Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya sits with his legs crossed on the cool sand of the now-clean Dagobah Municipal Beach, his back to the wooden gazebo, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. In, and out. In, and out. He still can’t believe he just finished U.A.’S ENTRANCE EXAM! Except… he probably failed, didn’t he. He didn’t manage to get any villain points. Deep breath. In, and out. N-! In, and out. After the exam, he ended up stumbling down an internet rabbit hole of how people with strength-augmentation quirks control their power. Simple augmentation quirks like that are the most common, after all. Deep breath. In, and out. In, and Ni-! out. Apparently, one of the most common ways to get that power under control for young children was to meditate, and try and channel the power throughout one’s whole body without letting it escape. Deep breath. Nine! In, and out. In, and…

“Nine!” a voice yells, as Izuku’s eyes shoot open. This… is not Dagobah beach. It’s not a beach at all, from the looks of it. What it is is a room, floating through a timeless, featureless void of black smog. Izuku sits in the middle of a ring of eight thrones, with a white haired, thin man leaning down in front of him. “Wow!” the man says. “We didn’t expect you to get here so quickly!” 

“I knew Toshi picked well!” the sole woman in the room exclaimed from her chair, lounging in it with her legs strewn over the armrest. 

“He’s got spunk!” a bald man yells from his chair, leaning forward with his hand on his chin, elbow resting on his knee. “Hey kid, want another quirk?” 

“Sensei, he can’t take another quirk yet,” another man (this one attempting to bring back the high collar like Best Jeanist) tells the man. “Back me up here, Fourth.” 

“Do you want a form of limited precognition?” a man with a vicious scar asks as the collared man facepalms. 

“We’re not giving him any quirks!” the first man declares as Izuku surveys the rest of the room. Two people are standing with their foreheads to the wall, decidedly ignoring Izuku, while a wispy cloud of smoke… waves at him?

“Anyways, this is great that you’re here! We can warn you!” the first man tells Izuku, instantly dragging Izuku’s attention back to him.

Warn me of what? Izuku worries, only for no words to come out. What the… he looks down, only to see his body is entirely composed of black smoke. He begins hyperventilating, only for no air to come out, pushing him deeper into his state of panic.

“-ne! Nine! Kid, breathe with me!” a voice yells in his ear, cutting through the mental fog. 

I-I-

“Calm down, Nine,” the woman says again. “You’re safe with us.” 

“Yeah, and don’t worry about yer body not being here!” the bald man exclaims, only to be whacked over the head by the high-collared man. 

“Don’t remind him!” the young man chides his senior.

I-I’m sorry, Izuku apologizes. F-for… For what? Being such a useless Deku? Izuku internally berates himself. 

“Nothing to apologize for, Nine,” the first man says, as he stands up to his full height. “We should have explained better!” he exclaims, gesturing around him. “Welcome… to One for All!” 

...What?  

“Let me explain! This is a metaphysical space within One for All! Apparently entering a meditative state while running the quirk through your body was enough to get you here!” he says. “We didn’t expect to see you here for months, if ever! No previous holder's ever unlocked this portion of the quirk!”

...Ah. Wait, what?

“We’re the previous holders of One for All!” the man says, gesturing to himself. “I’m the first user, Yoichi Shigaraki! But you can call me Yoichi, or First. I don’t like my last name much.” 

“If I had to share my last name with a bastard like your brother, I’d agree!” the bald headed man says, before roughly jerking at himself with his thumb. “I’m the fifth user, Daigoro Banjo!” 

“Senpai, we were going in order,” the collared man says, before sighing. “I guess we're not. I’m the sixth user, but you can call me En.” 

“Hikage Shinomori,” the scarred man offers, saying nothing more. The woman rolls her eyes before draping an arm around Shinomori’s shoulders, pulling him into a side-hug. 

“Ignore Fourth!” she says, “He’s a big softy, he just was a hermit for a while and still isn’t used to social interaction.” 

“I was like this before being a hermit,” Shinomori says as he ducks under the lady’s attempts to noogie him. “People are hard.” 

“Amen to that,” En pipes up.

“Anyways!” the woman says, withdrawing her arm and standing straight up, hands on her hips. “I’m Nana Shimura, number seven! I trained Toshi to be the symbol of peace.”

Toshi? Izuku thinks, the question clearly coming through on the visible parts of his face. 

“All Might,” Shimura explains, “though he wasn’t known by that name back then.” 

All Might’s mentor! Wow! Izuku’s inner fanboy immediately goes into overdrive. What was he like as a kid? Was he as cool as he was now? Did he have the same power? Was he just as inspiring? Where did he grow up? How-

“Calm down, Nine!” Yoichi interrupts his mental tirade once again. “We’re starting to run out of time,” he warns, and he’s right, Izuku can see black fuzz beginning to pour in on the edges of his vision. “Anyways, our warning! You cannot use one hundred percent of One for All!” 

I… I can’t? Is it because I’m not good enough? Maybe I can get All Might to take back the quirk and fi-

“No, not like that!” Yoichi interrupts. “Nobody can use one hundred percent anymore! It’s too powerful! One for All grows exponentially with each passing year someone adds power to the quirk, not linearly with each successor.” 

I guess that makes sense… If All Might has as much power as he does, it doesn’t-

“I’d guess that your one hundred percent is maybe two percent of the overall power in the quirk!” 

WHAT???

“But there’s good news!” Yoichi gleefully continues. “We figured out how to split the quirk! Just think about splitting the quirk, and get someone to ingest some of your DNA, and you can pass two percent on to someone else, too!”

So... I can split One for All with fifty other people?

By this point, the black fuzz in Izuku’s vision had covered his entire field of sight, obscuring nearly everything.

“Looks like time’s up! Good luck out there, Nine!” Yoichi yells in farewell, as Izuku’s vision fades entirely. “We’re rooting for you!” 

“Should we have told ‘em about the girl?” Daigoro asks his fellow vestiges. 

“Nah, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Seven says. “How bad can it get?” 

That was… bizarre . Izuku thinks as his consciousness slowly trickles back into his body. What were they saying? To split the quirk, think really hard about splitting it? Just… SPLIT?

As those final words enter his mind, he feels two sharp pinpricks in his neck. His eyes shoot open as he whips around, surprising a young girl with blond hair drawn up into two messy buns. Her eyes widen as she sees her would-be victim regain consciousness. She leaps back, blood-red lightning unexpectedly crackling around her, flying her far across the beach and into the gazebo with a resounding crash. 

I… Did I just give away a copy of One for All?

…

Oops?

…

What’s All Might’s number again?

“The good news, Mr. Midoriya, is that you may have saved a life!” the small bear-dog-mouse-thing named Nedzu, aka the Principal, tells Izuku. “If you hadn’t stumbled upon Ms. Toga at the beach, she likely wouldn’t have survived the winter, based upon her current levels of nutrition!” 

“T-that’s good!” Izuku stutters, still in shock at the twists and turns of today. He was in U.A., after all! And he met Recovery Girl! All Might had to rush off for some emergency soon after they got here- some villain attack, downtown, that required him- but he was still at U.A.!

“The bad news is that you accidentally gave a copy of One for All to a criminal, if your story is true.”

“W-What?” Izuku stumbles out, his heart clenching. This was it. All Might was going to ask for One for All back, and tell Izuku that he was worthless, useless, a piece of trash, a Deku! He-

“While this was unintentional, it does present a dilemma. Luckily, I have a solution!” Nedzu says, freeing Izuku from his rapidly spiraling thoughts. 

“W-what’s that?” 

“We enroll Ms. Toga in the hero course!” 

“W-what?” 

“You heard me correctly! Luckily, one of the spots in the hero course has opened up after some… misconduct from one of the examinees! It turns out that thanks to some well-connected relatives, he had unusually had his record… scrubbed of some sexual misconduct allegations. When I found out about this, well! I committed… an unpleasantness.” 

Somewhere, in a hospital room, a spherical-haired boy shudders. He runs over his plan in his head. Find a plane. Fly to Tibet. Become a monk. Hope- no, pray- that the devil doesn’t follow him. Pray more. 

Minoru Mineta had no idea that the devil was a mammal of indeterminate species. Not until last week. Now, he will never forget.

Izuku shudders. He has no idea what the super-intelligent animal would consider an unpleasantness, and to be honest, he doesn’t want to know. “S-so you want to put a criminal… in the hero course?”

“Indeed!” Nedzu says, beaming. “What better place to learn than surrounded by examples!”

“Examples?” 

“Examples of heroes! The students of the hero course are handpicked by trusted staff members and me, of course, and we only choose the best of the best! It’s how I caught that… potential student, after all! Any member of the U.A. hero course is most definitely trustworthy!”

“O-oh.” 

“And besides, Ms. Toga is hardly the next Toxic Chainsaw! She has a few assault charges, but we believe this was due to quirk-induced psychosis- which your encounter with her falls under as well!” 

“Is that why she bit me?” 

“Indeed! She has a dietary restriction to consume blood, which her parents were neglecting. In fact, I’m scheduled to meet with them tomorrow!” 

“Ah. How did you get a meeting so fast?” 

“They don’t know we have a meeting yet!” the principal gleefully exclaimed. “It wouldn’t be sporting of me to warn them ahead of time, after all!” 

Somewhere, in a nice, suburban home in Japan, a certain Mr. and Mrs. Toga shudder. They had been having such a nice month, too, after that horrible devil that had stolen their daughter had run away. It was probably nothing, they think. Who would care about a demon child like that… thing?

“I care very much about my students, after all!” Nedzu says. “And Ms. Toga is my student now!” 

“So what do we do about her having…”

“Nothing!” 

“Nothing?” 

“Well, nothing drastic. We’ll impress upon her the importance of the situation, and I’ll nicely ask her to keep this a secret!”

“A-are you sure that’ll work?”

“Of course! This is a crack fic, after all! The set-up needs to be finished quickly so the author can get to the main story!” 

“...What?” 

“What?”

“Y-you won’t send me back?” Himiko Toga tearfully asks the small, furred animal. “I-I d-don’t have to… to go back?” 

“Nope!” the mammal cheerfully assures her. “I assure you, Ms. Toga-” Himiko flinches subtly at the sound of that name, something that the chimera picks up on. “Ms. Himiko, then. You’re one of my students, now.” He bares his teeth in the cruel resemblance of a smile. “And I assure you, I take good care of my students.”

Somewhere, in a nice, suburban home in Japan, a certain Mr. and Mrs. Toga feel a sudden urge to get down on their knees and pray. They don’t, of course, since such a thing isn’t normal, and they are anything but abnormal. But still… why the hell were they overcome with the need to pray to this… Nedzu?

“But! Even if you don’t accept my offer,” Nedzu says, his smile softening, “I’ll still make sure you’re put in a good foster home. I don’t want you to feel forced to accept our offer, after all!”

“Y-you’d even let m-me turn y-you d-down?” Himiko asks, feeling her eyes begin to water even more. This day had just been so wonderful… was it just a dream? Would she wake up tomorrow, and still be on the streets? Himiko doesn’t think she could take it, if that was true. 

“Of course!” Nedzu says. “I know… intimately,” and he bares his teeth again, “what it’s like to not have a choice in your future.” His smile softens once again, to become the warm smile of an educator. “I would never wish that on anyone.”

“I-I-I accept!” Himiko manages to get out before the tears begin pouring out of her eyes in earnest. “Pl-please, l-l-let me attend your sc-school!” she blubbers, not caring who saw her.

“Of course! Let’s talk terms, shall we?”

Chapter Text

“Let me see if I have this straight,” Toshinori Yagi, also known as All Might, asks his successor and his new boss, Toshinori’s fingers steepling his face. After Toshinori returned from the emergency All Might was called to deal with, he quickly dragged Nedzu and his successor into a more private room to try and figure out what’s going on. Five minutes later, after hearing their retelling, he was rapidly regretting his attempt. The room that they were using was just the teacher’s lounge, the late hour meaning that all faculty members beside Chiyo left ages ago. Toshinori sat in one of the two green couches, the other two sitting on the other couch across from him.

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before reopening them, pointing his hands at Izuku Midoriya. Midoriya, for his part, is doing his best to sit there and seem innocent, which was difficult when he recently discovered an entirely new facet of One for All. “Young Midoriya, you tried meditating.” Midoriya, his successor, nods. “While meditating, you fell into a trance-like state and met the past users of the quirk.” Midoriya nods again. “These users told you that you could split One for All and pass it onto other people.” Midoriya continues nodding. “Then, a young girl bit you, and you accidentally split it and gave it to her.”

“Well, in my defense,” Midoriya begins, only for Toshinori to stop him. 

“Nope,” Toshinori says while holding out a hand to ward off his successor’s excuses. “Let me finish this first. You then called me in a panic, and I dropped you off here before racing off to deal with an emergency.”

Midoriya nods before opening his mouth to speak again, Toshinori cutting over him. “Sir, you,” and here he indicates Nedzu, “found that young Himiko was likely being abused at home, and so offered her a place at this school, so long as she keeps One for All secret. Is that everything?”

Midoriya and Nedzu exchange looks before nodding. “That sounds like everything!” Nedzu exclaims. 

“Great. Now, young Midoriya, let me just say…” at those words, Midoriya’s eyes begin watering and he flinches as though he’s expecting to be reprimanded- or struck, that reaction’s definitely something that will have to be looked into- before Toshinori bulks up into his muscle form, standing in one fluid motion. “I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!” Toshinori finishes, loudly.

“You… are?” Midoriya asks, the tears in his eyes glittering as he looks up at Toshinori’s muscular alter-ego. 

Toshinori coughs blood, the strain of his body forcing him back onto the couch and into his weaker form. “Of course I am! I would be proud of you no matter what, it goes without saying, but to already make the quirk so undeniably your own when you’ve only had it one day- well done, young Midoriya!” 

“My own?” 

“Did you think I wanted you to be just another All Might?” 

“Well, I…” 

“Because I don’t! I want you to carry this sacred torch with the gravitas it requires, of course, but the rest is up to you! One for All is your quirk now, not mine. The world doesn’t need the same shining Symbol of Peace it once did, in those dark times; it needs a new one. You.” 

“Y-you’re proud of me?” Midoriya asks as his brain finally comprehends Toshinori’s previous words. “R-really?” he asks as his eyes begin watering. 

“Young Midoriya,” Toshinori says, placing a hand on his successor’s shoulder. “How could I not be?” 

Midoriya begins crying in earnest now, a silent moment shared between mentor and successor, before Nedzu coughs, cutting in. 

“While this insight into human emotional patterns was very fascinating, Mr. Midoriya, I believe there was something you wished to offer All Might?” 

“Yes!” Midoriya says, rubbing his eyes to clear out the extra tears and shaking his head to refocus. “I wanted to give you your quirk back!” 

“If that’s the case…” Toshinori begins. Decades ago, a quirkless teenager with too-long legs and too-big dreams received an impossible offer from Nana Shimura. Thirty-five years later, he made his own impossible offer to another quirkless teenager with a heart too big for his own good. And now, he was receiving that same offer once again. With a wan smile, and his own silent thanks to Nana for everything she gave him, he gives his fateful response to Izuku Midoriya, the greatest successor he could ever ask for.

“If that’s the case, I will turn you down!” Toshinori says, smiling as Midoriya’s expression turns to bafflement.  

“... what?” 

“I can’t use One for All anymore,” Toshinori explains. “This body of mine can’t handle it. I’d rather you give it to someone who can do good with it; someone with their whole life ahead of them. This old man’s still got a lot of fight left in his bones,” he says, thumping his chest for emphasis, “but I’ve had my turn with the quirk. It’s yours now, young Midoriya; I trust you with it.” 

“I… I won’t let you down!” Midoriya says, resolute. 

“I know you won’t, my boy.”

“Then, Mr. Nedzu, would you…”

“Absolutely not,” Shota Aizawa says as he sits up from behind Midoriya and Nedzu’s couch, sleeping bag sloughing off him. “I’m putting a stop to that right now.” 

“Aaaah!” Midoriya shrieks as Toshinori coughs blood, shocked at the sudden appearance of his co-worker. 

“Hrm. Your situational awareness needs work. Izuku Midoriya, right? Took the entrance exam today?” 

“Y-y-yes sir!” Midoriya yells as he stands up, frantically bowing.

“I’m Shota Aizawa. I’m likely going to be your teacher next year, since I get the kids with the uncontrollable quirks. Assuming you get in. When I saw your practical, I thought you were lazy, having an uncontrolled quirk at your age. Until someone,” he glares at Toshinori, “forgot to check for eavesdroppers before spilling national secrets.” 

“Ah, yes, Aizawa,” Toshinori nervously chuckles. He begins to ask, hoping he can still salvage the situation with his dignity intact, “How much did you-” 

“All of it,” Aizawa says, dashing his hopes. “Luckily for you, since I’m an underground hero, I know the importance of secrecy.” 

“Y-you’re a pro-hero?” Midoriya asks, startled. “I mean, you must be, if you’re a teacher here, but…” 

“Don’t recognize me, huh? That’s okay. Most people don’t. That’s kind of the point of being underground.”

“I know I’ve seen that scarf somewhere…” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Aizawa says to the boy. “I actually wanted to warn you. Don’t, under any circumstances, give super-strength to the rat.” 

“T-the rat?” 

“Nedzu.” 

“I-I thought he was a stoat?” 

Nedzu cackles, causing a shiver to run up everyone’s back. “That’s the closest anyone’s ever gotten on their first guess!” he laughs, further scaring everyone in the room. 

Toshinori awkwardly coughs into his fist, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “As well as not giving One for All to Nedzu, you shouldn’t give One for All to any other current pro-heroes, either. They’ve trained extensively with their quirks to get to where they are- a sudden power boost could cause an accident.”

“What he said,” Aizawa adds. “Unless something forces them to completely reinvent their fighting style anyways, pros carefully curate their abilities. Any deviations to those abilities, and, well… ” 

“Don’t give One for All to pro-heroes, got it.”

Aizawa grunts, before clambering back into his sleeping bag. “I’ve got patrol in a couple of hours so I’m going back to sleep. Be more careful with national secrets in the future.”

“H-hey, you were the first person who found out since I learned!” Midoriya says, only to pause at the look Toshinori was suddenly giving him.

“The only person, young Midoriya?” 

“Y-yeah?”

“Did you never tell your parents?”

“W-was I allowed to?”

“MRS. MIDORIYA! I AM HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR SON’S NEW QUIRK!” All Might yells in his muscle form as he slams open the front door to the Midoriya apartment. Izuku’s mother jumps in shock with a soft “eep!” before falling over in a dead faint.

“I… probably could have eased her into that a little bit more,” All Might sheepishly admits, as he deflates into his thin form. “Oops.”

Chapter Text

Midoriya took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He made it through his first day, after all, with Mr. Aizawa (though the pro hero didn’t cut him any slack!) and now here he stood, in All Might’s hero training! Unfortunately he didn’t have a better handle on One for All then he did when he took the Entrance Exam- but not for lack of trying! Unfortunately, repeated meditations hadn’t yielded any more visits to the vestige realm, and Himiko hadn’t been able to get a handle on her copy yet either. Speaking of Himiko…

“Hey, Izukun!” she asked, posing in her hero costume. “What do you think?” 

“I-I think it looks great, Himiko!” Izuku says, waving his arms frantically as he blushes, trying desperately not to stare. 

Himiko’s costume was fantastic- the support gear (an apparatus with a mouthpiece and needles, to draw blood and use it to transform) worked amazingly, and the DNA costume was a stroke of genius when they stumbled upon the information for it. But… did it have to be so revealing? And so… form fitting? Himiko’s naturally flirty personality seemed to come out in full force whenever he was around, which certainly didn’t help matters, and neither did that nickname she insisted on calling him. Luckily he had finally built up a tolerance to calling her by her first name- as it turned out, she hated her last name, which he had quickly realized and switched to a first name basis with her. 

“Deku! What do you think of my costume?” Uraraka asks as she does her own pose, twirling a little bit. She looked a little bit off… was something the matter?

So tight… Izuku thinks, trying not to stare.

“Hello? Earth to Deku?” Uraraka asks, waving her hand in front of her face.

“Aah! I mean, it looks great on you Uraraka! Absolutely fantastic!”

“Hehe, thanks!” Uraraka smiles. “That means a lot!” It looked like it really did, since whatever was bothering her seemed to have vanished. “I wish I had been a little bit more specific, though,” she adds, rubbing the back of her head. “This body suit is skin tight, which really isn’t my usual style!”

“I think it looks great on you, ‘Raka!” Himiko says. “You have a great figure!” 

“Your costume looks great on you too, Toga!” Uraraka says, seemingly ignoring the second part of that compliment. 

“... Call me Himiko, please,” Himiko says, suddenly dead serious. “I… don’t like my last name, very much.” 

A few feet away, Shoto Todoroki’s ears perk up. He had come to this school to become great without that bastard’s power, but someone else that didn’t like their family… would they understand him?

No. He wasn’t here to make friends. He was here to show Endeavor that he didn’t need his flames, that he only needed his mother’s ice. If only he had some way to piss off Endeavor even more…

“Gather round, everyone!” All Might yells, catching Todoroki’s attention. Hmph. About time to get started, too. “Now that you’re ready, it’s time for combat training!” 

Kyoka Jiro listens carefully as All Might begins announcing the teams for this exercise. 

“Team A: Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka!” he loudly announces. 

“Team B: Mezo Shoji and Shoto Todoroki!”

“Team C: Himiko Toga and Momo Yaoyarozu!”

“Team D: Katsuki Bakugo and Tenya Iida!”

“Team E: Mina Ashido and Yuga Aoyama!”

“Team F: Koji Koda and Rikido Sato!” 

“Team G: Denki Kaminari and Kyoka Jiro!” 

“Team H: Fumikage Tokoyami and Tsuyu Asui!”

“Team I: Mashirao Ojiro and Tooru Hakagure!”

“Team J: Hanta Sero and Eijiro Kirishima!” 

“And now… I declare that the first teams to fight will be… THESE GUYS!” he finishes with a flourish, drawing a ball from the heroes and villains boxes. The starting teams were… not Kyoka, she concludes with a sigh of relief. She would hate to go first and be put on centerstage for everyone. Somewhere near the middle’s best, she decides. Not first, and not last. 

“Whewf, glad we’re not those guys,” Kaminari says as he walks over to her, scanning the balls in All Might’s hands. “Would hate to go first- I think all the pressure would kill me.” 

“Definitely,” Kyoka concurs as she scans the balls. “Good luck to teams H and J, I guess.”

“Young Tokoyami! Young Asui! You two will be the heroes! Young Kirishima! Young Sero! You two will be the villains! Everyone else can head to the monitoring room!” All Might announces, and the majority of the class begins moving that way. 

“Got any plans? For our match,” Kaminari clarifies as the two walk together. “I’m a shockingly ranged fighter, if I do say so myself. Just let me at ‘em and they won’t even see it coming!” 

“I can do reconnaissance,” Kyoka offers. “I can use these guys,” she explains, waving her jacks, “to hear extremely well.” 

“Perfect! Ranged and reconnaissance- we got this!” Kaminari cheers as they enter the monitoring room, taking in the giant TV screen on the wall. “Whoa. Mina, are you seeing this?” he asks as he walks over to his pink-skinned friend. 

“Who do you think is going to win, Deku?” Uraraka asks the green-haired boy- what was his name? Right, Midoriya- only for the boy to seemingly pull a notebook out of nowhere. 

“Asui’s got a movement advantage, and the darkened interior probably amplifies whatever Tokoyami’s quirk is,” Midoriya says, his rapid mumbling only barely intelligible to Kyoka thanks to her quirk. As he talks, Midoriya rapidly writes in his notebook- practically too fast for the eye to follow. “However, Kirishima and Sero are both perfectly suited for defense. In the end, it depends on if they can last against Tokoyami’s abilities and can block Asui from getting to the bomb before the time runs out.” 

“Yes, but you need to remember, Kirishima’s ability is defensive but it forces him to stay grounded,” Yaoyarozu cuts in to Midoriya’s mumbling. Kyoka’s surprised that she could follow it, much less add to the conversation. 

“That’s true, but that makes him a good counter for Tokoyami,” Midoriya explains. “I wonder if Sero can swing on the tape he produces? That would be a great way to counter Asui’s movements.” 

“You sure like quirks, don’t you, Midoriya?” Kyouka chuckles.

“I love analyzing them! They’re all so unique and cool! I actually have a few questions about yours, if you don’t mind?” 

“Go ahead,” Kyouka offers. 

“Great, your earphone jacks! Are the-” 

“And… START!” All Might calls, killing the conversation. 

“Talk to me at lunch,” Kyouka offers, with Midoriya giving a quick nod before he turns to the screen.

As it turns out, thanks to the injuries Midoriya sustains during his match, Kyouka can’t talk to him at lunch. And after school, when she returns from picking up materials from the Teacher’s Lounge with Kaminari, Midoriya apparently raced off after Bakugo. 

“We should go after them!” Ashido suggests, excited. “Who knows what kind of juicy gossip they’re sharing! Jiro, you can use your jacks, and Yaoyarozu, you can make a speaker!” 

“I don’t know…” Yaoyarozu tries to protest, only for Ashido to fall to her knees and shake her hands at Yaoyarozu, begging. 

“C’mon, Yaomomo! Pllllleeease?” 

“Yaomomo?” the ponytailed teen asks, tasting the word, before blushing. “I… Alright. But only if Jiro agrees.” 

Perhaps, in another world, Kyouka wouldn’t have agreed. But she did need to talk to Midoriya anyways, and this sounded pretty interesting. She caught bits and pieces during the Battle Trial, and what little she heard managed to pique her interest in the relationship between the two boys something fierce. 

“Sure, why not?” she asked, careful to sound aloof and casual. “Could be fun,” she offers, twirling an earjack around her finger. 

“Let’s go then!” Hakagure cheers, pumping a fist in the air. 

“Absolutely not!” Iida lectures. “This is highly improper! All of you, eavesdropping on a classmate? Have you no shame?” 

“Nope!” Ashido cheerfully responds. “C’mon, let’s go!”

“Don’t be a stick in the mud, Iida!” Himiko requests. “Why don’t you come with us and make sure we don’t break any rules?” 

Kyouka swears Iida honest-to-god squawks at that. “Make sure you don’t break any rules?” he repeats, incredulous. “You are breaking rules! By eavesdropping!” 

“Which we won’t get to do if we don’t get going!” Ashido reminds everyone before she pushes Kyouka and Yaoyarozu out of the classroom. “C’mon, c’mon, let’s go!” she chants, which proves surprisingly effective as every member of their class begins following the three of them. She throws a questioning look at Ojiro in particular, who shrugs. 

I didn’t want to get left out , he mouths back. Which, to be fair, mood. 

“Ashido! You shouldn’t be pushing your classmates through the halls of such an august institution as U.A.!” Iida begins lecturing, which Kyouka tunes out. Impressively, he manages to continue the lecture all the way out until the front door. 

“Shh!” Ashido hushes him before turning to Yaoyarozu. Kyouka swears Iida starts nearly smoking in shock and anger but before he can recollect his thoughts, she’s already moved onto the next thing. “Yaomomo, can you…” 

“Of course!” Yaoyarozu says before she produces a small speaker. “Jiro?” 

“Got it,” Kyouka offers as she plugs one of her jacks into the speaker and one into the stone in front of her, projecting Midoriya and Bakugo’s conversation to the whole class.

“... then, you’ll understand what’s going on,” Midoriya’s voice filters through the speaker. “I wasn’t hiding my quirk from you! It was given to me by someone else. Recently.” 

“Given by someone else? Does he mean literally?” Sato whispers, only to be shushed by the rest of the class. 

“But I can’t tell you who I got it from, so don’t ask!” Izuku blurts out. This entire conversation had been extremely spur of the moment, Izuku knew, but if anyone deserved an answer, it was Kaachan. Izuku knew that if anyone in the world were to make the best of this power, it would be Kaachan. Katsuki Bakugo… may not be the most likable person. Izuku knew this, intimately, having been on the receiving end of the aggression far too many times to count. But even so, Midoriya knew that Kaachan would never give up. If he had One for All… how many villains could he beat? How many lives could he save?

“My quirk… is called One for All,” Izuku began, feeling the weight of every word leaving his mouth. “Part of its ability is to be duplicated, and given to other people. I… I want to give it to you, too! Think about how many lives you can save with i-”

“Deku. Shut up,” Kaachan growled. “How stupid do you think I am? A quirk that can duplicate itself? Power being passed on? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Kaach-” 

“I don’t need your damn pity!” the blonde roared at his friend. He spun around, glaring at Izuku. “Whoop-de-doo. You’re finally showing your fucking quirk. That’s fine,” he continues as he turns away and begins walking. “That means you’re finally at the starting line that I passed years ago. You’re playing catch-up with my back, Deku. I’m still stronger than you, and I’ll prove it to you. Even if I have to beat it into your head! Enjoy the win you got today in that damn training exercise, Deku. It’ll be the last you ever get from me!”

“I won’t lose, Kaachan!” Izuku said, finally looking his rival in the eyes. “All my life, you’ve been so incredible, always ahead. But now! Now I have the power to live my dream and really become the number one her-” 

A sudden loud crash echoed behind Izuku, and the two boys whipped their heads over to find the source, only to find… 

“Uraraka? Himiko? Guys?” Izuku asks, confused at why what looks like the entirety of class 1-A was lying on the floor next to… is that a speaker. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Isn’t that obvious, Deku? The damn extras were listening in on our conversation,” Kaachan growls before turning around and holding his hand up in the air as farewell. “I’m going home. You can deal with their fucking eavesdropping,” he decides as he leaves. 

“Were you guys really…” Izuku begins, only for the class to bombard him with questions. 

“Did someone really give you your quirk?” 

“Can you really duplicate it?”

“Why did you call him Kaachan?”

“Is that like a childhood nickname?”

“Does this uniform not look très magnifique?”

“Guys, I… enough!” Izuku yelled, getting everyone to finally shut up. “All the stuff, it’s…” he begins to deny before he suddenly recalls a conversation he had with Nedzu months ago. 

“Examples?” Midoriya asked.

“Examples of heroes!” Nedzu explained. “The students of the hero course are handpicked by trusted staff members and me, of course, and we only choose the best of the best! It’s how I caught that… potential student, after all! Any member of the U.A. hero course is most definitely trustworthy!”

They’re all trustworthy, Midoriya thinks, at least, according to Nedzu. And he’s the smartest mammal alive . And was an opportunity like this ever going to come up again? If he waited any longer, they would start learning techniques, and throwing in a new super-strength quirk could be disastrous for all those reasons Mr. Aizawa explained that long ago. But right now…

“Yeah, I can duplicate my quirk. That’s why Himiko’s quirk is so similar to mine,” he explains, and he gestures at Himiko, who obligingly lights up her blood red lightning. “We haven’t figured out how to use it safely yet, hence the broken limbs, but if you guys want to take some of it…”

“It’ll be like class bonding!” Ashido cheers, pumping a fist in the air. “Let’s all do it!” 

“Yeah!” Kirishima agrees. “That sounds so manly!” 

“I’m in, Deku!” Uraraka agrees. “It sounds like a great way to be a better hero!” 

“Would it give me super-strength?” Todoroki asks, his expression looking like a little kid who had just been told that Christmas came early. “Like All Might’s?”

“Yes?” Midoriya asks, only to be surprised by how vehemently Todoroki immediately agreed to it. 

“Let’s do it immediately,” Todoroki suggested. 

“While I would love to agree, according to the schedule, none of the U.A. gyms are open right now!” Iida explains, chopping his hands in the air. 

“Actually, Mr. Iida, Gym Gamma is open right now,” the intercom says as it crackles to life. “I’ve been paying attention to your conversation,” the voice continues, “and Mr. Midoriya, might I just say you’ve made some very… fun decisions, in trusting these people?” 

“Fun?” 

“Oh yes, this kind of controlled chaos is… exquisite! If you would do a principal a favor, would you mind not informing the teaching staff of these new quirk developments?” 

“Why?” asks Izuku, confused. 

“Consider it an exercise in… operational secrecy,” Nedzu suggests. “An extra-credit assignment, even.”

“He means that he wants to laugh at their confusion,” Mr. Aizawa drawls as he opens the front door. “Well? Come on, the gym won’t fill itself,” he continues as he begins walking. “If you all are being trained to use One for All, might as well get it out of the way. Plus, this way I get to laugh at Mic’s face during the sports festival.”

Chapter Text

In any other circumstance, in the middle of a villain attack, Shota Aizawa would be forcing his students back to protect them from the villains. Especially first-years. 

This class, however, was composed of one exploding boy and nineteen teens who are the second coming of Nedzu but combined with All Might’s power. Once Shoji figured out that to use One for All you had to enhance the whole body at the same time, the kids skyrocketed in power from 1% to 5% to 10% to 15% and so on until their current maximum (somehow) of 45%. How they did it, Shota wasn’t sure (he swore he heard Midoriya say something about meditating with ghosts instead of sleeping?) but hey, whatever worked for the kids. He wasn’t exactly the poster-child of normal training regimens, after all. 

Shota wasn’t sure if he would make it to graduation with even a single non-gray hair, but at least he could release some stress on these villains. And let the kids loose, more importantly.

“Where is he?” the pale, hand-covered villain monologues from his position in the center of the plaza. “I went through the trouble of bringing so many friends who were eager to meet him.” He gestures to his massive crowd of villains, grinning. “They want All Might: the great Symbol of Peace. I can’t believe he’s not here. Maybe if I kill a few kids he’ll come out to pla… why are you all smiling. Why are you cracking your knuckles what’s going on-”

With a roar of wordless fury, Katsuki Bakugo leaps into action, Eijiro Kirishima firing up crimson lightning and following right behind him. Good, at least Kirishima will keep Bakugo in check.

Tangling his capture weapon around the nearest goon, Aizawa tugs, using the villain’s momentum against them, as Izuku Midoriya goes high and slams into the villain’s torso with a crackling kick, knocking the wind out of them. “Aizawa-sensei! How can I help?” 

“You’re doing fine, Problem Child!” the veteran hero calls back, erasing the quirk of one villain who attempts to fire something, only for the villain to pause in shock as nothing happens. “Stay in pairs!” 

With the grace of a professional dancer, Midoriya grabs onto a leaping Ochako Uraraka, swinging her around and into a group of other villains, where the girl immediately starts yanking on them with her quirk into her fists. 

Apparently Zero Gravity, when powered up, grants limited telekinesis to the user on top of the ability to make things heavier. Huh.

All the same, Shota made a note to drill her on her straight jab more. He knows she could eke out a bit more force if she just kept up with her footwork. 

He supposed it didn’t really matter when each blow already sent grown men flying, but it was the thought that counts.

“Got it, sensei!” Midoriya calls before he blurs away, slamming into Uraraka’s group from the back and scattering them like bowling pins. 

God, Shota swore that those two would be the end of him if they didn’t get over themselves soon and just started dating.

When Kurogiri, official warper of the League of Villains and unofficial babysitter/father figure to Tomura Shigaraki prepared his speech for the occasion, he expected to be delivering it to a class of frightened students. With maybe one or two foolhardy outliers, of course. 

He didn’t expect that, by teleporting up, he would miss over half the students. 

So when Kurogiri emerged from his portal, he expected to meet the visage of twenty teenagers and a single pro hero. 

Not a single pro hero and a scattered handful of six students.

“There will be no escape,” Kurogiri intones, billowing menacingly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. We are the League of Villains. I know it’s impolite, but… Okay, I’m sorry, I can’t focus. Where are all your classmates?”

“I think Midoriya and Uraraka jumped down into the courtyard, ribbit,” the frog-quirked girl says, tapping a finger to her chin. 

“And we all saw Bakugo and Kirishima run in,” the guy in a giant yellow bodysuit adds, pondering. “I think Sero grabbed Kaminari and Ashido and they swung towards the water zone?” 

“I hope there’s no fish in there!” the rock headed boy says telepathically, hands signing in JSL as they speak. “They wouldn’t do well with the electricity!” 

“I believe I heard Aoyama yell that he was going to find somewhere to sparkle!” a girl in a red bodysuit adds. “And Tokoyami just yelled, ‘Revelry in the dark!’ and vanished.” 

“Todoroki followed after the Sero and the other two,” another girl with- are those earphone jacks- adds. “I saw him leave that giant pillar of ice.”

“I don’t see Hagakure anywhere, but that’s not saying much,” a mouth extending from the masked boy’s arm adds. “And Himiko took some of her blood, so they could be anywhere.”

“Ribbit. I think that’s all of them?” the frog girl asks, looking at her classmates. “That’s all of them,” she says to Kurogiri, more confidently.

“I didn’t mean for you to actually give a detailed list of your classmates’ whereabouts,” Kurogiri admits.

“Oh, that was just a distraction, ribbit, so you wouldn’t notice Iida leaving,” the girl admits.

Kurogiri spins to notice that indeed, the glasses boy is missing! Wait, the door! He turns again to notice a suspiciously hero-student-shaped hole in the door, sunlight streaming in. 

“Well, I suppose there’s nothing for it but to slaughter the rest of you like animals-” 

And that was when Koji Koda decked him. 

“Kurogiri!” Tomura Shigaraki complains when the warper nomu flies back towards him, crashing into the ground. “Are you so useless that you really can’t defeat a few measly hero brats?” the villain asks, scratching his neck frantically.

“I’m… sorry, Tomura,” Kurogiri says, panting as he attempts to catch his breath. Those teenagers were vicious!

“If you weren’t our warp gate out of here I’d kill you myself!” the young villains lectures, getting more and more hysterical. “I suppose this raid battle is a failure,” he decides. “But at least we can kill a couple of his precious students and hurt the Symbol of Peace’s pride! Nomu!” 

The bird headed beast perks its head up.

“Kill that green haired hero brat.”

With a roar, the Nomu appears to blink out of existence as it leaps forward.

Izuku Midoriya, operating on instinct and instinct alone, falls flat to the ground as a massive black fist appears above him, just where his head was moments prior. 

With a mighty cry, the boy throws a massive “DETROIT SMASH!”, only for the villain to not even react.

With a gulp, the boy settles into a shaky boxing stance. He might not be the best at fighting, but he couldn’t let the monster get to Uraraka behind him. 

When Ochako Uraraka hears Midoriya’s cry of pain, her heart drops out of her stomach as she watches the boy fly towards her. 

With a thought and a gesture, she catches Midoriya, her customary pink aura appearing around him. He seems okay, luckily, but winded. 

Ochako Uraraka gathers up her fury.

Tomura Shigaraki watches, with a horrified kind of fascination, as his master’s Nomu- the perfect bioengineered superweapon to kill the Symbol of Peace!- flies through the skylight of the USJ. 

Tomura turns back to the one at fault. She! She cheated! She had hacks! 

With the cry of a gamer scorned, Tomura sprints towards the girl, hand outstretched. He hated her, and master said he could destroy anything he hated, so he would destroy her, and he would get the Nomu back, and he would kill All Might! The perfect plan!

So focused was Tomura on his perfect plan that he didn’t see Izuku Midoriya fly in with a roundhouse kick.

Several minutes later, Tomura Shigaraki stood up on shaky legs, breathing heavily. Sure, the brats were faster than him. Sure, they were stronger than him. But he had something they didn’t! He had a strategy! And losing the Nomu was definitely part of that strategy, and he wasn’t overcompensating for anything, and everything was fine! coMPLETELY FINE! 

“Tomura Shigaraki, are you all right?” Kurogiri asks, floating next to him. “Your eye appears to be twitching.” 

Tomura decided not to dignify that with a response. He was fine, after all, since all was going according to plan!

With a resounding crash, at the door to the entrance of the USJ, a second hole appears, next to the suspiciously hero-student-shaped hole! A suspiciously All-Might-shaped hole! And more importantly, in front of it…!

“All Might!” Tomura drawled, spreading his hands wide. “So nice of you to join us! Kurogiri!” 

Kurogiri, ever so faithful, grabbed Tomura and teleported him ten feet in front of All Might. Just enough time that Tomura could grab the weakened All Might, and watch as he died with fear in his eyes! Just as Tomura had pictured, so many times before! See, Sensei, who needs a Nomu! Tomura can do it on his own!

So focused was Tomura Shigaraki on his new, just as brilliant plan, that he didn’t notice Momo Yaoyorozu with a steel chair. 

“Ow…” Tomura Shigaraki groans as he lies, collapsed, on the floor of the bar that serves as the League of Villain’s Hideout. “Those damn brats… All those underlings wiped out… Nomu being OKO’ed… We failed. Game Over! And the Symbol of Peace- he wasn’t weakened at all! You were wrong, Sensei!” he complains as he glares at the TV screen. “So wrong!”

“No, I wasn’t,” the deep voice of All for One echoes from the screen. “We just weren’t as prepared as we should have been.”

“I agree,” a second voice concurs- the voice of Kyudai Garaki, All for One’s resident mad doctor. “We underestimated them. Thankfully, we failed under the cheap “League of Villains” name and not our own. And what about the creature that the master and I created? Where is Nomu?”

“Yes…” All for One adds. “Why is he not with you?”

“He was blown away,” Kurogiri explains.

“What?” the Doctor exclaims in shock.

“It was those damn brats!” Tomura Shigaraki complains. “They used hacks, I just know it!”

Oh All Might, so naive. All for One thinks to himself from his side of the computer screen. So sentimental. If you had waited to show your hand- or passed it onto a more experienced hero student- One for All might have slipped beneath my notice. But now! At least Tomura got something useful out of this… adventure. “Tomura. Did any of those students exhibit a super strength quirk?” I’ve got you now, All Might! And soon- I’ll have the last traces of my fool of a brother as we-

“All but one of them, Sensei!” Tomura complains. 

“What.” All for One bluescreens.

“They all had super strength like All Might! All of them! That’s why I said hacks!”

All for One stares at the screen in disbelief. Super strength in nearly all of them? How?  

“Sensei, give me more Nomus! I’ll beat them next time!” 

All for One continues staring ahead, mind racing, not hearing his successor. Even if All Might found one comparable quirk to camouflage his true successor, that would be a miracle, but eighteen?

“If they can hack I want to hack too! You said I can destroy anything I don’t like and I don’t like them! Let me kill them!”

All Might, what the fuck?

With a mighty crash, the teachers of U.A. storm into the building, intent on defeating whatever dastardly villains threatened their students, only to be met with… nothing, bar the piles of unconscious villains on the floor and the cheering students.

Snipe surveys the calm USJ, his coworkers on either side, before adjusting his hat with the tip of pistol. “Did we miss it?”

Chapter Text

Toshinori Yagi organizes his sheet of paper, ready to talk to his students. Today, he’ll figure out why all of Class A has managed to manifest strength quirks nearly identical to his own! 

Really, Toshinori is flattered that his students think so highly of him to emulate his own fighting style, but it’s best that they learn to use their quirks in their own ways. Not everyone has the strength necessary to be the next All Might, after all! And if Young Midoriya began passing on the quirk to other students… Toshinori would be very disappointed in him. Not because he passed on the quirk, obviously, it's his quirk, but because he passed it on without telling Toshinori!

Toshinori wants to be involved in teaching other successors, dammit! He signed up for this teaching job for a reason!

Toshinori shakes his head to get back on track. Right, focus. First on the list, once he starts everyone else on individual practice in Gym Gamma… Young Aoyama. 

“So, Young Aoyama, I was wondering,” Toshinori begins. “How, exactly, does Navel Laser manifest as super strength?” 

Aoyama strikes a pose. “Why, sensei, it is quite simple,” he says, before spinning. 

“I cannot stop sparkling!” 

Toshinori checks him off the list. Makes sense. 

Young Ashido begins sweating. “Extremely frictionless hypothetical acids?” 

Toshinori shrugs and checks her off the list. He’s not a scientist, after all. 

“Frogs are proportionally super strong for their size, sir,” Young Asui says. “My quirk just allows me to mimic that, ribbit.”

Toshinori pauses. He’s not a biologist, but he did track down that one frog-themed villain years ago…

“I… don’t believe that’s true, Young Asui,” Toshinori says. 

Young Asui shrugs in frog. Ah well, Toshinori isn’t exactly a biologist either, and it was years ago. Maybe he’s mis-remembering, or it’s a specific type of frog. 

Young Iida looks conflicted, for a moment, before bowing. “Sir!” he says. “I apologize, but I cannot inform you of that information without betraying one of my classmate’s trust!” 

Toshinori nods. “I understand, Young Iida.” It burns Toshinori that he can’t interrogate Young Iida further, but his teaching books and articles all stress the importance of trusting his students. Besides, it likely was just one of his classmates saving a technique to surprise their teachers in the future, and who was Toshinori to deny them? Heaven knows he tried (and failed) to get one over on Gran like that.

“Um… I figured out how to increase gravity, right? So I use that extra density to throw a super strong punch!” Young Uraraka says, miming the motion. 

“Of course!” Toshinori says, chuckling. He continues to not be a scientist, but that would probably work, right? He really ought to learn some of these things, now that he’s not talking to David or Mirai as much. 

Young Ojiro puts a finger to his chin. “Well, sensei, my tail muscles are super strong, right?” 

“I have noticed that, Young Ojiro!” Toshinori agrees, laughing.

“Yeah, so I figured out how to increase my muscle definition on other parts of my body,” the boy explains. 

“Makes sense!” Toshinori says, checking him off the list. His muscle definition doesn’t exactly fit a pre-quirk “realistic standard” either, after all.

Young Kaminari stutters through his explanation, Young Jiro helping him. It’s so nice, seeing students assist each other through their weaknesses! Toshinori still makes a note to give Young Kaminari extra public speaking classes. It wouldn’t do for him to stutter like this during a real press conference, after all!

“Well, I’m using my electricity to… ya know, simulate-”

“Stimulate.” 

“Stimulate my muscles!” Young Kaminari finishes. 

“And I use super-fast vibrations to accomplish the same thing,” Young Jiro adds.

“Makes sense!” Toshinori says, checking the two off his list. He wonders if Recovery Girl has any text books on biology he could borrow?

“I figured out how to become even more manly, sensei!” Young Kirishima says, flexing his arm.

“Haha!” Toshinori says, flexing back. It’s important to support your student’s ideals!

Young Koda signs nervously, Toshinori reading the JSL carefully. He was a little rusty, but he made sure to keep practicing. It was an important skill to have as a hero! Especially when talking to young children that may be deaf.

[I figured out how to use my powers to borrow certain abilities of nearby animals,] Young Koda signs. [Most abilities I can’t use still but I figured out this one!] 

[Which animal are you borrowing from now?] Toshinori asks, curious.

[Mostly frogs,] Young Koda signs back.

“Aw, you noticed?” Young Sato says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve been trying a new brand of sugar recently and it’s really improved my quirk!” 

“What kind?” Toshinori wonders. “I’ve been experimenting with new recipes lately and was wondering what you would recommend.” 

“Well, I’ve been using a more coarse kind, lately,” Sato says, getting into it. “For baking, there’s this one brand of confectioner’s sugar that’s just perfect for scones and muffins…”

Toshinori begins taking notes. You can never have too much baking advice, after all!

“I hit them really fast with a large set of continuously regenerating and disintegrating set of arms,” Young Shoji explains. 

Toshinori nods, checking him off the list. He’s well aware of how to punch fast, after all, and enough fast punches feel like a really big one! Probably. Maybe he should study some physics, too.

“Um… Well…” Young Sero says, chuckling nervously. “Hey, what’s that?” he yells, pointing behind Toshinori. 

Toshinori immediately spins around. “Where?” he asks, turning back, only to see Young Sero swinging away. Ah, he must be removing himself from the danger! Toshinori realizes. A perfect response for a hero in training! Also not one that any One for All holder would possess , he begrudgingly admits, recalling his master and Young Midoriya. And maybe some of his own tendencies to… avoid more cerebral solutions and instead just brute force it.

“I lay my spirit bare to the darkness,” Young Tokoyami intones. “I allow it into my flesh, and it empowers me to do great deeds.” 

Toshinori nods. Seems reasonable. Although… “Young Tokoyami, I must inquire. Is this darkness of yours infernal, or merely a reflection of your soul?” 

Young Tokoyami quirks an eyebrow. “Merely a reflection of my soul,” he says. “However, a teacher did impart me a great amount of the knowledge in order to utilize the skill. I must confess that their name is to be kept a secret, lest the forces of darkness seek them out.”

Toshinori nods. It isn’t his time or place to inquire about where his students learn such technique, now that he knows it was part of Tokoyami’s quirk. 

Speaking chuunibyou is an important part of communicating with younger generations!

Young Todoroki stops his exercises. “Steam power.”

Toshinori nods. Makes sense. 

He definitely should add a physics book to his reading list.

Young Hagakure remains invisible, but cocks her head. “Actually, sensei, when I transform I become super muscular!” she explains. “It’s just raw power.”

Toshinori shrugs. Makes sense. He’s seen weirder quirks, after all. 

“I figured out how to properly direct my creations, sensei,” Young Yaoyorozu explains. “Thus, I use air to propel my limbs super quickly.” 

Toshinori checks her off the list before underlining the physics book. He should probably read one rather soon. 

“Hey, Deku, you never told us who all knows about One for All,” Uraraka says, putting down her lunch one day. Around the table, the other 17-odd members of Class A (minus, of course, Bakugo, who claimed that he was “too cool to eat with you losers” and so went off to the rooftop to eat alone) make noises of agreement.

“Well, Nedzu, Aizawa-sensei, and Detective Tsukauchi,” Izuku says, ticking them off his fingers. “Recovery Girl too, I think. Oh, and All Might! He gave me the quirk.”

The rest of the class stares at him. 

“What?” the boy asks, defensively. “Is there something wrong with All Might?”

Chapter Text

Toshinori Yagi watches with bated breath as the buzzer counts down the beginning of the obstacle course. Young Midoriya… I hope you know what you’re doing…

Toshinori was quite excited to see how Young Midoriya performed at the festival, now that he managed to figure out his “full cowling” technique! The rest of Class 1-A was progressing at a remarkable pace, too! It was remarkable how many of those methods were different forms of super-strength, however, but still! Their quirks were jumping forward in leaps and bounds too- they were one of the strongest classes U.A. had ever had! 

Up in the announcer’s box, Shota Aizawa sneezes. 

His partner, and the current victim of his planned murder for dragging him into the box, shoots him a worried look before muting himself. “You good?” 

“Yeah,” Shota says. “Can’t shake the feeling that I’m forgetting something though. Feels like I was supposed to tell someone something and just never got around to it.” 

“That’s weird. Wonder what it could be?” 

“Eh. If I forgot, probably wasn’t that important in the first place.” 

“BEGIN!” Kayama Nemuri shouts, and the entirety of U.A.’s first years shoot forwards, hoping to make it first out of the gate. And nobody’s moving faster than Young Midoriya’s class! Toshinori spots many Class 1-A members through the crowd: Young Yaoyorozu using ballistic gel to reduce the strain her super-powered leaps deal to her legs, Young Uraraka floating herself before sparkling with bursts of pink lightning as she used the walls of the tunnel to pass over the crowds of people, even Young Aoyama launching himself over other students! Suddenly, Toshinori watches Young Todoroki burst through the crowd in a blast of super-concentrated strength, the boy hurling himself through the air. 

“AND WE’RE OFF TO A RACING START!” Hizashi Yamada’s voice echoes through the stadium, sweeping over the spectators. “HOW ‘BOUT SOME COLOR COMMENTARY, ERASER?”

“How did you talk me into this?” questions Shota Aizawa, who sounds like he is regretting many of his life choices.

Toshinori tunes out his co-workers’ antics as he continues to watch the race’s close competition for first place. Shoto Todoroki is pulling ahead, sure, thanks to a spectacular start (and ample luck, passing through the gateway first), but to a man (or woman) Class 1-A as a whole (minus Katsuki Bakugo) is taking up the first 19 spots of the event, as each student uses their various strength applications to rocket ahead of the competition.

“A TEST OF STRENGTH AND CUNNING…” Hizashi Yamada dramatically calls, dragging Toshinori back to the race as he sees where, exactly, his students have just ended up. “IT’S A ROBO INFERNO!” 

Down on the field, Shoto Todoroki smirks. Robots, huh? Perfect to show off his new powers to his dear old dad. Until recently, he had planned to spite his father by only using his mother’s ice to become the number one hero. But now that Midoriya unveiled the secret to his super strength- and shared his quirk with the entire class…

“This one’s for you, Dad!” he roars as he charges up his copy of One for All, the lightning sparking off him in familiar pale-white and crimson bolts, perfectly matching his hair. “DEEETRROOOOITTTT SMMAAAASSSHHH!” Todoroki yells as he mimics All Might’s iconic super-move, caving a robot’s head in. 

Toshinori listens for a second. Even over the excited roaring of the crowd, he thinks he hears a deep voice- is that Endeavor- yelling. 

“SSHOOOOOTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOO”

Endeavor must be so proud of his son! Toshinori realizes. I should talk to him later! Young Todoroki’s been doing a lot of great work in class, and it’s always good to catch up with fellow heroes!

Shuichi Iguchi (better known, in other universes, as the villain Spinner- though not in this one. Not yet, anyways) looks worriedly at his new friend. The mysterious scarred man (who introduced himself only as Dabi) had been all too happy to share a beer and complain about hero society as they watched the U.A. Sports Festival. Now though… he can’t stop laughing? 

“Man, are you okay?” Shuichi asks. Sure, Endeavor’s son stealing a super move from his father’s rival was pretty weird, but not this hilarious, right? “Are you an Endeavor super-fan or something? He’s gonna love this free publicity for his son, right?” 

For some reason, that only made Dabi laugh even harder. Go figure. 

Neito Monoma laughs to himself as he- and the rest of Class B- reach the second obstacle in the race. Class A may have blitzed past the robots but now! Now is the time for Class B to shine! All according to the plan that they prepared! Class A is full of arrogant powerhouses! They would never think to team up! Not like the perfectly sensible and clear-headed members of…

Ah, the gravity girl is helping the green haired boy across the chasm. No matter, the rest of Class A would never…

The Tetsutetsu clone with the hardening quirk is throwing members of his class across the ravine with his super strength. Just… straight up chucking them all the way across.

But, the tape boy! Is dragging along that boy with the electricity quirk. 

The creation girl! Is helping earphones girl. 

The bird-headed boy! Nope, he’s with the frog girl. 

The multi-armed… No, he’s helping the rock headed boy leap across. 

The laser… no. The tail-boy… no. 

Well, see, the exploding boy! He’s going alone! Just proof of Class A’s arrogance! They would never help other members of their class- and that alone will be their downfall! All according to plan, Monoma congratulates himself. All according to plan.

Ashido Mina nimbly leaps across what Present Mic termed “The Fall”, hopping from platform to platform with a beaming smile on her face. Across from her, she watches as various other members of her class join her, a rainbow of lightning sparkling across their bodies as they jump back and forth. Her new class is so much fun! She makes another leap across a platform, humming as she goes. This part’s easy for her- she’s got plenty of balance from dancing, keeping her pretty near the lead. Neck in neck with Todoroki, as it turns out when they jump for the same platform- only for her to fumble the jump at the last second and nearly fall, pinwheeling her arms desperately as…

Shoto Todoroki reaches out and grabs her by the waist, pulling her back in. She blushes for a moment, at the contact, before he drops her and the two of them jump on, continuing onto the next set of platforms. 

He rescued me! Mina thinks, happily. At the start of the school year, it would be a gamble if Todoroki would even have noticed her in trouble. But now! And his arms! She loses herself for a second, blushing, before refocusing. Bad Mina! she shakes her head, refocusing. Thirst over crush later! Win race now! she rallies, bubblegum-pink lightning crackling over her limbs as she redoubles her efforts, trying to close the gap that’s opened up between her and Todoroki while she was distracted. 

Why, exactly, she was crushing over Todoroki- and why she was so happy that he was making an effort to be more of a team player- is because of what happened earlier in the year, right when Class A all received One for All.

“And so, that’s how I got my quirk!” Izuku Midoriya finishes, his long speech coming to an end. “I hope that makes sense?” he asks, worried. “Did I lose anyone?” He certainly lost Mina, somewhere in there. Probably around the part when the ghosts came in.

“You’re doing fine, Problem Child,” Mr. Eraserhead says. 

“Problem Child?” Midoriya squeaks, confused. 

“You spilled a national secret to me within an hour of me meeting you, and you’re about to give seventeen other fifteen year olds super strength on par with All Might. Hence, Problem Child.”

“Hurry up and give us the quirk,” Todoroki says under his breath. Any normal person wouldn’t be able to hear him- even someone with a super-hearing quirk like Jirou and Shoji would have trouble, were they not attempting to listen- but luckily Mina was already zoning out! And also she always has an eye out of gossip- or an ear, as the case may be this time. Being on the constant watch for juicy drama was the only reason she heard the next part, after all, as Todoroki muttered it so quietly that she doubted anyone else would even notice it being said. “The bastard’s going to be expecting me home soon for his ‘training’.” 

The bastard? Endeavor? Was he… abusing Todoroki?

Well, that won’t do! That just means Todoroki needs a friend! Mina’s had her experience with an asshole sperm donor, after all, and that just means that Todoroki needs a friend! Whether he likes it or not. Which definitely isn’t a threat. No matter what it sounds like. Even if Todoroki probably would take it as one. 

And since that day, he’s been making progress with the whole “friendship” and “teamwork” things! Especially after she cornered him after practice one day, told him that she knew about Endeavor, and convinced him that having friends doesn’t make him weak! And that having friends will actually make him stronger! Well, specifically, that having friends will spite Endeavor because of the whole “YoU mUsT rEaCh tHe tOp oN yOuR oWn sTrEnGtH, sHoTo” (she did the voice in her head every time she quoted the asshole number two pro hero) but it was still progress towards friendship!

And somewhere along the way, Mina absolutely did not begin crushing on him! Absolutely not! Maybe a little. Fine, maybe a lot. But like… could you blame her? Just… (insert imaginary Mina gesturing to all of Todoroki) all of him!

Back in the present, Mina shook her head again and refocused. She could see Tooru ahead (and wasn’t that a surprise, when it turned out that One for All amplified her quirk by (in part) allowing her to deactivate it), and she intended to beat her best friend. 

Hizashi Yamada watches twenty kids try and kill each other on live television. 

Normally there’s some lead between the top couple listeners and the next forty-odd contestants, but still. The gap was wide enough between Class A and the rest of the competition that it appears Class A stopped racing and just… is duking it out on the minefields? Hizashi nudges his friend, slipping effortlessly back into his commentator persona.

“ERASER!” he excitedly asks his co-host. “Your kids do know that the one-on-one rounds aren’t till the end, right?”

“Skrlmgph,” his co-host responds, startling awake from where he’d apparently dosed off in his chair. Shota takes a second to analyze the screens, watching as Himiko Toga nearly decapitates Mezo Shoji with a knife- a knife! Where did Toga even get a knife, Hizashi wants to know- before he turns back to Hizashi. “I don’t see a problem?” 

“Class A is just fighting! On the mine field! Instead of winning! The race!” Hizashi explains, his voice growing shriller and shriller. “How do you not see a problem?” 

“Bakugo’s not there,” Shota points out, indicating where the boy still seems to be rushing over the Fall and muttering horrible profanities about someone named Deku.

“Okay, fine, most of Class A!” 

“Uraraka and Midoriya peacefully solved their differences,” Shota points out as the two in question exit the field. 

“They peacefully resolved their differences? THEY HAD A-” Hizashi quickly catches himself- “GOSH DARN FIST FIGHT ON THE MIDDLE OF THE MINEFIELD!” 

“Well, peacefully for them, anyways,” Shota realizes.

“PEACEFULLY FOR THEM? WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” 

That one question. That one, innocent, question of confusion, sends Shota Aizawa straight back on a PTSD flashback as he’s forced to recall the months of training leading up to this sports festival.

“Let me get this straight,” Shota says, pinching his forehead. “I left you two- just the two of you, too, nobody else- alone for one hour in Gym Gamma.”

Midoriya and Uraraka both exchange sheepish glances with each other before looking back at Shota with wide-eyed, innocent stares. Those looks won’t help them. 

“Please, explain to me, exactly why the fuck Gym Gamma is a smoking ruin?” Shota requests. He gestures to the aforementioned smoking ruin, which chooses this moment for the last structural supports to finally give way. 

“Plus ultra?” Midoriya suggests. 

“I… It was thirty minutes!” Shota exclaims, surveying the destruction. “Thirty minutes! And a full two-thirds of Ground Beta are fully beyond repair!” he shouts, indicating the damage. “How did you even…” 

“Well, I asked if Midoriya wanted to spar,” Uraraka explained. 

“That… This was not a spar! This was a full war!” 

“Plus ultra?” Uraraka asks. 

“And this month, we’ll need to bring the Midoriya-Uraraka budget up…” Shota says, pointing at his presentation. He heaves a massive sigh, clicking to the next slide, which shows a massive increase. “Another 300%. That brings it to roughly one-fifth of the rest of U.A.’s budget.” 

Nedzu’s cackling in his seat. He will be no help. 

Shota turns to one of the sanest members of staff. Probably. “Inui, any idea how to mitigate this?” 

“My official diagnosis,” the school’s therapist begins. “And remember, I went to school for this. I have a Ph.D. in Psychology.”

“Get on with it!” Snipe calls. “My bet’s still on wacky spy-vs-spy hijinks!” 

“Unresolved romantic tension,” Hound Dog finishes. “An extreme case of unresolved romantic tension.” 

“Fuck!” Hizashi curses, as Nemuri stands up, slamming her hands on the table.

“Hah! Guess who just won the pot!” she cackles. “SUCK IT, BITCHES!”

“Kayama? I believe we split the pot,” All Might points out. 

“Still a lot of money!” Nemuri sings as she pulls off a dance move, still celebrating. 

Shota clears his throat, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. “Inui, if that’s your final diagnosis-” Inui nods, confirming it- “then under U.A. Charter 397, Section 4, Subsection 3, Kayama, this entire thing is now your debacle. Good luck.” 

“Ah, relax, Sho,” the R-Rated Heroine laughs. “How bad can it really be? Here, tell you what. I’ll buy you a Scotch if I can’t get this all fixed within a week.”

Shota would never admit to the sense of vindication he felt a week later when Nemuri brought a full case of hard liquor to him a week later, with a heartfelt note of apology. 

“Trust me, Mic, we are so lucky that they weren’t alone on the field,” Shota explains. 

“Oh for god's sake… anyways, coming in first, IZUKU MIDORIYA IS OUR CHAMPION!” Hizashi yells as the green-haired boy sprints in from the minefield, lightning flickering around him. “And, following neck-in-neck behind him, as the other classes finally reach the mine field, it’s the rest of Class 1-A!”

Somewhere, in a dark office filled with All Might merch and memorabilia (including a rare, special edition 10th anniversary All Might poster) a green-haired pro hero curses, dropping his phone, the word “Champion” still superimposed over the winner’s face. “Toshi, what the fuck?” asks Mirai Sasaki, aka pro hero Sir Nighteye. 

Chapter Text

“AND WE’RE BACK, AFTER OUR BREAK, FOR ROUND TWO OF OUR U.A. FIRST YEAR SPORTS FESTIVAL!” pro hero Present Mic screams, the crowd erupting in cheers. 

“THIS ROUND IS…” 

A wheel spinner appears on screen, names of various events appearing on them as the wheel rushes through them in a blur before landing on…

“THE CAVALRY BATTLE!” 

Half an hour prior…

“I’m making the teams!” Nemuri Kayama shouts, slamming her hands on the table. Shota sips his coffee, leaning back in his chair. The breaks between events don’t serve as just a rest for the contestants, after all, but also allow the faculty running the games to compare notes and make sure that everyone's on the same page when it comes to upcoming events and any unexpected circumstances.

“Ain’t they supposed to be chosen by them contestants?” asks Snipe, only to get a glare from Nemuri.

The R-rated pro hero pulls out a giant book, the title of “Rules of U.A.” emblazoned on the side. She flips through the tome’s pages, searching for the proper section, before finally stopping and pointing to a page midway through the book. “Under Charter 397, Section 4, Subsection 8, I’m invoking my right as official ‘Relationship Consultant of U.A.’ and making mandatory pairings. The two contestants can still team up with another team on their own, but I’m invoking my right to decide the teams of two!”

“Is this about Midoriya an’ Urar-” Snipe begins. 

“Of course this is about Midoriya and Uraraka!” Nemuri shouts, throwing her hands in the air. “I have been trying to match-make them for a week now! I’ve tried the ‘one-umbrella’ trick! I’ve tried the ‘locked in a supply closet!’ I even tried the goddamn ‘there was only one bed!’”

“That was a really weird art history class,” Hizashi mutters. 

“And did any of it work? No!” Nemuri continues ranting. “They are two of the densest teenagers I’ve even met, each with the power to level a city and enough romantic tension to support the entirety of Tokyo!” 

“I think you’re lowballing the amount of romantic tension, actually,” Vlad King speaks up, only to be summarily ignored by Nemuri. 

“I swear to god, if I don’t figure out some outlet to bleed off some of this, I’d give low odds the school’s going to survive till they graduate!” 

Power Loader looks pensive, before asking, “So, you need someone blunt, right? To bleed off some of their density?”

“Yeah, actually. Do you have an idea?” Nemuri asks.

“I need someone to take care of Hatsume,” Power Loader mentions. “So if you think that the two are going to help with that…” 

“Brilliant!” Nemuri realizes. “If we can get them working together during the next event…” 

“Oh, that’s not going to be a problem. I heard Hatsume planning.”

Izuku shook in his shoes. Sure, he had experience with One for All now. Sure, he was one of the strongest members of 1-A. But ten million points? That was terrifying, especially now that everyone was eyeing him. He half-paid attention as Midnight listed out the rules, until… 

“Make a team fall on purpose and I’ll slap you with a red card! You’ll be disqualified!” his teacher shouts. “When the timer starts, you’ll have fifteen minutes to make teams of four with your partner!” 

“Partners?” the crowd murmurs. 

“Your time starts…”

A giant fifteen minute timer starts on the board, ticking down. 

“Now!” 

Izuku glanced up at the board, to find he was partnered with… “Uraraka?” 

“No fair!” someone shouts. “The first and second place winners were partnered together?” 

“Don’t worry!” Midnight shouts back. “These partnerships were generated without any bias towards their placement!” 

Odd way of putting it… Izuku wonders. What did she…  

“Deku!” Uraraka calls, waving to the boy. “So we’re partners, huh? Are you ready?” 

“Y-yeah, Uraraka! We’ve got this!” 

“Hey, Izukun!” Himiko calls, dragging over her partner- Shoji, apparently. “You want to partner toget-”

Before she can finish her offer, Izuku is grabbed and dragged off by a giant hand. 

“Nope! Absolutely not!” 

“I-I’m sorry…” 

“Itsuka Kendo, Class 1-B,” the owner of the giant hand introduces herself- an orange haired girl. “Originally, our class was going to slide under the radar until the last game and sweep the final rounds out from under Class A’s feet. But now that you guys apparently have ridiculous super strength…” 

“Eheheh,” Midoriya chuckles, rubbing his head. 

“So we’ve pivoted and decided that we’re just all going to partner up with you guys so at least some of us can get into the next round.”

“You know, I can show you how to do the super strength too after the sports festival?” 

“Really? If you can, then…”

“That would be so manly!” a silver haired man shouts, drawing the two’s attention. 

“Ah… um…” 

“I’m Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, also in Class 1-B!” the boy yells, jerking a thumb towards himself. “I’m Kendo’s partn-” 

Before he can finish his thought, a mechanical arm snakes out of nowhere and throws him into the nearest wall. “Ten Million!” a girl with pink dreadlocks yells, sticking her face right next to Izuku’s. “Partner up with me!” 

“Ah… We’ve already got a full team,” pipes up Uraraka, who followed the three when Kendo dragged Izuku away.

“I only see three people!” 

“You… um, threw my partner-” Kendo begins.

“I’ll be your partner!” 

“No, but we’ve been assigned-” Kendo starts again.

“I can fix that!” the new girl cackles before taking out a keyboard (that appears to plug into somewhere on her backpack). “Done!” 

The three other students look towards the board to see the girl- Mei Hatsume, it helpfully supplies- is apparently partnered with Kendo.

“Did you hack it?” Kendo asks, flabbergasted. 

“Yep!” 

“Well, welcome aboard, I guess,” Midoriya offers.

“I’ll just apologize to Tetsutetsu later,” Kendo decides. “So, do we have a strategy?” 

“We can use my babies!” Hatsume suggests, holding up blueprints. 

“Not sure how useful a nuclear blender will be,” Uraraka notes. “Or a mechanical wheelchair?”

“Don't worry! I have plenty of other babies!”

Across the arena, Hitoshi Shinso prepares to brainwash his first… cohort. Hate using my quirk like this, but I’ve got to stand out, especially since my partner just tore off without me! he resolves as he opens his mouth… only to be cut off by an entirely metal boy slamming into the wall next to him so hard that cracks form around the impact site. 

“That was so manly!” the boy shouts, giving double thumbs up. “Oh hey, we’re partners!” 

“What?”

“Yeah, I thought I was Kendo’s but I guess I read it wrong!”

“Huh?” 

“Hey, Bondo, d’you wanna be partners?” 

“You got it!” an oddly shaped boy calls, his hollow voice echoing slightly.

“Great! Let’s do this, partner!” Tetsutetsu calls, grabbing the purple haired boy around the shoulders. 

“Eh?” 

Chapter Text

“Looks like we’re together, huh?” Shoto muses, taking a look at the board.

“You don’t have to sound so down about it!” Min- Ashido pouts, punching his arm lightly. “You got anyone you’re keeping an eye on as a teammate?” 

“I was thinking maybe Kirishima, or…” 

“Oh, Kiri? I can get him! Hey, Kiri!” Mina yells, cupping her hands across her mouth and calling across the field to her manly friend.

“Yeah?” responds the red haired teen from across the ring, also shouting at full volume with his hands around his mouth.

“Wanna team up?”

“Sure thing!” Kirishima agrees, before turning to his partner. “C’mon, Bakugo!”

Bakugo crosses his arms. “I’m not fucking working with Icy Hot and-”

“Aw, stop being such a grump!” Kirishima says, grabbing his friend by the scruff of his neck and lifting him up like an angry kitty. “They’ll be a great team!”

“Hmph.”

“Ah, Class A! You should feel blessed that a portion of Class B has decided to join your team!”

Mashirao Ojiro cocks an eyebrow. “Didn’t we beat all of you guys in the first round?”

The odd blonde haired boy- was it Nomoma? Monona? Monoma?-’s eye twitched. “That was a fluke.”

“We won by a pretty significant margin.”

“Just… a fluke,” the boy grits out through clenched teeth and a still twitching eye. “And regardless!” he shouts, throwing his arms wide as his slightly insane smile begins to shine through again. “Now that we’re in the second stage of the tournament, what matters is our teamwork! And nobody has more teamwork than Class B!” 

“So you’re working with us, students in Class A, because…”

Monoma’s eye twitches even harder.

“Ah’m real sorry for my partner,” Monoma’s partner- a blond girl with horns- whispers to Mashirao’s partner, Tenya Iida. “Our class’s figured out that the best thing to do when he gets like this is just tah let it run its course.” 

“Am I correct in guessing that you two wish to partner with us?” Iida whispers back.

“If y’all ain’t against it.” 

“Ojiro!” Iida decides. “Let us team up with these two members of our sister class! It shall be a wonderful exercise in inter-class unity!” 

“I… sure, I guess,” Mashirao decides. “Welcome aboard.” 

“Aboard what?” the girl wonders.

“ABOARD THE SHIP OF DESPAIR THAT SHALL BE SINKING OUR ENEMIES!” cackles Monoma.

“Does that mean that we’re on the ship of despair?” Mashirao wonders. “Or that we’re sinking their ships of despair? But then why are we aboard it?” 

Monoma’s eye twitched again. He should probably get that checked out.

Yuga Aoyama gave another twirl, preparing himself for maximum sparklage. It wasn’t every day that he had as magnificent a stage as this, after all~. 

“Revelry in the dark,” his partner, Fumikage Tokoyami, intoned as their other two teammates- Reiko Yanagi and Shihai Kuroiro- nodded solemnly.

Dark Shadow reached a small claw out from Tokoyami’s shadow to bat at the falling glitter. Yuga made a note- you could never have enough people spreading the sparkle~.

“So we’re in agreement?” Setsuna Tokage asks, tapping a marker against the writing on the whiteboard that her new teammate, Himiko, produced from who-knows-where. 

Himiko’s partner, Mezo Shoji, nods silently.

Himiko cheers. “Team Slice-and-Dice, let’s do this!”

Togaru Kamakiri, Setsuna’s partner, grunts. “I don’t care so long as I get to stab someone,” he growls, producing a knife from his arm and flexing it.

“Ooooh, is that a pesh-kabz?” Himiko asks, grabbing Kamakiri’s arm to get a better look. “That curve is just,” and she gives a chef’s kiss gesture, “perfect!” 

“Ya think?” Kamakiri asks, rubbing the back of his neck and- is he blushing? “Thanks, that means a lot. Took a while to get it just right, ya know?”

“I can tell!” Himiko compliments before her face goes red. “Hey, I’ve got a couple butterfly knives that I’d love to show you sometime if you want to-” 

“I’d love to!” Kamakiri blurts out. Yep, definitely blushing. “If… if you don’t mind.” 

Setsuna supposes that, cute as it may be, she’s definitely glad that she’s practically immune to knives thanks to her quirk.

“The first commandment! Thou shalt not have no other gods before me!” Ibara Shiozaki lectures, smacking a fist into her palm.

Koji Koda signs back furiously. 

“I would not believe in your goddess Art’enstag if she came down before me!” Shiozaki snaps. “Jesus is our one true Lord!” 

Koda signs back again. Kinoko Komori was definitely wishing that she learned sign language at this point. 

Shiozaki gasps loudly. “Jesus would curbstomp Art’enstag in a death match, no questions asked!” 

Komori was also pretty sure that religion had changed since quirks were introduced to the mix. There was a reason she was an atheist, after all. She swore that every year it just got more and more ridiculous.

Rikido Sato holds up his hand. “Would this be a bad time to mention that my family worships the Great Pumpkin?”

Nirengeki Shoda desperately regrets being smart. When he and his classmates were discussing who teams up with which Class A team, Nirengeki read the room and chose Momo Yaoyorozu: Class A’s most versatile quirk, combined with his and his partner’s size-changing quirk; the perfect team!

“And if you release your charge on the bombs right here, at the peak of their arc, we can enhance the blast power by a further 135%!” Yaoyorozu explains, tapping a stick to the ground where she’s sketched a parabola.

His partner, Yui Kodai, gives an empathetic nod, which only makes Nirengeki despair further. Why would fully functional grenades need more power for a school festival ?

“Do we really need that much extra firepower?” 

At least Momo Yaoyorozu was partnered with Kyoka Jiro, who at least had a modicum of common sense. 

“I mean, if we just lob them like so,” Jiro explains, drawing another, straighter line. “We can hit our targets much quicker without too much of a loss.” 

Scratch that. Nirengeki was alone, a lone bastion of sanity in a sea of maniacs.

“Fascinating!” Yaoyarozu says, with a gleam in her eyes. “You are absolutely right! But we can get the best of both worlds with- Shoda! What’s the force safety rating on your quirk?” 

Nirengeki just hoped he wouldn’t get expelled over this. Maybe he should have just let Awase and Kaibara have the two? At least they probably had a normal plan.

“So we weld the tape to Kaibara,” Yosetsu Awase says, tapping his stick on the surprisingly detailed sketch. “And then…”

“I electrify it!” explains Denki Kaminari, holding out his hand with a little flicker of lightning for emphasis. “And he starts spinning, which means…” 

“The bolts fly off the tape and get everywhere!” Hanta Sero finishes with a flourish. “The prefect plan!” 

Awase pauses. “But how do we protect ourselves?” 

The four rack their brains for a moment before Sen Kaibara speaks up. “What if we covered ourselves in tape?”

The perfect plan.

“Let’s do this!” Tooru Hagakure shouts, pumping her arms. “We’ve got this!” 

“Indubitably,” her teammate, Jurota Shishida, adds. Tooru was surprised when he and his partner- another Class B kid named Hiryu Rin- asked to join her and Tsuyu Asui, but hey! Why not? “We shall annihilate the other teams and declare our victory over them by filching the majority of the point value bands.” 

Tooru had to know. “Why do you use big words all the time like that?” 

Shishida adjusts his classes and prepares to respond, but before he can, Tsu speaks up.

“Ribbit. Let’s stay focused and make a plan. Should we go for Midoriya’s team?” asks the girl. 

“Probably not the wisest idea,” muses Rin. “Should we just stick to the outskirts and pick off teams?”

“I can camouflage myself, ribbit,” offers Tsu. “And Tooru’s just invisible.”

“Divide and conquer, hm?” Shishida says. “Sounds like the apt plan for this variety of event.”

“Okay no but seriously, did you fall in a vat of alphabet soup as a child or something?” 

Izuku Midoriya readjusts his arms, trying to get in the most comfortable position to support Hatsume. With Kendo on front, deflecting any blows, Uraraka on Hatsume’s right side, and him on her left, he felt relatively confident that they could keep the ten million point headband. 

Probably, anyways. 

The timer on the jumbotron begins ticking down. 

Twenty seconds.

“Ready?” Kendo asks, crouching down. 

Fifteen seconds. 

“Ready!” Midoriya confirms, finally settling. 

Ten seconds.

“All ready here!” Uraraka agrees, tapping all four with her fingers. 

Five seconds. 

Hatsume cackles, pulling her goggles over her face. “Systems are a-go!”

The buzzer goes off. 

Midnight finishes stretching her arms and picks back up her microphone. “Oh, goodie! It’s time to get this party started!”

“AFTER FIFTEEN MINUTES TO PICK TEAMMATES AND TALK STRATEGY, TEN TEAMS ARE READY TO GO HEAD TO HEAD!” announces Present Mic from the loudspeakers. 

“Hm. There’s some unexpected teams down there,” Eraserhead notes. “Looks like Class B decided to divide up the Class A teams to increase their chances of getting into the last round.” 

“GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, EVERYONE! IT’S TIME TO WELCOME OUR TEAMS TO THE BATTLEFIELD! LET ME HEAR YOUR VOICES!”

The crowd erupts in yells and cheering, even as Present Mic talks over them. “LET’S GET ROCKING! ONE FINAL COUNTDOWN BEFORE WE KICK THE ACTION INTO HIGH GEAR!”

“3!”

“2!” 

“1!”

“AND BEGIN!”

Chapter Text

Hitoshi Shinso quivered slightly. Before today, he thought that nothing would stop him from wanting to get into the heroics course. 

After that hellstorm of a round…

(No, seriously, fire bombs should be banned. There were far too many grenades coming from at least four different teams, half the arena was blanketed by glitter, far too many pigeons, electrified tape flying everyone, and Hitoshi swears he saw at least three knives fly by him at some point.)

“ANNNND THAT CONCLUDES ROUND TWO OF THE SPORTS FESTIVAL!” Present Mic yells from his announcer’s box. And if his voice wavers slightly, Hitoshi absolutely cannot fault the man.

Apparently 1-A was fucking insane. Not insane enough to permanently maim anyone, thank every god, but still. 

Hitoshi thought he had a good team. Himself as the rider, Tetsutetsu as a tank, and that Bondo kid and the Honenuki kid as environment control. Practically unbeatable. 

And then Class A fucking happened.

Apparently sticking people to the ground doesn’t mean shit when half of your competition can just free themselves using super-strength.

“IN FIRST PLACE, WITH A SCORE OF TEN MILLION AND TWO HUNDRED SIXTY POINTS, IT’S TEAM MIDORIYA!”

Midoriya is well and truly terrifying. Of all the Class A members throwing around gale force winds like they’re nothing, Midoriya seems the most comfortable with the power.

Also, the explosions that team threw out were horrible. Hitoshi was fairly certain the pink haired girl was responsible for most of them, but he knew he saw that orange haired girl from Class B throw at least a few grenades. 

“IN SECOND PLACE, WITH A SCORE OF ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN POINTS, IT’S TEAM TODOROKI!”

That team was… terrifying as well. They were less wild than the first place but more of a regulated chaos. Just… horrifying, especially when three of the four members have super strength and no qualms about using it judiciously.

“IN THIRD PLACE, WITH A SCORE OF ONE THOUSAND AND SIX HUNDRED POINTS, IT’S TEAM IIDA!”

That team… somehow they could cross the field in the blink of an eye with two speed quirks. Or something. And he thought there was some levitation trick going on with one of their member’s horn quirk. Frankly, Hitoshi suspects that the only reason they didn’t win was because their rider needed time to adjust to the speed and actually snatch headbands as they went by. 

“AND, LAST BUT NOT LEAST, IN FOURTH PLACE IS TEAM HONENUKI, WITH THEIR STARTING SCORE OF THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE POINTS, BY VIRTUE OF BEING THE ONLY OTHER TEAM LEFT STANDING!”

Hitoshi shook slightly more. He might need to see his therapist early this week. None of the other teams were dead, just… indisposed. Very, very, indisposed in some cases.

“AND, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IF YOU’LL TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO OUR LOVELY REFEREE AND THE JUMBOTRON…”

“You’ll find the last game’s pairings, darlings!” Midnight shouts, cracking her whip. “And the first match is…” 

Hitoshi cringes. That’s that Midoriya’s kid face up there, after all. He pities the poor bastard that has to go up there against…

Fuck. 

Standing on the arena floor, Hitoshi takes a deep breath. He can do this. Show no weakness. Just go up there, fight Izuku Midoriya, win. Get into the hero course. Being unfairly strong does not mean that he’s immune to mental quirks. 

“WELCOME TO THE FIRST MATCH OF THE FINALS TOURNAMENT! CAN I HEAR ALL OF YOU MAKE… SOME… NOISE?”

The crowd erupts in cheering. Stay cool, Hitoshi. Stay cool. Flipping them off would absolutely not be heroic here. 

“IN ONE CORNER… HE’S LEAN, HE’S MEAN, HE’S GREEN, ONE OF THOSE STATEMENTS WAS A LIE, IT’S IZUKU MIDORIYA FROM CLASS A!”

That Midoriya kid is calm. Well, Hitoshi would be too, if he had the luck to be born with a quirk like that. As it was, all he got was a “villainous” quirk. Damn genetic lottery.

“AND IN THE OTHER CORNER… IT’S THE DARLING OF GENERAL EDUCATION, SHINSO HITOSHI!

Hitoshi scoffs. All that was notable about him was being from General Education? He’ll prove them wrong. That’s right, Hitoshi. Focus on the spite. Not on the fact that your opponent could splatter you with a finger flick against the opposite walls.

“THE RULES ARE SIMPLE! WIN BY IMMOBILIZING YOUR OPPONENT OR KNOCKING THEM OUT OF THE RING! TRY NOT TO GO TOO OVERBOARD, OKAY?”

Did he really need to add that last part?

“So, this’s a test of your resolve, huh?” Hitoshi drawls. “Someone in the hero course can just give up. But someone like me? I have to fight to get to the top.” 

“READY?” 

“Something that someone like you would never understand.” 

“BEGIN!” 

“After all, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, weren’t you? Just like those bitches you teamed up with-”

Whoa holy fuck Midoriya is fast. But… “DON’T… CALL THEM THAT!” the hero student shouts as he propels himself forward, arm cocked back.

Hitoshi smirks. Got ‘em. As his quirk takes hold, Midoriya stands rigidly, face blank.

“Turn around and walk out of the ring,” Hitoshi orders.

Midoriya stands still for a moment before his posture suddenly changes.

In her private room, nobody notices Ochako Uraraka’s eyes suddenly close as she slumps over.

 “Whoa, this is weird!” he says (in a girl’s voice? Is that that brown haired girl that he teamed with?), tapping his fingers together nervously. “I’m… in Deku’s body?”

What?

“What?” Hitoshi asks, dumbstruck. 

“Oh, right, middle of the match!” Midoriya realizes, still talking in that girl’s voice. 

“Huh?” Hitoshi asks. There’s no way he was winning this now. He might as well just give up. Midoriya can throw hurricane force punches AND is somehow immune to Hitoshi’s quirk? Hitoshi’s trump card, his one advantage? He’s so fucked. Guess he’s not getting into the hero course after all. But… yeah, you know what, fuck that. He’s worked for years to get to where he is. Sure, he’s not the strongest, but he’s been beaten down his whole life. Midoriya’s immune to his quirk somehow? Fuck that. That’s just one more goddamn lemon life’s thrown at him. 

Hitoshi strides forward cracking his knuckles as he releases his quirk. Midoriya may win this, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t put up a good fight. 

Ten seconds later, Hitoshi Shinso is thrown out of the ring.

The boy groans as he stares up at the sky. Even if he knew it was coming, it didn’t hurt any less. His one chance…

“Hey, did you mean it?” Midoriya asks, back to his regular voice, as he holds out a hand to help Hitoshi up.

“Mean what?” Hitoshi asks as he accepts the hand and gets up with a wince. 

“Mean what you said about my partners,” Midoriya clarifies.

“Oh. Oh, no, I just needed to rile you up.” 

“Hm. You’re a U.A. student, right?” Midoriya wonders.

“Yeah? That’s… kind of why I’m here.” 

“Right, right,” Midoriya brushes off as he begins muttering, suddenly deep in thought. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” he suddenly says.

“Hm?” 

“Someone gave me my quirk. And I can give you a copy too,” Midoriya reveals.

“Wait, really?” Hitoshi asks. His whole life, everyone’s told him he can’t be a hero with his weak, villainous quirk. And now someone’s giving him what’s basically a copy of All Might’s power? Fucking hell, he better not be dreaming. 

“That’s right, Shinso. You too can become a hero!” 

“Was I supposed to start crying or something?” 

“I mean…” 

“Because I don’t get that reference.” 

“Yeah, I get it.” 

“I wasn’t there for whoever told you that.” 

“Yeah, I know, it’s just…”

“Cause it feels like there’s a lot of emotional resonance there that I’m just entirely missing.” 

Chapter Text

“AND, FOR OUR NEXT ROUND, BLASTING HIS WAY THROUGH THE COMPETITION, IT’S KATSUKI BAKUGO!” 

“COME AND GET IT!” the ashen blond roars as he fires off his quirk into the thin air. That bitch may have lucked her way into the other rounds. But now, one on one, against Katsuki, she’s fucking screwed.

“WEIGHING IN AT A NUMBER OF POUNDS ENTIRELY UNDER HER CONTROL, GRAVITY’S HER CHUMP, OCHAKO URARAKA!”

The girl in question jogs up to the stage, waving at the crowd. Hah. A fucking weakling; too nice to put up a good fight. Just like Deku. Nice of the organizers to give Katsuki an easy win. 

“AND, WITH THE QUICKEST TIME ON THE BOOKS FOR ANY FINAL-ROUND MATCH IN THE HISTORY OF U.A., IT’S A RING OUT IN FAVOR OF OCHAKO URARAKA! KATSUKI BAKUGO IS ELIMINATED!” 

Katsuki Bakugo, groaning in pain as he attempts to peel himself from the wall, realizes that he might need to reconsider some things.

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya frantically scribbles in his notebook, trying to jot down all that he saw from the last few matches. They were fascinating! So many cool quirks on display! And only some of them were One for All!

The crowd screams as Juzo Honenuki steps up, staring down his opponent. He’s not too concerned. He has a plan.

“AND… BEGIN!”

Juzo instantly activates his quirk, turning the ground of the arena into a mire as he dives down. His quirk was tailor-made for these matches! He didn’t need to knock out his opponent or anything- just immobilize. After a few seconds without a call for the end of the match, he pokes his head up. Why hadn’t they…

Pony Tsunotori levitates a couple feet off the ground on two of her horns, staring at him. He stares back. 

Juzo sighs. “Right, yeah, forgot you could do that.”

“AND THE WINNER IS, BY RING OUT… PONY TSUNOTORI!” 

Kojiro Bondo shook his head everywhere, trying to hit Itsuka Kendo. He knew it was a rough shot, he knew… 

Finally! A direct hit! 

Kendo pulls off the glue and stalks forward, insanely focused. 

“AND SHE KEEPS COMING!” 

Kojiro Bondo panics. 

“AND THE WINNER IS ITSUKA KENDO!” 

Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu activates his quirk, banging his fists together. “Ya gotta hold nothing back, kay?” 

His opponent, Eijiro Kirishima, pauses. “Are you sure? I want this to be a fair match!” 

Tetsutetsu grins. “I can take it! Come at me with everything ya got!” 

Five seconds later, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu goes flying out of the arena and several feet into the nearest concrete wall, rubble collapsing around him. 

The crowd watches with bated breath. Will this be the first fatal injury in years? Is he okay? Is there finally a valid reason to not let the most terrifying mammal alive be the principal of a school?

After a pause, a single metal arm pokes out of the rubble, before giving a thumbs up. The crowd erupts into cheers. 

"AND THE WINNER, BY RING OUT, IS EIJIRO KIRISHIMA!

The less said about Iida and Hatsume’s battle, the better, in Izuku’s opinion. Whatever Hatsume tricked Iida into wearing… the mechanical arms she wore were one thing, and so was the capture gun, but the mechanical wheelchair she demonstrated was where things took a turn for the ridiculous. 

“AND THE WINNER, AFTER A SELF-INFLICTED RING OUT BY HIS OPPONENT, IS TENYA IIDA!”

Mina Ashido stretches, facing down her opponent. On first glance, she didn’t recognize the guy’s quirk, but on second glance… she still didn’t recognize his quirk. Damn, she thought that would work for sure.

“COMING FROM 1-A… IT’S THE PINK SKINNED BREAK-DANCER, MINA ASHIDO!” 

On the other side, her opponent smiles widely (if slightly unhinged), and lowers themselves into a sprinter’s start. 

“AND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ARENA… HAILING FROM CLASS 1-B, IT’S THE MASTER OF MIMICRY, NEITO MONOMA!” 

“READY… BEGIN!” 

Immediately, the boy sprints at Ashido, finger tips outstretched to tag her. With a yelp, Mina instinctively covers her body with acid. 

The boy pauses. 

Mina grins widely. “Hey, new super move!” 

The boy scoffs. “That? As a super move? Please, what would you even call it?” 

Mina considers for a moment. “Acidman?” 

“That is absolutely horrible!” the boy laughs. “Nothing less than what I would expect from Class A, of course.” 

Mina raises an eyebrow. “Then what would you call it?” 

Monoma pauses. “What theme are you going for?” 

“Hm?” 

“What kind of hero do you want to be?” 

“Friendly and approachable! I’ll be the Acid Hero: Alien Queen!” 

“I… you desperately need branding help.” 

“Yeah, probably! Now,” Mina says, settling into what she’s pretty sure is a boxer’s pose, “come at me!”

Monoma lunges forward to tag her, and Mina jumps back. The two stare at each other for a moment, the gears in Monoma’s brain turning a thousand miles per minute. Is he going to do something? 

Curses! Neito realizes, searching his brain. I can see that she doesn’t know my quirk. But she knows that I know that she doesn’t know my quirk! A double bluff! But does she know that I know that she knows that I know that she doesn’t know my quirk? What can I do? Think, Neito, think! Could I… no! She’s already prepared for that by covering her body with acid! Could I… no! I can see it in her eyes, she’s tracking my foot movements. A feint, then! Left, right, left! No no no she’s already blocked that off her movements from earlier! Those stretches at the start of the match… they were psychological, to sike me out! Curses indeed! This girl… how far ahead was she thinking? A true genius! I must train myself before I can best her in a battle of wits!

After several minutes of standing and staring at each other, trying to come up with a strategy, Monoma throws his hands up. “Curses! I have lost this battle of wits! I could see it in your eyes; any move I planned to make you could already counter! Alas, you have won this match, ye Class A devil! But know that I intend to make our next match my victory!”

Mina hesitantly holds up her hand. “Is calling me a devil a dig at my quirk?” 

Monoma looks her up and down. “Oh no no no! I’m not quirkist! I meant just in a general term, since Class A is the scum of the Earth.” 

Mina lowers her hand. “Oh, that’s fine then.” 

“AND AFTER THE LONGEST AND MOST ANTICLIMACTIC MATCH THIS FAR, IT’S A VICTORY FOR ASHIDO MINA!”

“AND NOW, A FRIGHTFULLY STRONG STUDENT WHO GOT IN THROUGH RECOMMENDATIONS… GIVE IT UP FOR SHOTO TODOROKI!” 

“AND ENTERING FROM THE OTHER SIDE… HE MAY LOOK PLAIN, BUT HE’S GOT THE SKILLS TO BACK UP HIS ADMITTANCE… GIVE IT UP FOR MASHIRAO OJIRO!” 

Mashirao sighs as he stretches his arms out. “That feels uncalled for, don’t you think?” he asks his opponent. 

Shoto continues glaring at the ground, warring with himself. Is it right to only use this gifted power? Would father really go through with those threats? 

“ARE YOU READY?”

Would Fuyumi and Natsuo forgive me?

“BEGIN!”

Mashirao jumps forward, swinging a tail, already in motion. “I’ll beat y-” 

In an instant, the arena is blanketed in a thick glacier, Mashirao trapped in the middle of it. 

Up in the stands, Mina Ashido feels a growing sense of dread. Shoto… what did your father say to you?

In the stands, Endeavor smiles. It’s no using his fire, but at least he’s stopped his foolish rebellion and returned to using the quirk Enji spent so long trying to give him. 

The arena dissolves into shocked murmurs. On the referee stand, Kayama Nemuri holds up one of her whips. “Since Ojiro is clearly unable to move, the winner is-” 

A flash of lightning. 

The glacier shatters. 

Mashirao Ojiro stands up from his crouched position, thumping his tail against the ground. “Was that all you’ve got?” 

Shoto Todoroki sends another iceberg. 

With a roar and a swing of his tail, Mashirao shatters it. 

Another blast of ice. 

Another defiant roar. 

Repeat. 

Again and again.

Until.

“WHY WON’T YOU STOP!” Todoroki finally yells. “FREEZE, DAMN YOU!” 

“FREEZE? NEVER! I WON’T STOP!” Mashirao Ojiro yells back. “I NEVER HAVE!” 

The two separate, for a moment. 

“Do you know how hard it is to be taken seriously, with Tail as a quirk?” Mashirao asks, rhetorically. “Do you know how many people- adults, grownups, anyone- how many people pass off your dream of being a hero as a pipe dream when you don’t have a fancy quirk like yours?” 

“I’ll tell you. Everyone. I had to wait until my sister was born for someone to believe in me. Ten damn years of my life, everyone wrote me off.”

Mashirao clenches his fist, looking down at the ground.

“I’ve had to fight my whole life to be taken seriously. I’ve had to work harder than anyone else because I rolled a dud when I was born.” 

His tail thumps on the ground, a small crater forming.

“Before Izuku showed us this super strength stuff, I knew that I wasn’t going to make top ten, or top twenty, or even top fifty. Tailman’s just not that marketable, you know? Not weird enough to be a cool mutant, not normal enough to be a popular hero. Just an average C-Lister.” 

“But now! Now, I’ve gotten here, on the world’s biggest stage, with the greatest opportunity I’ve ever had and you expect me to roll over and surrender because I got a bad match up?” 

Mashirao glances up and smiles, widely. “To hell with that.”

Lightning begins flying around Mashirao Ojiro as he bends down, preparing to charge forward. “I’ve had to fight past barriers my whole life. I’m not stopping now.” 

When Shoto Todoroki finally exits the arena twenty-three minutes later, Ojiro’s unconscious body hanging limp and encased in an iceberg, the audience swears they could see a satisfied smile on the tail-quirked boy.

Somewhere, watching the sports festival, a five-year-old girl with her own tail smiles because she knows that her older brother did all he could. 

Chapter Text

Hizashi Yamada takes a deep breath. Sure, Midoriya and Uraraka were a bit terrifying when paired together. Sure, the teachers were starting to get concerned about the gleam in Nedzu’s eyes whenever the U.A. budget was mentioned. (The mammal claimed that he liked a challenge, and honestly, none of the teachers were stupid enough to ask for elaboration.) Sure, Nemuri’s alcoholism was starting to become a slight issue (she was nearly consuming as much alcohol as Shota, for Pete’s sake!) Sure, Shota specifically warned him during the obstacle course. But really, how bad could the two get on live television? 

“AND NOW, FOR OUR STARTING MATCH OF ROUND TWO OF OUR FINAL ROUNDS!” 

“FROM CLASS A, IT’S THE SUPERSTRONG HERO WITH A HEART OF GOLD, THE INDOMITABLE IZUKU MIDORIYA!” 

“AND ALSO FROM CLASS A, IT’S THE TELEKINETIC ANGEL HERSELF, THE LOVELY OCHAKO URARAKA!

Hizashi took a deep breath. Again, really, how bad could it get?

Hizashi was so glad that they had an automatic ring out criteria. Sure, Midoriya and Uraraka were dancing near it the entire match . Sure, they really ought to add a height restriction in future years. Sure, Midoriya and Uraraka probably should have been dead at this point, narrowly missing fatal blows on each other by the skin of their teeth. Sure, Cementoss just fulfilled his quota for a very well deserved vacation. 

But hey, at least the carnage didn’t spread to the spectators!

And Hizashi sends a quick thanks to whatever merciful god was watching that the two didn’t meet up in the semifinals or, god forbid, the finals. 

Though given the way they were trying to undress each other with their eyes while they threw Earth-shattering punches, Hizashi wasn’t sure that they would have fought any more intensely. Or that they noticed the end of the match. 

Thank the gods that Nemuri was on a hair trigger with her quirk.

Now, if only she was a better match maker. 

“Hatsume!” Higari Majima yells, chasing down the pink haired inventor. Good, he finally tracked her down. 

“Mr. Power Loader sensei!” Hatsume says back, turning around. “What do you need? I’m trying to get to the workshop so I can make more babies! I had so many ideas during the sports festival that I need to get made!” 

“Right, actually, I wanted to talk to you. Have you ever dated someone?” Higari asks. Sure, for some folks it might make more sense to be subtle, but Higari isn’t wired that way. And, more importantly, neither is Hatsume.

“Nope! No time for that when I’m making babies!” 

“Right. I was thinking, why don’t you try asking out Midoriya and Uraraka?” 

“No can do!” Hatsume says. “I don’t have time for that when I’m making babies!” 

“Y’know,” Higari says, rubbing his chin. “If you were dating someone, I’m sure they’d be happy to test out your inventions.” 

With a flash of color, Hatsume disappears, presumably to go find Midoriya and Uraraka. 

Higari feels a small twinge of something for siccing her on the two heroes before he promptly smothers it. If he’s lucky, the two of them’ll make sure that Hatsume actually eats and sleeps, and she’ll supply them with the best support gear they can get. It’s a win-win for everyone, especially Higari, now that Hatsume’ll spend less time in the labs with him and more time not causing explosions when with her two partners. Perfect. 

If, hypothetically, Higari was less ecstatic about saddling someone that was not him with the care and well-being of Hatsume, he would notice that that twinge was not guilt but fear. Alas, he was quite excited to return to getting a full eight hours of sleep each night that didn’t require him to stop Hatsume from breaking into the support labs in increasingly bizarre ways, and thus, he didn’t notice, much to his future regret. 

The second match of Round Two of the Sports Festival was less of a graceful battle between two skilled heroes in training and more a one-sided slaughter as Itsuka Kendo systematically dismantled every defense that Pony Tsunotori tried to set up before tossing the American gently out of bounds.

“And there’s the reason why we call Kendo the big sister of Class B,” Yosetsu Awase commiserates, earning a nod from the nearby Sen Kaibara as the two lie in their beds.

“Why’s that?” Denki Kaminari asks from his nearby hospital bed, Recovery Girl still attempting to cut Hanta Sero from his self-inflicted prison of tape. 

In case it wasn’t immediately obvious, the four’s brilliant plan for the Cavalry Battle didn’t go the way they hoped.

“Because she could absolutely kick our asses if she wanted to, and regularly does whenever we say something stupid,” Awase answers, lying back. “Just like an older sibling. Hence, big sister.”

Sero lets out a muffled grunt as he wiggles in his full-body cast, causing Recovery Girl to rap him with her cane.

“I said stay still!” the elderly heroine snaps. “I’m going to go get the buzzsaw. I swear, only fifteen year olds at U.A…” the woman mutters as she stands up, walking towards the equipment closet. 

Surprisingly, the promise of becoming closely acquainted with heavy machinery in the near future doesn’t stop Sero’s wiggling. 

“AND NOW, THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, IT’S THE TURBO SPEEDSTER, TENYA IIDA!”

“AND FACING HIM, THE UNBREAKABLE SHIELD, EIJIRO KIRISHIMA!”

“Let us have a fair and above board match!” the class president says, chopping his arms. 

“Yeah, let’s do this!” Kirishima cheers, cracking his knuckles as his opponent lowers into a sprinting position.

“READY?”

“I’m super hard right now! Come at me with all you’ve got!” 

“BEGIN!”

Tenya Iida blasts forward, blue lightning crackling as he jumps forward into a kick, only to be met with Kirishima’s red-lightning-clad arms. 

“Yeah, that’s it!” the red haired boy yells, deflecting the kick and swinging an arm chop at the other boy. “This is getting me all hard! I’m harder than ever!” 

Up in the stands, Momo Yaoyorozu looks over at her friend in concern, as Kyoka Jiro silently quakes in laughter.

Seeing the vice class rep’s questioning look, Jiro attempts to explain. “He just… pffft, I can’t, he-” before she breaks back into further hysterical cackling. 

The rest of the fight continued much the same. 

“I’ve been rock hard all day, watching all these people fight!”

“PFFFT”

“You’re coming right at me, huh? Coming as fast as you can?”

“BWAHAHAHAHA”

“Man, your legs are sturdy! I didn’t realize you could get this hard, Iida!”

“KIRISHIMA I CAN’T-”

“AND, WITH A FINAL KICK FROM TENYA IIDA, IT’S A VICTORY FOR CLASS A’S SPEEDSTER!” 

Mina Ashido stares across the field and Shoto Todoroki, who looks back at her, expressionless. Taking a guess, she glances up at the audience, easily finding the flaming form of the number two pro hero. Putting on an act for him, huh, Shoto?

“ON ONE SIDE, SHE’S PINK AND LOVIN’ IT, IT’S THE MAGNIFICENT MINA ASHIDO!”

“AND FACING HER, IT’S CLASS A’S ICE PRINCE, THE INCREDIBLE SHOTO TODOROKI!

“Let’s make this quick,” Shoto says. “You’re hardly worth my time.” 

And that is where Mina’s heart solidifies. Shoto… Shoto has problems. She knows that. He has problems expressing himself, he has problems showing his emotions. But this? This isn’t the Shoto Todoroki that she has a small (okay, rather large) crush on. 

“READY?”

“BEGIN!” 

With a silent glare, Shoto slams his foot onto the ground, shooting a wave of ice spikes towards Mina, which she flips over in a One for All powered leap before running at the boy. He doesn’t want to use One for All? Only his ice power? Fine. She’ll take that advantage. 

With a grunt, Shoto blocks her high kick before ducking out of the way and sending another wave of ice, only for her to dodge out of the way. 

“What are you doing, Shoto?” she asks. “Why aren’t you fighting at your strongest?”

“I don’t have to answer you.” 

Back and forth they dance around the field, Shoto blocking and Mina dodging, a dangerous dance, both contestants as serious as can be.

With a roar of exertion, Shoto summons a mass of ice at Mina, only for the girl to burn through it with her acid. 

“Why are you doing this?” Shoto yells. “Stop… Stop looking at me like that!” 

“THEN STOP DOING THIS!” Mina yells back. “Stop… stop acting like this! This isn’t my friend!”

When Shoto pauses, Mina takes this as her cue to continue talking. “This isn’t the Shoto Todoroki I know! The Shoto I know is dorky and funny!” As she continues talking, she walks forward, striding towards Shoto. “The Shoto I know loves cold soba, and talking about absurd conspiracy theories, and being my friend!” 

Mina Ashido grabs Shoto Todoroki’s cheeks with her two hands, forcing the boy to look at her. “The Shoto I know is brave, and kind, and that’s why I love him.” 

Pro heroes Snipe and Ectoplasm groan as they pass money over to Hound Dog. “I told you, woof. There was bound to be at least one love confession mid-event given the number of hormones flying around the first year hero students this year.”

Snipe groans. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard yer ‘Power-Romance Proportional theory’ before. You ain’t gotta tell us again.” 

Next to the three, pro hero Power Loader pops another handful of popcorn into his mouth. Sure, they might not be able to hear the confession, but his soap operas are on hiatus and he needs something to take his mind off whatever the fuck Hatsume is doing at the moment, god dammit!

From the stands, even over the roar of the crowd, Mina and Shoto hear the roar of anger from Endeavor. 

Shoto immediately tries to push Mina away. “Mina…” 

“Shhh,” the pink skinned girl says. “Focus on me.” 

“Mina…” 

“They’re not his quirks. They’re yours.” 

“But…” 

“So here’s what we’re going to do. After the Sports Festival, we’re going to go to my moms’ house. Mama’s a lawyer specializing in child abuse cases. You’re going to sit down with her, and you’re going to tell her everything.” 

“But…” 

“Shush. But now, now, we’re going to have the best battle ever, okay?” Crackling with pink lightning, Mina Ashido jumps backwards, sliding into a ready stance. “You ready?” 

To hell with Dad, Shoto thinks. To hell with everything but here and now. Crackling with red and white lightning, Shoto slides into his own ready stance. “Ready.” 

Before, the two opponents danced across the field entirely seriously, focused on their respective goals. To the audience, it was a breathtaking sight, two people intently focused on what’s in front of them and only in front of them. 

Now, seeing Mina Ashido laugh out loud, seeing Shoto Todoroki chuckle for the first time in perhaps years as he slings fire, ice, and blasts of air pressure at skating girl? Nobody in the audience, except maybe the Number Two pro hero, can disagree that this is so much better, watching two people so obviously in love dance around, lost in their own world.

And when Shoto finally manages to grab Mina and throw her out of the ring, the girl giggling as she drags the startled boy onto the grass next to her when he goes to help her up, the audience can’t help but feel that both contestants won today.

“AND, MOVING ON… IT’S SHOTO TODOROKI!”

Chapter Text

“WELCOME, VIEWERS IN PERSON AND VIEWERS AT HOME, TO THE SEMIFINALS OF THE FIRST YEARS’ SPORTS FESTIVAL! CAN I HEAR YOU GUYS MAKE… SOME… NOISE?”

“ON ONE SIDE OF THE ARENA, YOU KNOW HER, YOU LOVE HER, IT’S CLASS B’S MARTIAL ARTIST, ITSUKA KENDO!” 

“AND ROCKETING IN FROM AN… EXPLOSIVE SECOND MATCH, IT’S IZUKU MIDORIYA!

The two opponents size each other up. “No hard feelings, right, Midoriya?” Kendo asks, stretching her arms. 

“Yeah! Same to you!” Midoriya agrees, cracking his neck. 

For a moment, Hizashi Yamada has a twinge of fear, before he shoves it down. However bad this may be, it can’t possibly be worse than Uraraka and Midoriya. 

“ARE WE READY?” 

“BEGIN!” 

With a wordless yell, the two hurl themselves at each other before they clash near the center of the field. 

If the previous match of Mina Ashido and Shoto Todoroki was a waltz, this was the two-person equivalent of a mosh pit, including the limbs flying everywhere.

Ashido and Todoroki danced around the field, constantly moving, skating on ice and acid. They stayed fluid, loose, as they peppered each other with attacks, sometimes moving in for a big blow. 

Kendo and Midoriya each refuse to lose an inch, meeting in a hail of fists and palm strikes with the occasional kick mixed in. They slam into each other in a battle of wills, breathtaking in their intensity. 

Even with the monstrous super strength that Midoriya normally demonstrates, Kendo manages to hold her own for longer than Hizashi expected, deflecting blow after blow to bleed off Midoriya’s raw strength using superior technique until she’s finally forced to take a step back. 

Step by step, inch by inch, Midoriya forces her off the field, until finally, the boy winds up a powerful roundhouse kick, blowing Kendo off the platform when she attempts to block and forcing her into the grassy field surrounding the arena. Nemuri holds up her whip. “RING OUT!” she calls, prompting Hizashi. 

“AND THE VICTOR IS IZUKU MIDORIYA, BY WAY OF RING OUT!” the voice hero calls.

Down on the field, Midoriya helps Kendo to her feet before catching her when she fails to put any weight on her left foot with a grimace. The boy grabs her and places her arm around his neck as he helps her hobble to the waiting medbots- an ankle injury, Hizashi deduces, but nothing too bad. The girl grins at Midoriya as he stutters out apologies before she lightly hits him on the shoulder. 

Hizashi sighs. Looks like that twinge really was nothing, thank god.

In a darkened apartment, near Hosu city, an elderly man laughs his ass off. “Toshinori! How did you… Oh, that bastard won’t see this coming- never in a million years! Bwahahaha!” 

The laughter slowly peters off before the man perks up. “Now, time to call up Toshi and rip him a new one for not telling me he found a successor.” 

Popping up from his chair, the man ambles over to a table, grabbing a dart. “Now, which persona to start with…?” 

Throwing the dart, it impacts with the dartboard across the room, landing on “Senile Old Man”. 

“Ah, perfect!” the old man laughs, dialing the phone. “Love that one.”

“COMING IN FROM OUR NORTH CORNER-“

“That’s west, Mic.”

“-IT’S THE MECHANICAL SPEEDSTER, TENYA IIDA!”

“AND FROM THE SOUTHERN SIDE-“

“That’s east.” 

“IT’S THE MAN OF THE ELEMENTS, SHOTO TODOROKI!”

“Todoroki!” Tenya says, bowing. “I hope we can take this match seriously.”

“Iida,” Todoroki returns with his own bow. “I’ll take this seriously if you do.”

“READY?”

“BEGIN!”

WIth a grunt of exertion, Todoroki begins crackling with electricity as he summons a massive iceberg in front of himself. Tenya begins producing his own blue sparks, dashing to the left of the wall of ice, narrowly dodging.

Tenya continues sprinting as Todoroki summons more ice spikes behind him, each barely missing. 

“I apologize, Todoroki!” Tenya shouts. “But I have been concealing something from you!”

“ONE FOR ALL STYLE:”

Are you watching, brother?

“RECIPRO-“

I want to make you proud.

“BURRRST!”

With a sudden roar of flames from his exhaust pipes, Tenya suddenly shoots forward, pumping his arms as he zips by Todoroki, narrowly missing a self-inflicted ring out.

Back and forth, Tenya zips, each time striking Todoroki but narrowly stopping before the edge of the arena.

I shall need to focus on sharp turns for future training , Tenya realizes. 

The pro hero known as Gran Torino watches the match thoughfully, his plans to call Toshinori immediately put on hold. He was already planning on browbeating Toshinori into letting him train the hero’s successor, but now that there’s nineteen of them…

That kid actually may be pretty suited for my fighting style, Sorahiko notes. Looks like he needs more flexibility. Bet I can get him to loosen up a bit.

Plus, the strict ones are easier to break.

Across the world, a generation of pro heroes that were once damned to Sorahiko Torino’s homeroom shudder in fear, mentally sending a prayer to whatever poor soul was so foolish to put themselves in Gran Torino’s sights. Better you then me, however, was the message left unsaid. 

Hit after hit, Shoto Todoroki takes, analyzing. He’s fast, the boy realizes. But I doubt he has much control over it. If I just…!

With a soft grunt of effort, Shoto stomps his foot onto the ground, drawing a thin sheen of ice over it.

Iida runs forward, attempting to get another hit, and slips on the ice, crashing down to the ground. As he fumbles to get up, Shoto grabs him, and in one fluid movement…!

“AND, FALLING OUT OF BOUNDS IN AN EXPLOSIVE TURN AROUND, IT’S A VICTORY FOR SHOTO TODOROKI!”

Izuku Midoriya, sitting in his waiting room, takes deep breaths. 

In and out. 

In… and out. 

Since he was four, Izuku Midoriya dreamed of being a hero.

In and out.

In… and out.

The first time Izuku watched the U.A. Sports Festival, he was seven years old. He dreamed that somehow, someway, he would find his way onto that podium.

In and out. 

In… and out.

The only person standing in his way is Shoto Todoroki. Theoretically the strongest person in Class A.

In and out. 

In… and out. 

Izuku Midoriya will go out onto that stage, and he will win, and show the world that he is here. 

In and out. 

In… and out.

“Deku!” Ochako Uraraka calls, bursting into the room with Tenya Iida. “Are you in here?”

Izuku smiles. “Yeah!” he calls, waving the two over. “I’m just getting ready!”

“You got this!” Uraraka cheers, pumping her fist. “Todoroki won’t know what hit ‘em!”

“Y-yeah!” Izuku cheers, slightly shakily, as he blushes. It’s unfair for her to be this cute!

“No no no!” Uraraka chides him, pouting. “Try again!” 

“Yeah!” Izuku cheers, more confident.

“Again!”

“YEAH!”

“AGAIN!”

“YEAAAAH!” 

“Will Shoto Todoroki and Izuku Midoriya please make their way to the field?” a pleasant voice asks, sounding over the speakers.

“Good luck, Deku!” Uraraka cheers, giving another little fist pump. “We’ll be rooting for you!”

“Indeed!” Tenya Iida concurs, chopping his arms. “Undoubtly, you will be the victor!” 

“Alright! I’ll see you guys later!” Izuku says, jogging out of the room.

“After you win!” Uraraka calls after him.

For a moment, silence reigns, before a pink haired blur slams through the door. “TEN MILLION?” calls Mei Hatsume, before she seemingly realizes that the boy isn’t present and turns to leave, only to focus in on Uraraka, 

“Gravity Girl!” Hatsume calls, dashing over to Uraraka. 

“Hatsume?”

“What do you think about making babies with me and Ten Million?”

In that moment, Tenya Iida’s phone rings, the boy picking it up exiting the room. 

“Mom?… Tensei? What about…?”

Back in the room, Uraraka blushes heavily before she recovers herself, deciphering the Hatsume-speak. “Oh, no, I’m not very good at inventing things.”

Hatsume pauses. “No, I mean sex!” 

The room freezes for a moment before Uraraka begins steaming as she collapses, bright red, a slight hissing noise emanating from her insensate form.

Two boys walk onto the arena, standing across from each other. 

In many other universes, Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki wouldn’t meet in the finals. In many other universes, Izuku Midoriya helps Shoto Todoroki work through his problems, unlocking the boy’s fire. 

This is not one of those universes,

“So, you finally started using all of your powers, huh, Todoroki?” Izuku asks, stretching his arms. 

“Yes. I have decided not to care what my dad thinks and am now in the midst of what I believe is my ‘teenage rebellion’,” the heterochromatic boy explains. 

Izuku cocks his head. “Does that mean you’re going to go through a goth phase?” 

Todoroki ponders that for a moment. “I do not believe so,” he finally concludes. “But we’ll see. Perhaps if Mina asks me to.”

“AND NOW, FOR OUR FINAL ROUND IN THE U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL! TWO MAY ENTER, BUT ONLY ONE CAN LEAVE!”

“As a champion , Mic, you’re making it sound like they’re going to kill each other down there.” 

“ARE THEY NOT GOING TO KILL EACH OTHERS’ DREAMS?”

“I- what?”

“ENTERING FROM ONE SIDE, IT’S CLASS A’S PERSONAL STRONGMAN, IZUKU MIDORIYA!”

“AND FROM THE OTHER, IT’S THE HETEROCHROMATIC KING OF THE ELEMENTS, SHOTO TODOROKI!”

“ARE OUR CONTESTANTS READY?”

“BEGIN!”

Shoto immediately stamps his foot down, sending a wave of ice at Midoriya. The longer this fight goes on, the more his temperature imbalance puts the boy at a severe disadvantage. With the other side of the arena a blanket of opaque mist, Shoto gives a sigh of relief. He’s seen Midoriya in training, and wants no part in that-

A blast of pressure nearly ends the match then and there, but Shoto forces himself to stay conscious. He’s been using One for All all day, Shoto notes. He must be way more tired than you.

Through the mist steps Izuku Midoriya, electricity crackling around him as he walks towards Shoto with a big grin. 

Shoto pales. 

“Hey, Todoroki!” the boy calls, the air buzzing around him. “I figured out 55%!”

Shoto considers calling the match right there. 

In the end, ten minutes later, as Shoto collapses to the ground, the arena around him riddled with pockmarks of ice and still-blazing patches of fire, Izuku Midoriya severely injured but still smiling , Shoto realizes that that first instinct may have been the better one.

“AND, YOUR WINNER OF THE U.A. FIRST YEARS’ SPORTS FESTIVAL, IZUKU MIDORIYA!”

Chapter Text

The afternoon after the Sports Festival…

“Drink this, huh?” Hitoshi Shinso muses, holding up a small vial of Izuku Midoriya’s blood. “And what, we get super strength?”

“W-well, yeah, pretty much,” the greenette says. “Drink that and you’ll be somewhere between the twenty-seventh and forty-eight user of One for All!” he adds, gesturing at the rest of Gym Alpha.

Deciding to reuse the same training space as Class A, Izuku recruited a few free members of his class, plus the silently observing Aizawa-sensei, to help oversee the passage of One for All onto Shinso and the duly recruited entirety of Class B. 

Including Neito Monoma, who apparently agreed to the transfer to “prove that Class B was in fact the superior class in all things, including agreeing to receive centuries old transferable quirks”. Izuku still wasn’t sure, exactly, how that guy’s brain worked, but Kendo assured him that Monoma was a perfect hero in class. She couldn’t assure him that he wasn’t a perfect hero entirely to spite Class A, but hey, Izuku would take his victories where he could. 

Back in the gym, Izuku is brought out of his thoughts by Shinso shrugging. “Hey, I’ve done weirder things before for the sake of training.” With a slight toast to Izuku, the purple haired boy downs the vial before pausing. “So, now what?”

“Now, we wait!” Izuku says. “We need to wait for your body to digest that vial before we can do some testing, and we’re not quite sure how long that takes since-“

“Since Midoriya made us eat his hair last time, ribbit.” 

Approaching the two boys is Tsuyu Asui and Kyoka Jiro, two of the Class A volunteers, and Itsuka Kendo. 

“His hair?” Kendo asks, receiving an empathetic nod from Jiro.

“Oh yeah. Green made us choke down his hair-“

“I said I was sorry!” 

“-because he couldn’t think of anything better,” the violet haired girl explains. 

“I panicked, okay!” Izuku says, blushing. “I wasn’t expecting to pass on One for All seventeen times that day! And that’s how I got the quirk!” 

“So, we’ve got no idea how long this is going to take?” Shinso drawls, refocusing the conversation.

“Well, that’s not entirely true,” Izuku explains, pulling a notebook out. “We know that typical digestion for the body happens between forty and sixty minutes. Previous times, when we used hairs, took between four and six hours, but that depended on hair length and the amount of product used. In short, we could be looking at you guys getting One for All in as short as thirty minutes!” he explains, before petering off at the wide-eyed looks Kendo and Shinso give him. “…W-what?”

“Where did you get that notebook?” Class B’s vice-rep asks, indictating the battered journal Izuku holds. 

“I-My room?” 

“Trust me, ribbit, we haven’t been able to figure it out either,” Asui explains, placing her hands over Kendo’s and gently pushing them down. “Some things are better left unknown.”

“I… right,” Kendo says, shaking her head to refocus herself. “Anyways, just wanted to let you know that Class B’s finished taking their vials, so we’re all set.” 

Shinso sighs, sitting against the wall and sliding down. “Guess now we wait.” 

Forty minutes later, several things happened in very quick succession.

Setsuna Tokage decides that it’s been too long since something interesting has happened, and decides to start teasing Izuku. Izuku, predicatably, begins blushing and stammering, which means that he misses the next several things. 

First, Pony Tsunotori sneezes. This wouldn’t be a big deal, except that Pony is now channeling One for All. 

This pushed her through three walls, a ceiling, and a long distance into Training Ground Alpha.

Second, Kosei Tsuburaba has a feeling. Thus, he sticks his arm in the air, finger outstretched, and yells, “Hey guys, check this out!” 

A section of the ceiling, weakened from Pony’s sneeze, falls on him. 

As the rest of Gym Alpha begins creaking ominously, Yui Kodai decides that while a small tomato is fine, a much larger tomato would actually be quite preferable. 

Unfortunately, Yui Kodai is unused to how big a tomato can get when a One for All enhanced Size is used on it. 

That knocks out the remaining load bearing walls. 

A few days later…

Walking into school, Izuku Midoriya runs to catch up to Tenya Iida. The taller boy stands at his locker, shoving things in with an almost mechanical precisions. 

“So Iida, um-” Izuku begins, only to be cut off by his friend.

Iida pauses putting things in his locker before turning to his friend. “If it’s about my brother, don’t be concerned!” Iida says, his smile not quite reaching his eyes. “I’m sorry if I made you worry. Everything will be fine.”

“That’s- actually, I had an idea,” Izuku explains. “Your brother… I read on the news that he’s paralyzed from the waist down, and won’t be able to return to hero work, unless there’s a miracle?” 

“That’s correct,” Iida says, remembering the hospital, before pulling himself out of the bad memory with a quick shake of his head. “But what’s your idea? Even with your,” and he drops his voice low, “power, I don’t understand how that would help him when he can’t move his legs?” 

“That’s what I thought too, originally! But you remember Mei at the festival, right? The support course girl?” 

“How could I not?” Iida says, shuddering. 

“Well, one of those designs she mentioned when she was preparing for her match with you caught my attention…” 

“Hahaha!” Spring-Leg, a D-Rank villain, yelled as he raced off down the highway carrying a briefcase full of cash, stolen from the nearby limousine. “None of you heroes got the speed to keep up with me, now that Ingenium’s been taken down!” he cackles as he continues bounding, easily out-stripping any heroes responding to the distress call. 

“Now then, to check out this loot!” he giggles as he begins to open the briefcase, only to pause as he hears the roaring of tires. “What the-”

“Stop, thief!” the (recently rebranded) Rolling Hero: Ingenium, also known as Tensei Iida, yells as he races down the highway, crackling with electricity as he rapidly spins the wheels on his support-wheelchair with all his strength. “Your villainy ends here!” 

“Eh????”

The night of the Sports Festival…

Deep in a darkened laboratory, All for One stops his rewatch of the first year Sports Festival and pauses, considering. All Might’s a buffoon, sure, but he does have a mere glimmer of tactical intelligence. What could be the man’s game here, presenting nineteen different possible successors…

Of course! A shell game, to trick All for One! All Might must have discerned that All for One survived all those years ago, and has been preparing for it this whole time! Well played All Might, well played. 

But! All for One has seen through the heroic buffoon’s petty tricks! And now, he knows exactly who All Might’s chosen successor is; after all, All Might clearly presented nineteen appealing options only to choose none of them and hide his successor behind those thin walls of deceit!. Some of the clues were harder to discern, since All for One can no longer see through TV Screens, but the announcers so helpfully described this particular contestant that All for One can’t help but feel grateful. 

After all, who else would All Might choose but someone who embodies the strength that this corrupt hero society so admires? Who else but a boy with such a powerful, destructive quirk? Who else but a boy that blew the competition away (except of course for those decoys) during the first and second rounds only to throw his third round, clearly to throw All for One off his trail? Who else but the boy who fought against all his opponents with a (albeit, according to the announcer, unhinged) smile on his face, who so clearly resembles All Might with his blonde hair? 

Who else but Katsuki Bakugo?

Somewhere, Katsuki Bakugo sneezes. Must be some extra talking about him again. Heh. They must be jealous of how awesome he is.

Shota Aizawa enters the faculty meeting room before stopping. Lying on the table, half-drunk, is Higari Maijima, who appears to be entirely dead to the world as he sobs loudly, Ectoplasm rubbing circles on his back. 

“What’s-” Shota begins, slipping into a seat next to Hizashi, only for Nedzu to clap his hands. 

“Now that we’re all present, we can get down to business. Kayama, if you please?” 

At her boss’s cue, Nemuri stands up and clicks on the projector, detailing a pie chart with U.A.’s budget from last week. 

“This is U.A.’s budget from last week,” Nemuri says, listlessly, as the entire room grimaces at the share of the budget that goes towards repairing things that Uraraka and Midoriya break. Damn problem children. 

“This is U.A.’s budget from this week,” Nemuri adds, the share going towards Uraraka and Midoriya nearly doubling. “Which can be entirely attributed to Mei Hatsume-” Maijima sobs louder at the name- “who has now armed them with explosives.” 

Shota pauses. “Aren’t they all dating? Shouldn’t that have resolved the romantic tension?” 

“Well, yes,” Inui admits, adjusting a small pair of reading glasses. “But I’ve discovered that in fact it was less romantic tension and more sexual tension.” 

“Well, fuck,” Shota says. “At least it can’t get any worse.” 

Mei Hatsume buzzes around the support studio, crackling with pink lightning, as her girlfriend and boyfriend watch with indulgent smiles. “I can see everything!” the inventor cackles, practically teleporting back and forth as she begins grabbing tools and materials. “SO MANY BABIES!”

Chapter Text

Izuku smiles as he takes his seat, listening to the sounds of his classmates. According to everyone (if Kaminari and Ashido’s stories could be trusted, at any rate), it seems that most of his classmates were recognized as mini-celebrities, even if that meant a hearty congratulations before the bystanders fled the general vicinity.

It appears the general opinion of events was that the entirety of Mustafu were very glad Class A was choosing to be heroes.

Izuku was startled out of his thoughts as the door to the class opens up, a familiar hobo-like teacher walking through it.

“Morning,” the man says, holding a mug of steaming coffee. On a dare, Kaminari once got close enough to smell the coffee and confirmed that it was impossible to tell if the coffee was steaming from heat or from dissolving the cup around itself. 

Well, Kaminari confirmed it once he stopped vibrating and could actually speak coherent language again.

“Good morning, Aizawa-sensei,” the class choruses back to him.

“Let’s get started. We’ve got a big class today- on Hero Informatics.” 

For a brief moment, everyone freezes up. Do we have a pop quiz today? Izuku wonders, tracing back through his memories on the past few classes. We’ve been learning a lot about hero laws, maybe…

“You need code names,” Aizawa-sensei says. “It’s time to pick your hero identities.” 

The room erupts in a shout of excitement before Aizawa-sensei shuts it down with a flash of his quirk. 

“This is related to the pro hero draft picks I mentioned last time we were in class together,” Aizawa-sensei explains. “Now, normally you wouldn’t have to worry about this until second or third year. In some rare cases, you all may have blown enough pros out of the water to secure a lot of offers for some you.” 

With a heavy sigh, Aizawa-sensei pulls out a remote and clicks, revealing a graph on the board.

“Unfortunately for my continuing sanity, this is not one of those years,” he says. “Thanks to all of your showings in the festival, and especially the final round, you all managed to secure internships. Which means that choosing appropriate hero names is more important than ever. You’ve already experienced combat with real villains in the USJ. Take these internships as an opportunity to view how real pro heroes handle themselves in the field, first hand.”

“And for that, we need hero names!” Himiko interjects, smiling toothily. 

“Yeah, this is going to be a blast!” Ashido cheers. 

“These hero names will likely be temporary,” Aizawa-sensei says, wrapping up his speech. “But make sure to take them seriously, or…”

“YOU’LL HAVE HELL TO PAY LATER!” someone yells, kicking the door open. Midnight-sensei struts in, wearing her usual hero costume, her hands behind her head.

“Yeah, that,” Aizawa-sensei says, rubbing his face. “The name you choose is important. It shows what kind of hero you want to be in the future.” Pulling out his sleeping bag, Aizawa-sensei continues. “As you can see by my name, that’s not my forte. Thus, I’m going to take a nap. Make sure you choose something good.” 

“Don’t worry, Shota!” Kayama-sensei laughs, cracking her whip. “I‘ll approve each name… personally,” she says, licking her lips. “Now-“ she begins, only to be cut off by a series of small explosions.

With a soft pop, the wall dividing the room from its neighbor collapses, smoke pouring out of the new hole to reveal the stunned face of Present Mic and the rest of Class 1-B. Well, stunned with the exception of Neito Monoma, who smiles smugly at 1-A’s stunned expressions.

Present Mic, as befitting a pro hero, recovers quickly. “Well hey, listeners! We’re in the middle of English class, but…”

“Not anymore!” Monoma says, drawing everyone’s attention as he stands up, arms stretched wide. “I shall now use this opportunity to teach Class A that Class B is superior by improving the foolish hero names of your class!”

“Monoma…” Itsuka Kendo grits out through her facepalm, clenching her teeth. “How did you even…”

“I enlisted Tokage to tell me when Class A was beginning their hero informatics class!” 

Setsuna Tokage smiles unrepentantly from her position near the front of the class, before adopting a defensive look as every eye in the classroom turns towards her. “What, he asked nicely!” she says, removing her dinosaur-themed beanie and recalling the ear she left in Class A. 

“No, how’d you remove the wall!” Kendo says, gesturing to the still smoking pile of rubble.

Monoma pauses. “Oh,” he says, gesturing to the seat in front of him and to the right. “Tsuburaba has a demolition permit.”

The boy in question gives a little wave. “Dad runs a construction company,” he explains.

Kendo facepalms again. “Monoma, you can’t just cause property damage for a dramatic reveal!” 

The intercom crackles to life. “I’ll allow it!” the voice of their principal says. “But please consult me next time, Neito Monoma! It would have been more convenient to use my own dramatic demolition systems rather than installing your own!” 

Silence reigns for a moment, before Present Mic claps his hands. “Right. So, listener, what was your idea?”

Izuku Midoriya sits in his chair at the judge’s table, sandwiched between Neito Monoma and Midnight-sensei, and can’t help but wonder where, exactly, his life went wrong. Maybe it was when Monoma declared him as the judge for Class A because he “performed adequately in the Sports Festival; not as well as any member of Class B would have in his place, of course, but quite well for a Class A fool”. Maybe it was when Present Mic and Midnight decided to just have hero informatics for Class B now and do English later. Maybe it was when Monoma detonated the mines in the first place. Maybe it was when Izuku signed up for U.A. With a sigh, Izuku looked down at his whiteboard and began to write down the name he came up with the night prior. 

“Alllllright, listeners!” Present Mic yells. “First up, from our judge’s table, it’s Neito Monoma!” 

The blond boy in question stands up, holding a whiteboard. “To begin with Class B’s absolute thrashing of Class A in the question of heroic names,” the boy begins, ignoring Itsuka Kendo’s eyeroll, “I chose a name to represent my role on the stage that is life! I am…”

Flipping the board around, Monoma reveals his name as he reads it out loud. “The Thespian Hero: Phantom Thief!” 

“I like it!” Midnight-sensei says. “It flows nicely together!” 

“Ooh! Ooh! Me next!” Mina Ashido calls, waving her hand wildly and allowing Present Mic to call on her. With a point from the pro hero in question, the pink haired girl stands up. “Call me… the Ripley Hero: Alien Queen!” 

“Like that horror movie?” Midnight-sensei asks, shuddering in revulsion. “No thanks!” 

“Aww…” Ashido moans.

“U-um, Ashido?” Izuku asks, hesitantly. When the girl in question turns to him, he musters up his courage and continues. “Maybe you could try something more… friendly? When most people hear Alien Queen, they’ll probably think of the movie, after all.” 

Ashido muses on that. “I suppose that’s true,” she decides. “Hm. Ooh! What about…” she says before she begins furiously scribbling on her whiteboard.

“I suppose I am able to go next,” Ibara Shiozaki says, standing up. “I have chosen the name The Flagellation Hero: Maria for myself.” 

“Referencing your faith!” Midnight-sensei comments. 

“Y-yeah, but do you want to be referencing the mother of God like that?” Izuku speaks up.

Shiozaki pauses. “That is true,” she admits with a sigh. “I was hoping to include my faith in my hero name, however. I shall have to consider this further,” the girl decides, sitting back down.

“Moi next!” Yuga Aoyama declares, sparkling to the front of the room. “I have decided to name myself appropriately,” the boy says, spinning his name to reveal… a sentence? “I am The Sparkling Hero: I Cannot Stop Twinkling!”

Monoma slams his hands on the table as he stands up. “Absolutely not!” the boy yells. “I refuse to be party to this travesty of a name!” 

“Quoi?” Aoyama begins, only to be cut off again. 

“Nope!” Monoma shouts, stomping to the forward of the room. 

“Mai-” 

“Nope!” 

“Bu-”

“No!” 

Snatching the pen from Aoyama, Monoma scribbles on the whiteboard, before stomping back to his chair at the judge’s table. For a moment, Aoyama stares at the new name, before turning back to the class with sparkling eyes. 

“Magnifique!” he declares, both passing his (sparkly) judgment and revealing his new name; The Sparkling Hero: Magnifique.

“Um, I can go next,” Rikido Sato says, standing up and flipping over his board to reveal “The Sweets Hero: Sugarman”. 

Monoma slams his hands on the table once again, standing up. “What do you mean, your name’s Sugarman ?” 

“W-well, I thin-”

“No, you don’t think! That’s the problem!” Monoma yells. “Where’s the pizazz? The excitement?” he asks, turning around as he paces before spinning back around. “Do you think that All Might would have been as popular as he chose the name ‘Strong Man’? No! It’s about drama! Being a hero’s is about being a player in the great stage of life!” he shouts, raising his hands. “And if you can’t stand out, what’s the point of a hero name?” he asks, returning to his senses and noticing the blank expression on the faces of his classmates.

Izuku raises his hand. “I don’t know, I think Sugarman’s pretty good.”

Monoma rolls his eyes. “I suppose a Class A plebian like yourself would think so.” 

“No, the idea that hero names need to be particularly dramatic or have some particular meaning to them is pretty new in modern heroics,” Izuku says, leafing through his notebook. “The officially registered heroes tended to use names that directly corresponded to their quirk, like Spider-Man and Stiltman,” he explains. “It’s only in the past several decades after All Might’s rise to power that hero names have tended towards more esoteric meanings, and that’s mostly because the world-wide boom in heroism means that more heroes are trying to use the same codenames at the same time.”

Monoma waves his hand. “Still, the trend is towards more dramatic names, and I would be remiss as a member of the superior class if I didn’t assist our lessers. To that end, I would suggest something suitably interesting. Juggernaut? Jaeger?” 

“I think Sugarman’s fine, if you want to keep it, Sato,” Izuku says. “Any hero name can be a good one if you like it.”

“I think I’m going to keep it. Thanks, Midoriya!” Sato says, taking his board and sitting down. 

“Hmph. Of course he would,” Monoma mutters. “No member of Class B would choose such an asinine name.”

Monoma stares at the board. 

Tsuburaba stares back, grinning. 

“This is because you hate me, isn’t it?” Monoma asks, staring at the whiteboard.

Tsuburaba laughs. “I just couldn’t think of anything!” he says, gesturing to the single word: Tsuburaba.

“Something to do with the air part of your quirk, I would think,” Monoma begins muttering. “Wall? No, no, too simple. Aerobarrier? No, no, doesn’t flow.” 

Izuku holds up his hand. “Maybe something like the Barrier Hero: Bastion?”

Monoma laughs derisively. “A name chosen by someone from Class A? He’ll nev-”

“Yeah, I love it!” Tsuburaba decides. “I’m the Barrier Hero: Bastion!” 

“No, seriously, this is because I did something to you, right?” Monoma asks.

Tenya Iida stands up, holding his whiteboard. “Originally, my brother Tensei asked me to take his hero name, after his accident left him unable to walk. Fortunately, he was able to return to his hero work, albeit in a wheelchair, and so reclaimed the mantle.”

Tenya takes a deep breath. “I, in a bout of foolishness, told my brother that I would avenge him and kill Stain. The first thing he did after leaving the hospital bed was slap me,” the teen confesses. “I talked with Tenya over the weekend about what hero name I should choose.” 

“You’re still having trouble choosing a hero name?” Tensei chuckles. After leaving the hospital, after taking a portion of One for All, he looks so much healthier than before. So much better than before. But still, whenever Tenya closes his eyes, he can’t help but see Tensei in the hospital, so pale and withdrawn on the bed, so… diminished.

“Yes,” Tenya confesses. “I’ve looked through the names our family has carried and none of them seemed quite… right.” 

“Of course not!” Tensei chuckles. “Those were someone else’s names, after all. Did you think that Ingenium was passed down to me?” 

“I did believe that, yes.” 

“Nah, little bro!” Tensei says, grabbing Tenya in an armlock and knuckling his head. “I made it up! That’s what you’ve gotta do, too. Being a hero isn’t just about copying other people,” Tensei says, releasing his brother and poking him over the heart. “It’s about being a hero your own way. Think about what kind of hero you want to be, yeah? That’s what a hero name’s all about. It’s not just about what kind of hero you are then. It’s about what kind of hero you want to tell other people you will be.”

In the present, Tenya Iida fingers his board. “I want to be the kind of hero that other heroes can rely on to always be there,” he says, steeling himself.

“My name is the Supersonic Hero: Steadfast!” 

“Ashido,” Shoto says, walking up to the pink girl. 

“Hm?” she asks, tongue sticking out as she draws a… passable drawing of a furry bear after a run-in with an electrically charged tree. “Sorry, one sec,” she says, finishing the sketch and holding it up. “See, it’s me!” she adds. 

“Ah,” Shoto says. “Yes.” 

“Anyways, what’s up, Shoto?” the girl asks, leaning back in her chair. “Come for love advice?” 

Shoto tilts his head. “No, I need help with a hero name. Do many people come to you for love advice?” 

Ashido visibly deflates. “No…” she says, before perking back up. “But hopefully they will soon! Anyways, hero name?” 

“Yes,” Shoto says. “My current idea is Shoto.” 

“That’s… hm. I can see why you need help.” 

“Yes. That’s why I came here.” 

“Right. How about: Polarity!” 

“I believe that’s already in use by one of my father’s sidekicks.” 

Ashido snaps her fingers, before pointing at Shoto. “Tempest!” 

“Also in use,” Kaminari chimes in from the next desk over. “I looked it up earlier.”

“Dammit!” Ashido curses, before she perks back up. “Wait! I’ve got it!” she says, grinning. “Flames Hotman Chill Dude!” Ashido yells, slamming her hands on the desk. 

Shoto pauses. “That will infuriate my father. It’s perfect.” 

“Wait, no, I didn’t mean for you to actually-” 

“Flames Hotman Chill Dude,” Shoto says, spinning around his board to the wide-eyed stare of the class.

Midnight recovers first. “Are you sure you want that to be your name?” 

“Yes,” Shoto says. “It will anger my father.” 

Midnight thinks back to her interactions with Endeavor before giving a thumbs-up. “He called me a harlot at the last hero gala and asked if I was secretly Wash’s love child. Approved!” 

Monoma snaps out of his stupor. “What do you mean, approved?”

Midoriya holds up his notebook. “You’re going to want an epithet, Todoroki. I recommend the Frost-and-Flames hero, to play off of Endeavor’s title. 

“That is true. I will use that,” Todoroki decides. 

Monoma sputters. “How can you approve that travesty of a name?” 

“It’s important to support your friends!” Midoriya says, smiling.

“So, I was going to be Invisible Girl!” Tooru says, smiling visibly- still a novelty for the class, but a happy one, given how cheerful she always is, now that that weight on her shoulders was cleared. “But then I learned how to make myself visible!” she says, practically shining with joy. “Those clouds that were hanging over me cleared up! I want to help other people find the bright side of things, too, and clear the rain hanging over them! So I’m going to be the Rainbow Hero: Spectrum!”

“I first wanted to be a hero when I was eight,” Mashirao Ojiro says, standing in front of the class. “There was a hero in my neighborhood when I was little. Her hero name was Red Tornado, but everyone called her Ma Hunkel.” Mashirao pauses. “She died when I was twelve, saving three kids from an apartment fire. Ma never got into the top hundred, or two hundred, or even the top thousand- her patrol route was literally only my neighborhood. My plan was to be a hero like her,” he admits, “but then Midoriya showed me how I can do so much more with my power. I still want to be a hero like her, but I can be a hero like that for so many more people, now.” 

Mashirao flips over his board. 

“That’s why I’m the Martial Arts Hero: Embusen. To remind me of where I came from and what kind of hero I’m trying to emulate.” 

“Lord Death Explosion King,” Katsuki Bakugo says, only to actually, somehow, someway get cowed (if only a little) by the glare Neito Monoma sends his way.

“I’m the Dancing Hero: Queen Venus!” Mina says, holding her whiteboard, a sketch of a rabid raccoon that lost a run-in with a garbage compactor next to the name. “Shoto helped,” she admits, rubbing her neck. “Mostly the Venus part.” 

“My dad made me study it,” the boy in question states. “It is acidic and dangerous but very beautiful, just like Ashido,” he adds, ignorant of Mina’s slowly growing blush. “It is also the name of the goddess of love, which fits Ashi-”

“YES THAT’S ENOUGH WE CAN STOP NOW!” Mina says, sitting back down. Where the fuck did Shoto learn to flirt?

And why the fuck is he so good at it?

Himiko stands up, her board in front of her, concealed to the rest of the class.

Monoma smiles, rubbing his hands together. “So many interesting names we can use! Carmilla, to play off the vampire theme! Ooh- perhaps a cat? Cougar! Panther! Puma!”

Himiko smiles widely. “Actually, I already have the perfect name! I was thinking about what name to pick when I ran into one of the third years here!”

Himiko rubs her head, trying to get back up from her mid-run collision, her things strewn across the hallway.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry! Do you need help?” The girl she ran into asks, before flitting over to start picking up stuff. “Oh hey, wait, are these bloodbags?”

Himiko freezes, ready for the girl to call her a monster, but the girl just looks at her with eyes sparkling with curiosity. 

“Ooh! Ooh! Do you have to drink them because of your quirk? Does your quirk use blood, or is just a vestigial mutation? Do you like drinking blood? What does it taste like? Does it taste different depending on the type? What about the person? Can you taste my blood? I always thought it tasted kinda coppery bu-”

“Hahaha, calm down, Nejire,” a calm voice said, “You’re overwhelming the first year. At least introduce yourself first!” 

“Oh, that’s right! I’m the Cheerful Hero: Nejire-chan!” the girl introduces. “But you can call me Nejire!” 

Himiko smiles, recalling the event. “I got to talking with her, and she even helped me pick out a hero name!”

“Are you sure about that one?” Nejire asks. “There’s so many cool ones you can use! Like… Vampire! Vampyre? Vempire!”

Mirio chuckles. “I’m pretty sure that’s just the same thing three times, Nejire!” 

Himiko smiles. “I’m sure! This one tells everyone about what kind of hero I want to be, and that’s the important part, right?” 

“Yeah!” Nejire says, a wide grin. “And this one suits you perfectly!”

With a wide grin, Himiko flips her board around. “I’m the Smiling Hero: Himi-chan!”

“Oh, Jiro, are you having difficulties?” Momo Yaoyarozu asks, turning towards her friend, looking as stunning as usual, as Kyoka slides casually into a seat near her. The students have dispersed more now, gravitating towards friends to brainstorm together, and Kyoka seized her chance quickly at a perfectly normal pace.

Breath normally, Kyoka, Kyoka Jiro reminds herself. She’s just your friend. Right now, anyways.

“Yea, I’m having trouble deciding,” Kyoka says, nodding. “I’m thinking about just going with Earphone Jack,” she says, casually, twirling a cord around her finger. Wait, shit, is that too casual? Will she notice? Fuck, is she noticing me thinking about this? Calm, calm, stay calm.

Mo- Yaoyarozu laughs in that angelic perfectly normal way of hers. “Yes, I was having a little bit of trouble with mine as well. What do you think?” she asks, revealing her name. The Everything Hero: Creati . 

It’s perfect, just like you. 

Shut up, brain, and think of something constructive I could say.

It’s beautiful, just like you.

Try again.

I want to make sweet sweet love to you.

I mean… yeah, but something I could say in class.

Please step on me.

No, bad brain, these responses are getting worse.

“...Jiro?” 

“-Love!” Kyoka blurts out, frazzled calm and collected. 

“You love it? Thank you!” Mo- Yaoyarozu says, beaming. 

“Y-yeah, I love it,” Kyoka says. “It really suits you.”

“Thank you!” Yaoyarozu says, laughing again in that damned sexy perfectly normal friend-thoughts way. “For your name, perhaps, you could use something that fits with your love of music?” 

“Hmph, maybe,” Kyoka says. “What do you think?” 

Yaoyarozu’s eyes light up, and Kyoka spends the next fifteen minutes definitely not getting an even bigger crush on the girl. 

“The Rocking Hero: Heartpulse,” Kyoka says, definitely not blushing at all as Yaoyorozu sparkles from Kyoka using her name.

Eventually, it finally becomes Izuku’s turn. With a deep breath, he stands up, holding his board. “I was having trouble thinking of what name I want to choose, so I asked my girlfriends what they thought.”

Girlfriends? a large amount of the class thinks in shock, not that Izuku realizes. 

“Hero name, huh?” Ochako thinks, her legs swinging back and forth as she sits on the edge of the desk deep in the Support Lab. “I’ve had one in mind since I was little, so I’ll probably go with that!” 

“Ooh, what is it?” Izuku asks, already opening his notebook. “I can cross-reference it with other heroes to try and see if anyone else has already laid claim to it and-” 

“Nuh-uh!” Ochako says, crossing her arms. “You’ve got to wait ‘till we go over them in class to see it, just like everyone else!” 

“But…” 

“Nope!” 

“Ooh, hero names?” Mei says, finally coming up from air out of her newest invention- supposedly a mech suit powered by soda. “I’ve got mine already! The Explosive Hero: Mei-Day!” she announces, before pouting (which, in Izuku’s completely unbiased opinion, is the cutest thing ever). “Midnight didn’t approve ‘the Babymaker Hero’.” 

“Hero name?” Izuku asks.

“Yeah, I’m applying for a transfer so I can do both support and hero work!” Mei says. She turns to Ochako and adds, “Wrench me,” taking the pro-offered wrench from her girlfriend and tightening a nut before continuing. “Now that I have this One for All thing I can test my babies out in the field myself! So much data!” she says, eyes shining.

“Don’t forget to eat, dear,” Ochako says, passing a second wrench to Mei. 

“I won’t!” Mei says, cackling. “I made a baby for that!” 

Mei’s partners look at each other for a moment, silently resolving to drag Mei to an actual restaurant later, before resuming their discussion. 

“So, do you have one, Izuku?” Ochako asks, handing a blowtorch to Mei as her girlfriend flips on a welding mask. 

“Not yet,” the boy admits, handing a screwdriver to Mei. “I’m still thinking about it.” 

“Ooh! Why not: the Hatsume Incorporated Hero!” Mei “suggests”. 

Izuku quirks an eyebrow. “Are you just trying to get me to advertise for you?” 

“Yep!” Mei says, unrepentant, as Ochako hands her a sledgehammer.

“Do you have any ideas?” Ochako asks, dragging the conversation back on track. 

“I think I’ve got one, but I’m not sure about it,” Izuku admits, handing a mackerel to Mei. 

After he shares his idea, his girlfriend smiles (which, again, is the cutest thing ever, not that Izuku is in any way biased).

“I think it’s great!” she says, beaming. “It really fits you, Izuku, and the title is perfect!”

“But Kaachan…”

“Screw him!” Ochako says, handing a flashlight to Mei. “That name’s for you, not him!” 

“I like it too!” Mei says, accepting a bottle of cola from Izuku. “It rolls off the tongue! Not as much as Babymaker, but still!” 

Izuku smiles. “Then, if you guys think so, I’ll do it! I’ll be…” 

“...the Fulcrum Hero: Deku!” 

Chapter Text

“Everyone has their costumes, right?” Aizawa-sensei calls to his assembled class. “Remember, you don’t actually have permission to wear them out in public yet, so don’t lose them or anything.” 

“Gotcha!” Mina Ashido cheers, hoisting her case over her head and forcing Kaminari to duck out of the way. 

“Speak properly!” Aizawa-sensei rebukes. “It’s ‘Yes sir!’, Ashido. Make sure you mind your manners with the other heroes during your internships.” 

“Yes sir!” the class choruses back.

“Good. Dismissed!” Aizawa-sensei calls, the class dispersing to their trains. “Go be someone else’s problems for a week,” he mutters, turning away.

Izuku checks his ticket, matching it to the platform… That way! he realizes, grabbing his luggage and navigating towards the end of the station.

“Hey, Deku! D’you know which train you’re on?” Ochako asks, coming up behind Izuku. 

“Yep!” Izuku says, showing his ticket. “I’m heading towards Tokyo- so platform 18. How about you?”

“Ah, darn!” Ochako says, showing her ticket. “I’m supposed to go to Platform 19.”

“Ooh, that means we’ll be riding together!” says… Mei?

“Mei?” Ochako and Izuku ask in unison.

“Yep!” their girlfriend says, pointing at herself. “Mr. Power Loader-sensei gave me special permission to do an internship since I’m going to be joining the hero course! He even let me bring my Iron Mei-den suit!” she adds, patting the briefcase at her side. “It’s full of my babies!” 

In the teacher’s lounge at U.A., Power Loader sobs in relief. “A whole week without explosives!” he says, tears streaming down his face. “Proper OSHA regulation! I can invite visitors in without giving them blast-resistant shielding! No automatic turrets at the door after hours! No automatic turrets pointing at those automatic turrets to dissuade hacking attempts!”

Ectoplasm pats his back, looking concerned at his co-worker. Perhaps Higari needs a vacation?

A train whistle sounds, causing Izuku to jump. “Oh, that’s my train!” he says, jogging away. “Don’t forget to call!” he adds, spinning around, before turning back and running to the vehicle. 

As the green-haired boy runs away, he hears Ochako begin to ask, “So, what hero are you interning with?” but the two quickly fall out of earshot as he merges into the crowd pouring onto the train, following behind a fellow student; this one a muscular blond with a large tuft of hair sticking up.

Izuku and the other student sit down together and ride the bullet train to Tokyo, get off at the same stop and walk down the street together until they reach the Nighteye Agency.

“So, are you just following me, or was this a freaky coincidence?” the boy asks, turning towards Izuku. 

“Wh-what?” Izuku says, startled. “O-oh! No, I’m going to the Nighteye Agency! He sent me an internship request!”

“Oh, you’re that first year from the Sports Festival!” the boy says, smacking his face. “I knew I recognized you from somewhere! I’m Mirio Togata!” he says, holding out a hand. “Nice to meetcha!” 

“N-nice to meet you too!” Izuku says, still off balance. “Hey, wait, you’re that guy who lost his pants in… the… I’msosorryyouprobablydidn’twanttoberemindedoftha-”

“Haha, yep!” Togata says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not my proudest moment! Sir’s done a lot to help me get my quirk under control, though! I bet he’ll be a great teacher for you too!” 

“I sure hope so!” Izuku says as the two walk into the agency. “I’m really excited to learn what skills he uses as an investigative hero!”

“Haha, I guess you don’t need too much help with your quirk!” Togata laughs. “Here, I’ll take you up to Sir’s office!”

“Th-thanks!” Izuku says as the two walk up the spiral stairs. I wonder what Sir Nighteye will be like…

Mashirao Ojiro looks up at the abandoned building. 

He looks back at his mentor for the week. 

“Really?” he asks.

“What?” Miruko asks as she walks by him, holding the door open. “You know I don’t have an actual agency, right? I’m just renting this for the week so I have a place to teach you shit.”

“Well, alright,” Mashirao says, hoisting his duffel bag on his shoulder. “So, what stuff did you want to teach me?” he says, turning to drop his bag off in the entryway.

“THINK FAST!” Miruko yells, Mashirao using his One for All enhanced reflexes to narrowly bend out of the way of Miruko’s kick. “I’ma teach you how to fight,” the rabbit heroine says as she lands on the wall, flexing and rocketing back towards Mashirao. “You got power and you got determination, but you don’t have the battle instincts to be a pro hero,” she adds as she lands, before cracking her knuckles. “Yet. So I’m gonna beat those into you.” 

Mashirao gulps as he flexes his tail, calling on One for All. 

Miruko taunts him forward by beckoning with her fingers. “Let’s go.”

Tenya Iida walks into the decrepit apartment building, knocking as he does. Sure, he had just spent the better part of forty-five minutes agonizing over whether or not to enter the building, given that his mentor wasn’t responding to any phone calls, texts, or other forms of communication as approved by the U.A. Handbook’s entry on internships (even the ridiculous ones, including semaphore. If Tenya didn’t know to expect better of an august institution like U.A., he would swear some of the regulations were put in solely to fuck with people), but he finally decided that it would be better to enter the building and… 

“Sir!” Tenya yells, noticing the elderly man laying face-down in a pool of a red liquid, what appears to be his intestines strewn across the floor. “Are you injured?” the teen asks, rushing over as he grabs the man’s wrist to check his pulse. 

“Hm? I’m alive!” the man says, sitting up and pulling his wrist from Tenya’s grasp. 

“That is a relief to hear!” Tenya says, pulling out his phone regardless. “Can you tell me what happened so I may report it to emergency services?” 

“Well, I was carrying a big plate of sausages when I tripped and fell down! Clumsy me!” the man says, trembling as he stands back up.

Tenya pauses. “So, you’re uninjured?” 

“Aside from my sausages,” the man says, looking sadly at his plate. “Now, who did you say you were?” the old man he asks, shaking as his bones audibly click together.

“Tenya Iida, sir! A hero in training at U.A. High School!” Tenya says, finally looking around the room. The lights were on, allowing Tenya to take in the details. A checkered floor, a small kitchen in the corner, a dartboard for some reason… “I’m looking for the pro hero known as Gran Torino, so I can fulfill my internship with him!”

The old man continues trembling. “You’re who now?” 

“Tenya Iida!” Tenya reports, promptly. Taking a second look at the man, he did appear to be dressed in a hero costume… could this be Gran Torino? But…

“So, what’s your name?”

He was like that. Tenya thinks. Recalling the handbook, the proper sequence of events in case of your mentor going senile while on internship was to return to the nearest U.A.-maintained passenger pigeon station and send a message back to Nedzu (seriously, Tenya swore that some of the regulations would be ridiculous, if not implemented by the top hero school in the country. As it was, they merely were a bizarre quirk of such a great school- clearly, Tenya was the one missing something!)

“Sir! I shall need you to remain calm while I go down the street and send a pigeon-message to the principal of my school!” Tenya decides, turning towards the door. 

“Think I’m senile, huh?” the pro hero asks, going through… Tenya’s costume case?

“Sir! I must ask that you please desist!” Tenya says, chopping his arms, as the elderly hero picks out Tenya’s helmet. “Under U.A. Charter 281, Section 5, while on internship mentally unwell pro hero mentors are not allowed to inspect student costumes!” 

The old man looks up, smacking his lips thoughtfully. “Using the regulation against me, boy? You are aware I helped write them, no?” 

Tenya freezes up. This old man helped write them? 

Gran Torino places the helmet back in the case before turning to Tenya. “Ohh, training you is going to be fun, zygote!” 

Tenya feels a shiver go down his back, but brushes it aside. Surely it can’t be that bad?

Five kicks to the head, three to the gut, and seven to the back, and a variety to Tenya’s various limbs (plus one particularly notable one to his crotch-area), Tenya regrets any and all of his previously held beliefs.

Ochako Uraraka steps inside the agency, momentarily taken aback by the sudden change in decor. “Whoa.” 

Itsuka Kendo blinks. “Wow, it’s pretty different in here.” 

“Yep yep yep!” a blue-haired girl says, floating down from a higher floor to land in front of them. “Ms. Ryukyu likes this kinda decor better than the modern theme outside but she has to match to the buildings around her.” The girl cocks her head for a moment, looking over them. “Ooh! Are you the U.A. first years? Hey, hey, I recognize you guys!” she adds, before zooming forward in an instant to look at Kendo. “Your hands get big, right? Can you do that with your feet? Or your head?”

“Um…”

The girl then darts over to Ochako. “And you’re the gravity girl! Hey, do you always fight like that? Or is just because of the green-haired boy? Ooh! Are you guys dating? Are you guys married?”

Ochako just blinks. “What?” 

The girl jumps back to Kendo. “Hey, I have another quest-”

“Nejire!” an adult woman calls. “Stop crowding them!” The No. 9 Pro Hero descends the stairs, walking towards the two first years. “You must be Uraraka and Kendo, right?” she greets, holding out a hand to her two new interns. “Welcome to my agency,” she adds, shaking both their hands.

“Thanks for having us!” Kendo says, grinning widely. “I wasn’t expecting to get an offer from someone as highly ranked as you!”

“Yeah!” Ochako says, pumping her fist. “I’m excited to learn from you!”

Ryukyu laughs. “I’m excited to get to work with you two too! Nejire, can you show them to where they’ll be staying this week?” 

“Yeah!” Nejire cheers. “C’mon this way!” she adds, walking towards the stairs as Ryukyu looks on fondly. “Hey, Ochako! Is that super strength part of your quirk or something else? How does that work? Hey, hey, what about…”

Masaki Mizushima, better known as the Normal Hero: Manual, waits at the train station for his intern. Sure, he didn’t technically need to do that, but it was good form! He didn’t get interns that often, after all, and it was good to make sure they felt welcome. 

“Hey!” he calls, catching a glimpse of his intern’s rather… distinctive hair. “You ready to get started?” 

“You bet, Mr. Manual sir!” his intern, Mei Hatsume, says, saluting. “I’m so excited to show you all my babies!”

Masaki pauses. 

“What?”

Chapter Text

“Wakey-wakey, Bakugo!” the cheerful voice of Katsuki’s mentor cheers, cutting through his sleep. “Time to rise and shine and get a move on for the day!”

Katsuki regrets many things in his life. Going to fucking Aldera. Not doing more quirk training. 

He has absolutely no regrets relating to the sports festival, shut up, why would you even fucking think that?

His most recent regret, however, is choosing the highest ranked hero on his internship list and being done with it. Since, apparently, the highest ranking hero that was willing to take a chance on him was her .

Katsuki groans and turns over, only for the goddamn music to begin. Seriously. Apparently his shitty fucking mentor decided to take up playing the goddamn one man band while on bed rest for a while, so now Katsuki had to pay the fucking price.

“C’mon, Bakugo!” his mentor says, between puffs of the fucking harmonica. “Let’s get a move on!”

Katsuki groans and finally drags himself out of bed.

At least nothing could be worse than doing a goddamn internship with fucking Ms. Joke.

“Shut up, kid, and leave me alone,” Katsuki says, glaring at the elementary student, before Ms. Joke sprays him with a squirt of water from her small water pistol.

“Nope!” the green haired woman says. “Try again!”

“But-“

Squirt.

“Hey!”

Squirt.

“Fuc-“

Squirt.

“FUCKING STOP IT!” Katsuki roars, detonating explosions from his hand.

“Not until you’re nice to the kid!” Ms. Joke retorts, spinning the gun around her finger like some wack-ass cowboy.

Squirt.

“Fucking fine!” Katsuki says, getting another squirt for the curse. “What’s up, bra- kid,” he corrects himself. Because he wanted to.

Not because he saw Ms. Joke aiming with her gun. Not at all.

Fuck you.

“I… I wanted an autograph!” the kid bites out, holding a piece of paper and a pen. 

“Heh. Looks like you’re smarter than you look, kid,” Katsuki says, taking the paper and signing it before passing the paper back to the kid.

“Awesome!” the boy says, holding the paper. “I got an autograph from the worst Class A member! Great!”

“WHAT?” Katsuki roared, explosions popping off his hands.

“Eep!”

Squirt. Right into the fucking mouth.

“Hey!”

“Thanks, Ms. Joke!” the brat yells as he runs away, escaping from the enraged first year.

“Remember your public speaking lessons from yesterday?” Ms. Joke asks her intern, waggling her finger.

“No, I fuc-”

Squirt.

“Fine! Don’t explodo kill the brats,” Katsuki recites, rolling his eyes.

“And what did you try to do?”

“Explodo kill the brats,” Katsuki says.

“And that was…?”

“The right thing to-”

Squirt.

“Fine! It was wrong! Are you happy?”

“For now I am, yeah!” the poor-excuse-for-a-pro says, smiling.

“I heard explosions, Ms. Joke,” a dignified sounding voice says, walking up to the two. “Is there an attack?” asks the number 4 pro hero, Best Jeanist.

“Nope!” his mentor says, turning towards the pro. “Nothing much going on, Tsunagu!”

“Please don’t call me that.”

Ms. Joke continues like she didn’t hear him. “Just my intern being a little uppity,” she explains, patting Best Jeanist on the back.

“Please don’t touch me.”

“Anyways, what’s the number 4 pro hero doing around here?” Ms. Joke asks, waggling her eyebrows like a fucking weirdo. “Came round to see lil’ ol’ me? Your old intern?”

“That internship is a mistake I wish to never again replicate. As well, my agency is a block away. It literally cannot be helped.”

“Oh, right! I keep meaning to drop by one day!”

“I would give literally anything to stop you from doing that.”

“Hah?” Katsuki asks. “You two know each other?”

Best Jeanist looks Katsuki up and down, before turning back to Ms. Joke. “Is this your intern?”

“Yep!” Ms. Joke says. “Was going to take him patrolling for a bit. He’s still a little grumpy.”

“Hey!”

Squirt.

Best Jeanist looks Katsuki up and down one more time before he nods, coming to a decision, and wraps Katsuki in fiber strings, muffling his cries of protest before he can even think to voice them. “I shall be taking him for the afternoon to try and work on his… image. Come by my agency around five tonight and you may pick him up.”

“Alright!” Ms. Joke says, waving goodbye. “Have fun, you two!”

With that, Best Jeanist slings Katsuki over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry, walking away from the scene as dignified as always.

At least Katsuki’s escaping Ms. Joke. 

Best Jeanist can’t be worse, right?

One haircut later and a pair of extremely skinny jeans, Katsuki continues to regret all of his life's decisions.

Best Jeanist was still better though.

“So, bossman, what are we doing today?” Enji’s… annoyance asks, strolling into his office.

“I am working on this case. You are supposed to be training with Burnin’ and the other sidekicks,” Enji says, seated at his desk.

“Yeah, but that’s so boring!” Ashido says, flopping onto one of the leather chairs in Enji’s office. “So I figured I would come see when we’re going on patrol!”

Enji finally puts down the form. “I told you. I’m not taking you on patrol. Not now, not ever.”

“Aw, c’mon!” Ashido says, sliding off the chair onto the floor. “Hey, what’s this for?” she asks, picking up a piece of paper at random.

“That is a very sensitive financial report for the agency this year. Please put it down,” Enji says, regretting every decision that brought him to this point. He thought that if he invited… her , Shoto might also come to his agency. As his masterpiece should have. As it was, Enji was stuck with this… pest for the rest of the week.

“Whoops!” Ashido says, tripping over nothing and sending the report straight into the flames that make up Enji’s beard. With a sigh, Enji pushes a button on the PA system to call Burnin’. 

That was the fiftieth document (all of them irrelevant to cases, but important to running the agency) Ashido destroyed and it was only the second day.

And with all the sanctions Nedzu put on mentors, Enji couldn’t even do anything about it!

Maybe patrolling would help, or barring that, injuring Ashido enough that she couldn’t annoy him anymore?

Enji would also accept himself going to the hospital, at this point. Anything to get rid of this menace.

With a sigh, Enji resolves to take Ashido with him to Hosu later that week. He was planning to go alone, but if he’s taking Ashido he should at least make sure that she knew enough to defend herself.

If only Shoto were here. He was properly trained, at the very least.

Though Endeavor still had questions about his hero name.

“Man, I’m glad you decided to join up with us,” Fat Gum says, munching down on his tray of takoyaki. “Been a bit messy around here recently. Nighteye says the yakuza are trying to get big again.”

“The yakuza? I thought they died out during the dawn of quirks,” Momo Yaoyarozu says, walking alongside the BMI Hero and his intern, Tamaki Amajiki. 

“They slowed down operations, sure,” Fat Gum says, waving a toothpick around for emphasis. “But they’re still alive and kicking, make no mistake about it. We’ll pick up a few of their goons every so often, but never enough to shut down the whole operation. Amajiki’s great at capture stuff like that.”

“Your expectations only drag me down,” Suneater returns, hiding his face in his hands.

“We gotta work on those nerves of yours,” Fat Gum comments. “Anyways, you getting used to Eshua Market?” he asks his new intern.

“Yes!” Momo says, smiling. “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it, after these past three days!”

“Great!” Fat Gum says, smiling. “We’ll be patrolling in Hosu tomorrow.” 

“What? But…” 

“It’s not good to feel too comfortable on any one patrol route,” Fat Gum says, admonishing Momo. “That’s how you get complacent, and that’s how you get into trouble. Normally I like switching up my patrol every couple days, but I figured I’d let you adjust before we swap things up this time.” 

Momo takes in this new information, considering. “That makes sense,” she decides. “Will Suneater be joining us too?” 

“Nah, he’ll be sticking around here!” Fat Gum says, patting the older teen on the back. “He’s been due for a solo patrol anyways, so I figure we kill two birds with one stone and get you some experience in an entirely different environment in the process.”

“I want to go home,” Amajiki moans.

“Alright, get up!” Gran Torino says, hitting Tenya’s armored shins with his walking stick. “You’ve done enough for right now. It’s time for phase two.”

Tenya Iida gets up slowly, moving gingerly to avoid exacerbating his bruising.

“Relax, zygote!” Gran Torino yells, causing Tenya to flinch. Gran Torino continues like nothing happened. “We’re heading to Hosu City,” the hero explains, walking towards the door. “We need to get you some more opponents before you start falling into bad habits. If you only fight high-speed heroes like me, you’ll have trouble when other types of villains show up.”

“Oi, kid!” Miruko calls from her paperwork, stopping Mashirao’s push-ups.

“Yeah?” Mashirao calls back, sitting up and toweling off his face.

“We’re patrolling in Hosu tomorrow! I want you to get some actual experience crackin’ heads before I ship you back to U.A.”

“Got it!”

“We’ll be patrolling in Hosu tomorrow,” Ryukyu decides, looking up from her tablet. “It’s relatively crime-free yet busy, so it’ll make a good spot for the two of you to experience your first night time patrol.”

“Got it!” Uraraka says, grabbing a drink from her water bottle as Nejire blasts Itsuka again with her quirk.

With a roar of exertion, Itsuka powers through and lunges at the older girl, only for the periwinkle teen to float over the clumsy grapple.

“Make sure to go high if your opponent’s a flier!” Ryukyu calls. “That way, even if you don’t catch them, you’ve boxed in one avenue of escape.” 

“Yes ma’am!” Itsuka calls, landing and refocusing herself.

“Go Itsuka!” Uraraka cheers from the sidelines. “You’ve got this, Battle Fist!” 

Mirai Sasaki steeples his fingers, looking at the boy in front of him. When Toshinori called him and told him that he found a successor, Mirai was shocked. Mirio was the perfect option- and Toshinori passed him up for not even a first year at U.A.? 

The Sports Festival… confused Mirai. The quirks of the first years, tailored so perfectly to resemble One for All… Mirai understood. A shell game, to confuse All for One. And within it, the one true successor… Izuku Midoriya.

Mirai tapped his fingers together and began.

“You should pass One for All on to Mirio.”

“Sure!” Midoriya says, smiling. “He’s a U.A. student, right?”

“Well, yes, he is,” Mirai says, shocked. He didn’t expect it to be this easy.

“Awesome!” Izuku says, pulling out a thermos. “Do you have any tea or anything? I don’t know if we want to just give him a mug of blood, but I have one just in case.”

“I… what?”

Half an hour later, Mirio Toogata bounced around the room, gold lightning crackling as Midoriya taught the older teen how to use One for All. 

Mirai still wasn’t quite sure what just happened, but at least it worked out?

He should probably take both kids to Gran Torino just in case. Maybe the old man has a better idea of what the fuck is going on.

The pro hero known as Backdraft ducks underneath the metal claw and rolls into his friend Manual’s office, slamming the door behind him and locking it. When his water-based friend asked to meet up and discuss a case, Backdraft expected a normal workday, not to be trapped in a horror movie with whatever that monstrosity was.

Scritch scritch.

As the scratching sound grows louder and louder, Backdraft backs off with mounting horror, the shadow on the other side of the door looming larger and larger as the door slowly begins glowing with heat until it explodes off its hinges, the robot entering with a menacing laser eye, searching the room for signs of life. With a gulp, Backdraft summons a globe of water, ready to defend himself to his last breath.

“HIYAAH!” a girl roars as a pink-haired teenager slams a wrench into the spider, disabling the mechanical monstrosity before the girl picks it up with one hand. “Sorry about that, Mr. Backdraft sir! This baby got a little away from me!” she adds, hoisting it over her shoulder and walking away.

“Ah, so sorry, Backdraft!” his friend says, running into the room and helping the firefighter-themed hero up. “Hatsume’s inventions sometimes go a little wild and we forgot to clean that one up earlier. Sorry!” 

Meanwhile, Backdraft tries to remember how to make his heart beat. Maybe he could convince Manual to take his intern out on patrol? Maybe that would get enough people together that he could get an arrest warrant or something.

Chapter Text

“Now I get it,” Chizome Akaguro, better known as the hero killer Stain, says, “you must be the ones who attacked U.A. And you want to recruit me to build up your little group again.”

“Yeah, it’ll be great, you’ve got so much experience,” the man-child across from him says, scratching the back of his neck. 

“And what’s your mission?” Chizome says, staring the villain down.

“For now? I really just want to kill All Might.”

Kill All Might? The only true hero. Our paths- the paths of this league and my own- are unable to coexist, the hero killer decides. But perhaps they may run parallel just a little longer.

“I like to destroy anything that pisses me off,” Shigaraki continues, holding up a picture of Izuku Midoriya. “Like this hero brat.”

Ah, All Might’s successor, from the Sports Festival. No way will I let this… man-child kill him.

“Or this hero brat,” Shigaraki adds, holding up a different picture, this one of Ochako Uraraka.

Ah, All Might’s other successor, also from the Sports Festival. She must also live.

“Or this hero brat, too,” Shigaraki finishes, holding up a third picture, this one of Momo Yaoyorozu. 

Ah, All Might’s other other successor, also from the Sports Festival. She must also also live.

“Okay, that’s all of them. Probably. I may expand the list in the future.”

“I was a fool to think that you could offer me anything of value,” Stain decides, settling into a combat stance. “It turns out you’re the kind of person I hate most in this world. One without any dreams.”

“Huh?” Shigaraki questions as Stain rests his hands on his swords. 

“The goals of your league are those of a child! What meaning is there to killing if you don’t have real convictions?”

“Why so tense?” Gran Torino asks, reclining in his train seat, leaning his hands behind his head. “We still have a couple of hours till we arrive,” he adds, closing his eyes.

“Just concerned about the future, sir!” Tenya says, getting a bop on the head from Torino’s walking stick.

“First of all, stop calling me sir!” the elderly hero says, hitting Tenya’s head again. “And stop worrying!” Gran Torino says, clucking his tongue. “Trust me, between your quirk and the training I’ve beaten into you, you’re more than a match for any low-level mugger we’ll run into around here.”

Tenya pauses, consciously relaxing. “I suppose that’s true,” he decides. “And Shibuya isn’t a known hideout for any villains, either. Nothing will go wrong tonight!” he confidently declares, only for Gran Torino to whack him on the head again.

“You don’t tempt fate!” the veteran hero lectures as the younger intern rubs his head. “Damn it, now-”

With the shriek of metal rending, a winged shape barrels through the train, grabbing Tenya and launching away with him into the night sky.

“-something like that will happen,” Gran Torino grouses, launching himself after the younger student. “They never listen, do they?”

Mirai Sasaki rubs his temples, wishing desperately that he had accepted Bubble Girl’s offer of another Advil before the hero and his two interns left the agency under the guise that Mirai wanted to “take Deku out on another patrol with Lemillion.” In actuality, Mirai decided to throw in the towel, bite the bullet, and take the two interns to Gran Torino, since the old pro hero was likely to have the most experience with what the fuck was going on.

Seriously, what Mirai thought was Midoriya being reckless with the quirk was actually a quirk evolution of One for All that allowed the younger hero to spread it among other people? Yes, because that made sense. That a centuries old quirk would suddenly and spontaneously evolve. 

Mirai didn’t study quirks very much, but even he knew that answer made no sense.

(In actuality, if Mirai had studied quirks, he would have in fact been more likely to accept that answer. Because a centuries old transferable quirk that suddenly evolves would have in fact been likely only two or three on the list of weird shit that any respectable quirk researcher would have seen. Hell, some more focused on esoteric quirks likely would have seen more bizarre that week alone!)

Regardless, that led the pro hero Sir Nighteye to where he was now: stuck in a train, nursing a desperate headache that plagued him as he attempted to work through the puzzle that stumped him and generally not having a good day. 

Even before the explosions started. 

“Hey, what was that?” a civilian asks, looking out across the city. “Some kind of explosion?”

“Looks like that building!” his friend next to him adds.

“Sir!” Mirio asks. “Permission to go and enact search and rescue?” his student asks, already fastening on his goggles and turning on his communicator.

Sir Nighteye nods, the familiar guise of a pro hero slipping on. “You do. Be wary about engaging until back-up can arrive.”

“Yes, sir!” Lemillion says, activating Permeation and slipping through the floor of the train.

For a tense, harrowing moment Sir Nighteye and Midoriya wait until the train stops at the nearest station, a mere few minutes away, before the two heroes rush off towards the fire.

“Midoriya,” Sir says, getting the younger intern’s attention. “When we arrive at the scene, I expect you to confine yourself to civilian rescue only. No getting involved with the villains unless it’s completely unescapable.”

Midoriya nods. “Yes, sir!”

“Picked a fine time to go out on patrol!” Gran Torino grumps, blasting his air jets to come back around for another attack on the four-eyed beast. “I haven’t fought this earnestly in years, and tonight of all nights?” he adds, dodging out of the creature’s clumsy return swing. “You’re fast, I’ll grant you that, but not as fast as me!” the pro adds as he launches back in, only for the beast to burst into a plume of fire. With a shout of surprise, he blasts his air jets backwards, narrowly avoiding sending himself into the pyre.

“I was looking for the elusive hero killer, but I suppose this beast will have to do,” a deep voice says. “Thanks, old timer. I’m afraid I don’t know you. But I can handle this from here on out!” adds Enji Todoroki, better known as the pro hero Endeavor.

“It’s Endeavor!” one of the civilians says. 

“But why’s he in Hosu!” adds another.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the number two asks, smirking. “I came because I’m a hero.”

“Aw, c’mon boss man!” a very pink voice says, walking around Endeavor. “That’s not really an answer, is it?” 

“Queen Venus!” Endeavor grumbles, turning around. “I told you to stay with the Flamin’ Sidekickers!”

“They told me to catch up to you if I could!” Mina Ashido says, holding up both hands. “And, well, I can!” 

With a screech, the Nomu regathers the attention of the three heroes. Twitching as it rises, the creature begins to expand, as if to burst…

“That was only a low temperature warning shot,” Endeavor muses, charging a hotter flame. “But still, it never fails to K.O. an opponent.” 

“Something’s not right,” Gran Torino muses. “This guy’s about to-” 

Suddenly, the Nomu erupts in a burst of fire, returning the earlier attack at the heroes with a barely-controlled vengeance. Gran Torino leaps out of the way as Endeavor merely sculpts the flames around him, Ashido ducking behind the number two hero.

“Your quirk’s absorption and release. But you still took damage from my flames, didn’t you? Not a very impressive power.” 

“Watch it, Todoroki!” Gran Torino yells, seeing the Nomu’s bulging muscles. “I think this guy’s got more than one quirk!” he adds as the Nomu doubles, triples, quadruples in size before leaping high in the air, aiming to kill the fiery hero in front of him.

“I see. So that’s how it is,” Endeavor says, charging up his flame again. “I’ll take you down before you can do any more damage!”

Those two bystanders got away, right? Gran Torino thinks, searching the area. Good!

As Endeavor’s flame heats up, the Nomu screeches, tongues escaping his mouth before coalescing into a horrifying monstrosity, the grasping limbs reaching out to squeeze the life out of any so unlucky as to fall within their reach. Gran Torino blasts forward, smashing through the tongues, but before he can spin around and hit the creature’s main body-

“BLAMO!” Mina Ashido cheers, slamming the creature into a nearby building with a single punch, pink lighting crackling around her as the Nomu disappears into the new-found crater. “Got ‘em, boss!”

Endeavor pinches his brow. “How many times have we talked about property damage, Venus?”

“Hey, I wasn’t sure if he had shock absorption like that one at the USJ!” Ashido explains, her lightning receding. “Looks like we’re fine, though, since the guy’s not getting back up.” 

Another explosion echoes over the Hosu skyline. 

“That must be where the rest of the heroes gathered,” Endeavor concludes. “But it’s been two or three minutes. They should have taken care of things by now.”

“We need to tie this guy up. The cops will take care of him then and we can help out with the other heroes,” Gran Torino decides. “You carry any fancy capture tape in that costume of yours?”

A car explodes as an RV is thrown into it, spreading flames throughout the street. As the destruction spreads, the local heroes are thrown back, one hitting the ground with a sickening crunch. 

“Go low, Embusen!” Miruko shouts, leaping at the tallest Nomu. “Luna Arc!” she yells, swinging her leg at its head in a mighty kick as her intern sweeps the creature’s legs out from under it. Despite the two-pronged attack, the creature barely stumbles, roaring in rage before grabbing Miruko out of the air and throwing her to the side.

“Gotcha!” a young voice yells as someone catches the pro hero. Miruko looks behind her to see her long-time rival (and occasional friend-with-benefit, or as Miruko put it, fuck buddy) Ryukyu arrive on the scene with her interns, the small squad immediately fanning out.

“Battle Fist! Uravity! Assist with search and rescue! Nejire-chan, you’re with me!” the hero roars as she transforms into her draconic form, swatting the winged Nomu from the air.

“Right!” the blue-haired girl yells, setting down Miruko before returning to her position in the air. “Nejire Wave!” she shouts, blasting at the muscular Nomu. 

“Hatsume! Help with search and rescue!” the voice of the Normal Hero: Manual echoes out as the hero runs towards the fire hydrant, another local pro shattering the hydrant, allowing Manual to begin redirecting the flow and extinguishing nearby fires.

“You got it, Mr. Manual Sir!” a support-gremlin (it’s an official term, Miruko checked!) calls as she lands from her collapsible stilts, pulling out a gadget and scanning the street.

“You going to call me back?” her intern asks, rubbing a bloody scrape along his cheek with the back of his hand. 

“Nah, I know how you fight,” Miruko says with a cheeky grin. “Besides, I’m an irresponsible pro, right?”

Ojiro barks out a short laugh. “I suppose that’s true. You ready?” 

“Never better!” Miruko laughs before the two charge the Nomu, Embusen leaping in the air with Miruko. 

“LUNA…”

“WHIRLWIND…”

“...FALL!”

“...SLAM!” 

Ochako leaps through the air, One for All empowering her Zero Gravity jumps as she checks inside windows, searching for civilians. “Nothing in this building!” she yells, returning to the ground. 

“Nothing over here!” Itsuka Kendo returns, landing on the ground as her own One for All flickers around her. 

“My baby isn’t picking up anything over here!” Mei adds, shaking the tablet-like device. “Let’s keep-” 

With a ding, Ochako’s phone vibrates as Mei’s tablet rings.

“Izuku!” Mei gasps before her mechanical arms snake out to grab Kendo and Ochako and the pink haired girl blasts down the street, crackling with pink lightning as she rockets towards the outskirts of Hosu.

Momo Yaoyorozu and Fat Gum run down the streets of Hosu towards the explosions, Fat Gum’s girth jiggling the entire way. “Man, this is bad!” the BMI Hero says. “I was hoping we would get a nice quiet night so you could get used to patrolling a usual route!”

Momo nods, not even breaking her stride as she produces a staff. “Nothing for it now, sir!” 

“I told you, call me Fat Gum if you gotta be all formal about it!” her mentor reminds her.

As Momo finishes off her staff, she internally marvels at how easy it is to produce creations now that One for All boosted her quirk. And for that, she has Midoriya to thank…

As the two sprint down the street, she notices something coming towards her. Someone… familiar? Is that…

“Sorry Mr. Hero sir need to borrow Creati!” someone yells as the blur goes by. Momo has a brief moment to notice the shock on Fat Gum’s face before she’s yanked along with the flying figure, hurtling at top speeds along the street.

“Uraraka? Kendo?” Momo asks, incredulous, as she recognizes two of her compatriots. “What’s going on?” 

“No time to explain!” Mei says, uncharacteristically serious. “Izuku’s in trouble!”

Five minutes earlier…

Stain resheathes his sword, looking down at the running figure of Native before jumping across the rooftops. His chosen prey would keep, after all. But the chance to grab Sir Nighteye, the gloryhound, the fake hero that dared consider himself worthy to work with the only true hero before betraying that same trust?

For him, Stain would let a hundred Natives go.

Stain began his hunt, tracking the tall hero and his shorter intern.

The man was clearly focused on reaching the source of the explosion as quickly as possible, and Stain knew that the fastest route through the city forced the two heroes through a narrow alleyway. And if someone ambushed the sidekick on the way through…

Well, even good heroes fall when taken by surprise. And Sir Nighteye was no front line fighter.

Stain smiled. Another fake would fall tonight. 

So swore the hero killer.

Chapter Text

Approximately one minute after Tenya Iida was abducted from the train:

“No, no, no!” Shigaraki rants, throwing his hands in the air. “I told you to bring back the green haired hero brat with super strength! Not the metal hero brat!”

The winged Nomu looked at its master with a cocked head. “Rr?” 

“The green haired hero brat with super strength!” Shigaraki tries to enunciate, only to pinch his brow. “Fine! Just join the other Nomus and try to draw some more aggro from the heroes. The more points of damage we cause in this mission the higher the rating,” he decides. The Nomu nods before taking off, flapping its mighty wings.

“Now, what the fuck do I do with you?” Shigaraki mutters, poking Tenya Iida’s unconscious body with his toe.

Approximately eight minutes later (thirty seconds before Izuku Midoriya sends a message to Mei Hatsume and Ochako Uraraka):

Izuku rushes through the streets, chasing the long-legged stride of Sir Nighteye. The veteran hero, understandably, was leading the younger hero as they rushed before the pro turns a blind corner into an alleyway but as Izuku follows-

The metallic scent of blood fills the air.

With a grunt, Sir Nighteye finds himself shoved into the alley’s wall as his limbs lock up, the sword used to stab him licked by a long tongue belonging to a man dressed in rags, a tattered mask serving to identify the noseless man as Stain the Hero Killer.

“While I hate being grateful to that Shigaraki idiot, I do have to admit that I’m thankful his distraction enabled me to get close enough to cull you, hero,” Stain says, hissing the last word. 

“Can’t- move!” Sir Nighteye grunts, straining to even speak. “Midoriya-! Get-! Away-!”

Izuku presses the Hatsume Industries Panic Button™ that Mei made for him before calling up One for All. “Sorry, Sir,” he says, green lightning crackling around him. “But I can’t leave you behind!”

“Admirable. You charge in to save your mentor,” Stain says, drawing his tongue across his sword. “I’ll give you one chance to leave, as a true hero. I only want to go after fakes like this one,” he adds, indicating Sir Nighteye.

“I can’t just leave!” Izuku says, crouching into a sprinter’s position. “Meddling when you don’t need to- that’s the essence of being a hero!”

Stain’s eyes widen as he smiles. “Just like a true hero would say!” he says, before charging at the hero student.

“Get ready, Ochako, Fist Lady, Baby Girl!” Mei yells, the four heroes pole-vaulting over the city skyscrapers, the poles extending and retracting to propel them forwards at a blinding pace. “We’re coming in hot!”

“Right!” Ochako and Kendo respond, even as Yaoyorozu blushes heavily with a confused, “Baby Girl?”

With a whine of exertion, the metal poles that make up Mei’s invention bite into two buildings surrounding an alley, causing the group to come to a sudden stop as Mei lights up with her pink One for All, hurling the three other successors forwards. 

“Kendo!” Ochako yells, removing her own gravity as she and the other two girls land.

“Right!” the orange haired hero yells as she enlarges her hand, crackling with orange lightning as she fires up her own super strength quirk. “Jumbo Fist: Fastball Special!” she calls, Ochako jumping into the other hero’s enlarged hand as the girl takes a step forward and throws the brown haired girl straight forward.

With a crack of air as the girl flies forth, the hero killer has a brief moment of realization before Ochako’s fist cracks into his face. 

“NEUTRON SMASH!”

The hero killer flies into the street, bouncing once, twice, three times on the pavement before landing.

“You guys made it!” Izuku says, relieved. 

“Of course!” Mei says, giving her boyfriend a one-armed hug. “I couldn’t leave ya hanging! Especially when there was a chance to test my babies!” 

“Glad you have your priorities straight, Mei,” Ochako says, rolling her eyes as she elbows her girlfriend. 

“Guys, we should probably focus!” Kendo says, her back ramrod straight as she keeps both hands enlarged. “Super deadly serial killer right here!” she adds, not letting Stain leave her sight.

“Right!” Izuku says, settling back into a boxing position.

Izuku’s mentor coughs from his position slumped on the wall, barely able to see the fight. “Don’t worry, Sir!” Izuku says, lightning sparking from him and illuminating the night. “We’ll protect you!”

“You can certainly try!” Stain snarls, drawing a knife in his off-hand.

With a flash of multi-colored lightning, the five heroes launch off the ground to attack the serial killer.

Tomura Shigaraki crouches on the edge of the water tower, chewing on a pen. “No, no, no! The shark tank was a good idea, but there’s no way we’ll be able to track down enough sharks to fill a tank by the end of the night!”

Kurogiri swirls next to the villain, examining the notebook. “I once again fail to see why we cannot merely disintegrate the student and be done with it.”

“Because there needs to be a show behind it!” Shigaraki says, waving the pen around. “We can’t just give All Might a pile of dust and tell him that it was a hero brat! We need to prove the boy is dead!”

“Number six is a particularly inspired idea, then,” Kurogiri suggests, indicating the list. 

“Yeah, but where the fuck are we going to find three hundred bees at this time of night?”

Chizome Akaguro swings his sword, trying to hit one of the blurs, only for his shoulder to explode in pain after being struck by an actual fucking cannonball what the hell

With a grunt of pain, he stabs with his knife, only to be launched into the air by the solid impact of a fist. Before he can twist and land in a suitable position, a second blur spikes him in the air, skipping him along the pavement for a single bounce before an uppercut from a third hero launches him upwards again.

Back and forth he gets ping-ponged, never once having the chance to land his own blow.

Damn it, how am I supposed to test these students as real heroes if I can’t even learn their ideologies?

Eri sprints through the streets of the city, hearing the sound of that monster no please that monster ’s footsteps behind her.

“Come back, Eri,” the monster calls. “You know you can’t run. I’ll always find you. Only I can free you of your curse.”

Please! Eri thinks, biting back a sob as she redoubles her efforts. Anyone! Any-

A loose pebble in her path.

Eri trips and falls hard, landing out of the alleyway.

“See?” the monster no please stay away stay- asks, walking up to her. “Now let’s get you back home. There’s more work to be done.” 

No no no-

“DETROIT SMASH!” a young voice yells.

In the space of a blink, Kai Chisaki finds himself approximately fifty meters and counting down the street as the broken body of Chizome Akaguro slams into him, instantly breaking no less than five separate bones in his right arm, shattering six separate ribs, and dislocating his hip.

Biting back a cry of rage, Kai turns back to Eri only to see her comforted by one of the heroes- a green haired brat! And the other heroes were already brutalizing the villain that crashed into him, so that avenue of stress relief was closed to him. He couldn’t go after the heroes without breaking his low profile- the only thing allowing his group to continue operating was the lack of movement, after all. And Kai didn’t fancy his chances alone, with none of his quirk bullets, against any curse like that superstrength one.

With no other options available, Kai ducks into the nearest alleyway, activating his quirk to heal his arm before he begins walking back to the Yakuza compound. At the very least he could… discipline the subordinates responsible for the loss of his most prized possession.

And perhaps the stem cells he harvested from the subject may prove enlightening, now that avenues of more live testing have been stripped from him. 

Eri looks up, hesitant, at the hero helping her. That monster always said that no hero would ever believe her. But he did. Right? He wouldn’t send her back? “Y-you won’t give me back to him, right?” Eri asks, trembling. 

“Of course not!” Mr. Deku says, shaking his head. “I won’t send you back to wherever you escaped from!”

He…

He won’t?

Is she really free?

With a choked back sob, Eri hurls herself forward into Mr. Deku’s arms.

“Whoa!” the hero says, smiling. “I- we’re in the middle of a fight right now, Eri, so can you let go and I’ll come right back?”

Eri looked up at the hero. “N-n-no! You’ll leave me and he’ll come back and find me again and lock me up and-”

“Okay, okay, I won’t leave you!” Mr. Deku says, thinking for a moment, before he has an idea. “Grab onto my back, okay, Eri?”

“Ochako!” Izuku calls, grabbing onto Ochako (Eri still clinging tightly to his back) and swinging her around, throwing the heroine towards Stain.

Ochako makes the kick, ramming both feet into the Hero Killer’s face, before launching off and hitting the ground in a handspring, bouncing back into the air. 

As Stain’s head snaps back from the kick, Kendo jumps up into the air and grabs the serial killer, throwing him back towards the ground where Yaoyorozu waits, smashing into the villain with a baseball bat and launching him back towards Izuku, who uses a piece of rebar to whack the villain into the air, where Hatsume shoots him with a net gun.

Trapped in the net, Stain struggles for a moment before Yaoyorozu summons a massive rubber mallet, tossing it to Ochako and allowing the gravity-defying heroine to smash Chizome into the ground again. 

Back and forth the fight goes, the five heroes teaming up to bash Stain back and forth, never allowing the villain to perform even a single attack successfully. With a final, mighty Detroit Smash from Izuku, Stain flies down the street, landing heavily in a small crater in the ground.

Chizome Akaguro finally comes to a stop, half a mile from the battle’s starting point, at the base of a water tower. Breathing heavily, the serial killer gets to his feet as the five students (and small child) zip over, still in ready positions.

“I see that you five have convictions!” the hero killer announces throwing away his now shattered sword and knife and drawing two new ones. “But this charade ends here!”

Across his time as Stain and before that Stendhal, Chizome trained many skills. Though he is most known for his mastery of swords and knives, the weapon in his arsenal that he considered his greatest was the more unknown of the two. With a glare, he unleashes his killing intent upon the five heroes, letting them sink under the weight of his ideals.

As the five freeze, the aura stopping them in their tracks, Chizome takes a moment to recover, stepping a single step forward. “You five fought admirably, as real heroes should. But my sacred mission to cull the fakes must not be stopped! It must be continued, before-”

Shigaraki kicks his foot out in frustration, scratching his neck furiously. “DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!” he screeches. “Will none of these plans work?”

The foot impacts Tenya Iida, barely nudging the boy. 

Unfortunately, “barely nudging” is not the same as “not nudging”, a point made abundantly clear as Tenya begins rolling down the slope.

Tomura Shigaraki watches Tenya Iida’s still unconscious body roll off the rooftop. 

“Whoops.”

“I shall cut out this disease that infests society!” Stain yells, concluding his speech. “Now, where did Nighteye go-”

With the sudden noise of a twenty-kilogram suit of armor impacting a serial killer, Tenya Iida’s unconscious body falls from above and crushes the hero killer underneath.

Izuku breaks the silence by scratching his head. “I guess… is that it?”

It was, as it turns out, it.

Chapter Text

Momo Yaoyorozu breathes heavily, allowing her quirk to reabsorb her creations. While she’s thankful for Izuku for sharing One for All for many reasons, the ability to reabsorb her creations and recycle the lipids used was certainly a prominent one; and one that benefited her greatly, allowing her to create so many more different inventions in a single fight.

“Yaoyorozu, can you produce some rope?” Kendo asks, walking forward to lift the metal-clad body of Tenya Iida off of Stain.

“No need!” Hatsume proudly proclaims, unveiling a net gun. “My babies have got you covered!”

“Babies?” Momo can’t help but question, blushing slightly as she remembers what Hatsume called her earlier.

“Mei calls her inventions her ‘babies’,” Uraraka explains, tapping Iida to remove his unconscious form’s weight. 

So that doesn't mean...? Yaoyorozu can't help but wonder.  

“Yeah, ‘cause I put everything into them!” Hatsume says, shooting Stain and entangling him.

“We should get moving back to Sir Nighteye,” Izuku decides, hoisting the little girl higher onto his back. “I’m not sure if he’s still paralyzed, but we definitely don’t want to put him in danger by leaving him alone if that’s the case. And I want to get Eri, here, to somewhere safe.”

“Let’s take Stain back too,” Kendo says, hoisting the unconscious man with barely any effort. “We don’t want to leave him alone for any period of time- no doubt he’s got a ton of hidden blades on him.”

“Ooh! I’ve got another baby for that!” Hatsume says, aiming a cartoonishly decorated magnet and flipping a switch, causing the magnet to emit a low hum as three persons-worth of blades fly out of Stain’s clothing and into the machine. “Plus, my net-baby’s cutting proof! You’d have to be able to cut through steel to get through those fibers!”

Momo pauses. “Because they’re made of steel?”

“Exactly! Well, a non-magnetic steel alloy, but nearly the same thing!”

“The fuck’s it going to take to keep this asshole down?” Miruko yells, leaping out of the way of the muscular black Nomu as another devastating blow cracks the pavement below her. “He keeps shrugging everything off!”

Ojiro ducks under a wild haymaker, slamming two mighty jabs into the Nomu’s chest, followed by a leap and spin into another smash into the Nomu’s head. “It’s his regeneration- he’s taking damage, just not quick enough to do anything lasting!”

“We’re not doing any better over here!” Ryukyu shouts, fully transformed. The winged Nomu dodges out of her claw, tanking a blow from Nejire-chan’s wave form without any trouble. “Does anyone have a quirk that can block the Nomu from regenerating?”

With a shriek, the muscular Nomu slams his fists down, generating a shockwave of dust and debris as the heroes are knocked back.

“Where-” Manual says, only to feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he senses an enormous presence behind him. With a sinking feeling, the Normal Hero brings up a globe of water, aiming to at least slow down the grim reaper’s scythe that he can feel coming-

“Whew, glad I got here in time!” a massive, yellow-jacket clad mass of fat says, the black fist sinking into Fat Gum’s enormous belly. “I was about to run after Yaoyorozu, but my ol’ heroing instincts said I was needed over here!”

The Nomu attempts to pull its fist free before, with a sudden burst of wind… “KAPOW!” Mina Ashido yells, slamming into the Nomu in a picture-perfect flying jumpkick and jerking the creature’s head back.

“Aw, what gives?” the pink-haired menace asks, landing on her feet. “That normally sends ‘em flying!”

“It’s got shock absorption!” Ojiro calls as the Nomu’s head twists around, slowly focusing on Ashido. 

“Aw, heck,” the girl says, staring down the monster. “Whoops!” she adds, nimbly leaping out of the way of the creature’s earth-splitting blow. “You asked for it, buddy! Acid Shot!” she calls, sending a hail of acid droplets to splatter down upon the creature.

Miruko slams into the creature’s back, driving it a few steps forwards. “Finally, some fucking progress! Do that again!”

“I’ll do ya one better!” Ashido says, generating a large mass of acid at the tip of her fingers. “Unnamed Super Move…” she begins, but before she can finish…

The winged Nomu darts out of the way of another one of Nejire’s beams before dashing down at Ashido, sharp talons aiming for her surprised face-

“I told you not to run ahead, Pinky!” Endeavor yells, grabbing the Nomu’s head with his hand and slamming it into the pavement. 

“Thanks for the help, boss!” Ashido responds, before turning her attention back to her opponent. “ACID DELUGE!” she roars, throwing two massive globs onto the Nomu’s head and burning deep holes into it. With nary a sound, the Nomu falls over, holes through the entire head visible. 

“Whew,” Ashido says, catching her breath. “Man, probably shouldn’t use that one on live opponents.”

“No, you really shouldn’t,” Gran Torino snarks, rocketing up. “The other Nomu’s been contained by the police and your sidekicks, Todoroki.”

“So just this one then?” Endeavor asks, his fist growing hot with flames. “Hmph. Let’s finish this,” he says, letting loose a sweltering stream of flames. The fire grows in intensity, turning from orange to blue before briefly flickering to white. With a grunt, Endeavor cuts off the fire, the Nomu’s smoking neck the only trace of the beast’s head.

“Where’s Sir?” someone asks. Turning, the assembled pro heroes identify the hero as Togata Mirio, also known as Lemillion. “He should have been here by now!” Lemillion says, looking more and more frantic. “Where is he?”

“Nffh,” Sir Nighteye says, twitching as feelings return to his limbs. “Midoriya!” he says, immediately standing and nearly pitching forward for his trouble.

“I’ve got you, sir,” Momo Yaoyarozu says, catching the pro hero.

“Midoriya! Where’s-”

“I’m right here, Sir!” Midoriya says, Eri still clinging onto his back like a baby koala. “We’re all safe, don’t worry.”

“Yeah! My babies helped save the day!” Hatsume says, Stain (still trapped in the net) slung over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “Don’t worry ‘bout us!”

“We all helped save the day, Mei,” Uraraka says, admonishing her girlfriend. “Your babies did help, though,” she adds. “Good work.”

“Eh heh heh,” Hatsume giggles, rubbing the back of her neck and blushing. “Glad you liked ‘em!”

“We need to get to Lemillion and the other heroes,” Nighteye says, standing steadily. “They likely have resolved the conflict, but there may still be rescue work to do.”

Kendo blushes. “We did kind of run out on Ryukyu, didn’t we?”

Yaoyorozu pales. “Fat Gum!”

“Is he that scary?” Midoriya asks. 

“No, but he’ll give the ‘I’m not angry, just disappointed speech,’ and that’s even worse!”

“How…?”

“It brings sidekicks to tears in under a minute!”

“Nedzu,” says the tall dog-headed man as he steps into the U.A. meeting room, pulling a seat out from the table. “It’s always nice to see you, woof. Shame it had to be like this.”

“Yes, I was hoping we could come to an… agreement,” Nedzu says, steepling his fingers. “I take it this call is about the incident in Hosu City last night?”

“Mm, yes,” Chief Tsuragamae says. “The Hero Killer was apprehended by six U.A. Students; and first years, no less. While the other hero students involved in the incident fighting Nomu were following instructions from their mentors, and the Iida boy is hardly at fault, the fact remains that the other five students at the incident were not given permission by their mentors to engage and thus are guilty of several charges of battery, on top of illegal quirk usage.”

“And the fact that the victim was the Hero Killer?”

“Bears no importance to their crime, woof. The police are present to protect people from illegal quirk usage; even villains, when it comes down to it.”

“But the video.”

“Yes, woof. I understand the reasoning behind the move, forcing the Hero Killer onto open streets. But it makes our job much more difficult, in the end.”

The video is shaky, clearly amateur footage, featuring a fight between six multicolored blurs (later identified as U.A. students) and the villain known as the Hero Killer Stain.

“I- Holy fuck, there were explosions early so I started recording and now there’s people fighting in the streets,” the voice of a young adult narrates, phone camera shaking.

On the street, one of the multicolored blurs kicks Stain up in the air, only for another blur to drop kick him into a downwards spike from a third hero.

“THIS WILL NOT END MY-” the Hero Killer yells, cut off by another punch. 

“THIS IS NOT THE END OF MY-” another punch cuts him off.

“SHIGARAKI FUCKIN’ SUCK-” a kick interrupts his slurred rant.

“STOP DOING THI-” another punch.

After seven minutes of this, the fight proceeds to the base of a water tower, where Stain speaks briefly before the shape of another U.A. Student falls upon the Hero Killer, knocking him unconscious.

“If we were to try and arrest them now, woof, there would be massive amounts of public backlash. Stain was a dangerous criminal, and punishing the heroes that put an end to his villainous ways would send the wrong message. At the same time…”

“You cannot condone vigilantism, clearly. And with the video posted online, all eyes in the media will be watching the students.”

“And beyond that, woof, attempting to arrest the students would likely result in a legal battle that the Hosu Police Department can’t win.”

“I do look out for my students,” Nedzu chuckles. “How about this: all forty students in Class 1-A and Class 1-B will take their Provisional Licensing examination in the fall, since the spring exam just occurred before internships.”

At Chief Tsuragamae’s nod, Nedzu continues. “For the moment, we will announce that though the Police Department has ruled this case as self-defense, U.A. does not condone acts of vigilantism and as such will place the students involved on probation, with the exception of Midoriya and Iida, since they were acting in justifiable self-defense or were simply unconscious for the entire event.”

“Sounds fine, woof. Until next time, Principal,” the police chief says, starting to rise.

Nedzu hops off his chair and walks around the table, shaking hands with the dog-headed man. “Until next time.”

“I DID WHAT?” Tenya Iida shrieks, sitting bolt upright in his bed. 

“Iida, it’s not that bad!” Itsuka Kendo says, attempting to calm the boy down.

“It is a big deal! It’s such a big deal!” Iida moans, head in his hands. “I have committed vigilantism before I am even a hero! What will my mother say? What will my brother say?”

The straitlaced boy suddenly stops, eyes hardening. “There is nothing else to it. I must become a villain. I shall be called… Reverse-Ingenium.”

“Who’s reverse what now?” a jovial voice asks. Wheeling in through the door, situated in what appears to be a normal wheelchair, comes Tensei Iida, followed closely by Manual, Gran Torino, and Ryukyu, with Fat Gum wedging himself in after the other pros.

“Brother!” Iida says, nodding. “Do not try to dissuade me! I have forever sullied the family name by committing vigilantism and defeating the Hero Killer! I must disown myself to not tarnish our great legacy!”

“Sheesh, Tenya, I keep telling you, you have to lighten up a little! Besides, it was only a little vigilantism!”

“Only a little vigilantism?” Iida asks, aghast. “There is no such thing as a ‘little’”- he says, making over-exaggerated air quotes- “crime! Why, I cannot imagine any pro heroes committing a little crime, much less vigilantism and unauthorized quirk use.”

All five pro heroes, none of which had ever done such heinous activities as vigilantism and unauthorized quirk use, suddenly find the walls and ceilings a much more interesting place to look at. Fat Gum starts whistling.

After a moment of silence, Tensei Iida claps his hands. “Anyways! I was just coming by to visit you, Tenya, when I heard that Hatsume was here and I decided to drop by and thank you for the wheelchair!”

Mei Hatsume’s eyes light up. “You’ve been using my baby? How is it?”

“It’s been great!” the elder Iida laughs, patting his wheelchair. “The camo mode’s pretty inspired, and I love the flamethrowers!”

Hatsume cackles. “It took so long to get the metamaterials to get that baby to work without refueling constantly, but it was worth it! Are the tire treads holding up?”

“Yeah, they’ve been great!” the pro adds. “Anyways, I’ve said my piece, so we can talk about the chair later. Guys?”

Ryukyu steps forward first, looking over her two interns. “Kendo, Uraraka… You guys didn’t follow the chain of command. I understand there were mitigating circumstances and someone close to you in danger, but we have those regulations for a reason.”

“Hatsume, same deal. You’re in a bit more hot water, since you technically did kidnap the other hero students, even if they made their own decisions once they reached the scene,” adds Manual. 

“And that’s why we’ve been in contact with the chief of police here in Hosu and Nedzu, to figure out what to do with you kids!” Fat Gum says, hands on his hips. “Gran, you wanna take it away?”

“Right,” the elderly pro hero says, stepping forward, cane clicking on the tile floor. “All six of you should have been charged with multiple counts of battery and unregistered quirk use, with the exceptions of Midoriya and Iida. Luckily, your principal managed to argue the cops down, so you’re merely on probation at U.A.”

Uraraka raises a hand. “Sir, what exactly does that mean?”

Tenya Iida clears his throat. “According to the U.A. Charter 294, Section 1, Subsection 2, that would result in an individual punishment for each student involved in the incident.”

Gran Torino nods. “And I’ve got the list. I think the punishments were assigned by your homeroom teachers…” he says, pulling out a paper list. “Right. Hatsume, you’re only allowed to spend… fifteen hours in the support studio each day?”

Mei Hatsume drops to her feet, wailing. “I’M LOSING EIGHT HOURS OF BABY TIME? NOOOOOOOOO!”

As Hatsume’s cries peter off, Midoriya and Uraraka get out off their beds and begin comforting their girlfriend. 

“Ahem,” Gran Torino says, attempting to regain control of the situation. “Uraraka?” he says, reading from the list. “You… have to eat in the cafeteria each day and allow U.A. to pay for your meals.”

Uraraka stops comforting her girlfriend and looks at the list in horror. “But… I’m perfectly fine bringing meals from home!”

Iida chops his arms. “Uraraka! The day before we left for internships, you ate half a package of dry, unflavored ramen, claiming that you could spread the rest out over the rest of the day!” 

Uraraka blushes, shrinking into herself. “I don’t want to bother my parents for money, so I told them we get an allowance from U.A…”

“Kendo?” Gran Torino reads. “You… apparently aren’t going to get any fatherly hair ruffles or ‘Attagirl’s from Vlad King for the next week?”

“NOOOOOOOO! The external validation from the father figure in my life!”

“Right. And Yaoyorozu?”

“Yes?” the girl asks, sitting with perfect posture in her bed.

“Fat Gum’s going to give you a talk about the dangers of vigilantism,” Gran Torino says. In a flash, Yaoyorozu tries to break for the window, but before she can reach it…

“Sorry, kid!” Fat Gum says, grabbing the girl and hoisting her into a fireman’s carry. “But ya worried me half to death, running off like that! So we’re going to have a nice, long talk about how to keep the people in your life informed of any potential dangerous situations you enter!”

“Please…” Yaoyorozu whimpers as she’s taken out of the room.

“Right!” Manual says, clapping his hands over the sounds of Hatsume’s devastated wailing. “You guys should be discharged from the hospital soon, and Sir Nighteye’s set to be released in the next couple of days as well. Good work, but don’t do that again.”

“Um, Manual, sir?” Midoriya asks, raising his hand. “Where’s Eri?”

Ryukyu steps forward. “Thanks to the help of some specialists, we identified her quirk- meaning that there’s one hero in Japan that can safely take care of her,” the Dragoon hero says.

“Oh, who’s that?”

Shota Aizawa stares at the small child.

The small child stares back at him.

Sansa Tamakawa clears his throat awkwardly. “So, Eraserhead, is that a yes, or…”

Shota turns to the cat-headed officer. “She’s mine.”

“Great! We just need you to fill out-” 

Tamakawa is cut off by Shota Aizawa grabbing his collar, pulling the officer right next to the underground hero’s terrifying face.

“Mine.”

“Okay sure I can fill out the forms,” the officer squeaks.

Chapter Text

Two days after the Hosu Incident…

“Whoa!” Nejire Hado says, holding up a vial filled with a crimson red liquid. “So this’ll give us super strength?” 

“Yep!” Izuku Midoriya says, holding a clipboard. “You’ll be the…” he consults his notes. “Fifty-second and fifty-third inheritors of the sacred torch known as One for All !”

“And it comes with our own nemesis?” Hado-senpai asks.

“I mean, kinda? You’ll have to share him with the rest of us,” Izuku explains. “And we’re pretty sure he’s dead. Well, all of us except for First.”

“Yep yep yep, you mentioned him! I’ll get to talk to ghosts? And then be a ghost?”

“Yup! We train with the vestiges every night! And you’ll become one when you die, we think!”

“I already feel like a ghost…” Tamaki Amajiki groans, holding his own vial. “You should give this to someone better than me… I can’t handle the pressure…”

“Aw, c’mon!” Togata Mirio says, slinging his arms around Amajiki’s shoulders. “You deserve this, buddy!”

“I really don’t…”

“Bottoms up!” Hado shouts, downing her vial in a single gulp.

Something interesting about Hado-senpai’s quirk, Izuku later noted, was that it constantly skimmed some of Hado-senpai’s energy to replenish itself, even when not active. That energy, given the inherent difficulty in testing it, was assumed to be a tiny proportion; after all, Hado-senpai was constantly hyper with that energy taken, so it surely couldn’t be that much energy. 

As it turns out, Hado-senpai was constantly on 25% energy. That 25% energy suddenly skyrocketed to 100% once her quirk began drawing from One for All’s reservoir rather than her own.

Large swathes of Ryukyu’s agency and the surrounding area failed to survive the monster of Nejire Hado on essentially a quirk-powered sugar rush.

In other news, apparently Recovery Girl legally could prescribe elephant tranquilizers to students who required them.

Like Hado-senpai.

Izuku feels like he may have made a small mistake.

The first day of class after the internships…

“HEEEEEEY, Shota!” a cheerful voice rings through Shota Aizawa’s apartment at way too early in the fucking morning as the front door opens.

Shota sits up on the couch, blinking groggily. “What are you doing here, Joke?”

The green-haired heroine steps through the doorway, a smile already plastered on her face. “I came to ask you to marry me!”

Shota pinches his brow. “Absolutely not.”

“Aw, c’mon!”

“Seriously, why are you here?”

“Well…” Ms. Joke says, coming around the side of the couch. “Nedzu called me and asked-OH MY GOD WHO IS THAT?”

Shota blinks and looks down, seeing the small white-haired child snuggled into his side. “That’s Eri. She’s my daughter.”

Ms. Joke honest-to-god squees. “Sho! You’ve already adopted a daughter for us?”

Shota quirks his eyebrow. 

“Fine, fine!” Ms. Joke says, waving her hand lazily in the air. “Anyways, I came by to tell you we’ll be coworkers now!”

“Why.”

“Can you imagine how romantic it’ll be?”

“There must not be a benevolent god in this world.”

“Falling in love, hiding our budding romance from our coworkers!”

“I would rather shoot myself.”

“Oh, I can just picture it! A springtime wedding…”

“I literally would prefer teaching a class of twenty Midoriyas over marrying you.”

“Oh! I also came to tell you that me and Best Jeanist adopted a kid.”

“What?”

“Here’s a picture!” Ms. Joke adds, showing a printed out image of a familiar spikey-haired teen.

“That’s Bakugo.”

“I knew you would recognize him! It must be our special connection as a couple. Don’t worry, me and Tsunagu are just platonic co-parenting. We can still get married.” 

“I was in no way, shape, or form worried about that. Also, you are aware he still has parents, right?”

“Yep!” Ms. Joke says, tucking the photo back into her wallet. “We already got their permission! They said he was,” and the heroine does air quotes, “‘Hellspawn disguised as a child, but still a good kid under it that could probably use a few more role models.’”

“What?”

“Okay that’s everything! Till next time!” Ms. Joke says, standing up and walking to the window, creaking it open.

“Joke, what do you mean you got permission-”

“MS. JOKE AWAY!” the green-haired heroine yells as she jumps out of the window, free-falling for the briefest moment before a giant hang glider springs to life (with her face pictured on the top) and soars away.

Shota shakes his head for a moment before getting off the couch and padding to the window, shutting it. He could probably get a few more minutes of sleep with Eri before class, right?

Before class that same day…

“Hatsume, may I speak with you for a moment?” Momo asks, standing next to Hatsume’s desk. Ever since Hatsume yelled that…

“Get ready, Ochako, Fist Lady, Baby Girl!” Mei yells, the four heroes pole-vaulting over the city skyscrapers, the poles extending and retracting to propel them forwards at a blinding pace. 

She somehow couldn’t get it out of her head.

“Yeah, sure!” Hatsume says, leaning back from the invention she was tinkering on. “What’s up, Baby Girl?”

Momo blushes, her face going red. “That! Why do you keep calling me that!”

Hatsume cocks her head. “Because you make babies?”

Momo blushes even harder. “What?” she squeaks. “I most certainly do not!”

Momo feels a slight tapping on the shoulder as Kyoka (as the girl asked her to call her, the punk rocker stammering and blushing. She must not have had many friends in middle school either!) gets her attention. “Hatsume calls her inventions babies, M-momo. She’s talking about that.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I put so much of myself in them!” Hatsume says. “But you make babies too! Not as good as me, of course, but still pretty good. Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you!” Hatsume asks, standing up and getting right next to Momo’s face. “Can you make hypothetical materials? Because I have this really cool idea for an explosive baby,” Hatsume begins, Momo’s face getting hotter and hotter from the close proximity with the girl who’s definitely not a crush as Hatsume goes on and on until…

With the sound of a deflating balloon, Momo falls backwards, face still bright red.

“Hey, hey, are you okay, Baby Girl?” Hatsume asks, leaning over Momo. 

“...Let’s give her some space, Hatsume,” Kyoka says. “Besides, class should start…”

“RIGHT NOW!” a woman yells as someone kicks the door open.

“And that’s how Shota and I met!” a familiar woman says from inside Shota’s classroom.

Shota pinches his brow again. Why was Ms. Joke here? With a deep, world-weary sigh, Shota opens the door, brain still unprepared for the sight of Ms. Joke lecturing his class of students. 

“Sensei!” Ashido all but screams, holding her hand high. “Why didn’t you tell me you were married?”

“I’m not.”

Ms. Joke gasps, dramatically. “Sho? You want a divorce?”

At that, half of his class gasps as well. Shota tries to kill Ms. Joke with his mind.

“Oh, sensei!” Midoriya says, breaking the silent tableau. “Is that Eri?”

“Yes.” Shota unravels his capture scarf, revealing the silent, wide-eyed child. “This is Eri. Some of you know her. She was the victim of a villain group until recently, and so is staying with either me, Present Mic, Midnight, or one of the other members of the U.A. Teaching Staff at all times until the remaining members of that group are brought to justice.”

“She’s also our child!” Ms. Joke jumps in.

Shota rolls his eyes. “Joke, why are you here?”

“Oh, Nedzu bought out Ketsubutsu, made it a subsidiary of U.A., and gave me a promotion to ‘Assistant Homeroom Teacher of Class 1-A!” 

Shota turns towards the nearest security camera. “Why?” he asks, in the most tired tone possible. Men on their way to their execution have seemed more cheerful than Shota in that very moment.

The intercoms crackle to life. “Katsuki Bakugo called me a mink! As if I would ever associate with a kind so lowly as them,” the voice of the principal says.

Everyone turns to Bakugo, who crosses his arms and leans back. “What? I’m no fucking biologist.”

“Anyways, this was the best way to inflict an acceptable amount of psychological damage on Bakugo while also giving you a similar amount for the Hosu Incident,” Nedzu explains, before giving a small cackle as the intercoms cut out.

Iida raises his hand. “Sir, is this about the vigilantism charges that some of our classmates have obtained? Is the principal really punishing you for the actions of your students?”

Shota brushes aside the question. “No, no, he’s not upset that you guys committed vigilantism. He’s upset that I didn’t teach you guys enough to not get caught. Anyways, let’s start class. Joke, if you corrupt Eri I will commit several violations of the Geneva Convention.”

That afternoon…

Higari Maijima takes a deep swig of his energy drink. (Recovery Girl banned Maijima, Nemuri, Shota, and a few other members of the U.A. Staff from drinking, given the dangerous records their blood alcohol concentrations were setting). “She’s worse than I remember,” Maijima cries, Ectoplasm awkwardly patting his back. “She wants to keep her partners safe and she does that by trying to make worse and worse inventions. I had to break out U.A.’s nuclear experimentation ban just to get her to stop trying to source plutonium from Libyan terrorists!”

“Yes, humans display many different reactions when their loved ones are put into danger!” Nedzu says, cheerfully. “It really is quite fascinating! I’m thinking about writing another paper on it! Nemuri, how is our budget looking this month?”

Nemuri Kayama lifts up her head and pushes a clicker, displaying a graph before she lets her head fall back onto the table with a soft clunk.

Up on the screen, a graph appears.

“Well, it’s not increasing anymore,” Hizashi Yamada says, looking around. “That’s good, right?”

Ms. Joke leans into Shota’s space. “What are we looking at?”

Shota leans back away from her. “That’s U.A.’s budget. That big slice is the amount that Uraraka, Midoriya, and Hatsume’s damages cost us monthly.”

“Holy heck, that’s bigger than Ketsubetsu’s annual budget!” 

“Yep.”

“How can you guys afford that?”

“I run a hedge fund!” Nedzu says, cheerfully. “Among other projects that you likely don’t want to hear about!”

“Why not?” 

“So you have plausible deniability!” the principal cheerfully responds. “Ms. Joke, as our newest faculty member, do you have any advice for how to resolve the situation?”

“Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s because of Midoriya, Hatsume, and Uraraka’s sexual tension, right?” Ms. Joke says, glancing at Hound Dog.

“Yes,” Inui nods. “That’s my diagnosis, anyways.”

“So what if we just add someone responsible to their group?” Joke suggests, holding her hands out. “Maybe that’ll keep them from getting into so much trouble?”

“Ms. Joke, are you suggesting that we conspire to manipulate students into relationships, abusing our positions as educators of growing minds to do so?” Nedzu asks, steepling his paws as he looks at his newest employee.

Ms. Joke begins sweating. “Um… Yes?”

“Wonderful! Aizawa, Kan, I’m putting you on that with Ms. Joke.”

“Why me?” Shota groans.

“Because I enjoy your pain and suffering!”

The next day…

At lunchtime, Mina Ashido finally tracks down Shoto Todoroki. “Shoootooooo,” the pink-haired girl complains, draping herself over the boy’s table. Shoto, for his part, continues eating his cold soba, slurping the noodles. “Have you been avoiding me?” the girl complains. “I feel like I’ve barely seen you since we got back!”

“I have, yes,” Shoto says, setting down his food.

“Wait, seriously?” Mina asks, straightening up. “Why?” 

“Whenever I see you, my heart starts beating really fast, and my face grows hot. Thus, I can only conclude that I am having a heart attack, so I have started avoiding you.”

“Aw, you don’t consider this mug pretty enough to be worth a heart attack?” Mina asks, nudging Shoto with her elbow as she gestures to her face.

“I do, yes,” the boy admits, uncaring of the blush spreading across Mina’s face. “But I don’t want you to have to see me die.” 

His piece said, Shoto finishes off the rest of his soba and gets up to leave.

Mina, for her part, can do nothing but freeze, her face locked in a deep lilac blush.

He likes me too? I… I mean I thought maybe but…

Aghh! Why the fuck is he so good at flirting?

Mina’s face slowly hits the table.

And what the fuck do I do now?

That afternoon…

“That’s everything for today,” Aizawa-sensei says, everyone immediately springing into action and packing up their backpacks. “Don’t forget your essays and heroic class tomorrow. Yaoyorozu, can you stay back for a moment?” Aizawa asks. “Midoriya, you can take Eri for a little bit. If she comes back with any injuries or scratches I will end your bloodline.”

“Hm?” Momo asks, interest piqued. “Of course, sensei.”

The two wait as the rest of the class vacates the room. “What do you need me for?” Momo asks, once the last of her classmates file out of the room.

Aizawa-sensei drags a palm across his face. “Can’t believe I’m doing this…” he mutters. “Yaoyorozu, are you in a relationship right now?”

Momo blushes. “No?” she thinks, her thoughts absolutely not turning back to Hatsume and Midoriya and Uraraka…

Absolutely not, and nobody can prove otherwise.

“Great. As your teacher, I’m instructing you to get in a relationship with Hatsume, Midoriya, and Uraraka.”

“Sir?” Momo asks.

“Start dating the three of them. Go. Now.”

“Y-yes sir!” Momo says, grabbing her backpack and waving as she sprints out of the room, booking it towards the Support Labs.

She has people to ask on dates!

Several days later…

The sound of horrifying, mad cackling fills the staff room. It has been four hours since it started. It hasn’t stopped. 

“Well, I thought she seemed responsible!” Emi Fukukado says, holding her hands up in surrender.

Nedzu continues cackling. 

Eraserhead, extremely singed, just reaches out and pinches a small flame before it can spread to the rest of his hair. Vlad King continues trying to wipe off some of the soot with a wet towel.

In the corner, Power Loader, out of his armor, rocks back and forth, clutching his legs. “We armed her…” he mutters, rocking. “We armed her! ”

Ectoplasm awkwardly pats him on the back.

“H-hey, it’s not that bad!” Present Mic says, trying to look on the bright side of things. “At least we have the budget for it!”

“Yeah, about that,” Thirteen says, pulling out a sheaf of papers. “I was looking at the budget, since we've been spending so much recently, and it says here that our max expenditures have to be less than… infinity?”

Nedzu begins laughing even harder.

Toshinori Yagi opens his mouth. The past few meetings, he spent time ruminating on the problem, and believes he came up with an ultimate solution. As he begins to speak, an idea sparks in his mind.

He considers, for a moment, the ultimate fate of All for One (should the villain have survived) if he sics Young Midoriya and his girlfriends on the villain. 

Toshinori closes his mouth.

Chapter Text

“I AM HERE!” Toshinori Yagi yells, casting his gaze over the assembled might of Class 1-A and Class 1-B, the two homeroom teachers of the classes (plus 1-A’s new assistant teacher) flanking the number one on either side. “TO WELCOME TO YOU TO A RETURN TO NORMAL LESSONS! Thanks to an incident in the classrooms recently…” and at that, Young Midoriya, Young Uraraka, Young Yaoyorozu, and Young Hatsume look away. Young Yaoyorozu starts whistling. “...we’ve decided to combine hero classes for today while my erstwhile colleagues repair the classrooms!”

“ Grumble grumble So much overtime pay grumble grumble ” Cementoss mutters as he waves his hand, repairing the foundation of the two classrooms that were at least quarter not smoking ruins. 

One standing wall technically counted as “perfectly safe” and thus not a smoking ruin, even if it wasn't completely intact.

Turns out Yaoyorozu and Hatsume were a horrid combination in boring lectures, as that was when Hatsume had the “exciting” ideas and Yaoyorozu was (in Inui’s academically approved words) “too damn horny to actually say no to any of her partners”, leading to accidents with hypothetical metamaterials.

Cementoss grumbled some more as he moved onto the next room.

Of twenty.

He would have quit ages ago if the overtime pay wasn't so good.

“Today’s class will be a race!” Toshinori adds. “Your goal today will be to implement all the new tricks you picked up in your internships to this rescue training!”

Tetsutetsu shoots his hand into the air. “Hey, if this is rescue training, shouldn’t we be headed to the USJ? What’s up with that?”

Sekijiro Kan steps forward. “The USJ specializes in Disaster Rescue Training. Since this is a race, we decided to hold it somewhere different.”

“That’s why we’re in Field Gamma,” Aizawa says, adjusting his grip on Eri so that she’s securely tied to his back in his capture scarf. “It will stimulate the real infrastructure of a city, which is likely the kind of terrain you will be primarily facing as pro heroes.” 

“Exactly!” Toshinori says, laughing. “And the name of the game today is reduced property damage!”

Bakugo scoffs and rolls his eyes, only to get sprayed with a spritz of water. “HEY!”

Ms. Joke spins the spray bottle around her finger before re-holstering it. “And us teachers will be keeping an eye on you, so be careful!”

“We’ll have groups of five each start at a different point around the city,” Toshinori announces. “From there, I will send out a distress signal, and you must do what you can to reach me in the shortest time possible! The first one to find me wins!”

When none of the students speak up, Toshinori claps his hands. “Then Group 1! You’re up first!”

Kyoka and Midoriya walk towards their starting positions together in silence.

“So, Yaomomo joined up with you guys?” the girl asks, trying to sound casual as she twirls one of her jacks around her finger.

“Yeah, just last week!” Midoriya says, beaming widely, and it stings. “She’s so nice and beautiful and-”

Kyoka tunes his muttering out as she tries to stay cool. She tries, but the hurt is still all there and- it stings that Kyoka missed her chance, it stings to see Momo so happy with someone else that isn’t her, and most of all it stings that she can’t even hate Midoriya for it.

The other hero student looks so damn adorable when he gushes about his girlfriends like that that its honestly impossible to hate him. For a moment, Kyoka idly considers what it must be to have someone think about you so highly before she discards it. 

Game face on, she’s got a race to win.

That night, tucked into her bed, Kyoka remembers Midoriya’s smile and makes the connection. 

“SON OF A- FUCKING CRUSHES-”

“You ready for this, Shiozaki?” Ochako asks as the two of them walk towards their starting positions.

“I believe so, yes,” the vine-haired girl says, clasping her hands together. “Have you completed your own preparations?” Shiozaki asks.

“I think so, yeah! I really learned a lot from Ryukyu- it’ll be fun to show it off!” Ochako says, punching the air. “How about you?”

“Yes, my internship was quite illuminating,” Shiozaki nods. “I am quite excited to implement some of the new techniques I learned.”

“Awesome! Where did you intern, anyways?”

“RAAAAAAAAGH!” the Religious Hero: Cardinal yelled, his Mecha-Pope™ armor swinging the mighty Holy Sword™ at Ibara Shiozaki.

“YAAAAAH!” Ibara responded, using her Holy Might™ technique to grab the sword with a hand, blocking it. “TAKE THIS!” she roars, an aura of Holy Light™ emanating from her as One for All crackles to life. “HOLY SMITE!™” she yells, the Sanctified Metal™ making up the mech suit cracking beneath her mighty punch.

“Nowhere in particular,” Shiozaki states. “Merely a hero with high standing in my community.”

“Right! Good luck in the race!” Ochako says as she turns towards her starting position, waving as she jogs off.

“And a wealth of beneficial luck to you as well!” Shiozaki responds as she continues forwards, idly beginning to spread her vines. While her plants could not exceed a five foot radius before the race began, it would not do to pull a muscle by not being prepared.

“So: Iida, Shiozaki, Jiro, Midoriya, and Uraraka,” Denki Kaminari says, looking up at the big screens. “Who do you think is gonna win?”

“My bet’s on Midoriya!” Setsuna Tokage says, grinning toothily. “Us Greenies gotta stick together!”

“Man, really?” Kirishima says. “I’m going for Iida- his whole thing is being speedy, right?”

Neito Monoma clears his throat. “You all are fools! Of course the superior class would field the superior contestant in the form of Shio-”

Kendo knocks Monoma out with a chop to the back of the neck before considering the screens and nodding. “I’d say Midoriya. Iida’s faster on open surfaces but it’s too enclosed here for him to get to full speed.”

“I’m pulling for Uraraka!” Ashido says, stretching. “Gotta support my pink buddies! Whadda you think, Shoto?”

Todoroki puts a hand on his chin. “Midoriya,” he says, after a moment’s consideration. “He has the greatest skills at movement in enclosed spaces.”

“Well, we’re about to find out,” Denki says, the countdown timer in the bottom of the screen catching his eye. “In 10… 9… 8…”

Tenya Iida stretches his legs, limbering in preparation for the race. While previous attempts to speed through enclosed areas were… less than fruitful, he felt fairly confident in his new found skills, thanks to his time with his mentor. 

Tenya shuddered, accidentally invoking Gran Torino within his own mind. Even privately, that man scared him.

“PREPARE YOURSELVES!” All Might’s voice yells, ringing out over the Training Ground. “READY… SET… BEGIN!”

As the final word sounds out in time to an airhorn, Tenya Iida crouches down and channels One for All, shooting through the air, propelled by his engines.

This is my new style! 

“ONE FOR ALL RECIPRO PROPULSION!

Izuku Midoriya shoots off, leaping on pipes and walls as he parkours his way to the middle of the arena, racing around obstacles. With a grunt, Izuku grabs a pole sticking vertically out of the ground and swings around it, using the increased propulsion to launch himself forward. “ONE FOR ALL FULL COWLING!” he yells, picked up by the cameras. “70%!”

Ochako Uraraka hears the word to begin and launches herself upwards, firing off blasts of One for All to hurl herself forward at high speeds. Ryukyu taught me so much about aerial mobility; here’s where I put it into play! she thinks. This is my chance to win!

“ONE FOR ALL COMET DASH: 65%!” 

Katsuki Bakugo stands alone, watching the TV Screen up above him show each of the extras fly across Ground Gamma.

Watching Deku blink across the labyrinth of pipes and walls. Watching the boy that should have been so far beneath him loom over his life, higher than ever. Going from nothing to the center of the class, the powerhouse that the other extras looked up to.

Deku… Izuku. The boy was always a crybaby, just a pebble on Katsuki’s road to becoming the number one hero. 

Then he became a rock, and then a boulder, and before Katsuki knew it Deku and all the extras were passing the finish line before Katsuki even started to run.

Or was that it? Was Deku being serious when he told Katsuki about his quirk?

Or was he just lying?

Katsuki was always going to be the Number One hero. He had the perfect underdog story planned out for his meteoric ride.

And then he got to high school and found out he was just a goldfish in a pond full of minnows.

Looking up at the screen, looking at the extras fly past, Katsuki decides that he won’t give up. 

He's Katsuki fucking Bakugo, and he will claw his way to victory, no matter what it takes. No matter what the world throws at him.

The boy’s startled out of his thoughts by Kirishima elbowing him. “Y’doing all right, man? You got a weird look on your face,” the idiot asks as he slings an arm around Katsuki’s shoulders.

“I’m fine, idiot,” Katsuki snarks, slipping out of the other boy’s hold. “Just thinking about how I’m going to destroy all you extras during the race.”

“Hah! I’d like to see you try to beat me!” Kirishima laughs, flexing a bicep. “Fourth Kind showed me how to get a lot harder!” Behind him, Raccoon Eyes snorts, but Kirishima continues on unbothered. “So you’ve got no chance!”

Katsuki pauses. “You realize we’re in different groups, right?”

Kirishima holds up a finger and opens his mouth… before deflating. “Seriously?”

“Heh! Don’t worry, I’ll beat you in training any time!” Katsuki laughs.

“No way! I’ll crush you!” Kirishima smiles back, grinning toothily. “Just watch me!”

“In your dreams, Shitty Hair!”

“Thank you for coming to this meeting today,” the principal of U.A., Nedzu, says as he spins around in his office chair to face the inhabitants of his office. “We were having a difficult time creating a suitable challenge for our first year students, this year, before we called you!”

“Hey, no sweat!” one of the shadowed figures replies. “I was hoping I would get to see my little intern again anyways!”

“It is important to train the next generation of heroes,” a more adult woman’s voice admits, nodding. 

“Aw, come off your high horse!” another woman says, elbowing the second one. “You just wanna see your interns again too!”

A stick raps against the desk. “Why’d you turn all the lights off? All this gloom hurts my eyes!” an elderly man grouses.

“For dramatic effect!” the principal says, smiling. “Now, let’s think about how we can make these finals… suitably challenging!”

With a crack of thunder in the background, the small mammal begins cackling.

Five minutes later, with no cessation in the cackling, the first voice speaks hesitantly. “Can we leave now?” it asks. “'Cause, like, I've got something other things to do today, y'know?”

Chapter Text

A cellphone rings in a dimly lit room. “ Hello? ” someone asks, twirling around in a leather office chair to swipe the phone off their desk and holding it to their ear. “ Oh, Nedzu! …You need my help with something? Well, I do have some vacation days saved up… and I still owe you for that time in Madripoor… Yeah, alright! ”

The person spins the chair back around, looking over the city’s skyline behind her. “ Besides! ” Cathleen Bate says, smiling a massive grin. “ It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to see my master! ”

Shota Aizawa looks up as the bell rings, signaling the end of class. “That’s all for today,” he says, packing up his notes. “But don’t forget- final exams are coming up soon, so make sure you prepare for those.”

Ms. Joke rests her head in her hands, putting her elbows on the desk and leaning forwards. “And remember! The written exam is only one part of things,” she adds, smiling. “The practical exam’s another half of your grade. And us teacher’s have got some things cookin’ up for you kids!”

“I’ll see everyone on Monday,” Aizawa adds, walking through the door, Eri visibly bundled to his back and fast asleep. “And if you haven’t started studying yet?” he says, staring down Mina Ashido and Denki Kaminari as they start to visibly sweat. “I’d get started on that this weekend. You don’t want to go into this unprepared.”

“Have a great weekend!” Ms. Joke adds, spinning through the door behind Aizawa-sensei and giving a big grin before shutting the door behind her.

Kaminari’s head falls forward, hitting the desk with a loud thunk. “I’ve barely started studying!” he moans, lifting his head back and slamming it down again. “Oh, I’m in so much hot water!”

“Yeah, between the Sports Festival and Internships I’ve barely had time to crack a textbook open!” Mina agrees, leaning back in her seat with her arms crossed behind her back. “Guess I’ll have to cram this weekend!” 

“My studies are going magnifique !” Yuga Aoyama declares, flipping his hair. “Non, I’ve barely had to study!”

“Didn’t you get like 18th on the midterm?” Hanta Sero asks, causing Aoyama to flinch.

“Non! You are mistaken!” the French boy says, before throwing down a bomb and disappearing in a cloud of glitter. “SPARKLING AWAY!” his voice shouts, echoing through the empty halls of U.A. as he sprints away. 

“Dammit, Hatsume!” Itsuka Kendo says as she enters the room in a sparkly coating (followed by a similarly bedazzled Class 1-B), waving an enlarged fist to disperse the cloud of lingering sparkles in front of her.

“Hm?” the girl in question asks, looking up from her tinkering. “Wassup?”

“I thought we asked you to stop arming Aoyama!” Kendo says, indicating her coating of glitter.

“Whoops! I forgot!” Hatsume laughs, putting her invention- a small metal orb- to the side and reaching into her desk, withdrawing a massive fan. “Don’t worry, this baby should do the trick!”

A few minutes later, with several 1-B-shaped holes in the far wall and a promise that Hatsume would at least try to turn down the power settings on her fan, the two combined classes begin the trek back to their homes; or, for some, the trek back to the metro station.

“So, how are you guys feeling about finals?” Setsuna Tokage asks, rotating her head on her body to talk to the people behind her. “I know I’ve gotta do some more studying!”

“Didn’t you get fourth in the midterms?” Kinoko Komori asks.

There’s a pause.

“We thought you were one of us…” Kaminari and Mina both sob, with Tokage whistling guiltily.

“Don’t worry, you two!” Yaoyorozu says, smiling. “I was already going to have a study session with Izuku, Ochako, and Mei, so it would be no problem if other people came too!”

Mina looks excited for a moment before pausing. “I don’t want to cut into your time with your partners,” she says, hesitantly.

“No, really, it’s no problem!” Yaoyorozu says, beaming. “Oh, it’ll be so exciting to have people over! I’ll have to tell Mother so we can prepare the Great Hall for everyone! Do any of you have any preferences in teas? My family usually drinks Harrod’s or Wedgwood, but if you have any other preferences I’m sure we could order those instead! This is going to be so amazing!” she squeals, vibrating in place.

“Is that offer open to anyone else?” Kyoka Jiro says, turning towards the group and holding up a hand. “I’m having some problems with quadratic equations.”

“Yes, yes, of course!” Yaoyorozu says, smiling even wider. “If anyone wants to come, feel free to! I’ll send the details out in our combined group chat later!”

In the face of an excited Momo, there’s nothing that one can do but smile and nod- as the students of 1-A and 1-B found out that day. 

Farther ahead, Itsuka Kendo walks with Midoriya, Uraraka, Hatsume, Tsunotori, Asui- call me Tsu!-, and Iida.

“So, are you ready for the practical?” Kendo asks as Izuku and Ochako carefully guide their girlfriend around a pole, Mei’s eyes still glued to her newest invention.

“To be honest, I’m still a little worried,” Izuku says, rubbing the back of his neck. “With the written, we can at least expect that it’ll be stuff we covered in class, but anything goes for the practical.”

“Well, it has got to be objects that we talked about in class,” Pony Tsunotori muses.

“That narrows it down a little, ribbit,” Tsuyu Asui- call me Tsu, I said!- muses. “But that still leaves a lot of stuff that we’ve done- Hero Training, Rescue Training…”

“Basic training as well,” Tenya Iida adds, chopping his arms. “It would not do for Aizawa-sensei to neglect something that important!”

“So we gotta keep our bodies in shape too!” Ochako says, guiding Mei around another street sign. “Wonder what it’s going to be!”

Kendo looks around. “Well, don’t tell the teachers,” she starts, lowering her voice. “But I heard it’s going to be robots again- like the entrance exam- from one of my friends a couple grade levels up.”

Izuku ponders that for a moment, rubbing his chin. “I don’t think that’s right,” he says, after a moment’s consideration. “It doesn’t feel like Aizawa-sensei to give us something so… basic, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true!” Ochako says, eyes lighting up. “That sounds just like the kind of logical ruse he’d use!”

“That’s good information though, thanks!” Izuku says, smiling. “We know that there’ll probably be combat, at the least, if the robots were from past finals!”

Pony Tsunotori pumps her fists in front of her in a couple of mock-punches. “That just means we are needing to train twice as hard!” she says, grinning.

“Yeah!” Ochako says, pumping her fist. “Let’s do this!” 

The exams passed quickly, days of studying blurring into weeks before blurring into the tests themselves, day by day passing quickly by (or, in the case of Kaminari and Ashido, far too slowly) until finally…

“Practical exam time!” Kaminari and Ashido cheer, high-fiving and dancing around. “We get to let loose!”

The rest of the students watch their antics, gathered in their full hero regalia, before Eraserhead clears his throat.

“Now then!” Shota Aizawa says, Ms. Joke standing behind him and Eri shadowing the two. “Let’s start your last test. Remember-”

“It is possible to fail this test!” Ms. Joke says, grinning. “But I think if you guys do your best, and don’t make stupid mistakes, you’ll be fine!”

“I expect you all have gathered information and have some idea of what you’ll be facing today,” Aizawa continues.

“Bring on the big ol’ robots, Aizawa-sensei!” Kaminari shouts, electricity crackling at his fingertips. “We heard about it from Kendo- we’re ready!”

“Robots?” Aizawa says, quirking an eyebrow. “Now why would you ever think that?” he asks, his face contorting into a horrifying grin.

Ashido pales. “Oh no. No no no no no-”

“That’s his logical ruse face!” Sero shouts, holding his hands up. “What the heck is it this time?”

“It’s me!” someone shouts, bursting up from Aizawa’s capture scarf. “The one who might be a dog, or a mouse, or a bear, but most importantly, I’m the principal!”

“Principal Nedzu?” the class erupts in shock.

“That’s right! In years past, we’ve used robots as a good benchmark for the final exams,” the principal says, grabbing one end of the scarf and rappelling down Aizawa’s side. “This year, with the rise of the League of Villains, we’ve decided to change the focus of the tests. Now, they’ll have a stronger concentration on teamwork and combat between actual people!”

Reaching the ground, Nedzu points at the students. “So what does that mean for you? You students will be facing off in pairs against some of our finest opponents!” 

*Reminder: If you're doing this song, you should do it now!*

“Hey hey hey, what’s up, everyone!” a girl asks, walking through the doorway of the building behind them.

“Hey, kouhais!” a boisterous blonde asks, smiling widely. “You guys ready for this?”

“I’m not…” the third, pointy-eared member says. “I want to go home…”

“Some of you may already recognize them, but if you don’t,” Aizawa says, gesturing. “These are members of U.A.’s Big Three. They’re the closest U.A. Students to becoming pro heroes.”

“I’m Nejire Hado!” the girl says, smiling widely. “This’s Tamaki Amajiki,” she adds, gesturing to the elven-eared boy. “And that’s…”

“I’m Mirio Togata!” the blonde boy says, smiling widely. “We’re excited to test you guys today!”

“And besides the Big Three, we have even more opponents!” Nedzu says, grinning widely.

“You know, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the theatrics, but I think they’re growing on me,” pro hero Hawks says, smiling lazily as he exits the same building. “Don’t you guys agree?”

“Eh, I’m just pumped to get to the fighting!” Miruko, the Rabbit Heroine, says, cracking her knuckles. “How ‘bout you?”

The Dragoon Hero: Ryukyu grins with pointed teeth. “I can’t deny that I’m looking forward to testing some first years.”

“Hah! These are the best you’ve got, Nedzu?” a small old man says, stumping along with his cane. Iida hides behind Shoji. “Looks like they’re still just a buncha zygotes! And you want us to do the dirty work of whippin’ ‘em into shape?”

“I was hoping for that, yes!” Nedzu grins widely. “Thank you again for coming, pro heroes!”

Kaminari counts the teachers and upperclassmen quickly. “Wait, we’re facing you guys individually?”

“No!” Nedzu says, throwing his hands wide. “You’ll be testing your talents in teams of two- or, in one exceptional case, in a team of three!”

“Your teams have already been chosen,” Aizawa adds, putting his hands in his pockets. “They were chosen at my discretion based on various factors, including fighting styles, grades, and interpersonal relationships.”

“First up,” Aizawa says, grinning. “Yaoyorozu and Todoroki. You’ll be up against me,” he declares, pulling his capture weapon taut.

“Himiko and Hagakure!” Togata calls, smiling wide as he gestures towards himself. “I’ll be taking you guys on!”

“Aoyama and Tokoyami!” Hado cheers. “Let’s do this!”

“...Sato and Koda…” Amajiki mutters. “You guys are stuck with me…”

“Kirishima and Bakugo!” Gran Torino yells, rapping his cane on the ground and causing Iida to flinch. “You two zygotes better be prepared to lose!”

“Kaminari and Ashido!” Nedzu says, smiling widely. “I’ll be proctoring the two of you today!”

“Jiro and Hatsume,” Hawks drawls, twirling a feather in his finger. “Get ready to rumble.”

“Sero, Asui, and Shoji!” Miruko says, gesturing between herself and Ryukyu. “We’ll be taking you three on!”

Izuku cocks his head. “That just leaves Ms. Joke to…”

“Me?” Ms. Joke says, picking up Eri. “Nah, I’ve got the squirt.”

“Oh, dearie me!” Nedzu says. “I forgot to tell you! Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, and Ojiro? Your opponents…”

“WE ARE HERE!” two blond, muscular pro heroes shout, leaping over the building and landing in front of the heroes. “To challenge you young heroes!” All Might and Star and Stripe shout in concert, flexing their arms in All Might’s classic pose.

“Young Iida! Young Ojiro! I shall be challenging you today!” All Might says, grinning widely. “You’ll need to work together if you intend to beat me.”

“And Midoriya? Uraraka?” Star and Stripe says, smiling. “As we say in America, Come at me! ”

Chapter Text

The Night Before Final Exams…

“Something’s happening with One for All,” Yoichi Shigaraki says.

“WHAT?” Nejire Hado yells back.

Deep in a timeless, featureless void, fifty-one different holders of a sacred torch sit in a circle of thrones after their usual sleep-workout/meditation session. While the circle of thrones was tradition, the number of them meant that meetings were a little more difficult, given the natural size of the things.

“I SAID, SOMETHING’S GOING ON WITH ONE FOR ALL!” Yoichi yells back.

“Yeah, we all saw the floating obelisks,” Daigoro Banjo snarks, gesturing to the fifty-three ominous hovering obelisks that float out above the void.

The obelisks hum ominously.

“Yeah, I’m trying to ignore that,” Yoichi says.

“WHAT?” Hado yells.

“I SAID, I’M TRYING TO IGNORE THE OBELISKS!”

“YEAH, ME TOO!”

“Please stop yelling…” Koji Koda signs timidly.

“WHAT?”

“Eh, those things are probably nothing,” Hikage Shinomori says, shrugging. “And if they are something, nothing we can do about it now,” he decides, before plucking a deck of cards out of thin air. “Who wants to play Uno?”

Fifty-one hands shoot up.

The Day of Final Exams, Where We Left Off Last Chapter…

“You’ll have thirty minutes to complete an exam!” Principal Nedzu says, smiling widely. “There are two ways to succeed: either capture your teacher,” he says, brandishing a pair of handcuffs, “by putting these handcuffs on them, or escape through the exit gate located on each testing site!” 

“Wait, so we can just run away?” Mina Ahsido asks, holding a hand up. “Is that really okay?”

“Your final score won’t be affected by what method you choose to use,” Aizawa says, his hands still in his pockets. “However, as villains, our goal will be to stop you from escaping as well.”

“And don’t forget, Pro Heroes have a wealth of experience when it comes to taking down fleeing villains,” Ryukyu adds. “Don’t expect that running will always be the easier option.”

“Remember, we want you to treat this like a real battle!” Mirio Togata says, beaming. “Pass or fail, this is a great training opportunity for all of you guys!”

“If you think you can take us down, try your best!” Miruko says, crossing her arms. “But we ain’t making it easy for any of you!”

“Good luck, students!” Nedzu says, grinning menacingly as a shiver runs through Class A’s backs. “You’re going to need it!”

After a short bus ride, Denki Kaminari and Mina Ashido stand in the middle of the faux industrial complex, buzzing with adrenaline as they survey the maze of scrap metal in front of them.

An air horn sounds. “Team Kaminari and Ashido. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!” the announcer shouts, the sound echoing through the training grounds.

“Alright, lightning buddy! You ready to blast our way through this?” Mina asks, her body crackling with pink lightning.

“Yeah!” Kaminari responds, his body crackling with his own electricity. “Let’s do this! What’re you thinking for a plan?”

“Well, we’re stuck in this maze, right?” Mina asks. “Let’s blow it down! No more walls means no more problems!”

“All right!” Kaminari says, winding his arm back. “2 MILLION BOLTS…”

Mina begins spinning rapidly on a slick pool of acid, building up more and more speed. “ONE FOR ALL 55%...”

“HAYMAKER!”

“ACID UPPERCUT!”

With two mighty blows, the junk is blown away, revealing…

“Green walls?” Kaminari asks. Cackling plays over the speaker system as the walls begin creaking and groaning as they stand up before turning baleful red gazes onto the two students.

D:< the robots blare.

“Whoops,” Mina Ashido says, chuckling nervously as she looks up at the small army of Zero Pointers. “Guess we shouldn’t have done that.”

Nedzu’s cackling intensifies.

“Team Bakugo and Kirishima. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!”

“Alright, Bakubro!” Eijiro smiles, slamming his fists into each other. “What’re we thinking? Break for the gate?”

Bakugo snorts. “No way. We’re gonna beat that old man into the ground,” he says, stalking down the faux-city’s street.

Eijiro pauses. “Are you sure about that?” he asks, jogging to catch up with his partner. “You saw how Iida was shaking when that guy came out, right? There’s gotta be something going on with ‘em,” he says, shaking his head. “Look, c’mon, the gate’s right down there,” he says, pointing down the street. “Let’s just go for that.”

“So what?” Bakugo snarls. “Just ‘cause Glasses is a fucking pussy, you’re gonna get cold feet too?”

“That just means he’s smarter than you, zygote!” a voice calls, echoing around them as it bounces around the empty street.

Bakugo whips his head around. “Where the fuck are you?” he asks, he and Eijiro moving back to back as the red-haired boy hardens himself, red lightning racing up and down his form.

“You know, when Nedzu asked me to come in for today, I figured it was gonna be a waste of time,” the voice continues, conversationally. “Or at least more of a job than anything else,” it adds, echoing from multiple positions. “But this?” 

Bakugo catches a yellow blur of movement in the periphery of his vision and unleashes an explosive blast, catching… nothing?

“What?” the teen snarls. 

With a yell of surprise, Bakugo feels a sudden sharp pain as something impacts his side, kicking him to a nearby building for blasting off again. Pinballing back and forth around the street, too fast to hit, too fast to nearly see- another impact strikes Eijiro, forcing him to dig his feet into the street to stop from moving. 

The elderly pro hero pauses on the wall of a building for a moment and smiles, sending a wave of shivers down his opponents’ backs. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

“It’s our turn now,” Shoto Todoroki says, surveying the fake town that the two hero students were placed in. “Let’s go. Yaoyorozu?” he asks, startling his partner.

“Hm?” the girl asks, jostles out of her thoughts.

“What’s wrong, are you nervous?” Shoto asks, remembering his socializing lessons from Ashido.

“Oh, no, it’s-” 

“It’s okay,” Shoto reassures her. “With our opponent, I don’t blame you. But- I have a plan in mind for us.”

“No, it’s just-”

An air horn cuts the heiress’s speech off. “Team Yaoyorozu and Todoroki. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!”

Shoto takes off, running towards the presumed location of the exit gate. “Yaoyorozu! I want you to constantly make small objects! If you stop being able to, it means Mr. Aizawa’s close by!”

“No, I’m trying to-”

“Come on!” he calls, turning the corner. “Our success is going to rely on which one of us can spot the other first. Once I see him, I’m going to try and draw him to me. Then you can run to the escape gate and win this thing for us. Just stay close to me until then.”

“But-”

“C’mon, hurry up and start making thi-” with a muffled yelp, Shoto is lifted out of the air by his teacher’s capture scarf. 

Perching on top of the telephone pole like a demented scarecrow, Mr. Aizawa’s eyes shine bright red. “Found you…”

“AAAAAAAAH!” Mina and Kaminari scream in terror, racing through the streets of the rapidly collapsing Ground Gamma, barely outrunning the falling machinery even with One for All active.

“ >:)” the robots blare, launching a salvo of rockets at the two of them.

“THEY DIDN’T HAVE ROCKETS DURING THE ENTRANCE EXAM, DID THEY?” Mina shouts, launching a veil of acid back at the missiles to melt them midflight.

“I decided to upgrade them!” Principal Nedzu cheerfully announces over the intercom system.

“Principal Nedzu!” Izuku Midoriya says, watching the camera feed showing the inside of the crane from the viewing area. “He’s inside that crane?”

“That’s right, dearie,” Recovery Girl says. “He insists that it’s cathartic, but really, I think he just wants to wreck stuff.”

“It’s crazy how much stuff is being destroyed!” Ochako Uraraka adds, eyes wide. “How’s he doing that?”

“He must be predicting their moves!” Izuku realizes. “His quirk allows him to efficiently intake and analyze multiple sources of information at once! He’s using that to cut off escape routes before they even think of them!”

“Swingy, swingy, swing!” Nedzu hums to himself, waving the joystick back and forth wildly. “Normally, I enjoy planning chain reactions. But sometimes, it’s just so much fun to cut loose with mindless destruction! Hee hee ha ha AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” 

“Can’t you just zap him or something?” Mina shouts, punching a steel pipe with a One for All uppercut before it can fall on them.

“I don’t know where he’s hiding!” Kaminari yells back, using One for All to dodge out of the way of a massive fist before landing on the robot’s arm and sending a shock through it, shutting down the system. “And if I go too big, you’re gonna get shocked too!”

“Well, then, where’s the escape gate?”

“This way!” Kaminari shouts, leading the two around a corner, until…

“It’s blocked!” Mina realizes. 

Kaminari rolls his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this! ONE FOR ALL 50%... SHOCKING SMASH!” he yells, blasting away the rubble. “See, path’s all… clear…”

In front of the two stands a massive exo-suit , nearly as tall as the zero pointers. And topping it sits the cage of a crane. As the two watch, the metallic frame begins spinning its wrecking balls, rubble crumbling off the buildings around it.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Nedzu laughs. “Power Loader was kind enough to help me build this out of acid-resistant insulators! What’s your move, heroes?”

Katsuki’s head spins as he pushes himself up from the wall, pushes himself through the pain. 

What…?

“Bakugo!” Kirishima yells as he remains hardened, trapped by a blur of yellow as Gran Torino batters him from every side. “I need a hand, man!” 

Oh, right. That bastard.

“GRRAAAAH!” Katsuki yells, blasting forward with both hands, only for the elderly pro hero to duck underneath him and spring upwards, catching Katsuki right under his chin with both feet.

“Too hasty!” the pro yells, before rocketing off. “You’ve got to think before you act, not just charge in blindly!”

Katsuki roars, blasting off a salvo of shots, hitting Kirishima in the process. 

“What the heck, man?” Kirishima yells, staggered by the shot. “Watch where you’re firing that thing-” he says, cut off by Torino slamming into the back of his head. 

“Eyes on me, zygote! Pay attention to your opponent!”

“I’m trying!” Kirishima yells back, only to get a kick to the gut for the trouble. 

“Well, try harder!”

Katsuki keeps watching the old man, looking for a pattern… there! In a flash, Katsuki leaps forward, already spinning around to unleash-

“Again, you’re not thinking through your actions!” Torino lectures, using his jets to change direction in mid-air and dodge over Katsuki’s blasts. “Try again!”

Katsuki lands next to Kirishima, the red-haired boy hardening to protect the both of them. “He’s too fast!” Kirishima says, blocking blow after blow.

“I won’t lose!” Katsuki snaps. “I’m gonna be the Number One hero, which means we aren’t running from this fight!”

“Yeah, but- nff- that’s not something we can do!” Kirishima protests. “We’re gonna lose if we don’t go for the gate, can’t you see!”

“I’m not gonna fucking run away!” Katsuki yells. “I’m not- I’m going to be strongest, which means I’m not weak! I’m not… I’m not like fucking Deku!”

For a moment, everything stands still. There. Katsuki fucking admitted it. 

Kirishima laughs. “Man, I don’t know who this Deku guy is, but I know you’re not weak! There’s no shame in going for back-up- All Might doesn’t solve every problem in Japan on his own, does he?” The idiot smiles a wide, shark-toothed grin. “Hey, I think I’ve got a plan! Get ready, alright?”

Katsuki’s blood runs cold. Kirishima, have a plan?

Kirishima’s limbs crackle with red lightning as he stops blocking and deflects, forcing Gran Torino up into the air. “OH YEAH!” the boy shouts as he bends down, and… picks Katsuki up by the ankle?

“OH FUCK NO!” Katsuki says as Kirishima begins spinning around, holding Katsuki out.

“GET READY, BAKUBRO!” Kirishima shouts as he begins to build up speed. “ONE FOR ALL 60% ULTIMATE COMBO MOVE: RED RIOT FASTBALL SPECIAL!”

“FUCK… you…!” Katsuki yells as Kirishima lets go and he’s hurled down the street, rocketing towards the gate at super high speeds.

“Whew, looks like he got through!” Kirishima says, holding a hand up to shade his eyes and watching as Bakugo passes through the gate. “Nice fight!” the red-haired boy says, holding out a hand to Gran Torino, who has collapsed on the pavement laughing.

An air horn blares. “Team Bakugo and Kirishima has passed the final exam!”

Denki and Ashido race in the opposite direction, screaming.

“AAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Quick, in here!” Ashido yells, melting a hole into the wall of a nearby building and diving inside. “What… the fuck… was that…” Ashido pants, doubled over with her hands on her knees.

“I don’t know,” Denki groans, sitting down.

“WHERE ARE YOU, STUDENTS?” Nedzu’s voice crackles over the grounds. “TIME’S RUNNING OUT…”

“He’s right,” Denki says, standing back up. “We gotta plan something!”

“But how? We’ve already tried smashing it- it’s too strong!”

“Yeah, and we can’t outsmart him,” Denki adds. The two wrack their brains for a moment, before Denki gasps. “But what if… we out-dumb him!”

Ashido’s eyes light up. “Yeah! He won’t be able to predict our moves if they’re too stupid!”

“And I’ve got the perfect plan!” Denki grins, looking around the room they’re in. “Remember the second round of the sports festival?”

Nedzu commands his mech suit to smash buildings, rubble raining down on the twisting passageways of the training ground. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” he laughs, debris scattering. “COME OUT, HEROES! TRY AND STOP ME!”

“That’s the plan!” Kaminari yells from the ground. “Check out our new super-form!”

Nedzu looks at his two students, where Kaminari has climbed on Ashido’s shoulders.

“We’re twice as strong now!” Ashido cheers, the two striking a pose.

“How interesting!” Nedzu calls. “Let’s test that theory!”

With the jiggle of a joystick, the first wrecking ball is sent, only for Ashido to… dodge? The girl skates to the side, landing in a split as the ball passes over her.

“Ah! So inventive!” Nedzu realizes. “Using One for All to enhance Ashido’s strength and her own trained sense of balance to avoid my attacks… I love it!” With another set of inputs, the mech reaches down to grab the two. “Unfortunately, I still must capture you, heroes!”

“That’s what you think!” Ashido says, sticking her tongue out. “Queen Venus and Chargebolt team up move: One for All…” she begins, spinning rapidly in place on a thin layer of acid.

“55 Percent...” Kaminari picks up, crackling with lightning.

“ELECTRO THROW!” Ashido finishes, hurling Kaminari towards the mech.

“A fascinating premise, but as I’ve already told you, this mech was made with insulators!”

“Insulators just means that they don’t conduct electricity very well, but they still conduct a little!” Kaminari answers, landing on the cockpit. “ONE FOR ALL 55%: INDISCRIMINATE SHOCK 5 MILLION VOLTS!”

With the zap of lightning, Nedzu’s mech starts popping, explosions sounding off at each of the joints. “Oh, dear!” Nedzu says, buckling a seatbelt over his chest in the cockpit. “It seems that the self-destruct feature I included was prematurely set off!”

“Wheeey,” Kaminari says, clinging to the front of the cockpit in his brain-dead state.

“It’s very lucky that I installed an ejector seat!” Nedzu says, smacking the big red button in front of him. “Unfortunately, it does activate the rest of the explosives, so I highly recommend fleeing the area!”

With a pop, the top of the robot opens as the seat takes off, Nedzu shooting into the air before a parachute extends. “Now, Kaminari should be fine, since those explosives are more concussive than anything else,” Nedzu deduces, pulling out a massive laser gun. “Next, then, is Ms. Ashido. Where- there!” he says, taking aim.

Underneath him the robot explodes, debris flying in all directions. “Whoops!” Nedzu says as one wrecking ball flies past him. “Maybe I should have toned down on the yield.” 

Yo Shindo and his friends, formerly students of Ketsubutsu Academy, walk through the grounds of U.A. High School. 

“Man, this school’s a lot nicer than Ketsubutsu was, isn’t it?” Tatami Nakagame says, holding her hands behind her neck as she walks behind Yo. “I mean, look at the grounds! It’s so much bigger!”

“To be fair, Ketsubutsu was a smaller school,” Shikkui Makabe says, scratching his blue head. “And they didn’t they say U.A. would be more dangerous?” 

“Aw, c’mon, Makabe!” Yo says, turning around as he walks to face his friends. “The school’s perfectly safe! I mean, we’ve been here what, nearly a month? And nothing bad’s happened in that time at all. Face it, they were just trying’ to scare us so they wouldn’t have to teach as many Ketsubutsu students here.” 

A massive wrecking ball slams into the ground just behind him, kicking up dust and dirt. Yo flinches heavily.

“I would like to apologize to any and all gods that I may have offended with that previous statement,” the tremor-quirked student says, still not turning around.

“Now, let’s see how you react to this!” Nedzu says, tightening the finger on the trigger of his cannon. “It’s only a stun gun, so it won’t be more than a mild sting-!” 

With the buzzing of an air horn, the exam comes to an end. “Team Kaminari and Ashido has passed the final exam!”

“What?” the principal says, for once confused. “How- of course!” he laughs, maniacally, as his vision comes to rest on the form of his exo-skeleton’s cockpit, sitting outside the gate. “My self-destruct! It blasted the cockpit just far enough with Kaminari still clinging onto it! How spectacular!” he says, stowing his gun as his chair lands on the ground. “Bravo, Mr. Kaminari, Ms. Ashido!”

Ashido gives a big grin and a thumbs up. “We totally meant for that to happen!”

“Run, Yaoyorozu!” Todoroki shouts as he’s hoisted into the air by Shota Aizawa’s scarf. “I’ll buy you time!” 

“Illogical. You should have been paying closer attention,” Aizawa lectures, wrapping the boy tighter as he keeps Todoroki in his gaze. “Now, let’s-”

The teacher is interrupted as he releases a sudden woof of air, doubling over as a cannonball smashes into his gut and knocks him away.

“Todoroki!” Momo shouts, standing next to her smoking cannon and a lumpy tarp. “As I was trying to tell you, I have a plan!”

“Do you all think you’re prepared for the Final Exams?” Momo asks, sitting on her girlfriend’s bed as she looks down at her lap.

“Yeah!” Mei grins widely, not even looking away from her soldering iron. “I’m gonna show off so many babies!”

“I think so!” Ochako grins, kind of wobbly, as she bookmarks the page in her textbook and closes it. “Honestly, I’m not as smart as you guys, but I think I’ll be okay!”

“What?” Izuku asks, putting aside his notebook and turning to Ochako in concern. “You’re super smart, Ochako!” he says, grabbing her hands. “You’re gonna do amazing!”

“You think?” Ochako says. “I just… all of you guys are super smart and near the top of the class, and I’m just not smart like that, y’know?”

“But you’re really good at using your quirk effectively,” Momo says. “I always freeze up; I mean, I didn’t even make it to the final round of the Sports Festival! I just- what if that’s how I act in a real disaster! What if-” she says, lowering her head to stare at her lap. “What if I’m not enough?” she asks quietly. “What if someone dies because I hesitate? Because it’s me there, not any of you?”

“No!” Izuku says, wrapping his arms around her. “That would never happen! You’re amazing!”

“Yeah!” Ochako agrees, joining the hug. “You’re super smart! You memorized all those formulas for your quirk, remember? I could never do that!”

“And you’re super pretty and always make all the baby materials I need and super awesome and always know what I’m talking about when I start going off on science tangents-” Mei adds, flopping her head into Momo’s lap. “But more importantly? You’re you, and that’s super cool!”

“What?”

“Yeah!” Mei says, flipping upright and looking into Momo’s eyes. “If someone else had a quirk just like yours, I would bug them for baby materials, right? But I wouldn’t wanna date them!”

“Then-” 

“I wanna date you because you’re super pretty!” Mei says, grabbing her girlfriend’s cheeks. “I wanna date you ‘cause you’re not as interested in making babies as me, but you learn what I’m doing because you wanna be a good girlfriend! I wanna date you ‘cause you always remind me and Izuku to sleep when we get super into a project, and you bring me food when I need it, and you get me to take a break when I get cranky! And even when I get grumpy because you’re making me stop my inventing, you’re still nice to me, because you know I’m just grumpy!”

“I-”

“You know how I grew up, right?” Ochako speaks up. “Mom and Dad could never find enough work. You know I had a really old phone, and I didn’t always eat enough, and I went to thrift shops for my clothes and stuff. And then when I started dating you, you keep spending all this money on me, and it makes me a little bit worried because it’s so much money!”

“You never told me-”

“I never told you because I know it’s how you show your love!” Ochako says, squeezing her girlfriend tighter. “I never talked to you about it because I know that you give us gifts and stuff because you want us to know how much you love us, and it’s super cute because your eyes light up so much and you smile so widely when you find something you think we’d like!”

“It’s… what?”

“I didn’t have many friends growing up,” Izuku says, hugging his girlfriend tighter. “And I’m so lucky I’m dating all of you. We’re not dating you because you’re rich, or because you’ve got a super powerful quirk (even though it is so powerful and cool and you use it so-)” Ochako elbows him- “Right, sorry. We’re dating you because your smile is super cute, and you blush in the most adorable way when you do something that’s so normal to us. We’re dating you because you get so excited whenever you find something to show us, even if it’s the most mundane thing we see every day, because it’s new and amazing to you. We’re dating you because you’re super smart, and you can’t even recognize that you’re the prettiest girl in the whole damn school because you’re just so humble,” Izuku says, holding his girlfriend. “We’re dating you because you’re you, Momo Yaoyorozu, and that’s a pretty amazing thing to be.”

“I… what?” Momo says, touching her cheek and feeling moisture there. “I’m…?” she asks, eyes watery.

“Being Momo’s pretty cool,” Mei says, squeezing her girlfriend. “And don’t you forget it, okay?” she adds, booping her girlfriend’s nose. “But if you need a plan for the final exam, I think I’ve got an idea!” she says, standing up as she’s filled with her usual manic energy. “Do you got a sheet of paper I can use?”

“This is the sign of my relationship’s love!” Momo shouts, whipping the cover away.

Shota Aizawa stops for a moment. “What.”

Underneath the cannons rests an assortment of weaponry, including two miniguns, at least seven cannons, three crossbows, eight revolvers, was that a fucking Zweihänder…?

Momo picks up the two miniguns, letting them rev as the cannons begin firing. “MY NEW SUPER MOVE: OVERWHELMING FIREPOWER!”

Aizawa tries to jump out of the way.

Unfortunately, he can’t travel faster than a rubber bullet. Or the subsequent ninety-nine shots in that single second. Or the cannonballs that block his escape paths by sheer quantity.

A minute later, the salvo stops with the blaring of an air horn. “Team Todoroki and Yayorozu has passed the final exam!”

Chapter Text

Somewhere, deep in a timeless, featureless void…

“Something the matter, First?” Nana Shimura asks as she plays a yellow 2 card, tossing it onto the stack in front of her.

“I don’t know,” Yoichi Shigaraki responds, playing a green 2 (and ignoring Banjo’s resulting curse as the Fifth vestige begins drawing from the deck). “I guess I’m still just a little worried about the giant humming obelisks.”

The obelisks hum ominously.

As the vestiges turn to watch, a spark of lightning jumps between the fifth and ninth obelisks.

Nana purses her lips. “They’re probably still fine?” she offers, tentatively, as Shinomori plays a green 8.

En plays a +4 card. 

“Oh, fuck you!” Nana yells, the obelisks (temporarily) forgotten by most of the vestiges as they turn back to the game.

Yoichi shoots one more worried look at the fifty-three pillars before turning back to the card game. Nothing more to be done now, after all.

The obelisks hum ominously.

“Okay okay okay!” Nejire Hado beams, bouncing on her feet. “Are you guys ready?” she calls across the wide-open octagonal arena to her two opponents.

“Of course, mademoiselle !” Aoyama twinkles. “I am always prepared to shine!”

“Dark Shadow and I are prepared to jump into the abyss as well,” Tokoyami intones.

“Oh yeah!” Dark Shadow squawks, manifesting to give a big thumbs up.

“Great! I chose this arena because it’s gonna really test your skills, okay, so be careful!” Nejire says, as bubbly as ever. “I’m gonna have to reaaaaaally be serious here, so don’t expect me to go easy on you guys, got it?”

“I would expect nothing less,” Tokoyami says, nodding, his eyes fixed on the exit gate set into the wall behind Nejire.

“Team Aoyama and Tokoyami. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!” 

“Alright alright!” Nejire says, fanning herself as she bounces in place. “Be the dragon, Nejire! Remember what Ryukyu said! Be the dragon! And…”

Her eyes open wide, locking on to her two opponents, as lilac blue lightning begins to sparkle around her.

“Mierde!” Aoyama curses, tackling his teammate out of the way.

“HEAR ME ROAR!” Nejire shouts. “ONE FOR ALL NEJIRE WAVE: 40%!”

With a massive roar, the drill-shaped beam of light launches forth, destroying everything in its path, slicing through tons of concrete like nothing more than warm butter.

“C’mon, heroes!” Nejire cackles, doing her best to channel training-mode-villain Ryukyu as she begins to hover off the ground. “You’ll need to do better than that to beat me!”

“Hagakure and Himiko. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!”

As soon as the start broadcasts over the fake-city, Himiko and Tooru take off at a jog, running through the main street towards the exit.

“So, we got a plan?” Himiko asks, clutching her daggers in both hands. “Togata’s a pretty tough dude according to Izuku.”

“Probably sneak for the gate, right?” Tooru says, still in her now-default visible form with her green and white DNA jumpsuit. “I mean, we’re both pretty stealthy, so I bet one of us can get by him!”

“Maybe in the past!” Mirio Togata’s voice echoes around them, the two heroes stopping and readying themselves. “But I’ve got a couple new tricks!” the third-year calls, rocketing out of the ground and slamming into Himiko feet-first, throwing the girl across the room. 

With a yell, Tooru throws a wild punch at the blonde first year, only for it to fly right through him. The boy smiles, golden lightning crackling around him, before slamming an uppercut into Tooru, snapping the invisible girl’s head back and knocking her to the ground. “Time to get your testing on, kouhais!” Togata laughs, his red cloak billowing behind him as he holds his hand out and makes a beckoning gesture. “Come on, show me what you can do!”

“Team Koda and Sato. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!”

The two boys stand in a clearing in the middle of U.A.’s forest, Sato’s guard up even as Koji activates his quirk.

“Be careful!” Sato warns, eyes open as he surveys the surroundings. “According to Yaoyorozu, Amajiki was super strong even before Midoriya trained him up, so he’s gonna be extra powerful now.”

Koji nods, mind focused as he searches through the inhabitants of the forest- there!

One for All enhanced the abilities of many of Koji’s classmates in new and interesting ways, and Koji was no exception. Before One for All, he was limited to only talking to his animal friends. But with the power of One for All…

With a small squeak from the creature, Koji telepathically enters the mind of a nearby squirrel.

Sorry to bother you, friend, but I need your help.

Chtt! Chitty chutt?

Oh, you’ve heard of me? Yes, if you can help me today I’ll give you the usual rate.

Chutt chitty chtt?

Yes, all in acorns.

Chtt chutt!

I need to find another person in these woods. Can you help me look for him?

Cht!

The squirrel scampers off, Koji’s mind merely a passenger, until the squirrel comes to a stop in the treetops, Amajiki’s costume visible down below as their opponent talks to himself.

“Mirio! Why did you make me do this…” Amajiki groans, standing in the clearing in front of the exit gate. “I just want to go home!”

The elven-eared boy takes a deep breath. “No, no, come on, Tamaki. Mirio asked you to do this,” the boy says, breathing deeply. “He’s counting on me to push them. Which means…”

The squirrel’s eyes widen as it leaps away, sprinting through the forest as Amajiki’s skin begins transforming, tentacles sprouting from Amajiki’s body as lightning sparks along his flesh.

“I’ve got to stand and fight!” the boy resolves. “ONE FOR ALL 40%!” Amajiki yells, lashing out with his tentacle and slicing through nearby trees. “VAST HYBRID CHIMERA: KRAKEN!”

“Zeut, zeut, zeut!” Yuga yells, practically dragging Tokoyami behind him as the two dive for further cover. “The mademoiselle is not letting up, non ? Do you perhaps have any clever strategies up your sleeves for dealing with her?”

“Dark Shadow and I have prepared a plan,” Tokoyami says. “But I will need time to enact it upon this plane.”

“Just a couple minutes!” Dark Shadow chimes in.

“Then I shall serve as your distraction, mon ami !” Yuga says, striking a pose. “Ah, but do hurry, non ? I look much less magnifique in a hospital bed.”

With that, Yuga fires up One for All and dashes out of the cover, twinkling as brightly as ever. “Ah, mademoiselle ! You have not seen my quirk since my début , non ?”

“Navel Laser, right?” Hado grins. “Yeah, it was super-” she slaps her cheeks. “No! Bad Nejire! Get excited later…” she says, charging another blast with her quirk. “Fight now!” she yells, sending another 40% blast at Yuga.

“That is what it used to be, oui ,” Yuga says, diving out of the way. “But maintenant, it is better!” he says, palms glowing. “Observe: LASER BUFFET!” With that shout, he begins launching lasers from all over his armor, including his navel, shoulders, and the palms of his hands.

“Whoa, that’s pretty cool!” Hado says, putting on speed to dodge them, lilac blue lightning crackling around her as she flies through the air. “But it’s not fast enough!”

“I did not need to be fast enough,” Yuga says, panting, as he stops his salvo. “I just needed to give my partner a moment!”

Hado’s eyes widen. “Where’s-” 

Tokoyami leaps off the wall behind her, lunging forward with Dark Shadow coiled around him, a glint of steel shining in his hands.

“Whoa! Too slow, sorry!” Hado apologizes as she twists out of the way. “Cool sword though! Where did you get it?”

“It is how my quirk has chosen to strengthen itself,” Tokoyami says, holding the silver blade in front of him. “A rift in space that only I can access.”

“We got hammerspace, bitches!” Dark Shadow cackles. 

“AWESOME!” Hado cheers. “You’ll need to tell me all about it later! But for now…” she declares, charging up two more massive blasts, one in each hand. “Start dodging!”

“Whoa!” Togata yells, phasing through another punch from Himiko. “Little bit too slow, kouhai!” he calls, twisting his body around another. “You’re going to need to try-” he grabs her arm and yanks her forward, keeping her off-balance- “a little harder than that!” he finishes, bringing his elbow down onto her back and forcing her to the ground. 

Snapping up his head to spot her, Togata drops into the ground and pops up in front of an invisible Tooru, drop-kicking her back before disappearing into the ground. “Ever since I got this training from Midoriya, I’ve started being able to sense things around me!” he says, his voice once again echoing from everywhere as Tooru gets back to her feet. “It’s still a little shaky, but it means I can stop you guys from sneaking away!”

The hair on the back of Himiko’s neck stands up and she ducks, narrowly avoiding another haymaker from the third year. “He’s not letting up!” 

Tooru leans to the side, letting a straight jab slip by her, as the two girls go nearly back to back, continuing to dodge Togata’s flurry of blows. “He doesn’t know exactly where I am!” she realizes, ducking under a high kick before continuing. “That means… Himiko!”

“I got it!” Himiko calls, before grabbing Tooru’s neck and sinking her teeth in. “Let’s do this!” she declares, wiping the blood off the back of her lips with her hand before activating Transform and slipping into her friend’s appearance.

“You okay?” Himiko asks, sitting next to Hagakure, the newly-visible girl slumped on the floor outside the women’s bathroom with her head between her knees. “You just ran out of the gym back there. Is it…”

“Because I’m visible now?” Hagakure picks up. “It’s… yeah,” she says, flexing her now visible hands as she looks down at her lap. “I’m… I haven’t seen myself in the mirror since my quirk came in,” she explains. “And now… I’m scared. What if I don’t look how I think I do? What if I’m super ugly or something? What if… what if it’s not me, in that mirror?”

Himiko holds out her hands, wordlessly asking. When Hagakure nods, she envelops the girl in a hug. “My parents are part of the Creature Rejection Clan,” Himiko starts. “When I was born with some vestigial cat mutations, they almost kicked me out immediately.” Himiko gives a short bark of sarcastic laughter. “I wish they had. It would have been kinder.”

“Did they…?” 

“Stop me from drinking blood? Yeah, of course, but that part didn’t come in till I was four. After that, I was the devil-child, the one that took their perfect little girl from them. They nearly starved me. I’ve been in therapy since I came to U.A.,” Himiko explains, looking up at the ceiling. “I’ve had to do a lot of soul-searching to deal with everything, y’know? And that’s why I can tell you,” she says, poking Hagakure’s chest with her finger. “At the end of the day, you’re you. I can tell you right now that you’re cute as fuck, but the only person that can really decide what you feel like is you, okay?”

“I- thank you,” Hagakure says. “I think I needed that.”

“Now,” Himiko says, untangling herself from the smaller girl and standing up. “We’re going to go inside that bathroom, and you’re going to see yourself in the mirror, and you’re going to be super happy about it. Got it, Hagakure?” she asks, holding out a hand.

“Tooru,” the girl says, taking Himiko’s hand. “You can call me Tooru.”

“Well then, Tooru,” Himiko says, grinning a toothy grin. “You ready to see the cutest girl I know?” 

“Alright, Himiko!” Hagakure yells. “You remember our move?”

“You betcha!” Himiko yells, grabbing the invisible girl’s arms and swinging her around as that same invisibility creeps over her form. 

“ONE FOR ALL 55%: DOUBLE WARP REFRACTION!” the two yell in concert, emanating a bright light and forcing Mirio to cover his eyes.

“Nice try!” Mirio says, blinking the spots out of his eyes. “But I can still see you…!” he says, rocketing underground towards the presence he picks up on. “Nice try, going right for the gate!” he says, popping up. “But that’s not-”

“-gonna work?” Himiko asks, dropping Hagakure’s quirk. She grins toothily through the sludge dripping off her body. “We just needed a distraction!”

Mirio whips his head around, ready to dash towards the exit gate, but before he can move, an air horn buzzes over the city. “Team Hagakure and Himiko has passed the final exam!”

“Yeah!” Hagakure shouts, flashing peace signs as she turns visible again. “We did it!”

“Aw, man!” Mirio chuckles, rubbing the back of his head. “You got Hagakure to parkour up the buildings past me while I was blinded and chasing you, huh?”

“Yep! Figure you’d get all confused and only pick up on one of us!” Himiko smiles. “And looks like it worked!”

Mirio grins. “Guess I know what I need to work on next time, huh? Well, regardless,” he says, flashing a massive thumbs-up. “Great work!”

[Found him,] Koji signs, frantically, to his partner. [But we better-]

The rock-headed boy is cut off by a tree slamming into Sato.

[-Before something like that happens.]

“I got it!” Sato roars, using both his own strength quirk and One for All to hurl the tree back in the direction it came from. “Amajiki’s over in front of the exit gate, isn’t he?”

When Koji nods, Sato continues. “Then we need a plan to distract him so that we can get by,” Sato decides, punching his fist into his open hand. “Any ideas?”

Koji considers, for a moment, and opens his mouth wide.

Tamaki Amajiki continues swinging his tentacles around, letting the power of One for All wash over him. I don’t really have any detection capabilities, so if they get past me, I lose, he muses, cracking down another tree. Which means that if I can clear enough of a space…

“ Go, my brethren! ” somebody yells as a rumbling echoes over the forest. “ For honor! For victory, for glory! ” Koda cries, leading the pack from the back of a grizzly bear, Rikido Sato riding along him on the back of a particularly imposing moose. Behind them, a veritable army of woodland creatures follow, including several more bears and moose, at least one wolf that Koda can see, and also Principal Nedzu, on the back of a different bear.

“As a hero, it’s always important to remember your roots!” the principal says, giving a thumbs up. “Which, for heroes like me, means come when the Wild Hunt is summoned!”

“You haven’t beat me yet!” Tamaki yells, winding up with his tentacles. “ONE FOR ALL: 40%...”

Sato stands up on the back of his moose and launches himself forward, cocking his fist back. “ONE FOR ALL: 55%...”

“KRAKEN-”

“SUGAR-”

Sato’s fist reaches Tamaki first.

“SLAM!” the muscular boy roars, Tamaki barely managing to manifest a clam shell in time to protect his face as he’s blown backwards, dragging a trench across the ground.

Tamaki extracts himself from his crater, wrapping his tentacles around his knuckles in a boxing glove facsimile. “I still haven’t lost yet-”

An airhorn sounds. “Team Koda and Sato has passed the final exam!”

“All right!” Sato says, grinning as he pumps his fist.

Tamaki deflates. “Oh thank god it’s over.”

From just beyond the exit gate, Koda waves timidly, Principal Nedzu perched on his shoulder.

“She keeps destroying our cover!” Fumikage realizes as he and Aoyama hunker down behind yet another future-pile-of-rubble.

“ Mais oui , but I cannot think of a way to get to her! My lasers are but too predictable, and mon ami Dark Shadow is not quick enough!”

“Ooh, ooh! Fumi!” Dark Shadow says. “We can use my sword!”

“Absolutely not!” Fumikage denies. “That abomination shall remain in the rift forevermore!” 

“But it may be the only time we can use it! Please…”

Fumikage tries to look away as Dark Shadow makes puppy-dog eyes. 

“Fine,” he acquiesces. “But only this once.”

“Alright!” Dark Shadow cheers. 

“Come out, little heroes!” Nejire says, floating in the middle of the arena. “Come out and play!”

“ Mademoiselle , get ready for our combo move!” Aoyama shouts as Tokoyami steps out of cover, Dark Shadow coiled around him as he holds…

“OH MY GOSH THAT IS SO COOL!” Nejire sparkles as she watches the most sparkly, awesome, disco blade ever enter the arena, clutched in the grip of Fumikage Tokoyami.

“I made it!” Dark Shadow preens. “Took weeks to get all that glitter to stay on!”

“Ahem,” Tokoyami says, looking thoroughly dead inside. “Combo move!” he reminds his partners.

“ Oui !” Aoyama cheers. “ONE FOR ALL: 55%...”

“JET-BLACK PALADIN!” Tokoyami picks up, sprinting forward. 

“I told you, that’s not gonna work!” Nejire pouts, hurling another wave of energy at the boy.

“Not this time!” Dark Shadow cackles, using her arms to push off the ground to hurl her partner into the air over the wave of energy.

“ Magnifique !” Aoyama cheers, shooting the sword and scattering beams of light everywhere as if Tokoyami was a disco ball armed with lasers. 

“Whoa!” Nejire says as one such laser strikes her, knocking her out of the air. “Nice shot, but it’s gonna take more than that to stop me!”

“ Mais , we don’t need to stop you, non ?” Aoyama says, firing a naval laser at her before she can get back into the air. “Merely distract you, until…”

An air horn sounds.

“Team Aoyama and Tokoyami has passed the exam!” the announcer announces. The two heroes remaining in the arena turn towards the exit, where Tokoyami stands coolly under the gate as Dark Shadow does a victory dance.

“Phooey!” Nejire pouts, crossing her arms. "I'll just hafta get you guys next time!"

Chapter Text

Somewhere, deep in a timeless, featureless void…

“The obelisks are shaking!” Daigoro Banjo says, panicked. “I’m not the only one seeing that, right? It can’t be good?”

Indeed, up in the sky above the void, the obelisks’ humming begins increasing in frequency as each monolith begins shaking, lightning sparking between them.

“Yeah, that could be a problem,” Hikage Shinomori says. “But Danger Sense isn’t telling me anything, so does anyone wanna play Uno about it?” he asks, waving around a deck of cards.

Nana Shimura slaps the cards out of his hand. “Not the time, Fourth!” she orders, before turning to Yoichi. “You’ve been here the longest, First, any ideas?”

Yoichi looks up at the obelisks with wide eyes. “I have no idea what the fuck is happening.”

“Not helpful! Sixth, you usually have moderately good ideas! What’ve you got for us?”

En shrugs. “I solved most of my problems by dropping a smokescreen and running away from them.”

Banjo cocks his head. “Didn’t you get a divorce at one point?”

“Yeah, the courtroom did not find it funny. Like, at all.”

“Guys, focus!” Nana says, clapping her hands. “Giant shaking ominous obelisks!”

En starts smoking.

The obelisks continue shaking.

“Team Hatsume and Jiro. Ready? Go!”

The two heroes jog through the fake city, Hatsume holding a viewscreen as Kyoka’s earjacks wave in each direction, her headphones on as she searches.

“Are ya pickin’ up anything?” Hatsume asks.

“Nothing yet…” Kyoka mutters. “Searching for specific stuff’s a lot easier with Midoriya’s upgrades, but it’s still a challenge. ‘Least I don’t have to plug in anymore to pick up stuff.”

Hatsume clicks through a few menus on her viewpad. “My satellite baby’s not picking up anything either.”

Kyoka raises an eyebrow at her partner. “When did Power Loader let you-” she begins, only for her eyes to widen suddenly. “Incoming!” she yells, sparkling with her customary violet lightning as she tackles her partner out of the way of a swarm of red feathers that whizz through the area.

“Damn, thought that would get you guys for sure,” Hawks says, floating above them as he snaps his fingers in faux-disappointment. “Guess I’ll just have to try, try again!” he grins, the feathers quickly reversing course.

Hatsume’s eyes light up as a smile widens across her face. “Time to deploy baby #-”

“Not the time, Hatsume!”

“Aw, c’mon!” the inventor groans, her boots quickly becoming enveloped by metal plates. “Fine! I’ll shorten it! Hatsume Industry One-Time Use Items #57: Rocket Boots!” she shouts, grabbing her partner as the bottom of her shoes begin ominously smoking and shaking. “HATSUME (and Jiro) AWAY!” she yells as the two rocket farther into the city.

Hawks scratches his head. “She knows the exit gate is the other way, right?” After a moment’s consideration, he shrugs. “Eh, not my problem,” he decides, pointing his finger forwards to send his feathers after them. “Fly, my pretties! Fly!”

“Team Asui, Sero, and Shoji. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!”

Immediately, the three hero students begin racing through the stone hallways, ducking behind pillars as Shoji manifests ears from his tentacles.

“Remember the plan, ribbit,” Tsu reminds her two comrades as she crawls along the walls above them.

“Sprint for the exit gate, right?” Hanta Sero jokes. 

“Just remember your part,” Mezo Shoji reminds him.

“I know, I know,” Sero says, holding up his hands. “I’m not that stupid, alright?” After a few more minutes of jogging in silence, the tentacled boy turns his right side into eyes and peers around the corner. “Hey, you picking up anything yet?” Sero asks.

“Nothing yet,” Shoji whispers back. “And that’s the exit gate up ahead. Be careful. If we spot them, best to assume they’ve spotted us.”

“Got that right!” a female voice cackles. The two hero students whirl around just in time for Sero to receive a rabbit’s foot to the face, sending him flying across the room.

Miruko finishes her spin kick, settling into a ready position. “Isn’t that right, partner?”

Across the room, Ryukyu grins hungrily in her dragon form, one massive claw pinning Sero to the ground as she blocks the exit gate with her wings. “Of course!” the Dragoon Heroine laughs. “Now, heroes…” she begins. “What’s your plan?”

The two girls sprint along on foot, the fleet of crimson feathers dogging their every move. “Shit shit shit shit!” Kyoka calls, breathing heavily. “The fuck does it take to lose this guy?”

“Right through here!” Hatsume says, hardly out of breath and glued to her viewscreen, and the two race down an alleyway. “Left!” she adds a moment later, letting the feathers shoot through the alleyway and cut through the wood in front of the side street’s mouth, the building buckling behind them as they continue running. “Left again!” she yells, directing the two through the city streets, a whirlwind of collateral damage following their winding path.

Hovering high above them, Hawks adjusts his glasses. “She’s not heading to the exit gate,” he mutters. “What’s the play here…?”

Asui jumps over a kick from Miruko, only a concentrated blast of One for All stopping her from getting tagged by the follow-up axe kick. Mezo swings a heavy haymaker at Miruko before the rabbit heroine ducks under it and unleashes a devastating one-two into his stomach. Mezo dry heaves, bending over, as Miruko takes the opportunity to jump over him and slam a high kick into his frog-themed ally before finishing with an elbow to the back of Mezo’s neck.

“Sero?” Mezo yells to his wayward teammate. “A little help?”

Orange lightning crackles around the tape-based student as he strains before ruefully chuckling. “Sorry, guys!” he calls out. “I don’t have any leverage!”

“It’s still two-against-one, ribbit,” Asui points out. “We just need to wear her down.”

“I’m a pro hero, kid!” Miruko says, snapping up a high kick and forcing Asui back. “It’ll take more than half an hour to shut me down! And besides,” she grins viciously, “you don’t even have that right now. You’ve got fifteen minutes… fourteen fifty-nine… fourteen fifty-eight… fourteen fifty-seven…” she counts, beckoning the heroes with her fingers. “Fourteen fifty-six…”

The two girls slam through the doorway, Kyoka nearly collapsing onto the ground as they enter the third-floor apartment in the fake city. The punk rock girl bends over, hands on her knees, as she desperately sucks air into her lungs. “I… think…” she pants. “We… lost him…”

Hatsume ignores her, taking out her rapidly-beeping viewpad and examining it closely. “Nope!” she says, arms extending from her backpack. “Looks like the feathers are coming back around!”

“Shit!” Kyoka curses. “It’s a dead end up here- we’ll have to make a break for the stairwell before Hawks can block it off.”

“It’s only a dead end if you’re thinking two-dimensionally!” Hatsume chirps, fiddling with some knobs on her backpack. 

“What do you mean, two…” Kyoka asks, trailing off as she notices the poles extending from Hatsume’s backpack. “No. Not again. No no no no no-”

“C’mon, Jiro!” Hatsume says, crackling with pink lightning as she slings Kyoka over her shoulder. “Time to fly!” the inventor cackles, her extendable-legs digging into the floor of the room and tensing back before hurling her out the window.

Kyoka groans, resigned to her fate. “Why…”

“Got another for you, Ryuko!” Miruko yells, kicking Asui away from the rabbit heroine.

“Got it!” Ryuko says, holding up a massive claw to pin Asui to the ground.

“Now, ribbit!” Asui yells.

“Sorry, Ms. Ryukyu!” Hanta yells, holding his elbows up and shooting streams of tape at the pro heroine’s face. “But we’re not losing this one!”

“Nff!” Ryukyu grunts, trying (and failing) to claw the tape out of her eyes with her dragon-sized hand.

With the crackling of orange lightning, Hanta folds up his legs, using them in concert with One for All to shove Ryukyu’s foot off him.

“And now: One for All 55%: Mummy Binding!” Hanta yells, blinking around Ryukyu and sticking her to the ground. “Asui! Now!”

“I’ve told you before, call me Tsu!” the frog heroine responds, crackling with deep green lightning as she rushes towards the exit gate. 

“Not so fast!” Miruko yells, leaping in front of Asui.

“KEEP GOING!” Shoji yells, winding up a massive punch as he crackles with navy blue lightning. “ONE FOR ALL 55%: OCTOSPANSION!”

Miruko’s eyes widen for a moment before she’s forced to take the punch, flying backwards as the airhorn sounds. 

“Team Asui, Sero, and Shoji has passed the final exam!”

“What’s Hatsume up to?” Aizawa wonders, examining the viewing screens as he holds an icepack to his head. “She knows the exit's in the other direction, right?”

“Alright!” Mei yells, her voice tinny as it emanates from the speakers. “All done!”

High above the city, the microphones pick up Hawks beginning to laugh hysterically, his feathers ceasing their pursuit as the No. 3 Hero practically rolls in the air.

Recovery Girl pulls out a keyboard and taps a few keys, the cameras switching to an overhead view of the city.

“Hatsume…” Aizawa groans.

“Mei…” Izuku and Ochako say in sync, casting their eyes to the heavens. 

“That’s quite unique!” Nedzu grins. “I don’t think we’ve had a student attempt that before!”

On the screen, Mei Hatsume’s “random” trail of destruction finally takes form, revealing…

Momo pinches her brow. “Did our girlfriend actually spend the entire final exam using Hawks to carve an image of our faces into the city?”

Izuku slowly nods. “That does appear to be what she’s done, yes.”

“Leaving her with… one minute to reach the gate or she fails the exam?”

“Yep.”

“She’s not getting to go to the summer camp, is she?”

“Probably not, no.”

Kyoka incredulously stares at the viewpad showing an aerial view of the city. “THIS is what you spent the exam doing? Instead of, y’know, helping us pass?”

 As she observes, one of the buildings in Momo’s “eye” finishes collapsing, giving the impression of the girl winking.

Kyoka’s face erupts in a massive blush.

“Yep!” Hatsume says, sitting on the ground cross-legged. “Well, I’m done.”

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m out of babies!” Hatsume grins widely. “Haven’t figured out how to bend space to my will yet so I could only bring a limited selection of Hatsume Industry’s catalog! So you’ve gotta get us to pass! I’m counting on you, ‘kay?”

Her eyes shine in just the way that originally led to Kyoka getting a crush on this girl-

Gods, why is it always the pretty ones?

-and Kyoka’s face erupts in a blush again.

Hatsume’s counting on me. C’mon, stop being a useless bisexual and think! Kyoka yells at herself. What can I do to make sure that one of my crushes and I can pass the exam and get to go to the Summer Training Camp (and spend more time with all of my crushes)?

Wait, no, bad Kyoka, motivate yourself by becoming a better hero, not with your crushes.

…

It’s a losing battle anyways. Fuck it! I’m going to destroy Hawks and go to that training camp with everyone in the name of simping for my friends!

And as it turns out, the answer to “what can Kyoka do?” is briefly incapacitate the Number 3 Pro Hero and escape a fake city, Kyoka discovers after several hundred decibels of noise and a very awesome gymnastics set.

Also, Kyoka is definitely keeping that sonic guitar, no matter what Hatsume tells her about it needing further testing.

“Team Hatsume and Jiro has passed the exam!”

Chapter Text

“Guess we’re partners, huh,” Mashirao says, walking over to Tenya Iida. The other boy, carrying his helmet under his arm, turns away from his conversation with Midoriya and Uraraka to meet the tailed boy. “Any ideas for our strategy?”

Iida’s eyes tear up. “Nobody ever asks me that!”

Mashirao pauses. “What?”

“Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to have a partner that actually wants to follow a plan?” Iida asks, setting his helmet on the ground and grabbing Mashirao by the shoulders. “Do you?” he asks, shaking the tail-quirked boy. 

“I- No?”

“I! Have not! Gotten to plan! Anything! Since! The beginning! Of this term!” Iida shouts, shaking Mashirao each time for emphasis. 

“Didn’t you partner up with Midoriya like a week ago?” Mashirao asks.

Iida droops, letting go of his partner’s shoulders. “He already had a plan!” Iida bemoans. “It was a really good plan, too! I was not able to submit any valid suggestions!” 

“What about when you partnered up with Kaminari?” Mashirao asks, trying to recall Iida’s part in 1-A’s recent exercises.

Iida begins crying. “He tried to wrap himself in tape to conduct electricity better!”

“That doesn’t sound so bad…”

“He wrapped the tape around his face so he could headbutt people,” Iida says. “Like, and I quote, ‘In the movies’!” Iida adds, making over-exaggerated air quotes.

“I mean…”

“He covered his eyes and ran into a wall, knocking himself out!”

“...Ah.”

“The worst part is that it worked! Ashido and Sero laughed so hard they passed out!”

“ Ah. ” 

“I didn’t even get to do anything!” Iida cries.

“Weren’t you with Todoroki the class before that?” Mashirao asks, trying to remember that class’s exercise. “He seems like he would follow a plan.”

“He dropped an iceberg on the enemies!” Iida says. “I didn’t even get to finish talking!”

Mashirao wracks his brain even harder. “What about the time even before that? You were with Bakugo, right?”

“We don’t talk about that,” Iida says, face hardening.

“But-” 

“We. Don’t. Talk. About. That,” Iida says, suddenly looming over Mashirao.

“Okay, okay, jeez!” Mashirao says, holding up his hands. “Anyways, any plans for this exam? Me and you versus the number one hero?”

Iida pauses. “You know, I never thought I’d actually get this far…”

“Are you feeling okay, Izuku?” Ochako Uraraka asks, looking over at her boyfriend in concern as the bus drives along the road to their testing ground.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” Izuku says, flashing a big smile. “I’ve just been feeling a little bit weird. It’s probably nothing...”

The fifth obelisk and ninth obelisk shake faster and faster, their pitch rising to a feverish intensity.

“AAAAAAAAH!” Banjo shouts, hurled through the air after an ill-fated attempt to investigate closer.

“AAAAAAAAH!” Hikage shouts back, not one to lose a screaming contest.

“FIRST! WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO?” Nana shouts over the whining of the pillars.

“I DON’T KNOW!” First yells back. “THIS HAS LITERALLY NEVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE EVER BEFORE!” 

“...I’ll be fine!” Izuku says, grinning. “We got this!”

“So, what’s the plan?” Ochako asks.

“Star and Stripe’s biggest weakness is that she needs to touch her opponent to directly affect them,” Izuku explains, pulling out a notebook. “We’ll want to stay out of her touch range as much as possible, of course, but as a pro hero she’s devised tons of tricks to get up close with her enemies to utilize her quirk.”

“So we just stay back?”

“Yeah- and I’ve noticed that her fights with one of her recurring villains- an American villain known as Multiplicity- tend to take the longest, if you look at the trends,” Izuku says, flipping through his notebook to a particular graph. “Multiplicity’s power is that they have a bunch of split personalities, each with unique quirks, so I was thinking-”

“Whoa!” Ochako says. “Did you make this just now when we found out who we were fighting?”

“Hm?” Izuku asks. “No, no, I memorized the hundred most recent fights for all the top heroes in every country years ago. I… didn’t have many friends in middle school, so I had a lot of free time.”

Ochako pauses. “Look, I know you said you didn’t want Mei, Momo, and I to wreck holy vengeance upon them, but if you just give me a couple of names…”

“No!” Izuku yelps. “I… it means more to me than you know for you to do that, Ocha, but I just want to forget about it, okay?”

Ochako begins steaming, red as a tomato. “Ocha?”

Izuku blushes in return. “I-it just kind of slipped out, if you don’t like it I mean I could call you something el-”

“I like it!” Ochako reassures her boyfriend. “...Izu.”

Izuku blushes in turn, sinking into his seat.

After a moment of mutual embarrassment, the two shake their heads. “Right!” Izuku says, tapping his notebook. “Multiplicity’s power is to switch between a set of at least five distinct quirks, each with their own abilities but also their own personalities. And every time the villain switches powers, New Order wears off. So that means…”

“...That New Order can only affect one personality at a time!” Ochako says. “But how can we use that?”

“Well, I was thinking…” Izuku says, pulling out his phone and typing.

“Team Iida and Ojiro. Practical Exam. Ready? Go!”

Tenya sprints through the city- all cylinders firing- as Ojiro hurls himself along the rooftops overhead, propelling himself with his tail.

“You sure All Might’s going to open like you think?” Ojiro asks, his voice buzzing through Tenya’s helmet.

“I am positive,” Tenya responds. “We’ve seen how he acts in class. He’ll-”

A sudden stillness in the air is their only warning. “Get to cov-” Tenya yells to his partner, but before he can move himself, the punch connects.

When the shockwave hits, it’s akin to a being at ground zero of a bomb. In an instant, the pristine main street of the Training Ground is pulverized, little more than a path of devastation carved into the very bones of the city.

“-da! Iida, are you all right?” Ojiro asks, running up to Tenya as the ringing in Iida’s ears fades.

“I’d be more worried about yourself, hero,” a deep voice says. With a red and yellow blur of movement, Ojiro feels a strike to his gut before he’s launched off the ground and across the street. “Being a pro hero is a dangerous profession, after all,” All Might says, electric blue eyes glinting with menace. “Why, you might get hurt by a dangerous villain!”

Cathleen Bate tilts her head, hearing the echo of destruction from the other simultaneous exam. “Guess master’s getting started, huh?” she muses. “Hey, there you guys are!” she says, noticing the two hero students before her. “Midoriya and Uraraka, right?”

“Get ready…” the girl says.

“I watched the Sports Festival, y’know,” Cathleen Bate says, conversationally, as she rolls her shoulder. “So I know that I can’t let you guys get time to get rolling. Which means I’ll have to strike you hard and fast!”

In a blur, Cathleen uses her Enhanced Physical Prowess rule to leap forward, covering the distance between herself and the hero students in an instant, and grab Midoriya in one hand. “ Izuku Midoriya is unable to move !” she imposes, still clutching the green-haired student. “Now-” she begins, turning to Uraraka-

With a grunt, Midoriya drives a crackling pink fist into her gut, hard . Cathleen exhales harshly as the hero student takes the opportunity to jump back, landing in a fighting position. “How-” Cathleen asks, only to catch sight of Uraraka sprinting towards the exit gate with green lightning trailing behind her.

“Not so fast!” Cathleen yells, jumping high into the air. “ The air for thirty feet in front of me will solidify !” she orders, the sudden barrier driving into Uraraka.

With a yell, the female student’s body is thrown to the ground as the beam of hardened air is formed. For a moment, the air is forced out of Uraraka’s lungs, and she stays on the ground before standing back up shakily. “Not yet…” she resolves, before whispering, almost to herself. “C’mon, Shinso…”

Hitoshi Shinso grunts as he feels the impact of Star and Stripe’s blow through his psychic connection. Lavender lightning flares, sparkling around him, as his hair begins defying gravity with the amount of energy he’s channeling through One for All. Come on, Midoriya, he thinks. I’ll hold on as long as I can but you’ve got to finish this quickly…!

“You doing alright, listener?” Present Mic asks from the front of the room, his writing on the chalkboard paused. “Shinso? We’re in the middle of English.”

“Iida!” Mashirao yells before he charges back in, slamming a kick into All Might before coming around again with his tale. One, two, three, he counts, dancing around the hero, coming at him from all angles.

As he comes back around for a fourth kick, All Might grabs his leg before lifting him up and slamming him into the ground under the pro. With yellow lightning crackling, Mashirao uses his tail to catch the ground before he can hit it, coiling and launching himself up into the air and over All Might’s head, the Number One hero tracking Mashirao’s movement and winding up for another punch-

“RECIPRO TURBO!” Iida yells, his engines trailing blue flames and crackling with lightning as he slams a heavy kick into the back of All Might’s head, forcing the hero to stagger forward for a moment. 

But a moment is all that Mashirao needs to leap forward again, cracking his tail across All Might’s face. “GO, IIDA!” Mashirao yells. Iida nods before sprinting off, racing away with dust kicking up behind him. Lightning crackles around Mashirao as he strikes again and again and again and again, slowly orbiting All Might, probing for weaknesses, until-

All Might holds up his hand to block the boy’s next blow, grunting as he takes the strike. “Is that all you’ve got, zygote?” All Might asks. “Because it’s not nearly enough!” he roars, slamming an uppercut into Mashirao’s chest and sending him flying down the street. 

With explosive force, All Might pursues, slamming into Mashirao in mid-air with a mighty punch and slamming the boy downwards into the street. With a choked gasp, Mashirao wheezes as the air is forced out of his lungs. 

“You couldn’t have thought that would work, right?” All Might says, conversationally, as he stands on Mashirao to pin him and looks down the street towards the gathering dust. “It was a good plan, trying to distract me while Young Iida made a run for the escape gate. Unfortunately, he couldn’t help but double back to help you. And while he’s fast…”

All Might speeds off, stopping in front of Tenya. “...I’m faster,” he finishes, clotheslining the engine-quirked first year.

With a mighty smash, Tenya hits the ground, rolling over and forcing his warped and useless helmet off of his head. 

“What now, hero?” All Might asks, stalking forward. “You can’t get up to your top speed immediately like me. Your partner is down the road, too far to help you. You can’t get past me to get to the exit gate. Surrender now, hero.”

“Never,” Tenya spits, standing up shakily, winding back a fist for a punch. “RECIPRO-”

All Might slams a fist into his chest. His armor creaks.

“The zero pointer! Run!” one of the other examinees yells.

Tenya looks up at the robot and takes their advice.

Tenya stands up, slowly. All Might knocks him back into the ground.

There’s a green haired boy in front of the robot, paralyzed in fear. Tenya sees him and keeps running.

Tenya needs more points, after all, to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Tenya gets back up. All Might knocks him down.

When the green-haired boy risks his life, risks all his points to save one girl… Tenya feels regret burning in his chest. Regret and guilt. Why hadn’t he done something? Was all his talk about being a hero… for nothing?

Tenya gets back up.

All Might scoffs. “You’re barely standing, Young Iida. Just surrender now. There’s no way you’ll make it to-” he glances behind him before pausing. “The exit gate- where’s-” he realizes. “When Young Ojiro attacked me on the street-!”

“We knew what you thought we would do!” Tenya confirms, legs wobbling slightly. “We used the battle to turn you around, make you think that I was running towards the exit gate-”

“-When you were running away from it!” All Might realizes. “But your plan failed, because I can still catch up!” 

In a blink, All Might sprints to do just that.

Tenya Iida follows. Lips bloody, bruises covering his body, armor cracked, he follows. I won’t run away when people need me! Even when I need to use my body as a shield…! That’s what it means to live up to my family’s legacy!

Izuku Midoriya (currently inhabiting his girlfriend’s body) dodges another one of Star and Stripe’s blow, green lightning crackling behind him, before he charges in, throwing a straight punch. Star and Stripe dodges the bow, throwing a haymaker of her own, which he slides under before boosting his girlfriend into the air. Ochako (in Izuku’s body) flies down, crackling with pink lightning into a perfect midair diving kick, only for America’s Number One Hero to cross her arms and block the blow.

“Just what I’d expect from Master’s newest disciples!” Star and Stripe grins. “But you don’t get to be the Number One Hero of any country without a few tricks!”

Suddenly, Star and Stripe reaches up and grabs Ochako, slamming her into the ground and stunning her for a moment. Izuku leaps forward, trying to capitalize on the pro’s moment of distraction to just tag her-, but before his slap can connect Star and Stripe knocks it aside and grabs Izuku’s arm before spinning, hurling him away.

With a leap, Star and Stripe jumps after Izuku, winding up a massive punch in the air. Even as her body deflates slightly, the woman dropping her Enhanced Physical Prowess , the pro grins ferally. “You’ve been flinching every time I land a solid hit!” Star and Stripe yells. “So let’s see you hold up to this! The atmosphere will solidify to become one hundred times my size! ” 

Izuku’s mind blares alarm bells. I can’t see anything so why-

“[FIST BUMP TO THE EARTH!]” Star and Stripe yells.

An invisible force strikes Izuku with all the force that America’s Number One Pro Hero can bring to bear.

Hitoshi Shinso feels his connection snap and begins swaying in place. Sorry, Midoriya, he thinks as he touches his nose, pulling his fingers away to see blood. This one’s… up… to you…

Present Mic stops his lecture. “Kendo, can you take Shinso to Recovery Girl, please?” he asks, the class rep nodding. “Now that his funky psychic-communion thing is done, he should probably go check out that nosebleed.”

Mashirao Ojiro races towards the gate. Just a few steps more-

“Where are you going, young man?” All Might asks, racing alongside him. All Might-

The man swings a punch, and at the speeds Mashirao’s going, he can’t react, can’t stop it, can’t move quick enough-

Tenya Iida grabs All Might’s arm, stretching out those vital few inches and throwing it off course. “RUN!” the bespectacled class rep yells, even as All Might shakes him off. “WIN THIS FOR US!” 

With a roar, Mashirao pushes himself forward, just a few more steps, a few more inches, a few more feet. Thirty feet.

He hears footsteps behind him.

Twenty feet. 

He hears All Might breathing.

Fifteen feet. 

The hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Ten feet. 

He can feel All Might’s fingers reaching for him.

Five feet. 

His fingers are brushing the back of his neck. Can he-

Zero feet. 

An airhorn sounds.

He did it.

“Team Iida and Ojiro has passed the final exam!”

With a snap, Izuku and his girlfriend swap back to their original bodies. Just in time for Ochako to hit the ground, dragging a crater along the street. Just in time for Star and Stripe to stalk forward, picking up his girlfriend- Got to move! Izuku thinks, forcing himself forward.

“ Ochako Uraraka ,” the pro says. 

Almost there! Izuku lunges forward.

“ Izuku Midoriya is unable to move ,” Star and Stripe intones, and just like that, Izuku finds himself paralyzed, reaching forward, almost, so close-

“What should I do with you?” Star and Stripe wonders, holding Ochako aloft even as the girl tries to struggle, still dazed from the super move. No, please! Need to move!

“ Ochako Uraraka -” Star and Stripe begins. Please! Just a little more reach. Please-

Izuku Midoriya feels the writhing of something beneath his skin. Something wanting to be let free. 

Izuku Midoriya throws caution to the wind and lets the floodgates open.

In a timeless, featureless void, lightning strikes, a crackling chain of green lightning drawing a permanent connection between the fifth and ninth obelisks.

Star and Stripe is completely blindsided by a giant black energy whip slamming into her and sending her flying across the street, burying her in rubble momentarily.

Izuku grits his teeth, forcing the quirk under his control. More One for All weirdness? he wonders, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter. “GO!” he yells, Ochako taking the hint and removing her gravity to blip away.

“I just need to get one sentence out, kid,” Star and Stripe says, extricating herself from the rubble. “Then you guys lose. Can a single weird black whip-thing really do that?”

One whip? No. 

Ten whips? Yes.

“Team Midoriya and Uraraka has passed the final exam!”

Chapter Text

Neito Monoma pinches his brow. “What do you mean, you got a new quirk?”

“I mean I got a new quirk!” Midoriya grins, twirling ribbons of black energy in the air. “According to First and all the other vestiges, that’s what the obelisks symbolize! They started shaking like crazy during the final, and boom! I got Fifth’s Blackwhip!”

Neito stands there, trying to add this information to his worldview, before he abruptly defaults to his usual reaction, when members of Class A are concerned. “CLASS B!” he yells. “We must go to Gym Gamma immediately and all of us unlock our own new quirks! This is extremely important to being a hero for reasons, and not at all because I want actual evidence that Class B is better than Class A by having more collective quirks!”

Kinoko Komori raises her hand. “I actually have dance practice today…”

Neito points at her. “Not anymore, you don’t!”

Komori sags. “Aw…”

“Do you think the rest of us are getting quirks, ribbit?” Asui asks, touching her chin in thought. “It would be interesting to see if any of you can develop Frog.”

“That is a fascinating question!” Midoriya says, pulling out a notebook. “The short answer is, we don’t know! Quirks typically manifest through different permutations of the Quirk Factor, but mutation quirks are almost always present at birth!”

“So it’s possible that mutation quirks are simply impossible to pass on with One for All?” Momo Yaoyorozu asks, musing over the idea.

“Well, I didn’t say that,” Izuku Midoriya says. “I was doing some research on this last night, and I stumbled upon a paper by Dr. Kyudai Garaki called, ‘ My Entirely Hypothetical Research on What Might Happen If Someone Stole a Quirk and Gave It To Someone Else, Which Could Never Happen, Because the Lord of the Underworld Isn’t Real and Is Only a Myth ,’ which theorized that mutation quirks could be transferred between individuals, given a quirk with those capabilities!”

“Like how I can copy mutation quirks,” Neito mentions.

“Exactly!” Midoriya says. “If I had to guess, however, I’d say that nobody will be copying mutation quirks, given the strain that developing a whole new musculature would naturally put on the body!”

“Developing Plus Alpha Elements is a resource-intensive bodily function,” Yaoyorozu adds.

“Yes, but what if One for All takes care of the energy requirements?” Itsuka Kendo asks, joining the conversation.

“Maybe…” Midoriya wonders.

“Quick!” Tokage Setsuna jokes, elbowing Komori. “Escape while they’re distracted!”

With a nod, Komori does just that.

Somewhere, in a timeless, featureless void…

“So that’s it, huh?” Daigoro Banjo asks. “Nine gets a new quirk, and that’s all for the obelisks?”