Puppet Strings

Chapter Four

The UA hallways were big and intimidating — fitting for a hero school. That was Alluna's first thought as she followed Kayama and Yamada Hizashi, dubbed 'Present Mic' down the halls for a tour of the most prestigious hero school of all of Japan.

It was March 3rd, Monday, and exactly a week before Alluna's tenth birthday. She hadn't told anyone, so no one would celebrate it, but that was fine with her. No one had celebrated it before either. She didn't know if her mother even remembered it before her death.

But it was a Monday, and UA was up and running. Alluna wasn't sure how she got dragged back to a school for heroes, but there she was. Well, she supposed she did know. It was either UA or Hoshimi Karin Primary School, the grade school closest to Aizawa's house. If she chose to go there, Alluna would be enrolled in the fourth grade.

Alluna hadn't been to a school since she was four years old, before her dad died and everything went haywire. School would risk the possibility of hurting her classmates. School would mean having other kids to talk to. Plus, the school year ended in three weeks anyway.

So though she promised herself not to get too involved with the heroes, Alluna ended up at UA anyway, to be tutored by Yamada; nicknamed Present Mic, and another hero called Ectoplasm who taught math. Aizawa said he'd figure something out for the other subjects.

Sometimes, Alluna wondered if Aizawa knew more than he let on. Every once in a while, he would mention some tiny fact about Alluna that she was pretty sure she never told him. Other times, Aizawa would be completely wrong about her.

For now, she decided to ignore it.

~~~

The next few weeks passed by pretty uneventfully. On March 10th, Alluna's birthday, Aizawa had taken her out to a restaurant for dinner, which she found weird. She never told him her birthday. But he never mentioned it, so she passed it off as Aizawa being too lazy to cook again. Plus, she enjoyed the night.

Alluna's classes at UA went well too. Kayama had stepped in as a history teacher and Ishiyama helped with science. She classed we're going slow; they had to catch up on all her years missed while stuck at home. But Alluna wasn't all clueless, as Yamada had soon found out on the first day of English class.

"Are you ready to learn?" Yamada shouted in English as he entered the empty classroom where Alluna waited. His dropped his bag on the floor and said, "That means—"

"Are you ready to learn," Alluna interrupted.

Yamada blinked. "What?"

"It means, are you ready to learn," she repeated.

Yamada's glasses fell off his face. "How did you know that?"

Alluna's hands crept to her scarf. It was wrapped around her loosely now that it was warmer. She brushed a strand of her hair over her face. "My, my mom used to have a friend who was half American. He lived in America for many years and taught me English." She passed the bitter taste down her throat.

"That's so cool!" Yamada shouted, so loudly that Alluna covered her ears. "Oops," he said, then whispered, "that's so cool!"

Alluna smiled and thanked him. She disagreed, but he didn't need to know that.

~~~

The school year ended uneventfully, and with the dawn of April came the start of the new term. The new students would be coming, the ones from the entrance exam Alluna had watched that day. Aizawa would be the home room teacher for class 1A. She was honestly kind of excited to meet them.

So instead of having lessons, Alluna sat in the staff room, waiting for the start of class. Aizawa was sleeping under the bench Alluna rested on in his yellow sleeping bag. Alluna thought he looked rather silly. Yamada sat beside her, making small talk in English as practice.

"Can you do me a favor?" He asked, switching to Japanese.

Alluna blinked, surprised by the change in language. "Alright, what is it?"

"Make sure Shota doesn't expel anyone on the first day. Have him wait at least a week, will you?"

Alluna furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

Yamada grinned. "Yeah, it'll be better if you don't ask."

"O-okay?"

"Good, now class is starting." Yamada bent down to stare at Aizawa under the bench. "Shota, wake up!"

Alluna flinched back. The parrot man was loud. Aizawa rolled out from under the bench like a pencil someone dropped on the ground. "Time for class?"

"Yep!" Yamada gave Aizawa a gentle kick with his foot. "Get going."

Alluna followed Aizawa as he hopped, still in the sleeping bag, to class 1A. She thought he looked like a giant yellow caterpillar. He flopped down behind two students as he arrived. Alluna, who stood a little ways behind, noticed that they were the plain looking boy and the anti-gravity girl he saved from the entrance exam. The roster said their names with Midoriya Izuku and Uraraka Ochaco.

"...and guidance sessions today, yeah? Wonder what our teacher's be like? Boy, I'm nervous." The brown haired girl was saying to Midoriya, whose face had turned tomato-red.

"If you're here to socialize, get out."

Alluna blinked at his harsh tone, taking an unconscious step back.

The two students turned around and started, their eyes wide.

Alluna watched the scene unfold from behind Aizawa. The man in question took out a small apple juice carton from his sleeping bag and sucked on it. Since when was that there?

"This is the hero course."

The chattering classroom fell silent. Alluna peeked in and wondered what they were thinking. She would've found all this quite strange if she didn't already know Aizawa's special habits. She still found him strange sometimes.

"It took eight seconds for you to quiet down." Aizawa unzipped his sleeping bag as he stood up. "Time is a precious resource. You lot aren't very rational, are you?"

Alluna noted that he had been noticeably kinder and more patient with her when he met her at the hospital than with these students. He thought she was too young for this kind of treatment.

"So he's a pro hero too..?" Midoriya wondered aloud.

"I'm your homeroom teacher, Aizawa Shota." He walked into the room, with Alluna following a little ways behind.

She glanced around the classroom, a bit self-conscious, observing the students. She recognized the explosion boy and the red haired boy from the entrance exam. Some of the students were eyeing her, probably wondering why there was a child in their classroom.

Aizawa reached into his sleeping bag, and pulled out a PE uniform. "Quickly now. Change into your gym uniforms and head out onto the grounds."

It was time for the quirk assessment test.

~~~

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