Chapter 1

Third P.o.V

Many years ago, a young princess named Kiyo fell in love with a handsome young priest named Anchin. Anchin was staying at the manor of Kiyo's family and became interested in the girl's exquisite beauty.

One day, he promised the troublesome girl that he'd marry her but only if she behaved. Not knowing it was a joke, the princess reminded him of his promise when he returned. Anchin lied to the girl once again by saying he would fulfill the engagement once he got back from his next trip.

Instead, he avoided Kiyo.

When the young girl found out about the lie, she was heartbroken. When she found him traveling through town, she chased the man to a nearby temple. She caught up to him and asked the priest why he had not fulfilled his promise, but instead of answering, Anchin claimed not to know the girl. Her sadness turned to rage and she attacked the man.

The young priest, now frietened of the young beauty, did the only thing he could think of and prayed for protection. Just as Kiyo was about to lung for him, a blinding light temporarily paralyzed Kiyo her.

The princess was startled long enough for the priest to escape to another temple across the river. Anchin paid the boatman to refuse service to Kiyo. Furious and fueled by rage, Kiyo was determined to get to the temple. When she was denied access, she simply swam after her target.

As soon as the young girl's body was submerged underwater, she began to transform into a large serpent. Her scales were said to be the size of dinner plates and her hatred-filled eyes were focused on searching for the man who wronged her.

After witnessing the horrifying metamorphosis, Anchin tried to hide in the temple's bell with the help of the head priest, however, Kiyo snuffed him out. She wrapped her serpent body around the bell and began to ring it vigorously, shaking up the man clinging on inside.

Then, in a fit of anguish, the princess breathed a hot fire from her mouth, melting the bronze bell and ultimately killing the man inside. Kiyo stopped, realizing what she had done. Overcome with grief, she then went on to drown herself in the river beneath her.

That's how the story of Anchin and Kiyo hime goes. Legend says her spirit went on to haunt the priest who hid Anchin, believing if he had simply brought them together instead of tearing them apart, her love would be alive. Her soul is said to be stuck in eternal heartache and anger as she if forced to live in the temple she and Anchin died in

You might say that Kiyo and Anchin's story simply a legend; a tale meant to scare children.

Well, legends are not just stories told to children or things made up for theatrical purposes. They are special. They are the thread that connects us to our ancestors...

Legends are our history.

Over Six Hundred Years Later...

Anzai Hotaru dreaded this part of going to school. The classes, she looked forward to, but meeting people and trying to make friends...? That's not really in her skill set.

Hotaru had watched all her new classmates arrive but never attempted to talk to them. It wasn't that she was incapable of striking up a conversation, but she just didnt want to. In all reality, it was both but telling herself the latter made her feel better. She raised an eyebrow as the class got quiet, the teacher having just entered a room.

"I'm Aizawa Shouta. I'll be your homeroom teacher," he said as he crawled out of a sleeping bag. Hotaru recognized him as the hero named Eraser Head. If she remembered correctly, his quirk could cancel other people's out.

Hotaru closed her scarlet eyes for a second. She still couldn't believe she was at one of the best hero schools in all of Japan!

"Each of you has a UA gym uniform in your desks. Put them on and then meet me outside," Aizawa pulled out a blue tracksuit for clarification.

Hotaru grabbed hers, wearily waiting for the class to be dismissed and at least half of the students to leave before she herself got up to change. She got to the girls' locker room and began changing. Intentionally, she was the last one to finish.

By the time she got outside, all the students of Class 1-A were standing in a small crowd around their new teacher. The awkward trek to join up with the group made Hotaru even more noticed as Aizawa had already begun to speak.

The pro hero was explaining how, in order to get stronger, they had to understand their current limits. Hotaru couldn't help but think of the school's 'Plus Ultra!' motto. She sighed as she stopped listening to the lecture and let her mind drift off, instead.

'Don't care to listen?'

'Nope.'

Hotaru played with a strand of her plum-coloured hair, the rest of it messily flowing down her back and conveniently covering up her lavender horns. Her purple tail swayed behind her, uncomfortably tucked under her tracksuit's black tank top.

'You know you can't hide these things from me. So, fess up. What's wrong?' the persistent voice in her head asked. This, ladies and gentleman, is the voice and spirit of the infamous Princess Kiyo.

"DIE!"

Hotaru flinched as her conversation was interrupted. She watched a blonde kid throw a ball that, with some help from his quirk, rocketed across the field. She felt her sweat fall as Aizawa held up a device that tracked how far the ball was thrown. Hotaru couldn't help but stare at the boy's smug expression with a slight sense of jealousy. She was in awe of his confidence.

'See, a whole new set of students. Nothing like your old classmates,' Kiyo stated. Hotaru narrowed her eyes and looked back to her shadow, Kiyo's dormant form, and frowned.

'Well, I don't want to get my hopes up just yet,' she admitted with a sigh.

'What's wrong?' Kiyo asked, noticing her host's displeased tone.

'Same thing that's always wrong...I'm worried that with me starting Hero School and all this new training that it'll be just like Junior High and Primary school. I feel like they'll notice I'm more fit to be a...' Hotaru paused, clenching her fists.

'A villain?' Kiyo didn't sound hurt but she didn't sound happy, either. Hotaru closed her eyes.

'I mean, I have your powers and you were the villain...' Hotaru thought.

'Don't worry about it. We both know you're not bad. That's all that matters,' Kiyo said. Hotaru was silent for a moment before nodding a quiet thank you to the voice that left once again. The teen allowed her mind to go quiet. With her conscious cleared for the mean time, she began to space out. She was blankly staring forward when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Um...Hello?" a girl with dark hair who Hotaru heard introduce herself as Yaoyorozu was staring.

"What?" Hotaru asked. Her question was met with silence and a few puzzled looks. She probably looked asleep while she was spaced out...

"Oh, right..." she remembered where she was. From what Hotaru could get out of the remainder of Aizawa's speech, the class was going to be participating in various tests to see what the students were made out of. The student with the lowest score would be kicked out of the class. Hotaru sighed, already coming to terms with her fate.

"Great..." she mumbled. The first objective was to clear fifty metres in the shortest amount of time possible. Hotaru thought for a moment. She used her sharp canine teeth to bite her thumb and draw blood.

'Is this really what you want?' Kiyo asked. Hotaru looked back to her shadow, eyes meeting a pair of red orbs that had appeared there. She was quiet.

"No..." she mumbled as the group before her finished their task. She stepped up to the line, ready to run. She could feel her alert senses go haywire from the adrenaline. She usually wasn't this hype but knowing the consequence Aizawa had set for the lowest scoring student, she didn't feel like taking anything lightly. Hotaru took a deep breath.

The signal went off, startling Hotaru and telling the participants that they should run. In seven-point-seventeen seconds, Hotaru reached the end, using a small burst of blue fire under her feet to help propel her forward. She had almost lost her footing a few times as she had quite literally tripped over her own feet. She blamed the fact that her tail was tucked in, leaving her unbalanced. She began to breathe heavily as her powers left her.

'Damn it...'

The class moved on to the next test. Weight Lifting. Hotaru managed to hold thirty kilograms. Needless to say, she was a little embarassed but Kiyo reminded her that her tail could hold even more. The only reason she didn't use it was because it didn't fit in her tracksuit comfortably. The only way it could be worn without making her tail look weird was by tucking in the scaly limb.

'With this new lifestyle, you'll need more training to be able to handle my power for long periods of time. I suggest we create a training regimen for you,' Kiyo said. Hotaru rolled her eyes, receiving a huff from the spirit.

'I can see you.'

Later...

It was the last activity of the day. The Pitch test. Hotaru watched as student after student used their quirk to throw the ball as far as they could. When it came time for Hotaru to participate, she panicked silently.

'Let me handle this,' Kiyo offered. Hotaru drew more blood from her hand, letting power surge through her body. She took a deep breath as she grabbed the ball.

'Just...hurry up,' Hotaru warned. She closed her eyes.

"I trust you, Kiyo," she whispered, opening her red eyes a bit before throwing the ball up into the air. When it came down in front of her, she breathed a stream of blue fire, charring the ball a bit but causing it to quickly shoot off into the distance Aizawa held up the device showing how far the ball went.

'Three hundred meters. You're already doing better than before,' Kiyo said with an encouraging tone. Hotaru stayed silent as she walked back to the others. She knew she could have done better since she didn't go all out but she felt she did the right thing by not using all her strength. She had originally hoped to use the least amount of power as possible, but that had gone down the drain instantly.

"That was so cool! You're like a dragon!" a pinkette named Ashido Mina commented. Hotaru nodded to her a quiet thank you. She buried herself in the collar of her gym uniform. The attention was making her uncomfortable.

After a few more tests, Aizawa displayed a board ranking the student's performance. Hotaru bit her lip as she scanned the board for her name.

'We're better than eighteenth,' Kiyo spat with venom laced in her words. Hotaru sighed.

'I mean...at least it's not last?'

'You would be first if you broke the seal and let me give you more power,' Kiyo suggested.

'You mean the power I can't fully control? Sure,' Hotaru responded with a large amount of sarcasm.

'Watch your tone, Young Lady,' Kiyo spat before falling silent. Due to her absence, Hotaru was forced to listen to Aizawa's words.

"By the way, I was lying about the expulsion."

Hotaru's face whitened and she froze. She had been so caught up worrying about her quirk and Kiyo that she forgot about the penalty for the student with the lowest scores. She felt her throat dry up.

"It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your quirks," Aizawa said.

"It was obviously a lie. It should have been obvious if you thought it through," Yaoyorozu noticed her classmates' dumbfounded faces. Hotaru swallowed the lump in her throat as her body went stiff and her sweat fell.

'Close one...'

-.-

Hey everyone! I just want to add a quick apology. I did my best on the first chapter but I feel weird about the flow. I had a different idea for Hotaru's quirk and hade to make many changes, so if something seems off just let me know and I'll fix it. It's most likely a part of my other story idea that I didn't see or get to fix.

Anyways, thank you for reading! Sorry for the long chapter.