Après ce premier tour sauvage d'une salutation, Shuko n'aurait vraiment pas dû être surprise quand Tommy l'a tirée dans un câlin. La personnalité du garçon brillait comme une balise, comme si son petit corps ne pouvait pas contenir autant de chaleur et d'énergie à la fois, l'excès se déversant et inondant dans le monde par ses mouvements et son discours. Une étreinte soudaine n'était que naturelle, pour lui.
D'un autre côté, depuis combien de temps, depuis que quelqu'un en dehors de sa famille a montré son affection comme ça? Ça fait combien de temps qu'elle ne l'a pas accepté?
Ses bras se fermèrent gentiment autour de lui, pour un instant, et elle s'efforça de lui donner un petit sourire à mesure qu'ils se séparaient. "Je m'en fiche. N'importe qui serait jeté de l'équilibre par un jour comme celui-ci." Sa main tombait doucement dans la sienne, et elle continua de marcher derrière lui, à peine besoin d'être tirée. C'était plus facile de le laisser prendre la tête.
Quand il l'a relâchée, la main de Shuko est retombée sur son côté.
La plante-Akemi-était tout à fait adorable, et Shuko s'imaginait tranquillement aller de l'avant et simplement s'enterrer dans ces vignes douces, comme Tommy l'avait fait. Elle se tint cependant en arrière, et le laissa gérer les présentations, sa seule contribution une petite vague comme il l'a indiqué à Akemi. C'était doux, regardant le garçon excité s'élancer avec un optimisme effervescent, laissant de côté les manières et les règles des adultes pour une approche simple et innocente.
Presque trop innocent.
Qui s'est vraiment comporté de cette façon, brouillant tout dans leur tête pour compléter les étrangers? Un moyen facile de submerger les gens, de les mettre hors d'équilibre ou de les protéger. Un acte, soigneusement conçu pour donner l'impression d'être inoffensif et s'attacher à une marque, en créant des opportunités futures pour profiter de...
Arrête. C'était un enfant. Plus jeune qu'elle, même.
Elle sortit de ses pensées juste à temps pour l'attraper en regardant ses sacs, et se prosterna impitoyablement entre lui et eux. "Ne t'inquiète pas, je vais les prendre pour toi." Ne lui donnant pas le temps de se lancer dans un autre monologue, elle marcha brusquement mais tranquillement vers ses sacs, les ramassant soigneusement une fois qu'elle y est arrivée.
Pendant un court moment, cela l'a emmenée loin du centre d'attention, loin de l'endroit où les étudiants se réunissaient comme Boro a demandé des volontaires. Une excuse, d'une certaine façon, pour l'empêcher d'aller plus loin. Elle a laissé le babble des autres conversations s'estomper en arrière-plan, et s'est concentrée sur la fumée qui les entoure encore. De quoi s'agissait - il, comment cela a - t - il fonctionné? Elle l'a regardée, jouant avec les chiffres au fur et à mesure qu'ils montaient, pendant qu'elle récupérait les sacs de Tommy et s'installait pour les lui rendre, sans être particulièrement pressée.
Au moment où elle l'avait fait, les autres s'affrontaient déjà autour de Boro, le confrontant de voix fortes et petites. Shuko est resté silencieux, regardant avec de grands yeux et un sentiment croissant d'effroi. Ce n'est que lorsque le diable avait commencé à courir au sujet des péchés qu'elle s'est glissée parmi eux et a parlé, sa voix calme et vacillante.
"S'il te plaît, ne nous battons pas." Elle tremblait juste un peu, ne regardant personne directement dans les yeux. « Nous sommes venus ici pour apprendre à être meilleurs, n'est-ce pas? M. Boro, je suis désolé." Ici, elle le regarda, une légère lueur aux bords des yeux, et jeta son vote.
"Aucun de nous ne mérite d'être ici."
Ses yeux sont tombés par terre, comme dans la honte. "Aucun de nous ne serait, sinon pour Tumble."
À l'intérieur, elle se demandait si quelqu'un l'avait même entendue.
Shuko Toma

Female

16

Shuko's a daydreamer, a girl who always seems to have something going on in her head. In the right situation, she's both imaginative and thoughtful, but the frenetic pace of life often pushes her to retreat into herself rather than fully express these qualities. She's disorganized, even careless, with untamed hair and a disjointed, eclectic fashion sense that never seems to quite click. A textbook introvert, she feels nervous around other people and somewhat inept socially, a flaw that she despises in herself but has little idea how to correct. She's quiet and very obedient, to the point where it's almost too easy to push her around- a weakness which has proven dangerous of late. 

For most of her childhood, Shuko was raised by a single father. She doesn't remember her mother nor where the woman went, and has learned not to broach the subject with her remaining parent. Her dad has always been fair and affectionate, but he's also had to work full-time while trying to care for a child, and though the familial love is there, the situation has created something of a disconnect. Sensitive to the stress her parent was under, Shuko has always done her best to avoid sharing problems with him- but the lack of conventional family dynamics and her somewhat introverted nature left her with nobody else to go to.
Academically, she performed incredibly well during her earlier years, especially once her Quirk emerged and began to develop. Her potential was noted by important figures, and it became a source of pride for her. Unfortunately, it was also noted by her peers. Shuko was marked as a target for bullying and harassment, a situation only exacerbated by her apparent inability to fight back. Rather than seek help from authority, she withdrew further, hiding her talents and doing her best to escape unwanted attention. It worked, to some extent, but as a result her marks dropped down to just above average, and Shuko was still plagued by a bad reputation among her fellow students. Cut off even further, she found some solace in art and literature, as well as her Quirk- the one thing about herself that she still valued.
So when she was approached by a business that had noted her early talents and wanted to hire her for part-time work, she jumped at the chance. The job was easy enough: someone wanted her to manage and distribute funds, a task that was easily accomplished with her Quirk. Once her employers had taught her the basics of what they wanted her to do, she played her part perfectly, taking home a decent salary for relatively light hours and enjoying the opportunity to use her talents to their fullest, even if she was working largely behind the scenes. It seemed she'd finally found herself a place in the world.
Then the police came knocking at the door.
As it turned out, the "business" that had recruited Shuko was of the less-than-legitimate variety, and had exploited her number-crunching ability to help manage illegally obtained funds, turning money into more money through both simple investment and various financial loopholes. She'd been a completely unwitting accomplice to a number of serious crimes, and was dragged into court with little but her own testimony to defend her.
In the end she was found innocent, in part because nobody could believe such a harmless girl could possibly be a cunning criminal. Still, her sense of stability was shattered, she'd missed weeks of classes while on trial, and her bad reputation was soured still further. The law might have let her go, but rumors spread relentlessly among teachers, students, and even her father's colleagues. Surrounded on every side by whispers and suspicion, she shut down entirely. No more school, no more friends, no more life. She'd failed. She was done.
It was her father who pushed her towards an alternative. Shuko didn't know much about Tumble, or particularly care, but it was this or the psych ward. Becoming a hero was a foolish dream, but at least the attempt might earn her some form of redemption.


Calculator - Shuko is a genius with numbers, able to perform calculations faster than most computers and understand complex mathematical concepts almost intuitively. This ability also extends to her senses and memory: she can identify the exact dimensions of an object at a glance, and can perfectly recall numbers and measurements, juggling hundreds of digits in her head with little need for pen or paper. This often works at a subconscious level with few visible effects, but when she puts it into intensive use the blood flow to her brain massively increases, causing the veins in her neck and face to bulge outwards.
Unfortunately, this excellent memory doesn't extend beyond mathematics: she forgets non-numerical concepts easily unless reminded. She can remember the width of someone's eyes down to the millimeter a year after having met them, but will likely forget their name within a minute. Additionally, she has trouble concentrating on ordinary tasks or situations. Everything around her offers numbers for calculations that her mind performs almost instinctively, and it's often hard for her to keep track of the real world, especially when her quirk is under heavy use.


Artist - One of the few ways Shuko can fully express herself is through drawing and painting. She's not good nor renowned enough to be featured in galleries, but is still noticeably talented for a high school student. She's also a decent pianist.
Animals - She's pretty bad with people, but gets along well with animals. They seem to like her, and she's patient and gentle with them in return.
Endurance - Shuko has never been one for sports, but she does exercise somewhat. Her build is slight, and she's still pretty weak in terms of lifting strength, but she can keep up a moderate level of physical activity for hours if necessary.

The rachis, or shaft, of a flight feather branches along its length into hundreds of barbs, often of asymmetrical length but always aligned on opposite sides of the rachis. In turn, the sides of each barb are layered with tiny barbules...
Shuko's eyes moved slowly and silently over the page, picking out each word with dazed indifference. She'd been staring at her book for over an hour now, sometimes reading, sometimes logging the heights and widths of the printed letters and noting their individual surface areas. Didn't matter which, really. It was something to do, something to lose herself in for a little while longer.
She shifted slightly, blinking as she realized she'd reached the end of a page, then deftly turned it over.
...many of which are in turn covered by minuscule hooks. These allow the barbules to interlock with one another, forming small connections which hold the barbs together, effectively forming a single cohesive surface...
She was idly adding up the areas of each punctuation mark in the last two sentences when a noise caught her attention. A footstep, someone entering the room. Its exact volume in decibels popped up somewhere in the midst of her thoughts as she turned around, staring through overlarge glasses at her father.
She should say something. Her mind grasped for ideas, clawing desperately at anything she could shove through her mouth to break the silence. A few incoherent syllables were bundled together and shoved up her throat, and she blurted out, "I'm-"
Just as her father opened his mouth to speak. "There's-"
Their words collided, waves of sound overlapping and causing a dozen separate calculations to spark off in Shuko's head. They both stopped. Then her father gestured, indicating that she should go first.
She shook her head, voice barely above a whisper. "It was nothing. Please, go on."
He paused for a second, as if hoping she'd change her mind, then nodded. "There's a letter for you. I know you... that you need some time right now, but I think you need to read this. It's not the kind of opportunity that comes often."
He was trying to pique her interest, she could tell. He failed. Still, when he held out a neatly folded sheet of paper, she took it. Shuko didn't care who had written it or what it said, but she didn't want to disappoint him. Not again, not after everything that had happened.
It was clean, neat, official. She unfolded it carefully, letting her eyes drift over it, if only for the sake of formality.
Then her gaze sharpened. She blinked, narrowed her eyes, then sped up, racing through each sentence with a growing disbelief. For the first time since everything had broken down, she felt something, a hint of drive beneath layers of despair. Curiosity. True or not, what was on this page didn't make sense. She turned it over and over in her mind, thoughts churning and sparking and wondering at this new mystery.
Who was the hero Tumble? If she was a big shot like it sounded, why had she gone looking for Shuko? Who in their right mind would want anything to do with her, let alone think that she could become a hero?
She stood up, letting her book fall from her hand as she clutched at the letter with the other. Was it a blessing? A stroke of luck? Another failure just waiting to happen? She didn't know- but it was something, and something was better than letting time drift away without hope.
She looked back at her father. "I think... I'd like to try it."
They left the room together. Behind them, the book lay open, unfinished.
...which presses against the air, generating lift and allowing the bird, so ungainly on land, to take flight, and soar upon the winds.

- She's far-sighted, and will have trouble making out anything within six feet without glasses.
- She often carries around a small notebook to sketch in.