Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"The Price of Power..."

Izuku Midoriya kept replaying Kirisame's words in his head even as he lay in bed that night.

He could more or less understand his friend's concern. From the moment he chose to respond to All Might, he had mentally prepared himself for the responsibilities he would have to bear from now on, but this had been his dream since childhood, so he had no hesitation or regret.

But why would Kirisame, who was so strong in both Quirk and physical combat, say something like that?

She hadn't attended school... If she wasn't lying, where had she grown up?

[Am I just bad at communicating?]

His desire to connect hadn't gotten through at all, and in the end, he had once again been swept away by her care and encouragement.

The boy buried his face in the pillow in frustration.

The phone lying on the bed flickered with a message from his friend.

[Want to go for the physical checkup together?] - Kirisame

"..."

[Yeah.]

When Kirisame received the notice for a community-required physical exam, she was a bit puzzled.

Because her Quirk was blood-related, her blood was a bit different from ordinary people's. She felt that a blood test might reveal some strange components and attract unwanted attention. So after asking Midoriya and learning that blood would be drawn, she called her guardian, Shota Aizawa, and successfully obtained a note excusing her from the blood test.

Sitting with her friend Midoriya on a bench in the hospital, Kirisame asked him if he often had this kind of physical exam.

Midoriya was also quite surprised. There had indeed been regular hospital check-ups in the past, but they were usually fixed at the beginning of each year. This notice was indeed sudden.

"Maybe there's some kind of epidemic going around lately," he said after a moment of thought.

The doctor in charge of the examination was unexpectedly young, with fluffy brown curly hair and rare emerald eyes. When Kirisame walked in, he was searching frantically for something.

"Your name is... Aizawa Kirisame?" He looked up from the cluttered desk, flipping through the documents he had finally found.

Maybe she was imagining it, but Kirisame felt he emphasized the "Kirisame" part unusually clearly, while the "Aizawa" was uttered lightly, almost as if he were asking, "Are you Kirisame?"

Kirisame nodded.

"Alright, please wait a moment while I get a—"

He stood up to reach for something on the cabinet, then tripped over the trash can and lost his balance. His elbow swept across the desk, sending various items clattering toward Kirisame.

Kirisame jumped up from the chair and stepped back, dodging him.

The doctor waved his hand in the air in desperation, brushing against Kirisame's arm, and ended up hitting his face on the corner of the desk with a loud thud.

Kirisame winced.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, I'm still new here and not very skilled yet..." He calmly wiped the blood from his face, looking a bit embarrassed, and flashed a smile that was way too cheerful for his situation.

Kirisame blinked.

The rest of the checkup was routine. The doctor gave Kirisame a few instructions and handed her the forms and let her go.

As she was leaving, the girl paused at the door and looked back.

"Have we met before?"

"Huh?" The doctor was surprised, scratched his head, and gave a good-natured smile. "Do I just look familiar?"

"Probably not. I just moved to this area."

[...Liar.]

"Well then, goodbye. Thanks for your hard work."

Watching from the window as Kirisame and the green-haired boy walked out of the gate, the young man tapped his fingers on the glass and smeared the blood from his forehead on the glass.

He raised his other hand and licked the tiny drop of blood he had been hiding in his palm, and gave a delighted laugh.

"What's wrong? Is something wrong?"

Meeting Midoriya's inquiring gaze, Kirisame touched a spot on her arm.

"Nothing."

Meanwhile, in the Libra activity room.

"Boss is playing chess against the computer again..." Zapp's bored voice rang out.

Klaus V Reinhertz stared at the chessboard on the screen, his mind was full of the paper airplane he had just received from Shota Aizawa—the very one he had given out long ago as a means of contact.

Inside was a very short sentence, written hesitantly.

"Back then, where did you find her?"

"She's a distant relative from far away." Sitting in the cafeteria of U.A. High School, next to the pink-skinned girl, Mina Ashido, Kirisame explained helplessly her relationship with the homeroom teacher to her curious classmates.

"Because my family lives far away and the adults don't have time to accompany me, so they entrusted me to Mr. Aizawa's care for a while."

The short purple-haired girl, Kyoka Jiro, recalled her homeroom teacher's first appearance the day before and paused, chopsticks in hand.

Bloodshot eyes, listless demeanor, sleeping bag, meal-replacement energy jelly...

Could he really take care of her?

Looking at the black-haired girl next to her happily eating curry rice, still looking childish, and knowing Kirisame was a year younger than them, Kyoka felt genuinely worried.

Remembering how this girl had been too shy to lift her head one moment, then dared to pull a knife on the teacher the next, Momo Yaoyorozu exchanged a glance with Kyoka Jiro and Tsuyu Asui.

Maybe they should watch out for her from now on.

In the morning, they had Kirisame's favorite class—Present Mic's English lesson—and in the afternoon, it was the most credit-heavy and interesting class: Hero Basic Training.

Perhaps the impression left by the Blood Clan's giant poster of All Might was too strong, so when the legendary figure himself walked in through the door, Kirisame was startled, and failing to pull her legs back in time, she banged them against the desk with a thud, startling Shoto Todoroki behind her.

But that didn't dampen the atmosphere in the classroom, which ignited instantly.

"Wow! It's really All Might himself!" Hearing the excited voice of Eijiro Kirishima diagonally in front, Kirisame turned to look at the explosive-tempered Bakugo beside her.

Surprisingly, the usually perpetually angry Bakugo was happy too!

Even though he still had a mean look on his face, the usually gloomy dark red eyes, shadowed by his furrowed brows, now sparkled with excitement, making him look suddenly two years younger—almost cute.

Noticing Kirisame's gaze, Bakugo's face changed in an instant.

"What are you looking at!"

...Nothing. I just gained a whole new appreciation for the charm of the great hero All Might.

Today's lesson was combat training, which sounded very interesting.

Kirisame paused as she pulled her costume out of the locker.

The Japanese-style outfit was a bit tricky to put on, so Kirisame was the last one to come out.

When Kirisame hesitantly poked her hooded head out, the girls were all amazed.

Wow! The new classmate looks like a little elf!!

The pitch-black cloak-like robe was made of some special material that draped nicely, reaching about to her knees, enveloping the little girl entirely. Inside was a matching belted tunic and thin metal armor.

The hood covered part of her forehead, revealing her bright golden eyes. Her black hair was tied into two low ponytails that hung obediently over her chest. There was a small pom-pom dangling from one side of the hood, and light gold filigree chains hung on both sides, sparkling faintly among the hem.

Intricate secret gold patterns lined the edges of her shoes. The wide-legged pants suddenly tightened at the knees, tucked into high-waisted boots, accentuating the girl's slender, straight calves.

It was originally like a Little Red Riding Hood outfit, but the mix of pitch black and secret gold gave it an unexpected calm and mysterious vibe. When she lowered her head, she really had the cold, sharp aura of a Toji.

Kirisame reached up and touched the pom-pom on her collar.

The wide Japanese sleeve slid down from her elbow, revealing her pale white forearm. Her fingers, exposed from the half-leather black glove, were slender, nothing like a hand meant to wield a blade.

Feeling the hood was blocking her view a bit, Kirisame moved to take it off.

But then she was caught off guard by Ashido Mina pouncing on her.

"...Too close."

"Whoa, Kirisame, you look incredible!" The girl in the tight combat suit grabbed Kirisame's hood and wouldn't let her take it off. "You look like something out of a storybook!!"

Kirisame struggled to lift her head from the girl's embrace and looked at herself in the mirror. She imagined the outfit in white, wondering what kind of person had made her wear it.

"...Can't imagine it at all."

"Why did you design a wide Japanese-style coat, Little Kirisame?" asked the Frog girl.

"I honestly didn't know what to make, but my family wanted me to wear this," Kirisame explained as she checked out everyone's costumes.

Then she saw they were mostly skin-tight.

The little girl's eyes sparkled.

Yaoyorozu, fighting the urge to pat Kirisame's head, asked, "Won't the sleeves and hem get in the way?"

Kirisame stretched her arms and legs, then took a running start, hopped onto a nearby locker, and jumped down.

"Not really," she said, touching her sleeves. "It's some special material—way less air resistance than normal."

"It's fine. My family can do full splits in suits, so it's okay."

Kirisame thought of Mr. Steven doing high kicks in suit pants and shuddered.

[Good thing I didn't agree to that guy's request to wear wooden clogs.]

Uraraka patted Kirisame on the shoulder. "It's fine. Tidal Ox King can capture enemies while wearing tight jeans!"

Kirisame, not knowing Tidal Ox King's Quirk, touched Uraraka's pink wrist guard and felt comforted.

In the end, the girls tousled her through her hood until she had no fight left.

Head buried in Yaoyorozu's chest, she actually thought for a second it wasn't so bad.

Teams were decided by lottery.

With twenty-one students, one team would have three.

Kirisame drew the letter I. Her teammates were the male student with a tail, Ojiro, and the invisible girl, Toru Hagakure.

Their opponents were Shoto Todoroki, the guy who uses ice and sits behind her, and Shouji Mezou, who has duplicate arms.

Only when she stood in the monitoring room watching Midoriya's first fight did Kirisame get a real look at her classmates' costumes.

Those two were just as embarrassing as her own.

...Putting aside Midoriya's little donkey getup, Bakugo's head ornament really looked like pigtails.

"..." She shook her head hard to get rid of that scary image, then turned her attention to the one-on-one already showing on the screen.

Midoriya's fighting skills had improved a lot since their first meeting in the park. Kirisame watched him dodge and jump smoothly—for a moment she couldn't even remember how clumsy he used to be.

...But clearly Bakugo was stronger. After recovering from the first couple of hits, Bakugo was dominating Midoriya.

Kirisame watched the painful-looking mid-range blast on the screen and wondered if she could dodge it.

But... that move—using mid-air leverage to spin behind the opponent and then blast them full force—looked really familiar.

Mid-air leverage... spin behind... followed by an elbow strike...

Memories flipped back quickly, landing on the day she discovered the Blood Clan.

Ah, that guy she ran into and fought that day!

[So it was Bakugo.]

No wonder he was always so rude even though she'd saved him... Kirisame realized.

...After that day, she was so badly injured that she completely forgot about apologizing.

Looking at how smooth his moves were, Kirisame couldn't tell if that was something he'd already trained, or if he'd come up with it after getting beat up by her that day and combining it with his Quirk.

If it was the latter...

Maybe I should go apologize to him later, the little girl thought guiltily.

Kirisame, who looked super serious but was actually spacing out, locked her gaze on All Might. The current No.1 hero and teacher, while intently watching the fight on screen, was drenched in cold sweat.

[Why is Kirisame girl staring at me?]

#Has she discovered that I'm Toshinori Yagi?#