Tori:

My big brother half drags me into the office. This is ridiculous. Surely, no one really means for me to take part in a fight. Didn't Henry tell them my quirk is medical? I'm supposed to be a doctor... going to a hero university... yeah, it strikes me that I might need to modify my expectations.

Finally, we're both in the office of Shota Aizawa, one of the heroes my brother fought the most—or, rather, one of the heroes he dodged the most.

My money is on this going horribly.

The black-haired and tired-looking man gets up, giving both of us an evil eye as he does so. "Alright, let's get something straight here," Aizawa says. "I'm not gonna let you two fail on accident... it's not as fun to watch." He smiles on that note. He gets up from his office desk and walks to a dry-erase board. "I want you both to be clear on something. We had no issue with Henry representing your interests to Nezu alone because he figured one person making an organized presentation might be better than two people talking over each other. However, from now on, both of you will be judged based on your own efforts."

He draws three circles on the board, two on one side and one on the other. Finally, he draws a giant circle around the three. He continues, "The practical entrance exam will be simple. The two of you will fight Bakugo Katsuki and attempt to restrain him. You can tie him up and engage in strikes, holds, and tricks. Any attacks that could result in serious injury or lethal damage are strictly banned in this fight. Bakugo is, of course, trying to do the same to you that you are trying to do to him. The battle will take place in a circular arena. Falling out of bounds," Aizawa taps outside his large circle, "Will initiate a penalty where you will have to wear a pair of cuffs on one of your limbs for the rest of the fight, risking that your opponent will capitalize and just- finish the job."

Henry and I are seated in chairs opposite his desk, and when he finishes this part of the presentation, Henry raises his hand. I look at the board. Again, he can't be serious.

"Yes?" Aizawa says, cocking his head to the side.

"I've seen the brawls at the summer festival. Some of the attacks they launch could do serious damage. I—" Henry starts, but he doesn't sound concerned; he sounds more disappointed—because boy.

"Didn't I just say no injuries or lethal damage?" the professor interrupts, "We train our students specifically to hold back their attacks or strike areas that won't retain serious injury when struck. However, because of your age, Bakugo won't be allowed to engage in even THAT level of combat. He will be restricted to low-level quirk attacks and martial arts. Injurious attacks on individuals under 14 participating in a match are prohibited by national law, not just school policy." He glares at us both as if trying to drill home the importance of this point. "You, in turn, will be allowed equipment to make up the skill and experience difference, but non-lethal only, and it can't be anything professionally made. A staff? Fine. A sword- no. A specially made capture net? If I see something like that, you're gone."

"Hold on- where would we even get specialized equipment to cheat in the first place? It's not like we're loaded with cash." Henry asks with a chuckle.

"Hmmm..." Aizawa says with a smirk. "Where? Kid, we have an entire support department and support course on three floors... Oh, you're not keeping up, are you? Why do you think you're being given a week? So you can rest up?" He sits down at his desk. "Maybe you think you're being allowed to... socialize? Of course not. You're being allowed run of the facilities here. Of course, within reason, and with supervision, but the point remains. You could go to support and request a few things the second this meeting is done, free of charge." He folds his hands and looks over them at the two of us, a look of restrained malice in his eyes. "I've been told that this next week coincides with what is known as a "grace period". You'll be allowed to live in Hizashi's home and spend time being normal children." He chuckles. "From foster care to a crime syndicate to jail- the grace period will be your first chance at living in a real family. Of course, if you don't make it into UA, you go back to jail, and this week will be fleeting. Regardless, this will be the last opportunity both of you have to live and interact in a real home for a long time- possibly years. Even if you do make it into UA, you will live in the dorms under heavy restrictions." He cocks his head to the side and smiles. "What will you do? Spend every second you can here training, stocking up, and planning, or spend precious time with your new family?"

I tighten my fists. "You... you mean to... do you have any idea how much it means to us to have a family?!" I stand up and point a finger at him, inches from his face, to which he only raises an eyebrow. "Is this what your school is about? You could easily let us do this a different week- you just want to hurt us because of a stupid vendetta against my brother!"

"Nezu set this up, not me. Though I won't pretend not to have a little pleasure in the irony." I slam my fist on his desk, but he doesn't even flinch. "I understand Hizashi has a little eight-year-old girl. This is your chance to meet her, form a bond, and throw away your future."

I clench my teeth.

Behind me, my brother speaks up. "We'll do what we must to get into UA. This is about our futures." He sighs as I turn around. "It's not like Hizashi and his family will go anywhere either way, sis. This is AN opportunity to get to know them, not the only opportunity." He twists his lips, "I mean, WE are the prisoners. If they really care about us, theoretically, what stops them from coming to us? I mean, unless Hizashi is just gonna forget us-"

"I will not hear you disrespect my friend Hizashi!" Aizawa growls. "He's sometimes whimsical and childish, but when he gives his word, he means it. If he adopted you two, he'll visit you every chance he gets." He huffs and sits back.

I look back at the professor in confusion.

"What?" Aizawa asks. "Henry is right. If you make it into UA, Hizashi and his wife and daughter will be able to visit you all the time." He pulls back and folds his arms. "I might as well explain something here- something I planned to explain later, but whatever. The professors at this school are harsh, but it's because we want you to succeed. If for no other reason than your success equates to ours." He shrugs. "Often, the things we say aren't as bad as we make them out to be, though you might as well take us seriously. You two really are free to blow the whole week off visiting with your new family and then go back to jail, but I don't recommend it. You both need to learn to look ahead instead of looking only at what's in front of you. It'll be difficult to give up time with little Yukari, but you'll both be able to spend evenings and mornings with her as Hizashi will be taking you home to sleep in his house. You only have a week, after all, so if I were you, I might just write the whole week off and just study and train your asses off. Take the time with your family that you've been given- or work so hard this week that you can barely learn their names and earn YEARS of time with them. That's the choice you're actually making. A little bit of good things now, or earn far better with your sweat and tears."

"Oh..." I say, backing up.

"I did want to see what you two would do with that dumb little act I put on." He smiles. "You have more of a spine than I thought, little girl. You really should stop letting your brother do everything."

I look down, "He's smarter..." I say, feeling disappointed that I didn't see through his ruse as easily as Henry.

"Is he?" Aizawa asks. "How sure are you about that? Because I think being intelligent is a matter of how hard you press to earn it. Tell me, what was he doing the last two years, and what were you doing?"

I try to hold back tears. "He was being trained to steal and to inherit a business... I was being ALLOWED to breathe. I was constantly tied up in the corner or dragged around, made to keep records of deals, and... I... I ffff..." But it catches in my throat. It's hard to even talk about what happened to me.

He holds up his hand. "I get the idea. You were shoved into a corner while your brother got real training. Sounds to me like you need this while he needs to be put back in his cell for leaving you there."

My eyes go wide, and I hiss. "HOW DARE YOU! Do you think Henry wanted even ten seconds of that freak breathing down his neck?! Everything he endured was for my sake. If you don't wipe that smile off your face right now, I'll-" Henry grabs me from behind and pulls me back to my seat.

Aizawa raises his eyebrows as I'm pulled back. "Something strikes me, little girl. You're naturally more believable than Henry. It's obvious that emotions rule you more than they do him. It's a weakness in some ways, but in other ways... it lets me see what you're passionate about." He looks at my brother. "Maybe I'm being too critical of you, Henry. If you can inspire loyalty like hers, well... who knows? Maybe you both belong in this school. Maybe you'll both show us amazing things."

Henry sighs and pushes onward. "What are we allowed to do while we have "run of the facilities?" He asks. "Just reading books and acquiring equipment isn't going to help us win a fight."

"What are you thinking you need?" the professor asks.

"I've never really fought; you would know that, Eraserhead. I never threw a punch at you." Henry says.

"If you had, I'd have beaten you to a pulp." He returns.

"Well, if that's the case... you sure you could have beaten me down despite my dodging skills?"

"Hahahahahaha- no problem," Aizawa says. "We both know I was holding back in those engagements. Particularly in the beginning."

"Then can YOU train us?" Henry asks.

"I've been a total jerk to you this entire time. I'm sure there are people who would be easier to get along with..." the professor says, leaving a pregnant pause.

"Tori and I will be mostly limited to hand-to-hand attacks, mixed with blunt force objects- if that." Henry says, "Am I understanding this right?"

"Essentially. Bakugo has a toughness factor to his quirk, so not allowing you staff weapons would be childish. The best you could do with them is... communicate. What about your sister's quirk? What can it do in a fight?"

My eyes go wide. "Use Flesh Fuse in a fight? Are you insane? No!" I almost squeak out, pure horror on my face as terrifying visions of human bodies being mutilated by my promising quirk run through my mind. "Ever since I was eight and could understand what my power could do, I swore never to use it in a fight- it just wouldn't be right. Fuse is like a scalpel; it's too... too special to be used like a combat knife in a fight."

"Girly- that's not how this works. In a fight, if what you have is a scalpel, then a scalpel is what you use," Aizawa corrects in a knowing tone when it's clear he knows nothing.

"And when said scalpel mutilates flesh on a molecular level, altering it so fundamentally that a single slash would require months of surgery to recover from? The flesh I fuse does not unfuse over time- that's why my power is so miraculous. It's true healing. But if I use it wrong, I'll fuse skin to muscle to bone to blood... I could turn someone's hand into an unidentifiable writhing mass in just a few seconds..." I look down. "I did it when I was seven... a man was playing fighting with me... I don't even think he meant to hurt me; he was just playing, but my quirk activated in defense for too long when touching his hand, and- I think he's still receiving treatments to this day."

Aizawa breathes in and just holds the breath. "I... I see... in that case... in that case, I guess you're right. Some things are too... special... to be used in combat."

"He's stronger than us, right?" Henry asks, apparently not as phased by the current topic as the professor and I are.

"By an insane factor," the professor says after attempting to pull himself back onto Henry's topic. "And he's built like a bear. You'd have a hard time putting him down with a revolver."

"And you've fought people stronger than yourself and won, right?" Henry asks. The professor nods. "You've done that with your skills?" The professor nods again. "Can you teach us enough of those skills to win?"

"He's my student- but he's a bit arrogant when it comes to combat training, preferring his own techniques. He's heavily reliant on his quirk and loves to try to adapt his tactics mid-fight. A true expert could run circles around him- however, you two have a week."

Henry smirks. "If you're not feeling up to the task, just say so, professor," he says.

Aizawa grins. "Oh... oh, so it's like that, huh?" He leans in. "You want to make this a commentary on MY abilities?"

"If Tori and I throw everything we have at your training, and then me, my clone, and her can't even make a showing out there... it certainly won't look good on you, will it?" Henry says, leaning in himself.

Aizawa chuckles back. "Again- so it's like that? Fine. I'll train you two. Meet me in the gym at 18:30. Understand, I estimate with the best training I can give you and insanely good learning rates- which you probably don't have- I can get you a third of the way to victory at best. You'll both look cool and be able to stand your ground for about... thirty seconds before you lose, and he ties you up anyway. If you want to do better than that..." Aizawa stands up and motions to the door. "I highly recommend you two make use of the facilities to procure that equipment and maybe strategize."

Henry gets up, bows, and walks out of the room.

I start to follow him, but just before I leave the room, I turn back at the door frame. "Professor, just out of curiosity, who are you rooting for? Us, or Bakugo?"

"Do I want you two in this school or not?" He asks. I nod. "My little girl goes to this school. I nearly begged to help your brother when we encountered each other on the street. I hate to see children throwing their lives away. I've always taken his refusal as either some kind of arrogance or maybe an acceptance of the life he was in. You two are in the age group of my child. Thus, I would really rather you both rot in jail." I freeze in place, blinking a few times. "You asked."

In a few seconds, I catch up with my brother. "What do we do? Our own trainer isn't even rooting for us!" I ask.

"I don't doubt nearly everyone is rooting against us," Henry says. "But I gave them a damn good offer, so if we put on a good enough show, there's every chance we'll get in anyway." He folds his arms. "I've never successfully stood my ground against someone, so we need a plan."

"Well, you didn't give up against Charles."

"That was metaphorically standing my ground. I mean, I've never won a fight." He raises an eyebrow and looks off to the left as we continue down the hall, "Though that might be a good point. You and I have suffered physical and mental abuse far beyond anything the twerps at this school can dish out. Nothing that idiot said so much as phased me."

"Not so sure I can say the same..." I say, looking down.

Henry wraps an arm around me. "Ahhhh, it'll be fine. The point is, you went through hell too. That means this Bakugo guy shouldn't be able to scare either of us. If we can stay on task, that's half the battle."

"But... I'm already scared. He's supposed to be a champion, and besides that, he's a high schooler with a combat quirk- which neither of us really has."

"I have a combat quirk."

"Doppelganger is a tactical quirk at best- what even IS Bakugo's quirk? Do you know?" I ask.

"Nope," Henry admits rather quickly. We have our briefing and our trainer, so our next stop is the school library—let's see what the archives have on this Bakugo guy, shall we?"

"Why would they have records of him in the library?"

"Haven't you been paying attention? He's a champion of something, and I bet that's the televised summer sports festival. The festival's final round is a series of one-on-one battles between first-year students. They've been trained not to kill each other, but... hooo boy, past that, they really go at it!"

"But he has to hold back with us, right?" I ask.

"Yeah, I know, lame, right?" He replies because he's like most boy's, completely insane. "Now, where would I be if I were a library?"

As he stands there puzzling, I do the girl thing and ask for freaking directions from a passerby.

Eventually, Henry and I are at a table with a school laptop. We've been given a sticky note with the address of a decent broadcast of the summer festival. It's time to watch how our opponent fights.

First fight: Bakugo vs. Kirishima. Kirishima seems to have a body-hardening quirk, allowing him to harden his own body until it is near impervious to damage. This rock-hard skin also becomes rough and heavy, allowing him to deliver hard punches with rigid fists that tear into the skin.

The fight opens, and the red-haired Kirishima comes out, facing our foe, a blonde-haired teenager with spikey hair and a glare that scares me just to look at it. Kirishima runs at him without a shred of nervousness, swinging and slicing at the air. One swing, two swings, three jabs, a hook- this is insane. Bakugo is dodging him while watching for an opening. He eventually delivers a blow to Kirishima's side with a high-powered explosion from his hand that does- nothing. He even has to let Kirishima slice open his face with a strike in order to make that attack, but all it does is mess up Kirishima's clothing.

I grin, "Kirishima's not doing bad, right?"

Henry shakes his head. "I don't like it. He's going all out from the looks of it, and Bakugo is holding back, barely taking a scratch."

"Kirishima is unscratched too. Maybe Bakugo has a weakness if you have damage resistance?"

But as I turn back to the screen, I see Bakugo land one in a series of literally explosive hits on Kirishima, and this one breaks the skin. Bakugo gets a cocky gleam in his head and then starts swinging his open palms at Kirishima over and over; at the apex of each swing, Bakugo sets up an explosion from his palm. One blast after another erupts, the stone arena around them starting to tear up as Kirishima is forced to falter. I see blood and hold my mouth, scared I'll see the worst.

I heave a sigh of relief to see that Kirishima is only unconscious. He looks to have injuries, but nothing that can't be fixed. Still, I have to ask, "That kind of brawl is sanctioned?"

"Hmm?" Henry asks back. "They have Recovery Girl working here. Her quirk lets her exponentially increase the body's natural healing process. That kid was probably fine in about- an hour or a day at worst- no biggie."

"Wait? RG works HERE?" I ask. Sure, recovery Girl is known to have the best healing quirk of them all, but she was also once a legendary hero in her own right. She had to fight in the age when quirks were first discovered. She saved hundreds of lives with her quirk, going into the field to save anyone in danger, even in the face of vicious gangs and with no front-line heroes with combat quirks to back her up. Quirks have become more and more powerful over time, but even so, to face those proto quirks with nothing but skill and the ability to heal others- I look up to her like crazy. Her courage and love for others... she is my idol.

"You're gonna be like- her protégé, sis, so I hope you like the woman," Henry says, then he smiles when he sees the stars emerge in my eyes. "As long as you can help me beat this lunatic."

I look at that blond freak. The video pauses on his stupid glare. I tighten my fist. "Next fight, let's see it."

We scrub forward on the video until we get to Bakugo's next fight. Bakugo vs Tokoyami. Tokoyami appears to be able to turn his shadow into a powerful, dark, bird-like creature. The creature can take on different shapes and attack or shield Tokoyami, and it seems to act of its own will. Really, Tokoyami doesn't seem to be doing much himself, relying heavily on the creature, and honestly... I can't tell from the fight how Tokoyami even made it to the finals. His attacks seem kinda lackluster.

Even so, Bakugo seems to take his time. His attacks are slow at first, and then he releases a blast that lights up the entire screen—what the heck?

Henry speaks up. "It appears this Tokoyami's power was weak to light- that was some kind of flash-bang attack from Bakugo... if he just entered the fight and started blasting away, he could have beaten both Kirishima and Tokoyami in record time, but he doesn't seem to like doing that."

I take the mouse and scrub back a bit, then rewatch the fight. "You're right... he lets his opponent throw the first punch."

"He also loves to taunt his opponents. I think he lets time pass so he can learn his opponent on the spot. That could be his undoing if we play our cards right. We need to aim to take him down in the first twenty or thirty seconds of the fight."

"Hhahahahahahaha.... Aaaaahhhh," we both hear someone laugh and a sigh over our shoulders. I turn and see Aizawa. "What? I saw you two in here, and I figured, if I'm training you, I might as well see what you're doing with the time."

"Yeah, well, what's so funny?" Henry asks.

"A couple things," the professor says. "First off, Bakugo thinks he's the best fighter in the school, yet a couple preteens figured out the weakness in his style in under a minute. Second, if you think exploiting it at your skill level- which, as I understand, is non-existent- is going to be easy, then you're in for a world of hurt."

I cringe, but Henry just continues the conversation, a serious look on his face as he watches a third fight, this one a battle between Bakugo and a boy named Shoto Todoroki. "You're his teacher?" Henry asks. The professor nods.

I watch the video. As an opening move, in less than a second, Shoto sets off an ice attack that freezes the entire fighting arena and then creates a pseudo mountain of ice that rises through the roof of the entire stadium on Bakugo's side. The yellow spikey-haired boy looks to have been consumed entirely by the ice- but wait- I thought being the champion meant you won...

"Bakugo's fighting method is one born of arrogance, but it is a method nonetheless," Aizawa narrates as we watch. "As you can see, he is fully capable of responding to fast attacks." We watch as the arena shakes in the video, Shoto stumbling back. "He tries to gauge his attacks by the kind of resistance he's receiving." Finally, Bakugo blasts out of the ice, seems to taunt his opponent for a moment, and then uses his explosions to hurtle himself at his opponent, maneuvering around him at an insane pace. Shoto creates ice constructs with the speed of thought, but he can't keep pace with Bakugo's pure speed and unconventional maneuvering- flashing from side to side, spinning, and somersaulting on the ground and through the air. "He'll take hits that he doesn't have to, allow you to get off attacks when he could easily beat you in draw time. He doesn't do it only because he doesn't believe you can beat him." Eventually, we all watch Bakugo unleash one heavy blast on Shoto's face, sending the boy flying out of the battle circle. "He wants to know if there's any way you can win or challenge him. Victory isn't good enough for Bakugo," We continue watching as Bakugo starts to scream at his unconscious opponent in a fury, apparently disappointed about something. "He wants supremacy. His last battle was decided by a ring out when his opponent held back a key element of his quirk. Bakugo has yet to forgive Shoto for not using the rest of his quirk."

"So... so he's like... I mean, he's quick and doesn't take too much damage. Does that mean he's also afraid of getting hurt?" I ask, trying to get in on the strategy."

"Haha- oh god no, the boy thrives on pain. The other part of Shoto's quirk is fire control. Bakugo is furious that he wasn't nearly burned alive, just to show that he could overcome and win anyway. The boy has something to prove," The professor clarifies, a kind of pride for his student mixed in his mocking tone, the mocking obviously meant for Henry and me. Not that I could blame him. I would be laughing at any middle school girl thinking about fighting this kid- if the girl wasn't me. As it stands- I'm terrified.

"He can't just blast the US like he did with Shoto, right?" I squeak out.

Henry just rolls his eyes when I say that, as Aizawa says, "No, he can't; that would violate school policy regarding underage contestants. I wouldn't rely on that to mean you won't experience pain- think about it like this: if he breaks significant bones or gives either of you a serious laceration or gash, his future as a hero is basically over. If you get bruises, black eyes, bloody noses, broken fingers- those will be healed easily by Recovery Girl and be regarded as par for the course- personally, I would see them as markers of your journey into adulthood." The professor looks down at me exclusively, "Little girl, if this scares you, go back to jail. If you can't take a few booboos, you don't belong in a school for elite crime fighters and emergency workers. Serve your sentence and go be a doctor." He smirks at me.

Henry finally puts an arm between me and the professor. "I think that's enough," he says.

The professor shakes his head, "I don't want a fight in the middle of the library- but a part of me wants you two to somehow manage to get in, just for the pleasure of seeing you, Tori, having to face challenges, like sparing and obstacle courses, without this idiot hovering over you. You're trying to become EMTs. Do you think when you have to run into a tsunami to get civilians out, that you're brother will be able to say, "That's enough," then?" Henry stands up. The professor puts up his hands. "Like I said, I don't need a fight right now- but go ahead and try stepping to me like that once you're a student, Henry." Aizawa walks away.

"What's with that guy?" I ask once he's gone.

"I don't think he likes us," Henry says. "But we can learn a lot from him, so I'm gonna keep pressing him for more."

"He's a jerk!"

"Everything he said was true, and much of it was useful. You need to stop responding with your feelings and listen with your ears, sis," Henry says. He sits back down next to me.

As he continues, I can't help but feel safe again. Henry wants nothing more than to protect me and help me, and I know it. If the school really does separate us during courses and sparring sessions... How will I handle that? When I was separated from him by Charles, I was just bullied into doing whatever needed to be done at the time, like paperwork or chores. Do I even have potential without Henry? I don't know, and a part of me feels... I think I feel ashamed.

"He just told us Bakugo's combat weakness." Henry continues.

"What weakness?" I practically snap. "That guy is a monster. Shoto did exactly what you were talking about, trying to annihilate him early in the fight, and somehow, he countered him- I didn't even see how! He's WAY faster than you."

"I wasn't looking at him being slow," Henry argues back. "The point is he hesitates. And he does that because he's trying to study his opponent. If we can use that tendency against him, we might just win."

"Well... how?!"

"This is gonna be a wild ride- but trust me, sis, we're gonna make it."