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'I should have known.' Tanya deadpanned. 'It's a themed cafe.'
The Sato family cafe, Kanbi Corner , was styled like a vintage American diner from the 1940's. The location had the benefit of being just far enough from the train station to not be busy. The exterior was a white with mustard yellow accenting. A sign sat between the first and second story with the name written in a joyful font. The logo on the left was an old fashioned malt shake glass with stars coming off as if it was KO'd. The curtains of the top floor told her that this was part shop, part house.
The duo stepped in, the soft upbeat music washed over them. The shop was starting to fill up, mostly with UA students that neither of them recognized.
The interior was well decorated, favoring a base white. The flooring was white tile with various isolated colored squares. The road sides of the building were windows that wrapped around, giving the place a very open feeling. Against the left back wall were a series of short booths. Taking up the right wall was the bar, part of which was reserved for sweet baked goods behind glass. The only part of the right wall that wasn't taken up by the bar were the silver kitchen doors.
Sato's shoulders relaxed as he entered his familiar environment. He led the way for the two of them, taking a seat at one of the tables. The small chair was dwarfed by his towering size. Likewise for Tanya's wings which folded up, turning her dainty chair into a feathery throne that shihoulleted her.
"My parents uh," Rikido nervously began rubbing the back of his neck, noting Tanya's fairly vacant expression, "Set up this shop about 30 years ago."
'Right when All Might had established himself.' Tanya thought. 'Having the number one hero yelling american themed moves would create a cultural pull. There would be a market for americana.'
"I grew up here," he continued. His eyes swept over the pictures on the wall, behind the bar. Various heroes who enjoyed their food or events that were held here. Notably placed to be the center of attention was a happy and eager Fat Gum in his muscle form, the table was set for a feast. "Being so close to UA, heroes are popular here. Often times coming around when they're out of commission, musutafu's high hero population keeps it fairly safe."
"So why become a hero?" Tanya asked, maintaining her sharp posture. "This shop seems like it's doing good for itself, it's a prime career choice." She was slightly confused. 'It's safe, homely, and seems to be a popular spot amongst heroes. Add in the UA college students and the tourists, you have a consistent flow of customers. Why would anyone throw away such an opportunity for such a stable career?'
Before Rikido could answer, a waiter had entered the conversation. He seemed to be in his early 30's. Thin build and four arms, dark blue hair that was kept short, and of average height. In his upper left hand, he carried a tray with a wild variety of drinks, from a steaming coffee, a vanilla malt, and a few iced tea drinks. In his lower left, he had a stack of menus that he served out with his lower right.
"Hey Sato," the waiter said with cheerful familiarity, making small talk while serving them menus. "Glad to see that UA hasn't killed you yet." He locked eyes with Tanya, immediately putting his lower right hand onto his hip as a grin split his face. "I'd never thought I'd see the day! And who are you?!"
"Tanya Tenikari, I'm in Sato's class." She replied through a forced smile for the interrupter. 'What does he mean; does Sato not make friends? Pitiful, but his isolation will make him easier to control.'
'Her smile is soo cute !' He thought to himself while handing her a menu. 'My little Riki-bro, he's grown so much!'
"W-we're no-" Sato tried to put in before the waiter cut him off. The only thing he could do was shrink behind his menu. 'Takusante Fune! Stop being so ship happy! People are going to get the wrong idea!'
Another customer waved to the waiter. "Oop, gotta keep moving. I'd love to hear more but these drinks aren't gonna serve themselves." He waved as he nearly twirled away.
Sato hunched over further, his anxiety kicking in. 'And now he's off to tell my parents that I've found a girlfriend. She's not, I just wanted to treat my friend to some food. Curse you Takusante. Not every duo that walks through these doors are dating!'
As Sato was struggling to find his voice, mumbling about something, Tanya decided to read over the menu. 'It's almost entirely drinks. The first two pages, in fact, are drinks. Brand and store specialty soda's, milkshakes and malts, teas I didn't even know existed. There's an entire section dedicated to coffee…' A wave of melancholy nostalgia hit her, 'no one has ever been able to top Visha's work…'
"T-Tanya, why are you looking at the menu like that? Is something wrong?" Sato asked in concern. He couldn't understand why she looked so sad.
'No, I don't miss her…' Tanya returned to reality. "Hm, oh. Nothing's wrong." She forcibly swallowed her feelings. Now wasn't the time to unpack emotions, they could continue to wait in storage.
She flipped through the menu and was immediately struck with confusion. The food section was a bastardization of 'american' food items. Like someone had only vaguely heard of typical american food and had to fill in the gaps. There was a heavy focus on burgers and sandwiches, with an equally large selection of stereotypical sides. She couldn't recall if deep fried mustard pickles were ever a food item. Everything was still inspired, but confused. The motto here was evidently grease or go home.
"You said this place was a cafe?" Tanya peeked over the top of her menu at Sato.
"Well. Originally yes." Sato chuckled. He put down his menu, he knew it all by heart anyways. "But people kept coming here and our menu kept expanding. At some point we stopped being a cafe and became an actual diner."
A silence hung between the two of them as Tanya continued to scan her menu.
"If… if you're a fan of coffee, I'd recommend the coffee shake. It's actually my own recipe." Sato nervously added. He shifted away from her in his seat, distancing himself from the incoming criticism.
"I think I shall." Tanya set down her menu. 'As much as a tragedy as it sounds, let's see if his skills compare.'
After they ordered their food and drink, Tanya continued to prod at why Sato wanted to be a hero. His answers were always too simple to give her anything useful. She asked about higher paying careers, he turned down the thought. She discussed the idea of the spotlight, his anxiety made the limelight scary and they both knew his Quirk wouldn't make headlines with competition like Bakugo. After comparing him to Mirko, another very physical hero who was high on the leaderboards, he didn't seem to be the kind in it for prestige. All this to say, he was scaring Tanya.
"Then, what do you want out of being a hero?" She decided to ask straightforwardly. Her wings flicked in anticipation of his answer. 'He's a simple man, trying to beat around the bush won't ever get an answer out of him.'
"I'll answer after our food." Sato replied in an attempt to shy away from Takusante, who was sauntering over to them.
" Aaand here you are." the waiter had returned to place their drinks on the table. "Make sure to enjoy yourselves." He winked before running off to help another customer.
'Let's see how his recipe compares.' She thought to herself before taking a drink.
The coffee flavor was subdued by the vanilla, but present all the same. The bitter darkness of the coffee was still present, but woven into the sweetness. It was a unique take on the genre, pleasant in its own way. While Visha had mastered her craft, it seemed Sato wanted to experiment and blend flavors together.
Something stuck out at Tanya though. With how the drink was made, the flavors would end up separating, leaving the darker, heavier coffee at the bottom, where the straw was. The drink would get more bitter as time went on.
"So, what do you think?" Sato asked as he leaned forward in his chair. Despite the fear at the possible answer, he was too curious to turn down knowing.
Tanya set down her glass, "I finished it." She didn't want to admit to liking it. While still no Visha, his desire to learn and create was commendable. "I look forward to next time. However, you never answered my question, what do you want?"
Sato looked at the back of his knuckles, flexing his fist. "I," he paused to gulp, "I want to use my strength for something worthwhile. Even though my Quirk is second rate, even though my size makes me an easy target, none of that matters." He stared into Tanya's eyes and she could see him, truly. Underneath his anxiety, under his simplicity, there was a determination that burned hotter than a branding iron. The kind of determination that forged soft hearted people into machines of war. "To sit by and do nothing, with the gifts I've been given, would be shameful."
Tanya smiled full heartedly, she had gotten her answer. 'He's motivated by purpose! He wants to fulfill the economic niche his Quirk grants him!' She extended her hand across the table to him.
"Rikido Sato," She began her sales pitch, "if you stay by my side, I promise you that I will never let your strength go to waste."
He looked at her hand, then at her. No longer was there a sweet but awkward girl, but a businesswoman. She was a devil making her offer. His anxiety, his destiny to be mediocre, backgrounded by the more powerful students, she was offering an escape. Once more, this time with conviction, he took her hand. "And I promise you, it will never falter."
If Tanya smiled any harder, her face would have hurt. 'My protective ring begins to take form! Take that Being X! I don't know what you have in store, but between my leadership and my new team, you won't be getting me twice!.. Now all I need is someone with a strong control Quirk. The more help the better.'
She got up and stretched out, her wings twitched as they wanted to flex as well, but they were too big to let loose indoors. "I'll see you in class tomorrow, Sato."
"See you around Tanya." He waved to her as she left. 'What a strange girl.'
That night, in a bedroom that smelt of car oil and sweat, a young woman slept at her desk. Her pink dreads dangled around her head as her sketchbook acted like a pillow. Hatsume Mei was a creature of obsession.
Most nights, those when she actually slept, she would dream about inventions, her babies as she called them. She poured thought and care into each one, all while dreaming of the next. When she wasn't thinking up the next project, she fantasized about making it big. Having all the money she could ever ask for, to make cute mechanical babies for everyone and to fulfill any purpose.
This night did not contain her usual dreams, and it wasn't some mistake of her lack of self care either. She was in a place that felt right out of a high fantasy setting; she personally preferred steampunk.
It was like someone had taken the roof and walls off a cathedral, leaving only the stone arches and altar wall behind. The floor was smooth white, as if carved from a single piece of marble. Outside the stone arches, mist rolled along the crumbling church grounds, giving way to wide open blue skies. A cloud rolled by like a ship passing the harbor. They were isolated in this floating, dilapidated church.
"Hello Mei Hatsume," said an old man wearing robes that hung to the floor, his hair whiter than any paint Mei had seen. "I am -"
"I'd like to wake up now." Deadpanned Mei, she was already tired and was put off by the lack of tinkering. Inventing, talking about inventing, or showing off inventions made her happy, this place was far from any of that. "I have work to get back to, or perhaps a better dream than this."
The old man furrowed their eyebrows, squinting at the inventor. "I assure you, this is not your typical dream."
"Oh I'm well aware. Normally it's a massive workshop," Mei walked around, waving and pointing at where things that she knew were in her normal dreamscape should be. "With everything I could ever ask for, so I can go about making anything I desire! All the super cute babies that could one day exist out there!" She spun around in excitement. She stared through him, "So if you don't mind old person, I'd like to go back to my workshop."
She didn't understand what her dream was getting wrong. This place bored her, and it was inside her head? Why was she trapped? This shouldn't be happening… Then it clicked, it wasn't a dream, someone was using their Quirk to contact her while she slept!
The old person put their hands together, changing their tone of voice. Mei never really understood tones, she was confused by the gesture. " Yes, I have contacted you specifically. I have something I need made, something so perfect that I will give you the design! You will be the only human on earth capable of making this holy machine."
"Then it wouldn't be my own design? You're giving me a patent." Mei was getting annoyed with the blabbering old man, her adorable babies were waiting, not even on the drawing boards yet. "I'm in the support course to get better at inventing, taking your design would be cheating. I want to become the greatest inventor and make the cutest babies. To take other people's designs and claim them as my own; it would be like stealing somebody else's baby!"
"Then consider it a commission." The man smiled at her.
Stars shined in her eyes as she dashed up to him. "What pay are we talking about here!?"
"All good deeds will be repaid, you must have faith, precious human." The old person struck a nerve with her. The hyped mood she worked up dropped to a pout.
"Faith is not a good business model." They were trying to get her to work for free! "Look, if you're not part of the hero course, and you're not paying me, then let me go."
"I am God, and I am asking you kindly to make something for me." His eyebrow twitched.
Hatsume decided to introduce herself in return. "Hi, I am Hatsume Mei. Wait, you already knew my name. I'm a college student and have no money to make my precious babies with."
"You fail to understand, I AM THE GOD !" Self proclaimed God began to shout at her. They were very dramatic in their emotions, making it easier for Mei to read. "You humans, I don't get it?! What changed? A couple thousand years ago, my word was law, and now I can't get an inventor to make a relic. This would be the highlight of your career!"
"Are you… trying to pay with promised exposure?" Mei put her hand up to silence 'God' before they got to say anything else. "I don't have time for this, I need to get back to my super cute babies. No god would pay with exposure."
In her brain, between where she kept the files for teachers and other people who needed to be remembered, she squeezed in a new file. Someone who annoyed her and she would not be taking commissions from; Customer X .
" Another human whose world view is so set that they refuse to respect me. Fine, you'll be meeting your own kind soon enough." Customer X rattled on about their self perceived importance as the edges of her vision grew blurry. She was finally waking up.
The pages of her sketchbook crinkled beneath her face as she peeled away from the page. In the corner of her eye, she glared at her alarm clock, she had woken up in the middle of the night. 'That blasted Customer X just ruined my sleep schedule.' She groaned as she dragged herself to bed.
She needed the bare minimum of sleep to function, at this rate she would need to waste another hour. Customer X had not only wasted good dream potential but also ate an hour of her time with his antics.
Tanya thought she was going to breeze through her classes, having gone through college twice now. For the most part she was right. She was already fluent in multiple languages, even if her English was a little rusty. Mathematics and economics, her strongest subjects, hadn't changed much in 300 years. The economic philosophies had evolved over the ages, taking public opinion into account more heavily, but the underlying reasons didn't change. History was just learning new stuff, nothing unusual there.
There was one class however that felt like it was trying to bash her skull in. Midnight's class on modern hero art history. It was a nuanced and difficult subject for Tanya, one that she had little experience in. All her experience was built on logic, but Midnight's class, it was all irrational. In that hell, emotion blended with logic, all while rationality was but a dream on the horizon. She saw the difficulty ahead of her, even here on day one, and her foundations were shaky.
After finally escaping Midnight's class, it was time. All Might's class. They sat in their homeroom seats. A hopeful tension filled the air.
"I AM," a sing-song voice rang through the door, "ENTERING LIKE A HERO!" All Might declared as he posed his way into the class. His overdramatic cape flapped behind him as he strutted to the podium.
The class broke out into awe at the sight of him.
"I can't believe he's really here!" cheered Kaminari.
"This semester is going to be totally awesome!" Kirishima flexed.
"Is that his silver age costume?" Tsuyu asked, bringing a finger to her chin.
'A once in a lifetime opportunity! On a silver aged platter!' Tanya swallowed her hype, trying to maintain professionalism. 'Getting trained by the best of the best! Patrol routes, brand deals, early retirement, all right in front of me!'
All Might took his standing pose behind the podium, hands on his hips and massive chest puffed out. "Welcome to the most important class at UA! Think of it as hero basic training! Here we will learn the skills to fight in the name of good!"
Tanya internally squealed, the future was looking bright. It was also looking really buff.
"Let's," He flexed his massive back muscles to the class, unfortunately hidden behind his cape. "Get, Into, It!" He spun around revealing a card with battle written in red. "Today's lesson will hold no punches!"
Tanya contained her delightful squealing. 'Combat, something I know! I can set myself apart from the class early on and get All Might's attention. Getting favor with him means getting favor with fortune!'
Behind her Bakugo bared his teeth in a grin as he slammed his desktop. "Fight Training! Finally!"
And behind him, Midoriya shrank in his seat. "Fight training, already?!"
"And one of the keys of being a hero is," All Might wound up his arm, hiding the clicker in his off hand for theatrical effects. "Looking goood!"
Panels on the walls slid out, revealing large, metallic, square suitcases with neon green numbering.
"These are the costumes you requested. They were designed based on your Quirk registrations and requested designs."
The class couldn't contain its hype anymore as half the students jumped out of their seats in cheer.
Riding the hype train he started, All Might gave his first instruction. "So suit up and meet me at training ground beta!"
"Yes Sir!" The entire class, Tanya included, responded.
She took her case, number 21, and left to suit up.
She had designed her costume with light weight athleticism in mind while maintaining a blend of military simplicity and heroic flashiness.
A black compression shirt with a white armor plate across the front, fastened with olive green straps behind her. While the armor was minimal, it was the best she could do while keeping the weight down.
Continuing the military greens were her cyclist shorts. Simplistic yet effective, and material science had reached the point where chafing wasn't an issue to consider; a feature she was eternally thankful for.
She wore simple brown leather gloves. One could never really go wrong with a good set of gloves.
To finish the suit were her grieves and boots. The star piece of her outfit. Running wasn't really something to consider but kicking was. Steel soled, pointed boots and white with green chevron shin guards connected to black compression fabric. At the top of her shin guards, which nearly reached above her knee, were a set of lights. If she ever needed to do night searches, being a flying light source would give her an immense advantage. Plus being able to blind people while going for kicks didn't hurt.
She refused to mentally comment on the locker room, it was all behind her wings and not for her to see. 'Stupid teenage hormones. I don't need this shit!'
"Say," Tsuyu croaked out her question just behind Tanya, startling her out of thought. "Your Quirk is very similar to Hawk's."
"I suppose?" Tanya replied, curious to see where this was going.
"You're both blonde as well. Would you happen to be his younger sister?" She asked as she peeked around Tanya's wing.
She recoiled at the sudden appearance of the frog girl. "I uhh. I have no relation to Hawks." Tanya gathered herself. In truth, she didn't know her birth family. "Besides, our Quirks are vastly different. While we're both wing mutations, we're both capable of very different things."
"Oh? How so?" Tsuyu put a finger on her chin in an attempt to express curiosity.
Tanya glared at the locker, as if to take apart an opponent that wasn't there. "I can fire off gusts of wind while he has telekinetic feathers. There's a difference between us regarding resources and options. We can both fly, both specialize in mobility over power, but that's it. My wind can deflect projectiles and keep me safe while expending no resources. He has to allocate feathers to any task, risking losing them."
Then she shrugged before turning back to Tsuyu, something about her seemed so trustworthy. "But while I may have the upper hand in attrition warfare, he has more options. He can handle more tasks at once, but stretches himself thin to do so."
"You state prioritizing mobility over power, yet you almost came in second to Iida?" Tsuyu stared at Tanya. 'She mentioned attrition warfare as if she was familiar with it. That look on her face, in her eyes, she's speaking from experience. Yet, her Quirk seems underdeveloped. So where did she get the experience from?'
Tanya waved it off. "Iida was born into a pro hero family." She had looked up her classmates, it may be good to establish connections with people in power. It could give her a leg up in her career, like Todoroki. If she could make friends with him, she'd have a connection to the number two hero in Japan. "Brought out to race tracks to train his Quirk under the supervision of professionally trained heroes who all share similar Quirks. I can't train with my Quirk unless I'm sufficiently outside of city limits, which is a bigger hassle than one would expect. Throw in all the villains and vigilantes who enjoy the woods and things get rough. I used to train by flying over Olympic swimming pools, but there's only so much I can do with such a small space."
"So, you're saying Iida is coming from privilege?" Tsuyu sat down beside her avian friend.
Tanya hummed in agreement. "I don't hold it against him. If I was able to train under Hawk's on his days off, I would leap at the opportunity. It is the duty of those in training to forge themselves to be beneficial to society when they grow older. To sharpen their skill sets to the best of their ability and resources."
Tsuyu extended a padded gloved hand. "I'm Tsuyu, but you can call me Tsu. Despite my inability to express emotion, you seem to understand me?"
Tanya took her hand in a sign of friendship. "Tanya, and I pride myself on being able to read people."
Tsuyu tilted her head as if to smile. "Has anyone told you we sound alike?"
"I suppose we do." She smiled in response.
Author's note; Next chapter is going to be the All Might training fights! I wanted to give that it's own chapter as a lot of drama and action typically gets stirred up there, and it felt weird coming off the tails of all these character establishments.
Tanya's stats
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 150 lbs, 110 lbs without wings
Blood type: A+
Likes: Coffee
Power: 3/5
Speed: 5/5
Technique: 4/5
Intelligence: 5/5
Cooperativeness: 2/5*
* Is low because of her lack of empathy. She expects obedience rather than actual cooperation.
Quirk: White Wings
Her heteromorphic Quirk gives her access to high speed flight and minor wind control.