Everyone was learning very quickly that Shiori was very hard to hit. 

Aizawa had given them a task based on the balls from the provisional licensing exam so they could go 'one vs all'. It wasn't going incredibly well if they were honest. Most people had trouble surviving more than 5 minutes with their classmates quirks and rubber balls aimed at them and only them. 

Shiori seemed to be going for a record with 7 minutes already under his belt. Everyone else was frustrated yet hyped up for the challenge. They had no idea when he learned to change his limbs around so quickly or when he learned to fly with just his wings in human form. The unpredictability was exciting. 

The boy himself was a little worried though. Yes, he had been practicing his unique combat style for a month and a half now but that wasn't the part that scared him. 

His quirk was changing. 

For most of his life shifting had been a very rigid thing. There would be a little puff of white smoke and boom, he'd be a bird, or a human depending on what he was before. But every since the fight with that yakuza during Eri's rescue and getting temporarily disfigured the smoke had gotten less and less until it stopped happening. Now he could watch his limbs snap into their counterparts. 

He could swap out his body parts regardless of form, like when he just changed his bone density and arms to fly in 'mostly human form'. Shiori could transform at the drop of a hat now. Hair one second, feathers the next. 

And it was scary. 

Sure, he was learning about who he was as a person and exploring his quirk but he never thought it would change. He just assumed he'd get better at using it. 

His attention was drawn away from the internal struggle when a ball whipped past his head. Midoriya had barely missed him and Shiori decided to shift back into full bird form. He was in a bit of a panic. Shiori chastised himself. He should have been paying better attention! 

He had just flown past Midoriya when he heard the crackles of ice behind him. He couldn't fly high enough and was trapped in one of Todoroki's massive ice structures. 

"Finally!" A voice shouted from behind him that obviously belonged to Bakugou. The trio then proceeded to throw their balls at him as gently as possible although Bakugou definitely wanted to just whip it at his face. At least they understood he was fragile as a bird. 

The sound of the timer went off and the cement field dissolved so they could see each other again. Aizawa blew his whistle and called them to the center where he was standing. 

"Yamada Kei, time 8 minutes 30 seconds. Our class's current record. We're out of time now but tomorrow the other half of the class will be going so there's not getting out of this exercise." Aizawa said. Kaminari groaned in the background. 

"Why can't we just not do this one? I had a hard enough time catching the people, let alone avoiding them!" The electric boy sighed "Also, its like-hella weird when you say Kei instead of Shiori.". 

It looked like the teacher was desperately resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Your classmate hasn't requested an official name change for his school documents so everything is being recorded in his government name." He explained "Now, the real reason you're all here and not changing.". 

The class looked at him expectantly. "Next week you will be having specialized training with class 1-B. I want you all to be prepared as it will be quite intense.". 

Everyone looked a little shocked but excited. Shiori personally couldn't wait to punch Monoma in the face. 

----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ------ ----- ------ 

Shiori had been on kitchen detail before but everyone cooking today could agree that it was very different when they didn't know his quirk. 

"What if we just-breaded it in bird seed?" The white haired boy suggested, flashing the biggest dark puppy dog eyes they had every seen from him. 

"Humans can't even digest some of those seeds!" Iida said firmly "Besides, Katsudon has a strict recipe we must adhere to.". Jiro let out a surprised laugh from the corner where she was starting the rice maker. 

"Okay, so bird seed in the rice then?" Shiori asked. Iida started chopping the air before he even spoke. "You can not add bird seed to such a meal! It would taste awful!" The class reprehensive shouted. 

Shiori looked hurt and Jiro had half a mind to scold Iida about upsetting him. "It tastes good to me in both forms." He pouted "I bet Tokoyami likes it too!". 

Tokoyami, who was preparing the batter for the cutlets, turned with a surprised expression. "You think I like bird seed just because my face looks like a bird?" He said, sounding a little offended. 

"We ate some just a ew days ago while watching Frozen, how could you forget the time we spent together!" Shiori said in an overdramatic sad noise, turning into a bird to he could pout in the corner. 

"Don't sulk!" Jiro said through a laugh "You said you would make the sauce! We need you.". Shiori changed back into a human sitting on the edge of counter and laughed. "I'll just get my own bowl of bird seed." He said, hopping down to start the sauce. 

----- ------ ------- ------ ------- ------ ------ ------ 

For some random reason Shiori woke up in the middle of the night. There wasn't any sort of noise or anything in his room so he wasn't quite sure why he was awake, but after 10 minutes he was pretty sure he wasn't getting back to sleep right away. 

Slowly, he got out of bed and walked over to the balcony. It was a clear, cool night. The wind was strong and pulled Shiori's bangs out of his face. 

The feeling of freedom prompted him to allow a mask of feathers to grow around his eyes, not too thick and stopping at his nose, but feathers nonetheless. 

He had flown. He had spent a year with no responsibilities except to live. He didn't have to worry about school or heroes and could live wherever he wanted. 

Yet with his future in front of him and his kidnapping was behind him, with the comfortable soreness from hero training in his muscles and the wind touching his skin, he couldn't help but think. 

'Ah, so now I'm truly free' 

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;-;

I know Its been like-half a month since I last updated and I'm so sorry! 

I didn't want this story to end, even though I'd had it planned to end here since chapter 5. I just got emotionally attached to Shiori okay! I'm emotionally invested in everything I write ;-;. 

As per usually every story that ends gets an epilogue so look out for that in the coming days!  

There is an announcement! 

Two new books are being posted soon! I'm struggling with one of their covers so you guys are gonna have to wait a little longer for it. 

If you want to know what the delayed story's plot is you can see it in the epilogue of Pop-Culture! 

The one that will be posted today is called Home! And here's the plot:

Shinso is out one weekend and almost gets pickpocketed by a teen with a powerful mind control quirk. Aizawa gets overprotective and goes to hunt down the criminal only to discover a homeless, pink haired 15 year old. Its going to take some work and lots of time but Aizawa and Yamada are determined to love the shit out of Kozume Miki.