Dormient Potential - 3.

 

3.

They both entered the building, landing in a huge rectangle room, separated into three sections. The first was a living room with comfortable looking sofas, a big smart TV and a fireplace. Then, a few meters away from the furniture, stood a dark table with six matching chairs. Right next to it, there was a fully equipped kitchen section with an aesthetic island. Mariko also saw a smaller hallway leading towards two different staircases and two doors with female and male icons above the door frames – separate bathrooms.

Once they entered the building, several heads turned in their direction, curiously glancing at the new visitor.

“Izuku?” one soft voice asked and the green-haired boy smiled in reply.

“Hi, we have a guest!”

“Who’s that?” asked another girl with pink skin shade.

Izuku looked at Mariko and she nodded.

“I am Okaido Mariko,” she answered walking towards the sofas that the students were occupying. “You might say that I am a transfer student and I will be learning with you soon. Not sure how exactly it will look like as I am a bit older.”

“I’m Ochacco Uraraka,” the first girl informed, genuinely smiling at Mariko.

“I’m Mina Ashido, nice to meet you. Can I ask you something, though?”

“Sure.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m 18.”

“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but why were you not put in the 3^rd class?” Uraraka asked.

“It’s quite a complicated story. I told Izuku a little bit of it, but in a very big shortcut… I was expelled from two hero schools because my Quirk is quite hard to control. I can boost someone’s abilities if I like that person or decrease them if it’s the opposite. The stronger the feeling, the more powerful the effect. But I cannot give you any more details, as I myself have no idea how exactly my Quirk works. Basically, I got a last chance of attending the hero school and that’s why I am here with you now,” Mariko explained.

“I see, I’m sure you will find a way to control it,” Mina encouraged.

“Thank you, I hope so too,” Mariko answered.

“Uraraka, can you please show Okaido rooms in the girls’ wing that are not occupied? Mr. Aizawa said that she can pick one.”

“Of course!” she smiled and both of the girls entered the smaller corridor that lead to the second stairway, which they started to climb.

“So here is the second floor and all the rooms on that side are free. Behind this wall there are boys’ dorms, but as you can see the only way of getting to girls' side is from the ground floor. We have a boy that has purple bubble hair. He is such a pervert. Me and the girls were very glad to hear that we have separate dorms.”

“That is indeed a good idea. And very practical, to be honest.”

“Yes, I agree. Bathrooms are shared but every room has a small toilet and a fridge if you would like to store something.”

“That is even better,” Mariko said, walking down the corridor. “I want to pick this room. Number 5, the one close to the window.”

“Don’t you want to choose something closer to other girls? I mean, we could hang out and stuff.”

“Hah, you are so kind and pure,” Mariko informed, smiling. “I’m just a lone wolf type, I guess. But I still want to get to know you more.”

“Okay then,” Uraraka smiled, her eyes turning to small curved lines.

“So, I wonder how I can inform Mr. Aizawa about the number of room I chose.”

“I think you could text him. Mr. Aizawa gave us his mobile phone number some time ago in case something happened. He has his own dorm, where the rest of the teachers are so he is not always here to know what is going on… you know how it is.”

“Yea, I understand,” Mariko nodded. “He is your homeroom teacher, right?”

“Yes.”

“And how is he?”

“We all like him a lot, to be honest,” Uraraka said after a while. “At first he seemed to be very cold and demanding but he is actually making sure that nothing happens to us. When we were first attacked in USJ he jumped alone on a big group of enemies.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I was there!” she said, eyes lit up. “There were so many enemies. He was badly injured but survived and now he is back in school, teaching us all the hero stuff.”

“Going all alone with a non-offensive Quirk against multiple enemies? He doesn’t look dangerous,” she thought to herself and then her own brain showed her an image of his red eyes and floating raven hair. She shivered and ignored the picture, looking back at the younger student.

“OK, so I guess I should go and get my stuff from my house to move in here. It’s quite a weird experience for me.”

“I know! And look at the size of the building. Rooms are also extremely spacious. It’s like a mansion!” she got excited. “Would you like me to introduce you to the other girls before you go to your house?”

“Why not, actually,” Mariko smiled and followed Uraraka to the third floor.

Nearly an hour later Mariko left the 1A class dorm, feeling completely mentally exhausted. She had to recharge her social batteries as soon as possible. All the things that happened that day, were either stressing out, scary or painful, plus all of them were quite new. She met so many people. She reached her pocket and grabbed a smartphone, choosing number to Mr. Aizawa that Uraraka gave her.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Aizawa! It’s Mariko Okaido here, Uraraka gave me your number, sir. I like room number 5,” she wrote and sent a text message.

Mariko glanced up at the sun, which was slowly starting to bend to the horizon. She caught a deep breath in her lungs and started to trot, heading outside the school to her aunt and uncle’s house. Once she passed the gate, she hid the guest school badge deep inside her pocket and during her way back home she was paranoically checking if the security item is still there.

“Mariko?” auntie asked once the younger woman stormed inside the house, her clothes looking as if she got mugged.

“Yes, that’s me. Guess what happened!”

“I don’t know, tell me. You got hired?”

“It turned out the job offer was fake, actually.”

“What, seriously?” auntie asked.

“Unfortunately,” Mariko answered. “But the school’s principal still wanted to talk with me and then he requested one teacher to train me and I passed the test.”

“I am so happy, Mariko!” auntie cried out and leaned towards the younger woman, embracing her.

“I had one last chance, though. I had to fight with a teacher. He is extremely scary but he gave me one chance. I am so sorry I couldn’t at least get a job to make stuff easier for you both.”

“Oh, Mariko…” auntie sighed.

“I know… I am sorry. I wanted to repay you for all the things you have done. Both you and uncle.” Mariko's smile disappeared.

“That is not what I meant,” auntie said. “Stop thinking about it like that. We want to see you happy and making your dreams come true. We will always be supporting you.”

“But I don’t want to be your burden. You are spending so much money on me.”

“Oh, Mariko. We always wanted to have our own child and you are like ours.”

The younger woman felt tears coming to her eyes and jumped to the auntie, hugging her tightly.

“Oh, wow!” auntie smiled, hugging her back.

“I am so lucky to have you in my life,” Mariko said, wiping her tears with the edge of her white shirt that didn’t look exactly white anymore.

They were standing like that for a few minutes and then Mariko's uncle came in, joining the hug.

“I don’t know what the topic was, but it looks serious,” he said looking at the two women.

“We got emotional,” auntie explained, laughing again. “Come, tell us how it was.”

They all sat on a big sofa, close to the kitchen island. Mariko started her story from the interview with Principal Nezu and finished at meeting the girls from the dorm, in which she was going to live from now on.

“Oh, so we will not see each other that often now?” auntie asked.

“You live nearby the school so of course I will visit you!” Mariko replied.

They chatted a bit more about details of her moving out and the pocket money that they wanted to give her to be enough for at least a month. Uncle stood up and informed that he is going to put on some tea and prepare some snacks while aunt proposed painting board games figurines together.

“They were delivered today, shortly after you left for the interview,” she informed.

“You got another commission?” Mariko asked. “That is so cool!”

“I am getting more and more after you guided me through creating my own blog.”

Mariko smiled, following aunt to her painting studio that was created inside a closet that previously served as a place where they kept cleaning items.

In the evening, Mariko started gathering her stuff. She didn’t have much so she finished quickly, having some free time. She gathered her notebooks from the previous school years and leafed through them, murmuring something under her breath. She stopped a few times to inspect some examples, especially when she was browsing the maths notebook. After nearly two hours, she closed the last notebook and straightened her back while sitting on the floor.

“It wouldn’t be that easy if those were general studies,” she said to herself and then immersed in her thoughts.

There was something about that day’s events that was eating away at her. She focused. What was it, exactly? Was it the fact that Mr. Aizawa defeated her so easily? No, she was actually expecting a sparring match with one of the 3^rd class student or a teacher. That it was so easy? It was possible, that this was the case, however as Mr. Aizawa said, it’s all up to him now. She might even make a silly mistake and be dismissed at that point. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, however she herself signed up for that… So if it wasn’t the latter, then what was it?

She stood up and looked at her travel bag that was loaded with her clothes and other stuff she wanted to take with her.

How on Earth did principal Nezu know that her parents died in an accident involving villains?

That was it. That’s the thought. He said during the interview, that he is sorry for her parents, but how did he know what happened? It wasn’t as highly publicized event as the Kamino incident for example. Was he in contact with her previous schools? She cupped her chin, thinking intensively.

If he in fact was in the contact with her schools, why did he let Mr. Aizawa decide if she was to be accepted or not? He could ask her previous teachers how pathetic and useless she was. She couldn’t find an answer to that question.

The next day she got up early, feeling excitement kicking her energy levels. She ate a stodgy breakfast with her aunt and uncle and kissed them goodbye. Uncle wanted to give her a ride, but she decided that carrying a travel bag so far away is going to be her first exercise that day. She was wearing a comfy, dark blue t-shirt and tailored flimsy black pants. It wasn’t that hot in the morning so it was a perfect outfit for that kind of journey. Because of the adrenaline and excitement she didn’t realize how fast was she walking until she saw a familiar front gate ahead of her.

“What? Already?” she thought to herself, feeling her face muscles tense, forming a huge smile. It was quite some time since she was so excited.

She checked her phone but there was still no answer from Mr. Aizawa. She was wondering if he was so busy since yesterday or just acknowledged her message and didn’t want to reply back. She was thinking what she should do in this case. It was still before regular school hours but it was the UA so who knows when they start their day. After all, the UA had a 6 days week, the only free day being Sunday.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her guest badge to hang it on her neck. She stopped right in front of the school building and decided to send another message to Mr. Aizawa.

“Good morning, sir. It’s Mariko again. Apologies for bothering you but I have no idea from where I could get my keys.”

She confirmed sending the message and then grabbed her wireless earphones and put on some old school electronic dance music. The song just started playing and she got an instant reply from the teacher.

“Morning, roughly in the middle of the school dorms there is one additional dorm for all the teachers. I will wait for you there.”

“Alright, coming,” she replied and synchronized her steps to the music, humming under her breath.

After around 10 minutes she saw the teacher’s dorm close to the building with huge “2D” sign mounted on it. She turned around the hedge, entering the pavement leading straight to the front of the teacher’s dorm. When she was about to reach the front gate, Mr. Aizawa left the building, walking towards her. She quickly hid her headphones to avoid him thinking that she doesn’t respect her teacher.

“Good morning, Mr. Aizawa!”

“Good morning. Here are your keys,” he replied looking as exhausted as yesterday.

“Thank you so much,” she bowed gratefully. “Oh and I have a question”

“Hmm?” he murmured, his eyes half-open.

“Can I use the gym if it’s not occupied or do I need your permission, sir? I would like to prepare myself for Monday a bit.”

“You can use it for 1 hour once school ends for today, which is at 3pm. Tomorrow it’s gonna be free all day,” he informed.

“Okay, thank you for the keys again,” she said and turned around, walking towards the 1A dorm. She looked over her shoulder at the tired man, wearing black clothes. She had to admit, that he had very nice hair.

“I like long black hair. Pity I only know few men having that kind of hairstyle,” she thought.

The girl put on her headphones and clicked the play button on her phone screen.

When she entered the dorm, she saw a bunch of new faces and some already familiar ones.

“Mariko!” Uraraka exclaimed and everyone turned towards her.

The new student nodded a greeting and felt quite awkward. Uraraka saw a weird tension between her and all the people inside the room and decided to introduce her to everyone she hadn't seen yesterday.

“Guys, this is Mariko. She is a trade student and is going to train with us,” she explained striking a friendly and silly pose that was supposed to reduce tension.

“OH MY GOOOOOOOOD!” they heard a yell.

There was a small boy with purple hair that looked like bubbles or - more accurately – grapes. Compared to the rest of the boys she saw inside the room, this one was the least attractive. His mouth was agape and he was slobbering, eyes wide open, directed at Mariko.

“HOW OLD ARE YOU?!”

Mariko looked at him, frowning, and answered: “I am 18, why?”

The purple haired boy made an extremely weird sound that Mariko couldn’t place. It sounded as if he was slurping and sighing at the same time. She was sure that it was the first time she heard this kind of noise in her entire life. Also, after a few seconds, she noticed his daydreaming expression. It didn’t last long though, as someone else joined the group in the common room and seeing what’s going on, he slapped the small boy in the head, making him lose his balance.

“Jesus, what a creep,” Mariko said, looking quite shocked.

“Yeaaa, he was always like that,” Uraraka said, looking over at the boy wallowing on the floor. “Anyway, his name is Minoru. The one that saved us all from that little creep is…”

“Tenya Iida,” the boy with medium-long, dark hair and glasses introduced himself. His eyebrows were curved upwards and she could tell that he had a very nicely toned legs, even though he was wearing a school uniform. “I am also class president, so if you need anything, just let me know!” he offered, saluting.

“Haha, okay, thanks for letting me know,” Mariko laughed and Iida stood right next to her, waiting for others to introduce themselves.

“I’m Kirishima Eijiro!” the next boy jumped. He had spiky red hair and small eyebrows. “That is so manly to introduce yourself, not wait for someone to do it for you,” he shook Mariko’s hand vigorously.

“My god what is that class,” she thought to herself, but wasn’t annoyed or creeped out. They were just themselves. They didn’t pretend to be rulers of this world like her previous classes did and she liked that a lot.

“I’m Tokoyami Fumikage,” another boy approached.

“Oh, I will remember his name for sure,” she thought to herself, looking at the young man.

Tokoyami was an average sized boy with a bird like head. He didn’t seem to be as loud as the other three guys that Mariko just met and there was something about him that made Mariko think they would get along easily.

“I’m Mashirao Ojiro,” the last person from the row introduced himself. He was another average sized boy with medium-long blonde hair and a muscular tail with a clump of fur on its end.

“Nice to meet all of you,” Mariko said with a smile. The creepy guy stood up from the floor and looked at her with hope in his eyes. “Yes, even you, grape man.”

The boy fell on the floor, blushing.

“Do you need some help with your bag?” Kirishima – the red haired boy – asked.

“I… actually, I wouldn’t mind a helping hand,” she smiled friendly, grateful for his offer.

“So, are you going to the class with us?” Iida asked. “We'll go to the cafeteria first, but then straight to the 2^nd floor to 1A class.”

“To be honest, I don’t know the details of my education here yet. I only know that today is a free day for me and I have some time to unpack.”

“Okay, so see you around then!” Iida said and left the room with a few others.

Uraraka and Kirishima stood by Mariko’s side and all three of them soon started to climb up the stairs on the girls’ dorm side.

“Which room is yours?” Kirishima asked.

“It’s number 5,” she answered. “Wait, I will open it.”

Mariko quickly jumped to the door, opening it for Kirishima, so that he could place the heavy luggage on the floor.

“Thank you so much, Eijiro!” she clasped her hands and smiled.

“Any time,” he smiled back and flexed his arm that for a second made a weird noise and looked as it was made out of stone.

“What was that?” she asked curiously.

“It’s my Quirk. It’s called hardening. I can make my body unbreakable for some time. I still have to work on it a lot, because for now it can last less than a minute.”

“That is so cool!”

“Thank you, what’s yours?”

Mariko didn’t answer, looking at the boy.

“Oh, Kirishima! We have to go, we might be late for our classes!” Uraraka said and dragged the red haired boy towards the stairs.

“But I wanted…”

“There is no time!” she said and winked at Mariko, who was so glad that the younger girl instantly reacted.

The two students disappeared and soon everything was quiet. Mariko sighed and entered her new room, looking around. It was a bit bigger than her room in aunt and uncle’s house. Inside, there was a simple, yet comfy looking bed, a drawer and a closet, an average sized desk with a chair that could easily fit a laptop and be used for studying, a coffee table with a low armchair and a small fridge in the corner. There was also an air conditioner mounted near the ceiling and an entrance to a small toilet as well as a balcony.

“Wow, it is quite luxurious,” she said, very impressed.

Without hesitation she closed the door and opened the drawer and closet, efficiently unpacking her huge travel bag. After about an hour she was done and had no idea what to do. It was still early in the morning. School started and she couldn’t use the gym yet so there was not much to do. She stood up from the bed and decided to strengthen her knowledge from previous school years even more. Mariko was a hard-working person. In her primary and middle school she was struggling with some subjects, especially maths. After losing her parents, she decided to become a hero but she knew that she was weak and couldn’t do much, especially when she was still a kid but after that she never stopped climbing. In tough times, when despair kicked in, instead of giving up, she was furious at her own failure and that’s what had always been her best fuel.

She opened her new laptop she recently got for her 18^th birthday from her family and found a file created few years ago when she first started attending the hero school. She read a shortened chapter about heroics and opened the windowed door leading to the balcony, going outside. She took a breath, savouring fresh air.

More time passed and she decided that she remembers most of the school subjects, so she grabbed her backpack she brought from home and left the building, walking on the pavement close to the trees casting a long, dark shadow. She checked her mobile phone, looking at the map showing the surroundings of the school. There was a grocery store nearby, which she had to visit. Aunt and uncle sent her a lot of money to her credit card so that she could buy herself some food or clothes if she needed any. She passed the entrance gate, hiding her guest badge.

“That reminds me of something,” she thought to herself, looking over her shoulder at the gate. “Do I still need the guest badge? Also, will they give me a school uniform? If yes, then they are most likely in contact with my previous schools… And also…” she stopped, frowning. “Why did I not receive the timetable? I literally have no clue what subject I start with.”

Mariko's brain was running on all cylinders during the whole journey to the grocery store. She was also thinking about it inside the shop but she was nearly certain that she has done the right thing to strengthen her knowledge. She bought some bananas, a pack of cocoa powder, a mango and two kiwis as well as some cottage cheese, bread rolls, two bottles of milk and a pack of cornflakes, a few slices of delicious looking ham and a small pack of cheese. The grocery store was really close so she didn’t buy a lot of products. When she was near the checkout, she saw a pretty and fairly cheap fruit basket, which she just couldn’t resist and bought one. On her way back, she looked at her phone and sighed with relief, knowing that she would soon be able to work out in the gym.

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