HE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. Perhaps he thought that she would be like the teenagers in his class, a delinquent or a pushover or maybe even an oblivious happy-go-lucky idiot, someone who would give him a throbbing headache. Instead, he was met with someone completely different.
When he got the call, right in the middle of class and every single student stared as he fished out his cell phone and answered, he was mildly (very) surprised to learn that his niece was under police custody.
At first, he was annoyed because why are you telling me this, we're on two separate continents, but then the man on the phone said that they wanted to apply her for U.A. The man said that the girl had used her Quirk illegally to save someone from a suicide attempt, and that she could potentially become a Hero. They needed to know if he would allow her to live with him until her first year was over. She'll come right back to America, the man assured him, if she fails the entrance exam or fails her first year. He was also informed that she may not choose to apply for U.A., that she may choose juvenile detention, which would then excuse him from the whole thing.
"She's a real good kid, even if she doesn't act like it. And, between us," the man on the phone had said, his accented voice dropping, as if he didn't want others nearby to hear, "I have my suspicions that she lives in a neglectful household. It may do her some good to get away and have something to work towards."
Ah, how he wished the man hadn't said that, because now he would feel somewhat guilty if he refused to house the girl. And he didn't like carrying guilt, even if it was light and easily brushed off.
The fact that this girl was Yua's daughter did not make the decision any easier.
He hadn't spoken to his sister in years. The last time they'd talked, Yua told him that she didn't want her daughter to meet their family, not until their parents were dead. That he could understand, since he didn't particularly care for his parents either, but it still pained him to think about how his sister ran away to America and cut him off until after she was married and a mother.
He knew nothing about the child, except that her name was Kendria Smith and the only connection to Japan she would have would be the language.
The school bell had already rung by the time the man on the phone was finished speaking, and the room was empty when he said, "Give me some time to think about it," and hung up.
Two hours later, after going back and forth between the pros and cons in his mind and feeling a tiny block of guilt every time he considered ignoring her predicament, he called the man back and told him his decision.
The girl that stepped off and plane, the very last passenger and only teenage girl unaccompanied by an adult, was not at all what he had imagined.
He expected her to be short and black haired like Yua, perhaps darker skinned, but instead she was of average height, and blonde. He had no idea what her father looked like, but he guessed that she inherited her traits from the American man.
She scanned the crowd until her gaze landed on him, which must have been easy, seeing as he was quite a bit taller than most of the people around. The girl made her way towards him, bumping into people and not looking back. He was right about her estimated height, he noticed as she stopped in front of him.
"You must be my uncle," she said in perfect Japanese, accented voice toneless and face void of expression. Her eyes were a dark green color, he noticed. Green like Yua's, but duller and less lively than one would expect of a teenager.
"You must be my niece," he replied, holding out his hand. She stared at it for a moment, before pulling a hand out of the pocket of her denim jacket and grasped it in an almost-but-not-quite firm handshake. Once he let go, her hand immediately went back into her pocket. "Come on, I'll take you home. Then we can talk about U.A." She said nothing, just grabbed her suitcase and walked beside him.
She was silent for most of the car ride back to his apartment, only speaking when he parked the car.
"What's you name?" she asked, leaning against the frame of the vehicle.
He grunted. Of course she doesn't know my name. Yua had said that she didn't want the girl to have any connection to the family.
"Shota Aizawa," he answered, opening the door to his apartment and gesturing for her to enter. "Make yourself at home. You're gonna be here for a while."
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