Strength Doesn't Make a Hero || MHA OC (Book 1)

Ch. 12: The Internship

Ryuzaki tried their best to pay attention to the directions of the GPS on their phone. As they looked around for Ryukuu's agency, they felt entirely out of place! It would be their first time actually interacting with the pro-hero, so they were worried about any bad first impressions they would make. They had seen her in TV a couple times growing up, and couldn't help but compare themself to her all the time because of their similar quirks.

Ryuzaki wondered how their friends were doing, "Yao-momo, Ashido, Kirishima... I hope you're all doing better than I am right now."

Finally, they made it to Ryukuu's hero office and they walked inside. They walked up to the receptionist who seemed busy on the computer in front of them and spoke before Ryuzaki even got a chance to open their mouth, "Are you here for a business meeting with Ms. Tatsuma?"

"No, actually, I'm here to talk about my internship offer with pro hero Ryuko Tatsuma. I'm sure you could help me get to her...?" Ryuzaki asked.

"Ah, you must be the U.A. student she told me to look out for!" the lady came to life as she looked up from the screen that seemingly had her in a trance, "Hotori Ryuzaki...?"

"Yes! That's me."

"Alright, give me one moment..." she picked up the phone on her desk and mumbled something into it. Ryuzaki began to wonder off and look around the bright red place. It was classy but not in a minimalist way, in fact, it was the complete opposite. The pillars of the building were decorated with art of golden dragons from Japanese mythology. Ryuzaki couldn't help but be amazed by architecture of the room.

"Hotori Ryuzaki?" A calm voice spoke, "Ryuko Tatsuma! I mean, Ryukuu? I'm sorry, this switching between a heroic environment and an educational one is kind of confusing" Ryuzaki scratched their head.

"No worries, Ryukuu is more than fine. What about you? What would you like me to call you?"

"Me...?" Ryuzaki thought about it for a moment, "My friends call me Tori." they said thinking fondly of Ashido.

"I meant in terms of your hero alias," Ryukuu laughed it off.

"Oh my gosh, that's so embarrassing! Obviously that's what you meant! Please call me Dracaena!" Ryuzaki was flustered, as they had already made a fool of themselves within the first minute of meeting their new teacher.

"Glad to get professional introductions out of the way. Trust me, I'd love to call you Tori outside of hero work," Ryukuu told them.

"Thank you..." Ryuzaki sighed.

———

The next day came, as Ryuzaki was staying inside one of Ryukuu's guest rooms. They got up bright and early, and Ryuzaki made their way down to Rykuu's personal office. It was where Ryukuu had asked Ryuzaki to meet her after they woke up for the day.

Ryuzaki knocked on the door a couple of times but heard no one answer, so they gulped and opened the door, inviting themselves in. "Hello?" They spoke into the room but it was empty. They looked around and saw a couple of chairs sitting in front of a desk. The room had the same uniform red color scheme with a couple more paintings of dragons to accompany them. They chose to sit down in one of the chairs and contemplated for a bit.

"So this is it, huh? One on one training with someone with a quirk almost identical to mine. I really can't mess this up, or else there's no other way I could get better," their train of thought was broken by the sound of a door opening up behind them.

"Hey, hey! Ryukuu, are you in here?" a high pitched yet strong voice called out into the room, "Woah, you're not Ryukuu!" the periwinkle haired girl observed.