Nōtan [濃淡] - Scribblindown - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Hell Fire

Chapter Text

The incessant ring of the alarms beat against his eardrums like a mini marching band, the thundering of his stomps down the concrete streets were mismatched accompaniment to the cascade. All around him civilians flattened themselves against walls and street posts, watching him with wide eyes and open mouths as they gasped, “Endeavor! The Number Two Hero!” He was not a man built for speed, but even as he sprinted past at his fastest the passersby could only feel a brief lick of heat that came off his wide shoulders and face before the flames were stolen away again.

Endeavor felt his irritation grow from the gawking and staring, gritting his white teeth down, pushing himself to keep running forward. The first day of his new patrol had already grown to an ache at his temples, but he had already given Ingenium every word on his mind when the younger man taped off his usual routes for his brief investigation. Now on the other side of town, the alarms have rung. An alarm for old government property that no one has touched since the first generation of Quirks. There was nothing special about the building, no government secrets or hidden Quirk conspiracies, but the local lore must’ve caused the closest lunatic to break into it.

Policemen surrounded the entrance in a half-ring, bodies shivering with fear and Endeavor felt his tongue click against his teeth at the sight. The clutter of police cars surrounded the metal gates, with one person leaning out of the car and speaking into the microphones, telling the person inside to stand down.

“What’s the issue?” he demanded from the policeman in charge. In the background, his sidekicks started to set up, gathering information and keeping out of his way just as he taught them.

The cat-headed man nearly jumped from their close proximity, sweating from the fire that emanated from his being. “E-Endeavor, sir! At approximately 1200, an unidentified person appeared in Hoshiiro Training Base, but did not set off the alarms until 1213. We do not know their intentions, but we do know that they are currently fighting off the security.”

Without another word, Endeavor marched off, but the man nearly tried to pull on his clothes if it weren’t for the high temperature of the fabric.

“S-Sir!” He shook his paw-like hand to soothe the burn. “This is something that we are not familiar with! We advise you to enter with caution!”

He didn’t need their warning, nor their advice. The difference between him and the man standing behind them was exponential — a mountain. There was a reason why he was a Pro, and he was a policeman. Not good enough to be Pro-Heroes, not smart enough to give up, that was his thoughts about the force.

Endeavor took one step toward the monstrous metal double-doors of the gate and opened it unceremoniously.

Then he took a security bot to the face.

The policeman loudly shut the gate behind him, the echo of metal reverberating in his ear, closing the enemy in with him — or him with the enemy, he wonders —

His large, gloved hand clamped around the bloody nose he received from the strike, but among his feet was a sea of the security robots in various states of crumpled and dent, their lights flickering like Morse code. So far he didn’t have a concussion, recalling the date and his name in his head, counting slowly even as the pain in his skull didn’t recede. Dark eyes followed the trail of metal, watching as the thicket grew denser and denser until he came upon ground zero.

They were smaller than he had expected.

Smoke billowed around their feet, and even past the fluttering of their thick cape, he recognized that the enemy in front of him was short and petite. Nearly a head smaller than his youngest son and possibly even shorter than his only daughter. This pipsqueak caused this much damage and forced me to run across three streets for this?

Their back was to him, but underneath a heavy black hood, a bright red eye shone like a headlight amidst the darkness.

“Stand down,” he ordered. The Flame Hero crossed his arms and glared across the grass; his fire burned brighter and hotter almost threateningly. “You are trespassing on government property and this location still contains heavy amounts of radiation. It is in your best interest that you give yourself up to the authorities.” He hated the speech he was forced to make at the beginning of every fight. The villain rarely ever listened, and he would rather just go straight to the fighting.

Pure black spilled out from the bottom of their cloak and coated the nearest robots like a weightless tar. Lifted into the air like a feather, the robot streaked across the air like a baseball and headed straight for him. The villain didn’t have to move a muscle to throw it at him. The machine crashed effortlessly aside, nearly glowing with the heat that he used to punch it across the grass. He monologued in his head, did they think that he was going to go down like the rest of this machinery? In response, the fire around him raised in temperature.

The villain didn’t answer, but shifted slightly as if attempting to listen in after he didn’t go tumbling down like the rest of the robots.

As they turned, the cloak at their ankles shifted, exposing a thin, nearly-sickly pale leg. His eyes narrowed when he caught sight of the bare limb. A girl? he summarized, his crossed arms getting tighter. There was no way that the curve of the calf would belong to anyone else, not even a prepubescent boy.

A spark of fire flashed into existence, growing steadily, until he finally released it at her. It hit bullseye, raising in intensity, streaks of red going up then down. When the flames subsided, Endeavor’s annoyance grew as he saw the same black material form a force field in front of her, arm outstretched, perfectly unscathed.

The air shifted. The sea of scrap metal all became black, swirling around her, growing tighter and tighter until she finally unleashed the volley on top of his head. Storming forward, nearly dodging, he blazed brighter, slamming a burning fist into the ground where she last stood. Like the center of an earthquake, the ground underneath them rumbled like a wave at sea. He snapped his head up, expression positively dangerous when he looked up he saw two floating feet.

Flight?! He grit his teeth. The sea of dead robots came back like a boomerang, twisting and weaving, up and down, before striking like a giant snake. He increased the temperature around him, dropping the melting metal back down to earth in a glowing rain. One of the droplets landed on the villain as she scrambled back, shaking off and exposing the burn. Eyes widened when a distorted roar of pain escaped her lips.

As the world around them glowed with red, sweat started to drip down his brow, but his glare on the girl did not ease up. Her voice did not sound like any girl, but instead it sounded deep, rumbling like the moving plates underneath them. It was nearly — demonic.

Pausing as if to think, her head turned and caught sight of the square building several kilometres away. Picking up air, she flew toward the only building in the entire training base.

“No you don’t!” he yelled. “If that’s how you want to do it!” Fire shot out underneath him like a jet, propelling him forward at breakneck speed. He shot like a shooting star after her, swiftly dodging the trees that she uprooted with her Quirk and swung at him like the giant Goliath. “Flashfire fist: Jet Burn!” his roar became mute among the chaos around him, but the blast of fire locked onto his target. Her body twisted last minute, narrowly missing the pure shock of fire that would’ve been enough to burn her to a crisp. Another force field coasted the heat off the villain and instead the jet met the building head on, imploding it from inside out.

The villain instead raced for the rubble and debris that remained, gripping every concrete block with her powers and chucking it at him. Waving her arms around in a wide berth, she brought the weight down on him. His fists clenched, stretching the skin along his knuckles when she knocked out a whole line of trees after he dodged.

Her issue was with speed. He was considerably faster but forced to slow from his growing concussion and the projectiles she threw at him.

One after another, she launched the remains at him, but he didn’t falter for even an inch. Snapping his head toward her, he was about to roar out a proud, “Is that the best you can do?!” until her boots calmly slid across the dusty tile of the building. The sheer power of the girl was more than the average everyday villain, but nothing that he couldn’t handle. Her telekinesis and telekinetic constructs were more advanced than the average user, able to handle several thousand bits of debris at once without a seeming weight limit that he hadn’t breached yet, but that was all to naught if she couldn’t hit him. The force fields that she was able to conjure could contain the heat of his blasts, but he could tell that she was not invincible underneath that shield.

At the bottom of the remains, there was nothing left for her to throw. She had chucked all of the possible rubble at him, and all that was left was the frame of the building and the ground underneath her feet. The building was far away from the rest of the field, an impossible reach for other telekinetic users.

“Flashfire fist: Hell Spider!” he shouted from the bottom of his throat. Threads of fire weaved like a basket, far apart then growing more and more intense until they finally had impact. The ground imploded, growing like a supernova. The flames underneath his feet sputtered out and he waved through the fire of his own making until they nearly flickered out against the concrete and the stone tile.

But the body of the girl was nowhere to be seen, not even a burnt corpse.

“Wha — ?” he gasped out.

An animalistic growl appeared behind him, and a large black fist the size of his body took him over, shooting him across the room. Endeavor tumbled and rolled, and above he could hear the helicopter of the news channel beat along with the flickering of his flames. His body smashed against the remainder of the wall, draping him over it like a rag.

“H-How?!” a shout escaped from his lips, eyes nearly white in fury against the red licking his cheeks. Instead of answering, her foot stepped out from a dark portal on the ground and planted firmly in the spot right behind where he stood. Impossible! This is a different Quirk! Telepathy?! Portal?! Her Quirk is Telekinesis!

His fist lifted up and shot another blast of fire at her, pushed aside insultingly easy with her black-coated hand. From the tip of her boots, black matter streaked right across the ground, and almost as if he was seeing with negative light, he saw the outline of every pipe and plumbing underneath them.

“You…!” Endeavor’s voice was loud enough to shake the world around them. “You led me here!”

He started to shake.

But it wasn’t with fury — It was with excitement.

This was the perfect villain that was going to shoot his rank far above All Might's! With stakes this high and a threat this big, she was going to be his catalyst to Number One.

All he got as a response was an irritating smirk.

With her power, she pulled every pipe out of its place, shooting water out from them like fountains. Even though the water was enough to dampen the floor, his anger only faded into annoyance.

“You believe that some water can stop me?” He said this as her power started to bring back the fallen pieces of the building he had destroyed, blanketing the walls with black as she reformed the room. Waking closer to him, she didn’t say a word, pulling more and more pipes until the water grew at a rapid rate.

At their ankles.

Up to their knees.

The cold crept up their limbs, numbing her from the thigh down. The ends of her cape were burnt, exposing more of the ridiculous costume she had underneath, a black leotard with a gold and red belt. From his fists a new burst of fire raced toward her, dodging once more and shooting against the wall she had reformed. She took the blast and brought it back down on him again, wedging distance between them as he fought his way out and boiled the water around him as it sloshed around in large waves. It splashed, rising and falling like a tidal pool. The large chunks of concrete fell on opposite ends of the room, with him on one piece and her standing on top another, one foot above the other as if she was going to conquer the world at 150 centimetres.

Endeavor propelled forward with a shout, arm outstretched to grab the girl. A burning hand fell on her small shoulder, and he was amazed at how easily he could crush the bones in his hand. Typical of villains of this type, a weak body hidden behind an admittedly strong Quirk. His paw enveloped it for only a second, deafened by the shout of rage and pain that came from it, burning a hole through the black fabric. Knees nearly buckled from the pain. She gripped his wrist with a black hand, and with a burst from her projections — threw him into the water. It was about ten meters deep now, and the flames he always kept on his body fizzled out, converting into steam around them.

“Go...To...Hell!” he roared, throwing a jet of fire right at her.

“ I’ll show you hell !” the distorted voice shouted, braving past the beam of heat and shot right at him like a bullet. The force of her pushed him down the water. His open mouth suddenly was met with a stream of water, filling up his lungs and making his body go haywire at the contrast of the water around him and the heat that pumped through every vein. His cry of outrage was muffled, turned to undignified gurgling. He forced his eyes open, steam and bubbles filling every inch of their vision as he evaporated the water that surrounded him, but the water was up to fifteen meters now, far above their heads. His enraged face was all that she could see past the curtain of white.

No, she wasn’t holding him down with her hands; her thin, muscled arms were exposed to him now. She didn’t have a ninth of the physical strength. Instead black tentacles made out of the same matter as her telekinetic projections held him down underneath the water, wrapping around him like eels and suffocating him. Hands firmly on each of his shoulders, a reprise of their earlier tussle, her hood finally slipped off underwater.

And two dark eyes met with four glowing red ones.

The villain in front of him, as short dark hair started to float over her face and construct her vision from him, couldn't be any older than Shouto.

He was falling down, down, down. The water he evaporated around him just filled with more water, and she was pushing him further and further into the depths.

He had to resort to drastic measures, or else their battle would end here.

Endeavor glowed like the sun.

“ Gahh!" The girl threw her arms around her, shielding her face, shrinking away from the light that he emitted. He evaporated every drop of water that surrounded them until it was as dry as the desert. The air around them shifted, swirling as vacuums of wind sealed and opened, pushing her far away until she took to the skies again, fleeing from the light.

He lifted a muscular, burning arm and shot her down like a bird in flight.

Above them, he can hear the news helicopter get closer.

A grunt escaped from her lips as she fell to the ground again, her cloak blanketing her form. Maybe if he was soft like All Might he would’ve taken sympathy on how young she looked, broken and beaten on the ground like that. But instead, his footfalls only became heavier with every step, inching closer and closer to her, ready to deliver the final blow.

She lifted her head up, all four eyes wheeling and narrowing on him as if she were a deranged animal. Her dark hair draped over her eyes and face limply, and her skinny arms held herself up, hands deep in the burnt grass.

Underneath her palms, black started to stretch again, causing the Pro to tense up. It stretched further and further until it enveloped the entirety of the training base.

Her range can go this far?! Nearly fifty kilometers?! He took one unsteady step back.

Letting out a growl from underneath her breath, he can see peaks of fangs from under dark lips.

The sky darkened above him, and when he looked up, he saw a large black bird stretch its wings. His head inclined upward and upward, trying to meet the eye of the black bird that towered over all of them. Her roar of anger mixed with the bird’s caw, growing bigger and bigger until she could nearly have the whole city underneath her fingertips.

All of that fury beneath those red irises were all for him.

The villain opened her mouth to roar once more — only for a painfully high-pitched shriek to escape her lips. Her voice flickered in and out between distorted, switching from deep to light. The pitch of her shriek and the pain that emitted from the sound raised the hair on his arms and on the back of his neck. Endeavor’s burning brows instantly furrowed in confusion. Electricity cascaded through her whole body, illuminating her already pale skin with blue lighting and exposing all of those dark veins underneath. Red eyes strained then burned out like a car’s light. Her muscles tensed, fingers forming into claws and digging up the dirt underneath them until she finally constricted then slumped over — completely passed out.

The black bird above them disappeared into nothingness and Endeavor looked up. Sir Nighteye pushed up his glasses as he met his gaze with the Flame Hero’s, light flashing through the lenses. In his hand was a powerful taser gun and by his side was a plucky, blond sidekick.

Endeavor opened his mouth to let out a sigh of pure smoke.

Blearily, purple eyes started to blink open. Beside her, a needless beeping started, but for some reason her hands wouldn’t stretch out to stop that annoying alarm clock.

“Inmate 394-A, are you conscious?” a monotone voice asked overhead, echoing in all the space around her.

One-by-one the large lights turned on, created a big booming sound with every wave of light that cascaded over the gigantic room. Eyes adjusted, Raven looked down and saw her arms bound in a thick black straitjacket. She shook her body gently, trying to pry herself away from these confines, but the action only served to jingle the chains and buckles around her. Twisting her head and craning her body, she took in the room. There was nothing around her except for large white walls and one gigantic one-way mirror in front of her. She sat in the only chair in the entire room.

“Inmate 394-A, I will ask again. Please answer the question,” his tone was flat, but the hints of irritation started to shine through. “Are you conscious?”

After several more seconds, Raven’s head lowered onto her lap and her bare feet.

“Hai ,” she finally answered, voice soft, but echoing in all of this empty space.

He replied with a satisfactory confirmation, and relayed their schedule for her.

They were first going to shower her, feed her, then give her papers to sign before she would meet with her interrogator, scheduled at 18:00.

“We advise that you do not use your Quirk throughout these sessions. Not only does this room negate multiple Quirks, but we also have cameras at every corner for surveillance.” She turned her head to meet with the lens of a camera far above her head in the corner of the room. “If you do use your Quirk we will be forced to take cautionary measures. Please do not force our hand. Do you agree to these terms?” She inclined her head up, sensing the many hidden machine guns and monitors that lined the steel-plated walls.

“...Yes,” she replied again, her accent more firmly wrapped around the Japanese language.

“Then we shall begin.”

Two female guards hauled her off to the large, empty showers where they stood guard at every entrance. At the very least they were giving her privacy when she stood underneath the spray of cold water, motionless as the water rushed down her hair. She dried herself off and dressed in the state-grey prison uniform they gave her as in motion as a puppet when the guards fitted her into the straitjacket again. She was hand-fed a small meal of rice and fish before forcefully given pills to swallow. The guards all waited several minutes for the pills to take effect and sat her down at a cold metal chair in a large interrogation room, another one-way mirror reflecting her haggard image back to her.

Another guard asked her questions on a form and she parroted back answers with her own monotone voice. Basic things like name, date of birth, age, sex, birthplace, place of residence, and so on.

When the guard asked, “Quirk?” Raven could only raise an eyebrow in response.

Thinking it was a translation error in her head, the Titan asked the worker to repeat several times more before finally saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Finally, they left her alone in the room after saying that her interrogator would be here in thirty minutes.

She waited in silence the entire time, back leaning against the chair, not moving a muscle. Instead she focused on the cold of the chair and the smallness of her body against all of these large rooms they put her in. The keys to the door finally jingled and it opened. Sitting up straighter, she leaned forward to catch sight of any familiar face from her stint with the Police Force a couple years ago, but only saw a nameless face.

His features were unremarkable, with an average jaw and stock dark haircut. His body was engulfed by a large trench coat and when he met eyes with her, he gave her a smile. No doubt, he heard about her compliance the entire time.

He watched as her eyes followed him as he entered the room. There were no signs of nervousness or worry. She had familiarity with police officers.

“Hello, Raven-san,” he said gently as he walked over, plopping in the chair across from her and placing a new manila folder on the table. “My name is Tsukauchi Naomasa, and I will be your interviewer today. Can we begin?”

Nodding, she didn’t know if she even had a say in this. They had even drugged her enough that she wouldn’t fight back properly even if she managed to break free, but didn’t sedate her enough to be unconscious or delirious for the interview.

Naomasa looked at the girl across from her, noting how despite the fact that she said she was high school age, she looked even younger. Dark eye bags deepened the shallow look on her face further, giving the grey tint of her skin a leverage over her appearance. They had swathed her tightly in a straitjacket, and every time she moved slightly the buckles would chime. Frankly, to him, it looked like she was being swallowed alive by a maki roll, but he wouldn’t say that to the warden’s face.

He had found their precautionary measures a bit overboard, but after the extent of the damage that she had caused, he could see from their point of view as well. Yet, right now, she just looked like any other teenage girl. From the physical the doctors gave her while she was unconscious, they noted that she did not have a lot of muscle mass despite her body showing signs of a regular amount of exercising. They also said that there was nothing in her physiology that set her apart from any other child her age, nor any other human without a Mutant Quirk. Even the demonic four eyes that Endeavor noted in his report disappeared the moment she fell unconscious. They had given her a dose large enough to knock out an elephant, and he was glad that despite having a regular human body the drugs didn’t have any negative effects. Looking at her now, there was nothing that looked remotely like the villain that had broken into Hoshiiro Training Base.

“I will say that because we did not have any records of any girl similar to your description, this interview will unfortunately take longer than normal. Will that be alright?”

“Yes,” she spoke. Her voice was a rolling drawl, deeper than most girls’.

“We will start by confirming the information you gave us. Name: Raven, and no last name?”

“Yes,” she said.

A truth, he noted. A strange bump in their road, but he continued on nonetheless.

“Any parents or guardians?” he asked.

“Orphan.”

Half-truth.

He slowly went down the list until he came across another strange instance.

He asked her to confirm her birthday, answering affirmative that the days she wrote down were correct.

Nevermind the fact that the year she wrote was nearly two centuries ago. This anomaly was one of many, unfortunately.

“Place of birth: Gotham City, New Jersey?”

“...Yes,” she said after a pause.

He didn’t even need to use his Quirk to note that that was a lie.

“And current place of residence: Jump City, California?”

“Yes.”

A truth, he confirmed in his head, but… He looked up at her. So far, she had a perfect mental bill of health. There were no patterns in her brain that would indicate mental illness or hallucination of any kind, despite possible mind control or drugging.

“Raven-san,” he said, tone placating. For a second he paused, wondering how to word this. “Jump City and Gotham...do not exist.”

“What? ” she nearly barked out, but restrained herself like the rest of her answers. The table underneath them nearly jumped up in response. He watched as several emotions flickered past her face, all subdued and controlled, with years of practice behind those eyes. Eventually, she tensed, eyes darting back and forth as she thought of multiple answers and options, plotting like a caged and cornered animal before she finally sighed, releasing, and slumping her shoulders. She went through anger, surprise, anxiety, then acceptance in less than ten seconds. This fell in line with their theory that she could have possibly been used by someone. The suffocating of her emotions and the restraint of the expressions that passed through her face was not a skill many teenagers had.

“Will you…” she asked in raspy Japanese, “will you elaborate for me?”

Satisfied that she was complacent enough to not argue to burst out in anger, he nodded.

“California and New Jersey do exist, but Jump and Gotham City do not. Do you mind telling me where exactly these two cities are?” In all of their records, Jump City and Gotham never existed at all. Not now, and not 200 years ago.

Her response was controlled, if a bit strained. She swallowed a lump in her throat and continued, “Jump City should be right next to San Francisco, along the coast. Gotham should be to the south of New Jersey.” Naomasa turned to the one-way mirror and nodded once, undoubtedly the message was received. 'Should be' , he thought, so she recognizes her own situation . He stared down at her blank expression. She is not kicking up a fuss, nor panicking at the thought that her home does not exist. Strange indeed. He cleared his throat. “Even through these strange circ*mstances, I still want you to answer to the best of your ability, okay?” Slowly, she nodded and the interrogation continued.

“Now…” He looked back down on the paper for references. “You have listed your occupation as ‘Hero,’ but you marked your Quirk with a question mark, can you please elaborate?”

After a pause, she spoke again, “What...do you want me to say?”

“Let’s start with something simple. Do you have a Hero License of any kind that can prove that you really are a Hero, or do you really mean vigilantism?” His tone was sharpened, backing her into a corner, but her eyebrows were furrowed more by confusion than anytime.

“I… I have my Titan Communicator,” she eventually said, as if that was the answer. “And we are not vigilanties. We work alongside the law and the police force more often than not.” This last part was spoken pointedly, almost as if she was offended that he would even imply such a thing. But he caught wind of her words, “more often than not,” to suggest that there possibly were times where they went against the law.

“I apologize, I don’t know what a Titan Communicator is,” he said instead, breaking down her words one by one.

“It connects me to my teammates,” Raven answered almost immediately. That would explain her lack of a cell phone and the strange yellow circular device that they found on her person when they took her in.

“And who are your teammates?” He readied his pencil and paper. “Do you all have an official name for yourselves?”

“We are the Titans, but the media mostly call us the Teen Titans,” she said, a lock of her hair falling down on her face. “My teammates are Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg.” Behind the glass wall, the other guards began to look up the names she had given, only to come up with blanks.

“And their real name and contacts?” Tsukauchi pressed. Raven thinned her lips at his question, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I will not give my teammates’ identities away.”

“You may be in an...unfavorable situation right now, but we assure that your teammates are not in trouble. We just want their real names and contacts so that they can put in their statements for you.”

“If you wanted to contact my teammates…” Inwardly, Raven wondered if they really could get to them. “Then you would be able to reach them through their aliases. I will not give you my teammates’ real names,” she repeated.

“I see.” He nodded gravely. “What Hero name do you go by then?”

“Raven.”

He blinked once. Twice. “You go by your real name…?”

“...On occasion I go by the civilian alias Rachel Roth,” she answered, not elaborating. He nodded and jotted that down in his notes again.

“Do you have any other aliases that we should know about?”

If possible, a dark color streaked across her cheeks and it took him a while to realize that it was blush. She mumbled something so lowly that he had to lean in.

“I’m sorry, can you say that again?”

“...Lady Legasus,” she answered, looking particularly like she was forced to swallow a lemon and keep it there. He didn’t say anything as he jotted down the name.

“And are your teammates all around your age, fifteen?” She nodded. “Are you the youngest?”

“No.”

“Who are the youngest and the oldest of the group?”

“Beast Boy is a couple of months younger than I am and Cyborg had just turned eighteen.” He thanked her for her answer and silence filled the room again as he took the time to jot down her responses.

“Now, Why did you not put down your Quirk?”

The gaze that she placed on him was heavy and full of judgment. The downward tilt of her lips never twitched. “I don’t know what a ‘Quirk’ is,” she answered.

Truth. He turned to the one-way mirror and nodded once more, seeing her catch his line of sight.

“The word ‘Quirk’ is a unanimously agreed-on word for the superpowers that the average human populous has. Do you not know what your powers are or where they come from? Did you not know of this information?” He laced his fingers together and leaned forward.

If possible, more judgment filled her vision. “I’ve only ever heard of it as ‘superpowers.’”

“I see,” he nodded, taking note of it on the paper beside him. “And the origin of your powers? Were you aware that others around you had superpowers?”

“...The guy that I fought against could shoot fire from his hands and beard,” she said in a rhetorical way as if to answer with Now isn’t that stranger?

He cleared his throat once more. For some odd reason, talking with this girl was like getting his soul weighed. “Yes.” He nodded once. “That is his Quirk: Hell Fire. Endeavor-san received his Quirk at four years old, the average age for children to receive their powers.” Her eyebrows knit at this information, immediately telling him that this was not common information. “Were you the only person around who has a Quirk?” She shook her head. “What age did you receive your Quirk?”

“I had it since birth,” she responded in a flat tone.

Now that was new information, not even Mutant or Transformation types received their Quirk from birth. Though, this could explain her larger-than-average control over her telekinesis and her deadly handle over it.

“And what would you call your power?”

Telekinesis. Force Field and other projections. Minor Teleportation. Flight. These were all of the abilities that Endeavor listed out.

“...Telekinesis,” her gaze met him head on, and without the use of his Quirk, maybe he would have believed her.

“Raven-san,” Naomasa finally said, sighing deeply. “I believe that you were confused when you fought Endeavor-san. Others may disagree with me, but I do not believe that you intentionally committed the crime.” Something flashed in her eyes. “My own Quirk is the ability to tell if someone is lying or not.” Across the table, the girl stiffened, but eased into calmness once more after he took notice of her patterned breathing to calm herself down. “I want this interrogation to go as smoothly as possible, and I do not want to force you to answer. In order for that to happen, I need you to answer me as truthfully as you can. I will be able to tell the difference between half-lies and full-lies as well, no matter what. Is that clear?”

“...Yes.” Her mouth felt dry like she had swallowed a stack of sandpaper.

“Now, what is your Quirk?”

Her words came out as a whisper again, eyes darting back and forth. “I don’t have a proper name for it. It’s just been known as the things that I could do.”

“Can you tell me what they are then?”

She nodded once and began to list them, so far a majority of them were abilities that Endeavor had already mentioned, except Levitation replaced Flight and with an additional Shadow Manipulation added to the mix. There was no mention of her red eyes or the strange manifestation that they had found her in.

At this point her voice became stiff and strained, looking as if every answer she gave resulted in a needle added into her skin.

He quickly changed the subject, going down the list for the remainder of the hour as he asked her about mundane facts about herself. At the bottom of the list, Raven let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

The hard part was just getting started.

“Now, lastly, do you know why you are in here?” he had asked.

Ever so slowly, she nodded. “I… “ She shook her head, almost to herself. “My memory is blurry. I do not know what completely happened.” He was expecting that. He put down possible mind control or drugging in his notes.

Tsukauchi shifted in his chair. “Let me rephrase that, do you know why you were in Hoshiiro Training Base? What were you doing there?”

“I don’t know what Hoshiiro Training Base is,” she said honestly.

He took her lackluster answers in stride. “Hoshiiro Training Base is a government-mandated training facility that used to survey and teach the first several children that had Quirks. After the first generation of Quirks passed, the facility was abandoned because it was unneeded. Nowadays, the government still advises everyone to stay clear of the area because it still has heavy amounts of radiation and dangerous pitfalls that the first-generation users left behind. When we found you, you had four red eyes.” His bland black eyes met with her dull purple ones. “Is there any additional information that you would like to give us about this?”

Her neck and shoulders tensed as her body struggled in the straitjacket, shifting in obvious nervousness. She looked him up and down. “No,” she finally said. “I have nothing to say.”

“I will say that that is why we had to go through such lengths to stop you. You managed to destroy every security robot there and worn out our Number Two Hero, Endeavor-san.”

She blinked slowly. “It was...never my intention to hurt anyone,” she said earnestly.

A truth.

“What were you doing there? Did someone force you to be there?” he pressed.

“I—” She looked up into his face and hesitated once more. They had gotten a lead to the big mystery that was in front of them.

“Who put you in Hoshiiro?” he continued on.

He will be able to tell the truth, she thought. Raven just wanted to get out of here, far away from these confines and far from the interrogation. It was obvious that while in her demonic state that she had caused a great deal of damage, even if she wasn’t conscious for it. Red Raven was the most destructive state that she had. It was obvious what happened to her now.

Trigon had finally used her as the portal and cast her away to a different dimension so that no one could save her. Raven just hoped that the last of the power she had given to her friends allowed them to live.

She was a hero, and her duties belonged to all of the civilians, but she supposed that it was her demon heritage that would easily cast them aside so long as the Titans were safe. She didn’t have any regrets, nor a heavy heart at the thought.

But she was alone again.

Raven didn’t have anyone, just like how she started.

“My father,” she admitted after a long pause, clenching her eyes shut at the incoming headache as she thought about Trigon. Raven was going to be honest, and when they left her alone again, she could break out, and unleash all of the feelings of listlessness that she had bottling inside of her.

Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg.

Dick, Kori, Gar, Victor.

Garfield.

“I see. I thought you said that you were an orphan?” Tsukauchi was relentless. His voice held no surprise, so he knew all along, she thought bitterly.

“He is only my father biologically.” He never raised her, loved, her, or looked after her. It seemed as if she had answered something that clicked in Tsukauchi’s mind, finishing the puzzle that he had set out.

“Do you know why your father put you there?”

“...To get rid of me.” She hated how meek her voice was, how she could feel the constricting of her lungs and the burning of her eyes. Steadily, the extra pencils on the table started to rattle. With a gasp, she soothed her breathing and tried to quell the hurricane inside of her. The pencils fell to the table with a large clattering sound.

“And from where did your father banish you?”

Raven went quiet, after several minutes of nothing but labored breathing, the detective coughed into his fist again.

“Raven-san, please answer the question. From where did your father banish you?”

“From...another dimension.”

There it was.

“That girl is lying!” A large hand slammed on the table, rattling the metal legs and bouncing every pencil off the edge. Endeavor fixed his glare on every person in the room, but his burning gaze was softened by the bandages on his face and around his throat. “Another dimension? Other dimensions do not exist !”

Tsukauchi fixed his collar as he walked forward, taking a seat at the table across from Endeavor and met his gaze with the smoldering villain. “As confusing as it is, she was telling the truth.” A deep sigh fell from his lips as he sat down.

“She could be a lunatic for all we know! How do we know if this other dimension is not a configuration of her imagination?”

“Isn’t this ‘lunatic’ the same girl that almost defeated you?” a no-nonsense voice spoke up from the corner of the room. The two men snapped their heads to the side, catching sight of Sir Nighteye pushing up his glasses silently as he closed the door behind him. Endeavor grit his teeth, clenching his fists so hard that Tsukauchi was almost worried he had to warn the man that this room was not fireproof.

“What are you still doing here?” Endeavor snapped at the skinny man. “Did I not tell you that this villain was going to be under the jurisdiction of my agency?” He nearly squared his shoulders, just waiting for Sir Nighteye to argue with him.

“I was the one who managed to deliver the final blow,” he calmly responded, if not hiding his irritation like a creature underwater. “While you might have been the one to fight her, I have just as much say in what happens to the villain as you do. I also believe that the area around Hoshiiro Training Base is legally under the watch of my agency.”

“I was on route!” Endeavor shouted, flames flickering up as the temperature of the room increased. Sir Nighteye did not flinch an inch as he pulled out an All Might-themed folder down and pressed his temples delicately. The red-headed man nearly wanted to roar in fury.

“A route that is originally ours, Endeavor-san,” Sir Nighteye eventually said.

“Please, you two,” Tsukauchi said, but making no move to get between the two Pros. “We are supposed to be discussing Raven. Both of you can stay and the warden has no issue with it.”

Endeavor scowled irritably, leaning back on his chair so hard that the metal nearly dented, and crossed his arms. However, he relented and allowed Sir Nighteye to take the chair at the end of the table.

Tsukauchi let out a drop of sweat despite the fact that the temperature of the room rose to normal again. Undoubtedly, Endeavor was furious about the end result of the battle. Even though he was the one in battle, because Sir Nighteye was the one who incapacitated Raven his rank ended up shooting exponentially while Endeavor’s continued to stay stagnant.

“Nighteye,” Endeavor addressed. “You don’t believe this do you? This gossip about an alternate world.”

“The information matches up,” was all he said, but he kept his gaze on Tsukauchi. “Her birthdate, the unknown cities, her strange communication device, and the ‘Teen Titans.’ Her powers are exponentially strong for a girl her age. She also didn't know of the existence of Quirks, nor some of the cities that I've listed to her. You of all people, Endeavor, should recognize the severity of the situation.”

“Just because a fifteen-year-old girl is able to give me some trouble for twenty seconds doesn’t mean that she is from another world! This father that she mentioned could have beaten and manipulated her for years until she couldn’t recognize reality even if it was in front of her!” His fist slammed down on the table again and the metal jumped underneath his knuckles.

Tsukauchi sighed once more, closing then opening his eyes after a deep inhale. “I believe Raven,” he said.

Ignoring Endeavor’s incredulous look, he continued. “My Quirk is able to give me the whole truth, not just what the perpetrator believes. It is not uncommon that people being interrogated break down from stress or convince themselves that they have committed the crime. If that was the case, I would’ve put many innocent people behind bars for crimes that they have not committed. Raven is telling the truth.”

His words weighed heavy in the room.

“I believe you too,” Sir Nighteye interjected. “This world has as many Quirks as there are stars in the sky. Who’s to say that interdimensional travel is not one of them?”

The Flame Hero clicked his tongue but never fought back. The detective nodded. The last thing they needed was another argument when they were supposed to be on the same side.

“Now…what are we going to do with Raven?”

“What do you mean? Even if she ‘never intended to’ she still managed to destroy the entire training base and trespassed,” Endeavor urged. “She stays behind bars in my opinion.”

“The situation remains...she is still technically a minor. She can not be tried as an adult and because of the influence we believe her father put her in, most of us in the force have agreed that she is not guilty.”

“And you’re just going to let her go?” Endeavor waved his hand. “Let her out into the streets with a Quirk like that?”

“Are we just going to keep her here?” Sir Nighteye countered. “In this high-security prison for only the worst villains in all of Japan? For a crime she technically did not commit out of her free will? We all know that if she truly wanted to she could break out of any regular prison easily.” He paused to push up his glasses. “I agree with Tsukauchi-san. I don’t normally let my own opinions infringe with a case, but I can’t—in all of my good conscience let a teenage girl waste away here.”

“You two are being swayed by her gender?! Don’t be weak!” Endeavor swiped his hand down. “If she were born a man would you still say the same?”

“If she was the same age?” Nighteye looked him right in the eye. “Yes. I wouldn’t wish the fate of being in Tartarus on anyone except for the worst villains.” The skinny man fully turned to Endeavor’s direction. “This prison was always going to be a temporary solution. We did not know the extent of what she is capable of, and this is the only place that would have a chance of containing her if she wanted to break out. Now that we know that she was not in the right mind when she committed those crimes, there is no reason to keep her here.”

Tartarus was meant for the worst of the worst, sheltered faraway from society with extreme twenty-four-hour surveillance with guards that were allowed to do whatever it took to stop them. Currently she was in here without trial for the destruction of government property and trespassing, but those were hardly the crimes that would land her in her own cell at Tartarus. If they locked her away for years, stunting her life from here on out—What if this girl actually grew up to be a villain? Would she become resentful?

He could see from Endeavor's point of view, his fiery intent to keep danger locked away like Pandora's box, lest they open it and release the horrors inside. Normally he would agree wholeheartedly with the man, but a part of him still wavered. The part of him that spoke in All Might's voice, the man's whispered, soft tone when no cameras or fans were around, begged for her freedom. All Might wouldn't want another young person to be led astray so soon, not if it was by his hand, and not if they could've stopped it at the source.

Her past reminded him of those sci-fi novels he used to read as a young boy, but considering the tumultuous world that they lived it, it could barely be the strangest thing. A hero from another dimension that hid more than she gave away seemed like the origin story of a comic book hero.

“So what do you suggest we do then?” Endeavor spat. “Release her back into society when she’s a threat?”

It seemed as if that question caught Sir Nighteye off guard, forcing the younger man to fiddle with his glasses for a second longer instead of answering the question.

“She mentioned that she was part of a Hero Team,” Tsukauchi mused, a hand on his chin. “She was telling the truth as well. In that case, she must have a strong sense of justice and knowledge of the laws.”

“You two keep on making excuses for her. She said that she was in a team full of teenagers. One of them’s not even old enough to enter U.A.! How good can this team be?”

“Again,” Sir Nighteye said pointedly. “Were you not the one who saw firsthand how capable she was?”

“She is also impressively subdued,” Tsukauchi noticed, still deep in thought. “She has an amazing will over her emotions. Whenever I got the impression that she was going to get anxiety or worry, it disappeared just as it came. I noticed that she uses a multitude of breathing exercises to get a lot of her feelings under control.”

“A result of her Quirk perhaps?” Endeavor asked in a chipped tone.

“Most likely,” Tsukauchi replied. “In the state that you found her in, you mentioned that she was completely unrestrained. That’s probably why her behavior is so different now.”

“Do you think her father is the one who did that to her?” Nighteye asked. “The red eyes.” He had not seen them himself with her back turned toward him when he arrived, but Endeavor described them clear as day. No pupil, no iris, just pure glowing red.

“Quite possibly.” He drummed his fingers on the table once. “Either way, we still don’t completely know the man’s motives aside from what Raven remembers and is willing to tell us.”

“What if he becomes a threat?” Endeavor barked. “You think he is able to create a whole army of those...hellions?”

“Then I believe that it is a positive that we have one on our side, hm?”

“We don’t know that for sure!” Tsukauchi had such a hard time wondering why Endeavor was so against their case. He had known rumors of course, mentions from his friend All Might that the Pro was not one that is easy to get along with, but he knew that the man had several children himself, probably around Raven’s age. Shouldn’t he be more sympathetic?

Even though Raven had lost the fight, her defeated look made it seem as if she had lost a whole war.

In a room that big, meant for monsters of the worst kind, she looked small enough to disappear.

He thought back to the playback of their fight, how the news choppers had to stay far away from them as Endeavor created minor forest fires and Raven was able to bring a whole house down over the Hero’s head as if she was in The Wizard of Oz. Since she was a minor all of the clips of her were blurred, not that her hood ever fell when she was fighting, but he had seen the clip where she attempted to drown Endeavor.

It seemed as if the Pro’s grudge was as deep as the pool she made.

“How do we know that she’s trustworthy?”

A pregnant pause submerged the room, thick with thought and as suffocating as a humid summer’s day. After several minutes ticked by, Sir Nighteye looked up.

“I can use my Quirk.” The man narrowed his eyes at the thought. “I can see into her future and dictate...whether or not she will be a good person from her actions.”

“Foresight?” Tsukauchi tilted his head. “I thought that you were only able to go one hour ahead?”

“I can also see forward for an illimitable amount of time,” the man’s words were contained, soft and gentle despite the topic that they were on and the fire Endeavor lit under him mere moments before. If Nighteye was nervous none of them mentioned it. The last time he used his Quirk to see into the indefinite future was years ago—

“All Might...you can’t even smile right now!”

“And when we see her future…” Tsukauchi and Sir Nighteye simultaneously turned to the fuming Pro. “Will you then agree to let her go?”

Endeavor held their glares. Eventually, he let out a snort and turned his head again.

“Don’t talk as if you already know the outcome, Nighteye.”

The door began unlocking with loud booming sounds, heavy chains clattering against one another and metal sliding against heavy metal. Her head lifted slightly, heavy from the neck up. Purple hair hung over her face, making her plum-colored eyes appear as if they were among vines. The large mirror in front of her reflected her image back at her, nearly a blip among all of the white space that surrounded her. Turning her head to the side, she was surprised to see that it wasn’t one of the guards, but a tall, lithe man she had never seen before.

His hair was the color green and yellow, looking every bit like a can of lemon-lime soda while his suit was a bleached grey with a gaudy red polka-dot tie. Though, from what she saw, from being tended by guards with every color of the rainbow to guards with heads like building blocks and fish gills, perhaps he was the norm here. The Titans had always stood out wherever they went, from the pizza parlors to the arcade. With an alien girl with orange-tinted skin, a boy who was almost entirely green, a half-metal man, and a half-demon girl, Raven mused that maybe this would have been a place where they all fit in.

He caught her gaze and began to walk slowly towards her. Raven mentally wondered why they sent a Japanese salesman here of all people.

From her bound spot on the chair, she nearly had to crane her head all the way up when he stopped in front of her seat, pushing his glasses up the sharp bridge of his nose all the while.

“Hello, Raven-san,” he greets, voice as flat as a sword.

“Hello.” Her voice had regained all of its former composure. Emotionless, dull eyes stared into his own.

“I am Sir Nighteye, and I am the Pro-Hero that landed the last blow on you. Do you remember that?”

She blinked owlishly. Faintly, she remembered in the back of her brain the feeling of horrible pain, the jolting electricity through every limb and the constricting and contracting of her muscles. However, the one who experienced that was Red Raven, not her. Not the real Raven.

“I—yes,” she finally answered. She turned her gaze down to her lap.

“I am here to determine whether or not we will release you or keep you here in this prison. I am going to use my Quirk on you,” he said all of this as statements, but when he reached out his hand to place it on her shoulder, she immediately jerked it away.

“What are you going to do?” Surprisingly, her words held a lot of bark, eyes immediately narrowing on him with her eyebrows downturned. She was tensed like a cobra ready to strike despite all of their past assumptions that Raven would be docile against the police force now that she was no longer in "four-eyes" mode.

“My Quirk allows me to see into events in the future. From your actions, I will judge you to see if you are fit to rejoin society," he explained, no expression betraying his face.

“Only the future?” her voice grew raspy again, staring at his hand like she was waiting to snap it off if it moved without warning. People were always like this, believing that their past was more intimate than their future, that they had more control of the things that they were going to do than the things that they did.

“Yes,” he answered.

Ever so slowly, she nodded. Without letting another second pass by, he activated his Quirk.

Mirai’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked into her future. Normally it would be laid out in front of him, as clear as day, as if he was looking into a movie, but he squinted and could’t see any better. He wondered if her interdimensional heritage had caused the blurriness he had seen, the random splotches of color and the fading light in her future.

He clenched his eyes and forced himself to look forward.

She’s walking down the street with a bounce in her step. Her purple hair flutters gently in the wind as she turns.

In the next scene, she’s wearing a U.A. uniform.

Raven gathers a green-haired boy into her arms and closes her eyes in contentment as they hug.

It’s nighttime and she throws her cape to the side. Across the street from her, several dozen monsters loom.

She’s sitting at a cafe, a cup of coffee in front of her, a small smile on her face as she looks at the boy in front of her.

Then —

They’re in the hospital.

Mirai is looking from beyond the ajar door, the faint crack spilling from the hallway. He sees the figure of Raven and All Might standing together. His old boss, but always his hero, is skinny and frail, eaten from the inside out. The tall man hunches over significantly to speak to Raven at an eye-level, and his clothes hang off of him like a tent.

“—You’ve saved me—” All Might’s lips continue to move but no sound comes out. “—Young Rachel—”

Mirai inhales and he was forcefully thrown out of his own vision.

He blinked wildly, his heart hammering in his chest, his breathing falling and rising at a rapid rate. His eyes darted back and forth, trying to distinguish the white of the prison from the pristine white of the hospital in his vision.

It had not been long since he last spoke with his former boss, merely several weeks before he called him, telling Nighteye that he chose a meek Quirkless boy to be his successor. It had been on the forefront of his mind ever since.

He looked down at the girl in front of him and she met his eyes again, not a hair out of place. She looked as if nothing troubled her.

This girl...is the one who can save All Might…?

“Sasaki-san?” one of the guards hurriedly asked when the Pro-Hero stormed out of the cell, looking haggard as if he had been through a storm. “Sasaki-san, is everything alright?”

“Sasaki-san?” Tsukauchi rose from his chair where he watched Raven. “What happened?”

“The girl is not a threat,” is what he said instead, keeping himself from stumbling. “You can release her now without a problem.”

“Sir Nighteye, I think you should sit down,” another guard says, gesturing quickly to an empty chair.

“No—it’s alright.” He pushed his glasses up and looked at the growing crowd in front of him. “Begin making preparations for her liberation, and—” Yellow eyes peered up from behind flashing lenses. “I will be the one who will take her in.”

Chapter 2: Black Bird

Chapter Text

It was surprising how willing she was to hear him out. Dark eyes had watched him carefully as he explained his proposition to her, analyzing every word but never protesting.

More surprisingly, she accepted his proposition.

The girl in front of him seemed aware of her own mortality, eyes constantly watching the machine guns that lined every corner and every camera that pointed at her in the room. Dark, worn eyes communicated that she was aware that she was far away from home, and every bit of Nighteye’s training told him that she had already given up. Despite her situation, he was amazed that she was so willing to hear him out, hanging onto every word and turning over every stone. At the end of it, she had agreed and Nighteye left the room feeling as if he had been grilled under the hot sun, pushing up his glasses wearily as sweat collected around his nose bridge.

His feelings swirled inside of him like a crystal ball, churning uncomfortably as he thought back to the destruction that Raven and Endeavor left behind to her inevitable connection to All Might.

But if that was her future, it was his duty to assist it in every way that he could.

As they prepared her for her liberation from the prison, Nighteye stood outside of the room, wondering if this was all worth it. It took a week for her to fully be granted access to leave from paperwork signing and foraging, preparing his home for her arrival, and organizing his finances as a result. He was labeled as her full guardian, Roth Rachel, a girl from the United States that was jumping from foster home to foster home. However, despite the fact that she had been given a summary of this information prior, once the papers landed into her hands the big picture finally dawned on her.

It was strange seeing her in Awata’s clothing, a bright blue v-neck tee-shirt and jeans so long that they scrunched up at the ankles, but his sidekick assured him that it was fine that she was donating a pair of clothes to his new ward. The color was so bright compared to all of her other clothes: the black leotard, the black cloak, the grey prison clothes, that Raven appeared washed out as a result, fading away amongst the sky blue like a worn out picture from the past. The two of them sat in an empty, large white room together, one step away from her freedom. In her hands, she clenched the stack of papers and carefully skimmed through them when a tight look appeared on her face. Eyebrows scrunched up, lips pressed together in a tight frown, she glared down at the paper in thought and confusion before looking up at him again.

No, the words that she was reading were correct.

“Adopted daughter…?” she said, her voice merely a whisper, broken by the natural rumble of her own tone. Disbelief filled her normally expressionless face, emphasizing the knit eyebrows and the thinness of her frown. Raven believed that perhaps she didn’t read that correctly and went back and reread it, but no matter how much she racked her brain, the characters always turned out the same.

Adopted Father: Sasaki Mirai

He nodded once. “Yes.” But he avoided her eyes.

She snapped her head up at him as if she had forgotten he was there. Her frown was deeper now, inquisitive and demanding. “Why? Why did you do that?” Before he could get another word out, she continued. “You didn’t mention anything like this when you were explaining everything to me.” Perhaps it was his own mind playing tricks on him, but her voice became deep and inhuman at the end again.

Thinking of the highly-likely issues that she had with her own biological father, perhaps he should’ve been clearer. Her glare didn’t let up for even a second. He mentally sighed, he didn’t want to start their relationship off on the wrong foot — any more than it already was.

“I apologize, Raven-san.” He pushed up his glasses again, giving him an excuse to fiddle for just a second. “I should’ve made myself clearer. Tsukauchi-san and I believed that adoption was the most believable pretense to take in order to bring you back into society. Since I am supporting you until you find a way home or you get your own job as a Hero, it makes the most sense that I am providing for an adopted daughter. As someone without any documents, it would be strange if I take someone up as just a ward suddenly.” After a pause, he continued, but her expression never wavered, an impressive trait in itself. “I apologize for any confusion I might have caused you.”

He was surprised when the detective came to the conclusion as well, unfortunately carting him along for a longer ride than he anticipated. But he could find no flaws with the detective’s words. The risk of her being targeted would be limited because he wasn’t an extremely popular Hero and he would be adopting her under his civilian name. The threat came with attempting to pass her through U.A. and the media’s watchful eye. The strict, overbearing Sir Nighteye would not suddenly take up a ward in the middle of nowhere, but at the very least a familial ties might tame their curiosity a bit better. Sasaki Mirai was a middle-aged single man and he wasn’t getting any younger. To the people who only knew him as a regular person on the street, finally building a family didn’t sound so strange.

Several seconds later, she sighed deeply from the bottom of her chest. Her grey fingers clenched the paper tightly. “Pretense,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone. “Alright.” She stood up to her full height, barely even going past his shoulder. “I…” She stopped for a second, wondering how she could word this without sounding incredibly rude. Her friends had mentioned on more than one occasion that for someone so silent, she always spoke whatever was on her mind without much filter. “I would appreciate it if you never did that to me again. Is there anything else you want to tell me?” One lone eyebrow raised.

“Not as of right now.” How was it possible for someone to appear so strict as they talked, she thought, but felt hypocritical immediately afterward. Maybe she needed to look in the mirror. “However, our situation is delicate and is due to change at any second. I will do my best to inform you as soon as I get the information myself.”

She exhaled deeply once more. That was the best she was going to get in a world like this. “...Okay.”

His glasses caught the glare of the lights above.

“Then shall we get going?”

She nodded once and looked toward her future on this unknown planet.

The drive out of the prison was slow and quiet. There were no teammates to argue or chatter in the background, nor any of Cyborg’s headache-inducing rap, pop, or rock blaring through the stereos. There wasn’t even the hum of the air conditioner to keep the air between them occupied. Normally, Raven would do anything for even a bit of this peace and quiet, but it only forced nostalgia to settle deeply in her chest.

Unsurprisingly, the prison was heavy-duty, forcing them to bypass several spots of security and clearance before they could even leave the parking garage. The prison was in the middle of a body of water, and they had to wait for the bridge to come down before they could finally start their drive toward Sasaki-san’s condo.

Neither of them said anything during the whole ride there, but it was clear that they were both deep in thought and before they knew it, they were already home.

His condo was larger than she expected, especially for a bachelor living on his own, but was smaller than what she was used to. It was wide, modern, and clean, and her own bedroom could be described by those three words as well, but her own bedroom back in the Titan tower was probably the size of his living room and dining hall put together. His condo was housed in a large skyscraper, decorated with large white walls and counters, grey couches, and with the occasional green plant scattering the area. It looked as if it was taken right out of a furniture catalog. As in, it wasn’t lived in at all. No scattered chip bags and game consoles among expensive furniture and kitchen appliances. Yet, beggars can’t be choosers, she thought to herself. Not everyone could have Bruce Wayne’s endless wallet and Silas Stone’s extreme architecture.

He told Raven her bedroom was the first door up the stairs and in the hall. As expected, it was wide and bright, light wooden doors among white walls. There were two doors directly across from each other and she chose the one on the left. She threw open the door and closed it immediately after without a word. Corner to corner, up and down, the room was filled with posters, figures, and memorabilia of a buff blond man with the largest, most painful smile she had ever seen. She shut the door and never mentioned it again. The room that was hers was the one that happened to be right across from the Blond Man Room, and it was thankfully, completely normal.

Her bedroom was brighter than she was used to, but it was no problem.

Sasaki-san had already gotten the essentials for her, framing her white walls and white curtains with a twin-sized bed, a desk, drawers, and several bookcases that she was grateful for. Looking out the window, she wasn’t greeted with a faraway skyline and bridge like she was used to, but a full view of the streets and skyscrapers beside her. On the ground below, cars zipped by like bugs. Her sheets were navy blue, and her bed was done and a folded jinbei laid neatly at the foot with not a speck of dust in sight. She recalled him saying that a housekeeper came by every week to keep things tidy. Her desk already had a laptop on it, surrounded by several cases of pencils, pens, and a large pile of Campus notebooks. Her bookshelf was already filled with texts such as A Short History of Japan, World History: Unraveled, Japanese for Intermediate Speakers, and so on. There was nothing in the closet yet but a shower caddy with the basic toiletries.

Aside from clothes, she mused, he really thought of everything. But the format was all off. She wanted her books to be within arms reach and she didn’t need her socks so close to her bed.

Raven decided to move her bookshelf closer to her bed and place her drawers where the shelf used to be as a homage to her room back home. They floated as light as feathers off the floor, covered in her customary black. It was in the middle of using her telepathy to move the furniture when she looked down at her feet and saw a goofy looking face staring right back at her.

“Hiya, Raven-chan! How do you like your new room?” it asked, happy expression never faltering.

Silence...

She couldn’t drop her furniture upon it any faster.

The loud tremors of both her bookshelf and her drawers shook the floor and created loud booming sounds throughout the condo, but the face didn’t take any damage at all. Instead, the face crept closer, floating up to the top of the bookshelf like it was made out of water and just laughed at her.

“Hey — Hey, it’s alright! No need to get —”

Heavy footsteps thundered up the stairs and her door slammed open.

“Raven-san! What is the matter?!” Nighteye roared, striding into the room quickly.

“Sasaki-san!” Raven quickly turned her head. Pencils threateningly hovered behind her, pointed right at the face. Her new guardian took one look at the situation and sighed deeply.

“You — !”

“Hey, sir! Don’t stress it’s just me — !” And as the blond man climbed out of her furniture, his clothes fell through him like ink through water and he stood before them buck naked. “Oops — “ A dark shadow fell over her eyes and the pencils clattered to the floor loudly.

Not a word passed through either of their lips for what seemed like an eternity.

“Mirio?” Sasaki finally asked, voice impressively taciturn.

“...Yes, sir?”

“Please put on some clothes and meet me downstairs.”

“Hahaha!” The face — Togata Mirio, she learned — shook her hand fast enough to shake her entire body. “Sorry you had to see that, Raven-chan! I was just so excited to meet you! You have no idea what a surprise it was when Sir Nighteye said that he was going to take you in! And you’re an American, so cool! I’ve never met a foreigner before! Say, can I call you Raven or Rachel?” He talked as fast as she could run.

“Uh….” A burning image in her head aside, the blond boy seemed harmless enough. “I respond to both.”

“Yeah,” he drawled in a duh tone, “but what do you prefer?”

“...Raven,” she finally said after a bit of thought. Rachel Roth might’ve been her dedication to her mother, but she was always Raven.

“Okay!” He winked at her playfully, but she had no idea how he got eyes that round to wink. “I’ll be sure to catch myself from calling you that when I see you at school though!”

“...School?” she thought, face extremely deadpan, but a glare coming up from the edges. She turned her expression to Nighteye, who had promised to tell her everything. Her guardian sighed once again, pushing up his glasses and walking forward until he placed a firm hand on Togata’s shoulders.

“This is my sidekick in my Hero Agency, and he is the only other person who knows about your background aside from Tsukauchi-san, Endeavor, and me. If you have any issues and the three of us are not around, he is trustworthy and reliable.” The lights above caught the frames of his glasses. “He was the one who insisted on helping me move things into your bedroom, so you should thank him for that — “

“Ah, there’s no need — !“

“But he was also reckless for startling you like that,” Nighteye said in a scolding tone, as if Mirio was a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. “I’m sure that he won’t do that again, am I correct?”

“Yes, sir!” His smile was exactly like seeing daytime for the first time in a while. “But Raven-chan and I are friends now, aren’t we?” He turned to her, hand on his hip and arm reaching out toward her.

In response, she could only inch away from the close proximity and stare down at the open hand. “...No one goes into my room,” she said. Her tone was reserved but firm.

“But — “

“Mirio,” Nighteye said once, a warning on the tip of his tongue.

“Haha, alright!” To her surprise, he laughed it off easily and didn’t seem deterred by her lackluster response. He was like the sun, she thought. Bright, cheerful, and...her absolute weakness. Raven did not do well in the sunlight. It appeared that he was good at reading her too, catching her controlled face for a second before beaming at her once more. “It’s okay!” he said as if that was the resolution to solve all bad endings. “You know my best friend is a lot like you. He’s pretty shy too! I should get you two to meet!”

From experience she knew that two shy people in one room was not a good idea, but the extreme extrovert in front of her didn’t care. His phone was already out and ready.

“As I was saying,” Nighteye cut in again. Yellow eyes looked down at her. “You said that you were a Hero in your universe, correct?” He didn’t wait for her nod. “Here, you are only able to be a Pro-Hero if you have a license, and you are able to obtain that license if you attend an academy that has Heroics education as part of the curriculum. I am planning on enrolling you in U.A., but unfortunately, due to the tardiness of my application, I was unable to get you a recommendation. That is something that cannot be helped. You will have to apply like any other student. Am I being clear so far?” Here, he did wait for her to nod once. “I will say that I know your type. I will not tolerate vigilantism under this room and under my watch. You are forbidden from doing Hero work unless it is underneath supervision.”

Raven felt an eyebrow creep up her forehead but nodded once. He stared at her for a while, trying to get a read on her thoughts but eventually found her mute answer satisfactory for now.

After that Nighteye surprisingly extended dinner invitations over to Mirio, challenging her perception of the man that he was no-nonsense without much care for anyone. The blond shook his head and said that he already had plans for the night, but promised to take up his offer any other time. He bid Raven a cheerful farewell with promises that they would see each other again.

Sasaki immediately wheeled in on Raven the moment the boy left the door. There was work to do, he recited.

Raven hadn’t been in a high school for the entirety of her life (unless they counted the scattered undercover missions she occasionally had) and therefore Nighteye immediately gave her an exam that he curated himself to test her skills. It was nerve-wracking to take a surprise test as the strict man watched over her, but Raven had always been the studious type. Certainly, she wasn’t the smartest Titan, but her intellectual curiosity surpassed all of her teammates.

Unsurprisingly, her best subject was English, followed by Literature, World History (which had several events she didn’t even know about); she was painfully average in Math, Science, and Physics, and her weakest subject was currently written Japanese. The two were silent as the man graded her exam carefully, pausing every now and then to examine her answer and work backward from her thought process.

“It’s clear that you do not have a professional education,” was the first thing he said. “Is that correct?”

“Yes.” Raven didn’t fiddle — she never fiddled, but she felt like it. Her basic education came from the Monks of Azarath, but she learned everything else from every book she could get her hands on. “I am self-taught.”

“You did not attend school?”

“No.” Even though he was expecting that answer, he was still disappointed.

“Are all of your teammates like this?” he unexpectedly asked next.

That question took her off guard and she had to stop to think. Vic certainly went to school and he talked about how he was on the football team occasionally. Kori was a different case — she was a princess and Raven had no clue what the normal education system in Tamaran was. Dick was in the circus before he was found by Batman, but he was young when all of that happened. Certainly, Wayne would’ve given him some tutors. Gar, to her knowledge, was taught by his scientist parents. For a second, it hurt how much she didn’t know about her teammates despite believing that they were so close. Perhaps that was her fault for being so closed off.

Instead of dwelling on it further, she gave the rundown to Nighteye in the form of yes or no. If possible, he seemed disturbed by this information, but never commented on it. However, she had no idea why. She understood that they were all young compared to the others, but their job should be taken seriously just as if they were adults.

“However,” he started to say, eyes never leaving the paper, “It is clear that if you are given the formulas you are able to pick up the material well. In your Literature exam, you did the best on the questions where I gave you the passages.” He moved on to say that he would be tutoring her daily now. It was expected that her grades in Japanese, Japanese Literature, and World History were not steller, but he intended to fix that and bring her grades up from Math, Science, and Physics. They would start next week in order for him to get all of the material together and for Mirio to free his schedule and assist her.

Next were the rules.

It was near dinner time and Sasaki was still listing off the extensive rules as he set the table for both of them, letting her see his yellow chopsticks with two bunny-ear-like extensions coming out of the top. She wasn’t even phased to see that his plate was themed as well.

This blond man was at every corner, she thought, she was expecting to see him pop out from behind the couches.

As he set the plates down, he stated that he only knew how to cook the basics, and due to the exhaustive nature of his occupation, he ordered takeout more often and not. However, he urged her to try and eat healthy by eating in, but she was free to order takeout and put it on his tab whenever she didn’t have the time. Raven didn’t mention that her cooking skills were nonexistent.

At the end of the night and at the end of his list of rules (Your curfew is at midnight unless you tell me beforehand. My room is also off-limits unless you ask. If you have a friend over, I must know it at least three days in advance — ) it was finally time to retire for the night.

As they were putting away the plates and cleaning the table, she called out to him and bowed.

“Thank you, Sasaki-san.” Her eyes were particularly interested in the pattern of wood underneath her feet. Raven didn’t know what to say, what his motives were, but she knew that she would rather be in a prison of her own choosing than the prison that they put her in. Sasaki was an enigma with unknown motives and decisions, but she was just glad to be able to see the sky again. “I will repay you everything in full once I get back on my own two feet.”

There was a pause, but she didn’t dare look up.

“You better get started then,” was what he finally said. “The damages you and Endeavor created were very costly.” To her credit, she didn’t flinch. “But…you’re welcome. You do not need to stress about finances when you’re here.”

“Goodnight, Sasaki-san.”

He nodded once.

“I hope you find your stay here adequate, Raven-san.”

For their next month, they both had a lot of work to do. If Nighteye was at his agency, Raven was trying to adapt to life here on this new Planet Earth.

Once morning came, she grabbed one of the notebooks by the desk and started to list out all of the spells she could remember from her book. Unfortunately, the ones she knew she had already memorized, but it was still good practice to write them down in case anything happened. Sasaki-san had given her a new cell phone after he found out that her Titan Communicator couldn’t contact anyone outside of her teammates. Cyborg had specifically made it that way so that there was no interference and no one else could listen in their conversation. In her phone were Sasaki and Mirio’s numbers, along with one listed as Recovery Girl and Bubble Girl. After a long debate, she eventually took out her Titan Communicator and shared the images she had with her phone. Her lockscreen was now an unwilling selfie with her and Beast Boy while her home screen had all of them, leaning against Vic’s car in the parking lot of the pizza place they frequented.

A quick search online told her that the nearest second-hand store was only a couple blocks away, and armed with the debit card Sasaki-san gave her, she grabbed every black article of clothing in her size. She couldn’t wear someone else’s clothes forever. And — if she grabbed a gigantic chicken plushie, well, that wasn’t anyone’s business but hers, was it?

“A giant chicken,” she remembered from the back of her memories. All around her, incessant chatter and a swarm of different sounds filled her ears from the carnival they were at. “I must be the luckiest girl in the world.” Garfield and Victor’s smiles shone back at her.

She liked this, she thought, being so busy that she didn’t have to think twice about her teammates or what her father was doing or whether or not they were all alive. She wanted to be so busy that she didn’t need to think twice about a place she couldn’t go to anymore, but things like this — things like every image and every second reminding her of Gar, or Kori, or Dick and Vic weighed down on her like Atlus.

Raven was never the emotional type — she couldn’t be. She couldn’t afford to get angry, sad, or overly happy. Her powers were a raging storm trapped inside Pandora's box, and if she was reckless enough to become mad, melancholy, muffled with feelings, that box would tip over and unleash her powers from the depths of hell. Yet, that never meant that she didn’t actually feel it. She had always cared about them, but now, faced with the reality that she may never see them again, she had to keep a cool head despite the pain in her heart.

Sighing and shaking herself out of her emotions before something blew up, she quickly finished up her shopping for the day. Another quick search told her that Donki Oote was nearby.

There was no point in moping when there were things to do.

She had gotten refills of ink, more notebooks, almost every book that they had, and several boxes of frozen waffles and one of every tin of tea on the shelves. After some thought, she threw in some knitting supplies as well. With a deep realization, it came to her attention that her power must’ve been depleted after activating Red Raven and being thrown into a new planet by her sperm donor of a father. It was at the beginning of her training that she discovered knitting with her telekinesis was good practice for dexterity and detail, and along the way, she simply picked it up as a hobby. Though now, she had no idea who to give these scarves and hats to.

Then after that day, it was nothing but working to the bone.

Every week Nighteye gave her worksheets and textbooks to assist her with her education and get her up to speed with the curriculum of other students her age. Very briefly did Mirio come over and tutor her, but it didn’t take long for her to catch up to his level in mathematics and science and physics. (He laughed and told her that he wasn’t very smart in the first place.) She only met Amajiki Tamaki for a brief second before the shy boy turned to his friend and asked if he could go home. When she wasn’t learning with Mirio, she was being taught by Nighteye, working to nightfall over the kitchen table and burning through a dozen cups of tea. If she wasn’t with either of them, she was reading by herself, absorbing every piece of written work that she could get her hands on.

It was a painful month, but if she wanted to get anywhere near her old life she had to get that damned Hero license from U.A. Slowly and surely, she was improving and gaining speed. Her Japanese was at a near-fluent level after working at it endlessly for a month. She had managed to get her knitting back to its regular speed after several cases of loose ends and missing rows.

And when she placed those piles of scarves in front of Nighteye’s room and Mirio’s backpack, she was surprised to find that her tea tins and waffle boxes were suddenly restocked that week. And the next week. Then the next week.

Beside herself, she felt a smile grow on her lips and continued to write quickly in her notebook well into the night.

Across town, a green-haired boy dragged trash across the sand.

A brunette girl was hunched over her desk, studying tirelessly for the academy with a 1% acceptance rate. When she slapped her cheeks to focus, she accidentally started to float with a quick yelp.

A boy with red and white hair punched the sandbag as his father glowered from the corner.

A bespectacled boy dabbed the sweat off his brow as his older brother gently wished him luck.

So that — the next day —

A blond boy swung the ball in his hand as hard as he could, a sonic boom ricocheting through the night sky as explosions chased it like two koi. His mother didn’t hesitate to yell at him from the top of her lungs.

Raven placed her pen down and prepared for bed. She stopped to stare at the lone picture that she had on her walls. Identical smiles were plastered throughout all of their faces despite their vastly different appearances. Nodding once, she turned off her lamp and climbed deep into her covers.

— She would come at the entrance exams at full speed. No stops.

For so long, all Raven had been doing was existing, surviving. The Monks had told her of her fate for as long as she could remember, and being used by her father had become something that she inevitably had to accept. Now that he had finally tossed her away, she truly was meaningless. Yet — The only time she had ever felt like she was worth something more was when she was fighting crime with her only friends in the world.

I miss you, but I’ll make you proud.

As she drifted off to sleep, she could faintly hear the echo of her former team leader.

“ — Go!”

Regardless of the nature of what their actual relationship was, Sasaki Mirai had a daughter now.

It was on paper, in the records, on his certificate.

For a second, as she was working in her science textbook in front of him, he briefly remembered that she was only a child. They were only brought together due to formal circ*mstances, cogs in the machine that he was churning. She had a drive that he admired. Although he was rarely home, he always found her with her nose in a book. There was never an instance where she complained or argued — but there were rarely any cases where she spoke her mind anyway. For a brief moment, Sasaki wondered if the girl in front of him could feel anything at all.

Sasaki Mirai was always stern, straight-laced, but...he would be lying if he didn’t feel sparks of happiness at grabbing new All Might merchandise. He knew all too well how small things like that made him feel, so he frequently added new books to her shelf, and tea, and new waffles for the fridge.

Embarrassingly enough, he never wore the scarves or knitted hats she made, the ones he had seen her practicing her Quirk with, but he brought them daily to the Agency, hidden in his briefcase.

He had adopted her because he saw the future, he saw the changes she could create.

She could be a Hero.

He had seen the damage that she had done to the training facility, and wondered briefly who he was saving as he was doing all of this. The world from her? All Might from his future? Was he saving her? A girl who was barely even fifteen?

Mirai had read the parenting books, and they all mention the angst stage of adolescence — the drive for independence, the withdrawn feelings. Raven was all of those things, but she was never a difficult child. He was worried at first, what kind of person he was bringing into his home.

A demon, like Endeavor said?

Then she thanked him and promised to pay him back every cent the first night.

He can work with this, he thought.

Then he saw her answering Mirio’s questions, and despite the boy’s deposition being the day to her night, she appeared to get along with him.

A boy that he already saw as a son —

He thought of her more kindly.

He has a daughter.

But Mirio had never been able to make her laugh. For all of the jokes the boy cracked, she always looked forward with a straight face.

With a darkness like that, he thought, did I make the right choice? How could she help the future of society if she never smiled?

He used to pride himself in being able to read people, learn their moves and motives like a chess game, but his adopted daughter remained an enigma the entire time she was here.

He thought of his old mentor, all smiles and teasing eyes when he used to receive whenever blushing women attempted to talk to him on the job. Highly unprofessional, he used to comment, but All Might never minded. What would All Might say if he was here? He would undoubtedly be able to connect to the youth better than he could.

“You can see the future, but you always seem to be blind to the hearts of young ladies! Hahaha!”

Yet, he thought, and there was little he could do now. He didn’t have a Quirk that would let him go back in time. Her inability to contribute to the light of the future was something that he just had to deal with.

And then — one day he came home from work. To his surprise, she wasn’t reading a book, but rather she was on the couch in the living room, watching the news mindlessly as she cuddled a large plush chicken in her arms. This was a first. A Hero was saving someone on television and her expression was one that was different from all the others.

Forbearance. Restraint.

To his own surprise, he boldly asked her about her teammates. He gathered as such from the way she watched the newscast so longingly. Even more shockingly, she opened up to him.

She told him about Robin, the proud but kind leader.

Cyborg, the cool and carefree guy with enough intelligence to support them all.

Starfire, the kindest and strongest girl she had ever met.

And Beast Boy.

“And…” He pushed up his glasses again in uncertainty. “You liked this boy,” he summarized from her body language and her expression. It was awkward, having those words leave his mouth. All of the books told him about adolescent crushes, but he didn’t think that he would have to encounter that with anything but a ten-foot pole.

“Yes…” She turned to the TV again. The conversation was dropped there. “He made me laugh.”

January 14th, she thought. The day of the U.A. Entrance Exams.

Nighteye had already left for work but offered last night to drive her to U.A., an offer she turned down. His agency was in the exact opposite direction and he had gotten her a Suica card for a reason.

She prepared for her early morning by dressing in a large black coat and dark legging, reciting different mathematical formulas in her head and recalling the sounds and readings of different characters in Japanese.

Zipping up her jacket, she stared deeply at her reflection in the mirror.

And most important of all, she thought, those purple eyes staring back at her. Be honest with yourself.

. . .

U.A. was an impressive building, she thought as she walked through the gate. Overly large, with glass windows that blanketed the entirety of the surface and the building was shaped into a gigantic ‘H.’

Perhaps she could find the cure to her nostalgia here, she remarked, thinking of the T-shaped tower that she used to call home. She was on a casual stroll to the inside of a building when a green-haired boy fell down in front of her. In a drop of a hat, a brown-haired girl quickly slapped him on the back and he began to levitate, shrieking while wiggling his legs in the air to regain the pull of gravity. One of her eyebrows crept further up her forehead as she watched him struggle then drop. It was strange seeing so many people with so many powers, all used so easily. Sasaki-san never used his Quirk at home and after the first incident, Mirio never used his around them again. Raven was used to using her powers every day: whether it be to carry her books around as she walked, phasing through walls whenever another Titan was using the elevator, or levitating everywhere because why walk when she could fly? However, she had already grown used to being an odd one out. Her team had grown tighter through their misfit natures. Now that everyone had powers, a spotlight didn’t follow them wherever they went.

“Excuse me,” she drawled, coming up silently behind the two.

The boy shrieked out something akin to, “A-A a-another girl!” and “Is this how romance novels begin?” Her face remained wholly unimpressed.

“You’re blocking the way,” she said, voice as flat as a field. He stuttered out some more, covering his reddening face with his arms as he backed out far enough for her to fit an entire elephant through the space.

Weird, was what she thought, the people here were weird. As she walked off the brunette whispered something along the lines of, “That was kinda scary...” but she wasn’t here to worry about what others thought.

She was here to win.

Immediately, the phone chimed with two different text messages.

Togata Mirio: Good luck on your exam rachel-cham!!（＞ｙ＜）Dont let all of my studying go to waste!!! Hahahs! But I know u can do it! Plus Ultra!!!!

Togata Mirio: my thumbs r always too big for the keyboard :P Typo

Sasaki Mirai: Hello, Raven. If you get this message before your exams I wish you the best of luck on your tests. Remember to keep a clear mind and remember what I have taught you. I await you at home to know how well you have done.

Sasaki Mirai: But if you were paying attention during our tutoring sessions, you will do just fine.

Sasaki Mirai: Let me clarify because it appears that my sidekicks believe that my words are too harsh. I meant to say it in a way that complemented your attention span and your dedication to studying. Do your best.

Raven fought down the smile that threatened to appear on her lips and tucked her phone back into her pocket.

. . .

Two and a half hours later, she appeared out of the examination room with a cramping hand. The exams were difficult, certainly, but not undoable. She felt the most confident in questions regarding literature and English but had to think for a bit on the math and sciences. She wasn’t positive that she got the best scores, nor all correct answers but she was sure that it was a passing grade. However, the most difficult part was soon to come.

Next was the practical exam. She and the rest of the exam-taking hopefuls were corralled into an auditorium where the rules were shouted at them by a blond man whose hair was up like a banana. He asked them filler questions and was met with radio silence every time, and every time she felt her irritation crawl. In the corner of the auditorium, she heard someone whisper endlessly, seemingly not needing to take a breath of air as they gushed. Maybe it was their Quirk, she thought, extremely powerful lungs.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered underneath her breath as she stared at the yellow blip down on the stage.

“I know, right?” a voice beside her said. She turned her head and was met with a blond boy her age. His smirk was wide and confident, but his strangest feature was the lighting-strike shaped stripe across his yellow hair. When he caught her glance, he gave her a playful wink.

Immediately her face scrunched up in disgust and she scoffed.

Turning away as quickly as she could, she missed the way his playboy appearance dropped like a flower during rainfall, drooping in sadness at her obvious rebuff.

The rules were simple: they would be dropped into a fake urban city and would have to fight robots to acquire points. The more robots they fought, the more likely they would get into U.A. More importantly, robots were ranked by a point system and differed in size and power accordingly. Unconsciously, she picked up her pencil with her telekinesis and started to doodle the shapes of the robot and the according points onto her notepaper. The largest robot would actually be zero-points, used as a way to terrorize the kids more than anything. They were not allowed to sabotage other students, and they had ten minutes to gather as many points as possible.

She coated her paper in black as it floated into her hands. Skimming her notes once more for clarification, she sighed and moved out just as everyone else did.

Let’s just get this over with.

The students around her had all changed into their workout clothes and stood around idly in this fake city. It was obvious that everyone was struck with nerves, frozen with fear and trepidation toward what was going to pass.

Unzipping her coat from the bottom up, she left the top few inches open so that her jacket could flutter around her like her trademark cape. “Crime-fighting” wouldn’t be the same without it. The crowd became thicker, more bunched up together as time ticked by, and she fought down all urges to push everyone aside to give her some face. She hated being crowded around, and it was even worse when everyone’s fear rolled off of them in waves.

It was horrible when everyone was feeling the same way, pushing up against her, threatening to invade her mind. If she wasn’t careful, those feelings of nervousness and fear could leak into her and start affecting her as well.

“BEGIN!” a voice suddenly shouted from the top of the watchtower. Immediately everyone turned to look at Present Mic.

“Well?!” He waved his arms. From here, his large shades made up a majority of his face. “What are you waiting for?! You don’t get a countdown in real-life situations!”

Without waiting for another word, Raven immediately took to the skies as soon as he said that, surprising the people around her before they gasped and scattered. Flying toward the nearest skyscraper, her feet landed gracefully on the roof.

Her hand itched for the Titan Communicator beside her. No, she thought, they wouldn’t be here this time around. Closing her eyes and carefully breathing, she felt some students in the staircase below, some trying to tail her, some following her lead. Narrowing her eyes as she scanned the city below, the robots were being released from the center. They were being let off of underground platforms that raised up to ground-level. They were releasing them in three-minute intervals, churning out the One-Pointers first then increasing them magnitude. The door to the roof crashed open behind her and she took that as a time to finally take off. Turning her body, she dove off the roof back-first. Students raced to the edge in concern, yelps leaving their lips and eyes wide and the thought of her trying to end her life there.

She twisted her body mid-flight and created a black platform right underneath her feet for her to fly off. She landed in three-points, her platform never stopping once as it zoomed by for her touchdown. The wind whipped endlessly through her hair, fluttering short purple strands to the front of her face while the ends of her jacket floated around her ankles.

She dove to the ground, zipping past struggling students, picking up robots with her telekinesis before dropping them like flies back to the ground. She easily dodged every laser blast from them or shielded herself with her force fields.

For the first time in months, she felt alive again.

Raven was worried that she would’ve lost her touch after being gone for so long, or that Trigon had stolen more of her power than she accounted for, but here and now, watching as she crumbled robots like tin cans, she could tell that wasn’t the case.

Saving other students was a breeze while taking down robots wasn’t even a chore. Though it still came as a surprise to her that some students were able to hold their own. She was so used to saving every civilian, flying past these familiar landscapes while coming to the rescue of every person on the block. Debris fell from the buildings that the other examinees demolished and she easily captured them with her power and threw them far away in order to not let it crash onto the sea of teenagers below.

Holding her arms out, she easily swooped up a row of robots with her power, whisking them away like leaves in the wind or sand among the waves. With a flick of her wrist, they were airborne, sent flying into the sky until they crashed against a cement wall and came tumbling down like soda cans. It was like watching a baseball after her pitch — a home run into the stratosphere.

Raven was beginning to think that it was too easy — then the ground beneath her trembled and she told herself that she was going to eat her words. The rumbling was like a magnitude six earthquake, picking up dust around her while the windows on the lower levels shattered into dust. The paved street rocked so much that she was sent onto her knees, unable to stand up straight as the terror came closer. She could still sense that students in the background were just as frozen as her, then she looked up — and the Zero Point robot towered over all of the other skyscrapers. Red lens stared back down at her while army green metal absorbed the heat from the sun. It reached down to send one threatening punch down to the concrete and Raven was sent back to her knees again, hair and jacket whipping around wildly from the wind. She lifted one hand up and scrunched up her eyes to shield from the dust cloud that surrounded her but it was futile. In the background, the students left in a flurry of shouts and scraping sneakers. Craning her head up, her eyes met with the robot that draped over the buildings easily. The school truly spared no expense.

Raven inhaled.

There was no merit to taking on the Zero Point robot.

And exhaled.

But the fire burned in her veins all the same.

A smirk appeared on her lips.

They’ve been through worse.

“Titans, go!”

Raven created another floating platform underneath her boots and flew as close to the robot as possible to the horror of the students around her.

Thrusting an arm out, Raven focused her power until she finally latched onto the chest of the robot. A gaping black hole spread through its metal, letting her see through its expanse and outlining every wire, pipe, and chips in its body.

The robot didn’t even fight back when she reached out with a black-coated hand and yanked with all of her might. The motor and power supply came clean out like they were on invisible strings. She didn’t hesitate to retract her hand like she was about to deliver a baseball pitch before throwing the components right back at the face of the robot.

“Take that!” she shouted, releasing all of her bottled anger. It came tumbling down face-first, exploding in bits all around its limbs.

The ground below trembled with its downfall, and she sighed, slumping her shoulders with a job well done. Purple eyes scanned the ground below to look for a safe landing spot, but among the mass of off-white, grey, and glass she saw purple. Squinting and getting lower, she narrowed her eyes on that spot until she realized that it was struggling.

That was a person.

Curses escaped from her lips and she dropped from her platform immediately. She came tumbling down on the ground, rolling before the momentum brought her right back up on her feet. Leather boots thundered down the street. Using a portal would take too much time, and she would waste seconds using her flying platforms so she needed to — run! Harder and quicker than she had ever had before. The boy was getting closer now, trapped underneath some rubble and for a second one of her more evil manifestations whispered to her that it was her fault. She should’ve secured the area before destroying the robot. She should’ve been more careful. Raven couldn’t afford to slip up — not her. Her feet pounded down the street, arms pumping forward, and lungs burning with every second of her sprint. The robot was falling in slow motion, cascading like a feather in the air. The ginormous shadow of the Zero Point eclipsed the figure of the boy completely, coming closer and closer with every passing second. Smoke and dust filled her nose, the smell of burning rubber adding along to the fire in her lungs. Purple hair bounced around her shoulders with every step.

“TIME — !”

Right before impact, Raven made it through.

Soles sliding beside the boy, streaks of rubber in her wake, her head snapped up until the robot was close enough to kiss. She thrust one single hand up and a force field suddenly enveloped the both of them seconds before they would become stains on the concrete.

BOOM!

The robot crashed on top of it, draped over like a ragdoll, and Raven’s knees immediately braced for the pressure that she suddenly felt. Ten tons upon her force field — heavier than a majority of the things she used to handle. The air around them tensed then scattered in all directions. They were plunged in black.

“IS — !!”

Heavy breaths were all that they could hear in this cave, accompanied by the cacophony of the shrieking of metal. She turned slowly, sweat dripping down her chin while dark eyes turned down to look at the boy. He was on his knees with a dislocated ankle, soot covering every inch of his tracksuit. Tired eyes looked wide at her, heavy bags accompanying the intense stare. His purple hair appeared black in the darkness. Her chest rose and fell with every breath.

Slowly and steadily, she retracted her outstretched arm. For a second the boy wanted to shout at her, but the force field remained strong above them. Only the slight clinking of the force field against the robot’s metal gave them any indication of its wavering strength as she pulled away from its support. She inhaled. Her eyes never left him.

Her hands clenched into a tight fist.

Exhaled.

Raven punched upward with all of her body weight. And — Shinsou could suddenly see the sky again. The air around them dispersed in a circle again, whipping at their hair, pushing back against their clothes. The world around them shook as the robot crashed back down to earth not even three feet away from his person. He looked up and saw a clean circle cut out of the robot as if it was pressed with a cookie-cutter. Meters of metal and wire greeted him, sparking listlessly from her assault. The sun shone brightly down at them. She turned to him again — and not for even a second was she forced onto her knees, the ends of her jacket fluttering carefully. She was silhouetted by the light of the sun, and even though she was shorter than he was — at the moment she looked as if she was ten feet tall.

Before he could call out to her, do anything, say anything at all, she hovered above the ring of scrap metal and began to climb out of the robot. All around them smaller robots began to slide underneath the Zero-Pointer and beep quietly as they approached him like a pack of stray cats. Some unfurled a stretcher around him. So they were watching the entire time, U.A. really wouldn’t let him die here.

With or without the girl.

“Hey.” His dark eyes widened. “Watch out next time,” was all she said before striding away.

“UP!!!” Present Mic roared from the speakers.

The word that he shouted out remained mute to his ears as the medic robots beeped in the background.

His arm remained outstretched long after she left.

Chapter 3: Academia

Chapter Text

“Um, sir?” one of the operators called from his corner of the control room. Nezu perked up visibly, letting go of his hands that he folded around his back and tilted his head. One of his round ears twitched almost cutely at the sound if not for the horrors they knew he was capable of. “Arena C’s robots have been destroyed left and right. We’re almost out. What should I do?” Cementoss, the Hero that was standing behind the screen that displayed Arena C, leaned forward inquisitively, eyes narrowed. He lowered his clipboard and read off of it.

“Ishiyama-san?” Nezu asked, waddling over to the large screen. The bright lights that emitted from them shone over the adults like a miniature sun.

“So far, over two-thirds of them have been destroyed by an applicant named Roth Rachel,” Cementoss commented, scanning the notes that he has taken. “An impressive record. That makes her second to All Might’s own score and her ten minutes aren’t even up yet.”

“Oh?” One long tail started to wag in curiosity.

The blocky Hero nodded and began to scroll through the tablet he had beside him. “According to her records, she’s an American transfer — or at least she requested the English exam packet, but has currently taken up permanent residence in Japan.” There were a couple more seconds of silence as Cementoss scanned her papers. Her expressionless face shone back at him from her identification picture. “She’s been homeschooled up until now and...her current guardian is…” Cementoss looked up at the principal. “Sasaki Mirai.”

A cacophony of clattering pencils, papers, and followed by a large clipboard and tablet sounded off in the background. Everyone in the room turned to All Might, embarrassingly smiling and sweating while attempting to pick up everything off the ground in his giant form. Tiny pencils rolled in between his giant fingers and underneath the table. “S-Sorry! Sorry! Ack — !” His face-splitting grin did little to ease the awkward air going off of him in waves. From beside Nezu, Aizawa rolled his eyes and scoffed softly before going back to the screen in front of him.

“Oh? Sir Nighteye?” Cementoss had to kneel slightly to bring the tablet to his principal’s eye level. “He doesn’t seem like the type.”

“It seems here that he cited wanting to start his own family while he still can.”

“Nezu-san, all of the Three-Point and One-Point robots in Arena C have been demolished,” the operator said, hands at the ready on the control panel.

“Hm.” Nezu looked down at his watch and then back to the screen where a hooded girl floated around on a black construct. “We can start a bit earlier. Release the Zero-Pointer.”

“Right!” His hand fell swiftly down on the large button and they all focused their attention on the screen. Roth immediately snapped her head to the source of the tremors. Being shadowed by her drawn hood, only her nose and mouth were visible to them, excluding the stray strands of purple hair that were pulled along in the wind.

Her written exams were not graded yet, but her background was already building up to something interesting.

And then she destroyed the Zero Pointer with one move and hurried at brake-neck speed to save another student without hesitation.

Minutes later, a boy in a green tracksuit destroyed his own robot with one punch and saved a brown-haired girl.

A blond boy’s face-splitting smirk flashed across another screen as small explosions scattered around his face.

The adults all watched as she stood in this sea of metal and debris, straightening up, inclining her head for more danger, then walked away as if nothing happened.

“Oh!” Nezu clapped his paws together in excitement. “This year’s students are going to be so promising!”

The door creaked open again after another long day of work at the agency. Sir Nighteye shifted quietly through, exhaustion clear in his eyes and a briefcase clutched in his hand. There was only light from the lamp in his living room, spilling throughout the rest of the darkened apartment like the glow from magma. Underneath that lamp was Raven, a blanket over her lap and another book in her hands. It was not a strange sight. She didn’t even look up at the sound of the door opening. Nighteye allowed himself to look throughout his shelves, noticing how cramped and packed that they were becoming. He would be mindful to get her a library card soon, but there was something else on his mind.

“Raven-san,” he said as he came closer to her.

She made a noise from the back of her throat, looking up at him and using her Quirk to bookmark her spot in her novel.

“Your letter from U.A. came,” he said, holding out a plain white envelope with a round device inside. U.A.’s insignia glared back at them in bright red. Raven reached out to take it, one lone pale hand stretched out. Holding it between her fingers, she stared at the mail before looking back up at her guardian. He straightened up and nodded once, beginning to turn away before she spoke up again.

“Do you…want to open it with me?” she eventually asked. It was clear that even without her empathic powers that there was a slight hesitation in Nighteye’s movements: the way he stiffly moved away, how his yellow and green eyes constantly flickered toward her and then away again. Normally, she would’ve slunk away into her room, opening it up in private and by herself, but she would’ve been insane to disregard all of the things Sasaki-san had done for her up until this point. Nevermind the fact that he would be paying for her tuition as well if she got in. This was the least she could do.

She hated being indebted to anyone in any way, and Sasaki had gone above and beyond for her and her situation. There was a reason why she thrived so well back in the Titan Tower. If she cleaned up after herself and left her teammates alone, then she wouldn't have to expect anything in return. Being under Sir Nighteye's care got under her skin like an itch she couldn't scratch.

He nodded wordlessly again, and Raven sat up in her seat, pulling her legs closer so that he could sit at the end of the couch.

“Do you have confidence that you will get in?” He recalled how exhausted she looked after she came back from the entrance exams. She was suffering from sagging shoulders and deep eyebags the moment she came back to the apartment.

“Yes.” She began to tear the edge of the envelope away. “I calculated the number of robots I’ve destroyed and discovered that it was above average. If my grades for the written portion aren’t great, I can always work myself up from the General Course.” She spoke all of this without pride or confidence, but as facts. Nighteye briefly mentioned her exhaustion on the day of the entrance exams and found himself wishing that he had held his tongue. She stilled in front of him, eyes growing wide then narrowing immediately.

“I am not at the height of my ability,” was all she said in a raspy voice. “The state that you found me in depleted my power and my father had stolen some as well. It’s slow, but I’m gradually regaining my strength.” She tore open the letter completely.

The hologram device fell on her lap with a cushioned ‘thud’ and turned on automatically. The two of them immediately craned their head to the lone muscular figure that shone in artificial blue light.

“I….am here!”

“All Might…!” Sasaki-san immediately whispered and she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. Memories of all of the merchandise in this home filled her mind. The man was in a tight yellow pinstripe suit surrounded by a red and pink background that looked more like it belonged to a game show than to an academy.

“Rachel Roth, as the Number One Hero and your new teacher at U.A., I formally congratulate you on getting in! You passed the written portion at the seventy-seventh percentile, but you also passed the practical exam with flying colors!” A flat-screen TV was lowered to All Might’s eye level and was surrounded by flickering lights. Raven ignored how much he sounded like an infomercial.

“Let’s look at the screen!” Raven watched a playback of her running through the city, hair flickering through the wind, black enveloping falling debris and rubble. “You have shown great bravery, heroism, and composure as you fought against villains and saved your peers! You managed to score sixty-eight villain points, but wait! U.A. had decided to reward rescue points as well. For your actions in saving another student and destroying the zero-point robot, your score will be brought up to…” She briefly thought that if Beast Boy or Cyborg were here they would drum the table for dramatic effect “One-hundred and twenty-eight! With a phenomenal score like this, you’re officially ranked among all of your peers! Keep up the good work, Roth! You have all the makings of a Hero! Plus...Ultra!!”

His large smile froze in the frame, lines running up and down the projections. After a few seconds, the light flickered off and then receded back into the disk.

Raven felt like it was okay to breathe again. Except, she didn’t have any large feelings. She was unaware of the weight U.A.’s name had on the people of this universe. However, she was satisfied that the only high school that she enrolled in accepted her. She didn’t want to disappoint Sasaki otherwise.

“Well, then....” Nighteye looked back at her. “I believe that congratulations are in order. Should we order your favorite?”

“Sure…” she said as she got up off the couch and followed him to the kitchen where he was dialing the pizza place. After a few seconds of hesitation, she decided to speak her mind with a careful shrug. “I didn’t do much.”

He hummed noncommittally as he held the home phone up to his ear. “You are at an advantage. You have experience in dealing with villains and civilians, I’m assuming.” She turned away. “However…” He exhaled. “That does not discredit your actions. You deserve that top score. If your classmates were serious about being Pros, then they would catch up to you. That is their responsibility.”

In a strange, roundabout way, she felt that he was trying to comfort her somehow. She sat at the small dining table with her face propped on the palm of her hand. After he placed an order, he joined her at the table.

“Can I ask you something else?” she finally asked.

“Within reason,” but without skipping a beat, he said, “What is it.”

“Who is All Might?”

It was quiet enough for a pin to drop.

Even after the pizza arrived at their condo, it ended up going cold because Nighteye didn’t let up until he was able to give her every single bit of information he knew about All Might.

Raven should’ve kept her mouth shut like she always had.

One hour in she thought that maybe he was almost done. Then he pulled out a slideshow from his laptop and then she remembered the room full of All Might merchandise and thought that she was in for the long haul.

And school didn’t even start yet.

Raven found that she hated the trains during rush hour. She felt people pushing up against her from all sides, heat building inside the metal contraption. Uneasy breaths threatened to bubble up from her chest, clawing at her heart. Nevermind the fact that she hated being in crowded places—too many thoughts, too many different emotions, too many people—it was overwhelming in a way that made her feel sick. They were cramped in there like sardines without anyone saying a word, and she suffered through thirty minutes of this to finally arrive at her destination. When the announcer finally stated her stop, Raven didn’t hesitate to slip out of the subway as quick as she could, dashing off to the large building as the cold air finally met her heated body. Straightening up the black drawstring bag behind her back, she broke into a run all the way to campus to get rid of these constricting feelings.

She looked down at her phone now that she finally got proper service out in the open and let out a small smile.

Sasaki Mirai: Enjoy your first day. You will do well today.

Her skirt swished around in the wind, her tie bounced up and down on her chest.

She’s wearing a U.A. uniform.

She’s walking down the street with a bounce in her step. Her purple hair flutters gently in the wind as she turns.

The future had already changed.

Iida Tenya entered his classroom with a big inhale and a grand flourish. Thirty minutes early — a bit extreme compared to his usual ten to fifteen minutes, but he was a U.A. student now. Nothing but his absolute best was acceptable. He was waiting for this moment for years, to be able to sit in the same classrooms that hundreds of great Heroes that came before him. It had been his dream ever since he was a young boy, a goal that he made sure would be within his reach, yet it was still surreal to finally be here. To prepare for the toiling activities that molded him into a Hero his brother would be proud of.

Although, he had expected his classmates to be on the same boat. He was the only student in the classroom for a good eight minutes and forty-three seconds. Truthfully, he expected a lot of students like him. The kind that wouldn’t be called stuck up for following the rules, or even just trying to enforce them. People that were like him. Perhaps he would’ve expected this type of behavior from his classmates at Soumei Junior High School—

The boys who always talked too much.

“I understand that First Day Nerves might be getting to you, but please be considerate of your other classmates and speak with your inside voices!”

“Haha, yea! For sure, dude!”

A boy who was trying to look under the skirts of the female students.

“That is improper! Conduct yourself accordingly!”

"B-But just look at how short the uniforms are! You're a hot-blooded male too, right!"

A girl who constantly knocked against the desks with her hips on her way to greet the other girls in class.

"Please be careful when you maneuver yourself around the classroom!"

"Oops! Haha! Got it!"

The delinquent boys—Is that student putting his feet on the desks?!

"Put your feet off of that desk right this instant!" He had roared, waving his hand back and forth. The audacity of this boy to act so carelessly towards their school that would guide them to a better future!

"Huh?" The blond boy had drawled, smirking and eyebrows pitching upward in amusem*nt.

"It's the first day and you're already disrespecting this academy by scuffing school property, you creep!"

"You're kidding me, right?" Bakugou, he learned, leered, unwavering. "Your old school put a stick up your ass? Or were you born with it?"

Of course, Iida thought, he should've known better. U.A. was a shining beacon of education and experience, but that did not mean that he would not undergo the same hardships that every school had. He would be more resilient in the future. U.A., after all, was still an academy in the end. He had to adapt and learn.

Starting with apologizing to Midoryia Izuku for his behavior during the entrance exams.

Then accepting the fact that the man in the horrendous yellow sleeping bag with the unshaven face and the bloodshot eyes who sucked the fruit packet like he was a vacuum tube was his professor for the next three years.

By the time class started, he was already in his seat, and made a mental headcount of everyone in the room. All twenty students were accounted for except for one. A seat remained empty behind the explosive blond boy and beside the boy with the bird’s head. Aizawa-sensei clearly noticed too, looking up and down his attendance sheet with a narrowed look on his exhausted eyes. After a full minute had passed after the bell rang, the large door to Class 1-A slid open and Iida’s first thought was that it was a privilege to go to U.A. If this student was serious about going to school, then they should’ve been on time.

His next thought was that she was tired. Possibly sick.

“Sorry I’m late,” was all she said, sounding anything but, turning to their new homeroom teacher.

The girl behind the door was definitely lacking a lot of sun, but upon closer inspection, he realized that the pallid grey of her skin was just her skin color rather than a sign of her waning health. Her grey skin didn’t lack the transparency of her veins or washed the color away from her lips or cheeks.

Aizawa-sensei pulled an irritated look on his face, looking her up and down and then back to his attendance sheet to mark her tardy.

“This course isn’t meant for people to just stroll to class. If you are not able to handle being here on time, then you should walk back out that door,” he had said, and all of the focus was on her again. The attention had already been on her the moment she opened the door, when a hush went through the classroom, but now they looked forward to glance at her expression and their teacher’s harshness.

To Iida’s surprise, she didn’t look worried, harried, or even angry. Instead, her eyes simply narrowed analytically at Aizawa, but she didn’t make any comments other than an incline of her head and simply made her way to her seat toward the middle of the room, taking off her black drawstring bag as she walked. She looked forward and didn’t pay anyone mind.

As their day changed once Aizawa-sensei told them to put on their gym uniforms and report to the P.E. grounds, her expression still never changed, Iida noticed.

Everyone behind this door wanted to be a Hero. They were all going to break their backs and bleed for their goals.

Yet—

He couldn’t help but think that she looked—

Nonplussed.

Mentally she cursed Mirio.

The second she had put one foot past the gate of U.A., where she would spend the next three years of her life, Mirio had immediately pulled her to him and began taking pictures with her in front of the grand building. Normal pose. Silly poses. Peace sign pics. One where he carried her on his shoulders. One where he decided to just use her Quirk to try and scare her by phasing through her, but instead just ended up stripping in the middle of the campus while she politely turned away. Amajiki snapped all of these pictures with the disposition of either a scared puppy or a blank brick wall, but he never complained as his phone storage filled up with 200+ images.

Mirio cited wanting to commemorate her first day, her first step to becoming a Hero again, and he was sure to send all of them to Sir Nighteye. He had pulled her along afterward to meet his other friend, Nejire, a pretty girl with a happy personality and bright blue hair.

She was fine, Raven summarized, they would not become more than acquaintances, no matter now eagerly Mirio was looking at her from behind Nejire’s shoulder. Asking questions about the gem on her forehead, what her “Quirk” was, how strong she was; Nejire meant well, Raven knew, but she was unable to respond back with her trademark sarcastic remarks and held her tongue in order to not possibly insult anyone around her. She missed how easy it was to talk to the Titans, whatever little she said. Beast Boy always bounced back from her irony and her sarcasm always literally went over Starfire’s head. Despite her cloud of negativity, they never minded.

These people would be different, Raven thought.

Being corralled by Mirio and talking to her upperclassmen cost her twenty minutes of her time, and before she knew it, she was late on her first day. The building was large and difficult to navigate, but she eventually made it just in the nick of time in front of the large door labeled 1-A.

Her new teacher was a scruffy, unkempt man that crawled out of his banana-yellow sleeping bag like a weird moth emerging from its cocoon. She was put on the spot in class immediately, and she wanted to shrink away like a rabid animal once discovered. However, she just took his comments and tried to make herself scarce as fast as possible. It wasn’t like she wanted to be late on purpose, she thought, putting on her gym uniform. As if she could tell Mirio to speed it up or outright reject him.

Outside on the training grounds, her teacher appeared as a pillar, demanding that they fix the inequality set in academia by doing a Quirk Apprehension test. He cited complete freedom to run his classroom as he saw fit, and they were to either fall in line or leave the academy. It was in one ear and out the other to Raven, who stood in the back of the crowd with her arms covering her bare forearms to the best of her ability.

Nerves.

Nerves were what she felt from all of the students around her—skewed greatly with anxiety and fear from the freckled boy who stood up in front.

It permeated her mind despite the wall she always put up, but with emotions as big and as persistent as this, it always managed to trickle into her mind like poison.

“Roth,” Aizawa-sensei suddenly called from his place in the front of the class. Like the Red Sea, her new classmates immediately split the crowd to create a clear pathway from her to her hermit of a professor.

She straightened up slowly, and took it as her cue to walk forward. She hated these uniforms immediately—leaving her unexposed without her cloak to hide behind or her teammates to take the spotlight for her. But she managed to keep her head on straight and ignore the nineteen pairs of eyes that were on her person. To them, she didn’t break a sweat.

“You managed to place first for the practical exams, correct?” Following her curt nod, he opened his mouth to continue but was interrupted by the students and a suspicious strangled sound.

“Huh?! The late girl?”

“I guess you can never judge a book by its cover.”

“Is that a foreign name?”

“What a shame,” the French boy to the side of her said, “How can she shine with an appearance like that?”

She kept her lips pressed together and continued forward until she was standing in front of the crowd, her back to them.

Aizawa’s voice was enough to hush the class once more. “What was your record for the softball throw in junior high?” he continued.

“I was homeschooled,” she said immediately without a single break. She and Nighteye already exhaustingly rehearsed this. Unwavering to his bubbling annoyance, she looked at him straight in the eye. “I don’t have any record.”

His glare seemed to burn hotter, narrowing his eyes as he looked her up and down, irritating undoubtedly lacing his expression. To her credit, she didn’t spare him a glance. Instead she blankly stared forward and waited for this to be over. Raven felt like she was being grilled by the number of eyes on her.

“Don’t waste any time,” he finally decided, throwing a softball at her. “Throw this quickly without using your Quirk first.” She didn’t flinch or even move. The freckled boy in the crowd gasped as she grasped the ball with her telekinesis, coating it in black like it was magnetic putty around metal. Like a video playing in reverse, the tar-like projection retracted, letting the ball drop into her waiting palm.

Speaking objectively, Raven knew that she was the physically weakest out of her team. In all of their arm wrestles without using their powers, the rank always went:

1. Kori
2. Victor
3. Dick
4. Garfield
5. Raven

This created the list of their physical prowess without the use of their abilities, excluding Kori, who always won due to her alien strength that she couldn’t just turn off.

The clock was ticking, according to the look on Aizawa-sensei’s face and she released the ball from her hand without another thought, throwing it with all of her strength. It didn’t take long for it to return back to earth, dropping almost pathetically and rolling on the dirt. Immediately, she brought it back to her hand with her telekinesis.

“Twenty-two meters,” Aizawa said with a flat tone, turning the screen over to show her the numbers. She held herself back from turning to the students that let out disappointed sounds, including the boy whose blond hair came out of his skull like a dandelion. He held in his snort like her score was the funniest thing he had ever seen. When he turned the screen back to him, she swore that even Aizawa looked at the numbers with irritation.

“Now, try using your Quirk,” was all he said next.

Getting in position to throw, she paused. Raven knew now that at her standing and with her powers that she wouldn’t be the dead-last that was expelled from the course, but she turned over the thought of whether she should breeze over the tests or give it her all like a coin.

Raven was in no position to give it her all. At her state she would get tired quickly, but she had already annoyed her teacher once. Undoubtedly he would be able to tell if she was just giving lackluster results. Purple eyes scanned the field. A track, a sandpit, a gym laid right beside the spot that they were standing at.

“Any day now, Roth,” her teacher snapped.

Huffing quietly, she threw the ball behind her shoulder, catching it immediately and turning it pitch black. She created a projection in the image of a large, demonic black hand, wrapping around the ball and dwarfing it in the palm.

Trigon’s grasp was something she would never be able to escape from—

Several gasps rang out behind her. If he wanted the ball to go to the damned stratosphere, she would give him just that. The hand curled back and the ball was sent zipping past her ear. She swiped her hand immediately after it, streaking the blur with black and accelerating it until she was sure it was going to reach the clouds. Minutes passed by and she could hear the numbers climb up on her teacher’s little screen. When it finally touched back down, Aizawa turned the screen around and she didn’t even need to face her classmates to know how they were looking at her with different variations of stunned.

“Knowing the limits to your capabilities is crucial,” Aizawa-sensei said.

894.8 meters

“That is the most rational way to form the foundation of being a hero.”

“Rachel Roth!

Her Quirk: Darkness Manipulation!”

[レイチェル・ロス]

[個性: 暗い動き]

Chapter 4: Counterattack

Chapter Text

The Fifty Meter Dash.

Iida Tenya currently held the highest score with no surprise there. He crossed the finish line in three-point-zero-four seconds. His Quirk helped him accelerate himself to clear the track, and if he was anything like his brother, he would grow to be a fine Hero. However, he currently showed issues with thinking creatively, had a stubborn mind, and a tendency to push other students to think his way or it was the highway. Not a big issue, Aizawa thought. He needed some work, especially in areas concerning his upper body strength, but this was his job. He was going to whip everyone into shape to be a Pro, including their mind and bodies. After Iida was Bakugou Katsuki, Ashido Mina, Aoyama Yuga, and Asui Tsuyu. The boy’s temper. The girl’s careless personality. The boy’s showboating. He sighed down at his clipboard and readied the next line of students. Roth Rachel and Yaoyorozu Momo.

Seconds before the machine chimed “Start!” Yaoyorozu created a moped and climbed on it. Creative, he commented, but Roth continued to just stare at the ground beneath her feet, not even going into a running pose. She had done well during the ball-throwing test, but even with his threat to expel, she didn’t seem to be lit with the same fire as her classmates. If she didn’t want to give it her all, that was a problem too. He wouldn’t accept anyone who believed that they could get through this course with the bare minimum.

“Start!”

Yaoyorozu zipped by on her moped, creating dust clouds and streams of gas in her wake. Aizawa immediately fixed his gaze on his other student and raised his eyebrow at the sight of a swirling black circle underneath Roth. It had no shadows, sucking in all light and pulled Roth into the depths. On the other side of the track, Yaoyorozu cleared the finish line and Roth stepped out of her portal, face as blank as a piece of paper despite the gaping of those around her.

Four-point-twenty-three seconds.

Four-point-fifty-one seconds.

That was...unexpected. He turned his paper around and got down the line until he got to her name. Darkness Manipulation. Her show earlier was surprising. For a fifteen-year-old girl, she had an impressive amount of control over her shadow projections, capable of putting in a lot of strength and steadiness for someone her age. He had seen several cases of umbrakinesis before, but he had never seen them utilized to create portals before. To the looks of her classmates, apparently they weren’t expecting that too.

Her enthusiasm for life aside, he thought, she seemed to be a lone wolf. While her classmates clumped together in a loose crowd, she stood as far away from them as possible without putting attention to herself.

This was giving him a headache and drying out his eyes, he sighed.

“Next task,” he called out, writing in Yaoyorozu’s name for third and Roth’s name for fourth.

. . .

Grip test.

Yaoyorozu pulled a hydraulic press out of her skin and absolutely crushed the dynamometer after the numbers swelled up like they were the scores on a jackpot machine while Sato and Shoji were close seconds and thirds. Ojiro had the best strength for someone whose Quirk didn’t involve advanced human strength and Midoriya straggled behind once more.

There was a cracking sound and Aizawa looked up immediately.

“Sensei,” Roth called, walking up to him with a blank face. “I maxed it out. What do you want me to do?”

“W-Woah!” Kirishima called out from behind her.

On the screen, the numbers 999.9 shone back at him. The machine was coated in black once more, void of any visible light and only the outlines of the item were visible to him instead of being a black mass. It hovered beside her as she stared at him, waiting.

He was correct to say that she was using her Quirk as a makeshift telekinesis as well. Impressive, he thought once more, improvisational. For someone who dragged her feet, she seemed aware of her boundaries and limits.

“Just put it down and get ready for the next test,” he said, sighing once more.

His headache only grew.

. . .

Standing long jump.

Repeated side to side steps.

Endurance training.

Upper-body tests.

The toe-touch.

Sit-ups.

Long distance run.

Against his initial impressions, this new crop of students were spanning out to have a lot of promise. But they required a lot of work as well, something that he would just have to push them toward.

Bakugou was turning out to be an exemplary student in his body. He utilized his Quirk whenever fit and his own self-discipline pulled him forward in the other tasks. Personality aside, Aizawa would be lying through his teeth if he said that Bakugou wasn’t a talented student.

Todoroki Shoto was a recommended student and Number Two Hero’s son. His skills were expected, and he delivered in all areas necessary. The boy showed signs of obvious home training and made up with his brute strength in other areas. The only issue that Aizawa could note so far was his refusal to use his fire.

Yaoyorozu’s score was currently at the top, and she had shown creativity and innovation with her Quirk to get her through all of the tasks with top scores. She had intelligence and skill.

Iida was polished for a child just entering high school, but he needed to work endlessly to be able to breach the world of Heroes.

Uraraka was currently average in scores for a teenage girl her age, but she utilized her Quirk whenever possible to boost up her score.

Uraraka’s ball went all the way up into space and Aizawa’s screen showed the bright infinity sign back at them. The cheers and sounds of astonishment that sounded around Raven became too much to bear at the brunette’s score, and she found herself standing back once more. She looked up at the sky, eyes narrowing at the sun. She wondered with Starfire’s impressive alien strength would she be able to throw the ball into space.

She had to admit that it was impressive. The things that her new classmates were doing were all feats that she would look for in herself and her teammates most of the time, with a scattering of the other heroes and villains that she could come across, but never all at once.

I guess that’s just what happens when 80% of the world are superhumans.

“Bakugou, you’re next. Hurry it up,” Aizawa said with as much inflection in his tone as the last few pitches. The blond boy sauntered up with a controlled look on his face, stretching his arms as he entered the chalk-drawn circle. His body swung forward, hair thrown back with the air resistance, arm outstretched and—

“DIEEE!” he shouted as loud as a heavy metal concert. The ball was rocketed into the air, streaks of fire and smoke following its wake. It was a white speck in the air as it lost momentum and dropped to the ground.

“Die?” someone up front whispered fearfully.

Bakugou couldn’t contain his wolfish smirk as he turned to their teacher, nearly leaning over in anticipation. He held back the urge to glance at the stunned looks of his classmates from the corner of his eye. These past few tests had been examples of his self-control as he was building up to the grand finale. He wasn’t a pushover when it came to athletics, but this was what he was good at. When it came to brute strength no one else surpassed him. f*ck the goth girl, the girl with the moped, the boy that looked like a pokeball, and f*ck Deku expecially.

He was going to show them who was the real Number One of U.A.

“705.2 meters,” Aizawa-sensei listed off with a bored tone. Several students let out impressed sounds.

HA—!

“Wait—WHAT?!” Red eyes bore into the shared screen. He was nearly 200 meters behind from the first place! He was supposed to be number one in the damned ball throw! “f*ck!” he screamed in rage, bloodcurdling. Wheeling in on the damned girl in question, he demanded to know just what kind of smug look she was giving or a punchable expression as she looked down on him, but she wasn’t even looking his way! She wasn’t even looking at him! The goth girl was impervious to his fury.

Did she think that she was too good for him?

“Bakugou, are you going to throw a tantrum all day? Make room for the next student,” Aizawa demanded, looking down at his tablet to see who was next.

Now was Midoriya’s ball-throw. The last task of the day.

The problem child. His Quirk was destructive in power and destructive on the boy’s own body. He managed to get through the exams with that sheer ability alone, but at the cost of his own arm and was out of the running until Recovery Girl came. Truthfully, if he was going to expel anyone, it would be him. This was why he continued to say that the Entrance Exam was flawed. So many more capable students were shut away for their inability to use physical force while others like Midoriya literally stumbled through the door.

He had been using his own physical skill to get through the rest of the tasks, but he was gearing up to sacrifice his arm for the ball throw.

The boy got into position, arm glowing, and—

There was no helping him.

The ball fell pathetically onto the ground not even a second later, several meters in front of him. He felt the ends of his hair begin to float and his eyes drying out as he used his Quirk. The boy stuttered and sputtered like a broken-down car. Midoriya was able to name his Hero alias, shouting, “E-E-Eraserhead!” at a pitch that was nearly able to surpass human hearing level. At the very least he did his homework, but that wouldn’t help him here. “Y-You’re Eraserhead! The Erasure Hero!”

“From what I can tell, you can’t control your Quirk, can you?” His Quirk was a liability. The boy jumped in his spot at the question. “Do you intend on becoming incapacitated again and have someone save you?”

“T-That’s not my intention!” He yelped when the capture fabric wrapped around him and brought him closer.

“Midoriya Izuku, with your power you can’t become a Hero.” And that was nothing but the cold, hard truth. Midoirya’s face went through several emotions all at once. Horror. Fear. Shock. Then, finally, anger. His eyebrows rose then furrowed, his mouth closing and opening like a fish. Aizawa didn’t take pleasure in expelling children and crushing their dreams, but if they were being uplifted on a plane of their egos, they would be nothing but trouble and danger down the line. He couldn’t be a Hero if he did one shot and done. He would be the weakest link to his team. Eleven years and he still couldn’t control his Quirk.

Every other student had managed to impress him somehow. If Todoroki could get out of his rut and use his fire ability, if Bakugou fixed his hot head and his personality, and if Yaoyorozu took some martial arts—but Midoriya was lacking the potential.

“I’ve returned your Quirk,” Aizawa said as his hair returned back down to his shoulders and neck. Midoriya slumped like an abused dog. “You have two turns on the ball throw. Hurry up and get it over with.”

Around Raven, she heard the whispering grow louder around her, feelings of curiosity, pity, and even sadness filling the area like an overfilled cup. Up ahead, Aizawa stepped back and the boy began muttering up a storm.

Despite her feelings, she saw another boy take his place. Even greener with a bigger smile. His power caused problems for him too. Beast Boy’s ability made his DNA unstable and went haywire to the point that he had even hurt her once too. But to break his bones every time he used his power? Against her own control, whether it be from her empath abilities or of her own creation, she began to feel pity for him too.

He straightened up, eyes set with determination. Looking up at the sky, he cranked his arm back, power filling his finger, igniting his veins, lighting up the skin.

The boy started screaming, and the ball was suddenly sent flying into the sky.

“SMASH! ” The only thing that was left in its wake was a cloud of dust.

705.03 meters.

“Woah!” the students behind them chorused. Aizawa's eyes flew open.

“Did you see that?!”

“Straight outta the park!”

“Sensei!” Midoriya grinned, lips wobbly, voice resonating against the sea of voices. Aizawa’s sight was dragged back down to the boy. He clenched his fist together and his finger was a big puffy bruise, purple, red, and green all around. “I can...still move!”

Then the classmates around her became light, impressed, happy.

“DEKU!” A popping sound resounded to her right. The blond boy stomped forward, explosions lighting off his palms like it was the Fourth of July. “What the f*ck?! Explain yourself!” He ran forward like a man on a mission, hyper-focused only on the quivering green-haired boy in front of them.

Aizawa loosened his scarves, hair floating in the windless air—

Only for Bakugou to run straight into a black force field. It lacked light, splitting the area between him and Deku like a screen of bulletproof glass.

Roth held out her arm with the same blank expression on her face, holding up this impressive force field several feet away from her without breaking a sweat.

“What the—?!” Tiny explosions popped off from underneath his palms, but the shield remained immovable.

He swirled around, nearly twisting his neck at breakneck speeds until he found the culprit. The people behind her quickly scattered as she created another shield around herself.

"DO YOU WANNA GO?" Bakugou stomped over to her, ramming his hands down on her own force field like he was a kid at the aquarium knocking on the glass. “C’MON, NO FORCE FIELDS! FIGHT ME! I’LL f*ckING KILL YOU!”

She remained silent, impervious to his words as if she couldn’t hear him or was blind to the sight of him. Not a single flash of anger or fear appeared on her face. She tilted her head out from behind the shield.

“What are you?” So she speaks. Her voice was low, quiet, and rolling. “A rabid dog?”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, BITCH?!”

Aizawa wrapped his scarves around him that time and dragged him away.

The locker door slammed shut under her hand. She cringed at the feeling of sweat still remaining on her temple and grabbed a hand towel to wipe it away. She swung her backpack and her gym bag over her shoulder, immediately walking away without talking to anyone else. The format of the locker room was a square room with lockers lining the walls instead of rows of lockers. Uncomfortable at the thought of others being near her while she changed, she changed in the bathroom and only went back to gather her stuff. Thankfully, the girls around her were in their own conversations and didn't try to include her.

The moment she stepped out of the locker room, the door to the boy's room opened as well and she was greeted with the sight of a boy with hair as red as a firetruck. Paying him no mind, she quickly turned and was prepared to walk out of her first day of school.

“Hey!” the voice behind her greeted. A hand landed on her shoulder and immediately she stiffened up. She shrugged him off not a second later, stepping back several feet until they were at opposite walls.

“Don’t touch me.” To her credit, her voice remained impassive.

“Oh!” The boy’s face was confused for a second, but he brightened up immediately after. He held both of his hands up in mock surrender. "Sorry! Sorry! I shouldn't be going around touching you without asking! That's just unmanly of me!" He clenched his fist and his smile became wider, more shark-like. Raven could feel one lone brow creeping up her face. What could this boy possibly want?

The Titan remained silent as he started to scratch the back of his neck with his hand, eyes narrowing as she focused in on his intentions.

“I just want to say that you killed it out there! Talk about a flashy Quirk! It’s only the first day yet I’m totally starstruck!” the boy said, grinning widely at her.

Admiration, impressed, sincerity, she felt from him.

Why would someone like him want to talk to her? He seemed like the day to her night. Raven felt herself shrinking away from the praise, discomfort bubbling in her chest as he doled out compliments like candy on Halloween.

“I’m Kirishima Eijiro! Nice to meet ya!” His grin never wavered, remaining 1000 watts even after several seconds of her silence remained over them like a blanket. His hand was held out, hovering in the air.

“...Rachel Roth,” she finally said, placing her smaller hand in his and giving him one firm shake before dropping it and stepping back once more.

He lit up like a puppy, happy that he even got her to respond.

“Hey, hey, Rachel—that’s an American name, right? And you even said your name first-last. So cool!” She nodded once. “So you’re an American too?! Must explain why you did so well on the Entrance Exam! I heard that all of the American Heroes are super passionate about what they do!” He pointed to himself. “I got seventy-four on the exam—Third on the leaderboard! What did you get?”

Why is he still talking? Raven asked. To be friendly? To be nice? She didn’t do anything that would warrant such a warm greeting. She went to the Quirk Apprehension Test and did what she was told, just like everyone else. Did he want something from her? From the movies she watched with her friends, he seemed like the jock type that would only be trouble for people like her. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, narrowing as she stretched her empath abilities and dug a little bit further.

Normally, she would’ve never done something like this. Raven wasn’t even this invasive when she first met Terra—and look at how well that turned out for her. She kept a shield up from everyone’s emotions and only tore it down as a very last resort. But she wasn’t in Jump City anymore, she wasn’t even on the same planet earth. She had to walk on eggshells around everyone, no matter that. Narrowing her eyes, she stared deeply at him as he continued to speak.

Embarrassment, shyness, deeply rooted insecurity, self-consciousness, constant questioning —

Too far! Raven told herself, eyes suddenly widening at the onslaught of emotions she felt coming off of him. She cut off the connection immediately, trying to preserve his privacy but she had already known that she messed up. Shame crept up her neck like ice on a window during a cold day.

“One-hundred and twenty-eight,” she quietly blurted out, quickly turning her head away from him as her mind was in turmoil. For all of her abilities, she thought, she still didn’t know anything about connecting and talking to other humans. While she didn't want to talk to this boy, she didn't want to hurt him either. Raven recognized that she was out of hand. She would be able to be more stealthy about this, but she must’ve been rustier than she thought to breach his privacy like that. No, she did used to have control, so why was she slipping?

Unaware of the mental warfare she was having across from him, he openly gaped.

“O-One hundred?!” he said. “Dude, that’s awesome! I’ve only ever heard of All Might getting over one hundred!” The door behind him opened and out came a boy with a shock of blond hair and a boy with flat black hair.

“Did I hear someone say they got over one hundred?” the boy with the weird elbows asked. When his eyes landed on her, they widened with recognition. “Hey, yeah! You’re Roth-chan, right? I was in your Battle Ground for the Entrance Exam too!” He turned to his friends. “She took down the Zero-Pointer with no sweat!” This was obviously news to them from the way they lit up like Christmas trees. “She was like a machine the entire time! You should’ve seen it! It was like watching a real Pro!” Raven frowned. She didn't recall a boy his appearance being there, but when she focused hard enough she could faintly see the strands of tape hanging off robots and buildings.

“Wha—?” the blond one looked at her as if he had never seen a girl before. “I had trouble taking down the four-pointer! How the hell did you take down the Zero-Pointer?”

Despite telling her to watch her mouth, the words spilled from Raven’s lips. “Is it supposed to be hard?” Even if it was a larger size, the mechanics of it was the exact same.

Several seconds of silence passed and she almost took it as a sign to finally leave, but then shouts of amazement only left their lips, their hands grasping their heads almost comically.

“Damn, no wonder you got first place… You must be super strong! I would’ve thought that you went to those Hero junior highs that are cropping up if it weren’t for you saying that you were homeschooled! Guess you don’t have to worry about Aizawa-sensei threatening to expel us, huh?” Kirishima closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “I really thought that was the end for me. You guys have no idea how much tension left my shoulders when he said it was all a lie!”

“You can say that again!” The blond leaned against his friend. At this, the door behind Raven opened, and out came the girl with the black ponytail, Yaoyorozu, she recalled from her name at the top of the scoreboard. The boys before her froze as she looked over at them.

“I’m sorry…” Yaoyorozu said in a controlled tone. She placed a hand on her chest as she looked at their group. “Should I really have said something then?”

“No worries!" The blond waved his hand lazily with a dopey smile on his face.

“I guess we just have to stay more vigilant next time…” the boy with black hair said. Standing beside Raven, she noticed just how tall the other girl was, nearly towering over her 5’2” stature. Maybe she was even taller than Starfire.

“I just want to say that you did great out there, Roth-san,” Yaoyorozu said genuinely, turning to her. “I was about to congratulate you on making third place, but then you left quickly.” Not put off by her silence, she continued. “Though you agree? I thought that it was obvious that he was bluffing. I suppose that you figured it out too!”

Now that she was put on the spot, she felt all four pairs of eyes on her person. They all awaited her answer.

“He wasn’t lying,” was all she said, her voice appearing and going in a quick second.

“Huh?” Kirishima tilted his head.

“He wasn’t lying about expelling us,” Raven repeated, voice more firm this time.

Yaoyorozu furrowed her brows at her. “But...He can’t possibly do that! And he seemed so certain when he said it was a ‘logical ruse’...”

Raven didn’t know what else to say but to shrug once.

“I know when people are lying.” With that, she took it as her sign to exit this conversation and leave the conversation for good, turning away without saying goodbye to anyone and walked briskly down the hallway.

After several moments of silence, they spoke again.

“Man…” Kaminari said, tilting his head from behind Kirishima to stare at the direction she left from. “For someone with such a cute face, she’s kinda scary, huh?”

Yaoyorozu seemed scandalized. “Kaminari-san, that’s rude!” she whispered.

“What?” He leaned back and at least had the decency to look sheepish. “I mean—” He gestured to the area she left helplessly. “Just look at her! Kinda ominous and stuff.”

“Hm,” a voice behind them said and all four of them nearly jumped. They didn’t even hear the door open! It was the boy with the bird’s head, crossing his arms as he closed his eyes. “To those without Quirks like ours, I suppose the machinations of our persons will always remain an obscurity…” he said as he walked past them and down the hall that Rachel left through.

“Tch!” The four of them jumped once again when that annoyed click sounded off behind them. Bakugou shoved his hands into his pockets and sauntered past them. “Are you trying to be f*cking Socrates, or something?!” he yelled after the bird-headed boy. “If you’re going to say something, say it clearly, Bird Brain!”

Now that classes were let out, she was greeted to the sight of just how busy this campus was. Crowds of old friends left the gates together and the lone wolves lingered behind them. Sighing again, she realized that the station she took was going to be packed again. She wondered if she could possibly stay behind several hours and wait until the station cleared up—she found the school library earlier during her lunch break and already checked out several volumes. But after the rush of kids leaving for school came the rush of people leaving work, and being squished between exhausted businessmen and women would be worse than being sardined between her schoolmates.

Bracing for the worst, Raven walked with heavy steps toward the gate, dragging her feet. Looking down, her eyes landed on the many rows of bike racks, surprised at the sight of that many bikes being in the same spot in the first place; all of different models and shapes and sizes. Briefly, she thought of Robin’s motorcycle, the one that she rode on the back of several times during their skirmishes, and wondered if it survived the apocalypse. Did Cyborg’s car survive was a good question—

“You ride?” a voice spoke out from behind her. Turning swiftly, fist clenched, her vision was suddenly greeted with a shock of purple hair and tired eyes. The boy from the Entrance Exam. So he had passed after all. She relaxed immediately. Looking him up and down quickly, he at least looked healthy if it weren’t for several lost hours of sleep. He was sitting on his own bike, one foot on the ground, two hands on the handlebars, and kickstand down. His school uniform, although new, was slightly rumpled.

Realizing that he was waiting for her answer, she looked down at the racks to avoid his gaze.

“I don’t know how to ride a bike,” she admitted slowly.

He looked as if she told him that she was going to grow two heads then and there. “What kind of teen doesn’t know how to ride a bike?” he blurted out, genuinely surprised.

What was with these people and asking her so many questions? The only people that were this invasive were—

She furrowed her eyebrows and pressed her lips together. Well—what was she supposed to do about that? Imagine a past where Trigon pushed her adolescent body down the street on top of training wheels? Ask the Azarathians to teach her? Azarath was gone.

Missed childhood aside, she sighed. “Can I help you with something?” This was too much human interaction for one day—she just wanted to get to her condo and nap.

Luckily, the boy across from her looked as uncomfortable as she felt. “I’m Shinsou,” he greeted, thrusting a hand out.

“Roth.” He nodded once when she shook his hand and they both immediately dropped it.

“You…” The silence persisted. “I don’t know if you remember me, but you saved me during the Exams…” He retracted the hand slightly, twitching awkwardly. “I didn’t think that I’d find you so soon.” She remained impassive, but he continued on, turning away from her face and looking off to the right. “I just… I want to say thank you, and...I’d like to repay you somehow,” he mumbled.

Raising one lone eyebrow, she stared at him. “You don’t need to thank me. If I didn’t save you, someone else would’ve.” She believed that their conversation ended there and turned to continue walking away. He huffed behind her and pedaled his bike slowly until he was side-to-side with her.

“Look,” he said, pulling his bike in front of her and stopping her in her tracks. “I feel bad. I want to repay you.” He was strangely stubborn for a guy that looked like he was about to roll on the floor and take a nap.

“Like I said—” She narrowed her eyes. “It’s nothing. Anyone would’ve done it.”

“Yeah?” It was his turn to raise his eyebrows. “Say what you want, but you were the one that was there in the end.” Raven had already tuned this conversation out and began to walk around the boy to head out for the day, but then suddenly stopped the moment he spoke again. “No one… No one had ever saved me before.”

What was she supposed to make of that?

“Do you live near here?” he eventually asked, making her stop just slightly. “How about I give you a ride home today?” He straightened up from his seat on the bike, a hand on the back of his neck in nervousness. It looked like he was as good at this as Raven was: the communication, the bargaining. He saw that she had stopped in her spot and continued. “That’s why you were looking at the bikes right? Did you lose your train card or something?”

Her silent glare simply bore into him as an answer.

She didn’t want to sit through the train again—too claustrophobic, too many people, headache-inducing. This offer was literally being given to her on a silver platter.

“Listen.” He biked toward her again. He narrowed his eyes at her and slumped his shoulders, seemingly in defeat. Guilt churned around in his stomach. “I hate being in debt to people, and what you did has been on my mind since it happened. Can I just do this for you, so we never have to see each other again?”

Discomfort, guilt, awkwardness, sincerity, underlaid with determination, and a gross feeling of owing someone something. At least he really didn’t have any sleazy intentions, she thought. She looked off at the direction of the station, watching the large clump of people walking toward it.

“...I live thirty minutes away by train,” she said simply, silently telling him that it was too far.

He grimaced, but fixed his expression to one of determination. “That’s alright. I have a mamachari.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Huh?” This time he openly gaped at her before he closed his dropped jaw with a snap. “Wait—your name. Are you a foreigner or something?” She nodded silently. “Couldn’t tell,” he said softly, avoiding her eyes. Turning back to her he tried to explain, “It is a bike with a motor.”

Taking one step closer she looked him in the eye then down to his pant leg. “Should you even be biking?”

“Hm?” He said as he shifted his seat slightly. “Oh. My leg? Yeah…Recovery Girl fixed it for me right after you left. It’s been fine for a few weeks. Hop on,” he said. “You can stand behind me or sit in the basket in front of me.” Opposed to having her back exposed to the guy for almost an hour, she hesitated before choosing to stand on the bike pegs. It took her a good few minutes to complete the action, adjusting herself weirdly and pausing before she chose to put her hands on his shoulder for stability. He started to pedal out slowly, asking her what her address was and telling her to type it on the GPS on her phone.

This was the weirdest thing she had ever done, she thought. Being so close to a guy that she barely knew, putting her hands on his shoulders like this, standing on the pegs of a bike.

“If you get tired standing, you can sit on the bike rack, you know,” he said as he focused on the streets.

“I’m more worried about the guy who looks like he might fall over,” she said. They were receiving odd looks from the other people sharing the bike lane, but she paid them no mind. They stayed in silence for a while, letting the women’s voice from the GPS speak for them. Yet, thirty minutes in, it was clear that he was running a bit ragged.

“Ha ha,” he said with no humor. “I thought you were the quiet type.”

“I am the quiet type,” she insisted.

“Thirty minutes is nothing,” he continued, pausing at a stoplight and straightening out the bones in his back. “I bike as a hobby, but this day is trying me.” The light turned green and he continued on his way. Despite what he said, it was clear that he didn’t work out regularly. From her hands on his shoulders, she could tell that he did not have much—if any muscle mass and his arms looked skinny as well.

It was clear that neither of them were much talkers, and she was fine with that. Thrilled, in fact—if someone like her could be thrilled.

It was in the middle of their ride that they passed by an arrest. Policemen surrounded the area, taping it off from civilians while bystanders watched like it was their favorite daytime show. Reporters flocked like vultures and a blonde Pro-Hero Raven didn’t know talked animatedly with them.

To this day, it was a strange image to her. She couldn’t imagine being forced to give an interview every time they took down a villain—if she did, half of her life would be wasted away from behind a padded microphone. Sure, they appeared in the newspaper regularly, but the front-page photo was always taken from the middle of their battle, far away from ground zero. Despite being in the same occupation, their job only consisted of getting called in, fighting the battle, giving a brief report to the police, and then they went home. Pro-Heroes here were almost a commodity. They had merchandise, interviews, cameos in dramas, commercials, and meet-and-greets. If people forced the Titans to be in commercials or followed by paparazzi daily, Robin would make sure that the Wayne Industries would bring their lawyers in so fast that their heads would spin. And if people wanted to know more about the Titans, they would just have to scour through forums and blog sites like their fans from Tokyo when they first visited.

Now, that was an awkward moment when she found out they even had fans.

They had a theme song.

In Japanese.

Although, she guessed that she couldn't complain too much or be hypocritical. She became a mascot for Super Twinkle Donkey Gum when they were in Tokyo, Beast Boy started his own official merch in the shape of boxers and socks, and if anyone was going to make merch of Batman, Wayne was sure that he was getting all of the royalties.

“Man…” Shinso said from beside her, lazy eyes watching the aftermath with veiled curiosity. “I wonder what happened there…”

Raven could only hum in response before turning back to the road. By now, the sky above them was dyed a deep red and strewn the clouds with bright orange. It looked like she was staring at Starfire’s long locks.

“So…” he started. “Why did you do it?”

“Do what?” she immediately shot back. He skidded to a stop beside another stoplight.

“...Save me.” At least he sounded as awkward as she felt. “No one….” He sighed deeply before starting the bike again. The clicks of the chains and the wheels turning became amplified as they drove past speeding cards. “Usually people just watch. No one’s ever saved me before.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” was all she replied with. “Did you want me to just leave you there?” Did she need to have a reason to save someone? For her occupation, it had become second nature after a while.

Checking the time on one of the screens on the skyscrapers they blazed past, she could tell that it was almost five. From the way he didn’t know her address, she could guess that he was unfamiliar enough with the area that it would take him another couple of hours to bike back to his own home. Nevermind the fact that she felt like she was owning him now. He was exerting more effort into his deed for her than for what she did for him. All she did was create a force field. If she was being paid for every force field she put up for civilians back home she would’ve had a retirement plan that rivaled Bruce Wayne’s.

“I wasn’t saying it like that…” The wind ruffled his purple hair like a field of tall grass. “Whatever. Forget I said anything.”

She shrugged, but it wasn’t like he was looking.

“So you’re in the Hero Course, right?” he suddenly asked. Her eyebrows raised.

“Yeah. 1-A.” There was no reason to lie.

“....So how was the Physical Test for you?” Frustration started to roll off of him in waves, almost suffocating her. She was glad that they were almost home. At this point, she could start to recognize some of the landmarks and stores that she passed by during her one month of reconnaissance.

“What are you talking about?” was all she said.

“I saw what you could do. So, was it easy?”

“...Yeah.” Almost like child’s play. She had gone under the motions so many times before that she was almost sure she could do a speedrun of it.

He scoffed, “Figures.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She was surprised herself at the bite in her tone. Yet, the annoyance and irritation that was emitting from him were starting to affect her too. This was what was annoying her. She couldn’t afford to be affected by others’ emotions so easily. That was the whole point of having her mental shields up, but she just continued to slip. That was the only way she kept Trigon’s influence under wraps—without it, well…

“You know that the Physical Exams are rigged, right?” At this point he started to talk a little faster, pumping harder on his bike until the surroundings became colorful blurs. “They are biased toward those with physical Quirks.”

“And?” she drawled. She figured as much, but didn’t think too much about it. She couldn’t imagine any hero being unable to physically overpower their opponent. Cyborg might’ve been the most intelligent out of all of them, but what good was that if he couldn’t fight his enemy?

“‘And’? It’s not fair,” he stated, his voice growing aggressive.

“Life isn’t fair,” she immediately retorted, but before he could speak again she shut him up. “You’re getting frustrated for something I can’t control.” He clicked his tongue, and for a moment Raven wondered if she should continue. Undoubtedly this would antagonize him, but she could sense the source of his anger. He had only grown irritated when he found out that she was in the Hero Course—an extremely coveted and difficult position to get into. He wanted to be a Hero and couldn’t pass the Physical Exam. She assumed that he had gotten in on his intelligence alone since he was wearing the same uniform as her. However, if he was serious about this, he needed to hear the truth.

“And besides—” She looked up to the darkening sky. The wind kissed her cheeks while it ran through her hair like fingers on her scalp. “It doesn’t seem to me like you’re doing anything about it other than complaining.”

The bike underneath them immediately skidded to a stop, almost toppling over and throwing her off the pegs until she grabbed it with her telekinesis and held it upright, forcing the pedals to move on their own.

He stared at the blacked bike underneath him in shock before turning to her with fury in his eyes.

“ Excuse me? Did I even hear that right?” The full force of his anger was blurred by him having to turn in his seat awkwardly. “I can’t believe I even have to say this.” He placed his forehead into the palm of his hands. “You have no idea how hard I tried to get into U.A.,” he nearly gritted out.

She didn’t respond, but instead squeezed his shoulders harder, making him jump.

“What the hell—”

“I can tell you don’t work out,” she stated. Outwardly, she was as cool as a winter morning, but inside she was just glad that she could see the entrance of her condo from here. This conversation was going to end soon. “You don’t have any muscle mass on your arms, and your reflexes are slow. You don’t really expect to get into the Hero Course like this?” Beast Boy, for all of his silliness, had some muscle coiling on his arms in his human form too.

Immediately, he slapped her hand away, the sound echoing throughout the darkening street. If she was relying on him solely for balance, she would’ve fallen, but she had already planned ahead and began to levitate her legs above the bike.

“God—” He sighed deeply, eyes clenched shut. In the dim light, she could see his eyes taking on a glossy sheen and he was blinking rapidly. She recoiled slightly. “I can’t even believe that I’m hearing this B.S. I thought that you were diff—You’re just like everyone else!” Soundlessly, she stopped the bike and threw the kickstand down so that he wouldn’t topple over. She climbed over the bike and grabbed her phone. “What do you know about working to get what you want?! You have a nice Quirk! It was given to you!” he shouted at her. Raven was glad that the neighborhood mostly consisted of overworked businessmen and women. No one was around to witness his anger.

“Is that what this is about? Quirks?” she asked, almost to herself.

“When isn’t it about Quirks?!” he said. “Why am I even talking about this with someone like you—you’d never understand what it’s like to have a Quirk not meant for Hero work!”

She blinked, staying silent.

“Are you done?”

“Wha—” He blinked rapidly. “After all that, that’s all you have to say?!” Even Shinsou didn’t know what was coming over him. Normally, he would be more composed than this, but the events of the day were catching up to him.

“I think you’re just making excuses for yourself,” she stated. “You can’t be a hero without at least knowing how to defend and protect others. That’s just a fact.”

He gritted his teeth. “The point,” he spat out, “is that the Hero role was handed to you, while others have to work for it!”

“And are you?” Raven didn't bother explaining to him that she didn't wake up with perfect control of her powers, nor her own background in Heroism.

“What ?”

“Are you going to work for it?” Raven asked. They both stood there as a white car started to pull up, the sound of rubber tires against the asphalt ringing in their ears. Bright headlights illuminated their figures and burned out their features until they became black silhouettes. “It’s getting late.” She gestured to the car. “I called you a taxi.”

“What.” This time he looked confused, and asked that out of pure shock.

She held up her phone, where a line of blue circled through and a checkmark appeared on the screen. “Your house is far from here, I’m assuming. I called you a taxi and I’ve already paid for it. You should go home before your parents worry.”

He turned from her to the taxi as if he couldn’t believe the image before him. Raven gestured soundlessly to the man in the car and used her power to float his bike to the bike trunk rack in the back of the car, strapping it on in seconds. The side door popped open and she stared at him without any strong emotion in her eyes.

“Shinsou-san, go home,” she nearly demanded. To bring it further, she gently pushed him on the shoulder. He nearly stumbled on the way, moving like a wind-up crank toy. He soundlessly got into the car, sitting in the leather seat still in near disbelief.

Before she closed the door after him, he held his hand out, stopping it in its tracks.

“I don’t understand you,” he said, traces of anger lingering. She hummed, and was about to slam the door again until he held his arm out, still strong. “I don’t need you tell me that I’m going to crawl my way to the Hero Course with my own power, but I still wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand what that’s like.”

“My best friend was Quirkless,” she suddenly said, effectively shutting him up. Her eyes narrowed. She wanted to defend Robin’s honor. Despite having no powers compared to the rest of their band of misfits, he settled in as the leader perfectly and held up the group with his own strength. To think that Shinsou could bet his entire life on the discord of physical vs. non-physical Quirks and to overlook Robin’s power due to something as frugal as that.

If he believed that Quirks were an evergrowing wall, where did that leave Robin?

“And he would’ve gotten more points than me on the Physical Exam.” This time he gaped openly at her.

That was nothing but the truth, and Shinsou could tell.

“I am not the person you should be angry at your own powerlessness, Shinsou-san. The only person stopping you from joining the Hero Course is you.”

She shut the door at that time.

Chapter 5: Team I

Chapter Text

“So.” Nighteye straightened up as he carefully placed his chopsticks over his bowl. Raven paused from across him, the rice bowl held up to her face. “How was your first day of school?”

It was almost picturesque. She had never heard of that question uttered at her before, the parental undertones of the simple questions. It made her freeze up, forced her to hyperfocus on the ticking of the clock behind her guardian.

It was just a simple question.

“It was fine,” she instantly responded.

Nighteye nodded once. That was expected. The parenting books noted that all teens tended to respond to questions of that nature with lackluster replies. Responses such as Nothing, Okay, Alright, etc. were normal.

“Though.” Raven turned her head to look at the backpack leaning against the couch in the living room. “Do you know a Pro named Eraserhead?”

Nighteye pushed his glasses up to contain his surprise and near excitement of her carrying the conversation. This was a success in the books, he noted. The first step to opening up.

“Eraserhead? Yes.” He picked at his rice. “We've had one assignment together in the past. Why do you ask?”

“He’s my homeroom teacher,” Raven said. “Is he...always like that?”

Even without the specifics, Nighteye knew what she was talking about. He respected Eraserhead as a Hero. Efficient, strong, and intelligent. The entire time they worked together, he had no issues with the man as a Pro. He was a firm believer of if they got the job done as quickly and swiftly as possible, there was no skin off of his teeth.

“He’s always been a logical man, and an even stricter Hero. Do you have a problem with him?” He had asked out of curiosity, a desire to know more about her day, but he would be lying if there wasn’t a veil of concern of as well. On the first day too. He did not fight Mirio’s or his sidekicks' battles, but for some reason, a small part of him whispered that this was different.

“I don’t,” she immediately said. “He threatened to expel a student today though. I just wanted to know if it was in his nature to pull something like that.”

“Most definitely.” Sasaki recalled rumors of him expelling whole classes at a time, to even expelling other teachers’ kids. He told Raven just that. Her eyebrow crept up her forehead and she stared at him with a loss for words.

“So he wasn’t lying after all…” she muttered to herself, confirming her own thoughts.

“Lying about what?” Sasaki leaned in closer.

Recalling the events of today, Raven quickly gave him a rundown of today’s events, finishing off with Eraserhead’s “logical ruse.”

“That does sound like him. I wonder why he chose to lie at the last minute though. But I bet that this means that he sees potential in all of you.” At this, Raven snorted, ducking her head quickly and shoveling rice into her mouth to hide that fact.

“He’s an underground Hero, so there’s not much information about him out there,” Nighteye said instead. Knowledge was a weapon, he summarized. If Raven was going to face Eraserhead head-on for the rest of her three years of schooling, he might as well give her all of the information she needed.

“Sounds insane,” Raven commented, but with the tone of her voice, he wondered if she was being sarcastic. “No wonder he looks like a dead caterpillar.” Being a teacher during the day, grading papers, and other academic-related jobs during the evening, and then Hero work at night? That sounded like a nightmare.

“Being a Pro is a twenty-four-hour job.” He knew that she had seen him being called off at insane hours in the night before. “Surely, you know this already?”

She shrugged once. “We have a lot of free time. We get called into battle when there’s a crime, then we fight. Other than that we’re off the clock.” Some days, their scuffles with villains were more complicated, and other times their free time was almost weeks at a time. They didn’t patrol or do paperwork like she recognized Sasaki doing, blowing their schedules wide open.

He raised an eyebrow at that. “That sounds illogical,” he couldn’t help but say. “How will you know for sure that you’ve managed to stop all of the crime in the city?”

Raven looked at him from across the table. “Unlike here, those with powers are probably just 1% of the population. The police still do their job and we only protect Jump City unless we get a call from other places that need us.”

Her eyebrows suddenly furrowed. She thought back to the events from several hours ago. Shinsou’s words rang in her head like clockwork. For a while, she had believed that he was in the right, but the pain in Shinsou’s eyes was not out of illogical anger.

“Sasaki-san, there’s something I don’t understand,” she spoke up. Inclining his head, he signed that he was paying attention, and she told him what had happened several hours prior. She told him everything she had said, and described how the other boy responded. “Was I in the wrong?” she finally asked. It had been bothering her for a while. However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that he was just a kid.

The situations of the Titans should not be used as a good indicator for the average child. She had saved people her age before, protecting them while seeing their crying faces, their shaking forms. At the moment, she wondered if they were scared of her, but Robin had people cower in his presence too.

“No,” Sasaki had finally said after a few moments of thinking. He looked her straight in the eye. “My answer is not because I am biased toward you. You were correct to say that to be a Pro you would need to be able to fight your enemy physically. My Quirk is a non-physical one as well, and I made up for it by training my body to its limit. He would heed your advice if he was truly as serious as he said he was. However, it appears that you still do not understand how prevalent Quirks are in our society. It is as significant as race, religion, and gender.”

“And the Quirkless population?” she insisted, raising an eyebrow. “They still exist.”

“Unfortunately,” he said, the harsh lines on his face faded slightly, “it's an understatement to say that they’re treated horribly. They’re the main target for bullying from children, they’ve become the largest population for suicide, and most recently, they’ve become the most unemployed group of people.” Sasaki saw Raven’s enraged face from across the table and attempted to placate her. “Maybe once you become a Pro, you can publicly support them.”

Raven scoffed dismissively. “It’s not my job to tell people that they should treat others with respect.”

“It’s always a hero’s job to encourage people to do the right thing.” He pushed up his glasses once more. “May I ask you why you are so frustrated about this?”

The teenager in front of him was silent for a while. “That could've been Robin,” she whispered.

“Pardon?”

She lowered her head. “Robin—my teammate, isn’t like the rest of us.” She stabbed into her salmon. “If anyone was going to be the Hero that people were going to look up to, it's him." He’s smarter, stronger, and even though he’s just as quiet… Robin’s able to inspire people, she thought. Any of her teammates would've been better matches, not someone dark and gloomy like Raven. They were the only people to get to her.

“That’s very impressive to hear,” Nighteye said gently. “If he managed to keep up with you and your teammates using his own power as a human being, he must’ve been very strong.”

Sasaki wished that he could use his Foresight to see the boy she was talking about right now, to see what made him so special. “Maybe if he was here he would be able to help bring change.”

Several seconds ticked by. “...You guys don't deserve him.” Raven dug into her rice as she shook her head. “Nevermind. Robin shouldn’t come to this universe,” she said after a moment’s notice, changing her mind as quickly as it came.

“Why’s that?” he asked with pure curiosity. If he was anything like Raven described, he would be able to handle this universe with no problem.

“Robin… has already had a hard life. He doesn’t need Quirkless to be added to the list.” She shook her head. “Just forget the conversation,” she demanded.

“Alright then,” Sasaki agreed, the brought the conversation back to the boy she talked to earlier. “The boy who brought you home was correct to say that you won’t understand as well.” Raven’s eyes fell to the plate of salmon in front of them. “But not for the reason he assumed. You perhaps will never be able to fully understand how integrated Quirks are in our society, and that is not a fault. It is simply due to your upbringing. Do not worry about it.”

She looked up again as Sasaki picked up his gaudy All Might-themed chopsticks once more. “Your past and experience is not something to be ashamed of, but it will be the source of some of your issues.”

Raven held in a wince and bit her tongue.

She already knew that.

U.A., no matter how coveted the title was, whether or not it was worth its weight in gold, was still a school in the end.

Although, she enjoyed the classes.

It was strange being taught by Pro-Heroes, some with teaching credentials, and some without, but she wasn’t here for the learning aspect anyway. She was here to get her credits for a Hero License. Raven had already discussed this issue with Sasaki, but he simply told her that that was how U.A. always did it and assured her that they all knew that they were doing—mostly.

Class was mostly an excuse to prop her textbook up and read her own personal books while the teacher droned on about equations in the background—all of it material that she had already learned during her one month crunching for the Written Exam.

In all actuality, she liked the atmosphere. She enjoyed the quiet as the teachers lectured, and the steady pattern of lecture-study-worksheet-turn in. Raven had always been the type that was interested in learning, even if it was from her dusty old books as Beast Boy used to call it.

The only classes she didn’t enjoy were English and Home Ec.

Present Mic was loud. Louder than Cyborg and Beast Boy playing video games or arguing with each other over something trivial. To make matters worse, she was the only native English speaker in the entire class, and he had forcefully designated her as the speaker. Raven would have to read passages out of the book and wait for her classmates to parrot it back like a brainwashed cult. As a result, her participation score would be more inflated than her peers and her exams and worksheets would take up less than 40% of her grade altogether. It was embarrassing enough to know that every eye was on her for a good twenty minutes as she read out passages for them, but her own voice was so silent and monotone that Present Mic would spend a good five minutes telling her to speak up, or to put some life in that voice! C’mon!

She didn’t see what the issue was. Present Mic spoke perfect English on his own, even if it was at 10x the volume of regular Americans (and that was saying something). He could be his own broken record. As an exuberant DJ with his own radio show, Raven was sure that he liked the sound of his own voice to an extent. But she found that asking was a dead end on its own. He only stated that having their classmate would give them more confidence to speak and “feel camaraderie” than if a teacher was doing it.

Home Ec. was just due to her own shortcomings.

It was run by Lunch Rush, the Pro that manned the cafeteria apparently, according to the whispers of the pink-haired girl that stood at the station beside her, but she would be none the wiser. So far, Raven had only spent all of her lunch breaks at the library and snacked on juice boxes from the vending machines outside.

As a treat for the first day, the Pro suggested that they learn how to make muffins that they could take home afterwards. Raven managed to follow the recipe to a T (because she could follow directions, it was nothing to write home about), but threw the muffin tin into the oven underneath her station without much care. Cranking the timer and the temperature up with her telekinesis, she was able to kick back and read for a good twenty-five minutes without anyone bothering her.

How was she supposed to know that she had to adjust the setting on her oven first?

Bake, broil, what was the difference?

Apparently it was a lot.

A few seconds of her classmates going, “Hey, is something burning?” turned into a cloud of black smoke almost immediately, and the boy from three stations behind her instinctively created a volley of ice right at her oven to stop the impending fire. The result was black, burnt tops and a still-liquid, undercooked bottom.

The blond boy she threw a force field at had a field day at the sight, and from that day on, he took to lovingly (read: sarcastically) calling her Blacktop as a nickname.

No wonder so many people hated high school.

Before long, it was time for the Hero Course.

The thing that Shinsou got aggressive over. This was what people her age trained their entire childhoods for.

As the final bell rang for the end of lunch, Raven bookmarked her spot and placed her novel away at the bottom of her desk. Silently, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as the volume of the class rose with jitters of anxiety.

If this was anything like her missions back home, she didn’t need to worry. All she had to do was pass this course, and then she was free.

“I am…!” a masculine voice said from behind the door in English.

“It’s him!” a voice squeaked from two seats ahead of her.

“COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!” he shouted, door slamming open and knocking against the door. Its hinges squeaked like a sired. Muscles bigger than her entire head, a slick red and white suit with a blue cape, yellow hair pointed up like two bunny ears—

Raven blinked owlishly. Wait a minute, she knew that man.

“It’s All Might!” her classmates gushed, all talking over themselves.

“It’s really him! In the flesh!”

“That’s his Silver Age costume, isn’t it?”

“You think I can get an autograph?”

“OH YEA!” Two hands slammed down on their desk. “THIS IS U.A.!” Kirishima shouted into the ceiling, his arms pumped into the sky.

Raven tilted her head. That was All Might. Even as a foreigner to his universe, how could she not know who he was when Sir Nighteye had an entire room dedicated to this man like he was starting a new religion that was red, white, and blue? She supposed that she should’ve known who he was on her own too. He was the one who inaugurated her acceptance into U.A. Maybe she should secretly take a picture on her phone for Sir Nighteye? She could take a leaf out of her classmate’s book and ask for an autograph too. That was sure to put the stars in Sasaki-san’s eyes.

The man marched over to the podium in front of the room with a grand flourish, still doing that impossible smile without faltering the slightest bit. Raven mentally wondered if his face was just frozen like that.

“I teach Foundational Hero Studies,” All Might stated, hands on his hips. “It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You’ll be taking most of your units from this course” He began to stretch, corded muscles bulging almost impossibly under that skin-tight suit. Hell, Raven didn’t think that Superman was even that buff. “Let’s get right into it! This is what we’ll be doing today—!” A card reading BATTLE in bold red letters appeared in his hands. “Combat training!”

Raven straightened up a little bit more in her seat. The Titans had Combat Practice three times every week, where they sparred one another, with or without their powers, tested out Cyborg’s new upgrades and the new gadgets Robin got from Batman, or where Robin taught her and Beast Boy basic hand-to-hand combat, and they went through things like how to evade capture, how to tie knots, and how to get out of certain scenarios. If she just stuck with the same rhythm, maybe these three years wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“And to go with that are...these!” All Might threw his hand to the side grandly, pressing a button on his other hand. The panels in the walls soon began to shift, revealing several silver briefcases with numbers on them. Sounds of awe and excited gasps rang throughout the room. “Costumes based on your Quirk Registrations and requests you sent in before school started.” Chairs screeched against the floor and a dozen footsteps clattered against the tile.

Holding out a hand, Raven floated her briefcase into her awaiting grasp. The students around her clambered around the panels to grab their suits.

She stared down at the sleek metal and the polished locks in front of her.

“After you change, gather in Ground Beta!”

Back home, Raven had several duplicates of her leotard and cloak given to her by the Monks of Azarath, but after traveling interdimensionally her fight with Endeavor had left her only cloak in tatters, she decided that it was best to keep her only leotard left in the back of her closet back in the condo. But—

Emerging into the light with the rest of her classmates, the sun catching the shine from her faux leather leotard, glittering against the gold and ruby from her chained belt, Raven stepped out of the tunnel and into the training field.

That didn’t mean that she couldn’t ask the Support Course to replicate it.

“They say clothes make the man, ladies and gentlemen!” All Might said to them from beyond the entrance. He beamed at them with his hands on his hips. “Be fully aware… From here on out…” The wind picked up on the ends of her cloak and pulled against her hood, fully slipping off of her head and revealing her impassive face to the crowd. Purple eyes stared on as she tilted her head. “You are heroes!”

If possible, All Might’s smile grew wider as he took in the sight of all the students in front of him. “That’s great, everyone…! You all look cool!”

The students swarmed around All Might in a semicircle with Raven standing in the back once more. Raven tuned out his words as the boy asked questions about the training center they were in and the intricacies of urban vs. indoor battles. The words became nothing but background noise to her. Looking down, the only difference in her outfit from home and the one she had on now was the material and the length of her boots. After some thought, she decided to switch out her ankle boots for full thigh-high black boots that stuck to all of the contours of her leg like a second skin.

This was the first time she had an official suit, she thought. Beast Boy decided to fight in whatever he had on, whether it be his suit from his time in the Doom Patrol or just his day clothes; he had no reason to suit up like they did when he was just going to morph into an animal. No material on their planet could rival Starfire’s Tamaranean fabrics, and Cyborg was already half-metal. Robin was the only one out of all of them that had a supersuit given to him by Batman, and she remembered him telling her that it had features like shock absorption, durability, and was woven out of bulletproof material. The older Hero mostly kept out of their business, but Raven knew that his love for Robin once came in the form of offering the Titans to make them suits, and they turned him down.

In her hand was her original Titan Communicator. There wouldn’t be any use for it here with no other Communicators and no one on the other end, but after some thought she decided to clip it to her belt. Her hip was feeling empty without it anyway.

“Now…” He turned that 1000 watt smile toward them and showed them all a big thumbs up. “Let combat training begin!”

The objective of the exercise was a two-on-two battle of heroes vs. villains. The Villain team would be given a map of the building or “their hideout” and hide a fake bomb on any floor they wish. The Hero team would then hunt down the villains and either secure the bomb or capture the other team. The Villains had to either keep the bomb away from the Hero team or capture them.

“So American!” Midoriya gushed from the front of the crowd which made a question mark appear out of Raven’s head at the words.

What was American about that?

“Teams and opponents will be determined by drawing lots!” All Might declared, holding up a bright orange box. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

Team A: Midoriya and Ojiro

Team B: Sato and Todoroki

Team C: Mineta and Yaoyorozu

Team D: Bakugou and Iida

Team E: Ashido and Aoyama

Team F: Koda and Shoji

Team G: Kaminari and Jirou

Team H: Tokoyami and Asui

Team I: Roth and Uraraka

Team J: Sero and Kirishima

“Oh dang!” Uraraka said to Midoriya, but her smile didn’t falter. “I was hoping to be on a team with you or Iida-kun!”

“O-O-Oh y-y-yeah!” he stuttered back, sweating at how she was getting closer to him. He had never been this close with a girl before!

“It’s better to be on a team with someone you know and trust, right? It’s more fun that way!” Uraraka gave him a peace sign.

“R-R-Right!” he said. Luckily he was wearing a mask, or else the color of his cheeks would be clear for everyone to see. “B-But you’re on a team with Roth-san! She’s one of the strongest in the class! Y-You’re bound to win!”

“Oh, true.” Uraraka leaned in and he nearly flinched before she lowered her voice and whispered to him. “But she’s kinda intense, ne?”

He jumped in his spot. He began to move his arms around wildly. Shame crawled up his body before he did anything. As the butt everyone’s jokes back in junior high and primary school, he had never had the chance to even think about talking about anyone else negatively. “I-I’m sure she’s just shy! She’s an American transfer student, so she’s probably self-conscious about her Japanese, and if she was homeschooled—well, they say that sometimes that can have effects on your socializing abilities!” Undoubtedly, Roth had an aura that made it hard for him to breathe, but he didn’t want Uraraka to feel worse.

“Oh! I didn’t think of that!” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “I feel kinda bad now…Haha…” The two of them stealthily turned their heads to the aforementioned girl. She remained in the back of the class, making no move to go forward and find her partner like everyone else, but rather she stared at a strange black-and-yellow circular device in her hands.

Izuku immediately wondered what that was. Perhaps it was a device that allowed her to keep track of the weather at all times? If her Quirk was Darkness Manipulation, she would want to know certain things like how high the sun was, how cloudy it was going to be, and the exact times of dusk and dawn in order to maximize and predict the strength of the shadows in her disposal. Though, she uses Darkness Manipulation unlike anyone he had ever seen before! Never before had there been any instances where they used it to make portals or to pick things up, typically they molded projections out of shadows, but he supposed that by wrapping shadows around objects like her books (as he’s seen her do on campus), it would create the same effect as telekinesis! How was she able to read though? He would make sure to take note of this in his notebook, maybe scour some forums to see other users with umbrakinesis to see how they use their Quirk.

“Deku-kun, you’re doing it again.”

“S-Sorry!” At the sound of his yelp, Raven looked up and immediately met her gaze with Uraraka and Midoriya’s, and it was as if the green-haired boy had seen a ghost. She closed her Titan Communicator with a snap and kept her stare locked on, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head.

“Now…” More thankful than ever to have a distraction, Midoriya was quick to whirl around and face his idol. “The first teams to fight will be…” He held up two balls with the letters D and A painted on them. “These guys!”

Oh. Midoriya thought.

Oh no.

Before All Might stepped into the classroom and faced his students for the first time, he shook like a leaf from behind the door. In his giant form, it was almost comical seeing a grown man that was seven feet tall cower like a balloon man in front of those American car dealerships, but if Gran Torino’s words were any consolation—he had this in the bag!

He dealt with villains, paparazzi, and rabid fans. What were a couple of teenagers going to do?

And so what if he created a script beforehand and referred to it too many times when the children asked too many questions? That was his business.

He got this! He was going to go Plus Ultra!

Aizawa, that forever strict and uptight man, had warned him before hand of Midoriya’s recklessness, the flaw in his power while he mentioned that Bakugou had a grudge and an anger issue to boot, but All Might had faith in his student, even if he was going to grade Midoriya just as harshly as everyone else. He admired Aizawa for being good at his jobs, but unfortunately they diverged from opinions and judgement much too far.

That was what he told himself, so why—

So why—?!

“Are you underestimating me, Deku?” Bakugou said, his voice amplified from the screen they were watching.

Why did it end up like this?

“Yeah! I’m not scared of you anymore!” Midoriya said, shifting into a fighting stance. Raven herself learned everything from Robin, but she could tell that his stance was textbook. It looked as if he had looked up some Youtube videos or images and attempted to emulate it instead of learning it from an instructor.

“My Quirk, Explosion, lets me secrete nitroglycerin-like sweat from my hands, and make it explode.” The smirk only grew more sinister. A clicking sound resounded from the speakers, and it took awhile for Raven to recognize that it was from the gauntlets on Bakugou’s arms.

“Deku…” Uraraka whispered fearfully from the monitor room. She laced her fingers together like a prayer.

These people are crazy.

“All Might, you need to stop the match,” Raven spoke up for the first time, letting all of the attention focus on her. What was the point of going through with a training exercise if they were just going to be hurt in the end? That wasn’t the objective. The point was to learn and improve, not be injured and get set back. She had already levitated to his eye-level, her feet floating off the ground. All Might started to sweat profusely.

Bakugou’s gauntlet started to heat up, lighting itself with bright red and charging with a sound that sounded all too familiar to Cyborg's own jets.

“Young Bakugou, stop!” All Might finally shouted into the microphone. “Are you trying to kill him?!”

“If I don’t hit him, he won’t die!” the boy shouted back. He was deranged, Raven thought, maniacal.

“That wasn’t a suggestion, All Might!” Raven spat, snapping her head toward him again.

Bakugou released the grenade's pin completely, and the entire hallways erupted in a plume of fire. The sound of the building collapsing and exploding was so intense that the students had to clap their hands around their ears and several grunts of pain from their eardrums ringing chorused throughout the room.

The aftermath was a completely demolished hallway and a battered Midoriya sitting just one feet away from the carnage.

“Rachel-chan’s right! Sensei, you should stop them!” Kirishima shouted. “That Bakugou’s crazy! He’s going to kill him!”

All Might’s face remained frozen from here. “Young Bakugou, the next time you use that, I’ll end the fight and your team will lose.”

Raven immediately wheeled in on him with her hand slammed down on the control panel. Her hood had slipped off during the action, revealing those irritation-filled purple eyes.

As a teacher I should stop this…

Bakugou was completely obliterating Midoriya on the screen, but as of right now, Raven and All Might were nothing but darkened silhouettes to their gameplay. Bakugou punched him, exploded, grabbed him, threw him down to the ground like a rag doll. Midoriya’s scream resonated throughout the speakers and gave chills to everyone that listened.

But… All Might watched as Midoriya breathed heavily, his clothes in tatters. I don’t want to stop this! For his sake!

After several seconds of staring at him, he had begun to grow nervous. Rachel finally tapped the control panel once and touched back down to the ground. Midoriya shouted incoherent words at Bakugou in the background.

“You’re hiding something,” she finally summarized in English; her voice was low and deep. He nearly choked on his spit then and there in shock. How did she—?! He knew that disappointed look—he had seen it once before. “That’s why you won’t end the match.” Before he could say anything, she clicked her tongue in irritation and turned away. “Forget this.”

The tiny microphone in All Might’s hand started to shake. Sweat dripped down his brow in rivulets.

Midoriya and Bakugou charged at each other once again, a new ferocity in their veins.

“Y-You two…!” he spoke into the microphone.

“All Might…! I’m going to have to resign.” Sir Nighteye once said to him. “I can’t sit here and watch you waste away when you won’t do anything to improve yourself.”

That was the same disappointment…!

Raven turned around, her cloak swishing in her wake and began to walk away.

Aizawa had told him that if anyone was someone to look out for, it was Roth Rachel. If anyone had the most promise to become a Hero tomorrow, it would be Roth, he had said, and that made her an anomaly. He had pushed it aside that day, foolishly. He had assumed that Roth was a powerhouse just like he was back in the day—but he could see now that something else lingered.

“NOW! OJIRO-SAN!” Midoriya shrieked.

The crowd split for her as she crossed the room, slipping her hood back up her head.

“SMASH!”

Raven’s back faced the screen as the T.V. imploded with pure white, encompassing all of them in light before the impact of Midoriya’s punch finally burst through the entire building. Her expression remained blank while her background was nothing but destruction.

“Got it!"Ojiro’s voice finally rang out, relief slipping out of his tone.

“Hero team...WINS!”

. . .

“Alright…!” All Might announced, walking back into the monitor room after he had taken Midoriya and Ojiro to Recovery Girl’s room. Raven had been leaning against the wall beside the door the entire time, arms crossed while her face was fixed into one of impressive neutrality. Iida and Bakugou followed right after him, trailing like spiders on their web.

Iida had changed back into his school uniform and was greeted by other students who asked him and All Might about the state of Midoriya and himself.

“I am perfectly fine!” Iida swung a hand down. “Ojiro-san was a difficult opponent for me, but Recovery Girl had already swiftly healed all of my bruises!”

“Young Midoriya will be in the hands of Recovery Girl, so I assure you he will be fine! He is recovering now, and I’m positive that he will be delighted to know that you are all concerned about him! But for now...we must move on!”

Predictably, everyone had given Bakugou a wide berth after the stunt he had pulled, and he took to leaning against the wall adjacent to Raven. She did what she always did best with annoying people and ignored his presence completely, keeping her eyes perfectly training on the blond Hero.

“Now…!” All might dug his hands into the two boxe and rustled them around. “For the next match…!” He held up two balls in the air. “These two!”

Team I vs. Team B

“Team I will be the Villains and Team B will be the Heroes!” All Might announced. “Get into positions, everyone!”

Immediately Todoroki, Sato, Roth, and Uraraka looked forward, taking in their opponents and their ally.

Uraraka gulped once she made eye contact with Raven and then turned to Todoroki’s cool gaze.

Rachel Roth sighed and pushed herself off the wall, walking out the door.

Let’s just get this over with….

Rachel Roth [レイチェル・ロス]

HERO’S STATUS:

Power: 6/5 S

Speed: 3/5 C

Technique: 5/5 A

Intelligence : 4.5/5 B+

Cooperativeness: 2/5 D

Cooperativeness with Titans : 4/5 B

“What’s your Quirk?” Rachel asked at once, grabbing her water bottle from the tiny lockers outside the monitor room and taking a swig. She clicked her tongue and frowned once she looked down and found out that it was All Might themed. Of course it was, Sir Nighteye was the one who gifted her with school supplies and gym supplies as a congratulatory gift for making it into U.A. The decoration on the metal was the exact same as the “Silver Age” suit that All Might was wearing inside right now.

They were alone in the fake city. The Villain team went up first, and once they settled in and hid their bomb properly, the Hero team was allowed to go in.

Truthfully, Raven couldn’t care less about training exercises or wins vs. losses. Those were just labels unless they helped her improve her talent somehow, but Mirio and Nighteye instilled in her that if she put effort into the Hero Course and took the Number One spot, she would be able to get her Hero License before her peers, join an agency soon, and if those fell into place, she could be her own established Hero the moment she received her diploma.

She wanted to win for that reason.

“O-Oh!” Uraraka clapped her hands together but strangely kept her pinkies out. “My Quirk is Anti-Gravity! A-Anything I touch becomes weightless like—” She put all five fingers down on Raven’s water bottle and the two of them watched as it floated over their head. Slowly, Raven reached out and grabbed it from the air. Even the water inside became weightless, she noted. She attempted to bounce it in her hand, but it continued to rise upward.

“Release!” The water bottle fell back down to earth, but Raven quickly wrapped it in black before it could smash against the ground. “T-Though, I think I’m going to be pretty useless. Haha! Your Quirk allows you to lift and make things float too…”

“You don't have to say that,” Raven immediately said, shutting her down. “You’re still capable.” She put the bottle back into the locker and started to head to the building. When she looked back at her teammate the girl strangely had a pink cartoonish flush on her cheeks.

“Ahh…” Uraraka commented as they both climbed up the stairs. “Todoroki-kun and Sato-kun are both super strong, ne? I don’t know how I’d be able to deal with them.” Raven didn’t answer, but instead shifted gears and began to discuss their plan with each other. Luckily, the microphones were muted at this time, so the Hero team wouldn’t hear their strategy.

The building was built simply in two large rectangles: the actual rooms on one side and the staircase on the other. The floors all had one main hallway running down them and four rooms on each floor: two on every side. She could tell that this was built quickly. Instead of building from the ground up, she could see from the seams on the floor and walls that they made the different rooms and units separately and assembled them here. That made sense, she supposed, these buildings were made for the students to destroy, The issue with this was that it was too open, Raven concluded. There were no crates or items anywhere in this place. The bomb would be out in the open no matter where she put it.

They decided to put the bomb in the closest room to the staircase on the topmost floor, that way if the Heroes got to them quickly, Raven could make a quick getaway down the stairs. Now was a question of where to station themselves. She had already come up with the idea that they should split up. There was no use of combining all of their forces in one spot when Todoroki and Sato’s Quirks relied on defensive and offensive respectively. They knew that Sato had super strength and speed, while Todoroki could create ice shields.

“I should be the one on the third floor,” Uraraka suddenly said.

“Huh?” Raven turned around. Was she hearing that right? No offense to the other girl, but the middle station was going to be the most difficult one since she’s going to be in the middle of the hallway instead of in a room. That wide-open space would leave someone with her Quirk defenseless.

“I-I mean!” A flush appeared on Uraraka’s face. “You’re stronger than I am, but Sato goes like crazy when he activates his Quirk, right? A-As the heavy hitter, he’s probably going to go first! I can use the middle position to try and take one of them down! Once he sees me, he’s going to charge immediately without any other thought, and if I lie in wait near the staircase, and hit him with my Quirk—he won’t know what’s coming! You can then do all you can to protect the bomb on the upper floor!” Uraraka pantomimed punching the air to emphasize her words.

That was a valid point, she thought.

“Okay.” Raven nodded once and held out their wireless earpieces on the palm of her hand. “Plan accepted.” She took the earpiece and fixed it into her right ear swiftly.

Their goal was set.

“Yes! Team I for the win!” Uraraka pumped her fist in the air.

“Yeah, sure.” Raven couldn’t have any less enthusiasm even if she tried.

Uraraka put her hand down in the middle with a fierce look in her eye.

“Team I!” she nearly chanted, almost taken over by a higher being. Raven raised an eyebrow at the sudden shift in the girl’s disposition.

Isn't that a bit sad to do with just two people? Raven thought looking down at Uraraka’s hand, but the brunette in front of her wouldn’t let up.

She sighed and put her hand on top of Uraraka’s.

"Team I.”

“Yosh!” Uraraka shouted into the air. “LET’S GO!”

“Hero team, you may enter!” All Might’s voice boomed from the stereos hidden in the building.

“So what’s the plan, man?” Sato asked, walking up from behind Todoroki. The burly boy made sure to keep a wide distance from him since the boy’s supersuit that coated his left side entirely in ice like a porcupine.

“The plan is to strike fast,” Todoroki said stoically.

“But you’ve seen Roth-san’s power during the Quirk Assessment Test!” Sato tried to urge, trailing behind the shorter boy. “She can pack a punch too and Uraraka-san sent her baseball to space! ”

“I’m not concerned. Ice reflects light as good as any mirror,” Todoroki answered. “Like the other teams, they’re probably going to put the bomb in a room on the top floor.” The two of them craned their head up to try and look at the top of the building.

It was right where the sun was shining right now.

Todoroki assumed that with the wide windows in every room, Roth was already limited with the shadows she could create. He bet that it was currently brighter than any dance studio.

Sato stared at him in shock. “You’re going to neutralize all of the shadows in the room!”

Todoroki didn’t bother to answer. Uraraka would be useless if she wasn't able to move, and in a new building without anything to move or use her anti-gravity on, she was basically Quirkless.

Although, it didn’t matter what Quirk his opponents had. He was going to beat them all and use his ice side only.

He walked forward, and placed a lone hand on the wall of the building. “For your own safety, you should step outside. I’m sure our opponents are waiting to strike, but we’ve already won.”

Ice burst from the tips of his fingers.

Raven was sitting in front of the bomb when Uraraka called.

“Roth-chan! Roth-chan! It’s—It’s getting colder!” Her voice was frantic, blurred with the static of the earpiece.

“What?” Raven answered, standing up and letting her cloak completely cover herself. This building was five stories tall. How did Todoroki manage to cover so much ground already?

“I’m completely stuck! Get ready!”

“Already?” she spat out. Raven circled the room, looking for a plan. She could hear the clicks and crackling of the ice creeping up the sides of the building, and even the air on her arms and on the back of her neck were starting to rise. She pulled out her Titan Communicator and checked the temperature of the room. Only several more degrees until freezing.

She mentally cursed and resigned herself to fade into the background until Todoroki Shouto came.

Now it was just a waiting game.

. . .

Todoroki passed by Uraraka with nothing but a soft huff, the faintest hints of a smirk appeared on his lips as he walked up the staircase and saw her in the middle of the hallway of the building, legs completely stuck to the ground.

“Oh! That jerk!” she cried out, shaking her fist at him when he turned his head away from her. She leaned forward a bit too much and quickly yelped, windmilling her arms until she regained her balance again. Then sighed gratefully once she was upright once more.

“Roth-chan! He just made it past the middle of the building! He’s going to be there any second!” Uraraka spoke into the earpiece.

No response.

C’mon, they can’t lose here!

. . .

When Todoroki made it up to the highest floor, it was completely dead silent. There wasn’t any melody of breathing or teeth clattering, and even the sound of the birds chirping outside. A small smirk appeared on his lips. So he got her already?

He admitted that when he saw her abilities, he was amused. He believed that there would be someone that would test his ability to surpass his father. The first place winner of the original Physical Exams would be no pushover. Roth Rachel was a powerhouse, he admitted, but even she couldn’t do anything if there was no darkness in the room. He pushed the door open with his hand and it creaked open with no resistance.

He was a bit disappointed, if he said so himself.

The bomb was situated perfectly in the middle of the room. Just as he predicted, the room was completely blown out with natural light. The yellow tint of the sun’s rays left the false impression that the room was warm, inviting, when it was anything but. The sunlight hit against the ice on the surface and amplified the brightness like a light bulb. The sound of fabric moving alerted his senses, and he saw Roth’s cloak flutter and shake from just behind the bomb. So there she was, probably struggling to get out of his ice as well.

“You can struggle all you want, but even someone like you can’t move without your Quirk,” he said, calling out to her. He stepped forward, hand outstretched. He was inches away from touching the bomb.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer.

BAM!

A perfect circle from the building’s ceiling came down right on his head. The room crashed inward, scattering dust and frost everywhere.

“What the—?!” Todoroki swiped his hand up, piercing through the cement block with a torrent of ice. Roth came down immediately afterwards, crashing into him feet-first and kicked him across the room. Purple hair swished wildly in the air.

He looked at the cloak dangling off of the bomb without a person and then to Roth who was just left in her leotard and boots. A black pipe floated behind her and she brought it behind him, constricting it like a snake, nearly wrapping him in the metal until he brought his boot down and released another strike of ice at her, forcing her to dodge. The pipe was like a pretzel right now, but it loosely fell to Todorki’s feet with a loud clang before she was able to trap him completely.

Impossible! He thought, looking at the levitating girl across from him. He had done away with every shadow in the room—unless? She had previously destroyed the ceiling and waited until he came into the room, then she could release the ceiling and use his shadow! The sun was streaming heavily through the hole in the roof now, and the ground under Todoroki was almost completely pitch black from his own shadow now that she had broken up the ice he first made.

Raven brought two shards of his ice toward him, blanketed in black, but Todoroki simply froze them into place—once again attempting to retaliate by trying to crush him from both ends by the square cutouts of the walls she had made, and to sandwich him between cement and plaster.

Todoroki threw ice to the right side, forcefully sticking the wall back into place and dove for her right. Raven furrowed her brows. How come he didn’t use ice on his left side either? Purple eyes narrowed with determination.

After that she went completely for his left side, throwing him his own shards of ice and debris, but he always managed to swiftly turn and block anything she threw at him with more miniature glaciers. Raven’s feet slid down on a slope of ice, swerving right like she was on some skatepark before she landed across from him, posed in a three-point landing.

Who the hell was this boy? If she wasn’t more experienced than he was, he would’ve taken her out ages ago. His power and talent rivaled their own—if he was from Jump City maybe he would’ve even gotten a Titan Communicator. His reflexes were indefinitely better and he was speedier than she was, even without her sliding around on the ice he made. Raven thought that this place was going to be for bumbling newbies. If she didn’t pick up the slack, her future as a popsicle would come sooner than she would’ve liked.

He seemed to read every movement, planned every step.

Raven couldn’t slow down unless she wanted to lose or worse—be encased in ice.

They paused like that for a while. The door was right beside her, frozen in place and obscured by another slope of ice. The two of them breathed heavily, chests rising and falling but Raven noticed something.

He was shivering.

If she read up on enough Quirks, she knew that your body had to be resistant to your own Quirk to some extent. If that was not the case, and that appeared occasionally, then Todoroki was in no shape to join the Hero course. That meant one thing: he was heading toward his own limit.

Raven was starting to feel the chill as well, but she had been to literal Hell before. She could handle several more minutes of cold air.

That gave her the energy to strike once more. Raven ran at him at full speed, picking up rubble along the way and throwing it at him. He still managed to block everything she threw at him, nearly until half of the room was just ice. Icicles shot up from the ground and the area around them was starting to look more and more like a glacier cave. How was he able to do this?

Moreover, they were both running out of space to fight on, and Raven was running out of items to throw his way. Todoroki dodged for a while, swiftly bending his body and turning his head at every strike she tried to deliver at him. He wasn’t even going in the direction of the bomb, but rather he was leading her along, stringing her as she attempted to fall into his step to deliver a blow. He was definitely better at hand-to-hand combat than she was, she concluded. If they were fighting with only fists, or if he managed to grab her somewhat, he could definitely overpower her. He stopped in his spot and Raven’s eyes locked in on a piece of concrete in the background, about the size of a football, but if she managed to land a blow on his head or organs somewhere—he would be out for the count.

In that split second where she put all of her focus on the rubble and stretched her soul out to grab the item, Todoroki dashed forward lightning-quick and sent a stream of ice right at her outstretched hand and then back at the piece of cement she was attempting to grab.

“Gah!” Her arm was struck backwards, slamming on the wall beside the door and encapsulated her entire left hand in ice like a makeshift hand-cuff. After several seconds of struggling, she finally let it come to her: she was stuck. She lost all feeling in her hand, and her arm was numbed from the elbow down. Even placing her free hand on her other wrist made her fingers nearly hurt to touch.

Todoroki sighed in front of her, letting out a plume of cold air like a puffing dragon.

“You’re strong, Roth, but you’re not as fast as me,” he monologued as he walked toward the bomb once more. He turned back to her and she narrowed her eyes at the sight of the lone grey eye filling with victory. “That’s where you fail as a Hero. Your Quirk is a dead giveaway every time you throw something since everything you pick up turns black. That’s like announcing your attack to your opponent.”

Wait— Raven thought. That moment when he was just dodging, leading her on a wild goose chase. He was really leading her to that once piece of cement since he knew that she would pick it up otherwise. With her distracted, he took advantage of the fact that he was stronger and managed to pin her to the wall.

“Better luck next time,” he said, a yard away from the bomb.

Raven let out a growl and slammed her boot down, streaking the ground black like she had taken paint and brushed it across the floor. The darkness crept up the bomb and up the remaining walls of the room. Todoroki’s eye grew wide, and he immediately dove for the bomb.

“Wait!” he shouted, swiping the area where it used to be.

While one portal swallowed the bomb up whole, another consumed Raven from behind her and released her from her confines. It looked as if she was being completely encompassed by black tar, eyes unblinking as she was sucked in.

“Better luck next time,” she parroted mockingly before she disappeared behind the wall completely. On the outside of the room, she took solace in knowing that Todoroki created his own demise by freezing the door and that entire wall shut. By how All Might didn’t call the match just yet, she figured that he had his own means of getting out of his own ice and she quickly raced down the hall and down the staircase.

“sh*t...!” Todoroki shouted from inside the room, falling to Raven’s deaf ears.

“Todoroki-san?!” Sato had cried from the earpiece. He had forgotten that the other boy was there. “What’s the matter? Did we secure the bomb?!”

“She escaped…!” Todoroki put his left hand on all of the ice he made and began to melt himself out.

“Who? Uraraka-san or Roth-san?”

He didn’t answer. The ice was becoming puddles underneath his boots.

“Todoroki-san, I’m going in now!” From the unsavory crunching sounds, Todoroki could tell that he was consuming sugar and a large scowl fitted itself on his face.

He had to hurry up to beat Roth completely.

“Tch.”

. . .

Inside the monitoring room, all of the students were alight with energy. They buzzed around their classmates like bees, all chattering about the highlights of the fight going down before them like they were watching an anime rather than their classmates duking it out.

“Did you see the way that she just broke off the ice like it was nothing?!”

“No way, how about twisting metal like it was nothing?! What a Quirk!”

“Oh god, these two are on a whole 'nother level! How manly!”

"So that's what a fight between a recommendation student and first place looks like...”

“All Might-sensei,” Yaoyorozu asked, raising her hand up politely.

“Y-Yes?” the man asked almost nervously, slouched over the control panel. Just what was Sir Nighteye teaching this girl? ! The tenaciousness, the technique! It was something he had never seen before.

“Are you allowed to move the bomb like that?” she asked.

All Might quickly flipped through his notecards, shuffling them at lightning speed to try and find one proper answer while his attention switched from Yaoyorozu to the screen in front of him.

“Technically, y-yes?” His voice almost lifted up in a squeak at the end, oh god.

“All Might, that doesn’t sound like a confident answer,” the frog girl, Asui, stated.

“A-As long as the bomb is not rattled or moved in a way that would normally detonate bombs, that should be fine!”

“Not gonna lie, All Might-sensei, that kinda sounds like you just made up the rule on the spot,” Kaminari commented.

“I-It wasn’t!”

As the students continued to tease their teacher and Number One Hero, one blond boy remained in the background. His arms were crossed and his posture was relaxed, but his eyes were frozen at the screen with horror.

. . .

Uraraka was getting used to the cold around her by this time, but she continued to shake from nerves at the sound of Roth and Todoroki fighting upstairs and in her earpiece. Without anything to do or anywhere to go, time moved slowly.

She sure hoped that Rachel was able to win, but Todoroki managed to cover the entire building in seconds. If she was cold, what about Rachel? The American was wearing even less than she was.

Suddenly the fight stopped, and all she could hear was the sound of heavy breathing and the click of feet thundering against the ground.

“Roth-chan?!” Uraraka cried into the earpiece. “Roth-chan, is that you?” Those footsteps came closer, but then her heart dropped to her stomach when she realized that those were much too heavy to be Rachel’s.

“Found you!” Sato cried from the entrance of the staircase. Only the whites of his eyes were visible from here in his sugar-rushed fueled state. He quickly charged toward her like a cheetah.

The girl let out a blood-curdling scream like she was in a horror movie.

“Uraraka!” Raven was dropping down toward the frozen girl in a flurry, popping in from the ceiling above. Brown hair fluttered in the air as she snapped her head toward Roth. “Now!” she gestured. A black circle burst from underneath Sato’s feet.

Sato was two steps away from falling into a miniature portal Raven made underneath his feet, and the moment he stepped into it—not even noticing its presence, his one foot slipped straight into it and brought him toppling over like a domino. The boy shouted on the way down, and Uraraka’s eyes widened at the moment. Hand coming down on Sato’s back like she was God giving punishment, or Iida on a regular day, Uraraka slapped the boy’s broad back and floated him upward toward the ceiling. Raven took Sato’s capture tape and used her power to wrap it around him swiftly, leaving one piece dangling down. Finally by Uraraka’s side, Raven’s soles slid against the ice and scattered snow across Uraraka’s ankles. In the background, the bomb floated behind her, and only the outlines of the item were visible to her. Raven whirled in on the girl. “How heavy can you carry something?”

“Roth-chan!” she gasped. Her nose and the tips of her ears were completely pink from the cold. The cartoonish blush on her face was even more saturated now. “You’re okay! W-Where’s Todoroki?!”

“I left him in the room. He’ll break free anything time now,” Raven urged. “What’s your weight limit on the things you can carry?” she asked again.

“T-Three tons!” Uraraka said, perking up. “If I go over, I’ll get really sick!”

Raven’s face showed shock, but quickly smoothed into determination. “I need you to do something. I have a plan.”

“Anything you want, Roth-chan!” She nodded her head once, her tone encouraging.

Upstairs, they heard a big crashing sound as wood probably splintered. Raven flinched slightly at the noise.

“Todoroki managed to escape. We don’t have much time!”

“W-Wait! I’m still stuck!” She gestured to the ice that crept up her feet all the way to her shins and then to the ice that surrounded all of them like a makeshift ice-rink. The girl looked up and then down.

“What’s your shoe size?” Raven demanded.

“H-Huh?!" Uraraka almost shrieked at the sudden shift in conversation. Even Sato looked confused from up on the ceiling.

“Your shoe size.”

“I’m twenty cm.!” Uraraka answered, still confused out of her mind.

“That’s close enough,” Raven said as she started to peel off her thigh-high boots in the middle of the hallway.

“W-Wait! Don’t do that here!” Sato demanded, voice more confused than anything.

“Don’t look then!” Uraraka shot back as she tried to wheel in on the boy to the best of her ability from her frozen spot.

(In the monitoring room, Mineta had begun to breathe and salivate so heavily that many people took one step away and back.

“A-All that leg…!” he sputtered, eyes looking as if he had taken every drug in existence.

Asui’s tongue immediately lashed out and knocked the boy flat on his stomach.

Iida, All Might, and Yaoyorozu all politely decided to ignore that as that all looked away.)

“Here,” Raven said, holding out the boots for Uraraka.

Even as she began to slip out of her shoes and to put on Raven’s she asked, “But what about you?” The black contrasted horribly with her pink-and-white bodysuit.

“I can levitate. Let’s go.” She immediately took off down the hallway, the bomb following her obediently. Uraraka nodded and was right behind her.

“Hey! Hold on!” Sato called out. “You can’t just leave me here!”

Uraraka raced back and grabbed the end of the capture tape before pulling him along like a balloon. “Right! Sorry!”

. . .

Todoroki’s steps lumbered down the hallway as the ice encasing his left side cobbled on the tile. He held true to his resolve, refusing to use his fire side completely as he melted the encasing of ice he had around the room to free him, but the steam and the little amount of heat managed to regulate his body temperature somewhat. He wasn’t shivering anymore—if that old man’s Quirk was good for anything it was that. He had even designed his Hero costume to attempt and nullify his fire powers as much as possible while hiding a heating device within the fabric, but against someone like Roth, that didn’t seem like the case.

That American was proving to be more trouble than she was worth.

There were still twenty minutes on the clock. That gave him plenty of time to find the two girls and get the bomb.

He had no idea if Roth had a limit to how many portals she could make, where she dropped the bomb, or how stealthy she could be. He had even forgotten that she could make portals in the first place. His head was doing backflips, trying to figure out her origin, where she had gotten this power, and why she was at U.A. He didn’t know much about the United States or their Heroes, but he knew that with an ability like that she would’ve been able to get into their top Hero school just fine. Todoroki ran around the fourth floor, arms pumping him along as he turned from side to side, throwing open every door possible to try and find the Villain team.

He ran out of another room, another dead end, and slid back out into the hallway. His snow boots crunched against the flakes of ice he created in his wake and his chest rose and fell with the exertion. He looked up, and his eyes widened.

There she was. Roth stood at the end of the hallway, the ground underneath her pitch back while the bomb floated behind her. She was clad only in her leotard and black athletic socks with her feet against the ground.

It was silent.

The two stood like that for a while—a standoff in the middle of the hallway with neither of them saying a thing.

Time continued to tick down and their classmates leaned forward with anticipation.

Todoroki took one step forward and the world spun again.

. . .

Raven turned in her spot and made a break for it, socks nearly slipping on the ground as she ran up the stairs with Todoroki quickly on her tail. She forcefully dropped her hand off the stair rail as ice crept up on it like it was glass on a winter’s morning. It was true—Todoroki was much faster than she was, and in his snow boots versus her footwear (or lack thereof) he was making strides much too quick for her liking. Her feet floated off the ground and she took off with a blast of energy, leaving him in her wake.

Throwing the nearest door open, Raven entered the room and almost fell to her feet as Todoroki released another burst of ice after her. It was clear that he was growing irritated by their game of cat and mouse from the knit of his eyebrows and the downturn of his lips. Raven’s hair whipped around her face as she bent her knees and dodged. His arm stretched out inside the room, nearly inches away from grabbing her shoulder, but they danced and jumped around the room like a game of pinball. Barely able to maneuver past his grip, a large black circle appeared on the wall and Raven immediately dove into it. The portal was nearly two meters in diameter, wide and swirling and if she predicted correctly—

Todoroki didn’t waste any time in jumping in after her, feet slamming harshly onto the ground when he made it on the other side, but she didn’t even pause or look back. The rooms of the building all became a blur as Raven took off into them, creating portals from one wall to the other and zipping past the empty space. The dual-haired boy was with her every step of the way, never hesitating to jump into her portals after her and landing like an Olympic hurdler.

To the cameras of the monitoring room, the two were blurs split by panels of the door frames and walls separating them.

Her feet finally touched back down to the ground, black streaking underneath her as she landed, forcefully skidding to a stop.

Raven’s back still faced him as he entered the room, the ringing in her ears from the pumping in her chest deafening.

This was it.

“This is the last room in the building. If you choose to leave, you’ll forfeit the match, Roth,” he stated, eyes narrowed. “You have nowhere to go. Surrender now.”

She remained still in front of him, chest rising and falling. Her eyes widened and then narrowed into slits.

This wasn’t going to end here.

Eighteen minutes on the clock.

I need to antagonize him, she thought. What would Terra or Jinx do?

Hurriedly, she pulled down one eyelid and stuck out her tongue at him. Confusion coursed through Todoroki’s expression and then quickly morphed into anger.

Crash!

You idiot, that’s what Beast Boy would do! she thought, on her feet in an instant.

A burst of ice headed straight for her, forcing her to duck and flip out of the way. It hit the bomb straight on, plastering it to the end of the wall like a bug in a spider’s web. Raven’s head snapped to the sight, eyes widening at the large iceberg that coursed from the door, as heavy as a waterfall in a still image. Her pale hand slapped against the wall, plunging the frame of the room in black as if Todoroki had stepped into an auditorium or a theater. The outlines of the frames of the room became visible to him and she yanked them out as if it was nothing. Metal pillars and planks of wood were thrown at him, crashing into his glacier and dusting the room with a light snowfall.

Nothing was getting to her, he angrily thought, dodging as if his life depended on it, jumping and running around the room to avoid her projectiles.

It was clear that she was tiring out earlier, but now that she was able to sit like a snake ready to strike while metal, cement, and wood came at him from all directions—he was the one who was facing the sleight of hand.

He was going to lose.

His first battle at U.A. and he was going to lose—and that damned old man was going to say he was right all along.

Todoroki snapped his head up. His decision was made.

“Sorry,” he suddenly rasped.

What—?

The ground vibrated. The air dropped several degrees. The rest of 1-A as nothing but pure blue and white slashed across the screens.

Within seconds, Roth’s side of the room became a giant iceberg.

Ice struck out of the building like needles in a pincushion.

“W-What?!” everyone from the monitoring room shouted.

“I-It’s a giant ice wall!”

"Todoroki, are you trying to kill a cute girl?!" Kaminari shouted into the air, his hands in his hair.

“A-Amazing…!” All Might said in awe. In a small confined space like that—He held up his microphone again. “Young Roth, are you able to continue?”

Todoroki scanned the ice for a small, darkened figure. She should be visible, he thought, irises bouncing wildly to get just a flash of purple in his ice. Where is she?! Silence. Chills ran up his limbs, but not from the cold.

“Young Roth?” All Might’s staticky voice asked from their earpieces. “Well then, if the Villain team is unable to continue—! ”

A cracking sound rang in Todoroki’s ear. His head snapped up. He suddenly felt pressure on his chest.

“Wait—!” he shouted, voice desperate. Where is she? Where is she?!

“Wait, All Might! Zoom out the cameras!” a voice said in the background.

“Oh my god—did they really—?!”

Todoroki’s head snapped down to his feet. His boots suddenly started to slide to one corner of the room, inch by inch until it was meter by meter. Feet buckling underneath him, his butt landed harshly against the cold ground as he continued to slide. Fear gripped him as he grabbed the end of his icicle, but the ground beneath him soon became vertical. The gravity of the room shifted. He rolled onto the window of the room and planted his feet on the glass. His head moved back and forth wildly, eyes zipping from left to right. The room had tilted ninety degrees. The window was right underneath him and— all he could see was the training ground below like a diorama. The buildings looked like building blocks and the people were like ants.

He was up in the air.

Grey and turquoise eyes widened as he took in the sight of the building down below, the corner cut off like a demolition project. Yellow and Pink blobs took the form of their teammates.

Earlier—she wasn’t just throwing things at him at random. Roth was secretly dismantling the unit of the room to remove it from the rest of the building.

The Villain team was insane.

“DID THEY REALLY MAKE THE ROOM FLOAT?!” his classmates shouted.

BOOM!

The ceiling! His eyes flashed upward.

Calamity came in the form of Roth Rachel. Panic surged in his system—and unconsciously, the alarms in his head forced a fire to blaze in his body.

His pledge to never use his fire side lasted only two days—because of her.

Roth came falling down the side wall as if it was the roof, hands encased in orbs of pitch black. Her hair was pulled back in the wind, darkness bubbled against her fingertips. Her feet were pulled up to her thighs as she levitated in the middle of the room. The room tilted, he hit the front wall with his back. She was impervious to the zero-gravity.

Blood boiling, the numbness of his ice side fading away—

Hackles raised, arm held up in a shield.

The ice on his side melted—fire blazed from his left arm.

“I-I can’t believe I’m seeing this! ” All Might chuckled nervously. She closed in on him.

So far he had managed to predict and outmaneuver every single one of her attacks. The only way he wouldn’t be aware of Raven’s attack—was if it wasn’t hers.

On the fifth floor, Urarka and Sato watched as the room raised further and further into the sky. The bound boy looked over at her in concern as her skin started to take a green tint, cheeks puffing out like a chipmunk, but her eyes were lit by a fire.

The ice around them melted and the room sloshed with water like a snow globe, but she remained as fresh as a spring’s day. Her hair whipped around her face, the light from his fire illuminated their eyes and pale features. Sweat dripped down his face as sparks continued to collide. Raven brought her hand down.

“I should be the one saying sorry. It’s over, Todoroki,” she said simply, stating the fact. She didn’t boast or gloat. Her eyes grew pure white.

They charged at each other. A plume of fire came right at her.

“Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos!”

Their classmates only saw red and black.

“Urgh!” Todoroki grunted as her blast hit him square in the chest. She emerged from the fire without a scratch. He doubled over, hands clutching his heart, but he found that his loss wasn’t over yet. He wasn’t afforded a break. The sound of roaring wind snapped him out of his short-lives stupor as the ground underneath him opened. His hair whipped around wildly, his feet and hands suddenly had no surface to stand on—he fell freely.

"The Villain team…!” All Might shouted.

Maybe this…was just how it was meant to be.

A zipping sound coursed throughout the air and his arms immediately snapped to his sides. He couldn’t fight back even if he tried. The capture tape wrapped around his body and the momentum coursed through him like a blow to the stomach.

With the air knocked out of him, body limp as he was yanked upward, Todoroki dangled like a pendulum in the air while red and white hair blanketed his face.

Rolling out of the room, one hand on the open doorknob, one foot planted firmly on what used to be the floor underneath the door frame, and one hand clasped tightly around the other end of the capture tape, Rachel Roth hung above him as her face eclipsed the sun above. He was in her spider’s web.

And she still remained wholly inexpressive.

“WINS!!”

Todoroki didn’t even dare looking back up.

“Good job, Uraraka,” Rachel said into the ear piece, voice devoid of emotion. “I’ll take over now.”

. . .

Sato could only watch in fascination as the girl in front of him threw up rainbows.

Those in the Hero Course had one class more than anyone else, and so by the time that she was let out for the day, the sun had already started to turn the sky a bright orange and the campus was nearly empty except for the other Hero students. Briefly, she wondered if she would cross paths with Mirio.

It was a mess trying to get past everyone else. The moment she stepped back into the monitoring room, the whole class flocked to her, giving her congratulations, sounds of awe, and even plain screaming from Kaminari. It was so overwhelming that she excused herself from the room under the assumption that she was going to accompany Uraraka to the nurse’s room, but she simply dropped the girl off and spent the rest of the period in the courtyard under the shade of a tree.

The locker room was even worse. With nowhere to run or hide, the other girls were merciless in wringing her into their conversation, asking her questions that she dodged and avoided back in the monitoring room. They were nice, sure, and sincere, but—Raven wasn’t looking to make conversation.

After finally slipping away from the rest of the class and being excused for the day, she returned back to the courtyard in the back of the campus. The gate would be filled with people now, and she’d rather take the entrance from the administration’s parking lot and loop around. But as of right now, it was quiet.

School started in April here, during the birth of spring and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. It was still true that she wasn’t fond of “girly” things, such as having flowers given to her, or of hearts, or chocolates on Valentine's Day, but she would’ve been blind to not admire the beauty in front of her.

With just her and the slowly cascading petals, she felt the most at peace than she’s ever been in months. Exhaustion sat heavy on her shoulders. Just as she thought, using that spell to blast Todoroki last minute took a lot out of her. To think that she had been reserving her energy by refraining from using magic just to feel like she was hit by a train. Or rather—tackled by a 140lbs boy. She closed her eyes and sighed deeply and lulled herself into a quick meditation.

Azarath...Metrion...Zin—

Snap!

Purple eyes flew open. Immediately whirling to the source, her hands were raised with dark orbs around them again, nearly plunging the nearby tree in black and ripping it from its roots when she saw who it was.

“Oh. Todoroki-san?” she asked, voice monotone as she wound her power down and lowered her hands. Even though he was staring at her intensely, she knew that he came here for a word. Walking over to him, she straightened out her school uniform, pulling down her skirt and adjusting the blazer. This is why she hated wearing skirts in the first place.

She stood in front of him.

Silence.

Anticipation, curiosity, confusion.

The sun's low position illuminated their figures, darkening their shadows. The distant murmur of students echoed in the distance, the rumble of the wind and the caresses of the flower petals were the very few things that anchored her to earth.

The faint kiss of ice sparked across her cheeks, bringing her swirling back down to consciousness.

“If you have something to say, say it,” she insisted. She had a train to catch.

Maybe he came to talk about the fight? Make amends? Declare her as public enemy Number One?

He stepped out from behind the shade of the cherry blossom and took one step forward. It was difficult to see while they were battling each other, but here Raven was able to get the full scope of his appearance. Even from afar, she knew that he had a symmetrical face without a blemish in sight, but here, now, she could tell that he was just as handsome as Aqualad, a boy she had a faint attraction to simply for his appearance. But Aqualad had planes of sharp features and a sculpted face, Todoroki could only be described as soft in comparison. Aside from his cool, narrowed, eyes there wasn't a single hard edge in sight. Although, the most eye-catching thing was his two-toned hair and his heterochromia iridis. Looking closer, she could tell that even his eyebrows and eyelashes were different colors. Even the scar did little to detract from his appearance.

“You… Who raised you?” he suddenly asked, voice low.

Then she remembered the icicles inches away from her torso mere hours ago.

“What,” she blurted unintelligently. Unaware, or maybe even uncaring of her discomfort, he pushed on. Out of all the things she expected him to ask, that wasn't it. If she was feeling anything at the moment, it was annoyance.

“I’ve never seen a Quirk like yours, and I don’t know much about American Heroes,” he said as he pressed his lips together and furrowed his eyebrows, looking at her as if she was a puzzle he couldn't solve. “How did you become so strong? Is your father a Pro? Your mother?” With every word, he got closer to her.

Anger, self-inflicted guilt and irritation, unrivaled desire to know more.

It built inside of her, an unsteady game of Jenga among a tidal wave of building blocks and wooden statues.

“My mother’s dead and my father is no hero,” she stated bluntly as she tried her best to quell her own anger. Who did he think he was? His eyes widened slightly at the news but he didn’t back off even from those invasive answers.

“Where did you get your power from? People aren’t born with this ability and skill,” he had said.

The Monks of Azarath had been training her the moment she was born for her inevitable doom, and then—it led to their own doom.

“Why should I tell you?” She tried her best to suffocate her own irritation. “Even that was none of your business. I don't even know who you are, Todoroki-san,” she said with sarcasm dripping from her tone.

While her point got across, it was clear that he still didn’t get her message of I’m not interested in talking. Go f*ck off. Negative emotions continued to roll off of him in waves and he was a tsunami. The Titans didn’t even learn of her past until last year, and they didn’t even learn of the truth until a month ago—when Trigon struck.

When Raven started to step away, he began to follow.

“I’m going to be the Number One Hero,” he stated, trailing after he as she began to leave campus.

“Congratulations.”

“What do you mean?” Her back was turned toward him, but he looked and sounded as confused as he felt. “Don’t you want to be Number One too?” he demanded.

She sighed as she turned around again, hand firmly on her gym bag’s strap. “Does it look like I care?”

“No…” he answered as if it wasn’t a rhetorical question. “But your face always looks like that.” Her eyebrow rose so far it appeared to be in the middle of her forehead.

Was there something wrong with her face? She couldn’t help that Trigon had the ugliest mug in the galaxy.

“Why don’t you?” His eyebrows furrowed again and the look he gave her was calculating, as if she was a chess game he couldn’t solve. “Everyone at U.A. wants to become Number One...!”

“Does it matter?” she said. Did she have to spell it out to him? He continued to give her a confused face and she exhaled out of her nose.

“I’m not a hero for something so useless. I’m just here to help people, and I don’t care if it’s when I'm at Number One or Dead Last.” She turned around fully to face him. He was stunned into silence at her words. She paused slightly, getting a read on him. He looked at her as if he had never seen the opposite gender before. “The issue's not me. Maybe there’s something wrong with you and everyone else for trying.” She fixed her tie and sighed slowly again. She had one foot up in preparation to leave again when he spoke up.

“My father, Endeavor—!” he hurriedly said once more before she left.

“Wait.” That got her attention. She perked up visibly, pausing completely. “Your father’s Endeavor?” He blinked at her owlishly at her change in engagement before allowing his features to morph into one of anger, allowing heavy shadows to fall across his face.

Suddenly, she blinked rapidly and grounded herself as an onslaught of heavy anger, frustration, irritation, and revenge hit her.

“So now you’re interested?” he spat at her, suddenly angry at her despite being the one to start the conversation. He stared at her face. “What is it? Are you a fan of that bastard?”

“What?” Confusion flashed through her face. His emotions changed so much it was giving her whiplash. “No, I—” She was stunned into silence when his anger was starting to affect her too. She clutched at her chest, feeling the boiling of her blood rise underneath her skin.

What was this guy’s problem?

“I’ve been looking for him,” she finally said straightening up. For that month she had watched him on the television knowing that he was the Pro-Hero that she found while under her father's influence. To her knowledge, he had left in anger knowing that she was being taken in by Sir Nighteye. Red Raven was someone she didn't even bring out to fight villains often, let alone someone who was supposed to be an ally. It ate her away for weeks. “If you’re his son, could you do something for me?”

“I’m not getting you a stupid autograph,” he immediately said. “Forget this.” He ended the conversation and became the one to walk away. Brief irritation coursed through Raven. She sent her shadow after him and grabbed his shoes, stopping his steps. Was this teenage rebellion?

“Let go—”

“I don’t want an autograph,” she said after him, “I just need you to tell him something." He didn't say a word and she took that as a sign to continue. "That...Rachel Roth is sorry. And it was never my intention to cause him trouble.” Raven took a step back and broke the connection between their shadows completely.

“...I don’t give a damned about what you have for that old man.” His eyes burned like two flames, the light streaking through the air as he whipped his head around to stare at her. His face was covered in the shadow of his fury. That was fair, Raven couldn’t actually force him to do anything. “And I don’t care about what you think of the Number One title, but know this, Roth. I’m going to do it, and I’m going to beat you.”

It seemed as if he finally got his two cents in and let out the last of his thoughts. He turned on his heels and walked away without looking back once. She was left alone in the courtyard.

He was the one that came up to her out of nowhere. He was the one that had the mood swings worse than Kitten.

So why was she the one that felt...conflicted?

She huffed softly as her eyes watched the spot he left empty.

This school and this universe was just too much trouble.

Chapter 6: Battle

Chapter Text

In the Todoroki Household, silence meant peace.

Silence was always accepted here.

It meant that Natsuo was happily off at college, that Fuyumi was grading papers without a care in the world, and that Shouto was left alone. For the entirety of his life, all he had ever wanted was to be alone. He wanted the freedom to do what he wanted, to like the Heroes that he wanted to like, be with his siblings or have extracurricular activities of his own choosing.

As it was with all of his problems, it started with Endeavor.

That’s why when the door creaked open, and when those lumbering steps made its way up the front steps, both him and his sister froze for a second. It was always instinctive, so deeply ingrained in them that it took their breath away, always feeling like a punch to the chest. Immediately, Fuyumi began clearing up her space while Shouto started to shovel away his udon noodles as fast as he could. It was in the sink and into the dishwasher in the blink of an eye, and he started his trek to his room. Then he would lock himself in and be silent for hours, pretending he didn’t exist to his own family until it was time to go to school.

He’d wake up when the sun rose, train with that man, and then head off to U.A.

He’d come home, and then he’d start all over again.

Shouto was halfway to his bedroom when Endeavor called out to him.

“Shouto.”

He continued walking.

“Shouto, don’t ignore me!” his father barked out. His figure was so wide that it nearly took up the width of the hallway.

“What,” Shouto spat, one hand on the doorknob. He always hated talking to him, always hated how his shoulders instinctively grew closer instead of squaring themselves, how his emotions were so easily obvious. He wanted to be impassive, flat, blank. He didn’t want to exist in front of Endeavor.

Shouto hated how that man always managed to get a rise out of him.

His voice always trembled with anger.

Briefly he wondered what he could do to feel nothing, to show that Endeavor was just dust in the air when herimpassive face flashed through his head. When they were chosen. When they fought. When she won. When he confronted her.

“U.A. sent me the videos of your battle trial today.” Shouto resisted the urge to grip the doorknob enough to morph the metal. Of course they did. He was an alumni. Furthermore, he was a Pro, and that meant that they expected Shouto to go to his father’s agency.

He was going to tell Shouto all about the things he did wrong during his battle. How he was a failure. How his training was going to be doubled in order to make up for the embarrassing and shameful loss to two girls who didn’t even have Hero parents.

“What did you think about that Roth girl?” Endeavor demanded instead.

It caught Shouto so off guard that his head snapped up and an unintelligent, “Huh?” slipped from his lips.

“The girl. She goes by the name Roth, yes?” Endeavor’s eyes narrowed but the flames of his beard only grew hotter. “Did you see anything strange? Did you catch anything out of the ordinary?”

“Why would you care?” Shouto snapped.

“Tch, I tolerate a lot of your ungrateful behavior, but you wouldn’t dare talk back to me like that, Shouto. Especially since I’m looking out for you.” Endeavor leaned in and Shouto felt a bead of sweat fall down his cold side. The man’s voice was low, but after years of conditioning, Shouto got the point.

“That girl is dangerous,” Endeavor told him. “It is in your best interest to stay out of her way, but if she exhibits any strange behavior, you tell me right away.”

“Why?” Shouto’s eyebrows furrowed. She was just a girl from America. Strange, yes, but hardly deserving of his father’s interest, especially if she was overseas.

Wait a minute— He had nearly forgotten in his anger that she had a word for his father. For causing him trouble somehow.

There was a connection between these two.

“What did she do? Who is she?” With that type of power, she had to be more than just a transfer student.

“You don’t need to know. Just avoid her.” With that type of tone, it was clear that Endeavor was dropping the conversation here, and there was nothing he could do about it. Shouto clicked his tongue and opened his door.

“And, Shouto,” Endeavor said. Shouto was glad that he was already one foot into the room so his gritting teeth weren't in view. “You’re finally getting over your rebellion and using your power. That’s good, you start your real training—”

“I’m never going to use fire as long as you live,” Todoroki said in an impressively restrained voice. “What happened with Roth was a fluke. Now leave me alone. I have homework.” The door slammed behind him and he counted off in his head the seconds before those heavy steps left the hallway.

He let out an audible sigh and climbed over to his desk.

He pulled up his laptop and signed into Endeavor’s Agency.

If there was one positive form having the Number Two Hero as a father, it was unlimited access to information.

Who are you, Roth Rachel?

Raven was already annoyed by the time she stepped onto campus. She always was whenever she took the crowded train; sweat and grime stuck to her skin and made her feel disgusting in her own clothes. Furthermore, it was getting difficult to sleep.

She always managed to pull away from her powers in order to get a night of restful sleep with meditation, but she supposed that after using one spell she was so detached from her own powers. It was like a tap that only gave her drops.

Sighing and shaking off her exhaustion, she headed off toward U.A. Everything was going well, no one bothered her as she walked toward the gate, and not even the students around her annoyed her with their loud chatter. It was almost peaceful, she thought.

Only to be hit with another onslaught of emotions, crashing on her like a wave. It forced her to stop in her tracks, and that gave the vultures enough time to flock toward her—crowding around her from every corner.

“Hey, you there! You’re an U.A., student right?” A microphone was shoved underneath her face so fast that it nearly uppercutted her. Before she had a chance to recover, the flashes of cameras blinded her eyes and the sound of shutters going off like crickets during a summer’s night rang in her head.

“What—?” she gasped out, trying to back up as much as possible without bumping into the people behind her.

“What’s it like being taught by All Might?” a female reporter from behind her asked, shoving another microphone to her mouth.

“Are you in the Hero Course? How is it? Got anything to say about All Might’s teaching abilities?”

“Do you have any comments about him?”

It was like being drowned.

“Excuse me,” she said, forcefully turning away and attempting to wedge herself through. She didn’t have the energy or time for this.

“Hey, wait!” A hand came down and grabbed her wrist. Immediately warning bells rang in her head and her breathing quickened. “Class doesn’t start for another ten minutes! You have time to spare—!”

“Don’t touch—!” she nearly growled out, eyes threatening to flash with red.

“Hey,” a smooth voice said off to the side.

The male who grabbed her turned his head and uttered out, “What?” before blanking out completely. It was like seeing a switch go off in the man’s brain. It only took her a second to understand what it was. Brainwash.

“Let her go.” She knew that voice. The hand dropped immediately without question. She turned her head and saw Shinsou with a surprised look. He was standing in the middle of the crowd looking just as annoyed as she was, but she was in such a jumble of emotions and feelings that she wasn’t able to get a good read on his.

It was clear that whatever hold he had on the reporter stopped because the man shook his head like a wet dog and instantly wheeled in on Shinsou. Fury was evident in the man’s eyes.

“Hey! Who do you think you are to use your Quirk on me? That’s not very befitting of a Hero school! Wait until they read that U.A. has lost its grasp on its students—!”

Shinsou’s face flashed with anger but he smoothed it out as soon as it came.

“You were making her uncomfortable. I’m not in the wrong here, you are,” Shinsou said in a bored tone. The Titan was surprised at how controlled he was at that moment.

If it was possible to see a face fill with pink as fast as an overturned cup of water, the man was capable of it.

“I’m going to—”

“If you’re harassing my students, you’re not going to be the one that’s doing anything,” another male voice said to her left. Raven turned and looked up, seeing Aizawa’s bored face looking back at her. Uninterested eyes met with hers. “Get to class, Roth. I’ll handle it from here.” From the way that Present Mic was sauntering up to the crowd and massaging his throat, she was sure that he was going to do something drastic to her eardrums if she didn’t leave soon. They left the speechless reporter in a flash, slipping through the crowd from the split that her teachers made.

Now past the gate, they were able to breathe.

Shinsou stayed only long enough to give her a quick once-over before turning away. That was to be expected. She chewed out his ego and stomped on his dreams within hours of meeting him.

“Thank you, Shinsou-san,” she said after him as he left. He paused slightly but didn’t turn around once to meet her gaze. That was fine. Raven thought nothing of it and began to walk to her locker to switch out her shoes, starting a new day at this irritating school.

“Settle down, everyone,” Aizawa-sensei said, walking up to the podium, looking as tired as she felt. He watched the classroom quiet down in record time with a satisfactory feeling. “Let’s get started.” He looked down at his podium. “Decent work on yesterday’s combat training. I looked over your video feeds and evaluations of your team’s results.” Even though he appeared to be singing praises, his voice was as monotone as ever, droopy eyes remained narrowed.

“Bakugou,” he called out and Raven watched as the boy who sat in front of her stiffened at the sound of his name. “You’re talented, so don’t sulk like a child about your loss, okay?”

Raven could feel irritation and annoyance roll off of him in waves before he clicked his tongue and huffed out, “Whatever.”

“And, Midoriya,” their sensei said.

Two seats ahead of her the boy nearly jumped in his seat before cowering like a cornered rabbit. Aizawa looked down at his papers. “I see the only way you won the match was by messing up your arm again.” He looked up without any hint of amusem*nt. “Work harder, and don’t give me the excuse that you don't have control over your Quirk.” The American felt her eyes narrow slightly. A bit harsh, even for her. It was clear that the boy had some kind of anxiety. “That line’s already getting old,” Aizawa snapped.

And besides, she thought, reclining in her rolling chair. Wasn’t the whole point of this school to learn how to use their powers? She read that in primary and junior schools that Quirks were completely off the table, and they were never taught or sometimes even explicitly prohibited on campus. The only time they would be able to control their Quirk would be learning at home, and here, the Hero school.

“You can’t keep breaking your body while training here.” He lowered his eyes once more. “But your Quirk will be very useful once you get a handle on it.” At those words, the boy perked up immediately from their teacher’s hot-and-cold way of complimenting them. Happiness bloomed off of Midoriya like it was spring. “So show a bit of urgency, okay?”

“Right!” She only saw the top of a bobbing green head, but his tone was shining with determination. Raven’s eyes remained narrowed on the book in front of her, even when she sensed their teacher turn her way.

“Roth, Uraraka,” Aizawa stated.

The brunette from across the room immediately yelped out a, “H-Hai!” straightening up immediately in hopes that he didn’t notice her try to balance a pencil on her upper lip, obviously snatched from her dreamland. The wooden pencil clattered loudly against her desk.

“Uraraka, despite your limit, you powered through to go through with the plan. You have a lot of potential. However.” He turned fully to her. “Roth, your communication skills were lacking. In addition to that, your plan was well-executed but dangerous. Trying to take apart a building from the inside without any further information can be disastrous for you and the people around you.” He stared her down like they were at crossroads, a standoff in the wild west. Her expression never changed, no spark of surprise when he called out to her, nor any anger or embarrassment from being evaluated publicly during class. She was like a mirror to him.

Blank, unfeeling.

He sighed. This class was going to be the end of him. The final nail in his coffin alongside his horrible sleeping schedule and his diet of missed meals and fruit pouches. “All in all… You were both quick on your feet and utilized strategies to take out your opponent, good job.” Uraraka let out a big sigh of relief from her lungs, expelling like a dragon.

That was a fair observation, Raven summarized. He didn’t know the true limits and expectations of her power. He came to a lot of wrong conclusions, probably holes that were filled in by previous umbrakinesis users, but it was strange receiving criticism on her powers, that a man who barely knew her believed that he was fit to challenge how she used her abilities.

“Todoroki, Sato. Your flaw was that you started out underestimating your opponents and were taken off guard immediately. I knew from the moment that I watched it that it was going to cost you your match,” he said shuffling the paper. “Don’t look grumpy.” Raven didn’t even need to turn around to see the burning glare that was on the back of her head. “You have potential. You’ll do better next time.” He didn’t say it as a question, but as a fact.

“Y-Yes, sir,” Sato said from his seat.

“Let’s get down to business,” Aizawa-sensei moved on. “Our first task will decide your future.” She could feel the temperature of the room drop as everyone leaned forward in their seats. Another Quirk test, they seemed to ask, another test to prove their worthiness? Did they have to mentally prepare to pack their bags now or later?

“You all need to pick a class representative.” Like a balloon expelling air, everyone relaxed.

“Oh, good just normal school stuff,” everyone seemed to chorus as sighs of relief echoed around the classroom like a choir.

“Pick me, guys!” Kirishima stood up in his spot, arms in the air. “I wanna be class rep!”

“I’ll take it!” Kaminari raised his hand.

“Yeah, you’re going to need me,” Jiro said.

Immediately when the volume of the room picked up the Titan sighed and closed her eyes to wane the impending headache. From every corner of the room, nearly every classmate of hers shouted out that they should be the class president and why. She could just see the shouting match between Cyborg and Beast Boy and them—a competition of who could burst Raven’s eardrums first. In the seat in front of her, Bakugou roared as if he was at a screamo concert.

Her savior came in the form of Iida, who called the room to silence and demanded that the only way to properly do it is through a “democratic” election.

“It’s pretty obvious that you want us to vote for you,” the classroom said together.

“Is this really the best idea?” Kaminari asked, looking at Iida’s raised hand.

“We’ve only known each other for a few days, how do we know who we can trust?” Asui asked, voice gravelly.

“Besides, everyone will just vote for themselves,” Kirishima said, shrugging.

“That’s why an election is the best way to do it! If a majority of the people vote for themselves, that means that the person with the most votes will be the most eligible! Is that right, sir?!” Iida turned to Aizawa who was zipping himself up in that garish yellow sleeping bag already.

“Do what you want,” he said, looking like a giant tempura shrimp. “Just decide before my nap’s over.”

“Thank you for your trust!”

It’s great to know that our adult supervision is stellar too, she thought sarcastically, turning her bored purple eyes around the room, watching the chaos.

It was almost familiar in a way.

The classroom eventually settled down and everyone was given a slip of paper as their ballot. She leaned back in her seat as she stared onward. She wasn’t a leader, but—

She looked at the seat ahead of her as the blond boy shook with anger writing his name down on the ballot, pressing the pencil down hard enough to mark the desk.

Raven would be damned if she encouraged a dictatorship by someone like Bakugou.

Bakugou was strong, she gave him that, and people always looked up to powerful people, which was the problem. Slowly, she turned her head around the classroom to try and find someone worthy enough to mark down. Iida Tenya and Yaoyorozu Momo were immediately good candidates. He recommended the election and called everyone’s attention, but—

Yaoyorozu was less uptight, had the highest written grades, and was a recommended student.

Scribbling down the other girl’s name, she passed her ballot forward.

Several moments later all of the ballots were accounted for and everyone’s name was written on the chalkboard. Yaoyorozu and Midoriya’s names stood out with three votes each.

“How did I get three votes?!” Midoriya shouted like a scrambling puppy in a cage.

“Alright!” Bakugou slammed his hands down on the desk. “Who voted for him?!”

“You seriously thought that anyone would vote for you?” Sero smirked from his seat.

“What did you just say?!” Bakugou shouted. He immediately whirled around on his spinning chair and stared at her straight on. “You! Blacktop! You’ve been babying Deku from the very first day, was it you?!”

To the amazement of others, she didn’t flinch at the smoldering look in front of her. Instead she calmly turned to Tokoyami next to her.

“Do you hear something?” she asked to the boy’s amusem*nt. He shrugged his shaking shoulders and gave her a small smile.

“Don’t ignore me, Blacktop!”

“It’s probably just a fly,” Tokoyami goaded.

“RAHHH!” If Raven was a little bit more malicious, maybe his irritated shout would’ve been music to her ears.

“But,” Asui said, putting a finger to her lips, “it’s a tie. What are we going to do now?”

“We can’t have two Class Reps, right?” Sero asked, blinking widely.

“This is U.A.!” Mina threw her hands up gleefully. “We can do whatever we want!”

“I don’t think it works like that,” Kirishima said kindly.

“Yaoyorozu is hotter,” Mineta commented, immediately receiving a slap in the back of the head.

Ojiro commented, “Maybe we could just settle this with rock, paper, scissors?” He shrugged. The two victors looked at each other from their desks and came forward. Three beats later, Momo came out on top with her paper to Izuku’s rock.

“Alright,” Aizawa said from his sleeping bag. “Your Class Rep is Yaoyorozu.” Everyone turned to the boy shaking like a leaf in front of the class. “And our Deputy is Midoriya.”

“R-R-Really?!” Izuku said, quivering.

“Can’t say that I expected this either,” Yaoyorozu said. She visibly exhaled and looked at the boy. “In any case.” She put one hand on her chest. “I look forward to working with you, Midoriya. Let’s both do our best.”

“Y-Yes!” The girl held out her hand for him to shake and in his fear and nerves, he missed her hand completely.

Someone could’ve fried an egg on his face from how hot it was getting as the students all laughed at his nervousness, but this time, it was out of silliness, and not maliciousness. A small smile fitted on Raven's face. It was nice, she guessed, doing normal school stuff like this. The stressors of teenage children were an easy distraction for the turmoil in her head.

To her own surprise, Raven wasn’t in the mood to be in the library today. She had already turned in her stack of books from the other day and decided to give herself a small break before she continued to devour every written piece this school had. Besides, she thought, she was getting sick of the vending machine foods. It would do her body some good for once if she didn’t live off on two meals a day and one sugary drink.

The cafeteria was packed to the brim but the space itself was as big as a hall in a convention center. The line curled around the corner but was moving fast and she managed to grab a tray of the nearest item before heading further into the cafeteria. The seating had an upstairs area as well as balcony seats. Raven was lucky enough to find a completely empty table in the back corner of the first floor. Right as she made her way there, sliding her tray across the long table and taking her seat, she looked up and met eyes with another purple-haired teen. She paused and moved as slowly as if she was underwater. He was across the room, wordless. They locked eyes, staring at each other from their faraway distance, neither making any expressions, an indication of words or feelings until she heard a throat clear from above her. Iida, Uraraka, and Midoriya were standing above her nervously, cutting into her view. When she looked back up, Shinsou was gone.

“Hi there, Roth-chan!” Uraraka said cheerfully. “Do you mind if we sit with you?”

Raven eyed the empty seats at the other end of the table.

“Yes, we were on the lookout for some seats when Uraraka-san here found you and insisted that we sit with you!” Iida said, sounding like he was reading out of a brochure.

“O-O-Only if you allow us to!” Midoriya said nervously. “W-We can leave if you want your alone time!”

U.A. was like a whole different world, so many different people and features, with such grand classrooms and facilities that made Aldera Junior High seem like it was crafted out of dust and dirt. Yet, among the shiny, well-funded rooms and school supplies, now—

He had people to eat lunch with.

Lunchtime was always the hardest part for him. It wasn’t the actual classes themselves since he was faintly protected by the teachers and their activities, but rather it was the off times that he had. U.A. was the first time that he had sat down at a table in the cafeteria and the people before him didn’t immediately get up and scatter like flies.

Roth was one of the quiet ones, and he had never had problems with them before. They would normally mind their own business when he sat down at the table with them, but he could always feel their gaze and their judgement on him, feeling more and more like stone than if they had just left the table. It was worse wondering what they felt about him than knowing exactly what their feelings were.

She was sitting alone when they went up to her, shoulders slouched over her tray while the sunlight from the giant windows cascaded over her figure like a halo.

“I was the strongest student back at Aldera!” He remembered Kacchan yelling at him yesterday, voice cracking and growing hoarse. It rubbed like sandpaper over their eardrums. “But that doesn’t even mean sh*t here! I couldn’t even come in first in the exams…! I thought it was a flucking fluke! But then I watched that ice guy and the damned American… I realized that I couldn’t even beat them in a head-to-head fight! I would’ve been crushed!” Kacchan sobbed while the orange sun drooped over the both of them.

Kacchan… Izuku mused watching Roth eat by herself. Is going to go after her.

But she seemed like she only wanted to be left alone.

“Do whatever you want,” she said, shrugging. Like a domino effect, the three immediately fell in place in the seats around her. Midoriya to her left, Iida in the seat directly across from her, and Uraraka in the seat diagonally to her.

“I-it’s nice to meet you, Roth-san,” Midoriya said softly. “I-I’m Midoriya Izuku.”

“I know you,” she said nonchalantly. When the boy immediately stiffened, she continued. “You’re the boy who keeps on injuring himself.”

“I-I’m sorry!” He flinched.

“...Why are you apologizing?” She shrugged once. “I’m just stating a fact.”

“And I am Iida Tenya. I’m afraid we never formally introduced ourselves to each other. I’m sure you’ve already met Uraraka-san though.” He gestured to the small girl beside him like he was directing traffic.

“Say, Roth-chan,” Uraraka said, grinning widely. “I just wanna say that you were so cool yesterday!” Raven looked up at her. “Like, you know how they sent everyone the videos to our email with their notes on the side? I watched your entire fight with Todoroki-kun and you were like ‘Bam!’ and ‘Woosh!’” She raised her arms and mimicked Raven using her telekinesis, the sound effects spilling from her lips naturally. “I don’t know how I’d be able to win against someone like Todoroki-kun and Sato-kun without you!”

“Y-You shouldn’t discredit yourself like that, U-Uraraka-san,” Midoriya meekly said from her side. “You have a powerful Quirk too.”

“He’s right,” Raven spoke up surprisingly. “I wouldn’t have been able to win without you.”

Uraraka’s cheeks colored immediately, and she distracted herself by quickly scooping fluffy rice into her mouth, sagging her shoulders in bliss. “It was so scary when Aizawa-sensei called on our names today, huh? I thought that we were gonna be in trouble for sure!” she said with her chopsticks in her mouth.

“Please do not talk with your mouth full! But,” Iida said, pushing up his glasses. “I do not think that either of you had to worry. Aizawa-sensei sees your potential, you and Roth-san both. I’m sure of it!” He paused for a bit before turning to the only other male at the table. "I'm sure that people are recognizing your potential as well, Midoriya! That was why you were elected as Deputy Representative, after all!"

“Aw, thanks, Iida-kun!” Uraraka perked up visibly.

"About the whole class rep thing..." Deku looked down at his bowl of rice. "I don't think I'm qualified..."

"Sure you are!" Uraraka said cheerfully.

"You'll be great," Iida said. At Midoriya's surprised look he continued, "Your courage and quick thinking makes you a worthy leader, not to mention the strength you've demonstrated. Those are the reasons why I voted for you at least."

The green-haired boy nearly leapt up out of his seat in surprise, jolting so much that Raven had to clutch her bowl of miso in a death grip as he jostled her. Genuine surprise, insecurity, but happiness rolled off of him in waves. His emotions had always been powerful, she thought, but sitting right next to him made her straighten up and blink rapidly in surprise as she felt her own eyes sudden water and threaten to spill tears.

I don't normally feel it this much... she thought.

"Y-You were one of the three?!" Midoriya asked, clearly moved.

"Oh, are you feeling okay, Roth-chan?" Uraraka suddenly asked, watching Raven with concern as she brought her napkin up to dab at her eyes.

"I got an eyelash in my eyes..." she muttered softly, blinking rapidly to clear her waterline.

Uraraka brightened up immediately, and Raven recognized that the girl's emotions cleared like the clouds after a storm after confirming that Raven wasn't crying. "That's good! For a second, it looked like you and Deku-kun were gonna cry together! But he's kinda a crybaby, huh?"

"U-Uraraka-san!" Midoriya floundered, but his scrambling words didn't make any effect on his friend. Uraraka had a finger up to her chin.

"I’ve been wondering about something though," the brunette said, her face deep in thought. She eventually brightened up and snapped her finger. "You’re an American, right?”

“...Yes.” Raven placed her napkin down and her face was back to its stony expression. It was like she had become a marble bust with how much her face moved.

“People usually call each other by their first names there, huh? I know that Kirishima-kun from class calls you by your first name! Do you want us to call you by your first or last name?” Her eyes were wide with curiosity.

She shrugged carelessly. “I answer to both,” she said in a tone that left off the feeling of I couldn’t care less.

“Surely you do, but as our transfer student, we must be good ambassadors to the people around us and show that we want to make you as comfortable as possible here! We can be accommodating as well!” Iida said with exuberance. “It must be difficult adapting to a new culture on top of being in U.A.’s Hero Course.”

“Like I said.” Raven turned her eyes to him. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Rachel is a cute name though, right?” Uraraka grinned. Although whenever the people spoke it here, it came out of their mouths more as Reicheru Ross. “Rachel-chan it is then!”

“Although,” Iida spoke up. “I must admit that there has been something I’ve been curious about the entire time here.” He pushed up his glasses and looked directly at her. “What brings you to U.A.? Surely with your strength, you would’ve been able to enter the best Hero school in America. I heard that their facilities rival ours, and in many aspects, some people say that it even surpasses U.A.!”

"America is the home of the heroes!" Midoriya chimed in.

Raven tilted her head as she stared at him head-on. It was an honest question and there wasn’t any harm in it. “...I permanently live in Japan now,” she said.

"Oh, really?" Uraraka asked curiously. "Did one of your folks get a job here or something?"

“I was recently adopted,” she answered bluntly.

Silence filled the table when the three connected the dots.

The chair underneath Iida screeched loudly when he stood up from his seat and started clapping quickly like he was trying to break the sound barrier with his hands.

“Apologies for my insensitivity!” he immediately said, still clapping wildly. “But I will say, congratulations! This must be a momentous occasion! I wish you the best for your found family!” She held back the urge to forcefully pull him back down to his seat when the people surrounding them looked back at them. Sighing deeply, Raven forced herself to shrug carelessly.

"I wasn't like I was trying to hide it," she said, averting her eyes from the group.

“S-Sorry for asking,” Midoriya muttered shyly as Iida sat back down. “I-Iida-kun’s a bit...intense, but he doesn’t mean any harm.”

“You should stop being so shy too, Deku-kun!” Uraraka giggled. “We all know that you’re dying to ask Rachel-chan questions!”

“What,” she said, snapping her head toward the boy.

“I-I-I—” the boy yelped and started to wave his hands around while his face turned as pink as bubblegum. “I’m sorry!”

“Deku-kun’s a hugeeee Quirk Otaku!” Uraraka said, holding out her hands to gesture. “He’s been dying to ask you about your Quirk, 'cause you're super strong and all!” Uraraka lifted up one arm and mimed flexing.

“Otaku?” Raven parroted with one eyebrow raised. “Isn’t that an insult?” She turned to the boy who looked like a broken motor by the way he was sputtering and from how steam was practically coming out of his ears.

“I-I mean—Uraraka-san isn't wrong though! I-I wasn’t going to be as direct but—” His notebook labeled "Hero Analysis for the Future No. 13" was already out and in his hands. Strangely, it was scorched and burnt at the edges, like someone took a lighter and streaked it against the corners. “I-I’ve been intrigued by your Quirk since the day I saw it! I saw your video with Uraraka-san too, and I couldn’t wrap my head around your weight limit! Rarely anyone uses Darkness Manipulation to pick up objects, so there wasn’t a lot of information online about how heavy you can carry things! People said that it’s limited to the size of your shadows, but even in a room with little to work with, you managed to pick things up seemingly without any stress! I’ve been looking up some forums from other Darkness Manipulation users, and none of them have ever thought or mentioned using it in the way that you did! Usually people just use it to create projections out of shadows, kinda like Tokoyami, but Dark Shadow is capable of his own thought and autonomy. But no one has ever used it to make portals or to even to use it as a form of telekinesis o-or even flight! It’s so rare!” he gushed talking at a mile a minute. “Maybe you were inspired by Captain Celebrity?”

Did he do this often? Talk people's ears off?

“Captain Celebrity?” Iida asked. “Who is that?”

“He’s one of the top rank Heroes in America!” Izuku said, turning his head so fast that his mound of fluffy hair bounced. “His Quirk is Flight, but he has some support gear that creates a field of telekinetic energy! One of his most popular videos is him carrying an entire cruise ship!” He then turned back to her with anticipation and excitement in his eyes.

At Raven's expression, Uraraka elaborated, "Woah! An entire cruise ship?! So cool! You know, I nearly got sick trying to lift that room up in the air! But Rachel-chan carried it back down without a sweat! America really does make Heroes different, huh?"

"Uh... So…” Raven rarely ever talked, but she was at a loss for words. He talked so much that she had issues following. “You wanted to know my weight limit, right?”

“P-Please!” he shouted while Uraraka giggled in the background. With that question, Raven had to think.

“I never physically measured,” Raven muttered, almost to herself. Thinking back to all of the objects that she had picked up before, she couldn’t recall ever having a limit. Perhaps a whole building would be too much to carry? She would definitely be able to wrap her soul projections around it, but it would be such a large, clunky object that she would have difficulty keeping her eyes on all of it.

“Oh, well—” His pencil hovered above his paper in anticipation. “What was the heaviest thing you ever carried? I guess that would be the unit from your Battle Trial, but then again there was nothing in the room, and—”

“...I used two buildings to sandwich someone in between once,” Raven said, almost musingly, thinking of her irritation when Slade got out scotfree. Izuku made a strange squeak at the back of his throat.

Iida made a suspicious choking sound from across her. “T-Two buildings?!” he nearly exclaimed, with a still rough throat. “You used two buildings to crush someone?!”

“Woah…” Uraraka said in awe, head up in the clouds.

She looked at him and furrowed her brows. “There wasn’t anyone in the buildings, and I didn't kill him.” God, she wished she did though.

“That’s not the issue here!” Iida said exasperatedly. “Why did you try to crush someone with the buildings?!”

“...He was hurting my friends,” Raven said as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

“Why did you not wait for the authorities to handle it?” He waved his hand back and forth.

“A-Ah, Iida-kun, America has more relaxed rules on that, remember?” Midoriya said, leaning against the table. The United States of America had a troublesome issue of “looking the other way” if the vigilante managed to deescalate the situation, but it was entirely their own fault if they managed to get hurt or made the situation worse. Many Heroes in America came from a vigilante background in America, while in Japan Quirk use was purely for self-defense only. In Roth’s situation, both scenarios applied. “I-I’m sure the situation was dire.” He looked at her as if to get confirmation or reliance. “A-And I’m sure Roth-san is more than capable of handling a villain situation!”

Iida held eye contact with her for several seconds longer before giving in, sighing. “My apologies. I jumped to conclusions before realizing the nature of your situation. I guess it is because my family members are Heroes that it always seemed natural to let the Pros handle difficult situations.”

“Your brother’s a Pro-Hero?!” Izuku and Uraraka nearly screeched.

"You know, I've been wondering something about you—" Uraraka's cheeks glowed with pink. "Admit it! You're filthy rich!" she said as her voice pitched.

"Uh—" Iida looked at her in surprise before sighing in resignation. "I was worried that people would treat me differently if they knew about my family..." Uraraka and Midoriya could've started a fire with how intense their stare was.

Iida eventually chuckled and filled with pride like a peaco*ck. “You see, the Iida family has been Pro-Heroes for generations! It's in our blood!"

"That's awesome!"

"Are you all familiar with the Turbo Hero Ingenium?”

“I know all about him!” Midoriya said with red cheeks. “He’s a super popular Pro with sixty-five sidekicks working alongside him at his Tokyo agency.” Midoriya quieted immediately, looking at the boy in front of him in a new light. “Don’t tell me…”

Iida squared his shoulders and pushed up his glasses, letting the gleam flash across the lens. “He’s my older brother!”

“You’re really famous!” Uraraka cheered.

“I can’t believe it!” Midoriya squealed.

The bespectacled boy in front of her went on a tirade, honoring his brother and the older man's actions with nothing but pure respect in his voice. “Ingenium is a hero that I hope to become one day,” Iida said with pride.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever seen you smile, Iida-kun!” Uraraka said with a smile of her own. “You should do it more often!”

“What do you mean I smile all the time—” The blue-haired boy opened his mouth to let more words spill out but was suddenly interrupted.

Several things happened all at once.

“Warning: Level Three Security Breach. Please evacuate the building in an orderly fashion. Warning: Level Three— ”

Raven’s reaction was automatic, getting up on her feet in an instant and nearly knocking the table and her tray with her knees.

Her brain was forcing her to go through the motions. Get up. Get ready. If you are in your rooms, make sure to pick up other Titans on your way. Report to the living room for a debriefing. Head out.

But she wasn’t in the Titan Tower.

Raven’s feet ended up carrying her to the large windows as Iida asked a scrambling third year what the situation was. The room was thunderous with every foot carrying them out of the room and into the hallways. Narrowing her eyes, she saw a mass of reporters and cameramen pushing up against the large metal gate while a large yellow dot (who she assumed was her English teacher) yelled at them.

“What are you waiting for?” Uraraka said, pulling on her sleeve and stringing the girl along. “We have to get going!”

“Wait—!” Raven tried to say, but the words were struck into silence when several groups of people pushed up against her. Before she knew it, she was in the middle of the crowded hallway, in a sea of panicked students whose emotions pounded on her brain and whose elbows and shoulders physically pushed up against her.

“Rachel-chan!” Uraraka cried out, her round face almost comically mushed up against some other students’ elbow. Her four fingers held on for dear life to Raven’s uniform sleeve but immediately yelped and dropped it when another student pushed into her smaller body with their shoulder.

“Don’t shove her!” Raven barked at the unassuming student, pushing them away forcefully and grabbing Uraraka. She was growing more irritated by the second. Every grain of sand in the imaginary hourglass added to her anger and frustration.

“There’s no need to worry, every—ack!” Iida tried to say from beside them, but was silent immediately when his face was pushed up against the wall.

“Iida-kun!” Uraraka said, hand reaching out for his. The two were stretched out from across the pandemonium, fingers inching closer and closer until all five of her fingers tapped against his and floated him above the ground.

His engines sputtered like a car, but shot him off like a rocker, spinning across the air until he landed splat above the exit sign on top of the door.

“Listen up!” Iida shouted, voice booming above everyone else’s. “Everything is okay!”

Like a chain reaction, everything stopped.

Iida’s pant legs were rolled up to his knees, revealing his engines and the comical shaking from his nerves as if he was a skeleton brought to life. “It’s just the media outside! There is absolutely nothing to worry about!”

Currently too busy looking at him, all of the chaos dropped. Raven was able to breathe again. Her shoulders slumped significantly.

"Emergency-exit" Iida came to the rescue.

. . .

In the end, Midoriya ended up handing the role of Deputy Rep to Iida and everyone cheered him on. The press were forgotten as everyone looked forward with the next step in their path. The Hero Course moved on to their next assignment.

The Unforeseen Simulation Joint.

She had to admit, for all of the showboating and glamour that U.A. was, she would be lying through her teeth if she said it wasn’t that amazing. They had an entire forest to themselves on top of the regular campus that housed the everyday school building, but a whole facility that they had to take a bus to was just showing off at this point.

Raven was dressed in her Hero costume again, standing off to the side while nestling a can of green tea in her hand to calm her slight nerves. Rescue training was different from combat training. While she did rescue people In Jump City, it seemed like her and Aizawa-sensei had two different ideas of what rescuing really was. Aizawa’s idea was natural disasters, falling buildings, hostage situations, etc. Raven’s idea was “fight the villain until they stop bothering the civilians.” She never had to deal with things like that before; the things that they would normally leave up to the police, firefighters, and first responders.

She might’ve been on top of it when it came to battle training, but after they went through the proper protocols of rescue training, she wasn’t sure how well she would fare.

Ensuring the safety of the victims, clearing the area, then assessing the damage. They would have to even assure the victim and comfort them before tending to any possible wounds.

She didn’t have time for nice words and gentle comfort. She wasn’t Starfire.

Her head turned when she heard a shrill whistling coming from Iida.

With one arm up in the air he dropped the whistle from his mouth. “Class 1-A, line up! Using your student numbers, we will be filing into the bus in two efficient lines! C’mon, gather around—!” He looked like he was ready to take on the world with how demanding and efficient he was being.

. . .

Only to be defeated by a seats that faced inward instead of forward.

“The bus’s layout has ruined my boarding strategy!” Iida said dejectedly not one second later, his head hanging low. In the front of the bus the seats faced one another, while the back of the bus had normal, two-person seats on either side of the transportation. Raven silently walked past him as she sipped carefully on her tea, patting his lowered head absentmindedly like she was petting a dog. Plopping down into her seat in the far back of the bus, she stared at the commotion in front of her.

“Dude, you need to chill out sometimes!” Ashido said as Iida wailed in anguish.

There was no need to be dramatic, she thought. To think he spent his personal time making a seating arrangement for all of them.

“That must get old fast,” Raven muttered almost to herself while she watched Iida move robotically, a mess of failing limbs and loud words.

“Do you really think so?” a calm voice said from behind her, and Raven applauded herself for not visibly flinching or stiffening.

“Yaoyorozu-san,” Raven greeted, even if her voice held the same drab tone. “Shouldn’t you be doing your job as Rep instead of, uh, Iida?”

“Iida-san and I have actually known each other from childhood,” Yaoyorozu said as if that answered her question. “Our parents are acquaintances, so I know how happy Iida-san gets from this, so I see no harm in it.” Sensing Raven’s waning disinterest in the conversation, she continued further. “Roth-san, I just want to say, thank you for your vote.”

That nearly made her drop her drink.

“Huh?” Raven blurted out. She straightened up her spine. How did—

Purple eyes flitted around the bus until they landed on one slouching figure.

Todoroki.

The boy sat behind her, so he must’ve seen her slip of paper.

“Todoroki told you?” Raven said through nearly gritted teeth.

“Yes, but please do not be mad at him. He told me in confidence, but I did not feel as if I could let this go.” Yaoyorozu shifted slightly in her seat and leaned closer to the shorter girl. “I do not know what I did to gain your support, but I wanted you to know that I am very grateful for it,” the girl said sincerely, voice bleeding with faith as a slight pink filtered on her face.

Feeling awkward all of a sudden, Raven turned away and looked down at her lap. She hid the truth of her feelings for the girl. There was no point in telling Yaoyorozu why she really chose her for Class Rep.

“It’s whatever. You’re a recommendation student,” she said instead.

“I assure you I will not let you down!" Her eyes lit up like fireflies in the dark. "I wonder who the other person that voted for me is. Though, I have to admit, I was not expecting you to—”

“If we’re gonna talk about a flashy Quirk, then Rachel-chan’s definitely gonna be on top!” Kirishima’s voice suddenly said from the front of the bus, bringing all the attention on her.

“Excuse me?” Raven blurted out once every eye was on her.

“I mean, c’mon!” Kirishima gestured silently. “You have the moves, the power! You’ve got flashiness to spare!” She’s been called a lot of things but flashy was not one of them.

“But not as flashy as moi,” Aoyama spoke up, face frozen in that tight-lipped smile and shining eyes.

“Maybe you can say that again when your stomachache doesn’t take you out,” Mina said, patting his sparkling cape consolingly.

“Bakugou and Todoroki both have amazing Quirks too,” Kirishima said, in thought. “Definitely show-stopper!”

“Yeah, but Bakugou has a terrible personality, so he’ll never be popular,” Tsuyu said bluntly.

“The f*ck did you say to me?!” Bakugou suddenly said, standing up and leaning against the bar as he shouted at the girl. “I’ll kick your ass!”

“See?” Tsuyu said, pointing at him.

“You know, we’ve literally just met you,” Kaminari said, “so it’s kinda telling that we all know your personality is flaming crap wrapped in garbage.” He shrugged and whistled as if he didn’t poke the sleeping bear.

“You’ll regret the day you applied to this school, you loser!” Bakugou roared while the bus erupted in laughter. Threats and jabs started to be thrown around the bus.

“This is such a disgusting conversation,” Momo said, putting a hand over her mouth, pointedly toward Raven. Uraraka suddenly popped out of nowhere like a whack-a-mole on the other side of Yaoyorozu.

"Yeah! But it's kinda funny, huh?" she cheerfully said.

“We’re here,” Aizawa said, shutting down all of the commotion. “Stop messing around.”

The bus beneath them lulled to a stop and everyone filed out as quickly as they could, slipping past the sliding doors with excitement as they stepped in front of the building before them.

It was large, impressively so, with two thick wooden double doors and a large domed roof built out of glass that seemed to mirror the sky. It was as big as the mall that they had in Jump City, and stepping inside, Raven thought that maybe it was even bigger. The space inside appeared to be endless, split up into different sections of disaster as Thirteen, the space Hero, led the group.

Landslide, fire, cave-in, hurricane, etc. The fire in the building burned endlessly without any material fueling it, and the pool off to the side flowed endlessly.

“So cool!” Kaminari said beside her. Tiny sparks emitted off of him like he was a carpet and she had just rubbed her socks on it. “It’s like an amusem*nt park!”

“This isn’t playtime,” Aizawa monotonously said from up front.

It was in the middle of Thirteen’s conversation about their Quirk, Black Hole, that Raven felt her heart drop to her chest.

The lights went out.

The hair on the back of her neck rose.

A black portal opened up, swirling slowly and spinning unlike hers, constantly dragging, enticing, uninviting.

Light, messy hair, and dry, cracked skin.

“Thirteen!” Aizawa’s desperate voice said as he fitted his golden goggles over his eyes. “No matter what, protect the students!”

“My apologies for barging in like this,” a third voice said. Raven twisted around in her spot, looking at all of the villains filtering in through portals and staring frustrated at every blocked entrance they had. “We are the League of Villains. We will be taking over from here.”

When Raven opened her eyes, she was in a burning building.

From the crackling of the flames surrounding her to the thundering of the footsteps stampeding toward her it didn't take long for her to recollect the memories of several seconds ago. Blearily looking forward from blurry, groggy eyes, she looked at Koda, her classmate who was shaking her awake worriedly while constantly checking the door. They were on the top floor, she noticed, looking out the window.

"Koda-san?" she asked slowly, carefully sitting up. The fire wasn't spreading, she realized. She was in USJ.

First it was the lights, and then both the telephone and radio signals. A portal opened up from the fountain in the middle of the room and suddenly more appeared, villains of all shapes, ages, and sizes walked out with violence on their brain and smirks on their lips.

Her breath hitched, startling Koda as the large boy scrambled back in surprise. She twisted and turned in place, eyes gathering every inch of the building. For a second, a flash of uselessness that struck through her veins like lightning. She could've used her portals to get somewhere—but it was her own fault that she wasn't keeping track of how far they were driving, what directions they took in the forest to USJ. She had no idea where she was in the dome, her portals only allowed her to travel so far, let alone how to get back to the authorities even if she did manage to get outside. She let out a groan as more memories bombarded her head.

Aizawa rushing into the scene, Raven stepping forward, her teacher telling her to get back.

"Don't be overconfident!" he had yelled in English, maybe at a chance of getting the message to her better."Stay with your classmates!" Chaos erupting everywhere: the villains inching closer, her classmates were still lost, confused, beside themselves that a real villain attack was happening while others were rushing forward, Thirteen telling them to get back.

Black finally enveloped her, and here she was.

Holding in her groans of pain, she stood up carefully, and turned to Koda who was looking at her cautiously. She tilted her head as the boy let out voiceless sounds and waved his hand around to communicate with her. It took him several tries before she got the point.

"I'm okay." More hand gestures. "That doesn't matter, panicking doesn't help the situation," she answered with a flat look on her face. Gaudy cheers and shouts were ringing throughout the building, nearly rumbling the ground beneath her with every step. Her face was steel.

Raven's head snapped to the side the moment the door bust open, revealing a crowd of villains smirking at them and brandishing their weapons. Koda let out a high-pitched shriek at the sudden arrival, flinching and hiding behind her even though she was half his size while Raven stared on at the open door. The villains were pure thugs, she summarized. Not enough for to have their own notoriety.

"Looks like it's just a bunch of babies, everyone!" They laughed together, acting like nails on a chalkboard to her ears. Grounding herself, her eyes flashed pure white.

"Koda, get back—toward the window," she ordered, her voice seemingly bored. However, despite the battle cry that they finally let out, the victorious march they had as they ran at her, and the ease in which she disposed of them by opening up a hole in the ground all the way to the bottom floor with her telekinesis then immediately patching it up, she was worried. It didn't show in her bones or in the way she looked at these small-fries. Raven manged to take them out faster than toppling dominos. Certainly, the League of Villains just recruited them off the street for their numbers rather than their abilities, but her classmates were just kids. Children with weird powers, but the Titans didn't pick up their skill and experience off the ground.

Her mind rushed a mile a minute. She needed to clear the building, deal with the thugs, and somehow manage to keep all of her classmates safe against the villains.

Or else everything around her could crumble.

Enveloping her hands in black she raced forward and struck the stragglers, clearing the room in merely three minutes flat.

She turned to Koda who stood near the door waving his arms wildly to ask her if she was okay. If she was able to emote, she would be feeling pity. In a burning building, and indoors nonetheless, animals would steer clear of this place most of all. He was practically powerless in this place.

Raven found herself asking him how he was, and looked intently as he nodded and waved his hands in patterns she couldn't understand, but nodded along anyway.

Sighing, she looked out the window and felt her heart drop to her stomach. Every other thought was erased out of her head.

Midoriya's head was swimming. Nevermind the fact that he had just taken a dive only two minutes earlier to swirl villains in a whirlpool of their own making, he felt as if the muddling of his brain wasn't just contributed to the water in his ears.

They were still shoulders-deep in the water, watching the two villains bickered, or rather, the blue-haired one with the hands covering his person argued while the smoke stayed silent.

The scratch-scratchof blunt nails against dry skin seemed to echo even from here, digging further and further, almost breaching the skin and aiming for blood. It caused the hair on the back of his neck to raise, every inch of Izuku's body told him to run, every primitive instinct in his body trying to protect him.

Scratch, scratch.

Scratch, scratch.

Izuku ignored the ringing in his ears and the thumping in his heart and leaned forward to attempt to hear what the villains were saying. The water around him sloshed loudly.

The scratching stopped.

It was like his heart stopped beating all at once.

"Let's destroy his pride as the Symbol of Peace!"

A pale arm was outstretched, faster than he could've anticipated—faster than he could even see. The wind blew through his hair. The fabric of the man's shirt skimmed the shell of ear. His eyes flashed with colors. Tsuyu crumpled beside him, turning to dust. He saw red. The hand was only one inch away from her face. Midoriya's voice was lodged deep in his throat.

"Tch..." The villain let out, stopping so close that Tsuyu's vision was covered by a dry, pale hand and she could feel the heat radiating off of his limb. "You really are cool..."

Aizawa-sensei! Midoriya thought, staring at the blood-stained man beyond the dome.

"Eraserhead..." The Nomu's hand wordlessly tightened on Aizawa's skull, nearly cracking it like a water balloon in it's large grasp and lifted his head up to smash back down on the crushed concrete once more. Their hearts seized with panic. One more blow—!

The next thing the villains knew, a blur of violet and green flashed through their visions.

Raven's cloak fluttered through the wind, flaring up until Shigaraki's sight of his Nomu was covered completely.

Power coursed through Midoriya's limb, lighting up every vein with red and gold before he brought it back down on the villain.

"Let her go...!" He screamed into the air.

Raven's hand was coated in black and white.

"SMASH!"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven's attack met the Nomu dead-on, blasting a crater clean through the creature's chest. It flew back like a baseball, crashing into the blue-haired villain with a sickening crack.

His fist made contact with the air around the two, and he felt the bones underneath his knuckles implode like a sandcastle. The wind indoors immediately shifted like a hurricane. The water in the pool was pushed back into the concrete. Nearby thugs were swept off their feet and everyone in the surrounding area shouted as the pressure of One for All exploded inside USJ.

"GAHHH!" Shigaraki's scream was so bloodcurdling that it caused the temperature in Midoriya's body to drop. The ringing in his ear didn't stop.

"Shigaraki!" Kurogiri shouted. Shigaraki was thrown back by the impact, finally hitting a pillar with a sickening crack before he slid down underneath the large creature.

"Midoriya! Asui! Mineta!" Raven finally shouted. Midoriya's senses snapped back to him like a rubber band. Raven glared at his dazed look with a hard expression. "Are you waiting for something? Go get Aizawa-sensei some medical assistance!"

The water around his legs appeared to cling onto him as he pulled himself out of steadily refilling pool. His classmates around him rushed toward their teacher. "W-What are you going to do?" he clutched his injured arm.

"I'll deal with the villains," she stated with confidence. "You deal with Aizawa-sensei!"

"We can't just leave you alone!" he pleaded.

"I'm not arguing with you," she said, turning away and looking back at the villains. Midoriya saw that his attack shredded the ends of her cloak and the top of her boots as well as the entire right sleeve of his arm and frayed the waistband of his pants.

The two straightened up like needles when they heard a stuttering cough, rattling like a skeleton.

"You...." The villain slowly got up on his skinny arms. Raven grounded herself. "Who the f*ck are you?!" His appearance became even more intense. With the hand knocked off his face, the severity of his dry, cracked skin was revealed to all. His shaggy hair fell over his eyes and forehead like limp seaweed, giving his red irises a peek from beyond the dark. Her hackles raised when that scratching sound continued, digging deep bloody lines along the cracks in his neck. Raven's purple eyes scanned him up and down.

Broken ribs, probably broken arm, and a tensed neck.

"They never told me one of the students was a f*cking—had a f*cking glitch!" he shrieked. "Nomu, kill her!"

"Wait, no!" Midoriya dove forward.

Raven didn't hesitate to put up a force field around the two of them, knees buckling steadily as Nomu's fist battered onto her shield.

"You can't keep that up!" Shigaraki's menacing smile appeared from far beyond the black force field. His large grin revealed all of the cracks along his lips.

"Midoriya—" Raven flinched once more when Nomu brought its fist down. This force field was able to hold back Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy in T-Rex mode all at once, she could keep it up for a few moments longer—but he was right. She couldn't just stay here in solitude while this creature could wreak havoc in U.A. "You still have one arm, right?"

"Y-Yes!"

"Then punch!" she ordered. The wind inside the force field whipped around, lifting up their hair in the swirling air. Nomu's fist reared back. She dropped the shield. "NOW!" Raven back-flipped to a clearer space while Midoriya's One for All changed the course of the air inside the dome once more. His fist met the beast's chest head-on and a hole opened up underneath his fist.

Blood splattered as freely as the water in the pool, but once the dust cleared it was still standing. Midoriya's outstretched arm faltered when he saw the muscle and skin regenerate with his own eyes, knitting together like a basket.

"Wha—"

"You idiot!" Shigaraki's laugh felt like nails on a chalkboard, making her want to close in on herself from the sound alone. "Nomu here was made to take on All Might! It has shock absorption and regeneration! You're going to be ground into dust when I'm finished with you—!"

A large chuck of cement came straight for Nomu's head. Knocked off it's feet, it took several seconds before it could stand up again, but the two students noticed that the regeneration was growing at a much slower rate now.

"Just as I thought," Raven concluded, blood splattered on her face like warpaint. "It's weakness is the brain."

It became so silent that they could nearly hear a pin drop.

"f*ck!" Shigaraki stretched out one hand and leapt forward. Midoriya looked down at his battered hands before racing forward once more. His fist clenched, and then released. Like the sound of a a battery charging up, his fingers coursed with power and he released one snap toward the villain. The dispersed energy shattered the windows above and rained above them like glitter. Shigaraki was forced to stand his ground as the air came at him, cursing under his breath while the wind whipped around wildly.

The debris surrounding them were lifted in the air and all came crashing down on Nomu. Midoriya blinked as his arms throbbed with pain. The rubble and debris, they were his doing, he summarized. Roth told him to use One for All for two reasons: to test her hypothesis, and to break the surrounding buildings for her use. The beast was inhumanly strong, but after her initial strike landed on it's head, she had never let up since, throwing piece after piece and aiming for the head every time. It's hands and body was too busy covering it's vital point, and although she wasn't fast in the slightest, she brought all of her firepower all at once. Every hit pried an inhuman screech from the monster.

Beside himself, a wobbly smile appeared on his lips. She was first place at the entrance exam for a reason, he thought.

"Midoriya-chan," Tsuyu finally called. "Roth-chan is keeping the villains distracted. Let's bring Aizawa-sensei to safety, hm?"

"R-Right!" he said, nodding quickly. "But I don't know how much help I'd be—"

Raven's onslaught continued, piling on and on, her hands moving wildly as she attempted to back this Nomu into a corner. But he was a monster, and she was just a human. It was clear to them that she was going to slow down at one point. Her feet touched the ground after the last blow, unable to keep her levitation in check after using her telekinesis nonstop. She was tiring, and the villains could see it too.

Midoriya's eyes widened from his spot far away.

One portal opened up by her ankle.

"Roth-san!" he shouted. He took off in another run. He didn't know what he was going to do, where he was going to go, but he had to stop the villains before—

She turned around with an inaudible, "Huh?" to listen to the commotion as another misty black portal opened up by the Nomu's head. Faster than she could blink, it reached in, and before she could even look down to see the large hand grab her ankle, nearly snapping it under the pressure, it already pulled her through. Raven barely had time to shout. She was a mere ragdoll. Her entire body was limp under the force.

Raven could only hear the screams of her classmates as the Nomu brought her up over its head in a blink and brought her down like a whip. A large snap sounded in the air. Her body smashed into the ground and sickening cracks were the only thing that rang in their heads. Then her shriek resonated through USJ like the sound of a gun going off. The cement underneath them was like clay from how it shattered.

Midoriya felt his heart drop.

"AHHHH!" Her shout was mixed with a cry.

Pain was the only emotion she felt. Pain, pain, pain. She felt all of the consciousness in her head slip. Only warning alarms rang in her ear.

It was as if her bones were glass, and they had dropped her from the roof of a skyscraper. Her small body had its own crater in the ground. Her limbs were at painful angles.

Ice suddenly crept closer, the sounds of explosions going off.

This is bad, this is bad, was repeated in her head like a mantra. Her shields fell. Her skin felt like ice while her blood felt like pools of lava. Her mental world crumbled. No, wait— she thought, desperately scrambling to try and hold onto her consciousness, but she couldn't even move an inch.

Nomu laced its fingers, balled both of its fist. Bringing it high over its head, Nomu brought it down like a mallet.

And then—she saw red.

A red sky, orange clouds, crumbled buildings and skeleton framework. Its people were statues, and the sea was lava.

Her vision zoomed forward, shooting like a bullet, curving along streets, streaking to seemingly nowhere. Raven's eyebrows scrunched as she willed herself to look deeper.

She came across orange, green, blue, and red.

A gasp fell from her lips.

Robin twisted his head as he met her's, eye to eye.

"Raven?!" he shouted desperately into the open air.

When she lifted her head again in this world, four red eyes blared to life.

Chapter 7: Red

Chapter Text

Jump City was a wasteland. The sky was red and the sea was orange.

Robin’s heart raced.

Heaving past the ash and dust that got into his eyes and lungs, his chest rose and fell like waves of an ocean. Beneath his mask, he surveyed the city around him. Abandoned cars littered the streets like confetti, long ran out of battery, and were now silent.

There were no birds in the sky, and the only song that was sung was the crackling of a radio on its last legs desperately attempting to churn out the remainder of “Mr. Sandman” by the Chordettes.

There was no one else around.

“Robin!” Three pairs of legs thundered behind him, heavy labored breaths following as they ran up alongside him. Cyborg’s chest heaved less than the other Titans, standing broad and wide in Robin’s vision.

“Wanna…” Beast Boy turned his head to the side and coughed like a cat about to deliver a hairball. “Wanna tell us why you just ran off like that?!” He stood upright with Starfire’s hand against his back.

Dick Grayson could only blink owlishly at his teammates, clearing the dust from behind his mask.

He wasn’t even sure that the people before him were even real.

Jump City was a wasteland.

“Raven…” Robin finally muttered under his breath. His eyes flashed back and forth, wildly searching for something that wasn’t in front of him. He twisted left and right, looking through the empty air.

“Hey,” Beast Boy spoke up, waving his hands to try and calm their leader down, like a trainer caged with a wild animal. “Calm down, what’s the matter?”

“Raven!” Robin said, gasping like a fish out of water. “I saw Raven!”

With that one single name, every Titan stiffened.

“What?” Starfire gasped, clutching her hands together. Her feet lifted off the ground and she floated toward Robin in an attempt to see what he had seen. “You saw Friend Raven? She must be safe then!” Relief filled every bone in her body. “She is still out here! Let us go get her right now!” The girl’s eyes nearly glowed acid green at the thought.

“Hold on,” Cyborg cut in, always the voice of reason. He raised one eyebrow at Dick. “Where? How? No one else is around.” He opened his hands and gestured to the desolate land around them.

“I…” Robin paused and swallowed thickly, trying to find the right words. His eyebrows knit so heavily that they formed a V above his eyes. “I swore…!” He spun in place once more. The black buildings and the red sky became a whirlpool in his vision. Did no one else see the fallen threads of purple hair? The fabric of the familiar cloak? “She was right in front of me… I saw it…with my own eyes,” he muttered out, the realization set in to him like ice water.

“Through that psycho mind-link thing you have with her, right?” Cyborg finally said, forcing Dick to nod only once.

“What is it that you saw?” Kori asked, leaning in closer.

Robin paused for a second. “She was hurt. I saw her bleeding on the ground,” he rasped. The image of her crumpled onto the floor, blood streaming from her head remained in his brain like an imprint.

A gasp sounded off to his left, where Starfire lifted a hand up to her face with wide eyes.

Gar took a step back like he was struck. He swallowed thickly before speaking up, voice strained, “You think it was her dad that did that? Or Slade?”

“We must save her!” Kori said, determined. The tips of her hair started to glow a bright orange like a trail of fresh lava. “Can you not do the linking of the minds back to Raven?”

“No.” It was Robin’s face scrunched up, his expression defeated. “I… I’ve tried already. Raven is the only one who can.” He winced at the feeling of an impending headache.

“Where was she?” Victor opened up the panel on his mechanical arm. Their leader was glad for the quick shift in subject. “If she has her Titan Communicator with her still, maybe I can locate her.”

“I’m not sure…” He furrowed his eyebrows as he forced himself to look in . “It was like… There was a mountain...and a yacht…but it was indoors. They had large windows over the whole thing.” His explanation appeared to be insane, slipping in-between indoors and outdoors all at once.

There was a silence before Victor sighed and looked back at his leader. “Well, I don’t have a clue. Her location isn’t showing up anywhere on Earth. Gar, you have any ideas?”

Everyone turned to the green-haired boy who looked like his eyes were shining with tears. “I… I don’t know.” He snapped his head from left to right, as if searching for something before dropping his eyes to the ground. “Everyone’s gone… Do you guys think… We’ve never been without Raven before… What if her dad really harms her?” He looked back with, his green eyes glistening.

“That’s why saving Raven is our first priority,” Robin said. Stepping forward, he placed a comforting hand on Beast Boy’s shoulder. “We’ve never failed her before. We can do this. I’m sure of it.” He looked up at all three of his teammates. “Raven gave us her powers for a reason. She’s depending on us now.” He put his hand in the middle of their semi-circle. “Our first mission is finding her.”

“I mean if we’re going to scour the entire planet for her, we should have an idea of where to start, right?” Cyborg asked. But even as he said this, he put his hand in the middle, feeling the familiar cool feeling of Raven’s powers wash over his human hand. “Where would we even start with a description like that?”

“Do you have any ideas?” Robin asked.

“Garfield?” Starfire gently asked. The three Titans turned to see their friend standing off to the side, head hung low. He was the only one that had yet to place his hand down.

Beast Boy didn’t answer as he stared off at the skyline.

Trigon’s large figure stood among the skyscrapers like mountains.

The demon’s face, which had only created tremors and chills in his body like he was a chihuahua, now only created fury and rage in Beast Boy’s body.

The expression on his face was unlike one that was so familiar on his friend’s face. While they have been through trials and tribulations before, Robin had only ever known him for bringing light into their little group. Robin exhaled as his shoulders sagged gently. The boy in front of him had only grown exponentially in the past few months before all of their eyes. At least now — the Brotherhood of Evil was a shovel they had buried long ago.

“Garfield,” Robin called out gently, “where do we find Raven?”

The only person who could have possibly known more about Raven other than Robin, was right in front of him.

It wasn’t long before he spoke up again.

“Raven’s mirror…” Garfield mumbled. Although question marks seemed to pop out his friends’ heads, Beast Boy straightened up. “Raven’s weird mirror thing was a portal to her mind! We don’t even need her nearby for it to be used!” He shook Cyborg’s open arm in his excitement.

“Where do we find the mirror of Raven?” Starfire asked, wildly. “Will it bring her to us?”

“It has to still be in the Titan Tower,” Robin finished, staring at their old base, now used as a glorified throne for Trigon.

Beast Boy nodded hurriedly. “And even if it doesn’t magically teleport her to us…” Cyborg continued. “One of her Emoticlones might give us hints to where she is.”

“So it’s settled,” Robin decided. “We sneak into the Tower, get the mirror, and then we’ll get Raven back.” A deep inhale settled in his lungs. His teammates all nodded before him.

“Titans, go!”

Even long after they scattered into the air and raced toward Titan Tower, the radio only continued to play, echoing along the empty street.

As one of the lights on their Communicators started to shine, they continued onward without a glance.

It played out in slow motion like a bad dream.

Raven felt as if she was underwater — under pressure. Falling deeper, deeper, deeper.

While she was aware that she was moving, that the wind was rustling through her hair, she was a stranger in her own body.

No — rather, she was overtaken by a rage that wasn’t her own. She felt multiple eyes pointed at her, the feelings of anger, aggression, fear, and anxiety falling upon her like an overfull cup. Pinpricks appeared along her limbs.

The air grew thick and heavy like a hot, humid day where the sun beat down on her like relentless, crashing waves.

“Dearest Daughter, look at this. Isn’t this beautiful?” His voice was a low rumble, always loud enough to cause mini earthquakes: the result of the trembling beneath her fingers.

Nomu brought its fist straight down.

“This is a result of our doing.”

“Roth-san!” A bloodcurdling voice screamed, snapping her back to reality. The sound reverberated throughout all of USJ. “No!”

CRASH!

. . .

Nomu’s body flew like a broken jet across the dome.

A pair of legs touched back down to the ground. One foot in front of the other.

Midoriya Izuku felt his blood run cold.

“What,” Shigaraki spat out during the silence. “The f*ck is that.”

That was not his classmate.

The clock was ticking. Time was running out. Every second seemed to peter away as if they were grains of sand in a storm.

Of all days for villains to attack—for villains to come after his students to get to him .

The clouds on the big blue sky were blurs as he zipped past them at lightning speed.

He was already a man past his limits. Two minutes had already passed. Stress further constricted his broken lungs, the injury on his side only ached further, acting as a second heart for every time it pulsed with pain.

But even when his legs felt like they were going to fall apart, that his heart already dropped several kilometers ago, All Might only had one thought in his head.

USJ. USJ. USJ.

He prayed to whatever higher being there was out there that his students were alive, but he mentally prepared himself for two things to happen.

For his students to be hurt.

And for them to wait a little bit longer for him to come.

When USJ was in sight, he didn’t hesitate to barge through the large double doors and loudly proclaim to anyone that would listen to, “Never fear! For I am here—!”

“A-All Might!” Two students shouted, voices high and shaky over his as they scrambled to him. His voice was lodged in his throat at the extreme fear that shone in their eyes. All Might paused in his steps, slumping his shoulders, as his blond student, Kaminari Denki, he remembered, and the purple one, Mineta Minoru, nearly tripped on their way to him.

“I-It’s Roth!” Kaminari nearly begged.

It was like his heart stopped.

“S-S-She’s gone…!”

The entire building was plunged in black.

“S-She’s gone berserk!”

In her vision, the world was nothing but the thrumming of steam and heat. It was like a hot summer’s day, where the heatwave beat against the concrete and were mirages of swirling colors.

Her classmates watched with horror, beaten and scraped from her first attack where her giant force field pushed against all of them, friend or foe, against the farthest walls of the dome. All of the different zones were broken through, scraped away like sandcastles on a beach, reduced to nothing but rubble. Only her and Nomu remained in the middle.

Raven held one hand up to the air, wordless as her soul-self stretched throughout all of USJ. Black wound through like the lines of a spider's web, falling against all of the weaving metal that held the roof above. Without a bated breath, she waved her hand and brought the entire steel frame down.

The entire skylight collapsed. Metal creaked loudly as steel frames wrapped around Nomu as nimbly as rope, whipping against the wind as it wound around the monster. Unflinching, Raven held out a hand to hang it up in the air as it screeched monstrously, grating on their eardrums.

While everyone else scrunched up their faces, groaning, and clapped their hands over their ears, Midoriya Izuku’s eyes only grew wider, the whites of his eyes making themselves known. His heart beat against his eardrums. A floating dark figure reflected against the green of his irises.

Nomu struggled helplessly against her hold, her free clawed hand growing tighter and tighter. The scrape of metal grew loud against her hold, pushing up against artificial muscle, getting closer and closer until Snap!

Nomu’s limbs became completely limp, dislocated, disjointed, cracked. Raven didn't move even when a streak of blood splashed against her cheek.

This was not Rachel Roth, Izuku thought with horror.

The person who stepped up was not Rachel Roth. Rachel Roth, although quiet and antisocial, was a good person, he believed. One who got into U.A. with flying colors, one who said she would protect her friends over everything and one who he watched protect Uraraka during the chaos.

He watched as Rachel smirked.

She was enjoying seeing it suffer.

Her pride beat against his veins.

Throwing her hand down, Nomu crashed back to earth like a rocket.

It was a supernova. Air was pushed outward, scattering rubble and people. Nomu’s body soared across the air, slamming into the jagged ground, creating glass-like fractures across the dirt.

“What the f*ck, what the f*ck, what the f*ck!” Shigaraki shouted. The words were lodged in Izuku’s throat. His head turned like a puppet on strings. He had forgotten about the villain—

“Nomu!” he commanded, voice raspy, grating like a chainsmoker’s. “Get the f*ck up! This damned glitch wasn’t supposed to be here! This was meant for All Might! Kurogiri!” The villain shouted. “I have to do this myself! Put me in there!”

“Shigaraki Tomura,” the bobbing mist said. “It is wise for us to stay away. We should take this moment to make our escape.”

“I’m not leaving without All Might—!” he threw a fit like a toddler.

Raven finally charged forward.

A flash, a blur of black. A resonating BAM! rang across USJ once more.

One hand was driven deep within Nomu’s brain, nearly crumpling it in her claws. Fingers dug into the exposed pink mass. Digging it's snout deep within the dirt, nearly suffocating it as it fought back. Crouched like a tiger, she lowered herself down to its level on the softened ground. Screeching louder, it struggled helplessly against her hold.

Planet Earth was in disarray.

For a second, she paused. Its screams were the only thing that she could hear, beating against her eardrum, pounding on her brain.

Her mouth opened up wide to let out soundless screams. She trashed uselessly against his hold as he dragged her along from her cape like a child with their favorite toy. She moved as slowly as a petal flowing off of a tree. Gravel and rocks dug deep into her bare legs, scraping the pale skin. Tears flowed down her cheeks, the two wet tracks reflecting the fires that surrounded them.

Raven watched the monster below her.

“Why are you crying, my cute daughter,” Trigon echoed in her brain almost soothingly. Even his soft voice created trembles across the floor. Her body was like an ant against his. He looked over her, towering over her entire body. A large shadow was cast across the underworld. “Do you fear me?” He seemed to say. “Would you not embrace me?” he asked. He stared at her, and only smirked when her fear spiked.

His features bled out. Red skin turned into a smooth olive tone, and his white hair faded into black. Four yellow eyes, once merciless, formed into two pairs of dark, sympathetic irises. His human appearance stared back at her. “Not even in the form that your mother loved?”

“Necronom Hezberek Mortix!” Red Raven shouted.

A jet of pure black streamed from the gaps between her fingers, shooting up into the clouds as she drove Nomu’s head further into the dirt, destroying his head into oblivion. The blast of energy made all bystanders shout and stand back from the whipping wind, scraping their soles as they were pushed back.

The Nomu thrashed violently against her hold, giving into every last bit of power that it had as if it was a bug against a giant. Its screams rocked the entire campus, shattering every bit of glass left.

And when the screams started to die off—Weakening only just a little bit, she heard a voice.

Then she saw red again.

“R-Rachel-chan! H-Hey! You can stop now—”

And in her blindness, dove her fist right into it.

. . .

The doors to USJ burst open.

“Kirishima-san!” Jirou screamed into the air as their classmate crashed into the nearest building, scattering rubble and grey clouds. Raven’s form stood against the rest of Class 1-A, body poised like a snake about to strike. She was separate from all of them as red eyes grew and shrank, analyzing all of them before her, bright irises zooming left and right.

One black boot took a step forward, but as a large body crashed in front of her like a meteor, her breath hitched. Blond hair pointed to the sky. Her demonic voice rumbling from the back of her throat. The Hero towered over her as if he was a giant.

“All Might!” Sero shouted in relief.

“All Might!” Izuku yelled, his voice appearing above everyone else’s. The boy's voice was begging. “You have to help Roth-san! She took on the Nomu all by herself and—”

All Might, past his forced smile and gritted teeth, watched in silent horror as his student stood against him.

Roth’s entire body let off steam like she was on fire, blurring the movements of her body. Four red eyes took the place of her normally dull purple ones. They glowed like headlights in the dark, against the darkness of her tattered hood. She was poised for attack, hair fluttering in the windless air, fangs poking out from against darkened lips. Dark patches littered her skin, but upon closer inspection, to All Might’s horror, those weren’t bruises or scars. Her own skin was turning red.

She didn’t even seem to recognize him—recognize anyone that was in front of her.

All Might’s large chest rose and fell with adrenaline.

The villains. Roth Rachel. The safety of the students—

“Look at this, All Might!” Shigaraki cackled ominously, a voice like nails on a chalkboard, shining past the pandamonium. Raven’s body stiffened at the sound of his laugh. “You finally came, you piece of sh*t! You really are weaker, huh? And now look at you! Preaching peace and bullsh*t when your own student turned out like this! You Heroes act so mighty when all you do is act violently like us!”

Almost curiously, Raven raised a hand.

"She's attacking her own classmates! She's a monster just like the rest of us then!"

“Bakugou, no!” Ojiro’s arms quickly wound around Bakugou’s waist, holding the other teen down as he struggled against the taller man’s grip.

“Where’s Aizawa-sensei?!” Sato called, turning his head back and forth.

“H-He’s unconscious!” Mina shook her head so violently her pink curls bounced against her head.

“Let me go!” Bakugou shouted. Mini explosions popped against his palms. “She’s like a f*cking rabid animal!”

“Bakugou-san, stop!” Yaoyorozu commanded against the chaos. “She’s obviously confused! She doesn’t know what’s going on!”

His weakened heart beat loudly against his chest.

“Now what are you going to do?” Shigaraki asked. His voice became soft for the first time, offering this question up to him. “Take down your own student?”

Raven straightened up, displaying all of the confidence and strength that he had never seen before on the normally quiet student.

“Destroy her like you do with everyone else?” Shigaraki stretched out his hand.

It was a standstill. All was silent.

All Might stilled before he finally decided to clench his fist. Holding in a cough, his side turned red, bleeding through his shirt.

“It’s true that I only have a minute…” Flexing his muscles, he breathed in then out. “My power has been declining faster than expected…! But…” He stood proud. “I have more than enough power to stop you and calm down my student. Why?” He flashed his smile. “Because I am…”

One for All thrummed within his veins.

“The Symbol of Peace!”

All Might’s shoe dug into the ground like clay before propelling him toward the villain. Before the villain’s own wide-eyed gaze, All Might appeared in a flash, fist raised for one of his powered punches, and landed a strike clean across the smaller villain.

Shigaraki flew through the air, crashing against the sea of debris left in the wake of the previous fights.

“Shigaraki Tomura!” Kurogiri shouted, opening the portal up to his leader.

“Oh, no you don’t!” All Might’s hand clamped down hard over the fog villain’s metal plate, throwing him as far as he could. A boom! echoed in the wake of the villain's impact with the building's walls.

He had thought that that was the end of it, the momentum carrying him, but the hair on the back of his neck raised as he turned his attention back to Roth.

It had only been a second—!

“Bakugou-kun!” Uraraka shouted, hand coming down hard over the blond boy, levitating him above the ground. Sero’s tape wrapped around him, turning him in the air, nearly mummifying him. “Stop it!” Although the two had successfully managed to take down their classmate before he managed to attack Raven, that damage was already done.

Feeling the boy’s aggression and anger at her, she inhaled it like a poison—like it was the pollution around her.

The air around her was suffocating, sweltering.

Ice suddenly came down and glued her to her spot, pinning her to the dirt below.

Struggling to get free, All Might managed to approach her, hesitating.

“Everything is alright, Young Roth!” He was a giant against her. “You are safe now! I am here!” His voice was blaring, booming.

She was drowning in the open air.

She was like a caged animal, thrashing in her spot, the chill against her legs climbing up her body. When she opened her mouth, an inhuman roar escaped her. Like the growl of an animal, the deep, steady tone of a demon, she didn't sound like Roth Rachel.

“Young Roth,” he pleaded, dodging away from any projectile she threw at him, and slapping away any rubble that might’ve hit the students. “Please calm down!”

“Don’t you dare say her name like that!” her demonic voice finally responded. Then he realized—she was crying. Two shiny tear tracks shone back at him.

Levitating out of her boots, she struck—one clawed hand outstretched, aiming for her teacher’s face. All Might didn’t fight back.

Several things happened at once.

“No!” Izuku cried, legs charging with green lighting as he dashed forward. Her open hand was coated in black energy—Crash landing, he tackled the floating girl and smothered her to the ground, placing his body weight over her.

All Might’s head snapped to the side, revealing the Pro-Heroes all lined up at the door.

“They’re here!”

Battling against Midoriya’s One for All, Raven only managed to release one hand from under his hold, clawing at the ground, nails digging into the dirt.

“Everything is fine now, everyone!” Iida’s voice boomed throughout the remains of the building. “Your Deputy Rep has brought reinforcements!”

She slapped her palm against the floor, pitch black stretching out from beneath her like a pool of ink spreading outward.

Black mist swarmed against the villain, momentarily forgotten, and they watched as the fog spread.

Faintly, against the snaps and crackles in Izuku’s ears, he heard the caw of a bird.

“Midnight, here!” a voice shouted. Several Pros rushed into the scene, fading against the darkness of the mist.

“I may have failed this time,” Shigaraki said ominously, against the chaos, “but I will kill you next time, Symbol of Peace…” He faded into black. “All Might!”

“No!” Red Raven’s deepened voice shouted in desperation. Izuku’s weakened body struggled to contain her. Bright pink mist began to surround her.

“I will see you again, Dearest Daughter,” he had said, all four eyes peering back at her as he looked at her from above. Her frail body was placed on the altar. Raven stared blankly at the arc above.

Raven let out one last exhale before everything faded to black.

“Only things of pain and sorrow follow you, after all.”

When she woke up, she was alone.

At least, that was what she had initially thought.

It was a moment of silence, where there was no sound but the beat of her own breathing and the faint melody of birds chirping.

Groaning as she sat up, her hands came up to rub at the dried tear tracks against her face, wincing as she brushed it off her skin. The room was a bright orange. The windows were wide open, white curtains fluttering gently as the wind carefully cascaded through the nurse’s office.

Looking out the window at the empty campus of U.A., she was glad to see no stragglers standing on the grounds. A glance at the clock told her that it was almost six P.M. A surprised huff left her lips. Heroics started at 11:00 A.M.

She was unconscious for nearly six hours.

“Oh thank goodness, you’re up!” a weakened, slightly shaky voice said. Raven snapped her head to the right, her hands gripping the blanket beneath her in surprise.

“Recovery Girl,” Raven finally recognized, nodding her head in acknowledgment. Her hand released the blanket. Even though she knew the answer, she asked anyway. “Am I in the nurse’s office?”

“Yes, you are.” The little old lady settled in the rolling chair beside her cot. As the woman settled to give her the proper checkups, checking her eyes for any concussions, testing her blood pressure, her vitals, and so on, she began to speak up. “How are you feeling, dear?”

“I’m fine,” Raven stated. At those words, the woman gave her a soured face, like she had just eaten a whole lemon.

“I have a hard time believing that…” Standing up to pick up her file, she returned to her seat, flicking open the manila folder. “Let’s see here… Your classmates said that you were slammed to the ground by the brain villain, normally your spine would’ve cracked, but you’re lucky that you haven’t been paralyzed. You have three broken ribs, a sprained ankle, and you managed to fracture your wrist. Not to mention physical and mental exhaustion. ” The woman’s expression softened when her eyes met with Raven’s. “What do you have to say about these?”

Raven stayed silent for a second. “I can heal myself,” she finally dropped.

“...Excuse me?” Now it was Recovery Girl’s turn to be baffled.

“When I’m in a meditative state….” Raven paused, unsure of how to word this. “I can heal myself.”

Recovery Girl inhaled, opening and closing her mouth, looking at the teenage girl before her. Raven waited with a bated breath for the woman's scolding.

“Would you like a candy bar?” the old lady finally asked.

What. The American furrowed her eyebrows.

“No, thank you—” Raven started.

“Would you like a candy bar?” the old woman repeated.

“...Yes, please,” the Titan relented. Holding out her hand, Recovery Girl didn’t hesitate to drop a Black Thunder bar in her awaiting palm. She simply held it closer to her, but made no move toward opening it.

“Now…” Recovery Girl sighed and closed the folder with a snap. “Let me make sure that you really are as fine as you say.” Much to the woman’s frustrations, Raven really was right. She had managed to heal almost every injury in her body except for the hairline fractures that were slowly knitting together in her ribs. Her wrists and ankles were in nearly perfect condition, as if the injury was never there at all—improving at a faster rate than what her Quirk normally allowed. The jagged cuts against her arms and the bruising she acquired when they first brought her to the nurse had disappeared completely. Huffing almost at herself, Raven slouched as the woman jotted down her findings.

This was never mentioned in her Quirk report.

“What happened back there, dear?” Recovery Girl finally asked. Shame crawled up her body.

Raven turned her eyes away. “Aren’t I supposed to answer that during official interrogation only?”

“Official interrogation?” the old lady nearly sputtered. “You aren’t a criminal!" Quickly composing herself, she continued. "It’s true that the officers need your statements, but they’ve all gone home for the day. They will return the next school day. But this isn’t about them.” She pointed a pen at Raven’s face. “This is about you.”

“And the other students?” she asked, dodging the question. “Are they...all okay?”

Through pursed lips and narrowed eyes, Recovery Girl tried to scan the expression on Raven’s face, but found nothing to work with. There was nothing on the girl’s blank face.

“They are perfectly fine,” she noted, scribbling down on her paper. “Of course the Midoriya boy managed to break his bones again, but—”

“I...broke his bones?” Raven asked, eyes aghast for the first time since Recovery Girl had her in her care. Her voice was like broken glass, uneven, hiding behind faint trembles.

“You interrupted me,” the senior commented, almost chidingly. “That was due to the boy’s own Quirk, not because of something you did.” After a pause, almost like an afterthought, she continued. “Unless there is something you would like to add?”

“No,” she asserted. Lifting her eyes up to face the old woman, she asked, “Can I go now?”

The woman paused as the cogs in her brain were turning, analyzing the dodgy teen in front of her. “Your father—” She noticed the way Raven tensed and stiffened at the word. “—Told me to tell you to call him as soon as you were free to go.” Nodding once, Raven threw the cover off of her, swinging her legs over the bed and almost making a break for it until Recovery Girl slid her chair in front of her path.

“Wait—Maybe I should give you another healing kiss. Just to make sure—” The woman puckered up, but met with smooth plastic as Raven held up the candy bar, intercepting the path to her pale cheeks.

“I’m fine, thank you.” Ducking out of the room, Raven reached into the pocket of her scrubs and pulled out her phone. “Please excuse me,” she muttered, closing the sliding door behind her. The natural lights shut off the moment the door shut.

Quiet.

She paused.

And sighed deeply.

Her dark eyes closed, head meeting the cool wall of the empty hallway. Standing there, alone, she slouched in the middle of the building.

It was completely silent. No students, no teachers.

No Titans.

What happened out there? She asked herself. Two hands came to cup her face, but she paused, looking down at her own pale, grey hands in horror. What happened? She had never had such a terrible spell before. She always kept her demon side under control. She was always better than her own emotions.

In all instances where she had become Red Raven before, she always managed to calm herself down before it became drastic, or she always awoke to the sound of Robin’s voice. She trained for years to prevent this from happening to anyone, and it all crumbled in her hands like sand.

No one said her name here, she thought. No one knew who she was.

She was conscious inside of a shell of her own body. Yet, as she watched all of this calamity and pandemonium happen before her eyes, she just let it . Raven watched as her demonic self wreaked havoc and didn’t do anything to stop it.

She hurt Kirishima Eijiro.

She almost hurt Bakugou Katsuki and All Might.

For a second, it almost felt good to watch the monster suffer. Pride and wrath had filled her body.

Raven bit her lip so hard that blood began to stream down her mouth.

They were right.

Trigon's human face reflected against her's.

They were right about me.

Raven needed Sasaki-san, she immediately thought desperately, pulling his number out from her speed dial. Snapping herself out of the stupor, she hit the call button. He would know what to say, how to shake her out of his pit. He was fair, she thought. He was her guardian, but unbiased as they come.

She ignored the voice inside of her head that told her that he took care of her all this time too.

Holding up the phone to her ear, she listened as the phone went through one ring before immediately clicking. Her breath lodged itself in her throat.

Chest rising, she gripped the front of her scrubs.

“Sasaki-san?” she asked, voice almost timid, soft, but still gravelly. “I—”

“What the hell were you thinking?” he immediately asked, voice buffered with a faint static.

A vase shattered in her mind.

Her free hand fell.

“What?” she spat out. It was like crashing back down to earth from a high.

“What you did was stupid and reckless ,” he continued. She was frozen. “Tsukauchi-san managed to share with me some of the witness statements from your classmates.” There was the sound of fluttering paper in the background, telling her that he was hurriedly packing or organizing. The click of his briefcase resounded in her ear. “This whole situation could’ve been avoided if you just managed to think a little bit more. They said that you threw yourself into the attack. You could’ve stood back, Raven-san,” he said, almost pleading. "I had never seen such blatant recklessness before in my life—and I used to work for All Might of all people—"

Was he...calling her out? She thought. She came to him just to hear him scold her? Her heart plummeted to her stomach. She felt cool to the ends of her fingers.

She thought she could trust him, confide in him as she did with Beast Boy or Robin.

“Instead you got in the middle of the battle and managed to get yourself hurt—” he said.

“I am not hearing this from you, Sasaki-san,” she commanded. All conversation was cut off then. Like the sound of a slap had rung through the air. Raven's purple eyes bore into the wall in front of her. Her hands tightened around her phone.

Silence.

A pause. “Excuse me?”

“You are not my father...or my parent,” she stated. Her chest tightened, but she continued on anyway. “You have no right to tell me what to do. You did not raise me.” Her voice was final.

He nearly sputtered on the other side. “Raven—I am coming to pick you up right this instant. We will continue this conversation at home—”

She needed to stop herself quickly. Or else another spout of anger might arise from her. Raven needed to calm herself before this became a bigger mess than it should be.

“Don’t bother,” she said. Hand coming up to the End Call button, she spoke into the phone. “I will take myself back to the condo. I know how to take care of myself, and make decisions on my own, Sasaki-san. Goodbye.”

“Wait—!”

Beep.

Her hands came into tight fists, blunt nails digging into the skin of her palms. Inhaling deeply, she willed herself to calm down, using breathing techniques until her shoulders lowered, not tensed.

Eyes fluttering closed, she stood there alone, chest rising and falling while she wondered why her eyes were burning.

It was a sensation that she had never experienced before. This budding frustration, the growing anger, but the overcoming sadness tipped her like a scale. She snipped it at the bud.

“Man...He can be tough huh?” a voice suddenly said.

“AA-Ah!” Raven uncharacteristically let out a scream, hands clutching her chest as she scrambled backwards. Her hands clamped over her mouth, almost as if she could take back the weird, girly scream she released.

Mirio’s head was halfway through the wall, his big round eyes staring at her, uncharacteristically sad. She was talking to a face on the wall.

“M-Mirio-senpai,” she swallowed thickly, quickly composing herself. “Were you eavesdropping this entire time?”

He stepped out from the wall completely, coming closer as she took more steps back. She was completely flattened against the wall, wishing that she could slip through it as easily as he could before he clamped a warm hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, I know that he’s a bit tough, but he means well,” he said comfortingly, patting her softly. Closing in on herself, she avoided his eyes, but didn’t pull away from his touch.

“I’m not going to talk about this,” she asserted before pausing. She raised an eyebrow. “Did Nighteye put you up to this?” she asked accusingly. She knew that those two were more like father and son than her and him.

“Nope!” he said cheerfully, putting his hands on his hips. “I heard about what happened down in your class, and then heard from a little birdie—” More like he eavesdropped, she thought. “That you were hurt! As your big brother Mirio, I wanted to wait for you!” Expression falling only slightly, he continued to smile at her. “I thought my surprise would be happier though.”

“I’m fine,” she uttered expressionlessly. “You don’t need to worry about me, Mirio-senpai. You should probably go home, your dad must be worried about you.” She took one step off to the side, but was quickly intercepted by Mirio.

“Huuuuh?” Mirio asked unseriously. One hand cupping his ear, one hand on his hip, he jutted his rear out and bent forward. “What was that? M-Mirio-nii? Mirio-nii-chan?” he said, voice ringing.

“I’m not in the mood,” Raven immediately stated, voice as flat as a sheet of paper. Her dull eyes were unamused.

“I can’t hear you!” he said in a sing-song voice.

“Mirio-senpai, I will seriously kick you,” she said, voice-deadpan.

“Mirio-nii,” he corrected, “But hey, I know what will cheer you up!” he brightened up.

“I don’t want it,” she countered.

“AAAND,” he sang, “put a big happy smile on your cute face!”

“I don’t do smiling,” she stated.

“C’mon!” he carefully shoved her down the hallway and out the door while she protested loudly. Complaining the entire way down, they made out past the entrance of U.A., where the sun finally greeted her from past the artificial white lights. Squinting past the sun, her vision finally cleared until she saw Tamaki standing here, slouching while he rang the bell with a miserable look on his face.

A disgusted look fell on her face when she realized what it was.

“Taa-daa!!” Mirio sang, arms up in the air as he stood beside his best friend.

Tamaki’s deposition compared to the cheerful, inconsistent ringing of the bell on the tandem bike and Mirio’s sunny disposition was like a sad clown honking their own nose.

“What,” she spat, leaning away like the transportation had the plague. “Is that.”

“It’s a tandem bike!” he said cheerfully. “Thanks, Tamaki.” The boy silently nodded, shaking as he gave her a quick nod goodbye before running off. “Don’t you have these back on your home planet?” He walked over to her, gripping her underneath the arms as if she was a cat and pulled her closer to the bike.

"Why is this thing here."

“We—” he struggled while she remained rooted to the floor. “Wow, you still have some fight in you, huh? We got it from the Support guys! They made it themselves! They said there was a bit of an issue with the breaks though.”

He pulled her away from her spot with some final burst of energy and popped her onto the bike like a parent fixing their baby in a booster seat. Her face as sour as ever, he put a hot pink helmet on her head and buckled it up for her. Cute cat stickers and slogans like “Flower Power!” decorated the helmet’s shell.

“You can thank Nejire for letting you borrow her helmet!” he said, grinning at her. “She’s got a similar head size to yours.”

“...Lucky me,” Raven spat, all too much like a disgruntled, drowned cat. “Mirio-senpai, what is this?” The bike, even on its kickstands, was about to tip over and she hurriedly put her hands on the handlebars growing out of Mirio’s seat. Much shorter than Mirio, the tips of her shoes were barely able to brush the ground when she put both of her feet on the ground.

“Mirio-nii-chan,” he quickly said. “But I thought that it would be fun for us to ride together! Good thing you already told Nighteye that you were gonna go home alone, huh?”

“Mirio,” she deadpanned, ignoring the honorifics completely. “I can’t ride a bike.”

“I know!” If possible his grin grew wider. “And you don’t need to know! I’m taking the front seat, so leave the balancing to me! You just need to help me pedal, yea?”

"No."

He leaned forward, flat face nearly centimeters from hers.

His blue eyes shone like a puppy's.

"Pleaseeeeeee?"

"No."

"For meeee...?"

Raven pressed her lips together, looking left and right for any possible exit and entryways before sighing deeply, exhaling so hard that her chest collapsed. No one else was around. No one who knew her anyway.

She turned her head away to hide the pink against her cheeks.

“Fine.”

“Yay!” He climbed over his seat and nearly shook the whole bike as he swung all of his body weight over it. “Let’s get this show on the road!” He began pedaling at the speed of light before lifting both hands and legs off the bike completely. “Wee!”

“M-Mirio-senpai!” Raven said with a burst of panic as the bike wobbled dangerously.

“Sorry!” He laughed before putting his feet back down the pedals.

They rode through Musutafu, embracing the city life as the sun began to plunge below the horizon. Shops started to turn their lights on and the street lamps flickered to life before their eyes. Not even ten minutes into their forty-minute bike ride, Raven began to tire and managed to cheat by either biking whenever they went downhill or used her telekinesis when Mirio wasn’t looking.

After a while, watching the bustling city pass before her eyes, Raven fell deep into her thoughts again.

Watching all of these people, all of these families pass her by, the Heroes on patrol, she felt nothing but emptiness.

What was she doing?

She watched the back of Mirio’s blond head, noticing the way the sunset lit it up into a bright orange. She was annoyed that he made her do this yes, but she couldn’t help but feel touched that he went out of the way to greet her after school, not knowing how long it was going to take for her to wake up, just waiting for hours. She was grateful for someone like him.

Eyes falling downward at the blurring street below her, she thought of one thing.

But it wasn’t going to last forever.

She was going to lose him too. Like how she lost Azarath, like how she lost Earth 0.

What was she even doing in this dumb Hero school anyway, she thought pitifully. She was just playing a waiting game—so what was the point?

She had caused so much trouble to the people around her already. Raven believed that she was doing so well, that she was so above Trigon and her brothers for falling like victims to their demon sides when she was just as bad as the rest of them.

She was pitiful.

Her mom was right. Why was she fighting?

It’s hopeless.

“Haha,” Mirio spoke up in the silence, making her snap her head up. He tried his best to turn his head like an owl, facing her while facing the road at the same time. He skidded to a stop before a train track, pausing at the lowering crossing rail. The ringing of the train’s stoplight beat against her ears. “You know, I can feel you try to burn a hole in the back of my head like that!”

“Sorry,” she muttered, eyes drifting off to the flashing lights.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he said. “Your eyes are off the road! Can you even see where you’re going like that?” he joked, putting his foot down and the kickstand.

“No, sorry,” she said, inhaling. After a beat, she decided to continue, “Your big nose is covering the path anyway.”

“Hahaha!” Mirio laughed genuinely. “That was a good joke!” he encouraged.

“I wasn’t joking,” she snapped, but against her own wishes, a small smile turned up the corners of her lips anyway. It was silent for a few more seconds before he spoke up again.

“Is this about Sir?” he asked, voice strangely subdued compared to his previous conversations. He turned his head forward, looking at the passing cars beyond the rail. "You know, he's really strict, and it kinda takes some getting used to, but I can tell he really cares about you." The wind gently rustled their hair as cars pulled along the stop as well, the creaking of their tires adding to the cacophony. "Being a parent must be hard, so don't be too hard on him, okay?"

She turned her eyes to the side.

He wasn't her parent.

"It wasn't about Sir Nighteye," she stated flatly, "so don't worry about it."

"Ohhhh," he droned, "so what is it?" He turned his head again, perking up.

“Excuse me?” she asked, lifting up her face.

“You're deep in thought, right?” He puffed up his chest proudly before pointing at himself with his thumb. “You can tell your big bro! I can keep a secret!” He gave her a big smile, throwing up two fingers. “Scout’s promise!”

Raven’s purple eyes fell to the gravel below, her school shoes crunching up against the uneven rocks.

When she was really young, she never cried.

She never became angry or scared or lonely.

“Sometimes I…” she started before stopping again. The railroad crossing sign only got louder, the lights flashing faster.

Heart hammering against her ribcage, sweat slicking her fingers.

Because she came to learn that she had no one but herself to rely on.

Her hands gripped the handlebars with an iron grip.

The ringing became shrill.

Her small shoulders closed in on themselves.

She watched the upcoming train with an unbroken stare.

It would be easy.

“Sometimes I—”

She never had the guts to, but—

The train sped past them at breakneck speed.

It always seemed so easy.

Raven settled back down to her seat.

“Sometimes I don't even know if I’m human,” she finally said, purple hair blowing in the wind as the train raced by. The time ticked by as the rail lifted again.

Mirio kicked the kickstand back up and continued to pedal along.

They were going up a steep, paved hill. Here, she could almost see the entire skyline. The ocean beat against the shore far away, and the sun seemed almost in reach. Pedaling some more, they both pushed forward to get to the top of the hill.

“Hmm,” he said, forehead wrinkled from how much he was using his big brain. “Well, I think you’re human!”

She out of a humorless, breathless laugh. Of course he did. The entire city was in view now, all within her palms.

He didn’t know the truth about her lineage, so of course he was going to—

“I mean, you feel happiness like the rest of us, right?”

Her breathing stopped.

She watched as Gar dropped his lucky penny into her hands.

Her chest heaved as ordinary people living their ordinary lives passed by beneath her.

“And pain and sorrow—”

“—Like how I would make such wonderful friends.”

“Seems to me,” Mirio said dreamily. “Like you’re plenty human, Raven-chan!”

They pedaled forward, the city moving beside them.

“Hey, Raven-chan, check this out!” he suddenly said once they were at the tip-top of the hill. The wind slicked back his hair even further.

“What?” she asked the moment their bike was about to make the curve downwards.

Before her very eyes, he phased right through the bike, and right through her. Standing behind her before she got a moment to react, he pushed her down, laughing cheerfully. She shot down the hill like a madman, her speed accelerating with every meter.

“Look at you!” he shouted at her as she screamed all the way down. “You’re doing it! You’re riding a bike!” He pumped his hands into the air in victory.

“Mirio, you idiot!” she yelled, bike wobbling dangerously to the edge of the hill that overlooked the freeway. “Your seat has the breaks!”

“Eh?” his face froze before he jumped back into action, desperately running after her as she sped downhill. “O-Oh! W-Wait! S-Stop! Someone stop that bike!”

. . .

He dropped her off at Sir Nighteye’s house in record time, but not before they stopped at the nearest konbini for a first-aid kit for the both of them.

Chapter 8: Dear

Chapter Text

She dreamt that she was on the altar again.

Laying flat on her back, her cloak softening the jagged rocks, she blearily stared up at the red sky. Lava shone against the dark horn-like structures stretching over her.

“Are you crying?” a little voice asked. Raven, not even five years old yet, stood over her teenage body.

Purple eyes dully turned back up to the sky.

Small hands reaching out, the child shook her limp body.

“It’s okay,” the small voice continued.

Raven closed her eyes.

“There’s no reason to be scared,” she insisted, leaning forward.

“You don’t have to cry.”

. . .

When Raven woke up, she didn’t gasp for breath, reaching for her consciousness, stretching out her hands to reality.

She opened her eyes and felt her body lower itself back down to the bed. Her limbs were stiff beside her.

It was dark out.

The only lights in her room were from the moonlight streaming past her curtains. The skyscrapers and busy city illuminated the skyline.

She had been here all night.

Her phone was on silent from the many notifications she was getting from 1-A. Worried messages from Yaoyorozu, tentative attempts at communication from Uraraka, and a startling one from Iida.

True to her word, the moment Mirio brought her home she spent her time ignoring Sir Nighteye, skipping dinner, mute to his attempts at speaking to her. She had been in her room all night long, and it wasn’t even dawn yet.

Slipping out of the covers, her bare feet touched the cool wooden floor.

Raven stood up straight, stretching and popping her joints. Surveying her skin and loosening her bandages, she nodded once to herself, satisfied that she managed to finish healing. Her shoulders were still stiff, and she still felt the phantom grip of Nomu’s hand on her ankle, but physically, she was back to top shape.

Now all that was left was for her to face the consequences of her actions. Walking over to the window, she stared out at the skyline. She still needed to talk to Sir Nighteye eventually, and she still had to return to school and look at all of her classmates staring in horror.

Exhaling softly, she sat alone.

She missed the ocean, she thought. Purple eyes turned down to the street below, mutely listening in on the chorus of cars driving by.

Contrary to popular belief, Raven did not always keep her room in the dark, blinds closed, lights off. Sometimes she liked to open up her curtains at night and wake up to the sunlight streaming over her large windows, gently rousing her out of slumber. The Titan Tower always carried the sound of waves lapping against the rocks, the scent of salt water following them wherever they went. But here, where she was deep within the city, a far cry away from the sea, she felt even more distant. Her chest constricted with the feeling, exhaustion taking over her muddled brain as homesickness filled her body with dread. Head hanging over her body, she closed her eyes.

She was tired.

And there was nothing she could do.

. . .

Opening her eyes once again, peering from beyond her pale fingers, the bright red clock read 5:54AM.

Grabbing her phone, putting on a large grey zipped hoodie and her sandals, she opened her window and lept out.

Her feet took her to a place called Takoba Municipal Beach Park, the nearest beach to her. Her phone said that it was recently opened to the public after being previously filled with waste, but the subway ride there was less than ten minutes, and she got there in thirty minutes flat.

Seagulls cried overhead, circling the sand and created lazy trails in the wind. The sky was a blur of oranges, pinks, and dark blue as the sun began to rise above the water. Waves crashed against the shore, beating repetitively, pushing, pulling, dragging. The morning mist splashed against her face, filling her nostrils with a fresh spray of salt and seawater every time.

It was so beautiful.

Azarath didn’t have the sea. They only had lakes, rivers, and waterfalls sustaining them. The first time she had ever seen something so endless, so vast, was when she first arrived on Earth.

It was as if when she closed her eyes, she could imagine that her friends were still on the other side of the ocean.

Then she breathed in, and out.

They were back in Jump City.

“What are the things you’ve done to stop it?” Cyborg once said, his voice ringing in her head.

Fleeing to Earth was never meant to be her only plan.

The water lapped at her ankles, sand pulling away from underneath her sandals.

“When I arrived on Earth,” she remembered telling her friends. Her past tumbled out like dominos. First the truth about Trigon, then the truth about her. “I landed on the shore.”

The night was dark and the water was inky. The only lights were from the skyscrapers and the city behind her.

Trigon led her away from Azarath, from her own home, mocking her about Azar’s death. She knew he was coming for her.

And that the demise of everyone ended with her.

That it was all because of him.

“I...I didn’t know what else to do.” She lowered her head, unwilling to meet the gazes of all of her friends. Raven remembered feeling so helpless. Banished from her own home, on this impossible race against her biological father. There was nothing else for her to do. “I wanted to end it all.” Starfire and Beast Boy let out audible gasps in the background. The alien covered her mouth in silent horror.

She fled to another dimension. Her mother’s home planet.

She was almost fourteen, and she was all alone on Earth. She had found a rusty, sharpened shard of metal along the trash heap at the beach.

Without hesitation, with no one else around, she held it up to her neck. There was no ceremony, no dreams, or tears.

There was nothing else she had to lose.

When she had plunged it forward, a large hand came down to stop it.

She remembered the way her eyes flashed open in shock, her breath stuck in her throat.

“Clark Kent?” Robin asked, startled, breaking her away from her flashback. “What was he doing in Jump City?”

Raven tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “He was still in Metropolis when he received news that something from space was crashing down on Earth.” Immediately everyone else in the room turned their eyes toward Starfire.

That was the day the Gordanians lost track of the Tamaranean girl they tried to enslave.

Images of all of her friends flashed throughout her mind, how they all managed to find themselves on the same street, fighting the same battle.

The metal had clanged against the ground, splattering sand until it was pulled away by the ocean wave. While the water soaked her legs and the chill crept all the way to her bones, she found herself leaning into Superman’s silent comforting hug.

From that day forward, she lived the best two years of her life with the Titans.

When she opened her eyes, she was still in Japan.

And she knew for sure that no one would come to her rescue once more.

Yet the waves still continued to crash and pull. The Earth still continued to spin.

“Roth-san?” a voice spoke up from behind her. Swirling around, Raven’s eyes were wide with surprise from how someone managed to sneak up on her. The sun was becoming brighter over the sea, settling in the sky.

Midoriya Izuku stood there as the sun illuminated him, slowly brightening the color of his hair and the earnest look in his eyes.

Raven looked down and noticed the cast around his arms.

“W-What are you doing here?” he asked softly.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Am I not supposed to be here?”

He wore a simple pair of sweatpants with a shirt that said “polo shirt” on it. From his panting, she assumed that he had run here.

As the boy sputtered and mumbled, shaking his head and waving his arms as much as he could within the confines of the cast. His face became hot enough to fry an egg on, steam nearly coming out of his ears.

“I-I didn’t mean that at all! I mean it seemed strange since I’ve never seen you here before, and I normally do morning jogs—not to mention I spent my entire summer here and I didn’t see you once—”

“Midoriya,” she said, shutting him up. “It was a rhetorical question.” His jaw snapped closed.

Slumping forward, he deflated like a balloon. “Right, right,” he mumbled to himself. His footfalls were silenced by the sand, but Raven watched as he padded forward like a cat. Hesitantly, cautiously.

The wind stretched across the expanse of the sea, and Raven looked forward at the peachy sky.

When she looked to her side, Midoriya was still there.

Purple eyes fell downwards. She took in the sight of his bandages and the white swath around both arms.

“I’m sorry about your arms,” she commented simply when Midoriya kept on glancing at her from the side of his eyes. She knew that he wanted to say something, but she couldn’t help but be unamused. She didn’t look at him once.

With her words, he perked up immediately.

“H-Huh?” He waved his hands again. “Oh! Don—Don’t worry about it!” His hand came up to the back of his neck. “It’s my Quirk… I-It’s kinda like an egg in a microwave?” He went on with the analogy for a while, not checking to see if Raven was paying attention. She continued to stare forward. “If I use too much power my bones go like ‘Bam!’ I can’t control it just yet…” His hand came into a fist. “But I’ll get it one day!” His determined face melted away into a softer, puppy-like one. “Until then I guess I just have to deal with this…”

Raising an eyebrow, she let out another snarky reply, “Sounds like a form of self-harm.” Flinching as if she struck him, he turned away sheepishly, but a small smile reached his lips.

“Haha, I guess, but in the heat of the moment I don’t really feel the pain so I guess it’s fine… Um…” he finally drew out after the silence became too much. Raven remained mute beside him. He had so many questions spinning around his mind, tumbling into one another, pooling into one convoluted mess.

What happened back in USJ. What happened to her. Why did she lose control. Did she want to talk about it?

He was treading on a mental minefield, he thought.

Talking to her was like scrambling for crumbs, he realized. She never gave him more than he needed. Gathering up all this courage, he spoke, “Roth-san, I wanted to say that I’m sorry for tackling you like that in USJ!” he exclaimed, shutting his eyes closed.

The waves crashed against the shore as her eyes widened.

“I-I mean I don’t regret it because you could’ve hurt All Might, even though—Ahaha! Don’t get me wrong, very little can hurt All Might. He’s All Might. I meant that you were probably hurt in the process since I used my Quirk, and it was kinda scary for me, but I don’t think you deserve to be tackled to the ground like that—But your Quirk was really terrifying, and I felt my anxiety shoot through the roof, but I still felt like it was something I had to do—”

“Midoriya,” she said, forcing him into silence. “You talk too much.”

He paused for a second, eyes wide and mouth agape before his face turned red like a thermometer. Before he could continue to sputter like a train engine, Raven cut him off once more.

“You remind me of my friend,” she suddenly said, surprising even herself. “He talked my ear off all the time.” Midoriya’s mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish. He was half-stunned, half-intrigued, and half-excited that the elusive Roth from his class was sharing something with him. After a pause, with Raven’s purple eyes boring into his, she continued. “He was green too,” she said, almost as an afterthought.

He scratched the back of his neck and looked at her shyly. “It must be confusing for you to know two ‘Midori’s, huh?” he mumbled.

“What?” Raven raised her eyebrow. “I meant he was green like you,” she said. Running a single, blemish-free hand through her short strands she looked off again. “Stupid green hair, green skin, and green eyes.”

Midoriya was on edge at the sound of her insulting words, but felt a soft exhale leave his lips when an uncharacteristic softness reached her voice. She was distant, he thought. It was dreamy.

“Roth-san…” he spoke up, almost amusingly. “Only my hair and eyes are green.”

The American turned to him with an exasperated look. “I was trying to make a point, Midoriya-san.”

“You must really care about him,” the One-For-All holder commented, almost inaudible compared to the sound of the roaring waves.

It was the first time Roth visibly emoted, he noted. Her face scrunched up as if she was smelling something particularly foul, lips twisting like she swallowed a lemon.

“He’s loud, noisy, makes stupid jokes, and always leaves his trash everywhere,” was all she said, but her words would not be able to convince even the most gullible person.

She really is just like the rest of us, he thought, taking note of the sudden flustered appearance on her face.

“Is he back in America?” Deku asked, tilting his head in curiosity. Midoriya had never been outside of Japan himself, but he could imagine that Roth was undergoing a lot of homesickness after moving to Japan from her home country.

As if the sun had suddenly plunged from the sky, the mood of the beach dropped drastically. Midoriya was almost confused by this suffocating feeling of utter sadness, one that left him nearly gasping for breath until it was over. Like a light switch had gone off, everything turned back to normal. Roth stood beside him, upright, immune to the sudden horror he had just experienced.

“We don’t talk anymore,” she said, voice raspier than normal. Immediately afterward before Deku could ask any more questions, Raven spoke up again. “You don’t have to apologize for stopping me.” The wind carried short purple strands.

Green eyes shimmering, he openly gaped at her. Unaware of whatever Pandora’s box she had opened up, Midoriya spoke up again, clear excitement in his veins.

“I was just worried that I was hurting you!” he first said, perked up.

“Stop worrying then.” Her eyebrows knit then relaxed after staring at his face. “I don’t feel pain as much when I’m in that state,” she admitted, as awkwardly as Rachel Roth would allow. “I’m glad you did it. Truly. I didn’t want to hurt All Might.”

“So you were able to retain consciousness in that state too?” he gaped. “Despite not feeling your body’s regular autonomy and instincts like pain?”

Eyes peered down at the sand below before looking at him with a raised eyebrow. He was speaking at a mile a minute, but to her surprise he was more intrigued than scared. He spoke as if she was an experiment rather than a crazed killer. “Yeah,” she eventually said, voice slow and confused. “It’s like being in a car but I’m not the one driving.”

“That’s a great analogy!” He snapped his fingers, hands itching for his notebook. “I was wondering what it was! Everyone was a bit scared, but we were all concerned since you weren’t acting like yourself and it seemed like you didn’t know who we were! Tokoyami-kun told the officers that his own Quirk made him go out of control when it got too dark sometimes.” He glanced at her before turning away. Green eyes looked down at his red sneakers. “Truthfully, I think we all knew that something was wrong… I felt like I should’ve stopped you, but you were taking down that Nomu and—I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I should’ve tried harder,” His voice reached a soft volume. “Oh! But we aren’t blaming you or anything! I get it that umbrakinesis users tend to have mental health issues—“ As if he realized the words that tumbled out of his lips, he stopped, huffing and taking in a breath.

“I never said anything about mental issues,” she snapped.

It was like his ghost was punched out of his body. His eyes immediately went wide, shoulders high as he shook his hands back and forth rapidly. “I-I-I didn’t mean it like that! I’m not saying that you have mental health issues! Not at all! It’s just that—it’s public information on the Quirk Association’s website that people with darkness-based Quirks are more susceptive to mental illnesses than any other Quirk! Statistics say umbrakinesis users tend to have a twenty percent higher chance of getting things like depression, schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder—“

“Midoriya,” she said, to which he yelped out. “Shut up.” Purple eyes narrowed. “Please.”

The air was knocked out of him.

“Right,” he said, breathless.

The birds cawed overhead. The waves continued. Up, down, forward, back.

“Um, one more thing,” he said tentatively. It came out of his mouth in a quick flood, sheepishness filling his voice. He paused for a second, almost as if to see Raven object or walk away, but when she didn’t do either of them, he allowed himself to exhale. The sky was fully blue by now, lighting up the sea with bright yellow glimmers. “I just wanted to ask if you were alright?” he asked. His voice was small, his shoulders in.

“I’ll be okay.” His emotions fell then—another dead end to her words. Her narrowed eyes turned to look at him then back down to his arm. “And.... I hope everyone else will be too.” Before his bright green eyes would widen with surprise, she continued. “You shouldn’t use your Quirk too much if it’s hurting you—You’d be surprised how much damage is there once it’s too late. Be more careful next time. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I—“ he was barely able to contain his excitement. His classmate was so difficult to read, so much like a brick wall in her deposition and her openness. For someone who prided himself on analysis, on reading people, understanding them when they didn’t think that the small, Quirkless boy wasn’t paying attention, she was an anomaly.

Now, she was actually sharing with him.

“I will!” he exclaimed. “I hope you’ll be okay too! Thank you, Roth—” He outstretched his hand quickly, in such lightning speed that it almost took her off guard. In the exact same moment, she had taken a step back in surprise, all while a large wave hung overhead until it crashed down on the both of them. Cold water washed over them like tumble inside a washing machine. He was knocked over on his feet in surprise and found himself bottom-first on the shore.

“Ah!” Midoriya shouted, screwing his eyes shut until the wave finally receded.

He spit out saltwater from his mouth and felt the coldness seep into his cotton clothes. Sand shuffled underneath his butt as he shook the water from his hair and eyes. Finally remembering who he was with, he leaped up almost immediately.

“R-Roth-san!” he looked at the girl across from him, purple hair covering her face, her clothes sticking to her like a second skin. Carefully, like poking a bear, he asked, “A-Are you alright?”

Her hair remained like a mop over her eyes.

“Yeah,” she stated. No wonder she never took a deep dive back in Jump City. The sand was already coarse, irritating, getting everywhere. Not to mention now she was cold and her sleeping clothes were drenched. “Midoriya, I felt like you did that on purpose.”

His spine became ramrod straight. “I-I didn’t! I didn’t!” he insisted. He opened his mouth to speak again, but immediately closed it the moment a spray of sea water cascaded into his mouth. He shrieked, spitting and sputtering, but when he looked back at Roth, agape, he was stunned silent.

She was still in her spot on the ground, soaking in the sunlight, but there was something off about the picture.

Her lips had the slightest tilt upward.

She did that on purpose.

“I—” he laughed with relief for the first time today. She splashed him on purpose. “Roth-san, that isn’t fair!” He kicked an arc of water upward and Raven immediately dodged, throwing up a black force field as she moved out of the way.

“Hey!” he beamed, splashing her with water. “That’s cheating!”

“What?” Raven asked, voice as passive as ever, but it was impossible to miss the different tone in her speech. “I didn’t do anything,” she said even as she dipped her hand into the sea and tossed the saltwater at him.

The soundtrack of summer played in his head: the birds cawing overhead, the waves crashing upon the shore, the rustling of running water, and the sound of his own laughter as him and Roth took turns chasing each other across the water, splashing one another. Eventually, he started to feel his own exhaustion as he collapsed on the dry part of the beach, and released a deep and heavy sigh. He opened his eyes and took a peek at Roth, silent as she stood to the side of him. Her chest didn’t rise and fall with exertion, making him wonder how long could she go in a fight.

“Aw,” Midoriya muttered softly as he stood back up. He dropped his gaze down to his arms. “My cast is wet.” Green eyes turned over to Raven and he watched as she wrung out her hair with her hands. She was just as soaked as he was. He knew that she didn’t live nearby. If she did, she would take the same subway line he did, but instead she took the one that went the exact opposite direction. Nevermind the fact that all she was wearing was a loose grey zipper hood, dark shorts and a tank top.

He didn’t know what else to do but follow wordlessly as she went over to the beach rinse station, ducking her head underneath the flow of water and standing motionlessly. Her purple hair became a curtain over her face as she washed away the ocean’s grittiness. Midoriya instead focused on the deep bags underneath her eyes, the dullness in her irises.

He wanted to know more. The class’s most elusive student—the strongest, and frankly, the biggest threat.

What was he going to do? He thought. This was all his fault. She looked physically fine, but she just came from the same battle he did and it wouldn’t be good for her health if she stayed like this. He was sure she lived to the west of Musutafu, far away from where he lived and the trek back there would probably get her sick—

Grasping for straws, channeling his bravery, he spoke up.

“Uh, Roth-san, i-if you want—um, do you want to clean up back at my place?”

One lone dark eyebrow was raised back at him.

The keys clattered loudly to the ground again, his hands shaking terribly as if he was the origin point of an earthquake. It wasn’t due to the cold seeping through his veins, nor the fact that his hands were both in full casts, but because—

This is the first time a classmate is coming over to my house! he thought. A-And a girl at that! Steam practically flew out of his nose.

A girl was coming over to this house!

The strongest student in 1-A!

“Uh,” Raven spoke up from the background, several feet away. A small pool of water accumulated at her feet. “Do you need help with that?”

“N-No!” he nearly shouted, rattling like a man in the middle of a blizzard. “I-I got this!”

Before he could reach down and grab his keys once more, the door flew open and he froze up like a picture.

“Izuku, is that you—?” Midoriya Inko said before her eyes landed on Raven. “A-A-A girl?!” she shouted.

Raven held in the urge to flinch at the loud volume, and instead started on, confused.

“Mom!” Izuku’s arms waved around wildly. “S-She’s just a friend from school!”

“A-A-A friend?!” Inko’s eyes watered immediately. “You—You have a friend from school?!” She looked near tears.

“Y-Yes, but shh!” Izuku desperately whisper-shouted.

“P-Please welcome in!” Inko said, deaf to her son’s words. She scrambled around desperately, going inside, picking up stray items to tidy, before running back to Raven, “Oh, my! I apologize for my rudeness, I’m Midoriya Inko, Izuku’s mother—Oh! I’m so sorry about the mess! We weren’t expecting guests! Let me—” She nearly rushed back inside her home. “What kind of tea do you like? Green? Oolong? I have roasted brown rice tea as well—Milk tea is popular with the teens now, right?”

“Mom!” Izuku finally spoke up. Raven was leaning backward slightly. “Please give her space to breathe!”

“I—” Inko turned her tearful eyes to the teenager in front of her. Purple eyes looked into green ones.

Raven gave her a small smile and nod. “My name is Roth Rachel. It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

And she meant it.

. . .

“Pardon the intrusion,” Raven muttered as she crossed the threshold, remembering her manners while she placed her drying sandals off to the side. Izuku had already settled in and rushed into his room to dry his cast as quickly as possible while Inko spoke to her.

“I haven’t been your size in quite a while, but I might have some clothes that fit you,” she tittered slightly. “It’s a good thing I tend to get sentimental over things—I’ll go get them now! You can change in our bathroom and then go into Izuku’s room to get the hairdryer. I’ll make some tea so you two won’t catch a cold! Give me your clothes so I can wash and dry them for you, okay?” Inko was talking to herself, the rapid-fire questions were nearly too fast for Raven to understand as she nodded absent-mindedly to whatever this mother was saying.

The clothes Inko had given her was not her style. They were soft and smelled like fabric softener, but they were bright and decorated in small, colorful flowers. Raven hasn’t worn a skirt willingly since the time Mother Mae-Eye forcefully put her in a dress. Beggars can’t be choosers, she assumed, pulling on the clothes. She passed her wet clothes over to Inko before walking over to Izukus’ room. It wasn’t hard to find in the slightest. The apartment was small, but even Izuku’s room had an All Might-themed plaque on his door with his name engraved on it.

She opened the door, saw Izuku’s wide eyes and the All Might gear decked out from corner to corner, and promptly closed the door.

From behind the wood, Izuku shrieked. “W-Wait, Roth-san! This isn’t what it looks like!” The door swung out and she kept her face purposefully blank.

A-A girl is almost in my room!

He screamed and sputtered in her ear as her bangs overshadowed her eyes. She was silent as he gently backed her out of his room, talking at a mile a minute as his face burned. All Might’s smiling face engraved itself in her mind.

“Midoriya,” she said, voice impressively even, “I just need the hairdryer.”

“R-Right!” He ducked back into his room, making sure to open the door the smallest bit as he slipped in and out to hand her the dryer.

She had found an outlet in the living room and stayed in silence as she dried her hair. Midoriya hovered all the while. She knew that he wanted to break the quiet.

In front of her was a small shelf filled with picture frames and homemade knick-knacks. Children’s efforts, she assumed, looking at the messy scrawl of “World’s Best Mom!” on one lumpy and uneven clay cup. Midoriya’s childhood photos were in front of her. He was always smiling widely in all of them, big eyes nearly outshining the rest of his face. In them, he was either wearing an All Might onesie or was holding an action figure of the man.

She tried to imagine what it was like to be in All Might’s shoes. To have someone idolize you so much that they wore your costume and had figures of you, to then later on go to school with them and be around them physically.

The fact that Raven didn’t believe that she was a popular hero back home in Earth 0 didn’t help either.

The thought made her skin crawl.

“That’s kinda creepy,” she muttered to herself.

Izuku nearly jumped. “H-Huh? What was that, Roth-san?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said, turning to him. The heat of the blow dryer cascaded warmth toward the side of her face, blowing her hair across her eyes. “You must really like All Might,” she commented.

“I-I just admire him, that’s all!” he said. “There has to be a Hero you look up to too!”

Her first thoughts were obvious, but after several more seconds of being in thought, she came up with a new answer. An overly muscular man with wavy black hair. He wore blocky, dorky glasses during the day and then a red and blue suit during crime fighting.

The only adult who had saved her before she even knew who she was. Before she was Raven of the Teen Titans.

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess I do.”

His eyes widened before he nodded quickly. “That seems like an obvious question, America is the home of the Heroes after all! You guys must have a ton of amazing ones. But—I’m probably still biased toward All Might... I wonder if he’s popular there…” he said in deep thought. “Is All Might popular back home?” he asked.

Raven shrugged. “I’ve never heard of All Might before I came to Japan.”

Here, Midoriya openly gaped at her.

“What?! But—All Might’s in the top ten in the world! He goes to the biggest Hero conventions on the planet, you know! He also started his career in America. So he’s probably in America several times a year too,” he noted, looking as if she had asked what the sun or the sky was.

Raven could only shrug again. “Not like I go to Hero cons.”

Midoriya openly gaped. “Really?” he gasped. “Well—” he suddenly became sheepish. “I’ve never really had anyone to go with in the years prior… Let’s go to a Hero convention together one day, Roth-san!” Midoriya shined the most genuine smile at her, and it was so bright that Raven had to look away.

Her eyes started to wander then, taking in the entirety of the living room. It was extremely homely, she thought. Not in the way that the Titan Tower was, with state-of-the-art technology and impressively expensive furniture. Nor was it Sasaki’s apartment that was pristine and clean—but empty. She saw the scuff marks on the floor and wear on the furniture. It was well-loved, cosy.

“Your mom is nice,” she noted quietly, almost awkwardly as a way to try and move the conversation along. She noticed that the woman was in almost all of the photos as well—no father.

“Y-Yeah?” He smiled gently. “Yeah, she’s really amazing. She’s kinda overbearing and a worry-wart though.”

Raven nodded slowly, unsure of what else to say. “She has a nice Quirk too.” The woman had gently floated Raven’s wet clothes into her hands and into the hamper before she took off to the laundry room below. Purple eyes turned to Midoriya as if she had seen him for the first time. “It’s really different from yours.”

Raven had read up about Quirks and that a majority of the time it was either inherited from either parent or a mutation of both. Having something completely different wasn’t rare, but it was more uncommon.

Something flashed into Midoriya’s eyes as he quickly started to explain himself, stating that he was both a late bloomer and his Quirk just was completely different from his parents’.

“Ha-ha, I mean life is just unpredictable like that—!”

Raven raised an eyebrow then. He was clearly trying to make an excuse—but she only said it as an observation. So why was he lying? His anxiety was rising, she noted, as well as his nerves and panic.

“I mean—I think that you have a strong Quirk too, Roth-san,” he said, finally finishing his ramble.

“...Thanks,” Raven eventually answered after a beat of silence. “But—”

Midoriya snapped his head up, hanging onto every word that she said, every extra sound that left her mouth.

“I think that I’d be happier if I had no power at all,” she stated quietly.

Izuku immediately knit his eyebrows. “I—!” It was like lightning struck his heart.

They were cut off by the sound of her ringtone, reverberating in between the two of them. Raven slowly pulled it out of Inko’s romper pocket and immediately frowned when she read the name on the screen. She let it ring for two more cycles, ignoring how Midoriya stood there with a gaping mouth.

She pressed on the green button and held it to her ear.

“Hello?” she asked, or rather demanded. “...I’m at a friend’s house.” A pause, and then, more quiet, “Yeah...That’s the address…. Okay.” She hung up immediately. There was no physical change in her expression or her stature, but Izuku knew that the mood around her dropped considerably.

“Is...everything all right?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yeah…” she answered. Turning fully to him, she looked him up and down before nodding once. “Thank your mom for her hospitality for me,” she said. “Thank you too, Midoriya-san. I have to go now.” She turned around without him saying anything, immediately slipping off her shoes and opening the door.

He stared at her back, mute with curiosity.

He believed that since they spent time together he would get more answers, but instead he was left with more questions. He doubted that Roth knew what she was saying when she said she would rather be Quirkless—he thought, just for a moment, that someone like her couldn’t possibly understand the hardships, the bullying, the pain that came with being in this dog-eat-dog world for Quirkless people, but as she said that—even if it was just for a moment, she was telling the truth.

She was perfectly, unapologetically sure that her Quirk was the one holding her back.

And with that Midoriya didn’t know what to say.

She was already out the door, down the steps to his apartment and when he realized this, panic surged through his body. He leapt out of his open door, leaning over the rails as she stepped down the stairs.

“Roth-san, wait!” he shouted, almost desperately. She stopped and looked up at him. “I—” He shook his head so hard that his green curls bounced around his face. “Everyone in Class 1-A wants to help you!” Her shoulders straightened. “I don’t know what’s going on, but… I know that everyone in the class would never dream of hurting you, so please—! If you have something bothering you…I want to be there for you!”

He had so much to say, so many things swimming in his mind, thoughts curling around his brain. Instead, he simply shouted out his phone number, probably disturbing the neighbors. Raven stood at the foot of the staircase, craning her head up at him as those numbers tumbled out of his lips. She was still for a while and for a second he thought that she was going to walk off without a word, but after a beat she pulled her phone out again and he felt the phone in his pocket chime with a single notification.

As quickly as he could as someone with two casts on their arms, he pulled out his phone and felt his eyes shine at the sight of an All Might sticker as her message. It was a chibified drawing of him, one where he had a large thumbs up with the words, “You can do it!” stood out in English in the background inside a comic burst.

Barely able to contain his shaking, he looked over at the rail and to her awaiting face.

“Thank you!” he shouted down there. “Please call or text me for anything! My phone is always open to you, Roth-san.”

“Raven,” was all she said, a single hand in her pocket.

“Huh?” he nearly faltered.

“My friends call me Raven, Midoriya,” she stated, something strange in her voice. When she turned to finally leave, he didn’t know what else to do but yell out after her. He was stunned by her words, desperate to reach out again. He didn’t think this far. He just wanted to hear her voice once more.

“Raven-san!” he said, his accent twisting her name. “I—Plus Ultra!” he said. They were the first words that tumbled out of his mouth. It was the first thing he thought of.

She paused, body visibly stiffening before she gave him a curt nod, shoulders sagging slightly. “Plus Ultra to you too, Midoriya.”

Raven didn’t look back as she stepped toward the sleek black car, a bespeckled man standing outside as he waited for her. Neither of them said a word to each other as she silently walked in and closed the door after her. Right before the man sat back in the vehicle, Midoriya swore that he was taking an extra long look at him.

. . .

Long after he watched their car pull away and drive off, he released the biggest exhale he was holding in, slumping on the floor in front of his apartment like a discarded toy.

“‘Plus Ultra’?” he whispered to himself, shame creeping up his neck. “How embarrassing…!”

Couldn’t he think of anything better?

His thoughts then turned to her guardian, green and yellow hair with a nicely pressed suit—

Wait— he immediately thought.

Was that...Sir Nighteye?
First-and-only-sidekick-to-All Might Sir Nighteye?

Inko Midoriya ended up coming back from the laundry room to her red-faced son muttering about autographs, embarrassing moments, and black birds.

The car was exceedingly quiet.

The only sound was the gentle rumble of the tires underneath them, and the smell of new leather was burning her nostrils. He had a red, white, and blue car air freshener in the cup holder with two yellow blond “ears” pointing out on top. Another gaudy fan merch, she thought, almost grumpily.

“You’re dressed differently today,” he noted, breaking the silence.

“It’s my classmate’s mom’s clothes,” she said, looking down at the romper.

“Have you eaten yet?” he asked next.

“No.”

“We’re going to get a meal together then,” he stated. From the streets where he was driving she had already known that he wasn’t headed home. Raven had kept silent though. Her still-simmering anger overpowered her curiosity. Yet, she knew that it would only lead to repercussions if she did something as petty as the silent treatment toward the person who was paying the bills and putting food on the table.

He drove deep into the city of Musutafu, away from the beach and the sprawling forests that she frequented for class, but so far away that they were practically in Tokyo at this point. The smaller shops and buildings were replaced with skyscrapers that stood over them like giants and bright screens were flashing back at them.

What other choice did she have? Sir Nighteye scolded her yesterday, but he was still her guardian. She couldn’t snap back or bring her sass to the table even if she wanted to.

And how she desperately wanted to give him a piece of her mind. Did he think that she wanted to get hurt? To stand along the sidelines as her classmates were hurt? To just do nothing while the villains ran wildly?

The tires rolled to a gentle stop in a parking lot and they both got out of the car quietly until he led her to a tall building with a large sprawling pink banner outside of it presenting the faces of cute girls.

He wordlessly led her into a restaurant in the building and Raven’s vision was immediately filled with pink.

“Welcome back,” a cutesy voice said to the side of her. Raven turned and got a full sight of cute lace and frills. “Master [おうじさま], Young Lady [おじょうさま、]! Welcome to the Mon Cheri Cafe!”

What.

Raven felt like she was going to throw up.

Mozart echoed repeatedly in her thoughtless head, almost as if it lived there rent-free.

Her hand was pinching her temples as she stared down at the pink table, eyes dully taking in the printed flowery pattern and the lacy detail. Her placemat had drawn chibis of her teachers from U.A. on it, including Endeavor and a woman with bunny ears. The maid beside her was carefully explaining every page of the menu and the specials they had during their special event where the cafe collaborated with the Hero Association to a stone-faced Sir Nighteye who nodded along as if this was going to be on the metaphorical test later on.

The room was pink, she thought, repeating the phrase in her head. The walls were cluttered with multiple fancy picture frames of the maids and cute plush animals. The restaurant had low lighting, hanging from fake chandeliers from above. The patrons surrounding them were other businessmen and women older than she was. One patron had a backpack with a clear plastic sleeve out on front, displaying her many Endeavor keychains, charms, and plushies while her friend had a Kamui Woods barrette in her hair. Up in front of the room was a stage where more stuffed animals crowded the platform. They had the booth seats lined with dark magenta velvet fabric.

“I’ll take the Mighty Special,” Sir Nighteye stated without any hesitance, shutting his menu with a sharp ‘snap!’

“Alright, Master!” the maid said cheerfully. “Every Mighty Special comes with a blind box of a limited-edition All Might charm, okay?”

“Yes.”

“And for you, Young Mistress?” the maid asked, her pretty lips making a perfect ‘O’ shape as she awaited Raven’s order.

“The...” Raven sighed deeply. Her eyes fell down on the menu. “The Present OmuMaiku....”

“Of course! Would you like anything to drink with that?” The maid’s lip gloss shone from the dim lights above.

“What’s the most alcoholic thing you have?” Raven immediately asked, flipping over to the beverages.

“That will be the Midnight Mixer, Young Lady!”

“I’ll take that,” Raven demanded.

“She’s underage,” Sir Nighteye stated, halting the woman from putting the order down. “Get her another Might-shake.”

“Coming right up!” The maid smiled at the both of them, nodding once in satisfaction before walking away.

“Why are we here?” Raven immediately hissed, wheeling in on Sir Nighteye. Did he bring her here to torture her in a way she couldn’t fight back, she wanted to ask. “Why are we eating here?”

“Are you…” A strange look crossed Sir Nighteye’s face. He pushed up his glasses. “Do you not like it here?”

“What.”

He avoided her eyes and pushed up his glasses—this time out of nervous habit. “I figured since you were new to Japan that—” He faltered. He of all people stopped and reconsidered his words. “I looked up the top activities to do in Japan as a tourist and maid cafes were one of the top results. This is the best maid cafe in the city… I consulted with Bubble Girl, asking whether this would be popular with a young teen girl your age and she ended up bursting out in laughter… I thought that meant an affirmative…” His eyebrows knit for a second. “I apologize… do you not like it here?”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re doing this,” Raven demanded. Wasn’t he upset with her yesterday?

He was silent for a second. The light caught the reflection in his eyes.

“I…” he looked down at the Pro-Hero placemat. “...Wanted to say I’m sorry, Raven-san,” he finally said, looking up at her. She felt her breath hitch. “Yesterday I was out of hand. I spoke without thinking and I said hurtful things.” Raven opened her mouth to talk, probably to finally speak her mind but he gently shook his head. “I was worried, stressed, and concerned.” He knit his eyebrows. “But I was still in the wrong and didn’t consider your feelings."

He stopped to consider his next words. The image of All Might in the hospital flashed in his head. “When I found out that you ended up losing control of your powers and taking on the villains by yourself I was scared. You then ended up being the most hurt out of all your classmates as a result, and I didn’t know what to do.” He knew what he felt at that moment though—the downward spiral, the heavy feeling of hurt and recoil. He thought that he had failed again—watched another one fall under his guard. “I admit that I didn’t like the fact that you got hurt, nor that you were the one that took on the brunt of the battle for your classmates. U.A. is in charge of you while you’re still a student, and they should’ve done better. However, this is the path you’ve chosen, and I need to accept that you’re going to be injured.” He straightened up. “I apologize, Raven-san.”

Genuine concern, worry, and nerves.

He cared, rang into her head. But why.

“...I accept your apology,” Raven finally said, voice raspy. She was unsure of what else to say. Logically, nor did she think that holding a grudge did her any good. She thought of her next steps. What would happen if she did accept his apology and what would happen if she didn't. “But don’t ever do that again.” She looked him right in the eye. “You don’t get to choose how or when I fight my battles.”

“Thank you, Raven-san,” he finally said, nodding once. “This cafe probably isn’t to your tastes either,” he noted. If he was able to deflate, he would’ve. “If this place makes you uncomfortable, I can go and pay for our meals and we can have lunch at—”

“Wait,” Raven said, holding out a hand. “I—” It was true that this place activated her fight or flight, but this was a clear, albeit unsuccessful attempt to get her to feel better. “I'm okay with cute things,” she admitted, sounding like she was pulling teeth.

He blinked once at her. “You don’t have to lie for my sake.”

Raven sucked in a breath before leaning over the table slightly, dropping the volume of her voice. “Back home my favorite TV show is Pretty Pretty Pegasus. I like it so much that sometimes I collect the figurines and I’ve even read the novel,” she said as quickly as she could. “I’m...okay with this.”

While this place took cuteness to the top and made her sick to her stomach, it seemed like her explanation placated Sir Nighteye somewhat. He settled back into his seat comfortably.

“I am here! Thank you for waiting!” a cheerful voice said to the side, making them both snap their heads toward the maid holding their plates. She placed a plate of omurice in front of Raven, a bed of seaweed and rice had Present Mic’s face and body cut out on it while the omelet acted as his hair. Her teacher’s headphones were drawn in ketchup while vegetable slices cut into the shape of microphones and star-shaped tater tots decorated the sides of her plate.

Sir Nighteye got a hamburger with two tortilla chips in the shape of All Might’s infamous hair tusks stabbing into them, jutting into the air. His side of fries was wrapped together with the pattern of one of All Might’s suits while their milkshakes were in stereotypical diner glass cups but with distinct strawberry milkshake, vanilla milkshake, and cotton candy-flavored milkshake layers. A scoop of yellow sorbet and a printed fondant picture of All Might replaced the cherry on top.

“Here’s your blind box, Master!” the maid said, handing Sir Nighteye the box. He gratefully took it with both hands.

“Young Miss,” the maid said, and Raven felt a spike of fear at the sound of the maid addressing her. She wasn’t going to be mean to the waitress since this was just the poor girl’s job, but she felt as if Trigon was going to drag her back to hell any second. “Your Present Omu-mic comes with a cup of our magic curry! Can you help me transform your yummy curry with a magic spell?”

“Huh.” Her eyes were the widest they’ve ever been.

“We’re going to need to transform the curry into a tasty one with a spell!” she said, handing Raven a pink magical girl’s wand. The maid formed her hand and fingers into a heart and held it over the curry. “Please repeat after me! Moe moe dokyunnn! Ok, let’s start!”

Briefly, Raven wondered if she was still in hell.

Raven repeated the words as if she was held by gunpoint.

“Young Miss!” the maid pouted cutely. “If you don’t try harder the spell won’t be as effective! Let’s do it one more time!”

Trigon should’ve taken her out for real, Raven thought for a moment.

“Moe moe dokyunnnn!”

"Moe—I... Moe dokyun."

Why was she doing this. She could actually send the curry to another dimension with a real magic spell.

She was going to get an aneurysm, Raven thought as the maid walked away to tend to another table after she had “successfully” cast the spell.

Across the table, Sir Nighteye opened up his box to get a small cute figure of All Might painted in various shades of pastel purple. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction. No wonder he brought her here, she thought. The other patrons were Pro-Hero otakus too.

“Here,” he said, placing the charm upright next to her plate. “You can have this.”

“Huh?” she blanked out, warily staring at the large painted smile. “But you love All Might.”

“Your favorite color is purple, correct? That’s why I want you to have it.”

He was trying to make it up to her in the only way he knew, she realized.

“...Thanks.”

They dug into their foods in silence, but now the changed air between the two of them was unmistakable. It was strange digging into her English teacher’s hair and even weirder drinking a milkshake based off All Might, but if she felt these sentiments, no one had to know it but her. The pleasant air remained even when they were both called up to take a special polaroid picture with the best maid in the cafe where even Raven said f*ck it and requested a unicorn headband while Sir Nighteye had a cute bunny one. And they stayed in contentment all the way to dessert, where they shared an Endeavor chocolate fondue. For a moment, she believed that Sir NIghteye wasn't just someone that she lived with. She realized that she hadn't felt this way since the fall.

“This is so weird,” she muttered to herself, coating in a cookie in the shape of the Flame Hero’s fire beard. The pot that bubbled over the lit flame was painted as the man’s hero costume.

“What’s strange?” Sir Nighteye asked, mercilessly dunking fruit slices shaped as the man’s face into the chocolate bath.

She gestured to the chocolate pot. “Isn’t this weird?” Maybe she expected this from All Might, but Endeavor had a dish in this place too? Her impression of the man was a serious, no-nonsense Hero. Not like Batman who acted that way simply because he didn't care about the happenings around him, but she suspected that endeavor controlled everything he possibly had power over. She thought back to Todoroki.

“Do you not have merchandise back home?”

“Of course we do,” she said. Though she certainly didn’t. Superboy gloated with an unboxing video on his streaming channel all the time. “Beast Boy has a boxer line and he goes on a radio show regularly. I am a mascot for a bubblegum brand though,” she stated. “But isn’t this...too much?” One purple eyebrow was raised back at him.

“Well, a majority of Heroes make a good fraction of their profit off of merchandise. A percentage of the money you make on patrol, especially if you're a new Hero depends on things like agency, number of successes, and the Hero Association takes 10% of everything you make. It makes sense if you’re a Hero wanting to put more money in your pocket. It also raises engagement and popularity.”

“What about you?” she asked next. She didn't see any of his stuff around. “Aren’t you a Pro Hero too?”

“I’m not interested in the extra money.” He shook his head. “I’m sure your homeroom teacher Eraserhead feels the same way.”

“...It’s creepy when Endeavor does it though,” she stated.

Sir Nighteye perked up his brows. “That’s because the man is trying to beat All Might’s merchandise sales. That’s the sole reason why he’s doing stuff like this.”

“Really?” Sir Nighteye nodded seriously and proceeded to tell her about his instinct—that he got feelings that Endeavor had genuine feelings of envy and jealousy toward All Might. He suspected that the man was extremely petty and would do anything to beat the Number One Hero.

Raven remained silent for the rest of the meal, mulling over the information she was given, only speaking to order another dessert for to-go as Sir Nighteye paid the bill. They both made their way to the car, right as Raven was about to buckle in when he asked her, "Is your schedule clear today?"

"Yeah," she replied. She didn’t even have homework due to the events. "Why?"

"Since you're still new to Japan, and we're still in Tokyo, would you like to visit any sights?"

"This isn’t the first time I’ve been to Tokyo,” Raven admitted, sounding like she was shutting him down, “but...I’ve never had the chance to visit the historical sites.”

“I didn't know that,” He placed the car in reverse and it gently rumbled to life. “Is that how you learned Japanese?”

“I already speak several languages, I just thought that Japanese would be important after our first trip,” she said and then listing off the many languages she knew after Sir Nighteye requested them. Impressed, she felt from him.

“How was your first time in Japan then?”

“It’s...a long story,” she admitted, memories flashing through her head.

“We have time.” He nodded toward the heavy traffic. “Even if our destination isn’t far, trying to find parking in this place is like a modern art form.”

The Titan nodded once and began to share the story as they drove into the city’s jungle of skyscrapers and bright neon screens.

When the skyscrapers began to close in on them, she talked about the villain that dragged them to Tokyo, the story of running into the Tokyo Troopers, being set up as murderers, becoming wanted criminals in Japan, uncovering the tale of Brushogun, and finally, confronting Commander Uehara Daizo.

And for a second—even if it just was for a second—she forgot that the Titans were gone.

Chapter 9: Reluctance

Chapter Text

If Shouta Aizawa was going to speak rationally, Rachel Roth had the most promise to be a Hero.

That was the issue.

A deep sigh escaped his lips as he clenched his eyes shut, his eyelids watering at the corner from the sudden relief from dryness.

The League of Villains.

A 5.2 billion yen facility. Gone in a flash.

The press in a frenzy.

Thirteen in the hospital.

He needed to fix this.

It was unsurprising that the moment he had woken up in the hospital, mute to the report that Present Mic was retelling him about what had gone down after he was knocked unconscious, that he had pulled his laptop out the moment his friend had left for the night. Hunched over the screen, he was typing away in the dark after hours, hindered by how thick the bandages wrapped around his hands were.

“You need to calm down, Eraser! Everything has been dealt with!”

“I doubt that a villain that was able to take down all of U.S.J. in one go is considered ‘dealt with,’” the man snapped. “I need to look into this.”

“Oh, uh—” Mic suddenly felt more nervous. Eraser knew that. They had been friends for more than one decade, after all. He knew when Mic was purposefully omitting something or was trying to hide something from him.

Aizawa’s eyes snapped to the side.

“What is it,” he spat.

“So um—” Mic rubbed the back of his head. His lips were twisted into an uneasy grin. “It wasn’t the villain that destroyed U.S.J. It wasn’t any of them.”

“...What.”

That memory played in his head like a broken record.

His eyes strained against the light of the screen.

He watched the video reel of her entrance exam back and forth, scanning every inch of the screen as she pulled every item possible with her Quirk to assist her. She showed an ability to analyze the situation, prioritization toward rescues, a steady head during conflict, and used her Quirk in a variety of ways. No movement was unnecessary or useless. He remembered thinking that he was impressed with her when he first saw it. As the highest-ranking applicant, he had high expectations and even higher standards for the types of Heroes he was going to whip his students into, but he found that other than her disposition and her reluctance toward people, there was little he could nitpick.

In comparison to Bakugou Katsuki, the student who was one rank behind her, Roth was a far cry from Bakugou’s plain firepower.

It had been obvious that she had done this before, which was his next concern.

Not even Bakugou or Todoroki showed the same adeptness to the situation as she had. Roth was able to split her time evenly between the villains and getting people to safety, boarding up the surrounding buildings for damage control, and was able to find a victim even several meters in the air.

Aizawa had suspicions that she was his strongest student in his entire teaching career, but this was something else entirely.

The damage was irreplaceable, he observed. They would have to rebuild the entire thing from the ground up. The entire skylight collapsed, the different zones pushed aside as if they were built out of paper-mache instead of state-of-the-art materials.

Most importantly, she was the supposed “most injured” out of all of them. Yet, she went home without a scratch, not even a check-up at the hospital.

This led him to pull up her records, her blank face staring back at him from her school photo.

What he expected were comments from her past about a troubled childhood, perhaps hints that she had stepped a toe in vigilantism. These would be the indications of what built up Rachel Roth and her suspicious strength. But instead, Aizawa felt his eyebrows furrow and saw himself falling down a rabbit hole.

No notes from any possible previous teachers, nor any comments from any orphanage matrons other than a small note that she had bounced from foster home to foster home before she found herself in Japan. There was no name filled out for her biological parents. There were no scores from any exams that he had known that American students were required to take either. The only note that he found after excessive digging was a small comment that said that her scores were “satisfactory.”

Most importantly, there was no note in her Quirk Registry about the “red eyes,” her terrifying power, or her out-of-control energy.

There was nothing at all.

And her face in her school picture remained irritatingly impassive.

Raven would be lying if she said that she didn’t feel the eyes of everyone follow her as she stepped onto campus. She would be an even bigger liar if she said that it didn’t bother her, despite her emotionless face. Even students from other classes and other grades seemed to bore into her with their eyes as she walked by. Their mutterings caught up to her as she switched her shoes at the lockers.

Here she was, thinking that Cyborg was just exaggerating when he said high school was ruthless. Then again, she expected it to be about needless gossip or juvenile crushes—not because she invoked the wrath of Trigon and destroyed a building the size of Disneyland.

And then, when she opened the door to Class 1-A, all of the chats and conversation behind the door suddenly ceased. It was as if a fire went out.

Her steps seemingly echoed as she walked forward, ringing in her ears, and her classmates in 1-A all stared in silence as she walked by.

Purple eyes peered around, watching the mini congregations that clumped around different corners of the room. Uraraka and Iida stared at her in worry, but she quickly passed them the moment her eyes landed on the person she was looking for.

Her heart had been heavy all weekend.

Sero and Kaminari tensed the moment she came closer, looking at one another quickly before they both turned their head to their red-headed member.

“Ah—Raven-san—” Midoriya twisted in his seat.

“Kirishima-san,” she said quietly. “Can I talk to you in private?” Her voice commanded the attention of everyone in the room, as silent as it was.

“...Yeah,” he said breathlessly, nodding quickly after a pause. “Yeah,” he repeated once more firmly. His large hand patted Kaminari on the shoulder comfortingly before he stood up out of his chair and followed her out of the classroom. The door closed behind them with a loud ‘snap!’ They stood across from each other in silence. The overly huge 1-A door created a wedge between them.

The large hallways were completely empty. The clouds were out and thick today, letting the hallway flood with artificial white light.

“Kirishima-san,” Raven started. She didn’t flinch away. Her eyes bore into his form bravely. “I’m sorry for hurting you back there. I didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t excuse my actions.” She gave him a bow. “Please forgive me.”

Her voice had no emotion, no sympathy. It was almost like she was forced to do this apology, held under the threat of the faculty and her family, but her eyes shone with determination anyway.

Even so, he grew nervous, a bead of sweat dripping down his face. Awkwardness filled his person as someone so much flashier and stronger than him was apologizing to him of all people.

“Ah!” He held up his hands to placate her as she rose slowly. “It’s cool! No sweat off my back!” He gave her a toothy grin and pointed at himself with his thumb. “No injuries, see? I hardened right as you threw me so I barely felt it!” For a demonstration, he activated his Quirk on his arm, sharpening planes of skin for her to see and nearly cutting across his rumpled school uniform.

Raven narrowed her eyes at him, nearly making him flinch back from her hard look. “Just because you have a Quirk that saved you doesn’t make it right. I apologize,” she said again. “...Truly.”

“Like I said!” He grinned wider, more nervous. “Water under the bridge! I’m more worried about you! You okay?”

Probably everyone in Class 1-A could recall that red-eyed form of hers like the back of their hand now.

Every so slowly, like a puppet on strings, she nodded once. “Yeah.” As if remembering her manners, she added, “Thank you for the concern.”

They stood in silence, an emptiness so heavy that he let out a nervous chuckle and messed with his tie. She was staring at him, searching for something.

“Kirishima-san,” she suddenly said, making him perk up physically. Her voice drawled, “Why did you run up to me?”

“H-Huh?” Out of all the questions, he wasn’t expecting that one.

“Why did you try to stop me?” she asked.

More clearly, she added, “You knew I was dangerous. I could’ve seriously gotten you hurt. That was stupid of you.”

Eyes widening, he stiffened the moment she fixed all of her attention on him. Like a kid who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, he coughed into his fist, averting his eyes. He shifted from foot to toe, feeling the shame fill his body from the answer. “Well um—you know they say that when you’re scared—your true colors show.” He avoided her eyes. “I-I just thought that…” He straightened up proudly. “A hero shouldn’t have any regrets! They should always rise to the situation! I wanted to help! You were taking on that villain all alone.”

Raven stared at him for a while, eyes moving side to side as if reading him like those books she always carried around. After several more seconds of being under her soul-searching stare, she slouched, almost disappointed.

“You don’t have to lie,” she said, voice deeper.

His jaw dropped dumbly. A pit was formed in his stomach. “H-Huh?” Sturdy shoulders suddenly slackened and fell.

“I said, ‘you don’t have to lie.’” Raven held back the urge to roll her eyes, her hand falling on the wall. She was about to turn and open the door back to the classroom when he slammed his hand over the knob.

Panic gripped him like a vice grip.

“W-Wait!” Kirishima shouted. His chest started to rise and fall with his heavy inhales. “You were hurting it!"

Raven's eyes widened; whether from his abrupt moves or his words, he didn't know.

"I—I’m sorry.” He lowered his head and he pressed his lips together. “I didn’t mean to lie or anything…”

Red eyes turned to the side, avoiding her gaze.

“Truth is…” He rubbed the back of his neck. The image had given him nightmares these past couple of days. The inhuman screech, the unmistakable pain in its voice. Even if it was the enemy, he couldn’t help but think that at that moment—it sounded like torture. Even if the one who was on his side was his classmate, and the enemy was the one being hurt. “I—I thought it was suffering...or something. When you were killing it—I didn’t like the screams.” He shook his head yet his hair stayed put impressively. “It’s stupid. I risked my safety and yours. I’m sorry.” His chin started to dimple as he gritted his teeth, the sound echoed forever in his head. He huffed out of his nose and turned that scared but determined look at her once more. “But I’m not gonna promise that I’m never gonna do it again.”

He stopped her because he thought that the villain was...suffering? That became a blow to her chest.

It was Raven’s turn to look to the side as her own ribs constricted. “No. You’re right. I was wrong. I hope you can forgive me.” She sighed irritably.

Red Raven was just as cruel and merciless as her father. She knew that.

Kirishima could only offer her a weary, but soft smile. “There’s nothing to forgive, Rachel-chan.”

She gave him a single nod, but they both knew that she didn’t believe him at that moment. Heavy thoughts swirled inside of her head like a storm, nearly causing her to forget about the boy that stood in front of her.

Red Raven had gone on rampages before: she knew the influence she left on villains like Dr. Light and Gizmo, but they were villains. She prided in the fact that she intimated them into submission, but these were her classmates.

He waved his hand in front of her face again.

Rachel was difficult to read, he thought, but he knew that look. He had seen it on himself multiple times in the mirror.

He knew self-loathing when he saw it.

“Hey, Rachel-chan—” He pointed at himself with his finger. “When I was three years old, I activated my Quirk for the first time and cut my eye,” he blabbed.

Raven raised an eyebrow. Why was he telling her his life story? The Titan looked at the thin, pale cut on his eyelid. From faraway, she thought that it was an eyelash.

She was about to cut this conversation short and turned her body to leave.

“I hated my Quirk for the longest time!” he shouted, nearly startling her. He grabbed her free hand and the sound of their hands meeting echoed in her ear. Her eyes were wide. Her body was illuminated by the lights above.

“I thought that it was really boring—I’m really bland. But, y’know—” The image of Red Raven flashed in his head. “Red is my favorite color! Rachel-chan!”

It was so silent. Neither of them were breathing.

He wanted to say more.

He meant it. That her Quirk was just fine to him. Any shade of red is perfect to him.

Even if it was the one she hated the most.

He believed that Roth was going to leave then. Slip away from his hands and turn her nose, heading back into the classroom where he would have to go uphill to even get one word to her and then traverse through a landmine to even get a word back.

Instead, she removed her hand from his grasp and stepped back. He bit the inside of his cheek, waiting for her next move. Slap him? Ignore him?

Rachel gripped the hand that he held, holding it close to her chest while her eyes went from looking at him like he was an animal at the zoo to avoiding his earnest gaze. A few seconds ticked by like sand in an hourglass before she activated her Quirk.

A small black portal opened up beside her hand and she reached in wordlessly. Kirishima’s jaw dropped softly.

What the hell… he thought.

When she retracted her hand again, a pristine white box came out with it. The portal closed itself with a mute ‘pop!’

“This is for you,” she said, and Kirishima felt like she was speaking in English from how surprised he was. The handle was tight in her hands and the box dangled from her palms. “An apology dessert.”

His mouth was still agape as he held out his hands, catching the box with both palms as she dropped it into his grasp. The quick change in subject almost gave him whiplash. “What is it…?” he breathed, staring at the box as if it held the world’s most precious contents.

She turned her head away. A soft splash of color appeared on her cheeks. “They called it the Crêpe-son Riot at the store…” Raven turned her head fully toward him. “He’s your favorite, right? You have a keychain of him on your backpack.”

“Yeah…” He nodded mutely, once more before he shook his head furiously. “Yeah! Thanks a lot! I can’t believe you remembered! Or even noticed!”

“It’s whatever,” she muttered. “It’s my way of saying sorry.”

“No way... Oh! Wait here!” he affirmed, shaking his head excitedly with a big smile. He clutched the box to his chest, swiftly opening the door and ducking inside. From there, Raven could hear the volume grow—perhaps they were all trying to listen in on her and Kirishima, or they were warning him against her. Kirishima dipped back out the door, shouting something affirmative to his friends before he closed the door shut behind him and turned to her with an even wider grin.

“Here!” he said. Pinched in between his index finger and thumb was a small silk pouch with an intricate knot. “Let’s trade!”

Raven held out both of her hands and he dropped it into her awaiting palms carefully.

“What is this?” she said, voice quiet as she stared at it. The pouch was purple and blue with kanji running down the middle.

“Oh, right!” Kirishima laughed sheepishly to himself, tapping his head. “Keep on forgetting that you’re not from here!” He turned those bright red eyes to her. “It’s an omamori!” She looked at him, waiting. “It’s like uh—” He paused trying to think of the right words. “It’s like a protective charm? It’s supposed to give you good luck and stuff. This one’s a yaku-yoke. It’s for warding off evil. My parents gave it to me when I got into U.A.”

Raven shook her head. “I can’t accept this.”

“It’s chill! My moms can always get me a new one!”

He pushed it back when she tried to return it. “If you don’t accept it, I’ll give you the crêpe back!”

“I don’t even like Crimson Riot,” she grumbled.

“Keep it, alright?” he said, giving her a closed-eyed smile. “No matter what, it’ll keep you safe.”

For some odd reason, those words rebounded in her brain.

Raven didn’t say a word as she let her eyes drop the floor, her hands closing over the omamori.

“Thank you,” she muttered.

“And when it’s magic is all used up at the end of the year—” If possible, he shined brighter than the lights above. “We can go to the shrine together to get you a new one! Does that sound like a promise?”

“Yeah…” She felt the silk between her skin. Her voice was gravelly. “It’s a promise.”

. . .

And when Foundational Hero Studies finally rolled around again, Kirishima beamed the moment he saw her. Breaking away from the Bakusquad, he approached Roth. Mouth moving to ask her if she had the omamori on her, she nodded slowly.

He smiled brightly as another question passed his lips. More hesitantly, she agreed.

Kirishima took a knee beside her, leaning in close to tie the strings and then standing back up again to admire his work.

Dangling from her red and gold belt, the omamori swayed gently in the wind.

The door to Class 1-A burst open, and Raven instantly knew from the way everyone was frozen, yet the empty swirling chairs still moved, that they were attempting to eavesdrop.

“It’s chill, everyone!” Kirishima said, throwing his hands in the air as if it called for celebration. “We talked it all out!”

Erupting into applause, the Bakusquad cheered with Uraraka clapping in the background.

Raven silently walked all the way to her desk, sitting silently as everyone settled back down to an awkward silence. Without Kirishima to guide the conversation, now no one knew where they stood with her.

“So…” Jirou said, almost awkwardly, from the front of the class, arms crossed. The silence petered away. “Is someone gonna talk about the elephant in the room...?” The blue-haired girl's words trailed off.

Knowing that it was better to tackle this head-on rather than ignoring it, she prepared herself mentally. Taking an intake of air, Raven sighed and stood up from her seat.

From here, everyone turned to look at her.

Her fingers clenched from behind her school skirt.

Giving a perfect bow, she faced the floor.

“I’m sorry for causing everyone pain. I promise it won’t happen again.”

Ever so carefully, she rose with blank eyes.

“Woah,” Jirou said, eyes turning from side to side. Both of her hands were held up in a ‘calm down’ pose. “We aren’t mad or anything…” She scratched the side of her face with her earlobe jack.

“Roth-san!” Iida said, standing upright. One hand came down, slicing the air. “We were all concerned! I sent you several text messages at eight in the morning, one at noon, one at 1500, and one at the evening—”

“Iida-kun, I think she gets it,” Uraraka whispered. She turned to the half-demon and brightened like the sun. “Rachel-chan! We were just scared for you! Deku-kun said that you were alright, but the policemen wouldn’t tell us anything when they took your body away!”

Raven felt the words get lodged in her throat from the words of confirmation floating around the room. From every corner everyone was agreeing, trying to talk to her. Her eyebrows knit in confusion.

Her jaw dropped slightly as she moved her gaze over to Izuku. He met her eyes and pressed his lips into a tight smile. He gave her one nod.

“Everyone in Class 1-A wants to help you!” She remembered him screaming at her from several stories up. “I don’t know what’s going on, but… I know that everyone in the class would never dream of hurting you, so please—! If you have something bothering you…I want to be there for you!”

“It was kinda scary,” Mina said, “But we’re glad that you’re alright.”

“We didn’t know that you contained so much power,” Shoji commented.

“...It happens when I’m stressed or angry,” Raven muttered, sitting back down in her seat, wishing to disappear.

“Good thing you’re already good at school, huh?” Kaminari joked from the front of the classroom. “You’ll be stress-free when exams roll by.”

“It’s okay, Roth-san,” Ojirou said kindly. “The villains pressured you into it.”

“Do not let this cloud your consciousness,” Tokoyami said soothingly beside her. “I empathise with your plight. My own Dark Shadow—” He gestured to the sentient bird hanging off his shoulder who gave her a shy wave. “—can lose control if I face negative emotions.” Tokoyami sighed deeply and crossed his arms slowly. He faced forward. “The night… is dark for people like us.”

“The night is dark for everyone, dumbass!” Bakugou snapped from the seat in front of her after the heavy silence hung over the birdboy’s words. Raven tilted her head. She didn’t even think that someone like Bakugou would bother to listen to the conversation.

At Bakugou’s sass, the class erupted into laughter, leaving the bird-headed boy to sputter indignantly and scramble to save his dignity.

Before the other boys in the class could continue poking fun at their classmate’s flustered state, the door slid open, revealing a tall, messy-haired mummy.

“Aizawa-sensei! You’re back already?” Sero shouted as the man literally dragged himself to the podium in front of the classroom.

“He really is a Pro!” Kaminari commented.

The man was deaf to the rest of his students’ shouts and Raven held back a grimace. And here she was thinking that Robin was stubborn, getting up and doing his job when he was injured. Aizawa was covered in bandages head-to-toe, where not even a sliver of skin could be seen except for a slit for his eyes. With one hand in a sling and shaking like a leaf, Raven wondered if he was even fit to make it to his desk from the way he was breathing as if he had run a marathon with Cementoss on his back.

“Glad to see you’re doing well!” several of her classmates shouted.

They called that “well?”

It seemed like Uraraka thought the same from the way she echoed Raven’s thoughts out loud.

“My welfare isn’t important,” Aizawa dismissed in that same strong voice that silenced the room. The man still commanded an air of control, and he focused it all on her.

“Roth,” she snapped her head up. “At lunchtime, you need to give your official statement to the police officer at the teacher’s lounge, and ten minutes before the lunch break ends...you come talk to me.”

Like he had signed off her death, the man narrowed his eyes.

Not a single emotion crossed her face.

It was silent until the sound of a chair scraping against the floor blared in their ears.

“Wait!” Midoryia said, slamming his hands down on the table. “Raven-san didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Yeah! We already talked everything out, teach!” Kirishima confirmed, nodding quickly.

Before Uraraka could come to her rescue as well, the man silenced everyone, snapping at them for speaking out of turn. “Quiet. I wasn't talking to anyone but Roth. You don’t have a say in this.”

Suddenly, she felt every eye on her.

Pity, she felt.

They were thinking that she was going to be expelled.

Sighing deeply, clearing exerting himself after screaming, he took several deep breaths before continuing. The room was now silent. “I have an announcement to make.”

“Don’t tell me…!” Midoriya’s voice whispered.

“More villains?” Mineta screeched.

An air of anticipation swept across the room, a clear shift from the tone before.

“Your fight is far from over!” he shouted. “Because the U.A. Sports Festival is approaching!”

Everyone immediately gasped as if Aizawa had signed their death warrant. Raven deadpanned. That's it?

“That’s totally ordinary!” some students cried not even a moment after, in disbelief that a school like U.A. would still dwindle on normal school events.

“A sports festival!” another cheered, making her more confused.

“Come on! We just had a villain attack,” one whined. “You sure about this?!”

“It’s necessary,” Eraserhead cut off the comments. “To demonstrate that U.A.’s crisis management protocols are sound…” The man gave a small shrug. “That’s the thinking apparently. Compared to the last years, there will be five times the police presence. Anyhow...our Sports festival is the greatest opportunity you’ll get. It’s not something that can be canceled over a couple of villains,” he said in a way that meant don’t mess this up.

“Are you sure about that…?” Mineta asked, practically shaking with fear. “It’s just a dumb sports festival…”

Midoriya whipped his head around immediately. “Mineta...don’t tell me you’ve never seen U.A.’s sports festival!” The boy shook almost like he was just told that someone didn’t know what grass or air was, and the whites of his eyes grew larger.

Raven narrowed her eyes. Was there something she was missing? It was just like having a homecoming game, wasn't it?

“Of course I have!” the smaller student replied. “That’s not what I mean…!”

“Our sports festival is one of Japan’s biggest events!” Eraserhead stated, some life finally filling his voice. “The Olympics were once the world’s sports festival. The whole country would be whipped into a frenzy over them. But as you know, that tradition has shrunk to a shell of its former self…”

The entire class seemed to wait with a bated breath.

“As far as Japan’s concerned, what’s taken place of the Olympics is...the U.A. Sports Festival!” Aizawa knowingly stated.

Raven raised an eyebrow. Watching teenagers duke it out replaced the Olympics? she thought. It seemed like they needed to evaluate some of their choices.

“The nation’s top heroes will be watching!” Yaoyorozu said. “They’ll be there as scouts!”

“Naturally, you’ll gain experience and popularity if you’re picked up by a big-name hero,” the shaggy-haired teacher said. “But your time is limited. Show the Pros what you’re made of here, and you’ll make a future for yourself. If you’re hoping to become a Hero, this is an event you can’t miss! If you understand this, don’t slack off on your preparations!”

When everyone chatted around her, she felt her eyes turn down to the desk, silent.

As lunchtime rolled around, she could still feel the lingering stares of her classmates as she stood up out of her seat. Swinging her bag around her shoulders, she forced herself to look forward, avoiding others and pretending to not hear Uraraka call out to her.

When she made her way to the teacher’s lounge, she didn’t expect to see Tsukauchi of all people.

“Tsukauchi-san?” Raven asked, pushing the sliding door aside. The man beamed from where he sat across an emancipated blond man.

Ever so faintly, she felt her eyebrows furrow, her forehead scrunching at the sight of the skeletal blond. The aura was undoubtedly familiar, one that she was sure that she had felt before: almost like walking into a room and forgetting your task.

“Ah! Roth-san!” Tsukauchi said, forcing her to look at him, standing up. “Are you here to make your statements?” She nodded wordlessly. “Let’s go to a nearby meeting room so we have more privacy.”

“Tsukauchi-san,” she said as he ushered her into an empty meeting room with one large table and several leather rolling chairs. “Are you on this case because of me?”

“I’m in every case that involves All Might,” he said pleasantly. “It just happens to be a coincidence that you’re involved this time as well. Please take a seat.”

Raven did as he was told and sat across from him while he rummaged for a pen and paper from his briefcase.

“How are you liking this school? Japan?” he asked to make conversation.

“It’s fine.” Raven focused on the grain of polished wood instead.

“That’s good, that’s good,” he muttered, finally placing the paper down. “Now—can you tell me everything you remember?”

Raven nodded—despite her discomfort she was too used to dealing with the police to be anything but formal. She stated everything she remembered, including her blurry memories from when she was Red Raven—omitting her memories of her father and how she had confused All Might with the demon for a quick second. She stated that as soon as she was under Midnight’s Quirk, she had lost consciousness then.

He nodded to himself as he looked over her words. “The stories all match up.”

Raven prepared herself to ask about the monster, Nomu, she heard it was called, but was cut off by the detective.

“Now—” he placed the paper to the side and lowered his voice. “What happened back there?”

Raven raised a brow. “I just told you.”

“Concerning your powers,” Tsukauchi emphasized, dropping his volume. “Was it your father?”

Raven pressed her lips together.

“It was me,” she admitted. She was almost silent. “It’s my fault. I lost control. It won’t happen again.”

Apparently, this startled him. He leaned back in his chair, eyes wide. “You can activate the four-eyed state by yourself?”

“...Yes?” Raven said, unsure of his question.

It was like a light switch went off in his brain, causing him to lean back in surprise. “Did Sasaki-san tell you anything?”

“No,” she said, confusion lacing her voice. “He didn’t discuss anything with me.” Irritation started to flood her voice—her guardian had promised to tell her everything. “Did he put you up to something?”

Shaking his head at her last question, he gave her a soft smile. “That’s just...unlike him,” Tsukauchi finally announced, a hand on his chin. “Usually he would be on-the-nose when it comes to things like this—”

Raven held back the urge to roll her eyes. Maybe he would be if he wasn’t too busy taking her to maid cafes and the Tokyo Tower. Was that just a distraction? She knew that he knew she was able to sense emotions—even if it was ever so slightly, so what was he trying to hide?

Although Tsukauchi wasn’t a mind-reader, he knew how to read people, and as impassive as Raven was—she was still a teenager. The traces of irritation that she hid well were nothing to a well-trained detective like him.

“It probably slipped his mind,” Tsukauchi said kindly. “It must be difficult to juggle a full-time job as a Hero and as a guard—”

“Just get on with it,” Raven snapped instead. “What did you want to discuss?”

Straightening up from her sudden attitude, he coughed into his fist once and pulled out a file from his satchel. Busying himself with the contents, he spoke. “When we first encountered you, we were all under the impression that the state that you used to fight Endeavor was mostly due to your father… but if you say that this is your own Quirk—”

“Power,” she corrected. They both knew that she did not possess a Quirk.

“ Power, ” he stressed. “Then this changes things.”

“How,” she asked. “It’s a power that I inherited from my father—I don’t know what this has to do with me,” she said, but after a pause, she pursed her lips. “Other than the obvious.”

“If it truly is something that comes from you…” He furrowed his eyebrows, linking together his thoughts. “Then if it happens again, I’m not quite sure how U.A. could cover for you—” Tsukauchi looked Raven right in her dark eyes. “Not only would the Quirk Registry get involved, but the Hero Association might as well. That could affect your future as a Hero here.”

He said these all with a matter-of-fact tone, lecturing her like a professor.

Raven felt her eyes narrow. She never even considered a future here, let alone working as a Hero underneath the “Hero Association” in Japan. Sasaki mentioned in passing that All Might carved his heroism journey in American first and if she felt more comfortable in her home country, she could do that as well.

But she didn’t want to be a Hero here or there.

She didn’t want to be a cog in whatever machinations this universe had for her.

The Titan had only become a hero back in Earth 0 because she was spurred by an on-the-dot decision, colliding with the other members by pure fate.

And even though she knew of the truth—constantly mulling it over in her head, she had really thought that they were her Forever, that they were going to be her future.

But here, now, she couldn’t care less about being a Pro-Hero underneath an agency, even if she didn’t know what hand the clock was on.

If push came to shove by the time she turned eighteen and the world hadn’t been plunged in an apocalypse yet and she still hadn’t made her way back home, that would be a bridge she crossed when she got there.

But instead, she was here, placed in this situation through her own choices, all due to convenience.

This was the easiest path for her to take—and look where that landed her: going on a demon-charged rampage and teetering her on the edge of legal trouble.

Nevermind the Hero Association, if the Quirk Registry got involved then the Japanese government would as well, and she already had a lifetime of experiences dealing with them.

She huffed irritably.

"And speaking truthfully," the detective muttered, "this might change Endeavor's view of you. He's already wary, but the fact that you have this magnificent power on your own..."

“How did U.A. manage to cover for me?” she asked instead, looking up at the detective from underneath her lashes. She knew that the Hell Fire Hero was on her case and was one of the main authority figures overlooking her stay here in this universe, but the man could be in the back of her mind for all she cared at the moment.

“They mostly focused on your teachers and managed to imply that All Might and the villain was the one who caused all the damage at U.S.J. In the news, there was a brief mention of a student whose powers went out of control—” Raven held her breath. “—But you’re still young, having uncontrollable powers at your age is not uncommon.” Here, he tried to give her a disarming smile in an attempt at comforting her. “Especially considering the stressful situation you were just in. No one expected villains to storm U.A. This was supposed to be the safest place for you guys to be.”

His voice grew distant for a while, eyes downturned as he churned the gears in his brain, deep in thought.

“But not to worry about your public image—your principal Nezu requested that all officers and first responders on the scene keep your name out of reports and we’ve all asked that your schoolmates do the same. If all the students from U.A. are able to keep a secret—well, Sir Nighteye has his legal team vigilantly on the case, just in case a leak happens.”

Raven was mute to her situation. “And the villain?” she asked instead.

“Huh?” The hat on Tsukauchi’s head tilted.

“Do you know what’s the situation with the villains?” she asked quietly. She knew that the blue-haired one had a vendetta against All Might, but she felt the heat when she fought against the brain monster.

These weren’t just thugs on the street.

The detective gave her a nervous chuckle underneath her dark stare.

“We’re still investigating—but you don’t have to worry about that. You should focus on the Sports Festival coming up. It can really help you in the long run.”

This is a situation for the adults , he almost said.

But he knew that the girl in front of him was intelligent, and from the way she narrowed her eyes darkly, he quickly stood up and stuffed his files back into his bag.

Raven’s eyes followed the sight of the manilla folders.

“You have about eight more minutes until your lunch break ends,” he said. “Sorry to keep you for so long—but you should go and meet with your homeroom teacher now.”

He stood up, but Raven didn’t move an inch from her spot.

“C’mon,” he said softly. “Eraserhead is waiting for you.”

When she passed him on her way out the door, he gave her another soft smile. “Hey, I know that this is a difficult situation for you, but... “ She stared at him head-on, face blank. He gave her a shy chuckle as a bead of sweat fell down the side of his face. “You don’t have to worry, okay?”

She knocked thrice on the teacher’s room door, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

Her expression was sour, but when was it never.

Her talk with Tsukauchi-san stayed in her mind. She knew that he was purposefully omitting information from her because she was still a kid, but that was her kill technically. The Titans had always tied up loose ends when they put bad guys behind bars, and to be left in the dark like this made her feel spoiled.

“Come in!” a voice behind the door said, cheerfully. Raven pushed herself off the wall and slid the door open, muttering a quiet, “Excuse me” before she entered.

“HEY THERE!” Present Mic said, rolling back from his chair to greet her. His chair swung him around in one lazy circle as he kept his arms up in the air. The Titan held back a wince from his volume. “If it isn’t one of my favorite listeners!” he said in English, one hand falling on his desk. “What do you need?” Ernest eyes shone back up at her from behind orange-tinted glasses.

Purple eyes scanned the teacher’s room, taking in the slowed typing sounds and the steady eyes that fell on her form. For such an esteemed school it seemed like the teacher’s room was just that: a teacher’s room. It was much wider than she suspected other schools were, but the layout was all the same, multiple desks crammed together in the same space, snaking around the room. Tiny knick-knacks decorated every individual teacher’s desk, from an array of perfume bottles lining up on Midnight’s desk to the barest desk in the entire room with a lone cat figure, a laptop, a lamp, and a pencil cup.

Eraserhead’s desk, she assumed.

“I’m here for Eraserhead,” she said, replying back in Japanese. She surveyed the room. “Is he here?”

“Yeah! Let me get him for you!” Mic nodded. “Hey, Midnight! Can you wake Eraser up for us?” He shouted as if the woman wasn’t three meters away from him.

“Got you!” she said in a sing-song voice. “Oh, Eraser!” Turning her chair around, Raven’s eyes finally landed on a yellow lump in the corner of the room.

Of course he’s asleep, she thought bitterly. He slept soundly without a noise or a twitch.

Before Midnight could grab her flog—for what, Raven didn’t want to know, Eraserhead cracked one eye open. It began to redden not even five seconds into the conversation.

“Roth,” he said, peering up at her from beyond his bandages.

“I’m here,” she said. “Just like you asked.”

He sighed deeply, an inhale so intense that she saw his shoulders rise and fall. He stood up to full height, looking like a cocoon about to transform into a beautiful butterfly before he unzipped his sleeping bag and slung it over his shoulder. He slouched so heavily that he was nearly eye-level with Raven.

“Let’s go to the classroom. It’s empty there,” he muttered, walking past her.

“Eraser!” Mic said, waving at them as they left. Raven kept one hand on the door and held in the urge to slam it in the middle of her English teacher’s face. “Remember to take it easy, okay? And I'll see you during class, little listener!” he said to her, finger-gunning. Stiffly nodding, Raven closed the door and turned around swiftly, following Aizawa like a little duck.

She wondered what was going to happen to her now.

The walk to 1-A was silent, eerily so. Using her telekinesis to open the door, Eraserhead gave her a long look before he walked into the classroom. The sleeping bag was tossed over a desk and he stopped at the podium. She watched as he placed a hand on the wood, almost as if to steady himself. His injuries were undoubtedly straining him, making it difficult to breathe, let alone walk.

“You called for me?” she asked when the silence stretched out for too long.

Was he going to expel her like everyone expected? She didn’t want to act like a spoiled rich kid, but she wondered what would happen if she got Sir Nighteye into the situation to plead for her case. She didn’t need this school, she thought, but the thought of needlessly expelling her grinded on her nerves. If anything happened, she supposed, she could resort to vigilantism, but it was her position in U.A. that let Sir Nighteye give her a roof over her head and a steady allowance for food and other necessities.

If she was kicked out, would he vacate her from his condo?

“Roth,” Aizawa finally spoke up, voice a deep tremble. “You caused all the damage at U.S.J.” he stated.

“Uh, yes?” She raised an eyebrow. Her tone was laced with confusion from his words. So far, all of the adults around her skirted around absolutes. While they nudged her toward the big picture, Aizawa-sensei hit it straight on.

“Is that a question or a statement,” he said instead, narrowing his eyes at her.

She felt her own irritation prickle from his attitude. “A statement,” she bit out.

Several moments trickled by. After a pause, he sighed heavily, taking out eye drops and dropping them into his red-rimmed eyes. “Speaking logically…” he said. “You’re too dangerous to participate in the Sports Festival.”

Raven’s eyebrows furrowed so much that they became a V on her forehead. “It won’t happen again,” she said. Promised . “The villains took me off guard.” Did he think that she was going to go berserk any time she used her powers? He had seen her multiple times during Heroics, and she always used her powers without an issue. The exception shouldn't define the means, she thought.

“And if you happen to be taken off guard again?” Aizawa said, voice sharp. “The career path you’re taking doesn’t allow for leisurely missions. You’re going to be thrust into difficult situations every day—without prior notice or planning.”

She knew that. She knew that. But Aizawa was taking her words and running with it.

“I’ll be honest. You’re lucky that it was just Kirishima that you threw into a wall. Granted, he was also reckless for running at you while he knew you were dangerous, but the course of your situation could’ve been changed easily. If it was any other student, they would’ve been fatally injured—” His eyes darkened deeply and flickered with a deep red. “If they were lucky.”

“You can’t just go on a rampage whenever the situation becomes dire,” he finally said, releasing all of his prior hardness and instead took on a softer tone. As if she could easily control whenever her demon side came forward. If she knew the answer to that, wouldn’t she have taken on Trigon by now instead of slinking away in fear with her tail between her legs?

“Not only would that be fatal to your allies, but to you as well. We don’t know what will happen at the Sports Festival. Some of the villains managed to escape, and even if Nezu increased the security for the event, there’s no telling what’s going to happen then—”

“That sounds like a problem for a school, not me,” Raven snapped suddenly, “For holding the event so close to an incident.” Raven knew immediately that that was a mistake. Not only for speaking out of turn, but for dismissing the authority’s words so crassly.

From Aizawa’s steadily enraged look and the feeling of his irritation bubbling slowly, she knew that a scolding was about to come.

“So,” she said, pushing the situation along. No matter what he was going to say, she still held her opinion. “Are you just going to take me out of the Sports Festival?” she asked.

Knowing the reason why Aizawa would take her out would irritate her, but the action itself she didn't mind. It wasn't like she was tripping over her own two feet in order to fight her classmates in front of millions all for a gold metal and a picture with All Might.

“No,” he finally answered after giving her a long look. “The event is too important for your future.” That word haunted her like a bad dream, it seemed. “You will continue to participate with the rest of your peers.”

She felt a “but” coming along.

“However,” Aizawa said, giving her a hard look that made her feel smaller than she already was. “I will make sure that it will be safe for you and the people around you first.”

What.

“You have several weeks until the Sports Festival. From tomorrow onward, you will meet me immediately after school every day at Gym B for additional training. This includes your Saturdays. The only exception is tomorrow where I will meet you at 17:00 instead of 16:00. I will tell you if I have something come up, but until then expect every school day to be busy.”

“What,” Raven finally spat out. She was safe around people, she thought, insisted. She wasn't the horror that her parents said she was.

Raven already had enough of Aizawa’s slave-driving tendencies during Heroics during school hours, but she now had her free time erased in order to work on something that was impossible. Not only did she have homework, but she also spent her evenings learning about Japanese customs and the history of this word, grasping what the hell Quirks were and how they came to fruition, turning the average man into meta-humans.

And—not to mention, trying to find a way back home.

“Are you even in the right state to help me?” she asked, eyeing his bandages. He scoffed, waving her concerns away.

“You don’t need to bother with me. One more trip with Recovery Girl and I’ll be fine,” he muttered irritably. As if on command, a pained tic appeared in the back of his neck and he hissed quietly, raising a hand to the back of his neck.

I was talking about your insane schedule with being a teacher, grading papers, and underground heroism, but okay, Raven thought. She doubted that he had time to spare to teach her. Did this man even sleep? But in his physical state right now, she was sure that she could give him a surprise push and he might just tumble over.

She looked at the sleeping bag from the corner of her eye and refused to answer.

Glancing at the clock, there were only three minutes until she had to leave for Home Ec class. Aizawa began pulling his arms through his sleeping bag again. “We start with basic physical training tomorrow. Prepare accordingly. You have an overreliance on your Quirk, and we need to fix that first.”

Raven opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off. “Don’t try to argue with me on this. You’re talented, kid, but I’ve seen you around campus. You even use it to carry your books as you walk.”

“Aizawa-sensei,” Raven finally said, objecting before he could say anything else. “With all due respect… you wouldn’t be able to help me,” she finally admitted.

Give up. It was a lost cause.

“What.” He stilled entirely, body frozen, one arm through his sleeping bag. She spoke nothing but the truth, but even so, she felt like she had just cursed him out from the way he was looking at her.

“What happened at U.S.J.,” she trailed off, pausing. “It isn’t due to being untrained or uncertain...it’s the way I am.”

Raven knew that she was always going to be Demon Girl, and after years of the Monks struggling to fix her amounted to nothing. She doubted that Eraserhead, as good of a Hero he was, would be able to do anything to stop her, to help her against her own self.

His eyes narrowed at her, and Raven almost had to stop the urge to step back, too busy being encompassed by his range of emotions that spilled out of him.

Annoyance.

“Why are you here then,” he finally asked.

She was just a ticking time bomb and it was U.A.'s misfortune for coming across her.

“Excuse me?” Raven parroted back. She blinked once. Twice.

“What makes you any different from the rest of the kids at U.A.?” he stated, nudging his head. “You came here to hone your power, not to show off that you’re ahead of the class. What’s the point of even being here if you think that you’re too good to improve?”

Her fists clenched at her sides, digging into grey skin until red crescent marks appeared along her palm.

“My powers are controlled by my emotions—” Raven said, voice heavily restrained. She highly doubted that as good as the man was, that he could fix her. Change her in a way that removed her demonic side.

“Then I will train your emotions,” Aizawa stated firmly. He finished wrapping the yellow fabric around him. “If you don’t come to training, I’ll expel you on the spot.”

The school bell rang above them.

They stood alone in the classroom, three feet across from each other.

The light from the window streamed into the white-walled room.

“Do I make myself clear?” Aizawa asked, his voice back to a bored drawl.

“...Yeah,” she muttered, eyes trained on the ground below.

“You aren’t sure enough. Do I make myself clear? ” he repeated. The emotions inside her came to a stop.

“Yes… Aizawa-sensei.”

Extra:

“What?!” Kaminari nearly screeched from his spot across from Kirishima. Beside the redhead, Bakugou mutely dug into his curry with a sour look on his face. “What is that?!”

“Wah!” Mina cheered, putting her hands together. “That looks beautiful!”

“This?” Kirishima grinned happily, holding the crepe out to them like a bouquet. “Oh, Rachel-chan gave it to me earlier! Said it was like an apology gift for punching me through the wall and stuff.”

“I think you scored, dude,” Sero laughed from the other side of Kaminari. “It even has Crimson Riot’s logo on it.”

“Yeah!” Kirishima said, beaming. The crepe underneath his hands was still in pristine form except for the whipped cream that was smushed up against the white box. Aside from that, all of the fruits were still aligned in perfect order, ranging from strawberries to cherries to raspberries. Crimson Riot’s mask was printed out on edible paper and was skewered into the wrapped dessert. “She said it was called a Crêpe-son Riot or something. Isn’t that cool? I can’t believe she noticed that he was my favorite.”

“Dude,” Kaminari said, nearly drooling with stars in his eyes as he stared at the food in his hands. “I think she’d have to be blind not to notice.”

“But forget about that!” Mina cheered, pushing him aside. “Can we have a bite?!”

“Yeah! Sure, go for it!”

One-by-one the crepe was passed around the table (except for Bakubro who said that he didn’t want to eat that “sweet sh*t”), and cries of happiness rang like a chorus.

“That was soo good !” Mina said, sparkles coming off her form. “I wonder where she got it.”

“It’s on the side of the box,” Sero pointed out. He turned the emptied white box around. “Uh, Mon Cheri Cafe? Never heard of it.”

“We have to go together!” Mina said, throwing her hands up.

“Totally!” Kirishima said. “You think if we asked Rachel—”

Kaminari let out a choking sound, phone in his hand, eyes wide while he hacked on the food he was eating. Immediately, Bakugou reached over, slamming a hand firmly on Kaminari’s back to clear his airway.

“Guys…!” Kaminari whispered, hands shaking while he ignored his near-death experience. His eyes were strangely glassy. “It’s a maid cafe!” He turned his phone around and let them all see the cafe.

“Huh?” Sero asked. “Uh, are you trying to imply that Roth-san went to a maid cafe?” he laughed. “Are we talking about the same cafe?”

“No! It’s the only one in the area!” The lightning-emitter slammed his hands down on the table. “Do you know what this means ?!” the boy urged.

“That Rachel-chan might like cute things!” Mina gasped, hands over her mouth dramatically.

“That she went to a maid cafe?” Kirishima asked at the same time.

“It means that she must work at a maid cafe!” Kaminari concluded. “And that her cold exterior is just a coverup for her job so that no one would know!”

The table was silent.

“What the f*ck are you on,” Bakugou finally spat.

Chapter 10: Sudden

Chapter Text

Sir Nighteye listened quietly to the radio playing smooth jazz as his long, nimble fingers were a claw above the vegetables he was chopping away at. Sleeves rolled up to the elbows, glasses nearly slipping down his face as he read the recipe off the tablet, it was rare that he had felt so leisurely, even more so that he willingly partook in such leisure. Even when he was with All Might, the man only knew, “work hard, and work even harder.” But today he left the office with Centipeder and stayed at home as he awaited the important phone call.

When the clock hand hit six, he was tapping the green button before the first ring. The radio’s volume went down to zero.

“Sir Nighteye speaking.”

“It’s been submitted,” Tsukauchi said on the other side of the receiver, voice slightly breathless. “Approved and confirmed.”

His fingers tightened around the knife for a split second, a beat from worry and another beat for relief. “You’re positive? They didn’t find any issue with it at all?”

“They’re too busy getting ready for the U.A. Sports Festival and the U.S.J. incident threw them for a loop. They didn’t even look twice at her police report. We’re in the clear now.”

Sir Nighteye hummed and nodded, satisfied that one of the major issues in their plan was now behind them.

It had been weeks of planning, toeing lines, and walking in eggshells around the Hero Commission to pull it off.

Sir Nighteye never imagined that someone like him, always stiff and strict and law-abiding, would go against the HPSC, but to take in Raven after she had trespassed the training base, they had to fib ever so slightly at her police report. Although what they had submitted was not incorrect as they wrote, “Criminal taken care of. Currently in a reform program,” there were going to be issues with her past and her appearance in their universe, but the two had luck on their side from how young she was. Both of them knew what would happen if the HPSC recognized that she was someone not of their lands, and could use her criminal record as a way to get a hold of her. Criminals underneath the age of eighteen were given much more lenient punishments, but they never disappeared from the Hero Commission’s eye. Normally, if juveniles had committed a crime, they would never be allowed in a Hero Academy, but Sir Nighteye and Tsukauchi managed to pull strings, erase evidence, and fabricate in order to get Raven clear from her criminal background, dragging along an unwilling Endeavor in order to pull it off. They were lucky that juvenile villains were also allowed to keep their names anonymous to everyone but the police station and keep the police report from being public information, letting a “Rachel Roth” slip free with Tsukauchi’s help.

His legal team managed to erase every evidence of her powers in case someone compared them with what she was going to show off during the Sports Festival, and the rest laid in the police report that was now filed away, planning to be forgotten along with the thousand other police reports.

“We’ve managed it then,” Sir Nighteye said confidently. “Thank you for your help, Tsukauchi-san. I don’t know how I would’ve done this without you.”

“No problem,” the detective said just as easily. “Anything for All Might, and Roth-san now as well,” he said after a slight pause.

Nighteye’s prophetic work did not stop at his Quirk, he had been in the field long enough to know when someone had something to say, something that they might’ve been hiding. “What is it, Tsukauchi-san?”

“You’re positive…” the detective started out. It was clear from his tone that the doubt didn't come from nowhere, but rather it was one that carefully built over time. “That she will save All Might?”

The Pro-Hero paused. “My Foresight is never wrong,” the man said, almost defensively. “All Might said, loud and clear to her — in his weakened state, ‘You saved me.’”

The detective let out a decisive hum on the other side of the phone.

“Although, it is not clear what she saved him from. Whether she managed to save him from a single attack or from his own body killing himself, that is up for debate, but you’ve seen her power. The fact that All Might would willingly show her his true state tells me that there is a level of trust that will grow between them.” After a while, he mumbled, almost to himself, “Hopefully it is in the far future.” A bead of sweat threatened to trickle down his face at the thought of his former mentor.

“I see…” the other man mumbled. “That’s what worries me, truthfully, but relieves me at the same time.”

“What is it?”

“Her powers, Sasaki-san,” Tsukauchi said before exhaling. “Sasaki-san, I don’t know if you know this, but what we saw on that day we found her was possibly not the work of her father.”

Sir Nighteye stopped chopping his vegetables completely. “Explain.”

From the day that they found it, they believed that her insane state was due to the terrifying power of the man that biologically sired Raven.

“All of the reports from her classmates, teachers, and herself describe the same four-eyed state that we had initially found her in, and from her own words, she said that she is capable of activating the state herself, rather than be subjected to it from her father.”

His blood suddenly dropped several degrees. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner.”

“It is something that I had to deliberate on myself. Knowing this information would change things with Endeavor,” Tsukauchi sighed. The only reason why Endeavor agreed to their hush was by saying that Raven was completely at the mercy of her father at the time and that her attack on him was not caused by her own will.

“Does he know?” Sir Nighteye went through the room, pacing.

“No, you’re the first person I told, all things considered,” Naomasa said. “I don’t think we should tell him regardless.”

One dark eyebrow raised behind thick glasses. “You want me to lie to him? He’s a difficult individual, but he’s still an important figure.”

“It wouldn't be lying,” Naomasa stressed. “Endeavor doesn’t want anything to do with her anyway. He would undo all of our hard work, and if she is back in Tartarus, that wouldn’t benefit anyone.”

“Look — “ Sir Nighteye didn't want her back in prison as much as anyone, but this worried him greatly. The repercussions if anyone found out, what would happen to Raven, the list went on.

"I think that the discussion on her Quirk is a difficult one. Although it is not her father who is putting her into the Red-Eyed State, she is also a young girl. It is natural that children with strong powers tend to have freakouts every now and then. When I questioned her, she was aware of the dangers herself and promised not to do it again. Whether or not she has the strength to stop herself is up to what they teach her and what she learns at U.A. That’s why you sent her there.”

“Other children do not just destroy U.S.J. single-handedly,” Sir Nighteye emphasized, sighing deeply. “I — “

“Did she ever say anything to you?” the detective asked. “Or did she show off any weird behavior that might make us distrust her?”

“...No.” Sir Nighteye ran his hand over his face. “She doesn’t speak much in general, not unless spoken to. I’ve long since given up waiting for her to slip up and reveal some information to me. She is different from any other teenager.” He thought about Mirio and his friends, bright and shining like the sun while she was the night. “She’s extremely mature and serious. Oftentimes, I forget that I’m not talking to someone Bubble Girl’s age, but she does show some nervous habits. She clearly thinks before she does anything and sometimes I can tell she’s questioning herself. I don’t know if I can attribute this to her past as a Hero or if it’s just her personality. I trust her, but I do not think I need to hide her from Endeavor.”

“I think if she’s that controlled — and I agree, then U.S.J. was just as difficult on her as it was on everybody. Listen, I know it's a lot of trouble, but we were aware that this was going to be a curveball,” Naomasa was about to continue, taking in a breath before Sir Nighteye heard a set of keys behind his front door and the lock rattling.

“I have to go,” he immediately said, voice down to a whisper.

“Wait!” He speedily shut the phone off and quickly turned the radio back on before returning back to preparing dinner.

The door swung open. A loud thump sound told him that she had tossed her school bag over the coat rack and began to trudge forward.

“おかえり [Welcome home],” he called out, eyes focused on the preparation in front of him.

“....ただいま。[I’m back.]” She slipped off her school blazer and pulled open the fridge, downing half of a bottle of tea before speaking again. Purple eyes slipped over to his form. “...You’re home early.”

“I had other obligations elsewhere today,” he replied just as easily. “How was your first day back?” The parenting books said that a calm attitude and relaxed stature would entice their children to open up more, even if they were hiding something. One dark brow raised over her narrowed eyes.

She was revealing those nervous habits again, the careful deliberation before she shared anything, holding back anything unnecessary or hiding intrusive thoughts.

“They revealed the Sports Festival to us today,” she finally muttered.

“They’re going along with it then?” he asked. “So soon after the attack?”

“You know it?” She walked over to the sink and began washing her hands. Normally the two of them ordered out, but he had recently come to the conclusion that constant take-out was bad for the two of them and began ordering pre-prepared meal sets from the local grocery store. Raven was as sh*t at cooking as ever, and was always on chopping and stirring duty while he took care of anything over a flame.

“It would be rare to find someone in all of Japan that doesn’t know about the Sports Festival,” he said.

“So it’s true…” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. They’re continuing it even with the attack. It’s stupid — trying to hide everything. Pretending like nothing happened.”

“If you have an issue with it, you should address it.” He traded his station with her’s, slipping past each other so she stood in front of the cutting board while he preheated the oven. “You’re not excited to show off your skills?”

“I don’t fight for sport,” she said dully, almost scoffing at the idea. “It’s dumb to do this, just to skip around like an idiot for the jumbotron.” She knew that Beast Boy would revel in it, but she always slunk into the background, hidden by her long cloak even for newspaper pictures.

“Even so, the U.A. Sports Festival is an important part of our institution. I’m not sure how they do it in America or any other country, but U.A. is one of the special schools that allows established Heroes to see the children’s skills up and center. Because of this, U.A. students usually get first pick and priority for internships.” He set boiling water over the stove. “It would be good for you and your future to try your hardest so you can get a polished Hero as your mentor.”

Raven stilled. “You’re not going to give me my internship?”

“What?” He looked up at her, the light hitting his glasses. “Of course not.” Before she could pull a face, he continued. “If I were to give you an internship, that would be unfair to your classmates since we are associated with each other. In addition to that, even if I wasn’t your adoptive father, I would have to grade you just as equally as I would with the rest of your peers. It’s unjust for me to give you an internship if you didn’t earn it.”

“You know that I can fight,” Raven tried to say. “You can grade my skills right now.”

“I wasn’t planning on taking on an intern even before you came into the picture. Now, before you rip my head off, this isn’t indicative of your own skills. However, if you go through your first internship successfully, I am willing to open a position after you receive your Hero License.”

The Titan rolled her eyes, just now realizing that she had to put work into finding an internship rather than coasting by with Sir Nighteye’s help.

“Aizawa-sensei was going to take me out of them today,” she admitted.

“What?”

Raven didn’t know what compelled her to speak — rant about her situation. She told him about her daily lessons with the man that were set to start tomorrow and her own inhibitions.

“I don’t think he can stop me,” she finally admitted. “If Azar couldn’t do anything, I doubt that Eraserhead could.”

Sir NIghteye hummed. “While it is still up to debate on whether or not he can erase your powers, the man is still a strong Hero. He’s certainly skilled and experienced.”

“He’s expelled every student before us,” Raven retorted.

“You’re scared of expulsion?”

“I’m doubtful that these sessions would amount to anything. I can use that time to try and meditate and build some spells that can let me go back home.”

Ah , Sir Nighteye unconsciously turned his head to her. He had almost forgotten that she was going to leave one day.

“Humor them,” he eventually said, fiddling with the stove knobs. “The sessions might do you good for physical training. You’re lacking in those areas.”

“The only reason why he’s forcing me to take them is that he’s afraid I’m going to relinquish control to Red Raven again. If that’s what he’s working on, I hardly think that he’s going to force me to get my speed and stamina up too.” Her knife came down on the potatoes, hitting the board harshly every time.

“You never know,” he said. “A sound body is a sound mind.” After a pregnant pause, he continued. “Is that what you call that state? Red Raven?”

“...Yeah,” Raven admitted after she caught herself giving up the information so easily. “I don’t want to see myself like that more than I have to,” she eventually confessed.

“How did this...Red Raven come to be?” he asked cautiously. It became so hushed around the kitchen that the only thing they could hear was the ticking of the analog clock in the living room and the gentle bubbling of the water.

“It happens when I’m angry,” Raven whispered. “When I’m so furious that I can’t think straight.”

“What did you feel when you were last Red Raven?” She looked over at him, trying to get a read on his expression and decide whether he was worth telling. His voice said concern, but his eyes said confusion and curiosity. She didn’t know if he was looking out for her or was trying to analyze her like a science project. She mentally debated with herself, trying to get a grip on if this was going to blow up in her face, but as several seconds ticked by, it was clear that she resigned herself.

“I…” Her voice took a low whisper, so low that the deepness of her voice took a larger bass. “I couldn’t help but be so angry… My head gets drowsy and foggy. I didn’t have a strong hold on my limbs, but there was a voice that kept on playing in my head…” She ignored all of the images of her father, of his handsome human face leaning over her, taunting her with sickly sweet pet names.

“...’Get them all…’“ she said, dazed and hushed. She held the knife tightly in her hands, her nails digging into the flesh of her palm.

Chop.

“‘Go for the neck.’”

Chop.

“...’Go for the neck,’” she repeated, eyes wide, almost as if she had just realized what slipped out of her lips.

Chop.

“Make it hurt.”

Chop.

U.A. was as lively as ever for a Tuesday morning, still deep in their responsibilities for the week. They still had a long way to go, she thought, stepping up to her locker in front of the school. Less people stared at her though, and that was a plus even if the remaining eyes still lingered on her body like smoke. She hated that the school had a strict “no modifying uniform” rule, or else she would’ve switched the stuffy button-up and tie with a hoodie she could hide her face in.

Her thoughts were swimming at the reminder that her lessons with Eraserhead started today, about what he was going to force her to do, what she could say to make him give up. Back in Azarath, her days were spent alone. From the moment she could wash, clothe, and feed herself, she was left with only Azar and the other monks for company. She spent hours meditating, using charmed items to channel her demonic powers, and spent years pushing down her emotions, pretending that they never existed and if Azar could’ve done something for Red Raven all those years ago, what made her think that some high school teacher that slept in a yellow sleeping bag could do it?

Opening her locker, she swung the door open to switch out her shoes when she caught a flash at the corner of her eye.

Turning her head, she realized that it was Aoyama, the half-French kid from her class. They never interacted from how night and day they were, but the moment her eye caught his, he stiffened like a board. She watched as he nearly jumped in his spot.

His smile became tense as it was forcefully wedged in that “V” shape and his eyes widened slightly like a deer in the headlights.

Fear, she saw. It was as clear as day in his eyes, which sparkled like the surface of the sea that she was so used to seeing outside the windows of Titan Tower.

She turned her head back to the inside of her locker and could sense him leaving immediately.

Although the class attempted to comfort her, spurred on by Kirishima’s kindness and openness, it made sense that not everyone would feel the same way even if they didn’t vocalize it.

He must still be scared of her, she thought. For some reason, the idea of it sent a pit to the bottom of her stomach.

Her eyes clenched shut, trying to get rid of the impending headache. Looking back, he was completely gone like the wind. Slamming her loafers in the locker, she clenched her free hand.

When she released it, blood lied underneath her fingertips.

“Check. Mate,” the little girl enunciated in Azaranian, popping her lips toward her little brother.

“No!” the boy cried, ruffling his light brown hair. “Dang it! Ah!” His wide hazel eyes stared at the board. “How?!” He gaped at the randomly arranged pieces on the checkerboard as if it was going to give him the answers if he stared long enough. Laughter rang in the air like bells, spreading all throughout the public park.

A pair of feet came closer.

Azarath was truly a beautiful place, she recalled. A pacifist dimension, torn away from the war and strife of Earth, whose technology was advanced yet they stayed to their roots, believing in peace and silence.

And yet, even in the most peaceful place, Raven had always felt so alone.

As the boy was taunted and teased by his older sister, he slammed his fists down on the board, rattling the table until one white king piece stumbled and rolled off the edge. It continued to fall, further and further away until it finally stopped beside a small pair of feet.

Raven was a tiny kid, she remembered, with skinny limbs that were always blanketed by the temple’s billowy cloak and dress. Her face was full and round with baby fat, causing her eyes to be even wider with wonder. With one book clutched to her chest, she gently picked up the piece.

Immediately at the sight of her pallid gray skin and her strange purple hair, the girl her age hitched her breath, lodging it deep in her throat while she reached for her brother’s hand in a vice grip. The boy froze up like a statue, staring at her the way a bunny looks at an owl.

“H-Here you go,” she said shyly. A dark color threatened to flush across her cheeks while her eyes were averted.

“T-Thank you!” the other girl said hurriedly, snatching the chess piece from Raven’s hand and then dropping it on the table as if it burned. Her brother only continued to stare. Several seconds ticked by, each moment tenser than the last. It wasn't until Raven spoke up again that it broke like a crack in glass.

“Um…” Raven trailed off, a sheepish smile on her lips. “Can I... Can I play with you? I know how to play chess,” she said. It was one of the few tasks she was able to do with others. She was pretty smart at it too, sometimes beating even the head monks.

The whites of the girl’s eyes immediately became visible, as well as her shaking hand. Her fingers trembled in her lap.

“U-Um…” Her eyes darted back and forth. “Uh, I — I don’t think that’s a good — I mean — “

“No!” the little boy shouted suddenly, forcing Raven to flinch back. He waved his arms around in a shooing motion while his older sister stared at him with relief as if he was her savior. “Go away, demon! You’re Trigon the Terrible’s kid, aren’t you?! You can’t play with us!”

“I — “ Raven’s lips opened and closed. Her chest seized at the sound of the boy yelling at her, book clenched closer to her body, no longer focused on his words but his fearful and hateful expression, twisted with anger. She felt her heart tighten at the sight, stumbling over her thoughts and her movements as she tried to grasp on this. “But — “

“No!” he repeated. He was about to let out more words when another's stopped him.

“Now, what’s the matter here?” a delicate voice suddenly called out. It was soothing like a spring's day but held enough power to call all of their attention to it. The boy’s mouth immediately snapped shut at the source, then dropping his jaw when he realized who was coming forward. As quick as lightning, it was as if the two people in front of Raven had become completely different.

The older girl immediately bowed. “S-Spiritual Leader Azar!” she cried out.

“Sp-Spiritual Leader…” the boy sputtered, copying his sister’s bow.

Only Raven remained upright, staring at the woman in front of her with hidden wonder but also casualness. The woman carefully scanned the scene before her.

Azar placed a gentle hand on Raven’s back. “Hello, children. Let’s go, Raven,” she said simply, looking down at the young girl. “Won’t you take a walk with me?”

“Yes,” she obeyed, nodding once before stepping away with the tall white-haired woman. She didn’t spare the kids another glance, and Raven never looked back. Together they wound back to the temples, stepping up on the white marble steps. A cool breeze blew through the temple, winding around the columns, dragging the ends of their robes along with it. Both parties were silent until Raven's shoe finally met the plush grass underneath it.

“What’s on your mind, Raven?” Azar asked soothingly as they stepped into the garden, their brisk walk slowing into a gentle stroll. White pillars decorated the open corridor that they walked through, hiding them in cool shade underneath the bright Azarathian sun. The grass here was a pale green, with plants of all kinds standing up in tall stalks. It was a vast space.

“I…” Her voice was so small, high, and squeaky unlike the deep roll she would develop in her teens. “I just wanted to play chess,” she admitted.

“Am I not worthy enough of an opponent for you?” Azar asked, voice teasing.

“It’s not that, Azar!” the young Raven insisted. “You’re a really good player!” Purple eyes stared off at the light hitting the bugs floating above the flowers. “But…” She was about to answer before stopping herself.

The older woman chuckled. “You can tell me. I promise to not get hurt.” Even as she said this, an amused expression appeared on her lips.

“In all of the books I read,” she started, voice high. “They always have friends their age.”

“...I see,” the woman stated after a pause. They stopped their walk to stand in front of a particularly tall plant, one with large drooping flowers. Azar carefully lessened their intense gaze to admire the petals. “Do you enjoy reading in your free time, Raven?” Normally when they saw each other, which was almost daily, they always worked on her powers, on her emotions, on her magic.

“Yes,” she answered. Raven tilted her head, trying to remember what type of plant this was before she straightened herself. Purple irises sunk down until she stared at the green stems. "Sometimes when I read books…” She trailed off, eyes falling to the one she held in her hands the entire time. Tuck Everlasting. “I feel like a real girl.” Her future and her origins were not a secret to her, nor was it to anyone in Azarath. Everyone knew who she was and what she was going to be doomed to do when she turned of age.

From her birth, she knew that she was placed in a position that looked away from all of the other children.

“I feel like I can be a wizard or a prince or go to school,” Raven felt her fists clench, digging deep in her palms as she was reminded of the harsh rejection not even ten minutes earlier. “But in every book, they’re always surrounded by others. I…” She felt like the parting of the Red Sea. She was the water that was never going to meet. “Don’t have anyone like that.”

“In life,” Azar said wisely, “you have to accept it when most people won’t like you.”

“I — “ she took a break for air. “Know.” But these were harsh words to tell a child, a harsh reminder of the harsher reality that they were not yet prepared for.

Azar’s eyes flew open at the cracking in Raven’s voice. Immediately she whirled around, dark red robes swishing by her ankle as she kneeled in front of the girl, stopping Raven’s stroll immediately. The girl stared wide-eyed at the elder. The woman gently grabbed her smaller shoulders.

“Why, Raven, are you about to cry?”

Her dark lips trembled slightly, blurriness appearing at Raven’s waterline.

“No,” she tried to say.

“You know what you must do when you want to cry,” the elder said, almost warningly, almost scolding.

“...Yes.” Meditation, erasing any hints toward her sadness, letting her mind turn into a blank, forgoing any attachment to whatever sparked this feeling in her. Raven closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, copying the older woman’s breath patterns as she did it with her. Her breath came out shaky, like the earth’s surface, but after several beats, it smoothed out as straight as an arrow. Her mind attempted to analyze her sadness as if it was a specimen inside of a microscope, working herself out of this foolish emotion that spurred from a strange occasion. She dismissed it, pushed it away. It had no place for someone like her. Just like how they taught her.

“There you go,” Azar said, her voice rising like she was floating to the surface of a pool. “You mustn’t feel sad,” she said firmly. After a pause, Raven opened her eyes again, eyes still red from the tears that threatened to spill, but they held onto the gaze without flinching or shakiness. She was passive.

“Not when you’re about to see your mother again so soon,” Azar continued, sounding proud. Standing back up to her full height, she waited several more seconds for Raven to fully compose herself before stretching out her hand. Her pale grey limb was engulfed in the woman’s larger, warmer palm. With a small grin, they started their stroll off again. “When was the last time you saw Arella?”

“During the Grand Daylight,” Raven replied, voice flat, referencing one of the Azarathian holidays.

“That was nearly three months ago,” the woman replied in false shock. “You must be excited for her birthday coming up in a couple of days.”

After a pause, Raven spoke again. “I read that it’s customary in her hometown, Gotham, to give a gift on one’s birthday…” Big purple eyes looked up at the six-foot woman. “Do you think I should get her one? Would...she like it if I got her one? "

Azar smiled sorrowfully down at her.

“I believe seeing you again would be the greatest gift of all.”

Raven was swinging her drawstring bag over her shoulders, prepared to shut her locker when she felt and saw a new presence stand just behind the metal door.

Ever so slowly, she shut it. That was strange, she recalled the girl's locker being at least two rows away from her, and Asui had never passed her on her way to the classroom before.

“Asui-san.” She nodded stiffly in greeting, turning to leave with a flick of purple hair.

Suspicious, she thought.

“Roth-chan, wait,” the frog-like girl called out, almost stagnantly.

“What,” she spat out, meaner than intended from the lingering irritation she felt for today’s plans. She winced internally at the bite in her tone. Watching the green-haired girl, Asui wilted slightly at her tone, her large round eyes growing wet and sad.

“I want to speak to you,” she croaked out, voice meek. “But over the weekend, I kept on tripping over my words thinking about you.”

This must be about U.S.J., she realized.

“Huh?” Raven let out unintelligently. The moment the other girl opened her mouth, she was bombarded by emotions like guilt, stress, shame. These were some of the most difficult emotions to experience, she thought, even though a second person like this. It always made her feel awkward, a shameful being for peeking on someone's vulnerability like this. She hardly knew how to handle her own guilt, let alone be surrounded by someone else’s.

“Back in U.S.J., when you stormed in front of the villain, instead of helping you, I even told Midoriya-chan to leave you. I — I thought that I was doing the right thing, kero.” The green-haired girl looked down at their shoes. Asui was even shorter than Raven was and was worsened by the girl’s slouch, she noticed, looking at the way she got a full view of the top of the girl’s head at this angle.

“I — I’m a coward and — “ Tsuyu became choked up, the volume becoming quieter. “Even when the brain villain got to you…. I didn’t scream or move.”

This is awkward as hell, Raven couldn’t help but think, a sheepish grimace on her face at the girl who was about to cry. She smoothed over her expression and shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter,” Raven said, almost scowling at how rough her words came out. “What’s done is done.”

Tsuyu even flinched from her words. Tears began to well in her eyes and Raven inwardly cursed at herself for being so bad with others. She walked the mental landmine. “Roth-chan…” She looked up and stared Raven right in the eye. The Titan’s voice hitched at the contact. “I always say what’s on my mind."

Her blood ran like ice, Raven thought.

"When I first met you, I couldn't help but think you were a cold person.” She had Raven’s full attention now, peering at her quietly from purple eyes. The frog girl watched her expression carefully, not one of surprise or shock, but Asui was already expecting that. “Ever since I was a kid I wanted to go to U.A. and because of that I never had many friends growing up, nor did I do regular kid things,” Asui explained, her voice still creaky. Raven stayed in silence to search the other girl’s face. “When you walked in late on the first day of school and didn’t react to Aizawa’s scolding, I got a bad impression of you. That solidified when I saw you fight Todoroki-chan without much thought. He’s one of the strongest in the class, but when I saw you on the screen, I thought, ‘She doesn’t seem to be feeling at all.’ Even during your victory, you seemed bored.” She sniffled.

“This isn’t your fault, but I recognize that my Quirk is not conventional for Heroism, even though I never once regretted my own powers. I worked hard every day to get to where I am now. When I learned that you ranked number one in the Entrance Exam, I was disappointed because it seemed like you didn’t want to be here. I wondered if you were like this because you knew that you were strong.”

They stood alone by the lockers together, with every other student already long gone. It appeared to be only them at that moment. For a while, Raven felt like a patient on the operating table, waiting to be picked upon and observed.

“So when you were fighting the villain, I thought to myself that I can use this as a distraction to get away. I didn’t think that I should’ve gone in to help, even when it was clear that the brain villain was strong. You decided to take on the villain all by yourself, and I prioritized my own selfish feelings over your safety.”

The Titan began to hear ringing in her ears, her body unresponsive as she was forced to listen to this.

“And when you tried to take the villain on, you got hurt.” If guilt was a cup, it was overfilled. Tears were flowing from big black eyes now. “Then...when you lost control of your Quirk, I felt nothing but pain and shame because…” Big droplets fell from the girl's face like morning dew. She ribbited along with the tears.

Raven sighed quickly, attempting to placate her classmate, and hurriedly move this along. “Listen, it’s not your fault I lost control. That happens — “ Tsuyu stepped closer, forcing the girl to stop in her tracks and openly gape at her.

“I realized that I was wrong about you.” Her voice was broken parts stitched together. “It took me fearing for your life for me to realize that...!” Her voice reached a peak before she had to stop and compose herself. Her shoulders closed in on her.

Flashes appeared in her head: of Raven being whipped into the ground. Of her body lying deep in her own cavern on the broken floor. Of the snapping sounds as her own bones knit together, her body repairing itself the way that you take something apart to build it up again. Of those four red eyes glowing like a fire in the dark.

“That you feel pain and sadness too,” Tsuyu finished weakly, sniffling.

She turned into a statue.

Raven froze as if struck by lightning, the words caught up in her throat. She stared at the other girl as if she was a ghost, turning her grey skin into a pale white. Sweat began to build along her hands and face.

"You mustn't feel sad," echoed in her brain, rattling her thoughts like a toy.

She wanted to scream No, to erase that thought from the other girl completely, but she was rooted to her spot like her legs were lead.

“And even now — “ Tsuyu’s black eyes drifted off even as they continued to replenish the waterfall. “When I think back at you in the classroom, during classes and breaks, you always looked so sad.” Her voice had only become raspier from the heaviness of her words, overflowing with emotions. Her normal voice was a croak, but this was like the plates at the bottom of the ocean attempting to move against each other.

It was as if the other girl had slapped her, telling her to her face that she had failed all those years. That she had failed Azar.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to do,” Raven finally rasped, voice bleeding with honesty. It snapped Tsuyu out of her stupor. Raven forcefully stepped back and slipped out of Tsuyu's hold on her.

Her chest rose and fell as if she had just run.

She didn’t know what to say, how to solve this puzzle in front of her. She had no idea what Tsuyu’s intentions were: whether to catch her off guard or to be honest.

“If this is an apology,” Raven started, “then I forgive you. There’s nothing for me to forgive anyway. I would do it again,” she suddenly said with a burst of bravery, “even if you still think that I am a terrible person.” Tsuyu blinked widely at her, eyes becoming more round by the second at Raven’s declaration. “Because I — I’m...“ Her jaw closed with a snap. She didn’t know what to say. She wanted to tell her the truth, that she took the responsibility because she was the one who she thought could handle it. But how could she say it? That she was actually a Hero back in America? Did that constitute as vigilantism here? That she rather it be her than her classmates who had never faced off against villains?

But shenever did it so that the other girl could see whatever inklings of sadness or anger that Raven might've had. Raven would never even entertain the thought of risking it all just to slip up and express her hatred. What she did to try and stop the brain villain was for a righteous reason and just reasons only.

She thought about the eyes on her, the cameras at every corner, of Endeavor watching her steps, and then of the ostracization she would get from 1-A if they found out. She was already alone, but that was her choice. She didn’t want to feel forcibly separated from everyone else. More than she already was.

“...Sorry,” Raven breathed out, she turned her eyes down. “I can’t say,” she said, even as she was close to confessing. Raven cut the conversation short. She pulled her eyes off to the side, finding the bluish metal of the lockers easier to look at than the girl in front of her. “But it was never because I thought that you or your Quirk were incapable,” she said, connecting the dots about what the girl implied earlier. Turning back to look at Tsuyu, her eyes narrowed.

“Rae-chan,” Tsuyu suddenly said, carefully as if talking to a stray cat, cautious but sincere. She placed a gentle hand on top of her head, similar to the pats that she gave her younger siblings.

Raven froze immediately, eyes as wide as plates, caught up in the nickname that Beast Boy used to yell at her.

“Rae!” rang in her head like a gong. Her breaths became short. Her spine became ramrod straight at the touch.

“I am saying this because,” she admitted, “I think you should be able to have fun with the class.”

An image appeared in her head, of all of Class 1-A where they all stood together in a messy crowd, some shoulder to shoulder, some farther apart. But while individuals like Todoroki and Bakugou stood farther than the rest, they still faced the same way as the others, turned forward toward their common goals. She imagined Raven in this endless, empty, white expanse, her purple hair acting as a beacon against the rest of the class.

“But when I think of you,” she said, “it seems like there’s always a wall between you and everyone else.”

Raven was the only one who was back to back with everyone else, facing the other way, a large berth of distance that separated them.

“But even though you couldn’t rely on me before because I was mistrustful of you.” Tsuyu began to shyly press the tips of her fingers together, fiddling with them. “I hope that I can be there for you now.” A pink flush appeared on her cheeks.

When Raven turned her head around for the first time, her eyes widened in shock at the sight of several pairs of eyes looking back at her.

"Because the idea of you being alone makes me so sad," she finished tearfully. "Please feel free to call me Tsu-chan from now on."

Chapter 11: Encounter

Chapter Text

“May I sit here, kero?” a voice asked at the end of the table. Raven kept her eyes down on her textbook, flipping through it casually with her telekinesis while she held her bowl and chopsticks in her hands.

“Of course, Tsu-chan!” Uraraka called out, sitting across the table from Raven while Iida and Midoriya let out their own sounds of confirmation.

“Thanks.”

The sounds of the cafeteria blended into her ear, the distant chatter from every corner, the clicking of utensils against the plates, the distinct flipping of her page. Raven felt herself drown in the experience, submerging herself as she read quietly while her classmates talked to each other. She didn’t always go to the cafeteria, but whenever she did, the trio always managed to zero in on her like a laser and sit themselves down. Their voices bounced from one to the other, and while Uraraka was still fired up from shouting, “LET’S DO OUR BEST!” in a manner that was almost like demonic possession, it seemed like that was the only thing in people’s mind.

“You know,” Midoriya drawled off, “I get that Iida’s motivation to become a Hero is because it’s the family business for him, but what about you, Uraraka-san?”

Raven flipped the page dully.

This book keeps on skipping information and contradicting itself, she thought. The only reason why she picked it up was because she was going around to all of the nonfiction books. She didn’t ignore how it attempted to justify some examples of terrorism in one moment, and then completely gloss over it the next.

She understood the frustration , she thought. She couldn’t imagine a world where someone would try and police Superman or Batman, but Earth 1 was different from Earth 0. With 80% of the world being Quirk-users, there had to be rules and regulations, she considered.

But she could still see the point in the author’s words, she thought regretfully. Public Quirk use was only allowed to Heroes, and people couldn’t even use it for their own businesses or products. A villain meant a Quirk-user who committed crimes, but a regular Quirkless person would not be considered a villain because they didn’t use a Quirk in their act; the same went for Heroes. This world’s overreliance on Quirks overshadowed the 20% that still didn’t have any powers.

Who wrote this anyway? The book shut itself, coated in black, as it flipped over to show her the cover. Meta Liberation War—

“You’re becoming a Hero so you can get rich?!” Izuku suddenly screamed to the left of her.

Raven raised an eyebrow at that. Uraraka was suddenly sweating bullets, becoming even more flustered when she realized that her attention was on Uraraka now. The brunette scratched the back of her neck quickly. Raven hummed almost mutely. That was expected, she considered. In this world, becoming a Hero paid as much as any A-list celebrity or Influencer.

“I-I mean, if we’re cutting to the chase then yeah….” She sighed ruefully and started threading her fingers through her hair out of nerves. Uraraka avoided everyone’s gazes. “Well you see, my family owns a construction company, but we haven’t gotten any work lately, so we’re flat broke.” Closing her eyes, she dropped her hands back down. “Anyway, this isn’t really anything I tell other people.”

“Construction,” Iida said thoughtfully, a hand to his chin.

“I imagine your Quirk would be super helpful in construction,” Tsuyu said with a ribbit.

Midoriya smiled and nodded. “With her Quirk, if she gets licensed, then it’d bring the costs way down, right?”

Raven’s eyes flashed back down to her book.

“Right!” Uraraka said loudly, nearly hopping in her seat as she pointed finger-guns at her friends. “That’s what I told my dad when we were younger! But—” She shook her head as the memories filled her, explaining that her dad told her that he wanted her to live her life instead of being bogged down by them and their debt. She finished off by saying that their ultimate goal is to take a trip to Hawaii. “Sorry,” she shook her head. “I know it sounds kinda scummy, considering the noble connotations of it all.”

“But why!” Iida began to wave his hands so fast that Midoriya and Tsuyu were forced to lean back or dodge. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting a more comfortable lifestyle!”

“Yeah,” Midoriya said, leaning closer to Raven as Iida swiped at the air. “Just a little unexpected, that’s all…”

“As long as you’re helping people honestly, I don’t see much issue with it,” Tsuyu took the words right out of Raven’s mouth.

With a face fixed in determination, the brunette nodded. “I’ll become a Hero and earn lots of money without fail! Then I can let my family live the easy life they deserve!”

“That’s the spirit, Uraraka-kun!” Iida cheered.

“Though…” Tsuyu poked her own cheek with her finger. “Do you have a different Quirk from your parents, Uraraka-chan?”

“Yeah!” she nodded and proceeded to tell the table what her parents’ Quirks were.

“Oh, really?” the frog girl commented. “My entire family has the same Quirk.”

Midoriya gaped like a kid in the candy store. “Really?!” He itched for his notebook.

She nodded. “My dad, my mom, my little brother, Samidare, and my little sister, Satsuki, all have frog Quirks.”

“So cute!” Uraraka commented

”We’re a very froggy family, kero.”

“Very interesting!” Iida nodded his head quickly. “My family has similar speed Quirks, but my parents have different mutations! Although my older brother and I both have Engine!”

“So cool!” Midoriya had stars in his eyes.

“What about you Midori-chan?” Tsuyu asked. “I can’t imagine a family that constantly breaks their bones.”

The green-haired boy beside her sputtered so much that he nearly bit his tongue. Raven carefully lifted a hand at the ready to slap him on the back just in case he choked.

“O-Oh! T-That’s not it at all! My parents both have extremely different Quirks!” he assured. “My mom can pull small objects toward her and my dad can breathe fire!”

“I don’t know if you lucked out or got the short end of the stick, Midoriya-chan,” she said thoughtfully. Then, she finally drew her eyes to Raven’s figure, whose head was now pulled away from her book and carefully watching the conversation around her. “What about you, Rae-chan? What Quirks do your parents have?”

Immediately at the question, Iida, Midoriya, and Uraraka stiffened in their seats. Midoriya and Uraraka went from flickering their eyes toward her to sharing worried glances with each other, but Raven pretended not to see it. Iida wound over to Tsuyu at a break-neck pace and started to hurriedly whisper in the girl’s ear.

“That might not be an appropriate question! Roth-kun,” he whispered loudly, voice muddled with his fast talking, “is adopted!” The boy had an inability to speak quietly, she assumed.

“Oh.” Tsuyu deflated slightly. “I apologize for being insensitive,” the green-haired girl said sincerely, looking right at her instead of avoiding her gaze. Raven waved it off with a flick of her hand, going quiet.

It was clear that she was deep in thought, so much so that Midoriya carefully quieted his friends when it seemed like they were going to change the conversation.

They had not known each other long, but he was observant.

That was one of the things he could do without All Might’s Quirk.

He carefully committed several different habits of his classmates to memory, like Aizawa-sensei’s eye twitch when their class got too rowdy, the way Bakugou would clench and unclench his fingers if he was quietly irritated. Raven’s place in his notebook was filled with theories and descriptions, but along the way of wondering whether her Quirks had any fallbacks on her body or how powerful she would be if completely submerged in darkness, he noticed the way that Raven spoke.

She rarely did—letting him fall over every word that did manage to spill from her lips. If she was giving out a snarky reply or casual insult, there was no sense of hesitation or any grand gesture, it appeared as common as second nature to her, but when it came to Raven herself, to her past, what she thought, she always paused. He knew that if she wanted to say something important, she always waited, eyes glossing over unfocused, lips pressed together.

“My mom was Quirkless,” she eventually said, nearly silent. Midoriya right beside her turned to her with wide eyes, looking as if he had seen a ghost. “I don’t know about my father though,” she quickly lied, pulling her head down to look at her bowls again.

It even surprised her that she confessed.

She didn’t know what wires connected in her brain, what compelled her to say that. Although she was never in the system herself, she knew that Angela Roth was, leaving her mother lost, wandering, depressed all the way until she turned eighteen. The events of her childhood made her empty until she walked straight into Trigon’s arms, finding comfort in the only person who ever made her feel needed.

The one demon that made her crash down like a broken tower after she had been crumbling her entire life.

Arella never told Raven herself, but she always knew. And with her steadily growing empathetic powers, she felt like Arella knew that the lowest point in her life was an open secret to the long-lasting repercussion: Raven.

“Raven-san,” Midoriya finally whispered, like he was struggling with his own words, “you didn’t have to tell us if you were uncomfortable.” She could tell that his hands were trembling underneath the table right beside their laps.

“It doesn’t bother me,” she stated, turning purple irises over to the side to look at him.

“Well,” Iida sputtered before eventually turning to her like gears cranking. “Quirk or no, your mother’s strength lies in raising a daughter like Roth-kun! We should all be proud!”

“Iida-chan is right,” Asui assured. “Quirks don’t make up the man.”

“Yes, yes!” Uraraka quickly nodded, jumping on the opportunity to turn Raven’s depressing words into a happier note. The brunette’s expression softened considerably. “Man… That must be hard though… I hear that Quirkless people get discriminated against often… It’s on the news sometimes…”

“W-Well,” Izuku finally said as meek as a mouse. “C-Children can be really cruel sometimes, and—and people aren’t created equal.” His voice became so silent that Raven had to strain her ear to listen. “So I guess that’s why the weak get preyed on.” He clenched his eyes shut and dug his fingernails into his palm.

A hush was swept through the table.

“Yet that is wrong!” Iida finally said. “As Heros-in-training we should treat everyone with kindness and work to save anyone, no matter the background!”

“Quirkless people might get discriminated against today, but we can work to change it, kero,” Asui affirmed.

“Guys…” Midoriya’s words wobbled.

Now Raven felt guilty, she thought. She never meant for this lie to go too far. They just asked a question, and she thought that she could answer with the half-truth.

“Aw,” Uraraka cooed softly, without a hint of teasing in her tone. “Are you about to cry, Deku-kun? I’m getting pretty emotional too! Your mom must’ve been a strong woman, Rachel-chan!”

Raven was mute.

It was true that Arella’s magic was almost unmatchable when she finally learned it at the age of eighteen, and there were even whispers that she would become the next Spiritual Leader after Azar, but then the universe collapsed.

But...Arella, a strong woman?

If Arella was strong why did she hide from her? Why did she give up all hope when she was pregnant with her? Why did she keep her at arm's length when she was growing up? Why did she give up maternal rights to Azar?

Why did it always seem like the woman who always felt like she was never wanted, didn’t want her?

Iida nodded furiously. “I imagine that both of your upbringings were not an easy one!” One the side of his hand hit the table. “But it has made you into the strong person you are now!”

“Is that why you want to be a Hero?” Uraraka finally asked. “After everything that happened?”

The Titan shrugged carelessly, eyes turned down to her bowl of rice. “I just want to do good things,” she admitted softly. The table stared at her with a bated breath.

She wanted to do enough good that it was going to make up for all of the terrible things she was going to do. Raven wanted to ease her conscience, using the safety and happiness of others in order to believe that she wasn’t the horrible person Fate made her out to be.

“Wow.” Uraraka’s eyes sparkled. “That sounds like something an anime main character would say,” she giggled.

“You’re a surprisingly soft person,” Tsuyu stated blankly. The American blinked like an owl.

“What,” Raven blurted out.

“You look very grumpy, but you’re surprisingly wholesome, kero,” Asui elaborated.

“...What does that even mean,” Raven deadpanned.

“Someone like Bakugou-chan is grumpy on the outside and rotten on the inside, but you’re only angry on the outside.” The frog girl poked her tongue out slightly.

Izuku sweat-dropped, and laughed nervously. “I don’t think we should be talking about Kacchan like this….”

Uraraka gasped at her revelation. “You’re like a Puchao! Jello on the inside, tougher on the outside!”

“Ah! I haven’t had a Puchao myself since I was ten years old!” Iida confessed.

“Do you know what they are, Raven-san?” Midoriya asked curiously. He knew that Raven often ate snacks from the vending machines but they were normally bottled teas or CalorieMate bars.

“They’re these super good candies!” Uraraka explained. “Strawberry is my favorite!”

“You’re right, Ochaco-chan, I didn’t see the resemblance until now,” Tsuyu joked.

“And I thought I made it so obvious before,” Raven sarcastically said, closing her eyes as she returned to her food. Unbeknownst to her Midoriya had been staring at her with an unreadable expression, one that lingered even when she excused herself from the table early, nearly bumping her chair with the person sitting behind her, Todoroki.

Iida, Uraraka, and Asui had gone off to deposit their trays at the dish-washing station.

“Um, Raven-san?” Midoriya said, gently pulling on the sleeve of her blazer. “Thank you for sharing with us, a-and…” She waited with her hair covering the sides of her face, looking down at him as he remained sitting. “I’m sorry about your mom,” he said genuinely.

He did not know much about Roth, and with every answer, he received more questions.

“Why are you apologizing…?” she rasped out.

But that look on her face—

His eyes were blown wide.

Was undoubtedly bitterness toward her Quirkless mother.

“See you in class, Midoriya.”

At his silence, she inclined her head slightly and went back to the library to return her book.

It fell to the bottom of the metal box with a deep clang.

“Roth,” Aizawa said as she was making her way out of the classroom. “Remember to meet me in Gym Y an hour from now.” She only gave him one nod in confirmation before stepping out the door.

Raven walked past the school’s gates with her bag slung over one shoulder. But without anything to do for an hour, she was left to wonder. The library was cramped after school, and she didn’t know any good cafes nearby to get her work done.

Taking out her phone, she remembered that there was a FamilyMart only a couple blocks down. Nighteye gave her an allowance weekly and with him paying for her lunch pass every semester, she still had a lot to get an early dinner and maybe stock up on teas.

The clear glass automatic doors slid open the moment she stepped up, playing the cute FamilyMart jingle as she walked inside.

But with one foot forward, she turned back, feeling a prickling at her back.

Her blood ran cold.

Someone was watching her.

Raven was sure that she felt eyes on her, that someone was looking at her. But when she searched the street she only saw passing students or casual pedestrians without anyone giving her a second glance.

Ever so slowly, she passed by the counter, carefully watching the cashier ring up one of the customers before she turned her eyes to the back of the wall where several Wanted posters were tacked up. Her eyes trailed up to the security camera’s screen, eyes scanning everyone to try and catch anyone suspicious, but came up with blanks once more. Purple eyes turned to the convex mirror in the corner and only saw her reflection staring back.

Raven trailed around the store for half an hour, less focused on her goal to get food but more attempting to catch whatever person that was following her in their tracks. The eyes on her filtered in and out occasionally, coming and going.

Breathing out her nose, she rounded the corner, quickly deciding that she needed to make it seem like her guard was down in order for the person to come and jump her when she “didn’t expect it.” If she continued to turn her head and look over her shoulder, they could tell that she was suspecting something. Throwing open the fridge door that led to the wall of bottled teas, she grabbed whatever was in front of her face before shutting it — then, catching the reflection on the glass for a split second, her eyes went wide.

“Shinso-san,” she immediately greeted, recognizing that head of indigo hair from anywhere. She whirled around so fast that her short hair hit her cheeks. He was merely 2 meters away from her, slightly hidden behind a wall of chips.

The tall boy from behind the nearest shelf looked up at the sight of her and narrowed his eyes. Cautiously walking over to him, she stood at one side of the shelf while he stood at the other. Levitating slightly, she was able to look over the edge and stare at him.

“Can I help you?” he finally drawled, looking at a bottle of C 1000 Vitamin Lemon. The wall of foods and drinks acted as a barrier between them.

“More like I need to ask you that,” she replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. “What are you doing here?”

“What, I can’t go to the konbini too?” he snapped back.

Raven felt her lips pressed together at the irritated tone in his voice, but she couldn’t catch any hint of a lie or any sign that he was hiding something. However, her mind cranked at what he meant by “too.”

“You’re cheery today,” she noted, not as a way to dig information out of him, but as if she was telling him what the color of his shirt was. She could feel anger roll off of him in waves. Carefully, she moved some of the bags in front of her face aside so that she could get a clearer look at his face.

His eyebrow flew up before a scowl settled on his lips.

“Yeah, I bet you 1-A kids know what that’s about, right?”

“No,” she said back, facing him head-on instead of flinching back at his tone. He scoffed and clicked his tongue.

“You’d think that the strongest people in the school would manage to think a little.” Shinso’s dull eyes bore into hers.

“We’re brawn over brain, remember?” she spoke steadily. “You said it yourself.”

“The first step to fixing your problem is admitting it at least — But it turns out that your freakout in U.S.J. showed that being in 1-A doesn’t mean anything, huh.” Raven’s eyes darkened and narrowed. Her flat lips fell into a scowl. “And I thought that you had more sense than the rest of your class.” The glass bottle in his hand slammed back down on the metal shelf, shaking the flimsy structure.

“If you have a problem, say it,” she snapped. Did he come here to gloat about what she did back in U.S.J.? Was this punishment for calling him out when they met the second time?

“Me?” he asked back with just as much bite. “You’re the one who came up.”

Dark brows knitted together. There wasn’t anyone else in the store that caught her eye, he was the only one she knew. He had to be the one tailing her. Looking around the store, she saw several other U.A. students that were coming and going quickly until they were the only ones lingering around in the typical grey blazer, red tie, and dark bottoms. She didn’t know anyone else, and the remainder of the people were just figures in the background.

Noticing how she was scanning the store instead of answering his questions he scoffed. His time was being wasted.

“Look.” He ran a hand through his already messy hair and turned to her with dull eyes. “You came up to me, so you got something to say? Did you come here to complain that I didn’t put the equipment back or something?”

The girl was stunned silent.

“What are you talking about,” she asked, face scrunching up.

It was his turn to furrow his brows and let a scowl settle on his lips.

“You took Gym Y,” he elaborated, punctuating every word with a bite.

Raven paused to take in his anger and frustration.

In U.A., there were three available gyms that the school kept open after school hours, Gym A, B, and Y. All of the facilities were open to anyone with a student I.D. and they were allowed to use it however they wanted within reason. Gym A and B were more popular, fashioned after the typical gyms that people would pay to go to in order to work out on machines, in their pool, or on the track. In comparison, Gym Y was an empty room with a scattering of dumbbells, rings drawn out in chalk on the mats, and was farther away from the main buildings. She didn’t even think that anyone even bothered to use Gym Y, and she suspected that was why Aizawa-sensei booked it for training.

Raven stared at Shinso from across the shelf.

So he was using Gym Y to train, she considered. A and B were more superior in comparison and just seemed like self-sabotage. If he was there training all alone to take advantage of its emptiness, then she wasn’t sure if she was doing him a favor or not.

However, now that Gym Y was going to be booked daily for her and Aizawa-sensei to use, he funneled that irritation on her.

If he truly wanted to, she said inwardly, why doesn’t he use A or B?

Either way, she recognized that in his eyes, she was going to be in the wrong no matter what so she canceled her levitation and touched back down on the floor gently. Nodding to him once, she muttered out a quick, “Sorry.” Purple eyes avoided his own.

Shinso took his time to roll his eyes before walking over to the fridge section behind her, yet still remaining several steps away as he looked over the impressive coffee selection.

Carefully putting the chips back to where they belonged, Raven let her thoughts swim in her head as she stood in silence. If Shinso wanted nothing to do with her, then who was it? Raven let her eyes skim across the front of the store once again.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Glancing at her lock screen, she had twenty more minutes to get back on campus and meet up with Aizawa before his meeting ended. She had lost her appetite, but while she was here she might as well get something to feed Uraraka—she knew that the girl was skipping out on meals before, but now that she knew the reason for it was monetary, she might as well forcefully feed the girl—

Something in the air changed.

Immediately, her eyes flashed open, her back became ramrod straight.

Eyes darting back and forth, she attempted to catch a flash of something but that thought was quickly stifled and put out by the feeling of someone much larger press against her back.

They were close, too close, close enough to brush their chest against her back, to easily grab her in any place. Warning bells immediately flashed in her head, every primitive part of her body telling her to fight back or run.

Despite the sweat that threatened to trickle down her temple and the quickening pace of her heart, she was the outward image of calm.

Something sharp and cold prodded her neck and a quick glance down told her that it was a pocketknife.

The man huffed, letting her feel the warmth of his breath against her cheeks and she jerked her head away.

“f*cking finally—I found you, bitch.” His voice was gruff but unfamiliar.

Raven looked up at the convex mirror at the corner of the room and noticed his cropped, wiry orange hair and large pale muscles seen in his sleeveless vest.

Her eyes slid over to the wanted posters across the room, quickly jumping from one to the next, she found the one that fit his description. It was a new one, and he was wanted for trespassing, assault, and for partaking in U.S.J.

Stupid, she thought. She knew that villains had managed to escape from U.S.J., and now it was all backfiring in her face.

“You’re that red-eyed bitch, right? I know this stupid purple hair from anywhere.” Raven stifled any sounds from the feeling of her hair being tugged on roughly, head harshly pulled back with the movement. She gritted her teeth, digging down against her molars. “You’re going to f*cking pay for everything you did to us.”

She held her tongue from any of the snappy comments that came into her head.

“What?” The knife came closer. She could feel the cold of the metal from here. “Got nothing to say?” She remained mute, dull eyes trained on the floor. The knife was swiftly moved from her neck and was now pressing on her back. “Walk forward—out the door. We’re going to show you a f*cking lesson after what you did.”

Ever so slowly, she stepped back, following his patterns of movement.

The convenience store was too crowded. She could follow his, and possibly his partner’s, demands and take it to an alleyway where she didn’t have to worry about any casualties or destroying any stores. Raven considered the possibility of her beating them in a fight, and she probably had high chances if his level was next to the other thugs that she handled that day, but her guard couldn’t go down that much.

Mind swimming with possibilities, attempting to remember who he was and what his Quirk was—she had forgotten about her surroundings.

“Hey,” a harried voice quickly said to her right.

She immediately snapped her head to the side. Her throat constricted.

Shinso!

What was he doing?

“What the f*ck—“ the thug muttered.

“Step back from her now, ” the boy demanded immediately. Like the man had become a robot, his eyes glazed over, completely empty as he lost all free will and stepped back to create a wide berth of space between them. Shinso grimaced warily at the weapon in the man’s hands.

“And drop your knife,” he said next.

Before Raven could let out a soft comment about how she didn’t need saving, a flash appeared at the corner of her eye, as quick as lightning.

Her pale hand pushed down over his head.

“Shinso, get down!”

Shinso was just having one of those horrible, no-good, very bad days.

He knew, after years of watching it on the screen back home, that the Sports Festival was going to rear its head soon enough the moment he stepped into U.A. and that the grandiose tournaments were going to be the one way he was going to prove himself. Not only to say that he wasn’t a villain, but that he was so much more than what everyone thought he was. This was his ticket to the Hero Course, the one way he was going to make himself seen in front of those blind eyes that only looked toward kids with flashy Quirks. He was going to prove himself to those bullies from his middle school, to the examiners that only graded kids with physical Quirks, and to the people who didn’t think that he couldn’t do it.

The U.S.J. incident was worrisome, sure, and he did feel panic reach his bones when giant metal doors slid down his classroom, his teacher rushing out to a battle on campus where they took the 1-A kids hostage, but he felt nothing but relief when Nezu said that the Sports Festival was going to resume.

That relief turned into ice upon seeing the paper tacked on the door of Gym Y, stating that a Hero student and their teacher had reserved this one gym for their personal use from now until the Sports Festival.

Gym Y was the one gym that people didn’t use, where he didn’t get leers from his classmates, from other Hero students, and where he was free to let his unexercised body work itself to its prime. Most of it was embarrassment, he admitted. He didn’t like the idea of other stronger, faster, and better people watching him make a fool of himself as he used weights that might’ve been too heavy or practiced punches and kicks he learned off YouTube or the internet.

But now he didn’t even have the opportunity to do all of that in private because a 1-A student had taken it from him again.

Too tired and irritated after a long day in General Studies where they tried to make up its blandness in comparison to Support, Hero, and Business with strenuous projects or extreme essays, he dragged his feet to the nearest convenience store.

Frankly, he was a bit worried about Roth when he learned about U.S.J. Despite how much she insulted him and dunked on his dreams, she was still the first person that had ever saved him, over any Hero, any teacher. But seeing her now, in front of him, he was starting to backtrack on his thoughts.

Her appearance was out of nowhere and her words were even more cryptic. He was too tired to deal with this and wanted nothing more but to go home and lay down for a fat nap.

Shinso’s feet took him unconsciously to the coffee shelves after Roth cut him loose and he was taking his time letting his eyes scan over the many different brands when he saw something from the corner of his eye.

It was Roth, standing where he left her, but with a tall, unknown man standing close to her. Too close, he thought, his heart rate increasing. He was much too old, and far too close to Roth where he could even catch the stiffness of her muscles from here.

His feet moved without thinking and he was at her side in an instant, ready to take on whatever pervert that was bothering her, but the moment he saw the knife, he knew it was much worse.

Shinso’s mouth moved, but all of his words were drowned out by the sound of his eardrum pulsing.

The man dropped his knife, and he thought that they were home free until—

“Get down!” she yelled, immediately pushing him into a crouch, calling his name. The wall behind him exploded, and he thought he was going to die right there. The man who was under his brainwashing Quirk immediately snapped out of the hold. Crumbles of plaster rained down on them, showering the two of them with white dust as the liquids from the store created a waterfall. Screams filled the store as the cashier hurriedly pressed the panic button underneath the counter. Dozens of pairs of feet pounded out the door.

She huddled over him, a black force field creating a large umbrella of black over the two of their figures. The orange-haired man created another set of arms while his dark-haired partner revealed himself, rising above the ground in a murky, swamplike opening.

“You f*cking kid—“ the swamp one called.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” Raven roared, eyes turning pure white as she blasted the two across the store. All of her thoughts of preserving the store went out the window as she caught the sight of two fallen shelves. Her powers picked them up with a grasp of black as she lept over different aisles to get to the other side. She dealt with the brawny one first, forcing two of his arms through the shelf, trapping them, before she created an avalanche of crumpled metal over him, sandwiching him in place. Any struggling was fruitless as she landed the last blow to knock him out for sure. The dark-haired one slunk into the floor, but after Raven sent more shelves over it, her arm swept the ground as he disappeared, realizing that it was too late. Standing upright, her hair whipped around as she attempted to find out where he had gone, only to turn her head to the far corner and find a surrounded Shinso.

He was shaking, crouched on the floor like a surrounded animal in a cage. The villain inched closer and closer, his figure clearly reflected in his eyes. It was obvious that he was toying with him, already caught wind of the Quirk requirements, the one boy with a useless, non-physical Quirk.

Shinso was panicked. His mouth moved to throw out insults left and right, but the older man creepily remained mute while a smile grew on his face.

Raven rushed forward, pumping her arms and legs to quickly cross the store when her ankle was snatched and she fell forward with a loud grunt of pain.

The villain’s arm was pressed deep into his portal, his hand holding an iron-grip on her ankle. The man was stronger than he looked, much more physically strong than she was, from the way that his grasp threatened to bruise or break her ankle. On the dusty floor, she quickly roamed around for something to break the contact.

Shinso’s panic spiked like a strike of lighting. “Let her go!”

He had never thrown a real punch before. Everyone who cornered him in school knew that he would get in trouble with the teachers if he fought back, so they always stood in blissful mischief, hitting him in the back of the head as they passed him in halls, knocking his shoulders while not saying a word.

He had only read up on punches: Keep elbow in. Punch straight and bring it straight back. Keep the opposite hand up to protect your temple. The point of impact is the knuckles. Arm reared back for the punch, he swiftly brought his arm straight out but the moment it made impact on the man’s face, pain raced all the way up his arm, almost like his fist was split in two.

“sh*t…!” He crouched forward, hissing and clutching his arm to his body. None of the books told him that punching would hurt this much! His eyes were screwed shut from the pain.

The man didn’t even look like a breeze had crossed him, only a slight scuff on his cheek told him that he was punched, but the wild grin on his pale face.

Raven didn’t look too impressed either, he realized, quickly glancing at her.

The American soured from her spot on the ground, grimacing from the same thought that the villain vocalized. It was clear that he had gotten punching techniques from books rather than from experience, and it backfired enough to nearly break his fist.

“You call that a punch, kid?”

Shinso’s eyes widened. The man’s jaw dropped when he realized his mistake.

“Stop this now.”

Raven’s ankle was released just as she summoned the fallen knife from the ground, stabbing it into his palm.

Clutching their ears, the man let out a screech of pain that rivaled nails on a chalkboard, rising nearly to heights where they couldn’t even hear properly.

Before the man could make his escape, Raven’s arms stretched out and plunged the entire room into darkness, surrounding them with her Quirk.

Shinso stayed kneeled on the floor, eyes larger than she had ever seen them, roaming the black walls above them and the white outlines.

“You have nowhere to go,” she stated, hovering above the floor.

The man stayed silent like a caged animal, eyes flickering back and forth in panic, noticing that if he spoke his brain would be cornered as well.

Then that smirk threatened to streak from ear to ear. Raven’s outstretched hand faltered. A murky, swamp-like portal bubbled in front of him, and he reached in like a child grasping their favorite toy.

“f*ck—“ Raven roared. “Wait!” He was about to throw himself in and away when the doors were ripped open.

Three heads snapped toward the source.

A flutter of wild black hair, a flash of red, the man’s Quirk was immediately negated, letting the villain crash to the floor.

Like the aftermath of the storm, there was that single beat of calm before everything exploded in energy.

Shinso’s eyes flew wide open, bright and awake at the sight of Eraserhead, grey scarves moving in the windless air. Raven immediately let all of the black around the room return back under her feet. Suddenly he could see again. The convenience store was back to its bright walls and white lights.

“Aizawa-sensei—“ she said, nearly breathless at the sudden arrival of her homeroom teacher.

“Quiet,” he immediately silenced her. As if Shinso was watching a movie, the scarves whipped over to the scampering villain and wrapped around him, moving like snakes, as if he was seeing a ribbon dancer. It slammed the villain’s arms to his chest and prevented all forms of escape. Just like that. Before Shinso could even blink.

His fear was quickly replaced with elation. He felt like he was meeting All Might.

Eraserhead was a hero he used to watch on late-night TV. Eyes burning and red, he used to watch late programs about underground Heroes when his insomnia got too heavy. And now he was here, in the flesh—and only looked over at him once. Asking a quick, “Are you all right?” to Shinso, the standard protocol, looking him up and down to find any injuries before directing him to the police. The General Studies student could only dumbly nod in silence before Aizawa's red-worn eyes scanned the room and immediately landed on the only female in the store. Irritation streaked across the teacher's face.

The man didn’t even break a sweat. If anything, he looked inconvenienced, like he found out that his coffee wasn’t yet done or he had spilled his papers. If there was any form of real emotion, it wasn’t pointed toward the villains, the people terrorizing him and Roth, but those emotions, hidden behind yellow goggles, were pointed at her.

Making sure that the villain was properly apprehended, Aizawa walked over to his student, stepping over broken glass without a single care when his one goal was his Problem Child. It crunched on the ground mercilessly, sounding like pops underneath his soles. On the ground, her arms propped up her body. Purple hair hung down limply over her face after the fight. Purple eyes peered fearlessly up at her teacher.

In the background, other police officers started to fill the room, carefully taking the villains away. One checked up on Shinso and found him to be physically healthy aside from his bruised knuckles and near-sprain. Mentally? That was something he was going to have to deal with himself.

Even when they tried to corral him outside where he saw the news reporters and cameramen already surrounding the store, he lingered in the background. He was a mere backdrop to Raven and Aizawa’s conversation.

“I can’t leave you alone for a single second,” he scolded. She said nothing, only watching him the way someone watched an irritating adult with no fear in her eyes from being caught by her teacher. “I give you one hour of free time and when I thought you were skipping out on training I find out, from a police call, that my student was fighting two villains inside a FamilyMart!”

“He threatened me with a knife first,” Raven said, almost bored, still on the ground. Her neck craned to look at her tall teacher in the face.

She was either stupid or had no fear, Shinso thought.

“I was well within my rights to fight back,” she stated.

Aizawa was picking his fights, Shinso summarized. The man’s shoulders tense, but he knew that yelling at Roth wasn’t going to get him anywhere. Not when she didn’t react or flinch at the sight of him.

“You are going to give your police statements,” he finally said, clearly restrained. “And then you are going to run until I tell you to stop.” He waited for her to say something, to protest, but when he was met with silence, he only sighed, clearly deciding that the battle he wanted to have was useless.

“Let’s go,” he said, reaching out his hand. Raven stood up, ignoring his open palm as she got herself off the ground. Moving carefully, he brushed off the dust and broken glass on her body, sliding back when she flinched from his touch. “Are you physically harmed?”

“No.”

Aizawa hummed under his throat, sounding like a motor. “Good. C'mon, we're already behind schedule.” From his mental scan, he found that she wasn't lying either. Even if she was the source of his current headache, she was capable, he admitted. Walking forward, he found out that Roth wasn't following him.

“Wait.” Raven stood against him.

“What?” His irritated eyes narrowed, his back almost against her.

Then, Shinso felt his heart stop.

Raven pointed to him boredly. “He helped me. I wouldn’t have done that as smoothly without him.”

Aizawa’s eyes snapped over to Shinso, and he felt like a patient on the operating table under the man’s gaze. It was clear that he didn’t know who he was, even if he noticed the U.A. uniform. General students and Hero students were placed at opposite ends.

“Okay,” Aizawa said slowly. “You can bring that up in your police statement.”

“If we’re going to train, bring him along too.”

“What,” Aizawa was so shocked that he deadpanned. The boy felt his heart stop in his chest, head nearly snapping toward Roth.

“You are in no position to—“ Eraserhead attempted to say.

Interrupting him, she continued. “He has potential. Shinso-san came up to save me without a second thought, but he can’t throw a single punch.”

She talked as if she was discussing the weather, not attempting to strike up a deal with the Eraserhead. Aizawa’s eyebrow shot up so far that it was hidden underneath his messy bangs.

Shinso felt his cheeks immediately color in embarrassment, but Raven was impervious to his emotions—or so he thought.

“You said yourself that I’m too reliant on my Quirk,” Raven bartered emotionlessly. “So you want me to get better at my physical abilities, right? Teach me how to throw a punch and let Shinso-san come too.”

Chapter 12: Revive

Chapter Text

Aizawa Shouta had made several assumptions and summarizations about Roth Rachel’s character in the month and a half that she had been a student under him.

One: She was honest.

Terribly so, he considered. If she didn’t want to do something she wouldn’t do it, and if she felt a certain way she would tell her classmates even if it was at the expense of their feelings. Not necessarily a bad thing all things considered, but Roth’s honesty led her classmates to oftentimes be wary of her aside from the group of Midoriya-Uraraka-Iida that tended to take her words in stride and follow her like ducklings.

However, despite being honest, she was not a mean-spirited person. He wouldn’t necessarily say that any of his students were mean or vicious, but there was a difference in the way that Bakugou conducted himself and in the way that Roth conducted herself. Despite never beating around the bush, Roth never went out of her way to overly belittle or mock her classmates.

Two: She cared very little about a lot of things.

She enjoyed reading, but did not care for physical books nor did she throw herself into studying. Roth was strong, yet very rarely did she go all the way during Heroics. She acted like going to U.A. was an obligation despite its less than 1% acceptance rate and dragged her feet almost all the time.

At first, Aizawa considered it was due to her overconfidence, the fact that she knew that she was stronger than the rest of her classmates. He had half a mind to settle this discussion with her one day, to say if she didn’t want to go to U.A. then there would be literal hundreds of thousands of new students who would be more than willing to take her place.

Then he realized that it was not her lack of enthusiasm that was the issue — but rather it was the deep-rooted sadness within her.

He could see it when she stared at the crowds of her classmates, pushed back by her own willingness, but the look of solitude and sorrow was unmistakable.

Three: Roth was hiding something.

That part was already obvious to him, as clear as a spring day. Any type of investigation had led him to dead ends and Sir Nighteye had already cryptically answered any of Aizawa’s calls with riddles and open-ended questions. Aizawa knew that as Pro-Heroes they had a duty to be honest with one another and that Eraserhead had been around villains enough to catch onto lies, and now the green-haired Pro had cunningly wired all of Aizawa’s calls to Bubble Girl who was none the wiser about Roth.

Her past was filled with holes and the more he saw her, the more he looked at Roth Rachel and her impressive Quirk, the more he was led to believe that she was a vigilante in the U.S.A. It was the only rational explanation. It was clear from the way that she moved that she had experience with taking down villains, navigating herself through disasters, and working efficiently.

He disagreed with the U.S.’s way of handling vigilantes, but he knew that the ones that did rise, rose far above any other Hero that managed to go through Hero programs.

If Roth had this type of power, why didn’t she just stay a vigilante in the U.S.? Why go through the trouble of getting her Hero License in Japan if she was on the path to become a Hero in America already? Roth was not the type of person who did what she didn’t want to do, so why be willingly adopted by Sir Nighteye? Why uproot herself and go through the motions she didn’t want to do?

Most importantly, what could’ve happened that forced her to leave the country?

And would that trouble follow her here to U.A.?

The more questions he asked they only flowered into more questions.

Aizawa didn’t know how Roth Rachel of all people managed to talk him into taking another student. These lessons were meant purely so that he could help her hone her powers by the time the Sports Festival came around, and quietly, secretly, were meant for him to survey her for longer. She was an enigma, a child that even he couldn’t read well. He wanted these lessons to be an opportunity for him to understand her better.

However, what he didn’t take into account was that Roth was as stubborn as a bull when she wanted to be.

He knew from the start that she wasn’t ecstatic about these lessons, attempting to talk him out of it by saying that his attempts to “fix her” were in vain and that her instability was a result of her abilities rather than her control of them, but he had been a teacher long enough to tune out teens who wanted to yap in his ear about changing his mind.

Although it was usually about grades or forgotten assignments and not their state of rage, the sentiment still stood.

Aizawa Shouta didn’t know what life choices he made to get here — getting such a hissy cat like Roth under his watch.

Scratch that — he knew exactly what events led up to here. (Thanks, Midnight.)

He watched the two purple-haired students from across the yard, dark eyes narrowing as they did their laps. The Shinsou student that she forced him to pull along was lagging behind and had been since the 5km mark. Although Roth was nowhere near the fastest student in 1-A, she had passed by Shinsou several times, proving that her endurance was legions above his. Expected, he thought, especially since she was a Hero student, Aizawa would be disappointed if she wasn’t more athletic than a General Studies student.

The sun was out and bright today, even if they burned the daylight fuel by going through classes, her scuffle at the convenience store, and giving police reports. It was clear by the waves that beat on the students that it was causing them more trouble than good.

Even though her homeroom teacher threatened her with “running until she dropped,” by the 10km mark, he called her over, reddened black eyes watching her sweating form as she jogged over.

“Today we’re going to be focusing on personal evaluations,” Aizawa coolly stated. “I have a good idea of what your skill set is, but I want to focus more on your own abilities as an individual. Do you know how to spar?”

One lone purple eyebrow raised at him. Slowly, her chest started to ease into a gentler rise and fall after her run.

That was a stupid question, she thought. It was written all over her face. Aizawa clicked his tongue in response.

“No Quirks this time.”

Her head turned to him sharply, almost like he told her to jump off a cliff rather than for a spar.

The entire time they had Hero classes it was strictly meant for using their Quirks and for team-building efforts.

“You’re better than me at hand-to-hand combat,” Raven stated. He didn’t even need to go to the self-defense unit to know that. Although her Quirk was monstrous, her durability was that of an average teenage girl and her speed was lower than most of her classmates.

“I’m your teacher,” he said as she pressed her lips together. “Of course I am. You think that these lessons are meant for me to brag about how good I am?” He began stripping out of his thicker outershirt, leaving him in only his tank top and his sweats as he tied his hair up in a bun. “This isn’t meant to be punishment, Roth, so lose the attitude.” Raven slowly backpedaled into the open door of Gym Y, and Aizawa cast another look at Shinsou before he entered the gym as well.

“You were the one who insisted on teaching Shinsou how to throw a punch in exchange for no complaints,” he drawled. “So hold up your end of the agreement, Roth.” They got on the mats. “Get ready.”

Raven slowly settled into the stance Robin taught her, her eyes never leaving his figure. Slowly, across him, Raven’s eyes darkened. The air of anticipation surrounded them, as thick and curling as a fog. Even as she stood still, her heart began to pound, almost appearing like drums in her ears.

Slowly, the skin over her knuckles stretched.

She inhaled.

Exhale. Closing her eyes, she imagined a different room, white walls, bright lights.

“Start!”

Aizawa charged forward.

. . .

When she went for the strike, she felt power rise underneath her fingertips.

“Titans, go!” Robin’s voice screamed across the distance, echoing through the empty space, dropping his heaviest bombs across the demon’s feet.

The world was desolate. The smell of gasoline and smoke brushed against their lungs.

Against a red sky, Starfire soared across the sea of lava. Her hands channeled Raven’s power. A streak of black hit Trigon head-on, followed by acid green blasts that were thrown one after another, clouds of dust picking up as she blew through the roof of the Titan Tower.

A stream of bright blue jets entered not a second later, a large boom resonating through Jump City as the sound echoed through the deserted city. Beast Boy let out a caw, dropping Cyborg into the scene and immediately shifting back from velociraptor form.

Sparks of black streaked across his cheeks and he swatted away at them with a yelp, sighing only when they settled.

“Ah!” he called tiredly, nearly slumping over. “It’s getting hot in here! I think my brain is gonna be microwaved!” he yelled through the sounds of the fight Cyborg and Starfire carried on their shoulders, streaks of irritation crossing Trigon’s face. The ground rocked and trembled as the alien managed to knock the demon out of his seat.

Their eardrums nearly popped at the sound of his roar. “You sure it’s safe to use Raven’s powers like this?” Robin landed on the small patch of rock beside his.

Trigon’s arm swept over the area in a large arc, nearly slapping Cyborg like a fly before Starfire flew into the scene and picked him up at the speed of light. She dropped the larger man on the same rock as she hovered above them.

“I have used Raven’s power once before,” Starfire said, and Beast Boy’s eyes widened at the sight of sweat dripping down her temples. “They are controlled by emotions. The more we feel, the more energy is released.”

“In other words,” Cyborg said, a scowl settling on his lips. “Get angry!” Trigon stood tall over them.

“I’m already angry,” Robin muttered.

The four members reached out to each other. The second their hands met, their bodies were lit with a pure white as a circle of black etched across their feet.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” the Titans called.

Aizawa immediately turned his head, dodging the quick attack that would’ve otherwise struck his nose and knocked him bloody. A growl of irritation left Roth’s lips, as she retracted her hand and started her next flurry of strikes.

So someone did teach her how to fight . Roth had rarely used her hand-to-hand combat skills against her peers in a fight before, and he was under the impression that she didn’t know how. but now he could see how wrong he was — because not only did she know how to physically fight, someone taught her how to use Wing Chun.

Her open-palm style was strong, but years from being polished. Against his own attacks, she barely had time to right herself and remember the proper stances and arm positions so that her own wrists didn’t break when striking him, but she didn’t flinch as he switched up his own fighting style with MMA, kickboxing, and then even slipping into street-fighting styles. Raven flowed with the changes, easily adjusting her bodies as she met up with the demands he threw at her.

She had fought against these styles before.

Wing Chun was a strange choice for a teen girl like her, he noticed. Not only did it require crazy speed and strength, two things she lacked, but Roth needed great accuracy in order to hit his weak spots as well.

But five minutes into her spar and as his eyes began to become blurry after making sure that she didn’t activate her Quirk, he realized that this suited her well.

The person who taught her knew her better than he did.

Raven brought her hand up behind his neck as he ducked, using the momentum to barely push his head down and meet her knee before he broke her hold, grabbing her wrist and flipping her over his shoulder. She fell expertly, rolling before getting back up and running back at him.

Her Quirk allowed her to thrive in far-range attacks, and Wing Chun was a good retaliation if the enemy managed to get close to her. The quick strikes went for the weak points, quickly disarming her opponent if she managed to get a single solid hit in, finishing the fight quickly. She was also smaller than some of her peers, and this style was a good option for people with physical disadvantages. It made a good defense, forcing her enemy an arm’s width away if they did get in a close-combat fight with her, and with her Quirk, it would make a deadly combo.

However, it was clear that she still had a lot of learning to do.

This meant that either she left her lessons with her teacher early, or her teacher left her before they could finish their lessons.

Aizawa huffed irritably as his hair fell out of his bun, watching the tiring girl across from him.

But she was only fifteen, he thought and was a kid in the foster system.

Who taught her how to fight? Who would take an orphan and teach them like this?

With a desperate grunt of irritation, Raven charged again.

She felt the burn of the exercise pump through her veins, the irritation from their fight bleeding through her emotions.

With their hands clasped, the Titans sent a black blast toward their worst enemy.

Even with worlds apart, Raven felt her power being pulled on, she felt the anger of her teammates shake her to the core, all unbeknownst to the girl as she quickened her flurry of strikes and hits toward her homeroom teacher.

Breathing like a bull, her hits became sloppy, desperation radiating off every inch of her until he could feel it too.

Aizawa’s eyebrows knit, arm reaching out — not to fight back but to grab her.

Trigon’s roars of pain reverbing across the world, shaking the planet like an earthquake, sending echoes deep into their ears. Beast Boy fell to the ground in pain, his hands clutching his ears.

“Roth, stop,” he commanded. It was as if he wasn’t even in front of her — his words were lost in her ears.

Raven reached out once more for the kick now that he was slowing. With one leg bent and raised, she went for the strike. Aizawa extinguished her visions of success. He grabbed her free leg and pulled himself forward, striking her in the chest. She fell to the mat below immediately, and he reached out to place his forearm on her neck, signaling the fight was over.

And then, when the Titans slumped over — they heard his bellow of laughter. Starfire let out a sob when the dust cleared.

“Rah!” Raven reached out to slam her palm against her teacher’s face, only to be stopped by his quick hand.

“Roth, stop!” he immediately cried, clutching her hand tighter, bringing it to his chest. He hung over her, shadowing her from the light above. “You’re going to hurt yours — “

They didn’t even leave a mark on Trigon.

“Get off me!” she yelled, she hooked her leg over his waist and flipped, bringing his unassuming body into a roll, turning the tides. Before Aizawa could speak, she hovered her grey hand inches away from his face. They sat like that for a while. Raven panted like a dog over him, her scowl digging into her face as sweat from the fight dripped down the side of her face. Aizawa’s own emotions calmed — what was that? he thought. For a second, he felt scared, desperate , despite having no reason to and having no trigger that caused those emotions.

He looked at his student and carefully raised his arms where she could see them. Aizawa schooled his expression into further neutrality despite feeling anything but. He had to show her that he wasn’t here to hurt her.

Seconds passed, and reality finally hit Raven. She scrambled off of him, dazed and confused as her legs took her in restless circles around the mat.

She didn't dare look at her teacher's face. Instead, she shook by herself.

What’s wrong with me? She thought, staring at her hands. What happened just now? She felt someone pull on her powers, pumping their anger, fear, and worry into her body. Watching tendrils of black steadily raise the workout equipment around the room, she shut down. She banished all signs of her fear and anxiety in a second. Why did she keep on having episodes and fits of anger?

When Trigon sapped at her powers and sent her tumbling here — ripping her away from the people she loved, did it really cause her control to go haywire? Did it force her back into square one? She had been normal before, controlled. And then Trigon, the interdimensional travel, and then USJ, and suddenly her anger had become a ghost over her, controlling her like a puppet.

Was that — the Titans? Raising a pale hand, she covered her mouth, curling into herself. No, that would mean they would be fighting Trigon and she wanted anything but that.

She had gone on her knees to beg her father to spare them for a reason — and only for them to chase her — like idiots. Like fools. They were going to die.

Aizawa had been around enough trauma to recognize when someone was about to have a panic attack. From her shallow breaths to her trembling body, his eyes flew wide in panic and concern.

Trying to keep his steps loud but slow, he came to her side, carefully kneeling so he was below her, trying to remove any threat as possible.

“Hey,” he spoke calmly, smoothly. “Concentrate on your breathing,” he schooled. He was prepared to walk her through the process, get her to come down from the cliff that her emotions dangled her off of, but before his eyes, quicker than any other case he had ever seen, Raven calmed down.

No, she didn’t calm down, he realized, watching her with wide eyes. She completely erased all signs of her panic attack the moment that he came to her.

However, looking deeper into her eyes, he saw the signs of restlessness, he caught the slight tremble of her body.

Why was she trying to push it down instead of letting it ride out?

“I’m sorry,” he apologized genuinely, and Raven realized that too, watching him from the side of her eye like one would with a predator. “U.S.J. just happened and I pushed you in a situation that bothered you, but it’s over now and I won’t fight you anymore for the rest of today. If you tell me what’s wrong I promise not to do it again.” His black eyes met her paling purple ones, growing shiny with a sheen of tears.

“I’m okay.” Her voice was dead. Her head dropped, watching her feet. Purple hair fell over her, shading her face from his view. “May I be excused?”

“Roth…” He carefully rose. Watching her carefully, he scanned his brain for anything that could help, anything that would help him uncover the puzzle that was Roth Rachel.

“My powers are controlled by my emotions—” Raven said, voice heavily restrained.

His eyes flew open in realization then let them flutter closed as his heartbeat lulled back to normal.

“Roth,” he spoke again, soft and careful. He was on a minefield. “I put you in a scary situation and the way you reacted was natural,” he started to say. “I was being irrational forcing you into these spars, but it’s normal to feel things like anger and fear — “

“I can't get angry,” she spat out. Her eyes bore into the wall, almost willing it to burn with the way acid came from her words.

He sighed. “Roth, that’s not logically possible.”

“It’s true for me.”

“It’s not healthy to —”

“I said I can't get angry!” she finally yelled. Aizawa easily let her tantrum ride over his shoulder.

“Roth, I understand that your Quirk is set off by your emotions,” he attempted to say. “But this isn’t healthy. Panic attacks are daunting, but they’re normal. You should let them ride out naturally instead of bottling them up and stomping them down.”

“I’m sorry, Aizawa-sensei,” she said. There was something in her voice holding her back. “But you don’t understand anything at all about me.”

He didn’t even know her name.

“I’m excusing myself for the day,” she quickly stated, grabbing her gym bag and leaving out the door.

He sighed heavily. “I don’t understand, that’s correct,” he confirmed. She had one foot out the door. “But let your anger understand instead. It seems to me that you’re scared to show negative emotions, but I can tell you — not as your teacher or as a Pro, but as someone who went through the wringer in life, your anger — ”

Trigon swept his gigantic arm over the pool of lava.

“Is needed. Because at the end of the day your anger is the one who cares the most about you .”

The light of the day outside shone into the gym like white beams, blocking out any sight of the outside world. She was silhouetted to him.

“...I’ll see you tomorrow, Aizawa-sensei.”

Screams ripped through the air, Beast Boy’s volume rising as the ground came nearer. In a quick flash of green, he rolled into the ground as a cat, the flexible limbs of the feline catching his fall as he hit the soil limbs-first.

Trigon knocked them like the “insolent ants” they were, easily bracing through their combined attack with Raven’s powers, grinning when he realized that his daughter was brave enough to leave them with a parting gift. He mused as the thought of Raven having enough balls to try and defy him in her last moments, acting like her efforts were a cute attempt after she had begged him to spare the lives of her friends.

He loved it when his children showed their streaks of rebellion — that was his power and anger thrumming through their veins after all. It made it all the better when their attempts were in vain.

The Titan landed in a large clearing, and standing up and observing the wide circle and metal frames around them, Cyborg realized that they were in what was left of the Jump City Library, a wide-open arc with empty shelves and pillars to the sky.

He stood up with a huff, cranking his metal arm.

“Looks like we weren’t angry enough,” he muttered, eyes sweeping the area to see if his teammates were injured.

“Of all the places to land,” Beast Boy groaned, turning back into his human form, “it had to be here.”

“Please,” Starfire said softly, not a scratch on her due to her alien durability. Robin was already up on his feet and attempting to climb out of the building. “I wish to leave.” This was the last spot that they had sent Raven — where she had last seen her best friend.

“And go where?” Cyborg snapped back almost irritably. “The whole world is toast and the only person who knows what to do is — “ His jaw closed shut. He twisted his head, dropping his arms as the reality of the word came to him. He pressed his lips together. “...We can really use her help right now.”

Robin climbed up the stone steps that led to nowhere, looking down at the cavern below. Gravity became several times heavier over his head.

“I know what I saw… so I can’t believe it…. Raven isn’t really gone. We have to get to Titan Tower. No matter what it takes.”

“But…” Beast Boy pulled his legs up to his chest. “How...? Who’s going to help us now?”

“Well,” a new voice spoke up. All four of them snapped their heads toward the source, their hearts jumping out of their chest. “You can always start with, ‘Please.’”

“Kid,” Aizawa finally spoke up, catching the attention of the panting indigo-haired boy standing at guard. “Is Roth your friend?” Shinsou stiffened, almost looking ready to bolt at the gym entrance. “Anything you know would be a lot of help,” Aizawa assured. It had been a while since she left to go back and change in the locker rooms.

The boy sighed deeply, walking forward and scratching the back of his neck. “She was the one that did all the damage to U.S.J., right?” It was rhetorical, so Aizawa didn’t answer. “Damn…” He dropped his arm and looked up, meeting his gaze with Aizawa. “She saved me once during the Entrance Exam, but other than that, we barely know each other.” The homeroom teacher raised a slow eyebrow.

If they didn’t know each other, if they weren’t even friends, why did she fight so hard for him to join her? Was it because she was uncomfortable about Aizawa? She didn’t want to be alone? He was an adult man and maybe her problem stemmed there.

“That’s it?” he asked incredulously.

“I, uh.” Those nervous ticks appeared again. “I offered to bike her home and we ended up having an argument. I think she’s sensitive about Quirks or the Quirkless because she doesn’t think the same.”

“‘Think the same’?” he repeated, brows furrowing.

Shinsou straightened up. “You know… like… the world favors strong Quirks. She said something about how Quirks never mattered and we argued about that. I think — um — I think this is really personal, but I think she had a Quirkless friend who died or something…” his voice became mute toward the end.

“Excuse me?” Aizawa’s volume was almost as silent.

“Like she talked about how strong her Quirkless friend was, but she used all past tense to refer to him, so I assume that he’s…” He raised his shoulder hopelessly, a streak of pain decorating his face. “Dead?”

Aizawa was completely silent, deep in thought as he stared at the open door. There was no telling what he was thinking.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, he sighed and nodded to himself.

“Thank you. Shinsou Hitoshi from General Education, right?” he finally exhaled. “Look. I know that Roth brought you here to learn how to fight — “ He perked up. “But I’m going to be honest, and I don’t think I can take on another student right now.” He reached into his pockets and held out a slip of paper. “I wrote out a typical meal plan for a teen boy planning on training, and I added some time slots for cardio or regular exercise and muscle building. I can’t — “

“Wait!” Shinso reached out and snatched the paper out of Aizawa’s hands and cradled it to his chest, protecting it like it was the most precious thing in his world. “I — I don’t have a strong Quirk, but I’ve always wanted to be a Hero.”

The homeroom teacher sighed and reached for his eyedrops. He didn’t want to stomp on another kid’s dreams, but he really couldn’t handle two students: one a ticking time bomb and another unknown. “Listen, kid — “

“I just want a fighting chance,” Shinsou declared. The wind carried his voice. “You don’t have to teach me or anything, but, um, if you’re teaching Roth how to physically fight, I can just sit on the sidelines and watch? Just until the Sports Festival. I’d do anything.” There was a breath of silence between them before he continued. “Please?”

All of the Titans stood up as all of the other Titan Teams appeared before them. Titans East, Titans North, Titans West, Titans South, and all of the Honorary Titans appeared.

Bumblebee stepped out of the final portal and Herald closed it up with another blow from the Horn of Gabriel.

She shrugged on her jacket and smiled at the broken and beaten Titan team before her.

“Sorry we’re late.”

“Please let me have a fighting chance,” Shinsou begged.

On cue, every Titan in the area lifted up their beeping Communicators.

Raven wasn’t expecting to see Shinsou again when she left campus but donned in her grey uniform with her large gym bag beside her, she was easy to see on the empty courtyard. Her feet led her past the gates with purpose, eyes intentionally distracted even when Shinsou appeared on his bike.

Like he was a fly on the wall, she kept on going.

“The trains are stalling right now because everyone’s going home from work,” Shinsou spoke beside her as she walked. Raven kept her eyes peering at her phone, walking quickly but without purpose. “Do you need a ride back to your condo?”

“No,” she said curtly, not even giving him a glance up from her phone. “I don’t need one.”

“I didn’t need your pity either,” Shinsou snapped, pedaling at a snail’s pace to keep up with her stride. That made her look up from her phone, finally dropping it back into her pocket. “But I took up your offer anyway.” She instantly knew he was talking about dragging him along to the training.

“I don’t care about you enough to pity you,” she said.

Ouch, the boy thought, wincing inwardly. He never recalled her being exceptionally rude , but she always was blunt. Roth must’ve been in a worse mood than he thought.

He didn’t know what happened between her and her teacher, but he knew that she didn’t want to be there and was dragging her feet.

“So it wasn’t pity. I was repaying you for saving me from the paparazzi a while back,” Raven stated without stopping. Her head was bent over her phone, but she had been staring at the same screen for minutes on end.

Her skill crawled and her power was drained like a leaky tap. She didn’t know what was coming over her, this feeling of anger and fear, but she had to get out of there fast. Was it her friends back home? She knew that different dimensions moved at different times, but her power called to her like a staticy phone, distant, empty, and unclear.

“That was payment for calling me a cab,” Shinsou muttered.

“And that was payment for biking me back home.” Finally having enough, she dropped her phone back into her pocket and stared up at him dully. He towered over her 165cm form, but on his bike she almost had to crane her neck.

“I thought I said that the bike ride was for saving me during the Entrance Exam.” He sighed deeply.

"Then it's reparations for taking Gym Y. You were bitching about that, weren't you?"

His expression tensed and his lip pressed together tighter, but he continued forward. “Look. You did something for me I never thought you would. What do I have to do to pay you back?”

At this point, it was less about being on equal terms and more about his own pride, Raven thought bitterly, and she didn’t want to deal with anyone’s dirty pride other than her own.

“What are you going to do if I say no?” Her eyes fell to the ground and then back up at him. Two pairs of purple eyes met. “Brainwash me?”

The bike stopped so suddenly it skidded even as it went a mile an hour. Raven stood tall and straight with her hands in her pockets, watching mutely as the transportation wobbled dangerously and Shinsou struggled to balance himself.

He finally sat still and exhaled.

“Everyone always thinks that,” he finally said, a fake smile on his lips. It creeped her out. It creeped her out even more than when he got angry with her because the air was suddenly filled with solitude and sorrow.

“‘Sounds villainous, Shinsou,’” he mocked. “‘You’re such a bad guy with your Quirk, Shinsou.’”

“What the hell are you on about now?” Raven finally snapped.

“Brainwash you?” he retorted before shaking his head irritably. “I’m used to people always on edge — asking me sh*t like that because my Quirk is meant for evil. Looks like I had too high of expectations when I thought that someone with a Quirkless friend wouldn’t discriminate based on Quirks. But that’s what I get for putting my hopes into the Hero Course’s Golden Girl.”

“You pity yourself too much," she stated, but before he could stand up for himself, she cut him off. "...What kind of Quirk do you think I have?” she finally asked. Raven was sure that Yaoyorozu was the Golden Girl of the class, but whatever. That wasn’t the response he was expecting, and he opened and closed his mouth like a fish before furrowing his eyebrows. “Why would I give a sh*t if you have a Brainwashing Quirk?”

“...You’re a telekinesis user,” he answered hesitantly. “I saw you during the Entrance Exams.”

“...Idiot, my Quirk is Darkness Manipulation.” Her dull eyes bore into him like she thought he was the dumbest person she saw.

Not technically true, but she bet that if she said: “Half-Demon Lineage” that would sound even worse.

“I — “ He blinked once. Twice. The revelation fell over him like a bucket of cold water. “You have a villainous Quirk.”

“Wow, you finally got that spelled out for you, huh?” She raised one lone eyebrow.

“Like me.”

“With a brain like that, it’s a wonder you got into GenEd.” Maybe Raven was spending too much time sitting behind Bakugou, but she deserved this catharsis.

This entire time Shinsou thought that she had one of the glorious Quirks, the kind that granted instant popularity and fame, but standing here atop of his bike, watching as she stood on the empty street, he realized how much she looked just like him. Their features were completely different, as were their builds, but their hair color was similar and they had the same eye colors. Cars rode by behind her, picking up the stands of her hair in their wake, coming and going just as fast. The orange sky kissed the grey of her skin and lit up the red of her tie.

She had a strong Quirk, was stronger than him, but the stigma still fell over both of their heads.

They were on the same boat.

“...Sorry,” he finally blurted out, unsure of what to say.

“Whatever.” She turned to walk again.

Raven only heard the sound of the bike wheels on the concrete and the chain turning. “Look — sorry, can we start over?”

She sighed deeply, more exhausted with this conversation than with her walk. “There’s nothing to start over. We barely even know each other.”

“...Right.” He pulled the bike in front of her and forced her to stop. Unlike the first time they met, she wasn’t that high-headed figure that burned into his brain anymore. She slouched, and her figure was small. Raven’s eyes were a murky brown underneath the setting sun.

“But let me try anyway.” He held out his hand gently. “Shinsou Hitoshi. Quirk: Brainwashing. I went to Nabu Middle school. Please let me give you a ride back home — as payment for asking your teacher to give me lessons.”

Raven expelled all of the air from her lungs. Head turned to the side, she knew he was genuine without looking at him, and yet that feeling melted around her chest before she could stop it. Did she have any other choice? “Roth Rachel. Darkness Manipulation. I was homeschooled.”

“I don’t know how long it might take for your short legs to walk yourself all the way home — “ Her brow twitched at the insult. “So let me give you a ride. As a sign of peace.” Inclining his head, he encouraged her to recreate their first meeting and pulled down the kickstands. Seeing no other option, or rather no reason to say no, she climbed over the rail and stood the pegs. Planting her hands on both of his shoulders, they were the picture, the echo of the first day of school a month ago.

He went off with a slow start and picked the conversation up again. “You’re lucky. I got a sh*tload of crap for having a Quirk like mine. Middle School was a jungle.” Purple eyes turned to the side and regarded her slowly. “At least you didn’t have to deal with people like that.”

“Not true,” Raven eventually replied. “People gave me sh*t all the time.” She thought of Terra, Mother Mae-Eye, and Jinx, calling her things like a witch, gloomy, or depressing. “I beat them all up though.”

He snorted. “Yeah? Maybe with a delinquent attitude like yours, it was justified.” His words were biting, but his tone was mischievous. When he turned to face her at the red light, there was a twinkle in his eye and a smirk on his lips.

Raven scoffed but kept the air just as light. “You’re just saying that because you couldn’t do the same.” She already gave him a piece of her mind about his physical prowess when they first talked, and she didn’t feel the need to say it again. With her hands steadily on his shoulders, she let out a tiny hum when she realized his shoulders were a bit broader and stronger, unlike the skinny and scrawny feeling of his bones underneath her fingers like the last time. He had been working out, at least a little bit, she realized.

“Yeah… You were right last time. That I needed to do some working out.” He ran a hand through his shaggy hair. He didn’t like to admit that he was wrong like the other guy, but he felt that through his hero journey he was going to be learning a lot of humility. Might as well start now.

“Of course I was.” Who did he take her for? A chuckle escaped his lips at her response. “It was stupid of you to assume otherwise.”

“Well, I also assumed that you weren’t the type to go out of your way to do things for others.” She avoided his eyes. “So I was shocked when you asked Aizawa-sensei to drag me along. I’m thankful,” he eventually finished off with, his words drifting off.

Then, after several beats of silence, her cheeks colored.

“It’s whatever,” she mumbled into the roaring wind. “I’m more surprised that Aizawa-sensei let you stay. I just said it on a whim.”

He raised one brow so far up it hit his forehead. “You got my hopes up...on a whim?”

She shrugged. “I can’t control Aizawa-sensei.”

They fell quiet when he checked the GPS again and turned the bike around a more secluded corner. The main road was experiencing some villain vs. hero battle up above that was blocking traffic.

Then, he brought up the next thing on his mind: her impassive face when she challenged her teacher. She wasn’t worried about Aizawa in the slightest, nor did she fear any repercussions.

“Do you...care about your teachers?” He’d never seen anyone openly dismiss their authority figures before.

“I do,” she stated, but she didn’t insist on it.

“Some people call him scary,” he said, listing off the gossip that he heard around U.A. His voice took a low mutter. Eraserhead was still his hero, and he assumed that this was taking some of the wool out of his eyes. “‘Cause he expelled a bunch of students and even other teacher’s students. They also say that he works his students to the bone. Whenever I see you Hero Course kids during lunch period, you all look like death warmed over.”

“I guess,” Raven shrugged. “He’s strict but it doesn’t really bother me.”

“He’s your teacher,” Shinsou deadpanned.

“And?” Raven treated everyone with the same bare minimum lest they did something that told her otherwise.

The purple-haired boy sighed deeply and continued pedaling. Forget it, he thought. It was probably a cultural thing. People said that no one was as anal about seniority as the Japanese, and here he could see that this American couldn’t care less.

But for all of her socializing, Raven could sense that she did something wrong or stepped a toe out of line. Her answer dissatisfied Shinsou, and instead of poking and prodding at it further, she shifted the subject.

“So?” she asked. “Did he agree to let you stay after I left?”

If he was surprised that she was talking about him, he didn’t show it. “He said I could stick around but he’s mostly going to be teaching you. He gave me an exercise and meal regimen though.” The boy leaned back on his seat when he kicked down the stands at a stop sign, “He said that… if I do a good job during the Sports Festival he might take me in as a full-time student.”

“Don’t screw it up,” Raven said without skipping a beat, but there was a tone of amusem*nt in her words. When he looked at her, she smirked back at him.

The streets were still unfamiliar to her, but she could tell from the height of the nearest skyscrapers that she was getting closer to her condo.

“Easy for you to say, not everyone slung villains in the streets of America for fun,” he said dully.

“...What?” That made her become as tense as a guitar string behind him. The bike nearly veered to the left when he turned and saw her face, wobbling only for a second before righting itself again. Did he somehow figure it out? She only ever dropped hints around Midoriya, Iida, or Uraraka, but she never outright said it, nor did she think they figured it out completely.

She was completely serious.

“I was just joking,” he immediately blurted out. Her convo was in view now.

“So was I,” Raven said back, but neither of them believed it.

“Oh my god.” Shinsou threaded his fingers through his hair. “That makes so much sense!” He let out a humorless chuckle. “Your scores during the Entrance Exam, your reaction to getting mugged at the FamilyMart…”

“It’s not like vigilantism is illegal in America,” she defended.

“Yeah, but it’s so dangerous, only crazy people take the risk!” Shinsou said, screeching his tires as he stopped in front of her condo building. “You’re like what? Fifteen? Sixteen?”

Raven stepped off and crossed her arms slowly. “...Fifteen,” she admitted. Unsure of why, she even gave him the date of her birthday.

“Why?” Shinsou said. “You’re younger than me! That’s insane.” He was scolding her, she realized, worried for her safety when he thought that she did this for the fun of it.

“Because, Shinsou-san,” she said coldly. Her back was to him.

On the other side of Musutafu, Aizawa finally started to walk back home.

Sir Nighteye broke several traffic laws trying to get back home after he was notified that his adoptive daughter was in another fight.

Despite being much shorter than him, Shinsou felt as if her aura towered over him. Her grey uniform was freshly pressed despite the scuffle she had in them and her hair had flattened down to perfection again.

“I can’t wait around for other people to save me.”

With a new plan set in place, the reunited Titans nodded. Everyone turned to their black-haired leader.

“I save myself.”

Aizawa let out a deep exhale the moment he headed out of U.A., pausing just for a moment to take in the orange rays of the sun and watch the setting sky before he ripped his gaze away, putting eye drops into his drying scleras.

Today was...unexpected, he supposed. When he woke up hoping to make one step forward with Roth, he only made ten steps back, starling her, forcing her into a panic attack. Not to forget the fight she had in the convenience store.

Despite just being thirty, he felt fifty already, and he was sure that Present Mic was cackling somewhere about his old-man soul.

As he prepared to walk back home, he slowly recounted the events of the day.

He still needed to grade some papers, finalize the next Hero Course activity, and then he could take a three-hour nap before his Underground work began at three in the morning.

Nap for an hour and then go to school. Go back to bed then do it again.

It was tiring, and it sure wore down on him like an eraser, but this was the life he chose, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Then, he reflected on the FamilyMart fight, the fact that Roth had no fear in the face of her opponent, and then he thought of the moment he ran up to her. No matter how he thought about it, the result was still the same.

He canceled both of their Quirks then, but at that moment, Roth’s remained for several seconds too long.

Aizawa stopped his walk and grumbled to himself.

He was building up another headache.

Pulling out his phone, he needed to talk to Sir Nighteye no matter what.

“Give me your phone,” Shinsou suddenly demanded, holding out his hand. The boy was standing firm in front of her complex.

“Excuse me?” Raven blurted out. Her expression was blank but her lips were twisting into a pout and her brows were furrowed anyway.

“You’re way too crazy to be trusted on your own,” Shinsou joked, but even she knew that he didn’t mean it. if he wanted to see crazy, she'd be glad to introduce him to Harley Quinn. His hand waved in front of her face. “Is this just how it is in America?”

“Do you want to die?” she said back.

“I’ll give you a ride every day from school,” he said. “You know — to supervise you.” A sly grin was growing on his face anyway, telling her that he was milking this whole situation dry and was teasing her. They both knew that she was level-headed but this new revelation threw a wrench into their dynamic. Or maybe it threw a piece of dynamite into their dynamic and he was a pyromaniac.

“You look tired as hell today, what makes you think you could do it regularly?” She looked him up and down.

“Aizawa-sensei said to do an hour of cardio on the training regimen anyway.”

“So you’re just using me to advance your own goals?” She raised an eyebrow.

“If that’s how you want to think of it.” His hand continued to wave. “Are you going to give me your phone number or not?”

Muttering softly to herself, she held out her phone and waited for him to pull his out. Quickly, they bumped their phones against each other and paused for the chime to ring before looking down at his contact info.

Shinsou opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the front doors of the lobby slamming open.

“Raven?!” Sir Nighteye was frazzled, his hair nearly unkempt with his glasses skewed on his face. His loafers scraped against the polished stone steps. “Why did my insurance company tell me that you got in a fight in a FamilyMart?!”

Sighing deeply, Raven sighed and turned to the boy. With one lone wave, she turned away. “See you.”

The rest was a blur as she stepped into the elevator with Sir Nighteye with his nagging and worrying chatter going in through one ear and out the other. He went from checking her for injuries, scolding her, telling her he was glad she was alright, and then back to nagging her.

Looking down at her phone against all this background noise, she saw three dots appear beside Shinsou’s name.

Shinsou Hitoshi: I’ll wait for you outside of the girl’s locker room tomorrow and then we can head out together.

You: K.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Wow. Such a conversationalist.

You: Do you want me to give you a whole paragraph of my gratitude?

Shinsou Hitoshi: No. I would know you’re being fake anyway. :P

An invite for a pool game suddenly appeared on her phone.

Let’s play 8 ball! the message read.

You: I don’t know how to play pool.

Shinsou Hitoshi: Lame. Fine then.

The image of a chessboard appeared on her phone, accompanying it with the cute little jingle of her ringtone.

Shinsou Hitoshi: You know how to play chess? You seem like the dorky type.

Let’s play chess! This message read.

Smiling to herself for the first time today, a warm feeling bloomed in her chest as her finger hovered over the play button.

Chapter 13: Future

Chapter Text

Standing before the tall, looming doors of U.A., she felt she was as miniscule as an ant.

Dropping her sight down to the scuff of her shoes, Raven listened with half a mind as the school’s speakers played out once again.

“Roth Rachel, please report to the principal’s office. Roth Rachel, please…”

She felt as if she had just taken a puff of smoke.

Releasing a breath, Raven took a single step forward.

Beast Boy’s steps were hesitant, cautious as he stared at the large group before him, large green eyes gleaming.

Even when Jump City became a wasteland, burning with red skies and ash in the air, Beast Boy still was the light. Taking a running start, he nearly threw himself into Herald’s arms as a smile stretched across his face.

“Herald!” He gasped excitedly, waving his arms like a hummingbird.

“Um, nice to see you again too.”

The poor man groaned even as Beast Boy easily shifted into a housecat to climb on the man like a post, turning back into a human the moment he touched the ground again. He zipped closer to the Temporary Titans, the team he led against the Brotherhood of Evil. His smile was still 1000 kilowatts against the black sun. “Jericho!” The polite blond nodded at him once. “Pantha!”

She grunted once in his direction.

“Más y Menos!” Beast Boy looked down, beaming at them.

“Hola!” They said in unison. A blur in blue easily passed him.

“Bumblebee…!” Cyborg ran past the crowd. His arms opened then fell. “You managed to avoid the apocalypse.”

“Of course,” she replied easily, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. “Who do you take us for?”

“You are all right?” Starfire asked, eyes wide as she scanned the growing crowd of people.

“We’re glad you’re okay.” Robin walked up, lifting up a fist to bump Kid Flash’s and Aqualad’s. He looked at everyone, admiring their shining supersuits under the glow of the red sky, and felt their presence pushed along the careful wind. “All of you.”

“Well…” Aqualad gave him a nervous smile. “I don’t know about ‘okay’ but we’re all physically fine.”

Robin closed his eyes with a deep sigh. “That seems like even that is a miracle.”

“Yeah.” The handsome boy’s smile became even more strained as he looked at Robin. “With the ocean gone… Sorry… I don’t know how much help I’ll be in the upcoming fight.” That seemed to especially hurt the black-haired teen. Not only was he powerless, but he was a protector of the ocean.

“This apocalypse has taken a toll on everyone’s power,” Killowatt stated easily.

“You say that,” Hot Spot spoke up. “But I’ve only gotten stronger… even if the situation...isn’t so good.” Flares appeared around him, showing off his anger.

“You are here,” Starfire said to the three of them. “That is enough help.”

“You guys look like you were beaten to the f*cking ground,” Jinx commented, looking them up and down.

“Jinx!” Her boyfriend, Kid Flash hissed.

“What?” She shrugged even when he tugged on her sleeve. “I’m just telling the truth…”

“We’re just lucky to make it out of this alive,” Kid Flash assured, nervously turning his head back and forth.

“But — How?” Beast Boy owlishly blinked at them.

Everyone else around them was stone and ash, broken and cracked. The next words came out like an echo.

“Raven sent us an alert on our Communicators before this place went to hell — “ Bumblebee answered. Staring down at them, her lips twisted into a frown. Against the fires that surrounded them, her skin glowed, flickering between the bright orange and red. “She barely gave us five minutes to survive. You’re lucky Herald worked so fast — “ The boy nodded behind her. “We all managed to hop into his portal into his Limbo and stayed there until everything calmed down.” The edges of her lips dropped even more in displeasure. “Next time an extra warning would be nice.”

“Bumblebee,” Herald finally spoke. His trumpet stayed firmly in his grasp. “There won’t be a next time.”

“Sorry,” Cyborg sighed. “We were kinda preoccupied.”

“So preoccupied that you didn’t even think to call on us?” Bumblebee snapped back.

“Hey, listen — “ Cyborg attempted to say, but Starfire stepped in between them. Normally, she found their bickering light and cute, much like the old married couples she saw along the park, and daydreamed that it would soon be her and Robin, but even now she couldn’t entertain that thought.

“We didn’t even know that Raven contacted you all,” Robin answered. “But I’m glad she did.” He looked at all of the Titans, standing against them as they created a wall, growing closer with each step.

Some Titans stepped closer, some of the quieter ones lingered behind, but the pride and fondness in Robin’s eyes weren’t mistaken. This was what he lived and died and breathed for.

“So?” Jinx nodded. “What the hell’s going on?”

All of the original Titans became stony and serious.

“What are we supposed to do next?” Placing a hand on her hip, Jinx stared the Teen Titans down. “Or are you going to leave us in the dark again?”

The pressure in his chest didn’t elevate.

“You don’t have to do this,” Robin suddenly said, voice echoing throughout Jump City. This needed to be said. Before he could rally everyone, he had to be a leader. Everyone turned to him with surprise, muted in the face of their leader. Every Titan looked at him now, falling under the spell of his words.

“We are all Titans, but...this situation is rough.” He stood as strong as a statue in front of the strengthening crowd. “The odds of us winning aren’t high and… It’s uncertain if we will all make it out of here.” With his mask on, he appeared unflinching, but they didn’t know his wavering eyes and weakening expression underneath that black and white. It really was the end of the world. “If you guys want to leave and save yourselves now, I won’t blame you, and if the original Titans make it out alive… we’ll accept you back no matter what you chose.”

Tilting his head up, he looked at everything he had ever believed in. “Do what’s best for yourself. If you want...” Dark flashes fluttered underneath his domino mask. “Go. Do whatever you can to protect yourselves.”

“Are you kidding me?” Bumblebee asked after several beats of silence. “This isn’t some pity party, you know.” Robin refused to flinch.

Crossing her arms, she stood strong, but her voice was warm and kind. “You think that just because we weren’t raised by Batman we’d run with our tail between our legs? We live on this planet too.” Turning to Robin, a small smirk was on her face. “You really thought that poorly of us?”

Beside himself, a smirk fitted onto Robin’s face.

“I mean…” Beast Boy spoke up for the first time, “I’m mostly glad since you almost crushed Cy in a fight that one time,” he said laughing along with Bumblebee the moment Cyborg let out a small “Hey!” in indignation.

“You will help us?” Starfire asked, voice filling with hope.

“There would be no other answer,” Bushido said.

“You guys…” Beast Boy said, eyes filling with tears as he sniffled messily. The waterworks only continued when no one else made a single move.

“Your tears are unbecoming,” Pantha commented.

“Pantha…” He weakly sweatdropped.

“Who are we up against?” Aqualad asked in place of the silence that suddenly blanketed their group. "We deserve to know everything."

Expelling the weight off his chest, Robin straightened his back and fully turned toward his team.

“I’m not my story to tell, but Raven handed all of us her powers…” Hand flexing underneath a green glove, he stared at the sparks of black that emanated from them. “She trusts in us.”

Taking a deep breath, Robin spoke.

“Raven is — “

“ — Here!” Principal Nezu cheerfully said, immediately downing his teacup like a shot before moving it aside, pushing away papers and folders like a croupier to make room for Raven. “Please! Sit! Sit!”

Ever so carefully, Raven slid in the plush armchair that sat in front of his desk, almost as if touching anything else would cause a bomb to go off.

“Tea?” he asked easily.

“No.” As if remembering her manners, she awkwardly continued. “No, I, uh, had a cup before I came to school.”

“How do you like it at U.A.? Normally, it’s quite hard for our international students to balance learning the language and Hero Studies, but according to your teachers, I hear you’re doing well!” The mouse-bear hummed cheerfully as he cleaned in front of her. “Through the grapevine, I believe you’re quite the polyglot! German, Sanskrit, Latin, Romanian. Ancient Sumerian, and English of course! You’d be a fine Hero with those skills!” Her lips screwed at the awkward praise.

“U.A. is fine,” Raven dully answered. “Uh, am I in trouble? Because of U.S.J.?” She leaned forward in anticipation.

She had been through the Brotherhood of Evil and H.I.V.E., but no matter what, being sent to the principal’s office hit all the same regardless of her situation. Raven refused to let sweat build on her palms and to give away her nervousness.

“What?” Black eyes shone like buttons. A giant floor-to-ceiling window laid behind him, eclipsing him like some villainous being instead of a principal at the best Hero school in Japan, but she suspected that some mad scientist thinking had to go in some of the machinations at this place. “Oh no! Not at all! The opposite actually!”

“Huh?”

“On the behalf of U.A.” He formally bowed to her. “We apologize for allowing yesterday’s fight to happen to you.” Straightening up, the animal hybrid smiled at her. “You also don’t need to worry about U.S.J.!” He waved a paw easily in her expressionless face. “We have great insurance! And it’s just a building!” Leaning closer, he continued. “You can rest easy knowing that I’ve strengthened some of the security around U.A. and not just within the school. That was an oversight on my part. The criminals have been apprehended and the Heroes on patrol have been cautioned to look out for the remaining villains who escaped from U.S.J. You should’ve been safe to and from school, and it is our job as your educators and protectors to make sure it stays that way.” To her silence, he continued. “Additionally, our school provides mental health counseling to any student that needs it. Just wanted to let you know.”

It hit like a nail.

“I don’t need it.” Raven immediately said. Moving to stand, she looked at the mouse-bear. “Are we done here?”

She didn’t need to spill nonexistent vulnerable feelings to a stranger. She didn’t need to do anything that the monks hadn’t already taught her, she told herself.

Those eyes were as blank as the deep sea. “I see.” Waving his little legs over his too-tall chair, he hummed to himself. “You are an excellent and talented student, Miss Roth.” Images of the destruction flashed in his brain. “Even though you may believe that you caused a lot of harm and destruction to U.S.J., you saved just as many lives of your peers by taking down the Nomu. A building can be rebuilt, but human lives can not be revived. Your quick thinking during your fight yesterday also prevented many other students and civilians from being hurt.” He turned to face her fully, staring her in the eye. Despite being raised with American customs, Raven still felt the urge to look away. “As your principal, I’m proud of your strength and the ability you displayed in the FamilyMart. However, that does not mean I wished for it to happen.”

Against the reason in her brain, she took that personally. As if she had done something wrong by being their target, by letting Red Raven out so carelessly and painted such a large target on her back.

“No one got hurt,” Raven muttered, lowering her head to hide her face, allowing her hair to shade her from the bright glare from the window. “And those villains were weaklings. It was nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Just because you were able to take them down, doesn’t mean that you had to,” Nezu replied back patiently.

“Does it matter? They’re in jail at the end of the day, right?” It came out bitter. She straightened her back. “If my classmates are caught in the crossfire again… I’ll just save them.” It was as easy as that to her. Like one, two, three.

“Miss Roth…” Nezu finally said. “I believe you have mistaken me.” Dark brows furrowed over her eyes. “I meant that simply because you are able to stop the villains, doesn’t mean you have to.” She opened her mouth, but he simply shook his head. “You are a teenager, and a hero-in-training,” he emphasized. “You shouldn’t have to do an adult’s job.”

And with that, all of the breath had expelled from her lungs.

She wanted to hide in on herself, pull her collar up over her face and pull a hood over her eyes.

Azar, Arella, Trigon.

Batman, Silas Stone, The Doom Patrol, Mark, and Marie Logan.

“I can do anything an adult can do,” she finally stated.

Nezu’s eyes grew wide but before any word could slip past his lips, the bell rang.

“Excuse me,” Raven muttered, pushing back the chair. Her bag was swiftly pulled into her arms and she made a beeline for the door in less than two seconds.

The gigantic doors closed behind her carefully, and he could hear with the twitches of his round ears the sound of her school shoes pad down the hallway.

“Ah,” he mused into the open air. His tea had gone cold by now. “The dramatics of a teenager is unmatched,” he said with amusem*nt.

Even so, he couldn’t help but grow slightly sad at her behavior and mindset.

“A girl with amazing strength and four red eyes…” he pondered to himself. Turning to the monitor beside him, the careful playback of the strange villain in Hoshiiro Training Base ran like a record.

“Oh!” His legs started to swing peacefully again. “This year is going to be such an adventure!”

When Raven slid open the door to 1-A, she immediately knew something was wrong. Usually, she was not too early nor too late, but her visit to the principal’s office brought her only two minutes before the late bell rang.

Aizawa was never late but he was also never early, so she took solace in the fact that she at least arrived before he could scold her. She took a scolding from Nighteye already, and if she received another in the next 100 years that would be too soon.

She just wanted to erase that entire experience from her mind, maybe just think up nothing while she lazily drank her bottled tea from lunch.

Her head lazily poked through the door, eyes closed with one hand slipping her hood off her head with one hand when she suddenly stopped, blinking her eyes wide open.

Every person in the classroom was staring right at her.

“Uhhh,” she drawled awkwardly. She could hear a pin drop in this silence. “...What’s going on?” She raised one brow.

“YOU GOT IN A FIGHT?!” Kirishima shouted, comical tears streaming down his face.

“It’s all over the internet!” Kaminari said next, scrolling through his phone.

“What.” Her face was completely blank, but inside she could only imagine all of her Emoticlones running around in pure chaos.

A phone was thrust in front of her face and she looked down, nearly cross-eyed at the video. Someone had taken it outside of the convenience store and even though the glare of the glass doors hid her identity somewhat, it was clear to anyone that knew her personally that it was her.

In the video, she floated above the ground, dodging a swipe before crashing the villain in between two shelves.

She took Kaminari’s phone in her hands and glared at the screen.

“You have to be f*cking kidding me.” She thought that Sir Nighteye’s legal team was covering up any mention of her on the internet? Although scrolling through the article, she couldn’t catch any mention of her name, age, or connect her with U.S.J. Just that they could tell she was a U.A. student.

Tossing his phone over her shoulder, she scowled all the way back to her desk, squeezing in between Todoroki’s desk and her own.

“Wait, that’s all?!” Mina cried, slamming her hands down on the table. Raven was an image of serene, with arms crossed and eyes closed. She looked like she was about to sleep more than anything. “Explain yourself, missy!”

Raven shrugged, blearily blinking an eye open toward the window. “Some of the escaped villains from U.S.J. just cornered me at the konbini. It’s no big deal.”

“No big deal?!” the class chorused.

She could feel Todoroki’s stare at the back of her head. “As long as they don’t have my name, face, or Quirk, it doesn’t matter to me.”

“Dude, what, you dealt with that all on your own?!” Kaminari cried.

“A path carved by one’s self…” Tokoyami started.

“That’s so — “ Kirishima tried to say.

“Please don’t say the ‘M’ word,” Jirou jokingly said.

“Can you extras just shut up about it already?!” Bakugou seethed. Both hands slammed down on his desk, scattering smoke. For once, she was glad by his interruption. Eyes closing, she tried to meditate before the rapid feelings started to catch up to her.

“Why?” Sero grinned. “Grumpy that you’re not the center of attention?”

“I’ll kill you tape-for-brains!” They were loud for a morning, too loud she thought almost like —

“Enough.” Every word was silenced the moment Aizawa entered the class, as mummified as always. “Homeroom is starting.” Waddling his way up to the room, he paused, meeting eyes with Raven.

“Roth, meet me after class,” he declared. She only placed her head down on the desk. Wasn’t it mandatory that she was going to meet him after school every day anyway?

She just wanted to rest. Closing her eyes, she snoozed through her classes until the lunch bell rang.

And if she noticed all the worried glances her classmates sent her way, she didn't speak on it.

“Um,” Uraraka said shyly before bursting out, “Why the heck are you all here?!” In front of 1-A, a large crowd of students she didn’t know created a wall between them and the hallway, blocking every entryway.

“Do you students have some sort of business with our class?” Iida demanded.

“I agree,” Yaomomo added. “If you have any issue, you can report to a teacher. They’re all currently in the teacher’s lounge.”

“I won’t let you hold us hostage!” Mineta shouted.

“They’re scouting out the competition, idiots” Bakugou drawled, pants saggy and shoulders slouched. “We’re the class that survived a real villain attack.” He walked the walk and talked the talk, heading 1-A like his own little circus.

“Please don’t explode anybody,” Midoriya said in a small voice.

The remainder of 1-A watched as Bakugou sauntered up to the front of the crowd, eyes bored.

“At least now you know what a real Pro looks like,” he declared in a strong voice. “Now move it, extras!”

“Just because you don’t know who they are, doesn’t mean you can call them extras!” Iida pleaded, arms waving like a traffic guard.

“Pitiful,” a familiar voice drawled. Cracking open one eye, Raven lifted her head from her desk. She knew who that voice was. “I heard all about how impressive 1-A was.” A pause. “But you just sound like an ass.”

Scoffing, she sat up, pushing her chair backward.

“I’m here for your strongest of 1-A,” he declared, meeting his eyes directly with Bakugou’s. Dekusquad all jumped in nerves as Bakugou growled like a motor. “Not the delusional one. But since you egomaniacs are all here…” A hand rubbed the back of his neck. “I wanted to be in the Hero Course, but like many others, I had to choose a different track.” Shinso shrugged. “Such is life. I didn’t cut it the first time around, but I have another chance.” He was looking at the entire class by now. “If someone does well in the Sports Festival, the teachers can decide to transfer us to the Hero Course, and they’ll have to transfer people out to make room.”

Deku immediately felt a nervous sweat trickle down his neck, forcing him to gulp and take a step back. Raven felt that anxiety instantly. Putting a hand on his shoulder, he just jumped once more before he saw who it was.

“Scouting the competition?” Dull purple eyes scanned the room before he saw the lethargic figure he was targeting. “Maybe some of my classmates are, but I want to let you know that if you didn’t bring your very best…” His eyes fully landed on Raven. “I’ll steal your spot right from under you.

“Consider this a declaration of war, even to the strongest.”

“Tsk,” Bakugou clicked his tongue. These people didn’t matter to him, yet his glare grew strong. It was just Greek to his ears, he was going to beat them —

“I said, I wanted your strongest,” Shinso repeated, clearly not addressing the blond. Turning around, Bakugou’s eyes were set ablaze the moment they landed on Raven’s.

“Did I ask for a monologue?” her dull voice rang. The students parted like the Red Sea upon seeing her, eyes wide and shoulders tense. Clicking her tongue, her eyes landed on Shinso as she passed him. “So damned dramatic.”

“Dramatic?” he echoed, his face inches away from hers as she walked by. “I’m not listening to someone who wears a cape about what’s dramatic.”

“It’s a cloak,” she emphasized. “Besides, no one wants to hear your life story.”

Shinso chuckled coldly. “A bitch as always, Raven — “

“Roth-kun!” Iida immediately said, attempting to plead to the voice of reason between the two firecrackers of 1-A. “You know better than this! Do not antagonize our peers! You are not Bakugou!”

“sh*t, what did you say?!” the blond roared.

“Wait…” Midoriya’s mouth fell open. “Rae…?” He couldn't even finish his sentence before his neck turned back and forth.

Raven stared at him with shock, eyebrows furrowed with her eyes widened. This was the most taken aback that he had ever seen her. “Where did you get that name?” She never recalled telling him that.

Shinso stared back at her like she was an idiot. Raising a lone brow, Shinso dug out his phone. “It’s the name you have on your contacts, idiot.” He said it like the sky was blue and the grass was green. Her mouth ran dry the moment she saw the word RAVEN as clear as day on her contact info.

Shrugging carelessly, he put his phone back in his pocket. It was just a nickname at the end of the day, right? Calming the beating in her heart, she forced her shocked expression into one of acceptance.

“I’m heading up to the roof,” Shinso commented, easily rolling off her strange expression. “For lunch.”

It was clear that it was an invitation, but before Raven could accept or decline, a body barreled into the two of them, pink arms swinging around their necks.

“Eating on the rooftop?!” Mina said with stars in her eyes.

“Just like in the movies!” Kirishima added. “And the view on top of U.A. has to be amazing!”

"W-Wait!" Midoriya tried to say. "Didn't he just try to make a declaration of war?"

"Oh, but he seems to be Rachel-chan's friend," Uraraka said. "And a friend of hers is a friend of ours right?"

"We aren't friends," the two of them instantly denied, turning their noses in the air at their mirrored words.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Kaminari cheered.

“Bakubro, you wanna come with?” Kirishima’s red hair was a spotlight in the crowd of kids. Like dominos, more and more kids entered into the fray.

“f*ck off!”

Shinso scowled at the growing group. “Hey, I wasn’t — !”

“That sounds so fun!” Uraraka’s hands met Mina’s with her pinkies out. Looping her arm with Raven’s, she pulled her along while Kirishima and Kaminari led the trail like happy ducklings.

“Hey, slow down!” Raven stumbled after the shorter girl.

“Uraraka-kun, please do not manhandle Roth-kun!” Iida took the rear, leading them along as if he was a chaperone on a field trip. He muttered to everyone along the way about creating a ruckus, even sighing in relief when he read the sign at the staircase to make sure that going on the roof wasn’t against the rules.

And she held her tongue, even when Deku’s worried eyes followed her the entire time.

Slamming the door open, Mina let out an awed breath upon seeing the expanse of U.A.’s campus from the roof. It seemed like she could touch anything from here, the campus forests, the U.S.J. location, all the buildings and skyscrapers, and the clouds from up above.

“Aha!” Kaminari echoed. “There’s no guardrail here!” He trailed toward the edge.

“Kaminari-kun, you do not have a flight Quirk, please do not lean so close to the edge!” Iida said.

Sero sighed lazily, stretching and popping his joints. "This feels good," he said in response to the cool fresh air.

The sky was still bright and blue at lunchtime, speckled with fluffy white clouds and an easy breeze.

Closing her eyes, Mina took it all in.

Squinting from the light, Raven slowly stepped out of the door with a grumpy Shinso following her trail.

“I didn’t plan for any of this…” he said pointedly, weakly glaring at her while squinting from the sun.

“You try arguing with them then,” Raven knew it was pointless.

“This is like an anime!” Arms open out wide, Mina twirled and let her skirt flutter around her legs despite Iida’s desperate pleas to keep everyone safe. She grabbed Uraraka’s hand and the two giggled along the way, dancing with each other.

She wanted to close her eyes. For a second, those peals of laughter sounded so familiar to Raven.

“Hey, you know what we should do?” Mina added next. “We should totally shout out, like, our goals and stuff on the roof!”

“W-What?!” Midoriya suddenly grew tense at the thought of public speaking.

“You’re right!” Kirishima gassed her up, beaming. “I saw it in a TV show once! It was totally inspirational! They all got to the edge of the roof like this — “ He quickly demonstrated his courage and fearlessness at the end of the building. “And say their name and class and shouted out what they wanted to do when they grew up! And if they couldn’t do it in ten years then they’d have to come back and shout their crush’s name at the top of their lungs!”

“W-W-WHAT?!” Midoriya shrieked. "Cr...Crush?!" Raven had never seen someone turn pink so fast.

“Let’s do it!” Kaminari grinned. “Who wants to go first?”

And like that, all the energy they built up deflated like a balloon. Raven scoffed, sliding beside Shinso where he sat against the HVAC unit. It seemed like no matter what, they were all just kids in the end.

“Some classmates you have,” he muttered to her when she sat down.

Rolling her eyes, she propped her hand on her palm, watching the idling figures draw circles with their shoes on the concrete.

She dragged her eyes to Midoriya. His back was toward her, but his shaking shoulders were obvious. His fists clenched underneath his sleeves weakly, then trembled as if an earthquake started here. Head lowered, and anticipation building, she didn’t even have to use her empathic powers.

Raven was about to speak out, telling him that if he was uncomfortable he didn’t have to say anything.

Her arm reached forward, ready to tug on his blazer when that gray fabric slipped through her fingers. Eyes wide, she watched in amazement as he stood toward the edge of the building, eyes blazing as he glanced at all of Musutafu. Wind carded through his hair in waves.

“Midoriya Izuku!” he screamed. “Class 1-A! And I’m — “ His eyes screwed shut. “I’m going to be the greatest hero!” Voice echoing endlessly, his raw power reached them all like waves, pulsating and beating to his heart.

He was the chain reaction, alighting the others like dynamite. He was the flame.

“U-Uraraka Ochaco! Class 1-A!” She clenched her fists underneath her sleeves as she looked out at the open expanse of the city. “I’m going to make sure that my parents never have to worry about money again!”

“Me next! Me next!” Mina hopped in her spot. Moving toward the line forming at the edge of the sky, she pumped a fist into the air. “Mina Ashido! Class 1-A! I’m going to be a Hero that people can totally look up to, yea!”

“Hell yea! Kirishima Eijiro!” He flexed one strong bicep. “1-A! I’m going to be the manliest Hero out there!”

"Sero Hanta." He grinned broadly but shrugged lazily. "I guess it would be nice to graduate."

“Kaminari! 1-A!” He pointed his thumb to his chest. “And I’m going to have a super cute girlfriend!”

Raven turned her head slowly while she heard the scrapings of soles against concrete. Shinso pushed himself off the floor and at her look, he shrugged. “As if I’d let you 1-A jerks show me up.”

“Yeah!” Mina’s wave toward him was friendly and open. “C’mon!”

“Shinso Hitoshi. Class 1-C." He ignored the side-glances. "I’m going to be a Hero better than all of these guys with blessed Quirks.”

There was no hint of offense or anger across any of their faces. Mina only beamed further while Deku nodded toward him with determination.

“Join us, Iida-kun!” Uraraka urged.

“Oh, alright.” The boy dropped his crossed arms and walked toward the edge like he was in the military. “Iida Tenya. Deputy Representative of Class 1-A. In ten years, I hope to make the Iida family and Ingenium proud!”

“Roth-chan,” Mina said in a sing-song voice. Every eye turned to where she was sitting with her legs pulled to her chest. “You’re the last one!”

“No thanks,” she replied easily. Raven ignored Midoriya’s worried stare.

“C’mon!” The pink girl puffed out her cheeks. “You’re always so shy! Come with us!”

“Introversion isn’t a flaw,” Raven replied instantly, ignoring the way that they wilted at her response. “And besides.” Dead eyes trained themselves toward the floor.

All of the energy they had created, the uplifting mood, and the power in their voices came crashing down in a second, but Raven couldn't bring herself to lie. She thought of life from beginning to end.

“I don’t have any goals.”

She closed her eyes and the laughter she wanted to hear was only a faraway memory.

“Roth, come here for a second.” Aizawa’s voice cut through the air, shooting like arrows.

Despite the worried glances of her classmates, Raven stood without a hint of nerves, easily walking toward his podium.

“Yes, sir?” she eventually asked when the class started to clear.

“I want to formally apologize again,” the bandaged man said. She could barely see his face behind those bandages, but she knew he was sincere, even if she didn't want it.

“Like I said…” her voice was a drawl.

“No.” Aizawa shook his head politely. “I am supposed to help you, not make it worse. I approached it incorrectly and that was unreasonable.” Slowly taking out a piece of paper, he gestured to her to sit in some of the front row desks.

“Uh,” Raven started. “What’s going on?”

“I’m asking for your input. We can make a lesson plan with things that you’re familiar and comfortable with. From now on, you can be in control of what you learn and I’ll be with you to make sure you’re safe and you’re improving.”

Against all former thought, his words rang like a gong.

“You…” Her fingers went slack. “You’re asking for my opinion?” Her words remained in the air.

Not even Robin had ever asked her what she wanted out of training. He knew better than she did, obviously. He knew what fighting style would suit her best and she simply went with everything the monks threw at her.

“You’re clearly experienced with your Quirk, what do you do regularly to strengthen it?” he asked for her input.

She had never been considered like this. “I...I usually meditate for a couple of hours daily,” she muttered. She also did magic work and even went to her mind space, but clearly she was unable to do that now.

His eyes grew underneath the swathe of bandages like he was surprised at that answer. “I see,” he scribbled it down on the lesson plan. “Do you want me to do it with you, or alone?”

Head tilted down low, she tried to hide the streak of color across her grey cheeks. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

“Are you alright with strength training?”

“Yeah.” Turning her head to look out the window, watching the slow stream of students cross the courtyard, she spoke up. “You know, Aizawa-sensei, you don’t have to treat me like a kid. I can take it.”

He scoffed. “You are a kid.”

He remembered Sir Nighteye’s building standing tall in front of him.

Like father, like daughter, that damned green-haired man was just as stubborn as she was. Talking to the bespeckled man was like pulling teeth.

At her look of frustration, he continued. “Plain and simple. Don’t give me that look. Remember what happened yesterday?”

“You don’t have to hold that over my head — “

“I’m not,” Aizawa replied patiently. “But you do not have to take anything that you don’t want to. You’re allowed to create boundaries and know when things might get too tough.” She avoided his eyes like the plague. He knew that even though she made her distaste clear toward his training, she still pushed through it without telling him that it might have pressured her or caused her to stress.

“And I’ll help you along the way.”

“Roth was ambushed by two villains outside of campus just yesterday, does that not worry you?”

“It sounds like to me, U.A. should’ve taken better care of their students.”

Softer, he continued, dark lashes falling over dry eyes. “Roth, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Slowly raising her head out of her hand, she stared at him like a deer in the headlights.

She was a demon’s child, how could he hurt her?

“Please,” he ended. “It’s not because you’re weak, but because I’m your teacher, I have an obligation to look after you. Now, instead of moping, help me with your lesson plan.” He didn't force her. He didn't say it was for her greater good. He left it up to her.

“...I used to do physical straight training once a day. Combat or tactical stuff like that,” she rasped. Why did she speak out?

“I see.” It was silent as his pencil scratched the paper. She didn’t have a scratch on her despite both of them facing Nomu alone. He was a mummy in bandages while she had not a single bruise on her arms and legs. “Thank you, for telling me.”

They had gone back and forth like a pendulum, with every word Aizawa had volleyed back instantly. It was like Nighteye had a script for all the things he wanted to say and with every sentence, he grew more tight-lipped.

The room felt like it was going in circles from how long they were at this, turning and twisting.

Eventually, Aizawa had enough. His hands slammed on the table and the ends of his hair began to rise.

“I used Erasure on Roth and it didn’t work.” He finally dropped the bomb. “Whatever secret she has concerns me too.”

Nighteye was silent for far too long, his eyes hidden behind a stupid glare on his glasses.

“I see,” he finally said.

Aizawa knew that that was a critical part of her past that she had just shared, an inside look to the most reclusive secret in 1-A.

“It’s whatever.”

With a final scribble on the sheet, he slid it toward her. “Is this okay with you?”

Dark eyes falling on the paper, she gingerly picked it up.

“Uh. I — “ It was clear that she was about to just go along with it despite her hesitance.

“The truth is…” Nighteye started.

Aizawa opened his mouth to retort whatever train of thought she had, but she beat him to the chase.

“I’m not comfortable with weightlifting for this long,” she finally said, speaking her mind. Not in a way that was casual like she was dunking on some of her classmate's strange fashion or behavior, but this had to do with her because expressing what she really wanted exposed her. Roth's own strengths and vulnerabilities.

“My — Roth is simply amazing.”

Aizawa’s gaze was unflinching. “Then we can change it and work on it.” He watched her careful reluctance, slumping when he confirmed that it was okay. “If you’re not comfortable with something personal, you can say so. You don’t have to pretend to be macho all the time.”

Clicking her tongue, she gave him an icy glare, but it lacked heat.

“Just creating healthy boundaries or whatever, right?” she mumbled.

“She is out of this world.”

“That’s the plan,” Robin finished. The Titans had already been split up into teams. The team for infiltration and distraction and the main combat team. Robin and Herald would then slip in the Titan Tower with the latter’s portal abilities, and if they were stuck in Raven’s mindscape, as Beast Boy and Cyborg warned, then Herald could easily get them in and out.

“Is that clear?” Everyone nodded once, prepping their weapons and their tools.

“Before we go,” Robin reached out to Herald. “Do you know where the Wayne Enterprises building in Jump City is? I need to make a quick detour.”

Blowing on his Horn of Gabriel, a portal opened up.

“That bitch! That bitch!” Shigaraki shouted in the darkness of the bar. The damp air did little to soothe his irritation despite being used to it as he romped around the room, destroying glasses and tabletops.

“Shigaraki Tomura, please calm down,” Kurogiri plainly said.

“As if I’d f*cking do that!” he roared. “I’m going to kill her.” Clips of that red-eyed glitch played on their small TV in the background. Comments of her feats filled the page, mesmerized sentences about the mysterious U.A. student seemed to only be singing praises.

“I’ll f*cking kill her,” he declared. Another glass into dust.

“Now, now, Shigaraki,” a new voice entered. “We don’t need to do that.”

He had scarred over eyes, but he still saw in other ways. Purple eyes and purple hair filled his vision.

“Oh,” he cooed to himself. “How I love good Quirks.”

Chapter 14: Enter

Chapter Text

Days passed , Midoriya told himself. All the training made time go by quickly, and before we knew it, it was the evening before the Festival.

Raven shook the water off her face like a dog. In a desperate attempt to cool down, she hung over the water fountain and splashed water over her face as if she was in an unimpressive skincare commercial. It slipped down her face and into her collar, creating reflective trails on dull grey skin.

She felt the presence behind her before she saw it. Her hair hung over her face resembling an old English sheepdog.

“I keep on telling you to pull your hair out of your face,” Aizawa reminded, handing her a hair tie that looked like one of his own. Raven slid it down her wrist and made no move to tie her hair up, irking her teacher once more.

“She’s just embarrassed that people will realize what a big forehead she has,” Shinso called from across the room, packing his gym stuff away in his duffle bag.

“I’ll fight you even before the Sports Festival if you want,” she snapped back.

“No thanks, I’d like for rules and regulations to protect me.”

“Coward.”

“I’m not suicidal.” Nodding once at the two of them, he made his way out of the gym swiftly. Raven returned it just as willingly. As a GenEd student, the Sports Festival wasn’t a major event like it was for the Hero Course. In return, they had a major project to balance due only a day after the festival ended. A group project, he grumpily told her, and he hated group projects. Now, he had to leave early to meet up with them and discuss what plan of action to take.

Turning to his remaining student, Aizawa studied her.

“Get a full eight hours of sleep today.”

“I know.”

“And you shouldn’t have meat or fried food in your diet today. I was lenient with your meal plan before, but you might get sick if you eat that the night before.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you even have anything other than a CalorieMate bar today?”

“Yeah.” As if on cue for some cosmic justice, her stomach grumbled. Raven ignored the vein that popped on Aizawa’s forehead. Taking a deep inhale, she prepared herself for a lecture. They had done this before. Aizawa had caught her skipping lunch, eating only snacks along the way, and warned her of the dangers of malnutrition, an upset stomach, and more.

Wireless earbuds were about to fall in her ears when her teacher only sighed and kicked at her feet. “Get moving.”

“What?” Technically, training had already ended.

“If you’re too lazy to eat on your own, I’m getting you a meal. C’mon.” Aizawa was up and out of the Gym before she knew it.

“I can feed myself,” she insisted as she trailed behind her homeroom teacher. She didn’t recall anyone this pushy in Earth 0 before. He had scolded her about her eating habits after they established that she didn’t have a bad relationship with food, she was just forgetful.

“You’ve shown me that you can’t, so stop complaining.” Heading back into U.A., the Titan was forced to trail him like a baby duck, one foot in front of her other as she marched through the halls in her P.E. uniform. Sliding open the door to the teacher’s lounge, he nodded his head once to his coworker and friend while she glared from behind his shoulder. Her eyes shone like a cat’s in the dark, narrow and grumpy. “Mic, I’m going to get food at 7/11, do you want anything?”

Her English teacher perked up immediately, eyes blowing wide underneath orange glasses. He cooed inwardly. Standing like that, he thought that Aizawa looked like a mommy cat with their ruffled kitten. “Wait really?! I’m coming with! Hey there, Little Listener!”

She nodded once in greeting and awkwardly fell back in line as her teachers walked up in front. Being anywhere out in public with her teachers was weird, but she already had to save them or be saved by them in multiple training situations, so she supposed that the normal teacher-student relationship was already a distant dream. The walk out of U.A. could’ve been worse.

Admiring the way two birds scanned the sky above, she allowed her mind to wonder. The two weeks had passed by almost too fast. It had been nothing but grueling work and strained muscles, but Raven would be lying if she said that Aizawa was an incompetent teacher. While not as patient as Robin, he was efficient.

The sun had begun to paint the sky with orange, tinting every building and every stretch of asphalt with a warm glow.

While Aizawa and Mic talked about anything and everything under the sun, Raven was left in the background to simmer in on her thoughts. Hands deeply shoved into her uniform pockets, she thought about what Aizawa had told her earlier. She mindlessly turned into the parking lot after them.

The 7/11 they came to was thankfully clear by this time, and Aizawa easily fished out his wallet.

“Any allergies?” he addressed Raven.

“Chicken,” she mumbled back.

“Oh!” Mic waved his arms carefreely. “Get me the — “

“Katsu sando and popcorn chicken, I know,” Aizawa sighed tiredly before making his way into the convenience store. The automatic doors slid open and a merry jingle followed him in. Setting a bored look on her face, Raven tried to ignore how awkward it was to be left alone in the parking lot with her English teacher. They sat on the asphalt that met the parking lot, empty and deserted save for two bikes and one car.

Leaning back slightly, she took a look at the awning above, her mind swimming.

“Roth,” Aizawa said to her then. “Every student is going to target you during the Sports Festival.”

Every student was going to go after her, he pushed into her head, even those she called her classmates.

As the person who scored the highest during the Entrance Exam, he gave her a day’s notice that she had to give an opening speech at the Sports Festival, immediately sending her heart hammering in her chest.

At her irritation, he raised a cool eyebrow. Didn’t you know? he asked. Her scruffy teacher assured her that it didn’t have to be long nor the best speech he had ever heard, it simply had to “boost morale.”

“ You can do it,” he had said flatly. “ I believe in you .”

Yeah, right, she thought, stretching her legs in front of her. When has she ever been a person of many words — if any? What would she even say? Be concise, yet inspiring like Robin? Get your blood pumping like Cyborg? Be positive like Starfire? Make people laugh like Beast Boy?

Before her thoughts could spiral into deeper waters, Present Mic spoke up beside her. Strange, without him talking, she barely noticed him.

“So,” he eagerly said. “It’s almost the weekend! Any plans, outside of the Festival, Little Listener?” Raven regarded him strangely, legs now pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around them.

“...Study,” she muttered. “Meditate.” Her purple eyes stared into him the way a dead fish would.

“Oh, c’mon!” He gently nudged her with his elbow. “Believe it or not, I used to be a teenager too! It’s a Friday night! I remember all of the crazy stuff I — “

“You’re a terrible influence on my student.”

Luckily, Aizawa was in and out, easily handing her a pre-packed bowl of ground pork donburi and a pair of chopsticks.

“Thank you,” she murmured lowly, taking it out of his hands.

“She’s my student too!” Mic defended, taking his food containers from Aizawa’s hands. Sighing deeply, Aizawa slid down on the seat on her other side, trapping Raven. Carefully, he lifted his head up to the ceiling to drop eye drops into his eyes with a groan.

“You need to stop this stupid habit of skipping meals,” he told her. “You’re a growing kid and a budding Hero. If you faint due to something like this I’ll give you detention,” he said.

“I’d be in the hospital,” she snapped back.

“Tch.” He clicked his tongue and snapped open his own food container. “I’d report Sir Nighteye if he even failed at giving you lunch money. Doesn’t he feed you?”

“I have the lunch card,” she said, even softer. “And he gives me lunch money. I just forget.”

Shivering, Present Mic turned to Aizawa. “He gives me the chills sometimes. So serious you know! All, ‘Present Mic, indoor voices please,’” he mocked in his voice, miming pushing up glasses. “What’s it like living with him? Is he as scary as he is out in public?” He spoke to her in English, as he always did.

Raven shrugged. She doubted that anyone who hoarded All Might merch like he did would be considered scary, but to each their own.

“He’s very...adult,” she responded after a moment. In Jump City, where were all their adult figures? “He’s the most adult person I have ever met.” Not “skirt-chasing” like the smooth playboy Bruce Wayne, nor the villains that she had met, nor every other messed up figure in her life. Not like Present Mic who acted like a twenty-year-old sometimes, and not like Aizawa who slept in a gaudy yellow sleeping bag any time he could.

“Boring!”

“Ignore Mic, he doesn’t know mature if it hit him like a bus.”

To her side, Raven tried her best to ignore how Aizawa’s gaze on her burned like a light. She tried her best not to turn her head and stare back at that analytical look he was giving her.

“Is that a bad thing?” Aizawa finally asked.

“...What is?” she asked after carefully chewing and swallowing her pork.

“Being an adult.” Raven paused. It was as if the entire city stopped with her. Nothing but the thoughts running in her head and the beating in her heart and the heat coming off Aizawa’s sweater and sweatpants.

Then, slowly, she shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “I’m already mature enough.”

Aizawa scoffed immediately. “Every teenager thinks that.”

“Yeah,” Mic added. “I once thought that I’d have the ability to walk into a bar when I looked clearly fifteen — I made a fake ID and I dragged Shirakumo and Eraserhead — !”

“I’m not stupid enough to do that,” Raven immediately added. Then, turning sourly to Aizawa, she said. “I mean it. I’m mature.” As mature as I could get.

“What, do you think that you’re not going to get any better than this? You’re mature compared to Bakugou or Mineta — “ Raven immediately pulled a face at being compared to those two. “But you still have growing to do.” Taking a large bite of his onigiri, he continued. “You’re still a runt. Getting irritated with me just proves my point.”

Scoffing, she turned irritably away from her homeroom teacher.

“C’mon,” Mic said again, voice teasing. “Ignore this buzzkill. I think you’re mature! So you can tell me without worries.” He winked at her. “What are your real plans for the weekend?”

Aizawa narrowed his eyes. “She should be resting, Mic.”

“I understand what it’s like to ignore school too — !”

“If she’s not comfortable with telling you, don’t force her — “ Aizawa tried to insist.

“I mean it,” Raven muttered, sighing as she slowly fed herself small bits of rice. “Studying.” She liked reading, so she studied. She didn’t have many plans with friends, so she stayed inside.

“Bah!” His face screwed as if he had eaten an entire pickled plum. At least his volume was at a moderate level now. “You sound just like this guy over here! Little Listener! Studying? This is your seishun !!”

Carefully, she raised an eyebrow. “Seishun?” she slowly asked.

“Oh,” Mic switched over to English, gears turning in his head trying to figure out this translation. “It’s like — It’s like: this time is the best time of your life! You’re young and you’re exploring the world without worries! You’re going through life for the first time and that’s a beautiful thing!”

This was supposed to be the best time of her life? Her face soured immediately.

“Yeah!” Mic nodded. “You know when you’re an adult, and not to scare you, but then you have to deal with taxes, go into the job force, things like that. It’s harder to make friends as an adult and…” After drifting off, it became quiet enough to hear a pin drop. “You lose a lot of people as an adult.”

She nearly snapped at Mic for being naive.

Didn’t she go through that already? The heartbreak, the loss. Was it just going to be downhill from the moment she was born?

Didn’t she deserve to have “the best time of her life” too?

“So you gotta live this time to the fullest, you know?” Mic added, trying to perk himself up to lift the mood that drooped over Raven. “You can’t let your youth slip away,” he said, almost sagely. She didn’t have to look to know that Aizawa agreed. Lazy, strict, uptight Aizawa.

Snorting, Raven stood up to throw her food in the trash.

It didn’t matter to her.

The “youthful” years she had, were the only years she was going to have.

She was going to die by the time she turned eighteen anyway.

“Remember to pack your water bottle,” Nighteye reminded as he trailed behind her.

“Uh-huh.”

“And it would be good to pack some bandages and ointment. You get to see Recovery Girl between every event, but if you get injured during the event you’re on your own.”

“Yeah.”

“And don’t forget to put on your P.E. uniform and bring your student ID.”

Finally snapping her head up to look at him, she narrowed her eyes. “I know, Nighteye.”

Standing then deflating, his shoulders wilted ever so slightly. “Sorry,” he admitted. After letting the awkward air trickle in the silence, he continued. “I believe I’m the stressed one. You’ll get first place in no time.”

“Hm,” Raven mellowed down. She could feel his sincerity.

“You’re the strongest student, and I know you can do it,” he added honestly. “I apologize again for not being able to see your event live, but we have the streaming service ready on the screens in the agency. Bubble Girl, Centipeder, and I will be watching.”

Nodding once, she thought that was the end of it and began to pack away her breakfast. Heading to her room to change for the sports festival, Nighteye spoke up behind her.

“I’ll — We’ll be rooting for you,” he added. “No matter what you get, I’ll be proud.”

Tersely nodding once, she closed her bedroom door behind her.

I’m already proud of you, he forgot to add. He was left alone in the quiet apartment.

. . .

Raven put on her uniform as the words ran through her brain.

I want to thank everyone for coming and dedicating their time to see us grow and represent the sportsmanship of U.A., she babbled. Scoffing outwardly, she let out a sneer. What a joke.

Curse Aizawa for making her give this speech, curse the school for putting on this event, curse her for trying too hard during the Entrance Exams.

However, the Titans should always strive to win and winners take all.

Checking the clock, she realized she had a few extra minutes. Instead of changing in the locker rooms, she decided to change at home to save her the embarrassment. She still had time to make it for check-in.

Languidly, she stood around her room, packing her water bottle and the extra bandages that Nighteye told her to take.

It was completely silent in her room.

It was completely unexpected.

Raven only had half a mind to bring it. Hands reaching out, she grabbed her Titan Communicator out of instinct.

And then — her heart stopped. She dropped it out of her hands.

Her Titan Communicator beeped once.

The portal opened before them. Standing with a briefcase in hand with the words WAYNE engraved across it, Robin took one last look behind him.

Outside the Titan Tower, all he could hear was carnage.

“Rachel-chan!” Uraraka called her the moment she arrived behind the auditorium. “Where were you? We thought you were going to miss the opening ceremony!” The height of the building created a large shade over the crowd of students.

“Yeah!” Mina added, grabbing her arm. Raven quickly shook it off. “Iida was going crazy!”

“Roth-kun!” Iida called. “You are tardy! As the person with the highest score during the Entrance Exam, I expected better from you! You arrived just barely in time for the entrance!”

“Then I’m on time,” Raven snapped back. However, her words made even Iida, Uraraka, and Midoriya stare at her in concern. In the background, Asui turned curiously.

Her words came out shaky.

Roth Rachel, the strongest student in 1-A, was shaking.

“Raven-san…” Midoriya started. “Are you okay?”

She looked as if life had turned upside down overnight. She appeared like the apocalypse was going to happen.

“Oh?” A voice drawled from behind her. 1-A all turned toward the source. “What’s this? Looks like 1-A isn’t as good as everyone says they are!” Monoma mocked. “Don’t embarrass yourself in front of everyone, American!”

Straightening up from his words, Iida was prepared to grab Raven’s arm if it came to it, but was stopped by Yaoyorozu. It was like Monoma snapped her out of whatever stupor she was in.

“Hey — !” Uraraka said, ready to defend Roth.

“I don’t speak Japanese, sorry,” Raven said in Japanese. Pushing past her classmates, she entered the tunnel first.

“H-Hey!”

Following her lead, 1-A pushed past 1-B and fell into step with Raven leading the crowd.

Sticking out her tongue and pulling down her eyelid at Monoma, Uraraka called out a “Hey, wait!” to Raven, trying to follow after her.

The darkness enveloped them in the tunnel, and then the chill set in again.

The Titans, she thought. The Titans, the Titans, the Titans.

She needed to do something — No — She needed to stop them. What were they doing? Risk their lives when she painstakingly split her powers to spare their lives?

They were idiots.

They were her idiots.

“Um, excuse me,” a light voice asked in English. Snapping her head to the right at the sound of perfect English, Raven nearly let her heart leap out of her chest.

Damn, was she that out of it? Instead of the people she was expecting, the girl in front of her was a blonde with overly large eyes. Horns stuck out of her head and she had a flatter face.

“Um — I just wanted to say hi!” the girl said cutely. “I’m the other American transfer student…! We never talked though!” In the background, Raven could briefly hear Monoma shouting about how Pony shouldn’t fraternize with the enemy until an orange-haired girl slapped him on the back.

“Oh.” Raven didn’t even know that there was another American in U.A. “Hi.” She praised the gods of Azarath for allowing her to have a steady voice. Clearly, her mind was elsewhere but the girl continued.

“I’m Pony Tsunotori!” the girl introduced.

“Rachel Roth.”

“I know who you are! I’m from Houston by the way!” she added.

Raven could slightly hear it in her accent. “San Francisco.”

“Is this American-to-American conversation?!” Kirishima and Kaminari shouted suddenly from the background.

“I’m pretty sure they’re just talking normally,” Yaoyorozu added, almost like a tired mother.

Carefully, Raven regarded the wideness of the girl’s eyes and the curl of her hair. Looking down, Raven noticed that she had hooves like a horse’s.

Pony reminded her of Pretty Pretty Pegasus.

Calming down considerably, Raven reached out and patted her on the head. “Cute.” Nodding once, Raven walked forward.

“Cute?!” Kaminari and Kirishima continued to shout, their necks turned toward her. “Cute?!”

Gathering her thoughts, there was only one thing left to do.

“Representing the students is Roth Rachel from Class 1-A!” Midnight shouted into the microphone. Immediately, the crowd split for her like the Red Sea. Even as nerves and anxiety and mutters closed in on her like a wave about to peak, she remained her passive face.

“Huh?!” Midoriya said from behind her. Looking nervously at the podium, he tried to lean in to tell her if she was going to get stage fright, she could tell the teachers. Instead of freezing, however, Raven only stood strong and walked forward.

“Oh, she did finish first in the Entrance Exam,” Sero muttered.

Her face was broadcasted to almost every screen across Japan. Her walk up the stairs was recorded, aiming for every mistake and training on every breath.

Dull eyes turning to the microphone in front of her, Raven took a deep breath. Over a million eyes were on her.

She was going to be frozen on this screen for everyone to see now and in the future.

“First,” she added in Japanese. “I want to say sorry to Aizawa-sensei, but I’m not giving the speech for the Sports Festival.”

Mutters from her classmates started up again. Sorry? Sorry for what? Midoriya pushed himself to the front of the crowd. Large worried eyes reflected her figure in his glasses irises.

“If you guys can hear me...” Raven started out in English. “If you guys can see me or sense me… You’ll know where to find me... I’ll be here waiting for you. No matter how long. No matter what it takes.”

This was going to be on every news station and engraved on the internet forever.

Mutters filled the stadium now. Aizawa and Mic rose out of their chairs. Channels were desperately translating her words as she said them.

In the Sir Nighteye Agency, he floated out of his chair and kneeled beside the TV.

Nodding once, Raven looked the cameras dead in the eye. “Come at me.”

Holding up the singular Titan Communicator, she showed off the slow red light and beep to the cameras.

Will you see me? What do I have to do…? For you to see me?

“Titans...go.”

She had a look on her face that Midoriya had never seen on her before.

Hope.

And that hope remained on her all through the first event.

“The U.A. Sports Festival first-year qualifier!” Present Mic shouted, recovering from Raven’s out-of-character words. “The first game is…an obstacle course race!”

Chapter 15: Start

Chapter Text

It’s green.

Three lights, lined up for the countdown.

Raven stood at the back of the crowd, watching as a lone soldier when the students in front shoved and pushed their way to the front. Elbows and elbows, palms against bones. It’s light against her feet. It’s pounding against her chest.

Her eyes shut, her body had slowly gotten into position.

Green.

And green.

And red.

“Begin!” Midnight shouted, and Raven broke free.

Lava scorched across the Pacific Ocean, blurring their vision with furious heat waves.

Maybe, Beast Boy thought as he flew across a sea of lava, just maybe, this wasn’t the smartest plan they’d come up with.

Maybe, they’d even call this the dumbest.

But even if Cyborg, the smartest person in the Titans, could risk to hiss and bare it, at least Beast Boy would be the only member stupid enough not just to be their decoy, but to jump-start this whole scheme.

The wings of a green fly beat hurriedly against this stretch of lava, feeling the stretch and skim of heat surrounding him in a cocoon. From kaleidoscopic eyes, scattering thousands and thousands of mirrors, he watched the damned demon sitting large, face relaxed against horns and fangs. He was microscopic to Triton, who stood even taller than 150 meters with his powers, and remained undetected even with his buzz and the feat of his wings.

A couple of seconds left. They had to time this perfectly. Herald had begun to open the portals for their Robin.

His ear was an abyss even to a normal-sized human, standing dark beyond red skin like leather and wisps of stark white hair. Then, with a tiny mental exhale in his tiny fly form, Beast Boy flew deep into Trigon’s eardrum.

Shifting into a blue whale, he burst it.

Every Titan on the ground felt it, eyes widening as they turned to look at each other.

The earth shook with Trigon’s roar of pain, shaking the ground beneath them, splattering lava like boiling water. Beast Boy stood at the epicenter of this earthquake, holding on as his skeleton rattled and his brain knocked against his skull until all he could see were blurs of colors even in the darkness.

“sh*t!” Beast Boy shifted back into a human, free-falling out of Trigon’s ear when the gravity shifted. Stomach slammed into his lungs, and suddenly, that light from the red sky opened up to the glowing lava down below, and he was heading right for it.

Bird feathers slowly cascaded down the air before they were harshly pushed aside.

BAM! A streak of acid green light lit up the sky, moving like a shooting star as Starfire appeared, punching Trigon across the face with her alien strength. With her black-coated hand, her expression mirrored her beloved friend’s, honoring her from the displeased stare, down to the downward tilt of her lips. Cranking her arm, she went in for another punch.

“That leaves it up to you, B Team!” her Titan Communicator sounded.

“I got it!” Jinx emerged from behind broken pillars, hands raised toward this skyscraper of a demon. Eyes glowing hot pink, she hexed Triton. Pink jets of energy struck the demon’s feet, crumbling the floor beneath him, sending him stumbling into the lava below while gravity made an enemy out of him.

Splashes of red came down across Jump City, burning everything in its path.

“Careful!” Speedy complained through their Communicators. “Nice going! You almost hit the goddamned Titan Tower!”

Starfire exhaled, watching as Trigon shrunk several hundred meters before going back to strike him again.

Her blood was on fire with her rage, as heavy breaths left her mouth and as her hair lit up with a bright red. Cranking her arm once more, the pressure on her chest exploded as she met Trigon’s fist once more.

Sneering, Jinx turned those glowing hot pink eyes to his direction, baring her teeth. Opening her mouth, Bumblebee interrupted her.

“Forget him, support Starfire! Titans, now!”

Teenagers from every corner came out from the ruins and raced toward the red demon.

Hundreds of feet thundered toward the entrance.

The voices were deafening in her ear as this wave of humans bobbed and buckled, shouting at each other from footsteps and roars to get to the front.

Huffing irritably, Raven split the crowd with a burst of her powers, sending people far back and forward to clear the space before anyone was suffocated and crushed by this narrow hallway. Shouts of protest rang around her, attempting to grab at her sleeves and pant leg as she ran forward with determined eyes.

The temperature dropped.

A burst of clear ice streaked across the ground, nearly shooting up her leg if not for the platform she created mere seconds before.

“Sorry,” the half-and-half boy muttered, sending ice creeping up the walls and the arena.

“What—?!”

“I can’t move!”

Her heel slammed across her own telekinetic creation, rushing her forward across the dark hallway and into the blinding light as her classmates burst through Todoroki’s ice with created poles, explosions, belly button beams.

“I won’t let you get away, you half-and-half bastard!” Bakugou roared from behind them.

More people from I-A were able to dodge than I expected… Todoroki thought. But… He was searching for that irritating purple.

Her hair bounced around her face as blurs of color surrounded her, lighting her face up with the sun. Narrowing her eyes, millions of watchers could see determination set on this teenage girl’s face as she sprinted toward the unit of robots waiting for them.

“Starting with…” Present Mic shouted into the microphone, “the first obstacle! Robot Inferno!”

“Wait!” The sky was eclipsed by a row of robots as tall as buildings. “Aren’t these the zero-point robots?” Kaminari cried.

“Seriously, the one that the Hero Course had to fight?”

“Is this what they meant by obstacles ?!” another student cried.

“There’s too many, I can’t even see past them!”

Todoroki almost skidded his feet to a stop the second he saw them. Being a recommendation student, he had never encountered these robots from the General Exam, but if he did…

That foreigner wasn’t even looking at him! According to his classmates, Roth took one down during the Exam, on her first try, without breaking a sweat!

There was no time to lose, he thought irritably. If Roth took down one, he could take down ten.

“If they went through all this trouble, they should’ve prepared something better,” he bitterly muttered toward one of the cameras.

Digging his boot on the flattened track, ice burst underneath Todoroki’s sole. Frosty air came up like a mist as white ice swirled on the ground around him before it shot up like pillars.

“Since my stupid old man is watching.”

Goosebumps rose on his arms, the cold biting his skin and drying his lungs, but with an exhale of dragon’s breath, Todoroki swiped his arm across the sky, sending a torrent of ice over the robots, freezing them in place.

“Between their legs! That’s where we can get through!”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he stated with a flat tone. He strode forward cooly. “I froze them when they were unbalanced.” One foot in front of the other, he pushed his strides to be wider, chest burning. “They’ll fall over.”

An explosion of dust was left behind him.

“Todoroki is in the lead!” Present Mic announced, watching from the screen as the boy made a break for it, sending the robots tumbling in his wake.

“He defended and attacked in one go! How elegant! He’s the first one through!”

“sh*t!” Kirishima cried out as the row of robots came down like dominos. Shadows cascaded over him, blanketing him in darkness before he hardened his skin and braced for the impact.

But it never came.

Heart beating from the adrenaline, Raven raced past him, shoulder-to-shoulder as she opened up a portal wide enough for the two of them. Like she had taken a cookie cutter clean across the robot’s chest, the remains of the metal fell around them safely. Mouth opening in awe, Kirishima could only stare wide-eyed as Raven leaped through it like an Olympic hurdler.

“But Roth is the first to break through Todoroki’s hurdle! She’s catching up to him!” the blond shouted.

Todoroki twisted his head around, eyes narrowing in irritation. Dark and bubbling like poison, a large portal opened up behind him, revealing Rachel Roth.

Scowling, his frown twisted the second he saw her expressionless face.

Slamming his feet down on the ground once more, he wasted no time in sending a torrent of ice her way to get her out of the equation. It raced toward her, dropping the temperature like a winter’s day.

Raising an eyebrow at him, Raven was quick on her feet. Immediately, she created a force field around him, sending his ice curling up and around Todoroki, successfully trapping him in his own Quirk.

f*ck! Teeth gritted in anger, water slowly dripped from the ice above his “prison.” Fueled by his own rage, the ice began melting.

“Unbelievable!” Present Mic called “Roth is now in the lead! She trapped Todoroki in his own ice!”

“It’s amazing!” Slamming his hand down on the mixing desk. “We knew from the start when she entered this school, but her abilities are legions above her classmates! Even now, a couple of months later, if we’re talking about pure powerhouses, she’s still the strongest student of the first years!”

She was set up for success here. There was no way for them to up the difficulty of the obstacle course without making it impossible for many other students to get through, especially since the Sports Festival was the battlefield for all of their classes: General, Support, Business, and Heroics.

“Don’t get too carried away,” Aizawa drawled from underneath huge swathes of bandages. “She still has a long way to go.” Rolling his eyes, Aizawa knew that Mic had a soft spot for her.

“Aizawa…” Present Mic sighed, playfully holding up a fist and shaking it at his friend. “You’re too cool. You’re always looking down on people. She must get that from you, you know!”

Rolling his eyes at his friend’s antics, Aizawa silently turned his eyes back down to the cameras catching every angle of the race. From Bakugou fighting the robots, to Todoroki breaking free from his ice prison and dashing forward again, and even to Shinso where he was being carried by a chariot of other students.

Narrowing his eyes on her cameras, he watched as Roth breezed through their rope obstacle by creating one of her floating platforms and took that across the cavern like a calm elevator ride.

While she was taking two up the red stairs toward the minefield, the remainder of her classmates started to trickle in with lead on their feet as they stared at the bottomless cliff strung with flimsy rope. Even Aizawa had to give it to Raven for not pausing once while the rest of his class stopped stupidly.

“The leader of the pack blazed through! Roth is continents away from her peers!” Excitedly, green eyes quickly scanned all of the cameras, catching every angle. “Todoroki is next! He breezed through the second obstacle! Then Bakugou!”

“Look at her, she’s an entire obstacle ahead even the second guy! And he’s far ahead of everyone else!” the members of the audience cheered.

“That guy is the Flame Hero: Endeavor’s son!”

“What?! Then who’s the girl?!”

“I bet she’s a nepo baby too.”

“I heard from my son who goes here that she’s an American transfer student! She doesn’t have any Hero parents from what we know.”

“What?!”

Back in the heart of Musutafu, Sir Nighteye watched worriedly at the screens that reflected his adoptive daughter’s face.

“Wait, she’s just a transfer student?! She doesn’t even have Japanese citizenship?!”

She’s—

Everyone watched as the titular Rachel Roth briefly met eyes with the camera once more before easily turning forward once more, scattering strands of loose purple hair across her face.

Just some girl!

“The leaders of the pack are steps ahead, but below them, everyone’s clumped together! They haven't announced how many people are allowed to move forward yet, so don’t relax! Keep pushing forward!” Present Mic stated. “And now, Roth has arrived at the final barrier! Everyone better tread carefully…. You’re stepping onto a minefield! If you step carefully, you might be able to see where we’ve buried the mines, so keep your eyes on the ground, folks!” Leaning closer to the microphone for dramatic effect, he waved a finger in the air. “These landmines are made for games, so they’re not powerful, but they’re loud and flashy enough to make you wet your pants!

Breaths growing heavier with every step, Izuku grounded his molars as he carried his iron plate with him. She’s already made it to the final obstacle…? Faster, you can do this!

Raven stride never broke for a second. Taking a quick step forward, a black platform immediately bloomed underneath her sole, hovering a mere centimeter over the minefield and allowing her to step on safely without having to worry about the mines nor where they were buried. With every step she took, another platform was created underneath her shoes, one after another.

It was true that the obstacle course like this was a walk in the park for someone like Rachel Roth.

However, there was a reason why their rules for this first task were “as long as you stay within the lines, anything goes.”

The obstacles that they created were never made to stop Roth.

Aizawa had already warned her once before, he thought as he looked at her in the cameras, and then casually slid his eyes to the two figures easily gathering speed behind her.

He had said that in a Hero world like this, as long as she stood strong at the Number One spot…

Raven raced forward as the crowd of people followed her from behind.

It was never going to be just the villains and the obstacles that she had to worry about.

Her lungs were straining from the exertion, heart beating at a rapid pace and pumping blood so loudly that she could feel it in every vein. There was a creeping feeling on her skin that she was unfamiliar with, causing the hair on the back of her neck to rise, and causing the sensation to creep up from her arms to her shoulders.

She had been seen before. Photographed for newspapers, newscasts, for pictures with random “fans” on the street. However, even when it was her full face or her shadowed features underneath a dark hood, her place was always there, comfortably behind or beside her fellow Titans or focused on the villain she was beating. This was what it would take for them to find her, so be it, and yet—

It was never like this, as the center of every camera across every corner of Japan, engraved in viral video clips, as the sole focus of all 100,000 people in the U.A. stadium right now.

Staring up at the swirling sky, she looked up at the clouds curved in circles over the arena against the thousands and thousands of people sitting over her.

She realized, as two boys were closing the distance behind her—

“BLACKTOP! You suck!”

Everyone’s looking at me…!

BOOM!

Rachel Roth was shining like she had never before.

His heart fell to his stomach.

Blazing, bright, the apple of everyone’s eye. Her name couldn’t be removed from Present Mic’s lips, the cameras couldn’t take their eyes off her.

Worse of all, at the level that he was now, with the defect he had been given, he had no idea how to stop it.

He had hoped that with her personality and appearance, she’d continue to remain in the shadows where she belonged: undetectable, safe.

Because if she continued to sparkle anymore, he thought, pressing his lips together, he’d have no other choice, but to tell him .

Trigon roared once more, sending sonic booms toward the alien girl. Her eardrums burst upon contact, gritting her teeth before getting blown away in the impact while her vision blurred. Pain spread from either side of her head; every nerve in her brain was lit then numbed.

“Got you!” Wally called out, speeding forward and catching Kori before she met the ground.

By the time he put her near Cyborg’s feet, the damage was healed, but the dizziness had yet to clear.

“It’s okay,” Cyborg told her softly. She was physically the strongest in the entire Titans, they had no choice but to send her first. Scanning the scene, Victor caught sight of Trigon doing the same to every other Titan, sending blasts their way and throwing them across the city, scattering them like flies. But no casualties, he thankfully realized.

Yet.

“But it is okay! I believe we have obtained his attention!” Starfire said with determination. That was all they needed.

Flying toward the rock they were on, Beast Boy hurriedly turned into a dog, shaking off earwax from his body and splashing it on Kid Flash and Cy.

“Yeah, just remind me never to do that again!” the green-haired boy complained. “Satan’s earwax has to have some poison in it.”

BOOM!

Opening his mouth, Trigon sent a gigantic burst of fire toward the four of them, blazing the surface of their skin with insane heat before the torrent stopped, revealing a black force field holding strong over their figures. Lowering his arm, Cyborg allowed the force field to disappear when the assault ended.

“I see,” Trigon muttered. Now closer to their level and their size, he was able to recognize it clearly. He had initially thought that she had given them a simple spell of protection before she left, but now he knew better, “My darling daughter had left you with a larger parting gift than I had originally realized,” he recognized.

His dearest child had split her powers into fractions, scattering it across all of her little friends.

“After what you had done,” Cyborg had said clearly. With his eyes narrowed, his voice never wavered once, even in the face of the Devil. “You don’t have any right to call her your daughter.”

“That’s right!” Kid Flash called into the open air. “You’re just a sh*tty deadbeat dad!” His skin was slick with sweat from the magma, reflecting white across their vision.

There was a pause, a silence so quiet that it crept up on them just like a horror movie. Then, every Titan in the area jumped when he laughed.

Not soft chuckles or muffled snorts, but a loud, booming laugh that caused the entire area to shake and tremble. His large chest rose and fell with every chortle, lips stretched wide across his face.

“Not a good father?” he asked slyly with a smile on his face. “Don’t I do what every father wishes for their cute little daughters?”

What was it that his beautiful wife had said when he saw her last? Ah, yes.

It was deathly quiet; he heard her loud and clear. Against the ruins of Azarath, with her last breaths, Angela had said to him, “I know Raven…”

“I know my daughter,” Trigon mocked, “so I know that she’s just like her daddy. I want nothing more than for her to reach her fullest potential wherever she is.”

Eyes blazing green once more, rage filled Starfire with every word out of his mouth. With one hand on each side of her, Beast Boy and Cyborg quickly held her down.

“And she can’t do that by pretending to be what she’s not.”

“What are you talking about?!” Gar couldn’t help but say.

Smirk growing on his face. “Why don’t I show you?” Four eyes glowing red, every Titan outside gasped when his magic signature appeared glowing beneath them. Horror rooted them to their spot. “I may be the purveyor of all darkness, but you will see…”

Screams of agony rang across the city as the magic signature activated and glowed. Red bolts of lightning coursed through all of their bodies, igniting every nerve in their body, striking every inch with intense pain.

His chest felt like an anvil, Beast Boy desperately clutched it. If he could reach in with a clawed hand, to rip out the aching of lungs, he’d do it just to chase that relief. Like all of them were being split into two, he roared, unconsciously morphing parts of his body into different creatures to cope with the pain, but no matter what animal, it was all the same.

Dust scattered around them, bringing up large clouds that became like the fog over the Bay.

When the dust cleared, all of them were faced with mirrors of themselves. Completely donned in monochrome from head to toe, it was as if the dust scraped every bit of color and light from their bodies, except for the glowing red eyes fitted into their sockets.

“Huh…” Gar tried to say in an attempt at humor while Wally stared at his self with horror. “I always thought that I looked…taller…” His voice became meek.

His clone didn’t even give him a little smile.

“Just how strong you are when you’re your own worst enemy.”

Cautiously taking a few steps back, the Titans only stood in wait like prey while their clones paused to strike.

“This is really weird,” Más y Menos called out while Jericho worriedly pressed his lips together.

“HA!” Cyborg’s clone called out, racing forward and striking his original self across the face, sending him flying.

If only people realized what he had, he thought. That once an individual had no reservations, stripped themselves of all morals, they would reach a power they never knew that they had.

Fighting his baby daughter’s little friends was beneath him anyway. Easing himself back down on his glorified throne that was Titan Tower, he watched the gladiator show below him as entertainment.

Oh, he was having so much fun.

He wished, above all else right now, he’d have his daughter here to see this too.

. . .

Among a red sky in the former utopia of Azarath, Arella began losing the color in her eyes as blood trickled out of her in rivulets, coating the ruins of the temple floor in a pool so dark that it appeared black, and staining her white robe so well that it looked like it was always red.

Staring up at her former husband, she could only mutter her last words.

“She will always be a good person.”

sh*t! She had caught that blue and blond blur in her peripheral vision too late, and Bakugou crept up on her like a snake.

She had felt it before she could react: the building heat across the side of her face and then the blinding explosion of light that sent her off her platform and flying across the minefield.

“Gotcha!” Bakugou screamed in victory when she skidded away uncontrollably. Casting a force field beneath her at the last minute, she was saved from being blown away by the landmines by the skin of her teeth.

Snapping her head up, her hair was strewn over her face, obscuring her vision, but not enough to see Todoroki and Bakugou begin to push at each other from side to side, neck and neck.

“Roth is finally out of the lead!” Mic roared. “And the rest of the pack is catching up! What a turn of events!”

Palms flat against the ground, she stretched her soul self across the minefield, sending screams across the arena as the entire ground was coated with black. When her soul self reached Todoroki and Bakugou, two telekinetic hands reached out from underneath them, grabbing both of their ankles and yanking them back and off the ground.

Two grunts rang across all screens as their bodies both met the dirt beneath them.

Huffing when she realized that unfortunately there were no mines underneath them, she couldn’t fixate on this any longer. Getting up off her feet, the black returned to her and she made the quick dash forward and passed them once more.

Slapping his right hand on the ground, Todoroki sent frost across the ground, slipping under Raven’s shoe and causing her to lose her footing on the surface.

I should’ve gotten cleats if this was going to piss me off again…! She thought, and she believed that she already had enough of Todoroki.

“DIEEE!” Bakugou shouted, jumping at her with explosions popping in his hands.

And I should’ve tied their shoelaces together, she thought dully.

“What is this?!” Mic called. “The three leads are all fighting each other in the middle of the field! Even as they’re scraping their way to the finish line, they can’t help but duke it out with each other! This is currently being broadcasted on Put Your Hands Up Radio’s website, cast your votes right now who you think will win!”

“Mic!” Aizawa snapped.

Dodging Bakugou’s assault, she barely skimmed by and could feel the edges of her P.E. shirt scorch. At the end of the day, Aizawa’s hypothesis was beginning to become true.

He was right, Roth was a powerhouse in every sense of the word, but it was an unfortunate fact that even after his lessons with her after school, that never granted them enough time to solve her speed and her reaction time. She was still painfully average in those two areas.

Without physical barriers like robots that could provide the offensive, if Roth’s only task was to fly or run across something, it was inevitable that someone could catch up to her.

She, Todoroki, and Bakugou were locked, continually trying to drag each other down, trapped in the same five steps before the other two pulled them back to square one.

Dizzy, she was steps away from sending them away with blasts of Azarath Metrion Zinthos, the words were stolen from her mouth with a large explosion and a plume of pink.

Snapping her head to the side, her entire vision was swallowed by baby pink.

“There’s a large explosion in the back!” Mic announced.

“What the…” Eyes slightly wide, her lip dropped slightly, watching the projectile become clearer and clearer as it headed straight for them.

“f*ck…?” Bakugou finished, face twisted into something ugly.

“Class A’s Midoriya is in hot pursuit!” All three heads twisted and turned as Midoriya made an arc over them. “Actually he’s in the lead!”

“DEKU!!” Bakugou yelled, heading for the skies as his explosions made jets behind him, desperately chasing after the falling boy.

Clicking his tongue, Todoroki created a path underneath him with ice, accelerating his speed with every stride.

Biting her tongue, Raven paused for a split second, wondering about her next plans, scanning the ground for as far as she could see before catching a normal stride.

“These three formerly in the lead have stopped trying to slow each other down and are now chasing Midoriya! Talk about a common enemy, huh?! The fight’s not over yet, though!”

Then, mid-thought, she raised her eyebrows as Midoriya began to lose momentum, slowly cascading down toward the ground. As if the seconds were ticking off in her head, she watched as the three of them met in the middle. Plating his feet firmly on Todoroki and Bakugou’s shoulders, he whipped the iron plate around his back and forward. Slamming it onto the ground, the landmines hummed with energy before blasting him ahead like a bullet.

“Midoriya blocked those behind him! He cleared the minefield in an instant and now he’s in the lead! Eraserhead, your class is amazing! What have you been teaching them?!”

“I didn’t do anything.”

Pushing themselves faster, running harder, increasing their strides.

Beneath her feet, a new portal opened up.

“They got each other fired up on their own.”

Narrowing her eyes on the finish line that she could now see, she set her destination against three running figures.

“Right now…” Mic continued.

Back in his office, Sir Nighteye was so close to the screen that his glasses were permanently lit with white, where not even a single person could see his eyes.

“The first person back to that stadium is…”

Stepping out of her portal, she sprinted forward.

“Midoriya Izuku!”

The crowd became deafening.

“Second! Todoroki Shouto!”

They were nearly neck and neck, skidding to a stop the second they got across the finish line. Chests rising and falling with the exertion, Todoroki rested his hand on his hip as he panted, eyes turned to the ground.

“Third! Bakugou Katsuki!”

Hands trembling, he couldn’t get them to rest.

“Fourth! Roth Rachel! They all cleared the finish line within seconds of each other! These were the closest calls we’ve ever made! Everyone…”

Raven turned her head toward the scoreboard, staring at the only English name that reflected back at them. Sighing from the exhaustion, her hand pulled her bangs back from her face.

“Please give our first few winners a round of applause!”

Their steps were nearly silent. After years of working under the Dark Knight himself, it was easy for Robin to quiet his steps like a cat, crouched low to the ground. Not even a single creak or thud sounded across the darkened Titans Tower on wood and tile.

It was desolate here. Overturned furniture, flooding in certain areas from burst pipes, dented and broken walls. Even with the hundreds of windows across their skyscraper, they were plunged in complete darkness.

On the outside world, they could hear the remnants of the battle they were left from. From scattered screams, slams, explosions, and roars. The sky was lit with bright purples, blues, and greens. Occasionally, the building shook so hard that it caused dust and plaster to rain from the ceiling.

“Are you worried?” Herald whispered. No one else was around to hear it, but he felt as if he spoke any louder, the air around them would shatter.

“...No,” Robin replied, continuing his steady crawl toward Raven’s abandoned room.

“It is natural to be,” Herald said, seeing right through him.

“I believe in the Titans out there,” he responded. These words gripped him in a vice, desperate and feverous. He was not a wishful thinker. He never had the wool pulled over his eyes. “Whatever they want, they’ll always achieve.”

Yet he couldn’t get out the words on how this feat was a new proportion that they had never even dreamt of crossing. He believed in the Titans, that was true, but they did not make miracles. He knew, from the bottom of his heart, that in an occupation like this, it was always about the people they couldn’t save — and the people he has yet to lose.

“I believe in our duet as well! And I believe in Raven. But I can also believe in everyone’s success, and be worried about the fact that everyone is going to get hurt.”

At the entrance to Raven’s bedroom, Robin paused, unsure. The metal briefcase with the words Wayne Corp across the front clattered against the floor when he put it down.

“Thank you…for believing in Raven,” was all he could get out.

“Of course, she was the one who recruited me. I have boundless faith in her and this fight against her father, wherever she is.” Herald looked him in the eye, from behind his domino mask. “It is not just us saving her, but I believe she is also saving herself. She is a strong girl.”

Head bowed, hiding his resolve, Robin turned to the keypad beside her door and opened her door. As the leader of the team, he was able to go into everyone’s rooms in case of an emergency, and he had never abused that fact.

It opened with a beep. The lock managed to open, but ran out of electricity mid-way, forcing them to break down her door.

Only then did their footsteps echo.

Raven’s room was exactly what he expected from its owner. She had left her skylight open, flooding the room with red light. It dripped onto her dark walls and onto the lavender bed sheets over her round bed. Books overflowed their shelves and made large piles on the floor, with some used as makeshift tables to hold other knick knacks like small statues and figures. Several mismatched candle holders and candelabras were scattered across the tops of drawers, her vanity, and nightstands.

It was as if she never left. This room was still here, waiting for its owner to return. For every book that she loved, and left unread, and every outfit left unworn.

Exhaling ruefully, Robin caught sight of the stupid chicken plush that Beast Boy won her from the fair, still laying on her bed while his chest melted.

“Let's start looking.”

“Hey! Wanna be on my team?”

“No wait! Join me!”

“You got a team yet?!”

“Uh…” Raven stared blankly at the growing crowd around her, eyes falling from one unfamiliar face to the other..

“Excuse me,” a tiny voice spoke from the middle of the crowd, cheeks and body squished from boney elbows and knees. “Please, excuse me!” Pushing her way up to the front, Uraraka was finally opened up to the sun and was faced with an extremely awkward Raven being crowded by a sea of classmates she didn’t know.

“Hey, Rachel-chan!” Uraraka excitedly said when she finally saw her friend again. “I’m so glad I caught up with you!” she said, dragging Raven away from the crowd of people. “Deku is being totally bummed right now because no one wants to team up with him ‘cause of the ten million points thing, but I wanna ask you if you want to join us!” The brunette grabbed her hands and looked up at her excitedly. A bright pink appeared on Uraraka’s cheeks. Raising an eyebrow, she looked behind the brunette and saw Izuku sulking in the background, a cloud of despair hanging over him. She didn’t even have to use her empathy powers to know that.

“Cause you’re the strongest in the class, you have more than enough power to maneuver through the ten mill target on him, so can you pleasseeee join us?” Clasping her hands together, Uraraka tried her best to make puppy dog eyes.

“What an ugly face,” a voice from behind Raven called.

“Excuse you?!” Uraraka shrieked, hackles raised. Shinso clapped a hand on Raven’s shoulder before she carelessly shrugged it off.

“Uh, sorry, I already promised Shinso I’d join his team, and you guys have three people already.”

Allegedly, it was common even in normal sports festivals across Japan, but she needed Shinso to explain to her what a “kibasen” was. She had heard of a “chicken fight” but this time they would need to hoist the rider up like a horse and its chariot in a piggyback.

“Oh,” Drooping her shoulders sadly, she looked up at the two of them. “I see, sorry.” She understood, must’ve been some purple hair solidarity.

“My hair’s technically indigo,” Shinso said.

She said that out loud?!

“Good luck to your team,” Raven called, waving before turning away with her partner.

Perking up, Uraraka waved at them. “Good luck to you too!”

Feet grinding against loose gravel on the field, she stared blankly at the space in front of her.

Truthfully, Raven didn’t really care about this task. Her goal was to be seen for the Titans to easily find her later down the line, while trying to get a good score and getting a good internship was at the back of her mind, despite what Sir Nighteye might say. She knew that with her strength, regardless of who she teamed up with next, she would be able to make it to the final task where they would hold one-on-one battles. That would be where the moneymaker was.

Most viral videos from past Sports Festivals came from that final event, and it was much easier to see her and have the cameras focus on her then, than it would be now in a team event.

“Should’ve asked her to ditch them and join us,” Shinso said as they walked ahead.

“She’s too loyal to Midoriya to do that,” Raven easily replied. “I can cover offensive and defensive, what we need is agility and speed.”

“What? Why?” he squinted at her.

“Because look at us,” she snapped. It was as if a camera zoomed out on them and their average physiques. Compared to the other classmates who were built like brick houses, they looked like losers. “Without Quirks we’re just two slowpokes. We wouldn’t stand a chance if we don’t balance the team.”

“Take your pick then,” Shinso shrugged easily, gesturing to the crowd ahead. Raising her eyebrow at him, he continued, “Choose someone you really want and I’ll brainwash them.”

“Am I shopping for groceries? Ask people for their consent, asshole,” Raven shot back at him. Huffing, Iida would be her first pick, but she was too slow and it looked like he went to join Todoroki’s team already. From the way Todoroki occasionally stared at her with enough intensity to catch her on fire, she doubted that he’d let Iida switch sides. Scanning the crowd of stragglers without a team, she thought over and over on her list of qualities.

“Ojiro,” she called out to the surprise of the blond boy. He spun around with wide eyes. “Do you want to join our team?”

“Wait, really, me?” Raven blinked lazily at him.

“Yeah.” They needed a heavy hitter.

To her that was the end of the conversation. She turned too quickly to see the boy break out in a pink flush, a shy smile appearing on his face while she tried to scope out their other team. Deadpanning, Shinso sent the blond a flat expression before following lazily behind her.

“Rae-chan,” a voice stopped in front of her. “Do you need a fourth member, kero?”

Eyes widening, she turned to their final member.

. . .

Raven turned to the other teams stationed evenly around the diameter of their “battlefield.” Hoards of unfamiliar faces looked back at her, anxiety building around her, anticipation and excitement, but furthermore, staring at the eyes of the other riders: Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugou, she could see how they sat like sharks.

They awaited blood, ready to strike.

With eyes trained to the floor, she could feel how they stared at her.

She didn’t need to win, and since they all deemed Shinso as their strategist, she didn’t even need to dominate the opponents. He firmly told them to avoid the ten million and go pick after smaller teams and gradually build their points. It would be too obvious, he said, that blockheads like Todoroki and Bakugou would clearly go after Midoriya, and that was a carnage that he didn’t want to be in.

With Raven as their rider, it would be impossible to lay low, especially as the current highest-ranking first-year student, but rather than poking dragons, it was natural that they’d be predators to the prey.

Although when she first heard this, she said, “Wait, Tsuyu is the smallest one out of all of us, isn’t she the one being carried?” Wouldn’t that be easier?

But even the rainy-day girl stared at Raven like she was crazy, replying that Raven was the strongest out of all four of them, so it was natural that she would be the rider. Shinso could use his Quirk with ease at the front, and since Ojiro had a tail, he had to take the back to defend and attack.

“Just don’t flatten me with your weight, American,” Hitoshi said then.

“Say that again and I’ll crush you with my fat.”

Looking at each other, Tsuyu and Ojiro turned away from each other without a word. There was no need for them to comment on that conversation.

Now, the countdown had started. From the building excitement to the millions waiting to see them, to the teachers standing around watching them.

Shifting uncomfortably, Shinso clicked his tongue at her from his position as the head of the “horse.”

“Stop that, do you want me to drop you?” Head turned, he narrowed his dark eyes on the competition, admiring the thousands that surrounded them from the seats above, watching their every move. Even though it was Raven that they were looking at, with him there, it would be hard to ignore them now: his skill, his power, and what they could do, for each other and everyone else.

Just do… The arena spun around them. What you do best, Raven.

“Start!”

BANG!

Robin slammed another drawer shut after he came up empty.

Not there either.

The darkness of the room worked against them, swallowing their target, having them chase shadows.

Hands waving freely, black emerged from her palms. Pushing aside the winding vines from the other team, Raven sent projections forward, blocking and slicing against green.

“Tail!” Shinso called, eyes narrowing in determination.

Sweat dropping, Ojiro could only weakly reply, “I have a name, you know…”

“Tetsutetsu!” the silver boy’s teammate called. “Your headband!”

Slipping the headband over her neck, Raven crossed her hands in an X, pulling up a slab of blackened earth from the ground and dropping it back, blocking them from coming after her even as one of their members melted the ground with his Quirk.

“She must’ve hid it better after Beast Boy and Cyborg found it laying around,” Robin surmised, turning in the room. Irritation swirled in his chest like a tornado. Outside, soot, smog, and debris clattered against her large windows.

It wasn’t on her vanity, nor in her drawers.

“Well, you know her best out of the two of us,” Herald said. “If you were her, where would you put it?”

“Wait, he’s—!” Hitoshi’s eyes widened with shock.

“Understood,” she replied easily.

Lightning coursed through the battlefield, striking down every single person in the vicinity. Hidden by her force field, every one of her team members crouched under the protection of her Quirk. Dropping it the second Kaminari couldn’t hold on to it any more, she straightened up, scanning the surroundings, staring as Momo released her shock-protection blanket.

Holding his breath, Raven’s mirror was held up in his hands. Turning it over in his palm, the residual light caught the surface of the mirror.

“Rae-chan!” Tsuyu called out.

Eyes shot wide open, her body seized, struck by lightning.

Letting out desperate, suffocated gulps, oxygen wasn’t entering her body.

Ojiro gasped, catching her in place when Raven’s body slumped over.

She was frozen. She couldn’t move.

When the tell-tale sign of her rising and falling chest wasn’t pulsing on his back anymore, Shinso turned around in horror.

“Your headband!” The frog girl’s tongue whipped out in a desperate attempt to grab it from the air.

“What’s this?! Team Roth has fallen below the mark! Their headband has been stolen!” Mic shouted.

“What do we do?!” Ojiro asked.

As slow as a petal falling from the sky, she was snapped back to reality, starting with the way her eyes slowly trailed after the end of her headband, highlighted with a bright 195 written across it in red.

Head turning to the side, she narrowed in on Todoroki’s team, catching the sight of her headband in his hands.

“He has the ten million too!” Shinso roared.

“Start the countdown!” their blond teacher hyped up.

From every corner, the remaining teams started to flock toward Team Todoroki.

Reaching out her arm, pointing her palm his way, the entire arena went dark.

Robin watched as his reflection stared back at him, from the same black hair, same pale skin, identical suit, then opened up to reveal four red eyes on his face .

“WHAT IS THIS?!” Mic yelled. Every camera blacked out. Screams filled the arena, swallowing the entire area in horror from the field to the seats all the way up to the nosebleeds. The familiar sound of floodlights beaming on around the entire diameter of the arena played in their ears, but to no avail.

It was as if everyone was looking with their eyes closed.

“The entire arena…all of the cameras… They’re all blacked out! The entire U.A. Sports Festival…has gone dark!” Mic crowed.

“Roth…” Aizawa said, eyes flickering red on instinct, but it was hopeless when all he could see was black.

“Iida-san,” Momo cried in the darkness. Everyone knew whose work this was. “Please get us out of here!”

“W-Where?! Where do I go?”

Bakugou’s roars and the pops of his explosions rang in their ears, but the light was nowhere to be seen.

He could feel himself spinning in his spot, trying to catch any indication of where he was, where anyone was, but felt the landscape grow endlessly around him.

Tch…! Todoroki gritted his teeth. Should he…?

“DAMNED BLACKTOP, WHERE THE f*ck ARE YOU?! COME HERE, YOU sh*tTY AMERICAN!”

No. Balling his left hand in a fist, he wouldn’t even resort to that.

“Should I try lighting it up?” Kaminari desperately asked.

“No! I wouldn’t be able to tell if the blanket would cover our teammates!” Momo cried.

Todoroki’s right hand tightened on her headband, digging his fingernails into the palm of his hand from the fabric. As long as he made sure to keep his remaining senses fixed on the headband in his hand and the ten million around his neck—

Wait.

Where was it?

His free hand raised and met with empty space. No ten million headband around his neck, nor any of the other headbands his team had collected.

Breath catching in his throat, he whirled around trying to find anything—anything!

“Three!” Mic counted.

Only the characteristic sign of four glowing red eyes that disappeared as soon as it came.

Holding his breath, his neck nearly twisted with whiplash when he looked twice. The empty space spun for nothing.

“Two!”

Like blinking, as fast as a single second, all light was returned.

All darkness had disappeared, nothing of it remained.

Electric dings filled the stadium. Raven’s team climbed the scoreboard, spinning their numbers like a slot game. Headbands from every corner flew over Hitoshi’s neck, crowning him over and over.

And every headband that wasn’t tightly in someone’s grasp, now belonged to them.

“Time’s up!” Mic screeched.

Only the headbands in Dark Shadow’s beak, the headbands held furiously in Bakugou’s hand, and Raven’s former headband in Todoroki’s grasp kept them barely bobbing over the surface.

“A record we’ve never seen before!” Mic awarded. “In indisputable first place, with 10,003,290 points, Team Roth!”

Although the audience roared and cheered by the sudden turn of events, the first place looked far from victorious.

Crouched on the ground after Tsuyu and Ojiro let her down, Raven’s palms were dug far deep into her eyes, preventing anyone from seeing what was beyond her dark bangs.

“Are you okay, kero? Do you need to go to Recovery Girl?” Tsuyu asked, panicked.

“Raven, say something!” Hitoshi pleaded, adorned with all of the wreaths and ribbons of their spoils as he shook her shoulders.

No…! What…is going on?! she begged. They were split into different dimensions, the connection was too far. Her mindscape, where she should’ve been able to reach, was far too blurry. She could feel it, what should’ve easily been hers, but couldn’t pinpoint what was happening. It was too far away.

And now that Trigon had taken over, the land in her head resembled radioactive hotspots.

Get out!

Crash landing into Raven’s mindscape, Robin and Herald lifted their heads to see the land that resembled hell.

Chapter 16: Silence

Chapter Text

“Leave me alone.”

In a flash, Raven was up again on her feet, back straightened, and looking down at her former teammates with cold, normal eyes. Yet, despite her calm tone, the chill of her expression was foreign — even for her. Hitoshi and Tsuyu’s hands were still held up, jaws dropped, when she slapped their arms away, prying herself forcefully from them.

“But—” Ojiro was the only person brave enough to speak up while the other two continued to have eyes wide with shock.

“Don’t follow me,” Raven ordered when Present Mic called for lunch and recess. Without another word, she turned away, voice muffled by the cheerful classical music that Mic played from the speakers.

“Hey!” Shinso called out, brows furrowed, but his voice was carried away by energetic trumpets and trombones, and her figure had gradually been swallowed by the growing crowd.

There was no stopping this.

It’s recognizable, her chest becoming hotter in horror as her skull numbed in the growing pain.

There was an invader in her mindscape. There was a nasty habit she itched to do: biting her nails, teeth digging down on her lip, grinding her teeth. She had never been driven to that extent before, and now, suddenly, she could see why everyone else around her let out these tics and tells. The thought alone could send ice down her veins and she forced herself to stop before she even started—lest someone would see her.

There was no telling who the invader was from her end, she had been too disconnected for far too long. She could use her negligence as an excuse for her behavior at U.S.J., but this entire time, there just had been so much more to worry about universe traveling, adapting to different cultures, a different world.

She didn’t give it any thought before, and now it came crashing down on her.

Someone is in her head, and she can’t get them out.

It’s a place far too distant for her to reach despite it being hers.

“Raven-san?”

The last time Beast Boy and Cyborg had been in her head, the effects were already momentous, changing her moods suddenly, seeping her dreams into a reality. Yet, they were only in her head for a few hours before she caught them. Who was in her head? Why were they there? How long would they stay?

She can excuse and rationalize that due to the difference in universe, her nightmares won’t seep into here, she believed . That was the extreme result, one that Beast Boy and Cyborg didn’t even do yet. It seemed likely that Raven wouldn’t have to spend her time beating back manifestations of Trigon and her Emoticlones, but what about what she could do?

What about the moods she’d fall back and forth from?

Raven was also a being that fell victim to her own empathic powers. It was one thing for her to be snappy, then sad, but what if that stretched too far, and everyone else around her was overcome with rage, devastation, all in a split second.

Not to mention, it was never just her rage, her fury, but what she’d do with it, and what her powers would do to her when she experienced those feelings.

Head bowed, she was calling for help, pleading for that figure to get out of her head, but she was not a girl who preyed.

What will happen to me?

“Raven-san!” Two fingers tapped her shoulder. Hands gripping her empty tray, she nearly whirled around and whacked the person with it out of defense, but slacked her shoulders when she realized it was just Midoriya. Her heart jumped for no reason.

“Oh, Midoriya,” she replied coolly, turning back to her place in line.

“I-I was trying to call you this entire time,” he tried to explain, moving into a spot in line next to her, “but it seemed like you were lost in thought.”

Purple hair shaded her from his vision. Palms slicked with sweat, surrounded by thousands of others that were chatting happily, it became painfully obvious that despite decimating the cavalry battle, winning the favor of the millions at home, that Raven’s mood was horrifically sour.

Shoulders slumped, head bowed, and the furrow of her brow, none of her teammates were there celebrating with her, and even her aura was so intense that anyone who looked her way to congratulate her immediately turned.

When he looked forward and realized that Raven looked into the space behind and beside him, he perked up. “Oh! Uraraka-san and Iida-kun are meeting up with their parents! Iida-kun’s taking a call with them and Uraraka-san is at the festival area with her parents right now!”

“Oh.” That could explain why they weren’t stuck to his side like always.

Moving one up, they were at the front of the line, open to the large spread that Lunch Rush had curated for this event. While their cafeteria food was normally already good, for a special event like this, they had stepped it up. The typical donburis, bentos, onigiris, tempuras, and noodle soups were still there, but this time there were extravagant parfaits, macarons with the Sports Festival logo printed on them, cupcakes, neat sashimi plates, and they brought an ice cream fridge in, among dozens other treats down the buffet line that she couldn’t see.

Silently placing a bowl of udon noodles and a parfait on her tray, she gave Lunch Rush a mumbled thanks before turning away quickly, drifting toward a free table. Shocked, Midoriya quickly filled up his tray and gave a hurried bow to Lunch Rush before going after her.

Sliding into the seat across from her, he tried to break the silence. “I just want to say you did great out there, Raven-san!” It was brilliant, he had never thought that her range could stretch so far. He obviously knew how powerful she was as seen in class and U.S.J, but covering the entirety of the Sports Festival in darkness was a new height he had never seen before. It was different than having all of the power concentrated in one small space.

Midoriya being Midoriya, he had already written it in his notebook.

He was upset at their loss, but she had ripped the rug out from under them, Team Midoriya ended up in second place, Team Bakugou was third, and Team Todoroki was last.

Midoriya told himself he’d do better next time, but looking at Raven, it didn’t seem like she was their usurper.

She was not a woman of many faces, but even now, he wouldn’t even be able to tell if she had won or lost if he had not known. This was different from her usual attitude.

Something was wrong.

Not to mention, what she meant during her speech.

As the most mysterious classmate of 1-A, there was no telling who Raven really was, or what she had done before she came to U.A.

Her speech was not meant for them or anyone else in Japan. Speaking in English, her words were for people beyond their knowledge, and most likely, for people far above their caliber.

What did she mean by waiting for them to come find her? What happened to them? Why couldn’t she be the one to go to them?

Staring at her, Midoriya’s eyes shone with determination.

Their classmates were welcome to speculate and conspire, but no one really knew. She wasn’t a talker, and from what everyone knew, she had never confided in anyone, with anyone.

Yet as she stood up there, filled with a hope Midoriya had never seen before, brandishing her unfamiliar communicator, she had opened the gates to answer some of their questions and filled them with a million more.

After all, even after months of being their classmate, no one knew who Rachel Roth was.

“What did Todoroki want to tell you?” she snapped him out of his thoughts. She could feel him staring at her, trying to pick her apart. Raven was desperate to change the topic. She had seen — and heard the bicolored boy take Midoriya away, hiding themselves in a corner where no one could see them.

Midoriya nearly jumped in his seat. “H-Huh?” Dull purple eyes looked back at him. “O-Oh…” Like he was a victim to Todoroki’s Quirk, in his chest, winter had come. His mind moved a mile a minute. By seeing the girl in front of him, he had nearly forgotten.

“It’s, um….” He fiddled with his fingers underneath the table, careful to avoid her eyes. “It’s really personal to Todoroki, so I don’t think I’m allowed to say…” Shrugging, Raven returned to her parfait.

She didn’t care one way or another.

“But…it looks like he has a hard family life…that I can’t even fathom,” Izuku finished, voice breathless. A weight hung on his shoulders, dragging him further and further down until all he could see was the mess he left with his lunch. For eyes that were normally filled with so much presence , suddenly they were lost.

To imagine that a classmate of his, one of the strongest in the class, had such a scary backstory, such an abusive household. Midoriya could count himself as fortunate even. Although Midoriya knew that his family didn’t have nearly as many privileges as the Todoroki family, nor did his father hang around much, he had a warm home and a mother who loved him dearly. He knew that.

“So?” She was careless.

His head snapped up immediately. “Huh?” His heart lept to his throat.

“Todoroki shared it with you, but it’s not your business,” Raven stated, shrugging.

For a second, Midoriya sat there, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of others in the cafeteria, yet they spun on a planet of their own. Eyes wide, mouth agape, he stared at her. He wondered why Todoroki was the one with the ice Quirk, but Raven was the one being so cold. Purple eyes narrowed at him.

“Nor mine, nor anyone else’s,” she finished.

“I…” A deep sigh left his lips, brows knitted. His chest ached. That was true, Todoroki’s life was his own. He knew that.

However, as he stood across the hallway from Todoroki Shouto, watching the way the obstructed sun shined just for the red-and-white-haired boy, Deku couldn’t help but think—

Against vivid descriptions of how his mother constantly cried, of how his mother poured boiling water over his left side, Todoroki was crying out for help.

Suddenly, like a bucket of cold water being poured over him, Raven said, something he would’ve never expected from a Hero student.

“You can’t help everyone.” Her voice was distant. Although her voice was strong, she wasn’t there.

Gasping deeply, Midoriya whirled his head toward her. It cut through the air like knives, burrowing deep into his chest while his nerves constricted.

“How…”

Unlike the Todoroki that stood in front of him, half-shadowed by the awning they stood over, beckoning for the light he lacked, Raven sat in front of him completely bathed in the artificial lights, hidden by her own hood, draping darkness over the curve of her nose.

Yet he could see her cold eyes as clear as day.

You couldn’t save everyone, but how could Raven decide to help civilians on the street, but not a boy in her own classroom? How could she react so coldly to these hints that someone she knew was in an abusive household?

“How could you say that?” Midoriya finally breathed. Eyes widening, Raven leaned back at the look on his face. With a frown marring the boy’s face and the furrowed brows, she realized she had never seen this look on him before.

Izuku didn’t want to do anything extreme. Todoroki was the ruler of his own choices. He wasn’t going to march over to Endeavor, demanding proper care of his son. He couldn’t take Todoroki out of that situation — one with a house that was always too quiet, one where the people he loved weren’t around. He knew that Raven wasn’t soft and gentle, but with her words — her reaction to Deku’s hints about Todoroki’s home life, she was unreachable.

After their talk today, Deku could conclude, despite Todoroki and Raven being wholly the same: monstrously strong, silent, isolated —

Todoroki reaches out from afar. Raven pushes people away.

He was always such a people pleaser, always too meek to say more, but for the first time since meeting him, she realized it — he was upset with her.

“We’re supposed to be heroes!” he urged, anguish growing on his face. “And although you might not get along with Todoroki-kun, he’s our classmate!”

“I never said Todoroki should stay in that situation,” Raven tried to patch up. Yet she couldn’t take it back. Fingers flinching, she itched to tug her hood further down her face, but she was frozen.

Todoroki wasn’t with them, but the chill remained anyway.

“I — “ Izuku blinked feverishly. “I should go…get ready for the matches.” Taking his tray, the green-haired boy prepared to stand up. Not looking at her in the eye, he mumbled, “Good luck with your match.”

Despite normally eating alone, Raven wondered why this time she felt so alone.

Leaning her head against the wall of an empty hallway, Raven inclined her head up to face the pristine ceiling.

I messed up.

There was no other way to put it.

Guilt seeped at her bones, aching her muscles despite sitting listlessly in a spare space.

She should have not spoken her mind — she knew that. She knew that the people here would not be as forgiving as her friends back home. As understanding to her blunt tone and her pessimism.

Despite who Todoroki was, she did not care about him. However, no matter what the boy could’ve possibly gone through, she thought she knew better. That she knew better than anyone.

With a teen mom who became distant for the majority of her life, who told her as kindly as the woman could that Raven should let herself die under her father’s hand, Raven believed she could see through Todoroki’s home life.

With a father who was literally Satan, who had destroyed her home, her friends, her family, Raven wished she didn’t understand Todoroki — even though she didn’t know the details.

And although she thought best that no one pried into her personal life for their own sake, she misspoke, and came off as cold.

Despite the horrors of her past, she was not tired of her own rumination of the terrible things she had experienced. She had disappointed Izuku — and that was what stopped her.

She was wrong to say that about Todoroki’s home life, no matter how much she fit into his shoes.

Suddenly startling her out of the sickening silence, her shoulders jumped once her ringtone went off.

Looking at the caller ID, she realized it was Nighteye. With a lazy toss, she declined the call and threw her phone to the side, not caring when it slid several feet away from her.

With her legs up to her chest, and her face on her knees, she knew that he was going to scold her about her speech during the beginning of the Sports Festival.

Closing her eyes within the darkness of her own curled body, she thought she had enough of people’s scolding.

“Next match!” Present Mic called. “You’ve been waiting for her! Roth Rachel from the Hero Course!”

Stepping out from the shadow of the stadium, Raven walked forward with a blank face, eyes boredly trained at the ground as the crowd around her screamed and applauded. It grated at her ears, and the pressure of being the source of attention made her want to go deaf. With the thousands of people sitting and staring at her and her alone from the stadium, she felt too much like a gladiator awaiting his death penalty.

They made her take off her hood as she fought, and although only her arms and little of her face were exposed, she felt shivers down her spine. The heat from the lit torches on the corner of the steps blazed on her bare skin.

“Against her sparky classmate: Kaminari Denki!”

As both of them stepped up to the cement ring, their faces were night and day. Raven’s head was bowed, curtained by her short hair, while Kaminari’s smile was beaming and alert, arms open up wide to wave at people in the crowd. Even their school photos on the broadcasted screen showed their difference. While Kaminari’s photo had a bright smile, Raven’s looked like a mugshot.

Although Kaminari had charisma, the optics of his classmates were less than stellar.

“Do you…” Sero started, looking at the two of them. “Do you think he’s going to be okay?”

“I’m sure it’s fine!” Kirishima tried to say. “Both of them have the right spirit — !”

“She’s going to snap him like a twig,” Bakugou immediately stated, sharp and blunt before anyone could argue. With his arms crossed, the blond glared down at the field.

“Haha!” Mina giggled. “You can say that again!”

“START!”

“Say, Roth-chan,” Kaminari started casually, folding his arms behind his head. “After we have this match, let’s have a date at the maid cafe you work at.” Unfolding his arms, he gave her a wink. “Loser pays.” Before Raven could stop it, the crowd went nuts.

“WHAT’S THIS?!” Mic egged on. “ROTH WORKS AT A MAID CAFE?!”

The volume in the auditorium suddenly grew ten times louder, shaking the seats and the ground with their screaming.

“HUH?!” Uraraka and Iida cried out, jumping out of their seats.

“ROTH!” Mic leaned in and up off his seat. “Is this true?!”

“No,” Aizawa immediately shut down. Voice afflicted with irritation, the man’s eyebrow began to twitch. “For a U.A. student to get a part-time job, the student needs to have the teachers sign an approval form. Roth…” It sounded like Aizawa was biting back bile. “Does not work at a maid cafe.”

As the cameras focused on her face, Roth suddenly released the most expression any of her classmates had ever seen of the girl. With her face twisted with disgust, her mouth was agape while her brows her furrowed.

“Ew…!” Although she had whispered that to herself, the mics picked it up and broadcasted it to everyone in the stadium in surround sound. The blond wilted like a flower.

“I guess it’s true that she’s from California…” Sero nervously laughed, leaning back in his seat. “Her accent really popped out with that.”

"You were brave out there, Kaminari," Mineta mockingly salutes the blond from his place in the stands, his face the epitome of serious.

“Ooh that’s gotta hurt,” Present Mic hissed over Raven’s harsh rejection, “But we gotta give Kaminari props for shooting his shot!” Scattered applause came from the stands.

Coughing suddenly and harshly to hide himself from embarrassment, Kaminari suddenly started sparking uncontrollably.

“Ahem! Indiscriminate shock…!” the boy roared. Throwing his arms up in the air, Raven’s hair and skin suddenly caught the growing static electricity, pulling at the hair on her arms and nipping at her cheeks.

Spreading her legs so that they were shoulder-width apart, she grounded herself as Kaminari threw his arms at her.

“One-point-three million volts! ”

Sighing ruefully, Raven’s force field immediately came up.

“Heh?” the blond asked with a dumb look.

Shoulders sinking, she dropped her force field the second the lightning stopped. Opening herself up to the light of the sky again, Raven’s face was exasperated when she revealed herself. Arms crossed, she flashed another force field, pulsing it gently against the short-circuited Kaminari, and easily pushed him out and over the bounds of the ring as he provided no resistance in this state.

“It was decided in an instant!” Present Mic called. “I’ll say it once more! In an instant!”

“Well…” Jiro drawled. “What else did we expect?”

“That was a bit of an anti-climatic end, but everyone,” Present Mic suddenly said in English, “clap your hands!”

Before the applause could even stop, Raven was up and off the field, slinking back into the hallways.

She didn’t bother to return to the stands for the remainder of the matches and instead hid in one of the waiting rooms alone. Too many people, too many noises.

She preferred it this way. Quiet, isolated, with no one to bother her.

With a sweat rag on her forehead, she tilted her head back the entire time, resting the back of her neck on the back of her chair as she slumped forward.

Sero lost to Todoroki in a harrowing defeat. One where she felt the temperature of the room drop, even from where she was sitting.

Shinso won against Ojiro. That was to be expected, Shinso never let the cavalry team know what the requirements of his Quirk were, and Raven felt slightly guilty that she never bothered to warn Ojiro. But, she thought, eyes turned up to the LED lights above, he wouldn’t receive a warning against future villains anyway.

Raven continued to watch the rest of the matches on the flat-screen TV mounted in the corner of the room.

Izuku, she watched numbly, won against Asui. Although the girl struck first at Izuku, the boy managed to blast her back with a flick of his fingers, releasing his Quirk in a large burst.

Iida won against a Support Course girl.

Momo lost. Tokyoyami won.

Kirishima won. Mina lost.

Then, most damningly of all, one that made Raven lean far back into her chair, Uraraka lost — Bakugou won. Raven watched with intent, scanning every move the girl made, watching as the brunette threw off her shirt to distract her opponent, faced blasts and blows, and lifted every bit of rubble before dropping it on Bakugou’s head — but despite the girl’s determination, she was no match for Bakugou. While she withstood heat and smolder, the blond threw too much at her, and she couldn’t take it.

I don’t know why I’m stressing so much, Raven sighed. It’s just a Sports Festival. However, she realized, her classmates might not feel the same way.

The door slammed open. Jumping, Raven took her feet off the table and sat upright.

“Roth-kun!” Iida called, sauntering in. “I’ve been looking all over for you!” She quelled the fast beating of her heart.

“You…” She looked at the blocky boy. “Have?”

“Uraraka-kun kept on spinning in her seat trying to find you, and you were nowhere to be found! Of course, I did!” he said. The lights above caught the frames of his glasses.

“I — “ She slumped her shoulders and stared blankly at him. “I had my phone turned off…” she explained. Nighteye kept on trying to call her. “And I didn’t want to be around people.”

The boy dropped the tenseness from his shoulders and sighed. “I understand, but you should’ve at least let us know where you were! Uraraka-kun was hoping that you were cheering her on!”

“I was.” Blinking slowly, Raven added a minute later, as if she forgot, “And I was cheering you on too. Is Uraraka in the infirmary?” She changed the subject.

Hands on his hips, Iida stood over her.

“Yes, but Recovery Girl said she will be fine. You can tell her how you cheered her on when she wakes up.” Pointing a straight finger into the air Iida righted his posture. “But never mind that!”

Taking her hand in his, he dragged her out, mute to Raven’s indignant “Hey!”

“Please don’t make this harder than it is Roth-kun,” Iida called back to her. “I spent the last fifteen minutes trying to find you, and your match is in — “ Glancing at the watch on the inside of his wrist, the boy’s eyes nearly bugged out. “One minute!” Picking up speed, Iida started to take longer strides, forcing her to keep up. “We have to get going!”

“It is?” she asked. Raven didn’t even realize. She left even before she could even see who she was up against next. “Who am I fighting?”

“You don’t know?” Iida asked, gaping. She thought he looked like a fish on land. “That boy you were in the team with — the one with purple hair! Shinso Hitoshi.”

Wait.

She could see the natural lights of the outdoors from here, the entrance to the field blown up in pure white.

If she was going against Shinso, and she didn’t know —

Attempting to dig her feet into the ground before she left, she tried to buy more time, but Iida’s righteousness as Deputy Rep decided she needed to get out there at once.

She needed to meditate or else —

She’d be completely powerless when mute.

It was something not even Nighteye knew. No one here knew.

The Titans themselves picked it up only later. The fact that she needed full focus in order to use her powers properly. If she was distracted, whatever she was holding dropped, or she even failed to pick it up if she lacked enough focus.

Furthermore, if she was unable to mediate and verbally use her Azarath Metrion Zinthos — she was essentially what this world was scared of: Quirkless.

Robin had used it against her when he was Red X, using his quick reflexes and fast speed to throw a gag at her, rendering her powerless against him when they were opposing. He even made it specially for her, sticking a large red X across her mouth so she couldn’t fight back against him, as he made specialized weapons for all of his teammates then.

Now, before she could even mutter her incantation, she was thrust into the spotlight again.

She was too harried, rushed with the news that she was fighting Shinso of all people, and then suddenly delivered by Iida into the open field. She could barely hear the boy wish her good luck before Present Mic announced her arrival.

“It’s our fan favorite again! Roth Rachel arrives at the scene!” Mic screamed across the stadium.

“Roth, if you’re late again, we’ll disqualify you,” Aizawa spoke into the microphone.

She couldn’t possibly focus here, under the weight of 100,000 stares, under the pressure of pounding screams and shaking stands. Even if she muttered it now, her head was too lost to try. As she took every step, she became acutely more and more aware of the eyes on her. Heart beating against her chest, Raven slowly made her way up the stairs, lips pressed together. Ever so slightly, she saw another head of purple hair rise from the other end of the ring.

“Versus the underdog from General Studies: Shinsou Hitoshi!” Mic crowed.

“Let’s have a good fight, okay?” Midnight urged with a wink once the two met in the middle, nearly inaudible next to all the applause.

“Hm.” Holding out his hand for a shake, Shinso smirked at her. Purple eyes met purple. “May the best man win.”

Not even a huff or a hum of affirmation, Raven briefly took his hand before dropping it.

“Figures,” he chuckled. She knew of his requirements, and someone who was as silent as her was already going to be a hard opponent — not to mention: he was a weakling against her.

How could someone like him possibly go against a powerhouse like her? Through these past few weeks, he’d like to think that they’ve built up somewhat of a friendship, tossing snarky remarks and sass from one to the other.

He was going to win and prove his worth to the Hero class, to everyone who thought negatively of his villainous Quirk, to those born with good luck.

He was definitely going to defeat her — just not today.

And he was okay with that.

So as long as he showed the world that he could hold his own against the strongest Hero Course student, against the girl who saved him.

“BEGIN!”

“Hey,” Shinso called out with a smirk, “try not to faint on me again, okay?” Raven stared back at him. “I’m starting to think that you’re not built for this.”

Silence.

And she did nothing else.

No force fields, no telekinesis, nor projections.

Raven just stood there, face blank, her arms at her side.

The wind blew before anything happened, picking up dirt between them and dragging along his bare arms. The giant lit torches behind them fluttered and steadied all before she moved.

His eyebrow twitched, startled. Where was the black mass? The platforms? Even for the obstacle course, she gave it her all, reaching fourth place when she could’ve easily skirted by with a third of the effort.

Time crept on, and his nerves grew larger, heart beating as the anxiety amplified his stress to be far more painful than any beating she could possibly give him. The burn of 100,000 eyes hit right behind his neck.

C’mon!

“Scared?” Shinsou tried to goad, although he knew it wasn’t going to work. More crickets, and even the audience started to mumble in confusion.

“Um, hellooooo,” Present Mic even called out. “Start! Go! Begin!”His words echoed, for Raven did not act.

Irritation began to creep up on him, causing his knuckles to twitch and the skin on his palm to stretch as he clenched his hand into a fist.

What was she doing?

Raven could fight — he saw her against that one lightning boy in her class. The blond was a f*cking idiot, and even then she used her Quirk on him, so it wasn’t as if she was having another episode.

She could do it — so why wasn’t she doing it for him?

Did she really think he was so much of a weakling that she didn’t bother using her Quirk? Did she think so lowly of him? She saved him more than once, and had given him the opportunity to train with her and her homeroom teacher, but this entire time —

Was she always looking down on him?

“What’s going on?” Uraraka asked, worried. The girl was fresh out of Recovery Girl’s room and on the edge of her seat.

Everyone knew it: Raven could finish this fight in seconds, but wasn’t moving an inch.

“Roth,” Midnight called out to her, “can you fight?”

Without a peep, Raven lifted her hand up to the side, keeping her eyes trained on Shinso. With her thumb and forefinger in a circle, she gave her the affirmative.

Shinso chuckled bitterly. “You’re so blessed, huh? You think you’re too good for me?!” She tilted her head slightly. He had snapped at her before, but the silence of the field amplified his voice tenfold.

Raven had been brainwashed before under a villain, so she had nothing to worry about concerning her mindscape. Old her, even the Raven from a few weeks ago wouldn’t mind “accidentally” speaking and throwing the match, but Mirio was looking out for her, Nighteye was depending on her, and furthermore — they were out there somewhere.

Looking for her.

She could throw the match, but she felt Shinsou’s irritation like tar in the air, wafting toward her. Suffocating and thick.

Her empath abilities were one of the few that remained.

Raven’s only reply to him was a raised eyebrow.

“You bitch!” he snapped. Racing toward her, Raven spread her legs shoulder-length apart. Narrowly dodging his punch, she held her arm up to protect her temple and ducked under him.

She, even after being in this school for a few months now, was too weak to try and grapple and throw him over her shoulder, so Raven settled for a hit to his stomach.

Her blow landed, knocking the wind out of him, but it wasn’t enough to knock him out or throw him out of bounds.

“Finally some action!” Mic sighed in relief. “But what’s this?! Roth still isn’t using her Quirk and instead is settling for hand-to-hand combat!”

From the announcer’s room, they could see how Raven danced around him, throwing jabs and dodging blows.

“Use your Quirk!” Shinso yelled at her, grabbing at the collar of her P.E. shirt. Gritting her teeth, she could feel the strain of the fabric under his hold. “I can take it!” he yelled until his voice was hoarse. “Do you think I can’t take it?!”

Reeling his fist back for another punch, Raven tilted her body, stopping his punch with her crossed forearms. When Shinsou went in for a second punch with his other hand, she barely managed to block it with the back of her right wrist while the left remained restraining his first fist.

With a satisfied hum, Aizawa watched from narrowed eyes that Raven did learn something under him these past few weeks. Her physical combat had become more smooth and steady.

“What do you think the drama is?!” Mic suspected. “They were friends — Perhaps, Roth wanted to wait for the twenty-minute time limit to go off so they can settle for a tie?!”

“Roth wouldn’t care about something like that,” Aizawa stated in his low drawl. “There’s something else going on.”

Reaching forward for a strike while he was shocked by her block, Shinso barely managed to push her away before the hit landed on the side of his neck.

“Woah…” Ojiro commented from the 1-A seats. “That’s Wing Chun!” Eyes wide, the blond boy’s sight trailed her as Raven continued to trade hits with Shinso, going around and around in the ring, but nowhere near the bounds.

“Ehh?” Mina asked, “What does that mean?”

“It’s a martial art,” Ojiro replied. “I had no idea she knew that.” After all, martial arts was probably one of the boy’s only specialties among all of these powerhouses and tanks, and he never sparred against her during Hero classes to know more.

“So cool!” Mina’s eyes shone.

“She’s, uh…” Sero tried to find a way to say it. “Kinda slow though, right?” From the big screens, her chest was rising and falling, and she didn’t prepare any wrist wraps, exposing blossoming bruises running across her arms.

Perhaps she was lucky that her opponent Shinso wasn’t any Barry Allen either.

Nodding once, Ojiro winced. He didn’t want to make it seem like he was badmouthing his classmate. “Yeah. It might be the only style she knows, but I can’t see her winning a match with that — it’s always been better suited for self-defense, and she’s nowhere near a master to try and overpower him completely.” Furrowing his brows, the stare became only more focused. “Maybe she wants to show potential employers that she’s well-rounded?” he said weakly with a shrug.

Hero Agencies rarely went after students who only knew how to use their Quirk, but that was for them normal people. For people like Todoroki, Roth, and Bakugou, or even Midoriya, the flashier the Quirk, the better, and they didn’t need to do anything more to prove themselves further.

“However,” Yaoyorozu said delicately, “if it’s the internships she’s worried about, I imagine she’d get a lot farther just by using her Quirk…”

“Stop looking down on me! Raven!” Shinsou yelled. Was she infantilizing him? Did she think he was pathetic?

She was his hero, she had saved him twice. These past few weeks, they had eaten together, and trained together.

Yet now she made him feel so small.

“Do something!”

The class’s attention was suddenly stolen when they realized that Shinso had Raven in a chokehold. Although his arms weren’t thick with muscle, he still managed to cord them over her neck, holding her down to the ground.

Grinding her molars, frustration was clear on her face, but she still didn’t speak.

Shinso was about to pin her down, pressing his leg down on her’s, and tightening his arms more so that he could pin down her other one.

sh*t — she thought. Was it going to be over? Looking down at her free hand, then at his torso close behind her, she wondered —

Shinso was too distracted, too pissed off with her to notice.

Hissing against her teeth, she didn’t want to do this, but —

Bam! Without another second, Raven furiously elbowed, with all her strength, the one place that made almost every man in the stadium hiss: his crotch.

“Ooooh,” Sero, Kaminari, Mineta, and Kirishima winced.

“G — ugh!” Shinso immediately crumpled, letting her go. His face was suddenly pale with pain and he started wobbling on his arms. Snaking away from his hold, Raven stood over him while he was down on all fours.

“That has to be a foul!” some man cried out.

“Below the belt is against the rules!” another shouted.

Sneering, Raven raised an eyebrow. I thought Present Mic said only life-threatening things were outlawed?

“I’ll allow it!” Midnight said, cracking her whip. “Since we told our students to throw away their morals and ethics!”

Huffing, hair a mess, Raven stared down at him with wild eyes. While Shinso was in the fetal position beneath her, she could feel the invisible grasp of his Quirk slip off of her. The boy was too in pain to hold it over her, and she did what her punches couldn’t.

Finally.

Head swimming with the endorphins rushing to her head from the strenuous fight, she could finally focus. As the adrenaline pumped into her veins, called in her fight or flight: it was just him and her.

No one else.

Eyes glowing white, she could finally say to the boy beneath her:

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

. . .

“What a…strange match!” Mic said, “But Roth Rachel from Class 1-A proceeds to the next round!”

When Raven returned to the stands, she didn’t even need to look up to see that her teammates were looking at her in confusion.

“You were great out there, Rachel-chan!” Uraraka tried to say as Raven went to sit down in the free seat next to her. With a grunt, she responded but then realized how that sounded and quickly gave her a small, mumbled thanks.

She was exhausted, physically and mentally. Shinso laid there after she pushed him out with another force field, and she knew better than to approach him, so her thoughts still swirled endlessly.

Silently, she knew that his tactic was to mock, ridicule, or rile up his opponents in order to get them to speak, but she knew that he knew that would never work on her.

He needed to find a different tactic.

Yet she couldn’t help but feel that the words he had thrown at her in the ring weren’t hollow, but came from the pits of his heart.

Giving the seats a quick glance around, she noted that Izuku and Kirishima had already left to go to the waiting rooms.

Although Izuku didn’t insult her, and she knew what she said was wrong, it was still too early to see him. For all of her emotionlessness, she wasn’t beyond feeling awkward.

It would’ve been especially awkward since Uraraka didn’t know anything happened between them.

Luckily, the seat in front of her was empty. Stretching her legs out over the back of the chair, Raven lay back, tossing a rag over her eyes and crossing her arms as if she were going to sleep.

At least then no one would bothe —

“Roth-kun! Please, sit up!” There it was. “Although your fight is over, please don’t lie down like that,” Iida said. “Cameras will come our way, and for your reputa — “

Ring, ring!

“Iida-kun?” Uraraka questioned when the boy’s ringtone went off. He immediately shot up in the stands, almost like a satellite, everyone remarked.

“Excuse me,” he sighed. With a hand on his hip, he stared down at the caller ID. “I need to take this.” With a polite nod toward them, he stepped aside.

Then nearly dropped his phone in shock.

Although Raven’s eyes were closed, she suddenly felt her heart drop to her stomach.

And she didn’t need to see Iida run off and out of the stands to guess that bad news was for him.

. . .

Goosebumps remained on her arms even moments after Iida fled, with Uraraka gripping her bicep nervously.

Raven had always found Iida’s nagging slightly irritating, but now that it was gone in a flash, it lodged air in her throat.

“What was that?” Mina mumbled, turning her head back and forth.

“It seemed serious…” Yaoyorozu commented, eyes downcast and brows furrowed. They were childhood friends, after all, Raven remembered.

"Oh no," Uraraka gripped her tighter, forcing Raven to look down at the girl. "Is Iida-kun okay...?"

“Ahem! Apologies! But we need to take a quick intermission!” Present Mic announced. Finally sitting up straight, Raven knit her brows together, turning the corners of her lips down into a frown.

What was it? Another villain?

“We have just received news that due to personal reasons, Iida Tenya will be dropping out of the match!”

“What?!” Kaminari and Mineta called out.

“No way…”

“What do you think it is…?”

In the waiting rooms, Kirishima and Izuku dropped their jaws in confusion.

“Todoroki Sho — Huh?” Present Mic’s voice suddenly cut off. Mumbles rang across the stadium.

“You can’t just pass Todoroki Shoto,” the employee stopped Present Mic in the announcer’s room. The mics were turned off.

“Iida Tenya is disqualified,” Aizawa stated firmly, “that means Todoroki has no opponent.”

“The network won’t let pass Todoroki,” the employee restated.

“The network?!” Aizawa echoed irritably.

“I get what you’re saying,” the man said with annoyance, scowling at the bandaged hero, “but Todoroki so far has the highest viewership out of all the students. He’s the favorite and so people are looking forward to his screen time the most. If he doesn’t have a fight this round, the numbers are going to drop.” And if numbers drop, so does money. “He’s had the most media presence for years now, being Endeavor’s son.”

“So what?” Present Mic retaliated. “We have odd numbers now! If we rescramble things, Roth will have to go again!”

“If that’s how it’s done,” the man responded, “then so be it. She’s quickly becoming a fan favorite too. People like alternative teens now. She’ll help the numbers too.”

Scoffing, Aizawa nearly turned in his seat, dead set on ignoring the man in front of him. “Forget it. If your company goes bankrupt, U.A. will cover any emotional damage you incur. Mic turn the — “

“Endeavor is one of the major sponsors for this,” the man stated once. Mic’s hand hovered over the soundboard. “He’s the one who wants his son to go on.” The two men in front of him shut their eyes in irritation.

By the way the man said it, there was little they could do to argue.

By the time Mic spoke again, several minutes had passed, and they had already skipped over the allotted start time for Izuku and Kirishima’s fight and Midnight didn’t even beckon them into the ring.

“Hello, listeners!” Mic sounded slightly less enthusiastic here, with twinges of irritation even. “We apologize for the sudden delay. Due to, ahem, unforeseen circ*mstances — we will not be passing any student without an opponent in this round.”

The entire class turned to Todoroki, the quiet boy who had been sitting alone this entire time. There was no one else they could’ve possibly been talking about.

“Every student must fight, so in a turn of events, we will be scrambling the names again! Students, please look toward the screen for your new opponent!”

Raven would have to fight again, she knew that. She could tell her classmates all knew that too from the way that they looked at her. If they were rescrambling the names now, that meant there was an odd number: and with Shinso out, there was no one else to fight but her. She groaned under her breath and Uraraka patted her back sympathetically.

“Look toward the bright side!” Uraraka tried to say. “You have more chances of getting more internships now!”

Keeping her hand closed over her nose bridge, it wasn’t the fact that Raven had to fight again that irritated her. She was strong. She knew that. Currently, she could beat every single one of her classmates.

It was who.

She could beat Kirishima in a second, as well as Tokoyami despite the similarities in their powers.

She believed she could take on Bakugou, even Todoroki again with some time.

Yet —

Lifting her eyes up, she stared down at one of the big screens where they showed all of their faces and names and ran them around like a slot machine. Complete with the ringing sound of the slot, everyone inched forward with anticipation.

Her palms became slick with sweat.

“And so now…kids, these are your new opponents!”

Bakugou Katsuki vs. Tokoyami Fumikage

Todoroki Shoto vs. Kirishima Eijiro

Roth Rachel vs. Midoriya Izuku

This is a f*cking mess, she thought.

“Bakugou and Tokoyami, please make your way to the stage! We’re sorry to those who were waiting for the Kirishima vs. Midoriya fight, but all Heroes have to prepare for new surprises!”

Not to mention unfair.

Raven stared at the screen with a blank look.

Sighing, she covered her face with her hands. To others, it seemed to be just out of the girl’s own exhaustion, or even laziness to some.

Her against Izuku when she had already disappointed him once. He never said anything, he wouldn’t say anything, but how could that remove the guilt from her chest?

Can this get any worse?

“Roth Rachel?” a foreign voice called to her side. Many other 1-A kids turned to the source.

Lifting her head up, she laid eyes on a student she had never met before, nor recognized.

Taking a look a the patch on the kid’s P.E. uniform, she could tell that the kid was her age — first year, and —

A General Course student.

The boy fiddled uncomfortably under the ice of her stare. For those who were unfamiliar, her blank gaze was as sharp as knives.

“Shinso-kun just came out of the infirmary. He told me that he wanted to talk to you.”

“Roth.”

The window at the end of their hallway was blown with natural light, bathing the room with pure white.

Eyes turning down to the ground, she recognized it: Roth. Not Raven.

“You humiliated me out there,” Shinso finally revealed after beats of silence.

Although his classmates proudly called out to him after his match, yelling down at him from the stands about how ecstatic they were for taking on the “first place student in the Hero Course” and cheering on about how he was the star of their class, the damage she caused remained in his heart. It clawed at his throat, constricted his lungs.

It was quiet enough for her to hear the beat of her own eardrum.

“I…I’m sorry,” she said with an expressionless face. Lifting her fingers out of her fist, she forcefully relaxed her hand.

Scoffing, the boy turned annoyed eyes toward her, complete with scowling lips. “That’s all you have to say?”

Furrowing her brows in return, she reiterated, “I meant it.”

“You mean it…?!” Shinso echoed. He felt like he was screaming into the void — he was spilling so much to her yet her face never changed. “How about you show it?!” With a weak push, he got up in her face, inches away until she turned her gaze to the side. The nudge forced her to unwrap her crossed arms and drop them to her sides.

Blinking in surprise, that was a bit out of line, she thought, but she didn’t want to push it further.

“It was never my intention to — ” she said more forcefully.

“Not your intention to?!” Shinso repeated again. Shinso couldn't help being a broken record. He leaned back from her personal space, doing a circle in annoyance around the empty hallway before wheeling in on her again. “But you did!”

Raven remained in silence. She didn’t want it to seem like she thought less of him, or that she was going easy on him because he wasn’t capable.

It was true, it was a power restriction he didn’t know about, and that she was too much of a hoarder to share.

As he turned around, she stopped breathing.

“You knew how much this meant to me!” When she looked at him again, she exhaled. Tears lined his waterline, and she didn’t even need her empathic abilities to feel the lump in his throat, the choking in his words.

He had been talking about this with her for weeks, sitting on the sidelines as she trained with Aizawa, and then trying to pick up the pace when he sparred with her.

She knew.

She knew how important it was for him to show the world that he was more than his villainous Quirk, his limited, non-physical abilities.

She just didn’t care.

“Not once,” Raven mumbled lowly, “did I ever think less of you,” she expressed.

“Then what was that out there?! You toyed with me! You didn’t even use your Quirk on me until the last minute! You stood still for minutes!” Shinso felt like tearing his hair out, especially with how every time he looked at Raven’s face, he felt as if he would’ve had a better time venting his frustrations to a brick wall.

Wasn’t he worth more?

But Raven didn’t know it herself. She had shown before, with Beast Boy and Starfire and Cyborg, that she was capable of showing her remorse, but for some reason, she felt her own end of the road. She dug around her brain for answers.

“Do you think I’m not worth using your Quirk on?!” he urged. “That you only save it for people with nice Quirks?”

“That’s not true,” Raven replied.

“Then tell me, Raven!” Shinso pressed. “How come you treated me differently from that blond guy, that green-haired kid?!” He was getting too into her personal space, forcing her to back up until her spine was flush against the wall. Despite this, Raven’s facial expression never changed. Irritation struck like lightning, explosive, damaging, and bright. Grabbing the collar of her P.E. uniform, he held it in his hands, pulling her close. “I’m asking you a question, and you can’t even look at me?!”

Shoving her until her shoulder blades rocked against the wall, he choked out, "Say something!"

His own echoed voice was the feedback.

“It’s your Quirk…!” Raven finally shouted back, inflected with his feelings. Immediately, she felt the tension in his body leave. “I couldn’t because of your Quirk.”

Loosening the hold on her collar, his grip slackened. Once the silence crawled, she sighed deeply again.

sh*t, I said the wrong thing again.

“That’s not what I meant,” Raven immediately added. However, it would've been like scrambling to pick up spilled water on a sandy dune.

“Then what did you mean?” Shinso’s voice was suddenly cold, a carbon copy of hers. She didn't know when he took such drastic steps back from her.

“I — “ Raven stalled.

It should’ve been so easy to. All she needed to say was some little words to explain everything, and they would be in the clear.

However, whenever she thought about it, there was something that paused her in her tracks, grabbed at her throat like a collar.

Raven was never going to just talk about “Quirks” and limits. Why should she care about that?

Once she told Shinso a limit about her powers, she felt as if Pandora’s Box would open.

She didn't need to — She didn't want to.

When she did —

It was going to expose her back to a new group of people who knew how to use that against her.

It was going to make her one of the things she feared most: vulnerable.

The silence continued to tick along.

Why was she so afraid? She could take on any villain, she could get herself out of any disaster, but when she wondered when fear would grip her limbs and stop her in her tracks — she thought of this.

“Roth…” Shinso finally said, voice rumbling. Clearing his throat and wiping away the minute tears in his eyes, he looked at the blank walk beside her. Even from here, she could see the redness in his eyes and how his tears had deepened his severe eyebags. Dark, purple skin now dragged along his undereyes. “You’re not a good friend.”

Jaw dropping, she stared at him in horror. Ice crept up her arms as realization set in.

He could've slapped her in the face, dunked her head in water.

Shaking his head, he began to walk down the hall.

Wait —

And was this going to be true? That she was so up in her own head that she couldn’t even appreciate those that surrounded her?

That she treated him poorly?

She thought she had grown so much from when she arrived on Earth 0 for the first time, but she supposed that she took the Titans for granted. Just because they were forgiving, doesn’t mean that Shinso Hitoshi had to be.

She believed, that with her coldness, and reservedness, that it was going to keep the people around her?

“Shinso!” Her heart lodged itself in her throat. He stopped. Chest heaving, she felt her father's clawed hand on her heart.

“It’s your Quirk because I can’t use mine without my voice!”

She had only said eleven words. So why does she feel as if they had stripped her bare?

The boy stalled several meters in front of her. Too far away.

There. She said it. Like her back exposed, yet —

“...You don’t believe me,” she summarized, looking at the boy’s hunched-over figure. Her confession was like mist. His hands were in his pockets, and his shoulders were curled in. His eyes were trained on the tile floor as if looking at her would blind him.

“...Where is this coming from?” he rasped out, far too long since her admission. His voice sounded like sandpaper.

“It’s my Quirk,” she insisted. “I can’t use it without my spoken incantation — “

“No,” he interrupted her, eyes still trained on the floor. “I’m asking why now, after all these weeks, you just now wanted to share this with me.”

It took her several beats too long to realize. It was never just about the Sports Festival. When it came to her, the boy was already off and down the corner, far out of her sight.

After she sighed and bowed her head, she walked off, taking a different corner to disappear from. Her face was blank, and no one would be none the wiser about what happened, or to how she was feeling.

Despite her outward expression, inwardly she was a storm. So much of a storm, that she didn’t even notice the head of red and white hair standing flat against the wall beside them.