Hardlight Symphony

Hoshiko groaned in her bed as she woke up. Pain coursed through her back, overused muscles complaining as she reached to grab her toes, stretching them. Post stretch, she swung her long legs off the bed and onto the cold tile floor of her cell.

Her 'room' was spartan, all white, with 5 walls and containment glass on one side. She had her bed, a small kitchen, a table, a couch with a tv, and a bathroom, nothing else was considered by the commission. She hated it oh so much.

Walking into her bathroom, she brushed pearly white teeth, pulled a comb through her long, unruly black hair, and stared into her own opal eyes in the mirror. Her features were 'perfect', everything from her nose and eyes to her follicles were sculpted by a team of cosmologists and surgeons. She hated her face as well, every ounce of its artificial beauty and horrifying history. The only imperfection was a small scar on her cheek, barely noticeable at a distance, that remained the only reminder of…before.

'One year and your an adult…one year and you're out.'

Sighing, Hoshiko left her bathroom and started up the burner on her stove. Pulling a carton of eggs from her fridge, she started in on breakfast. She liked cooking, only being allowed to do it recently when the psychiatrists assigned to her realized that her quirk performed better when she was 'more content', though she was only allowed to make certain, pre-planned meals.

Once her omelette was ready, she sat down to her table and turned on the tv, checking the news.

*Breaking: All Might stops Sludge Villain from killing teenager in Musutafu this morning-*

Hoshiko immediately turned it off. A shudder ran through her, the man's awful face already ruining her day. Before she had too long to think about the man she hated most in the world, an ash-blind agent walked into her room. Hoshiko didn't recognize her, but that was common enough.

"Here's your regimen for today. Also, you have a meeting with Madam President at 18:00." Without further comment, the woman left.

Hoshiko sighed and looked at the timetable for the day.

7:00-8:30 Preconditioning

8:35-13:00 Quirk Training.

13:00-14:00 L&L

14:05-18:00 General Studies

?-21:00 post conditioning.

With one final sigh, Hoshiko stood from the kitchen table and began to stretch, today would suck.

——-

Sweaty and uncomfortable, Hoshiko walked into the quirk training gym. The complex was gargantuan and white-walled, spanning an entire acre. Hardlight needed a good deal of space to be trained properly.

Hardlight was, truly, a remarkable quirk, one of breathtaking power, capable of solidifying light into geometric structures. Light had virtually no mass on its own, meaning the structures could move through the air freely, subjected only to Hoshiko's will. The analysts came to the conclusion that Hoshiko's real ability was dynakinesis, but she was limited to manipulating photons, this ended up proving correct when Hoshiko developed the ability to actively cloak herself by redirecting light around and through her body, but the more inaccurate name of her quirk stuck anyway.

Her training for the day consisted of making as many separate strands, almost tentacle-like, form in the air. The idea was that, in the unlikely scenario a skyscraper began to fall over, she could lift it and evacuate everyone inside using the strands. A massive faux building with dummy victims stood in the middle of the room, and explosives were attached to the foundation.

Hoshiko psyched herself up and went through ready checks.

"Paragon 1 reporting ready." , Hoshiko radioed in.

"Acknowledged, Paragon. Starting ready checks. Demolition!"

"Ready!"

"Incident management."

"Ready."

"Fire control."

"Ready."

"Simulation command."

"Ready."

"And we…are…go! 10…9…8…7…6…5…4… 3…2…detonate!"

The charges blew and Hoshiko rushed forward, creating a film of photons around her and using a stream of light to ascend, a determined look on Hoshiko's face.

When the building began to tip, thousands of 5-10 centimeter thick 'cords' of white solidlight extended from her skin and small portals in the air. The unsecured cords, not connected to her body, could support minimal weight, they would extract the civilians. The cords connected to Hoshiko rapped around pillars, pushed into the sides of the building, snaked under and through the foundation, some even slipped into windows and supported the falling structure from within.

The building locked in place, and Hoshiko began to sweat from pain.

'Holy FUCK I can already feel the migraine coming on…okay big girl…you got the building-fuck that's so heavy…now get the dummies out.'

One by one, dummies were pulled from the building. First only a handful, but the number grew fast, eventually dozens of the fake people were sundered from the derelict structure. When Hoshiko made it to 90~ or so dummies, the building made several groaning noises and began to crumble, becoming too much for Hoshiko to lift.

"God-Damnit!" Hoshiko swore as the light faded, the structure finally collapsing into dust and ruin.

"87% survival rate. Good job Paragon, that's progress." Command's platitudes came through on radio.

"13% dead, then. Not good enough…" Hoshiko muttered to herself. Annoyed, the young woman left the gym.

——-

"Hello, Hoshiko." The curt voice of the president, Madam Shinji, greeting the girl as she sat down across from her superior.

"Shinji-sama.", Hoshiko dutifully responded.

"Your contract is officially up for review next month and I'd like to talk to you about your agency-" Shinji began.

"No." Hoshiko immediately cut the older woman off. Shinji just stared at Hoshiko, open mouthed.

"…excuse me?" Shinji finally mustered up.

"I'm not making an agency through the HPSC like Hawks did, Shinji-sama." Hoshiko got out in a fluid sentence, shocking herself, but she had spent a long time preparing for this.

"Hoshiko…I don't think you understand. There's no other avenue to make one… our investment in you is totally misplaced if you do not become a hero. You wouldn't want that would you?" Shinji spoke out in her possibly patented condescending tone.

"So you could say that I…don't have a choice?" Hoshiko retorted with a grin. The HPSC was a government entity and Hoshiko was a citizen. They had pulled a fast one on Hawks, using the borderline unconstitutional contracts on his agency to bind him to their will, but technically they could not force Hoshiko to do anything…legally.

"…I wouldn't say that-" Shinji tried to steer the conversation.

"You can't say that."

Shinji sighed, "The contract that your mother signed when she gave you to us for your care stipulates clearly that you must become a hero. Now you're trying to deny that?"

"No, I'll become a hero."

"Then who could you possibly work for?" Condescension still prevalent in the woman's voice.

Code for 'you don't know anybody and any hero that could hire you is in our pocket thanks to the Hyper-Powered children clause.'

Hoshiko's expression turned smug.

"I actually just received a job offer, Shinji-sama." The smug feeling clearly carried in her voice.

Shinji's expression turned icy, "From who?"

Still very smug, Hoshiko pulled out her offer and put it on the desk between them.

"That FUCKING RAT!" Shinji screamed.

The offer from UA.