Chapter Text
After a week of waiting, the very anticipated letter arrived. Feliciano was a bit anxious ; he had destroyed the big robot and some smaller ones, but couldn’t say if he had gotten enough points. The thoughts made him shake his arms more frantically than ever at random, much to the displeasure of his brother, who tended to get startled.
That evening, they were eating together a delicious pizza (made in the hope of lifting Feliciano’s spirits up). Lovino was talking, or more exactly ranting about “that idiotic Spaniard” at the cooking school exam, who apparently smiled too much, talked too much, flirted too much and was a general annoyance. Feliciano noted in a corner of his mind that the flush on his brother’s face wasn’t only from anger.
When the sound of the mailbox being used reached their ears, the rant stopped abruptly and their Nonno stood up, before leaving the room to get the mail. They knew from the sound of his hurried steps that the awaited letter was there.
His Nonno, who was very serious (most of the time) at his job, had actually a personality as warm as Feliciano’s with his family and friends. Which is why they weren’t surprised the slightest when he rushed toward them to crush his grandsons into a bear-hug.
“It’s here !” he exclaimed, “Come on, open it quickly !” He was rubbing his scratchy cheek on the top of their heads affectionately. It took almost of minute of protesting, wiggling and pushing for Lovino to manage leaving the embrace.
“Get off old man ! “ he screeched “How can he open it when you’re strangling him and not giving him the letter, uh, stupido ?” He tugged his brother out of the man’s strong arms (not paying attention to the tears and the “my cute grandsons don’t love me anymore !” who were nothing unusual) and snatched the envelope from his grip. He then gave it to his (finally free) brother.
“There ! Open it now, and maybe you’ll stop moping !”
Feliciano did as he was told, but found instead of paper a weird metal disk. Ah wait, there was a slip of paper with instructions. He followed them, setting the metal thing on the floor in front of him and his curious family, and pushed the almost hidden button.
“Waaaaa ! “ Twin shouts of surprise ringed in the air, as the two brothers literally jumped in their grandfather’s arms at the sight of a hologram of All Might suddenly appearing.
“I AM HERE ! Young Vargas, I’m happy to say that your written results were good enough to pass. As from your practical exam, you got eighteen villain points ! Unfortunately, it’s too little to pass. Or it would be if those were the only points one could get ! What kind of hero school doesn’t take in account heroic spirit ? So, I’m proud to say that we award you thirty-five rescue points ! It was a bit hard to calculate, as some of your actions were confusing.” (There, the pro hero mumbled “like the pasta thing”) “Anyway, with both, you PASS. See you soon at UA, were I’ll be teaching and don’t forget to go beyond, PLUS ULTRA !”
And the hologram cut.
“VEEEEE~~~ ! I got in ! Did you see, Fratello, Nonno ? I’m going to UA !” shouted Feliciano after a beat, as he started to run in circles and flap his arms like mad.
“Stupido ! We’re not blind ! And I’m not happy you got into your ridiculous school !” lied Lovino, as if it could hid how glad he was.
Their Nonno gathered them once more in his arms, more gently this time, in a warm loving hug.
“I’m so proud of you, my little Feli.” Then, more excitedly he added : “It calls for a celebration ! I’m getting the wine !”
“Nonno, no ! We’re too young !” shouted Lovino.
“Nonsense, nonsense, come on lighten up a little, your brother got into UA !” waved off the man, already walking toward the kitchen where he kept his bottles.
Meanwhile, Feliciano was twirling, dancing and singing from happiness, obvious to the old argument between them. He was going to UA and become a Hero !
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The first day of school came quickly after that. He got his uniform, sent the ideas he had for a hero costume (though he didn’t really need one, as he always somehow found himself wearing clothes that suited more or less the situation. Okay, the sailor uniform he used for exercise wasn’t exactly the norm.)
He got to UA in little time, as his Nonno had decided to drop him at the gate so he wouldn’t be late (he tended to get lost in his head, lost in general, pet any animal he found and chat/flirt with anyone he met).
The gates and the buildings were as impressive as they were the first time (and would probably remain to be so for at least a few weeks, if not months.) He happily made his way inside, waving to his grandfather’s car as it started to leave, and using his brand new pass (in a little plastic pouch dangling like a necklace to avoid misplacing it) to get in.
Once inside the main building, his bouncing steps became a bit more hesitant, as he wasn’t so sure where to go anymore. He still had some time to find his class, but he didn’t know it’s location.
Thankfully, there was a plan of the layout of the rooms, and after asking the way two times, admiring the view from a window and five songs hummed (including the Mission : Impossible theme), he finally found himself in front of the 1-A door.
“Uwaaah, so big !” he exclaimed, before opening it.
And closing it fast, because there was a lot of noises, and explosions inside.
This time, his exclamation wasn’t one of wonder, but of fear.
“Waaaaa, they’re scary, so scary !”
But he didn’t let it stop him ! No, he was going to be a hero, and heroes weren’t cowards and faced their fears ! He still gripped tight on a white flag and adjusted his helmet so it didn’t fall in front of his eyes.
With eyes filled with determination, he opened the door once again, and stepped inside of the room. Somehow, he wasn’t the last to arrive, there were probably still around five persons missing. He took in the class, the little desks, the big desk, the windows, and his future classmate… only to realize that the noise had drastically dropped down and that the majority of the others were looking at him.
He froze, but smiled wide, eyes as shut as ever, and waved to them.
“Buongiorno ! I’m Vargas Feliciano, it’s nice to meet you !” (he, contrary to his brother, could be polite).
“Bonjour mon ami” twinkled (?) a blond boy not far from him, winking and generally being sparkly. Feliciano wondered if it was his quirk, he certainly was shiny ! “My name is Aoyama Yuuga. Are you per chance European ? I myself have French roots.”
“Hum, not really, but kinda ? Yes and no ?” he hesitated. How could he explain without being too confusing. Seeing the puzzled expression of his blond classmate, he continued. “The best way to put it is that I’m Japanese in body, but Italian in soul ve~.”
“Hum, not really, but kinda ? Yes and no ?” he hesitated. How could he explain without being too confusing. Seeing the puzzled expression of his blond classmate, he continued. “The best way to put it is that I’m Japanese in body, but Italian in soul ve~.”
It didn’t totally help the other boy, but the other shrugged it off, and soon they were talking about the various kind of cheeses and their use in cooking. If they didn’t always have the same opinions, both admitted that non-European cheese were the worst, and just not real cheese at all.
They unfortunately didn’t have the time to chat for very long, as the class was interrupted by a… yellow caterpillar ? One as big as a human ! Who had eaten their professor, along with his will to live and ability to be nice, probably. Scary !
Some tears gathered in his eyes, but he wiped them off and followed the rest of 1-A to the training grounds, with a brief stop to get changed. He would be strong !
“Vargas-kun, is that a white flag ?” asked his new sparkly friend, once he arrived to his side.
“Hahaha, oops” he said, putting it away, “I always do that when I’m scared. Or nervous.”
Aoyama-kun eyed the maybe-Italian who couldn’t stay still (and was currently half-dancing where he stood) with a mix of curiosity and hesitation, but didn’t ask any more questions.
Once everyone was there, their professor Aizawa-sensei explained the exercice… and promptly threatened to expel the one who’d be last. Feliciano almost started to cry again. Though he wasn’t the only one, as a green haired boy with freckles looked about to do the same. He wanted to comfort him, but there was little time as the tests started.
“Good luck Aoyama-kun ve~ !” he exclaimed when it was his new friend’s turn.
How impressive ! How sparkly ! His Quirk was a beautiful laser coming from his stomach belt ! His friend managed to be very fast and finish at the same time than the other person competing, a pink skinned and haired girl with horns. (He really needed to learn his classmates names, it wouldn’t do otherwise. And he was sure he’d make nice friends !)
Soon, if was his turn for the 50 meters dash. Well, it wouldn’t pose a big problem, speed was always one of his strengths.
He placed himself on the starting line, nodded with a smile at his opponent, a silent boy who looked like a rock and smiled back shyly to him, and shot up at the sound of the signal. Leaving once again the other quite literally in the dust. A few seconds later, he was done and slowed down a bit.
“4,6 seconds” announced the… robot chronometer ? Uaaa, UA really was technologically advanced ! He jumped up and down a little, excited. He had done very well ! It was nice to use his Quirk in sports for once, he had gotten penalized a few times before because he had carelessly activated it. It wasn’t his fault the professors were scary.
(As it was, the secret behind his impressive speed was that it happened when he got scared, or was convinced something was chasing him. With that in mind, a simple visualization of an imagined monster trying to get him was enough to get him going, effectively letting him use his superspeed when he wanted to.)
When the other boy finished, with a more normal score, Feliciano went to him and tried to get to know him. Unfortunately, the shy boy seemed to be mute, and while the simple questions were answered with nods and other easily understood gestures, when it came to important infos like his name, his Quirk or his hobbies it was a lot harder.
His classmate had tried signing, and Feliciano knew sign language instinctively… But he only knew LIS ( Lingua dei segni italiana, the Italian one) and not JSL (the Japanese one), which was a problem. They had soon realized that the signs were way too different to make correct guesses.
Oh, well, they’d have to wait to go back in class to get stuff to write on that’s all. He smiled one last time and went to the next test, it was his turn.
The endurance run was tiring, he was better at sudden burst of speed than sustained effort for a long time ; but no matter ! His head-start had ensured a good score.
After that, the exercises started to blur together, but he knew he did well in the majority, even if his methods were sometime… creative.
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Aizawa was keeping an eye on the most problematic students, all while displaying a bored face. He’d give a lot for a coffee right now. And if only he could chase off All Might without letting the students know that the daft “Symbol of Peace” was there, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
He was particularly watchful of a few children ; Bakugou and his obvious explosive temper, Midoriya, who was frankly doing an underwhelming performance right now and not even using his Quirk, and Vargas, who was just weird.
He knew that regular Heroes tended to have quirks to go with their Quirks (Loud personality for a loud voice, endless innuendos who were only half due to a public persona…). But still, this one was just as weird as he had witnessed in the exam. But at least he had an obviously good personality, friendly and accepting (he had continued trying to talk with Koda, even after realizing the boy was pretty much mute. Most would have given up.)
He could at least confirm that the speed was an aspect of his Quirk and that he could control it, though it didn’t last that long apparently. The grip strength test was… bad. The boy didn’t have noodles for arms but pure strength clearly wasn’t his strong point. But it was not that surprising.
The boy hadn’t shown any unnatural physical power other than his speed when destroying robots in the exams.
The pull-ups and side steps were similar, but he was pretty flexible, and did well in the toe-touch.
No, it’s the rest of the tests who were interesting.
For the long jump, he got another while flag out of nowhere, a really tall one. And then used it as a pole to do a pole jump, flinging himself quite far in the process. Then the flag just disappeared. It was in his hand, and in a blink it was gone. Just where the hell did it come from ? Was his Quirk some sort of pocket dimension where he mainly stored pasta, flags and cardboard boxes ? (And hand grenades, it wouldn’t do to forget about them.)
But no, it wouldn’t explain the speed.
Then finally, Vargas was in line to the ball throw. He had a flag under an arm and a slice of pizza in hand. Though he wasn’t the only one, and had apparently given some to some of his classmates.
Aizawa resisted the urge to facepalm. This was ridiculous. Was he supposed to be happy it wasn’t a plate of spaghetti ?
But then, he noticed the interested glint in the pseudo-Italian boy (who was 100 % Japanese by blood). What was he looking at ? It was Yaoyorozu turn and she had managed to make a cannon out of her Quirk, not bad.
The flag was back in his dimension.
Oh no. No no no.
He hoped he would be wrong. But Fate was never kind to him.
Vargas materialized an old cannon with the Italian coat of arms and blasted the ball away. He even had an old school cannon lighter.
Damn it. And he still had to do something about Midoriya, who was the next and last student to go.
He missed his bed and his cats.