(A/N: Warning, extremely good hero name that you will all very obviously love ahead.)
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[Code Names]
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| Two days later… |
...
It was a rainy day. Clouds had covered the sky, and water poured in a steady rhythm upon the city.
People, of course, had their umbrellas ready.
But of course, not everyone was born equal.
"Hm, hm, hmm…~"
On that rainy day, far up in the sky, hidden among the clouds, Taka could be seen lying on his back and humming to a song in his head, while his body traveled at hundreds of kilometers per hour in a specific direction—cutting through the clouds like a bullet, yet not letting a single droplet reach him even in that exposed position.
As to where he was going—that would be U.A.
His two days of rest had ended, and classes had resumed, unfortunately.
He had made the most of the break. The school year had been hectic since it started—the combat exercises, the villain attack, the training, and then the Sports Festival all stacking up one after another.
Add to that his constant attention to aura farming at every opportunity, and it made sense that it had taken a toll on his mind. Sure, he'd given it a bit more breathing room after his realization roughly a week back, but he hadn't stopped entirely—just relaxed his grip on it a little.
Regardless, the two days had let him recover fully. He'd spent them at home doing whatever he felt like.
Composing a new song—during which Eri chimed in, curious about what he was doing, and he ended up walking her through the basics.
After she smiled at the festival, it was like a dam had broken. She smiled constantly nowadays. It made Taka relieved.
During his rest days, he also watched pleased how his aura continued climbing steadily, and combed through the flood of videos that had appeared online from the festival—both as Taka and as Rockinesis.
The growth speed wasn't as outrageous as it was during the day of the festival, but it was still a massive increase thorough the two days.
His aura, which ended up at 103k at the festival, had already reached 124k as of now.
And it was still climbing—slower every day, but still climbing nevertheless.
During his break he also gave his costume a look, adjusting a few things, and redesigning its overall look to make it feel more like his rather than just a cosplay.
Besides all that, he also just lounged around in the rest of his free time, making the most of his rest before he had to go back to grinding.
But alas, it was now time to return.
"Am I on time?" Suddenly, Taka snapped out of his relaxed state, opening his eyes and pulling out his phone to check the hour.
8:20. Class started in five minutes.
He huffed and went back to relaxing while traveling at impossible speeds.
He'd overslept a little today from getting too comfortable during the break. Though, considering he could cover the distance from Shizuoka to Tokyo in roughly four minutes, he wasn't worried in the least.
He truly had reached a whole another level after the festival, had he?
—Sadly, he couldn't fully make use of his speed anymore, since he was now capable of breaking the sound barrier—which made his flights considerably less stealthy.
So he had to cap himself to avoid drawing heroes and police.
He'd almost made a mess of it the day after the festival, getting so excited during a test flight that he forgot the sound barrier existed and caused a small panic among the people below who heard the boom.
Fortunately, he got away fast enough that no one was able to pin it on him.
—Save for Seiji and Nezu, who both knew instantly even without having seen him, and he got an earful from both.
Anyway, because of that, he had to limit himself to crossing all the distance to Tokyo in seven minutes, instead of the four he could reach.
It didn't appear that big of a gap in speed, but it sure felt like it in his shoes. Like how walking in a game feels after running most of the time.
As to whether he was late, considering the trip took seven minutes, yet only five remained until class started?
He had left six minutes ago already, so he was only a minute away from Tokyo.
He had time to spare.
Though he might need to pick up his walk a little once he landed.
Snorting, Taka flipped from his back and faced downward, staring at the now-visible city of Tokyo below the clouds, mind going over what he would be dealing with from now on.
'Time for the next arc to begin—although, I've already messed it up a bit, haven't I?'
The next arc was supposed to be Stain's—where Iida would find and confront the Hero Killer in Hosu, followed by Todoroki and Midoriya joining in to put an end to his rampage.
Only, that wouldn't be the case anymore.
Stain had already had his ass handed to him behind the scenes. Ingenium was fine, so Iida had no revenge to chase. And since the clone had gotten to Stain before the League of Villains could make contact with him, it was unlikely they'd be sending their Nomus to Hosu this time.
… Just in case, he'd be sending a clone to Hosu anyway.
And speaking of Stain's arc—it also meant the internships were right around the corner.
'A hero to intern under… now that's a question I haven't thought about.'
Taka massaged his chin.
Considering where his power level sat now, he genuinely wasn't sure who would even be worth interning under anymore.
Although—maybe he was looking at it too much from a power angle, and forgetting the angle of being cool.
Surely there was a hero out there who could help him refine his showmanship. He'd mostly been going on instinct until now, and it had gone well enough, but some actual guidance in that direction wouldn't be bad.
'All Might doesn't do internships anymore, does he?' He thought, a little rueful about it.
Not that he could ask him anyway. The guy was in rough shape. He'd probably struggle to spend more than an hour with him daily at this point.
"Hmm…?"
At that, Taka blinked.
He lifted a hand, watching his aura seep through his palm and swallow it like a slow flame.
All Might was injured, sure—but didn't his aura literally have healing properties?
Before, he'd dismissed the idea of trying to heal the man because his reserves had been pretty thin—at 30k when he enrolled.
But now?
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
[STATUS PAGE]
▸ Strength: (183 Base) 1000
▸ Defense: (366 Base) 2000
▸ Aura Projection: 75,000
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Total Aura: 124,343
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
Now he had aura to spare.
He could actually cure All Might.
Allegedly—maybe the man's damage was severe enough that it was beyond what he could currently treat with his pool of aura.
'Or the injuries are old enough that they can't be healed at this point.'
It wasn't certain either way, but there was no harm in trying.
'It'll be a strange thing to bring up, though. I'm not supposed to know about the injury.'
A brief pause as that sank in.
Then he shrugged.
'Nezu will handle it.'
With that settled, he looked down.
He had arrived.
Time for landing.
...
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| Minutes later… |
...
Taka walked into the class at a calm pace, checking the clock on the wall.
8:23
Two minutes before class started.
'Easy peasy,' He snorted in quiet satisfaction at his victory over the bell.
As he walked in, his classmates noticed him and waved. He waved back and headed to his seat to drop his things.
As he passed, he caught his classmates' conversation—it was loud enough to carry across the whole room, though that was probably intentional.
"I got stopped five times on my way here—five! Can you believe it? It's like I'm famous!" Mina exclaimed, arms waving, acting out someone fielding photo requests left and right.
"I get what you mean—everyone at the subway was staring at me." Kaminari leaned back in his seat and jabbed a thumb at himself smugly.
"Somehow I doubt that. You lost in the first round." Jiro slipped in from beside him with a smirk.
"Midoriya lost in the first round too, and he got asked for photos plenty of times! Ashido too!"
They glanced at Midoriya, who gave a sheepish nod. "Yeah… a few times at the subway, and a few more around my neighborhood."
They didn't even look at Mina—they'd already heard how it went for her.
Kaminari turned back to Jiro with an exasperated look. "See?!"
"To be fair, both of them lost amazingly in an actual clash of Quirks. You lost because you fried your own brain."
"Shut up!"
"Calm down, Kaminari, I didn't do well either." Kirishima walked up and patted his shoulder, before his own fist clenched in quiet frustration. "Everyone on the subway was giving me this pitying look… damn it."
"Kirishima…" Kaminari covered his mouth, a single tear running down his cheek.
"What about you, Takahashi? Bet you got stopped dozens of times on your way here." Sato called out from the back, just as Taka was setting his things down.
Taka turned to them, looking briefly startled, then feigned a small cough and gave a composed nod.
"Yes."
—He hadn't. He hadn't gone out at all during the two free days other than to try out his new speed and later get scolded for it—and he'd arrived by air this morning. There'd been no opportunity for anything like that.
Not that he minded. Fame was all well and good, but he wasn't particularly keen on being stopped for autographs or photos constantly. He'd probably enjoy the first five encounters or so, and then the novelty would wear off fast and he would just get annoyed.
'Better this way.' He thought, settling into his seat.
After that, the group's conversation about their newfound fame and its effects continued for a while. Taka settled in, tuning it out and turning his attention toward the upcoming internships and who he might actually want to choose instead.
"Good morning."
Before long, Aizawa crossed through the door.
While the class greeted back, the man walked to his desk, left his things, then made his way to the podium and looked them over.
"Since everyone's here, let's begin. Today we're having a special hero informatics class."
Everyone tensed. In Aizawa's vocabulary, "special" was simply another word for suffering.
'Is it a quiz?' Kaminari winced, fighting the urge to look toward the window.
'I'm terrible at laws and regulations… please let it be anything but a test.' Kirishima had broken into a cold sweat.
Meanwhile, Taka stared at the teacher, expression flat with boredom.
'Hmm… this should be the moment he has us choose a hero to intern under, right?'
Or at least, that was what he vaguely remembered.
Maybe it could be at a class later in the day.
While Taka had such thoughts, Aizawa let the silence stretch for exactly long enough to enjoy their unease.
Then he spoke.
"In today's class… we will choose code names."
Instantly, the class exploded into cheers.
The dreadful activity Aizawa had left for them ended up being a fun hero thing to do!
Everyone's expressions brightened at once.
—Except for Taka.
His eyes went wide, his bored look disappearing entirely.
'The what now?'
That's when it came back to him.
Before going on internships, it was imperative to have a hero name to be called by. Otherwise, what would the heroes that you intern under call you?
Dumb kid?
'Seiji would do that—but that's not the matter at hand here!'
And with that realization, the memories of how this was actually supposed to go came flooding back in.
'It was today…?!' He thought as he leaned back in his chair—composedly, of course. Face giving nothing away as he closed his eyes and took a slow breath.
—Even if the version of himself playing out in his head was grabbing his own face and shouting at the sky.
He had completely forgotten this was happening today.
He hadn't thought of anything yet. What was he supposed to come up with in such a short amount of time?!
'Calm down. This isn't like overdue homework—almost everyone here hasn't given it proper thought either.'
And yet, in the show, they'd all managed to come up with names during the session.
If they could do it, why couldn't he?
Taka shook his head, shrugging his worry aside.
'Alright. Bring it on.' His eyes opened, staring ahead, defiant and ready.
He might have forgotten, but he wasn't about to be outpaced.
He would be walking out of here with the most auratic name in the room.
'Believe it.'
Meanwhile, Midoriya—seated directly in front of him—received the full weight of his stare without warning.
'W-what did I do?'
While Midoriya panicked quietly, Aizawa went on to explain the mechanics of the hero career—how offers received from the Sports Festival would follow students through to graduation, or be quietly withdrawn if the pros lost interest over time.
Then he picked up a remote and aimed it at the board.
"This is the list of students who received offers from pro heroes. Usually it's more spread out… but the competition was a bit fierce this year."
-Click!-
A graphic appeared—a ranked list of names alongside bars representing the number of offers each had received, making the scale of the gap immediately visible to everyone.
[Fukumoto: 8,702]
[Bakugo: 4,095]
[Todoroki: 3,874]
[Midoriya: 1,202]
[Tokoyami: 724]
[Iida: 556]
[Ashido: 494]
[Yaoyorozu: 455]
[Kaminari: 270]
[Jiro: 121]
[Uraraka: 80]
[Sero: 56]
[Kirishima: 52]
[Ojiro: 3]
"The hell… he's got almost all of Japan extending offers to him!" Kaminari was the first to explode, mouth hanging open.
He couldn't even feel good about getting any offers at all. The gap was too absurd.
Others stared with similar expressions.
Not even Todoroki or Bakugo had gotten close to half of what Taka pulled in.
Had Taka actually shone that bright during the festival?
—In hindsight, recalling everything he'd done… yeah. Obviously.
Realizing they had nothing to complain about, the class refocused on their own results.
Ojiro slumped against his desk. "At least I got offers…" He muttered.
Kirishima and Sero were in a similar state.
Uraraka, on the other hand, was elated—grabbing Iida by the shoulders in front of her and shaking him enthusiastically. "We got offers!!!"
Midoriya let out a breath of quiet relief. In front of him, Bakugo scoffed, not looking pleased, but not making noise about it either.
Todoroki said nothing—as if he'd more or less expected it.
Tokoyami said nothing too, though he did let out a quiet hum of satisfaction.
Of course, there were also those who hadn't received any offers at all.
Before they could dwell on it, though, Aizawa spoke again.
"Keeping these results in mind—regardless of whether you received offers or not—you will all be participating in internships with pros."
Everyone tilted their heads.
"Internships?"
They'd assumed the offers only meant they had the attention and a potential path into agencies when second and third year came. Not right now.
Were they actually going on internships immediately?
"Ah." Something clicked for someone. "That's why we're making code names!"
Aizawa nodded.
"Since you'll be working under pros soon, it's important you each decide on a code name for patrolling. They're provisional for now—you can refine them later—but that's no reason to take this lightly…"
"Otherwise you'll regret it tremendously!"
A voice from just outside the room rang out, and the door swung open. A familiar figure stepped in.
"Midnight-sensei?!" Everyone exclaimed in unison.
She smiled in satisfaction at the reaction and made her way over to stand beside Aizawa.
"Many of the names heroes first choose during their school years end up sticking with them, whether they like it or not—driven by public habit. Choose carelessly, and there's a real chance you won't be able to undo it later!"
Aizawa gave a slow nod. "As you can see, Midnight will be helping you choose your hero names. I'm not particularly suited for it, so I'll be watching from the side."
'So here it comes…' Taka's fist tightened, eyes blazing.
"Woah, Taka—you're literally on fire right now!" Sero said from beside him, glancing over at the crimson aura flickering around Taka's figure.
After that, Midnight explained how the activity would work, handed out small boards for everyone to write their chosen name on, and then they'd present it to the class one by one.
Before long, everyone had gotten absorbed in it.
Taka, for his part, was not doing well.
'The only names coming to mind are the embarrassing ones I came up with as a kid.'
Among those: TakaMan, The World Destroyer 3000, The Electrocuter, The SuperCool, EverythingAbsorber, DayDemolisher…
He wanted to punt his past self across the entire U.A. stadium.
Now he had to live with the consequences of his childhood's lack of creativity.
He suppressed the urge to drag a hand down his face.
Eventually he steadied himself, pulling in a slow breath and actually trying to think properly.
He planned to be at the top of the hero world. So something that conveyed grandeur would fit his requirements.
Although—should he use some moderation? Something too grand and he'd just come across as cocky.
"…"
A brief pause in his mind settled for a moment.
Then, Taka shrugged. 'Whatever. Who cares about looking cocky? If I am the strongest, I should be named accordingly.'
A few names surfaced immediately.
Unbeatable, Superior, Ultimate, Indominus, Invinc—never mind that one.
Plausible, at least.
But reviewing them, another thought followed.
'My power is aura. Since I plan to eventually reveal most of what I can do, it would be good to pick something that can tie into that naturally down the line.'
The first thing that came to mind was just calling himself Aura.
'That sounds like a common girl's name… actually, I'm sure it is.' He thought, scoffing internally.
Could he alter it somehow?
Aura… Auro?
Dumb.
Though… maybe—?
He wrote something on the board, staring at it with a judgemental look.
Auros.
'Maybe.' Taka thought, still weighing the name in his mind.
Though it sounded like something out of an ancient mythology—a name you'd give to an entity that came to end the world.
'It does sound cool though—and I could tie it to gold since aurum is the Latin word for it, which is what medals and trophies are made of, meaning a name for winners, and, uh…'
He checked his phone briefly to see if Auros was an actual word.
By its phonetic roots at least, it apparently also meant mountain in Old Greek.
'Fitting with grandeour…' He thought, squinting at the screen.
For he was the unclimbable mountain.
'Gosh that's so corny… but awesome in a way?'
He added it to the list regardless.
Another option was going full Todoroki-mode and just using his own name as his hero name.
...
'No offense, but that's boring.' He symbolically threw that option over his shoulder.
With that gone, Taka's mind hit a wall.
'What else could work?'
Normally he'd be more creative, but since he was holding himself to such a high standard, his brain was cutting down ideas before they could even fully form.
He spent several minutes stuck like that—ideas surfacing and being scratched off almost the moment they appeared.
He could always pick something provisionally decent and revise it later.
But changing his mind after the fact would be embarrassing. He had to land on the right answer here and now, on principle.
Picking up his board, he looked over the names that had survived.
And as he was slowly turning over whether he was a genius or just a corny bastard at heart, Midnight's voice landed on him.
"Takahashi—since you finished first at the festival, how about you start things off?"
Every eye in the room turned to him at once.
Taka's eye twitched at the inconvenient favoritism.
He looked at the board one last time.
'Whatever.'
And without overthinking it further, he erased all the other options and left only one.
He stood up with a composed look, made his way to the podium, and flipped the board around for everyone to see.
"I will be—Auros."
...
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-To Be Continued...-
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(A/N: I'm honestly not quite sure. A part of me thinks it sounds cool as hell, the other thinks it sounds corny as hell knowing he controls aura. Like being a mage and calling yourself magiko.
Regardless, what did you guys think? Hopefully you won't crucify me too hard this time.)