Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In the small city of Asaka, located in the Saitama Prefecture of Japan, a mansion rested on a large area of land. It was a key attraction of the small city, not only for its size and grandeur, styled in a western element, but also because of the individuals who made this property their home. One such individual was waking up, rising before the Sun as she had been taught to do so by her mother, just as her grandmother had taught her mother, and so on and so forth.

With a yawn, Centorea Kurusu rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, stretching as she got up from her large bed. Shaking out her equine legs, Centorea, a Centaur heteromorph, looked behind her at the still sleeping occupants of the bed. Five individuals lay asleep, four females and a lone male. Centorea warmly smiled at the sight of her husband and four of her six sister-wives. While in the beginning it was difficult to get used to sharing the man she desired to be her husband with six other women, they eventually made the arrangement work. It helped that Kimihito, her perfect husband and partner, was the kindest soul Centorea knew, doing everything he could to accommodate the various needs for his heteromorphic wives, each having their own needs as a result of their heteromorph bodies.

Quickly getting changed into her sports clothing designed to accommodate her equine lower half and tying her long blond hair into her signature ponytail, Centorea quietly exited the house, trotting down the mansion’s driveway before exiting out onto the streets. Picking up speed into a canter, Centorea gave simple ‘hello’s to fellow morning joggers that she passed on her route. She was ever grateful that the passersby didn’t recognise her out of her signature suit of armour. While many heteromorph heroes were unable to blend into civilian life when off duty due to the nature of their quirk physiology, the Centaur species had existed since the Dawn of Quirks over two hundred years ago, meaning that their sight had become less uncommon across the globe.

Centorea even kept in contact with some extended relatives that lived in the area, the two she was closest to being Alusia Van Dalsia and Cheron Du Pell. Alusia and Cheron were born into wealthy families, a trait that all Centaurs shared. Call it an equine instinct from their quirk, but all members of the Centaur species looked after each other, and this was helped by the vast sums of wealth that the main families and branch families had gained over the years. Alusia, born into the noble Van Dalsia family, was Centorea’s great-grandmother’s sister’s great-great-granddaughter. A relatively young subspecies of the Centaur race, the Lightweight Centaurs of the Van Dalsias deviated from the typical Centaur traits of martial prowess and physical might with agility and speed, opting to become athletes rather than heroes. Alusia herself had studied in Japan as a foreign exchange student rather than study in the ancestral home of the Centaur people in the United Kingdom.

‘I do believe that she’ll be representing Japan in the Olympics later this year,’ Centorea mused to herself as she paused by a beach, taking a short break.

Setting off back home with the rising Sun behind her, Centorea thought of her other local relative that she kept in contact with. Similar to the Van Dalsias, the Du Pells were a relatively young subspecies, both deviating from the same point in their family tree. Consisting of members who possessed stronger, sturdier, and larger bodies than any Centaur, the Heavyweight Centaurs were all exclusively Pro Heroes at some point in their lives, without fail. Possessing strength that surpassed that of any regular Centaur, which already would be classified as only being possible with a strength enhancing quirk, the Du Pell family charged into action wearing armour that few humans could wear, let alone move in, and dual wielded weapons that most would struggle to lift either one of.

Cheron had been a Pro Hero who went by the name Armament, but after a career ending injury at the hands of a powerful villain who she defeated, took up the life of a farmer out in the countryside. While she could never fight as well as she had in the past, the rural community she had settled in had prospered under her diligence at farming, as well as the protection they received by having a former, but still very fit, Pro Hero in the area.

However, there were others of the Centaur species in Japan, such as Nicole Unicole, a VTuber working for the Black Lily company who was the first trueborn of her subspecies, that of a Unicorn.

‘And probably the last of her subspecies,’ Centorea grumbled, remembering her relative’s obsession with the JPop heteromorph idol group ANM48 and her total lack of a husband, boyfriend, or any partner for that matter. Despite Centorea’s insistence, Nicole was content to stay a VTuber living in Japan, much to her family’s annoyance.

Then there was Rem Nighdrem, who Centorea hadn’t seen in years. Due to her nature as a Nightmare, Rem possessed all of the standard traits of the main Centaur species, along with the ability to create nightmares in a sleeping individual.

Centorea shuddered as she remembered THAT particular memory of when the two met for the first time. While she and Rem barely saw each other, Centorea did know that Rem had been employed working at the most notorious Maximum Security Prison in Japan, Tartaros, so at least she was staying out of trouble.

Centorea’s mind also wandered towards that of Meamil Airagu, but she quickly banished those thoughts. The less she thought of that husband-stealing harlot of a Dairy Breed Centaur, the calmer Centorea would be.

While Centorea did interact and keep in touch with many of her relatives, both close, extended and distant, it was an unfortunate truth that the more eccentric the individual, the more permanent the memory of one's interaction with them.

Slowing down as she made it back to the entrance to the Kurusu family property, Centorea took in the scenery as she walked the final stretch of the journey. Trees lined the driveway, stretching out into forests that covered most of the estate. While the scenery was pretty before dawn, it was made even better with the early sunlight streaming in through the trees, painting everything a golden hue. Picking an apple from a nearby tree, Centorea happily munched on her post-run snack as she reached the front door. Taking in a breath, she prepared herself for what was to come, and opened the door.

“Bapi, let go of my head, we’re too high up!”

“Bapi beat Duibhe! Bapi strongest!”

“Bapi, be careful where you’re flying.”

“Sarah, give us a ride, please?”

“Yeah, please, Sarah?”

“Sorry guys, I need to get ready for school. The student council is meeting early today.”

““Aw!””

Centorea’s ears folded back, blasted by the sudden noise from inside the manor. While her daily runs in the morning were certainly to maintain her physical fitness, a small part of her did it to avoid this every morning. This being the difficulties of getting children ready for elementary school. And what Centora saw unfolding in front of her could only be described as barely contained chaos.

Clumsily flying around in the air, a blue haired child with wings for arms and scaled, clawed legs held a head in her talons. While this might cause any sane parent to worry about where the head came from, they would likely faint from shock seeing the very decapitated head talking to the young girl who held it in the air, as well as her decapitated body chasing after the flying child.

Said talking head was Duibhe Kurusu, the second youngest child in the Kurusu household at five years old. While anyone else would not be able to have their head decapitated and survive, Duibhe, her older sister Brea, and her mother Lala, all belonged to the heteromorph species known as a Dullahan. Their black sclera, pale hair, and blue skin made a Dullahan seem otherworldly, and many thought they were ghosts or grim reapers. This reputation wasn’t helped with their heads being able to detach from their bodies, and both continuing to function without trouble. In actuality, no Dullahan had power over life and death, merely possessing a heteromorphic quirk that allows their head to detach from their body without issue.

Bapi Kurusu, the young Harpy girl, was the youngest of the Kurusu household at three years old. As a Harpy heteromorph species, Bapi’s arms were replaced with feathered wings, and her feet with scaled talons, with the scales reaching up to her mid thighs. Her flight feathers had only recently grown in, and she spent almost every waking moment flying around the mansion. The exception to this rule was making his way over now.

Even after the years Centorea and her fellow sister-wives had been with Kimihito, his appearance had hardly changed from the day she first met her husband-to-be when they were teens. His black hair was as messy as ever, no amount of product could tame it for long, and his warm brown eyes looked at his daughters with abundant care. He had bulked up over the years, still having a lean figure, but his exposed forearms were defined and taut, a result of carrying his many children to bed when they fell asleep on the couch or in the car. His regeneration quirk allowed him to push his body to the limit, granting him greater strength than an ordinary man, and enabling him the ability to carry his children whose quirks caused them to weigh much more than an ordinary child.

“Come on, Bapi,” Kimihito, the husband of Centorea and father of both Duibhe and Bapi, gently scolded, walking over to the pair of heteromorphs, “let go of your sister’s head. I’m making pancakes, but only good girls get pancakes.”

He wore a white apron over a black tshirt, and the small patches of flour on his arms showed that he was in the middle of his morning ritual of making a large breakfast for his family of nineteen.
Bapi gasped, quickly dropping her sister’s head which was caught by her body, and Bapi flew over to her father, a smile on her face.

“Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes!” she cheered, latching onto her father’s back and nuzzling in close.

Kimihito chuckled at his youngest child’s antics before turning back to his second youngest.

“Duibhe, do you want pancakes as well?”

The Dullahan child nodded, holding her father’s hand and walking beside him to the kitchen, quietly humming along to the song that Bapi was singing.

The other conversation that Centorea stumbled upon drew her attention. Fíóri and Fíos Kurusu, the Lamia twins, third and fourth youngest of the household, were staring up at Sarah Kurusu, Centorea’s only child, with pleading eyes. The twins were nearly identical in appearance, with the only differences being their clothes and hairstyle, with both siblings having scarlet hair and amber eyes.

Fíóri, the older sister of the twins by minutes, wore her hair flowing down her back, using hairclips of snakes to keep her hair out of her eyes. Fíos, the younger brother, had his hair cut short, with the sides only barely reaching his ears. As members of the Lamia heteromorph species, both siblings had the lower half of a snake, with their scales being a similar colour of red as their hair. Their ears were pointed and scaled, and they were surprisingly tall for six-year-old children, often raising themselves up with their tail to make them seem taller.

Sarah, the object of their pleading, was a splitting image of Centorea, her mother. She had long, blond hair tied up in a ponytail, and much to her mother’s private pride, had a similarly impressive figure that filled out her white school uniform. She was Centorea’s pride and joy, not only because of her caring nature, but also because she was the eldest child of the Kurusu household at fourteen years old, making her Kimihito’s first-born. Said pride and joy turned her attention away from keeping an eye on her youngest siblings, and it was only then that she noticed her mother standing at the front door, watching the chaos unfold.

“Mother, you’re home,” Sarah greeted, drawing the twins' attention. “Can you please tell Fíóri and Fíos that they can’t have a ride today?”

““No!”” the twins pleaded, now looking at Centorea with pleading puppy dog eyes. ““Please Aunty Rea, tell Sarah to play with us!””

Centorea smiled at the twins’ pleading, walking over and patting them on the head. “Sarah needs to go I’m afraid, so she’ll have to play with you some other time.”

Tears welled in the twins’ eyes, threatening to spill.

“However,” Centorea added, “while Sarah needs to go, I can play with you for a moment.”

““Yay!”” The twins cheered, climbing up onto Centorea’s back and wrapping their tails around her equine torso for stability.

Should anyone else try to do what her step-children were doing, Centorea would buck them off, give them a very stern scolding, and maybe give them a stomp for good measure. Within Centaur culture that had developed over the past centuries, someone riding on a Centaur’s back without permission was akin to assault. It was only due to Fíóri and Fíos being family that Centorea allowed it to pass.

Walking into the dining room and ignoring Fíóri and Fíos’ urges for her to go faster, Centorea walked into the sight of Kimihito serving up breakfast to the members of the household who were still here. Around the table sat the rest of Kimihito's children as well as three of Centorea's sister-wives. Meroune, the second oldest adult of the household at thirty-nine years old, even if she looked years younger, sat next to her only son, Eric Kurusu, the fourth oldest child at fourteen. Meroune was clothed in her typical gothic lolita dress with a seashell designed barrette adorning her head. Given her clothing choice for the morning, Centorea guessed she had a court case to attend soon, as usually the pinkette would simply dress in a bikini when in the privacy of their home.

Her son sat next to her dressed in a similarly formal white uniform and a long skirt covered him from below the torso. Like Fíóri and Fíos, Eric had scarlet hair, a stark contrast to his mother's pastel pink.

Rather than sitting in chairs like the rest of the household, Meroune and her son sat in wheelchairs, with the table designed so that the mother and son would be able to eat without trouble. This was because both were Merfolk heteromorphs, a heteromorph species just as old as the Centaurs. The species possessed gills on their waists that allowed them to breathe underwater, as well as powerful fish tails below their waists that allowed for swimming underwater.

Both mother and son ate at the table with a refined poise, cutting up small pieces of their pancakes and eating without making any mess. Even after all these years Centorea had known her friend, she still had the urge in the back of her mind to bend the knee to Meroune, and in recent years to her son as well. Centorea pinned the blame on her Centaur heritage, one that taught their children to prioritise nobility and honour, as well as the air of royalty that both Merfolk gave off. This was due to Meroune being the daughter of the current queen of Oceanis, a city located within the Pacific Ocean that many with aquatic quirks called home.

Across the table sat Papi, the mother of Bapi who was still clinging onto her father’s back, as well as Papi’s eldest child and only son, Hapi, the sixth oldest, also fourteen. All three were Harpies, with Papi and her daughter having light blue hair colouring and matching feather colours, whereas Hapi had dark blue feathers and hair. Both mother and daughter were as excited as ever, with Bapi nuzzling into her father’s neck as he served pancakes and Papi eagerly eating her meal, still as energetic at thirty-seven as she was when they first met many years ago. Hapi, on the other hand, ate quietly, wearing a stern expression on his face. It never ceased to amuse Centorea how Papi’s eldest was so different to his mother and little sister, preferring to spend his time reading inside rather than playing outdoors.

Hapi sat at the table dressed in a uniform similar to his half-brother Eric, both wearing the school uniform of Somei Private Academy, the school that the Kurusu household sent their children. Hapi’s uniform had been altered, same as Eric’s, as it didn’t have any sleeves, allowing for his wings to be unobstructed. While most families would struggle to send two of their children, let alone eleven, to a wealthy private academy, the Kurusu household had no such issues. With there being seven sources of income, money was never an issue.

Papi, on the other hand, was already dressed in her police uniform. Due to the ever changing rosters of which officer was scheduled for the dreaded early morning shift, Papi made the most of the time she could have breakfast with her family and children. Even then, should Papi have a shift that prevented her from having breakfast with everyone else, she would often drag her father, the Chief of Police for Asaka City, to the Kurusu household after work for dinner, as well as her mother, if she was ever in the area.

Sitting next to Hapi was Kuu Kurusu, the only daughter of Suu, and seventh oldest child of the household at fourteen. Like her mother, Kuu had blue, translucent skin, with three tendrils growing from her head, one that acted like an ahoge on the top of her head, and two that stretched down over her shoulders, reaching to waist height.

Both mother and daughter belonged to the Blue Slime heteromorph species, one of the youngest and strangest heteromorph species recorded. Kuu and her mother were the only members of their kind, and it was Kuu’s birth that confirmed that Suu belonged to a heteromorph species, rather than simply possessing a mutation quirk. They, along with the four other Slime heteromorph species, didn’t possess internal organs, and required only liquids to maintain their semi-liquid form. Much was still being discovered about the Slime species, especially with Suu’s rise to fame as a world-class film star, due to her ability to manipulate her appearance, giving her shapeshifting abilities and allowing her to take on any role. What was known about the species was their incredible durability, due to there not being any internal organs to damage, their vulnerability to large bodies of water that would dilute them to the point of death, and the fact that every Slime species descended from Undine, a member of the now disbanded Four Cardinals, an international hero team.

Much like how Papi and Suu were the closest of friends, their eldest children Kuu and Hapi had a similar bond, often spending their time hanging out together, and occasionally Hapi would fly Kuu around in a plastic bucket, allowing her to see the world from a bird’s, or Harpy’s, eye view.

The final mother and child pair at the table was Miia, the mother of Fíóri and Fíos, as well as her eldest daughter, Lami Kurusu, the second oldest child. Like her siblings, Lami had red hair and scales, though her hair was much longer than her sister’s, reaching down to her waist. Unlike her younger siblings’ abundant energy, Lami was a shy girl, preferring to stay with her close friends instead of trying to make new ones. Half of her face was covered by hair, causing only her right eye to be exposed.

Miia, the mother of the three Lamias, and self-proclaimed first wife of Kimihito, differed from her children in that she had pink hair and scales, though more of a hot pink than the pastel pink that Meroune had. Scattered around her plate, Miia was going over various papers and planning guides, getting herself ready for another day of teaching at Somei Academy as one of their P.E. teachers.

Sitting across from her were Duibhe and her older sister, Brea, the fifth oldest child. Both Dullahans had similar hairstyles to Lala, their mother, with their pale hair hanging loose over their back and shoulders, as well as the long cowlick that both mother and daughters seemed to have. What differed between the two sisters was their clothing. Whereas both were dressed in their uniforms, Duibhe’s being different due to her being at elementary level, Brea was fond of mysterious accessories that she wore, such as a single eyepatch, black chokers or fingerless gloves. Like her mother, Brea had an eccentric personality, but despite this she was well-liked around the academy for her diligence and hardworking nature, even if her choice of words was often found to be strange.

Duibhe on the other hand didn’t share in her mother and sister’s eccentricities, more focused on the medicinal and material than spiritual and ethereal. It was her dream to be a doctor, just like her mother was a doctor at the Asaka City Hospital. While she was still too young to read any of the necessary journals and science books on medicine and biology, Duibhe had a keen mind for memorising facts, and loved to read about different mutation quirks and heteromorph species, each with their own medical needs.

The Lamia mother looked up at Centorea as she walked over, the two mothers smiling at each other. While everyone of Kimihito’s wives got along well enough, Centorea and Miia were especially close, viewing each other as their dearest friend. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination that Centorea, as an only child, viewed Miia as a sister, and Miia, despite having many full-blooded and half-blooded siblings, came to view Centorea in the same manner. It helped that both Centorea and Miia were close in age, being thirty-nine and thirty-eight respectively.

“Good morning, Centorea,” Miia greeted, raising a cup of coffee in her hand. “How was the run?”

“Fine, as usual,” Centorea shrugged, Fíóri and Fíos unwinding off of her and sliding over to take a seat next to their big sister. Centorea herself sat on a cushion placed on the floor, folding her legs underneath her so she could eat at the table without worrying about the hassle of using a chair with her unique physique. Seeing that Kimihito had already placed a plate of pancakes laden with fruits and syrup, she gave a quick prayer of thanks before digging in, intent on regaining the energy she had expended on her run, all the while making small talk with her family.

Looking around the large table as she ate, Centorea took note of those who were absent, but more specifically those who were absent without reason.

“Husband,” Centorea asked, catching Kimihito’s attention as she looked around the dining room, “I know that Lala had an night shift at the hospital and will be home soon, and Suu is currently in Spain for the filming of some spy thriller, but where is Rachnera and Kórinis?”

“I’m here, Aunt Cerea,” a tired voice answered from behind. Centorea turned her head to the side, seeing the third oldest child, Kórinis, shamble into the dining room, her eight spider legs supporting her as she rubbed sleep out of her six red eyes.

Like her mother, Kórinis was an Arachne, a heteromorph species that were similar to Centaurs and Lamia in the sense that they too had a human-like upper half and an animal lower half at the waist, that of a spider. While the Centaur species had a human upper half, the Arachne species, like the Lamia species, had a human-like upper half, with slight mutations that set them apart. For Kórinis and her mother, notable features were their multiple eyes, six in total, which were a solid red colour, lacking sclera or pupils. They also possessed an exoskeleton over their arms and hands, stretching up to the forearm, made out of a light, but durable and sharp material.

Like her siblings, Kórinis was dressed in her modified school uniform, the differences being the skirt she wore only needing to cover her crotch due to her unique physiology, as well as the long sleeves and gloves that she wore to prevent people cutting themselves on her chitinous arms.

“Did Sarah already head off?” Kórinis asked with a yawn, sitting down at her spot at the table near Centorea, cutting into her own meal of pancakes, laden with meats and other high protein foods required for her spinnerets to produce silk.

“Yes, apparently she and young Tenya had a meeting with the student council this morning as part of their duties of being President and Vice-President of their class,” Centorea answered, controlling her expression to prevent her face from screwing up at the smell of cooked meat nearby. Her herbivorous nature as a Centaur gave her an incredible sense of smell, and unfortunately a distaste for meat.

“So she and Glasses are going to help organise the Sport Festival for Somei? I’m sure Glasses will be real cooperative with that, half of what he suggests will be through hand chops,” Kórinis muttered sarcastically, absentmindedly chewing her food.

Centorea simply chuckled at her step-daughter’s remark. She knew all too well what her protoge’s younger brother was like, as well as his tick of chopping his hands through the air whenever he was serious.

“Where is your mother by the way?” Centorea asked, looking back at the room's entrance.

“She was still asleep when I checked in on her,” Kórinis replied, rolling her eyes. “Must be lucky to be able to work from home.”

Kórinis sighed, leaning back onto her arachnid lower half. “Don’t worry, she probably won't be up for a few hours anyway, so we can all enjoy breakfast without any remarks being thrown across me.”

Centorea winced, her poor relationship between her and Rachnera, Kórinis’ mother, being a fact she wasn’t proud of. Despite their relationship improving over the years, especially compared to when they first met as students staying at Kimihito’s parent’s house as homestays, Centorea would describe her relationship with the Arachne mother as cool at the best of times. Rachnera, the oldest in the house at thirty-nine years old, only two months older than Meroune, was Centorea’s polar opposite. Where she was dignified and sophisticated, Rachnera’s daily attire could only be described as lingerie with how much skin it showed off. Where Centorea was a powerful fighter, Rachnera relied on stealth and attacking when you were unaware. Even in the bedroom, Centorea was firmly attracted only to Kimihito, whereas Rachnera was openly eager to have her way with any of her sister-wives whenever Kimihito was busy.

Ironically, their daughters were the closest of friends, enjoying each other's company more than anyone else. Whenever they were able to, Centorea would often see them together, enjoying music, sparring somewhere on the Kurusu mansion property, or studying together. They both were planning to apply for U.A. High School, with Sarah confiding in her mother that she hoped to be placed in the same class as her half-sister. It truly was an ironic fact.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

The mansion was quiet now. All of the children had been driven to school, leaving Centorea, Kimihito and Bapi alone in the household. As Centorea strapped down the last pieces of her suit of armour, she went over one more time the route that she had planned to patrol. Unlike most Pro Heroes who had an office and patrolled in a fixed area, Centorea was more open in her patrol routes. Thanks to her Centaur biology, not only was she fast enough to keep up with cars and vehicles, but her stamina and endurance meant that her effective area of coverage consisted of the majority of the Kanto region. While she wasn’t the only hero to have such an area they patrolled, immediate examples that came to mind were Miruko, a fellow heteromorph hero who travelled the country, and her own protege Ingenium, who operated throughout the Greater Tokyo Area with his team, it was certainly a feature that set her apart from more local heroes, and in a world where popularity was equally as important as results, it did help her ratings.

Equipping the last of her gear, consisting of pulling her ponytail through the gap at the top of her helmet and sheathing her sword, Centorea made her way downstairs, going through her checklist one final time.

“Husband,” Centorea called out, poking her head into the living room, “I’ll be off now. I likely won’t be home until dinner, so make sure that all of the young ones do their homework before I am home.”

“I know, Centorea, don’t worry,” Kimihito smiled, turning his attention away from the drawing he and Bapi were making. “I know I don’t need to say it, but be safe. We’re having curry tonight.”

Centorea visibly perked up at the notice of the dinner plan, though anything her husband cooked was simply unmatched. Not only was he an excellent chef, cook and baker, but he always kept in mind the various dietary requirements of his many wives and children.

‘Truly I am the luckiest woman to have found a husband such as him,’ Centorea gushed, her blush hidden behind her helm.

“Centorea?” Kimihito asked, unsure why she was just standing there.

“A-anyway,” Centorea stammered, embarrassed she had gotten so lost in her thoughts, “I’m heading off now. See you soon.”

“See you soon,” Kimihito farewelled, with young Bapi waving energetically.

“Bye-bye Aunty Rea.”

Emerging onto the sidewalk outside the mansion property, Centorea started to pick up speed as she moved, until she broke into a gallop, stepping onto the road and following it, keeping an ear out for any trouble that she needed to resolve.

It was many hours later that Centorea decided to take a break. She had decided to stop by a cafe in the Shizuoka Prefecture, having already travelled through both the Saitama and Yamanashi Prefectures during her patrol. School had finished roughly half an hour ago, so there were many students who were either walking home or chatting with their friends.

Centorea still had her armour on, minus the helmet, so many were giving her looks of admiration as she quietly sipped her tea outside the store.

‘I must really come back here,’ Centorea mused to herself. ‘This cafe brews tea that is simply heavenly.’

After finishing her drink, Centorea tucked her helmet under her arm, picked up her cup and saucer in her other hand, and walked back into the cafe. The inside was empty of customers, the only ones inside being the store owner and one other employee.

“I must say,” Centorea began, walking over to the counter and gently placing both cup and saucer down, “that tea was simply magnificent. You are truly talented in the art of tea brewing.”

“Oh, you flatter me,” the store owner said, shaking his head. “I have simply gained the talent from my own love of tea. It’s nothing special, truly.”

The owner was a short, portly man with a grey beard and a receding hairline tied up into a top knot. His clothing was a red traditional kimono with a yellow undershirt, and his amber eyes were filled with mirth.

“Don’t listen to Uncle,” said the store employee, a teenager with black hair and his uncle’s eyes. “He brews the best tea in all of Kanto, maybe even in all of Japan.”

“Then the best tea brewer in all of the Kanto region should make sure you can brew a good cup of tea, dear nephew,” the store owner chuckled. “If you really want to impress that girlfriend of yours, you’ll need to do more than make warm leaf water. What was her name again, Jean?”

“It’s Jin, Uncle, and she isn’t my girlfriend, just a classmate,” the nephew hurriedly corrected with a slight blush. “And please, don’t talk about my personal life in front of the customers, it’s unprofessional.”

“Bah,” the owner dismissed, turning his attention back to Centorea. He placed a hand next to his mouth, speaking in a stage whisper. “My nephew has a classmate at U.A., and despite what he tells me, I’m certain that there is the spark of romance between them.”

“Uncle!” the nephew fumed, while Centorea simply chuckled.

“Children do have a tendency to want to keep a few secrets here and there, but there’s nothing wrong with that,” Centorea smiled, before turning to the teen. “What do your parents think about it? I met my husband when I was about your age, and started dating him the same year. My mother was up in arms over it, and it certainly didn’t help that she was back home in England while I was here as an exchange student.”

“I’m sure his mother would be fine with it if she found out, and his sister would likely tease him to no end, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my brother didn’t know, even if those two started dating,” the owner scoffed. “He is too absorbed in his work, to the point where he barely has time for his own family. But enough about my nephew. You have my thanks for enjoying my tea, it is all I can ask of my customers.”

“You are most welcome,” Centorea said, lightly bowing her head. She turned to leave before pausing, a detail that was mentioned in the conversation coming to the forefront of her mind.

“Do you attend U.A.?” she asked the owner’s nephew.

“Yes, that’s correct,” he answered.

“Which course are you in? Heroics, General Studies, Support or Business?”

“I’m in Heroics, class 1-B. Why do you ask?”

“U.A was my alma mater,” Centorea smiled, “so it’s always nice to see those who follow a similar path. My daughter and her sister will be competing in the entrance exam next year, and I have full faith they both will pass.”

“Are one of them from a previous marriage of yours?” the uncle asked. “I don’t mean to be rude, just that a man must be blind and deaf to wish to divorce a woman as lovely in appearance, voice and manners as you.”

“No, but thank you for the compliment,” Centorea smiled. “If anything, I’m the lucky one to have the husband I do. My daughter’s sister is simply the child of another woman. Even though she and I don’t get along, our children get along tremendously.”

She was going to say more, but the sound of an explosion echoed out in the distance, causing all three present inside the shop to turn towards the direction of the noise.

“Well, I think that is my que to leave,” Centorea said, her smile that she had worn throughout the conversation now gone, replaced with a calm determination befitting of a hero as she put back on her helmet.

“I thank you again for that excellent tea, sir. I’ll be sure to come back soon. And good luck on your studies, young man.”

Both bowed their thanks as Centorea briskly trotted out of the shop, quickly speeding up as her nose, which had a sense of smell a thousand times stronger than that of a human, picked up the acrid scent of smoke. Weaving through traffic that had come to a stand still, Centorea saw a gathering of civilians around where the smoke and fires seemed to be coming from.

‘What are they thinking?’ Centorea scowled, annoyed but the consistent reckless curiosity of civilians. ‘Don’t they know how dangerous it is?’

“Get back here, you fool! Stop!”

Centorea’s gaze snapped over to where the shout came from. Through a gap in the crowd, she saw Death Arms, a local hero, try to stop a middle schooler from running into the danger zone. Despite what was happening, none of the other Pros present seemed to be rushing after the child.

‘Cowards,’ Cenotrea scowled as she tried to force her way through the mob of people. ‘Simply because their quirks aren’t suited for the situation means they can stand back and wait? How disgraceful.’

The boy had already reached the centre of the disturbance, a villain composed of some kind of sludge, while Centorea had only managed to force herself halfway through the crowd.

‘I’m not going to make it,’ Centorea shouted in her mind. ‘Why won’t these people just disperse?’

She saw the villain move to strike the kid who had been clawing at its body. Centorea gasped, fearing the worst, before a blond blur sped out of the crowd, grabbing the boy’s arm and pulling him away from the villain.

“All Might,” Centorea whispered, seeing the highly muscled form of the Symbol of Peace and No. 1 ranked hero of Japan.

“A Pro should always be prepared to risk his life!” he shouted, swinging his fist down on the villain. “Detroit Smash!”

The force of the blow sent air pressure rushing outwards, causing many to flinch and cry out in shock. Centorea simply lowered her upper body, leaning into the air pressure to stay upright. As the wind subsided, a droplet of water fell onto the concrete, then another, before a light shower of rain started to fall on the crowd.

“He changed the weather with a single punch!” exclaimed someone in the crowd. Soon more and more people were cheering All Might’s efforts, with the reporters doing their best to get as many quality shots as possible.

“Still as amazing as ever,” Centorea whispered aloud, amazed by the display of strength. As the crowd started to disperse and reporters crowded All Might, Centorea saw people crowding another middle schooler who wore the same uniform as the boy who ran towards the villain, presumably a hostage the villain had taken. The other Pros, meanwhile, had started berating the brave middle schooler who had rushed to his classmate’s rescue. Barely suppressing a growl, Centorea forced her way through the crowd, deciding to make her presence known.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Do you realise how dangerous that was?!” Death Arms scolded Izuku, who simply hung his head in shame as he sat on the concrete floor. The Pro Hero’s square faced expression was utterly furious, his large, signature arms almost shaking in anger. “There was absolutely no need for you to put yourself in danger!”

“I’m sorry, Death Arms,” Izuku apologised quietly. “I don’t know what I was thinking. One moment I saw Kacchan in that villain, then the next my legs were moving on their own.”

Around them, various heroes and police officers were collecting the scattered parts of the Sludge Villain or helping to move debris and rubble that the villain had created.

“That’s no excuse to do such a reckless action,” another Pro Hero, Slugger, said, chastising Izuku. “Leave such things to the Pros.” Slugger’s hero costume covered his face, but his body’s movement showed that he was also disappointed in Izuku’s decision.

“Exactly,” Death Arms agreed, nodding at his colleague's statement. “If you had simply waited for a moment, us Pros would have handled the situation without you needing to risk your life.”

“Is that so?”

The two Pros and Izuku turned to where the feminine metallic voice came from. Making her way over was an armoured figure who seemed to have come straight out of a fairytale, her full body armour and sword strapped to her waist giving her the appearance of a knight of old. Izuku noticed the equine legs that the female knight walked on, and leaning his head to the side Izuku saw that from her torso was a horse’s body.

‘A Centaur heteromorph,’ Izuku thought.

“You want to know what I saw?” the knight continued, walking up to Death Arms and Slugger, the former being slightly taller than the Centaur while the latter was much shorter. “I saw Pros standing about doing nothing as a villain held a child hostage, waiting and praying for someone else to do your job for you.”

She tilted her head, her voice coming out condescendingly. “How does it feel for this child that you are berating to have done more than licensed heroes?”

“Who do you think you are, huh?” Death Arms shouted, his face close to the Centaur’s helmet and his loud voice gaining the attention of those nearby. “What makes you think you can tell us Pros what we should have done?”

“You’re Cavalry,” Izuku said aloud, his voice getting louder and louder from excitement. “You’re the Knight Hero: Cavalry, the No. 103 ranked Pro Hero. You don’t have an office either, instead you operate across the entire Kanto region.”

“Your knowledge of me is quite impressive,” Cavalry said, causing Izuku to blush at the praise. Moving around Death Arms, Cavalry bent her knees, lowering herself closer to Izuku’s level. She held out her hand, and in it was his damaged ‘Hero Analysis No. 13’ notebook.

“I saw that you had thrown this along with your school bag at the villain,” Cavalry explained as Izuku gently took hold of his singed, waterlogged notebook. “I must say, what you have written there is very impressive. Are you simply a fan, or taking notes for the future?”

“F-for the future,” Izuku stammered, internally debating whether or not he should tell Cavalry about his dream. From the research he had done around her, she was a very popular hero with those who held more traditionalist views on heroism. He’d also seen her work in team ups with many other heroes, even with Endeavor, the No. 2 hero in Japan.

“I w-want to be a hero, and I’ve applied for the U.A. Entrance Exam in February, but, um,” Izuku hesitated, looking to see who was around. Both Death Arms and Slugger had both wandered off, with Death Arms giving Cavalry a glare as he left. All Might was still in his muscle form nearby, but he was surrounded by the press. Other than that, no one would be able to hear him when he spoke to Cavalry, so Izuku took a leap of faith. “I, I want to be a hero, but I don’t have a quirk.”

He shut his eyes, looking down at the ground. He wasn’t sure what kind of reaction he was expecting from her. Maybe she’d laugh at his dreams, point out the logic of the impossibility like All Might had, or maybe offer hollow words of encouragement. Izuku wasn’t sure which he dreaded the most.

Cavalry, instead of choosing options A, B, or C, chose a fourth option.

“My goodness,” she gasped, bringing a hand to where her mouth would be underneath her helmet, “even though you don’t have a quirk, you still leapt in to save that boy?”

Izuku simply nodded, not expecting this result.

Cavalry hesitated for a moment, before reaching her hands up to her helmet. Pulling it up and pulling her long mane of hair out through the exit at the top of the helmet, Izuku blushed as he saw her face. He wouldn’t be lying to say that she could easily run for a spot for the most beautiful Pro Hero in all of Japan. So little was known about her personal life, though there were many theories about her. There were the occasional photos that the press had managed to capture, but they were always from an angle, never up close.

Her long, blonde hair and bright blue eyes immediately made her stand out from those that Izuku knew, even in a world of quirks that could change hair and eye colour. Her equine ears stood out to the side, twitching occasionally as they likely picked up sounds Izuku couldn’t hear.

“To perform such a selfless act without having a quirk is truly commendable,” she continued, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts. “People often forget these days that being a hero isn’t about the product placements, the flashy moves, or the, ugh, skimpy costumes, but about helping others without expecting anything in return.

“But being a hero without a quirk will be difficult, there is no denying that. I will not lie to you, young man, without a quirk it is impossible to rank within the top 10, maybe not even within the top 100.”

Izuku hung his head. He knew that was true, and her words did hurt, but at least she had gone about it in a different way to most.

“That being said,” Cavalry continued, “with analysis skills like that, you could come to be in high demand. You could figure out the best ways for Pros to utilise their quirks in team ups, and you could even diversify your research by analysing the abilities and quirks of villains, and figure out their weaknesses and strategies to beat them.”

Izuku looked at Cavalry with awe and wonder in his eyes. No one had ever seen his analysis skills as hero worthy, yet now a Pro saw it as his ticket as a hero.

“You really mean it?” Izuku asked. “You really think I could be a hero?”

“Maybe,” Cavalry cautioned, only slightly dampening Izuku’s spirits. “To be honest, I don’t think that you could ever become a Pro without a quirk. It’s suicidal, and you’ll either go bankrupt from debt or die to a villain who strategy alone can’t beat. But as a sidekick or tactician that heroes can rely on? Absolutely.”

She reached into a side satchel, pulling out a notebook and pen. Quickly scribbling something down, she handed it over to Izuku, who saw it was a phone number.

“If you get into U.A., give me a call. My daughter and her sister are planning to attend as well, so if you get in, you’ll likely see them in the hero course. Do well enough at U.A., and I’ll try to pull some strings and get some people in contact with you.”

Cavalry lowered her helmet back on, her voice once again gaining a metallic tone. “You can be a hero, young child. You may never be popular, or rich, or successful. If you choose this path, it will not be easy. But, then again,” she chuckled, “very few worthwhile things in this life ever are. Farewell, young…”

“Oh, Midoriya, Izuku Midoriya.”

“Very well, farewell, young Midoriya. I pray for good fortune in your endeavours.”

Cavalry started to walk away, and while Izuku knew he had taken up more than enough of her time, he wanted one last thing. “Um, Cavalry?”

“Yes?” she asked, turning her body slightly.

Izuku bowed low at the waist, holding his notebook in outstretched arms. “Please, can I get your autograph on your page?”

Cavalry chuckled, and Izuku could feel the pressure on the pages as something was written. Looking up, he saw that in an empty portion of Cavalry’s info page was a stylish, cursive signature.

Izuku beamed, holding his notebook that had gained even more value to his chest as Cavalry walked off, picking up speed as she stepped onto the road, moving out of sight. Izuku sighed, knowing his mother was probably worried sick. But even though it had only been one person who had believed in Izuku’s dream of becoming a hero, his heart was clearer and more determined in his goal than ever before. As he set off home, he was also secretly glad that no one had been around to hear his conversation.

Unbeknownst to Izuku, he had forgotten All Might had been nearby, and even as he was surrounded by the journalists all vying for his attention, he had overheard the conversation that Cavalry had had with the young man. All Might’s expression slightly changed, unnoticed by anyone, as he grimaced internally. There was a child who had been looked down upon his entire life for having a dream, yet everyone had shot it down, All Might included. Yet one hero had seen the potential. All Might knew that Cavalry was right, Izuku’s analytical skills were beyond impressive, that much he had seen when he had taken a look at young Midoriya’s journal after saving him from the Sludge Villain earlier in the day.

‘I’ve got to make this right,’ All Might promised himself, using his practised techniques of distracting the paparazzi to slip away. ‘I’ve made up my mind. He leapt into danger without realising it, and his analytical skills must be nurtured. Most importantly, he has the heart of a true hero. He’ll make an excellent holder of One For All.’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As Katsuki Bakugo made his way home, kicking a can that had gotten in his way down the street, he reflected on the hectic events that had just happened. He, the future No. 1 Pro Hero, had been held hostage by a shitty villain, and he had been helpless. It infuriated him to no end, the feeling of his body no longer being under control, his quirk that he put so much training and effort into being at someone else's disposal.

But the most humiliating thing was that it hadn’t been any of the Pros at the scene who had rescued him, not that he needed their help, but instead it had been that useless bastard, Deku. A scrawny, weak, cowardly quirkless had been the first to try and save him. Not Death Arms with his super strength. Not Backdraft with his water cannons. Not Mt. Lady with her large, uh, fists. Not even Kamui Woods, someone who many extras in class and online thought was going to secure a spot in the Top Tens at the next hero ratings. None of them had tried, but Deku had.

“That Centaur lady was right,” Katsuki muttered, giving the abused can another solid kick, sending it tumbling and bouncing ahead of him. “Those shitty Pros were outdone by Deku of all fucking people. What pieces of shit.”

But thinking about that Centaur hero, he was pretty sure Deku had called her Cavalry, and what she had said caused Katsuki to pause. She wasn’t wrong. Deku, as much of a weak, useless, no effort person that he was, there was one thing that Katsuki would admit that the quirkless wimp was good at, and that was analysing quirks. Back when Deku hung around Katsuki and his friends, simply by seeing a quirk in action for a few moments he would be able to figure out how their quirks worked. If it wasn’t for the doctors confirming he was quirkless, Katsuki would be certain that Deku had some sort of intelligence boosting quirk. Instead, it was his refined talent in quirk analysis that made him as good as he was.

“If only that shit put as much effort into working out and getting into shape as he did with studying quirks, maybe I wouldn’t need to put him in his place as much. He might even be worth having around,” Katsuki growled.

His issue with Deku wasn’t just that he was quirkless, though that was certainly part of it, a quirkless person could never compete with someone with a quirk nine times out of ten, thinking otherwise was simply insulting. No, the issue Katsuki had with Deku was his obsession with quirks. It was all the shitty nerd did. He never put any effort into his physical capabilities, only his mental. What use was a hero if they were as tough as wet paper? All it took was one hit and they were dead. That was something that shitty Deku just couldn’t understand. All the brains in the world didn’t matter if one hit was all it took for them to leak out of his head.

Katsuki would never admit it aloud, but he knew that he had been a little shit during the later years of elementary school. He had accepted a Darwinist mindset, where if someone was weak then they were worthless. It was why he allowed his friends to hang out with him. They weren’t as strong as he was, no question, but they could hold their own in a fight. That was something that Katsuki respected. But his basis of strength was entirely on someone’s quirk. That was why Deku was at the bottom, because he had drawn the genetic short straw, being born in a time when almost 90% of babies were born with quirks. His mindset shattered when he had watched a documentary about All Might’s glory days.

His name was Sir Nighteye, and he was All Might’s one and only sidekick. All Might’s. The strongest person in the world, and many would argue, Katsuki first amongst them, that he was also the most powerful Pro Hero of all time. And yet his sidekick didn’t have a strength quirk like All Might seemed to have, or any other powerful quirk. His quirk was weak, allowing him to see into someone’s future for an hour, and only once per day. Yet even with such a weak, seemingly useless quirk, All Might took him on as a sidekick out of anyone else. Katsuki couldn’t understand it, but after days of research online, he found out the reason. Sir Nighteye was a genius. He was regarded as the brains to All Might’s overwhelming brawn. And he wasn’t just smart, he was strong too. Not quirk-level strong, but peak human ability strong. He didn’t rest on his laurels, but strived to improve himself. That, above anything else, earned Sir Nighteye Katsuki’s private respect. The desire to go above and beyond, to push your limits and give your all to overcome the obstacle in front of you. That was what a hero was, and that was what Katsuki was. That wasn’t what Deku was. He didn’t push himself harder and harder in exercise. He consistently placed in the bottom quarter in their fitness exams at school. He didn’t train like Katsuki did, pushing his body until it screamed, and then pushing it some more for daring to give up so easily. Instead of accepting he was quirkless, Deku held onto the delusion that he was a late bloomer. Please. Late bloomers had their quirks appear before they went through puberty. Deku might be a spineless, scrawny wimp, but he wasn’t a child. And that made it all the more aggravating.

“Tch, and to think it was that damn Deku who was the first to try and save me.”

The experience simply showed Katsuki how much of an extra all of those Pros were, and how incredible All Might was. He ignored the treacherous part of his brain that thought that the experience had shown that Deku had a hero's heart, even if he didn’t have a hero's spine or body.

Speaking of which, Katsuki came to an intersection in the road, and to his right saw Deku walking home, his green mop of a haircut downcast as he moved.

“Hey, Deku,” Katsuki called out, catching his classmate’s attention. The greenet turned his gaze towards Katsuki, and his timid, scared rabbit of an expression caused words to spill from Katsuki’s mouth.

“I, I never asked you to save me!” he yelled. “As if you could! You, who always comes last in the fitness exams, you damn extra! Even if you did more than those Pro Hero extras, it doesn’t mean anything! Don’t you dare pity me, I could’ve beaten that sludge bastard myself! Put some effort into your fitness, and only then can you even TRY to help me! Until then, don’t you dare mock me, you stupid nerd!”

Katsuki spun around, turning his back on Deku and heading home. While people thought that his quirk was incredible because he had been born with it that way, it wasn’t even close to being the truth. Each explosion created recoil in his arms, which needed to be strengthened to handle the bigger ones. His quirk relied on him sweating, which meant exertion, which meant he had to have enough stamina to exert himself to the point of sweating, but still have enough energy to beat up the extra who had dared to stand in his way to the top. This forced him to create a workout regiment, and that sludge bastard had made him late.

‘Oh well,’ Katsuki thought, breaking into a jog. ‘I’ll just work out my frustrations by doing a more intense workout tonight. The U.A. Entrance Exam is in less than a year, and I’ll accept nothing less than the top spot.’

As Katsuki got closer to the Bakugo residence, the smell of spicy curry caused his pace to increase. As much as he and the Old Hag butted heads, they both agreed that Katsuki’s father made incredible curries, one of the few things Katsuki would openly praise his Old Man about.

‘That damn Deku had better start shaping up if he wants to get into U.A.,’ he thought as he closed the garden gate leading to the front door. ‘If U.A. allows a scrawny nerd like that into their hero course, I want no part of it.’

Opening the front door, Katsuki was greeted by the Old Hag yelling at him, demanding to know why he was late. Deciding to respond in a similar manner, all thoughts of Deku left his mind. After all, he had known him for years. What were the chances he would get off his arse and start working out now?

Chapter Text

February 26th. For many families, today was a day of nerves and anxiety, as across Japan countless students woke up, knowing that today was the day of their chosen highschool’s entrance exam. To combat the nerves, each had their own way of coping. Some performed the same morning rituals that they always had. Others woke up to supportive parents who had prepared a special meal for their children. Others tried praying to God, Buddha, the spirits, or their ancestors for aid and guidance.

In the Kurusu household manor, two daughters of Kimihito Kurusu, Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, were simply trying to get out the door.

“Are you gonna be heroes?”

“Please be safe at the entrance exam.”

““Can we come with you?””

Sarah and her half-sister looked at each other with a wavering smile on their faces, unsure how to proceed with the combined might of their youngest siblings blocking the front door with their bodies. Bapi, Duibhe, and the twins Fíóri and Fíos each were pelting the hero aspirants with questions and well wishes. Sarah and Kórinis were each stronger than the four children combined, but they knew the protests their siblings would make if they did so.

“Kórinis and I will certainly try our best to become heroes,” Sarah said to Bapi, answering her question first. “Yes, Duibhe, we will do our best to be careful, and no, Fíóri and Fíos, you can’t come with us.”

The children’s reactions were varied, with Bapi cheering as she flapped in the air, Duibhe nodding in response and the twins both pleading in protest to join their older sisters.

“Now now, that’s enough, young ones,” a calming voice said, quieting all of the children, both preteens and teens alike. Rolling her wheelchair into the foyer, Meroune manoeuvred herself over, her calm, ever present expression smiling at the children of her friends. Due to her not having a client to represent in court today, she had opted to wear her usual black swimming bra with white frills. It was such a usual sight in the household that no one thought anything of it. 

“Sarah and Kórinis need to be off, it is 6:30 AM right now, the exam starts at 9 AM, and it takes a little over 2 hours to get there. You don’t want them to be late, do you?”

““““No, Aunty Mero,”””” the children chorused, reluctantly moving aside, allowing Sarah and Kórinis unimpeded access to outside.

“Very good, now you three,” Meroune said, turning to Duibhe, Fíóri and Fíos, “you still have school this morning, so run along, go have your breakfast and brush your teeth. Miia will be taking you to school in half an hour.” 

Duibhe ran off while Fíóri and Fíos slithered after her to eat their breakfast. Bapi, still not old enough to attend elementary school, flew off to find her father. Even though it was early in the morning, he always had fun things for them to do together.

Meroune turned her gaze back to the eldest and third born children, rolling over and adjusting each of their ties, black with white stripes.

“Are you both ready? Did you pack your lunch? What about water bottles, do you have those? Pens and pencils, you have packed those, right? Oh, and what about-”

“Aunt Mero, we’re fine,” Kórinis chuckled, gently placing her gloved hands on her aunt figure’s shoulders. “Sarah and I’ll be fine, we got this. We’ve been training for years now, against each other, Aunt Cerea, and, her.”

Both sisters shuddered as they remembered the drill sergeant that was Sarah’s grandmother.

Meroune lightly chuckled behind her hand. “Very well then. Before you go, allow me to bestow upon you both my best wishes. May you be fearless in the face of adversary, and may no foe prove your rival. May your minds be as sharp as a knife’s edge, and your strength endless like the sky. Go forth, and bring home victory for your house and family.”

Both sisters reacted differently; Sarah had stars in her eyes at her Aunt’s royal tone and bearing, while a sweatdrop rolled down Kórinis’ cheek, unsure how to react in the face of such dignity and poise.

“Ah, Sarah, Kórinis, I assume you both are ready to go?” Kimihito called out from across the foyer, Centorea and Rachnera walking on either side of him while Bapi hung onto her favourite perch, that being her father. While Centorea was already donned in her armour, ready to head out on an early morning patrol, Rachnera was still dressed in her nightly clothes, consisting of lacy underwear with a black and purple colour scheme. 

“Yep, let’s get going,” Kórinis said, latching onto the way out that her father had given her like a sailor clinging to wreckage.

“Not so fast,” Centorea said, walking over to her daughter and step-daughter, pulling both of them into a hug. “Words alone can’t begin to describe how proud I am of you two. To see you two girls attending U.A., well, I know you’ll do well.”

“Geeze, Aunt Cerea, we haven’t even taken the test yet, let alone know if we’ve passed,” Kórinis said, blushing at her Aunt’s praise and rubbing her bicep in embarrassment.

“Rachnera,” Centorea asked, turning to her Arachne sister-wife, “did you have anything you wanted to add?”

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” the older Arachne said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she gathered her thoughts. Opening her six eyes, Rachnera took a breath before walking over to her daughter. The mother and daughter Arachne simply looked each other in the eyes, before Rachnera surprised her daughter by also pulling her into a close embrace. Her pedipalps reached around, pulling Kórinis in close, holding her at two places.

Kórinis froze in shock. Her mother was never a touchy feely person with anyone except her father, and she was more likely to tease her daughter rather than praise her. But this feeling of warmth, of comfort and love, was unlike any Kórinis had felt when held by her Aunts.

“You were the second best thing to happen to me,” Rachnera murmured, her voice quiet in Kórinis’ ear. “When us girls found out that we were all pregnant, I’ll admit, I was terrified. I didn’t think I was cut out for motherhood. I lay awake almost every night, fearing that I would turn out like my own mother; cold, distant, absent.”

Rachnera pulled back, her eyes wet with emotion. “But when you were born, and Honey and I held you in our arms and saw you for the first time, I made a promise to myself. I would do everything in my power to love and care for you in ways I never got to experience.”

Kórinis didn’t respond, simply pulling her mother back in for another hug.

‘Mum and I are having two hugs on the same day,’ Kórinis thought to herself. ‘This is a weird day.’

The moment lasted a few seconds before Kórinis pulled back, realising what her mother had said.

“Wait, if I’m the second best thing to happen to you, then what was the first?”

Rachnera expression shifted, changing from the warm smile she had earlier to her typical teasing smirk. Extending an arm, a line of silk shot out of her spinnerets located on her wrist, yanking Kimihito over, pulling him into her side and resting his head on Rachnera’s chest.

“Why, meeting your father of course.”

But Rachnera’s teasing expression cooled, her gaze distant as she was lost in her memories.

“I…When your father and I first met, I wasn’t in a good space,” she explained. “Mentally, financially, socially. I was in the wrong crowds and doing the wrong sort of things. But most of all, I had this chip on my shoulder that I deserved more, and a deep hatred for humans.”

“Back then, heteromorph discrimination was pretty bad in Japan,” Kimihito added. “It often resulted in heteromorphs living on the fringes of society, or in the shadow of it.”

“If we hadn’t met, well, I probably would have ended up as some kind of villain or dreg of society,” Rachnera sighed, shaking her head. But she soon stopped, looking at her daughter with a warm, genuine smile. Pulling her into a third hug (this really was a record breaking day), Kimihito and Rachnera held her close in their arms.

“I’m grateful that you didn’t end up like I did,” Rachenra whispered. “Seeing you on your journey to becoming a hero fills me with pride, because I know that you’ll be a hero who can understand those who have been excluded by society.”

Rachnera pulled back, allowing Kimihito to hold onto their daughter as the older Arachne then turned to her step-daughter.

“Sarah,” she began, “I know I don’t need to say this, but take care of my daughter. The two of you are as thick as thieves. I know you both will do great things together.”

The two sisters beamed at the praise they had received, while Meroune quietly dabbed the corner of her eyes with a handkerchief as she watched.

“W-well, anyway, you both had best be off,” Rachnera stammered, more than a little embarrassed by the heartfelt praise she had given her daughter and step-daughter. “A hero is meant to arrive in the nick of time, so you can’t be late.”

Kórinis and Sarah both squared their shoulders, giving their mothers a firm nod.

““Right,”” they said simultaneously, ““we’re off.””

Getting themselves seated in one of the family vans, Kórinis and Sarah waved goodbye to their family, everyone seeing them off from the doorstep. All of their siblings were excited to hear what the U.A. Entrance Exam was like, with the youngest ones being the most energetic. Even Aunt Lala and Aunt Suu were present, making sure that their schedules allowed for them to see their step-daughters heading off. The only ones absent from the farewell group at the front door were their father, who was driving them, and Bapi, who sat sandwiched in between her elder two sisters due to her being homeschooled since she was too young.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Getting onto the motorway, Kimihito thought about the daily routine of dropping the kids off to school that he and Miia performed. While he did do it to spend more time with his many children, it was unfortunately true that it was safer to drive them there rather than having them catch the subway system. Most parents would be too busy to drive their children to school, but most parents weren’t a) a house husband like Kimihito was and b) the parent of eleven heteromorphic children. 

It was an unfortunate truth that despite all of the progress that had supposedly been made, he knew first hand from what details Meroune could tell him that discrimination against heteromorphs was still prevalent, it was simply hidden away. Teachers who had conveniently forgotten to report incidents of abuse against their heteromorph students, heteromorph employees being shortchanged by their employers. He had even heard horror stories about the treatment that some heteromorphs received out in the countryside, where mobs would form to drive them out, or worse. 

It wasn’t as bad as when Kimihito and his wives were teenagers so many years ago, where they could be mocked and insulted for their heteromorph features in public (the thought of that racist couple still made his blood boil), but it wasn’t as squeaky clean as the media liked to portray it. No, Kimihito would much rather spend a bit extra on fuel than have his children endangered.

“You know,” he began, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled in the car, “I don’t mind picking you two up from your classes. I know the Hero Course has an extra period of classes that end at 4 PM, but the distance really isn’t all that far.”

“Thank you for the offer, Father, but Kórinis and I can take the subway,” Sarah declined, looking up to look her father in the eyes through the rear view mirror. She and Kórinis were seated in the middle row of the van, with the seats designed to be altered to fit any body type, perfect for a family with heteromorphic quirks. Next to her, Kórinis was keeping Bapi occupied by helping her with a colouring in book, the two sisters engrossed in the slowly coloured image of the Pro Hero Endeavor.

“Are you sure?” Kimihito continued, not giving up on the issue. “Really, it isn’t a hassle. By the time I pick you and Kórinis up from school and get back home, it would be time for me to start cooking anyway. Miia can always bring the others to and from Somei with her, meaning I’d be able to give you a lift back. Besides, with that new Pro Hero, Helium 4, fuel costs have never been cheaper. Plus-”

“Dad, if you’re worried about us being in danger on the cart, come on, we’re going to be training to be Pro Heroes. It’s not exactly a safe profession.”

Kimihito didn’t respond to Kórinis’ reasoning, simply breathing evenly as he drove.

“Father, is this about that incident two years ago?” Sarah asked, leaning forward to rest a hand on her father’s shoulder. “You don’t need to worry, it won’t happen to us, we promise.”

That incident. The memories of it rushed through Kimihito’s mind. A Pan heteromorph student, only a year older than his elder children at the time, had gone missing in Asaka City. It was only after her parents had alerted the authorities and an investigation was undertaken that the truth behind her disappearance was revealed. 

The poor girl had been bullied relentlessly at her middle school, and despite the severity, the staff had done nothing about it. No punishments of the offenders, not even simply alerting the authorities. She had been followed home by her bullies, kidnapped, and assaulted. The investigation ended after two weeks when they found her body dumped in an abandoned warehouse, already decomposing.

Kimihito would gladly admit that he took great pleasure in watching his wife Meroune, the ever intelligent lawyer, rip into the teaching staff, ensure they and all students involved or complicit in the abuse, which was most of them, were charged with the severest possible sentence, and had a permanent black mark on their record. Seeing Endeavor torch the school in a fit of rage over the girl’s death was simply the cherry on top.

“Dad!”“Father!”

The simultaneous shouts of his eldest daughters snapped Kimihito out of his mind. Immediately he felt the pressure he was exerting on the steering wheel slacken, and pulling a hand away revealed that the wheel had warped and bent under his strength.

“Damn,” he chuckled out loud, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “And here I’d almost gone two years without bending the wheel.”

The two older sisters shared a worried glance. Bapi was looking at her three family members in confusion, not understanding what had happened, but knowing that it wasn’t something good. Placating her sister, Kórinis started brushing her hair, using her fingers as the teeth of a comb.

“Father,” Sarah started again, gently squeezing her father’s shoulder, trying to use the connection as a lifeline, “U.A isn’t like that school. The Principle is a staunch supporter of heteromorphs, Mother was a former student, and the staff are all diligent when it comes to punishing discrimination and bullying. We will be fine, I swear.”

Sarah had her own memories of those days. She and her similarly aged siblings were thirteen at the time, and seeing the fear and uncertainty each day the investigation went on made her scared. 

Aunt Papi had entered into a panic, refusing to let any of the children out of her sight and barely getting any sleep, always keeping her firearm on her. It was so bad that she only rested when her mother came home, who took it upon herself to keep an eye on her grandchildren.

Asaka City started a curfew soon after the disappearance was reported, and the police, headed by Aunt Papi’s father, patrolled endlessly. Aunt Papi herself headed out early in the morning and came home late at night, each time exhausted from a day of flying around the city to help in the search. 

Aunt Suu had immediately called her cousin when the missing persons report came in, causing Endeavor, No. 2 Pro Hero in Japan, to be one of the first heroes to join the investigation.

Her father did everything in his power to aid in the investigation; cooking for the police and heroes who were conducting the search, joining in the neighbourhood watches when they started, even offering up rooms and sleeping places in the Kurusu mansion for heroes who were from out of town.

Despite all of the efforts from her mother and aunts, Sarah and her siblings were still afraid.

The fear she felt was nothing compared to the fear that welled up within her when the Pan girl's fate was revealed. That day, Sarah learnt just how terrifying her father could be. His anger was different from her mother’s or her aunts. 

Mother shouted and raged when the news broke, immediately suiting up in her armour and deliberately choosing her bladed weapons, a fact not lost on young Sarah. 

Aunt Papi was at work when the news broke, but according to Aunt Papi’s father she had to be restrained at the police station to prevent her from flying off and going rogue, acting as a vigilante in her anger. 

Aunt Mero called all of her lawyer colleagues, convincing some to aid her in her prosecution case and threatening others to refuse to work for the school that was to blame.

Aunt Miia, Lala, Suu and Rachnera all behaved similarly, keeping an eye on their children, and doing their best to try to convince them that everything was fine, even when it wasn’t. 

But her father was, different, calm. He didn’t yell, or shout, or panic. He didn’t even raise his voice by an octave. But his eyes were cold and filled with rage, not allowing his anger to control or consume him, but to fuel him. Seeing that anger turn into glee as the sentence was passed for the staff members, and the glee turned into joy as he watched the school burn in the presence of an enraged Endeavor, that was what scared Sarah the most. The idea that her father would go to any lengths to protect his family, while comforting, also scared her a little.

Kimihito sighed, taking a hand off the wheel to place it over Sarah’s in a comforting gesture. “Look, I understand that you two can take care of yourselves. I mean, individually either of you are a powerhouse, but side by side? Yikes, I almost feel sorry for the idiot who picked on you. And yes, I understand that being a Pro will mean you’re running towards danger, rather than away from it. Your mother being a Pro has probably helped me come to terms with the danger you two will intentionally be putting yourselves in better than most parents. But it’s just that; I’m still your father. And an unfortunate requirement about being your father is that I worry for and care about you, even if it isn’t needed.”

Kórinis added her hand to the pile, causing her father’s hand to be held between her’s and her sister’s. “Don’t worry, Dad, we’ll be home in time for dinner every night. We’ll send you a text when we’re getting on the train and another two hours later when we’re getting off, promise.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Running up the hill to the U.A. campus, Izuku Midoriya, latest holder of the quirk One For All, jogged through the gates of U.A.

“I made it in time,” Izuku breathed. Ten months ago, before All Might had taken him under his wing and trained him with the ‘Pass the Test, American Dream’ plan, running up that hill would have made a fourteen year old Izuku breathless and gasping. Now, after all of the sweat and tears that Izuku had put into his training, it barely left fatigued at all.

After going above and beyond with clearing Takoba Municipal Beach of all of the trash that people had illegally dumped there, All Might had finally found Izuku worthy of inheriting his quirk. Looking back on the event that had occurred only hours earlier, Izuku felt overwhelming excitement over his lifelong dream of having a quirk fulfilled, even if the method was, unique.

‘I ate that hair, but did it really do anything?’ Izuku thought to himself as he followed the crowd of students all hoping to pass the Entrance Exam. ‘There wasn’t any time to test out the quirk that All Might had given me, so I’m not sure how it will work. Will I gain a muscle form like he does, will it be hard to notice, so many options…’

“Move aside, Deku!”

A familiar angry voice caused Izuku’s head to spin around. Walking behind him with a signature scowl on his face was Katsuki Bakugo, his breath misting in the cold winter air. Like Izuku, Katsuki had also turned fifteen, and with it had gained a few extra centimetres of height.

“Kacchan!” Izuku exclaimed, flinching backwards instinctively.

“Get out of my way or you’re dead,” Katsuki growled, stalking forward.

“M-morning. Let’s do our best…” Izuku began to say, before trailing off as Katsuki simply walked past him, not even sparing Izuku a second glance or a dirty look.

‘Ever since that day with the Sludge Villain, Kacchan stopped tormenting me,’ Izuku thought, puzzled by his former friend’s behaviour. ‘Even when I did much better in the Sports Festival at Aldera Junior High, Kacchan didn’t mock me, I think.’

‘“Tch, stupid Deku, did you enjoy being helpless for so long, huh?’”

‘If it was anyone else, I’m pretty sure they’d mean it as a compliment, but from him?’

Taking in a deep breath of crisp air, Izuku straightened his shoulders and pulled on his bag’s shoulder straps. ‘I gotta stop flinching instinctively. Yeah, it’s not like before! Just remember the past ten months and move forward.’

He took a step…

‘My first steps towards becoming a hero!’

…and promptly tripped on his own foot, causing him to fall face first towards the ground.

He would have landed flat on his face, only for a pulling sensation on his clothes to pull him back, causing him to spin around and land onto a pair of soft pillows.

‘Oh thank goodness,’ Izuku thought, ‘at least someone managed to put some pillows on the ground. I’ll look like an idiot, but at least I’m an idiot who is conscious.’

Except, something was off. Izuku could still feel that he was standing up right, an arm was holding him close across his back, and the pillows were talking.

“Woah, careful there Brocoli Top, don’t want you making out with the asphalt before the test even begins.”

“Kórinis, let him up this instant. Your behaviour is simply unbecoming.”

Now there was a second voice. It was probably the second pillow speaking.

“Thank you very much, pillows, for breaking my fall,” Izuku said, his voice muffled from his face being pressed into the warm surface of the large pillows.

“What do you- Oh, right, one second,” the first voice said, and Izuku’s eyes saw light as his head was pulled back. Looking upwards, Izuku met the gaze of a six eyed woman with long, lavender hair, each of her eyes a solid ruby red in colour. She was giving him a mischievous smirk, and looking down, Izuku realised that the pillows that had saved him were, in fact, her large chest.

“Urk,” he involuntarily grunted, his head lolling back as his usually hyperactive mind suddenly experienced a blue screen, all perception now muted behind white noise.

“Oh, well done, Kórinis,” the second voice scolded, “now you’ve gone and made the poor boy faint.”

“Oh lay off, Sarah, he’s fine. It’s almost as if he’s never seen a pair of boobs before,” Kórinis scoffed, gently shaking Izuku’s limp, unresponsive form.

“I swear,” the second voice muttered, pulling Izuku away from Kórinis giving Izuku a light slap on the cheek. “Are you alright?”

Izuku snapped out of his daze, his sight focusing on a new girl. She had sky blue eyes and blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, with ears that stuck out to the side of her head covered in short, blond hair.

“Cavalry?” Izuku murmured, wondering why the Pro Hero who had inspired him ten months ago was at U.A.

“No, but I am flattered by the comparison,” the Centaur said, smiling warmly at Izuku. “Are you able to stand?”

Izuku dumbly nodded, only wobbling slightly when the blonde-haired girl stepped back. Focusing his gaze, Izuku realised that the two girls before him were heteromorphs. The blonde was a Centaur, just like Cavalry, and even seemed to share some similarities to the Pro Hero in their facial features. The second girl, the one who had broken his fall, had a human torso on top of a spider’s cephalothorax. Both girls wore a white uniform, consisting of a white blazer and dress shirt with a black tie with white stripes. Their uniform differed when it came to their skirts. The Centaur girl had a skirt that went along the length of her equine lower half, reaching midway to her knees, whereas the Arachne girl had a more typical skirt, reaching to the middle of her pedipalps that resembled legs. She also wore a longer sleeved shirt, with white gloves covering both of her hands.

“I am very sorry for Kórinis’ actions,” the Centaur girl said, bowing in apologies to Izuku before elbowing her companion in the ribs. “Good luck on the entrance exam.”

The two girls walked past Izuku, Kórinis audibly complaining to her friend about the strength of her elbow strike.

“Um, are you okay?”

Izuku turned to the new voice, seeing a brown-haired girl standing there, her hand stretched palm out towards him.

“I saw you trip and was going to use my quirk to stop your fall, but I guess that girl with the purple hair was faster.”

“Uh, yeah, I’m alright,” Izuku blankly nodded, his mind still recoiling from what he had just seen.

“Man, this sure is super nerve wracking,” the brunette chuckled, turning towards the auditorium they had been directed to. “Well, good luck to both of us. See ya.”

Izuku simply watched her walk off, before his eyes snapped wide as everything that had happened was finally processed in his mind.

‘I talked to three girls!’ he internally cheered. ‘This really is the best day!’

Fortunately for Izuku’s joy, he remained blissfully unaware of the various looks, stares, and the occasional jealous glare that was sent his way by other students.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As Tenya Ida sat in the auditorium, awaiting the start of the presentation U.A. would give regarding the Entrance Exam, he silently swept his gaze across the large room, taking in all of the sounds of students chattering amongst themselves.

‘While I certainly would prefer if everyone would quiet down and take their seats before the presentation begins, I can somewhat understand if it is simply students trying to calm their nerves before the exam. Only 0.3% of students, one in three hundred, will pass this test. With there being forty spaces available for the hero course, and four of them taken up by those in the Recommendation Course, I must do better and stand out amongst a crowd of three hundred fellow students. Truly U.A. is the best hero academy in Japan.’

Tenya pushed his rectangular glasses up his nose, once again checking his watch that he wore on his wrist. The presentation was scheduled to start soon, and yet there was no sign of them.

“Sarah, Kórinis, where are you?” Tenya muttered to himself, only for his attention to be caught by someone speaking from the isles.

“Excuse me, pardon us, coming through.”

Turning his head to the right, Tenya saw his childhood friend and rival, Sarah Kurusu, as well as her half-sister, Kórinis Kurusu, squeezing their way past the other applicants, both trying to get to their seats. Due to spaces being made to accommodate heteromorphs with larger bodies, Sarah and Kórinis didn’t have any extra trouble, a fact that Tenya mentally applauded U.A. for taking into consideration. 

‘This truly is the best hero school in Japan,’ he reiterated to himself, before greeting his classmates.

“Sarah, Kórinis, the presentation is about to start. What is the reason for your tardiness?”

“Hello to you too, Glasses,” Kórinis scoffed, taking her assigned seat one down from Tenya’s right while Sarah took the seat next to him, sitting in between the two.

“Now now,” Sarah mediated, a role she often took whenever Tenya and Kórinis were in the same room. “We’re sorry for being late, Tenya, but we had a bit of an encounter at the front entrance.”

“Don’t tell me that you two were picked on again due to your heteromorphic nature,” Tenya sighed, rubbing his eyes in exasperation. “The number of close-minded, discriminatory racists that still exist within this nation is simply astounding. Astoundingly terrible. Give me a description of their features and I’ll be sure to report them to the school faculty.”

“Nah, nothing like that,” Kórinis dismissed, waving a hand in front of her face. “Some kid tripped over his own feet. If it wasn’t for my intervention he’d have gotten all close and personal with the concrete.”

“Hm,” Tenya pondered, looking down at his lap in thought. “Should a student who has such little coordination truly be attempting this exam?”

“Eh, probably not,” Kórinis admitted. “U.A. is ruthless with their admittance into the Hero Course, only the best are accepted, the rest are swept away like chaff.”

“While I don’t condone your language or comparisons, Sister,” Sarah admonished, “it is the harsh truth that many here today will go home with shattered dreams. For just the three of us representing Somei Private Academy to be accepted, eight hundred and ninety-seven applicants must be rejected. For the thirty-six who pass the Entrance Exam, over ten thousand five hundred must fail. Truly they are astounding odds.”

The trio's attention was drawn to the stage at the front of the auditorium as a spotlight snapped on, shining down and illuminating a figure standing on the stage. He wore dark sunglasses, a leather jacket, pants and gloves, and wore what could only be described as a stereo over his neck. His blond hair was spiked into a point high above his head, and a small blond moustache grew on his upper lip. Tenya immediately recognised him as Present Mic, a Pro Hero and teacher at U.A. High School.

“Welcome to today’s live performance!” Present Mic greeted in a loud voice, his quirk, ironically registered as Voice, amplifying the sound, preventing the Pro from needing a microphone or sound system. “Everybody say ‘Hey!’”

Silence rang out throughout the auditorium. Tenya was simply taken aback by the Pro’s entrance, and glancing to his right, both of the Kurusu sisters were just as surprised, with Sarah having flinched back in response to the loud noise that her sensitive hearing was assaulted with. Judging by the lack of a reaction from the rest of the gathered attendees, they were all equally as shocked. 

“Well, that’s cool, my examinee listeners!” Present Mic said, unbothered by the lack of response to his prompt. “I’m here to present the guidelines of your practical! Are you ready?! YEAH!!”

Once again, none of the students responded, though Tenya noticed Sarah’s ears flicking in agitation.

“Sarah,” Tenya whispered, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. A normal human wouldn’t be able to hear him, he could barely hear his own voice, but he knew that Sarah’s enhanced hearing would be able to detect it. “Is something wrong?”

“It’s nothing, Tenya,” she whispered. “Someone is muttering to themselves, that’s all. Something about Present Mic being a radio host.”

“This is how the test will go, my listeners!” Present Mic continued, cutting Tenya off from the next question he was going to ask his friend. “You’ll be experiencing ten-minute-long ‘Mock City Manoeuvres’! Bring along anything you want! After this presentation, you’ll each head to your assigned testing location! O.K.?!”

The three Somei students each looked at their forms, noticing that each of them had been placed in a separate testing area. Not only that, but the form also listed four kinds of ‘villains’ that the participants would be facing off against.

However, Tenya noticed that the entire time, Sarah’s ears continued to flick, her face as well becoming taut as she tried to suppress a grimace.

‘Which imbecile is doing that?’ Tenya thought. ‘Don’t they realise how disrupting they are for those with quirks that enhance hearing?’

Nudging Sarah, he gave her a questioning look when she turned her head to face him. Immediately understanding what he was trying to silently communicate, she nodded her head up the auditorium, indicating where the noise was coming from.

Focusing his hearing, Tenya tried to hear what his friend had heard, and sure enough he began to hear faint mutterings coming from above and behind him. Discreetly looking behind him, Tenya found the source of the noise, a greenet with a messy hairstyle dressed in a black middle school uniform. Before he could make a comment, Present Mic continued his presentation.

“Each site is filled with three kinds of villains,” he explained, bringing up a rudimentary image of a city block on the screen. Surrounding it were the silhouette of three machines, one labelled ‘1P’, another ‘2P’, and a third ‘3P’. “Points are awarded for defeating each according to their respective difficulty levels! Use your quirks to disable these faux villains and earn points! That’s your goal, listeners!” 

“Of course,” Present Mic clarified, “playing the antihero and attacking other examinees is prohibited!”

Noticing a discrepancy in the forms they were given, seeing a gap in Present Mic’s speech, and growing increasingly frustrated with the offender’s constant noise, Tenya stood up from his seat, much to the surprise of Sarah and Kórinis.

“May I ask a question?!” Tenya called out, projecting his voice down the rows of seats. “There appear to be no fewer than four varieties of faux villain on this handout!” he explained, pointing at the silhouettes that were displayed on the handout. “Such a blatant error, if it is one, is highly unbecoming for U.A., Japan’s top academy! We’re all in here today in the hopes of being moulded into model heroes!”

“And you, with the curly hair!” he started, swinging his free arm around and pointing at the muttering boy. But before he could begin, he felt someone grab his hand that held the sheet that was now resting by his side. Looking down, he saw Sarah giving him a look, one he understood all too well from a lifetime of being side-by-side to his rival and closest friend. Sighing quietly, Tenya looked back at the student, who had pointed a finger at himself as if to confirm who Tenya was speaking to.

“Yes, you,” he confirmed, though this time speaking in a not so harsh tone. “You’ve been muttering this whole time. While I can understand the stress that anyone in the room must be facing with this exam, bear in mind that there are those here who have quirks that enhance their sense of hearing. If you must mutter, do so in a manner that is inaudible.”

“Alright alright,” Present Mic said, focusing everyone’s attention away from the now silent greenet and back towards the stage. “Examinee 7111, nice catch. Thanks!” 

The Pro Hero gestured to the screen behind him where a fourth and final silhouette of a villain appeared.

“The fourth faux villain variety gets you zero points! They’re more of an obstacle than anything! There’s only one at each site, a gimmick that’ll rampage around in close quarters! Avoid them whenever possible, they’re programmed to make your time all the more difficult!”

“Thank you, sir,” Tenya bowed, “I apologise for the interruption.”

Taking his seat, Tenya felt a pressure on his forearm. Looking to his right, he saw Sarah give him a smile and a small nod, clearly appreciating him toning down his response to the student.

‘Thank you,’ she mouthed.

Tenya simply gave her a small smile as Present Mic concluded.

“That’s all from me! I’ll leave my listeners with our school motto. The French Emperor and General Napoleon Bonapart once said, ‘True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life.’ Plus Ultra! Break a leg, everyone!”

Chapter Text

If someone had to choose a word to describe how Izuku felt at this exact moment, nervous wouldn’t even be coming close to it. After Present Mic had finished his presentation (and how cool was it for Izuku to see Present Mic in person?), all of the students had been led to changing booths to change into clothing more suited for a combat situation, rather than fighting in their uniforms. Following that, they had been sorted into groups of who was assigned to what testing ground and herded onto buses that would drive them to their testing site. The fact that U.A. required buses to travel from the main campus to the hero sites was simply astonishing to Izuku. He now truly understood why so many people these days were calling for the U.A. Campus to be registered as its own prefecture, simply based on the amount of land the high school took up.

Izuku stood before the walls of the fake city area, trembling with nerves, excitement and fear in equal parts. It was an intimidating sight, with the many replica office buildings standing above the ten metre high walls. Emblazoned on the wall of the testing site was the Greek letter Beta. The fact that there were twenty-three other training grounds this size was almost too much for Izuku to comprehend. 

Looking around, he took in the sight of the other four hundred and forty-nine applicants who were assigned to the same testing grounds.

‘Why’s everyone so confident?! Aren’t they nervous?!’ Izuku yelled in his mind, not understanding why he alone seemed to be rife with nerves. ‘Ah, they’ve even got equipment to match their quirks…’

As Izuku continued to look over the crowd of students, hoping that he’d see someone who looked as nervous as he did, his eyes caught the sight of a girl with short, brown hair.

‘It’s her, the girl from the school entrance! We’re at the same test site,’ he thought to himself, watching as she performed some sort of breathing and clapping exercise. ‘I’ve gotta thank her for earlier. Even if she wasn’t the one to save me, she did try to. Yeah, I’ll wish her luck as well.’

But as Izuku stiffly walked over to her, doing his best to maintain the courage to initiate a conversation with a girl, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

“That girl seems to be doing some kind of meditation.”

Izuku jerkily turned his head around, coming face to face with the student who had scolded him in the auditorium. He had dark blue hair that was parted on the side of his head, and wore rectangular glasses over his eyes. The arm that he held Izuku’s shoulder with was muscular and defined, much more so than the amount of muscle mass that Izuku had managed to gain in the ten months of training All Might had put him through. He wore a blue shirt and matching pants, both with black lines bordered in white. But most frightening of all was the stern, near angry expression he had on his face.

“Eep, him too!” Izuku flinched, accidentally speaking aloud.

“Why are you here?” the tall student asked, keeping his grip on Izuku’s shoulder, preventing him from fleeing. “Hoping to interfere and distract her like you did in the auditorium?”

“No no, I swear!” Izuku said in a panicky voice, fear of the student causing his voice to raise an octave.

The bluenet seemed to want to say more before he paused, his eyes narrowing before he let out a sigh, taking his hand off Izuku’s shoulder.

“You’re clearly afraid of me, and I can understand why after what I said,” he explained, crossing his arms over his chest, his expression still stern, but now no longer angry. “But know that I said what I did not simply because your incessant mumbling was irritating me, though that was a part of it.”

Izuku flinched once more, reminded of his habit.

“The reason why I called you out was because of my classmate. She has enhanced hearing, meaning that your mumbling was distracting her through the entirety of Present Mic’s presentation. As one of her closest friends and rivals, I simply couldn’t let your distracting behaviour slide. She has put in too much time and effort into her training and preparation for this day simply to fail because someone couldn’t stop their mumbling.”

Izuku pulled his shoulders in, doing his best to ignore and tune out the snickers and remarks being made about him from the students that were nearby.

“AND BEGIN!!”

All of the students, Izuku included, simply didn’t understand what had been said. The voice of Present Mic came from a tower that was attached to the outside of the wall surrounding the test site. Izuku and the others simply stared blankly at the Pro Hero as he leaned over the edge of the tower, his quirk amplifying his voice.

“GO GO GO!!” he yelled down to them, swinging his arms. “REAL BATTLES DON’T HAVE A COUNTDOWN!! THE DIE HAS BEEN CAST, TIME'S A WASTING!!”

“Huh?” Izuku asked, confused by what the Pro had meant, but as he turned around and saw the other applicants rushing off into the cityscape, it all clicked in his mind.

‘I’m already behind!’ Izuku realised, making a mad dash after the other students to try and keep up. ‘Calm down, calm down. It’s fine. I’m fine. I can do this! I’m meant to do this! Meant to be a hero!’

‘After all,’ Izuku reasoned to himself, rounding a corner as the other students ahead of him split up, each searching for their own prey, ‘All Might is backing me up!’

Dashing round the corner of a street, Izuku had barely a moment to think before the wall of a building next to him exploded outwards. Crashing out of the rubble, Izuku gasped as a One-pointer villain bot fixed its cyclopsian gaze on him. It had a boxy head, with a single, glowing red eye centred in the front of its head. Its arms were covered in a shield, each with the number ‘1’ painted white, denoting its value and threat level. Underneath its head and body was the housing for the wheels that caused it to zip around the testing field. It was made out of metal and painted green, and Izuku was its newest target.

“Target locked!” it said in a synthetic voice, turning towards Izuku and accelerating. “Prepare for termination!”

‘Here it comes!’ Izuku said, his attention zeroing in onto the machine racing towards him. ‘One-pointer. Quick, but fragile. I can do this.’

Time seemed to slow as adrenaline pumped through Izuku’s brain.

‘Exposed wires and joints. Any competent villain would cover those up, but the school wants students to beat these machines. And this is the easiest of the lot. Just got to analyse its movements and react. Use my analysis skill, just like Cavalry told me to. I can do this!’

The machine raced towards him, getting ever closer. As it neared, the One-pointer raised an arm, not even bothering to hide its telegraphed actions.

“Now!” Izuku yelled to himself. He threw himself to the side, causing the villain bot’s shield-like arm to slam into the concrete where Izuku had once stood. While still in midair, Izuku decided to take a chance, grabbing one of the exposed wires that ran along the outside of the machine's arm, pulling hard. The wire easily gave out, causing the machine to stutter and halt.

Before Izuku could celebrate, however, a blue, dazzling laser burst through the machine’s chest, turning into scrap metal.

‘A laser?’ Izuku thought, turning his head towards the direction the beam had come from. Standing further down the street stood a student, his blond hair spiking to the side of his head. He wore black pants, and on his chest was a white tracksuit with a frilled collar and zipper. On his waist he wore a belt with a gem-like surface in the middle that glowed a pale blue, with a mist-like substance leaking from it into the air, dissipating as it got further away.

“Merci,” he called out to Izuku as he ran past the stunned greenet, his Japanese carrying a noticeable French accent. “I appreciate the assist. We make a wonderful team, but I doubt we’ll meet again.”

He gave Izuku a wink as he passed, sprinting down the street and rounding a corner, disappearing from sight.

“Adieu!”

“Won’t meet again?” Izuku asked no one, wondering what the French student had meant.

“Six minutes, two seconds remaining!” Present Mic’s voice alerted, the noise reaching all over the testing site.

“Oh no,” Izuku cried, realising how little time he had left. Glancing around, he saw the ongoing battles that students were having with the villain bots. Across the plaza he had found himself at, the ruined, damaged remains of various One-pointer, Two-pointer and Three-pointer robots lay scattered about.

Movement to his right caught Izuku’s attention. He looked over, seeing the brown haired girl from the entrance placing her fingers on some disabled, but still active, villain bots. Despite what the laws of reality would claim, these machines started to float into the air, some of the more active ones flailing about, trying to find some sort of surface to grip to. They never had the chance, because the girl placed all ten of her fingers together, causing the weightlessness of the machines to end, gravity causing them to smash into the pavement.

“Twenty-eight points,” she sighed with exhaustion.

“Forty-five points,” another voice said, accompanied by a crash. Izuku turned to see the blue haired boy from before crashing feet first into a Two-pointer villain bot, smoke and explosions bursting from the machine.

‘Crap, this is really bad,’ Izuku said, his eyes darting about, trying to find anything that could help him pass. ‘I only have one point, I need more to pass.'

As he frantically searched over the area, Izuku spotted his solution. Lying on the ground was the shield-like arm of a One-pointer, with some of the wires that connected it to the body still attached. Next to it was a shard of metal, the broken remains of a Two-pointer’s tail. Only part of it remained, one of the flat sides of the machine's tail, and a rod of metal stuck out, still attached to the scrap metal.

‘That’s it, this is my chance,’ Izuku cheered, picking both pieces of scrap metal. Izuku lifted the piece of the Two-pointer in his right hand, and wrapped the wires attached to the piece of the One-pointer around his left, both pieces acting as a rudimentary sword and shield.

‘This is how I’ll do it,’ Izuku decided, rushing off to find another villain bot to fight. ‘I’ll win with a tribute to the two heroes who helped me on my journey; the weapons of Cavalry, and the muscles All Might helped train into me.’

His running was cut short as the ground beneath him began to tremble. Stray pieces of rubble and concrete started to clatter on the ground, becoming more and more erratic, until the entire city seemed to be shaking.

Izuku, the blue haired boy, the brown haired girl, and every other student within Testing Grounds Beta stared in shock at the sight they beheld. Emerging from within a building was an enormous villain bot, completely dwarfing every other type of machine that had come before it. It had a flat, elongated rectangular head, with eight glowing red eyes placed on its face. Each of its mechanical fingers were bigger than a person, and as it loomed over the students frozen in fear, it raised to its full height, giving off a reverberating noise, declaring its presence to the mortals at its feet.

It was this noise that snapped the students out of their stupor, causing all of them to flee in terror.

‘T-that’s the Zero-pointer?’ Izuku trembled, his makeshift sword falling out of his limp right hand, hitting the ground with a clatter. His shield remained in his grip, but only because of the wires that he had tied around his hand and wrist. ‘That’s way too big.’ 

The Zero-pointer rumbled forwards, its large size catching the corner of a building, causing the concrete to crack and fall, tumbling onto the street below.

“It’s not a gimmick,” Izuku murmured, stunned by the size, slowly backing up as his mind realised the fear that was coursing through his veins. “It’s completely overwhelming!”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Hiya!”

Sarah let out a battle cry, slamming her makeshift weapons into the metalic body of another villain bot, this time a Three-pointer. Taking a second to catch her breath, she swept her gaze around the forest, not finding any enemies within sight. Deciding to go a step further, she focused her hearing, and while the sounds of her fellow students doing battle were a constant noise, she didn’t hear the telltale signs of branches being snapped, grass trampled, and the hum of an engine. For the moment, she was alone.

Taking a once over look at the weapons she held on her arms, Sarah winced at the damage they had taken. Made out of the shield arms of a One-pointer, Sarah had ripped them off of the first one she had encountered in the woods of Testing Grounds Omega, where she and over four hundred of her fellow students had been placed. While they had served her well, there was only so much damage they could take before becoming useless.

“Oh well,” Sarah muttered to herself, “might as well get rid of these.”

Using her incredible strength granted to her as a Centaur, Sarah pried apart the metal she had bent around her forearms to keep her weapons in place, tossing them aside onto the ground, holding her arms over her head as she stretched out her tired limbs. While as a Centaur she was gifted with enhanced stamina, her makeshift weapons were anything but light.

“I’m more annoyed that those gatling guns were simply for show,” she huffed, looking critically at the multi barreled replicas attached to the underside of the One-pointer shields. While Sarah was more proficient with melee weapons, her mother had insisted that she have a baseline ability to wield any weapon, all so she would never be without options.

“Mother wasn’t exaggerating about U.A. tests,” Sarah said, taking a short mouthful from her water bottle. Placing it back in its holster that she wore on her waist, movement from above her caught her eye. Flying through the air was a bird, a common sight within the forested testing grounds. What was strange was that the bird, as well as many others, were all flying to and from the same location.

Sarah glanced back at the smoking, sparking wreck of the villain bot, considering her options.

“This is a test, and I shouldn’t get distracted,” she admitted out loud, circling the ruined machine, her index finger and thumb holding her chin in thought. “However, I have accumulated many points, and there were no instructions on the test forms against teaming up.”

Deciding to loot her latest victim before leaving (she could use the missiles of the Three-pointer as spears), Sarah headed off in the direction the birds were flying, moving slower in an effort to stop her explosive spears from being disturbed too much. Swerving around tree trunks and avoiding exposed roots, Sarah noticed that the birds were moving, their flight path simultaneously changing. Up in the trees, she saw squirrels hopping from tree branch to tree branch, some heading in the same direction as her, while others came from it.

Emerging into a clearing, Sarah slowed her pace, walking into an open section of the forest. All manner of birds and mammals were gathered, and at the centre of this was a student. He was sat on a destroyed Two-pointer, its legs splayed out underneath it and its elongated head ripped off of its body. The student had a rocky head, uneven and pointed upwards, a square jaw, and his broad, muscular build filled out his yellow gym uniform. Perched on his shoulders, head, and outstretched hand were many birds and squirrels, and the boy seemed to be whispering things to them, with the animals answering him in tweets and chirps.

“Hello,” Sarah called out, waving a hand as she walked over.

The boy spun his head over to Sarah, and giving out a small eep, quickly hid behind the wreck of the Two-pointer. His head and eyes poked over the top of the cover, trembling gently.

“Don’t worry,” Sarah said, holding her hands in front of her and stopping in her tracks, “I didn’t mean to scare you. So you’re the one the birds are flying to?”

The boy hesitated before nodding his head, his head rising from behind the Two-pointer ever so slightly.

Sarah heard a chirp to her side, and looking down she saw a squirrel looking up at her, perched on its hindlegs. It had a dark body with a pale belly, and its tail was thin yet poofy.

Bending her knees to get lower to the ground, Sarah slowly reached out her hand, presenting her closed fist to the inquisitive rodent. The squirrel moved closer, giving her hand a sniff, before surprising Sarah by climbing onto her hand, swiftly making its way up her arm. Making its way onto her shoulder, the squirrel looked at Sarah, before nuzzling into the crook of her neck.

Noticing her fellow student’s look of awe, Sarah reached a hand up to her neck, gently stroking the back of the squirrel.

“I love animals,” she explained, slowly making her way over to the shy student. “When I was a child, I would spend most of my afternoons watching the animals that lived on my family’s estate. Whenever my brothers and sisters joined me, I would point out all of the animals that I could identify by feature, the ones I had seen time and time again. I had learnt their mannerisms, their unique looks, I even named them. I would spend my evenings researching what foods they ate, then ask my parents and aunts for help preparing it.”

Gently scooping the squirrel up in her palm, Sarah, now having walked around the ruined Two-pointer, held out the squirrel to the shy student. The squirrel looked back at Sarah, giving her a small squeak, before leaping out of her hands, quickly being caught by the student.

“Let’s start over,” Sarah said, holding out her hand to the rocky student who crouched before her. “My name is Sarah Kurusu, nice to meet you.”

The boy timidly stood up, reaching out his hand and gently holding Sarah’s. When she shook his hand, she noticed that his grip was gentle, as if he was afraid to hurt her. The boy pulled his hand back after two shakes, and grabbing a stick off the ground he began to scratch characters into the ground.

“Koji, Koda?” Sarah asked, testing verbally how the name sounded. “Koji Koda, is that your name?”

The boy nodded.

“Well, nice to meet you, Koda. How many points do you have so far?”

Koda hesitated, his head lowered as he twirled his index fingers. Taking a breath, he looked Sarah in the eyes, splaying out all ten fingers, closing his hands, opening them wide once more, then closing his hands, with only two fingers held out.

“Twenty-two?” Sarah asked, tilting her head to the side.

Koda nodded, then pointed a finger at her. 

“Me?” Sarah asked, receiving a nod from Koda. “I have forty-six points.”

Koda’s eyes widened at her answer before hanging his head.

“Hey, twenty-two isn’t a bad score,” Sarah said, gently placing a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “I have a quirk that’s suited for physical activities, so if your quirk allows you to talk to animals, your score is more impressive than mine.”

Koda hadn’t expected that praise, simply responding by rubbing a foot into the dirt in embarrassment from the praise, a small smile on his face.

“The teachers never said we couldn’t work together,” Sarah started, causing Koda to look up. “How about you and I join forces? Heroes routinely team up on missions.”

Koda opened his mouth, but before he could say anything the blare of a horn sounded out through the forest. Sarah and Koda turned to the noise, both students’ eyes widening at the sight they saw. Emerging from the trees, a machine rose up. Sarah recognised the appearance of the villain bot, it was the Zero-pointer. While she had expected them to be an obstacle for students to avoid, she hadn’t thought that it would be the size of a small office building.

The Zero-pointer let out a mechanical roar, causing many birds nearby to fly up in terror. It raised a giant, robotic fist, and slammed it into the ground, creating a cloud of dirt and dust to shoot up into the air. The force of the blow was so great that some trees were uprooted, sent flying into the air, before crashing back down to earth.

With her advanced hearing, Sarah was able to hear the screams and shouts from her fellow students. While many of them were fleeing in terror, what she heard caused her blood to run cold.

“Help us!”

Please, don’t leave me!”

“Argh, my leg, it’s stuck.”

“Come on, come on, burn, damn you.”

The trees that the Zero-pointer had launched into the air with its slam, as well as trees it had uprooted simply by moving through the forest, had caused many students to become trapped beneath their weight.

Sarah spun towards her fellow student, adrenaline causing her heart to race. “Koda, can you use your animal friends to scout out the forest? There are some students who are trapped underneath fallen trees. We can’t just leave them there!”

Koda nodded, turning to the birds who hadn’t flown away. Even though he spoke quietly, Sarah could just manage to hear him with her enhanced senses.

“Quickly, my friends, scout out the forest and find those who are trapped underneath the trees. Hurry, we must save them.”

Sarah was surprised to hear such a soft, high pitched voice from such a broad, muscular student, but she shook away her surprise as the birds around Koda flew off into the air, each of them heading towards the Zero-pointer, fanning outwards in their search.

“We should follow after them,” Sarah said, her eyes following the flight path of the birds. “Can they find you again if you move to another location?”

Koda hesitated, before grabbing his stick once more and writing in the dirt.

“They won’t know where I am, but if you make a loud enough noise, they will likely investigate.”

“Alright,” Sarah nodded, “then we need to move quickly. There is no further point in stealth, we’ll simply avoid any villain bots that we encounter.”

Deciding that speed was the utmost priority, Sarah surprised Koda by picking him up in one of her arms. Seating him in the crook of her arm, Sarah set off, with Koda yelling out in shock.

“Sorry, Koda, just hold onto my neck. I’m more worried about you falling off than me dropping you.”

The terrified boy did as she told him to, wrapping both arms around the back of her neck and squeezing his eyes closed, terrified of the speed they were travelling at. Having abandoned all pretence of stealth, Sarah ran as fast as she safely could through the forest, leaping over logs and roots, swerving around trees when they blocked her path. Hearing the sound of wing beats, Sarah slowed to a canter, and out of the trees flew a sparrow. It flew alongside Sarah and Koda, making chirps and tweets to the quiet boy. Nodding his head in understanding, Koda pointed in a direction through the woods. 

“Is that where your friend found someone?” Sarah asked, though she had already changed directions.

Koda gave a nod, and the sparrow flew ahead of them, leading the way. They soon arrived on a site of destruction, where an uprooted tree had landed, unfortunately trapping two unlucky students.

“Please, help us!” one of the students, a male with round glasses, cried out, his companion a female with blue hair.

“Don’t worry, my friend and I came to help,” Sarah reassured, placing Koda down on the ground. “Koda, I want you to get on the other side of these two, we’ll lift on three. Got it?”

Koda nodded, quickly crouching down and hooking his hands underneath the tree trunk. Sarah did the same, with the two trapped students laying in between them.

“Ready? One, two, three, lift!”

Sarah and Koda both pulled on the fallen tree with all of their might, their teeth and muscles straining under the weight. But centimetre by centimetre, the tree lifted off the ground, until both student’s legs were clear.

“You’re free, go now!” Sarah yelled, her voice straining.

The two students scrambled free, their legs intact, if mildly bruised. With the two out of danger, Sarah and Koda let go, the tree falling to the ground with a thud. 

“Thank you,” the girl said, helping her friend off the ground. “Come on, the exit is this way.”

“Go, Koda and I still have people to find,” Sarah said, picking Koda up in her arm as he spoke to another bird that had found them.

Dashing away before the students could say a word, Sarah and Koda, directed by the birds of the forest, went from student to student, helping each and everyone that they found. Even though many of them were rattled and in shock by the events, none were seriously injured, the worst case that they encountered was a student with a broken arm. Even as the practical exam ended, Sarah and Koda weren’t finished, rescuing the final person who had been trapped. With no more students to help, Sarah, Koda, and the final student they helped, a pink haired Small Breeds Arachne, a subspecies of Arachne who were smaller, yet faster and more energetic than typical Arachne, walked together to the exit of the testing grounds. But before they arrived at the gate, someone crossed their path.

“Ah, there you are,” a rough voice said. Emerging from the forest ahead of them, Sarah, Koda and the Arachne student’s eyes widened at the sight of Hound Dog, a Pro Hero and staff member of U.A. He was large, muscular, and taller than Sarah, who herself often stood head and shoulders above a crowd at 190 cm (6’2”). Hound Dog was dressed in his hero costume, consisting of a jacket with a thick fur lining, as well as a black muzzle over his elongated snout, due to him being a Kobold heteromorph.

“Mr Hound Dog,” Sarah greeted, a smile growing on her face from meeting the hero, “why are you here?” Call it personal bias, but Sarah loved collecting posters and merchandise of heteromorphic heroes, such as Miruko, Gang Orca, Selkie, and Hound Dog.

“We did a head count at the gate, you three were missing. When we asked around, a few of the students mentioned two students who had gone around, helping those trapped by the Zero-pointer,” Hound Dog explained. “Your records matched their description to a T.”

The Kobold hero turned his gaze to the Arachne student, who was hiding behind Sarah and Koda. “As for you, you must be the final missing student. Off you go, the written portion of the exam starts in half an hour, don’t be late.”

The pink haired student bowed to Sarah and Koda in thanks before heading to the exit, her arachnid legs propelling her through the woods.

Seeing her leave, Hound Dog turned his gaze back to Sarah and Koda, the latter of whom started to tremble at the attention he was receiving, such was his shyness.

“As for you two,” Hound Dog said with a growl, “you really are something.”

Sarah and Koda both tensed, fearing what the Pro had to say next. What they didn’t expect was for Hound Dog to place his hands on each of their shoulders.

“Every student was monitored by our panel of judges,” he explained, “and you were graded based on your performance; for every villain bot you defeated, you gained Villain Points. What we didn’t tell you was that there was a secret grading system in place; Rescue Points. These could be awarded for two reasons: working with your fellow examinees, or rescuing your fellow examinees. When the Zero-pointer emerged, you both worked together to locate and rescue your fellow students. You ignored the stray villain bots that crossed your path, instead prioritising the safety of your fellows. Simply put, you both acted like real heroes.”

Through the mask, Sarah and Koda could see the proud, genuine smile of the Pro Hero.

“I don’t know what rank the two of you will receive, but rest assured that you two passed the practical with flying colours. Principle Nezu would be a fool to deny the two of you a place in the Hero Course, and I know he is anything but.”

Sarah gasped, realising what had just happened. Koda was equally shocked, a small smile on his face, ever so surely growing each second.

“Right, enough standing around,” Hound Dog said, a growl entering his voice once more. “You both still need to pass the written portion of the exam. Get to the entrance, the bus is waiting for you two.”

“Yes sir,” Sarah beamed, Koda by her simply nodding vigorously, before the both set off towards the exit. With the knowledge they had passed the practical portion of the exam, as well as the direct praise from Hound Dog, the two students seemed to have an extra spring in their step. After all, they were now that much closer to achieving their dreams of attending U.A.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Katsuki stood triumphant over his latest monument of greatness. A duo of Three-pointer villain bots and a Two-pointer villain bot had attacked him, probably thinking that with numbers they could take him down. Fat chance. All of that arrogance in their programming led to where they were now, scorched and broken underneath him.

Taking in deep breaths, Katsuki let a feral grin cross his face. His hands were twitching from the effort he had put in, and he had worked up quite a sweat during the three-on-one brawl. That was the stupid machines’ first mistake. By getting him worked up, causing his sweat glands to work overtime, they had simply added fuel to the fire, his explosions now larger and more powerful. That had been the nail in their coffin, and they couldn’t even realise it until it was already over.

“Seventy-one,” Katsuki grinned, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow and shaking out his hands. “I doubt even All Might got that high of a score when he was my age.”

He swept his gaze over the area around him. According to his handout, Testing Grounds Alpha was a unique testing ground. Whereas the standard testing grounds were replicas of office building blocks, Alpha was more of an urban area, one that was reminiscent of where Katsuki lived.

Not that it mattered. As the future Number One Pro Hero, Katsuki had to be the best in almost all environments. Not even he would deny that there were some areas that he simply would fall behind in, such as snowy areas or underwater, but everywhere else, he had to excel.

‘And how fitting is it,’ Katsuki smirked as he drank from his water bottle. Because his quirk required him to sweat a lot, he also had to drink an equal amount of fluids. ‘The future No. One takes the Entrance Exam for U.A., the Number One Hero Academy, in Testing Grounds Alpha, named after the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Reality really is amusing sometimes.’

Katsuki was snapped out of his humour as a siren blared throughout the testing grounds, as the ground and the mechanical corpses that he stood atop began to shake and tremble. Some extras happened to be in the same general area, and seeing them pointing at something behind him, Katsuki turned around. What he saw was a building sized villain bot, almost as large as Mt. Lady. It was ridiculously huge, easily crushing a house underneath its grasp as it stood to full height.

‘That must be the Zero-pointer,’ Katsuki thought to himself, ignoring the extras who were screaming, panicking, running, and generally living up to their status as an extra. ‘While the extras are distracted, I’ll snatch up some extra points before the exam ends.’

“Hey, Firecracker!”

“Huh?” Katsuki growled, knowing that whichever extra had called that out had directed it to him. It wasn’t even an original nickname.

Walking over to him was a female Arachne, her six eyes and spider lower half dead giveaways. Rather than panicking like the other extras, she had a cocky grin on her face, and carried over her shoulder was a round net of silk, inside of which appeared to be various parts of the villain bots.

“What do you want, you damn extra?” Katsuki growled, hoping the brave extra would take the hint.

“Just wanted to check something,” she responded, resting a hand covered in a black exoskeleton on her hips. “How many points ya got? I’ve seen you rampaging all over the place, so how about it, Firecracker? Gotten a good haul so far?”

“Seventy-one, so what?!” Katsuki yelled.

The Arachne simply smiled, using her free hand to brush aside her lavender hair out of her face. “Seventy-one, not bad. I’m sitting at a lovely sixty-nine.”

That made Katsuki pause. ‘Sixty-nine, to get that high of a score, she’d had to have defeated at least twenty-three Three-pointers.’

Katsuki sighed, giving the Arachne a proper once over. Her clothing was tight and form fitting, allowing for maximum movement without any drag or obstruction. He couldn’t say the same for the clothing he had seen on some particularly stupid extras. She was covered in soot and oil, with her clawed hands particularly coated. Add to that the large haul of parts she had scavenged from the villain bots, and she was certainly no slouch.

‘Guess she isn’t an extra after all,’ Katsuki sighed to himself, his gaze focusing on the still rampaging Zero-pointer. “What do you want, Silks?”

“Silks, huh?” Silks said aloud, questioning the nickname Katsuki had given her. “Eh, I’ve definitely heard worse names thrown at me.”

That comment caused Katsuki’s hands to twitch, subconsciously wanting to form into fists. He should have figured that she’d had a past with discriminatory shitheads. The idea of it alone made him angry. Why look down on someone simply because they have a powerful quirk? It was a mindset that the weak and jealous had, one Katsuki couldn’t understand or support.

“I have a plan, and I need your help to pull it off,” Silks said, snapping Katsuki out of his brooding. He turned his attention back to her, raising a single eyebrow.

“Why would I help you?” he asked. “We’re all competing for the top spot.”

“I agree,” Silks said, “and against anything else, I wouldn’t need your help. I got my points by hunting on my own, solitary, like a real spider. Thing is, that,” she said, gesturing at the Zero-pointer, “I can’t beat on my own. You and me, however, I reckon we can bring it down.”

“Why the hell would I do that?” Katsuki growled. “Didn’t you pay attention to Present Mic? That Zero-pointer is called a Zero-pointer for a damn good reason, it isn’t worth any points.”

“Sure, officially,” Silks said, tilting her head and smirking at Katsuki, which for some reason irritated him to no end. “However, this is the best hero school in Japan. You really think they won’t award people for taking that hunk of junk down?”

Katsuki wasn’t convinced. It wasn’t worth the time wasted trying to kill it with no guaranteed rewards, when instead he could be killing other villain bots, which would get him more points. His doubt clearly showed on his face, because Silks continued.

“Look,” she sighed, “when a big, nasty villain shows up in town, you expect the heroes to take care of it before anyone is hurt. That Zero-pointer, that’s a real nasty villain. So who are you going to be, Firecracker? Are you going to be All Might, Endeavor, one of the top Pros who swoop in and save the day, or are you going to be like the local heroes who stand back, claiming their quirks aren’t suited for the fight?”

Her words caused Katsuki to relive flashes of that day, ten months ago. The Sludge Villain finding him, forcing its disgusting, slimy body into Katsuki. The sense of powerlessness at being controlled, the sense of humiliation at his quirk being used by the villain for evil. But most of all, the hate and rage he felt to those damn extra Pros who stood there, not doing a damn thing. It didn’t matter that his life was in danger, or that stupid Deku had rushed out in some idiotic attempt to save him. It didn’t matter that people could have been hurt if the Sludge bastard was allowed to continue its rampage. No, all they were focusing on was the fact that their quirks weren’t ideal. Rather than even trying, they simply stood there, useless. That, more than anything, made Katsuki angry. They didn’t even try.

“I ain’t no shitty extra,” Katsuki growled quietly, speaking more to himself than to Silks. Refocusing his attention back on the Zero-pointer, who had started to come their way, Katsuki glanced to the side, looking at Silks from the corner of his right eye. “What do you need me to do?”

“Seriously?” Silks asked, apparently surprised. “You want to hear my plan? No offence, but you give off a Lone Wolf, do it my own way, type vibe.”

“You came up with a plan, so I’m willing to hear it,” Katsuki explained, rolling his eyes. “You aren’t some extra, I’ll give you that, so whatever you say isn’t guaranteed to be completely useless.”

“Okay then,” Silks said, and Katsuki could hear her smirk in her voice. “How long can you stall it for?”

“How long do you need?”

Silks paused, turning her head to look at Katsuki. Confused at her response, he looked back, only for her to give a toothy grin, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

“Keep it busy for as long as you can,” she answered, leaping up onto a nearby replica house. “Lead it down the main road, I’ll get a warm welcome prepared for it.”

“Tch,” Katsuki scoffed, “that’s a dumb plan.”

“You have a better idea?” Silks challenged, shooting a line of silk from spinnerets on her wrists between houses on the main road.

“I said it was dumb, not stupid,” Katsuki clarified, before igniting the sweat on his palms, rocketing him into the air. Using controlled explosions, Katsuki flew up to the head of the Zero-pointer, the large machine having noticed his presence. Using one of its large hands, it tried to swat Katsuki out of the air, but with how slow it was moving, it was too easy to avoid.

“DIE!!” Katsuki yelled, thrusting a palm of exploding nitroglycerine outwards at the villain bot’s head. The explosion smashed into the green metal of the machine, causing its head to recoil slightly. Landing on the head with a crouch, Katsuki looked around at the damage he had caused. Or rather, lack thereof. Sure, the top of the machine has scorch marks all over, but it was all minor damage. His explosions hadn’t yet pierced through the thick armour, but it was only a matter of time. With a continuous string of yelling and swearing, Katsuki fired explosion after explosion into the Zero-pointer, the metal underneath his feet starting to glow red.

Out of the corner of his eye, Katsuki saw movement. Turning his head, his eyes widened as one of the Zero-pointers large hands was moving downwards, trying to swat him off of its head.

“Shit!” Katsuki swore, aiming his hands in front of him. Firing off simultaneous blasts from his hands, the force of the explosion threw him back, just in the nick of time as the Zero-pointer’s hand slammed down hard in front of him. The force of the impact caused the machine to sway, and the movement gave Katsuki an idea.

“Let’s see you try and swat me without hands, you dumbass machine,” Katsuki grinned. Racing over to where the fingers of the Zero-pointer lay, he placed his hands at one of the joints, his grin turning feral.

“DIE!!”

Another powerful explosion rocked the machine, but this time taking effect. While the head of the Zero-pointer was covered in thick armour, the same couldn’t be said for the exposed, vulnerable joints that allowed its fingers to move.

The Zero-pointer gave off a synthetic roar, and Katsuki reckoned it was one of pain, if it was capable of such feeling. Its second hand raised up, trying in another desperate attempt to remove the source of the damage from its head, but Katsuki simply dodged it, using another burst of explosions to leap out of the way. Firing off more blasts at the joints in its hands, Katsuki started to notice the effect it was having. The machine was having difficulty moving its hands; where before it was slow yet dextrous, now it was struggling, more often than not slamming its hand down on its head, causing more damage to itself than to Katsuki. The Zero-pointer turned on its treads, trying desperately to grab him. Even though Katsuki’s grin had never left his face, the sensation of toying with such a large villain being incredible, he was starting to feel the strain his explosions were having on his wrists.

‘Shit,’ he thought to himself, opting to throw himself out of the way rather than use his quirk, ‘how long does Silks need? She’d better be close to finishing, or this will all have been for nothing.’

“Hey, Firecracker!” Katsuki heard from nearby. Chancing a look, Katsuki saw Silks standing on top of a roof behind the Zero-pointer, waving at him. She had clearly made the most of the time Katsuki had bought her, as the entire main road of Testing Grounds Alpha had been crisscrossed with lines of silk, so thick that it seemed as if a large white blanket had been draped over the road and houses.

“Ignite this at the front of the machine's head!” Silks yelled up to him. Holding the round net of silk by a string, she started to twirl it, demonstrating her innate strength to not only lift the large ball of metal, but also to spin it at a rapid pace. She let it go at just the right moment, causing it to sail through the air, right at Katsuki.

He just managed to grab it, air being forced out of his chest from the impact. Grabbing it and running, Katsuki booked it over the head of the Zero-pointer, making a mad dash for the front of the head. Even though the machine tried to squish him, its hands were damaged, many of the joints sparking or warped from the power and heat of Katsuki’s explosions.

Reaching the edge, Katsuki leaped off, spinning in the air to face the Zero-pointer’s face. Its red eyes seemed to track his movement, its hands moving to grab him.

“Too late!” Katsuki grinned, tossing forward the orb of parts. “For the last time, DIE!!”

His explosions burst forward, the exertion and adrenaline forcing his palm’s sweat glands to work overtime, creating the largest explosion he had created during the entire Entrance Exam. The recoil sent him flying back, and he created a few smaller explosions for good measure. He had seen what was inside Silks’ gift, and he knew he needed to make some distance. After all, she had handed him a large collection of Three-pointer missiles.

KABOOM!!

The missiles ignited, engulfing the Zero-pointer’s head in flames, and the recoil throwing it back as if it had been decked in the face by All Might. Thrown off balance, the Zero-pointer started to tip backwards, right towards the threads that Silks had prepared.

But as Katsuki flew alongside the falling Zero-pointer, he saw something that caused his blood to run cold. Two extras, for reasons that eluded him, had wandered into the main street, completely oblivious to the falling Zero-pointer.

“Oi, extras!” Katsuki called out, rocketing forward. “Get the hell out of the way, now!”

The two extras looked behind them, revealing two girls, one with short, red hair and the other with long, black hair, who froze as they took in the sight of the Zero-pointer’s back falling towards them. They let out a scream, rushing off down a side street, out of the way.

If there was one thing that Katsuki found useful about extras, it was the fact that they were often too scared to get in his way.

However, because Katsuki’s attention was focused on the oblivious extras, he failed to notice the Zero-pointer’s desperate last attempt at revenge. He saw it in the corner of his eye, and by the time he realised what it was, there was only a window to fire off a blast at the sweeping hand, trying to slow it down.

The robotic hand connected, swatting Katsuki out of the air, the force slamming into his left shoulder.

“Fuck!” he swore, blinking tears out of his eyes from the pain that spiked through his left arm. Using his good arm as an emergency brake, he fired explosion after explosion out of his right arm, doing his best to stabilise his movement and slow his fall. But despite the painful explosions he fired, he knew he was in for a rough landing.

‘This is going to hurt like a bitch,’ he thought, closing his eyes and bracing himself. Instead of feeling the jolting pain of him colliding with the asphalt, likely breaking multiple bones in his body, he felt someone catch him, holding him tight to their body.

“God damn, Firecracker,” Silks said, landing softly on a nearby rooftop, “you really made me worry for a second.”

Katsuki opened his eyes, seeing that the Arachne girl had caught him in a bridal carry. Gently placing him back on the ground, Silks gave him a look of worry when tried to take a step, grasping his shoulder and hissing through his teeth.

“Crap, that Zero-pointer got you good,” she said in a worried tone. Walking over, she started to spin silk from her wrists, wrapping up his broken arm in a compression sleeve, trapping it and preventing its movement.

“Yeah, but I would have been fine if those damn extras hadn’t gotten in the way,” Katsuki grimaced, trying to ignore the pain from his shoulder.

“Okay, that should do for now,” Silks said, stepping back from her craft. “It should hold for a few days, but we should get you to a doctor. I’m sure U.A. has medical staff on site.”

Katsuki merely grunted. As he looked up at Silks (and he hated the fact she was more than 20 cm taller than him), he saw her grinning at something behind him.

“Would you look at that,” she said, sounding proud, “our plan worked.”

Looking over his shoulder, Katsuki saw the Zero-pointer still falling. Many of the lines of thread that Silks had placed had already snapped, but they had served the purpose of slowing the villain bot’s fall. Lines of silk further down were loose, having plenty of slack between the buildings. Their purpose was shown as the Zero-pointer fell onto these, the lines bending and stretching, eventually stopping the machine’s fall, coming to a rest suspended over the main road. Katsuki got a good look at the damage they had caused to it. Most of its face was destroyed, and in some areas the armour plating had been stripped away entirely, exposing the wiring and machinery within. Only two of its eyes remained, the bottom two, with the rest either cracked or destroyed out right. The lights in its eyes dimmed, slowly turning black, as the seemingly unbeatable machine shut down to the sound of Present Mic’s voice.

“IT’S ALL OVER!!”

Katsuki sagged, the adrenaline of the fight wearing off. Before he could fall to the ground, Silks caught him, one hand on his back and the other on his good shoulder. She gently lowered him to the ground, before sitting down herself, her arachnid legs splayed out underneath her. It was only as Katsuki got a good look at her face that he realised how pale she was. While she was pale when he first met her, he figured it was just her usual skin tone, but now her skin seemed to be bordering on blue. Sweat covered her face, and she was taking deep breaths.

“Hey, what happened?” Katsuki asked, confused why she had such a reaction.

“Sorry, spinning all of those threads took a lot out of me,” she answered, using the hem of her shirt to wipe her face, causing Katsuki to quickly look away as she exposed her toned midriff. “I honestly didn’t know if I had made enough to catch it. For a moment I thought I had simply done enough to slow down its fall, reducing the property damage, that sort of thing.”

Silks looked back at the face of the Zero-pointer, giving a low whistle of approval.

“You’re no Firecracker, that’s for sure.” She turned her face back to Katsuki, giving him a smirk. “We make one hell of a team, Dynamite.”

Katsuki simply grunted, laying his back on the tiled roof. All of the exhaustion seemed to be catching up with him. He and Silks had murdered that Zero-pointer, so he reckoned he could afford a few minutes of rest.

‘If we don’t get any points for killing that thing,’ he thought to himself as darkness encroached on his vision, ‘I’m going to be so pissed.’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

When Sarah and Kórinis’ siblings arrived home from school, they all wanted to hear how the exam went, even the older ones. Having a captive audience at the dinner table, the two sisters recounted their experiences in their respective testing grounds. The younger children oohed and aahed as they listened, enthralled in the story. 

But life carried on, and Somei Private Academy still had a few weeks left of school. Sarah, Kórinis and Tenya all became pseudo-celebrities overnight, all of their classmates wanting to hear how they did. Even the upperclassmen, those who were enrolled in Somei’s high school course, were keen to hear how their juniors were doing.

Of course, Bapi, Duibhe, Fíóri and Fíos were all nervous about their older sisters’ results. Each day, both before and after school, they checked the mail, hoping to find a set of letters addressed from U.A. Each day that the letters hadn’t arrived caused them to become more and more nervous. However, it all came to an end a week after the Entrance Exam.

“It’s here!” Duibhe yelled, running through the house, followed closely by Fíóri and Fíos, with Bapi flying close behind. “Sarah, Kórinis, it’s really here!”

The four children burst into the living room, finding Sarah sitting on the ground on top of a mattress, her legs tucked underneath her as she read, while Kórinis lazed about in a hammock that she and her mother often used, designed for their Arachne bodies, with the younger Arachne scrolling on her phone.

““““Come on, open it, open it,”””” the four children chorused, each of them bouncing (or in the case of Fíóri and Fíos, wriggling) with excitement.

“Hold on, you four, let Sarah and Kórinis decide how they want to do this,” their father said, walking into the living room and taking the letter from Duibhe’s hands. Turning to his elder daughters, he gave them a questioning look as he held out the letter. “Do you want to do it with all of us, or take it up to your room and tell us after?”

The two sisters looked at each other, communicating without having to say a word.

“We’ll watch it in our room,” Kórinis said, sliding off of her hammock and taking the letter from her father. “I’m pretty sure we know the answer already, but we’ll do it privately.”

Sarah and Kórinis’ siblings complained and groaned as they left the room, soon fading into the background as the two sisters went upstairs to their shared room. Closing and locking the door, for you never knew what lengths younger siblings would go to, the two sisters looked at the letter.

“Well, this is the real thing,” Kórinis muttered. “Addressed to Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, from U.A. High School.”

“It is addressed to us together, so we will open it together,” Sarah said, taking hold of one end of the letter. “Ready?”

Kórinis smiled, taking a firm grip on her own end of the letter with her gloves. “One.”

“Two.”

““Three,”” they said, pulling at the letter. The paper ripped, and dropping out of the letter was a small disk. It spun like a coin, before falling on one side and emitting a projection. Light illuminated the room, and the warm, booming laugh of All Might filled the air, as the blond, muscular hero announced his presence.

“I am here as a projection!” the Number One hero proclaimed, leaning into the camera.

“All Might?!” Kórinis gasped, “I thought this letter was from U.A.”

“Shhh!” Sarah hushed. “He’ll probably explain it.”

“I’m going to assume that both of the Kurusu sisters are present, but if one of them isn’t, this projection can be paused by pressing the top.” All Might paused for a second, his signature grin remaining in place. “Right, now I’ll assume you both are here, and I’ll begin. To start with, I want to congratulate the two of you. You both passed with flying colours, in both the Practical as well as Written Exams. Even though the Practical is weighed more heavily for those in the Hero Course, you both did well. Good job!”

“Now, on to your individual reviews,” All Might said, holding out a remote and pressing a button, causing a screen behind him to light up. On it were details of Kórinis’ application, as well as still images of her during her Practical Exam. “Kórinis Kurusu, you were assigned to Testing Grounds Alpha, one of our specialised Testing Grounds based off of a suburban environment. Throughout the ten minutes you had, you managed to gain a total of sixty-nine villain points, well done!”

Kórinis grinned at the display as the numbers flashed up on the screen, thinking that was all. Her expression however grew confused as All Might continued.

“While that certainly would have been enough on its own for you to pass, that’s not all! There was also a secret category that our panel of judges gave you points for: Rescue Points! Awarded for heroic acts and deeds, these were a secret ranking that were designed to reward those who prioritised doing the right thing over basic combat. And look at this!”

All Might pressed another button on his remote, showing images of Kórinis creating the massive mass of webs that slowed down the Zero-pointer.

“You took down a Zero-pointer?” Sarah said, her expression stunned as she looked at her younger sister in shock.

“Eh he, with a little help,” Kórinis admitted, rubbing the back of her head.

“Not only did you prevent the Zero-pointer from causing any more collateral damage after you and your teammate defeated it, but the judges also awarded points on what you said earlier.”

The screen changed again, this time a video taken from a camera that had recorded Kórinis’ conversation with a male student, who had spikey, ash blond hair.

“‘Look, when a big, nasty villain shows up in town, you expect the heroes to take care of it before anyone is hurt. That Zero-pointer, that’s a real nasty villain. So who are you going to be, Firecracker? Are you going to be All Might, Endeavor, one of the top Pros who swoop in and save the day, or are you going to be like the local heroes who stand back, claiming their quirks aren’t suited for the fight?’”

The video paused, and the camera focused back onto All Might. “Thanks to my morning routine of moisturisation, I keep my young looks,” All Might joked, but his voice slowly became more serious. “However, the fact remains that I am growing old. I’m no longer as powerful as I once was, and one day I will have to retire. Unfortunately, too many Pros have become reliant on the chart toppers to save the day. Many are calling it Bystander Syndrome, and it threatens to bring down hero society as a whole. But to hear such conviction coming from you, such bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, fills me with confidence, young Kurusu.”

“As such,” All Might said, pointing to the screen where Kórinis’ sixty-nine villain points showed, “our judges gave you an additional thirty-five Rescue Points, bringing your grand total to a whopping one hundred and four points, and placing you in third place in the practical exam!”

Sarah and Kórinis both screamed for joy, quickly embracing each other in celebration.

“Now,” All Might continued, causing the sisters to quieten down, “onto young Sarah Kurusu, the eldest child of the Kurusu family. Sarah Kurusu, you were placed in Testing Grounds Omega, another of our specialised testing grounds, this time a forest environment. During your allocated ten minutes, you gained a total of forty-six villain points.”

“Not bad,” Kórinis chuckled, both glad Sarah did as well as she had, but privately happy that she had done better than her older sister.

“However, as I mentioned, Rescue Points were also taken into consideration. So take a look at this!”

The screen changed to short clips of Sarah and a rocky headed boy racing through the woods of Testing Grounds Omega. It showed them finding various students who were trapped underneath fallen trees, rescuing each and everyone one of them.

“Even after the Practical Exam ended, you and young Koda continued your rescues, going above and beyond the call of duty. And it’s not just me saying that.”

Once more, the screen changed, now showing clips of students that Sarah and Koda had rescued, each of them either informing the teachers present about two students who had saved them, as well as those who wanted to pass on their thanks.

“How could our school not reward such selfless actions? That’s why, young Kurusu, not only did you receive forty-six villain points-”

-The screen brought up Sarah’s combat points-

“-but both you and young Koda received sixty rescue points, the maximum we can award!”

Sarah had her mouth wide open in shock, while Kórinis was counting in her head what her sister’s score was, her eyes widening.

“Wait a minute,” Kórinis said, turning to her sister and grabbing her by the shoulders, a smile rapidly growing on her face. “That means-”

“That means, young Kurusu, that you have achieved an incredible total of one hundred and six points, placing you in second place!”

Kórinis cheered, pulling her sister into a hug. Sarah was unresponsive for a moment, stunned by her score, before snapping out of it and pulling Kórinis into a tight hug, gently crying into her younger sister’s shoulder.

“As a side note,” All Might added, leaning into the camera with a hand by his mouth, as if whispering a fact only meant for them, “your score, young Sarah Kurusu, was only four points shy of tying with my record back in the day, one hundred and ten. Well done, well done indeed.”

“Oh my God,” Kórinis whispered, “you almost beat All Might’s Entrance Exam score. All Might's!”

“Mhm,” Sarah nodded, not trusting her voice as tears continued to stream down her face.

“Now, one final thing,” All Might concluded. “You must both be wondering, ‘Why is All Might presenting our results?’ Well, young ladies, that’s because you are looking at U.A.’s latest teacher of their Heroics Program.”

All Might leaned towards the camera, extending out his hands, almost as if he were reaching through the hologram himself.

“Welcome, young Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, to your new Hero Academy. I look forward to seeing the both of you in class. Plus Ultra!”

The hologram ended, removing the light from the room. Sarah and Kórinis simply sat there, both still holding onto each other for support. They remained there for several minutes, only being taken out of their trance when they heard a knock at the door.

“Sarah, Kórinis?” they heard Centorea ask from outside their room. “Do you want to come out now?”

Both sisters got up, Sarah in particular wiping her tears from her eyes and face, and blowing into a tissue that Kórinis offered up. Grabbing the door handle together, the two sisters stepped out of their room, greeted to the sight of their entire family; their father, each of their respective mothers, their five aunts, and ten siblings.

“Well, what’s the answer?” Rachnera asked, her arms draped over their father’s shoulders.

The two sisters looked at each other, smiles appearing on their faces, before turning back to their family.

““We’re in.””

Suffice to say, the Kurusu household had quite a celebration that night.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Katsuki sat at his desk, the light from a lap being the only source of illumination in his room. The letter from U.A. had arrived in the mail after dinner, and Katsuki took it up to his room, the Old Hag surprisingly silent about the whole thing. She hadn’t insisted that Katsuki play it in the lounge, instead she had simply given him a nod, showing she had no issues with him watching it alone.

‘She can be surprisingly considerate,’ Katsuki thought to himself, his gaze never leaving the unopened letter. ‘Well, whenever she isn’t yelling her head off.’

What caused Katsuki’s hesitation over opening the letter wasn’t whether or not he had passed, he was certain he had. No, the issue causing him to hesitate was whether or not he had come first. Had he wasted his time with the Zero-pointer, or had Silks been right?

He opened the letter, and out dropped a small, metallic disk. The top of it lit up, creating a projection of a large, smiling figure that Katsuki immediately recognised.

“All Might?” he wondered aloud.

“Ha ha ha,” All Might said, giving his signature laugh, “I am here as a projection.”

“Young Bakugo,” the No. 1 began, “congratulations on your Entrance Exam. It shouldn’t go as any surprise, but you have passed, and secured one of the thirty-six slots available for the U.A. Hero Course.”

Katsuki held his breath. He knew he had passed, now all he needed to know if he had made the right choice.

“To start with, you performed incredibly well on the written portion for the Entrance Exam,” All Might explained. “You certainly haven’t skipped out on your academic training to focus on your quirk training, that’s for sure.”

“Now, in terms of your points,” All Might said, pointing a remote at a screen behind him. The screen displayed images of Katsuki’s battles throughout the Entrance Exam. “You were assigned to Testing Grounds Alpha, and scored a very impressive seventy-one villain points.”

Katsuki’s eyes widened, and he took a deep breath.

“Unfortunately, the Zero-pointer wasn’t a deception; it really was worth zero villain points,” All Might explained, his voice serious and empathetic, even as his perpetual smile remained.

Katsuki gripped his pants, his teeth biting down on his lower lip to stop it from trembling. So this was it. All of that effort for nothing. The shitty Zero-pointer wasn’t worth a damn thing.

“However,” All Might said, snapping Katsuki out of his thoughts, “while the Zero-pointer was worth zero VILLAIN points, that wasn’t to say it was worth nothing.”

He pressed the button again, showing Katsuki fighting against the Zero-pointer, the image perfectly capturing the sheer difference in size between the organic and synthetic fighters.

“A hero's job is to fight against the odds, no matter the circumstances. Even if the villain is much bigger than us, we fight them to protect the people, even if it puts us in harm's way.”

All Might changed the screen again, stepping to the side. This time it showed the two extras who had gotten in the Zero-pointer’s way.

“Additionally,” he began, “these two came to the staff after the Written Exams. Let’s have a listen to what they had to say, hmm?”

“Excuse me?” one of the extras said, the one with the red hair. “We were in Testing Grounds Alpha, and there was a boy there who was working with another student to take down the Zero-pointer. He was injured because of us, if he hadn’t had to warn us to move, that villain bot wouldn’t have hit him. Is there any way we can help him?”

Her black haired friend spoke up. “Even if we have to give him our points, he saved our lives. We just wandered into a dangerous area, not thinking about where we were going.”

The video paused, and All Might sidestepped back into the centre frame. 

“There we have it, two students who saw you as a hero, and you haven’t even had your first day of class yet,” he laughed. “Fortunately, U.A.’s Entrance Exam had a hidden grading system, Rescue Points! Given to students who acted in a heroic, selfless manner."

“And you, young Bakugo,” All Might said, turning once more the screen, “earned forty rescue points, bringing your grand total to one hundred and eleven points!”

Katsuki was stunned, so much so he could barely breathe. This was the moment, he knew it, what came out of All Might’s mouth next was what he had been waiting for.

“Your score, an astonishing number, has placed you firmly in first place. Well done, young Bakugo, for being first amongst your peers.”

Katsuki didn’t roar in victory, nor did he smirk in self assured success. He grasped his chest, trying to hold his heart, which seemed to be beating a thousand beats a second. He had done it, he was first. He and Silks’ plan had worked.

“Now, there are two points left I want to mention,” All Might stated, pointing a thumb at himself. “You’ve probably wondered by now why I, All Might, Number One Pro Hero in Japan, are telling you your results for U.A. Well, that’s because you’re looking at U.A.’s newest Heroics teacher.”

Katsuki’s jaw dropped. All Might. THE All Might. Was going to be his teacher at U.A.

“And one last thing,” All Might added, his grin seeming to grow to a painful width with how wide it was. “It is my great pleasure to announce that you, Katsuki Bakugo, have set a new record for U.A.’s Practical portion of the Entrance Exam.”

Katsuki didn’t move, he didn’t blink, he didn’t even dare to breathe.

‘Does that mean-’

“You, Katsuki Bakugo, with a score of one hundred and eleven total points, have bested my own score of one hundred and ten. A score that held the record for forty years, only now being beaten. Well done, young Bakugo.”

Katsuki felt tears well up in his eyes, but this time he didn’t try to stop them. These ones he’d allow.

All Might leaned towards the camera, holding out his hand to Katsuki. “Welcome, young Bakugo, to your new Hero Academy. I look forward to teaching such a promising young pupil.”

The hologram video ended, the small metal disk shutting off. Katsuki didn’t move from his seat, simply sitting there, crying tears of joy and relief. He stayed there for a while, only after he had calmed down did he venture downstairs. After all, his mother wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if she found out he had been bawling out his eyes because he passed. But maybe he’ll tell her about beating All Might’s record. That should give her a shock.

And that’s a wrap, my largest chapter EVER finally finished. 11,000+ words, crazy to think this is after I cut it in half, and published the first half as its own chapter, which by itself was 6,000+ words. I was joking to my brother that at the rate I was writing, I was going to have a chapter double the size of the first one. Not going to lie, I got close to that joke no longer being a joke.

So, we just completed the Entrance Exam. Izuku had a slightly better time of it (and by slightly better, I mean by one point.) In fact, here are the top ten scorers for the Practical Portion of the Entrance Exam:

Katsuki Bakugo  

Villain Points: 71

Rescue Points: 40

Total Points: 111

Rank: 1st

Sarah Kurusu

Villain Points: 46

Rescue Points: 60

Total: 106

Rank: 2nd

Kórinis Kurusu

Villain Points: 69

Rescue Points: 35

Total Points: 104

Rank: 3rd

Koji Koda

Villain Points: 22

Rescue Points: 60

Total Points: 82

Rank: 4th

Eijiro Kirishima

Villain Points: 39

Rescue Points: 35

Total Points: 74

Rank: 5th

Ochako Uraraka

Villain Points: 28

Rescue Points: 45

Total Points: 73

Rank: 6th

Ibara Shiozaki

Villain Points: 36

Rescue Points: 32

Total Points: 68

Rank: 7th

Itsuka Kendo  

Villain Points: 25

Rescue Points: 40

Total Points: 65

Rank: 8th

Tenya Ida

Villain Points: 52

Rescue Points: 10

Total Points: 62

Rank: 9th

Izuku Midoriya

Villain Points: 1

Rescue Points: 60

Total Points: 61

Rank: 10th

Yeah, so there were a few changes. First of all, because Izuku took out a One-pointer in this version (not a lot, but every point counts) he gained 61 points instead of 60 that he gets in canon. Fun fact as well, with just one point, he and Tenya would be tied. This is because in canon Tenya gets a total of 61 points; 52 villain points and 9 rescue points. Now, in this version of canon, I decided to give Tenya an extra rescue point, and there are two reasons: First, he has Sarah as a best friend and rival. I believe that the daughter of everyone’s favourite Centaur would help Tenya be a true hero, just like his brother Ingenium. In case anyone missed it, Ingenium, a.k.a. Tensei Ida, is the former work study and sidekick of Cavalry, a.k.a. Centorea. Timeline wise, Tensei was in his first year when Sarah was born, so my canon is that Centorea took him on as a work study after the Sports Festival, she then paused her hero career because she gave birth to Sarah, as well as the fact there are six other infants in the household (Kimihito, you mad lad). After Tensei graduates, or perhaps in his final year, Centorea once again offers him the position of a work study, and later a sidekick. This is my way of explaining why Tensei is such a nice guy in canon, as he had Centorea, who comes from a centuries long line of noble warriors, teaching him how to be a hero. This also cements the bond between Sarah and Tenya, as they were both born around the same time.

Second, I simply didn’t want Tenya and Izuku to be tied. I really liked the fact that my changes resulted in Izuku being placed tenth rather than seventh as he is in canon, so I wanted to keep it that way. Don’t know why I like it, just feels better.

Now, Koji. Koji in canon is strong, really strong. Dude’s built like a house. My reasoning is that he gets some villain points, enough to pass. However, Sarah being there causes him to help her, because while he is shy, he does want to be a hero; he’s simply a nice boy. Rescue points are also O.P., so those rescue points jump him all the way from below tenth place to fourth place. Sarah and Kórinis are self explanatory, but Katsuki is something I want to mention. Let’s think about this, Katsuki came first in the canon Entrance Exams, with ZERO rescue points. This version of him had Kórinis saying just the right words to get him to help, inadvertently causing him to gain rescue points. I also wanted him to break All Might’s record to highlight the fact that if Katsuki was a little nicer from the start, he would be a damn good hero. This is because-

MAJOR SERIES FINALE SPOILERS!!!!

-at the end of the series we hear how Katsuki and Shoto are constantly jostling for first place as heroes in Japan. Will this event make him nice from the start? Nope. But it’s just that, a start. 

Review time!

Foodmoon, thanks for your correction and review. I’ll address both of them here. 

First, hot damn, I completely forgot about Toru! Guess that's fitting what with her being invisible. Thanks for pointing it out, nothing changes really, but I can spoil that Toru will have more screen time. Fun fact, the Arachne heteromorph species are able to see in the Ultraviolet spectrum, specifically from Ultraviolet to Green in the colour spectrum, just like most spiders in real life. My headcanon is that because of this, Kórinis and her mother, along with most of the Arachne species and subspecies have protanopia, which is red-blind deficiency. This means she can see in the ultraviolet, see through the colour spectrum up until green perfectly fine, and then anything past that is iffy. This is an issue that most species of spiders have in real life, the notable exception being jumping spiders, with the heteromorph equivalent being the Small Breed Arachne subspecies, that conveniently debuted this chapter. The more you know…

Secondly, thanks for the praise. Yes, Tenya is going to be a bit more chill in this timeline, having some friends in his life likely affected him in a positive way. We never hear Tenya mentioning his friends or past at Somei, so my take is that due to his family being generational Pro Heroes, it likely created a barrier around him, even at an Elite Private Academy. Sarah and Kórinis don’t have that issue, due to Centorea being a fellow generational Pro Hero AND being Tensei’s mentor, and Kórinis being Sarah’s sister and best friend. The Idas in this version would be close to the Kurusus through Centorea, so Tenya would have had friends from the start. Obviously he will still have his physical ticks (his hands chops are simply too cute to get rid of), but he will be more considerate than in canon. 

Anyway, that’s all from me. Remember, this is your last chance to guess who is being kicked out of 1-A. It probably is obvious by now, but whoever guesses both characters correctly gets an O.C.

See you next time…

- Jevm

P.S. This end note was so long, I couldn't put it in the End Notes box. Crazy...

Chapter Text

As Shota Aizawa sat at his desk going over the roster of students he would be teaching as their homeroom teacher for this year, he couldn’t help but sigh, resting his head in his hands.

He had only arrived back home in the late hours of the night, having completed a fairly uneventful patrol. The life of an underground hero was a mixed bag; on one hand, no pesky reporters, journalists or paparazzi hounding you every time you needed to go outside and grab some groceries. On the other hand, late night patrols were very taxing, on both the body and mind. Not only did he have to stay up and active late into the night, often coming back home only hours before dawn, but night time seemed to draw out the worst kinds of people. Drug dealers, human traffickers, and sick minded individuals all seemed to emerge out of the woodworks when the Sun went down, moving about the deserted streets like rats.

Dealing with a skewed sleep cycle, an active job as a teacher, and coming home bruised and battered, often made him exhausted throughout the rest of the day. It was one of the reasons why he had continually turned down Emi’s advances; she deserved someone more than him. He didn’t want to get her hopes up, only for them to shatter when he was found dead in some alleyway. No, he preferred the way they were now; her constantly trying to make him laugh and fall for her, and him doing his all to resist both of her attempts, the former more successfully than the latter.

After he had arrived back at his small, sparse apartment, he quietly made his way through to avoid waking up his cat, Nemui. Deciding he might as well look at what kind of students he was going to deal with this year, he grabbed a can of coffee from the fridge, tied up his long, black hair into a messy bun, sat down at his desk and booted up his computer.

Last year's students had all been a mess. They all assumed they could slack off, take it easy. He was quick to crush that ideology, expelling each one of them on the first day. He re-enrolled them later in the week of course, not even he was willing to risk annoying Principal Nezu, but the shock did the job. Sure, each and every one of them were terrified of him, but that was the price he’d pay to make them get their act together. An unfortunate part of being a teacher of hero trainees was the fact that their profession was anything but safe, and he’d be damned if he had to go to another student’s funeral. He’d gone to too many as it was, and he wanted to spare his students that pain, even if it was only for a year longer. 

This all led to his current situation. Going through the roster of students, he’d managed to identify six who were likely to be problem children in his class. He knew why The Rat gave him the first-year problem children over Kan, his Erasure quirk allowed him to handle them easily, but knowing the reason and liking it were two separate things.

The first of the problem children was one Izuku Midoriya, hailing from Shizuoka. His file showed a nervous looking teen, with freckles on his cheeks that formed diamonds, messy green hair, and bright green eyes filled with hope. 

During the practical for the Entrance Exam, he had completely destroyed the Zero-pointer that was assigned to the testing grounds, halting its rampage.

‘Maijima wasn’t happy when that happened,’ Shota smirked, remembering his colleague’s reaction while they watched the students participate in the Practical from the Viewing Room.

However, upon reviewing the footage and reading the notes that Recovery Girl had made, Shota realised that in the process of stopping the Zero-pointer, Midoriya had destroyed his right arm and both of his legs.

‘An unstable quirk?’ Shota wondered, theories racing through his mind. ‘With how illogical modern society is, with a strength quirk like that it’s likely that he’s never had any opportunity to test it out, what with the damage it can apparently cause. But why was he born with a quirk so ill suited to his body? Maybe it stockpiles strength, and he can release it in a burst of energy? Did adrenaline cause him to surpass his mental limiter?’

Given that the young boy had scored full marks on Rescue Points, one of three this year, he seemed to have a hero's heart, but heart alone wouldn’t be enough.

‘I’ll have to keep an eye on that one,’ Shota noted. Even if it would be cruel of him to crush a child’s dream of being a hero, if the boy couldn’t gain control over his power without causing harm to himself, then Shota’s conscience couldn’t allow the boy to stay enrolled at U.A.

The next problem child was one Katsuki Bakugo, also from Shizuoka. His file image showed a teen with a cocky smile, ash-blond hair, and red eyes filled with arrogance. According to his file, Bakugo and Midoriya attended the same middle school, Aldera Junior High. 

During Bakugo’s Entrance Exam, he had also taken down the Zero-pointer assigned to his Testing Grounds, although he required the help of a fellow student, and the Zero-pointer wasn’t nearly as destroyed as the one in Testing Grounds Beta. 

Instead, what caught Shota’s attention was the points Bakugo had gained, as well as his quirk.

‘That’s right, this one’s the record breaker,’ Shota mused to himself, remembering the fuss the other staff members were making over All Might’s old record from his youth being broken. He knew that All Might would have congratulated Bakugo in his hologram letter, so it was likely that the student was going to have a high opinion of himself. Joy.

The second thing that caught his attention was his quirk. Quirks often expressed themselves in their host’s personality; someone with a fire quirk would likely be hot tempered, while someone with an ice quirk would likely be cold and distant. For the kid to have a quirk that allowed him to create explosions from his hands likely meant he had an equally explosive personality.

‘God, why can’t I have a normal class, just for once?’ Shota pleaded, having in exaggeration and half in a genuine, desperate plea.

The fact that Midoriya and Bakugo were likely to be the lesser of the problem children wasn’t lost on Shota.

Next on the list of children who were going to cause him to lose sleep from stress were the sisters of his class, Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, both hailing from Saitama, with their files showing a profile picture of the two.

Sarah had blond hair tied up behind her, a ponytail from what Shota saw on the footage, blue eyes and equine ears on the side of her head. He knew from seeing her in action that she was a Centaur heteromorph, but even if he hadn’t, he would have been able to guess. Even though she preferred to separate her hero and private identities, something Shota could agree with, Centorea Kurusu, the Knight Hero: Calvary, was known within the hero business as an honourable fighter, hailing from the prestigious Shianus line. Having emerged onto the hero scene before Shota had attended U.A. as a first-year student, and being an alma mater of U.A. herself, Shota figured that he was going to have his hands full with teaching her daughter.

The other Kurusu child, Kórinis, was different to her older sister. Having paler skin, lavender hair that hung loose, six eyes that were a solid red in colour, as well as a row of sharp teeth, she definitely gave off a wilder look as an Arachne compared to her sister’s kind and calm appearance as a Centaur, not helped by the fact she had helped Bakugo to take down the Zero-pointer. But Shota knew appearances could be misleading, so he’d have to know the two better before deciding anything. 

Even though Kórinis and Sarah didn’t share many facial features, or even share the same species, they did share the fact of having famous mothers. 

Rachnera Kurusu was world famous as a clothing designer, operating two independent companies. The first, Wonder Webs, specialised in clothing that was not only light and flexible, but also strong and durable, perfect for hero costumes that didn’t require any special gadgets or upgrades. The second company, Woman’s Webs, specialised in women's lingerie, especially the more risque variety. Due to him having Nemuri as a friend, he had been on the receiving end of her constant praises for the Arachne, much to the private embarrassment of himself and Yamada, who were socially obligated to listen to their friend talk.

The fact that both students were heteromorphs meant that his quirk would be useless against them. Sure, he could stop Bakugo from igniting his explosive sweat, or stop young Ashido from producing acid from her body, but those were non-biological creations, a result of their quirk. The Kurusu sisters, along with one Mashirao Ojiro and one Tsuyu Asui, were the three within his class that had true heteromorphic quirks, even if Ojiro was the only one to not be a heteromorph. 

The difference between these three compared to their future classmates who had similar quirks, such as one Mezo Shoji and Minoru Mineta, with the quirks Dupli-Arms and Pop Off respectively, was that their quirks couldn’t be shut down, due to them being an inherently biological function. Shoji, with the ability to create body parts from his large arms, and then extensions from his extensions, could have his ability to create more body parts such as eyes, ears or hands halted when under Shota’s quirk’s effect. The ones already made would remain, that was the nature of a mutant quirk, but he would be stuck with what he had already made.

A heteromorphic quirk on the other hand, and heteromorphs by extension, were purely biological, with organs and body parts constantly present. For example, Shota wouldn’t be able to use his quirk to stop young Kórinis Kurusu from producing webs from her spinnerets, because her ability to create webs didn’t come from a quirk’s ability, but from a biological organ in her body. The same with Ojiro and his tail, his quirk amounted to making his hair float and his eyes gleam in the presence of their quirks. Now, if one of them had a secondary, non-biological quirk, then he would be able to erase that quirk as usual, but that was a separate matter.

The fifth problem child was one Shoto Todoroki, yet another from Shizuoka, and the youngest son of Enji Todoroki, the Flame Hero: Endeavor, current No. 2 Pro Hero in Japan, as well as the grandson of Hakka Todoroki, the former Pro Hero Salamander. His relatives clearly had faith in him, seeing how Todoroki was one of the four students admitted into the Hero Course from the Recommendation Exam. 

His file showed an image of a teen with long red hair, swept over the right side of his face, covering it completely. His left eye was an icy blue, contrasting against the stark red of his hair. What the colour of his right eye was, Shota didn’t know. But despite the flawless quality of his skin, with no freckles, blemishes, spots or scars in sight, Shota noticed the look young Todoroki had in his gaze. It was firm, tempered, the gaze of someone who had seen too much at too young of an age. That gaze, as well as the high position of power and authority his relatives held, made Shota make a mental note to keep an eye on the student through the school year. If it was worse than he thought, Inui might have a student show up for Teacher Mandated Counseling.

The final problem child, and the one Shota was worried the most about, was Momo Yaoyorozu, who came from Aichi, and the second Recommendation Student in his class. Her file showed her as a mature looking teenager, with good looks, long, black hair tied up into a spiky ponytail, with a long strand framing the right side of her face. Immediately, her family name singled her out in Shota’s mind as a member of the 1% of the 1%. The Yaoyorozu family, wealthy beyond belief, were the owners and founders of the Yaoyorozu Conglomerate. Having influence in almost every corner of the business world, from fashion, to Support Gear, even to weapon manufacturing and distribution, the Yaoyorozus were world famous, with young Yaoyorozu being the next in line. However, the fact that she was applying at U.A. made Shota wonder if the Yaoyorozus were trying to expand into the hero business as well. Given how powerful her quirk, Creation, was, Shota didn’t doubt the potential she had.

‘Oh well,’ Shota shrugged, turning off his computer after his work was done. ‘She got in on Recommendation, and the Principal isn’t one to be swayed by wealth or power. Given his relationship with the H.P.S.C. it would be more accurate to say that the more power you have, the less liked you are by him.’

Shota flopped onto his bed, too tired to care that he was sleeping in his hero costume. It didn’t matter, he did it all the time in class whenever he tried to catch up on sleep he had missed the night before.

‘This year is going to be eventful, that’s for sure,’ Shota thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep. ‘What did I do to deserve this?’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Izuku, have you got your pocket tissues?!” Inko Midoriya, mother to Izuku Midoriya, asked her son, who was in the process of rushing through the house, getting everything ready for his first day at U.A.

Yeah,” he absentmindedly replied from the bathroom, giving himself one final look over.

“And your handkerchief?! Have you got that?!” she added, poking her head into the apartment’s bathroom, only to pull back as Izuku rushed past her.

“Yes!” he replied with an exasperated voice. “I’ve got it! No time, gotta hurry…”

“Izuku!” his mother called out one final time.

“What?!” he asked, looking over his shoulder as he pulled up the back of his red shoes. His annoyed expression fell as he saw the warm smile his mother looked at him with, tears in her eyes.

“You look great,” was all she said.

Izuku hesitated at the door, returning his mother’s smile with one of his own. “See you later.”

Rushing to the station, Izuku caught a short train ride to the U.A. campus, surrounded by high walls with the large, four pillar building towering above the barriers.

Running through the glass walled corridors, Izuku counted the rooms, trying to find the class he had been assigned to.

“Class 1-A, class 1-A," he muttered, before pulling to a stop before a large, towering door with ‘1-A’ emblazoned on the front.

“What a giant door,” Izuku gasped, looking up in shock at the sheer size of his classroom's door, more than three times his height, 5 m (16’4”) tall if he had to guess. “I guess it has to be accessible to everyone.”

‘Only one in three hundred passed the Entrance Exam,’ Izuku thought to himself, reaching for the door handle. ‘Thirty six students in the Hero Course, across two classrooms means eighteen per class. Add in the top scorers in the Recommendation Exams, four of them in total, split across the classes means a total class size of twenty.’

“It’ll be just the elites from the exams,” Izuku muttered, slowly opening the door. “I hope Kacchan and that scary guy are in the other class.”

But as soon as Izuku opened the door, he was blasted by the sound of the noisy classroom within. Well, two of its noisy occupants.

“Remove your foot from that desk! Such an action is insulting to those who came to U.A. before us as well as the craftsmen who made the desk!”

“Like I care. What middle school are you from, you extra?”

‘They’re both here,’ Izuku deadpanned, already accepting his fate.

In the middle of the classroom sat Kacchan, leaning in his seat and resting one foot on the desk. Standing above him was the scary blue-haired student from the Entrance Exam, the one who scolded him during Present Mic’s presentation as well as confronting him before the practical portion of the exam even began. Both were dressed in the U.A. uniform, wearing a long-sleeve, button-up white shirt, a grey blazer with blue-green stripes on the collar and hem of the sleeves, and dark blue-green pants. The scary student was wearing a red tie, same as Izuku, though his tie was done up better than his own. Kacchan on the other hand didn’t wear one, even having the top button of his shirt undone.

“I-I’m from Somei Private Academy,” the bluenet said, likely taken aback by Kacchan’s habit of referring to those he viewed as far beneath him as extras. “My name is Tenya Ida.”

“Somei?” Kacchan scoffed with a feral grin. “A stuck-up elitist, then? I should blow you to bits.”

“Hey now, Dynamite, don’t go assuming all of us private school kids are the same as Glasses.”

Izuku whirled around, having to look up at the towering figure who stood behind him. It was the purple-haired Arachne girl from the Entrance Exam, Kórinis if he remembered the name her friend referred to her as. Though he wasn’t sure if that was her given name or family name, it didn’t sound Japanese.

He stepped aside as the Arachne strode into the room, making a beeline for Kacchan and Ida. He tried to give her a warning about Kacchan’s volatile personality, but he was stopped by the words Kacchan said.

“Huh, you in this class too, Silks?”

‘Silks?’ Izuku thought in disbelief. ‘Not extra, not you, but a nickname? Is Kacchan making friends?’

“What, you doubted I’d get in?” the Arachne questioned teasingly as she stood beside him, bending over to reduce the height difference. “Really, Dynamite, I’m hurt by your lack of confidence.”

“Tch,” Kacchan scoffed, looking away. “Like hell I doubted you’d get in, not with the amount of points you got. I was just worried there wouldn’t be anyone worth my time here.”

He looked back at her, a smirk on his face. “At least now I know there is someone to occupy the second place position.”

‘Ah,’ Izuku nodded to himself, ‘Not a friend, simply a rival.’

While Kacchan and the Arachne student continued to talk, Ida looked over at Izuku.

‘Wait,’ Izuku realised, turning his head, ‘he’s not looking at me, he’s looking behind me.’

Standing behind him was the kind Centaur girl from the Entrance Exam, the friend of the Arachne named Kórinis. Like her friend, she towered over Izuku, who barely came up to her chin.

“Are you alright?” she asked, looking down at Izuku with a kind look. “Class will be starting soon, so we should all take our seats.”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” Izuku apologised, quickly stepping into the classroom and out of the doorway, allowing the Centaur to walk calmly into the classroom.

Izuku noticed Ida walking over to them, tensing as the tall male student looked at him.

“I’m from Somei Private Academy, my name is-”

“Tenya Ida, I heard you before,” Izuku interrupted, his hands held up before him as he shook from both nerves and fear. “I’m Izuku Midoriya, pleased to meet you.”

Ida then turned to the Centaur girl, giving her a nod. “Sarah, I’m glad to see we were assigned to the same class.”

“Me too, Tenya, it’s always fun to have friends with you every day,” she smiled.

‘Tenya?’ Izuku wondered. ‘That’s his first name, right? They’re on a first name basis already? They can’t have met only today for them to both know each other, maybe the Entrance Exam? No, wait, she and her friend were wearing the same uniform as Ida. I never thought about it until now, but it might be that they are from the same middle school. That Arachne girl did mention that not all students who attend private schools are elitists, so they both likely went to Somei as well, or maybe a rival private academy? Wait, Ida did mention that his friend had sensitive hearing, and horses do have more sensitive hearing than regular humans, so it isn’t a stretch to assume that she has enhanced hearing as part of her quirk…’

“Um, are you alright?” the Centaur student asked, a sweat drop trailing down the side of her face in confusion. “You’re mumbling up a storm there.”

“Oops,” Izuku yelped, clamping his hands over his mouth. His internal dialogue hadn’t been quite so internal after all.

“Sorry about that,” he apologised, his voice muffled as it came through both of his hands. “I have a habit of mumbling.”

“Yes, I remember,” she chuckled. “You were the one who was mumbling throughout Present Mic’s speech, right?”

Izuku flinched at that reminder. “Oh, um, yes, sorry, that was me.”

“Oh, please don’t think I am condemning you for it,” she quickly said, “it’s just that I never realised the student my sister saved was the same boy who could mumble up a storm. Your notes on Present Mic were truly, uh, extensive.”

“Oh, they weren’t that impressive, collecting hero notes is simply a hobby,” Izuku blushed, rubbing the back of his head with a hand, before abruptly stopping as her words sank in. “Wait, sister?”

He turned his gaze back to where Kacchan and the Arachne student were, still engrossed in their conversation.

“So, what was your final score?” the Arachne asked, checking her nails, and Izuku realised that both of her hands were covered in a black, chitinous material. “I’m sitting on a nice, juicy total of one hundred and four.”

“Ha,” Kacchan barked out a laugh, “one hundred and eleven. Seems you really are taking second place.”

“Wish that was the case, Dynamite, but second place in the entrance exam goes to my big sis, one hundred and six,” she explained, jabbing a sharp looking thumb over her shoulder to where Izuku, Ida and his friend were standing.

Kacchan looked over, inadvertently taking notice of Izuku standing by the doorway. He scowled, as Izuku expected he would, causing Izuku to turn away, paying attention to the conversation next to him.

“I’m sorry, Sarah, I didn’t realise that there would have been a hidden nature to the exams. Truly I am a failure to the Ida family,” Ida lamented, his head low as he bowed to his awkward looking friend.

“Well, I’m glad you’re reflecting on what you did wrong in the exam, Tenya, but I’m not sure if that should have been your takeaway from it…”

“And you, Midoriya,” Ida continued, rounding on Izuku, “you too perceived the true nature of the Practical Exam, while I did not.”

“I misjudged you,” he exclaimed, his hands held flat in front of him vertically, as if stuck in a frozen hand chop. “I hate to admit it, but you were the superior candidate, even if you were ranked lower than I.”

Izuku stammered, not sure what to say in response. He looked behind Ida to the kind Centaur girl, but she only smiled at her friend, rolling her eyes in what Izuku could only guess was kindhearted exasperation.

“Ah, that curly hair!” a voice cried out from behind Izuku.

Looking behind him, he saw it was the brown haired girl from the Entrance Exam, the same one who tried to catch him before the tests, as well as the one who he saved from the Zero-pointer, and she in turn saved him from the fall.

“You got in just like Present Mic said!” she cheered, her voice filled with excitement, swinging her right arm up and down. “Make sense though! That punch was awesome!”

“No, I mean, I have you to thank for speaking on my behalf,” Izuku stammered, one hand rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment while the other covered his now incredibly red face.

‘She’s so nice, and she looks cute in that uniform!’ he screamed in his mind, this time making sure that it remained in his mind.

“Ah, I see you passed the Entrance Exam as well,” Ida remarked, nodding his head in greetings to the gravity girl. “My name is Tenya Ida, it is a pleasure to meet you and see you in good health.”

“Oh, you were the speedster at the exams,” the brunette said. “You were really fast, no wonder you made it in.”

She turned her attention to the Centaur girl, skipping over Izuku who was still trying to regain control over his blushing face. “And you are…?”

“Sarah, Sarah Kurusu,” Kurusu curtsied, lifting the sides of her uniform’s skirt. “Tenya mentioned you in his recounting of his exams, he says you have a very powerful quirk.”

“Oh, it’s not that much, only really good as a rescue hero,” the brown haired girl blushed, waving away Kurusu’s compliments before turning her attention back to the group as a whole. 

“So we’ve got our entrance ceremony and guidance sessions today, yeah?” she rambled. “Wonder what our teacher’ll be like? Boy, I’m nervous.”

Izuku, having finally calmed down his emotions, teenage hormones and face, was about to give his thought when a voice from the corridor spoke.

“If you’re here to socialise, then get out.”

Izuku, Ida, Kurusu and the nice girl looked behind them. Laying on the floor was a large, yellow sleeping bag, inside of which lay a dishevelled looking man, his face covered in stubble, his hair long and messy, and his eyes bloodshot.

“This is the hero course,” the man said, pulling out a juice pack and draining it dry near instantaneously, slowly making his way up.

The entire classroom’s attention was focused on this strange man, who after removing himself from the sleeping bag, revealed to be a lean adult, who wore a black outfit, a belt with pouches, and some sort of long, white scarf wrapped around his neck.

“It took eight seconds for you to quiet down,” the man spoke in a monotone, somewhat bored voice. “Time is a precious resource. You lot aren’t very rational, are you?”

‘Is he a Pro Hero too?’ Izuku wondered. ‘He doesn’t look familiar, and he seems so haggard and tired.’

“I’m your homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Pleased to meet you,” the teacher introduced, shocking much of the class that this man wasn’t only a Pro Hero, wasn’t only a teacher at U.A., but also THEIR teacher, and their homeroom teacher at that.

The teacher reached into his sleeping bag, pulling out multiple P.E. uniforms, consisting of dark blue pants with white vertical lines going up the legs and a dark blue short sleeve shirt with white lines that formed the letters 'U' and 'A'.

“Quickly now, change into your gym clothes and head out to the grounds,” he explained, holding up a set of gym clothes to show the class. Many of the students stepped forward cautiously, grabbing a set of the unisex clothing.

“Before anyone leaves,” Mr. Aizawa said, causing everyone in the class to freeze where they were. “Mashirao Ojiro, Sarah Kurusu, Mezo Shoji, Kórinis Kurusu. You each have gym clothes that are designed for the unique body type your quirks give you. Come to me and I’ll give you your set.”

Izuku, having already grabbed a set of P.E. clothes, headed to the changing rooms, along with Ida and the brown haired girl, who he still hadn’t gotten the name of. Sarah Kurusu headed to the teacher, along with the Arachne, Kórinis Kurusu, a student with a muscular tail, and a tall student who had a mask over his face and multiple arms on each side, each arm having webbing in between them.

“So, their names are Sarah Kurusu and Kórinis Kurusu,” Izuku muttered to himself as he jogged down the hallway. “Do they have similar sounding family names with different kanji, or are they related? Cousins, perhaps? As far as I know, heteromorphs aren’t able to interbreed, so it’s unlikely their sisters? Wait, Sarah said that Kórinis was her sister, and Kórinis said the same thing. Step-siblings perhaps, with different parents?”

But no matter how hard Izuku questioned the matter, even continuing to try and solve the riddle he had made for himself as he got changed, no answer came to him. Shrugging his shoulders as he followed his fellow male classmates out of the changing rooms, Izuku filed away the question for later, now wondering just why their teacher had called them to the field.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“““““A test of our quirks?!””””” Izuku and many of his fellow classmates exclaimed, confused by the reasoning their teacher had taken them to the sports field.

“What about the entrance ceremony? Or guidance sessions?” the brown haired girl asked, confusion written across her face.

“No time to waste on stuff like that if you want to become heroes,” Mr. Aizawa explained. “U.A. is known for its “freestyle” education system. That applies to us teachers as well.”

None of the students understood what their teacher was trying to say, giving him blank looks.

“Softball Throwing. The Standing Long Jump. The 50-Metre Dash. Endurance Running. Grip Strength. Side-to-Side Stepping. Upper Body Training. Seated Toe Touch,” Mr. Aizawa sighed, holding up his fingers as he listed them off. “You did all of these in middle school, yes? Your standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests?”

The class nodded as one. They were standard activities that every middle school practised at some point in the year.

“This country still insists on prohibiting quirks when calculating the averages of those records,” Mr. Aizawa said. “It's not rational. It limits students whose quirks could give them an advantage and gain a better score. It prevents some students from competing entirely, simply because they have a mutation quirk.”

Izuku saw Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, as well as a green-haired girl, nod their heads, clearly having been at the receiving end of that.

“The Department of Education is just procrastinating,” Mr. Aizawa huffed in an annoyed tone. “They insist on following laws that were put in place over a hundred years ago, when the world was very different. Back then, heteromorphs and those with quirks were the minority. Now, the opposite is true.”

“Bakugo,” Mr. Aizawa called out, turning his attention to Kacchan. “How far could you throw in middle school?”

“Sixty seven metres,” Kacchan replied.

“Great, now try it with your quirk,” Mr. Aizawa said, tossing a white softball to the explosive teen. “Do whatever you need to, just don’t leave the circle. Give it all you’ve got.”

Kacchan confidently strode over to the outlined circle, a grin on his face.

“Awesome,” he smirked, winding his arm back. “I’ll add a bit of boom to this pitch.”

“DIE!!” he yelled, swinging his arm skyward.

KABOOM!!

A massive explosion burst forth from his palms, sending the softball rocketing into the air, circular shockwaves bursting forth as the softball broke the sound barrier multiple times.

‘Die?’ Izuku wondered, his hair blown back from the force of the explosion.

After a few seconds, the ball fell back to Earth, bouncing a few times before rolling to a stop. 

“It’s important for us to know your limits,” Mr. Aizawa explained, holding up his phone as the numbers started to climb. “That’s the first rational step to figuring out what kind of heroes you’ll be.”

The class all took in the score of Kacchan’s throw, their eyes bulging at the final results: 705.2 metres.

“Whoa! This is awesome!” someone cried out.

“705 metres? Seriously?” a student near Izuku exclaimed, the mutant type student with the tail.

“So we can use our quirks for real!” a spiky redhead student cheered, giving a wide grin to a pink skinned student standing next to him, who looked equally excited. “Man, the Hero Course is great!”

Unlike his classmates, Izuku had the opposite reaction.

‘Hold on, this is bad,’ he worried in his mind, glancing around at the excited reaction of his classmates. ‘I didn’t know this was coming.’

While the majority of Izuku’s classmates were excited by their teacher’s words, their reaction clearly wasn’t to his liking.

“Awesome, you say?” he said in a quiet, monotone voice, yet despite his lack of yelling, seemed to cut through the chatter. “You’re hoping to become heroes after three years here, and you think it will be all fun and games?”

“Right,” Mr. Aizawa said, giving the class one hell of a death stare through his shaggy hair. “The one with the lowest score across all eight events will be judged hopeless, and be expelled.”

“““““WHAT?!””””” the class shouted, shocked by the ultimatum given to them on the first day.

‘This is bad,’ Izuku worried. ‘All or nothing. I can’t regulate my power yet.’

“Your fate is in our hands,” Mr. Aizawa leered, pushing his hair up and out of his face with one hand, giving a cruel, mocking grin to the students. “Welcome. This is the Hero Course at U.A. High.”

“The lowest score will be expelled?” the brown haired girl exclaimed in shock. “It’s only the first day! I mean, even if it weren’t, that’s totally unfair!”

“Natural disasters, highway slips, rampaging villains, calamity is always around the corner,” Mr. Aizawa explained, turning his gaze to the nice girl, who flinched under his gaze. “I’d say Japan is full of unfair things, and the world by extension. Heroes are the ones who correct all that unfairness.”

“If you were hoping to spend your evenings hanging out at McDonald’s,” Mr. Aizawa continued, “I’m sorry to tell you that for the next three years, U.A. will run you through the ringer. That’s Plus Ultra. Use your strength to overcome it all. So bring it. The demonstration is over, now it’s for real.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Izuku and the class were led over to a section of the field, where painted on the ground were five lanes, each with starting blocks placed in a line.

“Our first event will be the 50-Metre Dash,” Mr. Aizawa explained, gesturing to the lanes. “Your goal for this is simple: reach the end of your lane as fast as possible. Any and all use of your quirks not only is allowed, but actively encouraged. Be creative, this is the Hero Course. Using your quirks in creative ways will result in a better overall grade. However, the effects of your quirk must stay within your lane. When I call your name, line up in order. Once everyone is ready, you’ll go when I tell you to. Understood?”

“““““Yes Mr. Aizawa!””””” the majority of the class chorused, too scared to risk angering their strange teacher any further.

He nodded, before looking down at his phone, listing off the first heat of competitors.

“Aoyama, Ashido, Ida, Asui, Uraraka, line up in order, you’re first.”

Izuku watched as five of his classmates stepped forwards, each taking their position at the starting line. 

First was the blond student from the Entrance Exam, the one with the French accent. Izuku noticed that the silver belt he wore in the Testing Area was also worn over his gym uniform. What was curious was that instead of getting into a runners position, he was instead facing backwards.

The second was a pink skinned girl with small horns poking out of her pink, fluffy hair. She gave a thumbs up to the red haired boy, causing Izuku to notice her black sclera and yellow iris.

The third was Ida, who strode over and took a runner's position. He rolled up the legs of his pants, revealing ports of some kind emerging from his calves.

‘I wonder what kind of mutation quirk he has,’ Izuku wondered, wishing he had his ‘Hero Analysis No. 13’ notebook on him, but instead focused so he could remember as many details as possible to write down later tonight.

The fourth student immediately reminded Izuku of a frog, from her facial expressions, her bent posture, and the long tongue that poked out of her lips. Instead of a standard runner’s position, she instead got herself ready by settling into a crouch, causing Izuku to wonder if she was going to jump, rather than sprint, down the track.

The fifth and final student was the kind girl from before, who Izuku now had the name of.

‘Uraraka,’ he thought to himself, watching as she placed her fingertips on her clothing and shoes. ‘She’s probably using her gravity quirk to make her clothing lighter, reducing weight.’

“Hehehe,” the first student, Aoyama, chuckled. “So unimaginative, all of you.”

“Ready?” Mr. Aizawa called out, causing the five competitors to tense their muscles. “Go!”

All of the students set off, but Aoyama was the most unique. Just before Mr. Aizawa had said, “Go!”, Aoyama jumped into the air, timing it perfectly. A beam of blue, shining light shot from his belt, the same light that Izuku had seen in the Entrance Exam. It sent him sailing backwards, but the force wasn’t enough to send him all the way, causing him to fall on the track.

Meanwhile, the other students were each giving their all. The second student, Ashido, didn’t seem to have a quirk that could help her in this race, so she relied purely on her physical talents, which simply by observing, seemed to be better than average.

Ida was the fastest by far, the vents on his legs roaring to life, revealing themselves to be exhaust pipes, as he shot down the course, being the first to finish.

“3.04 seconds,” a robot declared, set at the end of the track.

The fourth student, Asui, was leaping down the track, keeping in theme with what Izuku assumed was her Frog mutation quirk, or something along those lines.

Uraraka, the final contestant, was also giving it her all, running with all of her might, but was clearly in dead last.

As Ashido and Asui raced down the track with Ashido having only a slight lead, Aoyama got up from his recent tumble, getting into a crouching position. Another beam of energy shot out of him, propelling him from the middle of the track to the end, finishing just after Ashido, but beating Asui by a hair's breadth.

“5.37 seconds, 5.51 seconds, 5.58 seconds,” the machine listed as each competitor passed the finish line.

Uraraka was the last to finish, straining her neck in an attempt to have some part of her cross the line slightly sooner.

“7.15 seconds.”

Each of the competitors made their way back, each of them having a smile on their face.

“How did you do?” Izuku asked Ida and Uraraka as they joined him, Sarah Kurusu standing beside him.

“I beat my middle school record!” Uraraka cheered. “From 7.28 down to 7.15.”

“You seemed to do well also, Tenya,” Kurusu said, smiling at him. “Which gear did you choose to run with?”

“Third gear,” Ida explained, his expression cool and collected, and his breath unhurried, as if he hadn’t done a 50-metre sprint. “My time has improved as well, though not as much as Uraraka, since I train using my quirk.”

“Alright, next: Ojiro, Kaminari, Kirishima, Koda, Kurusu,” Mr. Aizawa called out.

““Which one?”” both Sarah and Kórinis called out.

Mr. Aizawa paused before sighing, his face resting in his hand. “The older one.”

Sarah nodded, walking forward as Ida wished her luck.

The first in the line was the student with the mutant type quirk, forming a large, muscular tail. Aside from his extra limb, he was fairly plain looking, with short blond hair that was swept to the front of his head. His tail was hairless all the way up till the tip, upon which grew long lengths of blond fur.

The second student was a thin male with short gold hair, parted to the right with a black lightning-shaped streak on the left of his side fringe, which was angled, partially obscuring his left eye.

The third student was the red haired male, his hair spiked upwards, though Izuku wasn’t sure if that was natural or not. He had a muscular build, and the smile he gave to Ashido revealed he had sharp, jagged teeth, very similarly to Kórinis Kurusu.

The fourth competitor was another muscular student, though this time he had a mutation quirk that gave his head a rocky appearance. His posture was very shy, something that Izuku recognised and could empathise with, with his shoulders rounded and his arms held close to his body. As he got into position, he gave a small wave to Sarah Kurusu, who was positioned next to him. She in turn gave him a warm smile, leaning over to whisper something to him, and judging by his straightening posture, seemed to be words of encouragement.

“Who do you think will win?” Izuku whispered to Ida and Uraraka, trying to discover what some of the competitor’s quirks were.

“Sarah, without a doubt,” came Ida’s immediate, confident answer. “Unless one of them can teleport, Sarah has no chance of losing.”

“Wow, Ida,” Uraraka gasped, “you sound really confident. Is it because she’s your friend?”

“She’s more than my friend,” Ida nodded, a small smile growing on his face. “She’s my rival, and I know the other competitor’s don’t stand a chance.”

“Ready?” Mr. Aizawa called out once more, all of the competitors getting into a ready stance. “Go!”

Each competitor started sprinting, but none could compare to Kurusu. Instead of a runner’s start, she had simply leaned her upper body forward, her back hooves resting on the runners block. As soon as Mr. Aizawa said go, she burst into a gallop, eating up the distance and finishing before the others had managed to get halfway.

“3 seconds,” the robot chimed.

The other four competitors continued undiscouraged, each of them neck in neck. Ojiro was using his tail to slap the ground, using it like a spring to propel himself forward, but Izuku couldn’t see any of the others using their quirks, each of them instead relying on physical fitness.

“6.49 seconds,” the robot declared as Ojiro crossed the finish line, the others close behind him.

“7.05 seconds, 7.09 seconds, 7.17 seconds,” the robot said as Kirishima, Kaminari, and finally Koda each finished the race.

“Told you she would win,” Ida said with more than a little pride as Kurusu walked back over, Koda by her side.

“This is Koda,” she said as she joined the group, gesturing with her hand to the shy boy. “He was in my Testing Area, we teamed up during the practical.”

Koda didn’t answer, instead giving a small wave to Izuku, Uraraka, and Ida.

“Next: Shoji, Jiro, Tokoyami, Todoroki, Kurusu. The younger one,” Mr. Aizawa said, with the next five competitors stepping forward. 

First was the other student with a mutant type quirk, the one with the many arms. His gym uniform was altered, being more like a singlet rather than a shirt, given the lack of sleeves.

The second competitor was a slim girl with black hair. She also seemed to have a mutation quirk, as her earlobes had earphone jacks growing out of them.

The third was a student with a crow’s head, just the head, as the rest of him looked completely human.

The fourth was a second red haired student, though unlike Kirishima, his hair was swept over his face to the right, rather than spiking upwards. He had what most would consider a handsome face, but this conflicted with the cold, emotionless expression he wore.

The fifth was Kórinis Kurusu, walking over beside Todoroki, seeming to have a one sided conversation with him, even as they waited at the starting line.

“Is Kurusu friends with Todoroki as well?” Uraraka asked Sarah Kurusu, gesturing to the younger sister.

“Somewhat,” the older sister replied hesitantly. “She’s certainly closer to Shoto than I am, but it would be more accurate to call him our cousin rather than our friend.”

““Cousin?”” Izuku and Uraraka asked at the same time.

“Ready?” Mr. Aizawa stated, interrupting the conversation. “Go!”

Shoji, Jiro and Tokoyami all dashed forwards, relying on their physical abilities, no quirks being visibly used, much to Izuku’s frustration. How could he note down details about their awesome quirks without seeing them?

Todoroki and Kurusu on the other hand were making full use of their powers. Kurusu was the most simplistic in her movement, using her arachnid lower half to race forwards, quickly pulling ahead of the others. Todoroki, on the other hand, had a much more flashy use of his quirk. Stomping his right foot down, blue ice formed underneath his foot, causing him to be pushed forward, riding it towards the finish line. 

“Wow, what an incredible ice quirk!” Izuku beamed, committing everything he could see to memory. “His ice is blue, probably as a result of it being of a purer quality, I wonder if it also causes it to be more durable and solid…”

“Are you and Todoroki cousins?” Uraraka asked, ignoring Izuku who had once again descended into a muttering storm.

“Not really,” Kurusu answered vaguely, watching as her younger sister crossed the finish line.

“3.42 seconds.”

“He’s our younger sister’s second cousin, but we all treat him like family whenever we see him.”

Uraraka tried to visualise the family tree, but quickly abandoned it as a headache formed from the mess she imagined, instead focusing on the race as Todoroki glided to a stop.

“4.50 seconds.”

The other competitors finished seconds later, each of them having completed the race purely by physical talent.

“6.43 seconds. 7.02 seconds, 7.32 seconds,” the robot declared as Shoji, Tokoyami and Jiro finished.

“Nice work, Shoto,” Sarah Kurusu praised as the red haired student walked past.

He glanced a look at her, simply giving her a nod as he took his place back in the crowd, keeping a distance from everyone.

“Some people simply aren’t the most sociable,” Ida said to Kurusu, trying to comfort her as she hung her head.

“Final group: Hagakure, Bakugo, Midoriya, Mineta, Yaoyorozu, line up.”

“Pst, hey, Midoriya, you’re up,” Uraraka hissed, nudging Izuku in the ribs with her elbow.

“Huh, what?” Izuku asked, looking around as he was pulled out of his muttering. Seeing Kacchan and three others taking their positions at the starting line, he hurried over, not wanting to annoy Mr. Aizawa more than they already had.

The first person at the starting line didn’t have any features that Izuku could mention, simply because she was invisible. Due to the, um, shape of her chest, Izuku could tell it was a girl, but every part of her was invisible. He only knew she was even standing there because her invisibility didn’t seem to extend to her clothing.

‘It’s simply my luck that Kacchan is next to me,’ Izuku lamented in his head, doing everything in his power to avoid the death glare that Kacchan was giving him, small sparks igniting in his open palms, a telltale sign of his irritation.

The fourth student next to Izuku was a small male student, standing only slightly above his waist. His quirk seemed to cause his hair to form into round, purple clusters, but what their purpose was Izuku couldn’t yet tell.

The fifth and final student was a tall girl with long, black hair. She had a very attractive appearance, but Izuku did a double take as she pulled a pogo stick out of her stomach.

‘What a unique quirk,’ Izuku thought to himself as the ponytailed girl placed the item on the ground. ‘Does she store items inside of her, or did she create it?’

“Ready?” Mr. Aizawa droned, causing Izuku’s attention to focus away from his classmate’s quirks and back onto the track. “Go.”

Izuku burst into a sprint, hoping to get a good placement purely from the training he had done with All Might. While he was certainly pulling ahead of Hagakure and Mineta, purely because he was taller than either of them, and likely fitter too, Kacchan and Yaoyorozu proved to have effective control over their quirks.

Yaoyorozu had immediately started using her pogo stick, bouncing down the track with incredible skill. Kacchan on the other hand was more obvious with using his quirk.

“Explosive Speed!” he roared, placing his hands behind him, sparks detonating in his palms. “TURBO!!”

Explosions roared forth, the power shooting him forwards in a flying leap, being the first to cross the finish line.

“4.13 seconds.”

Yaoyorozu wasn’t far behind, coming in second place only because of the burst of speed Kacchan had gained.

“4.58 seconds.”

Izuku grit his teeth, digging deep into himself to go even further, pulling slightly ahead of Hagakure who was to the left of him.

“7.02 seconds, 7.33 seconds.”

Izuk bent over, trying to catch his breath, idly taking note of Mineta coming last.

“8.59 seconds.”

‘Seven more events,’ Izuku thought. ‘Everyone’s going to be using their quirks to produce some incredible records. But if I use mine even once, that power will wreck my body!’

“All right, everyone, into the gym,” Mr. Aizawa said, gesturing to the gymnasium near the track. “We’ll continue your next test there.”

‘Even for those who haven’t used their quirk, there might be tests that their quirks are suited for. And even if there aren’t, the school likely has records about our quirks. Someone like Hagakure isn’t likely to be judged as harshly for not actively using her quirk like I would, seeing how I registered it as Super-Power.’

‘I need to try and regulate my power, just like All Might told me to. Imagine the egg in the microwave, I just need to lower the power. I can’t come last, not after all of this.’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

While Izuku did have the plan to regulate his powers, to use it even at a lower setting simply to give a good showing to the teacher, the fear and trauma from his first attempt at using his quirk held him back. Instead of experimenting and trying, Izuku let his fear hold him back, and he steadily started falling behind.

First was the second event: Grip Strength. While he did produce a score of 56 kg, a sizable improvement from middle school, it was nothing compared to his classmates.

‘Woah, Shoji has such an impressive score,’ Izuku thought, seeing his multi-armed classmate form hands on each of his arms, each of them gripping the handle and producing a score of 540 kg.

The older Kurusu sister, Sarah, wasn’t far behind him. Even though she only had one hand to use, she managed to score 482 kg, with her younger sister scoring 249 kg.

‘Larger heteromorph species likely have improved physical strength,’ Izuku guessed, but his attention, as well as that of the entire class, was drawn to the sound of something snapping, and a very embarrassed, “Oops.”

Everyone turned to where Yaoyorozu had produced a clamp, using it to add pressure to the device. However, it seemed she had put it through too much pressure.

“Um, Mr. Aizawa?” Yaoyorozu started, hesitantly holding out her broken strength scale to the teacher. “I think I might have broken the machine. Am I in trouble?”

Mr. Aizawa simply looked at the shattered device. The handle was split in two, the clamp still hanging on, and wires were poking out of its innards.

He stood there, simply blinking at the device, before sighing, noting something down on his phone.

“Don’t worry, Yaoyorozu,” he reassured in a tired voice, “we can replace them easily. Since I didn’t get a score from your device, we’ll just put it down as the top score, alright?”

“Yes sir,” Yaoyorozu nodded, oblivious to the wide eyed expression everyone was giving her.

‘‘‘‘‘Just what is the limit to what she can create?’’’’’ many of them wondered.

The third event didn't go any easier for Izuku. They were taken back outside and led to a large sandpit, where they were told the third event would be long jump. Going in order once more, Izuku watched as classmate after classmate either jumped an incredible distance down the sandpit, or cleared it entirely. From Aoyama using his belly laser to shoot him across the sand, Ida using a running start to almost reach the end, Asui using her frog-like legs to create an equally impressive leap, or the Kurusu sisters using their heteromorph bodies to earn impressive scores.

While many of his classmates also relied purely on their physical talent, Izuku one of them, he couldn’t help but worry that Mr. Aizawa was grading him more harshly. He had a quirk that he could use in these events, but his fear and anxiety prevented him from controlling it. His worry wasn’t helped by seeing Kacchan create explosions in his palms to propel himself over the sand before his own turn, or seeing Yaoyorozu, the last to compete, produce a high jump pole, easily clearing the sand pit herself.

The fourth event, side-to-side stepping, didn’t go any better. While many of his classmates were in the same boat as him, having to rely only on their physical prowess, that didn’t stop a select few from using their quirks in creative ways. Asui was the first to perform above her peers, using her frog-like nature to do rapid side-hops, easily doing more than double what the previous students had done. The next was Kórinis Kurusu, who due to her spider legs, was able to move quickly in any direction, even side-to-side. Next was Kacchan, who used bursts of explosions to bounce side-to-side in the air. Despite the unique strategy, Mr. Aizawa gave his approval, even if Kacchan hadn’t technically touched the floor. Even Mineta produced an incredible result, competing right after Izuku had. Because of his classmate’s short stature, Mineta had routinely placed either near or at the bottom of the events. But when it came to his turn, he started pulling off the purple balls that grew from his scalp, placing them into piles on their side of him. Izuku and his classmates watched in shock as Mineta bounced rapidly between the two piles, so quickly in fact that he created after images of his movement, easily securing the top spot in the event. 

By the fifth event, softball throwing, Izuku was desperate to do well, his nerves not helped when Uraraka had her turn.

Stepping up to the circle, she took hold of the ball Mr. Aizawa had handed her, and gave it a light throw in the air. Despite the lack of force behind the throw, Izuku and his classmates watched with open mouths as the ball continued to float up, and up, and up into the air. They looked back down to Mr. Aizawa, who simply looked at his phone with what could only be described as shock. He stayed like that for a minute before turning his phone around, showing the result.

“““““INFINITY?!””””” they yelled in shock, some muttering about why the infinity symbol would even be an available score.

The other high scorers didn’t make him feel any better. Ojiro used his tail to hit the ball like one would using a bat, gaining a score of 105 metres. Sarah Kurusu simply threw it using her enhanced strength, causing her to gain a score of 217 metres. Kórinis Kurusu created a sling made out of silk from her wrists, placing the ball in a pouch and whirling it, letting it go and causing it to crack into the sky, falling back down to Earth after flying 308 metres into the air.

‘This isn’t good! That isn’t something I can pull off yet!’ Izuku cried out in his mind, watching as Hagakure produced a basic result, meaning that he was next. ‘So many people have gotten at least one amazing record! All that’s left is the Seated Toe Touch, Upper Body Training and Endurance Run. I’m out of options!’

‘At this rate, I’ll have the lowest score and be expelled,’ he thought, mechanically walking over to the pitching circle, Hagakure having passed the ball to him as she passed by.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Midoriya isn’t doing very well,” Four Eyes noted, with Round Cheeks and Blondie nodding with him.

“Well duh,” Katsuki scoffed from nearby, standing next to Silks. “He’s a quirkless runt!”

“He is rather small,” Silks muttered, a sly grin growing on her face. “Almost bite sized, like a bean.”

“Quirkless?!” Four Eyes gasped in shock, turning to Katsuki. “So you haven’t heard about his feats during the Entrance Exam?!”

“Huh?!” Katsuki asked in shock. He was about to demand Four Eyes explain what he meant, only for his attention to be dragged towards Silks, who had elbowed him in the shoulder due to the height difference.

“What?” he growled, only for her answer to be a jut of her chin towards the pitching field. Katsuki watched in confusion, quickly growing into shock as Deku wound back his arm, red energy spreading along it as he pitched.

“46 metres,” came the emotionless, yet undoubtedly disappointed voice of their teacher.

“Huh?” Deku gasped, looking down at his arm. “But I was trying to use it.”

“I erased your quirk,” Mr. Aizawa said, walking towards Deku with anger in his eyes. “That ridiculous Entrance Exam is completely irrational when you consider someone like you got it.”

“Erased?” Deku questioned, though a metaphorical lightbulb apparently was quick to turn on in the nerd’s brain. “Those goggles, of course! You’re the Erasure Hero: Eraser Head! Your quirk can nullify others’ quirks just by looking at them!”

“Eraser?” Round Cheeks asked, tilting her head in confusion. “I’ve never heard of him.”

“I think I have heard of him,” Glasses said, holding his chin in his hands. “He’s an underground hero, patrolling at the later hours of the night, as opposed to most heroes who operate mostly in the day.”

“I saw it,” Mr. Aizawa said, walking towards Deku. Where there once stood a teacher who would look more at home sleeping on the streets, now stood a terrifying hero of the night. His black, shaggy hair that obscured his face was now floating in the air. The large scarf that was wrapped around his neck had now partially uncoiled, the ends waving in the air like the heads of snakes, poised to strike. And his eyes, what were once bloodshot, tired eyes were now wide open, the iris’ no longer black, but now a glowing, threatening red. “I saw how you can’t control your quirk. You’d just be incapacitated again. Were you hoping someone would step in to help afterwards?”

“N-no, it’s not like that,” Deku reasoned, only for their teacher to use his scarf to pull him close, speaking in a quiet tone.

“Hey, Silks,” Katsuki said, looking at the Arachne to the side, “do you know anything about our teach?”

“Not much,” Silks said, crossing her arms and tapping a finger on her arm, the chitinous materials creating a tak, tak, tak sound. “I know he’s not a fan of the media, seeing how they’d simply give away his quirk to villains and criminals. Apparently he’s a former U.A. student, but that’s about it.”

Katsuki grunted, turning his gaze back towards Deku and their teacher. Silks didn’t know much, but Katsuki would admit that what she knew was more than Katsuki did. He had never really paid much attention to the underground heroes, usually because they relied on gimmicks and tricks, striking from the shadows and all that junk. It didn’t help that the point of an underground hero was to be, well, underground, and not in the public eye. Their teacher was no All Might, but if what Deku said about his quirk was true, and it likely was, then their teacher was one of the most dangerous individuals to be ambushed by.

Their teacher let go of Deku, taking a few steps back and pulling a bottle of eye drops from his belt, using a drop in each eye.

“Seems like he received some special instruction,” Four Eyes said, still holding his chin in thought as he spoke over the French Extra who was talking to Round Cheeks.

“Yeah. The instruction to leave this school,” Katsuki scoffed, only to hear Silks give an audible huff.

“Come on, Dynamite, give him a chance,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Sure, Midoriya has enough coordination to trip on his own foot, and sure, he can’t keep his mouth closed when muttering, but, I don’t know, maybe he’s really smart?”

Katsuki gave a low growl, looking Silks dead in the eye. “Him having brains doesn’t mean shit if he can’t throw or take a punch, let alone an explosion strong enough to break the sound barrier over ten times. Even if he put in any damn effort into physical training, he still doesn’t have a-”

“SMASH!!”

CRACK!!

Katsuki was interrupted by Deku’s yelling, and the clap of a broken sound barrier. He swung his gaze over, his eyes wide with shock as he took in the sight of Deku, stupid, useless Deku, holding up a clenched fist, his index finger bruised and broken, as the softball fell from the heavens. 

“This pain, it’s nothing like before,” he said, looking their teacher in the eyes. “Mr. Aizawa, I can still move.”

“This kid,” Mr. Aizawa grinned, holding up his phone for the class to see.

705.3 metres.

“Woo! Now that’s a hero-like record if I ever saw one,” Round Cheeks cheered.

“His finger appears to be swollen. Thinking back to the Entrance Exam…” Four Eyes said, giving his own opinions while trailing off mid sentence. “What a strange quirk…”

“Stylishly done,” the French Extra added.

All of this was ignored by Katsuki, nothing but white noise to the thoughts racing through his head.

‘What the shit?’ Katsuki thought, his jaw open and his eyes wide with shock and confusion. ‘What the actual, motherfucking SHIT?! How the fuck did he do that?! Quirks manifest around age four, and never after puberty! It’s impossible, but it really happened!’

“‘I earned this!’”

Those words rang through Katsuki’s mind. The same words Deku had said to him in their last weeks of Junior High when Katsuki confronted him about passing the U.A. Entrance Exam. That was when he started to grow a spine. That was when he started to amount to something, something more than a measly pebble. 

Sparks popped in his hands, an unconscious reflex of his whenever he was stressed, angry, or planning to attack. 

‘Somethings up, and that shitty nerd is going to tell me what it is,’ Katsuki growled, igniting his sweat to burst forward.

“What the hell?! Explain yourself, Deku!!”

Deku, being the scared rabbit that he was, let out a scream, but before Katsuki could get to him, he felt threads and strands wrapping around his sides, pulling his arms tight to his torso as he was pulled backwards, the back of his head landing on someone’s chest.

“Silks, what the fuck?!” Katsuki swore, thrashing in the Arachne’s grip, knowing it was her from the threads that currently bound him.

“Calm down, Dynamite, you're going to blow a fuse,” she said, using her pedipalps to hold his waist in place, her arms over his chest. “You really want to rush at Midoriya on the first day with a homeroom teacher who has made it very clear that he’s perfectly fine with expelling us? You're hotheaded, not dumb.”

Katsuki stopped his thrashing, looking over to where Mr. Aizawa stood. Sure enough, his hair was floating, his eyes glowing red, and he looked pissed.

“Talk to me, Bakugo,” Silks said in a quiet voice, using his name for the first time. “What made you do that?”

Katsuki didn’t answer. It wasn’t any of her business, it was only between himself and Deku.

Silks seemed to have taken the hint, uncoiling her webbing from around him, and letting him out of her hold.

Katsuki looked over at Mr. Aizawa, who was looking right back at him. They held their gaze at each other, but Katsuki looked away first, scoffing.

“What a waste of time,” Mr. Aizawa sighed, deactivating his quirk. “Prepare for the next event.”

Deku walked back over to Round Cheeks, Four Eyes and Blondie, giving Katsuki a wide berth. Katsuki simply glared at the nerd, thoughts racing through his mind as the class moved to the next location for their sixth test.

‘Up until now, he was just another pebble in my path,’ Katsuki thought, memories of him and Deku back when they were childhood friends flashing through his mind. ‘It wasn’t meant to be more than that. He was quirkless for ten years, ten fucking years. And he always tried to compete with me, even though he was powerless. Has he been hiding his quirk this whole time? Has he been thinking that he can compete against me without it?’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

The remaining three tests passed by without Izuku managing to achieve an impressive score. 

In the Seated Toe Touches, Shoji, Ashido and Kórinis Kurusu achieved a joint first place, each of them managing to stretch the most. Kurusu’s feat was on a technicality that Mr. Aizawa allowed, seeing how she simply touched the ends of her pedipalps, which acted like human legs, only covered in an exoskeleton and lacking any feet. Shoji produced lines of hands, stretching all the way until he could easily touch his feet, while Ashido was simply that flexible.

In the Upper Body Training, Kórinis Kurusu came first, hanging from the bar upside down, supported only by a single line of thread from her arachnid-half’s spinneret.

The final event, the Endurance Run, was the most gruelling test by far. Each student had to maintain a pace of over 10 km/h, and any who fell behind were out. It saw each member of the class drop out one by one, with Mineta inevitably being the first to fall. The race eventually descended into a threeway endurance match between Ida and Sarah Kurusu, going head to head with Yaoyorozu’s electric scooter’s battery life. Ida was the first to lag, the engines in his legs eventually giving out, leaving only Kurusu and Yaoyorozu. The competition lasted for hours, but with Yaoyorozu not having to exert herself, only steering her scooter, Kurusu eventually gave up after trotting for almost two and a half hours.

“Moving along,” Mr. Aizawa started after Kurusu had had a moment to catch her breath, “time for the results. Your total scores simply reflect your performance in each of the events. Explaining the process would be a waste of time, so all you get are the final rankings.”

‘My only record worth mentioning was that throw,’ Izuku grimaced, his eyes closed shut as he waited nervously. ‘But I sucked at everything else, especially the Endurance Running, because the pain was so bad. I’m done for!’

Mr. Aizawa pressed a button on his phone, and a holographic scoreboard appeared in the air. Izuku slowly read his way down the chart, going from top to bottom, hoping and praying that he wasn’t last.

1st - Momo Yaoyorozu

2nd - Shoto Todoroki

3rd - Kórinis Kurusu

4th - Katsuki Bakugo

5th - Sarah Kurusu

6th - Tenya Ida

7th - Fumikage Tokoyami

8th - Mezo Shoji

9th - Mashirao Ojiro

10th - Ochako Uraraka

11th - Yuga Aoyama

12th - Tsuyu Asui

13th - Minoru Mineta

14th - Eijiro Kirishima

15th - Mina Ashido

16th - Koji Koda

17th - Denki Kaminari

18th - Kyoka Jiro

19th - Toru Hagakure

20th - Izuku Midoriya

Izuku’s heart sank. There, at the very bottom of the list, was Izuku Midoriya. Last place.

Ida and Uraraka tried their best to comfort him, but it all went in one ear and out the other. All of the time and effort All Might had put into training him, giving him One For All, it was pointless. He had failed.

“Also, I was lying about expelling someone,” Mr. Aizawa said, stunning the entire class, Izuku most of all. 

“That was a rational deception meant to bring out the best in all of you,” the teacher grinned, giving a short ‘ha’ at the class he had tricked.

“““WHAAAT!!””” Izuku, Uraraka and Ida all yelled in shock.

““Well of course it was a lie,”” two voices said in unison. Izuku looked to his side, seeing Sarah Kurusu, the first speaker, giving a funny look at Yaoyorozu, the second speaker, who had looked away from the Centaur’s gaze, lightly blushing.

“I doubt U.A. would fail students purely because they were the least physically gifted,” Kurusu reasoned, many of her classmates nodding along with her reasoning.

“Anyway, we’re done here,” Mr. Aizawa said, walking over to the students. “Your documents about the curriculum and such are back in the classroom. Give them a look.”

“Midoriya,” Mr. Aizawa continued, causing Izuku to jolt in fright, fearing that his teacher had changed his mind. He was surprised to see the teacher hand him a pass to the Nurse’s Office. 

“Have Recovery Girl fix you up. Tomorrow’s trials aren’t going to be any easier.”

With that, their teacher walked off, disappearing around a corner. Many of the students took that as a sign of dismissal, each heading off to class to collect their bags and curriculum guides. While Izuku headed to the Nurse’s Office, he couldn’t help but notice the glare that Kacchan gave him, before turning away and storming off, ignoring the words of Kórinis Kurusu behind him.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

After coming back from Recovery Girl’s office, and having received her warning about the limits to her healing, Izuku was completely tired from his first day.

“I’m pooped,” Izuku sighed, slowly trudging his way down the U.A. campus hill. He was so tired, he didn’t hear the pair of footsteps, set of four hooves, and the sound of eight spider legs coming up behind him.

“How’s your finger?” Ida asked, clapping a hand on Izuku’s shoulder, startling the greenet.

“Gah, Ida!” Izuku shouted, taking note of the Kurusu sisters who were walking behind the spectacled teen. “It’s fine, thanks to Recovery Girl.”

“But Mr. Aizawa sure fooled us,” Ida continued. “He made me think, 'This is how it is at the top!' But our own instructor deceived us like that.”

‘I thought Ida was scary, but he’s actually super serious,’ Izuku chuckled in his mind.

“Oh come on, Glasses,” Kórinis Kurusu sighed, rolling her eyes as she folded her hands behind her head as she walked, “you need to lighten up a bit. Being a hero doesn’t mean you can’t lie, heroes lie all the time. And as he said, it was a rational deception.”

‘Kórinis Kurusu on the other hand,’ Izuku thought as Ida and the younger Kurusu sister started arguing about the ethical question of heroes lying, ‘really isn’t all that serious.’

“Hey, you guys!” a cheerful voice called out, causing Izuku and the others to turn their heads. Behind them was Uraraka, running towards them with a skip in her step. “Headed to the station? Wait up!”

“Ah, Infinity Girl,” Ida greeted, with the two Kurusu sisters waving to the brunette as she joined them.

‘Infinity Girl?’ Izuku wondered. ‘That does sound like an awesome hero name!’

“I’m Ochako Uraraka!” she said, introducing herself fully to the group. “Let’s see, um, you’re Tenya Ida, you two are Sarah and Kórinis Kurusu, and you’re, um, Deku Midoriya, right?!”

“Deku?!” Izuku shouted, surprised at Uraraka using that nickname.

“Isn’t it?” Kórinis Kurusu asked, tilting her head. “I’m sure that was what Dynamite called you.”

“Yeah, during the test, that Bakugo guy said, ‘Damn you, Deku!!’, right?” Uraraka said.

Everyone was taken aback, surprised by the impressively accurate imitation of Kacchan’s voice that Uraraka made.

“Um, my real name is Izuku,” Izuku explained, “‘Deku’ is just Kacchan being a bully.”

“Yikes,” Kórinis Kurusu muttered, looking to the side, “didn’t know Dynamite hated you that much.”

“Gotcha, sorry!!” Uraraka apologised. “But ‘Deku’, well, it just screams, ‘Do your best!!’ I kinda like the way it sounds.”

“Oh, because it sounds similar to, ‘to be able to do’, right?” Sarah Kurusu asked, walking beside Uraraka.

“Yeah, exactly,” came her bubbly reply, grinning up at her Centaur classmate.

“DEKU’S FINE!!” Izuku yelled, his face turning tomato red.

“Midoriya!” Ida yelled in shock, voicing the surprise that everyone else seemed to be feeling. “Show a bit of backbone! It’s an insult, isn’t it?”

“It’s like the Copernican Revolution,” Izuku muttered, his face hidden in his hands.

“Coperni-who?” Uraraka asked, confused by what he meant.

“The Copernican Revolution was the shift in the field of astronomy from a geocentric understanding of the universe, centred around Earth, to a heliocentric understanding, centred around the Sun,” Sarah Kurusu explained to Uraraka. “To compare it to something is to refer to it as a life changing, reality shifting change in your understanding.”

“But I have to admit, Midoriya,” Sarah Kurusu continued, turning back to Izuku, “names only have power over you if you let it. Are you sure you want to give Bakugo that kind of power?”

“I think Ryokutō is less worried about what Dynamite thinks, and more about what Uraraka thinks,” Kórinis Kurusu snickered, her hand covering a barely contained laugh.

“““Ryokutō?””” Ida, Uraraka and Sarah Kurusu asked.

“MUNG BEAN?!” Izuku yelled, looking at the Arachne in shock.

“Why not,” she smirked, looking at Izuku with a sly grin. “You’re short, like a bean, and green, like a bean. I think it suits you perfectly.”

“I still think Deku is better,” Uraraka grumbled, her cheeks puffing out in annoyance.

Izuku just chuckled, enjoying the banter that was being shared.

“Which train are you guys catching?” Uraraka asked as they all stood around in the train station.

“The three of us are catching the train to Tokyo, then Sarah and I need to switch trains to catch one to Saitama,” Kórinis Kurusu answered, looking at the schedule hanging from the roof.

“Oh wow, you guys live in Saitama,” Uraraka gasped. “I’m catching the train to Shizuoka. What about you, Deku, where are you going?”

“Um, I live in Shizuoka as well,” Izuku stammered, the idea of a cute girl possibly living near him almost being too much. “Are you from Shizuoka as well, Uraraka?”

“Nah, I’m from Mie, but my parents are renting out an apartment for me in Shizuoka, since it would be a bit too pricey to catch the train each day.”

“Agreed,” Sarah Kurusu said, nodding her head as they waited for their trains. “I saw how much the monthly train fare alone was going to be. If it wasn’t for our family’s insistence that we had more than enough money to spare, Kórinis and I would likely be doing something similar.”

“The train to Shinagawa Station will be arriving shortly,” a voice over the intercom said, sounding out through the station. “I repeat, the train to Shinagawa Station will be arriving shortly.”

“That will be ours,” Ida said, turning to Izuku and Uraraka. “It has been a pleasure to meet you two. I look forward to seeing you both in class tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow,” Sarah Kurusu farewelled, her sister waving as the trio walked to their platform.

Being left alone, Uraraka started to talk about her interests to Izuku, who simply added in conversation whenever he could. Even though he was getting used to Uraraka’s bubbly personality, it was still a lot for someone so unused to talking to the fairer sex. Their conversation continued as their train pulled into the station, the two of them being fortunate enough to have found a pair of unoccupied seats. Even though Uraraka’s stop was before Izuku’s and he was a little sad to not have been able to talk with his new friend more, he was content nonetheless.

‘There’s still a lot I can’t do, but I’ll do my best,’ Izuku thought as he walked home from the station. ‘But, All Might, even just making four friends is more than I could’ve asked for.’

Chapter Text

When Izuku woke up on Tuesday morning, he would freely admit that he felt more than a little nervous for his second day of attending U.A. High School. After all, on the first day they had already had the threat of expulsion hung over their heads. 

But even though the ride to school was nerve wracking, their classes soon dispelled any worries. English, Mathematics, Modern Literature, they were all subjects that everyone was familiar with. The only thing stopping their class from feeling like a normal high school was their teachers. After all, not every high school student is able to say that Cementos taught them Modern Literature, or Ectoplasm teaching Maths, or have the Voice Hero: Present Mic teaching English. Speaking of…

“Who can find the mistake in the following sentence?” Present Mic asked, the English workbook the class had been assigned held in his hands.

Izuku quickly looked over the sentence, finding the issue.

‘‘Midnight both is intelligent and beautiful’. The relative conjunction is in the wrong place, so that means choice four.’

“Alright, everybody! Hands up! Show me some spirit!” Present Mic said in his standard loud voice, scanning the room to call on someone.

Izuku tentatively raised his hand. He knew the answer without a doubt, but he still wasn’t keen on the classes’ attention focusing on him. However, Present Mic called on someone else in the back row.

“Kurusu, my fellow blonde! Lay it on me, would ya? What is the mistake in our sentence?”

Izuku glanced to the side, seeing the Centaur, who sat in the back of the second row, stand up from her desk.

“Sir,” she replied formally, “the answer to the question is option four. The sentence, ‘Midnight both is intelligent and beautiful’, contains an incorrectly placed relative conjunction. Instead, the sentence should go, ‘Midnight is both intelligent and beautiful.’”

“Exact-a-mondo!” Present Mic nodded, turning his gaze back to the handbook. “Alright, next sentence.”

After four classes in the morning, Izuku found himself eating in the school cafeteria (and how cool was it that Lunch Rush was their school cook!?), seated at a table alongside Uraraka, Ida, and Sarah Kurusu. Her sister had apparently gone off to eat elsewhere, leaving the four of them to eat together.

“Wait, so your quirk needs orange juice to function?” Uraraka asked Ida, speaking through half a mouthful of food.

“Clear your mouth first before speaking,” Ida reprimanded, placing his chopsticks down by the side of his plate. “And yes, believe it or not, my Engine quirk uses orange juice as a fuel source. Without it, the engines in my legs will start to lose their potency until they stop working all together. Well, at least until I fuel up again.”

“Wow, that’s a really interesting side effect of your quirk, Ida,” Izuku gushed, already scribbling in his notebook which he had remembered to bring to school. “Do other drinks have an effect on your quirk as well?”

“It has to be oranges for my quirk to function,” Ida explained, levelling a straight hand chop in Izuku’s direction. “Apple, pear, lemon, all of them fuel my quirk as well as you would be able to fuel a classical fossil fuel engine with water; pointless. However, if the orange juice is carbonated, my engines tend to stall.”

“Mhm, mhm,” Izuku murmured, scribbling down his notes as fast as he could.

“And the fuel required changes based on the individual,” Kurusu explained, drawing Izuku’s attention at the prospect of more information. “For instance, Tensei, Tenya’s older brother, requires grapefruit juice for his quirk, whereas Mr. and Mrs. Ida require lemon and apple juice respectively.”

“And what about you, Kurusu?” Uraraka asked the Centaur. “Does your quirk require anything special?”

“No, not like Tenya’s does,” Kurusu said, shaking her head and causing her ponytail to sway. “A balanced diet and a healthy dose of daily exercise are all that I require. As a heteromorph, my quirk is purely biological, so it doesn’t require anything special.”

“Hold on,” Uraraka asked, her brow creasing in a confused frown, “what’s the difference between your quirk and Ida’s quirk? Aren’t they both mutation type quirks?”

“Oh, I know the answer to that,” Izuku said, perking up and turning to Uraraka. “While people often divide quirks into three categories, those being Emitter, Transformation and Mutant type quirks, Mutant type quirks are further divided into True Mutant and Heteromorphic quirks. True Mutant quirks are those that are a permanent change to the standard body type, but they aren’t pure biological changes.”

“Oh, like that small guy in our class,” Uraraka nodded, her index finger pressed against her chin in thought. “What was his name again? It started with an ‘M’, right?”

“Mineta,” Izuku answered, flicking through his notebook, arriving on his classmate’s page. “From what I can guess from seeing it in action only once, Mineta is able to produce purple, bouncy balls on top of his head, and pluck them off.”

“Okay, so what makes his and Ida’s quirk different to Kurusu’s?” Uraraka asked.

“Two things: first, heteromorphic quirks are entirely biological. Using Ida’s Engine quirk as an example, due to its mechanical nature it wouldn’t be able to be classified as a heteromorphic quirk, instead it would be a True Mutant quirk,” Izuku explained. “Secondly, heteromorphic quirks aren’t able to undergo a quirk awakening or evolution. Due to their biological nature, heteromorphic quirks start out strong but eventually plateau, meaning that whoever has a heteromorphic quirk would need to rely on training as well as their quirk to keep improving. And thirdly, and most excitingly because it’s just my hypothesis, I think that Mr. Aizawa wouldn’t be able to use his quirk on Kurusu, but he could use it on Ida.”

“That does make sense,” Ida nodded, looking at his plate as he thought. “Mr. Aizawa’s quirk would most likely have the same effect on my quirk as you would turning off the engine of a car. The engine is still there, but it can’t do anything until it is turned back on.”

“Oh, okay, that makes sense,” Uraraka nodded, before freezing mid nod. “Wait, then are heteromorphs and those with a heteromorphic quirk the same thing?”

“Not exactly,” Kurusu said, and Izuku decided to allow her to take the lead for this. After all, she was a heteromorph herself. “While heteromorphs and those with a heteromorphic quirk are similar, the key difference is genetics. While a heteromorphic quirk is like a limb, and has all of the biological functions necessary for it to work, it is still prone to mutation. Take our classmate Ojiro for example, the blond with the tail quirk. His tail still requires blood vessels throughout the tissue, and if he doesn’t use the muscles in his tail they will start to atrophy. However, if he has a child with a woman who has a heteromorphic quirk that gives her metallic skin, then their child might have a mix of their quirks, both of their quirks, or something unique.

“A heteromorph on the other hand has a stable quirk that isn’t prone to mutation. For instance, Kórinis’ quirk, Arachne, hasn’t changed since the first Arachne heteromorph was born sometime near the Dawn of Quirks. Many people make the assumption that heteromorphs are a new species entirely, and it isn’t an unfair assumption. Occasionally there are variations within a heteromorph line, such as the Heavyweight and Lightweight Centaurs, which have created their own branches of the Centaur species, which we call subspecies. Another trait that is common but not universal for heteromorphs is that they often have animal features.”

“Oh, like Silky!” Uraraka gasped, causing everyone to picture the Sea Rescue Hero: Selkie, a Spotted Seal heteromorph.

“Exactly,” Kurusu nodded. “Selkie is a good example, but another within the school faculty would be Hound Dog, the Hunting Dog Hero. He is a Kobold, and he is an excellent example of another feature that some heteromorph species have; sexual dimorphism.”

“Yeah, I’ve read about that online,” Izuku added, his face staying within his notebook as he noted down the treasure trove of information that Kurusu had given him. “Similar to how male and female peacocks look vastly different based on their gender, some heteromorphs have different appearances and even body types based on the gender, with males often having more bestial features compared to females.”

“Indeed, though why sexual dimorphism exists within some heteromorphs is still being hotly debated,” Kurusu said.

“So if Ojiro has a heteromorphic quirk, but isn’t a heteromorph, are you and your sister the only heteromorphs in our class?” Uraraka asked.

“While I’m not certain, I do believe there is another heteromorph in our class,” Kurusu answered.

“Asui, right?” Izuku guessed, flipping to her page. “Are there frog heteromorph species that you know of?”

“I think so,” Kurusu hesitantly answered, “but I can’t say with 100% certainty. I’ll ask my father tonight, he’ll know for certain. After all, he studied heteromorphology at university as an elective.”

The conversation soon steered away from quirks and towards hobbies, and then from hobbies to their favourite foods. Before long, lunchtime was over, and it was back to class.

After two more classes, the majority of students at U.A. were filing out of the entrance, but Izuku and his classmates were excitedly waiting. After all, while the General, Support and Business Courses only had six classes, the Hero Course had an additional class in the afternoon; Hero Basic Training. And since Izuku knew who was going to be teaching them, he was more than a little excited.

“I have…!” a loud, boisterous voice called out from the hallway, immediately recognizable to Izuku and all of his classmates.

“He’s here,” Izuku grinned.

“...come through the door, like normal!” All Might laughed, leaning in through the doorway in what was decidedly NOT normal. Though that was likely the joke.

“It’s All Might!” someone at the front cheered. “Incredible. He’s really gonna teach us!”

“That’s his Silver Age costume!” Izuku gasped out loud, gushing over his idol’s retro suit. Where All Might’s current, Golden Age costume was a skin-tight blue bodysuit decorated with a red symbol that somewhat resembled a ‘Y’, a white diamond at its centre and white lines connected to it, his Silver Age costume was different. His costume was skin-tight, but instead of a blue colouring, it was a crimson red, with lines trailing across his chest. His forearm sleeves were the same, a golden colour with fins jutting out behind him, but what differed from his Golden Age costume the most was the cape that fluttered behind him. It was a deep blue, blue as the ocean, draping down his back to his knees.

“Hero Basic Training!” All Might said, standing by the front podium. “The class that’ll put you through all sorts of special training to mould you into heroes! As a bonus, it also gives a ton of credits.”

“No time to dally. Today’s activity is this!” All Might smiled his perpetual smile, holding out a plaque to the class. On the front of it was the subject of their class. “Battle Training!!”

“Yes!” Kacchan growled, and even though Izuku couldn’t see his face, he knew that his classmate wore a feral grin.

“Battle training?” Izuku gulped, suddenly growing anxious about what was to come.

“And for that, you need these!” All Might said, pressing a button of a remote aimed at the sidewall of the class. A click could be heard, as hidden compartments started sliding out of the walls. Four panels emerged, each of them housing five boxes, each with a different number emblazoned on the front, going from ‘01’ to ‘20’.

“In accordance with the ‘Quirk Registry’ and the special request forms many of you filled out before being admitted, you’ll be receiving…”

“““““COSTUMES!!””””” Izuku and the class cheered, excited at the prospect of donning their own superhero attire.

“The cases for your costumes are ordered by class number, and you will come up to get them in that order,” All Might explained before pointing at the French student, Aoyama, who sat at the front. “Young Aoyama, you are student No. 1. Young Uraraka, you are student No. 5. I’m pretty sure you all can figure it out from there, correct?”

“““““Yes sir!””””” the class chorused.

“Excellent,” All Might grinned. “After you change, meet me in Ground Beta. From there, we’ll get into your exercise.”

“““““Okay!””””” Class 1-A cheered, moving towards their respective cases.

“Looking good is very important, ladies and gentlemen!” All Might explained as he stood by the door, nodding to each student as they passed on their way to the changing rooms. “Look alive now! Because from today on, you’re all heroes!”

As Izuku passed All Might, he noticed his mentor’s smile widening just a fraction more. Izuku beamed, nodding to the towering hero. No words needed to be said between the mentor and successor, All Might’s pride was clear enough.

Not willing to linger and draw the attention of his classmates, Izuku hurried down the corridors to the changing rooms. While he and his fellow male classmates had already used the room the day before, now their hero journey felt real. After all, as the saying went, clothes make the Pros.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Toshinori Yagi, better known to the world as All Might, Japan’s No. 1 Pro Hero and the world’s Symbol of Peace, stood outside the entrance to Ground Beta, waiting for his class of young wards to arrive. While he was nervous, it was a happy kind of nervous, like a child waiting to find out what they got for Christmas.

‘Oh, I can’t wait to see what their costumes look like,’ he beamed. This was always something he loved to see, even before Nana, his mentor and mother figure, took him in as her protege. The costumes of heroes were all so varied and different. Some loved utilitarian designs, others loved flashy, elaborate designs, while others loved to have gadgets and gizmos in theirs.

And as Toshinori heard the first steps in the corridor leading into the testing site, he got his first glimpse of his students in all of their costumed glory.

‘Hmm, very nice, young Asui, goggles are surprisingly useful. Did young Tokoyami really only want a black cloak? Ah, with his quirk that does make sense. Very nice choice, young Aoyama, Ida and Kurusu, a suit of armour is very practical. Hmm, young Ashido, Kaminari, Shoji and Jiro don’t seem to desire much, they’re practically wearing street clothes. Well, young Ashido’s costume is admittedly quite vibrant.’

As more and more of his students filled out into the cityscape, Toshinori also started to notice a few who had a few issues with their costumes.

‘Hmm, that is quite a few explosive-looking items, young Bakugo. I do hope the Support Companies knew what they were doing. Is young Mineta wearing a diaper? Surely not, it must have been intended to be a grape bowl. Oh well.’

The class were all chatting excitedly with each other, complimenting and comparing each other’s costumes.

“Wow, you guys!” young Uraraka gushed to young Ida and the Kurusu sisters. “You guys have amazing costumes! Which support company made yours?”

“Thank you, Uraraka, but no support company made our costumes,” young Ida explained, gesturing to the three of them. “Our costumes are all handmade, or in the case of Sarah, hand forged.”

“Whoa, really?!” Uraraka gasped, looking over the young Centaur’s suit of half plate armour. “You forged your own suit of armour?”

“Yes, it is a family tradition for each member to make their own armour and weapons,” Kurusu explained, gesturing to the mace that hung on her hip and tower shield that rested on her arm. Her armour consisted of a suit of half plate armour that covered her torso, while metal arm plates attached to leather covered her arms. Below her waist she wore metal plating over the back of her equine half, which sat atop a padded skirt, with leather greaves covering the front of her legs.

“And what about you?” Uraraka asked, turning to the younger Kurusu sister. “Did you weave your costume as well?”

“Oh, I did more than weave it,” the Arachne grinned. “Each piece of silk that you see was one that I produced. To be honest, it was the weaving of the material that took the most time and effort.”

Indeed, the younger Kurusu’s costume was made entirely out of silk. Her upper half was almost entirely covered in silk, with only her face and hands exposed. It stopped just below the equivalent of her midthighs, and her head was covered in a low hanging hood, causing only her nose, mouth and chin to be seen when looking at her head on. But due to her towering height compared to the class, Toshinori figured only he, young Shoji, and her sister would have any issues with looking the young Arachne in the eyes.

‘Knowing who her mother is, that checks out,’ Toshinori thought to himself. If the younger Kurusu was anything like her mother, then her costume would be both light and durable.

Toshinori should know, since his Golden Age costume was made by Rachnera Kurusu, in both form and material. The only thing she didn’t do was dye the costume, instead handing that task off to another company to do the finishing touches.

Seeing his own protege emerging from the tunnel, Toshinori decided to do a quick read over of the cheat sheet he had devised for this class. After all, it was good for his successor to be making new friends, and Toshinori really wanted to make a good impression with his students on his first day. And judging from the conversation that young Midoriya was having with young Ururaka, he didn’t have to worry about the first point.

“We’re all here then?” Toshinori rhetorically asked, doing a final quick headcount. When he counted nineteen, he started to sweat, only to breathe a sigh of relief as he saw a pair of shoes and a pair of floating gloves.

‘Phew, young Hagakure is here,’ he sighed. Principle Nezu would never let him live it down if his first lesson started with a missing student, even if she was invisible.

“Looking good, everyone!” he complimented. “Shall we begin, my young wards?! It’s time for Battle Training!!”

Before Toshinori could continue, he took notice of young Midoriya’s costume. While the green jumpsuit was fairly bland yet practical, what really stood out were the two strands of cloth on top of his mask. While anyone would assume they were rabbit ears, Toshinori knew that they were a replica of his hairstyle.

‘Way to make it obvious!’ Toshinori snicked to himself, covering his mouth in an attempt to hold it in. He knew his protege idolised him, but knowing it and seeing it manifest were two separate things entirely.

“Sir!” young Ida asked, raising his hand and inadvertently calming Toshinori’s fit of giggles. “This appears to be the same field used in the Entrance Exam. Will we once again be performing cityscape manoeuvres?!”

“Nope! You’ll be moving on to step two!” Toshinori explained. “Indoor Antipersonnel battle training! Villain battles are most commonly seen outdoors, but statistically, the most heinous villains are more likely to appear indoors. Between confinement, house arrest, and black market deals, in this hero-filled society of ours, the cleverest villains out there lurk indoors!”

“You’ll now be split into Villain Teams and Hero Teams,” Toshinori continued, “and face off in two-on-two indoor battles!”

“So no basic training?” young Asui asked, tilting her head.

“Practical experience teaches you the basics!” Toshinori reasoned. “The distinction here is that you won’t be fighting disposable robots.”

Although Toshinori was going to continue his explanation of how the battles were going to go, his students were perhaps a bit too eager.

“What determines victory?” young Yaoyorozu asked, slightly raising her hand.

“Can I just blast everyone away?” young Bakugo growled.

“Are you threatening to expel someone, like Mr. Aizawa did?” young Uraraka timidly asked.

“How do we proceed to divide ourselves into teams?” young Ida asked, raising his hand above his head.

“How fabulous is my cape?” young Aoyama asked, being the only one to ask an off-topic question.

“One at a time!” Toshinori cried, a sweat mark trailing down his temple. “My quirk isn’t super hearing!”

“Listen up!” he declared, pulling out his cheat sheet. “Here’s the deal. The villains will be hiding a nuclear weapon in the hideout. The heroes have to go in and take care of it, like you’d see in a western comic. Now, to answer your questions.”

“First, young Yaoyorozu,” Toshinori said, turning to the young girl. “The heroes have a limited amount of time to either capture the villains or secure the weapon. The villains must either capture the heroes or protect the weapon until time is up. Make sense?”

“Yes sir,” the tall girl nodded, “thank you.”

“Second, young Bakugo. This is a practical experience, so I expect all of you to make full use of your quirks. However, bear in mind that this is a TRAINING exercise. I will step in if anyone takes it too far, understood?”

The ash-blond simply grunted with a scowl on his face, but his lack of rebuttal made it clear that he got the message.

“Third, young Uraraka. No, don’t worry, I have no intention to expel anyone without good reason. And no, failing to perform well today is not a good reason in my books.”

A brunette nodded her head, clearly relieved with his answer.

“Fourth, young Ida. Your battle partners will be decided by drawing lots,” he explained, bringing forth a box with a hole in the top, inside of which were slips, two for every team, ranging for ‘A’ to ‘J’.

“Is that really the best way?!” young Ida asked, and even though his face was concealed within his helmet, Toshinori could hear the shock in his voice.

“It makes sense,” young Midoriya explained, “because Pros often have to team up with heroes from other agencies on the spot during emergencies.”

“I see!” young Ida exclaimed, nodding to his friend before bowing to Toshinori. “I apologise for getting ahead of myself. My mistake!”

“It’s fine,” Toshinori waved off, before turning his gaze to the final student. “And finally, young Aoyama, your cape is certainly, um, sparkly?”

Aoyama seemed to like Toshinori’s answer, sticking his nose in the air with a triumphant smile.

“Alright, if there are no other questions?” Toshinori asked, and fortunately no one stepped forth with a query. “Very good, let’s get to it! Each of you step forward in order of your class number, and take a single slip of paper. On it you will see which team you will be a part of. From there we’ll sort who will be our courageous heroes, and who will be our dastardly villains. First up, young Aoyama!”

The sparkly student stepped forth, and with a flourish dove his hand into the box. After swirling it around, it pulled with a strip of paper, with the letter ‘E’ written on it.

“E for exquis ,” he said, walking back to the clump of students.

After this, each student came up in turn. Young Asido, being student No. 2, also pulled forth the letter ‘E’, causing her and Aoyama to be sorted into their first team. After her came the next students, each of them drawing a different letter. Asui drew the letter ‘H’, Ida drew ‘D’, Uraraka drew ‘A’, Ojiro drew ‘I’, Kaminari drew ‘G’, Kirishima drew ‘J’, and Koda drew ‘F’. After this, teams started to emerge. First was Sarah Kurusu, who also drew ‘F’, much to both her and young Koda’s joy.

‘That’s right, those two worked together in the Entrance Exam,’ Toshinori thought as Shoji stepped forward. ‘They’ll likely work well together.’

Shoji drew ‘B’, and Jiro drew ‘G’, forming the third team with Kaminari. Tokoyami drew ‘H’, forming a team with Asui, and Todoroki drew ‘B’, forming a team with Shoji. Kórinis Kurusu drew ‘J’, forming a team with Kirishima, Hagakure drew ‘I’, forming a team with Ojiro, Bakugo drew ‘D’, forming a team with Ida, both of them being surprised with this fact, and Midoriya drew ‘A’, much to the excitement of both he and Uraraka.

‘That’s good,’ Toshinori thought after seeing their reactions, ‘at least young Midoriya will be fighting alongside someone he knows.’

“And with that final draw, young Mineta and Yaoyorozu, you two will be our final team, Team C. Makes sense?”

“Yes sir,” Yaoyorozu nodded, while Mineta simply stared at his teammate’s curves.

“Young Mineta, did you hear me?” Toshinori said, causing the small student to flinch.

“Uh, yes sir,” he nodded, his face lightly sweating.

‘Hmm, I’ll need to keep an eye on that one,’ Toshinori thought. ‘U.A. likely can’t afford a potential lawsuit from the Yaoyorozu Conglomerate, and even if they could, I know Nezu would somehow get the money out of my pocket.’

Toshinori moved over to where two boxes stood on concrete pillars. One was painted black with the word ‘Villain’ painted on the front in white text. The other was a white box with the word ‘Hero’ painted on the front in black. 

“Moving on,” he declared, “first up are, these!”

In each hand he held aloft a ball from each box.

“The heroes are Team A, Uraraka and Midoriya! The villains are Team D, Ida and Bakugo!”

This caused a reaction out of both young Midoriya and Bakugo, both of them glancing towards each other.

“Here’s how this will go,” Toshinori said, drawing the attention of the class back to him. “The villain team goes in first! They will have five minutes to locate the bomb, scout out the building, and prepare any defences that they wish. After those five minutes, the fifteen minute timer begins, and the hero team is allowed to sneak in. The rest of us will watch via CCTV!”

“Over there is the entrance to the Monitor Room,” Toshinori continued, pointing to a door behind the class. “Everybody else, head on in, I’ll join you in a moment. Teams A and D, follow me!”

The class split up; sixteen of them heading to the Monitor Room, with the other four following Toshinori as he led them to the first Battle Building.

“All four of you will need these,” Toshinori said, holding out four rolls of tape, four layout maps, as well as four earpieces.

“What are these?” Ida asked, holding up the roll of tape and examining it.

“That is Capture Tape!” Toshinori explained with a laugh. “If either the heroes or the villains wrap a piece of that around a part of their opponents body, they are considered out for the rest of the match. Be careful, just one slip up can be the end of it, so stay vigilant. The second set of items is the layout of the building. Both the heroes and the villains are given them, though the villains can use these to plan their defences. Finally, the earpieces are for you to keep in contact with your teammates, even if you are separated. They can also be used for me to contact you in case the situation calls for it. All clear?”

Everyone nodded, with each person taking one each of the provided items.

“Now, young Ida and Bakugo,” Toshinori said to the villain team, “remember, as I said, this is meant to be a practical experience. However, knocking out your opponent isn’t necessary, simply wrapping the Capture Tape around them will do. We will do more live fire exercises in the future, but that is then and this is now. Understood?”

“Understood, All Might,” Ida nodded, but Bakugo remained silent.

“Bakugo?” Toshinori prompted. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah, don’t blow ‘em up too much, got it,” Bakugo growled. “Can we head in now or what?”

“Yes, once you and young Ida step through those doors, your time starts. No time for dillydallying.”

Bakugo just nodded, stepping through the doors to the building with Ida close behind him.

“Alright, once the five minutes that the villain team has to prepare is up, you both can head in,” Toshinori explained to Midoriya and Uraraka. “Remember, you have fifteen minutes to either find and touch the nuclear bomb, thus deactivating it, or capture both of the villains. Good luck.”

“Thank you, All Might,” Midoriya beamed, with young Uraraka nodding eagerly.

Toshinori simply gave them a nod in return before turning around and walking off to the Monitor Room.

‘Come on, young Midoriya,’ Toshinori thought to himself. ‘I know you can do this. Good luck.’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As Kórinis stood amongst the class, waiting for the Training Battle to begin, she couldn’t help but feel anxious. On one hand, she was confident that Dynamite was going to win. He had a powerful quirk, and his intellect had to be equally impressive. She knew that the Hero Course prioritised the results from the Practical Exam over the Written Exam, otherwise there was no chance she could get third place, but Dynamite had managed to win out against Sarah. Their scores in the Practical were neck in neck, so for Dynamite to pull ahead of her meant that he had to be book smart too, enough to beat the academic genius that was her big sister.

And yet, something felt off. The Dynamite that she met in the Entrance Exam was different to the person he was yesterday during their Quirk Assessment Test. Or more specifically, he seemed different after Ryokutō did his throw.

Sure, Dynamite was a bit rough around the edges, she’d known that from the start. But he was strong and open about his thoughts, two things that were a win in her books. Like her mother, Kórinis hated liars, and she’d much rather suffer through harsh truths than live in pretty lies. The number of people who she had met, both at school and out in public, who had said one thing to her then said something completely differently when they thought she couldn’t hear was too many to count. 

It wasn’t her fault that she was born the way she was. 

She couldn’t help it that she was taller than everyone else, or heavier than most people. 

She couldn’t help it that her appearance, or her many eyes, or her sharp teeth, or anything else was scary to look at. 

It wasn’t her fault that the fear of spiders was one of the most common fears.

Dynamite didn’t care about any of that. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and even if his dismissive nature of those who were weak might have been an issue for most, Kórinis preferred his truths, harsh as they were, to the many lies that people had told her, all in a vain attempt at not hurting her feelings. At least with Dynamite she knew what he said was what he meant.

Yet when Ryokutō performed that impressive feat of strength with his quirk, Dynamite seemed, off. As if everything he knew about someone was a lie. That was the only explanation she could think of as to why he would do something so incredibly stupid as to try and attack a fellow student in front of their strict homeroom teacher.

There was also the question of what Ryokutō meant the other day when they were all walking to the station. If he had such a powerful quirk, one that could break his finger simply from the sheer power alone, then why would Dynamite pick on Ryokutō? It didn’t make any sense, not unless there was another piece to the puzzle that was missing.

There was something going on between Dynamite and Ryokutō, and damn it was she going to get an answer.

“Indoor Antipersonnel Battle Training, start!” All Might announced, speaking into a mic on the desk.

Kórinis shook herself free of her thoughts, looking up at the wall of screens. The class had found the Monitor Room to be massive, easily fitting their class three times over and still have room to spare. Due to a lack of windows, the only illumination came from the many screens that dominated one of the walls on the room. Each screen showed a different perspective from within the buildings, and was able to select which of the test buildings to monitor. Due to the many angles that the building would have, U.A. had apparently filled each building with CCTV cameras, ensuring that there weren’t any blindspots, perfect for a teaching experience.

“Watch closely and try to learn something, everyone!” All Might said, pulling out a pad and pen, likely for their teacher to jot down his thoughts on the battle trial.

The class watched as Ryokutō and Uraraka entered the building through a side window, being careful to make as little noise as possible.

‘Smart,’ Kórinis thought. ‘They weren't sure if Dynamite and Glasses were waiting for them at the entrance, so they decided to try another route.’

The hero duo continued to walk down a line of corridors, and it was only now that Kórinis really paid attention to the building the test was in. The walls were bare, consisting of basic concrete panels. Seeing how Cementos was a teacher at U.A., it made sense that the school would make use of his quirk to create cheap, easy to make buildings.

While Ryokutō and Uraraka were checking around corners as they made their way through the building, being careful to not make too much noise, their luck could only hold for so long.

“A sneak attack!” the purple perv midget they had as a classmate gasped, as the screen showed Dynamite leaping out from the next corridor.

The ash-blond lashed out a hand, an explosion bursting forth and slamming into the wall where the heroes had been standing only seconds before. Ryokutō managed to leap into Uraraka, throwing the both of them out of the way. However, as Ryokutō straightened his posture, Kórinis noticed that he hadn’t emerged unscathed. 

Part of Dynamite’s explosion had managed to hit him, ripping his mask apart, causing only the right side of his face to be covered in the green bunny mask.

“That’s low, Bakugo!” Kórinis’ spiky red haired classmate shouted, his frustration thick in his voice. “Sneak attacks are so unmanly!”

“Yet they are a valid strategy!” All Might argued, his gaze fixed on the screens like the rest of the class. “This is practical experience!”

“Yeah, some heroes aren’t suited to fighting head on,” Kórinis argued, drawing the classes’ attention. “Other times, like right now, the best option in a situation isn’t to charge in head first, but instead wait and catch your opponents by surprise.”

“What do you mean?” the redhead asked. “Bakugo could have totally taken them on without having to resort to a sneak attack.”

“If it were Uraraka by her lonesome, I’d agree with you, Kirishima,” Sarah answered, reminding Kórinis of the redhead’s name. “However, we must remember that Midoriya’s quirk is not only incredibly destructive, but also unstable and dangerous. Simply the force of it damages his own body; imagine what it would do to Bakugo if he managed to land a hit?”

Sarah's question caused the class to quiet down as they imagined the situation, all of those who had sided with Kirishima initially soon realising that he had made the right call.

“Yeah, Ryokutō has a powerful quirk, all right. Shame he has such shit control over it,” Kórinis sighed, leaning back onto her thorax and folding her hands behind her head.

“Kórinis, mind your language,” Sarah scolded, frowning at her.

“And why Ryokutō?” Kirishima asked.

“You know, because he’s green and small,” Kórinis explained, pointing with one hand to her hair while also holding her other hand horizontally flat at her shoulders.

“Oh, good choice,” nodded the pink skinned student who stood next to Kirishima. 

“Thanks,” Kórinis said, smiling at the pinkette before turning her gaze back to her sister. “And so what, it’s true. I’ve never heard of a quirk that is THAT unsuited to the person who has it. It’s almost like he’s not meant to have it, either that or he’s never used it before.”

“Maybe so, but Midori sure can dodge!” the pink skinned student standing next to Kirishima grinned, pointing at the screens. “And look at that throw!”

Indeed, as Kórinis had been debating with Kirishima, Dynamite had attempted to swing another explosion at Ryokutō, only for the greenet to grapple the arm, and using the momentum from the swing, perform a textbook slam over the shoulder.

Dynamite slammed into the ground hard, and even though the class couldn’t hear anything within the Monitor Room, they could almost see Dynamite’s breath being forced out of his lungs from the impact.

“““““Ooo!””””” many in the class winced at the sight.

Dynamite wasn’t out of it yet, as he slowly rose to a crouch, glaring over his shoulder at Ryokutō who stood before him, fists raised and ready.

Ryokutō seemed to be saying something to Dynamite, and judging by his mouth, it quickly developed into yelling something. Dynamite was quick to respond in turn, before pressing on something in his ear.

Looking at the other screens, Kórinis saw Glasses doing the same thing, standing next to the fake nuclear bomb.

“What are they saying?” Kirishima asked, voicing the question many of them had in their mind. “These fixed cameras don’t have any sound.”

“They’re communicating with micro transceivers!” All Might explained. “We give them to the battlers along with the building blueprints.”

All Might then pulled what looked to be a roll of sticky tape, holding it in the air for the class to see. “Also, this is Capture Tape! Tying this around your opponent is sufficient proof of capture!”

“So they’ve only got fifteen minutes, but the heroes don’t know where the bomb is, right?” Kórinis asked.

“Yes, that’s correct!” All Might laughed. “While both heroes and villains were given a map of the building, the villain’s maps showed them where the bomb was, so they could make the most of the setup time they were given. After all, villains that are hiding within their lair will know where the bomb they are trying to hide will be!”

“The hero teams are at a real disadvantage, huh,” the pinkette noted, with many in the class murmuring in agreement.

“That just means you all have to do what Aizawa told you,” All Might said, turning to the class. “Say it with me!”

“““““PLUS ULTRA!!””””” the class cheered.

“Ah, Monsieur Bakugo!” Aoyama noted, being one of the few in the class to not join in the chant.

Kórinis turned her attention back to the screens, seeing Dynamite launch off the ground with his explosions. Ryokutō must have yelled for Uraraka to run, since the Gravity Girl started sprinting away from the conflict.

Ryokutō tried to fend off Dynamite, but the explosive blond seemed to have learnt his lesson, as an explosion from his left threw him to the right, allowing him to land a kick to the back of Ryokutō’s head. However, the greenet wasn’t down, as instead of getting back up or retaliating, Kórinis noticed the line of Capture Tape that was about to be wound around Dynamite’s leg.

“No way,” she gasped out loud. “He's going for the capture.”

Dynamite let forth another massive explosion from his right, but Ryokutō anticipated it, leaping to the side and out of the way.

“He’s amazing,” one of Kórinis’ classmates observed, fiddling with her earphone jack-shaped earlobes. “Going toe-to-toe without using his quirk.”

“Against the top-scorer in the Entrance Exam no less,” exclaimed an electric blond student standing next to the earphone jack girl. His excitement waned as Ryokutō ran away from Dynamite, rounding a corner and hiding from view. Dynamite was more than pissed, yelling something to Ryokutō while explosions burst from his hands, his expression filled with rage. “But damn, he’s really scary.”

“You really think that Midoriya’s display was impressive?” Sarah asked aloud, causing many in the class to look at her in confusion.

“Well yeah, wasn’t it?” Asui, the third heteromorph in the class, asked with a tilted head.

“Think about it,” Kórinis’ big sister explained. “We know Midoriya’s quirk, however ill suited it may seem, allows him to produce tremendous amounts of force in his body. And yet we haven’t seen him use it at all, even when it would make sense to.”

“Well, yeah, sure, but Midori probably doesn’t want to break his body,” the pinkette answered. “I mean, I don’t blame him, it looks really painful, but he might still have to fight Ida, so he’s probably waiting for the right moment.”

“Sure, I could understand that, Ashido, but why isn’t he simply using less power?”

Sarah’s question stumped the class, causing a few to mutter out loud as they thought, only to stop as an answer was given.

“It’s because he has no control,” the Yaoyorozu heir spoke, staring at the screens as they showed Ryokutō stealthily fleeing down the corridors while Dynamite blew open doors and walls in his search. “Midoriya is like an infant; he has no fine control over his strength, so he is forced to use all of it or none of it, much to the detriment of his body and his surroundings.”

“He’s probably aware of this more than anyone else, likely resulting in a mental block out of fear of harming his fellow classmates,” she continued, completely oblivious of the looks of sheer bewilderment from not only the majority of the class, but All Might as well. “Rather than being impressive, this shows that Midoriya is only able to participate in this test as a quirkless, putting him at a severe disadvantage.”

Yaoyorozu glanced around the room, a light blush forming on her cheeks as she noticed the amount of her fellow students with their mouths agape. She glanced over at Sarah, her blush only growing. “Was, was that correct?”

“Uh, yeah, exactly,” Sarah answered, a slime growing on her face. “I couldn’t have answered it any better myself.”

Yaoyorozu didn’t answer, but she did lightly smile as she looked away, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

“It would seem that Uraraka has found her quarry,” an ominous voice said. Kórinis turned her gaze to the source of the voice, seeing a crow-headed student dressed in a black robe.

Indeed, one of the screens showed Glasses, still in the room with the bomb, but he was unaware of Uraraka poking her head round the corner. While she seemed to be determined, Glasses’ next actions broke her concentration.

“Is, is Ida…” someone asked in confusion.

“Yes, yes he is,” Sarah sighed, slapping her palm onto her forehead.

Her reaction was understandable, as Glasses seemed to be laughing with his hands in the air. It almost seemed as if…

“Hey, All Might?” Kórinis asked the teacher. “Is Glasses, er, Tenya, well…”

“Yes, young Ida is monologuing and really hamming up the role of a villain,” All Might chuckled. “Ah, and it seems young Uraraka found it amusing as well.”

Indeed, Uraraka had apparently laughed out loud, as Glasses instantly snapped his gaze around, turning to face the other member of the hero team. He gestured around the room, and while the class couldn’t hear what he was saying, they understood the message; there was nothing in the room for her to use her quirk on. Uraraka seemed to know this as well, slowly backing her way out of the room. She pressed on her earpiece, communicating with Ryokutō, who had stopped in the middle of a hallway. He glanced up, possibly to judge where he was in the building, only for the hunter to catch up to the hunted.

“Oh, that’s not good,” the electric blond muttered, “Bakugo found Midoriya.”

Standing at the end of the hallway was Dynamite, blocking off the only way out. His right arm was raised, the grenade-like gauntlet pointed at Ryokutō. They exchanged some words unheard to the class, with Dynamite pulling back the handle of his grenade-gauntlet, revealing a pin.

‘Are Dynamite’s gauntlets…’ Kórinis wondered, only for All Might to answer her question.

“Bakugo, stop it now, kid!” the Symbol of Peace exclaimed into a mic. “Are you trying to kill him?!”

Dynamite either didn’t hear or didn’t care, because as he pulled the pin, an explosion burst forth.

BOOM!!

The class all let out cries of shock and worry as tremors could be felt within the Monitor Room.

“I thought this was just practice!” Kirishima cried out, using an arm to hold onto Ashido, both of them helping to keep the other steady.

“Midoriya, kid!” All Might exclaimed. “Can you hear me? Are you alright?”

While Kórinis was worried about her classmate’s safety, movement from another screen caught her attention. Uraraka had taken the distraction of Dynamite’s explosion as an opportunity, rushing forward and leaping over Glasses, her quirk in use as she floated towards the bomb. 

However, Glasses wasn’t idle. Just before Uraraka could touch the weapon and secure the hero team the victory, he grabbed the weapon, repositioning it out of the way. Uraraka took a tumble, her helmet coming off as she crashed into a wall.

Kórinis heard All Might give a sigh of relief, and looking at another screen saw the smoke and dust from the explosions clearing, revealing a scuffed up Ryokutō, alive and conscious.

“Sir, shouldn’t you stop him?” Kirishima asked, his voice raised in worry. “Bakugo’s crazy. He’s looking to kill!”

Kórinis grit her teeth and balled her fists at that statement. Not because Kirishima was wrong, but the opposite. ‘What’s with you, Dynamite? You’re acting so differently from the Entrance Exam. What’s with you?’

“Bakugo, use that move again,” All Might said, quieting the many murmurs and whispers amongst Kórinis’ classmates, “and I will forcibly end the match. You will lose. Using massive attacks like that indoors is just asking to have your own stronghold destroyed! Whether hero or villain, it’s a bad move! And a good way to lose points!”

Dynamite clearly heard their teacher, gripping his head and letting out an inaudible yell of frustration. He burst off of the ground, rocketing towards Ryokutō, who seemed to be getting ready to intercept Dynamite again. However, before he could grab him, Dynamite ignited an explosion beneath him to launch himself over Ryokutō’s head, the heat and force from the explosion acting as a smokescreen, causing Ryokutō to not see his opponent reposition behind him. Dynamite let out another set of explosions, one from each hand, the left stabilising his movement in the air and the right slamming into Ryokutō’s back.

“He used the first explosion to simultaneously feint and change his own tack,” Shoto observed. “Then he followed up immediately with another.”

“He doesn’t seem like a thinker, but that strategy was fairly intricate,” Yaoyorozu added.

“And his instincts are great,” Kórinis said. “Flashy moves like that rely on a deep understanding of momentum and physics. Dynamite’s clearly been training himself to use his quirk in combat.”

Dynamite swung his right arm while Ryokutō was reeling from the blow the explosion to his back landed, the right arm slammed into Ryokutō’s own right arm. Quickly grabbing Ryokutō’s elbow, Dynamite let out a series of explosions with his left arm, creating momentum as he slammed Ryokutō’s over his shoulder, causing him to land on his back, just the same as what Ryokutō did to Dynamite only minutes earlier.

“This is just torture now!” Ashido cried out. “He could’ve already ended it with the Capture Tape!”

“Not very hero-like of him,” the crow-headed student said.

“I thought Midoriya was good,” Yaoyorozu muttered, “but Bakugo’s battle sense just can’t be beat.”

“You’re right,” Sarah agreed, looking towards Yaoyorozu. “While Midoriya seems to be fighting based on strategy and planning, it all falls apart when something goes wrong. Conversely, Bakugo is all instinct. This means that his actions, while not as thought out in advance, are much more adaptable. To be honest, the only thing that Midoriya can do…”

“...is flee,” Kórinis finished, watching as Ryokutō scrambled up off the floor, trying to get away from Dynamite. 

“It’s not very manly, but he doesn’t have a choice,” Kirishima admitted.

Ryokutō tried to escape but was trapped. A wall of concrete behind him, and a VERY angry Dynamite in front of him.

As Dynamite stalked forwards, he continued to yell, and whatever he said seemed to have affected Ryokutō, who started to yell right back at him.

“He’s not going for the shot,” Ashido realised. “Bakugo sure is confident, huh.”

Their argument however didn’t last long. The two students started tensing up, both right arms swinging out for a hit on the other. Through the screen, Kórinis noticed the sparks coming off of Ryokutō’s arm as the right sleeve of his costume ripped from the pressure. Likewise, Dynamite’s hands were glowing with explosive sweat, the prelude to another powerful explosion.

Whatever the outcome of the blows, no matter who was left standing, everyone in the Monitor Room knew it was going to end badly.

“Sir!” Kirishima shouted to All Might, who seemed frozen at the sight. “This looks bad, you need to stop it! Sir!”

“Both of you!” All Might began. “Stop th-”

But before he could finish, something caught his attention. Movement from the room housing the weapon drew everyone’s attention, seeing Uraraka grabbing hold onto one of the supporting pillars in the room.

Before the class could wonder why she had done that, Ryokutō and Dynamite’s blows landed.

BOOM!!

SMASH!!

While Dynamite’s blast connected directly with Ryokutō, the greenet’s blow flew upwards, the air pressure slamming into the ceiling.

Multiple screens captured the different perspectives, a few of them showing the damage the hit caused, smashing through multiple floors of the building, including the weapon room. The floor burst open, causing rubble to fly skyward. Uraraka, still holding onto the pillar that was now disconnected to the floor, must have used her quirk on it, for there was no other explanation as to how such a short girl would have been able to swing the pillar, smashing it into the flying debris.

Glasses instinctively raised his hands to cover his helmed face, protecting it from the makeshift projectiles that were launched at him. Of course, this prevented him from noticing Uraraka, who used her quirk on herself to leap over the gap, floating through the air. Releasing her quirk’s effect on herself, she collided with the top of the weapon, holding onto it with both arms and legs.

“The hero…” All Might began, just as surprised by the ending as the class. “The hero team…WINS!!”

While the class should have been celebrating their classmates’ victory, only stunned silence could be heard. After all, who could have predicted an ending like that.

“You all wait here,” All Might ordered, moving from his spot by the computer terminal. “I’ll go check on your classmates. I’ve already called for a stretcher for young Midoriya, but it’s always good to be sure.”

With that, the Symbol of Peace burst out of the door, creating a wind gust in his wake.

“The losing team is nearly unscathed, while the winners are down for the count,” the crow-head student stated. 

Kórinis could see that what he said was true. While Dynamite and Glasses were practically untouched, Ryokutō and Uraraka were completely out of it, either passed out on the floor or keeled over and throwing up.

“They lost the battle, but they won the war, so to speak,” he concluded.

After a few minutes of waiting, All Might returned with Glasses, Dynamite, and Uraraka in tow. Ryokutō was missing, but All Might explained that he was taken to Recovery Girl’s office so he could be healed and recuperate. And despite her attempts at catching his attention or gaze, Dynamite simply didn’t look at Kórinis. He didn’t really look at anything really, his gaze downcast, his expression distant and withdrawn. Whatever had happened between him and Ryokutō, as well as the result of the battle, had really shaken him.

“Well, I’d say the V.I.P. in this battle was Ida!” All Might declared as he started the post-battle analysis.

“Whaa?!” Glasses gasped, just as surprised as everyone else why he had been chosen.

“Not Uraraka or Midoriya?” Asui asked. “Even though they won?”

“I wonder why?” All Might rhetorically asked, gazing over the class. “Anyone know?!”

““I do, sir,”” two voices said, Sarah and Yaoyorozu speaking over the top of each other.

“You go,” Sarah said, lowering her hand.

“Oh, um,” Yaoyorozu stammered, coughing into her hand. “Well, it’s because Ida was the most able to adapt to the scenario. From what I saw, Bakugo’s every action was motivated by an obvious personal grudge. And as you mentioned before, sir, using destructive attacks indoors is foolish. Midoriya’s performance suffered from the same faults.”

Dynamite didn’t even respond, simply staring at the floor, only the slightest twitch of his lips showing any indication he was more than a statue.

“Uraraka lost focus halfway through,” Yaoyorozu continued. “And her final attack was far too haphazard. Such an attack would have been unthinkable if the nuclear weapon were real.”

Uraraka only looked at the ground, though her expression at least showed she was accepting her criticism.

“But Ida formed an actual counter-strategy,” Yaoyorozu added, “and he envisioned what the actual struggle would be like. He was only too late in reacting at the very end. The hero team only won because this was a training exercise with exploitable constraints.”

The class was stunned silent, the only sounds being Glasses’ quiet sniffles from how touched he was by Yaoyorozu’s praise, while also being comforted by a proud looking Sarah.

‘Not bad, Glasses, not bad,’ Kórinis thought to herself.

“I-I’d also add that Ida was a bit too stiff,” All Might hesitated, his face tensed, most likely from Yaoyorozu’s spot on answer, “but yes, you’re correct.”

“We’ve got to start at the bottom and work up!” Yaoyorozu declared, her hands on her hips. “And if we don’t earnestly cheer each other on, we’ll never be top heroes!”

‘Ah, that’s right, Shoto mentioned that she was at the Recommended Exams,’ Kórinis thought to herself. ‘Guess her parent’s money didn’t buy her a ticket to U.A. after all.’

“Right, now then,” All Might began, before pausing as he saw Sarah’s raised arm. “Yes, young Kurusu? Did you have something to add?”

“Yes, sir,” her sister answered. “While Yaoyorozu did mention Bakugo’s foolish actions with his large explosion taking out the side of the building, I believe that extra attention should be focused on Midoriya’s final move.”

“What about it?” All Might asked, tilting his head. “Yaoyorozu already mentioned that it was a bad move, there really isn’t any need to go over established material.”

“Correct, but Yaoyorozu forgot to mention one key factor,” Sarah elaborated. “Real-world application.”

Silence rang out within the Monitor Room as people failed to see what she was alluding to.

“In a real-world scenario, what are the chances of the building that the villains were using being deserted?” Sarah asked.

“Low,” All Might admitted, understanding beginning to dawn on his face. “In fact, with people within the building that the bomb has been placed, the villains would have hostages that they could exploit.”

“My point exactly,” Sarah nodded. “Even if we say that the villains chose an already inhabited location because it made it inconspicuous, that still means that there are those unaware of the event in question. An argument could be made that the civilians would be evacuated, but what is to stop the villains from threatening to activate the bomb. Thus, Midoriya’s floor-destroying blow runs the risk of unnecessarily endangering the lives of countless civilians.

“Additionally, even if we assume the best case scenario where all civilians are out of the way and evacuated safely, Midoriya’s attack still blew a hole through multiple floors and the roof, launching debris and rubble into the sky. According to Newton’s law of gravity, whatever goes up must come down. While in a perfect world the rubble would fall right back into the hole that was created within the building, thus keeping collateral damage to a minimum, a real-world scenario would likely see debris falling outside, potentially damaging property, vehicles, roads and pavements, or even injuring civilians, first responders, and fellow heroes.”

The class was stunned silent once again, though Kórinis smirked at the response they had to her big sister.

‘Way to rip into the little guy, Sarah,’ Kórinis thought. ‘Good thing he isn’t here, or else he’d probably be looking for a hole to crawl in.’

“Yes, um, well,” All Might coughed, “you both did very well in your critique. Even though this is meant to be a training exercise, you both looked to the future, to when you all are Pros. So well done, top marks.”

Sarah gave Yaoyorozu a congratulatory nod, a small smile on her lips. Yaoyorozu gave her own hesitative nod before turning back to their teacher.

“Well,” All Might began, drawing out the Hero and Villain boxes, “let’s see who's up next.”

All Might plunged his hands into the boxes, and after a second of deciding drew out the deciding letters.

Alright, full disclosure: I didn’t like this chapter, the second half specifically. I love writing character dialogue, both internal and external, but I think having to write from Kórinis’ perspective of the Team A VS Team D Battle Trial was painful. I did a bunch of changes and tweaks, and even though I am content with the way it ended, I’m not really happy with it. I think the problem ultimately boils down to the fact there was no other way to do it. I can’t do it from the perspective of Izuku, Ochako, Tenya or Katsuki, because LITERALLY NOTHING HAS CHANGED FROM CANON. I didn’t feel comfortable rehashing old stuff, which is why Izuku VS the Zero pointer was cut, Izuku’s reaction to getting into U.A. was cut (because let’s be honest, getting one point isn’t going to change a whole lot), and literally all of Izuku’s backstory.

Anyway, author rant over. As you saw, we are going to be getting into the other Battle Trials over the next few chapters, and yes, I did say chapters, as in plural. Each fight will have its own chapter, which allows for the spotlight to be on different people, while also giving me a chance to build up the backlog. These chapters should be shorter than the usual ones, which doesn’t mean much when my chapters are averaging around 11k words. 

Also, full disclosure: Sarah’s criticism came right from the heart. It is never addressed much in the franchise, but Izuku at the beginning of the series is an active detriment as a hero. He can only go 0% or 100%, with absolutely no middle ground. Unless you want something turned into a red mist, he’s basically quirkless. That also isn’t factoring in the environmental damage he’d do. All Might is weaker than 100% Izuku, simply due to the nature of One For All. Yet All Might doesn’t have these issues. The answer: All Might holds back. To quote Mihawk, “I don’t hunt rabbits with a cannon.” Suffice to say, Izuku without any training is near useless, and he will be receiving some advice from our two new characters, because they have something literally no one else in the series has: they know someone with a similar problem. I won’t say who it is just yet, but try and guess in a comment. Maybe you’ll get a cookie if you’re right. The answer will be revealed during the Sports Festival, so you have a good while to think up an idea.

Alright, rants and info dumps over, let’s get into some reviews:

Foodmoon, once again thanks for your review. To be honest, I only know about the whole Dekiru meaning from the MHA wiki site, as well as my own research to make sure it was accurate. The idea that there is a regional accent that pronounces ‘dekiru’ as ‘deku’ is a cool idea, though I’m not sure where that is. If it’s from the Mie prefecture, that would actually make quite a bit of sense, as that’s the prefecture that Ochako is from, and apparently she does have an accent. Obviously it doesn’t translate well into English, but it’s a cool idea anyway.

Secondly, HOLY SHIT, LEONARDO18ANIME, YOU NOTICED ME, SENPAI!!! All jokes aside, I can’t believe someone of your calibre checked out my story, it truly humbles me. I’m really glad you liked my story, and don’t you worry, class 1-A, specifically two members in particular, will have quite the reaction to Kimihito and his family. Class 1-A won’t be meeting them until the Sports Festival, so look forward to that (I’m also realising how many reveals are scheduled for the Sports Festival…)

Finally, Sakumon16, thanks for your reviews. Bloody hell, you left a few, so let's go through them. First, MWAHAHAHA!!! Yes, you will be dragged back into the ecchi insanity that is Monster Musume, tremble in fear!

Secondly, yeah, ever since I had this idea, Kimihito having a regeneration quirk was set in stone. There are actually theories in universe that Kimihito has liminal (monster) ancestry, which would explain his absolutely bonkers endurance. Each time he is ‘knocked out’, he actually dies, but is simply too stubborn to stay dead, causing Lala to investigate. Also with Suu, my reasoning is that even though her body is made out of slime, some functions and capabilities would still remain, such as fertility. And yeah, having seven wives is going to cause anyone to have a few children, especially when some of his women decide to go for round two with child raising.

Thirdly, thank you for liking my craft, but what do you mean you take back what you said? You dare question the monster girl supremacy?! Report to the nearest reeducation camp, if you behave you shall be given a monster girl waifu.

Fourth, yeah, it would cheer up Katsuki to know that he has completed the first step in surpassing All Might, beating his previous record. However, a point I want to bring up is that Katsuki isn’t necessarily nicer in this timeline, we’re simply seeing him from another perspective. In a few chapters, chapter 10 to be precise, we’re going to get a look at why he hates Izuku so much, and no, being quirkless isn’t the reason. I wanted to flesh him out some more, make him a complex character. On one hand, what he did in the early days of the series was wrong, no question about it. Even what he did in this chapter was borderline. However, he isn’t a one note character, something I hope to build on. Also yes, Sarah and Kórinis are awesome, each of them are going to get their own screen time and awesome moments, and I can finally confirm that I have their romance partners sorted. Kórinis is simple, you can all tell it’s going to be Katsuki. Sarah on the other hand is going to be a surprise. I can guarantee that you won’t be able to figure out who she will be paired with, because it isn’t ONE person, though this won’t happen for a while.

And finally, Rachnera running and owning a clothing company simply made sense. In canon, Rachnera made money by selling her silk, so why not make a business out of clothing? And given who she is, making lingerie seems like something she’d enjoy making, even if it wasn’t as a job. Mineta is going to get multiple moments of error, so feel free to try and guess when it’s going to happen. In terms of Shoto’s second cousin, it’s Kuu, the daughter of Suu. Enji, better known as Endeavor, is the cousin of Suu, and anyone who knows Suu’s mother will probably be able to start to piece the puzzle of their ancestry together. For Salamander, Shoto’s grandmother, you’ll hear about her in a few chapters, and she will also be making an appearance at the Sports Festival. Full disclosure, her existence probably made one of the largest waves of change in the story, so I’m very proud of how she turned out. Hell, I’m planning to make a oneshot ‘What If’ surrounding a turning point in history if things with her went differently, but that won’t be for a while.

Also, love your profile pic. ‘My Elf Wife’ is one of my favourite romance manga, so good choice.

Before I go, I decided to start a tradition of doing a bit of a sneak peek for the upcoming chapter. As such, next chapter is going to be called, ‘ Octopus & Spirit VS Tail and Ghost ’. Additionally, due to it being the final week of university, assessments were piling up (40% assessments are so painful). Unfortunately, my body decided that now was also the perfect time to keel over and get sick. Suffice to say, I haven’t finished writing the next chapter, so there will probably be a week delay. That and I’ll be in Australia for a week, but I should have the next chapter published on the 18th of November.

That’s all from me, so see you next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

All Might plunged his hands into the boxes, and after a second of deciding drew out the deciding letters.

“The heroes are Team B, Shoji and Todoroki! The villains are Team I, Ojiro and Hagakure!”

“Follow me, you four,” All Might stated, striding towards the door. “Our last team destroyed their building, so we’ll give you a new one to use.”

Mezo followed the Symbol of Peace, walking behind his new teammate and his two opponents. Privately, Mezo was glad that he was part of the hero team. While he was sure that U.A. wouldn’t allow any quirk discrimination on campus, years of facing abuse from people over his appearance had made him hesitant to open up to people. But even if some of his classmates turned out to be hard to make friends with, he was sure he could find common ground with his fellow mutant quirk classmates, be they True Mutant types or Heteromorphic types.

“Alright, you lot,” All Might grinned at them, standing in front of the doors leading into their building. “As I explained in the Monitor Room, you’re going to need these micro transceivers, a roll of Capture Tape, as well as a map of the building. Go ahead, take one each.”

Each of them stepped forth, with the villains receiving their own unique maps.

“Alright, villains,” All Might continued, “you have five minutes to head on in, find the bomb, make a plan, and set up your defences. Are you ready?!”

“Yes, sir,” nodded Ojiro, the heteromorphic student with the tail nodded. 

Beside him stood his teammate, and even though Mezo couldn't see her, her gloves that were pumping up and down helped to show her excitement.

“Yeah, we've got this!” she cheered before pointing one of her gloves at Mezo and Todoroki. “No hard feelings or anything, but you two are going down!”

“Ha ha ha!” All Might laughed, throwing his head back. “That's what I like to hear! Now, you two, head on in. Let's get this Battle Trial underway!”

The pair walked through the doors, disappearing from view as they rounded a corner.

“Right, now for you heroes,” All Might said, turning to Mezo and his teammate. “Once the five minutes is up, you'll have fifteen minutes to locate the bomb or capture all of the villains. And I do ask that you try to keep the damage to a minimum. Remember, you both will be monitored and graded by your peers after this.”

Both Mezo and Todoroki nodded, showing their understanding.

“Very well, good luck to the both of you!” All Might said, breaking into a light jog back to the Monitor Room, leaving the hero duo alone.

Glancing to the side, Mezo observed his teammate’s hero costume. It was a form fitting robe, something that wouldn’t be out of place within a fantasy game. Rather than a single piece of fabric covering the legs, his costume had loose fitting pants with the legs tucked into a pair of boots that he wore. His upper body was fully covered with the fabric, extending all the way down to his hands, covering them with gloves. He wore a hood over his face, casting it in shadow, but he also wore a mask that covered his face’s right-hand side. It had a smooth, featureless texture, poking out from underneath Todoroki’s fringe, and it was only because his fringe didn’t go lower than his earlobes that Mezo was able to see the mask. His costume was coloured a pale, icy blue, and it seemed like something that one would see an ice mage wear, which given what Mezo saw of his quirk yesterday, seemed entirely fitting. 

Mezo simply stood there, not entirely sure how to start the conversation he and his teammate would inevitably need to have.

“My name is Shoji,” he started, forming a mouth on the end of one of his arms and reaching out a hand on another to his red-haired partner. “Mezo Shoji.”

Todoroki simply turned his gaze, looking out the offered hand for a moment, then the mouth, then Mezo’s face, then back to the hand, before extending his own hand and shaking it. 

“Shoto Todoroki,” he answered in a neutral tone.

Silence fell over them once more, and in the back of Mezo’s mind he could almost hear the ticking of a clock, the time passing by while he and his teammate simply sat around without making a plan of attack.

“Look, I’m sorry if you feel off with having me as a teammate, but we should at least work together for the duration of the Battle Trial,” Mezo said, deciding to bite the bullet.

Todoroki once again looked towards Mezo, but this time he had a slightly puzzled expression.

“Why would I feel off?” he asked, his brow creasing in confusion.

“Because of my quirk,” Mezo explained, eyes, ears and hands forming on some of his arms. “It’s kind of sad, but I have grown used to people finding my quirk to be distasteful and avoiding me. If you feel the same way, I’d ask that you tell me now, even if it’s so I know why you avoid me in the future.”

Todoroki turned to face the building, looking up at it. Even though he stood to the left of Todoroki, Mezo was still able to see it. Todoroki was now clearly frowning, his visible left eye narrowing as his expression changed from confused to visibly irritated. 

“No one should go through that,” Todoroki muttered to himself, and it was only from the extra ears that Mezo had formed on his arms that allowed him to hear it.

Todoroki turned to face Mezo, though this time his expression was much more firm and determined.

“Let’s start again,” Todoroki said. “My name is Shoto Todoroki. And no, I don’t have an issue with you or your quirk. If I came across that way, I apologise. But I ask that you never insult me again by thinking so poorly of me.”

Mezo was taken aback, but quickly recovered, chuckling lightly in response. “It’s a deal.”

Another silence fell over them, but this time it felt much less awkward.

“So, your quirk,” Todoroki began, breaking the silence, “it allows you to create body parts on the ends of your arms?”

“That’s right,” Mezo nodded. “My quirk, Dupli-Arms, allows me to transform the tips of them into any body part that I desire; hands, eyes, ears, mouths, it doesn’t matter.”

“Do they become less effective if you create more of them?” Todoroki asked.

“Actually the opposite. If I create an eye or ear on the end of my arms, then they are more efficient than my natural eyes and ears.”

Todoroki nodded, holding up his right arm as mist drifted into the air.

“My quirk, Half-Cold Half-Hot, allows me to create ice and flames from my body; ice from the right and flames from the left. My body is also resistant to extreme temperatures, and depending on which side of my body is touching something will determine if I can touch and hold it without risking injury.”

“That’s quite a powerful quirk,” Mezo admitted. “Do you have a plan for how you want to do this?”

“I do,” Todoroki nodded. “I’m not sure if All Might will allow us to use our quirks to find our opponents before the match begins, but I don’t want to risk it. Therefore, once the five minutes are up, we’ll use your quirk to locate where the villains are. One of them will probably be guarding the bomb, so we will head to the closest one if they are split up. We’ll use your senses to keep a lookout for that invisible girl, while I’ll handle the other one. That way you can keep an eye out for when she inevitably tries to sneak up on us.”

“Are you sure you can take him?” Mezo asked. “His tail quirk seems quite powerful.”

Todoroki only gave a light smirk as ice formed within his right hand, creating a staff of blue ice, quickly reaching the ground. Ice started to form all over his body, a chestplate, arm guards, greeves and gauntlet spreading across his right-hand side. He moved his ice staff into his left hand, placing his now free right hand onto his left bicep. Ice formed over the cloth, just the same as his right, before he repeated the process on the left side of his chest and his left leg. Finally, he placed his hand on his mask, the mist emanating from the hand moving his hair. He pulled his hand away, revealing that his mask now sported an image of a reptilian face, its lips pulled back in a vicious snarl. Todoroki’s hero costume no longer looked like a form-fitting set of mage's robes; instead, it looked more like a suit of armour, with gaps allowing for the perfect balance of mobility and protection.

Mezo felt goosebumps form over his skin, his body reacting to the sudden change in temperature as the icy armour drained heat from the surrounding air.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” was all the icy student said.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As Mashirao walked through the dim corridors of the abandoned building, many thoughts were going through his mind. Where would they be able to set up an ambush? How defensible would the room holding the bomb be? Could he take the heroes in a head-on attack?

However, the most pressing question he had was in regards to his teammate.

“So, um, Hagakure, right?” Mashirao started, lightly scratching his cheek in embarrassment. “My name’s Mashirao Ojiro. Your quirk makes you invisible, right? And only your body, not your clothes?”

“Yep, that’s right,” Hagakure cheerfully said. 

Mashirao turned his head to the right, noticing her gloves that were pumping in the air, showing her excitement.

“With my Invisible quirk, they won’t see me coming until it’s too late, literally and figuratively.”

Mashirao nodded, glancing down at the map that they had been given. The building they had been assigned to was a five story office building, with a roof access at the top. According to the map, the weapon was located on the north side of the fourth floor, with only one doorway into the room. Perfect.

“This way,” Mashirao said, walking up a flight of stairs with Hagakure close behind him. Keeping a close eye on the map, the villain duo made their way to the right room, opening the door to reveal the fake bomb standing there.

“Oh wow,” Hagakure gasped, walking towards the weapon, “it’s a lot bigger in person.”

Her gloves reached over to the support struts of the bomb, attempting to pick it up.

“Woah!” she flailed, both her and the weapon tilting over from the force she exerted in trying to lift the bomb.

Mashirao was quick to rush over, using his tail to support Hagakure’s back while holding the support struts of the weapon, his hands placed just above Hagakure’s gloves.

“You alright?” Mashirao asked, gently placing the weapon back onto the ground.

“Yeah, sorry,” Hagakure apologised. “I was expecting it to be a lot heavier, so I put too much of my strength into it.”

Mashirao, now curious about the weapon they had to defend, rapped a knuckle against the side of the weapon, creating a hollow tok sound.

“It must be made of paper mache,” he guessed, looking at the bomb from different angles. “It makes sense that the school wouldn’t use actual bombs, and this way it’s light and easy to make.”

“So, um,” Hagakure started, causing Mashirao to look in her direction. She was grinding the toe of her left boot against the floor, showing her nervousness. “I know what I said to our opponents, but do you think we can actually win?”

“What do you mean?” Mashirao asked. “You seemed really confident before.”

“Well yeah, but that was simply banter, you know, hyping us up,” Hagakure explained, her gloves rubbing what Mashirao assumed was her shoulder. “It’s just, they seem to have really powerful quirks, and I don’t. That octopus guy is super strong, and the redhead has a powerful ice quirk. I mean, yeah, we have your quirk, but I can’t fight. I’m just invisible, I’m only good at hiding.”

Mashirao shook his head. “I actually think it’s the opposite. My quirk isn’t all that impressive, I simply have a tail. But you, you could be our key to victory.”

“Really?” Hagakure asked, her gloves balled up in front of her chest.

“Really,” Mashirao smiled. “Here’s my plan: When the heroes break in, I’ll distract them, keep them occupied, while you hide out of sight. I might not be as powerful as they are, but I’m nimble and can hold my own in close quarters combat. Then, while they’re focusing on me, you sneak up behind them and take one of them out with the capture tape. Hopefully that will throw the other one off their game, allowing me to capture them in turn. What d’ya think?”

“Oh, that’s a good plan,” Hagakure agreed, flashing Mashirao a thumbs up, before hesitating. “Wait, are you sure you can take them both on without me? This isn’t you trying to be all macho, right?”

“I’ll be fine, I promise,” Mashirao chuckled, tugging on the gi that he wore as part of his hero costume. “This gi isn’t for show, my parents run a martial arts dojo for those with heteromorphic quirks. While my quirk might be bland, my martial arts skills are anything but.”

“Wow,” Hagakure breathed, before slipping her gloves and boots off. “If you’re willing to go Plus Ultra, then so am I! The gloves and boots are coming off, Ojiro, I’m going all out!”

“Right,” Mashirao hesitantly said, glancing away. ‘Even though she’s invisible, I’m in a room with a naked girl. This feels wrong.’

“And look!” Hagakure said, causing Mashirao to look back over. Floating in the air was Hagakure’s roll of Capture Tape, visible for only a moment before disappearing completely.

“My quirk makes my body invisible by bending the light around it. That means that if I have something held in my hands, I can make it invisible too!”

“Alright, then I’ll wait here for the heroes to arrive,” Mashirao said. “You hide somewhere nearby on this floor, that way you can stay out of sight but still be close enough to come and ambush them.”

“Yeah, those heroes don’t stand a chance!” Hagakure cheered.

“ Indoor Antipersonnel Battle Training, Round Two, Start! ” All Might declared over the building's intercom system.

“Alright, go find a place to hide,” Mashirao said. “I’ll stay here and guard the weapon. We can do this.”

“Got it,” Hagakure said, the only indication of her movement being the sound of her footfalls as she walked away. “I’ll be close by, even if you can’t see me.”

Her footsteps stopped, and Mashirao imagined her looking back at him, a smile on her invisible face. “These heroes don’t stand a chance.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

With All Might declaring the start of the match, Shoto watched Shoji start his part of their plan. The ends of four of his arms, the upper and middle arms of both sides, morphed, changing from nubs to an ear. He flexed his arms out at different angles facing towards the building, the ears twitching as they picked up everything they could. Shoji nodded to himself, morphing the ends of his left arms into mouths.

“We’ve got one on the north side of the fourth floor,” he explained. “The other’s somewhere on the same floor, barefoot by the sound of it. The invisible one must be planning to ambush and capture us.”

Shoto nodded, his mind creating plans and strategies. “So we go for the north side, that’s where we’re likely going to find the weapon.”

Shoto pulled out his map, looking over the schematics for the fourth floor. “Would you be able to guess where on the map the first one was?”

Shoji leaned his head over, giving the map a critical look.

“There,” he said, pointing to a room near a stairwell. “That’s where I heard the first set of footsteps. Ojiro, if memory serves me correctly.”

“It does,” Shoto nodded, focusing on the room his teammate had pointed out. “It’s a one way entrance, no windows or balconies for us to sneak in. We’ll have to attack head-on.”

Shoto stowed away his map, walking to the front door of the building and holding it open for Shoji.

“I’ll take the lead,” Shoto explained, once again going over their plan. “Keep an eye out for the invisible one, Hagakure. If everything goes to plan, we should be the fastest team to capture the weapon.”

Shoto and Shoji continued on in silence, Shoto leading from the front with his ice staff held in both hands while Shoji gave him intermittent updates on the position of the villains.

‘So they have decided to stay in place,’ Shoto thought, peering around a corner with his left eye. ‘They must be confident in their plan. Against anyone else, I could see it working. It’s just a shame I’m simply out of their league.’

The hero duo reached the fourth floor, and turning to his right Shoto saw the weapon, visible through the open, unguarded doorway. No one could be seen in the room, making it seem as if the weapon was left unguarded. Shoto knew it was too good to be true.

He glanced over to Shoji, tilting his head towards the room. Shoji’s arms morphed once more, two ears forming on the topmost arms, with a mouth forming near Shoto’s ear.

“One of them, the barefooted one, is behind us in another room,” Shoji whispered, “while the other is hiding behind the door, waiting for us.”

“So they want to play defensively?” Shoto rhetorically asked, not bothering to keep his voice down. “That doesn’t matter to me.”

Stomping his right foot down, Shoto left forth a burst of cold, watching as pale frost spread out from him to the rest of the fourth floor. The ice crystals that coated the ground caused the temperature to plummet, quickly dropping below freezing point.

Shoto took in a deep breath, enjoying the crisp, cold air the floor now had, before breathing out his misty breath.

While he controlled it to spare Shoji and the weapon, no care was given to his opponents.

“Ah, so cold!” a feminine voice cried out from behind him.

“Go take care of Hagakure,” Shoto instructed Shoji, walking towards the bomb room. “If she’s barefoot, her feet will be at risk of frostbite, so best make it quick.”

Shoji nodded, cautiously making his way over the frosted ground to where Hagakure was shivering near the stairwell, her position exposed from the footprints in the ice and the steam from her breath.

Shoto stopped by the doorway, not having to worry about his footing from the grips on his boots, designed specifically to prevent him from slipping on his own ice.

“Are you going to continue this farce, or are you willing to fight?” he asked, ignoring the sounds of Hagakure struggling in Shoji’s grip.

The sound of ice crunching underfoot echoed out from the room, with the source of the noise quickly revealing himself. Shoto watched with detached interest as Ojiro stepped out into the open, moving into a martial arts stance. But even though he projected a confident image, his shivering limbs and heavy breathing told a different story.

“Surrender, villain,” Shoto ordered, stepping through the doorway of the room. “Make your life easier and just give up. You have no chance against us.”

“N-never!” Ojiro declared, his teeth chattering. “We’re not outnum-”

“ Toru Hagakure has been eliminated! ” All Might declared over the speakers, cutting Ojiro off mid sentence. “ Also, if she could be brought down and checked for frostbite as soon as possible, that would be excellent! ”

“Shoji, escort the villain out of the hideout,” Shoto called out over his shoulder.

“Awfully confident, aren’t you?” Ojiro asked, relaxing and clenching his fists against the cold. “What makes you think you can get past me alone?”

“I’ll do more than get past you,” Shoto corrected, gripping his ice staff with both hands. “After all, we’re simply in two different leagues.”

Ojiro dashed forward, moving to attack in a flurry of blows. 

Or at least, that was what he tried to do.

Wearing clothing that wasn’t designed for maintaining grip on icy surfaces, Ojiro slid forward out of control. Even though he maintained his balance by using his tail as a counterweight, he still wasn’t able to control his movement well.

Shoto simply stepped to the side, leaning back to dodge a few opportunistic strikes that Ojiro made as he slid past.

The blond student caught himself on the handrail of the stairs, gripping the cold metal as he spun himself around, only for his eyes to widen as he saw Shoto effortlessly walking towards him at a leisurely pace.

“What are you doing?!” he exclaimed in shock. “You have a clear path to the weapon!”

“I’m not so foolish to turn my back on you,” Shoto explained. “With the balance your tail provides you, I have no doubt you’d try another attack by launching yourself across the ice.”

“You could just block off the room,” Ojiro argued, slowly backing away from Shoto, trying to maintain the distance between them. “That way I wouldn’t be able to get to you in time.”

“Sure, I could,” Shoto admitted before a cold smile grew on his face. “But as I said, I’m going to do more than get past you.”

Shoto dashed forward, the spikes on the soles of his boots gripping the icy surface as he rushed Ojiro. He lashed out with his staff, striking Ojiro on the right arm and both legs, each hit landing on his opponent’s gi rather than his flesh. Ojiro responded in kind, retaliating by using his tail to strike Shoto’s staff, shattering it, before landing a hit with his fist on Shoto’s torso, cracking the ice chestplate he had formed. While both combatants had landed blows, only one of them had been harmed.

“Ah!” Ojiro hissed, clutching his knuckles in pain as he slid back, eventually bumping against the windowed wall of the building. “What did you do?!”

“Nothing,” Shoto admitted. “You’re the one who foolishly hit a surface without knowing how cold it would be.”

“What?” Ojiro asked, a bewildered expression on his face.

“Human skin cells start to die when exposed to temperatures of -50°C,” Shoto explained, another ice staff forming in his right hand. “What you just hit was ice that has a temperature of -80°C. That’s cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide. Is it any wonder you received ice burns from it?”

Ojiro glanced at his knuckles and tail, and sure enough red welts could be seen on his skin.

“This is what I meant when I said we’re in two different leagues,” Shoto continued, casually walking forward over the ice as his chestplate reformed. “You can’t hit me without being hurt.”

“Then I’ll simply have to try harder,” Ojiro declared, shaking out his injured hand and once more dropping into a ready stance.

Shoto sighed, realising his words wouldn’t mean anything to his classmate. He could only be taught through action.

Dashing forward once more, Shoto used his ice staff to bat away Ojiro’s tail, the pain from the cold causing the limb to recoil in shock. Leaning his head to the side, Shoto avoided a fist thrown at his face, retaliating by planting his right hand on Ojiro’s gi. Ice spread out across the costume, locking Ojiro’s limbs in place as they were trapped within his clothing which had suddenly become ridgid.

“Ow,” Ojiro winced as he tried to move within his frozen clothing. 

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Shoto advised as he turned around, turning his back to Ojiro as he walked towards the room housing the bomb. “It would be hard to fight with frostbitten limbs.”

Ojiro seemed to have realised his position, as Shoto didn’t hear any other attempts from his opponent to break out of his bindings. Uncontested, Shoto walked up to the weapon, and without wasting any time placed his hand on the bomb, securing his team’s victory.

“ The hero team wins! ” All Might declared across the building.

Satisfied with the results, Shoto knelt down, placed his left hand on the ground, from which burst forth a wave of heat, quickly melting the ice that had covered the ground as well as the ice that protected his clothes. Walking back over to Ojiro, Shoto placed his left hand on his gi as well, quickly melting the ice and freeing his opponent.

“You both made a good attempt,” Shoto admitted, walking beside Ojiro as they made their way down the staircase to the first floor. “You simply had one of the worst matchups you possibly could have. Shoji was able to find Hagakure easily, and you couldn’t hit me without injuring yourself. Take pride in knowing that you’d do much better against any of the other teams.”

“Maybe,” Ojiro admitted, a downcast expression on his face, “but it still doesn’t feel great for our plan to have been defeated so easily.”

“Then that’s an easy problem to fix,” Shoto said. “If you have an issue with how weak you are, simply strive to be stronger.”

The pair arrived at the door to the Monitor Room, with Shoto going in ahead of Ojiro.

“After all, the weak never have any say in how their life turns out.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

‘Well, that plan could’ve gone better,’ Toru lamented. Ojiro had come up with a really good plan too. He would draw the heroes attention, fending them off while also keeping them away from the bomb. Then, she would sneak up behind them, loop some of the Capture Tape around one of their limbs, making a 2 V 2 into a 2 V 1. Hopefully, that would throw the other hero off their game, Ojiro would be able to take them out with sick martial arts moves like in an action film, and the two of them would win. Sure, it might feel strange to win as the villains guarding a nuclear bomb, but Toru didn’t really care about that. For once, she’d be in the spotlight. For once, people would see her, see that she could be a hero, even with a weak quirk.

Of course, they had the rotten luck to go against the one team that had the perfect counter to anything they could come up with. The heroes had come up the stairs, and when Toru was getting ready to leap into action and assist Ojiro, the red-haired hero frosted the entire fourth floor, revealing her position and making her feel really silly for deciding to go naked.

Sure, her quirk couldn’t cover her clothes, and sure, she found the idea of being naked in public kind of exciting, but the feeling of all sense of touch leaving her very very cold toes wasn’t something she wanted to repeat. The large octopus-looking hero was quick to capture her with his own roll of Capture Tape, and despite his somewhat scary appearance, he was very gentle, always being careful about where his hands were at all times, and rushed her to Recovery Girl, the school nurse with a healing quirk whose personality reminded Toru of her own grandmother. She had given Toru a full checkup, saying that she hadn’t suffered from any frostbite, merely having some mild ice burn. Toru was a little unnerved when Recovery Girl’s lips stretched out to plant a kiss on her hand, but was amazed to feel the stinging sensation in her toes disappear almost instantly. 

She and Shoji, apparently that was the octopus guy’s name, checked on Midoriya, who was still out cold from the first fight. His arms were wrapped in bandages, and Recovery Girl said she would keep a close eye on him, so they should run back to class.

The pair exited Recovery Girl’s office, with Shoji going back to the Monitor Room while Toru rushed back to the building their battle had been in, wanting to pick up her gloves and boots she had left there. Toru, now wearing her full hero costume, rushed back to the Monitor Room, hoping that All Might would remember she wasn’t present rather than assume that just because he couldn’t see her that she wasn’t there, an issue many of her teachers had made in the past.

Slipping into the dark room, Toru was more than glad that All Might hadn’t started without her, with Ojiro, Shoji and the other hero all waiting in line for All Might’s feedback. But as she walked over to join the others, one of the Kurusus, the Centaur, backed up, completely oblivious to Toru who stood in the way.

“Ah, wait,” she cried out, even though she knew it was too late, and she’d likely have to go back to Recovery Girl’s office again. However, before her feet could be stepped on by a hoof, a hand grabbed her forearm, pulling her out of the way.

“Damn it, Sarah,” the other Kurusu, the Arachne, said, “you almost ran her over. You really need to look behind when backing up.”

“What?” the blonde Kurusu wondered in bewilderment before her eyes widened as she saw Toru. Well, saw her floating gloves and empty shoes. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. Hagakure, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” Toru chuckled, rubbing the back of her head to show her embarrassment. “It’s no biggie, people often don’t see me. Kind of the point when you have an invisibility quirk.”

“Yeesh, I can only imagine how much of a pain that’s got to be,” the Arachne said, looking near Toru’s face.

‘Wait,’ Toru realised, ‘she’s not looking near my face, she’s looking, at my face?’

Even though the Arachne didn’t have any pupils, instead having a solid red for each of her eyes, Toru still got the impression that she was looking straight into Toru’s eyes, rather than simply looking where she thought they were. Wanting to test her theory, Toru removed one of her gloves, waving her invisible hand in front of the Arachne’s face.

“Uh, are you okay?” the Arachne asked, her head following Toru’s hand. “Why are you waving your hand in my face?”

“You can see it?” Toru gasped, excitement filling her voice. “You can, you can see me?”

“Of course,” the Arachne said, acting as if it were the most obvious thing. 

“Your quirk allows you to become invisible through bending light around you, right?” Sarah Kurusu asked. “Specifically the visible light spectrum?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Toru said, absentmindedly nodding her head rather than using her clothing to express her movement.

“Well, Arachne heteromorphs like Kórinis are able to see into the ultraviolet spectrum,” the blonde Centaur explained. 

“Sure, you appear entirely violet, but I can see you clear as day,” Kórinis Kurusu admitted. “I honestly thought your quirk required you to streak or something, since you weren’t wearing any clothes. It took Sarah explaining that you were invisible to everyone else for me to piece it together.”

“Young Hagakure, is that you over there?” All Might asked, looking in her direction.

“Oh, um, yes, All Might, sir,” Hagakure stammered before turning back to the lavender-haired Arachne. “Did you want to eat lunch with me tomorrow?”

“I’ll see you there,” Kurusu replied with a grin.

Toru practically skipped over to All Might, filled with joy that someone, for the first time in her life, actually would see her at lunch.

“Alright, young Hagakure is here, so let’s begin the post-battle analysis!” All Might declared, silencing the quiet conversations happening between students. “Our V.I.P. for this battle was Mezo Shoji! Anyone want to take a guess as to why?”

“Because he did his job,” a voice cried out, causing the class to turn their attention to Kórinis Kurusu, who stood there with crossed arms. “While the villains made a good strategy, it fell apart instantly. Shoto on the other hand continued attacking the remaining villain rather than securing the weapon, like he should’ve.”

Toru and Ojiro simply winced, while Todoroki clenched a fist, but made no retort.

“Very good, young Kurusu,” All Might complimented, flashing the Arachne a thumbs up. “All very good points. However, Shoji also focused on locating the villains, as well as subduing one of them. He also retreated with said villain, allowing them to receive medical attention and allowing his teammate the option of going all out if needed. Simply put, young Shoji did everything he was meant to do well, even rescuing one of the villains.” 

“Remember,” All Might continued, “a villain that you save might have a change of heart, even if it isn’t immediate. Saving people is the job of a hero after all, no matter if you are a battle hero, rescue hero, or any other kind. All that’s different is how we go about saving people.”

Shoji seemed taken aback by the praise he was receiving, bowing his head to All Might while forming a mouth on one of his arms. “Thank you, sir.”

“Mm, very good,” All Might hummed, before turning back to the crowd of students. “Anyone else want to give their reasoning?”

The class was silent, prompting All Might to bring out his ‘Hero’ and ‘Villain’ boxes.

“Alright then, let’s see who our next heroes and villains are, shall we?”

Surprise, I lied, you get the chapter now. So, fun fact, the day before I was meant to fly out to Australia, I tested positive for Covid-19. Such a nuisance, especially since it wasn’t a great experience. Fever, sore eyes, coughing, and my nose flooding like Noah just got on his Ark. I fly out tomorrow on Monday, so I decided that you’ll get this chapter now, you’re welcome. Not only is it a week early, but also a day early. Lucky you…

As I expected, it was much shorter than usual, about half as long, though that's to be expected. Not sure how I feel about this one either. I’m sure I do dialogue scenes much better than fight scenes, and with Katsuki VS the Zero Pointer that was a different kind of fight scene. Either way, let me know your thoughts of the fight, brief as it might have been.

I decided to give Ojiro a better fight in this timeline, and not just for my personal reasons. As you saw, Shoto is fighting in a very different manner, and is using a MUCH colder ice than canon. In canon, Shoto was able to encase people in ice without issue, and all they get is cold. This tells me that canon Shoto’s ice is not that cold, less than -50°C by my guess. Sure, he told the villains at the USJ that they could get frostbite, but he also encased Hanta in an iceberg during the Sports Festival, so I’d place it close to -50, but not quite there. This Shoto has much colder ice, giving cold burns simply from contact. Yeah, those USJ villains are going to be in for a world of hurt.

FYI, these changes weren’t arbitrary, there are plot reasons for this development, plot reasons that will be revealed. This is also why I changed Shoto’s fighting style. In canon, Shoto fights like a mage; stand in the backlines, shoot off spells, that’s about it. That’s why he and Momo were paired together against Eraser Head during the Midterms; both of them suck without their quirk. This version of Shoto can't spam ice attacks willy nilly, as that’s going to cause a lot of damage really quickly. So my solution was simply train him in melee combat. Is he a pure fighter? Hell no, he still has the same issue of relying on his ice in a fight, only this time he’s more like an Eldritch Knight, kind of a blend of wizard and fighter.

Also, Toru getting more screen time will be happening. I find her to be one of the more interesting girls, though let's be honest, all of the girls of 1-A are interesting characters in their own right. I find having an invisibility quirk to be both a blessing and a curse. Blessing in the sense you can be all sneaky beaky like, but a curse because people overlook you a lot. For a teenager, that’s probably not a good thing. In my mind, this is why Toru is so expressive; she has no other option to be noticed. Because she can’t express her feelings through her face, she has to use her voice and body to make up for it. That and I liked the idea of Toru and Kórinis getting up to mischief and pulling pranks. Will anything come of it: idk, maybe? I’ll see how it goes. What I will do is pop the bubbles of any Kórinis x Toru shippers. Not happening, Kórinis is already paired, that and I like the idea of the bubbly invisible girl with the plain looking but very functional student, i.e. Toru x Mashirao. That and you can’t convince me there isn’t something going on between those two.

Also, I decided that I wanted to do a review of each battle group, simply because why not. It pads out the chapter as well as giving some depth and expansion to the main premise of the story; the school and education. How can our class improve if they aren’t learning from their mistakes?

Okay, review time.

Sakumon16, once again thanks for the reviews. Trust me, you're not the only one who got tired of MM after the NTRanch arc. After that it honestly felt like the author was trying to tick off every tag and kink. For crying out loud, one of the latest chapters had a Sphinx being into little boys. Standards exist for a reason! I also now have the vision of Suu and Enji standing next to each other and I love it. I might commission some art of it, who knows? As for your idea, I have one. I know who would be the main character, though I'm still 50/50 on whether or not I go through with it, I'll have to see.

Siarles, thanks for the reviews, let's get into them.

Yeah, Monster Musume isn't exactly what comes to mind when you think of lore rich crossovers. Having a quick scan through Fanfic and Ao3, they are either harem stories or smut. I kid you not, I have found one story that wasn't smut, while the other was an alt route of only Kimihito and Rachnera, so I'm glad to buck the trend. I'm also glad you like my story, and hope you stick around for the rest. Trust me when I say that the rating is going to increase later on, not everyone is getting out unscathed. Also, YAY, SOMEONE NOTICED!! Yes, I decided to have an ATLA reference with Zuko and everyone's favourite uncle. Don't ask me why I included them in the story, I don't really have an answer. Now, will Zuko and Shoto meet each other: short answer, yes. When it will be depends on when it makes sense in canon, but I have two points in time I’m tossing up. I'm also glad you like how I've written Katsuki, trust me, you'll love what's coming up.

Also, woohoo, I called it. I had no evidence for Ochako's words, but I'm glad my gut feeling was right. In regards to your theory, you're close. Endeavor is very much against discrimination against mutant types and heteromorphs, but you'll have to wait and see why that is. As for Shoto's eye, well, just wait for the Sports Festival, mwahaha!! Thanks for the clarification on the seating order as well, I wasn't able to figure out how it was arranged. 

For answers to comments in the chapter, it is two fold. First is that I have seen that method done by others who I read, and I liked the style of it. Secondly, as you rightly guessed, this story is cross posted on Fanfic and Ao3. I can reply to comments in Ao3, but I can't for Fanfic, so I decided to do it all at once. I also see we have a vote for Sarah x Momo x Tenya. I won't say if you're right or wrong, all I'm saying is that the reveal will be after the Summer Training Camp. I'll be honest, I cackled reading your theory on chapter five. My brother was giving me the side eye while my mother asked if I was mad. All I'll spoil is that no, Endeavor isn't the grandson of MHA's Avatar, and he isn't Iroh's brother, though them being distantly related isn't a bad idea. I never thought about the connection with Pixie Bob and Inasa, but I can safely say there isn't one in this story. All I'll say is that family isn't necessarily who you share blood with. As for the title, I referred to Shoto as Spirit in the sense of a Yuki Onna, an ice spirit in Japanese folklore. As you'll see later on in the story, it’s an accurate description. 

Artorigus, thanks for your reviews.

I’m glad you like my craft, as you can tell I put in a lot of effort into the world building and lore, so I’m glad other people like it as well. And yes, most of Kimihito’s children look very similar to their respective mother, I feel that would be pretty normal since normal hair colours in MHA were taken out back, shot, and then pumped in a lake. Though I do admit Hapi, Papi’s eldest child and son, is one of my favourites, especially since he has a blend of his mother’s hair colour with his father’s shade. And while I did have the idea of there being a bunch of children, I simply didn’t want too many of them. That and I feel that Rachnera out of all of the girls would be the least likely to want lots of children. Even in canon, Rachnera takes on the role of an older sister or aunt figure, and my headcanon is that due to having a rough childhood would be nervous to have one child, let alone many. And yay, another person saw the reference.

Now, for your ideas of the influence the Kurusu family has, trust me, some of them are highly influential. Just as a reminder, Mero is both a princess and a lawyer, Sarah is a generational pro hero (the significance of which will be brought up in a few chapters) and Suu is a world class actress with a highly influential mother. How influential? Again, you’ll find out in a few chapters. Now with seeing Kimihito’s wives in action, well, just remember that after a certain jailbreak, society in Japan does collapse somewhat, so Asaka city might become fortified. As for your ideas for M.O.N., trust me, I’ve got one. Will they be underground heroes? No, but they are going to appear. All I’ll say is that Kuroko Smith hasn’t changed employers, and I promise that all of the girls of MON are going to be making an appearance in the future. After all, a certain national event requires a security detail, right?

Okay, that’s it for the reviews. For your sneak peak, next chapter is titled, ‘ Frog & Demon VS Stone and Spider ’. We finally see one of the Kurusu sisters in action.

As a final sidenote, we reached 1,000 views on FanFiction and we’re almost at 500 on Ao3. Not much of a number, but it’s significant to me. Cheers to everyone who's decided to check this story out on either platform.

See you all next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

“I wonder who our heroes and villains will be for the third round?” All Might rhetorically asked, fishing around in the boxes before pulling two out, revealing them to the class.

“Aha, here we are. The heroes will be Team H, Tsuyu Asui and Fumikage Tokoyami. The villains will be Team J, Eijiro Kirishima and Kórinis Kurusu.”

“Aw man!” Eijiro cried out, clutching his head. “I’m a villain! So not manly!”

“Hey, don't sweat it,” Mina reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Half of us had to be villains anyway, so it doesn't say anything bad about you, it's simply the luck of the draw.”

“Young Ashido is exactly right!” All Might beamed, looking their way. “Even if your team is chosen to be the villains in this exercise, you can still learn something from it. After all, young Ida was the V.I.P. of the first round, even though he was playing the role of a villain.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Eijiro admitted, looking down at the ground. “Even though it feels wrong, I’ll do my best to make the most of the experience.”

“That’s all I can ask for,” All Might smiled as he walked out of the Monitor Room. “Alright, you four, with me. Let me show you which building you’ll be fighting in!”

As Eijiro followed the pinnacle of manliness, he took a look at his teammate and opponents. He already knew who his teammate was, they had locked eyes as soon as their team was formed. Eijiro didn’t know much about her, other than her name was Kórinis Kurusu, she shared her last name with another classmate, Sarah Kurusu, she was an Arachne, and she was probably the closest in the class to Bakugo, not that that was a challenge. Eijiro also knew she was strong, which was a good thing in his book, and her exoskeleton looked sharp, just like his own skin became when he used his Hardening quirk.

Her hero costume was rather simple, consisting of a white robe that covered her entire upper half, leaving only her face and hands exposed. Her robe was loose and flowy, with a hood covering her head and ending in a skirt around her thighs.

On the other hand were their opponents, Asui and Tokoyami. As far as Eijiro knew, Asui had some kind of frog quirk, given her excellent jumping abilities that he saw yesterday in Mr. Aizawa’s Quirk Fitness Test. Whether or not that gave her other frog abilities, he didn’t know.

Her hero costume was a bright green turtleneck bodysuit, tan-coloured gloves and two matching belts, one above her chest with a strap at either side going around her shoulders and one around her waist. On her feet she wore green webbed flippers resembling frogs' toes, and on her head were goggles with dark green-tinted lenses and a thin dark green mask that went along the middle of her face.

As for her teammate, Tokoyami, all Eijiro saw yesterday was the ability to form shadowy limbs out of his body. Even though they seemed really weak and frail outdoors, when they had their strength grip test in the gymnasium they seemed thicker and stronger.

His hero costume was also very simple, consisting of a black robe covering his entire body, only stopping halfway down his shins, and knee-high black boots.

‘Even if his costume is basic, he has such an edgy yet manly name,’ Eijiro admitted.

“Alright, here we are!” All Might declared, stopping in front of their battle ground. “As you all know, you’ll each receive one micro transceiver, one roll of Capture Tape, and your map.”

Eijiro stepped forward alongside the other students, grabbing his allocated supplies, slipping the micro transceiver into his ear while keeping hold of the capture tape and map.

“Alright villains, head on in and prepare your defences,” All Might said, gesturing to the doors. “Remember, you only have five minutes before the heroes arrive to try and stop you.”

“Understood, All Might,” Eijiro nodded, walking through the door and holding it open for his teammate.

“What a gentleman,” she chuckled, holding a hand to her mouth.

The duo continued through the building, stepping over thick wires that snaked across the ground. Where the other buildings had appeared to be more corporate and business-like, their building was more industrial. They were still only on the first floor and already Eijiro could see sheet metal and wire fencing littered around, either laying on the floor or leaning against a wall or column.

Walking up the staircase, Eijiro started to hear a noise from behind him.

Thwip

Thwip

Thwip

Turning around, Eijiro saw Kurusu shooting out lines of webbing from her wrists, layering them in a crisscross pattern, filling up the entrance to the stairwell.

“What are you doing that for?” Eijiro asked, walking back down the stairs to stand beside Kurusu. With his untrained eye for web making, weaving, cross stitching or any other kind of craft that required thread, to him it seemed impressive.

“Creating our trap,” Kurusu answered with a grin, shooting out one final line of thread onto the centre of the veritable wall of silk that now barricaded the stairwell entrance. Instead of connecting it to the walls, ceiling or floor like she had for all of the other lines of silk, Kurusu instead walked backwards, keeping the final line suspended over the ground.

“So, Kirishima, right?” she asked, with Eijiro replying with a nod. “What’s your quirk? Mine’s pretty obvious; I’m an Arachne. I’m able to make webs from my spinnerets, I have a wide range of vision, I can see in the ultraviolet spectrum, and my lower half is a spider’s body. You?”

“My quirk is called Hardening,” Eijiro explained, hardening his arms as an example. “It’s pretty simple; I harden parts of my body, and they become really durable. As a side effect, the hardened skin creates edges that are pretty sharp, so I sometimes have to be careful.”

“Trust me, I understand,” Kurusu nodded, gesturing with her free arm that wasn’t producing the line of silk. “Arachne have exoskeletons on their arms, but the problem is that our elbows can be really sharp, so my mother and I always wear arm covers of some kind.”

“Is that a common practice with other Arachne?” Eijiro asked as they arrived on the second floor.

“Wouldn’t know,” Kurusu admitted with a sigh. “I’ve never met any other members of my kind. I know they’re out there, I mean I was born from their race, but Mum wasn’t ever keen on sharing about her past. All I know was that she never knew her parents, joined a gang of fellow Arachne women, and was in a real bad place when she met Dad. His sweetness towards her was what made her want a better life, more than being a criminal on the streets, so she cleaned up her act, did her time in community service, and fell in love. She says that his kindness is why she always calls him ‘Honey’.”

Eijiro chuckled at that, not entirely sure what to say as the building fell into silence.

“Hey, Kirishima,” Kurusu asked as she stuck the thread onto the wall, “where’s the bomb we’re meant to defend?”

“Uh, let me check,” Eijiro said, opening his map and scouring the floors, his eyes quickly widening in shock. “Oh wow, it’s located here on the second floor!”

Eijiro turned in place, glancing up and down at the map, trying to figure out which room held the weapon they had to defend.

“This one over here,” Eijiro said, walking over to a closed door and opening it, revealing the fake nuclear bomb standing within the room. Wires lined the edges of the room along the floor, leaning against the far wall were a trio of unhinged gates, and on the ceiling were metal railings dropping down from the ceiling alongside the entrance to an air duct.

“Though I have to admit, I was kind of expecting more from a room housing a nuclear bomb,” Eijiro admitted.

“Either way, this is perfect,” Kurusu said, walking into the room and standing beside Eijiro, her head moving around, surveying the room. “No window entrances, one way in, and the air duct is too small for our enemy to try and slip through.”

Kurusu began shooting out more lines of silk, these ones thicker and longer, going at various angles all over. Some stretched from floor to ceiling, others from ceiling to wall, or floor to wall, or wall to wall. Quickly, a maze of webbing formed within the room, reminding Eijiro of those laser traps in those awesome secret agents films.

“Don’t touch them!” Kurusu warned as Eijiro reached out to touch one of the webs. “Unlike the ones down stairs, these are much stronger and stickier. They’re designed to capture rather than stall and send a message. If you touch them, it will take me a bit to get you unstuck, and we don’t have time.”

“Okay, so it seems you have a plan, so let me in on it, how are we going to win?” Eijiro asked, cautiously stepping away from the sticky threads.

“Look at the map and tell me what you see,” Kurusu said, folding out her map and holding it out for both of them to look at.

“Uh, the bomb is on the second floor, the building is small, I don’t know,” Eijiro admitted, scratching his head. “If there’s something there, I’m not seeing it.”

“Actually, you did see it,” Kurusu said, gesturing to the floors. “You’re right, the building is small. For the other two before us, there were different corridors and areas, different pathways you could take. But for our building, each floor is a glorified corridor, each leading to and from the stairs.”

“Okay, so how does that help us?” Eijiro asked.

“Think about it,” Kurusu pointed out. “There’s only one way through the building; straight through. That means we know the exact path that they can take, meaning that as they progress through the building-”

“-We’ll know where they’ll be and be able to attack them!” Eijiro finished with a grin, though it swiftly fell. “Well, that would be the case, but the bomb is on the second floor. That means we have to either meet them on the ground floor or hold them off here until we either capture both of them or the time runs out.”

“True, except for one itsy bitsy little detail,” Kurusu smirked. “They don’t know that.”

Eijiro looked at her with a dumbfounded expression, before a lightbulb went off in his head.

“Oh, that means we can slowly pull back, fighting them all the way, and they’ll think that the bomb is on a higher level! We run down the time, win the match, and do it in a manly way as well! Kurusu, you’re a manly genius!” he cheered.

“Have you ever met a girl who enjoyed being called manly?” Kurusu asked, raising an eyebrow over one of her main eyes and placing a hand on her hip.

“For me, manliness refers to one’s state of mind,” Eijiro explained. “It’s all about your determination and courage, you know, and that means that it isn’t gender specific; girls can be plenty manly too. Hell, just look at Mirko, she’s one of the manliest heroes around. So cool.”

“Yep, Mirko is one tough jackrabbit,” Kurusu admitted. “Kind of surprising how tough she is for an Usagimimi.”

“Bless you,” Eijiro said.

“No, you dolt, an Usagimimi is a heteromorph species,” she explained. “Many people confuse them with Wererabbit heteromorphs, but Usagimimi only have rabbit ears and a tail, while Wererabbits have the ears, tail, fur on the most of their limbs, and a secondary quirk to turn into a rabbit.”

“Wait, so why does Mirko have rabbit feet?” Eijiro asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“That’s part of her hero costume, and her killer thighs are all training. She has a boost to her strength simply by being a heteromorph, but other than that? All her own effort.”

“She’s even manlier than I thought!” Eijiro yelled, manly tears streaming down his face. “She’s almost as manly as Crimson Riot!”

“Crimson Riot?” Kurusu asked. “Damn, that’s an old school hero. He’s your inspiration?”

“You bet! He charges head first into danger, valuing the lives of civilians over his own. Even when he’s afraid, he still risks it all, because that’s what a manly hero is meant to do. After all, ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but acting in spite of it.’”

“Well then, Mr. Courage, let’s get out of this room and close the door. The heroes should be entering the building any moment now,” Kurusu said as the pair left the room, closing the door behind them, the closed off room now standing out as little as all of the other closed off rooms.

“I have a better idea,” Eijiro suggested. “If we’re both here, they might get suspicious. You head up to the next floor and I’ll wait for them here. I’ll fight them off, but even I know I probably can’t take them both on my own. I’ll head up stairs and make it obvious that you’re placing traps along the path to the weapon. That way they’ll definitely follow me, completely missing where the weapon actually is.”

Kurusu simply looked at Eijiro, her expression stunned.

“Damn, Kirishima,” she said, starting to grin. “That’s a very sneaky plan. Way to get into a villainous mindset.”

“Well, All Might did say we should act the part,” Eijiro replied with a chuckle.

“Heh, fair point,” she laughed. “I’ll head on up then, start laying some traps. Stall them for as long as possible, but be sure to pull back. We’ll play them like a pair of fools together.”

“You got it,” Eijiro said with confidence, slamming his fists together as they hardened. “No one’s getting past me unless I let them.”

“Then I’m counting on you, Banjaku,” Kurusu said as she walked towards the stairs to the third floor.

“Why Banjaku?” Eijiro called out to her.

Kurusu looked over her shoulder with a grin as she walked. “Because you’re acting as the board that’s rock solid. For this plan to work, you’ll have to be our stone wall, enduring their attacks until I can leap over the edge and pounce on them.”

“Banjaku,” Eijiro thought to himself, testing the name on his own lips. “I’ve already got in mind what I want for my hero name, but that’s a manly nickname you’ve given me, Kurusu.”

He turned to face the stairwell leading to the first floor, loosening up his body as he stretched.

“Look out, heroes,” he grinned with sharp teeth, a feature that he and Kurusu shared. “The Shark Teeth Bandits own this place, and you’ll have to get through me first.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Tsuyu Asui was many things. She was an incredible big sister, often having to look after her younger brother and sister. She was also an excellent daughter, taking care of the house when her parents had to travel for work. She was also a good friend, as even though she and Habuko went to different hero schools, the two of them messaged each other almost every night, and often caught up on the weekends at a cafe. But most importantly, if Tsuyu thought of something, she was just going to come out and say it, even if it was a little blunt.

“So, what’s your quirk?” she asked her brooding teammate, an index finger pressed against her lips.

“Pardon?” he asked, tilting his crow head. 

“You know, your quirk, your superpower,” Tsuyu elaborated in her monotone voice.

“And why are you inquiring about the nature of my abyssal power?” he replied, turning away to look up at the building. “It is hardly something that is easy to harness.”

Tsuyu simply stared at him, slightly taken aback by his response.

“If I know what your quirk is then we can make a plan of attack.”

The crow headed student flinched at that, lowering his head before turning back to face Tsuyu.

“My quirk is called Dark Shadow,” he explained. “It is a monster of shadow and darkness that lurks within my soul. While during the day it is easy to control, it also is weakened by the light. Conversely, during the hours of the night the darkness empowers it, making it stronger and more powerful, but it becomes unruly and rebellious.”

Tsuyu blinked at his answer. ‘Did I get stuck with a chuunibyou?’ she thought to herself, only to recoil as a shadowy creature emerged from her teammate. It was made entirely out of a dark, shadowy form, with yellow, glowing eyes. Its head was shaped like a crow, and each arm ended with two large sets of claws. It didn’t have a lower half, instead it connected to her teammate through its elongated torso, almost like an umbilical cord.

“What’s up, sweet cheeks?” the shadow creature asked, floating in the air and resting its head on one of its hands, the elbow placed on her teammate's shoulder.

“Be silent, fell beast,” he scolded, “that is no way to speak to our teammate and classmate.”

“Wow, you’re a chuunibyou that’s actually right,” Tsuyu observed.

“Hmph,” he scoffed, turning his head in disapproval. “They are but amateurs, mere imitators of those who truly dwell in the abyss. While they may understand the allure of the void, they are unable to partake in its forbidden sacrament.”

“Right,” Tsuyu said, deciding she wanted to move on from the topic. “So basically, your quirk, Dark Shadow, allows you to create a shadow monster that is weaker but easier to control in the light, but stronger yet harder to control in the dark.”

“Indeed, succinctly said,” he nodded, looking at her from the side with one eye. “No other would be able to withstand the temptation of this creature, for no other is Fumikage Tokoyami.”

“And I now know your name, awesome,” Tsuyu said. “Well, my name is Tsuyu Asui, but please, call me Tsu. I’m a Bullywug, a frog heteromorph. I’m able to stick to walls, shoot out my tongue up to 20 m, and I can jump really far. I can also secrete a mucus with a variety of different effects, like paralysis.”

“A very basic but powerful set of abilities,” Tokoyami said, nodding his corvid head. “We both are able to attack at both close and medium range, perfect for an indoor environment.”

He pulled out his map, and crouching on the sidewalk lay out the map on the ground for both to see.

“It seems that our building is quite different,” Tokoyami observed, gesturing to the layout. “Each floor is a single corridor lined with rooms, with a stairwell at the end.”

“The stairs only go up one floor as well,” Tsuyu added. “That means we can’t rush to the fifth floor if the weapon is there, we have to run through each floor.”

“Just like a demon lord would design it,” Tokoyami said ominously. “A long series of corridors, with many rooms for criminals and dwellers of the dark to lurk in, waiting to ambush us.”

“So how do you want to do it?” Tsuyu asked. “We could try and capture one of the villains and interrogate them, make them tell us where the bomb is located.”

“And how would we do that?” Tokoyami asked, glancing at Tsuyu. “Torture? I am certain All Might will not be too keen on us mutilating our classmates, even if they are taking on the role of a villain. And while I am sure Dark Shadow would be more than willing, I for one am not a fan of the sight of spilled blood.”

“Like hell I do!” Dark Shadow exclaimed with indignation. 

“I was more thinking I could secrete an itch-inducing mucus from my skin. Apply enough of it and anyone would tell us whatever we want so long as we remove it afterwards.”

“Can you remove it?” Tokoyami asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m sure Recovery Girl has spare water to rinse it off,” Tsuyu thought out loud, intentionally ignoring her teammate's question.

“ Indoor Antipersonnel Battle Training, Round Three, Start! ” All Might declared, his voice projecting out from speakers near the door.

“Let’s go,” Tokoyami said, as he and Dark Shadow took the lead.

As soon as they stepped within the building, Tsuyu noticed a change occur with Dark Shadow. Due to the lack of windows on the walls, the only light within the first floor came from the glass doors and windows at the front of the building, casting them in twilight. As the shadows covered them, Dark Shadow seemed to bulk up, its arms swelling in size and strength, and its yellow eyes turning orange. 

“Oh, yeah, that’s more like it,” it said in a deeper voice. “Maybe there will be darker areas further in.”

“Don’t try it, Dark Shadow,” Tokoyami denied. “You’re powerful enough as you are.”

“Yeah, whatever,” the shadow creature said dismissively.

“Is that what you meant by darkness making it harder to control?” Tsuyu asked, walking alongside Tokoyami.

“Indeed,” he replied. “I can still control him, but this is close to my current limit. Of course I don’t intend on remaining at this level. After all, we’re here at this institution of learning to improve ourselves and our quirks; to find our limits and surpass them. That is what it must mean to go plus ultra.”

“Hey, Boss Man, look at this,” Dark Shadow called out, drawing the duo’s attention. The creature was hovering near the stairwell, gesturing to the barricade of webs that sealed it off.

“This must be the work of the Arachne, Kurusu,” Tokoyami concluded. “It seems these villains don’t want us going any further. No matter. Dark Shadow, destroy it.”

“With pleasure,” Dark Shadow said with joy. It swooped forward, slashing the webs with its clawed arms, quickly tearing the thin threads apart. 

“Lets go,” Tokoyami said, taking the lead once more up the stairs.

As the hero duo arrived on the second floor, three things stood out to them. 

The first was the light streaming in behind them from a window above the stairs.

“Ah, it’s bright,” Dark Shadow complained, its mass shrinking slightly and its orange eyes turning a slightly lighter shade of orange.

The second was that every door in the corridor was closed, each of their rooms hidden.

But the thing that stood out the most within the corridor was the occupant standing out in the open, waiting for them.

His red hair was spiked upwards, with two horns of hair formed at the front. His chest was bare, and on his shoulders he wore two dark red gear-shaped shoulder pads. On his legs he wore baggy black pants and a tattered red half cape around his waist, with dark red boots covering his feet. On his face he wore a wired guard, reaching from just above his hairline to below his jaw, an extra piece going over the bridge of his nose, and spikes around his mouth that resemble little fangs.

To Tsuyu, he resembled an Oni, not only like the creatures in the stories she’d read to her siblings, but also like the Oni man who lived down the street.

“The name’s Banjaku,” the ‘villain’ grinned with a row of sharp teeth, “and this building belongs to the Shark Teeth Bandits, so you heroes better scram!”

“I thought your name was Kirishima,” Tsuyu asked, tilting her head with a finger to her lip.

“Uh, I mean, yeah, it is,” Kirishima stammered, “but like, All Might said that we should be embodying our roles, and I wanted to have a little fun with it, you know?”

“Where have you hidden the weapon, Banjaku?” Tokoyami asked, apparently deciding to go along with it.

“Ha, you’ll never get to the weapon,” ‘Banjaku’ declared. “Already my partner is setting up our defences, making it impossible to get to.”

“So you’re just the distraction,” Tsuyu concluded, lowering herself to all fours, getting ready to either jump or shoot her tongue. “You’re buying her time.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” ‘Banjaku’ smirked. “Either way, this is one wall you aren’t getting past.”

“Oh, because of Banjaku,” Tsuyu thought out loud. “Clever.”

“Regardless of how clever your name is, you’ll be defeated all the same,” Tokoyami declared. “Dark Shadow, attack!”

“On it!” Dark Shadow yelled, surging forward. It swung out with its claws in a downward swipe, only for its arms to be blocked by ‘Banjaku’ in a crossguard block.

“Not bad,” he said, his arms slowly rising in the air against the downward pressure of Dark Shadow. “Try this!”

‘Banjaku’ tossed his arms into the air, throwing Dark Shadow off balance. Not wasting any time, ‘Banjaku’ pulled back his fist, his arm seeming to become more jagged and rough-looking. He slammed it home, hitting Dark Shadow in its torso right between the arms, sending the shadowy creature flying back.

“Argh, that hurts,” the creature whined, but nonetheless floated back in front of Tokoyami.

“Like I said, not getting past me,” ‘Banjaku’ taunted. “Why don’t you go back downstairs and get some real heroes to come help you.”

“No thanks,” Tsuyu flatly said, shooting her tongue out. ‘Banjaku’s face hardened, and rather than dodging Tsuyu’s tongue attack, instead took it head on, slamming his forehead into the attack. However, landing a hit wasn’t Tsuyu’s plan.

“Ah crap,” ‘Banjaku’ said as Tsuyu’s powerful tongue wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to the side.

“Now, while he’s restrained, Dark Shadow,” Tokoyami ordered, and once more Dark Shadow surged forward.

Rather than attack with a slash, Dark Shadow curled its hands into a fist, slamming it into ‘Banjaku’s’ face, causing him to go sliding back. Tsuyu allowed him to fall out of her tongue’s grasp, as she had no desire to be dragged along with the ‘villain’.

Dark Shadow’s second hit struck ‘Banjaku’ in his bare chest, lifting him into the air slightly, causing him to come back down with a stumble.

“Your shadow is strong, I’ll give you that,” ‘Banjaku’ admitted, his head lowered for a moment, only for him to raise it, revealing his face had gained the rocky, jagged edged texture of his defensive quirk.

“However,” ‘Banjaku’ continued, standing back up to his full height, “it isn’t strong enough.”

Like his face, his torso had also hardened, and neither surface had any damage that could be seen.

“Hey, no fair!” Dark Shadow yelled, pointing at ‘Banjaku’. “Are you seeing this, Fumikage?! He’s cheating!”

“No matter,” Tokoyami said in a calm voice, “we can simply whittle him down before his comrade in villany arrives. Asui, are you ready?”

“Call me Tsu,” Tsuyu reminded, once more getting into position.

“Oh yeah, well think fast!” ‘Banjaku’ yelled as he grabbed a hunk of loose concrete and hurled it at the heroes.

“Dark Shadow!” Tokoyami yelled, with Tsuyu leaping behind her corvid companion.

“Gyah!” Dark Shadow cried out as it threw itself in front of the duo, crossing its arms and using its own body as a shield against the projectile. The concrete projectile exploded into a cloud of dust, obscuring their vision and causing the Tsuyu and Tokoyami to burst into a coughing fit.

“Where is he?” Tsuyu asked, waving away the cloud of dust in her face.

The cloud quickly cleared, revealing that rather than rush them while they were blinded, ‘Banjaku’ had done the opposite.

“Kumo On’na, the heroes are coming!” he yelled as he sprinted towards the stairs, throwing himself around the bend and up to the third floor.

“Quickly, after him,” Tokoyami said as he and Tsuyu burst into a sprint after the villain.

“Why Kumo On’na?” a feminine voice said from the third floor, her tone thick with confusion and exasperation.

“Look, I was thinking on my feet, and All Might said to play the part, so now I’m Banjaku, you’re Kumo On’na, and together we’re the Shark Teeth Bandits,” ‘Banjaku’ explained to his teammate.

“Wha-, I mean-, gah, whatever.” 

Tsuyu and Tokoyami slid to a stop at the third floor, witnessing the two villains talking with each other in the middle of the corridor. Scattered across the space were various spiderwebs, each of them laid out at different angles. The further down the corridor, the thicker the quantity of webs, and the more gloom they cast on the hallway deep down.

“Well well well,” ‘Kumo On’na’ greeted, turning to face the heroes, “greetings. I see you’ve already met my comrade Banjaku. I’m Kumo On’na, pleased to eat you.”

“Don’t you mean ‘meet you’?” Tsuyu corrected.

“Mm, oh no, I meant what I said,” Kumo On’na grinned, running her tongue along her lips. “And look at this; a little birdy and a little frog have wandered into my lair. How fortunate that those are two of the things I love to eat.”

“Wow, nice acting, Kurusu,” ‘Banjaku’ complimented, breaking character for a moment.

“Thanks,” his teammate whispered back.

“Enough of this,” Tokoyami said. “Tell us where you have hidden the nuclear bomb, and neither of you shall be hurt. Much.”

“Oh, I can do more than TELL you,” ‘Kumo On’na’ emphasised. “Why don’t I show you? Well, one of you.”

“What do you mean?” Tsuyu asked, her leg muscles tensing.

“Simple, I’m willing to take one of you to where the nuclear bomb is, but only one of you.”

“And how do we know the two of you won’t gang up on the lone hero?” Tokoyami inquired.

“Simple, only Kumo On’na will go,” ‘Banjaku’ answered, stepping forward. “Of course, whoever stays behind will have to be with me.”

“The choice is simple,” ‘Kumo On’na’ clarified. “Either one of you has a chance of finding the bomb, or you both are captured here and now, without finding the weapon. And trust me, you won’t find where we’ve hidden it.”

“And do we have your word that you won’t attack whoever goes with you on the journey to find the weapon?” Tokoyami asked.

“I promise not to start anything,” she replied with a mischievous grin.

Tokoyami and Tsuyu exchanged glances, before looking back at the corridor. Specifically, the corridor that got darker further down.

“I will go,” Tokoyami declared. “Show me where the weapon is.”

“Very well, hero,” ‘Kumo On’na’ smiled, walking down the corridor, not bothering to look behind her.

Tokoyami followed as well, though keeping a distance from the ‘villain’ as well as the spiderwebs that lined the edges of the corridor, all the while Dark Shadow remained out and waiting. Soon, both hero and villain disappeared up the stairwell, leaving Tsuyu and ‘Banjaku’ alone on the third floor.

“Let me guess, you’re not just going to wait for them to decide which of us wins, right?” Tsuyu asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“Not a chance,” ‘Banjaku’ grinned, hardening his fists as he brought his arms up in front of him. “Ready or not, hero, here I come!”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As Fumikage walked behind the ‘villain’, he kept his wits about him. He knew she was planning something, she had to be. No sane villain would willingly lead her enemy into the heart of their lair without a plan. But then again, maybe she had been touched with the curse of madness.

“Come on, we can take her,” Dark Shadow once again whispered into Fumikage’s ear, acting as a proverbial devil on his shoulder.

“For the last time, we’re not doing that,” Fumikage whispered back. “She gave her word she wouldn’t attack us until we reached the weapon.”

“To hell with honour and all that crap,” Dark Shadow growled, clenching his claws. “Let’s just rush her and beat the information out of her.”

And that was another issue Fumikage was dealing with. Unintentionally, all of the webs that ‘Kumo On’na’ had placed within the building had only helped Dark Shadow grow in strength. As they climbed the floors, less and less light streamed in, creating an environment of perpetual twilight. This had the unfortunate side effect of increasing Dark Shadow’s aggression, and it was taking all of Fumikage’s willpower to keep the creature under control. 

“What’s wrong, hero, afraid of the dark?” ‘Kumo On’na’ said in a teasing voice, glancing over her shoulder as she walked up the final flight of stairs to the fifth floor. “To think such an edgy looking hero would be afraid of a few shadows.”

“It is not the darkness that I fear, but what it causes,” Fumikage explained as he followed the Arachnid ‘villain’. “Dark Shadow thrives in the abyss, and becomes more volatile as a result. It is you that should fear the darkness, for you are unaware of the power that it has.”

“Oh, is that so?” ‘Kumo On’na’ asked in a casual tone. “Well, that’s going to be difficult for you then.”

Fumikage emerged onto the fifth and final floor of the villains’ lair, and his eyes widened in horror. Aside from the faint light that managed to pass through the webs that covered the stairwell window, and the green glow that the emergency exit sign gave off, the entire hallway was bathed in a sea of darkness. 

“By all means, head back downstairs where there’s light,” ‘Kumo On’na’ suggested, slowly walking backwards into the gloom, all the while smirking at Fumikage. “But you’ll never get to the weapon if you do.”

“Come on, let’s try it,” Dark Shadow whispered, leaning close to Fumikage’s ear. “You can do it. We’ll be heroes, just like we always wanted to.”

The allure was there, Fumikage couldn’t deny it. The darkness was his domain, where he was the strongest. Why shouldn’t he venture into it?

‘No, it’s not where I am strongest,’ Fumikage realised, glancing to his side. ‘It’s where Dark Shadow is strongest.’

The shadow monster was truly large now. Its claws had more than doubled in size from its daylight form, and its mouth had gained sharp, jagged teeth that lined its beak. But most worrying of all was its eyes. It was a mass of red, crimson energy, swirling and churning with power and hate. In the centre of its eyes was a small pinprick of orange light, the last, meagre chain that kept Dark Shadow under Fumikage’s control.

“You seem tense,” ‘Kumo On’na’ teased. “What's the matter, struggling to control your inner demon?”

As a matter of fact, that was exactly what Fumikage was doing. It was taking all of his willpower to keep Dark Shadow subdued. Any loss of light would send his quirk over the edge, losing itself in a Berserker rage. 

“Silence, villain,” Fumikage said through gritted teeth. “Tell me where the weapon is, now. We had a deal.”

“Yes yes, a deal’s a deal,” ‘Kumo On’na’ huffed, waving her hand, only to gesture further down the hall. “The weapon is there, near the end of the hallway.”

Fumikage's blood ran cold.

‘That's too far into the abyss,’ he lamented in his mind. ‘I won't be able to make it; Dark Shadow will become too powerful. And I can't dismiss him either. It's taking all of my willpower to simply keep him shackled. If I try and force him back into me, he'll rebel. Even if I succeed, I'll be at the mercy of Kumo On’na, and she knows it. If she attacks, Dark Shadow might force himself back out, taking control.’

“I can't,” Fumikage admitted. “No matter the path I take, I will not be able to complete that journey without giving myself over to the darkness.”

“Hm, a shame,” ‘Kumo On’na’ sighed. “You were so close, only to fail at the last second.”

She turned to Dark Shadow, giving the sentient quirk a mischievous look. “What about you, o creature of the night? What do you want to do?”

“Stop being such a wimp, Fumikage,” Dark Shadow growled, clenching its claws. “I'll take her out AND get the weapon, both things you can't achieve.”

“Oo, is that some conflict amongst the bird and his claws?” ‘Kumo On’na’ asked, snickering to herself. “Well, that makes this interesting. Tell me, hero, can you see in the dark? Can your quirk?”

“What difference does that make?” Fumikage forced out, sweat running down his feathers as he wrestled with Dark Shadow within his soul. 

“Oh, nothing, just this.”

‘Kumo On’na’ drew back her arm only to fling it forward, hurling a piece of concrete she had hidden within her hand. The projectile flew true, smashing into the emergency exit light, destroying it and robbing the fifth floor of its light.

“Oh no,” Fumikage whispered in horror, already knowing that he had lost the internal war.

“OH YEAH!!” Dark Shadow roared, its voice booming as it swelled in size, drawing onto Fumikage and covering him in darkness, trapping him.

“And that's my cue,” ‘Kumo On’na’ said, and even though Fumikage could no longer see her in the gloom, he could hear the tak tak tak noise of her arachnid legs dashing away.

“OH NO YOU DON'T!!” Dark Shadow growled, surging forth, dragging Fumikage along with it.

“No, stop, Dark Shadow!” Fumikage begged, still trying desperately to regain control over his quirk. “Don't hurt her, this is wrong!”

“SHUT UP!!” the creature roared, still chasing after their classmate. “YOU'RE NOT IN CHARGE ANYMORE, I AM!! WE DO THINGS MY WAY NOW, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!!”

“Boy, for a shadow you sure are slow,” ‘Kumo On’na’ taunted from ahead in the shadows. “A snail could run faster than you.”

“YOU'RE DEAD!!” Dark Shadow roared, flailing its arms out, slamming them into the walls, floor and ceiling as it rushed after the ‘villain’.

“Kurusu, run!” Fumikage cried out, genuine concern filling his soul, for he was unsure of what Dark Shadow would do to his classmate in its unchecked rage.

“Don't worry,” her voice called out from ahead, “everything is going according to plan.”

“IS THIS PART OF YOUR PLAN?!” Dark Shadow challenged, charging towards the source of the voice. It slammed into a wall, and the sheer strength and force that the rampant quirk possessed caused it to burst straight through, emerging from the pitch black fifth floor out onto the blindingly bright rooftop of the building.

“AH, SO BRIGHT!!” Dark Shadow screamed, its voice increasing in pitch and decreasing in volume as it shrank, quickly losing the battle of spirit against Fumikage.

Making sure to take advantage of Dark Shadow’s moment of weakness, Fumikage used all of his willpower to subdue the rebellious quirk, drawing it back into him.

“At last, it is finally over,” he sighed, falling onto his backside in exhaustion, basking in the safe, welcoming light.

“Oh, it’s over alright,” ‘Kumo Onna’ said behind him, causing Fumikage’s eyes to snap open.

He spun around, knowing that the ‘villain’ was going to try something in his brief moment of weakness, but it was too late. Strong threads of silk pinned his arms to his side as ‘Kumo On’na’ rushed him, quickly looping the Capture Tape around him before he could call forth Dark Shadow.

“ Fumikage Tokoyami has been captured! ” All Might declared, his ruling causing Fumikage to lower his head in shame.

“I have lost,” he admitted. “Your trap was well thought out; there was no escape for me once I had wandered into the spider’s lair. How fitting.”

“Don’t take it too hard,” ‘Kumo On’na’, no, Kurusu, reassured. “To be honest, I thought you’d call back your shadow, leaving you exposed and vulnerable. I didn’t expect it to take over you. That ending was a last ditch attempt at pulling off a victory. It could have gone either way.”

“I still lost control over Dark Shadow,” Fumikage argued. “If it had caught you, I shudder to imagine what it would do in its unrestricted rage.”

“ Tsuyu Asui has been captured! ” All Might declared, catching the avian and arachnid students off guard. “ With that, the villains win! Everyone, come back to the Monitor Room for your post-battle analysis. ”

“Come on, let’s face the music,” Kurusu said, walking over and slicing Fumikage free of his bindings with her sharp fingers. “With the stunt I pulled, I doubt I’m getting V.I.P.”

“You are not alone in that thought,” Fumikage nodded, walking beside her down the now illuminated hallway. “I lost control of Dark Shadow. To do so as a hero is shameful. I should have retreated back to Asui and worked with her.”

“So the real question,” Kurusu thought aloud as they walked, “is which of our teammates All Might chose as the V.I.P.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Me?” Eijiro gasped, pointing at himself in shock.

“Indeed,” All Might chuckled, “you, young Kirishima, are our V.I.P. for this battle.”

Turning to the class, All Might opened the floor to their suggestions. “Anyone want to guess why?”

“Oh, I know,” Mina called out, thrusting her arm into the air and waving it.

“Ah, young Ashido,” All Might nodded, “what is your reasoning?”

“Well, Eikiri trusted Kurusu to take down Tokoyami, and even though Asui was able to attack him at a distance, he didn’t give up,” Mina explained to their teacher, before turning to look at Eijiro, flashing him a thumbs up.

“Even though he was playing as a villain, he was really manly.”

Eijiro’s face tensed up, a smile widening across his face as he fought back the tears that welled up in his eyes.

‘Thanks, Mina,’ he thought, rubbing away the tears before they could fall. ‘Thanks a bunch.’

“Exactly, young Ashido, exactly,” All Might nodded to the rosette. “Young Kirishima fearlessly held back the heroes, causing them to focus on him rather than observing their surroundings. He also didn’t get distracted by young Tokoyami’s capture, something that unfortunately caused young Asui to be captured.”

“In fact, it was that single moment of distraction that cost you, young Asui,” All Might continued. “I’m afraid that one moment cost you the battle. Had you remained focused on the enemy in front of you, rather than the enemy further away, you’d be joining young Kirishima as a joint V.I.P.”

“Understood, sir,” Asui nodded, seemingly not upset by All Might’s advice. “I’ll do better next time.”

“That’s all I can ask,” All Might grinned.

“All Might,” Tokoyami asked, raising a hand, “why did it matter that Kirishima focused our attention on him rather than our surroundings?”

“Ah,” All Might said, holding a hand over his mouth in a desperate attempt to hide his amusement, “that would be because the bomb was located on the second floor, close to the stairwell.”

Eijiro chuckled in embarrassment while to his side Kurusu simply smirked. While Tokoyami was stunned silent by how much they were tricked, Asui simply slapped her hand onto her face.

“Seriously?” she groaned from behind her hand.

“I’m afraid so,” All Might nodded, managing to keep his amusement under control. “This will be a good lesson for the both of you. Tunnel vision can be the decider between victory or defeat. Always keep an open mind for your surroundings. If a villain is wanting you to focus on something, that just means that there is something they don’t want you seeing. Understood?”

““Yes sir,”” Tokoyami and Asui chorused.

“Excellent, that’s all I had to say,” All Might concluded, placing his hands once again in the boxes. “Now then, next up is…”

So, I finished Arcane yesterday…

Act 2 of Arcane was awesome, all the way up until everything fell apart. Still great writing, it’s just that it made me sad. Then Act 3 dropped yesterday, and ho boy, what a journey. Timebomb is at least canon in one iteration, we had some timey wimey stuff, and Mel is still best character. I also saw the effect that Isha’s death had on Jinx, and boy, that scene made me feel all kinds of sadness. So, why not make something out of this. That’s right, new series, baby! I won’t reveal what the crossover will be just yet (and it will be a crossover, that shit is my jam), but there will be a major canon divergence from the end of Act 2. I just want Jinx and Isha to be happy, you know? My girls deserve some kind of peace. Assuming I get the chapter written on time, chapters for this new series, which I have titled ‘ Blue Powder ’, will be dropping Wednesdays. The current schedule is I post My Monster Academia on Monday, then the following week you get Blue Powder on Wednesday. So about a week's gap. I’m really proud of the idea I’ve come up with, and Jinx and Isha fit surprisingly well into this verse, power scaling wise. You have no idea how long I was on the VS Wiki just cross referencing stuff. How powerful is Jinx in comparison to the main cast? Spoilers, pretty fucking well. In fact, Jinx, our lovely gadgeteer, is actually more on the muscle side then support or ranged gunner side. Being Shimmered up will do that, I guess, but still, kind of crazy. So yeah, stay tuned for that one.

Anyway, back to the story.

Fun fact, my descriptions of the building for the battle between teams H and J are based entirely off of the snippet we get in the anime of the fight between canon teams H and J, i.e. the same team except replace Kórinis with Hanta. It gave off an industrial feel, so I decided to go all out with the design for it.

Also, I just realised how many features Eijiro has that he shares with the other members of his friend group. He and Mina both have horns (even if it’s Eijiro styling his hair), he and Kórinis both have sharp teeth and sharp arms (when Eijiro uses his quirk on his arms), and he and Katsuki both have spiky hair (even though Eijiro uses gel). I’m also realising as I write this that Eijiro unintentionally has styled himself with features of his (future) friends.

As a quick note, Eijiro’s remark about Fumikage’s name is because his surname contains the kanji for "everlasting" (常 toko) and "darkness" (闇 yami), while his first name contains "step, to walk through" (踏 fumi) and "shadow" (陰 kage). When their characters are written together, his names can be read as "eternal darkness" (常闇 tokoyami) and "to walk through shadow" (踏陰 fumikage). Fumikage has gone all the way in the edginess-metre, and we all love him for it. With a name that essentially means ‘to walk through shadow & eternal darkness’, Eijiro would definitely find it a manly name.

In regards to Kórinis’ nickname for Eijiro, I chose Banjaku because it contains the kanji “board” (盤 ban) and “stone” (石 Ishi). Together they create Banjaku, which translates into Rock Solid in English. Also, 盤 ban can be read as a type of wall, and given Eijiro’s quirk, it seemed fitting. While her nickname for Izuku was more in a teasing manner, this one is more respectful and genuine. I mean, she literally called Izuku, ‘Green Bean’, whereas here she’s calling Eijiro, ‘Solid Wall’, or at least it can be interpreted in that meaning. Slight warning, but Kórinis and Izuku will not be part of the same friend groups. I honestly don’t see them getting along too well, or at least not more than as classmates and as someone who you know has your back. After all, Kórinis HATES liars, that’s why she likes Katsuki as much as she does, because he’s the opposite of that, as he wears his heart on his sleeve. Izuku on the other hand has the majority of the story revolving around trying to keep One For All hidden and private, lying directly to people’s faces. So yeah, Sarah is going to be part of Team Izuku, mostly thanks to Tenya, while Kórinis is going to be part of Team Katsuki, and making friends in that circle. 

For Eijiro’s villain name for Kórinis, I decided to go with Kumo On’na (pronounced kumona with a drawn out ‘o’) because it literally translates into Spider woman, and Eijiro was trying to think on the fly, so even if it’s right on the nose, it fits. Interestingly enough, the kanji that forms Kumo On’na  is “spider” (蜘 zhī), “spider” (蛛 zhū), and “woman” (女 On’na). He’s literally calling her Spider Spider Woman. Just a cool fact.

I also loved writing Fumikage’s dialogue, he’s really fun to do. You have to first think of what you want to say, and then try and make it sound as mysterious as possible, all the while still making sure what he said is understood. The fact that he contrasts so strongly with Tsuyu, who is very blunt in her manner of speech, is really entertaining to read and write.

Also, on the topic of Fumikage and Tsuyu, did you guys notice that they were on the same Battle Trial team and Midterm team? As far as I can tell, they’re the only ones to have that. Sure, Izuku and Katsuki as well as Toru and Mezo were in the same rounds, but they were opponents. But Fumikage and Tsuyu managed to stay together. Nothing really to note here, but it just stood out to me as I was writing.

Okay, review time.

Sakumon16, once again thanks for the reviews. Not to worry, Shoto will have his past revealed. All I’ll say at the moment is that it is simultaneously more heartwarming than canon, but also MUCH more tragic. I’m trying to reflect this in his personality and actions in the series. Canon Shoto is much colder (ha), but this version of Shoto is more, well, angrier, driven, and arrogant to some degree. Again, all will be revealed in due time, especially why he holds these views, and they aren’t unwarranted. Also, trust me, Kórinis and Izuku would get along like oil and water. That, and IzuOcha is one of my favourites, so they’ll get closer than canon. Not much of a bench mark, but still something. Seeing your classmates pairing up, even while being heroes in training, AND it doesn’t interfere with their duties would likely embolden Ochako, since not distracting Izuku was her whole reason for not confessing. And Lami is already paired, and will be revealed after the Sports Festival. I have the scene already planned out in my head, and I love it. Hopefully you will too. NTRanch is the Black Lily Ranch arc. All of the Minotaurs and Pan Fauns were wanting to get with Kimihito, only for the Satyrs to swoop in and start the lesboats going. Not really NTR, but as close as we’ve gotten in MM, hence the name. As for commissioned fanart, don’t you worry, all viewers, be they Fanfiction or Ao3 enjoyers, will be able to see it.

Now, over to Ao3…wait, Sakumon16 again?! Cheers for checking it out on the other platform dude, good to see you here in both places. 

Siarles, thanks for the review. For your theory, all I’ll say is that your guess with the Yuki-Onna is closer than you think. I’d also say Toru gets less attention BECAUSE she’s invisible. Unless it’s a smut story, in which case you know there’s going to be a public tag or exhibition tag. Yuck. And please, by all means, share your theories. I love hearing what readers think of my story (so long as it’s constructive), and any ideas I like I might very well use all of it or parts of it. And as you rightly pointed out, the War Arc isn’t for a while, so I’ve got time to sort details out. I currently have a rough, and I mean really rough, outline of events. Some characters are going to be introduced, some are going to die, but it’s still up in the air at the moment.

Artorigus, thanks for the review. I’m glad you like the changes I made to Shoto’s hero costume, and to confirm, yes, Shoto is related to Sarah and Kórinis through Suu’s mother, making them kind-of-cousins, more of a social/legal sense rather than genetics. Also, what Sphinx chapter? There was no Sphinx chapter. Don’t mind me putting on sunglasses, here, look into this light at the end of this rod, three, two, one…

Now, for your question regarding Hapi Kurusu, Papi’s eldest son, yeah, in Monster Musume lore, that’s impossible. Lamia and Harpies are monogender species, meaning every Lamia and Harpy are female. Obviously, this isn’t the case here. We have Hapi, a male Harpy, and Fíos, a male Lamia (one of Miia’s twins). My logic is that it doesn't make that much sense to have quirks that only one gender can inherit, unless it’s SUPER specific (like breast milk or something). Now, that isn’t to say that male Harpies or Lamia are common, quite the opposite. I don’t have a solid number in my head, but the ratio of males to females is somewhere around 1 in every 100 births being male. Massive gender ratio imbalance, but still possible. The fact that Kimihito had two sons is crazy. As for the class discovering the Kurusu family’s, um, unique style, certain characters are already aware of it. Spoiler-free reveals are Shoto, because he is a relative of the Kurusus through Suu’s mother, Endeavor’s aunt, as well as Tenya, because the Ida family are very close to Centorea due to her being Tensei’s mentor and older sister figure. Izuku and Ochako will find out in a few chapters, at least one other character in their class already knows, but I’ll leave their identity as a surprise. As for Denki and Minoru, trust me, their reaction is going to be hilarious.

One last note, we now have over 500 hits on Ao3. Cheers to everyone there for checking out my passion project. Onward to 1000 hits.

For your sneak peak, next chapter is called ‘ Lightning and Sound VS Grapes and Creation ’. Pretty obvious who is fighting who, so stick around for the fourth battle trial. I promise it will be shocking.

*cricket chirps*

Alright, I’ll see myself out. See you all in a fortnight…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

“Ah, here we are!” All Might declared, pulling his hands out of the hero and villain boxes. “The heroes for this round are going to be Team G, Denki Kaminari and Kyoka Jiro. Their opponents are going to be Team C, Momo Yaoyorozu and Minoru Mineta.”

“Yes!” Denki cheered to himself, pumping his fist by his chest. He’d been holding out hope that he’d get to play the role of a hero, and his prayers had been answered. After all, girls loved the dashing hero, and here was where he’d start. 

As the electric teen followed behind All Might, he drifted over to his teammate, Jiro.

“Hey,” he whispered to her, causing her gaze to shift to him, looking from the corner of her eyes.

“We’ve got this,” he grinned, holding up his hand for a fistbump.

She rolled her eyes with a huff, but Denki’s grin widened when she tapped her fist against his. 

‘Let’s go!’ Denki cheered in his head. ‘Maybe I have a chance with her! No, stay cool, Denki, just keep your options open for now. Even if she has a cool hero costume.’

Now that he thought about it, both of their costumes were rather similar. Denki’s was just a plain white shirt, an open black jacket with a white lightning pattern across it, as well as matching black pants. The only thing that he wore that made it look like a hero costume was the communicator he wore over his right ear.

Jiro’s on the other hand was a black leather jacket, a pink shirt with rips at the top and bottom, black pants, and odd looking boots. Glancing upwards, Denki took note of the earphone jacks that grew from her earlobes, and looking back down at his teammate’s boots, he started to see the stereos that seemed to be built in.

‘She really has a basic hero costume,’ Denki thought as the group walked to their building. ‘All I asked from the support company for my costume was the basic design, as well as clothing that would be resistant to my electricity. I wonder who her costume designers were?’

“Alright, you four, here we are!” All Might declared, stopping in front of their building. “You all know the drill by now; take your micro transceivers, Capture Tape, and map. Villains, you have five minutes to prepare once you go through those doors.”

“Understood, All Might,” Yaoyorozu said, bowing at the waist to their teacher.

‘Holy crap is she beautiful,’ Denki gushed, taking in her appearance. While he had seen her beauty the day before at Mr. Aizawa’s Quirk Fitness Test, the costume she wore made her go from a 10/10 to an 11/10. She wore a high-collared, sleeveless crimson leotard with silver lines at her waist and around her arms, which opened to expose her skin from her neck to just below her navel. She wore red boots and a gold utility belt, and at the back rested a collection of books.

‘I don’t know who approved of her hero costume, but whoever it was I want to give them a hug if they’re a dude or a kiss if they’re a chick! Thank you, skimpy hero costumes!’ Denki cried out in his mind.

And it seemed like he wasn’t the only one admiring her. Unbeknownst to All Might, Yaoyorozu and Jiro, Yaoyorozu’s teammate, Mineta, was openly gazing at his partner’s shapely rear. This lasted only for a moment before he quickly looked away, his gazing crossing with Denki’s as the two locked eyes.

His costume was rather simplistic, though in a different manner to Denki’s or Jiro’s. It consisted of a purple shirt and mask, with a yellow cape, boots, and gloves. The oddest feature of his costume were his pants, which were white with a lighter purple trim, and stuck out quite a lot around his waist. 

Mineta’s face paled as sweat beaded on his face, but Denki only gave him a wink and a thumbs up, showing his own appreciation.

‘That guy seems fun to hang around with,’ Denki thought, watching as the two ‘villains’ walked into the building to prepare. ‘I’ll catch up with him later, see if we have similar interests beyond liking cute girls.’

“Okay, my intrepid heroes,” All Might smiled at them, “is there anything that you need clarified before I return to the rest of your classmates?”

“Nah, everything seems clear to me,” Denki shrugged. “Get in, try and capture the weapon, capture the villains, whichever is easier. Seems pretty simple.”

“We’ll be fine, All Might,” Jiro confirmed, fiddling with one of her earphone jack earlobes.

“Very well!” All Might said. “Then I wish you the best of luck. As you saw in the previous fight, what can be a surefire victory can quickly turn into defeat. Just remember to not get too confident, and you’ll both be fine.”

““Yes sir,”” Denki and Jiro nodded, watching as their teacher dashed away.

“So, uh, Jiro, right?” Denki began, giving his teammate what he thought was his most charming smile to hide his nervousness. “Your quirk gives you earphone jacks for earlobes?”

“Wow, what gave that away?” she sarcastically replied, rolling her eyes at him. “Yeah, pretty much though. My mum has the same quirk, so it helped to have someone who already knew what my quirk could do growing up.”

“Well, you made it into the Hero Course, so they’ve got to be a wicked quirk, right?”

“Oh, well, it isn’t all that great,” Jiro deflected, looking away with a light blush on her cheeks. “My earphone jacks are pretty durable, since they’re able to stab into metal and concrete and crap, but where they really shine is picking up faint noises. I can also plug them into something and project my heartbeat through it.”

“Oh, is that why you have a pair of speakers on your boots?” Denki asked, trying his best to ignore how she looked when she blushed. ‘Keep it cool, Denki, keep it cool.’

“Yeah, they allow me to amplify and direct the noise,” Jiro explained, her expression and voice becoming more animated as she explained. “See, without them I need to jam my jacks into someone’s ear for them to actually do anything, so I’m really lucky to have come up with a work around.”

“Neat,” Denki nodded. “My quirk is pretty simple; it’s called Electrification. It allows me to store electricity and discharge it, and the best part is that I’m never harmed by it.”

“So you can shoot lightning out of your fingertips like an evil wizard?” Jiro asked, bringing to both of their minds a Denki that wore wizard robes and a fake white beard, cackling madly while shooting out lightning from his hands.

“Not exactly,” Denki winced. “See, I can’t control it well, so it kind of goes everywhere if I try to shoot it out. I can electrify my body, but then I’d need to touch our opponents to do anything.”

“So I’m the long range fighter then,” Jiro summarised. “Do you at least know any martial arts that you could use along with your electrification?” 

“No, sorry.”

“Fine, we’ll just have to hope that just touching them is enough to take them out,” Jiro huffed, unfurling the map they had been given. “Alright, let's figure out how we’re going to do this…”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Momo wasn’t having a good second day of high school. While the first day had certainly been, eventful, in the end she had deduced that the threat Mr. Aizawa held over them was nothing more than a bluff, a rational deception meant to inspire his students to perform at their very best. It honestly was surprising how many of her fellow students fell for their teacher’s deception. Not that she held it against them, she simply thought that it was more obvious. Apparently not.

Suffice to say, Momo had expected the second day of U.A. to be much more ordinary. And for the most part, it was. While having Pro Heroes as their teachers was certainly a novelty thing to have, it wasn’t something she was unused to. Ishin Girls’ Private Academy, a girls-only middle school she had been enrolled in, had both former and current Pro Heroes amongst their teaching staff, though they were admittedly far and few between. So Momo hadn’t been as surprised to have popular heroes as their teachers compared to her fellow classmates who went to more, common middle schools.

‘Oh heavens,’ Momo lamented as she placed another steel plating against the wall, ‘I shouldn’t think that. Bad Momo, you’re not royalty like your ancestors, you’re simply the only daughter of the Yaoyorozus. You aren’t any better than your classmates, despite their, eccentricities.’

Something that had been a pleasant surprise was how normal U.A. was. For a young woman coming from a highly elite private girls school, it was a novelty for Momo to have men in her class, to be able to interact with them so freely. The fact as well that there were so many students for different walks of life was simply fascinating to her. She no longer needed to be careful about what she said or how she said it when talking with her classmates. If she wanted to go to karaoke after class, she could. If she wanted to gossip with her friends, she could. If she wanted to, no matter how scandalous it felt, start dating someone, she could.

And what a surprise the final class of the day had been. No matter her experiences with being taught by Pro Heroes, none of that could have prepared her for the sheer awe that she felt when All Might had entered the room. The pure friendliness that he exuded, a starkly different feel to Mr. Aizawa, didn’t clash with the overwhelming strength that he possessed, but rather heightened it. A pinnacle of might and power, willing and eager to lower himself to their level to teach and instruct them as their mentor. It was a humbling experience, one that could only happen with a handful of Pro Heroes, with All Might being the greatest of them all in Momo’s mind.

When he had revealed to them that they would be doing combat exercises against one another, with pairs fighting against each other, Momo was ecstatic. This was what she had wanted; no need to worry about her image or appearance, simply focus on being a hero. Better yet, she might be paired with someone who could become a close friend.

Of course, the universe did love to disappoint. Because rather than getting to play the role of the fearless heroine, rushing to save the day against the treacherous villains, she was the treacherous villain. And rather than having a dashing knight by her side, or a mysterious rogue, or a powerful wizard, or even a brooding warlock, she was stuck with the lecherous troll.

‘Why?!’ she wailed in her head, leaning against the barricade she was preparing for support. ‘I’d take anyone, anyone but him! Fine, even if I couldn’t have Sarah Kurusu, or Todoroki, or the youngest of the Idas, anyone would be better than HIM!’

As if summoned, Momo felt the skin on her back crawl with disgust, her sixth sense she had developed from having a sizable bust being triggered. Whirling around, she caught the purple-haired gremlin staring at her behind with a lecherous gaze. She affixed her most stern, irritated expression, which fortunately caused her goblin of a teammate to try and save face.

“Wait wait wait!” he pleaded, holding his hands in front of him. “I swear I wasn’t looking at your ass this time! I was, uh, checking the stability of our barricade, yeah, that’s it!”

Momo didn’t buy his defence for a second. Staring at her assets once, she’d take it as a compliment. Twice, an annoyance. Thrice, and it was disgusting. But catching him lusting after her five separate times? That was too much, even for her patience.

“You’re aware of my quirk, correct?” she said with an ice-cold tone, holding her palm flat in front of her teammate’s face. “My quirk, creation, allows me to create any non-living material from the lipids in my body. Of course, that means any item I create can come from ANY part of my body. Understood?”

Mineta audibly gulped, his face turning pale with fright.

“U-understood,” he stammered, slowly backing away. “I hear you loud and clear.”

Momo doubted her warning would stick for long, but she was content with the reprieve while it lasted.

“Good, now how are the defences?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

“All good to go,” Mineta said with a thumbs up. “There’s a minefield of my sticky balls outside. No way they’re getting through that quickly.”

As much as Momo was revolted by the manner that Mineta referred to his quirk, he wasn’t wrong about its effectiveness. His quirk, called Pop Off, allowed Mineta to grow purple orbs on his scalp that could be pulled off and stuck to surfaces or items. Because he was the only thing that could bounce off them and not get stuck, they were very effective capture tools, one that Momo had decided to make full use of.

Spread all across the building were clusters of Mineta’s orbs, forcing the heroes who would be attacking shortly to watch their step, should they wish to continue. 

“And what about the listening devices I told you to place?” Momo asked. “Are they in position?”

“Oh yeah,” Mineta nodded, “they’re not going anywhere. I placed them on my sticky balls, so even if they find them, the heroes won’t be able to move them without getting stuck themselves.”

“Very well,” Momo nodded, setting up the final barricade, one that would block the rooms only doorway, locking themselves in with the weapon.

“Man, I hope I don’t need the bathroom later,” Mineta mumbled to himself, unaware that Momo was able to clearly hear him.

‘Why me?’ she sighed, continuing her work as she thought.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Once All Might had declared that their battle trial was underway, Kyoka and Kaminari slinked into the building, keeping their eyes out for an ambush. As they moved through the hallways, Kyoka took the lead, while Kaminari followed close behind her.

“Okay, give me a second,” Kyoka whispered to her teammate, stopping by a wall. Extending one of her jacks, she plugged it into the wall, listening closely. Through the concrete, she could hear muffled voices, and even though she couldn’t tell what they were saying or who was who, she knew who they had to be.

“Okay, found them,” Kyoka reported, turning to face her teammate. “They’re a few floors up, and they don’t seem to be moving. I think they’re guarding the weapon.”

“Got it,” Kaminari nodded, with the two of them continuing through the building. They moved in silence, not finding anything of note until they rounded a corner, stumbling across a minefield of round, purple balls, covering the ground before the staircase.

“What are these?” Kaminari asked aloud, reaching out to poke one.

“Wait!” Kyoka yelled, grabbing Kaminari’s other arm and pulling him back. “We don’t know what they are. Let me try something.”

Extending her jacks again, Kyoka jabbed them into the floor, quickly creating cracks as she broke apart the concrete. Grabbing a sizable chunk, she and Kaminari retreated back around the corner, taking cover. Kyoka leaned around, tossing the concrete onto the purple orbs closer to the stairs, and more importantly, further away from them. They both tensed against the wall, but after a few moments realised that nothing had happened. Peering around, they both saw the concrete chunk resting at an angle on one of the purple orbs.

“Huh, it didn’t explode,” Kaminari noted, walking over to pick it up. But as he bent down to grab it, he stopped short.

“What’s the matter, Kaminari?” Kyoka smirked. “Is it too heavy for you?”

“It’s not that,” Kaminari argued, “it’s stuck. I can’t get it off this thing.”

“Let me try,” Kyoka sighed, bumping Kaminari to the side. But when Kyoka tried as well, she encountered the same issue, as no matter how hard she pulled, the concrete wouldn’t budge.

“Oh, what’s the matter, Jorio?” Kaminari mocked in return. “Is it too heavy for you too?”

“Shut it, Sparky,” Kyoka glared, getting back onto her feet. “It must be that short guy’s quirk. Maybe certain things bounce off them but others stick to them?”

“Well, whatever the case, I guess it’s best to stay clear of them,” Kaminari nodded. “Come on, let’s find out…”

Kyoka looked over to her teammate who had trailed off mid sentence, seeming to be glancing around the room.

“What is it? Do you hear something?” she asked, trying to hear anything unusual with her enhanced hearing, only to come up short. 

“It’s not something I hear, but something I feel,” Kaminari mysteriously answered, moving over to one of the sticky orbs near the edge of the room.

“Found you,” he said, before looking over his shoulder at Kyoka with a grin on his face. “Come look at this.”

Kyoka cautiously made her way across the room, being careful where she placed her steps. Crouching beside her blond teammate, she looked at what he was pointing at, seeing a small, metallic disk attached to the purple orb.

“What is it?” Kyoka asked, watching as Kaminari pulled it off, the back of the item breaking off and remaining attached.

“This is a rudimentary listening device,” Kaminari explained, holding it up for Kyoka to see. “See there? That’s a microphone, and that’s the transceiver. Our other opponent, the girl with the large, uh, fringe? She can make stuff, so I bet she made these as well.”

“Fringe, sure,” Kyoka repeated with a deadpan expression, and only a little jealousy. 

“Right, well, we probably don’t want them hearing us, so I’ll fix that,” Kaminari said, yellow sparks of electricity coursing over his skin, causing Kyoka’s hair to begin to stand on end as the small listening device let out a small pop in Kaminari’s hand.

The pair continued up the building, pausing every so often for Kyoka to check they were heading the right way. Occasionally, Kaminari would stop, finding more of the listening devices. It was after he found the fourth one that Kyoka’s curiosity couldn’t be contained any longer.

“How are you able to find them?” she asked as the device was destroyed.

“My quirk allows me to generate electricity, but it doesn’t have to be a big display,” Kaminari explained, tapping the earpiece that he wore over his right ear. “This thing here allows me to channel my electricity and create electrical communication signals, basically turning it into a phone. I was trying to see if I could access our opponents communicators, but while that was a bust, I sensed an electrical signal nearby, coming from the listening devices. It didn’t take much to put two and two together.”

“Huh, you really know your electronics,” Kyoka observed, an impressive tone in her voice. “Where’d you learn all that?”

“My dad runs an electronics shop out of our basement, and because he’s a househusband, I spent a lot of time with him, and I guess I picked up a few things here and there,” Kaminari explained with an amused smile. “When I was little, I tried to charge my dad’s phone with my quirk. Man was he angry when he found out. Apparently I used too much of my quirk, causing it to short circuit and die. Everything that wasn’t backed up to a cloud was lost, and I was grounded for a month.”

“Oh my God, no way,” Kyoka giggled with a hand over her mouth. “You seriously tried that?”

“Why not?” Kaminari argued. “Phones need electricity to charge the batteries, and my eight-year-old brain thought that if I used a lot of it, it would charge the phone faster. I’ve gotten much better at it; haven’t caused any problems with one for years.”

“So your claim to fame is being a mobile phone charger?” Kyoka grinned, lightly jabbing her teammate in the ribs with her elbow.

“Hey, it was an awesome party trick in middle school,” Kaminari defended.

As they got closer to where the ‘villains’ were holed up, Kyoka and Kaminari became silent, stepping lightly in hopes of the listening devices they had intentionally left intact not hearing them. Stopping by a wall, Kyoka plugged her earphone jacks once more into it, listening intently. The noise that she could hear was exactly what she wanted; they were right beneath them.

She pointed up at the ceiling to Kaminari, who immediately understood the message. He raised a hand in front of him, yellow electricity crackling around his hand, ready for a fight.

Arriving at the room, Kyoka and Kaminari found it barricaded with metal plating, blocking off the only way in. Kaminari looked at her with a confused expression, asking her what they were going to do in a non-verbal manner. Kyoka simply smiled, bending her torso to reach the dials on the back of her boots, turning them up to the max. She turned to Kaminari, miming for him to plug his ears with his fingers, which he quickly did, catching on to her plan.

Stretching her earphone jacks down to the ports in her boots, they seamlessly plugged in, and suddenly the silence was broken with the sound of rhythmic thumping.

BA-DUMP!

BA-DUMP!

BA-DUMP!

The noise from her heartbeat was transmitted into her boots and amplified, creating a battering ram of noise that slammed into the barricade. From within, Kyoka and Kaminari were able to just hear the wails of a high-pitched male, showing that their plan was working. Kyoka only had to keep up the audio assault for less than a minute before cracks started appearing in the metal barricade, slowly spreading across the entirety of the enemy's defence. Pulling her leg back, Kyoka lashed out at the barricade with a solid kick, knocking down the defences and opening up the weapon room to them.

“Go, Kaminari!” Kyoka yelled, taking shelter by the door, leaving it open for her teammate. “Use Thundershock!”

“Alright!” he yelled, dashing into the room. “Indiscriminate Shock: 1.3 Million Volts!” 

Kyoka flinched when errant bolts of electricity surged out of the doorway, accompanied by the panicked screams and jabbering of someone being electrocuted.

‘I’m sure Kaminari knows what he’s doing,’ Kyoka hoped, peeking her head into the room once the lightning had stopped. Lying on the floor was the short ‘villain’, the same one who was responsible for the sticky balls that were scattered in choke points within the building. He currently lay flat on his back, knocked out from the surge of electricity, his limbs twitching and spasming randomly. But instead of seeing the other ’villain’ also unconscious, Kyoka only saw a mound of cloth within the centre of the room. Said mound of cloth moved, revealing it to have been Yaoyorozu.

“Kaminari, there’s still one more!” Kyoka yelled into the room, hiding once more by the doorway. “Use Thundershock one more time!”

But there was silence; no crackles of electricity could be heard, nor the sounds of someone being electrocuted. Kyoka stepped into the doorway, trying to see what was stopping their victory, only to burst out laughing at the sight she saw.

“Whee!” Kaminari cheered, his hands bouncing up and down in front of his chest, giving a thumbs up, while his expression was dazed and looked incredibly goofy.

“Kaminari, why do you look so silly?!” Kyoka barely managed to say before folding over in laughter, clutching her belly to try and stay upright.

“Bzzt, hehehe,” Kaminari giggled, sending Kyoka into another peal of laughter.

“It is quite amusing,” a female voice said, snapping Kyoka out of it as her pulse raced. She’d made a critical error. While Kaminari’s expressions were entertaining, it had also caused Kyoka to forget one critical detail; she was still in a fight.

Whirling around while also extending her jacks towards her boots, Kyoka caught the sight of Yaoyorozu dashing towards her, a metal staff in her hands. Before Kyoka could fire off another pulse of soundwaves, her legs were swept out from underneath her, causing her to land painfully on her back with a cry of pain.

Yaoyorozu didn’t waste any time, using her larger size compared to Kyoka to overpower her, keeping her pinned on the floor underneath her staff. Grabbing the Capture Tape in her free hand, Yaoyorozu looped a portion of the capture tape around Kyoka’s flailing arms, capturing her.

“ Kyoka Jiro has been captured! ” All Might declared. 

Kyoka stopped her resistance, instead allowing her body to go limp, her spirit defeated at her quick capture.

“ Denki Kaminari has been captured! ” All Might added, causing Kyoka to glance to her side, seeing that Kaminari had also been pinned down by Yaoyorozu.

“ With that, the villains win! ” All Might announced, bringing an end to the Battle Trial. “ Someone bring young Mineta down to the entrance for a check-up, and we’ll get your post-battle reviews started. ”

A shadow covered Kyoka’s eyes, causing her to look up at Yaoyorozu standing over her, who was offering her hand.

“It was a close fight,” Yaoyorozu praised, helping haul Kyoka up to her feet. “If I hadn’t created that insulation blanket, you would have won the match.”

“Maybe,” Kyoka admitted, “but I shouldn’t have gotten so distracted by Kaminari’s goofy face.”

“Well, in all fairness,” Yaoyorozu admitted, looking over at the blond student, who was currently in the process of spinning on the spot, “his face was quite amusing.”

Kyoka smiled at that, before calling out to Kaminari. “Come on, Kaminari. All Might wants us back at the Monitor Room.”

“Okie-dokie!” Kaminari nodded vigorously, swaying as he walked from his spinning.

‘Such a dork,’ Kyoka smiled to herself, watching with interest as Yaoyorozu, rather than picking up her teammate, instead decided to drag him by the foot as if he were a sack. Her expression remained uncaring when his head bumped against the doorframe as he was dragged out of the room.

“What’d he do to deserve that?” Kyoka asked, raising an eyebrow at the display.

“This lecherous troll has done more than enough to deserve this,” Yaoyorozu spat venomously. “He ought to be glad that I have decided to treat him with some small level of respect.”

“What would it look like if you treated him without respect?” Kyoka hesitantly asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

“Well, I could toss him out the window,” Yaoyorozu mused to herself, glancing at one of the windows in the building. “I’m sure the Transpo-bots will be able to catch him on their stretcher. But no, as much as it tempts me, the troll didn’t actually try and touch me, so I’ll spare him that mercy at least.”

“Okay,” Kyoka all but squeaked, nodding her head vigorously as she followed the tall girl. ‘Note to self, never piss off Yaoyorozu. For such a pretty girl, she sure can be scary.’

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Right, for this battle, I’d say it’s no surprise that young Yaoyorozu is the V.I.P.,” All Might decided, looking out over the crowd of students. “Anyone want to take a guess as to why?”

“Would it be because she was the leader?” Uraraka asked with a raised hand.

“Partly, but that’s not all,” All Might said, looking around. “Anyone else?”

“She was prepared?” Kirishima ventured.

“Yes, correct, but that’s not all,” All Might nodded, quickly locking his gaze on Sarah Kurusu. “Young Kurusu, you look like you have the answer. Do you want to share with the class?”

“Yes sir,” Kurusu nodded. “Yaoyorozu formulated an effective plan, as well as preparing a backup plan. She also remained focused on the battle, rather than being distracted by Kaminari’s, admittedly amusing, expressions.”

Kaminari made a sound of excitement at the mention of his name, causing many in the class to chuckle, All Might included.

“Conversely, each other participant had their own shortcomings,” Kurusu continued. “Mineta didn’t come up with his own ideas, instead he followed along. While that isn’t negative in of itself, as Shoji was the V.I.P. for doing the exact same thing, Mineta didn’t contribute all that much to the outcome of the battle. For the heroes, while they performed much better, Kaminari didn’t account for the fact that the villains might have a counter to his wave of electricity. His excessive use also put him out of commission for the remainder of the battle, and in a real-world scenario, would have become a liability on the scene. For Jiro, while she performed admirably, it was her break of composure due to Kaminari that cost her the battle. Because she was distracted, she wasn’t able to see or hear Yaoyorozu’s approach, securing her defeat.”

“All excellent points, Sarah, well done,” All Might praised, nodding at his student’s words, before turning to Yaoyorozu. “However, young Yaoyorozu, there were a few points that you didn’t do perfectly on. For instance, you didn’t make an effort to save your teammate.”

“However,” he continued, turning to look at Mineta, who wisely was looking away, “since the circumstances were unique, I’ll let it slide.”

“Thank you, All Might,” Yaoyorozu bowed.

“Regardless of who won or lost, well done, you four, well done indeed,” All Might congratulated, gesturing for them to join their classmates, while waving the final two teams forward. “Now, since we only have teams E and F left, at least we know who’s fighting who! Take a good look at your opponents, my wards, you’re the only ones to know who you’re facing beforehand!”

Both teams glanced at each other, with Koda hiding behind Kurusu, Mina grinning at the two of them, while Aoyama simply looked at them from the side with one eye.

“Now, the real question,” All Might continued, “is who will be the final heroes for the day, and who will be the villains?”

He reached into the hero and villain boxes, taking a moment to decide, ramping up the tension in the room.

“Alright,” he declared, “our heroes are going to be…”

Right, full apologies for the late release. Work has been ramping up lately (working in a post office during the Christmas period is pain), Summer School is starting to get into full swing (and it’s aiming for my balls), and I’ve been busy doing brainstorming for my Arcane crossover series that I mentioned in last chapter’s notes. That last one took up all of a week, so I might have gotten carried away with it. It also didn’t help that I kind of struggled with this chapter. I’m not sure what it is, but this one was difficult to get the ball rolling. Oh well, it’s finished now and I’m content with the way it turned out, so there’s that at least.

Also, probably not anything that people were thinking about, but I was and these are my notes, so there. In my mind, Denki and Minoru have very different kinds of “perversion”. Minoru is just a straight up perv, no ifs buts or maybes. From trying to use a hole to peep into the girls’ locker room, to trying to scale the wall in the outdoor hot springs, to even groping his female classmates whenever he has a chance (poor Tsuyu and Mina). Denki on the other hand is more of a flirt than a perv. Yes, he helped trick the girls into cheerleading costumes alongside Minoru, as well as wanted to use Izuku to have an excuse at spying on the girls in their swimsuits, but he also, you know, asks girls out. While the aforementioned actions aren’t great on his part, they are only at the beginning of the school year, he’s doing it alongside Minoru, and it stops after the summer holidays. Compare that to Minoru who only changed when Mina subjected him to a Clockwork Orange torture routine after the joint class exercise, I’d say that Denki is by far less of a perv. (I also can’t wait to write that scene, Kórinis and Mina are going to have so much fun with that.) 

On another note, Denki is kind of smart. Not academically smart, since he’s at the bottom of the class alongside Mina when it comes to his grades, but smart when it comes to electronics. This was pointed out to me in a fic I read, a Kill La Kill x MHA crossover, where the author rightly notes that Denki being used as the class’ battery charger means he needs to have precise control over how much electricity he’s pumping into each phone, as well as understanding the internals of the phones. This gave me the idea of Denki’s dad being an electronics repair man, taking on the role of a stay-at-home dad while doing his work out of their basement or garage.

For the name of Momo’s school, I chose Ishin because it literally translates into ‘prestige’. Kind of trying to sell the image that this is THE prestigious girls private academy. 

Also, since I was making it obvious, yeah, I’m a major Denki x Kyoka shipper, they’re probably my second favourite pairing behind Eijiro x Mina. Nothing’s going to come of it for a while, with only the barest hint of it after the Rescue Arc. This one’ll be more slowburn, simply because that’s the nature of our favourite spark plug and boombox.

Right, onto reviews.

Sakumon16, thanks for the reviews. I can understand where you’d get the idea of Kórinis and Izuku being a pairing due to that airbag scene, since it is a staple in the medium. However, I raise the point that jealousy can be a very potent motivator. Remember, Ochako was there to see Izuku’s stumble, so who knows what might go on within a love-struck teenager’s mind. And I agree, when Bakugo’s an ass, ‘aint nobody got time for dat’. And your fears for Shoto are, well, probably warranted. Again, all will be revealed during the Sports Festival Arc, which is actually fast approaching. We have two more chapters in the Battle Trial arc, a gap chapter that doesn’t really belong to an arc, then we have the U.S.J. Incident, and then we’re at the Sports Festival. I can’t wait! As for sadistic Arachne, well Rachnera is a sadist, just the same in canon, albeit more in a dom/BDSM kind of way, rather than Himiko who is simply batshit crazy.

Siarles, thanks for the reviews. Trust me, I also find it strange to read fanfics where nothing changes despite there being major changes to canon. If I had simply done an insert character crossover, such as my Portal story, then I could understand it, but with a story like this where certain characters are almost a different race, new organisations exist both within and outside of Japan (and will be revealed in coming chapters), as well as an emphasis on happenings outside of Japan, it doesn’t make sense for everything to stay the same. I do plan for some changes to canon, as well as my explanations for events that happened in canon but were never elaborated on, but they aren’t likely to show up for a while. They’ll start out small for the most part, but as the saying goes, “A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe.” That said, I’ll also need to reread the War Arc; it’s been a long while, and I haven’t actually read past the Dark Vigilante Arc, so there’s that to do. I know what happens, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t actually “read” read it. As for your review for the chapter, I’m glad you enjoyed the heteromophisation of certain characters, Mirko isn’t the final one I have in mind. Hound Dog has already been made a heteromorph, a Kobald to be precise, and his parents will be making a cameo in the Sports Festival arc. You can probably guess who his mother is, but I wonder if anyone can figure out who the father is? Hint: he does appear in Monster Musume, and he has his own wiki page. Aside from Hound Dog, there is still one more U.A. teacher I have in mind to convert to a heteromorph, and I think you’ll find my reasoning to be pretty good. As for Tsuyu, my canon is that female heteromorphs are much more human-like than their male counterparts. For Tsuyu, she has her long tongue, sticking to walls, camouflage (though she unlocks that later), secreting mucus, her stomach trick, and hopping. Sure, her features are more frog-like than normal, i.e. her mouth and eyes, but that’s it. Her father on the other hand would be more leaning towards the frog side rather than human side, as is canon, so this all lined up nicely. As for webbed fingers and toes, my idea is that she had webbing connecting the first joints of her fingers and thumb, while her toes have webbing connecting the second joints. This helps explain her superb swimming ability, gives her some more frog features, while still allowing her to use pens or other ordinary items without much difficulty. As for Eijiro, Banjaku is going to be Kórinis' nickname for him, as Red Riot is too important to Eijiro for me to change. 

On the topic of names, not everyone will have the same names. Obviously our two main leads need hero names, both of which I already have something in mind, but at least three more characters will be having different names to canon, so look forward to that. These names are open to being changed, so if anyone has any idea of who they are and what their name could be, if I like it enough I might go with it, and you’ll get a shout out for the idea. 

Artorigus, thanks for the review. I’m glad you like all of the little moments I’ve made with the characters, it really does help flesh out some of the less prominent class members beyond ‘classmate of the protagonist.’ As for your thoughts on Lala, I’ll be transparent; she wasn’t really going to have a role in this story. However, after I had a Eureka moment, I decided she’ll be making a very prominent appearance in the future, as well as moving some things up in the timeline. Holy shit, as I’m writing this I’m realising the implications of what this’ll cause, and I can’t wait. For Kimihito’s past with the main cast of MM, you will get some details, but not from the main man himself, but someone else who knew him back in the day. As for his hopes and dreams, well, they’ll be hinted at later, as well as his job revealed. I feel it suits him quite well, as he is able to both do his job while also being a househusband, seeing how he has a hyperactive, flying four-year-old kid to look after.

Finally, FictionInfinity, thanks for reaching out. By all means, go ahead, I’m fine with people dubbing my work. My one condition is that links to both my Fanfiction and Ao3 pages be put in the video’s description, as well as my name in both the description and somewhere in the video. Beginning, end, I don’t really mind when/where, just so long as it’s clear to the viewers who wrote it. If that’s all good with you, go right ahead, I’ll probably check it out for my own enjoyment anyway. As for the title, I guess, “What if heteromorphs were in My Hero Academia” is pretty to the point. If you have a better idea, by all means, use it; it’s your video after all. 

As one final note, I have an announcement: WE HAVE FANART INCOMING, PEOPLE!! I REPEAT, FANART INCOMING!! Two incredible artists reached out to me, asking if I’d like to commission some art. Well, around $1,000 NZD later, we have four pieces of fanart on the way. I’ll keep details hush hush for now, but when everything is complete I’ll be displaying them on Ao3 in the chapter. As for Fanfic readers, don’t fret, the links to the artists’ social media pages will be added, though in a piecemeal manner because Fanfic gets all butt hurt whenever they have links in the chapters. I don’t make the rules, only find ways around them.

Alright, that’s all from me. For your sneak peak, next chapter is called, ‘ Laser and Acid VS Druid and Paladin ’. That’s right, ladies and gents, we’re at the final Battle Trial fight. Man, this took me a while to complete. Note for the future, I don’t think I’ll go over all of them if/when I do another MHA series. I’ll probably stick to ones with the main characters, which’ll probably be only 1-2 fights. This series was different in the sense that we have two new characters, and Shoto is different in this canon, so three separate fights that, in my mind, needed to be covered. Then I decided, ‘Eh, why not do all of them to have the full set?’

Anyway, that’s enough rambling. See y’all in a fortnight for the second-to-last chapter of the Battle Trial arc…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

“...Team E, Yuga Aoyama and Mina Ashido, are the heroes!” All Might declared to the class, revealing the final results. “The villains are going to be Team F, Koji Koda and Sarah Kurusu!”

Koji’s breath hitched, letting out a small eep. His nerves were already on edge simply from being around so many people, but being the defenders as well? It was almost too much for the animal-loving hero.

“Hey, it will be alright,” Kurusu whispered to him, walking by his side as they were led to their building. “I know you aren’t the biggest fan of people, but stay strong. I know you can do this.”

Rather than bolstering him, Koji’s partner’s words only fanned the flames of his shame.

‘She’s so brave and courageous, but she stuck with someone like me, too scared to even speak up. She should have been partnered up with someone else, rather than a scaredy-cat like me.’

“Okay, my young wards!” All Might grinned, standing in front of the final building. “Come get your gear! The sooner we finish this final battle, the sooner you all can head home early!”

“Aw yeah!” Ashido cheered, bouncing forwards. “I gotta say, All Might, you're a much cooler teacher than Mr. Aizawa. Oh, but please don’t tell him that.”

“Hahaha, don’t you worry, young Ashido, no word of the matter will leave my lips!” All Might promised. “And besides, we simply have different teaching styles. Who knows, some people might prefer his methods over mine.”

Each person stepped forth to grab their items, with Koji going last. The capture tape in his hands felt heavy, the thought of hurting someone weighing heavily on his mind.

“Okay, Team F, time for you to get to work!” All Might said, holding the door open for them. “Show me what you’re made of!”

“We will do our best, All Might,” Kurusu nodded confidently, a confidence Koji tried and failed to mimic, only being able to give their teacher a shaky nod in return.

The animal-loving student followed his Centaur classmate, who was leading them based off the map All Might had provided them with.

“It appears that the weapon is located on the fifth floor,” Kurusu explained, slowing her pace to walk alongside Koji. “This works to our advantage; unlike our classmates, we have the entirety of the building to fall back on, meaning that we can stall them as much as possible to draw out the time.”

Koji nodded his head in response. It sounded like a good plan, one he was happy to follow along with.

Up and up the building they walked, passing each floor. While Koji agreed with Kurusu that having the weapon being at the very top of the building was a good thing for defence, it was still a long walk upstairs. If not for Koji’s strong physique, it was likely that he’d be huffing and puffing after arriving on the fifth floor. 

“Here we are,” Kurusu declared, holding open the door for him, allowing Koji to see the fake bomb that had been set up in the centre of the room.

“So, one thing that I believe will give us an advantage over our opponents is our knowledge,” Kurusu explained, turning to face Koji. “Since we were in the same Entrance Exam site, as well as worked together during it, we already know what each of our quirks are.”

Koji nodded, looking around for something to write with, only to realise that the concrete floor and walls prevented him from writing in them. Frantically, he looked to Kurusu, miming for a piece of paper and pen.

“Sorry, Koda,” Kurusu said with a remorseful expression, “I don’t have any paper or pens on me.”

Koji hung his head in shame, only to lightly jolt when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

“I understand someone having an issue with speaking,” Kurusu began, speaking with a sympathetic tone. “One of my sisters is also very shy, and it takes everything within her to speak to someone she doesn’t know. However, I know you can do it.”

Koji looked up in surprise, taking in the small smile that Kurusu wore.

“Do you think you could manage whispering?” she asked, her equine ears flicking gently. “Because of my enhanced hearing, I would be able to hear even the smallest whisper from you. Do you think you could do that? For me?”

Koji paused for a moment, thoughts racing through his mind. Memories of his mother’s joyful expression when Koji had been accepted into U.A., of his dreams to follow in his father’s footsteps, being someone who fought for those who were laughed at. All of his life, Koji couldn’t think of a better way to honour his father’s memory, even if he didn’t have many memories of the man himself. The fact remained, his father was a hero in all but legality, and Koji wanted to be just like him.

“O-Okay,” Koji whispered, but from the way Kurusu’s expression lit up, she must have heard him.

“Very good,” she beamed. “Your quirk allows you to control animals, right? That is how you found our fellow students who were trapped in our testing site?”

Koji nodded, starting to understand what his teammate was planning.

“Then here is my plan,” the Centaur began. “We shall go to the roof, allowing you to call out to any birds that are nearby. We shall use them to keep an eye on our opponents; the map schematics show that there are few areas that aren’t able to be viewed through the windows. The animals will then share with you where the enemy is, information that you’ll be able to relay to me through our communicators.”

Koji gave his teammate a small smile. It was a plan that worked to both of their strong suits, allowing them to take advantage of their strengths.

“Will I need to fight?” Koji whispered, his body tense at the idea of conflict.

Kurusu hesitated, opening her mouth before closing it, mulling over her words in her head.

“If you do not wish to fight,” she began, “then I will not force you to do so. Each of us have our own specialities, strengths that we must capitalise on. If you believe you are best suited to guard the weapon, then that is what you’ll do.”

Koji nodded, following her as they walked to the roof access.

“Just remember,” Kurusu continued, looking over her shoulder, “should you choose to guard the weapon, I may not be able to stop them from reaching you. Our victory will rely on you. Understood?”

Even though the idea of fighting his classmates scared Koji to no end, he knew that it was a fear he’d have to conquer. If he wanted to be anything like his father, he’d have to have the courage to stand up for his friends, even if it meant fighting when they couldn’t.

Rounding his shoulders and standing tall and proud, Koji gave Kurusu a resolute nod, his determination firm.

“Excellent,” Kurusu smiled, continuing towards the roof. “Well then, we’d better send out the call to your animal friends if we want this plan to succeed. I’m certain our enemy is coming up with their own strategy.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“So what music do you like?”

“ Pardon ?” Aoyama asked, looking back at Mina with a confused expression.

“You know, music, symphony of the soul, stuff you dance to,” Mina explained, looking up at her French teammate from the perfect splits she was doing on the sidewalk.

“No, I understood you, I was simply taken aback by your question,” Aoyama said, looking skyward thoughtfully. “If I had to say anything, most likely classical? That was often the genre that Maman and Papa would play, so I grew up with it as a child.”

“Oh yeah, I can see that,” Mina nodded, getting up from her splits and moving into another stretching form. “Me? I'm much more of a hip-hop and pop type girly. Rap's also really good, though I don't understand all of what they're saying if it's in English. Oh, and I love rock, you know, that real good head-banging stuff, music that makes you want to belt out the lyrics even when you're real bad at singing.”

Taking a moment to pause her rambling as she stretched, Mina took a proper look at her teammate’s appearance. Aoyama wore a suit of armour, but unlike the practical appearance that one of their opponents, Kurusu, wore, his seemed much more flashy and ceremonial. The metal of the armour was a lavender coloured hue with a golden trim, and it consisted of a chest plate, two spherical shoulder pads, elbow-length vambraces, and knee-length boots. The flashiest parts of his costume however were his cape and glasses. His cape was a long, glittery reddish indigo piece of fabric, reaching all the way down to his ankles. His glasses on the other hand were wing-shaped with a red tint, the ends swooping up past the top of his head.

‘We really are different, aren’t we?’ Mina asked herself, glancing down at her own costume. While Aoyama’s armour seemed much more ceremonial than functional, armour was still armour. Mina on the other hand had designed her hero costume based on what she thought looked cool. The white mask she wore over her eyes: because it reminded her of a Racoon’s face, especially with her black sclera. Her skin-tight body suit: because she looked hot in it, a fact she wasn’t shy about. Even the purple and turquoise colours were simply because those were her favourites, and the camo pattern was because of her love for the style. Her tan-coloured waist coat with the fur lining: again, because she thought it looked cool, and it fashionably added depth to her outfit. The only practical part of her costume was the acid-proof nature of her clothing, a must have with an acid quirk, and her shoes. Her acid-proof boots were specially made by her support company to have holes on the sides of them, allowing her to secrete acid from her feet to slide around.

‘Well, at least I’m not the only one who chose something they’d be comfortable in,’ Mina decided, strengthening her spirits. ‘Eikiri is basically in pants, and Jiro’s looks like it’s basic streetwear. Yeah, no need to be all down in the dumps, Mina Ashido! After all, it’s the actions of the Pro’s that are more important than their costumes, right?’

“So, your quirk is a belly laser, right?” Mina asked, picking herself up off the ground.

“ Oui ,” Aoyama smirked before turning to the side. Placing his hands on the back of his head just like he did the day before, he thrust out his hips, sending a beam of dazzling light shooting out into the mock-city.

“My quirk is as dazzling as my personality, non ?” 

“Yeah, sure,” Mina hesitantly agreed. While she wasn’t sure what to make of her teammates pose while using his quirk, her time as a popular student in middle school had taught her how to steer the conversation.

“Well, while my quirk isn’t as, uh, flashy as yours,” Mina said, “I’d say it’s just as powerful, if not more.”

Concentrating on her quirk, Mina produced globules of acid in her palms. Giving the French student a grin, she flung her arms out, throwing the milky-white liquids at a nearby street light. Upon contact the acid began to eat through the metal, acrid smoke rising from the dissolving material. Dropplets fell onto the concrete as well, causing puffs of smoke to rise up from the now pockmarked sidewalk. After a few seconds, enough of the street light’s side had been eaten away for it to become unbalanced, causing it to tilt on its side, with gravity quickly taking hold, causing it to crash down across the street.

“And I’m able to control the acidity of it as well,” Mina elaborated, producing new acid that ate through a metal railing, but when it came into contact with the concrete floor left it unmarked.

Mina’s demonstration was rudely interrupted by a loud yelling noise, quickly followed by the flapping sounds of what must have been the fake city’s entire pigeon population gathering on the roof. Mina and Aoyama watched the cloud of birds with open mouths, though they quickly snapped them shut as a bird dropping fell far too close for comfort.

“Let’s get under the awning,” Mina suggested, already making a mad dash to get undercover near the building’s entrance. Aoyama found it an agreeable idea, quickly joining her as they watched the circling birds, safe from any aerial bombardment.

“ Well, that spectacular display was well timed, because it’s time for the fifth and final match of the day! ” All Might announced. “ Indoor Antipersonal Battle Training, Round Five, Start! ”

“It is finally our time to shine,” Aoyama declared, striding confidently into the building, his cape flowing behind him.

“Oh yeah!” Mina cheered, deciding that now was the perfect time to properly test out her new shoes. This time creating an acid that had a low acidity, a low viscosity, as well as a slippery texture. The acid shot out of the holes on the sides of her boots, coating the ground underneath her feet.

“Woohoo!” she cheered, sliding down the hallway past Aoyama, throwing her hands into the air with a leap at the successful costume design. However, in her excitement she released acid of a higher acidity. Droplets of these fell onto Aoyama’s cape, burning holes through them.

Smelling the acrid smell and hearing the faint sound of acid eating through fabric, his shocked expression caught sight of the damage to his cape, quickly turning to face Mina, his expression livid.

“Eh heh, sorry,” Mina apologised, clasping both of her hands together. “I didn’t mean to damage your cape, promise.”

“Hmph , ” Aoyama huffed, turning his face away. “Perhaps it is best if we split up. That way we can cover more ground.”

“Wait! Maybe that’s not such a-” Mina began, only to trail off as Aoyama stormed off, unheeding her words, “-good idea. Oh man, I really didn’t mean to damage his costume.”

“Okay, focus, Mina,” she said to herself as she walked through the corridors. “You just need to find the weapon and the ‘villains’. Then you can radio Aoyama for help. Simple.”

As she made her way through the first floor of the building, guided by the map in her hands, Mina heard a tapping sound to her side. Looking over, Mina saw a pigeon resting on the windowsill next to a flight of stairs, tapping the glass pane with its beak.

“Hello, Mr. Pigeon,” Mina said, walking over to the window. The bird simply cocked its head at her, giving her a look.

“Well, it was nice to see you, Birdy, but I have a bomb to disable,” Mina said, waving goodbye to the bird as she walked up the stairs. “Wish me luck!”

However, the pigeon didn’t seem to appreciate her words, as it flew away into the sky as she ascended the stairs.

“Maybe he’s telling all of his pigeon friends about how I’m going to win,” Mina thought, giggling at the silly idea. “Yeah, they’ll all see that Mina Ashido is going to win this, just like Eikiri did!”

“Hey, Aoyama, I've reached the second floor. Where are you?” Mina asked over the communicator.

“ I have also made it to the next floor, mademoiselle , and there has been no sign of the méchants , ” he replied back.

“Meshon?” Mina asked aloud in confusion. She could guess what he was referring to, but she had no idea what the word meant.

“Non non non,” Aoyama corrected, “ not meshon, méchants . It is French for ‘villain’. ”

“Oh, gotcha,” Mina whispered, poking her head around a corner as she crept through the building.

There was a moment of silence over the radio channel, a silence that Mina decided to capitalise on.

“I'm really sorry about your cape. I didn't mean to damage it, honest,” she sincerely apologised, leaning her back against a nearby wall. “I was just so excited, you know? All my life I've wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Everyone in my middle school thought the same thing, that I had all of the traits to be a hero; I have a powerful quirk, a cheerful, outgoing personality, I'm able to make friends with anyone, and I'm good looking. But it always felt like a fantasy, like a childhood dream. Heh, even after the Entrance Exam, it still didn't feel real. And sure, we had classes yesterday, but that seemed more like an initiation rather than actual hero training. So to be here, in this moment, to look back at all of the time and effort that led me to it? It was kind of overwhelming.”

The line was silent after she finished. Mina sighed to herself, beginning to push herself off the wall, only for Aoyama's voice to stop her.

“ My maman made my cape .”

Mina's breath stilled in her lungs, her teammate’s words rolling through her mind. 

“ While the rest of my costume was made by the support company, my cape was made by her, ” he explained. “ She wanted me to stand out in the crowd, to dazzle and wow everyone around me. To tell them all, ‘Look at me! Here I am!’ To show everyone that even someone like me, a boy with a defective quirk, can be a hero. ”

“Defective?” Mina said, only realising she had said her thoughts aloud when Aoyama responded.

“ My quirk. You remember what I said about it yesterday, non ? I can only fire my laser for a second, otherwise my tummy gets very sore. Even still, I want to be a hero, a dazzling light for all to look at. ”

Mina pushed herself off the wall, continuing her search of the building. And as she checked both rooms and hallways, she felt as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders.

“I’m sure you’re going to be a dazzling hero, Aoyama, I just know it,” she promised.

The line was quiet for a moment, before Aoyama’s voice carried over. “ Thank you for your confidence, Ashido, but I’m sure… ”

“Aoyama?” Mina asked with a worried tone, confused why he’d trail off mid sentence.

“Merde, the enemy has found me, ” he relayed. “ Come back me up, I’m at the southwestern corner of the second floor. ”

“Wait, what do you mean the enemy has found you?!” Mina yelled. “Who is it?”

“ Kurusu, I can hear her hoofbeats, ” Aoyama revealed, his voice ragged and his breathing heavy from exertion. “ I’ll try and stall her, but I don’t know if I can beat her alone. ”

“Don’t fight her, you idiot, run away!” Mina yelled, already dashing towards the southwestern edge of the building to join her teammate.

“Non , she’ll just run me down. Hurry! ”

“Aoyama!” Mina cried out, but he didn’t reply to her, only letting out a battle cry that was picked up by their communicators.

“ Viens me combattre, Centaure! I am not afraid! ”

“Aoyama? Aoyama?!”

But no answer came to her as she ran through the hallways, at least, not from Aoyama.

“ Yuga Aoyama has been captured! ” All Might declared, revealing what Mina had been dreading and hoping wasn’t true.

“Crap, that means it’s now two against one,” Mina muttered to herself. “Okay, stay calm, Mina, you just need to find the weapon. It’s most likely to be on the higher floors, so I'll try at the top and work my way down.”

Sticking to the edge of the building, it allowed Mina to stay within the light that streamed in from the windows, rather than making her way through the gloom that was the innermost corridors. As an added bonus, it allowed Mina to look out at the city skyline, filled with birds flying around.

As she rounded a corner, Mina caught sight of the staircase leading to the third floor right ahead of her. Glancing around and not seeing any of the ‘villains’ lurking nearby, Mina burst into a sprint, dashing towards the stairs. However, as she neared a hallway on her left, the sound of metal rasping against metal set her nerves on end. As she got closer, it was this adrenaline that pumped through her veins that allowed her to notice the trap before it was sprung. There on her left was Kurusu, dressed in plate armour that covered her torso, arms and equine legs, leaving her head exposed. She was in midswing, a rounded mace gripped in her right hand, heading directly at Mina’s abdomen. It was only years of dance training, maintaining her flexibility, as well as anticipating an ambush that allowed Mina to react in time, sucking in her gut and pulling her torso back. The metal head of the weapon brushed past her bodysuit, before slamming into the corner of the wall, sending shards of concrete flying.

“Hey, you could have killed me!” Mina complained, producing acid from her feet to slide back and out of her opponent’s reach.

“I promise you, any injury you would have sustained wouldn’t have been life threatening, nor crippling,” Kurusu responded in a cold manner, raising the tower shield she held in her left hand, causing it to cover the majority of her body. “The most you’d suffer would be able to be healed by Recovery Girl after the match.”

“That doesn’t make me feel confident!” Mina complained, her body lowering into a more combat-ready stance. “And it isn’t me you should be worried about, but yourself!”

“We shall see,” Kurusu replied as she charged forward, her mace lowered to the side, ready to attack.

Mina ducked to the side, causing the mace to swing past her, only for her movement to leave her open to Kurusu’s left, her shield slamming into Mina's shoulder, sending her tumbling.

“Aren’t shields meant to be used as a defensive tool?” Mina hissed, clutching her injured shoulder.

“Any competent fighter is able to use their shield as both a method of defence or offence,” Kurusu explained, raising it once more.

“Oh yeah?” Mina challenged with a grin. “Well, how can you use it as either option, if you don’t have a shield?”

She flung her hands forward, pitching globules of acid at Kurusu. Predictably, her shield blocked the incoming attacks, just as Mina planned.

“Sorry about your shield,” Mina apologized in a teasing tone. “I promise to make it up to you.”

“No need,” Kurusu challenged, her eyes meeting Mina’s over the lip of the shield. “After all, it’s only cosmetic damage.”

“What?!” Mina gasped, taking another look at the shield. While the smoke had shown that her acid had had an effect, as the wooden front of the shield dissolved it revealed the metal backing, untouched by Mina’s attack.

“What the hell?!” Mina shouted in shock. “My acid is meant to be able to melt metal.”

“Some metals, certainly, but tungsten?” Kurusu said, now being the one to have the teasing tone. “You’ll find that other than having a frustratingly high melting point, tungsten is also highly resistant to corrosion, which includes your acid.”

“Ah crap,” Mina muttered, sliding away from her opponent. “Okay, Plan B: Run away!”

Mina raced through the corridors of the building, trying to loop around and get to the staircase, all the while keeping out of reach of Kurusu, whose pounding hoofbeats sounded out behind her. While Kurusu was faster, Mina had the advantage of being able to take tight corners, a feat that her Centaur opponent wasn’t able to do without slowing down, allowing Mina to stay ahead.

“Ha ha!” Mina laughed behind her. “You’ll never catch me at this ra-gahk!”

Her teasing was cut off as an arm reached out from a nearby corridor, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her, causing her to lose her balance. But rather than fall to the ground, Mina was pulled towards the origin of the arm, revealing Koda, the large, quiet boy, who with surprisingly nimble movements looped capture tape around her torso.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his quiet voice barely audible to Mina.

“ Mina Ashido has been captured! ” All Might announced over the speakers. “ With that, the villains are the winners for the final match of the day! ”

“Aw man!” Mina sighed, her shoulders drooping. “And here I thought we could win!”

“It was a close match,” Kurusu reassured, striding forth with her mace now hooked onto her belt. “If it wasn’t for Koda reaching you in time, it is very likely that you would have stayed ahead of me. Because of my lower half, I’m not able to travel up stairs nearly as fast as you could. It was really a race to see if I could catch you before you reached the stairs.”

“Well, when you put it like that, I guess it doesn’t seem so bad,” Mina admitted, before turning to look at Koda. “Say, how did you find me?”

Koda looked to Kurusu, however when she gave an encouraging nod of her head, the rocky-headed student hesitantly opened his mouth.

“My animal friends told me,” he explained in a shy, quiet voice. “They told me where you were, so I could get into position and help Kurusu.”

“Your animal friends told you?” Mina asked before her eyes quickly narrowed in understanding. “Ah, that pigeon sold me out. What a traitor! I feel so betrayed!”

“Well, it’s understandable you wouldn’t have guessed that was why there were so many birds around the building,” Kurusu explained. “It’s only natural; after all, very few of us know each other’s quirks.”

“Yeah, well that simply means you won’t be able to surprise me with it next time!” Mina declared, giving both of her opponents a grin as they walked through the building to the exit. “Next time, I’ll be ready, and I’ll have come up with some tricks of my own!”

“I can’t wait to see them,” Kurusu smiled in return. “Against any other shield, that acid attack of yours would have worked wonders. Unfortunately, my family uses tungsten for that exact reason, along with many others that make it an excellent material for armour and weapons.”

“Then that just means I’ll have to make an acid that can stop you in your tracks,” Mina said, poking her tongue out cheekily. “After all, we’re meant to go Plus Ultra, right?”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Well, that was certainly a spectacular final battle!” All Might grinned, his gaze focused on the final four students. “And in a similarly spectacular fashion, we have two V.I.P.s!”

The class broke into murmuring, talking to each other on who they thought it would be.

“Now, the V.I.P.s for this round are young Kurusu and young Koda!” All Might continued, looking out at his students. “Anyone want to venture a guess as to why?”

Many hands shot up, with All Might calling on the first he saw? “Yes, young Ida?”

“Sarah was a V.I.P. due to the diligent nature that she displayed,” the speedster declared, giving a rare smile to his friend and rival. “Rather than waiting for the heroes to come to them, Sarah took the initiative to hunt down the heroes. While it wasn’t a heroic action, if you instead view it from the opposite angle that Sarah was taking the initiative in capturing the villains as they invaded a building, then her actions become exemplary.”

The class was stunned, not only by Ida’s words, but also his angle of reasoning.

“Y-Yes, those are valid points, young Ida,” All Might admitted, looking over the rest of the class. “Any other suggestions, perhaps as to why young Koda was a V.I.P. as well?”

“Was it because Koda used his quirk to quickly find where the heroes were?” Asui ribbited, tilting her head in wonder.

“Aha, an excellent point!” All Might beamed. “Exactly, young Asui, that was one of the reasons why young Koda was a V.I.P. for this round, but not the only one.”

“The reason that cemented Koda as a V.I.P.,” All Might continued, “was his determination to go beyond his limits in the match. Even though he was incredibly shy, he worked up the courage to not only speak with his teammate, but to also raise his voice and call upon the animals within the city. And rather than stay with the weapon, directing his teammate on the whereabouts of the heroes with his quirk, young Koda managed to work up the courage to assist his teammate, very possibly winning them the match.”

All Might turned to Koda, resting a hand on the boy’s shoulder, all the while a proud, smiling expression bloomed on the hero's face.

“You truly embodied the truest essence of a hero, young Koda,” All Might congratulated. “You should feel incredibly proud, my boy. You truly went Plus Ultra.”

Koda’s eyes welled with tears, overcome with emotion at the praise from Japan’s No. 1 Pro Hero. He tearfully nodded his head, quietly whispering, “Thank you, All Might.”

All Might gave his quiet student a nod before turning to the hero team. “Now, for the heroes. The first issue you two ran into was splitting up, not due to a plan, but because of animosity.”

Both Ashido and Aoyama lowered their heads in shame at that remark.

“However,” All Might continued, “while that might have been an issue at the beginning, you did apologise to each other afterwards, which is more than I can say about some hero team ups I’ve seen before, so well done!” 

“Thank you, All Might,” Ashido beamed, bowing to her teacher.

“ Oui , thank you, All Might,” Aoyama added, bowing as well.

“Aside from your rocky start, you both did admirably in your test!” All Might praised. “Young Aoyama, you knew that you couldn’t face off against young Kurusu alone, so you called for backup, a very wise move to do. Remember, class, calling for help is never a sign of weakness. Failing to recognise when you’re out of your depth is reckless, and can put not only your own life in danger, but also the lives of civilians counting on you to rescue them.”

“Now, as for you, young Ashido,” All Might said, turning to face the rosette, “once you knew that the villains were on the same floor as you, you remained vigilant to danger. It was this vigilance that saved you, allowing you to create some distance when young Kurusu tried to ambush you. Additionally, once you realised that your acid would be ineffective, you made the correct decision to try and escape. In truth, you likely would have made it to the stairs if young Koda hadn’t intercepted you. Understood?”

“Yes sir!”” Oui .”

“Excellent!” All Might nodded, glancing around the room. “Now, I feel I’ve had you cooped up in here for long enough. Alright, everyone, let’s head on out to Ground Beta’s entrance, where I’ll give my overall review for the class!”

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had a joyful day with friends and family; I know I sure did. And as a late Christmas present, here’s the latest chapter.

Righteo, that’s the end of the Battle Trials in the Battle Trial arc, though we have one more chapter to go before the arc is fully wrapped up in a bow.

Again, mixed thoughts for this chapter. On one hand, Koji is one of my favourite “side characters” within Class 1-A, though given there aren’t many who you can call a side character, the bar isn’t that high. Seeing how we got some details about his backstory (which is more than we can say about Rikido and Hanta), I decided to flesh some of it out. What we do know is that Koji’s dad was a righteous figure, getting angry at those who laughed at others. Add in the fact that Koji’s mother did face discrimination due to her heteromorph features, to me this makes it seem like Mr. Koda was a normal human (or at least as normal as you can get within MHA), and was kind of like Kimihito in Monster Musume canon. The way that Mrs. Koda talks about Koji’s father makes me think that he’s dead, most likely killed by a rampaging villain or by a quirkist individual with similar views to the Creature Rejection Clan (may they all burn in Hell). 

I also just realised how shallow Hanta and Rikido are as characters. We have no details about their past, no personal ambitions, just flat, filler characters. Hell, Hanta is literally described as a background character, and he’s in Class 1-A! As for Rikido, he was the last person within Class 1-A to have his quirk revealed. He has some depth due to his love for baking, but still, come on. Suffice to say, if I ever do another series in My Hero, you can bet good money on one of these guys being replaced, or both of them if the numbers require it.

I also liked writing Mina’s section, as she has a very bubbly personality, and her interactions with Yuga, who is very, let's say unique, was amusing. 

Other than that, not much else to say regarding the chapter. We got some nice character moments, what I hope are good fight scenes, and some character development. I’ll do the reviews first, and then you’ll get a nice surprise.

First, Sakumon16, once again thanks for the reviews. We all ship KamiJiro in this house, and trust me, Minoru is going to get his comeuppance. Just a reminder, by perving on the girls, he’s perving on Sarah and Kórinis. Yeah, I don’t think that Tenya and Shoto would take too kindly to their classmate perving on their close friend/relatives (and Katsuki would likely be pissed as well, though I’ve always seen him as a tsundere for some reason, so he’d just get angry if questioned about it). And I agree, if redeemed, Himiko is a very interesting character to study. I actually planned to do this in a story I started, though it has puttered out into a quiet death at the moment, that being Blood and Faith . It’s really interesting to see how the suppression of quirks within Japan causes some people to undergo a psychotic break. If done right, Himiko can be a perfect example of redemption. However, if she isn’t redeemed? Well, to be perfectly blunt, I don’t like canon Himiko, like at all. She claims to be this person who suffered, and sure, she isn’t wrong, but she literally joined the League of Villains and follows Stain’s ideology because she wants a world that’s easy for her to live in. Emphasis on easy for HER to live in. She just wants to be able to kill people and drain their blood whenever she so chooses. Does she have a tragic past? Absolutely yes. Her parents for me represent everything wrong in Japan in My Hero, a country that is very focused on suppressing people’s freedom of expression and the utilisation of their natural abilities, simply due to some bad eggs in the past (looking at you, All For One and Destro). However, her tragic past doesn’t give her a right to kill innocent people simply for her own perverted lust. As for which Himiko we’re getting? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see…

Siarles, thanks for the review. I really liked your theory on Denki, and I agree, he’s much more of a literacy-skilled student than STEM, maybe with the exception of electronics and some physics. His maths skills must be abysmal for him to be the bottom ranked student academically (This is a late addition, but I just found a wiki detail that he’s not only skilled in playing the electric guitar, but he’s also a skilled portraitist. He's definitely more skilled in literacy and art/music then STEM!).  As for your theory on his quirk, by all means, go further in depth, I loved reading it. I’ve seen very few series who go that route, but I’d love to see more. I can’t remember which one it was, but one of them had Denki channelling electricity into his body, boosting his speed to lighting levels. The only reason Ibara won was because he grazed her on the first hit, then overcharged himself, causing him to lose control on the second attack, causing a self-ringout. I think the issue with Denki shorting his brain is the expulsion process. When fighting the villains in the U.S.J., he was able to stun them by touching them, and there weren’t any issues. Every time we’ve seen him short circuit himself was after his indiscriminate shocks. Who knows, I might have Sarah teach him some basic moves with Escrima sticks, probably made out of copper, since they’re VERY conductive and quite strong as a metal. You also got it on the money, Hound Dog’s mother is going to be Polt. Now, with the matter of Polt’s age, I raise a counter; WE DON’T KNOW HER AGE, BABY!! I’ve always seen Polt as older than any of the main cast, even though she has a very energetic personality. Add in the fact that she is canonically a CEO, runs multiple businesses, and is wealthy as hell, it isn’t that far fetched. Hound Dog at the start of the series is thirty two years old, so I’d put Polt at around fifty years old, even though she wouldn’t look it given her fitness training. As for Hound Dog’s father, he’ll be making an appearance at the Sports Festival alongside Polt, so you’ll meet him then. And yeah, pretty obvious it was going to be Power Loader as a heteromorph. I did think about making Vlad King as a vampire, but a) that was way too on the nose, and b) vampires in Monster Musume are very specific. If I did it, Vlad wouldn’t really be able to be a teacher, due to vampires being allergic to UV rays. For the other teachers, there isn’t really a way to make them heteromorphs, so they’ll remain as is. My idea for this crossover is to merge the two worlds into one, making the changes seamless. That’s why some characters are heteromorphs, simply because it makes sense in this new reality. You’ll see further examples later on in the story.

Artorigus, wasn’t sure if you were going to make it before the next chapter! Great to see you again. Don’t worry, we all hate Mineta here. I can count on one hand the number of My Hero stories where Mineta has some positive development, and trust me, I can imagine what people write/draw about him, especially with his quirk. As for your suggestions about improvements to his suit, yes, Denki will be getting some upgrades. He already got some with his Shooters and Pointers, though that was just before the Licensing Exam, but we’ll move up some details this time. Won’t be too crazy, especially not the railgun he pulls off in the War Arc, but something suitable, then we might ramp things up from there. As for Momo, we’ll be seeing more of her past soon, don’t you worry. Also, DING DING DING, we have a winner! That’s right, Hound Dog’s parents are Polt and Poltfan, a cameo character within Monster Musume. Poltfan is an actual dude who the author of MM put in as a character, and canonically, Polt is married to him. It just made sense. As for your name suggestions, damn are they good. Unfortunately, I won’t be using them for Kórinis and Sarah, for one main reason; the names I already had in mind for them I feel suit them better. For Kórinis, Jorōgumo are an actual heteromorph species, a subspecies of Arachne, and they originate from Japan, rather than Greece, the homeland of the main species. Rather than the human-like upper half and spider lower half, they have a human body, but also have six eyes, exoskeletons on their arms, the ability to produce webs, a spider’s abdomen connected to their spine, and six spider legs attached to their upper back, which they can hide. Overall, much easier for a Jorōgumo to blend into the crowd than an Arachne. For Sarah, I love the idea of Acella, the Sagittarius Hero, however Sagittarius is known as the Archer, and while Sarah is skilled in almost all forms of combat, she specialises in melee shield combat. However, I love both of the names so much, so if it’s cool with you, I’ll probably keep them for O.C. characters in the future. I already know who could be Ascella, but I’ll need to find one for Jorōgumo, though I do have a few loose ideas. Hell, if you have any ideas for an O.C. with those names, just let me know, I’ll probably add them.

Okay, as promised, your surprise. As I mentioned last chapter, we have fanart now! Specifically, two awesome artists reached out to me, and I can now show you the fruits of one of their labours. So, without further ado, thank you very much, Lisa-Katagiri , for your amazing artwork, specifically of Sarah Kurusu in her hero costume.

I think we can all agree that she’s done a great job! She’s open for commissions, so go check her out, her fees are reasonable, especially for the quality, and the terms were negotiable for me, so she has my seal of approval and recommendation. Now, there are two more to show, one of Kórinis and the other being Shoto. They’ll be drip fed to you over the next few chapters, so stay tuned.

Anyway, that’s all from me. As stated last chapter, we have one more chapter for the Battle Trial arc, so for your sneak peek, next chapter is called, ‘ Heart to Heart ’. We have two conversations happening, with some lore drops as well as expansions on certain characters’ perspectives. Other than that, I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, one spent with friends and family, and that a New Year’s resolution is made that you can actually complete this time!

See y’all next year…(ha, I can actually say it now without it being a threat)

- Jevm

Chapter Text

“Well done, everyone!” Toshinori Yagi congratulated, speaking to the class in front of the Training Ground Beta exit. “We had only a few scrapes and bruises, but no serious injuries, apart from young Midoriya’s. You all had great teamwork, though! Considering this was your first training exercise, you all did splendidly!”

“After the trial by fire that was Mr. Aizawa, such a straight forward class is almost a letdown,” young Tokoyami admitted.

“We teachers are free to hold no-nonsense classes if we choose!” All Might explained, turning towards the exit. “Now, I’m off to give young Midoriya his evaluation. You still have some time before class has finished, so change out of those costumes of yours and head back to the classroom! You can all chat and relax while you wait for the period to end!”

Tensing his legs, Toshinori dashed forward with a burst of energy through the exit. As he ran to Chiyo Shuzenji’s office, who was known within the school as the school nurse, Recovery Girl, he looked over his shoulder, his gaze landing on young Bakugo.

‘Young Bakugo,’ Toshinori sighed within his mind. ‘All of that conceit bundled up in his heart, it’s said that the most inflated egos are often the most fragile. As his teacher, I’ll have to give him some counselling, see if we can’t get to the bottom of his issues. While I might have some idea from what young Midoriya has said, I can’t be certain that I haven’t received a biased view of it. I’ll need to get Hound Dog to make some room in his schedule for young Bakugo. But that’s later, now I need to check up on young Midoriya.’

Spying a door that read, ‘Teachers Only’, Toshinori slipped inside, letting out a deep sigh as his muscle form disappeared into a puff of steam, his muscular form deflating into what he affectionately called, ‘Small Might’. The costume that was a form fitting spandex only seconds earlier was now eight sizes too small, 

“I only barely have enough time to get through a single class,” he muttered, coughing into a hand, revealing slight amounts of blood. “Damn this injury for making me so pathetic.”

Pushing himself off the wall he was leaning against, Toshinori made his way through the hidden corridors within U.A. that the teachers and staff used to travel through the campus without being seen by their students. Toshinori always preferred this option. His fellow staff members all knew about his condition, even if they were still in the dark about how he got his injury or the nature of his quirk. Well, former quirk now.

That was also something that Toshinori was still getting used to. Aside from the surrealness of being a teacher and all of the responsibilities that came with it, he could keenly feel his power waning with each day. When he still had One For All, it was like there was a small hole in a water tank. With the sheer volume of water within the container, Toshinori hadn’t ever needed to worry about it too much, such was the amount of his power. But now that he had passed on One For All to young Midoriya, having chosen him as his protege, it was like the tap had been opened. There was still plenty of water in the tank, but it was pouring out, and the water level was dropping, slowly but surely.

‘Oh well,’ Toshinori thought, nodding and waving to some of the awestruck staff members who passed him by. ‘I’ve already made up my mind, young Midoriya is the right choice as the ninth holder of One For All. I’ve spent long enough in the spotlight as it is. All I need to do is keep it together long enough for the boy to take my place, to tell the world, “I am here!”’

Arriving outside a door that was marked, ‘Nurse’s Office’, Toshinori stilled, before taking in a deep breath.

“Well, time to face the music, Toshinori,” he muttered to himself, reaching out and opening the sliding door.

“The year’s only just started, and this is his third time here!” came the loud, irritated voice of an elderly woman. “Why didn’t you prevent this, All Might?!”

“My apologies, Recovery Girl-” Toshinori began, only for the voice to interrupt.

“It’s not me you need to apologise to!” she yelled, the office chair she sat on spinning around, revealing a short, elderly woman with gray hair styled into a netted bun, with a large syringe poking diagonally out of it to the left. Her face had a small button nose and deep wrinkles along her mouth. She wore a doctor’s lab coat over a dress with a yellow and red vest-like design, as well as a belt with a pink ‘R’-shaped buckle. Both her boots and helmet were a pastel pink, with the helmet wrapping around the sides of her head, with a purple-tinted visor joining it over her eyes. Leaning against her desk was what looked like an oversized syringe, but Toshinori knew it was simply her cane.

She glared at him from her desk, her brow creased into a deep frown. “Yesterday and today, he’s come to me completely fatigued! This isn’t so easily healed!”

She took a deep breath, rubbing her forehead in exasperation. “I’ve given him emergency first aid and an I.V. drip, but now all we can do is wait for him to recover on his own. I know you gave him your power, but whether he’s your favourite or not, you have to stop indulging him!”

“No, you’re absolutely right,” Toshinori admitted, rubbing the back of his neck in shame. “I was sympathising with him too much, so I hesitated. I understand all too well the desire to prove yourself, even at the cost of your own health. That’s why I hesitated to end the match.”

“But, um,” Toshinori murmured, glancing to the door, before looking at Recovery Girl with a finger over his mouth, “can you keep it down? At least when discussing One For All?”

“Oh right,” Recovery Girl huffed, spinning her chair to once more face the monitor on her desk, getting back to her work. “Sure thing, Mr. Natural Born Hero, Mr. Symbol of Peace.”

“This true form of mine and my injury are common knowledge to the staff here at U.A.,” Toshinori argued, choosing to ignore her sarcasm. “However, only you, the Principle, young Midoriya, and three others know about my quirk. It’s a secret to all others, it has to be.”

“I don’t suppose that’s just you resting on your laurels, then?” Recovery Girl asked, her gaze still focused on her computer as she tapped away at the keyboard. “It’s that important, huh? That you be a ‘natural born hero’ and the ‘Symbol of Peace’?”

“Without me, this superhuman society would fall to evil,” Toshinori said, his voice full of foreboding promise, the voice of a man who felt the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Recovery Girl opened her mouth and took a breath, but held it, as if pondering what to say.

“You know that you don’t have to carry all of the weight, All Might,” she said, turning her chair to look Toshinori in the eyes. “There are others who can pick up the slack.”

“You don’t understand, Recovery Girl, I’m the only one who can,” Toshinori sighed, taking a seat in a chair that sat along the wall opposite to Recovery Girl’s desk. “Without me there, villains are going to become bolder, more dangerous. They often say that it’s lonely at the top; people don’t realise just how right they are.”

“Endeavor could take your place,” Recovery Girl offered. “If we go purely off numbers of incidents resolved rather than popularity, he ranks above you. In fact, you rank somewhere in the bottom ten off numbers alone.”

“I agree,” Toshinori said, “but what the people need is a symbol, not a leader. They need someone to look up to. Endeavor can’t be that person, he won’t be that person. He leads from the front, but expects everyone to be at the front with him. The people can’t live up to his demands, and he knows it, not with the way Japan’s laws are now.”

“Don’t I know it,” Recovery Girl scoffed. “Kids these days won’t remember, but it was only eleven years ago that those with heteromorphic quirks gained the right to defend themselves. Before that, any use of their quirks, even though it couldn’t be turned off, could have them face court action for Quirk Misuse.”

“Exactly,” Toshinori nodded. “That’s why people need someone to look up to, someone who’s a symbol. I’m the only one who can do that.”

“Sure, let’s say there isn’t anyone else who can be the Symbol of Peace that you are,” Recovery Girl proposed, “but there are those who are able to pick up the slack. Endeavor isn’t a symbol, not yet at least, but he’s still a very competent fighter.”

“I’d say the same about all of the top ten,” Toshinori argued, only for Recovery Girl to silence him with a glare.

“Oh please,” she remarked, “those Hero Billboard charts are a sham. They rate heroes on popularity more than anything. It’s why Wash is able to maintain his position in the top twenty thanks to his laundry commercials. Best Jeanist has good intentions, but he gets hung up over the slightest details. Need I remind you of the time he and Street Sweeper teamed up?”

Toshinori groaned into his hand at the P.R. nightmare that was the team up between the Fibre Hero and the Urban Combat Hero.

“Don’t remind me,” Toshinori grumbled. “The two of them were barely able to beat the villain with all of the arguing they and their sidekicks were having over any and all topics. I mean really, who argues about your ally’s hairstyle in the middle of a battle?”

“Best Jeanist, apparently,” Recovery Girl chuckled, though it was a short lived moment. “Hawkes is way too wet behind the ears, and arrogant to a fault, Mirko is a hero because she’s an adrenaline junkie who loves getting into fights, and Edgeshot is a stealth specialist.”

“Which just leaves Crust, who specialises in team ups, Yoroi Musha, who probably only has a few years of active duty, Ryukyu, as well as Gang Orca and his sidekicks,” Toshinori summarised. “Too many heroes are relying on the heavy hitters to take on the real threats; actual villains, rather than petty criminals with quirks. There just aren’t enough Pros who are able to handle the kind of dangers that society needs them to face.”

Recovery Girl hesitated, tapping a finger against her knee, a contemplative expression on her face.

“There are those who have retired,” she suggested. “I know for a fact that there are some of us old-timers who would be willing to don our capes once more.”

“Gran Torino might be willing,” Toshinori began, his chin resting in his hand as he thought. “Crimson Riot could possibly be called back into action, as could SP//dr. Last I heard, her suit is still located in her garage.”

“I wasn’t talking about Pros, All Might,” Recovery Girl said. “We both know two people who could easily be called back into service within Japan.”

“What do you…” Toshinori began, only to trail off as he realised who Recovery Girl was referring to, his eyes widening in horror. “No, you couldn’t mean-”

“I do,” Recovery Girl nodded. “I know you don’t like to admit it, but Salamander and Undine would be glad to come back to the public. It’s not as if it'd be hard to contact them; after all, they have relatives in your class. Why, people would be ecstatic to see them in action.”

“No, absolutely not!” Toshinori declared, his voice raising. He knew he should calm himself, control his emotions, but this topic was one that he and Recovery Girl were never able to see eye to eye on. “I refuse to let those murders and killers, or any of the other Sentinels, corrupt this society.”

“Oh grow up,” Recovery Girl said in a scolding tone. “They’re effective heroes, that’s why they were chosen by the World Heroes Association.”

“Salamander has killed thousands of people, while Undine was responsible for the Great Flooding of Macau!”

“Salamander has a confirmed count of hundreds, not thousands, and they were villains, not civilians,” Recovery Girl argued. “As for Macau, the entire region was infested with Triads. Not a single business operated on that island without some interference from them. The crimes against humanity that were uncovered there more than warranted Undine’s wrath.”

“What about their sisters-in-arms, Sylph and Gnome?” Toshinori challenged. “Sylph is responsible for multiple wind storms that have ravaged both coastal and landlocked areas, while Gnome designed, created, and fielded an army of killer robots!”

“Sylph only ever did that in areas that had been evacuated, and only for strategically drawing out or forcing out villains,” Recovery Girl countered. “As for Gnome, Poland was facing off against a LITERAL zombie infestation! It was her machines that culled the undead, allowing for the strike team to neutralise the one controlling the hive mind. Without her machines, those people would have remained slaves, rather than what they are now, a new heteromorph race. And immediately after, Gnome deactivated and dismantled each and every one of her machines. No blueprints were ever put to paper, only ever being within her mind. And you forget, All Might, that it was those killer robots that were the basis for the robots we have here at U.A. It’s to be expected, after all, young Maijima was Gnome’s one and only apprentice before she secluded herself. And I’d say Gnome has more than made up for the weapons she’s created after creating I-Island and the yearly inventions she debuts there.”

“They have blood on their hands!” Toshinori yelled.

“SO DO I!”

Toshinori’s anger fizzled out at the pain in Recovery Girl’s voice. The old woman sagged into her chair, clutching the armrests.

“People love to hold heroes up as faultless individuals, but the truth is, we’re just like them,” Recovery Girl muttered, her voice only just above a whisper. “We get scared, jealous, doubtful, angry. Sometimes, so angry we do things that we regret.”

“No one blames you for what you did, Recovery Girl,” Toshinori comforted, resting a hand on top of hers.

“They should,” Recovery Girl admitted. “Revenge doesn’t take away the pain; it only changes it, makes it harder to deal with.”

“You aren’t alone in that,” Toshinori said. “I know what it’s like to take a life.”

“You did it to protect people,” Recovery Girl said, shaking her head. “You were fighting him, and sometimes the rush of battle makes you do things you normally wouldn’t. You didn’t track them down to their house, shoot them, heal them, drain them of energy, and then repeat the cycle until their hearts gave out. You did it because All For One took many lives; I did it because those men took only one.”

She glanced at a photo on her desk, one that Toshinori had seen many times. In it stood five figures; the first was a much younger Recovery Girl, her hair turquoise rather than gray, styled in her signature bun, and standing much taller with a similar outfit to the present, bar the doctor’s coat. 

Standing to her left was a muscular, black-haired woman, with fair skin and a mole below her lower lip. Her hair was dark and straight, kept shoulder-length, with the exception of a clump of short bangs hanging above her forehead, and was styled in a half-up-half-down bun. She wore a hero costume, consisting of a dark, sleeveless bodysuit with a high collar, yellow gauntlets, and white knee-high boots. Covering her back was a long, flowing white cape, fastned to the shoulders of her costume and reaching down to the woman’s knees.

In front of her, Toshinori saw a younger version of himself. The light amount of muscles, the mop of blond hair, and the drooping bangs that framed his face reminded Toshinori of what he looked like in his teen years. But the proud, happy smile that he had and the hand that was resting on his shoulder only made Toshinori wish for those early days even more.

Standing to the right of the young Recovery Girl was a tall man, around 2 m (6’7”) tall, with short gray hair. His hero costume consisted of a full-body monochrome white suit along with a yellow cape, a belt with the letter "G" on it, very thick yellow gloves and boots, and a black domino mask. He wore a small smile and had an arm around the young Recovery Girl, who was leaning into his side.

Standing in between Recovery Girl and the tall man was a young child, not even a teenager. She wore a simple white shirt with the word ‘Super’ on it, denim shorts, and black sneakers. Her hair was a boyish cut and was a pale green, and though she had a band-aid over her nose, knees and elbows, her dazzling smile showed her joy.

“People these days don’t know what it was like before you came along, All Might,” Recovery Girl said, picking up the photo frame and gazing at it. “Kids these days view heroes fighting villains with excitement, like it's part of their Saturday morning programs. The villain causes trouble, the heroes arrive, they fight, and the heroes usually win. Even if the hero loses, the villain will often just use it as an opportunity to get away. No one gets seriously hurt in those fights.

“But I remember what it was like, All Might. I remember the Age of Chaos, when might made right, and the strong ruled over the weak. Very few remember what it was like. Not even you truly know what it was like. You were born into it, yes, but you didn’t grow up through it, mature during it. But I remember. I remember the fear I felt as a child when I heard that my favourite heroes had gotten into a fight with a villain. Things were different back then, after all. Villains were much more brutal, and heroes responded in kind. Prisons like Tartaros didn’t exist; if a villain couldn’t be contained in a normal prison, they were often killed. We knew it, the heroes knew it, and the villains knew it. That was why they fought so hard, why they killed then they did; they were simply prioritising their life and greed over everyone else. In turn, this made heroes more violent, and it only created a cycle.

“It was people like Salamander, Undine, Sylph, Gnome, and many other Sentinels that helped minimise the damage. They were the ones keeping villains within their home country, and to do that, they had to be even more terrifying than the villains. They’re the reason All For One was content to stay as the Demon Lord of Japan, rather than try and be the Demon Lord of the World. Even now, the Sentinels patrol the borders, even if there are much fewer of them than there were in the past. Heroes like Punisher from the United States, Guillotine from France, even Lady Nagant from here in Japan; they’re the ones keeping the villains within their borders.”

“Except each of them are trained killers,” Toshinori protested, even though the fire in his voice was much more subdued. “It was Lady Nagant who killed the former President of the Hero Public Safety Commission.”

“Do you seriously blame the girl for that?” Recovery Girl asked, glancing up at Toshinori. He was silent, unable to deny her words. “I can’t. Not after what that bastard did to her. They killed Kaina Tsutsumi, killed everything that was special and unique about the girl. They stripped her of everything they could, until she was nothing more than a walking, talking rifle. And yet they wanted her to maintain the facade of a hero, of a human. It’s no wonder she snapped. If Sylph hadn’t intervened when she did, that poor girl would be rotting away in Tartaros by now.”

“She only intervened to recruit her as a Sentinel and to make Lady Nagant indebted to her, to revere her as an angel,” Toshinori protested.

“Oh I agree,” Recover Girl said, “but not even you can deny the importance that the Sentinels play on the world stage.”

Toshinori sighed, slumping into his chair. “Even still, I don’t want people like the Four Cardinals, or any other Sentinel team, to take centre stage within Japan. They’d destroy it.”

“They’d change it,” Recovery Girl corrected. “Society would still remain, but it would change, there’s no mistaking that. Who knows, the change might be for the better. More lax quirk laws, most likely, and more emphasis on civilians defending themselves with their quirks.”

“Even so, I can’t accept it,” Toshinori said with finality.

“Even though the Four Cardinals saved your life?”

“Even then.”

A groaning noise caused the conversation to end, alerting Recovery Girl and Toshinori to young Midoriya’s awakening.

“Uh, where am I?” the young man groaned, the rustling of sheets behind the curtained off area making it clear that he was moving.

“Stay right where you are, young man,” Recovery Girl ordered, walking over to the bed. “Honestly, what is it with you muscleheads and always breaking things?”

Toshinori settled into his chair, listening to Recovery Girl treating young Midoriya while simultaneously scolding him with a fond smile. Memories flowed through his mind of being in the same situation, with Recovery Girl, albeit much younger, scolding him after pushing his body too far during training with Gran Torino. After healing him, she’d turn her wrath onto her husband, which often devolved into the two of them bickering like the married couple they were.

“All Might?”

Toshinori was yanked out of his memories by the voice of his protege. Opening his eyes, Toshinori saw young Midoriya’s freckled face looking at him with both excitement and nervousness.

“Um, I was wondering how I did in the Battle Trial,” his student asked. “Oh, and can I view the recording of the Battle Trial as well? Wait, are there even recordings? I mean, if not, then could I get a rundown-”

“Calm down, young Midoriya,” Toshinori interrupted, putting a stop to the boy’s rambling. “Yes, there are recordings of the Battle Trials, and yes, you can view them. That’s why they’re recorded, after all, for students to learn from them.”

“Okay,” the vertet nodded. “So, um, how did I do?”

“Well, young Ida was the V.I.P. for the match,” Toshinori admitted. “Even though your team won, it was Ida who made the least amount of mistakes.”

“Not Uraraka?” young Midoriya asked.

“Uraraka didn’t take it seriously enough,” Toshinori explained, “while you and young Bakugo allowed your personal feelings to get in the way.”

“Oh,” the boy muttered, hanging his head.

“There is also the matter of your final punch,” Toshinori added, causing young Midoriya to look up. “What you did was very risky, young man. Not only did you severely injure yourself, but it could have also harmed your teammate had she been in the way.”

“R-Right,” young Midoriya stammered. “I’m sorry, All Might.”

“That being said,” Toshinori added, giving his protege an honest grin, “I’m very proud of the effort you put into the fight, especially since it was your first time using your quirk in a combat situation against another person. You knew not to use it against him, and even though you used it in a reckless manner, you used it in a way that was smart.”

“Don’t go giving him any bad ideas, All Might!” Recovery Girl scolded, tapping Toshinori’s knee with her cane. “I don’t want to see this boy in my office so regularly.”

The old lady then turned to the young man, leveling him with a glare. “This had better not become a daily occurrence, or there will be consequences. Am I understood?”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” Young Midoriya stammered, bringing his arm up into a salute, only to wince at the pain.

“And no sudden movements with that arm, you hear?” Recovery Girl instructed. “Come in tomorrow morning before school and I’ll give you another dose of my quirk. Then come in straight after your Hero Basic Training course with Aizawa. That should be enough to finish the healing process.”

“Yes ma’am, tomorrow morning and evening, understood!” the boy repeated.

“Very good, now off you go to class,” Recovery Girl ordered, herding the young man out of her office with her cane. “Go on now, get going!”

Toshinori’s protege practically scampered out of the nurse’s office, closing the door behind him as he did.

“I should probably go as well,” Toshinori said, getting up from his chair with a groan. He moved to the door only to pause at it, turning his face to speak over his shoulder.

“Torino doesn’t blame you for her death, Shuzenji, nor for what you did.”

“I know,” Recovery Girl sighed, looking back at the framed photo. “It was just too hard to be together. Too many painful memories, too many ‘what ifs’. What if she hadn’t died? What if we had gotten to her in time? What if we never found out who it was? We both felt it was best for us to go our own separate ways, especially after Nana died.”

Toshinori hummed his agreement, reaching for the door handle.

“She loved you, you know,” Recovery Girl said, causing Toshinori’s hand to stop. “She always talked about you to Sorahiko and I. She viewed you as a son, especially since she had to give her own up due to the danger he was in.”

Toshinori hesitated for a moment, only speaking as he walked out of her office. “Then I’m glad the feeling was mutual.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

As Izuku ran through the glass corridors of U.A.’s main building, one thought was circling through his mind.

‘Mr. Aizawa’s really gonna let me have it,’ he groaned, already dreading the confirmation with his homeroom teacher over his performance. He was also anxious about how his classmates would feel after the match. Would Uraraka, Ida, and Kurusu not want to be his friends anymore after his performance?

Such thoughts were banished as he slid open Class 1-A’s, quickly being sighted by a cheerful Kirishima.

“Oh, Midoriya’s here!” the red-haired student announced, grinning at Izuku. “Welcome back, man!”

Within only a few moments, Izuku was quickly surrounded by his classmates, but rather than being afraid or disappointed of his power like he feared, they were all excited.

“I don’t know what you were saying back there, but that was a wild battle!” Kirishima beamed.

“And you have some incredible dodging skills!” the pink-skinned Ashido complimented, her fist pumping up and down in front of her in excitement. “With a few dance lessons from me, I bet you’d be as slippery as an oiled up eel!”

“We were all super pumped after that crazy first round!” A floating girl’s uniform, Hagakure, cheered, the sleeves of her blazer flung up in the air. “After seeing it, we all felt we had to give our best too!”

“I’m Eijiro Kirishima!” the red-hair introduced, sticking out his hand to Izuku. “We were all just discussing the battle training!”

“I’m Mina Ashido,” Ashido greeted. “Nice to meet ya!”

“I’m Tsuyu Asui,” the frog-like girl said, leaning out from behind Ashido. “Just call me Tsuyu.”

“And I’m Toru Hagakure,” the invisible girl said, before pointing behind her to their blond, tailed classmate. “And over there is Mashirao Ojiro!”

“Hi,” he waved, one that Izuku returned.

“Oh, Deku, your arm!” Uraraka’s voice cut through the chatter, the brunette quickly moving over to him, her expression filled with worry. “Was Recovery Girl unable to heal it?”

“No, she did, but I’m pretty worn out, so she told me to come back tomorrow and heal it the rest of the way,” Izuku explained, looking around the classroom. Various groups had formed, such as Kaminari and Mineta sitting together, whispering about some topic, or Sarah Kurusu trying to calm down Ida, who was in turn trying to get Tokoyami to stop sitting on the tables. Others had gone off on their own, like Todoroki, staring out the window, or Yaoyorozu, smiling at the antics of Ida, or even Kyoka, who sat at her desk, listening to something on her phone with her earphone jacks plugged in. But despite how hard he looked, Izuku always came up two students short.

“Um, Uraraka,” Izuku began, turning back to face his friend, “where are Kacchan and Kurusu?”

“You mean Kórinis, right?” she asked, with Izuku answering with a nod. “After we all got changed out of our costumes and made it back to class, Bakugo was already gone, Kirishima saw him leave. After hearing that, Kórinis went off after him. She left just before you got back, Deku.”

“Okay, maybe I have time then,” Izuku muttered to himself, turning around and running off down the hall. “Thanks, Uraraka, I owe you!”

Racing down the corridors and stairwells as fast as his battered and bruised body would allow, Izuku made it to the courtyard in front of the first years’ building, only to instinctually hide around a pillar when a voice carried out through the late afternoon air.

“Bakugo!”

Izuku peered around the pillar, spying Kacchan, his bag slung over one shoulder, paused midstep. Standing behind him was Kurusu, who didn’t appear to be carrying any bags, and her hands were clenched at her sides.

“What the hell happened today?!” she asked, causing Kacchan to turn around, looking at her with an unreadable expression. Izuku tensed, fearing that his childhood friend would see him, but no reaction could be seen from the ash-blond.

“Why were you targeting Midoriya?!” Kurusu continued, her voice raw with emotion. “Why did you have it out for him so much?!”

“Tired of the nicknames, Silks?” Kacchan asked, his voice expressionless.

“This isn’t a joking matter!” Kurusu argued. “The way you acted during the Entrance Exam and how you’ve been acting yesterday and today have been like complete opposites, like night and day. What’s going on?”

“It’s none of your business,” Kacchan scoffed, turning around to walk away, only to be stopped as Kurusu gripped his shoulder with one hand, spinning him back around to face her.

“Like hell it isn’t!” she yelled. “You’re acting strange, Bakugo, and I want to know what’s wrong with my friend.”

“What the hell gave you the impression we’re friends?” he snarled, causing Kurusu to flinch in response.

“I…” she trailed off, her hands falling to her sides, her shoulders slumping. “Growing up, I didn’t have many people I could call a genuine friend. For whatever reason, be it fear, jealousy, disgust, or anything else under the sun, people acted differently when they were around me. When they were around their other friends they acted one way, but whenever I entered the picture, they’d behave in a completely different manner. I couldn’t even avoid it with my fellow heteromorphs.”

“Seriously?” Kacchan wondered, raising an eyebrow. “Ain’t heteromorphs meant to stick together?”

“Yeah, you’d think that,” Kurusu chuckled, even though it was devoid of any and all joy. “There’s this social theory that goes around, given how most heteromorphs have animal features. The theory goes that there are prey heteromorphs and predator heteromorphs, and that prey heteromorphs will feel threatened or more uneased around predators.”

“Sounds like a bunch of crap to me,” Kacchan scoffed. “Sure, quirks can influence your emotions, but to make you afraid of someone simply because of their features? Yeah right.”

“Except it’s real,” Kurusu argued, causing Kacchan’s eyes to widen. “Maybe the theory of prey and predator quirks isn’t real, but people do treat me differently because of how I look. The whispers behind my back, parents pulling their children closer on the subway, people crossing the street when they see me coming their way; so many people see the sharp teeth, the exoskeleton, the spider body, and the first thought they have is ‘Monster’.”

Izuku clamped a hand over his mouth, stifling the gasp that left his lips at the sound of the slur. Kacchan’s reaction was less restrained.

“Hold on a goddamn second,” he growled, sparks bursting from his hands, a clear sign of his agitation. “Have people called you that?”

Kurusu was silent, looking away from his searching gaze.

“Kurusu,” Kacchan demanded, using her family name for the first time, “has some called you that word?”

Kurusu was silent for a moment, before quietly replying. “Once or twice-”

“Sons of-”

“-this year.”

Kacchan was silent, his eyes widening even further.

“What?” he murmured, Izuku barely hearing him.

“It’s not that bad,” Kurusu argued, giving a shrug of her shoulders. “I’ve gotten used to it over the years.”

“Gotten used…Kurusu, it’s fucking April, the year’s barely started!” he yelled. “We’re only four months into the damn year, and people have already called you, that word, twice?!”

Kurusu shrugged her shoulders once more. “It was kind of why I wanted to be your friend. I watched you during the Entrance Exam, from afar, you know? I saw how you interacted around other people; the brashness, the loud personality. Over the years, I’ve grown used to people changing their tune around me, almost as if that’s what’s normal. Heh, how sad is that? I anticipate people acting differently.”

“Anyway,” she continued with a huff, “I decided to see how you’d change, so I went and found you, standing on a pile of scrap. Except, you didn’t react differently. Your eyes didn’t flicker to my lower half, you didn’t have some brief flash of disgust on your face that you didn’t think I’d see, like so many people have. Instead, you stayed the same. You were abrasive, sure, but, well, Mum always says, ‘I prefer harsh truths to sweet lies.’ I thought you were someone, outside of my family, that I could be friends with.”

“What about Glasses?” Kacchan asked. “You both seemed pretty comfortable around each other.”

“Tenya’s family,” Kurusu explained. “His older brother was the sidekick to Sarah’s mum for a few years, and Tenya is Sarah’s godbrother, the godson of her mum.”

“And Invisible Girl?” Kacchan suggested. “I overheard your conversation; she seemed keen to be your friend.”

“I’m pretty sure she’s just excited that someone can see her,” Kurusu sighed. “I can’t blame her, honestly. To go your whole life, feeling as if no one actually sees you, literally? I can’t imagine what that’s done to her self-esteem.”

The courtyard was silent, neither person speaking for a moment.

“It’s complicated,” Kacchan abruptly said, causing Kurusu to tilt her head.

“In regards to you and Midoryia?” she asked, causing Kacchan to respond with a nod.

“Complicated how?”

“It just is,” was his reply.

“Damn it, Bakugo, complicated is when you have a crush on your friend, or a crush on their sibling. Complicated doesn’t mean running at him when he uses his quirk, or trying to kill him with an explosion!”

“I wasn’t going to kill him,” Kacchan argued. “Even if he hadn’t dodged, which he did, the blast wouldn’t have killed him; I hadn’t built up enough sweat for that.”

“Oh, so you admit that you were trying to attack him after his ball throw?!”

“Like I said, it’s complicated!”

“Bullshit!” Kurusu swore. “When he used his quirk, you freaked out, like the world had flipped on its head. Why do you have it out for Midoriya? Why are you so antagonistic towards him? Why is his quirk such an issue to you?”

“BECAUSE HE DOESN’T FUCKING DESERVE IT!”

Nothing moved within the courtyard; even the wind was stilled, as if so stunned that it wouldn’t move even the smallest leaf.

Kurusu had taken a step back, physically recoiling out of shock at Kacchan’s outburst.

“What?” she whispered, surprise and shock filling her tone.

Kacchan huffed, looking to the side as he spoke. “Deku and I grew up together. Our mums were close friends in high school, so it made sense that we’d grow up knowing each other. Apparently, Deku and Aunt Inko spent a lot of time at our place as well, since Deku’s piece of shit dad ran out on them soon after he was born. Since we grew up together, we quickly became close friends, always exploring forests and parks, pretending to fight villains, and being the next All Might. But once I discovered my quirk, things changed. Call it people around me praising me for every little thing I did, or pushing their anti-quirkless ideals on me from a young age, or simply younger me being a little shithead. Regardless, once I discovered my quirk, I let power get to my head. I started picking fights whenever I could. First it was against those who looked down on me. Then it was those I THOUGHT were looking down on me. Then, it was simply because I could, because I was strong, and they were weak. Unfortunately, it was right around that time that Deku found out he was quirkless.”

“But, that’s not possible,” Kurusu challenged with a confused voice. “If Midoriya’s quirkless, how does he have superstrength?”

“I’m getting to that,” Kacchan stalled. “After I found out that Deku was quirkless, our friendship started to crack. I started choosing my other friends over him, playing a bit too rough with him, even calling him names. I was the one to call him Deku, after all. But the real breaking point was when we were six. The four of us, me, Deku, and two friends, were exploring the nearby forest. We were marching over this waterpipe when I slipped. While the other guys were sure I was fine, and I was, Deku quickly came down to make sure I wasn’t hurt. But rather than be grateful for his concern, it only angered me. Here was someone so far beneath me, acting as if I needed his help. Suffice to say, our friendship got worse and worse, until Deku was often my target, simply because he couldn’t fight back.

“I hated him because he was weak, because he was quirkless. I had this stupid belief in my head that those with a stronger quirk were inherently better than those with a weaker one. Add in the fact that my idea of the best was All Might, a Pro who never lost, and I started challenging anyone I could to a fight, simply to try and prove myself the best. And the worst part was, I was winning. Every fight I had, I won. It didn’t matter if they were years older than me, or if there were multiple opponents, or if they got the drop on me. I kept winning, and it only cemented my beliefs.”

“So what changed?” Kurusu asked, a question that Izuku had been wondering himself. Almost all of what Kacchan had said, Izuku already knew, just from the other side. He hadn’t realised that what he had done that day was seen in such a negative light by Kacchan.

“You sound as if you regret your actions,” the Arachne continued, “so what forced you to pull your head out of your ass?”

“How else can you get it through a brawler’s head?” Kacchan remarked, a light smirk on his face. “I lost.”

Izuku’s eyes widened in shock.

‘Kacchan lost?’ he wondered, a possibility he never thought could happen until U.A. Kacchan never lost, be it academically, athletically, or physically. He had always remained at the top, no matter the field.

“I was nine when it happened,” Kacchan explained. “I heard about this one kid, Agito or something, final year of elementary school, who had a weak quirk. I decided I wanted to test a new move out on him, just to make sure it’d work against a stronger opponent. Suffice to say, I lost, badly. He put my head in the dirt, and even though I got a few good licks in, I lost, to someone my worldview said should have been easy prey.”

Kacchan pulled at the neck of his shirt, revealing two scars along his collarbone. The edges had faded with time, but the body of the scars were black, rather than white.

“I couldn’t understand how he’d won,” Kacchan continued. “He only had a fingernail hardening quirk, while I was able to create explosions from my hands. He shouldn’t have won, but he did. After I came to, my worldview broke. None of it made any sense to me. I went back home, but I didn’t tell my folks about it. I was so ashamed, even though they never knew about some of the more meanspirited fights I was getting into. I sat at my computer, simply watching All Might clips to occupy my mind, hoping that something would tell me why I lost. Then a story played about All Might’s one and only sidekick.”

“All Might had a sidekick?” Kurusu wondered, and Izuku could understand why she was confused. It was only because of Izuku’s admittedly dedicated knowledge of All Might trivia that had led him to stumble on that relatively unknown fact.

“Yeah, the only sidekick he ever took,” Kacchan nodded. “I’d never heard about him, so you can imagine my confusion. And when I looked him up, I was confused even more. Why would All Might, the greatest hero in Japan, and probably the greatest in the world, take on someone who’s quirk, Foresight, can only be used once a day? Why take on someone so, weak? Well, after watching him fight, I realised that he wasn’t weak. I’d been looking at it all wrong. It wasn’t the quirk that someone had that made them strong, but the effort they put in instead. After I learnt that, I snuck out that night, got some dirt from our garden, and rubbed it into the wound. That way, whenever I wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror, I’ll remember that lesson.”

“And that made you change your opinion on Midoriya?” Kurusu asked. “It seems to me you haven’t changed much with your relationship with him.”

“Oh, it changed alright,” Kacchan growled. “After I had my epiphany, my hatred for the little nerd only grew.”

Kacchan paused, holding his hand palm up, letting off a sizable explosion.

“My quirk allows me to sweat nitroglycerine from my palms, and ignite it on command,” Kacchan explained. “You know what makes this quirk go from a good to a great one? Hard work. Each time I let off an explosion, it sends shockwaves through my body. That means I need to strengthen my arms to handle it. My quirk also requires me to sweat, which means I need my body to need to cool down, which usually means physical exercise. However, I also needed to increase my fitness so I could keep fighting at my best, even when I’m already sweating. So for me to be the best, to beat All Might, I have to put in the effort. I don’t have a quirk like your cousin, that Icy Bastard. I have to work for mine! And yet, even though I put in all of this effort into my training, into my studies, all to be the best of the best, Deku, that useless nerd, dared think he could compete against me.

“Do you want to know what he was like in middle school, when I was training my ass off in preparation for U.A.? He had his nose stuck in that damn journal of his, always writing down those damn notes on heroes. Whenever we had the physicals, Deku would always place near the bottom. The only thing keeping him from being rock bottom is sheer genetic luck, the fact that he’s a guy, and that he’s not a slob like some people. So rather than getting an F grade, he got a C-, a barely passing grade. And that barely passing grade was supposed to be able to compete with me, who was trying to achieve an A+?! Do you know how infuriating that is, for someone to belittle your efforts?! And for the little nerd to not even realise he was doing it, to naturally be that irritating?!”

Kacchan stood in front of a stunned Kurusu, panting from the anger he had put into his words.

“And the worst part,” he whispered, his voice laced with malice and venom, “is that his wish for a quirk, that life would hand him all of his answers on a silver platter, was fucking answered.”

“But, that’s not possible,” Kurusu argued. “Quirks usually manifest around four years old, unless you’re born with a mutant type quirk of course. Even then, a late blooming quirk happens around the start of puberty. And given what he’s shown, it’s not as if he has a Vampire, Zombie, or Werefolk heteromorphic quirk.”

“My point exactly,” Kacchan snarled. “He wished so hard for a quirk that he got the mother of all late bloomings. The little bastard started putting some damn effort into his life near the start of last year, so to unlock your quirk at fourteen? It’s total bullshit!”

“Why him?!” Kacchan yelled to the sky. “Of all people in Japan, in the world, why Deku?! There are millions of quirkless people in Japan, two fucking billion quirkless people in the world, so why Deku, who never put in any effort! Deku, who never worked for anything! Deku, who rested on his laurels, prayed for a miracle, and never strove to improve himself! WHY?! How many quirkless kids have pushed themselves to the absolute limit, who ignored the mocking and abuse of shithead idiots who viewed them as lesser, shitheads like me, simply because they didn’t have an advantage?! How many have prayed, but more than that, how many have worked for it, struggled for it, only for it all to be in vain?! Who did Deku take the place of to get into the Hero Course?! Whose dream of being a hero did he steal, simply because of his greed, his pride, his envy?!”

Kacchan was panting, his voice weak from exhaustion. “Why did he beat me? Is luck and chance really better than hard work and talent? Am I doomed to lose to that damn cousin of yours simply because he won the genetic lottery? Is that why All Might’s the best, not because of effort, but because of chance?”

The courtyard was once again silent, disturbed only by the sounds of breathing. Behind the pillar, Izuku’s eyes were wide with shock, stunned by Kacchan’s act of pouring out his heart.

‘Is that how he’s viewed me?’ he wondered. ‘Someone who got here simply by chance? Is that why he’s always hated my dream of becoming the Number One, because he viewed it as a challenge?’

“Don’t be silly, Dynamite,” Kurusu said, a teasing tone creeping into her voice. “Of course hard work and talent can give you the edge. What, do you think stumbling once means you’ve lost the ability to run?”

“How can you be so confident?” Kacchan asked, his voice hollow as he stared at the ground. “How can you know you’re right?”

“It’s simple,” Kurusu answered, resting a hand on Kacchan’s shoulder, causing him to look up at her. “If hard work means nothing in the grand scheme of things, then I’ve already peaked. So has my sister, and my aunts, and pretty much anyone who’s a heteromorph. Our classmates, Ojiro and Asui, they’ve all reached the limit of their quirks, or at least are very close to it. If the luck of getting a powerful, ever expanding quirk was the be-all and end-all, there wouldn’t be heroes with heteromorphic quirks. So I refuse to believe it.”

“So what if Ryokutō is a walking powerhouse, or Shoto has a powerful quirk?” Kurusu continued, holding out a closed fist in front of her. “We’ll just have to show them what hard work and determination can do. And don’t sell yourself short, Dynamite; you have a pretty kick-ass quirk yourself.”

Kacchan looked at her with wide eyes, eyes that quickly looked to the side as he scoffed, even though there wasn’t any heat behind it. 

“Shut up,” he said, tapping her fist with his own, giving her a confident grin. “Don’t think I’ll slow down for you though, Silks. I plan to reach the top, and I ain’t slowing down for anyone.”

“I’d hope not,” Kurusu teased. “After all, if you slow down, you’ll see me pass you.”

Kacchan simply scoffed, but Izuku couldn’t help but notice the warm grin he wore on his face. Kacchan turned around, giving a wave to Kurusu behind him as he walked off. A warm, hopeful feeling filled the courtyard, a scene that would feel right at home in the battle manga that Izuku loved to read, two rivals and friends declaring their intentions to each other. That is, until a loud voice interjected into it.

“YOUNG BAKUGO!” All Might loudly greeted, zooming past both Izuku and Kurusu, stopping Kacchan in his tracks with a large hand grabbing the teen’s shoulder. 

“I’m glad I managed to catch you before you left school grounds!” The Symbol of Peace said with a beam. “Without a doubt, young man, you have the makings of a Pro! So you’ve had a small setback, big deal, we all have those at some point! What matters is that from now on, you keep-”

“Get off me, All Might,” Kacchan said. “I can’t walk.”

All Might stiffened as Kacchan’s head turned, and from behind his pillar, Izuku could spot the glare his childhood friend was leveling on their shared idol.

“Needless to say,” Kacchan declared, “I’ll be a hero who surpasses even you! After all, I’m already one step closer by beating your Entrance Exam score! So just watch me, I’ll crush all of your records, and show everyone I’m the new best!”

“Ah…sure,” All Might awkwardly answered, looking on as Kacchan walked off. “Well, I look forward to seeing it!”

“All Might?” Kurusu asked, causing their teacher to turn around to face her.

“Ah, young Kurusu, how can I help?” All Might asked with a grin. “While normally I wouldn’t condone students leaving class before the period is over, given your lack of a bag, I’d say you were simply trying to catch up to young Bakugo!”

“That’s correct, sir,” she nodded, pausing as she spoke. “I just want to say…thanks. I think what you said to Dynamite was exactly what he needed to hear from you.”

“It’s no problem, young lady,” All Might chuckled, placing a hand on her shoulder. “My job is a teacher now, so what kind of teacher would I be if I didn’t try my very best for my students to do THEIR very best! It would be hypocritical of me, no?”

“ Mhm , understood,” the Arachne nodded.

“Very good, now back to class with you, young Kurusu,” All Might said, patting her shoulder. “You still have five minutes before school’s out! I might have given young Bakugo a pass this time, especially with all of the feelings that he must be dealing with, but you did splendidly in your Battle Trial, so you have no excuse, young lady!”

“Understood, sir!” Kurusu grinned, turning around and walking back to class. However, before Izuku was able to slip away, Kurusu turned her head towards him, one of her side eyes catching sight of him.

“Ryokutō?” she asked, showing her improved mood by reverting back to the nicknames that she used. “Were you listening in just now?”

“Oh, uh, no, I just got here,” Izuku stammered, his eyes looking around for something other than his inquisitive class to look at, quickly settling on All Might. “I was, uh, following All Might! Yeah, that’s it! You know me, I just wanted to ask him some questions, since I’m a big fan of him and everything!”

Kurusu looked confused, though that confusion quickly turned into a scowl, all six of her red eyes narrowing, and her slight smile falling.

“Sure,” she said, walking past Izuku and bumping his shoulder, causing him to stumble to the side. “Well, see you tomorrow, I guess, Midoriya.”

‘What was that about?’ Izuku wondered, unsure why she had such a moodswing. But such thoughts quickly left his mind, focusing more on what Kacchan had said. ‘There was so much I wanted to tell you, Kacchan. I know how lucky I am to have this power, that I got a chance so many people don’t get. That’s why I didn’t want to use it; not because I was looking down on you, but because I was looking up. Because I wanted to do my best with my own abilities. But I know now that’s not what you’d want to hear.’ 

Izuku looked back to the entrance to U.A., seeing the spiky hair of Kacchan slipping over past the lip of the hill.

‘Don’t worry, Kacchan,’ Izuku promised in his mind ‘I won’t make the same mistakes I did in the past. Even though I can’t use it right just yet, I’m going to make this borrowed power my own, someday. And when I do, I’ll overcome you with MY power, and show you the fruits of my own hard work. I’ve always been chasing you, and I hope that one day, you’ll see I’m worth having as a rival too!’

“Ah, young Midoriya!” All Might called out, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts. “What are you doing here?”

‘Ah crap.’ 

Author appears  

“Hello again, everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable New Years!”

Glances to the side. Notices a crowd forming around a very anxious Koji.

Author runs over, waving a stick at the crowd

“Back off, you vultures! None of you deserve him!”

Author sees Sarah Kurusu sneaking forward. Throws stick, nailing her on the forehead.

“You as well, Sarah! I don’t care if you’re one of the main characters, this precious boi is too pure for even someone as kind as you! And don’t be greedy, you already have a polyship planned in the future! Just wait your turn, and leave our Disney Princess wannabe alone!”

…

Yeah, so all jokes aside, I didn’t expect that reaction for the battle trial. Not in a bad way mind you, I love seeing the reactions from my fans and viewers, but sorry-not-sorry to burst your bubble, but the Sarah and Koji ship is going to stay strictly platonic. Again, sorry-not-sorry. What I can do to make up for it is try and make the actual ship as good as possible. Again, it’s a ways off in the future, but it’s coming. So we can all read the writing on the wall that Momo is going to be one of the people in Sarah’s polyship, but for the other character? Spoiler, he hasn’t actually appeared just yet, and yes, it is a guy (lucky bastard, Sarah AND Momo?). I have the entire scene for that ‘aha’ moment where things start to click together in terms of feelings, and boy, that one’s going to be impactful. So yeah, that’s the shipping situation sorted, now onto fun trivia information about the Swiss.

Fun fact, when doing some research for this chapter, I found out that the liminal creatures of Sylph, Gnome, Salamander and Undine were all created/popularised by Paraclesus, born Theophrastus von Hohenheim, a 16th Century Swiss philosopher and “doctor” (I put doctor in quotation marks because Hohenheim believed that lead and mercury were able to be used in medicine, but he also believed in observation in medicine, so kind of a mixed basket). He’s also the inspiration for Hohenheim from Fullmetal Alchemist, one of the best manga/anime series in my opinion. I still plan to have each of the Four Cardinals originating from different areas of the world, but I found it to be an interesting fact that I wanted to share. All of the information was from a book he wrote, though published posthumously, called A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits. The more you know…

Anyhoo, this chapter was fun to write. It was also surprisingly easy as well. Well, I say surprisingly, which isn’t really true. I’ve had these conversations rolling around in my head for months now, so getting it out onto paper (or I guess screen is more accurate) was satisfying.

Okay, so the chapter: we got some lore drops, not only for characters, but also for places, events, and organisations. Some history is elaborated upon, perspectives are shown, all that good stuff. I hope that I didn’t make Katsuki too O.O.C, I wanted to explain his reasoning in this story. By no means is he right in his worldview, but it certainly explains why he only ever seemed to pick on Izuku, rather than anyone else within his class who had weak quirks (I mean come on, one guy had an inflatable chin!)

Also, a trend I’ve noticed in Shonen is the false idea of effort = success. Black Clover, My Hero, Naruto, all had characters with the core ideal of hard work allowing you to succeed. They also all happened to not need any of that, and relied on a plot macguffin to get far in life. Anti-Magic for Asta, One For All for Izuku, and a literal sentient mass of chakra for Naruto. I kind of wish for a real effort = success character, but that probably wouldn’t sell very well, or for very long. 

I also had in mind for that ending, it would seem like a typical shonen ending, you know, the lighting, the music, everything, then All Might shows up and breaks the mood. Then it’d seem like we’re getting the real shonen ending with Izuku’s dialogue, music and such, then All Might again. Credits roll, then after credits scene of the League of Villains in their bar hideout. No idea why, but the idea came to me, so I decided to roll with it.

Again, quite a few of the words that Katsuki was saying came from the heart. Let’s look at it objectively: we know Izuku has always wanted to be a Pro, yet before meeting All Might, he’s skinny, unfit, doesn’t work out, and only records hero notes. He only starts working out once All Might promises to give him his quirk, and only so his body is actually able to handle it. Compare this to Katsuki, who we know works out, is near the top of the class in terms of grades, and his quirk actually relies on him being and staying fit. By no means do I support Katsuki’s actions towards Izuku, but I can partly understand where he’s coming from.

Not only that, but because this is a different world (it is implied that MHA takes place over a hundred, possibly two hundred years in the future), we get to have fantasy slurs, yay! Yes, ‘Monster’ is considered a slur in the modern day, specifically the English word Monster, which is the exact same word in Japanese. This is probably because traditionally, Japan wouldn’t have the term ‘monster’, instead they used the term ‘spirit’, which in Japanese is yōkai (and apparently it translates into English as monster, but you can’t translate monster into yōkai. Weird…)

Not much else to say at this point, so let’s get onto the reviews:

Sakumon16, thanks for the reviews as usual. Now first off, (sprays water) bad, down, no one deserves Koji, he’s too precious! In all seriousness, I’m glad you liked the friendship I’m trying to develop between Koji and Sarah. It’s hinted at, but it’ll be much more shown in the next chapter, but Sarah (along with a few other class members) is really skilled when it comes to combat. Koji is a sweet boy who, as far as I can see, doesn’t like to hurt people, even though he’s built like a tank. And don’t worry, you’re not the only one who Toga scares. What’s scarier than someone who doesn’t just make you suffer, but gets off on seeing you in agony? Canon Toga is honestly a little sick in the head.

Artorigus, thanks for the comment. I’m glad that you enjoyed my versions of Yuga and Koji. I really wanted to give some depth to his character, other than him being French, flashy, and flamboyant (alliteration makes my brain go brrr). Because of this, I wanted to give him some motivation, that way everyone in the class has a good reason to be a hero, other than Minoru, because oh my gosh is that midget one horny teen. Legitimately, other than Minoru, who I already mentioned, as well as Rikido and Hanta, because they were punted out of this timeline, I think the only people I haven’t fully fleshed out why they want to be a hero is Mashirao, while Toru, Shoto, Denki, and Momo haven’t said their reasons, but trust me, it’s coming. And I agree, Koji’s quirk could be really powerful. If anyone has seen Juuni Taisen, you’ll know what I’m talking about (I actually have an idea for that series crossing over with MHA, and I was finding it funny how similar Niwatori and Koji’s powers are). Now, in regards to Sarah absolutely sweeping the competition, I’d like to note that she SHOULDN’T have won the fastest out of everyone. As mentioned in chapter 6, Shoto should have won a lot faster than he did, even though he was limiting himself due to how painful his ice is in this timeline. Kórinis even points this out in the evaluation, that instead of deactivating the bomb, like he should, Shoto was trying to go for a total sweep, even if it was risky. If Mashirao had been able to overcome Shoto, the villains would have likely won the match. So yes, Team F won the fastest, but it’s worrying that they did. As for her going on the offensive, you’re absolutely right. Again, you’ll see it next chapter, but Sarah is one of the most trained individuals in the class. Not necessarily the strongest, Shoto and Momo exist after all, but a damn good fighter and leader. Funny you should mention the artillery thing, I genuinely had an idea for a Centaur called Artillery, and they’d have a modified artillery weapon strapped to their back. As you saw in this chapter, there are factions of heroes that are much more brutal than mainstream heroes, the Sentinels, whose job is to keep villains within their nations borders, rather than allowing them to go international. Artillery would be one of these, perching on a clifftop and bombarding an area down below. As for Sarah’s politeness, what can I say, she’s a refined, classy lady. No wonder Momo is having a bi panic (the reasons for which will be revealed, I promise. And yet again, it’ll be the Sports Festival. A whole lot of secrets and motivations will be coming out then, sheesh). As for Sarah’s fighting style, my belief is that the Centaur culture, at least for the main “species” would have their children specialise in almost every form of martial combat, with some also having their children learn riflery and gunmanship. Centorea’s fighting style seems to be more oriented towards using a claymore, a weapon wielded with both hands. Hell, in her room in Monster Musume, she has four of them. Add in her suit of full plate armour, and Centorea is geared towards being a tank fighter. Now, while Sarah has a shield, she’s less of a tanker and more of a blocker. She’s also not as powerful as her mother (yet) simply due to how heteromorphs in this canon function; more of a slow power creep after the burst of strength simply from being born the way you are. Their strength and stats increases as they age, similar to people in real life, just dialed up to ten in many cases. As for her weapons, I do plan for some changes to her mace after a certain arc, but next chapter you’ll see why she fights the way she does. All I’ll spoil is that tradition is VERY important to Centaur culture, just as it is in Monster Musume. I do like the idea of collapsible shields/weapons, however, kind of similar to RWBY, so I might incorporate that in the future. While I can’t spoil the results for the Sports Festival, I can say with full confidence that there is no way Sarah would lose in the Provisional Licensing Exam. For the first half, she has a shield, she’s literally using it the way it’s intended to. As for the second half, her strength, politeness, kindness, and positive outlook (as well as a future spoiler) would make it a cinch for her to pass. However, as in canon, not everyone is going to pass, and this time, it’s for a much darker reason. When writing, I like to do worldbuilding. As seen in this chapter, not everything is great for heteromorphs. That might have been too much of a spoiler, but oh well, let's see if anyone pieces together the puzzle. As for Jorōgumo, I love the idea, I might actually do that. Will need to plot out some points, but it might be doable. As for Ascella, I already have some ideas for the Hero Work Studies and Internship arcs. 

Siarles, my goodness, that’s by far the longest comment I’ve had in anything, so cheers for the new record. For your breakdown on Denki’s quirk, I was doing some of my own research into it as well. Fun fact, there is a U.S. hero called Elecplant, and I only realised it, but he’s OLD! As in, he was a Pro Hero when All Might was studying in the States. So he’s at least as old as All Might, which is around fifty five, but he’s likely older. Not only that, but he also appears in modern day My Hero, both in the international raids, as well as watching the Final Battle in the States. He’s later part of the aid relief team of American Pro Heroes sent to Japan. Then again, Gran Torino is taking names and kicking ass, and he’s probably in his seventies or eighties. Old men in anime are simply built different. Now, aside from that tangent, I had a point. Elecplant has a quirk called Electricity Generation. Now, while it might seem the same as Denki’s, it’s different in the sense that it creates bolts of electricity that can be fired off, hence the Generation part of the quirk name. Denki’s quirk is Electrification. His quirk specifically allows him to generate and store electricity, and as a defense mechanism, electrify himself. Denki’s indiscriminate shock moves are simply him releasing so much energy that it arcs through the air, striking anything nearby with a lower resistance, which is basically anything that isn’t air. That’s why I agree with your second opinion as to why Denki goes stupid afterwards; he’s simply gone into low battery mode. A potential work around might be a defibrillator that he has set to shock himself after he uses his indiscriminate shocks to bring him back into the fight, filling his “tank” of electricity enough to take him out of stupid mode, or for him to simply get a charge from an exposed power source, like damaged wires or power outlets. For the power needed to arc through the air, I got a different number, needing 10,000 volts per centimetre, meaning he needs 1 MV for a meter worth of travel. Of course, this can’t be right, as that would be PER BOLT OF LIGHTNING ARCING OFF HIM! Thus, I came up with a solution. Similar to how someone might misinterpret their quirk as water creation, but really it’s gathering water molecules in the air, I think Denki is under an assumption that he’s producing 1.3 MV, but in reality it’s 1.3 MV PER BOLT. While that sounds lethal, natural lightning can go to 100 MV, and people are known to survive that, so I wouldn’t say it’s unreasonable. As for your ideas of drawing in the electricity, I unfortunately don’t think that would be possible. His quirk does state that he can act as a lightning rod, absorbing electricity, but beyond that is unlikely (even if the negative pressure idea you suggested sounds cool as ice). As for charging electricity in his muscles, I agree, it would take a lot of work. I’d say that Mirio’s quirk, which is already stupidly complicated to make useful, would be a cakewalk compared to Denki’s. Mirio simply needs to control what parts of his body are intangible, while Denki would need to control which MUSCLES to channel electricity into. It’s simply a whole different beast. Maybe in the future, after the eight year timeskip, but not now. Which is why I’ve come up with a work around. Fortunately for me, we don’t know who Denki had his work study with, unlike some of his classmates, which means I can give him some post-Sports Festival training. I already have a few ideas, both in terms of who he’s under and what they’re training him in, so look forward to seeing that.

Okay, time to show off more fanart. Once again, big thanks to Lisa-Katagiri for her amazing artwork. This time, I’m showing off Kórinis’ hero costume.

Once again, she’s open for commissions, so go check her out, her fees are reasonable, especially for the quality, and the terms were negotiable for me, so she has my seal of approval and recommendation. We have one final art piece from her to show off, that being Shoto, so stay tuned for that.

On more fanart news, thank you Ansky for your amazing work. She recently completed a commissioned art piece of mine, but you’ll have to wait for me to display it. Got to drip feed them to you lot, builds the tension, excitement, and ultimately, the reward. All I’ll say is that Sakumon16 gave me the idea, but that’s all you get as a hint.

Anyhoo, that’s all from me. Next chapter is a bit of a rest chapter, just the characters interacting with each other. The chapter for next week is called, ‘ Who will be President?! ’ Yep, we’re getting to the class elections, and it’s going to be fun.

See y’all next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

U.A. High School, the premier Hero training school in eastern Japan, and a contender for the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan, was often bereft of visitors. Located on a hilltop overlooking Musutafu, a city located in the Shizuoka prefecture, it was fairly out of the way. The school required this, given the noise made from students harnessing their quirks to their full potential, the land required for the various extensive training grounds, and even the simple privacy of students who were still learning the basics of how to be a Pro. Indeed, U.A. was usually left alone by visitors or tourists. That is, usually.

“How did it get to this?” Shuzai Han muttered to himself, scratching his hair with his cap. All around him were reporters and news crew members from various news agencies. Vans and cars were parked wherever space was available, wires and cables created trip hazards wherever you stepped, and the sheer noise from over five dozen ambitious, news-starved journalists was almost too much for anyone to handle.

Fortunately, Shuzai Han wasn’t just anyone. A veteran of the reporting world, Shuzai had reported on villain attacks big and small. He was never the one doing the speaking, he was much too shy for that, but he dutifully followed his correspondent wherever they were brave (or foolish) enough to go.

“Two days of waiting, and still nothing,” Shuzai sighed, leaning against the side of the company van. Glancing to his left, Shuzai called out to his colleague. “Hey, Nyūsu, kid, don’t you think we’re wasting our time here?”

“Geez, Han, don’t call me a kid,” his colleague, Osekkaina Nyūsu, complained. She was a young girl, fresh out of university with a Bachelor of Journalism, and eager to prove herself. Her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail behind her, and she was dressed to the nines in the NHK news-anchor uniform. 

‘Guess that’s another reason to be grateful that I never made the mistake of being a reporter,’ Shuzai thought to himself, glancing at his reflection in the van window, seeing his basic jacket and t-shirt attire that he wore, as well as his week-old chin stubble. ‘No need for fancy, stuffy clothing when your job is to point the camera anywhere else but at you.’

“And anyway,” Nyūsu continued, gaining that look in her eye that Shuzai knew she had a plan, “we’ve been doing it all wrong! We’ve been trying to get an interview with the teachers, but since most of them are Pros and have some vendetta against us, they’re refusing to talk! Well, their students aren’t going to be as tight lipped, now are they?”

“You know just as well as I do that there’s a reason that Pros aren’t the biggest fan of journalists,” Shuzai sweatdropped. “It’s thanks to people like Ms. Kizuki from Shoowaysha Publishing that many Pros look at us reporters as a danger to their image; one too many bad encounters can make you think all journalists are alike, after all.”

“Yeah, well I’m nothing like that blue bitch!” Nyūsu swore, metaphorical flames blazing in her eyes. “She gives us reporters a bad name with her scandal pieces, intentionally misleading questions, and cherry picked information! Sure, none of it is hearsay anymore, but I’d say it still isn’t much more accurate than before! She’d better be glad that Shoowaysha Publishing is banned from U.A. grounds, or I’d lay her out flat for how she stole our story in November!”

“Nyūsu, hitting someone is still considered assault, even if we don’t have quirks,” Shuzai hissed, glancing around, hoping that the wrong kinds of people nearby had heard him. Even though journalists as a whole had a code of honour, especially regarding their quirks (or lack thereof), you could never be too sure. It wouldn’t do for a rival news crew to overhear him, and take it upon themselves to deprive Shuzai and his junior of any stories, simply out of spite. While he and Nyūsu would have sizable protection against quirk-related discrimination thanks to the M.O.N. Enforcers, less legal options were always available, and Shuzai knew it. You didn’t get this far in the reporting business by being slack.

“Whatever,” Nyūsu huffed, scuffing her shoes against the sidewalk.

Shuzai simply smiled. Despite the girl always putting on an act of someone older, there were the occasional moments where Shuzai could see the girl a decade younger than him. In all honesty, she reminded him of his own sister. Well, what his sister could have become. It was the sheer energy and determination that Nyūsu displayed that made Shuzai determined to help her achieve her dreams in journalism, and maybe keep up with her from the tailwinds she’d create.

“Oh, look alive, Han, we have students incoming!” Nyūsu cheered, doing last minute wardrobe checks in the van window. “Come on, this has the makings of a six o'clock story, I just know it! One of these kids should be willing to give us a juicy story!”

“Whatever you say, kid,” Shuzai smiled, placing his trusty camera on his shoulder, following behind his trusty partner.

As the U.A. students made their way up the hill and onto school grounds, the various news teams had formed up on two sides, allowing a corridor for students to walk unimpeded, but narrow enough for the reporters to easily get a story. While many of the students either gave no response or inconsequential responses, there were a few interviews that Nyūsu attempted that stood out to Shuzai.

“What’s it like learning from All Might?!” Nyūsu asked one particular green-haired student.

“Eh?!” he squeaked, seeming to be almost terrified. “Ah…sorry. I’m due at the nurse’s office.”

He held up his arm, showing bandages around his right arm and his left arm held in a sling.

“Oh, fair enough,” Nyūsu said, her shoulders slumping, though Shuzai reckoned it was more to do with a lack of story and less to do with the student’s injury. He didn’t hold it against her, it was simply how she was.

“Tell us what the Symbol of Peace looks like in front of the class!” Nyūsu asked another student, this one a young girl with brown hair cut in a bob and permanent blush marks on her cheeks.

“How he looks?!” she repeated, thinking for a moment before holding up her arms in a muscle flex. “Um…super muscly! Yeah!”

‘Well that’s not helpful,’ Shuzai sighed as the girl passed. Of course All Might would look muscly; if you looked up the definition of ‘muscular’ in any dictionary, you’d see All Might!

“Tell us about All Might as a teacher!” Nyūsu asked another student, with one with short, dark blue hair, as well as a pair of rectangular glasses resting on his face.

“Every day with him is a reminder that I’m enrolled at this preeminent educational institution,” the student explained with a serious tone. “Beyond his obvious dignity and presence, he’s also quite humorous. As we students are privy to observing his many facets, we’ve been given the opportunity to discover just what makes a top hero a top hero. Also…”

“Is this going to go on for a while?” Shuzai quietly asked the heteromorph girls who had been walking with the rambling teen, an Arachne with lavender hair and a Centaur with blond hair. He was ever so grateful that it was Nyūsu who had to keep up the facade of being interested for the sake of politeness.

“Unfortunately, Glasses can talk for hours on end,” the Arachne huffed, rolling her head, as her mono-coloured eyes seemed incapable of showing their movement. “I’d say that you have until ten minutes before class of him yammering on.”

“We are truly sorry for this,” the Centaur apologised, bowing profusely.

“Hey, it’s no worries,” Shuzai chuckled, waving away their concerns. “The most he’s doing is teaching my colleague that sometimes she should be careful not to bite off more than she can chew. She might have a freshly minted degree, but experience is 90% of what matters.”

“I see journalism isn’t much different to hero work in that regard,” the Arachne smirked, turning back towards the U.A. entrance. “Well, see you in class, Sarah. I’m going to see if I can find Dynamite.”

“Wait, you aren’t just leaving me, are you, sister?” the Centaur gaped, betrayal in her eyes.

“Hey, he’s your rival, not mine,” her friend/sister? called out. “Just make sure to remind him of the time, or else none of us are hearing the end of it. We don’t want a repeat of last time!”

“Ugh, no, we certainly do not,” the Centaur muttered to herself, walking over to tug on her friend’s sleeve.

While that interview had been the lengthiest, one of the shortest interviews was soon after.

“When All Might is…huh?!” Nyūsu started, only to quickly change her question at the sight of the student's distinctly spiky ash-blond hair. “You’re the kid from the Sludge Incident!”

“Buzz off,” the student growled, his teeth grinding against each other. Nyūsu opened her mouth to try a followup question, but Shuzai gestured for her to stop. Some people just didn’t want to be interviewed, and an unwilling hero student was one of the last people you wanted to aggravate. The hormones of a teenager in a stressful environment, who was also being taught how to use their quirk, more often than not in a combat setting? That wasn’t someone Shuzai wanted angry.

“ Grr , none of these kids are giving me a scoop,” Nyūsu muttered, clenching her microphone, though she was at least aware enough to not damage it. “That rambling kid with the glasses gave us the most information, but even that wasn’t much.”

“How about that guy?” Shuzai suggested, seeing an adult exiting through the U.A. gates, heading straight for the crowd of reporters. He had gone unnoticed, with all of the other news crews focusing outwards, hoping for more interviews with students.

“Does All M-...you’re a mess!” Nyūsu cried out, having paused mid-sentence as her brain processed the man in front of her. He had long, shaggy black hair reaching past his chin, unkempt stubble on his face, as well as what looked like a scarf wrapped around his neck.

“Who are you, anyway?!” Nyūsu continued, thrusting her microphone into the man’s face, regardless of her opinions of him.

“He’s off today,” the man responded in a monotone voice, “All Might, that is. You’re interrupting our classes. Please leave.”

Without allowing for any follow up questions, the man turned around and headed back onto the U.A. campus, ignoring the many questions that the news crews were throwing out, most of them asking about All Might, but a few inquiring about the man.

“Why are you so sloppy-looking?!” Nyūsu called out to no avail, the man not even pausing in his stride.

“Jeez, it’s not as if we’re asking for a lot, only an interview with All Might,” she huffed. “Who even was that guy anyway? The groundskeeper?”

“I don’t think so,” Shuzai hesitantly said, a hand rubbing his chin in thought. “I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere. Maybe not?”

“Come on, we’d just like to ask All Might about-” Nyūsu began, walking after the shaggy-looking man, either unaware or uncaring about the gate she was approaching.

“No, don’t!” Shuzai warned, his cry causing Nyūsu to pause for a moment, just in time for the gates to slam shut in her face with a clang , mere centimetres from her nose.

“WAHHHH, WHAT THE HELL?!” Nyūsu cried out in shock, falling backwards onto her rear out of sheer fright.

“It’s the U.A. barrier. That’s what we call it, anyway,” Shuzai said, reaching down to help his junior up.

“Eh?! What do you mean?” Nyūsu cried out, suddenly looking at the gate and walls surrounding the campus with much more caution than before.

“The whole place locks down if someone without a school I.D. or a visitor pass approaches the gate,” Shuzai explained, gesturing to the walls. “I hear there are motion sensors throughout the whole campus.”

“The nerve!” Nyūsu growled, her fear quickly dashed by determination. “Shutting us out like that without a single comment!”

“For real,” someone to their side agreed. Glancing over, Shuzai noticed the Mezamashi TV company logo stitched on their clothing. “Two whole days we’ve been here and not a byline to show for it!”

Clammers of agreement started growing within the crowd, the agitation and annoyance over their lack of content that had been brewing for the duration of the media’s stay reaching a boiling point.

“How the hell are we meant to get a story from out here?” Shuzai thought aloud. But thanks to the media’s focus, they were unaware of the young man with grayish-blue hair lurking behind them, glaring at the U.A. gate, scratching at a phantom itch on his arm.

-]l[-

“Okay, class, settle down,” Mr. Aizawa said, his usual monotone voice causing silence to fall over the students, each of them sitting at their desks. “Good work with yesterday’s battle training. I’ve looked over your grades and evaluations.”

He placed a stack of papers on his desk, turning his gaze to the right-hand side of the room, locking eyes with Kacchan.

“Bakugo.”

Kacchan flinched in front of Izuku, clearly uncertain about their teacher’s grade. 

“Grow up already,” Mr. Aizawa said, his stern expression and voice showing his sincerity. “Stop wasting your talent.”

Izuku expected some sort of retort from his childhood friend, but instead Kacchan simply replied with, “Got it.”

‘That talk he and Kurusu had really must have affected him,’ Izuku thought to himself.

“Midoriya,” Mr. Aizawa continued, causing Izuku to flinch as well, his gaze locking onto his desk. “It seems that you ended yet another day with a broken arm.”

Izuku clenched his fists. What his teacher had said was true; he couldn’t be a hero if he kept injuring himself daily.

“Learn to control your quirk, because simply trying isn’t going to cut it,” Mr. Aizawa continued. “I hate repeating myself. But you do have potential, assuming you can overcome this. Work at it, Midoriya.”

“Sir!” Izuku nodded, holding his head high, determined more than ever, especially after yesterday, to prove that he belonged here.

“I’ll hand out the rest of your evaluations later, but for now, onto Homeroom business,” Mr. Aizawa declared, an ominous tone in his voice. “Sorry for the sudden announcement, but today…”

‘‘‘‘‘What is it?’’’’’ many in the class wondered. ‘‘‘‘‘A brutal pop quiz at the start of the year?’’’’’

“...you’ll pick a class president,” Mr. Aizawa finished, dispelling the tension.

“““““Such a normal school-like thing!””””” the class cheered.

“I wanna be president!” Kirishima shouted, standing up from his desk. “Lemme do it!”

“Oh, I wanna be a leader!” Ashido cheered, accidentally drowning out Aoyama’s own proposal.

Many more student’s started shouting out their applications. Some, like Jiro and Ojiro, were more reserved, simply raising their hand and expressing their interest in the position. Some, like Kacchan in front of him, were being more vocal about it. And then some, like Mineta, who sat behind Izuku, were making their presidential promises.

“In my administration, girls will have to show 30 cm of thigh!”

Even Izuku was getting into the swing of it, timidly raising his hand. He’d never been able to be class president in middle school, given his unpopular nature, but now he might have a chance.

“Quiet down, everyone!” a loud voice, Ida’s, yelled, silencing the chatter of the class. Everyone turned to look at the spectacled student, noticing the serious expression on his face.

“Leading the many is a task of heavy responsibility!” he declared. “But ambition does not equate to ability! This sacred office demands the trust of its constituents! If this is to be a democracy, then I put forward the motion that our true leader must be chosen by election!”

Of course, Ida’s serious face conflicted with his hand, held straight aloft in the air, clearly just as eager as everyone else.

“But Ida, we haven’t known each other long enough to build any trust,” Asui protested with a ribbit.

“And everyone’ll just vote for themselves!” Kirishima pointed out.

“That’s precisely why anyone who manages to earn multiple votes will be the best suited individual for the job!” Ida proposed, quickly turning to face Mr. Aizawa. “Will you allow this, Sir?!”

“However you do it, just make it quick,” Mr. Aizawa said, already zipping himself into his yellow sleeping bag. “Just get it over with before my nap is over.”

“Very well!” Ida declared, turning to face the class. “I propose that we utilise the classroom’s digital services! Each person will come to the front of the class, scan their I.D., and cast their vote. Each person will be limited to a single vote, either for themselves, or for one of their fellows. The person with the most votes will be deemed the most trusted within the class, while the runner up will be elected as their vice. Is that acceptable to you all?!”

General statements of agreement were heard throughout the classroom, prompting Ida’s proposal to go forward. One by one, each student left their seat to secretly cast their vote at the front. Once Yaoyorozu had submitted her results, Mr. Aizawa pulled out a remote from his sleeping bag, pressing a button and causing the results to flash up on the board.

Sarah Kurusu - 3 votes

Tsuyu Asui - 2

Izuku Midoriya - 2

Momo Yaoyorozu - 2

Yuga Aoyama - 1

Mina Ashido - 1

Tenya Ida - 1

Mashirao Ojiro - 1

Denki Kaminari - 1

Eijiro Kirishima - 1

Mezo Shoji - 1

Kyoka Jiro - 1

Kórinis Kurusu - 1

Katsuki Bakugo - 1

Minoru Mineta - 1

Ochako Uraraka - 0

Koji Koda - 0

Fumikage Tokoyami - 0

Shoto Todoroki - 0

Toru Hagakure - 0

“Someone voted for me?!” Izuku exclaimed. He knew he had voted for himself, but that was simply holding out hope. He hadn’t actually expected someone to vote for him. And apparently, he wasn’t the only one surprised by it.

“Okay, who the hell voted for Deku?!” Kacchan yelled, furiously looking around the room for a culprit.

“Damn it, only one vote,” Ida muttered, leaning against his desk in shame. “To think I inspired so little faith in my fellows. This is truly the harsh reality of this sacred office.”

“I see we have a three-way tie,” Yaoyorozu observed. “While Sarah Kurusu is the clear winner, how are we to resolve this impasse?”

“We could do another round of voting,” Ida proposed, rising from his slump, his hands chopping the air as he thought. “This time, we’d narrow the list of candidates to Asui, Midoriya, and yourself, Yaoyorozu. That way, we’d be able to have a decisive winner.”

“What about me?” Sarah Kurusu asked, raising her hand. “I won the vote, so should I be exempt from casting a vote again?”

“ Hm , that’s a good question,” Ida mused. “How about-”

“This is getting out of hand,” Mr. Aizawa interrupted, unzipping himself from his sleeping bag. Holding the remote again, he pressed a button, leaving only Izuku and Sarah Kurusu’s names on the board. “I’ve made the deciding vote. Kurusu will be your class president. Midoriya will be vice-president. Both of you, come up to the front.”

On shaky legs, Izuku walked to the front of the class, doing his best to ignore the glares that Kacchan was burning into the back of his uniform. Standing beside Kurusu, Izuku tried to give the Centaur a shaky smile, causing her to give her own confident smile back.

“I look forward to working with you, Midoriya,” Kurusu quietly said to him, before turning back to the rest of the class. “As your class president, I will strive to uphold and maintain the confidence you have shown to have in me by being an exemplary leader.”

“A-And I-I’ll try to do the s-same as her vice,” Izuku stammered, his hands clenched with nerves.

“Is it fine for the deciding vote to be yours, Mr. Aizawa?” Ashido exclaimed in confusion. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with the results, but is that allowed by the school?”

“I never said I wouldn’t be voting,” Mr. Aizawa explained, pressing another button that caused the results to vanish from the screen. “As I said on our first day, we teachers are given free reign to teach you how we see fit. If we want to have a lesson outside, we can. If we want to cast our own vote in a poll, we can. So long as certain lines aren’t crossed, the Principal doesn’t care much. Anyway, settle back down, you’ve had your fun. I’ll start handing out your grades for yesterday’s performance. You can have a quick look over my comments, and then it’ll be time for your first period.”

“““““Yes, Mr. Aizawa!””””” the class exclaimed, settling down into their seats for the lesson, excited and nervous for how they had been graded.

-]l[-

Classes came and went in a blur for Izuku. While he did focus on them as well as he could, he couldn’t stop worrying about how he’d manage as the class vice-president. As soon as the bell for lunch sounded, Izuku made his way to the school cafeteria. Looking around, he noticed a large crowd of students milling about, with many different variations of the uniform that he wore.

‘That must be the uniforms for the different departments,’ Izuku thought to himself as he grabbed a meal from Lunch Rush. ‘Other than the Department of Heroes, there’s also the Department of Support, the Department of Business, and the Department of General Studies. And the fact that U.A. is able to have all of them eating in the same cafeteria is incredible.’

“Hey, Midoriya, over here!” 

Izuku turned around at the noise, seeing Ida and Uraraka sitting on one side of a table, while Sarah Kurusu and Koda sat on the other side. Kurusu was waving him over, and seeing no reason to refuse, Izuku made his way over to their table, sitting down next to Koda.

“Oo, your lunch looks real tasty, Deku,” Uraraka said, eating from a bowl of white rice. “This rice that Lunch Rush makes is super tasty too!”

“And there is a truly delectable array of vegetables for me to select from,” Kurusu agreed, gesturing to her plate of salad. “Due to my biology, I require a plant-based diet, so to have so many options available is truly appreciated.”

Izuku noticed that the chair Kurusu lay on was styled differently to the ones that he and his other classmates sat on. It was extended, acting more like a couch, allowing Kurusu to sit at a similar level to everyone else, even with her unique body proportions.

“The fact that the school also has Narangi Chicken curry as an option is truly yet another example of this school’s brilliance!” Ida exclaimed, eating from his orange curry.

Koda simply nodded, cutting into his omelet. 

“Tasty,” he whispered, barely audible over the din of the cafeteria.

“Oh, how are you feeling about being our class leaders, Kurusu, Deku?” Uraraka asked.

“I’m just a little worried about whether or not I can really handle my position,” Izuku admitted, turning to look at Kurusu. “To be honest, I kind of wish I had your confidence, Kurusu.”

“Mine is born of experience and trial, Midoriya, it isn’t something that one can magically gain,” the Centaur explained. “Do not fret, I shall be sure to guide you in the duties of being a leader of the class, you have my word.”

“Wow, Kurusu, you seem like you’ve done this before,” Uraraka observed, leaning forward. “Were you a class president at middle school?”

“Both years, actually, but at an academy, not a middle school,” Kurusu answered with a smile. “Tenya was my vice-president, and in my humble opinion, we both did admirably well. We would have joined the student council but for the rule that only the older students were able to. Since Tenya and I decided to transfer out of Somei and into U.A., I thought it fitting to try and fulfil our dreams here. However, as you saw, I was the only one to vote for Tenya.”

“I figured that was you,” Ida nodded. “I must admit, when the results came in, I was disappointed to not be given that duty. However, with the benefit of hindsight, I am confident in the final results.”

“After all,” Ida admitted, turning to face Izuku, “if Sarah were not an available candidate, you would have received my vote, Midoriya.”

“Me?” Izuku gasped, pointing at himself in shock. “You would have voted for me?”

“Indeed,” Ida nodded. “Your grit and decisiveness in a pinch would have made you perfectly suited to lead us all. Had we the option of multiple votes, you would have received my second one.”

“Wait, you didn’t vote for yourself, did you, Ida!” Uraraka exclaimed. “Kurusu said she voted for you, but you only got one vote, so you must have voted for someone else! But didn’t you wanna be president too, Ida? You’ve got the glasses and everything!”

“That’s correct,” Ida said. “I find little value in voting for yourself. It only shows your confidence in yourself, rather than the confidence that you have in your fellows. While I do not condemn any who do so, I personally never vote for myself, in any regard. Even if I would miss out on a crucial point, I’d still rather lose, safe in the knowledge that I placed my faith and confidence in my fellows, rather than win, knowing I only trusted myself. That’s why I voted for Sarah to be our class president, a choice I am glad to see fulfilled.”

“Same,” came a quiet whisper. Everyone at the table turned to face Koda, who in the presence of the attention from his classmates, shrunk in on himself.

“Did you vote for Kurusu as well, Koda?” Izuku asked, with Koda responding with a small nod.

“Okay, so that’s two people, who’s the third?” Uraraka asked aloud. “We know Kurusu didn’t vote for herself, so who do we think it is?”

“My sister,” Kurusu answered with certainty. “She has always cast her vote with me, ever since we had the option of class presidents. She has no desire for leading, primarily because of her disinterest in the position, but also because of her issues when it comes to people.”

“What do you mean?” Izuku asked with concern in his voice.

“As far as academies go, Somei is quite progressive. However, Kórinis, more than any other heteromorph, has always struggled with discrimination and ostracization,” Kurusu explained.

“She was bullied?” Koda quietly gasped.

“No, never bullied, none were so inane to do such a thing to someone with knives for fingers, swords for elbows, and enough strength to carve concrete,” Kurusu explained with a frown. “No, it was more subtle, more insidious. People staying away from her, or advising others to do the same. Baseless accusations or assumptions about her nature, purely based on her quirk. People acting differently around her, or intentionally keeping at an arm's reach.”

Kurusu’s words quickly put a damper on the table’s mood, causing them all to regress into silence.

“That being said,” Kurusu began, “I am glad to see my worries for my younger sister unfounded at this school. I must give my thanks to Bakugo for befriending her so quickly.”

“Wait, Bakugo and your sister are friends?” Uraraka gasped, taken by surprise. Izuku could understand her shock. Given the short length of time they had all had together as a class, as well as Kacchan’s, well, off putting attitude, Izuku would have been just as surprised if he hadn’t overheard their conversation after class.

“Indeed,” Kurusu chuckled. “It was quite amusing to hear her mother’s reaction when Kórinis told our family about a friend she had made at school. The children in our family were quick to begin teasing her, standard sibling behaviour, I assure you.”

“I wouldn’t know, I’m an only child,” Uraraka shrugged.

“That reminds me, Kurusu,” Izuku asked, a detail his classmate mentioned sticking in his mind. “You and your sister are half-sisters, right? If you don’t mind sharing, that is.”

“It is no trouble, Midoriya, I don’t mind,” Kurusu reassured. “You are correct, Kórinis and I are half-sisters; we have the same father, but different mothers.”

“How does that work?” Uraraka asked, tilting her head. “You and your sister are similar ages, right?”

“Indeed, I am the eldest child of my family, though only by a few days. Suffice to say, November is a busy time of the year, what with so many birthdays happening at once.”

“So, um, what happened to your mother?” Izuku asked. “That is, if it’s not a painful topic.”

“Painful?” Kurusu asked, this time being the one to tilt her head. “Why would it be painful?”

“Well, you know, because you live with your sister’s mum, right?” Uraraka added. “So are you from, a, well…”

“Oh, you think my mother is dead?” Kurusu asked, Izuku and Uraraka nodding in response. “No, fortunately not. Mother is alive and well, there isn’t any need to worry.”

“But I thought you lived with your step-mum,” Uraraka said with confusion.

“Ah, well, you see…” Kurusu started, visibly trying to figure out how to explain it.

“Mr. Kurusu, Sarah’s father, is currently part of a polyamorous relationship with seven women, two of which are Sarah and Kórinis’ mothers,” Ida explained, nonchalantly eating his curry. “From what I’ve heard and seen, all members involved are happy and content to be married to the same man.”

Despite Ida’s casual tone, it didn’t stop the jaws of both Izuku and Uraraka from dropping onto the table in shock, nor for Koda’s eyes to bug out, also in shock.

“Wow, I knew polygamy was legal, but to have that many partners?” Izuku muttered.

“How do you have that kind of money for food?!” Uraraka shrieked, clutching her head as the numbers required to feed that large of a family pounded in her brain.

“Well, seven people with seven jobs does help,” Kurusu sheepishly explained.

“Wait, how many siblings do you have, Kurusu?” Izuku asked, snapping his attention to his classmate. “You mentioned younger siblings, so I’m kind of curious how large your family was.”

“Ah, well, there’s no real way to avoid it, so, um, ten. I have ten younger siblings, including Kórinis, who is the third-born.”

Silence covered the table once more, with only Ida seeming to be unshaken by this news.

“The money needed for all of the presents…” Uraraka muttered, her eyes vacant with shock. The fog quickly lifted, her gaze focusing on a shy Kurusu as well as Ida, who was eating his curry as if nothing was off about the conversation.

“Hey, Kurusu, Ida,” Uraraka began, a smile starting to stretch over her face. “The way you talk, your family size, and the fact that Ida wasn’t bothered at all…are you both rich kids?!”

“Oh wow, you’re right,” Izuku nodded, dots that were scattered in his mind starting to line up. “Ida, Kurusu, is this true?”

“I had hoped you wouldn’t notice,” Ida admitted, Kurusu nodding sagely beside him. “But it is true, mine is a renowned hero family, and I am the second son.”

“““Whoa, cool!””” Izuku, Uraraka and Koda gasped.

“Do you know of the Turbo Hero: Ingenium?” Ida asked, the hero-related question immediately catching Izuku’s attention.

“Of course!” he exclaimed. “He employs sixty-five sidekicks at his office in Tokyo! So you’re…?”

“His younger brother!” Ida proudly declared, his head held high. “He leads the people with his unwavering adherence to rules and regulations, and is a truly beloved hero! It’s my admiration for my brother that’s inspired my own desire to become a hero.”

“Though I realise that I’m not yet ready to lead anyone,” Ida admitted, looking at both Kurusu and Izuku with a small smile. “As the superior candidates, it was right that the two of you would receive the positions.”

“Wow, I’ve never seen you smile before, Ida,” Uraraka teased, nudging her classmate with her elbow.

“Eh?! Is that so?! I smile on occasion!” Ida exclaimed, though the smile on his face showed he had taken it in good nature.

“Actually, if you wish to hear of a truly prestigious hero family, you should look to Sarah’s lineage,” Ida said, looking to his friend and rival. “After all, her mother was the one to take my older brother in as a sidekick.”

“Wow, really,” Uraraka gasped. “Is your mum a Pro too, Kurusu?”

“Yes, she is,” Kurusu nodded with a warm smile. “I’m incredibly proud of her, and I strive to be just as courageous as she is!”

“Wait, if Ida’s brother is Ingenium, and your mother trained him…” Izuku muttered to himself, quickly gasping as the metaphorical lightbulb turned on in his head. “OH MY GOD, YOUR MOTHER IS THE KNIGHT HERO: CAVALRY!”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Kurusu chuckled. “I wasn’t aware you were a fan.”

“Oh, I’m a fan of almost every hero,” Izuku admitted. “But, well, Cavalry is special to me. Growing up, no one thought I could be a hero. I went my whole life with everyone telling me it was a pipe dream, that I should focus on being a police officer, or a firefighter, or a doctor, some kind of job that could save people, but not a hero. But your mother was the one to tell me otherwise. She was honest with me, told me that it would be difficult, and without a quirk, I’d never be a Pro, only a sidekick, a member of a hero’s agency. But she believed in me, even when my own mother didn’t. That’s why, in my eyes, she’s one of the purest forms of a hero.”

Everyone at the table was affected by Izuku’s words, be it the stars in Uraraka’s eyes, the welling of tears in Kurusu’s eyes, or the happy, proud looks from Ida and Koda. This moment was shattered, however, when Izuku’s eyes bugged out.

“Ah crap, I forgot to call her,” Izuku whispered.

“““Call her?””” Kurusu, Ida and Uraraka asked, with Koda simply tilting his head.

“Yeah, see, when we met, she gave me her phone number, so that if I got into U.A., she’d be able to get me connected with the right people,” Izuku explained, pulling out his Hero Journal, rapidly flipping through the pages until he found Cavalry’s page, spinning the journal around to show the phone number taped to the pages. “But in all of the excitement, I forgot to tell her! Oh, what am I going to do?!”

“I don’t think my mother will mind,” Kurusu reassured. “I’ll let her know tonight that she met one of my classmates last year, and that you’ll be calling her soon.”

“Thank you, Kurusu,” Izuku smiled.

“Oh, what about your other relatives?” Uraraka asked Kurusu. “I mean, Ida said your family is an even MORE prestigious hero family, so there’s got to be more than just your mum, right?”

“Indeed,” Kurusu nodded. “My mother is a hero, but so was my grandmother, and my great-grandparents, and their parents, and so on and so forth.”

“While the Ida family has heroes covering three generations, being my grandfather, my parents, and my brother, the Shianus family have been heroes for as long as heroes have been a profession,” Ida explained. “They are responsible for countless rescues, easily hundreds of thousands of people rescued by their outstretched hand.”

“Wait, Shianus?” Izuku asked, his eyes growing wide. “Ida, did you say Shianus? Kurusu, are you a member of the Shianus family?”

“Oh boy, I feared this would happen,” Kurusu muttered, placing her head in her hands.

“Deku, you make them sound important,” Uraraka said.

“Are they famous?” Koda asked in a quiet voice.

“ THEY’RE HERO ROYALTY! ”

The cafeteria was silent, every student looking directly at the source of the outburst; one very embarrassed, red-faced Izuku Midoriya. He sank into his set, trying to hide as much as possible. No one spoke a word, all of them stunned by the loud outburst from the small first-year student. That is, until an equally loud voice broke the silence.

“Shut up, Deku!” Kacchan yelled from across the cafeteria. Izuku, Ida, Uraraka, Kurusu, Koda, as well as every student in the cafeteria turned their heads, looking at the table where the second, albeit quieter, outburst came from. Kacchan was seated alongside Kórinis Kurusu and Hagakure, plates of food in front of each of them. While Hagakure’s expression was hidden, obviously, Kórinis Kurusu was holding back laughs, while Kacchan simply scowled at Deku.

“Stop being such a damn nerd!” he shouted, turning back to his own meal.

This seemed to signal to everyone to go about their own businesses, leaving a very mortified Izuku alone with his friends’ questions.

“Um, loudness aside, what did you mean by that?” Uraraka asked, looking between Izuku and Kurusu. “Are you royalty, Kurusu?”

“No, it’s simply a title given to my family in regards to our history,” Kurusu sighed, glancing back at Izuku. “Since you were the one to mention it, I assume you know a lot about my family heritage?”

“Yes, um, sorry for the outburst,” Izuku apologised, slamming his head down on the table in a seated bow. “But, well, I didn’t realise that you were a Shianus. It’s kind of overwhelming…”

“So I take it they’re a big deal?” Uraraka asked, her confused expression showing how lost she felt.

“A big deal is an understatement,” Izuku explained, his tone becoming more animated. “When quirks first started appearing over two hundred years ago, much of the world quickly fell into chaos. Japan was one of them, alongside France, Mexico, the Russian Federation, and many others. Borders started being ignored, and instead territories ruled over by those with powerful quirks started popping up. Each were like a kingdom, with rules, taxes, and certain restrictions. Of course, sometimes villains simply rampaged in an area, attacking whoever they chose to. The police were overwhelmed, so it often fell to vigilantes to help keep order, even though the vigilantes themselves were disorganised. However, while many nations were ravaged by the flames of chaos, one stood above the rest as an exception; the United Kingdom.

“See, within a wealthy family was born a daughter who had a quirk, a mutation quirk to be precise. Her name was Elizabeth Shianus, and she was the first Centaur in existence.”

“So that makes her…” Uraraka began.

“My ancestor, yes,” Kurusu nodded. “I am her eighth-great-granddaughter, her direct descendant. While it doesn’t have an effect on my genealogy, I also come from the main family, rather than a branch family, all of whom can call Elizabeth Shianus their ancestor, since all Centaurs hail from her blood.”

“Because of the wealth of the Shianus family, their tolerant views on quirks, especially for the time, as well as Elizabeth’s incredible strength and talent with a sword, she was officially knighted as a Superpowered Protector of the Realm,” Izuku animatedly continued. “She took many hundreds of individuals with quirks under her banner, becoming one of the largest agencies of all time. Many historians believe that her presence was what allowed the United Kingdom to mitigate much of the damage that the rest of the world faced. When Japan fell into anarchy, or the People’s Republic of China went from a communist state to a theocracy, or France had its sixth republic, the United Kingdom stayed strong. Many scholars think that was why humanity’s technological level was able to stay as it was, simply because a lower level of conflict on their streets meant that less information and technology was lost forever.”

“However, it also created a fascist, xenophobic state,” Kurusu challenged. “It became incredibly isolationist, with slogans of ‘The World has collapsed, only Britain soldiers on’ becoming common. Because of their draconian border controls, their society began to regress into a semi-feudal state, with petrol only being given to government vehicles, simply due to the scarcity from no country producing it. It was only in later years when the borders opened up that trade could resume, and people could once more enjoy the luxuries of modern society.”

“But such was the state of much of the world,” Ida argued. “After all, here in Japan, society was only really restored after All Might became the Symbol of Peace. Before that, Japan was broken up into different territories, most of them controlled by the strongest person, rather than being managed by the government.”

“Wow, I never heard of that,” Ururaka murmured. “They never really taught us post-quirk history before, now that I think about it.”

“Most countries probably don’t like to admit the actions they took during the chaos,” Izuku guessed. “Pair that with the sketchy records of what happened, and it makes sense that schools would prioritise events that they know happened, rather than they think happened.”

“Well, sure,” Uraraka said, “but I still don’t think-”

WREEE! WREEE! WREEE!

“The alarm?!” Izuku cried out in shock, he and everyone else at their table standing up.

“ Security Level Three has been broken, ” an automated message said over the cafeteria intercom. “ All students, please evacuate in an orderly fashion. ”

“What’s security level three?” Ida asked a nearby upperclassman, rushing for the exit.

“It means someone’s infiltrated the building!” he answered over his shoulder. “Hasn’t happened in my three years here! Anyway, hurry up and get outta here!”

But despite the intercom telling all of the students to evacuate in an orderly fashion, fear was inevitable at the idea of an invasion of their school, and the corridors were unable to contain an entire school’s worth of students without issue.

“Ow, ow!”

“Stop shoving!”

“Wait, I’m gonna fall!”

“I said quit pushing!”

“Oww!” Uraraka cried out as a student’s elbow clipped the side of her head. “What’s going on?!”

“Such a rapid response to danger!” Ida cried out. “I’d expect no less from this great institution!” 

“This isn’t a rapid response, Tenya!” Kurusu yelled, raising her voice to be heard over the panicked shouts. “This is a panic, the students are stampeding!”

Held within her arms, Ida, Uraraka, Koda and Izuku were able to find refuge and shelter. Due to her large body and weight, Kurusu was able to resist the panic of the crowd, the rush of students going around her rather than over her.

“Ah!” Ida shouted, a flailing arm pushing him away from Kurusu.

“Tenya!” she cried out, reaching out to grab him, but the current of panicking students was too fast, causing their fingers to miss each other.

“What happened?!” Izuku cried out, trying his best to ignore how great it felt to have Uraraka clinging to him.

“Tenya got swept away!” Kurusu told them, her voice worried. “I can’t see him! Can anyone?!”

Izuku looked around, panic in his veins. He knew what could happen to people caught underfoot in a stampede.

“There!” yelled a high-pitched voice, and it took Izuku a second to realise that it was Koda standing beside him, pointing towards the window. Izuku looked over, seeing Ida, pressed against the glass, trying to yell something to them.

“It’s the media!” he yelled. “They broke into the school, there isn’t any danger!”

“Hold on, Tenya, I’m coming!” Kurusu shouted, shuffling forwards through the rushing crowd. 

“Ah!”

“Oof!”

Two voices sounded out nearby, and Izuku was jostled by the impact hitting Kurusu. Glancing over, he saw the red and yellow hair of Kirishima and Kaminari, both of them clinging onto Kurusu’s flank.

“Hey, you guys!” Kirishima shouted, grinning up at Kurusu. “Thanks for catching us, Kurusu! I thought we were goners for sure!”

“Ow, my feet,” Kaminari complained, sagging over the top of Kurusu.

“Sarah!” Ida cried out, “don’t worry about me! You need to calm the students! Tell them everything is alright!”

“But how do I-”

“Uraraka!” Ida yelled. “Use your quirk on Sarah! Make her weightless! She can get over the students that way!”

“Over them?!” Kurusu yelled in shock. “Tenya, you know Centaur’s don’t wear underwear! What if someone looks up?!”

“Kaminari!” Ida yelled, turning his attention to the electric blond. “Do you know where Mineta is?!”

“I saw him hanging around the gym!” Kaminari answered. “He shouldn’t be in this mess!”

“There, Mineta won’t be able to see!” Ida shouted.

“But-”

“You can do this, Sarah! I believe in you! You just need to catch their attention, focus their sight on you! Be a hero!”

Izuku and his classmates all looked to Kurusu, her face a conflict of emotions.

“Uraraka, please make me float!” she asked, looking down at the girl by Izuku’s side.

“Consider it done!” Uraraka grinned, pressing all ten fingers against Kurusu’s skin. “Deku, Koda, Kirishima, Kaminari, help me get her above the crowd!”

Together, the five of them pushed Kurusu above the crowd, standing on top of them, weightless. Without the security that her strength had afforded them, Izuku was now being swept along with everyone else. However, as a shadow passed overhead, he looked up to see the moving figure of Kurusu ahead of him. Using her weightlessness, she was hopping across the crowd, her hooves pressing against heads and pushing her forward, up until she slammed into the wall, right above a fire exit sign at the end of the corridor.

Izuku saw her position herself along the wall, grasping at an exposed pipe while maintaining her footing on the exit sign. He watched her take in a deep breath, before speaking.

“ SILENCE! ”

The crowd was stunned still. Izuku had thought that his outburst was impressive, but Kurusu’s was thunderous.

“ YOU MISERABLE EXCUSES FOR STUDENTS! ” she bellowed, glaring across the crowded students. “ YOU ARE OF U.A., ONE AND ALL! AND YET YOU BEHAVE LIKE ILL-MANNERED CHILDREN! THIS PATHETIC DISPLAY OF AN EVACUATION IS UNNECESSARY; THERE ARE NO VILLAINS! IT IS SIMPLY THE PRESS! ”

Quiet murmurings popped up amongst the students, many of them looking sheepish at the panic they had experienced over no real threat.

“ NOW, YOU WILL ALL EVACUATE FROM THIS BUILDING IN A CALM AND ORDERLY MANNER! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?! ”

“Yes, ma’am,” many students sounded out.

“ THAT WAS PATHETIC, YOU MISERABLE WHELPS! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?! ”

“YES, MA’AM!”

Kurusu simply nodded at that, watching with a careful eye as the students evacuated from the cafeteria, this time in an actual orderly fashion. Izuku and his classmates stayed behind, moving to the window where Ida was, trying their best to stay out of the way.

“And release,” Uraraka sighed, pressing her fingers together, allowing for the weightlessness on Kurusu to end. Already anticipating this, she had moved herself close to the ground, so when gravity began affecting her as usual, it was only a small drop she had to take, rather than a many metres one.

“Man, that was a super manly voice you had!” Kirishima grinned, complimenting Kurusu as she walked over.

“Thank you, Kirishima,” she smiled. “The benefits of having multiple sets of organs is that with two pairs of lungs, you’re able to expel twice as much air, and make a louder noise.”

“I’ll say,” Uraraka added. “You made Deku’s shout seem like a whisper.”

“It wasn’t that loud, was it?” Kurusu sheepishly asked.

Everyone’s silence to her question was a condemning answer.

“Well, that’s over at least,” Kaminari chuckled, glancing over to the window. “Hey, Ida, you can get up now.”

But as the group looked over, they saw Ida staying where he was, huddling in a ball on his feet.

“She can possess bodies, she can possess bodies, she can possess bodies…” he muttered to himself.

“Uh, Ida, are you okay?” Uraraka asked, but he didn’t answer, simply continuing his chanting.

“Oh, damn it all,” Kurusu swore, moving over to Ida’s side. She knelt down on the ground, getting as close to Ida’s height as she possibly could. “Hey, Tenya? Are you okay?”

Her voice seemed to snap Ida out of it, only to devolve into hysterics.

“No, you can’t trick me, Master!” he yelled. “I know that’s you! You might think you have fooled me, but I’m smarter than that! I saw your voice come out of Sarah! I don’t know how, but I know that’s you! You’re simply trying to get me to lower my guard, only to strike when I am weak, all to teach me a lesson, just like always!”

While everyone was taken aback by Ida’s apparent insanity, Kurusu seemed to take it in stride.

“I’m not Grandmother, Tenya, it’s me, Sarah,” she calmly said, keeping her hands within Ida’s sight. “I’m the same girl who you played in the woods with at my family’s estate. The same girl who you dreamed up what our combo names would be.”

“Lies,” he snarled, manic in his eyes. “How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

“Four years ago, the captain of the quirk-use track team said he wouldn't allow a M-word to join. You got so angry, you punched him hard enough to break his nose. Your parents had to make a show of being disappointed, but secretly they were very proud. It was the one and only time you’ve ever been suspended.”

Clarity entered Ida’s eyes, his shaky hands stabilising, and his breathing slowed down. 

“Oh, it really is you,” he sighed, quickly noticing the shocked expressions of everyone around him. “I’m truly sorry for my display, everyone. I assure you, I’m of sound mind.”

“Uh…” everyone doubted, trying to discreetly look at Kurusu.

“Yes, Tenya is mentally fine,” she chuckled. “He’s simply had some, traumatising experiences with one of our mentors in the past.”

Having received her reassurances, Izuku and his classmates evacuated as well. According to the teachers, the police arrived soon after, quickly causing the gathered media within the school campus to disperse. After they were all allowed back to class, Izuku pulled Kurusu aside, quickly telling her his plan, a plan that she agreed to support, even if she didn’t find it necessary.

“Before we begin,” Izuku declared, standing before the class with shaky legs, “I believe that Ida is better suited to be the class vice-president!”

The class was shocked, already seeing a powerswitch this early into the presidency of Kurusu.

“Many of you heard of how Ida was the one to discover that it was the media, not villains, who had broken into the school,” Izuku explained. “I think because of that, Ida is better suited for my position.”

“Sounds good to me!” Kirishima vocally supported. “If it wasn’t for his quick thinking, we might have been squished! No offence, Midoriya!”

“And he was the one to come up with the idea of Uraraka floating Kurusu,” Kaminari added.

“Whatever,” came the annoyed tone of Mr. Aizawa, huddled in his sleeping bag, a juice bag between his teeth. “Just get on with it. What a waste of time.”

Izuku looked over to Ida, who sat in his chair, stunned by Izuku’s offer. A small smile graced his face, warmly given to Izuku, before he stood up from his seat.

“I will accept the job, then!” he declared. “If that is the will of the class president, than I shall take the position with gusto!”

All around the room, cheers and words of encouragement were given to the class’ resident speedster, who strode up to the front, taking Izuku’s place beside Kurusu while Izuku walked back to his chair. But as he sat down, he couldn’t help but overhear Yaoyorozu’s mutterings from behind him.

“But I got more votes than him,” she complained.

‘Sorry, Yaoyorozu,’ Izuku apologised in his head. ‘I completely forgot about that. Please forgive me!’

Author appears behind Shigaraki

“Here, just wait a few more minutes. The lunch period is fifty minutes long, so why don’t you enjoy playing a match of today’s sponsor, Raid Shadow Legends!”

Shigaraki, not finding any reason to deny this stranger, decides to play on the phone, holding it with his pinky held out like the Demon Prince that he is.

Author, cackling in the background as this distraction allows for character development.

...

So, some of you might be wondering about that beginning. I don’t truly know why, but I wanted to expand upon some of that opening scene in the chapter and episode with the reporters. Giving the reporter lady and her camera-man names as well as some backstory, I don’t know, I found it fun, how about you? Also, fun fact: I’m 90% sure those two were the same news people who reported on the Kamino Ward incident, so you’ll be seeing more of them in the future. Not only that, but you got a bit of a tease with a government organisation that will be appearing. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the M.O.N. crew is coming! You’ll see some of them in a few chapters, though they’ll make a much more prominent appearance at the Sports Festival. Security is needed, after all. As for what M.O.N. stands for, well as revealed last chapter, ‘Monster’ is a racial slur, so obviously that isn’t going to be part of it. Let me know what you think it stands for; I already have it written down, so it’ll be interesting to see what people come up with.

Now, in terms of the votes, I had a whole Google Doc up, keeping track of who voted for who, as well as what each person’s total scores were. A fact that I discovered, Koji voted for himself (assumedly) in canon. Like, what? I get it, Koji wasn’t really a character in My Hero at this point, little more than a silhouette. But still, with hindsight, hell naw. Even with that moment with Sarah, there’s no way I can see Koji, a character who the entire class thought was mute due to how shy he was, wanting to be the class president. Just doesn’t make any sense.

Also, on the topic of votes, there is the case of Momo having two votes for her. We know where the votes for Izuku came from: himself, Ochako and Tenya. But for Momo? Well, put on your colanders, ladies and gents, and strap on your tinfoil gloves, because my conspiracy theory is that Momo’s second vote (other than herself, obviously) was Shoto. Think about it, they were both in the Recommended Exams, so they would’ve known each other somewhat beforehand. A popular theory I see for My Hero fanfics is that Momo was the top Recommended student, which given the versatility of her quirk, makes sense. Add in the fact that canon Shoto at the time was NOT in a good headspace, and hadn’t been for years, I think it’s safe to say he might have had enough wisdom to realise this, causing his vote to go to the one person he saw as competent, that being Momo.

Also also, in regards to Sarah winning, yeah, she had an unfair advantage. I actually toned it down as well, because both Momo and Shoto could have good reasons for voting for her, but I wanted to keep Momo’s quiet pout over Ida being chosen over her, despite the point difference. I just found it cute. Also the idea of Momo being annoyed that she isn’t able to be Sarah’s vice-president was also adorable.

Also also also, if anyone is able to guess the film reference that I put into this story, good on you for watching one of the best pieces of cinema. It’s depressing, it’s stressful, and it’s really worrying that we’re creeping towards that future. (I also just realised it’s set 2 years from our current date, 2027. Kind of scary.) I watched this in English, because I’m pretty sure everyone who took English as a subject had something similar, but this film was actually great. Other than The Truman Show (because Jim Carrey is the G.O.A.T), this was the only worthwhile film we watched, the rest were just weird. So yeah, cookie to anyone who guesses the film.

Right, not much else to say about this chapter that wasn’t already said in said chapter. I loved writing these conversations with the characters, dialogue is simply my jam. Also, Koda will be added to the mix occasionally. Obviously, this is because he’s close friends with Sarah, so he’ll probably be making a few more appearances than in canon. Also, the class won’t be assuming he’s mute. He’s shy, make no mistake about that, but he can hold a conversation when it’s needed. His entomophobia on the other hand; yeah, I don’t blame the guy for that. 

Aside from that, we also got some lore drops, some history lessons, and yes, Sarah is kind-of-royalty. The Shianus, in my canon at least, are THE first heroes. Heroes being the key word. There were definitely vigilanties, but Elizabeth Shainus was the first official government licensed hero. She would have had a position similar to James Bond, in the sense she works for the government/crown, has a licence to keep the peace, no matter what, and almost all resources are available to her at the drop of a hat. And yes, this means the ancestral home of the Centaur heteromorphs is Great Britain, not Greece. I know, Centaurs are from Greek myths, but we have too many from Greece anyway, so there. I also love the idea of some countries having special ceremonies for Heroes becoming Pros. In my mind, each Pro Hero in the U.K. would be knighted by a member of the Royal Family. Emphasis on the Pro aspect, sidekicks get the privilege of watching.

Anyway, onto reviews.

Artorigus, thanks for the review as always. Okay, so for Sylph and Gnome, I have some ideas from their gacha designs. I saw some, because those characters are highschool students, whereas the Four Cardinals are all in their sixties in the present day. But don’t worry, I’m well aware of the game. Kind of impossible to not be when you’ve spent as much time as I have on the MonMusu wiki. Yes, the suit that I mentioned is Penny Parker’s. Since she’s a Japanese hero, I thought it would be fitting for her to be a retired Pro Hero. As for the Four Cardinals as well as the Sentinals as a whole, they are certainly leaning towards the anti-hero side of things. Kind of a requirement when you’re job is to make the very idea of crossing you a villain’s worst nightmare. As for Undine and Salamander’s impact on the family, trust me, you’ll see how they’ve influenced things. Salamander herself has changed many canon events, and Undine still runs her water park. Fun fact, the area surrounding the water park has a crime rate of zero. Absolutely no crime is committed there, because out of all of the Cardinals, Undine was the most sadistic and brutal. So yeah, only someone genuinely insane like Moonfish would try anything near her. As for Salamander, yes, her design is based off her canon appearance that we saw in the Hot Spring arc, albeit aged up a bit. As for her power, she’s a beast. However, in terms of her being stronger than her son? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see. As for her and Toya, all I’ll say is that all will be revealed in the Sports Festival. I’m glad you also enjoyed Kórinis and Katsuki’s heart-to-heart. I’m really glad with how to came out, as well as the depth I added to our firecracker. As for more racism, buddy, the Sports Festival is going to hit like a truck. Imagine the crowd's reaction to the Katsuki vs Ochako fight, and then amplify it. As for the little girl in the photo that Recovery Girl has, that’s her daughter. The photo was taken before her murder. As for Recovery Girl’s relationship to the Four Cardinals, there isn’t one, at least not a personal relationship. Recovery Girl is simply from an era (the same as Gran Torino) where heroes were more brutal compared to the modern day. Remember, during the Final War arc, Gran Torino advises Izuku that killing Tomura might be the best option. It’s kind of like a generational difference. For Artillery, I had a brilliant idea for them. I won’t spoil too much, just that the Centaur people are divided up into clans and houses. For instance, Sarah, Centorea, and Sarah’s grandmother, all belong to Clan Shianus, House Shianus. Artillery would belong to a different clan, one with a more, liberal view on combat. And of course, they’ll be from the US of A. Finally, for the Bicycle Cop, alright, you’ve got me hooked. I’ve already made some ideas for this household, as well as how they connect to the Kurusus. Specifically, through Guu. Yes, Guu is the real name of Naga-Suu, Suu’s “evil” sister. This will reveal on of Suu’s four sisters, one for each slime type. As for the other girls, I have ideas for some of them, but not all. Also, the idea that Bicycle Cop (name pending) struggles with the fact that Papi is so extra, but is afraid to bring it up with his superiors because she’s the Police Chiefs only daughter. As for the lucky bastard, trust me, he’s deserving. I never really paid him much attention before in MHA, but after doing some research, he’s a new favourite of mine.

Siarles, thanks for the review. Yeah, I called them defibrillators because I didn’t really know what else to compare them to. Rest assured, Denki will be receiving some changes to his hero costume, as well as a new fighting style. If done right, Denki’s quirk is ridiculously busted in a fight. As for the Sentinels, Recovery Girl wasn’t suggesting that they call in some of the active service ones, but simply, “Well, we have some nearby, they’re retired, and they’re easy to contact due to three of your students being related to them.” As for Endeavor, he’ll be a little bit different compared to canon. Not by much, but different nonetheless. For Recovery Girl, you aren’t alone in your view, she doesn’t agree with her own actions either, which makes it all the more tragic. As for Kórinis, yes, she doesn’t have markings, and yes, I forgot to detail them to the artist. However, I did come up with a lore reason for this. In my mind, Rachnera’s markings aren’t markings, but rather tattoos. We knew she was in a gang, so that’s just a continuation of it. Her gang, fellow Arachne, tattooed themselves since they didn’t feel like they belonged in society anyway. Obviously, Kórinis isn’t in that situation, so her thorax is unmarked. As for her hair, it’s a dark lavender, not black. I wanted a blend of her parents’ hair colours, even if it might not be genetically logical. And yes, Monster Musume would be a wild title to name something in this verse.

Sakumon16, thanks for the reviews. For Recovery Girl and All Might, in canon they knew about each other in the past anway, so I decided to expand upon that, with Recovery Girl being one of All Might’s mentors, along with Nana Shimura and Gran Torino. SP//dr is the name given to Penny Parker’s mech suits, and was also her hero name in this timeline. Yeah, Kórinis didn’t have it easy growing up, and unfortunately, it hasn’t finished just yet. In fact, I’d say it hasn’t gotten to its worst point. As you saw, Sarah is the class president, but Momo missed out on being the Vice president (poor Momo). As for the boyfriend, while amusing, Jaune aint it. He’s staying firmly in RWBY, with his goofy ass haircut, and was unfortunately deaged from his warrior wolf look. Like, why? He looked so cool when he was older. It’s not as if he’s young mentally, only physically. 

Okay, once again, fanart time. One final time, big thanks to Lisa-Katagiri for her amazing work. Her final piece is Shoto, specifically him without the ice armour.

As a final reminder, she is open for commissions, and given some of the things people have gotten her to draw, she’s down to draw whatever your craven hearts desire. 

As another note, I’ve started (or I guess continued) another series of mine, called, “The Portal Hero: Aperture”. Pretty obvious what the main premise is about from the title alone. As you read this, the second chapter dropped alongside it, so any reviews or feedback is appreciated.

And that’s all from me. The chapter for next week is called, “ Today’s Lesson: Rescue! ” That’s right, we’re finally getting into the meat and potatoes of MHA, with the U.S.J. visit. I’m sure nothing could go wrong…

See y’all next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

The fourth day at U.A. High School was well underway, and as Izuku sat with his friends, his face was tucked close to the screen on his phone, his focus entirely on the articles he was reading.

“What’cha reading, Deku?” Uraraka asked, leaning into his side as she tried to see what was on his phone.

“Oh, n-nothing, U-Uraraka!” he yelped, turning his face away from the brunette, desperately hoping that she didn’t see the crimson blush on his face. “I was just reading the news, that’s all. Apparently, All Might stopped three separate incidents this morning; two hostage situations and a hit-and-run.”

“To be expected of our teacher!” Ida praised, sitting across from Izuku. “To save the day while on his way to school is truly heroic!”

“Maybe, but I feel it’s a waste of his time,” Kurusu suggested, looking up from her own meal, seated between Ida and Koda. “Surely stopping a reckless driver is beneath his efforts.”

“Why would you say that, Kurusu?” Uraraka asked, seemingly shocked by their classmate’s view. “Being a hero is all about saving lives!”

“It is, don’t misunderstand, but All Might is the No. 1 hero in Japan. He shouldn't have to respond to every possible call for help, not if there are other Pro’s nearby who could answer the call instead, and especially not if he has other places to be.”

“I mean, I don’t see the issue if he was simply stepping in on his way to school,” Izuku argued, feeling the need to defend his idol and mentor.

“Certainly, but he wasn’t,” Kurusu said. “The first two incidents, the first hostage situation with a notorious villain and the hit-and-run, were all within Musutafu City. However, the second hostage situation he responded to was in Ogothir City. Apparently he was late for a class as a guest speaker with the third-years this morning.”

“Really?” Uraraka asked. “I thought All Might only taught us.”

“While that would truly be an incredible claim to fame, All Might is the teacher for the Hero Basic Training classes for both first-year classes; our class, Class 1-A, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and our sister class, Class 1-B, on Wednesdays and Fridays.”

“Oh, so that means we have All Might teaching us today!” Uraraka cheered, shaking Izuku’s shoulder. “Isn’t that exciting, Deku?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess,” Izuku halfheartedly replied, poking at his meal with his free arm.

“What’s the matter?” Koda asked in a quiet voice, a worried expression on his face. “You look up to him, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” Izuku nodded, “it’s just, I don’t want to disappoint him is all.”

“Disappoint him?” Kurusu asked in a confused voice. “How do you mean?”

“I still don’t have control over my quirk,” Izuku sighed, placing his chopsticks down by his plate. “Every time I use it, I wind up getting hurt. Mr. Aizawa is giving me a pass at the moment because I didn’t bust up my whole arm yesterday, only a finger. But Recovery Girl isn’t happy about it, and she always chewing me out everytime I have to go there. But the worst part is that she’s right. I can’t be a Pro with a quirk that damages me as much as it does.”

“Actually, now that you mention it, your quirk does interest me, Midoriya,” Kurusu admitted.

“Really?” Uraraka asked, tilting her head. “Isn’t Deku’s quirk just super strength that he can’t handle yet?”

“No, I don’t believe it is,” Kurusu said. “Many people make the mistake of collecting all strength quirks under the same banner, but the truth is that there are many different types. Take All Might for example: his strength quirk allows him to be incredibly powerful, a fairly simple quirk.”

“Right, I can see that,” Izuku nodded, even though he knew the truth about All Might's quirk was much more complicated.

“Then you could look at my father,” Kurusu continued. “Father has strength that could seemingly only belong to someone who has a strength quirk, but the truth is that he has a regeneration quirk; his strength is simply the result of his body repairing itself to a stronger state after his muscle fibres have been damaged.

“As for you, Midoriya, to be honest, I think your quirk…”

‘Oh no!’ Izuku thought. ‘Don’t tell me she suspects All Might and I have the same quirk!’

“...is strength amplification.”

“Huh?” was all Izuku was able to say, the fear of someone discovering his deepest, most important secret being washed away, leaving only confusion.

“I only noticed it recently, but the energy that your body emits when you use your quirk, I believe is your strength being amplified.”

“Then why does Deku hurt himself each time?” Uraraka asked.

“Simple, he’s simply using too much of it.”

Her simple answer stunned Izuku, as well as everyone else at the table.

“Has that really been Midoriya’s problem all along?” Ida thought aloud. “It would certainly explain the self-injury.”

“I know my body can’t handle my quirk, but I don’t know how else to control it,” Izuku lamented, hanging his head. “The most I’ve been able to do is limit the damage to certain parts of my body, like my fingers. But it’s really hard to try and pull back some of my power once I activate my quirk.”

“What do you mean?” Koda asked, and nods from everyone else at the table showed they were wondering the same thing.

“Well, whenever I turn on my quirk, I imagine it like an egg in the microwave,” Izuku explained, using the analogy he had told All Might months ago. “The problem is that there’s simply too much energy being used. And if I try and stop some of that energy from being emitted, it takes up too much of my concentration to do anything else, and the power just dissipates.”

“Wait, are you trying to control the full power of your quirk?” Ida asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not going great,” Izuku admitted. “At this point, all I can do is let the power flow through one finger at a time, just to stop me from becoming useless after one hit.”

Silence fell across the table. Izuku looked around at his friends, only to be taken aback by the looks and confusion he saw on all of their faces.

“W-Why are you trying to use ALL of your quirk?” Uraraka asked.

“What?” Izuku asked, glancing at his friends. “What do you mean?”

“Oh heavens, now it makes sense,” Kurusu muttered, fixing a stern look at Izuku. “Tell me truthfully, Midoriya. Is it true that your quirk emerged late in life?”

“Y-Yeah,” Izuku admitted hesitantly.

“How late?” Ida asked.

“F-Fourteen,” Izuku explained. “It appeared in my final year of middle school.”

“So Bakugo was right. You being a late bloomer would explain your dismal control over your quirk,” Kurusu sighed, looking Izuku in the eyes. “I’ll be brutally honest. You, Izuku Midoriya, are using your quirk like an infant.”

“What?” Izuku squeaked. “Dismal? Infant?”

“What I mean is that you haven’t learnt to limit your strength,” Kurusu explained. “At the moment, you’re using no power, or all power. What you need isn’t control over your full strength, but instead limiting how much power you’re exerting, enough that it’s sufficient for the task at hand, but not so much that it damages your body.”

“Kurusu, you’re a genius!” Izuku exclaimed, whipping out his journal and rapidly writing down notes. “Maybe this would allow me to completely avoid the damage done to my body!”

Izuku continued to furiously note down any ideas that came to mind, but as one fact reared its ugly head, the pace of his writing slowed down, until it stopped.

“Well, even if it does help me with my control, it simply replaces one problem with another,” he sighed, sadly looking at the notes he had written.

“What's wrong, Deku?” Uraraka asked. “I thought that this would help you be a Pro.”

“It could, but by limiting my strength, I’m just not strong enough. The time it takes for the energy to build up in my body is too long. I never needed to worry about it before, because one hit was always enough, but by limiting my strength, it would take many hits to get the job done. I don't think the villains are going to be willing to stand still while I turn it on again.”

Once more, silence fell across the table.

“Are you turning your quirk off after each use?” Ida asked with a baffled expression.

“Well yeah, isn't that normal?” Izuku asked with a nervous voice.

“Midoriya, if I'm using my Engine quirk, I don't turn off engines whenever I don't need to use them,” Ida explained, his voice becoming more and more exasperated. “Why, it would be as if a knight had to doff their armour every time they tried to attack their enemy, rather than simply leaving it on and continuing the fight, even if they aren’t actively fighting at every moment!”

A jolt of electricity seemed to go through Izuku's mind. 

“Leaving the armour on, even when there’s a lull in the fighting, rather than taking it off after each attack…” he muttered, heedless of the rant that Ida had broken off into.

“That’s it!” Izuku exclaimed. “Ida, I’m a suit of armour!”

“Uh, no you're not,” Uraraka nervously chuckled. “Deku, you didn't hit your head in yesterday's class, right?”

“No no, not that,” Izuku exclaimed, once more writing down notes in his journal. “What I mean is that Ida is right! All this time, I've thought that I needed to turn my quirk on and off each time I use it, like a light switch. But, what if I leave it on, like a suit of armour?! And the metaphor goes further! I've been struggling to control my power at 100%, but what if instead of fighting with the heaviest, most powerful suit of armour right from the beginning, I just wear a lighter suit of armour, one that I can move easily in, limiting how much armour, or power, is being used at once! Not so much that I break my body trying to move it, but enough to be an effective hero!”

“While it is a strange metaphor, so long as you understand it, I suppose that works,” Kurusu admitted.

“Should I try it out in class today?” Izuku asked. “Do you think All Might will be pleased to see my progress?”

Of course, what the others didn't know was that Izuku was privately hoping that his mentor would be pleased to see how well Izuku had gained some form of control over One For All.

“I don't see why not, but I'd recommend private training as well,” Kurusu suggested. “Try to use a controllable level of strength in your everyday life. Picking up a spoon, eating a meal, whatever it is that you do, use your quirk while doing so.”

“Isn't that excessive?” Koda quietly asked. “He shouldn't need that much strength.”

“Exactly my point,” Kurusu nodded. “By doing such menial tasks with his enhanced strength, Midoriya would be able to more fine tune his strength. It is no different to how infants must learn that they don't need to use all of their strength to lift a spoon to their mouth, else the food will go flying from the force. Perhaps one day, amplifying your strength will become second nature, as easy to do as breathing or running.”

“Yeah, that's an awesome idea!” Uraraka cheered. “Oh, Deku, maybe you could do an egg-and-spoon race to practise! And maybe we could help you! After all, Kurusu is really strong herself!”

“That sounds like an enjoyable idea, Uraraka,” Kurusu nodded. “How about we create a group chat on our phones and organise a date for it. I'm sure my parents would be fine with us using some of the land on our estate.”

“““Estate?””” Izuku, Uraraka and Koda all whispered.

“Oh, it's not that large,” Kurusu shyly insisted. “It's mostly untamed forests, allowing my family plenty of room to run or fly around.”

“One of Sarah's step-mothers is a Harpy heteromorph, as are two of her half-siblings,” Ida explained.

“Wow, now I really want to go!” Uraraka cheered. “I can't wait to see my parents’ faces when I tell them I've been to an actual mansion!”

“I'd like to see the animals,” Koda whispered with a nod. “I could train my quirk as well.”

“Then it seems we are all in agreement,” Ida nodded, pulling out his phone as he spoke. “Now, what times suit everyone?”

-]l[-

The after-lunch classes rolled around without much fanfare, and throughout both of them, Izuku was buzzing with energy. He couldn’t wait for their Basic Hero Training classes, couldn’t wait for the opportunity to show All Might that he had managed to gain some form of control over the quirk that had been gifted him, to show that All Might hadn’t made a mistake in choosing Izuku. And as the bell rang at 3 PM, Izuku knew that that time was now.

“Now, for Basic Hero Training,” Mr. Aizawa droned, standing at the podium at the front of the class, “this time, All Might, myself and one other will supervise.”

‘This time?’ Izuku wondered. ‘So it’s a special class.’

“So, what’re we doing, exactly?” Kórinis Kurusu asked from the back of the class. “We usually have you teaching us, right? All Might teaches us every second day, so to have both of you plus someone else teaching us, it can’t be usual, right?”

“That’s partially correct, Kurusu,” Mr. Aizawa nodded. “This will be a class that you’ll have on a semi-regular basis, once a week.”

He reached into one of his pockets, drawing out a plaque and displaying it to the class.

“Today, we’ll be preparing you for disaster relief, from fires to floods.”

“““““It’s rescue training!””””” many in the class cheered, with Izuku noticing that Uraraka was one of the most excited.

“Rescue, huh?” Kaminari thought out loud. “Sounds like another rough day.”

“Totally!” Ashido grinned, clearly more excited than her electric seating neighbour.

“Come on, man, this is what being a hero’s all about!” Kirishima cheered, grabbing Kaminari’s shoulder and shaking him back and forth. “I’m pumped!”

“And I’ll be right at home in a flood, ribbit, ” Asui spoke aloud.

“Hey,” Mr. Aizawa growled, quickly silencing the class, “I’m not done yet.” 

Pulling a remote out of another pocket, he activated the class lockers, automatically sliding out of the walls.

“It’s up to each of you whether or not you wear your hero costumes,” he explained, “as some of them are ill-suited to this sort of activity. The training site is a fair distance from the main campus, so we’ll be going by bus. That’s all. Get ready.”

‘Rescue training,’ Izuku thought to himself as he collected his costume case. ‘This’ll help me become the great hero I know I can be! Being able to learn new rescue techniques AND show All Might my improvement with my quirk? I’ll do my best!’

After changing into his costume, which now consisted of his gym clothes and some accessories from his original costume that had survived his explosive fight with Kacchan, Izuku and his classmates head outside, walking towards the bus that had been parked on one of the many roads that snaked through the campus.

“ Hmm ? You wore your gym clothes, Deku?” Uraraka asked, walking alongside him. “Where’s your costume?”

“It didn’t make it through the Battle Training class we had on Tuesday,” Izuku explained. “Though it makes sense why you’d ask; afterall, we didn’t need to use our costumes in Mr. Aizawa’s B.H.T. class yesterday.”

“B.H.T.?”

“Basic Hero Training,” Izuku explained, looking down at his patchwork costume. “The school’s support company is repairing it. Just gotta wait for now. But I did buy a new facemask.”

“Attention, everyone!” Sarah Kurusu called out ahead of them, clapping her hands. Focusing his gaze forwards, Izuku saw the rest of the class gathered in front of the bus, with Mr. Aizawa, Ida, and Kurusu standing in front of it, facing everyone else.

“Please board the bus in a single file line. Seating order isn’t necessary, but please take seats next to someone to make sure everyone has space. And while it might be a bit self-centered coming from me, make sure that any specialty seating places are given to those of us with abnormal body types, such as myself, my sister, or Ojiro.”

“Single file, everyone!” Ida called out, a whistle held in his mouth. “We’re wasting valuable lesson time by waiting out here.”

Quickly boarding the bus, Izuku found the layout of it to be different than usual. Where there were normally two rows of double seats on the bus, the front of this one had seats that were placed against the wall, causing those who sat on them to face each other. Taking one of these seats, Izuku found himself sitting in between Sarah Kurusu on one side, who was lying lengthwise, using two of the seats as they were designed to be accommodating for those with non-human bodies, while Asui sat on Izuku’s other side. Across from the three of them were Ida, Kirishima, Ashido, and Aoyama.

“I told you your seating plan wouldn’t have worked,” Kurusu said, trying to comfort Ida who sat across from her, his head hanging low in shame.

“I just thought that by boarding the bus according to our I.D. numbers, it’d be more efficient,” Ida sighed. “I didn’t consider the bus could be like this.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, Vice-Pres,” Kirishima reassured. “The way you and Pres got everyone on was really manly! You had a plan sorted beforehand and everything!”

“I generally say what’s on my mind, Midoriya,” Asui said out of nowhere, somewhat startling Izuku as he looked at the girl next to him.

“Oh? What is it, Asui?” he asked.

“Call me Tsu,” the Bullywug insisted, turning to face Izuku. “Your quirk resembles All Might’s.”

“R-R-R-R-Really?!” Izuku stammered, his face pale and sweaty with nervousness. “No, I mean-”

“Sorry, Asui, but I think you’re under a misconception,” Kurusu disagreed, causing the Bullywug to lean forwards to look past Izuku, tilting her head at the Class President.

“What do you mean?” she croaked, placing an index finger on her lip.

“You weren’t there when we discussed it, but the five of us, that is, Midoriya, Uraraka, Tenya, Koda, and I, believe that Izuku’s quirk isn’t super strength like it is with All Might, but rather amplification.”

“What’s the difference?” Kirishima asked, joining in on the conversation. “Other than, you know, All Might not breaking his body whenever he fights.”

“Strength enhancing quirks come in many different forms,” Kurusu explained, facing Kirishima. “A simple example would be All Might, who has enhanced strength. However, more obscure examples could be Midoriya, who’s quirk seems to amplify his abilities, rather than simply increasing them at a baseline level.” 

“Oh, kind of like math,” Kirishima stated, tapping his fist into his open palm. “While All Might’s quirk is like a really high number, Midoriya’s quirk is like an exponential, such as two to the power of itself. While it starts out small, being four, if you keep going it gets larger and larger, each multiplication being an even greater increase.”

While chatter continued to sound out on the bus, Izuku and the others seated around Kirishima were staring at him with shocked expressions.

“Eikiri, when the hell were you good with math?!” Ashido practically screeched, clutching her head. “I struggled with math all throughout middle school, and there was a good looking guy who could help me with it all along?!”

“You think I’m good looking?” Kirishima asked with a shocked expression, a light blush on his cheeks.

“Plenty of girls thought you were cute, but that doesn’t matter right now because I still haven’t forgiven you for letting me scrape by in algebra!” Ashido declared, looking forward towards the window behind Izuku with a hmph , though Izuku's position allowed him to easily see the smile she was trying to keep down. Kirishima, on the other hand, only seeing the side of her face, didn’t have the luxury to notice Ashido’s amused expression.

“I’ll make it up to you!” Kirishima promised, leaning forward to get Ashido to look at him, but this only caused her to twist around even more, now facing completely away from him, facing Aoyama.

“Uh, how about during the Final Exams before Summer Break, I help you with studying? We can meet up somewhere and study together!”

Ashido turned to face Kirishima, and after a tense moment of silence, her stern expression started to waver, then wobble, before Ashido folded over, clutching her stomach as she laughed, slapping Kirishima’s exposed shoulders.

“Oh, Eikiri, you’re so easy to tease!” she cackled, her laughter causing her to lose her balance, the back of her head landing on Kirishima’s lap, her legs meanwhile kicking about, much to Aoyama’s very clear annoyance.

Ashido’s laughter eventually calmed down, the remnants of it resulting in small shakes of Ashido’s shoulders. She pointed her arm upward, her finger directly in front of Kirishima’s face.

“Alright, deal,” she grinned, looking up at his now blushing face. “But remember, Eikiri, you’ve made me a promise, and bad things always happen to those that break their promises.”

“Yep, promise made, got it,” Kirishima nodded, nervous sweat running down his blushing cheeks.

‘I wonder if that’s what I look like when I’m talking to Uraraka,’ Izuku idly thought, quickly being taken out of them by Kurusu clearing her throat to his side.

“Ashido’s antics aside, Kirishima’s correct,” Kurusu nodded, bringing the conversation back onto its tracks after being derailed. “Another example would be my father; he has a regeneration quirk, one that causes his body to repair itself stronger each time it is damaged. According to one of my step-mothers, when Father was in high school, she was harassed by a quirkist couple due to her being a Lamia. Even at sixteen, he was strong enough to send them flying down the street a couple of metres just with a single punch. Nowadays, my father is able to crumple metal should he put much effort into it.”

“As for Midoriya’s issues with damaging his body, I believe that his current issue is due to the fact that he is using too much of his power, more than his body is able to handle,” Kurusu continued. “This partially stems from the ludicrously high power that he is able to manifest, but also due to the fact that it is a recently manifested quirk.”

“Wow, really, Midoriya?!” Kirishima exclaimed. “Damn, for you to have gotten into the Hero Course with a quirk that’s so difficult to control, and you don’t have much experience with it?! Super manly! That sort of simple, strength-enhancing quirk is awesome! You can do a lot of cool stuff with it!”

Kirishima looked down at his arms, a fond yet sad expression on his face.

“Not like my hardening,” he said, holding his arms out in the air, tensing them and causing them to become sharp and rock-like. “I’m good in a fight, but it’s real boring, not flashy in the slightest.”

“I think that’s pretty neat, though,” Izuku argued. “Your quirk’s more than enough if you want to go Pro.”

“Going Pro, wouldn’t that be amazing!” Kirishima imagined before coming back down to Earth, albeit with a cheerier expression than before. “But don’t forget that heroes also have to worry about popular appeal!”

“Don’t worry, Eikiri!” Ashido grinned up at him, her head still resting on his lap, waggling her eyebrows as she tapped his abdomen with a finger. “If popular appeal is what you’re worried about, just keep showing off those washboard abs of yours, and you’ll have the popular votes from plenty of girls, and some guys as well, probably.”

“My Navel Laser is both strong and cool,” Aoyama argued, also joining the conversation. “Perfect for a Pro.”

“As long as you don’t get a tummy ache!” Ashido teased, which Aoyama simply responded to with a deadpan stare.

“You wanna talk strong and cool? That’d be Bakugo, Todoroki, and the Kurusu sisters for sure,” Kirishima said, pointing his thumb down the bus, where Kacchan and Kórinis Kurusu were seated just beside Asui. Further back, right behind them in fact, sat Todoroki alongside his partner from the Battle Trial, Shoji.

“Hell yeah we are!” the younger Kurusu sister grinned, flashing a rocker symbol with one hand, the other pulling Kacchan into her side. “Dynamite and I make an awesome hero team! Thanks for the confidence, Banjaku!”

“ Tch, ” Kacchan scoffed, looking out the window instead of responding to Kirishima’s praise.

“But Bakugo’s so unhinged,” Asui retorted with a straight face. “He’d never be popular.”

“What’d you say, frog-face?!” Kacchan roared, trying to get out of his seat and lunge at Asui, only to be held back by his Arachne friend.

“See?” Asui said to Izuku, either oblivious to the efforts Kacchan was making to get out of Kórinis Kurusu’s grip, or simply not caring.

“We’ve only barely started socialising and already you’ve made it abundantly clear to us the unpleasantness of your steamed turd of a personality,” Kaminari said in a posh accent, seated across from Kacchan and Kórinis Kurusu, sitting next to Jiro, on of her earphone jacks plugged into her phone.

“Yeah, okay, Mr. Vocabulary, how about I pound you?!” Kacchan yelled, once again being restrained by Kurusu.

“Save it, Dynamite,” she sighed, showing only the slightest amount of effort at holding back the explosive teen. “Just wait for one of our battle training classes, then you can lay the smack down on Sparky.”

“How about I lay the smack down on him right now, damn it?!” Kacchan challenged, writhing in Kurusu’s grip, who at this point had to use her pedipalps to restrain him.

“I don’t think your mouth could get any fouler, Bakugo,” Kaminari smirked, turning his attention back to whatever he and Jiro were watching on her phone.

“Now now, everyone, that’s enough,” Sarah Kurusu ordered, a firm tone beginning to enter into her voice. “While competition and challenges amongst us can be beneficial, let us not allow it to devolve into senseless bickering. After all, at the end of the day, all of us aspire to be heroes, and will likely have to work alongside one another in the field someday.”

Kacchan didn’t reply to Kurusu’s statement, though he did noticeably stop thrashing and writhing in Kórinis Kurusu’s embrace, opting to instead look out the window with a scowl.

“Kaminari, I’d like you to apologise to Bakugo for your words,” Kurusu sternly instructed, fixing her gaze on the electric blond.

“Yeah, okay, so maybe calling you a steamed turd was a bit much,” Kaminari admitted, remorsefully smiling at Kacchan. “Sorry about that, man, it kind of came out when I decided to be all posh and stuff.”

Kacchan didn’t respond, but given the flickering eye movement that Izuku noticed or the twitch of his lip, it was clear that he had heard the apology.

“Asui, you as well,” Kurusu added, turning to face her fellow heteromorph.

“Well, there’s a whole bunch of people out in the world with different views, so I guess someone out there would find Bakugo cool,” Asui answered, tactically only half apologising. “And please, call me Tsu.”

“Alright, Aunt Suu, that’s probably the best I’ll get,” Kurusu sighed, hanging her head.

The entire bus was silent, every student, no matter if they were preoccupied or not beforehand, were now looking at their class president with confused expressions. Even Mr. Aizawa had gotten up from his nap, his eyes frowning as he looked at his student, like she was a puzzle he couldn’t solve. For the person everyone’s attention was on, however, her face had turned a crimson red, and she quickly buried her face in her hands, letting off a muffled shriek.

All were silent, though this was quickly broken by the sounds of merciless laughter that only a sibling could produce.

“AHAHAHAHAHA!” Kórinis Kurusu laughed, her pedipalps kicking out like they were legs. “YOU, YOU CALLED HER A-AUNT SUU! Ahaha, oh, I’m telling about that tonight!”

“Shut up!” Sarah Kurusu cried, her head shooting up from her hands, her blue eyes welling with shameful tears and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “You know exactly why it happened!”

“But it’s funny because it happened!” the Arachne chuckled, her laughter dying down enough for her to properly speak.

“Right, well, perfect timing, Kurusu,” Mr. Aizawa’s slightly surprised voice said, causing Sarah Kurusu to let out another wail of protest, one that Mr. Aizawa ignored, stepping forward to address the class. “We’re here. Look sharp now.”

“““““Yes, sir!””””” the class chorused.

Stepping off the bus, Izuku and his classmates marvelled at the sight before them. A large, domed building dominated the area. Stepping through the doorway, everyone was taken aback by different sights they saw. A sinking ship in a watery area, a mountainous zone, an area where a bunch of buildings seemed to have collapsed into rubble, a landslide zone, and two other domes that hid what was inside. All that could be seen was one of them was red, with light seeming to emanate from parts of it, while the other was a greyish blue.

“Woah, this place is like a themepark!” Ashido cheered, her head moving all around as she tried to take in everything.

“There’s the Flood Zone, the Landslide Zone, the Conflagration Zone, and many more,” A voice called out. 

The class turned around, taking in the sight of the speaker. Their costume looked like a space suit, the helmet a black dome with two white eyes drawn on the top of it, a white puffer jacket forming the suit, and a pair of yellow boots completing the look.

“It’s the Space Hero: Thirteen!” Izuku exclaimed, his encyclopedic knowledge of Pro Heroes within Japan instantly telling him who it was.

“She’s a gentle hero who does her best work in rescue scenarios,” Uraraka gushed, fangirling over their teacher. “Ooh, I love Thirteen!”

“Hello, children,” the Space Hero greeted. “Almost every disaster and accident you can imagine is represented here. I built this facility myself. I call it the ‘Unforeseen Simulation Joint’.”

‘‘‘‘‘Just like Universal Studios Japan,’’’’’ many in the class thought.

“Today, you’ll have your first of what is sure to be many sessions here at the U.S.J.,” Thirteen explained, stretching her arms out wide, the many areas behind her. “This will be a weekly session, where you will learn what to do in different disaster scenarios, playing as both the rescuers and those trapped in disasters. Even if you plan to be a battle hero, every Pro and sidekick needs to know the basics of rescue training. Otherwise, when disaster strikes, and make no mistake, it will, you’ll be helpless to save anyone, unable to fulfil your role as a hero.”

Having finished her declaration, properly changing the mood from theme park excitement to students realising the gravity of the situation, Mr. Aizawa walked over to Thirteen, the two of them having a quiet discussion of some kind.

“This place is incredible!” Izuku admired as he stood with his friends, all of them looking around at the different areas. “I wonder what zone we’re going to start with?”

“I’m hoping for the Landslide Zone,” Sarah Kurusu explained. “Due to my quirk, I find it doubtful that I’d do well in what looks to be a Ruin Zone, and I am not the most proficient climber either, so hopefully not the Mountain Zone.”

“I think the Ruin Zone would be perfect for me!” Uraraka exclaimed. “I’d be able to make all of the rubble weightless, and pick it up like whoosh , like it weighs nothing at all.”

“Let’s get started,” Mr. Aizawa declared, the private conversation between him and Thirteen clearly over.

“Before we do, I have one or two points…or three…four,” Thirteen trailed off, counting the various points on her fingers, before shaking her head, turning to face the class. “Regardless, as I’m sure many of you are aware, my quirk is called Black Hole. It can suck in and tear apart anything.”

“And you’ve used it to save people in all sorts of disasters,” Izuku noted, Uraraka furiously nodding her head, so much so that she seemed to have two pairs of eyes.

“Indeed, however, my power could easily kill,” Thirteen challenged, immediately causing the mood to become serious. “I’ve no doubt there are some among you with similar abilities. Abilities that in the wrong hand, used for the wrong purposes, could maim rather than mend, hurt rather than heal. Many criticise Japan for its laws that heavily restrict and monitor the usage of our quirks. It may seem that this system is a stable one, but we must never forget that it only takes one wrong move with an uncontrollable quirk for people to die. During Aizawa’s physical fitness test, you came to learn of your own hidden potential. Through All Might’s battle training, you experienced the danger that your respective quirks can pose to others.”

But what was a serious, somewhat dour tone quickly changed to a hopeful, anticipating tone. 

“This class will show you a new perspective! You will learn how to utilise your quirks to save lives. Your powers are not meant to inflict harm. I hope you leave here today with the understanding that you’re meant to help people. That is all, I thank you for listening,” Thirteen bowed, the class giving the Space Hero a round of applause, with Ida in particular giving a loud, “Bravo! Bravo!” as he clapped.

“Great. First off…” Aizawa said, beginning to get the lesson underway, before trailing off, an odd feeling in his gut. Amongst the class, other students were having similar reactions. From Sarah Kurusu’s ears flicking and swivelling around, as well as giving short, sharp exhalations of air out of her nose, to Kaminari, looking around in confusion, as well as Jiro, tilting her head, trying to pinpoint where, as well as what, she was hearing. Then, at the bottom of the stairwell, a small, swirling mass of purple smoke appeared, enlarging to the height of a man, then to the height of two. And out of this mass of smoke was a man with light blue hair, severed hands latched onto his face, head and arms. And following behind this man were a horde of individuals, each of them of different shapes, sizes, and styles.

“HUDDLE UP AND DON’T MOVE!” Mr. Aizawa yelled, the class taken aback by their normal quiet teacher’s outburst. 

“What the heck’s that?” Kirishima exclaimed, a hand to his brow as he tried to see what was going on down below in front of their teacher. “More battle robots? Like during the Entrance Exam?”

“Don’t move!” Mr. Aizawa reiterated, the golden goggles he always wore sliding down over his eyes. “Those are villains!”

“Thirteen, and Eraser Head, is it?” came a voice from the fog. The vague shape of a head appeared, eyes marked by yellow lights from within. “According to the staff schedule I received the other day, All Might is supposed to be here.”

“Of course that whole incident was this scum’s doing,” Mr. Aizawa muttered.

“Where is he?” came the raspy voice of the Hand Man. “We’ve come all this way. We brought so many playmates. All Might, the Symbol of Peace, is he here?”

The blue haired man’s gaze seemed to focus onto Izuku and his classmates, causing a shiver of terror to go down Izuku’s spine at the madness as sensed in the villain's gaze.

“I wonder if some dead kids will bring him here?” the villain wondered aloud, his voice loud enough for Izuku and the others to hear it, the implication clear.

-]l[-

“Villains?! No way!” Sarah heard Kirishima yell in shock. “What villains’d be dumb enough to sneak into a school for heroes?”

“Ms. Thirteen, aren’t there intruder sensors?” Yaoyorozu asked with concern in her voice.

“Yes, of course there are!” Thirteen exclaimed, looking around frantically, seemingly unsure why the alarms weren’t sounding.

“Are they only here, or also at the main building?” Shoto thought aloud, ice forming on the right hand side of his mage-themed clothing, a frosty staff forming in his hand. “Either way, if the sensors aren’t working, it has to be one of their quirks that’s doing it. This place is on the far edge of the campus, and they picked a time when there’d be few people here. So maybe they’re not as dumb as they seem. They must have an objective, because this is a well-coordinated sneak attack.”

“Thirteen, begin evacuation!” Mr. Aizawa commanded, facing down the stairs towards the approaching villains. “And try contacting the school! Todorooki is right, one of these villains must be jamming the sensors, and there’s a good chance that it’s an electric-type causing the interference.”

Turning his head to face his students, Mr. Aizawa locked eyes with Kaminari.

“Kaminari, try using your quirk to signal for help,” he ordered.

“Already on it,” Kaminari replied, a hand held up to the communicator he wore on his ear, the hand sparking with discharging electricity.

“But Mr. Aizawa, you can’t fight them all alone!” Midoriya argued. “Against that many, even your quirk can’t nullify all their quirks! As Eraser Head, your fighting style involves Erasure and a quick binding capture. Head on battle isn’t-”

“No good hero is a one-trick pony,” Mr. Aizawa declared, gripping his binding cloth in his hands. “Thirteen. Take care of them.”

With that, their teacher leapt down the staircase, binding cloth at the ready. Three villains moved to intercept him, their quirks seeming to be suited for ranged combat. Against any other Pro, they’d likely have been successful in the villain’s opening salvo. That is, of course, if they weren’t facing off against the Erasure Hero: Eraser Head.

His binding cloth shot forward, wrapping around them while they were distracted by their quirks being suppressed. They were dragged up into the air, their heads slamming together, and were unceremoniously released, dropping to the group unconscious. 

A Tetra Arms decided to try his luck next, his four arms covered in what appeared to be a rocky outfit. While Sarah knew that his quirk wouldn’t be able to be Erased, due to him being a heteromorph, it didn’t stop Mr. Aizawa from launching him back with a punch, only to wrap one end of his binding cloth around the villains leg, slamming him down into a group of villains.

“Come on, everyone, this way!” Thirteen exclaimed, catching the class’ attention, drawing it away from watching their homeroom teacher display his skills. “The doors aren’t powered, so they’ll be easy to open! Once we’re out, we can send out a call for help to the other teachers.”

Sarah moved with the rest of her class, walking at a controlled yet hurried pace. However, her sensitive hearing was able to pick up the sound of quiet murmuring from behind her.

“Wow! He can hold his own even when outnumbered,” Midoriya said to himself, his gaze transfixed on the fight that was going on down below.

“Midoriya, now isn’t the time!” Sarah called out, idly noting that Tenya had noticed their quirk-obsessed classmate’s absence as well. “Hurry up and evacuate!”

That snapped the vertet out of his thoughts, hurrying over to join the others.

“I won’t allow that,” came the booming, menacing voice of the fog villain who had caused the breach, appearing before them.

Everyone came to a screeching halt, many of them staring up at the villain with fear in their eyes.

The villain was formed out of a purple fog or mist, yellow, glowing eyes located on the vague shape of it’s head. It loomed over them, and metal plates wrapped around the being’s neck.

“Greetings,” the villain said cordially. “We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but today, we’ve come here to U.A. High School, this bastion of heroism, to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace.”

Sarah was stunned by the declaration.

‘They are here to kill All Might?’ she thought in disbelief. ‘What manner of Saturday cartoon villains are they?’

But as the thought left her mind, the words of her cousin registered.

‘No, if they made all of this effort for the infiltration, knowing specifically that All Might were here, then they must have a plan, a reason to make them so bold as to attempt this.’

“We were under the impression that All Might would be here today, but it seems his schedule was revised?” the fog villain idly wondered. “Well, no matter. My role remains the same.”

The villain was cut off as Sarah watched three of her classmates dashing towards the villain, being Kirishima, Bakugo, and her own sister, Kórinis. Kirishima rushed for the villains left, his arms hardening with blade-like edges. Bakugo ran for the villain’s middle, his palm open, ready to deliver an explosion. Kórinis, with nowhere else to go, went for the villain’s right, a line of silky thread shooting out from her wrist. Bakugo and Kirishima connected with an explosion from the blond and a swing of his arm from the redhead.

“Not if we end you first!” Kirishima declared. “Betcha didn’t see that coming!”

However, despite the actions of the three, the villain reappeared, forming a short distance away.

“That was close,” he said with a small level of nervousness. “Yes, students though you may be, you are the best of the best.”

“No, get back, the three of you!” Thirteen yelled, her hands held out, fingers facing towards the villain, but her quirk was held back out of fear for the three overly eager students who were now in the way.

“BEGONE!” the villain boomed, his misty form growing exponentially large and inhuman, sweeping out to the sides, trapping the class and their teacher within. “WRITHE IN TORMENT! UNTIL YOU HAVE BREATHED YOUR LAST!”

“Kórinis!” Sarah yelled, rushing for her sister, or at least where she had been before the fog had descended upon them.

“Sarah!” came her sister’s desperate reply.

Sarah rushed forward, hoping to grab ahold of her younger sister, ensuring that they stayed together, regardless of what the villain was planning. But as she swept out her arms, hoping to grab Kórinis in her embrace, all she grabbed was air.

“No,” Sarah gasped, a sense of weightlessness taking over her. “Sister.”

Looking down, Sarah was shocked to see that her sense of weightlessness wasn’t metaphorical, but literal. Beneath her was the Mountain Zone, and fortunately due to the height of the fake disaster zone, Sarah’s weightlessness only lasted a moment before roughly landing on the ground. Her ears picked up panicked screams from above, and looking up, saw the sight of Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, and Jiro all falling from a mass of purple mist, a mass that was rapidly shrinking after the three had emerged.

Calculating the distance, Sarah burst into a gallop, launching herself into the air, grabbing her falling classmates in her arms, safely landing back on the ground.

“Kurusu?” Yaoyorozu gasped, taking a wobbly step back as she stood on her own two feet. “Where, are we?”

“It looks like the Mountain Zone,” Jiro observed, glancing around the area. “Did that villain teleport us here? And where are the others?”

“You three were the only ones I saw,” Sarah explained. “It seems that the villains have decided to divide and conquer. As loath as I am to compliment such lowlifes, it is a commendable strategy.”

“Hey, uh, ladies?” Kaminari asked with a worried tone. “I don’t think these guys are wanting autographs.”

Jiro and Yaoyorozu gasped as they looked over, taking in the sight of a group of villains surrounding them on three sides, the only protection being the rockwall behind them. Sarah was unperturbed, having heard their movement before Kaminari had noticed them.

“Prepare yourselves,” Sarah instructed, arming herself with her mace and towershield, turning to face the villains. “They will show you no mercy, so none may be given to them.”

“To gang up on students; simply disgusting,” Yaoyorozu scowled, a metal bo staff forming from her exposed stomach that she quickly gripped, spinning it around in a display of her expertise with the weapon.

“So, uh, which dozen do you ladies want to take?” Kaminari jested, trying to keep their spirits up, even when surrounded. “Because if you ask me, they all look equally nasty.”

Sarah didn’t answer his quip, merely striking her mace’s head against her shield in challenge, creating a loud clanging noise due to the wood having not yet been replaced.

‘Just stay safe, Kórinis,’ Sarah prayed, readying herself for the fight. ‘I’ll find you, wherever they’ve taken you. As the eldest child of Kimihito Kurusu, this I swear.’

Monica Rial: “If I had a dollar for every time I played an anime girl named with an ‘SU’ sound for their name, and they had water themed powers, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”

Yeah, I kid you not, Suu’s voice actor in Monster Musume and Tsu’s voice actor in My Hero Academia are the same person for the English dub, hence the bit. The more you know…

So, when researching U.A. as a school, I discovered two things: first, U.A. has a six-day roster, meaning you get Sundays off, and that’s it. Yikes. Secondly, All Might only teaches the first-years, classes 1-A and 1-B. I mean, I get it, wanting to make the biggest impression for the first-years, but come on, really?! Imagine being a second-year student, only to hear that All Might, No. 1 Pro Hero in Japan, is teaching the first-years. Not only that, but you missed being taught by All Might by a single year. Given the schedule for U.A. Heroics Course students, I could see All Might being rotated amongst the years. Since the Heroics Course is only classes A and B, and there are three year levels, I could easily see him teaching a class a day, giving their homeroom teacher a break, while also being really encouraging to the students. Also, what’s up with the times that Class 1-A was assigned for their U.S.J. trip? In canon, this happens at 12:50 PM, which is twenty minutes into their lunch period. Also, Hero Basic Training is meant to be in the afternoon, at 3:20 PM. The times don’t add up! Were they expected to miss TWO classes to have their extended Heroics class? Is this the norm, where each Hero Course class has an entire afternoon off with only a twenty minute lunch break? I don’t know, just something I thought of. Hell, I’ve started another MHA story recently, so maybe I’ll implement those changes then? I’d need to completely change how some events go, but it might be doable. If you’d be keen for that, let me know. Anyway, back to the chapter.

Kind of wanted to get this off my chest first, even if it’s out of order, but Thirteen’s speech was entirely hers, not mine. In my opinion, her view of Japan’s quirk laws, how they are for the betterment of society, is complete bull. The system is literally designed to hide away people’s abilities, make sure that people don’t know how to use them, and then act surprised when someone without experience in how to use their quirk uses it in a high stress environment, potentially causing property damage, or worse, taking a life. Also the notion that every other nation in the world has the same quirk laws is also ridiculous. You’re telling me that the U.S.A. would prohibit superpowers? The U.S.? Homeplace of superheroes as a concept? Freedomland itself? Yeah, not likely. While I absolutely believe that Japan has one of the lowest villain rates in the world, this is likely due to All Might being present, i.e. a massive nuclear deterrent, as well as the very strict quirk laws. Also, where does the government of Japan get off on the notion that it is considered a criminal act to use your quirk in self defence? Like, what?! It’s probably the darker side of MHA, where those with a mutant quirk are inherently disadvantaged, not only due to discrimination, but also in terms of the law. If Mashirao is attacked by thugs and he fights back, not much happens, it’s considered self defence. HOWEVER, if he uses his tail to defend himself, even if only as a reaction rather than conscious thought, he’d be facing charges of quirk misuse. Now, we don’t know what kind of sentence this carries, and it likely is dependent on the nature of the quirk usage. In Vigilantes (which is getting an anime adaptation, hype!) we see that Koichi, the main protagonist, gets a slap on the wrist from an officer for using his quirk to get to work. So using it in a way that doesn’t affect people is probably something similar to riding a bike without a helmet. However, I’d reckon that attacking someone while using your quirk, even in self defence, would be like pulling out a gun or a weapon, and be considered an escalation of the conflict, as you retaliating with your quirk would likely cause the attackers to do the same. Of course, this is overlooking the fact that if you’re being attacked, the attackers are likely using their quirks anyway, so it’s a moot point on Japan’s part. I thought that it was a little disappointing that this was never expanded upon or addressed in MHA canon, so I’ve had some changes of my own implemented that occurred before hte start of the series, and details about this will be hinted at and introduced in a few chapters, then explained after the Hero Killer arc, since it’s VERY topical then; the moral dilemma (cough cough not really) about if it’s legal to use a quirk, even if you don’t have a license, and if it is legal to attack someone if you’re trying to save another life. Anyway, those thoughts were kind of going through my head when writing Thirteen’s scene, so I wanted to expand upon that.

Now, for the Eijiro and Mina scene, I do not apologise for it, for multiple reasons. First and foremost, Eijiro x Mina is my favourite MHA ship, even more so than Izuku x Ochako. Vanilla is fine and all, but I enjoy different flavours. That and their dynamic is incredible, especially when you start to get into the backstory that the two share, really deepens their connection. Secondly, these are highschoolers on a bus, going on what is effectively a field trip, even if it’s probably only a five to ten minute ride through the campus (the fact that U.A. is that large that they needed buses is insane). High schoolers are going to muck about, have fun, and generally irritate sleep deprived teachers who only want to sleep, all the while ignore their feelings for a cheerful fellow hero who lives further south (hint hint nudge nudge, you insomniac emo teacher, enjoy life every once in a while). And thirdly, I wanted to get a plot point established. During the final exams, Mina went to Momo’s mansion to study, while Eijiro studied with Katsuki at a cafe of some kind. Well, Mina now has a promise for Eijiro to study together. Of course, this doesn’t mean that others won’t be joining in, resulting in a kind of filler chapter, just a friend group having some fun studying at one of their houses (I’ll leave it up to y’all to guess who’s house, though who’s going to be in the group should be obvious).

Anyway, enough of that, time for the reviews.

Artorigus, thanks for the reviews as always. For Sarah and her ancestry, I’m pretty sure I got my eight generations detail from a 25 year gap average, fitting it within the 200 years timespan. While it’s not perfect science, and there are going to be those who had children either later or sooner than 25, it’s more of an indication for how far back Sarah and her people are able to trace their family line. For the Centaurs, more than any other race, family is incredibly important, a plot point that will be coming up in the future. As for her awkwardness, I’ve been planning that moment for months now, so I’m really happy with how it turned out. As for Izuku’s admiration for Centorea, as you got a hint of this chapter, it will have some ripple effects, with a whole new line of moves. For your suggestions for Shinobu and Giyu, while initially I wasn’t planning to have them, what with trying to keep the story to MHA and MM only (ignore the Avatar reference in chapter one), I had an epiphany for them, with not only how to introduce them, but also some interesting details for both their quirks, fighting style, as well as personality. They are only going to be minor characters, maybe in the International Arc, maybe later, but I have some ideas for them. As for the Four Cardinals, Todoroki’s grandmother, Salamander, as well as Suu’s mother, Undine (both of those are their hero names) are based off their manga appearance. As for Sylph and Gnome, I’ve definitely taken inspiration from their game characters, so you can look at those and get a good idea of what they look like. Obviously they’d be much older, since the characters in the game are students, while during the present the Four Cardinals are all in their 60s, but you get a good idea anyway. As for Shoto’s design, yeah, out of the three, that one was definitely the weakest for me. The problem is that I didn’t voice my concerns about it, like his expression just not being right at all, as well as his posture, but such is life. Hell, I might get another version of it commissioned, but that’s a matter for the future.

Siarles, thanks for the reviews. I’m glad you noticed the reporter's name, it literally translates into Meadlesom News, while her cameraman was something to do with camera crew, though I can’t remember exactly what. As for you concerns about Izuku ceding his position to Tenya, I genuinely couldn’t see Izuku taking the position, not with the changes that have happened. As for Aizawa, my man doesn’t really care, he didn’t give the vote to Izuku because he was seen as the best candidate, but because he threw it to a student at random, letting the dice dictate the result. While for some stories that I have ideas/plans for, Izuku would likely retain his position, either as President or Vice-President, I can’t see it happening in this one. I’m glad you liked some of the world building with the Centaur family, and trust me, their existence is going to have ramifications in the future. For your guess on what M.O.N. stands for, you are correct in that having the ‘M’ stand for Meta/Metahuman wouldn’t be a great idea, and it’s not the case. The full acronym will be revealed, maybe next chapter, but probably the chapter after next, given what’s going to go down. And yes, we will have the appearance on the M.O.N. agency, and oh boy, it’s going to put the spotlight on some things. Yep, we’re also getting the Bicycle Cop harem being the inlaws (technically) of the Kurusu family, once again through Suu. I’m now realising how many connects have been through her, but I’m pretty sure it’s staying at 2. I think (hope). One of the girls will be making an appearance during the Hero Agency Internship arc. I have some small details sorted with some of the girls, but I might figure out how to fit them in, even if only for a brief appearance or a cameo.

Right, once again, we have fanart! This time, the spectacular work comes from ANSKY, a new artist I’m working with. This time, rather than some character art, she’s done some work featuring Enji Todoroki alongside his cousin, Tsu Kurusu, at the premier screening for one of the slime actress’ films she starred in. Full credit for the idea goes to Sakumon16, whose idea festered in my mind, until I decided, “I’m an adult, I have an idea, and I’m financially irresponsible! Why the hell not?!” So yeah, here’s the result. Once again, big thanks to ANSKY. 

And that’s all from me. For your sneak peek, next chapter is called, “ Danger at the U.S.J. ” We’re really getting into the swing of things now!

See y’all next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

Today wasn’t Izuku’s day. It had started off great, with his friends giving him some ideas for how to properly use One For All without crippling himself after each use. Even just the idea of HAVING friends to talk to at all was a novel experience. Due to him not having a quirk, Izuku had never formed any friendships with people. Everyone either looked down on him for being quirkless, or were afraid of those who looked down on him, leading to a very lonely childhood. In hindsight, it explained why he had devoted so much of his effort into hero studies, becoming an otaku in the area. 

Of course, life loved to throw curveballs at him, for some reason. When he wanted to be a hero, he turned out to be quirkless. When he got a quirk, it damaged him whenever he used it. And when he had possibly found a way to use his quirk in a helpful manner, All Might wasn’t there. Normally, those thoughts would be on his mind. However, he was focusing on more pressing matters, such as the water that he was falling towards.

“The Flood Zone?!” Izuku exclaimed as he fell through the mist villain’s portal. Stretched out beneath him was the deep blue waters of the aquatic disaster zone. A disaster zone that he was fast approaching.

‘Okay, think,’ Izuku said in his mind, his thoughts racing as fast as they could. ‘What did Silky say in that one safety video? It was to land feet first, right, rather than belly or head? And I guess now is as good a time to see if my quirk works.’

Izuku angled his body as he fell, aiming his feet towards the water, his arms held to his side, making himself as narrow as possible.

‘Just imagine it like putting on a suit of armour,’ he thought, closing his eyes as he braced for impact. ‘The armour covers me, and I won’t take it off.’

Izuku felt energy coursing through his body, just like it did whenever he had used One For All before. But this time, rather than going full throttle with his quirk, he greatly reduced how much was used, spreading it all over his body. 

‘Enough that I’m useful, but not so much that it hurts me,’ Izuku decided, bracing for the impact he knew was coming. ‘A full suit of plate mail, at 2% power!’

Unbeknownst to Izuku, as his eyes were firmly shut, but a faint, spectral green suit of armour had formed over his body. It lasted all of two seconds, however, as Izuku slammed feet first into the deep water, a massive splash erupting as he landed.

‘That…didn’t feel as bad as I was expecting,’ Izuku thought, his eyes squinting as they got used to the water. ‘Kurusu was right! My quirk doesn’t only give me super strength, but also increases my durability!’

The joy of his revelation was swiftly cut off as Izuku saw a shadow moving through the water. A shadow that was moving closer, and closer, until Izuku was able to make out the menacing form of what had to be a villain. He was a Shark Fishman, the dorsal fin on his head being a dead giveaway, and wore a black sleeveless jumpsuit. Additionally, he was heading right for Izuku.

“It’s nuthin’ personal, kid, but say goodbye!” the villain declared, his powerful, muscular legs propelling him through the water, his toothy mouth gaping wide.

‘I don’t have time to amplify my whole body, he’ll just get to me in time!’ Izuku thought as he swam away, trying to buy himself some time. ‘I just need to swim faster!’

Energy flowed through Izuku, but unlike before when he felt the power go through his entire body, Izuku focused it into his legs, not unlike how he had managed to focus his quirk only into his finger during the Quirk Fitness Test.

‘One For All, 2%, Greaves!’ Izuku yelled in his mind, the spectral armour forming around his legs, propelling him through the water much faster than before.

“What the hell?!” the shark villain exclaimed, his jaws snapping shut on nothing but water. “Oh, you little brat! Don’t think you’re getting away that easily!”

As much as Izuku wished the villain was wrong, he wasn’t. The Sharkman heteromorph villain was right at home in the water, and despite One For All making Izuku faster than before, it only allowed him to stay just ahead of the villain. Izuku also knew he’d have to come up for air at some point, unlike the villain, who was able to breath the water as easily as Izuku could breath air, thanks to the gills on his neck.

‘Can I even fight him?’ Izuku worried, glancing over his shoulder. ‘He’s going to have the home field advantage here, and if he hits me hard enough, it might cause me to lose the air in my lungs.’

“You’re going to run out of air sooner or later, kid, so just give up!” the shark villain taunted.

‘He’s right, I can’t run,’ Izuku decided, turning in the water to face the charging villain, One For All building in his arms. ‘I don’t have enough time to cover my body, but this should be enough. One For All, 2%, Gaun-’

“Hi Midoriya,” came the neutral voice of Asui, who had landed feet first onto the side of the shark villain's head, stomping him away. 

“Goodbye,” she said to the villain, before shooting out her long tongue, wrapping it around Izuku’s waist, rocketing up through the water. They surfaced next to the yacht in the Flood Zone, with Izuku being tossed up onto the deck of the boat. As he lay there gasping for breath, Izuku heard a quiet mutter to his side.

“For a frog, she’s got pretty nice boobs,” the voice said, turning out to be Mineta, who was also laying flat on the deck, trying to control his breathing. The small student wasn’t able to relax for long, however, as Asui jumped over the railing, landing directly on the purple-haired boy’s stomach.

“Gah!” Mineta cried out, clutching his stomach as Asui stepped off him.

“Thanks for saving me, Asui,” Izuku thanked, pulling himself up off the ground. “I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d have been able to hold my breath.”

“Call me Tsu or Tsuyu,” Asu…Tsuyu insisted. “But even though we’re safe here, we seem to still be in trouble.”

“They know our schedule,” Izuku remembered, thinking back to what the fog villain had mentioned before he teleported them. “The simplest explanation is that they caused that media rush the other day to get their intel. It’s like Todoroki said, they’ve been waiting for this chance, and they prepared for it well.”

“But, but, there’s no way they could ever kill All Might!” Mineta protested, having finally gotten back onto his feet. “He’ll thrash ‘em once he gets here!”

“Mineta, they must’ve figured out a way to kill him,” Tsuyu pointed out. “Otherwise, why come here just to get beaten? I wouldn’t put it past them. That one guy promised to kill us too, after all. Who says we can even hold out until All Might gets here? Even when he does show up, who says he won’t be killed?”

“That’s right, brat!” a cruel voice called out, catching Izuku and his classmates’ attention. Looking over the railing into the water below, about a dozen heads appeared out of the water, each and every one of them villains.

“I’ll kill you, you froggy bitch, and then I’ll kill your friends,” the shark villain declared. “Then when All Might shows up, the boss is going to kill him as well!”

“A whole school of villains!” Mineta shrieked, trembling as he held onto the railings for support.

But despite being surrounded, the words of the villains, as well as the implication, caused Izuku to spiral into a muttering storm.

“So they must have figured out a way to beat All Might, probably, that must be it. Doesn’t make sense otherwise. But why kill him? Because he stands against villains? Against evil? Because everyone calls him the Symbol of Justice? No, I mean, there has to be some specific reason…”

Memories flashed through Izuku’s mind. All Might declaring to him on the day of the Sludge Villain that Izuku could be a hero. All Might pushing him to succeed during his training. All Might pushing him on, encouraging him, seeing his potential, rather than what he currently was. But most significantly, that video of All Might. The same one that Izuku had easily added thousands of views to, of All Might walking out of the burning wreckage of a crashed train, piles of rescued people on his shoulders. His comforting trademark words, ‘Fear not, for I Am Here!’

‘Does it really matter if these villains have a reason?’ Izuku wondered in his mind. ‘No, it doesn’t. Hell if I know why they want to, but I can’t let them succeed, no matter what!’

“If they,” Izuku began, catching Tsuyu and Mineta’s attention, “if there’s even a chance that they have a way to beat All Might, then we have to fight and win!”

Tsuyu and Mineta simply stared at Izuku, the former with her usual blank face, but the latter had a horrified expression.

“How can we possibly fight, you dumbass?!” Mineta yelled in anger and fear. “These guys might even be strong enough to kill All Might! You’re contradicting yourself, Midoriya! Our only hope is to hide somewhere until the U.A. heroes come to rescue us!”

“Mineta, those guys down there, they’re clearly suited to aquatic combat, right?” Izuku pointed out.

“Stop ignoring my point!”

“So the ringleaders must have recruited them knowing about the U.S.J.’s different environments,” Tsuyu realised.

“Exactly! Their intel told them that much, at least,” Izuku nodded. But with all their careful planning, one odd point sticks out. They send you, Asu-, er, Tsuyu, into the Flood Zone!”

Tsuyu and Mineta stared at Izuku blankly, not saying a word.

“Take your time, then,” Tsuyu croaked, a patient tone in her voice.

“What’s your point, already?!” Mineta yelled, a not so patient tone in his voice.

“Oh, okay, right,” Izuku stammered, realising he hadn’t finished his explanation. “What I’m saying is that they must not know about our quirks.”

Tsuyu nodded, starting to understand what Izuku was saying. “If they’d known about me having frog powers, they’d have dumped me into that fiery area.”

“It’s exactly because they don’t know about our quirks that their strategy was to scatter us and overwhelm us with numbers,” Izuku summarised, glancing down at the villains in the water. “They’ve got us beat when it comes to numbers and experience, so there’s only one way for us to win. Exploit the fact that they don’t know our quirks! The fact that they’re not trying to get on board supports my theory!”

Indeed, even though the villains could clearly hear Izuku, for he was no longer trying to keep his voice down, they hadn’t made their move. No attempts to board the boat, no attempts to even sink the boat. However, Izuku also knew that that meant that these villains weren’t making the classic mistake of underestimating their opponents.

“Okay, let’s see, what quirks do we all have?” Izuku asked, keeping his voice down so as to not give away their abilities to the villains.

“I’m a Bullywug, so I can jump really high, stick to walls, and my tongue can stretch to a maximum of twenty metres. I can also spit up my stomach to clean it and secrete a poisonous fluid. Well, I say ‘poisonous’, but it really just stings a little. But those last two aren’t that useful. Just forget about them.”

“Wow, and as a heteromorph, you’re really strong too,” Izuku muttered. “With those other abilities, you’re really strong, A-sorry, Tsuyu. I have super strength, but if I use it at full power, it messes me up. My quirk is a double edged sword.”

“Then what was that in the water?” Tsuyu asked, tilting her head. “You seemed to be using it fine. And when were you able to create armour around your legs?”

“Oh, that’s something that was suggested to me,” Izuku explained. “Instead of using all of my quirk, I’m only using what my body can safely handle. I’ve only tried it at 2% so far, but I don’t know if that’s my limit or not. As for the armour, I’m not sure. I imagined my quirk like putting on pieces of armour, so that image might have manifested itself somehow…”

Izuku’s rambling were interrupted by a squishing sound. Looking up, he saw Mineta pulling off one of the purple balls that grew from his head.

“It’s really sticky,” Mineta explained, referring to the ball that he had stuck onto the yacht. “If I’m feeling good, it’ll stick there all day. A new one’ll grow in the old one’s place. But if I take too many, I’ll start bleeding. They’ll bounce off my own body without sticking to me.”

Izuku stared at Mineta, not sure if that was the entirety of his quirk, or if he had more to tell. Given the tears that were welling in Mineta’s eyes, it was evidently the wrong thing to do.

“Like I said, we just gotta wait to be rescued!” he wailed. “My quirk is terrible for fighting multiple opponents!”

“N-Not at all,” Izuku reassured. “It’s a great quirk. We just have to think how to make use of it-”

Izuku was interrupted by the sudden lurching of the yacht, the water slamming into the side of the vessel, cracks forming along the hull.

“I’m getting bored over here,” one of the villains declared, his bald head a snow white with red stripes running from the top of his slanted eyes to the back of his head. “Let’s finish this thing.”

“So strong!” Tsuyu exclaimed, holding onto the railing to keep her footing. “He split the boat in two!”

While Izuku and Tsuyu used one hand to hold onto the railing and the other to keep Mineta upright, this allowed him to use both of his hands. And rather than hold onto the railing or hold onto his classmates, he panicked.

“YAAAH!” he cried, plucking and throwing his purple balls from his head as quickly as he could, each of them landing in the water with a small splash.

“AAAAHH!” he cried, tears streaming from his face as he pointed at the villains, looking to Izuku as if he held the answer to their problem.

“Why’d you panic?!” Izuku yelled. “Damn, now the enemy knows your quirk!”

However, splashing from the water caught Izuku’s attention. Down below, the shark villain who had initially pursued Izuku was splashing the water, pushing Mineta’s balls away from him.

‘Wait a minute,’ Izuku realised, ‘they’re on guard. They won’t touch them?’

“That boat’ll go under in less than a minute,” the shark villain taunted. “Once you're in the water, you’re chum.”

“Ahh, he’s right!” Mineta yelled, backing away from the railing in a panic.

“Mineta, did you really come to U.A. to become a hero?” Tsuyu asked, a question that Izuku thought was very warranted at this point.

“SHADDUP!” Mineta yelled. “You’re crazy for not being scared! We were just freaking middle school kids a couple of months ago! I never thought we’d be in a life-or-death situation so soon! AHHH, I just wish I could’ve gotten to grope Yaoyorozu’s boobs before I died!”

While Izuku should’ve paid more attention to Mineta’s regrets, worrying as they were, the current situation was more pressing.

“‘The moment when the enemy thinks they’ve won, represents your best chance’,” Izuku quoted. “All Might once said that during a documentary interview.”

“Hear that little one whining?” one of the villains asked aloud. “What a bunch of babies?”

“Hey, Shigaraki said not to get careless here,” the water controller pointed out. “Their age isn’t what matters. We judge them by their quirks. And our quirks clearly have the advantage in the water.”

Izuku heard all of this as he walked towards the railing, balancing himself on top of it.

‘Do it just like Kacchan,’ he thought to himself, launching up into the air. “Go to hell!”

While the villains might have thought that this was a stupid move from a dumb kid panicking, Izuku had a plan already in mind.

‘No matter how powerful of a blow I fire off, they’ve got us surrounded, so I can’t hit ‘em all. And even if we somehow make it out of the Flood Zone, there are more villains to worry about! I can’t sacrifice my whole arm, but limiting my power to a manageable amount isn’t gonna cut it either.’

“I can consider this my first super move,” Izuku muttered to himself, the power of One For All building in his middle finger and thumb. “Sorry, Recovery Girl. I’ll try to make this the last time I damage my body on purpose.”

The tension in his fingers built, and just as he was over where a large portion of the villains were located, released the tension.

“JAVELIN!”

The sheer force of the flick caused air pressure to slam into the water, creating a tremendous splash, displacing massive amounts of water.

“Tsuyu! Mineta!” Izuku called out, trying his best to ignore the throbbing pain in his doubtlessly broken finger and thumb.

Tsuyu leapt off the sinking yacht, Mineta held in one hand. Her tongue shot out, wrapping around Izuku’s waist again, pulling him along with her. Mineta began throwing his balls towards the centre of the water disturbance, blood starting to trickle from his scalp. As the displaced water rushed back to where it had once been, it dragged the villains with it, and subsequently, caused Mineta’s quirk to stick to them, and also causing the villains to stick to each other.

“By delivering a strong shock to the water’s surface, it spreads, and once it rushes back into the centre,” Izuku began, glancing down at the villains.

“They’re all washed up,” Tsuyu concluded, a spout of colliding water shooting up into the air, the clump of stuck-together villains going with it.

“Looks like we beat our first obstacle, or something,” Tsuyu noted. “Good job, you two.”

-]l[-

Itami Taeru was never a religious person. Unlike many people in Japan, he didn’t believe in the Shinto gods, nor spirits, nor ancestors that watched over him. Even if his old man was looking on from the Thereafter, he’d probably be heaping every curse upon him that he could think up.

Itami also didn’t believe in any foreign gods. The Faceless God, nor Allah, nor Jahova, or even Christ and his four angelic babes that the Sect of Four believed in held his belief. He didn’t believe in an afterlife, no great purgatory when he died. His whole life, Itami only believed that all there was to his existence was the here and now, and that meant that the only person who had the right to judge him was himself. With no afterlife, no judging of his deeds, the world was his oyster, and he could whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

However, if, for some unknown reason, he were to start believing in Hell, or at least some afterlife realm that punished him and his fellow wicked sinners, he reckoned he was looking at a good interpretation of it.

The job had been simple: gather up in the warehouse, listen to the boss, get warped into the U.S.J., kill a bunch of kids, and sit back while the boss and his pet freak killed All Might. Everyone would go home happy and famous, except for the heroes, because they’d obviously be dead.

Unlike some others who had more specialised quirks, and had thus been sent to the disaster zones that suited their talents, Itami’s Pain Tolerance quirk was pretty generic, so he was sent wherever extra manpower was needed. Thus, he’d been assigned to the Landslide crew. All they had to do was wait for whatever students Kuro-what’s-his-face sent to them, kill them, and meet up in the central plaza. Nice, clean, easy. 

What they hadn’t been expecting was to be encased in freezing cold ice, turning the landslide area into a forest of screaming, pleading, and whimpering icy columns.

Even with his quirk, Itami could feel the stinging pain of the ice on his bare skin. Even though it didn’t hurt nearly as bad compared to what his fellows must be feeling, he knew that if he got out of here, which was looking more and more unlikely, he’d need to find a skilled back alley doctor to fix the scarring he’d receive.

“You all lost to a kid,” a cold, heartless voice remarked, the crunching of ice underfoot echoing out as he walked. “How pathetic.”

The speaker was a student, one of the twenty who were meant to be here. His red hair was swept to one side, covering the right-hand side of his face, only his mouth and nose exposed. His costume, because of course he had a costume, looked like a mage’s robes with some travelling boots on his feet. However, the icy armour that had formed over it gave it much more menacing, martial feel to it. His hood cast a shadow over his face, and peering out of his hair was a mask that he wore, covering his right-hand side, the face of a snarling reptilian monster poking out. If the staff of ice in his hand had a curved blade at the top of it, Itami could believe that he was looking at the Grim Reaper himself.

“Come on, now,” the student continued, looking out across his handiwork without a flicker of remorse or regret, even amongst the cries of anguish from the villains. “You’re adults, aren’t you? I’m sure you can all manage some pain.”

“Stay back!” one of Itami’s fellow villains yelled, a rat heteromorph or something. His whiskers had a light frosting, and his eyes were wide with panic and terror. “The Todoroki leave this one alone, now!”

‘Well, fuck me, I guess,’ Itami cringed, a new sense of fear entering his heart. ‘Of course, the one school we pick, hell, the one zone I was assigned to, and it has a damn Todoroki. All I can hope for is that the apple fell far from the tree.’

Every villain knew the Todorokis; knew and feared them. The horror stories of the Cardinal of Flames, Salamander, turning warehouses and buildings that villains and criminals had called a home and a refuge into their fiery tombs were dime a dozen. She was well known as one of the most feared of her sisters, eclipsed only by her sadistic sister, the Cardinal of Water. Salamander’s ruthless mindset had clearly been passed down to her son, the Flame Hero: Endeavor. While the sheep of civilization would think that All Might was the most feared hero in Japan, that was only half of the truth. All Might was feared, without a doubt, but he was more like a hurricane. He appears every now and again, makes a big spectacle, then disappears. Endeavor though, he was feared like one feared a monster that dwelled outside your village. All Might would simply knock you unconscious with his ridiculous strength. Endeavor, on the other hand, would burn you, bathe you in flames, mark you for life with the humiliation that you had lost. After all, if it wasn’t for the Symbol of Peace’s popularity with those too weak to stand for themselves, Itami knew that Endeavor would be seen as Japan’s No. 1 Pro Hero. And if this student really was the son of Endeavor, despite his polar opposite quirk, he seemed to be just as apathetic.

“Huh, what do we have here?” Todoroki Jr. rhetorically asked, turning his attention to the rat heteromorph. “A Skaven. I thought the world was free of your filth. It seems that one of you managed to escape my family’s wrath.”

“Spawn of murderer-killer,” the Skaven spat, his whiskers trembling. “They had no right to kill fellow heteromorph.”

“We are not the same,” Todoroki Jr. snarled, looming over the short villain. “I refuse to accept your kind as a heteromorph. The very idea that we belong to the same classification sickens me, especially after what you did to your own kin, and what you were planning to do in Germany.”

“The Great Horned One demands sacrifices!” the Skaven raged, his snout snapping as he desperately tried to bite the student. “The weak must be killed, the strong survive, and the female to serve their one purpose!”

Todoroki Jr. was silent as he stared at the Skaven, the only expression on his face being disgust.

“You talk too much for a corpse,” he muttered, placing his right palm on the Skaven’s face. The rattish villain let out a strangled screech as ice spread across his snout, fully encasing the villain.

Todoroki Jr. didn’t seem to pay the noise any attention, merely standing back once the villain was completely encased. He raised his staff, and swinging it down in an overhead strike, struck the column of ice, shattering it and the villain it contained.

“Jesus fuck!” a nearby villain swore. “You killed him! I thought you were meant to be heroes!”

“That’s quite hypocritical coming from you,” Todoroki Jr. pointed out. “After all, you were trying to kill me, yet you have an issue when I take a life? But you’re correct, as a hero in training, I’m not meant to take the lives of villains. When I graduate, the sentence that you’ll receive won’t be my responsibility, so I can’t take the law into my own hands, officially. Of course, accidents do happen, especially when civilian lives are on the line.”

“So why kill him?” another villain called out. “And don’t even think about killing all of us to keep this a secret! People will eventually find out, and you’ll be done for then!”

“According to the World Council, any male who is a member of the Skaven heteromorph species is no longer given the rights and protections that is standard for any person, be they with or without quirks,” Todoroki Jr. explained. “After the virus bomb that the Skaven clans detonated in Poland, turning large swaths of the land uninhabitable and killing just under two million, no quarter is to be given to them. I thought my father and grandmother had killed the last of them four years ago, but it seems one of them had managed to survive, until now, that is.”

The red-haired student looked out over the icy field, the occasional groane or hiss of pain echoing out.

“Your plan must have been to divide and conquer, correct? Forgive me for saying so, but it’s hard to see you guys as more than thugs with quirks you can’t even handle. There was no coordination, no greater strategy, other than relying on sheer numbers. While quantity can be its own quality, not even overwhelming numbers is able to make up for a chronic deficiency in power.”

‘The kid hit it on the head,’ Itami admitted. No one had stepped forth to make themselves the leader. To do so in this kind of crowd was a death sentence, unless you had the power to back it up, which unfortunately, no one so far had. Unlike the Flood Zone crew, who had a bond as those with water quirks, Itami and his fellows were the odd ones out, those who didn’t fit a particular niche.

“Hey, you,” Todoroki Jr. called out, and Itami’s heart began to race as the student’s gaze fell on him. “Unlike the others, you’re not in nearly as much pain. A quirk that makes you resistant to the cold, perhaps?”

“Fuck you,” Itami spat, the globule of spittle landing just in front of the red-haired student, solidifying and freezing from the sheer cold of the ice it landed on. “Torture me all you want; I won’t feel a thing.”

“At this rate, all of you will die,” Todoorki Jr. declared, projecting his voice across the zone. “Your bodies are already likely to be frostbitten in certain areas, and the damage will only continue to spread, until your bodies give out. But I’m trying to become a hero, and not even my father’s influence would be able to protect me if I did that. So I’ll make you all a deal: if anyone, even only one person, tells me how you all plan to kill All Might, I’ll save your lives. A collective reward, only one of you needs to tell me.”

“What’s more important?” he asked, holding his right hand in front of Itami’s face, frost misting in the air. “Your lives, or your loyalty?”

Okay, full transparency: this chapter was meant to be much longer, like twice as long AT LEAST. Unfortunately, I was struggling a lot with writing a chapter for a different series I’m publishing as well, and then university started up this week, and here we are. I also really didn’t want another delay, since that happened last week, so I decided to slash the chapter and only have the Flood Zone and Landslide Zone in this chapter. Next chapter we’ll be seeing the Mountain Zone and the Ruin Zone, as well as some small pieces in the Squall Zone, Inferno Zone, as well as the U.S.J. Entrance with those who didn’t get warped away.

Now, this chapter you got to see what I meant by Shoto being different in this timeline. Here, he’s more sociable (kind of), but he’s also a bit darker. Some lore reveals, as well as a tidbit I wanted to address. In Japan, All Might in the Number One Hero by fame alone. Now, as a Symbol of Peace, his position is unquestionable. However, if we’re going by Japan alone, Endeavor is more likely to be the national No. 1. He solves more incidents, both as an agency but also as an individual, and he has maintained his position for years. As we know, the Hero Billboards are HEAVILY influenced by popularity rather than results. Given the awe-inspiring figure that All Might is, it makes sense why he is where he is.

Other than that, we got some villain perspectives, giving an insight into their perception of All Might and Endeavor. Also, the Skaven that was shown is pretty much a 1:1 from Warhammer Fantasy. I’m more of a 40K guy, and I’ve really gone down that rabbit hole, but I thought that the Skaven fitted in perfectly here. The idea that, as a heteromorph ‘species’ they were all utterly vile and detestable is pretty in line for them in canon. If you know anything about their lore, you know the fate of the females, so yeah, they probably deserved worse than what they got. I also decided that Poland would get hit by them, since we often see Skaven in toxic environments, no thanks to their malevolent deity, the Horned Rat, I thought that the Skaven creating a bio-disaster would be fitting.

Aside from that, we saw the fruits of Izuku’s new perspective of his quirk. There are going to be some changes with One For All, not in the sense of how it works, but in how it is used. In my mind, it manifests thanks to the imagination of the user. For All Might, it caused him to buff out. For Izuku, it amplified his power, and in this rendition, thanks to the effect that Centorea and All Might have had on him, as well as Tenya’s analogy, Izuku manifests a spectral suit of armour when he uses it. The higher the percentage, the less transparent it is. At 2%, it is very faint. At 100%, it will be fully opaque. Also, no more ‘Detroit Smashes’, we have the first of Izuku’s super moves, ‘Javelin’. This move is specifically for when Izuku hits something from the air pressure created from his flicks. While he did break his fingers just like in canon, there really wasn’t any other way for Izuku to get off the yacht. Rest assured, however, that there will be some changes to the canon timeline of when events and/or powers are unlocked, so stay tuned.

Right review time.

Artorigus, thanks for the review. While the Four Cardinals are in their sixties, calling them ‘Old Hags’ would be misleading. Even though they’re all retired, they’ve still got it, both in terms of their power, but also in terms of their looks. Salamander will be making an onscreen appearance during the Sports Festival, so you’ll see what I mean. As for Suu’s outfit, this is Suu, she’s definitely worn more revealing clothing, so for her, it’s pretty standard. As for the studying that takes place before the Final Exams, correct, that will be a chapter at the Kurusu mansion. Boy, I’m looking forward to writing that one. Finally, HOLY SHIT, CALL THE MEDIA, SOMEONE’S COMMISSIONED ART FOR MY WORK! It’s official, ladies and gents, I’ve peaked. Big shoutout to Dejovanna on X for the incredible artwork. As you all know, Fanfiction is a shy little thing, so if you’re over there, you’ll have to check out my story on Ao3 for the artwork. If you’re already here, however, this is it!

Again, big cheers to Dejovanna, and even bigger cheers to Artorigus for commissioning it.

Firetrail, thanks for the info. Kind of crazy that U.A. is a six-day school. Now that I think about it, I wonder if that’s for everyone, or only for those who are in the Hero Course?

leonardo18anime, cheers for the review. I agree, the U.A. schedule is kind of weird. The U.S.J. is introduced on what I assume is the third day of the school year, we see it once more in an anime-only OVA, and then never see it again. Something that large and expensive would have to be in constant use. I’d only assume that there would be classes for it each day, and the only reason the U.S.J. attack happened was because that was the optimal date for the villains to attack when All Might was supposed to be there? I don’t really know, and it’s a bit too late to change it now, but I’ll probably implement some changes for my other MHA series, the Portal crossover. And I agree, for a series with ‘Academia’ in the title, we don’t see much of their academic life. Tests, sure, festivals, sure, but not classes, not really.

Anyway, that’s all from me. For your sneak peek for next chapter, the title is called ‘ Students VS Villains ’. Hopefully I’ll get it out on time, fingers crossed.

See you next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

Tenya shut his eyes as the fog villain’s misty body swept over the class, each of his classmate’s cries of panic a fresh source of anguish.

‘How could villains be so cruel?’ Tenya thought with horror. ‘How could they justify in their minds the murder of students, even if we are aspiring to be heroes?’

He knew that he couldn’t save everyone, that he had to rely on them to make it through this. But he’d never be able to face his parents, his brother, his godmother, nor Sarah if he didn’t save as many of his classmates as he could.

He grabbed the two people closest to him, Uraraka and Thirteen, dashing out of the way of the fog. To his left, he noticed Shoji kneeling on the floor, his webbed arms covering another of his classmates.

The fog dissipated, gathering back into a single, vaguely human-shaped mass, glaring down at them with his baleful yellow eyes.

“So, some of you managed to escape being separated,” the villain observed. “Truly you students are the best of the best, and I mean that sincerely.”

His words immediately alerted Tenya that something was off, and placing Thirteen and Uraraka back on their feet, the speedster looked around, his eyes widening in horror. Where there had originally been twenty students plus Thirteen, there were now only Shoji, Uraraka, Thirteen, Ashido, and himself. Everyone else was nowhere to be seen. More importantly, Sarah was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is everyone?!” Tenya yelled to Shoji, the octopus-armed student already growing ears and eyes. “Can we confirm their locations?!”

“They’ve been scattered, but I can detect them,” Shoji confirmed. “Four are in the Mountain Zone, three in the Flood Zone, one, no, two in the Landslide Zone, and three in the Ruin Zone.”

“The numbers don’t add up,” Tenya realised. “That’s twelve in total, and four more students here, so we’re missing four people.”

“Not to worry, I merely scattered your classmates around this facility,” the villain revealed. “There was no point in allowing them to escape, as that might jeopardise our mission. Of course, while I can confirm they are all in the facility, I can’t confirm if they’ll remain alive for much longer.”

‘What can we do?’ Tenya thought, glaring at the villain who stood in front of the exit, blocking the way. ‘Physical attacks won’t do; he just warps away. How can I defeat him?’

“You, kid, you’re your class’ Vice-President, right?!” Thirteen called out, catching Tenya’s attention.

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Your job is to run back to the school and report on what’s happening,” the space hero ordered. “The alarms haven’t sounded, and the phones aren’t working. The alarm system uses infrared tech; the fact that it hasn’t activated even though Eraser Head down there nullifying quirks means that whoever is interfering with the system, has hidden themselves well. That being the case, you going back is our best option!”

“I can’t very well abandon my classmates!” Tenya argued. “There has to be another way!”

“Ida,” Shoji spoke up, “with President Kurusu indisposed, it falls on your shoulders to lead the class. Out of everyone, even those not here, you are the fastest in the class. Only you can do this.”

“There are alarms on the outside, which means that these guys must only be causing trouble in here!” Ashido reasoned, raising her hands in front of her towards the villain. “So if you make it out, they can’t follow you! Shake off that mist guy with that awesome speed of yours!”

“Please, use your quirk to save us all,” Thirteen pleaded, the desperation clear in her voice.

“But what if-” Tenya began, only for Uraraka to cut him off.

“Ida, in the cafeteria, you were the one to discover that it was only the media, you were the one to come up with the plan, and you were the one to convince Kurusu that she could do it,” the brunette said, a confident expression on her face. “This time, let us help you. We can provide all the support you need! And we will! Do it!”

“Aside from the fact that you have no hope,” the mist villain declared, surging towards them, “what sort of fool discusses strategy in earshot of the enemy?”

“It hardly matters if you overheard,” Thirteen objected, the cap on the end of her suit’s right index finger popping off, revealing the hollow inside, “because you can’t stop us!”

A deep whooshing sound filled the area, as dust, dirt, and all manner of loose items were swept up in the vacuum that Thirteen’s quirk created. Even the fog villain was straining back, wisps of his body being sucked into the Space Hero’s quirk. Tenya and his classmate’s hopes soared as it looked like Thirteen’s quirk was able to nullify the villains. That was, however, until a misty portal opened up, right next to Thirteen.

The Space Hero didn’t even have a moment to think before the suction of her quirk hit her, tearing away the outer layer of her costume, eventually tearing away at the left-hand side of her torso.

“He warped me,” she gasped, her damaged suit revealing her face. Her hair was cut short in a wavy style, blonde in the middle that changed into a navy blue as it got longer. Her eyes were a hazel colour, but were presently scrunched up, her expression filled with pain. “I’m done for…”

“THIRTEEN!” Uraraka screamed, the sight of seeing her idol in such pain horrifying her.

“Thirteen,” the mist villain mocked, his warp portal closing back up now that the damage had been done. “Looks like a disaster relief hero can’t measure up to even the most ordinary of heroes when it comes to a fight. You even found yourself ripped apart by your own power.”

“Ida, she told you to run!” Shoji yelled, snapping Tenya out of his shock.

“Damn!” he swore, indicating how stressed he was to resort to such foul language, bursting forth as he made a mad sprint for the doorway.

“My dear, scattered children,” the villain taunted, his gaze shifting back towards Tenya’s movement, “it would hardly be to our benefit if you called for your teachers!”

The swirling mass of a warp gate appeared directly in front of Tenya, too close to avoid or slow down.

‘No, not like this!’ Tenya thought. ‘They’re counting on me! The whole class! It’s up to me!’

However, rather than sliding through the warp gate, Tenya was saved by Shoji, his multi-armed classmate wrapping his limbs around the portal, trapping it within him.

“Go!” he yelled from a mouth that formed from one of his appendages. “Quickly!”

‘Everyone, just hold on!’ Tenya prayed, the engines in his legs finally shifting into fifth gear, and steadily climbing to sixth. But out of the corner of his eye, the looming form of the mist villain was racing towards him, arcing to intercept his path before he reached the doorway.

‘Wait, the doors!’ Tenya thought, panic racing through his mind. ‘They’re automatic! Can I kick them down, or are they too thick?!’

“You underestimate me, Four-eyes,” the villain mocked, extensions on his body blocking the way. “Now vanish!”

But once again, just as Tenya was about to be overwhelmed by the darkness, he was saved.

“I’m not sure why, but if you’re wearing this thing, then you must have a real body in there!” came Uraraka’s cry. The mist lessened, and chancing a look over his shoulder, Tenya saw that Uraraka had grabbed a hold of the villain’s metallic neckpiece, activating her quirk on the villain, and tossing him high into the air. “Now go, Ida!”

‘Thank you, Uraraka, Shoji, everyone!’ Tenya thought, reaching for the door. ‘I’ll do it! I’ll find the teachers, and save you all! Just like a hero would, like my brother would, like Centorea would, like Sarah and I will!’

He gripped the middle of the doors, pushing them apart as he stepped outside, racing down the road to the main U.A. building.

‘You made a critical error, villains!’ Tenya thought, his heart pounding with adrenaline in his chest as he ran. ‘You underestimated us, viewed us as little more than children. But that will be your undoing! Because there was something we were taught on our first day! To go beyond: Plus Ultra!’

-]l[-

Within the Mountain Zone, the tallest disaster simulation zone in the U.S.J., a scream could be heard.

“Uwahh!” Kaminari yelled, ducking underneath a haymaker that had been swung at him by a masked villain. “Yikes! My whole life, it flashed before my eyes! Who the hell are these guys?! What’re they doing here?!”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Sarah answered, her mace slamming into the gut of an overly eager villain, causing him to crumple onto the ground in pain. “They’re villains, part of the invasion force, if the words of their supposed leader are to be believed.”

A glint of light caught Sarah’s attention, quickly raising her tower shield to block two knives that had been sent flying towards Yaoyorozu, bouncing off the mass of metal.

“Thank you, Kurusu,” Yaoyorozu said, sweeping her metal staff behind the legs of another villain, sending him tumbling to the ground, and finishing him off by slamming the metal pole onto his head. “These miscreants just keep coming.”

“They’re persistent assholes, that’s for sure,” Jiro swore, the blunted machete that Yaoyorozu had given her held firm in two hands. “We need to figure out how to get away from this mob, or at least no longer be surrounded.”

For that was the situation the four students were in. Surrounding them on all sides were a mass of villains, at least two dozen of them, all of different shapes, sizes, and quirks. Any possible way out had been cut off, and Sarah knew that they had managed to hold out for as long as they had for three reasons. 

First, because these villains were pathetic, no question about it. Even calling them villains seemed like too much of a service to them, for they were really criminals who used quirks. Villains in a legal sense, but not a social sense. 

Secondly, Yaoyorozu’s quirk had been a Godsend. The sheer versatility of Creation meant that a counter could be made to any problem, assuming enough time was bought. It was her quirk that allowed Yaoyorozu to arm herself and Jiro, as well as scattering caltrops around them, forcing the villains to split their attention between attacking them and watching where they were placing their feet. 

Thirdly and finally, these villains were nervous. It had taken Sarah a while to notice it, but the villains were hesitant to commit to their attacks. While she had initially thought that it was because they had been press ganged into the invasion, she realised that it was due to their uncertainty on the student’s abilities. Sarah’s quirk was an obvious one, almost all heteromorph quirks were, but Yaoyorozu and Kaminari didn’t have any obvious signs of what their quirks were, while Jiro’s mutation was easy to miss.

“Yaoyorozu, how’s it coming with Kaminari’s weapon?” Sarah asked, using her shield to shove back another villain.

“Yeah, come on, Yaoyorozu!” Kaminari pleaded, dodging another swing from a villain, allowing Jiro to swing her blunted weapon at the villain’s head, dropping him. “I wish I could use my quirk, but it’ll just go everywhere and hit you guys as well! I’m trying to call for help, but my special transceiver is being jammed. Get it?! I’m relying on you girls to get us out of here!”

“But you can cover yourself with electricity and not discharge it, right?” Jiro asked, positioning herself behind Kaminari.

“Uh, well, yeah, but I’m not sure-” Kaminari began, only to be interrupted as Jiro kicked him in the back, sending him flying into the same villain who tried to land the haymaker. 

“Then you can be my personal stun gun!”

Acting on reflex, sparks of energy coursed over Kaminari as he collided with the villain, the contact transferring the electricity, stunning him.

“Hey, it worked! I’m pretty strong!” Kaminari cheered, unbothered by the villain in front of him whose muscles were spasming. “Just rely on me, guys!”

“Well, that was easy,” Jiro muttered, leaning to the side to avoid an attack from a villain and retaliating with a chop to the top of his head. “I’ve got no idea why he constantly tries to expel his electricity if that’s his strong suit.”

“Stop messing around, you punk!” a villain yelled in anger, his mutation quirk allowing his arms to stretch, the boulder that his hands her encased in turning them into flails. But before the villain could land the blow on Kaminari, Jiro plugged her jacks into her boots, letting out a wave of sound that shattered the boulders. While the villain’s fist did hit Kaminari on the nose, the skin to skin contact allowed the flail villain to be electrocuted just the same as his ally.

“Don’t go attacking him,” Jiro ordered, firing off another wave of sound at a trio of villains. “Only I’m allowed to do that.”

“Get serious, Jiro!” Yaoyorozu yelled, firing a net at a villain in mid-leap, adding him to the pile of electrified villains. “This isn’t some game that we’re playing!”

“I can play games with you if you like, my pretty!” a villain cried out, leaping down from a cliff face, wearing a lecherous grin. This lasted all of two seconds as Sarah lashed out with a kick from her hind legs, sending the villain flying into the rock walls that surrounded them.

“I hope you have a plan, Yaoyorozu, because these villains are growing desperate,” Sarah warned, exchanging blows with an axe-wielding villain before managing to land a hit to his side. 

“It’s convenient that you mention it,” Yaoyorozu smiled, “because my plan’s ready! Quickly, Sarah, I need you and Jiro close together!”

“It took some time, but that’s how it is with larger objects,” Yaoyorozu explained as Sarah stood shoulder to shoulder with her female classmates.

Sarah heard the sound of fabric straining, and glancing over to where she heard the noise, saw the back of Yaoyorozu’s costume ripping and tearing. Bursting out of her back into the air was a thick, white sheet, large enough to cover all of them. The blanket landed on Sarah, but the moment she did she noticed the odd texture.

“Is this…?” she wondered, only to look down as Yaoyorozu huddled close to her, making sure the sheet covered them correctly.

“A 100 mm thick sheet of insulation?” she finished, flashing a grin up at Sarah. “Indeed, and it has a variety of properties; it’s warm, waterproof, but most of all, highly protective against electricity.”

“I hear you loud and clear, Yaoyorozu!” Kaminari yelled, grinning at the villains, many of their eyes widening as they realised what was about to happen. “Y’see, I’m actually super strong!”

Electricity began to build up around him, and just before it was discharged, Sarah crouched as low to the ground as she could, pulling Jiro and Yaoyorou close to her side, covering the three of them with the sheet of insulation. The sound of static could be heard outside of their fabric protection, and the moment it had finished, Sarah poked her head outside, seeing the result of Kaminari’s quirk being let loose. 

“Now then, I’m worried about the others,” Yaoyorozu admitted, stepping out from underneath the insulation sheet, looking around and surveying the aftermath. “Let’s hurry and regroup.”

“Yaoyorozu, you’re, uh, having a wardrobe malfunction,” Jiro shyly pointed out.

Sarah looked back, quickly looking away as she saw just how much of Yaoyorozu’s costume had been destroyed. The entirety of her front (which admittedly wasn’t all that much) had been ripped apart, causing her impressively large chest to be exposed to the air.

“I can make more clothes,” Yaoyorozu dismissed, pulling out an identical copy of her ruined costume. “And besides, we’re all girls here, so there’s no worries.”

“Yaoyorozu, did you forget Kaminari?” Sarah asked, glancing over at the electric blond, who fortunately was looking in the opposite direction.

“Nah, Kaminari wouldn’t be an issue,” Jiro snickered. “He’s used his quirk beyond his body’s limit, so he won’t be noticing anything for a while.”

“Woohoo!” Kaminari giggled, blood trickling from his nose as he shuffled around in a circle.

“He’s so derpy!” Jiro laughed, clutching her stomach. “Look at his goofy face!”

“Yaay!” Kaminari cheered, sending Jiro into another laughing fit.

“Alright, I will admit, Kaminari is quite amusing when he’s like this,” Sarah admitted with a smile, glancing over to see Yaoyorozu had finished changing into her new costume. “But even still, I’m glad he wouldn’t be seeing you nude. Who knows if he’s able to remember anything from when he has overused his quirk.”

“Oh, um, thank you for your consideration, Kurusu,” Yaoyorozu smiled, a light blush on her cheeks. “But I don’t think we’ll have to worry, Kaminari doesn’t strike me as being quite so perverted, especially compared to that troll.”

“Do you mean Mineta?” Sarah asked, tilting her head.

“That gremlin’s mind is filled with nothing but thoughts of lust,” Yaoyorozu growled, a deep frown on her face. “Be careful around him; I’m sure he would take any opportunity to sate his debauchery.”

“Duly noted,” Sarah nodded, filing the information away for later use. After all, as the Class President, Sarah had to look out for all in her class, even if it were from her fellow classmates.

The sound of cracking stone caused Sarah’s head to snap up, just in time to see an arm shoot up out of the ground, right behind Kaminari.

“Kaminari, look out!” Sarah warned, rushing forward to try and save him.

“Yay?” he blankly muttered, looking at Sarah with a confused expression, unaware of the danger behind him.

“Hands up. And no quirks allowed,” a voice ordered, revealing itself to be a villain, emerging out of the ground while grabbing hold of Kaminari by the back of his jacket, hoisting him up in the air. “Try anything and I’ll kill him.”

Sarah ground to a halt, fully aware that the villain likely wasn’t bluffing, Jiro and Yaoyorozu standing beside her.

The villain who held Kaminari hostage was a tall, lean man, with beige skin and small pimple-like growths across his body. He wore a dark green sleeveless bodysuit, alongside a white belt and black boots. But the most striking feature about the villain was his mask. It completely concealed his face, with only his eyes being exposed, and was shaped like the top half of a skull. Given the danger Kaminari was now in, the villain resembled a spectre of death, looming over the still oblivious teen.

“As an electric-type myself, I feel a special kinship with those who have similar quirks, like this kid right here. But make no mistake, girlies; I don’t want to kill him, but I will if I have to.”

“He was waiting to ambush us when we thought they were all down,” Sarah realised. “How did we not see this coming?”

“An electric-type,” Yaoyorozu thought aloud, her eyes suddenly going wide. “He must be the signal jammer that Todoroki mentioned!”

“Get over there and don’t move a muscle,” the villain ordered, pointing to the edge of the cliff that they had been fighting on.

“I always thought this about Kaminari,” Jiro began, “but you electric-types, you’re all natural-born winners, yeah?”

“Huh?” the villain asked, a confusion that Sarah and Yaoyorozu shared.

“What’re you-?” Yaoyorozu asked out of the corner of her mouth, only for Jiro to speak over her.

“This might sound naive, but why become a villain? I just gotta wonder…”

Sarah glared at Jiro from the corner of her eye, wondering why on Earth her classmate would be trying to rationalise the actions of the criminally insane. However, upon seeing Jiro’s right earphone jack snaking its way down her back, hidden from the villain’s sight, she realised what Jiro was planning. 

Unfortunately, the villain quickly realised what Jiro was planning as well.

“Thought I wouldn’t notice what you’re up to?” he growled, sparks of electricity jumping between his fingers, his hand held dangerously close to Kaminari’s face. “It’d take a real idiot to fall for a kid’s stupid trick.”

“Fuck!” Jiro swore, her earlobes retracting, hanging visibly in the air.

“Heroes in training should take hostage situations more seriously,” the villain taunted. “If you three come quietly, I’ll let this blockhead go, okay? What’ll it be, your lives, or his?”

“I am a Centaur, you villain,” Sarah spat. “You are aware of the punishment that befalls those who declare war on the Centaur clans, no? Do you truly wish for the thundering of a thousand hooves to be the last sound you hear, as your body is trampled into the ground? And my classmate is the daughter of the Yaoyorozu family. How much do you think they’d have to offer for everyone you know to betray you? I find it hard to believe a villain willing to negotiate would be so suicidal.”

The skull-masked villain was silent, contemplating Sarah’s threats.

“It definitely wouldn’t be for my benefit to have that kind of heat on me,” the villain muttered to himself, before turning back to face the girls. “Alright, new deal: you ladies stay right where you are. You don’t attack me, alert your classmates, your teachers, no one. In exchange, when I get out of here, I’ll let the idiot go unharmed.”

“How do we know you’ll keep your promise?” Yaoyorozu demanded, her fists clenched at her side.

“You don’t. All you can do is hope that I stay in a good enough mood to keep my end of the bargain.”

Sarah and Yaoyorozu were silent, thinking over the offer that the villain had given. While it was certainly better than his original one, letting him simply escape wasn’t that great of an alternative.

“I don’t think you’ll kill him,” Jiro challenged, taking a step forward. “I think you're bluffing.”

“The hell you say to me, Earlobes?!” the villain yelled, holding his hand in front of Kaminari, their classmate now squirming in the villains grasp. Even though his mind had been fried from over using his quirk, a primal part of his mind clearly recognised the danger he was in.

“I mean, you said it yourself, right? That you feel a kinship with those with electric quirks? I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole act is simply a bluff.”

“Take one more goddamn step and the kid gets it!” the villain threatened, his hand now placed directly on the top of Kaminari’s head. “I’ll fry the little bastard’s head until his brain leaks out of his ears.”

“Jiro, what are you doing?” Sarah hissed, horrified by the life-threatening gamble that she was taking.

“...trust me…” came a quiet whisper. Had it been anyone else, it would have gone unheard. Even with her enhanced hearing, Sarah could only just pick up the whisper, but it was enough.

‘You better have thought this through, Jiro,’ Sarah thought, placing a reassuring hand on Yaoyorozu’s shoulder, stopping her from moving forward. ‘If Kaminari dies, his blood will be on your hands.’

“You really expect me to believe that you, someone with an electric-type quirk, would have to resort to villainy?” Jiro asked, disbelief thick in her voice as she took another step closer. “You could get a job at any powerplant and be paid so much, just from the get-go. So why sign up with a bunch of thugs for a hairbrained, one in a million chance plan?! I mean, how much must they be offering you to do something so stupid?”

“Last chance, girly, and your boyfriend gets it!” the villain yelled.

“Hey, I’m just curious,” Jiro explained, taking yet another step forward. “I’m just trying to understand your reasoning is all.”

“THAT DOES IT!” the villain roared, electricity coursing off his hands, directly into Kaminari. “I tried to warn you, and even though I won’t like it, I’m a man of a word! This kid dies here and now!”

However, rather than the cries of pain or the jabbers of someone whose brain was scrambled, all the villain heard from his hostage was a snicker. Looking down, both the villain and the students noticed the electricity seeming to sink into Kaminari, and rather than hurting him, his vacant, dopey expression cleared, revealing a smirking teen.

“Hey, dumbass,” Kaminari smirked, his smile widening at the look of pure shock in the villain’s eyes. “Thanks for the charge.”

The villain didn’t have a chance to vocally express his shock before Kaminari lit up like a Christmas tree, the electricity being pumped into him being sent back out into the villain. And where Kaminari had absorbed the electricity like a dry sponge absorbs water, the villain absorbed the electricity like a brick. That is to say, not at all.

“Holy shit, Kaminari, you okay?” Jiro asked, rushing forward the moment Kaminairi’s quirk had turned off. The villain was out cold, and while he was still bleeding from his nose and lip, Kaminari had a beaming grin.

“Am I okay?! Jiro, I’m awesome! I took out that guy like a hero would,” the electric blond cheered. “Man, it’s a good thing he couldn’t absorb electricity the same way I can. Actually, now that I think about it, how did you know that your plan would work?”

“Well, I remember during the Battle Trial you mentioned that your quirk allowed you to absorb electricity as well as electrify your body. Since this guy had been hiding underground rather than absorbing your attack, I figured he had a quirk that allowed him to control electricity, but not absorb it like you could.”

“Oh, good thinking,” Kaminari nodded, before his eyes quickly widened. “Wait a minute. That guy could control electricity. Someone with an electric-type quirk was blocking the signal in here.”

He quickly turned to face everyone, Sarah and Yaoyorozu having walked over to join them. “I’m going to try and contact the school!”

He placed his fingers on the receiver on his head, sparks of electricity accompanying his tense look of concentration.

“Come on, come on,” he muttered, before letting out a gasp as he grinned at his classmates. “I got through. Guys, I-Hello? Yes, I’m aware this is a private line. Yes, I, look, my name is Denki Kaminari, I’m a student in Class 1-A. You need to get as many heroes to the U.S.J. as possible, there’s been a villain invasion. The alarms hadn’t gone off because there was a villain who was blocking the signal, and I only managed to get through just now because we beat him. Their boss, some weirdo with severed hands on his face, said that they were here to kill All Might! They’ve scattered us across the U.S.J., I’m currently here with three of my classmates, but I don’t know where everybody else is! I, yes, yes, I understand, thank you, sir.”

“Well?” Jiro asked, raising the question everyone had in their minds.

“Okay, I got through, and they’ve just received the alarm,” Kaminari explained. “They’re sending some teachers over now, but only about a dozen, since they’re worried about more invasions across the U.A. campus.”

His serious expression quickly broke into a beaming grin. “And get this! All Might’s already on his way over. He apparently was heading here before I even managed to get through to them!”

“Oh thank goodness,” Yaoyorozu sighed, a hand placed over her heart.

“All Might must have been late,” Sarah realised. “Mr. Aizawa did mention that today’s lesson would be with three teachers, so I can only assume he went to answer a call for help rather than teach his class.”

“Well, we might be alright, but what about these guys?” Jiro asked, glancing at the various unconscious villains. “Kaminari, you didn’t do anything permanent to them, did you?”

“Nah, they’ll be fine,” Kaminari smirked. “The human body is able to withstand a surprisingly high amount of voltage. Afterall, there are plenty of stories about people surviving lightning strikes. These guys will simply be unconscious for a bit, nothing more.”

“And besides, they attacked with the intent of killing us,” Sarah added, glaring down at the villains. “I’d say they got off light.”

“We should probably meet with the others,” Yaoyorozu proposed. “I’m sure that we’ll be safer in a larger group.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Jiro nodded, looking over to Sarah. “What do you think, Class President?”

“I agree,” Sarah decided. “Come, let us find a way off this mountain. Given the apparent strength of these villains, or lack thereof, they should be easy enough for our classmates to deal with. If they were to go anywhere, my guess would be for the exit of the U.S.J., and to get there, you have to go through the central plaza, so we’ll meet them there.”

“Very well then,” Yaoyorozu nodded, pulling an orange metallic rod out of her abdomen. “Kaminari, this is for you. It should allow you to use your quirk with it.”

Kaminari looked over the forearm-length rod, giving it a quick sniff. “Is this copper?”

“Correct,” Yaoyorozu answered. “Since copper is one of the most conductive metals as well as being durable, it makes for an effective weapon.”

“Sweet,” Kaminari grinned, giving the rod a few swings in the air.

“Now, since we were warped here by a villain, it may take us some time to figure out how to get down,” Sarah guessed, glancing over at a rope bridge nearby. “Let’s hope we can make it down without too much trouble.”

And there we are, another chapter finished. All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The beginning with Tenya hasn’t changed much from canon, only minor changes with Hanta not being present in canon, and Tenya having a different source for his inspiration. Rather, it was the battle in the Mountain Zone that had the largest changes. This will create not only an immediate splash, but also a ripple effect that will be seen later on. Strangely enough, I don’t have much to say for this chapter, other than all that. As chapters go, it was fairly standard, though I did enjoy writing the standoff at the end. I hope I captured the feel of Kyoka, to me she seems like a rocker girl with a bit of a foul mouth. 

Anyway, other than that, let's get into the reviews.

leonardo18anime, cheers for the review. Believe me, I’m more than aware of those copy-and-paste commission artists who all seem to have the same schtick. I see them in the comment sections of the authors whose works I read, and I get them in my own comments and private inbox. I mean, I’ve got at least half a dozen of them, and they all say about the same shit. I’m incredibly thankful to Ansky, not only for the incredible work that she’s done, but also for not screwing me over or being a nagging pest, since I have some experience with the latter that was pretty much harassment, but no names. And yes, receiving fanart from viewers is truly the pinnacle of this hobby, so I’m incredibly grateful. As for Kimihito, believe me, I have the entire scene of when Denki and Minoru lay eyes on the true harem king. All I’ll say is that Kimihito has a bit of a cult following in middle schools and high schools…

Artorigus, once again thanks for your review. I’m always grateful for fanart, so if you want to send it directly, the email is my name (jevm.mita) at gmail. Now, as for your suggestion with the Yu-Gi-Oh dragon maids, to be completely honest I love the idea. I already have a plan for Salamander, however fortunately none of these ideas clash with it. The best part as well is that can fit fairly easily into this story, thanks to Dragonewt heteromorphs existing. Now, granted, they don’t seem to have breath attacks (lame!), however, literally as I was writing this, I made a discovery…DRAGON HETEROMORPHS ARE A THING IN MONSTER MUSUME, YESSSS! Yeah, so, anyway, Dragons are considered Elite Liminals or Greater Species in MM, basically a race that are a step above the rest. Since Salamander is, well, a Salamander heteromorph, it fits that she’d have fellow Greater Species as her maids. This is also going to have some amusing moments with Shoto and Momo having absolutely no idea how to cook, since they’ve got staff at home to do it. Now, the elements might be a bit tricky to work out, but I think I could do something about it. Ironically, their colour scheme is actually the least of the issues, practically a non issue, since ‘normal’ hair colour doesn’t really exist in MHA. I mean, come on, main boi Izuku literally looks like a piece of broccoli. As for them being heroes, I’m tossing that one up. On one hand, Enji Todoroki and his mother are not taking any chances due to an event that happened in the past, which will be revealed. On the other hand, heteromorphs don’t need a quirk license to defend themselves in this version of canon, thanks to a new law being implemented. I’ll probably give them a quirk license, simply so they’re able to lay the smackdown on any idiot who tries to pick a fight in the Todoroki mansion. And fortunately, I have an idea for their names. Speaking of the Todoroki family, I’m glad you liked my portrayal of Shoto. Yes, this version of him had to grow up at a young age, and it’s had an effect on him. Now, for Shoto, all I’ll say is that a parallel does exist with his mother and a character in Monster Musume. That’s all I’ll say on the matter, but Shoto does have a maternal grandmother that has made an appearance in MM (I’ve probably spoiled it at this point, but oh well, it’s not a major or plot-related spoiler). Now, for your theories on Ms. Smith, I won’t say much, because you’ll get your answer hopefully next chapter, if not the one after it. I have her lore all written down, as well as a conversation she’ll have with Izuku at some point, one that will challenge him. M.O.N. is real in this timeline, and they do have a very important job, even if many people in government, the police, and even some heroes really don’t like them for it. As for her being addicted to Kimihito’s coffee, my man simply has the coffee game on lock, he could open a chain of cafes and put Starbucks out of a job in two weeks flat.

And finally, DevilJoker, I’m glad that you like it so far, hope you stick around for more to come.

Okay, and that’s that. For your sneak peak, the next chapter is called, ‘ Aftermath of the U.S.J. ’. That’s right, ladies and gents, we’re in the last stretch of the U.S.J. arc, and some of those ripples will be hitting the boat. 

See y’all next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

Katsuki, using only one word to describe himself, was pissed. First was the fact that they had rescue training, something he had little interest in. While some people would assume it was because he was too blood thirsty for it, or he viewed the specialisation as something beneath him, they’d be dead wrong, and he’d beat them for making the assumption. Katsuki didn’t care for rescue training because it wasn’t something he was good at. Sure, All Might, the person he looked up to the most in the world, made his debut in a rescue, but comparing himself to All Might was like comparing a boulder to a mountain. All Might had a jack-of-all-trades quirk, and he was a master of all of it. He was strong, fast, and durable! Each of those factors could be quirks all on their own, but All Might had all three. The only thing stopping him from being a god rather than a mountain was the fact that he couldn’t fly, not really.

But Katsuki didn’t have that. He could fly, kind of, though it was currently a work in progress he hoped to show off in the upcoming Sports Festival. But rescue was one of the few things he’d admit he wasn’t good at. He created explosions, and that kind of work wasn’t usually the best for saving people. No, Katsuki preferred to take a more proactive approach to saving people, just like Endeavor, the No. 2 hero in Japan, did; by taking out the bad guys before they were able to hurt people.

Sure, he could blast open doors, but that was more of a breach and clear strategy. If someone was too close, they’d get hurt, and not only was that bad for his image, but that was bad for his spirit. But if they were villains behind the door, then Katsuki would be in the clear. Some people were meant for certain things, and doing battle was what Katsuki did best, evidently from the unconscious bodies that surrounded him.

The room he was in was damaged, as if it had been in the area of an earthquake or a powerful villain attack. Cracks lined the walls, holes were punched through parts of the building, including the floor in some areas, and almost all of the windows had their glass blown out. This area, the Ruin Zone, was where Katsuki had found himself after the warp bastard had separated him from the rest of his class. Said area was also crawling with villain scum, each filled with bloated dreams of power and fame, as if killing students was going to prove anything. The fact that he was able to best all of them was only showing just how deluded they were.

‘Well, I can’t take all of the credit,’ Katsuki admitted, wiping some sweat off his brow. ‘After all, Shitty Hair pulled his weight.’

“That’s all of ‘em,” Katsuki observed, smoke wafting from his open palms, one of them in his grenade gauntlets, while the other was left bare. The fact that the gauntlet he’d used against Deku hadn’t been able to handle it only pissed him off even more, so for now he’d only be able to store up his explosive sweat in one hand. “Buncha mooks.”

The sound of a body dropping caused him to look over, seeing the final villain in the room collapsing onto the ground, Shitty Hair rubbing his jaw where he’d tanked a haymaker to it.

“Great! Now let’s hurry and help the others!” he said, showing off his bleeding heart. “If we’re here, I bet everyone else is also still in the U.S.J.! I’m worried about the guys who don’t really have ways to attack.”

Katsuki only grunted, half listening to Shitty Hair’s opinion, half observing the villain that was crawling along the ceiling. He didn’t know how, but they were invisible, though their attempts at stealth were pathetic.

“Thirteen’s probably got her hands full since the three of us rushed ahead like that,” Shitt Hair continued. “None of this woulda happened if we’d let her suck in that mist man. We gotta take responsibility, especially us two as men.”

“Is that what you’re gonna say to Racoon Eyes when you knock her up?” Katsuki snarked, finding some silent enjoyment at the sight of Shitty Hair blushing and stuttering. “If you wanna go back, then go on alone. I’m gonna beat that warp gate guy to a pulp.”

“Huh?!” Shitty Hair yelled, shock seeming to override his embarrassment. “You’re still pulling immature crap at a time like this? Besides, normal attacks don’t work on him.”

“Shut up!” Katsuki snarled. “He’s how these punks are getting around. Bring him down, and they’ll have nowhere to run! And it’s not like I don’t have a way to beat him!”

“Don’t you know you should never let your guard d-ghk!”

Katsuki whirled around, preparing to crush the sneaky villain, only for the scum in question, apparently a Chameleon Lizardfolk heteromorph, to have a line of thread loop around his neck, slamming the back of his head onto the upper ledge of a window, his body dropping limply onto the ground.

“Come on, Dynamite, were you really about to let that guy get the jump on you?” a teasing voice called out. Dark, thin legs appeared over the edge of the window, lowering themselves down on a thin line of silk, as Silks stepped lightly into the room, observing the many unconscious villains.

“Shut up, Silks,” Katsuki snarled, even though there wasn’t any real heat in his words. “These guys are all idiots. We should be fine, hell, even Deku should be able to survive against these guys.”

“You sure are calm all of a sudden,” Shitty Hair said out loud, grinning as he nodded to Silks in greeting. “You’re usually like, ‘Die, die, die!’”

“I’m always calm, you damned broomhead!” Katsuki swore, flipping his classmate the bird.

“And there it is,” Silks chuckled, walking over to stand with them. “You guys sure did take out a few of them, though.”

“Were you sent here as well, Kurusu?” Shitty Hair asked. “Bakugo and I have been stuck fighting off waves of these guys.”

“Oh, I’m well aware,” Silks grinned, flashing her razor sharp teeth. “I overheard some villains talking about some terrors in a building that were going through people like an addict goes through pills. I guess you both must have scared them off, because there’s no way that could be you two.”

“Whatever,” Katsuki scoffed, walking to where he knew the flight of stairs out of the building would be. “I’m outta here.”

“Hold up,” Shitty Hair called out, jogging over to catch up to him, Silks trailing behind. “You gotta trust your pals. Be a man, Bakugo! You’ve convinced me.”

“Us,” Silks corrected. “After all, even if each of us are stronger than these guys, there’s still strength in numbers.”

“Do whatever you like,” Katsuki huffed. “I’m heading to the central plaza. Villains with a chip on their shoulder love to be seen, so that’s where the boss is likely to be.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Silks nodded, a line of thread shooting out of her wrist, the sticky material gathering rubble and debris as they walked, turning it causing the mass to grow larger and larger. “And since the U.S.J. is on school grounds, that makes it private property. You know what that means, right?”

Katsuki grinned, glad that at least someone had figured out what he’d already known. “That means that we’re allowed to use our quirks, with no restrictions in place.”

“Hell yeah,” Shitty Hairy nodded, his arms hardening. “We can fight villains and it’s legal! So manly!”

-]l[-

Having defeated the villains in the Mountain Zone, Denki and his classmates had made their way down the mountain side. It was difficult, given the fact that Kurusu’s quirk physique prevented her from climbing down, so they were forced to find the path that led out of the zone; in other words, they had to go the long way. 

Fortunately, Thirteen must have designed all of the disaster zones with multiple paths in mind, as they did eventually find the way down, albeit with some backtracking required. 

“Only a little further to go now,” Kurusu reassured them, taking the lead in their formation, her large shield held in front of her. “It’s fortunate that the villains were all concentrated in one location, else we may have been assaulted on our way down.”

“Actually, now that you mention it, there’s something about those villains that’s been bugging me,” Jiro mentioned. “Was it just me, or did those guys all seem really weak and dumb? Well, everyone but that electric villain who grabbed Kaminari.”

“You’re probably right, Jiro,” Yaoyorozu nodded. “It is very likely that there are a few genuine threats and they were spread across the U.S.J., each being placed in a different area to keep the lower level villains under some semblance of control. While it might seem like an invasion of villains, in truth there must only be a dozen or so true villains. To have this many villains of noticeable power without them falling to infighting would require the leader to be unimaginably powerful, like those from the days before All Might became known as the Symbol of Peace.”

“There exist villains like that?” Denki nervously asked. Sure, he’d just had a fight with villains, but that didn’t mean he was no longer afraid.

“The correct phrasing would be villains that existed, past tense,” Kurusu explained. “Villains of such horrifying power that they could conquer entire nations. The Shadow King of Japan easily comes to mind, but others such as Nyarlathotep, father of the Shapeshifter heteromorphs and the self proclaimed Faceless God, or the Grand Wizard, founder of the Creature Rejection Clan, might be able to control a sizable group of powerful villains. But for this group, only a handful of decently strong villains headed by a genuinely powerful individual should be enough.”

“So who do we think it is?” Jiro asked. “That handsy guy, the one with the baby blue hair?”

“It’s got to be,” Denki nodded. “The warp guy seemed like a lackey, and that big bird guy seemed, I don’t know, vacant? Plus, it was the hands guy who came out of the portal first.”

The group continued down the path, and soon enough the exit out of the Mountain Zone was within sight.

“When we enter the central plaza, we must stick together,” Kurusu ordered. “We don’t know how many villains remained here, and the leaders may have stayed, so we must remain on our guard. Understood?”

“You got it, Prez!” Denki grinned, flashing their class president with a thumbs up, Jiro and Yaoyorozu nodding beside him.

“Very well,” Kurusu smiled, lifting her shoulder into a readied stance. “Let’s go!”

The group cautiously entered into the central plaza, sticking together in a huddle. But as they rounded a corner, allowing them a full view of the plaza, they were shocked by the sight. Three of their classmates, Midoriya, Asui, and Mineta, were in the background, making their way to the stairs. On Midoriya’s back was Mr. Aizawa, his body limp, a trail of blood leading from him. However, the most pressing scene was in the centre, where All Might was currently fighting the bird-faced villain. His body was muscular to an extreme degree, but his skin was jet black, with scars criss-crossing along it. Most horrifying was his face, as it had a beak-like mouth, sharp, jagged teeth within it, and an exposed brain.

“No way, All Might’s here!” Denki quietly cheered, his excitement not being enough to forget they were trying to be sneaky.

“But that villain seems to be taking all of his blows without issue,” Yaoyorozu worriedly noticed.

Indeed, despite the punches All Might was landing, the villain didn’t recoil, simply standing firm, his body rippling wherever the blows landed. All Might, seeing the futility of this, ducked low underneath the villain's attempted grasp, wrapping his arms around the muscular villain’s waist, before bending backwards, performing a suplex into the ground. A large cloud of dust shot up into the sky, obscuring the struggle, but as it cleared, Denki and his classmates all gasped in shock. 

Rather than seeing the sight of the villain’s upper torso being buried into the ground, the villain had appeared underneath All Might’s arched back, his hands digging into the Symbol of Peace’s sides.

“Wha-!” Denki gasped, his eyes wide in shock. “How did he-?”

“The warp villain,” Kurusu concluded, the aforementioned being emerging next to the blue haired villain leader. “He must have timed it perfectly to get their muscle the chance to grab All Might.”

“But he’ll be okay, right?” Jiro nervously asked. “I mean, come on, he’s-”

“ALL MIGHT!”

The group’s eyes all snapped over, seeing Midoriya rushing forward, a stunned Asui now carrying Mr. Aizawa. The warp villain surged forwards, his misty body opening another warp gate, ready to engulf Midoriya, the student running headfirst towards the danger. That is, until a loud, brash voice yelled out.

“Get the hell outta here, Deku!” Bakugo yelled, rocketing forwards on his explosions, an arm lashing out and landing a devastating blow on the warp villain. Unlike before at the U.S.J. exit, this attack landed, the ash-blond teen slamming the villain onto the ground, his grip firm on a metal brace that the villain wore around what was supposedly his neck. This was quickly followed by a crackling line of blue ice racing along the ground, freezing over half of the muscular villain’s body, clearly the work of Todoroki. Finally, Kirishima launched himself at the villain with the hand accessories, only for the villain to dodge out of the way. This wasn’t for naught, however, as a loop of thread from Kórinis Kurusu’s wrist wrapped around the villain’s torso, swinging him up into the air. However, as the villain was hurtling towards the ground, he twisted in midair, landing gently in a crouch.

“Damn it, that guy’s more agile than I thought,” the Arachne student swore.

“Sister, cousin!” Kurusu called out, dashing forwards, abandoning all semblance of stealth.

“Sarah, I’m glad to see you’ve survived unharmed,” Todoroki cooly stated, the cloaked and armoured student glancing over as All Might managed to free himself from the bird villain’s grasp. “Though, none of the villain’s I’ve encountered should have been an issue for any of us with proper combat training.”

“What kind of summons do you have, All Might?” the blue haired villain asked aloud, his arms still bound by his sides. “Really, summoner-type creatures are so annoying.”

He raised his arm, grabbing the silk bindings that wrapped around him with all five fingers. Immediately, the silk began to lose its shimmer, cracking and fading until parts of it turned to dust, quickly freeing the villain.

“Not only that, All Might, but three of your summons have CC abilities; one to trap my escape method, one to give me the ‘restrained’ condition, and the other to inflict a ‘frozen’ condition on my Nomu. So unfair.”

“This bastard slipped up!” Bakugo snarled with a feral grin. “Just as I thought, the parts he can turn into that foggy warp gate are limited. You’re using that misty crap to hide your real body, yeah? Am I right?”

Bakugo glared down at the trapped warp villain, the pressure he forced on him keeping him trapped on the ground. “If your whole body was mist and physical attacks didn’t work, you’d never say, ‘That was a close one!’”

‘Wow, despite how he behaves, Bakugo is really smart,’ Denki thought to himself.

“Don’t move!” Bakugo yelled, pressing even harder on the villain’s neck piece. “If I decide you’re doing anything fishy, I’ll blow you straight to kingdom come!”

‘And that’s why everyone assumes you’re a thoughtless moron,’ Denki sighed in his head.

“Not only have you beaten our level, but you’re all at full health,” the hands villain observed. “Today’s kids really are something…our League of Villains should be ashamed. However, All Might, while you might have more summons that specialise in CC abilities, my Nomu summon is a higher level than all of them combined.”

“Nomu,” he ordered, turning to face the half frozen villain that had remained motionless, like a puppet without anyone pulling its strings. “Take out the explosive brat. We need our escape route back.”

The villain, Nomu, leveraged his feet, pulling himself backwards out of the warp gate. However, as he tried to move, the right, frozen half of his body began to crumble, the frozen solid flesh and blood breaking away, falling to the ground.

“His body’s falling apart, but he’s still moving?!” Midoriya yelled in shock and horror, voicing what everyone else was too stunned to say.

“Get back, everyone!” All Might warned, placing himself in front of his students. However, he, as well as everyone else, was taken aback as the destroyed half of Nomu’s body began to pulse and swell, new, fresh muscles, veins, skin, and bones growing out, replacing what was lost.

“What the…?! I thought his quirk was Shock Absorption!”

“I never said that was the only skill Nomu had unlocked,” the hand villain chuckled. “Nomu also specialised into Hyper Regeneration. He’s my tank summon, a living sandbag designed to withstand everything you’ve got, and dish it right back.”

As if prompted, Nomu dashed forward on his newly grown muscles, headed straight for Bakugo. He lashed out with a haymaker, the sheer wind pressure from the blow causing nearby trees to bend, and all but the most stable to be blown over onto their backside.

“Kacchan!” “Bakugo!” both Midoriya and Kórinis Kurusu yelled, each worried for their explosive classmate. However, their fears were unfounded, because as the dust cleared, Bakugo could be seen sitting on the ground next to Midoriya.

“Kacchan?! You dodged that?! Wow…!” Midoriya gasped.

“I didn’t. Shut up, you,” Bakugo responded, shock and confusion calming his voice.

“Shit, Dynamite, you okay?!” Kórinis Kurusu asked, rushing over to inspect her friend. “That guy didn’t hit you, did he?”

“Course he didn’t,” Bakugo dismissed, patting away her offered hand to get onto his own feet under his own power. “I don’t know what happened, it was all too fast to see.”

“Over there!” Jiro exclaimed, pointing over in the distance.

There, leading to it with furrows carved into the concrete floor, was All Might, his arms held up in a guard, and even with the distance, the sounds of coughing could be heard from the Symbol of Peace.

“Anything to save a comrade, right?” the hands villain asked. “Why, it’s just like earlier when, uh…”

The villain’s gaze swept across the students, finally locking eyes with Midoriya.

“That one, the plain one, whose hair looks like a vegetable. He came at me with everything he had. But violence in the name of saving others is admirable, isn’t it, hero?”

Denki couldn’t help but glance over at his classmate. ‘Midoriya attacked him? But he doesn’t seem injured, other than his fingers. Did he figure out how to use his quirk?’

“You know what, All Might? That pisses me off!” the villain ranted, his arms held out wide. “Heroes and villains both thrive on violence, but we’re still categorised. ‘You’re good.’ ‘You’re evil.’ That’s how it is! Symbol of Peace? Hah! In the end, you’re just another tool for violence, made to keep us down! And violence only breeds more violence. I’ll show the world that by killing you!” 

“What a load of hooey,” All Might spat, walking forward while keeping his guard up. “Idealistic criminals and villains have a different sort of fire in their eyes. But you’re just enjoying yourself, you big liar.”

The villain didn’t answer All Might’s denial, only sneering behind his morbid mask.

“It’s ten-on-three,” Todoroki challenged, grabbing his ice staff with both hands. “You don’t stand a chance.”

“And Kacchan showed us the mist man’s weak point!” Midoriya added.

“These are some brutal dudes, but with all of us supporting All Might, we can beat ‘em back!” Kirishima yelled.

“Yeah, no way are we allowing these guys to get away after attacking us,” Kórinis Kurusu challenged, hauling a sphere of rubble into the air beside her, twirling it around.

“No! Get out of here!” All Might ordered, stepping in front of his students once more.

“Things wouldn’t have gone so well if I hadn’t stepped in,” Todoroki challenged.

“And you’re bleeding, All Might!” Midoriya warned. “And I think your time-”

“Right you are, young Todoroki!” All Might acknowledged. “So thanks for that! But fear not! Sit back and watch a Pro get serious!”

As if taking it as a challenge, the hands villain dashed forward, but rather than towards All Might, he was heading straight for Denki and his classmates, all of them having grouped together.

“He’s coming!” Kirishima warned, not that any of them hadn’t noticed the charging villain. “Get ready, guys and girls!”

But before the students could engage the mastermind of the invasion of their school, All Might and Nomu rushed each other, their fist slamming together.

“He’s got the Shock Absorption skill,” the hands villain reiterated, leaping backwards and away. “You already saw it yourself.”

“That’s right!” All Might yelled, throwing another punch, one that Nomu mirrored. “It’s Absorption, not Negation! So he must have a limit, no?! Built to counter me, you say?! Made to withstand everything I’ve got?! Then I’ll just go beyond that!”

But despite All Might’s words, Denki could see that he was slowly losing. A blow that grazed his cheek, their fists colliding and All Might’s arm recoiling back further, and the furrows in the ground showing he was being pushed back, slowly but surely. Yet as he watched with both hope and fear in his heart, Denki started to notice a pattern. This Nomu villain apparently wasn’t very creative, sticking to the same set of moves, as if he wasn’t able to think for himself. Given the fact that he had only ever reacted whenever ordered to, Denki figured that his idea was right. The pattern of moves formed in his head, then they were analysed, and a gap was found. And where there was a gap, there was a chance.

“Hey, Jiro!” he yelled, turning to face his former teammate who stood beside him, her gaze that was transfixed on the fight quickly turning to face him.

“I’m about to do something incredibly stupid!” Denki said with a shaky grin. “Give me a kiss for good luck?”

“What?!” Jiro squawked, her face instantly flushing red.

“Nevermind,” Denki sighed, quickly leaning over and pressing his lips against her cheek. Her skin was soft, and no matter how much he wanted to stay in that moment, he knew what he had to do.

“Sorry!” he called out over his shoulder, sprinting towards the clashing titans.

“Wait, Kaminari!” Jiro yelled, but Denki paid it no attention, simply fighting to press forward through the wind pressure.

“What?! Young Kaminari, go back!” All Might yelled, his teeth gritted. “What part of-”

“All Might, when I hit him, you can’t be touching!” Denki yelled back, cutting off his teacher. Huh, he had interrupted the Symbol of Peace. How many people could claim that?

Idle thoughts aside, Denki pushed forward, electricity sparking around his body.

“If All Might can’t beat him, what hope do you have, noob?!” the hands villain cackled.

“Sure, he may be stronger, but there’s one thing about muscles!” Denki yelled. “Now, All Might!”

Hoping that his teacher had listened to his warning, Denki threw a punch into the villain’s side. Even though it felt like he hit a brick wall, he didn’t recoil, keeping his body in contact with the villain’s.

“When electricity passes through them, muscles contract!”

Nomu let out a shriek of pain, electricity coursing through him. It tried to grab Denki, but thanks to all of his muscles painfully contracting, all it could do was glare down at the electric blond. Denki met the villain’s gaze, recoiling and gasping as he did. In those small, beady eyes that were embedded into the villain’s exposed brain, was what could only be described as pure malice. The villain glared down at Denki with nothing but hate in his heart, and though it hadn’t yet spoken, no words were needed to convey his anger.

The villain continued to convulse as electricity coursed through his body, but he slowly turned towards Denki, his arms reaching out in a jerky, erratic fashion.

“Young Kaminari, run away, now!” All Might yelled, breaking Denki’s concentration, causing his body to cease being electrified.

That was a mistake.

His muscles no longer being subjected to constant electrification, now only the lingering static, the villain’s large hand open shot forward, right towards Denki’s head.

Time seemed to slow down for Denki, being able to make out the multitude of faint scars that covered the villain’s hand. In the background, he was able to hear someone scream his name. A part of him hoped it was Jiro. She seemed nice, the kind of girl that he could easily be friends with, and maybe something more. Just behind Nomu, Denki was able to see All Might, trying desperately to stop the large villain. Denki was sure it was too late. All Might probably knew that too.

‘Man, this blows,’ Denki thought to himself, the crushing hand drawing closer and closer. ‘Damn quirk giving me more time to think. I wish I asked Jiro out on a date at least, even if nothing came of it. Jiro, where have I heard that name before? Are her parents politicians or something?’

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see his end.

‘Me and my damn ego. I just had to try and be like Ma, huh? You dumbass, Denki. Ma’s a hero because she’s a paramedic, not a living cattle prod. God, what’s Ma and Pa going to think? I don’t think they could handle losing another child. And Yostesu, I’m sorry. I know we promised to both be heroes, but I’m going to have to break that promise, bro. Try not to follow after me too quickly, yeah?’ 

Denki felt a warm, iron-scented liquid splash on his face, what he instinctively knew was blood. But rather than hearing the crunch of his skull in the villain’s hands, he heard the sound of a gunshot.

Bang!

Peaking his eyes open, Denki saw Nomu’s hand recoiling away, a bullet wound punching a hole through his hand.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Four more shots rang out, each impacting either the villain’s shoulders or legs.

Having been given an opportunity, All Might dashed forward with a roar of anger, his fist slamming into the villain’s beaked jaw.

“You shall not harm my students!” All Might raged, the punch causing Nomu’s jaw to hang limply.

“You shall not endanger them!” All Might continued, lashing out with an uppercut that lifted Nomu into the air.

“You shall not harm anyone anymore!”

With a mighty yell, All Might joined his fists together, slamming them down on the top of the villain’s head with a powerful hammerblow, the sheer force of the hit driving the Nomu headfirst into the ground, sending tremors throughout the entire building.

“Wha-What happened?” the hands villain asked in shock.

“It seems that we’ve arrived just in time,” a voice called out from the entrance, grabbing the attention of everyone in the plaza. “We brought everyone we could.”

There, standing proudly at the entrance, were a gathering of U.A. teachers, each and everyone of them an active Pro Hero. And standing at the front was Class 1-A’s vice president.

“Vice President of Class 1-A, Tenya Ida, reporting for duty!”

“No, no, no!” the lead villain screamed in indignant anger. “You’re cheating! Hacks, this is fucking hacks! That’s way too large of a party to be fair!” 

Anything else that the furious villain was about to claim was cut off, as a veritable rain of bullets shot out towards him, some managing to pierce through the villain’s arms or legs. The mist villain swept forwards, using his own body as a shield to protect his leader. However, before they could safely escape, a deep whooshing sound could be heard, the mist villain’s gaseous body began being dragged away.

“This is..” the mist villain gasped, only to be cut off by a pained, female voice.

“It’s me!” came the yell of Thirteen, her face visibly pained as she stretched out her arm, her quirk working at full power. “You aren’t getting away, not after what you’ve done to me, to Aizawa, and to his students!”

However, despite the Space Hero’s best efforts, the remaining two villains began to warp away.

“I may have failed this level, Symbol of Peace, but the next time we meet, you and your students are dead, All Might!” the hands villain declared as he disappeared into the shrinking warp gate.

Denki breathed a sigh of relief, his heart pounding from the near-death experience he’d just survived. Even now, he could see Nomu’s hand reaching out to pop his head like a grape, that spectre of death hanging over him.

“Young Kaminari,” All Might spoke, grabbing his attention, causing him to look at the Symbol of Peace. Blood trickled from his teacher’s mouth, and a large stain of blood could be seen where Nomu had grabbed him. Yet, despite this, All Might still smiled.

“What you did was reckless, and foolish, and stupid,” All Might said, each word causing Denki to lower his head. “But, despite that, I couldn’t be prouder. The job of a Pro is a reckless, dangerous profession. At least, it’s meant to be. Too many people become Pros for the fame, the money, or the popularity, completely forgetting about the core essence of being a hero: risking your own life to save the lives of others.”

Denki felt tears welling in his eyes, the sheer pride in All Might’s voice making him emotional.

“Thank you, All Might.”

The Symbol of Peace simply nodded, before the sight of him was blocked by a wall of concrete that grew from the ground.

“Run along and join your classmates, child,” came the calm voice of Cementoss, rising from the ground where he had used his quirk. “All Might must be attended to. He may have some injuries that will not be easily seen.”

“Understood, sir,” Denki nodded, turning around and jogging over to join his classmates. However, as he walked amongst them towards the exit, he paused, seeing Jiro standing in front of him with a firm, somewhat angry gaze, her cheeks darkened, though Denki wasn’t sure if that was from embarrassment or anger.

“Jiro?” he asked with confusion in his voice. “What’s the matter?”

“What you did was stupid, reckless, and idiotic,” she said, each insult punctuated by her finger poking his chest. “Don’t ever do something like that again.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Denki apologised, hanging his head. “All Might kind of gave me a dressing down about that as well.”

Jiro simply nodded her head, turning around and walking towards the exit. After a few steps, however, she looked over her shoulder with a small grin. “There’s a burger joint near my place. If you want to apologise, treat me to a meal there.”

-]l[-

Tomura Shigaraki, apprentice to All For One, the Shadow King of Japan, was furious. No, even more than that, he was outraged. As Kurogiri’s warp gate deposited him on the wooden floor of their hideout, Tomura took stock of his recent injuries.

“I was shot, both arms and both legs. We got party wiped. He got Nomu too. All of our cannon fodder were taken down in a flash, and all of our mid-tier summons got taken out by those kids.”

He glared up at the screen, knowing that his master and the doctor would be watching and listening.

“You moron, Doc! You made Nomu with the purpose of defeating All Might, but he got taken out because you forgot to give him resistance to electric-type moves! Sure, he rolled high and broke his condition, but we lost him because of it! He was my favourite summon!”

“And it’s worse than that!” Tomura continued. “Nomu trying to take out that electric kid seemed to have triggered All Might’s second health bar! You were wrong, Master, All Might hasn’t grown weaker at all!”

“No, I wasn’t,” came a calm, commanding voice from the monitor, the voice of Tomura’s master, teacher, and father. “We merely got ahead of ourselves.”

“Yes, we underestimated him,” came a second voice, that of the doctor. “Good thing those we hired for our ‘League of Villains’ came cheap. Anyway, what of our creation? Nomu? Were you able to retrieve him?”

“All Might buried him in the floor of the U.S.J.,” Kurogiri, Tomura’s loyal guardian, answered, appearing behind the bar. “Given the lack of time we had, I was unable to retrieve him. My apologies, Master.”

“After all the trouble we went through to make him as strong as All Might…!” the doctor began, only to be spoken over by Master.

“Well, that’s too bad, a real shame.”

“Strong, right,” Tomura thought out loud. “There was one, one kid who seemed just as strong as All Might, if not stronger.”

Silence fell across the hideout, a clear sign of Master thinking.

“Oh?” came his thoughtful response.

“When that kid tried to punch me, Nomu actually had to use a skill to block it, rather than rely on his natural resistance to physical damage,” Tomura explained.

“No use crying over spilled milk,” his master comforted. “This endeavor was not a complete loss. Find stronger troops. Take all the time you need. We can’t move freely, that’s why we need a symbol like you, Tomura Shigaraki, my pupil, my son. Next time, the world will know of the terror you represent.”

-]l[-

Naomasa Tsukauchi liked his job as a detective in the Japanese Police Force. As a detective, he was given special leniency with certain cases, and when operating with the main force of the police, he was able to do good work. While many people always looked to Pros as the heroes, Naomasa had always seen the police as cooler. While the heroes were flashy, the police were the ones who kept public order, keeping society running in the background. But sometimes, he’d have cases where a traitorous part of his mind wondered if it was all worth it. Those were the bad call outs. He was just glad that this hadn’t turned into one of them, though it very easily could have.

They were children. Children! Sure, they were training to be heroes in the future, but that didn’t excuse the villain’s attempt to not only kill All Might, the pillar upon which all of Japanese society rested upon, but his students. Naomasa was simply glad that there hadn’t been any serious injuries. The worst of them had been the kid with green hair, and he’d simply broken some fingers. The rest of his classmates had managed to escape with only scrapes, bruises, and some light cuts.

“Principal, I’d like to go over the school with a fine-toothed comb, if you don’t mind,” Naomasa said, less of a request and more of a polite demand.

“Ah, of course,” the animal principal said in a cheerful voice. “I’m sure some won’t be happy, but the police certainly have jurisdiction! Investigations are your field of expertise! Do what you feel is necessary!”

“Of course, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll…” Naomasa began, only to notice a convoy of black vehicles approaching. “Oh, damn it all, why’d SHE have to be here?”

All around him Naomasa noticed his fellow officer’s reactions to approaching vehicles. While some of them shared a similar disapproval or even a more negative reaction, it irritated him to see some officers having a more neutral or positive expression.

The convoy of vans, five of them in total, came to a sudden stop in front of the U.S.J., the vehicle’s marked with their acronym on the sides: M.O.N. The side doors of the vehicles slammed open, and disembarking from the vans were individuals wearing their signature uniform, a yellow flack jacket, helmet, and a black bodysuit worn underneath. Almost every member of the taskforce had personalised armour to accommodate their various mutations, be they heteromorphic or random mutations. However, one person stood out amongst the group.

“Move it, people, let’s do our job!” she ordered, her voice commanding without being too loud. Rather than wearing a yellow and black combat uniform, she wore a simple white dress shirt, as well as a black tie, blazer, business skirt, leggings, and heels. Her eyes were hidden behind a large pair of sunglasses, her head turning as her gaze swept over her forces. She was a stunning beauty, even Naomasa could admit that, but seeing her filled him with nothing but disgust. After all, she was none other than Kuroko Smith, leader and founder of the Mutants Opposing Negligence, and a constant thorn in his side.

“Smith, what are you doing here?” Naomasa demanded, striding over. “This is an active police investigation.”

“Ah, Tsukauchi, still a detective I assume?” Smith asked with a mocking undertone. She lowered her glasses, looking at him over the rim.

“I don’t have time for your games, Smith. Get your people back in your vans and get out of here. You can come back when we’re done with our investigation.”

“We both know that’s not going to happen,” she smirked. “After all, we’re operating within the bounds of the law. We have the legal right to be here, as well as the legal right to conduct our own investigations. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time the police have falsely charged heteromorphs, true mutants, and the quirkless as villains.”

“You listen here, Smith. You and your people are going to leave, or else I’ll-”

“Do nothing, Investigator Tsukauchi,” Principal Nezu interrupted, looking up at him with a smug, condescending look. “Ms Smith and her people are welcome guests here, and they are within their legal rights to conduct their own investigations alongside your own, as per the Anti-Negligence Act that was passed eight years ago.”

Naomasa fumed in his mind, but on the outside only allowed his fists to tighten and his jaw to clench.

“Will there be a problem, Investigator?” the principal demanded.

Naomasa took a moment to compose himself, taking in a deep breath, holding it, and then slowly exhaling. Despite his opinions on the M.O.N. Enforcers, they weren’t doing anything illegal, and his superiors certainly wouldn’t appreciate the heat the police force would face if he made a scene. “No, Principal Nezu, forgive my lapse in judgement. However, I’m sure you won’t mind if the police conduct their investigation alongside the M.O.N. Enforcers?”

“That is acceptable,” the hyper intelligent animal nodded. “So long as you don’t get in the way of the M.O.N. Enforcer’s duties, I’m sure there won’t be any trouble.”

‘It isn’t us getting in their way that’s the issue, it’s them getting in ours,’ Naomasa thought. But it didn’t matter, Nezu wasn’t going to budge, that he was certain of. The Principal always was biased towards his former students, and Kuroko Smith was one of his most prized alumni. Afterall, they both shared a barely concealed hatred for the current system.

Keeping a close eye on Smith and her people, Naomasa followed them into the U.S.J., a handful of police officers following close behind him. The moment Smith and the M.O.N. Enforcers were visible to the villains who had all been gathered together in the plaza, there were a mixture of reactions. Some of the more lustful villains gave catcalls and whistles, throwing out jeers and taunts, usually about Smith’s attractive appearance. However, unlike what one would expect for the scum of society, none of those making less than polite remarks were those with mutation quirks.

“Hey, you guys are the M.O.N. Enforcers, right?!” one villain called out, a fairly large man who had grey mummy bandages wrapped around parts of his body. “I’m quirkless! Can you help a brother out?!”

“Seishin,” Smith said, prompting a three eyed woman to step forward, the third eye placed in the middle and above her other two making it clear she was a Triclops heteromorph.

The woman placed her hand on the villain’s head, her lower two eyes closing while her middle eye opened wider.

“He’s telling the truth, ma’am,” she confirmed as she stood back up. “He doesn’t have a quirk.”

“Alright, someone get him out of here,” Smith ordered, “and get him a lawyer.”

Her orders prompted a flurry of movement, M.O.N. Enforcers moving about, helping up those with mutations while ignoring those without. Occasionally, someone would claim they were quirkless, though only two of those claims turned out to be true.

“Sir?” someone asked to Naomasa’s side, causing him to see the concerned and confused face of a young officer. “What exactly are they doing?”

“How long have you been in the police force?” Naomasa asked.

“Five months, sir!” the rookie answered, snapping to attention. 

‘Must be one hell of a rookie to be assigned to this call out,’ Naomasa thought. “Do you know anything about the M.O.N. Enforcers?”

“Only that they’re a government agency who specialise in preventing quirk discrimination,” the rookie answered.

“That’s their more public image, and not an inaccurate statement,” Naomasa sighed. “One of their core jobs, however, is responding to incidents that have to do with criminals who are either quirkless or those with mutations, even if they have a secondary quirk.”

“Is that why they’re prioritising some people over others?” the rookie asked, watching as a red-haired female M.O.N. Enforcer, a Zombie heteromorph due to the stitches and mismatched skin, helped up her fellow Zombie, keeping him restrained as they moved, but still being somewhat gentle.

“Because the M.O.N. Enforcers only care for those with mutation quirks or no quirks,” Naomasa explained. “In their eyes, mutants, heteromorphs, and the quirkless have been ignored or downtrodden by those with emitter or transformation quirks, and they can only rely on their own to look out for them. If a criminal with a mutation quirk ends up in court, nine times out of ten it’s a M.O.N. Enforcer who represents them.”

“So they’re lawyers with guns?”

“Not quite,” Naomasa chuckled. “They do do good work, especially with fighting against discrimination against heteromorphs in rural areas and discrimination against the quirkless in urban areas, but they do plenty of shady stuff too. Most times they do their best to reduce the sentences of mutant-types or quirkless, but they’re also known to try to increase the sentences of villains with emitter or transformation quirks, or even recruit petty criminals or vigilantes in exchange for working off their sentence, assuming they have the right kind of quirk. They see the line of the law and decide to skirt along it.”

“Why do that?” the rookie asked, glancing over where a heteromorph criminal was being helped to his feet, all the while those around him without any standout features were completely ignored. “I understand trying to help those with mutation quirks or who are quirkless, but why make things worse for emitters or transformers?”

“Because Kuroko Smith,” Naomasa began, looking at the woman in question who was overseeing her organisation’s work, “experienced intense discrimination as a child due to her being quirkless. Rather than try and move on from it, she’s let that anger and pain fester, and she places the blame solely on those born with emitter or transformation quirks, but who also don’t have any mutations. If it wasn’t for the Hero Public Safety Commission promoting an anti-quirk message to the public or those anarchists in the Hearts and Mind political party, her department’s methods wouldn’t be acceptable, but as it is, they’re seen as a more middle of the road approach, favouring a marginalised group over the majority.”

Naomasa looked around, seeing the group of villains had been reduced to almost a third of the original number, if not less.

‘I can sympathise with what she’s gone through, especially as the first quirkless person to complete a hero course in Japan, but that doesn’t give her a right to lash out at those with emitter or transformation quirks,’ Naomasa thought. ‘I can only hope she doesn’t keep dragging people into her darkness. Well, that or someone pulls her back into the light. If she had the right motivation, she could be an excellent voice for equality.’

Okay, I know this chapter was late, and I apologise. I had a slew of assessments recently, so that unfortunately had to take priority, no matter how much I enjoy this hobby more. Keeping on the topic of regrets, I’m iffy on the ending for the chapter. The scene itself isn’t the problem, it’s more how I ended it. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels rushed or off, I’m not really sure what, but it doesn’t feel right. The issue is that I couldn’t figure out how to end it, so I kind of left it in a state I don’t hate, but I’m not that pleased with. Oh well, what can you do?

Anyway, as many of you were wondering, yes, Kuroko Smith is quirkless, and while I hinted at some of her past, she hasn’t exactly had an easy life. Some personal issues in her home life paired with being quirkless, and that quirklessness contributing to said home life issues, has left her more jaded than in canon. More details shall be revealed later, but as a tidbit, her distaste (or hatred on a bad day) for baseline humans with emitter or transformation quirks does not include Kimihito. One, because who could hate the guy, he’s just an all round good person, but two, he and Kuroko have a shared past, particularly with their history at U.A. As for Kuroko and Nezu, I very much see parts of this new Kuroko in Nezu. In canon, Nezu is a sadist who looks down on humans, partially because he is so far above them in terms of intellect, but also because of the pain they put him through. Since Kuroko went through something similar, though not identical, Nezu has special affection for her, especially since he made her into the woman that she is today. Again, more details to come when Ms Smith has a bit of a monologue/venting to a certain green bean.

Also, we finally have the reveal for what M.O.N. stands for. Because the word ‘monster’ is considered a pretty bad slur in this reality, I had to come up with something new. That got me thinking, “why not mutants?” So yes, we have Ms Smith’s personal task force, and it’s a bit larger than it was at the start of canon. We also got a Zombina cameo, and fun fact: the villain she was helping up is a canon villain who was part of the U.S.J. Raid, as was the quirkless man who called out. We also got two new heteromorph species introduced, being Zombies as well as Triclops. I did originally think of having a slime being the one to confirm who was or wasn’t quirkless, but unfortunately the different slime types that exist are either already a character (blue), I have plans for (pink and black slimes), or they wouldn’t really fit (green and red slimes). Thus, after scouring the Monster Musume species list, I found the Triclops and their mind-reading abilities, so they were perfect.

As a little fact for the Slime heteromorphs, even though we’ve seen a bunch of them in Monster Musume canon, that’s getting chucked out the window. Undine gave birth to five daughters, each being a different type of slime, specifically blue, black, green, red, and pink, each with their own specialisations and behaviour. Thus, the slime population is incredibly small, with under a dozen members of the wider heteromorph “species”.

Anyway, that’s enough of that, I’d better stop myself before I let loose a spoiler that I’m not meant to reveal or tease, so onto reviews!

DevilJoker, thanks for the review, and while the ripples might not be large at the moment, oh boy, do I plan for them to grow.

Artorigus, thanks for the reviews.I’m glad you like my changes to the Mountain Zone battle, I never really understood why Kaminari was able to be held hostage due to the threat of electricity given the nature of his quirk. I’d assume he would have told that feature to Kyoka during their Battle Trial, but who knows. And as you saw in this chapter, I’m very much doing a heel turn in terms of his fighting style. The ability to force muscles to contract is a super busted ability, so I plan to lean into that more. Also, now that you mention it, Shoto really does have some parallels to Zuko, doesn’t he? As for your comment on the expectations on him, those are his self-placed expectations, rather than the expectations that others have placed on him. Again, more will be revealed during the Sports Festival (which is rapidly approaching). As for Shoto’s lineage, I’ll just make it clear, Undine is his paternal great-aunt, so his father’s aunt, though not biologically. Technically, there isn’t any blood shared between the Kurusus and the Todorokis, though they do consider each other family thanks to this connection. For your request for M.O.N. appearances, you have been blessed with Ms Smith’s appearance as well as a Zombina cameo, but I do promise that the other main girls of M.O.N. will be getting some screen time (I have a plan for Tio, and I think it’s really cute and funny). Kimihito will be having his, “he’s that guy?!” moment during the Sports Festival due to the Kurusu family all being in the crowds, and with such a large family, they’re going to be easy to spot. As for him fighting Class 1-A, that’s an idea I might do. In terms of his strength, he’s definitely at quirk level, but the real threat for his strength is his quirk. Regeneration is a really powerful ability if done right, and for Kimihito (as well as a character in the future, but that’s MAJOR spoilers), his most powerful move is a family technique that we’ve actually seen in the first episode of Monster Musume, specifically where he punched the racist couple so hard he sent them flying, but at the cost of putting his arm in a sling. Now imagine that, but he’s much stronger, and he’s able to spam that move. He’s no All Might, but he’s really dangerous. Villain’s ought to be glad he didn’t enrol in the hero course when he attended U.A.

Siarles, welcome back! Firstly, correct, Mezo knows where the majority of his classmates are, and the fact that they’re all still in the U.S.J. means that the others are likely in the Squal or Conflagration Zones, the two zones where he wouldn’t be able to see them. He knows that there are people there, which means that there are villains, which means that students would have been warped there, he just doesn’t know who’s in which one. For Thirteen, I guess because they were meant to be a side character? I mean, in the early stages of the manga, Thirteen is referred to with male pronouns, so I guess Horikoshi changed his mind part way. Also the fact that even where Thirteen’s suit was damaged, we never saw any body within it, in either the manga or anime, just a black mass. This always led me to the assumption that the suit contained Thirteen’s power, and that the caps opening simply allowed it to draw things in, kind of like Cyclops from the X-Men and his ruby glasses. As for Zombina, I might have people wondering if the Nomu are simply a new type of heteromorphs after the Hosu Incident, drawing parallels to the Zombie heteromorphs and how they were all mindless at one point. As for the parallels between Gnome and the Nomu, while interesting and amusing, that wasn’t intentional. 

Sakumon16, welcome back as well! First off, it’s strange how that’s the case, right? I mean, was that fact added on later? I know he displays it during the War Arc by acting as a lightning rod against a villain’s electric attack, but still! As for Nomu being Zombina who went REALLY undercover, your hat can rest assured that it won’t be eaten.

And that’s all from me. Again, so sorry that this chapter was two weeks late, but we’re finished with the U.S.J. arc, and we’re now onto the Sports Festival arc. For your sneak peak, next chapter is called, ‘ Festival Incoming! ’.

See you next time…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

Following the aftermath of the U.S.J. Incident, the media was whipped into a frenzy. For the first time in recorded history, U.A., the premier of Hero Schools in Japan, was invaded by villains, with student’s lives on the line. U.A. held a press conference, in which they declared that they would be closing the school for the remainder of the week to conduct their investigations with the assistance of the Police Force, to determine how the villains had invaded, and if any other breaches could be found. Whatever the results that were discovered, Izuku Midoriya found himself nervously sitting in his assigned seat in Class 1-A, waiting for the homeroom class to begin.

“Everyone!” Ida announced, projecting his voice from the front of the class. “Homeroom is about to begin! Please take your seats!”

“You’re the only one standing, Ida,” Tokoyami said in a solemn voice, perched on the edge of his table.

“Tokoyami, please be seated in your seat, not on your desk,” Sarah Kurusu calmly ordered, walking down the isles as she handed out sheets of paper.

“Hey, Class Prez!” Kaminari asked as their class president walked by. “You’ve got your finger on the pulse of the school, right? Do you know who’s filling in for Mr Aizawa?”

“To be honest, Kaminari, no I do not,” Kurusu admitted. “All I have been told is that there will not be any issues, whatever that may mean.”

As if prompted, the door to the classroom opened, revealing the heavily bandaged form of Mr Aizawa. His left arm was held in a sling, and clean bandages covered all of his face except his tired eyes.

“Morning,” was his nonchalant reply, as if he didn’t look like an Egyptian corpse.

“You’re back already, Mr Aizawa?!” the entire class exclaimed in shock. 

“I’m glad to see you doing so well, sir!” Ida loudly said, his hand for some reason stuck straight in the air.

“I’m not sure you can call that ‘doing well’,” Uraraka worriedly thought aloud. 

“My welfare isn’t important,” Mr Aizawa dismissed, taking his place behind the class podium, “because your fight is far from over.”

“Our fight?” Kacchan asked in confusion in front of Izuku.

“Don’t tell me…” Izuku trailed off, hoping it wasn’t what he feared.

“More villains?!” Mineta shrieked from behind him, voicing what Izuku feared the most.

“No,” Mr Aizawa shut down with a deadpan voice. “U.A.’s Sports Festival is fast approaching.”

The class was stunned silent, shocked by the building tension suddenly disappearing.

“That’s so totally ordinary!” they yelled, some of them in excitement and joy at the news, while others, like Mineta, were furious that their teacher had allowed them to assume the worst.

“Wait, Mr Aizawa?!” Kaminari called out, holding up his hand. “We just had a villain attack. You sure about this?! Doesn’t it seem too soon?!”

“The U.A. Sports Festival isn’t for another month, so that will give enough time for the media vultures to calm down,” Mr Aizawa reassured him. “And besides, it’s necessary. To demonstrate that U.A.’s crisis management protocols are sound, it has to go ahead. That’s the thinking, apparently.” 

Yet despite his words, Izuku was able to tell that many of his classmates were unconvinced. 

“Compared to past years, there’ll be five times the police presence,” Mr Aizawa sighed, reassuring the class. “Besides that absurdly large security force, the Principal has also called in various Pro Heroes as well as the entire M.O.N. Enforcers. Simply put, we’re not taking any chances this time around. This is a large enough security presence to take down All Might himself.”

“That makes sense,” Izuku muttered to himself. “It’s not an event that can be cancelled over a few villains.”

“You sure about that?” Mineta timidly asked, having overheard Izuku’s mumbling. “It’s just a sports festival.”

“Mineta, are you telling me you’ve never seen U.A.’s Sports Festival?!” Izuku gasped, turning to face his purple-haired classmate.

“Of course I have,” Mineta defended. “That’s not what I mean, just, is it really worth it when we were almost killed by a bunch of villains?”

“Our sports festival is one of Japan’s biggest events,” Mr Aizawa explained, addressing the whole class, even if it was in response to Mineta’s statement. “The Olympics were once the world’s sports festival. The whole country would be whipped into a frenzy over them. But, as you know, due to security risks, international tension, as well as our own governments, let’s say strict quirk laws, that tradition has become less prominent over the years. As far as Japan’s concerned, what’s taken the place of the Olympics is the U.A. Sports Festival.”

“The nation’s top heroes will all be watching, right?” Mineta asked aloud. “I know that much.”

“They’ll be there as scouts,” Yaoyorozu confirmed. 

“They’ll be looking to hire us as sidekicks after we graduate,” Kaminari added, throwing in his two yen. That’s how it’s done.”

“And a lot of those sidekicks never manage to go solo. They’re sidekicks forever,” Jiro added, smirking at Kaminari. “That’ll be you, Kaminari, you dunce.”

“Why you-!” Kaminari began, only for Mr Aizawa’s voice to cut through the chatter.

“Naturally, you’ll gain valuable experience and popularity if you’re picked up by a big-name hero. But your time is limited. This happens once a year, so you’ve got three chances. If you’re hoping to become a hero, this is an event you can’t miss.” 

-]l[-

As the lunch bell rang, ending their Modern Literature class taught by Cementos, everyone was bursting with excitement over the upcoming Sports Festival.

“Even after what we just went through, this has got me so freaking pumped!” Kirishima excitedly said, agreeing nods from those around him showing it was a common feeling. 

“And if we show our stuff here, that’s one big step towards going Pro!” Ashido cheered, her fist shooting up into the air. 

“Everyone’s so excited,” Izuku observed with a slightly hanging mouth.

“And aren’t you?” Ida questioned, as he, Koda, and Sarah Kurusu stood next to him. “This is our chance to add our names to the ranks of heroes. Of course we’re in high spirits!”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it, Ida,” Asui bluntly pointed out, observing Ida’s tense, hunched over posture. “Weird.”

“Come on, Tsuyu, be nice,” Kurusu said, even though the smile on her face showed her words were good natured. “Everyone simply has their own unique way of showing their excitement.”

“Deku, Ida, Kurusu, Koda,” a determined yet feminine voice spoke out. The four friends turned around, quickly taken aback by the fierce, determined look on the normally bubbly Uraraka.

“At the Sports Festival, let’s do our best!” she said in a serious voice, almost coming out like a growl.

“What happened to your face, Uraraka?!” Izuku screamed in shock as Koda shrieked in fear, ducking behind Kurusu, drawing the attention of the rest of their classmates .

“What the…?” Ashido muttered, just as shocked as the rest at her classmate’s expression. “You’re not looking very Uraraka, Uraraka.”

“Maybe it’s that ti-” Mineta began, only to be cut off as Asui’s tongue slapped him across the face.

“EVERYONE!” Uraraka roared, one fist drawn to her side while the other was thrust into the air. “I’M GONNA CRUSH THIS!”

“Yeah!” Kirishima echoed, even though his voice was tinted with confusion. “But talk about inconsistent personality…”

“Seriously,” Kórinis Kurusu nodded. “It’s like she’s flipped a switch and gained a whole new personality.”

While Izuku didn’t think much about Uraraka’s admittedly macho outburst, it prompted questions that he’d never asked his friend.

“So, um, Uraraka?” Izuku began as he, Uraraka, Ida, Koda, and Sarah Kurusu walked to the cafeteria, the first four walking down the stairs while Kurusu walked down a ramp that was installed next to it for those with a body type that struggled with stairs. “Why did you want to become a hero?”

“Oh, uh, hehe,” Uraraka nervously laughed, coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairwell. “It was, uh, because it pays well.”

“You wanna be a hero for the money?!” Izuku exclaimed in shock.

“Ultimately, yeah,” Uraraka admitted, rubbing the back of her head. “Sorry. I know it seems base and really embarrassing, considering Kurusu and Ida’s noble motivations and all.”

“I guess there isn’t anything inherently wrong with seeking a more comfortable lifestyle,” Ida reasoned, Koda nodding beside him.

“Yeah, just a little unexpected,” Izuku added, idly noticing that Kurusu had remained silent, her expression tense and conflicted.

Uraraka paused for a moment, her eyebrows furrowing as she thought, before she deeply sighed, fixing Izuku and his friends with a stern look.

“Don’t mention this to anyone, okay?” she ordered, only continuing when everyone had nodded their heads. “My family runs a construction company, but business is bad. Real bad. We’re poorer than poor.”

“Construction?” Izuku thought aloud. “If you got permission to use it, wouldn’t your quirk help cut costs, Uraraka?”

“Right?! That’s what I said to Dad way back!” Uraraka exclaimed. “But, he didn’t want that. Rather than having me work for his company, he wanted me to make my own dreams come true.”

Uraraka’s thoughtful expression faded, replaced by a determination that Izuku hadn’t seen on his friend’s face before, a seriousness that almost made his heart skip a beat.

“So I’m gonna be a hero. I’ll make that money so that my mom and dad can have easier lives.”

Izuku was stunned silent, floored by Uraraka’s practical thinking. Beside him, Ida began clapping, saying, “Uraraka, bravo!” with a proud voice, while Koda gave Uraraka a shaky yet genuine smile. However, this was cut short as Kurusu surged forward, pulling Uraraka into her arms.

“Woah, Kurusu?!” Uraraka exclaimed. “What’s the matter?”

Kurusu sniffled, whipping her eyes with one hand as she looked down at her friend.

“Forgive me, Uraraka,” she apologised. “When I heard what you said about your motivation to be a hero, I confess that I was distraught. I thought, ‘How could someone so kind have such shallow, selfish ambitions. However, it all makes sense now. You have merely been looking at it the wrong way.”

“I have?” Uraraka asked.

“You do not wish to be a hero to make money,” Kurusu explained. “You want to be a hero to look after your parents, to help them when they are struggling. How more noble of a motivation could one have?”

Kurusu pulled away slightly, her hands still holding onto Uraraka’s shoulders. “I will not lie and say that Tenya and I understand your struggles; we don’t. Even though my parents may have initially faced financial hardship in the early days of their relationship, I was born with more than a silver spoon in my mouth. Myself and all of my siblings were born into luxury. Such is the case when my father effectively married two princesses. However, Tenya and I both understand the desire to help one’s own family. Forgive me for assuming your ambitions were less than noble.”

“No, Kurusu, it’s okay,” Uraraka insisted. “Really, it doesn’t bother me, I probably should have just explained-”

“Oh! Young Midoriya! Found you!” All Might interrupted, his large, bulky form leaning out from around a corner, startling Izuku and his friends.

“All Might!” Izuku gasped. “What are you doing here?!”

“About to have my lunch!” All Might laughed, holding out a green fabric bag with white rabbits on it. “Wanna eat with me?!”

“Just like a schoolgirl!” Uraraka laughed, clutching her sides.

“Oh, um,” Izuku hesitated, glancing at his friends.

“Go on ahead, Midoriya,” Ida nodded, giving his approval. “We’ll be fine.”

“We’ll see you after lunch, Midoriya,” Kurusu farewelled, walking off towards the cafeteria, Ida, Koda, and Uraraka following after her, the four of them waving goodbye to Izuku until they rounded a corner, disappearing from sight.

“So, uh, All Might,” Izuku began, looking back at his mentor and idol. “Where did you want to eat?”

“Follow me, young Midoriya!” All Might grinned, striding off down a different hallway. “The staff break rooms are well suited for just this occasion.”

The master-student duo made their way down the corridors, stepping into an unoccupied break room. Once the coast was clear, All Might’s muscular form vanished in a puff of smoke, revealing his true, emaciated body.

“While I did want to have lunch with you, kid, that wasn’t the main reason I pulled you aside,” All Might revealed. “To be frank with you, my time limit in my muscle form has been reduced to fifty minutes.”

“Just fifty minutes?!” Izuku screamed in shock, only to flinch, fearing about how little soundproofing the break rooms had.

“Yes,” All Might solemnly nodded, pouring both of them a cup of tea. “My time limit’s getting shorter by the day. I can barely maintain my muscle form for an hour.”

“It’s that bad?” Izuku asked with concern. “Sorr-”

“Don’t apologise!” All Might scolded. “We’re so alike, you and I.”

“Well, it’s just, I wish I had done more to prevent it,” Izuku explained. “If I’d been able to do more, then-”

“I’ll stop you right there,” All Might interrupted with a serious tone. “Trust me, blaming yourself for things that were genuinely out of your control isn’t healthy. It will eat you up from the inside, because no matter how you try and reason what could have gone differently, you’ll always know deep down that it wouldn’t have made a difference. It was my choice to fight the villains, even though I’d already reached my limit before that. So don’t apologise, since there’s nothing to be sorry for.”

“R-Right,” Izuku nodded.

“Now, what I really want to talk about is the Sports Festival,” All Might explained. “You still can’t regulate One For All, right? So what do we do?”

“Oh, um, actually, All Might, I think I figured it out.”

All Might was stunned, his eyes blinking as he processed the information. “You have?”

“Well, not entirely,” Izuku admitted. It’s just, before the U.S.J., Ida, Kurusu, Uraraka and I were having lunch together as usual, and at some point we started talking about my quirk. I mentioned some of the challenges I’ve been facing with it, and they helped me realise I’ve been looking at it the wrong way. Rather than try to control my full power by limiting what gets hurt, I should lower the amount to what my body can handle. And rather than imagining my quirk like a light switch, turning it on and off, to instead imagine it like a suit of armour, leaving the pieces on even when I don’t need it.”

“And how much can you control so far?” All Might asked, leaning forward in his seat. 

“2% so far,” Izuku admitted. “But I think I can go higher. When I used it, both covering my body as well as concentrating it into my legs, I didn’t feel any discomfort.”

“Hm, so it’s happened already,” All Might nodded. “I guess it wasn’t just a me thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“See, unlike most quirks, One For All is different,” All Might explained. “As you know, our quirk stockpiles power, with each generation of it being more powerful than the last. For a while, it was fine, merely manifesting as enhanced strength. However, when I received One For All from my master, Nana Shimura, it was different. Because of the many generations who had already held this quirk, adding to the stored power, my body wasn’t able to handle its full power directly. Instead, I imagined using the quirk like I would gain a muscle form, something that I greatly desired as a skinny kid when I was your age. And wouldn’t you know it, the next time I tried to use One For All, my muscles increased, swelling in size and definition.”

“Your quirk reacted to your imagination?” Izuku gasped.

“Indeed,” All Might nodded. “You see, kid, unlike most quirks, One For All is alive. Those who have wielded its power, they leave an imprint behind, and when they die, a part of them stays behind in the quirk. To put it simply, the two of us, because the quirk is too much for a human to handle, have to imagine a way to control it. For me, my muscle form, and apparently for you, a suit of armour.”

“Woah,” Izuku breathed. “One For All is alive?”

“Yeah, basically,” All Might nodded. “When the time is right, you’ll see the vestiges. Trust me, it happened to me as well when I was your age. Almost scared my soul out of my body, but it’s all fine in the end.”

“So you know what it’s like to struggle with this quirk?” Izuku asked. “So you’ll know how to help, right?”

“Eh, not exactly,” All Might grimaced. “See, I’ve held One For All for forty years. That’s more than any other wielder of One For All, and more than some of them combined. This also means that the quirk that I inherited and was able to use at 100% power from basically the get go is VERY different to the beast you’ve inherited. The version of One For All that I received allowed me to have my muscle form, tapping into 100% of One For All, on at all times. It was only when I got that gnarly scar that I gained a limit to how long I could hold it. Your quirk, if you somehow were able to control it at 100%, would be as strong, if not stronger, than me in my prime. And as you age, your power will only continue to grow.”

“It’s stronger than you during your Golden Age?” Izuku exclaimed in shock. “Really?!”

“Yep, even though you can’t control it fully yet, it has incredible potential, should you be able to tap into it,” All Might said. “But anyway, let’s focus on one problem at a time. You’ve made progress, which is good. I’m glad to hear it, because in all honesty, the time I’ve got left as the Symbol of Peace is quickly running out.”

“Right,” Izuku quietly nodded.

“And among those with villainous intent, there are some who’ve started to realise that,” All Might continued. “I granted you my power so that you could succeed me! This Sports Festival, it’s an event the whole country’ll be watching! And that means just one thing for us!” All Might leveled his hand at Izuku, a lone finger pointed right at his chest. “You. The next All Might, the fledgling Symbol. I need you to tell Japan, no, the world, ‘I am here!’”

“Tell them, ‘I am here?’” Izuku thought out loud. “But how do I…?”

“You know how the U.A. Sports Festival works, right?” All Might asked.

“Yeah! Of course!” Izuku nodded as he began to explain. “The Festival itself takes place over three days, one for each year level. The members of the Hero Course, General Studies Course, Support Course, and Business Course are all thrown together, and we compete in a series of preliminary competitions. The winners of those events move on to the main event.”

“Exactly!” All Might affirmed, jabbing both of his index fingers towards Izuku. “So, it’s your chance to gain mass appeal for yourself! While the majority of people focus on the third years, the first years also get their fair share of attention. After all, you lot will be the first to compete in all of the events. The second and third year students will know what to expect, but you’ll be going in blind, with no time to prepare, just like a hero would!”

“Huh…”

“‘Huh,’ he says!” All Might exclaimed, the couch he was sitting on falling backwards, sending him sprawling onto the ground. 

“No, right, I get what you’re saying,” Izuku muttered, quickly descending into a mumbling storm. “I’m just honestly not sure if I can deal with this after what we just went through, and I’m kind of lacking motivation to stand out at the event, given that All Might is already my mentor. As I am now, it wouldn’t even occur to me to make a big showing. All I can do with One For All is to slightly increase my strength and speed, so it’s a little better than the strength tests, but not by much…”

“There’s no one more dedicated to the world of nonsense than you, kid!” All Might yelled, halting Izuku’s mumbling storm.

“World of nonsense?”

“The slight difference between those who always aim for the top and those who don’t, it’ll come to matter in a big way once you all emerge into society,” All Might explained, looking up at Izuku from where the hero lay. “I can understand how you’re feeling. I won’t force you. But, just don’t forget that drive you felt when cleaning up the beach. Remember, I chose you as my successor. I viewed you worthy to carry not only this quirk, but the title that I currently bear. I chose you as my successor as the Symbol of Peace, because I’m sure you’ll be capable of it.”

Izuku was quiet for a moment, conflicting thoughts swirling in his mind. “Actually, All Might, that was something I wanted to ask you.”

“ Hm? ” the hero sounded, pulling himself up off the ground, righting the couch back onto its feet. “What do you mean?”

“Do you think you made a mistake in choosing me?”

All Might’s eyes widened with shock, a bloodied cough erupting from his lips.

“Bloody hell, kid, where’d this come from?” All Might asked.

“It’s just, back at the U.S.J., when that Nomu villain was attacking you, pushing you back, I couldn’t do anything. I was scared, terrified, even, of getting anywhere close to those villains. The leader, the one with the hands, almost killed Asui, and Nomu almost killed me. But Kaminari, he raced forward, saving you, risking his own life in the process. So, I’ve just been thinking, what if Kaminari was a better choice than me? Or Ida? Or Uraraka? Or Either of the Kurusu sisters? Or-”

“Midoriya,” All Might interrupted, pulling Izuku out of his spiraling panic. The vertet looked up, seeing the compassionate expression in All Might’s eyes as the hero sighed.

“You’re not wrong,” All Might began. “If he was given One For All, I’m sure young Kaminari would have made an excellent hero. Same with young Ida, or young Ururaka, and I know for certain that young Sarah Kurusu would have made an excellent hero, just like her mother, grandmother, and all of her ancestors.”

“So you’re saying-” Izuku began, only to be interrupted once more.

“Just let me finish,” the hero insisted. “Yes, there might have been other equally great choices. There might have even been other quirkless kids out in Japan, maybe even in Musutafu, who would have been ideal candidates for One For All. Kids who had a more developed physique than you, or someone with pre established martial arts training, or someone who was good with tinkering and gadgetry.

“But they all lacked one thing,” All Might continued. “I didn’t meet them. I didn’t see them rushing head first into fire and danger, trying desperately to fight off a villain who had captured his classmate, even someone who looked down on you. Someone who risked his life, even though he was quirkless. Because ultimately, young Izuku, in that moment, I finally understood, after all these years.”

“Understood what?”

“What my master saw,” All Might warmly smiled. “A quirkless kid, with more bravery than brains, rushing head first into danger, simply because he couldn’t stand by and let evil happen in front of him. Even though it was risky, and dangerous, and reckless, that quirkless kid simply had to act. My master saw it in me, and back then, I saw it in you.”

Izuku’s breath was stolen as his eyes widened at the revelation. “Y-You were born, quirkless?”

“Ayup,” All Might nodded. “Course, back then, that wasn’t quite as rare as it is these days, but still rare. So don’t go wondering if you’re good enough to be my successor. If I was good enough for my quirk according to my master, then you are definitely good enough to inherit your quirk from me. Trust me, young Midoriya. With the drive and fire I know resides within your heart, you’ll be an incredible hero. Maybe even the best.”

Tears welled in Izuku’s eyes, more than touched by his mentor’s words.

“Ah, enough of this sappy crap,” All Might huffed, sliding forth the cooling cup of tea. “Drink your tea, damn it! It’ll go cold otherwise.”

“R-Right!” Izuku stammered, sipping from his cup of tea. Even though it was lukewarm, Izuku couldn’t help but smile. After all, he’d been afraid for so long about somehow amounting to even a fraction of what All Might was, and yet he, the Symbol of Peace, Japan’s No. 1 Pro Hero, had started out just like him; a skinny quirkless kid who only had a dream. In that moment, the path of being All Might’s successor didn’t seem as difficult as before.

-]l[-

The day had passed by without much of note. Sure, seeing Uraraka with her macho expression was weird, but kind of understandable. Even their Basic Hero Training class wasn’t all that special, just focusing on general fitness, though it was neat to see that Mr. Aizawa had a personal training routine for everyone, designed to train not only their body, but also their quirk.

Because of this, Kórinis’ spinnerets were feeling a bit sore from overusing her quirk organs. However, she knew from her father that once they recovered, they’d be stronger than before. She was packing up her stuff, her bag slung over one shoulder as she, Kirishima, and Ashido stood near Dynamite’s desk. Normally Hagakure would join them, however she was busy over with Ojiro, talking about some sort of movie that was out in the cinemas. Even though Kórinis missed Hagakure’s presence at lunch time, she was glad to see her classmate and friend trying her best with a boy who she was clearly head over heels for.

“Whoa,” someone gasped from the front of the class. Kórinis and her friend turned around, noticing Uraraka frozen at the door, taken aback by the crowd who had gathered outside their class.

“What’s going on?!” she exclaimed, gaining the attention of everyone else in the class who had remained unaware of the gathering blocking their way out.

“No way out,” Mineta gulped. “What’re they here for?”

“Scoping out the competition, duh, small fry,” Dynamite scoffed, casually walking up to the doorway, his hands planted in his pockets. “Cuz we’re the kids who survived a villain attack. Makes sense they’d want a look before the Sports Festival.”

Mineta seemed shocked by Dynamite’s statement, simply looking at Ryokutō with a horrified expression.

“And that’s him on a good day,” the bushy haired student sighed.

“No point, though,” Dynamite continued, glaring at those in front of him. “Move aside, cannon fodder.”

“Can we please not resort to calling those we don’t even know ‘cannon fodder’?” Ida demanded, his signature glasses looking as if they were about to break from this frustration, evident by the rapid hand chops he was cutting the air with.

“It’s true,” came a tired, bored voice from within the crowd. “We came to get a look, but you sure are modest. Are all the kids in the hero course like this one?” 

“Huh?!” Dynamite grunted, his head leaning back in anger.

The person who had spoken stepped out of the crowd, revealing themself to be a male student their age, with wild tufts of messy, indigo-coloured hair. His half closed eyes gave him a bored, tired expression, not helped by the prominent bags underneath his eyes.

“Gotta say, I’m a little disillusioned if this is what you’re offering,” he admitted. “Those of us who didn’t make the Hero Course are stuck in General Studies and the other tracks. There’re quite a few of us. Did you know that? There are only two Hero classes per year level, but there are three General Studies classes. Basically, you’re outnumbered by us. Depending on the results of this Sports Festival, they might consider transferring us to the Hero Course. Obviously, the reverse is also possible for you.”

A chill ran down the spine of everyone in Class 1-A, the danger to their dreams revealing itself in the seemingly fun upcoming festival.

“Excuse me,” Sarah called out, making her way to the doorway. “Hi, I’m Kurusu, the class president. If you are here merely to observe those who you shall be facing, then I believe you have seen all you need to. You are obstructing our doorway.”

“Scoping out the competition?” the General Studies student asked. “Nah, that’s not it. For a General Studies kid like me, someone who wants into the Hero Course, this’ll be the perfect chance to knock you off your pedestals. Consider this a declaration of war.”

But before anyone could respond to the daring declaration, another voice, this one much more animated to brash, called out from the corridor.

“Hey, I’m from Class 1-B, next door!” they yelled, their head sticking up among the masses. It was a male their age as well, with chin-length, messy gray hair, and thick tan eyelashes that seemed to have taken all of the hair from his eyebrows, leaving him without any above his eyes. Just like Kirishima, he had sharp, jagged teeth, which were currently bared in a snarl.

“Heard you guys fought some villains!” he explained with a loud voice. “Wanted to find out more, but all I’m seeing is this arrogant bastard! You better not make fools of the Hero Course at this thing!”

“AND I’M HERE TOO!” a male voice roared, the loudest so far. Peering out from their sister class next door, he towered over everyone else in the crowd, even his gray-haired classmate. Unlike the shaggy hair of his classmate, this student had dark brown hair cut down to a buzzcut.

“SHOTO!” he roared, trying to peer into Class 1-A. “MY FATED RIVAL, I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN THE FINALE! IT IS ONLY FITTING FOR THE FINAL FIGHT TO BE BETWEEN US TWO; I, WHO AM BLESSED WITH THE POWER OF SYLPH, AGAINST YOU, WHO IS DESCENDED FROM SALAMANDER! DO NOT LET ME OR YOUR GRANDMOTHER DOWN, SHOTO, FOR TO BRING SHAME TO ONE OF THE FOUR ANGELS WOULD BE TO SHAME GOD HIMSELF!”

Understandably, the entire hallway was silent, stunned by the loud voice. Kórinis glanced over at her cousin, seeing Shoto pinching the bridge of his nose, groaning in frustration.

“Wait, you jerk! What’re you doing to us?!” Kirishima called out, causing Kórinis to glance over, seeing Dynamite shoving the students aside as he made his way through.

“Thanks to you we’ve got a whole mob of haters now!” Kirishima continued, only for Dynamite to look over his shoulder, a surprisingly calm expression on his face.

“I don’t give a crap,” he said dismissively, ignoring the yells of shock from some in the class as well as the students in the hallway.

“I’m heading for the top. Why should I care?”

“And he’s not the only one,” Kórinis declared, drawing the attention onto herself as she followed her blond friend. “I earned my place here in the Hero Course through effort and dedication. If any of you Gen Eds think you can just take that spot away from me without a fight, I’ll bury you in the dirt and remind you of your place. You better be ready for the fight of your lives.”

“ Tch! So straight forward and manly,” Kirishima said as he and Ashido followed after Kórinis. “Even though we’re outnumbered, you’re both so determined. So manly!”

“Hey hey,” Ashido bounced once they were clear of the crowds. “You know, I bet if we asked Mr. Aizawa nicely, he’d let us train on the school grounds in our own time. Because we’re all aiming for the top, right?”

“Obviously, Raccoon Eyes,” Dynamite scoffed. “I’d drag your pink ass here for training anyway.”

“Hey, the only person who can drag my ass is Eikiri,” Ashido pouted, latching onto Kirishima’s arm.

“Knock it off, Mina,” Kirishima blushed, not really trying to get her off. “You’ll give people the wrong idea!”

Kórinis only huffed, frustrated beyond all belief that Kirishima either wasn’t picking up on Ashido’s hints, wasn’t interested, or was willingly avoiding the subject. Given his blush, she was leaning heavily towards the third option.

An elbow bumped against her own, drawing her attention down to Dynamite who was walking beside her as Kirishima and Ashido fell behind. The ash-blond’s head looked back at them, before smirking up at her.

“Those two seriously need to make out,” he muttered, quiet enough that only Kórinis was able to hear her, their friends oblivious to the conversation.

“Definitely,” she nodded, a coy grin growing on her face. “I bet Banjaku and Ashido will be dating by the end of the year.”

“ Ha! ” Dynamite barked. “I bet they’ll be dating before the start of the second semester.”

“You’re on,” Kórinis grinned, holding her hand out, the two of them shaking on it.

“What are you guys shaking on?” Ashido asked, still latching on to Kirishima’s arm, dragging him over to catch up.

“Oh, nothing much,” Kórinis said, glancing at the group as a whole. “So, when are you guys free for some extra training?”

And that’s a wrap. So sorry that this chapter is as late as it is, I was meant to get it out the day before yesterday, but that didn’t happen, obviously, but better late than never? Man, I really need to build up my backlog, I’m currently going back to back as is. Hopefully during the break in June I can get some chapters written for both series to try and avoid this becoming common.

Anyway, enough of my complaints. So, we had the declaration of the Sports Festival, Uraraka’s reason to be a hero, and Izuku having his talk with All Might. As you saw, Tenya and Sarah had some neutral/negative reactions to Uraraka’s stated desire. Obviously, since Tenya and Sarah grew up together as effectively siblings, they both have been influenced by Centorea, since she did train Tensei. Fortunately, Uraraka is more altruistic than she gives herself credit for, since she’s not in it for the money, but to support her parents. Also, since Kaminari saved All Might rather than Izuku, it allowed me to have the conversation between the mentor and mentee. I’ve had it in my mind for a bit, ever since I wrote Katsuki’s rant to Kórinis in fact, but the idea of Izuku not feeling worthy of the quirk seemed really in character to me. There were undoubtedly better candidates for One For All than Izuku. Spoilers for later on in the series, but it’s revealed that One For All and a user’s original quirk do not mix well. For most users, this wasn’t a problem, since they all kicked the bucket early, but one user, the fourth to be precise, died due to One For All being too much for his body to handle, causing him to die in his 40s. So even if we exclude everyone who has a quirk, there would still be people Izuku’s age who were more fit than he was. But, like All Might said, he saw Izuku, not them, so that’s all that matters. All Might doesn’t have any regrets with his choice, so that’s all that really matters.

Also, a new member of Class 1-B is here, so that’ll have implications for the future, as well as reveal some of the changes that have already occurred due to ripple effects. Told you they’d be appearing.

And then the EijiMina moment was simply because I love those two goofballs, and especially their interactions. So yes, quite a few romances will be happening, but who’s going to win the bet? Who knows…

Okay, that’s basically it for the chapter, so onto reviews.

Artorigus: Glad you liked my depiction of Katsuki. As was mentioned in the Battle Trial, and seen later on in the Final Exam arc, Katsuki is really smart, like near the top of the class smart. He’s able to use his quirk to fly, which is a lot harder than it sounds, so he’s the ultimate bully: all brains and all brawn. Of course, he’s going to be mellowing out a bit earlier than canon, but that’s not the point. As for Denki, I find him oddly endearing. I had him in the area, and for some reason the thought came to me to highlight his new fighting style. Rather than being a long range fighter, my boi is moving all the way to the frontlines. As for his brother, it’s more his brother from another mother kind of friendship. Fun fact, that character isn’t an O.C., but a canon character in U.A. Obviously with the Sports Festival we’ll see him and Denki interacting at the end of the obstacle course. And yeah, he got that date. Will it bloom into something more? Well yeah, obviously, but not for the moment, student life is hectic after all. As for who saved his life, that would be Snipe. Just like in canon, our favourite cowboy-themed hero came in clutch with those shots. For Kuroko, I quite enjoy how she turned out, a very gray character in a world of different shades. As for her backstory, again, we’ll get to see it soon. And yes, I’ll likely give some expansion for the rest of the class. I know for sure that there are going to be some original arcs of mine, simply because there are some events I can’t figure out how to shoehorn in my original characters, but that won’t be for a while. Finally, sincere apologies for not finding the email, but to all y’all on Ao3, we have another commission! As for you guys on FanFic, I recommend hopping over to check it out. Cheer, Artorigus, for commissioning this great piece of work, and thanks also to Ricardo Mango for drawing it.

Siarles: Yes indeed, our boi Denki is going to be quite different this time around. In recent months with me thinking and planning the series as well as changes to different characters, I really feel that Denki has one of the most undervalued quirks in the series. Not THE most undervalued, that goes to Nirengeki Shoda of Class 1-B, but I feel that my new fighting style of Denki uses his quirk in a better method. As for Kuroko Smith, good, mixed feelings is what I’m going for. Smith isn’t some paragon of justice, not in the slightest; what she is is someone who was abused for most of her life, looked down upon, trampled down, and now that she’s managed to claw her way out, she wants to get back at those who wronged her. She’s basically lashing out, doing it legally and doing good deeds for the mutant and heteromorph community, but lashing out nonetheless. As you’ll see in a few chapters, she’s kind of like a mirror to Izuku, one of the many paths he could have gone down. Obviously Shigaraki is another of those mirrors, but I feel that Kuroko is more realistic in what Izuku could have become if he wasn’t as nice as he is. As for Thirteen, yeah, gender neutral pronouns are much easier in Japanese than English, pretty sure they have a few of them. 

Firetrail: This, this is exactly the point. M.O.N., in its current trajectory, is going to cause problems. As you rightly say, retaliatory discrimination is VERY bad, and just leads to more hatred and violence. Now, M.O.N. trying to increase the sentences of those with transformation or emitter quirks and no mutations isn’t an everyday thing, that’s reserved for villains or scum, but still not a good thing. It is creating a divide, and that’s the point, Kuroko isn’t doing it solely to help people, though she definitely is, she’s doing it because she’s angry at the system, at what it did to her and to those like her. Now, are her actions justified? Probably not, but her feelings definitely are. Again, more will be revealed soon.

Okay, and that’s everything. For your next chapter sneak peek, the title is called, “ The U.A. Sports Festival - First Years ”. We’re here, ladies and gentlemen, we’re finally here, one of the hypest arcs, and where we first saw some of the sinister undertones of hero society. Obviously with the ripples in this pod, there will be some changes, so look forward to that.

See you then…

- Jevm

Chapter Text

Weeks passed by in a blur as the date of the U.A. Sports Festival drew ever closer. Determined to give it their all, each student prepared for the event in their own way. Izuku Midoriya, Ochako Uraraka, Tenya Ida, and Sarah Kurusu regularly met up on Sunday afternoons at the Kurusu family estate, working together to train their quirks, outside of the private time after schools they also used. Likewise, Katsuki Bakugo, Eijiro Kirishima, Mina Ashido, and Kórinis Kurusu regularly met up at the U.A. gymnasiums after class for extra training, improving not only their physical capability, but also their quirk usage. Even Minoru Mineta was training, if training could be considered practising and imagining what it would be like to win the Sports Festival. But regardless of the effort each student of Class 1-A were putting in, the march of time pressed on, and soon, the end of April drew near, and the first of the Sports Festival’s three days of celebrations began.

-]l[-

“This security check’s taking forever~” Osekkaina Nyūsu whined, her shoulders slumped as she looked at the winding queue that the journalists, camera crew, and anyone and everyone who was a member of the press had to stand in. There was still so long to go, and it already felt like she’d been standing there for hours!

“No helping it,” Shuzai Han sighed, fanning his face with his cap before placing it back on his head. “They’re on guard after that villain attack. And a lot of people are speaking out against the event this year. No wonder security’s so much tighter this year.”

“Controversy just means higher ratings for us!” Osekkaina grinned, her fist clenched as her emotions did a 180. “Given that they always put their experience to good strategic use and give it their all for this last chance to stand out, the third-years usually take centre stage. 

But look around, Han,” she grinned, waving her arms around, gesturing to the large crowds trying to get in. “Today’s the day for the first-years, and there are already so many people! All eyes are on the first-years this time round. And at the centre of it all, Class 1-A, the survivors of the attack! You know that people are already calling it the ‘U.S.J. Incident’, right?!”

“Yes, Nyūsu, I know,” Han fondly chuckled. “Just try and save your energy for later. Don’t want you tired before the event even begins.”

“ Hmph ,” Osekkaina huffed, turning her face away in a pout. “You make it seem like I’m a kid who hasn’t had their lunch.”

“Well by the time we get through this line, it might actually be lunchtime,” Han muttered, sighing as they shuffled slightly forward. “Seriously, Nyūsu. I know I’m meant to be the responsible one, but even I’m getting antsy with all this waiting.”

“‘The longer the wait, the sweeter the reward’,” Osekkaina quoted. “That’s what my granny always said. I just hope she was right this time…”

-]l[-

Within the walls of the U.A. campus, Yu Takeyama, the Mountain Hero: Mt. Lady, sighed as she wandered around. Sure, she couldn’t blame anyone but herself for her current situation, since she had volunteered for the job of security for the event’s three days, but still, she didn’t think it would be this boring!

“It’s a shame we won’t be able to watch the event from the stands,” Kamui Woods, one of her patrol buddies, said. “I would have liked to do some scouting of my own.”

Fitting for a hero with the epithet of Wood Hero, his face was covered by a wooden mask, with a dark blue bodysuit covering his torso, a wooden belt around his waist, wooden knee pads, and wooden shoes. Rounding off his hero costume were a small bundle of roses hanging from the left side of his belt. The only thing unusual that he wore was the lanyard looped around his neck, holding a pass showing he was part of the Sports Festival Security Team.

He was a small man, standing only 168 cm (5’6”) tall, only 6 cm (2”) taller than Yu herself. His forearms were wooden, a trait he inherited from both of his parents, but his posture, human-like figure and short stature were traits that he inherited from his mother, a Dryad heteromorph. While he didn’t inherit the height of his father, a Treefolk heteromorph, Kamui Woods did inherit the ability to manipulate the wood in his body, not unlike how his mother’s people were able to manipulate the vines that grew from theirs. 

“Whaddya gonna do,” came the gruff voice from the third member of their bored trio, the Punching Hero: Death Arms. “They asked us to take the security detail.”

A very tall, muscular man of a wide build with slightly-tanned skin and short white hair spiking out the back, Death Arms was an imposing figure. He wore thick wrist guards, headband and a belt, each with a yellow and black-striped caution pattern painted on, as well as a cyan-coloured bodysuit that only really covered his arms and back, leaving both the centre and lower half of his torso exposed.

“Looks like they called in Pro Heroes from all over the country,” Yu observed, looking around as they walked through the stalls that had popped up outside of the U.A. Stadium. “They’ve got Pros like us helping out, police officers are everywhere, and even the M.O.N. Enforcers are out in full force.”

A cry of shock and excitement sounded out from nearby, accompanied by the clamour of reporters shouting out questions, hoping for answers, paired with the clicks of cameras taking countless photos. Yu, Kamui Woods and Death Arms all looked over, wondering what the commotion was about. Upon realising what it was, their eyes bulged out of their skulls, shocked at the procession that they saw.

Taking up the rear of the procession were three young women, each dressed in a traditional full-length maids outfit, rather than the fetishised ones that had grown popular. Each woman had horns that sprouted from their heads, leathery wings growing from their lower back, a reptilian tail trailing behind them in the air, and scaled, clawed hands; three women with Dragon heteromorph quirks. The first woman had black hair with red tips, the majority of it tied up within her white bonnet, black scales and wings, as well as a pair of glasses with thin rims resting on her face. Her outfit consisted of a black dress with a white collar and apron, and she led her fellow maids with poise and style. The second woman had long, twirly blonde hair that was tied up in pigtails, her scales and wings a creamy colour, and unlike her fellow maids wore a dress that was primarily white, with many blue ribbons and accessories decorating her outfit. The third and final maid was almost like a mix of the previous two; like the first maid, from the bottom of her dress all the way to the tip of her bonnet, her clothing was a solid mass of black fabric. However, like the second maid, her hair was blonde, an even lighter shade in fact, trailing down her back in a loose cascade. Likewise, her horns, wings and scales were pale, but more of a dirty white than a cream colour. 

However, the presence of genuine Dragon maids was nothing in comparison to who they followed behind. Walking side by side, the middle aged man and mature woman were instantly recognisable, given the global fame the two of them had. And even if their features were hidden, there was only one family who had Dragon maids in their services: the Todorokis.

First was Enji Todoroki, better known as the Flame Hero: Endeavor, the No. 2 Pro Hero in Japan, with many claiming that the title of No. 1 should belong to him, if the ranking was based off of results alone. His costume was a tight, navy turquoise bodysuit, with flames streaming across his chest, upper torso, arms, and most prominently, his shoulders. His boots were engulfed in hungry flames, with only the soles and laces visible through the fire, and he wore white braces on his forearms, ending over his wrists. However, his most prominent feature were the flames that danced across his face. Both his beard and moustache were made not of the red hair that grew from his head, spiked up towards the back, but fire. And instead of a mask covering his eyes and the centre of his face, flames surrounded it, splitting into three tendrils; one of the left, one to the right, and one pointing towards the sky.

In any other setting, the Flame Hero would have been the centre of attention, however, just as many eyes were focusing on the mature woman walking next to him, just as many questions were being directed towards her, and just as many photos of her were being taken. After all, Hakka Todoroki, better known as Salamander of the Four Cardinals, was a scarcely seen woman.

Unlike her adoptive son, Salamander didn’t possess an emitter-type quirk, but a heteromorphic mutation quirk, fittingly called Salamander. Even though she was entering her twilight years, one could easily mistake her for someone her son’s age. She possessed a mature allure to her, aided by her slim physique, showing she hadn’t allowed her athleticism to slack as she aged. Like the maids who served her, Salamander had horns growing from her head, a reptilian tail growing from her spine, and scales along both her forearms as well as the sides of her head, her brown skin contrasting against her dark red scales. Unlike her son who wore his hero costume, Salamander had opted for more casual clothing, wearing a white crop top with a black leather jacket over it, leaving plenty of her midriff exposed. This was paired with a set of white trousers and black leather boots, the look completed by the toothpick that poked out of the corner of her mouth, the end slowly burning away.

“What the hell?” Yu breathed, stunned by the celebrity appearances. “Why is Endeavor and Salamander here?”

“Maybe they want to watch the Sports Festival?” Death Arms suggested, just as stunned as she was.

“And they can’t watch from home?”

“Come on, Mt. Lady, you know that heroes who do scouting always show up in person. You don’t get the full picture from looking through a screen.”

“And yet if they were here looking for young talent, why show up today?” Kamui Woods wondered aloud, one of his hands rubbing the bottom of his mask. “Salamander is a retired Sentinel, and is unable to take on an apprentice in any legal setting. And a hero of Endeavor’s level wouldn’t need to extend an offer to the first years; he’d only be interested in those with potential. He’d most likely be interested in the third years, since they have the most experience, but there is also the chance that a second year would have made an impressive showing in their first Sports Festival, just like Endeavor himself did when he went to U.A.”

“Okay, so why show up to watch the first-years?” Yu asked with a confused voice.

“Because it seems that the youngest of the Todoroki children has decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandmother.”

Yu and Death Arms exchanged shocked looks, their gaze switching back and forth between each other and Kamui Woods.

“Man, I wish I was allowed to bet on the matches like most people,” Death Arms grumbled as the trio moved away, continuing their patrol. “I’d feel pretty safe placing my bets on the Todoroki kid if he’s anything like his relatives.”

“All of the potential money, lost,” Yu sobbed. “Maybe that way I’d be able to keep my agency out of the red.”

“You’ve only recently started being a hero,” Kamui Woods said, resting a hand on Yu’s shoulder in a comforting gesture. “The fact that you’ve shot up the rankings as fast as you have is a testament to your potential and ability. Even if your debut was, well, quite showy.”

“Thanks, Kamui,” Yu sniffled. “It’s just hard to be an effective hero with my quirk without creating any collateral. Sure, my managers at the agency have suggested going more suburban, but I really want to make it big in the city. It’s all so different from where I grew up.”

“Well, how about some food?” Death Arms suggested, glancing around at the different food stalls that were operating. “I kinda skipped out on breakfast this morning, so I’m pretty hungry.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kamui Woods nodded, glancing over at a takoyaki stand nearby. “How about there?”

“Oh, it all smells so yummy!” Yu exclaimed, a small amount of drool spilling from her lips as she inhaled the smell of the grilled octopus meat. “One box of takoyaki, please, hold the dried seaweed.”

“Ooh! You’re Mt. Lady, aren’tcha!” the vendor exclaimed, a broad grin stretching his moustached lips wide. “One box, right? That’ll be ¥500!”

Yu reached into a small pocket in her bodysuit, only her eyes to widen as she felt the absence of her wallet.

“Oh, I seem to have forgotten my wallet,” she shyly admitted, one arm reaching up to play with her hair that framed her face, which also caused her impressive bust to be pushed up and accentuated.

“SO SEXY!” the vendor exclaimed, holding out her box of takoyaki. “IT’S ON THE HOUSE!”

“THANKS!” Yu exclaimed, the excitement of free food causing her to match the vendor’s volume.

Of course, it was her luck that said excitement lasted all of two seconds.

“Yu Takeyama!” a booming voice called out. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

The attention of not only the three heroes, but also the takoyaki vendor and all others running stores nearby focused on the looming form of an approaching person. They wore bulky, imposing yellow armour, an opaque orange faceplate, a single black horn pointing out from their forehead, and the words, ‘M.O.N.’ emblazoned on the front of their armour in black letters.

“Uh, Mt. Lady, do you know this guy?” Death Arms asked.

The figure jolted to a stop, they’re gaze seemingly locked onto Death Arms.

“Well, you’ve done it now,” Yu sighed, knowing what was about to happen.

The looming person’s hands reached up to their neck, unlatching the helmet, pulling it away to reveal the tearful face of a beautiful woman with tan skin, pointed ears and long, flowing blonde hair. The horn that was on her helmet wasn’t a stylistic design, but rather her actual horn, protruding from her forehead. Tears welled in her red eyes and her lower lip trembled as she stood on the edge of a breakdown.

“Th-That’s so mean,” she sniffled before the dam burst, falling down to her knees with a thud, her head thrown back as she cried. “ Waah! It’s not my fault I’m big and strong! I can’t help that I’m an Ogre heteromorph!”

“Hey, come on now, Death Arms didn’t know,” Yu said, crouching down next to the crying Ogress, leaning into her as a sign of comfort. “It was an honest mistake; he only said it because you were wearing your helmet and armour.”

“R-Really?” the Ogress sniffled, big wet eyes full of hope looking up at Yu.

“Sorry, that was my bad,” Death Arms sheepishly apologised. “I didn’t know you were a lady.”

“That’s okay,” the Ogress nodded, rising back to her feet, once more towering over everyone nearby. “It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.”

The Ogress turned to face the Takoyaki vendor, her hands gently grasping those of the vendor’s.

“I’m so sorry for my sister,” she apologised with a warm, sincere expression. “Please forgive her.”

The slight blush that had covered his face at Yu’s successful attempts to get free food changed into a full face flush, his face turning red from jaw to hairline.

“S-So cute,” he stammered, a line of blood trickling down from his nose. “I-It’s no problem, since she’s helping out with security. Here, you can have a box as well.”

“Oh, thank you so much!” the Ogress exclaimed, eagerly taking the box of food.

“Mt. Lady, is she your sister?” Kamui Woods whispered, leaning over to ask the question.

Yu opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, the Ogress walked over, looping one arm around Yu’s waist and picking her up as if she were a sack of rice.

“Jeez, that was very naughty, Yu,” the Ogress scolded as she carried Yu away, Kamui Woods and Death Arms nervously following after the pair. “How could you do that to that poor vendor?”

“You did the exact same thing, Sis!” Yu protested, trying both to get out of the arm carrying her while also trying not to spill her box of Takoyaki.

“N-No,” the Ogress weakly denied. “He was simply being nice to me, that’s all. I didn’t ask him for it, unlike you, who was being very naughty. What would your parents say?!”

“Yeah, well, what would yours say when they ask if you’ve found a boyfriend yet?!”

The instant the words left Yu mouth, her free hand clapped over her mouth, eyes widening as she realised what she said. 

The Ogress’ eyes once more welled with tears, her bottom lip trembling.

“ WAAAH! ” she cried, letting Yu fall to the ground as the Ogress fell once more to her knees. “It’s not my fault that Darling is married to seven other women! I’ll be single forever!”

“Ah, shit,” Yu swore, placing aside her Takoyaki box, which had miraculously survived the fall, to try and comfort the Ogress. “Uh, maybe they would let you join them? What’s one more when there’s already seven, right?”

“But it wouldn’t just be me!” the Ogress wailed. “Manoko and Dopple are also in love with him, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to leave them behind!”

“Aw, Big Sis,” Yu said in a comforting tone, pulling the Ogress’ head into her chest, gently rubbing her hair. “It’s alright, I’m sure you’ll find someone soon. After all, you have a stable job, you’re really kind, and you’re as cute as they come.”

The Ogress didn’t say a word, simply nodding against Yu’s chest and sniffling back tears.

“So, uh, you gonna introduce us, Mt. Lady?” Death Arms asked.

“Right, let me make the introductions,” Yu said, standing up from the ground while also helping up the Ogress. “Death Arms, Kamui Woods, meet Tionishia Kijo, my big sis.”

““Big sis?”” Death Arms and Kamui Woods echoed in confusion.

“We’re not actually related,” Tionishia clarified, using a gauntleted hand to rub away the remainder of her tears. “She’s just like a little sister, that’s all. We grew up in the same area in Hokkaido, a small village where those who have an Ogre heterotrophic quirk or a subspecies of the quirk lived. There were a bunch of families with Oni, Troll, and even Giant quirks there. Yu’s parents were often busy with work, so since I was a teenager, I made some money looking after her when they were away. Soon enough, Yu started calling me ‘Big Sis’, and since my parents didn’t have any other children, she was the little sister I never had.”

“So your parents have an Ogre quirk?” Kamui Woods asked.

“Mama does, though she’s a subspecies, having a Giant heteromorphic quirk,” Yu clarified. “Papa has a size changing quirk, kinda like mine, but he can't get as tall as I can, obviously.”

“Yeah, Yu was the tallest girl in the village,” Tio beamed, wrapping her arms around Yu’s shoulders, holding her from behind.

“Wait, I thought you said your mother was a Giantess,” Kamui Woods asked as the four of them walked away from the bewildered and slightly terrified stall workers. “How were you taller than all of them? You’re not even taller than me!”

“Uh, hehe,” Yu awkwardly chuckled, gently extracting herself out of her big sister’s embrace and walking a few meters away. “Well, I kind of have two quirks. One of them, Giganitifaction, is the one that’s publicly known, but I also have a Giant heteromorphic quirk.”

Letting out a deep breath, Yu allowed her constant focus on her quirk to slip away, causing her body to grow and expand, growing up to her true height, not of 1.62 m (5’4”), but 11.12 m (36’5”).

“My Gigantification quirk allows me to change my height by 9.5 m in either direction,” Yu explained as she gently lowered herself down to the ground. “The way I grow to 20 meters tall is by releasing my control on my quirk, allowing me to grow to my normal height, and then reversing it so I grow an additional 9 meters.”

“Yu is actually quite tall for a Giantess,” Tio explained. “Most are only around 10 meters tall, but Yu’s mother is also taller than average.”

“But why hide it?” Death Arms asked as Yu used her quirk to shrink herself down to human height. “Did you think that people would judge you for it?”

“Um, well,” Yu blushed, her foot rubbing into the concrete beneath her. “It's, because of clothes.”

““What?””

“Do you know how hard it is to find nice clothing for someone my size?!” Yu cried, her hands clutched at her sides. “And they’re so expensive. I mean, I get it, you have to use more materials, but would it kill them to not charge five digit prices?”

“Right…” Kamui Woods said, his words trailing off. “Well, um, Ms Kijo, did you come here to see Mt. Lady?”

“Please, call me Tio,” the Ogress insisted as she shook her head. “And no, I’m here because the M.O.N. Enforcers were asked to provide additional security for the event. I wasn’t actually aware that Yu would be here.”

“And ordinarily you’d be right,” Yu admitted. “Tickets for this event are really pricey; I can’t afford them at the moment, not with my agency being as in debt as it currently is. However, even though the pay for this isn’t great, I actually took the job because my cousin is competing.”

“Really?” Death Arms asked.

“Yeah, she’s technically Papa’s cousin’s daughter, but she’s in Class 1-B, so she’s competing today. I get to watch the Sports Festival relatively up close, I get paid to do so, and I can cheer on my cousin. It’s a win win win!”

“ I hope you mass media folks are ready to roll! ” came the excited voice of Present Mic, his voice being projected across the stadium and the surrounding grounds. “ It’s time once again to see the high schoolers you know and love revel in their youth! It’s U.A.’s Sports Festival! Everybody - are you ready?! ”

A deafening roar of approval and excitement echoed out from the nearby stadium, the noise traveling up and over the lip of the stadium’s walls. 

“Oh, I need to get going!” Tio gasped, scoffing down her Takoyaki balls before placing her helmet back on her head. “It was nice meeting the both of you. Maybe I’ll be able to find you during the lunch break!”

With that, the tall Ogress dashed off, the heavy armour that she wore causing her footsteps to create loud thumps as they impacted the ground, the sound still easily heard even as she left their line of sight.

“Well, we’d better get back to work,” Kamui Woods prompted, heading off to continue their patrol. “Don’t want U.A.’s principal to think we haven’t done enough to be paid.”

“For sure,” Death Arms grunted, Yu falling in line with the two of them, her box of Takoyaki held in her hands. “So, any ideas what the first event will be?”

-]l[-

Within the bowels of the U.A. Stadium, Class 1-A were all waiting for the announcement over the sound systems for the beginning of the Sports Festival. Amongst his classmates, Izuku stood near the lockers, practicing breathing exercises to try and calm his racing heart. Sure, the training he had done with his friends had helped, as had discovering how to control One For All to some level, but the idea of tens of thousands of viewers in the stands, plus millions more watching on T.V., would make anyone nervous.

“Wish I coulda worn my costume,” Ashido sighed, her head resting against a hand that was propped up against a table.

“Yeah, but they’re not allowed in the interest of fairness,” Ojiro explained, sitting at the same table as her, with the floating clothing of Hagakure next to him. “Not that it would make much of a difference for me; I’ll I’ve got is my martial arts gi.”

“I think it’s cooler this way, Mina,” Kirishima argued, sitting next to his pink-skinned friend. “We’ll be fighting as we are, no gadgets or gizmos, just pure manliness!”

“Everyone, please ensure you all have had water and food beforehand,” Sarah Kurusu warned, fulfilling her role as the class president. “Nothing heavy or dense, mind you, just enough to keep your energy up. The qualifiers and team events will be back to back, so you won’t have another chance until then.”

“Is everyone good and ready?!” Ida asked in a loud voice. “The event’s about to begin!”

But as the chatter of his classmates surrounded him, a calm, stern voice cut through the chatter. “Midoriya.”

The green-haired teen looked up, noticing Todoroki walking towards him, his one visible eye staring intensely at him, and he imagined that his classmate’s second eye, hidden behind his red fringe, was doing the same.

“Todoroki,” Izuku began, uncertain what his classmate wanted to talk about, especially right before the Sports Festival. “What is it?”

As if prompted, all chatter within the waiting room died, eyes focusing on the conversation between the class’ underdog and its force of nature.

“Objectively speaking, I’m stronger than you,” Todoroki declared without a shred of pride or arrogance, merely as a statement of fact.

“Huh?!” Izuku wondered, jolting slightly from the blunt observation. “I mean, yeah, I know…”

“For some reason, All Might’s got his eye on you, doesn’t he?” Todoroki pressed, causing a few gasps to sound out from their classmates. “More than he pays attention to the rest of us, I mean. I’m not about to pry into why that is, but I just want to make something crystal clear.”

The red-haired cryomancer fell silent, as if waiting for a response, but Izuku’s nerves were already too high, and with this sudden confrontation caused his throat to seize up, stopping him from answering, even if knew what to say. Todoroki seemed to realise this, his icy blue eye narrowing slightly.

“I will beat you.”

Whispers and murmurs broke out amongst the other members of Class 1-A at the bold announcement.

“Man, a declaration of war from the strongest in the class?” Kaminari muttered in surprise.

Not all in the class, however, took Todoroki’s statement as a positive thing.

“Hey man,” Kirishima began, having stood up from his seat to grab Todoroki’s shoulder. “Why pick a fight now?! We’re about to go on-”

“I really don’t care,” Todoroki interrupted, shrugging off his classmate’s hand. “I’m not pretending that any of us are friends here.”

“What the hell are you on about?!” Kirishima challenged, his hand reaching back out, this time not being as gentle with his movement, gripping Todoroki’s shoulder and spinning him around to face his fellow red-haired classmate. “I know that’s bull! You and the Kurusu sisters are great friends, so what’s this crap about not having friends?!”

“You’re misunderstanding, Banjaku,” Kórinis Kurusu called out, the Arachnid student making a cat’s cradle with lines of silk within her hands. “Shoto isn’t saying that he doesn’t have friends. He’s saying that, here and now, none of us are friends.”

“What are you saying, KuKóri?” Ashido asked with a confused and shocked expression.

“Yeah, are you saying you don’t want to be friends anymore?!” Hagakure asked with a hurt tone, the arms of her P.E. shirt waving in the air.

“I’m just stating the facts,” Kurusu admitted, glancing around the room. “I’m right in assuming all of us are aiming for the top, right? Why else would you attend U.A.? That means we’re all competing to achieve the same thing, and there’s only enough room at the top for one of us.”

“But that doesn’t mean we have to be enemies,” Koda spoke up with a quiet voice.

“Hey, Koda, how many people are in our class?” Kurusu asked, her six eyes locking onto the class’ animal controller.

Koda flinched as all eyes focused on him, but after a deep breath opened his mouth to answer. “T-Twenty.”

“That’s right,” Kurusu nodded, her attention sweeping over the rest of the class. “Now, does anyone know how many people make it to the third event?”

““Sixteen,”” Izuku and Kacchan answered at the same time. Izuku flinched as his childhood friend sneered at him, but rather than the expected outburst, the ash-blond merely scoffed, looking away.

“O-Only sixteen make it to the final event,” Izuku continued, drawing on the knowledge he had gained from watching U.A.’s televised Sports Festival year after year. 

“Ex-actly,” Kurusu nodded. “But, look around; there aren’t enough spots for all of us.”

Many eyes in the class widened, releasing what Kurusu was getting at.

“B-But there’s still more than enough places for all of us to make through the qualifiers,” Izuku argued. “Even though it reduces the competing students from two hundred and twenty down to fourty-two, we can all make it to the team events!”

“Sure, that’s true, but consider this,” Kurusu said. “Assume we all make it through the qualifiers, which, lets be honest, we all should. Now, you have all of Class 1-A versus twenty-two other students, most of whom are going to be from Class 1-B. Even if we all work together, defeating Class 1-B and anyone from the General Studies course who wants a shot at being transferred into the Hero Course, only sixteen people are able to make it the final event, the one-on-one tournament fights. That means four of us will be left behind, best case scenario. Sure, in the team matches we’ll want to pair up with our classmates and our friends, since they’re the ones who we’ll know the best and work well with, but we’ll still be competing against each other. That’s why none of us are able to have the assumption that we’re in this together.”

Her eyes wandered across the room, looking at Kirishima, then Ashido, Hagakure, her sister, before settling on Kacchan.

“Make no mistake,” she promised, her head turning as she addressed the class. “I’m more than keen to work together in the first two events, but I’m keeping some tricks up my sleeve. I plan to win, and I’ll crush anyone who gets in my way.”

Kurusu’s red eyes shifted, her head locking on to Todoroki’s.

“And don’t go thinking you can waltz in and take first place, Shoto,” she said with a feral, competitive grin. “You might be a force of nature with that quirk of yours, but spiders have been around for four hundred million years. This one doesn’t feel like giving up, not right outta the gate.”

Todoroki didn’t answer her challenge, but neither did he allow it to go unanswered, simply giving her a small, yet noticeable, nod.

“Todoroki,” Izuku began, finally finding the words to say. “I’m not sure why you felt the need to tell me you’ll beat me. “You’re clearly stronger, and I can’t measure up to most of the others here in skill. After all, I only recently managed to find some way to control my quirk, and even then its less like I’m controlling it, and more like a compromise. So I’m well aware how slim my chances of winning are.”

“Don’t be so negative, Midoriya,” Kirishima argued. “No need-”

“But!” Izuku exclaimed, silencing Kirishima’s attempt at reassuring him. “Everyone, even the kids from the General Studies course, are aiming for the top. And I’m, well, lemme say this: I’m not gonna fall behind.”

Taking a deep breath, Izuku looked up from the ground, his gaze firm and unwavering, locking eyes with Todoroki. “I’m going for it too. With everything I’ve got!”

From the doorway of the waiting room, someone knocked on the door, prompting Sarah Kurusu to walk over and see who it was. All of this was secondary to Izuku, who maintained his gaze with Todoroki, who after a moment gave a small nod.

“Right,” he replied, before turning his gaze to the door as Sarah Kurusu opened it.

“Hey hey, kiddos, you ready to roll?!” a boisterous female voice called out from the corridor. Stepping into the waiting room were two female members of the M.O.N. Enforcers, shown by the uniform one of them was dressed in, while the other simply wore her badge on a chain around her neck.

“Ms Zombina? Ms Dopple?” the class president exclaimed, taking a step back in shock. “What are you both doing here?!”

“Didn’tcha know?” one of the women, a red head with mismatching eyes, grinned with a row of sharp teeth. “Turns out that Smith’s former mentor asked us to run security here! As for us being assigned to your class in particular, well, the boss lady always had a soft spot for Lover Boy, so here we are!”

At first glance, the woman only seemed to have mismatching eyes, but as Izuku looked closer, he noticed the faint lines of stitching along the different patches of skin colour. She didn’t simply have different coloured eyes and splotchy skin; she had a Zombie heteromorph quirk!

The other woman who accompanied her didn’t have such an obvious quirk. Unlike her Zombie colleague, the second M.O.N. Enforcer had dark skin, long white hair, and eyes with a black sclera and yellow iris. Unlike Ms Zombina, since Izuku assumed that was her name, the woman who must have been Ms Dopple didn’t wear the yellow uniform of the M.O.N. Enforcers, but instead had her hair covering her chest and waist. Even though it covered everything it needed to, it was still a rather shameless display.

‘Maybe a quirk that allows her to control her hair?’ Izuku thought as Class 1-A walked through the corridor towards the stadium field. ‘They seem to be family friends of the Kurusu family, so Sarah should know. I’ll have to ask her afterwards.’

“ Aww yeah! ” Present Mic cheered into the mic, his voice carrying through the speakers within the stadium. “ It’s U.A.’s Sports Festival! The one time each year when our fledgling heroes compete in a ruthless grand battle! ”

Even though they hadn’t yet left the tunnel, Izuku was able to hear the deafening cheers of the crowds up ahead.

“ My name is Present Mic, and aside from being one of U.A.’s English teachers, I’ll also be one of your MCs for the entirety of the Sports Festival! And of course, to add some uniqueness to our running commentary of the events, each day I’ll be joined by a different member of U.A.’s staff! And today, drawing the short straw, we have my best buddy and homeroom teacher in the first-year’s Hero Course, Eraser Head! How're you doing today, Mummy Man?! ”

“ How the hell did you drag me into this? ” came the tired and exasperated reply of their homeroom teacher. “ And you know damn well my bandages already came off. We’re in the same presenting booth. ”

His deadpan statements only caused the crowds to laugh in amusement, with some of Class 1-A laughing alongside them as they came to the end of the tunnels, the two M.O.N. agents holding their hands out.

“Okay, hold it here for a second,” Ms Zombina ordered, her jovial attitude now replaced with serious professionalism. “Present Mic will announce the classes competing today one by one, so we’ll tell you when to head out. Since you’re Class 1-A, you’ll be up first.”

“Try not to trip on the way out,” Ms Dopple smirked, leaning causally against the tunnel wall. “It would be super embarrassing to make a mistake like that with so many cameras on you.”

“ First up, you know who I’m talkin’ about! ” Present Mic cheered, causing Ms Zombina to wave them forward with some quiet words of encouragement. “ The miraculous rising stars who brushed off a villain attack with their steely willpower! They may be new to the industry, folks, but they’re showing they’ve got what it takes! From the first yearsss- ”

Izuku squinted, one hand raising to shade his face as they stepped out of the tunnel to the cheer of the crowds.

“ -it’s Class A! ”

“Whoa,” Izuku trembled, taking in just how many people would be watching them in person. “What a crowd.”

“And we’re expected to put on the best performance we can in front of so many spectators,” Ida added, looking around with a calm and collected expression. “I suppose this is merely one more necessary skill if we hope to become heroes.”

“They’re really giving us too much credit,” Kirishima admitted, nervously glancing around at the cheering crowds, walking alongside Kacchan, Ashido, and Kóriniss. “But we won’t let it shake us, right, guys?!”

“Nope,” Kacchan growled, a smirk growing on his face. “Just gets me pumped up.”

“Hey hey, KuKóri,” Ashido called out, glancing over at the stands. “Is that your family?!”

Not only Izuku, but also all of Class 1-A looked to where Ashido was pointing, and it wasn’t hard to see where she was looking. Standing out amongst the crowd within the frontmost row was a group of heteromorphs of all kinds. Even from this distance, Izuku was able to see Centaurs, Lamias, an Arachnid, and Harpies plus others he wasn’t sure of. Aside from their large numbers, easily over a dozen, a large banner was draped over the lip of the barrier, with the words, ‘Go, Sarah and Kórinis!’ written in English characters. Interestingly, a handful of individuals in dark suits were standing in the isles on both sides of the large family, one of them holding their hand up to their ear.

“Oh wow,” Uraraka gasped. “I knew you both had a large family, but I didn’t think it was that big!”

“And I see your family has employed the TALIO protection company,” Yaoyoruzu observed.

“Aunt Mero was the one to arrange that,” Sarah Kurusu noted. “After all, they have an exclusive contract with her mother, my step-grandmother.”

“So is that your grandma, Sarah?” Hagakure asked, the sleeve of her shirt pointing towards two Centaur women. While one of them was probably younger than Izuku’s own mother by a few years, beaming down at her daughter, the other woman was much older, wrinkles lining the edges of her mouth, her hair a silvery-blonde, and she stared down at their class with a judging frown.

“Oh God,” Ida whimpered, his gaze fixed to the ground. “Kórinis, please tell me that it isn’t HER, right?! Please tell me it isn’t!”

“Sorry, Ida,” the Arachnid sighed. “‘Fraid it is, in the grumpy flesh.”

Ida’s expression could only be described as terrified, his breath coming in and out in short, sharp bursts.

“Hey, easy, Tenya,” Sarah said, a hand rubbing soothing circles on his back. “Just take deep breaths, she can’t hurt you here. All you need to do is make it to the tournament rounds, and I’m sure she won’t be angry.”

However, aside from Sarah Kurusu’s apparently terrifying grandmother, two others in the class had their own reactions to the wider Kurusu family.

“Mineta, my brother in all things worthwhile in life, are my eyes deceiving me?” Kaminari asked in awe, staring at the Kurusu family with wide, starstruck eyes.

“I see him too,” Mineta nodded, an almost frantic tone in his voice. “To think we would be blessed with his presence, with his attention and gaze!”

“What the hell are you two weirdos talking about?” Jiro asked, only to quickly lean back as Kaminari rounded on her.

“Don’t you know who that is?!” he excitedly asked, a finger pointing straight at a fairly generic looking man amongst the crowd of heteromorphs. “That is Kimihito Kurusu, the Harem King of Japan!”

“No no, my dear disciple,” Mineta corrected with a fake wise and elderly tone. “That is no mere king; that is a god.”

“So, your dad is…” Jiro asked, turning to face Kórinis Kurusu with a questioning tone.

“Admired and revered amongst many young men within Japan, yes,” she sighed, as if this wasn’t the first time she had heard the question. “Most middle and high schools have a club about him, ranging from hating his very existence for how lucky he is, admiring what he has achieved in life, all the way to wackos like those two who revere him as some Harem God or whatever.”

“ And next up! ” Present Mic declared as Class 1-A approached the platform located at the centre of the field. “ While they may not have had such an exciting start to the year as their sister class, make no mistake, viewers, they’re just as skilled! Introducing, Class B! ”

The announced class stepped out of their corridor, a tall, orange haired girl and the tall, boisterous, black haired student from weeks ago following beside her. The two of them led their class towards the platform, just the same as Sarah Kurusu and Ida had done, showing that they were the president and vice president of Class 1-B, though which was which Izuku wasn’t sure of.

“SHOTO!” the tall male student called out, grinning towards the red-haired ice user. “I LOOK FORWARD TO OUR FATED MATCH!”

“Why is he so informal?” Todoroki groaned, one hand holding his face.

“ Moving on from the Hero Course, we have classes C, D and E from General Studies! ” Present Mic announced, introducing the entire course rather than one by one. “ While these lads and ladies may have lucked out in their attempts to join U.A.’s other courses, many of them are gunning to secure themselves a position in the Hero Course! So those of you in Classes A and B, look out, or else you might find yourselves dethroned! ”

While it wasn’t as creative as the Hero Course class announcements, Izuku noticed that many students in the General Studies classes began to walk with a pep in their step. Izuku noticed the same indigo haired student who had given his declaration of war to Class 1-A walking at the front of his class, Class 1-C, with a confident smirk.

“ Following after the General Studies classes we have classes F, G and H from the Support Course! ” Present Mic continued as the next three classes strode forth. “ A keen eyed observer may notice that unlike the rest, these lovely gadgeteers have been granted a bit more leniency with their dress code! ”

That was putting it lightly, as Izuku noticed the wide assortment of inventions, gadgets, and other unknown devices strapped to or held by the members of the Support Course.

“ To any of our aspiring heroes, these guys and girls might very well be responsible for any costume changes or gadgets you want added to your arsenal! Trust me, as someone who uses a support item of my own, it can really make a difference for the right person! ”

“And finally, rounding out the year, we have classes I, J and K from the Business Course!” Present Mic concluded, the final three classes of the first year students emerging from their places around the stadium’s walls. “While they aren’t much in terms of brawn, they have brains and business know-how in spades! If you want someone managing your finances when your too busy catching criminals, these are the ones you’ll want to employ in the future!”

With the Business Course classes making their way to the central platform, the gathered student body of first years students waited around, wondering what was going to happen next. Their suspension didn’t last long, because as the stragglers of Classes I, J and K joined the crowd, the whirring of machinery could be heard, a segment of the platform rising up to the surface, with a passenger standing atop it. Stepping out onto the stage, dressed in what could only be described as the boldest and most shameless depiction of a dominatrix outfit was none other than the R-Rated Hero: Midnight. She had long, spiky dark purple hair that flowed down her back, reaching all the way to her waist. Her costume was a breastless, black leather leotard adorned with red rhinestones, worn over a thin, skin-tight, white bodysuit. Covering her legs were thigh-high garter stockings and knee-high boots, a red mask outlined her eyes, while a flog was held aloft in her right hand.

“And now for the athlete’s oath!” she declared, cracking her flog in the air.

Her appearance caused a cheer from many males and some females within the audience, with the R-Rated Hero practically preening at the attention. 

“R-Rated?” Tokoyami asked aloud. “Should she really be a teacher in a high school?”

“Pipe down!” Midnight yelled, cracking her flog again. “Your student representative is…”

All of the first years seemed to lean forward, wondering who had been chosen.

“...From Class 1-A, Katsuki Bakugo!”

“Wha?” Izuku gaped, watching as his childhood friend casually walked towards the microphone installed on the stage. “It’s Kacchan?!”

“It must be because he placed first in the entrance exam,” Shoji observed, a mouth forming at the end of one of his tentacles.

“Yeah, the Hero Course Entrance Exam, maybe,” a student from the General Studies scoffed, her arms crossed against her chest. 

But any retort or protest against their assumptions were stopped by Kacchan standing in front of the microphone, his hands placed in his pockets.

“The athlete’s oath,” he began, staring out into the crowd. “Make no mistake about it. I’m gonna take first place.”

Boos and jeers rang out from the other classes, many angered and insulted by Kacchan’s declaration.

“Overconfident jerk!” someone from Class 1-B yelled out, revealing himself to be the student from Class 1-B with the gray hair. “I’ll be the one to crush you!”

“You dirty bastard,” the purple haired student from General Studies swore, a dark glare in his expression.

“Why must you show contempt for the dignity of this event?!” Ida cried out, his hand chopping furiously through the air.

“You’ll all make great stepping stones, I’d say,” Kacchan replied as he walked down the stairs of the platform.

Interestingly, though, not everyone was angered by Kacchan’s bold promise.

“Gahaha!” Kórinis laughed, her arms clutching around her waist. “You’re really going for the Bakukatsu, aren’t ya, Dynamite?!”

“Stop making play on words with my name, Silks,” Kacchan growled as he took his place amongst his friends, bumping his shoulder into Izuku’s on the way.

“Damn, Bakugo, that was a really manly declaration,” Kirishima grinned, lightly punching Kacchan in the shoulder. “Don’t think I’ll make it easy for you to keep your promise, though. I’m planning to win as well, and show Japan just how manly I am!”

‘The old Kacchan definitely would’ve been smiling when he said that,’ Izuku noticed, seeing the serious expression on his childhood friend’s face. ‘He’s pushing himself. That wasn’t a message to the rest of us, but to himself; telling himself he can’t lose.’

“Well, after that arousing display of confidence, let’s get the first event started!” Midnight said, a holographic screen flashing into existence behind her. “These are the qualifiers! It’s in this stage that so many are sent home crying each year!”

A blurring wall of text appeared on the hologram, rolling by too quickly to see what they were.

“And the fateful first event this year is,” Midnight said, trailing of her words as the anticipatory music built to a crescendo, finally revealing the event. “The Obstacle Course!”

“An obstacle course?” Izuku wondered aloud. “That sounds pretty simple. But this is U.A., and they never do anything simple.”

“This will be a race between every member of all eleven classes,” Midnight explained, an entry gate forming from a nearby portion of the stadium wall. “The course is a four-kilometre lap around the stadium itself!”

“Our school preaches freedom in all things!” she continued, laughing all the while. “So as long as you don’t go off the course, anything is fair game!”

Izuku joined the tide of students all lining up in front of the gate, tensing and readying themselves as the first of three lights turned red.

“Racers, to your positions!”

‘Wear it over your body like a suit of armour,’ Izuku thought to himself, the green spectral armour forming around him, barely visible to those around him. ‘Keep it to 3%. Enough that I’ll be able to move without difficulty, while also allowing for more bursts of speed if need be.’

The second light blinked on.

“Get set…”

‘I’ll tell the world, “I am here”,’ Izuku promised to himself and All Might. ‘Watch me, All Might, and see the progress I’ve made.’

The final light blinked on, all of them turning green.

“START!”

Okay, and with that cliffhanger, I’ll end it there. I know, I know, I’m a tease for leaving the Obstacle Course till next week, but the chapter was long enough as is, I have my end of semester assessments due, and I thought it was a fitting place to end off.

Right, to start with, I hope you like the changes I made to Mt. Lady. I had to get my calculator out to work out the specifics of her quirk, but yes, our favourite Giantess is a literal Giantess. I thought it would be an interesting spin on her quirk, since it fit in quite easily with this crossover. Originally, Tio was going to just be someone who had trained Mt. Lady, but then I had the idea that they were from the same village/town in Hokkaido, then I had the idea of a community of Ogres and Ogres subspecies living in Hokkaido. I had the idea of Mt. Lady simply being adopted, but I think the idea I settled on was better.

A few other things that I changed that I wanted to mention. First of all, why on Earth was Aizawa still in his bandages when he was in the announcement booth? I assume the Sports Festival takes place in late April, since that lines up with Golden Week in Japan (I did a bit of research, okay, shut up), so he’s still got his face bandages? With Recovery Girl as part of staff? Yeah, I don’t think so.

Also, I want to point out just how lack luster the announcements for the Support, General Studies and Business Studies classes were. It was literally, “here come C, D and E of General Studies, F, G and H of the Support Course, and the Business Course with classes I, J and K” or something like that. I thought that was lame as, so I changed it a bit, allowing Present Mic to shine the spot light on the different courses. Obviously they wouldn’t get as much individual time to shine as Classes A and B, but this is a hero school, A and B are the ones who are meant to stand in the spot light. The Support and Business course students are being trained to support the heroes from the backgrounds, either with costumes and gizmos or with paperwork and business, while the General Studies are those who didn’t quite make the cut for the other three courses. They’re kind of the best of the second best, and logically, would serve as a pressure point to ensure that those in the Hero Course remain on top, since if they fail to perform, they’d be replaced with the best candidate from General Studies. Since they are able to transfer into the Hero Course if they do well enough, I’d assume that something similar could happen in terms of entering the Support or Business, probably to do with grades or something. 

Fun fact as well, Kórinis’ joke to Katsuki, saying he’s going for a Bakukatsu, isn’t just her combining parts of his names, but actually translates to ‘A Huge Victory’. Specifically, it uses the characters for “bomb” (爆 baku), and “to win” (勝 katsu), so if read literally, it also means “bomb to win”, which I think fits Katsuki to a T.

And yes, we got our moment of Kaminari and Mineta realising that Sarah and Kórinis’ father is THE Kimihito Kurusu. We also got some other cameos, but other than that, not much else to say about this chapter, so onto the reviews.

Artorigus: Cheers for the review as always. Glad you liked the chapter between All Might and Izuku, I felt it was one that our green bean would have. Since he worships All Might to such a high degree, I feel that he’d always have a voice saying that he’ll never be able to compare. As for more dangerous foes, probably not right now, the ripples have disrupted canon too much for Izuku, but the waves are coming. Also, yes, Inasa is in Class 1-B, but as for his connection to Sylph, well, that actually is going to be explained next chapter. Fortunately this version of Inasa doesn’t have tunnel vision when it comes to his grudge against the Todorokis, but instead has more of a rivalry. After all, Inasa in canon turned down the chance to attend U.A. specifically because Shoto at the beginning of the story was more like his father than he’d realise. Of course, with Inasa here now, that means that we’re finally starting to see some of the changes that ripple effects have made. While I didn’t go into detail about the training that the two friend groups have done, I probably will for either the obstacle course or the cavalry battle. Now, will Bicycle Cop be there? Probably not, unfortunately. If I have a eureka moment on how to fit him in, then maybe, but as of right now, unfortunately not. As for Kuroko Smith, I probably misspoke, because that’s what I was aiming for; Smith is a reflection of what Izuku COULD have become, had he gone down a different path or had different people in his life. Now, Smith isn’t one dimensional, and believe me, she could have turned out so much worse if it wasn’t for one person in particular before U.A. (I’ll give you exactly one guess who that was), but she is definitely someone with a lot of baggage. Again, more on that is coming soon.

Okay, and that’s about it. For your sneak peak, next chapter is called, “ Obstacle Course of Chaos ”.

See you next time…

- Jevm