Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
I stretched lazily as I walked into the classroom with Taylor and Azula. We had returned late at night from Mom's house, and my body woke up at dawn without a care in the world. I had only gotten a few hours of sleep. That's not to say I was sleepy; on the contrary, once I got up, I was wide awake and alert due to my constant full concentration breathing. But that doesn't mean I don't feel lethargic.
"Izumi!!" the scream was all the warning I had as Ruby tackled me in the middle of the classroom ignoring all of our classmates. She hugged me while picking me up and squeezing me tightly. "Did you miss me?! Did you miss me?! " she exclaimed with a smile. I chuckled, she asked the same thing every time we were apart even if it was just a few hours.
"Hey Ruby, I missed you so much." I said with a smile, not bothered by her picking me up. Ruby put me down and looked me in the eyes with a bright smile. "When did you get back?" I asked as she finally put me down.
"Just now! As I told you last night, Aunt Raven was busy with an emergency at the moment with the Branwen Guild. Luckily, she could take the time today and dropped us off at Mom's house just now, so I had to run all the way! Then I had to go to the dorm to get my uniform and everything else! I almost didn't make it in time! " Ruby said quickly, I raised an eyebrow amused.
"I'm glad you made it on time." I said easily. Ruby smiled before turning to look at Taylor and Azula.
"Hello, both of you!" Ruby said, both of them greeting her back before the door to the classroom swung open.
"Good morning." Aizawa greeted lazily, and we were all immediately in our seats. Most of our grade was actually scared of Aizawa, and I couldn't blame them, he was quite intense. So I had also quickly moved to find a spot in my assigned seat.
The last two days went well. Mom had grown fond of Azula; she really enjoyed having someone to talk business with, so that was a win in my book. During that time, I finally got up the courage to look up my name online and all my fears came true.
Sword Prince.
That stupid title had really stuck with me. That title and my photo had been circulating on almost all of Japan's social media, and I even appeared on TV a few times.
Likewise, Taylor's image had also been circulating quite heavily as well. And it was mostly predictably obvious from Shusui. Ryuma's sword was famous and had disappeared from the public eye when Ryuma himself had retired into hiding wherever he was. So, for it to appear on a young college freshman was too shocking for most of Japan to handle and it was obvious that it would be a very lively topic of conversation.
Another obvious fact is that they were divided in half. One part was understandably angry that an American was handling a national treasure; the other half believed that if she had Shusui, she should have Ryuma's approval to use it and may even be his disciple in some way. The third and final part was a mix of other ideas. Either they were holding back on giving their opinion, or Taylor had bought the sword without realizing its value somewhere, or she just got it by chance.
But there was one thing that most of them agreed on. Taylor's quirk was terrifying. It didn't help that spectators who came to see the fights live gave their own accounts of Taylor's apocalyptic-level swarms. And yes, even though I'm used to Taylor's insects by now, I'd be the first to say that they were truly unsettling to look at and, worse, to hear. Watching them move and how they resonate with each other is awful. For someone who was seeing that level of atrocity for the first time, it was completely terrifying on a psychological level.
So, even though Taylor was practically trending, whether this kind of attention was good or bad would be seen later. On the other hand, Enma hadn't received as much viewership as he had expected. But it was expected; it wasn't as famous as Shusui. In fact, it hadn't had any famous holders before.
To my surprise, Kozuki Oden did not really exist or at least in this world, so Enma and Ame no Habakiri , his two signature swords had not been in his possession. So they were never highlighted as signature weapons. But weapon fans did go crazy for Enma. After all, they were still one of the highest grade swords.
The other important thing I found on the news was that in this world there was also the Hero Killer Stain, and she was obviously a woman. Putting aside her gender, Stain was killing as many heroes as hunters indiscriminately, which I still couldn't understand. If this world was only about heroes, her conviction would still be the same and make sense. But this world had hunters, so it's to be expected that they wouldn't fit the same standards of heroism that Stain expected. So I couldn't think of what her logic and mental state would be right now.
But that was still a problem, Stain was a problem. Stain's impossible standards might not be met, and let's just say that even if everyone she hunted wasn't a good person, they were still good at their job. Especially the hunters, they were the front line to stop the gates from constantly opening all around Japan. Preventing a gate from being breached was paramount, the amount of civilians in danger from a breached gate is huge.
So even if he were to think that Stain was right, it wouldn't be reasonable to do it the way she did. At least not in the short term. Now, there was the question. Would he go to Hosu to stop Stain? Or do I leave it to someone else? Decisions.
"...today's class will be a little different... it's time for you to get your code names. Your hero names."
"Oh goddess, Yes!!" The screams of happiness brought me out of my thoughts, and I looked at Aizawa, who had activated his quirk to calm the entire class.
"This is related to the preliminary nominations I mentioned the other day. Nominations will become important after you have gained experience and your fighting ability has been judged during your second and third years here…"
"In other words, the nominations you'll get this year are more like expressions of 'interest' in your potential future. It's not uncommon for that interest to fade before graduation or simply be forgotten."
"Currently, the nomination tally is as follows. Usually the results are more balanced… but this year all the attention was focused on a few of you." Aizawa touched a small control and the screen changed to show the nominations. My eyes widened slightly.
Class 1-A Nominations
Miyamura ------- 9316
Hebert ----------- 8633
Azula ------------ 4316
Todoroki--------- 3618
Bakugou---------2539
…
Rose -------------- 865
…
Okay, that's a lot more than I expected, a lot more than canon. If I remember correctly, I had more than double Todoroki's nominations in that situation. And this time things were more even, or not so much. But even Ruby had had over 800 nominations and was in the middle of the class. The lowest also had at least 100 nominations.
"Shit, it's as clear as black and white." I ignored my classmate's complaint and looked at Aizawa.
"As you can see, everyone has nominations. But before you get too excited, some of them are 'meaningless' nominations," Aizawa began, deadly serious. "Within the nominations, you'll be able to find particular heroes or heroines who specifically asked for you, or hero agencies that took an interest, or hunter guilds-" That seemed to surprise everyone, including me.
"-You can choose any of their nominations, but you have to be careful who you choose. Some of them are hunter guilds or low-level hero agencies that are trying to climb at your expense. After all, attracting a future hero and hunter who graduated from UA, is the best publicity you can have. It is your job to identify which of their nominations are a trap, and which are legitimate offers that will help you in your future."
"You can ask any of the teachers for guidance, but the final decision will be yours. If it turns out to be a scam or a bad choice, we will not stop you. So make this decision as intelligently as you can, gather information, research, and choose carefully. Take this as another lesson for the real world."
Aizawa was deadly serious as he looked at us with his dead eyes, making more than one person gulp audibly in nervousness.
"With that out of the way, it's time for you to choose your temporary names. Pick something suitable-"
"Decide your names now and see hell from there!! The names you will choose, the names the world will learn, in many cases you will be called that even as professionals!! " Midnight entered elegantly while interrupting Aizawa, who sighed tiredly.
"Well… you're right. I'll have Midnight evaluate your name choices." Aizawa said tiredly as he pulled out his sleeping bag. "The shape your future selves will take is close to the image you'll project because of the names you choose. You've heard the phrase, 'names and nature often agree'… for example: All Might."
Everyone seemed to start vibrating with excitement. Aizawa only sighed tiredly as he got into his bag.
"Rest easy baby, I'll take care of it." Midnight whispered to him while winking at him. She then grabbed several small slates and handed them to us.
"Alright, you have 15 minutes to think of a name! It doesn't matter what it is; just write something down, and we'll move on from there! " Midnight said with a smile. I stared at the board for a few moments, completely blank.
I hadn't thought about a hero name at all!!
Roronoa Zoro? No, I didn't have any interesting titles I could use either; like I could call myself Pirate Hunter. Yoriichi? Neither, it's not like I could just use Demon Slayers. I'll just… end up using my name, right? Damn, I should have remembered this ahead of time so I could think of a name.
I sighed tiredly and looked around, almost everyone was writing rapidly on their whiteboards in excitement. Before long, Midnight called us one by one to the front. Most of them finished with their canonical names. The others were also pretty accurate.
Jinx had written 'Jinx, stands for jinx' and Midnight had fully approved it.
Azula had settled on, 'Blue Dragon of the East, Azula', he was sure it was a complete mockery of her uncle. Azula had no plans of being a full-time hero, so she simply chose her name as her hero name. On the other hand, while her fire was no longer completely blue when she used solar breathing, I suppose it was still an appropriate name. At least she didn't name herself Fire Lady to mock her brother.
Ruby to my surprise had chosen a more intimidating approach when choosing, Crimson Reaper, something that made me let out an amused snort when she introduced it, I couldn't really associate her with that name, maybe Little Red Reaper but I doubted she would choose something like that.
I didn't really know where Midnight's tolerance rod was, but considering that in canon she had finally accepted Bakugou's hero name, well, she was good at letting her students express themselves.
The name Taylor had chosen surprised me as well. 'Heroine of the Swarm, Skitter'. It wasn't really a name I had suggested or even mentioned to her for her to have the idea of naming herself that way. She simply chose it herself.
In the end, I went ahead. I guess there was no other option, I hadn't really thought of anything, and I already had some sort of nickname or epithet online, they would already know me by that damn nickname so why not use it?
'Sword Prince, Izumi'.
Yeah, it was embarrassing. I hate you, Present Mic.