Sam once again slept poorly, always haunted by nightmares. However, he had to get up and start the day, no matter how drowsy he is.
He got dressed for a workout, after that he returned to his room and showered and brushed his teeth, finally getting dressed in his school clothes.
As he walked down the halls, he could feel the gloomy atmosphere around him. He had a tough night. The nightmares he had were especially vivid.
To go along with his foul mood, the rain is pouring outside. Despite his poor sleep and less than welcoming air around him, he needs to lighten up. He has to do something important today.
It has been 2 days since the festival, and Sam is sure he will have his question answered today. He walked inside the classroom and saw everyone chatting. They stopped briefly and looked at him.
"Sam! What's up!" Sero says calmly.
"We didn't get to see you after that battle! It was so manly!" Kirishima pitches in.
"That was so cool! Especially the ending!" Mina says with sparkling eyes.
Sam is slightly amused by this, easing him up a little bit.
"It was a hard fought battle. I respect Bakugo more now."
Bakugo, who was grouchy and sitting at his desk alone, hears that and looks at Sam with a raised brow.
"…but he is still my favorite Chihuahua."
The others start laughing and Bakugo feels a vein throb.
"I'LL KILL YOU SCARFACE!! YOU WON AT THE FESTIVAL BUT I'LL GET YOU!!"
"Good… I can't wait." Sam says with a slight smirk.
Bakugo sits back down and goes back to brooding, but internally he respects Sam.
Finally, the person Sam wanted to see entered. Iida. Followed by Midoriya.
Sam sighed.
'It's just as I feared.'
Sam could feel the anger and despair oozing off of that mask he is wearing. He acted like the same old Iida, but it's just that, an act.
Underneath that mask is vengeance. Sam understands him.
'After remembering…THAT thing, I wanted nothing more than to kill THAT man. But I couldn't just throw my life away.'
Sam knows that Iida will go after Stain.
'Should I stop him? Help him? Warn Midoriya or maybe Aizawa? I'll have to think about it.'
Finally, Aizawa enters and everyone is already in their seats, satisfying Aizawa.
"Today we will be doing hero informatics…"
He says this with a dramatic pause, scaring the others.
"…you will choose code names."
""Woah!""
The students erupt in excitement.
'Good freakin' grief.'
Sam is not as enthusiastic as the others.
"We have a lot to do, the pro-hero draft picks have begun and after the festival, many of you have been offered recruitment opportunities. Here is the list."
He then shows them a chart with the number of offers, ranked from the largest amount, to those with the lowest amount.
'Deku really didn't get a single one? Did they not see the power he showed?'
Sam also saw he was on there.
'Of course I don't have any offers. The heroes are likely not too happy with me after beating a bunch of their friends up. Not like I would accept it if I did.'
The others are excited about having heroes want to recruit them, except for Todoroki, who seems to believe his father influenced his offers being the highest compared to Bakugo who had the second highest.
Even though some didn't get offers, they were all going to intern somewhere.
'I better be excluded from that. No way in hell am I being nagged by heroes. Aizawa is already enough to deal with.'
"This is why you will be choosing hero names. It's important you take this seriously or else-"
"You'll have hell to pay!"
Midnight suddenly comes in and interrupts Aizawa.
"Midnight will be supervising this class along with me."
"I will be giving the final approval for your names!"
Everyone is given a slate and a marker and begin thinking of names.
'Names, huh?'
He zoned out for a bit and finally Aoyama came up and showed his name. I can't stop twinkling.
Sam was lost for words.
'If she approves that…'
"Remove the I and keep 'Can't Stop Twinkling.'"
'…fuck.'
Sam decided to listen to these names.
After him is Mina.
"Alien Queen!"
'I gotta admit. I like that one.'
"Like that creature from those movies? Not happening."
'Are you shitting me?!?'
Next up is Tsuyu.
"Rainy Seasons Hero: Froppy."
'Okay…that was kinda cute… what the fuck is wrong with me and cute things?'
Sam buries his blushing face in his arms.
Kirishima chooses "Red Riot."
'Not bad…'
Then Jiro chooses "Earphone Jack."
'Why not do something else? Isn't that just her quirks name?'
Shoji chose "Tentacole."
'I don't get it.'
Ojiro chose "Tailman."
'Simple…just like him.'
Sero chose "Cellophane."
'Meh…'
Mina chooses "Pinky."
'I prefer Alien Queen. I would dig that name.'
Sato. "Sugarman."
'Simple. Not bad.'
Toru. "Invisible Girl."
'Before getting a hero name, she needs a proper costume.'
Kaminari. "Chargebolt."
'Not bad.'
Shoto.
'Why not?'
Momo. "Creati."
'Not bad, but her quirk is literally capable of destroying the world. If she called herself Demi-goddess or something, I would believe it.'
Koda. "Anima."
'I almost thought it was enema. Careful buddy.'
Tokoyami. "Tsukuyomi."
'I like that. Brings in some Japanese mythology.'
Bakugo. "KING EXPLOSION MURDER!!"
"Pfft!"
Mineta. "Grape Juice."
'I guess it's okay.'
Iida. "Tenya."
'Yeah. He's definitely going after Stain. I might have to interfere.'
Uraraka. "Uravity."
'That's pretty cute… damn it, what's with this Kirby girl? She is like a puppy!'
"LORD EXPLOSION MURDER!!"
'I would prefer king explosion murder. This isn't as funny.'
Finally, one more.
Midoriya. "Deku."
'I get it. He's embracing the term that was once used to demean him. Now it's become who he is. Godspeed kid.'
Sam sighed.
'Finally it's over-'
"Sam! What about you?"
Sam was shocked. He looked over at Mina, looking over at him with excitement.
'That pink little-'
"Sorry. Not happening."
"Come on Sam!"
"We really want you to join us!"
"Yeah! Sam, do something manly!"
""SAM SAM SAM!""
'These motherfuckers!'
"Alright already, chill the f out."
Sam looks at the board. Suddenly without him even thinking, he wrote something down. But when he saw it, he was terrified.
Canvas.
That was his callsign in Africa. A quirkless person is like a blank canvas. They have potential, but don't know how to reach it.
It was taught to him by… THAT man.
Sam quickly erased it.
'The past stays in the past.'
Then he looks down and suddenly, he has an idea.
'The past stays in the past. Now it's time to live in the present.'
He walked up to the podium and showed everyone his slate.
Everyone was confused by what they saw.
Even Midnight had no idea.
"Here it is."
"Sam…"
Midnight looks at him weirdly.
"You didn't write anything. I know you don't have to participate but at least-"
"What are you talking about? That's my name."
"Sam… it's blank."
"Exactly."
Suddenly, Izuku grasps what Sam is trying to say.
"Your hero name is Blank?"
"I knew you'd figure it out."
The others finally start to understand.
"Everyone always says quirkless people are empty or missing something because they don't have powers. Well, Blank will show them wrong… not that I'm becoming a hero!"
Everyone starts to clap for Sam.
""Blank! Blank! Blank!""
"Knock it off. I just made it on a whim."
After thinking about it for a bit, looking at Sam and thinking about associating him to that name, she decided.
"Well… I like it! Blank! Accepted!"
Midnight says with a smirk.
'God damnit.'
———
After thinking it over, most of the students already had an idea of who they would intern with.
Sam was packing up and was about to head back to his room.
"Suzuki."
Sam stopped and turned towards Aizawa.
"Yeah?"
"Come with me."
The others are curious but decide to but out and get ready to go home.
Sam shrugged and did so. One they reached his desk, he gave Sam a paper.
"I didn't mention it at the time, but you actually did get a request."
"What? Who would-"
Sam decided to just look. When he saw who requested him, he gasped.
"H-her?"
Aizawa nodded.
"Yeah… Rabbit hero: Mirko sent you a request."
Sam remembered her. How could he not.
"C-could I take some time to think?"
Aizawa raises an eyebrow but nods.
"Then if you would excuse me."
Sam didn't wait for a reply and darted back to his room. Once he got in he felt like he was about to hyperventilate.
"Mirko…"
Sam remembers every detail of her. It always broke his heart seeing her.
He went to his desk. He opened a drawer, and inside it, was only one Polaroid picture. In it is a picture of Sam… but he had brown hair and was smiling. Beside him is a beautiful girl with brown skin, and white hair. Just like Mirko.
[Image]
"…Zola."
End of Arc 2