After your heartfelt talk with Todoroki, he went back to his seat and proceeded to act like he didn't just spill his entire backstory to you, like 10 minutes ago.
But you didn't mind it, in fact, you were pleased that he wasn't expecting you to suddenly coddle him just because you felt bad for him. You get it, he's had it bad. And so long as he continues to work on not being rude, you actually enjoy his company.
But only if he doesn't relapse back to being an asshole.
Yet, the thing you were more focused on right now, was Iida. Unlike the usual days, where he was probably the second or third person to arrive in class, he had been relatively late today. Now, you can chalk it off as simply him being tired from the Sports Festival and in result, oversleeping.
But the moment he walked in, he had a weird aura to him that you couldn't explain. You knew that something had happened to his brother (as told by Midoriya), and while you were very tempted to ask him if he was alright, you reminded yourself that you weren't as close with him as he was with Midoriya and Uraraka.
Heaving a sigh, you begrudgingly left him to his own devices and decided to just scroll through social media while waiting for your friends to arrive.
As you scrolled past the different headlines, one of them caught your attention.
The Hero Killer on the loose as another of his victims found in Hosu.
You were about to click on the article to read more when you were pulled out of your thoughts by a call, "[Name]-chan, good morning."
You snapped your eyes up to see Tsu and Momo smiling at you, waving and you returned a smile on reflex, "Good morning, you two! Did you guys rest up?" They happily nodded as Tsu went over to her seat and Momo slid in hers that was just infront of yours, "[Name]-chan... My mother saw the Sports Festival, and upon finding out that you were my friend, she was ecstatic! Oh, I've never seen my mother this happy before!"
You were pretty shocked that someone was this happy to find out that their daughter was your friend but you certainly weren't complaining.
"Oh? That's so sweet of her! But... Um..." You wanted to ask why she was so happy to find that out, but you also didn't want her to think you were fishing for compliments or something.
"She was happy to know that I'm making friends, especially female friends!" The ravenette lowered her head slightly in shame, "You see, I don't exactly have a lot of friends... So to actually see you and know that you're my friend really made my mother happy."
That's... That's so cute!!
"Momo-chan... You're too sweet to me!" She blushed at your compliment and you guys practically reveled in the sweet and fluffy atmosphere you both had created.
Unfortunately, the sweet moment and vibes were cut short when Aizawa walked in and class finally commenced.
After a boring session of roll call that always gave you an unnecessary amount of anxiety in fear of missing your name, your teacher finally got down to business.
"Good work at the Sports Festival, all of you. Today's Hero Informatics eriod will be spent on formulating Hero Names." Aizawa then proceeded to shut you all up from getting too excited and continued, "Thanks to your performance in front of the pro-heroes, a number of you have been offered internships at their hero agencies." He proceeded to pull out a remote to the projector as he continued, "To make things easier for you all, we decided to tally up all the offers and show the numbers here."
You all looked ahead at the board where you guys saw the names of students and the number of offers they had gotten.
Todoroki Shoto - 4,123
Bakugo Katsuki - 3,556
Iida Tenya - 360
Tokoyami Fumikage - 301
[Last Name][Name] - 298
You sweatdropped when you saw the result. Wow, despite getting in third position alongside Iida, you still had less offers than Tokoyami? As much as it saddened you that even the Pros were undermining your worth as third position (as if Endeavor's words weren't enough of a painful slap to reality), you figured that sulking won't do you any good.
So you decided to just suck it up and deal with it.
"Usually, the offers are more balanced out, but unfortunately this year, everyone has kept their focus on the top two. But don't worry, you'll be going to internships regardless if you got an offer or not. The fight at USJ may have given you all some battle experience, but these internships will give you a more in depth understanding of the activities of pro-heroes." He then proceeded to explain why Hero Names were of an utmost necessity when, "Which is why! You all need your names to be picked by me~" A feminine voice rang from the entrance to the class and you all turned over there to see... Midnight.
"Midnight will be helping you all chose your hero names. Good luck." With that, your homeroom teacher slid back into his sleeping bag and fell asleep.
Wow... Not matter how many times he does it, you can never get over how absurd it is.
"You'll be given 15 minutes to think of a name! After that, you'll come up here and I'll see if it fits!" She handed out small writing boards and black markers that were to be passed back after keeping one.
As soon as you got one, you tried to think of something nice.
Something that's in touch with your quirk?
God damn it, you were never good at decisions like this. Your the type of person who can't even decide what you would want to eat, so how the hell can you decide your hero name without any help?
You tried to think about your costume, maybe something from there would give you inspiration?
Goggles? No, what kind of name even is that?
Color Girl? That's just a very basic name...
Chameleon? No, it doesn't sound cute or even pretty...
Prism Paradise? Isn't that an idol anime though?
Just Prism, then? But you don't even like the sound of it.
Iridescence? Hmm... It's more like the name of a phenomenon than a Hero Name...
You pulled your phone out and typed out something. Suddenly, a small smile made way to your lips as you write the letters on your board with clean, pretty writing.
The 15 minutes had now ended, and the first person, Aoyama walked up with a twinkle and presented his board with utmost sparkle, "My hero name shall be... The Shining Hero: I Cannot Stop Twinkling!!" Your eyes widened in disbelief.
He's serious?! That's his name?! There's no way Midnight would agree with this, right? No way-
"Hmm, maybe you should take out the 'I' and make the 'Cannot' to 'Can't' so it fits better."
... SHE ACCEPTED THAT?!
What?! What is going on?! Is this what your entire class is going to end up as?! Literal sentences as names?! You cannot imagine the horror of having to utter that name mid-battle!
Mina went next and when she presented Alien Queen, you thought it was heaps better than what Aoyama had presented. But it seems like Midnight just wasn't having it, "Hmm... It doesn't fit right... You should try again."
Are you kidding me?!
She can give the green light to Can't Stop Twinkling but not to Alien Queen?!
Thankfully... It was Tsu's turn and she finally presented a sane name to the class, "Rainy Season Hero: Froppy."
Aww, that's so cute!!
And thank God, Midnight loved her name too. Iida was next, but he seemed to be having a hard time deciding so Uraraka went next, "Uravity... That's the name I chose."
Oh, dear God.... Why are all of them choosing such cute ass names?! Now it's making you conscious of your picked name. One by one, all your classmates went and showed their names. Todoroki literally chose his name (how original) and some of them were pretty fun, like Tokoyami (who still wasn't looking at you for some reason).
Soon, everyone was done until of course, it was Bakugo's turn.
"King Explosion Murder."
"Rejected."
For once, you're glad Midnight rejected the name because you cannot stress enough how bad of a name that was. And it seemed like Kirishima, Kaminari and Sero shared the same sentiment, "BWAHAHA!! Bakubro, what kinda name is that?!"
"It sounds villainous." You heard Momo mutter and you couldn't help but agree, "Yup, I pity his future kids... Imagine being related to Bakugo and even getting named by this guy. Truly a fate worse than death."
"The fuck did you say, you damn chameleon?!" Your eyes widened in horror at his new nickname. It seems like you just upgraded from bitch to chameleon.
"C-Chameleon?! The hell? You keep calling me the names of different animals, is your memory that bad that you can't remember my damn name?!" He mockingly sneered as he went back to think of another name, only to get rejected again because all he did was remove the King and replace it with Lord.
"You might as well name yourself Sparky Sparky Boom Man." The entire class erupted into a fit of giggles as you uttered those words while Bakugo continued to rage on, "You're dead meat, you chameleon!!"
After that, went Mineta because Midoriya wasn't able to decide on his hero name, and then, it was Momo's turn. And her name solidified that all the girls in your class were the cutest.
They all had such cute and unique names that you were feeling somewhat embarrassed of your thought-out name. Finally, it was your turn and you walked over to present it.
"Chromatic Hero: Iris. That's what I chose."
You saw Midnight's expression remaining monotonous and figured you were also getting rejected.
Oh well, it's not like you have any good ideas left. You'll just ask Momo-
"That's a really good name! Did you think of it beforehand?" She inquired and your eyes widened. Wow, she likes it?! Hell yeah!!
"H-Huh? Oh... Not really..." You should thank Google for the letting you know that there was a Greek Goddess known as Iris, who was the Goddess of Rainbows.
"Well, it's really pretty. Good job." You happily thanked her, a cheek-splitting grin on your lips and you even saw your friends giving you a thumbs up, along with Kirishima, Mina and Hagakure's cheering that it was a nice name.
Suddenly, Aizawa snapped his eyes open and looked at you, "[Last Name]." You immediately snapped your head in his direction, "Yes?"
"Your request to be trained by Snipe, I approved of it. You should meet up with him in Ground Beta after school." If your smile could grow even further, it did. Because you were practically beaming at your teacher as well, "Thank you so much, sensei!" You exclaimed and he waved you off with a flick of wrist, but you still gave him a blinding grin.
This day was the best ever!!
Not only did you finally have your hero name, but you also got permission to get trained by Snipe! Now, you can use your gun to actually fight against villains instead of just providing support to other heroes.
Next, Iida went after you and he also ended up using his given name like Todoroki. And finally, Midoriya went last. He showed all of you his board, and you all couldn't help but worry for him, "Are you sure you want to use that, Midoriya?" A few of your classmates asked and while you were also worried, you knew he would never use it if he didn't want to change it's meaning; Deku.
The same insulting nickname Bakugo had given him, was now his hero name.
In a way, you felt happy for your friend and you made sure to give him a gentle smile to show your support. He kindly returned it and finally, you all finally finished choosing your hero names.
————
At lunch break, you walked to the cafeteria with your usual group of Momo, Jiro, Tokoyami, and Tsu. Midoriya's group was also trailing behind you guys, presumably having their own conversations. Surprisingly, Todoroki was trailing behind Midoriya's group, until he finally caught up to them and walked alongside. But not before giving you some not-so-subtle glances.
Hagakure would usually join you guys depending on her mood and you all were totally okay with it, but the main pressing matter was why Tokoyami refused to meet your eyes.
"Tokoyami-san, are you okay? You've been... avoiding me... I don't want to get ahead of myself and make assumptions, but you're not... angry about the festival, are you?" He strongly shook his head, making you sweatdrop. For someone usually so stoic, he sure seemed flustered right now.
"It's because you confessed your love to him." Dark Shadow suddenly emerged and broke the news, and you all stopped walking. And by all, you mean all. Even Midoriya and the rest, who were walking behind you guys.
Momo, Midoriya and Uraraka looked close to fainting and Jiro looked very, very flustered. Todoroki looked downright traumatized and horrified. Tsu looked like she was broken.
All in all, not the best reactions.
"What?!" You screeched, your own face burning at an alarming rate. Dake Shadow simply gave you a cute smile before Tokoyami attempted to strangle him and push him back.
"When did I do that?!"
"Huh? Don't you remember? You said that right after our fight ended!" He wasn't even making any sense! You never said anything along those lines.
"You said it yourself, 'All is fair in love and war' and since we weren't involved in a war, I figured it was a confession! Aren't I the smartest?"
You never wanted to kill a shadowy being more in your life than now. Forget him being cute, you'll kill him!!
"No!! I said it as a proverb! Not as a confession! You-I... What?!" After you and Dark Shadow had said that, everyone finally calmed down when they realised it was just a misunderstanding.
"Oh... So you don't like Fumikage?" He made such a sad face you couldn't help but feel guilty yourself for clearing up the misunderstanding, "I don't, at least not in that way... He's a very good friend of mine, but I'm not really going for a relationship right now...." You immediately realised to yourself that it made you sound like you were rejecting him and you grew even more embarrassed.
"I-I'm not saying there's something wrong with him!! But I-you know what... Nevermind, just... I never said anything along those lines..." You sighed and thankfully, the awkward atmosphere was dispersed when Dark Shadow sadly nodded and finally Tokoyami gave you a nod as thanks.
You all resumed your way to the cafeteria and before Jiro and Momo could ask your group which table to sit at, you were whisked by none other than Mina, "Sorry! I'm borrowing [Last Name]-chan for today!!"
And now, you found yourself sitting at another table with Mina on your right and Kaminari on your left. Kirishima was sitting across from you, next to Sero, who was next to Bakugo.
"The fuck is the Chameleon doing here?" Mina simply stuck her tongue out at Bakugo's question and proceeded to chat with you about hero agencies and who to choose.
Oh right, you all who had gotten offers, were given a list filled with all the agencies that had sent the offers. The rest of the class that hadn't gotten the offers were given 40 agencies to chose from.
"I don't know... I'm having a hard time choosing..." You admitted and Kirishima nodded from in front of you, "I get you! I want to intern at a manly agency so I gotta choose wisely." Sero deadpanned at his words, "Could you be any more vague?"
As you all continued to discuss things, Bakugo who was quiet this entire time scoffed as he faced you all, "Are you all seriously this dumb? Just fucking chose the agency that helps hone your weakest skills!"
"Woah, Bakugo!! I guess under all that anger, you really are smart!!" Kaminari teased and the said blonde literally exploded, "The fuck you say, Dunce Face?!"
"If that's how you're going, then you might as well chose a therapist to manage your anger issues..." You muttered while taking a bite out of your [Favorite Food].
"You got something to say, damn Chameleon?!" His words made your eyes twitch in annoyance, "Seriously? Chameleon? Couldn't you pick a more orginal name? You really went with the first thing that reminded you of my quirk, huh?"
"It's fine, [Last Name]-chan! He literally calls me Raccoons Eyes! Can you believe it?! Me, Raccoon Eyes?!" Mina scoffed as Sero chimed in, "He calls me Soy Sauce Face!! I get the others, but why Soy Sauce Face?!"
Kirishima and Kaminari also added in, "He calls us Shitty Hair and Dunce Face!!" But the angry blonde you all were talking about simply sneered in annoyance, "Like hell I'm gonna bother remembering your names, you damn extras! That's the only defining characteristics you assholes have, so don't blame me!!"
"So mean!!" Mina scowled and the others nodded playfully, "This is why girls don't like you." You mocked and he raged on, "Like hell I need some damn extras to like me!!"
"Okay, but still... Why Chameleon? I mean, you went from 'bitch' to Chameleon, is that all you see my quirk as?" Your question was answered when he looked straight at you, "It's not related to your quirk, idiot."
"Eh?! It's not related to her quirk? Then what?" Kaminari immediately jumped in, Sero right behind him on the question and you all looked at Bakugo expectantly, "Are you fucking kidding me?! Don't tell me none of you noticed?! I know you extras are dumb, but seriously?!... I'm surrounded by a bunch of idiots..."
"Hey!!"
"So mean, Bakubro!"
"You're so rude!!"
"[Last Name]-chan is right! This is why girls don't like you!!"
"Tch, shut it." He sneered while stuffing his face with another spoon of curry, "She's just like a damn chameleon! Everytime she interacts with someone, she changes her personality! It's like she's morphing into some freaky fucker who's here to befriend everyone! When she's with Ponytail and Ears, she acts like a damn saint. With that shitty Deku and Round Face, she acts like she's their goddamn mother. She fights like a bitch against me or that eyebags from 1-C! And when she's with you idiots, it's like she's a clown! A chameleon is what she is, always changing her personality to fit with others."
Everyone was quiet until you decided to speak up, "Wow... If you like me, just say it. No need to stalk me like that."
At that, Bakugo's face was lightly dusted with a shade of red as he figuratively and also literally, exploded.
By noon, you all were done with your classes and ready to go home. Meanwhile, you sent a text to your family that you would be late today so there was food in the fridge if any of them came home early.
And finally, you made your way to Ground Beta where you were surprised to see Snipe already there, loading a few guns with what you assumed were rubber bullets.
"Snipe-sensei." You spoke up, making the masked man turn to you and nod as a greeting.
"Hey, [Last Name]." He greeted and then stood back up to his full height, before heaving a sigh, "Alright, how about you go change into your PE uniform?" You nodded and went to go get changed. It took you about 3 minutes to get changed before coming back, and he nodded as he handed you an empty gun and held another one in his hands.
"The one that you have in your hands right now, is an auto 9 mm pistol. This is more of a common gun in Japan, but of course, countries like America and such use guns like the Glock 19, but let's start with this, okay? I'll first have to teach you basic parts of a gun, so you can use it to a better extent."
For the next forty minutes or so, he taught you each and every part of the gun, even going as far as dismantling it and showing you each individual part itself. He even showed you a revolver and a handgun, and showed you why both of them were different. By the end of the lesson, he would often randomly ask you about a certain part of the gun and you would try your best to answer its name and its use in the gun.
"Alright, now that you know what everything does, I'll start by giving you some tips on how you should be using a gun." He then picked up one of the guns you had seen him load and aimed at the targets he had put up, "You need to make sure that you have the right stance. Stance is very important in shooting." He explained and you nodded fervently, stuffing every word he said, into your mind.
"Keep your legs at the same distance of your shoulder's width, and make sure to plant your non- dominant foot ahead to stagger your stance. You hear me, young lady? Stance is important, and so is your grip on the gun. You should really grip the gun only with the middle and ring fingers, the pinky is resting on the gun but is not used to grip; neither is the thumb used to grip the gun. The grip should be firm but not tight. If you're gripping it so tightly that the gun shakes, you will not be able to accurate control it."
You nodded as you studied how he held onto his gun and pointed at his target, "My quirk allows me to get a hit at the target, no matter what, so long as I lock on them. But I cannot control where it hits them. So often times, I don't use my quirk unless it's a dire situation."
You were fascinated to find out that he often fought without his quirk. That's so cool!!
"Did you get a good look at how I'm holding it? You should make sure to study it. But before anything, protect your ears and your eyes. Silencers are used, only for protecting the shooter from the loud noise, but I'll teach you how to shoot without one. Just make sure to wear those ear muffs when you shoot." You nodded excitedly and he couldn't help but sigh, "Don't act so excited, you're not gonna shoot today. Today is only getting everything down, tommorow is when it really begins."
"O-Of course!" While you were sad you couldn't practise shooting today, you knew that this lesson was also crucial, so you made sure to listen to him properly.
"Have you thought about who you're interning with?"
"Um... Not yet, I'm thinking of someone who can teach me how to hone my skills..." You just repeated what Bakugo had said during today's lunch break.
"That's good. You should also check up on the sidekicks they have at their agency. While you will spend time with the pro-heroes, there might be things that their side-kicks will also be able to teach you." He advised and you nodded fervently.
"Yes, I'll make sure to do that!"
"Okay, now... Let's go back to training. How about this time, you hold the gun? Don't try to dry fire, but at least show me if you caught any of what I explained." With a determined look in your eyes, you tried your utmost best to mimic Snipe's previous stance and figure, trying to recall everything he had told you so far.
"Hmm, not bad. But you're too rigid. Loosen up a bit, don't worry. You still have a week before your internships, so you'll get the hand of it. Until then, let's test you. What's this thing? And what is it used for?"
"It's a magazine, used as ammunition storage in handguns." He nodded and spoke up again, "What about revolvers? Do they have them?"
"No, revolvers need to have bullets loaded in them in cylindrical apartments." He then pointed to a smaller button on the gun, "What about this?"
"It's a safety lock, so the gun isn't fired when someone accidentally shoots it."
"Good, at least you're a fast learner and you're smart too, just like Aizawa told me. Hopefully, by the end of the week when you start your internship, you'll be well enough to shoot at least 3 yards or less..." Your face brightened upon the praise, "Thank you so much, Snipe-sensei!"
He waved you off with a flick of his wrist and looked at the clock on his phone, "It's been... two hours since we last started. Let's end training for today, you should go home and rest. Tomorrow, we'll definitely start with shooting practise, especially since you're a bit short on time." You nodded with determination and finally changed back into your school uniform.
You walked away as Snipe waved you good bye, and finally the realisation settled in.
You want to get stronger!
And this is the first step towards your mission.