Chapter Text
"Mr and Mrs Hiroki. Please, come in." Hiroki Charu's home room teacher, opened the door for them and stepped to the side so that they could come in. The parents came inside the classroom. They all sat down.
Mr Hiroki was worried. "Is our son in trouble?" The teacher shook his head and took a form from his desk. "Not exactly. This meeting is about his application to attend UA."
He read from the application. "He gets a B average in academics, scored an overall A for gym and managed to scrape together an A in the mock exam. With a perfect attendance, a strong quirk and a clean record, he would be a perfect applicant for UA. However we have some concerns."
"Because of his condition. We have decided not to submit his application."
The parents stared until Mrs Hiroki spoke up. "What?... Surely that isn't right. It's not fair. He's never let it stop him from doing anything. It's usually well controlled and he should be allowed to apply for any school he wants to."
The teacher shook his head. "It's too much of a risk. He can't be a hero. Miss Hiroki, god knows I would love to have one of my students be accepted into such a prestigious school."
"I can't allow it though. If he were to become a hero, and have an episode mid fight, it could potentially cost him his life and the lives of others. I won't let that happen. I'm sorry, we won't be submitting this application. Given his condition, I recommend encouraging more safe and realistic career choices and goals."
Charu waited outside of the classroom for them and had been listening. He was angry. He glared at the floor, his hands balling into fists at his sides. When the door opened and the parents came outside, he was already walking off, headed for the car.
When Charu is angry, he goes quiet. Right now, he was seething. He didn't say a word and when they got home, he shut himself in his bedroom.
Hours later, his Mom knocked on the door. "Come in." He mumbled dejectedly. He figured she had come to give him the bad news. She came inside and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked at the warm smile on her face and decided to get it over with quickly. "I heard what my teacher said."
She frowned a bit. "I'm sorry that you heard that. That man..." She bit back the insults that flooded her mind, fueled by anger. "That man is wrong." Charu nodded. "I tried really hard but it didn't matter. There was nothing I could have done. All because of my diabetes. It's frustrating."
"I know sweetheart. But your Dad and I think he's wrong. You would make a great hero. Charu, we are always on your side." He nodded sadly.
"So, I called the principle of UA. He agrees that to have you not even get a chance is a waste of your potential. He's sent me a copy of the application form for you to fill out and for us to send directly to UA." She smiled.
"I can?... Thank you!" He hugged her. She hugged him back. "You're welcome sweetheart. Your Dad and I are so proud of you. Let's go downstairs and eat, dinner is ready." He let go. "Okay." They both went downstairs, Charu felt excited.
Charu was nervous as he walked to UA. It was the day of the exam. He would be taking it in an hour and he was worried. What if he was put in a completely white room? Because of the nature of his quirk, he would be quirkless and would fail.
Charu's quirk was strange and drew more attention than he would like. It's useful though. He thought about different ways he could use it as he approached the school entrance. The outside of the school was full of kids, all early for their exam.
A girl who was entirely pink, ran passed him, bumping him along the way. She said sorry as she passed. There were so many different people and it was crazy to think about how few of them would actually make it into the hero class. He started to doubt himself.
He decided that a distraction would be good. He focussed on checking his blood sugar levels. The result was 5.4 (97.2). Planning ahead for what would likely be a very physically active exam, he ate a snack bar.
Nearing the time for the beginning of his exam, he went inside. After given instructions and led to the test site, the exam began.
He activated his quirk and set off, destroying robots with some difficulty. Towards the end of the exam, one of the robots he destroyed started to fall backwards, towards a distracted Kirishima who was busy shifting rubble to get to a robot further out.
"Sharp guy! Behind you!" He looked behind him and managed to move out of the way. Shouting his thanks, he kept going and so did Charu.
Around that time, he felt his blood sugar levels start to dip. His hands were shaking and his joints felt numb. He did not want to stop things now or ask to leave. That would not leave a good impression on the examiners. He kept moving, trying to keep himself out of danger and use his quirk when he could to take down more robots.
He was alarmed when a giant zero pointer made an appearance. He took the safest option, and retreated away from the giant metal monster. After all, his quirk destabilises when his blood sugar levels are put of whack, so even if he was crazy enough to try, now was not a good time to be reckless.
Shortly after, Present Mic announced the end of the exam. The examinees all left. Relieved, Charu went to the locker rooms and checked his sugar levels, drawing as little attention to himself as possible. It was 3.4 (61.2). A can of coke and a snack bar later and he started to feel better.
Kirishima came up to him. "Hey man, thanks for earlier. My name's Kirishima." Charu smiled. "Hiroki." They shook hands. "You okay? You look a bit pale." Kirishima pointed out. "I'm fine, that zero pointer was huge!" He said, hoping to change the subject.
"Yeah. It was. Good luck on the results. You were so manly! I'm sure you'll get in." Kirishima said enthusiastically. "Thanks. You too." Charu meant it sincerely. The two went their separate ways, both hoping that they did enough.
Eventually, Charu received a letter from the school. He was filled with nervous excitement as he opened the letter. Inside was a disk. "What?..." it projected a video message from All Might. Thanks to his efforts to save Kirishima, he had only just made it in,scraping together a few extra points.
"Yes!" He cheered. "I'm gonna be a hero!"