UNMASKED (mha)

91

It was finally her classes turn to use the changing rooms. The facility didn't have nearly enough room for hundreds of students to change into their hero costumes all at once so they had to wait in line.

Aiko had been gawked at and whispered about her. A few people approached but she wasn't crowded which was good.

Aiko noticed a crowd of boys leave the men's locker rooms. The boys in her own class moved forward in the line. Then Aiko saw him, or at least someone. She saw brown hair, pale skin and light brown eyes and a jawline. She jerked and did a double take, but whoever it was had been covered by the crowd.

'No it can't be him.' She thought, rubbing her eyes.

"You okay?" Mina asked, looking at her in concern.

Aiko smiled nervously. "Yeah I'm fine, just thought I saw someone from middle school. Probably wasn't him though."

💖💖💖

The walls fell down and the students wasted no time before scattering. One class stayed on the platform that was once a large room. "Alright! We should stick together okay guys?" The red headed class representative said. Looking around at her students.

A blue haired girl scoffed. "It will be harder for all of us to pass if we stay in one big group like this." She said. "Even if we ganged up on a group how would we decide who got to tap the targets? I say we all split off into  smaller groups-"

Her head snapped over as she realized that the challenge had already begun. At least three other classes were circling their own. Rubber balls flew at them at incredible speeds, Tris stomped on the ground to create a wall to block the balls and then.

They fell through the ground into the dark.

💖💖💖

Aiko stood fidgeting. She wondered how the rest of UA was doing. Kendo and Tris were in a different stadium than they were.

She struggled to connect her targets to her hero suit. Keeping them in front where her defense was Highest. One on her stomach, two over her chest side by side.

She snapped on her mask and pulled her hood over her head. Her hair secured in a bubble braid with only her bangs showing.
She walked out with the rest of her class. She looked out at the room she was walking into. There were so many people.
Too many people.

She stood beside Jirou, on the edge of her group. Her arms wrapped around herself.
She scanned the crowd, trying to find him again. She hadn't seen the guy's full face, it probably wasn't even who she thought it was. She listened to the tired man as he gave them a few final instructions.
Don't put the targets anywhere impossible to hit, don't kill people, blah, blah, blah.

She didn't notice anyone behind her move until she heard a voice by her head.
"Boo."

She straightened and turned her head to look. Then swiveled to look ahead. "Hello Coleson." She whispered, not looking back at him.

"Aw, you actually remember me?" He said. "I really thought you would have forgotten me, being famous and all." He leaned over her to whisper better. His chest almost touched her back. He was taller than he had been in middle school. Easily a foot taller than she was.

"Of course I do. But I'm trying to pay attention, go back to your own class." She hissed. Jirou gave them a glance but didn't say anything.

"You're no fun Aiko." He pouted. "It was good to see you again though." Cole said with a smile.

"The feeling is not mutual." She said back coldly.

"Ouch, okay diva." He said with fake hurt. "What did I ever do to you?"

"I can write you a list if you want." Aiko Whispered back. He leaned closer to her, his chest touching her shoulders. "Can't we put everything behind us? Start over?" He mumbled close to her ear. Though it was muffled because of her hood.

"Nope." She said.

"Really? You used to be so sweet. What happened to you?" He asked. Her face got red from contact and she stepped farther away from him.

"I learned to stand up to myself."
She crossed her arms.

He chuckled slightly. "You're cute." He mumbled.

"You're an ass." She whispered back.

"That's n-"

"All right then. Let's begin, you have two minutes to scatter. Good luck."
The tired man said. There was a loud clicking and then the room they were in broke loose, the walls fell down and hit the ground with loud bangs.

"Good luck." Cole whispered before running back too his class.

Aiko rolled her eyes and turned to her own class. "Who was that?!" Jirou whispered, Mina was beside her. But they seemed to be the only ones that noticed him.

"Some bastard from my middle school." Aiko said, rubbing her arms.

"A cute bastard." Mina teased.

"He also bullied me." Aiko told her bluntly.

"Oh never mind."
She squeaked.

"There's my favorite UA class." Nishi walked up and wrapped her arms around Aiko. They were still on the platform. "What's the plan?" She asked the group.

They eyed her nervously before deciding they would accept her. "Hit targets. Duh."

"Uh yeah before that. I mean-" she blinked rapidly. "Wait do you guys not know?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Iida asked loudly.

"I mean the fact that literally every class here is going to go after you guys specifically. UA? The sports festival? This happens every year! It's tradition!"

"Wait." Denki coughed. "So you're saying once the one minute scatter time is up..."

"Oh you're toast if you don't have a good defense. But don't worry, I'll help you guys."
She smiled proudly.

"Thanks Nishi." Aiko said. "We'll probably need it."

Just as those words left her mouth the timer buzzed.

Game on.