Villain to Hero: Naruko Motomiya

Chapter 4: Welcome to UA

The humid summer air hit Motomiya hard as he walked through the gate that led to UA. Because it was the beginning of summer break, everyone was at home and away from campus with the exception of the first year hero course students who were on a field trip the entire break. Due to this, he would have most of the campus to himself.

"He said Power Loader would be here to help me get caught up, but I don't know where he would be," He said to himself out loud. He knew that the UA campus was big, but he never thought it would be as enormous as it was. Not having any other idea, he walked into the main building and hoped for the best.

"Hey, do you wanna test out my babies?!" A girl yelled from down the hall, carrying two support items as she sprinted toward Motomiya.

He unintentionally let out a shriek at the overwhelming sight of some strange girl sprinting at him while carrying unfamiliar items as well as yelling about her "babies," which freaked him out even more. Without waiting for an answer, the girl forced gauntlet-like support items onto him.

"These babies are arm extenders that'll let you reach up to ten meters farther! Tell me what you think about the prototype!" The girl described excitedly.

Motomiya brought one of his hands closer to get a better look. "Prototype?" He repeated before the support item turned on and punched him in the head so hard that it knocked him out, sending him down onto the cold floor of the school.

~

As he woke up, he felt as if he were being watched. Opening his black colored eyes, he saw two people standing above him: the girl from earlier and a hero with a bulldozer-like costume. The two strangers staring at him startled him, making him jump up. He looked around, seeing that he was in another room. The room had tables full of all sorts of tech components and other junk while the wall had computer screens with drawings of hero costumes. "Where..."

"You're in the development studio at UA," Power Loader explained. "Sorry about her," He said, pointing to Hatsume, who was hard at work with a support item.

"Oh, it's okay," Motomiya said quietly. "Um... Principal Nezu said that you would be able to get me caught up with the rest of my class." It still felt so weird that he was officially a part of the hero course at UA High, the best school in Japan, after being a villain for almost a quarter of his life.

"Only partially. You need a hero costume and name first," Power Loader said. He slid a piece of paper and pencil to Motomiya. "How about you sketch a costume."

Motomiya picked up the pencil and hovered it above the paper. He tried thinking about what a true hero would wear. Nothing but All Might came to mind. He shook his head at the thought of wearing a skin-tight costume like All Might's.

"Well, what's your quirk, and how does it work?" Power Loader asked, seeing that Motomiya was struggling.

"It's called Text to Speech. Anything I write down and then say out loud while using my quirk happens. It has a range of ten meters. I can't make anything appear out of nothing, but I can make things that are possible actually happen. I guess I modify reality in a way, or... something like that," He explained.

Power Loader nodded. "So it's kind of like America's number one hero, Star and Stripe's quirk, New Order," He concluded. He saw Motomiya's confused look and started explaining it. "She can modify objects and surroundings by touching it and calling out its name. You can do the same thing, but you have to write down what you're modifying."

Suddenly, a ray of hope shined on him. The number one hero of America, the best and strongest hero of that country, had almost the same quirk as his. If her quirk let her become an amazing hero, then so could his. Now was when he truly realized that Kaillapse was right: he had the potential to rise in the ranks as a hero with a quirk like his and save people, potentially becoming one of the best heroes out there just like Star and Stripe. He would just have to work harder than everyone else to do so.

He then knew what his hero costume would look like and started sketching it out. He saw himself as plain and boring, so why not make his costume the same? With the costume, he could eventually make it recognizable and strike hope into others. It may be plain now, but when he made a name for himself, it would signify hope. Once done, he showed it to Power Loader.

He studied the sketch, looking at the details and bits of writing. "Alright, looks good," He said, "I'll let a costuming company know. In the meantime, you should make a hero name."

"And this is where I take over!" A man said as he barged into the room. He had dark blue hair, bright yellow eyes, and wore a hero costume that had a skin-tight, long sleeve shirt with white lightning bolt shapes and black pants that were frayed at the cuffs. It looked like he had rubber elbow and knee pads. "I'm Kaito Aozora, homeroom teacher of your class 2-A," He introduced, "I've heard a lot about you from Kaillapse."