My Hero Academia: Split Path

Chapter 13: Mina Ashido

Bag packed, uniform moderately acceptable, after making sure Sora's hair is neat and tidy, Ryuko finally relents. "I'm fine." Sora huffs quietly after the third check since they arrived. Ryuko smiles, wearing her hoodie once more to avoid any unwanted attention as they stand at the gate of a school in the Chiba prefecture. "Sorry, I just want to make sure everything goes well. This is an important day after all." Ryuko chuckles awkwardly as she realises she's starting to act like an overbearing parent or older sibling. Personally, she preferred the latter to the former. Sora takes a deep breath before sighing at his guardian's overly humble attitude, though he had gotten used to her personality in the last year they've been living together.

During that time, there were surprisingly few incidents with villains when the two of them were out together. That's not to say Ryuko never did her fair share of hero work either. since the Chiba Bank Robbery, her ranking has raised two stages to 10th. After six months, Sora was cleared to stay at the apartment on his own, though he would have to check in every hour with simple coded message from his almost antique-looking phone. He would text "Green" if everything is fine, "Blue" if he's had any sort of issues, whether it be with anxiety or something else but he could handle it himself. "Purple" would mean he required help with something not life threatening, such as a panic attack or a difficult math problem in his homework. Lastly, "Red" was a sign that something is seriously wrong and those in charge of keeping a watch on his texts would immediately send the closest Hero out to his last known location, as dictated by the tracking chip in his phone. Of course, if he simply didn't send anything for more than an hour and a half, things got a little more complicated. Luckily, neither the "Red" or "No Answer" had occurred since he got the phone.

"Alright. I've wasted enough time." Ryuko places her hand on Sora's shoulder and gives him a warm, reassuring smile. "Good luck. I'll be looking forward to hearing about all the friends you make." Sora lets out a groan, having grown a little tired of Ryuko constantly trying to get him to make friends. He would, however, be lying if he said it didn't reassure him somewhat that he has someone who wants the best for him. "We'll see. I'll text you when I get home." Ryuko nods as Sora turns on his heels and heads through the gate and onto school grounds.

A short time later, the students of class 1 are taking this chance before their teacher has arrived to chat amongst themselves. From relatively normal-looking students, to those with unfamiliar features. The door opens and in walks their homeroom teacher. She stands at the front of the classroom and awaits her students to calm themselves down. Unfortunately, a certain pink-skinned, pink haired girl begins laughing hysterically at her own joke while her friends, a girl with blonde hair and a girl with black hair, attempt to calm her down to avoid their teacher's ire on their first day of the school year. "Ashido!" "Eek!" The pink girl lets out a short squeak of surprise. "S-sorry, Miss Nikoyaka." When the pink girl known only by her last name, Ashido, quietens down and slinks back into her seat, Miss Nikoyaka gains a wide, almost demonic smile. "Much better. Now class, I know you probably want to catch up with your friends but we have a new student joining us today."

The class seems to give the teacher a rather lukewarm reaction with most of them feeling like a new student at the beginning of the year isn't exactly something worth all the fanfare. "Mr Tatsuma, please come in and introduce yourself." At the mention of the oddly familiar last name, a few of the students begin to whisper to each other, unable to accurately place the name. The door opens and the students' attention is brought towards the white haired youth with a thin but healthy body, slight dark bags under his eyes and hair that seems freshly messed up. Miss Nikoyaka smiles brightly when her students cease their chatter.

The teacher clears her throat, prompting the white haired boy into action. "Oh, uh...it's nice to meet you all?" His pitch rises as though his sentence were a question as he peers over towards the teacher who nods lightly, letting him know he is doing reasonably well. "My name is Sora Tatsuma. It's nice to meet you all." Laughter can suddenly be heard from the back corner of the classroom from the pink girl. "Haha, you already said that!" A few members of the class begin to snicker until a feeling of dread washes over them as a demonic smile pierces their souls from Miss Nikoyaka. "Sorry, Mr Tatsuma. Miss Ashido has a rather loud personality." The teacher apologetically glances at the new student, witnessing Sora with a look of fascination rather than embarrassment.