It was like a scene out of a typical slice of life anime. The sun was shining brightly and there was a gentle breeze in the air which made the pink petals of the cherry blossoms swim through the air. Among this beautiful scenery was a young girl dressed in her school uniform, slowly walking to school with a smile on her face. After all, it was the first day of high school, and she like so many other students were looking forward to beginning this section of their young life. High School was more than just learning and tests, it was a time to make new friends and acquire memories, both good and bad. However, this scene described did not truly match the stereotypical image that most would imagine.
While the landscape certainly matched the standards, the girl within its beauty certainly did not. That was because the girl was Toru Hagakure, and her quirk, Invisibility, made it impossible to discern any physical features of the girl beyond the uniform that seemingly floated in the air. Even if one were to somehow see her face, it would be very clear that the girl was not happy. Without any way to see her facial features, one can notice her unhappiness through the subtle body language projected on the uniform. A rather stiff and small gait seen in the knee socks and shoes and the slight folding of the UA tie and jack indicating a slouching posture. The reason on why the invisible girl was unhappy can be attributed to the UA practical exam.
She, like so many others, experienced a week of heighten anxiety and frayed nerves awaiting the results of the exam. When she got her letter exactly a week later and saw the results, it was not exactly the news she wanted to see. She did not do too bad on the written exam, but there was much to be desired with her academics. As for the practical exam, she came in at 40th place on the practical exam, barely making the cut by hair strand over 41st place. While the news would be a bit disheartening, but one would expect some happiness over the fact that she actually made it in. But there was caveat with the experience she had in the practical exam that the other examinees did not experience. During the final stretches of the exam, the Zero Pointer was released over a seemingly deserted section of the test ground and slowly steamrolled over its way to the examinees. The only issue was the fact that it wasn't released over deserted land, and in fact had been released where Hagakure was fighting robots. In a twisted case of bad luck, the UA faculty had not noticed the presence of Hagakure when they released the Zero Pointer, but the Machine Titan certainly did not and Hagakure became its first and only victim as a result.
That exam was something that will be forever into the invisible for as long as she lives. A stinging reminder of the fact that her quirk holds a dangerous downside to all its practicability. She thought she was going to die alone in that dark cave of concrete created by that giant machine. It was an experience that still plagues her dreams, in which she is crushed to death without anyone realizing she was there, her calls for help went unnoticed by anyone. It was bad enough for her to nearly decline UA's offer to attend, but in the end, she managed to swallow the awful feelings and persevere.
Hagakure stopped in front of the gated entrance of the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan. She took a deep breath and straighten her posture out.
"Get yourself out of that angsty pity Hagakure! You got to make a good first impression to everyone. Don't let it become like middle school all over again!" Hagakure half-scolded half-prepped herself
Without much fanfare the invisible girl strode beyond the school gate with an unseen confidence on her uniform. Perhaps things will become better for her once she starts school, and maybe if she is lucky, she might see that blue haired boy in class.
When Hagakure arrived inside the classroom labeled 1-A caught sight of the eccentricity of her new classmates. Said sight included a tall boy with glasses karate chopping the air whilst scolding a spiky blond-haired delinquent for having his feet on his desk. Hagakure looked around to see if there was a head of messy blue hair, but to her disappointment he wasn't there.
"Maybe he is in another class?" Hagakure thought to herself as she begun walking
The two students noticed Hagakure and gave the invisible girl a mixed reception. The boy with the spikey blonde hair looked at like he was sizing her up, but it was only brief moment before he snorted and looked away seeming dismissing her as someone not worth his time. The boy with the square glasses seemed to stiffen up at the sight of her before walking up to her and introduced himself as Iida Tenya in a manner that was overly formal. It made the invisible girl giggle at the ridiculousness of it before returning her own introduction as well. Iida then made an offhand comment about getting ready for homeroom and proceeded leave to his own seat with a strange urgency. Hagakure thought it was best to follow suit and did the same before their teacher arrives. However, as she made her way to the seat labeled with her name, but she caught sight a boy with spikey red hair look at her. At first, she thought it was because of her quirk, but that changed when she saw guilt slowly seep into his eye before he suddenly looked away. That was most certainly peculiar. But any thoughts of that strange look changed when a voice intruded upon the class.
"If you're going to converse, go somewhere else.", said a voice that sounded nearly dead
All the students looked at the source of the voice and saw a large yellow caterpillar on the floor with a face that looked it hadn't slept in years. After a large gulp from a pack of juice, a tall man with long black hair and grey scarf emerged from the yellow caterpillar. To say class 1-A was surprised at the sight of a homeless man in their classroom would be an understatement to say the least.
"It took you a full eight seconds to settle down, you are definitely going to need to step it up if you want to be pros.", The man said with tired eyes, "I am Shouta Aizawa, and I am your homeroom teacher.", he then proceeded to reach into the yellow bag he was in and pulled out a host of gym uniforms. "Put these on and follow me. We have work that we need to do."
It turns out that today is just not Hagakure's day, and she was brutally reminded of that during the quirk apprehension test. Hagakure just wanted to strangle that pink skinned girl who had to open her mouth and draw the ire of their homeroom teacher. The threat of expulsion for last place in the test had done a lot for beating down the invisible girl into realizing how uncapable she was when compared to her classmates. But no matter how hard she pushed herself, she simply couldn't compete with her average score when compared to the high score of those with the quirks that made them more physically capable. Invisibility could get her a good score when her classmates had quirks that could throw a ball well beyond several hundred meters. By then end of it all, she was a panting mess with hurting limbs and acidic burn in her stomach as she nearly pushed herself to the point of vomiting. However, all her hard work resulted in her heart dropped into her stomach when scoreboard had shown her name at the bottom of the list, barely losing to a short boy with balls on his head. A feeling of dread and denial filled the form of Hagakure at the realization that she had failed, and that all she had to endure before and after the test was all in vain. Unseen tears flowed down her face as her voice was lost to silence as she waited for Mr. Aizawa to expel her, but then it was revealed to be a logical ruse for the students to bring out their best for the test.
Then the girl with the ponytail had the gall to say that it was fairly obvious trick, and it was not like her position was in any jeopardy with a quirk like hers. Hagakure remained silent on the trip back for her things, and speedily hurried out of class before anyone could try to talk to her. She just wanted to be alone after the stress of today's events weighing down on her like a bag of bricks. And eventually she found a deserted park not too far away with rusting playground equipment for just that purpose. She took a seat in an old wooden bench and let her book bag fall to the floor as a steady stream of tears flowed down her unseen face. She never made a sound; she hadn't done so in years. Her hands twisted into each other as they shook uncontrollably from the strong emotions. The worst part was the fact that if anyone were to see her, she would only appear to be just sitting down and nothing more. That was the curse of her quirk.
"Excuse me? But do you mind if I sit next to you miss?", a voice cut through the air like a knife.
Hagakure's invisible eyes blink at the sound of the voice and was greeted with a person standing in front of her. The person was dressed in an oddball manner, even by the standards of a society in which people in spandex punched other people in spandex. He was dressed in what appeared to be a white hoodie that was several sizes too large for him, with the hood nearly covering his entire face and sleeves that extended nearly to his knees. The only physical feature of his face visible was a mouth with sharp shark-like teeth. The hoodie also appeared to be embroidered with many patterns depicting symbols that looked like they belong in some shrine rather than a boy's jacket. The image presented to Hagakure made her think he was some kind of sidekick or a new hero with some religious theme to his persona.
The person stood there for a moment, clearly waiting for Hagakure's answer. But when she gave no reply, he sat down next to her none the less. An air of awkwardness arrived as white hood had interrupted what had been a private moment. The two sat in silence for a while, and Hagakure debated about leaving the park. But white hood spoke out before she could even think to reach for her book bag.
"I am going to be frank with you miss, but the reason I came over here was because I saw you crying.", White hood said in a polite tone, "I just wanted to see if things were all right."
Hagakure froze at the words that white hood had said. It was impossible, there was no way he could've seen her cry, unless…
"I-I am s-sorry, but did I hear you right? Y-You said that you could see me crying?" Hagakure asked with a small stutter in her strained voice.
White hood turned his hidden face towards her and titled it to the side like he was confused by the question she had asked.
"U-Um yes. I was just passing by and I saw you on this bench with tears on your face. I don't mean to be rude, but I found it a little odd that you were rather quiet about it." Replied white hood
"It's just that…that my quirk makes me invisible." Said Hagakure "So no one has been able to see me since I was five years old."
Somehow white hood looked a little flustered at that remark.
"Oh! U-Um…I am sorry about that, but you appeared to be just as visible as anyone else.", White hood said while rubbing the back of his head
Something inside Hagakure's chest fluttered at the statement of white hood. Could it be that after ten years of being lost to the eyes of the world, that she finally found someone who could see her? The invisible girl could feel the welts in her eyes dry up and the sadness lifted away, and in its place a curiosity emerged.
"I-I don't mean to be pushy, but can you tell me what I look like?" Hagakure asked with age old excitement upon her voice
White hood gave no reply but instead reached inside his oversized cloak and pulled out a notebook and a pencil. He wanted to draw a picture of her.
"I could do you one better and give you something beyond my words to take with you. B-But only if you are comfortable with it." White hood said in a flustered tone
Hagakure giggled at White Hood's embarrassment and gave him a nod of approval. At the sight of her approval, White Hood went to work on the picture, muttering artist lingo under his breath as he moved the pencil. With the flowing movement of the pencil only stopping when he glanced up to look at her occasionally. After about ten minutes of muttering and the scratching of graphite, the sound of paper being torn echoed in the park. White Hood had his pale hand stretched out with a piece of paper within it, and Hagakure reached out and took the piece of paper and gazed upon it as quickly as possible.
The picture took the form of a portrait of sorts depicting everything from the neck up and was made with incredible care and detail. In the portrait was a girl with short shaggy hair combined with thin eyebrows and long eyelashes. The eyes of the girl were shaped like almonds and were placed and an angle that resembled the angle in cat eyes were positioned but were still human looking in every other way. Her lips were thin but were etched into a friendly smile and her nose was well refined that gave her an aristocratic vibe. She had pointed ears that had no lobes while her chin was short but was shaped like a diamond. The skin on her forehead and cheeks were unblemished, save for a small scar on the left cheek near her ears. Overall, it was the appearance that was reminiscent what westerners called the Fae, beautiful women with sharp features and pointed ears.
Memories poured into Hagakure as she tried to remember what she looked like before the manifestation of her quirk, but there were muddled with time and were not clear as a result. But there were many things that she could recall that align with White Hood's depiction of her. The short hair was a result of too many instances of hair getting caught and tangled and not being able to see it to correct it, and as a result Hagakure had it cut monthly to prevent those issues. The small scar was the result of Hagakure getting cut while on a school field trip after her quirk manifested and it scarred because no one was able to properly treat the wound. Yet, the more Hagakure stared at the picture, the more it seemed that it was in fact her face on the paper, and like a ticking time bomb memories just exploded. She could recall a time when she was four years old and her father called her his little elf during the winter holidays, or when she would wear a white pillowcase as a dress and pretend to a women whom she thought she looked like in a movie about a gold ring. It all just clicked like the final piece of a puzzle.
Tears of happiness flowed down her invisible face as she stared at her reflection for the first time in a decade. She turned her head back towards White Hood, who had remained silent and still the entire time, and gave him a large smile that she knew he could see.
"Thank you." Was all she said
"It was no problem." White Hood replied
The two sat in silence for a while before she stood up from the park bench.
"I really need to get going now, and I also just wanted to thank you again for doing that." Said the invisible girl.
White Hood stood up from his seat and gave Hagakure a light bow, "I was happy help, but I don't think I helped you with what was upsetting you?"
Hagakure smiled, "It's okay, I don't even remember why I was crying anyway."
White Hood nodded and turned his back towards the invisible girl, apparently ready to part ways with her. But something within the girl stirred, and it made her drawn towards White Hood, and it made her act before her mind could even register her actions.
"Wait!" Hagakure nearly shouted. White Hood turned his covered face back to her.
Heat flushed into Hagakure's cheeks as she said, "W-Would you like to exchange contact information?"
White Hood seemed to be taken aback by such a proposition, and his hidden face displayed disbelief in the notion.
"W-Why would you want to do that with me?" White Hood said in disbelief
"Because I would like to be friends with you, silly." Hagakure replied "Unless you don't want to…"
"No No! Its just that no one has ever wanted to be friends with me before" White Hood said with tint of hurt.
Hagakure once gain beamed a big smile, "Well, then allow me to be first! Hello, I am Hagakure Tooru! And you are?" asked the invisible girl while extending her hand into gesture of a handshake.
White Hood hesitated at the notion, but then used both of his hands to pull the oversized hood off his face. Hagakure nearly gasped when the familiar head of blue hair, freckles, and the eyes of the accompanying color greeted her once again. The blue haired boy nervously took her hand with his hand and returned the gesture of friendship.
"My name is Midoriya Izuku and I am pleased to see you again Hagakure." Izuku said with a small smile on his face.
Hey Hey, It's me the Author here with yet another chapter, and I hope that you all enjoyed this little piece in which we take a break from all the action and have a nice time seeing a frienship sprout between fish boy and invisible girl. So what did you think about this chapter? Like it? Hate it? Was there something I could've done better? Let me know in the comments and I will see you peoples next time.