When we all emerged from the preparation rooms and assemble in the Battle Training Area, All-Might had one of his corny moments and gushed over how fabulous we looked. He instructed us on why it was necessary to have impressive costumes when taking part in hero activities.
A fight against Villains was as much psychological based as it was physical. When a victim sees a hero rushing to save them in their eye catching heroic costumes, it inspires them and lets them feel safe, winning half the battle against Villains immediately. This was the reason All-Might was so popular amongst the masses and was hailed as Japan's No. 1 Hero. It was not that he was an attention hog or that he was addicted to fame and adoration.
It was because the eye-catching costumes of his, his cheesy lines about heroics and self boast, and the immense presence he gave off while smiling, all act as a deterrent force against villains. His famous phrase 'I am Here!' sends a message of confidence, hope and assurance to those in need of his help.
That was why he was the Symbol of Peace. It was because of this deterrence force he represented that he never even ignored smallest of Villainy acts such as a bag-lifting. Even despite the fact that his powers were waning day by day and that he was in immense pain constantly, he put on that big cheesy and goofy smile of his and showed of his valor and confidence.
After impressing upon us the essence of Heroism, All-Might described the training we will be taking part in this time. It was team vs team battle, with one team representing villains while the other represent the Heroes.
The Villains will be hiding somewhere in the building with a Faux Nuclear Bomb, while Heroes will have to infiltrate, capture the villains or recover the bomb to win. Similarly, the Villains had to delay the Heroes for the time limit given to win the test.
The test was slightly skewed towards the Villains, as some kids pointed out, but All-Might explained that it was the same in real life too. Heroes had to work in environments where Villains generally had the home-field advantage. Hence, the ability to adapt and strategize was one of the basic necessities of Hero profession.
All Might told us the various teams he had charted based on various combinations of quirks.
Team A : Midoriya and Uraraka
Team B : Shoji and Todoroki
Team C : Yaoyorozu and Koda
Team D : Bakugo and Iida
Team E : Aoyama and Ashido
Team F : Kendo and Kyoya
Team G : Kaminari and Jiro
Team H : Tokoyami and Asui
Team I : Ojiro and Hagakure
Team J : Kirishima and Sero
After the various team-members had familiarized themselves to each other, All-Might picked out randomized balls to decide which team will face each other as villains and Heroes. The first match was set to be with Team A as Heroes and Team D as Villains. Team A, with Midoriya and Uraraka stayed back as Bakugo and Iida entered the building to locate and decide on the placement of the bombs.
Both teams were given hands free in-ear radio equipment to communicate with their partners. The rest of the teams would be watching from the monitoring room along with All-Might. He instructed us to watch carefully so that we may discuss what they did wrong or could have done better in the situation.
Midoriya and Uraraka discussed for a while before entering the building. It was a five floor building with multiple rooms on each floor. The villains could be in any of the rooms and the heroes also had to think about how they would be using their quirks efficiently in the enclosed space.
However, the whole scenario went to hell when Bakugo suddenly ambushed Midoriya like a rabid beast. From what he screamed at Midoriya, he apparently had his ego hurt upon seeing Midoriya, whom he considered a weakling, rise above and beyond what Bakugo himself achieved.
All-might and the rest of us were both stunned and worried seeing the amount of pride and over-confidence Bakugo had in himself. Most probably he had been praised all his life because of his quirk and had never learnt to see the talents and achievements of others. His narrow mindedness could very well lead him down a wrong path if it was not corrected as soon as possible.
Midoriya quickly improvised, seeing that Bakugo was dead-set on him and had ignored Uraraka. He told Uraraka to go ahead while he distracted Bakugo. Midoriya was reluctant to use his quirk on Bakugo, as Bakugo had not yet realized how destructive One for All can be. He had only heard of Midoriya's actions during the entrance test but never saw it himself.
Midoriya dominated the fight in the beginning, battling Bakugo with pure martial arts and the analysis he had done of Bakugo's fighting style. He even managed to get a few great hits, leaving Bakugo gritting his teeth in pain and anger.
But Bakugo truly had great battle instincts, he managed to adapt to Midoriya after the initial beat-down and started to fight on equal terms by innovatively using his quirk to employ feints and sudden attacks.
Soon though he was frustrated on being unable to defeat Midoriya and started spewing insults at him. At that Midoriya lost his cool a bit, as he used One for All at 2% to incapacitate Bakugo with a series of swift attacks and then went to help Uraraka. With Midoriya coming to distract Iida, Uraraka easily managed to take advantage of the distraction and touch the Faux Bomb to achieve the recovery of the Weapon, allowing Heroes to achieve victory.
When both the teams returned, All-Might declared that Iida was the MVP of the fight and asked if anyone could guess why. Before I could say anything, Momo intervened to explain. She stated that it was because Iida was the only one taking the exercise with the proper spirit. He embraced his role as a villain and prepared the location the best he could against the enemy with the limited knowledge he had of their quirks.
Despite being a Hero representative, Uraraka had employed neither stealth nor the proper seriousness of the exercise. She had also used her power callously and relied more on Midoriya than doing her best to contribute.
Midoriya had let his personal feelings get in the way of logical decision. Despite the fact that he could have ended the fight faster, as proved later with the defeat of Bakugo, Midoriya kept humoring him and restricting himself to not use powers against Bakugo because of personal feelings. This was completely opposite to what he should have done as a hero.
Finally, Bakugo had completely ignored his team mate and his objective and behaved like a mindless beast. Though he had tried his best to defeat Midoriya, it was more out of personal grudge than the need of the exercise. He needed to have more control over his emotions and tone down his excessive pride and arrogance.
All-Might could just look on with twitching eye and soundless stammer as Momo took away all the points that needed to be said. Finally while advising Iida to loosen up more and cooperate with his teammates, All-Might moved on to the rest of the simulations.
Second fight was Team I as Villains vs Team B as heroes. This fight was pretty one sided as Shoji used his quirk to determine which floor the Villains were on and Todoroki froze the entire building before calmly going up to that floor and touching the weapon. The won the simulation very easily.
Third Fight was Team H as Heroes vs Team J as Villains. This one was more of a straight up fight as Sero setup ambushes with his tape quirk to trap the Heroes while Kirishima planned to attack them head-on when they get caught.
Tokoyami destroyed their ambush with his shadow monster, it got boosted because of the fact that the inside of the building had a dim lighting and lots of shadows. While he engaged the two villains single-handedly, Asui went around the building and managed to find the Bomb, letting the Heroes win the match overwhelmingly.
Fourth fight was Team G as Heroes vs Team C as Villains. This was also a pretty straight forward match. Momo was a great strategist and she used her team's powers to the max. She made Koda summon a few birds and let them hold grenades that released powerful sleeping gas.
As she expected, Jiro used her Ear-jack quirk to determine where the Villains were and directly rushed to that floor with Kaminari. Momo was waiting there in ambush, with Koda and her wearing gas masks. As soon as Kaminari entered the floor with Jiro, Koda instructed the birds to pull the pin and release the grenades, knocking Jiro and Kaminari out in seconds thanks to the powerful sleeping gas.
All-Might praised Momo especially when they came back, calling her ambush the best utilization of quirks and strategy he had seen in a long time. Momo's methodical plan execution and character analysis gained her respect from a lot of our classmates, including me.
The Final Fight was Team E as Heroes vs Team F as Villains. This was the easiest battle of the day, as unlike Midoriya I didn't go easy on my opponents. Before the battle even began, I spread hundreds of my Aura strings all over the building.
Aoyama and Ashido tried to confuse us by entering from different windows on different floors, but I immediately paralyzed them with my Aura strings as soon as they entered deeper into the building. Once that was done, I told Itsuka of their location and she easily captured them.
Our victory concluded the battle training simulation and All-Might instructed those who had performed poorly various methods they could employ to do it better the next time. After that he gave an abrupt farewell and sped-off. We discussed various approaches to the battles if we had faced other teams.
Surprisingly, a lot of our classmates wanted a match which showcased fight between Todoroki, Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu and me. The four of us, along with Bakugo and Midoriya, were considered be the All-Rounders that will be able to fight and adapt to most situations.
Itsuka helped me out with the students who wanted to socialize with me, giving a lot of the girls the impression that I was going out with Itsuka. For some reason I didn't comprehend, Itsuka let them have the misunderstanding and didn't correct it. Well, if she didn't have a problem with it then I was not going to correct them.
-x-x-x-x-x-
The next day our homeroom teacher Aizawa came up with another class activity for us, the election of class President and Vice President. To my absolute surprise, a lot of people wanted me as the class president. However, I firmly refused and nominated Itsuka instead.
After a lot of discussion and voting, Itsuka became the class president, while Momo became the Vice-President. A certain four-eyed teen cried tears of bitterness at this result.
When it was time for lunch, I was approached by Bakugo, who asked me for help with his training with a very annoyed and awkward expression. Apparently Midoriya had told him during yesterday's fight that I was the one that trained him to become able to fight Bakugo on equal terms even without a quirk.
I agreed and informed Itsuka of the development. She told me she will save me a spot and to finish with Bakugo's training program as soon as possible. With Aizawa's help, Bakugo and I booked a training room, where he showed me the various type of training he did.
After analyzing his routine and daily activities, I devised a training plan for him to maximize the development of his quirk and physique along with the proper diet and exercise. When we were on the way back, we suddenly heard the alarm for a breach in security.
Worried about Itsuka, I activated Enhance and Plus Ultra while running towards the cafeteria. On my way there, I saw a weird bluish-grey haired guy with a weird hand like object on my face. He was looking at me in surprise and shock, as if he hadn't expected someone to be there.
Suddenly reddish blood vessels emerged in his eyes as his eyes widened maniacally and he started rushing towards me. However, before he could come near me, I sent a few Aura Strings towards him, paralyzing his limbs and making him fall down like a statue. But instead of being worried he started laughing maniacally.
"The fall of the Symbol of Peace will bring forth a revolution. The times will be changing soon, no one will be spared." he said while cackling and twitching.
Before I could question him further, blackish purple smoke appeared, twisting the spatial area around the cackling maniac. As I backed away cautiously, a pair of hazy arms grabbed the maniac "Time to go Young master, we are done with the objective". Saying as much, the Hazy arms, the maniac and the smoke, all disappeared just as weirdly as they had appeared.
I stayed stunned to my place for quite a while, thinking and figuring out what had just happened. Apparently, someone had managed to infiltrate UA, and also had the help of someone with a Teleportation type quirk.
Also, they must have been the ones responsible for the intruder alarm he had heard. But since no one had managed to find these guys apart from him, it meant that they must have distracted the faculty somehow.
Organizing the facts in his mind, Kyoya made his way to the Principal's office. He was stopped by the guidance counselor Hound Dog, who asked why he was not in class.
When Kyoya said he had information on those who infiltrated UA, Hound Dog examined him for a moment while sniffing at him. When he was apparently satisfied, Hound Dog guided him to the principal's room.
"Come in" a squeaky little voice called them inside. As they entered, Kyoya saw a rather large mouse, with a scar over one eye and dressed in a suit, sitting on a large revolving chair while going through some video footage on some large screens that were set up in the office.
"Ooh, young star of Class 1-A, Kyoya Jin. Parents deceased, but has an Aunt as a Guardian. Parent's quirk Spirit Hydra and Hecatoncheires, resulting in a mutation type quirk for the child. His registered quirk is Aura Strings, but has shown some fantastic variations in his usage of it. Quirk Potential is Grade S and Hero Potential is S+. A very impressive record for just being a first year student here. How may I help you?"
Kyoya was taken aback that this rat like creature was the principal, moreover had such detailed information on him. Bu the squared his shoulder and calmed himself down.
[I encountered two unsavoury looking people who infiltrated UA. Both had Villain like tendencies, with one of them having a teleportation type quirk. The other one seemed slightly unstable mentally, but he said and I quote 'The fall of the Symbol of Peace will bring forth a revolution. The times will be changing soon, no one will be spared'.]
[Though I managed to immobilize the unstable one, he was rescued by the one with teleportation powers before I could capture him. I strongly feel they were responsible for the entire chaos that we experienced a short while ago. That was why I wanted to come and inform you about this since I found no faculty members anywhere near where I encountered them.]
The principal looked my me with a curious light in his eyes before speaking "Thank you student Kyoya, your information fits the theory I was thinking about when I saw that the media people had broken into our grounds. We will take care of further investigation from here, you can relax and go to your classes."
I nodded and left the room with Hound Dog, who insisted that he escort me to my class to prevent any further mishap and to explain to my class teacher. My return to class was met with a bunch of questions from Aizawa and the rest of my classmates but Hound Dog intervened by saying that it was a matter between the principal and me and that only faculty members were allowed to know about it.
Hound Dog also instructed Aizawa to meet with Principal after the class is done, before leaving the room. My classmates were filled with curiosity about this mysterious action, but I turned the focus around by what happened with them when the alarm hit.
It turns out that when the alarm hit, all students were panicking and rushing about. But Itsuka had the presence of mind to investigate and see that it was only the media people who had entered the school grounds. Hence she gathered everyone's attention through producing a thunder like clapping sound with her Big Fist quirk and calmed them all down.
This incident had gained her a solid reputation as a leader amongst the students of UA, even those of upper classes. She had also gained the nickname of 'Thunder Clap', thanks to her actions in the cafeteria. The name was really catchy and I told her that I liked it too, making her smile happily at me.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The next day, Aizawa surprised us by saying that we would have Rescue Operations training today. It would be a joint training provided by three teachers, All Might, Thirteen, and Aizawa himself. As instructed by Aizawa, we all made our way to specially assigned UA buses. Amidst jokes and socializing, we soon made our way to the Rescue training place arranged for us.
We soon outside an enormous complex dedicated specifically for various rescue operation training. We were greeted there personally by the ever favorite, Space Hero - Thirteen. She cheerfully welcomed all of us.
"Hello Everyone, I have been waiting for you." Thirteen said. Midoriya and Uraraka started Fanboying/Fangirling themselves upon seeing Thirteen. A bunch of excited whispers went around our group, discussing various great exploits of Thirteen.
"I cant wait to show you what is inside" Thirteen said while gesturing us towards the rescue training area. All of us had only one thought in mind, 'This is going to be awesome!!'
When we finally entered, everyone was shell-shocked, even me. This place was like Disneyland, it went on an on. It had areas designed for every sort of disaster one can possibly imagine. Urban Villain-Hero fight aftermath, Big mountains with landslides, Shipwreck in middle of seas, Lost in jungle area, trapped in a burning building, in the middle of a windstorm affected area, the list went on.
This training facility was created under the supervision of Thirteen, with the help of heroes who had various useful quirks for designing this, to help prepare the students for various different kind of disasters. It was called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short.
Thirteen then instructed us on how a quirk can be used for both destruction and rescue. Every lesson we had so far, whether it was Aizawa's Quirk Assessment/Fitness Test to test our potential or All-Might's Battle Simulation to see how dangerous can we be when using our quirks, all had been to prepare us for what we can do with our quirk. Now under Thirteen's instruction, we would learn how to use it to help others.
While everyone was cheering at Thirteen's inspiring speech, the spotlights around the USJ suddenly dimmed. Though most were distracted by that, I found an anomaly brewing at some distance away on top of the huge fountain. It was similar to what I had seen the other day at the UA.
Immediately I put on my serious persona and unleashed my Aura Strings. Ever since I had seen those villains at UA the other day, I had been tensed and on edge. Now it was time to put those emotions to good use. I attached my aura strings to Thirteen, Aizawa and all my classmates.
I projected the scene of the swirling black teleportation portal to drag their attention there. Though most didn't understand why they would suddenly want to see that area the did so anyway immediately.
Only Itsuka, Midoriya and Aizawa flickered their gazes towards me momentarily before turning their attention back to the fountain. They knew how I could communicate with my Aura strings and how I could generate a level of control over those I had connected with, depending on the number of strings attached and the amount of aura I spend.
Before our tensed gazes, a number of different people of all shapes and sizes emerged from the purple-black smoke. Seeing the confusion on a lot of the student's faces, I echoed a thought in the minds of everyone I was connected to, 'Villains'.
Most of the students visibly flinched and took a few steps back. The exceptions were Bakugo, Shoji, Tokoyami, Shoto, Midoriya, Itsuka and me, who readied our quirks and steeled ourselves. Looking at us, Aizawa wore his goggles and started instructing us.
"Since everyone already know this is the real deal, don't panic. Thirteen, you protect the kids while I deal with these morons."
"This is perplexing," a deep voice echoed from the purple-black fog before a pair of glowing golden eyes appeared in it "According to the schedule we recovered, All-Might was supposed to be here too. But all I see are two professional Heroes, Thirteen and Eraserhead."
"So you were the ones who entered the school using the Press as a distraction?" Aizawa confirmed with staring at the growing number of Villains who kept appearing from the Purple-Black fog.
"Where is he?" the creepy Bluish-gray haired one in the center asked "I went to so much trouble to bring him so many presents. They all want to meet him so much, we cant believe he is not here. Maybe if I kill a few kids he will come out to play?"
Aizawa unleashed his quirk when the creepy guy said that. I sent the image of him from yesterday to everyone, him lying on the ground with the hand on his face, cackling like mad. Aizawa gave a subtle nod in my direction to acknowledge he got my message.
I sent a thought to prepare to fight to Bakugo, Shoji, Tokoyami, Shoto, Midoriya, and Itsuka. Aizawa might not want us to fight, but seeing these people, I sort of had an intuition that we may not have a choice to. I attached additional Aura strings to Bakugo, Shoji, Tokoyami, Shoto, Midoriya, and Itsuka. I wanted to be prepared if I needed to control them in a pinch.
As the Villains advanced towards us, Kirishima and Momo questioned Thirteen how so many villains got into UA and why were the Alarms disabled. Shoto, Momo and Thirteen discussed the possibilities whether the entire UA was under attack or only this facility.
Inspired by their discussion, I rapidly used Orochi's gaze multiple times and fired them off at the Villains. The rapid bombardment created a camouflage to hide our activities. Immediately I put forth a thought in Iida's head to go to UA main campus and get help, before making him run off while the villains were still distracted. When the dust settled, the villains had no idea that Iida was long gone.
Aizawa noticed Iida's absence and guessed what I had done. Giving me a nod of approval, he instructed Thirteen to try and evacuate with us if possible while he fights the villains. Midoriya interrupted him and reminded that he was more of a one vs one type hero and Group Battles were not speciality of Eraser head.
Aizawa reminded Midoriya that a Hero should have combat techniques for all occasions and dove into the midst of Villains. He first faced a squad of long range quirk users, who called themselves Firing Squad. Before they could get what was up, Aizawa erased their quirk before grabbing them with his bandage scarves and knocking them out.
While Aizawa was knocking out the Villains, Thirteen tried to evacuate us while he was keeping them busy. Though I would have liked to fight the Villains, I knew that a lot of the students might get hurt. Hence I evacuated with the rest.
When we were halfway there to the entrance, the portal guy suddenly emerge in front of us and started his monologues about having no escape from the League of Villains. He stated that though they were disappointed that they could not get All-Might, they still have a role to play here.
At this point, Thirteen was trying to fire off her quirk, when suddenly Bakugo and Kirishima sped off towards the black smoke guy. Realising the foolishness of their actions, I immediately attached a few strings to Kirishima too, before controlling them to jump to the sides and evade Thirteen's attack. At the same time I showed Thirteen my actions and messaged her to activate her quirk.
With no one in her quirk's way, Thirteen immediately activated her quirk from her fingertip, which started to suck the Smoke guy in, disintegrating the smoke around him and revealing slight silhouette of a man in a butler like suit with a big metal plate like object surrounding his neck like an very wide collar. His head was also made out of pure smoke, from which two big golden eyes were peering at us angrily.
Taking this opportunity, I controlled Bakugo and Todoroki to sent out a bunch of explosions and icicles at the smoke guy's metal collar and smoky head. Sensing the threat, he somehow managed to created a small smoky portal that saved him and sent him back to that creepy guy with hands all over him.
Thirteen gratefully thanked me while urging the students to leave through the gates. Kirishima, Bakugo and Todoroki joined them a step behind, while looking at their hands and bodies in confusion. I knew I would have to explain what happened to them later, but currently I was going to use every advantage I can to keep everyone safe.
While everyone started leaving to safety, I stayed behind with Thirteen. Midoriya and Itsuka noticed that too, but they didn't stop as it would also make other students think that they can help too. While running away, Midoriya and Itsuka signaled that they would soon be back with help.
When Thirteen was about to insist that I leave too, I showed her the Hands-guy, who was scratching himself on neck and face while saying something to the smoke guy and the muscular looking abomination next to him.
I projected the idea to Thirteen that only together would we have the ability to delay the Villains enough for the students to get to safety. Though she hesitated at first, she had to agree when the hands-guy sent the abomination towards us.
Feeling an immediate sense of crisis, I attached all the free Aura strings I had, now that the students had left, to Thirteen. At the same time I boosted myself with Enhance and Plus Ultra to an extent I had never before.
My cautiousness rewarded me, as the abomination was faster than Midoriya at Full Cowl : 20% and appeared before us in barely a few seconds through pure physical power. I made Thirteen dodge while activating her ability, while activating and attacking with Orochi's gaze myself.
The muscular abomination was bombarded with missile like energy snakes that stalled him while Thirteen's quirk disintegrated his abdomen and left arm. However, much to our horror, the guy started recovering and regenerating at a high speed, comparable to my current activation of Plus Ultra.
At the same time he seemed to have some kind of energy shield or shock absorption ability. I determined this because my bombardment Orochi's gaze did as much to him as a peacock feather might do to me. He was like a wild brawler with excellent fighting instincts. He tanked Thirteen's attacks, seeing that he could recover from it, and tried attacking us in a berserk close combat.
Thirteen entrusted her dodging ability to me completely while focusing on her attacks completely and started increasing her quirks power by firing it from all her fingers. As expected of a pro-hero, she had already adapted to my Aura strings and was using them to her advantage.
Seeing that I had no way to damage the abomination currently, I went with her plan and used all my mental prowess to analyze the abomination and keep us away from his immensely powerful body.
Meanwhile, I still had an aura string attached to Aizawa and I could sense his feelings of exhaustion and his thoughts through them. He had already downed dozens of Villains, but there were lot more. His eyes had started to bleed slightly from over-exertion and they had become extremely dry, limiting the amount of time he could keep them open without blinking.
Taking advantage of this, the Hands-guy had managed to catch Aizawa off-guard in the moment he had blinked and delivered a palm strike to Aizawa's arm. However, the Hands-guy had his quirk activated, which turned out to be some sort of molecular destruction type.
Within seconds, Aizawa's skin flaked off like dust or dandruff, leaving his muscles exposed with deep lacerations in them. As I had suspected earlier, the Hands-guy was the one who had destroyed the UA school gate yesterday.
Seeing that the three of us were getting cornered and that I had only half of my Aura reserves left, I decided that it was time for something drastic. I had wanted to work out the kinks in this trump card before using it, but currently I had no choice but to use it and save our lives.