"Are you kidding? You look amazing! That coat is like, super stylish, and your hair is this gorgeous white color that's totally cool. I'm so jealous—I've been trying to decide what to wear for weeks, and obviously nobody can see me anyway, but I still want to look cute, you know?"
The words tumbled out of her in a rush, enthusiasm bubbling over like champagne. It was refreshing after months of careful preparation and serious conversations. This girl talked like she was commenting on a fashion blog, not heading to the most competitive exam in the country.
"You sound pretty cute already," I said. "I'm Yukio, by the way. Yukio Murano."
"Toru Hagakure! And thank you, that's literally the sweetest thing anyone's said to me today. Though to be fair, you're also the only person who's talked to me today, but still!"
"Their loss."
"Right? I mean, I know I'm not exactly easy to notice, but I'm super friendly and I have excellent taste in fashion and I know like, everything about hero rankings and costume design. I run this blog where I review Pro Hero outfits and—oh my God, I'm totally rambling, aren't I?"
"Little bit," I admitted. "But it's working for you."
The train began to slow, and I could see other passengers stirring, checking their phones and gathering their belongings. Through the windows, unfamiliar buildings slid past—we were getting close.
"This is our stop," Toru said, and I could hear the excitement building in her voice. "Are you ready for this? Because I'm like, ninety percent excited and ten percent terrified, which I think is a pretty good ratio for something this huge."
"Ninety-ten sounds about right," I lied.
The doors hissed open, and we joined the flow of passengers spilling onto the platform. I found myself walking beside an empty space that occasionally brushed against my arm, the only sign of Toru's presence. Other students moved around us—some in school uniforms, others in casual clothes, all of them betraying their nerves in small ways.
A bouncing knee here, a thumb worrying the strap of a bag there. They were all trying to project confidence, and they were all failing in the exact same way.
"So what's your Quirk?" Toru asked as we climbed the station stairs.
"Kinetic Charge," I said. "I can store energy in objects and release it on impact. Turns anything into a weapon or a tool."
"That's so cool! Like, you could charge a coin and flick it and it would explode? Mine's obviously Invisibility, which is like, super useful for stealth but not exactly what you'd call photogenic, you know? I've been working on some new applications though—light refraction and stuff. I want to be a Spotlight Hero."
A Spotlight Hero. I almost laughed. An invisible girl desperate to be seen, standing next to a fraud who'd built a fortress of visibility. We were a perfect, walking contradiction. And for some reason, that made it easier to breathe.
We reached street level and followed the crowd of exam-takers down a wide boulevard. The morning sun felt good on my face, and Toru's constant chatter kept my nerves from building too much momentum. She had opinions about everything—the architecture of the buildings we passed, the fashion choices of other students, the way the cherry trees were just starting to bud.
"Oh, I totally forgot to ask," she said as we turned a corner. "What made you want to be a hero? I mean, besides the obvious awesome factor."
"Someone important to me believes I can be," I said. "Figured I should probably live up to that."
"Aw, that's so sweet! Is it your girlfriend? Please tell me it's not your girlfriend because that would be like, super romantic but also devastating for my chances."
I choked on a laugh. "My sister. And what chances?"
"The chances that you'll ask me to be your hero partner after we both get into U.A. Obviously."
"Obviously," I repeated, grinning despite myself. "Though you might want to work on your visibility first. Hard to be a power couple when only half of us show up in photos."
"Details! I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll wear a really distinctive costume, or learn to bend light into heart shapes around my head—"
We rounded another corner, still chatting easily, and stopped dead.
Before us, stretching up into the sky like something out of a science fiction movie, were the colossal gates of U.A. University. The sheer scale was impossible—steel and concrete and glass rising so high I had to crane my neck to see the top. The walls seemed to go on forever in both directions, and the main gate itself was large enough to drive a building through.
The collective murmur of the crowd just… stopped. It didn't fade; it was cut, leaving a sudden, ringing silence that the city's hum couldn't penetrate. No one was moving. We were a human logjam, dozens of kids frozen mid-stride, necks craned back. The air here felt static, charged. This wasn't just a school; it was a temple, and we had all arrived at the altar.
"Holy crap," she whispered, and her voice had lost all its bubbly energy, replaced by something like reverence. "It's so... big."
"Yeah," I managed. "It really is."
The other students began moving again, drawn forward by the gravity of their dreams. I scanned the faces around me. Wide eyes, parted lips, a few kids physically trembling. The same awe, the same fear. These were my rivals, my future colleagues, my marks. Every one of them was here for the same prize, chasing the same impossible goal.
I glanced at the space where Toru's coat floated, a silent, invisible compatriot in this sudden reverence. Then my gaze traced the impossible lines of the building one last time.
Well, the other players are at the table. Time to see what cards they're holding.