mickilennial

Where It Always Rains

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April 8th, Year 1

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So, that was Shimizu’s reason for coming to this backwater town in the middle of nowhere. Akari took a drink from her tea as she remembered their conversation from yesterday. She had suspected they were secret childhood friends or pen pals or something, but cousins? That made a lot more sense. It would also spell trouble if she kept blabbing within earshot of Nakano, though Akari suspected it would be hard to get rid of her given present circumstances. Not that Akari cared, herself. Nakano was going to be Nakano and any damage she did wasn’t going to last very long.

“That makes sense.” Akari commented, “Explains why you ended up in Utsubyo this year.”

Where It Always Rains

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April 8th, Year 1

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“Nakano is trying to play detective.” Akari remarked, nonchalantly. “She’ll probably be up Himawari’s ass next.”

Akari sighed–the girl from yesterday, the new girl. The one with boundless energy, as if Akari’s social battery wasn’t overloaded enough. At least there was some kind of silver lining to the whole situation; there was someone else to distract Nakano from her need to tell whatever stories she could get her hands on. Maybe she could focus on the new girl’s move to town and away from Akari, Kenzo, and the idiot who Akari couldn’t stop thinking about confronting. There were a lot of ways and places it could go down. She took another bite of her food as she thought about if she should do it in the school hallways where everyone can see or outside where the prying eyes of people like Nakano could be avoided.

It was going to happen today. Somewhere. Somehow.

Where It Always Rains

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April 8th, Year 1

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“You read too much manga.” Akari sighed, dismissing Kanna’s fixations.

Leather Jackets? Gang Activity? Nakano’s head was way too in the clouds, which Akari supposed was Nakano’s entire personality. The taller girl’s threats went unheard and the reporter hyper-focused on something weird and over-the-top. She didn’t know how she wasn’t used to it by now, but here it was again, another day where Akari was confused by Nakano’s nonsense. But what about her idea that Kenzo could’ve been dealing to the taller boy? Akari supposed that was less ridiculous, but her brother also wasn’t the type to antagonize people like she did.

Something to ask Kenzo when she got home. If she remembered, anyway.

“Do you think he joined a gang by the second day of the new school year? How long has he even been here?” She shook her head, “That’s dumb. You’re dumb.”

Where It Always Rains

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April 8th, Year 1

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And there it was. Nakano Kanna, the Ace Reporter; out for the story, the gossip, the drama. And once again it was the Sakaguchi’s she was trying to put a spotlight on.

“This isn’t one of your stories, Nakano. This has nothing to do with you.”

Akari knew the smaller girl wasn’t going to cease her mission to find the newest scoop. It was pointless. She had been the one who wrote about Akari’s last “big” fight a few months ago and Akari had not forgotten about that. This new boy, the one who started shit with Kenzo, this was just the next big thing. Nothing happened that was interesting so Nakano had to make things seem interesting. If she wasn’t so annoying and left the Sakaguchi Family out of it, Akari would’ve tolerated it.

The concern about the upcoming fight was another thing, though. Not that Nakano was worried about Akari’s well-being. Akari had tossed the reporter in a trash bin once, after all. How would Akari fare if Totsuka didn’t take her threats to heart? Or worse? Did it matter? Did Akari care? Before her growth spurt there had been a lot of girls who tried to get into her head and she was happy to show them what exactly happened when you mentioned her father’s name to her face. She didn’t care if he was the first person to be taller than her in this school or about any of the trouble she could get in. All that mattered was she got her point across.

“You want to get tied to a water tower where nobody can find you?” She retorted, annoyed. “Like I said. Don’t.”

Where It Always Rains

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April 8th, Year 1

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Akari wasn’t one for pleasantries and honorifics, knowing she was one of your friends was tough. Tricky. She was so informal it felt like she didn’t care about anyone or anything. And that was when she wasn’t angry.

The smaller girl’s insistence to talk to her did allow the raven-haired girl to snap out of her rage, even if it was for a moment. Akari wasn’t dumb. She knew what particular club Nakano was involved in, so if anyone knew about who took what picture, it was her. Might’ve even been her for all Akari knew, and she wasn’t exactly in the mood to be dealing with snoops. Akari ripped into half of a melonpan, angrily chewing on the dough before looking at the journalism club member dead in the eyes.

“What do you want, Nakano?” She remarked, flatly. “Kenzo is fine. Which is more than I can say who started this is gonna be.”

Akari got into fights just as much as Kenzo or Shiori did. She was the meanest girl on the girl’s volleyball team. Before the new kid arrived, she had been the tallest person in class and had been for awhile. To say people steered clear of her when she was angry was an understatement. However, for Akari to just bluntly say she was after the new kid–who was taller and brawnier than her–was something beyond her normal threats and “sunny” disposition. Kenzo had told her to not get involved, that he would handle it when he got back to school, though Akari never respected anything her brother had to say and she wasn’t about to start now.

Where It Always Rains

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April 8th, Year 1

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“How could this happen?” was the kind of question that normal families asked in these kinds of situations. When Akari’s brother stayed home from school on the second day of the new school year, Akari was already yelling at him–but it wasn’t the kind of yelling she thought she was going to do. Kenzo had a predisposition for getting into trouble, falling with the wrong crowds; telling Akari to mind her own business and reminding her exactly how far in the hole he actually was. He didn’t explicitly say what happened, but with their mother halfway in a bottle for most of the night, Akari wasn’t buying the usual “I fell.” excuses. Excuses that eventually led into a “I’m not a snitch.” retort. As usual Akari threatened to beat him worse than whoever did this to him. Ranting about addicts and bad behavior. How much of a loser he was.

It led into the next morning. Kenzo didn’t budge. But the school newspaper did.

Akari’s fingers curled into fists. It didn’t take an expert detective to deduce who was who in the photographs. The journalism club had gotten busy early this year and it was annoying, but the taller Sakaguchi twin had far different feelings about the situation. Her brother was the quiet delinquent, sure, but it was actually Akari who was the aggressive, competitive, and violent one. It was part of why she was involved in team sports, but it took everything in her body not to get ready for a fistfight. Not that her brother’s honor needed to be defended; but if her parents wouldn’t do their jobs and protect the family, who else was there to do the job?

Her teeth pressed against one another, steam leaving her nostrils as her brows twitched. It was very evident she was upset. Not a great mood to be in as she stared emptyily at her lunch; for the second day in a row she was so irritated she barely wanted to eat. She ate anyway, but angrily.

You Can Become a Hero!

_{April 7th}

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New Horizons. New Beginnings.

The words hung over the archway into Ishin Academy’s campus grounds, the giant torii standing overhead as students passed underneath with pamphlets in hand. It was a statement both explicitly and subliminally asserting Ishin’s Japanese pride above all else.

“To Soar Skyward”, Ishin’s beloved mantra, was sometimes undercut by that of the academy’s less formal apophthegms. Those that rejected the practices of their Chinese, European, and American contemporaries. Ishin’s goal was to protect Japan, whatever Japan was, by any means necessary and in the mind of its School Board they would do their best to foster only the highest bar of Japanese excellence. Though, there were murmurs, as there were often, that perhaps Ishin was changing and changing forward. If it was true, it would certainly explain some of the first year students walking underneath Ishin’s torii on this splendid April morning in Hokkaido.

Of the hundreds of applicants to Ishin’s newest batch of students, only a small handful had gotten in. There were only twenty seats in Class 1A waiting to be filled, after all. To those lucky few, their acceptance letter and official school pamphlet and bullet pass had been in their mailbox by January, giving them a few anxious months to wait for the big day where they would be tested in the historic halls of Ishin Academy. In said pamphlet there would be all of the needed information about Ishin and Sapporo itself; directions how to get there, a set of school uniforms tailored to their metabiology and physical figure, and a printed guide and databook. Really, the pamphlet was more of a manual than a small pamphlet. It all led the way to preparing the students for the day that would change their lives forever. They had made it into one of the top three hero schools in Japan. Everything that came next was up to them.

If they failed to soar, well, Ishin had given them all the tools to succeed so who really would be at fault there? No matter what it took to reach it, Ishin students were expected to be hungry and dedicated to their dream to become a Pro-Hero.

As students flocked in, some students and faculty members talked amongst themselves in the courtyard. For the first years, this was their first time to really take it all in. The sight of Ishin, in the flesh. They had some time. Students had yet to move into the event hall for the big speech. That was still several minutes away.

For those who immediately went in to wait, they would find themselves and other students being directed into crowds organized by class year.

Location: Event Hall, Ishin Academy

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Mizuhana Yoshiba crossed her arms, the academy pamphlet loosely held by her right hand.

“This is it, huh?” Yoshiba muttered, unamused by not only Ishin but herself.

It was no secret that Ishin was known for getting results from their students but it was still a school that was proud that made something out of people who weren’t worthy of UA. For any other student that may have been a breath of fresh air, but Yoshiba didn’t see herself as the worst of the worst by a long shot. Mizuhana Yoshiba was the daughter of two acclaimed pro heroes. She had worked hard to be a cut above anyone else she had ever met. She pushed herself every single day. But this was where she ended up, all because she wasn’t good at the unimportant nonsense that was on the acceptance exams of every single hero academy in Japan: book smarts.

Yoshiba sighed as she moved forward. Maybe if she had been better with books she would've been at UA instead.

As she moved through the hallway corridors she knew that this would be the beginning of her hero career whether she liked it or not. There was no going back in time and doing better; she didn’t have a time quirk, if such a thing even existed. Ishin would be remembered as the academy where the history books would note that the legendary pro hero Mizuhana Yoshiba attended and graduated at the top of her class. The thought was a compromise Yoshiba made with herself to amend for her failure of not being able to attend UA in the first place. She would get her hero license and be remembered as the best. There was no question in her mind about that fact.

Everyone here is second to me. Sidekicks, all of them.

As everyone began filing into the hall, the blue-haired teenager knew it was time. She wasn’t one of those second-rate delinquents who valued herself so little that she would ever consider being late. It didn’t matter what the headmaster had to say about Ishin, Yoshiba had already made up her mind and figured out a set of goals, as unrealistic as they may have been. Still, she would sit down with the sidekicks in the section of the ceremony hall that had been designated to her “year group”. Mizuhana Yoshiba was not a slacker. She hated slackers.

Yoshiba was a hero, after all.

You Can Become a Hero!

_______________________________________________ // INFO D A T A Full Name - Hidaka Honoka Hometown - Sarufutsu, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan Quirk Type - Emitter Gender - Femme - // PERSONALITY P E R S O N A L I T Y Awkward Honoka is from a small town in Hokkaido and as a result does not exactly know how to act around people very well. There are certain norms she doesn't know much about and all of her knowledge of "city types" comes from manga and her imagination. The persona Honoka often exudes is based on her cloaking her own insecurities of being in a new place and around people who don't make a lot of sense to her. Confident ‘Go Bold or Go Home’ is a mantra Honoka’s heard a lot. She’s confident, even in things she’s one hundred percent ignorant of. She created a persona to survive in the “big city” of Sapporo and she lives by it, because if everyone knew she was completely terrified they’d laugh at her–or worse. Nice Honoka doesn’t believe people are inherently bad. Anybody can be redeemed and she lives by that belief. Her dad was a villain once, after all. Everyone deserves a second chance is a mantra she refuses to give up on; after all, aren't heroes supposed to be unflinching in their ideals?

Physical Description At 167 centimeters (around 5’6”), Honoka stands taller than some girls her age. Her athletic and lithe build is from a childhood of playing outside and constant fidgeting with her quirk, allowing her to have the potential of a decent physical combatant with or without her quirk. Her hair is violet and long, not too prim and proper, but not ragged. Her blue eyes always exhibit a sort of confidence and bravado, she never looks shaken or out of her element. Personal History When Honoka’s father came to Sarufutsu, he had finally begun to feel fatigued after a long career of being a notorious villain. His list of crimes stretched from Okinawa to Hakodate and the small town offered him a reprieve of sorts. It was in such a place that he was reminded of his roots in Minamiosumi and it was where he decided to turn over a new leaf and start over. He would never put on a cape and mask again. It’s a story Honoka has heard her whole life. “Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Don’t be a villain, Honoka.” Naturally, she decided that she’d pursue the career of a pro-hero instead. Honoka’s quirk, the same as her father’s own, materialized at an incredibly young age and it wasn’t long before everyone around her was singing her praises. Well, everyone but her father, who was really the person she looked up to the most. This wasn’t to say he was dismissive or abusive, or any of the usual routes a Japanese parent could be described as. Hidaka Toshinori was ambivalent. If this was what she wanted to do, she needed to make sure she was ready for what it entailed and show him what she could do. It would take hard work to make it and the hero academies that would be scouting her in the future would be harsh and relentless. Working hard and determined to impress not only her father but the people who had put her on a pedestal, Honoka started to embody what she thought a hero was supposed to be. Effortlessly cool and confident, though inside her head there was anything but confidence. Could she live up to the hype? If she failed would she be letting everyone down? What if her father was disappointed in her? Questions that haunted her in her head constantly, but she couldn’t show it. Wouldn’t. It would be something she would carry with her years later when she went to Sapporo for the first time and began her career as a would-be pro-hero. Character Arc - Work Hard - Make Friends - Dynamics with her father's backstory - Personality Growth Quirk Description Honoka has inherited her father’s quirk, After Image, a Emitter-type quirk that allows her to create “doubles” of her body as she moves with varying effects. As she awakened it and honed it at an early age, Honoka feels like she has a fairly skilled understanding of how to use her quirk to its utmost benefit. If she focuses hard enough she can hold the length of time the After Image effect is active. The faster she moves, the more images she creates in this state, but also indicates more fatigue at an exponential rate.

You Can Become a Hero!

_______________________________________________ // INFO D A T A Full Name - Mizuhana Yoshiba Hometown - Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan Quirk Type - Mutation Gender - Femme - // PERSONALITY P E R S O N A L I T Y Arrogant Yoshiba’s smug self-confidence and competitiveness often comes across as… overcompensation to say the least. She talks over people, proclaims herself the greatest would-be hero of her generation, and aspires to be tough as nails. This goes back to her feeling helpless to stop her mother’s death and suffering in poverty at the orphanage subsequently; she does not want to witness pain like that again and believes this is how she needs to be if she’s going to survive. Tactless Yoshiba doesn’t care what people think of her or how they’ll react. She’ll badger people, insult them, and continue to see how tough they really are. In this world you have to be strong and having any sort of sensitivity is weakness. That’s what the kids in the orphanage taught her. Temperamental Despite being a “squid”, Yoshiba’s temper seems to run hot and the slightest sleight makes her agitated quickly and agitation often leads to aggression. Her tentacles twitch and fists curl; before you know it, you crossed the wrong pro-hero. Not a very good trait to have for Yoshiba’s pedigree, but well, she’ll learn. Hopefully.

Physical Description Often appearing taller than she initially appears, Yoshiba Mizuhana is a spirited young girl who stands at 155 centimeters (around the threshold between 5’0” and 5’1”) with an athletic figure and rather unimpressive “figure” that Yoshiba isn’t entirely thrilled to have pointed out. When not in her designated school uniform (or dream hero attire) Yoshiba is rather plain, as much would not be a surprise since she doesn’t particularly have much for money to waste on frivolous things; as a result she doesn’t have many alternate pairs of clothes. When given the option to have preferences, she likes loose-fitting clothes that allow her to be mobile and isn’t sheepish or prudish in how she’s comes off. If people think her skirt is cut a little too short she doesn’t really pay any mind of it, for example. Personal History The daughter of two seafaring heroes who were relatively acclaimed in southern Japan, Yoshiba had a long shadow to overcome before she was even old enough to walk. However, Yoshiba’s challenge to overcome would have nothing to do with their accomplishments as heroes but rather something a lot worse. Yoshiba was effectively raised solely by her mother, Kishiko, following the death of her father after he succumbed to his wounds following a fight with his sworn nemesis. Yoshiba’s childhood thereon would include stories of her father’s valiant deeds and the legacy of his actions as a pro hero. Despite the dangers of her profession, Kishiko never tried to deter Yoshiba’s enthusiastic perception of heroism or by extension, her father—heroism was encouraged and reinforced. However, this would not be the last time the actions of supervillains would influenced Yoshiba’s life. When Yoshiba was nine years old, supervillains broke into her home in Kagoshima, Japan with the intent of ‘finishing the job’ after her mother had decimated their plan to overtake the region, a grueling plan that had cost them over-a-decade of planning and organization several months prior. Yoshiba doesn’t remember much of details surrounding the battle that leveled her childhood home, but she certainly did not forget what she lost in the aftermath of the battle; her mother died right in front of her as the cloaked villain moved in for the killing blow, and had it not been for the interception of another pro hero, Yoshiba probably would’ve joined her parents in the afterlife right then and there. It would be a thought she would consider a twisted irony after she had been reassigned to an orphanage when the police realized that Yoshiba had no living relatives to speak of and thus no guardianship to fall back on. It’s been six years since that fateful day and Yoshiba’s drive to become a pro hero has only been reinforced. She intends to show the world that she is ready to be a hero. Character Arc Yoshiba is a character I’ve designed as an attempt to play around with the standoffish, smarmy overconfident type of characters. She’s brash, impulsive, loud-mouthed, and smug to pretty much the core of her character, but a lot of that has to do with her insecurities and what she’s been through. She was orphaned because of supervillains and had a pretty rough time in the orphanage that hosted her up until her application to the various academies in Japan. She wants to be great and show the world why supervillains need to be put down swiftly and justly. Yoshiba is a survivor first and foremost and once you peel back the rigid tsun-esque shell there’s something more to her. Beyond that, there's a lot, but a good amount of her character development relies on who ends up in her classroom, how she interacts with them, how they push her to be better, and where she stands overall. I would like her arrogance and smugness by tempered by someone who becomes her parallel hero, someone she can count on but sardonically put’s down every time she can. A person she can call a rival, even though she will probably most often defer to them as a “sidekick”. Quirk Description Known by the name of prehensile hair, Yoshiba’s quirk is far more versatile and dynamic than it seems. Yoshiba’s hair is an extension of herself, serving much like a nerve would rather than a muscle in that it shares and acts as Yoshiba’s consciousness wills it to. This includes the ability to “harden”, “sharpen”, and “grapple” among other functions—it has been likened to tentacles among other things for just that reason, though Yoshiba’s control of her quirk has been… inconsistent at best due to her constantly changing emotions, desires, and at times, loss of focus. This lack of self-control and inner focus serves as the quirk’s principal weakness, though it is not the sole weakness considering Yoshiba’s hair is still her hair and as such is not invulnerable despite it being far more durable than it has any right being.

You Can Become a Hero!

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