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“Alright,” Aizawa’s voice jags through the static of the long-distance comm, but the distortion can’t hide the odd edge to his voice that Midoriya picks up immediately, “one more time: defense team’s objective is to hold the Tower and secure as many enemy opponents as possible. Offense team’s objective is to take the prize within the Tower and escape - preferably fully intact. All-Might says to tell you good luck. Hn. We begin in three, two…”

Midoriya shifts his stance as a deep, bone-shaking crack splits the air from across the block. He knows the sound; he used to listen for it as a kid during the winter when the little river behind his and Kacchan’s houses froze over, the high-pitched whine of sheets of ice coming unmoored.

“Back!” He shouts, propelling himself with one foot backward toward the alleyway, and in a moment he can see Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow go paper-thin as it stretches horizontally in a shield and Kirishima’s skin hardens and his breath billows out in front of him before -

The entire Tower is engulfed in a glacier.

x

“Hey, Shinsou!” Midoriya called. There was too much ambient noise in the lunch room for anyone to pay attention to him, but a few tables away the newest addition to class 1A raised his head.

Midoriya slid his tray across from him but didn’t bother asking to sit. Instead, he pushed forward the notebook he’d been carrying in the crook of his arm. 

“I’ve been taking notes on what we’ve studied the past two semesters up until the final,” Midoriya said, trying to keep his expression neutrally friendly as Shinsou looked directly at him, nudging away the superposition of white-pupiled rage he’d had burned in his memory since the sports festival, “I figured you could use them to orient yourself a bit. I have more, too, if you need, but -”

Shinsou’s eyes flicked down to the notebook. Something unreadable cropped up in the furrow of his eyebrows. Midoriya’s lips pressed together.

“Do you wanna come sit with us? Usually it’s just me, Iida, and Uraraka. It’d be nice for them to meet you.”

“Would it?” Shinsou asked, genuinely curious. Midoriya blinked.

He was taller than Midoriya by at least a head, but somehow it was the first time he’d noticed it as Shinsou rose and placed his fingers on the notebook. 

It had been a nerve-wracking decision, to come over and offer his notes, but Midoriya had done it in a heartbeat anyway - Shinsou had taken Mineta’s spot in class 1A despite him being 9th in the class and passing the final for both himself and Sero. Midoriya knew Shinsou didn’t need his notes, but this wasn’t about that. Not really.

This was something selfish he was doing, he reminded himself.

Midoriya took his tray, half-turning toward their usual table by the banks of windows.

“Yeah,” he said, and Shinsou snapped his eyes back up toward Midoriya as if shocked he’d answer his question, but he kept his voice level and firm and continued, “it would.”

Shinsou slid the notebook toward himself and flipped to the first page. Color coded highlights with a key, an index of important topics including subheadings, meticulous separation between combat, rescue, and strategy categories, Midoriya’s own personal research into topics denoted with green sticky notes, written in messy handwriting. 

“Yeah,” Shinsou said, and closed the book, “okay.”

Midoriya grinned.

x

“It’s been a while since the practical exam you took on your first day here,” Aizawa began the second half of class, and it immediately set everyone on edge to remember the time they were threatened with expulsion an hour into their tenure at UA. 

“It’s also been quite a while since your practical simulation with All-Might. We’re going to change that, and see what you’ve learned since then.”

Midoriya stiffened and flipped to a fresh page in his notebook. Aizawa tended to take a certain undertone of menace when he was about to throw a wrench into their studies, and he could hear it now. 

Aizawa scribbled a few characters on the board as the door slid aside. Present Mic waved as he stepped through, Midnight, Vlad King, Snipe, and All-Might behind him. 

TOWER SIEGE.

“The teachers have come up with a way to test how far you’ve come along. As class 1A, you’re expected to have made more progress than other courses, so we’ll be letting you try out the simulation first.”

Midoriya had perked up when he’d seen All-Might, but Aizawa’s words had pulled his eyes away.

“You’ll be performing a heist!” Present Mic shrieked, drawing a couple of flinches from the room, “how rad is that?”

“A heist!” Kaminari whispered, and Midoriya could hear a couple of his classmates take it up, too.

“Quiet,” Aizawa ordered, eyes flashing a brilliant red, although whether it was directed at Present Mic or the chittering from the students was hard to say.

“We thought it’d be a good idea for you all to demonstrate what you’ve learned, in a way that’s less head-to-head than the sports festival,” All-Might picked up, “as well as giving you an idea of how to work in larger teams. Previously, we’d been doing these sorts of simulations in teams of two, but it’s not always so isolated working in big cities like this one.”

“Strike teams like the ones I lead are typically anywhere from four to ten heroes apiece,” Snipe supplied, “and it’s good to understand how to work with that many different abilities and areas of expertise. Taking out the League of Villains’ headquarters required at least ten pro heroes working together and combinin’ their skill sets.”

“I want it to be understood,” Aizawa said, and his gaze dragged from the far back corner where Midoriya knew Shinsou sat, over to him, and then back to the middle ground, “that in many ways this will be different from your previous simulations. It will take more strategic planning, teamwork, and the ability to modify plans at a moment’s notice without losing composure or morale. It will take a more adept understanding of your own quirks and the quirks of those around you, including the opposing team’s.”

TOWER SIEGE, the characters on the blackboard behind him said.

Midoriya felt himself start to get excited.

x

The team listings were set to come out during class the next morning, so once Midoriya got back to his dorm he started capital-r Researching.

He divided the task into two groups - offense and defense. One team to execute the heist, and one to attempt to stop them.

He went through his previous notes on his classmates, the way each preferred to fight, the distance they kept between them and their opponent, the inherent combat potential of their quirks. Bakugou was a close-combat brawler with high mobility and a naturally offense-oriented quirk, but Uraraka was more suited to defense, even though she’d proven adept at close-quarters fights. Some were trickier to pin down than others; Yaoyorozu tended to use her creation quirk for defense, but she could produce weapons or ammunition just as easily, and what she made affected the distance she would have to maintain from her opponent.

This was what he was good at, Midoriya knew, and since the final he’d been prepared to explode onto the scene for the next practical exam. That fight with All-Might was very close to being a disaster, and Midoriya was a little tired of nearly winning or winning by the skin of his teeth. 

He bit his lip once he got to a certain name on the class ranking, and pushed out of his desk chair.

The dorms were quiet, and it took him a second to understand why - it was almost dawn already, and Midoriya had lost track of time more easily than usual. 

Which is why when he rounded the corner and hurtled head-first into someone it nearly knocked him flat. 

“Oh! Hi!” Midoriya squeaked.

Shinsou reached out as if to steady him, then stuffed his hands into his pockets instead.

“Hi.”

“You’re, uh, up late. Couldn’t sleep?”

“I could ask the same of you,” Shinsou said, and the emphasis in his voice made it sound like a threat. Midoriya took a step back, keeping his heel pressed firmly to the ground; not preparing to run, but bracing to stand still.

“Well. Have a good night, Shinsou,” Midoriya said quietly, keeping his voice and his eyes steady as he very pointedly did not move.

After a beat, Shinsou seemed to get it. He smiled privately, making a deliberate show out of side-stepping Midoriya, and kept walking.

“Yeah, you too.”

Midoriya sighed once he was around the corner, knowing at least that could’ve gone a lot worse - it could’ve been Kacchan - and kept heading towards the girl’s section.

When Tsu opened the door after his second knock, Midoriya smiled apologetically and rubbed his neck.

“Sorry for bugging you.”

Tsu rubbed at an eye and stretched, then leaned against the door frame and offered him a warm, “No problem, Midoriya - ribbit . What’s up?”

“I just wanted to give you a head’s up; tomorrow, after the team listings come out, come find me if we’re on the same team. We should talk.”

Tsuyu Asui had been the only name on the class list Midoriya had left entirely blank. After a few minutes of intense page-flipping and rereading the notes he’d taken after the USJ Incident, he’d marked a simple ? next to her name, and then, in parentheses, a !

x

The entire class swarmed Aizawa the next morning. Giving them the night to contemplate a heist had been the wrong move on the teachers’ part, because a few of Midoriya’s classmates were nearly foaming at the mouth as Aizawa raised a sheet of paper over his head, out of reach, and said with an edge of desperation, “Sit down.”

Iida looked about ready to burst into lecture about the unprofessional behavior of bowling over your teacher, really, we’re 1A, how disrespectful, but before he could, Aizawa divided the blackboard in two with a line of chalk down the center, then wrote OFFENSE on one side and DEFENSE on the other.

“Each first-year teacher selected two students from class 1A to place in these two categories, one for each,” Aizawa explained, “Ten teachers, twenty students, two teams. For this reason, the teams are more focused on interpersonal dynamics than quirks. Keep that in mind.”

Midoriya frowned and looked over at DEFENSE written in a steady hand. It’d make sense for the close-combat specialists in their class to be put there, like he’d originally thought last night, but if the selection process was based on their personalities instead…

He just hoped he wasn’t on the same team as Kacchan again. That hadn’t gone well.

“The offense team will be those responsible for seizing the prize within the Tower, and the defense team will be responsible for holding off their attacks to keep the building secure. Izuku Midoriya, offense.”

Midoriya froze. 

“Shouto Todoroki, defense. Katsuki Bakugou, defense. Momo Yaoyorozu, offense.”

Midoriya quickly flipped to the notes he’d taken yesterday about the simulation and jotted the names as Aizawa read them in the margins. His name took the top, next to a slanted O that he stared at for a second.

“- Ochako Uraraka, offense. Tenya Iida, defense - “

There was nothing to do about it, now. He’d have to scrap the notes he’d taken last night. He could maybe use them as points of reference for the exam itself, but if UA was good at anything, it was throwing things at Midoriya that he’d never expect.

“- Fumikage Tokoyami, offense, Mezou Shouji, defense - “

At least being on the offense team gave him some room to plan. The defense team would be hard-pressed to come up with a strategy that would survive contact with the enemy if they were confined to one building. If Midnight was right, they’d have access to the entire training ground, giving the offense team maneuverability as well as excellent cover.

“ - Kyouka Jirou, defense, Tsuyu Asui, offense - “

And there it was. 

Midoriya smiled and bit down on the cap of his pen to cover it. It had been sheer chance, a 1 in 20 shot in the dark, but the cards had been dealt with a particular weight to his hand.

“ - Denki Kaminari, defense, Hitoshi Shinsou, offense. Your teams, 1A.”

Or not. 

Midoriya resisted the urge to look over, just to his right, where he could feel Shinsou’s eyes boring into his head. Instead, he flipped to a clean sheet of paper and wrote down his opponents on one side, his teammates on the other.

Me, Tsu, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Hagakure, Yaoyorozu, Kouda, Kirishima, Ojirou, and Shinsou. 

At least his team from the cavalry battle was intact, Midoriya thought vaguely. He knew how to work with Uraraka and Tokoyami as a unit. He’d also worked with Tsu at the USJ, and Kirishima and Yaoyorozu when they’d gone after the League of Villains.

Aizawa broke down the rules of the simulation for the rest of class, and although Midoriya took enough notes that he’d be able to actually pay attention to them later and absorb what they said, his thoughts were elsewhere.

Tsu, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu, Kouda, and Shinsou had all displayed quirks that were suited for defense, or at least they were often used defensively. The only real close-combat fighters they had were him, Kirishima, and Ojirou. Only three out of ten on the offense team were suited for actual offense. Midoriya winced. On the inverse, that meant the defense team got most of the class brawlers, a mix of distance and close-combat quirks that were good for striking hard and efficiently. He’d have to try this from a different angle, then.

When the bell rang, Tsu hung around her desk and waved to Midoriya as he packed up his books. For a moment it looked like Bakugou might have turned to say something to him, maybe hold him up before he could get to Tsu, but Midoriya saw the tension in his shoulders drop just a degree and he left without a word. 

Midoriya felt a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding escape him. It was fine, he decided; he and Kacchan already knew what the other would say about being put on opposing teams.

“So,” Tsu said as they walked out of the classroom together, both deciding instinctively to take the longer route back to the dorms, “what did you - ribbit - want to talk about, Midoriya?”

Midoriya smiled at her, “I’m glad you’re on my team, Tsu. I was actually hoping either you or Tokoyami would be, after I saw you two during the final.”
“Really?” Tsu seemed genuinely surprised for a moment, like the idea that she would be counted as a particular asset to the team hadn’t even crossed her mind. 

“Yeah! You both know how to use your quirks in versatile ways, and you were able to complement each other’s fighting style with only a few minutes of planning.”
“To be honest,” Tsu replied, “I’m pretty relieved you’re on my team, too, Midoriya - ribbit . Having someone with a knack for strategic planning on our team will make this simulation a lot easier, ribbit, and you’re the best in the class at that.”

Midoriya rubbed at the back of his neck nervously. They stepped out into the courtyard, and for a second he paused to look and see if there was anyone nearby.

“I appreciate it, Tsu, but I think for this one you’re the best asset we could have. I’ve been studying up a lot on how the class uses their individual quirks since the exam was announced yesterday, and you’ll be incredibly important if we’re gonna win.”

Tsu looked over at him, and for a second Midoriya saw a flash of recognition - she’d suspected her quirk would be important for the simulation, too, then. Not that hard a jump; she didn’t specialize in distance or close-combat, but adapted to each situation based on her opponent’s strength, she was highly mobile as well as being equally defensive and offensive with her attacks, and her natural calm reassurance made working in teams smoother. 

“So,” Midoriya said, cracking a smile, “you ready to win?”

Tsu returned his smile and stuck out her hand to shake. 

“What did you have in mind?”

x

Midoriya left his door open once he got back to his dorm, already tacking the print-out of the battle arena he’d got from the copier in the common room to his wall. 

“Hey, you!”

Uraraka let herself in, falling onto his bed with the ease of habit. It was something Midoriya had had to get used to, at first - actual people in his room, not only his mom. Actual people seeing his nerdy special edition All-Might posters and mint-condition All-Might action figures, the books he had on tactical thinking and fitness routines stacked under his multiple sci-fi paperbacks. It was still weird to think people knew Midoriya, knew him as a person and not just a student. 

“We’re on the same team! Finally , right? I haven’t had a chance to work with you since the sports festival!” Uraraka groaned, sitting back upright and kicking her legs over the lip of his bed. Midoriya smiled at her and reached down for another thumbtack, placing the bisected list of their classmates next to the map. 

“I know! It’s a shame we didn’t get Iida, too, or else we’d all be on the same team.”

Uraraka shook her head, “Yeah, but if he’s on the same team as Todoroki, I’m a little worried, honestly.”

Midoriya glanced out toward the hallway, carefully shutting the door as he turned back toward her.

“I was thinking the same thing.”
Uraraka gave him her best knowing smile.

“Alright, Deku, I know you - what’s the plan?”
Midoriya shrugged, “I don’t really have one. Yet. I was thinking I’d talk to everyone on our team first and then get everyone together tomorrow to come up with a few strategies. I wasn’t expecting the teachers to decide our teams, I thought it was gonna be random.”

“Me, too,” Uraraka said, “but they did it in such a weird way! Who do you think picked you for defense?”

Midoriya sighed, combing through his shelf of notebooks to find the ones he had dedicated to class 1A. 

“Definitely All-Might. And I bet he put Kacchan on the offense team, too. He likes testing us.”

Uraraka blew a piece of hair from in front of her eyes, “That’s frustrating. Either way, we’ve got a pretty strong team to go up against. Todoroki and Bakugou and Iida, that’s three students from the top five in the class!”

Midoriya turned and offered her a hand up. Once she took it, he shifted his wrist so their hands were clasped.

“Don’t sell us short, Uraraka, we’re gonna be fine! Written results are one thing, but we’ve got a lot going for our side.”

“You’re right,” Uraraka murmured. Midoriya had always admired her ability to flip so quickly from unsure to unshakeable, to take on confidence like a second skin. He could see it now, in her eyes and her expression - conviction.

“I’ll let the others know we should be meeting up to talk strategy soon,” she said. 

“Thanks!”

As they both turned from each other, Midoriya heard her say “ oh, sorry, didn’t see you there,” and for a split second the fear welled up inside his throat like acid, but as he looked over his shoulder, it wasn’t Bakugou shouldering his way into his doorway, but Shinsou. 

“Hey,” he said, “so we should probably talk.”

Midoriya nodded and stepped around him to close the door. He didn’t like the sensation of not trusting his own words, but it was one he had to keep beating back around Shinsou. He knew he didn’t trust Shinsou like he did his other classmates, but the possibility that he could was what he chose to focus on. It was what propelled Midoriya to offer him his notes, in a way, and to offer a place to sit at lunch. It was what made them being on the same team for this exam an opportunity instead of an obstacle. 

His quirk can control someone’s actions. Mine can level a city block if used at one hundred percent. We’re two kinds of untrustworthy power, but I have the advantage of All-Might paving my way to be a symbol of peace. He hasn’t done anything for me to think he won’t be a great hero one day, too. 

“Look,” Shinsou continued, startling Midoriya with an unusual uncertainty. Like Todoroki, Shinsou seemed to prefer others to talk themselves in circles before offering a handful of words, but something seemed off about the way he looked anywhere but at Midoriya. “I know the rest of the class doesn’t trust me much. I understand that, I replaced one of their friends.”

“Mineta wasn’t really anyone’s friend, not with the way he treated people,” Midoriya admitted, crossing the room to lean against his desk. He caught Shinsou’s eyes moving across the class list, the map, the empty flowchart he’d just finished tacking up. “But you’re right - before the sports festival, none of us really knew you. But things are different now. If you’re in 1A, you’re one of us.”

“That’s certainly a way of looking at it,” Shinsou muttered, “but I wanted to let you know that I’m not intending to cause problems for you guys. Whatever our team decides to do during the exam, I’ll do my part.”

“I appreciate it,” Midoriya said softly. 

“I also wanted to tell you,” Shinsou said, and seemed to stop himself for a second. Midoriya saw the hand not in his pocket become a loose fist.

“During the sports festival,” he continued, the sound dragged out of him like his words were landmines, “I heard what you said to Todoroki.”
Midoriya clenched his teeth.

It’s yours! 

“I get it now, I was wrong about you at first,” Shinsou said, “so whatever your plan is heading into this, I’ll back you. I’m giving you my trust on this one.”

Midoriya looked at him for a moment, the way it seemed like every word had been pulled from his teeth, the loose fist at his side, the immalleable tension of his shoulders. Trust wasn’t something he gave to people, not often, and to him it meant something entirely different than to Midoriya. Then it clicked into place.

“Thank you,” Midoriya said, “but that’s not something you can just give away. I want to be able to earn your trust, and for you to earn mine. To do that, we’ve got to cooperate with each other - everyone on the team, not just you and me. If you’re serious about what you’re saying, then that’s where we’ll start. And it won’t just be my plan; we’re a team. We work together.”

Shinsou blinked. For a second Midoriya thought he’d said something wrong, somehow hurt him by turning down a freely offered show of support, but then Shinsou pulled a genuine, if small, smile and nodded.

“Deal.”

x

“Can I ask you which teachers picked which students?” Midoriya asked.

All-Might paused in pouring the second cup of tea, set down the electric kettle he’d snagged from the teacher’s kitchen, and sighed.

“Officially, no.”

Midoriya’s eyes hazarded around All-Might’s expression, looking for a glint or a crack or a goading smile. Nothing.

“Will you answer if I ask anyway?”
“Oh, absolutely,” All-Might said, picking the kettle back up and finishing filling his cup.

Midoriya smiled, and nodded before taking his tea. They’d started doing this more often, and not just when All-Might wanted to drop some incredibly important backstory on him while staring out the bank of floor-to-ceiling windows. It was nice, actually.

“You placed me and Kacchan, didn’t you?” Midoriya asked. 

All-Might laughed, draining his tea in one slug. He leaned back and crossed one leg over the other.

“Nope.”

“W -” Midoriya stumbled, his prepared salvo of questions chased out of his mind in an instant. “What do you mean? Then who did?” 

“I was going to place you and young Bakugou on the same team, actually, seeing your results in the final,” All-Might said, “but Aizawa beat me to it with you.”

“Mister Aizawa placed me on offense?”

“He picked you and young Todoroki, actually. I eventually went with Shinsou and Iida. Your fight with young Shinsou at the sports festival was compelling, Izuku, but I hope I didn’t cause you any tactical problems placing him on your team.” 

All-Might’s eyes narrowed as he said it, but a flicker of something like humor sparked behind them. Midoriya knew with certainty that’s exactly what All-Might had intended to cause.

“A-alright, but then, who placed Kacchan?” 

All-Might folded his hands and leaned forward, arms on knees. “Principal Nedzu did. Young Bakugou and Asui were his choices. I think Vlad was actually relieved to be able to break up Kirishima and Bakugou when he placed him on your team.”

Midoriya folded his fist under his chin, thinking. Aizawa had gone for him and Todoroki, and from the way All-Might phrased it, he’d done so fast. The way the teachers had divided the students made sense if you looked at it from an individual standpoint - each teacher had noted different things about different students as the year went on, so it made sense for them to be able to act on those details in dividing them up. But what Midoriya couldn’t place was why Aizawa had jumped at him and Todoroki, instead of Shinsou, who he’d been mentoring since the sports festival. 

“Mister Aizawa figured you’d place Shinsou if he didn’t,” Midoriya concluded softly out loud, “because you two noticed the same thing about him during his match with me in the sports festival. Either of you would have put him on my team, so he made sure that Todoroki was placed on the opposite team and that Kacchan was open in case you decided to place him instead of Iida.”

All-Might tilted his head and smiled, “You figured that one out quick. I didn’t think of it until Aizawa made his choice, but it seems like we did pick up on your battle with young Shinsou. Unfortunately Principal Nedzu beat me to Bakugou, but placing Iida on a team you’re not on has historically been proven to make you push yourself tactically, so I thought it was appropriate. He has an interesting way of keeping you in check.”

Midoriya laughed, “Yeah, that’s Iida for you. He keeps us all on our toes.”

All-Might poured himself another cup of tea.

“Alright, now tell me what you’re not telling me,” he said, keeping his eyes on his cup to allow Midoriya to react to his words privately. 

Midoriya bit the inside of his cheek and took a deep breath. He’d never been good at hiding his uncertainty in front of All-Might. It was one of the many things he wished he could do better.

“I’m worried about Todoroki and Iida being on the same team. Maybe more than having to face Kacchan.”

All-Might did look up at that, raising an eyebrow. 

“During the cavalry battle, those two and Kaminari worked together really well,” Midoriya said, “and even though Yaoyorozu is on our team, Todoroki’s proven to be able to judge the strengths of his team and deploy them when he needs to.”

All-Might nodded, “Young Todoroki has a knack for leadership, one I suspect he’s been trying to ignore in favor of more impressive displays of individual strength. Iida also comes from a family well-versed in hero work, so he’s been exposed to strategy and quick judgement calls from a young age. If these are the two you’re worried about most, then I think you have your priorities pretty straight.”

Midoriya shook his head after a moment, “No, it’s not just that. I mean, they’re both really powerful, yeah, but the way that other team is set up is what’s bugging me, I think. Todoroki excels at commanding people with quirks that are offensive, but can be used at any range. His team has a variety of people who fit that description. Iida is one of them. You’re right that Iida is extremely smart, and that he knows what he’s doing in simulations like these, and he’ll be able to temper whatever plan Todoroki comes up with.”

Midoriya was on a roll, pushing all other thoughts from his mind as he followed what he knew, what he’d read and written about him. Aizawa had put them both on opposite teams for a reason, had made sure that Midoriya was in a position to face off against him directly, not just in combat, but strategically. 

“But Todoroki isn’t going to let Iida strategize for the team, and I know he won’t let Kacchan take the lead, so he’s going to do it himself. And who he’ll focus on is Shouji and Kacchan, I bet. Shouji excels at defense when he’s paired with someone with good distance fighting skills, like Mineta and Tsu at the sports festival, or Tokoyami at the camp. But he’s not a good match-up for offense fighters that need mobility to succeed, like Kacchan, Todoroki, or Ashido. So Todoroki will either have him focus on being an offense fighter, or pair him with someone like Jirou or Sero, which might limit their mobility. And Kacchan… Kacchan can think on his feet better than most people in our class, and adapt his fighting strategy while in combat, so he’ll be Todoroki’s advance guard. As long as Kacchan can keep me occupied, I won’t be useful to my team. We balance each other pretty well, so we’ll exhaust each other if we fight head-to-head. That’s something I have to avoid. I think any strategy I make has to have multiple backups for those two, and for Todoroki himself.”

All-Might stared at him for a long moment, motionless save for the rapid blinking.

“Jesus, kid,” he choked out finally, “now I get why you write all this stuff down in notebooks. Is infodump your only setting?”
Midoriya felt himself go red and bit his lip to keep from stammering out an apology.

“Sorry, I try not to do that in class. I’m just - distracted.”

“You came up with more raw data and possible counter-strategies in two minutes than I could at that age with three hours and a white noise machine,” All-Might barked through a laugh, the gleam in his eyes making Midoriya duck his head under the praise. 

Out in the hall, the second bell of the day rang. 

“One last thing before you go,” All-Might said as they stood, and reached over to place a hand on Midoriya’s shoulder. After all this time, he still couldn’t believe how light it was, how he could feel the individual bones beneath the skin. It was terrifying to think that even at his limited capacity, Midoriya could probably take him on right now and stand a decent chance.

“I’m proud of you, kid. You’re gonna win.”

Midoriya beamed, bowed, and rushed from the room before he could say something stupid in his moment of hero worship like I’m proud of you, too. 

Wait.

Midoriya stopped in his tracks a few steps down the hall.

“All-Might?” He said, peeking his head back through the door.

“Hm?”

“I’m proud of you, too!”

x

Midoriya made sure Gym C was empty before sending the text out to his team. He circled the outside of the building, checked the locker rooms and showers, poked his head into the adjoining observation room, and then started to set up in the middle of the empty mat that dominated the hangar-sized room. 

His notebook was placed face-down and open to the notes he’d started taking on his teammates, beside it a handful of photo copies of the rules Aizawa had laid out for them for the simulation, all written in Midoriya’s best script. 

He’d managed a reasonable six basic strategies last night after finishing his homework, all of them written in shorthand in his notebook. After a few minutes of deliberation, he’d also written down what he knew of which teachers placing which students on the next page. 

While he waited he stretched, giving his mind a chance to drift and expand around the simulation as a whole - he was good at little details, micromanaging every individual point of data, but that wouldn’t help him this time. Todoroki thought in larger abstracts, concepts that he could break down into more manageable steps. Iida had a good grasp on details, too, but tended to miss the point. Kacchan didn’t really do either, just prioritized his actions around the largest perceived threat. Whatever was the hardest, the most impossible, he set his sights on, and then moved backwards from there. It was something that Midoriya had always found admirable about him, if not incredibly risky and frustrating. 

Uraraka arrived first, a pale blue duffle across one shoulder and her hair pinned up away from her face. She waved at him from across the gym mat, slinging the bag down at his feet.

“Everything you asked for!” She said, cheery, “Kendou and I almost got caught by Mister Cementoss near the reference books, but as long as we have them back by tomorrow morning I don’t think he’ll notice.”

Midoriya smiled and reached down to pull a heavy hardcover from the duffel. UA had a very strict limit on the amount of books a student could take from the library at once, as well as how long they could keep them out, and kept a detailed account of who took what that was available to pretty much anyone, if you could reach across the main desk and snag the binder it was kept in. Not that Midoriya had reason to know that, or anything.

“Thanks, Uraraka. We’ll have to do Kendou a big favor after this. Here, do you wanna help me set up?”

Hagakure and Tsu arrived together soon after, just as Uraraka finished floating over the heavier mats that had been pushed up against the far wall. Yaoyorozu arrived next, and then Tokoyami, and by the time the sun had reached the top of the horizon, Midoriya’s entire team was assembled in a loose crescent on the mat. He noticed Ojirou had taken the spot furthest away from Shinsou, with Kirishima standing firmly between them. If Shinsou noticed this, too, then he’d elected not to say anything about it.

“Okay,” Midoriya started, and felt his pulse leap into his throat for a moment. He didn’t have nearly enough experience directing a group as large as this one, let alone organizing them to work together.

“I already talked to each of you about me taking the lead on strategy for our group; you all seemed okay with that, but if that changes, you should tell me.” He made sure that everyone’s eyes (besides Hagakure’s) met his in turn as he said this.

“We’ll go over some basic stuff today. I want us to train together as much as possible for the next few days before the simulation - the better we understand each other and each other’s quirks, the easier it’ll be during the exam to keep focused. I also want to work with each of you individually, both on your combat abilities and your opinions on strategy. Each of you has experience either working with or facing off against the other team’s members, so your ideas will be the groundwork for the plans we come up with.”

He watched as each of them nodded their understanding, and let out a small sigh of relief. He’d known all of them had wanted to win, but seeing the conviction in their faces firsthand was comforting. They all wanted this as much as he did.

“Okay,” he said, and clapped his hands together, “I guess we’ll start with one-on-one sparring.”

“We’ll start with what?” Kirishima sputtered.

Midoriya grinned, “The easiest way to figure out our strengths and weaknesses as a team is to do it the hard way. We’ll do a round-robin; each of us pairs up, and then one member will swap with another team until we come back to our original match-ups. Win by pinfall.”

Tokoyami tilted his head up, and Midoriya could see his dark eyes considering. 

“Before we can begin to understand the weaknesses of our enemies, we first have to interrogate the weaknesses in ourselves,” he said, “it’s a sound strategy. Tsu, I’ll spar with you first, if that’s agreeable.”

The rest of them split off easily after that, and Midoriya was silently thankful that Tokoyami had vouched for him - he’d need the full support and trust of his team if they wanted to stand a chance against the other group, and even though Midoriya was certain they all trusted him unquestionably, just like he did them, many of them hadn’t really worked with him this way before. Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Kirishima, and Tsu were all familiar with the way he delegated, but that was only half of his team. 

Midoriya caught Shinsou’s eye as he watched the other eight break off and take their places on the mats, and pulled the sleeves of his gym uniform up to his elbows as he waited for the other boy to meet him.

“I’m not doing this,” he said, a layer of bedrock to his voice that Midoriya didn’t think he could argue against even if he wanted to.

“I know,” Midoriya said, nodding, “that’s why I’m going to be your partner for this.”

Shinsou put his hands in his pockets and leaned back on his heels, “What did you have in mind?”

Midoriya walked them back to the furthest corner of the gym, taking in the details of the fights they passed by. Uraraka was floating everything Yaoyorozu tried to produce, keeping her on the defense by forcing her to generate more and more objects. Tokoyami was using Dark Shadow to keep Tsu occupied, circling her in seemingly random patterns to avoid being tangled in her tongue as he sent it out after her again and again. Ojirou was pummeling Kirishima with quick engagements before breaking away and leaping out of his range. They’d all improved exponentially since the first day’s exam, Midoriya realized, with a hard clench of pride in his chest. 

“I wanted to ask you more about your quirk,” Midoriya said quietly, “if that’s okay.”

Shinsou shrugged, but neither of them could ignore the charge of tension in his silence.

Midoriya slid a roll of tape from his pocket and began wrapping his fists. 

“How many people can you affect at once?”

Shinsou blinked. Not the first question he’d been expecting. 

“Depends. Typically more than ten and I pass out. People who realize what’s going on and actively resist take more focus, so that number can drop to two or even one depending on the strength of their will.”

More than ten. Midoriya kept his thoughts from racing at the idea of ten people under one person’s control, kept his expression neutral, and resisted the lick of fear that dragged up his spine. Ojirou had said he didn’t remember much of what he did under Shinsou’s control, but Midoriya had been able to remember and even fight against what he was ordered to do; that must have been the resistance Shinsou mentioned.

“Can you affect people over the telephone or with a recording?” 

Shinsou shook his head. His hands hadn’t left his pockets. Midoriya was starting to piece together why that was.

“It has to be face-to-face - my vocal cords vibrate at a different frequency, so the effect is lost if it’s transferred to electronics. They need to be able to hear me, too, so it doesn’t work on people who are deaf or hard of hearing, like Present Mic.”

Midoriya nodded and flexed his fingers. 

“Does it still work if you mimic another person’s voice?”

“Yes. My support gear is actually for that; it simulates the pitch and tone of another person as long as I can take a voice sample from them, and lets me speak in their voice without losing the effect of my own.”

Midoriya bit down on his tongue, the idea of hearing a classmate’s voice, his mom’s voice, All-Might’s voice, through the vocoder making the back of his neck go cold. 

“How direct do your instructions have to be once you hypnotize someone?”

Shinsou frowned, “I don’t know. I typically keep my instructions straightforward, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Midoriya shook his head and slid into a loose stance, “If we’re going to use your quirk during the simulation, I need to know what the parameters of it are. If you’re okay with it, I want you to instruct me to do a series of complex things and give less description each time until I stop obeying.”

Shinsou took a step back - not out of surprise, Midoriya noticed, but to keep himself in check. He had unconsciously mirrored Midoriya’s stance.

“No.”

“Shinsou - “

“I’m not going to do that.”

Midoriya kept his eyes pinned, breathing slow, and gestured with his taped hands.

“I’m the only person in this room who can break your control on my own. I’m not in any danger.”

Shinsou looked like he was about to turn and walk out of the gym, a mutinous glint to his expression that Midoriya could pick apart as barely-suppressed anger. 

“You were willing to give me your trust the other day. I’m asking you to trust me. This is something we have to do if you want to win.”

Shinsou dropped his eyes, then turned his head toward the others. They’d switched a few times - Yaoyorozu was pushing back on Dark Shadow with a shield made out of some type of highly-reflective material, edging closer to Tokoyami. Kirishima was attempting to get close to Uraraka but not faring too well as she spun around him, always keeping at his back. In the general studies track, they’d never done one-on-one exercises, instead focusing on developing their quirks individually and studying combat and rescue theory. Sparring wasn’t deemed necessary for students who’d likely never need it.

“Just try not to break your fingers this time, alright?” Shinsou sighed. His hands came away from his pockets, loose against his sides, and after a moment he glanced up sharply.

“Midoriya?”

Midoriya breathed in, breathed out, and said, “Yes?”

Crack. 

There was suddenly a vacuum of air in the room, or maybe there was too much air and he’d begun floating - a dull itch tapped at the backs of his eyes as he stared dully at the only thing left in the gym, Shinsou’s flat gaze and tense grimace. The other students on the mats didn’t exist - the noise of their sparring was more like the dull vibration of an oncoming train or the sound of his heartbeat through his bones.

I’m okay, I can break away from this. 

He felt a livewire of panic spark in his chest as he realized he couldn’t feel One for All humming beneath his skin, ready for him to pull into a full cowl, like he usually could. In fact, he could barely feel anything at all. He’d been warm in the wide cement gym just seconds ago, but that feeling had been wicked away. 

“Midoriya,” Shinsou began, his voice carrying a reverb that trembled through him. This was how it had felt the first time, at the sports festival, just a tunnel of sound that terminated with Shinsou’s figure. “Raise your left arm straight in front of you and make a fist. Tap your right index finger against your leg three times.”

Midoriya didn’t feel his arms move at all, couldn’t feel the sensation of his finger tapping against his leg, but he knew without hesitation that he was doing it.

“Stop.”

Midoriya pulled in air all at once, keeping his shoulders from slumping as his left arm dropped back to his side. Shinsou looked away from him.

“Okay,” Midoriya said, and kept his voice from breaking on the word, “now do it again with less description. Can you instruct people to tell you things about themselves, or repeat words?”

“I can get people to repeat after me, yes. The more esoteric the information I want to know is, though, the less likely they’ll be able to tell me.”

Midoriya nodded, “Alright. Then after you tell me to do those things, I want you to ask me a question.”

Midoriya met the frustration on Shinsou’s face with what he hoped was a confident smile. 

“Midoriya,” Shinsou snapped.

Midoriya clenched his teeth. 

“Yes?”

Crack. 

“Raise your arm and make a fist. Tap your leg three times.”

Midoriya watched himself comply with the singular feeling that his body wasn’t his , like he’d been thrown out of it and forced to watch this unfold.

You wanted to do this . Keep trying to pull One for All toward you. 

“Good. Midoriya, what’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.” He didn’t feel his mouth move.

“Stop.”

The feeling of being snapped back into his body was less violent this time. Midoriya breathed in slowly and flexed his fingers.

“More vague this time. Ask me a more complicated question, too.”

“How many more times are you going to do this?” Shinsou asked, frustration dragging through his voice.

“Until I don’t obey you,” Midoriya replied simply. He saw Shinsou bare his teeth, briefly, before -

“Midoriya.” 

There was no hesitation this time, “Yes?”

Crack. 

“Make a fist. Tap your leg a few times. Why do people call you Deku?”

No. 

Midoriya saw his fingers curl, felt his mouth open to respond, and with a shove pulled his power over his skin.

Snap. 

“I’m not answering that,” Midoriya said firmly, taking stock of the dull pain in his foot where he’d driven the tip of his sneaker into the mat and cracked the cement below.

He was vaguely aware of the silence around him. He breathed deeply, in and out, then raised his hand and waved to the other members of their team where they’d all stopped dead at the sound of cement splitting.

“We’re good, guys!” He called.

Shinsou was looking at him curiously.

“We’ll try it again - I was still following your instructions, so you’ll have to be more vague.”

“Why are you really doing this?” Shinsou asked.

Midoriya flexed his fingers and checked the wrappings of the tape, just to give himself something to do other than stare down the barrel of that question.

“I told you. I want to know what the limits are of your quirk, so we can use it during the simulation.”

“I told you the basic parameters, Midoriya. You don’t need to do this.”

“If I can figure out a way to resist your quirk, then so can Todoroki, or Kacchan. This is important, Shinsou.”

“Midoriya?”

“Yes?”

Crack.

“Make a gesture and tap your leg. What shade of blue is your favorite?”

Midoriya was aware of his arm coming out in front of him to comply, and with a brief nudge forced his thumb up out of the fist. He heard Shinsou snort.

“Cornflower.”
“Why?”

 “It was the primary color of All-Might’s debut costume.”

“Stop.”

Midoriya could see Shinsou’s tiny smile out of the corner of his eye as his head dropped and he took a deep breath.

“Cornflower, huh?” Shinsou asked conversationally. Midoriya shot him a warning look as he slid back into position. As a kid, he’d been obsessed with the 64-set of Crayola his mom had gotten him for his birthday one year, and had worn down the cornflower blue to a nub drawing endless All-Mights on printer paper. He knew she still had all of them.

“I want you to tell me to do something I physically can’t, this time, to see if I try to follow through anyway.”

Shinsou cocked his head, “Like what?”

Midoriya shrugged and shook his fists out.

“Midoriya?”
“Yes?”

Crack.

“Multiply three thousand thirty eight by seventy-two. Give me the answer in English.”

“I -”

Midoriya felt his body seize up. He didn’t know that information, would have to think about it for a while or even write it down to figure it out, but that wasn’t something Shinsou had told him to do. He’d said do it. 

Midoriya felt his breath evaporate in his throat, mouth dry. His mind spun in a circle, wrapping tighter and tighter against itself. 

He’d said do it.

I can’t.

“I can’t.”

“Do it.”

“I can’t!”

“Stop.”

Midoriya breathed heavily, dropping until his hands were on his knees. 

Shinsou shook his head, “That happens sometimes. Typically I have to break them out of it or else they’ll just pass out. You talking back is new, though.”

Midoriya straightened and tried to shake the feeling of his lungs being pressed into a space-saver bag. 

“It was weird. I wasn’t aware of myself saying it, like all the other times, but I also wasn’t obeying you.”

Shinsou frowned. 

“Either way, that’s enough for now,” Midoriya said, clearing his throat. He didn’t like that feeling, of knowing he was unable to do something, but not being able to do anything about it. He knew he couldn’t, but his body wouldn’t let him try to figure it out, try to think through the problem. 

The other sparring matches were winding down, except for one - Tokoyami and Uraraka. 

As Midoriya approached, Shinsou a few steps beside him, he saw his other teammates huddled in a circle around their mat. Uraraka had managed to float Tokoyami, but couldn’t seem to counter Dark Shadow. Tokoyami was floating upright, continually sending out orders, but couldn’t move horizontally away from Uraraka or vertically back toward the ground, and Dark Shadow’s hits were missing by millimeters as he was tugged back and forth violently through the air. 

Midoriya hummed, making a mental note to write this down later, and watched as Uraraka was eventually pinned beneath Dark Shadow’s massive black claw. Kirishima whistled and Hagakure cheered while the others clapped. Tokoyami, out of breath, was set back down and offered Uraraka a hand up. She grinned and gave Dark Shadow a pat on the head as she stood, and Tokoyami bowed his head to her for a brief moment. 

“Alright!” Midoriya said, and the other students turned toward him, “That was great, everybody! You all did really well. I think we can call it for tonight, but before you go, I have some stuff for you all.”

Midoriya bent down and excavated the dozens of books from Uraraka’s duffel bag at his feet. Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu’s eyes went wide - they were probably both aware of UA’s strict borrowing policy; Midoriya had seen both of them carrying around massive books in the dorms, although Yaoyorozu’s tended to be thick textbooks on chemistry and geology while Tokoyami’s were paperback anthologies of poetry and short stories. 

He heard Kirishima groan, “ Really, Midoriya? Homework?”
Midoriya smiled sheepishly, “Sorry. These are all books on different techniques and strategies I’ve been developing the past couple days. You can take whatever you like, and you don’t have to read all of it, but make sure Uraraka gets them all tomorrow morning before class.”

Tsu picked up one paperback and flipped it between her hands, “Escapology, huh?”

Midoriya shrugged, “The rules say that if we’re held hostage, we can either break ourselves out or break each other out. Might come in handy.”

Yaoyorozu summoned a small bag of her own from her arm as she picked up five or six different books. Kouda followed her example and lifted an arm-full of books into his gym bag. Shinsou bent down to pick one up, and held it out cover-first accusingly at Midoriya.

“How to Make Friends and Influence People?”

Midoriya bit down on a laugh and smiled at him instead. Shinsou huffed and stuffed it into the back pocket of his uniform anyway. 

“We should meet back here again tomorrow,” Hagakure said, “this was actually kind of fun! I’ve never fought Tsu before, she was incredible!”

Tsu turned her head away as she smiled and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Yeah! The more we practice together, the easier it’s gonna be to communicate and adapt plans during the simulation,” Midoriya said, “so I’ll come up with a few things tonight for us to go over, and we’ll meet back up tomorrow after class, how about it?”

Kirishima cracked his knuckles, “We’re gonna beat the living shit out of the other team, Deku.”

Midoriya smiled and turned to gather his notes and a few of the books from Uraraka’s duffel. Something Tokoyami said had been tugging at the back of his head, so he shifted through the titles until he found the one he was looking for. 

Art of War. 

“Ojirou,” Shinsou said quietly as the rest of their team began filing out, and Midoriya felt himself freeze just as he saw Uraraka do the same a foot to his left, “can I talk to you for a second, please?”
Midoriya met Uraraka’s glance for just a second, tightened his lips, and finished adjusting the books in his arms. Wordlessly, he left the gym with her beside him. 

Whatever Shinsou and Ojirou had to talk about was private, and unofficial team leader or no, Midoriya knew he needed to give them the space to either resolve things civilly or beat the shit out of each other for a few minutes. Or both, even. He’d had enough experience with these kinds of things with Kacchan to know that.

x

Midoriya met up with Yaoyorozu before class the next morning.

He’d actually meant to catch her before she left the dorms, but he’d miscalculated just how early she got up, and ended up sprinting the five minute walk from the dorms to campus, books in arms.

“Yaomomo!”

Yaoyorozu turned to him and smiled gently as he stopped to catch his breath.
“Hi, Midoriya. Sorry, did you want to talk to me? I try to get to class a little early.”
Thirty minutes is a little early? Midoriya asked himself in disbelief, but swallowed the words down. He was friends with Iida, who ran ten miles in the morning and still managed to show up fifteen minutes before first period, after all. 

“Yeah, actually! I was gonna ask you more about your quirk tonight during practice, but I had an idea last night that I wanted to run by you.”

Yaoyorozu picked back up towards campus, slowing her pace so Midoriya could walk beside her.

“Of course!” 

“I was thinking about how we’re the offense team, and how Present Mic said the simulation was a lot like a heist, so - and this is just an idea, really, we don’t have to do it - doesn’t that kind of make us the villains for this test?”

Midoriya watched as Yaoyorozu bit at the inside of her cheek in thought, looking up at the tree canopy. 

“I - Well, I never really thought of it that way, but I suppose it makes sense. What does that have to do with me, though?”
Midoriya grinned, and told her. 

x

Midoriya spent all of first period jotting notes, only half paying attention to Aizawa’s lesson - he’d feel bad about that later, he figured, and he knew he could always ask Iida if he missed anything.

Having had Kacchan in the desk in front of him all year, Midoriya had gotten very good at taking quiet notes. His pencil barely made a sound, even though by the time the bell rang for lunch he’d filled at least seven pages. 

Two of them were for Yaoyorozu. 

It had just popped into his head last night as he’d been reading, idly flipping through Sun Tzu and Zhuge Liang; they were going to be playing the villains. The teachers had been careful to avoid that kind of language, using offense and defense as if their goals were in any way equal, but Present Mic had let it slip that the Tower siege was more of a heist , and it was, wasn’t it? His team was going to be breaking into a place and stealing something, and to Midoriya, that seemed pretty villainous. Aizawa had even compared it to All-Might’s practical exam, too, where one team had been playing the role of the evil masterminds.

It had made Midoriya smile, just a little. Not because he reveled in the idea of being villains for a night, not at all. He’d been taught the harsh truth of what that word really meant over the past year. No, this was starting to sound more like a game than a test, and that was something Midoriya could work with. That was something Todoroki and Iida wouldn’t be thinking of. That was something he could pull his strategies around, could have his team play up. 

Both teams had been allowed to wear whatever gear came with their hero costumes per the rules of the simulation, but weren’t allowed to consult with the support classes for upgrades or additional gear until after it was over. Although Midoriya knew having Hatsume on reserve would have given his team a definite edge, he also knew they had someone on their team equally as useful.

Yaoyorozu. 

Midoriya had begun sketching out costumes and gear, tagged with material make-up and composition notes, immediately.

x

Midoriya sat everyone down as soon as his team was assembled in Gym C. He gave them the rundown of his epiphany last night, and very carefully avoided Shinsou’s face as he said the words playing the villains. 

“You all know your quirks better than I do, obviously,” Midoriya said, “so any gear you think would help you I want you to talk to Yaomomo about. Nothing too complicated, and we’ll have to stagger what you create so you don’t run yourself out too quickly.” He directed this last part to Yaoyorozu, who nodded, looking determined.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. Textiles are usually pretty easy for me, unless they’re big.”

“Alright,” Midoriya said, “then we should start with planning our strategy before we get back to sparring.”
He laid out the list of the other team’s members in front of him, including the teachers who had placed them. Beside it, he laid out the map of the city, the battle arena he’d fought in during the entrance exam.

“We’ll have the entire area to ourselves, for the most part - the other team will have to stay pretty close to the main Tower. We should use that to our advantage.”
Tokoyami tapped the map, closer to the edge, “The buildings surrounding the Tower are low to the ground, but a few further back are tall enough to give us a good vantage point. We might be able to see into windows, even.”

Midoriya nodded and highlighted a few skyscrapers that ringed the central Tower, far enough that they could keep cover with the smaller buildings and alleys if they needed. 

“There are storm drains that link certain parts of the city, too,” Tsu said, “and I work best near water - ribbit . If I can keep near those, I’ll have enough cover that they won’t see me coming.”

Midoriya marked the drains nearest to the Tower and the skyscrapers they’d use as base. 

He noticed Uraraka staring hard at the map, fingers tapping her lips, and nudged her with his shoulder.

“I don’t think it’s smart to assume the other team would all stay in the Tower,” she said eventually, the words measured, “their win scenario is more limited than ours - they have to capture and hold us, right? So if we were in their position, what would we do?”

“Keep a small group that specializes in close combat near the prize, and send out their distance fighters into the city to round us up,” Yaoyorozu answered, “that way they win before we can even get into the Tower.”

“Sero,” Ojirou said, and Midoriya flicked his eyes toward him - he seemed calmer today, less on edge than last time, “they’ll send Sero out to patrol the city and tape up anyone he sees.”

“Kyouka, too,” Yaoyorozu said, “she can direct him to certain parts of the city if she hears us.”

Kaminari can keep a low-level electrical field going around the base of the Tower that’ll be dangerous for us to cross, Kouda signed. 

“And Shouji will be able to spot us coming from a mile away if we lose cover before getting to the Tower,” Hagakure said. 

Midoriya folded his hand beneath his chin and wrote furiously, trying to keep up with his teammates. He wasn’t surprised they’d been paying this much attention to their other classmates; they would’ve had to in the multiple one-on-one and team matchups they’d had over the year. 

“I think it’s obvious that a ground-level attack won’t work,” Midoriya said finally, “they have too many options to keep us away. We’ll need multiple distractions in order to keep everyone on the field, and a way of getting into the Tower that doesn’t involve the front door.”

“Midoriya,” Kirishima said, “you’re missing something.”

Midoriya blinked at him, and Kirishima tapped the Tower on the map, dead-center.

“Bakugou.”

Midoriya grimaced and pushed his pencil behind his ear.

“He’ll come after you, he won’t bother with the rest of us,” Kirishima continued, “whether or not Todoroki tells him to. I know you said you’re not the leader of this team, man, but that’s not the way he’s gonna see it.”

“I know. Kacchan does best in urban environments where collateral damage doesn’t matter, so there’s too many things he can do for me to have only one counter-strategy,” Midoriya said. He felt Uraraka lean her shoulder against his, just enough to feel the solid weight behind it. 

“I can’t face him one-on-one, and the same goes for Todoroki, or else I won’t be any use to the rest of you. We’ll have to be smart about how we engage them.”

“We’ll have to keep Bakugou and Todoroki off of Midoriya,” Tsu said, startling him, “so at least one of us should be with him at all times, to distract them.”

The rest of the team nodded. Midoriya pulled in a breath. He hadn’t realized it, but he’d spent the entire time planning how to keep his team from being captured by the other group. It didn’t even occur to him that they might have been thinking the same thing about him.

“I can handle Kaminari,” Yaoyorozu said, “and Hagakure, you can handle Shouji if you’re quiet enough.”

Kirishima grinned crookedly, “I can keep Bakugou busy, at least.”

Tsu considered the list of the other team, “Aoyama and Jirou shouldn’t be a problem for me.”

“Sero and Ashido can’t use their quirks too well on Dark Shadow,” Tokoyami said.

Uraraka beamed, but something about it had an edge of steel, “Don’t worry about Iida.”

“Leave Satou to me and Kouda,” Ojirou said, and shared a knowing smile with Kouda that Midoriya wondered at.

Midoriya looked across at Shinsou, who had his eyes on the list. He seemed reserved, more so than usual, like he was keeping something from his expression.

“That leaves you and me on Todoroki,” Midoriya said softly. Shinsou’s eyes flickered up to him, and after a long pause, he nodded.

“Alright,” Midoriya said, “we’ll talk about possibilities for distractions and ways to get into the Tower tomorrow. Everyone pair up, we’ll do a two-on-two match.”

As everyone got into place on the mats, seeming to gravitate easily toward their partners - Tsu and Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu and Uraraka, Ojirou and Kirishima - Shinsou sighed and pushed his hands into his pockets.

“Before we start,” he said, and Midoriya blinked. He hadn’t said a word to the group for the past half-hour, but now he addressed them all, “if anyone doesn’t want me using my quirk on them, tell me now. I don’t want to fight any of you unless you know what you’re getting yourselves into.”

The team shared a few long, slow looks back and forth. For a moment the entire Gym seemed to hold their breath, each of them in turn waiting for someone to step forward and bow out.

No one did.

Shinsou shrugged, then took his place beside Midoriya, but for a split-second he could swear he saw disbelief in Shinsou’s eyes, quickly covered over again by the flat unimpressed look he’d gotten used to over the past few days.

Midoriya smiled. It seemed like the rest of his team had come to the same conclusion he had.

You’re in 1A. You’re one of us.

x

Midoriya wasn’t any stranger to the UA gardens - it was two-parts training ground for plant-based quirks, and one-part stress reliever for everyone else. It was particularly beautiful in the spring and summer, when most of the perennials bloomed, but the smell of the greenery and the general quiet was peaceful all year long. 

Tokoyami sat on one of the benches further into the garden, where the roses climbed on trellises and the tulips were planted according to color in long rows. Dark Shadow was flicking back and forth between the aconite and monkshood in the corners, humming to itself. Midoriya stopped for a moment to admire the golden-yellow sunflowers a little way off, wondering if All-Might liked to come here, too.

“Hi, Tokoyami.”

Tokoyami barely looked up from his book - Samuel Loveman - but marked his page anyway as he replied, “Midoriya. I haven’t seen you around here before.”

“I like to come in the morning sometimes, when everything’s waking up.”

Tokoyami nodded placidly, “Connecting with nature is important - it is, after all, where we come from, and where one day we’ll return to.”

Midoriya blinked. Tokoyami was his friend, but sometimes, it was difficult to talk to him.

“I wanted to talk to you about something, about the exam, if that’s okay.”

Tokoyami eyed him curiously. Dark Shadow came over to curl around his lap, and Tokoyami laid a gentle hand on its head.

Midoriya looked around quickly for anyone nearby - no one except for Shiozaki, who was far out of hearing range inspecting the carnations and ivy.

“I was thinking about a strategy using Dark Shadow,” Midoriya began hesitantly, “but it involves using it in almost complete darkness. Is that something you think you can do?”
Tokoyami looked up and out over the garden for a while, clearly thinking. His hand didn’t move, but Midoriya could suddenly feel Dark Shadow’s angled yellow eyes on him.

“After the incident at camp,” he began, measuring his words, and Midoriya suppressed a flinch, “I asked Mister Ectoplasm for extra training using darkness as a cover. Dark Shadow and I have a better hold on our control than we did then - depending on what you’re planning, I think I should be able to do it.”

Midoriya met his gaze and nodded.

“Alright, then. We’re gonna have to depend on Kaminari for this one, but if it goes right, I think we can make Dark Shadow an opponent for the other team that they can’t ignore.”
Tokoyami’s eyes widened, but after a moment, he nodded back.

x

Midoriya quickly came up with a series of code words for his team to use as the exam approached. There was only so much they could text each other, and during their practices he’d gotten increasingly concerned of Shouji or Jirou listening in - it wasn’t like he thought they actually would, but it was better to be safe than sorry. They made good use out of Kouda teaching them a few simple signs they could use during practices or in the simulation itself, and practiced the hand signals that would mean wait, stay, go, to your left, and to your right. 

Between practices, Midoriya read everything he could get his hands on - news articles about famous art heists, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, manuals and textbooks on escapology and lockpicking, biographies on Harry Houdini that devoted chapters and chapters to sleight of hand. He took notes on possible counter-strategies, distractions, the layout of the buildings in the battle arena from what he could parse from the map and remember from his own entrance exam. By the end of it, he had an entire notebook filled, a stack of sticky notes devoted to quotes or passages from the books he’d read, and a pile of schematics for Yaoyorozu to use. But none of it made him feel any more prepared for the Tower siege.

Midoriya encouraged them all to show up to sparring practice with their hero gear, and the practice before the exam, Shinsou walked in wearing his gym uniform with only a vocoder loose around his neck and a capture weapon wrapped around his shoulders.

For a moment Midoriya was struck by how much he looked like Aizawa, long hair and tired eyes included, and then Shinsou turned to look at him and the illusion was broken. Midoriya had never seen Aizawa look that nervous. 

He caught the other boy’s eye as his team huddled up into a loose circle and flashed him a discreet thumbs up. 

“Okay,” Midoriya said, “the exam’s in two days. Today we’ll be finishing our five-on-five fights, and then tomorrow I want everyone to get familiar with the map of the city and go over their distractions and tag-teams, okay? I’ll send you the notes on the final strategies tonight and we can talk about them if you have any questions tomorrow.”

Uraraka bounced on the balls of her feet, clearly excited to get going. Midoriya smiled at them all.

“You’ve all done really great so far, guys - we can absolutely win this.”

“Hell yeah!” Kirishima howled. Ojirou laughed and swiped at him with his tail.

“Alright, split up!” Yaoyorozu said, moving over to where Tsu and Kouda stood. 

The team was evenly divided into groups of five, with Yaoyorozu, Tsu, Kouda, Ojirou, and Hagakure on one and Midoriya, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Shinsou, and Kirishima on the other. Larger group fights like this would be helpful during the actual exam, where a diverse number of close-combat and distance fighters would be present and probably close together. Midoriya had taken note to split up the team accordingly. 

The larger mat was cleared, and Midoriya stretched as he watched his teammates line up beside him. 

Yaoyorozu counted them down. Tokoyami shifted Dark Shadow so it covered his head and shoulders, claws bared. Ojirou’s tail flicked back and forth quickly. Kirishima’s skin solidified into ridges and spikes as he shifted into a ready stance. Shinsou pulled the vocoder over his mouth and nose and Midoriya watched as his expression went completely void beneath the heavy black material.

“ - Two, one!”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Midoriya jumped, half-turning toward the entrance at the hard snap of Aizawa’s voice.

“Oh - !”

“Sensei!”

“I -”

Crack.

Midoriya understood in a split-second, and as Shinsou’s capture weapon whipped forward and tied around Tsu and Yaoyorozu, he yelled for Uraraka to float Hagakure and Ojirou. 

The other team was completely still, eyes flat and distant as they stared transfixed at the gym entrance. 

“Go get them, Deku,” Shinsou murmured to his right, hands tied within his scarf, “I’m not gonna do all the work, here.”

Ojirou beat them to it - his tail had been flicking back and forth before the match, and Midoriya understood why, now. It took him only a brief moment to flick his tail downward and launch up out of Uraraka’s reach and Shinsou’s control. In the next moment he landed next to Yaoyorozu and Kouda and broke them out of their trance with simultaneous jabs to the back.

Midoriya pulled at One for All, somewhere deep inside his chest, and felt it answer enthusiastically as he covered himself in the full cowl. 

Dark Shadow reached out to grab Ojirou but was beaten back with a smack to its beak. Yaoyorozu slipped from Shinsou’s capture weapon as a steel ring crystallized around her waist and expanded outwards with vicious speed. She hit the floor, rolled, and came up with a shield just as Dark Shadow bashed against it.

Uraraka placed her hand on Tsu’s arm, floating her high toward the rafters of the gym, and Shinsou’s capture weapon was immediately recalled to his wrists before being shot out again to wrap around Kouda’s mouth and stop him from calling out. 

Deku advanced on Ojirou, who had kept a steady distance between himself and everyone else by throwing himself into quick engagements and then breaking away.

He’ll try to hit me and then launch himself away, watch the way his tail moves, it comes down underneath him to propel him into the air at the last second. 

Kirishima passed alongside him, spinning in circles to keep Hagakure’s gloves and sneakers in view and lashing out with the sides of his arms.

Shinsou struggled to keep Kouda within the binds of his capture weapon, but moved far enough back that none of the others could get to him without going through Tokoyami.

Midoriya got in close to Ojirou, feinting for his right side and landing a good 3% punch with a left hook that sent him skidding back across the mat. Uraraka wasted no time, circling behind Ojirou with silent steps and touching the back of his gi. Midoriya grinned at her as Ojirou joined Tsu above them.

Yaoyorozu held up a massive iron shield as Midoriya pivoted and launched toward her, the speed of it taking him across the mat in under a second, but as the shield came up Midoriya half-rolled and leapt off it to come down on her other unprotected side. Yaoyorozu fixed him with a glare, tracking his motion, and Midoriya’s punch landed on the flat of a bō staff. It was still enough for the vibration to travel up her arm, pushing her back a foot as she cried out. She swung it toward his middle without missing a beat and he leapt back, the shock not enough to make her drop it.

She’s fast, but she knows that I move faster - keep her attention on you, watch the way she uses that staff to block.

“Yaomomo! Help!” Shinsou called out in Tsu’s voice, and Yaoyorozu dropped the shield to cover her mouth but kept her eyes fixed on Midoriya, only for Dark Shadow’s claw to come bearing down on her now vulnerable left side. Her shield was smaller this time as it crystallized out of her wrist, but made of the same highly-reflective material Midoriya had seen her produce earlier.

Uraraka tapped one of Hagakure’s gloves half the mat away, and Kirishima rolled off of her pinned form. Shinsou whipped his capture weapon and brought Kouda down face-first onto the mat, and Kirishima gave him a thumbs up as he placed one boot over the other boy’s back, keeping him pinned. 

Yaoyorozu breathed out, and Midoriya could see the sweat beginning to bead across her hairline. She hissed as Dark Shadow bashed against her shield again, but she twirled her bō in the opposite hand and met Midoriya’s next punch with a smack to the arm, taking him off course just enough to miss her by millimeters. The force still kicked up a wind that blasted by her head, and as she flinched Uraraka grabbed the wrist still holding the shield and flipped her over her back, landing with her knees on the mat and her hand placed solidly on the other girl’s collarbone, ready to float her. 

Yaoyorozu sighed, dropping the bō.

“Well, ribbit, that was disappointingly quick,” Tsu said above them. Uraraka smiled up at her and floated the others down before releasing them.

“That was amazing!” Midoriya said, not quite out of breath. Another swell of pride pressed against his chest. “You’re all getting really good at fighting to exploit your opponents’ weaknesses, and keeping the other team scattered.”

“Thanks, Midoriya!” Hagakure said, helping Kouda up. Kouda gave him a beaming smile and signed thank you to him. Midoriya signed it back.

“You did really well, Ojirou,” Shinsou added quietly, “you figured out you could break my control on a group of people if you resisted enough to weaken it.”

“And did you see Yaomomo?” Uraraka asked, clasping her hands, “That was awesome! You took on like three people at once! And that shield, you kept Tokoyami back!”

Yaoyorozu blushed and straightened the hem of her gym uniform, “I read up on adularescents and silica after my match with him during the sports festival and made my own compound.”

Midoriya bit his lip and watched the others volley praise back and forth, and he knew in a way that was hard to explain but was so clear to see - they were going to win.

x

Midoriya sent the finalized strategies over the groupchat that night after dinner. He’d been biting his nails about it for hours, putting even Iida on edge as he muttered quietly to himself over his notebook on the other side of the table. Shinsou had finally broken his concentration by asking sweetly, “Hey Midoriya, mind if I take your rice, if you’re not going to eat it?” and before Midoriya’s head could catch up with his mouth he’d asked, “Sorry, what?”

Crack. 

“Stop muttering, you’re weirding out your classmates,” Shinsou had said, and took his rice anyway.

Oh my god, Uraraka replied in the chat almost immediately.

Holy shit, man, Kirishima agreed.

Revelry in the darkness, Tokoyami replied a few minutes after, and Midoriya felt a slow smile coming over him.

This would work.

x

Aizawa led them to the battle arena after class, a fine rain just beginning to fall, all of them decked out in their hero costumes and practically vibrating with nervous energy. The only two who didn’t seem affected were Todoroki and Bakugou, leading the pack of students with shoulders held back and faces neutral. Midoriya couldn’t see Todoroki’s hands, as they were shoved into his pockets, but Bakugou’s were loose and steady by his side - no sign of any apprehension. 

All-Might stood by the massive double doors, looking absolutely tiny in comparison even with his height. He smiled at the class as they approached.

“Good afternoon! I just wanted to say good luck to you all - this simulation will be hard, but I know how much effort each of you put into preparing, and I’m very proud of you!”

“Yes, alright,” Aizawa said impatiently as he came to stand next to him, ignoring the hurt look All-Might flashed at him, “you all know the parameters of the simulation, and the rules. We’ll be giving each of you a comm device so you can speak to each of your teammates and either All-Might, Mic, or I can intervene if things get too intense. The exam lasts until one team wins, so keep that in mind, will you?” Aizawa emphasized his point with a small yawn.

All-Might dug a small pouch out of his pocket and gave it to Iida to pass around. Inside were the same comms devices they had used in the practical exam with him at the beginning of the year.

“We’ll give you ten minutes to orient yourselves before the simulation begins,” Aizawa said, and the doors behind him split and began to open with a massive tremor.

His mouth quirked in a small, faint smile, only for a moment, but Midoriya caught it.

“Good luck.”

x

Hero Notebook 14

Hanta Sero

“Cellophane”

•  his tape can vary in elasticity and stickiness, but not in tensile strength - this makes it easy to break, but difficult to remove; he prefers to start fights with wrapping his opponent and spinning them at high speeds or dangling them over another object to keep them in the air

• he keeps his right side open when starting out a match, and prefers to use his left elbow first, so moving in quickly to his right for a close blow is important

x

Midoriya and his team set up quickly - they choose a nine-story building a few blocks away from the Tower, taking back alleys to get through the city quickly, Kouda summoning a small army of sparrows from the nearby woods to make sure they aren’t followed.

Yaoyorozu begins summoning costumes and basic gear as soon as they’re out of the rain, which had begun to pick up.

“Sukeban,” Uraraka says, holding up a long pleated skirt with the hiragana for hero course 1A on the back, “ nice.”

Midoriya removes his gloves and tosses a leather jacket over to Shinsou, who eyes it for a second with something like distaste before shrugging it on. He tosses another, this one with a layer of black lace sewn into the bottom and around the wrists, to Tokoyami.

Yaoyorozu hands him the gauntlets he’d sketched out during class the other day, and as he twists his wrists, twin shields whip out and extend to cover his forearms.

Once Yaoyorozu’s done, Midoriya hands her a sweet bun wrapped in cloth he’d snuck from lunch in his pocket. She accepts it with a slightly worn “Thanks,” and for a few minutes they all suit up.

They look like proper villains now, Midoriya thinks, if not a little like villains from a yakuza movie. Each of them wears a face mask pulled down around their necks, embroidered with the fanged smile of a hannya mask in neon green. His eyes had met Yaoyorozu’s as he noticed the color, and he’d blushed when she smiled at him.

The girls are now wearing long sukeban skirt-pants with sashes around their waists, each with the kanji for their hero names down the side, sturdy boots, and cropped black jackets over a version of their gym uniform shirt - black, emblazoned with the interlinking UA and 1A symbols.

Midoriya had gone with a black one-piece top much like his own hero costume, the cowl now a thin material that fell over his hair in a chevron, keeping his eyes clear. His belt is now looped around a pair of soft, flexible pants that mimic denim. His sneakers are the same as ever, bright red against the rest of it. 

The rest of the boys wear the same style of pants, Kirishima’s edged with red cuffs and Tokoyami’s split up the sides with sturdy dark red fabric, motorcycle jackets with the kanji for their hero names across one shoulder - Shinsou’s merely his given name - and large serpent-like dragons on the back, and similar shirts to the ones the girls wear.

“Alright,” Midoriya says, “Tokoyami, Kirishima, and I will go down to the Tower to draw their attention. The rest of you start prepping for Plan A.”

He receives a chorus of nods. His grin is all teeth.

Time to go beyond, plus ultra.

x

“Back!”

Tokoyami and Kirishima are both buffeted by the icy wind that kicks up, and Midoriya stares hard at what was once the Tower.

The first ten floors are encased in gleaming, blue-white ice. The remaining five crackle with a livewire of yellow static that Midoriya can tell is coming from the rooftop.

Kaminari. It’s completely sealed off. 

“Well, fuck,” Kirishima mutters.

Midoriya shushes him with a signal as Tokoyami withdraws Dark Shadow, and each of them realizes gradually that there’s a figure still out in front of the ice, untouched.

Bakugou.

“Alright, you goddamn nerd!” He shouts upward, not having spotted the three yet from their vantage point, “I know you’re out there, Deku, so come on! Or don’t you wanna win this?”

Midoriya grimaces.

Tokoyami signs to him to withdraw, and Midoriya nods. As soon as they’re clear of the block, he taps his comm.

“Todoroki’s frozen the Tower. Kaminari’s up top, cutting off our access. Kacchan’s guarding the front.”

“I can see the ice from here, ribbit,"  Tsu replies, “are you on your way back?”

“Should take us two minutes, as long as Sero’s not out yet.”

“Copy,”  Yaoyorozu says, then, “time for Shinsou and I to start phase one?”

Midoriya pulls into a side road and eyes the buildings in front of them for signs of movement before signaling Kirishima and Tokoyami to move forward.

“You’ll have to approach from the roof - can you do that?”

“No problem,”  Shinsou says, and although Midoriya hears the boredom in his voice, he knows that in this moment none of them are without the crackling tension that comes with a fight.

Midoriya freezes as Dark Shadow suddenly whips around and covers Tokoyami’s back.

“Sero.”

Midoriya barely manages to dodge, the thwip of tape hitting the sidewalk beside him loud in his ears. He pulls One for All into a full cowl and launches upward just as Sero tries to swing by. 

“Wow, you guys look good! Very hardcore,” Sero laughs as he nimbly dodges Midoriya’s punch, throwing himself toward Kirishima as a thin string of tape wraps around Tokoyami.

Kirishima crosses his arms in front of him and Sero leaps off them, flipping backwards and then taking off into the air again with more speed than Midoriya’s ever seen from him.

They were practicing too, this whole time. You forgot that part.

“Creati and Hitoshi,” he hears Tokoyami hiss into his comm, “we’ve engaged Cellophane in area two. Proceed with phase one.”

Kirishima manages to wrap one arm in Sero’s tape and jerk it toward him, but Sero breaks off before he can be pulled forward and lands on top of a nearby low-slung building. 

“Riot, go! Let Froppy know where we are,” Midoriya says, feeling the concrete buckle beneath him as he takes off into the air again.

Sero misses with the tape he sends at Midoriya’s head, and in the brief moment where his arm is extended Midoriya grabs him and flips him over his shoulder, just as he’d seen Uraraka do during practice. As he falls, Sero wraps Midoriya’s ankle and pulls the weight out from under him, but Dark Shadow is on them in seconds, and Midoriya’s able to regain his footing and disengage.

“You should leave, Deku!” Tokoyami yells up at him, still trying to get out of his binding, “I can handle this until Froppy gets here!”

Midoriya pauses, just for a moment, but then shakes his head and hurtles back toward Sero. He manages to catch his attention with a left feint just enough for Dark Shadow to snag him with one massive claw and drag him upward, arms pinned to his sides.

Midoriya pulls the capture tape Yaoyorozu had produced and tosses it down to Tokoyami just as he shrugs off the rest of Sero’s tape.

“I’ll meet you back at base, use the signal if you need help,” Midoriya calls down to him, and then with another leap clears a half block heading east.

When he lands he rolls, getting to his feet quickly and moving steadily. After another half block he changes course and starts heading back in the actual direction of their base, south. It’s not much, but if Sero saw him take off, then it’ll be enough to keep the other team off of them for a while.

“One, what’s your status?”

“At the Tower now,” Shinsou replies, “about to engage Chargebolt.”

“Froppy?”

“Almost to Tsukuyomi.”

That’s three accounted for. If we can find Jirou, four. Shouji will stay close by as lookout, five.

Five in the Tower, five outside. Yaomomo was right.

“Two?”

“Invisigirl and I haven’t spotted Tentacole or Earphone Jack yet, stand by.”

“Three?”

“Anima and I have a perimeter set up around areas one and two, heading to three now.”

Midoriya smiles and kicks off one last time, landing heavily near the entrance to the base but making sure not to crack the concrete beneath him. 

From his comm, he hears Aizawa’s voice, tired but not disinterested, “Hanta Sero is out of play.”

Kirishima’s inside already, strapping a few of the flash grenades Yaoyorozu had produced to the back of his belt. Midoriya looks over at him and receives a nod, and then Kirishima lobs him one of the grenades.

“Present for you,” he says with a sharp smile.

Midoriya straps it to his belt, above his thigh, and the two duck back out into the rain.

x

Hero Notebook 14

Denki Kaminari

“Chargebolt”

• upper limit on his indiscriminate shock is 1.3 million volts - anything below that, and he can still use his power, although sparingly; the smaller bursts he shoots from his fingers vary in strength, but can't reach upwards of 1 million volts

• the charges on his arms can store residual electricity from his environment, but he can also generate a low-level electric field that feeds them like a battery; his electric fields can be up to half a kilometer in diameter, but the wider it is, the less power it has

x

Midoriya and Kirishima take a different route to the Tower this time, passing close to the storm drains where Tsu had been patrolling. She’ll be around somewhere, holding Sero, far from their base.

Midoriya signals for Kirishima to keep back a few buildings away from the Tower as they approach, holding a single finger to his lips, and Kirishima nods before almost disappearing into the dark wet of the alley.

You have to time this right. You have to time this perfectly .

“One,” he whispers into his comm, dropping low to peer out from the side of a building and catching Kacchan’s figure, still and alert, in front of the Tower. He pulls his mask over his mouth and lowers his cowl.

“One second,” Shinsou replies, equally as quiet. Midoriya tenses.

His ears pop. Around him and above him, a hiss of electricity begins to snap.

And then the top of the Tower jolts to life, a huge wave of yellow-tinted charge radiating out in a perfectly flat circle. It goes on and on, enveloping the sky and sparking through the raindrops, as Kaminari activates his indiscriminate shock.

“Deku, go,” Yaoyorozu orders, louder than Shinsou had been, and Midoriya knows that the first distraction had gone off perfectly.

“Denki Kaminari is out of play.”

(“You two will be in charge of Kaminari - as long as he’s guarding the Tower, we won’t be able to pass his electrical field. But if you can get him to waste his wattage, he’ll be out of play for a long time.”

Yaoyorozu looked up at him with an intense kind of certainty on her face, “I’ve protected Kyouka and I from his attack before, I know what kind of material I need, but it wears me out pretty fast. I’ll be out of commission for at least fifteen minutes.”

Midoriya nodded and glanced over at Shinsou, “We need to make sure this works. He might not use his entire wattage if you surprise him, especially with Yaomomo with you. Do you think you can hypnotize him?”

Shinsou had blinked at him, surprised, and Midoriya wondered at that for a second before it clicked - he’d never heard him call his quirk anything else, never referred to it as ‘brainwashing’. It was important, in Midoriya’s mind, to make the distinction. Brainwashing implied something he didn’t think Shinsou was capable of doing.

“Yes.”)

The lights in the Tower flicker, and then the entire block is encased in darkness.

“One, good job. Hold Chargebolt and regroup. Tsukuyomi, you’re up.”

Midoriya bolts out into the open.

Bakugou doesn’t see him at first, rounding the eastern corner of the Tower, and it’s all the time that Midoriya needs to draw One for All over his skin and land a vicious blow to his left side.

“Deku,” he hears Bakugou hiss as he pulls away, arm coming up to cover where he’d been hit even as his feet skid a good three feet before stopping.

“You wanted me to come out to fight,” Midoriya replies, marveling a little at how steady his voice is, how in control of the moment he feels, “so here I am, Kacchan.”

Bakugou recovers quickly, turning his injured side away from Midoriya and propelling himself forward with an explosion.

He won’t right hook, he won’t right hook, he won’t right hook -

Midoriya flips himself, sliding beneath him, and for a moment they hang with Bakugou suspended over him and their momentum carrying them past each other, before Midoriya lashes out again with a vicious left kick into Bakugou’s stomach. He’d learned it from watching Mirio.

Bakugou redirects himself in the air, but Midoriya’s already landed and rolled into a crouch. As Bakugou’s back turns toward the rest of the city, Midoriya breathes into his comm, “Riot.”

“What did you fucking say?” Bakugou snarls, an explosion enveloping his arm.

Kirishima appears on Bakugou’s right, a sweeping blow with one arm just about to make contact before Bakugou counters with his gauntlet and sends up a shower of sparks between them.

Bakugou disengages quickly and positions himself between them - his breathing hasn’t changed, steady and slow as it usually is, but Midoriya can see the beginnings of that decade-old rage in his eyes.

“That was low, Deku,” he says, “and I wouldn’t have picked you for a sneak attack, Shitty Hair.”

“Are you gonna talk all night or are you gonna show us some fireworks, Katsuki?” Kirishima replies from behind his ever-grinning mask.

That manages to tear a yell from Bakugou’s throat as he flings himself back at Midoriya, one gauntlet outstretched, leaving behind an explosion that’s all bright light and no heat for Kirishima to take full-face.

Kirishima flinches and moves back, startled, but he can’t get between them fast enough - Midoriya dodges Bakugou’s sudden uppercut and spins around him, but his wrist is grabbed at the last second and Bakugou throws him down into the pavement with a huge explosion to the center of his back as his other hand comes around.

Midoriya bites down on the cry in his mouth and manages to muffle it between his teeth and the concrete. His nose and forehead make a sickening crack against the solid ground beneath him.

“Your plan’s working out alright so far, Deku,” Bakugou says, the joy in it raw and untempered, “but you forgot that I can still beat the ever-loving fuck out of you.”

Midoriya pushes himself up with one arm, One for All backing the movement and propelling himself up with enough force to release Bakugou’s hold on him. His gauntlet comes away smeared with blood as he wipes his lip, but he still shifts into a ready stance and beams at him.

“That’s why I brought Kirishima,” he chirps, and the moment of sickening clarity that sparks in Bakugou’s expression is almost enough to make up for everything. 

Kirishima wastes no time in getting another strike in, bashing Bakugou’s arm with the side of his own and using the moment where his balance falters to drop low and sweep his legs out from under him in one fluid motion.

“Go, Deku!” Kirishima calls out, hand already at the back of his belt. Bakugou unleashes another explosion that puts him back on his feet with terrifying speed. Midoriya takes the opportunity to leap away, clearing the first building in front of the Tower effortlessly. Behind him, he can hear Bakugou yell in incoherent fury before another explosion rocks the ground beneath him.

“Tsukuyomi,” he says into his comm.

“In position,” Tokoyami replies immediately, and Midoriya allows himself a sigh of relief - the fight with Bakugou wasn’t supposed to go on that long, but he’d gotten sloppy at the end and Kirishima had had to pick up his slack. Bakugou’s blow had torn the material on his right shoulder, and he could feel the dermal burns as a distant hot pain, but he couldn’t afford to think about it right now. 

“Tailman?”

“Here, boss.”

“Ground Zero is occupied; go ahead and start phase two.”

“On it,” the two of them reply in unison.

("Once Kaminari is taken care of,” Midoriya said, “there’ll be enough darkness for you to get into the Tower pretty easily from above, Tokoyami.”

“We won’t know which floor the object is on until I’m inside,” Tokoyami reminds him, “and Dark Shadow won’t be much use to help track it down.”

“That’s why Ojirou is going with you,” Midoriya replied easily, turning to look at the other boy next to him, “you’ll need to work fast, so find the nearest stairwell and scout the floors from the top down. Tokoyami, you can use Dark Shadow against anyone in the upper floors to keep them off of him. It’ll be difficult, especially since we don’t know where in the Tower the prize is, but if you need to you can escape back up through the roof and regroup at base.”

Ojirou looked across to Tokoyami, each of them without a trace of hesitation on their faces.

“Alright.”)

Midoriya drops back down to street level to keep clear of Shouji’s gaze, slowing to a stop somewhere halfway between the Tower and where the storm drains connect. 

“Anima and Creati, keep Chargebolt and Cellophane out of play; Froppy, meet me by the western storm drains in area three.”
He hears Kouda give a little affirming hum, and Froppy ribbit s to confirm she’d heard him.

“Two?”
“Spotted Earphone Jack,” Uraraka says in his ear, just above a whisper, “ Invisigirl is tailing her. Tentacole is still unconfirmed.”

“Keep looking,” Midoriya says, frowning. He had been sure Todoroki would have sent him out as lookout, but if he’s wrong - 

Something shifts behind him.

Midoriya doesn’t dodge in time, just barely able to pull his full cowl over his skin and shift his stance before he’s wrapped in three massive arms and lifted up off the ground.

Well, guess I was wrong. 

x

Hero Notebook 14

Mezou Shouji

“Tentacole”

• limbs can duplicate themselves, meaning if one is removed from the multiple branches, it can grow back, but the six core arms can't - one set of three arms can produce at least 540 kg of grip strength

• shoulder sockets can rotate to allow him to reach further back behind him and bend his arms 360 degrees around, meaning he can attack or block from any angle - the webbing between the arms is a thick keloid-like substance, making them impressive shields, so he tends to do well in close-combat but not well against distance fighters. he's managed to make up for this by often pairing up with distance fighters and keeping himself on the defensive

x

“Froppy!” He calls into his comm, pushing off of Shouji’s chest as he tries to pull him in close. He manages to break Shouji’s hold as the blow knocks him back a few steps, and Midoriya lands across the road from him.

Shouji’s arms fan out, duplicating faster than he can keep track of, and Midoriya’s head goes suddenly, horrifyingly blank. 

In the space between one breath and the next, Shouji is ripped backwards and off his balance. Midoriya doesn’t waste the opening, getting in one solid kick to his left side before disengaging again and jumping backward.

A tongue is wrapped around Shouji’s face, blocking his vision, and with his arms formed into fists, there’s not enough time for him to react before Midoriya leaps at him again.

An 8% blow doesn’t manage to knock him off his feet, not even a little, but it does send him staggering back as Tsu releases her tongue and lands lightly beside Midoriya.

“We have to run,” Midoriya says.

Tsu jumps as seven identical fists come smashing down where she used to be, and Midoriya skids backward and takes off up onto the roof of the nearest building. As he runs, heading back east, he can see Tsu on an adjacent rooftop keeping up with him. 

Shouji doesn’t let them go that easily.

He’s not a very mobile fighter, his increased muscle mass compensating for a lack of speed, but with several branches of arms he’s able to scale the side of the building Midoriya had landed on and fling himself between the taller telephone poles running parallel to him, keeping a steady gate that gains on them.

“I’ll distract him, get out of here! Go find Uravity!”  Tsu says into his comm, but even before it’s out of her mouth Midoriya knows he can’t do that - Shouji would wear her down, capture her, and they’d lose an incredibly important asset before the game had really even begun. 

“Mezou Shouji is out of play,” Aizawa’s voice snaps through the air, and Midoriya is confused for only a split second before he skids to a halt and turns to face Shouji’s barreling form head-on.

Shouji lands in front of him, eyes wide, and only manages a bewildered “What - ?” into his comm before it’s over.

Crack. 

“Now, be a good hero and stay completely still,” Shinsou says smoothly from Midoriya’s right.

He’s perched on top of a telephone pole, balanced on the hard edge of his capture weapon. As Midoriya watches, he lowers his vocoder and tilts a smile at him, tapping two fingers to his forehead in a mock-salute.

“Froppy, go ahead and help Uravity, we’ll take care of this,” Midoriya says with a relieved smile of his own.

“Thanks,” he says to Shinsou as she ribbits and takes off for the Tower.

Shinsou shrugs, his capture weapon whipping out in front of him and solidifying into a tightrope to the roof that he crosses easily, hopping down and calling the material back around his shoulders.

He barely glances at Shouji before saying “Go to the nine-story building three blocks southeast from here, get inside, and then go to sleep.”

“Alright, what next?” Shinsou asks as Shouji obeys wordlessly, and then, “by the way, Mister Aizawa says he’s revoking his consent to use his voice sample, so don’t get used to being saved like that.”

Midoriya snorts.

“Tsukuyomi and Tailman should be inside the Tower by now, and Red Riot has Ground Zero occupied outside. That leaves Uravity and Froppy to get inside and take the bottom floors. Hopefully between the four of them they’ll get Tenya and Sugarman out of play, but that still leaves Todoroki up.”

Shinsou nods, “Creati is back at base, she shouldn’t have any trouble keeping everyone there with Anima.”

Midoriya worries his lip with his teeth, frowning, “Tentacole should’ve been placed on lookout, somewhere on defense. Todoroki’s not doing what I expected him to.”
Shinsou raises an eyebrow, “And this is surprising? He knew he’d be strategizing against you, problem child.” 

Midoriya’s eyes widen.

I think any strategy I make has to have multiple backups for those two, and for Todoroki himself.

Aizawa placed us on opposing teams so we’d be forced to strategize against each other.

“Change of plans,” Midoriya says into his comm, “we’re going with Plan B.”

Then, to Shinsou, he says gravely, “We have to get to the Tower. Right now.”

x

Hero Notebook 14

Rikidou Satou

“Sugarman”

• the more sugar he consumes, the more exhausted he becomes more quickly, so his strength relies on short close-combat fights, although his tolerance has gone up considerably, and he can throw a punch with more than 600 kg of force at the height of the rush

• his spatial awareness is low when he consumes too much sugar, so distance attacks usually land the later in the fight they're deployed

x

“Plan B,” Midoriya snaps into his comm as he and Shinsou approach the Tower, “teams two and three, get out of the Tower.”

“We’ve found the prize, Deku,” Ojirou replies, out of breath, “but it’ll take us a minute to get it out.”

Midoriya’s mind races - he’s never been good at predicting Todoroki, especially not in larger groups. Not even with a week of preparation could he figure out what he’d do, not against him.

“ Get clear of the windows, then.”

Who’s left in the Tower, who hasn’t Todoroki used yet -

In front of them, Kirishima is barely managing to keep Bakugou’s attention, pushed onto the defensive as Bakugou lights up his skin, over and over again, with explosions. Kirishima isn’t a good fighter for drawn-out combat, Midoriya knows. This isn’t going to last much longer.

“Can you get Kirishima and Kacchan out of the way of the Tower?” Midoriya asks Shinsou, a hardening edge to his voice that’s masking panic.

Ashido, Satou, Iida, Aoyama, Todoroki. Five.

Uraraka, Tsu, Tokoyami, Ojirou. Four.

Shinsou frowns at him, “Why -”

“I need them out of the way,” Midoriya insists, and Shinsou nods silently.

They take the alley to the west of the Tower, and Midoriya focuses on shifting his full cowl down his arm, through his wrist, and into his hand as Shinsou pulls his vocoder back over his mouth.

Midoriya sees his eyes flicker over to him and away before All-Might’s voice splits the air. 

“Kirishima and young Bakugou, that’s enough. We’re pulling you out.”

Even Midoriya freezes. Both of them disengage immediately, Bakugou’s head snapping around toward them.

“What - “

“I - “

Crack. 

“Get out of the way of the Tower,” Shinsou instructs, and Midoriya waits until they’re both clear before he approaches.

“Deku…” Shinsou starts, but before he can finish, Midoriya plants his feet, grits his teeth, and snaps.

The force that splits away from his fingers doesn’t knock the Tower down, but it’s a close thing - the windows facing him shatter in a singular wave, and the ice covering the front door is blown into fine powder. Even the rain lets up for a second. The Tower groans.

Midoriya grimaces as he realizes the door is still covered in ice, and sends off another blast with his index finger. His hand aches, deep and throbbing, but that’s not his problem right now. The Tower’s supports shriek this time, but hold.

He can see Kirishima and Bakugou begin to blink, startled by the sudden wind and the sound of glass breaking, and as he moves forward toward the doors, he pivots and shouts to Shinsou, “Help Riot!”

He’s pretty sure he hears an answering “Jesus Christ,” and Bakugou’s scream starting on the first syllable of his name, but before he can finish Midoriya is through the doors and inside the Tower.

Satou rushes him immediately.

Midoriya dodges, trying to give himself enough time to release his hold on One for All and pull it back into a full cowl, and in the moment he does, Ojirou redoubles from where he’d been mid-way through springing from one of the walls and pummels Satou with his tail.

“Tsukuyomi?” Midoriya asks, breathless, landing a solid punch to Satou’s stomach before pulling away.

“Almost out,” Ojirou replies as he disengages, one hand creeping toward the pocket of his gi, “but Tenya’s above us.”

Midoriya leaps away from the arm that comes barreling toward him, and as he does Ojirou whistles.

Satou turns toward him, blinking, and then screams, the sound shredding through his throat as he falls unconscious to the floor.

Midoriya stares at him.

Ojirou bends down to collect the fake rubber snake from the floor where he’d thrown it.

“Anima’s idea,” he says, shrugging one shoulder, “he’s terrified of them, and Creati was able to make one back at base.”

Midoriya swallows down a laugh and shakes his head to refocus.

“Find Froppy and get her out of here, I’ll find Uravity.”

Ojirou nods and launches himself up with his tail, bounding through the open door to their left and up into the stairwell.

The Tower is an office building, Midoriya realizes belatedly. This room is large and open, besides the directory desk at the far wall and the seating area to his left.

Too many places to hide something, but Tsukuyomi said he found the prize already.

Midoriya takes off for the stairs, tugging on One for All to push him up the center of the stairwell so he can clamber over the guard rail and onto the next floor.

It’s not hard to find Iida; Midoriya can hear a distant voice yell “Release!” and then a vibration travels up and through him from across the hallway.

He slides to a halt as he clears the hall into another large room - this one is almost barren, so Iida must have managed to corral Uraraka into it - but there are scorch marks littering the walls and scuffing the floors.

Iida falls flat on his back to the floor, but doesn’t waste time getting back up. Midoriya watches as Uraraka’s eyes flick to him, and without hesitation he leaps at Iida, lashing out with a kick to the back in hopes of driving him down to the floor.

Iida reacts too quickly, and instead spins toward Midoriya, latches onto his ankle, and throws him like a shot-put toward Uraraka using his forward momentum.

They both go down, bowling over each other, but Iida doesn’t let up. Midoriya catches a flash of capture tape, and in a moment of sheer desperation breaks his ring finger.

The hurricane unleashed buffets Iida back, tossing him into the far wall like a ragdoll. Uraraka scrambles upright, pulling Midoriya up with her by his undamaged arm.

“Mashirao Ojirou is out of play,” Aizawa’s voice says in his ear, and Midoriya curls his fists, ignoring the pain.

“Mezou Shouji is out of play.”

Iida stumbles, but keeps his footing, and manages to dodge out of Uraraka’s way. Midoriya’s attack made rubble out of the drywall, enough that she can tap it as Iida pulls away to get in between them, and with a shout of “Duck!” at Midoriya she flings it sideways toward him.

Iida can’t move fast enough, and catches a chunk at center-mass. Midoriya launches himself toward him again, using the fact that he can’t get any leverage like this to land a kick to his ribs and take him down, sprawled out on the floor.

“Tooru Hagakure is out of play,” Aizawa says.

“Shit,” Uraraka says, as Midoriya snags the capture tape from Iida’s hand and ties it tight against his wrist.

“Float him,” Midoriya says, his voice steady.

“Tenya Iida is out of play.”

That’s eight left. Six, for their team.

Uraraka steps forward and taps Iida on the forehead, muttering a quiet “Sorry,” as she does, and then turns to face him.

“Todoroki is further up, I managed to slip past him getting down here,” she says, “but I haven’t seen Alien Queen or Aoyama yet.”

Midoriya nods, and for just a moment allows himself to breathe. His fingers hurt worse than he had expected, but he’d broken and re-broken and re-re-broken his thumb getting those volleys off, so he knows it’s going to get much worse the longer he waits for the pain to sink in.

Midoriya runs through the possibilities in his head, a few of them coming up frustratingly blank, and then one manages to catch his attention.

Midoriya gestures to Uraraka, “Float my shoes first. I need to get to the top floors fast.”

Uraraka nods and taps his sneakers, then puts her fingers up to her comm.

“Froppy,” she says, “report?”
“Aoyama on the fifth floor,” Tsu replies tersely.

Uraraka nods at Midoriya, “I’ll help her. You make sure Tsukuyomi gets out.”

Midoriya smiles at her, faint and a little forced, but when she holds out her hand, he clasps it for a moment before they break away and head up the staircase.

He’s only made it to the sixth floor, using his new leverage to jump between guardrails easily, before his comm crackles and the blood in his veins goes cold.

“Deku,”  Shinsou rasps, the sound like chewed-up gravel, “Ground Zero.”

Midoriya understands even from those two words, and in the next breath he tenses as a massive explosion rocks the foundation of the Tower and Bakugou enters through the window.

x

Midoriya catches Bakugou’s landing out of the corner of his eye, but he can’t afford to freeze, so instead he keeps going, silently thankful that Uraraka’s quirk muffles the sound of his jumps.

Bakugou can move quickly, and he won’t waste any time checking the remaining floors between them when he knows Midoriya is going to be heading up to the top levels. 

Bakugou is two levels below moving up, Aoyama is on the fifth floor, Ashido is somewhere between me and the roof, Todoroki is most likely moving on Tokoyami. Think it through, figure out who takes priority.

Midoriya decides it’s Tokoyami before the thought even fully forms. 

“Froppy and Uravity,” he says into his comm, making sure to keep quiet, “disengage and find Tsukuyomi.”

“Level thirteen,”  Tokoyami supplies helpfully, even if he sounds like he’s breathing hard.

“Tsukuyomi, we’re going with sleight of hand,” Midoriya replies, knowing that the message will make sense to him. 

“Understood.”

Midoriya leaps vertically and clears two more stories, coming to land in a crouch on the landing of floor eleven.

“Ochako Uraraka is out of play,” Aizawa’s voice says, and it startles Midoriya enough for him to drop his guard for just the half-second Ashido needs to pounce on him.

x

Hero Notebook 14

Mina Ashido 

“Alien Queen”

• strong area of effect attacks, but doesn't do well with narrow targets; acid strength can vary depending on the ph balance she uses; prefers a massive wide-range attack to begin, and then disengages by using her acid to slide away quickly - try engaging and then disengaging to disorient her, and get around to her unprotected back

x

Midoriya flips her over his shoulder on reflex, using the momentum to pull away a few feet before she’s on him again. A wave of acid laps at his feet, and he jumps back, but the loss of balance in that one moment is enough for her to tackle him, a flash of capture tape appearing between her wrists.

“Hi, Deku!” She sings, beaming.

Midoriya shifts his hips and shoves one knee into her side, driving her off of him with an audible “Fuck, ow!” as he flips over and scrambles back.

“Found Tsukuyomi,”  Froppy reports, “starting sleight one.”

They can get it out of the Tower, I just need to hold Ashido’s attention and trust Tokoyami to keep Todoroki's attention, but with his fire -

Ashido leaps back toward him, a gush of acid spraying from her cupped hands. Midoriya rolls and then dances away as she sends another wall of acid toward him.

“Kyouka Jirou is out of play.”

“Tenya Iida is back in play.”

Shit. 

Midoriya forces himself to take a breath in between one volley of acid and the next, dodging beneath a massive stream that almost hits his ear.

Ashido does well at a distance, with area of effect, but Iida needs to be close to hit someone, and he’s fast so he can engage and disengage. Kacchan is three floors below by now, moving fast. Aoyama’s still up, too. 

“Change of plan!” Midoriya decides, and sprints away from Ashido as her next attack misses. He doesn’t bother with the stairwell, cutting towards the elevators instead, and knowing Ashido’s speed, quickly pries open the elevator doors with one of the fingers on his undamaged hand at full power. 

He stomps downward with one foot onto the platform of the elevator, and hears the cables tethering it snap accordingly. His leg aches, but he hasn’t broken anything. 

He pulls One for All back into a full cowl and takes off up the elevator shaft. As he moves, thankful that Uraraka had managed not to release her quirk yet, he shouts into his comm, “Sleight two, Froppy! Team four, I need you on the top floor!”

“Can do, boss,”  Kirishima’s voice is ragged, and Midoriya knows he overexerted himself keeping Bakugou busy, but he can’t worry about that right now.
A full-team attack isn’t smart, Todoroki still has enough ice to freeze us all in place, especially if he’s been using his fire to keep back Dark Shadow, but if I can get Shinsou and Kirishima up fast enough to keep them busy  - 

“Deku!  Sneaky bastard!”

Bakugou’s voice reverberates through the elevator shaft, but it doesn’t break Midoriya’s stride.

I’m further up than he is but he can launch himself vertically. He’ll catch up to me.

Midoriya doesn’t stop, leaping horizontally back and forth, gaining height each time, but he braces himself as he hears the sound of a massive explosion rock the metal around him.

It’ll take two seconds for him to get up to me, so time this right.

Midoriya releases his full cowl in one second, flipping himself over to face Bakugou’s oncoming form in the next. He can see no surprise flickering in Bakugou’s expression, nothing but an uncontainable rage that spills out from his eyes and teeth as he hurtles upwards with a gauntlet outstretched to grab him.

Midoriya unclips the flash grenade from his belt and lobs it, pressing into it at the last point of contact with One for All.

It explodes, the remaining force enough to kick him up vertically the remaining three levels, and he hears Bakugou screech as the light throws him off-course. Midoriya grimaces, flexing his fingers - that’s four on one hand, three on the other - and touches down on the slim landing at the top of the elevator shaft.

He manages to get the heavy metal doors cracked just enough for him to slip through using his full cowl, but it costs him a few precious seconds.

The roof access door is a straight shot across this floor, and Midoriya knows that if he jumps he can close that distance, but then the rest of the room clicks into place and his breath hitches.

Tokoyami is pinned to the wall beside him, encased in a thick layer of ice that spreads across the floor to the center of the room, where Todoroki stands. The electricity hasn’t come back on yet, so Dark Shadow’s form almost fills the remaining space, panting and snarling like a wounded animal, but Midoriya can make out the huge swathes of flame beating it back. Two steps behind Todoroki is Aoyama, sending off random bursts of light from his lazer that manage to daze Dark Shadow.

“Froppy?” Midoriya asks, and Tokoyami’s head swivels to him, startled.

“The roof,” he growls, recovering fast.

I can’t take Todoroki one-on-one, not yet, and not with Kacchan still behind me, but he’s between me and the roof access.

“Deku,” Tokoyami murmurs, and Midoriya glances at him. Dark Shadow’s density and size are enough to keep him from visibility for the moment, but it won’t last. “I’ll have Dark Shadow shroud you, get to Froppy.”

This is going to take him out of play. He knows that.

Midoriya blinks, but nods his understanding, and in the next breath he kicks off toward the door.

“Dark Shadow!”

Midoriya feels the shifting black static surround him instantly, Dark Shadow’s head coming down like a helmet over his eyes, its massive claws held extended even while the rest of its wings cover his arms.

“Connard - “

Todoroki’s voice cuts through the room, cold and steady, as the other boy realizes aloud, eyes wide, “Tokoyami doesn’t have it.”

And then, with a low undertone that drags through the air, he orders, “Ashido.”

Midoriya doesn’t have time to react, to pull Dark Shadow further over his left side, before a jet of acid tears through him. Dark Shadow screams, but the acid phases through him almost completely and splashes over Midoriya’s side.

It’s not enough to stop his momentum, but it is enough to force a cry through his teeth, and before he can react, Ashido raises a thin membrane of acid over the access door.

Dark Shadow moves for Midoriya as he flinches back, keeping him contained with its form as they both go barreling through the acid and the door itself. It releases Midoriya immediately with an awful choking noise, withdrawing back to Tokoyami, but it’s enough to have gotten him through.

Midoriya runs.

He takes the steps two at a time, and as he hears the faint crackle of frost give chase, he whips around mid-leap and sends off another gale of force that buffets the room. His aim is sloppy through the pain-pricked tears in his eyes, mostly hitting the door frame he’d burst through and making the metal buckle and sheer, but it stops Todoroki’s attack just enough.

“Fumikage Tokoyami is out of play.”

He barrels through the door at the top of the stairs and immediately rolls, coming up with his shields flexed to block Iida’s sweeping kick, taking the brunt of it and skidding across the concrete.

“I’m genuinely sorry about this,” he faintly hears Iida say, before another kick hits him across the jaw and snaps his head back.

x

Hero Notebook 14

Tenya Iida

“Tenya”

• engines in his legs propel him forward at over 80 km/h, but short out if over-used; quick close-combat fighter but prefers to engage and disengage randomly to disarm his opponent

• often attacks from above with his right leg extended and prefers roundhouse kicks using a burst from his engine to drive it forward with massive force

x

“You’re taking a lot of hits today, Midoriya,” Iida says, and it would sound almost taunting if not for the sharp worry in his voice. His next kick doesn’t land, however, as a tongue wraps itself around his knee and pulls him away. Tsu looks exhausted, but it doesn’t deter her speed as she leaps at Iida, trying to keep him off Midoriya.

There are sparks in the corners of his vision, and the dull taste of blood on his tongue from where he’d sliced it open with his teeth, the ringing in his ears more like a dull pulse in time with his heartbeat. Iida had never kicked him anywhere above the torso before, not even during sparring practice.

He wants me to be dazed. If I can’t think, I can’t fight.

Midoriya manages to get to his feet, but not before Iida leverages Tsu’s tongue and sends her hard enough into the concrete for his leg to get free, and then he’s on him again.

Midoriya raises his forearm shields and takes the kick to his right side as his left arm comes around and hits Iida in the ribs, hard enough to drive him away.

Todoroki wants me here, and Iida wants me dazed. I can’t instruct the others if I’m fighting too many opponents at once, can’t think clearly like this. That was their plan. Kacchan was the distraction to get me to wear down Kirishima so that I’d have to fight him head-on. 

Midoriya hisses as Iida comes at him again, narrowly avoiding a body blow that’s turned into a punch to his sternum at the last second. Midoriya disengages and moves away, but he’s beginning to feel dizzy. 

Concussion, he thinks, in a voice that’s not a little dissimilar to Recovery Girl’s . 

“Tenya Iida, what disgraceful behavior,”  comes Principle Nedzu’s voice from the access stairwell, and although it almost makes Midoriya pause, it doesn’t stop him from lashing out with a kick as Iida falters.

He doesn’t fall for it, though, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses, and Midoriya knows Shinsou’s quirk no longer has the element of surprise.

Todoroki, Aoyama, and Ashido, and probably Bakugou now. Iida here. Kirishima and Shinsou below us. 

In a sudden moment of instinct, Midoriya yells across to Tsu, “did you complete sleight two?”

Tsu looks up at him blearily, confused, but it doesn’t take her long to understand the urgency on his face and nod.

“Ribbit,” she says.

Iida breaks off his next roundhouse, pulling away from Midoriya with wide eyes.

(“Your job is gonna be very important, Tsu,” Midoriya said with a conspiratorial smile, “you’ll be our distraction.”

Tsu tilted her head at him, ribbiting softly.

“You and Tokoyami are the obvious members of our group to get the prize, since you’re fast and you work well with both offense and defense,” Midoriya continued, “but you mentioned during the final that you could call back things you swallow.”

“Yeah?” Tsu said, a faint expression of disgust on her face as she recalled the unfortunate side-effect to her frog quirk, “But what does that - ribbit - have to do with me being a distraction?”

Midoriya grinned, all eyeteeth and confidence.

“Because I know for a fact that Iida watched all of the playback footage from the finals, including yours and Tokoyami’s, to make sure he could give everyone feedback as class rep.”)

“Asui has it!” Iida shouts into his comm, whirling on her in the next instant.

Midoriya intercepts him, knelt in front of Tsu, taking the oncoming blow with his right shield and resisting the rising cry in his throat. Tsu ribbits behind him, clearly distressed, but Midoriya knows exactly how this has to look, how this has to play out.

Before he can strike back, however, the entire roof is encased in ice.

“Alright,” Todoroki says from the access door, voice calm and steady even as his eyes are unspeakably angry, “that’s enough.”

x

Hero Notebook 14

Shouto Todoroki

“Shouto”

• doesn't use his left side during combat (?) incredibly powerful ice quirk that creates massive glaciers or layers of frost up to ten centimeters thick, but it can quickly drop his body temperature if used long-term - doesn't do well in drawn-out fights

• quick close-combat fighter, prefers to dodge or spin away from an attack rather than block it, keeps his left side back and away so his right arm is closer

x

“I’d prefer not to draw this out,” Todoroki continues, stepping lightly over the ice that’s now encrusting Midoriya’s lower legs and Tsu’s wrists, “but I suppose that’s up to you. Hand it over.”

Midoriya looks up at him, through the fanged grin on his mask and the cowl covering everything but his eyes, and he knows. 

This isn’t the way Todoroki expected the fight to go, and he’s been on the defensive since the beginning, which frustrates him. He knows Todoroki can’t see it, but Midoriya can’t resist the small, tired smile that creeps over his face.

“Hand what over?” He asks innocently.

Iida snorts, gearing up to lecture him on impertinent behavior during a school exam, but for a split-second he can see something flash in Todoroki’s eyes, and it’s all he needs to know they’ve already won.

Midoriya laughs, quiet and a little ragged, the force of it shaking his shoulders, and he tilts his head back to see the rainclouds have started to ease.

“You really thought I’d number my distractions?” Midoriya asks, a tinge of good-humored disbelief to it, and he can tell without looking that Tsu is smiling behind him, too. 

“We only had the one, Todoroki,” Midoriya says, very gently.

And in that moment Shinsou’s capture weapon whips out between him and Iida. 

(“You’ll get the prize from Tokoyami once he has it,” Midoriya said, “but it’s important that Tsu gets to Tokoyami before you do.”

Shinsou blinked at him, frowning in thought.

“Like that little ball-in-the-cup game,” he realized after a while.

Midoriya beamed, “Exactly.”

Shinsou tugged on the edges of his capture weapon, wrapping and re-wrapping them around his palms. There’s no nervousness behind the gesture, though, just a habit to keep his hands occupied as he thought it over.

“Are you sure you want it to be me?” He asked after a long pause, quiet but steady. He was really asking, allowing Midoriya a way out if he needed one. It didn’t have to be Shinsou, after all.

Midoriya fixed him with a look, and for the first time since the sports festival, answered him without hesitation, without that little voice in the back of his head warning him what could happen. Answered him with complete trust.

It did. It had to be him.

“Absolutely.”)

Shinsou flies forward, pulling on the weapon’s long bands, and manages to flash them all a grin over the top of his vocoder before he disappears over the lip of the roof.

“Tokoyami still had it,” Iida breathes, just as Todoroki snaps “Stop him.”

Midoriya pulls his full cowl over his skin, but not before tapping the ice surrounding him and Tsu with an unbroken finger to shatter it. She takes off over the roof after Shinsou.

He stands, shields drawn, and waits for Bakugou to appear in the doorway before Aizawa says into their comms, “Eijirou Kirishima is out of play.”

Iida and Todoroki and Bakugou, he can faintly hear Uraraka say, a week ago, and the memory of it seems so funny now that they’re all together on this rooftop.

“Ochako Uraraka is back in play.”

“You have about two minutes before we win to get past me,” Midoriya says, sliding into his stance, “so you better make them count.”

x

Hero Notebook 14

Katsuki Bakugou

“Ground Zero”

• extremely powerful close-combat fighter, favors a big right hook to begin fights; angles himself in the air using explosions, stuns fighters with bright flashes of light and harsh noise - avoid one-on-one combat

• moves quickly in the air using explosions angled behind him, but tends to lose his footing for just a second when he lands

x

Midoriya feints as Bakugou roars, coming at him with a full-front explosion that Midoriya nimbly dodges, but instead of grabbing his wrist and flipping him, Midoriya simply kicks sharply upward and hears a nasty crack as he makes contact with the other boy’s arm, just above the gauntlet. 

Bakugou lands and rolls, pulling the pin on his other gauntlet without missing a beat, but Midoriya is already moving as Iida jumps toward him. They realize their trajectories too late, and Iida plows into Bakugou at full speed. His explosion goes wide, melting the ice on the left side of the roof but also blowing a massive chunk out of the concrete in the process.

Midoriya pulls back up in time to smack Todoroki’s wrist away with the flat of his shield, the ice that had been forming crackling past his jaw and shooting away over the side of the roof. It crystallizes as a huge glacier, stopping just short of Iida and Bakugou, but Midoriya doesn’t turn to look back at them as he drops low and strikes at Todoroki’s left side.

He tends to form ice from the ground up when he attacks to immobilize his opponent, watch the way he drops to slide his hand across the concrete, you learned that at the sports festival.

Todoroki sends up another spray of ice, but Midoriya merely steps over the forming shards as they approach and leaps off before they can take hold on him. Todoroki meets him head-on, faltering for just a second as the frost covers his shoulder and he realizes he can’t send up another volley, and Midoriya jabs at his left again.

They didn’t plan for this, they have no strategy to work together, so they’ll try to take me out of play individually.

Todoroki’s other hand comes up to block the hit, but Midoriya is faster, has always been faster than him, and he takes another 8% punch to the upper arm that rocks him backward.

Bakugou flies at him from behind in the next moment, and Midoriya goes low again just as they pass over each other.

That move I learned from Mirio isn’t going to work again.

Midoriya brings his shields up over his face just as the explosion goes off, and he skids on his side a few feet before Iida is on him. 

Kacchan will hit me no matter what Todoroki asks him to do, it's Iida I need to get out of play, he'll catch up to Shinsou and Tsu if I let him by me.

Midoriya is expecting the feint this time as Iida winds up a roundhouse kick, latching onto his arm as it comes up under his ribs to deliver the actual blow, and Midoriya falls flat on his back as he launches him, using his forward momentum as a catapult. 

Iida smacks into the access door frame, slumping a little.

Midoriya rolls and comes up in a crouch before Todoroki can freeze him, but it doesn’t matter anyway as Bakugou moves to get between them, covering them from attacking each other. Midoriya lashes out at Bakugou’s knees with his leg as the other boy comes flying toward him again, and disengages, moving just enough to the right to get back into Todoroki’s range. 

He side-steps the wave of frost as it creeps toward him and breaks the last finger on his left hand, disintegrating the ice Todoroki had summoned against his left side as a shield and moving him back a few feet, but Midoriya clears it by vaulting off the remaining ice and aiming a kick for his chest. Todoroki dodges, sending up another glacier to trap him, but Midoriya rolls and slides off the slope of it harmlessly. He’s breathing harder now, the chips of crystalline ice forming a thick sleeve across his arm.

He’s not going to do it, he won’t use it, Midoriya realizes as Todoroki shifts his stance to keep his left side away, and with a frustrated noise Midoriya bashes him again with the flat of his shield before disengaging.

“Fucking die already!” Bakugou yells, vicious, behind him, and Midoriya barely has time to turn before Bakugou’s seized the back of his cowl and flipped him over and planted him face-up into the concrete.

Distracted, got messy, he thinks in a tone that reminds him eerily of Mister Aizawa.

Midoriya hisses and strikes upward with a kick, but Bakugou drops his knee and presses down, keeping him pinned, a gauntlet held above his face sparkling with little explosions.

“I thought I told you I’d always kick your ass, Deku,” Bakugou growls, breathing hard. Midoriya blinks up at him.

“Funny, you never said that to me, ” says someone behind him, and then the weight is suddenly lifted from Midoriya.

He rolls, coughing, and Uraraka offers her hand to help him up. The leg of her skirt is burned, and the sleeve of her jacket is in tatters on the same side, but she looks unhurt besides a scrape to her jaw.

Bakugou struggles, shouting incoherently to put me down, you little jackass, I’m gonna destroy you, but Uraraka simply floats him higher and lifts Midoriya back up to his feet.

Todoroki looks between them as they turn to face him, the frost covering his right side inching down his shoulder and over his chest, and after a very long pause, he sighs, shutting his eyes.

“It took you a while,” Midoriya says to her conversationally, holding his shields up.

Uraraka shrugs and floats a huge chunk of rubble next to her feet, flipping it until it’s pointed edge-first at Todoroki, “Aoyama and Ashido were still up. They won’t be a problem for a while, not until Aoyama’s stomach settles, anyway.”

Midoriya bites his lip through a grin. 

Todoroki opens his eyes, a harsh glint to them, and from his left side summons a flame that travels up the length of his arm and catches with blue-white light. He breathes out, a thick fog of condensed air, and the ice encasing his other side sloughs off.

“The offense team has successfully taken the prize and returned it to their base. The defense team has lost.”

Midoriya breathes in, all at once, the shaky sigh he hadn’t known he’d been holding almost dropping him to his knees.

“That was - “ Todoroki starts, his voice a little frayed, “ - good. Congratulations.”

Midoriya pulls his mask down and flips back the cowl, beaming at him.

“You guys were amazing,” he replies, “I really didn’t know if that’d work.”

Todoroki blinks owlishly at him.

“Nah,” Uraraka says, hands on hips, “you knew.”

Midoriya rubs at the back of his neck, feeling sheepish.

“Yeah,” he admits, “I did.”

x

Aizawa, All-Might, and Present Mic are all waiting at the entrance to the battle arena for them.

They’d managed to get Iida back to his feet, Uraraka dropping into a crouch in front of his unconscious form, snapping under his nose, and shouting, “Iida! You’re gonna be late for class!” 

Shinsou hands the prize over to Aizawa from under the folds of his capture weapon - a medallion strung with a red, blue, and yellow lanyard, looking almost identical to the medals from the sports festival except for the embossing, which reads 1A instead of UA. Midoriya grins to see it.

Aizawa holds it up briefly, then shoves it into his pocket with a muttered, “Good work. All of you.”

Shinsou’s mouth tilts in a small smile.

All-Might escorts Midoriya to the infirmary, having come away with the most amount of damage in the group, while Present Mic and Aizawa lead the rest of the class back to their dorms, the former chattering excitedly with them all at glass-breaking decibels about how cool you guys were, those strategies were some real pro-hero stuff! 

They’re only halfway back to campus before All-Might stops in front of Midoriya, turns, and gathers him in a hug.

Midoriya squeaks, feeling his fingers cry out in pain as he curls them against his chest and his acid-washed left side protest, but he lets himself relax into it anyway.

“That was incredible, kid,” All-Might says when he releases him, kneeling in front of him so they’re at eye-level. Midoriya fights back the urge to turn a deep crimson, but he doesn’t think it works. All-Might’s hand comes up to rest over his hair.

“I’m proud of you.”

Then he socks him in the undamaged shoulder, snapping, “But what did I say about putting yourself in physical danger like that?”

Midoriya flinches, but he bows his head and mutters “Sorry,” as All-Might stands back up and brushes the dust from his knees.

He’s still smiling the entire trip back, but he makes sure he stays behind All-Might to hide his expression. It’s important to let him think he’d been properly scolded.

x

Hero Notebook 14

Hitoshi Shinsou

“Hitoshi”

(no entry yet)

x

Shinsou knocks on his open door as soon as Midoriya gets back from Recovery Girl. His fingers are stiff, and he’ll have some bruising for the next few days, but it’s not the worst punishment Midoriya’s put his body through, not by a long shot. The upside is that he’ll be on bed rest for a day or two, and with how bone-deep exhausted he feels, he thinks that’s probably reward enough.

“Hey,” he says, sitting up.

Shinsou looks over the bandages on his hands and wrists, the gauze taped to his left shoulder, and the swollen purple bruise under his jaw from across the room, and shakes his head.

“I’ll sneak you some food from Lunch Rush later, problem child,” he decides, and Midoriya has never felt more indebted to anyone, ever, for such an act of kindness.

“Anyway,” Shinsou says, and clears his throat, eyes sliding away to pretend to study one of the All-Might posters on the opposite wall, “that was. Well.”

“Yeah,” Midoriya agrees, choosing to save him the embarrassment of admitting that he’d actually enjoyed something, “it was, wasn’t it?”

“I’m gonna go sleep, maybe forever,” Shinsou says, and turns on a heel to walk out. Midoriya laughs.

“Shinsou,” he says before the door can close behind him.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. I mean, for trusting me.”

Shinsou looks at him, and for maybe the first time since meeting him Midoriya doesn’t see the barely-concealed mistrust, the anger in his face, beneath his flat expression. That’s a pretty good reward, too, he thinks.

Shinsou smiles at him - it’s faint, and a little crooked, but it’s genuine.

“Yeah, you too.”

Midoriya lights up as a thought occurs to him.

“Does that mean you’ll join our study group, too?”

“Don’t push it.”

x