I yawned, rolling over to shut off my alarm for school. Kuse mumbled in his sleep next to me, rolling away from the noise and snuggling into his blanket. I sat up in bed, yawning as I softly nudged Kuse's shoulders to gently wake him up.

"Time to get ready for school." I said, continuing to shake him.

Kuse groaned, but eventually sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I'm awake..."

"Good," I replied, throwing off the covers and standing up. "I'll go make us some breakfast, so put your uniform on and wash your face."

"Okay," Kuse yawned, stretching his arms over his head. "I want peanut butter and jelly."

"Coming right up." I chuckled, making my way out of the room, still in my pajamas.

I entered the kitchen, pulling out four slices of bread. I put two in the toaster for myself and left the other two on a plate; Kuse didn't like toasted bread for some reason. I made both of our sandwiches and began to eat mine, downing a glass of milk with it. I couldn't help but sigh when I noticed we were almost out of milk.

Kuse skipped into the kitchen, wearing his uniform and with his face washed, however, his hair was a disaster.

"Eat up," I told him, pointing to his plate. "And drink your milk too, it's good for you."

"Thanks, Tora!" He chirped, picking up his glass of milk.

I pat his head as I walked past him, making my way to the bathroom. I splashed some cold water on my face to wake myself up, sighing when I noticed the bags under my eyes. I didn't get much sleep last night, it was difficult considering everything that happened. But I was too tired and lazy to attempt hiding my eye bags, so I headed to our room instead.

I stripped out of my pajamas and began putting on my undergarments and ripped leggings. Then I put on the rest of my uniform, leaving the top two buttons of my blouse open and draping my blazer over my shoulder. I attempted to look for my tie, but that had been missing for a while now, so I never bothered with it.

Finally, I brushed through my hair with a hairbrush a few times before leaving the room, taking the brush with me.

Back in the kitchen, Kuse was still eating, happily munching on the last few bites of his PB&J. I approached him holding up the hairbrush, knowing he wasn't going to like what I was about to do.

I did my best to hold him still, pulling at the tangles in his hair as best as I could. Kuse whined in protest, but I continued to brush.

"Ow!" He yelped, holding his scalp. "Quit that!"

"No can do," I denied him. "If I leave it like this it'll only get worse, so just stay still and deal with it."

He continued to whine, but waited patiently for me to finish untangling his hair. Once I was finally done, we headed out the fire escape, starting on our way to school.

As per usual, I dropped Kuse off first, sending him off with a hug and a smile. But once he left my smile quickly faded.

I felt so incredibly guilty.

He deserved to know why I had run off, why I had to leave him with Todoroki, and most of all, he deserved to know what happened to Ingenium.

Not only did he love all things hero related, but he had met Ingenium outside of hero work; he had met, Tensei. He may have only met him a few times, but I know Tensei had left a huge impact on him.

I was torn.

As his older sister, I feel this sense of responsibility. I have to protect him from anything that could potentially hurt him, but was that the right thing to do? Was I protecting him too much?

I really didn't know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was shocked to see that Tenya had shown up at school today despite everything that happened yesterday. But then again, he was class president, pigs would fly before he missed school. I had to commend him for his dedication.

But he did look absolutely ghastly. He was pale, with dark bags under his eyes, and his uniform was wrinkled. In short, I had never seen him look this... Unorganized? Depressed? It was hard to find the words.

Aizawa spoke to the class about something, but to me his voice sounded muffled. My mind couldn't stay focused, so he sounded like fuzzy background noise. But I soon snapped out of it, hearing some of my classmates shout.

"Hero names?!"

The door was ripped open, Midnight strutting in like she owned the place with her whip in hand. "That's right!"

I sat up in my desk, attention piqued.

"As I mentioned before Midnight interrupted, all of you will be doing an internship at a hero agency, even those of you who didn't receive any offers in the Sports Festival." Aizawa sighed, glancing at the blackboard behind him. "And in order to do your hero internships, all of you will need to pick out hero names today. Midnight, you can take it from here, I'm going to take a power nap."

Aizawa then stepped into his sleeping bag, laying in the corner of the front of the room and zipping it up. Somehow, he managed to fall asleep almost immediately.

I looked at the blackboard, wishing I had been paying more attention. I guess I'd be asking Midoriya to fill me in later, at least I knew he was listening, he always paid attention in class.

"Hero names are incredibly important," Midnight began, standing at the podium. "They need to not only be heroic sounding, but also show off important aspects of you as a person and what kind of hero you are."

The class broke out into quiet murmurs but was silenced when Midnight spoke again.

"Now then, I'll begin by passing out whiteboards and a marker for each of you." Midnight began to explain. "Each of you will write your hero names down and come and present them one by one. I will critique them and give you tips on how to improve them, unless I think it's good, in which case you will not be required to change it."

Midnight then made her way to each desk, passing everyone a whiteboard and a black marker. I tapped the end of my marker against my desk, debating what I should write. In truth, I did have an idea for my hero name already, Kuse had come up with it for me. But I was nervous to write it down as my first answer, I didn't want it to be rejected since it was the only idea I had for my hero name.

"One last tip for you all," Midnight said suddenly, causing me to stop tapping my marker. "Don't think on it too much, put down whatever comes to mind."

I uncapped my marker, quickly scribbling down my idea in my messy hand writing. I decided it was better to not hesitate, surely what I had written couldn't be any worse than my classmates.

~~~~~~~~~~

One by one, my classmates began presenting their hero names, standing at the front of the class with their whiteboards. Quite a few of them were rejected by Midnight, but there were a few she accepted first try.

Next it was Tenya's turn.

I watched attentively as he walked to the front of the room, turning his whiteboard around so we could all see it. As soon as I read it I felt my blood boil.

I clenched my fists, gritting my teeth as I glared at Tenya from my desk. He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze, but refused to look in my direction.

"Are you sure you want your hero name to just be your first name?" Midnight asked him, tilting her head.

Tenya nodded. "Yes."

"Alright then..." Midnight shrugged. "You can go sit down. Next!"

Students continued to go up to the podium and present their hero names, but I barely remembered what anyone said. My thoughts were racing, and I was still staring at Tenya, pissed that he was avoiding my gaze.

Eventually my turn came.

I got up from my desk, grabbing my whiteboard before walking up to the podium. I placed the whiteboard on top of the podium, turning it to face the class.

"Heavy Metal," I grumbled, still glaring at Tenya. "That's my hero name."

"I love it!" Midnight squealed.

"Really?" I asked, my anger lessening as I turned to look at Midnight.

"Yes," Midnight nodded, clasping her hands together. "It sounds tough, and most of all I think it suits you."

"Huh," I hummed. "Cool."

"Alright go and sit down," Midnight instructed me. "Next!"

I went back to my desk as she told me to, but once I was in my seat again I continued to stare at Tenya.

We were gonna have some serious words after class.

~~~~~~~~~~

The moment the bell rang I aggressively stood from my chair. The sound of my chair dragging across the floor caused several people to look at me, including Midoriya, who turned in his seat to face me.

"Hey, Tora-"

"Sorry, I'm busy," I curtly replied. "I'll meet you guys in the cafeteria later."

I stomped over to Tenya's desk, taking a deep breath before my hand darted out, grasping him by the front of his shirt. I pulled his face to mine, narrowing my eyes at him as I spoke.

"We need to talk," I growled. "Let's go."

Tenya protested. "Tora, wait... Just hang on a-"

I didn't let him finish. I dragged him to his feet, forcefully pulling him towards the door and yanking him out into the hallway. I could hear people whispering and mumbling as we left the room, but I couldn't care less.

Drawing on my days as a junior high delinquent, I slammed Tenya against the wall, not letting go of his shirt. He flinched in pain, but I didn't care. I grabbed his shirt with both my hands, raising my voice at him.

"You chose Tenya as your hero name?!" I barked. "Really?! What about Ingenium?!"

"Tora, please be quiet," Tenya pleaded. "The news about him isn't even public yet."

"I don't give a shit!" I roared back. "You know why I'm mad! I know you do!"

"I just couldn't do it, I couldn't use his name," Tenya choked. "It feels too real, like accepting that the Ingenium I know and love will never be the same..."

"Wake the fuck up you big baby!" I shouted, pushing him against the wall even more. "You aren't the only one who lost Ingenium! Japan is losing a great hero and you aren't the only one who is upset about that! You're allowed to be upset, but what I won't accept is the fact that you're letting his name die! He told you to use it for crying out loud!

Tenya looked stunned. "Tora, I-"

"I'm done talking," I interrupted him, letting go of his shirt and stepping back. "I need to go cool off. Leave me alone."

I left him standing there in the hallway and headed for the cafeteria.

His stubbornness was seriously pissing me off.

A/N

Call me impatient but we're going to be jumping right into the internships in the next couple chapters. I already have the internship stuff planned so I've written ahead a bit. Right now I have written up to chapter 43, so expect another update sometime next week. I figured it was a good idea to have a few chapters done in advance so that if I'm busy I can still publish something, especially since I know I have midterms coming up, which I am not looking forward to, plus applying to university. But anyway, to the people who have read up to this point and stuck around to read updates, thank you so much! Having people enjoy my story is what motivates me to keep writing! This note has become longer than I intended it to be, but I thought I'd mention that I'm going to release the prologue for a new MHA fanfiction. If enough people show interest in it then I'll continue with it. So be on the lookout for "Please Kill Me," my next MHA fanfiction.