Chapter 2: Start Line

Nyoko

I have my headphones in as I get ready for the gates in front of us to open. It helps me block out all the background noise. That is until something hard hits my shoulder that I jerk the earbud out because seriously this is the second time today someone has bumped into me and it's pissing me the hell off.

"Watch where you're going, asshole." I snap at the muscle-y blond headed kid that shoulder checked me.

"Stay out of my way extra," he grumbles back in a deep angry voice.

"Go back to roid addicts anonymous, meathead."

This causes him to turn around.

"What the hell did you just say?"

"You heard me, sorry is your brain too stupid to understand?"

He opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by the hero in the watchtower.

"Are you ready?!" The "R" rated hero midnight calls into a microphone. The big doors in front of us open. "Go! Go! Go!"

"Eat my dust swamp eyes!" the kid calls out. From his hands erupt explosions that send him flying in the air.

This is perfect. These blasts are just what I need to use for my quirk. I take in the chaos of moving energy that surrounds me, allowing it to charge my body in an instant. I hear the crackling of lightning around my legs where I'm focusing the energy until I let it burst and I'm hurling after the kid with the same speed.

"What the hell reject!" He exclaims and bursts forward with another explosion.

My body absorbs kinetic energy from my surroundings and turns it into raw power. So really, I'm only as powerful as my opponent, or the movements around me. But this guy's quirk is perfect. The amount of energy his quirk gives off is more than I've experienced from a single person. And holy hell is this fun. Flying from building to building, the flow of energy through my veins mixing with adrenaline, the furious crack of purple lighting that detonates from my body with every hit against a metal robot. It's the most invigorating and addicting feeling in the world. I don't even care about the points. I just want to feel metal break under my fist.

~

Luna

The moment the large doors open to the battle ground, I hear explosions and there's two kids at the front of the crowd that fly through the air into the arena. Everyone else starts to manifest their quirks and charge forward. The whole scene excites me.

Now is my time to shine.

I run forward, finally stretching my wings and take off into the air. My first step is to locate targets which I do by using echolocation. I open my mouth and allow screeches to bounce off walls, doors, and in this case, villainous robots until I find what I'm looking for. Then when I reach my target, I increase the volume of my screeches until they hit an octave that completely short circuits the robots.

My highly elastic wings make me fast and agile. I fly through the mock city streets at a speed no one can match other than that explosive quirk and the girl who I accidentally bumped into. I haven't figured out her quirk yet but she seems to be cutting through enemies with some kind of purple energy. Maybe purple lightning…? I don't know but that's not my main focus now. Right now all I need to focus on is getting as many points as I can as fast as I can and since most of these are electrically wired all I have to do is screech loud enough to interfere with the circuits. The only problem is that if I screech too high for two long, my throat starts to hurt. I don't know how much time has passed, or how much time we have left to go, but I'm fairly confident in the amount of points I've racked up so far, so I take a small break from the screeching and watch everyone below me scramble.

I see a boy made of pure metal smash through robots left and right. Another girl with vines for hair picks up and destroys a one-pointer.

Wow, talk about strong roots.

"Keep on racking up those points, superstars!" I hear Midnight's voice. "You have two minutes left!"

How long have I been sitting here in the air day dreaming?! Without another second's hesitation I dive towards the street. Three two pointer's line up in a row attacking other students and I open my mouth to screech. I fly over them and their mainframe short circuits within seconds. I hear angry shouts from other students for stealing their targets but I don't care. It's a competition.

I fly straight until I hit a corner where a large building sits. My ears are picking up vibrations and sounds bouncing off something large and assume it's a three pointer. But when I turn, I stop and hover. It's not a three pointer standing in front of me, it's the zero pointer, and it's way bigger than I thought. Seriously, the thing towers over every single building here. And I freeze because its red eyes spot me.

"Out of the way extra!" I hear someone yelling and then I feel the heat and sounds of an explosion.

"What are you doing?! Move!" I hear another yell, but this time it's a girl and arms are grabbing me from behind. We fall just as concrete and asphalt is kicked up by the robot and thrown at me.

We hit the ground with a thud. More explosions erupt around me. I lift up my upper body to find the body that shoved into me and saved me from very painfully high fiving that rock belonged to the girl I ran into this morning. There's a few cuts on her arms, but she's jumping back onto her feet completely unfazed.

There's another explosion and when I turn to the robot, it's falling back onto the street completely destroyed.

"And that's time!" I hear Midnight.

"Shit," the girl grumbles. I'm almost worried I stopped her from getting enough points, but then again this was a zero pointer so it wouldn't have done her any good anyway.

"Try and beat that loser," the boy with the explosive quirk lands on his feet next to the girl.

"I would have if someone hadn't gotten in my way." She grumbles.

"Yeah right keep it up with the excuses and you'll never be a hero." he begins to walk away from her.

"Watch me asshole!" she calls after him and flips him the finger. "I'll be a better hero than you!"

I feel kind of bad… but not really. She was rude to me earlier. Why did she knock me out of the way? Why didn't she just let the rock crush me?

I stand up and brush the dirt and rubble off of me.

"Thanks for helping me, that rock was huge!" I say sheepishly then hold my hand out to her. Maybe we started off on the wrong foot. Maybe she's actually a decent person. "I'm Luna Yasumoto,"

"You have big ass eyes, next time use them and save yourself." she looks at my hand then turns around and walks away.

Nope, we definitely didn't start off on the wrong foot. She's rude… Challenge accepted.

Now that the test is completed the school's medical staff walks around helping those who got injured. We won't get our test results for a few more weeks so there's nothing to do but wait. I find Denki by the bus station and we head home telling each other all about our experiences. His bus stop is before mine so the last stretch I'm on my own, then it's another ten minute walk from the bus station to my house. I reach the gate to our courtyard just as my neighbor's black sedan pulls up to their house. The driver steps out just as Fuyumi and Shoto do as well.

"Hey Luna!" Fuyumi calls with a wave and I wave back.

"Hey Fuyumi! Shoto!"

Shoto doesn't say anything as usual and I'm not surprised. He hasn't spoken to me since we were kids.

"How was the entrance exam?" Fuyumi walks towards me so I meet her half way.

"It was great! Easy peasy," I say.

"So you passed?" She smiles excitedly.

"I think so, but I'm not sure yet. We won't get our test results for another two weeks." I say.

"That's what Shoto said. You know he's planning on going to UA too."

"Oh," this doesn't surprise me but does at the same time. "I didn't see him at the practical test today."

"No, everyone who is getting in the recommendation route had to take theirs last week."

"Oh, well, good for him, hopefully he gets in!"

"Hey are you and your brother doing anything for dinner? I'm cooking if you guys want to come over,"

"I'll have to ask him. I think grandma has her appointment tonight so I'm not sure."

"Oh," I don't miss the disappointment on her face though it quickly fades. It was no secret growing up she was in love with my older brother and he was in love with her. Why they weren't a couple, I'm not really sure. "Well maybe another time."

I nod. "Yes, I need a break from Rinji's cooking."

"Oh it can't be that bad," she giggles.

"Last week he set the fire alarm off... twice." I say and she laughs again.

"Well, if you're ever tired of getting food poisoning let me know." she says.

"Of course," I bow. "We'll see you later!" I wave then turn back to the house. Our house isn't a mansion like the Todoroki's next door, but it's decent sized. Mom and Dad founded a pretty big law firm in Hosu. But we were humble. Our house is surrounded by a gate with quite a few security measures. A rock garden with a cute little fountain is to the right and to the left a garage and driveway. Our house is in the traditional Japanese style, which mom really loved. For as long as I can remember she would dress Rinji and I in traditional style Japanese clothing. All of which I still have.

When I open the front door I hear grandma scolding Rinji. I quickly take off my shoes and throw my jacket and backpack on the rack then go to the kitchen.

My brother is a tall man, with the same straight brown hair as me. He looks more like our dad with an angular square jaw, glasses and lanky body, but even more so now that he cut off the man bun and styles his hair in an undercut with the top smoothed back.

"You're mixing it wrong!" Grandma shouts at him from her wheelchair across the room.

"Granny, you can't even see me from over there. How do you know I'm mixing it wrong?" he shoots back.

"Because you do everything wrong." she jokes with a smile on her face.

"I'm doing it exactly how you said so if I'm doing it wrong it's because you taught me wrong." Rinji counters.

I grab a mango from the fruit bowl on the counter and sit at the table.

"Ah look who's home. Luna, be a dear and tell me if your brother is messing up dinner." Granny smiles at me.

I sink my teeth into the juicy sweet fruit and peer into the kitchen.

"Yup, he's doing it wrong." I say and Rinji shoots me a traitorous look.

"I knew it!" Granny exclaims then tries to wheel herself to the kitchen. "Give me that," she snatches the bowl of ingredients from Rinji and I can't help but laugh.

"Thanks a lot," he casts my way.

"It's what I'm here for," I smile.

"When'd you get back? I didn't even hear you come in."

"A hero has to be sneaky in order to get past villains." I cast a mischievous smile towards my big brother.

"Practicing already? I take it that means you got in?"

"Don't know yet," I say, whipping mango juice from my chin. "They'll send out acceptance letters in a few weeks."

"Do you think you got accepted?"

"I think so. The test was pretty easy, I took down those robots like a boss!"

"I'm sure you did little koumori." he smiles and drops his hands from his hips. Then grabs something from behind the counter. "In the meantime, want to help chop some onions? I'm making soup."

"Sure, let me just go tell mom and dad first."

"Of course," Rinji nods.

I jump off the counter, mango in hand. I walk outside along the wooden porch until I reach their room. It's not their actual bedroom, but we call this their room anyway. It's bare, hardly anything in it except for the kneeling pillows and the shrine that holds their pictures.

"Hey mom, dad," I say when I walk in and close the door behind me. I go over to the pillow and kneel down onto it.

"I had my test today. Mom, you would've thought it was so cool, I had to fight robots. Don't worry dad, I'm not hurt." I light the incense by each of their pictures. "I didn't get to see Denki in action because they split us up, but said he aced the test too, so we both should be getting in in the fall. We just have to wait for the acceptance letters to know for sure. I guess Shoto applied to get into UA too. I'm not surprised considering who his dad is. Rinji still hasn't asked out Fuyumi, mom you'd be disappointed. I swear that boy is so oblivious. Dad, make sure to give him some pointers on how to ask a girl out next time he visits." I smile.

I imagine mom telling me that it gives me more time to train and agreeing with me that Rinji is indeed oblivious. I can hear dad asking if the ear extensions he made worked well or not and defending Rinji, saying women are a mystery that men will never understand.

"I know, I know, that doesn't mean I slack off on training. I think a few more tweaks to the ears and they'll be perfect. I'm still getting a bit of feedback, but Rinji promised he'd help me fix them."

I feel them both smiling down at me. Then my vision goes slightly blurry and I feel warm tears starting to form.

"I miss you guys."