Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

His third day at U.A high school  – or second if you didn’t include the first half-day – was pretty uneventful. Kusuo was simply only harassed at the station, harassed on the train, and harassed on the walk to school. Reporters must be among the worst breed of humans on the planet. Surely privacy can’t be that foreign of a concept. 

At the root of his problems was All Might. 

The public was obsessed with the hero, enough to pester his students early in the morning 

“Hey kid! You with the weird hairpins! Can you tell me about All Might?” Oily hands gripped onto his shoulders, spinning him around.

Kusuo glared at the lady. He attempted to shrug off her grip but she kept on clutching. Unshaken, the paparazzi woman pressed on.

“All Might has taught you, right? Tell us what the Symbol of Peace is like as a teacher!” A microphone was shoved into his face rudely. The reporter had positioned herself mere millimetres from him; any sudden movements from either party and Kusuo would be robbed of his first kiss. The bodies of dozens of adults crowded in his personal space, desperation reeking off of them. Someone’s elbow had found its new home, edged between Kusuo’s ribs. Their thoughts buzzed like flies in the back of his mind. This entire situation was getting increasingly uncomfortable. 

Kusuo closed his eyes. He knew what he needed to do. Countless times of practicing in the mirror had prepared him for moments like these. A grand skill, more useful than a handful of his quirks.

Kusuo curled his lips in disgust, pinching his brows. With the most judgemental expression he could muster, he stared into the woman’s soul. She flinched back, knocking heads with someone inched up behind her. 

His annoyed face. 

Works every time. He’d perfected it over the years of dealing with his Father and other nuisances. Kusuo was certain that there was no one who could best it. With the lady distracted and rubbing the back of her empty head, Kusuo walked as fast as he could to the gates of U.A. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see other students do the same. 

“HEY! Come back here!” That same greasy hand waved the microphone up high frantically from somewhere in the sea of reporters. He was most definitely not going back. Kusuo picked up the pace. 

In the safety of U.A’s grounds, he let out a small sigh of relief. Whew. The lady had managed to squeeze herself out of the herd and was running straight towards him. Microphone of course, still in hand. A few of her fellow reporters called out to stop her, but it was too late. The moment her foot stepped an inch inside of the school, red lights began to blare. Instantly, an iron wall slammed down. Its thud was deafening. The gate was locked shut, effectively keeping the press out. 

Kusuo smiled in satisfaction. The thoughts of anguish beyond the wall was like music to his ears. For once, U.A was actually doing something worthy of his respect.

Avoiding his classmates while he could, Kusuo made his way to the classroom. When he arrived, there were quite a few people already seated. According to their inner rambling, Bakugou and Iida both get to school as early as possible. Early bird gets the worm must be their shared motto.

The rest of the class trickled in quickly as the first bell rang. Everyone was seated and staring at the homeroom teacher with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety.

The homeless man cleared his throat.

“Good work on yesterday’s combat training. I hope you all know what you need to learn. I’ll go deeper about it later, but for now I need you all to decide on class representatives. Sorry for the late notice, but you need to decide before homeroom is over.” Aizawa zipped himself back into his yellow cocoon and slumped over, asleep before he even hit the ground.

Kusuo wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or concerned. Briefly, he wondered what sort of things the man must get up to if he needed to sleep during the day that often. The life of a hero must be exhausting.

Predictably, the class had grown excited at this new information. Iida in particular was buzzing in his seat, head off in the clouds. Kusuo really didn’t understand their reactions. At all. Who would willingly want to be the class rep? He always saw it as some sort of punishment. 

“Pick me!” Kirishima slammed his hands on his desk. “I wanna be the class rep!” His voice was quickly drowned out by several protests, all demanding that they be selected themselves. 

Kaminari raised his hand excitedly, “Me too! Guys, c’mon, you should make me be the class rep!”

“I want to be the class rep as well.” spoke Jiro, much more calmly. She’d definitely be getting Kusuo’s vote before the other two. By the looks of it, half the class wanted to be elected. He doubted that they would be making any progress soon. The murmuring was abruptly cut off by the sound of a teenager clearing his throat.

Iida shot up in his seat. He pushed up his glasses smoothly, standing tall amongst his peers.

“Silence please! The role of the class representative is serious. This isn’t a job you do on a whim. A true leader is elected by a democratic process, which is what I propose.” Holding his head high, Iida continued. “We should hold a vote. Whoever has the most support from our classmates shall be our class representative. That is the proper way!”

Yaoyorozu nodded with approval, “I second that. We should all write on a slip of paper on who we believe should be the class representative, then at the end we can tally up the votes.” She slipped out her notebook from her bag, and began dividing a page into twenty equal squares with scary precision.

“Well yeah, that’s a good idea, but won’t everyone just vote for themselves?” questioned Asui. “We haven’t known each other for very long, afterall...” There were a few mumbles of agreement to that. 

Shaking her head, Uraraka butted in. “That’s true, but doesn’t that just make the people that get multiple votes even more admirable? We should do the vote!”

‘Oh, she’s right!’

As Yaoyorozu began handing out the pieces of paper, Kusuo glanced around the room. Really, there were only three people suitable for the role out of the entire class. One of them was completely insufferable, but competent. Though by the sounds of it, he was selfless enough to not even vote for himself. 

Kusuo sighed as he scribbled down Iida’s name.

When everyone had announced that they were done, Yaoyorozu came by collecting the slips. The class fell back into its annoying chit-chatter as she tallied down all the votes. A minute or two ticked by until all the votes were counted and displayed on the blackboard. There were definitely a few people not happy with the results. 

“Who the fuck voted for that shitty nerd?!” Bakugou barked out, seething. 

Sero glanced over. “Chill bro, it’s better than voting for you.”

“What the hell did you say to me?! I’ll blow your head off!” Kusuo rolled his eyes. This kid was way too violent.

The teacher chose this time to wake up, and crack an eye open at the blackboard. Three points for Midoriya, and two for Yaoyorozu. The rest either had one point or zero.

“Alright then. The class representative will be Midoriya, and the deputy class rep will be Yaoyorozu. Good work, and keep the noise levels down.” Aizawa gave them a stink eye before disappearing back under his desk. 

‘One point? Someone voted for me? They must believe in my leadership qualities! I feel honoured!’

Kusuo sincerely hoped that Iida never figured out who that someone was. The rest of homeroom flew by quickly, and soon he found himself listening to the ringing of the lunch bell.

His classmates all got out of their seats and headed for the door. Already, they were breaking off into groups to sit with. Lunch was probably the most important part of the day. Since they had only just started school, friend groups were still undetermined. If Kusuo didn’t act soon, he would find himself mixed up with the wrong crowd. Or worse, ostracised. He had to find a nice, non-flashy small group. It shouldn’t be too hard; he already had a few people in mind.

“Saiki. Please stay behind for a second.”

God dammit. Eye twitching, Kusuo turned to face his teacher. The universe really hated him. Aizawa lazily wriggled out of his sleeping bag, then pulled out a file from his desk drawer. Taking his sweet time, he flipped the paper over and began to skim read.

If this man didn’t hurry up then Kusuo’s social life would be in great danger.

His teacher looked up at him. “Saiki, this is the form that you submitted to U.A on details about your quirk.” Kusuo nodded, already knowing what this was about. The teacher hummed before tapping his finger on a certain sentence. 

“Of course, you must know that lying about certain things about your quirk is a very wrong thing to do, correct?” The man’s voice was in a flat tone, tiredness obvious. Once again, he nodded. This was not a conversation that either of them was looking forward to.

Aizawa’s half-lidded eyes bored straight into Kusuo’s. “So tell me then, Saiki, why is it written here that coffee jelly is a requirement to keep your body functioning after overusing your quirk?”

Kusuo kept his expression perfectly blank. 

- “It’s one of the drawbacks of my quirk. It’s medically necessary.”

“If it's medically necessary, then how come there was no mention of it in any of your past documents? U.A takes background checks seriously. This is the first time that anything like that has been officially recorded.” Kusuo breathed out as the teacher rattled on, remembering his well practiced cover story.

- “I only found out about it recently, sensei. I don’t use my quirk very often.”

Aizawa rolled his bloodshot eyes. “For someone who doesn’t use their quirk very often, you’ve seem to have grown very accustomed to not talking normally.” Well… maybe he should’ve practiced his cover story a bit more.

The teacher looked at him expectantly. Kusuo stared back. A few awkward moments passed.

Coming to the conclusion that nothing fruitful was coming out of this, Aizawa sighed. There wasn’t much the hero could do to prove his lie, as forceful medical examinations on students was unethical. “U.A will have it so that you are served your… dietary requirement each lunch break. It will also be provided after heroics. We can’t have students passing out during class time because of neglection. It’s a bad look.”

Kusuo nodded yet again. The muscles in his neck were starting to spasm. 

“Great. Now scram, go eat.” Aizawa waved him off, and Kusuo quickly left the room. Thank goodness. He was worried that they wouldn’t end up giving him his coffee jelly at all. It was good that the school was so self-conscious. 

But now he had more important things to worry about. Like the fact that he was late to lunch, and that most people had already taken their seats leaving no room for him. Heck, even the food line probably didn’t have any room.

Filled with dread, Kusuo opened the lunchroom doors.

Hundreds of voices and thoughts crashed into him.

U.A’s cafeteria was packed. Hero course, support course, and management course students from all years ate in the same place. There were about fifty or so hungry teenagers still waiting in line for their food. Kusuo frowned. This wasn’t good at all.

With no options left, he joined the line for his lunchtray. It took around ten minutes before he was finally served. The lunch lady even recognized him and gave him a cup of coffee jelly with a ‘dietary requirement’ label. U.A sure works fast. 

Kusuo stood in the middle of the room, tray in hand. Most of the tables were already filled. Even the quiet corners were taken. What a disaster. 

‘Ooh, isn’t that Saiki? I should get him to come eat with me! The dream team has to stick together!’

“Hey Saiki! Over here!” Mina called out, waving her hands up in the air. It took all of his concentration to not whip around and glare at her. Luckily, he didn’t, and instead walked off in the opposite direction.

‘Aw, I don’t think he heard me…’

There had to be a spot somewhere. A place with no annoying people, and no one that would want to get all buddy buddy with him. 

That was when he spotted it. 

Kusuo’s ideal group. Practically summoned from the heavens.

Near the back of the cafeteria, at the one most quiet section. Jiro Kyoka was sat down, poking at her food. Across from her was Ojiro and Shoji. Then, further down the table was Todoroki Shoto. All of them were minding their own business, eating their food. There were a couple of words passed between them, but nothing excessive. Bingo.

As nonchalantly as he could, Kusuo made his way over. Jiro noticed him first, ears and all. She smiled at him, giving a small nod. Great. Kusuo took that as acceptance and sat down, halfway between Jiro and Todoroki. 

Gently, he set his tray on the table. Ojiro looked up from where he was eating and gave a tiny wave, before returning to his food. He let out a small sigh of relief. This was the perfect outcome.

They all ate in a comfortable silence before someone spoke up.

“The cafeteria is very loud.” Shoji commented, glancing at Jiro. Then quickly, at Kusuo.

Jiro nodded, “It is. But that’s to be expected of a large school.” She coiled one of her fingers around her ear cord absentmindedly.

“Er, is the noise like, worse for you? Because of your quirk?” asked Ojiro. His eyes were fixated on Jiro’s earphone jacks. She looked up, a touch embarrassed.

“Well… yeah. I’m used to it though, so it’s alright.” Jiro said. Ojiro nodded and went back to his meal. The mixture and quietness and normalcy radiating from the table put Kusuo in a sense of peace.

Thinking back, this day was going quite well. There were no surprise tests, his coffee jelly was approved, and he found a nice group to have lunch with. If every day at school was like this, Kusuo would almost look forward to coming to U.A. Almost.

The thing is, God really hated Kusuo.

A trilling alarm erupted from the cafeteria speakers. The loud noise shot around the room, chasing out any hint of quiet.

Confusion and panic spiked in hundreds of minds. Jiro smacked her hands up to her ears to cover them. Students stood up, turning heads around frantically.

“There has been a Level 3 security breach. All students please evacuate outside promptly.”

The hordes of students began to rush out of the cafeteria. People pushed and shoved, their thoughts irrational. Clearly, this sort of thing had never happened before. Kusuo picked up the coffee jelly from his tray. Lunch was ending early today.

“We need to get out of here.” Shoji, basically half giant, got to his feet. With three hands, he gestured for his classmates to follow him. Ojiro and Jiro nodded, standing up. 

Towering over everyone, Shoji joined the drove of students first. He used his multiple limbs to push lightly against the crowd, successfully creating a space for the others to walk safely behind him. Kusuo winced, then raised a spoon of coffee jelly to his mouth. The stampede of frantic and scared minds was like nails against chalkboard. A hand on his shoulder – Ojiro, such a normal guy – appeared and steered Kusuo towards Shoji. 

Jiro turned her head urgently. “Todoroki, we have to leave!” She whisper-hissed, hands still covering her ears.

Unfazed, Todoroki finally stood up. His gaze had been sweeping the room, checking for any threats. Compared to the rest of his classmates, Todoroki’s mind was unsettlingly calm. Still, it was better than the panicking, so Kusuo focused on his detachedness instead. The four of them followed Shoji out of the cafeteria. 

Regrettably, their little makeshift group didn’t last long. Shoji was strong and large, but inevitably helpless against the shoving and barging of hundreds of students. It only took a couple of minutes before Kusuo was swept away by the sea of fear, Ojiro’s steady hand forcibly ripped from his shoulder. He wasn’t the only one, because he could see a peppermint-coloured boy similarly getting swallowed. Kusuo really wanted to teleport away, but he had no idea where he would teleport to. 

What was even happening? He focused in on his mind-reading, listening for someone with answers. The determined voice belonging to Iida floated into Kusuo’s mind. Ah, the paparazzi was the cause of the security breach. U.A was stuffed with overreactors. He swallowed the urge to curse someone as Kusuo was once again pushed into sweaty bodies.

The throng that had stolen Kusuo away was currently endangering his coffee jelly. Pointy elbows and thick shoulders knocked and jabbed into him, threatening to spill his food. Damn it. Okay, change of plans. It didn’t matter where he went, Kusuo needed to get out of here pronto.

‘There he is.’

Fingers gripped onto the back of Kusuo’s uniform. He turned his head to face Todoroki’s multicoloured eyes. No words were exchanged between them. Todoroki simply nodded his head in the direction of the cafeteria they just left. Kusuo grabbed the boy’s wrist, so one of his hands was holding his coffee jelly, and the other the spoon and Todoroki. A flash, and their forms flickered out of reality.

Todoroki blinked. He was doing quite well for a first time teleporter. The two boys glanced around the now empty cafeteria.

“Something's wrong.” Todoroki stated, voice blank.

- “Yes. The alarms went off, probably the paparazzi,” responded Kusuo.

“No. Not that. I have a feeling.” He didn’t offer an explanation. Instead he stared expressionless at the ceiling. It really wasn’t helping that Todoroki’s mind had gone completely silent. So many empty heads these days. Kusuo took another bite out of his coffee jelly. 

Todoroki finally snapped out of his stupor and focused his stare on Kusuo, “Take me up two floors.”

Spoilt much.

Begrudgingly, he took Todoroki’s wrist again. The tables and abandoned lunch trays warped into an empty hallway, two stories higher. As soon as the walls materialized around them, Kusuo understood what had his classmate on edge. The boys locked eyes. Both of them could sense the unwanted presence inside the girls bathroom.

A presence whose mind Kusuo wouldn’t read.

His first instinct was to use clairvoyance, but he wasn’t sure how Todoroki would react if Kusuo suddenly started going crosseyed. So he settled for X-Ray vision instead. It took a couple of beats of not blinking before the walls became transparent. 

Kusuo’s eyes found their target. 

Well, shit. 

Standing inside one of U.A’s female toilet stalls was the man with purple flames for a head. The one that was at the Labyrinth just the afternoon prior. 

Kusuo was starting to feel like he may be at slight fault. Only slightly though. He was the person who let Flame-head walk away scot-free after suspiciously purchasing his high school’s floorplans for millions of yen, but hey. How was he supposed to know he’d use it to break in? Kusuo wasn’t in control of other people's actions.

The real question was why the untrustworthy individual had broken into the girls bathroom of all places. Todoroki was thinking the same thing, and more, because he started to walk on over. If he wasn’t trying to be quiet, Kusuo would have smacked his forehead. 

Endeavour’s son had inherited his hotheadedness, because Todoroki cleanly evaded Kusuo’s feeble attempts to stop him, and silently crept forwards. The door to the bathroom was a pushdoor with no windows. Todoroki pressed his ear up against the wood, frowning when there wasn’t much to hear. He shot a look at Kusuo.

‘Take me inside.’

Absolutely not. Todoroki should write a book. How to get killed, 101. He shook his head slowly, maintaining eye contact. Todoroki’s eyebrows furrowed, and he pointed inside the bathroom with his thumb.

‘Take me inside.’

Kusuo shook his head, left and right. More obviously this time, so Todoroki could understand. Socially inept, Todoroki pointed at the door yet again. His expression was growing impatient.

‘Hurry up. Take me inside.’ 

Good grief. Rich children indeed were brats. In response, Kusuo crossed his arms. Or, half crossed them; he was still holding his coffee jelly. Kusuo would not be involving himself with villains today. Understanding finally dawned upon Todoroki. His blank face clambered back on as he lifted his right hand. 

A sense of tired resignation entered Kusuo’s bones. With his right side, Todoroki conjured a large icicle and hurled it forward. The bathroom door slammed into the wall behind it, skewered straight through. He dashed inside the bathroom, eyes trained on the dangerous figure. Kusuo sighed and peeked his head in the destroyed opening.

Flame-head was staring at Todoroki, calculating.

“What are you doing?” Todoroki blurted out. “You shouldn’t be here.”

The mysterious man stood still for a moment. Then he flushed the toilet, and stepped out of the cubicle. Todoroki tensed. The purple flames flickered, flashing yellow. Kusuo’s eyes darted between Todoroki and the strange man; he had another bite.

“My apologies,” An uncanny voice rumbled from somewhere in the fire, “I’ll take my leave now.”

Narrowing his eyes, Todoroki positioned himself so that he was blocking the exit. In doing so, Kusuo had to shuffle about to get back his view on the villain. Flame-head was skilled. It took him less than a split second to summon one of his portals behind his back. In an instant, the being was swallowed whole by a rippling purple mass. 

Todoroki barely had any time to react. He sent a wave of ice flying, but the man disappeared before they could even graze him. Gone. Kusuo sighed. His coffee jelly was completely eaten by now, so he chucked the plastic in the trash. Then he walked inside the stall that was previously occupied. Sensing his intent, Todoroki followed him, staring over his shoulder.

There had to be a reason as to why the man, entity, whatever, broke into U.A at this particular moment. A bathroom was a blindspot to the cameras that covered almost every inch of the school, so that was a no-brainer. Most of the teachers should be distracted by the demands of the reporters. 

He left quickly too, like he’d already completed what he wanted to accomplish. It was highly likely that the cause of the break-in was somewhere in that very stall. Kusuo turned his head so that he faced Todoroki. Copying his mannerisms, he pointed to the toilet paper dispenser. 

Todoroki nodded and yanked the plastic unit off the wall. 

Toilet paper fell to the ground and began its endless rolling. Todoroki held up the broken plastic for Kusuo to see. Pushing up his glasses, Kusuo’s eyes searched for something small and unsuspecting. There it was. Black, thin, and discreet. A wired tape.

It was oddly shaped, different to the models that Kusuke showed him. Upon closer inspection, the bug had small metal spikes poking out of it. Similar to legs.

Todoroki spoke up, “What is it?” His head had leaned down close to Kusuo’s, staring down at the small object.

Kusuo was silent for a moment as he flipped the bug around. He was right; the metal spikes had joints. Hinges. It was designed for motion. The surface was glossy and cool to the skin, a tiny camera embedded on its underside. Uh oh. It was probably recording right now.

- “A surveillance device. It looks like it was built to move.”

The hot head nodded, “That sounds bad. You should break it.”

Kusuo glanced at him, then handed it over without protest. Todoroki accepted it with his right hand, and a ball of ice surrounded the tech. All Kusuo knew was that it wasn’t one of Kusuke's. Meaning it was someone else's. Some other genius with evil intentions. 

- “We should go back now. Report this, maybe.”

He watched as Todoroki ducked his head in agreement and pocketed his ball of ice. Together, they walked out of the destroyed bathroom and headed back to the chaos downstairs. Neither of them spoke, and Kusuo didn’t offer to teleport them down. Surprisingly, it wasn’t awkward. Kusuo listened with concealed amusement as Todoroki came up with outlandish theories in his mind. One of them even speculated if Kusuo and the mysterious flame being were related since they could both teleport.

By the time they joined up with the rest of their classmates, the whole panicking frenzy had died down. Thankfully. Iida had apparently taken charge, calming the mass and informing them that it was just the press. Except it wasn’t just the press.

Class 1-A was ushered back into their classroom, all remnants of alarm vanished. Kusuo rested his cheek on his palm and looked over at Todoroki. He had appeared in front of Aizawa, ready to ruin the man’s day even further. 

“Sensei. I have something to tell you,” announced Todoroki. The teacher’s eyes flickered between the clock and his student.

“Is it urgent? Because of the paparazzi fiasco, we’re on a tight schedule here.” Aizawa said. He was in an even fouler mood than this morning. His mind was a mess – skipping between the fact that U.A’s security cameras died during the press break in and the plans for today’s training.

Todoroki thought for a bit, before shaking his head, “No. It has been taken care of, but I still need to tell you.”

“Okay, tell me after class then. I promise I won’t forget.” The boy nodded, and went back to sit in his seat. Kusuo blinked. Okay, so the revelation of a villain breaking into the high security school can wait for later. 

 Aizawa ran a hand through his knotted hair before raising his voice louder. “Today’s hero basic training will be a little different. It’s turned into a class with three instructors. We’ll be doing rescue training off campus, so we need to take a bus.”

“Uhm, Aizawa-sensei, can I say something super quickly?” Midoriya half-raised his hand in the air, looking nervous. The teacher rolled his eyes but motioned for him to get on with it..

“OkaysoithinkthatIidashouldbetheclassrepresentativebecauseofhowhetookcontrolofthecrowdwheneveryonewaspanickingearlier!” He shot out in one breath, words jotting quickly and overlapping each other. It took a few seconds for his declaration to process, then his classmates nodded their heads in agreement.

“Okay, Iida is class rep. Let’s move on. You can wear your costumes if you want, but get dressed quick. I want everyone on the bus in six minutes.” Aizawa waved them off.

Hopefully heroics would go by peacefully.

– · Ψ · –

“Midoriya, your quirk is similar to All Might’s.” Asui tilted her head, wide eyes staring at the freckled boy. The entire class was seated on U.A’s private bus. Kusuo had sat at the very back of the vehicle, against the window. Next to him was the bald kid, Koda.

“H-huh?! Uh- I don’t think our quirks are similar at all…! All Might is uh, very different to me!” blurted out Midoriya, sweat dripping down his face.

‘Oh my god I’m so screwed.’

The frog girl blinked, one eye at a time. “I guess… call me Tsu, by the way.” Kusuo couldn’t see from so far away, but he was certain that Midoriya’s face had turned bright red.

“Your quirk is like, hella strong Midoriya! I mean sure, you get like super injured every time you use it, but like that's manly in its own right!” Kirishima spoke up. His optimistic attitude was infectious, seeping into the minds of the people sitting near him.

Too bad Koda wasn’t up the front with them. The way he had trembled when asking for permission to sit next to Kusuo made it clear that he needed a change in mindset. His anxious thoughts were still rushing inside his head. Kusuo was starting to get a headache. For someone that didn’t speak, he sure was loud. 

‘Rescue training sounds nice. I hope it’s not too hard… Where are we even going? What if there's no animals there? Oh gosh - what if I mess up and get expelled? Saiki’s probably annoyed that I sat next to him… there's other free seats too. Birds don’t deserve to be caged…’

Maybe there was a way to shut him up, nonviolently. His mother always told him that the only way to expel bad juju was with kindness. Kusuo turned his neck to face Koda. The boy flinched at the sudden movement.

Koda gulped. His hands fiddled nervously under Kusuo’s watchful gaze. Slowly, Kusuo raised his fist. This action just tripled the panic blaring in Koda’s mind. Ignoring it, Kusuo flicked out a thumb, giving his seatmate a good old thumbs up. There was nothing kinder than encouragement.

‘Oh no - Did I do something wrong? What does a thumbs up mean?Is it a warning? A signal? Is he summoning people to kill me? I’m so sorry I never should have sat next to you I’ll be better I swear-”

Kusuo dropped his hand and turned back to look outside the window. Some people were lost causes. A lot of them were located at the front of the bus, where yelling was bursting out. From Bakugou, of course. Apparently he didn’t take kindly to being called angry and unpopular.

“Truth hurts, bro. You gotta accept that your personality is crap.” Kaminari shot a grin at the explosive guy. 

“Do you want to fucking die you pokemon wannabe?” hissed out Bakugou, sparks flying from his palms.

Aizawa stood up from his seat next to the driver. “Everyone shut up. We’re almost here.”

True to his words, the bus rolled to a stop. Excited, the class hopped out one by one. They were parked outside a big round building. What even was this? Kusuo listened to his teacher’s thoughts for an explanation. After a few moments, he grimaced. 

The Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short, was another one of U.A’s hero training centres.

It was essentially a giant dome with mountains, an enormous lake, and several destroyed cities. All for school students to play about with.

Honestly, Kusuo had no idea how U.A got all this money. Surely they could’ve solved homelessness and poverty in Japan instead. Selfish bastards.

The Space Hero, Thirteen, was the person who greeted them. She was of small stature, drowning in an astronaut suit. He could tell she had a powerful quirk. Its energy was bubbling in the air around her, visible to only Kusuo. Thirteen was one of his mother’s favourite heroes. She was well known for saving thousands of people from deadly disasters. 

“Hello everyone! It’s so nice to meet you all, I’m Thirteen. I’ll be assisting your hero training today, here at USJ! This place was built specifically to help replicate disasters that you will encounter as real-life heroes.” she announced. There were a couple of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as the hero went on about her explanation. 

Kusuo pushed some hair out of his face. All of his classmates were excited, even the ones that didn’t show it on the outside. Thirteen led the class inside the building. Gasps and squeals were let out as they took it all in. While the class was distracted with the view of USJ, Aizawa approached his fellow hero.

“Where's All Might?” He asked, voice gruff and short, “He was supposed to meet us here.”

“Ah.. about that…” Thirteen leaned in closer to Aizawa, voice dropping to a whisper. “He got caught up with his hero work and ran out of time.”

So All Might’s powerful form had a time limit. That was not good at all.

Thirteen clapped her hands, her voice returning to normal. “So! Before we begin, let me say one thing… or, multiple things, actually! As you all should know, my quirk is called Black Hole. I can suck up anything and turn it into dust. Pretty cool, right?”

Uraraka bobbed her head up and down in excitement. There were stars in her eyes. 

“You’ve used your quirk to save so many people!” She gushed.

“Yes. But it’s also a power that can ki...?”

The hero's words trailed off, stiffening. Asui ribbited in confusion. Something was wrong.

Down below the entryway the class still standing on, far off in the centre of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, the water fountain spluttered. Then the large overhead lights began to flicker. In a matter of seconds, the ring of lights that ran across the dome had gone out. Uh oh.

Aizawa’s eyes widened. His head snapped around, finding the water fountain. Right where the water was struggling to spout, Kusuo caught sight of a familiar purple distortion. The portal spun, consuming the world around it. A pale bony hand reached out of the dark mass. Fingers outstretched. 

Kusuo’s teacher cursed. Aizawa pulled up his yellow goggles, placing them over his eyes.

“Thirteen! Protect the students. Everyone stick together!” The man yelled, dropping into a defensive stance.

“Hey- wait what’s going on? Is this part of the training?” Kirishima asked. He glanced between the teachers nervously.

Unfortunately this wasn’t part of training. Dozens of criminals entered U.A property from the portal, all intimidating in their own sense. Well, not to Kusuo at least. Sato took a step forward, only to get yelled at.

“Don’t move,” hissed Aizawa. All former traces of tiredness were gone, replaced with a serious determined expression. Several students paled. They had begun to realise the gravity of the situation.

“Sensei, what’s going on?” Floating gloves held each other uncertainly.

Aizawa raised his arm, attempting to shield his students. “Those are villains. This is not a drill.” With that, he leaped down the stairs. Kusuo watched as his teacher switched into battle mode. He landed in the middle of the villains. They growled as they surrounded Aizawa. 

Hands reached from every which direction, claws and blades flashing under the dim lights. Aizawa grinned. It was all teeth. A scarf snapped out, catching the nearest villain by the throat. The teacher's hand tugged on the cloth, yanking the villain and knocking them into its little friends.

The yellow goggles were a good idea; they made sure no villain knew whose quirk was erased. He was efficient like that.

“Kids, it's going to be okay. We are going to evacuate now. Eraserhead will be fine until backup arrives.” Thirteen assured.

She gestured for them to follow her, so they did. Hearts pumping, the students of Class 1-A ran to the exit. Or tried to, at least. The flame-head villain with warping powers was a real pain. Purple flames blocked their path, forcing everyone to skid to a stop.

Fire licked the floor, spreading intense heat. The villain’s voice rang out. 

“We are the League of Villains.”

Edgy. It was just like a group of unkempt criminals that targeted highschoolers to give themselves such a name. Kusuo could hear his classmates' heartbeats spiking erratically. Each and every of their minds were scared shitless. Actually no, that wasn’t true.

“Who the fuck do you think you are, huh? Get the hell out of here!” Bakugou growled ferociously, reminding Kusuo of one of those yappy chihuahuas.

The warping villain ignored the outburst, “My deepest apologies for our intrusion. It may be presumptuous of us, but we have invited ourselves to the home of heroes, U.A highschool to complete a singular goal.” 

The fire flared, dark purple turning violet. “That goal is of course, to make All Might, the Symbol of Peace, take his final breath.”

A low pressure prickled at Kusuo’s skin; a warning that the true problem hasn’t borne its face yet. Whispers of worry filled his mind. Each was a different one of his classmate’s voices. The villain continued its monologue

“Ah, but it seems there's been a change of plans. All Might isn’t here, no? That differs from our intel. However, that doesn’t matter. I still have a part to play.” Two glowing yellow pupils glistened in the flames. 

The flame villain raised what would be its arms, allowing tendrils of dark misty whips to escape from the centre of its body. They shot up into the sky, circling around the students as if a makeshift prison. 

“My job is to scatter you all and torture you to death.”

Darkness surrounded his vision as the quirk consumed everyone whole. By the time Kusuo’s sight was restored, he was plummeting to his death above the giant artificial lake. The pressure of the wind made his hero costume flap about loudly. He couldn’t hear nor see any of his classmates. The villain did a good job at scattering them. 

Kusuo was falling dangerously close to the water. Blue was all he could see. Actually, that was a lie. Growing bigger by the second was a white splotch floating steady in the azure. A boat. He spread out his limbs, feeling his ears pop.

The wind was cold and harsh. Luckily, he wouldn’t have to suffer much longer. Milliseconds passed and the boat grew closer and closer. Finally it was just within his fake 200 metre limit. He felt the familiar tug of his own quirk settling under his skin.

Form flickering, Kusuo landed right way up on the conveniently placed ship. It was a decent size, one of those large motor yachts. He smoothed down the pink spikes of hair that got mussed by the wind. Once he was presentable, Kusuo calmly made his way to the bow of the boat. 

Land was just out of his teleportation range. Though, he could simply teleport to the water, wait a few seconds, and teleport out. There was just one problem. Or twelve, to be specific. A dozen heads revealed themselves, rippling through the peace of the water. Every one of the villains was circling Kusuo’s boat as they swam. Water-based quirks, he mused.

They all sure came prepared. All the information the League of Villains had must’ve come from the break in earlier. The warping one probably got his flamy little hands on it before attempting to bug the school. Actually, it was highly possible that there were multiple bugs planted. Maybe Todoroki should’ve been more adamant when trying to inform Aizawa. Oh well. Kudos to them for creating a somewhat decent plan in such short time.

Not that any of this helped him in his current predicament, surrounded by the shark mafia. 

Kusuo brought a hand up to his mouth, covering his yawn. He really should’ve gotten more sleep last night. The sound of two bodies colliding into the fibreglass hull forced his head to turn. Lucky him, Kusuo wasn’t the only student being used as fishbait. 

Asui and Midoriya clambered onto the boat. Both were soaking wet, Midoriya in particular looked like a drowned dog. Judging by their thoughts, neither of them were having a pleasant experience in the water zone. 

“Saiki! Y-you’re here too?” Midoriya paused to hack out lake water. Ah, he was spotted. 

- ‘Yes. We are surrounded by villains.’

Asui nodded gravely. Her tongue had shrunk and was back inside her mouth. “Ribbit. This isn’t good…”

She walked over closer to Kusuo, leaning over the railing to get a good look at the criminals. Midoriya followed in tow. His eyes were brighter than usual; the determined shine was almost blinding. Kusuo listened as the outline of a plan began to form in the shorter boy’s mind. 

“If… if those guys have a way to stop All Might, then,” Midoriya clenched his fist. “We need to stop them.”

“Asui. Saiki. We have to defeat those villains, and to do so we need to work together. Will you both help me?”

Emerald eyes met purple and black. Asui’s face took on a serious expression as she nodded.

“Call me Tsu.” She pushed wet strands of hair out of her face. “Don’t worry, Midoriya. We are heroes in training. We won’t get taken down by petty villains.”

They both turned expectantly at Kusuo. He didn’t exactly have a quick encouraging speech in mind, so he gave a small nod instead.

‘Okay. It's three versus twelve. It’s okay. We can do this. Asui and Saiki both have helpful quirks. We need to fight and we need to win. The villains haven’t left the water, so it’s safe to assume that they want a fight in the water.’

“Hey As- uh, Tsu. Don’t you think it’s strange that they sent you with your quirk, to a water environment? I doubt that the villains know about our classmate’s quirks.” Midoriya’s hand rested on his chin. Deep in thought, Kusuo noted.

“We can use this to our advantage. They don’t know what we can do, and probably want to overwhelm us with numbers. The fact that they haven’t tried to attack us now supports my hypothesis. Of course, this means they aren’t underestimating us. We are U.A students after all. If we use our quirks wisely, we can win this.” Green curls bounced as Midoriya nodded his head. 

He wasn’t wrong. This fight was definitely doable. It just required a bit of effort.

Midoriya paced back and forth, mumbling as his plan became clearer.

“Okay- Saiki I need you to telepor-” He was cut off by a wave of water rising into the air in the shape of a hand. The water sliced down onto the boat and smashed into the hull.

All three of them stumbled, ducking and holding onto the railing. The villains were getting impatient. Water rushed into the broken hull eagerly. In a couple of minutes, their only safety would sink. Asui let out another ribbit, presumably one of fright. 

Of course they’d strike now, just when Kusuo was getting assigned his job. Midoriya’s face paled but his mind stayed strong.

“We need to get them out of the lake. It’s likely they’ll be weaker when away from a water source. Quickly, before we sink.”

Easier said than done. 

Kusuo suppressed a sigh as Midoriya turned his gaze onto him. The plan was already thought out and it seemed that Kusuo would have to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

“Tsu and Saiki, I need you guys to gather up the villains so that Saiki can teleport them high into the air at the same time – Saiki you can do that, right?” questioned Midoriya.

- “Yes. But I would need to be in direct contact with them, and it would be strenuous.”

Midoriya nodded, then redirected his stare to Asui. “ I’ll do my best to distract and help you while I can.

Tsu, since you’re the best in water, I’ll be depending on you. Once you guys get the villains in the air, leave the rest to me.”

“Alright. Ribbit.” With that, Asui hopped up onto the railing. Instantly, she yanked out her tongue. The organ wrapped tight around a woman with a fish for a head. As the fish lady was being flung straight out of the water, Kusuo chose the moment to teleport. 

In a flash he was sitting on the shoulders of a freakishly ghoulish looking man. Said man began to thrash, diving down in the water in an attempt to shove Kusuo off. The lake was freezing cold; Kusuo teleported the both of them on the deck of the boat instead. 

“What th-” started the villain. He was cut off by Kusuo unhooking the crowbar from his belt and smashing it down as fast as he could. The villain crumpled to the ground with a thud, limbs folding like origami. One down. One in the process of being taken care of. Ten to go.

The boat was sinking fast. Midoriya was nowhere to be seen, there was only the sound of his thoughts indicating his presence somewhere inside the yacht. He was looking for something. 

Asui’s fish lady was slammed onto the roof.  She hit the boat with a wet smack, sliding down the side and landing nearby her fallen companion. By this time, the rest of the villains had realised their attack had begun.

Water jets, pufferfish spikes, and a few villains themselves went flying into the broken hull of the boat. Kusuo glitched and found himself back in the icy-cold water. The remaining villains spotted him instantly and shot like torpedoes in his direction. Asui’s long pink tongue came to the rescue; she snatched yet another villain and threw them upwards, repeating the process as fast as she could. 

Brows furrowed, Kusuo teleported into the air where Asui’s victims were flung. He latched onto the nearest one and teleported both him and the villain back onto the deck. The boat was half submerged now.

Midoriya had found what he was looking for – a giant thick fishing net overflowing in his arms – and was running out from the sinking gallery. 

“GUYS! GET THEM IN HERE!” He ran over to the unconscious villains, stumbling as the boat tilted further underwater. Midoriya spread open the net and began to shove the two knocked out criminals inside it. 

The villain that Kusuo was clutching onto growled. A sharp fist flew, aimed at Kusuo’s jaw. It was far too fast for a normal student to dodge, and he didn’t want to remain suspiciously untouched throughout the fight. Kusuo clenched his mouth. 

The fist slammed hard and hot. 

He stumbled back before striking the villain with his crowbar. They parried like so; Kusuo bashing with his weapon whilst teleporting about and the villain standing strong with his reinforced reptile skin.

Sparks flew from metal meeting scales. Kusuo could hear more villains pummelling holes into the boat. They were sinking fast.

Asui did her best at flinging the nutjobs she had captured into Midoriya’s outstretched net. She was gliding through both the sky and the sea, dodging past water-based attacks and the spikes that shot through the air.

Once on deck, Midoriya scrambled to force the villains into the net. It wasn’t an easy fight. Dazed from being slammed onto the boat, they still fought tooth and nail with their quirks at beck and call. Villains clawed frantically through Midoriya’s gym uniform. But he was determined. Midoriya managed to smash their heads in and kick them desperately into the net.

In total, there were eight villains captured. One was currently fighting Kusuo. Another was diving deep to escape Asui’s tongue, and the last two were doing their best to fully submerge the yacht. Water had reached Kusuo’s ankles already.

Time was running out. Kusuo couldn’t drag this out any longer. He changed tactics, aiming his crowbar at the villain's face instead of his torso. The metal bar rammed dangerously close to the man’s eyes. He cried out in pain, a small amount of blood dripping from his eyesockets. Whoops.

While the villain was distracted with short-term blindness, Kusuo shoved him into Midoriya’s direction. Midoriya happily took hold of the man and forced him into the net of half-conscious struggling villains.

By now, Asui had caught her own criminal. She leaped back onto the boat – that was mostly water – with the villain in tow. Almost everyone was captured. It was just the two folks with beady black eyes creeping out of the water and onto the deck left.

The one on the right shot straight out of the lake with teeth flashing dangerously. Kusuo swung his crowbar wildly, hitting the villain square in the neck. Unfortunately his attack barely deterred the beast. 

Claws seized hold of both his crowbar and Kusuo’s arm. The villain was now clambering onto his shoulders, nails digging deep into Kusuo’s skin. Midroiya let out an internal screech at the sight, but stayed put as his spot straining to keep the net closed. Luckily, Asui propelled to his rescue. 

Unluckily, the other villain chose this time to join the fight.

The gilled lady collided into Asui and they both tumbled into the lake with a splash. Water was now up past his knees. The villain’s grip on Kusuo was beginning to draw blood. He swallowed a grimace. They needed all the villains detained quickly before the boat was completely underwater. 

Hands released his shoulders and found their new home around Kusuo’s neck. This was his cue to get a wriggle on. Kusuo teleported, shoulder villain and all, into Midoriya’s trust net full of villains. It was a tight fit. He found himself squashed between shoulders and tails, the fortified rope digging against his bruised cheek. Water had engulfed the bottom half of the net, causing Kusuo to hold his breath to not drown.

Sensing the new addition of one of their targets, the captured villains began to thrash around in an attempt to injure him. Midoriya squeaked but did his best to keep the net closed. Two more seconds and he could teleport out. The shoulder villain started kicking around and gnawing at the rope. 

Asui blasted out of the lake, the gilled lady writhing while being held tight. Her tongue was battered and bleeding from several cuts all over. Nonetheless, Asui kept hold and swiftly hopped over to the bag of villains. The two seconds were over, and Kusuo teleported out of his personal hell.

At the speed of light, Midoriya and Asui shoved the final villain in the net. Everyone was half submerged in the lake by now. The villain let out a tortured scream as the net consumed her whole.

“Saiki. Now.” gritted out Midroriya, arms shaking from holding the net closed against the villains that were gaining consciousness.

Kusuo grabbed hold of the net he just escaped. It was very annoying, teleporting thirteen people including himself like this. The net was tightly wrapped around the villains, in contact with them all. They were starting to cut through the rope with claws and teeth, so Kusuo had to act.

In a blink of an eye, Kusuo and the net of villains were sprawled 200 metres upwards into the air.

Due to the sheer weight of a dozen fully grown adults, the net went dropping fast. Kusuo let go quickly and spread out his arms eagle style. He could make out Midoriya’s form below. The boy had water raised up to his chest, and his hands were aimed high in the sky. He was making a gesture.

No. He was flicking something.

One for All sparked to life, crackling red with intensity. A powerful gust of air caused by the quirk slammed into the net of idiots. Kusuo watched with slight fascination as the net shot across the air with diabolical speed. The villains were flung all the way to the other side of the facility, creating a boulder sized hole in the wall that they crashed through. Smoke rose up.

If Kusuo was still holding onto that net he would’ve gotten caught up with that attack. Yikes.

Asui grabbed hold of Midoriya and leapt off of the boat before their heads went underwater. Still flailing in the sky, Kusuo decided it would be best if he pretended to be unconscious. After all, he did use his quirk a lot plus he also teleported a group of people which strained his fake limits.

Kusuo closed his eyes and waited to be swept out of the sky.

As expected, a slimy tongue slick with spit and blood wrapped around his torso. With Midoriya and Kusuo safe, Asui dove back into the water. She swam as fast as she could onshore, making sure that their heads stayed afloat and capable of breathing.

When they reached land, she dropped both Kusuo and Midoriya. Midoriya winced in pain as he clutched his broken fingers. Kusuo slumped into the sand; the perfect embodiment of quirk over usage. All three of them were sopping wet, bruised and a little bit bloody. It took a couple moments before his state was noticed.

‘I can’t believe we won that, like actually won against a group of villains! U.A students are no joke - I’m so grateful for Tsu and Saiki… Saiki?!’

Midoriya shot over to Kusuo’s side, all thoughts about his broken fingers forgotten. Briskly, he turned Kusuo over so he was no longer face planted in the sand. Two non-broken fingers were pressed into his neck. Midoriya eyed the bleeding on Kusuo’s shoulders before gradually calming down.

“He must’ve passed out due to quirk exhaustion. He’ll be okay,” Midoriya assured Asui. She hadn’t really looked all that worried in the first place, but the sentiment was there.

Asui nodded as she wrung out water from her hair. “What do we do now? Ribbit.”

“We should make getting help our top priority. It’s very likely that there is some sort of interference over communications right now. These villains came here with a plan, they aren’t going to be stopped easily. What we should do is avoid the centre where Sensei is and make our way to the exit…” Midoriya trailed off, frowning.

“But… there were a lot of villains fighting Aizawa-sensei…” His eyes darted between the unconscious Kusuo, the blood dripping from Asui’s mouth and his own mutilated fingers.

Midoriya thought back to the sight of their teacher battling against the large group of thugs.

“We… I can’t leave him behind.”

Asui narrowed her eyes. “Midoriya, we aren’t exactly fit for battle. I want to help Sensei as much as you do but we have to think realistically.” She lifted her hand to wipe the blood staining on her mouth. “Like you said, getting help should be our top priority. We’re outnumbered.”

“I know, I know. But we don’t have to fight! Let’s just see if he’s alright, and then we’ll leave to go get help.” Midoriya paused, remembering Kusuo’s presence. “I- I’ll carry him this time…”

There was a soft exhale of air that came from Asui, but she nodded anyway. Though her agreement didn’t stop her from asking one more question.

“What do we do if Sensei’s not alright?” she posed. Her voice was clear despite the pain in her tongue.

Midoriya shook his head, banishing the thought. “He’s a hero.”

Then he leaned down, hoisting Kusuo over his shoulder.