Frostbite

Chapter 12: A Name and A Place

(This is kind of just a fun intermission between the tournament and intership arcs. I hope you enjoy!)

- Two days later -

Talks with Uraraka's parents had been surprisingly easy once I explained how my family owned the condo, and expressed my genuine desire to help both my friend/classmate as well as them; since I had the ability to do so.

It had no underlying reason beyond that. I wasn't trying to take advantage of their daughter in any way, and adamantly refused to take any money when they offered to match the amount they were paying for her old apartment. I instead suggested they could save that money to come visit if they wanted to.

They are all such openly happy people that it was fresh air in the otherwise stagnant living quarters. They had cheered and celebrated friendship and family and just about everything else they could think of.

So now Ochako lives with me. A new pink key on her lanyard; that I had already bought ahead of time.

More importantly, we were back at school. And our classroom, more or less, went back to normal. Although it maintained the hype from before, with the exception of a distant Bakugo who was quieter than usual.

"Settle down, everyone." Called Aizawa, entering the room, now fully healed. The class fell to silence as if well-rehearsed.

"Everyone did their best during the tournament, and as such we have received a very high number of applicants requesting many of you." Teach compliments.

The screen projection flicked on showing a bar graph with our names on it, the bars indicating how many agency offers we each received.

Several names at the bottom had none, Jenna being one of them. Unfortunately, there wasn't any big show of what her powers actually did during any stage of the festival. While most participants would be easily convinced she was worth her weight in gold, the audience was far outside her influence range and saw nothing.

The top three were unsurprisingly the three of us who placed, accruing nearly ten thousand offers between us. However, Todoroki actually had more invites than Bakugo, likely due to his family lineage among other things. A waste, considering he will most likely pick his own father's agency.

I was the lowest of the three, still receiving nearly a thousand offers. I had already started to pour over my list, noting some very big name agencies, when our instructor spoke again.

"We will also have some very important Hero Informatics lessons today." The fear of a new test or some other unexpected trial threatened to consume all optimism in the room.

"Today you'll be picking your hero names." He concluded, not recognizing the tension he had created.

The class erupted in cheer. This was something every wannabe and hero hopeful dreams of, a real fame-worthy name to drive you to new heights.

"However, it seems I'm not qualified to give advice on names." He stated, followed by a mutter of: "for whatever reason."

"That's where I come in!" Launched Midnight as she bounded into the room, riding crop in hand.

"Even though this is just an internship, your name could stick with you for the rest of your life: So it needs to be good!" She summarized. A scoff emanated from a lumpy yellow sleeping bag on the ground.

She pushed on, undisturbed. "You'll have fifteen minutes to come up with your names and present them for approval. Good luck!"

Fifteen minutes? That wouldn't be much in a normal circumstance, but here: Most everyone had an idea or two ready to go. The sounds of so many scribbling markers echoing the fact.