A Girl can be the number 1 Hero

Chapter 22

The subway was packed, and so were my thoughts. In just two days off my mother and Tokoyami's mother became friends, we went to a rock concert and Shinsou tried to kiss me. And worst of all, I wanted to! I only walked away because of the fright. Wait, the worst thing was that Jirou saw that, because she did, right?

If all this teenage drama wasn't enough, I couldn't stop thinking about the school championship and how terrible my performance in it was, breaking me whole, not even being able to use my quirk properly. Even on that subway, some people recognized me and said things like "girl, you need to be careful with that strength of yours", "what a destructive quirk huh?", "it was kind of ugly to watch you".

I let out a long sigh as I got off the train, I didn't want to be known by the girl with the absurd quirk – I desperately needed to train, I just didn't know how to make it. And I couldn't lie, but apparently All Might didn't know either. So who could help me find a way? Aizawa had given me a good tip that day I went to school, but he always seemed too reactive to maintain any favoritism in teaching. And I needed favoritism, I needed someone on my side watching every wrong move I made.

I sighed once more.

That morning we chose our hero names. Everyone in the room chose great names – but not everyone, Iida put his own name, he didn't look good, and denied any attempt by me to approach him. Bakugou just couldn't choose a name that wasn't too exaggerated and I chose Deku – the derogatory nickname Bakugou gave me about three years ago. It was a Japanese doll made of wood, with no arms and no legs, but it could also be used to call someone useless. I just wanted to turn something negative associated with me into something positive. It would show everyone that a Deku could be useful.

Bakugou didn't seem too happy with my choice, but so far, whatever, right?

Then we were told by Aizawa and Midnight about a week-long internship we would have at professional agencies and I didn't receive any invitations. It wasn't surprising, but it made me upset. It wasn't until it was time to leave that All Might called me and said that I had received an invitation from one of his former teachers: Gran Torino. All Might was super worried, because Gran Torino was partnered with One for All's predecessor and he thought that maybe the hero was thinking that All Might wasn't teaching properly.

I didn't want to give an opinion on that, I loved All Might too much to complain directly, but I couldn't contain myself with happiness in knowing that I wouldn't be left out of the stage and besides that I would know more stories from All Might's past.

As that week wore on, I tried everything to cheer up or get Iida to open up to me — I even showed up one day wearing a bunny-ear tiara. And yet, aside from brief chuckles and constant "sorry, I have something else to do," I couldn't get him to talk. I should have insisted more, but the classes were so packed with information from the internship that in the blink of an eye we were already at the station with our bags, each one prepared to go their own way.

***

My first day of internship started with me getting beaten up by Gran Torino after thinking he was a crazy old man. He told me to hit him and within seconds I was on the ground, with his hand pressing my face and him saying that my biggest problem was treating One for All as something special because it came from All Might. But when I asked what to do he just said "I'll leave you some time alone to think while I go to lunch".

I sat on the floor scratching my hair and talking to myself, what was going on with the teachers in the hero area? I doubt a math teacher would just walk out of the room after saying something like "I'll let you guys figure out the baskara formula on your own." But that's how I spent my day, training alone on the street, trying to treat One for All as something more natural to my body and crashing into the corners.

The next day I woke up sore and Gran Torino continued to test me, we talked about my power and he mentioned something about All Might's predecessor having already died.

"You look a lot like her, even in appearance," Gran Torino said.

"Was the predecessor a woman?" I asked in surprise.

"Was?"

I snorted, I didn't know if the old man was a little crazy or if he did it, but at various moments of the conversation he released these "memory forgetfulness".

"Do you use the same force to carry a gallon of water and a pencil?" He asked.

"Obviously not, or the pencil would break..."

When I said that sentence Gran Torino smiled and my brain lit up.

"I always act like I'm going to carry a gallon!"

"You're kind of quick-thinking, girl. Your body isn't even used to using all its strength, but you can use less strength, just like you controlled your physical strength before you had a Quirk, now you can continue to do so. So come on, and try to catch me".

We started that tag again, but the most I managed to do was brush against his cover. It was hard to keep controlling my strength in every movement.

"It got better, but you think too much, girl".

I sighed, this was nothing new.

***

On the third day, Gran Torino said that to improve our training, we would go to fieldwork, but not in that district – due to the low crime rate there – so we would take a train that would pass through Hosu, the city in which Iida was doing his internship. Maybe on the way back I could convince him to see me, Iida had been very despondent and distant since the incident.

What I didn't expect – after all, who would expect that? – is that our train would be attacked by nomus right next to Hosu. And there was something that made it all worse, it was the city where the last attack of Stain, the hero killer, had taken place. Did those events have any connection? And how come I hadn't realized why Iida had chosen that city before?

I told Gran Torino I was going after a friend and running around town. I sent a message to the class group telling whoever was close to Hosu to find me, and I sent my location in real time.

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Hey my swetties, a thousand apologies for those who like this arc that features Gran Torino and they defeat Stain. This arc and that one from the war there after chapter 200 are the only ones I decided to summarize because I really wasn't feeling comfortable writing. I know it was a really cool opportunity to get Midoriya more involved with Nana through Gran Torino, but I'll leave that later. In the extra I will finish this arc with povs from Iida and Todoroki and after that we go back to normal. <3

Don't be discouraged by this quick and concise chapter (+ extras) because the next ones will be great!