103: Hero Name (3)

Chapter 103: Hero Name (3)

—

In the car, Neji talked to Kimi a bit more. He made sure she was fine with it. But as he had expected, she wasn't completely okay.

"But it's fine, I can see how my condition can be a big problem in the future. I will go."

That at least put Neji at ease.

By the time he reached school, he decided to put all this matter on the back of his head.

He shared a kiss with the two girls before running to his campus.

Today, he came across Midnight again.

"Oh hey~"

But the woman simply walked past him with a wave of her hand. Though she did sway her hips more than usual while walking away.

'If the timeline stays accurate, I guess she'd be a bit busy today.'

With that thought, he continued his walk.

'Still feels like I just got ignored though.'

He just tasted his own medicine, so he decided to give it a few folds back later on.

He reached the class and stopped himself from pushing the door open. Instead… he stops outside for a moment, listening to the ongoing conversations.

"Yeah man, I can't believe it. All these grade-schoolers on the way were congratulating me, telling me I did well at the festival. I feel like a celebrity."

"Me too, me too! There were these office workers on the train who patted me on my back. Ugh, if only I didn't end up against Todoroki!!"

"Come oon~ at least you weren't against Neji like me."

Kirishima, Sero, and Kendo were chatting in the middle of the class when the door finally opened and Neji walked in.

"Speaking of the devil." Kendo waved her hand. "Hope you weren't eavesdropping~ that'd be embarrassing for me."

Neji returned the wave as he walked in. "You don't usually say that, it's a dead giveaway."

"Just admit you eavesdropped." Kendo sighed as Neji shrugged and walked to his seat.

He gave Momo a high-five and Ochako a wink before taking a seat.

"Is Nejire senpai fine now?" 

Momo turned to face him immediately with that question.

"She is, no worries. Though Kimi isn't fine."

"Oh… what happened to her?" Momo asked worriedly.

Momo knew Kimi from middle school since she's been driving for Neji since then. But their relationship has never been that deep. Even now, they weren't very close. But she was still worried about her since she was a fellow 'Family Member', as Nejire had put it. 

"Well, you probably don't know, Kimi has had Hemophobia for 13 years. To fix it in an amateur way, I… tried to force her into watching a gore-horror movie. Which as you can guess, ended very badly."

Momo frowned at him.

"Now we have decided to send her to a therapist."

Momo looked at him with a judging look. "Wow, you forced her knowing she has a phobia. What a scumbag."

"..."

"Trash of society."

Neji stayed silent but Momo shrugged after a while.

"I am joking. Such things happen from time to time. At least you apologised, right?"

Neji sighed. "I did."

"Good. Oh, it looks like Sensei's here."

She then turned around hearing the footsteps coming from the outside.

Then, Aizawa walked in just as everybody went dead silent.

"Morning."

Aizawa stood in front of his podium. He wasn't wearing any bandages this time, which some students noticed and congratulated him on his recovery.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive." He said, rubbing a scar below his eyes. "But never mind that. Today we've got a Hero Informative Class, and a special one at that."

The students groaned under their breaths. They had just finished the festival after all, yet there was a 'special' Hero Informative class.

Then Aizawa sighed as he spoke again. "Today, you'll be coming up with your Hero names."

The student's tired demeanours took a turn as they took in his words.

"...Wait, that's great!!!"

They cheered aloud immediately but Aizawa's hair started to float in the air which caused all of them to go silent.

"But first, concerning the Internship picks I mentioned before the festival." He said, glaring down at the students. "It's about who the Pros think will be able to join the Hero Workforce in the incoming two or three years. The internship usually starts from the 2nd year of UA, but because of Sir Nighteye's influence, we changed that three years ago. In other words, you'd get to work with a Pro Hero of your choosing for a while based on the invitations you received—very soon."

Then he walked to the blackboard and started to draw lines with a stick of chalk, as he spoke.

"Now, regarding the number of picks you received…" he finished drawing in a blink as he continued. "Here they are."

He stepped aside for the student to see the board as some whistled with some sighing.

"As you can see, our top four have stolen most of the spotlight," Aizawa said, pointing at the board where numbers were written beside the students' names. "Neji received 5431 invitations. Bakugo got 4231. Todoroki got 3210 and Inasa received 3100 invites."

The students simply gazed at the numbers for a while before starting to look for their names...before some deep sighs sounded out again.

"Now, as you can see, only 10 of you have received invitations," Aizawa said, pointing at the board again. "Amongst the non-rankers, only Momo Yayorozu received more than a thousand, standing at 1560. Other than that, 10 of you haven't received any votes at all."

He let the words hang in the air before continuing.

"However, with that in mind, you will all have a chance to work along with the Pros." His words seemed to carry a healing effect as everyone's mood rose. "The school wants you to experience the outside world from the get-go. While you have experienced what actual villains can do, working alongside a Pro is a whole different experience. In simpler words, it's necessary to understand what goal you are walking towards."

Everyone nodded swiftly while Kirishima threw his fist in the air. "Yeah, that's where our Hero names come into play!!"

Pros always use their hero names on duty. So every intern will have to choose one too.

Aizawa nodded. "Yes. However, while they are only tentative, you'd still want to pick something appropriate-"

"OR ELSE-" A feminine voice interrupted him. "You'll know true hell!!"

With a sway of her hips, Midnight walked into the room.

While the students exclaimed surprise at Midnight's appearance, she continued after taking a standing beside Aizawa.

"The names you pick may be what the world comes to know you as you see." She said, "That happened to plenty of Pros already."

Aizawa sighed. "She's right. Midnight here will be assessing the sensitivity of the names you are picking since I am quite bad at it. Just remember, the name you choose is usually what you are striving to become."

"Now, now Aizawa, get out already~ I want to spend some alone time with my sweet students."

Aizawa shook his head with a tired expression as he walked out of the classroom.

Then Midnight crouched down beside the podium before starting to take out some paper boards. 

"Alright, you got 10 minutes to write the name on these!"

She passed the paper to the students.

—★—

"Psst, hey, what name did you choose?" Momo whispered to Neji from ahead. "I already have one in mind… but I won't go first!"

Neji flipped his card from Momo's view. "It's a secret."

Momo gave him a dry stare before turning away. "...Fine. I'll see it soon anyway."

It's been around 10 minutes, and the students were mostly done.

After a short moment, Midnight called. "Let's finish up! We will start with whoever wants to come up first!!"

Nobody moved from their seats… except for Yuga, who gracefully walked to the podium and presented his hero name.

"My hero name will be… [I cannot stop twinkling]!"

Midnight leaned over. "Hm, it'd be easier to say if you remove the 'I' and change 'cannot' into 'can't'. Other than that, it seems good."

Yuga nodded gracefully.

As he walked back to his seat, the other students also started to walk in one by one. Some were bad, some were great, and some simply plain.

"Just your name? Are you certain?" Midnight asked, seeing Todoroki's hero name, [Shoto].

Shoto nodded. "Yes."

Midnight shrugged.

Then came Inasa with a broad smile on his face.

"I choose [Gale Force]!!!"

"Oh, not bad, not bad." Midnight applauded. "Next."

As Inasa returned triumphantly but nobody else moved, Midnight looked over to Neji. "Oh-ho. Why don't you come here, boy?"

"There are others left though." Neji replied.

"It doesn't matter~ I feel like your name would need some adjustments." 

Neji frowned at her words and just to prove her wrong, he stood up before walking over and representing his name.

[God Killer]

"..." Not only Midnight, but everyone stared at the name deadpanly.

"Wow… I didn't think he was the chunni type."

Neji's lips twitched at Mina's teasing giggle.

"Yeah, I thought Bakugo would choose such names, instead. I sometimes forget how subtly arrogant Neji is."

Midnight also giggled. "Well, that wouldn't work. Guess I was right after all. Go back and choose another one, boy."

Neji stood for a moment, looking over to his name, before sighing and walking away.

Momo held on to her stomach to hold back her laugh. "Oh my God… God Killer… hahaha!!" But she failed in the end. "T-that's the great name you were hiding?!"

Neji made a note in his mind to punish her later.

Then Momo cleared her throat and walked to the front herself. Her name was the same as canon, [Creati]. Neji complimented her instead of laughing, and she seemed to take pride in it instead of feeling guilty that she received goodwill in return for mocking.

Neji made a second mental note.

Next,  Bakugo walked ahead with his expression more neutral than any other day.

He presented his name.

[Katsuki]

The chattering of the whole class went silent.

"Oh, you will choose just your name too?" Midnight asked. "Well… this works I guess."

With a nod, Bakugo walked back to his seat, again silently.

He gave Neji a silent glance before turning his head ahead again.

Next, Midoriya walked in.

"Hope you also didn't just pick your birth name." Midnight said while leaning over to see his name. 

"Oh… [Repeller Imperial], huh."

Midnight nodded. "Not bad. The word Imperial is usually found on Chinese Heroes, but this works too."

Izuku nodded at the compliments from the teacher and his classmates before walking away to his seat.

Then Neji stepped up again with a new name. "Alright, this one isn't chuunibyou."

He presented his name. 

[Mountain Crasher]

Midnight laughed. "It's not chunni, but it's not exactly great. Are you sure you want this? I would suggest not."

Neji looked down on the name with a frown. "Isn't it fine though…?"

Midnight leaned over. "Ah, I see. Your naming sense isn't the best… Guess you are still human, after all. Imperfections are expected."

Neji groaned in annoyance. Before wiping the name and writing a new one.

[Seismic]

"This one sounds sissy." Midnight said before he could present it to the whole class who eagerly tried to peek at it. "You sure you want a girly hero name? Go on, it's not bad enough for me to not approve. But it's really sissy, I am not joking."

Neji turned to give her smiling face a deadpan look. "You know, even my mom doesn't meddle this much into my decisions."

"That's a great mother then." Midnight smiled. "She knows her son is capable, so she trusts you with your decisions. Just that—this time it's different."

Neji growled under his breath and was about to walk back but Midnight stopped him. "Want me to choose one for you? There is a reason why Aizawa gave me his spot for today's class, you know. But of course, it's your choice. Not everybody would want to be known by a name chosen by someone else, after all."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "...Oh, sure. I don't really mind, but no guarantee that I would choose it though."

She smiled. "That's fair."

Then she grabbed the chalk from Neji's name, making sure their skin touched for a bit longer than needed, before writing a name.

She immediately scrubbed it off with a shake of her head before trying again. Then, as she wrote the word containing 11 letters, she gave a satisfied nod.

Neji stared at it for a brief second before shrugging. "Well, I guess it works. Not like I care much."

As long as the name wasn't funny or gross, he was fine with it. He grabbed the card and then presented it to the class.

The word, [Shatterstar], was written on the card.

"Shatterstar? Whoa, as in Star Shatterer? Sounds manly!" Kirishima was the first one to comment.

"Mhm, it suits his quirk too I guess. It can shatter anything, maybe a star isn't that far ahead." Kendo commented.

"Yeah, not bad, Neji! Even though you cheated by taking Midnight's help!" Mina yelled out from the side.

Neji gave her a quiet stare as Mina tried to match it before blushing and backing away.

Amidst the dozens of applause, Neji turned to Midnight. "Well, thank you for this, M'lady. I would have kissed your hand if not for my girlfriend lurking in the back of the class. She said not to touch any other females in front of her, you see."

Momo's face flustered. "O-oi, what the hell! Don't talk about that so loudly!!"

"—So maybe another time." Neji finished.

He winked at her once before walking away. Midnight gave his back a look, clearly amused at his daring approach in the middle of the whole class.

She simply clapped her hand, not fazed at all under the students' stunned gaze, as she spoke. 

"Come on, continue here. Uraraka, you are next!"

With that, Neji's Hero Name was decided.

Next, was the internship.

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Author's Note: For some reason, the name "Shatterstar" just sounds so grand and fabulous to me.

Cheese note: Infinitely Supreme Divine Saint Sky Crusher

A/N-2: Or, Earthquake Godking Immortal Venerable