We were obediently tailing Ectoplasm-sensei from the Conference Room of the Main Building around the campus. The rhythmic footsteps of his lightweight prosthetic legs were the only sound that echoed in the halls.

As we headed out towards the campus grounds, I noticed large sprawling P.E grounds, as Ectoplasm clarified, where students were playing all kinds of sports. He continued to explain how there were several training facilities designed by experienced professionals who study the manifestation of quirks. As per my knowledge, he stated that there were training facilities for all classes and variants of quirks.

Ground Beta is a training course designed to fight crime in a standard suburban environment. Ground Gamma is a training course designed as a giant labyrinth of factories, heavy machinery, cranes and pipelines. I could sense the pulse of machinery on the far reaches of the sensory perception of my quirk. Ground Omega, which had a large golden omega symbol on the gate, was a huge forested area. On the way back, we were introduced to Gym Gamma. "This is an empty gym which Cementoss moulds with his abilities to suit the need of training individual quirks." Ectoplasm explained.

We headed in front of a garage beside the building. When Ectoplasm hit a button on the side of the entrance, the garage door slid open to reveal a couple of vans parked on the inside. Ectoplasm grabbed one of the keys from the cupboard and indicated us to sit in the van parked on the left. We were soon driving across a few acres of grassy land on an empty road. While Ectoplasm continued to brief us about the kinds of studies conducted at U. A during the drive, a large dome structure came into clear sight down the road.

As the building came into the clear, I recalled the giant dome structure from the 'U. A Sports Festival' video from before. Ectoplasm parked the van at its entrance and gestured us to get down. "This is where we will be conducting the tournament," he said as he led through a long passage each with locker rooms and waiting areas for participants on either side. We followed him through a door on the other side which revealed the inside of the stadium.

"Woah!" This time Toya awed at the stadium as he spun around to get the whole view. He was amazed by its grandeur. "That's going to be a lot of people." Sakura shuddered at the thought of his statement. There were goosebumps on my biceps as well. On the inside, the stadium is an oval-shaped, open building with three floors of seating. There are several screens around the stadium and a radio booth on the top of one edge. The arena of the stadium itself consists of a circular space with a flat square of concrete in the centre, surrounded by grass. It also has many gates that lead in and out of the field.

It was difficult for all of us to soak in the audience on the day of the game. I could hear the cheer and roars of on-lookers in my head. In my head, the arena songs played out like a football game where people did the Mexican wave and danced in unison. The goosebumps on my arms stayed with me the ride back.

As we walked back to the main building from the garage, I saw a series of buildings in the distance. "That is the Height's Alliance where we house students." As he followed my gaze to a series of buildings shaped like the letter 'H' in a perfectly straight line.

When inside the Main Building,  Ectoplasm guided us into a sterile-smelling small room with white curtains and a bed on a stroller by the window. "This is the Recovery Girl's Nurse's Office." He said when a short old lady appeared from behind Ectoplasm's tall figure. She had her hair tied in a netted bun and was wearing a pink helmet with a blue visor and a doctor's coat over what looked like a hero costume. "Hello" The woman greeted us with a gentle smile which brightened her face and further dented her nasolabial folds. "I am Recovery Girl." She said.

'Girl'?

"I am Rylie." I responded, "and this is my crew Team Deadshot- Tsukki, Toya, Misaki and Sakura." I pointed to each of them. By now, this brief had become very habitual of me. Both the teachers exchanged glances. "Will they be playing a match this Monday?" She asked Ectoplasm. "Yes," he nodded. "they came in for some formalities but I thought I could show them around." He hadn't finished his sentence when Recovery Girl impatiently limped towards her desk with a syringe-shaped cane. She hopped onto her seat in the middle of the room and twisted her chair to face the desktop monitor. Her little legs dangled from her seat. "Well, that means more work for me." She groaned dejectedly. "Don't do anything stupid." She called out before returning to view something on her screen.

We looked at each other, each of us clueless at her response. Ectoplasm quickly caught onto the situation. "Don't worry." He chuckled, which sounded plain evil. "Everything will be fine."

After walking down a series of empty halls, we reached a large room strewn with machines and littered with blueprints and mechanical parts. "This is the Development Studio." Ectoplasm moved aside for us to step in. "Here we build costumes and items that students may need." He added.

"Hello there!" A skinny man whose face was hidden inside a large excavator claw called out to us from one of the desks. "I am Power Loader. Nice to meet you!" He greeted.

However, before we could respond a short salmon pink-haired female in dreadlocks charged over to us. "Are you here to try some of my babies?" She leaned in on my face uncomfortable close with a large grin, her yellow scope-lense like orbs peering right into my soul. Before I could utter a word, she disappeared from my proximity and appeared beside Sakura, pinching her biceps as though she was assessing something internally. 

I watched as she quickly hopped to Toya, running her hands all over his torso. The girl's breasts were pressed against his body, her cleavage inches away from his face being accentuated by her black tank top. An uncomfortable expression settled on his face. Her interest quickly shifted to Tsukki as she suddenly popped out a tape from the pocket beneath the coveralls loosely tied to her waist and measured his girth. "I have something that can fit you." Tsukki quickly grew anxious having a woman uncomfortably letting herself on him. Before he had a chance to give her a mouthful, she leaned behind Misaki massaging her shoulders. Misaki arched her back away from the girl as soon as she felt the breasts of the latter press against her back. "These could use good bracers." the girl's voice trailed off.

"Mei, come back!" The skinny man who had introduced himself as Power Loader yelled. We watched in utter silence. "Stop making the newcomers feel uncomfortable!" He yelled. Unfazed, the girl seemed to murmur something to herself, her attention quickly shifted to a large box of trinkets in the far end of the room. She pulled the pair of steampunk goggles sitting on her head over her eyes and was invested in a large dump of machine parts.

Power Loader ran towards us. "I am sorry." He scratched the back of his head with the metal guards he wore over his large fingerless gloves. "She can be a bit" he paused trying to find the right words, "overwhelming at times." He stressed on his choice of words.

A bit? 

My crew and I shared the same thought when we exchanged glances at each other.

Before we were overwhelmed again, we quietly shifted out of the studio, quickly keeping it at a large distance behind us. "Excuse her," Ectoplasm said as he watched us recover to our usual selves. "Our students are passionate about different things, each in their way. It will take time for you to learn their ways."

After a long walk of silence, we saw many classrooms labelled alphabetically. "This is the department of heroes." He stated. We walked across classrooms with giant pink classroom labels  'A' and 'B' pasted on their doors. "And this is the Department of General Education." Classrooms labelled 'C', 'D' and 'E' went by. "This is the Department of Support." We walked past classrooms labelled 'F', 'G' and 'H'. "And this is the Department of Management." He concluded. He ensured he gave us details about each of the courses. However, at this point, half of us were more than keen to call it a day.

After a bit of a walk, the whiff in the air brightened our moods. At the far end of the corridor were a huge group of students pouring in and out of a pair of double doors. When we approached it, there was a giant label on top of the doors which read 'Lunch Rush Cafeteria'.

"I believe you might be hungry." Ectoplasm wandered through a crowd of students and we followed through. He guided us to a table and gestured us to sit with nothing else but a nod. "I will part ways with you here. I am sure you can help yourselves to some food." He looked over at the food counter. "Or ask any students to help you. You can leave anytime as long as it is before 19:00." With that, he swerved towards the exit, the ends of his tan coat and high collar following his movement.

We sat there for a moment, letting the hubbub around the whole cafeteria engulf us. The cafeteria was huge. A lot of students moved in groups as they moved their empty plates to the cleaning counter. On the other end, many students chatted while they stood in line, handing their coupons to help themselves to some food. Even the seats we sat in were cushioned and clean-something you'd find in a typical retro-styled American burger joint. From the inside toward the outer edge, Sakura, Tsukki and I sat on one end while Misaki and Toya sat on the other end.

"It's a huge cafeteria, isn't it?" I yelled enough so that Toya and Misaki could barely hear us over the hubbub. "Yeah sort of reminds me of us in school." Misaki lifted her head from her phone. "What did you think of the stadium?" She asked. "Yea gave me goosebumps!" Tsukki shuddered remembering the size of the arena inside the stadium. "Shall we go get ourselves something to eat?" Sakura interrupted. "Sounds good," I replied.

"Keep the seats, please." Toya turned to Misaki who was distracted by funny messages on her phone. She nodded in response. We left our shoulder bags in place and followed the crowd in our separate ways.

I noticed a couple of students eyeing a vending machine. I shuffled passed their tall frames to get a look at the menu. One of them noticed me scurrying around her waist to pick a snack off from the vending machine.

"Oh, hello there!" I noticed the face of a woman on my left, just inches away from my face, bent down to my height. So cute. I blushed. The fair-skinned girl with long periwinkle hair down to her knees flashed me a gentle smile. "You are very muscular and have a very athletic build. You don't seem like a student here on campus with that jersey on. Say, are you the team up against us in the coming inter-school basketball tournament?" 

Ah! Very perceptive. "Y-Yes!" I stuttered. "I am the captain."

"Oh, how cute! How old are you?" The wide-eyed girl's eyes closed, her smile widened with her head cocked to one side. "Fif-fifteen." I felt like I was being keenly interviewed here. We heard a sound as the vending machine dropped something in its tray which interrupted our conversation. The girl rose to her full height, reached out under the hood with her left hand and pulled out a can from it. She knelt to my height again to speak, "Here, you can have that. I'll buy myself another." I blushed to have her face which beamed with cheerfulness inches away from my face. "I can tell this is your first time here. I hope you are enjoying your visit so far." She smiled gleefully once again. "Th-thank you!" I blushed at her kind gesture.

She stood up and nudged the two boys, busy chatting away behind her. "Oh, hello!" The muscular one with the blond cowlick and hair swept back spoke. He animatedly waved a hand at me. The other one with noticeably pointy elf-like ears and indigo hair took no time in pasting his forehead against the wall beside him when he saw me.

Weird.

"I am Nejire, this is Mirio and that is Amajiki." She introduced tracing a line between herself, shifting to the blond and ended at the guy pasted to the wall. "And this is the captain of the basketball team playing against us this Monday." She gestured toward me.

"I'm Rylie. Nice to meet you." I  responded. Having three tall seniors from a new school look down over me was intimidating, I realised. The blond laughed with his hands on his hips, his laughter roared across the cafeteria. "You must be nervous on your first visit." He stated.

Gah! Don't mention it publicly.

"Don't make it sound so obvious, it's scary." the guy who was introduced as Amajiki. Mirio grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away to face me. "If there is anything you need," He boldly pointed a thumb at himself, "You can ask for us. We will always be there to help." he grinned. I clutched at the can Nejire provided me earlier and bowed. "Thank you so much!" I felt truly grateful. I waved them goodbye. They reflected the action with the only exception of Amajiki, whom Mirio had gripped by the hand to forcibly wave goodbye. 

I followed the other students to the lunch counter to pick up my food and safely made it back to our table. Misaki scooched out of her seat to leave for the lunch counter when I returned.

"What did you all get?" Sakura asked. "I bought some nice Soba and Miso Soup." Toya pointed to his plate. "I bought some Tonkatsu pork cutlets. I wanted some chocolate mochi too but some guy kept the line waiting." Tsukki grumbled while pulling out his pair of chopsticks. "They have a dessert counter?" Sakura tried to get a glimpse of the long line in the cafeteria. "Yea, right there." Tsukki helped Sakura spot the place by pointing to a line of students at the other end of the room. "Nice, I'll get myself some afterwards." She cleaned aside a portion of her plate so she could serve herself dessert later. "Nice," I chimed. "I got Curry rice and a group of seniors I met gave me this." I put the can of juice on the table. I slid out a pair of chopsticks from a small paper bag and plucked them into two.

"That sounds nice. I just bought two Okonomiyakis from the counter." Sakura pointed to her plate. A short while later, Misaki returned to our table. Toya shifted in his seat to give her space to sit across me. "Man," she sighed, "I had to wait extra because the guy before me finished all the soba."

"It's alright, we were waiting for you anyway." I pointed to everyone's untouched meals on their plates. "No, it isn't just that." She continued, "When I was waiting for you guys, two boys approached asking for my number." Toya passed Misaki a pair of chopsticks since the latter looked exasperated. "The shorter one even had the nerve to ask me my panty size!" A sudden rage overcame her expression as Toya passed her another pair of chopsticks after keeping the first pair aside which she just broke.

"Anyways-"We all joined palms together in a small prayer. "Itadakimas!" We told each other before we began gorging on our plates.

"What are a bunch of losers doing in U. A?" We turned to the source of the sound. A tall fair-skinned male with slick blond bangs over his eyes pointed to us disdainfully. All of us stayed silent.

"I heard that a group of basketball losers were visiting campus." he laughed devilishly without waiting for a response. "If you think you can defeat us you are probably wrong. Take my advice-pack up and go home before my class gets here and beats the crap out of you!" He laughed even louder. I didn't know about my crew but my blood began to boil and the nerves on my forehead were about to pop. "You should be pissing your pants by now because if my classmate Tetsutetsu hears about you, he will skewer your bodies right here to the wall until you slowly bleed and die, and your reputation dies here along with you."

I gripped my chopsticks hard until they twitched vigorously. I took my chopsticks between my fingers, like the claws of Wolverine, and jabbed it towards him- only to find that he wasn't there. Misaki tapped on my shoulder from behind and pointed at the fair-skinned male lying flat on his face at my feet. I looked back up to see a young woman with long ginger hair, tied up in a ponytail staring back at me. "Sorry about that." her disproportionately large hand was still frozen in a karate-chop mid-air where it had met the male's nape. I watched as her hand shrunk to normal size. "I am Itsuka Kendo and this is my classmate Neito Monoma." She heaved him up with one hand from the back of his collar. "He is always like this. Please forgive him." She bowed quickly and dragged the male like a dead fish across the floor of the cafeteria.

My crew leaned in from their seats for a bit and saw the male's body sweep the floor clean beneath him as he was dragged into the distance. I soon realized that many students nearby were staring at me and the chopsticks claws on my right hand. I quickly sat down on my seat pretending not to pay attention and dropped the chopsticks at the side of my plate. "Dude has some balls trying to talk down to us!" We all looked at Sakura who aggressively mangling her remaining okonomiyaki to pieces. "I don't even feel like dessert now. Let's just fucking destroy him."

"Well, he got what he deserved." Misaki shrugged it off while returning to her food. A chimaera for a principal and now this? I wonder if this was the school I had dreamt of studying in.

We finished our meals and cleaned the dished like the rest of the students, slunk our bags over our shoulders and walked out of U. A towards Toya's house.

"We have long hours of practice ahead of us this weekend." Rylie said, "Practice starts at seven in the morning tomorrow." Toya noticed how the sunset accentuated the glimmer of passion in Rylie's eyes. It was already four in the evening by his watch. "By the way," Sakura playfully wrapped an arm around Tsukki which nearly made him jump. "I totally saw you getting scared when that guy was barking rude comments at us." She gave him a cheeky grin. He lowered his head so Sakura couldn't see his face. "I wish you didn't remind me of him."

By the time they reached Toya's house, it was late in the evening. It was Rylie's turn to make dinner. While she cooked, they connected Toya's  Nintendo Switch on his television set and played NBA 2k20 until bed.

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--Next: The team faces off against the team of U.A!--

A/N

Wohooo got this long chapter in! OMGG Thank you for 52 reads! :DDD

So there are a lot of people from U.A who appeared directly and indirectly in this chapter. Can you identify all of them with the traits they have? Answers will appear in the story!

Peace out ;)

-JJ