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Eli lived in a run-down dojo from ages 13-17, until she was kicked out by the guy fostering her when it was time for college. He was the longest she'd ever stayed with anyone. Though, regardless of that fact, it wasn't ideal.
His name was Ren Tanaka, and he polished the skills she already had from the fights she'd gotten into from bullying. Ren taught her a type of martial arts called Taido Martial Arts and instilled into her mind how to stay calm during a fight and make decisions on her feet.
(a/n --> if you/have watch(ed) jujutsu kaisen, think of how itadori yuuji fights)
Granted this only applied to her fighting and not her everyday interaction, unfortunately.
Still though, when she does fight she is rather good at it, and for a while, it was all she did really. Early morning training, long workouts, and getting her ass kicked for years until she finally kicked Ren's ass, and kept doing it.
He wasn't a nice man, but he was better than most of the others. He made sure she ate 3 times a day along with some other basic necessities, taught her how to drive, and he even commended her writing career. He wasn't particularly affectionate other than a small smile here or there, and maybe some praise when she performed a move right.
But, this didn't stop him from giving her the boot as soon as the summer after her senior year of high school began. Sure he beat the shit out of her during sparring almost every day but considering the fact that she suddenly landed in a future where kids like Bakugo could launch a ball 700 meters in the air, she was kind of thankful for his bullshit now.
So now she stood behind a line by herself getting ready for the 50-meter dash. She sighed, knowing she could run pretty fast, and for quite a long time too, but since this was a Quirk test she knew that using her wings would be the best option.
Eli paid no mind to the students that were staring at her since she was the last to go, forcing herself into the mindset that Ren had instilled in her for 4 years. So, with shaky hands, she let out a breath and rolled her shoulders.
'They're just extra limbs, right? Like an arm, don't think, just do,' she told herself.
So, with a sigh, she crouched into position and placed her feet on the pedestals behind her.
"Like an arm or a leg, like an arm or a leg," she muttered to herself.
"On your mark," said the robot that was placed at the finish line.
'Come on, Eli, you've drawn wings before so you know how they're structured, and you've got hundreds of notebooks filled with short essays and excerpts of what you thought it would feel like to fly. Don't think, just do!' she shouted at herself.
She felt her wings raise behind her, listening to her commands as the rest of her body did.
"GO!" yelled the robot.
With a small grunt, she took off, flapping her wings along the way, raising her a couple of inches off the ground as she sped towards the finish line.
"Shit," she said, skidding to a stop and letting out a small puff of air.
"3.52 seconds," said the robot.
She froze, looking at the robot with wide eyes, shivering as she felt the hard glare from Bakugo before she quickly made her way back next to Aizawa who looked at her in surprise before moving on.
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Next was Grip strength. Sitting down away from the students, Eli absent-mindedly thought about her wings as she gripped onto the device, thinking about how to incorporate the wings into fighting.
"Kid?" called Aizawa, walking over to her making her jump and let out a surprised squeak.
Her wings reacted as well, her feathers puffing up a bit before a metallic crunch sound was heard and the grip tester in her hand was broken. Her eyes widened as she looked at it, clutching it to her chest as she turned around to look at Aizawa.
"Um, y-yes," she said. Aizawa eyed her curiously, wondering why she was acting like this when he saw how calm Eli had just been.
"Are you done yet?" he asked her, making her flinch before she stood up and her head hung in shame, and unbeknownst to her, her wings dropped as well as she held out the broken grip tester.
"How did you even-," Aizawa cut himself off as he stared at the broken grip tester and the clearly ashamed girl with wide eyes and a slightly parted mouth
He wasn't mad, of course, he wasn't, but how?
'Don't tell me there's more to her Quirk already?' Aizawa thought.
"Don't worry about it kid," he told her, taking the item from her hand.
Eli nodded as she gave him a sheepish smile.
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Next was the Standing Long Jump.
Once again, Eli was the last to go. With another shaky breath, she planted her feet firmly on the ground, squatting a bit before she jumped, using her wings to push her forward, landing on the far end of the sandbox.
"Shit!" she cursed under her breath as she fell forward, but before she could catch herself with her hands, she found herself a couple of inches of the ground.
Looking up to see her wing-flapping above her, she furrowed her eyebrows as she urged them to flap harder, allowing her to get back to her feet.
She sighed in relief when her feet hit the ground.
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There wasn't much she could do with her wings during the Repeated Side Steps, instead deciding to rely on her lower body strength. She found that her legs moved a lot quicker than normal, but she paid it no mind as she focused on the test.
She wasn't moving as fast as that Mineta kid, but luckily for her, she didn't look that stupid either.
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Finally, they came to the last test, which was the Ball Throw, and now she was waiting beside Aizawa as Midoriya walked up to the circle. They'd already done the long-distance run, the seated toe touch, and sit-ups.
Looking up from her sage green shoes to look at Midoriya's worried eyes moved around frantically. She couldn't really see him clearly, but she could make out how his body shook nervously.
She sighed a bit, instantly understanding how he must have felt, all the anxiety that was. So, she gave him a thumbs up and a small smile. She squinted her eyes in worry when she saw how red he turned afterward.
Still, she watched as he seemed to take a breather.
"It doesn't look good for Midoriya if he continues like this," she heard someone in the class say, making her look over to see it was Iida who said it.
"Huh? Of course not. He's a Quirkless small fry, you know," Bakugo said harshly making her flinch back a bit.
"Quirkless? Hm, what's wrong with someone not having a Quirk?" she mumbled, rubbing her arms with a notable look of confusion on her face.
'Isn't that some type of discrimination?' she pondered, thinking about what Hitoshi said about his parents, seeing that they left him because he had a Quirk they didn't like.
If that could happen to Hitoshi, and he had a Quirk, what happened to kids who just didn't have Quirks? Her chest tightened at the thought, shaking it out of her head.
She was no stranger to discrimination.
Her eyes went back to Midoriya, her eyes locking onto the green fluff of hair, watching as he took a step and she saw a reddish, white light encompass his arm. That was until she looked over to see Aizawa with glowing red eyes and his scarves floating around him.
"46 meters," said the robot.
"I erased your Quirk. That entrance exam was definitely not rational enough because even a kid like you got in," Aizawa said, an irritated tone in his voice as he stared at Midoriya.
Eli found herself getting worried for the boy, partly because of Aizawa's words, but also since she had a feeling that Midoriya was soon about to meet the same fate when she first got here.
"You erased my Quirk?" Midoriya asked before his eyes widened and he took a small step back.
"Those goggles... I see! You can erase people's Quirks by just looking at them. The Erasure Hero: Erasure Head!" Midoriya said with a gasp, making even Eli's eyes widen.
"That's so cool!" Eli said, her wings flapping a bit at the new information.
She'd known he was a hero, a Pro at that, but she didn't know what his Quirk was since she never asked. Though she assumed that Hizashi's Quirk had something to do with his voice since he was yelling half the time.
"From what I can tell, you can't control your Quirk, can you? Do you intend to become incapacitated again and have someone save you?" Aizawa asked, his eyes still glowing as he stood staring at Midoriya, a hard look on his face.
"Th-That's not my intention," Midoriya tried to say timidly, not even being able to get out his full sentence before Aizawa's scarf dragged him towards them.
"Whatever your intention, I'm saying that's what those around you will be forced to do," Aizawa told him harshly, and honestly.
Eli was confused, very. She hadn't seen his Quirk, but she figured Midoriya couldn't be Quirkless because of the glow she saw on his arm right before Aizawa stepped in.
'Incapacitate? Does his Quirk maybe hurt him?' Eli pondered.
"In the past, there was an oppressively passionate hero who saved over 1000 people by himself and created a legend," Aizawa spoke, and Eli watched as his eyes went over to somewhere else before they trained back on Midoriya.
With a quirked eyebrow, she looked in the direction he did. She wasn't able to really see who it was since it was kind of blurry, and she didn't recognize him, knowing that if he'd definitely not been there for her questioning the other day.
This was how Eli was able to tell who was who in the class, recognizing them by their individual color schemes or builds. Like fluffy green hair for Midoriya, pink skin for Ashido, the spikey blonde hair for Bakugo, the brighter shade of blonde for Kaminari, and even Iida's blue hair and glasses.
"Even if you have the same reckless valor, you'll just be decked and turn into a useless doll after saving one person. Izuku Midoriya, with your power, you can't become a hero," Aizawa told him harshly making Eli's purse her lips.
'Damn, and he said is whole government? Get fucked I guess?!' Eli thought.
With a sigh, Aizawa released him from his scarves.
"I've returned your Quirk. You have 2 turns for the Ball Toss. Hurry up and get it over with," Aizawa said before he turned around with his hands in his pockets, walking away from him and leaving Eli standing there nervously in front of Midoriya.
"Uhm, d-do your best Midoriya," she told him softly, giving him another thumbs up and a smile before scurrying away back to stand next to Aizawa.
For a while she watched, hoping that the boy would do something, anything. Of course, she didn't really know him, but she figured since U.A was supposed to be this oh, so prestigious hero academy, he had to have some kind of potential that could make him a great hero. Plus, she knew that words could hurt, especially from adults.
Plus, he was still a kid. Even if 3 years wasn't much, it can be a lot mentally. Plus, no kid is anxious like he is for no reason. Maybe it could be chronic, but there should be no reason as to why he was literally shaking as he was walking to the little circle in the first place.
And Aizawa knew this too, which was why he did it in the first place. He'd rather weed out the kids that didn't have any potential now, rather than attend one of his students' funerals later.
It was a harsh world they lived in, and as the years went by, he'd seen what the shocking exposure to such a nasty world could do to not only heroes-in-training but new Pros as well.
After maybe a minute of preparing himself, himself, Midoriya got ready to launch the ball.
Eli watched with nervous eyes, her hands fidgeting around anxiously she hoped for the best, and then...
BOOM.
Eli gasped as she watched the ball fly far away, watching with wide eyes as the wind blew through her PE uniform from the force of the throw before she began to get excited. She clapped her hands quietly and her wings fluttered excitedly, lifting her a couple of feet off the ground as she smiled at the results.
705.3 meters.
"Mr.Aizawa, I can still move," Midoriya said, clutching his hand, and even with her blurry vision, Eli could see the small look of pride on Aizawa's face.
"What is the meaning of this?" she heard the harsh voice of Bakugo along with a couple of small explosions. Turning her attention to the spikey blonde, her eyes widened as she saw him rush towards Midoriya.
"HEY! TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON, DEKU YOU BASTARD!" Bakugo yelled. With a gasp, she dived towards Midoriya.
Eli honestly didn't know why she did it, or how she even managed to pick him up without a second thought, but suddenly she was flying in the air, holding Midoriya under his arms with her hands clasped together in front of his chest. Not to mention they were about 15 feet in the air as Aizawa wasted no time in wrapping Bakugo in his scarves.
"What the--? These clothes are hard!" Bakugo said as he struggled against the clothes.
She felt shaking, looking down to see a shaking Midoriya making her eyes widen, turning away from the conversation about Aizawa's capture weapon and his complaints about getting dry-eye.
"A-ah, s-sorry Midoriya, I'll put you down now, sorry, sorry," she repeated, not hesitating to fly down and setting him down, squinting as she saw how purple the finger he'd used to throw the ball.
When Eli finally looked at him, she saw him red in the face, she jumped back, her hands beginning to shake as she began to feel bad for what she did.
'Did I embarrass him... I didn't mean to,' she thought sadly.
"Oi, kid!" Aizawa called making her jump as she looked over at him before she looked back at Midoriya.
"S-sorry, again," she told before her wings flapped towards Aizawa, hovering nervously around him.
"Y-yes, Mr.Aizawa?" she asked him, her fingers shaking a bit as her knees bent a bit.
"Instead of the Ball Toss, you'll be doing something different," he told her, handing her the ball making her quirk an eyebrow.
"Then what will my last test be?" she asked.
"You seem to have gotten a bit of hang on flying already, so you're going to hold the ball and fly as high as you can, and we will see how high you can go," he explained to her simply, gesturing towards the circle that they were using for the Ball Toss.
With furrowed eyebrows, she gently descended down as she nodded and walked towards the circle, enclosing the attention away from Midoriya's purple and swollen finger and to Eli who stood timidly in the middle of the circle.
She made the mistake of looking at the students, only to flinch as Bakugo was yet again glaring at her.
'Fight him,' she told herself.
She shook her head at the violent thought, even though she really did want to go over there and rock his shit, but thus she tried to relax her body with deep breaths. Clenching her teeth together, she yet again began to imagine Ren lecturing her.
"You shouldn't be anxious when it comes to any skill you have, it's your skill for a reason and if it wasn't, you wouldn't even be thinking about it," Ren would tell her every time she began to panic about anything to do with her fighting ability.
"Who cares if you've never done it before, that's just another reason to do it," Ren would say.
So, with a sigh, she clutched the ball in her hand and squatted as she looked up at the clear blue sky and her wings shot out on both sides of her. With one long breath, she grunted as she furiously flapped her wings.
She shot straight up into the air and kept going and going.
Her tense features seemed to relax as she did, and she found herself blinking her eyes rapidly as she looked at how close she was to the clouds, not being able to stop the happy laugh that rippled through her body.
She flew higher, and higher until it almost seemed like she could see all of Japan from where she was. She was surprised that her breath wasn't short yet, especially with her being so high up. A spurry of giggles left her body as she felt the wind rake through her PE clothes, smiling widely as she felt the wind blow through her feathers.
It wasn't quiet either, nothing but the loud sound of the rushing wind in her ears as she seemed to ride through the wind in the sky. The wind seemed to caress her body, almost feeling like it was hugging her, greeting her to the skies.
She grinned, and for the first time in a while, she found herself happy to be by herself.
But she wasn't, by herself that is.
It was her, and the wind around her, rushing, almost playing with one another as her body twirled through the air. For once in her life, she felt at home, just her and the wind that almost felt like it nuzzling her.
She could've sworn she heard little childish laughs while she was up so high, but despite how terrifying that would be, it was so relaxing.
It'd felt like she'd had these wings her entire life, and she couldn't help her wild giggling before she looked down, only to realize she could no longer see the school, just a small square in her blurry vision.
Looking around at the clouds around her, she felt her eyesight clear, almost as if she was seeing them as clear as day. She stared, in genuine awe as she flapped her wings, not being able to help herself from reaching her hand out and touching one. When she pulled her hand out, it was wet, and she chuckled lightly to herself.
Eli looked down again at the school and with a sigh and a grin, she felt herself falling and smiling up at the sky as if it were a friend she had to cut a hang out short with. The wind filled her ears once more as she felt the wind rush through her feathers, heading straight down at an alarming speed.
Once the blurry small group of students came into her vision, she began to slow down, still sporting a rather large grin as she did, not being able to stop her giggles as she landed back in the circle with an oof, before falling backward on her butt.
She found herself staring up at the sky with a kind smile, and she felt wind ripple through her PE uniform, almost as though it was responding, and she couldn't help the giggle that erupted from her mouth as she stood up before her eyes met Aizawa's wide ones.
"So, um, how'd I do?" she asked, a small smile gracing her lips as she looked at him. He simply turned the device over to see the word Error on its screen making her eyes widen.
"W-what, I-I promise I didn't break it," she said holding out the ball, that was still in perfect condition.
"I can see that, this just means that you went too far away too fast," he said waving the screen back and forth.
He didn't expect her to smile at him as brightly as she did at that moment, and honestly, he was very much taken back by it, having to hide his soft smile behind his scarves.
"Good job today kid," he told her softly, and if it were even possible, Eli smiled even harder.
"Thank you, Mr.Aizawa," she said with a nod as a smile still played on her lips.
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So, turns out Aizawa was fucking with his students when he told them that whoever came last was getting expelled. Eli couldn't even find it within herself to even be surprised as she fluttered around Aizawa.
Though she had a feeling that even though he was fucking with them, he would've done it had he not been somewhat satisfied with the results.
"Eli?" he said making her look at him.
"Hm, yes Mr.Aizawa?"
"Here are your marks, they're separate from the students for obvious reasons," he said, handing Eli a small tablet, and her eyes widened as she looked it over.
"I-I would've gotten 2nd? R-really?" she whispered with wide eyes.
"Yes, you would've," he nodded, and she smiled a bit at the tablet before she gave it back to him.
"With that, we're done here. There are handouts with the curriculum and such in the classroom so when you get back, look over them," Aizawa said as he began to walk away before he handed Midoriya a nurse office referral.
"Eli, go to the teacher's lounge when you're done," he told her, and she nodded as she was a little uncomfortable at the attention she got.
With that, class ended, and Eli went back to the locker room to get changed. This time, she managed to slide the shrunken wings through her blouse without help and rushed to put on her other clothes, grabbing her phone out of the locker before she left.
She asked before she went off to find the teachers' lounge, and when she did, Aizawa and Hizashi were already there, talking to one another.
"LITTLE LISTENER! SO HOW WAS YOUR FIRST DAY?!" Hizashi asked as he stood up from his seated position on the couch which made a cheeky grin appear on her face, her hands rising to rub her hot cheeks.
"I learned to fly!"
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3789 words.
i live for soft dadzawa moments, it's like therapy idk