"I... failed?"
I couldn't believe my ears. I failed the entrance exam for U.A? No, it was believable. I didn't get a single robot Villain, not even a one point. My Quirk wasn't meant for fighting robots-
"Not quite. You see, there was another secret way to gain points. Rescue points. Since you saved seven people from being crushed by robots - good job, by the way - you got maximum points. You're in class 1-A, (Y/N)," Present Mic said, handing me a timetable. I stared at it for a few seconds, not quite able to believe it.
"I... got in?"
~
Walking into the class, feeling extremely self conscious about how I missed the first week, I sat at the first free desk I saw. A few moments later the door was kicked open by an angry looking blonde who stomped towards me, pausing next to me. I forced my tense body to move so that I could look up at him, feeling stiff and uncomfortable.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?! GET OUT OF MY SEAT!!" he shouts and I yelp, jumping to obey him. Clutching my bag to my chest, aware of everyone staring at me as I stand up and move out of the way, the blonde slides into the seat. I move to the back of the class, about to sit on the floor, when someone else walks in. He had really spiky, red hair and red eyes. His teeth were sharp. He notices me and smiles, then waves his hand for me to sit next to him. I gratefully take the spare seat.
"I haven't seen you in here before. What's your name?" he asks, resting his head on his hand as he looks at me.
"I-I'm (Y/N). (Y/N) (L/N)," I respond, trying not to stare at him and instead staring at my desk in discomfort. This whole place was unfamiliar and I wasn't sitting at the back where I wanted to. In fact, I was almost in the middle of the class. Being in a back corner was one of my coping strategies as I would have had a wall beside and behind me, and I would've been able to see everyone in the room. Unfortunately, the gods were out to make me as scared and uncomfortable as possible today.
"Cool name! I'm Eijiro Kirishima, but you can call me Kiri," he replies, grinning at me. I give a small smile back and relax a bit.
'Well, at least someone here is nice,' I think to myself, looking around the room. It was at that moment that the door opened and a man in a faded yellow sleeping bag rolled into the room along the floor. I leaned back a bit, raising one eyebrow in confusion as he rolled to his feet.
"Good morning class. A new student has joined us today. (Y/N), could you come up here?" he asks, waving at me to get me moving. I freeze for a second as people turn to look at me but soon force myself to move. Trudging up to the front, my head lowered to stare at the ground, I shuffle uncomfortably on the spot next to the man I assumed was the teacher.
"She missed the first week due to family issues, but she was the one who rescued the most people in the exam. Please treat her like you treat eachother," he says, then turns to me, "Anything you want to say?"
I shake my head quickly, eager to sit back down. He allows me to go and I speed walk back to my seat, plopping into it quite gratefully. Kiri smiles at me again and this time I give him a proper smile back, feeling my heartbeat settle a bit now that I was out of the spotlight.
"So, we're going to do a test today," the teacher says, then places his hands over his ears as the class starts shouting.
"Aizawa sensei! What about (Y/N)? She hasn't had any time to prepare!" a boy with dark blue hair and glasses says, standing up stiffly and chopping his arm in the air repeatedly. I shrink further into my seat as Aizawa turns his gaze on me.
"She'll be fine," he states plainly, "It's just a physical test while using your Quirks."
I sag further. My Quirk wasn't going to help me at all!
'Wait wait waiT wAiT WAIT. If I can use it to misdirect them, then I might do okay...' I mutter in my head, now eager to find out which type of test it would be. Aizawa told the class to change into gym uniform and meet him down on the field. I the others walk out ahead of me but Aizawa asked me to stay back for a few minutes.
"What's your Quirk again?" he asks, staring at me with tired eyes.
"Illusion," I reply, fidgeting. He looks down at his papers for a few seconds, reading something, then asks if I want to sit the test out.
"What? No, of course not! I don't want to be an exception," I reply. He continues to stare at the papers for a few more seconds before waving me away.
"Locker 13. There should be a uniform for you in there already," he says, then turns away. When he turns back, he's holding a scrap of paper.
"This is your locker code. Don't lose it. I'll see you down there."
I exit the room after shoving the scrap in my pocket, surprised to see Kiri leaning against the wall outside the door.
"Oh, hey! I was wondering when you were gonna come out," he says, still grinning. I tilt my head in confusion.
"Why are you still here?" I ask as we start walking away together.
"I thought that, since you're new here, I should show you around a bit," he says, smiling. His relaxed mood made me feel more comfortable, taking some of the stiffness from my shoulders. We come to two doors in the hallway, a female sign above one and a male sign above the other.
"I'll wait here for you once I'm done. If you're out before me, just stay here until I come out," he says, then goes into the boys' locker room. Swallowing loudly, I push open the door to the girls' room and enter. I take a minute to find locker 13 and avoid the almost naked girls around me, changing in a dark corner. A few minutes of struggling later, I walk outside and see Kiri already waiting in his uniform.
"Hey!" he says, waving at me. I wave back and we start walking together, starting up a small conversation.
"I only really got in accidentally, I was too busy trying to save others that I couldn't get any points myself," I laugh, slightly embarrassed. He laughs along with me, explaining how he had only just got in as well. At some point, he told me his Quirk was hardening, which meant he could harden any part of his body at will.
"What's your Quirk?"
I stop walking, frozen, as my mind slowly starts panicking.
Such an evil power. Fit for a Villain. How could you be a hero with that power? Who would let you save them, you freak?
"Hey, (Y/N)? Earth to (Y/N)!" Kiri says, waving his hand in front of my face. I stumble backwards, almost tripping over myself, but Kiri catches my arm and helps me gain my balance.
"You okay?" he asks, still holding my arm.
"Yeah, sorry. Just a bit... I'm trying to find the word but it isn't there," I stutter, holding my hands in front of me to punctuate the sentence. Kiri laughs and lets go of my arm, but we don't start walking yet.
"Are you sure you're okay? You looked like you were going to cry for a second," he says, placing his hands on his hips and leaning forwards slightly. I only then realise my eyes had tears in them. I quickly raise my arm and wipe them away with my sleeve.
"Yeah, I'm good. Let's keep going," I reply, moving forwards before he can speak again.
"It's this way, (Y/N)."
My face turns red and I spin on my heel, walking stiffly back to him as he laughs. We walk together down to the field, Kiri telling me jokes in an attempt to make me happy again. I appreciate the effort, and some of them were even acceptable. When we reach the field, we find everyone else there including Aizawa.
"Finally," he mutters, hands in his pockets and slouching, "We can get on with class."
He goes on to explain what we were doing and I perk up. If I used my Quirk just right, I would be able to modify my results and come out not in last place. I would have to watch closely to the results of my classmates to make sure I didn't go overboard, too.
"The person who comes last will be punished with expulsion," Aizawa finishes, much to the dismay of the class. My heart skips a beat as people around me erupt in shouts, save a few who were standing around quietly. I steal a glance at Aizawa's face and as a result I was the only one who saw the small smirk that came across his mouth and disappeared in less than a second.
'He's lying,' I think to myself, taking comfort in the realisation as my heartbeat steadies itself.
'Good. I don't think I could've dealt with expulsion on the first day.'
We line up for the ball toss, Bakugou going first. I payed close attention to their names as Aizawa called them out, not wanting to appear rude for not knowing their names when they knew mine.
'What kind of new, stupid logic is that? They only have to remember one name, and you have to remember, like, twenty!' I thought, keeping my eyes on Bakugou. He pulled his arm back, ready to throw.
"DIE!!" he yelled, throwing the ball and activating his Quirk behind it. A massive explosion erupted from his palms and the ball rocketed skyward. I watched with awe as it disappeared from view, too far away to see anything more than a speck. Aizawa checked his phone, then held it up for us to see.
703.2 metres.
Seven hundred and three point two metres. I turned to stare at Baugou, my jaw hanging slack, as he flexed his arms and stalked back to us, grinning. I averted my eyes as he passed me, scowling for a fraction of a second, and sat against the wall behind us. The rest of the test passed without such a huge score as that, except for a brown-haired girl named Uraraka. Her Quirk seemed to turn off gravity itself, as the ball literally flew in a straight line until a few minutes had passed and Aizawa held up his phone. It had the infinity symbol on it.
'WHAT.'
Then it was my turn. I grabbed the ball, a different one, and mentally prepared myself. I had run my plan through my head multiple times, but now that I was up here in the spotlight again my nerves were kicking in. Drawing my arm back, I got ready to pull my mind in two different directions. I could create up to three illusions at the same time, but it was so exhausting that I couldn't keep it up for more than a few seconds. Swinging my arm forwards, I activate my Quirk... and nothing happens. The ball falls to the ground a few metres away, bouncing a few times and coming to a stop. I look at my hand for a second before I see movement out of the corner of my eye. Aizawa was approaching me. His eyes were red.
"(Y/N), cheating will not be tolerated."
My heart skips a beat.
"But... I wasn't cheating! You said we could use Quirks!" I reply, backing away from him, ready to run.
"Yeah. Quirks. I didn't say you could modify your score," he shoots back, still approaching me. I was full on walking backwards now, out into the open field.
"W-Wait! Stop, STOP!" I cry out, panicking. He doesn't stop, still walking towards me with those glowing red eyes.
"STOP!!!" I yell, falling backwards and landing on my backside. I quickly crawl backwards, then freeze as I feel a cold metal fence pressing into my back. I reach for my Quirk again, trying to think, but I was terrified. Nothing came, my Quirk was gone. Eyes wide, I try to stand up and run away, but Aizawa's scarf comes undone and wraps around me and lifts me up. Squirming in the air, I try to escape, but it's no use. He shoves his face right into mine.
"You ever think of cheating again, and you will be expelled."
With those words, he lets me go and turns to walk back to the class. On my hands and knees in the dirt, I cough a few times, feeling my heart thumping against my ribs.
"(Y/N)! Are you okay?"
I look up and see Kiri kneeling beside me, having run over as Aizawa returned. His arms were hovering near me and he was obviously concerned. Then my Quirk. It flooded back into me, and I felt it return. I breathe a sigh of relief, feeling my arms go numb, and almost fall on my face before Kiri catches me. He helps me to my feet and I walk shakily back to the group. A few others glance at me worriedly, but I'm not sure if they're concerned about me or if they think of me as a cheater now.
'Aizawa said I could use my Quirk! He allowed me to participate in this test!' I complain in my head, knowing it was no use to say the words. The rest of the day passed with me not using my Quirk at all and avoiding eye contact with Aizawa at any cost. In the end, I didn't come last. It was Midoriya, the boy who looks like an overgrown broccoli. He was devastated, but when Aizawa announced that he had lied about the expulsion, he was so relieved I thought he might fall over. We went back to the changing rooms and I found Kiri waiting for me again. We walked to the front gate together and went our separate ways, finally going home after a long day.
"Who the fuck are you?"