Chapter Text
“It’s not fair, though, Shinso.”
“Don’t sweat it, Sasaski. You’re gonna kill it.”
Norika clenched her jaw in frustration, biting her tongue to prevent the remaining choice words she had for the decision that had already been made. It was out of their hands, and although she personally thought Hitoshi deserved it more than she did, the seat had been given to her.
They walked together in the direction of Classroom 1A, where Norika Sasaki’s new classmates all awaited her. The two of them had been up for promotion to the hero course after their Quirks had not proven to be flashy enough for the entrance exam itself. Although they both had manipulation type quirks, the free spot in Class 1A had gone to Sasaki for reasons she was desperately trying to understand.
“I don’t like the 1A kids, they’re...” She trailed off before finishing her thought, not even sure what descriptor to use for the students of Class 1A, earning herself a lopsided grin from her friend as he shoved her shoulder with his own gently,
“Yeah, I know. You’ll warm up to them. Heard it’s rescue training today, so at least you’ll be able to make a good impression.” He encouraged her quietly, clearly trying his best to ease her concerns for him, though it clearly wasn’t working.
“I wish you could come with me. I’m so mad they’re separating us.”
“Don’t worry about me, Nori. I’ll prove myself at the Sports Festival, okay?” As they approached the large door, ‘1A’ painted across it in bright red lettering, Hitoshi gave her a final, firm pat on the back before turning on his heel without looking back. Norika knew he left quickly so she wouldn’t see him scowl, but she also knew that he was doing all he could to reassure her while dealing with his own emotions on the matter. She’d have to talk to him later.
Meanwhile, there was the matter of the ongoing class inside the doors. She could hear Mr Aizawa’s mumbling through the door, and various students chiming in every now and then, their voices full of excitement and enthusiasm.
Despite her reservations, a prideful feeling caught up to her as she raised her hand to knock. She actually made it to the Hero Course. Leaving Hitoshi behind was regrettable, but he’d catch up. She knew it.
A heavy exhale allowed the stress to leave her body, her shoulders lowering as she finally made herself known to the class with a gentle but assertive knock. Mr Aizawa called her in promptly, though it was hard to hear him through the door and the layers of his capture scarf loosely wrapped around his neck.
All eyes fell on her instantly, and any confidence she’d had made an attempt to abandon her. She held to what assurance she could and awaited Mr Aizawa’s introduction, accidentally activating her Quirk as he lightly tapped her wrist with his fingers to wordlessly tell her to step forward. She received only a brief flash of a memory of a young Present Mic, but not much else. He either didn’t notice, or he chose not to react.
“Alright everyone, listen up. This is Norika Sasaki, she’s just transferred from Class 1C. As you all know, one of the applicants for the Hero Course dropped out before the year started, so we’ve been vetting some potential replacements, and this is who we landed on. Be nice.”
Norika’s eyes scanned over the classroom of her peers, intrigued to finally get a good look at Class 1A. They were somewhat notorious throughout the school, mostly because everyone had heard about Katsuki Bakugo’s sheer power and his antics. One look at him and she knew the rumours were true. He wouldn’t even look at her, which she actually found herself grateful for.
A few other students caught her eye too; namely, the boy with half red hair and half white, two different coloured eyes and a scar on the left side of his face who had an incredibly famous name attached to him. Shoto Todoroki was one of the two students in Class 1A who had gotten in on recommendations, and though he didn’t seem particularly interested in her new placement in class, at least he wasn’t ignoring her existence.
The other four she recognised were those from her entrance exam. Though she’d failed initially, she still remembered them, as they’d made quite the commotion. She didn’t know their names, but she recognised the boy with the laser Quirk, and she could hardly forget the opinionated boy with engines in his legs, who kept yelling at the plain-looking boy who broke all his limbs trying to save the cute girl with gravity powers.
Norika couldn’t help but think they were an odd bunch, especially since they seemed to all be friends now.
Mr Aizawa didn’t waste any time as he directed her to her seat behind the plain-looking boy, and continued explaining what their class would entail for the day. Just as Shinso had suggested, it was to be a day of rescue training on a site nearby, supervised by three teachers, including Eraserhead and All Might.
The prospect of being trained by the number one hero should have been more frightening than it was. Norika knew that it would become more intimidating when she saw him, but the idea of meeting him was enough to overshadow that feeling. Simply being at the same school as him had been enough for her, and now she was going to be in his actual class, learning from him. It was an invigorating thought.
Aizawa went on to explain that it was up to the students whether they’d wear their costumes or not, reminding them all that they hadn’t gotten used to them yet. Anxiety crept up the back of Norika’s neck when she suddenly remembered that she hadn’t officially sent in her costume requisition yet, though she pushed that thought to the back of her mind to think about later. Then, almost as quickly as she’d been introduced to the class and sat down, Aizawa dismissed them all to the locker rooms to get changed.
Class 1A all filed out of the classroom, their new addition included, murmuring amongst themselves. Even if their words were mostly inaudible, Sasaki knew a lot of them were talking about her. For a moment, it seemed like no one was even going to bother introducing themselves to her.
Then, all of a sudden, she felt the girls gathering around her in a warm circle, all silently deciding who was going to speak first. Eventually, a small but bright voice came out from seemingly nowhere, “Hi! So, you’re Sasaki, right?”
A touch unsettled at the prospect of the disembodied voice and being surrounded by a group of strangers, Norika’s head turned on a swivel, trying to survey all the strange faces surrounding her abruptly. Only then did she notice that the voice of the person who’d spoken to her came from an invisible body filling out a school uniform she hadn’t noticed to her left.
“Uh, y-yeah. Norika Sasaki. N-nice to meet you all.”
“Cute name!” Quickly cutting into the circle, the girl with wild, curly pink hair and pink skin perked up happily, “I’m Mina Ashido!”
“Tsuyu Asui, but please, call me Tsu.” The girl with long green hair and big, round eyes was next to speak. She didn’t seem as peppy as the invisible girl or Ashido, but her friendliness was still a breath of fresh air.
“My name is Momo Yaoyorozu, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” A taller girl with big, beautiful black hair and sharp eyes was next to speak, holding herself with a level of elegance and an eloquence to her words that told Norika that she was likely the other student accepted on recommendations.
“I’m Ochaco Uraraka.” The girl with the gravity Quirk was next to introduce herself, a giggle in her words that made Norika wonder if she remembered her at all, or if she was really just so forgettable. She tried not to linger on the thought, especially as the quiet girl with earphone jacks for ears and her hands shoved into her pockets spoke, “Kyoka Jiro.”
Before Norika had a chance to thank them for introducing themselves, the invisible girl spoke up again, “Oh, and I’m Toru Hagakure! We’re so glad to have another girl in class! Yay!”
They continued to chat mindlessly on their way to the locker room, and then while they were getting changed, but Sasaki learned nothing of substance. She knew it was early days and she was trying not to judge them too harshly, but all she could think about was Hitoshi back in class 1C, wanting nothing more than to be training with her and all the future heroes. Their lack of focus on the class to come frustrated her.
Once they were all dressed and ready to go, the class rep guided them all to the area of the grounds where they were to wait for their bus. As they all arrived, Sasaki let out a breath of relief to see another student in his PE clothes. It was only the two of them, but as he made eye-contact with her, they both seemed to relax their shoulders a little.
Almost as if wanting to cause more tension, Uraraka stepped forward and pointed between the two of them, “Deku, Sasaki, why are you wearing your PE clothes? No costumes today?”
Sasaki cocked her head at the boy to answer first, whose cheeks had flushed a little pink as he was addressed by the two of them. He shrugged awkwardly and turned to Uraraka, “Well, you saw my costume after the combat training. It was kinda trashed. I’m still waiting on the support company to fix it up.”
They shared some small nods of understanding, before turning their attention to Norika, who had no frame of reference for what the ‘combat training’ could have entailed that it caused a hero uniform to be trashed.
“I, uh, I don’t have one yet. Don’t really need a hero costume for general studies.” She explained shortly, opening her mouth to continue on when she was suddenly cut off by a sharp, piercing whistle from the class rep. He barked out a few orders to board the bus in an orderly manner, which most of the class ignored, and within a few minutes, Class 1A set off to the nearby training facility.
Norika found herself sitting with the group in the middle of the bus, though she took the seat on the end so she could ride comfortably without risking touching anyone. The last thing she wanted to do with her new classmates was accidentally spook them by viewing their memories without permission. Focused on keeping to herself, she almost missed it when Tsu mentioned All Might, “That power of yours, isn’t it a lot like All Might’s?”
When Norika turned to engage in the conversation, she quickly found Tsuyu speaking to the boy in his PE uniform, who broke all his limbs in the entrance exam. Norika had seen what he did in the exam, and after the parallels had been drawn by Tsu, they were hard to ignore.
Especially when she witnessed the panic in his face and voice as he floundered to explain away the similarities. Only when the boy with spiky red hair spoke up to point out the differences did he let out a sigh of relief. Everyone else moved on quickly, but Norika couldn’t. She could do nothing but stare curiously at the boy with green hair that Uraraka had called ‘Deku’. He didn’t seem like anything special, but there was a level of power within him that didn’t fit. Nothing about him seemed to fit.
Sensing her intense gaze, Deku looked up and caught her eye. Though the immediate instinct for them was to look away, they didn’t. Norika cocked her head to the side in confusion while Deku’s eyes just grew wider. The cacophony of their peers went on around them, but they paid them no mind.
Even without touching him, Norika felt the memory at the front of his mind. She couldn’t see it yet, but she felt it. Against her own will or not, she was going to learn some things about the strange boy who couldn’t handle his own Quirk that very day.
Eventually, Class 1A arrived at the large building, and were guided inside by Mr Aizawa, only to find themselves standing before the Space Hero, Thirteen. The excitement in the group was palpable, and spurred on by the thought that All Might was waiting for them as well. Thirteen took them through a brief rundown of what the building was for and the facilities on offer to them, before Mr Aizawa began to grumble about All Might’s lack of appearance. Their voices quickly became hushed, and Norika’s eyes homed in on Deku, who looked more concerned than the rest of his classmates.
Only when Thirteen stood forward to give a short lecture on the responsible use of quirks did Norika finally tear her eyes away from the boy with green hair, and finally focus up again.
“Today, you’re going to learn how to use your quirks to save people’s lives. You won’t be using your powers to attack enemies, or each other, only to help. After all, that’s what being a hero is all about; ensuring the safety of others. That’s all I have to say. Thank you so much for listening.” Clearly having a flair for the dramatic, Thirteen finished her speech with a small bow and flourish, earning herself a small cheer from the class, who were utterly taken by her.
“Right. Now that that’s over...” Mr Aizawa spoke up clearly, dragging the attention away from Thirteen to begin the lesson, when some of the lights overhead suddenly began flickering. Off in the distance, towards the centre of the USJ, the steady fountain also started sputtering, when a strange, black spot appeared in the air near it.
Mr Aizawa’s attitude changed in an instant, his normally exhausted and bored expression shifting to one of confusion and concern as he spun to see what had now become a shifting, purplish portal, a strange face covered by a hand beginning to peek through. As if sensing the danger before anyone else could, he began spitting out orders, “Stay together and don’t move!”
He turned to his co-teacher, “Thirteen, protect the students!”
Confused and not yet grasping the feeling of uneasiness, the red-haired kid spoke up, “Woah, what is that thing? Wait, has the training started already? I thought we were rescuing people.”
Deku and Sasaki both went to take a step forward to get a closer look at the growing portal when Aizawa snapped, “Stay back!”
They obliged, watching on as Mr Aizawa slipped his goggles over his eyes, and feeling the truth of his coming words before they came,
“This is real. Those are villains.”
And with those words, the threat to their lives became tangible.