A Certain Flying Head in MHA

I knocked on the door to signal my arrival. I didn't want to disturb the person on the otherside if they were doing anything important or sensitive, after all.

Fortunately, he wasn't. "Come in!" Said the aged voice, and I obliged. "Oh? Kizuki-shounen? What brings you here?" He said as he took off his glasses. "I thought you would have left by now."

"Oh, I am leaving today." I shrugged as I placed a bundle of tea on his desk. "I just stopped by to give you this."

"There's no need for that, but I appreciate the gesture nonetheless." He smiled. "Thank you."

"Right." I scratched the back of my head in mild embarrassment. "That and well, I wanted to thank you, too."

"Hm? What for?"

"For- well, for everything." I averted my eyes. I wasn't blushing. Definitely. "You taught me a whole lot over the years and stuff. So, y'know..." I dipped my head in sincerity. "Thank you for your guidance, Hevun-sensei."

"Come now, raise your head." He said as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "I simply handed you the tools. You carved your own skill from what was given to you. What you learned are still derived from your own hard work and dedication."

"Sensei..."

"I believe that it is time for you to fly on towards a different nest, one where you can learn and expand upon your repertoire of skill. But regardless, always remember: Kizuki-shounen, I am proud of you." He said with the usual gentle smile on his iconic frog-like face. "I have no doubt that you'll do great things. Now go on then. You have places to be, don't you?"

"Hm." I nodded. But before then, I crossed the gap between us and gave him a hug. It only lasted a few seconds and I let go, not giving him a second glance as I ran to the door.

Faintly, I can hear his chuckling from his office.

~~~~~~~~~

"Do you really want to just leave them inside the boxes?" Asked Kuroko in skepticism as she put down one of the boxes.

"It's fine." I assured her while I was carrying a few boxes of my own. "We'd be moving into the dorms sooner or later by next month anyway."

"I suppose that's true." She sat down on a couch while still looking around. "But your place still feels a bit barren..."

We are currently in the house I bought back then. The scent of fresh paint and fumes in the air of a newly built place fills my lungs as I breathed in the a mostly empty room. Though the sun's rays beam through the crevice between the curtains, the place retains a chilly crisp air. But although it is a house made for a family, I'm the only resident as of the moment. Not to mention that there's barely any furniture or decorations around.

"That's because of the [Catastrophic Descent]." It was the name given to the tragedy a few months ago. It was first coined by forum dwellers a d caught on to mainstream media. "My house was affected during the attack, it got destroyed like the other buildings nearby. Good thing I have insurance so I had it rebuilt just in time, otherwise I would have had to crashed in a hotel for a while. Although it is too bad about the some of the stuff I had, at least none of them were irreplaceable. Too bad about the wine though..."

"I see." Kuroko thought for a moment and then furrowed her brows in confusion. "How many times have you used this place, exactly? You mentioned that you live in a village before coming to this era, then we lived in the dorms during middle school, and now we'll be living in the dorms for high school, wasn't it a waste to buy a house so early?"

"I haven't used it enough, true." I nodded, a blush forming up my cheeks. "It was mostly an impulse buy from a few years back. In hindsight, I should've probably thought my decision through a bit more before making the purchase."

A smile crept up her face as she stood up and walked over to my side. She moved closer to my ear. "Then I suppose we should make full use of it, then?~⁠♡"

A blush crept up my face and I couldn't help but swallow a gulp.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang freezing the two of us in place. Kuroko clicked her tongue and teleported to the front door.

I blinked.

In the meantime, I claimed myself down as I can feel the blush slowly receding again.

"Let's hang out!" I bubbly voice was heard from the other room. A moment later, Kuroko walked in with a floating Nejire who looked like she is vibrating from excitement. My girlfriend --It feels bubbly whenever I say that-- meanwhile, has a wry smile on her face.

I didn't need to extend my senses to know that she is a tinge disappointed at having our privacy cut short.

"Hello to you too, senpai."

"C'mon! Let's have fun! It's been a while since we got together in person!" She said. I imagined that she would be jumping in joy if she wasn't already floating. "It'll be just us friends! And we can talk about stuff, and I can even let you in juicy gossip at school, and then we-"

"It's not like I don't mind." Said Kuroko, she sent me a resigned look that just says 'What can you do?' as she talks to the periwinkle girl. "But do you have anything specific in mind? Otherwise we'd only end up wandering around for nothing."

"And speaking of, are you sure we wouldn't be imposing on you? Didn't you have plenty of more important friends to hang out with?" I said, curious.

Nejire nodded her head really fast. "That's silly! All of my friends are important! Sure I have friends from school and are pretty cool but none of them are supernaturals and I can't talk magic with them and it's super suffocating and oh! But there is this one girl but her nature makes her detached to a lot of things but she isn't a bad girl, she's a actually kinda nice in her own way so even though we don't exactly get along we're also not against each other." She breathes. "And I was thinking that we can go shopping and talk about things like how it's going or plans for school since y'know, I am your senpai and I can teach some things you might need to know and the like, and after that we can go to the food court and then the movies or even the local arcade, I know this one place run by a supernatural so we can totally talk magic there!"

"...Right." I nodded. I glanced at kuroko and she gave also gave me a subtle nod. "Sounds good, let's go."

I guess just spending the day just going out with another friend is fine too.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I look up at the large structure, it's size alone puts an imposing sense of metaphorical weight on one's shoulders. The building itself is in the shape of the letter 'H', proudly standing as a symbol of heroism. It brought to me a feeling of nervousness, making me shiver in my own coat despite knowing that I would do well.

It isn't my first time here. And I know that it definitely wouldn't be the last.

I stroke the ribbon on the back of my head.

The only thing different this time, is that right now, I'm not here as a healer. Nor am I here today as a visitor or as a guest.

Today, I am here to take on the entrance examination. Specifically, the ones for the recommendation exams, with my sponsor being that of Hevun-sensei. Contrary to popular Belief, you don't need to be endorsed by a hero to get recommended, you just need a referral or a proof of achievement or even reliability. Granny isn't allowed to veto for me as that would make people think of nepotism no matter how you word it. Journalists are bloodhounds like that.

I stroke my ribbon again as I took a few deep breaths. Once I calmed my beating heart down, I couldn't help but smile a bit as I gently brushed a finger against my new choker.

This new choker of mine is the colour of velvet red. It brings me a fuzzy feeling inside whenever I notice the cold touch of the metal heart-shaped buckle. Kuroko bought this for me at the time when we hung out with Nejire last week. The young witch certainly had more than enough energy to put pace even us veteran members of Judgment.

Coincidentally, I also took the chance to buy her a luscious white scarf.

With these thoughts in my mind, I strode through the gates with a pep in my step.

My mood wasn't even damped by the cold empty halls as I made my way through them. Equipped with the map, I specifically arrived early to take in the sight of an empty school, the labyrinthine walls and unusual design still doing there best to confuse the unwitting students, if there were any. For now, however, they had to make do with only the examinees for today.

I entered the auditorium that was devoid of any other life, and waited for the other students to arrive. As uncanny as it is to experience a space meant for multitudes of interaction be so quiet, it was a comforting silence that I allowed myself the pleasure to indulge in as I watch the other examinees trickle in. Slowly, the peace and tranquility was broken with the growing chatter of a few dozen other people, only to be broken once again as a blonde man walked in.

A tall, slim man in a black jacket with a very tall collar, upturned and complete with studs. His eye-catching long blonde hair spiked upwards in a large tuft behind his head, almost reminiscent of a cockscomb with how pompous it seemed, along with a small brown mustache.

'Present Mic' I thought, as the man himself walked over to the podium on stage.

"GOOOOOOOOD MORNING EVERYBODY! MAN! THIS ROOM IS CHOCK FULL OF TALENTS AND POTENTIAL FROM DIFFERENT CORNERS OF THE COUNTRY! JUST BEING HERE MAKES ME FEEL SMARTER!" His voice is just as loud as I remembered it. "BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT! LET'S DISCUSS WHAT YOU'RE ALL ACTUALLY HERE FOR!"

He pressed something in his hand and the screen behind him came to light, displaying multiple bullet points. "AS YOU CAN SEE HERE, THE EXAMS WILL BE DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS; THE WRITTEN EXAM, THE PRACTICAL EXAM, AND FINALLY, THE INTERVIEW! AS MANY OF YOU MAY KNOW, THERE ARE DOZENS OF HERO-HOPEFULS HERE AND THERE ARE ONLY A LIMITED NUMBER OF SPOTS IN CLASS! TODAY IS THE DAY WHERE WE WILL WEED OUT THE COMPETITION AND FIND OUT WHICH OF YOU IS THE CREAM OF THE CROP!" He beamed. "ARE YOU READY?! THEN LET'S GET STARTED, YEAAAH!"

Her pressed another button and the projection behind him changed. It now showcased a list of names inside labeled boxes. "YOU HAVE THIRTY MINUTES TO FIND YOUR TEST AREA! BETTER BE ON THERE IN TIME OR YOU'LL HAVE LESS TO MAKE UP FOR YOUR TEST! GOOD LUCK AND SEE YOU THERE!" And he just stood there, his smile as wide as usual. I gave him a deadpan stare and he might've noticed because I can see his smile growing wider. Withdrawing my stare and ignoring him, I parsed through the list, finding my name along with others to go to a certain room.

I took out my phone and opened the U.A. map to look for directions, but- "Do you mind?" Someone else was looking over my shoulder.

"Oh, sorry." She said but she still continued to stare. "Is that a map? Of the school? Like the real thing?" I can feel other people turning their gaze my way.

"Yes...?"

"Cool. Cool." She nodded. "Do you mind if I borrow it for a second to look for my room?" She asked.

"Do you not have a map of your own? Or a phone? This is an app." Don't tell me that rat-

"Dude. I wouldn't be asking if I did." She took out her phone and fiddled with it for a moment. "Nope. Nothing. I tried different key wordings too and there isn't any map of U.A. in the store."

I took a deep breath.

This confirms it. Nedzu didn't publicize the map or anything. In hindsight, I should have guessed. Making his school hard to navigate to make the place difficult for first timers is definitely something he would do. He probably has a sadistic cackle of it every year watching examinees fumble around.

"Look man, it's cool if you don't want to. I can find it by myself." She shrugged, probably taking my deep breath and silence for annoyance.

I glance at her, then at the other people in the room. From the corner of my eye, I can feel the gaze of Present Mic along with a feeling from my intuition coming from a nearby CCTV camera.

I turned my gaze back to the phone in my hand, not replying to anyone. I heard movement and grumbling from around me but I tuned them out in favour of memorising directions on my phone. It didn't take long before I felt some people stomping their way to my seat in frustration.

Just as they were only a meter from me, I let out a thick cloud of smoke, earning me gasp of suprise from the people that were caught off-guard.

I walked out of the encirclement and made my way to the door of the auditorium. Within the smoke, I left behind a few heads. I'll leave it to them to herd the other examinees and lead them to their rooms.

Honestly, people these days have no patience, they'd be willing to confront other people that easily.

But I guess some fault lies with me as well for not telling them about my idea in the first place.

But then again, I like a little mischief in life.