Guitar Hero

10 months to U.A

Kyoka Jiro was a lot of things; Hero student hopeful, teenager, best-girl, romantic, cute, musician.

Depressed wasn't usually something one would associate with her, today however, the purple haired girl was feeling so low that even her favourite band couldn't reach her.

"Who the hell can be a hero just 'cause they can hear shit?"

"You'll never get to U.A... Stick to something realistic, like a music teacher in some run down school!"

Ever since she had applied to U.A her supposed friends and class mates had turned on her out of sheer jealousy, her being one of the only ones with grades good enough to apply to the top hero school in the region.

The other top student was her first ever boyfriend. Well, first ever ex-boyfriend now she supposed, again wiping away tears that had spilled out from her dark eyes.

"We need to talk Jiro..." He had said, pulling her away at lunch time to brutally dump her in front of his friends. "It's finished with us, I can't believe you thought you could go to U.A with the likes of me... Your quirk isn't suited to be a hero." The other boys laugh in the background.

"b-but... you said you liked me?... why are you being like this?" A tear silently falls from one of her almond shaped eyes and down her soft cheek.

"Hah! I only asked you out to see if you really were a lesbian like everyone says!"

"p-people say that?!" The tears stream and her shoulders begin to shake.

The background noise becomes too much, especially the laughter from the crowd that has gathered to finally look down on the top student. Her head whips around, noise from all angles overwhelming her due to her super hearing.

"Face it Jiro, no guy will look twice at that ironing board body of yours! And those earlobes! Don't even get me started on how creepy they are, moving about like fuckin' snakes!"

That's the final straw, the girl pulls herself together enough to stumble her way through the mass of students. She makes it to the toilet cubicle before she collapses on the floor, hyperventilating and choking on her own tears.

She doesn't know how long she spent cradling herself on the bathroom floor before the tears start to dry up and her shaking stops.

It does stop eventually however, and she picks herself up from the sticky toilet floor. Leaving the cubicle she glances in the mirror above one of the sinks. The Kyoka that looks back at her looks as bedraggled as she feels.

School has finished some time ago she realises, seeing the empty hallways and classrooms, her usual train has no doubt already departed- just another thing to add to the list of shit she has to deal with.

Plugging in a jack to her phone and hitting play, she lets the sweet sounds of Oasis wash over her. Her favourite band at the moment can usually get her out of any funk, be it a study block or when she feels lonely it never fails to get her back in the groove.

Today though, it's just white noise to add to the background.

As she travels home, on a much more packed train than she's used to, her head spins with the new knowledge that apparently no one at school likes her very much, and if her ex is to be believed they talk about her when she isn't around. She swallows the sick feeling rising from her stomach.

Kyoka has heard things she hasn't supposed to hear before- she can't help it seeing as her quirk doesn't turn off. Even occasionally she's overheard some mean things about herself, things she tried to brush off as girls just being girls. Little things about how flat her chest still is despite the fact they are all about to enter high school, among other shit that she bottles up.

When a boy finally noticed her she jumped at the chance to go on a date, to experience love like in some of the old ballads she listened to sometimes. It had given her a small confidence boost, the boost she needed to tell her parents that she had applied to U.A instead of the musical school they had gone to. Then in turn her parents had solidified her dream to be a hero. They believed in her!

"Even if no one else does..." She thinks to herself, finally getting to her house. "...What a long fucking day"

Kyoka has missed tea but there's a note on the fridge letting her know to reheat the left overs. She isn't remotely hungry however and decides to just head upstairs to clean herself up.

After a long, scalding hot shower, she appears in front of the bathroom mirror, inspecting her appearance. She hates what she sees.

Long purple hair hangs down past her shoulders, sticking to her still wet skin. She brushes it back behind her ears with her fingers in order to get a look at her seemingly creepy jacks.

They've never bothered her before but now she doesn't know what to think.

Almond eyes lowering to her chest she whimpers at the smallness of her breasts, all the other girls in her class were well developed already. She's always been a little subconscious about her size but now it's actively weighing on her mind.

Her stomach is flat but not toned and her hips aren't very shapely for a woman.

More tears threaten to escape her dark eyes but she blinks them away for now as she reaches for the scissors her mum keeps in the cabinet for her hair.

"Fuck it!"

Kyoka begins chopping at her hair randomly, huge strips falling to the floor at her feet.

She stops when she can comfortably see her jacks even when they aren't extended.

The teary eyed girl brings up the scissors once more with one hand and grabs her ear jack with the other, forcibly extending it out. She opens the scissors, ready to cut.

Glancing at the mirror she sees what she is about to do and hastily throws the scissors to the floor, dry retching and shocked at herself for even considering mutilating her body.

After she tidies up she goes to bed and cries herself to sleep.

5 months to U.A

Kyoka's grades have slipped. The effort she once put in to her studies has decreased greatly, her classmates now openly rip in to her and have been for the last 5 months.

Her parents know something is wrong but she hasn't told them about the bullying. She hasn't told anyone- the teachers don't care as long as no one gets physical and she has no friends to stick up for her any more.

Her ex has turned people against her it seems, she wonders if it's because she wouldn't do things with him but he still tells everyone that she went down on him.

She has kept her short hairstyle, adding some dark eyeliner and a new leather jacket. She feels like an evolved Kyoka Jiro. The insults and rumours don't hurt her any more, she doesn't let it. Or so she tells herself, but bottling it up feels better than collapsing in tears so that's what she'll keep doing.

With the entrance exam on the horizon she has taken to running and working out after school a couple nights a week. The once sweet natured girl is now fully determined to get to U.A and prove all these cunts wrong. Being a good hero now just a bonus of her goals.

Kyoka plugs in her jack and plays her new favourite genre- Rock.

Deep Purple's Highway Star blares into her ears as she gets pumped up for a run to the beach and back.

Touching her toes and stretching back up she takes off, cool evening air whipping her short bangs out of her eyes.

She reaches the Musutafu beach in a personal best of 30 minutes. Smiling to herself she pauses for a quick breather, genuinely pleased with her progress over the last few months. Her first run had ended after 10 minutes and a severely skinned knee.

Kyoka takes a gulp of her water but only gets a dribble from the bottom of her bottle.

"Ah shit." She breathes out, not rationing her water for the half hour return journey was going to be a pain.

"h-Here! Y-you can have t-this?" A stuttery voice has appeared next to the sweat drenched girl. Attached to said voice is a shaky water bottle being offered to her.

Jiro eyes up the newcomer. A boy about her age probably, similarly drenched in sweat but visibly shaking.

"Don't you need it?" She asks the boy as he turns bright red.

"It's like he's never spoken to a girl before!" Kyoka thinks to herself as the boy splutters out a garbled response.

"N-nah, I've done the b-beach, home going now!"

"Oh well thanks...?" She gingerly accepts the offered bottle and pauses for the boy to tell her his name.

"No problem, a H-hero is supposed to help after all!" He grins at her and it looks genuine, his shaking abates for the moment and she thinks he looks like she used to, before she stopped caring about shit.

"Hero huh? What if I don't deserve help huh?" She asks the boy with a little more sting in her words than she meant.

"y-yeah! I'm applying to U.A... hopefully! Ah miss...?" He looks to her for a name.

"Jiro"

"Jiro" He says, the way he pronounces the 'o' makes her smile on the inside. "Everyone deserves help. Even a villain. So you can't tell me that you don't, a p-pretty girl like you couldn't possibly be as bad as a villain..." The boy turns lobster red as he realises he just called a girl pretty.

"Pretty?! Is this guy's quirk super blindness?!" Is what runs through her mind but what comes out her mouth is:

"I've never seen a green haired lobster before."

"...Plus, it feels good to help those in need! I can't wait to get to U.A and get my license!" He totally ignores her sarcy comment in favour of rambling about being a hero.

"Anyway... thanks, you're totally my hero but I gotta bounce, U.A awaits." They've chatted for a little while and she's still a little sarcastic towards him but the sting is gone.

The boy watches her turn and jog back the way she came, in awe that he managed a full conversation with a girl! And about heroes too!

"I should totally tell All Might about this! Oh no! I forgot to tell her my name!" He squeals internally, still excited about the encounter.

As she jogs back home his words replay in her mind.

"It feels good to help those in need...I'd forgotten that. No one has helped me... Could I still save others if I can't save myself?"

She was lost in thought and made it home relatively quickly.

1 Month to U.A

Kyoka picks up her lunch tray from the railing in the school's canteen and surveys the room, looking for a seat as far from anyone else as possible.

She spots a lonely looking table at the far end and makes a bee line for it before anyone else can claim it. Just as she relaxes, glad to be left alone today and looking forward to her omelette with rice, she stumbles over a foot that has been carefully placed in her path.

Kyoka falls forwards, tray of food launched upwards as her arms instinctively try to break her fall. The Omelette splatters down the front of her school uniform and is squished between her and the floor when she falls flat on her face.

Laughter erupts all around the canteen.

The girl knows full well who has tripped her but she looks up anyway to see the face of her main bully leering back at her. Jiro stands up and defiantly stares back at the boy who has shattered her world.

"Fuck you." She almost spits in the boys face.

"We all know you'd love to again! Is that why you cut your hair? No other man can compare to me huh?" He grins at his buddies who laugh along with him, others around them look down, eager to not be on the receiving end of any bullying.

She snaps at hearing his lies for the hundredth time and her ear jacks shoot forward. One is deflected by the boy's arm, but the other sinks right in to his shoulder.

"Aghh! Fuckin' bitch!" The boy reflexively jolts himself back a step and yanks hard on Jiro's extended jack, pulling it out of his skin with a satisfying spurt of blood coming with it.

Kyoka smiles at the sight of his blood, all these months of torment coming to a head and she can show everyone that this fucker isn't untouchable.

Too busy revelling in her small victory she doesn't see the rapidly approaching fist.

Suddenly it connects with the side of her head and she finds herself decked to the floor again. As she scrambles to get up whilst blinking back tears another strike comes rocketing towards her. Kyoka makes it to her knees before the bully's fist strikes her square in the nose, head snapping back sharply and a sickening crunch is audible to everyone present and not just the hearing quirk user.

Jiro sees the blood gush down to the floor as she falls back, head smacking the floor and instantly the lights go out as she loses consciousness.

"Oh fuck! Kami, you went too far dude!" One of the boys says to the main bully, but the boy is not deterred from his actions.

"Yeah right, she stabbed me with her quirk first. Plus I didn't use my quirk, just my fists to defend myself, got it?!" The boy points his finger at the goon with a conscience and smirks as the boy gulps at the sight of a spark exiting the bully's finger.

All the boys present nod and that's what they tell the teachers, that Jiro instigated it and even went as far as using her quirk to cause harm.

Jiro comes to in the hospital. A doctor tells her that her nose has been reset and she is lucky not to have concussion from the blow to the back of her head.

"Yeah, I'm real lucky..." She sighs to herself, willing the tears not to come in front of her mother.

"The head teacher told me you started the fight and stabbed that poor boy with your jack?!" Mika Jiro questions her daughter as she drives them home. Kyoka has been so distant lately and she wonders if it was the right decision to let her apply to U.A instead of the music academy. Maybe it's the pressure causing her to act out thinks the older Jiro.

"I-I guess I did use my quirk but-"

"No buts Kyoka, If you aim to be a hero you can't let yourself slip up just because you get angry."

Kyoka closes her mouth, unwilling to argue with her mother or dredge up feelings of being bullied that would come with the true explanation. This is just another thing to put in the bottle with the rest of her problems.

"Sorry" Kyoka whispers out, turning her head to look out the window at the passing city. A single tear making it's way down her cheek, visible only to Kyoka in the window's reflection.

"Look, I'm sure it will be fine Kyo, once you get accepted to U.A there won't be so much anxiety and pressure focused on your future. You will be able to study away just fine" Mika smiles at her daughter, trying to encourage her to look forwards to the dazzling future that awaits her.

When they reach the Jiro family home, Kyoka bolts up to her room to get out of her bloodied uniform and to get a better look at her face.

Her face is swollen and puffy looking, and her nose now has the slightest bump in it. She sighs and lays down on her bed, hitting shuffle on her phone's music library.

"You've got to be kidding me..." She huffs out as Bad Day by Daniel Powter blasts out of her speakers.

The next day Kyoka is left to her own devices seeing as her parents were both at work and she was suspended for three days. She threw on some clothes after a hurried brunch and made her way in to town.

The young girl wasn't about to waste her time off either, she had a destination in mind; Kendo's Dojo. If she learned one thing about getting her ass beat yesterday it was that she needed some lessons in hand to hand combat. A quick google search had revealed several dojos in the city but this one was geared towards women.

"You look like shit. Someone smack you about?" A well built woman in her early forties looked down at Kyoka and surveyed the still puffy faced young girl.

"Yeah, I don't want it to happen again so I came here to see if you could help, Kendo-Sensei." Getting some sweet revenge in the form of a beat down was totally not the real reason she was here.

Regardless of her act Kendo smiled at the girl, understanding her real reason and welcoming her to the dojo.

"I expect hard work from you, Jiro!" Kyoka nodded enthusiastically. "Itsuka! Get in here and meet your apprentice!" The older woman had turned and yelled in to what Kyoka imagined was the changing rooms.

A girl about her own age with long ginger hair emerged into the main dojo. She was clad in a loose white karate style top and long sweat bottoms.

"Mu-...Sensei I don't have time what with U.A approaching..." Itsuka trailed off when she caught sight of Kyoka's injuries. "Well... I guess if she works hard enough it won't be an issue!"

Over the next couple of weeks Jiro threw herself into the dojo, trying her best to learn anything that might help her to defend herself (Fuck up her bully). Itsuka was really nice to her and for the first time in months she had a friend. A friend that shared her ambitions of U.A but was helping her to achieve her goals instead of hindering her. Even if that help was beating her up over and over until she got the hang of the style.

She had been mostly left alone at school since the incident, but her bully was always there, just waiting for an opportunity to knock her down. Kyoka prayed that he wouldn't get in to U.A but she had a terrible feeling that he would, his quirk was well suited for hero work.

The young hero hopeful tried her hardest to prepare for the upcoming exams, thoughts of revenge overcome by relaxing with her new friend in the dojo, mind focused on training. She often thought of the boy's words on the beach; 'It feels good to help those in need', despite never bumping in to him again his words continued to bring her direction when she felt lost.

A/N: Please let me know what you think! Keep it plus ultra if y'all are stuck inside - Argo x