Two days later, the sky unleashed fury on Musutafu.
The rain was such that it appeared dark as night in prime morning time as the heroes-in-training arrived on the grounds of UA. Fresh from their sports festivals, it felt like the first section of the year was over, and a new chapter was beginning.
Haru Namikaze dropped his poncho and rain boots off at his locker and then walked to class in his mostly-dry uniform. The pitter-patter of rain could be heard through the walls. He wasn't a big fan of days like this.
He caught up with Midoriya and Iida in the hallway.
"Hey, Namikaze."
"Namikaze, good morning."
"Morning to the both of you." Haru eyed Iida carefully. The bespectacled class rep seemed perfectly normal, but it wasn't like Haru knew him well enough to notice anything.
Then he and Midoriya met eyes. The green-haired boy's face was an expression of worry… and then an imperceptible shrug. Haru just nodded back.
Iida must be struggling on the inside, but he doesn't want to show it. That's fair enough, I guess. Haru knew exactly how that felt.
Inside the class, all the talk was about the Sports Festival.
"People kept coming up and talking to me!" Kirishima exclaimed.
"Little kids kept telling me 'don't worry about it.'" Sero sweatdropped, miserable.
Aoyama rested a prim hand above his chest. "One must be prepared for this sort of attention, hmm hmm."
"Yeah, I'll bet you were the talk of the town after getting uppercutted by Mina," Jiro muttered.
"For every person who came up and talked to me, it felt like six more just stared from a distance. I felt so… visible!" Toru shuddered.
Ojiro lowered his eyebrows. "Sounds normal enough to me."
Yaoyorozu remained silent, keeping her eyes down.
"Namikaze…" Kaminari suddenly zapped next to his desk. "You traitor."
Haru made a show of turning around and looking behind him at the wall, as if Kaminari might be talking to someone else. "Me?" he pointed at himself.
"Don't play dumb." Kaminari lifted up his phone. "That's you and Ashido at the park. I thought there was nothing going on between you two!"
Haru's eyes widened. Mina wasn't here yet, but Tsu was, and she leaned forward to look with an interested croak.
It was the two of them walking together, taken from a distance. On a tabloid site.
"Kaminari… do you really frequent those websites? I thought better of you." Haru tried to play it cool.
"That's not the point! Explain yourself!" He began to grab Namikaze's shoulders and shake them.
"AaAaAaAhhhh! StoOooop doing that! Stop!" Haru slapped his hands away. "There's nothing to explain! She had something to tell me! It was an outing between friends!"
"Was it now, ribbit?"
He shot Tsu a panicked glare. Her eyes were twinkling with mischief.
Kaminari scrunched up his face in suspicion. "If you're lying to me, there will be hell to pay. You better reveal your secrets."
"Leave him alone," Jiro complained loudly. "He won the festival; he shouldn't have to deal with your tomfoolery."
As Kaminari slinked back to his desk, Haru looked around the room to see if anybody had been listening.
Uraraka was staring, her eyes wide. Sero was giving him a thumbs up and a grin. Momo was looking over for a moment before she jerked her head back down, a faint dusting of red across her cheeks.
"Yo…" Sero whispered to Kaminari. "Let me see the pic."
"Well done on your victory Namikaze, by the way!" Kirishima shot him an air-fist bump and a grin. "You've improved a lot since our fight! I kind of wanna fight you again now!"
"Haha, maybe in a future class we'll get to have a rematch…" Haru reluctantly returned the fist bump.
Mina emerged into the classroom, chatted briefly with everyone, and then moved to sit behind Haru. Haru became aware of several pairs of eyes, especially Kaminari's, on the two of them.
"Ribbit," Tsu leaned forward. "Do you two have anything you want to share with me?"
"No," they both said quickly, at the same time. Looked at each other, surprised. Blushed.
Tsu blinked. She might have smiled, just a little.
Todoroki entered the room. Haru looked up at him, chancing it. "Hey, Todoroki."
The boy paused. "Hello," he said after a moment, pleasantly enough, and then moved onto his seat.
"Did Todoroki just acknowledge his greeting?" Sero whispered.
"That's respect between combatants!" Kirishima whispered back. "Manly!"
"CRAAAACKHEAD!" Bakugo blasted across the room, bearing down on Haru's desk with a face of pure rage. "DON'T think this changes anything! You may not be an extra anymore, but I'm still gonna become number one! I'll come up and steal your glory right out of your hands!"
"Oh, wow!" Haru raised his eyebrows at a blank piece of notebook paper he'd just placed on his desk, intending to use it for notes today, and then held it up to Bakugo. "Look! It's the list of everyone who asked!"
Mina belted out laughter. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero chuckled. Even Ojiro and Jiro let out a snicker. Tsu's half-smile widened.
Bakugo's face got even redder and angrier, and he moved to snatch the paper out of Haru's hands and blow it to pieces… but then Aizawa entered the room.
"Back to your seat," the teacher said in a bored voice, and Bakugo trudged away, shooting Haru resentful looks.
"Aizawa-sensei, congrats on getting your bandages off," said Tsu.
Aizawa rubbed his eyes. "The old lady went overboard with her treatment, and now I'm even sleepier than usual. But anyway, today we'll be picking up where we left off. Since the sports festival, many heroes and hero agencies have called in requests for students. Usually they pay more attention to the second and third years, with their higher level of experience, so for any of them to be paying attention to you should be considered a privilege and an opportunity. Anyway, here are the results."
A graph flashed onto the board.
Shoto Todoroki: 3,261
Haru Namikaze: 2,545
Katsuki Bakugo: 879
Fumikage Tokoyami: 448
Tenya Iida: 237
Eijiro Kirishima: 112
Ochaco Uraraka: 90
Mina Ashido: 54
Momo Yaoyorozu: 31
Mezo Shoji: 8
Hanta Sero: 2
The class buzzed.
"I got offers! Hell yeah!" Kirishima declared.
"Todoroki got the most and Namikaze got the second-most," observed Ojiro. "The opposite results of the actual festival."
"It's probably because Todoroki was in total control for most of his matches, while Namikaze often won by the skin of his teeth," Yaomomo explained.
Haru couldn't believe it, in any case. Mina was shaking his shoulders. "Over two and a half thousand, Haru!" she whisper-screamed. "And I got fifty ! That's more than enough to choose from!"
"Shoji-kun," said Hagakure. "You got eight offers despite not even making it to the final round. Good job!"
The multi-armed boy nodded. "I'm as pleasantly surprised as you are. Perhaps it is because of Tsu and I's strategy in the cavalry battle?"
"Yet I didn't get any offers, ribbit," she muttered.
"… two…" Sero grumbled. "Two."
"Iida-kun, we got offers!" Uraraka exclaimed, shaking his shoulders much like Mina had just done to Haru.
"Yes, that's good." Iida's voice seemed distant, his smile false.
"Midoriya, you didn't get any!" Kaminari pointed out, as if incredulous for him.
"They're probably scared because of the crazy way he fights," said Jiro. Midoriya only looked down, a nervous smile on his face.
"He who chases two hares catches neither," said Tokoyami solemnly.
"Alright, settle down everyone," Aizawa called. "Only those on this list actually got requests, but every one of you will be doing an internship at a hero agency."
"Internship!?" everyone exclaimed at the same time.
"Oh my god… PLEASE stop doing that…" their teacher pinched his eyes. "I'll be passing out lists at the end of class so you can decide where to go, but in the meantime… to work with pros, you all need code names. So that's what we're coming up with today."
The class buzzed excitedly. A hero name? Haru had literally never thought about it. It was an aspect of the career he'd completely forgotten about. Based on the rest of the class's reaction, he imagined they all knew exactly what they were going to call themselves, and had known for a long time.
"Remember, these names are what the public will know you as, so they are extremely important," Aizawa said over the din.
The door slid open, and Midnight came strutting in. "If you don't pick seriously, there will be hell to pay!" she sang.
Haru shivered. "MIDNIGHT!" Kaminari and Sero shouted together, hearts appearing in their eyes.
"Midnight is better suited to this sort of thing than I am," Aizawa said. "She'll be deciding if your names are acceptable. In the meantime… I'm going to sleep." He procured his sleeping bag from nowhere and leaned against the wall, cocooned.
Midnight gave Haru a stack of five whiteboards and markers to pass back. "Congrats on your win, by the way," she whispered to him in a sultry voice, winking. Haru shuddered. "Write down your names on these boards," she announced to the whole class, as she distributed them to Ojiro, Shoji, and Hagakure at the front of the other three rows. "When you're ready, come up to present!"
"What? We're presenting these?" Kirishima suddenly seemed nervous.
"That's right!" Midnight grinned.
Haru passed the boards back, taking one for himself. "What are you going to call yourself?" he whispered to Mina.
"Alien Queen," she said with a smirk. "Like from the movie."
He sweatdropped. "I don't watch movies, but isn't that a scary monster? Midnight's going to reject that."
"And what would YOU know about it, Mr. Dense-about-heroes?"
"You should at least have a backup."
"… Pinky…" she mumbled. "That's the one I wanted when I was little, before I got into the Alien franchise…" she was clearly embarrassed about it.
Haru grinned. "That's adorable, but the Queen thing is kind of your thing, isn't it? Maybe combine them?"
Mina's eyes widened.
"Namikaze-kun?" Midnight called after another minute or two. "Since you're in seat one, would you like to go first?"
"I haven't come up with anything," he said frankly. I've literally never thought about this before!
Midnight scowled. "Well, hurry up. We've not got all day."
"I shall go!" Aoyama did a pirouette on his way up to the front, before placing his board down. "Shining Hero: I can not stop twinkling!"
"It's a sentence!" multiple students exclaimed.
"Hmm, maybe remove some words, to just be Can't Stop Twinkling?" Midnight suggested.
"Excellent, madame!"
"SHE APPROVED IT!" They all exclaimed again.
"I'll go next!" Mina rushed to the front. "Acid Hero… Queen Pinky!"
"I love it!" Midnight gushed.
Mina beamed at Haru. He smiled back.
From there, the damn broke. Tsu became Froppy. Ojiro became Tailman. Sato became Sugarman. Kaminari became Chargebolt. Shoji became Tentacole. Jiro became Earphone Jack. Hagakure become Invisible Girl. Yaomomo became Creati. And Sero became Cellophane.
"Red Riot!" Kirishima exclaimed, holding up his fist.
"That wouldn't be an homage to the Chivalrous Hero, Crimson Riot, would it?" asked Midnight.
"It is! I know he's old fashioned, but… the hero image I'm going for is Crimson himself…"
"Bearing a name like that brings all the pressure of living up to it," she warned.
"I'm prepared!" Kirishima declared.
Near the back of the room, Iida stared intently at his board.
Koda simply showed a board that said "Anima," without actually saying anything. Midnight gave him a thumbs-up. Uraraka became Uravity, which was the coolest name so far in Haru's opinion. Argh! I've been too busy paying attention to the others, and haven't come up with anything!
Tokoyami became Tsukuyomi, the god of the night. Todoroki was simply "Shoto." His first name.
"Is that allowed?" Midnight wondered.
"Yes…" Aizawa groaned from his sleeping bag.
"Well, alright then."
Then Iida similarly just used his first name. "Tenya." Something about it seemed off and incomplete to Haru, but he couldn't worry about that right now.
"So all we have left is… Bakugo, Midoriya, and… Namikaze, you still haven't gone."
"I know, I know."
Midoriya went up. "This is my hero name."
Gasps around the room.
"Dude… are you sure?" asked Sero.
"They'll call you that for the rest of your life, you know," Kaminari put in.
Bakugo growled upon looking at the board, while Uraraka beamed.
"I used to hate this title, but someone changed the meaning of it for me and…" Midoriya cast his eyes downward, and then back up, determined. "I'm Pro Hero: Deku."
"Namikaze, Bakugo, you two better be ready now," Midnight warned.
"Alright, I'm coming." Haru had managed to put something together, writing the kanji on the board.
He turned to face the class at the front, pausing. His board still faced his chest. "I didn't know much about heroes before coming here, so I don't really have anything I'm trying to emulate… but I want to help people. I want to help everyone I can. Like, no matter where they are, I'll be there in a flash… but if you're up to no good, I can get to you in a flash, too. That's the sort of the image I'd like to cultivate."
The class hummed in understanding.
"So… this is my hero name." He turned the board, and grinned, yellow light flashing in his eyes. "Warping Hero: Tachyon."