A Chance for the Better: Chapter 1

## Chapter 1: July

Katsuko had heard she would be getting a new student, but was so ill prepared for it. She mainly worried about whether or not she was a likable teacher, given the fact that she normally lets her class get away with anything if they were too loud to begin with.

She had been told that that's not how one should teach a class, but teaching without help from Toshinori or Aizawa, hell, even without Present Mic. This was something she wasn't accustomed to and first impressions were really important.

For now, she'd sit at her desk, letting her rowdy class scream and throw things until one of them gets hurt. She found no reason to tell them to stop, they weren't taking the hero course seriously and so that was their problem. If they failed, oh well.

Atsuko, as for her, was standing behind the door leading her to her new classroom. Much like the door to the General Studies' classrooms, it was huge, at least 4 feet taller than her, with the class' name proudly painted in bright red, and although she had gotten used to see it during her time as a student from the General Department, she couldn't help but find there was something deeply frightening with the way the door screamed to her that *she was into Heroics now, better not screw up your introduction since you already don't belong here in the first place but I mean, teachers agreed with the transfer so it should be fine, no ? Yes, it's gonna be fine even though it's 2-A we're talking about, and whose good idea was it to let students transfer mid-year?*

Her mind was a mess, to say the least.

Taking a deep breath to gain composure – don't panic, *don't panic* – she pushed the door open with a start, inches close from slamming into one of her new classmates' face and, not even looking at what she was doing – the key to success was to let adrenaline take over *for sure!* – screamed on top of her lungs :

"GOOD MORNING!"

Everything immediately fell silent.

Katsuko jumped and nearly fell out of her seat at the loud and unexpected noise, but her face lit up with a smile when she realized that her class had finally shut up for once. She stood up and approached the newcomer, inviting her inside.

"You must be the new student," She nodded at her and brought her to the front of the class, smiling still. "Class, meet our new student, Hakushino Atsuko! I expect nothing but kindness from you all."

Katsuko took a moment to realize that she had yet to introduce herself and flushed out of embarrassment. She shook her head quickly before turning to Atsuko.

"I'm so sorry! I'll be your teacher for the rest of your year here at UA, you may call me Miss Sato." She bowed out of habit before turning around gather up her papers for the lesson she had planned. "You can take a seat anywhere that's open, okay? And if..if there's anything that bothers you, let me know! I'm here to, uh, help. Yeah, help. I'm so sorry it's my first year teaching."

Katsuko had made a fool of herself in front of a student, great.

Facing the teacher's anxious antics, Atsuko could only feel nervousness rise into her chest as well, turning her cheeks of a bright red color. "Uh. Yeah. Okay." she blurted, tense as she had never been before. Okay, maybe this one was a lie. But still, this was supposed to be her big shot, yet all she could do was stand still right where she was, unsure of what to do or say, probably looking like the biggest idiot ever. Wasn't the teacher going to assign her a seat next or something ? Was she supposed to figure this all out herself ? Well, Miss Sato did say it was her first real year teaching, so perhaps she needed a little push.

Embarrassed beyond belief, she rubbed her feet against the ground shyly and fiddled with her fingers crossed on her back, trying to evacute the nervous energy that had built up in her whole body. Looking away from her teacher, in the direction of the student body, that she vaguely collected information about – eighteen students, so nineteen with her, all of her age and of various colors and shapes, all looking toward the scene with curious and slightly amused faces, and *oh here was the embarrassment again of being the center of attention of so many people but she had to put on a friendly face it's gonna go well I promise* – she quietly uttered :

"Uhm, Miss, aren't you going to assign me a seat? Can I just... choose one?"

Katsuko's face darkened in color and she buried her face in her hands, apologizing profusely. She pointed towards the back of the class. "Can you...Can you sit back there..?" She requested, trying to be as nice as possible. "Forgive me for being so off today...It's my first day officially teaching." She wrung her hands nervously before walking back to her desk, feeling like she had failed her class already.

She'd have to ask a teacher for help with this later. For now, she'd have to work on being a more out there teacher so she could handle her class.

Doing as the teacher had asked of her, nervous energy wrecking all of her steps and weighting down on her like the stares of her classmates, chills shook her body as cold sweat wet her spine, back and armpits – great, was she gonna *smell* now ?! – and as she sat at her desk, putting her head in her crossed arms for a brief second to brush off the bad memories that threatened to rise and swallow her. She *had* to stay calm, *this was not middle school, nor was this elementary school, everything was going to be alright.*

Taking deep breaths, she then focused all of her attention on the teacher as Miss Sato begun her lesson, to the inconspicuous chatter of her classmates in the back. Good, they seemingly forgot about her already. Yet, this fact teared her apart for some reason – probably this *goddamn* persona of her acting on its own *again, damnit* – and again, she felt the need to shout her answers to questions and to deflect paper planes lauched in the class with her quirk, earning some laughter from her classmates. Heh, they probably still thought she had something like psychokinesis, to react this way... Man, would *that* have been cool...

And the rest of the hour went on, just like this, peaceful fun that slowly eased her deep-seated worry.

Katsuko smiled brightly when the lesson was over and it was time for lunch. She was glad to have gotten all of this ready and done for, having not been very good with speaking in front of large amounts of people. She was satisfied with what she had gotten done and couldn't wait to share this experience with her teacher friends.

She pulled out her lunch and was getting ready to leave before she turned to Atsuko with a shy smile. "Was my lesson good?" She struggled with putting these lessons together to help the students so input would really help her out.

The sudden interaction made Atsuko jump. She had been so busy gathering her school supplies before going to lunch – it felt safer to put them in her bag just for lunch, leaving them exposed could very well lead one of her notebooks to get covered in scribbles or mean words for example– wait, *what was she thinking ?* It really was time for her to get over those times ! Well, being a little careful wouldn't *hurt*, but this was *a hero school*, why would any of her classmates *at UA* try to screw her up ? – that she didn't notice the teacher getting closer and readying herself to ask Akko a question. Taken aback, she answered to the best of her ability, shying back now that she wasn't surrounded by her classmates, whose judgemental stares always helped her pick herself up :

"Um, it was, uh... great, ma'am. Yeah, great! I totally understood everything you said about... uh... being a good hero and... all that stuff... Yeah! That's... how it was."

God, this was so awkward. It felt as if she would die if she said another word. *Why did it have to be her ?*

Katsuko laughed a little bit at that. "If you didn't pay attention that's fine. I just need to know what I must work on and things like that." She smiled warmly and nodded her head in understanding. "Well, I'll leave you to get lunch then."

When she turned around to grab her lunch, she was filled with a sense of dread almost. Her teaching couldn't be that bad, could it? She had been doing all that she was told to do, all that she had watched All Might do, and even what he had said for her to try out. Maybe she was in over her head? She sat at her desk and just looked down at her lunch, lost in thought.

Weirded out by the whole conversation, but also kind of relieved that her teacher had gotten her nervousness, Atsuko exited the classroom to go to the cafeteria, closing the door behind her, sparing a single glance to her teacher that had seemingly gotten caught up in staring at her *bento*.

What a weird first day.

Shortly after lunch, Katsuko had her students meet her outside in a training arena. Besides her was All Might, ready to begin the lesson. A big grin was on Katsuko's face when she counted all of her students.

"I hope you all enjoyed your lunch because each of you are going to be training today!" She chirped, grinning at them. "Since hand to hand combat is not really my thing, All Might will help you with that front while I'll teach long range! None of you will really be fighting either of us as one of us would easily destroy you just by flexing, but we will be testing you to see what your strengths and weaknesses are! And one last thing, if an attack is purposely aimed at either All Might or myself, you will be delt with accordingly. Now, shall we begin?"

The teacher's speech was met with the excited chatter of the students, that muttered all sorts of things like how they were finally going to train under All Might-sensei after he had been entirely kept for the first years, an unfair move from the school according to them. Among them, Atsuko had stayed fairly quiet, making some comments as well to the classmates she had gotten to know – albeit barely, she had just gathered basic information such as their name and quirk, and also one or two distinctive personality trait of theirs – but being strangely out of character otherwise by withdrawing herself.

If she had understood Miss Sato's words right, it meant that the former Number 1 Hero would be teaching them basic forms in hand-to-hand combat – what style would it be taken from though? Capoeira? Karate? Judo? She couldn't wait to see – while her assigned teacher would help them develop their quirk. While she had been told her quirk was perfectly suited for Heroics, which was one of the reasons she got transfered into this department, Atsuko was still unsure of it and would rather spend the training exercising her quirk.

On the other hand, she certainly lacked form and had always relied, in some way, on her quirk to defend herself, no matter how hard she had hated it during the first years that she spent with it. She certainly didn't lack strenght, but form... It was another story. Perhaps the exercise woul help her better herself? Wasn't it the objective of all training worldwide?

So torn between the two options, she didn't notice that all of her classmates had already chosen the exercise they would like to try first, and she was the only one left to not having picked a side. As embarrassment colored her face with a bright red color, she suddenly wished that she could shrink into her training suit (since she didn't have the hero costume all second years had just yet) and disappear from sight. This day wouldn't end, would it...

Katsuko would look at her and tilt her head. "You okay, kid?" It didn't take her long to realize that she might've been overwhelmed with the quickness of it all. "Hey, why don't you go with All Might? Starting with hand to hand combat is probably best for you  since it isn't too much. If it doesn't work out, you can come work with me. How does that sound?"

She understand the worry that Atsuko was facing, as she wore that same feeling when she was a new teacher at UA. Of course, there was a lot more going on to contribute to her worry, but this was one of them.

*The offer seems reasonable*, thought Atsuko. *After all, working with All Might was a dream in itself. Up until recently, he was still the Symbol of Peace! Well, at the moment, he did seem a bit crowded with all the students having taken an interest in being under his tutorship, but there were still enough students in Miss Sato's group for both groups to maintain some sort of balance. Well, if the teacher said so...*

For the next hour, Atsuko thus spend her time throwing punches and kicks and trading blows with another student under the watchful eye of All Might-sensei, that corrected their stance from time to time. Then, every twenty minutes into a round of pair training, everyone would be asked to group around the teacher and would go one by one show their proficiency on an obstacle, with or without their quirks (depending on whenever or not said quirk could be of any use in hand-to-hand combat), then be directed toward another exercice to reinforce their potential. However, after a while, the newly transfered student noticed that she had no trouble with the training whatsoever, to the point that it became somehow... boring.

So, at some point into her fourth round with a classmate (whom she learned had a liking for dirty fighting, with how she always aimed for weak spots and for the throat – *what a bitch*), she simply stopped what she had been doing and stared at the ground, deeply in thought. All Might, like the gentle person he was – which really surprised her, you wouldn't imagine such a (previously) bulky person to have such a nice personality! Or maybe it simply was the impact of his retirement, she'd never know since she didn't have the courage to ask – noticed her troubles and came to her :

"What is it, young girl ? Is something the matter ?"

"Yes," she blurted out, in spite of herself. "I think... this exercise is too easy for me... sir... Not that I mean that your methods are inefficient or anything! It's just that... I feel like I'm... too far along? For this type of training."

Katsuko took notice of the coversation at hand and poked her head out from behind All Might and smiled. "It's not tough enough for you? You must be better than I originally thought! Which is good, of course! You're welcome to join my group then." She had kept a hand on her stomach as she spoke, almost as if protecting something, but she dropped her hand to the side shortly after. "Don't be so afraid of telling us things, Atsuko. If something is too easy or too hard, you should tell us otherwise we can't help you."

"Uhm, alright," she conceded, shrugging her shoulders. "I'll come with you then, Miss Sato." Shyly, she then followed her teacher through the mob of her classmates, briefly bowing her head to All Might to show her gratitude for his time spent training her. She couldn't help dreading properly using her quirk in front of the others, harrassed by the idea that upon seeing it in action, they would immediately deem her useless and turn their back on her– No. These times were over.

"Ah, Miss Sato, excuse me, if we're going to practice my quirk then I need to run to my bag real quick– ah, there it is," she said as she ran to get it and brought it back, since it had been lying on the ground near the limits of the training field. Suddenly, as she zipped it open, colorful paper planes flied out of it in every direction, guided by her quirk. It filled the sky with a rainbow of colors and shapes, causing all of her class to turn their eyes on her.

Ah, she really couldn't stop getting noticed after all. Well, might as well get over with it.

"Oh, uhm, this is my quirk. It's called Paper Control. I can only make paper fly like this so it's kind of useless, but I'll do my best! PLUS ULTRA!" she shouted to the sky by impulse, forming the school's credo in katakana with all of the sheets she had been holding, and closed her eyes convulsively, afraid to see her classmates' reaction. Man, this enthusiastic persona was going to be the death of her one day. They were going to think she was a freak, *they were going to think she was a–*

Then, clapping.

And as she turned to look at the source of such noise, she might as well have been hit by an arrow lauched right into her heart, because the sight that greeted her would be burned into her memory for months to come.

"Haha, it's so pretty! Bravo, bravo!" a boy with chestnut hair laughed, overshadowing the sun while in plain daylight with how much he sparkled and *oh, dang, he was handsome.* Blue eyes as deep as a peaceful lake blinked at her happily, amused of her shy and surprised antics. For some reason, the friendly way he held himself soothed her in an instant. *Dammit*, he really was bright, so bright that she couldn't help but shield herself from his greatness. "Your name's Atsuko, right? Your quirk is so cool!"

Then, "I'm Tomoe Asahina. Wanna be friends?"

Katsuko let out a satisfied huff followed by a tired sigh. She turned her gaze to the sky. "As each month goes by, I keep getting sleepier, Toshi." She rubbed her eyes with a yawn.

"I told you to take it easy, Katsuko." He murmured with a light blush. "You can go home now if you need to."

She rolled her eyes. "No, no. I'm fine." She shook her head quickly. "I need to read over paperwork tonight and reevaluate things anyways, so I'll be up and not relaxing tonight."

He nodded and left the conversation at that before following Katsuko back into the building.