Acting as a team -because it hadn't been prohibited and I'd figured that part of the exam was seeing how well I could work with others- me, Sero, Midoriya, and Jirou took down the three 'villains' and approached the gate, out of breath. The fight was short, but difficult. Ultimately though, I didn't actually have to do much other than strategize, as my companions were all strong in battle. Much stronger than me, that's for sure.

"Would you like to do the honors, (y/n)?" Jirou asked with a small smirk, gesturing toward the exit gate. I nodded with a grateful smile and stepped forward.

My arms were tired, and I'd never been particularly strong anyway, especially since I hadn't been fed enough during my time at the LOV, but somehow I managed to muster up enough strength to plant my feet firmly in the ground and push open the large doors.

Once on the other side I sighed and sat down on the ground out of exhaustion, not even bothering to look up as Shota stepped forward and patted my head.

"Way to go kid." He praised in his monotone voice. I hummed in recognition, then saw his feet turn as he moved to face Midoriya, "I've got to go fill out some papers for (y/n)'s admission now, but why don't you come with me. I'd like to talk, after all, though in good intention I surmise, you did jeopardize her test."

I looked up at that, "Please don't get mad at him, but- d-did you say my admission?" I questioned, eyes wide.

"That's right." A high voice chirped from behind Shota. I turned my attention to the voice's source; a small white-furred bear like creature with a scar over one of his little beady eyes. "Hello child, my name is Principal Nezu, and as for your query, yes you heard Shota correct. You see, normally we'd take time to think it over, but as you are the only participant in this exam, we didn't need much time at all. I believe that you are perfectly qualified for our program, and not to mention you could certainly benefit from our help and teachings when it comes to your current situation and past. So, you are hereby accepted." The little animal put his hands behind his back and smiled.

I blinked in surprise. Accepted?

Does that mean... I'm going to go to school?

School.

I couldn't quite believe it, no matter how much I ran it over in my head. I never thought I'd get to live any semblance of a normal life, and yet here I was, about to partake in one of the most normal parts of life. Getting an education surrounded by kids my age with a lot- not nearly as much as me, but still a lot- to learn and try and explore. School.

And not just any school, but a hero school. I hadn't thought about it before, but after all this time living with them, following their every order, their every whim, demand, I can finally forsake my life with, for, villains. And though I don't believe I'm worthy just yet, after everything I've done, I can work hard to become the polar opposite of a 'villain'. A hero.

The perfect form of revenge on my young, scared, submissive, tortured past self, I suppose.

From killing to saving. From solitude to life surrounded by peers. Villain to hero.

Or hero in training, at least.

I doubt I can make up for all the LOV made me do, all I've done, but I can dedicate my life to others for once. Maybe that way I can at least salvage my hope to become a better person.

"(y/n). Hey, (y/n). Dummy, were you listening to any of that?"

"Huh?" I looked up to see Jirou poking my shoulder. I flinched.

It looked like most everyone else had already left. Shota probably went off to sign the forms, Midoriya with them, but I hadn't noticed the principal leave. I hadn't seen Sero go either.

"Mhm everyone already left," Jirou confirmed, as if she'd been listening to my thoughts, "You're lucky Nezu likes to hear himself talk, otherwise he wouldn't have noticed you were ignoring everything else he said." She chuckled. My face flushed in embarrassment,

"I- I didn't mean to ignore him. Could you maybe tell me what he said?" I asked, messing with my fingers.

"Well to be honest, I wasn't really listening either. I was a little distracted." She laughed nervously. I wondered what she could have been distracted by. "But I think he said something about you moving into the dorms soon, and about you joining my class, class 2A." She smiled.

My eyes lit up at her statement. Having not interacted with other teenagers before, other then Jirou, Midoriya, and briefly Sero, I'd figured that I would have a hard time talking with anyone at school if I was accepted. However, if Jirou was there, it might be a little bit easier.

"Good." I spoke quietly in response to her. I didn't think she'd heard me, but her smile softened just a little bit. She chuckled too.

The sound of her laugh intrigued me for some reason, just like everything about her. I hadn't met another girl my age before Jirou, and I wondered if all of their laughs sounded like hers. Light, airy, seemingly always carrying a slight sarcasm.

There was so much else I didn't know about people, kids, about her. And I'd gone my whole life bottling up my curiosity, now that I was free I wanted to explore it. I wanted to know more. Hear more of her laughs, see if they were unique, or just like everyone else's. I was curious to see what kinds of things made her angry, or annoyed like she'd been with Sero earlier, so that I could learn to avoid it. I wondered what made her smile. Wondered if I could learn to be the one to make her smile, then if I could make other people smile too.

Before I could think, I blurted my next thought aloud,

"I want to know more about you!"

Right after saying it I covered my mouth and started to apologize, but she cut me off by offering a hand. I took it nervously and she pulled me to my feet. When I looked to her face I saw that she was looking away, her face red.

Great, now I think I've embarrassed her.

"Listen, um. I was kind of thinking the same thing," She spoke, surprising me, "I know that school starts soon, but if you want to hang out before that I could help you pack and move into the dorms or something," She scratched the back of her neck and twirled one of her earphone jacks around her pointer finger, "Here's my number." She then took a pen from her waistband and scribbled something down on my hand. It felt weird, and I was confused to no end, but I let her do it.

"Alright I think Mr. Aizawa's coming back, and I should go anyway. See you (y/n)." Jirou waved and walked off.

After she was gone Shota approached me, caught me staring at my hand in confusion.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Jirou's.... number?" I responded, not sure myself what that meant. Obviously I knew what numbers were, but I hadn't been aware that people could own them, or sequences of them. Shota laughed dryly,

"It's her phone number then, it's what people use to call each other on their cell phones. I guess she hadn't thought of the fact that you probably wouldn't have one."

Oh. I'd always wondered how people were able to contact just anyone with their phones, I guess it made sense that everyone had a sort of code or something that they could give people to allow that contact.

"What do I do with it then?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Well, I guess you can use my phone to call her if you want to. You'd better not break it though."

"O-okay." Now I wasn't so sure I wanted to risk the possibility of Shota's wrath. Still, I wasn't going to pass up a chance to learn more about Jirou. I thought that understanding her could in turn help me understand other people in general, but I suppose I was also just interested in learning about Jirou for the sake of getting to know her.

I shook my head, I'd worry about contacting her later. Right now, I wanted to get back to Eri. It'd been far too long since I'd seen her last, and every time I was apart from her a little part of me was always worrying. Shota'd told me that Mirio -or Lemillion as I'd first known him- was at the house babysitting her, but I still had a hard time trusting anyone with her alone.

"Can we go home now?" I asked.

"Mmm, yeah. I need a nap."

It was around eight a.m. in the morning, and I'd already begun packing for my move to the dorms. The official UA term started tomorrow, so I had to be all moved in by tonight. I was nervous, but Jirou had ended up coming over to help me pack like she'd proposed, so she helped to calm my nerves a little. Although, Shota did end of having to be the one to call her because I was too scared. She'd laughed at me for that.

Eri was helping to pack too, in fact, part of me thought she was more excited about the whole thing than I was. At first she was a little sad to hear the news that I'd have to move out if I was going to attend UA, but since then she'd begun rambling about how great a hero I would make and how happy she was that I was going to school with 'Deku'. Still, she hadn't let go of my leg since the news, and to be honest I wasn't ready for her to. I was not prepared to be away from Eri. Not again. Not after so long. But Shota had promised to take her to visit every day she wasn't in school, so we were both just holding onto that promise for now.

"Wow you really don't have much to bring with you, huh?" Jirou marveled, staring at the singular bag that held all of my belongings, most of which were blankets and pillows. I didn't think I really needed anything else either, since spending years sleeping on a cold concrete floor or an old decaying cot I'd learned to value comfort.

"Nope, I'm a minimalist." I responded quietly instead, deciding to spare her of the truth that I'd found most people reacted quite negatively to.

"Haha I'm not, I could barely fit all my crap in my dorm. Getting up to get a glass of water in the night is nearly impossible without bumping into my keyboard or knocking down a symbol."

Keyboard, symbol? I knew I recognized these words from somewhere. What were they, instruments?

I hadn't heard music in, what.. nine, ten years? Unless of course you counted Spinner or Togas humming, which I guessed most musicians would not.

"Do you- um- play music?" I asked, picking up the bag from her feet and tossing it over one shoulder. Eri came up behind me and clutched onto my sweatpants as Jirou scratched the back of her head.

"Uh, yeah. Both of my parents are musicians so I know my way around a lot of instruments."

"Whoah." I responded, wondering what it was like to be able to create music.

"Last year, at the sports festival, she sang in front of everyone!" Eri exclaimed from behind me. I'd noticed that she'd talked less than normal since Jirou had arrived, acted a little shy all together, but now her eyes were wide and sparkling as she spoke, "When it started, it was quiet, but then her voice was like- like WOAH." She spread her arms out above her head to accentuate her point. Jirou blushed and looked down.

"Oh, can you sing for me?" I asked, wanting to hear it. Jirou frowned slightly,

"Oh I'm really not that good. Maybe.. some other time?"

I nodded in response. Was that rude of me to ask? I wondered. Before I was able to say anything else the door to me and Eri's room opened and Shota walked in. Or, more accurately, slithered in wrapped in a multitude of blankets that he hadn't emerged from since being woken up by Eri this morning. "You two about ready to go?" He asked groggily.

"Aren't you coming too?" I questioned, my brows knit together. He shook his head, black hair falling into his eyes which he attempted to blow away.

"Nah. I have to go back to teaching you all tomorrow, I'd like to sleep today away in preparation. So leave whenever you're ready, and (y/n), here's your student ID and room assignment." He nudged a few papers out of his cocoon and then turned to leave. Before he could go though I heard him mutter something under his breath,

"Besides, it might be better if you have time to meet the other kids without me there intruding. I've done just about as much as I can to prepare you for being on your own," He then turned his head to look at me, "But I'll still be your teacher, so don't think you're rid of me just yet." His words and expression sounded and looked threatening -in fact I think I saw Jirou shiver next to me- but the meaning behind them warmed my heart, just a little bit.

I nodded to him and he left.

"See you tomorrow, Mr. Aizawa." Jirou called after him awkwardly.

"Ya-huh." He groaned back. She covered her mouth to keep from laughing at him and then turned back to me,

"Should we get going then?"

"Yeah, just one second." I then kneeled down on the floor in front of Eri and enveloped her in a hug. Human contact still put me on edge, but with Eri it just came more naturally. I felt just as safe with her as I knew she did with me.

"I'm gonna miss you." She frowned, scrunching up my hoodie in her little fists.

"I'll miss you too. But don't forget, I'll only be a couple minutes away if you ever need me, and Shota said he'd bring you to say hi every couple of days." I smiled at her. She only hugged me harder.

After we said goodbye, me and Jirou headed out the door and down the stairs of Shota's apartment to make our way to the dorms, where I suppose I would have to make my home for the next two years, and where Shota'd promised me I would find a family too.

I'd thought I'd already found one. A home. A family. But I guess there was more to my future than a small apartment, a little girl, and a grumpy middle aged man. So even though I'd make sure to bother the both of them with my nuisance of a presence every chance I got, there wasn't much else I could do but jump straight into life at the most prestigious hero academy in Japan.

UA.