"Well, who do we have here?" a smiling young woman asked them. She had two brown horns on her head and flowing white hair.
"Umiko Fujiwara."
"And you?"
"Kayo Tsukamoto, but I'm not the injured one."
"Alright, hold on a second, I just need to check up on a patient first and I'll be back to as soon as I'm done. Sit down on that examination table."
"There's a patient on the first day?" Kayo asked.
"You'd be surprised. Some teachers push their first-year students past their limits from the moment they enter their classrooms."
"Sounds tough."
"Mhm," the nurse said, before opening a different door and disappearing behind it.
An awkward silence followed.
He opened his mouth as if to speak but then closed it again. Umiko raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, Umiko, do you hate me?"
She was caught by surprise and looked down at her feet.
"Why would you think that?"
"It's just, at the entrance exam you seemed really mad at me when you shouted, and today you didn't look pleased to see me."
"Oh. No, it's not that. I don't know what's come over me recently, I just... I don't hate you."
"Are you sure?" he hesitated.
She nodded.
"Phew! For a moment there I thought I'd blown it with being your friend," he laughed with nervous excitement.
"You still want to be my friend?"
"Why not? Better to be friends than enemies," he shrugged.
"I guess."
"Also, sorry about the ankle,"
"It's fine," and she almost felt a small smile creep up on her face.
He checked his watch.
"Oh! I almost forgot about class, I should go. Meet up in the cafeteria later at lunch?"
"Yeah."
"Bye, Umiko!"
She watched as he ran out of the room, grinning from ear to ear. What a weirdo.
"Alright, what do we have here?" the nurse said, walking back into the room.
"I think I just twisted my left ankle."
"Ah, so nothing serious. What was your name again?"
"Fujiwara."
"Well, Fujiwara, it's nice to meet you. You can call me Ms. Recovery, as everyone else does. I doubt you'll be seeing me around much during the school year. Unless you have a particular habit of getting injured."
She leaned down and placed both of her hands over her ankle and Umiko watched as yellow sparks flashed around her horns and the pain in her ankle vanished.
"Woah, is that your quirk?"
"Mhm, I can reverse injuries, which is basically just healing but technically I reverse, not heal."
"That's a really useful quirk, I'm surprised I haven't heard of you before."
"Actually, that's exactly why you haven't heard of me before. If I was too well known villains would be out there trying to use my DNA for their crazy drugs." Then, she mumbled quietly, in a tone too low for Umiko to hear, "Not the first time it's happened in my family though."
"That's a shame. You would make great hero partner for someone out there."
"No, I don't think that's what I would want. I have a special connection to this place and I wouldn't leave it for the world," she smiled sadly.
"I don't understand."
"I suppose you seem trustworthy enough to keep a secret."
"I guess."
"My parents died when I was young, I don't remember them. So my grandmother looked after me until I was an adult. When she was just a little girl, her mother abandoned her, and she was basically being tortured by villains until UA saved her. I sort of owe it to UA for saving her, otherwise I wouldn't have had my wonderful grandmother. Sadly, she died a number of years back."
"Oh, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, she loved it here, and she was happy. I want to give back to UA for what they did for her. Now, I honour her- oh dear, I'm going off on a tangent, aren't I? I'm sorry, you should be heading back to class. Sorry you had to hear that."
"No it's fine, your grandmother sounds like she was a great woman. I'm sorry you lost her."
"Well, there's not much point wallowing in the past, run along now. Your teachers will be looking for you and I've kept you here long enough."
"Thank you."
She walked out of the door and started heading back to the gym. The 1v1 battles must have been finishing up now. Ms. Recovery seemed like a nice woman, Umiko hoped she's see her again soon.
There's not much point wallowing in the past.
༺♡༻
The rest of the day passed quickly for Umiko as she waited for the end of the school day, so she would be able to talk to Nightmare. She had no idea what she wanted to discuss, but she assumed it was important.
Finally, after a number of long hours, the day came to a close. She wandered back to her homeroom class, ready to get this over with.
"Nightmare? You wanted to talk to me?"
"Fujiwara, yes, come here please," she beckoned.
"Did I do something wrong? I don't know why you wanted to talk to me at the of all my classes."
"No, not exactly. I was just confused about why you forfeit the match so suddenly. You didn't get injured until after it ended."
Umiko shrugged.
"He was obviously a lot stronger than me, and I was going to lose, so I figured there was no point in trying."
"Is that the type of attitude you see heroes with?"
"What?"
"When a hero faces a tough opponent, do you think they just give up? Would hero society get anywhere if everyone's mindset was like that?"
"I don't understand-"
"What I'm trying to say is, being a hero isn't just about who is the strongest or who has the most powerful quirk. There are many factors that make a good hero. And perseverance is one of them. Heroes cannot give up. Even when they're facing a villain much stronger than themselves, they can't give up. Otherwise, our world would be ruled by villains. Heroes have to keep going for the people they're trying to save, even if they're struggling."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I-" she stuttered, clueless on what to say.
"You don't have to say anything. Just reflect on this and try to learn from it, even if it takes a while. I know this is just your first day, and we all make mistakes, but sometimes a mistake can have a lot of consequences regardless of the intentions behind it. Think about my words properly. I'm not lecturing you just to be mean, as your teacher I'm here to look out for you and lead you along the right path. You got that?"
"I think so."
"Awesome, now you should be heading home, I don't want to be keeping you too late otherwise your parents will worry," and she cracked a smile as she said that.
"Thank you."
"No worries, kid."
Umiko started to walk away, entirely confused. She somewhat understood what Nightmare was trying to say but it confused her a lot. She'd never thought about perseverance. Since starting on the path to become a hero, logic had always been her biggest ally. If you think logically, you can find the best outcome to a situation. There had never been any room for anything else. When she had been fighting Tsukamoto, forfeiting was the most logical thing that came to mind since she would obviously lose to him anyway.
She sighed and continued walking home, frustrated with everything.
༺♡༻
Kayo whistled as he walked to his homeroom classroom. He was planning on surprising Umiko once she was done with her talk with Nightmare. Now that he was certain that she didn't hate him, he was excited to make the most of their new friendship. Besides, she still hadn't smiled at all since he'd met her, and he made it his goal to make everyone he meets smile or laugh. Life wasn't fun without a giggle or two.
As he got to the class, he stopped in his tracks when he overheard two voices discussing something. He was about to walk in when he heard something that almost made him choke.
"He was obviously a lot stronger than me, and I was going to lose, so I figured there was no point in trying."
He realized that now was maybe not the best time to talk to her and decided to just go home. As he trudged down the long hallways of his school, he couldn't help but think about this strange girl. She was nothing like any hero-in-training he'd ever met. Something was going on with her, and she seemed to be distancing herself from people.
Kayo sighed.
"Ugh, why can't all people just be simple. It hurts my brain overthinking this."
༺♡༻
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Character Spotlight
(original art does not belong to me, but I edited it to have a second brown horn)
Name: Minako Izumi (Ms. Recovery)
Quirk: Injury Reversion
Favourite Thing: Carrying on Her Grandmother's Legacy
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