There was a reason why she liked being with Aizawa in general. He never pried and only stepped in when he needed to. He worried when it was needed and right now was one of those times. The two were discussing regarding her quirk, especially after the stunt she pulled with the knife during the sports festival. To see whether she could do it again, instead of letting her cut herself, he dragged the blade across his own palm, barely even reacting when he drew blood. Aizawa gestured for her to attend to it and so she shifted closer towards him, hovering her now glowing palm over his.
Immediately, right before their eyes, the wound closed up and she was once again amazed by the sight of it. Apparently, so was Aizawa. He exhaled slightly, "This is quite curious. Keep this to yourself for now."
Shrugging, she agreed, "I planned to."
"Have you had any more nosebleeds lately? Your quirk acting up?"
She chuckled, "You sound like a dad and no. Everything's been alright."
Ignoring her 'dad' jab, he sighed, "That's good. Tell me if anything else happens with your quirk. Understood?"
"I know. Quite worrying. I'm as sturdy as sturdy can be."
He poked her forehead and her head bounced back slightly, "That's the problem. You won't realize something's wrong until it's too late. Don't you be that way."
"I know. Promise," she held out a pinky and he stared at her, unamused. She wiggled her pinky and he ignored her. She grabbed his hand and forced him to link his pinky with hers, a satisfied smile on her face once she succeeded, "There. Promise sealed."
The two sat in silence for a moment and the male looked at her with a strange look in his eyes. Unreadable but at the same time, they seemed soft but perhaps it was just her imagination. She jumped up suddenly, "Well, I better head to bed. Good night Aizawa-san."
"Yeah."
Heading into her room, she rustled through the bag she brought home today and took out a pill bottle, pills that would prove her theory regarding her quirk and assist her sleep. She wished to see if this would allow her to peacefully sleep without seeing someone's life in HD so quickly consuming them, she climbed into bed. After a few minutes, she was out like a light.
°°°°
Her theory was proven true. Sleeping naturally activated her quirk in her sleep but drug-induced sleeping prevented that from happening. Arisa woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, so much so that she could hear the angel choir echoing above as the rays of Heaven graced her mortal shell. She quickly jumped out of bed and got ready for the day—got a quick shower, got dressed in her uniform with great difficulty due to her cast and in the end asked for her guardian's help.
"Put your arm in."
"I'm trying," she grumbled, shoving the tip of her arm into the shirt's entrance that Aizawa was holding, wanting to just heal it but she didn't know enough of her new ability to use it on herself. Odds were, she would end up crippled instead of healed and so she settled with having a broken arm for the next few days. Or weeks. Depends. Arisa's eyes flicked upwards to meet her guardian's eyes, "How did you even get dressed with your arms both in a cast?"
"Talent."
She made a face and without her realizing, her shirt was on and suddenly, her blazer was thrown on her head.
"Hey!"
She swore she could hear him chuckle but maybe it was her imagination. The blazer was peeled off her head to reveal an expressionless Aizawa but she knew better. She could see the ghost of a smile on his lips as he swung his arms over her head, placing the blazer on her shoulder. She looked at him strangely as he guided her free arm into the right sleeve while he let the other side to rest over her injured arm. She felt like Uchiha Itachi this way.
"My tie."
"Geez, you're being a baby today," he grumbled but helped her anyway. She smiled, her chest warm, happy at how affectionate he was with her. She never wanted this to end.
"There," he gave one last tug before standing up, "Come. Grab your things or we'll be late."
"Heh. Yeah."
Slipping on her sunglasses and shouldering her bag, the two set out in Aizawa's car after he grumbled about how sick he was taking the train for weeks. In the car, she was yawning out of pure habit, not from fatigue and shifted in her seat slightly, her mindly oddly thinking about the encounter with Hawks just the other day. It was strange, it made her wary. Heroes weren't allowed to kill, at least, that was what she was taught. So why exactly did he smell like a killer? Who was Hawks? Perhaps this hero saturated society wasn't as black and white as she might thought. Perhaps the heroes were hypocrites.
Glancing at her guardian, she quickly caught herself. She couldn't just decide something based on a feeling she had. Arisa wasn't that type of person.
Besides, it didn't matter to her because everything that mattered to her was sitting beside her right now, driving them both to UA.
"You want starbucks?"
"Can I get coffee—?"
"No."
She huffed, "Then no."
The last time she had coffee, she set fire to someone's hair so to a certain extent, she understood why was quick to say no. Either way, she still wanted the sweet taste of caffeine because it gave her a rush that she was addicted to.
"Nevermind then," he shrugged, "Anyway, you got plenty of nominations from heroes. Good job."
"Then I have to choose one from those nominations for an internship... Right?"
"How'd you know?"
"Lucky guess."
Soon, the two reached UA and at the gates, the two went their separate ways. Upon entering the building, Arisa was greeted by Midoriya, as usual because for some reason, they often arrived at the same time. It was a coincidence but it was a few too many and at one point, she was suspicious of him but the boy was too pure to conspire against her. She was just being paranoid.
"Hayashi-san, good morning!"
"Hey, Midoriya," she greeted him and pointed towards his healed arms, "Your arms are okay. I'm jealous. I had to wrestle with my clothes today."
He laughed, "Recovery Girl did an amazing job as always. I'm sure your arm will be better in no time!"
"Yeah. Well, thank god for my useful quirk," she made her shoes float and placed them inside the appropriate locker. Midoriya's eyes sparkled at this as he marveled, "Your quirk—I just can't get over it. It's so useful and... And pretty. The colour I mean."
"Okay, don't pee yourself, Midoriya."
He blushed brightly and she laughed, linking his arm with his and the two walked together to class. Midoriya always felt at ease with the girl, like it was alright for him to act freely because he knew that she would never judge him. It felt as if he met his platonic soulmate, as funny as that sounded. The girl walking beside him was special and he intended to keep her close for as long as he possibly could.
"What have you been doing these past two days?"
Midoriya hummed, "Well, spent time with my mom. Did some training. Nothing special. What about you?"
"Same. Nothing special. Just slept," she shrugged, "Anyway, today's the day we get to see our nominations."
The boy let out an awkward, pained laugh, "I know I'm getting none of those."
"Oh, yeah, you blew up your fingers during your match with Todoroki, didn't you?"
"I did," he comically drooped and she curled up her arm to pat his upper arm, "Well, it's not a problem. It's not as if your growth will stop here. I'm sure you will have better grasp of your awfully destructive quirk in the future. You work hard after all."
He smiled, "Yeah. You're right. Thank you for your words, Hayashi-san."
"Anytime."
"Oh, by the way, your new glasses suit you well," he eyed her for a moment, "But they look like... Gojo's."
"That was the idea. Aizawa-san got it for me."
"Oh," he laughed and pulled his arm away from her when they reached class. He pulled the door open and allowed her to step in first. She gave the boy a smile and entered, instantly being greeted by her classmates. This was an eyebrow-raising situation—she didn't realize that she was kind nor likable enough for these people to care about greeting her upon entry.
And especially not Bakugou.
"Move it, ya' damn extras. How about letting her sit? You're pushing against her fuckin' arm, move it, shitty hair!"
"Sheesh, what crawled up your ass and died?"
Bakugou's palm was open and sparks were crackling before it but Arisa sighed, pointing towards his hand, stopping him. She didn't know how Aizawa dealt with these idiots everyday. He looked down at his hand confused for a moment before glaring at the girl, "Let me go, rainbow-eyes."
"Oh, yeah, there's that topic too," Mina gushed, "Your eyes are so pretty. Why'd you hide them? You became the number one trending topic in Twitter 'cause of it!"
"I—I am?"
"Yes! Look," she shoved her phone screen towards her and just like she said, her name was trending across Japan. Under the tag was her face and her eyes. There were even memes where she was called Gojo Satoru in real life—quite flattering, she thought. She felt uncomfortable but this was something she had to get used to if she wished to become a pro hero. Fame came with the title. The complete opposite of an assassin, a career path where she didn't exist.
"I can never get used to this," Arisa laughed awkwardly and went towards her desk to set her bag down. When she sat down, an angry slammed against her desk and upon removal, it was a phone. She looked up to see Bakugou with his default angry expression, "Your phone number. Put it in."
"Why?"
He gritted his teeth, "Because I want to be..."
She nodded slowly, eyebrows furrowing then shifted upwards as her lips parted, "To be...?"
"To be friends, damn it!"
"Oh," she laughed, "See, that wasn't so difficult."
She punched in her number into his phone and instead of him leaving immediately, he texted her at that moment to confirm that the number was correct. When he heard a ping from her phone, he was satisfied and quickly walked towards his seat. Beside her, Momo pointed out, "He really seems to like you."
"Doubt it."
At that moment, Aizawa walked in and greeted the class, "Good morning."
At the sight of him free of bandages, Tsuyu commented, "Aizawa-sensei, I'm happy you were able to remove your bandages!"
The male sighed, scratching his upper cheek lightly, "Well, the old lady went a bit over dramatic with her treatment," he dropped his hand, "But that aside, today's hero informatics period will be a little special. Today is the day you formulate your code names. Your hero names."
Arisa's eyes sparkled at this. When she was first introduced to the world of heroes, she was first fascinated by their names. Some were strange and Arisa wished to figure out how they were choosing such names and now that time had come for her to make her own name. She was now another step closer to being a hero.
The class erupted in cheers as some even jumped lightly off their seats, hands in the air.
Aizawa gave the class a warning glare to get them to quiet down and when they did, he explained, "This is related to the draft nominations by pros I mentioned the other day. These nominations would only begin to matter after you've gained experience and your adaptable fighting ability is judged during your sophomore and senior years. In other words, the nominations that you get this year are akin of 'interest' in your future potential and it's not that rare for that interest to dry up by graduation or just unilaterally dropped."
Arisa pursed her lips. That was nothing new. That was her reality since birth.
Up front, Hagakure piped in, "So, the nominations we received are like personal hurdles then!"
"Yes. Now, the tally of nominations are as follows."
All eyes fell on the blackboard behind him where names were written followed by numbers of nominations gained. She had managed to gain 4,500 nominations with Todoroki having 4,123 nominations and Bakugou had 3,556. Arisa was surprised by the amount she received. Was she in her popular phase? What was even a populae phase anyway?
"Usually, the results are more balanced but this year, all the attention leaned towards the three of you."
Ochako turned to face her from her seat, her nose flared as she held up a fist, "Girl power, Arisa. Girl power."
"Damn," Kaminari lamented as he leaned back into his chair, defeated, "It's so clear, it's practically black and white!"
"But the second and third places are reversed though. Maybe it's 'cause Bakugou's so violent and scared most of the pros off—"
Bakugou reacted as violently as usual, eyes literally turning into slits, "Pros ain't gonna be scared!"
Arisa was still fascinated by the results, she was practically floating in her seat but Momo pulled her down from dreamland, "As expected of you and Todoroki. You two are amazing."
Todoroki sighed, "Most of that's gotta be 'cause of my dad."
"People actually want me," Arisa whispered, "I broke my arm and the pros still want me."
Arisa was having a difficult time processing all this positivity at once, she practically shut down.