Please let me know if you spot any mistakes. Expect some spoilers for anime show and both My Hero Academia and Vigilantes mangas as the story progresses.


 'So, it is here,' she said to herself, looking up at the iconic gate leading to the hero highschool.

The tall, concrete building covered with windows towered over her figure, casting a long shadow from the very entrance to the other side of the street. It was early in the morning and even though it was right before the lessons, there was no one in plain sight. No one entering the gate, no reporters flooding the entrance. It was because of the recent events at the Kamino ward, where All Might faced mysterious villains, All for One. Students of UA high school were transferred to the dorm system, so every student was literally next door to the school building.

She sighed and gritted her teeth, unplugging the headphones from her ears. She stood still for a while, glancing straight in front of her to the entrance of the school. She took a deep breath and looked at a small, pretty bird sitting almost above her head on the school's gate arc. The woman closed her eyes and took a step forward and then another, heading straight towards the principal's office at the third floor. She hid her face, pulling her hoodie on top of her head and slightly leaning down.

She was terrified, but she knew her motives are in the right place. As she climbed the staircase, her hearbeat increased, anxiety crushing her confidence with each step. The second she stood in front of the Principal Nezu's office, the doubts appeared. She felt as if demons were surrounding her, staring at her with their soul-piercing, terrifying eyes.

She clenched her fists and looked down at her feet.

'I survived everything up until now. I will continue to survive and move forward,' she said to herself, with eyes closed.

She reached with her fist towards the door and knocked on it.

'Come in, please!' she heard from the inside and she opened the door.

As she stepped into the room, the rising sun fell on her face, making her squint her eyes. She immediately took the hood off and bowed respectfully before the rat-like humanoid, Principal Nezu.

'Okaido Mariko, I assume?' he asked her with a high-pitched, warm and kind voice.

'Yes. It's so nice to meet you, Principal Nezu,' she said and the creature bowed before her as well.

'Please, take a seat.'

Mariko sat down and watched the Principal lower the curtains on the window.

'I figured the sun might not work in your favor,' he said and she finally relaxed her squinted eyes.

'Thank you so much. I appreciate it,' she replied kindly.

Principal Nezu hopped on his chair and grasped his paws together.

'So, you are interested in the hero course.'

'Yes.'

'But you have not applied to the entrance exam. I have read your entire email, but I would still like to cover a few things. Can I ask a few questions.'

'Please, feel free to.'

'If I will make you uncomfortable with anything I will ask, please let me know.'

Mariko nodded and smiled at the Principal. He was very kind to her and support was all she needed at that very moment.

'I remember you writing that you wanted to apply to a hero course, but because of the style of our entrance exam, you decided not to. Have you tried applying anywhere else? To Ketsubutsu for example?'

'I was considering closest schools but UA always felt like the best and the right place to ask for help. There is something I haven't clarified in the email. I am an orphanage child. I spent my entire life there,' she made a pause, looking at her hands, being unable to stand Principal's gaze.

'There is nothing to be ashamed about,' she heard Nezu. 'You had a very rough start. We never decide on acceptance of our students purely based on their starting line. After all, our school is supposed to push you forward, develop your skills, polish your passion. It would be against our nature to not give a chance at all.'

Mariko nodded her head slowly, rubbing the knuckles of her hands.

'Because I am an orphanage child,' she started after a long pause,' I was not able to apply to any of the hero schools, as I was never adopted.'

Nezu didn't ask about anything, just sat in silence, paying close attention to the speaker.

'I...,' she started and then looked Principal in the eyes,' I have a very dangerous quirk that I only learnt how to stop. I never manage to use it to the full potential. It would manifest many times when I was in the orphanage and it was always causing people to suffer,' she said. 'The reason why I reached out to UA is because I watched this year's sports festival and I saw your incredible students, who had destructive power but there was one person in particular that gave me hope. I think he was called.... Mida...'

'Midoriya Izuku,' Nezu corrected.

'Yes, exactly!' she exclaimed. 'I saw how he damaged his own body and I thought to myself, maybe you can give me a chance as well, even though I am far behind first year class. Not physically, as I was making sure I can be as fit as I can be, but Quirk wise, I am far behind.'

'Yes, Young Midoriya was definitely standing out in school's festival. But the kid has a heart of gold and is ready to sacrifice so much to learn the ways of his Quirk. Even in the entrance exam, he didn't score any points, but he sacrificed his physical health just to save someone. We couldn't deny him a spot at our academy,' Nezu said.

Mariko nodded again and lowered her head, frowning.

'How exactly were people suffering because of your Quirk? It is a very crucial question and as much as I understand it might be difficult to answer, I must know.'

Mariko shut her eyes and tightened her fists.

'I don't know my parents, I was delivered to the orphanage anonymously. I searched for them and I was only able to locate my father. He's currently a prisoner and the only thing I know is that he is Quirkless. So I think I might be a mutation. I wanted to find them to at least figure out what it is and how to control it. The Quirk itself is manifesting with strong emotions,' she explained. 'Unfortunately, most of my life it has been hatred and anger.'

Nezu looked at her with worried eyes. She brought her hands in front of her face and started swinging them around.

'I am working on it, though! I just need a supervision. I believe that I could be useful to society if I just knew how to control it.'

'That's not why I was worried. I am just very sorry for you. This is a very difficult situation and I understand that you did not have many chances of feeling strong positive feelings throughout your life, but it still makes me incredibly sad.'

'I didn't mean to worry you...' she said sadly and put her hands and head down.

'Poor girl,' Nezu thought to himself.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, then Nezu offered her a cup of tea, which she accepted. After that he gave her some cinnamon cookies and she waited some time for the tea to be drinkable. During that time, she stared outside of the office window at the school grounds, warming her hands on the cup. Nezu walked behind her with a smartphone in his small paw.

'Good morning, Aizawa. Would you mind coming to my office? We have a special visit from a possible future student. I will introduce you two and then we should head to the nearest training ground,' she heard him say, as he walked in circles behind her chair. 'We might be needing some backup from other teachers.'

'Aizawa,' she thought to herself, trying to connect any memories with the name, but she didn't seem to have heard it before.

'I am not sure yet, we will figure it out,' Nezu responded to the person on phone.

Mariko shifted in her chair, feeling her heartbeat slow down.

'A possible future student.' She actually has a chance. Even though she is a few years older than the very first UA class, she was still given a chance.

She looked behind her shoulder and glanced down at Nezu, who finished the phone call, pushing the smartphone back into the pocket of his small suit pants. She hit her fingernails on the porcelain cup and grabbed one of the cinnamon cookies and chewed on it. She looked outside the window again, uneasy feeling slowly washing over her. A few minutes have passed, Nezu returned to his seat and started a casual talk with Mariko.

Then, there was a knock on the door and Nezu invited the person inside.

Mariko stood up, putting the cup of tea on it's small plate and turned around to see a tall man with long, dark hair. A strand of hair was falling in front of his face, just in between his half-closed eyes. His gaze was tired, but extremely piercing, which was a very surprising combo. His neck was surrounded by a weird, bandage-looking scarf, hiding his nicely shaped jawline and a few-days-old-beard.

Mariko bowed before the man as they made eye contact and then heard Principal Nezu introduce her.

'Good morning,' she greeted the man, who looked at her, no specific expression on his face.

'Morning,' he responded with a nice, deep, yet very slow and sleepy tone.

'Okaido did not apply to any of our entrance exams, but I decided to let her give it a shot,' she frowned at the Principal, then looked back at the man.

'He makes it sounds like it's some kind of a game, but I am very serious about finding out what my Quirk actually is,' she thought to herself, hoping that the man who stepped inside the room barely a few minutes ago, will not take the Principal's introduction negatively.

The Principal kept talking and she heard the words escape Nezu's mouth, but most of the meaning seemed to disappear before her brain could process the actual information. Her gaze met Aizawa's and then she suddenly returned to reality, just in time to see Principal Nezu turn towards her.

'So we should head to the Ground Beta and test something out. Is that right, Okaido?' he asked kindly.

'Principal, if I may,' she started and Nezu encouraged her to continue. 'I am not sure if I will be able to activate the Quirk. As I said, it works with strong emotions and I try my best to keep it at bay. That's how I control it.'

'So you don't control it, but you just don't allow it to escape,' Aizawa said and she dropped her gaze to the floor.

'Yes,' she admitted. 'It caused a lot of issues in the past.'

'What is it exactly?' Aizawa asked and then Nezu suggested that they should start leaving the office.

'I am not sure how is it called. I think it is a mutation,' she replied, walking next to the dark-haired man.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, as they headed towards the elevator. They entered it and pressed the ground floor button.

'But it seems to drain people,' she informed as the elevator's door closed. 'When it's unleashed I barely remember anything. I just know that I have to be put down to sleep or stopped in some other way.'

'Did the orphanage have someone with a quirk that could counter you?' Nezu asked and Mariko pulled the sleeves over her hands, when she heard the word 'orphanage'.

'It was our nurse. She could calm or make someone go to sleep just with a touch. She was also the only one that would have less problems with reaching me when the Quirk was active,' Mariko explained, glancing at Aizawa, who held his hands in his pockets.

'Principal,' the man started and Nezu turned towards Aizawa and then unexpectedly jumped onto his shoulder.

Mariko's eyes went wide from the sudden and oh-so-impressive jump, but Aizawa seemed completely unbothered.

'Do you think of the same thing as I am?' Nezu interrupted the man, seemingly excited.

Mariko looked at the two men with her lips parted in a pure state of shock.

'I was thinking of a...' Aizawa started with low, sleepy tone.

'... special class, rather than bothering more of the teachers who have their own classes to attend to!' Nezu finished for the sleepy man, dressed in simple, dark green hero costume.

Principal wiggled around and sat comfortably inside Aizawa's scarf, his small body barely visible from the base of the teacher's neck. Mariko smiled subconsciously, not believing the awkwardness and ridiculousness of the situation.

They stepped outside of the elevator, Mariko following the two men heading towards one of the side entrances of school.

'I can't agree, Principal,' Aizawa murmured, eyeing Mariko. 'Okaido cannot be on the same level as my students, or any of the students for that matter.'

She opened her mouth to speak up, but the empty gaze of the teacher made her look at the ground in front of her.

'I am strong physically,' she thought to herself, feeling crushed by the reality. The world was so unfair; she and her Quirk were never perceived positively, she was always looked upon as a future-villain.

They left the school through a much smaller entrance compared to the main one and stood there, looking at the students' dorms from a distance.

'But her Quirk won't activate unless there is a strong emotion surrounding the user,' Nezu reminded. 'Some of your students would be of excellent help here.'

'Bakugou?' Aizawa asked and Nezu nodded quickly. The man looked at the rat for a minute. 'This could work.'

'You can always stop them, right?'

'Yea,' Aizawa sighed and his right hand, hidden inside the pocket, searched for something inside. Then, he reached with his other hand towards his eyelid and tilted his head backwards.

Mariko observed, as the man carefully applied eye drops to both of his eyes before straightening up again - or more like stooping again. She heard him scratch his beard and then a scream interrupted the silence.

'WALK BEHIND ME!'

Mariko frowned.

Around two hundred meters straight ahead, there was a first students' dorm. The building was definitely smaller than the school, but still quite impressive. It was made out of brick, giving it a nice, cozy color. Around the dorm there was a hedge, serving as a fence, giving students some privacy as well as separating one class from the other. A line of trees, strong, old oaks separated the dorms from the main school grounds.

In the shadow cast by the closest row of oaks, Mariko noticed a small group of students. All of them looked completely normal, except for one blond guy with extremely spiky hair. The second she glanced at him, she knew that he was the one that screamed. He walked with confidence, keeping his shoulders around his ears, while keeping his hands in his pockets, slightly leaning forward. He was gritting his teeth and frowning so hard that Mariko was not even sure how it was possible. She looked at the boy and her defensive mechanism kicked in. She straightened her back and slightly dropped her eyelids. Her gaze became much colder and she was asserting her own dominance, showing cold confidence to avoid a fight with the boy. This is what she learnt in orphanage. People are less likely to attack someone who does not appear to be easy to victimize. Sometimes, however, it was not true and she had learnt it the tough way.

Aizawa eyed Mariko with curiosity, as her posture and energy changed.

'Did she feel threatened by Bakugou?' he thought.

'Good morning, Mr. Aizawa!' the students cheered from the distance, the blond, spiky-haired boy mumbling a greeting under his nose.

'Good morning,' Aizawa responded, returning his gaze to his class. 'Are you after your breakfast?'

'We were just heading to the cafeteria to get some, sir,' a tall boy with dark hair and rectangle glasses explained, ridiculously swinging his hand with every word.

Mariko's eyes softened when she looked at him.

'We might need just Bakugou,' Nezu said with a friendly voice.

Mariko instinctively looked at the spiky-haired boy. For some reason, she already knew that this is the student in question.

'With all due respect, Principal Nezu. My Quirk was described as really dangerous and I myself am not sure what is it exactly, I don't think letting me face just one student in a duel will ensure their safety,' Mariko interrupted, Aizawa and Nezu looking at her.

'We are ensuring yo-' Nezu began.

'WHAT?!' Bakugou yelled and jumped all the way forward, standing in front of Mariko. He was taller than her for about ten centimeters. 'Who are you?'

'Okaido Mariko,' she replied calmly, taking a step back. She looked at him with unimpressed gaze, but in reality he started annoying her.

Bakugou stared down at her, the height difference between the two increasing his confidence. He didn't respond, so Mariko took a step back and stood closer to Aizawa and Nezu, who exchanged glances.

There was a moment of silence, and then a boy with raised, spiky, red hair sighed and came forward from the rest of the students' group.

'See? That's why people don't like you,' he said and Bakugo frowned again, gritting his teeth.

'I don't NEED anyone liking me!' he shouted and headed towards the school, leaving everyone behind. Once he disappeared behind the doors, Aizawa spoke up.

'Iida, slight change of plans,' he said to a tall, young man with rectangular glasses, but he already jumped forward and stood in front of Mariko, bowing down with respect to greet her.

Okaido did the same thing and smiled to herself, realizing that clearly not everyone here is the same way as Bakugou.

'Yes, Mr. Aizawa?' he swung his forearm as if trying to salute.

'Make sure that Bakugou, Midoriya, Todoroki, Tsuyu, Ochako, and you get here after the breakfast,' Aizawa requested. 'We will have a special class today. I will tell you about the details later. Do not change to your hero costumes, let's keep it fair.'

'Yes, sir! Do you want me to go to Present Mic and let him know about that? We are supposed to have English lessons at the start of the day today?'

'That won't be necessary,' Nezu replied.

'Yes, sir!' Iida swung his arm again and waved his hand at the group of students from Class 1A to follow him. 'Everyone, let's go have a breakfast!'