Denki neared the UA with increasing nerves. This year is the year… The year where I finally see Iris and Hyacinth again. Like Hyacinth, he found his family. He doesn’t know what happened to Iris, Denki just hopes that she’s okay. The Kaminaris were glad to have Denki back. It took a while to sort everything out and for the case to get cold, but it did eventually calm down. And in that calmness, Denki was rediscovering his family, himself, and his skills.

Denki improved a lot since escaping the Garden, but he can’t forget his roots. His schedule was somewhat akin to what would happen back at the Garden, it both creeped him out and brought a sense of normality. He tried searching for Hyacinth on social media, going to the address that he had recorded those 3 years ago, but nothing worked. It was like Hyacinth knew Denki was trying to find him before the agreed meeting point, and if Denki’s honest, Hyacinth probably did know. After all, Hyacinth did have the highest intelligence scores, even if he did have a temper.

Denki took a deep breath in and out. This was his chance to see them again and become a hero. To him, his life depended on this test.

And Denki was ready to ace it.

~~~

As he looked around the auditorium, he realized that he couldn’t see Hyacinth or Iris anywhere. Trying to keep his mood from crashing, he stopped looking and listened to Present Mic. Or he tried to, he ended up zoning out.

The physical exam started quickly after the written one. As soon as Denki saw the exam, which was robots , he knew he would ace the test.

Luckily for him, he knew circuitry from the inside out.

~~~

Denki’s smile was too big for his face, or so said his sister, Lei. “I did it!!” He cheered, “I made it in!!”

Lei ruffled his hair fondly, “Congratulations, Denki.”

Denki’s mom gasped, “Really??? Oh my god, you’re going to be a hero, Denks!!”

Denki’s dad merely smiled and said, “Attaboy.”

Denki’s older sister seemed not to care. Which Denki noticed was a bit weird, his older sister was usually the most supportive and excited one, or that’s what Denki thought. Maybe she wasn’t really like that? Denki couldn’t tell, he’s only been with this family for 3 years and it’s so different from the Garden. People here are complicated, the Garden always kept it simple. Denki automatically assumed that they trusted him, but this might be one of the rare moments that show they don’t? Denki’s confused, he really doesn’t know. He thought he had everything sorted out, but by now, he doesn’t know.

It was weird, apparently, since Denki’s mom pointed it out. “Deshi, aren’t you going to say anything to Denki?”

Deshi looked up from her phone, “Why should I? You guys already said something.”

Lei ignored her and hugged Denki tightly, “I’m so proud of you, Denks!! It’s only been 3 years but you grew so much!!”

It’s only been 3 years. Denki repeated, I’m going to spend more years in UA then I ever did with my family. That’s fine. He smiled so widely that his cheeks were started to ache, “Thank you!”

~~~

The first day of school was interesting. He was in the hero course’s 1-A, and they ditched the morning orientation, which sucked since in the orientation, Denki could’ve looked for Hyacinth and Iris. But at least what they did next was interesting. He placed right in the middle of all the tests, which had him thinking he was somewhat rusty.

Maybe I should do a refresher course… Yes, The Garden was bad, but it gave Denki a wide range of skills he didn’t want to lose. After all, what if he needed them one day? He can’t be rusty.

An assassin doesn’t let their tools rust.

( You’re not one of them anymore, Denki.)

~~~

It was lunch time now, and he was kind of hyped. He looked around a lot, and eventually someone noticed.

“Oi, dunce face, why are you looking around so much?” A person that Denki had come to know as ‘Bakugou’ said.

Denki still doesn’t understand why people give out their names so freely here. It made him uncomfortable that he had to do the same thing. In the Garden, names were important , names had power. Here, it’s like names were normal, everyday things. Which again, confused him. A name is a part of yourself, and if it’s your real name, then it’s a part of yourself that you can’t change, you’re letting people know that one part of yourself that is unchangeable. “I’m looking for someone.”

“Who is it?” The redhead next to Bakugo asked. 

“I call him Hyacinth, he has purple hair,” Denki said, “I don’t know why he’s so hard to find. He’s supposed to stand out.”

“Yo, what’s with these flower names?” A dude with tape elbows asked, “Didn’t you say to call you-”

“Marigold.”

“Why?”

Denki shrugged, “I’m used to it, it makes me comfortable.” Again, he didn’t understand why it was a big deal that no one knew his actual name. (Although it’s read in attendance, no one pays attention.) “Sorry if it’s an inconvenie-”

“It’s fine!” The pink one named Ashido quickly spoke up, “Everyone should feel comfortable here.”

“Also, we’ll help you find him, Goldie,” The redhead that Denki now remembered was named Kirishima said, “You call him Hyacinth?”

“Yeah,” Denki replied, “I don’t remember his actual name.” That was a complete lie, Hyacinth’s and Iris’ names were engraved into his memory along with the saying, however, he doesn’t know if he should share it. He values the stuff that Garden taught him.

Every name has a certain weight, a certain type of power. Class 1-A just hasn’t realized it yet.

~~~

Denki sat on the swings, alone. Then, someone appeared. Denki recognized her as Yaoyorozu, but there had to be something more. There was something he was missing. Hyacinth and Iris probably would’ve killed him for missing something so obvious, but Denki genuinely doesn’t know why Yaoyorozu sets off his danger sensors. Yaoyorozu’s perfectly normal, or so he thought.

“You’re Marigold,” She said to him.

He was confused, “Yeah, I’m Marigold, why?”

Yaoyorozu smiled at him, “We don’t know your name.”

“It’s Marigold. ”

“So you’re in the Garden too?”

The knife was in Denki’s hand faster than Yaoyorozu could blink, “How do you know that?”

“Aster, that’s me.”

The knife lowered, “Aster…” Then it clicked for Denki, “Holy shit, you got sent to a different sector, didn’t you? I’m in the fields, you got sent to the greenhouse.”

Yaoyorozu shook her head, “That’s what they told you guys?”

“Yeah, what were you doing?”

“I wasn’t sent to the Greenhouse, I was sent to be a duplici. ”

Denki gaped, “You’re a… you’re sending information back to the Garden?”

“I swear I won’t tell on you.”

“Prove it,” Denki challenged. Yaoyorozu can’t tell her real name because Denki already knows it. It’s a rare occasion where the rules of the Garden were discarded between two flowers, and it’s a tricky occasion too. “I don’t care if you tell on me, but when I find Hyacinth and Iris, and if you tell on them-”

“I’ll show you why I was considered one of the top.”

Yaoyorozu gulped nervously. The infiltrators and assassins were always kept separated, although they learned similar things, the infiltrators couldn’t risk their mission by contacting someone they know, unlike what Yaoyorozu is doing right now. “I won’t endanger Hyacinth or Iris, or you, Marigold.”

“You know why I don’t believe you,” Denki stated, “You know why. You’re an infiltrator.”

“And you know why I don’t trust you,” She snapped back, “Listen Marigold, I just need you to tell me how you escaped the Garden.”

Denki hesitated, “You want to escape the Garden? But they’d find you. Even if you do leave.”

“I just want to try okay.”

“ They’d find you ,” Denki repeated, “You’re an infiltrator, you can’t escape.”

“Marigold!”

“Okay, whatever,” He took a deep breath, “Have you discovered what’s stored in the archives?”

“Everyone’s real name and-”

“You haven’t discovered what they’re doing to everyone? Or maybe you guys were kept away from it, listen, I don’t really know,” Denki replied, “I’m still confused about it. Anyways, which days do you visit the Garden?”

“I visited today,” She said.

“How often do you visit them?”

“When I have information.”

“Can you withhold information?” Denki asked.

“No, they have a mindreading quirk.”

Denki froze, “Then- why the fuck are you talking to me? Do you have any clue what would happen if I get caught again?!”

Yaoyorozu opened her mouth to speak but her words died in her throat. Denki continued, “What made you think this was a good fucking idea? Just because you’re in the Garden, Aster, doesn’t mean I want to be!”

“Why don’t you? I don’t get it,” Yaoyorozu frowned, “It’s so lavish, they pay you and-”

“Maybe to you infiltrators, after all, you need to look good and not be suspicious,” Denki snapped back, “But to us? That shit was hell. Why do you think we escaped in the first place?? You don’t know a single thing about living as a killer there, Aster!” 

His hands sparked with electricity and suddenly he had an idea. UA won’t hear about this… His footsteps were silent as he stepped closer to Yaoyorozu, “They read your mind, right?”

Yaoyorozu stared at him, “Y-yes… what are you going to do?”

“They can’t find me if you have no memory of me,” His hands glowed brighter. He touched Yaoyorozu and felt her go stiff, “Sorry-” He closed his eyes and searched for the part of the brain that controls memories. He sorted through the electrical signals and deleted a few here or there by overloading them.

Yaoyorozu went limp and Denki laid her down gently. “God… that was close…” He got up, wondering if he should bring Yaoyorozu somewhere.

“Nah, she’s an infiltrator… she knows how to take care of herself,” As Denki walked away, he felt sick. He knew it’d take a while to recover from this scare.

At least he got a new ability.

~~~

There was a sinking feeling in his gut as his quirk buzzed. Something was wrong and he couldn’t quite place it. As he boarded the bus, the feeling intensified.

And that’s when Denki realized something bad was going to happen.

As the bus neared the place, Denki’s anxiety grew. He ran his fingers over his hidden knives, counting them, making sure they were still there, still in place, ready to be used. He took a deep breath as he got off the bus with the rest of his overexcited classmates.

They entered, and like Denki expected, everything went to shit.

The door was slammed shut, villains flooded the area, making Aizawa jump in instantly.  His classmates and Denki were left alone with another villain that Bakugou and Kirishima were attacking recklessly, so eventually they all got separated. All in all, the event absolutely sucked to Denki.

He realized that protecting others was something very difficult and wholly unnatural to him. 

Denki needs to work harder.

~~~

After getting relentlessly questioned, Denki finally went home. His family fussed over him, something he was still not used to. Like the last time, his older sister reacted to absolutely nothing.

But after this week, Denki found himself too tired to care.

He’s barely started and he already wants a break.

( The Flowers don’t get breaks.)

~~~

As Denki walked to school, he got a glimpse of someone with dusty blonde hair in an alleyway. The hairstyle was vaguely familiar. Iris?

When he rounded the corner, however, she was gone. And all that was left was a simple note.

‘ You’re not going to be happy when you see me next time, Marigold. -Iris.’

Denki frowned as he read the note. What does that mean?

What are you up to, Iris?

~~~