Chapter 6

Maybe it hurts to know that something is going to happen. Bakugo moved closer to me, sighing.

“We don’t hate you as much as you hope we do. It’s nothing like that, Scarface.” He avoided any eye contact, making me want to hurl. His hand touched the thin layer of material covering my mouth as a mask, pulling it down. His fingers traced the places where my scar used to be on my face. With that, I leapt into his arms and bawled. Bakugo never knew how much a pushover he could really be, but he also never knew how much I could tell him without feeling like I was going to die.

“What’s wrong with me, Katsuki?” I ask, my head on his shoulder. “There’s so much going on inside of my head and it hurts. I can’t even talk to anyone without them thinking I’m going to kill them. I’m just a girl. I’m not a villain. Katsuki, I’m scared. So scared. You make it seem so easy. Sure, people might not like you because you’re aggressive and loud, but they still respect you and know you’ll be a hero. I can’t. The second someone sees me; they see the girl lose her mind. They don't see me for me. Instead, they see me for what Endeavor has told them I am.”

My words felt like lava as they burned out of my throat. It hurt. It always does. When Bakugo doesn’t talk, it scares me. Maybe he’s thinking of a way that he can get away from me and escape from the hell that’s going on inside my head.

Before thinking anymore, his phone rings. A crappy picture of Kirishima shines on the screen with Shittyhair written underneath it. He answers, grunting as he shifts around to hold me with one arm. I can hear his voice. Eijiro Kirishima. God, I love him. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met.

⛶

I stood there at the front, waiting for my body to fall. An icy breeze brushed against my neck. I shivered and giggled at myself. People were looking at me, but I didn’t care. I sighed with a smile. U.A. High . . .here I come! My thoughts were loud, but my heart was louder. As I stepped through the tall gate that welcomed me, I froze. Nope, this was a bad idea! How did I even get in? Other than fumbling with wires, what did I do? A hand touched my shoulder. It was a tall redhead with extremely pointy hair. There were two parts that seemed like horns.

“You scared?” He smiled. With a small jump, I itched my neck.

“Yeah . . .” my eyes drifted to the ground, then back up to him as his eyes seemed to smile. I noticed a small scar above his right eye.

“Well Don’t be! I’ll walk you through it. Okay. So, first things first. You walk in. Obviously. Then, you go to your class. You meet the people, then you become a hero!” His smile grew wider as he said hero. He put a fist in the air while I just stood there staring at him. My hair blew in the wind as pink petals fell around us. I returned a smile and fumbled with my fingers.

“Thank you. Um . . . I’ll see you around, hopefully. We could talk more.” I gently punched his shoulder and walked inside.

Once I reached my class, I breathed out and opened the door. As the door shut and I fixed my skirt, my eyes searched to find somewhere to sit. Alphabetical, eh? Alright. Students had already found their seats and were talking to each other. I froze and shuffled my way to my seat. I rested my head on my desk and felt like I was going to cry. Quickly, I lifted my head as I got a tremendous burst of confidence. You can do this! And even if you fail, you get this! That is when I remembered the redhead’s words. You meet the people, then you become a hero. A small laugh left me as I remembered how nice he was. His hair looked spiky to the touch, but I don’t think it’s because of his Quirk. His shark-like teeth fit his adorable smile.

My brain brought me back to when I was a child. The pro hero, All Might, had seen me and threw me into the air. He continued to do this for about 5 minutes. I was 6. Many heroes knew of the stern case. The case of my family dying, and my grandparents disowned me shortly after birth. Most of the staff at U.A. knew exactly who I was, but they wanted to hide the fact that they knew me. All Might, though, cared about me. He would make sure that I had a smile on my face and that if I was alone, he or someone else would come over to me so that I could have someone to talk to. He was always the father figure in my life. Of course, my actual father did nothing bad, I just didn’t know him. Present Mic and Eraserhead were also in my life a lot. Considering that they were there to save me. ‘You are special, you just don’t know how special you are yet’ They would say to me. Of course, I never believed them because I didn’t always know what special meant.

“You’ll find your place someday.” All Might smiled at me, patting my head.

“But . . . What if I don’t? What if I can’t?” My voice was higher compared to his, as I was only a child.

“Hah! You will, little one! Do you know why?” He asked, lifting me onto a slide. We were at my favorite park. He would take me here whenever he could, just to make me happy.

“Because . . . I’m a fighter!” I yelled, throwing a fist into the air. He laughed again and nodded. Once he pushed me down the slide, I felt like I was flying. Every time that I was with All Might or any of the other heroes, I felt free. They were the only family I knew.

“Well, looks like we’ll be able to talk a lot more.” A voice said to my right. I shook out of my trance and looked. It was the redhead!

“Oh! Hey!” I said with a smile. He held out his hand and smiled, too. I took his hand with one of mine and pulled a strand of hair behind my ear with the other.

“Eijiro Kirishima.”

“Aiko.”

“Just Aiko?” he asked with a slight laugh.

“Um! No sorry. Aiko Oshima.” I let go of his hand and rubbed my neck. A blonde looked at us and told us to shut up. We weren’t even being that loud. He wasn’t a bad kid, though. Well, maybe he was. I’d like to find out how he is during battle. He looked like one of those kids who always think they’re the best and that they can do everything. That’s what he was to me.

A boy with curly green hair walked by us and sat down at his desk. That’s him! The kid who ran by me before! My feet carried me over to him, pulling the page from the thick sketchbook. He looked at me with an awkward smile and took the paper.

“I saw you before. Not your face, though. I think you deserve to have it since it’s a picture of um . . . you?”

With a weird laugh I walked away and sat back at my seat. There was a kid with a tail in front of me. He seemed cool. The boy behind me tapped my shoulder. He had a black streak in his hair, almost like mine, only his was in the shape of a lightning bolt. He smiled and held a finger gun out to me.

“I saw you during the entrance exams! Pretty electric, if I say so myself. You want to go out for a bite some time?” He asked me, winking again.

I couldn’t help but break out in laughter. “I’m sorry, but no thanks. I don’t do . . . dates? But thank you for noticing my skill, I guess. I’m sorry that I didn’t see you.”

Holding my stomach, I got nervous, thinking he’d hate me for it. Instead, he smiled and nodded. He seemed cool, too. He pointed out how I had a black streak in my hair, too. I just didn’t explain why I had mine. If I were being honest, I didn’t know why or how. We laughed and joked together. He had a pleasant smile, just like Kirishima did. The door opened, and we were told to shut up and take our seats. There was a giant worm in the doorway.

“If you are here to make friends and be all happy, then you can leave.” The sack spoke.

Tempted to grab my things and leave, I tapped my fingers on my arm. The now sleeping bag figure stood, unzipped, and out stepped out a tall, slender, man who looked overly tired.

“I’m Shota Aizawa, your homeroom teacher.” His hair swished behind him as he walked towards the front of the room.

With a slight smile, I watched as he lifted papers on his desk. He had a scarf around his neck, and underneath were goggles. I knew they were there, no one else did. Of course, I did. I used to see him every single day. Though I used to know him, he didn’t even spare me a gaze.

He explained how today we were all going to be training our quirks. The moment he said that I broke out in laughter. He looked at me like the rest of the class. I quickly stopped and waved. We all got our gym uniforms on like he had told us and headed out to an extensive field. There was a ball that we had to throw. He told me I didn’t have to, but I did anyway—after everyone else, of course. There was another kid with a broken finger already. That was only because of his Quirk, though. There was Bakugo, he was the angry blonde. He was watching me. A sigh left me as I slid my finger around the ball and closed my eyes.

“Just throw it already, Scarface!” Bakugo yelled. This scared me, causing me to throw the ball. Aizawa Sensei smiled and showed me the small device in his hand.

77.32 meters. That’s the farthest I’ve ever thrown anything. I didn’t smile back, however. I was thinking about what Bakugo had said. Scarface. Kirishima looked at me and I quickly flashed a smile to (hopefully) remove the negative thoughts about me from his brain. We continued with training. Sit and reach, he squeeze test, he meter dash, and my favorite part of all of this . . . was getting the results. That is a lie. I hated that part. If I were entirely honest, I knew I was going to be last. When we were getting ready for the races, I was up against Shoto Todoroki. This terrified me. Not only was he the son of the number two pro hero, but he also got into the academy through recommendation. We lined up for the race and once the small robot said to go . . .I didn’t move. Instead, I just stood there and waited until he finished. Then I walked down the path and stopped at the end. He beat me. I knew he would. I cared little because he would win. How could he not?

Aizawa sensei said to us, “Whoever comes in last . . . will be immediately expelled.”

My dirtied fingers itched the tops of my hand as I looked at the ground. There was a singular rock by my foot. My hair blew in the wind as I waited for the end results. The tall red head moved closer to me and held out his fist.

“I bet you did great.” He said moving his fist closer to me, showing that he wanted to bump into mine.

I chuckled as my face gushed red and tapped my index finger onto his giant yet gentle hand. Kirishima looked beyond confused, as my action was not what he was expecting. This was something I used to do with All Might.

“I’m sorry. That was weird.” My face, once again, gushed a red, and I hid my face in my hands.

Kirishima just smiled, however. Aizawa showed us the results. With Momo Yaoyorozu at the top and Aiko Oshima at the bottom. My eyes grew wide. When do I leave? Do I just start walking? What should I do? Out of all the options I had . . . I smiled.

“You all did okay. You could’ve done better. Also, the whole expulsion claim was a lie. All of you get changed and get back to homeroom.” Aizawa grinned and played with his scarf as he made his way back to class.

I trailed behind all the girls to make my way to the girl's locker room. With a sigh, I opened my locker and grabbed my clothes. After changing, Ashido was practicing her dancing skills as she waited for some other girls to finish so she wouldn’t have to walk alone. Once I was done, however, I headed straight out and didn’t talk to anyone. Aizawa was already asleep once I returned to the room and sat in my seat. Kirishima wasn’t back, so I had no one to talk to. Todoroki walked over to me and sat in the seat beside me. That’s not his seat. I thought as I tried not to look at him.

“You did that purposely. I can’t accept this win against you; however, I will accept a rematch in the future. So be prepared.” He stood, spared me one last glance, and walked away. Kirishima walked over to me after seeing this interaction and laughed nervously.

“So, what, um, was that?” Kirishima smiled awkwardly and placed a hand on my desk, just as everyone else walked into the classroom.

“Just soon to be a rivalry. It’ll happen. I guess I must be ready for when he wants to challenge me again. It did not thrill him, I let him win. Heh, just you know, kids I guess?”

I tilted my head and rubbed the scar on my face. Kirishima touched his scar above his eye and flashed a pointy smile. We both have scars. The world has hurt both of us. We’ve both worked hard today. I then thought . . .what if we were to work side by side as pro heroes?