Chapter Three
UA had been a boarding school for a decade, come this winter. As such, students were given a day before terms began to move their things into their new home for the academic year. Given that Eri already lived on campus, it was easy enough for her to move into Heights Alliance — just a simple matter of relocating from the staff apartments. She even had permission to do so a day before everyone else came, a kindness from Nezu.
Given her situation, she took it upon herself to act as the welcoming committee for the rest of her incoming class. She stationed herself on a couch in the common area that was the first floor, a place so very familiar to her. She was waiting, ready to greet her classmates, when Kyoka Jiro — the Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack, who she had known for nine years since the heroine's own days at UA — strolled through the door and beckoned her outside.
"Ms. Jiro!" Eri said, happy to see any member of Deku's class, no matter if they had graduated.
"Hey, Eri," Kyoka said and hugged her, then ushered her out the front door to join the new students and Aizawa, who would be their homeroom teacher. So focused on Aizawa, who was standing to the side of the walkway leading to the dorms, Kyoka was able to steer Eri into the crowd without being noticed. Eri, though, did notice Aizawa himself glance briefly her way before he resumed his speech about the layout of the dorms and the rules therein.
He also introduced Kyoka to the class as his new teaching assistant, and warned them with full red eye and flaring capture scarf that she was due the utmost respect. When a tall, muscular boy smugly commented that she'd have to earn that, Kyoka's earphone jack flashed right into his ear with unerring accuracy and he screamed as she vibrated his skull with her heartbeat.
"Anyone else wanna act tough?" Kyoka — now officially Ms. Jiro — asked sternly, her arms crossed and expression neutral but for a single raised eyebrow. There was complete silence and even a few head shakes or raised palms in surrender. She nodded with a small grin and they were dismissed to begin moving in as moving trucks hired by UA rolled up to allow students to begin unloading their things.
As the student body began breaking up, Eri couldn't help but pout at the fact that all of the students were focusing on their own stuff instead of getting to know one another. She understood why, but resolved to change that as soon as she could. Noticing a very familiar flash of scarlet among the hair colors, she pranced toward it and snuck in behind Kota.
"Guess who?" she asked into his ear. He yelped and spun around, but relaxed when he realized who she was. He coughed into his hand and straightened his expression, and hat, before greeting her. "Hey, Eri."
"Hey, yourself," Eri giggled. Kota's attempts to appear "chill" and unconcerned never failed to make her laugh.
"I guess you're already set up, huh?" Kota asked, hands in his jacket pockets. "Lucky," he added with a smirk.
"You should really get to work, Kota," came Satsuki's voice, and they turned to find her loaded with a stack of boxes peppered with bags from one of the moving trucks. She peeked out from behind the stack at them with her usual wide-eyed, inscrutable look. "We have all day, sure, but tomorrow starts our classes."
"Yeah, sure," Kota said, rolling his eyes and heading for one of the trucks.
"Let me help you with that," Eri told her, and she took some of the bags from Satsuki, the froggy girl croaking with relief and thanks. They turned and headed for Satsuki's room; a brief look at a copy of the floor plan indicated that hers was on the top floor along with Eri's.
"Hey, we're floor buddies!" Eri said happily, and Satsuki smiled in reply before they made their way to the elevator. They placed the boxes in the middle of her room, avoiding the issued bed, desk, and bookshelves for the moment, and headed back down to get more stuff. They passed other students as they went and Eri waved to them and tried to greet them, but everyone seemed too focused on their work to socialize.
"Few people know each other yet," Satsuki pointed out after the sixth person Eri waved to and failed to properly greet. "I think everyone's just trying to get their feet under them before trying to get to know a group of strangers."
"Yeah, I guess," Eri sighed as they strolled out to the trucks again. She lowered her head, her eyes hidden behind her hair … and so failed to spot a familiar head of chestnut waves hidden behind a stack of boxes much like Satsuki had been. Satsuki, however, did not miss him, her eyes tracking the boy that she recognized from before the exam. The one that Eri had mentioned in the week since as having pulled her out of her flashback and helped her out during the practical.
She decided not to comment, as the boy seemed distracted by his task. But she kept him in the back of her mind, her lips twitching with good humor at how Eri would react when she realized he was here, in their class.
A few hours later, the girls had finished decorating Satsuki's room. Perhaps predictably, the major color was green, the theme frogs and lilypads. Eri couldn't help but smile, at both the adorable decor and the fact that her friend had so wholeheartedly embraced herself and her family for their uniqueness.
They made their way downstairs for the final time, ready to head to the cafeteria for their first serving of Lunch Rush's food for the semester. Kota tromped his way down just as they were leaving, his hands in his pockets as usual and a smile flitting briefly across his mouth as he wordlessly joined them. As per the usual, he was silent as Eri and Satsuki chatted on the way, all the way through the front doors of the school's main building and through the doors of Lunch Rush's Cafe, where so many soon-to-be first years were in line and already spread out around the cafeteria.
After their time in line, all three of them sat at a table near the doors, Eri insisting so that she might have a chance to greet any new classmates. Eri sat a space away from the corner with Satsuki beside her and Kota across from them, a fair distance from most of the other gathered students. She waved and smiled as students came in, but most ignored her, others simply giving a hesitant smile and brief wave back.
"Give it a rest, Eri," Kota said mildly between bites of beef. "People are nervous. Not every class is like Deku's class."
"But ours could be," she rebutted, eyes blazing over her determined smile, and clenched her fist before her. "And if I can make it happen, I will."
"Uh, excuse me?" Their group looked around to find a boy with chestnut hair holding a tray. "Hello," he said with a very nervous smile.
"It's you!" Eri gasped.
"Nice to be recognized," the boy said with an easy, soft smile. His cheeks tinted pink under all of their attention. "Can, uh, can I sit with you all?"
"Yes, of course!" Eri said, patting the space next to her at the table's corner. "Please do."
"I don't, uh, think we were ever properly introduced," the boy said as he settled and offered his hand.
"Kat, right?" Eri asked with a teasing smile, shaking the offered hand.
"Huh?" the boy asked, blinking owlishly.
"Before the practical started, you only got out 'Kat-' before Present Mic called for the exam to start," Eri explained with a giggle. The boy smiled, but his blush spoke of embarrassment. "I'm Eri, by the way," she said, taking his handshake. "Eri Togata. And you are?"
"Katsuma," he said, emphasizing the second syllable. "Katsuma Shimano."
"Gotcha," Eri said. "So, can I call you-?"
"Please don't ask if you can call me 'Kat'," Katsuma groaned theatrically.
"Aw, poo," Eri pouted, just as theatrically, then smiled with a hint of mischief. "Feel free to call me Eri."
Katsuma blushed again, eyes wide. "Erm, uh, okay. You, erm, can call me Katsuma, too, if you like."
"I think I will," Eri chirped with a sharp nod.
"Ehem." Eri looked over at Kota, who was looking, very nearly glaring, at the new arrival with narrowed eyes. "Who's the stray?" he asked.
"He's the boy I told you about," Eri explained. "The one who-" Her smile fell and she cleared her throat. "Who helped me out during the exam?"
Kota and Satsuki glanced at each other, Eri's meaning loud and clear to them. This was the boy who had shaken her from her flashback of Overhaul. At that, Kota's expression may have softened a little and Satsuki's resting pout turned into a friendly smile.
"It's nice to meet you again," she greeted. "I'm Satsuki Asui. My friends call me Suki, though. You can, too."
"Wow, thanks," Katsuma said with a smile. Then he blinked, his expression thoughtful. "Wait, 'Asui'? As in Froppy?"
"She's my sister," Satsuki said, her voice gone a bit wry at the commonly-asked question.
"Whoa," Katsuma replied, his smile back. "Could you tell her I said hi, please?"
Satsuki was quiet for a moment as she thought that over. Someone recognizing her relation to the famed heroine that was her sister was common. All of the kids in her middle school knew her as Froppy's baby sister. Asking her about Tsuyu was common enough. Asking her to say hi for them was … not. It was almost like-
"Do you know my sister?" she asked, acting on her intuition.
"We met years ago," Katsuma said. "Class 1-A was sent out to Nabu Island for experience running a hero agency, and-"
"Nine attacked," Satsuki finished, eyes wide — well, wider — with comprehension. "You were on- Wait a minute." Katsuma Shimano. That name suddenly rang a bell. "Were you … the little boy that Nine was after?"
Katsuma grew still, his eyes unfocusing as if looking into a great distance. Much like Eri's sometimes did, according to her family and friends. "Yeah," he finally said, gaze still distant. "Yeah, that's me."
"Nine?" Kota scoffed. "What kind of lame villain name is that?"
"A guy who could steal Quirks like All For One," Katsuma said, his voice void of friendliness, or much of anything as he gave Kota a level glare. "He and his minions leveled our home and it took all of Mr. Deku's class to stop him. And we're still recovering from the damage they caused." Katsuma's fists tightened as he stared at his food without seeing. "Mr. Deku and Bakugo almost died fighting him. All of them almost died."
Eri felt her heart clench and put her hand on top of Katsuma's, just like Mirio would do for her when she thought back to her darker past. Katsuma blinked hard and looked at her, and she tried to smile for him. Just like Deku and Mirio and All Might would. He blinked again and seemed to fully return to himself, looking at her hand on his. He looked back at her and smiled in appreciation.
"Okay, well," Kota said, breaking the atmosphere with another faint scowl. "I'm glad your town survived, then." He stuck his chopsticks into a dumpling and bit down far more aggressively than was necessary. Eri lifted an eyebrow at Kota's behavior. He tended to be reserved with strangers, even prickly, but this seemed … different, somehow.
"So, what made you want to be a hero, Katsuma?" Eri asked.
"I've wanted to be a hero since I can remember," he explained, clearly relieved at the change in topic. "I was a big fan of Edgeshot when I was a kid." He sighed through his nose and ate some before continuing. "I never thought it would actually happen given my Quirk is not exactly a battle type. And my sister was against it and tried to talk me out of it until Nine invaded." He blushed and laughed to himself.
"What?" Satsuki asked, clearly intrigued, too. A quick glance at Kota showed him looking at Katsuma from the corner of his eye.
"What really pushed me, though, was what Mr. Deku said to me as the class was sailing away back to UA. He told me, 'You can become a hero. I'll see you at UA someday.' Those words, that encouragement … It's what gave me the drive to really run toward my dream."
There was silence for a moment before Satsuki broke it with a small smile. "That sounds just like Midoriya, kero." She took a bite of her salad. "And believe me, if you were inspired by him, you've joined the perfect group." She croaked and hid her smile behind her hand. "If you want proof, just look at Kota's shoes."
"Suki!" Kota snapped, suddenly on edge. Eri couldn't help but laugh. Oh, sometimes even she could forget that Satsuki hid a sharp sense of humor. It probably came from being the youngest of three.
"Don't even!" Kota snapped at Katsuma, who had been slowly inching from his chair to look under that table. Katsuma straightened up immediately and ducked over his food, face burning. Eri had to laugh at that, too.
The meal went on from there with a generally friendly atmosphere. They talked mostly about their childhoods, with Satsuki discussing Tsuyu being the mom-sister of their family with their parents often on business trips, Eri explaining that she had been adopted but still lived on UA campus for private reasons, Katsuma describing Nabu Island and the close-knit community he'd grown up in, and even Kota chipping in with stories about the Wild, Wild Pussycats. By the time they realized the cafeteria was nearly empty, it had been almost two hours. Naturally, they all walked together to the dorms.
"Hey, guys," Satsuki asked as they drew close, "Tsuyu told me about a little competition her class did when these dorms were first built. They just took a look at each others' rooms. I mean, most of our class doesn't know us yet, but do you all wanna …?"
"That sounds like fun," Katsuma said brightly.
"And maybe we can bring it up in a few months for a classwide version, huh?" Eri said hopefully.
"Sure," Kota drawled. "Why not?"
"Well, Eri helped me set up my room. So maybe we can start there?" Satsuki suggested. Everyone seemed willing to go along with that, so they rode up to the top floor of the girls' wing. The girls led the way, though both boys were tense. It seemed inappropriate to be in the girls' wing, somehow.
"Here's mine," Satsuki announced, swinging the door open with flair to reveal her frog-themed room.
"Why am I not surprised?" Kota asked dryly.
"It looks so cute," Katsuma said gleefully, though neither he nor Kota crossed the threshold. Eri's room was the only one on the same floor, so they didn't have far to go to check out hers.
Eri opened the door and ushered Satsuki in, then stepped behind the boys and gently but firmly pushed them through the doorway. The room seemed, above all, soft. Decked out in various shades of red, green, and yellow, a plush rocking chair sat by the desk, the Lemillion comforter was overstuffed, the floorboards were covered in a large fluffy rug patterned after Deku's suit, and every piece of furniture seemed to have at least one pillow sitting on it.
"Whoa," Kota said. He'd seen her room before, but it never ceased to impress him how plush it looked.
"This looks really comfortable," Katsuma said. He prodded the chair with his hand and took a seat, sighing with contentment. "I feel like I could just fall asl …" He trailed into a light snore that had the girls giggling while Kota just rolled his eyes and lightly smacked him across the head. He snorted and shot ramrod straight to his feet. "I'm awake! Mahoro, don't touch-!" He shook his head and seemed to finish waking. "Oh, right. Mahoro's back home." Everyone laughed at that, even Kota.
With that, the group made their way down stairs and to the boys' wing. Kota's room was on the second floor, so they stopped by his first. He opened the door with no fanfare to present a very simple red color scheme. A bookshelf with dozens of fantasy and science fiction novels stood by his desk and a poster of Deku stood proudly by one of the Wild, Wild Pussycats.
"Somehow, this is exactly what I imagined," Satsuki commented, knuckling her lip.
"Like you can judge," Kota snarked, a faint grin curling at the corner of his mouth.
Satsuki actually chuckled at that and nodded like a fencer's salute. "Touche."
"So, that's all we know," Eri said brightly, motioning between herself, Satsuki, and Kota. "So let's take a peek into the life of our newest companion!" Katsuma suddenly seemed more nervous but didn't try to weasel out of it, either. He led the way to the fourth floor and opened the door, cheeks burning red, into … Whoa.
It looked like two utterly distinct concepts had been merged to be split right down the middle. One part of it was martial arts. On the bed's side of the room, a training dummy was set up with a rack of wooden escrima sticks next to it, work out equipment against the adjacent wall, and a training mat was rolled next to the door. Posters of motivational kanji such as those for "focus" and "inner strength" were set up in clear view.
The desk's side, in contrast, was seemingly devoted to the 1-A Agency and its members. Posters, memorabilia, and even action figures of Deku, Dynamight, Shoto, Tentacole, and every other member of the famed former Class 1-A who now ran their own collective agency named for the very group that brought them together were set up on a shelf and the wall in front of his desk.
That kind of reminded Eri of Deku's room when he was here in school, though devoted to twenty heroes rather than just one.
"Fanboy," Kota sneered.
"Look at his shoes," Satsuki reminded them, and Kota was too slow to hide them this time. Katsuma gasped at the look of the familiar red shoes, his eyes shining.
"You were saying?" Eri teased, and Kota grumbled something intelligible.
With that, everyone returned to the first floor and its common area, commandeering a couch for themselves. Eri tried a few more times to introduce herself to others, but received at best polite names before each student moved on to something else. As she settled deeper in the couch, clearly dejected, Satsuki patted her shoulder.
"I think that as far as they're concerned, we're not even classmates yet," she noted. "Maybe tomorrow would be a better time."
"Yeah, I guess," Eri sighed.
"So, erm," Katsuma said, cheeks pinking as he ran his fingers through his hair, "you guys are all close with heroes, right?" They all looked at him in curiosity and he fumbled a bit before continuing. "I mean, Asui-"
"Call me Suki," Satsuki reminded him.
"Right, Suki," he said, smiling feebly in apology, "has a hero big sister. Kota was raised by the Wild, Wild Pussycats."
"My parents were also heroes before they died," Kota said, his lips tense and arms folded.
"Really?" Katsuma said. "Oh, okay. Uh, that too, I guess. And Eri, you grew up here at UA?" She nodded, eyes curious. "So, um, does anyone have an idea about what to expect?"
"I remember bits and pieces of what my sister said about her start of the year, before the dorms were put in place," Satsuki said. "But it's been almost ten years, so …"
"Uncle Aizawa never told me details about his classes," Eri added.
"Uncle Aizawa?" Katsuma asked in surprise.
"That's what I started calling him," Eri said, blushing a bit. "He was always taking care of me here at the school before I was adopted. I couldn't, uh," she prodded her horn, "I couldn't control my Quirk when I got here and that was really dangerous. So he was keeping an eye on me to help keep everyone safe."
"Heh, keep an eye on you," Kota snorted. Satsuki ribbited in good humor, too, and even Eri chuckled at her own unintended wordplay.
"I don't get it," Katsuma said.
"Aizawa's hero name is Eraserhead," Kota explained. "His power is Erasure, which lets him cancel out someone's Quirk by looking at them. So when he was 'keeping an eye' on Eri …" He rolled his hand as if urging Katsuma to connect the dots. He did, eyes brightening like stars, and laughed.
"Ah, that's funny!"
Kota went on to describe the summer training camp on the Pussycats' mountain land, though he added that such a thing only started with the famed Classes A and B. It had repeated itself a few times and no one could be sure if they would experience it themselves.
Perhaps inevitably, after the discussion moved to possible classwork and hero training, the topic of Quirks came up. They began to explain their powers — mostly for Katsuma's benefit, as the others had discussed theirs more than once over the years — and even discuss potential team moves.
When Eri realized that Katsuma's Quirk was best suited for healing, she was delighted. It felt … nice to have a new friend whose Quirk leaned less to the physical side of powers.
As she listened to Satsuki and Katsuma comparing their stories of Tsuyu's impact on the defending of Nabu Island, she glanced at Kota who seemed to be napping but was clearly listening intently. She smiled at her people and thought that this year was certainly looking up.
Nine years.
It had been nine years since Kiruka Hasaki had been imprisoned in this wretched place. Even after everything she and her comrades had wrought on the island of Nabu, she was not deemed dangerous enough to incarcerate within Tartarus Prison, instead relegated to another, lesser high-security facility. With the added condition that her hair be cut as frequently as possible. In this prison, they never let it grow out to more than a pixie cut.
Kiruka, known to the wider world as Slice, ran a hand back through her hair as she lay back on her cot. She grit her teeth at the sheer shortness of the strands, even on the verge of a fresh cut, which had once been long enough to trail the ground if she had not looped them with her power. Her crimson mane had been her pride and joy, the focus of her Quirk and the source of much of her deadly power.
But that little pink bitch from UA had not simply cut it, she had burned it away. With acid, of all things.
She passed her hand through it again and took a measure of comfort in how soft it was, even in this prison with no way to maintain it. Given the versatility of her power — from hardening wide locks for slashing or parrying to firing off regenerating strands as spear-like projectiles — the warden and his guards had done all they could to make sure she could do nothing more with her Quirk than intimidate other prisoners. They couldn't allow her to escape.
Not that there was any reason to escape. She knew for a fact that that Nine, her beloved leader who had promised to usher in a better world, was dead. He had been killed by Tomura Shigaraki before he could even escape Nabu Island. The smug little shit had visited her specifically in her cell to gloat, using some teleportation Quirk. Her old comrades had apparently been informed, too.
So even if she could escape on her own, as Mummy and Chimera were imprisoned elsewhere, what could she possibly do? What would she want to do, hmm?
Well, she would like the chance to pay back those brats who had resisted Nine's efforts. The prison did receive the news in the lounge, and Slice's general non-aggressive behavior let her watch. She had observed with glee the news of the fall of Tartarus at the hands of All For One and his Nomu, even as her temper had burned at the reminder of Tomura Shigaraki. Six more prisons had been hit, none of them hers. And so she had continued to languish in captivity.
During the weeks of doom and gloom before the final fall of the League of Villains, the prison had remained largely the same, aside from the news blaring non-stop and the guards on edge and almost eager to punish the inmates. They apparently thought that the destruction of seven major prisons might give the prisoners hope of escape, and so had restricted their few freedoms even more.
From there, the news had shown the UA brats and the heroes triumph over the League. An event of mixed emotions for her; she had been somewhat pleased to see the downfall of the organization that had used her leader so frivolously, but had been incensed at the little bastard Midoriya who was being applauded for the finishing blow.
Then came eight years of watching the news of the UA heroes' rises to fame. After a while, her hatred had settled into a coal that she kept in the pit of her belly. It was unlikely that she would get a chance for payback, but she could not let go of the one thing that kept her from complete and utter despair.
Her eyes snapped open from fitful sleep as the door to her cell slid open. Two men faced her, both wearing guard uniforms and both blond. One was large and muscular with ash-blond hair, the other slimmer with platinum hair.
"Get up," the slimmer man said coldly. "Try not to make a scene."
"What are you doing?" Slice asked, her guard up and the stands of her hair writhing impotently. Even without her luxurious locks, Slice was a lovely woman … and a few guards had tried to have their way before.
"Offering you a chance at payback, Slice," the man said simply.
Slice. Not Hasaki, Slice. No prison guard used her's or any prisoner's affectation; something about reminding them of who they were supposed to be rather than the criminals they had been.
"Out of time," the burly man said. "You in or not, huh?"
She thought about it for about half a second. More than enough time for that coal of hatred to reignite and fill her with terrible heat. "I'm in."
The fake guards slammed the cell door shut, locking them in the concrete box she had been assigned. "Mimic," the slim man snapped and gestured at the ground. The burly man nodded and jammed a syringe into his neck. He snarled and then leapt into the concrete of the ground, which began to writhe until a hole formed.
"In," the slim man said. His hair changed, unraveling from around his head to fall into bangs shaped like … the hands of a clock? "We have little time."
She nodded and hopped in, the slim man following and they were closed in. Slice yelped as the surface beneath her lurched and they began to move. Her stomach objected, but she dealt with it, screwing her eyes shut. Not soon enough, the ground spit them back up to land in a heap on asphalt. Slice grunted and rolled onto her feet, stance low and combative as the slim man brushed himself off and the burly one arose from the ground, panting like a racehorse and leaning upon his companion.
Slice turned and looked behind her and found the prison in the distance.
She was free.
"Quickly," the slimmer man said, grunting under the weight of his … comrade. No one held a stranger with such stiff care. It reminded her of her time with Chimera and Mummy … and Nine. They turned and clearly expected her to follow.
"Why did you free me?" Slice demanded.
"We have need of your skills," the slim man said easily, though he was clearly still straining under the weight of his companion. "And given we are out for revenge, we thought you might want some of your own."
"Who are you?" she asked as she fell in step with them.
"Our names are hardly relevant," the slimmer man said. "But our titles, well …" He looked back at her. "My comrade here is called Mimic. I am Chronostasis."
Chapter three is here, and with it comes budding friendships and dark clouds on the horizon.
*I was originally going to have Eri grab Kota and Satsuki as a "welcoming committee" for the other students, but scrapped that. Considering Aizawa's personality, he'd probably consider it "irrational."
*Yes, Jiro is a TA. In my mind, she eventually becomes a teacher at UA (and will teach all of her friends' children who attend UA). The cultural festival arc demonstrates her aptitude for teaching and I figure she'd be really good for the kids, firm but fair. I wondered if nine years after canon - being about seven years as a full-fledged hero - would be long enough for her to be a teacher with a few years experience, but decided she'd prefer to focus on hero work at first and ease into it as a part-time TA.
*Eri's play on words with Erasure was a complete accident of writing that I immediately noticed after writing it and decided to run with. I love it when that happens!
As always, I hope it was a fun read! Leave a review if you like! And may your own inspirations flow freely!
