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“And to think that being a hero student was hard,” Ochako said, her voice barely above a whisper. The dust settled around them, she and her interns were mostly unscatched, but not everyone was lucky. To have graduated from one of the best hero studies programs in the nation was a privilege; she found that she could wake up to live another day because of her schooling, the instinct to survive was a part of her on a molecular level. She learned to fight through life-threatening injuries, to regard them only after the threat was neutralized or completely defeated.
The dust settled, and Uravity was alive. Blood dripped down from the cut on her forehead and the girl on her left — small, skittish, and shaking so hard that Ochako was growing worried for her — squeaked at the sight. Ever since the League of Villains was completely defeated in their 3rd year at UA, fights against villains usually only ended in a few scrapes and scratches. Even interns and inexperienced sidekicks could take out so-called major criminals in their area without even breaking a sweat.
“Something’s changing,” one of her older interns had said in passing. Ochako knew what they were like: a little cryptic and dark, due to the nature of their quirk — they could amplify shadows and create them into solid objects that surprisingly shared many qualities with a trampoline — and one to scare the younger interns Ochako worked with because of it. She always thought that they were just being dramatic.
Something was changing. Villains were popping up more often, and they were progressively getting stronger and stronger. Well, only to the point that her interns needed the support of their mentor. They weren’t nearly at the level of the League of Villains, but Ochako fretted that there were forces like them that were just waiting for the right moment to emerge, to shake up the world again and leave it in destruction and chaos.
Today was especially bad. It had started as something so minor; Kyouka had sensed a minor earthquake coming on and requested Ochako’s presence if need be. The earthquake had been minor, but there were bigger forces behind it, that Kyouka’s quirk had failed to detect.
A squad of villains in reality, but in their own eyes, a group of teenagers that were having a little too much reckless fun. Ochako was perhaps only 5 or 6 years older than the people they had pulled out of the centre of destruction, all unscathed and faces alit with triumphant grins. She had to hold back the urge to punch them in the face when they all high-fived each other, ignoring the fact that they were surrounded by three teams of pro-heroes.
They had blown up a fucking school. An elementary school. What Kyouka had sensed wasn’t an earthquake at all, it had been imminent destruction, the vibrations coming from one of the perpetrator’s quirks.
The world had shook so violently that even Ochako had been knocked out of the sky. As she fell, she had seen a blur rush into the explosion, and the purple and black figure behind them who she identified as Kyouka.
The blur she had seen was Kyouka’s 2nd year intern. A bright girl, always level-headed and a person who lived by the motto, “think first, act second.” Some frowned upon her way of carrying out her jobs, but Ochako knew that she was intelligent enough that the thinking portion only took 2 or 3 minutes. Ochako had never seen her rush into a battle with no plan — her movements seemed to be influenced by pure fear and desperation.
Kyouka took it upon herself to take in students that had similar quirks to hers, kids who were told that their quirks would be inadequate in battle. But that 2nd year intern was different, she was strictly put on reconnaissance. The intern had said herself, she was only helpful away from the site of battle.
The dust settled and she saw the intern again. The people surrounding Ochako gasped at the stark contrast of red blood on white and grey rubble. She was draped over a smaller figure, someone who looked similar to the intern.
Her little sister.
/
Honoka was one of the first interns that had agreed to work with Kyouka, who was still one of the less popular heroes to come out of her star-studded graduating class. Current UA students had better chances at getting internships with UA alumni, and most opted to work under Deku, Denki, or Momo.
Despite the fact that her quirk was extremely unhelpful in hand in hand battle — her words, not Kyouka’s — she was one of the most capable students that Kyouka had ever seen. She had turned her quirk — the ability to hear anything in the area she set her eyes on, through the ears of someone there — into a huge asset.
And now, she was dying.
Kyouka always lived her life knowing that death was near her at all times. She was no longer fearful of the notion of dying on the job, if it meant that she could protect the people of her community she would come face to face to Death without hesitation. But this. One of her beloved interns bleeding out right in front of her eyes. This was something she wasn’t expecting.
A smaller figure wriggled out from under Honoka’s body, a tear-stained girl that look hauntingly similar to Honoka.
Her sister.
Kyouka cursed lightly under her breath and before she could utter a word, the unpleasant sound of sirens filled her ears. Ochako came running, and scooped the younger girl up in her arms because she would see the state her older sister was in.
“The things people will do for family,” Momo had said one day, after a particularly gruelling day for her, “it’s terrifying, and beautiful all at the same time.”
Honoka. The level-headed, think before you act, notorious strategist that the rest of her interns rolled eyes at had abandoned all of the rules she lived by to save her little sister. It had worked. Her plan — that wasn’t even a plan, at least not one that Honoka would ever approve of — had worked.
Honoka’s eyelashes fluttered. Blood seeped every inch of white fabric that was left of her costume. Her eyes were already unfocused, like she wasn’t even here. Kyouka kneeled next to her. She knew that Honoka was already going. There was nothing she could do.
“Am I finally a hero?” Honoka croaked. “Is my sister okay?”
Kyouka held back her tears and moved the strands of hair out of her intern’s face. She wanted to scold her for being reckless, for not thinking, but Kyouka knew why she had run into the exploding building. She understood.
Her body moved before she could think.
“You were a hero,” Kyouka whispered, as Honoka’s eyes fought to stay open. “Your sister is okay.”
“I saved her?”
“You did.”
“I did,” Honoka repeated to herself.
The dust settled.