled my eyes for the fifth time as I saluted him. "Yes Sensei, of course!" He rolled my eyes at my antics, but the grin on his face told me it was working. Maybe he would loosen up? I know we were annoying kids to him, but he didn't need to treat us like we were idiots.

A few jokes here and there would make a big difference ya' know.

After Daisuke heard what had happened he quickly asked Sakura if she wanted to report me, which made me anxious, but she politely declined. I then had a serious talk with the older man, and I also apologised to him for nearly disturbing the work experience.

He quickly brushed it off, however, saying all of us make mistakes and as long as we learn from them, it's good. Plus he told me it would be a pain, causing more palate work if he did choose to report me to my teacher.

I thanked him once again, before going back to work diligently on the pile in front of me…

Only fifteen minutes later to be bored once again. Seriously, how did he stand this? I would have hoped to see the hotel we were going to be staying at, but instead, I'd probably be sleeping in this office for the night, going over the damned paperwork!

I sighed.

I totally did not see this coming, which made it all the worse as I looked at the time. Four pm, which meant that Miwa had already finished school for the day. No doubt she was at home, either revising for the day or helping Hinata out with some chores, or she was watching the documentary we were watching about medical science.

Groaning, I looked around the office. Keiko and Sakura both had similar piles to mine, Keiko focusing so hard on her work that she didn't realise her knuckles were turning white - Or was the way she held the pen?

Sakura on the other hand had her brows furrowed so hard she looked… well I don't actually know what she looked like, probably a chipmunk or something. At least she wasn't in a bad mood anymore and was relaxing, even if only slightly.

Denji's pile was double the size of mine, somehow that boy hadn't done anything in the few hours we had spent here.

In fact, it was only Jiro who was close to finishing her pile. I had to hand it to the girl, she was a diligent worker. The fact that she managed to do all this without complaining once and kept her head down despite all the drama surprised me, I guess she was just that good.

Maybe I could ask her for concentration tips?

I groaned lightly as I leaned back on my chair, I just wished that I could use my Quirk and fly around or something! Anything better than this!

I quickly realised I was falling - Wait, why was I falling-,

"OW!" I yelled as I collapsed on the floor, clutching my head. Keiko giggled at my expression, Daisuke barely looked at me before sighing heavily, and Sakura looked at me in concern.

Denji snorted at me while Jiro looked my way in surprise.

"I think that's enough for today," Daisuke told us. "Good work you lot, looking forward to a full day tomorrow. Yamazaki, get yourself up from the floor and stop looking like a gaping fish. It's not cute."

…bastard-,

"Well brats, I didn't expect Daisuke to like you that much," I turned my head to see the grinning sidekick we had met earlier standing at the door, her face coated In what appeared to be sweat. "My patrol is over, so I'll be guiding you back to the rest of your class. Daisuke-kun has some work to do." She told us.

The man lightly groaned, banging his head on the table making his pile shake slightly. "Don't remind me. Go on then, and remember eight AM tomorrow, no excuses!"

We nodded, before packing up our things and following the sidekick. "So," I started. "How was your patrol?"

She grinned at me as she replied "Eager to know the trick of the trade, eh hero boy? Well to answer your question, it was the same as always, stop a few petty crimes and help a few grandmas down the street. It ain't much, but it's honest work."

I nodded. I had guessed that patrols were boring for heroes, I mean it sounded like glorified community service. At least you get paid though…

Eventually, we met up with the other seven members of our temporary class, and our teacher who was nervously glancing at his watch. "Ah, you're all here. Good, now we can go to the hotel."

Sakura met up with her brother, Shirou, who immediately clammed up as he looked at me. What was his problem with me?

Gulping I nodded at him, hoping to defuse the situation. Keiko unsurprisingly met her friends, leaving me alone. They all gave me a few glances, before giggling slightly and then ignoring me.

It was only Denji and Jiro who stood by my side awkwardly.

I sighed as I shoved my hands into my pockets, but a sudden ringing made me pull out my phone, nearly dropping it in the process. Damn it, that was nearly the third time this past week.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Sora-kun," Miwa said over the phone. "How was the first day?"

"Eh, it was fine. Just did some paperwork. How about school? Same as always?"

I could hear Hinata in the background, no doubt lecturing her husband on feet on top of the table. "Hm, it was the same as always Sora-kun. Although, Fujiwara-Sensei did highlight you as a key student in Maths class today. He even used your working out as an example of how to do algebra correctly." I grinned at that, just like my favourite teacher to constantly praise me!

Honestly, the man was a godsend. Even allowing me to go on the trip, despite massive outcry from the rest of the staff, the man believed in me. He really was excellent at his job.

"Anyway Sora-kun, did you meet the big boss himself?"

I sighed sadly.

"Unfortunately no, but if I do I'll try and get you an autograph. Though I did meet Burnin, she's kinda like one of the people in charge of me here. I can get you something cool from her if you want?"

She squealed over the phone. "Burnin? As in the Burnin? The sidekick? Why didn't you start off with that right away? Yes please, I would love it! Burnin inspired me lately, I even bought her plushie line." I grinned.

Leave it to Miwa to fangirl over a hero.

"No problem, I'll get you a video of her as well. Cool? Anyway, how's Hinata and Gekko? I think I heard them a while ago, but what's it like now?" The phone shuffled slightly as Hinata got on the phone.

"Sora? We told you to message us and call us as soon as possible, Goodness it's nearly five!? You had us worried for a second, we thought a villain attack had occurred." Leave it to my Mum to be concerned when I was just halfway across the city.

"Eh, we'll be fine, after all, we do have Endeavour here. Anyway, I'll call you guys back properly when I get to the hotel. Bye!"

I closed my phone as we walked out of the agency, and turned a left towards the hotel. It looked fairly standard, with a nice entrance and a long, very expensive reception table with three women sitting inside.

The hotel wasn't packed, rather it was empty. Our teacher got on with talking to one of the ladies, and each of us got into small groups as they looked around the hotel. Apparently, we were getting put into rooms based on gender since there were only ten of us.

Thus it would be Sui, Denji, Renji, myself and Shirou sharing a room.

Shirou looked at me nervously as he realised that himself.

Hey, maybe I could ease him into this?

"So, uhm, roommates?" I said to him awkwardly.

Shirou nodded as he replied "Roommates."

Well, that was better than nothing.

Grabbing my bag from the area we had left our bags in the hotel, I followed my roommates to our room. It was quite spacious with five single beds and a big TV mounted on the wall. I whistled in surprise as I peeked into our bathroom. They had a bathtub and a shower in here. Not to mention the hot springs on the first floor…

We were rolling in luxury!

Denji grinned as he jumped on his bed without hesitation.

"Guys!" Renji yelled excitedly, pointing at the TV as he switched through the channels. "We can watch TV at night without anyone telling us off! Odds on we put on Visney Channel?"

Sui scoffed at that.

"I have football to watch."

"Yeah, but we can watch Ferbius and Phin!"

Shirou walked around the room quite skittish, perhaps it was the fact that he was sharing a room with four other people, or considering he took the bed furthest away from me - It was likely because he was sharing a room with me. I wanted to reach out and say something, but what would be the point?

I already hurt his sister's feelings, why hurt his?

There wasn't any point in me doing anything to help him.

Sighing, I sat on the edge of my bed as I watched everyone in my room have fun with each other. Even Shirou eventually got involved with the fun, which made me smile. At least I wasn't ruining the experience for him. So long as I stayed outside of it, maybe they could all have a good time-,"

"Hey! Yamazaki, come on over!"

Shirou, the pink-haired boy that I was sure hated me, threw his pillow right at me.

…

…

…

I couldn't help but chuckle as I grabbed the pillow back up from the floor and threw it right back at Shirou. I was wrong. Not everyone hated me. That was just my arrogance and self-loathing talking - I wasn't the person I once was.

I had learnt my lesson.

I could be better.

"You're gonna pay for that!" I told Shirou, jumping into the fray as I put him into a deadlock. Sui tackled the two of us as Denji ran around the room with a clean towel and whipped anyone he could on the back as hard as he could. It was only Renji who was surfing the channels, but even then he was forced to get involved as we all dragged him on the floor.

Laughter was all you could hear in our room, and even when people started knocking on our door we ignored them as we continued to fight each other playfully. Eventually, Sui and Denji went to search for other things to do in the hotel while Renji went to get call his parents, leaving only Shirou and I alone in the room.

We laid down on the floor adjacently in comfortable silence.

"Thank you for helping my sister today," Shirou told me out of breath as we stared at the ceiling. "I understand she may have been rude to you, however for you to help my sister and apologise is more than she or I could have asked for. Really man, thanks. That's quite heroic of you.!"

I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment. "Really man, it's not that big of a deal."

"Agree to disagree then. Shall we get to unpacking our bags?"

I nodded, helping him get up from the ground.

Shirou was a solidly built dude, taller than me, standing at five-foot-seven while I was five-foot-three, small for a fourteen-year-old unfortunately. His suitcase was way more organised than mine, only packing the bare essentials and nothing else.

Luckily, I had a spare packet of sweets or ones that I didn't like all that much as I tossed it to him. "Here, have some." Shirou thanked me as he opened the packet and ate some.

Eventually, I started charging my phone and went to the balcony. It was starting to get dark, we were nearing closer to nearing eight PM now. The busy streets of Musatafu weren't so busy anymore, on the other side of the city, Miwa was probably eating dinner with Hinata and Gekko.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Shirou asked me, leaning against the balcony alongside me.

I nodded at that, staring at the city that was illuminated by its lights. Well, that was what happened with any city, but I guess with Musutafu it was a lot more beautiful. I mean, this was my city after all.

"Yeah, guess I'm a city boy through and through," I replied.

He leaned out of the balcony, his eyes wide open. "See over there?" He asked me, pointing at an area near the West side of the city. "That's where I live, or close enough. My sister and I live on top of my dad's shop in a pretty busy street."

"What does your dad do?" I asked, before quickly rephrasing after realising how stupid I sounded. "Like, what does he sell in his shop I mean?"

Shirou replied "Electronics, repairs, things like that. It used to be popular a few years ago, before… anyway. What about you, what does your dad do?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I live with my adoptive parents, and my adoptive Dad is a doctor. My adoptive Mum is a teacher at an elementary school. What about your Mum?" I asked.

His face lowered slightly as he didn't reply for a while. "We don't have a mum. She… she died a few years ago. A villain attack was nearby, and it left my dad paralysed from the waist down, causing his shop to dramatically decrease in terms of actual sales. She… yeah, it doesn't matter."

Shit, inwardly I slapped myself. That should have been obvious, from the way his sister reacted earlier…

"Sorry to hear that," I apologised.

Shirou shook his head, grinning as he said, "It was a while ago. Unlike my sister, I wasn't close to my mum at all. She constantly took Sakura out for trips and whatnot, while I stayed and helped my dad work, even now I help out in fixing stuff."

"That's cool," I said. "I'd love to fix stuff, but unfortunately it seems all I do is break them."

Shirou slapped my back as he joked "You should visit my dad's shop one day then. I'll put in a good word for you so you can learn how to repair your computer or something. Trust me, it's so cool being able to fix it yourself! My dad says he's going to teach me how to fix his car soon."

I nodded at that.

"I love cars. What car does your dad drive?"

"Well, it's not a very expensive car. Just a cheap second-hand Toyota. But it does the job, not to mention it's travelled basically everywhere," Shirou showed me a picture of his dad's car, an older silver Toyota. "I think he's going to sell it soon so we can get something a bit more modern. Especially with the new charges for having a diesel car in certain sections of the city being introduced soon."

I winced at that.

"Yeah, my dad keeps on complaining about them. Honestly, I just don't get why they would introduce something like that. Surely they understand that something like this isn't going to get them elected when the next mayoral election comes around."

"My dad says it's 'cause they're corrupt," Shirou added, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, that's fair enough I guess. Miwa says the same thing when we're having dinner."

Shirou grinned at me. "Miwa Hayate, right? She's in my tutor. I assume her family adopted you in?"

I shook my head. "Nah, we both got adopted into the same family. Since she had a second name, hers wasn't changed, while I only had a first name so I took on theirs."

Shirou nodded as he replied "Ah, makes sense, makes sense. Anyway, it's getting kinda cold, let's head inside."

I complied, shutting the balcony door as I plopped on top of my bed with a groan. We still had an hour until we were supposed to leave for dinner and neither Sui, Denji nor Renji had returned to our rooms.

Suddenly, a knock on my door distracted me from my thoughts. Shirou opened the door to reveal his sister, who came marching in furiously. "Gah," she shouted. "Why do I even bother with that cow and her groupies? Makoto was acting just like a right-" She cut herself off once she saw me, looking down in embarrassment.

"Bitch?" I finished it for her. Sakura nodded as I added. "Well, what do you expect, for them to be generous when you act cold to them? Anyway, you still haven't told me why Keiko is a 'cow'. I mean you don't need to tell me, but it would be nice considering I just don't see it."

Sakura sat down on Shirou's bed, who started to pout at his sister. I guess my question was just going to be ignored then. Both brother and sister began bickering, something which reminded me of Miwa and myself…

"Shirou, we aren't five anymore, grow up," Sakura shouted at her brother. I snorted at that, sitting on the edge of Sui's bed which was right next to Shirou's.

Shirou, on the other hand, smirked as he replied, "Need I remind you that I'm older by exactly-"

Sakura cut her brother off as she mimicked his voice poorly, "Three minutes, ten seconds and three point five milliseconds older than you?"

Before Shirou could respond, Sakura took the sweets he had opened and tore into them. Oi, those were my sweets…

"You get my favourite sweets and don't tell me?"

"They are my sweets," I told her.

"Oh. Sorry…"

"It's fine," I sighed, bringing out another packet. I guess I could give one packet away considering I had a few more stashed in my bag. "Think of it as a gift for coming into our room. Sorry for the mess."

Sakura snorted as she surveyed the room, which had pillows and bedsheets draped all over the floors.

"It's like you all had a fight or something."

"I won." I cheerfully told her, throwing a sweet in the air and catching it with my mouth.

"Ugh. That sounds much more fun than our room. At least Jiro was the only one who ignored the three bitches," Sakura said, resting her face on her fist. "I just wish they didn't just leave right away. At the very least they didn't need to act like they were better than me. Dumb whores."

Judging by Shirou's reaction, that being him biting his tongue to prevent himself from saying anything I guess the picture just got a whole lot bigger. I didn't want to get into their drama, but with the way everything was heading…

"Ya' know Ito-san, you don't have to be so rude to them." Both Shirou and Sakura looked at me, which made me pause for a moment before correcting myself. "The girl Ito."

They both nodded, Sakura turning to me as she said, "Well why not? Renji and the cow used to date. Not to mention, Saki and Denji are still going out from last year. It's horrible."

I shrugged my shoulders as I replied "So? It's not like I'm good friends with them either, but why does it bother you so much? Who cares if they're dating? Like we are thirteen. I'm the oldest in the group and I ain't even turned fourteen yet - I got another few days until then. It's just pointless drama ya' know. You'll grow up and look back on this with regret."

Sakura rolled her eyes at me.

"Right. I forgot we have Mr. Mature over here telling us how to live-,"

Shirou slapped the sweets packet out of Sakura's hand.

I watched as my precious sweets rolled all over the floor.

Damn.

"You don't have to be so insufferable," Shirou told his sister. "You know he's right. Especially when this all started because it was you who was a jealous bitch." Sakura flinched at that, but she didn't deny it.

"Huh?"

"Keiko and Sakura used to be friends, but something happened between them that caused a lot of bad blood," Shirou explained to me. "Instead of being with her friends, Sakura now hangs out with me, her older brother. She ignores her old friends and thinks they're the bad ones when in reality she started it. Oh well, if it isn't the consequences of my bloody actions!"

"Oh, I see," I nodded in response. "I guess Miwa's also in this friend group? Considering I recognise Makoto and Saki Saki, and apparently Keiko met me once at mine, you were probably in that friend group like a year ago, right? So, what happened?"

Sakura shifted nervously, and Shirou's fist curled up. Eventually, Sakura answered, "Keiko talked about our dead mother. Mocked her in front of everyone after I got a higher score than her. She was jealous of it and started talking about how I would drive away boys like that, and eventually, it got out of hand."

I nodded.

"Are we going to forget the fact that you and she competed over the same boy? And you beat her to it by secretly taking him out on a date and not telling her? Or the fact that you made fun of the fact that her dad left her and her Mum when Keiko was young?" Shirou asked his sister, who flinched once again.

Ah.

I understood now.

This was just basic teenage drama, I had two lives filled with that shit.

"So the two of you were being bad friends to each other. Let me guess, a big argument started because she was insecure that she was worse than you, and you thought you had done nothing wrong?" Sakura slowly nodded at that. I could only snort in response. "Ha, what a classic. Ya' know this sounds like the plot of a movie, right?"

"What's funny is that I made the exact same joke," Shirou said to me with a small smile. "Mean Girls, right?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. So Keiko's secretly a bitch, and you're an bitch outwardly. Cool. Still, I think you're wrong in thinking that they're mocking you or ignoring you. When you left earlier today, Keiko was the one who was the most worried about you," I told Sakura. "If I didn't come after you, I think she would have."

"You're lying." She replied.

"Why would I lie here? What's the point? Or, my angle I should say. Getting you two to be friends again has no real benefit to me other than making this school trip a lot easier to deal with, but even then after this week I never have to deal with this petty drama ever again. So, tell me, why would I lie?"

Sakura sighed.

"Maybe you like Keiko?"

I snorted at her.

"Like her? Bitch please, I have way better taste than that. Not to mention she's too young for me."

"Do you like older women then?" Sakura asked.

"Ha. Sora's into granny's!" Shirou joked.

"What? No! As in… Ugh, let's skip past that. I'm too tired to explain what I mean," I said annoyed. "Listen, I have nothing to gain from siding with her or you. In my opinion, I couldn't give less of a shit. I hurt you by accident, and for that I'm sorry. But I'm not going to go meddling with things that don't concern me. Seriously. I'm just telling the truth here, honestly."

"You know for a big 'scary' delinquent, you surprisingly have a soft heart," Sakura teased me. "...thanks. I just-, I wish I could make things right with her. You're right in that we were both bad friends, but it feels like whenever I talk to her things go bad quickly. I can't help but always feel like it's me alone against the world."

"You're not alone," I reminded her. "I mean you have your brother here for one. And, well, I guess you have me considering I'm the poor sod sat here listening to you bitch and moan about this."

Sakura giggled at that.

"You? The Devil of Class E is telling me that I'm not alone. My, my, if the rest of the school heard this I think your days of running around and being scary are over," Sakura joked. "Still, that's better than nothing. You know, maybe you aren't so bad."

I shrugged my shoulders at her, leaning down on the bed.

That's right.

Maybe I wasn't so bad.

Maybe, and a strong maybe at that, I could turn this around.

"How about this," I sat up, staring straight at Sakura. "Let's start fresh."

"Eh?"

I raised my hand towards her.

"Yo. I'm Sora Yamazaki. Nice to meet you."

---

Chapter 2 is done!

Maybe biweekly updates from now on? Easier for me really, plus allows me to plan ahead more often.

I'm taking some time before canon starts, now this doesn't mean that canon characters will not be introduced, they will be introduced earlier, however UA Entrance exams won't start until at least chapter 8, if not 9.

Fleshing out the world is important to me, as Sora here is now connected to this world. It's now his home, and if it doesn't feel like one then what I have planned just won't work at all. That's the reality of it.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1: Kakaroto10000, MagerMog, Crywolfseven, Warlord Of Chaos, Guest and zsxcfvbhnmk123.

To answer your questions, Aizawa will be a key character in the story. Cloud Quirks are not common, and there is a reason as to why Sora has one.

Sora forgetting things helps to add tension. Plus it allows me to make changes easily when new information is found out in the manga, rather than me editing the entire story for it to fit in.

Sora being flippant and kind of annoying was purposefully written. It was a choice I made, most reincarnation fics have their protags treat unknown/side characters as if they are less than human as they aren't 'important'. I merely wanted to highlight this, and rectify it in the first chapter. Sora will grow into a hero, he just isn't one yet.

Sora using lightning is a cool idea, whether it will happen, who knows. Only I do. :)

Hope you do stick around Guest, as things will get even better (I hope!)

And finally, Sora will always be his own character. His past life will constantly be mentioned, as it impacted him, and will continue to impact him. You can't just shrug off seventeen years of a previous life like nothing, it's not normal. I want Sora to act like a human rather than a robot, rather than a mouthpiece for myself as we aren't alike. Apart from the One Piece fixation, Sora and I are completely different on purpose, as I want people to see Sora as Sora, and not me as the author.

Once again, thank you all for reviewing, and thank you all who favorited and followed! Over 100 combined, only on chapter 1. Insane.

Thank you all!

Next chapter will be the mid point of the arc, with a showdown between the two girls, and maybe some new truths? Will Shirou finally see his sister be happy once again? And will Sora finally get to meet Endeavour?

Find out… in about two weeks.

Peace, Papireaz!