@Pacifista - Speaking to
@Great Sogeking - Speaking to
"Hey, yer actually pretty nice. What's yer name?"
"I'm Oshiro Tatsumi!" the boy said with a smile, pointing at himself with a thumb. This girl's enthusiastic response was a lot better than he thought it would be, given his appearance. But then she just kept going.
"And what's yer HERO name gonna be!? Are ya gonna get a cool costume!? Are ya gonna name yer attacks!?"
"Ah, uh," Tatsumi said sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his head. "I don't...I don't really know, yet. I didn't even turn in the form they sent us for hero costume requests..." He looked away, more than a bit ashamed of the fact. The truth was, he had never even considered becoming a hero until a few weeks ago. He really did want to be one, he just...had no idea how. And he sucked at drawing and had no idea how to make a cool outfit, or even what kind of add-ons would be beneficial for his quirk. And he didn't want to half ass it and then have someone make fun of him for it. Honestly, the thought of
him, of all people, being so timid and unsure of himself made him...a little bit angry. At himself, mostly.
But he had made that decision. He was going to turn his life around, starting here.
Just as he had gathered himself enough to look the other girl in the eye again and try to continue the conversation, another girl entered the fray and threw a friendly arm around the pinkette's neck.
”Hey! You guys first years too? Got any clue where to sit?”
"Yeah, we's s'posed to be over there." Tatsumi said, pointing. As he looked towards the stage for a moment, he noted that several figures were filing in. "And it looks like they startin', come on!" He motioned for both girls to follow and quickly jogged to find a seat, practically throwing himself down in the first available one. He looked over the back to see if the other newcomers had followed his lead, then turned his attention towards the auditorium stage.
The foremost figure was a young-looking blonde man, but the hard look of his eyes and the set of his jaw, as well as his height, made it clear that he was an adult. He actually almost looked like a Yakuza enforcer, as he was wearing a black suit over a red vest with a white tie and carried a very functional looking katana in his left hand. The lacquered sheath even gleamed as brightly as his black dress shoes did. Tatsumi heard whispers coming from other seats.
"It's Masamune! Man, he's so cool!"
"My older brother said he's one hell of a teacher, though; he's supposed to be super strict."
Next was an attractive woman with long white hair and a gentle face. She too wore a suit over a frilly red blouse, though hers was gray and she wore a knee-length pencil skirt along with it. Tatsumi gulped and glanced around--he could practically see the hearts in the eyes of some of the male student population. But the lady, despite her gentle looks, also gave off a chill air of sorts. Maybe it was just the aura of a professional hero.
"It's Snow White! Man, I used to have a bunch of her photobooks!"
Photobooks? Tatsumi gulped again. What kind of photobooks?
On the opposite side of the blonde guy from the white-haired woman, an older man stepped up and seemed to be quietly saying a few words to the two. His face looked more haggard than theirs--his eyes were squinty and had bags underneath them, and his chin had some scruff going on. His black hair was all over the place, too. But his three piece suit looked way more professional than theirs; sharp-lined, perfectly tailored to his fit, and immaculately clean and pressed. His vest, jacket, pants and shoes were all jet black, with the only color being a red tie snug around his neck.
"Who's that dude?"
"No idea. Some washout hero who couldn't hack it and had to teach to get by, I guess."
"Whoa, look there, though! It's him, it's Decaman!"
Tatsumi's head snapped around. The dirty blonde, hulking brute of a man currently walking onto the stage and barely squeezing into a gray suit with what looked like a red tank top underneath, was the famous hero Decaman, the man with the strength of ten. He stood quite a bit taller than the others, but his square jaw held a big toothy grin. Tatsumi leaned forward in his seat.
It had been Decaman that had saved him, that day. Granted, there had been a fight, too...an extremely short lived one. But it had been Decaman who had extended a hand to him and said those words. He still heard them every night in his dreams...
"You are better than this. You CAN be better than this."Tatsumi clenched a fist as a grin of his own began to spread across his cheeks.
Across the street from the school, simply standing at the corner and glaring at anyone who dared to glance at him, was a man. He was dark skinned, with greasy looking black dreadlocks, and wore a simple white tanktop with a pair of baggy, camo-colored cargo shorts belted low on his waist. He was staring at the school with clear hatred in his eyes, his mouth set in a grim line as his teeth clenched beneath his pursed lips. His nostrils flared as he let a breath go, then he turned to the side and shoved his hands into his pockets. He set off down the street parallel to the school walls, glancing over at them every so often.
So that was what Tatsumi wanted to do, huh? Wanted to run with the "big dogs," wanted to step on the little people, wanted to leave behind everything they'd worked for? Wanted to abandon his friends, and spit in their faces, kick 'em while they were down? Well, Tatsumi would get what was coming to him. Maybe not now. Maybe not even today. But it was coming, and Tatsumi could bet on it.
@Inertia@Rune_Alchemist@Lmpkio@Write@Dead Cruiser@Holy Soldier@Falkon@Knight of Doom@Dblade26@Poke"Good morning, students." began Masamune, also known as Mr. Matsumoto, as he stepped up to the podium and pulled one of the microphones closer. "And welcome to Brave High--where we believe that the most courageous heroes are the strongest." He glanced over the auditorium, his eyes as sharp as his sword. For just a fraction of a second he glanced back over his shoulder at Kobayashi, and received a barely perceptible nod of the head from the man with much better eyesight than his own. No problems, other than the usual, then. Kids would always be kids, and when Quirks were involved simple arguments could turn heated quickly, but thankfully nothing stupid had happened yet. Masamune launched into the rest of his speech. "Here at Brave High, you will..."
It went on much like any other school entrance ceremony would. Other students, representatives of the different classes and the student council, made their own speeches after a short greeting from the sword-toting hero. Then they all had to stand for the rendition of the school song by the older students, and then each of the teachers took the podium for a moment to say a few words. There were others besides the four heroes who had sparked such interest among the students, but they weren't quite so renowned and some of them weren't even former heroes, just people who had the right qualifications to teach at a high level. Tatsumi just barely managed not to doze off, mostly by watching Decaman intensely and thinking how much he wanted to be like him. It took about an hour, all told, then Masamune, Decaman, Snow White, and that scruffy guy all stood up.
"Freshman class, if you will please gather up on my side of the auditorium." Masamune said, gesturing to his left and the student's right.
"Sophomores over here, if you please!" Snow White smiled and waved next to the blonde.
"I'll be taking you Juniors! Gwahahaha!" Decaman stood typical American-superhero-style, fists on his hips and legs spread shoulder width, his broad chest proudly puffed out.
"And that leaves me with the seniors." The scruffy guy was pulling out what looked like a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and tapping them in his palm, old-school style. "Hurry it up."
There was a general scramble as the students moved to their respective teachers, and then they were all escorted out of the auditorium, each class leaving via one of the four corner exits that led to other parts of the school, rather than going back out through the main entrance that led to the foyer and lockers.
As mentioned before, Brave High's general shape was like a giant baseball diamond with four towers sticking out of it. The auditorium was actually very close to what one might call the home base. Each group now headed to the outfield, so to speak, though they did it through a long network of hallways. The freshmen headed to first base, the sophomores to third, and the seniors to second, while the juniors were smack dab in the middle on the pitcher's mound.
"On this side of the building, the two towers are the dorms." explained Mr. Matsumoto to the freshmen. "Commuting is fine, but Brave High technically qualifies as a boarding school, and we get a lot of international applicants coming from all the way around the world, so for anyone who needs it there's plenty of lodging. Tower 1 is for girls and tower 2 is for boys. Do NOT get them mixed up. Any hanky panky is, more than likely, going to be met with expulsion." The swordsman glared at his charges for several moments, gauging their expressions as his words sank in. "They each have their own cafeteria, nurse's station, workout gym, computer lab, and study hall as well as the four floors divided among the classes. However, those facilities will likely only be open on the weekends and in the afternoons most of the time, as throughout the rest of the day you'll be in the other wings of the building. They're intended to give you places to study, practice, brush up, and fine tune what you're learning, not to substitute the school experience, so I don't wanna hear about any hikikomori holed up in there all the time."
The tour continued as Matsumoto led the students down the halls. Meanwhile, across the school, Ms. Baumgartner had introduced herself and was showing the students the other two towers via direct tour.
"And this will be your homeroom!" she said cheerily, throwing open the door and gesturing grandly. "As you saw before, they're ordered by floors! Up above you are the juniors and seniors, and then the teacher's offices--"
All the subjects were taught in Tower 3, while Tower 4 contained an enormous library and different labs for each of the science classes, as well as an art room and several spare rooms that usually served as club rooms, although club activities didn't take precedence as much here as they might in other schools due to the fact that most of the students were already here for a specialized career. But for the good of the students' social health, they were still available and provided some much needed relaxation from the rigors of hero training.
"This is the indoor gym. Woohoo." said Mr. Kobayashi as he took a long drag on his cigarette. Normally he would only smoke outdoors, but the gym was so huge--considering it actually took up the upper third of the diamond--that it didn't really matter in here. The huge, domed ceiling spread over an area that was divided into the normal basketball gym, then a padded area with several types of weight lifting equipment and a large space, probably for gymnastics or martial arts practices. There was an indoor pool, and a track circling a sports field completely separate from the rest of the place. "I bet some of you can't wait to get in here and start messing around, but you should know beforehand that Quirks are actually not allowed to be used to their fullest extent in here. This place is for actual sports and fitness training, and that guy back there with shoulders bigger than his head will be breaking your asses in real quick once classes get started." He puffed another cloud and tilted his head back with a sigh that seemed to imply he hated his life.
Finally, the Juniors found themselves outdoors, in a stadium-like setting with the rest of the walls of the diamond surrounding them. The center courtyard was easily just as big as the gym, though they hadn't seen it yet, but was a perfect grassy circle. There was even a small park like area in the center, with bright flowers and shady trees and some nice whitewashed benches. A concrete pathway with doors all leading into the school's different wings surrounded it, and it was this pathway that Decaman had currently gathered the class.
"This, is the Brave Court! Out here is where you'll do most of your real Hero training!" He gestured, then began fiddling in his pocket until he found his smart phone. The object was tiny in his hand, and he had to carefully use his pinky to swipe something and then input some kind of code. "And now I'll show you how!"
Suddenly, the circle split into four pieces. The flower gardens and trees turned out to be perfectly symmetrical within their frames, and were unharmed as the grassy field began sliding further and further back, until only four corners--each with a flower bed, tree, and bench--remained. Then a new floor rose up, this one a square of solid, packed dirt with the familiar white markings of a track and sports field on it.
"Congrats, Juniors!" Decaman said, spreading his huge arms wide. "You get to be the first this year for the Quirk tryouts!" He grinned, then hit another button on his phone. Large screens slid out of the sides of the building on the three walls opposite where the group currently stood, then displayed a number of events and listings.
"I'm sure all of you remember your physical tests and the field days from elementary school! It sucked not being allowed to use your Quirks, right?! Gwahahaha!" A little robot shaped like a trashcan with treads rolled out from somewhere, and as Decaman held his hand out, a softball with a measuring device shot out of the robot's head and into his grip. "Well, today, you finally get to see just how much your Quirks can help you in the different events here! Before we clear out and let the other classes have a go, I want you all to move to the various locations and do the softball toss, the 50 meter dash, the long and high jumps, pushup and situp tests, balance tests, the grip test," He finally stopped to take a breath...then continued. "Sustained side-jumps, toe touch stretches, a punching meter, whack a mole, and finally, clean-and-jerk weightlifting!"
He looked absolutely hyped.
"Changing rooms are over there! LET'S DO IT!" He clapped his hands, the sound like a thunderclap and the wind actually ruffling the hair of the students closest to him.
