Chapter Text
“Are you ready?” Kana Tetsutetsu, the duly-elected babysitter class representative of Class 1-B placed her hand on the shoulder of the blonde young man next to her as Class B trudged down the long corridor to their testing ground.
“Remember, you should treat this scenario as if you were in a real crisis situation.” The voice of their homeroom teacher, the Pro Hero Super Ball, came through the overhead speakers. “The villains will be attacking with the intent of abducting, or eliminating, as many of you as possible.”
“Absolutely not,” Shiro Monoma responded calmly, not reacting to the cautionary announcement, even as other members of the class murmured to one another. “But all of you are. I’ve got nothing but absolute faith in all of you.”
“Being rendered unconscious will not disqualify you, if your classmates are able to rescue and revive you. However, once the first student crosses the finish line, you will have a finite amount of time for all members of the class to do the same.”
There was a springing sound, slightly distorted as if it was also coming from a speaker, to Monoma’s left as Anime Fukidashi took an extra large step (Shiro averted his eyes as his Quirk struggled to make sense of her leg spontaneously extending) to catch up with them. “Save some of that faith for yourself! You’re right in the middle of a growth arc, just like Kensuke in ‘ I Was Bad At Math So I Became An Adventurer Instead Of A Merchant! ’”
“There will be no countdown or starting signal. When the gate opens, the test has begun. Good luck.”
Hayate Awase, the class’ vice-rep, pulled Anime back by the collar, with an inexplicable ‘yoink’ sound as she moved back in the crowd. “Monoma’s already been saying he’ll do his part, and his advice has been solid. Calm your keyframes.” Awase understood Fukidashi’s Quirk about as poorly as the rest of the class, but he’d learned to at least communicate on her wavelength to a degree. Kana could swear she saw the tone of his hand briefly shift after contact with Fukidashi, before Awase shoved it in his pocket.
Other members of the class were conversing amongst themselves or making solo preparations. Even by her standards, Rika Bondo was contorting her amorphous body more than usual, slithering around her classmates. Kitiara Kaniyashiki was making a few testing jabs and kicks as they walked, no doubt visualizing rending obstacles. Joichiro Koichiro tossed a coin, then two coins, then one again, between his palms. In his distraction, he bumped into Chizue Kuroiro, lost in her own preparations as she was scribbling furiously in a sketch pad. Kuroiro in turn bumped into Hizashi Koumori, who took wing up to Kentaro Fukui’s massive shoulder, draping himself over the giant boy and loudly complaining about ‘Chizu-chan’ and ‘Jo-kun’ not watching where they were going, and also that he was hungry.
Mercifully, it wasn’t all chaos. Chiasa Kamakiri and Kimiko Dashi were reviewing strategies, Dashi gesturing pointedly at the support item dominating one of her arms. Sasuke Kido and Goro Gomuske were reviewing defensive formation plans with Hekima Kodai. Mio Yamaguchi followed in thoughtful silence, seemingly focused on her hands in front of her, fingers twitching in readiness of some kind.
Tetsutetsu took Monoma by the arm and increased their pace a bit, waving off Awase as he was about to follow suit. “Look… Shiro,” she lowered her voice as she addressed him in more familiar terms, “you know that Mika and I have already said our piece about our opinion of you leaving, but you’re not out yet. Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“This is going to be my last performance. I won’t let anyone else be reduced to an extra, Kana. Thank you for worrying though.” Monoma gave a half-smile that didn’t reach his eyes as he came to a full stop, letting himself fall in line with the rest of the class as he began his final check of the various support items he’d selected for the occasion.
Tetsutetsu walked backwards for a few paces, looking at her classmates, before turning around and taking the lead. “Dammit, Shiro… the class rep is supposed to be the one carrying the weight.” She steeled her expression, and her arms (literally), walking with purpose.
~~~Ten Days Earlier~~~
The common area for Class 1-B’s dormitory was bustling, as a class meeting had been called by the representative. Tables were covered in plates of both sweet and savory snacks, including some conspicuous frosted cookies that looked like stopwatches.
“Okay everyone, quiet down… I called this meeting at someone’s request.” Tetsutetsu tried to sound as professional as she could. “...Monoma would like to address the class.”
There was a mixture of groans, a stray scoffing laugh or two, and a general air of curiosity. Monoma was… well, it was hard to miss him. The boy did everything in his power to stand out, embellishing every movement with some trick or technique he’d learned. Plus, you heard him well before you saw him. He actually rarely talked to all of the class though. More often he had his back to them, admittedly so he could crow about their superiority to the ‘unfairly acclaimed’ Class A, and was talking about them. He talked about them to no-one in particular as well. It rarely seemed like any of his internal monologues could stay internal. It was a lot more frequent to hear him talk about you than to you.
Monoma walked in front of the assembled group as they settled in and gave him their attention. He took note of what trays had been most depleted, and those with keener hearing mostly made out something about him thanking his mother. He cleared his throat and looked around the room. “I’ve… I have come to make a formal apology for my conduct in the sports festival. To my unmitigated regret, I placed my own achievement ahead of that of the class as a whole, and far fewer of us than deserved to made it to the second round and beyond.”
“There’s no ‘deserved’ or ‘didn’t deserve’ to it, Monoma. Some of us had Quirks better or worse for that kind of competition. There’s nothing you or any of us could have done to change th--”
Monoma cut Fukui off. “ Midoriya-kun saw his entire class make it through the first round.” He spoke sharply, sending a ripple of uneasy silence through the assembled class as they now knew something was definitely up. For Monoma to so readily, and emphatically at that, give credit to Class A, this was something big. The fact that he was giving a shout-out to the son of the Number 1 Hero drove the point home even further.
The boy visibly tensed as he saw the reaction he’d caused, and raised a hand in front of him. “Fukui-kun, I’m sorry. That was… harsher than it should have been; but to get right to the point… I may not be the class representative, but I passed up a chance to aid you all. I say with no small amount of certainty that, save perhaps for our dear teacher, there is no individual in this academy watching all of your progress closer than myself. I was obsessively fixated on a goal that was beyond my control anyway, and I neglected an opportunity to assist all or any of you. I apologize for that, and I’d like to do better.” He turned and nodded to Tetsutetsu.
She returned the nod and stepped aside to retrieve a folder from her bag. She took out printed pages and began passing them around.
“Class A’s strengths are additive. They can pile support onto one or two key members and usually use them as spearheads to a victory. Admittedly, if we had big guns like Kirishima-Bakugo or Todoroki I’d probably plan for the same, but that’s not how our assortment of talents and Quirks are distributed.
Our strength will be exponential . I’ve drawn up some ideas…”
~~~
“‘Bad at math’... Hmph. I’ll show you my formulae work just fine, Fukidashi.” Monoma smiled, maybe a little more hopefully than before, talking to himself as he was surrounded by his classmates. They reached the end of the corridor, standing before the massive gates to one of the USJ testing sites. In the years since the Kamino Incident, along with increased security measures and the standardization of the dormitory system, one of the major renovations to UA had been expanding downwards. Additional training grounds for the Hero Course and production and testing facilities for the Support Course now comprised a full third of the campus’ current size. Class B hadn’t visited this particular testing site yet, but it was as big as a small town, although reflecting a more urban environment, according to what Fujii-sensei had told them about the test.
Make it to the exit, as an entire group. Their locations would be tracked, and any one individual going too far away would count as them being lost to the group. No time limit.
“Your coworker is a little harsh, don’t you think, coming up with this all or nothing grading scheme?” Inside the control booth for the testing ground, a pair of muscular feminine arms slipped around Super Ball from behind the chair he was seated in.
Contorting his body, Fusei ducked out from under the arms and leaned to the side, still focused on the screen. He was trying to give his students enough time at the threshold to sweat it out, but not long enough to come up with a concrete formation. “Eraser made a very compelling argument after his pack of problem children managed to sweep through the first round of the Sports Festival. My students tend to be scattered all over the place, so I thought the best thing to do was put them on an invisible leash.” He looked back at the uninvited guest. “Shouldn’t you be in position with the other ‘villains’, Kui?”
“Oh stop,” the woman purred, cocking a hip to one side as she sashayed around the chair. “a little handicap is still within range. Okubo and I wanted to stop by to see if you wanted in on our bet on how many of your kids we can snatch. He’s got under five, I’ve got eight to ten.”
The gruff looking male accompanying her spoke up. “Oh, and we’re not wearing the villain costumes you made. They can just fight ‘mind-controlled’ Heroes, or whatever you want to tell them afterwards.”
“What?!” Fusei loudly protested. “I worked really hard on sewing all of those! What gives?! And why are you betting against my students?!”
“Ball… you’re a great Hero, a decent teacher, and you’ve got a cute tush, but… your sense of aesthetics is in the toilet. We still can’t believe you’re in practically that same old costume after all these years.” Kui smirked ruefully.
“My Aunt Mei helped me make that costume…” Fusei pouted, crossing his arms. “And I’m sending you guys the bill for what I spent on those costumes now. And stop betting against my students!”
“Come on, kitten.” Okubo craned his neck to the side with a crack like rocks splitting. “Let’s go be bad guys.”
“Last one in the testing ground buys the drinks tonight!” Fusei yelled after them as they began to exit, whirling around to hit the start button, the gates at the entrance slamming open abruptly. He allowed himself a smirk as he could hear Okubo and Kui now sprinting down the hall. “Okay kids… make me proud.”
~~~
Class B had been standing in a single line in front of the gate, and stepped forward as one when it opened.
“Come on gang!” Fukidashi exclaimed excitedly, raising both hands and arranging her fingers into the shape of a western letter. “Let’s ‘B’ Heroes!” she shouted in heavily accented English.
Monoma facepalmed as the class collectively groaned, but followed the movement with pushing his hand back through his blonde hair. “Not exactly ‘Plus Ultra’, but here we go…” He smiled.