Chapter 44 - Hero Names

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<Japan UA 9:54>

'This weather is not for studying...' Lena thought as she walked in the rain with an umbrella. 'It's for sleeping... it should be a crime to study on rainy days...'

The week off was finally over, which meant everyone would be returning to UA. Most of the students, including Lena, were excited about the rumored internships, but with this weather the excitement had vanished being replaced by an incredible laziness to get out of bed.

'At least she can enjoy the weekend with Kyo' Lena thought with a slight blush, after the... "incident" with Kyoka they both stayed in the park talking about anything in general, mainly about music as it was something Kyoka was strongly passionate about.

Smiling as she remembered the scene Lena quickened her pace until she reached UA's big gate, a few reporters were still visible but the vast majority had left after UA almost sued them for trespassing. I honestly expected him to sue a few to make an example, but it seems the director was pretty tolerant in that regard.

After a few minutes Lena arrived at her classroom, opened the door and headed to her seat while greeting some of her classmates with a smile.

"Hey Lena! How was the two days off?" Toru asked as he approached Lena's desk before Lena rested her head against her arms in an attempt to sleep. "From the smile I can tell you did pretty good fufu."

"They were pretty good, pizza always helps" Lena replied with a smile, oblivious to Toru's little hint. "I would have liked to sleep a bit more though, my uncle and a friend of my dad's are visiting my house, they're pretty noisy when they start talking."

"Eh... it must be pretty lively then" Momo said joining the conversation.

"Fifty-fifty, they start talking about a lot of scientific stuff in the middle of the living room for hours, and other times they are super quiet while watching TV" Explained Lena as she put her hands on her cheek leaning back from her desk. "I'm not complaining, but I wish they would keep their voices down when I'm sleeping."

At that moment the classroom door opened to reveal Kyoka with a dark aura around her as she reluctantly made her way to her desk, looking closer Kyoka appeared to be a bit soaked with water, possibly from the rain. The three girls stared at Kyoka with varying degrees of confusion.

"Hey Kyo... is everything okay?" Lena asked with concern approaching Kyoka. "Do you need help with anything?"

"You look..." Toru looked her up and down. "Bad."

"Don't worry, it's just that the rain took me by surprise" Kyoka spoke moodily as she cleared the trio of girls concern.

"Oh. Hey Momo could you..." Before Lena could finish speaking Momo had already created three hair dryers to warm Kyoka up.

After a few minutes Kyoka was dry again although her clothes were a little wrinkled, she said she didn't mind as she thanked the trio of girls with a small smile on her face. Just then Aizawa entered the classroom, causing all the students to fall silent.

The Fake Uchiha stepped up to the podium and looked at his students with a bored look on his face.

"Good morning," Aizawa greeted.

"""Good morning!"""

Tsuyu pointed at Aizawa curiously. "You don't have the bandages anymore."

"The old hag was making a fuss over my treatment" Aizawa replied, suppressing a shudder as she remembered the old hag's treatments. "Moving on to a more relevant topic, today we will be doing something different from the previous days."

'Another exam?' thought all the students in class 1A as they looked at Aizawa with resignation.

During their few months at UA they knew not to trust Aizawa, the teacher had a mania for bringing out a surprise test at the most unexpected time.

'Stop praying...' Aizawa thought with amusement although it didn't show on his expressionless face. 'It's a key moment in the whole story of a hero.

"Today... You are going to choose your Hero Names."

"""UA IS AWESOME!""""

"Shut up. Before we start with the 'Hero Names', I'm going to talk about the nominations. As I said before the 'Professional Heroes' will send nominations or invitations to the festival participants to work as 'Temporary Heroes' in the so-called 'Hero Internships' which serve for a 'Rookie Hero' or 'Apprentice Hero' to gain experience in a safe way."

"Before you choose which Hero or Agency you want to intern with, let me warn you all to choose very carefully which Hero or Agency to intern with, remember this is a unique opportunity and you should look for a Hero that suits your type of Hero you want to be or an aspect you want to improve in the future, be it a fighting style, better use of your Quirk, etc." Aizawa explained as he looked around at several students before pressing a button on the podium that made numbers appear on the classroom whiteboard.

...

1st - Todoroki Shoto - 4531

2nd - Lena Oxton - 2493

3rd - Kyoka Jiro - 1628

4th - Tokoyami Fumikage - 937

5th - Momo Yaoyorozu - 842

6th - Izuku Midoriya - 143

7th - Uraraka Ochaco - 83

...

"Normally nominations hover around 1000-500 if they get a lot of attention, Todoroki and Lena's nominations are an anomaly" Explained Aizawa while looking at the dumbfounded expression of his students.

"Surely my father's influence..." Todoroki muttered with bitterness in his voice but no one paid any attention to him as they shouted out of frustration and others out of excitement.

"I got nominations!" Midoriya exclaimed stunned by the recent development, originally he thought he wouldn't get nominations due to the little use he had for his Quirk along with the fact that no Hero wants to have to pay medical bills every time he uses it.

But somehow he had managed to get nominations!

"Lena! Congratulations on being the second with the most nominations!" Praised KIrishima causing the whole class to return to praise Lena for second place.

"Well that was more nominations than I imagined I would have" Said Lena a bit surprised by the amount of nominations before frowning at the amount of Heroes she will have to analyze to make a good decision.

'Besides, it's impossible that none of those Heroes and Agencies haven't figured out who my Father is' Lena thought mockingly. 'After all, who wouldn't want connections to Winston Oxton and David Shield....at least that cuts down on the amount of Agencies I have to check'

"At least you had some.... WHY DIDN'T I?" Toru said in a sad voice as she pointed to herself. "I made it to the tournament!"

"Maybe because you only showed some little tricks and didn't show what else your Quirk could do, plus you don't know how to melee and most villain fights are melee where it's hard to aim-" Momo started to explain only to be interrupted by Toru herself.

"Right! Good! I get it!" Toru exclaimed as she slumped in her seat with a cloud over her head causing Momo to come over to try and comfort her.

After a few minutes of the students talking amongst themselves Aizawa had enough and threatened to expel them all if they didn't shut up, which worked wonders if perfect silence was anything to go by.

"All right now about the names-"

"Let's judge them to see if their hero names are suitable or not!" Midnight exclaimed interrupting Aizawa with a dramatic entrance as she looked at all the students like a predator. "How can they not be Heroes if they don't have an attractive name, right?"

"Haa... Midnight will evaluate your names to decide whether you are suitable or not. Keep in mind that the name must be original and creative, have you heard the saying 'From the name comes nature'? It basically means that depending on the names we have we will be more likely to think or perform certain actions" Explained Aizawa as he left the podium and leaned against a wall like a shonen protagonist!

"That's right, also remember that this name may be the one you use after you graduate, so it's a very important decision!" Midnight said with a smile as she watched the class from the podium. "We don't want you to regret it later!"

"I see..." Lena said before raising her hand pointing at Midnight. "Then why is her hero name 'Midnight'?"

"I don't think-"

"Good question!" Said Midnight as her breathing quickened a bit and her eyes fixed hearts "Let me explain how I came up with my name.... During high school I-"

"No" Interrupted Aizawa as she covered Midnight's mouth with her scarf, before looking at the class with dead eyes. "My class doesn't need to know the reason for your name."

***

<15 minutes later...>

"Well I think that's enough time. Those of you who are ready to give your name get up from your seats and come to the podium!" Midnight announced after glancing at the clock.

Ashido immediately stood up with a small slate in her hand -which was given to all the students- and with a proud smile exclaimed her Hero Name. "My name will be... Alien Queen!!!"

"No" Midnight immediately replied rolling her eyes.

"WHY!" Ashido asked with a shout of surprise.

"Copyright, besides, do you want to be seen as someone who kidnaps people, lays alien eggs, and spits acid?" Midnight explained as she shook her head. "Try again."

"Tch."

"I got mine!" Announced Kirishima after Ashido's attempt, rising from his seat and approaching the podium with a slightly embarrassed smile "I'll be Red Riot!"

"How Crimson Riot?" Hummed Midnight with interest. "That's a name I don't hear often, I remember he was a highly acclaimed Hero in the past generation, although age has caught up with him he never fully left the Hero role"

"That's right! I think he is an amazing Hero! Even with his advanced age he never backs down to save as many people as possible! It's amazing. He was one of the main reasons why I want to become a Hero" Kirishima explained while looking at his hand before clenching it into a fist as he said, "He was the one who motivated me to step forward in a dark time, and I want to honor him with this name by way of thanks, even if he doesn't know when or how he helped me, I will always be grateful to him."

(A/N: Sometimes I wonder why Kirishima is not the protagonist of MHA).

"That's admirable. But you know you'll have to carry a lot of expectations for that name right?". Midnight warned with a stern look, she had seen some of her former students fall from grace for trying to inherit some hero's legacy, destroying their careers and their lives

"I don't care!" Kirishima exclaimed with firmness in his voice. "I will be ready when the time comes. If there is no safe place for people... then I will become the safe place for people!"

Unbeknownst to Kirishima, he had unconsciously gained the respect of most of his class and had even managed to impress the teachers. And though he would not know it, it was at this very moment that he would begin a great legacy that would leave its mark on all of Japan.

The name proposals dragged on for quite some time as each student racked their brains trying to think of a good name. Some were accepted immediately, such as Tsuyu or Momo.

Others underwent several changes before they were finally accepted, such as Ashido or Tokoyami.

Others were simply bad names, like Todoroki or Kaminari.

Still others...

"GOD FLYING EXPLOSIVE GOD FLYING NUCLEAR BOMBER KILLER!"

"Do you want to announce a bombing? No"

"PLANET DESTROYING BOMB!"

"We haven't gone to other planets yet. No"

"SPACE CITY BOMB MAN!"

"Are you even trying? No"

"FLYING EXPLOSIVE OF DEATH!"

"NO!"

Better not to talk about Bakugo, who by the way, seems to have regained his spirits after the festival, although he wasn't shouting as much as before and you must occasionally get that pensive look on his face again.

The last ones left were Lena who was looking out the window with a thoughtful face.

Midoriya who was looking at the ceiling while scratching his head nervously.

Lida who was staring blankly into nothingness.

And the abnormal Bakugo, who, well, was Bakugo.

After a few seconds Lena stood up and walked to the dais with her slate in hand, she looked around the room before relaying what she wrote on her slate which was....

"My name will be Tracer, The Heroine who traces time."

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