Shattered Fate (MHA/SM/Naruto/Ranma)

[Zoolimar]

Thinking further, is Sakura capable of learning Ramna style martial arts?

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I'm pretty sure Naruto taijustsu is related to the martial arts that Ranma practices. Lee has no chakra to speak of and he is very much capable of learning taijutsu. Even the methods are more or less the same. Ranma branch is just more developed. Ninja wanted instant gratification and needed to deal with their wars so they have gone for the Eight Gates unlock as it gives much better immediate results. Ranma world martial artists were able to take a more measured approach which gave them much better benefits in the long run.

It also kinda points to chakra and ki being more or less the same. Most people just don't have enough of a network for external usage. But everyone can learn martial arts - taijutsu.

 

[Iridesce]

I'm pretty sure Naruto taijustsu is related to the martial arts that Ranma practices. Lee has no chakra to speak of and he is very much capable of learning taijutsu. Even the methods are more or less the same. Ranma branch is just more developed. Ninja wanted instant gratification and needed to deal with their wars so they have gone for the Eight Gates unlock as it gives much better immediate results. Ranma world martial artists were able to take a more measured approach which gave them much better benefits in the long run.

It also kinda points to chakra and ki being more or less the same. Most people just don't have enough of a network for external usage. But everyone can learn martial arts - taijutsu.

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While mostly right I will bring up that Lee definitely has chakra and probably a decent amount of it. He's just really, really, bad at using it. There is probably not even anything technically wrong with him other than being like someone with discalcula having a ton of trouble with math. It's a learning disability not a physical problem. I do agree the taijutsu is probably basically Ramna style martial arts. Ramna martial artists probably basically have a chakra network but it only has ki/yang chakra/physical energy so they could probably open the 8 gates. When you perform ninshu/chakra infusion on someone with only ki you probably basically add a bit of your yin chakra their already existing ki and link the two energies in their body leading to their ki/chakra network filling with chakra instead of ki.

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

I've been trying to avoid talking about the Ki/Chakra comparisons, since it is something I've evaluated and settled on. There were a few points, especially for late in the story that can become a bit important, but I have most of those settled.

Regarding whether Ki and Chakra are the same: No, they are not. They have some parts that are similar as well as a lot of similarities, but there are a few crucial points involved that deal with things. Ranma and others that use Ki, they were not 'incompetent' and not able to discover chakra. And Chakra users were not foolish and only going for the quicker option.

I won't get into it any more at this point, since it goes too close to spoiler territory for me. But these discussions will not creep up in the story, other than surface level stuff, for some time. Resolutions as to what is actually happening will take even longer.

[Edit - And a quick status update regarding progress for Arc 3... it's going much slower than I wanted. I had a little burnout from getting Arc 2 completed so rapidly, so I rested, then planned out most of Arc 3.

Ch. 11 first draft is done, Ch. 12 is around 50% for first draft. It doesn't help when sleep cycles cause problems and reduces time I have to work, medicine effectiveness decreasing, and Baldur's Gate 3 is released. Additionally, Ch. 11 and 12 have been like a dealing with a massive ball of knots, untangling them only to find more knots to untangle. Most of those early knots have been dealt with and is getting easier making progress now that I have a cleaner and better image of things. Ch. 13 might give me some problems as well, but not nearly as bad. 14 and beyond have largely been figured out in advance, though some of the smaller stuff still needs to be planned out more closely.

Either way, at the current pace, probably 2~ months from now. Current plan is Arc 3 will be 9 chapters in length, possibly 50%-100% larger than Arc 2 was.]

 

[Taijutsu]

I've been trying to avoid talking about the Ki/Chakra comparisons, since it is something I've evaluated and settled on. There were a few points, especially for late in the story that can become a bit important, but I have most of those settled.

Regarding whether Ki and Chakra are the same: No, they are not. They have some parts that are similar as well as a lot of similarities, but there are a few crucial points involved that deal with things. Ranma and others that use Ki, they were not 'incompetent' and not able to discover chakra. And Chakra users were not foolish and only going for the quicker option.

I won't get into it any more at this point, since it goes too close to spoiler territory for me. But these discussions will not creep up in the story, other than surface level stuff, for some time. Resolutions as to what is actually happening will take even longer.

[Edit - And a quick status update regarding progress for Arc 3... it's going much slower than I wanted. I had a little burnout from getting Arc 2 completed so rapidly, so I rested, then planned out most of Arc 3.

Ch. 11 first draft is done, Ch. 12 is around 50% for first draft. It doesn't help when sleep cycles cause problems and reduces time I have to work, medicine effectiveness decreasing, and Baldur's Gate 3 is released. Additionally, Ch. 11 and 12 have been like a dealing with a massive ball of knots, untangling them only to find more knots to untangle. Most of those early knots have been dealt with and is getting easier making progress now that I have a cleaner and better image of things. Ch. 13 might give me some problems as well, but not nearly as bad. 14 and beyond have largely been figured out in advance, though some of the smaller stuff still needs to be planned out more closely.

Either way, at the current pace, probably 2~ months from now. Current plan is Arc 3 will be 9 chapters in length, possibly 50%-100% larger than Arc 2 was.]

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As I understand it Ki=life energy/physical energy, Chakra= Yang Chakra (life energy/physical energy) + Yin Chakra (Reiki, spiritual energy). In general anime lore any sufficiently healthy person who goes through the proper training can learn to acess Ki to a greater or lesser extent; talent plays a role, but its something anyone can do. Anime like Yu Yu Hakosho and many others indicate that Reiki (spiritual energy) requires special inate ability to use. The impression I get from Naruto is that the people of that world have mutations that predispose them to both Ki and Reiki and naturally combining the two energies. This very well explains the nature of Chakra--it contains the power of Ki and the flexibility of Reiki. For someone in another world to use Chakra they would have to have inate ability with Reiki, and training in both Ki and Reiki, and practice combining the two energies.

 

[ShiftingSandLand]

Honestly, given the...unusual origins of Chakra, it makes sense that the people of Naruto wouldn't discover Ki.

It, as it is, is an alteration of Life Energy to mix it with Spiritual Energy, and cannot be obtained naturally unless one's parents already have Chakra.

While Ranma is aware of, and probably can use practices involving something called Chakra, it is very much not the same thing. Mostly because there's no aliens actively spreading the Naruto World's Chakra in Ranma's world.

Tldr: Ranma doesn't know about Chakra as Sakura knows it because Ranma's world doesn't have Alien Superjuice, while Sakura doesn't know of Ki as Ranma knows it because her entire world has been bathed in the Alien Superjuice for thousands of years.

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

As I understand it Ki=life energy/physical energy, Chakra= Yang Chakra (life energy/physical energy) + Yin Chakra (Reiki, spiritual energy). In general anime lore any sufficiently healthy person who goes through the proper training can learn to acess Ki to a greater or lesser extent; talent plays a role, but its something anyone can do. Anime like Yu Yu Hakosho and many others indicate that Reiki (spiritual energy) requires special inate ability to use. The impression I get from Naruto is that the people of that world have mutations that predispose them to both Ki and Reiki and naturally combining the two energies. This very well explains the nature of Chakra--it contains the power of Ki and the flexibility of Reiki. For someone in another world to use Chakra they would have to have inate ability with Reiki, and training in both Ki and Reiki, and practice combining the two energies.

Click to shrink...

Do remember, that these are also just labels that people put on things. It doesn't mean they are the same thing or even accurate. YYH is from another series and does not necessarily mean that their concepts or other things carry over to other series. People also, often, label things like Ki, as 'spiritual energy' or 'life energy', but aren't necessarily what it actually is. That isn't even taking into consideration author interpretations.

While the word 'chakra' exists, it is an entirely different label, meaning energy points within the body and not the actual energy itself. It was a research mistake that Kishimoto made. It's relation of splitting the different energies doesn't necessarily mean one is Ki and the other is Reiki, or the labels they attach to one means it always applies to the other.

ShiftingSandLand's point of missing 'Alien Superjuice' is closer to the mark for why chakra is so different. It also makes it easier so that both sides don't sound like incompetents who couldn't figure something out. But the big reason why they are not a 1 to 1 translation is observing what they actual effects are, what the techniques actually do.

 

[t-dugong]

ShiftingSandLand's point of missing 'Alien Superjuice' is closer to the mark for why chakra is so different. It also makes it easier so that both sides don't sound like incompetents who couldn't figure something out. But the big reason why they are not a 1 to 1 translation is observing what they actual effects are, what the techniques actually do.

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This. A lot of people just read that Hagoromo used ninshu and 'poof, everybody got chakra' instead of looking back at scenes where it suggests that the humans from Naruto's world are closer to 2,000 years old max plant-animal hybrids than your regular Homo Sapiens human beings.

It's there when you look on it. The cells of ninjas looks as much as plant cells as they do human cells. Chakra network and tenketsu? Sounds like a plant's xylem tube system to me.

Naruto humans before getting chakra sounds more like proto Nen users from HxH who got DNA from the Juubi grafted into them hence why chakra requires a physical and mental parts that combine in the chakra coils to produce chakra.

 

[ShiftingSandLand]

This. A lot of people just read that Hagoromo used ninshu and 'poof, everybody got chakra' instead of looking back at scenes where it suggests that the humans from Naruto's world are closer to 2,000 years old max plant-animal hybrids than your regular Homo Sapiens human beings.

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Well, I wouldn't go as far as calling them hybrids, it's more that they have adapted to the forceful introduction of Chakra, but have yet to fully induct it biologically, leading to things like Kekkei Genkai.

After all, Humans had been around for quite some time prior to having Chakra given to them, which is what let the God Tree bloom in the first place, long enough to have many aspects of historical culture, religion, and society, but have only had Chakra as they understand it for a millenium.

 

[Iridesce]

Well, I wouldn't go as far as calling them hybrids, it's more that they have adapted to the forceful introduction of Chakra, but have yet to fully induct it biologically, leading to things like Kekkei Genkai.

After all, Humans had been around for quite some time prior to having Chakra given to them, which is what let the God Tree bloom in the first place, long enough to have many aspects of historical culture and society, but have only had Chakra as they understand it for a millenium.

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Chakra is probably basically like mitochondria but on a macro scale. The mitochondria is basically a symbiote that has been in your cells for so long that it's basically normal. The same thing has probably happened with chakra, it's in Naruto humans and completely integrated into their biology but it's foreign. So Naruto humans are probably basically normal humans plus chakra, infact that is probably what giving chakra is, you inject some and it integrates into them as a mutualistic symbiote.

 

[caspian1a]

Well, I wouldn't go as far as calling them hybrids, it's more that they have adapted to the forceful introduction of Chakra, but have yet to fully induct it biologically, leading to things like Kekkei Genkai.

After all, Humans had been around for quite some time prior to having Chakra given to them, which is what let the God Tree bloom in the first place, long enough to have many aspects of historical culture, religion, and society, but have only had Chakra as they understand it for a millenium.

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I myself prefer the theory where chakra and the chakra network is a type of parasite that consumes physical and spiritual energies to make more of itself because it was derived from the Shinju which is a bioengineered organism designed to be parasitic in nature by the Otsutsuki and that humans through training and Hagoromo's help figured out how to force it to behave in a more symbiotic way(jutsu among other things).

This theory was posted by "Karmic Acumen" on QQ in his story "Understanding Does Not Presage Peace (Naruto, Insert)" in chapter 8.

 

[t-dugong]

Well, I wouldn't go as far as calling them hybrids, it's more that they have adapted to the forceful introduction of Chakra, but have yet to fully induct it biologically, leading to things like Kekkei Genkai.

After all, Humans had been around for quite some time prior to having Chakra given to them, which is what let the God Tree bloom in the first place, long enough to have many aspects of historical culture, religion, and society, but have only had Chakra as they understand it for a millenium.

Click to shrink...

Which is why I compared Naruto humans to Nen/proto Nen users from HxH. Chakra forces humans to be mostly uniform in their abilities, with Kekkei Genkai and Kekkei Tota as the outliers (excepting the 5 families of Senju, Uchiha, Hyuuga, Kaguya and Uzumaki)

 

[Mgunh1]

Do remember, that these are also just labels that people put on things. It doesn't mean they are the same thing or even accurate. YYH is from another series and does not necessarily mean that their concepts or other things carry over to other series. People also, often, label things like Ki, as 'spiritual energy' or 'life energy', but aren't necessarily what it actually is. That isn't even taking into consideration author interpretations.

While the word 'chakra' exists, it is an entirely different label, meaning energy points within the body and not the actual energy itself. It was a research mistake that Kishimoto made. It's relation of splitting the different energies doesn't necessarily mean one is Ki and the other is Reiki, or the labels they attach to one means it always applies to the other.

ShiftingSandLand's point of missing 'Alien Superjuice' is closer to the mark for why chakra is so different. It also makes it easier so that both sides don't sound like incompetents who couldn't figure something out. But the big reason why they are not a 1 to 1 translation is observing what they actual effects are, what the techniques actually do.

Click to shrink...

Regardless of what the actual explanation will be, I kinda want Ranma to snort, proclaim "Ninja Magic" and promptly walk away from the discussion.

Because that's kinda where I was leaning myself while reading what small hints you've dropped, that Chakra is a sort of mixing of Ki and Magic and creating its own thing.

In Ranma we actually see the major issue with magic; it lacks structure and reproducibility. Thus it has been relegated to the sidelines and mostly forgotten about due to it just not being that useful, despite being something anybody can seemingly pick up. Ki, meanwhile, while still mostly unknown, is still only rare due to the training you need to actually do anything with it. It is useful, but hard to achieve.

So you have one group whose powers are easy to use but aren't very useful, and another whose powers are useful but hard to get.

So what do you do? You mix them. Ba Da Bing, Ba Da Boom, you get Chakra. Easy to use, improves with training. You give Ki the versatility of Magic, and Magic the structure of Ki. Super strong and can cast fireball? Yeah this what you want if you're trying to make an army of supersoldiers.

But the downside is that Chakra isn't naturally occurring and may or may not be a mutagenic carcinogen with a devastating effect on the environment. So you need something to make it, preferably elsewhere. You're also Stupid Evil, so you crib the Tree of Might idea and start eating other alternate earths to power your super serum.

One thing leads to another, someone sticks it in crazy, and a thousand years later Naruto is born.

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

Status update and request for more Beta Readers!

-----

Status update -

Sorry the next Arc is taking so much longer than I originally anticipated. Much like with Horikoshi, things ended up taking longer than what my initial estimates had planned. I had thought this Arc might have been 100k~ words... but I was wrong. Current status is that I finished the First Draft for Chapter 17 this morning, with the Arc currently sitting at 144k words. And I still have 3-4 chapters to get through, likely 50-60k more to the story before the First Draft round is completed. And I think, if you enjoyed the first two Arcs, you will enjoy much of what is to come.

One of the reasons that the Arc is so large, is that it lays down a lot of foundation. The Arcs, what I have planned for them, past this, are more focused and should hopefully be shorter and easier to get out.

The First Drafts tend to be what takes me the longest, since the editing process is easier for me. I spend a lot of time trying to think of the scenes early on, so massive changes aren't usually needed later on. But there is one thing that would help with that editing process, which is more Beta Readers.

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Beta Reader request -

Boldish did a fantastic job on Arc 2, with Iron providing some good feedback as well. But I wanted Arc 3 to lesson their load, so the release plan was altered to incorporate that. Boldish has also been stressed with R.L. and hasn't been able to put as much into it as before.

So I am looking to try to find more Beta Readers to assist.


Things I am looking for in the Beta Readers -

- Discord and google drive
- At least some knowledge of some of the series involved
- Help work through 200k~ in the next 2~ months. Not required to do it for everything, but as much as you can
- Help spot potential story / plot / continuity issues
- Characterizations
- Structure issues
- Point out confusing grammar / writing (not required to actually rewrite it if that eats up too much time or is difficult for you, but if it seems off, let me know)

-----

Lastly, when I originally tried to figure out for FF.net which two series to put it in, I was a saddened that the other two fandoms wouldn't find it so easily on FF.net. I came up with a possible solution, which is to change one of the fandoms on new Arcs. There are people that still prefer FF.net over AO3.

MHA would remain the same, but the other fandoms would shift depending on things like which fandom that Arc focuses on. But I also realize this might leave some people confused if they aren't aware of it. Even if I put notes at the beginning and end of every Arc in advance.

Checking to see what opinions are regarding my idea.

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

Update

Sorry for yet another long spell of absent news, but I come bearing good news! Arc 3 will soon start to be released!

I completed the first drafts back in February for all 11 chapters (220k words for whole arc). I have gone through and done at least 1 additional draft and fixed any real structural issues I might have had, which were thankfully small in number and nothing massive. With that out of the way, I am now focusing on Chapters 11 - 14 for a few quick blitzs of drafts that focus on grammar and smoothing any edges down that I can.

I am estimating 2 to 4 weeks to complete this phase before I release Ch. 11. Boldish has done a great job with helping me with it, Iron has continued to provide what he can, and Purplefox (recent pickup) has been helping as well.

Once I get the 4 chapters to an acceptable point, I will release the next available Sunday here. So, hopefully, April 28th.

 

[Windborne]

Glad to hear it!

 

[GeekGod_of_Speed]

Do you need any help? I'm not very good at suggesting fixes, but I've done some good work highlighting issues in other stories early releases (Patreon)

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

Do you need any help? I'm not very good at suggesting fixes, but I've done some good work highlighting issues in other stories early releases (Patreon)

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At the moment, I have 3 people helping and one that is in the works. For now, I don't think so, since too much can be detrimental. But we'll see how things progress.

 

[TheWhiteRose]

Ooo soon time for a re read.

 

[sam1521]

Im lovin this so far, just found it today. Keep up the great work

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

Chapter 10 - U.S.J. Aftermath​

The trenchcoated Detective Tsukauchi Naomasa watched as more villains were escorted off the premises. One or two dozen were still unaccounted for, but the Pro-Heroes and the police worked to hunt them down. A few might still escape, but the vast majority were already apprehended.

He watched the various groups move about, Pro-Heroes supervising and ensuring the Villains no longer acted up. A few tried but were quickly brought under control. It helped that every Pro-Hero present was a veteran and very good at their jobs. The only one that might have intimidated them enough to remain settled was already being transported back to the school, hiding All Might's weaker form from the Villains, students, and teachers that weren't in the loop already. They had given the excuse that he was helping to hunt down the missing villains.

He glanced again at the Medical personnel as they ensured everyone was properly treated for their wounds before being transferred to their current holding facility. They had already inspected and cleared all the students and teachers involved in the attack, which had relieved teachers and police alike.

Naomasa looked at one particular part of the medical area as Sakura was overseeing the treatment of the leader of this attack. The man had been going in and out of consciousness due to the blood loss, with medical personnel setting up blood bags to get it under control. He knew she could have given him one of her pills to help that along but had felt no desire to see him make a quick recovery. Or reattach his severed body parts. And he couldn't find himself disagreeing with that decision.

Her attack on the leader had been brutal by most standards. Causing a few Pro-Heroes or police to take notice and almost question her about it. But after some quick interviews with some of the students and teachers, he found she had reacted appropriately. They were in a life-or-death battle against overwhelming odds. She had acted like she had because they had tried and might have succeeded in killing All Might with that sneak attack.

He had interacted with Sakura several times in the last year, learning more about her home and upbringing. His colleagues would have paled at some of the methods her world would have used in such a situation. One such method was capture, torture for however long it took, and then execution. If the captured target held any notable secret of genetics, they might be kept alive for breeding or dissected for harvesting blood, organs, or their D.N.A. He had a healthy respect for Sakura and how much she restrained herself, even here.

He watched as the man was finally given the green light to be sent to their holding facility for processing while they tried to figure out what to do. He was joining the other leaders of this raid. The three were going to be heavily watched and separate from the rest of the villains being transported. He sighed as the villain was rolled out, and Sakura moved closer to her classmates, talking to a few of them before glancing back his way with a small smile.

He returned it before looking where a few officers were grilling Parker. They had been astonished when almost all officers on their force received an emergency phone call from the boy. It had caused panic, both for the situation and its details. When it was corroborated with the school, multiple units were deployed to deal with it. Especially when they learned the scale of the attack. Backup from other districts was called for and arrived promptly.

The boy was currently filling them in, giving them details about the information he had gathered. It was a staggering amount in such a little amount of time. Many on the force were questioning how he could do it, but Principal Nezu had provided the details, such as him being a super genius and the ward of the Nobel Prize-winning Dr. David Shield. The boy had explained he had created several contingency programs for many potential occurrences. When grilled about what other types of contingencies he had, he began listing them with such breadth and detail that they had asked him to stop after one or two.

While it disturbed many, they also saw how effective it had been in helping them handle the situation. The boy had done over half of the research and investigations they would need to do, making a few of the detectives joke about kidnapping him for use by the police force. The fact the kid had joked right back about taking half their paychecks for himself set everyone else off for a gut-wrenching laugh. But there was still something else off about the boy, something that made his detective nose itch.

The final wonder of today's attack had gone through a few detective's round of questions, but when he learned it was the one Sansa had been helping over the last year, he made sure the detectives weren't too hard on her. Some tried to chew her out for stepping in when she had, but Sansa had ordered them to stop when he arrived on the scene. He had been dealing with logistical issues for the villains but should be finished shortly. In fact, he was making his way over to the girl now.

Considering the girl's impressive capabilities, if he didn't already know who it was, he would have thought she was the one All Might had given his quirk. The fact her listed quirk only was the transformation would have also been another indicator for him. But All Might's phone call the other day had made him talk to Sansa in more detail about the girl, learning some facts about Ki and what she could do.

"Ah, Detective Tsukauchi. How is the situation proceeding?" His introspection was interrupted by the school principal walking up to him. He turned to the small man, giving him a bow of the head in greeting while ensuring his hat didn't fall off.

"It's going well, I would say. I think it is safe to return your students to the school here shortly. We'll try to get their statements after school or later this week, depending on your evaluations, for when they are ready to talk about it," Naomasa responded.

"Excellent. Again, I want to thank you and the rest of the police force for their assistance," Nezu replied.

"Our pleasure. While the data packet provided by Parker helped point us in the right direction on getting everything rounded up, we'll still want to go over the school and areas of interest with a fine-toothed comb."

"We'll do what we can to assist you, Detective Tsukauchi. You certainly have jurisdiction, and there are still too many unanswered questions. Hopefully, we can get additional answers after you thoroughly interrogate the Villains."

"I'll share anything pertinent to the safety of the school with you as soon as we have it."

"Thank you, Detective."

Naomasa looked up when he saw one of his officers flagging him, giving him the okay signal regarding the students.

"We have the go-ahead for your kids," Naomasa said. "But I want to ask a few more questions of Haruno-san before you leave since she had the most direct contact with their leaders."

"Certainly. I'll give you a few minutes before I have the class escorted to the buses and back to school."

"Thank you."

Naomasa looked for Sakura, finding her near where he had seen her last, but off to the side and alone, calmly looking in his direction.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"How are you doing, Ranma?"

"Gah!" Ranma exclaimed after seeing the face of horror before her. She had gone rigid and did a light jump. It took her a few seconds to recover as she closed her eyes and calmed her nerves, slowly breathing in and out as she regained control. And avoided opening her eyes, at least for now. "Sorry, Sansa."

The cat-headed Sansa chuckled lightly, letting Ranma know he wasn't offended. "You are fine, Ranma. I see you have improved since I last saw you. Excellent!"

Sansa looked to the sides, seeing a few concerned gazes from other officers, teachers, and a few students. He waved down the officers, making sure they knew nothing was wrong. He then turned back to the girl and gave another smile. He wasn't bothered by the twitching of her brow or the rush of adrenaline her body was surely filled with, especially after she tried peeking a few times.

"So I see your first week of school has been memorable. Though, we had not suggested an army of Villains as the likely incident to occur. We all lost our bets on that one."

Ranma rolled her closed eyes as he reminded her of the open betting between her guardians and the few others that knew of her history. "I swear, you guys are doing that just to mess with me."

"Yes, yes we are," Sansa said with a smile and a chuckle.

Her body language shifted, her arms dragging her shoulders downward and her eyes rolling again. "Of course you are. Why did I ever tell you guys about Nabiki's penchant for betting?"

"Oh, you don't get to complain. All of the bets go toward getting you gifts. The winner just gets to decide how it's spent on you," Sasha said. "Besides, if no one won, then it's free money for you!"

"Oh, right!" Ranma said with a smile. It broke a little when she tried peeking again, constantly trying to test herself and get used to his appearance.

"Beyond greeting you, I wanted to ask your reasoning for jumping into the fray?" Sansa asked as his notebook and pen were ready. "Especially since your teacher was prepared to do that."

Ranma sighed; she had already been asked that question multiple times. The officers involved had been outraged at the idea that a teenager should ever do such a thing. She was just glad it was a friend asking her now. "I learned about Sensei's quirk from Izuku. He finally figured out who our Sensei was and talked about him way too much, some of it stuck. A quirk that can turn off most other quirks is really useful. But if he's in the middle of that pile, he wouldn't be as effective at it as he would be from the sides. Especially with that warper being around and who knew what else."

"Yes, I suspected as much and can agree with your reasoning. Was there anything else?" Sansa asked as he wrote it down.

"Parker had said he communicated with the outside. The villains didn't know that. That means they would waste time so long as they didn't know, and the more time I wasted for them, the better. I wanted to get them mad and off balance, then take down enough of them to make it easier to manage. Both sets of reactions would hopefully buy us the time. I hadn't anticipated that one villain to be as fast as he was. And I'm glad I was there instead of Sensei."

"Yes, based on the initial reports, that could have been quite bad. I agree with your assessment of the situation," Sansa said before giving his version of a knowing smirk. "We knew your decision to not list your Ki abilities as a quirk was mostly for not wanting to confuse people about what you can do with your Martial Arts, but you knew a situation like this was a nice side benefit. Being able to escape legal trouble since it wasn't a quirk you used to defend yourself."

"Okay, yes, that too," Ranma said as she looked away, blushing at having been caught.

"Not that most people will believe that, of course. I'll contact the Pussycats to inform them if you need the backup to confirm that your Ki is not a quirk. We'll have your back regarding this."

"Thanks," Ranma said as she sighed before smiling.

"You did good, Ranma. You might get some flak from some of your senseis or some other department heads, but you did evaluate the situation. You are one of the major reasons why this attack failed as well as it did. Your other classmates also did a fantastic job. Any pique your interest?"

"Maybe a few…"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"Hello, Sakura," Naomasa said as he took off his hat and smiled at the girl.

Sakura smiled in return. She had gained a deep respect for the Detective. He was, in many ways, this world's counterpart of Ibiki despite the differences in how they approached things. Where Ibiki could intimidate without even trying, Naomasa purposely put on a smile. Both were extremely intelligent, very observant, and good comrades to have on your side. She had told him about Ibiki once, making the man laugh.

"First off, Sakura, good job out there. If you hadn't been prepared for it, All Might could have been injured, maybe even killed. We don't know exactly how the villain's quirk works yet, other than contact with his hands can disintegrate things, but it likely would have been bad."

"He was the one that destroyed the school's barriers yesterday," Sakura informed him. "Based on what Shuzenji-sama could inform me and what I could observe myself, the material broke down or decayed. His obsession with hands gave me a hint, but when I talked to Saotome after their arrival and realized what she planned to do, I suggested trying to get him to show his quirk. I'm glad I did."

Naomasa narrowed his eyes as he reviewed what he remembered about the destroyed gate. They hadn't completed the analysis yet, but it had disintegrated, turning into dust, like she said. If he was so eager to get close to All Might with that, it likely worked on humans.

"If he is the same one, then you saved his life, depending on how much contact was needed," he said with a heavy sigh before a smile returned as he looked at her. "I will be sure it is in the report if they try to hold your actions against you. The police or the school. But I suspect the school already knows."

Naomasa paused as part of what she had said registered, and he raised his eyebrow. "How did you know it was him, though? You've talked about Chakra sensors but didn't say you were one."

"Saotome. He can sense people like our chakra sensors could, both their emotions and their positions. After the alarms went off yesterday, I remembered him displaying something like that in the Battle Trials the day before. I found him and asked what he was sensing. He said he felt a surge of anger and killing intent but that it also left the premises. I asked him– her," Sakura saw Naomasa smile at that, "if it was the same person from yesterday. It made sense; you scout the area, gain intel, then plan an attack. She confirmed it. So I knew they were willing to kill from the start. It was why the two of us were trying to treat it so seriously when they arrived. They weren't playing around."

Naomasa gave her a serious nod, letting her know her message was received. "Interesting. Saotome is another odd case. I will have to ask Sansa about her and find out more details. It seemed it was handled well enough back then, so I didn't push it. But it has been another long, ongoing case. And other questions have come up in regards to it as well."

Sakura looked toward her class, seeing them beginning to move out. "Looks like I need to go. Thank you, Detective."

"Stay safe out there, Sakura," Naomasa called out to her and waved.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Izuku sat with the others on the bus as they returned. Today had turned sideways in a flash. He wasn't sure what to think and knew he wasn't the only one. Quick glances at the rest of his class showed various stages of dealing with what had happened.

A few were a bit rattled by being attacked by villains. Others were excited to be in a fight like that or how well some of their classmates had performed. Then a few didn't appear to care or were upset that they couldn't do more.

Izuku didn't know how he felt about it. He was relieved that the ordeal had been resolved without injury to his class or teachers. He was excited to see some of his classmates' strengths and feats. But he was also fearful because they were targeting All Might.

The three stars of the class had shined yet again and were grilled by several classmates. Saotome, Haruno, and Parker were something else. What surprised Izuku was how casual they were after the fight. As if it was an everyday thing for them and not a terrifying ordeal like it would be for most people.

One thing it did for him was solidify his resolve to learn what he could from Ranma. He wanted to be the best hero he could be, worthy of the sacrifice that All Might made by giving him his quirk. Giving him his chance. He would do everything he could to make him proud.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"Come in," Nezu said after the door had been knocked on as he stared out his window at the setting sun.

He waited as his guest entered, knowing what this conversation would be about. He just hoped he would accept the explanation he had. "Have a seat, Aizawa."

Nezu turned back around, getting the tea out and pouring them both a cup. Once they had relaxed, he decided to get to the heart of the matter. "You're here about the students. Ask your questions."

Shota waited a moment as he formed his question, finally getting a chance to possibly get some answers. "Those three are not ordinary students. What are they?"

Nezo sighed before he truthfully answered. "I don't know." Nezo saw the glare he received for that. "I have suspicions, but nothing I can confirm without asking them directly. And for now, I do not want to do that. But I can say that they are not normal."

"Let's start with Saotome," Shota said as he put his tea down. "She deliberately asked me about not using a quirk. After I gave the confirmation, she proceeded to attack them. I also asked you multiple times to fix her quirk registry. If her physical capabilities are not the byproduct of a quirk, then what is happening?"

"No, the only thing that may be a quirk is their shapeshifting."

Shota's glare intensified, catching the specific wording he had used. "'May be' a quirk?"

"Do you know about the incident Saotome was involved with a year ago?" Nezu asked.

"No. Per your suggestion, I refrained from researching them to not contaminate my opinion about them."

"Thank you for that. Are you at least familiar with the attack on Iyashi no Sato?"

"That was the attack where the Hero Team Water Hose almost lost their lives to the A-class villain Muscular, was it not?" Shota responded after thinking about it for a moment.

"Correct. It was a miracle no one had died, and the hero team survived. The public knows that Endeavor was the one to bring him in. What people do not know is that it was not Endeavor or any other known hero that beat Muscular."

Shota quickly connected the dots, "Saotome?"

"Yes. From what I could discern from the records, Saotome saved their lives and defeated Muscular with just a few blows. Endeavor requested the Wild Wild Pussycats' assistance regarding Saotome because they were an unknown."

"Why them?"

"The Water Hose team are the cousins of Mandalay and were nearby. They also had more experience dealing with children than Endeavor," Nezu said, receiving a rare snort from Shota, one laced with a tiny bit of amusement. "Eventually, they decided to act as official Guardians for Saotome. But one of the first things they did was to get Saotome tested for quirks."

Shota frowned, knowing there had to be something unusual to make it worth mentioning. "What did they find?"

"No quirk. In fact, Saotome was tested twice. They were tested as brother and sister, not as a single person. Both tests were negative for a quirk factor."

Shota sat there, blinking. That made no sense to him. "How… how could a shapeshifting ability not be a quirk? Or their other abilities?"

"The first part, I have no idea. They were later tested again, and the shapeshifting was dismissively labeled a quirk. Their physical strengths, however, do have an explanation outside of it."

"And that is?" Shota asked, now very puzzled about what was going on. He had expected many things, but this was not one of them.

Nezo got up and grabbed a few books before tossing them in front of Shota. The man looked down and became confused as he recognized several manga titles as remakes of old classics. No… these were copies of the original stories, not remakes. He flipped a few open, looking at the publication dates; they were from before or slightly after the appearance of quirks. Others were mythological history books for Japanese and Chinese culture. "What… are these?"

"For hundreds and even thousands of years, there have been myths of Martial Artists of such strength and skill that they would seem like the quirks of today. But all the records try to tout that it was acquired only through training. It was not something you got from birth, but something everyone had the potential for so long as they worked to grow it," Nezu said. He paused for a moment as he let Shota continue shuffling the books. "The Japanese called it Ki, while the Chinese called it Chi. Other cultures had similar mythologies regarding it. About the only thing they could agree on was that practitioners could perform superhuman feats of strength, speed, durability, or perform other miraculous achievements."

"You're saying they achieved this through training alone?"

"Is it so surprising?" Nezu asked, looking the man in the eye. "You, yourself, can perform feats of physical skill beyond what most civilians can achieve. Other heroes have done the same thing. Feats that their quirks should not directly impact. Additionally, some circles of pro-heroes also say that Ki or Chi is real. What I find most interesting is that there has been a tremendous amount of chatter in those circles since last year. From my subtle investigations, that chatter has led to Saotome."

Shota thought about it but was at a loss for words for now. "Can I take these with me?"

"Certainly. I got those copies specifically for that purpose."

"What about Haruno?"

"Haruno is more difficult to identify, but as you know, she is associated with Recovery Girl. In fact, her son and daughter-in-law are her guardians."

Shota frowned at that. He knew Chiyo would not be part of something nefarious or endanger their students.

"What I could find, however, is that she was involved in her own incident. Stopped a villain that had cut up several dozen civilians on his way to escape capture. Sakura intervened and then proceeded to heal the injured, saving at least three people's lives that day from wounds that only Recovery Girl might have saved them from. The villain's jaw has had eight surgeries but will never recover properly."

Shota couldn't really feel sympathy for him.

Nezu finished sipping from his tea before he dropped his next bombshell. "In addition, the Detective for her case was none other than Tsukauchi."

That got Shota's attention rather quickly. While they didn't regularly work together, the man had a reputation and was very good at his job. He also investigated this current situation and talked to Sakura alone.

She was the one Shota was most concerned with. She quickly took command and ordered the students around like an experienced veteran, making even their troublesome students go along.

He didn't notice it at first, but she had babysat him. She had pulled him out of danger while he hunted for the warper and occasionally helped nullify some quirks. She remained near the villain's primary targets: All Might and himself.

When she acted, she was brutally efficient with no hesitancy in her actions. When they arrived at where Sakura had captured the warper and the leader, they found out she had attached what was essentially an explosive to the warper's neck and refused to remove it.

She had also just finished healing the leader's 'self-inflicted wound' from a dagger to the throat and then healed the amputated wrist without the original hand. She would not release him or the explosive tag before proper restraints arrived for both of them.

Chiyo and Naomasa had both been involved and knew the extent of the incident and what Sakura had done. Neither of them seemed concerned about the girl. Two people he would never suspect of allowing a dangerous person near their students had both signed off on the girl.

Shota sighed before rubbing his temples. The last of them was the one he was least concerned with… before he found out how he had contacted his fellow teachers and the police. "And Parker?"

"He also had an altercation, saving a hundred lives from an apartment building that would have collapsed and killed them all if he had not been there. The building had been hit by a stray blast of superheated plasma that melted the support beams. Parker arrived quickly on the scene, cooled the blast zone, and systematically and efficiently evacuated the building. Only two people died in that building collapse, both occurring at the initial blast."

"Impressive," Shota replied dryly. He was being entirely sincere; evacuating a building like that was not an easy task. He certainly could not do it. Some other Pro-Heroes with the right quirks, like All Might, Best Jeanist, or others, could have done something similar. But few could do it alone.

"More than you know," Nezu said as he took a bite of a cracker, nibbling on it briefly before swallowing and looking at the expectant teacher.

"You already know that Parker is strong, fast, and agile. You also got the hint that he has some form of prescience since you said he reacted before they had even started to warp in. You know that his webbing is an incredible bit of chemistry work and that his suit is more advanced than it looks. His suit had proper shielding from an E.M.P. pulse, could communicate over a large distance without using the local communication services, has an advanced mini-drone built into the chest, and an advanced lens system, all remarkable achievements in engineering."

Shota narrowed his eyes, knowing the man was setting up another explosive bit of trivia. "Yes."

"For the incident he was involved with, what is on the official record is that Edgeshot had contacted Parker to assist. Edgeshot had dealt with the villain who had shot the stray blast but could not get away in time to help with the apartment building. Parker was never actually named in the report and was supposedly there testing an advanced super-suit for David Shield."

There was something there that Nezu was hinting at. He noticed Nezu was calmly letting him work it out. Further evidence that there was something hidden in his words. It took him some time to figure out the sequence, but he started asking the first question to confirm. "Dr. Shield didn't know of Parker before the event, did he?"

"No, he did not," Nezu said before taking another bite.

"If Dr. Shield wasn't already involved, why would Edgeshot contact him specifically? His suit and other parts are impressive, but that alone wouldn't lead to Dr. Shield being contacted directly and acting to cover up the situation."

"Correct. Well done, Shota-san." Nezu smiled, glad the man was still so good at inductive reasoning. "As for why, it took a while, but I finally found some video evidence of the end of that event. Someone attempted to purge the video from the internet, and what concerns me greatly is that I don't know who instituted the purge."

Shota narrowed his eyes, realizing something in that video had seriously spooked some powerful people. "What was on it?"

"It showed Young Parker escaping with the last resident as the building collapsed. His suit is the same one he wears right now. But it is what happened as he was falling with the young girl in his arms that was alarming. From the rubble of the building, what looked like four golden, metal spider legs shot out of it and intercepted Parker, flowing into his suit like a liquid, and quickly reformed the legs behind him. It finished halting his fall, and they melted back into his suit. Forming a different suit than what he currently wears."

That… was odd. Shota knew it had a heavy significance, but he didn't understand. "Why is that so important?"

"I am not surprised you don't recognize it. Few people would just from viewing it, as quirks and support gear offer a wide range of similar effects. But considering the reaction of everyone involved, there was only one conclusion I could come to regarding it. Nanotechnology."

Shota had heard of Nanotechnology but didn't know why it was so special.

"Hmmm, I see you aren't familiar with the Grey Goo theory, or else your reaction would have been more severe," Nezu said as he poured more tea. "Nanites are a massive game changer in terms of technology. Enough of one that it would quickly become the most sought-after technology in the world. Technology that some would be willing to start wars over who controlled it."

That raised his eyebrows. Many considered wars a thing of the past, something that happened before quirks appeared. They had enough trouble without starting a new war.

"And that is also not factoring in the other bit of technology that video hinted at." Nezo chuckled at how quickly his head snapped to look him in the eyes. He suspected he might have gotten whiplash from that if he hadn't already been looking in his direction. "You have already seen the technology in action today. It was one of your concerns regarding Parker, was it not?"

Shota figured it out quickly. "The phone calls. The data packets. Parker didn't appear to do much, so how could he contact all of us like that? While his explanation of a protocol he had set up in case of an emergency like this was believable… it didn't smell right to me."

"Indeed. Which is why I told you to leave your electronic equipment in your office before you approached me."

"What is it?"

"A.I."

Shota blinked, thrown for a loop. The school was rather famous for its robots and the A.I. that guided them, feeling almost alive to many. But from what he had learned, while their A.I. was advanced and mimicked human-like behaviors to a large degree, they were still simply robots.

"I do not know how advanced it is, but the A.I. is likely semi-sentient. They are far more advanced and intelligent than our school's robots. Much like Nanotechnology, it is another technology that many countries would start a war over who controls it."

Shota had been greatly concerned about Ranma and Sakura, their strength, skills, and experience made them incredibly dangerous. Parker, he had been the least concerned with. That had flipped on its head now. Parker might be involved in the start of another World War if Shota understood Nezu correctly.

Shota reacted the only way he could on receiving so much distressing information. He leaned forward and rubbed his brows with both hands, not bothering to look at the Principal.

Nezu let him pull himself together, not minding the silence while sipping his tea as the clock ticked onward.

"How much did you know before you spoke to Senjiro and me?" Shota finally asked.

"Very little. What I did find was the most disturbing thing about this entire situation," Nezu said.

Shota stilled at that. He was really beginning to hate how much he had done that in this conversation.

"With Parker, it was difficult to find the incident he was involved in, but it was after looking at the incidents that I noticed an important detail."

"And that was?"

"All three of their incidents occurred on the same day and time."

Shota blinked. That was possibly distressing, but something was missing. "There's more I don't know about, isn't there?"

"Yes. Haruno's was the easiest to verify, as hers was the least impacted by trying to hide the truth. Some people reported her appearing out of a portal or materializing in the air above Hosu. We don't know exactly what it was, but a flash of light occurred, and she was suddenly there. Parker also had a similar appearance but was vastly overshadowed by the apartment. Saotome had no direct observers but woke up in the forest after falling some distance from the air."

"Someone warped them?"

"Yes."

Shota was not enjoying the conclusion he was coming to. "Are you telling me that whoever warped them knew those incidents would occur? Are… are we dealing with someone who knows the future?"

"Not only may we be dealing with someone who knows the future, but someone that could warp them from their places of origin."

"From?" Shota asked before he thought of how strange and different all three of them were. They had also not acted like they knew each other. Ranma and Sakura had started to interact, but it looked to him more like Pros acknowledging another Pro's skills and being interested. Peter had yet to really interact with the two of them.

Their abilities, skills, technology, and quirks made it seem oddly different. But the key to that line of thought was Saotome. Specifically that they had been tested and found to not have a quirk. Sakura's quirk was also highly unusual, but if Saotome didn't have a quirk and was pulled here, then the possibility of Sakura and Peter also not having a quirk…

"Are you suggesting they aren't from our world?" Shota demanded an answer.

Nezu nodded before giving a verbal response. "Or at least our time. I don't know for certain."

"If whoever or whatever warped them here brought them all simultaneously, why send them to different locations?" Shota asked, trying to fit more of the pieces together.

"Several factors must have gone into it. First and foremost, they helped save lives. Lives few others could have saved in those situations. This tells us that whoever is guiding these actions is trying to help. Or at least appear to help us."

Shota could only nod at that, agreeing with the point and glad Nezu wasn't ignoring the possibility of an attempt to fool them.

"The second was that they also were able to find people to help them get settled in and adapt to our world and possibly help them as people in ways that they needed to grow," Nezu said.

"The third factor," Nezu noted, "May have been an easy way to encourage all of them to join U.A. this year."

Shota reviewed who he knew to be their guardians, quickly recognizing they would likely help guide them toward it. They all had connections in one way or another to the school.

"Fourth, and possibly one of the most important, is that their situations allowed them to begin to truly change our world."

"Change our world?" Shota asked, his eyebrow rose.

"Yes. Saotome is the most obvious to start. The idea alone is enough to challenge the world's perception. The idea that those without quirks or extremely weak quirks could become strong enough to resemble All Might in battle?" Nezu said.

Shota blinked as he realized the implications. It meant their societies' focus on quirks, and the power of those quirks could be challenged. Considering how… unhealthy it had gotten, that might be a good thing. As things stood, your worth to society was dictated by luck at birth.

"Sakura's contributions, on the surface, don't seem nearly as important," Nezu said. "We don't know enough of her background or her abilities, but I suspect her contribution is how we, as a society, work together."

"What do you mean?" Shota asked, confused and needing help understanding the significance.

"Beyond her interaction with Recovery Girl and Detective Tsukauchi, there is one other group she has had regular contact with within the last year. Iida Tensei and his Hero Agency."

Shota was at a loss before he recognized the name and then thought of the news he had heard of their recent rise in fame in the past year. They had gone from an Agency run by someone with a rank of seventy-seven, which was respectable, but with far too many sidekicks to justify it. They had been effective, to a degree, but many felt they ate up too much area for a single agency. They felt other agencies, smaller ones, would serve the area better.

But in the last year, that had changed. The team members were becoming very effective, not just because of how strong the sidekicks were suddenly becoming, but by how well they worked together. Their logistical capabilities and information sharing had always been strong for a hero agency of their size. But that combined with their rapid individual improvements and how well they meshed together had quickly turned into a shockingly effective agency. The crime rates had plummeted, and arrest ratios had skyrocketed. Their jurisdiction quickly became one of the nation's top places to live. As a result of that, as well as his improved skill, Iida Tensei had shot up to the mid-thirties after remaining at his previous rank for many years.

The man had always tried to advocate working together with others more, but many agencies dismissed that idea. Shota had agreed with it because it helped the people, not your pocketbook. It was partly why he had been an underground hero; he didn't care about fame or money. And then Sakura arrived, with Tensei's little brother Tenya following her around. It suddenly made sense why the boy was at her side so much. He watched his brother's agency turn into a growing powerhouse due to Sakura's influence.

Shota sighed but smiled internally at the idea. It was one he could definitely agree with. "And Parker, I assume, due to his technology?"

"Yes. But I suspect it won't be limited to things like support items. Dr. Shield has stepped down from his position on I-Island and is instead running a new company that is catching people's attention. One of the pieces of technology they developed was shown by Parker in the Development Studio yesterday, instantly winning everyone over with it."

Shota nodded at that. Considering the boy's intelligence and the supposed technology he already had, it didn't surprise him.

"But during my discussions with Dr. Shield, he was dropping hints of having his daughter, Melissa, attend U.A. soon," Nezu said, taking another sip of tea.

Shota frowned at that. I-Island had one of the best schools in the world for science and technology, especially for support gear. Why would they consider–

"You wouldn't bring this up if she was just looking to join Parker here at U.A.," Shota noted. "Our general and economics courses wouldn't be sufficient either. So she's looking to join the Hero Course? What is her quirk?"

"She's quirkless," Nezu replied easily.

Narrowing his eyes, the other discussions allowed him to not dismiss her out of hand. "They are developing technology to allow her to fight on a Pro-Hero level. But not just low level, but medium to high end?"

"Correct. I don't know how it would be achieved, but I see the groundwork Dr. Shield is laying for that possibility," Nezu said before he adopted his smirk. "I know when I am being buttered up."

Shota snorted at that. The idea of anyone getting one past the man before him seemed impossible. And yet people continued to try. "Okay, I can see how those might change our world somehow. But why?"

Nezu looked at his tea, seemingly reluctant to answer at first. "When I noticed the patterns, I questioned it as well. So I tried to think of what it might fix, and I realized that our Hero society is… flawed. We struggled for a century after the arrival of quirks, always on a tipping point, trying to find a way to balance and keep the peace we all sought. It wasn't until All Might arrived that it began to tip in a direction where peace was possible."

"He was unbreakable," Nezu nearly whispered, "He couldn't be swayed by money or power. He broke apart the organizations and groups that kept us in fear. We finally found a way to be safe. We called him our Symbol of Peace."

Shota jerked up as he made the connection to today's attack. But he waited, letting Nezu finish his explanation.

"As a result of society scrambling to find peace for so long when it finally presented itself… we clung to it so tightly that the mere concept of changing anything became poisonous. We had to hold onto this image of the world, but it is flawed," Nezu said, looking up into Shota's eyes. He noticed they looked rather haunted. "There are different elements of society we are pushing down as we try to repress the chance of villains appearing. We stigmatize anyone that does something wrong as just a villain, something that can be locked up and the key forgotten. We only allow those we feel have a 'strong' quirk to help protect us. We have closed our eyes and stopped ourselves from growing, terrified of losing what peace we've found on the back of one man and a mountain of sacrifices. Those on the fringe, those in-between, are beginning to move though and it is slowly causing our society to fray."

"And those that want a return to those dark times, they see that fraying of society, don't they?"

"Yes. Just look at many of the villains in today's attack. Their histories. Some would naturally lean towards villainy in the first place, but others felt compelled because that was the only way society would treat them."

"And they targeted the Symbol of Peace as the best way to fracture it," Shota reasoned.

"Yes."

"They failed today… but that won't be the end of it, will it?"

"No," Nezu said, looking at his tea in sorrow.

Shota was nearly operating on information overload, but he could still note an important detail about the circumstances. Specifically, why his class. Why did Nezu put all three of them in his class? There was something big he hadn't been told about, that Nezu wouldn't reveal. But he was allowed to figure it out himself. If he understood the Principal well enough, he had all the pieces now.

"You put them all in my class. You didn't know about the coming attack. There was something else in my class that you wanted to protect or influence," Shota said, watching as the tiny man said nothing. "They are after All Might, the 'Symbol of Peace.' We know about All Might's injuries and his reduced capabilities. Someone else might know, but that wouldn't be reason enough to alter the class like that."

Shota paused, thinking it through further after getting confirmation from the silent Principal. "One of my students. You put them there to protect that student. Possibly to do more, but primarily to protect them."

Shota reviewed his list of students, their quirks, capabilities, backgrounds, and history. A few, like Todoroki, came up easily but were quickly dismissed. He was a known quantity in many ways. Then his mind traced to another student, one he thought would be more troublesome than they were. "Midoriya."

Izuku had been noted as quirkless before school started, but it was updated. His quirk gave him tremendous strength, something his body couldn't handle, and he didn't know how to control it. He was being put into his class because of that concern since it was believed Shota would more easily be able to prevent him from hurting himself. He had also been in an incident a year ago, one that had involved All Might…

"There was a fourth incident, wasn't there. That was what disturbed you so much," Shota said.

Nezu chuckled in good humor. "Yes."

"When were their incidents?"

"March 30th, 2146."

"Midoriya's incident was on April 6th. One week after their incidents."

"Well done, my boy," Nezu whispered.

Shota leaned back against the couch he was on as he processed things further. It connected too many dots; it made far too much sense now. He didn't know exactly the relationship between his student and Toshinori, but it was important enough that he wasn't being told what it was. But Nezu had led him to it anyway, knowing he would figure it out.

It made his stomach churn at what it represented. He wasn't sure which was more disturbing to him for now, the thought of someone out there playing them as a fiddle because they knew the future and was setting them up for who knew what, or the idea of what the absence of their assistance would cause.

He hadn't grown up in those turbulent times, but he knew enough that it was not something he would want the world to regress to. But what would their presence cause? Was it any better? Or was it far worse?

Peeking at Nezu showed a similar state of mind of being unsure which avenue was safer for the world. Shota could only sum it up in one way possible. "Shit."

Nezu snorted and laughed as they both took some time to settle down.

"What are you trying to do about it?" Shota inquired, knowing the man would not just leave things to rely on some future-seeing entity.

"I will be hunting to find who or what did this."

Shota nodded at that, glad to have him on that task. "What do you recommend for me?"

"For now, do what you do best," Nezu said as he looked him in the eyes. "Teach. Help them. Do not be afraid of the suggestions the three try to implement. Encourage it, even. I believe the students are here to protect and teach us things. Spread their knowledge to others or anyone else that may be drawn to it. Give them more room on the leash. And be prepared to let that leash go."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Tomura sat in the back of the heavily armed police transport, blood bags still hooked up to stabilize him from his earlier blood loss. Kurogiri and the Nomu were also with him, all heavily bound with no means of escape. Their mouths were gagged, so they couldn't even give orders to the Nomu to free them.

He had always felt a heavy hatred most of his life, ever since…who cares. But the hatred he felt now was more akin to a volcano than the fire pit he had previously had. It had been made far worse by being defeated by children. All Might had barely been involved in the fight, and they had gotten around Eraser Head's quirk several times. But they were stopped, again, by kids.

He had touched him! He had felt All Might and was a hair's breadth from ending the hated Symbol of Peace. Instead, he had lost his hand and been taken out by a girl. He had been made a fool by her.

It angered him, but when he had directed his hatred at the girl… that was when he received a shock he never expected. She had reacted as if she had seen it before and that his hatred amounted to nothing. He had believed she was like all the other weak or wannabe heroes, that her words were just that, words. So when he pressed against the blade to get closer to her, he was shocked to feel it bite into him.

And then she decided to show mercy like an idiot. She saved his life after Kirogiri surrendered. He remembered the panic he had started to go through as it became harder to see and hear. He had been left in a daze, barely recovering on their slow trip to prison.

But his hatred's growth was directed not just at the ones that had thwarted him and made him out to be a fool but at himself. In those moments, he felt a fear he had not felt since childhood. He had feared dying and that it all amounted to nothing. He had been at her mercy. She had made him feel weak!

And a part of him, so deep inside, somewhere he thought didn't or even couldn't exist anymore, had felt thankful for it. He knew he had to snuff it out, to utterly destroy the girl. To eradicate all of them! But the worst part, even though he wanted to deny it and bury it under a pile of corpses, was that he was afraid of facing her again. And the little, pitiful and pathetic voice wanted him to stop.

Tomoru looked at his stump, having been healed by the girl after fixing his throat. She had prevented further blood loss by healing the flesh. He sat there staring at it as they traveled.

He wondered how long it would take for his– there it was. Tomura smirked as he felt something force its way out of his mouth and past the mouth guard, spilling out as a black goo. It happened to Kurogiri and Nomu as well. Soon, they were covered in the goo and reappeared elsewhere, crashing into the ground.

"I see you failed, Tomura."

Tomura gagged a few times, more from his mind thinking the stuff was still in his throat than anything physically being there. He was on his hands and knees, still too weak from blood loss to look at his Master. He noticed they were in a dark warehouse of some sort, there was dirt on the ground and a few lights lighting up the place.

"Do not feel bad. There is a reason All Might is considered this world's Symbol of Peace. One of them is his incredible resilience and tenacity," the man that was his Master said. The man stood there in a dark business suit as he looked down at him. His upper body was not visible with the little light that they had.

"Failure can turn into success, so long as you learn what went wrong," the man said as he straightened and buttoned his sleeves and cuffs. "Do you know what went wrong?"

Reminded of his failure, Tomura stayed there a few moments as he gathered his strength to finally answer. "The interfering brats."

"Ah, yes. Sometimes the young can perform better than expected. They can become a wrench in a well-designed machine or plan, causing everything to fail." His Master then put his hands into his pants pockets as he relaxed further.

"No, Master," Kurogiri said after finally recovering enough. "They stopped the plan outright."

That caught his Master's attention, stepping to his side and further into the light. They could now see the bottom of his giant black iron mask. "What do you mean?"

Kurogiri proceeded to give a quick summary of the day's events. It only took a few minutes, but their Master remained silent as he listened. After he explained why they surrendered, he waited for their Master's decision. They didn't have to wait long as he spoke in a calm voice and a degree of interest he hadn't heard in some time.

"Tell me more."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Izuku sat down at his desk the next morning, worn out from a sleepless night but eager for the school day to begin and things to return to normal.

After returning to their classroom, they had been excused from their afternoon Japanese lessons and had instead been questioned and consoled by several teachers. They wanted to ensure everyone was physically, mentally, and emotionally okay. After that was dealt with, each of them had been interviewed by policemen and went over their own accounts of what had happened.

He had gone home and hugged his mother, calming her down after explaining what had transpired. He had yet to have an opportunity to talk to All Might, but he would when he got the chance.

The rest of their class looked fine, though Ranma, Sakura, and Peter were all receiving glances as they waited.

Finally, the bell started going off, indicating class would begin as soon as it ended. Their Sensei started getting out of his sleeping bag again. They had already adjusted to his eccentricities.

"It is good to see all of you returned. I was worried some of you would react badly to yesterday's events. But you are all made of sterner stuff it seems. Well done," Shota said with a grin, his red eyes on display. It looked a little creepy.

"I wish circumstances had been different, that none of you would have had to fight yesterday, but you did. Some of you, against my orders and wishes," Aizawa said as he glared at Ranma. The boy just smiled back, though, after a moment, he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. Aizawa's face relaxed soon after, picking up where he had left off. "While I wasn't happy about it, it was the right call in the end."

This got a dramatic reaction from most of the class. Some began to converse, but Aizawa interrupted them. "Quiet. I'm not done."

After they calmed down again, he continued. "My hesitancy in allowing any of you to fight might have gotten some of you seriously injured or killed yesterday. For that, I apologize," Aizawa said as he bowed to the class for a full second before returning to standing up straight. The class remained silent in their shock.

"Parker, excellent job on communicating with the outside. Without reinforcements arriving as quickly as they had, it could have been much worse. That resolved our biggest initial hurdle; we just needed to stall for a time. Excellent job keeping the class safe from Nomu and the warper. The data you collected and shared with the school and the police allowed them to round up almost all of the villains. A few are still being hunted, but we have their trails. Well done."

Peter smiled at the praise, happy to keep his classmates and what friends he had made with them so far safe. He had worried he would have been chewed out by David or Melissa last night for using Karen like that, but they had received the same data packs and video logs; they knew just how dangerous that situation was turning out to be. They would have to be careful, step lightly for the next few weeks or months, but they agreed it had been necessary.

"Kirishima, Bakugo, Todoroki, good job keeping on your toes. You helped suppress the warper from splitting us up, which likely could have led to injuries or deaths among your classmates. You also helped handle the bulk of the villains when they tried to swarm us. Well done."

Eijiro looked bashful, even as he got a few shoulder taps from nearby classmates. Shoto just nodded while Bakugo smirked widely at it.

"The rest of you kept your heads together and protected yourselves and your classmates. You followed Sakura's orders quickly, which allowed us to hold them off until All Might arrived," Aizawa said as he looked around at them. He was proud of how they had responded yesterday, not acting irrationally as many teens tended to do.

"Ururaka and Hagakure, I realize you may have felt like you didn't do much to contribute, but your job was important, and you were the best ones for the job at the time. The fact you didn't have to was a good thing," Aizawa was glad to see Ochako looking happier at the praise. He thought Toru had reacted similarly, but her quirk did make her reactions difficult to read.

"Saotome, you did disobey orders with your actions, even if it was the right call. Please follow my orders in the future while I will keep in mind your capabilities.

"Sure thing, Sensei!" Ranma called out. Izuku heard him mumble something about chances and pigs, causing those closest to him to give him some odd looks.

"Beyond that, excellent job on handling Nomu. Physically, he was the most dangerous of the ones we faced yesterday, but you kept him under control, even taking care that collateral damage didn't injure the downed villains. Well done."

As most of the class expected, Aizawa then turned to the last of them. "Haruno, your evaluation of the situation was appropriate. You handled the class well, helping to make sure everyone knew what to do to keep us all safe. And lastly, your guarding of All Might and myself saved All Might's life or at least prevented debilitating injuries."

That caused an uproar across the room, with students standing up as they tried to process what he had just claimed. "Quiet!" Aizawa shouted, his quirk flaring momentarily as his hair floated above his head, getting their attention quickly. "Sit down!"

It took them a few seconds, but eventually, they did. "Yes, she did save him. Most of you saw what their leader did to the baseball bat earlier. He disintegrated it by touching it. If he was able to do that, it most likely would work on a human. How much contact or for how long is not known at this time, but it would have been bad. Her reaction prevented the contact from working. Her additional actions, while brutal, resulted in the capture of both the warper and the leader, ending the fight."

"It wasn't my first choice, Sensei. After repeated lethal attempts, the multiple times they threatened to injure or kill us and All Might, and then they tried to use a lethal sneak attack; I knew it needed to end as quickly as possible," Sakura explained.

"Agreed. For all of that, Haruno, well done."

Sakura smiled back, giving a nod. She had been worried he would react badly to her actions yesterday, and he had to an extent, but it seemed he was as level-headed and professional as she thought he was. Chiyo and Naomasa's praise of the man went a long way toward strengthening that opinion.

Aizawa looked at the class again, glad to have that all dealt with. "Now, onto other news. You all will need to prepare for the next fight."

"Next fight?" Katsuki asked, a grin forming on his face.

"Don't tell me…" Izuku said.

"The U.A's Sports Festival is fast approaching."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

[A/N - Splitting Chapter 9 so it accurately reflects my chapters. Should have done it far sooner, but here it is now.]

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

Chapter 11 - Sports Festival?​

"Sports Festival!" The class gasped at the announcement.

Aizawa couldn't fault them, considering how he felt about it when he heard that bit of news. To have something like this occur just after an attack–

"Awesome!"

"I can't wait! This will be great!"

"Sounds like fun."

"Let's murder them!"

– then again…

Aizawa looked over the class, seeing that most were in good spirits, though a few still looked concerned while others looked uninterested or impartial about it. He shouldn't be too surprised. While the circumstances from yesterday's attack had been dire, none of them had been hurt by it.

"The school is taking extra precautions, considering yesterday's attack," Aizawa said, regaining their attention. "The police and Pro-Hero presence will be higher than normal. But this is still one of the greatest opportunities you'll get."

"Our Sports Festivals are one of Japan's biggest events! This is your opportunity to make a name for yourself by attracting the attention of the nation and its heroes."

"Huh?" Ranma asked, lost as to what the big deal was.

"Pro-Heroes use the festival to scout potential Heroes for internships or future sidekicks," Momo answered him. However, that didn't answer his question as he turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"They'll be looking to hire us as sidekicks so we can hit the ground running after we graduate. That's how it's done!" Denki said in excitement.

"And a lot of those sidekicks never manage to go solo. They're sidekicks forever," Kyoka said, making the boy glance back at her. "That'll be you, Kaminari, you dunce."

"Tch!" Denki folded his arms after looking to the front, failing to ignore the insult.

"This is a perfect chance to gain valuable experience and popularity if you're picked up by a big-name hero," Aizawa said, getting the class's attention. "But your time is limited. Show the Pros what you're made of, and you'll make futures for yourselves."

He looked at the class, making sure he had their full attention. "This happens once a year, so you've got three chances. If you're hoping to become a hero, this is an event you can't miss!"

"Homeroom is dismissed."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"This has got me freaking pumped!" Eijiro said as several classmates began congregating after the bell rang and their literature teacher left the room, signaling it was time for lunch. "If we show our stuff here, that's one big step towards going Pro!"

"It was worth coming to U.A!" Rikido said, just as excited as the others as he slammed a fist into an open palm.

"We will only receive a few chances. We cannot afford to miss this," Fumikage said as he sat on one of the back cupboards.

"Ranma-kun, this will be our chance! I need to stand out at the sports festival!" Toru said, catching several nearby boys' attention and making them blush as she cutely started doing some cheers. Her clothing showed her movements to match that of cheerleaders with surprising accuracy.

"Oh dear, what'll I do? I stand out just by standing still, so the scouts won't be able to stop looking at me, right?" Yuga said, slightly hiding his face behind one of his hands before twirling around and pointing with his hand at Koji.

Koji, who had been trying to clean the chalkboard, turned nervously at his classmate.

Yuga leaned forward, getting uncomfortably close to the taller boy. "Right?"

Koji nodded rapidly, hoping he wouldn't be pressed further.

"I don't get it," Ranma said as he tilted his head, still puzzled at his classmates' excitement. "I mean, it's just a Sports Festival, right?"

That caught the class's attention as they all turned to him, flabbergasted at his ignorance.

"You… you… you don't know about the U.A. Sports Festival, Ranma-san?" Izuku asked.

"Nope," Ranma answered, folding his arms across his chest. He was waiting for them to get to the point.

"It's one of the biggest sporting events in the country!" Izuku said excitedly. "Almost everyone watches it, and most of the pros especially!"

"So?" Ranma asked, again tilting his head.

"I agree; what makes this so special?" Peter asked as he finished putting his books and notebook away. He had heard of it but wasn't particularly excited about it. He remembered David and Melissa talking about it at times, but he still didn't understand.

The class turned to look at him, though many realized that since he was a foreigner, he might not know either.

Sakura remained quiet as she listened in.

"Dude, it's where all the students of U.A. compete in events! It gets crazy every year watching some of the fights!" Eijiro said as he tried to inform his friend.

"Fights?" Ranma asked, "Why would there be fights at a Sports Festival?"

"What the fuck! Why the fuck wouldn't there be fight's at it, you Pigtailed Bastard!" Katsuki yelled at him.

"It's just a bunch of sporting events. You guys make it sound like it's something awesome," Ranma answered, not put out by the blonde's response. He'd heard worse when he was a kid.

"Perhaps Saotome-san and Parker-san are unaware that quirks are allowed during the events?" Momo offered.

"Oh?" Ranma said, his interest peaking. His head tilted upwards as a smile began to form. "So, sporting battles where Quirks get used?"

"You didn't know?" Toru asked.

"Nope. Though, if it's done with Quirks, I guess it would be more interesting," Ranma said. The idea reminded him of some martial arts challenges around various sports. Those, at least, were more interesting than their standard counterparts. "What kind of events?"

"The festival has three events, acting as elimination rounds," Momo said. "The first round has all classes from the grade competing with each other, followed by the next event, which is usually a team-oriented event, and finally, a one-on-one competition tourney."

"Oh?" Ranma asked, grinning widely as he turned towards the pink-haired girl. "Hey, Sakura, ready for me to finally kick your ass?"

Sakura snorted before turning to him with her own grin. "If you're looking to be humbled, I am willing to oblige."

"Gah! No way! I will not be humbled!" Ranma said, outraged at her choice of words. Or at least appeared to be when his eyes lit up with glee. "I'm too young and too awesome for that!"

"Like you'll get a choice, you Pigtailed Bastard!" Katsuki barked.

Ranma turned back to the angry boy, his grin still present before it sharpened. "Oh, you think you have a chance, Blondie?"

"Fuck, yes! I'm going to win the Sports Festival!" Katsuki yelled as he moved closer to Ranma's desk, standing and slamming a hand on the desk that separated them, much to Shoto's annoyance. The fact that Ranma stepped up closer to the other side only made it worse.

"I could see that. Yeah, you could beat me…" Ranma said, leaning forward before closing his eyes and tilting his head with a smile, "... in a hundred years!"

"Oh!" Eijiro said, his hand covering his mouth as he grinned.

"Burn!" Rikido said, crossing his arms as he watched the rivalry forming.

The whole class watched as Katsuki's teeth ground together and looked set to explode like a volcano. "Like hell, it will," Katsuki said with an edge to his voice. "I am–."

Ranma leaned back, his eyes widening as he covered his open mouth. "Oh, I am so sorry! That was so rude of me, I apologize! I meant to say three hundred years." If his words hadn't already disproven his supposed apology, moving his arms behind the back of his head as his grin reformed before walking away removed all doubt.

Some of the class laughed as Katsuki's anger worsened, setting off small firecrackers with his closed fists. He glared at Ranma's back, a single eye twitching like a madman. He was tempted to resume the hostilities, even as Ranma pulled his lunch out of his pack.

Izuku grimaced a little at seeing him get so angry, but it was only for a moment. He turned his attention back to the rest of the class, surprised about how easily they ignored him and instead focused on the coming festival. "Everyone's so into it," Izuku said.

"Shut it, Deku," Katsuki growled, not bothering to turn his way as he ignored the class and left.

"It is understandable, Midoriya-san, as this is our chance to add our names to the ranks of heroes," Tenya said, even as he pulled both closed fists on his bent arms in front of himself, moving back and forth while moving his hips side-to-side. "Of course, we're in high spirits!"

"Iida, you have a unique way of getting fired up," Tsuyu said as she glanced backward while holding her lunch. "It's weird."

"It's a competition, Izuku," Ranma said as he stood up with his lunch in his hands. "Competitive spirit's a good thing."

"Izuku-kun, Toru-kun, Ranma-kun," Ochako said from near her desk, getting her classmates' attention. What was most startling for them was how she was hunched over, her eyes barely visible from her hair falling in front of her face, and her voice was more strained and more profound than she usually sounded. It looked darker and more intimidating than the friendly girl they had gotten to know. "Let's do our best at the Sports Festival!" She suddenly growled at them.

"U-Uraraka, your face! It's–" Izuku tried to say, quickly losing his voice at the intense look she was giving them.

"What's wrong?" Mina asked. "You don't look carefree at all, even though that's what your name means."

Ochako stomped and slid her foot to the side, giving her a wider stance and a lower profile, even as she shoved a fist in the air. Then she shouted, "Everyone, I'm gonna crush this!"

Most of them raised their fists, even as they were lost on how to react to the normally quiet and kind girl.

"That's the spirit!" Ranma said, giving her a thumbs up.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Izuku walked alongside Ranma, Ochako, and Toru as they made their way towards the cafeteria. After Ochako's outburst, he had been thinking about a question and decided to ask it. Now seemed an opportune time to ask since no one else was close.

"Uraraka-san?" Izuku stopped walking and waited until the girl turned to look at him, though their other companions also stopped. "Why did you decide to come to U.A. and become a pro hero?"

"Huh? Um…" Ochako looked away as her face turned red. Unwilling to look at her companions, she rubbed the back of her head. "Because…."

Izuku and the others strained to hear her answer, coming out in a low whisper.

"For money?" Izuku asked, surprised by her answer. The kind girl he had gotten to know over the last week did not seem the type to do it for such a selfish reason.

"Really?" Toru asked, interested in her friend's answer. It also seemed different from what she expected from the girl.

"To boil it down simply, yes…" Ochako said before turning to her friends and waving her hand in front of her. "I'm sorry it's such an unwholesome reason!" She then turned away, cradling her cheeks, unwilling to look them in the eyes. "You guys have such admirable motivations; it's embarrassing…"

"Why would you want to do it for money?" Toru asked. She knew there must be more going on; the girl in front of her did not seem greedy.

"Ummm, well…" Ochako said as she tried to control her emotions, particularly her embarrassment. "My family owns a construction company, but we rarely get any work, so we're broke."

Ranma folded his arms, tilted his head, and squinted as he tried to understand what she was saying. He came up empty, so he decided to be more direct. "Why?" Ranma asked before rubbing his head as he tried to figure it out. "I don't get it."

Ochako winced, not enthusiastic to answer those questions. "My dad… he has a hard time with complicated things. But we don't live in a big city, and many larger construction companies tend to make people overlook us."

"Uhh, I still don't get it... why is it embarrassing?" Ranma asked, tilting his head in the other direction as he worked it over.

Izuku and Toru looked ready to reply until the final part of Ranma's confusion was asked. They realized his confusion was not what they had thought it was.

Ochako blinked, her pink cheeks turning a bit lighter as she turned to look at him. "What do you mean, Ranma-kun? Why wouldn't I be embarrassed?"

"Well, you're not really any different from them, right?" Ranma asked, shrugging his shoulders before he pointed a thumb toward their two companions. "You're still trying to help people; it's just that you also have some specific people in mind you want to help."

"Yeah, that's right!" Toru said, stepping closer to her friend and putting an arm over her shoulder. "Nothing for you to feel ashamed of! And you also want to do it while helping other people, so that's awesome!"

Ochako paused in surprise, watching as Izuku gave her a warm smile while Ranma grinned. "Thank you," she said, glad for the support she was getting and their responses.

"Yeah, anyone working to help others, I can respect that. So much better than some of the crappy excuses I've seen thrown around at times," Ranma said as he turned to continue their walk toward the cafeteria.

The others halted at his words before quickly catching up with the pigtailed boy. "What do you mean, Ranma-kun?" Izuku asked. "What kind of bad reasons have you heard for wanting to be a Pro-Hero?"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, turning his head to follow him until he was next to him again. "Oh, I wasn't referring to reasons for being a Pro-Hero. I just meant shitty excuses people make."

"Like what? What were they after, and what reasons?" Toru asked from his other side, causing Ranma to turn his head to look at her.

Ranma rolled his eyes before looking towards the heavens as if to ask which of the thousands of examples he could give would adequately sum it up. But he grimaced, realizing that many of his best ones dealt with subject matters he did not want to reveal.

All three listened to him mumble very quietly, only able to pick out a few words here and there as his facial expressions ran through the entire spectrum. They heard names like Ryouga or Nabiki but were lost on how hygienic products, various foods, and even pantyhose could be involved.

"Ranma-kun?" Izuku finally asked, breaking Ranma out of his thoughts. He wondered if this was what he looked like when people commented about his tendency to mumble.

"Oh, sorry! The list of crap I've got is so long," Ranma said as he looked at him for a moment before turning away and wincing once more, "but most of them have some extra baggage that I really do not want to get into at the moment."

"Do you have anything you can tell us about?" Ochako asked.

"Ehhh…" Ranma paused as he ran through his list again for an acceptably benign example. Relatively, at least. "Well, there was this one guy who abducted me after I saved him and tried to force me to marry him so he could avoid marrying his fiance."

"What?" The three others said at once, taken by surprise. "Why?"

"Well, he met his 'fiance,' who looked exactly like a monkey," Ranma said. However, considering this world of Quirks, he realized that wasn't necessarily as reasonable of an explanation as it originally was. "But it turned out his 'fiance' was a monkey, but it wasn't his actual fiance. The real one sent her pet monkey in her place because she was too embarrassed. When they actually met, they were happy to be married."

"That's just… stupid," Toru said, at a loss for words to describe the story.

"Yeah, I told them that. They didn't care."

"Why didn't you contact the police or a Pro-Hero?" Izuku asked, startled by the apparent crimes involved.

"Most of the martial artists I know don't normally interact with the police… and especially Pro-Heroes," Ranma said, shrugging his shoulders. "We tend to police ourselves."

Izuku almost tried to ask a follow-up question but stopped when he noticed Ochako looking him in the eyes and shaking her head slightly. He sighed but left it alone.

They didn't resume their conversation as they neared the cafeteria, each lost in their thoughts. The loud and rapid footsteps behind them took them out of it.

"Young Midoriya and Young Saotome!" All Might loudly cried out as he popped halfway out of the hallway, his body leaning around the hallway corner while pointing one of his hands at the two of them.

"All Might?" Izuku said, surprised by his entrance. "What's the matter?"

"Lunch!" All Might said more softly before he raised his other hand, which had been hidden by the corner, to show a bento wrapped in blue cloth with white bunny heads covering it. "Wanna eat together?"

'Like a schoolgirl!' Ochako thought, turning away as she failed to hide her snort of laughter at the offer.

"Eh, sure?" Ranma responded, turning to the other boy.

Izuku saw his friends were okay with it, so he started walking towards him as he answered. "I'd love to."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"Peter!" Pony exclaimed as she caught sight of the boy as he neared their table at lunch. She waved enthusiastically, inviting him, Eijiro, and Koji over. The trio of Class A boys were somewhat surprised that it wasn't just Pony and Juzo this time, as they seemed to have guests. Like their class, some looked more human, while others had apparent Quirk mutations.

After getting over the surprise of the additional people to their little group, Peter smiled as he took his seat, their usual three spots open. "Hi Pony, Juzo. I see you brought some friends?"

Pony looked embarrassed, not wanting to look him in the eye. "I'm sorry, Peter. When we heard your class was involved in yesterday's attack, they tagged along to try to learn what happened."

Juzo chuckled softly, but he was just as interested as the rest. "Well, it isn't every day a class is involved with an actual Villain attack! Especially one that happened on campus!"

Peter sighed before shrugging. "I guess so. So are the rest of you from Class B as well?"

"Yeah, we're all from 1-B. Let me go ahead and introduce you guys," Juzo said as he went clockwise from where Koda was sitting to Peter's left. "That's Kendo Itsuka and Ojiro Mashirao," Juzo started off, pointing at the girl with an orange ponytail and the yellow-haired boy with a thick tail in the obvious spot.

"Hello," Itsuka said as she smiled and gave a small wave in greeting, leaning over her food to see all three of them. Mashirao gave his own wave and a smile.

He then pointed to two spots to his right. "Awase Yosetsu, Kaibara Sen," Juzo said. The two boys, one with short brown hair and the other with black hair and a white headband with blue cross-shaped marks, gave a grin or a wave in greeting.

He then pointed to the other side of Pony. "Kamakiri Togaru and Shiozaki Ibara," Juzo said. Togaru had an obvious mutant Quirk; he was tall and thin, with light yellow-green skin, a fluffy green mohawk, no visible nose on his elongated face, and two tusks that looked like sharpened blades sticking out of his cheeks. He gave a slight nod of his head in greeting. Ibara looked normal, save for her long, green hair that resembled thorny vines. She also gave them a soft but subtle smile.

"And finally, Tokage Setsuna and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu," Juzo said as he finished on the mossy-haired girl who grinned and waved, her forearm detaching and floating above the table, making it much easier to see. The last boy had silver hair, and his eyes had some tan-colored lining on the outside, similar to a domino mask. He gave them a big grin as he was introduced, showing off his sharp teeth. Eijiro was slightly unsettled by his appearance but couldn't think of why.

"Everyone else, this is Kirishima Eijiro, Parker Peter, and Koda Koji," Juzo said, looking at the rest of his classmates. He then turned back to the three, glaring lightly to make sure they knew not to try to dodge. "Okay, enough introductions! Spill!"

The three from Class A grabbed a few mouthfuls of food while they were introduced. Eijiro, caught by surprise, slammed on his chest to help him swallow his mouthful of food. Once that had been completed, he gave a wicked grin. "Dude, it was freaking awesome! So, we were just finished being introduced to Thirteen-Sensei when suddenly this weird black swirl formed near the fountain…"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"So, what's up, All Might-Sensei?" Ranma asked as he and Izuku took a seat in the office lounge. He unwrapped his bento as the large man sat on the small stool, dwarfing it.

"Ah, the primary reason for asking you to join me, Young Saotome, is that the Principal asked me to find a teacher's assistant for your new Martial Arts club," All Might said as he poured hot water into the teapot. The tabletop water heater was always so helpful for these occasions.

"Oh?" Ranma asked in excitement, "Has my club been approved?"

"Yes, it has! Even the... extracurricular activities, I believe it was called," All Might said, his big grin present. He handed cups of tea to the two boys before pouring one of his own. "While I will not be able to look after it myself, as I have commitments to attend to after school, I have a close associate who can fill in for me. He's worked for me for many years at my agency. His name is Yagi Toshinori."

Izuku was happy for the other boy until All Might revealed that last little detail. He had almost spit out some of the tea he had just started drinking but ended up choking on it instead. After coughing a few times and getting his breathing back under control, he saw Ranma questioning him with a raised eyebrow while All Might sweated slightly in his nervousness.

"Anyways, I learned recently that your physical abilities have nothing to do with your Quirk? Rather, you use something called Ki?" All Might said, getting Ranma's attention away from Izuku's nervous face. "It is a remarkable ability from what I have seen so far."

Ranma nodded, happy to talk to the hero about it. "Yeah, it can be. Your physical abilities can grow significantly when you've trained correctly. The more Ki you have, the more you can use to enhance yourself. Muscles or senses are the basics."

"Hmmm," All Might said, thinking it over, "I heard a little bit about it from a Detective friend I have on the force, Detective Tsukauchi. I believe he works with Officer Tamakawa."

Ranma looked up, surprised, before he remembered hearing the name mentioned before. "Oh, right. Sansa talked about him a few times."

All Might nodded before getting back on track. "I was told it is a very flexible power, one that you have only displayed a small fraction of what it is capable of. I was also told that anyone could learn to wield it, so long as they worked for it?"

"Yeah, that's all true," Ranma said, sipping at his tea before his hands flashed out to eat a few quick bites. All Might was impressed with his speed, but especially his accuracy and control.

"So, what else can it do?" All Might asked.

"Well," Ranma said, thinking of something to show. "Once you are advanced enough with your Ki usage, you can start externalizing your Ki. You can push it into other objects to strengthen, enhance, or manipulate almost anything you can put your Ki into."

"Oh!" Izuku exclaimed, catching their attention. "Like during the practical exam, you threw those rocks at the robots! I looked at the one you destroyed, and the rock seemed to go through it cleanly. I was so confused about how you did that!"

"Yep!" Ranma said with a single nod, then grinned at his friend. "Exactly. The rocks allowed me to enhance them long enough to be harder than steel, and my throws gave them enough energy to pierce them. That technique has many possibilities, from using wooden swords to cut through trees or concrete to making scarves and belts sharper than most blades."

"Amazing," All Might said. "Can you demonstrate?"

"Sure," Ranma said as he picked up the cloth from his bento. He looked around momentarily, trying to find something to test it on that wouldn't get him in trouble. "Can I show you with that tray?"

All Might looked down at the small plastic tray on the table. "Certainly."

"Great, so just stand it up," Ranma said before turning to Izuku. "Take this cloth and try to 'slash' at the tray, would you, Izuku?"

Izuku accepted the cloth, unsure what to do before he swung it around at the tray with nothing to show for it other than a flappy wack. He then handed the cloth back to Ranma.

Once Ranma had it, he smiled and flicked the cloth until it suddenly stiffened so it more closely resembled a blade, surprising both observers. Then his hand flicked out without an apparent change to the tray, wondering if it had worked. But after a delay, both pairs of eyes widened in surprise as the top of the tray fell away from the rest of it. All Might and Izuku took one end of each and saw the perfectly smooth cut that had happened.

"Wo– wow!" Izuku said before looking at the cloth again.

"And this is just one of many techniques?" All Might asked.

"Yeah. It uses some similar principles for a lot of similar techniques, but it varies widely in its application. Mastering it and some other fundamentals can lead to all sorts of additional techniques. Some of them are just stepping stones to more advanced attacks that make this trick look simple."

All Might nodded along, impressed by what he had seen and heard. It truly fascinated him how someone without a Quirk could accomplish these things. Much like Izuku, he briefly wondered if he could have saved his own sensei if he had known about it without requiring her to weaken herself. That doubt about what he could have done differently was something he had and would always carry with him. But it had gained new traction with these recent revelations.

"So, how long does it take to learn this?" All Might asked. He had been told that some of the ones that Ranma had been training had already begun to see results.

Ranma tilted his head back, thinking about how to explain it. "Every person tends to learn different parts at different speeds. Their temperament, how they think, and I think even their Quirks at times, impact how they learn. If you tailor the training with those things in mind, you can improve the speed in which they improve."

All Might rubbed his chin in thought, realizing Ranma must have found more efficient ways to train others. Which was promising for newer trainees. He remained silent and let the boy continue.

"The first step is to push yourself to the limit as much as possible, training hard and gaining a strong awareness of one's body. Meditation can also achieve this, but awareness of your body and the world around you is always necessary. It is easier when your body is in the best shape it can be since one has a higher amount of Ki to work with and thus feel."

"That was one of the things I noticed about Izuku before the practical exam," Ranma said, catching the two off-guard. "While his body could still use some strengthening, he was closer to unlocking his Ki than almost anyone else there. Tenya and Mezo were both fairly close, as were Ochako and Toru, but Izuku had pushed himself the hardest. Especially with, from what I could tell, maybe a year of training."

"Is– is that why you approached me, Ranma-kun?" Izuku asked, startled by that revelation.

"Remember, I am trying to become a sensei," Ranma said while looking at the boy seriously. "So few people are aware of Ki that I want to spread it, especially to those that wouldn't abuse it."

All Might and Izuku noticed that he had gained a far-away look in his eyes, wondering what he meant by that before he refocused on them.

"So I am almost always on the lookout for others pushing themselves as hard as possible. That means they have a drive and are usually much closer to unlocking that potential than those who don't. Those who don't have that drive are not likely to push themselves hard enough. I guess there are probably some exceptions, but it seems really unlikely."

All Might and Izuku nodded along, sipping their tea as Ranma asked his own question. "Speaking of training, were you the one who trained Izuku?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow as both of them choked on their tea, causing them to spend several seconds coughing as they tried to recover while Ranma watched.

"Errr, why would you think that, Young Saotome?" All Might asked, slightly nervous at the direction the questions had gone.

"Well, I've noticed you hanging around and talking with Izuku a few times. And on Orientation day, you were nearby as well. So I figured you two knew each other beforehand," Ranma answered quickly. Then a smirk appeared as he mentioned an additional observation, "and with how similar your Quirks were, I figured you might be related."

All Might and Izuku were glad they hadn't taken any additional sips of their tea, as they likely would have emptied the contents in front of them. As it was, both had come to a halt; their nervousness went from a four to a nine as Ranma had gotten very close to the truth. Closer than either were comfortable with. Izuku just looked to All Might to answer, as he did not feel qualified.

All Might looked at the pigtailed boy, deciding to forgo his nervousness to evaluate him more thoroughly. Ranma's present smirk told him that an outright lie wouldn't work. All Might sighed but wasn't honestly bothered by it at this time. The young man had already shown he had what it took to be an exceptional Hero.

"Yes, I was the one who trained him. Yes, our Quirks are similar. But no, we are not related," All Might said simply enough. "I encountered Izuku last year during an incident with a Villain, where Young Midoriya showed his potential to be a great Pro-Hero. But his body wasn't ready, and he had no one else to help him at the time. So I offered to train him."

Izuku had been surprised when All Might answered truthfully, though leaving out some key details. Still, it was much closer than he thought he would ever willingly reveal. He then looked at Ranma and saw him nodding along.

"Makes sense. You did a good job building up his body in such a short time. I was actually impressed by that when I saw it," Ranma said evenly before pointing to All Might with a slightly sharper look. "But I would suggest you include some form of sparing into the mixture at regular intervals. Sparing is very important, as it gets the trainee used to actual combat, making them less likely to freeze in a fight and building the muscle memory for moving during a fight."

"Ah, I hadn't realized it was that important," All Might said, embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his head. "My own training did not require building up muscles since my Quirk automatically did that. So, my Sensei spent all of our time training with sparring. I thought that would come later."

Ranma folded his arms and tilted his head as he considered it before nodding. "Okay, I can see why you might be thrown off by that. Was Izuku the first person you've trained?"

"Yes."

"Okay, from one sensei to another, if whoever you train is expected to fight hand-to-hand, make sure that gets incorporated early. Once you know what your student can handle, start with something like fifty percent split between building their body and sparring. Make sure the sparring is done before and after they exhaust themselves with the physical training. This lets them get used to fighting for extended periods of time and how to push past their limits."

All Might smiled, happy to improve his ability as a sensei. He was surprised and confused when Nezu recommended that he learn from Ranma to be the club's adult mentor. This was yet another reason for him to trust his friends' judgment.

"You got pretty lucky since Izuku's a bit of a natural when it comes to that stuff," Ranma grinned after glancing at Izuku. "He already has a decent knowledge base to work with but hasn't been able to put it into practice. He spends too much time on the thought process for simple moves. Though, he doesn't waste as much time as most normally would for almost no training. That is very good for later on; once he gets the basic moves built into his muscle memory, it will be much easier to think during a fight. That can be tough to train."

All Might smiled at that, knowing that, in some ways, Izuku had been training himself with his notebooks. It was one of the things that had first impressed him about the boy. All this talk of training and his thoughts of the boy made All Might curious about one thing. "Young Saotome?" Once Ranma turned his attention back to him, he asked his question. "What kind of Hero were you looking to be?"

"None, really," Ranma answered plainly, surprising the older hero. Ranma explained his stance to the older man more, knowing his answer seemed at odds with attending U.A. "I am not looking at being a Pro Hero as a profession because I am a Martial Artist first and foremost. Martial Artists also try to pass on what we learn to the next generations, so I intend to be a sensei and probably open a Dojo at one point."

"Then why are you trying to get a Pro-Hero license?" All Might asked, still very confused by his answers.

"One of the most important tenets of a Martial Artist is to protect the weak. So whether I have a license or not, I would do what I could," Ranma said, surprising the older hero again. He continued, somewhat exasperated. "But because of the laws around Quirks and doing the things I would do anyways, it would be a pain in the ass after the fact. So getting a Hero license just seems the easiest way around it."

All Might paused momentarily, absorbing what Ranma had said before chuckling, his smile returning. "And the people you train would likely be Pro-Heroes, or people looking to become Pro-Heroes, so it gives you familiarity with what they will experience."

"Yep!"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"... what do you mean he got past their jamming?" Jezo asked Eijiro before raising an eyebrow at Peter.

"Uhh, Peter? I don't remember how you explained it…," Eijiro finished lamely, embarrassed but hoping to be pulled out of the fire.

"Their jamming was only affecting E.M.R., so I…"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"Oh? Uraraka and Hagakure? Nice of you to join us," Sakura greeted the two girls as they pulled up to the table where most of Class A ate their lunch together. "Where's Saotome and Midoriya?"

"All Might asked them to join him for lunch," Toru said. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Oh, we were discussing plans for preparing for the Sports Festival. I hope to hold after-school training sessions for anyone in the class who wants to join," Sakura said with a smile.

No one noticed Shoto's eyes glaring at his lunch.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"… and then Sensei finally gave him permission to fight! But he also said something like, 'If you do something stupid and get hurt, he'd do something worse than expelling!'" Eijiro said, his eyes sparkling. Several of their guests openly laughed at his description of the events.

"After thanking Sensei, Saotome crushed them within a second!"

His audience's laughs stopped suddenly as they stared in shock at that claim.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

All Might finished the last of his meal, sighing in relief before wiping his mouth with the cloth for his bento. He turned back to his two students and decided to ask them an important question. "Since you already know I've taken an interest in Izuku's training, I'll ask both of you. What are your plans for the Sports Festival?" All Might asked.

"Win, of course!" Ranma exclaimed, folding his arms lazily in the chair while giving an arrogant smirk.

"Oh? And why do you want to win, young Saotome?" All Might asked.

"Well, it's a competition. My school of Martial Arts loves challenges and rarely turns them down," Ranma said as his body and voice relaxed.

All Might nodded, finding it a justifiable reason, but he wondered if that was all that would drive him. But before he asked him, he turned to his successor. "And what about you, Young Midoriya?"

Izuku blinked, unsure of how he should respond. "I– I don't know," Izuku said.

"Why not?" Ranma asked, turning his head to look at his friend.

"I've just– I've never really competed like this before." Izuku winced at how pathetic he sounded.

"Soooo, it's your first competition?"

"Yes?" Izuku answered, unsure if it was the correct response.

"Well, usually, competitions and challenges are for comparing yourself against others. It's like sparring. You fight each other to learn things about them as well as yourself," Ranma explained. "But you do it in front of an audience to prove your strength to them."

"Exactly right, Young Saotome!" All Might said as he chuckled. "This is the best time for both of you to show the entire country your strength!"

"Right!" Izuku said, getting a little more into it than before.

Ranma nodded along, glad that the other boy– "Wait, what?" Ranma asked.

"Hmm?" All Might was a bit lost as to Ranma's sudden shift.

"What did you mean about the entire country?"

All Might blinked, surprised by his question. "I mean that it is one of the most watched events in the country every year. Millions of people tune in to watch and discuss it for weeks or months."

"You mean Sensei was serious about that?" Ranma exclaimed, his mouth opening in shock.

Izuku and All Might blinked at the other boy, surprised by his lack of understanding. "Umm, yes, Ranma-kun?" Izuku responded, "I used to love watching the U.A. Sports Festival for years at home. Watching some of the best Pro-Heroes before they even graduated was amazing!"

"I thought he was just bluffing!"

"Yes, most of the best heroes in Japan attended and competed in the festival before they became well known," All Might said.

The two natives watched in curiosity as Ranma's eyes grew in size, and a gleeful smile began to form. "Ranma-kun?" Izuku asked his friend, wondering what was going on. His change of attitude was putting him on edge.

"Perfect!" Ranma shouted, causing the other two to lean backward in surprise. "Oh, I am definitely winning this thing!"

All Might was about to prompt him about it but was surprised by the pigtailed boy beginning to laugh like a maniacal Villain.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"... we didn't know what to do when all of those portals started opening up all around us, with Villains jumping out of them!" Eijiro said, his eyes wide, much like his audience.

"What did you do?" Pony asked, a bit of fear in her eyes as she imagined the harrowing tale.

Eijiro's new grin calmed her and a few of the others. "That's where Haruno-san jumped in! She started giving out orders! She…"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"What kind of training?" Ochako asked, nibbling on her food as she listened to their Class Representative explain where and when their training would occur. "I was looking to join Ranma-kun's club, so I am just curious about what the differences will be."

"Wait, Saotome is forming a club?" Kyoka asked. She wasn't the only one who turned to their brunette classmate. "What kind of club?"

"It's a Martial Arts club!" Toru said, getting a bit excited at the idea. "He said he is looking to train others in his style!"

"School," Momo suddenly said, surprising their invisible classmate. "Style refers to the overarching techniques and their background, like Karate. Schools are from individuals, a particular dojo, taught specifically to students with a focus in mind. Every School is slightly different in how and what they teach."

Most of their class blinked and nodded wordlessly, not understanding that distinction.

"... anyways," Toru said finally, "he said he'd train us in his School, which sounds amazing!"

"Huh?" Denki asked, "Why is it amazing?"

"You saw him fight yesterday; how can it not be amazing?" Toru asked him.

Denki tried to respond but came up short as he remembered more details of that part of the fight and had to admit that Toru was right.

"To get back to your original question, Ururaka," Sakura said, grabbing the table's attention again. "I plan to focus on three things for this training session: the basics of combat, controlling your Quirk, and teamwork."

"What do you mean by controlling our Quirks?" Fumikage asked.

"I am talking about manipulating how you use your Quirk," Sakura said, folding her arms on the table as she leaned toward him. "To overcome or adapt to your limitations, to bend and break what you understood your Quirk was capable of."

"Really?" Denki asked as he sat up straight and gave her his full attention. He wasn't the only one who noticed; several others also took notice.

Sakura just eyed each of them and playfully grinned.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

"... and then All Might smashed through the stadium doors! He said his usual 'I AM here' line, which was suuuch a relief! Seriously, you hear it all the time watching recordings, but it just hits so much harder when you're in a fight!" Eijiro said. He saw his audience sporting a bunch of smiles.

However, Eijiro's face took a darker turn, interrupting their good mood. "But that was when the Villains almost…"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

All Might shook his head in mirth as Ranma finally left the room, leaving him alone with his protege. He waited a full minute, ensuring that Ranma had properly left, before releasing his buffed form, shrinking in size to his real and very frail self. He looked to Izuku, finding the boy still entranced.

"Well, that certainly did not go as I expected," Toshinori said. He chuckled at the thought before coughing into his fist and feeling a bit of blood leaking out. He reached into his pocket for his ever-present handkerchief and cleaned himself up.

Izuku blinked in surprise as he realized what his sensei had said. "What do you mean?"

"I was going to suggest that both of you do your best to show the world who you are and that you are here!" Toshinori said while pointing at Izuku with both of his index fingers. "I still think, in your case, you should do that. I just didn't expect Young Saotome to find something even better!"

Izuku nodded, understanding his point. If he hadn't already known Ranma, he wondered what his reaction would have been to what he planned to do. He then looked up, eying his personal hero. "Do you think he'll win?"

"He has an excellent chance of that! Putting such a requirement as winning will help give him that drive to do so," Toshinori said, smiling at the idea. "But the Sports Festival is rife with challenges that can surprise you, so there is always the chance he could lose."

"But do not lose sight of yourself, Young Midoriya!" Toshinori said, getting the boy's attention. "While Saotome's goal of revealing the nature of his Ki abilities to the world if he wins is noble, do not let it blind you to doing your best. You must show the world who you are, just as much as he must!"

"Right!"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Eijiro remained momentarily silent as his audience tried to process how the fight had finally ended, with Sakura disappearing. And more specifically, what she had done right before. A few of them were disturbed or scared, but most nodded as they recognized the seriousness of what had happened.

"What was the Villain's Quirk?" Juzo asked.

"Some form of disintegration," Peter said, speaking up for Eijiro this time. "From what I could tell, based on the recording, the moment his five fingers touch something, it starts to disintegrate. Aizawa-sensei confirmed this morning that she likely saved All Might's life by doing that."

Jezo nodded, his curiosity satisfied regarding that part of the tale. "So what happened after? Where'd Haruno go?"

"Well, she…"

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Aizawa grumbled as he stood up from his sleeping bag. Nemuri had finished walking out of the room; her class for the day had ended. He sighed as he saw some of the students sporting blushes, especially since Nemuri was still a flirt at heart, even in her business suit. He cleared his throat as the last bell chimed, getting his students' attention.

"There are a couple of announcements to make before you all leave," Aizawa said. His students remained seated, waiting for him to continue. "There are two after-school activities that have been approved by the Principal. Saotome-san, Haruno-san, please step to the front of the class."

He waited until they got up and met him at the front, giving sideways glances at each other as they did so. Ranma looked confused about Sakura's presence, but the reverse seemed not so true as she gave him a friendly smirk.

"Saotome has been approved to start a new club based specifically on his school of Martial Arts. Saotome, please give a brief explanation."

"Uhh, sure, Sensei," Ranma said, just a little nervous before he turned back to the rest of the class. "The Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu is a School focusing on adaptation and winning by any means possible. My club and School of Martial Arts train you to use what works best for you. This includes height, strength, speed, toughness, or your Quirks. It is extremely harsh training, but it is there for a reason: to make you the best martial artist you can be. We will meet after school in Gym C for now."

The room was silent as they stared at him after he finished his spiel; some looked on with interest, while others were hesitant. Aizawa let it be for a few moments before he moved things along. "Haruno has proposed her own training group that will also meet after school. Please give a brief description, Haruno."

"Certainly, Sensei," Sakura said before she looked at the class and smiled. "My training group is targeting the Sports Festival, but we may continue to train beyond it. The goals of this training group are dealing with the basics of combat, improving your Quirks, and a heavy emphasis on teamwork. We will meet in Gym E after school."

"Thank you, Haruno," Aizawa said as he stepped forward to be between his two students. "Both training groups are expected to take two to three hours every day after class, at least until the Sports Festival is finished. They have also been given permission for additional time as they see fit and their own rules. Both will be supervised by a teacher selected by the Principal."

Aizawa then took a deep breath. "It is by the recommendation of the Principal, All Might, and myself that all of you seriously consider joining one of these two after-school groups. This isn't just about dealing with the Sports Festival; there was a development from yesterday's attack that has us concerned."

That perked up the entire class as they waited for him to explain.

"We learned this morning that the leaders of the attack, the one with the hands, the warper, and the one they called Nomu, were all warped away while they were in transit to a better-equipped facility." Aizawa listened as the class sparked into outrage yet again, but he let them express their outbursts. It took a few minutes, but they finally settled down as he calmly waited.

"This was done by a second, unknown warper that could target them even within their secured transport. There were no warnings for the Pro-Heroes or Officers escorting them, so please do not hold it against them. They are investigating and attempting to track them, but the Principal and I thought you deserved to know."

"Security for the Sports Festival and for U.A., in general, is being increased significantly, but the Principal and teachers both feel some personal improvements for all of you would make it safer for you in the long run." He was glad to see the class pull themselves together. "If any of you have concerns or wish to talk, my door is always open to you for whatever reason."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Izuku was a tangle of nerves as Aizawa-sensei called an end to the school day and left rather quickly while his students congregated around each other. While yesterday's events worried him, the knowledge that they had been apprehended had lessened the load on his mind. Now, though, they knew they had escaped with the help of someone else, meaning those three and more were still out there. They had targeted All Might already, so who was to say they wouldn't target him or the class again?

He saw he wasn't the only one concerned, as others appeared worried as they packed their things. But what seemed odd to him was that Ranma and Sakura had looked… annoyed more than anything else. They both had shown they had experience in fights, so he tried not to worry about it too much.

Since he wanted to get to the gym as quickly as possible so he could change, he finished his packing and made his way toward the entrance. Ochako and Toru were not far behind him when he slid open the classroom door and found the hallway filled with waiting students.

"Wh– what's going on?" Ochako asked from behind him.

Her outburst caught the rest of their classes' attention as they looked at the new development. The crowd of students outside was a broad mixture, all looking inward as they stared at them. Some were peeking around others or even trying to poke their heads into the room to see who was there. Some cell phones were pointing at them as they spoke to each other.

Tenya stepped forward, his arm bent at his side, and pointed toward the crowd. "Excuse me! What business do you have with Class A?"

Their observers were silent as they watched, not answering Tenya's question as more of their classmates approached the doorway.

"Scouting out the enemy, Four Eyes," Katsuki said as he walked up behind them. "We're the ones that defeated a Villain attack. They want to take a look at us before the Sports Festival. Out of the way, Deku."

Izuku moved to the side as Katsuki stepped in front of the students. "There's no point in doing stuff like that," Katsuki said before he glared at the annoyances in front of him, "Out of my way, Extras!"

"Stop calling people 'Extras' just because you don't know them!" Tenya cried out, swinging his arm in a chopping motion as he called out Katsuki's attitude.

The mass of students quieted, looking at Katsuki as he stood there and waited for them to do what he told them. Izuku and Ochako's nervousness increased as Katsuki created more enemies for them.

The silence was broken by a voice calling out from within the crowd, "I came to see what the famous Class A was like, but you seem pretty arrogant."

The voice belonged to a boy with messy, indigo-colored hair that flared out in multiple directions on his head, much like Aizawa-sensei's hair would get when his Quirk was activated. His eyes were half-closed as he walked through the crowd to stand in front of Katsuki at the doorway.

"Are all the students in the hero course like this?" the boy asked as he looked at the others in the classroom. He didn't bother to acknowledge the students shaking their heads. He did focus on Katsuki as the blonde's face settled on smoldering anger.

"Seeing something like this makes me disillusioned," the boy said as he rubbed the back of his head. "There are quite a few who enrolled in general studies or other courses because they didn't make it into the hero course. Did you know that?"

Katsuki focused his glare on the boy, his red eyes easily visible, waiting for him to get to his point.

"The school at least left us a chance. Depending on the results of the Sports Festival, they'll consider our transfer into the hero course," the unnamed boy said.

Izuku could only watch as the boy spoke, surprised by what he was saying. He realized many of the students looking at them may have been in that position.

"And it seems they may also transfer people out," the boy said, a minuscule smirk formed as he watched the nervous looks from some of Izuku's classmates. "Scouting out the enemy? I, at least, came to say that even if you're in the hero course if you get too carried away, I'll sweep your feet out from under you."

The boy then looked straight into Katsuki's eyes before finishing what he had come to say. "I came with a declaration of war."

Izuku was taken aback by the boy's boldness, unsure of how to deal with it.

"Sure, you're welcome to try."

Izuku jerked somewhat as Ranma's voice came from behind him. He turned back to see the pigtailed boy walking up casually. A few steps behind him, he saw Sakura. Both of them looked bored and uninterested.

"But you'll lose," Ranma said.

Izuku looked back at the crowd and saw the indigo-haired boy had turned his attention to Ranma. "Another arrogant one, too sure of himself just because you survived a Villain attack."

"Nah, it ain't arrogance," Ranma said, tilting his head as he looked the other boy in the eyes. "You'll lose because you aren't even trying."

That got a reaction out of the other boy, his eyes focusing into a glare. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Ranma looked over the crowd before turning back to the boy. "Some of you have trained some, but most of you have given up. You've barely trained at all. You aren't putting any effort into it; instead, you expect to get a spot handed to you. Let me guess. Do you think your Quirk is super powerful or something?"

The boy's glare got more profound as he tried to fix Ranma on the spot but didn't actually say anything. Ranma just smirked in response. "No? Or do you think it just didn't work due to something regarding the exam? Either way, you gave up. You haven't adapted or tried to improve yourself since then."

The boy was becoming angry, but Izuku noticed the looks on the other students. Many of them looked away with guilt. He took a peek at the rest of his class and saw them watching Ranma closely.

"Frankly, I don't think you really care. If you did, you would do everything possible to get better. You aren't covering for where you're weak or making sure that you will pass the exam next time if you retake the exam. If you really cared about becoming a Pro-Hero, you wouldn't let a silly test stop you from accomplishing it," Ranma said, a bit of heat in his voice as he leveled a hard look at the boy and those behind him.

"You know noth–"

"He's right," Sakura said as she stepped beside Ranma. "You don't have the drive to do it. You're coasting on thinking your Quirk is all you need, but that isn't what will allow you to survive out there."

"Pretty lady…" a soft voice said, catching Izuku's eyes as he saw a tiny teenage boy with purple balls on his head looking up at Sakura. His eyes widened further as he looked around the room.

Izuku turned back towards Ranma and Sakura, finding Ranma looking at the short boy. A blood vein on his forehead became visible and twitched, but Sakura ignored it.

"Don't look down on those who have spent the time and effort to succeed. Instead, decide if it is something you actually want, then work for it. Hard," Sakura finished before stepping forward. The crowd parted for her. She was followed by Ranma and, finally, Katsuki.

Izuku rushed to not be left behind.

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Naomasa patiently waited as he let the U.A. staff absorb his verbal report while some of them re-read the paperwork he had handed out earlier. They combed through it, finding the essential bits of information. He had handed out a set of the paperwork to Eraser Head, Vlad King, and Snipe as they stepped into the room now that classes had finished for the day.

They had already had time to absorb the news about the League of Villains leaders escaping, having been informed in the morning. But he had gone over more details, additional developments, and what they had acquired from the interrogations.

"So this… Shigaraki, his Quirk allows him to disintegrate anything he touches. And it was confirmed it worked on humans?" Snipe asked, looking through some of the details.

"Yes," Naomasa said, looking at his paperwork and the relevant information. "Some interviews confirmed that the one called Shigaraki had gotten upset with one of the small-time Villains when they had gathered together. Shigaraki grabbed the man, and his body rapidly began to disintegrate, leaving a bloody mess behind."

"Are there any requirements for activating it?" Vlad asked, knowing Eraser Head would want to know how it worked. Toshinori was also looking on, eager to confirm how close to death he might have been.

"Based on slow replays of Parker's video, he needs contact with all five of his fingertips to activate it. While we don't know how much time is needed for the full disintegration of a person, it would have severely damaged the area it touched." Naomasa then looked Toshinori in the eyes. "Considering your previous injury, there was a good chance that just the initial contact might have been enough to kill you or more severely injure you. Especially since the place he aimed was near your old wound."

Toshinori sighed, realizing he had truly been a hair's breadth away from that possibility. "Haruno-san saved my life then," Toshinori said, smiling as he looked over at the stoic Eraser Head.

"Yes, she did. Some people are still concerned with how she did it, especially for a teenage girl who just entered U.A. Her actions are getting some unwanted attention," Naomasa said. He had already informed Recovery Girl, who would relay that information to Sakura.

"News agencies?" Midnight asked, knowing how much trouble those leeches could cause if they got a whiff of that possible controversy.

"No, luckily," Namasa replied, though his face looked like he had sucked on something sour. "More like higher-ups in police, politicians, and the Safety Commission. While I don't think it has spread to all of them yet, it is just a matter of time before they learn of it."

"Back to the Villains," Vlad said after the silence had run on long enough. "So even with the names Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and Nomu, we have no idea who they are?"

"Correct. We don't know if their names are aliases, but no one matching their supposed ages, appearance, or Quirks has appeared in our research," Naomasa said, sighing before releasing a critical piece of information. "We might have been able to get something more with the samples taken from Shigaraki or his severed body parts, but all of the evidence that had been collected regarding them was destroyed or stolen about the time the Villains escaped. Save one."

Everyone's heads snapped to the man at that bit of information. Especially as the reports they were reading from specifically said all samples were destroyed. Since they were all veterans of the trade, none of them needed an explanation for why it was left out, so they waited.

"We… got lucky. One of the technicians had just finished scraping some skin cells off one of the amputated hands that Shigaraki was wearing and had been moving to transport it for processing when they improperly left the sealed room with the sample still held in their pocket," Naomasa said, before chuckling at their lucky break. "The man had been on a long shift, so the strain made him make a mistake as he tried to get some lunch and some rest. He wasn't in the room when it lit up, saving himself from injury like the others or potential death."

"The explosion, and everything else, made him forget about the sample he had taken, and he ended up taking it home. He found it in the morning, and we've been keeping that information out of any reports. It is being transported to a very different facility by the man himself, who was given an 'extended vacation.'"

The staff of U.A. chuckled, understanding how complicated the situation was and how lucky they were. "Do you know how they knew where the evidence would be?"

"At his time? No," Naomasa said. "We don't know if it was an inference, a breach of our network, a breach of the site, or an inside job. Either way, they knew exactly where and what to hit to recover and destroy the additional evidence. The local chief is rather… upset and is trying to find where the hole in our security might be, but it may take some time. Especially if it wasn't just one method but a combination. We aren't ruling anything out."

Nezu nodded. It seemed both of their groups had some work to do. "Thank you, Detective Tsukauchi. If we find anything more from our end, we will inform you immediately. Hopefully, this additional sample will shed some light on their identities."

-o-0-o-O-o-0-o-​

Chapter 11 - End

 

[Shadowj6480]

"You're saying they achieved this through training alone?"

"Is it so surprising?" Nezu asked, looking the man in the eye. "You, yourself, can perform feats of physical skill beyond what most civilians can achieve. Other heroes have done the same thing. Feats that their quirks should not directly impact. Additionally, some circles of pro-heroes also say that Ki or Chi is real. What I find most interesting is that there has been a tremendous amount of chatter in those circles since last year. From my subtle investigations, that chatter has led to Saotome."

Click to shrink...

Love that you're dealing with the Charles Atlas superpowers in MHA. It's always fun when an author decides to address that, as well as how just sheer physical training could give people the strength to stand against quirks without one of their own.

Edit: This is also very interesting because I can see Shigaraki gaining an obsession with Saotome similar to how he did with Izuku in canon. What with the strength seemingly comparable to All Might and everything. Not only that, but once that is relayed to All For One I can see the wannabe demon king also mistaking Ranma for the new OFA holder.

Bonus funny points if Shigaraki just ends up carrying a picture of Saotome that he shows to other villains like he kinda does in canon with Izuku.

 

[TheWhiteRose]

Woo update. Time for a re read.

 

[Avalon Aurora]

It's kinda funny here that the Shinso is going to be particularly pissed at Ranma and Sakura and possibly pass them off as dumb muscleheads whose 'training' they are dismissing him for lacking doesn't matter against his quirk when they might have training that specifically counters his quirk, IIRC, there is a part of the manga where Ranma resists some kind of mind-control technique of Happosai's and clearly was trained to do so at some point (possibly by Genma who was aware of the technique), and Sakura has anti-genjutsu skills that she might be able to adapt to disrupt any energy trying to affect her mind or something, depending on the mechanics of the quirk in question in this fic. He's not so bad that I'm sure he'd make that kind of assumption about them though, and they might have genuinely made him realize he wasn't quite putting in his all towards his goals, although he might still be pissed off at them and want to take them down a peg anyway.

Edit: Shinso's quirk might still work on them though, depending on how it works, neither is able to counter all forms of mind-control techniques with this sort of thing.

 

[CaedesPlerique2]

Love that you're dealing with the Charles Atlas superpowers in MHA. It's always fun when an author decides to address that, as well as how just sheer physical training could give people the strength to stand against quirks without one of their own.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I try to recognize that a normal human, even an Olympic athlete, is not going to perform some of the things that they have shown being able to do. The nice thing is that Ki, untrained version, makes it easier to account for it.

Edit: This is also very interesting because I can see Shigaraki gaining an obsession with Saotome similar to how he did with Izuku in canon. What with the strength seemingly comparable to All Might and everything. Not only that, but once that is relayed to All For One I can see the wannabe demon king also mistaking Ranma for the new OFA holder.

Bonus funny points if Shigaraki just ends up carrying a picture of Saotome that he shows to other villains like he kinda does in canon with Izuku.

Click to shrink...

Yes, there will be fixations that occur. 😈

It's kinda funny here that the Shinso is going to be particularly pissed at Ranma and Sakura and possibly pass them off as dumb muscleheads whose 'training' they are dismissing him for lacking doesn't matter against his quirk when they might have training that specifically counters his quirk, IIRC, there is a part of the manga where Ranma resists some kind of mind-control technique of Happosai's and clearly was trained to do so at some point (possibly by Genma who was aware of the technique), and Sakura has anti-genjutsu skills that she might be able to adapt to disrupt any energy trying to affect her mind or something, depending on the mechanics of the quirk in question in this fic. He's not so bad that I'm sure he'd make that kind of assumption about them though, and they might have genuinely made him realize he wasn't quite putting in his all towards his goals, although he might still be pissed off at them and want to take them down a peg anyway.

Edit: Shinso's quirk might still work on them though, depending on how it works, neither is able to counter all forms of mind-control techniques with this sort of thing.

Click to shrink...

By Chapter 11, Shinso knows almost nothing about either of them. The news of what they are capable hasn't spread much. The most he might hear are whispers that were overheard that talked about how 'amazing' they are by teachers or others that overheard discussions.

As for how they fight... the nature of the battles will shift significantly compared to canon. Chapters 12 and 13 will help the developments make sense.