Chapter Text
The Alcor docked into a port in a lush green environment, the rainforests humid and hot at the same time.
Izuku raised his hand. "Yes? Midoriya." Beidou answered him.
"I thought we were going to the academy? This place doesn't look like it."
"Oh, don't worry kiddo. Before going to start the actual term, we will tour Teyvat for a few months. And those months is specifically placed on the months break my son mentioned earlier."
"Oh, cool!"
Beidou then cleared her throat. "So, everyone! Listen here. As you have heard me answer your classmate here, you will be touring the continent for a few months before going to the academy. Right now, we are currently at Port Ormos, in Sumeru. Then, we will go land on Romaritime Harbour, Fonytaine. Then come back to the mainland in Natlan, they don't have any large ports. Then we'll travel across another stretch of water to Nod-Krai. Then we'll skip Snezhnaya because they don't exactly welcome outsiders. We'll go all the way west to Dorman Port in Mondstadt, go to Liyue next. Then end our tour will end in Inazuma. Do you understand?"
A couple of "yes" was heard.
"Alright now. I'll be going to back to Natlan. And since Mr. Kaveh is a Sumerian, he'll be the one guiding you to Sumeru City. Farewell." Kinich said, before jumping off the ship.
Anyways, just before they went to bed last night, Kaveh came out of his cabin to get some fresh air, and that's when he introduced himself. He was a pretty cool guy.
"So, students. Please make two lines and file out of the ship the same way you boarded it." Kaveh said.
And after everyone was on land, Beidou said her goodbyes and set sail back to her homeland, Liyue, she said.
Mina was still snapping pictures away, Kaveh had given them some time to explore the large trading centre. Until she bummed into a girl with red hair.
"Ah! I'm so sorry.. I wasn't really looking." Mina exclaimed, pulling the fallen girl up.
"It's no problem, really." The girl said, then paused. She looked the pink skinned girl up and down.
"Oh! You must be one of the UA students, I was informed that they'll be arriving in Port Ormos, I just didn't expect to meet one of them!" She smiled. "And I haven't introduced myself yet, haven't I? I'm Nilou, the dance course teacher at TA."
Mina was a little taken aback by the storm of words. But the girl seemed nice enough. "And I'm Mina Ashido, you can call me Mina. Nice to meet you, Miss Nilou!" She smiled back.
Nilou then looked at a pocket watch she pulled out from under her sleeves. "Oh shoot- I'm going to be late.. So, Mina. I gotta go now, let us meet later with the guidance of Lesser Lord Kusunali." She bowed slightly. Then ran off.
-
Kaveh stood with the students surrounding him, clearing his throat before speaking. "Alright, kids. Seems like our guide had suddenly had to make a quick stop. So we'll be left for another 30 minutes. I've just brought a performance ticket for all of us to pass the time."
The kids immediately started talking.
However, All Might leaned closer to Aizawa. "A performance? And why do you think that our guides had delayed their arrival."
"Perhaps the authority figures wanted to drill whatever they should say and shouldn't say, that sounds about right."
"True, true." Mic chimed in.
"Alrighty! Now, please follow me to the performance site. In two lines please!"
-
As soon as they sat down on their seats, a cheery voice rang through the area, amplified by a microphone. Wait- they have microphones here?
"Thank you, both foreigners and natives alike, for coming to my performance. For those who might not know me, my name is Nilou. I work at Zbayr Theater, but this performance was my own, with the funding of Lady Dunyarzard."
Mina would recognize the silky red hair anywhere, "Wait- I know her! I bumped into her earlier."
Uraraka, who was sitting next to Mina, asked "Really? Did she tell you anything?"
"Well, she did tell me she's a teacher at the academy. But really nothing else."
As soon as Mina finished her sentence, music started. It was traditional, similar of Brazilian or Indian tunes.
Nilou's body moved like water, the very real and definitely not special effects petals scattered around with each movement of her limbs.
A few backup dancers stepped onto stage, and together, Nilou and her helpers perfectly captured the vibe and feeling of a princess who wanted to explore the world, yet she was trapped like a mere bird in a large cage.
Halfway through the performance, the dancers surrounded the red haired girl, blocking her from view. And by the time they disbanded, Nilou was in a completely different outfit, the fabric flowing with every twist and turn of hers. The audience was truly mesmerized by her mere talent.
Towards the end of the performance, a sword appeared in a fury of golden particles, Nilou grabbed the hilt and twirled it around effortlessly. As if she had been doing this since she was born.
-
"Phew! That was absolutely awesome man!" Kirishima exclaimed.
"Whatever, it's just some stupid dance." Bakugo sneered, as if he wasn't enjoying it.
"Guys, did you see how effortlessly she danced with that blade?" Uraraka said.
"What if why she's so good with it is because they're forcing and abusing her to train with it?"
"That's terrible, we need to rescue these students ASAP!" Toru cheered on.
While her friends were chatting, Mina stood away from the ground, very unlike her usual extroverted self.
Momo noticed the unusual quietness from her classmate, so she silently slipped away from the group.
"Mina, are you okay..?"
"I'm fine.. Just a bit conflicted."
"Why?"
Mina finally looked up at her friend.
"It's just.. Well, I'll start from the beginning. When I was exploring the port, I bumped into Miss Nilou. She told me that she's the dance teacher at TA. And at that time, I was way closer to her so I saw that her hands wasn't scarred or bruised like someone who trained that hard with a sword, unlike what our classmate think. And looking back, everyone we met have been very... Normal. Yes some of them have quite the weird traits like Miss Chiori who keeps looking at us like we grown a second head, or Kazuha who always talk in poetry and keep spacing out mid conversations. But those traits are quite common nowadays.. It's making me wonder, are what we heard about TA all true..?"
Momo, however, was not quite as convinced. "Come on, Mina. They are clearly intending to lure you against us. Think about it. My father went to investigate the academy for quite a while and came out with the same results as what the public know, at least that's what he told me. But he would never lie to me, wouldn't he?"
Mina bit her lips, of course. Momo had the impression that her father was always right. And now that she think of it, she now felt like an idiot for not noticing it earlier that the people here were perfectly normal, it was just their heroic delusions that was guiding them to the wrong conclusions. But it's not like anyone would believe her. And she should have noticed the signs earlier, especially when she had an encounter with a Teyvatian 'Villain' herself.
-
(1 year ago. Before Mina Ashido participated in the UA entrance exam.)
A certain pink skinned girl walked down the alley, her school uniform fluttering in the wind.
Just as she was about to take a turn, she noticed 2 people talking with each other. So she decided to listen in.
"So.. Our mission's supposed to end here when Hat Guy arrive with the info right?" One boy who has brown hair and lighter shade highlights said.
"Sethos. At this point you're just calling him 'Hat Guy' to piss him off aren't you?"
The said Sethos just giggled. "C'mon don't be such a buzz kill, Tighnari!"
The 'Tighnari' person seemed to have a fox type quirk, his black hair fading into green. "Someone's listening in."
Mina made the mistake of grasping, which allowed the older man to pin point her location.
And suddenly, he appeared before her, looking intimidating as hell.
'Oh no! Why now!? Why now when she's gonna attend the entrance exam right this week!?'
That was what she thought. Dying at the hands of villains right before the hero school entrance exam, how ironic.
However, instead of killing her, the green guy simply said. "Go, quickly. And pretend that you never met us. Now, run along before I change my mind."
She was shocked, but her legs acted faster than her brain. She ran out the alley, yep, she's never going to take this shortcut home ever again.
But she did take note of the glowing orbs she found each on the two people. To which she found out later way after that encounter that it was a vision that was used by Teyvatians.
-
She shook herself out of her flashback, just the thought of what could have happened if she hasn't been spared sent shivers down her spine.
Then she heard a shout, it was from Mr. Kaveh.
"Alright, kids! Listen up. Our guides could arrive any minute no-"
He wasn't able to finish his sentence because of a squeaky voice.
"KAVEHHH! YOU NEED TO HELP PAIMON ASAP!" It was from a little white haired girl, flying in to hug him at full force.
At first, the students was confused. Then promptly screamed when a female voice called out from behind them.
"Paimon~ What did I say about not spending my money on snacks?"
The scream made everyone nearby turn their heads, but when they saw the culprit who triggered the screaming, they were not phased at all. In fact, they were rather excited.
"Oh! That's the traveler and Paimon isn't it?"
"And look at that, seems like Tumaini strikes again."
"Tumaini!? Mom, can I get a photo with her, pretty please~?"
"Heh, the hero of Liyue always appear out of nowhere anyway. At this point I'm not even surprised."
"Yeah, whatever. Last time she came at my shop just to gawk at the antiques."
"That sounds like her to me, I mean, the Honorary Knight never disappoints."
The students turned around, and standing there, was a blonde haired girl. Her golden eyes shining like a star in the sky.
"Oh! And, I'm terribly sorry, Kaveh. My brother had to stop mid way, and he probably won't be coming with me this week."
"Ah, it's no problem really."
Kaveh then turned to the shocked students. "So, let me introduce you to Lumine, our guide. But to be honest, we all call her the Traveler."
The white haired fairy flew and hugged the traveler. "And Paimon's name is Paimon! The best guide in the whole of Teyvat."
Lumine only snickered. "Yeah, right."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!?"
-
And there they are, walking on foot. After around ten minutes, they caught view of a beautiful city surrounding an enormous tree.
"Whoah! What is that?"
"That's Sumeru City, there's lots of scholars there. Sumeru is the Nation of wisdom after all." Paimon replied.
"Nation of wisdom? Oh shoot, not a city full of smart people.." Denki muttered.
"But why are we going past it? Aren't exploring the city a big part of the tour?" Uraraka inquired.
"Oh! It's just that our school botanist that lives nearby requested to preform a check up on all of you in case any of you brought anything in, you know? Since some viruses don't exist here, our people's immune system cannot defend it. The students and staff's safety comes first here." Lumine answered.
A unison of "oh"s came from the group.
"Are you sure they can do it though? I mean, they are just a botanist after all." Aizawa said suspiciously.
"Hey! Just because he's more specialized in herb stuff doesn't mean he can't treat people! And besides, he's a forest ranger too, he has to deal with people poisoned by mushrooms and stuff all the time!" Paimon practically screamed.
The outlanders (minus Lumine of course) was silenced by her words. Though the teachers still remained wary of the said botanist.
-
After a while, they quickly came close to a small village (?) In between some kind of ravine. With a bunch of people wearing green coloured clothing walking around, some carrying boxes, some treating other people.
"Whoah! This is so manly!" Kirishima declared excitedly.
All Might eyed the hanging huts. "Are you sure these structures are safe, especially when they're hanging from tree branches like this?"
"Seriously you heroes are so damn confusing sometimes, always fussing about our nonexistent cult but didn't you make untrained kids fight robots before they even get into the school..?" Lumine muttered quickly under her breath, before replying. "Oh, of course! I've been here plenty of times, y'know."
"... But-"
"What's the fuss over here?" A girl's voice redirected All Might's attention to her. Her purple eyes filled with confusion, and her green hair flowing with the wind. "Oh! So.. 23 people huh.. With humans with strange features.. You must be the people from UA! Master Tighnari told me that he'll be preforming check ups for y'all."
That name made Mina shutter, but wait.. That guy was a villain. There's no way they could be the same person right?
"Oh! And anyways, my name is Collei. A trainee forest ranger. And please, do not touch me, you can say that I have Haphephobia. But before I take you to Master Tighnari, welcome to Gandharva Ville!"