Izuku stared out the window as the bus to the rescue training facility rolled down the street. After the situation in the hallway the other day, he, Ochaco, and Lida headed back to class where Izuku had ultimately decided to accept his new position as class rep despite his misgivings.
Seeing Lida talk the crowd down and get everyone to move calmly and orderly kinda made Izuku feel like passing the position to him. After all, Lida wanted the position more than him and was probably more qualified for it than he was. But then, he remembered Lida's and Ochaco's words to him. How Lida claimed Izuku was a better person and hero than him and how Ochaco said he was the smartest person she knew.
Hearing their honest praise and opinion of him made it nigh impossible for him to not at least try to be the best class representative he could be. Besides, even if this was U.A., the class reps' duties were probably the same as in any other high school. It's not like he was expected to lead the class into battle or something. So everything would be fine no matter which way the cookie crumbled.
Besides, right now Izuku was more excited about rescue training than worried about being a class rep. If this was anything like the entrance exams or even battle trials then this would no doubt be fun. Maybe he would even get a quest out of it. There was something of a drought going on with those.
After the quest in the quirk assessment test to hit the ball over a thousand meters, he hadn't received another quest outside of the daily one. Which begged the question, why? Why did the system hand out quests so inconsistently? Were there automatic triggers for a quest or did the system decide? If it decided when to hand out quests, was it always watching? If it watched, why...
Izuku shook his head as he broke out his previous chain of thought. There was no point in speculating when nothing would come from it. Besides, there was no reason to rush to get stronger. He was already plenty strong. With one exception, he's been strong enough to take on everything he's dealt with so far. He had frozen that one time but if he met the machine man again-.
"C'mon Izuku, quit acting so edgy and join the conversation," Ochaco whined, breaking him out of his previous line of thought. She was seated next to him, at the back of the bus closest to the window.
Izuku nearly sighed at his friend's attempt to make him more social. It had worked with Lida because they were sort of similar in a few ways and they were talking about heroes. However, years of being a social outcast and mental scars left from abandonment had done a number on his conversational skills. He was able to manage with Ochaco because he was unusually calm and comfortable around him in a way he hadn't been since his sister was alive. Combine that with her social grace, honest personality, and patience and it was no surprise that conversing with her was easy for him.
Maybe if they were talking about quirks or heroes Izuku could jump in and actually contribute to the conversation but they weren't. They were talking about costumes and rating them by coolness or at least he thought they were. Izuku wasn't paying much attention to his classmate's conversation before Ochaco called him out.
"I'm not acting edgy, just thinking," Izuku said a little defensively while blushing a little in embarrassment; even as his face was becoming the epitome of stoic. While he wasn't trying to be edgy, Izuku had definitely been brooding and he suspected his friend knew that from the Cheshire cat smile she was now sporting.
"I don't know about that," Ochaco says a bit conspiratorially while looking at Ashido, Asui, and a few other classmates who wore similar grins to her. "I mean..." She trails off.
"Your costume is all black," Kirishima says with a wide grin.
"You wear a trench coat," Kaminari chimes in.
"Use guns~," Ashido comments in a singsong voice while doing finger pistols.
"And when you're not talking to Ochaco, your personality might as well be a brick wall," Asui states in a deadpan tone of voice.
"Plus you were totally brooding just now," Ochaco adds while barely holding back giggles at what Izuku knew was his deepening blush. "When you were looking out the window your face was all serious and n' stuff. Like you were about to swear revenge or something."
If Izuku wasn't trying to save face right now, he would try to find or make the deepest hole imaginable and crawl inside to live for all eternity. That was how badly the embarrassment he felt was. He contemplated using [Identify] on Ochaco to find out any information he could use to get back at her but decided against it very soon after the thought graced him. His powers were meant to be used as a means to become the best hero he could possibly be. Not to invade the privacy of regular people and his friends.
Quite a few classmates started laughing after Ochaco's final comment. After the laughter died down a bit, Izuku quit trying to keep up his poker face and sighed. He knew his costume was a bit edgy in some aspects but it wasn't that bad and it wasn't his first choice.
Izuku would have gone with the costume his mom made him or done a matching one with Ochaco as she had suggested during one of their back-and-forth texting sessions. But he couldn't do either. Mei said she wouldn't be able to work on something as flimsy as the material his mom's costume was made of and if he had her work on a costume with lots of bulky parts like Ochaco's, Izuku was sure he would be either down on limbs when her "babies" eventually exploded or shooting party favors out his wrists while laser-guided rockets came of his boots.
So he had to keep the costume both cool and simple. And when Izuku was brainstorming cool and simple costumes back then, his current one had come to mind despite the fact he was sure he had never seen it before. He was originally going to discard the costume idea but chose to keep it when an old fuzzy memory of his sister saying she found costumes like these cool came to mind. However, while his costume was indeed cool, Izuku did concede they were right about his costume being a bit edgy. However, they were definitely wrong about why he wore it in the first place.
"Just so you know," Izuku addressed his classmates after coming down from his embarrassment. The few that were still laughing became quiet to hear his words. "While my costume may be a bit on the dark side..." Someone snorted. "Each part serves a purpose."
Yaoyorozu, who had been quiet up until this point, decided to speak up. "I understand the point of the boots, armor, and utility belt but what would be the point of guns for someone with a quirk like yours?" Izuku's fellow class representative questioned. "From what I've seen during our first test, your constructs are quite fast and strong. Your range with them also seems to be decent so I'm at a loss as to why you would need guns if they're not for aesthetic purposes."
When she finished speaking, Izuku noticed that more of his classmate had stopped talking to listen in. More people were interested in his guns than he thought they would be. Izuku figured that at least a few members of the class would have approached him, Ochaco, or even a teacher about why he was allowed to even have guns. But after searching the face of everyone in his class who were facing him and only seeing curiosity in their eyes; he knew they were clueless about the purpose of the guns.
No matter, he would simply have to demonstrate it to them.
"Yaoyorozu, your right in thinking I don't need them. My powers are a less lethal and more effective long-range option," Izuku said while drawing one of his sidearms out of its holster and pointing the barrel toward the roof of the bus. "Compared to the rest of my costume they're almost useless." He pulled the guns slide back and almost everyone on the bus hears the clicking sounds of a round being chambered. "However..." Izuku trailed while peeking from the corner of his eyes at the reaction of his class.
Unsurprisingly, quite a few of his fellow students had their eye's widened at the realization that his gun was loaded Even a few of the stoic bunch like Todoroki and Tokoyami broke character and looked at him in shock. However, it seemed that Bakugo remained unflappable as he didn't even bother facing Izuku despite undoubtedly listening in. After taking in their faces, Izuku turned his body in his seat to face Ochaco to continue to the next part of the demonstration.
This part of his demonstration had his classmates frozen stiff. Their eyes became soo wide, they were nearly popping out of their sockets. While Izuku thought their reaction was a bit exaggerated, especially when this wasn't even the clincher, he supposed that what they were doing was a completely normal response to seeing their classmate level the barrel of his loaded gun at the innocent and curious-looking face of another.
It was only when Izuku put his finger on the trigger did his classmate start moving and/or shouting at him to stop. Kirishima, Shoji, and a few others close by started reaching for his gun or Ochaco. While others used more exotic means to reach Izuku or his gun, like a tongue or a shadow monster.
All of which were blocked by a golden wall erected by Izuku as he squeezed the trigger of his gun and...nothing happened.
"It makes for a pretty good bluff, doesn't it?" Izuku said jovially with a broad smile as his face turned to face his fellow student while lowering his gun.
The entire class went slack-jawed as students who had gotten up to rush him fell limply into the closest empty seat while breathing sighs of relief. For a few seconds, everything was quiet. Only the sound of the road could be heard. Then everyone started speaking at once.
"What the hell Midoriya!" "Are you out of your mind?" So unmanly," Were some of the few words Izuku managed to hear in the cacophony of noise that was the bus.
"Pff." When everyone had calmed down enough for individual voices to be recognizable the class heard the stiffened giggle of Izuku's somewhat unknowing partner in the prank/demonstration on the class.
"Wait a sec," Kamanari shouted while pointing an accusatory finger at her. "You knew!"
"Hahaha," Ochaco threw her head back while hugging her sides and laughed out loud. She didn't seem to have a reason to hold it in anymore now that her cover was blown.
"Of course she knew," Yaoyorozu muttered to herself as she took off the metal glove she created while reaching for Ochaco. She sighed a bit while putting the glove down before speaking out loud to Izuku. "Despite your... unorthodox way of demonstrating the usefulness of your guns, I see the purpose they serve. Even in the age of superheroes and villains, guns are still considered very dangerous. Not many quirks make someone tough enough or fast enough to survive a metal projectile being launched at supersonic speeds toward them. So most small-time villains surrender when faced with them. It's why heroes like Snipe who rely on guns have little collateral damage and high capture rates. I assume your plan with those guns is to exploit the fear of them to get villains to surrender without fighting."
Izuku nodded at her to confirm she was right while reholstering his gun. "The coat is also stabproof and flame retardant and my shades are custom-made recognizance tech. It's how I found you during our training with All Might."
"Ahh, I see," Yaoyorozu says before going into thought.
"It is inspiring to know just how much you've prepared for hero life class rep but did you have to demonstrate the use of your pistols in such an irresponsible way!" Lida said just below a shout while doing that weird chopping motion with his arm.
Izuku flinched a bit at Lida's words. He did feel he went a little overboard scaring his classmates like that over a harmless joke but hearing Lida call him out on it made him realize just how overboard he went. All Izuku's classmates did was point out things about his costume and personality -that were kinda true- and in return he made them think he was going to blow their classmate's brains out. Izuku concluded then and there that he definitely went too far and was going to apologize.
At least until Ochaco said something. "Yeah, but did you see your faces? Hahah- Oof."
Ochaco's laughing fit was cut short by her pink-skinned gold-eyed classmate glomping her. "Uraraka you traitor," Ashido said with a wides mile while squishing Izuku's best friend in a hug. "You knew what was going on and didn't tell us! Capital punishment for you. Tickle~ tickle~ tickle~tickle~."
"Hahaha~, stop Mina! Hahaha. Stop! Izuku save me!" Ochaco started laughing uncontrollably as Mina's fingers started moving up and down her ribs. Ochaco made attempts to get the pink-skinned girl off her but either the tickling made her arms too weak to move the girl or Ashido was a lot stronger than her thin frame suggested.
Regardless of which was the case, Izuku did not attempt to help his madly giggling friend. After all, someone needed to pay for starting this whole debacle and the scene was easing his classmate's tension from the prank he pulled. Quite a few of them were even laughing again. He didn't want to sour the improving mood with a sappy apology so he decided to do it after training was over which he guessed was beginning now since the bus stopped moving.
"So dam noisy," Izuku heard his teacher grumble before he addressed the class. "We're here. Stop messing around," Aizawa announced as he stood by the bus door.
"Yes, sir!" The class chorused.
...
"Everyone, I have been waiting for you," a person in an astronaut-like suit greeted the class as they exit the bus. Many in the class gasped in realization at who was in front of them.
"It's the Space Hero, Thirteen! The gentlemanly hero who has rescued tons of people from disasters!"
"Oh, I love Thirteen!" Uraraka proclaimed.
"Let's go inside without delay," Thirteen beckoned.
"Look forward to working with you!" The class bowed as they head inside the building. As they entered the dome building, they saw many types of areas inside.
"Wow, it looks like Universal Studios Japan!" Kirishima said.
"A shipwreck, a landslide, a fire, a windstorm, etc.–" Thirteen entends their arms, "It is a training ground that I made with different types of accidents and disasters. It's called the "Unforeseen Simulation Joint," or "USJ" for short!"
'It really is USJ...' The class thought.
"Thirteen, where's All Might?" Aizawa asks approaching the Pro Hero, "He was supposed to meet us here."
"About that…" Thirteen whispers to him, "It looks like he got caught up in a fight with a strong villain on his way to work. The villain got him pretty good so he's resting in the infirmary for a few minutes before coming here.
Out of their sight, Izuku's ears twitched as he overheard their hushed conversation. 'A villain tough enough to wear out All Might. I wonder what sort of quirk he had.'
"It can't be helped. Shall we begin?" Eraser Head says moving to the side for Thirteen to take over.
"Let's see...Before we begin, let me say one thing...er...or two, or three...or four...five...six...seven…"
'It's increasing...!' Class 1-A deadpans.
"Everyone, I am sure you know my Quirk, Black Hole. I can suck up anything and turn it to dust," Thirteen explains.
"You've been able to use that Quirk to save people from all kinds of disasters, right?" Midoriya asks as Uraraka nods repeatedly beside him.
"Yes, but it is a power that can kill easily," the Space Hero informs making some of the students look at him dumbfounded.
"Some of you also have Quirks like that, right? In a superhuman society, personal Quirks have been certified and stringently regulated, so that doesn't seem to be a problem at first glance. However, please do not forget that there are many Quirks that can easily kill with one wrong step. With Aizawa's physical fitness test, you found out about the possibility of your own hidden powers, and with All Might's person-to-person combat training, I think you experienced the danger of using those powers against others. This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your quirks to save people's lives. You do not have powers so you can harm others. I hope you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others."
'Thirteen's does have a point.' Midoriya thought. 'Big sis's quirk was just as dangerous as it was helpful. When she got her quirk, everyone thought she was some sort of super doctor and she kinda was.' Izuku's mind traveled down memory lane to the time when his sister got her quirk and smirked a bit. 'Then she turned her arm into a bone spear and everyone freaked out.' While Izuku was lost in thought Thirteen finished his speech.
"That is all. Thank you for listening," Thirteen bows as the majority of the class cheers and applause at his speech.
All right then, first–" Aizawa spoke until the lights suddenly dimmed in the dome, catching everyone's attention. The fountain in the center of USJ also flickered, turning off and on. Suddenly, a dark void appeared in front of the fountain, slowly increasing its size bit by bit. Aizawa turned to face the portal as if sensing its presence. As he turned around, the void spread and grew bigger with yellow glowing eyes appearing in it.
A hand slowly reached out of the void, revealing a man with light blue hair, his face covered by some sort of hand mask. Aizawa narrowed his gaze before instructing his student. "Gather together and don't move!" The students looked dumbfoundedly at his instructions. "Thirteen, protect the students!" He said while gripping his capture tool in preparation for use.
"What's that?" Kirishima questioned as he noticed the hand mask man emerge from the void along with many other costumed individuals and a robot of all things. "Is this like the entrance exam where the lesson's already started?"
"No," Izuku spoke with a grim tone in his voice. Despite not shouting, everyone heard his words. "Those... are real villains."
At first, a few of Izuku's classmates didn't take his word seriously but when they saw how their teacher was acting and how he hadnt made any attempt to correct Izuku they became true believers. Needless to say, class 1-A had various reactions. Some students like Mineta and Koda looked about ready to book it back to the bus. Not interested in tangoing with villains this early in their career. Others like Izuku and Kirishima looked ready to react to anything thrown their way. Todoroki and Bakugo were the only ones who looked ready to jump down there and start reaping havoc on the villains and it showed on their faces.
Bakugo looked like a mad dog. His eye screamed murder and his teeth were bared like fangs. A constant flash and popping sound accompanied his hands ever since the people at the portal were identified as villains. He looked to be held back only by his a shred of sanity.
Todoroki's desire to attack was less obvious since it only showed in his eyes. However, anyone who was paying attention would have noticed that his eyes hadnt left the portal once and that the ambient temperature had dipped a few degrees. The desire to prove himself burned fiercely behind those mismatched eyes.
Down at the portal, Shigaraki surveyed his opposition. "Just as planned Kurogiri, All Might isn't here. Their only Eraser Head and Thirteen."
"Indeed," The dark void name Kurogiri spoke. "It seems the Nomu did its job well."
Instead of responding to Kurogiri, Shigaraki turned to his gathering of fodd- erm villains and addressed them. "Listen up everyone." The whole crowd turned to face him. "Anyone who brings back the body of a hero gets a five thousand yen bonus for this job. Doesn't matter if they're in training or not." The crowd of villains cheered at that and Shigaraki's mouth took on a cruel smirk as they surged toward the two pro heroes and students.
Beside Shigaraki the simulacrum known as Revenant looked out at the crowd of dispersing villains and then at his client. "I thought we were here to kill All Might. Why waste a powerful asset like a high-end Nomu to delay him."
Shigaraki began scratching his neck but didn't bother facing Revenant when answering. "I want to see his face when he looks at all the students snd comrades he failed to protect. Is that a problem?" Shigaraki asks with a bit of challenge in his voice.
Revenant scoffed at his client's words. "No, I just thought it was a waste. Would have been a great Shadow if it bit the dust near me instead of All Might."
"Really? I thought you were getting cold feet Rev," Shigaraki responds in exaggerated curiosity.
The simulacrum scoffs again at Shigaraki. "Even without the Numu, I'm more than capable of taking on All Might."
"Now now gentlemen," Kurogiri's misty form spoke from above them. "Let's focus on the task at hand. We do have heroes to kill."
Back with the students, Aizawa clicks his tongue at the sight of the villains charging toward the students. His scarf starts to loosen and float around her while the class watched the villains in fear and horror.
"What? Villains?! How could they get into a hero school!" Kirishima said in disbelief.
"Sensei, what about the trespasser sensors?" Yaoyorozu moved up, asking Thirteen.
"We have them, of course, but…" Thirteen trails off.
"Did they only appear here, or around the school?" Todoroki asked, "Either way if the sensors are not responding, that means they have someone with a Quirk that can do that. An isolated area separated from the main campus during a time when a class is supposed to be here. They might be fools, but they're not dumb. This surprise attack was carefully planned with some sort of goal in mind."
Seeing the villains coming closer than comfortable to the students, Aizawa decides it's time for them to evacuate. "Thirteen, start the evacuation. Try calling the school. These villains even had something to counteract the sensors. Kaminari. You try contacting the school with your Quirk, too."
"Yes, sir," Kaminari obliges.
"Are you sure about this, Mr. Aizawa? Will you fight by yourself? With that many, even if you can erase their Quirks a frontal battle is inadvisable." Midoriya said with concern for his teacher. "Let me help. With my power, I can cover you even from here."
Aizawa's answer is immediate, "No."
"But," Midoriya tried to argue.
"Don't worry, I have this. You can't be a hero with just one trick," Aizawa states, and his words shut Midoriya up. Then Aizawa addresses his fellow pro and teacher. "I'm leaving the rest to you, Thirteen." The Space Hero nods as Aizawa makes a running leap down the stairway with his scarf in his grasp to take care of the approaching villains.
"Everyone follow me!" Thirteen orders the class while turning around to lead the class toward the exit. All the students followed except two.
Midoriya stared down the stairs where his teacher jumped down long enough to see Aizawa engage the first few villains before turning on the heel of his boots to make his way toward Ochaco and the rest of the class. He pauses in his steps when he turns around and see's Bakugo looking toward the steps leading to the fight.
His childhood friend looked calm, eerily calm despite the fact he was fuming like a volcano just seconds ago. It put Midoriya on edge being near what he knew was basically a ticking time bomb and If it weren't for how dire the situation was Izuku would have hesitated to address his childhood friend.
"We have to go now," Midoriya says with authority while taking a step closer to Bakugo.
His childhood friend turns his gaze from the stairs and looks right into his eyes. Midoriya nearly looked away despite how calm and stoic Bakugo was in fear of setting him off but he didn't. Midoriya knew his childhood friend respected strength above all else. It was because Bakugo respected his sister's strength that Izuku had become friends with him and It was because he was weak that Bakugo left. Showing weakness when you wanted Katsuki Bakugo to do something made you liable to getting flipped off.
So Midoriya held his gaze for what felt like a long time but was only seconds before Bakugo nodded at him and turned around to start jogging toward the class. Midoriya followed suit and both easily caught up to the class since it hadn't gone far without them.
Lida, who was hanging back to make sure no one lagged behind, saw them both and came closer to talk. "Good, your both here," Izuku said with relief. "A few more seconds back there and I would have come to get you myself."
"Sorry for making you worry," Izuku apologized to his friend. "I got caught up looking at the fight."
"Midoriya," Lida began in what the class was calling his lecture more as he started doing weird chopping motions with his hand. "A class re..."
"Izuku," the familiar voice of Ochaco joined the conversation and subsequently interrupted whatever lecture Lida had been about to give. She slowed her pace to fall behind the rest of the class and join Midoriya in the back. "I was wondering where you were. I thought you would be at the front since your fast but Bakugo just told me you were hanging in the back."
"Bakugo?" Izuku questioned while looking to the side where his friend was just moments ago and to his surprise his friend was not there. "I should have heard him move. How did he slip past my senses?" Izuku muttered quietly to himself.
Ochaco only heard Izuku's first question and didn't know it was rhetorical and decided to answer. "Yeah, he's nicer than I thought he would be but I guess I should have expected that considering you guys are so serious. I wonder if Todoroki's nice too?"
As Ochaco finished her musing, the same black portal that brought villains to the USJ swirled into being in front of Thirteen and the class bringing everyone stop.
"Nice to meet you. We are the League of Villains," Kurogiri said in a respectful tone of voice. "It may be presumptuous of us, but we have invited ourselves into the home of the heroes, U.A. High School, in order to have All Might, the Symbol of Peace, take his last breath."
"What?" Midoriya said in disbelief. The idea that someone could beat someone as powerful as All Might was so outlandish it might as well have been a fantasy.
Kurogiri continued, unbothered by the interruption. "I believe All Might should-,"
*Boom*
A massive explosion that nearly reached the entrance of USJ from the halfway point erupted in front of the class. Bakugo had taken to the air above the class and unleashed his strongest blast at the villain without a care in the world for him or anything he had to say.
"You talk too much scum," Bakugo said with clear disdain in his voice. The smoke from his explosion covered where the villain was and the villain himself was quiet so many assumed he was defeated. Bakugo however still watched the smoke with hawk-like vigilance.
"Holy crap Bakugo," Kirishima shouted excitedly while walking up to the boy in question and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You freaking one-shot him."
"That was dangerous," Thirteen chastised. "You can't just engage an unknown villain! I'm supposed to protect you and I can't do that if you jump between a villain and me."
"Shut up," Bakugo growled as continued to watch the smoke. Not letting his guard down for even a second.
"Everyone get back! The villain is still there," Izuku warned Thirteen and the class just as wispy tendrils of black snaked their way out from the smoke and around the entire class.
"Oh dear, that's dangerous," the warp villain spoke as the smoke started to clear, surprising Thirteen and Kirishima as they saw believed he was down for the count after the blast Bakugo released. The villain had surrounded half the class at this point and his voice was coming from nearly all sides of the group. "That's right. Even if you are students, you're excellent golden eggs."
Bakugo glared harder as he turned left and right to follow the villain's voice but didn't move to engage him again. It had shrugged off one of his strongest blasts so he decided to take the fight slowly and work out a weakness in the villain instead of charging in again.
As darkness began encompassing the entire class and strong wind started coming from nowhere. "Move away, you two!" Thirteen warns as he prepares his quirk to suck up the darkness.
"My job is to scatter you all and torture you to death!" The villain proclaims as he completely surrounds the students and teacher in his warp.
Within the darkness, as everyone was panicking Izuku grabbed Ochaco and pulled her into his arms to protect her as he prepared to blow away Kurogiri's body with a powerful photon blast. However, Izuku's plan bore no fruit as he and Ochaco were grabbed and tackled out of the warp by Lida.
"Ribbit…" Asui croaks out as she along with the panicked cries of everyone else that was stuck in the warp.
As Lida, Ochaco, and Izuku turned back to the voices of their classmates they saw a giant dark void, and then their voices stopped. The void disappeared and they were gone like they were never there in the first place.
"Everyone!" Lida cried out but there were no answers.
Izuku got back on his feet immediately and did not waste time. He prepared a blast in his hand and surveyed the area. He immediately spotted Shoji, Ashido, Sero, and Thirteen along with the villain Kurogiri in barely a second. Izuku nearly let his blast rip at the sight of the villain but held back and waited for a more opportune time to take the villain out. Like when Kurogiri was off guard so the villain couldn't warp his attack away. Ochaco and Lida were on their feet again as soon after him.
"Where did everyone go?" Ochaco asked out loud with clear worry in her voice. "Are they ok?"
"Don't worry," Izuku reassured her. "All the villain did was warp them away. Chances are they're fine. Right now we need to focus on everyone here and ourselves."
"Midoriya's right," Lida agreed with a nod. "Our classmates didn't get into U.A. on merit alone. They're strong, they can handle themselves. "
Ochaco looked back and forth between her two friends and then straight at the villain before nodding. Her hands clenched into fists and her eyes hardened.
Izuku seeing her resolve smiled and began walking toward the other students who didn't get warped and both Ochaco and Lida followed. "Lida, thanks for the save," Izuku said suddenly. While Lida saving Izuku prevented him from blowing away the villain and stopping the class from getting warped he still thought it necessary to thank him. After all, Lida didn't interrupt Izuku's plan because he knew of it but because he saw too friend in danger and wanted to save them. Something Izuku couldn't blame the other boy for.
"Yeah Lida," Ochaco chimed in and gave her own thanks. "You really saved our bacon there."
"It was my honor to help a fellow friend and classmates," Lida replied curtly.
A few steps later and they reached the group that hadn't been warped away. They were nervous or close to panicking, not knowing what to do, and worried for their classmates. Seeing their faces moved Izuku to decide to act like the class rep he was expected to be.
"Is everyone ok," Midoriya asked his classmates and got yeses and grunts of affirmation in return. "Good. Shoji, can you check if everyone is still in USJ?" Izuku asked his taller and silver-haired classmate who was using his quirk to create extra auditory organs to locate their classmates.
"Already on it," Midoriya's tentacled classmate replies. After a few seconds of waiting Shoji responds. "Everyone's scattered, but they're all in this building,"
Izuku nodded at the news, it wasn't the best but it also wasn't the worst. "Also good, that just means we need to take him down to act freely," Izuku said while looking at Kurogiri.
"Easier said than done," Sero chimed in. "Physical attacks can't hit him, and he can warp things...His Quirk's the worst!"
"Don't worry" Izuku says with focused calm. "I can already [Identify: Weaknesses] in our enemy." Izuku's comment makes the warp villain narrow his eyes a bit but nothing else.
Thirteen who had been in thought about a risky decision up until this point seemed to finally come to a conclusion. "Tenya Lida," he spoke.
"Yes?" Lida answered.
"I entrust this duty to you. Run to the school and tell them about what is happening here," the Pro Hero requests, shocking Iida, "The alarms are not sounding and our phones don't have a signal. The alarm system is based on infrared rays. Even though Eraser Head is erasing people's Quirks left to right, they are still not working, which means they must have someone with an interference Quirk who hid right when they arrived. It would be faster for you to run than for us to find that person."
"But it would be a disgrace as a hero to leave everyone behind–" Lida tries to argue only to be cut off by Izuku.
"Do as our teacher says Lida," Izuku orders as he steps up to Lida and places a hand on his shoulder while making over a dozen hard light weapons ranging from swords to spears to hammers float above and behind him. "The quicker you get outside the faster you can help everyone. It's possible there are alarms out there that the jammer can't reach. That's probably why the villains are only doing this attack inside."
"As long as you go outside, they won't follow you! You're the fastest in the class!" Sero says while getting ready to fight. "Blow away this fog with your legs and make it!"
"Use your Quirk in order to save others!" Thirteen pleads as Shoji strides forward, also taking a position to fight.
"Izuku and I can support you like we did in the cafeteria!" Uraraka treasures her friend.
Lida felt conflicted at that moment but decided quickly that perhaps this was indeed the only choice the class and he had. Even if they defeated the warp villain here, his classmates would still be spread out inside the massive facility and outnumbered by villains. Left with no other choice, Lida unleashed his motors and got ready to make the most important run in his life to date.
"You made the right choice Lida," Izuku says while keeping his hands on his friend's shoulder. "I'm sure even without the [Reinforcement] of your classmates you would have made the same choice." Lida found the way phrased his sentence a bit odd but did comment on it and simply nodded as Izuku let go of his shoulder. "Aim your attack bellow the eyes," Izuku shouted. "It's his only weak spot. Damage it and he'll be down for the count."
"Even if you have no other choice, are there really idiots who talk about their plans and strategies in front of the enemy?" The warp villain criticized the heroes as he extends his warp toward them. He had thought that Izuku's earlier words about finding a weakness were a bluff but it seemed he was wrong. Not that it matters, all Kurogiri would need to do was an attack with more caution than usual.
"We did it because it doesn't matter if we're found out! Black Hole!" Thirteen proclaims as he activates his quirk, sucking in the kurogiri's body.
"Black Hole, which sucks up everything and turns it all to dust," the warp villain says unusually calmly as he was being sucked up by Thirteen's quirk. "I see. That is an astounding Quirk. However, Thirteen, you are a hero who works to rescue people from disasters. As expected, your battle experience is less than half of that of a normal person."
He forms a warp in front of himself, transferring the Quirk as a warp appears behind Thirteen.
"A warp gate!" The Pro Hero finally noticed the warp behind them as their Quirk slowly turned themselves into dust, their costume crumbling bit by bit.
Or it would have if Izuku wasn't there. "Don't let up Thirteen," Izuku shouts as he creates a golden sphere around the warp. Simultaneously stopping Thirteen's quirk from tearing into its own user and putting a stop to Kurogiri's plan.
In response to the support, Thirteen nods and opens up more fingers on his astranought-themed costume and creates an even stronger vacuum that not only drags in the warp but Kurogiri's entire body.
"Ghhhh," the villain grunts as he struggles to both maintain the warp and resist the pull of Thirteens quirk. 'Dammit, the kids are more competent than I thought.' Kurogiri's eyes left Thirteen and fixed them on Izuku, who was struggling to maintain the barrier protecting Thirteen from his own vacuum. The weapons Izuku had made in preparation for a fight were being cannibalized one by one to create a new layer of hard light for the barrier. 'No matter, I can still turn this around. The kid may be smart but he clearly lacks battle experience.'
Kurogiri was getting closer inch by inch to the vacuum every second he stayed in the range of Thirteens quirk. It seemed like he was going to be defeated with no problems but then the unexpected happened. The suction that had threatened to tear apart the bubble construct Izuku made to protect Thirteen disappeared entirely and beneath the feet of Thirteen, a small swirling black mass formed between the pro hero's legs. The results we horrific, from the feet up Thirteen's body began being turned into dust. The effect nearly reached Thirteen's hip before his quirk turned off and the Kurogiri's turned off.
"H-He got me…" Thirteen gasped while falling face-first toward the pavement. Most of his legs were gone and bleeding profusely.
"Thirteen!" Ashido and Ochaco cried out while Sero and Shoji stared wide-eyed in shock
Izuku wanted to cry out as well but he kept himself together. He wouldn't let his emotion overrun him now or he wouldn't be able to generate the energy needed to get Lida through the door of USJ.
"Lida, on my signal run, Ochaco with me. We're going to get thirteen. Everyone else, jump in when you see a chance to take the villain down." Izuku orders with forced calm while he and Ochaco run toward Thirteen to help.
Once they reached their injured and unconscious teacher, Izuku creates clamps with his power to apply pressure to what was left of their teacher's bleeding stumps of leg. When enough pressure was applied to stop the bleeding, Ochaco wordlessly uses her quirk on him, removing his weight to make him easier and faster to carry Thirteen. When Ochaco slings the arm of her favorite hero over her shoulder and places a hand on his back, she stands up and begins retreating back to the rest of her shell-shocked classmates.
The procedure was sort, about twenty seconds but it was enough time for Kurogiri to have done something. He hadn't of course, which was why everything had gone so smoothly. The warp villain hadn't made his move when the teens were helping Thirteen because he was wary.
Despite the students seeing what happened to their teacher, Izuku stood facing Kurogiri without an ounce of fear or even malice, just calm. Like he was ready for whatever Kurogiri was going to do next. And after having his weakness exposed and his power conquered by the young hero once already, Kurogiri wasn't going to attack recklessly. Especially since he feared creating an opening for Lida to escape.
"I let someone else get hurt in front of me again," Izuku muttered to himself quietly. Though he only meant to say it to himself, his words were loud enough that his classmates heard him. "Even after getting stronger. Even after getting smarter. Even after all the training I still failed to protect, to do my job as a hero."
Izuku grit his teeth as the hatred of his own weakness, self-loathing, and desire for revenge broke the dam holding back the power he had been stockpiling since the beginning of the encounter with Kurogiri. The tremulous emotion that would have made Shadow Projection drown everything in darkness snuffed out Izuku's ability to create any more energy for his [Light Projection]. Leaving him only with the energy he currently had to make an opening for Lida and defeat the villain.
Midoriya's right hand began glowing a bright all-encompassing light that was accompanied by a harsh, skin-searing, heat. A heat that took all of Izuku's willpower not to release at full blast, lest he his own classmates with it.
"This time, I won't let them get away with it sis," Izuku promised himself as he stretched out his hand and lifted a single digit to the sky.
Then beyond all belief and logic of the villains and students, a sun was born above his hand. It wasn't very large, only a meter and a half in diameter, but its heat was intense. Scalding Kurogiri, despite how far away he was from Izuku but only felt like a particularly hot summer day to his classmates.
"Woah," Ashido said in awe. Her golden eyes were completely fixated on the celestial body.
Sero who was right next to her was more transfixed on their teacher's last wishes and saw Izuku's sun creation as the perfect distraction for Lida to slip by the villain. "Lida! What are you doing? This is your chance to go!"
Lida gritted his teeth and almost acquiesced to his peer's suggestion but shook his head. "No, I'm waiting for Midoriya's signal," he said despite not knowing exactly what the signal Midoriya was talking about was.
Sero looked at Lida in disbelief before pointing at the sun Izuku made. "That looks like a pretty big signal to me!"
"Stop shouting," Ochaco, who had laid Thirteen down behind her, hissed out to Sero. He gave her the same look he gave Lida prompting her to explain herself in whispers. "It's not the signal. What comes after it is."
Sero quirked his eyebrow at her in confusion before whispering back at her, "How do you know that? He didn't even say what the signal was."
Ochaco puffed up her chest with the little bit of pride and confidence she could muster in this dire situation before she replied. "Izuku was vague about what the signal was so that the villain wouldn't know when to expect Lida's dash for the exit. But I know Izuku, so I also know he would never put anybody between himself and danger." Ochaco looked right into Lida's eye and spoke without wavering. "That means the signal is when Izuku throws his attack."
...
Over with Kurogiri, the villain was steadily backing away from the orb of death the izuku was holding. If he wasn't charged with keeping people from escaping he would have teleported out of range of the attack already. The actual sun wasn't the problem for him, Kurogiri could easily warp an attack of that size without effort. The immense heat it emitted was the real problem.
The heat of the false sun could cause enough damage to put even the warp villain's mostly immaterial body out of commission for a while. Kurogiri considered warping it from a distance but discarded the idea as that would give his opponents too much time to react.
A bad idea considering the way his classmates were only sweating and not writhing on the ground from the heat. Hinting to Kurogiri that his young opponent's control over his quirk was nearly flawless.
That left only one option, warping the attack when it got close. It would damage his body quite a bit but if that completed the mission then so be it. When Kurogiri had steeled himself to take the attack head-on Izuku threw his attack.
'Fast,' the warp villain thought as the celestial body ate up the distance between him and his opponent.
Kurogir could feel the temperature climbing higher and higher as Izuku's attack came closer to him. It would reach him in mere seconds but Kurogiri didn't so much as flinch at the pain. After all, he had to stay focused on another person besides Izuku to make sure this mission was successful, and that person was...gone?
'Where'd the Ingenium look alike go?!' The answer to Kurogiri's question came in the form of a stiff breeze and it didn't take him even a second to figure out the runner had caused it. 'How is this possible?!' The warp villain thought in pure shock and awe. 'He's speed is comparable to All Might's, I knew these students were strong but this is ridiculous. At the speed he's running, I'll only have mere seconds to react before he reaches the exit. I have to stop him but I can't turn away from this attack or I'll get hit for sure.'
Kurogiri's mind was racing a mile a second, unsure of what to do until he realized that the same attack that was enabling the Ingenium look-alike to escape was actually his way to stop him. Until now, Kurogiri hadn't considered the option of warping the attack back to the sender because he believed Izuku's acute control over his quirk would just give the student another chance at attacking him instead killing or hurting the students.
The warp villain had guessed that even if Izuku could control who the heat of his attack affected that it wouldn't save the Ingenium look-alike if he ran directly into it. After all, Izuku's control clearly wasn't perfect if the heat, no matter how lessened, could still affect his classmates.
The best part for the villain was that he wouldn't even have to look to aim. After all, Lida only had one destination, the exit, and at the speed, he was going it would be near impossible for him to dodge or even slow down enough to avoid the sun.
With confidence in his plan, Kurogiri didn't wait for the miniature sun to come to him. He lunged at it while creating a warp not only on his body but at the exit to USJ. When the celestial body came in contact with Kurogiri's warp, Izuku really started pouring on the heat, causing the nomu's entire body to cry out in agony.
Never had Kurogiri felt such searing hot pain during his existence, it was like being stuffed in a smith forge with molten metal. So terrible and great was Kurogiri's pain that when the attack fully passed through the warps he completely shut down both warps to end the pain. But just as the villain planned and hoped, Izuku's attack ended up in the speeding Lida's path.
...
"Dammit," Lida cursed as he watched Izuku's attack pass through Kurogiri's portal and fly toward him at a speed much slower than his own but still fast in its own right. 'I can't stop, I'm going too fast, and I can't turn without going out of control.'
If Lida was going at his normal speed or even his Recipro Burst speed he could dodge the redirected attack. However, Izuku's boost to Lida made him faster than even the future turbo hero could properly control right now. As Izuku's sun got closer Lida started sweating but not from the heat. That wasn't an issue for Lida due to both Izuku's heat control and Lida's costume. What had Lida sweating was nerves and it was taking all of them not to falter in his stride and trip on his own feet when he was heading face-first toward a giant ball of plasma.
'Was Ochaco wrong about the signal, was Midoriya outsmarted... was I not fast enough?' The fear Lida felt charging helplessly toward his friend's redirected attack caused him to question what had gone wrong for him to have ended up in this situation. 'Is this how I die?'
Just as the false sun reached the arm's length of Lida and the young hero almost gave up hope of surviving, the unexpected happened. Izuku's sun split into two perfect halves and flew around Lida, avoiding him entirely and shooting straight toward a wide-eyed Kurogiri.
With the attack out of Lida's way, relief flooded his body and let him focus on the door that would lead to help. The door that was in his way. Lida knew he was going too fast to stop without smashing face-first into the metal door that sealed USJ from the outside and suspected that in the time it would take him to recover from the crash and open the door to get out the villain could be on him again. So that left him with only one choice.
'It's a dire situation and UA is a prestigious hero school that I'm sure deals with damage to their facilities all the time. One door will most certainly not be trouble for them I only hope whatever Midoriya did to me will help me pull this off.' After mentally justifying his action Lida pumps his leg and leaps into the air, his legs moved into a textbook example of a flying kick before they make contact with the door.
*Boom* *Screetch*
The sound of heavy impact and tortured metal rang out and light from outside was let in USJ and on the road back to the school a large dust trail was picking up.
...
Back with Kurogiri, the villain, while shocked by the sun splitting in two and heavily wounded by his attempt at warping the attack at close range. Still attempted to warp them away, this time from a distance from himself. Not trusting his weakened body to dodge properly on its own. However, Kurogiri did not even have time to complete the warp as the students he had been ignoring up until now finally decide to take action.
Ashido had flanked the warp villain's left side and now the pink-skinned girl was spraying her viscous acid at him in wide arcs, "Take this!"
Her attacks didn't reach Kurogiri but forced him to abandon warping the now split suns and physically dodge or else her acid would hit the metal brace holding his body together. As a result, Kurogiri's dodge led him right into Sero's tape quirk range, allowing the hero in training to land a strip on the only solid art of the villain's body.
Then Ochaco, who was right next to Sero, grabbed the tape attached to Kurogiri and immediately applied her quirk before running over and handing it off to Shoji. The masked white-haired boy used the impressive strength of his arms and tentacles to swing the warp villain's body in circles multiple times before finishing the swings off by launching the villain skyward. Near the ceiling where Kurogiri was headed, the split sun Midoriya had repositioned their so he could go all out with his final attack laid in waiting for Kurogiri to get in range.
When the warp villain came close to entering the range of the two hemispheres, Midoriya drew his guns from their holster, using their sights to help him aim the finishing move. When he got his sights locked on the sun, he waited for Kurogiri to enter its range before he concentrated the meager remains of his energy and released twin beams of light from the barrels of his guns. Piercing the plasma and causing a grand explosion of heat and light.
"EAHHH!" Kurogiri's cry of pain echoed throughout USJ before the villain warped out the remaining explosion. Undoubtedly going back to his comrades now that he could no longer fight.
"Jackpot," Izuku quipped while spinning his pistols on his index fingers before holstering them. Then confusion kicks in and Izuku furrows his brow. "Yet another phrase I don't know but say."
"We did it," Ochaco shouted while running toward her best friend with her arms outstretched. When she was within arms reach, instead of slowing down, jumped onto Izuku and wrapped her arms around his neck. "We too down our first villain,"
The young Midoriya caught her with relative ease but was forced to spin a bit not to get knocked over but held Ochaco firmly in his arms. "Yeah, we did," he whispered.
While Kurogiri's escape grated on Izuku to no end and fueled his feelings of inadequacy he started to feel better from Ochaco's hug. She was safe, he hadn't lost anyone again, they saved Thirteen and that was what was truly important.
Izuku's eyes widen in realization. "Oh god, Thirteen!"
Ochaco upon hearing Izuku's words, Ochaco eyes also widened. "Thirteen!"
Both friends immediately let go of each other and rushed back to their nearly legless teachers. Thirteen were alive but still unconscious. Not surprising considering it had barely been two minutes since he was injured. Despite how recently the space theme hero had been treated, it was very clear to the two that he need professional medical help fast.
"He looks really bad," Ochaco said with fear and sadness in her voice. She looked away from her favorite her to Izuku and asked a very heavy question. "Can you heal him?
Izuku drew in a very deep breath while gathering his thoughts slowly before answering solemnly. "I don't know," Ochaco looked ready to say something but Izuku continued speaking before she could say anything. "I've never told you this about my power but it draws energy from my positive emotions. Once my emotions go haywire I can't use my powers very well or at all sometimes. I was able to use it when Thirteen got hurt because I was saving up energy from the moment Lida saved us till the end of the fight." The breath Izuku drew in earlier was released as a sigh.
Emotions he had been stifling for a while, were finally being released now that the fighting was over and help was on the way. All it took was one step into the darkness for Izuku to start tumbling.
𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝘁
"But I used it all in the fight with the villain and with how screwed up my emotions are right now, I can barely heal a paper cut much less someone's legs."
𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗟𝗼𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴
"It's pathetic right? I have powers strong enough to imitate a sun but I get my feelings hurt and bam, useless."
𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-
"Izuku, what are you talking about?" Ochaco questioned with confusion and disbelief evident in her tone and face.
"Huh," Izuku replies with just as much confusion. "Did you not hear what I just said?"
Ochaco tilts her head in a display of even more confusion. "Yeah but what you said doesn't make any sense. You can't be useless, you just saved us and defeated the villain. Because of you, everyone can get help now"
"Everyone did that," Izuku replied weakly.
"On your instructions," She added. When she saw Izuku about to deny her words, she continued before he could get a word in. "You saved me, back at the entrance exam, you saved me at the Quirk Apprehension Test, heck, you're the reason why I'm still trying to be a hero."
'Quirk Apprehension test? Reason for being a hero?" Izuku questioned in thought. He had no idea how he was responsible for her passing. He hadn't helped her during the test at all. Her results were the results of her own hard work. Izuku was even more clueless about him being the reason she wanted to be a hero. She signed up for U.A. before she even met him and never showed any doubt in her path to heroism around him at all.
Ochaco read her friend's confusion pretty easily and sighed. It would seem she would need to spell it out for it. "I only made Tenth place in the quirk apprehension test because you trained me on that beach. If it weren't for that I would definitely have placed eleventh or twelfth. As for being my reason for pursuing heroism, well..."
Ochaco let a shaky smile form on her face as she remembered the then entrance exam. "Let's just say nearly being crushed at the tender age of fifteen really makes you reconsider your life choices. Especially when you have a good contact in the modeling industry." She took out the Boss's business card from one of the pockets on her costume and presented it to Izuku who dumbly took it.
"You see, I decided to become a hero for money. My parents aren't very well of and work a lot. I knew that heroes made a lot of money and decided to try being one to give them a more comfortable lifestyle."Ochaco rubbed the back of her head in a bit of shame at admitting her unheroic motivations out loud.
"Then we did that modeling gig, and made loads of money easily, and safely. It kinda made me question being a hero in the first place when being a model would help me make money faster and safer." Ochaco looks away from Izuku and into the air wistfully as if remembering something vividly.
"That day, I almost chose to go to a normal school instead of UA. But then I remembered the time you saved me. When everyone else ran away when I felt all hope was lost and thought 'this is the end'. I remember you being there to help me, heal me, talk to me in the darkness, and how I felt like everything would be ok." Done recalling the memory, Ochaco looks down toward a slightly flustered and dumbfounded Izuku before continuing.
"So I thought, 'If I become a hero like him could I make someone else feel what I felt that day, could I be just like Izuku?' I don't remember exactly what answer I gave myself that day but from that point on, I decided to be a hero, one that isn't just in it for money but to give people the same feeling you gave me, hope." She hugs him and It takes a few seconds but eventually, he reciprocates her gesture of kindness and support.
"That's why I don't believe you when you say you're useless or even that you can't help Thirteen." Ochaco separates from her friend and stares him dead in the eyes. "The Izuku I know, the hero I believe in, wouldn't let something like his mood stop him from saving someone!"
The shock Izuku felt go through his body at her words was almost indescribable. But one feeling stood out the most. Shame. Shame at how he was acting despite her belief in him. Shame at how he had given up before even trying. 'Why am I accepting failure without even trying? Is it because I really can't use my power in this situation? No, it's because I'm drawing power the wrong way.'
In response to this realization, Izuku let himself feel many emotions. Emotions that use to torture him at night and emotions that kept him going every day. Emotions like doubt, assurance, emptiness, happiness frustration, inadequacy, hope, helplessness, fear, serenity, guilt, and loneliness. He let himself feel all these things and more.
The guilt he felt breaking his sister's toy and the happiness he felt when she forgave him.
The fear of falling from cloud level and the happiness he felt doing it with Ochaco.
The contentment he felt playing and relaxing in the forest with Izuki and Kacchan and the loneliness he felt when he realized they would never play together again.
Izuku accepted all these things as good regardless of how painful or happy the memories were. These memories were proof that his sister existed, that Katsuki was his friend and that his sister did love him. And just as he expected, positive energy flowed from every emotion and every memory like a raging river. Pushing [Light Projection] to heights of power Izuku never thought possible without gaining more levels.
"I knew you could do it," Ochaco cheered and then pat Izuku on the pack.
"Whoa, he glowing," Sero said behind them in awe at the golden flame-like aura that had enshrouded Izuku's form. "It's like he's a super Saiyan."
"So romantic," Ashido chirps in a lovestruck voice. Completely ignoring Izuku's transformation to focus on the blooming romance between the two.
At hearing their voices, Ochaco whirls around at a speed that would give a normal person whiplash and look red-faced at her unnoticed audience. "You guys were listening in this whole time!"
"I'm sorry for the breach of privacy," Shoji says kindly. "Though in our defense, you weren't being very decreet."
Ochaco buries her face in her palms in red-faced shame. "Kill me now."
"Thank you Ochaco," Izuku says suddenly. His words make the girl in question peek out from her palms to look at him but not raise her head from her palms entirely. Which was fine since Izuku was sure if it wasn't for the power he was feeling right now he would be doing the same. "For believing in me."
"Your the one who made me believe," was her response.
Izuku smiled at her before he turned around and got to work healing Thirteen's legs. With all the power and focus he could muster he made bone, muscle, blood vessels, skin, and everything in between regenerate. The process was slow but visible and after watching the process for a few seconds, Izuku calculated that at the rate the healing was going it would be ten minutes to regenerate one leg, twenty for both, and five to six minutes to stabilize their teacher enough to be in the safe zone until real medical help arrived.
Izuku was considering just stabilizing Thirteen so that he could leave fast to gather his scattered classmates. After all, some like Koda and Mineta weren't really true fighters like others in the class and would be the ones most like to get hurt when fighting ruthless bloodthirsty villains.
Just as Izuku almost made up his mind a single voice changed it all.
"Do not fear young heroes. Why? Because I am here!"
-----
A/N: And CUT! Dam my wrist hurt. 10k words in no joke. I almost cut this chapter short just to spare my wrist from the torture but I didn't. I wanted something big to show for dropping out for like two weeks. The wait for the next chapter should be shorter than this one since it'll be 90% action, 5% plot, and five percent memes.
Thank you Goldenswiftreader, Sodara, P3T, real777, Lyos, and recon100035 for the stone's last chapter. I really appreciate the support.
Anyways that's all from the author, peace out everyone.