Migrate - Self

Tell me why it's four in the morning and I come downstairs to find Mina playing monopoly with Alissa. I had already found it odd that she was not in my room, weirder still that Eijiro was the only one in bed with me. Figuring she went to pee or get something from the kitchen I didn't think much of it and just came down to get myself some warm milk so I can go back to sleep. My cup is in the microwave and I hear a groan full of nothing but frustration only to find Alissa joyfully taking monopoly money from a sorrowful Mina who had been losing apparently. I have so many questions right now. Why are they playing monopoly? Do they not realize that it's literally four in the morning? Why are they surrounded by pillows? And why are they both wearing my shirts? When had they even gotten ahold of my clothes? When they see me they act as if nothing is out of place, as if this is a normal day-to-day activity that I should not question. Well, it's not and I do question, but I don't voice any of them. When the microwave beeps, I cringe at how loud it is in the silence of the night before getting my milk and joining the weirdos in the living room.

Mina has been losing this game against Alissa since yesterday afternoon and doesn't seem to be changing her terrible fate. I had warned her beforehand, explaining to her in great detail that Alissa is far smarter than she looks and she can finesse anyone in the game of monopoly. The way she plays would make anyone hate her. The number of times Israel flipped a table because he ended up in debt to her is amazing. Even Morgan gets stressed and that's saying a great deal. It got so bad once that Morgan didn't make breakfast for her the next day. Monopoly is truly the game to destroy relationships and Alissa revels in it. The only person who hasn't lost their shit when playing her is yours truly. It's not that it doesn't annoy me, because it does. Who would want their entire property sold because there was no other way to pay what you owe? It's annoying, rage-inducing even, but because of how unnaturally calm I get when experiencing strong emotions, I remain somewhat unaffected and have yet to flip a table. If I flip a table it is because I wanted to and no other reason.

I had been attentive for the first minute or two as I watched, wanting to tell Mina what to do, but not wanting it bad enough to interfere. My mind wandered the longer I watched them until I was no longer focused on the game and instead thinking about how UA has a few changes already, or well, the one change that perhaps isn't that remarkable. Israel had taken the exam, he was recommended, but decided to take the usual exam for some reason. He received his letter of acceptance a day or two ago and he has to move into the dorms next week. They actually finished building the dorms already and that came very much as a surprise to me. The test is the same as I had expected with the robots and the zero pointers, plus the written exam in the beginning. I can't help but think that the physical is very much unfair to people who don't have very combat-oriented quirks. Perhaps it is meant to be that way. UA is the top hero school so it only makes sense they would want to weed out the most combat-focused students to attend, but, there are some less combat-oriented that could make spectacular heroes. Shinso is the greatest example and I very much would have liked for him to be I'm 1A from the get-go. I wonder how many people failed to get in because of the way the exam is set up.

There is one question that has been on my mind since the very first episode of my hero academia and that is; how in the world did some of the 1A students get in? How did Mineta get in? How did Hagakure get in? How did that animal kid get in? Okay, maybe the last isn't as questionable as the other two but I still wonder. How had Mineta utilized his sticky ball quirk to take down bots? It's a known fact that Mineta is actually pretty smart as he took ninth place when it came to the midterms - I believe it was the midterms - so perhaps he had thought up a way to use his quirk properly, but it's very hard for me to imagine.

The mysteries of this world I suppose.

~~~~~~~~

Mina is pretty good at gymnastics, that much she had made very clear to me, so I'm not surprised that she takes part in competitions. I've never watched a gymnastics competition before, they never really had my interest, but here I am one person amongst many watching the flexible boys and girls compete for a medal. I do not know anything about gymnastics despite Mina talking about it pretty often. For some reason, it's hard for me to understand how it works and even while I'm watching it now I'm not sure what's going on. All I know is that people do a bunch of things and that the boys have six apparatus and the girls four. That is as far as my knowledge goes. I'm just here to watch Mina and offer support. Understanding the sport does not come with it.

"I don't get this" Eijiro mumbles and I would not have heard him had he not been sitting so close. He doesn't understand either so we're just two clueless people watching their friend do flips on a beam.

"I don't either" I assure him, the both of us silently agreeing to just watch and not worry about anything else.

"She's really good at that," he remarks when Mina pulls off another stunt on that beam. She's incredibly flexible and that's only proven more true by how easily she moves and balances on that thing. "I would have fallen and lost a tooth"

I could very much see that happening and the image has me snickering. I do admit that Mina has impeccable body control and incredible balance. We've started training together as I had advised them both to take up some form of martial arts. They took my advice and whenever they come over we spar a bit for further training and through this training I have become very aware of how much control Mina has over her body. Not to mention she has incredible core strength with the stunts she pulls. This one time she had me stumbling over my feet with the way she moved, as I had not gotten used to her movements yet and I had been prohibited from mind-reading, so one of my advantages was taken away. I would've been embarrassed if it wasn't impressive. This one time I had her do the Dio pose, something that took me a good while to be able to do and she did it after seeing it once and said it was incredibly easy for her. It hurt to do it the first time, it hurt like hell and she did it effortlessly.

Eijiro fell almost immediately when he tried.

Someone else is on the beam now, from another team I think and Mina is doing something else at the moment. Oh, she's on the bars, I always wanted to try the bars. She spins incredibly fast on that thing, flipping through the air and gracefully taking hold of the higher one, propelling herself up, releasing it, spinning, and then grabbing it again.

You know what, maybe I shouldn't try the bars.

I'm watching her, popcorn in my mouth and millions of thoughts in my head, thoughts that do not belong to me. I wonder if our school will win? So far they seem to be doing pretty good, at least I think so, I've only been watching Mina. She's the easiest to spot, being pink and all.

"Hey, that blonde is pretty good too" Eijiro brings my attention back to the beam, the blonde he's referring to having just landed a flip. I should try that someday, should have Mina teach me if I don't make it the first time. The blonde is good I'll give her that and I actually watch her for a bit, noting how she looks a bit familiar but I couldn't really place it.

Maybe it's someone I've just randomly seen at school or just on the road, I don't know, she just looks familiar.

I shrug it off after a minute or so of trying to figure it out and return my attention to Mina.

"This is a team thing right?"

"There are also individual matches I think" I shrug, I'm really not sure here.

"But Mina is part of a team" Eijiro tries to clarify.

"Yes, but again, I do think some can do individual things, but I'm not sure how that works"

"Hmm, okay"

"This sport is a bit confusing to me" I admit.

"Yeah, for me too" agrees Eijiro with a laugh.

He joined the wrestling club a while back, having left whatever club he was part of before. He's really good and even takes part in a competition next week. I've got a soccer match in just two days and I'm very much looking forward to it. Hopefully, I bring home a medal this time. Last year we lost to a rival school and the entire team has been training extra hard since. Konishi is just waiting to face that rival school again, he's just waiting to show off his skills.

Things move forward, more people do these intricate stunts that are nice to watch, and that blonde girl catches my attention again. She's in a corner, away from her teammates downing a bottle of water. She looks so goddamn familiar but why can't I place it. Her cheeks are pink, her eyes somewhat catlike, her hair is braided and a bit messy.

Huh.

She undoes the braid after a minute, mumbling something I can't possibly hear and pulling a band off her hand to put her hair up in two buns on her head.

Huh.

Okay, I recognize her now, yup, I do, I very much recognize her and I am very confused.

Toga does gymnastics?

You know what, from the way she finessed Aizawa that one time I shouldn't be as surprised as I now am.

She looks so much different though, I couldn't recognize her without the buns. She doesn't have the trademark bags under her eyes. She doesn't look as unhinged, she seems rather calm, though a bit down. She's just a normal kid taking part in competitions.

Now I'm curious so I extend my mind, not to her, but the teammates, she seems to be avoiding. It doesn't take long for me to understand why she's not with them and just by herself. They don't like her very much and make fun of - and ridicule her because of her quirk.

Oh wow, I have some more people I want to punch.

Why do people have to be like that? They have no right ridiculing her because of something she can't control and they have no right classifying her quirk as something villainous. A quirk is only villainous if you use it to commit terrible acts and not because it is seen as wrong. It is this very mindset that produces the villains everyone fears. Toga has an amazing quirk, a freaking powerful quirk that would make her an amazing hero if she wanted to be one. But all people can - want - to see is a villain and then they act surprised when they get exactly that.

People, people are just very fickle and need to learn to be less judging and more open-minded.

I can't help but be mad at such things, at the people who think so terribly.

~~~~~~

After the competition that I learned was not the finals I see Toga again with a woman I deduce as her mother. Her school has moved on to the next round and Toga seems really happy about it and is telling her mother all about the things she did today and the amazing people she has seen. It's really nice to see and makes me feel happy too as I hope she doesn't go down the same path she went. Her mother seems very supportive of her, unlike in the manga, so that's already a pleasant change to note. From what I read her parents treated her like a monster because of her quirk and made her restrict herself. I think that is what led to her going downhill from middle school. Holding back her quirk just made it a hundred times worse when she finally used it, at least that is what I believe. But her mother doesn't seem to think her a monster, she looks like a loving mother and her thoughts are those of a caring mother. She's worried if the others girls said bad things to her or if Toga is just being happy for her and everything that again has me feeling very bitter.

Toga isn't a terrible person in my eyes, she never was since I saw how much she cares about those she sees as a friend. She can genuinely care about someone and that's good enough for me. It's just the way everyone treated her and painted her out to be something horrible because of her quirk that made her the villain she became.

I really hope this reality does her some justice and very much hope I don't meet her on opposing sides.

"There you are" Mina almost knocks right into me, pulling me away from my focus. "You could've waited inside you know?"

"Sorry" I couldn't really help myself when I saw Toga. "Where's Eijiro"

"I'm here" he comes out of the building carrying Mina's bag for her with a happy smile on his face. "I offered to carry her things and I had to make sure nothing was left behind"

Typical Eijiro, I suppose. He was right to check because the last time Mina forgot her water bottle.

"Thanks, Eiji"

"No problem" he waves her off.

Nice little shark.

"Sleepover at Zena or yours, Eiji?" Mina asks as we find somewhere to sit and wait for Morgan who had offered to come get us today.

"Oh, my moms said you can come over anytime you want," says the boy. "They like having you guys around"

"They like the fact that you have friends" I correct.

"Or the fact that Zena can't handle herself around pretty people" Mina jibes.

"It's not my fault his mothers are God's gift to earth" I retort.

"Uhuh"

"Don't give me that"

"You said the same thing about my parents" she points out.

I will not be having this argument. It is really not my fault that they have hot parents. Has Mina seen her father? He's a hot professor, need I say more? And her mother, don't even get me started on her mother.

"You're easily attracted to people"

"Shut up"