The pale teen sat in seiza, still as possible, trying to regain control over her breath. Her snow white hair had tangled and turned gray from sweat and dust, and her workout clothes looked just as abused.

"Sakura? I hear your entrance exams are approaching." A shaky voice called from elsewhere in the dojo.

Golden eyes watched the black padded mat below her slowly become polka-dotted with liquid. Her chin itched from the trail of sweat that had been consistently dripping down it. She leaned her head down and wiped her jaw on her sleeve before replying. "Hai, sensei. I appreciate your recommendation. I will do my best to prove myself."

When he finally replied, Sakura had already gotten her gym duffel re-packed and was busy mopping the floor clean. "Don't mind what your mother says. Know that she is proud of you, under all her worry." He almost sounded exasperated, a tone she wasn't used to hearing come from the old man. His relationship with her mother was still a mystery to her, after all these years. Sakura didn't reply as she threw her dirty towels in the laundry before heading to the door, bumping into Keisuke as she left.

He stuck his pierced tongue out and wrinkled his nose at her. She shoulder-checked the older teen teasingly before putting her headphones on and making her way to the bus stop, trying to ignore how hot she was in her workout sweatshirt.

She was still processing the fact that she was able to get recommended into the UA Hero Course through her dojo. Not through connections or money, but from her own hard work, despite her foster mothers' sabotage efforts.

Making her way home, the neighborhood was peaceful. The sun was setting, layering everything in a golden sepia yellow. When she rounded the corner of her street, the stray cat she dubbed Mako followed her like she normally did. The black cat meowed a polite "goodbye" when her front door opened, and took off around the corner of her next door neighbors' house.

Her foster mother, Aiko, was unfortunately home, and had been waiting for her arrival.

The young-looking woman ran an accounting business, while her father Kent worked for a construction company, putting his super strength to good use. They were both pushing 40, working hard to save for their retirement. Sadly, it meant that they were rarely home. But for a girl who was forced to be independent early in life, the whole setup was pretty alright. She had a roof over her head, food in her fridge, a phone in her pocket, and a shoulder to cry on when she really needed it. That's what matters.

However, since she had told them of her ambition to become a hero, her mother had been passive aggressively making her opinion known.

Family dinners were quiet, when they were all present. She no longer found homemade bento boxes sitting on the kitchen counter in the mornings. When she trained too hard, her bloody knuckles went unwrapped, leaving the air to sting her blisters (she learned how to wrap her own after the first few months). And when they were home alone, like they were now, the air was so thick with tension that it was hard to even breathe.

The latter technically only started after Aiko had tried to dissuade Akihiko-sensei from giving her a recommendation to the best hero school in all of Japan.

Sakura knew what the woman would want to talk about and passed her silently, avoiding eye contact. Fleeing to the bathroom, she tried not to get herself worked up, not wanting to have the same argument they had been fighting for the past 2 years. Aiko didn't follow her.

Sakura showered and groomed herself, taking time to carefully comb through the tangles in her short white hair. A knock at the door made her jump. She did nothing to acknowledge it. She didn't want to fight. She just wanted to be a hero, and that was that. Aiko couldn't stop her.

"Sakura? Can we talk?" A muffled whisper made it's way through the door. Instead of her normal hostile tone, she sounded defeated. Sakura relented, opening the door to a cloud of shimmer and sparkles.

With a wet pop, Aiko reformed, hair and skin dewy. Her quirk was Water Cycle, allowing her cells on an individual level to burst into a cloud of water vapor or turn into a puddle. Sadly, this meant that any fetus in her womb was unable to survive the first trimester, leaving adoption as her only chance at a family. Hence Sakura.

While they never officially adopted Sakura, she was part family all the same.

"I guess..." she replied softly, returning to her room to take a seat on her bed as the older woman stood in the doorway, arms crossed, not wanting to get the furniture or carpet wet.

"Did... did Kent ever tell you why I don't want you to be hero?" She shook as she spoke, her voice sounded meek. She was looking more like a drowned rat by the moment. Not used to seeing the woman so emotional, Sakura simply shook her head, scared of saying anything to upset her further.

Shaky breathing was all Sakura could hear for a moment, before they locked eyes, yellow on blue. "I had a younger brother once. Our quirks were basically identical, he just had a lot more control over his. He always wanted to be a hero. I thought it was cute." She chuckled, "Every kid wanted to be a hero,"

She shivered (from sadness or from her soaked clothes, Sakura couldn't tell) as tears began to fall freely down her cheeks. "When he got into the Hero Courses at his school, we were both so excited. I was so excited for him, so happy to see him happy. And then he graduated, and we celebrated, and Mom and Dad were so proud. I was so proud." She had to take a break to steady herself, still staring Sakura in the eye. "We didn't realize how often he would be coming home with bruises and broken bones. And then one day, he was just... gone. And they don't know what happened. It's been 13 years." She finished, wiping at her cheeks.

Sakura let that sit for a moment, trying to absorb everything she had just been told. Before she could think of a reply, Aiko continued. "I'm sorry for being so cold recently. I'm just scared for you. You never got to know him. We've raised you all these years, and I don't want to see you go missing like Takeo did. It was my job to protect him, and it's my job to protect you. Im so proud of you, and I'll try to be more supportive from now on. I know you're strong, Sakura. Please try to be understanding of me."

She fled before Sakura could say anything. She could hear sobbing from their connected wall. The teen sat dumbstruck, trying to absorb all the information that had just been thrown at her.

She had heard the name mentioned before in passing, but Sakura just figured Takeo was some distant relative. Things made much more sense now.

That was probably how Akihito-sensei knew Aiko. Through Takeo, somehow. Akihito was a retired hero, after all. A few puzzle pieces fell into place, but the big picture was still lost to her.

She brooded on it all week as she trained, getting ready for the recommendation exams. When she thought of her missing uncle, her punches became more fierce. It lit a fire in her. The tension between her and Aiko slowly dissipated, and home felt next to normal again. There was still an undercurrent in the air, a cord waiting to snap, but neither of them reached for it anymore, content to let it lay forgotten.

She will become a hero. She will bring Takeo back to Aiko, or at the very least, find out what happened to him. Aiko deserves that, at least.

She will prove to herself that no matter what happened in her past, whether she came from a shitty orphanage or from a loving foster family, she chooses how to live her life. She gets to choose what type of person she will be, what type of hero she will be.

She couldn't bruise, after all, and broken bones didn't matter when you could just grow new ones.

No one will ever be be able to call her a delinquent ever again. Or worse, look at her with that glint of opportunism glimmering within. A ward of the government, minimal supervision, and a powerful quirk made her ripe for the pickings. Not even mentioning her "accident", it was almost like they expected her to turn evil. With a disgusting quirk like hers, it wouldn't be a surprise.

Thankfully, child services prioritized her and placed her with a family. And the rest was history. And now here she was.

In her gym clothes and standing at a starting line, she was surrounded by a couple dozen other middle school students. Everyone looked just as nervous as her, except for a couple of cocky kids that she paid no mind to. She fiddled with the multiple metal rings that looped around her ears, making sure they were all in perfect position. She hated when they looked sloppy, and there were a lot of judgey-looking rich kids around.

All of their quirks were impressive. There was a boy with split hair who could control both ice and fire, another element user who could manipulate wind, a girl who's quirk was simply good luck, and another girl who could create seemingly anything inorganic from her body.

Sakura felt inadequate as she stood between them all at the start line of the 3 kilometer obstacle course they were expected to complete. She gulped as she stared up the mountainous terrain, sending a quick prayer to her ancestors for protection (she liked to believe, although she was abandoned at birth, her blood ancestors still looked out for her).

Taking a deep breath, the white-haired girl steadied her nerves. She shed her hoodie in preparation, leaving her in her sports bra and cycling shorts. It would have just gotten shredded otherwise, and Sakura hated wasting perfectly good clothes. Thankfully everyone was too focused on the task at hand to notice her state of undress.

Present Mic, their proctor, explained the rules, but she had a hard time listening over the pounding of her heart. Before she realized it, he screamed "START!", his vocal quirk echoing in her ears. A nanosecond later, everyone burst into action. A blast of ice-cold air hit her from the left and Sakura stumbled, gooseflesh erupting over her arms and legs. She only hesitated for a second before dashing forward, her leg and core muscles rippling with effort. Despite her hesitation, she was already passing people. She couldn't see anyone on the other side of the ice wall that had formed to her left, but that didn't matter. She just needed to be fast.

The flat terrain soon came to an end, meeting Sakura with a cliff she had to scale. There was a trail of ice leading up she could climb if she wanted to, but this was her chance to show off her own quirk and its versatility.

Half a dozen other students had already started climbing by hand, using the provided hand hooks, apparently having no quirk to aid them. Sakura took a deep breath before activating her own.

A feeling of weightlessness overtook her as she lightened her density as much as she could. The light pink scarring on her palms twisted away to reveal glistening white bone. She rounded out the joints in her elbows and shoulders, giving her more reach and flexibility than she would have normally.

Climbing hooks were summoned from her palms with little coaxing, and after shedding her tennis shoes, she extended the bones from her toes as well, fusing them together. Soon enough she was scaling the wall, passing students that started before her, all while trying her best not to look down.

The rock wasn't too hard to pierce, but the shock from stabbing into earth over and over with her feet was making her muscles sore. She pushed through, using as many muscle groups as she could to hold her weight up so her arms wouldnt become exhausted.

While she was busy focused on not falling, pebbles raining from above landed in her hair, making her flinch.

"WHAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" She looked up just in time to see a girl with acid green hair hurtling towards her. Thinking fast, Sakura flung herself to the side, relying on her right arm and leg to keep her attached to the cliff as her left hand with the climbing hook lashed out and snagged the girls' white hood of her sleeveless athletic shirt. With a heave, and a flick of her foot, she brought the girl to eye-level and made a platform of bone pierce the rock just in time for her arm to give out under the weight of the two girls. They fell into a heap onto her ledge, which was barely big enough to hold both of them. Sakura scrambled to keep as close to the cliff as possible. Now that she was face to face with how high she was, she felt like she was going to hurl.

"Thank'ya much!" The green-haired girl said, hardly even out of breath. She started climbing again, leaving Sakura in her panic. She really didn't like heights.

Oh yeah. That was the girl with the "Good Luck" quirk. She was definitely lucky. While she was sure that Mic wouldn't let them fall to their deaths, the very experience would be horrifying.

She hurried to catch up, not wanting to be left behind. Once she reached the top, she reabsorbed her makeshift climbing gear and assessed the course below her. She wasn't far behind the lucky girl. There was a river she had to cross once she reached the bottom of the mountain safely, and after that was what looked like a booby-trapped track field. The trail of ice had already made it to the finish line, she noted. Someone had already passed. She had to hurry if she wanted a chance.

Scoffing, Sakura slid down the slope on her heels. Her heart skipped a beat as the loose earth started giving way, threatening to suck her in. Quicksand. With a jump, Sakura's flesh wriggled out of the way as she tapped her heels together before drawing them apart, an oval plank of pure bone now connecting them, acting like a surfboard. Increasing her density slightly, she leaned forward, arms splayed wide.

"HEELLLLL YEAHHHHHH!!" She yelled as she rode down a wave of earth, passing a silver haired boy who got swallowed by her wake. Wind whipped her hair behind her, surely tangling itself into a mess, but she was having too much fun to care. She passed the lucky girl in no time flat. This test was actually pretty easy.

The river was soon reached and bypassed using a short pair of stilts. The trail of ice she had been following had formed a bridge, which only just started to melt under the heat of the summer sun. Thinking about all the people behind her, she decided to destroy the bridge with a large bone spike extended from her stomach, eliminating any chance of someone using it to catch up to her. She left a few glistening white plates of armor on her ribs and back, in case she needed a quick defense.

As soon as she felt satisfied with her destruction, she broke back into a run. She hadn't been keeping track of how many people she overtook, but she must have been towards the front of the pack. She just had to finish this one last obstacle.

She jumped over a 10 ft deep pit, gulping at the distance between her and the hard ground. She almost tripped over a wire, but as soon as she stepped over it, she had to dodge a cement ball the size of her head. She couldn't tell where it came from, and it clipped her right elbow with a crack. The teen winced as she felt it fracture. Not hesitating a moment, she held her palm over the injury and mended the bone, keeping her golden eyes on the finish line.

Five steps later another 10 ft hole appeared below her, its camouflage disappearing just as she floated above the dark cavern. This one was much wider. It couldn't be crossed with a single jump. The white-haired teen had to extend a spear from her back and into the ground to stop her momentum sending her in head-first, heart pounding at the close call. She watched as rocks and gravel fell, her body partially suspended over the pit.

Gulping, Sakura retracted herself and backed up a few feet, gaining some distance before running forward even faster than before.

She summoned a circular disk from the sole of her left foot on her last step. Her momentum, combined with rapidly expanding the disk under her foot into a rigid pole, propelled her over the the last of the course completely. She quickly calculated what height she needed to be at before detaching herself from her makeshift launch pad and leaping across the rest of the obstacles, barely missing a black-haired girl, and flying straight through the finish line.

Flipping over herself, she landed on her heels once, before having to do another back flip. This time she landed on the soles of her feet, skidding back yards passed the finish. Dust shot up in all directions. It took all of her core muscles to stay upright, gravity threatening to pull her tumbling into the ground. Her usually pristine skin almost looked tan from all the grime, and her hair was a disaster of dirt clods and tangles.

Present Mic approached her loudly, gesturing with waving arms, "Way to go! You're in fourth place. What an impressive quirk! You're free to leave at any time, your results will be sent to you within the month. Hope to see you in class this semester!" He gave her something- a sticker? before rushing to greet the next person who finished. People were starting to flood in. She looked at the smiling Mic sticker blankly before dropping it to the ground and walking to the exit, disappointed in the anticlimactic end to the test that gave her so much anxiety.

And she still had to wait for her results. How annoying.

She walked back to the start of the obstacle course, retrieving her hoodie and tennis shoes to re-dress before making her way back to the finish line and then the subway station.

By the time she walked back to the finish line, the other students (and even Present Mic) had mostly left. There was only a lone female outside, probably waiting for a ride. After digging through her memory, she recognized her as the girl with the Creation quirk.

Not wanting to be impolite, Sakura gave her a small smile and wave as she passed, silently hoping the other girl wouldn't take it as an invitation for conversation.

Thankfully she didn't, simply returning the gesture. A black car with tinted windows pulled around the corner as Sakura walked down the street. She had to hold down her jealousy. Rich, and with a quirk like that, there was no way she failed their exam. Her parents might have even bribed the school.

Narrowing her eyes, she tried to keep her mind blank as she made her way home, ignoring all the stares and mutters at her haggard appearance. It wasn't the first time she had taken the subway looking like she had just escaped a train wreck, and it probably wouldn't be the last. She's honestly surprised it wasn't more common in such a world.

Reminicing on the test while she waited for her stop, she wasn't very impressed with her performance. Maybe if there had been a chance for her to show her battle prowess, she would be more confident. But as it stands, she just made a surfboard and some stilts. Hardly impressive. It wasn't where she shined. She thrived in combat, not dodging obstacles.

Mako the kitty was missing this time when she turned onto her street, and the house was empty when the white-haired teen arrived. After a relaxing bath, Sakura went in the backyard to do some stretches, trying to increase her range of motion to a full 360 in all of her joints like Akihito wanted her to try doing.

She was becoming quite the contortionist.

True to his own schedule, Katsuki Bakugo, her neighbor from across the street, was in his own backyard training. She could hear his explosions and exclamations of anger almost nightly. The neighborhood mostly ignored it by now, accepting it as just another factor amongst many that was steadily dropping the market value of their properties.

They had gone to the same school since she moved into the Sato's household, but rarely interacted. Although he was a bully, he left her alone. She suspected he had either a great fear or begrudging respect for her father, a man with a strong quirk and equally strong work ethic, or was simply afraid of her close proximity. She could easily tattle to his mother, and that woman could be a nightmare walking if Sakura could tell by the mother and sons' (reoccurring) arguments. Arguments that could be heard from clear across the street, and occasionally, from all the way down the block.

They kept their distance. His unsavory attitude didn't mesh with Sakura's laid-back tendencies anyways. She tried to avoid unnecessary conflict, while he created chaos with pleasure. The few times they did cross paths, they didn't exactly leave as "friends".

He was in a different class, but it was well-known around school that he wanted to become a hero, and had the skill to do it. On the other hand, Sakura kept her ambitions to herself. She didn't have friends outside of those at White Dragon Dojo, and she didn't feel the need to boast or show off to her classmates like Katsuki did. She wondered if he would make it. She wondered how he would react if they both made it.

Shivering at the implications of Katsuki going to the same high school as her, Sakura tried to push the thought from her mind as she finished her stretches and went inside to prepare her own dinner. Soon after she was done eating, the neighborhood was silent again, relishing in the peace. Not a single cicada or cricket chirped.

She doubted she passed. She could look into Shiketsu tonight and see when their entrance exams were, maybe even look into another foster family on that side of Tokyo, so she could go to school there (the Satos would always be her true family, but why not take advantage of the system while she still could?). Takeo went to Shiketsu, from what Aiko has told her, so it can't be that much worse than UA.

Her uncle had been a great hero dubbed Whiplash. After learning about him, and learning her foster mothers' maiden name, she was able to do some research. She didn't end up reading that much into Shiketsu that night.

Whiplash was a hero with an outstanding record, although he wasn't very popular due to his average quirk and snarky personality. He was mostly known for his heroics in the Rescue and Retrieval department of the Coast Guard, but he also seemed to be popular at hero agencies all over the city, regularly being called on to assist with missions.

When she first googled his name, there was page after page of articles deliberating his disappearance. Some theorized he was simply tired of the hero life and wanted to escape it all. Some thought he defected and became a villain himself. Some articles even spoke of human trafficking (depending on the source, he could be a victim or a perpetrator). The least likely scenario she read was that he was still alive, just on some secret mission (for 13 years?). The most likely theory she found was that he was killed in an underground mission gone wrong. To Sakura, they all sounded like a bunch of bullshit. To Aiko, they were probably downright insulting.

Eventually she scrolled upon his quirk description. Her mom was right; they had essentially the same quirk, he just had more control. He could sense any water source within a 50 meter radius, including that emitting from humans, and could control his transformations and element much better than his elder sister.

Not finding anything new or interesting, Sakura switched her phone off and got ready for bed. It would be a long few years ahead of her, and she needed to rest while she could. She passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

She dreamt about flying that night, a feathery pair of angelwings graced her back as she looked at the ant-like people below her. Her heart pounded with the exileration, arms splayed wide as she soared among the clouds. Then, she felt a hand gripping her hair. She brought her arms up, trying to support her weight, trying to keep her hair from tearing straight out of her skull. She stared at the people below her, wondering if any of them would catch her if she fell. If he dropped her. Her wings disappeared.

All at once, Sakura was reminded of why she really didn't like heights.