Villain to Hero: Naruko Motomiya

Chapter 5: You Have Help

The two of them walked down the hallway and stopped in front of a tall door with "2-A" in front of it.

"This is our classroom. Try not to get lost while finding it," Aozora said. He opened the door to the empty classroom and let Motomiya in. The classroom felt huge to him despite the average size. Twenty desks in neat rows filled the room alongside a podium in front of a chalkboard where the teachers would stand. "Your seat is the tenth," He said, pointing to a desk. "We recently had a student transfer to General Studies, so you get to take his place."

"Why did he transfer?" Motomiya asked, curious to why someone would give up their chance to be a hero.

"With all of the recent villain attacks to UA students, specifically Class 1-A, he realized that hero work wasn't suitable for him," Aozora explained.

"Oh," Motomiya let out. He had heard about the recent attacks on the news, but he didn't realize it was affecting all of UA that seriously. He felt bad for the students in Class 1-A. They were all a year younger than him, only fifteen and sixteen year olds, yet they've fought against dangerous villains and looked death in the eyes countless times. These children shouldn't have dealt with that until their second or third year.

"Have you thought about any hero names to give yourself?" Aozora asked.

"I've been trying, but... nothing comes to mind. Sorry," He responded.

"Motomiya," Aozora started, his tone serious, startling his student.

"Yes?" Motomiya answered nervously.

"You understand that you are extremely behind everyone else in this class, right?"

He nodded silently.

"Everyone in this class has been through a year and a half of intensive hero training. They've done internships at actual hero agencies in their first year, have trained their quirks thoroughly, and most of them are even participating in work studies. You're going to have to work even harder than them," Aozora discussed. He noticed how ashamed Motomiya looked and transitioned to his next point. "But, I'm going to help you with getting caught up."

Motomiya's head perked up. He didn't know that he would have help with getting caught up to everyone else. He had figured that he would need to do it on his own like he had been used to all his life.

"You'll be joining the rest of the class once summer break ends in three and a half weeks. Until then, you'll need to train your body, quirk, and mind as much as possible. You'll need to work three times..." He took a good look at Motomiya, his body scrawny and weak looking, "Five times as hard as everyone else. I'll be there to support and teach you. Now, go put on a gym uniform and meet me in the P.E. field."

Motomiya nodded and headed for the lockers, following a map on his phone so as not to get lost.

~

He stared at the gym uniform in his hands. It was blue and had white stripes that made the letters "UA" on the front. What stuck out to him, though, were the sleeves. The sleeves only went to his elbow. He felt a sense of unease creeping in him, a sense of anxiety that if he wore the shirt, he would be looked down upon and seen as some insane boy that deserved to be locked up. He knew that if he kept Mr. Aozora waiting then he would become concerned for him and come looking for him. He didn't want that. With time running out, he decided to just wear his sweatshirt over the uniform. The long sleeves would hide everything on his arms.

The gym uniform fit a bit loose on him and it was a bit uncomfortable with the hot sweatshirt over the uniform. It was odd to be wearing a gym uniform again. Every time he had P.E. when he was in school, he would ditch and hang out in the bathrooms until it was over, never even changing into his gym clothes. He didn't miss those days one bit.

Walking out into the dirt field, he saw Aozora standing near the middle with a ball in his hand. The field was vast and had white markings in certain areas for specific exercises. He walked to where Aozora stood and stopped.

Aozora looked at the sweatshirt over the uniform. He knew that it would be extremely uncomfortable to wear with what they were doing and it also broke the dress code. "Take that off. It's against school rules," He instructed.

Feeling utterly defeated, Motomiya lifted the sweatshirt over his head and slid it off, revealing his arms. He crossed his arms, trying to hide all of the scars that were scattered across them. Even though he had tried to hide them, Aozora could see where the scars were focused. There were large, pink scars surrounding his wrists, specifically on the undersides, and were in a few rows. Across his forearms were long, vertical scars that ranged from shades of pink to almost white.

Aozora decided to pay no mind to the scars and handed the ball in his hand to Motomiya, even though he knew exactly why the scars were there. "Throw this ball as far as you can," He said. He felt it would be better not to talk about the countless self-inflicted injuries as he didn't want to make his student even more uncomfortable.

Motomiya looked at the ball and then at his teacher, confused. "What?"

"Just throw it," Aozora said.

Motomiya shrugged and took a step back. He took a deep breath, raised his arm back behind him, and used all of his strength to throw the ball as far as he possibly could. The ball soared through the air and then landed on the ground, rolling past a white line.

"Eight point three meters. Kind of terrible," Aozora said. He went and picked up the ball and gave it back to Motomiya. "Try using your quirk this time."

"My quirk?" He said out loud. He struggled to think of how he could use his quirk in this situation. He only knew for sure that he could control the actions of other people, basically using mind control on them. For this, though, he would need to try to use his quirk differently. He just couldn't think of how.

"Hm..." Aozora let out. "What's your quirk? Maybe I can give you some advice."

"Well, uh..." He started, thinking of what to say first. "My quirk is called Text to Speech. Anything I write and then say while using my quirk will happen. I can't make something appear out of nowhere, and my quirk only has a range of ten meters before it wears off. Mr. Power Loader said it's a lot like Star and Stripe's quirk, New Order, if... that helps," He explained.

Aozora took a moment to think. This students quirk basically allowed him to do whatever he wanted, but Motomiya didn't know how to properly use it to its full potential. His quirk allowed him to write and say things into existence, but not actually create things out of nothing. Following that logic, that meant that Motomiya could possibly alter things with his quirk. "How have you used your quirk in the past?" He asked, wanting to know the possibilities of the quirk.

Motomiya tensed up slightly and looked at the ground, ashamed of his past actions. "I used it to control the actions of other people, and... um... used it to make me faster when running away from... certain people."

He could control the actions of others and the limitations of himself. A thought then appeared in his mind. "What if you use your quirk to make your throw stronger? Your quirk lets you alter reality in a way, so there's a huge possibility that you can just alter how strong your body is and how it moves!"

"I guess that could work?" Motomiya replied. He hadn't thought of such a simple idea like that. He felt like an idiot. He pulled a small notepad and a pencil from his pocket and started scribbling something down. He breathed in and then said loudly and clearly, "My throw is five times stronger than it always is for one throw." He gripped the ball tightly, took a step back, pulled his throwing arm back, and then threw the ball as hard as he could. The backlash from the sudden power made his whole arm cramp up in pain, but the ball was soaring further than earlier. It hit the ground with a thud and rolled slightly just before stopping.

"Fifty-three point one meters. A lot better than before," Aozora said with a smile, "Good job."

Motomiya bowed down slightly. "Thank you for the advice."

Throughout the rest of the day, Motomiya participated in all sorts of physical assessments, each one more difficult than the last. Even though his body was weak, his heart was strong and would help him catch up.