The day after the festival, Class 1-A met back up in the classroom. For the most part, my classmates were praising me for a job well done as Momo and I chatted in the corner by her desk.
"Yeah, sorry about not seeing your text. I instantly fell asleep the second I got home."
"No worries, I figured after everything you'd gone through that day. I fell asleep a few minutes after I hit send anyway. You were incredible out there, by the way. Once again, I'm impressed, Morales."
During class, we still spoke to each other formally. We didn't want any rumors about us to start going around; though, it's not like those rumors weren't already steadily brewing anyway.
"I could say the same thing about you."
Momo shook her head. "You're just saying that. I tied for ninth place."
"Out of over two hundred. That's pretty impressive to me. We should do something to celebrate us both making it to the top te-"
Aizawa entered the room, and I practically teleported to my seat; he always hassled me if I wandered before class started. Midnight followed in right behind him. His face was no longer all bandaged up, so it was safe to say that he had finally fully recovered. However, there was a pretty nasty scar on his face. Speaking of scars, I noticed that Deku's hands and arms were covered in them and were all fucked up despite having been healed.
"Alright, class. Today, we are going to be picking code names," Aizawa explained.
"And these names may stick with you for the rest of your lives," Midnight added. "So be careful what you choose."
Midnight started handing out whiteboards while Aizawa wrapped himself in his sleeping bag and fell asleep under the chalkboard. Some students, like Iida and Todoroki, just used their first names as their codenames, which I admit was kinda boring. However, on the other hand, some people chose crazy names like Lord Explosion Murder or Can't Stop Twinkling. I'll let you figure out who came up with those.
There were some decent names out of the bunch, though. Uraraka chose Uravity, Kirishima chose Red Riot, Momo settled on Creati, and Midoriya picked Deku in an attempt to reclaim the word. I was the last one to choose, but my name had been set since the day I'd learned about my Quirk. I jotted it down and proudly strutted to the podium before revealing my name to my peers.
"Spider-Man," I said with conviction. "With the hyphen. That's important."
I expected a few applause or something, but it was dead silent... I thought that maybe since it was in English, they didn't know what it meant, but we took English courses, and the words "Spider" and "Man" are extremely basic. The only people who seemed to appreciate it were my friends: Midoriya, Kirishima, Momo, and Ochaco. Still, all they did was smile and nod.
"Seems basic, don't you think? That's like if I named myself Electro or something." I heard Kaminari say.
"Exactly. It's supposed to sound like a classic American hero name. Like Superman or Batman, or Iron Man. You know, from those ancient comic books back before there were Quirks. I want children to look up to me in the same way I used to look up to All Might, so I wanted a simple name to reflect that.'
"When you put it that way... I guess it does sound pretty cool," Mineta added. Everyone seemingly agreed as they chanted "Spider-Man" a few times in unison. I'm glad they liked it.
For the rest of the class, we sat around trying to figure out what agency we were going to work with. Most people picked agencies based on their Quirks. For example, I was considering working with Kamui Woods since our Quirks were pretty similar, plus he'd reached out to me anyway. Others chose heroes they idolized. There were even students, like Uraraka, who chose heroes completely different than themselves to work outside of their comfort zone. Of course, that little creep, Mineta, picked Mount Lady because he wants to stare at her in costume.
By the day's end, I was still considering working with Kamui Woods; however, All Might found me as I was walking off campus.
"Young Morales! Have you figured out who you're going to be interning with?"
"Not really. I'm thinking Kamui Woods."
"Ah, that is a fantastic choice. He is a great hero. But I do have a friend of mine who asked me personally to reach out to you."
"A friend of yours? Really?"
"His name is Elecplant. He's an American hero, but he is visiting Japan on business. He wanted to help you refine that electric Quirk of yours."
I figured it would probably be better to work with an electric-type hero since I have pretty much no idea what I'm doing when I'm using my electric Quirk. Besides, it would be cool to meet a fellow hero from America.
"Alright, I'll do it. Do you have his contact information?"
All Might slid me Elecplant's business card; it was as if he already knew I would accept the offer. I called him that night, and the next day, I met up with Elecplant at the AHA, the American Hero Agency, here in Japan. Since the American superhero industry was so large, they had at least one office in pretty much all hero markets.
When I walked into his office, I noticed that he was reading over a news article about some American villain who'd started committing crimes here in Japan.
"The Prowler? Is that what All Might meant when he said you were here on business?"
Elecplant turned his chair, showing his costume in full to me. He wore a skin-tight, black costume etched with white lightning bolts, his face concealed under a mask that followed the same scheme. Our costumes actually looked pretty similar; people probably thought I was a fan of his or his sidekick...
"Are you Miles?" he asked me in English.
"Oh, yes, sir. Sorry," I said formally. "My name is Miles Morales, but my hero name is Spider-Man. It's nice to meet you." He and I shook hands. I could hear his muffled laugh beneath his mask.
"Spider-Man, really? There's an American hero from New York I know with that exact same name. Now that I think about it, you have similar Quirks too... Shooting webs and all that." he took a closer look at my costume. "Your costumes are pretty identical too... Are you guys related?"
"I've never heard of the guy."
"Huh... Anyway, yes, the Prowler is one of my villains. I'm responsible for him, so I followed his tracks here. Enough about him. Your performance during the U.A. Sports Festival is quite impressive. But I noticed you don't have much control over that electric Quirk of yours."
"I don't. Did you hear about how villains attacked U.A.? I fought an electric-type villain there, and it awakened another Quirk inside of me. Since then, I've been able to emit electricity, but I haven't gotten a grasp on how it works."
"Figures. Watching you use your powers incorrectly was getting on my nerves. Luckily, All Might had your best interest at heart and asked me to train you."
My eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean? All Might said you wanted me to intern under you."
"Geez... So this was all set up by Toshinori, huh? Typical." Elecplant stood up and started for the door. "Well, let's get this show on the road. If All Might wants me to train you, I'll train you. I owe him that much."
Although Midoriya is All Might's true successor, I learned then that All Might at least saw me as one of his pupils. Knowing this, I was more motivated than ever to master this aspect of my Quirk. Though I wondered why he didn't just tell me he wanted me to work with Elecplant directly. Perhaps the offer sounded more appealing if it seemed like Elecplant wanted me, like hundreds of others who wanted to contact me. Either way, this was for the best.
Besides, I was willing to bet that the others were growing more powerful with each passing moment. I may have won the festival, but it wasn't easy. Had Todoroki mastered the other half of his Quirk, I would've lost. If Midoriya could use even ten percent of his Quirk, he'd probably give me a run for my money. Even the others are just a single step away from catching up to me.
If I wanted to stay ahead of the pack, I couldn't become compalcent; I needed to work as if I were in last place.