Era

4

Era adjusted her mask, checking herself in the cracked, soot-stained bathroom mirror. Everything seemed in place—the faint, feather detailing on the black leather swept up across her cheekbones and disappeared into the shadow of her hood, obscuring most of her face. A quick turn revealed the cloak falling nicely across her shoulders, short enough that it didn’t impede movement. It grew shorter towards the center of her back, splitting out into a v shape that almost mimicked wings. The edges—and this was a personal touch that she certainly did not let herself feel pride for—were cut into the vague outlines of feathers, the whole thing coming together to suggest the creature that was her namesake.

Sparrow. Small, light, agile. Common and inconspicuous. Era had always had a soft spot for the bird.

She’d already texted Shinsou to cancel their study session for the night, and while she didn’t feel too bad—after all, those were for her benefit, not his—it did eat at her a little that she was cancelling for this.

Things had been going well with the boy. He was slowly but steadily improving, so that now Era didn’t have to wince every time he threw a punch. She… well, she was the first to admit that she wasn’t the best teacher. Impatient, easily frustrated, a little too eager to move on to the next step or throw her student into something more practical that he was perhaps less than prepared for. Probably had something to do with the quality of her own training, though Era made sure that there was far less blood involved. She’d never put anyone else through something like that.

Her study sessions were much the same. Shinsou also wasn’t the most capable tutor, as all of the little facts and equations seemed to come a lot more naturally to him. Era considered herself to have a quick mind, but she’d honed it for a completely different skillset. He often seemed to struggle with explaining exactly how he’d come to the correct conclusion, but they were muddling along just fine. Era was learning. She supposed that was enough.

Besides, it was kind of… nice. Normal. She’d never really had friends her age—was that what they were? Friends?—and though it was a little jarring to suddenly be hanging out with someone so consistently, she couldn’t deny that their little talks had a tendency to lighten the weight that was almost constantly sitting on her chest, nowadays.

So, while she didn’t feel bad about it, she did feel a little regretful. She’d been looking forward to talking to him again, even if she usually ended up wanting to beat him over the head with his stupid history binders. Ugh. A curse on the inventor of three-ringed binders and all of their ilk.

Still, she’d been putting this off for far too long. She needed to send in official paperwork soon, and a quirk would certainly be part of that. Ergo: time to forge some quirk registration. This should be fun.

Era cracked her neck before clambering out the window, scaling up the familiar path towards the roof of her building. She’d like to say the view was incredible, but… mostly it was just more run-down apartment complexes and dirty streets. With a huff of breath, Era ran forward, leaping towards the next building over, letting her training carry her from rooftop to rooftop until finally she was crouched across the way from her local quirk registration building.

According to her (fake) records, she went to an elementary school in this district. If she had actually gotten her quirk there, then it would be registered and stored in this building. She’d already been careful to craft a background that involved a lot of jumping between schools, moving in and out of classes so much that, of course no teacher could be expected to remember her. She was just a student for a few months, after all. Too much digging and it would fall apart, but they couldn’t be looking that deeply into it, right? There were thousands of applicants every year. It would be ridiculous.

So this was the last step. Era had been scoping this building for a while now, and though security wasn’t prison tight, it still existed. Her main concern was the cameras, but she’d been able to walk through the building as a civilian and she was pretty sure she had them all mapped out. There were a few blind spots to take advantage of, and a security room manned by a guard who she knew for a fact took a bathroom break every night at 11:00 PM, on the dot, to check his phone for updates on some sports game or another.

The security room could be reached through an unsecured storage closet window and a long, unmonitored hallway. Most of the cameras were in other sections of the building; the reasoning, she supposed, was that there wasn’t really a need for cameras next to the room in which a guard would be sitting at all times. Theoretically.

She’d mapped this out perfectly, timed everything, done all of her due diligence, and there was no way in hell that this night was going to be anything but a success. No hints, no clues, no fingerprints left behind. She allowed herself a small smile before leaping to the ground, darting across the street, and clambering up the side of the building to her chosen window, picking open the lock and slipping inside.

She was a ghost. No one would know she was here, and no one would know her intentions. A god damn, motherfucking ghost. Tonight, for once, everything would go her way.

***

The phone rang at midnight, and Shouta might have groaned had he been asleep. As it was, he was a couple hours on shift and bored out of his mind, so honestly a call from Tsukauchi might have been a blessing in disguise.

“What do you have for me.”

“Hello to you, too.”

Shouta just grunted, glancing out over the empty street. Nothing.

“Well, we were inventorying some things, sorting out evidence, and we came across something that I thought might interest you.”

“Mhm.”

“It’s about Sparrow. You remember her bag?”

Shouta straightened slightly, trying and failing to keep the interest from coloring his voice. “Yes?”

“Yeah, well, it just seemed like a bunch of textbooks at first. Entrance exam stuff, like you said. But we were flipping through, checking for prints, and something caught my eye.”

“Spit it out, Tsukauchi.”

“You know, most people try to be nice when they want something.”

“I’m not nice.”

“Yeah, I’m aware.” Shouta heard muffled laughter through the phone, and he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. “Anyway, it looks like your Sparrow is planning on applying to UA.”

Shouta froze, too taken aback to even comment on how Tsukauchi had said ‘your Sparrow’ when he had made if crystal clear that this was not his case. “What?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Most of these books are pretty generic, but there’s a couple that seem specifically geared towards hero schools. Plus there was a pamphlet slipped into one of them. For UA.”

A strangled noise escaped Shouta’s throat before he managed to compose himself. “I suppose that makes sense. A vigilante would want to become a hero.”

“Seems pretty risky to me, but what do I know. I guess it’s just something to watch out for.”

“I know how to do my job,” he said, voice sour.

“Fine, next time there’s crucial information I’ll make sure to let you figure it out for yourself.”

The hero sighed. “Okay, okay. I’ll keep an eye out. Thanks,” he added begrudgingly.

“No problem. Keep me posted.”

Shouta hung up, tucked the phone back into his pocket, and let out a long-suffering groan.

Of course. Of course she’d be applying to his school.

Across the city, Era was making a quick and clean escape after a job well done. Her registry was in place, and she slipped into her own apartment just as Aizawa Shouta resolved to examine every single applicant with even the barest hint of suspicious behavior. He’d make time, sleep schedule be damned; if that girl was applying to UA, he would find her.

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This one's kinda short but I literally finished it in ctf lmao
I kinda hate it