Katara feels more useless than ever. She's standing in one of UA's fields watching as her classmates excel at the quirk apprehension tests. Slowly, each student takes their turn at each event, and she struggles to think about how she'll pass.
The only test she can use her quirk for is the grip strength test. The ice-covered monitor reads 100 kg. Compared to some other results in the class, it's pathetic.
When Midoriya breaks his finger in the ball throw, she steps up and says, "Please let me look at it."
She thinks this is her chance, if they can see her healing maybe they won't send her away.
Midoriya says, "Oh, sure."
Aizawa watches as Katara pulls out her gallon jug and inspects his finger with the water. The bones are almost completely shattered all the way up to the knuckle. She doesn't heal the bones.
Katara says, "The bones aren't shattered, but it's a near thing. You need serious medical attention. I don't have any equipment to set this for you. It'd likely heal wrong if I did anything now."
Rather than being disappointed, he looks fascinated. He says, "So you have a water quirk that can also heal? That's amazing Hikari! That must be how you got fifth out of 1-A and 1-B."
Some of the other students look intrigued as well.
Aizawa interrupts, saying, "All right, time to give you your results. I've ranked you all from best to worst. You should probably have a good idea of your standing already. I'll just pull up the whole list—it's not worth going over your individual scores."
The list displays in a hologram, and she looks for her name. She finds it at the bottom of the list. Horrified, she tears up a bit, ready to start walking home early. She wonders what Endeavor will say, what he'll put her through for this embarrassment.
Shouto puts an arm on her shoulder comfortingly. Katara brushes his hand off her shoulder.
Yaoyorozu says, "Todoroki? Are you two related?"
You wouldn't think it, looking at them. Shouto has half-red, half-white hair, while Katara has pink hair and grey-blue eyes.
Katara nods.
Aizawa says, "And I was lying, nobody's going home. That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all in the tests."
Katara is dazed. She stands there, not hearing what anyone says.
Katara sits alone at lunch, still reeling from almost being expelled on the first day, when someone walks up to her table and asks to sit with her. It's Midoriya, Ochaco, and Iida.
She lets them sit with her and watches as they talk to each other.
Midoriya says to her, "Thanks for trying to heal my hand by the way, I'm Izuku Midoriya."
She says, "No problem, I'm K-Hikari Todoroki."
Ochaco says, "I've been wondering something, you're totally Endeavor's daughter right? I've seen you in paparazzi photos before, he's quite secretive about his family."
Katara says, "You shouldn't support the paparazzi by looking at their work, it just emboldens them further."
Ochaco says, "Oh. But you are related to him, right?"
Katara says flatly, "I am. I think I'm going to eat elsewhere, thanks."
Iida says, "Wait!" but she doesn't. She takes her food to another table and finishes it. She's dealt with this sort of behavior before in school, it was always best to just ignore it until they got the message: Endeavor is a not a good topic of discussion.
After All Might tells everyone to get changed into their costumes for Hero Basic training, Ochaco walks up to Katara and apologizes for prying.
Katara says, "It's alright, I just don't like talking about Endeavor."
She says, "No problem, I won't mention him again. I'm Ochaco Uraraka by the way."
Katara says, "Nice to meet you."
The other girls all introduce themselves as well.
Yaoyorozu says sympathetically, "So, you're Endeavor's daughter, it must be tough dealing with paparazzi and prying eyes."
Katara says, "It is."
They all walk to Training Ground Beta, where All Might divides them into teams. She's in a team up against Shouto.
She looks at him and finds him looking back at her intensely.
She and Ojiro head into the building and talk strategy. She says, "Shouto is incredibly powerful. I'm honestly not sure how we'll win, I've never been able to beat him in a spar."
Ojiro pales and says, "Well, that's not good. I think our best strategy is to stay on the floor with the weapon and wait for them to come to us. Then we ambush them at the staircase."
She leaves Ojiro with the weapon and stands near the staircase, readying her water for attack.
She's standing on the fourth floor when the entire building freezes over.
She melts the ice around her as she runs for Ojiro to free him.
She meets up with him, unfreezes the water around his legs and heals his feet. He thanks her.
At that moment, Shouto appears on the staircase and says, "So you can unfreeze water too. This'll be the first time we get to fight with our quirks, Hikari."
They begin fighting more intensely than usual. Hikari goes for a right hook, and remembers the ice at the last moment. She melts the ice around that side at the last moment and almost connects when Shouto dodges to his left and tries to kick her knee out.
While Shouto is distracted, Ojiro attaches the tape to his tail and decks Shouto's back. The capture tape coils around Shouto's waist, and All Might announces that Shouto has been captured.
At that announcement, they wait for Shouto's partner to appear. When he does, the two of them fight him. Ultimately, the time runs out and they win.
Shouto unfreezes the building and the class is in shock.
Kaminari says, "Holy crap! That guy's kind of intimidating."
Tsuyu says, "He got in on a recommendation, so he must be good. Wait, wasn't Hikari in with the regular students?"
There's an awkward pause as they realize she wasn't recommended with her brother.
Tsuyu says, "Maybe Endeavor sees more potential in Shouto."
Kirishima says, "Maybe, isn't that kind of messed up though—to pick one of your kids like that?"
Yaoyorozu says, "In his defense, heroes only get one recommendation allowed, he had to choose."
Ochaco feels even more guilty about earlier. She says, "No wonder she doesn't like talking about Endeavor."
When the four of them walk in for their performance review, no one says anything at first.
All Might says, "Now, who was the MVP of that match?"
Katara says, "Maybe Ojiro, he captured Shouto and came up with our plan. I had no idea what we should do."
All Might says, "Young Ojiro remained focused on the mission even when circumstances changed and captured Shouto while he was distracted. He also helped fight off Shoji until the time ran out. Good work!"
It's a quiet ride home, until Shouto interrupts it by saying, "You did really well today."
Katara looks up at him.
Shouto smiles and says, "I got overconfident and left my teammate outside. It was a dumb move."
Katara says, "And coming in last place in the quirk assessment test doesn't matter?"
Shouto says, "The quirk assessment test doesn't matter. You passed. You have more potential in your pinky finger than half the people in there."
Katara thinks that Shouto might not be as awful as she thought. She feels warm.
That night, Katara wakes from a nightmare about Aang almost dying in the Crystal Catacombs.
Her entire body is covered in sweat which she bends off and into a cup on her nightstand.
She's shaking. It's in these moments that she contemplates joining them all in the spirit world so that she can ask why they've left her alone here.
She picks up her diary and begins to write "My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days. A time of peace, when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads…"