The morning rain poured in the streets, the kind that soaked through clothes no matter how fast you moved. Dante was trudging through it, wearing a coat with his hood up, but his hair was still damp.
He arrived at U.A., water dripping off his sleeves as he pushed open the door and stepped into the familiar halls. The buzz of students was louder than normal, the sports festival still fresh on everyone's minds. Everyone was talking about being recognized in public, some even looked at him, but he caught their glances—some were curious and others were wary.
Dante headed to class 1-A, stepping inside just as Aizawa entered behind him. He looked… normal? No bandages, no signs of injury. Just tired eyes and his usual disheveled appearance.
"Take your seats," Aizawa muttered, voice gruffer than usual.
The class quieted. Dante slid into his seat, arms crossed. He stared forward.
Aizawa pressed a button on the console, and a holographic screen lit up behind him. With names and numbers.
"These are draft offers each of you received after the results of the sports festival," he said plainly. "Despite being first years, we thought it might be a good idea for the Pros to invest in you early on."
Murmurs erupted instantly.
Todoroki's name sat at the top. Bakugo's was near the top too. Dante's was up there aswell, higher than he'd expected, but not at the top. He didn't care. But it was surprising considering all he'd displayed.
Aizawa continued, "Because of these offers you each will need to choose your very own Hero codename. These can be temporary, but that doesn't mean you have should choose anything immature."
Dante's eyes widened, 'shit, I haven't thought of a hero name?'
Before Aizawa could explain further, the classroom door swung open.
"Alright, everyone!" Midnight entered in her full leather hero costume, heels clacking confidently across the floor.
"The fuck?!!?!!??" Little Dante exclaimed, "in class too?? Wear normal clothes woman!"
"A name represents your image, your identity! So choose carefully. This is what people will call you forever!"
She passed out whiteboards and markers for each student. Everyone quickly got to work. Some were grinning. Others scribbled and erased repeatedly.
Dante stared at the blank board in his hands.
Hero name…
He had never thought about it. Did he want something dramatic? Something terrifying? Something lowkey, like Eraserhead? A name was just a name, wasn't it?
"Hey," Izuku said, peeking over. "You come up with a name yet?"
Dante didn't answer right away. He scratched the back of his neck, then looked down at his hand.
Sludge. Fire. A body so strange. Two powers. Two identities.
Maybe he was overthinking again.
Okay then, he looked down at the whiteboard again… and wrote:
"Dante."
It's all he needed really.
It sounded normal, he'd gotten used to it.
Midnight made her way around the room, making each student announce their names. "Creati" from Momo, "Stun gun hero : Chargebolt" from Kaminari, "Uravity" from Ochako. Even "Tenya" from Iida, who had chosen to keep his name.
Finally, Dante stood infront of everyone.
"I'm the sludge-hero, Dante." He said.
"Just Dante?" Midnight asked, a brow raised.
"Yep."
"Okay…"
Aizawa stepped forward again with a large stack of folders. "Now back to the internship offers. Those of you who have been given offers, you will choose from those who have sent you offers. Those who haven't will choose from 42 agencies that have agreed to help anyone from this class. Pick carefully, they will teach you what being a hero is really like."
He placed a folder on Dante's desk.
Dante sat up, quietly studying the list. There weren't thousands of offers like Todoroki or Bakugo had, but there was a fair few. Some names he recognised. Others? Total nobodies.
He scrolled through, reading their bios:
Burnout - a flame user known for urban rescues.
Smokescreen - specialised in stealth ops and quirk suppression.
Mire - quirk based in liquid manipulation, works in flood rescue zones.
Forgehound - a real tough pro hero with a reputation for training durable heroes in hand to hand combat.
Knockturn - apparently a vigilante turned hero with ties to the darker parts of Japan.
Some of these offers were quite clearly because of his fire. Others probably saw how he fought in the cavalry battle or how he flew across the obstacle course. A couple had obviously seen his and little Dante's fury and wanted to "tame the beast." That made him scoff.
Little Dante muttered over his shoulder, "Man, half of these just wanted to test you like you're a damn lab rat."
Dante didn't reply, but he felt the same way.
Still, there were two names that stood out to Dante that did make him pause.
Endeavour.
Mirko.
He blinked. "Huh."
Endeavours agency had sent a message along with the offer:
"You have potential. Your flames burn hot. I want to see the full extent of your power and wether or not you can handle it."
Typical. Dante could practically hear the condescension beneath the praise. But he did feel Endeavour watching him from the stands, watching his flames. It didn't surprise him that the #2 hero wanted a closer look, and he almost wrote him down right away just to shove it in his face that his flames were just as hot.
Then there was Mirko.
Her note was shorter, she didn't even have an Agency from what Dante knew nor was she the type to do internships from what Dante knew, she worked alone.
Her note was very short.
"I like the way you fight. Train with me."
Dante's eyes narrowed a bit. Seriously? It sounded real. Mirko was all about close combat and working alone. Raw strength and instinct. No tricks. No drama. She was just a straight up warrior. And she'd seen the way he moved. The way he'd beat the shit out of Shinso and now he'd brawled with Todoroki.
He kept looking through. But none caught his attention.
Now?
Now he had to choose between power, precision and raw instinct.
Little Dante piped up in his mind. "Hey, if we end up working with Mirko, we won't have seconds rest. Just saying."
Dante smirked faintly.
That didn't sound too bad.
Either way, he was gonna need real advice. He wrote down the top three offers. Endeavour, Mirko and Forgehound, and saved them for later when he'd visit Kaijin and Kazuya, they'd know who to choose.
…
…
Classes wrapped up for the day, and Dante, still thinking over his choices, slipped on his jacket and headed for the exit. The skies were clearer now, but the air was still a bit cold. He needed to go to the gym, he needed to ask Kaijin and Kazuya about his choices and also practice with Pyroclast a little.
He barely made it past the main gate when a familiar voice called out.
"Dante!"
He stopped and turned. He saw Itsuka Kendo again, her bag slung over one shoulder.
"Hello," he said. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "I just… wanted to talk to you for a second. Don't vanish again."
Dante tilted his head. "Vanish?"
"You ran away out of nowhere the other day…" she said, hand on her hip. "That counts as vanishing."
Before Dante could reply, little Dante piped up with a voice drenched in smugness, "Bro… she wants to talk? In this lighting? Alone? You're in!!! Play it cool."
Dante blinked, suddenly hyper aware of her standing a little closer than before. His cheeks flushed, just a little, and he looked away immediately.
Kendo blinked. "…Are you okay?"
"I'm perfectly A-okay," he muttered, stiff. "Totally fine."
"Smoot—" little Dante began before Dante punched him square in the nose.
Seeing Dante punch the air like that made kendo back away slightly.
Some passing Class 1-A students slowed down, watching the spectacle of the usually Detached Dante looking like someone had just complimented his smile.
Bright red and acting a fool.
"Umm, anyways," Kendo went on, clearly deciding to ignore Dante's reaction, "I wanted to talk to you about your match with Todoroki, but you ran away. I wanted to tell you that it was awesome!"
"I blacked out for half of it," Dante admitted. "I didn't know what I was doing for most of it."
She gave a small laugh. "Still. Your skill in the martial arts is amazing, do you train in any combat sports?"
Dante looked at her straight. "Here and there, I learnt it all from the best."
Kendo gave a noncommittal shrug. "You sure? How come I haven't heard of him?"
Dante smirked, "I'm heading there now, wanna come?"
Kendo raised a brow. "Really?"
Dante tilted his head, "Yeah, I'm sure he'd love to meet you."
She gave a teasing smile, then shook her head. "Next time. I've got homework. Train hard, Sludge King!"
"…Don't ever say that again."
As she turned to walk home, Dante watched her go for a second, then quickly turned and made a beeline for the gym.
"She's sooooooooo~~~~ into you dude! Since when do girls come up to you and compliment you??"
"Can you go back to being evil please."