Chapter 34: Heroics – A Change of SchedulesNotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"Uh... this is unexpected."
Toru would have agreed with Ochaco's comment if Mina hadn't made sure to tell her about Midori's prediction earlier that morning. Though seeing the girls of their sister class already in the changing room surely felt like a novelty.
"Hey! Nice of you to join us!" Tokage welcomed from behind her locker's door, a full grin on her face.
"Hi!" Pony waved her hand, soon joined by the rest.
"Hi!" Mina jumped in, taking Toru along.
"Hi, girls, come on in," Kendo smiled, gesturing with her head, "don't just stand there."
"We don't have all day, ribbit," Tsu pointed out, making them remember Aizawa's stiffness on punctuality.
"Ah, yes!" Ochaco skipped to her usual locker.
The others followed, Kyoka being last to close the door behind them with her Quirk.
"I must say I'm surprised to see you all here too," Yaomomo said as they all changed into their costumes as fast as possible. "You're not usually supposed to have heroic training on Mondays, are you?"
"Your memory did not fail you, no," Ibara nodded as her vines struggled to close her locker in another attempt at subtle movement. "Vlad King informed us of a change in our schedule just this morning."
"He said it's a very new thing," Komori spoke, her voice lively, but a bit on the low side.
"Oh, you too?" Ochaco interjected. "We also had some lessons moved around, for some reason."
"I can think of one," Kyoka interjected, eyeing the pinkette.
"Yes! I knew it!" Mina raised her arms in victory. "Midori was right!"
"Mm?" Yui tilted her head to the side questioningly.
"What'd you mean?" Tokage translated.
Yaomomo sighed. "Izuku thinks that our teachers may have decided to start training our classes together, despite nothing of the sort having happened to any other Hero Course year before ours."
"Leave it to Mr. Aizawa to change the tune to surprise us," Kyoka huffed.
"They must have their good reasons to," Kendo shrugged, understanding.
"A greater variety of opponents may let us expand our limited horizons," Yanagi said as she wore her mask.
"Uh, maybe it's just easier to have more of us together now that we're sharing dorms?" Toru tried, unsure, as she put on her gloves.
"Eeh, I doubt that, there is forty of us-" Komori started, being interjected by Pony.
"Forty- Um, forty-one!"
"Mm," Yui hummed along.
"Ah, yes, forty-one of us. Isn't that harder to keep eyes on?" the mushroom girl asked.
"That is true," Ibara conceded.
"Maybe they just want us to beat the shit out of each other some more," Tokage grinned.
Mina gave her a challenging look. "The tournament wasn't enough for you, Mosshead?"
"I'm ready whenever you are, Pinky!" she quipped in response.
"Girls..." Yaomomo and Kendo sighed at the same time, making the duo giggle.
"It may work to let out some steam, ribbit. We didn't get too heated recently, but we were just too busy because of the coming internships," Tsuyu shared her idea.
"Let's just hope for the best," Kyoka let out.
"Yeah, let's just do our best!" Ochaco smiled, translating the shrug into an encouragement.
They moved to leave the room, exchanging compliments and questions about each other's costumes, as many had never seen those of the members of their sister class.
Pony chuckled happily, "This is new! There's so many of us now! "
"Thirteen... What a coincidence..." Yanagi muttered, thoughtful.
"I wonder if the boys are having problems, isn't there too many of them now?" Ochaco wondered.
"I was sitting there!" Kaibara yelled.
"And now I am, Drill!" Awase shouted back. "Can't you wear your shoes while standing?!"
"Just watch it dude, you almost pushed me to sit on Mineta!" Kaminari retorted.
"Nope, you definitely have already," the smaller teen groaned.
"Pay attention to your tail, Rat Monkey!" Kamakiri yelled ad Ojiro, who immediately tried to apologize before taking offense at the nickname.
Shishida and Ida collided as they both turned, their lockers being side by side.
"Ah, my apologies. I didn't account for that, Sir Ida."
"I would like to apologize, Shishida, that was terribly clumsy of me!"
Sero and Honenuki met gazes as they wore their helmets. Without saying anything, they both nodded and stepped out.
"What a mad banquet of darkness..." Tokoyami walked away, unaware of the extra passenger taking it easy (and avoiding being stepped on) inside his shadow. Kuroiro just grinned and let himself be carried to safety.
"Manly!" Kirishima and Tetsutetsu shouted as they grinned at each other.
Bakugo grumbled something about everybody being fucking, noisy, space-stealing idiots.
Nirengeki, on Izuku's side, sighed. "This is going to be a recurring thing, isn't it?"
"Kill me," Shinso groaned.
Izuku just chuckled.
The densely packed spread of factories of Field Gamma was one of Izuku's favorite training spots for a couple of different reasons.
For one, it was probably the best place for some good parkour, Quirked or otherwise.
For two, it was the place where he'd started to uncover [One For All]'s secrets, so long ago. His first talk with Banjo hadn't really been a talk per se, but he remembered the encounter fondly, if only for Hitoshi's and Ochaco's help.
For three, the mazelike complex of structures made it incredibly easy to use it as a hiding place, and there were many spots safe from the almighty eye of Nezu's cameras.
But today Izuku was simply here to follow a lesson, so he took his mind off the rest.
Looking at the group of students from the side, he could see that there were some weird glances being thrown around. The classes were starting to get used to civil cohabitation in the dorms, but training together was another matter because of the established rivalry. Even those that were for friendship over competitiveness were interested in proving themselves in an environment that wasn't as "restrictive" as the Sports Festival had been.
"Your objective won't simply be high up, so pay attention to your surroundings! Got it?"
The group responded with a collective confirmation, more or less enthusiastic, as All Might finished explaining the exercise: a typical rescue race in the metallic maze. Trying to ease the students back into their training after the week-long absence from their curriculum was good and making it a contest would make sure that none would hold back.
"Since this is supposed to be a fair competition, we shall make things interesting by making some groups with similar capabilities. Your homeroom teachers were so kind as to help me arrange the groups, ahah. Let's see..." The man looked up at a list, choosing. "We'll start with those of you capable of flight! Uraraka, Bakugo, Midoriya, Tokage!"
Ochaco stepped forward without wasting a second, practically jumping in place, followed by a grumpier Bakugo who was preparing his palms.
Mina's cheer was the first to be heard. "Oooh, good luck guys!".
"Go Set!" Kinoko encouraged the 1-B student as the lizard girl grinned competitively.
"Excuse me, All Might," Izuku raised his hand, "if we're choosing the students with flight capabilities, we're missing some."
Eyes moved on him as the teacher raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Please, elaborate, young Midoriya."
Izuku nodded, raising a hand's worth of fingers. "There are five more students who should be able to fly, though I understand if they don't feel comfortable to yet: Todoroki, Tokoyami, Tsunotori, Yaoyorozu, and Yanagi."
Some voiced different variations of a "What?", letting more voices flood him with questions.
"Me?!" Pony cried out, startled by what she had understood.
"Since when can Tokoyami fly?" Hanta asked, reasonably confused.
"Todoroki flies too?!" Denki pointed at the stone-faced teen.
"I've never seen Yanagi fly!" Tetsutetsu exclaimed before his mouth could be covered by Itsuka's hand.
"Should I?" Momo looked as if she had understood, but shared the uncertainty the rest of them did.
"Students, one at a time!" the Hero thundered, making them all shut their mouths. "Now, Young Midoriya, would you please explain your reasoning?"
"It's simple," he smiled kindly, but firmly, while looking at the others. "Todoroki could propel himself with his fire, much like Bakugo does. It would be hard to balance, as it can only come from his left side, but I'm sure he could manage. Making ice ramps should ease part of the directing from the start."
"That sounds hard to control," Rikido commented, a bit worried.
He shrugged in response. "Endeavor can, so why shouldn't he?"
Shoto broke his stoic expression for a moment, letting out a snort and shrugging shortly after. "Yes. Why not. I'm in."
"Yaoyorozu is easier, as you've all already seen it too," Izuku continued. "She can easily create a jetpack and all the fuel she needs."
"Does that count?" Nirengeki asked, though he was trying not to sound opposed to the idea, only doubtful. "Anybody could fly with the right support item."
"Why wouldn't it? Yes, anybody could fly with a support item, but is there anybody else who can create them on the spot and fuel their means of transport virtually endlessly? It would be illogical not to make use of every aspect of our Quirks." Izuku responded, going for an Aizawa impression that had even All Might stifle a chuckle.
His words stopped any more questions about the heiress from coming up, the girl herself then nodding and producing the aforementioned item.
"Hatsume's Directional Jetpack, fully operational. I believe I find myself in agreement, All Might, sir."
He continued. "Tokoyami, you said you managed to make progress with my suggestion when you were with Hawks, right?"
"Indeed," Fumikage nodded, "we have been freed from the shackles that bounded our soles to mortal soil. We may now soar like a fallen angel whose wings have yet to fall."
"Did you get any of that?" was probably the question in most of the student's minds.
"Yeah, we can fly," [Dark Shadow] appeared, looking right at him with those flashy eyes of theirs. "We wanted to surprise you, but to hell with it. Let's win this race."
"Okay, but what about Yanagi?" Kuroiro asked, pointing behind himself with his thumb. "We've been in the same class for a month and we've yet to see anything like that."
"Is it another one of your strange ideas?" Kamakiri grumbled.
"You could say that," Izuku chuckled, turning towards the girl. "Yanagi, your Quirk allows you to telekinetically manipulate objects and people. You clearly have a weight limit, but if you were able to lift Uraraka during the second event then you should be able to fly yourself without a problem. There is no reason why you shouldn't use that power to levitate. If you can't control yourself directly for some reason, you should at least be able to use your Quirk on your shoes or your costume. The same reasoning still applies."
Reiko looked at him with curious eyes. She closed her eyes and, after a moment, her whole body started to soar, gently hovering a foot above the ground. She didn't express as much surprise as her classmates, but it was evident in the lighter tone of the voice.
"It seems you were right, Midoriya. I sorely lack the experience to compete with more experienced fliers but, nonetheless, I shall strive to reach the goal."
Izuku smiled as Setsuna joined Reiko, detaching herself from her feet to "stand" on the same level.
Finally, he turned to Pony, switching to English to simplify the exchange. "Tsunotori, you seem to be able to control your horns at will... a lot like Hawks does with his feathers." That part always made people go wide-eyed. "If your horns are strong enough to push people back, they should work for keeping them up too."
"Wait, that's right! I've used it to attack before, and I can send people away really fast with it." Pony seemed surprised for more than one reason, but she quickly brought a hand to her chin, looking down in thought. "How should I go about it?"
"You could either grab onto them, or balance yourself by placing them under your feet, perhaps under a board for increased stability," he offered. "Why don't you try?"
"Wait! I didn't get any of that, but her horns break super easy!" Tetsutetsu interjected, making some sigh at the admittance of his less than passable language skills.
"No. Midoriya's not wrong," Neito, who had understood everything, countered, probably with a hint of displeasure. Izuku knew he could get over it if it was for Pony's sake. "The keratin may not be as resistant as your steel or Kamakiri's blades, but that doesn't matter if she's using it to lift herself up."
"But what if she's targeted and they break? Wouldn't she fall?" Tsuburaba, being the first to overcome his astonishment at Monoma agreeing with somebody from 1-A, asked.
"Just like anybody else would when hit from a distance and losing their focus," the blonde huffed. "And don't underestimate Tsunotori. She knows what she's doing."
"Thank you!" Pony seemed heartened by their words, showing a big smile as she immediately activated her Quirk to move herself around. The process wasn't as smooth as Reiko's, but she was flying.
All Might let out a hearty laugh, clapping at the spectacle as his content tone filled their ears.
"Great job! It's good to see you all improving before my very eyes! I can see you're eager to participate, but we should keep the groups smaller to prevent accidents of sorts. You five can go next in the second group of flyers!"
"Uhm, sorry, I forgot one last thing," Izuku added, sheepish again, making the teacher shake his head with a chuckle and tell him to go on. "Technically, Monoma could do everything I've said if he wanted to... and it could be useful for him to try to get used to this part of our Quirks too, as he may have to fly by himself in the future."
His words caused many to either huff or nod in agreement, but none was more stunned than the blonde himself. He looked at Izuku with a weird expression, unable to understand him as he wished to.
"Young Monoma, would you like to try as well?"
Getting out of his trance after a few seconds, Neito stepped forward. "Yes, sir. I will try with [Poltergeist], if that's not a problem."
"In that case, does someone feel like trying their luck against group one?"
"I believe I shall," Tokoyami stepped forward, [Dark Shadow] already enveloping his form as it let out a "Fumiii, I wanted to wiiin."
Izuku chuckled to himself. Maybe Phantom Thief wouldn't join them for their next training session, but his curiosity would only grow. Under that layer of spite and rivalry, the true Neito wasn't someone who would discard opportunities to better himself. Someone who thrived on the power of others couldn't be so picky as to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Now though, Izuku had a race to win. A strand of [Blackwhip] and some [Float] wouldn't be too much, and he could make it "fair", for now.
Pony couldn't believe that she had won!
Of course, she wasn't one to disparage herself for no reason. Her Quirk control was great, as back in America she had been freer to use it, unlike her Japanese classmates. That little advantage didn't feel so little now!
Finding All Might had been easy enough from up high, and nobody had managed to outpace her. Yaoyorozu's jetpack and Reiko's Quirk (even in Monoma's hands) were slower, and Todoroki had missed the target, shooting himself too much to the right before recovering. She did have some trouble stopping herself during the landing, sure, but it had all worked out in the end.
Pony knew how fast her horns could go, but she didn't expect the sensation of flight to be so freeing! Now she could understand why Star and Stripe loved to stand on planes in so many of her photo albums.
"Great job, Pony," Neito praised her as he landed last, behind Todoroki and Yanagi.
"I must admit, you certainly surprised me," Yaoyorozu said, amused. "I think it's safe to say your timing could be almost on par with Midoriya's."
The girl smiled widely at the comment. She hadn't timed anything, of course, but she had seen the green-haired boy go faster than a bullet, so she knew it was cause for celebration.
"Indeed. Setsuna might have just lost her place as fastest in the class," Reiko mused, her eyes showing a hint of mirth.
All Might cut in their discussion with his bombastic tone, and Pony gladly took in his words, even if they got her thinking.
She was getting better, they all were, but Midoriya was the one coming up with the idea for flight. It was something so simple, but she had never thought of it, instead using her horns mainly as a strong weapon that could have any gun beat. Was she lacking in lateral thinking, or was she just in need of new ideas?
As they stepped down to let the people in group three have their turn, she approached Yaoyorozu. She should know about those training times that Setsuna and Itsuka talked about, right?
Shoda let out a breath as he put his hands on his legs to try and keep them from shaking. Midoriya's suggested move could work wonders, but it took a toll on his body.
- Six times was pushing it, - he mentally took note as he regained his breath. - I should probably ask for a support item to reinforce my legs or soften the landing. -
"Man, that was amazing!" Tetsutetsu screamed as he arrived, him and Kirishima having left a trail of finger-large holes in the towering structure they were climbing.
"For real, you were practically flying!" the red-haired loudmouth added, his fist clenched and his grin wide.
"T-Thanks," he responded as Sato, Bondo, and Komori caught up, the latter two having made their own trails of fungi and glue.
"Young Shoda, I must say I'm impressed. With those moves you could have easily raced in group three or four!" All Might praised with surprise.
"It's the result of my time with Airjet," he explained, as the Buster Hero had in fact helped him perfect the move.
An application of [Twin Impact] used in reverse, not to send an item far from him, but to push himself with added force. Kicking the ground, to jump or just to start a sprint, technically counted as an impact apparently, and by timing another jump in the right way he could cross distances that were completely unattainable before. He could probably go a bit further than one of Bakugo's explosion-powered leaps.
There was only a slight problem to the process: his legs weren't really made to take that much of a hit. He had also gathered his fair share of bruises during his period of trial and error, though thankfully Airjet had saved him from anything worse than a bump.
"I'm not confident on being able to use it in quick succession, but I'll keep improving!" he said, now more confident than ever before.
"That's what I like to hear! You all did very well, and I like how you adapted to cover your weak points! Let's go back to your classmates now, we've got a lesson to end!"
Shoda nodded, happy to take the stairs down and reminding Kirishima and Tetsutetsu that throwing themselves from the tower just because All Might did wasn't a good idea.
"Man, I've really gotta work on my mobility," Eijiro grunted as he took off his shoulder straps.
"Bro, tell me about it," Tetsutetsu shook his head.
"You'll just have to make up for it with reconnaissance," Tokoyami suggested as he carefully put on his tie.
"You two just have to improve your reflexes. Copying my finger drills was a good idea though," Kaibara added.
"At least you haven't turned your whole body into steel this time, Tetsu," Rin grinned jokingly, making the grey-haired teen grunt louder.
"We're not falling behind!" Kaminari said, trying to cheer himself up. "Sero, Shoji, and Shinso won!"
"Well, that's kind of my playing field," Sero grinned, showing off his elbow with a wide motion.
"Staying airborne certainly helped you," Honenuki said, as he and Ida had been mostly relegated to the ground and Ashido, though nimble, wasn't as fast. Kuroiro had come close to topping him, but All Might had been standing on a sunlit spot, so Sero had been lucky.
"It was very close," Shoji curtly said. The Hero hadn't stayed in the same spot for the members of the fifth group, and they had looked for him in the deepest parts of the metallic maze. Kendo and Kamakiri had reached the objective just a few second behind the giant, while Hagakure and Kaibara had been slower, getting caught in a couple of small passages.
Shinso just opted to stay silent. His group had been the seventh, the same as Kaminari and Koda, and they had run with no real Quirk aid. Fukidashi had used his power to give himself more speed, but doing so had resulted in him striking a pole. Kodai had reached the goal in second place, a few steps behind the boy, only taking care of obstacles that wouldn't undermine entire structures.
"It was a great competition! Wouldn't you say so as well, Midoriya?" Ida proclaimed before turning to their representative.
The moment of silence caught Eijiro's attention, as it was unusual for the greenette not to answer. He wasn't rude like that.
"Midobro?" he called, turning to the other side of the locker room.
Midoriya was standing, already changed, in front of a wall covered only by a sheet with the rules of conduct of the room. The boy was frowning at the sheet of paper.
"Something wrong with the rules?" Mineta asked, tilting his head behind his locker.
"Very," Midoriya grumbled, raising a fist and knocking on the wall with his knuckles. "Jiro, can you hear me?"
Kyoka liked how her outfit was easy to change, and her new additions hadn't made it worse. Nothing was overly complicated or cumbersome, although the weapon she had yet to try added a certain weight to her back. Moreover, having two additional limbs to grab her change of clothes and toss things in the locker surely helped.
She listened to the small talk as she hummed a tune in her head, the conversation moving from Tsunotori's (who liked to be called Pony, but she still needed to adjust to that) win to the one in the fourth group.
"I still can't believe Tsuburaba lost," Tokage commented with her signature grin.
"Eh, it's on him for not taking it seriously. I'm sure he thought he had it in the bag," Kendo shrugged.
"Well, he wasn't flying, but his Quirk was good for that situation. Those platforms seemed super useful," Toru pointed out.
"He just hadn't taken Tsu into account," Ochaco giggled as their classmate let out a pleased ribbit.
[Solid Air] had been great to create platforms to climb and cross obstacles with, which had made him faster than Ojiro, Rin, and Shishida. But nobody had expected Tsu to have that much power in her legs, as she hadn't shown that kind of power before. How the hell had she reached the top of that tower in only three leaps?
- Mirko's training must have been crazy... -
"Let's not make the mistake of forgetting about Ibara," Reiko said. "Not only did she win, but she also cleared the path for her competition."
"Yeah. Thanks, Shiozaki," Kyoka chuckled.
"It was not my intention to do so, but I am pleased to have given assistance nonetheless," the girl in question responded, closing her blouse.
She shook her head lightly at that. The [Vine] user had moved in the steel jungle as if it was a walk in the park, seemingly aware of every foothold (or vinehold?) and removing every obstacle that would have impeded her passage. Kyoka had opted to accept the unintentional kindness and follow her on the way up, coming to a nice second place. Awase and Mineta had wasted too much time creating handholds while Aoyama, despite a good start, had taken himself out of the race.
The conversation was moving on as a knock came from the other side of the wall, along with Green's voice, "Jiro, can you hear me?"
She frowned a bit, wondering what could be so important that it couldn't wait until after they were done. Midoriya had some sort of sense enhancement as well, didn't he? He would probably hear her if she got closer to the source of the noise.
She stepped away from her locker and approached the wall, touching it with [Earphone Jack].
"I can, Green. What is it?" she asked, sensing the girls behind her turning as well.
"Well, I think I've found a peeping hole," the boy answer, his tone serious.
Her eyes widened as she covered her sports bra with her arms. "WHAT?!" she cried out, making everybody else jump abruptly for the surprise.
"Yeah, it's covered by a poster, but there's just a bit of light passing through. I haven't uncovered it, of course!" the boy quickly added, and she could just picture him raising his shaking hands defensively. "I can attest nobody here saw it before!" he seemed to try and pacify her.
"Where the hell is it?" she grumbled.
Green continued before she had a chance to add more curses. "It's probably covered behind something on your side too. Can you find it and ask Momo to plug it? I'll keep it covered from here, just to be safe."
Kyoka blinked, fixing her eyes on the code of conduct poster before turning to the heiress with a determined anger in her eyes.
"Girls, make sure to be covered. Yaomomo, make us some plaster," she spat out, the others immediately moving away and speeding up the process. As she explained, their looks went from spooked to disgusted, from angry to surprised.
"Thanks, Green, we'll take care of it," she spoke to the wall as Momo started to fill the damn hole.
"Anytime," he quickly answered, and she sensed he had left the spot.
Her sigh was followed by a slow reigniting of the conversation, though it now had moved onto asking Midnight to investigate the incident.
- At least no one's seen anything... Not that he'd have much to see in my case. -
Kyoka frowned and turned back to her locker, trying to keep her mind away from those thoughts. She opted to think about the boy who kept being the center of every event. Was it normal how he stood out?
Yes, because he seemed to be gathering them all around himself. She couldn't deny his charisma, how he genuinely seemed to like helping others at every twist and turn.
And no, because how likely was it that he would always be there, in the right place at the right time?
Maybe it was due time to start training her reconnaissance skills for real.
Notes:
And this is were things start to change during classes. There will be a few of them, mostly to show the students' progress and how their relationships are slowly evolving (hopefully for the better). Let's see what Aizawa and Kan can think of to make them go to hell and back. Isn't training fun?
The only thing I'm a tad unsure about it not having Pony being able of flight from the start, but since we don't know anything from 1-B's first months and I needed something that Izuku could give her, that's how it goes.
But on the topic of Izuku giving suggestions... Up next, a new gym session!
If anybody is curious about the groups and placements of the runs (and can't be bothered to find it all in the chapter), here they are:
Group 1: 1 Midoriya, 2 Tokage, 3 Bakugo, 4 Tokoyami, 5 Uraraka
Group 2: 1 Tsunotori, 2 Yaoyorozu, 3 Yanagi, 4 Todoroki, 5 Monoma
Group 3: 1 Hanta, 2 Kuroiro, 3 Ashido, 4 Ida, 5 Honenuki
Group 4: 1 Asui, 2 Tsuburaba, 3 Ojiro, 4 Shishida, 5 Rin
Group 5: 1 Shoji, 2 Kendo, 3 Kamakiri, 4 Hagakure, 5 Kaibara
Group 6: 1 Shiozaki, 2 Jiro, 3 Awase, 4 Mineta, 5 Aoyama
Group 7: 1 Shinso, 2 Kodai, 3 Kaminari, 4 Koda, 5 Fukidashi
Group 8: 1 Shoda, 2 Tetsutetsu, 3 Kirishima, 4 Bondo, Sato, 6 Komori