Chapter Text
Your teacher had drilled the date into your memory. Your classmates seemed to talk of nothing else. High school entrance exams sped towards you, like a sports car of anxiety about to plough you down in the street. You live in the outskirts of Tokyo, in Mustutafu, and have always dreamed of being a hero. You often went out of your way to walk over a very specific hill, one that gave you an immense view of the U.A. building. It was your dream every since childhood to go there, and study under the likes of the top pro’s in the country.
So, when high school entrance season kicked off, you had your mind set on exactly where you would go. Of course, you went to apply for the hero course at all the other top schools, Shiketsu, Ketsubutsu, Seiai… Although, with your physical condition as it is, actually getting accepted into any of these was going to be a tall order. You have, however, given yourself a safety net; the general studies course. On it, you know you can get in, as the entrance exam for that course was leaps and bounds more doable than that of the hero course.
Your quirk is a physical augmentation quirk, affecting your body all over. You can make your body much denser than usual, and have used the quirk in the past to make yourself heavier in things like tug of war, and to wade into a shallow but fast stream and save a drowning cat. Though this quirk is extremely useful and can probably be refined into that of a top hero, you understand your fighting technique is lackluster, and you probably don’t have the drive to become a hero.
Regardless, you apply for all 4 hero courses, and take the U.A. general studies exam as a backup. Needless to say, your disappointment was gut-wrenching when you got the results back from the exams. You had passed nearly all of the written exams, but failed the practical ones. Though, one result shone out, like a lighthouse at sea; the general studies course at U.A. academy. Still reeling from the rejections, you peek into the envelope and brace.
You had been accepted.
A few months later, you’re walking home from school with a backpack full of heavy textbooks, and a head filled with information, waiting to be solidified with the endless homework assignments. Even though U.A. boasts amazing food, professional heroes as teachers, and plenty of learning resources, it is pretty brutal, from the workload to the pressure of having such massive feats to live up to, even in the general studies course. You don’t help matters by staying at school until the grounds close for the night, considering you find it super hard to get any work done at home. The talk from your family never seems to end, either; they’re extremely proud that you got into U.A., and yet you can feel the disappointment of only getting into general studies. It gets you down every time you think of it.
You stop to plug your headphones in and put on your usual playlist, ready for a relaxing walk home, when you feel someone walk into you, and almost by reflex, you activate your quirk, which makes you a lot heavier and sends you plummeting to the ground. Though the shock more or less gets absorbed by the extra density, you still find yourself to have scraped your cheek on the concrete. Looking up and putting a hand to the stinging wound, you see a girl you don’t recognise, about your age, looking completely shocked. She has both arms awkwardly outstretched, as if she tried to catch you. She has little ovals on the ends of all her fingers, long bangs on both sides of her round face, and to contrast, a fringe cut rather short on her forehead.
Immediately, she bends down and asks “Oh my goodness, are you okay?!”
“Yeah, it’s just a graze, I’m fine...” You reply, as you give a reassuring smile back up at her.
“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going, and you were right there…” She helps you back to your feet, and bows over with a loud “I apologise!”
“Seriously, it’s fine,” you repeat, as your cheek stings sharply again. “I’ll just pick up some band-aids on my way ho-”
“Let me pay for them!” She interrupts, and suddenly has a very serious look on her face.
You shrug, and begin to walk again. “You don’t have to, but if you insist…” Having someone to walk home with can’t be that bad, right?