My Hero Academia: Next Gen

Chapter 11: Dangerous Girls

"...Just how dangerous are you?"

The words rang in Eri's head, and her heart skipped a beat and then fell into the floor. How dangerous was she? She hadn't had someone ask her anything like that since she first started school, two years after her rescue.

"What's your quirk, Eri?" her new classmate asked her excitedly. "I can breathe in water like a mermaid! Can you do something cool like that?"

Nine-year-old Eri, who had been sitting by a tree on the playground field, looked down at her skirt, clutching it tightly, refusing to look up at the circle of girls around her. Girls just like her, except... Not. They were normal. They grew up normal. They played like normal girls. They all had normal quirks, but she... 

Eri shook her head. "No..."

"Oh." The little girl's face fell. "Then what can you do?"

"I rewind people," Eri replied, gripping her uniform skirt even tighter. "If I touch someone, I can turn their body back in time."

One of the girls around her took a step back. "Wait, what? You rewind people? That's so scary!"

The rest of them chorused in agreement. One shivered and rubbed her arms up and down. "Oh, I don't wanna play tag with you, Eri! You might make me eight-years-old again!" 

They giggled as though it was a fun joke, but Eri only lowered her head. "I wouldn't do that," she said quickly. "I can control my quirk now! Mr. Lemillion, Mr. Deku, and Daddy helped me! I can play!"

The girls' formerly lighthearted expressions turned serious and almost predatory. "Lemillion and Deku? Pro heroes? So, you're gonna lie to us too? Lie and turn us into babies?"

At this, Eri's head shot up only to meet the fiery gazes of the girls. "W-What? No!"

The first girl harumphed, then turned her back to Eri, starting to jog away towards the soccer field. "Eri's quirk is scary. Come on, let's play tag away from Scary Eri."

"Scary Eri," the girls laughed. "Scary Eri!" They ran off together, still chanting the awful nickname. 

Fifteen-year-old Eri clutched her UA uniform skirt in her hands and stared at the ground. "How... dangerous?"

Amano tilted her head to the side slightly. "Yeah. Like, with my quirk, I can make people sleep, and if they keep inhaling my dust for too long, they can go into a coma. I would say my quirk is moderately dangerous. But a quirk that can rewind you... That must be significantly more dangerous, huh? And hard to train."

Eri's eyes shot up at the girl in front of her. Amano was shorter than her by a significant amount, at least seven or eight centimetres, but her presence was far greater. Her face held none of the disdain or fear that her former classmates' faces had held. It was just... curious. "I, uh, I guess so," Eri stuttered. 

Amano gave her a dry smile. "You guess so? Based on the quirk evaluation earlier today, I'm going to say that training your quirk is hard, if not impossible. Am I wrong?"

"I..." Eri looked away. "No," she said finally. "You're right. Training me not to set off my quirk haphazardly was a feat in itself. Training me to use it in a way that I can use in combat... The most I can do right now, safely, is heal."

"Y-You can heal?" Amano blanched, but her face quickly turned into one of thorough consideration. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense. You would just rewind their body to before they were hurt, right?"

Eri nodded. "Yeah. Recovery Girl has been overseeing me in that regard."

"Recovery Girl!" Amano shot forward, a bright smile on her face. "You've worked with Recovery Girl? That is so cool!"