Work Text:
Chapter 1:
5:15: wake up
5:30: breakfast (2 scrambled eggs, one banana and some chia seeds)
6:00: 15-minute stretch
6:30: go running (occasionally some parkour practice too)
7:00: body building
8:00 get home and get ready
8:30: school
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15:30: go home
16:00: study
18:00: make dinner and bento box for the next day
20:00: study more
22:00: free time
22:30: go to bed
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I had been following this schedule religiously for about 3 months now. There were only 10 months left before the UA entrance exam, so each and every second counted. I don’t think it was the same for most kids my age who were also applying for hero schools. They were too confident in their quirks for their own good, so they barely even tried. For me, however, of course it wouldn't be that easy. Obviously if fucking wouldn't.
Even though UA had been the first (and, by now, the only) hero school to allow quirkless people to apply, having taken that decision only one year ago, their exam was still incredibly biased, as anyone would expect. They always favored strong and flashy quirks. Physical ones. Obviously, I can solidarize with the kids with mental or metamorphic quirks and stuff, that system was really fucked up. They are still assholes when they find someone even further down in the food chain, though, but that doesn't mean they don't have a hard time too.
Anyways, it was still good that I was even allowed to apply in the first place, so I'm not wasting the chance. That meant training twice- no, at least 4 times harder than my classmates. I'm going to be the first quirkless hero, and I won’t be the last. There is no backing up from it now.
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"I'm home!" Once I arrive from the gym, I find dad preparing his breakfast. "Good morning, kiddo!" He shouts in return, rushing with his cooking, so he can make it to the station on time. "How was training today?" He sits down, placing one plate for me on the table, across from him, so I sit down to eat with him.
"Can't feel my legs, so that's a good sign." I scoff and he glares at me, worried. "Come on, Bella. Make sure you don't over exhaust yourself. It'll have the opposite effect, you know?” nod, in return “Yes, sir.”
I finish eating quickly, getting up already. "Thanks for the food. Gonna get ready for school." He hums, and I rush to the shower.
After half an hour, we leave. He drives me to the train station, since it's on his way to work. "Oh, and by the way!" I grab a book inside of my bag: 'Hero legislation: explanation and practice questions for public exams'.
"Tell Sansa-san I said thanks". He hums and nods as I place the book on the passenger seat and leave the car. "Have a good day at school, kiddo. Love you!” He waves me goodbye, and I answer: “You have a good day as well, love you too.” I rush to catch my train as he keeps his way to the station.
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Now, onto the worse part of my day: middle school. How could it be there so many assholes in a closed environment? That should be statistically impossible.
I get to class with my earbuds on, not really bothering to talk to anyone.
The bodybuilding was great, actually. Having bigger arms now made my classmates a lot more scared of messing with me. Or maybe it had been that time when I smashed a kid's face against the wall after he called me a 'quirkless dike'? But who knows? It hadn't made them stop writing shit on my desk or leaving notes, but it definitely helped.
The teachers weren't much of a problem, either, since they weren't that open about their prejudice (the fear of having the police department investigate them on discrimination maybe?). I pay half attention to the teacher as he continues what he was talking about.
"So... for today, I want you all to review your options for high school. Think well before you choose it, try to use at least one of the 3 options as a backup. As I've seen, most of you are applying for hero courses, so me and your other teachers are cheering for you." The teacher waits for the students to calm down and continues. "And from what I see... Tsukauchi, you're also applying to UA?"
Some kids scoff, but a glare of mine is enough to shut them up. "Yes, sir." He hums, handing out their forms, so they could change them if they wanted to. "I doubt you'll have any problems with their written exam. Are you applying for support or for general studies? I think you could do fine in general studies. Working with hero agencies is not that bad, besides of the paperwork.”
I sigh for a moment, before answering: "I'm going for the hero course, sir."
There weren’t even 10 words coming out of my mouth, and the class was laughing their asses off. "Really?", "You're gonna die during the exam, Tsukauchi!", "Is she really that delusional?", “It’d be easier if she just killed herself.”
After they whisper for a while, I snap. "I'm not accepting criticism from cowards who aren't even trying, so shut the hell up."
The teacher tries to calm the class down again, scolding me for swearing (he doesn’t call them out on their discrimination, but I wasn’t that naive to believe he would). Then, he changes the subject as everyone rewrites their high school options. I barely pay any attention to the rest of the class, having already studied that subject on my own.
Lunchtime goes as usual, with me eating alone by the rooftop. There are some notes stuck to the wall, as the fuckers knew I usually hung around there. It’s nothing that creative, though, only some suicide baiting and stuff. It’s not as if I wasn’t used to it anyway, I don't really mind it much (again, they were too scared to say it to my face, so I'm not taking those notes into consideration).
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I walk home after the school day, stopping by a gym store and buying more protein powder, since I was running out of it. Dad is worried that I might training too hard, but can you blame me? I already talked about how I'm quirkless, so I need to train *at least* until I pass out if I want to have *a chance* of getting in. Besides, it helps me ground and distract myself from stuff, I guess, so yeah, I'm not slowing down anytime soon.
When I do get home, I finish my homework quickly and grab my crochet thread and needle, rushing to the front of the TV and putting some video classes on as I finished a tote bag (pretty nice tip if you can't bring yourself to stay still, like me). I occasionally stop crocheting to take some notes, drink some water or eat a snack (dad had made me start putting those on the coffee table, since I always forget it while I'm too focused).
Time passes fast, and soon enough, my alarm rings, so I get up and prepare dinner, finishing it just as dad arrives from work.
It's not that bad, this routine, not at all. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get into this school and prove them all wrong, even if it’s the last thing I do.
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Then months later, I am stepping into the most prestigious hero school of the country. There are all kinds of quirks here, from what I can spot, but again, this is not the time to back down, I've got it. And I'm gonna pin my acceptance letter to the gate of that shitty middle school as a farewell gift.
I admire the front gate before I get in and head to my assigned room for the written exam. I try my best to be sure of my answer before I move on, since I tend to change my answers into the wrong ones if I come back to them. It’s not easy, I’m not gonna lie. There’s a lot of quirk usage laws that I was still struggling a bit to memorize.
I leave the room after one hour and a half, feeling anxious, and head to the auditorium.
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I find my designed spot and sit down, waiting for the other examinees. I gasp when Present Mic enters, fangirling a bit, even though the rest of the crowd seems… somewhat bored? Not that I mind, though.
The test was pretty simple, or, at least, its logic was. We would fight robots for points. The bigger the robot, the more points we got. Easy enough, I guess.
He explains the rules of the physical exam to us, stopping when an examinee asks a question about the 4th robot, which the hero hadn’t explained just yet.
The guy accuses the school of printing their flyers wrong and, after having asked his question, he gets out of his way to call another student out for mumbling. I’m already pissed at him, since everyone laughs at the poor guy, but the hero continues his explanation. That said robot was not worth any points, so he was just an obstacle. There was only one of them in each zone, so I imagine it must be awful to fight it. It’s better to avoid this one, I think.
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I get to the gate of battle center A and start stretching. I glance at my opponents and notice that most of them look confident. As soon as the gate opens, a loud blonde launches himself to the battle center with his explosions, and I rush into there too. The other students just observe, confused.
“What is it?! There are no countdowns for real battles! Go!!!” The hero yells and the other examinees enter the battle zone as well.
Quickly enough, I climb onto a building, stopping by its rooftop and observing the robots. There seemed to be a command box on their back, so that might be a week spot. When I decide to attack a 3 pointer, I find another one, worth only 1 point, which approached a purple haired kid and he… didn’t seem to be fighting back?
“OI!!!” I jump onto the robot, attach myself to its neck using my belt, and kick that command box I had seen before until the robot shuts down. Great, 1 point now. I jump back to the ground, next to the guy.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you wanna get yourself killed?!” I shout. But my voice gets softer as I see he’s shaking a bit. “Are you okay?” I ask and he nods. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I don’t need your help, you and the other kids with flashy quirks can keep-“.
“Excuse me?” I cut him, but he continues “Yeah, you privileged kids can keep fighting the robots. I knew it was a bad idea coming here... What?!”
I stare at him for a few seconds before flipping him off. “You know nothing about me, go fuck yourself.” I turn back to the robot and go grab some pieces of its broken metal. “If you wanna stop fucking whining and have a chance of getting one or two points, there's this command box on their back. Oh, sick!” I grab a rope that laid on the ground as well. “Yeah, there’s this box. If you break it, they shut down, just as easy as that.” I get up after collecting the stuff I think I might need.
“I mean, not if you don’t have the ‘perfect quirk’, right?” I quote it with my fingers, mockingly, and he scoffs, angrily, but I continue. “So, if you just wanna keep complaining, I can get you to the rooftop, so you are safe from the robots and I don’t have to save your ass again, how does that sound?” He flips me off, muttering a ‘Fuck you’ and leaves, so I keep fighting the robots.
After a couple of more minutes, I have only 28 points left. I shouldn’t have talked to that purple guy for that long, I’m gonna lose now. There’s only 2 minutes left. I’m gonna lose and I have no backup plan, and dad’s gonna have to take care of me until one of us dies, because who the hell is gonna hire a quirkless person? I don’t wanna lose now, I’d rather have some of these robots killing me now. I can’t afford to lose this. This whole year, my life, it all meant nothing? That can’t be true.
I get pulled out of my spiral when the zero pointer appears. The robot is twice as tall as the building I'm standing on. I can’t do this. It’s impossible.
As I step back to run away, however, I spot another examinee, frozen, before the robot. Was he in shock?
I take another look at the blonde kid, from afar, and he looks like he’s having a seizure. Of course it would be a fucking quirk drawback.
I try to calculate the distance between the two of us, and I would never get there on time. There must be something, anything I can do, anything.
“Hey, you!” The purple haired kid from before pulls my attention, and I am relieved to see him, as he calls me from the ground. “Why are you not running aw-” I cut him “You! Are you able to get that guy and run away?” “Uh… I think s-” “SO GO!”
Before he can answer, I rush towards the robot. I jump onto a taller building, which is also closer to it. I take a deep breath and run, jumping on top of the robot. As soon as I’m on it, the thing starts moving faster, trying to get me off of its back. I don’t back up, attaching myself to it with the rope I had found earlier. I start kicking the command box until I destroy the thing.
The robot stops for a second, and I sigh in relief. However, the damn thing started moving again, faster now. The purple kid, carrying the other boy to a safer location, yells for me, but I don’t answer. I go for the ‘eyes’, hoping it will work this time.
As I smash the first ‘eye’, however, I hear someone yelling ‘Die!’, before throwing a massive blast to the robot I’m still on, and everything goes black.
Only 28 points...