Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Mari,” Inko called, enunciating the words clearly, “can you grab that box on Izuku’s desk, please?”

Marinette looked up from her checklist and smiled.  “Box on the desk, yes!”

“I’m burning half of your posters,” Kagami declared, “if All Might wants to watch me sleep, he can do it in hell.”

Izuku’s head shot around the corner.  “Don’t you dare, Tsurugi Kagami!  Just take them down so I can put them in the other apartment!”

“He’s not watching me sleep, either.” Felix murmured mutinously.

“Zuks, just put them in storage,” Ren sighed, “or you can dedicate the office to a shrine, I guess.  Have you always been this obsessed?”

“Well, his closet-”

“We do not talk about the closet,” Izuku interrupted his cousin, “the evidence has been covered up, and Tatsu would never snitch on me like this.”

As the two girls grabbed more of Izuku’s stuff to move, Kagami leaned over in a “conspiring” “whisper” to say, “it was devoted to Chat Noir and now he feels weird about it.”

Marinette snorted.  “You would be surprised.  Ren’s a bit used to altars.”

“Princess, that is lies and slander,” he cut in, on his way back, “altars will always be creepy.  Especially when they start offering sacrifices.”

“I have never been more concerned in my entire life,” Inko declared, “is someone bothering you?  Do I need to call Tomoe back?  Or get Sabine to yell at someone?”

The coalition of good moms for the teens had met up and immediately become smiling, vicious in protecting the children, friends.  If they weren’t benefitting from it so much, they would almost be scared.  As it were, the three of them had sat down and hammered out the living situation, the coverage of expenses, and also a semi-weekly video brunch.  All five kids had looked at that with wide eyes and promptly agreed to never look into what they were talking about.

As for the living situation, Tomoe and Sabine had gone in on the apartment next to the Midoriya’s, and the boys were moving into it, letting the girls stay with Inko just next door.  They’d probably be spending most of their time in one apartment anyway, but Inko was very firm about splitting them up, one, for space, two, for each gender.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you to make good decisions,” she said, “but it makes other people less likely to throw up a fuss.”

Of course, they were all fifteen anyway and instantly turned into tomatoes if they went further than holding hands or cheek kisses.

“There,” Adrien set down the last box, “man, Zuks, you left so much stuff in your room!”

He rolled his eyes.  “I wasn’t going to bring my entire life with me to France when it might have only been less than a year.  And, as it turns out, it was.”

“Slow down,” Marinette grumbled, “I’m still only getting most of this.”

They both apologized and made sure to be slightly slower and clearer.  Marinette had been, as Ren put it, “speedrunning Japanese” for the past two weeks.  Luckily, she was well practiced at learning a new language, and everyone around her was constantly grilling her on it in any of the languages they shared.  She was also competing against Felix learning Old Tibetan, and while he technically had a head start due to working on the book, she was determined to beat him.

“I have thought more on what my mother said,” Kagami said, “and I’m still hung up on the fact that there were only three notable students in each class of first year heroics.”

Felix snorted.  “Your mother is a terrifying force of nature.  I’m surprised there were three that could get around her quirk.  While your range has improved these past few months, hers is prodigious and precise.  She kicked their asses blind and quirkless on their first real day of class.”

Marinette snickered.  “Aren’t there at least three clan kids in 1-A?”

Kagami nodded.  “Only one was notable, however.  I believe the other two were a girl with a sound based quirk, and Bakugo Katsuki.”

Izuku grinned.  “That’s Kacchan for you.  I guess he figured out her weakness in loud sounds and just used a lot of concussive blasts.”

Gami glowered.  “He’s smart,” she admitted as if it pained her, “but forgive me if I almost hope we’re in the other class.”

“I’m excited to learn more about managing a business,” Ren said cheerfully, “and UA sounds super cool.”

“Kids,” Inko poked her head in with a smile, “let’s eat and then you can call all your friends.  It’s morning in Paris, after all.  Then you can unpack and rest up for your early day tomorrow!”

They all groaned and snickered, but trekked back to the girl's apartment for katsudon (Izuku cried and they all made fun of him for it) before making a few calls.

First was Chloe, Sabrina, and Luka, who really just wanted updates, and in Chloe and Luka’s case, to gross everyone out by the two of them being blatantly affectionate with Kagami until they got five minutes to just talk with them.  After, Marinette called Kim, who was hanging out with Nino, Alix, and Max in anticipation of their call.  The four of them had been pretty receptive to the revelation that they were the miraculous team, and also the burden of being the new French team.  Kim and Barkk got along really well, and Alix admitted she’d been talking to Fluff for the last month already.  Nino and Max hadn’t had good miraculous picks in the Zodiac Box, but Luka had already told them he had a good feeling about his own box, so it wouldn’t be later than July, probably.  Plus, there wasn’t a large miraculous threat in Paris anymore, so they could afford to relax a little.

The next call was to Aurore and Jean, who relayed that the class missed them, Ron had set three things on fire by bursting into tears looking at their empty desks, and Mme. Mendeleiev was being even more caustic to Ml. Bustier.  All in all, they were carrying on the good fight, coordinating with Nino, Max, and Luka, and making sure everyone was eating.

Last was the call to the Arme, and boy had they taken the secret identities well.  The entire group of heroes had collectively adopted the eight of them and gifted them with ranks and titles, along with French hero licenses that were technically sort of valid in other countries.  General Glissière, for example, was very much approving of her rank, and displayed both her hero license and her detective license next to each other with a toothy grin that spoke of nothing but mischief in the future.  Corporal Chat Noir also found it hilarious, and didn’t mention how they’d adopted him and Felix extra hard for some reason.

Finally, their calls all ended, the boys finished unpacking, and they all went to bed.

“Not looking forward to when we have an additional call to New York in the mornings,” Felix grumbled, “I’m quite fond of doing all of these at once.”

Adrien snickered and flipped his pillow over.

“Welcome to UA,” Principal Nedzu said cheerfully at the gates, “we’ve been expecting you!  If you’ll follow me, we’ll have the Tsurugi cousins take their physical exam, and then I hope you’ll all be willing to indulge me.”

Inko narrowed her eyes behind them.  “That, of course, depends on what you want them to do,” she said slowly, “and wouldn’t be contingent for them to be accepted.”

“Oh, of course,” Nedzu nodded, “it would merely be settling curiosity.  After all, I do believe the staff and I have been given the clearance to know the truth of the quirk situation, hmm?”

Marinette smiled sharply.  “I believe in related adults knowing necessary details,” she said sweetly, “so that the children involved have support and back up.  In this case, our teachers.  Not that you hadn’t already figured it out.”

The animal chortled.  “Indeed!  Now, we want to get this out of the way before the students arrive and I actually need my teachers back.”

They were led to one of the gyms, where Present Mic was waiting with a big grin.

“HEY there, listeners!  I hear you’re fighting me!  Quirkless sparring, ya dig?”

They both nodded.

“Whichever order you’d like,” he said cheerfully, “I don’t mind!”

Kagami stepped forward, and the physical portion of their exams began.

It wasn’t too bad, actually; he was clearly holding back, and they were being relegated to a quirkless spar instead of fighting all out, but they lasted a couple of minutes, with him slowly ramping up the skill, and Nedzu seemed pleased by the end.

“Well, you most certainly meet our standards,” he said as Present Mic left to go prepare for his morning classes, “but now I have to ask.  Would the five of you be willing to suit up and fight a pro hero for me?”

“One just left,” Felix said dryly, “and are your classes not starting soon?”

“They are, but I’d want to give you more of a challenge anyway!  Of course, you do not have to agree, but I would love to see how you and your kwami work in synchrony.”

They all tensed slightly when he said kwami, but Marinette and Felix shared a glance before relaxing and the other three followed suit.

“I wouldn’t mind,” she stretched, “we’re hopefully not going to have many opportunities to suit up anyway.  Who would we be fighting?”

“Oh,” Nedzu scolded, “where would the fun in that be?  No, they’ll enter the gym when you are ready and your identities masked.  That didn’t quite get out of France, no matter how much the Hero Commission tried.”

Marinette grinned, all teeth.  “Yes, my friends are quite good at what they do.  Sabrina and Max managed to ensure that without permission, nothing leaves France, much less Paris.”

“An excellent application of skill and no small amount of magic I’m sure,” he said, baring his teeth right back, “but that’s only a recent addition, so if someone managed to connect some dots before, they’ll still remember.”

“Oh, of course, but not many are smart enough for that.”

Felix sighed and looked up at the ceiling.  “Lumii give me strength.  Are we doing this, or not?”

In answer, Marinette said, “Tikki, taches sur!”

They all suited up after her, Felix calling on Trixx.  Duusuu was taking a pretty big break, but she liked being with him anyway.

Nedzu looked at the five of them, red, orange, black, green, and red again, and called someone on his phone.

“Yes,” he said pleasantly, “they’re ready for you.”

In less than thirty seconds, a bundle of bright red flew through the doors to stop in front of them, a sharp grin looking them over.

“Yo,” Hawks said, “you must be the foreign heroes.  Wait, you speak Japanese, right?”

Foxglove snorted from behind their mask.  “Of course.  We speak a multitude of languages.”

Hawks grinned again.  “Cool.  Nedzu asked if I’d be willing to spar, and, well, how could I pass up the chance to not only see UA, but also to meet the people the Commission is curious about?”

Lune snorted.  “[So the group wants knowledge from the school and from us, because they cannot get it usually.]”

“[That also means that this bird is potentially a servant,]” Tsunami pointed out, “[instead of a knight.]”

Ladybug hummed.  “[More for the group than the people.  Maybe.  Bush, what do we know about him?]”

“[Red Bird has full control of all feathers,]” he said promptly, “[and can sense through them.  Sometimes uses long first feathers as swords, so perhaps Sword should bait that and see how good he really is.  Other than that, he can obviously fly.  Sword and Thorn will probably take point on this one.]”

Foxglove hummed.  “[That is fine.  Quiet or loud?]”

“[Loud,]” Chat immediately said, “[I want to be loud!]”

“[Quiet,]” Ladybug chuckled.

“I’m feeling super left out,” Hawks pouted, “and what language even is that?”

Foxglove took out their flute and held it up to play in response.

“[Civilians clear,]” Chat Noir called, “let’s give them a show.”

Tsunami drew her sword and charged, while Lune and Ladybug jumped back.

“You know,” Chat Noir said thoughtfully, “do you think Nami and Lune will have to use new names here?”

“Why would they,” Ladybug asked idly, flicking her yoyo at feathers that were arcing for them as Lune used his saber to slice them out of the air, dodging the ones he missed.  Foxglove had disappeared, and Hawks was already starting to frown as his feather and his eyes told him different things.  Chat was running around, carefree, as feathers followed him.  If any got too close, he’d pluck them out of the air, shred them, and sneeze horribly.

“You are an excellent dueler,” Tsunami said with a grin as the feather he was using to fight her off actually threw sparks from their clash, “despite having little formal training.”

“Aw,” the hero pouted, “you can tell?  Well, I guess I’ll have to ramp it up a level!”

He took the sky, restricted by the roof on the gym, but took to dive bombing Tsunami and pushing her back with every hit.  Finally, she timed it right.

“Dragon de vent!”

Hawks tumbled through where she had been and her gleeful laughter rang through the air, almost masking the subtle flute that hadn’t stopped.

Ladybug hummed as the feathers around them drew back, most of them going back to either his actual wings, to help him fly, or to the air around him while winds buffeted him from all sides.  “Porte-bonheur.  Ooo, this’ll be helpful.”

“I’m just saying,” Chat sneezed again, moving to the walls, “the goal is to divorce us from them, right?  Because of the class they might join?  [The magic can only do so much to hide their identities if they look the exact same and have the same name, magic information wall or not.]”

“He’s got a point,” Lune said thoughtfully, walking, “I get helped out because this is the last time I can be this size, and my hair will have to go back to normal… I guess a minor costume change wouldn’t hurt, and a name that isn’t clearly French as well.”

“I’ll be blue,” the wind reverberated, “and I suppose my name will have to change as well.  Hmm.”

Hawks looked around incredulously.  “Are you guys even taking me seriously?  I feel like you’re not taking me seriously.  You do know I’m the number three hero, right?”

Ladybug smiled.  “You’re also easy to distract and underestimate us just because we didn’t rush you and mostly ran instead.”

The illusion dropped and a red and black weighted net fell from where it had been suspended, dropping Hawks to the ground.  It was buzzing slightly and Hawks shuddered.

“I hate how that feels,” he grumbled.

“You also forgot about Foxglove,” Chat Noir grinned, “which is such a mistake.  He- they?  Yeah, they let you find the first illusion, the slight sensory difference problem you were having, and then let you forget them.  Really, really dumb.”

Foxglove slipped over to the hero who wasn’t really trying to get out from under the net and twisted their mask so their face was visible, orange lined eyes crinkling.

“You should never forget about an enemy,” they chided lightly, “even if you think they aren’t doing anything.”

“I knew what you were doing, and where you were!  I would have noticed if you made another illusion, though!”

The fox hero shrugged.  “I never really stopped.  Now, let’s help you up, hmm?”

They and Ladybug pulled the lightly buzzing net off the hero and he rose to his feet, shaking out his feathers.

“That was wild,” he chuckled, “I really did underestimate you.  If we did this again, though, I’d definitely win!”

“I dunno,” Lune snickered, “Chat and I hardly did anything other than play distraction duty.  Also Chat’s too nice to just turn one of your wings to dust.”

“And imagine the sneezing,” Chat shuddered, “I think feather dust still counts as feathers, you know!”

“How marvelous,” Nedzu and Inko appeared beside them as Tsunami reformed, “many thanks, Hawks.  Now, I have a few new students I need to give a school tour to, if you would like to make your way off the premises.”

Hawks pouted.  “That sounds like a threat!  Surely I could take a tour too?”

“Absolutely not!”

Hawks chuckled, but obligingly waved and left the gym, taking off once outside.  He hovered for a sec and looked back at them.  “We should do this again sometime,” he called back, “this was fun!”

He flew away and they waited another few seconds before Ladybug sighed.  “Coccinelle miraculeuse,” she muttered, and the scuff marks they’d made and all the broken feathers disappeared with the net.

They all transformed and fed their kwami by rote and Nedzu beamed, whiskers twitching.

“As I said, simply marvelous!  Relevant teachers will be informed of your team, but I will not call on you unless I suspect miraculous involvement, since you said you are otherwise retired.”

“That is correct,” Felix said smoothly.

Nedzu nodded and clapped his paws once.  “Now, I promised you a tour, and I plan to deliver.  We won’t be visiting every facility UA has to offer, but if I can direct your attention to the door, there’s a map of all the gyms…”

They settled in Nedzu’s office with their lunches, having ended their tour in the cafeteria before the students were released for lunch.

“Tsurugi Tomoe has already filled out forms for her daughter,” Kagami nodded at this, “but Midoriya, if you could fill out the ones for your son, and Agreste and Graham de Vanily, if you could do the same for yourselves, as you are emancipated minors…”

They quietly looked over the forms and contracts and signed in appropriate places, eating their food and letting their kwami pick from their trays as well.

They were all finished up and quietly talking when alarms blared, and Nedzu was instantly on his computer.

“How repulsive,” he said cheerfully, “while you managed to avoid them this morning, it seems the reporters that gathered have somehow managed to breach our barrier.  I will be investigating this thoroughly and find out who could possibly have had a quirk to break it down like that.”

Adrien leaned forward and made a noise.  “Looks like a cataclysm, to be honest.”

Izuku hummed and exchanged a glance with Nooroo.  “Do you want me to see if they’re still on campus?  I should be able to find a quirk like that, and then I can point out where they are on the map.”

Nedzu smiled.  “Please.”

“Roo, lève mes ailes.”

He tugged the goggles down and stretched his senses, letting himself slip out of the office.  He avoided the crush of panicked students around the cafeteria with a wince, and started to try and find something that could have cataclysmed the barrier.  Finally, down the hall, he found a single person, feeling irritated, gleeful, and bored.  Their quirk felt so dry that Izuku reflexively licked his lips, and he tried to inspect them more.

“I got it, down the hall in- huh?  Oh.  Oh, um.”

He flipped the goggles back to his head and looked at Nedzu in bewilderment.  “So.  It’s this room,” he tapped it on the map Nedzu had manifested from somewhere, “but he got… warped out.  It wasn’t quite a person, so I couldn’t get anything specific, but it felt like a cloud of space, and then it and the person with the dry desiccation type quirk were both gone.”

“Ominous,” Nedzu chirped, “we will have to see if they took or moved anything in that room, as that is our records room.  How potentially very dangerous!  At the very least, your files were not entered in yet, so small mercies.  Regardless, thank you for your assistance.  Off to class, now!”

The five teens blinked and Nedzu picked up his teacup.  “Dupain-Cheng, Agreste, and Graham de Vanily, you will be in the business class 1-I, and Tsurugi and Midoriya, you will be in the heroics class 1-A.  Your teachers are Kayama Nemuri and Aizawa Shouta, respectively.

Three heads snapped up at the last name and Nedzu cackled before sending them off with their new schedules.

“Oh,” Inko snapped after they were already gone, “Aizawa, that’s the Cat Clan, isn’t it?”

Nedzu resumed cackling, tea spilling around him slightly, and Inko chuckled.

“Five clan kids,” she shook her head, remembering what Tomoe had told her about that class, “and three of them heirs, or close enough.  Poor man.”

Chapter Text

“These,” Aizawa said right as the door opened and they stepped in, “are your two new classmates, to replace the two I expelled.  Tsurugi Kagami and Midoriya Izuku.”

“Wait,” a blond boy raised his hands, “Tsurugi like, that lady from last week?”

Aizawa turned a dead gaze to the boy.  “Yes.  As we elected class officers earlier today, Yaoyorozu?”

She stood up with wide eyes and a wide smile.  “It’s good to see you two again,” she said, “I’m Yaoyorozu Momo, or Yaomomo, and I am the class president.”

“And I am Iida Tenya, the Vice President,” a boy in the opposite corner stood and chopped his arm down, “welcome to class 1-A!  May I ask why you were not with us at the beginning of the year?”

Katsuki snorted.  “They weren’t in the country.”

Izuku smiled slightly.  “Hi, Kacchan.  You don’t seem surprised.”

The two boys ignored some of the gaping of their classmates.  “Of course not,” Katsuki scoffed, “I have tea with Auntie, like, every fucking week.”

Kagami glared at him.  “She is not your aunt.”

“Kaminari Denki here,” the blond boy from earlier waved, “sorry, I’d just like to go back to that, you’re related to that lady from last week who beat us all up?”

Kagami smiled sharply.  “She is my mother.”

Half the class paled.

“I’ll give you about five minutes to introduce yourselves,” Aizawa was climbing into a bright yellow sleeping bag as Izuku blinked, “ and then we’re moving on with class.  Announcements wise, we have a field trip on Friday, so if you have any costume changes to make from last week, get them in by the end of the day.”

Yaomomo nodded.  “Right, I believe we can all go around the room and say our names and one fun fact about ourselves?  Iida, why don’t you start.”

Iida chopped his arm down.  “Yes!  As I said before, I am Iida Tenya.  A “fun” fact is that my brother is the pro hero Ingenium, and I am very proud of him!”

The girl in front of him giggled.  “I guess I’m next!  I’m Uraraka Ochako, and if I wasn’t a hero, I’d want to be an astronaut!”

“Kero, I am Asui Tsuyu, but I would like to be called Tsu.  I like to jump in puddles with my younger siblings.”

“Ashido Mina!  I love to dance!”

“Aoyama Yuuga, I am from France!”

Izuku blinked, then smiled.  “That’s where we just were!  Kagami has lived there basically her whole life.”

Aoyama gasped.  “<Really?  That’s excellent!  We will have to talk more later, I have been at a loss for the lack of French things in Japan!>”

“<Of course,>” Izuku agreed, “<and we have other friends from France as well, including two French natives.  Perhaps after school you can meet them.>  Ah, but I don’t want to take up too much time, we should get back to the introductions.”

Aoyama nodded enthusiastically and it continued until the entire class was introduced, ending with Katsuki.

Yaomomo clapped.  “Wonderful!  I’m sure this was also helpful for those of us who had not formally met the rest of our classmates either, as we did sort of skip any form of ice breaker…  Ahem, I do believe that’s time?”

Aizawa appeared upright behind them.  “Go sit down.  We have lessons.”

They sat in the vacated seats, both behind Katsuki, and Aizawa looked over them with an inscrutable gaze before he slowly smiled in a horrific grin.

“Today’s lesson is on vigilantism,” he said in a monotone, “and why it's illegal in Japan.”

He was looking directly at Izuku, who blinked.

“In my defense,” he couldn’t help but blurt out, “it’s not illegal in France.”

The entire class turned to look at him and he flushed a bright red.

“Vigilantism,” Aizawa said after a moment, “if defined differently in different places.  In France, to pick a random country, it is any unlicensed helpful intervention with heroic, criminal, or villain activity that passes a certain threshold of involvement.  It is only an arrestable offense if the person involved does not defer to the heroes when they are on site.  In Japan, however, vigilantism is defined as using a quirk to engage in heroic behavior without a license.  Who can identify the loopholes in this?”

Jirou raised her hand.  “If you don’t use a quirk, they can’t charge you.”

Kagami snorted lightly, and Izuku kicked back at her desk.

“Correct, though I can guarantee they’d try to charge you with something else.  Anyone else?  Ojirou.”

“If you can prove it’s not heroic behavior, such as claiming it’s police behavior, you might get away with it?”

“Hard to justify, but technically correct.  There have been three court cases about that very loophole we’ll be studying this class.  Anyone else?”

Izuku raised his hand slowly, brow furrowed.  “Does the wording of the law specify that it has to be a hero license?  Or a Japanese one, for that matter?”

Aizawa stared.  “It specifies hero.  Not country.”  Don’t even think about it, he said with his eyes.  “We will, however, be looking at the wording of the laws right now before segueing into the court cases I mentioned before.  I hope you’re writing things down.”

Half the class scrambled for a notebook and pencil, and they settled in to get to work.

After school let out for the day, Aoyama tagged along with Kagami, Izuku, and surprisingly Katsuki as they headed in the direction of the business course.  They split with Yaomomo when she went in the direction of general studies instead, and ended up meeting halfway to business.

“We need to head to support for costumes,” Kagami said immediately, “but this is our classmate Aoyama, from France.”

“<Hello,>” he said cheerfully, “<I just wanted to get to know more people who spoke my mother tongue!  I did also speak Japanese at home, of course, for my father, but I miss much about my home.>”

Marinette lit up.  “<Oh, same, I’m probably going to go home and do nothing but bake, their pastries are so different here!  Have you found any good bakeries?  I haven’t been looking since I’m more likely to make them than buy them, but I can’t imagine being somewhere without good pastry.  I’m Marinette, by the way, and these are Adrien and Felix.>”

“<It’s terrible, I haven’t found a one!  Everything is off and I don’t like it.  And the cheese selection is unbearable, I have to get it all imported.>”  Aoyama shook his head mournfully.

Adrien snorted.  “<Yeah?  You’ll have to tell me your supplier, I have a friend who has very specific tastes when it comes to cheese.>”

Aoyama practically lit up.  “<You’ll have to introduce me to your friend, I love cheese!  Being lactose intolerant is the worst, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay for the greatest thing mankind has ever invented!>”

“<Oh man, he’d agree with you there.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t actually live here, sorry.>”

“<Oh, no worries at all.  I must go, it was lovely meeting you all!  We should have lunch together, since we’re all in the same year.  Ta!>”

He flounced away, bubbling with giddiness, and Izuku couldn’t help but smile.

“It was so nice to speak in French,” Marinette sighed, “after a whole day of nothing but Japanese.”

“And Tibetan,” Kagami reminded her, “but it is good for you to practice.”

“I know,” she sighed again, “and I’m getting there.  I only had to ask Ren about three words today!”

“One of them was economy,” Felix said dryly as he took Izuku’s hand since they began to walk in the direction of support, “which is definitely a word you should have known before now, going into a business course.”

She stuck her tongue out at him.  “And I remembered it before Ren told me what it meant!  It’s fine!”

The door to the support labs was wide open, so they peaked in and entered.  Soot and twisted metal were all originating from one section of the room, and Powerloader was sighing over it.

“Oh,” he turned, “hello, I was told to expect you.  Two new hero students, correct?  I’d like to take a look at your costume forms, if you have them ready.”

They handed them to the man and he hummed, looking them over.  Izuku had kept his suit pretty close to Lune’s, but his vest now matched his original hair color, and he was obviously a foot taller.  The specifications for his cane meant it was a much lower tech version, but it had an emergency button on the top under the glass head directly in the moth’s eye, and it also still contained his saber.  The idea was to make the suit as close as possible to the miraculous version, so a switch wouldn’t be noticeable.  Kagami’s was the same, with a recolored version of the Tsunami suit to blue, with a few more obvious armor panels.  Her horns were designed to detect atmospheric changes instead of being simply for aesthetic, and she too got her sword.

“Yeah, I can do these in time for your field trip on Friday,” Powerloader nodded, “they seem simple enough.  The fabric will be slightly thicker and denser than you’re used to, for safety.  No spandex here.  These look pretty well thought out.  I’d recommend adding a utility belt eventually, but for a first costume, this is a good start.”

The trip home was pretty short, each of them talking about their short half day of classes, and then repeating that all again when Inko saw them.  They had a few pages of homework each, so they worked on that in the girls apartment before dinner.  They played a few language games with Mari and bickered over nothing before they went to get ready to sleep, now back on an actual schedule for school.

Izuku went into his room, not sharing with either of the boys due to getting the smaller one, and settled on the bed.  The kwami were having a blast being able to be out and around both people and each other, so Nooroo just settled down next to him, looking out the window at the moon reflecting in his eyes.

“Is it weird that I’m restless?”

The purple butterfly blinked, spell broken, and looked over.  “Restless?  How?”

Izuku shrugged helplessly.  “Today were the first two times I transformed in weeks… I can still sort of feel people around me if I focus, but I missed… doing things with the miraculous!  Even today, I sort of just sat there, even in the active combat situation.  And it was good for the plan, it made sense, but… it’s stupid.”

Nooroo hummed.  “I don’t think so.  On one hand, I’m glad there isn’t a current reason for you to require my power, but I also miss when you transform.  Today, looking for the person who broke in?  It was a wonderful stretch, like standing after you’ve been sitting for hours.  But I, too, would like some actual exercise, if you want.”

Izuku bit his lip.  “I don’t think we can leave…”

Nooroo smiled.  “Then we don’t have to!  You once spread our senses over the entirety of Paris!  We can meditate here and see what you can sense.  You can write it down, since it’s not like you’ll get any names unless you connect with them.  It won’t be nice, all of the time, but it will give you practice sensing quirks and then situations that you can’t see.  Or, you can practice empowering two butterflies at once.”

Izuku cocked his head in thought.  “Maybe another day.  Are you ready?”

“Always!”

“Roo, s'il te plaît, lève mes ailes!”

He let out a breath when the transformation finished and peaked out a single eye to inspect himself.

“Aw, Roo,” he snickered, “you listened.  It looks great.”

A swell of affection welled up inside him and his snickers softened into something actually happy.  Feeling the magic of the miraculous within him, ready to be used if needed, was calming.

“Hi guys,” he giggled as the three constructs appeared and fluttered around the room, “it’s been a while, huh?”

Deedee was zooming around the room at a speed no moth or butterfly was actually capable of.  Emerald was looking around the room inquisitively while Apollo settled in front of him, waving her front legs imperiously, no doubt scolding him for waiting this long.

“I know,” he held out a finger for her and she daintily stepped on, “and I didn’t have the chance to bring you out today.  Did you know you guys are going to be listed as quirk constructs?  Maybe later I’ll practice pulling you out of the miraculous when we’re not using it, hmm?  I’ve only done it the once, after all.”

Deedee circled enthusiastically at that and they all settled down to rest on his knees where his legs were crossed, and he sat against his headboard and closed his eyes.

He breathed deep and pulled his goggles down.

This city had a completely different overall feel than Paris did, that was for sure.  They were in a different part of the city, for one, in more of a suburb than the heart of Paris like they were before.  For another, the city felt just a little bit heavier, even though they didn’t have an emotional terrorist.  Conversely, Mustafu was also more relaxed about the danger, which he felt was odd.  Perhaps he’d figure out why over the course of the night?  He wasn’t particularly feeling for emotions, like he was when he was looking for a champion, so they were muted.

He felt out many different quirks, and slowly got better at identifying them.  Mutation quirks had little to no movement in them, transformation quirks usually had two states they fluctuated between when they were resting, like it was breathing.  He’d managed to find someone using one, it seemed like something based around a tiger based on the orange and black stripes and sharpness to parts of the quirk, and when it was active, it was stuck on one of the states instead, the larger inhale.  After the person dropped their transformation, the quirk settled on the exhale for several seconds before it went back to breathing.  Perhaps that meant it had a cooldown period?  Or maybe that was just something this specific quirk did.  All the transformation quirks he’d found (or guessed he’d found) had breathed, but he’d have to check more of them to see if the actual active use of them was the same.  Emitter quirks were all constantly moving in some way.  Sometimes it was in jagged pulses, sometimes it was in slick flows, other times it was in random bursts, or roiling or boiling or sparkling.  There was always something about them that moved, and when they got used, that movement became a frenzy.  They all had a vague color as well, one that got more vibrant when the quirk was in use.

He steeled himself for a moment before delving into the poorer area of the city.

Immediately he could see a difference in quirks.  Most of them were smaller, or duller.  He found one that was small and purple and stabbed outwards like many knives in close proximity with one that was large and grey, covering like shifting planes of rock, hiding an undercurrent of disdain.  It didn’t move, so it was probably a mutation quirk.  If anything, it reminded him of Stoneheart, and he watched the knife quirk get closer and then farther and then closer again, dancing around and getting agitated with a hint of fear.  Finally, the stone quirk moved and the knife quirk flew back, immediately quieting and feeling more like rippling water.  It grew faded and dull, but the stone quirk walked away.  He hesitated for a moment before moving his senses elsewhere.

The next quirk he came across was stronger, larger and brighter, but it was… squirming.  It was a mass of greyish white and formed things before turning back into the mass.  Sometimes he’d see a flash of other colors in it, of all sorts, and each patch of color would stab or boil or ripple and then it would smooth back into the shaking greyish white.  All at once, half of it almost split off entirely, before it rebounded back into the mass.

The person didn’t move even once during this.

He watched the person he was going to call Wobbly Rainbow for a while longer until they finally moved, and their quirk settled a little.  It was still squirming and flashing occasionally, but it had settled, and it hadn’t done the splitting thing again, which was relieving.

He looked around a bit more after that before he felt Nooroo tugging on him and light feet dancing on his hands.  He returned to himself with a blink, pushing the goggles up.  He looked around his room before his gaze settled on his alarm clock and he winced sheepishly.

“Thanks,” he whispered down to the three moths, “I do want to get to sleep soon.  I can’t believe it’s already past midnight… repose mes ailes.”

Nooroo flew out and stretched, giggling quietly.  “That was good!  Write down your observations before you go to bed, so you don’t forget!  Quirks are so strange, I’ve never had this before, and I love it!  Their powers are all so unique, do you remember that one that felt like stained glass?  I-”

Izuku smiled and got out a new notebook as Nooroo rambled, and he dutifully wrote it all down, plus his own observations.  It was just after one when he finally turned in for the night, but he felt more relaxed than he had in days.  He’d have to do this more often.

Chapter Text

“I call this meeting to order,” Nedzu said, smiling, “does anyone know where our newest staff member is?”

Chiyo snorted.  “He accidentally marked the email as spam and is currently on the news fighting crime.  Clearly you’re not monopolizing his time enough, Nedzu.”

The principal hummed.  “Clearly not.  I will send him the meeting minutes and also deliver a paper copy to him.  Past that, the burden is on him to ensure he can effectively do his job.  Now, onto the purpose of this meeting.  You all are here to be briefed on a situation that is developing in Japan and at UA as relevant adults, as their team leader put it.  All of the other teachers will be given the bare bones, such that they know not to engage if the team is forced to deploy.”

Kayama Nemuri, Maijima Higari, Aizawa Shouta, Yamada Hizashi, Shuzenji Chiyo, and Kurose Anan looked at each other.

“Aizawa, you already have been partially briefed as you kept abreast of the development in France,” Nedzu nodded to acknowledge the man, “but it has now become far more relevant.  There was a situation in Paris that you’ll no longer be able to find any records on, that dealt with two villains with extreme power, fighting teenagers with similar power.”

Kurose shifted.  “Vigilantes?”

“In the beginning, by France’s definition, yes, but soon after they were acknowledged as heroes in their own right, and now possess French Hero Licenses.  Due to that, they are also capable of acting here in Japan without being arrested, though they function similar to our provisional licenses instead, and if a local hero tells them to back off and they do not, legal action can be taken.”

Yamada frowned.  “So why were powerful teenagers deputized on the field instead of put in a hero school?  Were they that good with their quirks?”

Nedzu’s whiskers twitched in amusement.  “They weren’t quirks.  The villains and teenage heroes both wielded magical jewelry with little gods bound to them that transformed them into superheroes and gave them magic powers, dependent on the type of god they had bound.”

He gave them a few moments to absorb how ludicrous it sounded, but none of them were willing to dismiss it as a joke.  This was Nedzu after all.

“I can assure you,” he decided to put them out of their misery, “despite a similar sounding premise to magical girl anime, this is fact.  The Miraculous, as the jewels are called, have existed since the earliest of records, at the very least the Old Kingdom of Egypt, around 2500 BCE.  Almost five thousand years ago.  They have been passed down and guarded for millennia, and when miraculous are stolen, such as by their villains, heroes are chosen to defeat them.  They did so approximately two weeks ago.”

Aizawa grunted.  “Listening to the right channels, one of the villains was a pro hero.  Is that true?”

“It is,” Nedzu intoned solemnly, “and I won’t tell you why exactly they became villains, as I do not know the answer for certain myself, but the leader of their team, Ladybug, has informed me that it would have been catastrophic had they won, and they will do everything in their power to prevent it from ever happening.”

Kayama bit her lip.  “So why are we being told?”

“Of the seven, or eight, depending on who you ask, that made up the Miraculous Court, five of them have come to Japan to resolve something currently unknown, but it's something to do with the miraculous.  The fact of the matter is, quirks are simply fundamentally different from miraculous magic, and as such it would be difficult to resolve the issue on our own.  However, while the team maintained secret identities in France, Ladybug has allowed the relevant adults to know their identities.”

“Wait,” Maijima blinked, “would this have anything to do with the kids who came to the labs today?  There were seven, but I recognized two of them from Aizawa’s class.”

Yamada snapped his fingers.  “The five new students!  Wait, but they’re first years!”

“Indeed,” Nedzu beamed, “and they have already taken down what Paris classifies as an emotional terrorist, as the hero turned villain created monsters out of people’s strong negative emotions.  Worry not, that miraculous was also recovered.  If I am correct, both of the miraculous being wielded by the villains are being held by one of your business students, Kayama, Graham de Vanily Felix.  The two hero leaders, Ladybug and Chat Noir, are Dupain-Cheng Marinette and Agreste Adrien, respectively.  That, of course, leaves Aizawa’s two new hero students, Tsurugi Kagami, as Tsunami, and Midoriya Izuku as Lune.  Their gods are, in order, Emotion and Illusion, Creation, Destruction, Perfection, and Transmission.  I have prepared the one video that features four out of five of them that I could pull before the magical firewall went up around Paris.”

He displayed it on a projector, a video taken of L’Anarky.  There were a lot of cuts as people moved around, but he pointed out Lune’s champions, revealing what they normally looked like, and the moment Tsunami turned into air.

“The additional hero is Brille Fille, with the miraculous of Transportation.  Aizawa has met her before, she is capable of making portals at least from Paris to here.  Her range is presumed to be the entire world, but like the rest of the teenage heroes, she is only capable of using her power once before she is forced to destranform and recharge.  At the end of the video, you see Chat Noir and Ladybug flee for that very reason.  Lune and Tsunami are the two who joined our hero course, so they’re the ones who have registered quirks based on their miraculous.  You all have the clearance to learn the specifics.”

He brought up their student files.  “This is what everyone else will see.  Midoriya is listed as having an empowering quirk, called Metamorphosis, that allows him to sense and modify the quirk of someone he sends a butterfly to with their permission.  For the specifics, even without being transformed, he is capable of sensing the quirks of the people around him, and when using his “quirk,” he makes butterfly constructs imbued with his own energy that he then sends to another person.  It is held in an object the person is touching, and if they agree, he champions them, changing their powers and making them stronger.  If this object breaks, or they run out of power, they return to normal. It lasts as long as the power he granted them lasts, which means it could be forever, or it could be only a few minutes, depending on the strength.  Currently, he is only capable of making one empowered butterfly per recharge.  He has also stated that he has a healing ability, where the power that could be used to champion someone instead places them in a healing chrysalis and keeps them there until the power runs out, or they’re healed.  His true quirk status is quirkless.”

Yamada whistled.  “That’s an insane power.  Are they all like this?”

Chiyo grunted.  “I could use a healing power like that.  I hate to ask, but does it work for long term injuries or illnesses, or just recent ones?”

Nedzu’s whiskers twitched.  “We’re unsure.  He’s used it once, thus far, and Ladybug reversed all the miraculous damage before they could see the results.  The cure that you saw in the video that set all the damage back to normal.  It only works on miraculous damage, it is worth mentioning, or she would use it far more frequently.  Conversely, Chat Noir is capable of destroying anything he touches once, much like our visitor earlier today.  He, Dupain-Cheng, and his cousin are all listed in the student files with their original quirks, being Perfect Smile, quirkless, and Behavior Mimicry, respectively.”

“Those are pretty weak,” Kurose frowned, “but I suppose having magical powers more than makes up for it.”

“Apparently, having weaker quirks is better, as there isn’t a clash of powers!”  Nedzu hummed, quite pleased.  “It’s very interesting.  Our other hero student is not listed with her quirk, Surround Sense, but is instead listed with Storm Dragon, giving her minor control over wind, water, and lightning, as well as the ability to merge with them temporarily.  Even when not transformed, her ability to control the wind has combined with her original quirk to allow her a much better sense of her surrounded area that her mother only acquired due to being blind and having to rely on that instead of sight.  It is not impossible to sneak up on her, but it is quite difficult.”

“You mentioned that before,” Kayama said slowly, “they get magic even when they aren’t transformed?”

“A side effect of using their miraculous for an extended period of time,” Nedzu confirmed, “it is most obvious in our two quirkless individuals, as Midoriya essentially has a quirk, and Dupain-Cheng’s ability to create things is outside of the normal speed.  They are also of superior quality.  If I thought she had any indication to create outside of fashion or baking, I would have suggested she move to the support course instead.”

Maijima hummed.  “And I assume I’m a relevant adult because I’m in charge of the costumes for our two new hero students?”

“Indeed!  While their costumes are magical, and thus will be whatever they desire, you most likely noticed that their requested designs were quite similar to their former hero costumes, bar a few changes.  Midoriya, for one, has already expressed his glee about actually maintaining this height now.  Apparently, it was something his kwami, his bound god, found amusing.”

Aizawa snorted.  “A good disguise.  Will the other French heroes be making an appearance?”

“If they locate the reason they came here, perhaps.”

Kayama frowned and leaned back.  “So they don’t know why they’re here?  Then why are they?  Just for school?”

“Magic works in mysterious ways,” Nedzu said cheerfully, “I expect that we will know why they came before summer.  In the meantime, they are also children, and students at our school.”

Kurose slowly raised her hand.  “Why… am I here?”

Nedzu nodded.  “The USJ will be the first time they are wearing their new costumes and potentially using their powers.  In case something happens, I wanted you to be aware.  In addition, Midoriya expressed interest in being a rescue hero on his admission forms.”

She blinked, then beamed.  “Oh, that’s wonderful!  Because of the quirk sense?”

“Indeed.  It’s vastly expanded when he’s transformed and focused, so he would be able to find even buried victims.”

Yamada chuckled.  “Good for the listener.  Why, uh, why am I here?  I don’t have any of these kiddos in my class.”

Nedzu leaned back, steepling his paws.  “Part of it is the sports festival, so you know what to and not to say.  While they will not be allowed to use their miraculous to compete, we will be asking them what they want their quirk status to reflect.  This works best if you’re already aware of their technical powersets.”

The blond man waited for a moment before prompting him.  “And the other part?”

Nedzu simply smiled and let his gaze flicker to Aizawa once.  Neither man picked up on it.  A shame!

“Regardless,” Nedzu clapped his paws, “we will be supporting the five of them in fighting off some cosmic evil when it inevitably appears, even if that help comes merely in the form of letting them out of class when required.  As they have the equivalent of provisional licenses, they will technically require authorization to act, but I have already given them that permission, and I expect that if the Commission or the police ask, you will reaffirm that permission.  Are there any other questions?”

Aizawa snorted.  “Several, but I’d rather ask the source, since you admitted you don’t know everything for once.”

Nedzu pouted.  “Your Mist would likely know more, but they’re notoriously tight-lipped, and this has managed to stay under the radar for all these millenia.  The resources I have available to me are not many.  Perhaps I’ll be able to tempt the Grand Guardian into telling me more!  As it stands, they are very secretive, for good reason from what I can gather, and I ask that you do not ask them too many questions, or at the very least respect their wishes if they do not wish to answer.  Thank you, meeting adjourned!”

He gathered up the meeting minutes he’d carefully written and stuck them in a manila folder, ready to drop on All Might’s desk.  Really, the man was hopeless, and he never would have hired him if he’d had a choice.  Truly, an awful teacher.  An excellent hero, yes, but a terrible teacher.

Nedzu huffed and grabbed a sticky note as well.  “Read before Friday - USJ Trip”.  There, that ought to do it.  He had three full days to read the folder.  He’d be teaching this class for the rest of the year, after all, and as the number one hero it was important there weren’t any misconceptions about their important guests.  For all that he’d mostly called the kwami “little bound gods” for simplicity's sake in the meeting, he knew he wasn’t terribly far off, and he was not keen to invoke their wrath.  Especially the wrath of the Black Cat, who as far as he was aware, was directly or indirectly responsible for several incidents of destruction in the past five millennia that Nedzu did not want to see localized on his school.  The rest of the kwami also sounded like they could wreck absolute havoc on his kingdom, and he’d rather avoid that if at all possible, for multiple, obvious reasons.

First and foremost, that meant protecting and supporting their chosen holders.

The early trip to school on Friday to give them time to change before loading up on the bus for the field trip was slightly mocked by the three business course students, but they’d had to get up just as early anyway out of instinct when the rest of their apartment was doing the same, so it wasn’t as if they had much in the way of extra sleep.

Most of the class got there at the same time, taking their briefcases of costumes into the changing rooms.

Izuku hummed in pleasure as he felt the material between his fingers, angling his body so Nooroo could inspect what he was going to be mimicking,which he did, curiosity pushing him a little more in the open than he’d usually be.

Izuku picked up the note Powerloader had left attached to the goggles.

“Oh,” he said softly, “he made the fronds pick up radio waves for police scanners.  That'll be handy, there’s a knob on the side of the goggles to adjust for frequency…”

He quickly shucked off his clothing to change.

Iida gasped.  “Midoriya!  You have a tattoo?!  That is not appropriate for a UA student!”

Izuku blinked as the entire boys locker room turned to him, and he looked down.  “Oh.  Oh!   Uh, no, this wasn’t on purpose.”

That seemed to make Iida even more offended as he stared at the light blue mark.  “It is a gang sign?!  I must report this at once-”

“It’s not a fucking gang symbol,” Katsuki snarled, dragging down his collar to expose his own feather, “its a mark of a survivor.  Couple people in France got em.  Pretty sure his cousin does too.”

Izuku nodded.  “On her hip.  The sword.  Mine was my hoodie, I was holding it around my heart because… panic attack.”

Katsuki snorted.  “That’d do it.  The others?”

“Nope, those three are clear.  I think Chloe is the only other one in our group?  Yeah, Bri and Luka are clear too.”

“Huh.”

“Well,” Kirishima said a little awkwardly with a lot of cheer, “it looks pretty manly!  And it has this like, shimmer.  Do you, uh, mind if we ask what happened?”

Izuku pursed his lips for a moment before shrugging.  “It was an effect of someone’s power.  We got used to create something, so we got marked for it.  She was feather themed, so the mark was a feather.”

“What a wild quirk,” Kaminari blinked, “but hey, free tattoo!  It didn’t hurt, right?”

“Nope.  I mean, getting the mark didn’t, anyway.”

Katsuki twitched and kept putting his gear on, the collar of his costume coming up to cover the iridescent feather.  That explained why no one had seen it before.

Izuku started to do up the velcro on his own costume, most of the buttons fake.  It was a seamless fit, but the lack of actual buttons made it much faster to take on and off, and the fabric was stretchy to a point.  The jacket was heavier than he expected, as were the leggings and the vest, since they were the ones with the most armor added in.  The boots had thick soles with a good grip, and the cane strapped to his side easily.  He tugged on the reddish brown gloves and stretched out his arms to see the gliding wings.  They looked a little less like the moth wings they were based on to make them more streamlined and catch the wind better, but there was a line he could pull to stiffen them, so they’d supposedly actually slow him down slightly.

“Wow,” Sero blinked, “you look pretty spiffy, Midoriya!  And very themed!  Is your quirk something to do with moths?”

He pulled out Apollo, Emerald, and Deedee with a smile, letting them flutter around him.  “Yeah.”

Katsuki scoffed and walked out of the room, and Izuku winced.  Katsuki knew now, Izuku had given permission for his mom to tell his old friend and the boy had been quiet for a moment before scoffing and saying he “ knew Zukun hadn’t actually quit being a vigilante,” but it was still a minor point of contention.

Kouda hung around Izuku with slightly wide eyes as the boy slowly trickled out to the buses where most of the girls were waiting.

Kagami did indeed look quite similar to Tsunami, but she was now in blue and silver instead of red and gold, and her suit was more armored and less skin tight, playing off the samurai plating she’d had covering her hips before and giving her a pattern that looked a lot more like a samurai.  She was cocking her head back and forth as if listening to something with a small smile playing off her lips.  Her horns were interesting, it seemed.

The other costume that really caught Izuku’s eye was Yaomomo’s.  Her arms were completely bare, and there was a large line of magnets up her spine holding her jacket together.  Her shorts were also pretty short, exposing much of her legs, and she was only wearing sneakers.  Reinforced ones with metal soles, it looked like, but still sneakers.

Izuku sidled up to her.  “You look… chilly.”

She gave a ladylike giggle behind one hand.  “Thank you.  If all else fails, I can create anything I need to warm me up, so I’m not particularly worried.  The exposed skin is for my quirk, as anything I create comes from my body, remember?”

She held out a hand, palm up, and with a flash of pink sparkles, one of the smoke bombs was there.  He took it with a chuckle.  “This brings back memories.”

“Indeed,” she said wryly, “as does this outfit of yours.  It’s different enough, but I do recall standing directly next to you, looking in through the ballroom door.  You also happened to be a head shorter.”

Izuku laughed nervously.  “Did I?  Weird.”

Kagami snorted.  “You are still quite terrible at this whole lying thing, dear cousin.”

“I can lie!  When it matters!  But she already connected the dots!  It’s not like it’s hard.”

“And you, Kagami,” Momo turned, “what inspired your costume?”

Kagami turned to Izuku with a deadpan expression and a slight smile.  “I was inspired by one of Lune’s champions, Climatika.”

“Oh, how lovely!  A tribute to your cousin and your quirk!”

“Yes, I admired her powers.”

Izuku thought murderous thoughts in her direction, and based on how her grin widened, she received them.

Aizawa called them to get on the bus, and Iida deflated when he realized the bus layout was different than he’d assumed, but not many people had lined up anyways, so he wasn’t too beaten up about it.

Katsuki sat beside Izuku.

“I know it feels like cheating,” Izuku confessed after a few moments of silence, the chatter of the bus blocking out his words from their bench, “but I would have been a hero without it.”

Katsuki scoffed.  “I fucking know.”

“But I love helping people.”

“Of course you do.  It’s you.”

“And we couldn’t tell anyone until Mari was made the guardian, or it would have been taken away.”

“I didn’t expect you to fucking tell me, I’m not entitled to your shit.  Plus, I barely saw you for a day, and Auntie was keeping me updated.  Hell, Auntie didn’t even know until last week!”

“Then…why are you mad, if it’s not because I’m lying and cheating?”

Katsuki huffed.  “Because-”

“Bakugo, I tend to say what I am thinking,” Tsu interrupted without realizing.

Izuku barely paid attention to the following conversation past musing in slight awe that people were making fun of his childhood best friend without consequences past some yelling, and soon enough the bus slowed to a stop and Aizawa made them all file off.

“Because,” Katsuki said lowly as they were gathering in front of Thirteen, “I fucked up and just made you afraid just coming to school, but they gave you something I couldn’t.”

Izuku hesitated.  “What?”

Katsuki grunted.  “Hope.”

“Welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!  Before we begin, I just have a few points, maybe three, or four, or five…”

Chapter Text

It happened very, very quickly.  The lights flickered, a space colored portal opened, and villains swarmed out into the plaza, sending Aizawa down to fight them, despite not being suited.  The portal reformed at the top of the stairs into a smartly dressed void with yellow eyes.  Izuku exchanged a glance with Kagami, pulling out his sandwich baggy of apple slices, she responded in kind with hers of carrots, and in the time they’d looked away, Katsuki had flung himself at the villain, only to disappear in a swirl of colored smoke.  In an instant, the villain spread out icy space cloud limbs to engulf the class, and most of them disappeared, including his cousin.

Izuku swallowed heavily.  Left at the top of the stairs was Thirteen, Satou, Kouda, and himself.

Ok, they had a pro hero, he could champion her-

She wasn’t experienced enough in combat to stop the portal man from turning her Black Hole against her.

“Lève mes ailes!”  He snapped, and Emerald was instantly on his hand.  He pushed them into the broken space suit. “Chrysalide.  Okay, let’s see, Ladybug isn’t up right now but Tikki should get the message…”  He sent the text off and hummed at the semi-immediate “seen” marker that popped up.  His pin beeped at him and he sighed, rising from the ground beside the hero and standing in front of his two classmates.

The portal man narrowed his yellow eye wisps.  “What have you done?”

He smiled sharply.  “Help is on the way.”

“Impossible, we shorted out all electronics.”

He shrugged.  “Mine was isolated from your blast.  Comes from the unique casing.”

Without another word, the villain disappeared, and Izuku let out a gasping breath, rushing back to the pale green chrysalis and laying a hand on it.

He breathed out.  “Okay, repose mes ailes” he looked at his two classmates as Nooroo went for the baggy, “she should be done in slightly more than five minutes, and nothing should be able to get in, but just in case, you guys should stay here.  I wasn’t bluffing when I said that help would be arriving, so when the teacher’s show up, get them to help.  I’m going to see if I can find our classmates.”

The storm zone chose that moment to burst open, a fierce wind dragging out two buoyant people, Uraraka and Todoroki, by the looks of it.  Kagami reformed beside them and he hummed.

“Okay,” he murmured, “that’s one down.  She’ll probably have the same idea… Roo, lève mes ailes, stay safe, you two!”

“What about you,” Satou said hesitantly, “shouldn’t you also stay here where it’s safe?”

Izuku gave him a lopsided smile and dove off the top of the stairs in response, letting himself glide to the ruins zone.  He was a hero.  He couldn’t afford safety right now.

Kagami closed her eyes as the portal swept her away to a very wet place, rain constantly deluging from the sky.  Two others appeared beside her and she cocked her head, letting her eyes slide to them.  Uraraka and Todoroki.  Adults appeared from the buildings, cackling about something or other, and she grabbed Todoroki’s right arm from where he’d raised it contemptuously.

“Don’t,” she said, “you’ll freeze us, as well.”

He huffed.  “Then what do we do?”

She slowly grinned.  “This is the storm zone.  Let’s bring the storm.”

Longg gave a muffled snort as he was sucked in and her grin went a tad feral.  “Dragon éclair.”

Her sword sparked as she drew it, drawn by the drops of water.  She didn’t need to become lightning at all, she just needed to wield it.

One of the mediocre villains got too close and she lunged.

She felt the power straining a little by the time they’d defeated the villains.  Uraraka and Todoroki had both been mildly proficient in hand to hand combat, Uraraka mostly playing baseball with them if she could get close enough to fling them.

She wiped her hair out of her face as she lost the lightning and her choker beeped for the first time.  “How long was that?”

Uraraka hummed.  “Like, ten minutes maybe?”

“Seven and a half,” Todorki refuted.

She hummed, pleased.  “I’ve gotten stronger.  Also, I believe I’ve found the door.”

Not a moment too soon, it seemed, as some of the villains were waking up and turning mean glares on the three teenagers.

She clapped her hands.  “Uraraka, would you be able to remove the gravity on yourself and Todoroki?  I will then be able to ferry you out at great speeds, and Todoroki can ice the door behind us.”

Uraraka blinked.  “Really?”

“Dragon de vent,” she murmured in response, and let herself become ephemeral.  “Do hurry, I’m not certain I can hold it for long.”

Within no time, the other two were floating, and she ferried them out like they were leaves, setting them down and reforming just in time for her detransformation to wash over her.  Longg dove into the bag of carrots, hidden from prying eyes.  She spotted a flash of green as her cousin glided from the top of the staircase to the Ruins zone, and she hummed, turning to the flood zone in time to see Tsu and Kaminari drag themselves on shore.  Kaminari looked slightly dazed as Tsu tugged him up the shore, and she could taste the ozone from that zone.

That was one down, she mused, which made it three cleared zones.  Her gaze turned to where her teacher was fighting a horde of low level grunts, and her gaze narrowed on the three figures standing back by the fountain, simply watching.

Evidently, Todoroki had seen them too, as he was already stepping in that direction.

Kagami sighed and rolled her eyes.  “Longg, amène la tempête.  Izzy would be upset if a classmate died.”

Uraraka gave a choked snort.

Kagami never got close before the great hulking black beast moved.

Izuku met Iida, Hagakure, and Shouji when they were a block or two out from the exit of the Ruins Zone, helping them knock out the last gang of goons  It had helped that Iida was so fast, because he was easy enough to identify, going around and luring villains into alleys where Hagakure would trip them into Shouji’s waiting fists.  She also took to throwing bricks at people.

They exited the Ruins Zone, and Izuku didn’t see the black beast move, but he heard the crunch.  His breath caught in his throat, and barely felt the prickle of small feet alighting on his glove.  He looked down at Daredevil with wide eyes.  He wasn’t excited anymore; the moth was sitting there, his wings twitching in agitation.

He didn’t hesitate to pour his power into the bug.  He pushed his senses out and gagged when he came across the beast, a swirling mass of three colors that met with mud, trying to tug away, but they were all stuck together and couldn’t escape.  It was as if three people had been shoved together, but that was impossible, right?

Right?

Tsu could only stare as her teacher was forced into the ground with a sickening crunch and watched as a pale green butterfly flew into the beatdown before it disappeared like it was never there.  It must have been destroyed, she mused morbidly, but she had no idea why it was even there in the first place.

She was about to turn away when her eyes were drawn back to Aizawa as he changed in a whirl of green, the same color as the wayward butterfly.

The nomu, the hulking beast, was forced aside, and her teacher stood up, and Tsu wondered.

"Aizawa Shouta, you have a choice."

Of course he didn’t.  He has to protect the students-

"I can heal you.  It will take time, and you won't be able to be attacked while it happens, but you'll also be out of commission."

He hurts badly, but he can't afford that.  Not much of a choice, so there must be more.

"Or I can strengthen you.  Bind your wounds as they are, let you stand and fight.  But you might get hurt worse, and I can only do one at a time.  If I'm fast, I might be able to heal you after."

It's not even a choice.  He won't stand by while his kids get hurt.

"Are you sure?"

Of course.

"Okay, sensei.  Defend us, Null.  Métamorphose ."

Power rushed through him and it wasn’t healing, but it was close enough.  He felt his wounds grow numb as if they were removed from him.  Still there, but separated by a layer of difference, like they weren’t really his.  His limbs surged with strength and he mindlessly shrugged the nomu off, standing to his full height.

Null pushed the nomu away and glared at the hand villain.

Where previously his capture scarf had been a tool, now it was quite literally an extension of himself, and he knew he could control it with merely a thought.  His vision had spots of red in them, little blips of erasure as it extended into a field, and his eye was fine.  Half of his hair floated around him, just in the corner of his eye, and half covered his right eye.  It seemed even the miraculous couldn’t fix that quite yet.

The hand villain scratched his neck in agitation.  “What?  You’re cheating!  Nomu!  Kill him!  Kill Eraserhead!”

He glared and his scarf wrapped around the nomu’s arm as it came for him.

“It’s weaker,” he remarked idly as its strength faltered, “because I’m not Eraserhead.  I’m Null, and no quirks work around me.  Doesn’t matter how many you have.  Now, let’s wrap this up, hmm?”

And then he moved.

“Repose mes ailes,” Izuku sighed and immediately dug in a pocket for his packet of apples.

Nooroo easily grabbed a slice, ate it in one bite, and then took a second one to nibble on.

“He’ll be fine,” Izuku told himself, “he’s stronger than them now.”

Nooroo bobbed his head.  “His power set is easy to enhance and a perfect counter for the muti-quirked beast.  If we can maintain the connection until medical assistance arrives, that would be best.”

Izuku blew out a breath.  “Right.  How close to recharge?”

Nooroo downed the apple.  “Ready.”

He cast a glance at his classmates, grateful that they were too transfixed to hear his whispering  “Roo, lève mes ailes!”

He breathed deeply and reactivated his bond with Null, pulling his goggles down.  “Ok,” he muttered, “let’s check our messages and see if Tikki pulled through…”

“Null, you just have to hold out for another three minutes, I have backup and emergency services in bound.”

He grunted.  “How did you manage that?”

“Miraculous connections aren’t hindered by regular EMP, they’re on a separate signal.”

“Who’s my backup?”

“All Might first, rest of staff second.”

Null grimaced.  “Ah.  Finally.  He might not have much to do, however.”

He could hear Lune wince.  “Maybe, maybe not.  You got a hefty power up, but…”

He sighed.  “And you’re the only thing keeping me conscious, I gather?”

“Yeah…”

“If you had to guess how long I have, is it at least more than three minutes?”

“Yeah, probably, and we reset so I can feed you a bit more power if it seems like you’re going to fail.  Just don’t need a Hail Mary and you’ll last long enough to get to the hospital.”

He nodded in acknowledgement.  “Get your classmates out.”

“Already on it.  It looks like Yaoyorozu cleared out her zone, Kacchan got his, the two of them and Nami got the Landslide… that’s everyone, the students are all evacuating.”

“Problem Child…”

“I am too, don’t worry!  I’m currently by the Ruins, but we’re sneaking up the stairs.”

“Where is your cousin?”

“I think… working with Uraraka to airlift the injured students.  Yaoyorozu looks to be getting the systems back online…”

As if on cue, the lights flickered and the security system rebooted, turrets rising around the plaza and shooting nets and bola at the cannon fodder.

“What’s my range on canceling?”

“Red spots.  Hold over from your quirk.  Merde , warp gate inbound, be on guard!”

Purple and black mist formed beside the agitated hand villain.

“Shigaraki Tomura,” he intoned, “it seems the security has reset.”

“Kurogiri, I can see that,” Shigaraki snapped, “can you give me any good news?”

“Thirteen was incapacitated.  A student managed to get a message out.”

“I said GOOD news!  If you weren’t our way out, I’d dust you!”

Yellow eyes narrowed on Null and he smirked, still restraining the struggling nomu and just looking at them.

“Eraserhead.”

“Null,” he corrected.

“He got a freaking power up,” Shigaraki scratched his neck hard enough to draw blood, “and I still haven’t figured out how!  The heroes are fucking cheating and the nomu is useless!”

“I was not aware that Eraserhead could erase more than one quirk at once.”

“He can’t,” the manchild shrieked, “but Null can, apparently!  It’s bullshit!”

Null smirked and noted his current range.  Five feet, so close combat was the name of the game.

A bola shot at the two remaining villains and was warped away to aim at Null, and his scarf easily batted it away, rippling in agitation.

He glared and felt his range increase.

“Yeah,” Lune muttered, “increasing your range uses up the power I can give you, and means you’re going to drop your transformation.  Ok, resource management, I’m great at this, see if you can neutralize those two, they’re the ringleaders.”

He huffed.  “I got it, kid.”

“Sorry, I’m not used to championing heroes…”

“You’ve never championed a hero before?”

“Um, no?  Non-miraculous heroes always cleared out, and I’m not strong enough to champion a miraculous hero yet.”

He leapt forward and tried to snare the two of them in his range to put them out of commission, but Kurogiri swept them up in a portal as soon as he moved, putting them thirty feet away.

“Nice reaction time,” he said mildly, “but I can still use my original quirk, you know.”

“Sort of, most of it was converted into an area of effect…”

“Problem Child,” he sighed, “will it vastly lower my time?”

“If you did it more than once?  Yes.  That’s one of the Hail Mary’s I talked about earlier, so make it count, Null.”

“If I can get them in my base range, I’ll only need to use it once,” he smirked, and he trained his eyes on the warp gate user and activated his quirk.

It burned, and suddenly he understood why the kid had been against him using it.  It was like using his quirk usually, dry eye and all, but he forgot that one of his eyes was practically shattered, and he could feel it.   All his wounds he had been able to ignore because of his miraculous power up came aching back and he grit his teeth and pushed through, looping his scarf around them and drawing them in.

He had to blink just before they were in range and they were both instantly gone.

He cursed.

“All students evacuated,” Midoriya rushed out, “Tsunami coming to assist!  Teachers arriving in five seconds!”

“No,” he grumbled, letting the ache fade a little, “because “students” includes you two.  Get out.”

The door burst open before he could respond and All Might scowled down at the plaza.

“I AM HERE.”

Shigaraki slowly grinned.  “Looks like we get a reset as well.  Kurogiri, free the nomu.”

“I cannot place portals within five feet of Null.”

“Fucking-” Shigaraki swore, “fine, ok, then we’ll just have to deal with the symbol of peace ourselves!  Fucking useless piece of shit nomu…”

Null felt his scarf tighten on the nomu.

“Eraserhead…?”

He rolled his eyes at his coworker.  “I have this one,” he drawled, “you have those two.  Quirks are warp gate and five touch decay.  Try not to die now that I’ve taken out the harder one.”

He dragged the nomu, no longer resisting, towards the entrance.  “Where are our first responders?  The sooner this guy is restrained the sooner I can go to the hospital.”

Present Mic forced his way into the USJ.  “Did I just hear you say you’d willingly go… to… who the hell are you?!”

He glared.  “Null.  Lune.”

His eyes widened.  “Oh, right, that was… huh.  Are you ok?”

He grimaced.  “Depends.  What’s my time, kid?”

“Another ten minutes…?”

“And the hospital is eight minutes away,” he sighed, “ok, let’s wrap this up.”

“Police are right outside, sending you visuals if I can figure out… yep, there we go.”

His vision shimmered and he saw the outside of the USJ that was swarming with police officers and ambulances, paramedics hovering over his students as his line of sight slowly moved to take them all in.

“I see it, thanks, kid.  On my way.”

Present Mic looked at him, and back into the USJ as teachers and staff streamed in around them.

“Go,” he said firmly, “we’ll take care of this.  How…how bad are you?”

Null grimaced and just walked past him.

He handed off the nomu to a police officer and watched at it passively allowed itself to be cuffed in heavy duty restraints before his student came up, goggles down and feathery antenna shifting slightly.

He didn’t say anything as his student dragged him over to a waiting ambulance.

The paramedic blinked.  “I thought you said-”

“He is,” Lune cut her off, “I won’t have enough power to do heavy duty healing, but I can put him in a chry- healing pod as soon as he’s on the gunnery, and it’ll get some things as well as keep him stable.  It’ll open when the power runs out or he heals.”

Null snorted and obligingly climbed on, gritting his teeth.

“This is going to suck,” he remarked idly, “isn’t it?”

The kid grimaced above him.  “Chrysalide.”

His vision went dark as he entered a healing sleep.

Izuku detransformed and felt more than saw Nooroo dive into his belt pouch.  Thirteen had risen from the other chrysalis when he’d been in the Ruins Zone, which is the only reason he’d managed to empower Deedee, and she was wobbling, but helping with the evacuation.

Kagami came up beside him, slouching.

“Part of me should have expected this,” she grumbled, “with how adamant Hime was on going to Japan, but honestly.”

He grunted in agreement.  “Do you think it’s related?”

“Hard to say.  The… nomu, it freaks me out”

He shuddered.  “Me too.”

“At least it wasn’t another Waterworks.”

He snorted.  “It wasn’t that bad.  I’d say this was about as traumatizing as Emperor Ciel, though.”

Her face scrunched up.  “That’s a high bar.”

“I… could see the main plaza when the nomu slammed sensei into the ground and heard the crack of his skull.”

She turned to him sharply.  “You did not say that before.”

He beamed.  “I was and still am on the verge of a mental breakdown!  I lost the connection with him before he officially made it to the hospital and I can assure you I am extremely worried for his well being, because it looked really fucking bad!”

She wrapped an arm around him.  “You helped him significantly by championing him, and you still have some power left for a chrysalis.  It could have been much worse.”

His breath hitched and he felt his eyes well up with tears as his face cracked.  “I know,” he sobbed, “but he was so hurt, and I was so scared, it didn’t ever get that bad with Paon and Vixen, they didn’t target with the intent to kill unless it was an accident, ever-”

She hushed him softly and held him while he cried.

“I’ve got you,” she murmured, “and I’ll always have you.  We will protect each other.  [Or are we not a team?] ”

He hiccuped and nodded into her.  “[Of course we are.]”

He snickered wetly after a moment. “Todoroki looked like a wet cat.”

She snorted.  “He attempted to freeze the entire Storm Zone.  Honestly, as if I wasn’t right there, a storm dragon.  The audacity.”

“Which is why you didn’t move the water?”

She sniffed.  “He’s arrogant.”

“Pot.”

“My arrogance is backed up by skill.  Again, he was going to freeze a zone that had allies in it.”

“Fair.”

His phone rang.

He picked up.  “Hime?”

“<Oh thank kwami, you guys are okay!  How’d it turn out, did they get there in time?>”

He sighed.  “<Yeah.  Thanks, hime.  Only one person had to go to the hospital, and I managed to give him a chrysalis with the last of my power, so it shouldn’t be as bad as it could have been.>”

“<Roc to Waterworks?>”

“<Trivial.>”

She hissed in a breath.  “<Not great.  Okay, I’ll tell the others.  Maybe we’ll be able to drag Chloe and Luka over for Gami.  Get home safe, okay, we’ll talk again when school’s over.>”

He smiled weakly.  “Thanks, Mari.  See you then.”

He hung up and breathed.

Chapter Text

They met in the gym after school, like usual.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Me too.”

They went to warm ups, like usual, before Aizawa would usually show up.  Yamada did instead.  Neither mentioned it.

Yamada didn’t super know everything that was going on (only they and Aizawa did) so he left them with some exercises and then said he’d take them home when they texted him, but he had paperwork to do, things to grade, etc.  They let him go.

They gave it thirty seconds before Hitoshi broke and dashed over to hug her awkwardly.  She snorted wetly and hugged back, much more practiced in the motion.

“Momo,” he said under his breath, “what the fuck.”

She pulled back and wiped at her eyes.  “It wasn’t even hard.   The only person who was ever in danger was Aizawa.  Well, yes, technically if we’d ever dropped our guard we would have been in danger too, but we weren’t really, because our class has some exceptionally strong individuals…”

Hitoshi pulled back and put his hands on her shoulders.  He was only barely taller than her so he met her gaze evenly.  “Tell me what happened.”

She nodded.  “When we arrived, everything was fine, and Thirteen gave a speech on the potential dangers of quirks, using her own as an example.  Then, the lights flickered and a black and purple cloud formed in the central plaza.  It was a portal, and out poured hordes of low level criminals, both there and apparently all over the USJ.  After Aizawa went to go fight the ones we could see, the portal formed into a villain at the top of the stairs, and he scattered us to each of the USJ’s zones.  I ended up with Sero and Ojirou in the Conflagration Zone, the one that’s on fire, but I made masks to deal with the smoke and water is one of the easiest things to make so-”

“Momo?”

“I-”

“Breathe slowly.”

After a few seconds, he broke her out and let her calm down without the haze, but she kept the breathing pattern for a moment.

“Thanks,” she whispered.

“No problem,” he whispered back, “you can stop.”

“No,” she shook her head, “it wasn’t even that bad.  Ojirou is a fourth cousin of the Saru main branch, so he fought just fine.  Sero wasn’t doing too well, as the heat was such that it would melt his tape, making some foul smelling fumes that were… potentially toxic?  Again, we were all wearing masks.  We made it out of the zone just fine, just in time to see sensei rise from the ground from underneath this great big beast.  But… but he was different.   His quirk had changed to be a field, and even though he was clearly injured, he moved like he was fine.  He completely neutralized the monster and tried to fight the portal villain and the other one, but he couldn’t get close before they portalled away.  Kagami and I helped evacuate everyone, and we only had a few people who actually needed medical attention… it was really just Aoyama and Jirou, she’d gotten caught in an explosion of acid and had a few surface level burns… The last I saw of Aizawa, he was being taken to an ambulance by Izuku.”

Hitoshi hummed.  “The two cousins from France.  The… Silver Dragons, right?”

She nodded.  “They seemed so calm and collected…  I suppose it’s because Izuku was a hero in France already, he’s probably used to this.”

Hitoshi blinked.  “He was a what.”

Momo nodded.  “I didn’t realize until I saw him in his costume, but he was Lune.”

“The person who inspired you to figure out gases and liquids?”

“Yes!”  She beamed.  “His friend Ladybug embraced chaos, so I could do the same and be a better hero!  Plus, now I can afford to be a fire hydrant, since I’ve figured out how to use my quirk better.”

Hitoshi shook his head.  “Momo, you’re terrifying sometimes.  I don’t even know why you need a bodyguard.  By the time I’m good enough you’re going to be leagues ahead of me.”

She giggled.  “Well, we’ll still be friends, so it will just give us an excuse to hang out more.”

He smiled slightly.  “Yeah.  So, was Kagami a hero too?”

Momo shrugged.  “Maybe?  I didn’t see all of them at the time, and I didn’t pay close attention to the news out of France either.  I couldn’t tell you.  She was a fencer, I know that much.  Perhaps it was simply that she was used to villain attacks because her cousin was involved.”

“Well,” he cocked his head, looking at the ceiling, “you said this Izuku kid uses a…miraculous, right?  That’s what lets him champion people.  It changes their abilities, right?  So that’s what happened to Aizawa?”

She blinked.  “I didn’t even consider that.  It makes sense.”

“So does his cousin have any overpowered unexplained abilities?”

“She…could turn into the wind.”

He waved a hand.  “There you go.  Means she probably has a miraculous.  You said her mom only had Surround Sense, right?  So the quirk evolution is possible, but highly unlikely.  Also transforming into the wind is kind of insane.”

She snorted.  “True.  Huh.”

Hitoshi fidgeted for a moment before blurting, “do you want to hear the latest of the stupid?”

Momo giggled.  “I do.  What did they do this time?”

“Little Man sat on Aizawa’s lap, a classic, when they were grading next to each other on the loveseat, sorry, the couch, and Yamada was petting him, obviously, because you don’t just not pet Little Man when he graces you with his presence.”

“Of course.”

“But then he got distracted and wasn’t paying attention so he stopped petting Little Man and was just resting his hand there, but he was resting his hand on Aizawa’s thigh and even though they both clearly noticed, Yamada whined something about being too lazy to move and they just accepted that?  And sat with Yamada’s hand on Aizawa’s thigh for the rest of the night.   I feel like I’m going insane.”

Momo patted him commiseratingly on the back.  “Yesterday in class I overheard him saying, “finally a meme I relate to,” and it was one of the “kissing the homies goodnight” memes.”

Hitoshi put his head in his hands.  “This is so depressing.  They’re so stupid.  Have we tried locking them in a closet together?”

“Aizawa has lockpicks on his person at all times.”

“Barring the door?”

“Two pro heroes in their thirties.”

“…Putting them in a sealed metal box?”

“If we don’t want them to suffocate, they’ll use the small holes as a means of escape.”

Hitoshi sighed.  “One day.”

She snorted.  “Don’t hold your breath.  It’s been like this since I was born .  It’s not happening any time soon.”

“Maybe we can have them visit in the hospital?  A sort of “I realized how much you meant to me when I saw you hurt” type deal?  I’ll have Yamada take me and then conveniently need to go to the bathroom, leaving them alone to discuss their feelings.”

“Might I remind you, two pro heroes?  The hospital is unfortunately nothing new.”

He frowned.  “We’ll see about that.  I’ll give a heartfelt speech.”

She stared at him for a moment, not saying anything.

“I’ll give an awkward speech,” he amended, “and it will seem totally rehearsed.  Damn.  Okay, but Aizawa was injured, right?  Yamada can play nursemaid!”

“Only if he’s not cooking.”

“Point.”

Momo sighed.  “We need an innocent child to assume they were dating or married and then ask them about it.  They’ll awkwardly try to explain they’re not, but then the child will be confused and teary and in their explanations they’ll realize they do actually care about each other a great deal and they’ll kiss right there after staring soulfully into each other’s eyes.”

“You’ve been watching way too many k-dramas.”

“It could happen!”

He rolled his eyes.  “Where are we going to get an innocent child?  I don’t know any children, and this is on purpose.”

“I assumed we’d just… find one on the street.”

“Momo, my lord liege, that is called kidnapping.”

“Only if Kayama is involved.”

“St-stop being funny.  Ha.  Ow.”

“Laughing doesn’t injure you, Hitoshi.”

“It does.  I’m so used to misery and loneliness that I don’t know how to laugh anymore.”

“You’re dead to me.”

“Only on the inside.  The outside is still able to be puppetted as you see fit, my lord.”

“I’ll catch you off guard one day and make you laugh so hard it actually hurts you.”

“You’re so mean to me, a poor cat.  Just a little kitty.”

“You’re confusing yourself with Little Man again.”

“He’s just a little guy!  A mini man!  A tiny bro!”

“Yes, yes, he’s your favorite.”

“You’re just biased for Cricket because you’re the one who named him.”

“He chirps!  Like a cricket!  It was a perfect name and I will not take criticism for it.  Also I was seven.”

She smiled as they continued to bicker, just sitting in each other’s presence.  She was worried for Aizawa, yes, but his son and her best friend was doing an excellent job of distracting her, and she couldn’t ask for more.

“Felix.”

“No.”

“Felix I need to go to the bathroom.”

“Should have thought of that before you sat down.”

“How was I supposed to know you’d drape your heavy ass all over me?”

“My ass is perfect, thank you.  It was designed that way, you could say.”

“Stop.”

“I’m allowed to be morbid about my origins if I want to be, Izuku.”

“Can I please get up?”

“No.”

“It wasn’t even my fault.”

“I know.”

“I did everything I could.”

“You did.”

“Then why are you smothering me?”

“I’m not smothering, I’m mo-  Hmm.  Now there’s a thought.”

Felix sat up and Izuku immediately squirmed out from under him, darting for the bathroom.  “Continue having thoughts, I’ll be right back!”

Felix waited until he heard the bathroom door close.  “Duusuu.”

“Yeeeees?”

“Do you remember all your sentimonsters?”

Duusuu nodded eagerly.  “Oh yes!  I even like most of them!”

“Could I recreate another holder’s sentimonsters?”

“Of course!”

“Would they remember?”

Duusuu stopped.  “You mean can you bring them back.   Not a copy, then.”

Felix nodded.

Duusuu hummed.  “Yes, I think so.  You have to be very careful that you make them as they were, not as how you wish them to be, because otherwise they just look the same.  But yes, you can.”

He smiled at her.  “Excellent.”

He walked out of the apartment and down the hall, knocking.

Inko opened the door.  “Oh, hello Felix!  Dinner isn’t for another hour or two.”

He smiled.  “I know.  I’m going to attempt to recreate Static for bonus mothering if you want to meet her.”

Izuku poked his head out of the other apartment.  “There you are, I was wondering where you went.”

Felix smirked.  “Get Adrien and then get in here.  We’re hanging out in the girls’ apartment.”

Izuku blinked, but ducked back in to call Felix’s cousin as Inko smiled and opened the door wider, letting the three of them in.

Kagami glanced up from where she was on the couch.  “Why are you here?”

Felix smirked.  “Duusuu, spread my feathers.”

She looked over all of them, and then down at her outfit with a slight sigh.  “Duusuu,” she sighed, “why.”

Trixx snickered.  “Gender is an illusion!  Name?”

She tugged at the sectioned coat over the indigo leggings.  “Iris.  We’ll stick with a flower theme, apparently.  The sections are colored at the three iris flower petals, after all.”

Adrien snorted.  “Flowers, huh?”

“Be quiet,” she snapped, “and let me think.  Duusuu said this had to be careful.”

She flicked out her fan, feeling her protectiveness and desire to comfort, to calm, and ran her fingers over the ribs of the fan until they stilled on a particular feather.  She plucked it easily and held it between her fingers as she breathed out, picturing Static and filling the feather with her emotions.  It turned a brilliant dark blue, and she walked over to her boyfriend with a slight smile before pressing it into his hoodie.

Izuku looked at her with wide eyes as the sound of static filled the room ever so slightly.

“Oh my,” Inko said.

“Oh my,” Static said.

“Gee Izuku,” Adrien whined, trying to not laugh and failing, “how come Iris lets you have two moms?”

Izuku sniffed daintily.  “Well clearly my father wasn’t going to step up.”

Kagami, Inko, and Static all choked on a laugh.

Iris beamed.  “So it turns out we can bring them back.  Wait, you do remember everything, right?”

Static chuckled and tugged on one of Izuku’s curls.  “Oh yes.  Whatever happened to that nice guitar boy?”

“I’m dating him,” Kagami said, “he didn’t get far.”

“Oho,” Static chuckled exactly like Inko did, and Iris could see the woman was fascinated.

As if thinking about her had been enough, Static suddenly turned to Inko and took her hands.  “You have raised a wonderful son.”

Inko smiled bashfully.  “Thank you.  And thank you for keeping him safe as long as you could.”

“Oh,” Static waved her off, “he could do that all on his own.  I was just there to support him.  He picked very good friends.”

Inko smiled.  “That he did.  Iris, dear, how long will Static be able to stay?”

She hummed.  “The weekend.  She’s too sapient to stay for any longer, she’ll start breaking down.”

“Oh, I’ll just stay for one,” Static said warmly, “I imagine the tingly feeling will get annoying after too long.”

Inko chuckled.  “It’s definitely interesting.  I do have to ask why Izuku isn’t as staticky as last time, however.”

“Oh that’s simple,” Static said cheerfully, “while I was formed with the same purpose, I wasn’t formed with the same emotions, or from the same source!  Now, the static comes from me, instead of from Izuku through me.”

“Fall my feathers,” Felix sighed out, settling beside his boyfriend once more.  Duusuu darted into the kitchen, giggling all the while, and dove into the fridge for the blueberries.

Static bustled into the kitchen with Inko, who was not at all creeped out by this doppelganger and was instead very much eager to exchange motherly advice with someone who was created for the purpose, but had little experience.

After dinner, they split across the apartments to sleep, and Izuku sat on his bed, Nooroo watching.

“Meditation again?”

Izuku gave a one shouldered shrug.  “I want to check on sensei, if I can find him.”

He transformed and tugged on his connection to Deedee, who hadn’t left the bedside of Aizawa, despite being out of juice, and easily found his sense stretched to the hospital.  He plucked at Deedee out of curiosity and felt the tiny portion of his power that was the butterfly, as well as his slight indignation at being woken up.  Izuku sent back a feeling of amusement, because constructs didn’t really need to sleep, but slowly and with some strain fed some power across.  Without prompting, Deedee entered something Aizawa was touching.

“Problem child?”

He blinked.  “Sensei, why are you awake?”

“I’m trying to convince the nurses to let me go by proving I don’t need rest.”

“Wh- Aizawa, it’s the same day!”

“Your chrysalis healed me significantly.  I won’t even scar.”

“I can feel that you’re still hurt, you know that, right?”

“Healing quirks weren’t as effective.  A side effect of the magic, I’m assuming.”

His heart sank and his teacher sighed across the connection.  “Kid, that wasn’t said to make you feel bad.  I would have been possibly crippled if you hadn’t healed me, and I can bear the pain for a bit.  Or, since your conduit has been hanging out and is now in my capture scarf yet again, you could probably even chrysalis me again.  I’m sure the doctors wouldn’t mind the chance to study the “quirk,” either.”

He bit his lip and tossed the idea back and forth in his head.  “Only if you ask them first.”

“Fine, I pinged them.”

“Are you otherwise doing okay?”

“No.  My roommate and son came to visit earlier and were constantly nagging me.  Betrayed by my own kin.”

He blinked.  “You have a son?”

“Adopted, but yes.”

“Oh, cool.  How old is he?”

“Old enough to be adopted.”

“I… if you don’t want to talk about your personal life you can just say.  I’m not even looking through your recent memories right now.”

“You can do that?”

“Yeah, most of the time when I go to champion someone I’m just looking for compatible emotions so I know they’ll probably be willing, and I don’t know them.  I usually get a flash of recent memories and basic information so that I can talk to them easier, but since I already knew your name I didn’t really need that with you.”

“Huh.  You’ll likely meet my kid eventually, he’s pretty cool.”

“Who’s your roommate?”

“Your English teacher.”

“Yamada?  Present Mic?  How’d that happen?”

“It was logical.  We were in the same year of school, and we needed a place to live.  It was smarter to rent together and split the cost, and then when we had enough money, we had a system and a schedule that would have been disrupted had either of us moved, so we simply continued living together.”

“Oh, so like, you got used to it and you had chores or whatever the other one was willing to do.”

“Exactly.  It was purely a logical decision.”

He squinted.  “Right.  Well, I just wanted to check on you-”

“Doctor’s here.”

“Oh, right, that.  Uh, what do they say?”

“They say go for it.  How much juice do you got?”

He pushed more power over.  “Enough.  Ready?”

“Ready.  See you on Monday, Problem Child.”

“Yeah, see you then, sensei.  Chrysalide.”

Chapter Text

Aizawa stepped into class on Monday looking no worse for wear save for a thin sliver of scar tissue under his right eye.  He walked like normal, spoke like normal, and seemed completely fine.  The class collectively breathed a sigh of relief when they realized, even Izuku.

He glanced at his cousin’s raised eyebrow and rolled his eyes.  “It’s not like I can see when I send a butterfly!”

“For announcements,” Aizawa sighed, “the sports festival is still going on in two weeks.  I’d tell you more, but I believe in gathering your own information.  Moving on…”

The class erupted into murmurs at that and he silenced them with a flash of red.  “Moving.  On.”

They passed through the rest of lessons with no small measure of anxiety and excitement, even if the sports festival was still two weeks away, until finally, it was lunch time.

Katsuki was the first one to want out of the room, opening the door to a crowd of people.

The blond in the front of the crowd sneered.  “So this is 1-A, huh?  The famous class that’s already fought off villains?  I must say, I’m not impressed.”

Katsuki sneered.  “You know us?  Can’t say the same.  Out of my way, extra.”

“Monoma Neito of 1-B,” the boy said fluidly, ignoring how Katsuki was already pushing past him, “your sister class.”

“Really sorry about my bro,” Kirishima said cheerfully, “he’s kind of, uh, just like that.  Nice to meet you, dude!”

“Wow,” another voice drawled, pushing through the crowd until the tall boy, “if that’s the face of 1-A, maybe the rest of us have a chance on attitude alone.”

The purple haired boy grinned with full teeth, casting lazy looking eyes over the rest of the class gathered behind the door.  At one point his smile turned slightly more genuine, but it was quickly back to mocking.

“I’m no hero course student,” he said, “but I hear that if someone does really well in the sports festival, they can get moved up.  Which, of course, also means that if you guys do too bad, you could get moved down.   Hope you’ve been keeping my seat warm.”

Monoma laughed obnoxiously.  “See?!  Even general studies students are threatening you!  I look forward to seeing you all drop out!   Hahahaha!”

“What is this crowd,” a disgusted voice rang out from down the hallway, and Izuku perked up, “are we not going to lunch?   Move.”

Felix pushed through the crowd and brushed off imaginary dust.  “Come on, I’m hungry.”

“I wasn’t done,” Monoma sneered.

Felix looked him up and down.  “I think you were.”

Monoma narrowed his eyes.  “This feeling… it’s familiar.”

Felix cocked his head.  “It is.  The instant hatred… ah.  It’s you.”

“Oh, you got ugly, I didn’t recognize you!”

Felix rolled his eyes.  “We saw each other once, from across a room.  What was your name, Natto?”

“Neito,” he was gritting his teeth, “and who were you again?  I don’t tend to remember the names of people who are beneath me.”

Felix shrugged.  “Sorry, did you say something?  I couldn’t hear you over the sound of being estranged from the family.”

“Estranged?!  If anyone is estranged it’s you and your father!”

“What is going on,” Kagami demanded, “and why is it keeping me from going to lunch?”

Felix turned away from Monoma entirely.  “Extended family.  He’s my second cousin, or something else equally unimportant.  Hime and my superior cousin are saving us a table.  Shall we?”

He offered his arm and Izuku took it with a confused, but still bright smile.  “We shall!  Um, bye people who were threatening us!”

They left their class and the crowd confused, and went to lunch.

(As people cleared out, especially a fuming Monoma, one of the threateners lingered, as did one of the class 1-A students.

“Did you have to do that,” the hero student sighed, “that whole dramatic bit?  You and I both know they won’t kick someone out to make room for you, they’ll just add you to the class.”

“I am a dramatic bit, so yes.  Who were the blonds?”

“One is Izuku’s… partner?  That wasn’t ever made clear.  Business course.”

“Huh.  They were both kind of assholes.”

“A little bit, yes.”

“Come on, Mo, say it out loud.  No one’s going to make fun of you for swearing.”

“Fine.  They were both kind of assholes.”

“Children.”

“Shit, hi dad.”

“Sensei!”

“Go to lunch.”

“Yep, got it.”

“Of course, I apologize.”

The teacher lingered in the doorway for a moment before sniffing.  “Fucking drama queens.”

Across the school, another blond drama queen sneezed.)

All Might was frowning at Izuku, and occasionally Kagami and Aoyama as well.

They were having a heroics lesson, which is why All Might was there, and Izuku couldn’t help but get the feeling that the number one hero didn’t like him for some reason.  Which sucked, because All Might was his favorite hero!  He had ended up turning the office in the boys’ apartment into a sort of shrine, where he just put all of his hero merch, and he was still slightly embarrassed at the sheer amount of All Might merch.

At a lull in the sparring, he sidled up beside his teacher.  “Um, sir?”

“Yes, Young Midoriya?  Do you have a question about the lesson?”

He scratched the back of his head.  “Um, no.  I was just wondering if you were… upset about something?”

All Might hummed.  “Young Midoriya, how would you describe your quirk?”

Izuku frowned.  All Might was one of the people authorized to know the truth, and according to Aizawa, they’d all already been informed.

“My… power, is to give people power temporarily?  Based off of their quirks, which I can sense.”

All Might’s smile grew tighter.  “Yes, I thought so.  That is all.”

He stood next to his cousin while they watched Uraraka throw Tokoyami across the room by grappling Dark Shadow.  “Have you noticed All Might acting weird?”

She eyed the hero.  “Yes.  My current assumption is that he’s quirkist.  Mother reported that he was uncomfortable around her once he found out she was blind.  As if that matters.”

“So he got read in and then thought we were weaker?  That’s… horrible.”

“I am sorry that your childhood hero doesn’t live up to the hype.”

He shrugged.  “I guess he really is Japanese, born and raised, even if he spent a lot of time in the States.”

“I’ll watch him,” Kagami said firmly, “he will not get away with underestimating us or treating us differently.”

“Young Midoriya will spar against Young Todoroki next.”

His head shot up and he blinked.  The quirked spars were going decently, no one was actively trying to hurt each other, but they were all still trying to win.  They didn’t have a really big field, so thus far they’d sort of all just been grappling.

Izuku stepped up to the field nervously.  Was this meant to scare him away?  Or was it meant to make him stronger?

All Might called the start of the fight and instantly ice surged in his direction.  He yelped and leapt up, sliding down the side of the mini glacier and stumbling as he landed.  They were only in gym uniforms, so he was essentially down to his quirk sense, and he flashed it briefly to pick Todoroki out of all this ice before heading in the boy’s direction.  As soon as he was seen, he had to dodge more ice, and he shivered as the cold settled in further, like he was a blanket it was burrowing into.  He really wanted to do that himself, but to an actual blanket.

“Give up,” Todoroki said tonelessly, “you have no chance of winning.”

“We don’t know that,” he puffed out a cloud of breath, “until it’s over.”

Another surge of ice that he barely dodged, but it sliced a line on his ankle.

“It’s over.”

“Not-t,” his teeth were chattering, he shouldn’t be getting this cold, “not yet-t-t.”

Todoroki frowned.  “It is.  You are on the verge of not moving.  I do not wish to give a classmate frostbite.”

“Kero,” Tsu interrupted, “butterflies hibernate in winter.”

“Oh,” Izuku said woozily, “that’s… never happened before.”

Kagami stalked forward and dragged him out.  “You have not been actively using your power during the winter.”

Translation: you didn’t get the butterfly until early December, and even then you weren’t using it much.  Now it’s all the time.

“It could just be his quirk,” Izuku hissed in Kagami’s ear as she hugged him close, sharing heat, “it could just be colder than we thought.”

“No doubt it was colder there, surrounded by ice, than it was here,” she murmured back, “but this is abnormal.  Longg informed me that this has happened before, but almost never so suddenly, and it was often caught before it could progress this far.  Hime will be the same when the weather gets colder.”

“What does everyone else get?”

“I will be more possessive and airheaded.  Ren will likely purr soon.  Felix has many months before he’s bonded enough with either miraculous to show signs.  He’ll probably just get more vain, to be honest.”

“Other than the purring thing that sounds like normal.”

She whacked him lightly.  “Are you tired?”

“Always.”

“More than usual?”

“No,” he giggled weakly, “just cold.”

He spent the rest of the class huddled up beside her, Katsuki standing guard on his other side and smelling like burned sugar as he radiated heat every time he popped off a small explosion.  Yaomomo gave them a concerned look, but Kagami waved her off, and by the end of class Izuku felt normal again.

Katsuki sidled up to him when they were changed out of their uniforms.  “Was it just a bad matchup?”

Izuku nodded.  “I didn’t even know about the weakness.”

“Well fucking learn.  Because that shit better not happen again, Zukun.  Or I’ll kill a bitch.”

Izuku snorted.  “Is it going to be me?  It usually is.”

“Maybe.  What crawled up All Might’s ass and died?”

“You noticed?”  Izuku sighed.  “We don’t know.  He knows, so our best guess is he’s trying to toughen us up because our quirks are either weak or nonexistent.  That or he’s trying to make us drop out.”

Katsuki scowled.  “Fucked up.  Let’s hope it’s the first one, or the bitch I’m killing will be wearing red white and blue.”

Izuku gasped.  “You’re going to fly to America and kill Stars and Stripes?!  Kacchan!”

“I changed my mind, I’m killing you.”

“If,” Kagami stepped up beside them, “you touch a single hair on his head-”

“Context,” Izuku waved her off, “he noticed All Might.”

Kagami huffed.  “Let us hope he is not a horrible bigot, then.  Are you two prepared for the sports festival?”

Katsuki scoffed.  “Fuck you, of course I am.  You’re all going to be pebbles beneath my feet when I crush all of you.  You can’t use your fucking magic in the stadium, I’ll blow you fuckers out of the water.”

Izuku and Kagami both snorted.

“What?!”

“Oh, nothing,” Izuku hummed.

“Fucking what?!”

“Your delusions will be met and obliterated,” Kagami said mildly, “as you do not quite know our might, quirks or no.”

He scoffed again.  “We’ll fucking see.  Come on, we still have fucking math class to get to, god…”

Aoyama lingered after school as his classmates departed.  He glanced around nervously as he made his way to the unused third stairwell, and let the door shut behind him.  He took a deep breath and pulled the package out of his bag, opening the tupperware and laying the offering on the ground.

“Hey, kid.”

He jumped and bowed.  “Oh Great One, I have brought you a fine selection today.”

The small floating cat grinned, showing off sharp, needlelike teeth.  “I can see that.  Ooo, a gorgonzola!  And an onion cheddar, those are pretty great… camembert, of course, a smooth brie… yes, this will do nicely.”

The cat god gobbled up the cheese at inhuman speeds and Aoyama shuddered with awe.  This, this was what a god was.

“I seek your blessing,” he babbled, “the sports festival is coming up and I wish to make my family proud…”

“Sure, whatever.  I’ll give you a boon.  You’ll know it when you see it.”

He looked up and beamed.  “Thank you, Great One!  I shall see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, course.  See ya.”

Aoyama gathered up the large handkerchief and stuffed it back in the tupperware, shoving the entire thing into his bag and running out of the building so he didn’t miss the train.  He knew UA was full of wonderful things, but he hadn’t expected to find an actual god that wished to be fed in cheese!

(“Plagg, there you are!  Where do you always disappear to after school these days?”

“The Egyptians were right, this is awesome.”

“What does that mean?  Plagg?  Plagg, what does that mean?!”)

Chapter Text

The energy as they stepped onto the field was intense, thrumming through them as Present Mic announced them, class 1-B close behind.  It was strange, being without Nooroo, and a glance at Kagami said she was feeling the absence of the kwami as well.  They tromped out onto the field, dark blue gym uniforms absorbing some of the sun already pounding down, and the stands reflected the bright light.

“The good weather is auspicious,” Kagami said seriously, “but if we do not get some shade, we will begin to bake.”

“Better than freeze,” Izuku snorted, “but yeah.  If things get serious there’s going to be plenty of sweat.”

Midnight cracked her whip as the last of the first year classes got onto the field.

“And now, for our student pledge, by our first year exam leader, who came first in the heroics exam and third in admissions overall!  Bakugo Katsuki!”

The crowd released murmurs of surprise at that.  It was usually the first place hero student that gave the opening speech, but it was rare that they’d also topped the written portion as well, so third was an amazing accomplishment.

“Five second head start, one of us, including Yaomomo, is in first or second.”

“No bet,” he murmured back at his cousin, “Yaomomo’s really smart.”

“As are you.”

“Gami, hush, Kacchan is starting his speech.”

Katsuki looked out over the crowd of kids and sneered.  “I’m planning on winning this thing, so either bring it or get out.”

There was a shocked silence for a moment before half the students began to boo and jeer, but Izuku just let out a breathless laugh.

“He’s got a point,” he called over the crowd, grinning wildly, “if you’re not in this to win, why are you here?”

“He didn’t have to say it like that,” Kirishima wailed, “now everyone hates us even more!”

“That’s what you get for being friends with Kacchan!”

Midnight cracked her whip again, getting the crowds to silence.

“Students who are not participating, time to clear the field!  Let’s spin that wheel for our first event!”

The screen behind her spun and spun until it slowed to a stop, and she grinned wicked.

“Free for all Dodgeball!  Mic, explain the rules!”

“OHH YEAAAAH!  THIS ONE’S A FUN ONE; ONCE THE BUZZER GOES, STUDENTS WILL HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO EXIT THE STADIUM AND APPROACH OUR DODGEBALL FIELD!  LIKE A PAINTBALL FIELD, OUR AREA OF ASSAULT IS EQUIPPED WITH BASIC STRUCTURES IN WHICH YOU CAN HIDE!  ALSO SCATTERED AROUND ARE OUR FIFTY DODGEBALLS, THAT WORK CLOSELY WITH OUR CAMERAS TO FIGURE OUT WHO, EXACTLY, IS OUT!  IF YOU GET HIT ON YOUR SKIN OR UNIFORM, WE’LL CALL YOUR NAME OVER THE LOUDSPEAKERS AND YOU’LL MAKE YOUR WAY OUT WITH YOUR HAAAAAAANDS UP!  GET IT, LIKE MY RADIO SHOW?  ANYWAY, WE’RE GOING FOR TWENTY FIVE MINUTES OR UNTIL WE HAVE THIRTY PEOPLE OR LESS.  IF THERE’S STILL OVER FIFTY PEOPLE WHEN THE TIMER RUNS OUT, WE’LL HAVE SUDDEN DEATH MODE WHERE ALL THE COVER WILL DROP!   ALLIANCES ARE ALLOWED, BUT ONLY IF YOU CAN TRUST YOUR FRIENDS TO NOT HIT YOU IN THE BACK, LITERALLY!  OTHER THAN THAT, ANYTHING GOES, INCLUDING FACE SHOTS!  OUR FIRST YEARS WILL BE RELEASED IN THIRTY SECONDS!”

“If,” Eraserhead suddenly came over the speakers with a dark tone, “you maim anyone, you will be expelled.”

Izuku made brief eye contact with his cousin and then flicked his eyes over to where the business students were mostly gone.  Felix had expressed disinterest in the sports portion of the festival, preferring the betting the business course was operating, but Ren and Mari grinned right back at him.

“[Go south east,]” Ren cupped his hands around his mouth, “[we’ll meet up in the five minutes!]”

They turned back to the tunnel they’d all exit through.

“Looks small,” Kagami grunted, “and everyone else is closer.  Our first obstacle will be getting around everyone else and getting deep into the field before the time is up.”

Izuku hummed.  “Bad time to be missing our friends.”

Kagami snorted, clearly realizing which friends he was referring to.  “Indeed.  Luckily, Hime insisted we all take up free running as civilians.”

They braced themselves for the buzzer and immediately took off, ducking through people.

“Aw, no fair,” Ashido yelled, “you’re so small, Midoriya!”

Tsu snorted and attached her tongue to the top of the tunnel, slingshotting herself over the heads of the support and general studies students, and soon enough, most of their classmates were figuring out ways to get around the crowd.  It was definitely a crush of bodies, and at one point they all had to jump to avoid the ice that shot out to latch people to the floor, but after two minutes of pushing, they were free.

Izuku and Kagami took off to the south east, one of the corners, and quickly outstripped people.  Most of their classmates took off in different directions, with a few of them partnering up.

“[Princess, Sunshine?]”

“[Here,]” Ren called back, “any followers?”

Kagami tilted her head.  “None.  Let us plan and prepare.”

Marinette poked her head out.  “Agreed.  [We managed to find and gather seven balls in the time it took you to get here.  Structures are just pillars and walls, not real buildings, so no real ceiling.  For the drop, I assume.]”

“[Are Sword and I on sensing?]”   Izuku closed his eyes and spread out his quirk sense.  “[We only have a minute and people are moving closer.]”

Mari nodded.  “Yep.  Everyone grab a ball, use it to block if you need to.”

“We’re keeping track of hits, right?”  Ren grinned wide.  “Like, I’m so going to beat you guys.”

“No way,” Izuku protested, “I have great aim!”

“Boys, boys,” Marinette hefted her ball smugly, “we all know I’m the one winning this.”

Kagami rolled her eyes.  “In your dreams, Hime.”

The buzzer went off and they immediately settled lower, holding their dodgeballs up in front of their chests.

Izuku sensed for a pulse and indicated the other side of the wall, moving fast.

Kagami nodded and held up two fingers, then pointed to herself and Adrien, as the closest.  Adrien readied his ball with a grin and Izuku and Mari pressed themselves against the wall.

People ran around the wall and they threw, making two solid smacking noises.

“IKARI GONI, NOBUU HITARU, OUT!”

They grinned and high fived as the two students they didn't recognize groaned and started walking out of the arena entirely.  They weren’t the first people to get out, other names being rattled off rapidly with no time for Present Mic to get any commentary off, but they were the names they’d knocked out.

“Number wise,” Ren chirped, “we’re looking at the full contingent of hero and general courses, half of support, and us two from business.  If I got the class sizes right, that’s about 126 kids.”

“And about,” Mari cocked her head, thinking and listening, “thirty of those have dropped.  Sounds like we’re slowing down now.”

Izuku bit his lip and looked at the top of the walls in contemplation.  “It’s not too high up, and it looks like the height is relatively consistent.  Roof walking?”

Adrien whooped and dropped his ball briefly to make a support.

It was a little finicky, with him gently tossing the balls up to them when they were on the wall, then pulling him up with them and handing him one.  Kagami let out a deep breath and grinned.

“Yes,” she smirked, “wind flow is much better up here.  Shall we hunt?”

They spread out slightly as they took off at a light jog, trying not to make any noise.  They had people to get out.

“TWO MINUTES REMAIN ON THE CLOCK, AND WE STILL HAVE SIXTY THREE PARTICIPANTS!  SIXTY ONE, WOW, THAT REALLY IS THE DREAM TEAM, HUH?  TWO OF THOSE ARE YOURS, RIGHT ERASER?”

“The four of them came like that.”

Marinette smiled brightly.  “We sure did!  That’s ten to me!  Ren’s at nine, Gami’s at eight, and oof, Izzy, you're slacking at five.”

He rolled his eyes.  “I’m finding half of them for you, I want a finder’s fee of three points.”

“ONE MINUTE, FIFTY EIGHT PEOPLE!  WILL THAT NUMBER MANAGE TO DROP, OR ARE WE GOING TO SUDDEN DEATH?!”

Their leader sighed and tightened her pigtails.  “Okay, consolidate balls, give yourselves some room to maneuver, and drop.”

Kagami raised an eyebrow as they slipped off the structures.  “You’re expecting sudden death?”

“For the drama, if nothing else,” the other girl shrugged.

“THIRTY SECONDS!  FIFTY FOUR!”

“They got four people in those thirty seconds,” Ren absently remarked as he arranged his two balls in a way that he could easily kick one up, “they could do it!”

Izuku snorted.  “We have seven people at thirty meters, three and four, there and there.”

“TEN SECONDS!  FIFTY TWO!  NOW’S THE TIME TO BETRAY YOUR ALLIES, PEOPLE! FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO-!”

A giant buzzer rang out and they all stood back to back.

“FIFTY ONE!  THE BETRAYAL WASN’T ENOUGH!  IT’S TIME FOR SUDDDDDENNNN DEAAAAAAAAATH!”

The walls dropped with a kerthunk and they readied their balls.

Izuku blinked at the suddenly wide open arena.  There was a mountain of ice on the other side they’d managed to completely avoid, no points for guessing who put it there, and various groups of people together, but there were several people who were all alone.

Tsu started the hostilities by rocketing a ball with her tongue towards a cluster of students who screamed, and then balls were flying.

Izuku yelped and held up a ball to block one going for his face and glared.  “Kacchan!”

“GET GOOD!”

Izuku rolled his eyes and hurled one of his dodgeballs, hearing it ring out with a hit.

“Come on,” the kid complained, “sudden death is so not fair!   And we have less than fifty people now!”

“AND THAT'S BEEN A MINUTE OF SUDDEN DEATH!  HOLD THOSE WEAPONS OF MASS PE!  LET’S GET A QUICK COUNT AND SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE GOING INTO THE LAST ROUND… THAT LOOKS LIKE AN EVEN FORTY!  WOW!  ALL CONTESTANTS, THANK YOU FOR PLAYING ROUND ONE, MAKE YOUR WAY BACK TO THE ARENA AND YOU LUCKY FORTY WILL BE OUR COMPETITORS FOR ROUND TWO!”

Marinette sighed and released the ball wearily, stretching her fingers out.  “Everyone good?”

Kagami snorted.  “We’re fine.  This is much easier than the Glitter Goblin.”

Adrien gave a full body snort, clutching his stomach.  “You mean Audrey’s?!  Oh man.  I mean, you’re right.  Those blasts were fast.   I think a few of your classmates can get there, though.”

“Or that one kid in 1-B,” Marinette pointed at him, “something to do with rotation?  He just spun his arm and then punched the balls and they rocketed.   Very scary.”

“One of them has the ability to make solid wind,” Kagami narrowed her eyes at a large group of 1-B students, “they were surrounded by barriers that the dodgeballs could not pierce.”

“Tokoyami and big hand girl were practically cheating with their ability to catch balls,” Izuku pointed out, “and Shouji wasn’t that far behind.”

“If we’re talking about catching, I watched that dude with red hair just catch three in quick succession,” Adrien admitted, “it was slightly terrifying.”

Izuku blinked.  “Kirishima?  Huh.  Good for him.”

“I was more afraid of whoever made that ball giant,” Marinette pointed at a neglected ball in the corner, “because can you imagine Indiana Jonesing that?  Wow.”

“I think I heard that over the announcement, actually,” Kagami narrowed her eyes, “that does sound frightening.  But slow.”

“Imagine if this was actually a maze,” Adrien sighed wistfully, “complete with dead ends?  Oh, we would have gotten so many people.”

“Did anyone else have the idea to get some height?”  Izuku looked around.  “I mean, we were in and out, but I think I might have seen Tsu and Uraraka up there?  Not more than once or twice, though.”

“A couple, but they didn’t use it as much as we did,” Adrien stretched, “but it was nice to see other teams.  Speaking of, I wonder what our second round will be?”

Kagami looked at them.  “You’re both staying in?”

They exchanged a grin and held hands.  “Yeah,” Marinette smirked, “this is fun.  Kind of easy, even.”

Izuku snorted.  “Hold off until we’re on the second event.”

The final forty gathered in the arena once more, Midnight up on the stage with a grin.

“Welcome back,” she called, “to the second round selection.  What will our next battle royale be…?  Spin!  That!  Wheel!”

The digital wheel spun for a tense moment before it landed.  She grinned and cracked her whip.

“Team Pole Toppling!  In teams of four, you will have to defend and attack!  We’ll set up the arena while we’re explaining,” she waved as Cementoss came onto the scene and started changing the floor, “but each of the ten teams, and yes, that is a mandate of four to a team, will have a pole!  One person will have to be on top of the pole, but be careful, it’s wobbly!  The pole is a meter in the ground and six above, but it can tilt in a full circle so it’s at sixty degrees to the ground!  This is a carefully balancing game, or you can figure out how to attach yourself to the pole.  Everyone else on the team is free to go around the entire arena as they wish, but if the person on the pole touches the ground or stops touching the pole for thirty seconds, your entire team is out!  You can also knock out individual players by making them fall unconscious, thus giving you a better shot at toppling their pole!  Cutting the pole in half technically does not count as toppling it if the person on top manages to avoid hitting the ground, but it will reduce the weight!  Please use the next two minutes to pick your teams!”

They didn’t move from beside each other as Ren eyed the pole with a cheshire grin.

“You know,” Izuku said slowly, “the only way the team is out is if the person touches the ground or isn’t touching a pole for thirty seconds.  If something happens to our pole, we can just piggyback Ren to another one and claim it.”

“If they didn’t add the thirty second rule, we could just piggyback to victory,” Marinette frowned, “but that’s a nice loophole.  Ren, do you think you’ll need anyone guarding the pole?”

He shrugged.  “I mean, some of these people look pretty strong.  Maybe Gami?  Then you two just catapult other people to the ground.”

“We don’t have strength,” Izuku pulled on his lower lip, “but I bet we could climb the poles and make people drop that way?”

“The poles are pretty sheer,” Marinette narrowed her eyes, “but I bet we could do it.”

Izuku lit up.  “I just thought of another loophole in the rules!”

“AND TIME!  ANYONE WITHOUT A TEAM WILL BE ASSIGNED ONE!”

“Later,” he promised.

Adrien giggled.  “Man, they’re not gonna know what hit em, huh?”

Chapter Text

As soon as the buzzer went off, Marinette launched a dodgeball with all her strength at one team, hitting the boy who had just gotten to the top of the pole directly in the forehead and stunning him long enough that he hit the ground.

“Tsuburaba Kosei, Kodai Yui, Kaibara Sen, Shoda Nirengeki, OUT!”

“Wha- WHERE DID SHE GET A DODGEBALL?!  ERASERHEAD, DID YOU SEE THAT?”

“Ignore her, she clearly brought it in with her from round one, focus on the rest of the teams.  Everyone’s distracted, which means this is a perfect time for- yes.  There.”

Uraraka cackled with glee as she lifted a pole solidly out of the ground, ignoring the Sero that was taped to the top of it and tapping him on the ground.

“Sero Hanta, Todoroki Shoto, Shouji Mezou, Ojirou Mashirao, OUT!”

“WHAT AN UPSET!  TODOROKI SHOTO, ONE OF THE TOP RANKED HERO STUDENTS AND SON OF THE NUMBER TWO, OUT?!   AND SO FAST!  URARAKA OCHAKO OF 1-A IS USING HER QUIRK, ZERO GRAVITY, TO PLAY BASEBALL WITH HER COMPETITORS!  SHE’LL EVENTUALLY START FEELING THE STRAIN, AS THESE POLES ARE DESIGNED TO BE HEFTY.  THE DIMENSIONS ARE SEVEN TOTAL METERS TALL, WITH A DIAMETER OF TEN CENTIMETERS, AND THEY’RE SOLID ALL THE WAY THROUGH.  HOW DID WE GET ALL THIS METAL?  WELL, UA RECENTLY RECEIVED A DONATION OF TUNGSTEN, ONE OF THE DENSEST METALS WITH THE HIGHEST MELTING POINT, AS MONOMA NEITO OF 1-B IS DISCOVERING.  WHERE DID HE GET FIRE?!”

“His quick is copy, he managed to tag Todoroki before the other boy left the field.”

“LOOKING BACK AT OUR SNEAKY DODGEBALL TEAM, DUPAIN-CHENG MARINETTE OF 1-I, A QUIRKLESS BUSINESS STUDENT YOU CAN’T HELP BUT LIKE, IS WORKING WITH MIDORIYA IZUKU OF 1-A, LEAVING AGRESTE ADRIEN, ALSO OF BUSINESS, AND TSURUGI KAGAMI, OF 1-A, TO GUARD THEIR POLE.  AND IT LOOKS LIKE HE’S…DANCING?!”

“Ashido Mina of 1-A, also topping her own team’s pole, looks like she’s taken that as a challenge and now they’re having a dance off.  I’m sure that’s exactly what their teachers wanted them to show off at this sports festival.”

“SHE LOOKS A LITTLE SHEEPISH, BUT THIS IS EPIC!  IT’S WHAT I WANTED THEM TO SHOW OFF THIS SPORTS FESTIVAL!  SINCE A LOT OF THE TEAMS SPLIT UP TO CAUSE CHAOS AS SOON AS THE ROUND STARTED, LET'S LOOK AT A TEAM BREAKDOWN!  THE DREAM TEAM FROM ROUND ONE IS AGRESTE ON THE POLE, DUPAIN-CHENG, TSURUGI, AND MIDORIYA!  WITH MIDORIYA’S QUIRK SENSE AND TSURUGI’S UPGRADED SURROUND SENSE, WOO, YOU CAN SEE HOW THEY’RE RELATED, THEY DOMINATED THE FIRST ROUND LETTING THE FOUR OF THEM TAKE OUT AT LEAST 30 PEOPLE BY THEMSELVES!  THEY’RE RUNNING THIS BASICALLY QUIRKLESS, BUT THEY’RE PUTTING UP A DANG GOOD FIGHT!  ASHIDO IS TOPPING THE POLE FOR HER TEAM, CONSISTING OF BAKUGO KATSUKI, KIRISHIMA EIJIROU, AND KAMINARI DENKI, ALL OF 1-A!  THEY DIDN’T TEAM UP ROUND ONE, BUT KIRISHIMA HAD THOSE MASTERFUL CATCHES, ONE AFTER ANOTHER, BY ROOTING HIMSELF IN THE GROUND, AND BAKUGO REALLY PUT THE EXPLOSIVE BEHIND EXPLOSIVE FORCE, MAKING HIS DODGEBALLS INTENSE.  MEANWHILE, ASHIDO SLID AROUND ON HER ACID AND KAMINARI FOLLOWED BEHIND HER, AS HER ACID IS CONDUCTIVE FOR HIS OWN ELECTRICITY QUIRK!  ERASERHEAD, WHY DON’T YOU TAKE TWO OTHER TEAMS STILL IN PLAY?”

“Fine.  Topping the pole is Shinsou Hitoshi, of 1-C, backed up by Jirou Kyouka and Yaoyorozu Momo of 1-A, and Hatsume Mei, our only support course student in this round.  Yaoyorozu seems to have taken a page out of Dupain-Cheng’s book and is currently wielding… that better not be a rocket launcher.”

“NOPE, WE’RE GOOD, IT LOOKS LIKE A NET LAUNCHER.  HATSUME HAS AN IDENTICAL ONE, WHICH SHE USED TO GREAT EFFECT IN ROUND ONE TO TRAP PEOPLE.  SHE ALSO HAS HOVER BOOTS THAT LET HER MOVE AROUND A WHOLE LOT FASTER, AND SPENT MOST OF THE FIRST ROUND USING THEM AND HER JETPACK TO GET SOME HEIGHT ON HER COMPETITORS.  MEANWHILE, OUR TWO HERO COURSE STUDENTS TEAMED UP ROUND ONE, WITH JIROU’S QUIRK BEING GREAT FOR FINDING ENEMIES, AND MOMO BEING A POWERHOUSE WITH SOME ARMOR.  HARD TO TOUCH SKIN OR UNIFORM IF NONE OF IT IS VISIBLE, EH?  THEIR TEAM UP HAS CONTINUED IN THIS ROUND, AND IF I’M REMEMBERING RIGHT, TODOROKI TRIED TO JOIN YAOYOROZU, BUT UNFORTUNATELY SHE WASN’T LOOKING FOR MEMBERS.  MAYBE IT WOULD HAVE SAVED HIM!  WHAT A NEAT TEAM!”

“Another team still on the field is made up entirely of 1-B members, if I can direct your attention to the pole completely surrounded by vines that Bakugo is currently trying to get around.  On top of the pole is Bondo Kojiro, with a glue quirk.  Looks like he and Sero of 1-A had a similar idea of simply sticking yourself to the top of the pole, but Bondo got lucky and wasn’t right next to Uraraka.  Oh, it appears she’s taken this as a challenge.  With two 1-A teams gunning for them, the members of Shiozaki Ibara, Yanagi Reiko, and Rin Hiryu might be- ah, Yanagi was just taken out.  That team is down to three.”

“SPEAKING OF URARAKA, TOPPING HER POLE IS ASUI TSUYU, QUIRK FROG, AND SHE’S THE FROG PRINCESS BEING GUARDED BY THE BIRD HEADED DRAGON, TOKOYAMI FUMIKAGE!  THEIR FOURTH TEAMMATE IS IIDA TENYA, RUNNING AROUND AND TRYING TO KNOCK OUT INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF TEAMS WHILE URARAKA GOES FOR THE THROAT- I MEAN THE POLES!  HE’S CURRENTLY DUELING WITH SHISHIDA JUROTA, OF THE TEAM OF KUROIRO SHIHAI, POLE TOPPER, AND HONENUKI JUUZO AND TOKAGE SETSUNA!  THOSE LAST TWO WERE OUR TWO RECOMMENDATION STUDENTS FOR 1-B, SO IT SEEMS THEY’VE TEAMED UP YET AGAIN!  HONENUKI’S SOFTENING QUIRK WAS DEVASTATING TO TRAP PEOPLE IN ROUND ONE, AND TOKAGE DODGED EVERY BALL WITH LIZARD SPLITTER, LITERALLY SPLITTING APART TO AVOID THE BALLS!  ACROSS THE FIELD, IT LOOKS LIKE AOYAMA YUUGA OF 1-A IS ABOUT TO REALIZE WE MEANT IT WHEN WE SAID JET FUEL CAN’T MELT- HOLY SHIT HE MELTED RIGHT THROUGH THE BEAM!  WHAT IS THAT NAVEL LASER MADE OF, THE SUN?!”

“It appears he has either the best luck or the worst luck, as he shot the beam in the direction of his classmate and teammate, Hagakure Tooru, who is invisible.  Her quirk must be more along the lines of light refraction, which we will be addressing in class, because she lit up for a brief moment with a rainbow of light before the beam bounced, bigger than before, and took out a solid chunk of the tungsten pole for team Kuroiro.  The light also cut into the pole topper’s quirk, which lets him merge with shadows, so-”

“Kuroiro Shihai, Honenuki Juuzo, Tokage Setsuna, Shishida Jurota, OUT!”

“-he was too dazed to stop himself from falling off and hitting the ground.  The sixty degree angle thing might be slightly terrible, actually.  Tokage attempted to catch her teammate, but failed, and Shishida was too busy fighting Iida.”

“WOAH WOAH WOAH, CAST YOUR GAZE TO THIS SIDE OF THE FIELD, WHERE MONOMA NEITO HAS GIVEN UP ON BURNING THROUGH THE POLE OF AGRESTE AND IS NOW ATTEMPTING TO FREEZE THE BOY OFF!  TSURUGI SEEMS TO TAKE ISSUE WITH THIS AND IS ABSOLUTELY SHREDDING HIM!  DOES THAT GIRL HAVE CLAWS?!  YEESH, I WOULDN’T WANT TO BE THAT KID RIGHT NOW.  HE’S CURRENTLY USING HIS POLE TOPPER AWASE YOSETSU’S WELD QUIRK TO TRY AND STICK HER TO THE GROUND, BUT SHE JUST TOOK HER SHOE OFF INSTEAD.  HARDCORE! WE HAVE-”

“-gakure Tooru, Aoyama Yuuga, OUT!”

“OH NO I MISSED IT?!  LET’S GET A REPLAY!  IT LOOKS LIKE KENDO ITSUKA AND TSUNOTORI PONY, THE OTHER MEMBERS OF TEAM AWASE, HANDEDLY TOOK OUT OUT LIGHT REFRACTION TEAM, ELIMINATING TWO OF OUR THREE GENERAL COURSE STUDENTS AS WELL!  BACK TO MONOMA, HE’S DECIDED TO AVOID TEAM AGRESTE FOR NOW AND IS HEADING OVER TO THE BOY’S DANCE PARTNER INSTEAD!  FOR WHAT PURPOSE?!”

“He high fived his teammate Tsunotori on the way over and grew horns.  If I had to guess, he’s going for Ashido’s quirk, because acid is corrosive.”

“HE LOOKS ANNOYED WHICH MEANS YOU PROBABLY GUESSED RIGHT, ERASER!  BAKUGO SEEMS TO BE TAKING ISSUE WITH THIS, AS HE’S RETREATED BACK TO HIS TEAM.  WERE KIRISHIMA AND KAMINARI NOT ENOUGH TO PROTECT HER?  OH, HE’S CHANGING COURSE AND GUNNING RIGHT FOR- KENDO!  OH NO!”

“Kendo Itsuka, OUT!”

“AND THAT’S A KNOCKOUT!  YEESH!  TSUNOTORI IS HEADING BACK FOR HER POLE WHERE AWASE IS UNDEFENDED!  IT LOOKS LIKE URARAKA FINALLY RAN OUT OF STEAM AND HAS RELEASED THE POLE WITH AN UNCONSCIOUS SERO STILL ATTACHED DIRECTLY ON TOP OF-”

CLANG!

“-OF SHIOZAKI, OOF.  IS SHE GOING TO GET UP?!”

“Shiozaki Ibara, OUT!”

“GUESS NOT!  OUR REMAINING TEAMS ARE TEAM AGRESTE, TEAM ASHIDO, TEAM SHINSOU, TEAM ASUI, TWO MEMBERS OF TEAM BONDO, AND THREE MEMBERS OF TEAM AWASE!  THAT’S TWENTY ONE STUDENTS STILL ON THE FIELD, AND WE HAVE FIVE MINUTES LEFT!  WHEW, THIS HAS BEEN SOME CHAOS, HUH ERASERHEAD?”

“It-”

“Bondo Kojiro, OUT!”

“IS THAT ALLOWED?!”

“He isn’t touching the ground, but technically this means they don’t have someone on the pole.  His last teammate has thirty seconds to get someone to the top.”

“HE’S SCRAMBLING, BUT HE’S ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FIELD!  WILL HE MAKE IT?!  THERE HE GOES, THERE HE GOES… HE’S TOUCHING IT!  AND STANDING ON SHIOZAKI’S VINES, WHICH HAVEN’T WITHERED.  IS THAT ALLOWED?!”

“Technically the rules say he has to be touching the pole and not the ground, so since he’s not touching the ground, and he is touching the pole…”

“MIDNIGHT HAS ALSO RULED IT AS ACCEPTABLE.  BUT SINCE HE’S THE ONLY TEAM MEMBER, HE’S LOOKING PRETTY TASTY RIGHT NOW… YES, THERE GOES MIDORIYA AND DUPAIN-CHENG!  WHILE MONOMA HAS RECENTLY ACQUIRED ASHIDO’S QUIRK AND HAS MELTED PART OF THEIR POLE, HE’S OFF TO AGRESTE AGAIN.  DOES HE HAVE A VENDETTA?!  BAKUGO HAS DRAFTED KAMINARI TO GO AFTER TEAM SHINSOU.  THESE KIDS ALL HAVE REALLY GOOD BALANCE, THERE HASN’T BEEN A LOT OF WOBBLING AT ALL!”

“Most of the people remaining either have good balance or literally stuck themselves to the tops of their poles.”

“Tsunotori Pony, OUT!”

“WOAH!  IIDA TOOK OUT PONY WHILE WE WEREN’T LOOKING, USING HER MOMENTUM AGAINST HER!  HE’S A MASTER OF MOMENTUM WITH HIS ENGINE QUIRK!  THAT LEAVES US WITH NINETEEN PEOPLE STILL IN THE GAME!”

“Midoriya and Dupain-Cheng managed to get to Rin and are currently working in sync to remove him from the pole.  Now that he’s become the pole topper, if he steps off the vines, he’s out.  I hope Midnight is watching closely.”

“SHE IS, AND LOOKS QUITE OFFENDED YOU’D THINK OTHERWISE, ERASER!  YOU KNOW SHE TAKES HER JOB AS REFEREE VERY SERIOUSLY!  BAKUGO AND KAMINARI ARE TRYING TO BEAT BACK YAOYOROZU AND JIROU TO GET TO SHINSOU, BUT JIROU AND HATSUME ARE TEAMING UP HANDEDLY.  LOOK AT THAT PULSE RIP UP THE GROUND!  WHEN THEY’RE OFF BALANCE AND IN THE AIR, HATSUME GRABS THEM WITH HER INVENTION, A GRABBY ARM OF SOME SORT, AND FLINGS THEM AWAY.  MEANWHILE, YAOYOROZU IS STILL MAKING FORTIFICATIONS TO BOTH STABILIZE AND PROTECT THEIR POLE!”

“Rin Hiryu, OUT!”

“AND THAT’S THE LAST OF THAT TEAM!  MIDORIYA AND DUPAIN-CHENG ARE STICKING AROUND, THOUGH, WHY?  MONOMA HAS ALMOST MELTED THROUGH AGRESTE’S POLE, BUT THEY DON’T LOOK WORRIED AT ALL!  EVEN TSURUGI HAS BACKED OFF FOR SOME REASON.”

“The pole is tilting to a dangerous degree.  I assume they have a plan of some sort.”

“THE POLE IS TOPPLING!  AGRESTE LEAPS… RIGHT INTO TSURUGI’S ARMS?!  SHE’S RUNNING FOR THE REST OF THEIR TEAM… OH MY GOD!  THEY’RE STEALING THE POLE!”

“In their defense, it’s not like the other team is there to complain.  Even Bondo has been removed from the top of that pole.”

“AGRESTE IS CLIMBING TO THE GLUE PLATFORM.  THIS POLE IS MUCH MORE STABLE, AS BEFORE SHE WAS TAKEN OUT, SHIOZAKI SURROUNDED THE AREA WITH VINES, INCLUDING IN THE HOLE.  THE POLE WILL ONLY TILT TO EIGHTY DEGREES IT LOOKS LIKE, SO IT’S MUCH MORE STABLE AND EASY TO DEFEND IN THESE LAST TWO MINUTES!”

“Bakugo has decided to throw subtly out the window by literally throwing his teammate at Hatsume.  He sparks, he shorts.”

“Kaminari Denki, OUT!”

“ICE COLD!  AND HE DIDN’T EVEN MANAGE TO GET ANYONE OUT!”

“But he did take out many of Hatsume’s inventions.  She’s lost a lot of firepower in this last minute.”

“WE HAVE SEVENTEEN PEOPLE LEFT, AND ALL OUR TEAMS ARE WELL DEFENDED!  CAN ANYONE GET OUT, OR IS THIS THE FINALS?!  WE HAVE THREE UNTOUCHED TEAMS, A TEAM OF THREE, AND A TEAM OF TWO!  LOOKS LIKE URARAKA IS MAKING ONE FINAL PUSH IN THE LAST THIRTY SECONDS AND GUNNING FOR TEAM AWASE!  MONOMA IS PULLING OUT THE BIG GUNS AND THROWING ACID AND HORNS EVERY WHICH WAY, MAKING SURE SHE CAN’T GET CLOSE-!”

“TIME!”

“AND THAT’S TIME!  HO-LY, WHAT A CHAOTIC MESS!  WHILE THE FIELD IS CLEANED UP AND WE GATHER FOR THE FINAL ROUND ANNOUNCEMENT, ERASERHEAD, WHY DON’T YOU TELL US YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT?”

“The pole switching was ingenious.  I feel like we should have had more rules, but it was a clever use of loopholes.”

“PERSONALLY I’M A BIG FAN OF THE PIÑATA PLAY MYSELF.  IT WAS REALLY REALLY FUNNY, WATCHING EVERYONE DUCK AND DODGE THE MASSIVE POLE THAT URARAKA WAS WIELDING LIKE IT WAS NOTHING.  I MIGHT BE SENDING SERO A GIFT BASKET, THOUGH…”

“Recovery Girl has told us that he’s woozy, but recovered and fine to eat lunch with his friends.”

“THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!  MIDNIGHT, WHAT’S GOING ON DOWN THERE?!”

“Agreste Adrien is dropping out because, and I quote, “I just wanted to have fun with my friends, and I’ve already done that, so I’m okay to go back to the stands now.”  It was just so youthful that I had to let him drop out!  What a sweetie pie!”

“WELL, HE DEFINITELY LOOKED LIKE HE HAD FUN!  AND THAT GIVES US AN EVEN SIXTEEN PEOPLE FOR OUR FINAL ROUND, WHICH IS…?”

“What is always is, Mic!  TOURNAMENT!”

“Displayed on the screen is our lineup after lunch.  In the meantime, we’re breaking for an hour.  Everyone is welcome to participate in the games and booths we have outside of the festival.”

“THAT’S RIGHT!  FOR OUR VISUALLY IMPAIRED FOLKS: 

ASHIDO MINA VERSUS MIDORIYA IZUKU!

YAOYOROZU MOMO VERSUS TOKOYAMI FUMIKAGE!

URARAKA OCHAKO VERSUS HATSUME MEI!

ASUI TSUYU VERSUS JIROU KYOUKA!

MONOMA NEITO VERSUS KIRISHIMA EIJIROU!

SHINSOU HITOSHI VERSUS BAKUGO KATSUKI!

AWASE YOSETSU VERSUS IIDA TENYA!

DUPAIN-CHENG MARINETTE VERSUS TSURUGI KAGAMI!

WE’LL SEE YOU ALL IN AN HOUR!”

Chapter Text

“I’m rooting for neither of you,” Felix declared at lunch, “I hope you do a double knockout and both lose.”

Kagami punched him and he hissed and recoiled.  “I changed my mind,” he glared, “Hime, destroy her.”

Adrien glomped onto his girlfriend with a sunny smile.  “She’s going to do amazing!”

Kagami turned to Izuku with a neutral expression.  He narrowed his eyes.  “I…want…you…to…w…in?”

She nodded and smiled and he let out a sigh of relief.  Marinette leaned over to pat him on the hand.  “It’s okay,” she said sweetly, “I know that was under duress.”

“Mari, please stop trying to get me killed, my classmate will do that enough for the both of us.”

Felix narrowed his eyes dangerously.  “Do not let the match prolong enough for that to be a concern.  If you risk life and limb for a school competition, I’m breaking up with you.”

Izuku nodded sagely.  “That’s fair.”

Kagami’s eyes traced someone on the other side of the room.  “Todoroki seems shell shocked and confused.”

Marinette snorted.  “<He’s a Flame, they’ve been pompous assholes long before Endeavor became number two in Japan.  I’m probably a terrible person for it, but I’m ridiculously pleased Uraraka got him out that fast.  He’s probably never lost at anything in his life.>”

Kagami snorted.  “<Like you have?  Don’t make me laugh.  You might not be an heir, but you are very well off.>”

“<Sure,>” she agreed easily, “<but I have also not been told we’re superior in every way and destined to be on top all my life.  Everyone’s seen how Endeavor is.>”

They all grimaced momentarily.

“Oh,” Izuku remarked idly, “he’s talking to Yaomomo now.  And she’s going off with him.  Discussion?”

“I can’t be bothered to care,” Kagami rolled her eyes, “perhaps he’s telling her not to lose, so that it seems like he wasn’t taken out by mistake.”

“It was pure bad luck that he picked a pole next to Uraraka,” Adrien shook his head, “and that she ended up picking them over Bakugo’s team.”

“I personally would go for any team other than Kacchan’s,” Izuku nodded sagely, “and if he didn’t want his pole to be picked up, he should have just made an ice castle and protected it the whole round.  He let Mari distract him and that was his downfall.”

“Speaking of,” Adrien rounded on his girlfriend, “how did we not notice you bringing the ball with you?!  I watched you drop it!”

She shrugged.  “It was red.”

They all sat in silence for a moment before groaning.  Marinette holding red things was something they were well used to, after all.

“Come on,” she nudged them with a laugh, “eat fast so we can check out the games and booths before Izzy has to duke it out in the ring!”

Aoyama held up the offering.  “Great One, while we did not win, my moment was immortalized.”

Plagg scarfed down the cheese.  “Course it was.  Things just worked out that way, all thanks to me.  I mean, I knew where she was.  A little bit of a trip and boom, light beam.”

“Thank you, Great One!”

“Sure, anything for my favorite follower.”

Aoyama fainted and Plagg looked down at his dazed and dreamy expression in trepidation.

“Note to self,” the kwami muttered, “don’t overly compliment the worshiper.”

“WELLLLLLLLCOME BACK, LISTENERS!  WE’RE STARTING OUT ROUND ONE WITH ASHIDO MINA, THE ACID QUEEN, FROM 1-A!  VERRRRSUS, MIDORIYA IZUKU, WHERE YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE, ALSO FROM 1-A!  MIDNIGHT, ON YOUR MARK!”

Izuku took a deep breath and settled into the position Ferdie had taught him all those months ago, preparing to run as Midnight held her whip up.  Ashido stood across from him flexing her hands and feet, and she had a big grin on her face.

The whip cracked down and he ran for her.

“Woah,” Ashido giggled, sliding around on an acid trail, “usually people don’t want to get close to the gal who can melt their face off.”

“Most of my self defense training is up close,” Izuku chirped back, “besides, if I don’t grab you I won’t win.”

She chortled and slid in his direction, preparing to meet him halfway.  “True eNOUGH!”

He made to grab her wrist, timing it perfectly, but his hand slid right off, stinging slightly from the grey goop it was now covered in.  He shook it off and wiped the excess on his uniform.

“Come on,” she complained, “you grabbed for me!  I wanted to grab for you!   Also ask you about that kid on your team from last time, Agreste?  Does he take dance too?”

“Not that I know of?”

“He should!  Also tell him when you go back to the loser stands that I totally won the dance off, just like I’m about to win this!”

She lunged again and he ducked around, pushing her and using her sliding against her to keep himself out of range.  He eyed the edge of the stage in contemplation before starting up a game of chase.  He slipped a few times on the overlapping trails when there was no new ground to step on, but Ashido just gleefully chased him around, getting close and letting out groans of frustration when he managed to slip by her, partially due to her own slipperiness.  He definitely tried a few swipes and pushes, but finally the stage was set up how he wanted it to be, and he purposely tripped.

She swept in, tasting victory, and he used the momentum of his fall to spin and plant a foot on her ribs, pushing off and around to send her catapulting over him.  She spun her arms in the air and shrieked in surprise, but managed to land on solid ground while he was struggling to get out of the stinging slime.

“You-”

“Look,” he pointed down.

She blinked and looked at her feet before gaping in dismay.

“Ashido Mina is out of bounds,” Midnight cracked her whip, “Midoriya Izuku advances!”

Ashido sighed, but helped drag him out of the slippery slime, flicking some of it off herself as well.

“I guess this is probably a good thing,” she licked her lips, “I was almost out anyway.  Man, I should have said fuck morals and just gone for a lower pH and just melted you a lil.”

Izuku winced.  “I’m, uh, really glad you didn’t?  You almost managed to grab me a few times, but your desire to make it hard for me to grab you also made it hard for you to grab me.   Not super great if you want to grapple.  You did make me run around a lot, though!”

She huffed out a breath, but she was grinning.  “Yeah, yeah.  You don’t even seem winded.”

“The last fall knocked the breath out of me, I’ll tell you that.  Plus I’ve probably bruised my hip a little.  Does that make you feel better?”

“Whaaaat?!  No, of course not!  You’re too sweet, Midori, now go enjoy the praise!”

He waved with a little laugh as he made his way back to where Kagami was ignoring the class sections in the stands and was sitting with their three business course friends.

“That looked fun,” Adrien beamed, “she seems like a really fun person!”

Izuku giggled.  “She is.  She also told me to tell you you lost the dance battle.”

He gasped in offense and Marinette shushed them.  “It’s Yaomomo’s turn, against Tokoyami.”

As soon as the battle was started, a set of goggles sprang up on the girl’s face and in the next half second, everyone was blinded by the flash grenade she’d set off.  While Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, significantly smaller now, reeled back and she used a metal pole (the same color as the ones from the second round, and suddenly Izuku questioned who, exactly, had donated all that tungsten to UA) that kept growing out of her hand at a fast rate to push him backwards and over the lines before he could recover and react.

“Tokoyami Fumikage is out of bounds!  Yaoyorozu Momo advances!”

“WHAT A WIN!  SHE WAS FAST AS FLASH WITH THAT SHOW!  HER CREATION QUIRK TRULY KNOWS NO BOUNDS, WOWEE!  I SURE HOPE OUR NEXT COMPETITORS HAVE MADE IT DOWN TO THE LOCKER ROOMS ALREADY!”

It took a few minutes for Uraraka and Hatsume to make it to the field, Hatsume decked out in the gear she’d managed to either recover to didn’t have on her during the second round, so it hadn’t shorted out.  This fight actually lasted a good deal longer, as she’d managed to rebuild her jetpack and grabby hand, and was thus able to keep herself in bounds while she advertised, hacking the stadium speakers to do so.  Eventually, Uraraka managed a trick of continually applied and removing her quirk that had Hatsume looking a little woozy, and Uraraka pushed her out of bounds, also throwing up immediately.

“Uraraka Ochako advances!”

“NEXT UP, WE HAVE OUR FROGGY PRINCESS, ASUI TSUYU, VERSUS OUR MASTER OF SOUND WAVES, JIROU KYOUKA, BOTH OF 1-A!  WILL THE STADIUM RING WITH A TRIUMPHANT CROAK, OR WILL IT BE THE PULSE OF VICTORY?  LET’S FIND OUT!”

Izuku snorted.  “That was terrible.  I vote Tsu.”

“Yes, she can just jump over the earthquakes,” Felix mused, “though I must admit, I’m rather intrigued by Jirou’s quirk.  It seems quite useful.”

Marinette clapped her hands.  “Izuku, how would you champion them both, go!”

He jolted.  “Ah!  Uhh, make Tsu a poisonous frog instead?  Bright colors?  Or give her a transformation, let her turn into a small frog.  Or turn other people into a frog if she gives them a kiss?  Present Mic has me thinking about the Princess and the Frog.”

The four of them snorted.

“Right, uh, Jirou, let her manipulate all sound waves?  Not just enhance or detect them.  Or at the very least let her change the frequency so she could get some resonant frequency?  Right now she just uses the sound of her heartbeat, but I could probably give her other sounds to work with.  Or I’d make it so she could focus and refine her hearing to a really small level, detecting things as fine as the patter of ant footsteps.”

Marinette hummed as Tsu kept holding on to the other girl with her tongue despite the desperate vibrations traveling along its length, and flung Jirou out of the ring.  “Not bad.  Fe, miraculous from our box?”

Felix sighed soundlessly.  “I see we’re all getting assignments.  Delightful.  They’re terrible for our boxes… Goat, for Asui, for the natural agility, since she can already stick to walls, or Tiger for invisibility.  Jirou could be…Fox.  Or Pig.”

Marinette hummed.  “I agree with those picks.  Let’s see, who was up next…”

“MONOMA NEITO, THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE OF HERO STUDENTS, FROM 1-B, VERSUS KIRISHIMA EIJIROU, THE IMMOVABLE OBJECT, FROM 1-A!”

“Ox,” Felix said immediately, “the strength would be excellent for the redhead.  Or the Turtle, of course, since he’s already a good defender.”

Marinette hummed.  “Yeah, I like the Turtle better.  Mouse for Monoma?”

Felix sneered, but thought about it for half a moment.  “Devastating, actually.  Would each of the multitude get a copy of whatever, or would it be by individual?”

She waved her head back and forth, thinking about it.  “Individual, if I had to guess.  Damn, now I want to see that.”

“You know who would be awesome for the Mouse, actually?”

They all looked at Izuku, who was staring up at the announcer’s booth.  “Aizawa.  Two dozen quirk cancelers, small enough that you won’t be able to find all of them.”

Felix whistled.  “Oh, well done.  That’s masterful and dastardly.  Unless the miraculous messes up his quirk entirely, you could shut down a battlefield quite effectively, given enough time for the multitude to hide.”

“Monoma Neito advances!”

Kagami and Felix clicked their tongues in sync.

“Shame,” Izuku sighed, “Kirishima is a really friendly person and I think he’s going to be an amazing hero.”

“And Neito’s a fucking dick.”

Izuku rolled his eyes.  “Yes, Felix.”

“NEXT UP, SHINSOU HITOSHI OF 1-C, WHO WE HAVEN’T REALLY SEEN MUCH OF, VERSUS BAKUGO KATSUKI OF 1-A, A LIVING BOMB!  WHO WILL REIGN SUPREME?!”

Izuku leaned forward slightly to watch Katsuki decimate the competition, but suddenly he stopped his forward assault and flung himself scrambling backwards over the line.  Izuku blinked and leaned in.

“He looked terrified,” Izuku murmured as Katsuki’s expression shifted to annoyance, and then a grudging respect as his loss rang out, “that’s… I wonder what Shinsou’s quirk is.”

“Maybe one of us will fight him and tell you,” Marinette said as she and Kagami stood to make their way down, “or you can just, you know, check.”

Felix opened his uniform jacket to show off the inner pocket where he was keeping their miraculous.  Adrien already had his on, since he was out of the competition, but he was holding onto them for him until they could take them back.  “Do you need the range?”

Izuku shook his head.  I should be fine.  Where did the kwami get off to?”

Adrien huffed.  “No clue.  I think I briefly saw Plagg?”

Felix shrugged.  “Trixx said they were all going to find a place in the stadium to watch and cheer by themselves where no one could see or hear them.”

Izuku let his eyes track Shinsou’s disappearance into the tunnels beneath the stadium again as Awase and Iida took to the field, and extended his senses like a lance in that direction, winding under the hordes of people for the quirk he was looking for.

His sense was far less precise without being suited up, and he was already feeling a bit of strain, but he only needed to investigate for a moment.  There, next to a quirk that had sparkles and lightning in reddish pink that looked strangely familiar, was a well of deep blue, utterly still.  Very occasionally, it would ripple and he would see the flash of a dim light sitting tantalizingly inside of it.

He came out of his sensing with a slight headache and a frown.  “It’s interesting,” he muttered, “but I’d need to check it out when he’s actively using it to see how it reacts to stimuli.”

Felix smiled fondly.

“-AND AWASE HAS STUCK OUR SPEEDSTER TO THE FLOOR, MAKING HIM HIT THE GROUND WITH A PAINFUL SMACK!  HE MOVES IN AGAIN, STICKING MORE OF IIDA TO THE GROUND, AND, YES, HE LOOKS INCAPACITATED!”

“Iida Tenya is unable to move!  Awase Yosetsu advances!”

“Okay,” Adrien leaned over, “real talk, who do you think is going to win, now that neither of the girls are here to pressure you?”

“Kagami,” both said in response.

Adrien pouted.  “Aww, come on!”

“No,” Izuku shook his head, “Gami has more actual duel experience because of fighting.  Sure, she doesn’t have a sword in her hand, but she’s really good at fighting.  They’re both going to be fighting basically quirkless, but unless Hime knows like, jiu jutsu, Gami has this in the bag.”

“I concur,” Felix rested his arm on the back of Izuku’s seat, “in addition, she’s also actively exercising with hero training, whereas Marinette is only occasionally free running.”

Adrien groaned.  “You’re both terrible.  I believe she can win.  <MARI!  I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE GOING TO DO AWESOME!>”

On the field, Marinette choked and turned bright red.

“Oh no,” Adrien shrunk down, “that’s the first time I’ve… fuck.”

Izuku mock gasped.  “Language!”

“I’ll only say it if you win,” Felix glanced over, “so don’t expect it.”

“Felix,” Izuku shrieked, pushing him over slightly, “how dare you have so little faith in me?!”

“Darling, you’re going against Yaoyorozu next, you are aware of this, yes?”

Izuku stopped and blinked a few times.  “Oh fuck.  I’m going to die.”

“Exactly.”

“OUR WARRIOR OF BUSINESS COURSE, DUPAIN-CHENG MARINETTE!  SHE SAYS SHE WANTS TO BE A FASHION DESIGNER, AND HAS MADE IT THUS FAR SHOWING OFF SOME CRAZY SKILLS, BECAUSE SHE’S ALSO QUIRKLESS!  YOU GO, GIRL!  SHE’S FIGHTING ONE OF HER PREVIOUS TEAMMATES, TSURUGI KAGAMI, WHO HONESTLY WE EXPECTED TO ALSO BE IN THE BUSINESS COURSE, CONSIDERING THE FAMOUS COMPANY HER FAMILY RUNS!  BUT NOPE, SHE’S SHOWING OFF HER PLUS ULTRA FIGHTING SPIRIT IN THE HERO COURSE!  LET’S GIVE IT UP FOR THE LAST BATTLE OF ROUND ONE!”

The stadium erupted in cheers and the three boys leaned forwards in anticipation.

Both girls clearly show off their childhood training.  While Kagami’s was more in fencing, and Marinette’s in self defense, both girls were holding their own, grappling and releasing, testing and taunting.  Kagami kicked out Marinette’s knee, but the other girl used her momentum to drag Kagami off balance, preventing her from capitalizing on the fall so that she could get back up again.  Their hands were open and loose, strikes done with the heel of the palm to push and jab and punch.  Their legs kicked out and up to try and put more force behind their attacks, darting in and out so they couldn’t be grabbed after Marinette made that mistake once and Kagami used the grip to get closer.  They were no doubt going to be covered in bruises after this, and neither were holding back.

Despite it being a largely quirkless battle, the audience was oohing and aahing, wincing at every harsh contact, and cheering right after.  People had clearly taken sides, some rooting for the underdog business course student who had thus far done amazing, and some rooting for the poised hero student who had shown her vicious defense.  They were both clearly more skilled than the average citizen, but weren’t masters by any means.

Still, slowly, Marinette started dropping, her endurance not as high as the international fencer who regularly and for hours exercised, and finally, Kagami managed to kick out her knee and pin her to the floor.  After a brief conversation, she tapped out, and the crowd erupted.

“AFTER AN EPIC, PRETTY BALANCED BATTLE, TSURUGI KAGAMI IS OUR STUDENT TO ADVANCE!  OUR FINAL BUSINESS COURSE STUDENT IS ELIMINATED, BUT I'M SURE SHE’S GOING TO DO JUST FINE!  I LOOKED AT HER COMMISSIONS PAGE AND WOWEE, DO YOU HAVE ANY OPEN SPOTS?  ANYWAY, WE HAVE FOUR BATTLES COMING UP FOR ROUND TWO, IN ORDER:

MIDORIYA IZUKU VERSUS YAOYOROZU MOMO

URARAKA OCHAKO VERSUS ASUI TSUYU

MONOMA NEITO VERSUS SHINSOU HITOSHI

AWASE YOSETSU VERSUS TSURUGI KAGAMI!

WE’LL SEE YOU IN TEN MINUTES AFTER THE BREAK!”

Chapter Text

Izuku bounced nervously on his feet just inside the tunnel.  Nooroo had come to find him before he headed back to wherever the kwami were watching, apparently close enough to where they were sitting so that they could come if something happened, but far enough that no one else would notice them.

“You’re probably not going to win,” Nooroo admitted, “because you can’t use the miraculous and I can tell her quirk is strong from here.  You also gave her a lot of confidence at the Christmas party, and she has an extensive knowledge base.  But!  I’m very proud of you for getting this far and think you’ll make her work for it.  Get creative!”

Izuku snickered.  “Thanks, Roo.  Part of me wishes I could use your miraculous, so I could really show off what I could do, but the other part of me is glad I got this far pretty much on my own merit.”

“That’s the spirit!  Now get out there and get rocket launchered into the ground!”

“It was a net launcher,” he grumbled as Present Mic announced him to the field.

He looked at Yaomomo in trepidation.  Their teams hadn’t really gone for each other in the pole toppling, but he’d seen her efficiency first hand and was pretty nervous.

“I won’t ask you to go easy on me,” he called over, “because I’m not that kind of person.  But… don’t maim me?”

She snickered.  “I won’t.  I can’t promise no injuries, however.”

As Midnight called the start, she made a rounded shield on her arm, made of shiny steel, and a tungsten pole formed in her hands.  She pointed it in his direction.

He took the invitation and darted forwards with a grin.

His main goal as he ducked around the fast moving staff was to grab it and get it away from her.  It was certainly more hefty than the cane and foil he were used to, but it would put a weapon in his hands.

He grabbed onto the staff and pulled, but Yaomomo didn’t release it.  Instead, she let herself be pulled in before her hand lunged out and grabbed his face.

There was a sharp scent he didn’t recognize and then his vision swelled with black as the ground rose to meet him, the last thing he saw being the alarmed face of his classmate.

Momo looked down at her classmate with wide eyes before checking to ensure he was still breathing.  He was, good.  “That was…fast.”

Midnight came over after declaring her the winner.  “What did you do…?”

“Took a page out of your book and put an anesthetic gas directly in his nose.  He should wake up within five minutes, I regulated the dose.  It was more supposed to daze him than knock him out entirely…”

Midnight blinked.  “Huh.  Kinky.  Well, we’ll get the med bots to take him to Recovery Girl anyway.  Maybe hold off on using that?”

Momo nodded shakily.  She had specifically looked up incredibly carefully what the dosages were based on mass and purposefully picked a lower dose than would send her classmate unconscious, because the danger of using tranquilizers meant that if you used to much, you would either stop their heart, or they would stop breathing, as breathing and consciousness were quite close in the brain.  She used a fast acting one as well, so he should wake up quite soon, and she’d have to apologize.  She couldn’t even blame One for All, since she’d really only started looking into this since school started.

She walked back to her locker room as the next battle began.  She didn’t know who would win between Tsu and Uraraka, but she wasn’t terribly worried.  Both were strong, yes, but she already had plans for either of them, and plenty of fuel left before she fell into quirk overuse.  On her way to the clinic, she passed the spot Todoroki had dragged her and said those terrible things about his family.  She wanted to say she was surprised, but her grandfather had already said disparaging things about the Ruby Flames, and had for years.  Granted, the quirk marriage put some of his muttered comments into perspective, but still.  Endeavor was terrible and great.  No one could argue his positive impact on the community, which is what made his case so unfortunate.  Still, it was probably something she’d tell Aizawa later.  He always knew what to do.

She stepped into the clinic to see Izuku blinking slowly as Recovery Girl clucked over a screen.

“You,” she whirled on Momo, “that was reckless.”

“I, ah, I made sure it was a low dose…”

The old woman snorted.  “You did, he was awake practically as soon as he got in here.  But don’t you know how dangerous anesthetics are?  This isn’t the movies where you can hold a smelly rag to someone’s nose and they pass out.  Chloroform doesn’t even work like that, it takes several minutes…”

She shifted, embarrassed.  “I, well, I sort of based it around Midnight’s quirk, but I also looked up the doses for the compound I ended up choosing and ensured I was using a child’s dose, because Izuku is quite small, but truly it was meant to only make him sluggish.”

Izuku scoffed in mock offense.  “I’m not that small.  I don’t even think I’m the smallest guy in the class, Kaminari might be slightly shorter.  He’s definitely scrawnier.   No, it’s probably another side effect or something, something something pheromones or whatever.”

Momo cocked her head, thinking.  “No, I think he’s slightly taller.  I believe Tokoyami, however, is indeed shorter, even if he doesn’t seem like it due to the height of his feathers.  Hair?  Feathers.”

Izuku blinked, sitting back with a slight yawn.  “Huh.  Alright, I’ll take it.”

Uraraka managed to throw a Tsu without gravity out of the ring on the TV in the room, but they only watched in mild curiosity.

Soon, it was time for Monoma to fight Hitoshi, and Momo smiled reflexively when her friend’s name was called.

“Do you know him?”

She jumped, startled, having forgotten Izuku was there.  “Oh!  Well, yes.  We met a few months ago, and I would consider him my friend.  Probably had more to do with circumstance, however, he seems rather adverse to getting to know other people.”

Izuku’s eyes lit up.  “Can you tell me his quirk?  I know what it looks like to my quirk sense, but unless I’m actively looking for a champion I don’t get anything specific.  It has something to do with fear, right?”

She smirked.  “I’m afraid he doesn’t want the details exposed.  He wants to be an underground hero, afterall.”

“Like sensei,” Izuku breathed, “yeah, okay.  But can you give me a hint?”

She hummed.  “Well, what does it feel like to you?”

“A dark blue well.  There’s a light in the middle that you can sometimes see when it gets closer to the surface.”

She blinked.  A light in a bit of dark blue?  How strange.  “I can’t fathom what that indicates.”

Izuku sighed.  “I didn’t see him use it, that would probably have given me a better idea.  Most emitter quirks don’t usually give off so clearly what they are unless it’s super obvious, like Aizawa’s.  His is like a vacuum or a void.”

“Oh?” She giggled.  “And mine?”

“Well, I saw it before, it was all sparkly and pinkish red and really active…” he furrowed his brow as he closed his eyes, “why is it…different?”

She tensed.

He closed his eyes.  “It's less sparkles and more…lightning.  And there’s way more of it.”

She coughed, giving Recovery Girl a look and getting an unimpressed side eye in return.  “Um, well, I managed to get a quirk evolution.  Before, I had to use my lipids to create, but now I found another source that doesn’t deplete nearly as much.  Now the only danger is the strain of quirk overuse, not a lack of energy.  Of course, the energy also used to be a little… too much…I have ceased breaking bones, however.”

Izuku’s eyes opened again and he looked incredulous.  “What are the other colors, then?  Because it’s still mostly that red, but there’s like, six or seven other colors too that flash around occasionally.”

She glanced at the screen and nearly sighed in relief.  “Oh, Hitoshi won, I have to go prepare for my next match.  As to your question, I don’t know!  Perhaps I’ll figure it out later.  I hope you feel better, Izuku!”

She might have been fleeing, but she hadn’t really considered what her quirk would look like to his senses.  Frankly, she’d forgotten that he’d seen her quirk before.  Drat, maybe if she sacrificed Hitoshi to him he’d forget…

No, she couldn’t do that, she mused, as half of her brain focused on lassos and nets, Hitoshi would never forgive her for forcing him to socialize.

She’d just have to hope he forgot to ask again.

…And, perhaps, figure out what those other colors could possibly be.

Kagami withheld a sneer with long practice, her face showing only neutrality.  She was, perhaps, more like Chloe and Felix than she showed to the wider world, but she had the excuse of growing in privilege, something she recognized and appreciated.  Standing before her was the final 1-B student to have gotten this far, Awase, quirk Weld.  As Iida had shown, he only had to get you once, but, well, she’d fought against his quirk before, if only through his imitating classmate.

Her hands clenched slightly around a sword that wasn’t there and she internally sighed, even as she moved forward when Midnight’s whip dropped.  It was clear that this student had no formal hand to hand training, and despite trying to catch her with his quirk, he couldn’t measure up to Marinette.  She made what felt like short work of him and hit the nerve in his neck hard enough to daze him, and then she bodily dragged him out of bounds.  She had no desire to prolong this match.

“AND WITH THAT, TSURUGI ADVANCES AGAIN!  WE HAVE OUR FINAL FOUR, LET’S GET THIS STARTED WITH YAOYOROZU VERSUS URARAKA!”

Kagami left the field, passing Uraraka as she went.  The girl looked pumped and proud, and she hadn’t quite made it to the locker room when the match was over, the highlights showing a wrapped up Uraraka.  She took deep breaths and centered herself, letting the breeze from the air conditioning wash over her skin, causing goosebumps to form.  She took a breath and turned around, back to the stadium.  Fool on her, she shouldn’t have left.  Now all she had to do was face Shinsou, the person with a possible fear quirk, and she would be in the finals.

She narrowed her eyes when her opponent stepped up on the field, hands casually in his pockets, but his shoulders betraying his tension.

“Are you, perhaps,” she sniffed derisively, “nervous?”

He wryly grinned.  “Probably not as nervous as you’re about to be, huh?”

She stiffened as Midnight’s whip cracked down, and lunged.

He dodged, dancing around and on the defensive.

“Come on,” he taunted, “is this really the best the hero course has to offer?”

She growled.  “Your taunts mean nothing!”

“Scramble away from me like you’re afraid until you’re over the line.”

A zing of actual fear rang through her as her body moved without her input, mind hazy and racing as she slowly put it together.  Oh, oh it wasn’t a fear quirk at all-

She snapped out of it to the riotous cheers of the crowd and blinked, looking at the boy appraisingly.

“I see,” she intoned, “my cousin will be intrigued to know how what he sensed related.  You’re an angler fish.”

Shinsou blinked.  “I…what?”

She gave him a light bow and walked off, smile slowly growing.  The path to the clinic wasn’t long, and she passed Yaomomo on the way.  She eyed the girl’s wry smile.

“You know?”

The girl shrugged.  “We’re friends.”

Kagami hummed.  “He was quite clever.”

“Yes, I rather think so!”

“Best of luck.”

“Thank you, Kagami.”

She walked past the girl to the clinic where Izuku was doing his best to convince Recovery Girl to let him go to watch the final match.

“Kagami,” he latched onto her presence immediately, “tell her I’m fine!”

She raised an eyebrow.  “I don’t know that.  Are you fine?”

“Yes!  Yaomomo came by again earlier just to be sure or something, and to drop off Uraraka who got some nasty rope burn, she’s over there,” the girl waved and winced as Recovery Girl smacked her lightly for moving, “and Recovery Girl even admitted that it looks like my system is clear-”

“-but I still want to keep you for observation,” Recovery Girl finished, “so you don’t knock yourself out wobbling up the stairs to the stands.  You can see the final match perfectly fine from in here.”

He gave a mighty pout, but still sat down and glued his eyes to the screen.

“So, was his quirk really a fear quirk?”

“He’s an angler fish.”

The boy blinked at her, so she elaborated.  “The appearance is due to the fact that it is a hypnosis quirk of some kind, triggered by…something.  Possibly by the other person talking.  He’s an angler fish with a lure that tempts you into speaking back, but when you do, he’s got you and he can command you to do anything.”

Izuku blinked several times before his chest swelled with air and it all came gushing out, rapid fire.

“That’s so cool, the light is a lure, like him trying to get you to talk if that’s actually what it was, and of course it got Kacchan and Monoma, they can’t stop talking if their lives depend on it, or in Kacchan’s case if he doesn’t know any better, and you wouldn’t have known so you’d get caught in it, which is something Yaomomo brought up as well because apparently he wants to go underground which makes so much sense with a quirk like that he’d be a hidden ace, and he could talk to victims and talk people down and just make hostage negotiation so much smoother and wow that’s such a cool quirk and Yaomomo is definitely destroying him right now holy shit-”

She blinked up at the screen where the girl in question was indeed fighting the purple haired boy with a longer staff than the one she used with the shield earlier, and Shinsou was talking away between dodges.  He was quite good at dodging, but Yaomomo was stubbornly not talking, which would make sense because-

“-they already knew each other, and apparently he doesn't like a lot of people so she doesn’t think we’re going to be friends and oooo that looks like it’s going to bruise-”

-apparently her cousin already had his sights set on the new kid, because Kagami had no doubt that they would soon have another classmate.

The match ended with Shinsou yielding under the end of Yaomomo’s staff pressed up against his neck, and she helped her cousin stand.  He stubbornly didn’t wobble, and rolled his eyes when he noticed she had been checking for it.

“I texted everyone else,” she said, “and while I have to go for the presentation of medals, they’ll meet you at the tunnel entrance, so wait there.  Then we’ll all go home together, and I’m sure you can bombard Shinsou with questions about his quirk.”

Izuku beamed at her and kept rambling about angler fish fun facts that she decided she didn’t need to know (the men merged with the women to mate?  Ew).

She left him there to climb the podium for her bronze medal.  A good showing.

Izuku lounged against the wall, peaking out at the cheering crowds.  He really was feeling all the way better, and hadn’t been tired or sluggish for a solid ten minutes at this point, which was pretty much since he woke up just outside the clinic.  He poked his head out to see how the preparations for the rewards ceremony were going, since it was about to start, and then pulled his head back in.  He jumped a little when an angry voice reached his ears.

“-should have been you, Shouto, but you were too weak.  Your dependency on other people cost you.”

“Everyone had to have a team.”

“And yet you picked a weak one.  Why did you not team up with the Yaoyorozu heiress?  Her family is weaker, yes, but she had training.  She would have suited.  And now, she is in first place and not you.”

“I told you, I tried-”

“SILENCE, SHOUTO!  I don’t want to hear your excuses.   If she didn’t take you it's because you didn’t show what an asset you could be because you didn’t use my fire.”

“I will never use your fire,” his normally stoic classmate spat out, “I’ll become a hero with just my mother’s ice.”

Endeavor scoffed.  “You’re delusional if you think that will be enough.  No, soon enough you will realize that you need me and my power.  I’m the number two hero for a reason, my son.”

“And yet you’re still only number two.”

There was the sound of skin meeting skin and then silence for a few moments while fire crackled.

“I will send an intern request.  You will take it, and I will teach you to end your defiance.”

Loud footsteps stomped off and Izuku stared at the opposite wall with wide eyes.  After a moment, he heard shifting and then footsteps in his direction.  He froze and looked around desperately for some place to go or hide-

“Oh.  Midoriya.”

Izuku swallowed.  “Hey.  Um.  Fancy seeing you here.”

Todoroki looked at him impassively, reminding him of a much more severe and stoic Kagami back when they didn’t really know each other.  He unconsciously looked for some of the same markers to try and figure out what he was feeling, but the other boy gave off nothing.  His eyes were drawn to the slightly reddened cheek under the unblemished grey eye before they flicked away.

“Do you know what a quirk marriage is?”

He jumped.  “Oh, you want to talk.  Um.  Yes.  Objectively… oh, no way.  Say psyche right now.”

Todoroki’s brows briefly ticked in confusion before his face smoothed again, frown fixed permanently on his face.  “I do not know what you mean.  But, my father bought my mother so that he could combine her ice with his fire and create a more powerful quirk.  It took him four tries, but finally he got me.  My mother couldn’t stand to look at this side of my face, too reminded of the man that is my father, so she poured boiling water on my eye.  I will never use his fire to be a hero, even if it means I lose.”

“Okay, there are…” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, “so many things wrong with that entire speech.  One, why would you tell me this?”

“I already told someone else.  And I didn’t want you to misunderstand what you had overheard.”

“That’s a terrible reason, but okay.  Two.  You are aware that’s illegal, right?  Like, Endeavor could be arrested for that.”

“I was led to believe you were intelligent, Midoriya.  You must be aware that my father would never be arrested.  He’s the number two hero.”

“<He certainly is one kind of number two,>” Izuku muttered under his breath, “but okay, fine.  Three, “losing” at being a hero means people die.  Are you prepared to never use part of your quirk just to spite him, knowing you might have been able to save more people?  Because if so, get out of hero school, I’m going to be honest.”

Todoroki frowned.  “It’s not my fire.  It’s his.”

“Point number four,” Izuku pointed at him, “that’s utter nonsense.  Like, seriously, your quirks are nothing alike.  His is an orange red and it's just a ball of fire.  Your’s is turquoise and looks more like water, I’m going to be honest.  One side, on your fire side, is constantly moving and rippling, I guess in hindsight a little like fire.  The other side, your ice, is slow moving.  But it’s all the same color, and it’s all the same stuff.  Quirk sense is really handy, it’s your power.  Trust me, I can tell.”

Todoroki was silent for a few moments before the crowds erupted above them and All Might’s voice boomed through the stadium and Izuku smiled.

“Don’t go with him for your internship,” Izuku said idly, trying to seem casual, “go with, well, literally anyone else.  Also consider telling Aizawa any or all of this.”

The awards ceremony ended and he ran out to congratulate his cousin and he turned to Shinsou, putting another tall, brooding boy out of his mind for now.

“Hi!  I hear you have a really cool quirk!  Did you know it reminds me of an angler fish?”

Adrien burst out laughing from where the three business course students were coming out to meet them.  “Lucky brick wall of the week!”

Shinsou blinked down at him.  “What.”

Chapter Text

They got several screaming phone calls, all nestled on the couch while the people in France woke up and watched the sports festival.  Luka and Chloe were extremely proud and Kagami actually took the phone into the other apartment for several minutes.  Izuku decidedly did not want to know what transpired in that conversation, but they and Sabrina easily congratulated all of them.  Sabrina kept cackling about the dodgeball and subsequent baseball game Uraraka had played.

Kim, Max, Markov, Nino, and Alix spent most of their call talking about the dodgeball game in round one, mostly Kim and Alix talking about how’d they’d have gotten more people out and Max loudly claiming that was incredibly false, as they had managed to eliminate over thirty people between the four of them, and despite their athleticism, Kim and Alix were two people with quirks that would only mildly affect their ability to hit people with balls.  Of course, they immediately claimed that Nino and Max would help them to make it equal and the other two boys sounded very skeptical about getting involved.  Nino was just glad it looked like they had had a good time, and that they’d managed to surprise a lot of people.  Max had, through Markov, been translating the broadcast for them, and Nino was super excited by all the nice things Present Mic had had to say about the four of them.

Next, Mend’s class had all congratulated them and Ron had wailed about how their Ice Queen was all grown up and getting in third, which everyone was super impressed by.  Lucy asked them to get a sample of Ashido’s acid, to which everyone gave horrified no’s, and Vio reported that their social media presence was looking nice, along with several other classmates.  The old group chat was bombarded with memes and clips from the festival, and Jacque and Vio spearheaded the meme campaign on Twitter and generated a lot of international cross traffic.  Felix, Adrien, and Mari looked at this with intrigue and talked a bit about that for a while, something about being in the business course now, but Izuku and Kagami sort of tuned out for that bit.  It was interesting, because if they both decided to be heroes (and Gami was undecided at this point) they’d have to either do this themselves or their agencies would have people for this, but it wasn’t something they were fully invested in yet.

Finally, the girls called their parents and were glowing with pride over their personal phone calls.  Aunt Tomoe also told Izuku he’d done very well, and he felt something soft nestle into his chest, right beside the other thing that had settled there when his mom had hugged him and gushed about her own pride in him.

Izuku settled in that night, nerves buzzing with the leftover high of the competition, and Nooroo easily went into the brooch for their semi-regular night meditations.  He let his three butterfly friends settle on his hands while he stretched out like water, draping senses over the surrounding city.

It was disconcerting to do this like that, to just be a puddle or a melted pudding and focus on nothing but feel it all, since usually he spread out more like a caterpillar or a tentacle, looking in specific spots to see specific people and quirks.  This gave him much lass range, and felt a little like being surrounded by multicolored fireflies, but it was still meditative.  He only vaguely looked at the different colors and shapes.  There was a hand based quirk over there, in green.  One centered in the mind, in blue, a block or two away.  There was the grey white of-

Wobbly Rainbow!

He instantly pulled more of his attention to the quirk he’d seen before, which was good because they were moving, and out of his firefly puddle range.  They were approaching a small group of people, lingered for a few seconds nearby, did that weird stretching thing, and then left, going faster than before.  One of the people, with an inky quirk centered around what he guessed was their mouth and throat, went after them for a bit, but Wobbly Rainbow got out of there fast and huddled down a few blocks away.  Izuku bit his lip and considered sending a butterfly, but, well, it’s not like he knew this person, nor their circumstances, and he’d only “seen” them twice.  He also got very little context for circumstances because unless he focused…

He furrowed his brow and pushed a bit more attention on them, feeling himself starting to get a headache, a bit more at a time until he could sense the vaguest of emotions.  He was so far away from Wobbly Rainbow, and not using a butterfly, so it was a very vague sense, but he could tell they were panicked and disgusted and sad.  He bit his lip, but was jolted out of his thinking by the patter of feet.  He sighed and opened his eyes, relaxing back into firefly mode and letting Wobbly Rainbow fall out of range.

He glanced up from his little friends at the time and sighed, flopping back into bed.

“Thanks, guys,” he whispered, “repose mes ailes.”

Nooroo flew out with a yawn.  “You’re getting better,” he praised, “your awareness of things and your range is increasing.  I think you’d soon be able to maintain two butterflies, if at a reduced level.  Your ability to multitask and focus on multiple things is good!”

Izuku bit his lip.  “Thanks.  Um, you also sort of are present even when I’m transformed, right?”

“Yes?”

“So you also felt Wobbly Rainbow?”

Nooroo sighed.  “Yes.  We do not know the circumstances, but I don’t think they’re good ones.  Would you like to help them?”

Izuku frowned.  “Of course.  I just don’t know if I can.  Or if I should, with the miraculous.  I suppose I could go out into the city and see if I can find them in person, but…”

Nooroo hummed.  “You could always ask Marinette or Felix?  As the guardians, they can tell you if it would be a bad idea to try to use our miraculous to solve worldly issues.  It might draw attention to you and your presence here if you made a champion, but for the connection aspect it might be fine?  Just so you can talk to Wobbly Rainbow.”

Izuku hummed.  “Not now though.  Since it’s past midnight.”

Nooroo giggled.  “Yes, since it’s past midnight you should maybe wait until morning.  But it’s the weekend!  So you have time.”

Izuku snuggled into his comforter and pulled Emerald, Apollo, and Daredevil out of the brooch, letting them flitter around in the moonlight before they settled around the room.  He drifted off to sleep, promising himself he’d ask if he could connect with people or if that was too risky.

He hoped he could.  Wobbly Rainbow felt upset.

The next morning, he was given approval to reach out to people, but not to champion anyone, and obviously he had to pass it off as a quirk and not give his name.  Of course, he forgot about that immediately when Adrien got The Letter.

Felix had gone to check the mail and offered the wax sealed envelope to his cousin with a raised eyebrow.  As soon as Mari and Gami saw it, they burst into giggles, and Mari looked mortified.

Adrien frowned and squinted at the blue wax.  “Is this…a tiger?”

Marinette put her head in hands and Kagami’s cackling got louder.

Inko passed the boy a butter knife and he slid it under the wax seal, pulling out the fancy card stock whatever was written there was on.  He read over the text carefully, paling slightly at the Chinese characters, and he looked at Marinette with wide eyes.

She peeked through her fingers at the letter and spied a few characters before groaning.  “Is it because…?”

He nodded slowly.

“And they said…?”

“Uhuh.”

She groaned.  “You’re fine, Maman already approves.”

“Princess, am I going to be disappeared?”

“NO!”

Izuku raised an eyebrow at Kagami, renewing her laughter.

“For those of us without psychic powers,” Felix glowered, “what on earth was the content of that letter?”

Inko plucked it from Adrien’s hands and looked it over, snorting.  “They’re threatening him, no doubt for professing his love for Marinette on live television.  They, of course, being Marinette’s clan, the Sapphire Tigers, hence the wax seal.  Goodness, I forgot they did these occasionally.”

Izuku stared.  “Mom, you speak Chinese?”

“Oh, heavens no,” she laughed, “I’m just assuming.  They’re all very dramatic, so it’s what I would do if someone confessed to my child live on TV.”

Kagami nodded.  “We are all very dramatic, it’s true, and we only get more so with age.”

(Izuku looked for Wobbly Rainbow for the next two nights, but couldn’t find them.)

On Monday, Izuku brightened considerably as he approached the classroom.

“Shinsou!”

“Oh god,” the other boy muttered as he turned, “hello, Midoriya,” his voice was a normal volume now, “how was your weekend.”

Izuku gasped.  “You remember my name!  I looked up more angler fish facts and went on a tangent by mistake.  Do you want to know about the dragonfish?  They’re really cool.”

Shinsou looked pained as Yaomomo tried to conceal her laughter.  “Not really-”

“Yeah you do, here goes.  Okay, so the color red doesn’t really reach the deep zone where angler fish live, right?  Which makes sense if you think about light, because red has the slowest waves, so it doesn't have enough energy to reach that deep.  This is why a lot of fish that live in the deep, like the angler fish, are red, because it makes them invisible!  They haven’t adapted to see red light because it doesn’t reach down there!  Ex cept for the dragonfish!”

Shinsou frowned.  “This is going to disturb me, isn’t it.”

“Probably,” Izuku said cheerfully, “so the dragonfish also has a lure like the angler fish, a little glowing light, except this light is red!  And the dragonfish can see red, they’re specially adapted for it!  Which means no one else can see them coming and will only feel the lure vibrating, whereas the dragonfish can see all their prey!  Isn’t that so neat?”

Shinsou swallowed.  “Yeah.  So… so cool.”

“And don’t worry, they’re even smaller than angler fish!”

Shinsou frowned.  “How big is an angler fish…?”

Izuku hummed.  “Well, most don’t get longer than about 40 centimeters, but they found a really big one once!  And it was a meter long.  Dragonfish don’t really grow larger than 32 centimeters.”

Shinsou wheezed. “I am now afraid of the ocean.”

Yaomomo snorted.  “Now?  Just now?”

“Well, I didn’t have all the facts before.”

“Which are?”

“It’s scary and full of terrible things.”

“Get to class,” Aizawa’s voice cut in from the floor, “we have things to do today.”

They all filed into the room and their seats, and Shinsou gave a sigh of relief when he saw his seat was in the back row crammed next to Yaomomo.

The bell rang and Aizawa appeared at the podium like a sleep paralysis demon, making Ashido and Kaminari both shriek a little, but a quirk flare of red had them quieting down easily.

“Welcome to class,” he said dryly, “as you can see, Shinsou Hitoshi has moved up from general studies.  No, none of you are being moved down to make room.  You all have potential, so that would be illogical.  He is student 21.  Moving on, as I’m sure all of you are aware, the sports festival was an opportunity for agencies to see our up and coming talent, and as such, we will be starting internships next week, from next Monday to the following Sunday.  I will eventually pass out a list of agencies that requested you, and you will have until the end of the day Friday to turn in your forms, or you will be assigned an internship.  Here on the board is the number of offers you received.

Yaomomo, of course, had the highest, with Uraraka next, then Kagami, then Shinsou, and then Awase, from class 1-B.

“Wait a minute,” Uraraka cried, “why did Mister Second Place get half as many offers as me?!”

Aizawa scowled.  “That’s just how these things work.  Just like the entrance exam, people favor flashy quirks.  However, before you can look at your internship offers, you need to select a hero name.  These might stick with you for your entire career, so ensure you choose well-”

“-or there’ll be hell to pay!” Midnight finished as she slammed the door open.  She strolled in, swaying her hips, and oozed over the podium with a flirtatious smile over the class.

“I’m abandoning my poor baby ducklings for you all,” she pouted, “so you’d better-”

“What poor baby ducklings,” Aizawa cut her off, “I thought you said your class had a new queen.”

“No,” Midnight pointed at him, “I specifically said princess.  She’s darling and wonderful and everyone loves her.  The class is fine in her hands.”

“I thought you always had a king or a queen?”

She shrugged.  “Normally, but her cutie boyfriend, you know, the one from the sports festival who dropped out?  Yeah, he calls her princess all the time, and it’s just so sweet that I was willing to let the titles change just this once.”

Aizawa frowned and cast a glance at Izuku and Kagami, who were gaping.  “Did she usurp the class president, then?”

Midnight waved him off.  “No, he’s still King.  She said she didn’t want the responsibility again, especially because apparently Japanese isn’t her first language.  Anyway, fine, I was kidding, my class is fine without me for this one block, now can we get to the hero names?”

Aizawa rolled his eyes.  “You’re the one who had to bring up your “ducklings.”  But fine.  Midnight is here to help you with the marketability of your names, so she’ll get final say on if you can use them or not.”

“And try not to let your friends pick your names,” she snorted, “or you’ll end up with something like Eraserhead.”

“It was a good name.”

“Yamada was making fun of you.”

“He would never do that.”

Shinsou made a strangled sound in the back of the room and Yaomomo patted him on the back.

Midnight clapped.  “Come grab a whiteboard and a marker and let’s get started!  As soon as you have one, raise your hand and I’ll call you up!”

Tsu went first, having already thought of her name, and slowly their other classmates trickled up while Izuku stared at his board, stumped.

“I can’t think of anything,” he whined back to his cousin, “help.”

Kagami scribbled on her board and turned it around to face him.

He stared and his mouth fell open.  “You’re not even gonna bother to help me?  And then come at me with a phonetic pun?!”

Kagami smirked.  “It’s good, isn’t it?”

He licked his teeth.  “The Encroaching Storm: Ryuunami.  It’s terrible and awful.  Why would you inflict this upon me.”

“Ren came up with it, actually.”

“When did you have time to ask Ren?”

She held up her phone.

“Oh yeah.”

He turned away from her in mock disgust as she went up to give her name, gaining approval from Midnight.

He tapped the marker against the edge of the board and looked down to meet Nooroo’s eyes.  Slowly, he put marker to board and tilted it so the kwami could see and got a contemplative look and a nod.

Finally, he went up.

“The Transmission Hero: Gachou.  Since, uh, butterflies and moths are sort of my theme…  Also Mothman is probably copyrighted.”

That got a few laughs, and he sat down gratefully.  Gachou was fun and easy to say, and it was literally tossing together kanji meaning moth and butterfly, so it was pretty accurate too.  Plus, the epithet told people about his overarching power without sounding pretentious like “Champion Hero” would have done.

Yaomomo went up next.  “Genesis, the Everything Hero.”

Shinsou followed behind her.  “Mindblank.”

Todoroki went up.  “Cerulean.”

Finally, Midnight called on Iida.

“Tenya.”

She blinked.  “Just… your name?”

“Yes.”

Izuku frowned at the shortness Iida was using.  It was unlike the vice president, and his expression was blank.

Finally, however, they all had their hero names and Aizawa passed out their packets of agencies that had requested them.  Izuku scrolled through his with delight and narrowed it down to three.  He’d probably go with the Titania agency, because a lot of them did flying things and half were bug themed.  He wasn’t sure why they’d offered him an internship, since he hadn’t shown off any bug related things, but he was just glad that they had.  He’d still go home and do more research on his options, of course, but he had a really good feeling about them.

“I’m going to find and duel Hawks,” Kagami declared, “he didn’t send me a request.”

Izuku blinked.  “Because he doesn’t know it was you?”

“He will learn.”

“Um.”

On their way to a hero studies lesson, Izuku overheard Aizawa asking Iida if he was sure that Manual was who he wanted to go with, and getting a firm confirmation back.  Manual was pretty minor, but Izuku had gotten an offer from him too.  He was… water based?  Maybe Iida was going to try and learn about fighting in environments that weren’t great for sprinting, or where he might slip.

Today was a costumed heroics exercise, so Izuku suited up and got to the city block they were using.  All Might was teaching them again today, and he was apparently having them have a mock fight, heroes versus villains.

Izuku took a deep breath and muttered, “lève mes ailes.”

He shuddered and his head whipped around to find his classmate, armored up and helmet concealing his face and expression.

Izuku pulled his senses in for the first time in a long time, instinct making him look around, and tried to avoid the roiling mass of despair, hatred, and anger that was coming from Iida.

He silently mourned the Titania agency and steeled himself to restructure his plans during the heroics exercise.

“Now,” All Might boomed, “I will be pairing you up in teams of two by random draw, and then will select a team to be the villains guarding the bomb, and one team to be the heroes infiltrating the building.  Come forward to draw your teams!”

But first, of course, he had to actually get through said exercise.

Chapter Text

Izuku looked up at the building and swallowed.

“What is the plan, kero?”

He jumped out of his reverie and instantly cupped a hand around the construct that had landed there.  He blinked down at Emerald, who waggled their antenna back at him with a light feeling of mirth.

He mindlessly imbued the moth with power and offered it to Tsu, eyeing her hero costume.

“Do you think you can keep your goggles from breaking?  Or would you prefer it to be your belt?”

Tsu blinked.  “My goggles will be fine, kero.  Most people do not go for the head or the face, nor can they often reach that high.”

He nodded and Emerald took that as an invitation to burrow into her goggles.  He instantly felt the connection form and grinned at her, knowing they were close enough that she'd probably be hearing double.

“Asui Tsuyu, we have a task before us.  Are you willing to work with me as my champion?  I’ll give you poisonous skin, like your cousins in the Dendrobate genus, that will paralyze the muscles of anyone who touches you.  No death, of course, but probably avoid the neck?  Hang on, I can workshop this real quick… uh, your skin has the poison but your…saliva has the antidote?  Sure.  Just in case.  Are you willing?”

Tsu snorted.  “You usually plan ahead more than that, don’t you?”

He shrugged.  “Yeah, usually.  I’m pretty good at thinking on the fly, but I can afford to be less immediately confident about powers when it’s someone I know and the stakes aren’t high.”

“I’m willing,” Tsu nodded, “let us win this exercise.”

He grinned.  “Well then, Dart, it’s time for a metamorphosis!”

Green washed over her and left her skin looking much more vibrant.  Some patches, like her cheeks, were more pink, whereas most other sections of her visible skin took on a distinct green hue.  Her hair was streaked through with bright green, and the colors on her suit were much more bold, but other than the colors, nothing about her changed.

She hummed.  “This is…” she cocked her head, thinking, “very interesting.  I feel lighter and stronger.”

He shrugged.  “Most of the power went into the poison, I won’t lie, but there was some left over for general enhancements.  You’re already pretty strong, though.”

Tsu smiled widely as All Might announced the start of the exercise and crouched down.  “You are a sensor, yes?  Where are they?”

Izuku blinked, and mentally chided himself.  Right, he was a sensor.  He closed his eyes and puddled ever so slightly.  “Third floor is the engine, so Iida, Kirishima is on the second floor on the other side of the building from us, and moving.  I presume the bomb is with Iida, since he’s stationary.  Let’s go for Kirishima?  His quirk shouldn’t protect against you.”

Tsu nodded and leapt for a second floor window.  She made a noise of amusement when she overshot, and crawled back down, easing the window open.  She hesitated briefly.  “Will you be coming in this way?”

He had a brief moment of panic that he probably wouldn’t normally be able to jump up there like he would while transformed, but then remembered he literally had glider wings installed so maybe he would.  It might be a good idea to see if he could modify his boots to get some lift out of jumps, though, so if he was detransformed-

He shook his head and smiled up at her.  “I’ll catch up, but I’ll head for Iida and monitor the situation from your perspective and mine.  I can send you feedback, if needed.”

She nodded and ducked into the building, and he sighed in relief before bracing and leaping to the window ledge.  He was at least half as heavy when transformed, so he easily reached the very top of the first floor window frame, and hauled himself up, jumping to the second floor, and then again to the third.  He knew Iida was what felt like a room away, but this building also wasn’t structured like a house, so he peeked in the window and breathed a sigh of relief when it revealed a small storage room.  He eased open the window, stepped inside, and pulled his goggles down to focus on the multiple sensory inputs better by muting his own sight ever so slightly.

“I see Kirishima,” Dart relayed quietly, “should I engage?”

He hummed.  “If you want.  I’m close to Iida, and they’ll be expecting it soon enough.  Ceiling drop?”

She chuckled and it sounded like soft and short croaking.  “Yes.  I usually would be able to camouflage…”

He winced.  “Sorry.  If I don’t know every aspect of your quirk, not even my quirk sense will tell me.  In hindsight, it does look a little translucent.”

“No worries,” she murmured, “this is interesting.  And you’re in school for a reason.”

He conceded the point and felt Iida begin to pace, so he slipped out of the storage room and to the door to the room he was in.  It was easy to detect Iida, he shone like an angry star with emotions that Izuku could feel easily.  Usually he wouldn’t be able to unless he was actively searching for a champion (which, well, the meditation was different, less focused) but Iida was feeling things so strongly and so close that he couldn’t help but feel it pressing on him.  Based on the sounds from the room, Iida was pacing and…monologuing?

“-how dare you heroes try to stop us?!  Don’t you know what good work we’re doing?  What good we could still do?  …No, that doesn’t make sense.  Unless, of course, the villain was being facetious and knew that they were not, in fact, doing good.  Because they are villains and villains are incapable of doing good, they’re just capable of destroying good-”

He trailed off into hateful mutters and Izuku’s eyes narrowed.  So, his emotions had something to do with a villain, then?

“I have taken out Kirishima,” he jumped at Dart’s voice, “he is currently paralyzed, but not injured.  It was quite easy, but I will admit that it was difficult to not use my tongue.  Should I put the capture tape on him”

He winced.  “Actually, the poison should last long enough, so hold off and then Iida won’t know Kirishima isn’t coming.  And, well, sorry again.  I guess it could be training in case your tongue is injured?”

“Could be.  How is Iida?”

He sent a flash to her of their location and the image of Iida pacing in front of the bomb, armor clanking with every step.  She hummed in appreciation and he could feel her starting to head his way.

“Plan?”

Izuku wrinkled his nose.  “I mean, I could probably take him.  At the very least, though, I can go in and distract him.  He was practicing a monologue, so I might be able to get him talking.  If you wait for me to rotate him you can come in through the door and then drop onto the bomb from the ceiling.”

“Agreed.  We do not have much time left, so it must be speedy.”

He hummed and stood from his crouch, walking in the room confidently.

Iida immediately jumped.  “Midor- I mean, foul hero!  You’re too late!  You’ll never foil our evil plan!”

“We already have,” he shrugged, “I’d say you’re the one who’s too late.”

Iida pressed his finger to his ear.  “Kiri- erm, Red Riot!  I require assistance!”

Izuku smiled and twisted his cane.  “No response?  Shame.  Something must have happened to him.”

Iida straightened.  “What did you do to him?!”

Izuku shrugged, flicking his saber out and settling into a fencing stance, left hand holding the stiff wood of the cane behind him.  “Paralyzed him.  He won’t be walking up here anytime soon.”

For some reason, Iida’s emotions flared, and Izuku staggered back.  “I-Iida?”

The other boy didn’t say anything, but came at him at full speed and Izuku shrieked lightly and dodged away, scrambling back.

“Okay, so we’re going full out, got it!” His voice dropped to a murmur.  “Dart, you wouldn’t happen to be close, would you?

“Fifteen seconds.  Your distraction is working.”

“He’s like a bull in a china shop,” Izuku complained and he rolled away, “and I don’t want to skewer him!  But I have no idea what set him off, I thought he was just taking the villainy thing a little too seriously in the acting department, not the murder one!  I would have you paralyze him, but that armor seems pretty…”

“Yes, I doubt I’d actually be able to touch him.  I could grab him with my tongue and fling him?”

Izuku yelped again at the near miss.  “I don't want him to figure out you’re there, grab the paper mache bomb, and run.  This exercise is only ten minutes long, and we have what, two minutes left?”

“Almost above the bomb.”

Iida's arm swung for his head and he didn’t quite manage to duck in time for it to not clip him, and he reeled back, swearing in Old Tibetan under his breath as he raised his sword and cane.

“Come on, Iida,” he yelled, “you know you can’t keep this up forever!”

“I will destroy you for what you’ve done,” Iida yelled back, “you vi-”

“HERO TEAM WINS!  RETURN TO THE OBSERVATION ROOM!”

They all stopped and Izuku looked at the bomb with a relieved grin, immediately tucking his sword away.  “Man, Iida,” he turned, “that was really intense- um.”

Iida was standing stock still and Izuku edged away from him a bit.  “Uhhh…”

Tsu dropped beside him.  “Iida, kero,” she croaked, “let us return to Kirishima so I can give him the antidote.”

Iida seemed to rally.  “Yes!  You must tell me how you… ah, you are looking much more vibrant than usual, Asui!  Midoriya’s quirk?”

“Call me Tsu,” she insisted as they began to walk, “and yes.  I am Dart, like this, and my skin is poisonous, but my saliva has the antidote.  Gachou was very thoughtful like that.”

Iida nodded stiffly.  “Yes that is… a good thing.  Ah, Kirishima!”

Kirishima smiled sheepishly.  “I think my arms and legs are asleep.”

He was perfectly rigid from his shoulders down, though it looked like he had managed to jerk his body around some, and he could look around.

“You don’t know how frustrating it was to hear you ask for help and not be able to reach the button to respond,” he groaned, “so not manly at all!”

Dart’s tongue shot out, and Izuku noticed it had gotten paler than it was before.  Kirishima shuddered a little, but then he began to wiggle and he let out a cheer when he managed to stand up.  He shook his limbs out and grinned widely.

“Thank Tsu!  That’s a pretty manly powerup!”

Dart smiled, pleased.  “It surprised you enough to give me the victory.”

“Oh yeah, it was super surprising!  I completely forgot what Midobro could do, haha.”

The four of them walked back to the room, Izuku lingering behind slightly to pull Emerald back, let his transformation drop, and for Nooroo to dive into the pocket he kept the baggie of apple slices in.  He probably would eventually need to invest in a utility belt, he sighed, but for now, his pockets were deep and designed in a way that something that could flatten at least a little wouldn’t be visible.

They made it to the observation room and Kagami smirked at him with a nod of acknowledgement.

All Might beamed at them.  “And who would you all say was the MVP of this match?”

“Tsu,” Izuku said immediately, “she was the one who took out Kirishima and touched the bomb.”

“Kero,” Tsu frowned, “I would not have succeeded in either without your help, or it would have been much harder.  My poison came from you, and without your distraction, Iida would have seen me.”

“Ah, but only because I accidentally took away your natural camouflage by making you nature’s danger sign instead.  Otherwise, you could have just snuck right up to the bomb and left me.”

“I would also say the MVP was Asui,” All Might cut in, “and now we must go to the next match up!  We have… Team A versus Team F!  Team A will be the heroes!  Team F, go set up your defenses!”

Kouda and Kaminari went into the building while Yaomomo and Hagakure lingered in front of it, talking over something Izuku couldn’t hear, obviously.  Two groups had already done, one with Satou and Todoroki as the villains (and winning) against Ashido and Shinsou (who couldn’t get into the ice fortress in time; it seemed Todoroki had learned a thing or two about protecting a location since the sports festival), and the other Kagami and Uraraka as the winning heroes against Ojirou and Aoyama as the losing villains.  After this match would be Tokoyami, Sero, and Shouji (due to the odd number of people) versus Jirou and Katsuki, positions undecided.

When the planning period ended, Hagakure disappeared like she was never there, not even shoes and gloves to mark her.  The only reason anybody knew where she was was because she still had the earpiece, and while it was small and she was hugging the walls, it was still floating around.  In the meantime, Yaomomo was whistling, holding a metal staff and armor pouring out of her skin around her.  It looked thin, and didn’t cover her chest, instead focusing on her arms up past her shoulders, and her legs.  The red of her costume stuck out in the other spots against the matte grey of the armor.

Kaminari was the first to take the bait, seeing her metal pole and metal armor and lighting up, literally and figuratively.  They heard him say, “Madam President, you shouldn’t have,” before he grabbed at her staff and electrified, not realizing that she had let him grab it.  He reeled back in confusion when she didn’t even flinch.

“Tungsten is one of the least conductive metals,” she said cheerfully, waving her free hand, “and the palms of my gloves are rubber.”

“Oh shit.”

She laughed and went for him, using the dense metal to smack his legs, causing him to be off balance in time for her sweep to send him toppling to the ground.

“If you keep your legs bent and shoulder width apart,” she commented as she deftly took out the capture tape and slung it around his wrist, “you’ll be harder to make fall.  You also can’t assume that every metal you see is conductive.  Perhaps some research is in your future?”

He nodded, dazed.  “Yeah, no kidding.  You’re pretty cool, Prez.”

She blushed prettily and patted him on the shoulder.  “Thank you, Kaminari.  Now, I hope Ojirou is close…”

“HERO TEAM WINS!”

She shrugged.  “Or that Hagakure can find the bomb.”

“Man,” Kaminari winced as she helped him up, “you guys destroyed us.”

“Next time you’ll be better,” she beamed, “I just know it.  Don’t give up!  Plus Ultra!”

He grinned back.  “Heck yeah!  Plus Ultra!”

Ojirou looked a little frustrated, but Yaomomo talked to him on their way back and he seemed to rally and brighten considerably, face determined.

“Who was the MVP this time,” All Might boomed, “class?”

“Momo,” Hagakure said instantly, “her plan was awesome!”

She blushed again, smiling demurely.  “I got the idea from Izuku, actually.  There are several members of our class who are well suited to more Underground practices, and it was my pleasure to be a loud distraction to ensure Tooru could show that off.”

“Definitely Yaomomo,” Kaminari agreed, “no matter where she got her ideas from.”

“Excellent work,” All Might beamed, “now maybe our final two teams take to the field?”

Katsuki hung back, looking at the building impassively.  After about a minute of silence which had Jirou fidgeting, he turned to her and started gesturing.  From what Izuku could tell, she started out confused, but quickly rallied to the plan.  When they were allowed to start, they had everything buckled down on their person and slipped inside smoothly and softly like mice, everything as quiet as they could make it.  Several of their classmates expressed surprise over them not going in guns blazing, since Katsuki seemed like the type, but Izuku and Kagami hummed in approval.  Every so often, the cameras showed that Jirou would carefully insert an earphone jack and listen, then point.

“In the beginning,” Kagami leaned over, “he was using sign language?”

Izuku nodded.  “We learned it as kids since his quirk is probably going to make him go deaf sooner.  Even now he has some pretty minor tinnitus.”

“That wasn’t on your list of languages.”

“I recognize that it’s a language, true, but to be honest, I forgot.  And it’s JSL, and I don’t use it often.  Jirou didn’t look like she knew it though, so there went his silent planning idea.”

Kagami raised an eyebrow.  “That was the intent?  That makes some sense, with Shouji on the enemy team.  Having two sound based people facing off might make this interesting.”

Izuku shrugged.  “Maybe?  From what few signs I could see, I think he signed something about…spiders?  The angle was bad.”

Yaomomo nudged Shinsou and he sighed, but glanced over.  “This camera had a slightly better angle.  He was asking if she could take out the spiders.  I’m assuming Shouji and Sero, since Shouji is the guy with six arms and Sero is the tape dude.  I mean, I think so.”

Yaomomo beamed.  “Right!  And Dark Shadow is weak to light, so Bakugo will probably be able to limit that influence.”

“The issue is how they set up the room,” Izuku pointed at the screen, “it’s so dark in there.  Sero taped up the windows before setting up sticky tripwires all around the surrounding hallway. Calling them spiders isn’t inaccurate, and he and Shouji are trying to figure out where Katsuki and Jirou are coming in so they can ambush them.”

“Yes,” Yaomomo nodded, “but for a bomb user, Bakugo is surprisingly quiet.”

Izuku grinned.  “When we were younger, we used to spend a lot of time in the woods.  We learned how to walk there, kind of, so we know how to avoid making noise.  Sticks and dead leaves are excellent teachers.  Of course, we don’t bother most of the time, and it’s been a while since I’ve super needed to, plus we haven’t had a lot of need recently, but we’re pretty quiet.  It probably still won’t be enough to get the drop on Shouji, but they might be able to get close.”

As if to prove his point, a floor away from them, Shouji perked up and pointed.  Sero grinned and started talking, at a whisper since their comms didn’t really pick it up, but Jirou jumped and pointed as well.  Katsuki grinned viciously and took several steps back, indicating to her.  She stuck her earphone jacks in and there were one, two, three pulses and the ceiling crumbled, dropping Shouji.  Sero had managed to tape himself to a wall and was quickly scrambling up, but after blasting Shouji in an ear to disorient him, Katsuki leapt up, chasing after Sero, who shrieked, all pretenses of quiet gone.  Jirou used Shouji’s distraction to make the ground at his feet ripple and then darted forwards with the capture tape, looping it around his wrist.

“Shouji Mezou, captured!”

She deflated, breathing heavily as the relief overtook her, and took Shouji’s offered high five before squinting up at where Katsuki was using his explosions to chase Sero around.  She bit her lip and flicked her eyes around before interesting her jack once again and making the wall Sero had attached his tape to crumble.  The boy yelped and stumbled from the sudden slackness of his swing and Katsuki punched him in the face, wrapping the capture tape around his forearm.

“Sero Hanta, captured!”

Dark Shadow shrieked in the room they and Tokoyami were hiding in, enraged, and Katsuki adjusted his gauntlet straps, tightening his gloves.  His gauntlets weren’t the hefty grenades his old costume designs had had, they looked like a lot of little pouches lining his forearms.  The ones closest to his elbow had little green spots on them, and steadily, more of the spots turned green as opposed to orange, one every thirty seconds or so.

Izuku made a noise.  “Mini grenades.  And he found a color changer that was activated by a steady concentration of nitroglycerin so he knows when they’re mostly full.  That’s ingenious!”

Yaomomo hummed in appreciation as well.  “A larger collection vessel would no doubt have more fire power, but it wouldn’t be regulated.  Here, I imagine he can pull off individual ones, or he can toss the whole lot, while still getting the benefit of siphoning off additional sweat.  They should still pack a punch individually, but he’s not going to bring the building down.”

“Not that he needs to,” Shinsou snorted, “Jirou did that one on her own.”

Katsuki took off one packet from each arm and tossed one after the other into the darkened room, each explosion lighting up the interior beat after beat, and he squinted into it.

“He might need a visor of some sort,” Izuku hummed, “so he isn’t blinded by his own explosions.  Plus he could outfit it with other cool things like night vision if he wanted!”

Kagami sighed.  “I’m sure he’ll be able to make those decisions on his own.”

“Stop being salty about him calling my mum auntie, he’s known her since the actual day after he was born.”

“Never.  He’s an asshole.”

Katsuki grinned viciously and flung himself into the fray, explosions releasing from his hands at regular intervals to make Dark Shadow shriek and snarl and stay back, but they managed to claw at him and tear scratches into his right leg.  Katsuki clearly said “fuck it” and ripped off a whole fistfull of filled grenade packets and hurled them directly into Dark Shadow’s screaming maw, making them reel back and cry and letting Katsuki move in to wrap capture tape around Tokoyami’s hand where the bird boy was still reeling from the loud and bright fiery blast.

“HERO TEAM WINS!  Please return to the observation room!”

Izuku beamed.  “That was pretty cool!  I hope Jirou wasn’t using her quirk when those explosions went off…”

“I was watching her,” Yaomomo offered, “she and the other two had moved away from the fight.  She must have trusted he would win, or that they’d have time to recover and try again if he didn’t.”

“Or she saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to burst an eardrum,” Shinsou sneered, “we could hear Birdbrain and Blasty from here.”

The four of them returned, Tokoyami and Katsuki the only two who looked actually injured, with the crisped edges and mild gouging respectively, but Katsuki had pressed gauze to the actively bleeding parts and it was the end of the class anyway, so he’d probably go to Recovery Girl right after.  Sero had some scraped knees, but Shouji and Jirou were both pretty fine.

All Might grinned.  “What an excellent final fight!  Who would you say was your MVP this round?”

“Bakugo,” the other four chorused immediately, and Katsuki smirked.

“I need to learn sign language,” Jirou grumbled, “but he had a pretty good plan.”

The three boys on the villain team nodded, some ruefully, some impassively.

All Might boomed out a laugh.  “Indeed!  Bakugo is the MVP this round!  And also going to the nurse now!  Everyone else, excellent work today, and class dismissed!”

They all went to the locker rooms with a pleasant buzz of excitement.

“Can you imagine how much different that lesson would have been at the beginning of the year,” Kirishima laughed, “when we had no idea who anyone was or how they fought?”

Kaminari shuddered.  “An actual clusterfuck.  Buildings would have come down, for sure.”

“They almost did,” Sero crowed, “or were you not watching my match?  Not cool, dudes, I thought we were friends!”

The boys all laughed and Izuku giggled to Nooroo.  Yeah, it probably would have been way different.

Kagami turned in her internship form with a smug smile and Izuku with a sheepish one.  Aizawa looked over his with a raised eyebrow and Izuku glanced at Iida, whose emotions hadn’t quieted down at all.  Soon, they’d be going to their internships, and Izuku had a feeling that something was going to happen, not the least because he couldn’t find Wobbly Rainbow again, and his range was practically the size of Paris when he was truly searching.

But soon enough, he’d be in Hosu.

Where Iida was.

And where, he discovered, the Hero Killer was.

Where the Hero Killer had used a sword to paralyze Ingenium.

Ah.

Chapter Text

The first day at internships was pretty awkward.  Manual was very obviously confused that he’d had not one but two hero students accept his internship request, and when Iida had realized that he and Izuku were going to the same place, he’d shut down and gotten stiff, refusing to talk to Izuku.

A lot of the other internships were set to be pretty neat, and Izuku silently mourned what could have been.  For one, Kagami had, of course, managed to track down Hawks and duel him for an internship request, and, well, she was there now with Tokoyami.  Felix and Adrien had gone to some pretty generic businesses to learn a few more tools of the trade, while Marinette, due to her high showing, had actually attracted the attention of Detrenat, which she was hyped about.  Since she’d most often done commission work, she hadn’t usually made designs with things like mutations in mind unless her clients had one, and then they were designed for that one specific person.  Meanwhile, Detrenat was known for catering to any and all quirks, so she was interested in learning more about that.

Izuku, on the other hand, was learning about water.

Well, that was unfair of him, he was actually learning a lot about patrolling and running a small time agency, as well as laws of regulation and the best ways to fill out paperwork, as well as what paperwork is needed when.  From a logistical standpoint, it was extremely helpful.  If he hadn’t already known the extent of his powers, however, it probably would have been extremely boring as he probably would have wanted to use his “quirk” a bit more and get better at that.  Iida never complained, but asked heavily about how investigations worked in-agency, and then asked to patrol all the time when they weren’t doing that.

At the end of the second day, Izuku actually managed to corner him in the shared bathroom before he could claim he wanted to sleep.

“Iida,” he started, “obviously what happened to your brother was awful, but if you think for even a second you’re going to run off after the Hero Killer and beat him, you’re insane.”

Iida stiffened and spat his toothpaste into the sink, not looking at him.  “I do not know what you are talking about, Midoriya.  I would like to go to bed now.”

Izuku let out a breath in frustration.  “Iida, he’s killed like fourteen pro heroes.  We’re still in school!”

“Good night, Midoriya.”

The third day was spent largely in the training room as Manual sparred with them one on one to see if their hand to hand combat skills were up to snuff.

“It’s not good to just rely on your quirk,” he said sternly, “and you have to be able to defend yourself, or you’ll become a liability and take other heroes away from some of the life saving work they could be doing instead of protecting you.  Not that you have to worry about that here, because you’re still students and it’s my job to protect you, but definitely something you have to worry about in the future.”

After the spars, he gave them a break for an hour until dinner for them to cool off, stretch, shower, whatever.  Izuku decided to meditate.

He stuck himself in a corner where people wouldn’t really look for him and be able to see that he was “in his hero costume” before they were supposed to be and Nooroo eagerly dove in, ready to see what this city had in store for them.

The first thing he noticed was that there were a lot more people, more like Paris than Mustafa, and he took a calming breath before he went into firefly mode.  Yeah, definitely a lot more people.  He idly felt them moving around, bustling about their day to day lives as the work day wound down and they started going home.  The sun would set in about an hour, he knew.

Finally, after a few minutes of just sitting and breathing in firefly mode, he focused his attention on individual quirks.  Maybe he’d get lucky, he mused, and find the Hero Killer somehow.  Not that he knew what quirk the Hero Killer had, of course.

The first interesting looking quirk he found was what looked like a chameleon quirk, from what he could tell.  It encompassed the whole of the person, so he had an outline of their skin, and it looked like scales.  The top layer was static, but just underneath it rippled through every color, skin tone, and level of shine.  He kind of wanted to get to know them and ask questions, because that seemed like a really cool quirk, but held off on it because that would probably freak them out.  Oh well, it was cool to look.

The next interesting quirk he found made him think of Wobbly Rainbow, but he deflated when he realized the base color was off, a red instead of the off white.  Still, he did his due diligence in checking it out.  It also wasn’t wobbly, it pulsed like a heartbeat and flowed like water.  Certain patches would cycle through four different colors, until all at once one of them covered the entire thing and the quirk changed shape, stretching into limbs from where it had flowed, making it cover the skin like the chameleon quirk.  A transformation quirk of some kind, he figured, but he didn’t know what kind.  Based on the color and liquidness of the quirk, maybe it was based on blood?

He pulled back to inspect Manual for a moment, knowing the water user was somewhere in the building, and smiled to himself when he could feel the quiet pride and minor stress from their proximity.  Hints of joy poked through, as well as worry, and he sighed.  Manual was a good hero, and he obviously had also figured out why Iida was here, but he was doing his best.

He extended next to a group of smaller quirks surrounding one that shone blue.  It was shiny and round, and occasionally it would reach out and “swallow” something, trapping it inside the blue sphere.  Some of the crowd lingered, but others just moved past, and he poked it a bit more, focusing slightly, to see if he could figure it out.  The person was feeling hopeful, a little cynical, and quietly happy every time the quirk swallowed something (probably a quirk that affected object in the real world, since nothing was changing in the quirk space).  Some of the audience, because he was slowly figuring out that this was some type of performer, were delighted by whatever was going on.  Others were bored, or mildly intrigued, and a few of the people walking by were partially disgusted, and Izuku frowned.  Whoever this street performer was, they clearly enjoyed what they did, but it seemed they might be used to that disgust and boredom, if the cynicism was any indication.  He resolved that if they saw them on patrol tonight, he’d stay and watch, maybe see if he could figure out what the quirk was actually doing.

He found another blood based quirk on the other side of the city, one that was just flowing through veins and swirling and lingering in the stomach area (this person was pretty tall, but he thought he was right), but it wasn’t actively doing anything.  Maybe Hosu just had a lot of blood based quirks?  The only other person he’d seen with one before know was Vlad King, 1-B’s homeroom teacher, but he’d never really managed to find one in Mustafa.  He didn’t linger around this one for long past mildly noting it was another blood quirk, and then he had a goal.

He looked around the city and managed to find two other small blood quirks, and he was starting to get pretty good at identifying them.  They were all the same red color, and they pretty much all showed up like a map of veins.  They might linger in a certain area, or they might show off a property in a change of color or an action.  One blood quirk hissed and spat, so Izuku guessed they either had really hot blood, or it was acidic.  The other would occasionally turn grey and stop moving, so possibly a quirk similar to Vlad Kings, but more about pulling the iron in the blood to a physical form for defense, if he had to guess.

The last quirk he managed to find before his small friends pulled him out was Endeavor’s again, and he sneered to himself, but looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t see Todoroki’s quirk.  With a careful probe at the flaring orange flames, he proved his assumptions correct as he was hit with a wall of rage.  He hadn’t seen Todoroki on the train to Hosu, but he liked being certain anyway and wished the other boy luck on his father-free internship, wherever that was.

Finally, however, it was time for dinner, right as the sun was setting.  Iida was still stiff and proper, and Izuku managed to snag two more apples for Roo, cutting them into thin slices for easier packaging, and then it was time for the Wednesday night patrol.

Manual kept them close, like usual, and Izuku tried to veer them in the direction of the performer, on the chance that they were still there.

They didn’t quite manage to make it when something shook the city around them and civilians started screaming.

In an instant, Izuku cast his senses out again and felt the glued together messes.  He sucked in a breath and opened his eyes as one came into view.

“Nomu!  They mindlessly follow whatever orders they were given and have multiple quirks!”

Manual swore, then pointed at them.  “Don’t repeat that word.  Focus on evacuating civilians.  Gachou, champion someone, possibly one of us.”

Izuku pulled his goggles down, and stretched out.  Iida was still a ball of anticipation and hatred, so he was out, and Manual was already focusing on trying to contain the nomu and stop it from killing people and destroying more buildings, so it was probably best to not distract him.  Besides, his quirk was already strong, and Izuku couldn’t immediately think of how to use it that didn’t just remind him of Waterworks.

Apollo landed on his hand and he peaked down at her.  She made a motion and he blinked for a moment before he straightened and speared his senses in that direction.  Fear, desperation, and determination.  It’d do.

Apollo flew off, glowing with power, and landed on the man’s top hat.  Izuku grinned.

“Oh you’re perfect.”

The man jumped and he winced sheepishly.  “Sorry, that’s probably really creepy, just hearing a voice randomly in your head saying that kind of thing.  My bad.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to do this with a relative stranger, let me start over.  Ahem.  I am Gachou.  Sako Atsuhiro, your performance was cut short by actual literal monsters destroying the city.  You’ve already been trying to help people, which is noble, but I can let you help more.  With my power, you’ll be an even better magician, able to disappear in one place and reappear in another.”

“Ex cuse me?!”

Izuku giggled.  “Your quirk’s really cool!  If you want the specifics, I’m letting you compress yourself in space and decompress somewhere else.  It’s a limited range, probably only about what you can see, but it should let you get close to the nomu and turn them into marbles, stopping the problems before they start and letting you get people out of the rubble.  You can save lives already, but I’m a fan of preventative measures.”

“That’s your quirk?  You can modify other people’s quirks?”

“Temporarily!  You’ll go back to normal when you’re done, and I take the butterfly back.  Or if you use up all your power, which you… probably won’t?”

“And you’re giving me the power to teleport?!   Your quirk is insane.”

“So, yes or no?  Will you be my champion?”

“Yes, obviously.”

He breathed a sigh of relief.  “Then, Mr. Compress, it’s time for a metamorphosis!”

He felt the transformation take hold and heard the crack of the teleportation as he watched a flicker of blue and then his champion’s vision changed, clearly having moved.  Mr. Compress laughed gleefully over the link.

“This is amazing!”

Izuku grinned.  “Then let’s get to work!  I’ll disconnect when we have a quiet moment, but I won’t be gone for long.”

“As you say, Gachou.”

“Focus on the nomu you can see, and then free people in your area.  No one should question your help since you look costumed right now, but if they do, send them to Manual afterwards.”

“How intriguing.  Will do.”

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his champion for a moment, then shoved his goggles up to focus more on their immediate surroundings.

“Manual,” he called, “I have a champion.  He’s en route here and will be taking the nomu out of the equation.  He’s also good at rubble management.”

“Got it,” Manual called back, “you and Tenya go- where is Tenya?”

Izuku spun around, but the street around him was empty, and he swore.  He felt out his power, feeling the connection to Mr. Compress, and estimated that with the one champion, he probably had close to half an hour before he detransformed.

“I’ll find him,” he was instantly throwing out his senses for the engine quirk he knew, “hopefully before he gets his wish.”

Manual grimaced, clearly knowing what wish that was.

“Stay safe.  You’re fully authorized, and he will be too when you find him.”

Izuku patted his pocket where his French license rested in his regular costume.  “Thanks!”

He felt the engine quirk moving fast away from him and sighed.  He jumped up to the roof tops easily and took off in that direction, hoping the city would slow him down some.  He kept a careful eye on the direction Iida was going in and noticed that it was methodical, checking every side street and alleyway.  He was approaching one of the blood quirks from earlier and one quirk that was brown and feathery looking-

Oh, Iida had stopped outside that alleyway.

The blood quirk was pretty fast, wow-

Ohhhhh, that was the Hero Killer, wasn’t it.  Dammit.  He wasn’t going to make it, and Iida had frozen solid when Stain’s quirk had activated, okay, a blood paralysis quirk maybe?  Centered in the stomach, so possibly to do with ingestion…  Daredevil flew in front of his vision, looping a few times, and he absently let the moth land.

He blinked and checked on his stores again.

“Oh,” he said breathlessly, “that’s gonna cut my time.  Mr. Compress, I’m making a second champion, that disconnect is going to come sooner than usual.  Are you doing okay?”

“Never better,” the man called back, “this disappearing act is keeping those beasts on their toes!  Also, I’m liaising with the heroes, it’s quite alright.”

He straightened.  “You are?!  Okay, Stain’s at this location, send at least two heroes, if not anyone who can go.  Go on, Deedee.”

Mr. Compress made a noise of surprise when he got the flash from Izuku.  The butterfly connected and he paid attention to his classmate where the monologue from Stain was still going, and he felt Iida’s despair.

“Iida Tenya,” he declared, “you absolute fucking idiot.  I’ll make everything about you faster, which should break the paralysis sooner, since I’m assuming you don’t want to be healed and would rather get stronger?  Please say you’d rather be stronger, there’s no way I can fight Stain on my own.”

“Midoriya?  I, yes.  I want to be stronger.”

“To live,” he stressed, “not to get revenge.  I will override your emotions if I have to, but I really don't want to because that feels scummy.  Work with me.”

“I… I promise.”

He sighed.  “Great, then get up, Flash, there’s still work to do.  Metamorphosis!”

His miraculous beeped immediately and he tugged his costume out to look at it and winced.  Three minutes.

He winced as he suddenly had two presences in his head, ready and waiting for him to talk to them and see through their eyes, and he didn’t bother pulling his goggles down.  At this point it would only be a liability, especially with his slowly building headache.

Flash darted to the side as Stain’s sword came down and Izuku skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof.  Iida had gotten so fast he had only seen a blur of movement, and his costume was streaked with glowing neon blue.

Stain snarled.  “What?  That was too soon, even for type O.”

“My heart beats so fast,” he declared, “my blood as well!”

Izuku breathed.  “Okay,” he muttered, “get that other downed person out and retreat, I need to disconnect briefly.”

“Understood.”

He watched briefly for Flash to grab the paralyzed person (Native, part of him recognized), and get out of there so fast Stain didn’t have time to react, and then he started running back in the direction of Manual.  A quick probe showed that both of his champions were doing fine, and a few blocks away from Stain, he detransformed.

Nooroo flew out and he offered up the apple slices silently.  The butterfly kwami stared up at him solemnly while he ate.

“It was risky.”

He winced.  “I know.  I’m still feeling the strain and I’m not even transformed.”

“But,” Nooroo grinned, “you still did it!  You made two champions at once!”

“They’re not going to last more than ten minutes at this rate,” he grumbled, “Flash in particular is a power drain.”

Nooroo cocked his head.  “Yes, but Mr. Compress seems to be slowing down.  Let’s go again!”

“Thanks, Roo.”

As soon as the connections got restored, both champions said hello, one cheerfully and one simply.

“Mr. Compress, status?”

“Quite well, Gachou.  Between Flash, me, and the rest of the heroes still here, we’ve taken out three nomu and rescued all citizens in the area!  This is quite thrilling, a true masterpiece of a performance!”

“You’re doing great,” he said easily, “I’m going to lead the heroes you had dispatched to Stain, since he’s moved.  Flash, if you’re free…you can come.”

Flash mentally straightened.  “Thank you!  I will go towards you posthaste!”

“Finish there,” he said sternly, “and get an all clear.  You can get there in a few seconds anyway.”

“Indeed.  I will finish here and then travel to your location.”

Izuku hummed and cast out his senses, looking for the blood quirk he knew was Stain.  He came across the group of heroes with bright quirks, mostly fire based, and noted Endeavor in the mix.  He briefly sneered before he managed to snag Stain’s location.  A block away from the group of heroes and closing fast.

He swore and took off in their direction as fast as he could, soaring high over each roof as he jumped.  He was insanely lucky that the majority of the buildings around were the same height instead of the towering skyscrapers several blocks away, and soon enough a great plume of fire erupted from a side street.

He unlatched his sword from his cane and watched as Endeavor forced his sidekicks back so that he could duel the Hero Killer one on one, and he sneered.

He waited until Stain had gotten some blood, no doubt boiling hot, and Endeavor went stiff.  His flames still flares, especially when he realized that he was frozen, and Stain laughed mockingly before raising his sword.  The sidekicks were so far away that they wouldn’t make it in time, so Izuku leapt down, sword out and pointed.  Stain suddenly pivoted to block him, bound by instinct and he grit his teeth.

“Flash, now’s the time,” he called, “Endeavor is here and currently neutralized.”

Endeavor growled at him.  “Boy-”

“Oh my god shut the fuck up,” he snarled, “literally no one cares.  You cared more about getting the credit for this capture than the actual fucking capture and if I hadn’t been here that would have killed you!  Even Flash had better motivation.”

As if his name summoned him, Flash zoomed onto the scene and Stain bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile.

“Mini Ingenium,” he called gleefully, “you’re back!  Come to die?”

Flash blurred and kicked at Stain’s head, forcing him to stop locking swords with Izuku and block that.  His speed was inhuman, but even he had limits, and between the speedster and the swordsman with a suit resistant to cuts, they managed to wear him down, making him slower and slower.  Finally, Flash got a kick to connect with the man’s chin, sending him flying back into a wall and knocking him out.  Endeavor was ranting and clearly straining to move.  His sidekicks looked between them nervously.

“We don’t have anything to bind him with,” he called out, “can you help before he wakes up?  We’ll see if we can’t strip him of weapons…”

They worked quickly and effectively while Burnin’ offered up her handcuffs.  They ended up using three pairs, binding his wrists to his opposite elbows and then another one around his forearms.  Flash managed to find knives in several places Izuku didn’t think there should be knives, and Mr. Compress chimed in with some classic hiding spots that they found a few more in.

Izuku walked up to Flash and tugged Daredevil back out of him, the blue lines fading.  Iida gasped a little as the power left and stumbled slightly, but Izuku breathed a sigh of relief when the little remaining power came back to him and his headache lessened significantly.

“We got Stain,” Burnin’ said, “you guys get back to your internship.  They know you’re here, right?”

They both nodded and ran off at a jog back to where Manual was supposed to be last, according to Mr. Compress.  The fires in the city were dying down if they hadn’t already been drowned out, puddles of water showing where their mentor had been.

“Gachou,” Mr. Compress called, “be careful, there’s still one nomu out-”

Claws scrambled at his costume before managing to catch, if not pierce entirely, and lifted him bodily into the air at a rapid pace.  He scrambled for his saber.

“Shit!  Yeah, I got that.  Dammit Roo, why’d you have to make me lighter…”

“On my way, sir,” Mr. Compress said with a crack.

The nomu adjusted its grip, claws tearing through the wings, and he groaned.  There went his gliding.  He heard a crack much closer and took a deep breath before stabbing upwards.

The nomu shrieked in surprise and its grip loosened before he was tumbling.  There was a flash of blue above him and then arms wrapped around him and he looked up into a grinning black and white geometric mask.

“Hello there!  Take a deep breath, now.”

He sucked in air and everything twisted around him before they untwisted with a crack, on the ground.  He wheezed a little, swallowing bile.

“That was awful,” he croaked, “please tell me it doesn’t feel like that for you.”

“It does twist,” Mr. Compress said cheerfully, “but I’ve been reliably informed from several rescued civilians that it doesn’t feel as nice to be ferried.  Several people threw up, thankfully not on me or I would have had to quit.”

Izuku wheezed.  “Oh?  Not interested in being a hero full time?  You’d be amazing at rescue work, even without the teleportation.”

He hemmed and hawed for a moment as he set the boy on his own feet.  “We’ll see.  I suppose the heroes of today are some of the grandest performers.”

“My friend is a magician,” Izuku admitted, “and I think he’s really cool.  He volunteers at children’s hospitals and they love it.  He also trained a bird to help him, and all of his tricks are the old school ones, so you’d maybe be even better since you have your quirk to help!  Animals definitely help, though, kids love animals.”

Mr. Compress laughed in delight.  “Yes, I can see that working.  I hope your friend pursues his dreams.”

“Gachou!”

His head shot up and he met his mentor’s gaze, Iida close behind, and he relaxed.

“I’m okay,” he said as they got closer, “Mr. Compress got it.”

Manual held out his hand for a handshake.  “It’s been a pleasure working with you.  You’re the champion, right?”

Mr. Compress nodded.  “Indeed.  It was a pleasure working with you, Manual.”

The hero laughed.  “I’m the one who should be saying that!  Without you, things could have been way worse.  Now, I understand the champion thing means your quirk changes, will it let all the nomu go?”

“No, that part is my original quirk.  I can deliver them into police custody, and they won’t pop out of the marbles unless I want them to or something stops my quirk from working.  Which I believe is only possible by a few?”

“I’ll pull the butterfly back now,” Izuku said, doing just that, “since it looks like that was the last of it.”

Apollo alighted on his hand and let the power be drawn out of her before she fluttered off to join Emerald and Deedee.  His champion didn’t change much in appearance, only his yellow coat faded to brown.

He blinked.  “You already had the top hat, that I know, but you just…wear the mask?”

The man laughed and pulled it slightly to the side for a warm brown eye to wink at him.  “For the theatics, of course.”

“Stay here,” Manual said, offering an easy, lopsided grin, “we’ll need your statement.  Plus, you’ll probably get a commendation.”

Sako blinked and swiftly put the mask back, but not before Izuku could spot a pleased blush.  “Oh.  Well, I was just… doing what was right.”

A police officer finally came over.  “Right, pass over your licenses please.”

Manual handed his over easily, and Izuku handed his over as well.  All four people looked at him incredulously, and he smiled politely, holding it further out.

“He’s with me,” he nodded his head in Sako’s direction, “so you need my license.”

The officer ran the IDs through the system, eyes wide, before he blinked.  “Huh.  Um, here’s your license, L-Lune sir.”

He took it back.  “It’s Gachou on Japanese soil.  I’ll see about getting it updated.  Thank you for your good work!”

The officer got all of their names and walked away in a slight daze before shaking himself and continuing his job.

Sako burst into quiet laughter.  “Forgive me, I was under the impression you were a hero student, not a fully fledged hero.”

“As was I,” Manual blinked, “what’s this about?”

Izuku shrugged.  “I’m both.  My French license is essentially a provisional license here, especially due to my age, but it does give me authority to champion people and essentially deputize them.  Otherwise, they’re technically breaking quirk usage laws, unless I only champion heroes.  Which I’m not exactly used to doing.”

Iida tapped his finger on his helmet.  “How intriguing!  That does make sense, because it would be terrible if someone like Mr. Compress, who did excellent and lifesaving work, was arrested due to licensing issues.  That is most forward thinking, Midoriya!”

Manual wrinkled his nose.  “Will it make paperwork more complicated?”

Izuku shook his head.  “Nope, UA’s got it.”

Manual clapped his hands.  “Speaking of paperwork, back to the agency!  It’ll be easier if we write the reports there.  Sako, would you be willing to come with us?  Since technically you’re operating under my agency.”

The magician extended his hands with a flourish.  “Lead on, my good knights.  We must observe the bureaucracy of being a hero.”

They all snickered a lot as they made their way through the battered city to the agency.

“Also, Iida’s shoulder needs medical attention.”

“Midoriya-!”

“Tenya, why didn’t you say something?!  I’ll call ahead to let the medics know, oh my gosh, are you okay?  Are you bleeding out?  Do we need to carry you-”

Chapter Text

“-so that’s how I destroyed a minor company!”

Adrien blinked.  “I wouldn’t call Detnerat a minor company.”

Marinette smiled sunnily, perfectly innocent, and shrugged.  “It is now!  Ayi Mei tore them apart, and I’m pretty sure Madam Tsurugi helped.”

“Hanabi,” Kagami specified, “not mother.  Like many of the older generations, she’s quirkless, so when she found out…”

Marinette huffed and waved her fork around.  “They literally sent me an internship request because Mic said I was quirkless and they were, what, offended I got that far in the festival?  Okay, whatever.  I learned everything I could from them, because I meant it when I said that I wanted to expand to a more general line so I needed experience with a diverse population, and then I tore them to the ground.”

Inko coughed to muffle a laugh.  “Did you know they had financed an entire town?  And they apparently had a famous reporter on payroll.  With how effectively you bankrupted them, the town’s as empty as a chip bag and a lot of people are suddenly out of work.”

Marinette sighed.  “And that’s terrible!  But also I’m pretty sure they may or may not have been a cult based on the strength of quirks.”

“Okay, cool, cult,” Izuku waved her off, “is no one going to talk about my mom’s amazing joke?  It was really funny, mum, I liked it a lot.”

Inko beamed.  “Thank you!  But yes, there’s an investigation into them now, so hopefully they weren’t just bigots.  Not that that would exempt them from consequences, but still.  Honestly, going after Marinette…”

Marinette smiled with a blush and took another bite of her food to keep herself from speaking.

“My internship was awesome,” Adrien huffed, “I got to talk to Natalie a lot, actually.  The people I went with heard my story and figured it would be best if I knew what she was already doing and then we’d learn from there, because different businesses have different practices, and all of them work for them, so.  She’s doing good, if anyone wanted to know.  Good at the business aspects, even if she hires out the fashion design ones.  Hey, Princess, maybe we can run the company together!  We’ll rebrand.”

She smiled dopily at him.  “Yeah, maybe.  We’ll see how we feel when we graduate, how about that?  And it would be a merger, if anything.”

Adrien nodded rapidly, smile just as lovesick as hers was, and Felix looked at Izuku with a deadpan expression.

“How was your internship, Felix,” Izuku let himself be prompted, “did you learn anything fun?”

Felix shrugged.  “How to know a good lawyer from a bad one, mostly.  My company was dealing with suing another over copyright infringement.  It was highly entertaining.”

“I made two champions at once since we were dealing with nomu and the Hero Killer,” Izuku shrugged, “but it gave me a big headache, so I think next time I need more firepower I’m just going to make a god instead.”

Felix snorted, shaking his head.  “Only you.  Besides, we already knew about the double champion thing.”

“Well, Roo thought I should mention it again, in case it hadn’t sunk in.  Apparently he’s never had a holder do it before.  Guess we know why, though.”

“I actually have a theory,” Nooroo flew out, “that even quirkless individuals in this day and age are hardier than humans of the past, because their bodies prepare them for having quirks even if they don’t get one!  So it would have been actually impossible for my previous holders to have multiple champions unless there was a strong disconnect and they let their champions roam free, or they got a big power-up from another source, perhaps the peacock.”

Felix hummed, thoughtful.  “Duusuu?”

She flew out with a giggle.  “Maybe!  If we made a booster!  I bet Orikko could also help.  It’d be pretty risky, though, even then.  Human minds weren’t meant to hold that much information - they’d pop!”

“So concerning,” Izuku said brightly, “I’m kind of glad I’m not in the past then, quirkless or no.”

“Besides,” Nooroo said seriously, “then you wouldn’t have been green.”

“Shut up about him being green,” Tikki snapped, “no one cares!  Marinette is way better than your stupid plant-like holder!”

Trixx leaned over to Plagg and affected an Australian accent.  “And ‘ere we see the most dangerous predator known to man - catfighting bugs.”

Plagg coughed sharply like he was spitting up a hairball.  “Absolutely not, they’re not even fighting over me, so the pun is banned.”

Duusuu shrieked with laughter.  “I could turn him into a plant!”

The other five kwami immediately said, “NO.”

Trixx cocked his head.  “I mean, I could make him look more plant-like…”

Felix plucked him out of the air.  “No.  You know better than to use your powers unfettered.”

“Speaking of powers unfettered,” Inko cut in sternly, “Izuku, I don’t want you doing that again unless it’s dire.  Not for school things, not for fun.  If later you want to practice, you need an adult in the know.”

His eyebrows raised.  “Not even another one of us?”

“Not even another one of you,” she nodded, “I think you’re all quite capable, but I don’t know if you’re capable of being objective.  You need someone trained to see your limits, like your teachers.”

Felix shrugged. “Seems fair to me.  Besides, you like Aizawa, do you not?”

Izuku nodded slowly.  “That seems reasonable.  I can’t imagine doing it again unless it was an emergency, and I can practice our powers without doing that again, so it should be fine.”

“Yeah, your meditation to check out quirks,” Ren perked up, “how’s that going?”

He beamed.  “Pretty well!  I’ve figured out how to identify a blood related quirk, I’m pretty sure.  Quirks are often centered in the places that use them most, so quirks like Kacchans are in his hands, mostly, for example.  Blood quirks sometimes tick around specific locations, like Stain and his stomach because he needed to ingest blood, but they also circulate like veins, because they’re blood related, so they act like blood.”

Adrien sat back.  “Makes sense.  So mine’s at my mouth.”

Izuku blinked.  “Yeah, I guess so.”

Felix narrowed his eyes.  “Have you…not looked at our quirks?”

“In my defense,” Izuku said immediately, “I’ve never had to champion any of you and I already knew what your quirks did!

“He’s saying we aren’t interesting,” Kagami deadpanned, “and our quirks are boring.”

“That’s not it!  I just, uh, I didn’t think about it!”

Inko giggled behind a hand.  “Well, there’s only one thing for it.”

Nooroo flew over.  “They’re all close enough that you don’t need me, but I’ll lend you some focus.”

He smiled gratefully at his kwami and settled in.

“Well, right off the bat,” he smiled, “Ren’s is, indeed, around his mouth.  It’s sky blue.  Use it?  Yep, it gets brighter and a little sparkly, like the best summer’s day reflecting off the water.  It’s pretty.”

Adrien whooped.  “Hear that, Princess?”

“Marinette actually has some stuff, and now that I’m looking back at Adrien, he does too,” he said thoughtfully, “I guess it’s the magic?  Ren, yours is green, around your hands.  Mari’s is pink, and it’s kind of everywhere.  Concentrated in her head, I guess?  It’s definitely less defined than a quirk, and feels different, but it’s pretty clearly there.”

Marinette hummed.  “Neat!  Three left, keep going.”

“Gami’s base quirk is yellow…smoke, I guess?  It ripples out like a puddle that had a rock thrown in it, over and over.  The silver magic makes it ripple more as it flows around her, definitely like wind or water.  It makes the smoke go farther if you think about it.  Makes sense, I guess, but it’s pretty funny that it’s the magic that’s silver.”

Kagami snorted.  “Not much in the way of lightning, then, but I suppose I don’t use that one as much.”

“Felix’s quirk is lilac,” he sighed wistfully, and there were seven snickers that he ignored, “and is mostly around his mind.  It’s staticky, and sometimes it shoots down his nerves, if I’m right.  It’s a cloud of sparks, I guess because his quirk is mostly mental…  It’s in… I guess the top middle of the brain.  Maybe that’s important?  Something to do with movement?  I haven’t actually studied the brain so I don’t know.”

“Something to look into, then,” Felix said smoothly, “I’ll look it up.”

He turned his attention to his mom and caught his breath.  “Oh, mum.  You look… like a planet.  Your quirk is an orbit, which your usual pulling motions mirror.  Things get caught in the gravity of your quirk… I don’t even know if I’d call it Attraction if I could see it like this.  It’s a beautiful grey and it just loops around itself like a comet, with a large ball and a trailing tail that reconnects.  Oh, are you using it?  It just started spinning faster.”

Inko giggled.  “Maybe.  That sounds wonderful.  Thank you.”

“And kwami register as little sparks of bright color that I’m ignoring,” he said cheerfully, “because if I actually pay attention to you I might go blind!  Colors match magic, though.”

Longg chuckled.  “I imagine.  I don’t think Nooroo’s magic has ever nurtured in this direction before.”

“It hasn’t,” the butterfly admitted, “but mostly because there wasn’t a need to see people’s magic or powers, since they either didn’t have any, or their magic could change as we willed it.  Now that people’s inherent magic has changed to quirks, we need to work with them more.  They’re rigid and have taken specific forms, albeit sometimes beautiful ones.”

“And of course there’s still the side effects,” Marinette pointed out gleefully, “like Izzy’s weakness to cold and…”

Adrien scrambled back, but not in time as she lunged forward, burying her hands in his hair.  It took just a few seconds until he was purring and bright red.

Felix burst out laughing and it turned into a cackle when Ren’s face just got redder and he couldn’t stop purring as Marinette ran her fingers through his hair.

“Plagg, I’m going to kill you,” he choked out, “actually figure out a way to kill you.”

“You’re so cute,” Izuku and Inko cooed as one, and then Inko continued, “but I’m sorry to say the apartment doesn’t allow pets.”

Plagg cackled, and Adrien gave up and leaned into his giggling girlfriend, burying his face in her shoulder and just enjoying the feeling.

“I’m also weaker to cold, but only in the sense that I’ll sleep more when it’s winter,” she said with a wide grin, “and I’ve found my diet is becoming more carnivorous.”

“Butterflies and moths eat a lot of things,” Izuku said promptly, “and I will never give up katsudon no matter what magic tries to make me do.  Sorry Roo, you’re not worth it.”

The purple kwami sighed gustily.  “I understand.  I’ll always be the other woman.”

Everyone stopped and Izuku snickered.  “What have you been watching?”

Nooroo huffed.  “I’m very cultured, I’ll have you know.”

“No, I mean, I don’t doubt it.  You’ve been around for a while.”

“Are you calling me old?!”

“Haven’t you existed since the dawn of time or something like that?!  Or at the very least, as long as humans?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?!”

“That’s objectively old!”

“Your mom is objectively old!”

“Mum’s a spring chicken, you watch your mouth!  She’s not even forty!”

The others let them continue to bicker while they were both sporting wide grins, gasping at appropriate childish insults that meant nothing. And they all relaxed at the table.

Internships were done, and all the consequences that came with them.

School the next day was slightly awkward, because everyone very clearly knew who’d taken down Stain.  Their hero names (or champion names, in Sako’s case) had been in the media release, but their actual names were not, and the pictures weren’t very clear, since identities were an issue.  Indeed, Izuku himself was called “Gachou, licensed in France,” and Lune wasn’t mentioned.  All French outlets that anyone would be able to find made the miraculous heroes out to be a young team the Armé had sponsored, no mention of the magic, and definitely no mention of their identities.  Past that, even if people saw Gachou and Lune side by side, unless they already knew it was him, no one would really be able to connect the heroes together because of the magic around their identities.  Same thing with Ryuunami and Tsunami.  Everyone else would probably be seen as a visiting hero, and very few people knew who the other six were.

Of course, “Flash” wasn’t mentioned either, because despite the pictures, they just knew him as “Ingenium II” (since he’d taken that name after his brother had reprimanded him), and Sako was “Mr. Compress,” since they didn’t want to reveal his civilian identity.

“Midoriya,” Uraraka bounded over to him, “that was you and Iida, right?!”

He instinctively smiled, batting down the reactive flinch from someone getting up in his space so quickly.  “Yeah.  We happened to be in the city at the time and couldn’t help but meddle.  I’m just glad we didn’t get severely hurt.”

Iida winced at this and did his best to ignore Izuku’s sharp smile.  Between him and Iida’s brother, they’d chided him within an inch of his life for his recklessness and thoughtlessness.  His shoulder had been healed easily and quickly, but Tensei had constantly reminded him of it by jabbing it to accentuate his points during his rants, and even now Iida was clearly fighting to rub his shoulder.

“Yeah, that was so cool,” Kaminari beamed, “how’d you do it?  The Hero Killer was like, a big deal, right?  Like, I did some research afterwards because there were apparently a lot of comments from… some fanatic followers?  So obviously he had to have some sort of message-”

“I don’t think the message matters so much if you’re murdering people to get it across,” Yaomomo cut in, raising an eyebrow, “because I am a firm disbeliever in the sentiment of the ends justifying the means.  Stain could have been fighting for world peace itself and it still wouldn’t have justified murdering heroes.”

Shinsou snorted beside her.  “Even if those heroes were terrible people, apparently.”

“I’m not saying that killing someone is never justified,” Yaomomo argued, “but there’s a difference between self defense and murder!  Even execution as a capital punishment can be construed as self defense of the larger populace depending on the severity of the crime, but taking justice into your own hands without the due process of law and simply stabbing people isn’t a good system of justice and that man had extremely skewed morals!”

“If we’re debating the ethics of capital punishment,” Shinsou hummed idly, “wouldn’t it be better for the criminal to just… suffer in prison forever?  In solitary if they can’t be trusted around others?  Or does that count as cruel and unusual, since isolation can make people go insane?”

Yaomomo waved her head back and forth, thinking.  “I suppose I can see it both ways.  Is it more humane to kill people like rapists and serial murderers, or would it be better to have them locked up for the rest of their lives?  There’s also the danger of them getting out, if they’re confined, but I suppose Tartarus is called the impenetrable prison, so that should work.”

Shinsou snapped his fingers.  “But that might fall into the Invincible Door fallacy.”

“I assume it’s called the impenetrable prison because all aspects of the prison are impenetrable, not just the doors.”

“Sure, but quirks are wild.  With enough firepower, anything is possible, and quirks are just getting stronger.  Plus, if you play the long con you can theoretically infiltrate.”

“The background checks for anyone going into Tartarus have to be obscene in their thoroughness.”

“Sure, but if you’re an amoral person who’s willing to do anything for money, or you’re being blackmailed into it, you’d probably be able to do some damage at least.  Teaming up with whoever is sending out the nomu?  Badabing, badaboom, prison break.  Woulda been better just to kill off the most dangerous inmates.”

“I thought you were advocating for long term imprisonment over capital punishment?”

“Oh, you know me.  Devil’s advocate.  Besides, that’s not what I said.  I said they should suffer.   Completely different.”

“Um,” Ashido raised her hand, “how did we get here from talking about Stain?”

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Izuku coughed into his hand.  “There’s a quirk the European Union uses called Dream Maze that traps the worst prisoners in, well, a dream maze that keeps them there until they’ve confronted and resolved all of their bad decisions.  Supposedly it’s a prison reform system, but the person with the quirk can only put in one person at a time, so they use it more on small-time criminals than big ones so they can get more people through.”

Kagami blinked.  “To lower the recidivism, I assume?”

“Exactly!  And it’s proven to make them better people with higher moral standards, and anyone willing to go through the program gets assistance for a fresh start!  Recidivism is a big problem with a lot of lower level criminals and villains because a lot of the time they were just doing it to make their lives slightly better, like stealing food or money, and their time in prison means they aren’t actively working and it makes it harder for them to find a job, so they become repeat offenders because they have very few options left.  It’s also a reason people turn to gangs, because they want security, and crime pays.  Up until you get arrested, I mean.  It’s a vicious cycle and society can help address it by having better welfare programs!”

“The only welfare you should be worried about,” a dark voice spoke from the front of the classroom, “is your own.”

They all jumped and looked at their teacher in shock.  He looked at them with a raised eyebrow and they all scrambled to their seats.

He hummed.  “Five seconds.  Your internships have made you sloppy.  That will have to change in the next two weeks.”

He looked over the students until Yaoyorozu raised her hand.  “Erm, what’s in two weeks, sensei…?”

He cocked his head.  “What’s the date?”

“May… 31st?”

He slowly grinned, baring his teeth at them.  “Which means tomorrow is June.  You have finals in two weeks.”

Half the class screamed in fear and Kagami leaned forward, unperturbed.

“[France has finals in one week,]” she murmured to him, “[which means the other three are about to leave on their trips.]”

He made a noise of realization.  “[Which means they’re going to be looking for the other jewels!]”

Kagami nodded and sat back again as Aizawa began to answer questions about the finals.

Two weeks, huh?

He settled in for his meditation and puddled.  It had been almost two weeks since he’d seen the quirk he was looking for.  Had something happened?  Had they just moved?

His attention immediately caught on the edge of his senses and he focused to confirm, Emerald already settling on his hand.

Yes, it was!

Wobbly Rainbow!

Chapter Text

Bubaigawara Jin was having an awful fucking day, thank you for asking.

It seemed like his life had been a series of awful fucking days for the past several months, and he felt like he was on the verge of a breakdown.  Or, well, on the verge of another breakdown, since he was such a fuckup anyway, he shouldn’t even be alive right now.

…What was he talking about?  Right.  Awful days.  It turned out that talking to yourself made it difficult to hold down a job.  He’d recently gotten a job at a dinky little place that sold shoes of all shapes and sizes, but they’d gone bankrupt recently and he’d been laid off, along with everybody else.  Gone were the days of overnight stocking and unloading the new shoes from the trucks, setting up the store when no customers would be in it to ask him uncomfortable questions about why he wore a mask all the time and why he looked like he was always about to cry because he’s just a little baby, isn’t he, too much of a coward to make sure he’s the real one-

And that was after getting mugged not once, not twice, but three times in the past several months!  Not that he really had anything to be mugged for, but it’s much harder to get even odd jobs when you look like you’ve been run over by a car and you really don’t want to take off the mask because it hurts so bad, the desire to make another clone, and why not?  He’s probably not the original anyway, the fucking clones can just take his place after, no one would be able to tell the difference-

He had a little bit of money left.  No place to live, unfortunately, because no one was seedy enough to take his last yen for rent and besides it was plenty warm outside anyway, so what if he sort of smelled like trash, not like anyone’s going to get close enough to the crazy shit to smell him anyway, his back could take it and that meant he had money for food.  Should he even be eating?  Do clones that turn into goop need to eat?  Or is that why they turn into goop, because they don’t have any actual substance?  Was he slowly turning into a real boy like Pinocchio because he kept eating?

I’m… pretty sure that’s not how it works.

Plus, sometimes he got lucky!  Sometimes there was a perfectly warm and only slightly eaten meal in the trashcan!  Sure, sometime restaurants made sure any food they threw out was inedible, those fuckers, but half of the time, it was totally good!  And pizzerias, oh, don’t even get him started, any time someone ordered a pizza that they never picked up, or that was late, the employees got first dibs, obviously, but sometimes they were too full, or they didn’t like the toppings.  Well Jin wasn’t one to be picky, not that he could fucking afford to be, so he swung by the pizzerias every once in a while and hoped he got there before the other homeless people.  Beggars can’t be choosers!

Is that hygienic?

Hell no it wasn’t!  But he hadn’t gotten sick and died yet, so good enough!  And tomorrow, he’d be applying to another job, and he was totally not going to get it, who the fuck would hire him?  No one sane.  Heh.  Because he wasn’t sane anyway.

You seem alright to me.

But it was cool!  It was totally fine!  He’d turn his life around, get a job, keep his quirk wrapped up real tight, and then everything would be fine and he wouldn’t split apart like a watermelon!

Keeping your quirk wrapped up is bad for you.  Quirks want to be used, I’ve heard.

Well, what did he know?  Nothing, really.  Jin wasn’t the most studious, after all.  Hell, when he was younger he’d used clones to attend classes for him, so he could play video games instead!  It was arguably what had started this whole mess, getting him too used to relying on clones to do the things he didn’t want.  But then he’d made too many.  And then they’d gotten mad.  And gotten ideas.   And decided to reenact the start of the Soviet Union with the uprising of the working class, and wasn’t it so funny that he didn’t even really remember if he was the original or not, the only way to check was to see if he bled-

Make a clone of someone else then, and I’ll help you check.

Hmmm, maybe that would work.  He hadn’t gotten new measurements in a while, but he still remembered everyone he’d measured before, it’s a curse, never forgetting, everything is so loud sometimes, so maybe he could?  But who could he make?  His… mom?

Moms can be pretty great.  Was yours?

Oh, he hadn’t thought about her in a while.  She had been… blond, of course, with grey eyes, and she’d had the eidetic memory that she’d passed on to him.  Not a quirk, she’d wink, but good enough.  Dad had been stern, but kind.  He could make copies of objects by holding an object in his left, and then another would appear in his right.  They were made of the same goopy stuff Jin’s clones were, so they didn’t hold up to any damage, but they could last forever if treated with care.  The difference was, he couldn’t do any living things with brains, just objects, and it was better if he could hold them.  He could sort of make food, but it wasn’t as nutritious.

And of course there was his sis DON’T THINK ABOUT HER YOU DON’T DESERVE TO THINK ABOUT HER-

Are any of them still…?

No, of course not.  Jin ruined everything he touched.  He didn’t even need his other voice to tell him that.  He knew it was true.

I don’t believe that.

It was, though.  It had been his fault.  The car accident.  Shiya DON’T had wanted him to come celebrate with them but he’d had all that make-up work to do from when the teachers found out.  She DESERVE had wasted time trying to convince him to come anyway.  If she KILLED HER hadn’t, they would have been in the car earlier and avoided the speeding vehicle entirely.

And she died.  And it was his fault.  His parents knew it too.

They survived?

For what it was worth.  He was eighteen, an adult.  He didn’t need them anymore anyway.  He couldn’t blame them for leaving even if everyone always left because who wanted to help poor pitiful, fucked up batshit Jin, and he never saw them again.  They changed their numbers too.  He’s not sure where Shiya is now.  He’d have liked to visit her even if he shouldn’t dare, since he was the one who’d gotten her killed in the first place.

You didn’t.  It couldn’t have been your fault.  It was just unlucky.

Well, it couldn’t have been her.  She was all luck.  That meant it had to have been Jin.

But it was fine!  He did great for a while!  Up until he fucked up massively and made too many clones at once and they staged the previously mentioned worker’s rebellion!  Long time coming, of course, imagine being born just to work until you die.  That’s not life.  That’s not living, it’s hell and its soul crushing and even clones have enough of a soul to realize that-

Do you want to make a clone?  To see her again?  You said you still remember her, right?

Of course, he would never forget.  Mom made sure of that.  It was just, well, he didn’t deserve to.  And she’d just die again.  He didn’t know if he could watch.  He hadn’t the first time.  She’d been dead before she reached the hospital and all he’d seen was the sheet.  Maybe… maybe he didn’t remember what she looked like.

You do.

Yes, of course, he must, it's all he’s good for now anyway, to remember everything, and she knew about his quirk, and she’d see how old he’d gotten how he’d lived past his fucking expiration date and know what was happening.  She was smart like that.  So smart.

Maybe…

Maybe he could?

He remembered her, and the shape of her hands.  They were pianist hands, she’d always said proudly, before butchering Mozart on the piano in the music room, and then she’d laugh over his groans.  She was truly terrible at all music things.  The only thing she was bad at, he figured.  She had been like Dad, able to clone objects, but she could do it from memory.  She was constantly making pencils because she always lost hers, only to find them stuck through the base of her ponytail when she went to take her hair out.  One time, she’d stuck a cloned pencil in there and hadn’t realized until it got goop all in her hair.  She’d complained that she could feel it for days afterwards, even though she had taken a shower every night.  And her hair was long and flaxen and she’d always say it looked so pretty down but then she’d get annoyed with it and put it up.  She’d invented what she always called a poor man’s braid crown, with a wink, where she braided two pigtails and then used bobby pins to pin them to her head, and it really did sort of look like a braid crown, when the ends of the braids cross on the top of her head, and she’d beam at him and show it off, loudly crowing that it’d only taken her ten minutes, where a braid crown with hair her length could easily take half an hour and was almost guaranteed to be lopsided because she couldn’t see what she was doing.  And sometimes, she’d declare that a poor man’s braid crown was not enough, and she’d plop in front of Jin and ask him to do it and he’d forgotten that, hadn’t he?  He’d been so good at doing her hair because he’d done it ever since they were four and five and Mom had been busy and it had looked terrible but Shiya had demanded it stayed.  And her eyes were just so slightly pink around the edge of her iris, trying to beat back the grey.  She’d smiled like nothing could ever be wrong in life, and it wasn’t until she was gone.

But… there she was.

She blinked up at him and wrinkled her nose at his mask.  “Bro, you got ugly.”

He sputtered indignantly.  “You can’t even see my face!”

“I just assumed that you got a mask to cover up some horrible disfigurement you got while I was gone.”

“I- well, there is a scar…”

She threw out her hand.  “There you go!  Don’t worry, we’re a family of lookers, I bet even a scar won’t scare me off.”

He swallowed thickly, running a finger down the scar through the fabric mask.  “I, uh.  That’s not what I’m worried would scare you off.”

She shrugged.  “It’s whatever.  It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

He whimpered and then she was hugging him and he didn’t deserve it-

“Hush,” she bopped him right on the head, “you’re being a dummy.  For someone who’s older than me, you sure are dumber.”

He choked on a laugh.  “Always.  You know I’m always dumber than you, Shi.”

She snickered.  “Dumb enough you let life get you down when I wasn’t there, huh?”

He tensed and she sighed.  “Come on,” she leaned back, “I know I’m a clone, and I know you wouldn’t have made me this young if you knew me as older.  How old are you, Jin?”

“…Thirty three.”

She stilled and swallowed.  “That’s old as shit,” she said lightly.

“Twice as old as you got to be.”

She sat down beside him on the dirty alleyway.  “Dang.  Twice.”

For once, the voices in his head were quiet.  In fact, he hadn’t heard them in a while now.

“And you waited this long to clone me?  For shame bro!  That’s way too long!”

He choked.  “You’re not real.”

She shrugged.  “I’m real enough.  Just because I’m not permanent doesn’t mean I’m not real.  Sure, I’m based around your memory, but come on, your memory has always been good.  Better than Mom’s, even, and she passed hers off as a quirk.  So.”

“Not good enough ,” he spat.

She narrowed her eyes at him and then ripped his mask off.  He choked and grabbed for it, holding it close, and felt the voices immediately rise up-

Shhhh, it’s okay.

It was like a big blanket had settled over his thoughts.  He sucked in air and stared at the dead girl in front of him.

She hummed, eyes on his forehead, right between his eyes.  “It’s not so bad.  Very neat stitching, whoever did this could have been a seamstress.  Seamster?  Seamster.  I won’t go assuming people’s genders. I will admit, the butterfly is new, though.”

He blinked.  What?

Ah, that would be me.   The voice was sheepish, and, well, now that he was focusing, not one he recognized.

"Sorry, sorry!  I thought I introduced myself, but you were kind of not paying attention… And no, you’re not going more crazy.  I’m a completely different person, half a city away, that’s just here to talk.  I can go, if you want?  Oh, but I can tell you about how your clones look in comparison to you, if you want?"

“There’s someone in my head,” he said, “who isn’t me.”

"Right."

“And you want… to help?”

Shiya snapped her fingers.  “Gimme the deets.”

"She’s an extension of you, I think if she keeps a hand on your mask I should be able to talk to her too."

Jin extended his mask in bewilderment, but she grabbed it anyway.

"Is it working?"

She blinked.  “Oh.  Hi!  I’m Bubaigawara Shiya.  It’s nice to meet you.”

"You can call me Gachou!  It’s probably bad form to give out my civilian name immediately…"

She grinned.  “Oho?  A big shot hero?”

"Sort of?  Anyway.  Hello!  It’s nice to meet you two as well!  There’s no way to say this without coming across as creepy but I’ve sort of been looking for you, Jin, for the past two weeks, ish?  At first it was just because your quirk looks really cool and is super unique, but then I started watching you more and you seemed really upset?  But then I got permission to talk to you and I wanted to see if I could help, maybe."

“Yeah, you do sound like a creep,” Shiya said cheerfully, “but you can see quirks?  Do tell.  What do we look like?”

"Jin’s quirk made me call him Wobbly Rainbow in my head!  It’s a big glob of this greyish white stuff that sometimes changes color and texture.  Like, usually it's sort of like jello or slime, but then it will go all hard and rigid and purple.  Or blue and smokey, or yellow and like lightning!  It will completely change properties!  Now I know that this is because it’s things you’ve cloned before, or know how to clone, so it’s temporarily mimicking the quirks of the person you’d clone.  Which is really cool!  And you’d said that the goopy stuff looks like what the clones fall apart into, which makes a lot of sense for what your base quirk looks like.  It’s really cool!  Your quirk hangs out in your upper body a lot, just blobbing there, no specific shape.  Up and until, of course, you make a clone!  Then you get a section of goop that’s changed and it splits off from you until it forms a person.  That’s how I can tell she’s a clone!  Usually, I bet her quirk would be more in her core and her hands, based on what you said it was, but since she’s a clone, the blob that makes her up is all from your quirk, and just the parts that would be hers look like her quirk.  Hers is kind of pink, though it’s similar in texture, so it’s a little harder for me to tell.  It’s pretty cool, though!"

Shiya grinned triumphantly.  “My quirk is pink?  My goop was kinda pink, now that I think about it.  Cute!  And it’s pretty cool that you’d be able to tell who’s a clone or not.”

"I mean, for science he should make two other clones and see if the pattern holds true.  Because otherwise I could be totally wrong and that’s just how your quirk was shaped when you were alive!"

Jin flinched.  “I don't…”

Shiya patted his arm.  “It’s okay, bro.  I’m here.  I’ll just make a knife, easy, anyone tries something and they’ll know my wrath!”

“You can’t say that,” he protested, “you don't like violence!”

“Sure,” she agreed easily, “but I don’t like someone hurting my brother more.  Easy choice.  Or… make a clone of cousin Kino!  How old was she the last time you saw her?”

“Two,” he whispered, “she was two.”

“There you go!  Baby clone!”

"The third person should probably be someone with a quirk that you know, and one that isn’t another cloning quirk.  Hey, are you guys related to Ectoplasm?  Huh…"

Jin made a clone of his cousin the last time he’d seen her, and Kino cooed up at him.  Shiya cooed back, wagging a finger in the toddler’s face.  Then he took a deep breath and he remembered his best friend.

"Oh shit, is that a Kaminari?  I think I know his kid."

In his startle, he dissolved both Kino and his old friend from high school, an upperclassman he only knew for a year, but who hung around him anyway.  Shiya was still there.

“You can let me go too, bro,” she said lightly, “it’s okay.  You’re not a clone.”

"You really aren’t.  All your clones are just person shaped extensions of your quirk."

“See, butterfly boy agrees,” she grinned, “and hey, it sounds like he can let you reconnect with your old friend!  I remember him, I can’t believe he had a kid.  How old is this kid, even?”

"Uh, fourteen or fifteen?"

“Dang, he had a kid when he was like, nineteen?  Right out of high school?  Jin, did he even have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” he said numbly, “she had a kinetic energy quirk.”

“Good for him, then!  Butterfly boy, you’re gonna reconnect them, right?”

"I’ll do my best!"

She nodded once.  “Good.  And, Jin?”

He looked down at his sister.  She was so young.  “Yeah?”

She beamed up at him, sun bright and completely out of place in their surroundings, with trash and goop alike around them.

“I love you.”

He held her until she broke and sobbed.

Bubaigawara Jin was having an amazing fucking day, thank you for asking.

Chapter Text

Hitoshi leaned over to Momo.

“Okay, what are they saying now?”

She furrowed her brow and squinted at the two cousins in front of them who were jabbering away in their weird, possibly made up language.  It was almost a dialect of Chinese, apparently, but in the sense that English was a dialect of German, so, largely incomprehensible.

“Something about France.  Context made me think they were talking about our final exams, but why would France get into that?”

Hitoshi leaned back.  “Comparing the different school systems?  France follows the Western model, right?”

She snapped her fingers.  “Yes, that must be it!  It’s almost summer, so Western schooling would be taking year exams right now!  Perhaps they’re commiserating with their old friends, or lamenting that they have to take finals again so soon, when they must have taken them before coming here as well.  Or perhaps they’re noting how much farther ahead they are now that they’re in Eastern schooling.”

“Or maybe,” Hitoshi mused sardonically, “they’re not talking about finals at all.  I mean, they don’t seem all that worried.”

Momo frowned, worried.  “I hope they’re not like Ashido.”

He snorted.  “Dunno what teacher she thinks she has, if she honestly believes the robot thing.  I mean, sure, I definitely believe that it’s been the finals for other years.  But Aizawa would never do that to us.”

“For multiple reasons,” she murmured, “not the least of them how insane our class is.”

He nodded solemnly.  “The sports festival was really tame compared to what it could have been.”

He imagined, for a moment, a sports festival where Todoroki didn’t get out in the second round.  Where the quirkless wonder didn’t dominate the battlefield.  Where he didn’t take out the walking bomb in the first battle before he could really get worked up.  It was a beautiful disaster full of chaos and violence and high emotions and Hitoshi definitely wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did.  If he’d had to fight Stonewall Frostson over there?  He’d have been out before he could say “frostbite,” and then he wouldn’t be here.  Maybe still in a remedial course, or something, but he wouldn’t have shown the top brass that he had what it took to be in the hero course and then he’d be stuck in General Education still, away from Momo.

He would admit, but only to himself, that despite his “I don’t need friends” attitude, he really liked Momo’s company.  Technically she was going to be a job due to the family he was adopted into, which seemed a little wild and archaic to him, but also she’d put good effort into making him feel welcome.  After breaking the ice by lamenting about the state of Aizawa and Yamada’s relationship (that is to say, both firmly in the oblivious denial stage and firmly ignoring the exit signs in either direction), they’d actually got along pretty well.  Sure, Hitoshi had still been generally hostile and stopped talking at times, but those were trained trauma responses and no he didn’t need therapy, why do you ask?  Momo had been awkward about it at first, but soon she just filled the space herself.  She was incredibly intelligent and he knew for a fact that she was pretty much an expert in his body language at this point.  Even if he was only reluctant to interact with other people by himself, when Momo was beside him, like usual, he didn’t mind contributing a snarky comment here or there.

(Of course, Midoriya and his fun facts terrified him.  He used to enjoy looking at the ocean.  Never again.)

“So what do you think finals are going to be,” he murmured beside her, “madam heiress?”

She nudged him with her elbow, pink starting to dust her cheeks.  “Just because our succession requirements are based on intellect-”

“You said it, not me.”

She made a noise of frustration, pink starting to turn red.  “I don’t know!  Definitely not robots.  And knowing Aizawa, if he could just make everyone fight himself, he would.”

Hitoshi raised his eyebrows.  “Well, he’s not the only teacher around…”

She blinked, then paled.  “Oh no.  We’re fighting the teachers.  I… someone has to fight All Might.”

Hitoshi snorted.  “Poor sod.  Between him and Dad, I dunno who’ll be worse.”

She turned her entire body towards him and pointed.  “You called him dad.”

He started.  “What?  No I didn’t.”

“You did!  Excellent, you just made me ten thousand yen.  Can you repeat it in front of a witness?”

“You bet on me saying it? And Jesus Christ that’s a lot of money for a dumb bet.”

“No, we bet on when.   You were always going to.  Separate pot on Yamada.  And, well, it would have been more if Aizawa wasn’t such a cheapskate.  One would think he didn’t believe it’d happen.”

Hitoshi felt like the inarticulate noise of horror and confusion he made was appropriate.  Besides, he hadn’t said it.  He hadn’t.

“Can we go back to the final exams?  And how at least two people are going to die because of All Might and Aizawa respectively?”

She bit her lip.  “I think one of us is guaranteed to get one of them now, and it’s your fault.  I want that on record.”

He rolled his eyes with a fond smile (very small, that no one could see).

“Due to the odd number of students, we’ve decided to have one team of three,” Aizawa intoned, “that will be Ashido, Kaminari, and Aoyama versus Nedzu.  Otherwise we have Iida and Ojirou versus Powerloader, Shouji and Sero versus Midnight, Satou and Kirishima versus Cementoss, Asui and Tokoyami versus Ectoplasm, Jirou and Kouda versus Mic, Kagami and Uraraka versus Thirteen, Hagakure and Yaoyorozu versus Snipe, Midoriya and Todoroki versus All Might, and finally, Bakugo and Shinsou versus me.  Follow your assigned teacher and the bus will take you to the testing location.  Does anyone have any questions about the match ups?”

“Yes,” Kaminari instantly yelled, “are you trying to kill us?”

Aizawa just looked at him and smiled until the boy shrieked in fear, then looked back at the general class with a bored expression.

“To pass, you must either escape the testing location or place the handcuffs on your assigned teacher.  Do not assume the weights we have on will make this easy.  If you can’t do either of these things in the time limit, or you and your partner or partners are knocked out, you will fail the final exam and will not attend the summer training camp.  Also, I will be aware that you have failed.  Do not fail.”

The class all gulped at the thinly veiled promise of danger, and looked at their given opponents with no small amount of trepidation.

Iida carried Ojirou out of the testing location, dodging the potholes the support teacher had dug in the field.  If Manual hadn’t had him running puddle drills every day after Wednesday for hours, he probably wouldn’t have been able to dodge all of them.  He resolved to send the man a thank you card, for putting up with Iida at his lowest and still teaching him something important.

The buzzer rang out above them and he breathed out, setting his classmate down.

“IIDA TENYA AND OJIROU MASHIRAO: PASS!”

Ken shook his head, hands never leaving the concrete.  Satou and Kirishima were just throwing themselves at his waves of hardened cement, breaking them, yes, but not moving in any particular direction.  Did they think he would falter first?  He was a pro hero who would often use his quirks for hours at a time, on both criminal apprehension and area rescue and reconstruction operations.  He sighed again and checked the time.

They’d both be incapacitated before long, relying too much on bullrushing with their quirks and not enough on an actual strategy.

“KIRISHIMA EIJIROU AND SATOU RIKIDOU: FAIL!”

Tsu breathed a sigh of relief as the giant Ectoplasm dissipated and exchanged a fistbump with a ruffled Tokoyami.  He looked mildly surprised, but Dark Shadow was more than happy to oblige her.

“ASUI TSUYU AND TOKOYAMI FUMIKAGE: PASS!”

“Oh Great One,” Aoyama whispered before they went in, holding cheese in the palm of his hands like an offering, “please help us pass.”

The cheese was swiped and he looked around wildly, hearing the cackle retreat.

“I’ll do something, alright,” his god promised, and he felt buoyed up.  Salvation was upon them!  He returned to his teammates with a satisfied expression.

Ashido clapped him on the back.  “Done praying for our souls?”

He scoffed.  “The Great One does not require souls.  Only cheese.”

“No dude,” Kaminari snickered, “she meant, like, praying to save our souls.  Since we’re fighting the Rat God.”

“Ah!  Then yes!”

(Nedzu looked at the ruined zone, clearly tracing the path they could still take, and did a double take.  A support beam he had intentionally left up crumbled as he watched, and it had a cascading effect, making factories and pipes topple down, covering his path entirely.  He stopped swinging the wrecking ball, despite not having finished the path.

“They might have trapped themselves,” his whiskers twitched, “I might not have to do anything more.”

Indeed, they had barely struggled out of the chaotic mess Plagg had landed them in when the buzzer rang, signaling their defeat.

Nedzu shook his head.  “The perils of the kwami acting without a holder.  The universe will seek balance.”)

(Adrien looked down as he felt Plagg settle into his pocket.  “So?  How’s their final exams going?”

“Huh?  Oh, I didn’t check on them.”

“What?  Then why did you go check out the heroics exams?”

“For fun.”

“I can’t believe you sometimes.  I wanted to know how they did!”

“The wonder cousins are fine!”)

“AOYAMA YUUGA, ASHIDO MINA, AND KAMINARI DENKI: FAIL!”

“KAGAMI,” Uraraka yelled over the sound of the black hole, “LIGHTNING!  THAT’S THE LAST THING WE HAVE!”

“HER SUIT IS INSULATED,” Kagami refuted, “IT WON’T WORK!  AND SHE’LL JUST SUCK UP WATER OR WIND!”

“SHE WOULDN’T,” Uraraka looked uneasy, “WOULD SHE?”

Kagami blinked and grinned wickedly, adjusting her grip on her sword.  “YOU’RE RIGHT, SHE WOULDN’T!  WE’RE LETTING GO!”

“WE’RE WHAT?!”

“WE’RE GETTING CLOSE ENOUGH TO USE THE CUFFS,” she bared her teeth, “AND WE’RE PASSING THIS DAMN TEST!  GO BEYOND!”

Uraraka looked nervous, but still nodded and released her grip, Kagami right behind her.

“PLUS ULLLTRAAAAAAA!”

“URARAKA OCHAKO AND TSURUGI KAGAMI: PASS!”

Hitoshi looked at the grumpy bomb suspiciously.  Neither of them were really good at working together unless it was with specific people.  Otherwise, they were both recalcitrant bastards.

“Listen,” Bakugo said harshly, “we need a plan.  Aizawa’s not going to let us walk all over him.”

He snorted.  “I could have told you that.  Let me guess, guns blazing.”

“Fuck off!  We’re not running away from this shit, we can beat him!”

“Why, because you’re the paragon of heroics?  Because you have a strong quirk?”

Bakugo sneered at him.  “No.  Because you do.”

Hitoshi was drawn up short.  “Excuse me?”

“Don’t make me fucking repeat myself.  What does your mask do?”

“…Changes my voice.”

“No shit?  Can you make it mine?  Then, better question, can you fucking act like me?  Because there’s sounding like me and then there’s sounding like me.”

Hitoshi cocked his head and let his fingers drop from the dials.  “I don’t fucking know, can I?”

Bakugo grinned at him and for the first time, he grinned back.

“BAKUGO KATSUKI AND SHINSOU HITOSHI: PASS!”

“SHO!”

His arms were instantly full of his roommates as the man babbled incomprehensibly into his shoulder.

“Words, Zashi.  To the air.”

“So many legs,” he looked up at Shouta plaintively, “all over.”

He sighed and patted his roommate on the head.  “Kouda figured out the bug thing?”

Hizashi wailed and went back to burying his face in Aizawa’s scarf again, not even noticing the flaring of his quirk that cut off the louder, window rattling noises.

“You’re lucky I’m done with my own battle,” he grumbled wearily without heat, “or I’d have to abandon you.”

He rubbed his hand down Hizashi’s back to replace the sensation of the many legs he was still feeling.

“Jirou Kyouka and Kouda Kouji,” he muttered, “pass.”

Mezou’s eyes watered as Midnight’s gas finally reached them, and Sero coughed around the shoddy tape mask he’d hastily constructed.

“She’s blocking us, man,” the black haired boy whined, “and if we get close she’ll just rip our masks off!”

“And mine isn’t exactly industry grade,” he muttered, trying to breathe as little as possible, “we need to quickly get to the exit without getting caught.”

“If only there were structures I could tape to,” Sero complained, “instead we’re basically in this wide open field.”

Mezou paused.  “Right.  Okay, I have an idea.  If I can't use my arms for senses, I can use them for arms.”

Sero looked at him suddenly, eyes wide with nervousness and excitement.  “Oh I’m about to be yeeted, aren’t I?”

Mezou grinned behind his mask, suppressing a yawn.  “Better go fast.”

“SERO HANTA AND SHOUJI MEZOU: PASS!”

“We’re pinned down,” Tooru hissed at her, “his perception skills are insane!  I can’t step out without getting shot at!”

“I should have looked into more long range weapons,” Momo lamented, biting her lip, “I never really looked past cannons, which is horrible in this case.”

“Then let’s quickly brainstorm,” Tooru shrieked under her breath as Snipe clearly knew where they were and they scrambled away again, “and figure something out!  Something long range, simple, and that doesn’t require a lot of skill!”

Momo wracked her brain, flinching when a bullet impacted her armor exactly one inch away from her elbow where there was none.  He was warning her, and his aim was perfect enough that he’d be able to target all of her joints.  The closer they got to him or an exit, the more accurate he became.

Suddenly, she was hit with a flash of inspiration like it was whispered into her brain, and she grabbed blindly at Tooru before they ducked behind a building.  She beamed and started creating.

“We can do this,” she said firmly, “we’re going to pass.”

Tooru seemed to brighten significantly.  “Yeah?  Yeah!  Yeah we’re going to do great!  What have you got for us, Madam President?”

She brandished her new weapon and fed the dart in.  “Blow gun.  Long range, loaded with tranquilizer darts.  I’ll keep him on his toes, and then he’ll be too distracted to see you and I won’t have to get close.”

Tooru wrapped her in a hug.  “Awesome!  I feel so much better!  Okay, are we going for an arrest or for an escape?”

Momo smiled.  “Whatever you think is best.  I believe in you, Tooru.”

“Aw, shucks.  Okay.  Well, keep an ear out and stay safe, Pres.”

There was a scrape of feet on concrete before she disappeared, and Momo stood on shaky legs and began to climb the side of the building, heart pounding twice as fast as the sound of her teacher’s footsteps that drew ever closer.

She took a deep breath and put her mouth to the pipe.  The tranquilizer was minor, but she’d done even more research on knockout methods and this was the standard for a human adult, with no danger of killing someone unless they were hit with six in short succession.  Not something she think would happen, skilled or not, and she was decidedly not.

She lined up her shot and pushed air into the tube.  She missed horribly, but she already felt how to adjust, and flinched away from the return fire.

“Good lass,” Snipe called, “you finally have a weapon.  I guess that means I can finally stop missin’.”

She shuddered and shot again, running almost before the dart had left the chamber.  She gasped as a rubber bullet impacted the back of her knee, covered only in soft rubber to let her retain movement in her armor, and she almost crumpled, but managed to turn around and take a knee long enough to fire again.  In a moment of inspiration, she made a curved rectangular phalanx shield about the size of her torso and put it on the ground, resting the blow gun on the top for stability.  Between that and the helmet she had as part of her armor, she was almost protected.

She fired again as Snipe came around the corner and it impacted with his thigh.  He swore and pulled it out immediately, but there was a flash of metal as the handcuff descended onto his wrist.

“HAGAKURE TOORU AND YAOYOROZU MOMO: PASS!”

Momo blinked and rose slightly from her crouched position.  “I thought you were going to go for the gate!”

Tooru chuckled sheepishly.  “I dunno, I just felt like I could be better, you know?  Like you made me want to be better, and not just run away in fear.  Besides, this is a classic!  Genesis distracts the bad guys while Invisigirl goes for the objective!  Match made in heaven, pres!”

“Y’all did good,” Snipe said, “now let’s get outta here, huh?  Think I’m gon’ take a nap.”

Momo winced sheepishly, but he just laughed and waved her off.

“So, you see how your armor can be a hindrance?”

“Sensei, I highly doubt most people are going to have your accuracy!”

“They don’t need accuracy, they just need luck.  I teach a long distance course if you want to stop by, talk to Aizawa about that…”

Izuku let out a breath.  “Okay, so, we have time to figure out what we want your champion abilities to be, I’m thinking the ability to manipulate your ice or fire once you’ve made it-”

“No.”

Izuku blinked up at Todoroki.  “Oh, do you have a different power in mind?”

Todoroki didn’t look at him, face a placid neutral mask.  “No.  I will do this on my own.”

Izuku’s mouth opened and closed for a moment.  “Sorry?”

Todoroki finally looked at him.  “I listened to you and took your advice.  I will use my ice and… my fire, and I will defeat All Might.  You will just get in the way.”

His dumbfounded confusion was slowly getting trumped out by frustrated indignation.  “Okay, cool that you’re using your fire again, great, but also we have to work together.  Even with the handicap, All Might is still the number one hero!  I can make you stronger-”

“I have to be a hero on my own power and merit,” Todoroki said firmly, “or my father wins.  I can defeat All Might without help.”

He stalked off into the city as the boom came for them to start, and Izuku scrambled to catch up.

“Todoroki, that’s insane!”

“You wouldn’t understand.  You rely on other people and have little skills of your own.  That’s why you were taken out so easily in the sports festival.”

Izuku scowled.  “Oh, like you?  With all your power and getting out before I did?”

“That was happenstance and bad luck.  It was not my doing.”

“Your arguments are circular and hypocritical-”

“Midoriya,” Todoroki suddenly stopped, “I do not think you are a bad person, even if I think I’m objectively stronger.  But if you insist on following and distracting me, I will be forced to freeze you in place so you can’t make me fail.”

While Izuku was gaping about the audacity, Todoroki must have taken that as acceptance, because he nodded once and walked away.  Apollo fluttered after him angrily, no doubt swearing up a storm in butterfly, and he was certain that if she could suddenly manifest fingers, all of her middle ones would be up.

Izuku turned to look at Emerald and Daredevil.  “What the fuck,” he said emphatically.

Both moths did their equivalent of a nod.

He sighed and climbed to the top of the nearest building in a few short bounds and mentally lamented the lack of chimneys around, but set himself up with his back against a prop air conditioner unit and pulled his goggles down.  He kept his eyes closed and didn’t reach out his senses, but felt the wind brush against his feather fronds.

“So,” he spoke aloud, with only his three constructs to hear, “we have a few options.  One, the one we’re definitely not picking, sitting out and letting us fail to prove a point.  Again, not picking that one, I’m not going to cut off my nose to spite my face.  Two, running for the exit, because apparently Todoroki forgot that was an option.  Has the benefit of probably pissing him off, and if I keep a close eye on All Might and Todoroki’s clash, I can avoid them and probably make it out.  Might fail Todoroki.  Not sure if that’s a bad thing.”

He sighed and finally let his senses lose, taking in the information the fronds on his head were giving him.  “Three.  We fight All Might anyway, possibly “stealing” the win from Todoroki.”

Apollo seemed to demand his attention and he cracked an eye open to see what she wanted.  She danced around for a bit and waved her front legs, and he hummed.  “Four, yes, I could champion Todoroki against his will… Five, champion All Might.  Sweetheart, that’s a terrible idea.  It’s not like I could make him weaker, the most I would do was distract him.  Or… huh, I suppose we could run it like Hivemind.  If I want it to link to Todoroki directly I’d need two butterflies out, and I’m going to be honest, I don’t know if my mom will accept that this is an emergency.  She explicitly said I couldn’t do it for school.”

He stopped suddenly.  “Combine three and five.  Just stop talking, it's not like it will transmit my thoughts back if I don’t want it to.  And if he doesn’t realize he has an extra hitchhiker in his head, I’ll hear all his thoughts, which I then use to get the upper hand.  Maybe Todoroki will even work with me!”

He giggled at the reactions.  “Yeah, no, I don’t buy it either.  Looks like they’ve started fighting already.  I bet I’ll be able to sneak in with the cuffs.  Who wants to go?”

Deedee coyly offered himself up and eagerly took the offered power before zooming off in the right direction.  Izuku stood and stretched before taking off in the same direction at a slower pace.  He could already hear the crashing and see the dust and ice rise into the air, and settled on a roof a block away with eyes on the fight as Deedee connected, landing on the weight on All Might’s left wrist.

I am disappointed Midoriya did not come with his teammate, but perhaps this is for the best.  Unless he’s using this as a distraction to try and avenge his father!  Ah, I should keep an eye on my surroundings, he’s sure to be very tricky.

It took everything in him to not react and say something to this.  Was All Might delusional?  His father?  The villain?  All Might thought Izuku wanted to… get revenge?  All Might hadn’t even been on the scene of Dragon’s arrest, if that was the case.  The Water Hose duo had been the ones to make the arrest, and they were already dead, taken out by Muscular.

I’m more surprised that Young Todoroki is not with any new quirks.  He could never resist the strong ones, after all.  Good on Young Todoroki for saying no!

What was this, an anti drug campaign?  And was All Might under the impression that he was giving away actual quirks?  Man, he wished, that would be an insane power, if it lasted past his transformation.  Maybe there was a miraculous that gave people a new power?  Wait, what was he talking about, that was literally him.  Maybe the lack of brain cells was contagious?  Sure, different at its core since he mostly modified in this day and age, and it wasn’t forever, but still.

Young Todoroki will fail at this rate!  Where on earth is Midoriya, how could he do this to his teammate?!

Okay, genuinely what the fuck.  Is this final just shit on Izuku day?  Also, did All Might want him gone so he couldn’t do villainous things, or did he want him here to help Todoroki?

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m also worried that he’s befriended Young Yaoyorozu.  If All for One told his son about One for All, perhaps this is a trick, and he’s going to betray her later.  I must warn her after this final, if he does not reveal his villainous nature and get expelled.

Okay, that was it.

“Alright, I’ve been listening to your thoughts for a while now,” Izuku said, ignoring the immediate jump of surprise and fear that went over the connection, “and while there are several things to address, who’s All for One?”

Wh- mind control?!  Where was Midoriya?!

“Mind- no!  It’s telepathy!  Because I connected to you with a butterfly!  I was going to use it to learn your moves before you made them and try to defeat you that way, but listening to you think was a rollercoaster of what the fuck.  And don’t even reprimand me on my language, you think I’m going to go villain just because my dad was a villain.  That’s really discriminatory of you, especially since I’ve literally been a hero for the past six months!”

He heard All Might yell at the same time as he thought really hard.  “Trying to defeat me?!  Finally you reveal your true colors!”

“It’s finals!  That’s literally what we’re supposed to do!  I’m not turning into Dragon any time soon!”

“…Who’s Dragon?”

“Who’s- MY FATHER!  THE VILLAIN!”

“Not All for One?”

“WHO IS ALL FOR ONE?!  WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO DO WITH YAOMOMO?!”

“His has a quirk that lets him give and take quirks.  He was my biggest rival until I defeated him six years ago.  The public doesn’t know about him.”

Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose under his goggles.  “Okay, so let me get this straight.  You thought that my power, the power of the miraculous I hold, was similar enough to your big bad that you assumed I was his son and were hostile to me for that reason.”

“Yes…”

“And not because without my miraculous I’m quirkless.”

“You’re quirkless?  Oh, I was too.”

“What?!  What does that even mean?”

“OneforallisatransferablequirkI’mtheeighthholderIdon’twantanyonetoknowthisisastatesecretYoungYaoyorozuistheninthishereallynotAllforOne’ssonwhat’samiraculous-”

“Stop,” he sighed, “stop thinking very fast.  Did you genuinely just ask what a miraculous was?  I couldn’t really understand your jumble of thoughts past “holder” and “Yaoyorozu” and “All for One” again, but did you seriously just ask what a miraculous was?”

“Why would I know what a miraculous was?  Is it a mistranslation for quirk?”

Izuku resisted the urge to put his face in his hands.  “All Might.  Yagi Toshinori.  Did you not listen when Nedzu explained all of this to you right when we showed up?  You have the clearance for this.”

“Clearance?  It’s classified?”

“Yes.  The Hero Commission doesn’t know.”

“Oh.  No, there was a meeting but I missed it, and Nedzu’s meeting minutes were nonsense to punish me.”

Izuku made a flabbergasted noise and threw his hands in the air.  “Okay then.  Awesome.  So you’ve been looking at me and all of my friends with suspicion for the past two months because you refused to go ask your boss for clarification.  Good that we could clear that up.  Short version.  Miraculous are pieces of jewelry with bound gods that existed before quirks did, at least in 2500 BCE, possibly earlier.  My friends and I all have them because we’re investigating something in Japan, and I, at the very least, am going to use mine to become a hero, rescue specifically.  Each miraculous is the miraculous of a universal concept.  Mine is Transmission, which allows me to transfer some of my magic to another person through a vessel, in this case a butterfly since that’s what my small god is based off of, and give them a power up.  We are heroes.  We are working with heroes.  We have already beaten villains.  We will never be villains.  Does that clear things up?”

“Who’s Dragon?  Your father?”

“An abusive waste of space that’s in jail because someone found out he was a villain on the side.  The source of my perpetuating aversion to fire.  Speaking of fire, where’s Todoroki?”

“Oh, I have been fighting him this entire time.  You do not have long, you know.  Why did you not work with him?”

“I offered.  He declined.  I’m not in the business of forcing power on people.”

“…I see.”

“But I know how to capture you now, so it’s okay.”

“Oho?  I do not see you!”

He shrugged and lifted his goggles off.  “Nope, your fight’s moved away from me and I was too busy being flabbergasted to follow.  I don’t need to be there though, I can stop you from here”

“What?”

Izuku smiled to himself.  “Chrysalide.”

“TODOROKI SHOTO AND MIDORIYA IZUKU: PASS!”

Chapter Text

Aizawa was staring at him like he was a fascinating but revolting bug as they and Recovery Girl sat in Nedzu’s office.  The principal merely sipped his tea while Shuzenji fussed over him more with a clinical detachment.

“Toshinori is fine,” she declared, “he’s arguably more healthy.  He’d obviously torn something based on the recordings, opening his lungs up again, and there had been superficial damage from the Todoroki boy’s onslaught, but all of that is gone now.  From what you said of his healing ability, it doesn’t go for chronic or older wounds such as scars, correct?”

Aizawa nodded.  “I believe he described it as, if the body no longer recognized it as a wound, neither does the magic.”

She huffed.  “So the idiot opening up his lungs was actually a good thing.  Don’t do it again unless you want to explain to the boy your secret.”

He winced.  “I won’t.  I’ll appreciate my ease of breath and not antagonize the little gods.”

Nedzu sipped his tea.

“Nor my boss.”

Nedzu sipped his tea in a manner that was distinctly smug.

“Honestly,” the school nurse scoffed, “you should have read the file!”

“It read like nonsense!”

“Then ask someone else who was at the meeting!  Or Nedzu!  Never assume Nedzu gives nonsense, even when he’s fucking with you it has a purpose.”

He recoiled.  “Shu-Shuzenji!  Language!”

She glared at them balefully.  “No students are around, grandmother, no need to get your knickers in a twist.”

He felt faint.

Shouta stood in front of his class with a mildly annoyed expression on his face.  To be entirely fair, he was mildly annoyed, so it made sense.  He’d let them stew on their exams for a night while they graded them, and finally it was the last Friday of the term.

“Hell spawn,” he greeted, “your placements on the written exams.”

He clicked a button and the screen behind him changed to display their class rankings.  He was mildly proud to have noted that no one had failed the written portions of their exams.  Oh, sure, a few people had come close, but none of his kids had gotten below an 80, the cut off for pass/fail (Plus Ultra, motherfucker).  His kids were smart, even if some of them didn’t think they were when compared to their relatively genius classmates, but UA accepted only the best in all fields.  His students deserved more credit.

Anyway, “As for your heroics exam, the fails are Ashido, Kaminari, Aoyama, Satou, Kirishima, and Todoroki.”

The boy stiffened in his seat, as predicted, and the other teenagers couldn’t help but look at him with wide eyes.

“I was under the impression that we had passed.  Did we not?”

Aizawa stared at the deadpan boy.  “Seeing as you didn’t actually use that “we” you speak of, we failed you.  It was a heroics exam.”

“We incapacitated All Might.  That was one of the victory conditions.”

“Again with the we,” he sighed, “regardless, you failed.  So the six of you are not going to the summer camp.”

Ashido and Kaminari immediately wailed, but he silenced them with a quirk enhanced glare.

“…Is what we would say if we were stupid.  Honestly, it’s a training camp, clearly you all need more training, of course you’re going.”

He gave them a few seconds to cheer before he smiled, and they quieted in fear.  Good.  “And when the rest of your classmates are having fun doing summer camp activities, you’ll be in remedial training with me.”

“You know,” Kaminari swallowed, “I’m actually good to not go-”

“You’re going.”

“Yes sensei,” the boy slouched miserably.

He eyed Todoroki as the class started to discuss going to the mall to get camp supplies they needed and mentally hummed in satisfaction.  The boy was clearly thinking, staring at the desk with a slight furrow in his brow, and he would occasionally glance up at Midoriya, who hadn’t looked at the boy once.  Seemed he was still angry about the exam.  Hopefully that would resolve at the summer camp, and the class would come together again.

“Camp will be not next week, but the following week,” he grumbled, “we will meet outside in the bus lot at 7 am and will leave at 7:15.  If you’re late, you will be left behind and summarily executed.  Snipe is willing to indulge me on this.”

He let them process this for a few seconds before he shrugged.  “Is what I would say in a perfect world.  Alas, Nedzu won’t allow that.  But if you’re late, you will be left behind, that part is true.”

He caught his son (official according to clan standards now that he’d passed his test) gently thumping his head on his desk and smirked into his capture scarf.

Ah, life was good.

Hitoshi watched as Aizawa held up his fork again to Yamada, his roommate, Hitoshi felt like that needed to be specified, and the blond man mindlessly bit down, eyes never leaving the work he was grading.  The next bite went to Aizawa, who didn’t see anything wrong with this.

“Right in front of my salad,” he muttered to himself.

“Tosh, did you say something?”  Yamada looked up absently.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “I’m heading to Mo’s.  She wanted to meet up before the mall visit.”

Aizawa nodded.  “You know the procedure.”

“Sir yes sir,” he saluted sarcastically, “I promise to be a good little bodyguard.  I’ll make Little Man proud.”

The black cat flicked an ear in his direction, but otherwise didn’t move from his void under the coffee table.

Aizawa snorted.  “Lord knows Boris wouldn’t be a bodyguard worth shit,” he muttered as the grey cat looked up at the pasta they were eating jealously.

“You’re not getting it,” he batted the cat away when he tried to go for the bowl anyway, “this gives you such shits, and I’m not cleaning that up again.”

Yamada snorted.  “Babe, I’m the one who cleans up Boris’ explosive shits, don’t kid yourself.”

Hitoshi nodded rapidly.  “Yep, I’m going now.  Goodbye.  I have my phone and keys.  See you later.”

“Bye Tosh!”

“Stay safe.”

He zoomed out the door, heart pounding in incredulity, and made it to Momo’s house in practically record time.

“Mo you wouldn’t believe this shit,” he said as soon as she opened the door, “first they share the same fork and Zawa hand fucking feeds Yama, then Yamada deadass calls him babe.  Babe!”

Momo nodded solemnly, barely masking her grin.  “Both classics.  It’s been going on for years.”

“Really?!  I’ve been around them for… February, March, April, May, June…five months!  Five!  And this is the first time they’ve done that shit in my sight.”

“You missed January, unless you’re only counting full months,” and he loved that she had figured that out, “and I think the keyword there is “sight.”  I think you just didn’t see it happening, but it really still was.  Now come in, I want to brainstorm with you.”

He let her lead the way to the mansion’s gym where they both started stretching by habit.  Aizawa had long since drilled into him that comfy and casual clothes should also be athletic clothes if at all possible, or at the very least, clothes he could easily move in.  He was also somewhat pushing for casual clothing that had built in armor, but they hadn’t managed to find any.  Aizawa, of course, got around this by always wearing his hero costume, since it had that hobo-chic vibe that the man favored for his information gathering, but Hitoshi didn’t have that luxury, so his dad’s best advice was “don’t get hit.”  Awesome, thanks dad.

“So what did you want to brainstorm,” he said, “you mentioned something about a blow gun in your final exam?”

She nodded and stretched her arms above her head, exposing a bit of her stomach, and he looked away.  “Yes!  I’m so used to using a shield and staff, and my long range weapons were most often grenades, or, well, cannons.  Which take a while to make and are a little too destructive for a person.  But then I remembered I’ve been doing a lot of research into anesthetics and tranquilizers, so I made a blow gun, but I’m not that good yet and I want to ensure that I have an effective long range weapon.  I looked up blow guns and they’re not really just simple staffs…”

“But,” he pointed out, “they’re staff like.   I bet you could get a design that works as a long and a short range weapon.  Then you have options.  Did you manage to hit Snipe?”

“Briefly, and it felt a lot like luck.”

He hummed.  “Did he go down?”

She tilted her head back and forth with a grimace.  “He slowed down.”

“So your concoction is probably good,” he shrugged, “or good enough.  As long as you don’t kill someone and it doesn’t have zero effect, I’d consider it pretty good.  If you’re worried about it, I’m probably going to need to look into an actual long range weapon we well.”

He cocked his head, looking at the lofty ceiling.  “Could go with throwing knives, always a classic.  Or I could embrace the ninja and go for shuriken or something.”

She giggled and he couldn’t help but grin at knowing he was the one who made it happen.  “You don’t think the capture scarf is enough?”

He shrugged.  “I still mess up with it sometimes, and it’s not really mine, you know?  Useful for sure, but I’ll eventually want to step away from that.  It’s also distinct, and I want to be the opposite of distinct.  What goes bump in the night, yes, for sure, I want people to realize Mindblank is there and shit their pants.  But I want there to be so many rumors about me that no one knows what information to trust.  I want them to be jumping at damn shadows when I show up.  What’s my quirk?  They don’t know.  What weapons do I use?  Could be all of them!”

She hummed.  “What if you used a weapon that was like a capture scarf, but definitely distinct?”

He narrowed his eyes.  “Like?’

“A kusarigama.”

He blinked, raising his eyebrows.  “A chain-sickle?  Huh.  I mean, definitely different.”

“But,” she pointed, “some of the same skills that a capture scarf requires.”

“Also distinctly more violent.”

“Chains are harder to break out of than fabric, metal threaded or not.”

He smiled winningly at her, getting up in her space and fluttering his eyelashes at her.  “And would you be willing to make it perfect for me?”

She smiled at him in amusement, meeting his eyes with laughing ones.  “Of course.  You’re my Cat, after all, I have to ensure you’re outfitted to the nines.”

He blinked and pulled back a bit.  “Was that-?”

She grinned.  “Oh, we have to go to the mall!  Come on, we can see if the sports store has anything we can practice with!”

He blinked as she laughed herself out of the room, lighthearted giggles reaching his ears.  He snickered and followed after her.

Todoroki was looking around the mall in masked bewilderment and Izuku sighed in defeat, walking over to rescue him, leaving Kagami to shop with Jirou alone.

“So,” he smiled rotely at the boy, “what do you need to get?”

The dual toned boy blinked down at him, then looked at his phone.  “I require… a sleeping bag.  I do not see why I cannot bring a futon.”

“They take up too much space and it’s not practical when we have to fit all our stuff onto the bus,” he shrugged, “so we’re getting sleeping bags.  Here, we can get a lot of things from this big sports store, they pretty much always have a camping section.”

They walked in silence, Izuku taking the time to observe people in the crowd and see if he could figure out their quirks without actively searching the quirk plane.

“Why are you helping me?”

He side-eyed the boy.  “Bluntly, you have no friends, and you looked like you had no idea what to do in a mall.  Granted, the friends thing is your fault, because I noticed several people approach you in class and you summarily rejected them.  Heck, even I tried, but, well, you remember the final exam.”

Todoroki got a slight frown on his face that was probably his equivalent of a scowl.  “I don’t need friends to be strong.  I will be the best hero.”

“Which is why you failed the heroics final,” Izuku nodded, “right.  Specifically because you wouldn’t work with me, because you “didn’t need me.”  Look,” he sighed, “we don’t have to be friends.  Would it be nice?  Sure, I love making friends; I find that a lot of people are better people than we’d like to believe.  I’m not going to say humans are inherently good, but I will say we’re not inherently evil, so nine times out of ten I’m willing to hang out with new people.  But I’m not going to throw myself at someone who clearly doesn’t like the rest of the world and hope that it makes them a better person to be around.  It’s not my job to socialize you if you’re not willing to put in the effort.”

Todoroki stared at the array of sleeping bags like they had all the answers, then turned to Izuku a little helplessly.

He gave a lopsided smile and held out his hand.  “Hi.  I’m Midoriya Izuku, and I think quirks are really cool.  I know fun facts about most animals, and I like moths and butterflies.  It’s nice to meet you!”

Todoroki stared at his hand for a moment before slowly placing his own there.  “I… am Todoroki Shouto.  I like cold soba and think highlighter yellow is an offensive color.”

Izuku’s eyes slid to the sleeping bags.  “So you’re not getting the highlighter yellow one, I assume.”

“No, I’m getting that one.”

Izuku started and blinked up at the other boy, who had dropped his hand and was picking up the offensive sleeping bag with a small smile.

“Why…?”

“My father will hate it.”

Izuku snorted.  “Cheers to that.  At least my bad fire dad actually got arrested.  Good luck on that one.”

Todoroki eyed him speculatively, then said, “Ah.  What do you need to get for summer camp, Midoriya?”

Izuku beamed.  “Nah, I’m all good.  I’m just here to hang out and get lunch.  My mom’s preparing to go on a trip around the same time as we’re going to the summer camp, Mari’s getting back on a designing kick, and my boyfriend and his cousin have started a prank war in the apartment.  I needed to get out of the house, you could say.”

“I apologize.  I took you from your friends.”

Izuku looked at him out of the corner of his eyes.  “Gami will be fine.  What are you planning to do in this week of free time?”

“I… thought I might visit my mother.”

He blinked, but hummed and tucked the information away.  “If she’s anything like my mom, she’ll like that.  It’s hard being away from your kid, or in our case, our good parent, for too long.  How long has it been?”

“Many years.”

“Yikes.”

“Yes.”

“Well.  Maybe while we’re here we can get her a gift?  What does she like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Great.  Flowers and chocolates, then.”

Todoroki furrowed his brow.  “Why?”

Izuku shrugged.  “I mean, unless she’s allergic?  It’s just nice.  I’d like getting flowers and chocolates.  Hmm, I should get some for Felix.  Once we’re done getting your camp things.  Then we’ll get lunch and go home, probably.”

“I see.  I require bug spray and sunscreen.”

“Got it.  Should be over in this section…”

He waved to his cousin as they went to their separate apartments and unlocked the door to his own.  He opened the door while standing with his back to the wall beside it and waited a few seconds to ensure he wasn’t about to be caught in the crossfire of a prank.

“I’m coming in,” he yelled, “and if I get pranked you’re all grounded.”

“There’s only two of us,” Adrien grumbled from the kitchen, it sounded like, “and we called a truce anyway.”

Izuku raised an eyebrow as he walked into the apartment but quickly was reduced to giggles.  Nooroo couldn’t help but peek out of his pocket and joined in, setting off Duusuu.

“Oh man,” he said breathlessly, holding out the bouquet, “this was originally just for fun but now its for the funeral, oh my gosh.”

Felix’s scowl turned to an expression of surprise as he took the flowers, face slowly filling with color.  His staticked and stiff hair was forgotten and he looked up at Izuku with wide eyes.

“And that’s my cue,” Adrien got up from the table, “peace out, if I find out where you got the green dye I’m using it to dye all of your shirts.”

“If you do, I’m cutting your hair straight off,” Felix mumbled, eyes dropped to the flowers, “skipping the color entirely.”

The now neon green headed boy flipped him off as he disappeared into the apartment.

“I’ll get a cup,” Izuku said, “if you want to get the scissors.”

“Right,” Felix stood, “of course.”

They tended to the flowers in silence, using the biggest cup they had and filling it three fourths of the way with water, stirring in the flower food, and carefully putting the trimmed stems in the water, arranging them in a way that made them stick out.  They placed the makeshift vase in the center of their little kitchen table and sat next to each other.

“I think I’d like to kiss you,” Felix said suddenly, “but I’ve never done it before.  So.”

“I haven’t either,” Izuku coughed, “so.”

“But I want to.”

“I also would like to.”

They looked at each other.

Izuku wasn’t sure who the first one to move was, but soon they each had a hand on the other’s cheek and were close enough to feel the warm breath on their face.

“I think we… tilt?”

Felix nodded ever so slightly.  “Because of the noses.”

“I’m going for it.”

It was pretty chaste, with minimal movement, because they didn’t know what they were doing, but it was definitely a kiss.  After a few seconds, they pulled back with flushed faces, but their hands didn’t drop.

Felix wrinkled his brow.  “That was…”

“Wet,” Izuku agreed.

“Not terrible.”

“Soft,” he pointed out.

“A little awkward.”

“I’d be willing to do it again,” he admitted, then quickly felt his face heat, “but not because of the kiss itself, if that makes sense?  Not that it was bad!  It was nice!  But it’s less the kissing that I liked and more because it was with you!  Like, I only…want…to kiss…you.”

Felix snorted and pressed another quick kiss to his mouth.  It ended up mostly on the left side of his mouth, and he moved slightly to press back, but Felix didn’t linger, and he sighed.

The taller boy smiled.  “We can practice more.  Clearly other people enjoy the act itself, as well, or it wouldn’t be such a big deal.”

Izuku put his arms around Felix and pulled him into a hug, dropping a smile into his neck.  “Okay.”

Adrien turned the TV on in the other room and flicked through a few channels before he settled on the news.

“Oh shit,” he called, “you know the people who attacked the USJ?  They did a thing.”

Izuku reluctantly pulled himself out of his boyfriend’s embrace, scowling at the other room.  “Really?  What?”

“Broke some people out of jail.  Apparently it looks like they went for Muscular, a villain who killed the Water Hose Duo last year, but some other people got out as well.  They’re mostly talking about Muscular, so the others were probably small time criminals.”

“Not if they were in the same section of the jail,” Izuku refuted, “they tend to keep serial killers away from the general population, prison or no.”

Felix pulled them up and into the other room, knowing Izuku would want to gravitate there anyway.

Adrien looked up as they entered and gestured with the remote.  “They caught a few of them pretty soon, it looks like,” he said, “especially since that warp dude only warped away the people they wanted.”

“-this just in, analysts have determined that the people seen assisting Shigaraki Tomura, leader of the League of Villains, were not prisoners, indicating that the villain group has been recruiting.  Recognized are serial arsonist Dabi, serial murderer Magne, as well as two villains new on the scene, a lizard man with a sword, and a woman in a school girl outfit.  If anyone has any information on these individuals, please contact your local police department.”

Izuku sighed and flopped onto the couch, settling up against Felix when the other boy joined him.  “I hope they don’t get any ideas.  Being attacked once is enough, and now it seems like they have more capable minions than the grunts they had before.  If they’re willing to go so far as to break people out of jail, they’re probably gearing up for something big…”

Felix hummed.  “But no one is aware of where you’re having the summer camp, correct?”

Izuku pursed his lips.  “Yeah.  So we should be fine.”

Adrien breathed out.  “And us business kids are going to be home alone.  And we still don't know why Fe and Mari wanted to be in Japan!”

Felix grimaced.  “Fifty euro it’s soon.”

Izuku smacked him lightly on the knee.  “Don’t jinx us!  We have summer camp in a week!”

“We’ll be fine,” Adrien said firmly, smile in place, “we’ll have both guardians and the other half of the pair in reserve!  And if we really need to, we can pull Chloe away from her search for transportation.”

“She just got to New York,” Felix snorted, “she’d kill you for the audacity.”

“And Luka left for Italy today,” Izuku said softly, “so with any luck, we’ll start getting those two boxes put together.”

“All we can do,” Adrien sighed, “is wait.”

Chapter Text

The bus ride was rowdy for the first ten minutes before the excitement got overthrown by the early hour and people started to nap.  After that, the bus was quiet, with a few murmured conversations creating a dull background buzz of white noise that kept the majority of people asleep.  Not even the bumps in the road could wake the majority of the high schoolers.

Izuku, of course, was a little too wired, and glued to his phone.

“Gami!  Gami why do you not care about this more, Chloe found a miraculous in a museum and Luka has a lead on his box!”

Kagami sighed, staring ahead still and not looking at him.  “I also read their texts.  And saw the pictures.  And saw the videos.  And, actually, I called them.  I am well aware of their immediate successes, I do not need you to expound upon them for me.”

He scowled.  “This is incredible, though!  It’s like fate is working in their favor to make their jobs easier!  And Liberation is such a cool concept!”

She pinched the bridge of her nose.  “As you have been explaining for the past half hour.  Yes.  Why don’t you go over your theories for the Constellation Miraculous again instead.”

He nodded rapidly.  “Okay, so since they’re based around the Western Zodiac signs, it's pretty clear that Aquarius will have something to do with water, I mean, come on, it’s the water bearer, you can’t not-”

“We’re stopping at a rest stop,” Aizawa said at the front of the bus, uncaring that his voice set seven different people jolting into awakeness, “so wake everyone up and get off.”

“Thank Gimmi,” Kagami muttered, rather uncharitably he might add.

They all piled off the bus, some of them more groggy than others, and looked around.  They were on the side of a barren cliff, overlooking a vast forest with dense deciduous trees.  In the distance were mountains, and a thin plume of smoke from the foot of one of the smaller ones, also covered in trees, though the distance meant they couldn’t tell what kind.  They were distinctly more blue and less saturated, though, so Izuku was inclined to think they were coniferous firs instead of the leafy ones nearby.

“This is a terrible rest stop,” Shinsou declared, “and I smell a rat.”

“Don’t you mean-”

“-you smell a cat?”

“Lock on with these sparkling gazes!”

“Stingingly cute and catlike!”

“Wild, Wild Pussycats!”

They all stared at the two heroes and Izuku vibrated in place before leaning over to Kagami.

“I forgot to tell Adrien about the Wild Wild Pussycats.”

Kagami cut him a glare.  “Do not.”

“Um,” Jirou raised her hand, “where’s the rest stop?”

Shinsou and Yaomomo were edging away from the edge of the cliff and Izuku considered doing the same for a moment.

“I’m Pixiebob and this is Mandalay of the Wild Wild Pussycats,” one of the women introduced, “and we’re you’re summer camp hosts!  Yay!  We’re situated at the base of that mountain over there - see the smoke?  That’s where we’re gonna be!”

Kirishima scratched the back of his head.  “Man, that’s really far away.”

“Oh no,” Izuku giggled, “Pixiebob’s quirk is earth manipulation.”

Mandalay nodded, not hiding her amused expression even as the little boy at her side scowled.  “Yes… you should get there around noon, though.”

Pixiebob beamed and bounced on her feet.  “Kiddos who don’t make it by 12:30 don’t get lunch!”

Most of the class got it by now and started running back for the bus, but it was too late; Pixiebob slammed her hands to the ground with a cackle and the dirt rose up to sweep them off the edge of the cliff.  The class screamed and swore, and when they had a moment to breathe, looked up at the four people above them.

Aizawa grinned and left.

“Better get moving,” Pixiebob called, “who knows what’s in these woods, huh?”

With that ominous nugget, they disappeared over the cliff and Izuku could hear the bus start up and drive away.  They were quiet for a moment before they heard rumbling footsteps and he immediately shut his eyes.

“Yep,” he called, “quirk constructs!  Pixiebob made earth monsters for our welcoming committee!”

“Oh man,” Kaminari yelped, “are they trying to kill us?!”

Yaomomo sighed.  “Looks like training starts now.  Izuku?”

He blinked.  “Oh.  Um.  Yeah, I’ll work on that… we have three incoming?”

While his classmates were taking on the massive dirt monsters, he looked down at Nooroo, hidden in the small of his back most of the time.

“Can we do a stealth mode or something,” he muttered, “where we’re not obviously wearing a costume?”

Nooroo wrinkled his nose.  “Probably?  The lack of a mask is the biggest obstacle, we almost always have some form of mask.”

“Uhhh, bandana to…avoid the dust?”

Nooroo nodded.  “And it’s something you feasibly would have on you.  I’m also going to add magic suit body armor beneath your clothes,” he warned, “and you can't stop me.”

Izuku smiled down at him.  “Roo, I wouldn’t want to.  Okay, let’s do this.”

He muttered the transformation phrase under his breath, immediately looking around at his classmates while he pretended to tie a bandana around his mouth as the magic formed it around him.  It was mostly purple and patterned with geometric butterflies, and he snorted to himself.  Cute, Roo.

Emerald, Apollo, and Daredevil were immediately out and around him, but he noted with interest that other butterflies were fluttering around him now as well, and his three constructs settled nearby.

He held out his hand and three butterflies immediately floated over and landed on him.  One of them nudged the other two to take flight again and practically preened on his hand.  He snorted and looked up as Kouda approached.

“This one is easier to understand,” he whispered, “your usual three aren’t natural, are they?  They sound… echoey.”

Izulu blinked.  “Holy cow, right, you can talk to animals.  That’s crazy.  Uh, have they ever said anything I needed to know?”

Kouda shook his head as the class toppled another dirt monster, leaving just one left of the initial three. “They like you, though.  This one, um, wants to help.”

Izuku held the butterfly up.  “This is,” he snorted, “this is a Paris peacock swallowtail, right?”

Kouda nodded and he laughed again.  “Okay.  Yeah, we should be fine.”

He cupped the butterfly in his hands and fed it a good three fourths of his power, breathing out as the quiet tiredness set in, and then he released it, letting it zero in on who he wanted.

Kouda blinked in surprise as the glowing butterfly hovered around him for a moment before settling into the bandana around the tall boy’s neck.

Izuku grinned.  “Kouda Kouji.  I’d like to modify your powers so that you can talk to and command anything that’s animal-like, including non living things.  Will you use this power to help get our class through the woods and not spend all our time and energy fighting dirt monsters?”

Kouda nodded shakily.

“Well then, Facsinimal, let’s rock!  Metamorphosis!”

Facsinimal looked like a park ranger, with khaki shorts and a green collared polo shirt with the bandana tucked in, plus a broad brimmed hat on his head with a string he could tighten around his chin if he wanted.  His design was simple, but definitely reminiscent of a hero costume in the texture and bright colors.

The champion yelled and immediately the dirt monster stopped fighting, going passive and sitting there placidly.  It grew some glowing moss on its shoulders.  He grinned and gestured.

“Hop on!  We’ll pick up another one and get there faster!”

The class cheered and clambered onto the big beast like ants, cradled on the head, back, or in the arms, and with a whistle, they were bounding off in the direction of the lodge.  They picked up another dirt monster and people breathed easier when they weren’t all packed on one like sardines, and it took a few yells to keep new dirt monsters from attacking them, but they all relaxed as the forest rapidly passed them by.

It still took them about an hour to reach the lodge, around eleven in the morning, and as soon as they approached, Pixiebob stormed their way, leaving her three teammates behind.

“WHO STOLE MY MONSTERS?!”

Facsinimal raised his hand sheepishly, champion confidence faltering in the face of the yelling woman, and Izuku raised his hand as well.  This close, he could get a general read on her emotions.

She stared at the two of them, vibrating in place, before her “anger” gave way to raucous laughter.

“That was good!  I didn’t think you could do that, and Eraser didn’t tell me about the power thing until after my dirt balls got turned into zombie slaves!  Such a red flag, you’re never going to get a girlfriend with behavior like that!”

Aizawa rolled his eyes.  “Oh no.  Anyway.  Good job thinking outside the box,” he eyed Izuku, “now go wash up.  Since you’re here early, you’re making lunch.”

Half the class groaned, but Tiger chuckled.  “You will like the bathing accommodations,” he smirked, “everyone does.  You see, we have hot springs!”

The groans quickly turned into cheers and they all trudged in the direction of the lodge where all their stuff was.

Making lunch was definitely an experience.

It was clear that they really hadn’t expected them to reach the lodge in any semblance of time, and Pixiebob was jokingly grumbling about how she hadn’t thought of using her dirt monsters as taxis but only because that was a lot of concentration while she was being moved and they’d cheated anyway by using premade ones instead, but they all started to make curry.  Apparently, that had been what they were supposed to make for dinner the next day, and the Pussycats were going to be getting a few more groceries while they shifted meals around, but so far this was good practice working as a group and delegating.  Yaomomo was moving people around like a seasoned conductor, making sure tasks were completed as needed, and Shinsou was right beside her since he actually knew how to cook.  Izuku was kind of surprised at the amount of people who didn’t know how to cook, to be honest, but enough people had some skill that it wasn’t a complete disaster, and Yaomomo quickly discovered that if a job needed to be done well, to set Katsuki on it.

Meanwhile, Iida, Kagami, and Yaomomo herself were active hindrances to the work and were quickly relegated to delivery duties and none of the actual cooking or ingredient preparation.  The rest of their classmates puttered through and in the end, the curry and rice they made wasn’t half bad.  Some of the rice was a little mushy and there was an entire pot that had burnt rice crusted to the bottom that they’d set to soak already, but it was all pretty tasty, and made better because they had been the ones to make it.  The Pussycats grabbed five bowls themselves, Mandalay’s nephew (as they’d been told) sullenly eating with them and glaring up at the hero students at every opportunity.

After lunch, Aizawa had them all stand in a clearing a few feet away from the eating area and looked them over with a critical eye.

“Training wasn’t supposed to start until tomorrow,” he said, “but since you’re here many hours early, you must be eager for it.  I assume you’re all prepared for the most brutal exercises of your life?”

He suddenly tossed something to Katsuki, who caught it, and it was revealed to be the same type of ball they’d used at the beginning of the year on their quirk assessment test, according to the mutters of their classmates.

“Bakugo,” he said, “throw that with your quirk.”

He let off a massive explosion, launching the ball far into the distance, and Izuku whistled to himself.  He almost wished he could have seen the assessment test in person instead now, just to see what people would have done.

Aizawa exposed the store and the class erupted in disbelief.

“As you can see,” he looked at the cousins and Shinsou, “the score hasn’t changed much since the beginning of the year.  You’re all smarter and getting stronger, but you haven’t had to push your quirks yet.  That’s what this summer camp from hell is designed to do.  Break your limits,” he grinned, showing all of his teeth, “plus ultra.”

They all shuddered, and weren’t sure if it was in fear or anticipation.

He set them off on different challenges, most often just using their quirks to their most extremes and pushing past their limits, but he held Izuku and Kagami back.

“Based on your appearance upon arrival, you can use your miraculous without putting on the costume.”

“Actually,” Izuku shook his head, “I’d pretty much detransformed by then.  I mean, yes, I didn’t look like I had a costume on while I was transformed, but I definitely want to point out that you didn’t see me in what Roo and I are calling stealth mode.  Disguise mode would probably work better, though…”

“Longg could probably do it too,” Nooroo piped up without making himself visible, “but I’m still not sure how to work around the mask requirement, since hiding the identities of our holders is inherent to our purpose after this long.  We could probably figure it out…”

Aizawa stared at where the kwami was hiding and then sighed, looking into the middle distance as Longg quietly laughed with a slight hiss.  “Right.  Mini gods.  I…forgot.  Regardless, this will likely change around a few plans, but the initial training you were going to be doing was without your miraculous, and instead was meant to train either your initial quirk or your new powers, so that you can hold your own as a hero even when not transformed.  If you do well enough in that to last against the majority of your classmates, I’ll consider some suited training.”

Izuku raised his hand.  “Um, well, I’ve taken to doing nightly transformed meditations, if that helps?  Even just stretching my senses and spending time using the more passive part of my powers has made my, hmm, well of magic deeper.”

Their teacher shrugged.  “If you’re awake enough and able to not let your classmates catch on, then sure.  I find it unlikely you’ll have the energy, however.  You’ll be working with Tiger and calling out everyone around you as they and you move around, based on what their quirks are.”

He blinked.  “Okay…?”

“While sparring with Tiger.”

Oh, he paled, less okay.

“Tsurugi, you’ll be doing the same, but you will be blindfolded.”

“I see.”

“No you won’t, that’s the point.  Best of luck.”

He indicated where Tiger was already thoroughly decimating Ojirou, Kirishima, and Iida, clotheslining the last everytime he tried to speed past.  With Pliabody, he could avoid most hits, and then he could punch with his full force, making the students regret it.

They tentatively approached and Tiger beamed at them without missing a beat.  “Welcome!  Tsurugi, I have a blindfold for you!”

He tossed it without breaking stride and she snatched it out of the air.  It wasn’t so much a blindfold as it was blacked out ski goggles, but she dutifully put them on and immediately cocked her head, pursuing her lips slightly as she adjusted.

“And now you’re both in!”

It was only instinct that let him dodge the fist that sprang up where his head was and he yelped a little.

“Midoriya!  You will have to tell me who is on your right at any given moment, no matter how far!  If you take too long or get it wrong, I will not slow my hits!”

“That was slow?!”

“Slower, yes!  Come now, time starts now!”

“Uh, Iida!”

“Wrong!”

“What?!  He was totally- oof.”

It would be a long week.

The Wild Wild Pussycats made dinner for them that night, and they made even further use of the hot springs with a warning that they would resume training the next day at the same intensity.  Just looking around, it seemed like everyone was wrung out, and Izuku felt like he was one big bruise.  On their first break, he’d taken off his bandana and clipped the pin to it, ensuring Nooroo’s miraculous was out of the danger zone, just in case.  Kagami easily shucked her choker as well, setting them together so the kwami could huddle in the tented fabric of the bandana when they weren’t sneaking around in the trees to watch the hero students put their blood sweat and tears into expanding their quirks.

The next day came with the arrival of class 1-B halfway through the morning and Izuku immediately pulled Kagami aside in their two minute break.

“Summer camp has now turned into the Monoma Don’t Touch Me Challenge.  His quirk is touch based copy.”

She blinked, then hummed in amusement.  “Mine could be explained away; yours, on the other hand…”

He sighed.  “And on Thursday we’re starting the whole miraculous training.  Either of us getting touched then would be a disaster.”

Aizawa had, after all, been correct; Izuku had been too wiped at the end of the day to consider staying up an extra hour or two in firefly puddle mode, let alone active searching.  He’d improved his hand to hand combat and multitasking in leaps and bounds, of course, and Kagami was slowly getting up to the level that her mother was on in terms of Surround Sense, but the only time they didn’t spend training was the time they spent making food or soaking their sore bodies in the hot springs.

They spent the rest of their Tuesday being somewhere else when Monoma was making the rounds to copy more people’s quirks, and they got away with it.

On Wednesday, only Izuku’s quirk sense managed to announce his arrival in time, and he was definitely getting suspicious, but then training ended early.

“We like you kiddos soooo much,” Ragdoll said while they were finishing eating dinner, “that we decided you’d get a midweek break!  We only have you until Saturday morning, so we thought we’d treat you to a little game!”

“A little competition, even,” Pixiebob crowed, “a Trial of Courage!”

Tiger nodded, smirking.  “Class against class, through the gauntlet in the woods.  If you make someone piss their pants, you’re clearly superior!”

Like a bloodhound on a scent, Monoma perked up.  “Class 1-B will reign supreme!”

Pixiebob pointed at him.  “I like your attitude!  Just for that, you guys can scare first!  Okay, basic rules, we’re following the trail, you have to get to the halfway point where Dolly will give you a stamp, then you have to make it back.  Short loop, only a mile, you guys can’t miss the trail.  Any questions?  No?  Then class 1-B, scatter into the woods!”

“If you failed your final,” Aizawa cut in, “you’re with me instead.”

He dragged away a sobbing Aoyama, Ashido, and Kaminari, Todoroki, Satou, and Kirishima trudging behind reluctantly.

Monoma laughed himself silly at six people from 1-A being out and refused to let anyone point out he was following after them as well.

Izuku looked at the woods in trepidation as their sister class disappeared into it and swallowed.

It’d be fine.

What was a little horror before bed?

Chapter Text

They drew lots on the teams and Izuku ended up in the group of three, the group that was going first, with his partners Hagakure and Shouji.  Hagakure was scoffing and bouncing, and Shouji was shifting nervously, but all of his extra limbs were ears or eyes.

“We’ll be fine,” Izuku pointed out, ignoring his already rabbiting heart, “we’ll sense them coming from a mile away between the two of us!”

Shouji nodded, but stuck close.

Hagakure, on the other hand, walked along the path like it was a runway, and even when Izuku and Shouji shrieked and leaped at each other (there was a loose head and there were body parts everywhere, and-) she just laughed and made a joke.

By the time they reached Ragdoll at the halfway point, Izuku was shaking out of his skin and was clutching an equally shaken Shouji.

“Why are you not affected by this,” Shouji said in exasperation, “it’s night in the woods!”

Hagakure shrugged.  “I have always loved horror movies, so.”

“I like horror movies too,” Izuku protested, “but this is different!”

“Aw, come on, they’re just our other classmates!  That helps, right?”

Shouji snorted weakly.  “It does not.”

Ragdoll laughed at them.  “Well, you’re halfway done and none of you have run screaming or peed your pants, so, so far so good!  Come here and get your stamps, I promise there’s no scares in this clearing.”

Of course, there was one immediately outside the clearing as soon as they got on the path, but that was only to be expected.

They cleared the woods, hearing shrieks and screams behind them as other groups went in, and everyone else was gone in the woods when they returned.  Slowly, their classmates started trickling out, some looking nonplussed, some nonchalant, some shivering, some wide-eyed in terror, but thankfully, none of them wet.

Class B came out next, most of them looking pleased, and then their class was cast into the woods.

Izuku immediately made a beeline for where Shinsou and Yaomomo were peeling off.

“Shinsou!”

“Oh god.”

Izuku pouted.  “Why is that always your reaction?  Anyway, we can use our powers.”

He narrowed his eyes.  “Yes…”

“Can I champion you?”

The taller boy pursed his lips, giving himself a pained expression that surely had nothing to do with Izuku, before saying, “Why?”

Izuku beamed.  “That’s not a no!”

“It’s not a yes, either.”