Beauty vs the Beast (Katsuki Bakugo fanfic)

21:「 Ice Princess 」

Two days after the sports festival, the students were all rested up. On her way to school, Carine halted on the sidewalk and moved her umbrella away to look up at the sky.

Cool drops of rain scattered on her face, just as she closed her eyes to breathe in the fresh air. She loved the rain; a little too much, her sisters would often say to her.

Although today, Carine had trouble remembering why she had an affinity for the specter of the crying sky. After all, it hadn't rained in quite a while.

"Hey, young lady!" an unfamiliar voice called out to her. Carine turned around to face a man. "You're Minazuki from the Hero Course, right?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"It's her!"

"Nice going at the Sports Festival! My daughter loves you!"

"Yeah, you're the one who won the top spot! Wow, what an impressive feat!"

"It reminded me of when I was younger."

Noise erupted from around Carine, as people started recognizing her. Quickly, she sprinted away from the area in an attempt to remove herself from the center of attention.

Once in the clear, Carine blew a breath of relief and continued her walk to school.

Once there, the usual lively chatter among the students dominated the classroom, and also brought a sense of unusual comfort for Carine.

"I had all these people talking to me on the way here!" Mina exclaimed to her friends.

"Same here! So many stares, it was embarrassing," Hagikure commented.

"Yeah! Me too!" Kirishima grinned as he pointed at himself.

"All these grade-schoolers told me I made a good effort," Sero said with sigh. 

"How were your two days off, Minazuki?" 

Carine turned to her right to see a cheery Uraraka, whose desk was right next to hers. Bakugo sat right behind Uraraka, but he was busy yelling at Kaminari and Kirishima.

Carine glanced behind her, at Bakugo, and thought of the day she had spent with him, buying apples. "It was...fun," Carine replied with a small smile.

"Morning." Every single conversation came to an immediate stop as Aizawa entered the classroom. The students faced forward in a split second without delay. "Good to see your bandages off, Aizawa-sensei," Tsuyu said.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive, but never mind that. Today we've got Hero Informations class. Today you'll be coming up with your hero aliases," Aizawa stated.

For a brief moment, the students sat still, but the silence was suddenly overtaken by unanimous cheers that filled the classroom.

"But first...concerning the pro drafts I picked the other day," the students shushed themselves as Aizawa spoke. "It's based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after another 2 or 3 years worth of training. So, here are the complete draft pick numbers," Aizawa announced as he pointed to the board, where a bar chart of the students' draft picks were listed.

"There's typically more of a spread, but our top 3 stole most of the spotlight." Carine's name was at the top of the list, with a total of 4, 123 draft picks. Surprisingly, Todoroki had the second largest amount of picks, with 3, 456. Bakugo had the third largest, with 2, 324 draft picks.

"They're on a whole other league!" Kaminari exclaimed, witnessing the top numbers.

"Didn't they get 2nd and 3rd backwards?" Kirishima asked.