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Description
Serena woke up at home alone the day after visiting her mother in the hospital, Ayane had come by the previous night for a while. They’d talked about the events of the previous few days for a while, but their conversation in the hospital room had worked through most of the issues, so it soon became an impromptu dinner date. Serena had attempted to cook something for the occasion and discovered that she was not a good chef by any stretch of the imagination.

Luckily Ayane had salvaged the evening by revealing that she’d been responsible for most of the cooking in her family before their finances improved, as she had a few younger siblings and their parents had been busy working multiple jobs to make ends meet, leaving her in charge of the house. She managed to whip up a passable meal from the remnants of ingredients that hadn’t been destroyed by the home invasion a few days ago or Serena’s attempts at cooking, and the two had spent an enjoyable few hours together before Ayane went home. Serena had hoped she might spend the night again, not wanting to sleep in an empty home, but Ayane’s family had been worried about her after being gone for several days, and she had little choice but to go check in with them.

Despite Serena’s worries about being alone in the house that night, she slept soundly without any of the nightmares she’d been worried about. With her mother on the mend and her freshly strengthened bonds with her friends, she didn’t feel lonely or afraid even despite being alone. She woke up early, wanting to catch up on some reading materials from the missed days of class. Law had left them in her mailbox with a note saying he’d cover them with her even if she didn’t catch up on her own, but she didn’t want to waste his time with private lessons when she was more than capable of taking care of it alone.

After a few hours of studying, it was time to get ready for class. Serena got dressed in her school uniform, grabbed her bag, and jogged out the door. She’d made it a few blocks when suddenly a kid ran around a corner and crashed into her. Her quirk activated reflexively and absorbed the impact, making the kid stop short as if he’d run into a wall, though with significantly less pain. The young boy fell backwards, landing on his rear with a grunt as a young girl ran around the corner as well. The girl stopped short when she saw the boy on the ground, then looked to Serena. Her eyes widened as a smile spread across her face, and the boy on the ground began to smile as he saw who he’d crashed into as well.

Serena looked at the two children in front of her, her initial concern for the boy’s well being replaced by mild confusion as they suddenly got very excited to see her.

“Miss Serena!” the girl said, clasping her hands together in excitement, then helping the boy to his feet “it is you isn’t it?”

“Um… yeah… but how do you?” Serena began to ask

“Don’t you remember us Miss Serena?” the boy asked as he finished dusting himself off “you saved us remember?”

Serena squinted her eyes at the children as they stood side by side, she’d saved them? But when had she… “OH!” Serena exclaimed “it’s you two! From the entrance exam!”

The two children seemed absolutely overjoyed as Serena remembered them, jumping up and down in excitement. Serena smiled, the last time she’d seen these two children had been in a recorded message included in her acceptance letter, and before that during the entrance exam, where they had been dirty, beaten, and malnourished. They’d looked to be in much better shape during the recording, but now they seemed healthier than ever. The young boy even had some extra weight on his bones now, not enough to be considered fat, but healthily chubby.

“I was told UA was looking for a new family for you two, looks like you were placed in good care” Serena said, ruffling the hair of the two children “I’m so happy for both of you.”

“We owe it all to you Miss Serena” the girl said, giggling as her hair got ruffled “if it weren’t for you that giant robot would’ve crushed us, and all the other heroes who helped too of course.”

“Yeah, it was all like… BEEP BOOP I’LL CRUSH YOU!” the boy exclaimed, pantomiming the giant 0 point robot. “But then you were all like… NO YOU DON’T! TAKE THIS! KAPOW! And you punched it super hard! It was SO COOL!”

The girl laughed at the boy’s excited flailing “my brother is like your biggest fan now, especially after the festival.” She explained “your fight with Yabo was really inspiring, we both recently discovered our quirks thanks to our new family’s help and our teachers, but they weren’t really suited for hero work. He was so sad he couldn’t be like you, but then you and that other girl proved he could!”

Serena felt her eyes water up as her heart swelled with immeasurable joy. It felt like she was about to burst at the seams as it filled her up and overflowed. Helping children like these two have better lives than she had, this was her reason for becoming a hero in the first place. She wanted to patrol the slums and clean up all the minor villains that the top-rated heroes were too busy to deal with and make a world where orphans like these children could live happy lives. These two children were a testament to the progress she was making toward that goal.

“Miss Serena, why are you crying?” the girl asked, suddenly becoming concerned as she saw Serena’s tears form

Serena smiled and wiped her eyes “I’m just so happy. See, when I was young like you two, I lived on the streets too. I had a pretty rough time of it, and I applied to UA to learn to be a hero to help kids like myself, like you, have better lives. And here you two are… it’s just… I’m really happy for you.” She said

The two children beamed at Serena’s words, the fact that she’d been a street orphan like them made her even more relatable and cool to them. In their eyes she was a beacon of hope showing just what they could aspire to become.

“We wanted to be able to thank you in person with our quirks one day” the girl said “but we never knew you lived nearby. I’m sure you’re a busy person with places to go, but can we please use our quirks for you now?”

Serena looked at the eager young faces of the children before her. The boy was emoting wildly with his arms, bouncing up and down in excitement as he pleaded with her to say yes, the girl was more subdued, but equally eager to be given permission. Serena was already running a bit late for class because of this encounter, but she was sure if she explained herself to Law, she’d be forgiven, what was the harm in missing twenty minutes or so anyway? Not like it would be much worse than the several days she’d already missed.

“Sure, but on two conditions” Serena said, holding up two fingers and smiling at the children

“A condition? What is it? We’ll do anything!” the boy exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air, then planting his feet and placing his arms on his hips while puffing out his chest “the hero twins are at your command Miss Serena!”

Serena chuckled at the boy’s pose, kneeling to get on eye level with the kids. “Condition one, just call me Serena from now on ok? All my friends do, and I want you two to be my friends too alright? I want to know your names too of course.”

The two children beamed. Serena was sure that if their smiles grew any wider their faces wouldn’t be able to contain them any longer.

The boy went first, puffing his chest out further as he tried to deepen his voice for a dramatic reveal. “I am the ultra-cool, super-strong, unstoppable hero twin! Kaito!” he exclaimed.

The girl giggled at her brother’s antics again, then played along and struck a pose as well “and I’m the mysterious, beautiful, graceful hero twin! Yui!”

The two siblings put their hands together and did a joint pose “and together we are…!” they said in unison “the friendly neighborhood Tokyo Twins!”

Serena chuckled as she reached out and shook each of the kid’s hands in turn “well Kaito, Yui, I’m Serena, it’s a pleasure to meet you both” she said “now for the second condition, I’d love for you two and your family to visit me and mine now and then. Seeing kids like you will keep me motivated to keep getting stronger and working hard no matter how hard things get. I’ll be counting on you both alright?”

“Mi… I mean, Serena” Yui said with a smile “you don’t need to convince us, if it means we can help you, we’d do anything. You’re our hero Serena.”

Serena smiled and wrote down her address, handing it to the twins. “Alright, it’s a deal then, that’s where I live. It’s a bit messy right now because some bad guys showed up, but in a couple weeks it’ll be ready to visit again.”

The twins looked horrified “bad guys came? Are you ok?” Kaito asked

Serena nodded “yeah, my mom got hurt, but she’s going to be ok, and all the bad guys got caught.” She said

“Then we really wanna use our quirks for you now” Yui said “and for your mom too.”

Serena looked at the two in confusion, tilting her head a bit as she asked “what do you mean?”

“It’ll be easier to show you first” Yui said “Kaito, you go first, I need to focus for mine.”

Kaito nodded and stepped closer to Serena, cupping his hands in front of him and closing his eyes as small orbs of white light began to appear around his hands and merge inside them into a growing ball of light. Serena watched as the light slowly condensed itself into the shape of a 7 pointed star, then more light formed a disc with the star inside of it. Soon the shapes merged and solidified into a silver talisman with the star shape engraved in it. The talisman glowed slightly, seeming to shimmer on its own without even reflecting the light. Kaito then handed Serena the talisman, and there was a flash of light as it touched her, after that, the talisman seemed like a normal silver medallion.

“My quirk lets me create protective medallions like this one” Kaito explained “they bond to the person I gift them to and stay with them always, we don’t know all the things they do yet, but they protect people from a lot of different things, like psychic quirks and some physical attacks, and they bring good luck I think... not sure about that last bit yet.”

Serena looked at the medallion, it didn’t look special at a glance, but she could feel a connection to it now that she’d touched it, presumably the bond Kaito mentioned. She nodded and put it in her pocket. “Thank you Kaito, I’ll keep it with me always.” She said, giving the boy a hug in thanks.

“Now it’s my turn” Yui said, her eyes were closed and her body was still as light formed in her hands as well, this time it condensed into the shape of a teardrop pendant and a chain to wear it with. The light solidified into a crystal blue teardrop pendant and silver chain, which she then put around Serena’s head. There was another flash of light as it bonded to her, but brighter, and Yui seemed to faint a bit as the bonding completed. Kaito stepped in and caught her, keeping her on her feet as she recovered.

“My quirk is kinda similar to my brother’s, but my gift works differently, and I can’t do it freely like he does” Yui said “my pendants grant wishes to their wearers, three to be precise. We don’t know exactly what the limits are, but the wishes respond to emotions. In your times of need, that pendant will shine, and when that happens, your heartfelt wish will come true. After three times it’ll break, but I hope it’ll come in handy.”

Serena touched the pendant with one hand, gingerly lifting it up to look at it. “Three wishes? That’s incredible… but with a power like that, why would you say you weren’t suited for being a hero? If you can grant wishes to people, why not just wish for villains to be defeated and stuff?”

“I can’t give them to just anyone” Yui said “it’s a special gift I can only grant to people I feel a powerful, heartfelt emotion towards, like gratitude or love. Kaito’s is similar but the emotions don’t need to be quite as deep, so he can do it for most people that he likes. I can’t do it multiple times per person either, not unless I find a new reason to be grateful or love the person.”

Serena nodded “I see, and I guess I can see why you only discovered these powers after getting adopted, not too many reasons to feel a deep gratitude when you’re living on the streets right? You two only had each other” she said.

The twins nodded, but Kaito grinned as he spoke up “well yeah, but now I’ve got tons of people I like and give medallions to. And our quirks have made a couple of people really happy with her quirk, sis cured grandma’s cancer for our new mom, and dad’s restaurant was going under, but then one of his customers liked his food so much she bought his restaurant and gave him a new job at her company. My medallion brought him good luck and made sure she showed up to eat there just in time to save them.”

Serena paused “wait a sec… that sounds like…” she thought to herself, then chuckled. Now she had another thing to thank Ayane for to add to the ever-growing list. “Heh, you two have incredible quirks, if you work hard, I’m sure you can become great heroes.” She said “it’s like me and Ayane said in the festival, you don’t need combat focused quirks to be great heroes. With hard work and training, you can supplement your combat skills with gear and skill, and your quirks are great for helping protect people and stuff.”

The twins nodded enthusiastically, and Serena hugged Yui in thanks as well. “Thanks Serena!” they said in unison. Her message at the festival had inspired them, but hearing it from her directly was special in its own way too.

Serena released Yui and stood back up “well, I really do need to get to class, you two be careful not to run into anyone else alright? My quirk made sure nobody got hurt here but not everyone you crash into will be the same way.” She said.

The twins nodded and stepped aside so Serena could jog down the street. They stood where they were and watched as she reached the end of the next block, then she paused and raised a fist into the air, mimicking her triumphant stance after her victory against Yabo. “Go beyond!” she called out to the twins.

“Plus Ultra!” she and the twins cheered in unison.

Description
Serena woke up at home alone the day after visiting her mother in the hospital, Ayane had come by the previous night for a while. They’d talked about the events of the previous few days for a while, but their conversation in the hospital room had worked through most of the issues, so it soon became an impromptu dinner date. Serena had attempted to cook something for the occasion and discovered that she was not a good chef by any stretch of the imagination.

Luckily Ayane had salvaged the evening by revealing that she’d been responsible for most of the cooking in her family before their finances improved, as she had a few younger siblings and their parents had been busy working multiple jobs to make ends meet, leaving her in charge of the house. She managed to whip up a passable meal from the remnants of ingredients that hadn’t been destroyed by the home invasion a few days ago or Serena’s attempts at cooking, and the two had spent an enjoyable few hours together before Ayane went home. Serena had hoped she might spend the night again, not wanting to sleep in an empty home, but Ayane’s family had been worried about her after being gone for several days, and she had little choice but to go check in with them.

Despite Serena’s worries about being alone in the house that night, she slept soundly without any of the nightmares she’d been worried about. With her mother on the mend and her freshly strengthened bonds with her friends, she didn’t feel lonely or afraid even despite being alone. She woke up early, wanting to catch up on some reading materials from the missed days of class. Law had left them in her mailbox with a note saying he’d cover them with her even if she didn’t catch up on her own, but she didn’t want to waste his time with private lessons when she was more than capable of taking care of it alone.

After a few hours of studying, it was time to get ready for class. Serena got dressed in her school uniform, grabbed her bag, and jogged out the door. She’d made it a few blocks when suddenly a kid ran around a corner and crashed into her. Her quirk activated reflexively and absorbed the impact, making the kid stop short as if he’d run into a wall, though with significantly less pain. The young boy fell backwards, landing on his rear with a grunt as a young girl ran around the corner as well. The girl stopped short when she saw the boy on the ground, then looked to Serena. Her eyes widened as a smile spread across her face, and the boy on the ground began to smile as he saw who he’d crashed into as well.

Serena looked at the two children in front of her, her initial concern for the boy’s well being replaced by mild confusion as they suddenly got very excited to see her.

“Miss Serena!” the girl said, clasping her hands together in excitement, then helping the boy to his feet “it is you isn’t it?”

“Um… yeah… but how do you?” Serena began to ask

“Don’t you remember us Miss Serena?” the boy asked as he finished dusting himself off “you saved us remember?”

Serena squinted her eyes at the children as they stood side by side, she’d saved them? But when had she… “OH!” Serena exclaimed “it’s you two! From the entrance exam!”

The two children seemed absolutely overjoyed as Serena remembered them, jumping up and down in excitement. Serena smiled, the last time she’d seen these two children had been in a recorded message included in her acceptance letter, and before that during the entrance exam, where they had been dirty, beaten, and malnourished. They’d looked to be in much better shape during the recording, but now they seemed healthier than ever. The young boy even had some extra weight on his bones now, not enough to be considered fat, but healthily chubby.

“I was told UA was looking for a new family for you two, looks like you were placed in good care” Serena said, ruffling the hair of the two children “I’m so happy for both of you.”

“We owe it all to you Miss Serena” the girl said, giggling as her hair got ruffled “if it weren’t for you that giant robot would’ve crushed us, and all the other heroes who helped too of course.”

“Yeah, it was all like… BEEP BOOP I’LL CRUSH YOU!” the boy exclaimed, pantomiming the giant 0 point robot. “But then you were all like… NO YOU DON’T! TAKE THIS! KAPOW! And you punched it super hard! It was SO COOL!”

The girl laughed at the boy’s excited flailing “my brother is like your biggest fan now, especially after the festival.” She explained “your fight with Yabo was really inspiring, we both recently discovered our quirks thanks to our new family’s help and our teachers, but they weren’t really suited for hero work. He was so sad he couldn’t be like you, but then you and that other girl proved he could!”

Serena felt her eyes water up as her heart swelled with immeasurable joy. It felt like she was about to burst at the seams as it filled her up and overflowed. Helping children like these two have better lives than she had, this was her reason for becoming a hero in the first place. She wanted to patrol the slums and clean up all the minor villains that the top-rated heroes were too busy to deal with and make a world where orphans like these children could live happy lives. These two children were a testament to the progress she was making toward that goal.

“Miss Serena, why are you crying?” the girl asked, suddenly becoming concerned as she saw Serena’s tears form

Serena smiled and wiped her eyes “I’m just so happy. See, when I was young like you two, I lived on the streets too. I had a pretty rough time of it, and I applied to UA to learn to be a hero to help kids like myself, like you, have better lives. And here you two are… it’s just… I’m really happy for you.” She said

The two children beamed at Serena’s words, the fact that she’d been a street orphan like them made her even more relatable and cool to them. In their eyes she was a beacon of hope showing just what they could aspire to become.

“We wanted to be able to thank you in person with our quirks one day” the girl said “but we never knew you lived nearby. I’m sure you’re a busy person with places to go, but can we please use our quirks for you now?”

Serena looked at the eager young faces of the children before her. The boy was emoting wildly with his arms, bouncing up and down in excitement as he pleaded with her to say yes, the girl was more subdued, but equally eager to be given permission. Serena was already running a bit late for class because of this encounter, but she was sure if she explained herself to Law, she’d be forgiven, what was the harm in missing twenty minutes or so anyway? Not like it would be much worse than the several days she’d already missed.

“Sure, but on two conditions” Serena said, holding up two fingers and smiling at the children

“A condition? What is it? We’ll do anything!” the boy exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air, then planting his feet and placing his arms on his hips while puffing out his chest “the hero twins are at your command Miss Serena!”

Serena chuckled at the boy’s pose, kneeling to get on eye level with the kids. “Condition one, just call me Serena from now on ok? All my friends do, and I want you two to be my friends too alright? I want to know your names too of course.”

The two children beamed. Serena was sure that if their smiles grew any wider their faces wouldn’t be able to contain them any longer.

The boy went first, puffing his chest out further as he tried to deepen his voice for a dramatic reveal. “I am the ultra-cool, super-strong, unstoppable hero twin! Kaito!” he exclaimed.

The girl giggled at her brother’s antics again, then played along and struck a pose as well “and I’m the mysterious, beautiful, graceful hero twin! Yui!”

The two siblings put their hands together and did a joint pose “and together we are…!” they said in unison “the friendly neighborhood Tokyo Twins!”

Serena chuckled as she reached out and shook each of the kid’s hands in turn “well Kaito, Yui, I’m Serena, it’s a pleasure to meet you both” she said “now for the second condition, I’d love for you two and your family to visit me and mine now and then. Seeing kids like you will keep me motivated to keep getting stronger and working hard no matter how hard things get. I’ll be counting on you both alright?”

“Mi… I mean, Serena” Yui said with a smile “you don’t need to convince us, if it means we can help you, we’d do anything. You’re our hero Serena.”

Serena smiled and wrote down her address, handing it to the twins. “Alright, it’s a deal then, that’s where I live. It’s a bit messy right now because some bad guys showed up, but in a couple weeks it’ll be ready to visit again.”

The twins looked horrified “bad guys came? Are you ok?” Kaito asked

Serena nodded “yeah, my mom got hurt, but she’s going to be ok, and all the bad guys got caught.” She said

“Then we really wanna use our quirks for you now” Yui said “and for your mom too.”

Serena looked at the two in confusion, tilting her head a bit as she asked “what do you mean?”

“It’ll be easier to show you first” Yui said “Kaito, you go first, I need to focus for mine.”

Kaito nodded and stepped closer to Serena, cupping his hands in front of him and closing his eyes as small orbs of white light began to appear around his hands and merge inside them into a growing ball of light. Serena watched as the light slowly condensed itself into the shape of a 7 pointed star, then more light formed a disc with the star inside of it. Soon the shapes merged and solidified into a silver talisman with the star shape engraved in it. The talisman glowed slightly, seeming to shimmer on its own without even reflecting the light. Kaito then handed Serena the talisman, and there was a flash of light as it touched her, after that, the talisman seemed like a normal silver medallion.

“My quirk lets me create protective medallions like this one” Kaito explained “they bond to the person I gift them to and stay with them always, we don’t know all the things they do yet, but they protect people from a lot of different things, like psychic quirks and some physical attacks, and they bring good luck I think... not sure about that last bit yet.”

Serena looked at the medallion, it didn’t look special at a glance, but she could feel a connection to it now that she’d touched it, presumably the bond Kaito mentioned. She nodded and put it in her pocket. “Thank you Kaito, I’ll keep it with me always.” She said, giving the boy a hug in thanks.

“Now it’s my turn” Yui said, her eyes were closed and her body was still as light formed in her hands as well, this time it condensed into the shape of a teardrop pendant and a chain to wear it with. The light solidified into a crystal blue teardrop pendant and silver chain, which she then put around Serena’s head. There was another flash of light as it bonded to her, but brighter, and Yui seemed to faint a bit as the bonding completed. Kaito stepped in and caught her, keeping her on her feet as she recovered.

“My quirk is kinda similar to my brother’s, but my gift works differently, and I can’t do it freely like he does” Yui said “my pendants grant wishes to their wearers, three to be precise. We don’t know exactly what the limits are, but the wishes respond to emotions. In your times of need, that pendant will shine, and when that happens, your heartfelt wish will come true. After three times it’ll break, but I hope it’ll come in handy.”

Serena touched the pendant with one hand, gingerly lifting it up to look at it. “Three wishes? That’s incredible… but with a power like that, why would you say you weren’t suited for being a hero? If you can grant wishes to people, why not just wish for villains to be defeated and stuff?”

“I can’t give them to just anyone” Yui said “it’s a special gift I can only grant to people I feel a powerful, heartfelt emotion towards, like gratitude or love. Kaito’s is similar but the emotions don’t need to be quite as deep, so he can do it for most people that he likes. I can’t do it multiple times per person either, not unless I find a new reason to be grateful or love the person.”

Serena nodded “I see, and I guess I can see why you only discovered these powers after getting adopted, not too many reasons to feel a deep gratitude when you’re living on the streets right? You two only had each other” she said.

The twins nodded, but Kaito grinned as he spoke up “well yeah, but now I’ve got tons of people I like and give medallions to. And our quirks have made a couple of people really happy with her quirk, sis cured grandma’s cancer for our new mom, and dad’s restaurant was going under, but then one of his customers liked his food so much she bought his restaurant and gave him a new job at her company. My medallion brought him good luck and made sure she showed up to eat there just in time to save them.”

Serena paused “wait a sec… that sounds like…” she thought to herself, then chuckled. Now she had another thing to thank Ayane for to add to the ever-growing list. “Heh, you two have incredible quirks, if you work hard, I’m sure you can become great heroes.” She said “it’s like me and Ayane said in the festival, you don’t need combat focused quirks to be great heroes. With hard work and training, you can supplement your combat skills with gear and skill, and your quirks are great for helping protect people and stuff.”

The twins nodded enthusiastically, and Serena hugged Yui in thanks as well. “Thanks Serena!” they said in unison. Her message at the festival had inspired them, but hearing it from her directly was special in its own way too.

Serena released Yui and stood back up “well, I really do need to get to class, you two be careful not to run into anyone else alright? My quirk made sure nobody got hurt here but not everyone you crash into will be the same way.” She said.

The twins nodded and stepped aside so Serena could jog down the street. They stood where they were and watched as she reached the end of the next block, then she paused and raised a fist into the air, mimicking her triumphant stance after her victory against Yabo. “Go beyond!” she called out to the twins.

“Plus Ultra!” she and the twins cheered in unison.