Chapter 1
Nakaya Keiko leans forward in her seat and watches the monitor closest to her as an examinee takes out four three-pointers in quick succession. She hums and clicks at the keyboard attached to the arm of her chair to switch to a different angle to see him take out an additional two-pointer before using his explosion quirk to propel him towards another group of two-pointers nearby. She continues watching him for a few moments and makes a mental note to keep an eye out for him once he makes it into the school – because there’s no way he won’t make it in at this rate – once she sees that he completely bypasses several other examinees that look like they could use assistance. He seems to have a single-minded focus on taking out as many robots as possible which, while being understandable considering the instructions they were given, could very easily become an issue in the future.
“I bet this one will be yours,” she whispers to her friend sitting next to her as she turns to look over at him. Aizawa Shouta, AKA Pro Hero Eraserhead, is currently sitting slouched in his chair, a jelly pack dangling from his mouth while he stares with narrow eyed focus at the same monitor she’s been watching. His black eyes are bloodshot, both from his chronic dry eye as well as staring at the screen for as long as he has been, and the bags under them are noticeable but not as bad as Keiko knows they’re going to be once school starts in just over a month. His black hair, which he normally leaves down when in his hero costume, has been pulled back into a bun to prevent it from getting in his eyes while he watches the exam unfold.
“Unfortunately,” he replies, his voice low and a little gravely from disuse.
“Come on, Aizawa, I can tell that you’re already invested. You have that look on your face,” Keiko teases, earning herself a red eyed glare for a moment before Aizawa blinks and stops using his quirk. A few years ago, that would have intimidated her but now she just laughs and turns back to continue watching the exam, saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Well, I’ll tell Yamada, but I’m sure he already knows.”
Aizawa groans and sinks further in his seat but doesn’t respond beyond that. Keiko smirks but allows the conversation to drop, and just in time too since Principal Nedzu chooses that moment to get the attention of all the teachers present.
“In this practical exam, the examinees have not been informed of the number of villains or their locations. They have a limited amount of time in a vast area. They have to draw the villains out from there,” his slightly high-pitched voice says, drawing Keiko’s eyes away from the screen for a moment to see him sitting in a seat on the other side of Aizawa. The hybrid creature is wearing his normal outfit, complete with the red tie and the red shoes, and his beady black eyes never stop moving as he observes the monitor in front of them. Keiko has always felt a little nervous around him considering just how smart he is, and currently the almost dangerous gleam in his eyes sends a shiver down her spine. She takes a moment to think over what he said and realizes that he seems to just be talking aloud for now, and though she spins forward again to continue watching she makes sure to continue to listen to him in case he gets to the point anytime soon, “Information gathering ability to understand the situation before anyone else; mobility that can be used in many different circumstances; discernment to be able to stay calm in any situation; and pure combat ability. These basic abilities needed to keep the peace in the streets are turned into points in this test.”
“Doesn’t this year’s group look promising?” Keiko hears a feminine voice practically purr from a few seats away, and she doesn’t even have to look to know that Kayama Nemuri is making a lewd facial expression. When she’s in her hero costume she tends to lean into the R-Rated hero persona that she’s got going on, but that’s just Midnight for you. She’s comfortable with her sexuality in a way that Keiko envies, but at the same time she wishes that she would tone it down around the students. Even so, Kayama makes it work, so more power to her.
“Well, we can’t know for sure yet. Their true test is still to come,” Maijima Higari, Pro Hero Power Loader, says, reaching forward to press the button that releases the zero pointers at the different testing sites.
And just like that the examinees begin reacting just like expected: some are running in fear, some are frozen in place staring up at the giant robot with terror filled eyes, and others are getting away and using everyone else’s lapse in attention to go after more of the robots that are worth points.
Keiko hears Yamada Hizashi’s voice announce that there are two minutes left in the exam and she chuckles at how excited he sounds. As Pro Hero Present Mic, he’s always loved being the one to announce and help proctor the exams in person, and with his quirk being what it is it’s easy for him to shout loud enough for each testing site to hear him when he stands on a building in the center of the different sites. On the screen everyone can see Yamada strike a silly pose as he makes the announcement, and Keiko catches site of Aizawa’s reddening face as he sinks down to partially hide it in his capture weapon. Not wanting to let him think he was successful in hiding his reaction, she makes sure to elbow him and shoot him a cheeky grin. He grumbles and elbows her back, but she can see his expression softening when he spares her a glance before he has a chance to bury his face in his capture weapon. She tries to ignore the butterflies that gives her, internally chastising herself when she feels her cheeks heat up with her own blush.
Keiko’s been trying to ignore this crush she has on the two of them for a while now. Aizawa and Yamada have been together since their high school days and she’s only known them for the past four years, so it’s not like either of them would ever be interested in her like that. And honestly, it’s cute how into each other they still are. She’s so happy for them, she truly is, and she cherishes their friendship with her more than anything. But every time she notices their little glances, the pecks they give each other on the cheek or lips when not at school or in public, or the look of adoration when either of them does anything cool or adorable, she gets a fluttery feeling in her chest that quickly drops to the pit of her stomach. She really cares about the two of them and seeing the proof of their solid relationship leaves a weird taste in her mouth. She knows it’s a mix of jealousy and attraction, but she does her best to pretend like it isn’t.
After all, she thinks, just because I have a crush on both of them doesn’t mean I have any right to feel this way. They’re fucking married. How pathetic can I get?
“A girl’s stuck under some rubble in Site D,” Ishiyama Ken, Pro Hero Cementoss, points out, drawing Keiko out of the downward spiral her thoughts are taking, and all the teachers focus on the image on the large screen.
“Recovery Girl is already on her way down,” Kan Sekijirou, Pro Hero Vlad King, says, crossing his arms.
Keiko grimaces, “I wish the exams were handled a little differently,” she whispers to Aizawa, who nods in agreeance.
“Hey, is that green haired kid running towards the zero-pointer?” Maijima asks incredulously, and Keiko watches wide eyed as the kid proceeds to jump straight up into the air and absolutely demolish the zero-pointer in one punch. It looks like the punch instantly shatters his arm, and his legs are dangling at awkward angles hinting that they’re most likely severely broken as well. The site causes her to feel a little queasy, but she pushes that feeling down with the ease that being a hero for a decade can bring.
“The most important qualification of a hero: the spirit of self-sacrifice,” a voice Keiko is less familiar with says, and she turns towards where the newest member of the staff is sitting. All Might himself; the man, the myth, the legend. And what a legend he is. When the tall, thin, scarecrow of a man walked into the meeting room last week and introduced himself as Yagi Toshinori, no one really thought anything other than that this man could use some sleep and maybe a doctor. But when he then buffed up and re-introduced himself as All Might? Well, all hell broke loose. That simple thirty-minute meeting ended up lasting the next two hours with all the questions thrown to both him and Nedzu, who simply laughed and laughed as the chaos unfolded around him.
“While I agree with you in a way, Yagi-san, I do want to point out one thing,” Keiko says, drawing his attention her way. Once his blue eyes were locked on her green ones, she said, “A hero should never put themselves into a situation they can’t get out of,” she pointedly looks back at the screen, just in time to see the boy begin to freefall from the massive height he had made it to. She hears Yagi begin to choke a little bit at the realization that this kid could die if someone doesn’t step in, but the screen that had been focusing on the girl who was trapped shows that she’s already up, having used her gravity quirk on the concrete trapping her, and is reaching out to slap the boy’s face which stops his fall immediately. The look on his face is almost comical but considering that this could have been the first death that’s ever happened during an exam no one is laughing.
After the girl releases her quirk, she leans over the side of what she’s laying on and promptly throws up. Green haired boy looks like he’s trying to drag himself forward with his one good limb, but before he can really get anywhere Yamada announces that the time is up. Keiko and the rest of the teachers watch as Recovery Girl makes quick work of healing the boy before slowly making her way through any other students who are injured.
The observation room seems to release a collective breath now that the exam is finished, and after a beat Maijima and Ishiyama both begin making their way out of the room to begin working on clearing out the damaged sites. As they’re walking out Yamada steps into the room, making a beeline for Aizawa and Keiko. He gives Aizawa a quick kiss on the top of his head on his way to the open seat on the other side of Keiko, and he shoots her a soft smile as he passes her.
“Alright,” Nedzu announces, “Let’s begin going through the recordings of each examinee to determine overall scoring and placement.”
Several grueling hours of grading later, the future students of UA are selected. Keiko collapses back in her chair, saying, “I feel like this takes longer and longer each year.”
“You’re telling me,” Yamada sighs, now sitting on the arm of her chair and resting his arm against the back of it. The two of them watch as Kan and Aizawa proceed to go back and forth deciding which student will be in which class. Luckily an argument doesn’t break out like the year prior so overall it only adds an additional ten minutes to the day. Once they’re finished, Yamada claps his hands together and stands up with an overly dramatic groan, “Alright, we’ve been here entirely too long. Come on, Shou, let’s head home. Nakaya, you coming over for dinner?”
Keiko stands up, closing her eyes and stretching her arms over her head, biting back a satisfied moan when her spine cracks at the movement. If her eyes were open, she would see both Yamada’s and Aizawa’s faces redden as they observe her languid movement, but as it is, by the time she opens her eyes and looks over at them they’ve both schooled their expressions and are back to business as usual. “As long as you don’t try cooking again, I’m down,” Keiko says, shooting Yamada a smirk.
“Hey,” he exclaims with mock anger, “That was one time!”
“What was one time?” Kan asks, and it’s only then that the three of them realize that they have an audience. Well, Aizawa probably realized it the whole time. He’s cool like that.
“Hizashi set the kitchen on fire trying to boil water,” Aizawa says with his own smirk, already making his way to the door.
“Again, it was only the one time!” Yamada argues.
“I’m sorry, did you forget about the time you tried making cupcakes and added salt instead of sugar?” Keiko asks with a raised eyebrow and a grin, hip checking him as she passes by to follow after Aizawa.
“Or that time you undercooked chicken and tried to play it off like you were wanting it to be medium rare?” Aizawa adds.
“Oh, or that time you—!”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Yamada says, cutting Keiko off before she can mention another one of his infamous cooking attempts, “I can’t believe y’all are coming after me like this. What have I done to either of you?”
“Tried to poison us with your cooking,” Aizawa deadpans, causing Keiko to break out in giggles while Yamada pouts.
“Medium rare chicken?” Kan asks incredulously, making Keiko laugh even harder.
Yamada spins around to point at Kan, saying, “You didn’t hear anything. This conversation never happened,” before turning back to push Keiko and Aizawa to walk faster, “Let’s go, let’s go!”
“But for real, are we getting take-out?” Keiko asks as they part ways with Kan, “Because I’ve been really craving takoyaki lately and that place by your apartment makes it the best.”
“Works for me,” Yamada agrees easily while Aizawa says, “You’re always craving takoyaki, but I don’t care what we get.”
“Well of course you don’t care, Aizawa, you would be content with a nasty-ass jelly pack,” Keiko says with a roll of her eyes.
“I mean it’s true, but you shouldn’t say it,” he replies in a monotone, causing the other two to burst into laughter.
“You used the meme correctly!” Yamada cheers, leaning over and kissing Aizawa on the cheek, “I’m so proud, babe.”
Keiko nods in agreeance, pushing down the twinge of jealousy at the simple display of affection, “Same. Teaching you memes was the best decision either of us have ever made.”
“If that’s your greatest achievement then your lives must be much less interesting than I thought,” is Aizawa’s response as he steps out of the building, getting both Yamada and Keiko to sputter in mock offence.
“Hey!” they both exclaim in English at the same time, rushing to catch up to him.
“Anyway,” Keiko says after she takes a moment to calm down, “It’s my turn to buy, so let me know what the two of you want from there and I’ll pick it up on my way over.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Yamada says, “We’re all going to the same place, so we’ll walk with you.”
“It’s only logical,” Aizawa agrees.
“Sounds good,” Keiko says with a small smile. The smile is quickly dropped once she puts her hands in her costume’s jacket pockets and realizes there’s a hole in the one that her wallet was in. She stops walking and starts feeling around in her costume’s other pockets, hoping that she just put it in a different one, but she soon realizes that she’s out of luck. “Shit,” she hisses, looking down at the ground to see if it only just fell out.
“What’s wrong?” Yamada asks, and she looks up to see that both of her friends are staring at her in concern.
“Quirk struck again,” Keiko groans, burying her face in her hands, “My jacket that shouldn’t be able to be torn without considerable levels of effort somehow has a hole in the pocket that my wallet was in. I have no idea where it fell out at, so now I get to search for it. But, considering how my luck works, I wouldn’t be surprised if it somehow landed directly in the hands of a villain. Or fell directly down a storm drain or something.”
“Man, you really don’t want to pay for dinner, huh?” Yamada teases even as he moves to help her start her search, Aizawa close behind.
Keiko snickers, mocking him under her breath while she starts to head back into the school, “I’ll start with the observation room, but we went to the teacher’s lounge before the exam started and I also helped with the written portion of the exam in the 1J classroom. Can the two of you check there for me?”
“I got the teacher’s lounge, otherwise Shouta’s gonna sit on the couch and pass the fuck out,” Yamada says with a chuckle, taking off down the hall before Aizawa can defend himself.
The man himself lets out a deep sigh, “I mean he’s right, but it’s like he forgets I can fall asleep anywhere.”
“Well, if you find my wallet feel free to take a power nap until we figure out you have it,” Keiko jokes, heading down the hall towards the observation room. When she makes it there, she immediately beelines towards the chair she was sitting in previously. It’s not there, of course. Because why would it be? She knows how her quirk works.
“Hmm… I wasn’t focusing enough but I wasn’t overwhelmed with emotion, so my luck would’ve been more on the neutral side than the straight up bad side. So, it’s probably either been picked up by one of the other teachers or Aizawa or Yamada just found it,” she reasons aloud on her way back out of the room. She makes her way towards the teacher’s lounge since it’s closer to her current location.
“Found it!” Yamada shouts, barreling out of the room and right into Keiko as she was reaching out to open the door. The force nearly knocks her to the ground, but he quickly reaches out and catches her before she can get too far. “I found your wallet!” he exclaims, seemingly not noticing the dazed look in Keiko’s eyes as she gazes up at him with his face so close to her own.
(He does notice. It does funny things to him, and he can’t wait to tell Shouta about this moment. He’s gonna be so jealous.)
Yamada waits patiently for Keiko to snap out of it, and once she processes what he said he watches as her face lights up, her neon green eyes crinkling as she smiles wide, “Thank you so much!”
“Good, we can go now,” Aizawa’s voice comes from further down the hall. Keiko quickly snatches her wallet back from Yamada and practically prances down the hall, internally reliving the moment when she froze while staring up into his eyes. It’s because of this that she doesn’t realize that Aizawa’s eyes are darting between Yamada and her before they settle on Yamada with an eyebrow raised as if to say, ‘you’re going to be telling me more about that later.’
“Of course, babe,” Yamada agrees to both the vocal and non-vocal requests with a smile, “Let’s get Nakaya some takoyaki.”