"Kan-sensei!" Eijiro Kirishima swaggered in with admittedly deserved confidence.
"Kirishima-kun, take a seat," the teacher invited.
"Thanks." Despite his swagger, the #2 scorer on the entry exam sat properly instead of lounging, to Kan's approval. "So, where do we start?"
"Is there anywhere you'd like to begin? We're here to discuss your motivations, your plans for the future, your abilities, and your performance."
"Sweet. Hm… Is it a bad thing that I placed 8th in the Quirk tests and my team lost our match even though I came in 2nd on the entry exam?" Eijiro asked, not seeming particularly concerned about it.
"No. The entrance examination's practical was intended to explore your performance as a hero in a realistic situation, while the Quirk tests were aimed to spur your creativity by showing you holes in your abilities. As for your loss, we often learn as much from our mistakes as from success. What do you feel you learned from your defeat?"
"Learned from-? Hm, yeah," Eijiro said slowly as he tried to put it into words. "Maybe… I shouldn't have assumed I'd win? Except it was a team thing, and if heroes don't try to fight adversity and pull out a win, then they're already losing, that's what I think. Ah! I shouldn't have assumed I'd win based everyone's performances in the tests and my high placement on the entry exam! Tokoyami and I might've gone in differently and been more alert if we were treating Aoyama and Hagakure as definite threats," he declared proudly.
"A good lesson to take from the experience," Kan complimented. "As you gain experience in these matters, you'll learn that it is almost always easier to inflict harm than to avoid it, even with a powerful defensive Quirk. Tell me, who among your classmates do you think could pose a threat to you in a fight?"
"Who could-? Hmm…" Eijiro tucked one hand under his chin in thought. "I didn't think Aoyama or Hagakure could, but then I guess that wasn't… Well, the obvious ones are Midoriya, Todoroki, and I don't know how powerful Bakugou's explosions are but I wouldn't risk a serious fight unless someone was on the line."
Eijiro didn't notice, but Kan gave a nod of approval to his phrasing. "Are they all?"
"Nah, it's just the others get more subjective. Um… Mina-chan and I went to middle school together, and I know she never really cut loose on me with her Quirk, but I'd bet she could hurt me with acid if she had to. Aoyama might be able to wear me down with his laser? I haven't seen Asui or Iida use enough force to- Uraraka."
"Ochako Uraraka?" Kan prompted.
"I wasn't really thinking about it, but she got 'infinity' on the ball toss test and we saw her take Iida's gravity. If she used it on me without handholds or a ceiling, and I just kept rising… I mean, I'm not sure what height would be a fatal drop with my Hardening, but I'd eventually hit space and choke, right?"
"An astute observation," Kan acknowledged.
"Right, thanks," Eijiro said distantly. "Ojiro hasn't thrown around the brute force to break me, and I don't think Satou or Shoji have either, but they're in the 'maybe' group. Denki-kun's a big 'maybe' because I haven't really tested if electricity hurts me, but depending on how hard he shocks me and how long he can keep it up, I bet he could get me. I'm not sure about Koji-kun, but Jirou could probably make my ears bleed even if she couldn't break me. Tokoyami-kun said that Dark Shadow could hurt me at full power, even if I haven't seen it, so I'll trust him… I wanna say that Sero-kun and Mineta couldn't harm me, but if they blocked off my breathing that'd be bad. Then I have no idea if our Class Rep could hurt me immediately, but if she hit me with her cannon enough times she'd beat me.
"Wow, that's a little depressing," Eijiro finished with a laugh. "Like, half the class is a threat to the guy with a defensive Quirk, who knew?"
"As I said, it's always easier to inflict harm than to avoid it," Kan reiterated. "We discussed who could threaten you, but we didn't touch upon which of your classmates you believe yourself capable of harming."
Realization flashed across Eijiro's expression.
"Ooh, yeah, that is different. I mean… I probably couldn't get to Todoroki without him freezing me, and finding Hagakure if she's running would be… If they have to stick around for a fight with me, I could hurt pretty much all of them, but if I need to chase 'em down it'd be way harder. There's probably some lesson in there about villains fleeing the scene, right?"
"Very perceptive of you," Kan complimented. "I worked with Crimson Riot once before his retirement, and I expect he would be impressed."
Eijiro lit up like a lamp. "Really?!"
"Certainly."
"The guy's my- Well, I put it on the paper that I want to be like him when I'm a hero. Manly, with no regrets." The boy straightened with pride as he spoke.
"As your teacher, I want that as well," Kan assured him, "and I have faith that you'll achieve it."
"Thank you, sir," Mashirao Ojiro said as he worked the latch that shifted the back of the chair to accommodate his tail.
"How are you settling into UA? Classes going well?"
"Yessir. I'm understanding all the material without issue, and I've made friends with a few of my classmates."
"Very good. Your junior high grades are commendable, you placed a respectable 7th in the Quirk Apprehension test on the first day, and you displayed exceptional discipline in passing the Entrance Practical using only your tail and your martial arts training."
"Thank you, sir. I admit, it feels embarrassing that I placed 28th, but when I remember that several hundred applicants took the practical exam for the Hero Course, I feel some pride as well."
"And you should. It's important to acknowledge our weaknesses, where we can improve, but it is equally important to acknowledge our strengths and what we achieve after improving from where we were before."
Mashirao offered a slim smile and a nod.
"Based on your abilities, in what area do you believe you need to grow most?"
"Mobility and reaction speed, sensei."
"Oh?"
"In our match yesterday, despite shaping the battlefield to my team's advantage, we were handily defeated by Iida's improved mobility. …Critical thinking or creativity might be useful," Mashirao admitted. "When I spoke with Iida and Uraraka, they told me their strategy was largely provided by Midoriya, who predicted almost perfectly what we would do. I don't resent him for helping his friends, but predictability is a bad trait for a hero to have."
"A mature outlook. I see you're committed to learning from your mistakes. I do have a question for you to consider."
"Sensei?"
"Why do you believe it is more important to improve areas where you are already skilled, as opposed to gaining skills you lack, such as ranged combat ability?"
"That-," Mashirao hesitated. "Sensei, are you pointing out a mistake in my thinking, or are you asking me a genuine question?"
"Yes," Kan answered with a faint smile.
He said nothing else as the silence stretched on.
After a few moment, Mashirao's hesitation morphed into a realization and he settled back in his seat to think.
Quietly, the clock ticked on.
After a minute of silence, Mashirao straightened again and Sekijiro Kan gave the student his full attention.
"Partly, I want to improve skills I already have because I'm capable of improving them and more easily seeing the improvement," Mashirao admitted. "It's more comfortable for me to up my training… but comfortable means predictable as well. So I should focus on gaining skills I lack, even though it feels uncomfortable because I'm not familiar with how to do so."
"No, you should do both," Kan corrected. Mashirao winced. "We will be training to improve your existing skills as well as teaching you new skills over the course of the year. I was merely curious as to why you prioritized as you did; your explanation displayed more maturity and self-awareness than I usually see in anyone your age."
Now Mashirao blushed a bit. "Th-Thank you sensei."
Kan nodded and turned back to the questionnaire he held. "I see you are the fourth of five siblings, and the only boy."
"Yes sir. Well, my father counts as well, but we are often outnumbered. It's a bit of a running joke."
"No one else in your family is involved in heroics?"
"No sir. Rumiko-ane is the one who got me interested in martial arts, but she does it in the competition circuits. They're all very supportive, though; my younger sister has claimed first dibs on any Tailman merchandise ever produced."
"Tailman?"
"My hero name, sensei," Mashirao answered despite his red cheeks. "It isn't in use and I figure it's really fitting. The Martial Arts Hero: Tailman."
"It's good to see you thinking ahead and planning for the future," Kan joked lightly.
"Mezo Shoji-kun," Kan greeted. "Please take a seat."
"Thank you, sensei."
"Have you been settling in well at UA?"
While he couldn't see Mezo's face through the mask, Kan noted that Mezo's arm-tentacles shifted as his question. He didn't know what the tell meant, but he reflected that they may want to work on Mezo's metaphorical poker face.
Or maybe not. There was a lot to cover, and only so many days, after all. Still.
"I have." A pause. "Everyone's been very nice. Friendly. I'm still getting to know people, but I feel comfortable here."
"Are you settling well into your apartment?"
Barring Yuga, whose parents lived in France, Mezo was probably the student who had traveled farthest to attend UA, hailing from Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. Add on that Mezo was factually the youngest student in 1-A despite his appearance, and the last thing Sekijiro Kan wanted was to overlook a vulnerable student who only looked okay.
"Yes sir. I've never been particularly attached to material things, so I traveled lightly, and I'm settled in."
Mezo didn't mention how few material things he'd had in the first place, or the fact that his father was currently living out of his car. It wasn't Kan's business, he didn't want pity, and his teacher couldn't do anything other than help Mezo become an excellent hero able to provide support.
"That's good. Are there any areas of development in which you want to improve during your time here?"
"…Everything?" Mezo shrugged when Kan-sensei gave him a skeptical look. "I know I placed well in the Quirk Apprehension tests and the entry exam, but that was largely due to my Quirk, and there's more to being a hero than violence. I'm not planning to exclusively be a rescue hero, but between my senses and my strength I imagine I'll be good at finding and evacuating people."
'Assuming they don't scream and mistake me for a villain,' Mezo finished silently.
"Recognition of things other than the spotlight and crime-fighting. You have a promising future indeed, Shoji-kun." Kan made a note on his paper.
They didn't discuss the prejudice Mezo had faced for his 'freaky' mutation Quirk, or the fact that his mask was to avoid scaring other people. Kan didn't know to mention it.
But Mezo knew he could raise it, if there were issues. That was enough for him.
"Tokoyami-kun. Tokoyami-kun," he repeated with a nod to Dark Shadow, who cheered and swirled around Fumikage before retreating. "Good morning to both of you."
"It is so far."
"Are you settling in at UA? Have you had a positive experience so far?"
"Indeed, sensei. Humbling, to be defeated so quickly, but history and myth are both replete with stories in which the supposed underdog overcomes a superior enemy."
"I'm sorry, Fumi," Dark Shadow apologized mournfully. "I should've been watching more closely."
"Given Hagakure-san's Quirk, I doubt it would have made much difference," Fumikage assured him.
Kan meanwhile, was considering something he wished he had thought about beforehand: Dark Shadow's self-awareness meant he couldn't discuss things like the Quirk's obedience or abilities without Dark Shadow overhearing and providing input.
'Rather than discussing the obedience of Koji Koda's animals, this will be more like a discussion with conjoined twins,' he realized. 'Albeit, one of them isn't studying or learning as much… Or is he?'
With this new paradigm in mind, Kan spoke carefully. "I'd like to begin asking you two a few questions. Some of them may be insulting, but I ask because the way you answer them and whether you feel insulted will be important. Do you understand?"
"Ooh, go on ahead," Dark Shadow chirped.
"We will be happy to answer any questions you ask," Fumikage agreed.
"Is it appropriate for me to treat Dark Shadow as a separate individual? Not just in personality, but should I look into getting Dark Shadow a Student ID Number and providing classwork?"
Dark Shadow and Fumikage shared a look. Fumikage cocked his head.
"Noooo~oo! Please don't," Dark Shadow wailed dramatically.
"While Dark Shadow displays his own opinions and beliefs in everyday life, if nothing else, sensei, it would be inappropriate because he is several years younger than me, having manifested when I was 3," Fumikage answered. "Under daylight, his intellect is largely limited to that of an 11- or 12-year-old, along with his emotional maturity."
"Will it be beneficial to provide age-appropriate schoolwork, then?"
"I don't wanna study~!" Dark Shadow wailed from behind Tokoyami.
"While Dark Shadow has some retention and learning ability, it is not great. We have performed experiments in piercing the dark mysteries of his existence and learn a great many secrets," Fumikage continued.
"Such as?"
"If Dark Shadow were to read a book without me, he would retain the information well enough to explain it to me, but the retention would be imperfect, and within a week or two he would likely be unable to recall any great details. Conversely, subjects I learn tend to gradually 'bleed over' into his understanding without his studying them."
"Elaborate on that for me."
"My mother has given me several cooking lessons, simple meals for when my parents are unavailable. Dark Shadow usually found them uninteresting and would stretch out to watch television rather than participate. Not only would I remain unaware of the shows he viewed during my lessons until he told me about them, but Dark Shadow was nevertheless able to help me in recalling several steps when I erred while cooking for my parents' anniversary."
"That's very helpful information. Now, this question may be particularly insulting: is there any worry that Dark Shadow's eyes might wander during a test, or that he might give you answers?"
Fumikage, having had several teachers unfairly accuse him of this in the past, felt a mix of distaste at the topic and gratitude that Kan-sensei asked instead of assumed.
"While it is possible for Dark Shadow to do so, the stealth and subtlety required for such an act are decidedly… lacking," Fumikage declared.
"Yeah!" Dark Shadow swooshed around with proud smile. "Fumi says I need practice with whispering." The animate Quirk leaned in. "Personally, I think I'm whispering fine right now-," The volume was more of a conversational hiss, and would be audible halfway across the classroom. "-but bird have sharper hearing than shadows, you know?"
"That makes sense," Kan said neutrally.
"I am also capable of restraining Dark Shadow so he does not emit from my body, and I am accustomed to doing so during examinations."
"That will be convenient. It requires effort for you to restrain Dark Shadow, though? Rather than effort to produce him?"
"Yuppers! I'm like a dog on a leash!" Kan looked from Dark Shadow to Fumikage.
"That is indeed our most successful metaphor, likening my body to a doghouse and Dark Shadow to the canine inhabitant. He remains a part of me whether inside or out, and while he may stay or depart he may not leave a set radius, and I may 'restrain' Dark Shadow by reeling in the 'chain' like a fishing line."
"Except I can't break it to leave, and I didn't even get to eat I juicy worm on a hook," Dark Shadow added morosely.
Kan's experience allowed him to restrain a chuckle at the seemingly dead-serious comment, but it did raise a question.
"Is Dark Shadow able to eat or drink?"
"Nope!"
"He takes no gain from the sustenance of the mortal plane," Fumikage intoned.
"I see."
"I can chew things, but if I swallow them they'll just stick around when I go back in Fumi to sleep," Dark Shadow added.
"You require sleep, then?"
"Meh." Dark Shadow made a 'so-so' gesture with one claw.
"Perhaps in pitch-black night, Dark Shadow made be freed of all restraint, but he otherwise cannot exert himself without limit," Fumikage intoned. "Rather, Dark Shadow resembles the elves of Grey Hawk and the Forgotten Realms, trancing for a few hours to recuperate."
"The what?"
"Ooh! Fumi and I totally love the old D&D games, played with actual dice, you know?"
"…Ahem, yes, we are mutually fond of the game," Fumikage agreed, now looking at his feet.
"I see." Kan saw no particular reason to harp on a student's hobbies, so he decided to move the conversation along. 'Dark Shadow needs to be inactive for a few hours each day it seems.' "Are there any particular areas or talents you wish to hone during your time here?"
"Discipline, self-control, and working in concert with Dark Shadow," Fumikage declared. "While daylight hours allow Dark Shadow sufficient power, the dark of night can cause us to lose control."
"Yeah, it's a problem," Dark Shadow agreed sadly.
Kan made a note that Fumikage would probably need training in skills other than the use of his Quirk as well, but left that speech for later.
"Kan-sensei! I am grateful for this opportunity to speak with you!" Tenya bowed sharply at the doorway before he took his seat.
"Thank you for taking time from your lunch period to speak with me," Kan replied. "Do you wish to begin anywhere?"
"Certainly! I would value your opinion on my team's performance yesterday afternoon, and my performance in the Entrance Examination if it would not inconvenience you, sir."
"Simple enough." Kan got out his laptop, and after typing in a few passwords he pulled up the appropriate footage and turned it to let Tenya see. "Yesterday you and Uraraka put up an exemplary performance by combining your strengths. I have high expectations for my students, but you exceeded them with a display of abilities I would have expected from students at the end of the year, rather than the beginning."
"You are very kind to say so. However, sir, I feel I must confess that it was not all my doing."
"I should hope not, since Uraraka-kun performed excellently as well," Kan commented.
Tenya straightened sharply. "I mean-!"
A wave of Kan's hand silenced him.
"I am aware the specific tactic where Uraraka removed gravity from you but not your costume originated with Midoriya-kun, yes. Given that teamwork and cooperation are part of what we were testing, it would be remiss of us to penalize your decision to go beyond by expanding your team. Even if you were the only two heroes on the scene, there would often be mission control and consultants available. In future, you may be tested on your ability to personally come up with solutions unassisted, but for the time-being you were well within the rules."
"I see! It seems I am still learning what it means to be a hero," Tenya reflected semi-bitterly.
"That's why you're here instead of already a licensed pro," Kan reminded him. "If we can move on, we'll discuss your performance in the entry practical."
"Yessir."
"You scored 52 Villain Points and 9 Rescue Points, earning 6th place overall with a total of 61 points." Kan hit play, allowing the video footage to re-play Tenya's activities that day.
"Sir," Tenya interrupted. Kan paused the recording. "Just now, was that one of the occasions when I earned Rescue Points?"
"It was."
Tenya frowned. "I wasn't thinking of that at all." Kan remained silent. "I mean-! I was perfectly aware of my fellow examinee in danger, but at the moment, I was more preoccupied with the robot being a… a 'soft target,' sir, distracted as it was."
"Oh?"
"I was, of course, perfectly aware… Had I believed him to be in danger, I might have stepped in as well, but as this was an exam I assumed the situation would be under control even if I did not intervene. My assault on the robot was to earn points, and it feels dishonest that I was rewarded when I did not act to protect."
"Ah." 'One of these students. Well, I generally can handle them.' "I have two… three things to say on this subject, Iida-kun."
"Sensei?"
"First is that your motivation don't wholly matter."
"Sensei?" Tenya repeated, sounding more alarmed this time.
"Helping other people in ways that benefit us is a cornerstone of human society. Are you familiar with the phrase, 'punitive justice, what goes around comes around'?"
"I am, sir."
"Present Mic once told me of the English equivalent, which is somewhat more illustrative: 'Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.'"
"I… I believe I see what you mean, sir. I'm less certain of the pertinence to my situation."
"I mean that you shouldn't demean yourself or your accomplishments out of a sense of guilt. You were awarded rescue points because you behaved heroically and achieved the result of protecting a fellow human being. Would the invigilators have stepped in to save her if you hadn't? Yes. But real life lacks invigilators in the field.
"Whether a hero is acting to save lives or earn adulations, so long as they successfully protect people, then those adulations are fairly earned," Kan lectured, "whether or not that was their intent. Similarly, if a hero charges head-first into an unstable situation, and the result is injuries or deaths among the innocent, then their sincere intent to help is inconsequential.
"You were awarded Rescue Points because you acted to rescue people. You were awarded only 9 rescue points because you prioritized succeeding in the exam as it had been explained to you and you trusted the authorities to handle the rest. If you were wrong to do so, then we would not use Villain Points in the score at all.
"What you did was correct Iida-kun," Kan finished. "It was a different kind of 'correct' from some of your classmates' choices, but you all passed because you were all correct. The only 'wrong' answers were to do nothing or to actively sabotage a co-competitor."
"I… I see. Thank you sir," Tenya said with a bow, "your words have greatly eased my-,"
*Riiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg!!!*
Kan bolted out of his seat at the sound of the bell.
"Sir?" Tenya managed to ask before the announcement began.
<There has been a Level 3 Security Breach. All students are to promptly evacuate out doors.>
"Siçmak," Kan swore fervently in Turkish.
<There has been a Level 3 Security Breach. All students are to promptly evacuate out doors.>
"Level 3 means a person or persons unknown have bypassed our security to trespass on school grounds," Kan informed his student. "Several teachers will be heading directly outside to do a head count and check for the intruder."
<There has been a Level 3 Security Breach. All students are to promptly evacuate out doors.>
"My task is to check the inside of the building and detain anyone suspicious. Until we can reach the ground floor and I can deliver you to one of the teachers waiting outside, you will remain by my side and follow my every order, is that clear?"
"Sir yes sir!" Tenya declared.
<There has been a Level 3 Security Breach. All students are to promptly evacuate out doors.>
Tenya quickly followed his teacher into the halls, uncertain of what would happen, but remaining on high alert.
32 students injured in the crush to evacuate the cafeteria that day, after a Level 3 Alarm had been raised when the press invaded the grounds.
As the staff of UA gathered that day after class had let out, most of them were seething at their own ineptitude and the suffering their students went through.
Most of them.
"Hey, do we have news on Eraserhead's expulsions?" This incredibly appropriate question was asked in a cheery voice by Gaffle, the Archer Hero, as everyone took their seats at the table.
"Hey!" Present Mic snapped irately.
"Gaffle, mind your manners," growled Vlad King, who felt very grateful for how little he needed to interact with 2-E's homeroom teacher.
"Eraserhead is currently reviewing the footage to see if any of his students misbehaved," Principal Nedzu declared from the head of the tablet, which had been empty a moment ago. "He will join us if we need him, and Present Mic has his proxy in any votes we hold."
There was a brief pause.
"Okay, what the heck happened today? At least, like, three things went wrong and I don't know what they all are," Midnight finally declared.
"I believe our current evacuation policy was made with the expectation that teacher would be on-hand to instruct their classes in the initial moments after an alarm," Thirteen volunteered.
"So when our students were largely unsupervised in the cafeteria," Mantle finished, "they panicked."
"They got durn jammed in the doors leading outside an' near crushed each other," Snipe agreed.
"Which is a frankly embarrassing state of affairs. One would think young heroes would be more austere in the face of danger," opined the Metallic Hero: Kinzokubutsu.
"One would think adults'd hol' sum drink better," Snipe fired back drily.
"Let's not get into ad hominem attacks, please," Nedzu intervened. "Recovery Girl handled the injuries, there were no hospitalizations, and we aren't expecting press coverage of this, but just in case I'd like to run through our preparations."
"Easy-peasy, sensei," the young man answered, scratching at a scab on his neck. "Broke the barrier, slipped in with the journalists after a mook riled them up a bit, found and photocopied the schedule for the next month along with some other things."
<Your results?>
"All Might is exclusively on the main campus for the first week, but next week he'll be leading exercises at the natural disaster field area… place… thingy… UA is loaning out use of the USJ for the rest of the week so JSDF can run exercises, but next week All Might is leading a joint exercise with the third years on Monday, then class 1-A on Wednesday and 1-B on Friday."
<Your conclusion?>
"Third years will be a pain—they're like named grunts and there's a lot of them, plus that one kid you said has been hanging with Nighteye? It'd be nice to kill them, but…"
<Sir Nighteye's Quirk risks seeing the assault in his protege's future, yes. Are you leaning toward Wednesday or Friday, then?>
"Wednesday. It gives them less time to realize we took anything and it's still a week to gather willing heads and get ready."
The screen through which 'Sensei' spoke remained silent.
The older supervillain would have waited until Friday—they wouldn't notice any change in 9 days that they hadn't noticed in 7, and it would give UA time to be less guarded—but allowing his protege to make mistakes and grow was the point of this starting offensive, after all.
* Two Posts in one day!
Figured I should get through it all now, start off the next bit with something more interesting.
Not all the OCs will be important, but you get to guess who'll show up again, so good luck!
"Katsuki Bakugou-kun."
"Tch. Let's get this over with, teach," Katsuki uttered neutrally as he took his seat.
Kan considered reprimanding him, but decided not to derail the point of the meeting.
"You've got ambition, that's good. 'I will be the next Number One Hero, a symbol of Victory who is never defeated by evil.' An admirable goal."
Silently, Kan thought sadly of All Might's emaciated condition, and the question of how long their Symbol of Peace could continue in his duties. But that was a secret from the students.
"Yeah. Come the end of this year, I'm going to be placing first instead of third," Katsuki promised darkly.
"An admirable goal." 'Although your hyper-competitiveness may need to be curtailed.' "Do remember that the fitness tests are just one method of measurement, and an incomplete one at that. But I look forward to seeing you grow, Bakugou." He left off the honorific, assuming Katsuki wouldn't appreciate familiarity.
"Yeah, but if I want to be the best, I've got to be the best," Katsuki pointed out.
"A fair point. How do you plan to become the best, and how can I help you do that?"
"Tch." Katsuki scoffed quietly, but he was clearly thinking over the question as well. "Heck if I know, beyond better equipment and realistic practices with a bunch of enemies. If I knew I wasn't doing something I needed to do, I'd start doing it." He eyed Kan warily. "Is it possible for me to take more advanced classes? Like, math, I already know what we're covering."
"Reliably?"
"I was teaching myself physics and gross anatomy back in junior high so I could get my propulsion right using my arms without wrenching them outta my shoulders." Katsuki huffed irately. "Me an' De-… I was studying English since I was 3 'cause it's much cooler watching All Might's American new records in the original language, so it's mostly things like history, art, and literature where I'm not ahead of the pack so much."
"I see. Unfortunately, skipping a grade even partially is difficult to arrange due to UA's unique scheduling, since you'd still need to be with your class for Heroics training; I'm willing to speak with the administration and my co-workers about getting you an extra credit position as a teacher's aid in one of those classes."
"Just as long as it's less time spent on easy street so I have more time for practicing what's really important," Katsuki agreed.
"Thank you," he said simply. The bi-chromatic boy sat and stared evenly at Kan.
The teacher had noticed that Shouto didn't speak much, and wasn't one for jokes, so he decided against breaking the tension with a comment on their shared color scheme.
"Have your experiences at UA been satisfactory these first few days?"
"Yes." Shouto left his answer at that, but after a brief wait he got the hint that Kan was looking for something more. "Our heroics class was interesting. I had planned for a quick victory, but I failed to meet my own expectations, so I clearly have room to improve, and there's no one better than All Might for teaching me."
"It was a pleasant surprise that he agreed to return to his alma mater, and despite what you expected, I hold the opinion that your strategy of freezing the building was impressive."
"I failed to adequately collaborate with Jirou, and the thermal stress made it easier for the opposing team to break through the floor with their strength, even if the walls were more solid," Shouto repeated flatly.
"Also true, but as you've said, school is a place for you to learn. I've seen too many students crack after placing overly high expectations on their own shoulders, so I don't want you to judge yourself too harshly."
"I'm not… particularly harsh on myself," Shouto assured him carefully.
Kan frowned, thinking there was something going unsaid, but he couldn't quite place a finger on it so he opted to move on.
"I do have a question," he noted. "Thus far, I've only seen you use your ice, but there is a fire aspect to your Quirk as well, is there not? Half-Cold, Half-Hot?"
"There is." Shouto silently fought with himself for a moment over whether to leave it at that. "Endeavor is famous for his powerful fire quirk, but I prefer to use my mother's ice. I want to make her proud when she sees me as a Pro Hero, rather than being the next Endeavor."
"Ah, that's understandable." Kan wasn't terribly familiar with the types of internal politicking and emotional stresses of Pro Hero families, especially in the high ranks, but he could imagine that Endeavor cast a large shadow. "I can also see an element of self-imposed challenge to it as well, much like ambidexterity training."
"Training to use your non-dominant hand by restricting use of the dominant hand?" Shouto recognized the term. "I hadn't thought of it quite like that."
"Yes. But similar to wearing weights, an important part of ambidexterity training is ensuring that you don't diminish your existing capacity. With weights, it's important to periodically train without them so your balance and reflexes don't exceed your ability to manage them. With dexterity, you don't want your good hand's capacity to diminish. I won't stop you at the moment, but later in the school year I will require you to use your flames in some exercises. Have you ever been on a diet?"
"…Yes," Shouto acknowledged, reigning in his scowl before it could offend his teacher.
"Think of your flame use as a diet's cheat day."
"…A what?"
"Every so often, you have meals or days where you cheat your diet with sweets to motivate or reward yourself."
"That defeats the purpose of dieting," Shouto observed. Then, more slowly, as though he were repeating something from some time ago, he added, "Success… should be its own reward."
"An admirable sentiment, albeit one more easily said than done," Kan agreed with a nod. "I don't know if your diet has any medical backing… but you might speak with Recovery Girl or Lunch Rush, get them to look over it." 'What your father doesn't know,' he didn't say out loud, because encouraging a little teenage rebellion wasn't his place.
Even so, he could imagine that Endeavor was a bit uptight—he'd already checked, and the burn scar on Shouto's face was documented as some kind of kitchen accident with hot water, (there were several journalism articles about it at the time,) so it wasn't a clumsy mark of abuse—as parents went, and adolescence was a time for safe, sane experimentation.
"I'll… think about it," Shouto said distantly, and that was that.
"Yaoyorozu-kun, how are you finding UA?" Kan inquired as she took the seat he indicated.
Momo Yaoyorozu smiled shakily at her homeroom teacher.
"The classes and my classmates are exceptional," she assured him. "Uncle Hangaku clearly didn't exaggerate."
"That's good to know. Are you making friends? Enjoying your lessons?"
"Yes and yes," she answered. A brief pause. "Kan-sensei…"
"Yes?"
"In your opinion, am I the correct choice for Class Representative?"
"You were the one who received the most votes, along with your adjutant."
"Except he didn't vote for himself. I did. If he didn't vote for me, I'd have had half as many votes as he gained."
"But he believed you were a superior choice to himself." Kan sighed when she kept staring at her laced fingers. "Yaoyorozu."
"Sir?"
"No one is expected to be perfect. All Might himself makes mistakes, as do I. But one of the most important skills for a hero is knowing one's own capacity, whether to embark on a task or to seek assistance. Overestimating yourself can get people killed… but underestimating yourself can be just as toxic. Is there a source for your disbelief?"
"I just… The evacuation alarm, during lunch. Everyone panicked, myself included," she reminisced. "Several people were injured in a rush over essentially a false alarm caused by the press. It's… someone should have done something. Why didn't I make a loudspeaker to yell for attention? I just…" She bit her lip.
"Yaoyorozu." She looked up at him again. "as you noted, it was a bad situation for everyone. We teachers failed you by having outdated evacuation protocols that we hadn't practiced." He left out the parts about teachers' suspicions that the journalists were used as cover by someone more malicious. "I'm going to tell you something very important now."
"Sensei?"
"More often than not," Kan intoned, "the mark of a bad personality is in the refusal to accept responsibility, while good people refuse to let go of it. Lay responsibility for that failure where it belongs: at our feet, not at yours. You did not go beyond because you didn't know how to without contributing to the chaos, but unless you pushed and stomped on your fellow classmates-," She shook her head fervently. "-then you did nothing wrong."
She smiled weakly. "Thank you, Kan-sensei."
He nodded benevolently.
"What are your feelings regarding your performance thus far-," He guessed she felt she had underperformed, but there were places for definite improvement. "-and how can I help you improve in the future?"
"I… feel I underperformed in the Battle Trials, yes. All Might-sensei was effusive when he praised my off-the-field assessments, but hindsight is 20-20. When it came down to it, I lost track of the objective while searching for Koda-san, following the erroneous alarms instead of securing the explosive. As for my teammate…" she hesitated again. "Sensei, what you said, about Mineta being in trouble? It's not because of what you asked me, is it?"
"I asked you about his behavior as your teammate because another student had filed a complaint with me. You were not the only student I spoke to, and your comments were not decisive in my handling the situation, though you did help me reach a decision," he answered. "Additionally, in the future, if anyone makes you feel uncomfortable—especially regarding your hero costume, but even just in general—you should feel free to inform me or another member of the faculty."
Friday. The last day of the first week, since UA wouldn't be having class this particular Saturday.
With the end of the final period, that meant it was time for the first meeting of the Classes' Representatives.
"Am I a mongoose? Am I a badger? Am I a bear? Whatever it may be, I am… the Principal! Hello students, and I am so happy to have you all gathered here. With me is…"
"Hiya! I'm Nejire Hado, from the third-year students' government. I'll just be sitting in on you guys to tell the others how it all goes before you get introduced later," chirped a cheerful girl with periwinkle hair down to her knees.
"Ah. To have one of our esteemed upperclassmen observing us, as well as the principal himself," Tenya muttered to himself as everyone waited.
"Let's begin with some introductions! Not everyone will be attending in the future, but moving from Class A to Class K," the Principal suggested, "let's have the names and positions of all our officers, please."
"My name is Momo Yaoyorozu, and I serve as the Class Representative for 1-A," she introduced with an elegant bow. "With me are my Vice-Representative Izuku Midoriya-," Izuku gave a weak wave to everyone. "-our class's secretary, Kyoka Jirou-,"
"Hey," Kyoka said.
"-and our treasurer, Tenya Iida."
"It will be an honor to work with you all!" He bowed sharply and stepped back again.
"We look forward to working with everyone," Momo reiterated, stepping back for the next group to step up.
"My name is Itsuka Kendo, Class Representative for 1-B," declared an orange-haired girl with a left-side ponytail. "Also with me…"
"I am named Nirengeki Shoda," said the squat and slightly plump body with silver hair beside her. "I'll be in your care as 1-B's Vice Representative."
"I'm Jurota Shishida, acting as 1-B's secretary," declared a hairy boy with glasses and small tusks like Vlad King had.
"Lastly, my name is Ibara Shiozaki, elected to administrate 1-B's treasury," greeted a girl with thin, thorny vines instead of hair. She bowed deeply, and Izuku caught a glimpse of light reflecting off her crucifix necklace.
"Nice to meet you all, and I hope to get to know know you all much better in the future," said the next boy in line, as though he were implying something, but Izuku couldn't quite guess what. "Sessuru Mahimaru, representative for 1-C." He was leering/sneering in such a significant way, Izuku ended up not paying much attention to the others in his group.
His attention finally moved on when the next group spoke.
"Tsume Akko," barked a shorthaired, tan girl.
"Ruff," agreed a second bark from her feet.
Izuku and several others peered over to see more clearly.
"Kuro-kun technically is our Class 1-D Representative," explained the more waif-like girl beside Tsume, "because there's no rules against animals having authority, or else Principal Nedzu…"
"Yes, the doors are always open to my brethren cousins!" The mammalian principal exclaimed, clapping. "Kuro-kun won the election fair and square despite not being a student, though Tsume-shoujo is of course welcome to participate in filling the required duties."
"Woof," grunted Kuro, before he started rumbling pleasantly when Tsume extended her fingers accordion-style to scratch his ears.
Izuku grimaced, suppressing a flashback to fighting Yubi in his pre-UA years, and was grateful when the introductions moved on again.
"Darui Joki," greeted a muscular young black man with a mop of faintly blond hair. "I'm a foreign student from Kenya, and I somehow got made 1-E's representative."
"Show some enthusiasm, will you," scolded a green-haired girl with slit pupils.
"Sorry. Yugi-chan is our vice-representative," he continued sleepily, "so she's much more on the ball than me if we need to do anything."
1-E's other officers volunteered their names, and then that was the Gen Ed classes done with.
"Hello!" The girl who spoke next looked a lot like Tsuyu, except with black hair and scarier, because her teeth were needle-sharp and formed rings in her mouth. "My name is Yatsume Unagi, and I'm the representative for class 1-F in the Support Course! I've got a lamprey Quirk, but I promise I don't bite, and I look forward to working with you."
Izuku just kept staring at her mouth until she caught his eyes, smiled, and jerked her head toward the boy who'd started speaking.
"Yo! I'm Omo Chamaru," greeted the very large, bulky, thick-fingered young man, whose thuggish appearance was offset by the several origami birds fluttering around his head and shoulders under their own power. "I represent 1-G, and the others are busy so I'm unfortunately the only one here."
"Lucky them," yawned the tired-looking… girl? Izuku wasn't quite certain, but he thought he caught faint curves in addition to their long, sky-blue hair. "I'm Tsukare Tama, the Class Representative for 1-H by dint of losing our Not It contest." Several people chuckled, and she sighed despite her smile. "Sadly, I'm not even joking, but if anyone needs work on a fiddly gadget-," Izuku perked up, remembering the possibility for some brace to protect his body. "-I'm happy to volunteer or direct you to someone useful."
"That goes for me as well," Yatsume added, rearranging some papers she'd been holding.
"More power to you both," Omo chuckled, promising nothing.
"If we're quite done?" said one of the last three students present. Apparently the management course's classes had only sent their representatives to this meeting, Izuku surmised.
"The floor's yours," Omo invited.
The stern boy—as muscular as Rikido, but shorter and more square, with a stronger jaw—gave an aggrieved hiss but didn't comment further.
"My name is Fukurami Gama, representative for Class 1-I of the management course," he introduced with a full bow. "I'll be in your care, everyone."
"Similarly, I am Keikaku Kangae," continued the brunette girl beside him, "representative for Class 1-J. I look forward to working with you."
There was a pause, and then Keikaku elbowed the last girl beside her, who jolted from where she'd been tracing her fingernail across a paper on the table.
"Ah! Sorry about that," apologized the girl, who looked a bit like Kyoka, except for shorter hair that had a neon blue lightning mark in it, much like Denki. She reshuffled the papers she'd cut into pieces and quickly turned her attention to everyone else. "I'm Sugaku Kamisori of 1-K. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need administrative or planning aid." She gave a guilty smile, done with speaking.
"Excellent! Now that we all know each other," Principal Nedzu declared, "let's get down to business."
"To defeat~! The Huns," sang Sugaku, getting several people chuckling, including Izuku and Kyoka.
"I assume that was a joke?" Momo murmured to Izuku.
"I'll explain it later," Kyoka assured her quickly.
"For shame, Kamisori," Principal Nedzu faux-scolded as Nejire laughed. "You missed a perfectly good 'doldrums' pun. How sad. Now then!"
The next half-hour involved a lot more of Nedzu's wordy explanations, outlining upcoming events such as the Sports Festival, the Culture Festival, the school holiday calendar, various other events, the clubs' recruitment day…
"Are there any other matters?" Principal Nedzu finally asked.
Momo and Izuku shared a look. They'd both agreed that it should be raised, but…
"Midoriya-kun raised an interesting point with me that I think deserves to be shared," Momo declared, pushing him forward. Under her breath, she murmured, "Just relax and you'll do fine."
"I- uh-!" Izuku stammered as everyone stared at him.
"Please, go ahead," Nedzu invited.
Izuku stopped. Izuku took a breath. Izuku faced the room.
"When the alarm went off earlier this week," he began, "I heard someone near my table say it had never happened in their years at UA. At my old junior high school, we had monthly drills on evacuating the building in case of fire, villain attacks, or earthquakes. I guess fire isn't as much a problem—Aldera was really old—but if students had practiced evacuating, maybe no one would've been hurt in the crush of trying to escape. Um. S-So, maybe if we practiced drills and students knew what to do, it would be safer in the future?"
"Hmmm… Indeed, you aren't the first person to point that out," Principal Nedzu declared, "and it is something we're discussing as we re-investigate our security practices. Having access to a school that still uses those protocols is very helpful, Midoriya. Thank you for raising this issue."
"Y-Yeah," Izuku sighed, happily retreating behind Momo for the remainder of the meeting.
Saturday. Officially, UA wasn't having even a half-day this week, so Izuku didn't need to go to school.
Officially.
However, Vlad King had arranged some remedial Quirk-use tutoring for Izuku, and All Might had assured him it wouldn't hurt or interfere with their training, so after he'd had breakfast and helped his mom with a few chores, Izuku had headed to UA's campus, swiped in, and changed into his gym uniform before heading to the field.
He was anxious to see two people waiting for him—well, one person waiting and one person dance-floating as she waited—and he hoped they hadn't been waiting long.
"Hiya! Ooooh, I remember you from yesterday!" Nejire Hadou chirped as she swooped down from above. "Fluffy Green-kun with the same Fire Drill Breaker idea Tamaki mentioned!"
"Izuku Midoriya," Sekijiro Kan corrected as he stalked over.
"I-! Uh, I'm very sorry to keep you waiting!" Izuku bowed fervently as he shouted his apology.
"You're 5 minutes early," Kan informed him. "Today, the staff will be reviewing and updating UA's security protocols, so I'll be too busy to oversee your tutoring. Nejire-chan is one of the top students in year three, and she's volunteered to assist you in my stead."
"Yuppers!" Nejire landed right by Izuku and was overall just generally very enthusiastic at him. "Kan-sensei told me all about your issues, and I'm here to help my Midoriya-kouhai!"
"Aaaaaahhhh thank you very much senpai!" Izuku blurted out, bowing fervently again.
"If anything goes wrong, you know how to reach Recovery Girl," Kan said before departing back to the main building.
"Right! So when you use your Quirk, how does it feel? Are you trying to break your bones? Kan-sensei showed me the video of your awesome uppercut, but did you know it would break through all those ceilings? How many do you think you could break through? How few do you think you could break without breaking bones. Oh! Do you maybe break a bone or two for every other thing you break with punching stuff? Can you use it with a kick? Wait, of course you can, you jumped up and broke both legs in the entry exam. Ooh, but why did you need both legs instead of trying to hop up on one so you could land? Maybe-,"
Nejire's word babble went on for a solid 20 minutes before she finally decided to get cracking.
By that time, she'd led Izuku away to the edge of the field, under the shade of the tree, which he hadn't noticed due to his own babbling.
"-but I could still talk with it active and the recoil in midair didn't throw me back any so maybe there's some counter-enhancement or bracing aspects? It's about power, not just physical strength, so maybe since muscles only pull and can't push, energy output from behind pushed my arm and body forward like jet engines and the two forces crushed my arm? All Might never broke his bones, he said he didn't know it could happen… There's also the possibility of the 'power' being released like a bazooka instead of like Yaoyorozu's cannonballs; those don't have recoil I remember reading that in Zero No Tsukaima…"
"Okay!" Nejire finally interrupted, at which point Izuku looked around and realized she'd led him off while they were… talking? Babbling? "You've got lots of good ideas, so I barely know where to start, but I'm tip-top certain we can get you fit for fighting once we get cracking! What do you say?"
'I have no idea what I just said to her! I thought most of it was in my head, but I did it again,' Izuku realized. "I… okay?"
"Okay!" Nejire cheered, making no comment on whether he'd let slip anything about All Might or One For All's true nature. "So my Wave Motion Quirk doesn't work quite the same way, but adjusting how much and how little power I use took a bit! It was easy to cut loose and blast those robots in the entry exam, but-" She produced her cell phone from her pocket and promptly levitated it above her palm with a curl of golden energy. "-waaay tougher to figure out this without it frying or flying off! I had to redo my contacts list a whole bunch, and thank everything for saving pictures in a cloud, 'cause my phone totally hit the clouds a few times and they were not fluffy huggable at all!"
"Uh… That's cool, Hadou-senpai."
Nejire pouted and put her phone away.
"If we're gonna be training buddies, you can totally call me Nejire-chan."
"Ahahaha…" 'A girl's letting me call her by an endearment! A beautiful older girl who's already been working as a hero under the #9 Hero Ryukyu after she won the Sports Festival last year is letting me call her "-chan"! On top of that, Asui told me to call her Tsuyu, and she used endearments for me, too! Wow, my life really has changed since entering UA.' "That isn't too informal or unprofessional…?"
"Hmph!" Nejire put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. "Just for that, you have been moved into 'business professional' category! I insist you call me by my hero name, nothing else!" Nejire announced, pointing imperiously at Izuku's nose.
"O-Okay! Okayokayokay I'm sorry I offended you sen-!" 'Wait, I can't call her "senpai," she just said so! I have to call her…' "B-But… your hero name is Nejire-chan…"
"Exactly!" Nejire declared proudly.
'I guess I'm beat.' "Okay… Whatever you say… Nejire-chan-san."
His lips twitched a little as Nejire's jaw dropped.
She burst out laughing.
The resulting bout of hysterics lasted several minutes, especially since Izuku finally felt comfortable enough to join in.
He still ended up rigid in shock when Nejire rolled over onto him, but once she hopped up and dragged him to his feet with a cry of "Time for training!" he got his brain going again.
'I can do this. I can keep it in my arm and the egg won't explode! I'll just hold it I won't use it I can do this. I can do this I can do this I can do this!'
"Okay, that's enough!"
At Nejire's command, Izuku let go of his hold on One For All's immense might, which he had focused in his right arm like when he'd punched the robot and launched his uppercut.
"Okay, that was tiring," he sighed. 'Sort of invigorating too, but…'
"How so?"
"Well, I guess it felt like a balloon?" Izuku figured. "It was pressure in me, trying to get out, stretching like when you first blow air into a balloon -,"
"And it's really stiff, but then it's easier when you inflate it after all the air phhhhbbbbttts out again because it's stretched before, only if you do it too many times the rubber gets really thin and it breaks, right?" Nejire interrupted.
"Uh… Yeah…?"
"Okay, so does your arm feel stretched out and sore? Are there any of those little spit blobs that sometimes stay in balloons from breathing into them?"
"Yah!" Izuku yelped.
Nejire had leaned in and started poking his arm mid-sentence, making Izuku jump back.
"I-It hurts a little, but just like a bruise?" 'I've had way worse, so it doesn't really bother me. I can do this!' "It doesn't look like I hurt anything…"
"No, but there's definitely more to your Quirk than super-strength," Nejire opined. "I saw little green lightning dance all over you, and your arm got covered in these crawling black veins like a Curse Seal! If I try to focus too much power or keep it charged in my arms without releasing it, I get glowy skin and some steam before I burn myself too, uh-huh! I'd show you but it hurts and even I don't like to visit Recovery Girl more than 2 or 3 times a day."
"Um." 'Wait. Veins? Green lightning? All Might never had anything like that! Could it be, All For One Doesn't like me? Am I a bad host? Can Quirks even have opinions on that? No, of course they can, Dark Shadow is sentient and One For All is the world's most powerful-,'
"Okay, that's enough of that," the older girl interrupted, hugging him before he could totally spiral into a panic. "It's not funny if you're getting worried, so don't be! Like I said, we can totally fix this up. So, let's start with the egg in the microwave!"
"I-I… Okay," Izuku agreed, heavily distracted by the smell of her hair and how she felt pressed against him.
"And what do you call me?"
"N-N-Nej-jire-chan-senpai," he managed, and they shared a laugh.
"Goodie! So, you usually think of your power as an egg in a microwave and you want to keep from exploding it. First off, can you try putting it in just on absolute minimum power, like boiling it except in a hot tub so it doesn't actually boil it just float around. Do eggs float, actually? Fish eggs don't but maybe bird eggs? Chickens don't float, or maybe they can swim? I bet duck eggs float. Hey," she reminded him, "keep focusing on that egg and just warm it up without cooking it!"
"R-Right!" Izuku promptly began focusing as instructed, pouring more energy into his arm.
It hurt, but it was only an ache compared to the agony of walking to Recovery Girl with his shattered arm a few days ago.
Izuku knew pain. He could handle this.
"Okay! So instead of a microwave, where you just push buttons and hope it works, can you try this like a bunsen burner and turn down the flames?" Izuku gave Nejire a strained look. "Hey, I know it sounds gross because chemicals, but I've totally made ramen over a bunsen burner when my stove broke, and Mr. Kitten-hearted like it fine."
"Not the… Okay…" Izuku wheezed. And he tried.
The problem was, the energy was already there, in his arm. Squeezing off the flow of new energy didn't do anything. The egg was already cooked, the water was already boiling, and in this case there wasn't any steam equivalent to cool things a bit.
"Well? You look like you need to poo."
"Th-This isn't easy, senpai," he complained.
Flighty as she may seem, Nejire knew not to interrupt his concentration over what he called her, so she didn't even pout at him.
"It's not working," Izuku forced out through the strain.
"Really? Okay, let the energy go and we'll try something different." Izuku did so. "Can you use it? Is it sore?"
"Less sore if you'd stop poking me," Izuku groaned. To her credit, Nejire switched to poking his cheek, and Izuku was Just Done enough to give her a deadpan Look in response. "It isn't working like that, the energy's already there and the water doesn't stop boiling," he explained. 'Tingles, pins and needles,' he assessed of his own arm, 'but I can keep going or switch to my other arm.' "It was less like boiling water and more like filling a vessel? Like a pot?"
"Oh?" Nejire prodded.
"Yeah. I turned off the faucet, but the water was still there."
"Well, then we have two- no, three… Okay, maybe four options off the top of my head," Nejire declared.
"Really?" 'Really? I guess she is a 3rd-year student and everything.'
"Uh-huh! First, if you've filled the pot too full, try pouring out some water."
"I can try, but it… I think I've got a bad grip on it?"
"Like you might drop it and water splooshes everywhere? Okay, yeah, that'd be messy and we could get chilly if we're all wet," Nejire agreed. "My second idea is trying to fill the pot more slowly, or fill it halfway, but it didn't sound like you could tell how much water was in it, just whether or not it was full?"
"I'm still only barely a good vessel," Izuku admitted morosely. "It fills up quick, like a jar and a fire hydrant?" 'Well, maybe that's a bit extreme.' "More like putting a jar under water, you know… Dipping it like a ladle in a fountain, when you go to wash at a shrine?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean!" Nejire affirmed. "Okay, tricky… But can you use a smaller ladle?"
"Huh?"
"I can get big and small spirals from my hand-," She demonstrated, releasing a bottle-sized spiral of energy up into the air, followed by a spiral that expanded like a tree trunk. "-but I can also get teensy little cute spirals from my finger tips! Have you ever watched Fingersmith The Hero!, that retro anime Naruto, or Mirio introduced me to this old hero comic Superman! They've all got Finger Flick of Doom characters-,"
"Like when Superman flicks Gorilla Grod across the stadium or Fingersmith bashes Silver Spoon's double-doors off their hinges by poking them! Uh, sorry," he apologized, "but yeah, I saw Fingersmith the Hero! up until Season 3, and I looked up those old comics after All Might listed Superman as one of his inspirations when he was a kid."
"Awesome!" Nejire cheered, dismissing the pencil-nub sized spiral of energy from her fingertip. "I should totally introduce you to Mirio and watch you two geek out together later. So you can do your hand or your forearm if a finger is too small, but once you do, try to cut off the water while keeping the pot full. Or I guess it would be a shot glass? They serve alcohol in 'fingers,' don't they? 'Two fingers of whiskey on the rocks,' says the hard man making hard decisions before he-,"
"Senpai? Nejire-chan-sama-senpai," the first-year grit out with a half-grin. "I-I… think I've done it."
It was the first time Izuku had really looked at his body with One For All active, and he could see the veins she mentioned, mostly black but with an undertone glowing red. 'I see what she means with the curse… If this were anime, it'd be the sign of stress or an evil influence, right? But it's All Might's Quirk… I should probably ask him about it. He doesn't use 100% of his strength all the time or he'd never be able to hit people without pulverizing them, so I can turn it down if I figure out how…'
"Hey, that's good, but I need you to listen you me instead of muttering," Nejire declared.
"A-Ah." It took a moment, but Izuku didn't flinch. He didn't break anything. "Y-Yeah?"
"Have you ever," she asked very seriously, "spread cream cheese on a bagel?"
"H-Huh?"
"Yeah, I thought not. Butter? Oooh, wait, you might be lactose intolerant," she apologized. "Paint on a wall… Mortar on a brick… I got it! Have you ever mixed wasabi into a tray of soy sauce for dipping, kouhai?"
"I-I… Yes?" 'I think it's… I can't tell whether it's easier or harder to keep focused. I can't stop concentrating, but at the same time… I guess it's tough in a different kind of way, like using different muscle groups? It's a weird feeling.' "I've spread mayonnaise on bread and those other things too," he added.
"Good to know. Oh! Better idea: hand cream! Like sunscreen!" Nejire promptly produced a bottle of sunscreen and rolled up one sleeve.
"S-Senpai?"
"So when you put this on, you don't immediately cover your whole body, right? Instead," she reasoned, squeezing out a blob onto the back of one hand, "you pour out a bunch, put the bottle down-," She shoved the re-capped bottle back in a pocket. "-and smear around the rest everywhere! Now you try!"
"H-Huh?" 'What does she- oh!' "Oh," Izuku breathed in realization. Then, "H-How far should I spread it?" 'I've turned off the faucet and stopped s-squeezing… Putting the same total amount of power in a larger zone should mean less power per square inch of me, so less stress! Assuming it isn't like oopwick and it won't just ooze out if I stop pressing it.' "I really hope there isn't any cornstarch in this," he muttered. "If it clumps up that'll really be a pain in my incompetence."
"Spread it through your hand and other fingers to start, then up your arm if it feels safe," Nejire instructed. "If it's dangerous, just let it go down the drain, okay?"
"Right!" 'If it's dangerous… but it won't be. It all makes sense, I can do this, I can do this!' "It's… It feels sticky, trying to cling to together," Izuku narrated as he pressed and spread the energy out from the root of his finger across his palm, and into- "Ah!"
"What? Did you hurt-? Nothing's broken oh good it's going away," Nejire sighed.
"Y-Yeah," Izuku sighed as well. "Sorry, um, Nejire-chan."
"Don't be, you're supposed to keep safe while we do this," she dismissed.
"Not that. I messed up because I reopened the faucet when I tried to put the energy into my other fingers," Izuku apologized. "I think it will work, I just… Maybe the balloon is too loose?"
"Ooh, we don't want you to pop."
"Y-Yeah, but that's why I have my left hand, too," Izuku decided. "Senpai- Nejire-chan-senpai, I'm going to do this. One more try with my right arm, and then I'll try with my left."
After a moment of staring him in the eyes, Nejire smiled back. "Alright! Ganbatte-kudasai, let's get going," she cheered.
'It's not like a tube of toothpaste, so I shouldn't try to squeeze it all out at once,' Izuku reminded himself. 'Brushstrokes. Spread it a bit at a time in long, even strokes… I've got it in my hand, but there's still a lot focused in one finger,' he realized. 'I need to even it out… Okay, the pain is diminishing…' He cracked an eye open. 'Okay, those vein marks are spreading out, but crudIshouldclosemyeyes it's harder to measure the power than feeling it. Okay. Still too much in my finger so spread all that along my hand and wrist… That's much easier now that there's a starting 'layer' to fill in. Still it's itching, but… spread it up to my elbow, one layer, two, three… Now start from the fingertips, through my forearm up to the shoulder, one, two, three, four, five…'
"I think I got it, senpai," Izuku breathed. He opened his eyes to see faintly pulsing lines spread widely across his left arm. "I-It doesn't feel painful, just like p-pressure," he informed her.
Nejire—who was holding his gym uniform jacket, which he'd taken off when he'd switched from his right arm to his left—leaned in and peered all over at his skin.
"Okay, this looks good if it feels good," she concluded. "You want to let it go for today, or try using it?"
'Quit? No, I can do this. Plus Ultra!' "Use it," Izuku affirmed.
"Awesome! Let's start with a few warmup stretch- Oooh," Nejire purred as Izuku swung and moved his left arm around in several directions. He didn't hit anything, and he didn't expend the power, but it felt much more… something.
Of course, there wasn't any special effect or result either, but…
"Hey, senpai. Nejire-chan," Izuku corrected absently, "how much…? I mean, what percent of the power is spread around? Uh, or like, left in my finger, if it's-,"
"I get what you mean," Nejire assured him as she pulled out her phone. "Hmm… If a person's finger weighs 10 grams, then whole arm weighs 3.5 kilograms, so wow, that's like, 3% of what it was." She frowned. "Wait, no, 0.3% left in your finger after you spread it all out."
"So, it's also 0.3% of what I hit the giant robot with, or did with my uppercut?"
"Yup!" Nejire concluded. "I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm probably 0.3% of what that robot weighed, so how about you not test it by hitting me, pretty please?"
"R-Right!"
"Hahaha… Don't worry," she laughed, "I was joking. You'll have to hit me eventually, but for now-," She pulled out a tiny coin purse decorated with Totoro images. "-it's Finger Flick of Doom time! Or I guess thumb flick? We're gonna have a contest how high in the air we can get these coins."
Izuku took a breath and held out his enhanced hand, since his right hand was still sore and bruised from his failures. "Let's do this."
"Okay!" They quickly had a 1-yen coin made of aluminum balanced on each of their folded thumbs. "3 2 1 go!"
Izuku stumbled a bit, but he flicked on 'go' and-
*Fwoosh!*
"Uh…" Izuku looked up, trying to find it in the air or falling, but the sun was above them already, so… "Sssorry, Nejire-chan-senpai," he muttered. "I think I lost it."
"That's okay, that just means it went really high and far," declared the girl who'd caught her own coin. "Someone else will pick it up, and all that day they'll have good luck!"
"I guess."
"Anyway, it's hot and bright, so since you didn't break anything I'm going to treat you to lunch," Nejire declared, grabbing his arm and dragging him off before Izuku could protest. "It's like, my totally super-serious duty as your senpai to reward good behavior, and nothing in your arm is screaming or bendy broken backwards, so what do you want? There's ramen, there's udon, there's a Yoshinoya with good fish and a ginger pork bowl I like, or we can get okonomiyaki with all the toppings, mmm, Tamaki really got me hooked on clams because he has so many of them…"
They got okonomiyaki with all the toppings, or at least a bunch of them, and Nejire insisted on paying.
Izuku, unused to female attention, just sort of stammered and nodded when she smiled directly at him, which Nejire used ruthlessly to get him to agree to let her buy them lunch and soft serve ice cream (green tea flavor).
He was the 5th-most adorable person she's done this to, after all, so she had practice, and anyway, it totally rocked that she got to be the awesome, wise senpai before Mirio or Tamaki got a kouhai to look up to them.
She ran him through a pre-exercise stretching routine, got him to smear on another layer of sunscreen, and then he said, "I think I can maybe try my right arm again? It's been an hour, so it doesn't hurt as much."
"Hmmm let's try your left first," Nejire decided. "We should have one or two more uses until it gets flabby like your right did."
"I… guess? Unless being right-handed means my left… wait, no. Is that something I should worry about, being weaker?"
Nejire shrugged her shoulders at him, arms wide in ignorance.
Izuku sighed, got into his ready stance, and called up One For All.
There's still a way in which it feels wrong to do this—to use it casually, with no one in need, like it isn't the most awesome force on the planet—but at the same time, he needed to do this or else he'll really mess it up when someone is in trouble and it'll be all his fault.
"Okay," he said once his left arm was feeling more again. "Are we doing the coin thing?"
"Nope!" Nejire dove into the backpack she's been carrying and comes out with a sensor-laden softball like from the first day's tests. "Since you didn't break your finger, you probably won't break your arm with this, so throw it! As high and far as you can," she instructed.
"Will do, Nejire-chan-senpai," he teased again as he took the ball, earning a delighted laugh. "I've never really… left-handed…"
"Don't worry about it, you can try with your right if it goes well."
"Okay!" Izuku took the best pitcher's stance he could, carefully kept the flow of energy pinched off from what was already in his arm, and-
*Swoosh!*
"Whoa. Wowie!" Nejire cheered. "I think you got that at least 100 meters! Maybe 120!"
"D-Does it says on the sensor?" Izuku asked.
"Eheheheh… Whoops! I forgot to get the other equipment," she admitted. "Sorry! But hey, I got a bunch of the throwing balls, and if you do good I'll even run pick them up instead of making you do it."
"That- I mean, that's okay…?"
"C'mon, Greenbean-kouhai, get throwing! You didn't wreck your arm, it's okay, right?"
"I-I-!" He'd been so worried about her judgment, Izuku had forgotten what was being judged. Namely, he'd just successfully used One For All to more than triple his thronging distance without breaking anything. "I didn't! I mean, it's okay! I can keep going!"
"Yay! Okay, left or right, you choose," Nejire declared, tossing him the next ball.
Izuku did his right hand next, and while he couldn't tell by how much he beat his first throw, beat it he did.
'I… left hand, this time,' he decided as he took a third ball. 'My right hand is a little sore, and All Might warned me a while ago about over-working.' "I'm fine."
*Swoosh!*
"Left arm, not as far, but still good," Nejire assessed.
"It doesn't hurt!" Izuku cheered. "You think I should try some more power?"
"Only if you think you can keep it low," Nejire advised. "Want to try punching me? Oh come on, I can totes take it," she added when Izuku looked uncertain. "I get hit by villains, right?"
"Sorry. Um… same power as now? Left or right hand?"
"Whichever."
Izuku went with his left, judging that he was less likely to injure her with his weaker arm.
Nejire set her stance like that of a baseball catcher, minus the mitt.
"Okay, whenever you're ready!"
Izuku hit her.
Even spread out, it was enough force to launch a 150 gram baseball quite a ways, and Nejire caught herself about 10 cm in the air before she could go sprawling.
She'd have said he hit like a sledgehammer, except it wasn't half that weak.
"Neat! Okay, I guess a one-finger punch will send most people tails over teakettle if they aren't, like, super-heavy with Cypress-chan's weight Quirk or Tamaki's clam shells," Nejire cheered. "Is your arm still okay? Awesome! So all we need to do from here is work our way up in hitting things and throwing them. Do you need Recovery Girl yet? Do you want to try more baseballs? Ooh, maybe we could have a sparring match! It's probably worth practicing whether finger-flicks work differently and how hard an arm hits, but we may keep that for later; Mirio says you shouldn't quit while you're ahead, but I think calling it a successful day is better than giving up when things go bad, don't you? No 'splodey bones yet, no screaming…"
Izuku, still beaming back at her from his success, just kept nodding along as Nejire's babble washed over him soothingly.
In just one lesson, he'd gone from maiming himself with One For All to having possible combat techniques.
"I see! How much power does it feel like you are using, with this method?" All Might asked, once Izuku had explained his progress with Nejire.
"I- uh, well, mathematically, it's not even 1%," Izuku reasoned. "I mean, assuming I fit 100% into my finger before I distribute it, what's left is about a third of 1%. Though Nejire-senpai and I did get up to 1% once by charging 3 of my fingers and smearing that around my arm." He took a drink of tea as All Might thought this over.
'It's slow,' the Pro Hero judged, 'but Hadou's method successfully kept Izuku-shounen from unduly injuring himself. A 1% punch from me remains capable of breaking bones, or sending the target flying, and I expect Izuku-shounen will be capable of similar feats in time.'
"The approach is one I never needed to use, but it's an ingenious technique for measuring the power you release," All Might congratulated. "You said it still leaves you feeling a bit sore?"
"Y-Yeah! I'm sure I'll get used to it, especially as I perfect my vessel further," Izuku vowed, "but senpai assigned me to spend more time every day with One For All active, but just sitting and breathing- oh! N-Not that I told her about One For all, she still thinks it's Superpower," Izuku added quickly.
"Of course."
"A-Although…" Izuku bit his lip. "It's just… When Recovery Girl healed us up at the end, after Nejire-chan-senpai ended with some exercises where I deliberately broke my bones by using too much power, Recovery Girl said something that sounded like…"
"Ah! Recovery Girl and Principal Nedzu are both aware of One For All's nature and your status as its inheritor, as they were on-staff at UA when I attended," All Might assured him. "The rest of the teachers are aware of my 'true body' and my time-limit, which is why we can eat like this-," He gestured encompassingly at his skeletal appearance. "-without fear of discovery, beyond a discussion about revealing my situation to a student. I expect Shuzenji-sensei censored herself due to Hadou-shoujo's presence, but she is aware of the circumstances."
"Oh. Good, I was worrying," Izuku sighed. "Um. So. Am I doing everything okay? Do you have advice on how I…?"
All Might chuckled to himself.
"My boy, you're doing fine. In 3 weeks, UA's Sports Festival will give you a chance to prove yourself to the world, declaring 'I am here'. But I know you have arrived. I never had your problems, but strong winds make for strong timber, and you will be all the stronger, no doubt."
"Today's Heroics Training class will be a collaborative effort between 3 instructors," Vlad King announced to his students. "All Might, Thirteen-," Ochako stifled a squeal of glee. "-and I will collectively oversee your introductory Rescue Training this afternoon."
"Rescue training, huh." The murmur swept around the room.
'This is where it all began,' Izuku reminisced, thinking of All Might's debut. 'What I came here to learn.'
"Sounds like it'll be a lot of work," someone chuckled.
"Yeah, but it'll be worth it."
"Talk about the duties of a hero, eh?"
"Certainly! These are lessons every member of our class should take pride in!"
"Clearing buildings and rubble for kids to evacuate, I'm pumped!"
"I'll get to show off my skills in the water, kerogero," Tsuyu added.
"Yes, it's a big deal, now settle down," the Blood Hero grumped. He pressed a button and the shelves with their hero costumes slid out from the wall. "Your school uniforms won't be appropriate here, but I'll leave it to your discretion whether you wear your gym uniforms or your hero costumes, since some of you have equipment that may be disadvantageous for rescue work." He didn't name names, figuring that it would be best to let the students learn on their own. "Get changed into your choice of outfit and meet me by the bus we'll be taking to the site."
"Deku-kun, looking good," Ochako greeted when they all wandered out to the bus, Momo following close behind her.
'A cute girl just complimented my appearance!' "Y-Yeah, I'm glad they managed to fix the sleeve after last week," he agreed, tugging at the green jumpsuit's right sleeve, no longer shredded after his uppercut. 'Given Nejire-chan-senpai's lessons, I hope I won't be doing that again. Oh, wait! She complimented me, so I'm rude if I don't return it, right?' "Y-You look good too, Uraraka-san."
"Aw, thanks," she said with a bit of a twang to her voice.
"Vice Representative," Momo greeted mildly. "Kan-sensei told me to get everyone onboard the bus."
"Oh! Okay then, we should get on that." He turned to Ochako with a faint smile. "Uraraka-san, if you get on first, you've got your choice of seats."
"Okay! I'll grab Iida-kun and save you one," she promised.
"Yeah, but having a quirk that's flashy and powerful helps a pro with popularity, Tsuyu-chan," Eijiro argued. "You an' me, we're working at a disadvantage without anything to show off."
"Tsuyu-chan's Quirk is more flashy than mine," Ochako commented from her seat beside Izuku. "All her flips and kicks mean she's great at acrobatics, like a live kung-fu movie!"
"That's actually a good point. Although, most of those movies are unrealistic, but they are what people think of when discussing martial arts," Mashirao admitted.
"I usually think about my skills in the water, which people won't see, kero," Tsuyu noted. "You have a point that jumping in the air can be flashy. …Izuku-chan, what are you writing?"
"Huh?" Izuku jerked his head up guiltily from his notebook and froze under everyone's attention.
"Deku's always scribbling in his stupid notebooks, 'Hero Analysis for the future,'" Katsuki scoffed from several seats away.
"S-Sorry," Izuku mumbled, before he remembered. "K-Kan-sensei said analysis is a g-good habit for heroes to get into."
"It helped when we were planning how to fight Bakugou-chan, and you knew he opened with a right hook," Tsuyu agreed.
"Rrrr…" Katsuki growled quietly, but there were enough people around him that he didn't explode at anyone.
"Oooh, if you're doing Quirk analysis, I hope you've dedicated enough space to analyzing me," Yuga commented airily. "My Navel Laser is worthy of a pro, oui oui…"
"Pros don't get stomach aches after a second or two," Mina teased.
"A-Ah, I mean… I just started off giving everyone two pages from their introductions," Izuku admitted. 'This is… weird! No one's every asked to see or been interested in my analyses before. Aoyama-kun wants me to write a lot of things about him? Maybe he'd even answer a few questions without blowing his top and scorching my notebook.'
"A page or two won't be enough to write down much meaningful data," Momo opined. "I've filled a few binders exploring my own Quirk, although I've never tried to think as in-depth with someone else's."
"A-A-A few binders! Really? I'd love to take a look sometime!" 'Ohmygoshthatwassoforwardpleasedon'thatemeforit!'
Momo gave a soft exhale and a hum.
"Maybe some other day," she said.
"So who do you have the most information on, Midoriya-kun?" Yuga inquired. "Or maybe I should ask who you want more information on, hmm?"
"Oh, well…" Missing the praise me, praise me subtext, Izuku turned his attention back to his notebook. "I have the most information on Kacchan, because we've been friends since we were kids-,"
"We're not friends," the blond groused, still resolutely looking out a window.
"-but other than Yaoyorozu-san for her versatility and Asu- sorry, and Tsuyu-chan, I'd really like to learn more about Hagakure-san's Quirk and maybe talk to Tokoyami-kun and Dark Shadow."
"Me!" Tohru chimed.
"Alas, the secrets of-,"
"Ooh, sure, I'd love to star in an interview!" Dark Shadow exclaimed over Fumikage's deflection.
"Waitwaitwaitwait! I know Tokoyami-kun's obvious because Dark Shadow and everything, but you want to know about me," Tohru repeated, sounding immensely flattered.
"I- Y-Yeah," Izuku managed as she leaned into his space until Ochako poked her politely in the shoulder area. "I saw at lunch that your food disappears when you take bites out of it, so it's not just cellular invisibility because it covers things not part of your body, but it isn't just light manipulation or you'd be able to get your c-! T-To turn your c-c-clothes-!"
He cut off stammering as he remembered that a technically naked girl was looming over him in his personal space.
"Hagakure, back in your seat while the bus is moving or you're serving detention," Vlad King ordered. "Everyone else, settle down, we're almost there!"
"Everyone, I have been waiting for you," Thirteen declared through some speaker built into their spacesuit.
"Oh, I love Thirteen," Ochako cried under her breath as the Space Hero addressed the class.
"A noble person who's rescued tons of people from disasters like landslides and collapsed buildings, what's not to admire," Izuku agreed.
"Follow me inside, if you please."
""Right away, thank you for working with us,"" everyone greeted.
The inside of the giant domed complex was… 'It's almost like being outside,' Izuku reflected. The dome was high and it let in light, illuminating six areas visible from the top of the tall staircase where the class gathered: the Ruins Zone's mass of broken buildings, the Landslide Zone, the rocky peaks of the Mountain Zone, the flame-decorated dome of the Conflagration Zone, the lake and waterslide of the Floor Zone, and a second dome sealing in the winds and rain of the Downpour Zone.
"There's even a fake waterfall by the shipwreck, see?"
"Wow it's so crazy, in a good way!"
"It looks like Universal Studios Japan," someone commented.
"Indeed," Thirteen declared. "A shipwreck, a raging fire, a landslide, a wild storm… these are all common disaster situations which may imperil innocent people. I devised this training ground to hone future heroes' skills in saving people, based on situations I and other Rescue Heroes have commonly encountered. Students, I welcome you to the 'Unforeseen Simulation Joint,' or USJ for short."
""Just like Universal Studios Japan,"" at least three people murmured to their neighbors.
"That too!" Thirteen laughed as everyone jumped uncomfortably at having been overheard. "If I had 5 yen for every time I heard that joke made-,"
"You still couldn't retire because it wouldn't equal your monthly paycheck," Kan-sensei snorted. More quietly, as he neared Thirteen, he asked, "I believe All Might said he would meet us here?"
Quietly, Thirteen answered, "All Might ran into a spate of villainous disasters on his way here, and is otherwise preoccupied." They didn't explicitly mention All Might's time limit near the students, since at least two had super-hearing among their abilities, but they signaled Kan with 3 raised fingers to indicate the 3 hours that were used up. "All Might hopes to be here for a bit at the end of the class, but we should be able to cover for his absence."
"Hardly the worst thing that could've happened," Kan sighed. "You want to get started, then?"
"Yes." Turning to the class, Thirteen announced, "Before we begin, I'd like to take a minute and address a matter of grave importance. So important, I may actually need two minutes, or even three… Possibly four or more, but it shouldn't be far beyond five, six, maybe seven…"
"It just keeps increasing," someone moaned.
"Geez, and I though Principal Nedzu was wordy," another agreed.
"Enough!" Tenya snapped quietly. "It is the height of unprofessional to disrespect such a gentleman-,"
"Gentleperson," Ochako interjected.
"-as our teacher Thirteen, yes, quite," he agreed apologetically.
"Everyone, pay attention," called Vlad King.
""Yes!""
Thirteen stepped back into the center and raised their hand, displaying the capped fingers on their glove.
"My Quirk, Black Hole, has been widely discussed in the media," Thirteen began. "With it, I can suck up nearly anything and reduce it to dust."
"You use it to clear debris and free trapped people, right, sensei?" Izuku volunteered.
"Entirely correct. However, when I lacked control and support as a child, I caused unintentional destruction, and people branded my power as villainous." All of 1-A paused at that revelation. "Few people believed I could be a hero, yet I managed it, saving many lives throughout my career. Even so, they were correct that my power is dangerous, and I have never forgotten I easily someone could perish at my hands. Several of you are in similar straights, yes?"
The students all looked uneasily at each other.
'Kacchan can easily hurt people. Todoroki-san could freeze large areas, causing injuries from frostbite,' Izuku assessed. 'Uraraka-san could float someone and let them fall to their deaths. Iida-kun's ability to kick robots could be catastrophic when used on people. Even I… All Might's power is so great, I still don't dare hit anybody with too much strength, for fear of killing them outright.'
"You all have practiced to bring out the peaks of your abilities and learn to apply them against one another," Thirteen finished. "Now, however, you will be learning to use your powers for each other, and for the betterment of everyone's wellbeing. That is the purpose of this class, and I sincerely hope each of you leave here with knowledge of how to help, and a better understanding of what we each have been blessed with.
"That is all. Thank you for listening," Thirteen declared with a bow.
'Oh wow, they're just like I always imagined, I want to cheer it's so awesome!' Ochako rejoiced. "That was wonderful!"
"Amazing," someone else agreed.
"Thirteen-sensei is so cool!" Izuku cheered.
'It's nice to know that villainous Quirks aren't everything.' "I liked it," Mezo agreed.
"Feh." 'Unless I need to lower someone's blood pressure, it's not like I'm suited much for healing. I just make the hurting stop,' Katsuki reflected.
"An eloquent speech from an expert," Momo complimented.
"Truly! Thirteen-sensei's noble words have deeply moved me!" Tenya declared.
"So manly! I'm totally pumped," Eijiro agreed.
"Bravo, bravo!"
As Thirteen straightened and the cheering died down, the lights flickered.
It was hard to see from the top of the stairway, but the flow of the fountain in the center sputtered several times.
'Some maintenance issue with the systems?' Kan wondered as he stepped up to scan the area, 'Or is it…?' "Thirteen, in the central plaza?"
"I see it." Inside their suit, Thirteen began checking the systems' relays and trying to make contact or diagnose the issue. No success.
"What's going on?"
"Sensei, is something happening?" Momo asked.
"Please don't be a pop quiz," someone muttered.
"That dark spot looks creepy."
"Is someone coming through-?"
"Everyone! We're in an unknown situation with intruders," Kan roared at the class. "This is not a drill!" 'Nedzu-sensei would never throw something like this at the students without alerting the staff, and we never disproved our worries about the break-in last week.' "Thirteen, get ready to fight. Hagakure, strip down now." Pro Hero Vlad King's mind started flying as the dark patch extended, with more figures coming through. 'We're off of the main campus, I don't hear any alarms, and we're down a teacher. Siçmak! Are they only in here, or outside in a pincer movement?' "Jirou, Shoji, and anyone with super-sensory abilities: do you detect anything outside the USJ building?"
"I-?" Kyoka dropped to one knee and plugged a jack into the ground. ""I'm not… hearing any footsteps or voices. I'll need a bit more- make some room and I'll listen for heartbeats," she told her classmates as they crowded her.
"I don't hear anything definitive either, so I think they're just in front of us," Mezo seconded.
"Sensei, are those, like, actual villains?" someone wondered.
"What are they doing here?"
"They want to kill off the next generation, dolts," Katsuki snapped.
"Just keep calm, get low, and be prepared to run when I give the signal," Kan ordered. 'the villains are down in the central area, just waiting. They'll no doubt swarm us if we flee, but with the staircase between us…' "Thirteen, can you use your Quirk to demolish the stairs down?" He readied tendrils on blood in his gauntlets, preparing to shield his students and restrain any attackers with flight or fast-movement abilities.
"Preventing them from following us, yes. The suction effect should also draw in bullets," Thirteen confirmed.
'We just need to retreat outside and outrun them. I don't know the details of the Quirk they used to arrive, but it seems like they would've arrived closer or surrounded us if they were able to.' "Do it. Students!" Everyone turned their attention to Vlad King. "We can't contact the main UA building yet due to jamming, but if no one is waiting outside-,"
Thirteen's Quirk began rending the stairs impassible, tearing up and pulverizing huge chunks of the stonework as Kan spoke.
"-then we need to leave the building. Thirteen and I will secure your retreat. Iida," he barked a touch more firmly, "I need you to get outside and race to UA at top speed. Sound the alarm and get us back-up before the villains attack properly," he instructed as the dark gate shark down again now that all the invaders had been delivered. "Hagakure, in case there is any trouble, follow him at a distance."
"I see Thirteen and Vlad King, but no sign of All Might," Kurogiri reported as his warp-gate body coalesced back into a humanoid form once all their hirelings were through.
"Where could he be hiding?" Tomura Shigaraki wondered. The 20-year-old had brought along all of his severed hands for the occasion, attaching them onto both arms as well as the front and back of his hand. "We even went to the trouble of getting this crowd here for him. Don't spotlight heroes love crowds like that glory hound?"
"I can look around the building in case he'll be arriving shortly," Kurogiri offered.
"Man… Is everyone at least in their positions to kill the kiddies?" Tomura Shigaraki inquired blithely.
Kurogiri's body flickered as the black-mist-man's attention split to survey several locations. He placed one hand on the shoulder of the hulking Noumu—a massively muscled masculine figure, with its brain seemingly exposed and some form of beaky mask for a mouth—to ground himself.
"Cutting off our approach. Oh, what cowards. I guess they really want to protect the kids," the ringleader figured, scratching idly at a scab on his neck as Thirteen's Quirk shattered the stairway between the villains and the students.
"One moment, Shigaraki. I need to deal with an escape attempt," Kurogiri revealed.
With both students assenting, Kan turned his attention to his other charges. "Yaoyorozu, if you can start making another cannon or some form of ranged weapon for suppressing fire-?"
"Right away, sir!"
"I can make walls of ice or turning the stairs into a slide, though I can't do much to affect them at this range," Shouto Todoroki volunteered. 'Infiltrating an off-campus location with only first years and few staff… It's a sloppy plan, but it's a sloppy plan that was planned out, to say the least.'
"Be ready to do that," Kan instructed, "but don't restrict our movement unless you have to. Kaminari, can you break through whatever jamming they have active?"
"I'll give it a shot."
"Sir! I'm proceeding toward the doors," Tenya declared after finishing off a bottle of orange juice.
"I'll be right behind you," Hagakure promised invisibly.
"I got your gloves and boots," Eijiro assured her.
*vrooooooo~!*
Tenya's leg engines whirred louder as he got them up to speed, and then-
"Engine! Boost!"
Tenya roared, and his leg engines answered him, pouring out smoke and flame as he raced to the double-doors of USJ.
'They're heavy, but I can-! There!' He forced the doors open and raced out into the sunlight, heading towards-
"Ah!" "Shoot!" "Oh, no!"
-a cloud of pitch black edged in phantasmal purple that exploded in front of his face and quickly enveloped him.
Tenya let out a yelp resembling a scream and then he was gone.
Mostly.
*crrkrkrkrkrk-!*
"My apologies," intoned Kurogiri as he properly manifested his body in the doorway. After a glance at the severed foot Shouto had just covered in ice, he floated in to address the rest of the students as Vlad King left Thirteen covering the rear to face him.
"Scum," the Blood Hero snarled as he eyed the severed body part. "Todoroki, good reflexes. As for you… what did you do to my student?"
"He's elsewhere in the building, Sekijiro Kan," Kurogiri assured the man. "I apologize that I was… messy. It took a quick reaction from me to prevent his escape," he continued as he passed over Tenya's now-frozen left foot, "and I sloppily failed to catch your student's whole body with my warp gate. I would return to him his lost property, but I cannot see much point to it."
"Oh, I'll show you the point," Vlad King threatened, drawing blood out from his gauntlets and hardening it into spikes for the coming fight.
"Who are you?" Mina shouted.
"Yeah, what do you want?" Denki demanded.
"This is our first meeting, but we are the League of Villains. Presumptuously, we have invited ourselves in today hoping to take the head of All Might, the Symbol of Peace. Such is our agenda as it stands."
'Of course they'd arrive when he isn't here and can't help us fight off the small fry,' Kan cursed, while also worrying about what exactly made them confident in taking down All Might. 'If they planned this out well enough to appear here, then they must have something more than numbers.' "He's not here at the moment, in case you missed it."
"Yes, though the schedule we stole told us to expect him. I wonder if there's been a change in plans," Kurogiri mused as the wisps of his 'body' writhed.
'There! The doors swung just a bit, but I think Hagakure made it outside,' Kan decided. 'Now I just need to buy time and distract him.' "Yaoyorozu, fire at the ceiling!" Kan launched his body forward as he spoke, aiming to swipe through and disrupt Kurogiri. "Send up a flare!"
"Sir!"
"We're right behind you, sensei!" Eijiro announced as he followed Kan's charge.
"This guy's toast!" Katsuki agreed.
'No!' "You two-!" Kan almost spun to order them to stand down, but it would have killed his momentum. 'I'm trying to make myself a target here, you headstrong fools!'
Kurogiri shifted, his body writhing around Kan's strike, Eijiro's knife-hand, and Katsuki's explosion.
"Dangerous," the warp-gate user mused as black tendrils lashed out at the students, forcing Kan to grab them out of mid-air and retreat back. "Indeed, you all are dangerous enough on your own." Without further ado, Kurogiri's body opened up and disgorged half-a-dozen villains between 1-A and the gate.
The villains themselves seemed momentarily discombobulated, and Kan took advantage of that to splatter 2 of them with blood projectiles that covered their faces, hardening to block light and air.
"Keep back!" He ordered, tossing Eijiro and Katsuki back among their classmates. "It's my task to defend you here."
"Ah yes, for the goose protects its golden eggs, and the dragon guards its horde," Kurogiri mused as a female villain with hairy, distended arms began maneuvering around for good position while a blade-covered crook edged in closer. "Still, a house divided cannot stand the storm. So I shall scatter you here and send you to your doom!"
"Scatter!" Kan shouted, but the students hadn't had time to hone their reflexes or learn to respond to field orders, and most of them hunkered down as black smoke spewed out around them all.
Vlad King only had time to grab 2 students—Yuga and Denki, who were the closest one to him—with blood-extended appendages and throw them out of the range of effect before the dome closed in, leaving him to suffer whatever fate was waiting for everyone.
As everyone cringed, several things happened.
Momo went to pull the trigger of her cannon, having finally aimed it straight up at the ceiling to send off a signal flare.
Kurogiri, aware that this would visually alert any UA personal who happened to see the smoking hole in the USJ building, immediately lashed out at her with his first warp gate.
Eijiro got in a guard position, and Kyoka literally hurled herself in his path as an attempt to take the blow, but it was Shouto who shoved Momo directly out of the way, taking her place as the third engulfed by the tendril.
Mina caught Momo as she stumbled, Mashirao getting in a defensive position, and Kurogiri promptly warped them to his next choice of location, so as to not overwhelm the 'troops' stationed in each area with too many students.
Kan extended more blood from his gauntlets, slashing at the area he'd last seen Kurogiri's main body to no avail. Kurogiri dropped the floor out from under him portal-style, sending Vlad King into the horde led by Tomura Shiragaki to serve as preliminary entertainment.
"Oi, that's our teacher you piece of trash!" Katsuki charged the smoky dome, and Fumikage called forth Dark Shadow to lash out, which made them Kurogiri's next target.
"Kacchan!" With a shout, Izuku followed his old friend's lead, all three caught in smoky shadows and dispatched to reappear elsewhere.
And when they did, when that suffocating darkness disperse to reveal their location, Katsuki Bakugou knew fear.
"Not many remaining," Kurogiri mused, though he also knew his strength was waning after forming this many warp gates. Eager to finish, he sent tendrils with warp gates toward four more students.
Koji Koda got caught alone, and sent to where there was already one student waiting, while the other three—Ochako, Tsuyu, and Minoru—were banished to a separate location in USJ.
Then dark mist retreated, leaving only Rikido, Mezo, and Hanta, along with the pair Yuga & Denki whom Vlad King had thrown clear.
"Students, get behind me," Thirteen ordered, having been unable to hit Kurogiri for fear of injuring the kids in his dome. One uncapped finger threateningly kept the other villains present at bay, away from Yuga and Denki, whom Thirteen had already moved to protect.
"With flight removed from the equation, the only alternative is to fight for a hopeless victory," Kurogiri mused, retreating from the fray to gain a second wind. "I wonder though, how long will you last? How long will they, for that matter?"
Which was exactly the moment ice erupted out to cover almost all of the Flood Zone, crackling and straining as the cold exploded through the area.
Kurogiri turned his head to see the giant glacier emerge, covering most of the water with ease.
Shouto shoved Momo away from the dark tendril even as it had already swallowed up two of his classmates.
'Admirable,' he judged of her dedication to Kan-sensei's instructions, 'but the cannon is a blind to cover Hagakure's escape, so that it seems like we're still struggling. We don't need it.' It certainly wasn't worth firing at the cost of the one student he felt any attachment to, given their similar backgrounds and their history from the Recommendation Student examination.
Darkness swallowed him, and the cannon too for that matter.
Then he was falling, his face toward the ceiling, with no idea what lay below.
'I only have a few seconds before I hit,' Shouto guessed, calling up his icy Quirk as eh tried to twist and guard his head. He wasn't quite sure whether he would make a landing platform or what, but he was still in USJ-
He hit the water.
He reacted.
With a sound like an avalanche in reverse, he froze everything immediately before he realized his full situation.
'...That was careless of me,' he cursed silently as he pulled up his fire half to melt the ice immediately around him; freezing even the water around his eyes and nose was incredibly unpleasant.
Swimming had never been a big part of his training, but in 3 seconds Shouto had melted a pool of water reaching from his feet up to the surface.
He surfaced a moment later with a gasp, hauling himself out of the warmed ice-water with a distinct lack of dignity as he panted for breath.
Shouto took a moment to observe his handiwork; almost the entire lake had turned to ice, barring a few distant edges at the shore, the waterslide, and the pit Shouto had just pulled himself out of.
Shivering, he called up his hot Quirk enough for steam to begin rising before he could get any colder.
The boat had been tipped by the eruption of ice, but it wasn't overturned, and he didn't see anyone on it, villainous or otherwise, so that was safe.
Momentarily content, Shouto turned his attention to the central plaza, where a bunch of villains were ganging up on Vlad King.
'That looks like the perfect way for me to intervene,' he decided, trudging over the arctic terrain to join the battle.
He hadn't gone far, however, when something interrupted him. The sound of breaking ice.
Eijiro Kirishima hit the water and didn't panic. He'd practiced breathing exercises and gone swimming for his training. Keeping his Quirk active underwater would make him sink, he knew, but he could hold his breath long enough to get his bearing and ensure that he wasn't attacked.
Just as he was thinking this, a villain with a shark-based Quirk swam up in a rush and bit into Eijiro's arm.
Eijiro felt, rather than heard, the sickening crunch of bone.
The shark villain let out a burbling yell as he broke his teeth on Eijiro's Hardening. He pulled away as blood and bone fragments streamed from his mouth. Eijiro slashed one arm in a knife-hand strike as the villain took a retaliatory swipe at him; it worked out much better for one of them than the other.
Cursing, the shark-man fled out into the depths.
Eijiro Kirishima did his best to kick upward, hoping to slow his descent as he judged how long his air would hold for and whether it was safe to release his Hardening Quirk.
Then the ice hit him.
'Shootshootshoot! Okay, I know which way is up, now is the perfect time to panic.'
Eijiro did his best to thrash and shove with his hardened body, attempting to shatter the ice all around him.
He was running low on air now, and the bitter cold would soon start sapping his strength, but he had strength to spare.
'I tore apart those metal robots in the exam, I can get rid of ice!' With passion and a tinge of desperation in his veins, Eijiro struggles and strives and exerts his full force as best he can.
It paid off, producing a musical series of cracks as ice shatters and he claws his way to the air.
He gasped for breath, high off of his success.
"Man! I'm so glad I- huh?" He saw Shouto a ways across the ice, looking back at him.
"Kirishima, you…" Shouto trailed off uncertainly.
It took only a moment to click.
"Dude, what the heck?! Is this ice all you?" Eijiro demanded. "You froze me solid, dude! Why, if I was another one of our classmates-!"
That's as far as he got before the shiver hit them.
*ba-dump*
"What the heck?" Eijiro asked as the ice shifted again.
*ba-dump*
"It's like a heartbeat, rather than some impact," Shouto assessed.
*ba-dump*
"Wait, a heart beat!" Eijiro panicked and began looking around them both.
He hadn't been the only other student caught up in the warp gate, after all.
*ba-dump*
Below them both, Kyoka Jirou lay entombed under several meters of ice.
Her couldn't feel her ears or fingers, her eyes were frozen shut, and she was rapidly losing strength as her air ran out.
*ba-dump*
'I just need to-!'
*ba-DUM*
The stronger pulse of her pulse hit the ice, breaking bits, sending spiderwebbed cracks up and out all around her.
She wouldn't be moving anytime soon, but while she didn't realize it, the fissures had at least reached the surface, leaving her a bit of air as well as signaling her location.
Both boys burst into panicked action as her mind silently drifted into the dark.
When Koji Koda landed on a sidewalk he smelled the scent of dust, especially cement dust, mixed with some rot.
Having landed on his face, it was with some trepidation that he got to his hands and knees.
He raised his face just in time to see two villains step around the street corner.
"Hey, we got another one!"
"Meep!" Koji started running, pelting down an alleyway, in between empty dumpsters, and around blind corners.
Thankfully, he thought he lost them, especially when he found a scurrying rat and begged the little one for a place to hide from predators.
The smell would have bothered him a little, but his mask had a respirator function as well as a speaker system, so it was tolerable, and asking his many new friends to give him a bit of room- It wasn't like he minded furry bodies, but there was too much of a good thing in some situations.
But as he was hiding, waiting for the teachers to come save them, something kept bothering him.
'They said, "Hey, we got another one." Another one. Another one.' Koji swallowed. 'So what if… I'm not the only student here?'
Barely daring to go above a whisper, he began speaking.
"Eep!" Mina darted out of the way, water streaming into her eyes.
"Hiyah!" Momo smashed her bo staff into the temple of the villain who lunged at her as winds buffeted them both, and Mina stomped on his knife-wielding hand with a crunch when he went down.
"Good stance, Yaoyorozu," Mashirao complimented as he kicked the second villain into a brick wall. "You've had training?"
"Several years with bōjutsu, as well as kendo, aikikidojujitsu, general athletics training, and a few lessons in kusari-gama use," she confirmed.
"Impressive," he noted as he ducked down to get the knife from the villains bruised fingers.
"I mean- Just general fitness and some friendly scrapping, though I've got a mean uppercut and a right hook," Mina admitted.
She was trying not to get twitchy, but it was dark, there was wind, there was rain, and there were villains running around.
Worst of all, with the wind and the rain, she was already shivering from more than fear.
"No time for lessons now, so you should probably take this," Mashirao judged, offering the knife hilt-first.
Mina cringed and hesitated.
"I can make you something better, if you want," Momo offered over the howl of the wind.
"Either way, we want to deny them their weapons if they wake up," Mashirao pointed out as Mina finally took the knife.
"Are we… just going to leave them there?" Mina asked. She jolted and shuddered as another gale roared past them "I mean-! Should we tie them up or something?"
"I'll make some bindings."
"I'll bind them," Mashirao agreed.
"I can do that," Mina said quickly. He gave her an odd look as Momo produced several lengths of cord. "I mean… Oh cripes, we're getting so soaked and sprayed by rain, my acid won't stay around if I make it in this weather," she finally admitted. "I'm thinking we should leave the actual fighters free for-,"
"Hey, I see 'em!" The yell caught all three students unawares and they spun to see another three villains charging down the alleyway.
"Aw man," Mina moaned, trying to fit her fist around the knife as Momo and Mashirao took stances.
"YYYYaaaaahhhh!!" Minoru screamed, his voice echoing across the landslide zone as he wildly throws his pop-balls.
"Ah shoot!" "What is that?" "Don't let them touch you!"
The villains, fortunately, shrank back to avoid the spray.
"Kero!"
Tsuyu flew by, kicking one crook's skull in upon landing, and grabbed Minoru before hopping up toward the top again, where Ochako was waiting.
"Mineta-chan, do you know if anyone else is here?"
"N-Nohohohohoho~!" He sobbed, burrowing his face against her. "What are villains doing here I was so scared thank you for saving me~!"
Tsuyu shifted but didn't push him away.
"Ochako-chan, I didn't see anyone else."
"Ah ain't seen-! I mean, I haven't seen anyone either, Tsuyu-chan" she admitted.
They were crouched near the top of the Landslide Zone's slope, conveniently hidden behind a piece of wreckage, but very aware of the villains spread throughout their surrounding.
"…Minoru-chan, your face is a little," Tsuyu hedged.
He opened his eyes, realized what he was doing, and after a bare moment of enjoyment he realized what Kan-sensei would probably do to him if this got reported.
"Aaaaaahhh~! I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry-!" Minoru backed off in a different type of panic, babbling until Ochako slapped her hand (pinkie finger excluded,) over his mouth.
"Shhhh~!" Ochako chided. "We don't want them to hear us, right?"
"Assuming the ones down there didn't see us flee up here," Tsuyu observed.
Slightly chastened, Ochako let go of Minoru to poke her head around a corner.
"I see… like, three groups of three people each," she reported. "They're searching downhill, still, but at least one will come this way eventually."
"Uhhh… but it won't be any time soon, right?" Minoru observed. "Besides, it'd not like they can beat All Might or anything, much less with the other teachers once Hagakure grabs them!"
"We took a bus from UA, and I don't think Hagakure-chan can run as fast as Iida-chan," Tsuyu answered. "Help is coming, but we shouldn't expect it quickly… and if they're trying to kill All Might, kero, they probably think they can succeed."
"On top of that," Tsuyu continued as Minoru grew more pale, "we're surrounded and outnumbered, and it wouldn't be the first time people tried using hostages against All Might. They knew to expect us, they're grown adults who have probably killed before, and we-,"
"Hey, enough of that," Ochako interrupted firmly. "No more loser talk, Tsuyu-chan! We will get through this, so don't be afraid; you already put the boot in on one of those thugs all ha, whoa, hiyah, right? We're going to be Pro Heroes, we can do this! Dekiru!"
"B-B-But how are we supposed to do this, we were just in Junior High a month ago!" Minoru complained.
"It's going to be more complicated than, 'you take the ones on the left and I'll take the ones on the right,'" Tsuyu agreed.
'Especially because that wouldn't leave any for Mineta,' Ochako complained silently, under no illusions as to how likely she could take down many grown adults on her own. 'But I'm not on my own! The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,' she resolved.
"Then we need a plan, guys! Team huddle!" Ochako declared, throwing one arm around Minoru's shoulders and another arm around Tsuyu. "What have we got to work with?"
"Yes, I should tell you more about my Quirk," Tsuyu decided.
Meanwhile, Minoru's face was in range of Ochako's chest, and he was trying not to enjoy it too obviously. 'No one can punish me when she pulled me in like this, right? I wonder if this means she likes me… Oh, that'd be the day.' He suppressed a depressed laugh and tried to focus on thoughts other than dying horribly.
"Yeah, you go ahead," Minoru said distantly. 'Asui-chan and Uraraka-chan are both pretty good in the oppai aspect; I wonder what else I can learn about them.'
"My main abilities are the leg strength that can let me jump several stories in height and the ability to extend my tongue up to 20 meters. According to Izuku-chan, the tongue thing is a transformation aspect of my otherwise mutation-type Quirk, since ordinary frogs' tongues are usually a third of their body-length, and even chameleon's tongues extend to less than double their body-length, while I'm only 150 centimeters tall. My tongue is also prehensile, like Ojiro-chan's tail, so can wrap it around things to lift and carry them within a certain weight limit."
"A p-p-p-prehensile tongue. Oh, I can think of uses for that," Minoru drooled. 'Getting to third base would be…! Bad thoughts, save it for later or Kan-sensei might barbecue me if I slip now!'
"So can I. Tsuyu-chan, is it more a weight limit, a mass limit, or a size limit?" Ochako asked distractedly. She absently pushed Minoru away from her, and he let her rather than keep close contact and annoy her.
"I'm not prehensile enough to grab small things, kero, but I can lift things that weigh more than I do if I'm well braced, though I wouldn't want to do it too many times," Tsuyu answered.
"Oh… Yeah… I can imagine," Minoru said, his head now filling with images of Tsuyu lifting him up and hurling him at the bad guys as a distraction.
'I just need to stay calm. "Behave like a hero," Kan-sensei said. I'll behave like a hero and absolutely get through this!'
"I can also spit out my stomach and wash it. According to Izuku-kun, my saliva might be a non-Newtonian fluid," Tsuyu finished, "and I can make myself excrete a technically toxic substance, but it really only stings a little. I don't know if any of those will be useful to you."
'E-E-E-Excrete, she says! And it's not saliva?! Clean thoughts clean thoughts clean thoughts,' Minoru repeated in a panic.
"I don't know if we can use those either," Ochako admitted, unwilling to confess that her science studies hadn't covered what it meant when something was or wasn't 'Newtonian,' "but strong legs mean you can escape or do super-strong kicks, right? Mineta-kun, what about you?"
"I-I…"
'His stuttering isn't nearly as cute as when Deku-kun does it,' Ochako thought, becoming a bit depressed. 'I wish Deku-kun were here, then we could team up and blow them away! But you know what? I can do this anyway!'
"I can harvest these pop-balls that grow on my head," Minoru finally admitted. "They grow back really quickly when I pull them off, and they stick to anything that isn't me. Depending how I feel, the stickiness can last for a whole day, but I just bounce off of them."
He squeezed one of the orbs on his head, getting a faint rubbery squeak sound, and realized he'd run out of things to say unless he demonstrated.
"Okay, I'm getting the outlines for a plan," Ochako declared. She held out her hand for them to see. "I have these finger-beans, like a kitten's toe beans, on both hands but not my feet. If I press all five on one hand against something, I can remove its gravity; well, technically Deku-kun says I'm removing it from the influence of other gravitational pulls, but saying 'remove its gravity' is easier. I touch it, and then I can make it float in zero-gravity… ah-hah!"
"Tsuyu-chan," Ochako asked, "If I can float chunks of rubble can you throw them around or use your tongue like a flail?"
"I can make that work, kero."
"Yosh! Then, if Mineta-kun sticks his sticky stuff on the rubble, the bad guys will be caught to it and weighed down once I return its gravity." She pumped her fist triumphantly. "Come on, I really think we can do this!"
"Hey," one thug yelled, "I think I heard something, let's check uphill!"
"…Oops," Ochako managed as the other two stared at her accusingly.
Katsuki Bakugou's Quirk produced nitroglycerin from his palms like sweat.
It wasn't pure nitroglycerin, being watered down with genuine sweat and other proteins from his body, but the nitroglycerin was there and it was explosive.
It wasn't purely produced like sweat, either, since he could force small amounts of it out at will from his hands' glands, and he naturally produced more of it than was normal for sweat.
But he still sweat it out when he was hot or active, and it was still explosive.
Katsuki had to pour a neutralizing agent in with his laundry, he treated his bad sheets or wore gloves to sleep, and while he didn't wash his hands as obsessively as Mina, he still washed more thoroughly and more often than the rest of his class.
Which meant he was currently in a nightmare scenario.
'Badbadbadfirehotflamesopenflamesallaroundme and I'm surrounded with everything on frickin' fire and something could explode keep breathing keepbreathing keepbreathing keepbreathing keepbreathing I need to regulate my bloody biorhythms don't panic don't sweat I'm going to be #1 and I can do this.'
"Kacchan!"
"What is it?" Katsuki snapped, too distracted with edging away from the burning building he'd been dumped beside to be rude to Izuku for butting in.
"Are you okay? I think I've got a handkerchief if you need to wipe off," Izuku answered, pulling the cloth out of a pocket. "I'm not smelling smoke or getting dizzy, so I think most of these fires are gas-fueled, but it's open flames."
"No duh, moron. Give me that," Katsuki snapped back, grabbing the handkerchief.
He'd only worn one of his grenade gauntlets because his costume could be restricting for rescue work—like he'd ever be bothered with his Quirk, he'd just do what Endeavor did and re-double patrols to free up proper rescue heroes unless the teachers had a way for him to do more than smash rubble into smaller chunks—but that one gauntlet was still a well of gather sweat that could easily overheat and explode without warning, so he needed to lose it fast.
"After him!" Voices echoed from behind them, around a corner.
"Crud, the mooks," Katsuki snarled as Fumikage rushed into view, pursued by two villains.
"Familiar faces in this festival of nightmares," the bird-headed boy noted as he ran to join them.
"Hey, keep back a sec-,"
"Tokoyami-kun, this way!" Izuku yelled over Katsuki, moving in front of the blond.
'I really wish I had some more practice with this,' Izuku reflected as he settled into a rough stance as shoved a chunk of One For All's power into his right hand. 'More than a finger, but don't fill the entire hand… Now smear it back up along the arm, to the elbow, then the shoulder…'
On Nejire's advice, he'd spent Sunday night and part of the next two evenings watching some anime and some performances by heroes with Quirks that looked similar to his for inspiration on using One For All.
They'd finished up the first lesson that Saturday by breaking his fingers intentionally in seeing how much force a fully enhanced finger-flick could deliver, and he'd produced results similar to an air-pressure cannonball.
Naturally, his next step was to then see how people he who generate air-pressure cannon blasts fought, and he'd found a few sources of inspiration that led to this next idea.
"You have a plan?" Fumikage Tokoyami questioned as he reached Izuku and Katsuki.
"This," Izuku said. 'Delaware is already taken with my finger flick, so next on the list is-!' "Pennsylvania SMASH!"
He thrust his hand forward in an open palm strike, generating an air blast like a racecar, surging forward to smash the foremost villain, blast him off his feet into the larger thug behind him, and crash them both into a burning building several meters away.
"What the-! Where the fuck did that come from?" Katsuki had only just finished removing his gauntlet and wasn't on-point enough to get really ticked, so he actually sounded impressed.
"I've-," *pant* "-been practicing," Izuku gasped. His arm was all pins and needles, but when he moved it gingerly it responded, and he couldn't see any major discoloration through the firelight, at least. 'I think I can risk two or three of those each before I break anything.'
"An auspicious beginning, but sinister things are rising midst the flames," Fumikage warned them. "Let us disperse from here, and the shadows take us!"
Sure enough, it looked like at least one villain was getting to his feet again.
"Even if it's the Conflagration zone, there's got to be some area that isn't on fire," Izuku reasoned. "If we were practicing rescue heroics, we'd need somewhere safe to take evacuees. Kacchan, you good?"
"No," he grit out like it was physically painfully. "We need wide streets, and I need to leave this here before it blows."
"The grenade may serve as a distraction," Fumikage observed.
"Sure." Katsuki grit his teeth and looked between his two 'teammates' of the moment. 'Like hell will I ask Deku for anything.' "Bird Face, can your talking shadow throw this a block or two away to draw the low-lifes off?" It galled him to suggest anything other than fighting, but Katsuki knew that if he fought in this state, he would almost certainly die in a pathetic way when his own powers killed him with a stray spark.
"Alas, the firelight is Dark Shadow's bane."
"And without a bunch of smoke there's not much shadow either," Izuku finished.
"Well we need to freakin' do something before I blow our butts to kingdom come," Katsuki snarled.
Already, his grenade gauntlet was probably too hot to be safely handled and his explosive sweat would soon soak the handkerchief.
'I'll take off my mask next; I made it absorbent for exactly these reasons and reducing glare won't be as big an issue right now,' he reasoned, kneading the cloth between his palms. 'After that- Actually…'
"Bird-face, fork over your cloak," Katsuki demanded.
"For what purpose?" Fumikage asked stiffly.
"Tokoyami-kun, Kacchan sweats nitroglycerin. But Kacchan, that's a good idea, try my mask first," Izuku suggested, pulling it off.
"Fine. My pleasure to destroy the ugly thing," Katsuki grumbled as he took it, "but we need to go before-,"
"We got kids over here!"
"Three of 'em, this way!"
"Our pay day's here!"
"Of course," Fumikage growled out, disgruntled as several villains burst out from two blocks away.
"This way, try to keep up!" Katsuki ordered as he twisted his hands deeper into Izuku's mask and shot off, hoping his gauntlet would at least explode in time to take out a bunch of their pursuers.
Yuga Aoyama, Denki Kaminari, Rikido Satou, Mezo Shoji, and Sero Hanta were gathered by Thirteen-sensei, all eyeing the remaining 4 villains on their feet plus Kurogiri.
'Unless someone cleans off their faces, those two should be incapacitated for the next while,' Thirteen assessed of the duo caught in Vlad King's blood. 'That leaves 4 of them and the warper against myself and 6 students. We're ideally buying time until Hagakure returns with backup, but letting them realize that would be bad… Moreover, even if I hadn't cut off our retreat by damaging the stairway, going back would just lead to the main mass of villains Kan is up against.'
"Students, which of you have ranged attacks?" Thirteen wondered. "We don't want to engage unless we have to." Thirteen particularly didn't want to use Black Hole lethally against the villains, but they wanted the students to be harmed even less.
"Hmm, my Naval Laser should be able to blast one or two away, sensei," Yuga judged.
"I can tape them up at range," Sero seconded, producing short strips from his elbows.
"I got nothing unless I throw something," Rikido admitted, cracking his knuckles.
"I'm in similar straights," Mezo confessed.
"I… Man, I can only really cover myself with electricity," Denki said, "if I discharge any I'll zap all of you, too."
"Good to know," laughed a four-legged crook before he charged-
"Black Hole!" Thirteen popped open a finger-cap and began a low-strength suction, sending the villain windmilling his arms as he tried not to overbalance. "Sero, now!"
"On it!" Hanta yelled, shooting out strips of tape.
Unfortunately, the tape also got caught in the suction, looping back toward Thirteen in the air, forcing the Space Hero to end the effect before being entangled.
A blue-tinged villain with spiky wrists promptly grabbed his 4-legged compatriot and pulled him away.
"Oh, so they want to play the range game, huh," mocked a female villain with distended arms like a gorilla. She promptly smashed her fists into the walkway and tore up 2 chunks of concrete to grip. "Let's play ball!"
"Naval Laser!"
Yuga's shout had her duck to dodge the beam, which punched a hole in USJ's wall.
'I wish I'd thought to hit the doors with that before Iida-san went through them,' Yuga reflected as he cut power before it could upset his stomach.
"Hey, that's a good idea," Rikido declared. "Sero-kun, can you stick some tape on a rock and I'll use it for a flail?"
"I'm on it it!"
"Sensei," Mezo declared quietly as they went to work and the villains (apparently lacking in ranged attack options as well,) eyed them warily, "I thought you should know that everyone is still in the USJ building."
"It's good to have confirmation," Thirteen affirmed as Mezo shifted his ears and eyes back to their default forms. "No, keep your ears open in case there's anything we need to know." 'In case you can hear help arriving,' Thirteen didn't say out loud, hoping Mezo would guess.
"Naval Laser!" Yuga blasted his Quirk again, aiming for Kurogiri, who just floated out of the way.
"Sensei, I've got a flail if they try anything," Rikido reported, hefting his rock at the end of some tape. "Is it okay to wait until I activate my Quirk?"
"I trust your judgment," Thirteen said, aware of their own ignorance in the matter.
'Do not pray for an easy life,' Mashirao reflected as he kicked a villain in the skull and rebounded off a wall to whack a guy with his tail, 'pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. Yeah, I'm really starting to get that.'
"Between the wind and the rain, I'm getting chilly and slowing down," he reported to Momo and Mina.
"Shoot, I wish I'd thought of that! I can make you-,"
"A rain poncho won't help me now, we just need to get indoors for a little bit," Mashirao opined.
"Save your strength for a towel, and I can see two promising buildings, maybe?" Mina guessed. She pointed.
"I vote the gas station and convenience store," Mashirao said as the peered. "If they've supplied it with actual supplies, we could get warm."
"If there's actual gas, we could explode," Momo countered. "At least the complex we know there's nothing and no one in there."
"Either we deci-choo! We need to decide soon, I'm soaked," Mina said miserably. "Jan-ken-po?"
Mashirao shook his head. "No, we'll go in the larger empty building and I'll try a supplies- achoo! It's not just you," he grumbled, wiping his nose. "I'll try a supplies run from the store."
"YyyyyaaaaaaawhooooooaaaaaOooooooaaaaaaOooooooaaaaa~!" screamed the weightless villain at the end of Tsuyu's tongue as she swung him around and around.
"Kero!" Tsuyu let go, pulling all 10 meters of her tongue back in, as the guy went flying off toward the Downpour Zone with a scream that even hand the hands-wearing villain (Shigaraki, not that they knew his name,) pausing in the fight to watch.
"Great job Tsuyu-chan! Release," Ochako declared, tapping her fingers together. She didn't look to see how the return of gravity affected the living projectile, she just quickly pressed her finger-beans against the chunks of building she'd dug out from the landslide in between fending off a few attacks.
"D-D-Did you have to be so loud?" Minoru demanded. "Now they're all coming for us!"
"Just hurry up and stick on the rest of your sticky balls," Ochako instructed. Then she snorted. 'Oh wow, how did I never notice that before.' "W-wait, sticky balls? Sorry," she chuckled, "bad time for puns."
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard them all before," Minoru griped, still not quite daring to make one himself. His hands moved quickly, and in a moment he'd affixed almost a dozen orbs to the building chunk (which was already bigger than him and Ochako combined). "It's in your weight limit?"
"I could float several of those robots at the practical, even if it made me queasy," Ochako assured him.
"That's one done, kero," Tsuyu declared, picking up the weightless rubble she then wrapped her tongue around it and turned her attention to the approaching thugs as he partners worked on the next piece. "Kero!"
Tsuyu kept her tongue attached, but she flung the rubble once her targets were within 15 meters. They scrambled and ducked, but she flexed her long muscle and whacked one with the rubble.
"Hey, what the-? Get me offa here!" The villain started yelling in dismay when he realized he was stuck, attached to the masonry by Minoru's sticky balls.
"Brats! What are those," another villain cried as she ducked Tsuyu's swing.
"I'll cut that tongue right clean o-!" That last threat got Tsuyu's full attention, smashing the masonry into the mouthy villain hard enough to send the knife flying.
"Kero!" With a heave of effort, Tsuyu flung the chunk with stuck-on villains at a clump of crooks coming their way from a different direction, knocking several over and sticking at least two more to the masonry.
"Perfect timing, the second one is ready," Ochako announced.
"They're fucking gaining on us!" Katsuki panted as the trio reached another intersection and glanced back before turning.
"Most unfortuitous."
"Tokoyami-kun," Izuku panted, "does it have to be air darkness? They've got to have a river or a lake here somewhere for people with water-manipulation Quirks. Would darkness under the water-?"
It was difficult, running from pursuit.
With Katsuki dripping sweat after he'd gone through the handkerchief, Izuku's mask, and now his own mask, they didn't dare get too near any of the burning buildings, confining the three to central wide streets instead of alleys where they could disappear.
They were stuck in sight of every villain who pursued them, they were overheating, their eyes were itching something fierce, and they were at risk of being surrounded and overrun if they didn't figure out something soon.
Katsuki grit his teeth.
"Deku, you hit hard enough for air pressure shit, right?" Katsuki questioned as they stopped to catch a second wind in an intersection. 'Of course, even the train rails are on fire here, why not?'
"Y-Yeah?"
"You need to knock down some buildings, extinguish flames with rubble, maybe kick up dust or smoke," Katsuki declared. 'I hate needing him for anything but we will die at this rate, and no amount of no-name villains get to kill me just from an environment disadvantage! I'll see 'em all dead myself, first!'
"I-I can't do-,"
"Bull!" Katsuki cut him off. "Listen up, Deku, stop thinking in punches! Think Captain Cutter with his invisible blades! Think the yama-sen-ken from Ranma 1/2, remember back when we watched that and he carved apart the giant statue? Think Cooking Princess dicing the bamboo forest," he snapped. "You've got the tools, you nerd, just actually use them right!"
"I-!" Izuku gaped, unable to process anything resembling praise from Katsuki.
"I see 'em!" "This way!" "Get the rats!"
"Our enemies approach," Fumikage declared grimly.
"No… don't wanna fight…" whined Dark Shadow's voice before the Quirk retreated back inside Fumikage's body again.
Izuku straightened, his face firming as a group of 8 villains rushed down the remaining block between them.
"I understand, Kacchan. After all…" He turned to face not just the attackers, now approaching from 2 directions, but the burning buildings as well. "I'm going to be the Deku who can do it."
Izuku clapped his hands together, because it would help him envision balancing power between hands, and just because it seemed like a kickass image to present.
'Power in my fingers… No, more than that, I'll fill both my hands…' he decided as he called up One For All. The villains were getting closer, but they wouldn't get there too quickly either. 'If I'm cutting through buildings, I can't have "not enough". Now spread it back along my arms… to my elbows… up to my shoulders…' As he did so, Izuku slid his arms into a cross-chop position, keeping his knife-hands stiff and flat. "Dakota SMASH!"
He snapped his arms out, forming less an X shape than an edged horizon of overlapping lines.
The world itself nearly shook with his force, and the villains were all knocked flat by the pressure wave.
As were almost 3 blocks of buildings.
The arc of air pressure bit like a knife into the buildings at the base, like an axe into tree trunks, and kept going.
Shoddy workmanship for the sake of easy repairs combined with thermal stress to bring tons upon tons of steel and concrete crashing down, smothering flames and crushing shut gas valves.
There were explosions. There was more collapsing. There was noise and thunder and rubble and dust.
There was clouds of dust, and there was smoke as everything began to finally settle, blotting out the light of the more distant fires.
"Perfect," declared Fumikage Tokoyami. Around him, Dark Shadow roared and rushed forward, a mass of raging midnight.
"Most of my more dangerous creations involve gunpowder, like my cannons," Momo admitted as they dried off around a synthetic campfire she'd come up with somehow. He shivered and sneezed.
"Achoo! Can you… make, maybe a taser or something?" Mashirao suggested.
"Not of functional size and sufficient power to be useful." Momo shuddered, huddling in beside Mina around the fire.
"Achoo!" Mina sneezed and sniffed. "Hey, if we get jumped now I can splash them with acid. Or, I dunno, Ojiro is a martial arts fanatic, right?"
"Just a student, really…" he mumbled.
"Can you make him nun-chucks and he'll go all crazy on everyone?"
"I suppose," Momo said slowly. Her hands were almost in the flames now, she was so close. "What should I make them out of?"
"You really don't have to-,"
"Found you! Guys," announced one thug as he barged through the door, "the brats are-!"
Mashirao vaulted across the room and silenced him with a spinning kick.
Unfortunately, in moving his tail had dipped into the campfire, and his blond tuft of tail hair lit up like a candle, which then landed on the downed villain's mohawk.
"GaaaaAaaaahhh!" Tenya screamed, cursing silently in his head as his body flinched and contorted, writhing under the ribbons or icy blue electricity that were coursing over him.
One moment, he'd been rushing out the doors of USJ to summon aid.
The next moment, everything went dark, and worse pain than he had ever felt before—worse even than the time tried to fuel his engines with onion juice—enveloped his left foot.
A second after that, he'd eaten concrete, toppling down for three different reasons and landing face first on the sidewalk of the Ruins Zone.
He'd wheezed in agony that only got worse when he brushed the stump of his calf against the ground, setting off a new wave of anguish that had brought him to tears.
'Focus! Focus!' Tenya had forced himself back to lucidity, knowing that he was losing blood fast and needed to stem the flow. 'I need a tourniquet of some kind. Something to tie…!'
Working quickly, he tore part of the clothing under his uniform, eventually removing his remaining boot and using his sock to make an impromptu knot around his stump.
"Equipment. If I- No, when I get out of this," he'd sworn, "I will request all the support equipment. Ties, medical kits-! Urg," he grunted as he pulled the tourniquet tight enough the blood loss was reduced to dripping. "Everything. Just as soon as I…" Tenya trailed off as he finally looked up to find several villains standing around him.
"Heheheheheh…"
"Yeah, kid. About that?"
The third one just swept a foot forward to kick Tenya's skull. He got an arm up, but rocked back on impact, flailing, and a fourth villain lashed out with some snake-like whip protrusion to slash his face and send his glasses flying.
Then a villain had blasted him with icy electricity, and that was when they'd started taking turns on his, helpless as he was.
It hurt.
It hurt.
It was agony.
'But I am still alive, and I will fight to remain that way! My brother… Mother and Father… I cannot leave them this tragedy to remember me by!'
After the electricity user's 3rd 'turn' ended, Tenya took the opportunity as they were jostling around him to brace one arm against the ground, extend a leg, (his goos leg, and didn't that ache that he had to make the distinction now,) and kick out with his Quirk.
"Engine BOOST!"
In a move Mina would have been proud of, Tenya pivoted on his palm a spun in place, smashing his good leg into the feet of everyone surrounding him.
Half-a-dozen villains went down like wheat before a scythe, and the ones who toppled forward instead of backward got their skulls cracked by Tenya's kicks on the second, third, and fourth cycle of around.
Sadly, that wasn't everybody, and in particular the electrical villain scrambled away with a blooming bruise and one hell of a shiner, but also with his wits about him.
*krzzzap!*
"AAaaaauuuuggghh!"
"You little turd," he snarled, zapping Tenya again for good measure as one of the others also tried to stand. "I am going to… to… to…"
The charge arcing through Tenya died down as the villain trailed off, and he raised his head.
'I will… If nothing else, I will do my family proud, meeting my demise with eyes wide- he isn't staring at me. Past me? What is he…?' Aching in places he didn't know he had, Tenya turned to look beyond his right shoulder at… at…
A veritable sea of rats covered the street, flowing down like the incoming tide.
"Guys, I need backup," declared the gray-skinned villain into his radio as he backed away slowly. "…Guys? Anybody?"
"No one's responding," hissed the electrical villain, "and I'm pretty sure it's because they were stationed in that direction."
They backed away from Tenya slowly, and amidst the mass of black and gray, Tenya saw one splash of color steps into visibility.
'Koji Koda…' He began laughing, almost cackling in relief as he realized what would come next.
"This," he chuckled as a few of the other villains came to enough to back away from the mad boy and thee incoming threat. "This would probably be the right time to inform you of two facts, or maybe three, even."
"Shut your yapper," one villain attempted, but he was visibly sweating as the rats creeped closer.
"First," Tenya lectured through edges of delirium, "my classmate has the ability to control animals. Second! I feel it my duty to note that you are surrounded." He gave the most manic, shit-eating grin he could muster through his blood loss and accumulated injuries, watching with utter glee as every conscious villain jolted like he'd shocked them, spinning around only to see a mass of rats covering the areas where they'd have fled.
"Whatthehellwhatthehellwhatthehell-," one crook whispered furiously. Another started whispering, and while Tenya couldn't see the details without his glasses, a snarled comment from one villain to another suggested someone had soiled their trousers.
"Third!" Tenya grinned at getting their attention again, doing his best to meet each villain's eyes.
"Oh, kid," one purred evilly, beginning to advance on him, "you do realize-?"
'Hostages,' Tenya dismissed with a scoff, tensing his leg and arms. 'Like I don't know how to handle that situation.'
Duck. Left hook. Jab with the right. Jump and roll away from the fireball!
Mert was possibly coming down with something, since he'd refused to produce on their morning walk. He hit every red light on his commute, and his coffee had grounds mixed in with it.
Apply blood gauntlet. Punch villain hard enough to break his jaw. Grab him by the shoulders before he fell and throw him skull first into another crook.
The whole morning had been mediocre, but the afternoon… All Might wouldn't be arriving for Rescue Training because he'd used up his time-limit. Then villains attacked because they'd gained information that All Might would be present. Tenya Iida had been maimed while following Kan's orders, and he had no clue if the boy was even alive right now.
Transform gauntlet to add spikes. Throw a flurry of blows at approaching trio, bobbing and weaving to avoid shots fired from further off. Cringe as something wings his left calf and roll, delivering a devastating uppercut to a hulking brute with no actual training.
The guilt might kill him, if these villains didn't. They were small fry, but there were a lot of them, and the few who got lucky were slowly adding up.
Half-step back and roundhouse kick to the rear to get one creeping up slowly. Lunge to get in the center of a clump and lash out before they get their act together. Grab two before they hit the ground and use them as shields for a chance to breathe.
His students had relied on him, and he had let them down. One was maimed already, they all were scattered, and Kan knew it would be a miracle if no one died before Tohru brought in his co-workers. His kids were damn near alone, facing adult villains, with nearly no training.
Smash the nose in on a guy inhaling to spew gas out. Break away from the pincer movement and swipe the legs out from one creep with a tendril of blood. Charge the group that had fallen back to half-check their injured, because villains getting up after he put them down was the last thing he needed. Take cover as a crashing sound from one of the domes reaches them, and drop three thugs while they're distracted by staring.
Try not to stare.
Vlad King continued dismantling the villains being thrown at him by this 'League' as half of them whirled around to gape at the Conflagration Zone.
The red dome that kept its flames contained had been smashed from the inside, like an egg hatching, and what emerged-!
"Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, huh," Kan mused as he whirled around to drive blood-hardened gauntlets into a fanged jaw with a bone-rattling crunch.
He'd lain out nearly 30 of the villains so far—more than half the group that had jumped him when he was dropped in the central plaza—but he was wounded in a dozen places and the exertion was getting to him, having been burned, slashed, stabbed, and bludgeoned by various Quirks.
'At least my Blood Flow Regulation technique will keep me from bleeding out and can expel venom I've been injected with,' he reflected, 'but I only have another 10 minutes or so even if the leader and his brute don't-! What are you doing?!'
Kan raged silently even as he didn't dare voice his fury; Fumikage and two others (he couldn't see clearly without taking his eyes off his enemies,) had broken free from whatever ambush was waiting for them among the flames only to come running his way.
'Those fools are going to get themselves killed!' He hit the next three villains even more savagely than usual, in a vain attempt to draw attention from them to him, but Fumikage smashing through the dome of the Conflagration Zone had attracted the leader's attention already.
"Students are incoming, hmmm? Noumu, let's have a proper tableau ready for them," Tomura Shigaraki mused, and the hulking figure began to stir. "After all… the last boss needs a proper introduction."
"Practical exercises are wonderful, but you must make sure to emphasize what students do wrong and right. There are not always perfect answers, and we are the ones who must guide them," Principal Nedzu continued to lecture as All Might nodded along.
'He's still so long-winded. I'm glad I was permitted to skip out on the Entrance ceremony due to my time limit.' Toshinori sighed and drank his tea, knowing how valuable the Principal's advice was, even if he lacked the ability to be quick and concise.
Another voice interrupted them.
"Principal Nedzu." The voice of the vice-principal, Miss Whisper, filled the room and echoed in their ears as though she were standing beside the two of them. "We have an urgent situation. 1-A's Tohru Hagakure is claiming a villain attack at USJ has occurred."
It took only an instant for Nedzu's super-intelligent brain to assess the situation.
Immediately, he triggered a device he carried on his person at all times in the building.
"All staff, we have a code Epsilon Orange 1 at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint. I repeat, we have a code Epsilon Orange 1 at the Unforeseen Simulation Joint," he declared, all of UA's announcement speakers echoing his words. "All students, remain calm and report to the evacuation locations as instructed. Response Team teachers, meet with me at the hangar for rapid transport in 2 minutes. Miss Whisper, please continue your appraisal of the situation."
"Tohru Hagakure escaped at Vlad King's instructions after he ordered a classmate, one Tenya Iida, to open the main doors. Tenya was transported away mid-escape by a warp gate Quirk—she reports that he may have been injured as well, so we will need ambulances on their way, which I am handling—but Hagakure's invisibility let her evade detection. She does not know the status of the other classmates, but everyone was uninjured when she departed. Hagakure knew she couldn't run far enough fast enough to reach us, and drove the bus by which 1-A arrived instead. There's some damage, and I believe she is concussed from her final crash through our front gates, but I've brought her to Recovery Girl."
"Principal," All Might interrupted, swelling with muscle.
"You're coming with us," he perceived, "even though your time limit is here?"
"I shouldn't call myself a hero, if something like a time-limit can stop me," All Might declared. "Most importantly, my students will need to be assured… that I AM HERE!"
"We're at the far end of USJ, no point in trying to sneak around, Deku," Katsuki had snarled when Izuku suggested evacuating. "With that show Bird Face put on in breaking us out…" He looked from Fumikage, standing in the wreckage of the dome they'd broken through to escape, to the mass of villains gathered in the Central Plaza. "Yeah. They see us already. Predators chase prey, so we just need to show them we're not afraid."
So saying, Katsuki stalked off toward the central plaza… but he didn't rush ahead alone or rocket off with his propulsion explosions.
Katsuki moved on his feet, quick and easy, but carefully prepared to react if anything came at him.
After a moment, Fumikage grumbled unintelligibly and went after him, Izuku falling in line despite his anxiety.
"Well, it looks like some students passed the tutorial," gloated the villain with severed hands all over his outfit. "Welcome, welcome!"
"K-Kan-sensei!" Izuku yelped in alarm as he saw the figure of his teacher, held in one massive hand by the brain-exposed being beside the leader.
"As you can see, the Blood Hero, Vlad King, has already fallen," Tomura Shigaraki gloated. "He specializes in taking down and suppressing individually superior opponents by using his blood to restrain them, preying on the weaknesses of the human body… but this genetically engineered villain, the Noumu, was made to crush All Might. He has no weaknesses!"
"Oh, you've earned yourself a first-class trip to hell, freak," Katsuki snarled as his palms began smoking. Deku, Bird Face! Get ready for a fight."
Dark Shadow reared up menacingly as Izuku stiffened and quickly did his best call up One For All.
'If I break any bones here, I bet everyone will jump on me,' he assessed. 'Both arms already have one use each, two uses on the right from that Pennsylvania Smash, but if I can send people flying away and open a path… If we can just get to Kan-sensei…!'
He started spreading One For All through his left arm, trusting his gloves and costume to conceal his preparations.
"All Might isn't here now. Our itinerary said he should be. I don't suppose you know why he's missing?" Tomura Shigaraki wondered, scratching at scabs on his neck.
Izuku couldn't see the man's face through the severed hand clamped onto his head, but he looked unhealthy and in need of a shower, his blue-gray hair matted with old sweat.
"Yeah, he knows we don't need him to kick your asses," Katsuki snarled.
*pop pop pop!*
"Release our teacher and you may yet walk away," Fumikage declared, but there was uncertainty in his voice.
'Tokoyami, no,' Izuku almost groaned. 'Don't show them weakness or let him know you care, that just tells him how to hurt us!' It felt like Kacchan and his notebook all over again, which was a realization Izuku wanted to unpack sometime like never. 'I need to keep him gloating.'
"Wh-Why are you here?" Izuku asked. "Why do you want to k-k-," He deliberately slipped in his stutter, letting stress get to him on purpose, like dripping fresh blood in the water. 'Better me than them or Kan-sensei.' "-to hurt All Might?"
Within him, One For All thrummed but held steady.
"Heroes," Tomura sighed dramatically. "Government officials dispensing raw violence. As long as they limit it to 'acceptable targets,' everything is all well and good, isn't it?" Around them, the villains still standing chuckled menacingly and took a half-step closer. None were behind the boys, they weren't encircled, but the suggestion was present.
"Just come and try it, we'll pow, to the moon!" Dark Shadow threatened.
""Hweheheheh…"" The laughter of the mix of villains is sinister. It feels like a jury of the damned, those who want to drag everyone down with them.
'If I try a smash, that Noumu guy might just use Kan-sensei as a human shield. But… it… Maybe this is like Principal Nedzu, supposedly? An animal with a Quirk? I could believe it's a gorilla, and it isn't acting like a person, just standing there with its brain… Urgh, is it's brain exposed? I'd call that an obvious weak spot, except I'm not sure it's a brain because surely Kan-sensei would aim for that then? Maybe it's like in Piper Piedmont's Detective Adventures, when they fought the thing with fake vital organs,' Izuku assessed anxiously.
One For All hummed under his skin. Vlad King needed his help, his classmates were in danger, and he wasn't moving.
He so badly wanted to do something.
"I'm half-tempted to sic Noumu on you, while we wait. A good test run, chasing down three little brats," Tomura Shigaraki continued. "Oh, but that wouldn't be sporting, would it. So let's play a game."
Even Katsuki hadn't moved as Tomura paced around, gesticulating, all while Vlad King hung suspended from Noumu's meaty fist.
"Oooh, I love games! Cards, a board game?"
"Dark Shadow," Fumikage grit out.
"A timed game. Here." Tomura Shigaraki strolled up to Vlad King and raised one hand to the man's gauntlets. He laid his 5 fingertips on Kan's knuckles. "You have until-!"
Vlad King moved, surging into activity as blood spiked out of his gauntlets, piercing Tomura Shigaraki in three places and forcing him back.
More blood poured out of the other gauntlet, creeping across and almost sinking into Noumu's flesh as it pressed to restrain the beast.
"Run!" Kan ordered the boys as Shigaraki went down and Noumu thrashed uncertainly, sending Kan flailing.
They ran… but Izuku and Katsuki ran forward, while Fumikage juked to one side and Dark Shadow lashed out at the villains surrounding them.
There's an unspoken moment between them, and Katsuki grit his teeth because he couldn't decide whether to be pleased that Deku was deferring to him, or pissed that Deku was there at all to be a part of this.
Katsuki rocketed at the hulking Noumu, figuring he should take out the big threat while Deku kept the big-mouthed 'boss' busy until he finishes.
Izuku angled himself at Tomura Shigaraki, hoping a clean hit will knock him out or send him flying far enough to not cause trouble.
"SMASH!"
Izuku shoved more of One For All—don't even ask how much, he has no clue— into his arm as he threw a desperate punch at the staggered and swearing Tomura.
Impact.
The ground trembled.
Students all across USJ felt the shudder as buildings swayed.
The shockwave blasted out air hard enough to shatter USJ's lights at the edge of the dome.
Tomura Shigaraki laughed.
Izuku's fist had hit the Noumu and stopped cold.
"Shock absorption," the hand-wearing villain gloated as Katsuki flailed in the air, his target gone, and only barely avoided landing on Vlad King, who'd been carelessly dropped by the Noumu. "All Might's own punches won't even leave a bruise," he crooned.
And that.
That was important.
Izuku staggered back, partly from fear, and partly from recoil, but also partly to make room.
Because he was an analyst. He'd trolled through forums and read journal articles and written down his own ideas for years, and reviewing everything…
Well. He was brainstorming ideas for both helping and fighting Eijiro with his Hardening Quirk just last night, since Kan-sensei wanted to hear more from him about his classmates' Quirks.
Physical immunity? Resistance to impacting force?
Izuku knows how to leverage that.
Izuku pulls his right fist back through the pain, sliding back his right foot as he went, and calling up as much power from One For All as he could gather, because he only had one shot at this.
"Florida," he shouted, making it up as he went, almost feeling the boss villain's eyes follow his hands and 'Please let me look helpless enough I need this to work,' he hoped, "SMASH!"
He swung.
Not his fit. His fist was nothing, no power, just a blind.
He swung his leg.
Izuku kicked, and he didn't kick the Noumu, not with its Shock Absorption quirk.
He kicked the ground in front of it.
'Like a golf club and a divot please let this work!' Izuku prayed, and he kicked.
On their own, the legs held the strongest muscles in the body. Charged with 100% and whatever else he can cram in, all his hopes and dreams, Izuku's kick tears up the tile the Noumu is standing on and sending int flying.
The earth shook.
The ground shattered.
They were at ground zero of a kinetic explosion shaped perfectly to send on man-sized projectile (or, really, one gorilla-sized projectile,) into near orbit, exploding out through USJ's all-encompassing dome.
Izuku shattered every leg bone in two places or more, and he probably lost a few toenails too, he couldn't really tell through the pain. His shoe was gone, and his foot ended up a bloody mess, the dust in the air probably doing no favors for his mangled, misshapen leg.
Next thing Izuku knew through the agony, he was on his back at the edge of the crater he'd carved out with his kick. No way was he standing after that backlash broke more bones in his leg than he knew he had.
"Aaagggghhhhh~!" Izuku didn't even scream so much as wheeze, despite a fifth of his body being turned to skin-wrapped pulp.
He was in agony, but he did what he needed to. The Noumu was gone.
"You…"
The Noumu was gone, but the mastermind remained.
'I'm going to die now, Kacchan, if there was ever a time for you to not hate me we were doing so well I'm sorry I stole your kill please just trade and take him,' Izuku whimpered.
"You trashed my Noumu!" Tomura Shigaraki materialized out of the dust plume like lightning. "You brat! I'll kill you!"
'Tokoyami, Dark Shadow, anybody!' Izuku didn't know what the villain's Quirk was, but it looked to resemble Kacchan's or Ochako's, which meant hands=BAD.
Shigaraki's palm smashed into Izuku's face hard enough to break his nose and split his lip open.
'At least it isn't nitroglycerin or I'd be dead already,' Izuku mused desperately just before the villain bashed his skull against the tile of the plaza.
Izuku's vision went white with starbursts, but he still felt the flex as Shigaraki fixed all five fingertips on him, much like Ochako would have.
'I guess I'm dead,' Izuku reflected as he felt the creeping blackness at the edges of his visions. 'Sorry Mom… Sorry All Might, I guess I wasn't a good successor. I hope you can reclaim… actually… Why aren't I dead yet?'
"…Huh?" uttered Tomura Shigaraki, wondering much the same thing.
"Texas SMASH!" All Might roared, blasting in with an uppercut that threw Tomura sky high.
The villain would've hit USJ's dome or even gone through it, but a metallic cloth snapped out to wrap around him, dragging the villain skull first down to ground level with a sickening thud.
"Midnight, get him knocked out for certain!" Shota Aizawa shouted, unwilling to bet that only two impacts had put the mastermind down for the count.
'The teachers! They've arrived," Izuku realized blearily as All Might picked him up.
"On it!" Midnight shouted, conjuring up a puff of gas as she rushed in with restraining cuffs.
Snipe stayed at the top of the stairway, firing his guns wherever he saw trouble.
Powerloader took his mecha-suit toward the landslide and mountain zones to evacuate the students. Ectoplasm conjured 30 clones to look through the Downpour Zone for endangered students.
Nedzu perched atop Cementoss for a good view and surveyed the area, calculating what had occurred and what was-
"The Warp Gate villain is at the central plaza!" Principal Nedzu shouted in alarm as everyone was securing the area. "Get the students out!"
Kurogiri, who had unceremoniously fled the second those heroes arrived, (moving as soon as Aizawa took his Erasure-afflicting eyes off the mist-man to save Izuku,) quickly made his move.
The warp-user made a gate underwater off the coast and promptly tore the sky open, dumping a deluge down on everyone in the central area.
"YOU WILL NOT!"
All Might had moved faster than he spoke. By the second word, Izuku, Katsuki, and Fumikage were in his arms at the top of the shattered staircase, safely away from the splash range of the 40 tonnes of falling water.
Unfortunately, he'd also had to grab Vlad King, Eraserhead, and Midnight, none of whom were well-positioned to survive the crushing pressure dumped down on the area.
Before the third word had faded from their ears, Kurogiri opened another gate under Tomura and vanished with him as the seawater pulverized where they'd been.
Arresting the 70+ villains that had attacked took a while, and that was on top of treating the injured students.
"No deaths," Aizawa mused to Nedzu and Cementoss as everyone bustled about, or tried to. Ambulances had arrived, along with police cruisers, and officers were taking statements from students with teacher support. "One miracle, at least."
"No deaths among the students," Cementoss corrected. "Several villains."
"We aren't responsible for villains killing each other with crushing amounts of water," Nedzu dismissed, "and Todoroki-kun's victims are all still alive."
"Only because Kirishima convinced him to defrost them while treating Jirou," Cementoss noted. "Otherwise, they'd have frozen to death." Left unsaid were the uncertain conditions of a few in the hospital.
"But they didn't," Aizawa sighed. "What of Jirou and the other students? Who's injured?"
"Tenya Iida is in the worst situation, followed closely by Kyoka Jirou," Nedzu declared soberly. "Iida-kun lost his left foot via portal severance a few centimeters above the ankle, then suffered drastic blood loss as a result of this wound, along with being tortured by villains and lastly exposed to disease vectors in the form of Koda-kun's rats when he was rescued." A note of pleasure crept into Nedzu's voice at that last bit, having some affection for and appreciation of the accomplishments of his species-brethren.
"Is there any sign of infection?" Aizawa asked.
"At least 3, but all should be treatable once he's properly hydrated," Nedzu assured both teachers. "Todoroki-kun's quick thinking with his ice froze Iida's severed foot immediately, and reattachment surgery remains feasible, though it will be time-consuming."
"Ingenium will be relieved to hear that, but still…"
"The entire Iida family will be unhappy that their youngest was injured on our watch," Cementoss agreed.
"With proper medical treatment and no ill fortune, he should recover completely," Nedzu reasoned, "and he shall have our full support. As shall Kyoka Jirou, the next most injured."
"And she wasn't hurt by the villains, either," Aizawa noted.
"I've informed Hound Dog to expect Shouto Todoroki in particular, though all the students will be having sessions in due time. Jirou-kun's condition at least involves fewer injuries than Iida's; hypothermia turning into temperature shock, a brief lack of air, and meltwater in her lungs. All together, she'll almost certainly be suffering from pneumonia for the next week or so, and we will work to ensure her full recovery."
"The three students from the Downpour Zone will probably be joining her," Cementoss revealed. "Mashirao Ojiro, Mina Ashido, and Momo Yaoyorozu all are suffering from their exposure to the elements."
"Hmm, and none of them have particularly concealing costumes, do they," Nedzu murmured as he turned over the odds of various events. "Well then, nothing for it! A fourth of the class will be out for various lengths of time, so we must briefly slow down the pacing of the school for them, but we shall be supporting them as well, as is our duty. None of the other students have severe injuries?"
"The worst was Midoriya, but Recovery Girl was able to heal his leg, save for a few lost toenails which should grow back," Cementoss confirmed.
"He was one of the idiots who sought out the villains directly, wasn't he?" Aizawa noted. "Will there be anything done about that?" Left implied was how he tended to handle such suicidal cases, but it wasn't his class to deal with.
"He probably saved Kan's life, and from Bakugou-kun's statement, their positioning wouldn't have given them the chance to flee," Cementoss grunted.
Silence between the 3 spread.
Finally Aizawa sighed.
"How is Kan, anyway? I saw Hound Dog's face, and he'd gone past angry, straight into looking devastated," Aizawa revealed.
"His left arm is gone above the elbow. Totally disintegrated," Nedzu revealed sadly, "with no hope of recovery. Shuzenji-sensei believes a viable prosthetic may be achievable, but it will take time before he resumes his duties."
Left unsaid was the certainty of Kan resuming his duties; the man was more patient than Aizawa in terms of recovering on medical leave, but he would at least wait out the year before retiring, to see his students off.
Given that Ectoplasm still functioned perfectly well as a Pro Hero and Teacher with prosthetic legs, the idea of Kan quitting because he lost his arm was almost laughable.
Almost. There was nothing funny in the current circumstances.
