Henry:

The next day rolled around, and save for a nice breakfast with Yukari and Yuka- it was dull and full of nothing but studying and theorizing about strategies for fighting Bakugo.

Yuka took the time to write up a schedule for us. It had a smattering of subjects for Tori, but when my sister begged, Mom adjusted it to primarily focus on her anatomy studying... I guess I'm okay with that. It will be a big part of the test and our upcoming school careers, right?

For me, the schedule focused on nothing but flashcard lessons and attempting to memorize vocabulary for both scientific taxonomy and history.

Thus, Tori buried herself in that anatomy book for hours, and I was stuck doing flash cards.

I would love to say I made progress; I really would. In reality, every time I asked a passerby in the UA library to drill me- and don't get me wrong, most people had no problem assisting me for a few minutes, asking me to give names to definitions- but regardless, everyone had to basically tell me the same thing when they were done. "Wow- you are not good at this, are you?" It is wonderful to hear from an entire range of people, whether they look mean or friendly; it kinda lets you know for sure you absolutely suck.

UA has a nice cafeteria with wonderful-looking food, but we barely had a chance to indulge with our schedules, giving us a half hour before we returned to do quick checkups on our strong subjects. I breezed through math and science equations, and my spelling is really... well, it's good. Japanese schools expect kids to learn three writing styles, Kanji, kana, and English print. The English rules are various, but I've got a handle on enough of them to do alright. Kana is much the same for me. However, Kanji... that one is a nightmare.

It's been years since I really had to handle Kanji, history, or taxonomy. It's not like Charles cared to go easy on me in education, but he employed a different strategy. For one, as far as he was concerned, if I didn't know Kanji, it wouldn't matter, as Kana and English are all you need to communicate reliably in Japan anyway. Next, he didn't care if I could quote names or dates, just so long as I could comprehend the lessons behind history. Finally, he was a mobster. What would he care if I understood taxonomy?

6:30 rolls around again. We head to the gym, where Aizawa is grading a few papers. A few seats up in the bleachers sits a very tall and very strongly built young man who I don't know. He's intently reading—it looks like an algebra textbook.

When my sister and I walk in, the darkly dressed professor gets up. "No Mirko this time?" I ask as he walks down.

"No formal greeting? You just ask where your favorite went?" Aizawa asks. He finally gets to the last step and looks down his nose at me. "But I didn't expect better. And to be fair, I don't have time to teach you better."

I grit my teeth but decide to leave that one alone.

"Mirko only came to give you one lesson this week, and you shouldn't expect more than that from her normally. If you want to review, she'll be in the UA base floor gym at 7:30 every day—access to the facilities is a perk of being a UA alumnus." Aizawa smiles at that last line as if it's a perk he likes. I couldn't care less; I just want to get past the front door.

"What's the lesson for today, sir?" I ask.

The professor huffs and bounces a small blue ball up and down; Tori's eyes are drawn immediately to the rubber toy. "Why am I doing this?" Aizawa asks. I could just walk away, and you two would be hopeless... but I'm not wired that way—you should be grateful."

I look away from him. "Question..." I say.

"Already? Shoot."

"Did you know Charles had children?"

"Of course. I followed that creep in the news all the time. I knew the day you were adopted into that unhappy life," We both look at each other, an uncertainty creeping into my mind. "Okay... just this once, let me say how I feel about that so we're clear. What you and your sister went through was terrible, I respect that you got away, and I respect that you have enough of a sense of justice to be fighting him to this day. I don't hate you entirely, alright?" He keeps bouncing the ball.

He says that, but I cock my head to the side, raising an eyebrow as if to silently say, "Really- but?".

"But," the man continues. "You're an arrogant little monster with no respect. Everyone pitties you instead of looking at what you are and what you did. I was far from the only person who tried to reach out to you, but you just used the fact that we had hearts against us and ran away. So, no, I don't think you deserve to be in my school. You've done enough for me to think you deserve a normal school and a rough time while you're there. But no way in hell do I think you deserve a reward like going to UA."

I close my eyes, trying to push down my anger, but I know it's easy to see.

"Well, I don't expect you to feel good about it," He pauses for a few beats, still bouncing that ball. I'm about to ask what it's for when I see him quickly reach into his coat and toss another small rubber ball across the gym, "Tori, point to the red ball- NOW!"

Tori's eyes enlarge, and she stutters, her head turning rapidly as she spins a few times, trying to find the ball she WASN'T watching. Eventually, she locks on with her eyes and extends her finger to point at the red ball.

"Six seconds- abysmal," says Aizawa.

Tori lets her arm fall back to her side.

"Nice turtleneck today Tori," Aizawa says.

"Um, thank you, profe-"

Aizawa throws the blue ball as she's in mid-sentence, "Point to the blue ball, now!"

"I um..." Again, Tori has to reset her mind to tracking a seemingly random toy. "Um-um-um-d-d-d there!" she points.

"How did you go slower that time?" Aizawa asks. "You're eleven years old; you have no excuse for such pathetic reflexes. This is an awareness exercise. I'm going to throw random objects. I doubt you'll be able to get to the point of catching them this week, but that's the eventual goal."

"Wait- you want me to catch a ball that you just throw at random? Dude, that's ridiculous!" Tori objects.

"Henry—she seems to think this is ridiculous. " As he talks, I watch him draw out another object and throw it past my shoulder. I turn quickly on my heel and just manage to catch it.

I hold the object up for Tori- a small pen. Aizawa continues. "If I were throwing this stuff at full power, it would be, but I'm doing one-handed tosses. This is a reflex exercise- looks like Henry is beyond familiar."

Tori just blinks at me, her mouth moving with nothing coming out, and she sees me casually doing something she thought impossible. "I... I don't..." she eventually stammers out, but it's still meaningless.

"You ever played frisbee with a dog?" Aizawa asks. "Most of the time, unless you throw the toy very fast or high, the animal can get in front of it and catch it mid-air. This is because dogs have incredible reflexes with their heads. However, dogs are not born that way. They're instinctively driven to play games like fetch to develop their awareness." The professor steps back from Tori about six additional paces. "The same game can be effective on a human."

Tori looks at him curiously. "Um... so you want me to get the balls and bring them back? Like a dog?"

"Well, you don't have to do it on all fours, and you don't have to carry them in your mouth, but, essentially- yes." Tori runs off to retrieve the balls as the professor holds his head and sighs. "She's running with no form like she's five, and she has no enthusiasm... why am I doing this to myself?"

He turns to me as we wait. "You- I trust you at least have the intelligence of a small dog?" he asks. "Or do you want me to train you alongside your sister?"

"Hey- she's just untrained," I object.

Finally, Tori gives the balls back to Aizawa. "I can tell that," the professor says, then points towards a red line on the gym floor several paces away from him, "Tori, until this game is done, do not cross that red line." Tori goes back and stands behind the line.

The professor looks at me. "If your sister needs defending, she's here to learn to do it herself. This is a perfectly normal reflex and awareness training exercise. I can't control that it's also played with dogs- if your sister fails to learn the game as fast as a dog- well, I'm a teacher, of course, I will voice my opinion; that's what I'm paid to do." He motions to the large teenager sitting in the rafters. "Ida, come down here."

The young man gets up. Sheesh, he's tall! And he holds himself pretty much like a soldier. Down the steps he walks, letting me continue to get a look at this freaking oak tree of a boy. His hair is almost pitch black, and he has a normal Japanese skin tone. He wears box-rim glasses, and even the UA gym uniform of loose shorts and a t-shirt serves only to show off his well-toned musculature. He stands opposite me and bows perfectly from the hip, compelling me to copy him out of a feeling that otherwise I would look pathetic.

"This is one of my top-performing students, Ida Tenya," Aizawa says. "You'll see what looks like engine exhaust ports on his legs- a propulsion system. His speed makes even you look slow with your ability to virtually teleport between two bodies." Aizawa bows to Ida. "Ida, please remember that Henry is only twelve and hold back your strikes accordingly. You may retaliate as you feel appropriate, but the idea of this spar is for Henry to try to land attacks on an opponent who is moving, dodging, and resisting him. You have nothing to prove here, save for your discipline as an individual, understood?"

"Yes sir, I understand my objective," and Ida... actually salutes Aizawa, who seems to appreciate the respect. Hmm... maybe I should copy this new guy. I might get better responses.

"Henry-kun," the large boy starts. Come at me." He stands stiffly and raises a hand, inviting me to attack.

"You want me to hold back?"

"I'm fifteen, you're twelve. I hold back, you show me what you've got. I'll judge what I think you can take- is that acceptable?"

"Well... it does feel kinda weird to know I'm being babied..." I say.

Tenya smirks, "Oh trust me, I wouldn't treat a "baby" like this. All the same, I'm not going all out on you and getting expelled for beating up a child just so you can "feel" a little better." He takes a rigid karate stance, and I hop into my boxing stance."

"Well- the professor underestimates me, I wouldn't worry about a stiff like you landing a hit on me," I say with a grin.

Suddenly, I hear a loud hiss and a ringing as Tenya's whole body moves as a blur. He leans down, sticks out his right leg, and spins so fast there's no way I can track him. I'm knocked clean off my feet and land hard on my side.

"You were saying Henry-Kun?" He says as he moves to a position of attention and then back to a formal karate stand.

Some adults have a hard time touching on me. This guy looks like he barely tried. I will not allow this!

I shove myself up and resume my stance. Dodging might not solve fights, but it's what I do! "Try that again!" I demand- and in an instant, I hear that sort of engine-like noise again; I'm grabbed around the stomach and feel myself pulled through the air. I fly back, and my back slams into a pile of mats on the floor. It's just like with Mirko yesterday, but this guy isn't a combat vet, he's just damn fast.

"Interesting as this is, Henry-kun, I believe you were instructed to attack me." Ida retakes his position and waves a hand, again inviting me to attack.

Oh, this guy... he's gonna get it. I get up and run at him, right fist cocked back as I run. "Ahhhhh-" But I stop moments before I reach him and attempt a left hook. Ida moves back slightly, and I lose my balance, having to hop several times on one foot to regain my balance.

"I've been told you just learned your basic punches yesterday," Ida says. "I recommend practicing normal strikes before you try feints. Nice try, though." He pushes me down with one hand.

This guy is good and so respectful- I wanna destroy him just for that! I run at him, trying two jabs, one right and one left, but he quickly dodges back with each. "Whoop- nope- over here," the boy starts narrating as I keep landing nothing. "Ya know, it's weird; you're the first person I've fought in a while with no speed enhancements of his own. It's like you're moving in slow motion."

"You want slow?" I say. I jab with my right hand, and one of my clones appears directly behind Ida, causing the older boy to trip and jumble his moves. I don't have much time before he resets, so I do a left cross punch to his right shoulder when the boy falls to the ground.

Ida quickly pushes up and moves after my clone, but just as he goes down, I snap my fingers, and thus, he leans down to grab what is now only air. I swing back and land a right uppercut straight to his gut.

The boy gasps and staggers back a few steps. He holds up a finger as he recovers, "Ya know- it occurs to me that I should take you a little more seriously than I have been."

I look over my shoulder to see how Tori is doing. She's sprinting back and forth, constantly missing whenever Aizawa throws the ball, but she does seem to be limbering up and moving faster and faster... I hope she'll have better reaction times by the end of the week.

I duck and tuck my right arm down and back as Ida tries to land a swipe on my head as I'm "not paying attention". A clone appears on his shoulders just as his swing hits its apex, and he's slightly overbalanced. As he collapses to the floor, I spin away from him, a big grin on my face. Ida is fast, that's for sure, but he's not good at adjusting on the fly. I have my clone disappear again before Ida can turn over and grab him.

Ida gets up, a frustrated grin on his face. "Oh, you think you're clever?" he asks me. I hear his thrusters rev up again. Crap, I don't know how to counter this, um... I flex my right arm, making my clone appear directly before me as... nothing happens. I peek out from behind my clone as Ida shoots forward and grabs my collar.

Suddenly, I'm being pulled at an insane speed. I have to think fast. Before Ida can throw me again, I wrap my arms and legs around his arm and then look back at my clone that is still back behind us. Ida attempts to throw me at the mats again at nearly the same time as I body swap.

In my new body, I sprint to Ida as he wrestles to dislodge my clone from his arm. My clone fights without any form or fear since I don't care if it gets injured. Thus, Ida can't get it off as I come and deliver a series of crosses and jabs to his back.

As Ida can't fully recover his balance, I eventually just body-check him from behind, forcing him to fall to the ground.

I suddenly hear an older boy cheering from a group of rafters opposite Aizawa and Tori. "Not bad. He's twice your size, but you don't flinch; you just throw yourself at him. Now that's manly. Hey Ida, pause for a minute, will ya?" I turn and see two teenagers in the stands as they get up to walk towards me and Ida. One of the boys has spikey hair, almost like Bakugo's, but it's in thicker tufts. Also, he looks to have a much more robust build than Explosion Boy.

Next to the redhead walks a heteromorph kid with a normal enough body, if a little on the skinny side, but also with a large bird head. The head is like a cross between a black hawk because the plumage goes straight back instead of following his neckline down and a typical black songbird since his beak is orange instead of black.

The redhead seems to be in charge of the pair as he speaks up first. "I wanted to check you out before your big showdown with my buddy Bakugo, and I gotta say- Nice! You're no pushover, huh?"

"Indeed, you're well coordinated. I would like to learn how you work so easily with a quirk-generated construct," the bird boy says. "I'm Tokoyami. Please look me up once you have formally been allowed into the school."

"Don't you mean if?"

"If? Yeah, right. It's when," the redhead puts his hand forward. By the way, my name's Kirishima."

"I can't even finish this guy off," I say, thumbing back at Ida as he walks up behind us. "What makes you think I'm a shoo-in? I can't finish the fight over here."

"You were told to hit him, not win or lose," Kirishima shrugs. "Regardless, you've been blitzing the fastest kid in my class. That being said," he yells over to Aizawa, "Hey, professor, mind if we add another... parameter to this fight?" Kirishima takes out a pair of handcuffs and rattles them in the air.

"Why do you have those?" asks Tokoyami.

"We're cops in training, dude; why wouldn't I have them?" Kirishima asks back.

"You want to see an actual capture battle, hm?" Aizawa says, waving a hand to tell my sister she can rest. "Jog in place; it'll keep you from getting cramps or becoming lightheaded," he coaches Tori. "Anyway... sure, why not?" Aizawa shrugs.

"Let's see how this goes down!" Kirishima says, tossing the cuffs as he and Tokoyami run back to the stands.

Before I can get my head back in the game, I hear Ida's retrorockets, and I'm grabbed around the stomach and pulled through the air again.

While I'm still being pulled through the air, I feel a metal band snapped around my left wrist, and almost on instinct, I jut my right arm back a few times before my right wrist is grabbed and the second band is snapped down on it.

I'm next dropped on a big blue mat with my hands restrained behind my back- but it's too late. I look up, see my clone, and body swap with it.

My clone only has one hand engaged in the cuffs, so I apply a light amount of pressure and pull them off. I chuckle and snap my fingers, my previous body disappearing with the cuffs on it. "I get to choose which version of a cloned object remains," I say as Ida looks at me and grits his teeth.

Ida leans down and grits his teeth as I swing the cuffs, toying with them to mock him. I then swing my right arm and create another duplicate, which skips away from me, "Attack. How do you think that'll go?" I mock. As long as I have a clone out, Ida capturing me will be meaningless, and we both know it. His only hope would be an attempt to grab us both- which is what I'm counting on him trying.

Wham! I feel my body grabbed up but not at the right angle- my trap has been sprung. I feel myself pulled into a turn as the world around me blurs, and then- I'm sent crashing to the floor as Ida falls to the ground.

See, my clone laid on the gym floor the second Ida snatched the body I'm in. This meant that it was laying horizontal by the time Ida tried to make a turn to grab it up as well. At Ida's speed, he couldn't bend over and likely couldn't stop before tripping and barreling over my clone.

I snap my fingers, and the clone lying on the ground disappears; then I swing my right arm as I run to Ida, another clone of me falling out of the air and slamming down on top of him, temporarily pinning him to the ground. I also jump on Ida's back, trying to pull one arm back, while my clone does the other- I can taste victory!

Ida's retro rockets on his right leg engage, and he spins around, knocking my clone and me onto our backs.

In moments Ida has used his superior strength to pull both me and my clone under him and force both of us into handcuffs.

He pulls me away from my clone and breathes a sigh of relief- big mistake.

I mind swap with it once I'm far enough away from my clone. I then snap my fingers, and the version of me in Ida's hands disappears, along with the handcuffs on my current body.

Sure, this means the controls the cuffs again, but both sides are engaged now, meaning they're locked and useless without a key.

I'm about to swing my right arm to try more maneuvers on Ida when he suddenly tackles me to the ground and pins me with his weight. Then I feel my right shoe liberated from its foot- and then my wrists are tied behind me in the laces of said shoe.

I'm left squirming on the floor as Ida gets off me and drops to his rear end. "Ya know... gotta say Henry-Kun... not bad. I had to brute strength through your attacks and hope for the best."

"Still- one of you is tied up, and one isn't," Aizawa yells from his training with Tori.

Ida unties me, and back at it we go.

The rest of the hour goes this way. I feel mixed emotions about the training's results. I ended up on the ground tied or in cuffs seven times, but I wasn't able to get Ida restrained even once. I just can't figure out how to overcome the power difference. That doesn't mean I didn't get close tactically twelve times.

As Aizawa calls us to stop, Ida bows to me and says, "Honestly, I think you did pretty well for someone your age, Henry." A smile starts to creep onto my face.

"That's a meaningless compliment if I've ever heard one," Aizawa says as Tori joins me. "If your spirits are lifted when you hear someone tell you you're great "for your age"- he's telling you that you lived up to low expectations,"

I look down and bite my lip, no longer feeling complimented.

Aizawa is the only one of our group of four—me, Tori, Ida, and himself—who isn't sweating right now. Aizawa folds his arms. "Tori can barely react to the world around her at a decent pace, and you, Henry, have no means of finishing a fight. You two will never beat Bakugo the way you are."

"Right, well, what are we missing?" I ask, trying to push forward.

"At least several months of training," the professor says. "The point of a week's preparation is consolidation, not the acquisition of entirely new skills." He starts to leave the gym. "You two shouldn't go to this school; it's set up to be a challenge for high schoolers, let alone you. If you were just refugees like my daughter, maybe you could go here, but as some kind of proto students, I don't think there's a place for you. The entrance exam is going to prove that." And he's gone.

I look up at Ida, who looks nervous. "I um..." he starts. Well, he's a professor for a reason. He often says people should give up—he just wants you to put in the effort to prove him wrong."

"But... is he wrong?"

"Well- a week's preparation is a consolidation period, he's not wrong. It's not wrong to learn new skills, but if you're relying entirely on new skills to pass the entrance exam... you'll be disappointed. That much is true."

Tori opens her mouth, but words don't come out.

Ida looks at us as if he wants to say something else to reassure us. Eventually, he does not know what to say and leaves the gym.

"But..." Tori also tries to speak up but eventually sighs and goes silent again.

From the gym wall near the door that Aizawa just left through, I hear a "Tah," like someone dismissing something that had been said or dismissing someone in the room as foolish. "What the heck is the professor talking about?"

We look and see- Bakugo himself has been watching our training. "What do you mean?" I ask the blonde teenager as he walks over to us.

"A week is a consolidation period, sure," Bakugo starts, "But that doesn't mean you can't hone skills you already have, learn minor skills, or plan strategies around what you've got. That's why they would bother giving you a week, as neither of you had the chance to prepare for this opportunity." The teen glares down at me and grits his teeth. "You executed complex multi-stage maneuvers on the fly like it was nothing. If Ida didn't have brute strength on you, he wouldn't have stood a chance against you. I don't know what the professor's problem is."

"But I couldn't win or-" I start, but Bakugo cuts me off.

"Shut up!" he almost yells. "Course you couldn't win- this is the first time you've tried something like this, right?" I nod. "Well, you got a feel for the event; now you just need to figure out a solution. And if you have skills like the ones I've been watching, you should have the brains to go with them." The teenager gets down on my level and looks me in the eyes. "I need this battle. I need it to prove to everyone I'm not just a brute."

"Well- maybe you'll be competing against someone else-" I start, but Bakugo grabs my head and shoves his face into mine, cutting me off.

"I need the fight to be with you, a REAL thief. If I could beat someone like you- how you executed those maneuvers... fighting you will be like fighting multiple opponents at once," he glares at me. "I'm getting excited just talking about it."

"You don't LOOK excited..."

The boy grins.

"I think I liked it better when you looked angry..." I say, backing away.

"Your sister is slow, but she obeys orders; you have no problem getting someone to the ground, and with three of you, that means you could have one person per arm to get my hands behind my back to finish the fight... did I really need to the point that out?" Bakugo rises out of my face. "Of course, you can do this. Of course, you can beat me. You CAN. I'm gonna be training to ensure you won't- but don't let anyone tell you you can't." He gets down in my face one more time, and one more time, I can feel his breath on my face as my heart rate starts to go up, fear spiking in my chest. "Don't you DARE give up and take this away from me. Bring your A-game, or I will find you and make you regret not giving me the fight I want- the fight I know you have in you."

Bakugo grabs my head and shoves me away from him, Tori catching me before I fall over. Bakugo then storms out of the gym.

Tori and I are alone now. "Was... was that supposed to be encouraging?" Tori asks. She looks around. "Shouldn't someone be watching us?"

I get up. "I think not always being supervised is one of the perks of being here and not in prison." I shiver a little. "And technically... that was encouraging. TERRIFYING... but encouraging."

"Not so much for me..." Tori goes and sits on the bleachers. "I can read between the lines. You were ducking and dodging a top student and almost winning the fight alone- and I was playing fetch like a poodle."

"Tori..."

"Say it. If you had anyone else, you'd be a shoo-in to win against Bakugo- but you have me- dead weight," she covers her face with her hands. "What have I ever done besides drag you down? I was just a tool against you. I-"

"Shut up," I say, sitting next to her and roughly wrapping an arm around her shoulders, pulling her over to me, "Just shut up. You're not dead weight, you got it?"

"What do I even contribute here?"

"Knock it off, will ya?" I demanded, squeezing her tighter. Hey, I don't remember much before I was six years old, but I can piece together what happened. I remember story time would roll around, and I would be excited to listen, but the caretakers tried to just tell me to go to bed."

"They gave up on you when you couldn't talk at five years old..." Tori fills in.

"Yeah, well, you didn't. Whenever the stories came out, and I wasn't sitting with you, you would scream and cry until they brought me back out."

"So I'm the best crybaby-"

I cut her off again, "You were five, that was all you could do. The point is that you cared. The point is you did whatever you could, and you got the job done. You basically saved my life. Imagine if they really did push me aside- that would be another few years of no education, another few years of... honestly, who knows if I ever would have caught up. I needed to hear those stories, to hear those words repeatedly so my broken memory could finally retain them. You cared about me... Tori, you care now. You're sitting here beating yourself up 'cause you're not enough for me." I shake my head. "Dead weight? Dead weight? Don't be ridiculous. You just need to acquire the skills, you've got the heart. I know if I were ever a patient who needed a doctor- really any doctor I ever have- I want them to be like you." I get up, pulling her with me as she fights tears. "Now- let's get to the other gym, huh? I'm not sure if learning to punch helps us, but Mirko is less of a jerk than Aizawa anyway, and if nothing else- she'll refine your coordination and ability to take orders, right?"

"Yeah, I guess..."

"C'mon- we're getting into this school, you hear me? Both of us. If I have to drag you across the finish line, I don't care- but we're both getting in."