Chapter Text
Mizu finished tying her sneakers and opened the door of her apartment, backpack on and ready for her first day of Freshman year – her first year as a student in the United States. She took out her phone, plugged in her earbuds, and put on some music before she began her jog through town to The Academy of the Enchanted Individual. She ran past the same stores she’d explored during the last few days of the week. As she ran up to the school gate, she paused her music and took out her earbuds, wrapping them around her phone and putting them in her pocket. She then flicked her wrist, causing her sweat to fly off her body and fall onto the lawn. That’s better, she thought as she showed her student ID to the security guard and got let inside.
As she walked through the halls she saw two older boys messing around with their quirks. One of them was throwing fireballs like they were snowballs, and the other boy kept catching them in his mouth, swallowing them as he caught them. Mizu spotted the nearest waterfountain and used it to shape a small bubble of water in front of her – just in case their playing got out of hand. A teacher arrived to stop them before such an issue arose, so she just took out her water bottle and placed the bubble inside.
Once she got to the classroom, she spotted a seating chart projected on the chalkboard. Third row from the front, second column from the window. Got it. She set her bag under her desk and sat down. There was a girl sitting to her left, with long blue hair who seemed to be staring intently at her watch. According to the seating chart, her name should be Penny. She was about to speak to her when the bell rang. The teacher got up from her chair and smiled as she held up her clipboard.
“Hello class. I’m Miss White, and for this upcoming year, I’ll be your homeroom, heroics, and history teacher. Hopefully I’ll be able to guide you all into heroes and heroines that make history, and not the kind that sit at home in their rooms.” She paused, as if waiting for the students to laugh, which no one did. “Anyway, since this is my first time meeting you all, and some of you might be at this school for the first time, why don’t we take turns introducing each other. Why don’t you all take turns telling me your name, your quirk, and a fun fact about yourself? I’ll start. I already told you my regular name, but my hero name is Chainbreaker. My quirk is Crimson Cuffs: I can make and control restraints like ropes, handcuffs, and chains. My fun fact is that I absolutely love fondue.” Mizu wasn’t sure how fun that fact really was, and judging from the lack of a reaction from the others, they agreed. The blue haired girl raised her hand.
“Excuse me, but is there any restriction to how fun the facts need to be?” she asked.
“Good question. Please don’t say anything that probably shouldn’t be said in a classroom,” Delilah clarified. The students went down the list. Mizu’s classmates were quite diverse in terms of quirks and fun facts. Among others, there was a boy who played in a metal band, a girl who can produce an Aloe Vera like substance from her hair, and a girl who was a really committed Mime.
The time came for the blue haired girl to give her introduction. “I’m Penny Rothstein, my quirk is Technokinesis: I can control any piece of technology with my mind, like so.” She pointed at the lights and they began flickering on and off. “My fun fact is that I hold the TAS world record for speedrunning Jump Man Quest.” As she stood to introduce herself, Mizu noticed a necklace dangling from her neck with letters she didn’t recognize [פנינה].
Next it was Mizu’s turn to stand up. “Hi,” she stammered nervously as she felt the eyes of her classmates on her. “My name is Mizu Kori, my quirk is called Hydrocycle, and I can control water. My fun fact is that I can twist myself like a pretzel, watch!” Mizu began demonstrating her flexibility by doing a bridge and twisting her upper body so her head was between her legs. “Pretty cool, right?” she asked with a smile, hoping her accent wasn’t too thick. She was really glad to hear the amazed clapping of most of her classmates at this party trick of hers. She untwisted herself and sat back down with a smile.
“That was amazing, how did you get so flexible?” Penny whispered as the other students did their introductions.
“It took a lot of training. I did a lot of sports when I was younger like gymnastics,” Mizu replied. “Can you show me how you got so good at Jump Man Quest sometime?”
“Sure, maybe you can come over to my place after school?”
“Of course! Friends?” Mizu had a giddy grin on her face as she held out her hand to the other girl.
“Yeah, friends.” The girls shook hands before turning back to the teacher who was beginning a History lecture.
For the next month or so Mizu slowly got used to her school and classmates. While she wasn’t as close to any of them as she was to Penny, she was on friendly terms with most of them, though there were a few she could not stand. One such classmate was the boy who sat to her right. He would constantly ask Mizu to do her flexibility trick to the point of obsession. As exciting as her regular classes were, nothing beat Heroics. They went over the basics of responsible quirk usage on the job, simulations of heroes vs villains, and general situations where heroics would be necessary. Then on the first Monday of October, they got their first real field assignment. It was going to be a simple patrol around the city in groups of two, helping out civilians, dealing with minor non-villainous crimes, and generally keeping the streets safe.
Mizu and Penny were walking down the street having just helped retrieve an old lady’s cat making small talk as they looked for other places they could help.
“So, what’s this holiday about exactly?” Mizu asked, “and why are there so many in a row?”
“Sukkot is a harvest festival, and it celebrates the miraculous protection afforded when we wandered the desert for 40 years. This month has a lot of holidays because it’s the first month after creation,” Penny answered Mizu’s question with a slight shrug. “Don’t worry, it’s just this week and next week and then it won’t cause issues until April.”
“Well, as long as it’s only two more weeks of taking notes for you-“ Mizu’s words were interrupted by the sound of a crash. The two girls whipped around to the source of the noise and saw it. The serpent was massive, about the size of a Semi truck. Instead of scales, it looked like it was made of vines that coiled around it. It slithered along the street, knocking over cars and damaging the surrounding buildings. “Something tells me this isn’t part of the assignment, right?” Mizu stated nervously as she held out her hand and water shot from her hero outfit, gathering it into a sphere.
Penny pressed a button on her watch and it began transforming into a metallic glove. A sharp blade shot out from the back of her hand like a claw. “Well then, time to play weed whacker?”