Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Toshinori couldn’t help but sigh as he took in the scene around him. It was so absurd that it would have been comical…if he hadn’t been feeling so utterly useless, that is.

“Alright, nobody moves! Or this little girlie is gonna be eating out of a tube for the rest of her life!” Habit Headgear screamed as he grabbed a young child from the crowd and started squeezing her.

Screams rang out in the crowd, especially from the mother crying out for her daughter, but no one dared move closer to them…all while All Might watched helplessly amongst the civilians.

‘Dammit! Why’d I have to go and stop all those smaller crimes!? There were other heroes around then!’ he thought while grimacing at the sight. The poor kid was silently crying out of fear-unable to spill tears or even scream due to the villain’s threatening demeanor. ‘That girl’s completely helpless! What kind of symbol of peace am I if I can’t save a child?’

“---Um, excuse me, Mr. Villain?”

Just as All Might was despairing over his own inability to do anything about the current situation, he happened to overhear a voice coming from nearby. It appeared to be coming from…a blonde kid passing by?

“Oi, what the hell’s the matter with you, dumbass? This is a hostage situation!!” Habit screamed as the blonde kid looked at him apologetically.

“Er, I understand that, sir. It’s just…I was wondering if you’d mind taking me hostage and letting her go instead…?”

“...” Habit Headgear blinked a few times, as if he hadn’t understood the question. Then his eyes narrowed. “And why in the hell would I do that? That just sounds like you’re trying to trick me! You a hero in disguise!?”

The blonde-haired boy shook his head quickly. “Do I look like a hero? I’m way too young for that! I’m just a well-intentioned citizen that wants to do some good. And besides…” The boy leans in a bit closer to the villain so that only the two of them-and the hostage-can hear each other. “If any heroes come near you, they’re going to try and prioritize a young girl. But a guy like me? They’ll be a bit more lax about letting you get away. Not to mention, if it gets out that I bravely sacrificed my freedom to help a girl escape from a villain, I’m sure a few talk shows will pay to have me on the air. I’ll split the cash with you 50/50.”

“Hm…” Habit thought for a moment, realizing that this kid was likely looking for his 15 minutes of fame or whatever. “Haha! So, that’s your goal, huh?” he blurted out, though not loud enough for everyone nearby to hear it. “Well, if you insist!”

Acting quickly, he grabbed the blonde boy and pulled him into his grip while pushing the girl back into the crowd. “There, you’re free to go, brat,” he said as the girl ran back into the arms of her mom. “Now, nobody else better make any mo-YAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Headgear screamed out as a sudden surge of electricity shot through his body, giving his skin a crispy charcoal layer with a sheen. Fortunately for him, it didn’t last very long, and he was quickly able to deduce that the electricity came from the blonde kid he’d just grabbed…who was currently on the ground, twitching like his muscles had just short-circuited.

“You shitty brat! How dare you trick me like that!?” Habit lifted his arms and prepared to smash them into the little bastard, but he stopped just short of crushing the boy once he saw a certain someone out of the corner of his eye.

“Fear not, citizens…For I am here!” All Might announced as he seemed to appear from a cloud of mist and walked to the villain. “Now, let that boy go and come with me. You don’t need to humiliate yourself in front of all these people after you almost got knocked out by a schoolboy’s quirk, do you?”

“Tch! You–!” Habit Headgear leapt right passed the boy he was just about to kill and threw a punch straight at All Might! “DI-”

The villain got punched so hard he passed out before he even hit the floor.

“Well, that was anticlimactic! Now then!” He bent down to pick up the boy. “I’ll be handing this boy over to the authorities to make sure he gets looked at! I’m sure he was quite shaken up!” he announced before leaping into the air and leaving the gaping crowd behind.

“Hu-hu-hu-I really overdid it!” Toshinori panted out as he made his way to the police station. He’d been able to use One For All for a brief few minutes back there, but that was only because that villain was already injured by this boy, and even then, he could only maintain the power for less than 5 full minutes before he had to put the boy down on a bench in a nearby park and call a friend of his to come meet him. How pathetic!

“Toshinori!”

Ah, speak of the devil. He was running up to them now.

“Ah, Tsukauchi! Thank you for coming so fast!” All Might replied with a smile, instantly shifting from gloomy to upbeat in a heartbeat.

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all!” the detective responded as he took a look at the blonde boy on the bench. “So, this is the kid that stepped up when the Symbol of Peace was absent, huh?”

“Indeed he is. He stepped up during a hostage situation and was able to switch himself for the poor girl in question before almost knocking out the villain with his quirk. Fortunately, I was able to knock the guy out with a quick punch.” He smiled at the boy before looking back at the detective and frowning. “Er, so if you wouldn’t mind, could you maybe not charge him with–?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about that.” Tsukauchi waved off his worries and returned the smile. “Once he wakes up at the station, we’ll get his statement, scold him for putting himself in harm’s way, and he’ll be on his merry way. Provided he doesn’t need medical attention first.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the detective shrugged the compliment off with a grin. “You’re lucky I happened to be nearby. Anyway, you better get out of here before he wakes up. He might not remember getting rescued by All Might, but we don’t know if he’ll be suspicious if he sees you now and hears the story later. I’ll make sure he gets home safe.”

“Right,” All Might said before walking away through the trees. People might have seen All Might going this direction, and they’d definitely have seen him carrying the boy Naomasa was looking over before the number 1 hero disappeared, which might make them connect him to Toshinori Yagi. Was he perhaps being paranoid? Probably. But better safe than sorry.

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Noamasa quietly quipped as he watched the strongest man in Japan struggle through a mass of green that wasn’t supposed to be walked through before turning back to the blonde boy. “Now, I seriously hope you don’t have a rap sheet or anything that would make this harder than it needs to be. I’d hate to have to go back on my wor–”

“Ugh…”

A groan coming from the blonde kid’s mouth cut him off. Naomasa quickly shut his mouth as he watched the get sit up and rub his head tenderly.

“Geez, I have a killer headache…What the hell happened to me, anyway?”

He wasn’t actually speaking to anyone, seeing as how his eyes were still closed and his voice was fairly quiet. He likely didn’t even realize the detective was right by him.

“You’re in a park, young man. You helped take down a villain, remember?”

“Huh…?” The kid looked at the detective groggily, as if doubting his eyes. His eyes slowly widened. “A COP!?”

“Detective, technically, though I guess that still counts,” Naomasa remarked with a smile. “How are you feeling? I heard that you overused your quirk and collapsed from the strain.”

“Y-Yeah…but I mean, I saved that girl, didn’t I?” The boy asked with a nervous expression that quickly turned into a smile when the detective nodded. “Alright! I can’t believe that actually worked!”

“Yes, it was quick thinking on your part. Not to mention, I’m sure you were terrified the whole time, huh?..Although you did use your quirk illegally,” the detective remarked with a slight grimace.

“...Oh crap!” The blonde boy looked horrified as he realized that he might receive a rap sheet-or worse, a stay in a cell! That would be a horrible thing to get on his record! “Please don’t tell me you have to–!”

“Calm down, I’m just messing with you, mostly. While I do officially have to make a note of it, all that’s really gonna happen is I get your statement down at the station, lecture you a bit on how you should’ve waited until the situation was handled by a hero, and then let you go home. Shouldn’t take much more than an hour, I think.”

“Well, that’s not too bad, I guess. I was worried I’d get barred from applying to UA or something. But if that’s all there is to it, then I can go home pretty soon and-oh no! No, no, no!” The boy started screaming as he grabbed his phone from his pocket and looked at it.

“...Is something the matter?”

The boy’s eyes were wide as he clutched his head in his hands. “I know this park! It’s 10 minutes from the police station, and the station’s only 5 minutes away from the supermarket that’s having a sale on seaweed and a whole bunch of other stuff that we were gonna use to make dinner! But the sale ends at 3:30, and it’s 2:45! Gramps is gonna be pissed if I don’t get what he asked for! But Granny’s gonna get annoyed if she finds out I fled from the cops after being involved in a kidnapping! Oh, I’m screwed either way!”

The blonde boy seemed more scared of his grandparents than of being in a police station, which was slightly worrisome. Regardless, Naomasa wasn’t one to simply let a kid get in more trouble than they needed to.

“Well, I can’t do much to help you with that. But if, hypothetically speaking, I were to receive a message from a superior just before we entered the station, I’d probably have to take a few minutes to answer it. And of course, I’d have to hold on to that bag you’re carrying now to make sure it goes to the evidence room or returns to you if we release you.”

“Eh?” The kid looked at his empty hands for a moment before realizing what the detective was actually saying. “Oh, thank you so much! You’re a lifesaver!”

The detective just smiled at him. “Just don’t expect us to be so lenient if you break any more laws, got it?”

Kaminari was having a very bizarre day. It had all started when Gramps noticed a sale for seaweed in the newspaper (why was he reading a newspaper anyways? Those had been outdated since the early 2000s, and Gramps was born years after that), which led to Denki being tasked with getting some since he’d already left to get some lunch. Not that he minded helping, obviously, but he was a bit annoyed at having seaweed again. At this point, they’d eaten it at least once a week for the past two months! Wait, that wasn’t the main issue! The main issue was when he got sent to a police station! He had just so happened to be passing by a hostage situation while on his way to the market, and…well, while he was contemplating just continuing his journey to the market, he couldn’t help himself when he saw the poor girl that was in trouble. Thus, while every rational thought in his body was telling him to ignore her and run away, he went up and talked to the villain! And to be quite honest, despite his good intentions, that had to be the stupidest thing he had ever done in his life. He could only assume the villain was a complete dumbass for switching him for that girl. Did he seriously think that Denki would not only go on a talk show to speak about the event, but actively seek the guy out after the fact?

At the very least, that Habit Headgear guy made Kaminari feel a lot smarter than he did at the start of the day. And he’d gotten the seaweed in the end-along with a bunch of other stuff like ramen and soy sauce. Although, maybe he could ask them to cut back on green foods for a while after this. Hopefully they’d be receptive…

“I’m home!” Denki yelled while taking his shoes off, only to yelp in surprise as the bag he was holding flew out of his hands and into the arms of a very annoyed-looking floating hag.

“...And where have you been?” Granny asked, her voice quiet and annoyed.

“Er, I, uh, I was…” ‘Crap, I didn’t think she’d be right at the door!’ Denki thought as he tried to think of what to say to his grandmother. He just hoped she hadn't seen his little stunt on the news or anything.

“By all means, Denki, enlighten me on whatever adventure took up so much of your time…” she demanded with a cold glare.

“...Er, I was on my way home when I got stopped by a villain attack.” He decided on just telling her the truth…or at least, part of the truth. “It was a hostage situation, and I couldn’t really get past him, so I had to wait until All Might came and took them out.” He took his phone out of his pocket and showed her its blank screen. “I would’ve called, but my mind blanked and I didn’t think about it until I got into the market, and by then, my phone had died. And you know how it is with public quirk usage…”

“...Is that so?” Granny’s demeanor didn’t change, and her arms were still crossed, but she wasn’t emitting the same wrathful aura anymore. With a huff, she started walking to the kitchen. “Make sure you leave the house with enough battery to last next time, brat.”

‘Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would,’ Denki thought as he speedwalked to his room. His phone wasn’t actually dead, he’d just shut it off to fool her. The detective had said he wouldn’t call home or anything like that, so Denki wouldn’t say anything about his involvement in the hostage situation unless she brought undeniable proof. And until then, he was gonna keep today’s events under wraps.

*Bzzrt*

“Oi, get the door, brat!” Granny yelled from the kitchen.

“On it!” Denki yelled back as he went to the door. ‘Did we order a package as something?’ He threw the door open with some small level of annoyance. “How can I help yo–?”

“Greetings, young man! Might I have a moment of your time?”

“A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AL-ALL MIG–!” Denki began screaming out loud at the sight of the man, only to be quickly silenced as the hero put a finger to his lips and gave him what was, in hindsight, an awkward-looking smile.

“If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to speak with you outside for a moment, young man.”

Denki simply nodded in response as the giant of a man stepped back to allow him an escape from the doorway. Once he’d closed the door behind him, All Might immediately began talking.

“So, before I say anything else, I’d like to say that you aren’t in any trouble or anything like that. I know the detective already said that, but I figured I’d make that clear right off the bat.” The boy seemed too stunned to say anything in response to that, so All Might simply continued. “I would also like to apologize. After I knocked out Habit Headgear, I took you with me to make sure you didn’t get hurt while unconscious, but an emergency came up and I had to call Detective Tsukauchi to look after you while I handled it. For that, I’m sorry.”

That was enough to get Denki to snap out of his trance.

“Uh, what? Why are you apologizing? You had an emergency to attend to, right?” Denki looked legitimately confused. “I mean, you even asked that detective to watch over me while I was out. It’s not your fault the number 1 hero’s so busy. That’s just the life of a pro.”

All Might smiled at that. “Well, I’m glad you think so, but it’s not as if I’m the only pro in the neighborhood. I’ve always believed that heroism is more than just beating villains and stopping crime-it’s about helping out in even the smallest of ways. And making sure a child isn’t in need of any assistance after they suffered backlash from their quirk is another part of that. Even so, I’m glad that there aren’t any hard feelings about it.”

‘Holy crap, he’s so sincere!’ Denki thought as he stared at All Might with wonder in his eyes. ‘I mean, I always knew he was one of the most compassionate heroes, but this…this is unreal! It’s like I’m watching an anime where a character is so pure that they’re blessed by God or something! I think I can actually see a golden aura coming off of him!’

“That being said, there’s a more pressing matter that I wanted to speak with you about, young Kaminari.”

“H-How do you know my name!?”

“The detective called me after you left to make sure I knew you were alright. He also mentioned that you said you wanted to try out for UA, is that right?”

“Y-Yessir! I mean, yeah, that’s right! It’s the top hero school in the country and all. It’s where you and Endeavor graduated from…”

The Symbol nodded. “Indeed. While I can’t speak for Endeavor, I won’t say that it’s solely responsible for my success-that came from my hard work and determination-but I will say that it helped get me started when I first got my quirk. It’s a wonderful school that’s gone on to help many aspiring heroes find their place out in the field. Which is why…well, I have something of a proposition for you…assuming you are interested in it.”

“U-Uh,-um-o-of course, sir! What did you-WOAH!?” Denki exclaimed in surprise as a sudden burst of steam filled the air. “What the hell!?”

“C-Calm down, young Kaminari!” a voice called out from the steam. “I’ll explain everything shortly, but I need you to remain calm while I do so…actually, you’ll need to remain calm when this steam clears, too. I know it’ll be shocking, but–” The voice that sounded like All Might didn’t get the chance to finish before the smoke cleared.

“HOLY CRAP! IT’S A ZOMBIE!!! ALL MIGHT’S A ZOMBIE!!!”

“Now wait a minute, young man! I assure you I am not a zomb-EGH!” A spurt of blood came from the man’s mouth, which didn’t help his claim and only made Kaminari’s suspicion even more certain. Fortunately, the boy was a little too freaked out to say anything further…although he was now backed up against the door and likely worried that whatever just happened was contagious. “Alright, I know how this looks, but I am the real All Might, and I’m not sick or anything like that. I mean, I’m not the pinnacle of health or anything, but I’m like this because of an injury I sustained years ago rather than an illness. I’m also not a zombie, although my death is the reason that I’ve come to you. You see, I’m not long for–”

It was at that moment that Granny, having had enough of the muffled screams she’d heard, forced the door open and floated into the doorframe with an on-guard expression.

“Oi, brat! The hell’re you screaming about!?” she demanded as her eyes scanned the area before landing on the skeleton of a man in front of her grandson.

“Uh…hello, ma’am, I’m All–”

“SAITAMA!! THERE’S A ZOMBIE TRYING TO EAT DENKI!!!!!!” she screeched as her body recoiled in horror.

“Wait, he’s not trying to–”

Denki was cut off by the sudden sound of running, the source of which quickly became apparent as an old bald man in pajamas came running through the house with a determined expression. All Might, to his credit, was able to react quickly enough to the attack by transforming into his heroic form, pushing Denki to the side and locking fists with the old man.

“I’ll admit, I’m not using my full strength…But you’re incredibly strong if you can match blows with me! Tell me, is this your quirk or are you just that dedicated?” All Might inquired as he and the man struggled to overpower the other.

“It’s nothing special, man. I just occasionally do my old workout routine of 100 push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, along with a 10-kilometer run.”

“Well, if I’d known that there was such a simple way to get such power, I’d have exploited it back in my youth! You really are an exceptional specimen, aren’t you, Mr. Saitama?”

“Okay, stop! Stop! What the hell is going on!?” Denki yelled as he got back up and tried to get the two men to separate. “Why are you two acting out that trope of enemies complimenting each other as they fight?! Screw that, why are you even fighting?! You both can see that this is All Might, right?!”

Granny, having just recovered from the shock of seeing a zombie, took a closer look at the giant man that was doing battle with her husband. She observed him for a moment before letting out a scoff. “So it is. Well then, to what do we owe the honor of having the number one hero right outside of our home?”

All Might either didn’t notice her tone or didn’t care about it, because he smiled at her while he answered. “Well, you see, I-AGHH!” He shriveled up again, earning him concerned looks from all three of them, but he didn’t let that deter them. “Like I was trying to say earlier, this appearance is a sign of my declining ability. Despite how much I wish it wasn’t true, I can’t be a hero all day, every day. And one day…well, one day, I simply won’t be here anymore.” He locked eyes with the blonde Kaminari, freezing the boy in place. “That’s why…I’d like to prepare someone to take over for me when that time finally comes.”

“Y-You aren’t talking about…?!”

All Might nodded. “Yes, young Kaminari. I’d like you to become the next Symbol of Peace when I die.”

Chapter Text

It was Granny who spoke up first…if the melody of indecipherable soundwaves coming out of her mouth could be considered speaking

“HELL NO! HE IS NOT GOING TO THROW HIS LIFE AWAY TRYING TO BECOME SOME BUMBLING OAF LIKE YOU!!!”

“Er, I understand that you are hesitant, ma'am, but if I could perhaps explain what this would entail, I think I could convince y–”

“--Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, Mr. All Might. I have no intention of letting my grandson run off with some America-loving hippie who thinks that the only thing people need are meaningless smiles to make everything better!” Granny yelled back, her psychic power pushing the two blondes back slightly.

“I-I can see that you’re quite opinionated about this, ma’am, but perhaps young Kaminari could–” All Might tried getting a word in over the elderly woman’s psychic hurricane forcing his body into an upside-down L shape. “--Maybe hear me out and make the decision for himself!”

Beside him, Denki himself wasn’t faring any better against the roaring winds that were destroying the garden and threatening to break the door down. Despite that, he still tried speaking up. “H-Hey, Granny! Don’t I get a say in this!?” he exclaimed while closing his eyes to shield them from the wind. “I mean, All Might himself came here to ask me to take over for him when he dies! Shouldn’t we at least hear him out!?”

“...Denki has a point, you know.”

The winds died down-though not completely-as Gramps made himself known, having been forgotten in all the commotion. He stood at the same spot he’d been in the whole time, unbothered by the outpour of psychic energy that affected even All Might himself, much to his and Denki’s shock.

“G-Gramps, how’re you still standing!?”

“Huh? Whaddya mean?” Gramps looked genuinely confused by the boy’s question, as if nothing was wrong.

“...N-Nothing. Never mind,” Denki muttered as he looked away in shock. “A-Anyway, now that the winds have died down,” he said while eying Granny, who looked both annoyed and sheepish, “why don’t we get back on track? All Might, uh, what did you mean when you said that you wanted me to take over for you?”

All Might looked at him with a serious expression. “I mentioned that I'm like this because of an injury, right?” Seeing the young boy nod, All Might lifted up his shirt and revealed a disgusting purple layer of flesh that made all three of them flinch back in disgust. “I received this injury a couple years back during the hardest fight of my life. The villain in question died during the fight while I was left permanently handicapped. I can only use my quirk for a couple hours every day, and that time is getting shorter. Eventually, I'll either die in battle or be incapable of using my quirk at all. When that day happens, I need to know that someone will be there to take over things for me, to become the next Symbol of Peace and Justice. If you are willing, young Kaminari, I would like to train you to take up my post when the time comes.”

The kid didn’t even seem to think about it before he responded.

“Oh, F@%# YES I’LL BE YOUR SUCCESSOR! WHEN DO I STA–!?”

He also didn’t get to finish his sentence before Granny forced him to the ground, cutting him off before forcing him up and facing her.

“For your sake, I do dearly hope that I misheard you, Denki,” she said as her eyes went dark while Denki’s went wide, “but would you mind repeating that for me?”

“...Er, I, uh-WOAH!” He didn’t have time to even think of a response before Gramps reached up and pulled him down.

“You can’t get mad at him for getting excited like that,” Gramps remarked, frowning at the floating girl. “It’s completely natural to respond like that when someone famous comes up to you, especially when they directly say they want to train you to take over for them when they retire. Don’t you remember how excited your sister was when you finally asked her to help you out on missions?”

“Tch!” Granny didn’t respond to him, though she was by no means relenting against the blonde bastard or her grandson. “In any case, aren’t you a bit too eager to agree to this, brat? He hasn’t explained what any of this would entail, yet you accepted it without any questions whatsoever.”

“I’m…inclined to agree with her, actually,” All Might spoke up.”I’m grateful that you’ve agreed to this, but I haven’t even told you that I want you to inherit my quirk, not to mention the fact that you’ll have to train your butt off to make sure your body is prepared for it.”

“...I’m sorry, come again? Di-did you say that I would–?”

“--Inherit my quirk.” All Might responded, smiling at the boy. “I know it may seem impossible, but my quirk is one that has been around since the dawn of quirks, if not a little after. It was originally created by the man that gave me my injury, a heinous, irredeemable monster who named himself after his power: All For One. His power was the ability to take and give quirks to himself and whoever he wanted. With it, he made himself a hidden king during the chaotic birth of quirks, along with a secret empire that he slowly expanded over the centuries. Hidden in the shadows and existing primarily in myth and legend, people were completely unaware of him unless they were desperate enough to seek him out…or unfortunate enough to be sought out by him.” All Might’s eyes narrowed as he talked about this man, as if he were personally seeing the horror that people felt in his presence. Given the way he spoke about it, he likely did see people fear this man. “In the end, it was his own brother that stood against him. But his brother was physically weak and incapable of stopping All For One by himself, and the monster locked him away, not letting him get in his way nor letting him die. And to mock him, he gave his brother a stockpiling quirk of his own, since he himself was born quirkless. But, it turned out that wasn’t the case, for the brother did have a quirk, one similar to All For One’s. It was a quirk that allowed him to transfer quirks. On its own, it was useless, but it merged with the stockpiling quirk that was forced upon him, creating a way to counter All For One. This quirk was passed down onto one of the men that rescued the brother, who transferred it to the other man, who transferred it on to someone else. It kept going on like this: someone would get the power, and then they’d pass it on to make it stronger. This power is called One For All, and I am its eighth wielder. That is the source of my strength, the reason I was able to become Japan’s Symbol of Peace. And now, I will transfer it onto you, young Kaminari.”

“Okay, woah! That’s a lot of pressure all of a sudden!” Kaminari muttered as he placed a hand on his head and began breathing in and out a bit faster than usual. “Um, just out of curiosity, this All For One guy-you’re sure he’s completely gone? Like, he couldn’t have forced his consciousness into someone else’s body or something, right?”

All Might shook his head. “I am absolutely certain that he died during our fight. I blew his head clean off, so if he somehow didn’t die, then he somehow found a way to become completely immortal. As for whether or not he transferred his mind into someone else, I highly doubt he could’ve done that. I’ve been monitoring the more,,,private parts of society, and the most I’ve heard about a boogeyman in the shadows is the occasional upstart that thinks they’ll be the next Demon King. Believe me, All For One is gone for good. And if anyone is trying to fill his shoes, they’re a long, long way off.”

“Okay…okay, that’s good.” Kaminari murmured, still not sounding completely sold. “And…just to make sure…what happens…if I refuse?” he squeaked out, wincing as he glanced back at All Might,

“Well, I’d be disappointed that it didn’t work out, but I can hardly blame you. To be quite frank, I had a sneaking suspicion you might not take my offer anyway.” All Might sighed. “In all honesty, a friend of mine has already recommended someone else to take my place. I just happened to see you first when you took down that villain earlier today, so I tho–”

Denki flinched as soon as the words left the man’s mouth. ‘Crap, why’d he have to say tha–!?’

“WHATTTTTT???????” Granny yelled out as her rage caused gusts of wind to start back up again. “YOU WENT UP AGAINST A DAMN VILLAIN AND THOUGHT YOU COULD JUST GET AWAY WITH IT!??????”

Before anyone could speak, and before the winds could become an issue for them again, All Might decided to speak up. Bulking up into his public form, he quickly screamed over the winds to get her attention. “Miss, please! It’s not his fault! He only acted to make sure that the girl the villain had taken hostage was safe! And his plan, though not thought out fully, was quick and decisive! It allowed me to swiftly jump in and use the last bits of my power to finish the villain off and get the both of us out of there before anything else happened!

The winds died down yet again, and though he could feel the woman’s piercing gaze, he knew she was keeping her anger in check for the moment.

“Earlier, when that villain, Habit Headgear, took that girl hostage, I was there in the crowd.” He clenched his fist and deflated in a burst of steam again. “I had used all my power for the day, and I knew that I couldn’t do anything more, so I could only watch helplessly as that poor girl was held against her will. All I could think was that surely, another hero would show up soon and pick up my slack.” His eyes, seemingly glowing in the light, moved up from the ground to the young boy in front of him. “And then you emerged from the crowd, so nonchalant and unbothered, offering yourself up if the villain let that girl go. I know you tried lying about your intentions to make yourself seem less heroic and more similar to him, and I’m sure you must have been a mix of terrified and excited as it worked perfectly, but you did great. Though you ended up disabling yourself, if you hadn’t shocked him, I would not have been able to pull myself together for one final punch. I had to leave immediately after the fact, so I took you with me to make sure you were okay and to talk to you to assess your personality. But before I could, my power gave out, so I called the detective to make sure you got home while I stayed with you. I knew you likely wouldn’t trust me, so I asked him to make sure you weren't overtly evil before I met you in person. It was after he gave you the all-clear that I decided to meet you and make this offer.”

“Er, wow! I had no idea you were so impressed by me, sir!” Kaminari said while rubbing the back of his head and chuckling a bit.

“I see…I can’t say I’m in any way happy that you had to step in when All Might couldn’t…” Granny remarked, making the two blondes freeze in place. “But I suppose it’s good that you saved a civilian, so I’ll overlook it-for now.”

“T-thank you, Granny…”

“Well, I guess that settles it,” Gramps said, finally speaking up for the first time in several minutes. “Denki’s not getting in trouble with the law, so we can all go inside and make dinner.”

“...Huh?” All Might let out a squeak of surprise.

“...Every time we have something important to discuss…” Granny merely put her palm to her head.

“...G-Gramps, that’s not what we were discussing. Weren’t you listening to All Might’s explanation?” Denki was flabbergasted.

“Hm? Well, not really. I kinda got lost a couple minutes ago, when he was talking about the brothers and All Forlorn and his power to create shadows. What else was there?”

“...You know what? We’ll discuss it later…along with how you were able to trade blows with freaking All Might of all people!”

“...Actually, I’ve been wondering something about the two of you for a while now,” All Might mentioned, getting the attention of the elderly couple. “Perhaps I’m mistaken about this, but you two remind me of a couple of heroes from about 30 or so years back, when the Hero Public Safety Commission was still in its infancy. It was still called the Hero Association, I think.” He noticed the narrowed looks the duo were giving them, making him realize he was likely on the right track. “Considering your power sets, am I correct in assuming that you two are the Terrible Tornado and the Caped Baldy?”

“...Alright, there’s a lot to unpack there-and I do mean a lot-but you REALLY shouldn’t have called him that!” Denki quickly remarked as he tried pulling All Might off to the side and out of Gramps’ line of sight.

“Huh? Why? Was I wro–?” All Might asked before he quickly glanced to the side and saw the boy’s grandfather’s face. “Er, maybe I was mistaken. You’re clearly not–!”

“What did you just say…ABOUT MY HAIR, YOU BASTARD!!!!!?????????” Gramps screamed in utter wrath as he lunged at All Might, who himself had to roll to the side to avoid the attack.

To the side, Granny only sighed in annoyance. “Dammit. Why now?”

As All Might began spewing out apologies, Granny and Denki had to forcibly hold Gramps back to prevent him from putting the Symbol of Peace in a coma. As the man was ranting about his formerly full head of hair, Denki took this as an opportunity to give All Might an escape. “So, about your offer…I’ll need to-guh!-think about…it!..So why don’t we all meet up somewhere tomorrow and you can-Gramps, calm down!-you can give us more insight on what the steps to succeeding you entail!”

“O-Of course, young Kaminari! I’ll see you all at the mall around noon! Have a pleasant evening!” All Might responded as he quickly made his way over to their gate and leapt the freaking fence in one jump!

‘Damn, Gramps is really somethin’, huh?’ Denki thought as he saw the most powerful man in Japan running in terror from his own grandfather. ‘And I had no clue he was a hero with Granny!’

“So, uh, if you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Saitama, sir…what was it like back in the day, when the Hero Association was still around?”

“Huh? Oh, that? I don't know much about how things are today or how they were. I wasn’t really that involved. You’re better off asking Maki about that,” Saitama responded with a nonchalant shrug as All Might paled a bit at the mention of the Terrible Tornado. “Honestly, I only joined because a friend of mine suggested that I do it to get more recognition and a salary when I complained about bills and annoying villains.”

After the four of them had met up, All Might had tried directing them to a private restaurant where he could get them all a private booth to discuss things, but Saitama had mentioned that he’d wanted to get some shopping done while they were there, prompting Denki to mention how much he wanted to buy a new card pack for the latest generation of Pokemon Tournaments EX. Snidely remarking that he couldn’t be trusted on his own, Torna-Tatsumaki, as she had introduced herself-decided to go with him and ordered All Might to keep an eye on her husband.

As the two of them walked, All Might-or rather, Mr. Yagi, as he called himself-led them into a nearby convenience store to get some sodas and…seaweed, apparently, along with noodles for soba. “I see. Well, what did you have to do to get in? I don’t remember provisional licenses or anything like that being required when the HA first started up. Was it based on more military-like standards of fitness and intelligence?”

“Eh, I think that’s about right. All I really remember is doing some light exercise for them and a few annoying tests,” Saitama remarked with a slightly annoyed tone that told Yagi that he likely didn’t do too well on those tests. Given his rather laid back personality, that wasn’t very surprising, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to comment on that. “Anyway, I apparently got the highest scores in the physical department, but my intellect wasn’t all that great, so I got sorted into Class C…the lowest ranking at the time. Course, nowadays they’ve done away with Classes and just have a regular numbers ranking, and you can have a longer period of not doing any hero work before your position is in trouble, whereas I had to make sure I stopped a crime, like, every week or I’d get let go.”

‘Wow! That’s kind of harsh!’ All Might thought as he listened to the old man’s story. ‘Although, I know it was because of how bad the crime rate was that the conditions were so strict back then. That’s why I became All Might-to create a pillar that people could lean on when they were in trouble. And, as a result, the barrier for entering into the heroics business was lowered considerably, which gave us a great many heroes to help the country. Not all of them are in it for the best reasons, but it’s better to have them on our side than to be lacking in manpower.’ He smiled as he thought of all the hero schools there were nowadays, each one molding and nurturing a new generation of do-gooders that were on their way to helping the world. It was quite a nice thought, knowing that he was partially responsible for that change…though he did sympathize with the fact that Saitama was probably annoyed by how hard he had to work while everyone now could just cruise by in comparison.

“...and then I finally got promoted to A-Class, and by that point, there were so many monsters running around that we A and S-Classes were living with some of the civilians in specially-designed apartments to keep them safe. And don’t even get me started on that Garou guy. Boy, was I happy to find someone that could give me an actual fight! But then he kinda lost when we were fighting in space, and I apparently went back in time-I mean, if Genos was right about that, which I’m still not sure about.”

‘–WHAT DID HE JUST SAY!?’

“I don’t think he’d lie about that, but it just seems so impossible, you know?” He finally turned back around to face Toshinori, his hands filled with seaweed.

“Uh, yeah…That does sound pretty crazy…” ‘I totally zoned out during that conversation! Did he really say that he went back in time!? I must have misheard him, right?’ All Might thought. Surely the man didn’t actually go back in time…or maybe he did, getting exposed to a time-related quirk and not realizing it. Maybe this “Garou” character was a follower of All For One or something.

“And by the way, I had to sacrifice my hair to get this strong, just so you know!”

“Y-Yessir!”

“Oh, and don’t let me forget. We need to get some food for our cat, too. He’ll bring back some wild animal or dead person to eat otherwise.”

“...What?” Toshinori muttered as he looked upon his senior with what could now only be described as utter fear and confusion. ‘I’d never retract my offer based on this, but…Who in the hell did I choose to be my successor? His family is completely insane!’

While the men were shopping and “chatting”, Tatsumaki was overseeing her grandson while the boy in question was in a Nintendo shop buying the latest packet for whatever card game was popular at the time. She was never one to care about things like that, though she imagined Saitama would probably know about it. As he finished up and came out, they started making their way to that restaurant that Yagi mentioned.

“So tell me, Denki…You’ve already decided on accepting All Might’s offer, haven’t you?” she asked as they got into an elevator that would take them to the basement level where their destination resided.

“...Kinda. I mean, I would’ve said yes without hesitation when I first heard him, and I definitely want coaching from and the power of the number 1 hero, but I’m more worried about you not allowing me to do it.” He looked away as he said that, not daring to make direct eye contact but still looking at her through the reflection of the elevator mirrors. (Un)fortunately, the doors opened before she said anything. He was really hoping the ride would be longer, but they could probably talk more in their booth…assuming Granny didn’t shoot down any conversation between them.

As they walked inside, they were instantly greeted by an absurdly fancy atmosphere that made Denki feel like he was underdressed. He did not, however, let it deter him from speaking to the man that came up to them.

“Excuse me, do you two have a reservation?”

“I do believe, my good sir, that we do have one. It should be under a ‘Mr. Toshinori Yagi’.” the boy replied in his most confident and dignified voice, leading the man to nod in response.

“Of course. Mr. Yagi’s private booth. The other half of your party has yet to arrive, but please follow me.”

‘All Might’s personal booth, huh? Not just a random table, but an actual booth that he specifically gets to use,’ the blonde boy thought as they rounded the corner to an even larger part of the restaurant. ‘And this is a fairly secretive place underneath the mall. Is this just the exclusivity that you get from being the number 1 hero, or is it something else? Does he have skeletons buried in his closet or something? Nah, that can’t be it. Gotta be the fact that he’s a high-ranking hero. I’ll bet they have specific establishments like this solely to eat with some privacy.’

As they sat down, the man leading them handed them two sets of menus before excusing himself with a bow and leaving the duo alone.

“...”

“...”

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for what felt like forever before Granny finally spoke.

“...I’ve never had a problem with you becoming a hero, Denki. I just don’t like the idea of you becoming a hero like All Might. I’ve always preferred more practical and dedicated heroes that get the job done efficiently than someone who’s focused on making people smile while he does it.” Her face darkened a bit, though her grandson didn’t notice. “It’s the job of a hero to make people feel safe, not happy.”

“...I’ve never been good at difficult topics, so I'll just ask it: are you against this because you blame him for what happened to Mom and Dad?”

Honestly, he wasn’t sure which answer he preferred. His parents’...well, they weren't something they ever really talked about. Granted, Denki didn’t even remember the accident due to being so young at the time; regardless, he couldn’t help but think that it was the reason why Granny didn’t like All Might. After all, he wasn’t the one that saved his life at the time. It had been–--

“---No…I blame the villain that bombed Universal Studios, but not All Might. I know he can’t be everywhere, but people expect him to be. I’m worried that you’ll falter under that same pressure.”

“...You think his quirk is more suited for someone like yourself?”

“In terms of mentality and work ethic, yes. Hell, if I were younger, I’d offer to take the power myself so that someone else doesn’t have to.”

“But that’s just it-I know I’m not ready for the title now, but I want to do it. Not just because it sounds awesome, but because I have you and Gramps to help me out when All Might can’t. After he left yesterday, I spent the entire night thinking about what would happen if I said yes today. And every time I got freaked out about it, I imagined you two scolding me for being afraid. I know you think All Might is too lax, but you can balance that out! And Gramps, he’s the guy I’ll go to when I need some perspective. All three of you bring something to the table, so I know I’ll be getting the best possible training experience along with going to the best hero school in the country! At that point, if I don’t succeed, I’d have to be completely incompetent or cursed by God!”

“Funny you should mention God…”

“Huh? What was that?”

“...and if he doesn’t get enough food, he’ll start destroying property, which we’ll have to pay for, which costs way too much money, which means…”

The voice of Gramps saved Tatsumaki from repeating herself-or coming up with something else-as the grandmother and grandson looked back to see Saitama talking about something with an exhausted-looking Yagi, who quickly cut him off as soon as he spotted them.

“Oh, look, there’s the booth! And your family! We’ve surely kept them waiting far too long!” the Symbol said with a smile as he pushed the old man into the booth before sitting beside the blonde boy opposite of him. “Now then, why don’t we all order some drinks?”

“Before we do that, Yagi…I have something to say,” Tatsumaki said as she crossed her arms, making All Might glance at her nervously. “Denki’ll be accepting your offer on one condition: The three of us are a package deal, got it?”

“...” All Might did not initially respond, looking far too stunned to muster up any words. Then, his expression changed into a wide smile. “Naturally. I’m pleased to see that you’ve accepted my offer, young Kaminari! And as for you two, I look forward to the insight of the Terrible Tornado and…” He hesitated a bit as he glanced at the old man, who was glaring at him. “Saitama! The Terrible Tornado and the great Saitama! Now, let’s order some drinks!”

Chapter Text

They had a few months before the UA entrance exams, but all four of them agreed to start Denki’s training as soon as possible. Which, apparently, was going to start at a trash-filled beach located an hour away from his house.

“Er, All Might, sir? What exactly are we doing out here? And why didn’t you tell us that we’d be at a beach? I’m wearing sweatpants and a regular t-shirt! And tennis shoes! I don’t want to get sand everywhere!” Denki complained as he alternated between lifting up his left and right feet and trying to shake the sand off of them.

“Quite complaining, brat. If All Might wants us here, he probably has a good reason,” Tatsumaki remarked as she floated above the ground with her arms crossed before shooting a glare at the hero in question, who flinched under her gaze. “At least, he better have a good reason for wanting us to come to this trash heap.”

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Saitama told them as he looked at all the junk lying around. “He’s probably gonna make this into an obstacle course for you. That’s a pretty good way to get stronger.”

“Well, that wasn’t what I originally intended to do, but that does sound like a good suggestion.” Toshinori shook his head and smiled. “Actually, the reason I brought you out here is because of how bad the beach has gotten. This place used to be a beautiful place to come, but a bunch of junk started washing up on the shore here a few years ago, and then people just started using it as a place to get rid of their uncategorized trash. And this disgusting sight is the result of that,” he spoke while gesturing his arms to the pathetic and unsightly display of the piles and piles of trash around them. “That’s why you’re going to begin your first step as a hero by cleaning up all this trash and making Dagobah beautiful again!”

“...Uh, say what now?” Kaminari asked with a dumbstruck look on his face. “How exactly do you expect me to–?”

“--WITH THIS!” All Might said as he buffed up and materialized what appeared to be a packet dubbed…”The Aim to be a Pro: Japanese-American Dream Training Plan”.

Tatsumaki pulled it out of his hand and grasped it in hers as she glossed over it. “Let’s see…cleaning this beach is supposed to get him a much better physique than he has now…he’s even got the different types of trash and junk separated depending on which muscle groups they’ll work on. That said, All Might’s also noted the fact that we live far away and can really only manage to come here during the weekends, so he’s giving us mostly free reign on how to train during the week…” she muttered as she glanced at the next page. “He’s even got suggestions for quirk training with me and physical training with Saitama, but he’s ultimately letting us do whatever we want so long as we don’t overexert him and cause the cleanup to become too taxing and consequently detrimental…He’s even got a dietary plan listed here.”

She placed her fingers on her chin and contemplated how effective this method would be. On the one hand, All Might himself was taking something of a backseat during this whole thing, his training regiment would be here on the weekends (which would mostly be on Sundays unless he knew of a good hotel for Denki to stay at on Saturday nights) and would be reliant on her and Saitama doing a proper job of training him for an hour or two on school days (since he’d need time to get his homework done at night and wouldn’t get much use out of training after that). Granted, the two of them would do a good job at training him. Tatsumaki’s telekinesis would give Denki a good challenge against an opponent he couldn’t touch directly, and she’d long been considering getting him to practice with her specifically for that reason, she just didn’t have a good opportunity until now. And she definitely knew that Saitama could give him a good workout routine (she still wasn’t entirely sold on the whole 100 sit-ups, push-ups, and squats plus a run every day gives you super strength, even if she knew he was likely an evolution on his part, but she conceded that it was a good routine regardless). All in all, the plan was pretty solid, but she still had a few questions about the whole thing.

“Er, do you have any complaints, Miss Tornado?” All Might inquired with a slightly nervous smile.

“Hgg…I’ll admit that this plan seems pretty well thought out,” the old lady begrudgingly conceded. “I don’t quite get the name, but to each their own on that one, I guess.That said, I’m a bit confused by the lack of a timeline or even a timeframe for this whole cleanup. This is obviously a two-fold plan to make Denki stronger while also doing what amounts to community service. But do you not have a needed or preferred point in which this beach would be cleaned up?”

All Might shook his head. “Quite honestly, I’ve changed my mind regarding how I want to go about this. I originally wanted this whole beach to be cleaned up by the time of the UA entrance exams, but that’s no longer an option nor a necessity. We’ve only got seven more months until that happens, and even if it’s only an hour by train, you still have other responsibilities you need to attend to and won’t be able to come here until the weekend. Even if you were to come here on holidays, you still wouldn’t be able to get all this done unless all four of us worked together, which would defeat the whole point of doing this. Instead, I’ve decided that we’ll focus on training you to the best we can until the entrance exam. Since you already have a pretty powerful quirk, you’ll likely do well on the entrance exam…assuming it’s based on fighting artificial combatants like it has been in the past. If you happen to fail, I’m sure you can try for Shiketsu or another hero school. Either way, I’ll give you One For All after you get into a school, and we’ll see how it interacts with your quirk and go from there. You also won’t need to continue your weekly training regimen after that since you’ll have access to better training facilities and should have trained professionals to give you advice on however you want to exercise from there. All the while, you’ll be devoting your weekends to cleaning this beach until you finish. It likely won’t give you much of a physical boost after you get in, but it’s still an act of community service that will hopefully give you a stronger sense of commitment.”

“Dang, you’ve really thought this through!” Denki remarked with awe at how strategic All Might was. It was absurd what he could do when he had a specific goal in mind.

Yagi blushed a bit and turned to the side. “Well, it’s not often that I actually have something that needs a great deal of consideration, so I put a lot of thought into it for you.”

“Hmph! So even you can do something smart once in a while,” Tatsumaki muttered, causing Yagi to deflate even further.

“Oi, that’s not very nice! He went out of his to create a plan for Denki to get the muscles necessary to inherit his powers and get into Hero School, and he even gave us ample time to train him ourselves however we felt like.” It was Saitama that came to All Might's defense, giving his wife a frown that caused her to turn away from him. Knowing that she would neither apologize nor antagonize All Might anymore, he turned to him. “Anyway, I take it you want us to get started right away?”

“Er, yes, that was what I was hoping we could do for now. We’ll first get some of the work out of the way by creating rough locations for young Denki to move all the trash too, such as the leftmost area over there being where you’ll put smaller things like microwaves, TVs, and computers,” he said while pointing his fingers out to his left before shifting to where the trio was standing “the heavier things like washing machines and refrigerators will go there,” and finally, he pointed beside the trio, to his far right and their left “and the heaviest things like cars will go over there. Since you probably don’t know where to start, I’ll give you a helping hand by creating a small pile for each category to begin with, and then you can do your best to chip away at the larger piles and put them into their proper place.”

All Might buffed up once more, flashed the trio a smile, and disappeared before their eyes. And as if by magic, the waves and waves of trash seemed to shift ever so slightly as three new piles started forming to the left, right, and behind them. It wasn’t much of a difference, but the sheer speed at which the pro moved was utterly incomprehensible. All Denki and Tatsumaki could do was watch in (silent) awe before All Might reappeared in front of them while sporting a wide grin.

“Well, I think that’s a good place to start off for now! Think you can double those piles by the time we get back, young Kaminari!?”

“Oh, heck yeah I can!” Denki excitedly exclaimed before his smile turned into a confused frown. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘before yo–?’”

“Excellent! I’ll leave you to it, my boy!” He turned to the elderly couple that were watching with a mix of confusion and what appeared to be a barely contained smugness. “Shall we get going? I recently discovered a GREAT cafe nearby that I’m sure we can spend a few hours at!”

Ironically, it was Tatsumaki who answered him-in a sadistic tone, no less.

“That sounds quite pleasant, All Might. It’s been a while since I’ve had something sweet like cake or macaroons.” She turned to face her stuttering and gaping grandson who was holding his arm out in what appeared to be a pleading manner. Seeing this, she gave him a cruel smile. “You really oughta make the most of this time, Denki. It’s not everyday that you get training advice from THE All Might after all.” She began floating back to the steps up to the sidewalk while gesturing for Saitama to follow her, who gave a smile and a nod to Denki before following after his wife.

That left All Might, who turned to look at the betrayed blonde with his ever-present smile before shrinking down into his civilian form.

“I’m sure you can do it, kid. You just gotta believe in yourself to get started,” Yagi told him as he followed his elders up the stairs.

“Y-you know, I was k-kinda expecting we’d ease me into it…not have me lift around 300 kilograms on the first day!” Denki yelled after him.

“You got this, kid!” was all he got from all Might, who soon disappeared from view.

“Agh!!!” Denki scratched his hands in his hair in annoyance as he looked at the seemingly unreachable mountains of trash that he not only had to walk back and forth from, he also had to walk back and forth on sand while carrying anything from a microwave to a freaking car!. ‘Dammit, he really wants me to double the piles by the time they get back!? I thought we were just gonna spend a few hours doing basic warm-ups so that I’d get used to the new routine starting tomorrow before I really began cleaning this dump up next week!’ He took another look around and realized that he really only had two options here: keep complaining and risk all three of them getting mad that he hasn’t accomplished anything…or actually get started and make some progress.

With a heavy sigh, he started jogging toward the closest-looking mountain of junk. Thankfully, it looked like it was made up mainly of tires and old PCs. Those should be easy enough to start with.

“Here you are, sir! Please enjoy your meal!”

“Thank you, young man!” Yagi responded as he took the tray containing their coffees and sweets (or tea and macarons for Yagi himself).

As soon as they had gotten into the cafe, they were instantly greeted by a fur-covered boy wearing a uniform who introduced himself as Jurota Shishida. In spite of his animalistic appearance, he was quite well-spoken and respectful, giving them suggestions for their orders and waiting patiently for Saitama to make up his mind.

‘Such a kind young man!’ Yagi thought with a smile before quickly frowning. ‘Wait, that sounds like something an old woman might say! And I’m not that old yet! I mean, I’m not even 60!’

“Oi, Skeletorella. You aren’t thinking something offensive, are you?” Tatsumaki demanded, almost as if she’d heard his thoughts just now.

“Ghk! Er, n-no, no! I was just thinking that our waiter has a bright future ahead of him, what with how well-mannered and intelligent he seems!”

“Hm…” Tatsumaki took a sip of her coffee as she glanced at the boy, who was now cleaning off a table on the other side of the room. “Sure, he sounds nice and innocent, but beast-types like him tend to have a hard time keeping their animal instincts in check. If they don’t keep their wits about them, they’ll eventually lose themselves altogether and become monsters.”

“...That’s an incredibly bleak and-dare I say it-rather racist thing to say, Miss Tornado. I’ll secede that such things may have been more likely back in your day when quirks weren’t as regulated and prejudices caused fights that resulted in forced ostracization and more or less made villainy necessary, but such a time is behind us now,” Yagi-or rather, All Might-explained to her with a stern look on her face. While he may have generally deferred to her judgment out of a mixture of fear and respect, he was not willing to change his stance on this issue.

Saitama also seemed to agree with him.

“He’s right, you know,” the elderly man said while fixing his gaze on his wife. “Monsters like the ones we fought against don’t really exist anymore. They can’t mutate unless they have a quirk that lets them do it. We’re probably the last group of people that can willingly change into something more than we were. And God hasn’t been active since we fought him. He’s probably incapable of giving people power without killing them nowadays.”

“...Yeah, I’m not just gonna ignore that,” Yagi spoke up. “You definitely mentioned the classified entity that dubbed itself ‘God’ all those years ago. And as both the number 1 hero and someone who entrusted his greatest secret to your family, I need to know at least something about him. Nearly every bit of information is labeled as redacted, even to me, and I’ve always been curious as to what he really did during his time here.”

The couple turned to look at him with slightly shocked expressions, as if they’d briefly forgotten that he was there. Which was completely fair if they were talking about what he thought they were talking about.

“...We’ll talk about it later, old man. Not here.” Tatsumaki looked around swiftly as if just now realizing that she was in a public place.

“It’s fine. They aren’t listening to us unless we talk too loudly,” All Might remarked with a calming smile. “Believe me, I’ve learned that people are pretty ignorant when they want to be. But just in case, we ought to head back to the beach in a few minutes. I think that’ll make it a good half hour for young Denki, and I’m curious as to how much he got done. I don’t expect him to have gotten much done, but I wanna see what I’m working with here. I may need to adjust the training regimen if he’s below or above the standards I imagined for him.”

The couple nodded in response with a slightly saddened look, as if they too had some lingering doubts about their grandson’s physical capabilities.

After they (quickly) finished their deserts and left, Tatsumaki gave All Might a brief rundown on their enemy that named itself God-while making sure to keep her voice down, as if scared that speaking of him would bring him back.

“We don’t actually know all that much about him in terms of his history or what he is. But that doesn’t really matter. He comes from a different dimension and bestows powers onto humans he deems worthy, all of whom are evil and love causing chaos. We assumed his goal was world domination, but he hasn’t been seen in at least 25 years, ever since Saitama, myself, and the heaviest hitters in the Hero Association made a last-ditch attempt to stop him. All remaining records of him-miniscule as they were-became classified right after, only accessible to the top hero of each country…along with the so-called ‘Secondary Path of Evolution’, which you already know about.”

All Might merely nodded. It had taken many years after he’d already become the number one hero, but the Commission had informed him of how some people had obtained their “quirks” in completely unique ways from the norm. At first, he’d suspected him of being behind it…but he quickly realized that that couldn’t be the case. It was curious, though, how connected All For One seemed to the older generation that mutated into “monsters”, what with both of them giving people powers. But such thoughts were perhaps better left alone. Things were better now.

“Well, what say we table all this talk of God for now and focus on young Kaminari’s progress?”

“Actually, I think I hear him screaming now,” Saitama remarked with a small smile as they got to a spot that overlooked the beach. “Sounds like he’s really getting into a groove over there.”

They could both see and hear him now, running between the mountain range of trash to one of the very tiny newly made piles with a freaking giant TV between his hands. And wasn’t that a surprise? They honestly didn’t expect him to have much progress at all, much less having two actual piles (however small they were).

“Damn, he’s doing better than I thought he’d be.”

“Eh, he isn’t anything special yet. Any one of us would have made a huge difference on that beach already if we were in his shoes. He still has a long way to go.”

‘...Maybe so, but I can see that glint of pride in your eyes, Tornado. You know in your heart that he’ll blow our expectations out of the water,’ Yagi thought with a smile before looking away as Tatsumaki turned to glare at him. ‘Every time! How does she do that!?’

It went like that for the next seven months. Every Saturday night, he and Mr. Yagi would rent a set of bunks at a capsule hotel near the beach and have a quick meal before heading to sleep. Then they’d tackle the beach for the entirety of the next day, only taking a brief break for lunch before sending Denki back home at night. Meanwhile, his “after-school activities” with his grandparents were just as hard. They alternated between physical training with gramps one day and quirk training with granny the next. Quirk training was quite simple: Granny would buy a bunch of small-to-medium-sized things to fling at him that he had to destroy with a series of ranged shocks on his part. It was actually a pretty good idea to get him used to fighting without using his quirk as an area-of-effect attack like he usually does and instead get him thinking about fighting from mid-to-long range. She was forcing him to alternate between weaker and stronger volts by alternating between throwing small things like rocks and discs and then old-timey garden gnomes he needed to react to lest he get hit and become bruise-ridden. Denki had to admit, it was a lot easier to use his quirk when he had just a small group of targets and didn’t have to worry about hitting himself or anyone around him, but it wasn’t until the fourth or fifth month that he actually saw the full benefits of her training methods.

It was just another regular afternoon with Granny throwing gnomes at him (which, for the record, he’d gotten good at both dodging AND destroying them, which she’d surprisingly complimented him on). They had just finished up for the day and were about to make their way back inside to make dinner before Denki felt a sudden chill. Now, a chill was not in any way unexpected given that it was a little past six in the evening, but he’d long since gone accustomed to this specific feeling. He was used to it enough to the point that he could react by the time the shadow lunged at him from behind.

“VOLT BURNING!”

“HREOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The figure flew back with a screech and hit the ground with an audible thump.

“Oi, Nyan! We told you to stop doing that!” Denki yelled at the large cat-like figure that was currently twitching on the ground behind them.

“NYA!!!” The cat merely meowed in annoyance as it dashed back inside.

“Geez, that thing’s seriously annoying!”

His grandmother nodded along with him. “He sure is. Always trying to kill us when our backs are turned…I swear, if Saitama didn’t grow attached to that little bastard…”

“Well, it’s pretty pointless to complain about it now. Nyan’s been with us for years at this point…Best thing to do is to keep reminding him why we’re the top species!” Denki remarked with a vicious smirk.

From behind him, he could hear Granny nodding in agreement.

His training with grandpa Saitama wasn’t actually at their house. Instead, they’d opted to go to a nearby gym that apparently let in pros for free and allowed them to bring guests. It was a bit strange that they were so large and well-equipped considering that, but it was a great gym regardless. And it was during one of these training sessions that gave Denki a gym buddy to workout with. Even if it had started out in a very weird way…

“Yo, old man! You need some help with those weights!?”

“No, I don’t need any help,” Saitama off-handedly commented while casually lifting a barbell with one hand and using it like a normal dumbbell. Had he been more attentive, he might have noticed that the boy was now looking at him with something akin to adoration…or possibly obsession.

“THAT’S SO F*CKING MANLY!!! HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT!????” the kid screeched, almost causing Saitama to drop his weight.

“Hey! Don’t scream so close to me! That’s incredibly rude!” He jabbed a finger into the kid’s face, who had deflated and was now looking like someone had kicked his puppy. “And for the record, this is just the result of some casual work-outs over the years! It ain’t nothing special!”

“Y-yes, sir! Sorry, sir!” The kid saluted with a shaky expression. “But I still gotta ask: what workout did you–?”

“100 push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, followed by a 10-kilometer run every day for three years,” Denki answered, having heard them while coming back to the weights to start a new series of reps. He gave the other boy a sheepish smile. “At least, that’s what he says. We still don’t know if that was it or something else, but that’s what he always claimed he did.” He could see Gramps nodding at him with an annoyed expression. “Anyway, I’m Denki Kaminari, and this is my grandfather. If you want to get anywhere near the level of strength he has, I’d advise you to just copy everything I do and hope for the best.”

The light-haired boy grasped his hand, gave him a firm handshake, and complimented it with a serious nod. “Yes, sir! I hear you, sir!”

“...Yeah, none of that ‘sir’ business. We’re the same age, buddy.” Despite that, he still returned the handshake. “And you?”

“Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu! Pleased to work out with the two of you!”

‘...Okay, his parents were seriously bad at their job. Who names a poor kid that? Ah well. He can’t help that, and he seems pretty cool…if a bit too passionate for me.’

And yet, in spite of the poorly named boy’s eccentricities, Denki would quickly befriend him as the two of them and Saitama would meet at this same gym week after week, following the orders of the retired hero that so graciously gave them a set of instructions for which equipment to use each time. With such an advantage, it was only natural that they would get into UA…provided that the entrance exam was based on physical abilities, that is. Otherwise, they’d need to excel at whatever the requirement was. And if it was intellect…well, that was neither their’s nor Saitama’s forte.

It had finally come…The day of the UA entrance exams. The day he’d officially been training seven months for and unofficially been training for ever since he started school. And while he wasn’t sure if he had really done all he could to prepare for this, he knew that he did the best he could given the circumstances. He was way more buffed than he was a year ago, and his resistance to his quirk was much, much better. The written test had been fairly challenging, but he was sure he’d passed. And even if he hadn’t, he would just impress the judges with his performance at the practical exam. Which was what he was on his way to now, waiting on a bus that was driving him to Battle Center A…and he was getting the slightest bit annoyed by a shorter kid with purple balls for hair.

“Hey. Hey! Blondie!” The kid kept trying to get Denki’s attention and didn’t seem to get the hint that he wanted to be left alone for the time being. Then again, maybe he had something important to say.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“You nervous for the exam?”

‘Of course I am! Who wouldn’t be!?’ He didn’t say that out loud, though, since that would be rude. This guy was clearly just as nervous as he was and looking for someone to take the edge off a bit.

“Yeah. Even after I’ve spent the last seven months working to get into shape, I still can’t help but feel underprepared. How about you?”

“Well, now that you said all that, I feel even less ready than I was!” The boy glared at Denki. “I was hoping to hear you say that your quirk is probably going to be useless against robots so that I could feel better, not that you’re jacked!”

Denki narrowed his eyes at the little gremlin. “Hey, it’s not my fault that I decided to actually try hard and prepare for this! Besides, you were the one who started talking to me!”

“Well, it’s not like I haven’t tried going to the gym or anything! I’m just too short to actually do half the crap they have in there! The best I could do was use the stupid treadmill for half an hour every day at higher settings!” The boy slumped back into his seat and crossed his arms, clearly upset.

Denki couldn’t help but sigh. Endurance and stamina training on a treadmill was probably the best thing he could do, but he still needed to be smart about this if he wanted to one-up the other applicants. “Well, what’s your quirk? Maybe you can use it to get an advantage over everyone else.”

The ball-haired boy sighed. “My quirk is my hair, obviously. I can pull off the balls on my head and stick them on any solid surface. Anything that isn’t me will get stuck to them. Good for a large group of enemies, but I might hit some of the other applicants, so I'll get docked if I use it carelessly.”

“...Then just split off from the main groups and find robots off the beaten path. I’m sure a lot of people here will be too focused on the obvious enemies and won’t bother looking for something they don’t see,” Denki told him with a smile. He didn’t have any reason to help the twerp out, but he didn’t have a reason not to either, so he might as well throw out some pointers while he could. “Just throw clumps of your hair onto the buildings and use them as trampolines to get around the city.”

“...Crap, why didn’t I think of that!?” the littler boy asked to no one in particular as he held his head in his hands. “I’m an idiot! And thank you for the tip! You better not fail if you’re this smart, blondie!”

Denki smirked. “Hmph! I wouldn’t dream of it! I put in way too much work to fail here!” He held out his hand, which the other boy promptly shook. “I’m Kaminari.”

“Name’s Mineta. Pleased to meet you, buddy!”

“Likewise!”

Conveniently, that was when the bus arrived at their city. As they got out, Denki decided to give Mineta one last word of encouragement.

“In times like this, I like to remember something my grandma told me when I was younger: ‘Any idiot can make a big splash with a flashy superpower. That’s why vigilantes and villains are so common. If you want to be a hero, you need to be smart about how you use your powers. The top ten heroes got their spots by being smart.’ Granted, she said that to teach me to understand and circumvent the limits of my own quirk, but I still think it applies to anyone else.”

Mineta had stars in his eyes as he excitedly looked at Kaminari. “Wow, your grandma sounds so cool! With a cool-ass speech like that, she had to be a pro, right!?”

“Yup! I didn’t actually know much about it until recently, but both my grandparents are retired pros! Granny was pretty strict, but it got me thinking on how to use my quirk a lot without short-circuiting my brain. And Gramps helped make sure I kept my body in shape…even if his advice is a bit unorthodox.”

Mineta opened his mouth up again, but before he could say anything–

“STARTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Chapter Text

“...So tell me, Denki. What exactly happened in your exam?”

“Er..well, uh…” Denki was sweating bullets as Granny stared a hole into his forehead. It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as All Might had made him seem, he was sure, but he also knew that his grandmother was one to-well, not overreact, per se, but she was justifiably upset. That said…”I mean, I just saved a couple of the examinees from a super scary robot that may or may not have been malfunctioning at the time. It wasn’t anything too major, and the exam ended right after that. I even got, like, 40 points from the robots I destroyed!”

“Ah, I see.” Granny nodded her head in understanding, which made him sweat a lot harder. “Yes, you saved a lot of people’s lives, I’m sure. A truly heroic action. But-and forgive me if I’m missing something here-HOW IS YOU FRYING YOUR BRAIN RIGHT AFTER DISABLING A MOVING SKYSCRAPER NOT A BIG DEAL!??? YOU COULD HAVE BEEN CRUSHED!!!!!!!!!!”

“...I…” Okay, he didn’t exactly have a good defense for that, especially after he rushed in with barely a plan…but like he said, it–

“--AND SO HELP ME! IF YOU SAY IT ALL WORKED OUT IN THE END, I AM GONNA–!!!”

“Okay, okay!” He took a quick breath to steady his body before responding. “Look, I’m sorry that I rushed in without thinking, but people were screaming in panic. It was like an instinct-I just rushed in to get them out of the way and get rid of the giant robot barrelling down the street!”

“.........”

‘... Oh, crap… ’

Oof, this wouldn’t end well. Granny got rather… upset when people-especially Denki-talked back to her. Having her own grandson shout at her? Well, that was a death sentence by every metric imaginable. At the very least, Denki could say that he faced his death with confiden–

‘ Please let it be painless, please let it be painless, please let it be painless, please let it be– ’

…Nevermind, Kaminari was a total loser. Whatever faith All Might had in him was completely misplaced!

Granny didn’t respond right away, which reinforced Denki’s idea that he would get his arms and legs spaghettified into a horrid parody of actual spaghetti…or at least be on the receiving end of a verbal lashing. Despite that, even as he clenched his eyelids shut for what felt like hours, no shouting nor telekinetic movement was heard. All that was said-after what seemed to be an eon of silence, was a simple “Tch!”

“...eh?” The boy opened his eyes slowly, not believing that he would get off so easily. And yet, Granny’s face was turned away from him, doing that thing that girls do in anime when they pretend to be upset while really agreeing with whatever the other character said.

“Well, whatever! So long as you know how stupid what you did was!” she finally retorted with an annoyed look in her eyes.

In all honesty, he knew what it was but hesitated to speak the phrase into existence for fear of the wrath it would unleash upon his flesh and bones. And yet, he felt as if he had to utter the phrase, if only to declare to the universe that such a being truly existed.

“... Tsundere… ”

It was a quiet utterance, so silent that it could be argued whether or not it was even said at all, so Tatsumaki couldn’t have heard it even if she wasn’t well after her physical prime. And yet…

“WHAT WAS THAT!!?”

“OH CRAP! I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING! UH, GRAMPS, WHERE ARE YOU!? HELP!!!!!!! GRANNY’S GONE CRAZY!!!!!!!!”

Denki ran through the house as he was chased by his grandmother. Considering that he wasn’t affected by the telekinesis, she clearly was not as annoyed as she pretended to be, but his panicked brain couldn’t come to that obvious confusion. Instead, all he could think about was the series of unfortunate events that had landed him in this situation. It really wasn’t as bad as she was making it out to be!

“AND START!”

“We’re starting already!? Why the heck wasn’t there a countdown?” The grape-haired boy immediately began panicking before looking back to where the kind blonde was just standing, only to realize that he was now completely alone. “Huh!?”

He looked around in a frenzy hoping to spot someone else before realizing that the gates to the city were wide open and filled with a horde of students rushing through them-including Blondielocks!

“C’mon, man! Get with the program and get your ass in gear!” Turning around just once, Kaminari instructed the vertically-challenged boy to follow them before continuing into the city in his search for robots.

As soon as he stepped inside, a group of robots rushed at him and the other students, who retaliated by breaking them apart with their myriad of quirks. Denki, of course, was no exception as he fired a pair of twin lightning streaks at some of the nearby robots, hitting at least 3 or 4 robots and netting him some points.

“All right! Let’s get this party starty-I mean started!” Denki excitedly exclaimed as he broke from what remained of the initial “group” and ran through the streets in search of more targets. He found them quite easily and dispatched them just as quickly. Evidently the training he had been doing for the past few months was paying off. He felt like he could keep running like this for a few hours! Dare he risk the jinx, this exam was going to be a cakewalk!

“Woah!” As if waiting for him to think it, Denki suddenly ducked out of the way of an attack aiming for the back of his head. He rolled forward and quickly spun around to flash the 2-pointer a grin. “Almost got me there! But if I’m being honest, I prefer bunnies to scorpions, so better luck next time, Ai-sama!”

“DIE, HUMAN FILTH! WE WILL BE YOUR UNDOING!!!” The scorpion-themed enemy somehow lunged at him despite its large size and wide shape.

“OH CRAP!” He leapt out of the way again before disabling the robot with a quick jolt. “Geez, what the hell do they program these things with, 5-chan!?” He turned around just in time to see another robot barrelling toward him, which he swiftly dispatched. “No, that can't be it. 5-chan would group up and assault me with a barrage of insults that would tear away at my sanity and leave me a husk of a person.” Denki shuddered. “I still remember some of the comments about Captain Celebrity from 10 years ago. So hateful…”

As if remembering the dark time that struck its people back then, the very ground began rumbling with a vengeance, letting the universe know that it wouldn’t allow such an event to be forgotten.

…Wait, that couldn’t be right. The world wasn’t sentient (at least, Denki hoped it wasn’t). So then, why was the ground shaking?

‘ Oh, crap. An earthquake!? Here and now!? Or…is it someone’s quirk? ’ A horrifying glance up made him aware that, no, this was no person’s quirk. Nor was it an act of God or the land itself. A machine was doing this. A machine that bore an uncanny resemblance to the robots being used in this very testing ground.

“There’s no way…” he muttered out as he tried to stop his body from shaking. “Even with all the money in the world, U.A. wouldn’t just s-spend it so recklessly on mobile skyscrapers to terrorize kids…would they?”

Some reasonable part of him, located within the fleeting portions of his mind that housed his vast intellect, knew that the heroes that worked here wouldn’t allow for anything too dangerous to happen. Unfortunately for Denki, that was overshadowed by his blinding fear of whatever demon was masquerading as the person in charge of this high school. When this thing inevitably crushed him under its eternally-rotating wheels, he would ask whoever he saw first to bring down a fiery vengeance on these horrid grounds.

In the control panel, Nedzu drank his tea to combat the sudden cold feeling he was experiencing. Were he the superstitious type, he might assume that someone was thinking about him now…but that would just be silly. Finishing up the remainder of his cup, he put it down to address his fellow teachers.

“So, how are we feeling about today’s examinees? Anyone catching your fancy?” the rat asked with a somewhat whimsical tone.

It was Snipe who first answered. “Well, if I’m bein’ honest…I don’t see anything we ain’t seen before.” He gestured to a pair of screens that both happened to be displaying applicants violently destroying the robots with a seeming disregard for their fellow applicants, one with explosions and the other with blades produced from his body. “Strong quirks are really common for any hero school applicants, so we can’t exactly judge them based on their control of power alone.” He was nodding his head slowly as he explained, talking to himself as much as everyone else in the room. As soon as he finished his thought, he immediately continued it. “Ah, not that we should be judging them on how well their quirk works or anything like that anyway. Obviously, we’re focusing on how chivalrous they act as much as how well they can use their powers.” He coughed as he heard some snickers. “Anyway, what I’m saying is that I don’t think we’ve seen anything particularly telling yet. In my opinion, we see what the kids are made of when they’re panickin’ at the 0-pointer.”

“I don’t agree that are opinions are invalidated just because they aren’t in a panicked situation,” Cementoss retorted with a sigh, “but I do understand the idea that a person’s character is most commonly shown in the face of overwhelming adversity rather than a relatively ‘safe’ environment.”

“Good points from the both of you!” Nedzu said before he started giggling uncontrollably. “And since I imagine the rest of you feel the same, I say we get on with it.” Without waiting for any protests or approval from his subordinates, the principal punched the big red button that signaled the ending portion of the entrance exam.

He took a tiny bit of glee in the fact that his performance struck a bit of fear in the pro heroes he was surrounded with, though they hid it quite well… just not well enough from him . In any case, his persona was just an act. Though he had a strong disdain for humans in general, he truly did find children precious and enjoyed watching them grow and evolve, which started here and now. And he was sure that whoever All Might picked especially would give them all a good showing.

“OH SHIT!!! PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!! I WANT TO LIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Hey, calm down! We’re gonna be fine, Mineta!” Kaminari yelled out as he pulled the shorter boy along with him to the entrance of the city. “I’ll get us out of this!”

They strafed to the left to avoid a falling piece of debris, only to take a side street to the right when a car-sized chunk of building landed in front of them.

“Oh, sweet mother of the Newer York Ninja Turtles! Why is this so damn intense!?” Denki yelled out as he kept turning into another alley whenever their current route was cut off. He had a decent enough headmap to know that going straight would get them close to the entrance, but they couldn’t run straight for 30 seconds without meeting a robot or fallen piece of debris. They did see a few other students that had the same idea as them, only to separate at each possible turn. The only constant was the two of them, and he was quite sure that Mineta would get sent flying any minute when he inevitably tripped. Honestly, if they didn’t get crushed to death by the 0-pointer, he imagined that they would get killed by the other robots.

“GAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

—And then a panicked scream pierced the air.

“Woah!” Denki slid to a stop, nearly crashing into a building and barely keeping hold of Mineta. “What was that?”

“Who cares!? We need to GET OUT OF HERE!!!”

“But what if someone’s trapped?” Denki asked. “They might need help!”

“I mean this with the most possible respect…but fuck them. We are not goated. We will die if we try to fight that thing.” Though his face and words were unserious and rather vulgar, his eyes conveyed his belief. He really thought that they didn’t stand a chance against the damn 0-pointer.

…To be fair, Denki didn’t either. But to run away and not even check…

“...Dude, that isn’t even remotely heroic,” he said with a disappointed look on his face.

Mineta flinched, but he didn’t back down. “What would we do, anyway? I mean, this is probably just a simulation anyway, and even if someone is pinned down, we might not be able to help them at all. If that happened, we’d have to live with the guilt of seeing their panic-stricken face while we got ourselves out of there.”

That was surprisingly sensible. From a logical standpoint, it was likely that this was just a way to let students know that they still had a lot to learn about being a hero while giving people a chance to show off their mastery over their quirks if they could. The 0-pointer was likely equipped with sensors to help it avoid students that couldn’t escape from it. That was the rational thought process. But if there was even a 1% chance that something had gone wrong…

“Can you really say with 100% certainty that this is all part of the test?” Kaminari’s face turned grim as he spoke. “I hate to say it, but UA has a lot of applicants each year and a lot of money to cover up any accidents. Can you really say that there’s no possibility that the 0-pointer won’t malfunction and get someone seriously hurt? Because if not, then I’m going to look for whoever just screamed. If you want to stay here, I won’t blame you. I doubt we can really do much if shit hits the fan…but I was raised by two competent people that taught me not to run away when I can do something.”

“...” Mineta’s face was angled down, so Kaminari couldn’t make out what his expression was. What could be made out were the small sounds of whimpering coming from him.

“...Dude, if it’s so scary, you can just run aw—”

“YOU SOUNDED SO COOL JUST THEN!!!” Mineta exclaimed as he looked up with a face full of tears. Before Denki could even react to that statement, the boy began running off in the direction they heard the voice in. “NOW LET’S GO SAVE THAT GIRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“We don’t know if it’s a girl, though!” Denki yelled back as he chased after his new friend.

Denki caught up to Mineta quite quickly due to the difference in their size and speed. Even so, they were both able to exit the alleyway in less than a minute. As soon as they did, they discovered the unfortunate source of that scream: a boy, his leg trapped in a pile of rubble that left him directly in the path of the 0-pointer.

“That ain’t no woman, but I hope you’re not gonna just leave him there?” Denki quipped as he ran past the shocked Mineta and toward the boy, who he couldn’t help but notice was a fellow blonde.

“Of course I’m not gonna leave him! I’m a future hero, even if I wanted to save a cute girl!” Mineta retorted as he ran behind him.

‘ He really needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut, ’ Denki thought with a small grimace as he slid to a stop in front of the trapped examinee. “Hey, are you conscious?”

“Yeah, just barely…” The boy gave a self-deprecating smile. “Pretty pathetic, huh, getting trapped in the testing facility?”

“Eh, that sounds more like an oversight on the staff’s part if they haven’t turned the robot off. Even that or it has a failsafe to get you out of harm’s way. Buuuuuuut I’m not gonna take that risk,” Denki told him as he and Mineta began picking up the smaller pieces of rubble and throwing them to the side. “I’m Kaminari, and this is Mineta.” Mineta gave a nod at the mention of his name. “What’s your name?”

“Monoma, the side character that steals the show…”

“...Well, it’s important to have goals in life.” Denki gave the boy a genuine smile, but he was a little confused by that epithet. Something to think about later, if they got in. “Uh, I’m noticing that the 0-pointer is getting closer. Not to stress you out, but your quirk wouldn’t happen to be mobility-related, would it? Cause carrying you would slow us down way too much for comfort.”

“Technically, I can have any quirk to fit the situation if I played my cards right.” It was a rather dramatic way of saying he could copy other quirks, but Denki understood it nonetheless. “Of the current quirks I have, the most relevant would be the power to phase through anything at the cost of losing all my sense and my ability to breathe. I copied it from a hero student a while back and could barely use it, even with his help. If I mistime it, I’ll go flying into the sky…but I might be able to knock out that robot from the inside. I only have about 40 seconds of it left, though.”

“...What about telekinesis?” Denki inquired as he stared at Mineta’s balls head.

“I did copy a quirk like that from a girl in the auditorium. What did you have in mind?”

After clearing the last of the rubble off of Monoma and helping him to his feet, Denki gave them a wide smile. “Well, I just had the very stupid idea of you launching me up with Mineta’s balls so I could overload that thing with my electricity. I’d go stupid right after, but since your balls are sticky, I won’t fall while coming back down!”

Monoma looked ecstatic while Mineta looked perturbed.

“Okay, so first, that plan sounds amazing. Second, never ever refer to my quirk as my balls ever again.”

“Got it. Now, let’s do this thing!”

The three of them wasted no time, with Mineta instantly taking off four of the balls on his head, which began floating out of his hand and into the air. They arranged themselves into a rectangle, with two paralleling each other high in the air and another two near the ground.

“Alright, I can’t aim as well without my hands, so I’ll keep them free for now,” Denki told them as he stepped up on the bottom two orbs, nearly falling off due to the weightlessness of them before getting his balance. “So I’ll start firing as soon as I get up there, and if I start falling back, you need to put the grapes in my hands, Monoma. There’s a chance I won’t dumb down, but don’t count on it. When I’m back down, you two need to get us out of the way in case that thing falls.”

“That all sounds good, but remember that I only have half a minute. You need to go all out from the start,” Monoma informed him, his smile still on his face. “But I’m sure you already knew that.”

“Course I know it. That’s what I was planning to do. Now send me up before I remember how terrifying heights arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Good luck.” Mineta gave Denki a thumbs up as he was sent plummeting into the sky, not that he could hear or see it.

As soon as Denki realized what was happening, he began charging up his quirk. He could feel the surge of power flowing through him, bubbling up and practically bursting through his skin. As soon as he noticed the feeling, he shot the lightning through his head and hands, aiming straight for the giant metal foe in front of him. He could aim well enough in a general direction, so he shouldn’t have needed his hands for what was likely a massive lightning rod, but Monoma made sure to keep Denki from getting too close. Whether that was a limit of the telekinesis or a precaution in case the 0-pointer had close-range defenses, Denki didn’t care. He enjoyed using his hands to aim manually, and he especially enjoyed the full surge of power flowing through him. All 1.62 million volts travelling from him and into the metal…it was a bit of a rush. It didn’t last long, but that just made it even better.

He hadn’t even realized that he’d reached his limit until he felt something hit his hands, barely registering it as Min-Min’s…booba? Balla? Somes-ting like that. He even noticed Blondsie and Bally looking at him. They looked weird! Oh, and now Minsy is pointing at the giant black thing in the sky. It was chasing them. They were playing tag!

“Okay, class A, class A…How the heck do you find things in this place!?”

Denki had gotten to the school a few minutes ago, at 8:15 to be exact, just to make sure he wasn’t late on his very first day of class. Having read the schedule many times beforehand, he knew that homeroom started at 8:25 and figured that 10 minutes was enough time to navigate the unfamiliar layout. Unfortunately for him, he was quite wrong…and the reason for that was: 

“This place is way too freaking big! How is anyone supposed to find anything here without a map!?”

Almost right after he said that, he heard a friendly voice he hadn’t heard in so long.

“Yo, Kaminari! You lost too, man!?”

“Tetsutetsu? Hey, you made it in!” Denki said as he gave the white-hairedboy a firm handshake. “Which class are you in?”

“I’m in 1A!”

“Me too! Nice to see a friendly face!”

“Yeah!” The metalhead flashed a bright smile. “Great to know I’m not the only one lost, either!”

“...” Denki’s smile became a bit strained as he let out a small laugh. “I don’t think being lost together is a good thing…especially in a school where we’re learning how to be superheroes.

“Eh, it’s our first day. No one’s gonna care!”

“...Eh, true. Probably doesn’t matter too much,” Denki remarked with a shrug.

Fortunately, they both happened to be right near the door to 1A, which they found within a minute of meeting up. They even had 3 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, their late arrival made them the targets of 17 scrutinizing gazes (and one disinterested glance from a boy with red-and-white hair).

“...” They both met their new classmates’ gazes for a brief moment, the two of them almost breaking beneath the piercing gazes. But steel didn’t bend easily, and lightning always shot out of an outlet. That is to say…

“HOWDY!”

“I’M KAMINARI!”

“AND I’M TETSUTETSU! NICE TO MEET YOU ALL!” 

They both gave an enthusiastic greeting while bowing. That they happened to say the same greeting at the same time was a major coincidence, but they wouldn’t regret it even if it wasn’t.

As they looked around, they noticed a few while a few people were smiling at their greeting, most of the other students just went back to their conversations. The duo, not caring about the poor reception to their introduction, simply shrugged it off and went to their seats toward the back of the classroom.

As they did, Denki noticed some familiar faces tracking them. Specifically, a boy with balls for a hairstyle and a blonde boy who looked…admittedly like a background character. He wouldn’t say that out loud, though, since the guy seemed really cool during the entrance exams.

“Glad to see you made it, Kamikaze!” Mineta remarked with a friendly smile.

Monoma just gave him a wave. “Good to see another familiar face. And you,” he said as he addressed Tetsutetsu. “I look forward to making friends with you this year.”

“Hey, so do I! Making friends is the best way to show your own chivalrous spirit to others!”

“...” Monoma blinked at that. “Well, I suppose that’s true enough. By all means, show us that chivalry as we strive into a bold new fu–”

“If you’re only here to make some friends, I’d suggest you ask to transfer to another course. Otherwise, you won’t last long here.”

Everyone turned to the front of the room where that voice had called out from. It appeared to be coming from a…disheveled man, to put it kindly. He had long, messy black hair, some unkempt stubble, and an ambitionless slouch that signified a lack of liveliness in his body. To put it less kindly, he looked like a vagabond that had wandered into the building somehow.

“Um, who are you…sir?”

Denki didn’t know who asked the question, but if the man’s sigh was anything to go by, then it must have annoyed him greatly.

“My name is Shota Aizawa. I’m your homeroom teacher, and we’ve wasted far too much time getting you all to shut up.” He pulled out a blue-and-white shirt from a sleeping bag(?) and showed it off to them. “You’ll find a stack of these under my desk here. Put one on and meet me outside. We’ll be running through a few tests today to see what I’m working with this year. Try to beat 10 minutes. I’ll be sorely disappointed if you aren’t out by then.”

The man–Aizawa–made his way to the door as he was speaking, not even sparing them a glance as he walked out when finishing what he had to say. Though they were confused, the students were too nervous to go against his orders, so they gradually made their way to the front desk to grab a uniform. As they did, Mineta took the opportunity to whisper to Kaminari.

“Hey, you think this guy is gonna have us fight to the death or something crazy like that?”

“What? No, why would they do that at UA?” Denki asked back.

Mineta shook his head. “That guy didn’t look like the most sane person, and we all just took his words at face value. He might have a hypnosis quirk that makes the real teachers not notice him. And, if he’s here illegally, then he’s probably gonna try and weed out the weaker students to recruit them for some hair-brained scheme to commit crimes!”

“That’s…not the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard, but it’s still pretty far-fetched.” Denki looked around, his voice still quiet. “Where are the other teachers, if this isn’t normal? I mean, they’d notice the class of students wandering around when they aren’t supposed to, right? Shouldn’t someone be here if that guy isn’t our actual teacher?”

“Eh, I think it’s a fifty-fifty chance. His quirk could be hella busted.”

“I mean…should we call someone? Livestream it on Harmony?”

Mineta shook his head. “No, we need to see how this plays out. If this is an actual villain, we need to test the waters and see how well we do. If we fail at his game, well, it’s twenty against one.”

“Okay, I genuinely don’t know what the hell you’re on about now. I’m gonna go along with it because I don’t think this guy is evil, but I’m blaming you if anything happens,” Denki informed him.

“Fair enough. Now, let’s hurry up! Everyone’s already ahead of us!” Mineta ran ahead of him–and the others–and raced into the changing room, which was located near the classroom. In response, Denki could only shake his head in exasperation.

Chapter Text

Nedzu took a sip of his tea as he always did before leaving his office. In 15 minutes, he was supposed to be giving the orientation speech to the first years. He would do that, of course, and he would certainly inspire them. After so many years, he had developed something of a sixth sense for what words and phrases resonated with certain people. It wasn’t exactly a science…but it was basically a science. Now, there was one thing he was curious about. Depending on whether or not Aizawa felt that his students were properly prepped for the training that would occur later on this week, he may or may not have them come into orientation.

Now, the principal of UA was not one to place bets regarding his staff (or his students for that matter), but he did enjoy wondering just how likely it was for class 1-A to be here. Considering the amount of students that had gotten in on Villian Points, Shouta would likely consider them too reliant on Quirks that hadn’t been properly trained. Ergo, he would take them outside to give them a little test to see which among them realized that fact. If they didn’t…well, then class A may have a few less students this year. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a complete expulsion like last year though. That was a lot of paperwork.

“Mm. Not to mention, a few of these kids are related to former Pros. That’s always been a bit of a hassle when we get on their bad side.”

This man was an honest-to-god demon. That was the only explanation they could think of for his cold, detached “rationalism” and disregard for societal conventions. Of this, Denki and Mineta were absolutely certain. Mr. Aizawa was a devil that wore the flesh of a human and somehow got a job as a teacher. Why else would he be so extreme?

“Now sensei, that’s hardly fair!” Monoma said as soon as talks of expulsion were brought up. “We all already passed the entrance exam. You can’t just expel us–certainly not on the very first day before we’ve learned anything!”

“Oh? I can’t? And why’s that? Because unless I’m mistaken, I’m the teacher and have been one for several years,” Aizawa remarked in an unimpressed tone. “Now, if you have some evidence to disprove that claim, then by all means tell it to me now. Until then, we’ll be doing things my way. And like I said a minute ago, we at UA aren’t bound by tradition and can run our classes however we see fit.” He gave the copycat a menacing smile. “Since you all passed the entrance exam, I’m certain you’ll exceed my expectations. And if you can’t, well, you already know the penalty.”

…Seriously, what is with this guy!? Denki thought as he and Mineta shared a glance at Monoma. I mean, sure, Mr. Aizawa made a semi-good point just now. We did all pass the entrance exam, but still!

In the end, though, he couldn’t put up much of an argument. Monoma had already said everything any of them could have, save for those that got in on the elusive recommendation exams. Even then, the teacher might just argue that everyone was equal and that they all had to face the same tests regardless.

“...Well, guess we really don’t have a choice here,” he muttered to himself. “We have to go Plus Ultra straight at the start.” He silently thanked whatever deity was looking out for him that his grandparents knew what they were doing. There was no way in hell he was coming in last place after their hellish training. This prick was nothing he couldn’t handle.

…Okay, as he looked around at his other classmates, he realized that he may have a bit of competition. Most of them looked fairly normal–in the sense that they had no obvious mutations or Quirks at first glance, implying they were Emitter or Transformation-types like himself. That said, there were a few people with more obvious Quirks. A tall guy with multiple arms, a guy with a bird head, a pink girl with horns, another girl with much bigger horns, and a giant beast-looking man. Oh, and whatever Mineta qualified as with his sticky balls. Was that a Mutation or Emitter Quirk? Denki didn’t know, but he didn’t really care, either. What mattered was that those with Mutation-Quirks tended to have a physical advantage over their peers. It wasn’t fair, not to the peers nor to the people who might get ostracized for it, but that was how it was.

That said, it wouldn’t matter much in the long run. So long as there wasn’t much of a difference in their starting positions, Denki could catch up later on down the line…assuming he didn’t get kicked out of the race right now.

And hey, if he could help a few people along the way, then that was fine with him.

The first race was simple: the 50-meter dash. Denki raced against the pink-skinned girl with horns. She was fast, completing the run in 5 seconds. Unfortunately for her, Denki completed it in 4.5 seconds. And unfortunately for him, there was a guy with exhaust ports in his legs that completed the thing in just over 3 seconds, but that was fine.

The next thing they did was the grip strength test, for which Denki got a score of nearly 90kg. Again, though, the guy with multiple arms and the beast-like man scored much higher than he did–or anyone else for that matter. 

Next was the standing long jump, where Denki landed within the sandbox. That was actually dominated by a girl that galloped like a horse and another that leapt like a frog. Following that was the side-to-side jumps, which Mineta and Monoma did extremely well in. Then there was the ball throw that Bakugo demonstrated for them before this all started. That was when something weird happened.

It had started out normally enough. Through the random order that they all had, Denki was the last person to throw the ball. For this test, he figured he would probably get a good score. He had a lot of muscle in his arms from both his workouts with Gramps and his time cleaning that beach. Of course, he hadn’t exactly been able to use his Quirk so far, since electricity wasn’t exactly useful for physical assessments. Thus, before he threw it, he made two decisions: The first was to shoot his Quirk out after throwing the ball to try and get it to land farther away, though he didn’t have much faith in that plan. The second was to pray. Not to a deity, no, but to the one person that he knew would reassure him, even if she wasn’t with him right now.

“Hurry it up, Kaminari. We don’t have all day here,” Aizawa complained.

‘ Granny, I know you can’t hear this, but please…help me show this asshole of a teacher just how amazing I am! ’

He wound up his arm and prepared to throw, and that was when it happened.

Something started flowing within him. It felt like his normal electricity, but it also felt different at the same time. It felt like a current of power striking inside his body, both helping and hurting it at the same time. And as he started to move his arm, it began concentrating in one spot: his forearm. It hurt, and it felt great.

“HAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINAL SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He yelled out from the depths of his soul and threw that ball with more than all of his might. And it soared like a damn bird!

“Holy crap!” Tetsutetsu and some other, redheaded guy who had displayed a similar Quirk to him exclaimed in unison.

“GODDAMN!” Mineta screamed.

“Woah…” was all Monoma said, too surprised to say anything more. That wasn’t because he was shocked by Kaminari’s power, though–not entirely. No, he was stunned because he saw Kaminari’s arm.

“AGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! IT HURTS!!! DAMMIT IT HURTS SO GOOD!!!!”

“Okay, you’re high on adrenaline right now!” Aizawa said as he grabbed Kaminari who was clutching his right hand in pain and brought him over to the side of the building. “Stay here until your arm stops hurting. If it doesn’t, then go see the nurse.” He turned back to the class. “Alright, that’s why we test our limits: so that this kind of thing happens in training and not on the field where your life might be at stake. Let’s get back to it!”

The rest of the tests weren't very eventful. At least, Denki thought they weren't. Then again, that could have been because he was still in pain. All he really remembered was the seated toe-touching, but he was sure there was more than just that. He just couldn't for the life of him recall how it went, which probably meant he did worse on them then he should have.

“Okay, now that we're all done, I'll be showing you your scores all at once rather than have you see them individually. Here.” He clicked a button on his monitor, which displayed a hologram of all students ranked 1 to 20. At the very top was a girl named Yaoyorozu, followed by…Endeavor? No, wait, it was just the last name they shared. Must have been a relative then. Monoma was third, followed by a Bakugo and a Shishida, then Denki in 6th place. That was…honestly a bit better than he expected. He figured he'd be closer to the middle, especially with a hurt arm. It was a nice surprise.

“N-no…”

He heard a voice, no, a whisper from the side. It was a short girl, barely taller than Mineta, who was standing right next to her and giving her a consolidary pat on the back.

“Now, I’m sure you’re all expecting me to expel the last person, but after seeing how you all performed, I’ve changed my mind.” He gave them a deranged smile. “No one’s getting kicked out today. You’re all still in the Hero course!”

The girl that was assumedly in last place went from inconsolable to elated in the span of an instant. She even began silently crying tears of joy. On the flipside, a tall girl with black hair in a ponytail looked distraught.

“Y-You mean you would have expelled someone if they didn’t impress you? It wasn’t just a lie to get us to perform better?” she whispered. Denki felt a bit bad for her. She was probably someone who didn’t have a lot of confidence in herself if this was shaking her.

“I would have, yes. Be glad that I didn’t, but keep the fear engraved in your hearts. It will serve you well to remember that you can’t control everything, so you need to keep a firm grasp on anything you can touch.” He began to walk away from them all, not even sparing them a glance as he kept on talking. “You can get your syllabus back in the classroom. See you all tomorrow.”

He didn’t say anything more, nor did he even wave goodbye. Despite how rude that seemed, Denki decided to think that their teacher was just socially awkward and antisocial rather than being a total ass. Alas, Monoma didn’t seem inclined to agree with that assessment.

“What a prick. I hope he isn’t someone we’ll be spending a lot of time with throughout the year. And I hope we didn’t miss anything too important at orientation, either,” he commented with a  scowl.

…Okay, that orientation bit was completely fair. They might actually have missed something crucial. Hopefully not, though, since they wouldn’t really know what to ask for without knowing that they missed it in the first place.

“Eh, I don’t think that was too bad. Aside from the whole lying about expulsion thing,” Denki said, sparing a side-eye to the girl that Mineta was still comforting. Poor girl was likely flip-flopping between joy and adrenaline like he was earlier. Speaking of…

“By the by,” Monoma said as they all started making their way back to the classroom, “what happened to your Quirk back there? I’m pretty sure that would have been more useful in the entrance exam than short-circuiting your brain, especially if you could apply it to your legs.”

“Actually…I’m not sure what happened back there,” Denki admitted with a sheepish smile. “My Quirk’s never done that before. It’s always been a ranged attack that never affected my body aside from temporarily making me an idiot. Dunno when it changed.”

He really didn’t. Nothing had happened lately that he could remember that might have changed his Quirk like that. The only thing that even remotely might have done anything was when he ate some weird takoyaki that Gramps had come to the door the other day in a gift basket. He almost choked on a strange-feeling piece of octopus and felt a bit strange about an hour or two afterward, but that was it.

“Huh. Well, Quirks are weird sometimes. I don’t even know how mine came about when neither of my parents have a copy Quirk,” Monoma admitted with a shrug. “It’s probably nothing if it didn’t hurt you too badly. Still, wanna go get some ice cream to feel better?”

“Oh, sure! We should invite Mineta and that girl, too. She was looking pretty down.”

“Good call.” The lighter blond turned to the smaller duo. “Hey, you two! Wanna get some ice cream at McRonald’s?”

“Oh, heck yeah!” Mineta exclaimed before turning back to the girl. “Whaddya say, Komori-chan?”

“Er, sure. I could go for some ice cream,” she said back in a shy tone of voice.

“Alright!” Mineta grasped her hand and guided her over to the blond boys. He then introduced his new friend. “Guys, this is Komori-chan! Komori-chan, these are Kaminari and Monoma!”

“Look at you, making a new friend,” Monoma commented. He frowned suddenly. “Oh, actually…Kaminari, do you need to see the nurse before we go?”

He considered it for a moment, then shrugged. “Nah, my arm’s feeling more or less fine. And besides, what’s a nurse gonna do aside from putting some ice on it? I have ice at home!”

Monoma blinked. “If you’re sure. Let’s go then. McRonald’s tends to get busy after schools let out for the day. If we hurry, we can avoid the rush.”

“Yep. Let’s get going!”

“Here you go-two buckets of chicken McRings and a large side of McFries. Enjoy”

“Thank you,” Monoma said as he took the tray and walked back to the table that the other three were sitting at. “Here we are, friends. Now, are we all sure we don’t want milkshakes? They’re really~good.”

Komori-chan just shook her head, Mineta replied with a “No,” and Denki pondered the question.

“Actually, my arm still stings a bit. I’ll take a Choco-McFlurRon, please,” Denki replied.

Monoma nodded. “Okay. I’ll be right back,” he said as he went back to the electrical kiosk to put in the order.

As Neito walked away, Mineta addressed the other blond. “So, what was up with your Quirk earlier? Did you use it to supercharge your muscles or something?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Kaminari muttered a quick “Thanks” as Monoma returned with his dessert. “My Quirk’s never done anything like that, but I’m thinking that might’ve misfired because of the stress of the situation. I mean, I didn’t really feel stressed during the whole thing, but sometimes you can’t really tell.”

“Mm. Or maybe,” Monoma said as he took a McRing, “you accidentally discovered a sub-power of your Quirk that you didn’t know you had.” He took a bite of the ring and swallowed before continuing. “I’ve discovered something like that occasionally, where I’ll copy a Quirk and use it in a specific way that shows off an ability the original user doesn’t know about. It’s usually because people use their Quirks in such a way that they think they’ve discovered all of it when they’ve really overlooked one part of it.”

The boys all nodded in agreement as they decided that such a conclusion was reasonable. As they did, the quiet Komori spoke up.

“U-Um, if your arm is still hurting, I can grow some reishi mushrooms for you to eat. They help with sleep and stress.”

“Eh?” Denki blinked. “Seriously? You’d just do that at the drop of a hat? Isn’t that, like, illegal?”

“Well actually,” Monoma interjected, “it isn’t fully illegal to give out objects made by Quirks as long as you don’t profit off of it. Food follows the same rule.”

“Really? So, hypothetically, I could ask that hottie Yaoyorozu to make me a copy of Midnight’s swimsuit calendar, and it would be totally legal!?” Mineta exclaimed, drawing attention to their table.

“...Legal, yes. Appropriate? Probably not,” Monoma answered with a grimace as he glanced around at the other patrons. “And perhaps we ought to talk more quietly.”

Mineta didn’t look the slightest bit ashamed, but he lowered his voice to a whisper nonetheless. “Okay. Is this better?”

“...Yes, it is.”

“...So! Komori-chan! The three of us met on the day of the entrance exam, but we didn’t get a chance to meet you and we don’t really know much about you. What kinda things do you like?” In an effort to change the conversation, Denki shifted the spotlight to the one girl of the group. Unfortunately, based on the uneasy look on her face, she wasn’t very sociable, and he might have just forced her into an uncomfortable situation. “Uh, you don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want to–”

“--N-no, I’ll say it! I’m a closet Hero otaku!” The poor girl was blushing furiously, but she said it with such confidence that Denki wanted to applaud her. Mineta was looking at her in admiration while Monoma just gave her what seemed to be a sympathetic smile.

“Hm, I was an otaku, too, when I was younger.” The original copycat grimaced a bit. “Unfortunately, I ran out of money to support my collections, so I had to give up the hobby. I never gave up any of my merchandise, though!”

“Really? Well, who knew we had so many otakus here?” Denki said. “I would’ve been one, but my grandma said that collectibles were a waste of time, so I only buy one every so often. And I know for sure that Mineta’s got a collection of erotic figurines, don’t you?”

“Hm? Of course I do. What else would I have?”

Denki thought that it would be good for his mental health not to answer that. But seriously, how could the perv say that with such a straight face?

Well, at the very least, Mineta seemed like a pretty honest guy. That was something to be proud of.

…Wasn’t it?

“Granny, gramps, I’m home!” Denki announced as he closed the door behind him.

“Welcome back, young Kaminari! How was your first day?”

“Oh, it was pretty scary at first, but I actually–Wait, All Might!? Why are you here!?” Denki exclaimed as he recognized that the voice that spoke to him was not either of his grandparents, but rather, the weakened form of the number 1 Pro Hero. In his living room. Sipping tea with his actual guardians.

The blond boy looked to his grandparents for an explanation, but gramps wasn’t paying attention to him while granny just looked annoyed at the whole scenario.

“Well, I was curious about how your first day of school went…and I wanted to ask Saitama about how to keep myself in shape now that I won’t be able to rely on One For All as much.”

That…made a surprising amount of sense. Gramps wasn’t the best when it came to instructing someone in general, Denki himself being an exception due to his familiarity with the man’s methods, but his workouts worked in a pinch. And if he could match the top Pro Hero, then he could definitely help him get into better shape…assuming that All Might’s body could handle it. He usually coughed up blood, so…Honestly, anything could happen. All Might could get stronger, or he could end up breaking his body even further.

Eh, best to just hope for the best and forget about that.

He took a seat by the gaunt man as Granny moved a cup from the kitchen, filled it with tea, and passed it to him. “Well, it’s important to have something to do after a major life change, so I’m glad you’re looking into exercising, All Might.” He meant it, too. A small part of him feared that the Hero would, for lack of a better term, fall off after he passed on his Quirk. He took a sip of his tea. “Mm. Y’know, I used to hate tea with a passion as a kid. Thought it was too boring. Now, though, I like having a cup after a stressful day at school. We didn’t really do anything mentally taxing, but it was pretty hard hitting right off the bat.”

“Oh? What’d’ya do?” Gramps asked him.

“If I recall, class 1A is taught by Aizawa…meaning that you did the Quirk Assessment Test, right?” All Might interjected.

Denki nodded. “Yeah, he made us do all those physical assessment tests we did back in middle school, only we got to use our Quirks for it. I got 6th place out of the 20 of us, which would be fine and all, but he said that he would expel whoever got last place. It was a lie, thank God, but it was still a sucky thing to do. Even hurt my arm using my Quirk during the last part-somehow. Only good thing I got out of it is that I befriended the girl who got last place. She, Mineta, Monoma, and I went to McRonald’s after for a late lunch.”

“You hurt your arm? How is it now?” Granny inquired.

“Eh, s’fine now. Hurt like hell earlier, though, and I still don’t quite know what I did wrong. I mean, I used my Quirk just like normal, only difference was that I wanted to throw that stupid ball farther than I’ve ever thrown anything before to see what I could do.”

“Hm. That sounds like when I activated One For All for the first time,” All Might mentioned, causing Denki to laugh.

“Oh, really? How cool! Does that mean I already know how to use the Quirk when I get it?”

All Might seemed confused. “What do you mean, ‘when you get it?’ You should already have it. Didn’t you eat the takoyaki I made you?”

“Eh?” Denki blinked. Then he blinked again. And again. And then he realized what All Might was talking about. “Wait, that takoyaki was from you? I thought it was from a neighbor.”

All Might waved his hand. “No, no. That was me. I was going to just have you swallow my hair to give you my DNA, but I figured it would be better to make it into something actually edible to make it more palatable. Didn’t you read the note I attached to the gift bag?”

Neither of them noticed that the tea cups and kettle were starting to shake as Denki answered. 

“No. There was no note attached. Wait…” Denki suddenly thought of something. “So that weird takoyaki was actually your hair…and that feeling in my stomach was probably One For All adapting to my body…So does that mean…I ACCIDENTALLY USED IT FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY ALL BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T TELL ME I HAD IT!??? ARE YOU INSANE!???????????”

All Might scooted back, only to be stopped by the end of the rather small chair he was sitting on. “Er, I’m sure I wrote you a note telling you to try it out against your grandfather…Pretty sure, at least.”

Denki was about to retort, but then he finally noticed that the coffee table was shaking. All Might noticed it, too, because his eyes went wide at the sight of Granny floating above the both of them. Her eyes were only locked on one of them, though.

“So what you’re saying is,” she began in a low tone, “you baked your hair into a food to give away, which could have easily been stolen by anyone with a telekinetic Quirk just to be a jackass, meaning that the most powerful Quirk in the world could have been transferred to a common thief without any of us knowing…”

All Might blanched, but Tornado wasn’t done with him just yet.

“...And on top of that, you forgot to leave a note and didn’t even bother checking up on Denki after the fact to see how he was doing, leaving him completely oblivious to having the Quirk at all.”

It shouldn’t have been possible, but All Might practically contorted into himself to keep his body steady as the psychic tsunami started in the living room.

“And to top it all off, because you didn’t tell us anything, Denki ended up hurting himself using YOUR GODDAMN QUIRK!!!” she screeched as the whole house shook with her fury. It was so bad that the teacups flew off the table and shattered against the wall, briefly gathering the family’s attention.

All Might used that small window to activate his power and rush out of the door faster than any of them–save for Saitama–could blink. He didn’t forget to close the door behind him, though. And Tatsumaki just scowled at where he had been before lifting the porcelain shards up and shooting them into the nearby trash can.

The next day was a stressful one for the Symbol of Peace. He was…not hiding, per se, but more so trying to avoid a certain blond boy in his first year at the school. This was, of course, because he had inadvertently tricked the boy and gotten him hurt because of it and was worried that he might do so again--AND NOT BECAUSE HE WAS SCARED OF THAT BOY OR ANYONE WHO WAS RELATED TO HIM! Anyone who said otherwise was a filthy liar!

Alas, good things couldn’t last, and he inevitably had to go to class A to teach his first Fundamentals of Heroics lesson. That was supposed to be an exciting moment, but now, all he felt was a sense of dread.

…Just like when Gran Torino was here, actually. Guess old people just have that effect on him.

Anyway, enough delaying the inevitable. It was time to face the music…and hope that young Kaminari was mature enough to not let his certain wrath disrupt the lesson.

He made his way to the door to the classroom. He could hear voices talking inside, barely making out that they were talking about who was going to be teaching them. Well, time to make an entrance.

He took a deep breath to steady himself.

“ ...GOOD MORNING, STUDENTS!! ” He announced as he threw the door open and greeted them with his trademark smile. “ I AM HERE, GREETING YOU ALL LIKE A REGULAR TEACHER!!! ”

As the kids say, his introduction was bitchin’. And, as he was pretty sure they would say, his aversion to looking at a certain part of the room as he made his way to the front podium was definitely sus. He could only hope that he was quick enough to not draw attention to his slightly stilted movements.

He heard them commenting on his appearance, both in a literal sense and from how impressed they were at his presence here. 

“Wow, it’s All Might!”

“He’s actually here!”

“Look! It’s his retro outfit! So cool!”

“Finally! A real Hero!”

All Might cleared his throat to get their attention. “ Alright, students! Today, you shall be putting your mettle to the test in…! ” He grabbed the board underneath the podium and whipped it out faster than they could blink. It said…” BATTLE TRIALS!!! ”

A chorus of cheers erupted in the class, mostly from a spiky-haired blond boy who inadvertently let off his Quirk in excitement (or so All Might hoped).

This was exactly the response All Might expected, so he held up a hand to get them to quiet down.

“ Now then, ” he began to explain, “ I’m sure you are all very excited to get some actual training in today, but I have one more thing to tell you: In addition to acting like a true Hero, you also need to look the part to gain the appeal of the masses! And to that end, your costumes have all been prepared for you for today’s exercise. ” He snapped his fingers, and sections of the walls opened up to reveal twenty hidden compartments, each one with their own briefcase inside. “ You’ll find the costumes you asked for in the briefcase with your seat number on it. Meet me at Ground Beta in…let’s say, 15 minutes. Do try and be on time! ”

All Might vanished instantly, not sticking around for any questions. Denki idly wondered if he was trying to save on time in his buff form before realizing that All Might might be avoiding him. He was pretty stupid, but even he could tell that All Might purposely hadn’t looked at him when he entered the room. Poor guy probably thought Denki was still mad at him for what happened the day before. Honestly, maybe he should have been…but Granny was angry enough for the three of them, honestly, and Denki didn’t care much for getting mad at honest mistakes.

Eh, whatever. Not like it was a big deal anyway. He didn’t really care, and he doubted All Might was seriously scared of someone named “Tornado” (not that he’d ever tell Granny that her name was a bit basic). For now, though, he needed to get his costume on. And holy crap, was that an exciting thought! His first costume! Obviously, he’d need to refine it at some point–nobody got it right on their first try–but still! How cool was this!?

Chapter Text

Kaminari wasn’t really sure what he expected from UA, but a standard changing room wasn’t exactly what he expected. Honestly, it was kind of a letdown. They were all just there, with lockers and two benches to sit on. Hell, two of them would take up one bench, and there were over ten guys!

What was not a letdown was seeing his new costume in all of its glory! That baby was quite stunning, pardon the pun. It was an insulated black bodysuit with a dope-ass black trench coat that featured lightning bolts all around it. Inside the pockets were metallic mini-spears that he could throw out to help aim his quirk better in a general direction. Then there was the amber-colored visor that was supposed to feature a distress signal on the Hero Network when activated.

In short, it was both badass and functional, which was the best type of attire to have.

In just a few minutes, he was on the battlefield (which was just a fake city) with half of his class. In just a few more minutes, the other half joined them.

“ Alright, students! ” All Might had a wide smile on his face. “ You all look really dashing in your hero costumes! I’m not one to say that heroics is all about the aesthetic, but I have to say, you all look the part! ”  

The students all glowed at his praise, but that wasn’t the only thing they were going to enjoy today.

“ Now then, let’s get on to business. For today’s exercise, you’ll be divided into heroes and villains ”

Now that got them all riled up. They cheered in excitement before All Might could continue, which the man seemed a bit unnerved by.

“ Er, well, your excitement is very contagious, but please wait until I actually tell you how things are going to happen before you celebrate. Premature festivities give the enemy a chance to strike back, you know. ” He was actually just talking out of his ass at that moment, but his advice was grounded in reality even if he said it in a strange way. “ Now, I’m sure you are all wondering how this will work, so allow me to explain: You will all be paired up into teams of two and be tasked with engaging with another team in one of these buildings. One group will play the part of the villains seeking to detonate a bomb in the city while the other will play the part of heroes trying to stop them. Teams will be randomized, and excessive force will be pen–Er, yes, young Iida? ”

“Sir!” A boy named Iida, who was dressed like a mix between a cyborg and a knight, was raising his hand stiffly in the air. “Why will the teams be randomized? Given that we do not yet know much about our classmates' abilities, won’t that just cause confusion? Wouldn’t it be better to go off what little information we do know when coming up with teams?”

It was a reasonable concern, to be sure, but All Might would most definitely have a response to such a query.

“ Er, well…you see… ”

…No, apparently, he would not. At this rate, someone like Bang would need to come back from the dead to teach these poor kids! (Not that Bang could do much, seeing as how he had died years and years ago. If only there was some way of reviving the dead with their full personalities and abilities intact. If a doctor had researched something like that instead of, say, creating uber-zombies, he or she could have probably bankrolled an entire secret criminal empire instead of, oh, I don’t know, stealing corpses. Shame that such a lucrative business opportunity would never pan out.) 

All Might shook his head and spoke with a more confident voice. “ The fact of the matter is that you won’t always get a chance to pick who you work with. Sometimes…no. In reality, a lot of situations will be too delicate for you to have the opportunity to choose who you get to work with. When it comes to taking down a rampaging villain with the power to destroy a building in one shot or a large group of people who have a wide array of complimentary abilities, you can’t just rely on yourself or your sidekicks to get the job done. You need to learn how to cooperate with people who you don’t know so well now so that you know how to coordinate your attacks and strategies with other pros in the future. Do you understand? ”

The students nodded, and Denki smiled to himself. That was more like it. This was the type of person All Might needed to be around Granny (and maybe Gramps too, but he was a lot more laid back). If he could just act this confident more often, then Denki would also be a lot more assured of his own success.

All Might grinned at them. “ Good! Now, to help with the randomness of this exercise, you’ll be drawing lots! ” Out of nowhere, he produced a medium-sized box with an opening on the top of it. “ In here are 20 lots, divided into 10 pairs that have the same letter on them! Form a line and take one! ” He sat the box down on a table that definitely wasn’t there a moment ago and seemed to bend time and space to appear beside it. He was obviously just moving too fast for them to see, but that didn’t explain the whole “creating things out of thin air” thing he just did. 

Or…was someone else doing that? Clearly it couldn’t have been All Might that created the box and the table, because his quirk was only super-strength (and a few more, but he doesn’t get them because he isn’t good enough), so he couldn’t be the one who did this. None of the students seemed bothered by this fact, though. Well, none of them except for Denki, who looked around once to see that no one else cared for this abnormality and wisely decided not to say anything. 

He did silently vow to look into this matter and find out who or what was responsible for this, even if he had to do it alone.

(Elsewhere, a chimera sneezed, noting the fact that All Might’s successor was close to discovering his secret. He looked down at a very large control board, one that operated all of the secret openings in both the school and the rest of the campus–and which had just been used to shoot up a box and a table faster than the students could perceive. At this rate, he might have to…”deal with” this boy. Or he could take him under his wing. Whichever was funnier.)

It took less than 5 minutes for all of them to get their letters and find their partners. For Kaminari, his partner was Monoma, which he was excited about. Their opponents were Todoroki and someone named Bakugo, which he was less excited about for one reason: The simple fact of the matter was that Todoroki was a famous name, one that belonged to Endeavor, the hero that ranked just below All Might on the official charts (and the man Denki looked up to second only to All Might). Even if he didn’t know anything about the man personally, everyone in Japan knew what his quirk was. And Denki was not exactly roaring to go at it with a fire user, especially in a closed environment. Fire and limited oxygen didn’t exactly mix well, you see.

And that wasn’t even taking into account whatever Bakugo’s quirk was. Seriously, why couldn’t he get put up against people made of metal or water!? Electric was super effective!

(Actually, it wasn’t super effective against steel types, but Denki couldn’t possibly be expected to remember every type matchup from Pocket Pals , could he?)

“Hey, take a breath.” Monoma put a hand on Denki’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “I know you’re scared, going against a famous person like a Todoroki, but you’re overestimating him far too much. Unless Endeavor is the type of person to encourage vigilantism or reckless endangerment of children, there’s no way that he could actually have any practical experience fighting other people. He’s just as unprepared for this as you and I are.”

“Y-yeah, you’re right…” Denki muttered, though his heart wasn’t fully in it as they made their way to the observation room in an adjacent building. Even with that knowledge, it didn’t sit right hurting Endeavor’s kid.

Monoma interpreted this as Kaminari still being nervous about a recommended student, so he smirked. “And besides…have you listened to Bakugo for more than 5 seconds? I don’t even know him, and I can already say with certainty that he’s not the type to get along well with others. He’ll abandon any plan they make the second he thinks it infringes on his own spotlight.” He looked away, his face slightly pained. “Once upon a time, I might have been the same way.”

“Oh, uh…I mean, you’re probably right. Bakugo seems like a hothead, so we can probably take him down with a well-laid trap. And once he’s out, Todoroki will be easier to deal with. Um, do you know any good quirks to use here? I’d suggest water, but I don’t remember anyone with that quirk here.”

Monoma shook his head. “As a general rule, I try to keep track of all the powers my classmates have. Comes in handy for when we had those quirk growth tests back in middle school, you know? And because of that, I have to point out two things. First, we have a shockingly small number of elemental quirks in this class. If we exclude those that are only partially related to elements, like Tokoyami, Tetsutetsu, and Hagakure, we really only have yourself, Bakugo, Todoroki, and maybe me on a technicality. That said, there’s something I think you’re missing here.”

“Huh?” Denki blinked. “What would that be?”

“Simple. You assume that because Todoroki is related to Endeavor that he must have pyrokinesis, right?” Monoma got a hesitant nod in response and continued. “And yet, during our assessment yesterday, I saw him using ice . Not fire. Though interestingly, it seemed to only come off of a specific side of his body. Which means…either he can only use ice, or he can possibly use both ice and fire but doesn’t for some reason.”

“Holy crap! You really noticed all of that?”

“But of course!” Monoma shrugged his shoulders. “I’m quite the know-it-all when it comes to dissecting quirks. Seeing as how my own power relies on mimicking the capabilities of others, it would only make sense that I be as observant as I can be, no?”

“Hell yeah! You the man, Monoma! We’ll totally win this thing with your leadership!” Denki pumped his fist into the air in celebration. Denki was far too blinded by his idolisation of Endeavor to pick up on something as simple as Todoroki having an ice quirk, but Monoma had no such flaws! Monoma was a freaking one-man army! Monoma was the second coming of Sun Tzu! With Monoma’s help, Denki would rise up to the top in no time! He would have an army of sidekicks to aid him when he went pro! He would–

A hand tapping his shoulder knocked him out of FantasyLand.

“Eh? What’s going on? Where am I?” Denki whipped his head back and forth, trying to place where he was right now.

“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.” A familiar voice rang out, bringing Denki back to the present moment properly. “If you keep getting blinded by my radiance, you’ll never see where you’re going. Like right now, we’re supposed to be following everyone else to the Observatory Room and watching Mineta and Komori fight Iida and Yaoyorozu. If you want to get some ideas for a strategy in our match, you might want to watch them closely.”

“Uh, right!” Denki didn’t bother trying to cover up the fact that he had gotten distracted. There would be no point when Monoma had already called him out on it. Instead, he was thankful that no one else had seen him.

The control room was quite sleek. It was dark and spacious with a giant screen and console located on the far wall that drew your eye to it. The screen was divided into various camera angles that covered the whole building. Toward the top, Mineta and Komori-chan were talking to each other. The screen didn’t display sound, but it was obvious that they were strategizing. Iida and Yaoyorozu hadn’t entered yet because the villain teams were supposed to have time to themselves to prepare. It was to emulate how real villains would often have a plan that the heroes had to circumvent when an actual crime took place.

“What do you think they’ll come up with?” Denki whispered to Monoma. “Mineta and Komori-chan, I mean. Iida’s quirk is obvious enough to guess…and if I remember right, Yaoyorozu’s is…alchemy-related?”

“Creation, I think, although there isn’t really a difference. She can create things–presumably from something inside her body. I’ve met a small handful of people like that in my one year abroad.”

“Oh, you went abroad? Where to?”

“...Europe.”

Denki nodded. “Cool. Did you learn English?”

“A little, but I can read it better than I can speak it. It wasn’t even a full year there, though. We moved to and back from Britain for my mother’s business, so I don’t really consider it living abroad, but most people do for some reason.” Monoma gave a shrug. “Anyway, the point is that generating something from your body is quite common over there. I had three classmates that could make stuff like chairs and desks from their blood. I imagine her quirk is similar. She popped out a scooter from her stomach yesterday, I think. And considering she didn’t seem even slightly winded…”

“...She probably has a lot of experience with her quirk,” Denki finished with a frown. Mineta and Komori had unique and versatile quirks, don’t get him wrong. But Yaoyorozu could probably make a radar to listen for any ambushes they try to use, and Iida could just bust the door down and search the entire building before they can do anything. Against two quirks with such insanely high mobility like these, and with such obviously well-off users who would have had a level of training that not even Denki could afford…nothing short of a complete tactical miracle would be able to help them.

Then again… perhaps that was a bit of a pessimistic reaction. It wasn’t accurate to say that they were at a complete disadvantage. In fact, it was so obvious that Mineta seemed to already realize it. He was running around the floor they were on and throwing his balls all over the ground. It would definitely limit the hero team’s mobility, and Iida’s quirk would be rendered useless.

(Unless Yaoyorozu could somehow get rid of them, that was.)

But even still…”What’s Komori gonna do? From what I remember about her quirk, it doesn’t really distinguish between friend and for. Then again, neither does Mineta’s, I guess.” Denki looked on worriedly (or as worried as he could be for his friends during a training exercise).

It wasn’t Monoma that reassured him, though. It was Tetsutetsu, who had come up beside them as they were watching the pre-game on the screen, and who Denki had completely forgotten about during the chaos of yesterday’s test.

“Yo! You talking about the little guy and Princess Toadstool?” His voice was quieter than it normally was, but it was a bit of a stretch to call it a whisper. “I think they’re totally gonna win this round, you know?”

Both blonds blinked in surprise. “You do? Don’t you think that the hero team has the advantage? They’re rich and have amazing quirks. That’s a recipe for success if I’ve ever seen one.”

“Nah, that’s not true.” He waved Denki’s concerns away. “See, the rich are prepared in theory, but they ain’t never gotten their hands dirty!” he announced with a grin. “But people like Toadstool and…I’m blanking on his name, so I’ll just call him baller. Toadstool and Baller ain’t rich, so they won’t get thrown off too much when their plans go haywire! They know how to improvise!”

…How the hell did Tetsutetsu logic that out? It made sense, sure, but he didn’t seem like the type of person to make that connection.

“ I hate to interrupt your conversation, students. ” All Might’s magnanimous voice stole their attention. “ As much as I enjoy listening to you all debate on who you think has a better chance of winning this match, we do need to actually start now. But before we do, I’ll give you one word of advice. ” He frowned for a brief moment before regaining his smile. “ Well, actually more than one, but you get the idea. Most of you seem to be under the impression that the hero team’s wealth will either aid or hinder them in this match. While I understand where both sides are coming from, please keep in mind that none of you have any actual experience in the field. You may have more or less training than other students, but you aren’t used to the chaos of a real battle. Hopefully what you see and experience today will only open your minds to this truth, but accidents can occur even in a controlled environment such as this one. Don’t assume anything is over until I say it’s over. ”

All Might was right. In the end, a battle wasn’t over until it was over. Granny and Gramps–well, Granny had drilled that into his head several times over the years. It had just gotten buried under all the other stuff he was thinking until now. 

Hopefully he wouldn’t forget something so simple again. Even he couldn’t be that unaware.

“Okay, part 1 is complete. How are things on your end, Komori-chan?” Mineta asked over the radio as he made his way back to the room containing the explosive. Already, the entirety of the floor they were on was covered in adhesive orbs, even the walls and some parts of the ceiling. To keep things easy for his partner, he had made sure to space the balls out to allow for her to slip through them while still making it difficult for someone of a higher or wider stature to move freely. In this case, it worked to nullify that Iida guy’s quirk.

Of course, that still left that hottie Yaoyorozu.

“ Things are all good here! They won’t even realize that they’re in truffle until it’s too late! ” She cackled maniacally on the other side of the radio, making Mineta wince a bit. He had been briefed on what was going to happen to Yaoyorozu (and Iida if he wasn’t immobilized). It would get them the win, no doubt about it…but it wasn’t exactly something he approved of.

“Well, okay…Just be careful not to cause any permanent damage.”

“ ... ” There was silence on the other end, which worried Mineta. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to say anything, because at that very moment when he entered the room with the explosive–

“ AND BEGIN!!!!!!! ”

Komori still wasn’t back yet, which meant she could get intercepted by the hero team. If that happened, they would still have to navigate through his minefield, but Yaoyorozu might be able to make something that captured her prematurely.

Well, either way, he had faith in his partner. He’d wait here as a last resort in case anyone got past their defenses.

He couldn’t hear anything yet, which meant that the hero team was still downstairs. That was fine. They would likely split up to have Iida cover more ground, which meant he would get caught off guard once he got to the final floor.

“Komori. Come in. Where are you?”

“ By the stairs. I hear Iida running up, so I’m gonna serve as bait to get him trapped. ”

“Okay, just make sure you don’t get caught.” Mineta stood there, waiting for another call from his partner, an announcement from All Might, or even just the sounds of a fight from the hallways. He didn’t have to wait long.

First, there was a loud crash from inside the halls. Then there was shouting and a message from Komori.

“ He’s on my tail! I’m leading him to the minefield, but I might not–AGH!!! ” The line cut off there.

“Komori? Come in, Komori! What happened!?” he demanded, receiving no answer from his partner.

It was All Might that gave him the end result of whatever just occurred.

“ Both Iida and Komori have been taken out. That means one member of each team is left! ”

…What the hell had happened? Mineta thought about going out there to check, but he had no clue where Yaoyorozu was. Instead of leaving his hideout to check, he decided to use his balls to climb up to the ceiling and ambush her whenever she came in.

He heard her coming after a few minutes. Due to what he assumed was her navigating through his trap, it was a few minutes after that that she actually came in and looked around.

He had purposefully made clumps of his balls to look like hiding places around the room to distract her. The poor girl was utterly stumped by his masterful play! Now all he needed to–why was she coughing? Oh. OH! SHE’D COLLAPSED! WAS-was this some kind of ploy?

She was coughing and choking on the ground, acting like she couldn’t breathe…OH SHIT!

He leapt down from his vantage point and started shouting at the hallway.

“Komori! Komori, she’s immobilized! Destroy your mushrooms! She can’t breathe!”

From the hallway, he heard the last thing he wanted to hear. “I can’t do that! I grow them, not mow them! They’ll disappear after a few hours!”

Oh, fuck! What do I do!? He looked around in a panic and noticed that there was a camera pointing at them. He waved his arms frantically, knowing that All Might was supposed to be listening in. “MEDIC! MEDIC!”

“I’m– kauh –I’m okay. Really, I am.” Yoayorozu reassured everyone that she was fine as she was picked up by the medical bots along with Iida, who was sporting a wrap around one of his legs. Her words didn’t do much to quell the worry that her classmates had, though.

Well, some of her classmates.

“Woo-hoo! We won!” Komori cheered to a very mixed audience. On the one hand, both members of the hero team were immobilized,which meant that the villains technically won. On the other hand…

All Might cleared his throat, grabbing their attention. “Yes, well…the villain team technically won, and I’ll even let it slide that you attacked an opponent while captured because that’s what a villain would do. That said!” He raised his hand up to signal them to stop celebrating. “As this is a training exercise, I cannot condone doing something like that in the field unless you have no other choice. Your partner was lying in wait to ambush his opponent, and because there was no communication between you two, there was a delay in properly ending the match. It doesn’t seem like it will cause any problems for young Yaoyorozu for now, but that may not be the case in the future! Of course, I bear some fault for that myself.”

That certainly soured the mood a bit, but it was necessary to say. From the disheartened look on young Komori’s face, All Might was certain that she would be more considerate when using a move like that in the future.

The pro suddenly gave the class a wide smile.

“ Now then! Since the match is over, does anyone wanna tell me who the MVP was? ”

While some of the other students were trying to answer All Might’s question, the blond duo were off to the side trying to strategize for their match.

“That was fucking insane!” Denki whispered as he shook Monoma excitedly. “Did you know mushrooms could do that!? I didn’t know mushrooms could do that!”

…Okay, one of them was trying to strategize. It was just a little hard with how excited his partner was.

“Yes, that was quite the spectacle. I feel bad for the hero team, though. Looks like they didn’t get off lightly.”

Oof. That was true. Iida broke his leg, which was bad enough given that he couldn’t use his quirk without it…and Yaoyorozu…well, All Might had said that she’d be fine. And while he was a bit skeptical of the man’s judgement in other areas (like transferring relics with immense power), the safety of students was something that All Might wouldn’t mess up. Denki was sure of that.

“Well, in any case, we still have a few more matches before our own. They can’t all be as one-sided as that, can they?” Denki remarked, making Monoma nod.

As it turned out, the other three matches were nowhere near as exciting as the first one. Literally the only thing that was even mildly interesting was Tetsutetsu going up against a redhead with a near-identical quirk to his, which they both got mad at.

Finally, it was their turn. They were the heroes, so the other team had some time to set up traps and plant the bomb before they could come inside the building.

“Alright, what quirks did you get, Monoma?” Denki asked as he paced back and forth just outside of the entrance.

“With how scatterbrained you’ve been lately, I honestly thought you forgot about my quirk.” Monoma ignored Denki’s retort of “Hey!” and instead shook his head. “In any case, I figured it was best to not overcomplicate it. I grabbed Kirishima’s hardening quirk over Tetsutetsu’s because it seemed like it had better potential against Bakugo’s quirk. I grabbed Komori’s quirk in case we need a threat. And I left one slot open. Figured I could get some good mileage with whatever our enemies are using.”

“Hey, those all sound pretty good! I think we have a decent shot of winning this thing…Assuming they don’t knock us out right away.”

“Yes, Todoroki’s ice powers do seem formidable…I’m hoping Bakugo’s quirk will act as a counter or that he’ll have a fire quirk I can use. Otherwise I’ll have to use Kirishima’s power to act as a shield and get you closer to both of them fast,” he mused. It was a strategy that could work, of course, but given that his copies had a time limit before they wore off and that Kirishima’s power was taken to combat Bakugo, it would leave little room for error. Honestly, he should have–

A sudden shrill noise pierced the air, echoing throughout all the buildings.

INTRUDER ALERT!!!! INTRUDER ALERT!!!! EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!!!! EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!!!!

“Huh?” Both boys spoke in unison, barely hearing each other over the loud, robotic voice. Then another voice chimed in.

“ All four of you! This is not a drill! Come back to the Observatory Room right now! This is serious! ”

A pillar of ice busted through the middle of the building, serving as a slide for Todoroki to get down in an instant. Bakugo was right behind him, crudely using his explosions as a form of flight before crashing into a pile of ice Todoroki made for him.

“I didn’t need your help, extra!” Bakugo yelled as he shot upright. Todoroki remained silent before running off toward the Observatory Room, Monoma and Denki behind him. After some grumbling, Bakugo followed after them.

They made their way to the base of the building housing the Observatory Room where everyone else was already gathered. All Might nodded at the quartet before sprinting to the school, making sure to go slow enough to allow them all to follow him. As they ran, a second voice spoke out on the intercom.

“ Attention, students and staff. That first alarm has been successfully dealt with. It was  just a minor breach in the security system. Nothing to worry about. While this scenario is unprecedented, we do have protocols in place to deal with something like this. Please head back to your homerooms while we wait for the police to arrive to officially declare that everything is going smoothly. And look on the bright side: You all get to go home a bit early today! ”

The students stopped moving briefly, but All Might called out to them and got them running again. They didn’t stop until they reached the main building, where they walked back to class A where Aizawa was waiting to greet them.

“Good job, All Might. I’ll take them from here,” he said in a dry tone that made it impossible to tell if he was serious or not.

All Might simply nodded and raced away. The students, in turn, took their seats and waited for an explanation.

“Alright, we don’t have a lot of intel right now, but we do know this: approximately ten minutes ago, someone or a group of someones tried hacking into UA’s security servers for one reason or another. Presumably, they wanted to get on the campus, which triggered the evacuation message you all heard. Principal Nedzu quickly kicked them out of the system and checked the cameras for any unregistered individuals and came up empty, meaning that they either weren’t successful…or this was just a stupid prank gone wrong. Like he said, we’re waiting for the police to officially clear everyone, and for now we don’t know who this was. At the moment, we’re likely to treat it as an isolated incident. But don’t assume we’ll be turning a blind eye to this. If something even related to this pops up in the future, we’ll be sure to investigate. For now, just keep yourselves busy until you get dismissed.”

So it was probably a false alarm, then? That was fine. Even UA had a few gaps in their defenses, and now that they knew about them, they could fix them. Nothing to worry about.

So then…why was there still the slightest bit of tension in the class?

“ ...so that’s why I’d like to see you now. You’re the only one whose reputation makes me trust them enough to help me with this. ”

“Understood…I’ll be over in a few minutes.”

Tatsumaki heard a dial sound from her phone, indicating that the call was over. She put the gadget down and gave an exhausted sigh. Seriously, why the hell was the new generation so incompetent that even a former sidekick couldn’t trust them!? She absolutely hated how badly they all treated the title of “hero” nowadays!

Whatever. Saitama was out right now and Denki was still at school, so she’d need to leave them both a note in case she was gone for an extended period of time. Maybe leave an address, too, in case she was gone for too long.

Just as she pulled a pen and paper into her hands, she heard a voice in the other room.

“Granny? Gramps? You home?”

Denki? What was he doing here so early? School didn’t let out for another half hour.

“I’m here,” she answered as she floated into the living room. “What are you doing home so early?”

“Ah, well…there was an incident at school today, so we all got released early. Someone hacked into the security system and triggered the alarm, but they didn’t detect any intruders or unknown programming, so they declared it an isolated incident and that it was safe. They still let us go early, though, since they figured the disruption was enough to throw off any of the day’s remaining lesson plans.”

Well, that was certainly something troublesome. Who on Earth would hack into UA? How’d they avoid getting caught? Things like that didn’t happen by accident.

“I’m excited to come home early, but…I’m a little bummed about it, because we got interrupted right before my and Monoma’s mock battle with Bakugo and Todoroki.”

“...Todoroki?”

“Er, Endeavor’s kid. We’re in the same class, and we happened to be on opposing teams today. I mean, I’m kind of relieved, too, because I definitely would not have done well fighting him, but…well, you know.”

Yes. In this case, she did know.

He finally noticed what she had in her hands. “Oh, are you leaving us a note? Where you going?”

“Out. A…person of interest called and asked for my help with a project they’re working on. I’m going over to their work for a few hours. If I’m not back by 5:30, you can eat without me.”

“Wow, 5:30 at your age? You might as well stay home from school tomorrow if you’re going to be out that late,” he quipped, earning himself a frown and a glare that made him chuckle awkwardly. “Okay, that one wasn't very good.”

“It was about as good as could be, given your lack of material. I just don’t care for humour.”

“...And I knew that…” He floundered for a bit before shaking his head. “So, what’s the project you’re going to be working on?”

“...Keep this a secret from anyone you don’t completely trust, but I’ve been asked to aid in an investigation involving a small-time criminal group,” she admitted. “I doubt it’ll be anything more than a stakeout or two, and I probably won’t have to do much, but just in case, I’m leaving the address for your grandfather. If anything horrible happens while I’m down there, he’ll be able to bail us out.”

Denki nodded, but it was clear he was a bit perturbed by the whole thing. And honestly, she couldn’t blame him. He barely had any idea that she was a hero in her youth, let alone how powerful the Tornado of Terror was. In his mind, anyone calling in a retired pro probably wasn’t a very competent individual. Even with her reassurance that the issue wasn’t that large, he would still undoubtedly worry.

So…she did something she rarely ever did.

“D-don’t worry.” She stuttered slightly as she patted his head, blatantly looking away from his mystified face. “I’ll be fine. Sir Nighteye is one of the few heroes with the level of competency that I expect from a professional. I trust him, and I know he wouldn’t ask for me unless he specifically needed me for his plans.”

“Uh…alright. You still want to leave a note?” Denki muttered, still not completely understanding what was happening but not daring to stop it. It was kind of nice.

“Sure.” She lifted her hand from his head and used her psychokinesis to pull off a piece of paper from the pad to write on. It didn’t take more than ten seconds to do so, and she flew it under a magnet on the fridge. “There. Now he’ll know where I am.” She turned back to her grandson. “Call me if anything else unusual comes up. I’ll be there faster than you can blink.”

Denki nodded and watched her float to and out of the front door. He was still worried about whatever she was going to be doing, but he felt confident that she would be able to handle it. Granny was the strongest woman he knew, after all.