Ebony {My Hero Academia}

Chapter 12- Sensei

Today is the day

Spirit forced herself a breath that was meant to be calming, her ears twitching as she sat still as a statue atop a signpost overhanging and entrance into the station, overlooking the main floor and it's constant traffic and in and out of people and bullet-trains. Her tail curled over her paws as she kept her attention on the train pulling away from the station, and resulting in a slight lull of people walking around.

First day

The first day... the first day in the last two where she had been fussing with getting ready and pulling everything together and setting her 'plans' in stone. She'd been hopping back and forth between the Support Office and the store and all places in between, and now today she hoped dearly that she hadn't forgotten anything.

I didn't right? I have my bag, I have supplies, I'm early and here and on time...

She grumbled a bit, a growl in the back of her throat as she shook her head at herself.

Stop

Every once in awhile someone payed her more mind and paused under her perch, smiling her way and offering up small 'hellos' or 'good mornings' from those who recognized her, or at least guessed... oh, and 'congrats on the new Ranking'.

She grumbled a bit more under her breath, ears twitching in exasperation.

Yes... as of yesterday, she was in some technical sense now the No. 19 Hero, and not the No. 26.

But not really... well, not officially. The no shit, hardcore, official rankings that dictated exactly what spot you were in were always announced twice a year, 6 months in and then at the end of December. And that Ranking was your actual one, and the one that stuck with you for half a year until they released the new list the following 6 months.

What had the whole of Japan in an uproar about her now was just the Monthly, tentative, and very much not official Rankings. The Monthly Rankings were scored in fairly the same way the Official ones were, taking into account Resolve Rates and Rescue statistics, as well as the number and type of incidents and fights a Pro was involved in. And then it paired all the normal and basic logistical stuff with more of the social side- how popular a Pro was with the general public, approval among the different tiers of people like businesses, police, political persons, etc. But as far as Spirit was aware, the Monthly Rankings were skewed more by the popularity portion of a Pro's career than they were meant to be. So, she was very much under the impression a large portion of why she'd suddenly skipped ahead 7 ranks was because of how (ridiculously) popular she was about the whole hanging around Hawks thing (the mess with Stain not included..). And with Hawks constantly moving up in the ranks from month to month, she was sure her 'relationship' with him had figuratively latched her onto what roll he was on.

So technically the whole No. 19 didn't count for much, she was still officially the No. 26, and she doubted she'd actually earn any different rank come December. To be entirely honest, the jump up to 19 confused the hell out of her, she couldn't see why she had gotten placed that high without the actual reasons being nonsense and bullshit... So yeah, there's not a chance in hell I'm the No. 19. I'm pretty sure this is just a lot of hyped up nonsense.

And she kept to that idea even knowing, that come the end of the year, the final Monthly Ranking was pretty much always damn near close to what the Official Rankings turned out to be.

She shook her head and the thoughts off, deciding it better not to brood about it or the numerous people giving out praises for the new Rank- Death Arms included.

... And Hawks. That had been a near immediate message over Instagram from Hawkward once the list got posted. And a very excited and overzealous one she hardly read more than two words of before feeling irritated.