Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Flickering stars against a black empty space passed by at incomprehensible speeds in an nausea inducing blur. The cycle was beginning once more, just like last time. He crashed. Or landed. Sometimes a combination of both. He would stumble out of his craft, and be greeted by new bizarre creatures that he did not know or recognize. They spoke with warped voices soaked with incomprehensible sounds in tongues that he could not even begin to hope to understand.

But what he did not know of them was swiftly made known when he slipped under their skins. Like two puzzle pieces clicking together, everything just made sense when he walked as them, talked as them, ate as them, lived as them, he knew everything about them and their kind. And the more flesh and skin he stole, the more knowledge became his.

"Stay human."

That voice again… this isn't where it belongs.

Cities, continents, whole planets worth of different species were in his blood, he could feel them wriggling in his blood. No longer was he a normal hunter, a predator. No, he was beyond that. He was beyond creation itself. Millions of years worth of plundered knowledge from billions of species and their minds were part of his mind now. 

"Don't give in. Stay human."

It's still here.

His mercy would spread through the stars and bring every life form in existence together in a utopia of singing skin. He was utter and complete perfection designed to bring forth an everlasting peace to the known universe. Even if all of creation rejected his divine will, it mattered not, for he would force it into their warm, delicious, wriggling bodies. And no matter how much they cried or begged to be left alone, to be spared of salvation from themselves, he'd make sure the work would be done.

"You're human now. That's all that matters. The past doesn't matter. What matters is what you do now."

G E T  O U T. 

Then he crashed into a new world, a strange big blue planet to repeat the holy process once more, share his glory with the species of this planet, to be united under one body and mind. 

But he had a bad landing, and he stumbled out to be welcomed by endless freezing white mounds of tiny frozen crystals, and they fell from te sky in endless droves, more and more as they buried him alive, and he found himself sinking into the ice…

"Jayluf."

Sinking…

"Jayluf?"

Sinking……..

"Jayluf!"

He thawed. He woke up. Lifeforms. He was hungr-

"JAYLUF!"

Grey eyes flew open, and a teenager with pale skin, jet black hair, and grey eyes sat up in alarm in a white bed, his human lungs filling up with oxygen. "W-What…?" He gasped, "What is…?"

"Jayluf?" The voice that had been speaking his name to him was decidedly feminine, with a slightly cheerful and upbeat tone. "Welcome to the land of the living!"

The boy blinked. Jayluf… He searched his memory banks. That's right… I'm Jayluf. Jayluf the human. "Hello." He remembered now, he was Jayluf Viller, a human being roughly fourteen years old in human years. Combined with the fact he was a very unimpressive one hundred and thirty seven centimeters tall and was sporting a very thin build, he was not very intimidating to the average person. His skin was creamy pale, not unpleasantly to the point of being gray or seemingly undead like a vampire, but bleached enough to look like he didn't get much sun, which he didn’t. The only plus to the lack of sunlight exposure was that his skin was very smooth, soft, and quite squishy to the touch. 

His hair was a solid black, and while it wasn’t too impressive length wise, it was long enough that it would obscure his eyes from sight if he refused to don a headband. The hair in the back had been allowed more leniency to grow, almost reaching his shoulders. His dull grey eyes were the most peculiar, lacking a certain light that normal human eyes usually held, to the point where some of the people around him in the past had said his eyes sometimes looked like the eyes of a corpse.

Although the people around him having a similar mindset was because the people he lived with were not family, friends, or neighbors, they were instead scientists, researchers, people who worked here at his home.

But while he knew the voice that woke him belonged to a scientist, he recognized it was no ordinary scientist. The feminine, angelic tone told Jayluf exactly who was by his bed. He looked to his left. "Good morning, Doctor Hunee."

Beside his completely white bed stood Doctor Jill Hunee, a thirty year old adult woman with long blonde hair and slightly orangish skin. Even with her flowing locks, they were unable to hide the two antennae that were proudly sprouting out of her head. The fluffy antennae were very soft and flexible, starting thin at the bottom but eventually swelling at the top with a rounded end, not unlike a cartoonist depiction of a bee's antennae. Her white lab coat covered an orange and brown striped sweater that clung to her form. Her eyes, while solid black with no white, had a sparkle in them that helped to make them appear actually somewhat natural.  

"Well good morning Jayluf! And please, you're making me feel like an old crone! I told you to call me Miss Hunee."

Jayluf blinked as he used his arms to propel his upper body upwards to observe his surroundings. It was his quarters, or his "bedroom", as Miss Hunee liked to call it. His previously mentioned bed was white from top to bottom, including the blankets, mattress, and wooden framing. The room in itself wasn't overly luxurious, a ten by ten foot room with just enough space to fit a single person bed, drawer, work desk, and lamp table, which the latter was by his bed. His bed was in the right corner of the room, the end of it facing the wall which had the door, and the drawer was on the left wall of the room, whilst the work desk was on his right. It didn't leave much room to walk around at all. Everything in his living quarters was a lifeless white, devoid of any color or saturation. But it never bothered him. 

Nothing really bothered him, really. Ever since he could remember, a strange fog was always present in his head, making excessive thinking extremely tedious and difficult. It didn't make him stupid, just that on certain occasions grasping certain concepts or things would be sometimes more challenging than others. Emotions were something he still struggled with, despite the scientists and researchers attempts at helping him adjust. Even though he lacked "normal feelings", a small plus is that it was quite difficult to get mad or upset about things that would probably irritate normal people. 

Is that something that would upset normal people? Jayluf didn't know. All he knew is that despite his flaws, he was definitely human. More importantly, he was also going to be a hero. The reason for this was because as far back as he could remember, he'd always been on this base to train and become a hero for the company, according to the same people here who told him that he'd lost some of his memory. 

Parents were something he was unfamiliar with as well. His memories held no records or mentions of any biological mothers or fathers. When he would inquire on the topic, it was usually dismissed by the other scientists as "irrelevant to the current situation". But that didn’t matter, not to him at least. After all, it wasn't like it bothered him or anything. This was his home now, the base. 

In the past, he hadn't known much about it, as he wasn't allowed outside. At first he simply knew that it was merely a giant square piece of land with metal walls surrounding every side to presumably prevent things from getting inside. It wasn't until Miss Hunee had brought him a blueprint map of the complex did he get a better idea of his surroundings. Inside the walls were multiple buildings and complexes, one was where the military section operated. 

The military section was made of six medium sized three story buildings, and had a hangar for aircraft, complete with a lane for landing and taking off planes. Behind the landing strip was a large two story building, the barracks. every soldier not on duty would be located there. 

Near the front was the product factory line, where most products of Nohken Industries were produced, packaged, and shipped out to stores all over the country. Nohken Industries was the company that had built and now currently owned the facility they all lived in. The logo was an English spelling of the word Nohken, except that the "o" was replaced by a strange symbol that merely resembled an "o". It was an odd shape, almost looking like it was covered in freezing snow. If Jayluf squinted, he could say it also looked like an arctic explorer's hood from a snowsuit. Considering the fact that Nohken Industries was a wealthy enough figure to have its own private military base, so Jayluf had deduced that they must have had some sort of authority or influence in Japan, even if it was a privately owned company. 

To the right of the previously mentioned factory was a large square building, the laboratory facilities, where most of the training and experiments took place. It wasn't much on the outside, a simple gray cement wall with the indents to give the illusion that it was built brick by brick. It had an impressive six levels, three above and three underground. Including the ground floor, the building had an impressive seven whole floors to choose from. The ground floor was the main entrance area, cafeteria, and the bar. The three floors above were all dedicated living quarters for any non militant Nohken Industries employee. The three below were the laboratory, work office, and the training floor.

He had no knowledge if it was an official military base of Japan, as the scientists, soldiers, and every employee's uniform had the same Nohken Industries logo pasted onto their uniform, Miss Hunee's included. Although the shoulder parts of uniforms sported a miniaturized version of logo, with the company name squeezed into the strange "o" symbol. 

"Jayluf?"

Ah , He realized, It appears my mind was wandering again. "Yes Miss Hunee? Sorry, my mind was somewhere else."

The woman's face had a gentle smile. "It's nine A.M, so I'm gonna have to take a daily sample from you, hun. Is that okay?"

"Of course Miss Hunee." Jayluf raised his left arm, allowing the female scientist to take a syringe from a metal tray she had on the desk to the side of him and plunging it into his vein. Normally, getting a needle inserted into one's skin abruptly would sting a rather fair amount, but Jayluf was different than the average person. 

It was part of his "quirk", as Miss Hunee had dubbed it. Quirks were a very common thing in this world, where people could have a certain power, ability, or mutation. Some were almost unnoticeable or insignificant, such as eyes changing color every so often, others being completely bizarre, such as being able to turn any type of corn into popcorn upon touching it. 

But then there were the strong ones. One shining example was whatever quirk the famous Hero All Might used, being able to end fights in a single mighty punch, or clapping away clouds to change the weather. Jayluf was mostly unfamiliar with all of hero society, save All Might, who he quite liked. 

Speaking of quirks, Jayluf's quirk was an oddity the researchers had appropriately labeled; "Cell Command". Cell Command was a quirk that allowed him to manipulate his own cells in any way he wanted. It was difficult for him to explain to the scientists how connected he was to his own cellular structure. He was aware of them all, he could feel them, and when he focused, he knew what they were doing. When he used his quirk, he could physically feel his cells working together as a team. If his physical form took damage, he could also feel his cells moving, bumping and shoving their way to clot the wound. But when his blood was separated from his body when he was directly controlling them, their efficiency was dependent on two key factors. One being his health, the other being the mood of the cells. On good days, they reacted to instructions quickly, and his blood will attempt to slither back into the open wound with little issue. 

As powerful as it sounded, attempting to control the blood when outside his body was a difficult task, doubly so on the bad  days where his cells decided it would be funny if they misbehaved or were lazy. Some days it almost seemed like any individual cell had a mind of its own, doubly so if it left his body. His cells were also not invincible, either. If exposed too long to the elements, clusters of blood were vulnerable to either suffering from dehydration and shriveling up in warm climates, or his cells would crystallize and shatter down to the molecular level from colder environments. 

Having firm control over his cells required massive amounts of concentration, so if he wasn't in complete command, his cells would behave not unlike a normal human would, such as blood staying completely still after being spilled from his flesh, so if his cells were left alone on the ground, it was likely they wouldn't survive long. 

His organs that usually functioned automatically with no manual input from the brain, such as the kidneys or small intestine, were the parts of him that he didn't have any command over, at least not yet. So he did not have control over things like his normal bodily functions such as digestion and heart pumping blood out. 

Although at first glance his quirk had a handful of issues to iron out, it still had several advantages. One of the most useful parts of Cell Command is that if he focused, he could instruct his pain receptors to dull on command, making things like blood extractions completely painless. 

Sure, his quirk was an odd one, but Miss Hunee would remind him time and time again that it made him special. 

"A very special human" She always says to me.

"Aaand, done!" Miss Hunee said as she extracted the needle out of his arm as the punctured area let out a miniscule glob of blood. Wounds were something he could deal with as well, normally he could survive things that no normal human should, but that didn't mean he could heal any wound instantly. While a few stabs to his gut wouldn't kill him, it could still be a risk if his heart did not pump enough blood to replace what was lost. And if his heart could not keep up, his brain would shut off. He didn't know what would happen if he lost control of his brain, only that the scientists had reminded him time and time again to never let that happen. Would he die like a normal human? Or would his cells live on in his body? He didn't know.

In a situation where it required him to make an attempt to mend his wounds, he would still need to access the blood and flesh that had been removed from whatever wound he'd suffered from. If biomass was destroyed completely down to cellular destruction, it would be gone forever. The only counter to that type of injury was to eat organic meat in order to replace the lost biomass. He didn't really "absorb" the meat, more like the heavy protein content was the energy needed for duplication. Perhaps he could absorb raw meat for faster biomass restoration, but he had never tried it. It merely sat in his head as an insignificant hypothetical. 

While blunt and piercing damage was less of a worry to him, things like fire and acid however were an especially big risk to his body, for elements and compounds like those were extremely efficient at cell destruction. 

But for things like needle puncture wounds, they mattered little, as they were barely wounds, let alone cuts. And now that the needle had been removed, having it clot and seal in seconds was the obvious choice. Yet Jayluf did not do it, refusing to command his body to repair itself for one very specific cause. Why? It was a good reason, in his opinion. But before he had the chance to speak up...

"Thank you Jayluf." Miss Hunee said, interrupting Jayluf's train of thought.

"You're very welcome, Miss Hunee," Jayluf idly replied on cue. He had this exchange ever since the first day since he woke up here, so it was less of an exchange, and more of a memorized interaction to the point of it barely even being a proper conversation. Even on rare occasions when Jayluf was feeling a negative emotion such as irritation from something that had happened the day prior, he would still respond politely, for when he would say "you're welcome", he was rewarded with Miss Hunee giving a cheerful smile. Jayluf could safely say he enjoyed her presence a great amount.

"I guess I'll go and take this sample back to the lab," said Miss Hunee with a rather dramatic sigh, ignoring the way Jayluf noticeably tensed his muscles. "Goodbye for now, Jayluf."

To Jayluf's increasing alarm, she was seemingly forgetting the most important part of this exchange. Unable to stop himself, he spoke, "Wait, Miss Hunee… aren't you forgetting something?"

The woman paused. "Am I?" 

"Yes…" Jayluf said, holding up his arm. "My wound…I am still bleeding." 

Miss Hunee palmed her forehead in a very dramatic fashion. "Oh, of course! You still need your hero aid, huh?"

He nodded. Even if his emotions were dulled and buried underneath… that whatever was wrong with him, he had a gut feeling that the weird feeling in his heart was a positive emotion. Whilst it was barely a flicker, he still clung to it like a lifeline. "Yes please."

"So polite! Alright, let me get it out…" Reaching into her pocket, Miss Hunee produced a colorful small box that featured art of the famous hero, All Might. 

All Might was the only exposure Jayluf had to heroes, as they were usually discouraged as a topic here (which Jayluf found somewhat odd, since they were saying his destiny was to be a hero but then they avoided all discussion of it when possible?). But when he had started to behave, he'd been rewarded with being granted access to a video featuring the mentioned hero. Ever since that day, Jayluf had been completely fascinated with All Might, which is why he was looking forward to this part of the sample process. He and his cells vibrated with anticipation.

Fishing into the small box, Miss Hunee pulled out a small blue paper rectangle, and began to peel it open. Inside was a small deep blue colored adhesive bandage with a picture of All Might giving a wide smile, complete with a thumbs up. "Here it is!" sang Miss Hunee as she gently turned it over, peeling back the two paper pieces that prevented it from sticking to itself. Positioning it over Jayluf's wound that still had a little bit of blood around the opening, she gently pressed it down, and firmly flatted it from middle to both ends in one go to prevent any folds or wrinkles from happening "There! Now it's all better!" Miss Hunee glanced behind her, noticing that the door had slid open. "Is... that better, Jayluf?" 

Jayluf nodded, satisfied that the latest All Might branded bandage was now firmly clamped to his arm. 

"Now," hummed Miss Hunee as she turned to give the blood filled syringe to a man wearing a hazmat suit (presumably a scientist) that had come in from behind to collect the sample. "Would you like to tell me what that was earlier?"

The boy blankly stared. "What do you mean?"

"When you woke up! You were tossing and turning, did you have a nightmare again?” She hiked an eyebrow up inquisitively. “Did you hear that voice again?"

"Not exactly a nightmare. Yes there was indeed the voice again just like last time, telling me to be human." Jayluf's brows were furrowed in slight concentration. "But it was less of a nightmare and more like a strange dream, I was flying through the stars on a spaceship, and I landed on earth, crashing into snow, and I was buried alive…" 

His caretaker pressed her lips in a tight line, as if the description displeased her. "Well, it's just a dream. It's probably best to forget such unimportant things." She proceeded to pocket the small cardboard box of bandages. "Dreams are just our imagination acting up when we're asleep. Dreams are silly, Jayluf. Remember that."

Not knowing what to make of her offbeat response, the boy simply found himself half-heartedly nodding, hoping that it would appeal to Miss Hunee's stance on the dream subject. "Yes, you are probably right. Dreams are silly." He parroted. This was new information, and new information needed to be stored inside his brain. Like the rest of his body, he could command cells inside his brain, although in a slightly different way. His main area of storage was merely a temporary slot for newly learned information, which he could keep for things happening around that time frame of when he had learned it. It made things like tests and quizzes given to him a complete breeze. Although to the average person it might give the illusion that Jayluf was some sort of teenage prodigy, in reality he was more so doing the cellular equivalent of pulling out a cheat sheet from his pocket and reading it. 

After the information had been used and became less and less relevant to him, or his environment, the information was carted off by his cells to the deeper parts of his brain. Namely, the parts submerged in the deep fog. Once they'd been ferried off into there, retrieving the knowledge later down the road proved to be somewhat difficult. If he had aced a quiz in the past, but was surprised by a retake months later, it was likely he wouldn't be able to complete it in time.

The only way for him to recall deep storage information without great difficulty was if it was something he was constantly exposed to over and over again, such as details about things like the base he lived on, or Miss Hunee.

As "dreams are silly" was being escorted into his mind by his still somewhat groggy brain cells, Jayluf stretched his limbs as he swung out his legs in order to continue waking up for the day. 

The information has been stored, his brain cells idly informed him. He had no idea if he would use it anytime soon or not. 

"Well, I'll follow the geek that took your sample to the the biology division where the lab boys are," Miss Hunee said, forcing her legs to propel herself up from her chair and to turn to leave the room. "You better prepare, especially for tomorrow!"

Tomorrow? "What is tomorrow?"

Miss Hunee angled her head back to face Jayluf as she reached the doorway. "The Entrance Exam of course! Remember, for the U.A.? You're going to be a hero! The company is finally ready to let you out into the world of heroes!"

Jayluf's eyelids were pulled into a squint as he mentally dug into the reservoir of his mind, although thankfully it did not take long for him to retrieve the previous memory, as it had been brought up several times in the past, meaning it was decently fresh. "Yes… yes I remember. The written exam. I will study and store the learned information for usage tomorrow." 

"And there's the second part of the test. Well, a little birdie may have told me that it's a physical test. A test of quirks, per say. You'll probably have to use your quirk against robots to score points. Smash enough bots and you should be able to get accepted no problem!"

"Who told you this?"

"About the second part of the test? Weeeelll, I'm not allowed to say. Sorry!" Miss Hunee replied with an innocent grin. 

Her hesitant reply gave Jayluf pause. Odd. She usually does not hesitate to share information with me. Oh well.  And to pass this I am going to have to… "Use my quirk…?"

"Yup. Remember, the bio form? I know you're struggling with that, but it's best if you get some practice in today before the big day."

Bio-Form. The secondary ability of my Cell Command. Bio-Form was a thing that Jayluf struggled with greatly. In itself, it allowed him to manipulate cells into mutations and forms that he'd never heard of. Said ability had been discovered when he'd been going through an experiment, or "training exercise" as the scientists liked to call it. Training was rare nowadays, but back when he had first awoke in this facility, they had been performed on him plenty. It was how he'd discovered the abilities of his cells in general, like his tolerance for injury and pain. 

His discovery of Bio-Form came into play in a training exercise when he had been placed in an empty, white, square room that had absolutely nothing in it. Before he was able to ask what type of test this was, all the lights were suddenly switched off, plunging him into complete silence. When he'd asked for the lights to be switched back on and for him to be let out of the room only to be met with silence. It was one of the rare times he felt a sliver of panic, and when he'd started to feel unease that he couldn't see in the dark and that he needed to see, his cells began to work a small miracle to help him, and suddenly he could see just fine, as if some lights had been flipped back on. At first, he'd incorrectly deducted that emergency lights had been turned on from a supposed power outage. 

His hypothesis had been proven incorrect when he'd felt a strange sensation on his forehead, and had moved his hand up to feel a third eye embedded in his skull. After being released, he had been rushed to the nearest mirror to see that it was no normal eye, it was black with a red slit in the middle. Almost otherworldly , in a way. The scientists had told him his body just "knew" how to grow parts that didn't belong. Something about "environment adaptability". 

But Bio-Form was something he disliked. The voice in almost every dream had given constantly hammered in the fact in his brain that he was a human being, so he should try to keep the form of one. So he tried to avoid mutating or growing any more parts if he could, especially non-human ones. If he was to use this in the entrance exam, he'd do it sparingly. But he still knew he would probably have to use it anyway. "Right. Bio-Form. Understood. There will be no problems."

"Thank you hun!" Miss Hunee sang as she turned to leave with Jayluf's blood Sample. "Remember, no weird ideas!"

"Weird ideas” was what they called when Jayluf would wake up from slumber in a cold sweat, with a sudden bizarre revelation or strange idea to solve a problem that didn't really exist. He'd stumble out of bed and out of his room to act on said idea. His most recent genius moment was when he'd stumbled out of his room at three A.M in the morning and made a beeline for the cafeteria, and had lumbered into the meat locker and cooler. The only person who worked back there was the base butcher, who usually left his bloody apron hanging alongside the dangling meat. 

Jayluf's idea of a problem was apparently the blood on the clothing was a problem that needed to be solved, and his solution was to grab the blood painted rags and throw them into the nearest trash can before stumbling back into his bed. He didn't know why it was a problem, only that bloody clothes being seen by other humans was a BIG no no. However after getting an earful from the base security, scientists, and the cafeteria staff including the butcher himself, he was banned from going anywhere near behind the serving desk, and had several pairs of eyes watching him when he got near to check out with his food tray during lunch. 

In his defense, the ideas always seemed like good ones, when he was half awake. 

"Okay. No weird ideas for the test." He glanced up. "But… Miss Hunee?"

"Yes?"

He blinked. "I'm… I'm hungry."

"You can get an early lunch after you study today. The corporation wants you to be performing at your very best tomorrow, both physically, and mentally."

I was assuming she would reply with that. "Yes Miss Hunee."

A cheerful nod of acknowledgement from Miss Hunee as she walked out of the room showed that the message got through. The metallic automatic door to his room sealing shut with a gentle hiss as Miss Hunee vanished from sight. 

The U.A. test… If he was accepted he'd get into the hero career, and if he became a "Pro-Hero", he'd go to the outside world. Of course, he knew what the outdoors were, there was a fenced off area made exclusively for him dubbed "the playset", which had a large patch of dirt, a tree, grass, and a small pond for him to interact with. While it was enjoyable to roll around in the grass and dirt and have a disgruntled Miss Hunee scold him while ushering him to the showers, he'd never been truly outside, as he hadn't even been to the rest of the facility. The most he had were pictures and the map. To be allowed into society and to meet new people? Sure, he'd seen videos of the outside world, sneak peeks of the way humanity operated outside of the walls. 

He didn't feel "excited" per say, but he definitely would not mind the concept of going out there to see the world. Outside of his home. 

Maybe…  if he tried hard enough… he could become a normal human being instead of a weird one. And if he did… he could be a true hero.

Chapter Text

Jayluf was going to leave his home. 

He was going to leave his home. Disbelief caused him to repeat the phrase in his head several times to make sure he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating.

For the first time in his whole life, he would be granted access to depart from the laboratory and the research facility to apply at U.A, somewhere that was outside of the walls that surrounded the entire base.

Although his emotions were still dulled and lacking as they usually were, he still knew that deep down, the strange warmth in his chest was a positive feeling. Even if it was only the slightest feeling. 

The morning had started the same as any other day at the base, with Miss Hunee being his alarm clock by waking him up early, taking a sample, business as usual. But instead of her leaving with the sample, she’d abruptly turned and casually informed him that he needed to use the shower and bathe as soon as possible, for today was an important day. Before he was able to voice his curiosity, she’d already vanished with the daily sample. 

Showering of course wasn’t really anything special, it wasn’t exactly a new concept to him, considering he was required to do it at least once a week. In the past, he’d originally been allowed to shower every other day, but everything changed when they’d given him the privileges of warm water. 

Having never experienced hot water, Jayluf had been caught completely off guard. Although he struggled with things like emotions, physical touch was still normal for him, so even if he could feel pain, he could also feel the pleasures of the skin. So when the hot water had been switched on to maximum, and the full blast had hit Jayluf’s skin for the first time as it had filled entire shower room with steam, he had simply lazily slumped over in the tub in utter bliss, lying his head against the back wall.

Enjoying hot water hadn’t been the issue, the problem was how long he decided to enjoy it. And he'd enjoyed it a bit too long. Time was something Jayluf never really paid attention to, so when he had almost completely fallen asleep from the steaming hot water pouring on him, he'd been abruptly awoken by Miss Hunee's frantic knocking. Post exiting the shower and drying off, his caretaker had been quick to elaborate on the fact that he'd been in the shower for over an hour, and had used up enough hot water to cause other employees to be missing hot water. 

Ever since that day, combined with a few repeats of the incident was the reason for him being restricted to shower only once a week during the evening. 

But now in the present, being ordered to shower in the morning? It had come as a surprise to Jayluf. But he still did what he'd been told, having a quick cleanse in the shower, and when he'd finished drying his body and being halfway clothed, Miss Hunee had barged in with a hairdryer, and proceeded to blast his hair and scalp with hot air. Before Jayluf had time to recover, she'd then went on to assault his hair with a comb and brush, making sure any knots in his strands of hair were pulled apart. 

When his hair appeared satisfactory to Miss Hunee, she'd quickly ducked out of the room for several minutes, and returned with a brand new outfit. Something about today was definitely off... What day was today again? 

Miss Hunee had cheerily informed him that these clothes were called a "school uniform", and that he was to don it immediately for the entrance exam.

The entrance exam. Of course! Today was when he would apply!

According to Miss Hunee, a school uniform was something apparently that people around Jayluf's age would wear to a school. The top piece of clothing called a "dress shirt", while the bottom were "dress pants".

In the past, Jayluf had only ever worn the casual lab outfit given to him, which had been a long sleeved white shirt with no buttons, and the same for his pants, which used an elastic band inside the neck to be a "one size fits all".

But the school uniform was a much different article of clothing compared to his usual outfit. One major difference was how the collar of the shirt was decently tall, reaching halfway up his neck. It also was a button up shirt, which he fiddled with before Miss Hunee had come to the rescue and buttoned it up for him.

Although this was the first time in his life he'd ever laid eyes on a school uniform, he had an assumption that this one was custom made at Nohken Industries. At least he thought it was, considering the fact that it was a deep blue just like the company logo, and on the right chest area was none other than the Nohken Industries logo neatly woven in. 

After putting the whole outfit on and glancing at a mirror, he could safely say that it had looked fine on him.

That's what he had thought, at least until Miss Hunee started crowing about how the collar “wasn’t straightened out”, or how Jayluf needed to “tuck his shirt in”. After a few minutes of her making adjustments to his outfit, she finally nodded, content with her work. 

But the surprises hadn't ended there. After he'd been deemed decent enough to be seen outside, by Miss Hunee and some higher ups in Nohken, they'd given him a pair of shoes, telling him they'd serve him better than the slippers he would don when going to his outside pen.

Although he did not mind having new footwear, a temporary speed bump had occurred in the form of something called "shoe laces". But thanks to an intervention from Miss Hunee, the problem had been solved.

It had been strange, going past the two doors he'd been told to never go into by the same people who were now accompanying him through said doors. 

Of course, he had an escort besides Miss Hunee and the businessman from earlier, because Jayluf had been also accompanied by two armed guards, who followed his every step. Nohken soldiers were quite a mystery to him, being dressed from head to toe in military gear, with a helmet, goggles, and mask hiding any sign of their face to the naked eye. A backpack and vest was tightly attached to the soldier's backs. The strangest thing was although their shoulder pieces had the Nohken Industries logo, their entire outfit was jet black. 

Finally, they'd reached a new pair of doors that had the blessed sign proudly attached on top of them. 

EXIT

And when they'd passed through the doors and into the outside world was nothing short of overwhelming. He'd felt the sun and fresh air before yes, but when he'd felt them as he went truly outside without fences or walls hindering his movement, it had been an almost indescribable experience.

It was unbelievable just how much space there was. Without the barriers to prevent him from going too far out, it felt like he could run forever. He could see the other buildings of the base, looking much different than they did on the map. Compared to the flat shapes on the paper, the real buildings towered over everything, casting a ginormous shadow on their respective parking lot.

The scents were so much more different now as well. Jayluf had breathed in through his nose, and had smelled everything, the outside air, the smoke, exhaust, he could smell it all. 

But the senses had not experienced it all yet, for when he looked down, he could see they were walking on a sidewalk. A real life sidewalk. It was something he'd thought he'd never be able to see in person, let alone walk on. But now here he was, his feet firmly planted on them. 

Not wanting the chance to go to waste, Jayluf reached down and placed his right hand on the ground, running his soft fingers against the strangely grainy surface. It was oddly warm, rough, and very dry. The rough coarseness of the material felt nothing like the smooth cold waxed floors of his room and all the laboratories. 

The sensation of the rough surface grinding against the pads of his fingers was something he knew he wouldn't forget for a long time from now. Wow…

But it hadn't ended there. His bewilderment would only increase when he reached the section of the sidewalk that connected to the main path, which was by the road. On said road ahead did Jayluf realize they were approaching a big black box that was parked by the sidewalk they walked on. 

It was a car. A real car. They were going to ride a car. 

Jayluf finally found his voice. "Miss Hunee… that is a car!"

"Not just any old car," said Miss Hunee as she reached out to pat his head. "It's a limousine. You probably never heard of them, I don't think we ever taught you about specific types of cars. But still, it's a really fancy type of car, although this one is shorter than the average one since it's just us, but it's still quite expensive. This one is brand new! If you're gonna be a hero and also be representing Nohken Industries, you can't be see slumming it in a PT Cruiser or something."

Jayluf had honestly no clue what a PT Cruiser was, but still found himself mindlessly nodding along, until he absorbed her sentence completely. "You imply that we are going to ride this?"

"Yep! Cool, huh? Perks of royalty! Here…"

As they reached the side of the vehicle, Miss Hunee reached down and gripped a handle and pulled, opening the door with a satisfying KLUP sound. "Just hop on in and scooch over to the left side."

Nodding, Jayluf obediently went forward, putting his upper body in before swinging his legs inside as well. Once again, all of his senses were nearly overloaded due to all of the new sensations at once. 

First, he had been hit with the strongest scent that day, the smell of a brand new factory made car, the aroma assaulting his nostrils in full force. The scent was so overpowering that he'd nearly fallen over from the sudden dizzy spell that had hit his brain, combined with the fact said brain was still desperately attempting to keep up in processing all the new sensations. 

He shook his head as he reached his side of the car, and sat down. Immediately he used his hands to explore the inside of the car, rubbing his fingers against the material that made up both his and Miss Hunee's seats. It was a strange dark black colored material that had felt not too smooth, but not very rough at the same time. It was somewhat soft like his pillow, but a bit firmer.

Before he was able to explore or experiment with anything else, he'd been interrupted by the door on his side being swiftly pulled open. Looking up in surprise, he saw the masked visage of one of the soldiers assigned to rescue him. Jayluf blankly stared at the man whose identity was obscured by their goggles and mask. Without saying a word the soldier reached a gloved hand into the car above Jayluf's shoulder, and grasped something that had been out of the younger boy's line of sight until now. 

Pulling down and outwards, the soldier appeared to be holding a strange metal piece attached to some sort of belt loop that was coming out of the car wall. 

Intrigued, Jayluf said nothing, allowing the man to do as they wished while he silently watched.

Yanking the piece further out, the soldier dragged the metal piece downwards towards Jayluf's right thigh. Snaking past the leg, he inserted the metal piece into some strange black rectangle that had a red opening on its side. 

As the soldier firmly pressed the metal piece in, Jayluf was surprised to hear a CLICK sound be audibly made, and now the belt that had been attached to the steel part was now currently restraining part of his body, namely his thighs, and to a certain extent, his chest.

Seemingly finished with their bizarre task, the soldier backed out of the car doorway, and promptly slammed it back shut.

Jayluf stared at the belt contraption curiously, wondering what purpose the device served.

As if reading his mind, Miss Hunee spoke up from his right. "Before you ask, Jayluf, that's what we call a seat belt. It's a neat little gizmo that prevents you from being tossed around if we happened to get into a bad wreck or something."

Jayluf could only offer a slight nod. Seat belt? It seemed there would be an endless supply of new information to cram into his brain today. 

His hands began to inspect the belt that was now hugging his body in a firm embrace, feeling the sensation of yet another new material against his hands. Although it was not a hard substance, it was not soft or squishy either.

In fact, it was a very solid one to the point he became unable to identify whatever substance it was made out of. Was it plastic? Maybe cotton? Perhaps a different strain of leather?

To his surprise, he had been able to really move the top part of the strap as much as he wished at first, as he freely began pulling more and more of the belt out of the receptacle on his left until it finally stopped coming out. Releasing his grip, Jayluf wasn't expecting the belt to almost immediately retract back in with a very audible whirring sound.

Blinking in surprise, he pulled at it once more, but it did not cooperate. Instead of coming out, the belt was holding firm, and resisting any attempts of being pulled back out. What had happened?

Miss Hunee, who had witnessed the whole debacle, sighed. "Jayluf, if you pull the belt too much, it kind of malfunctions. The belt tightening is an automatic response to being pulled on too fast and too hard in case of a sudden violent crash. Here… " 

Unbuckling her own seatbelt, she scooched over to Jayluf's side and pressed her thumb down on the red part of the rectangle from earlier. The mechanism released the belt from its grasp, and the belt was swiftly pulled back into the receptacle, making the same whirring noise from before. "Now it's been reset, meaning it'll let you move around more." She reached over and refastened the seatbelt. "Don't go pulling on it again, okay?"

"Yes ma'am. Sorry, Miss Hunee."

"It's fine, hun. You couldn't have known."

"Are we ready to go ma'am?" Spoke the masked soldier in the driver's seat, who for some odd reason lacked any firearms on his person.

"Yes, we're ready." Miss Hunee shuffled back to her side and re-buckled her own seat belt. "Let's get a move on." 

Nodding, the man reached into his pocket and produced multiple keys from his pocket, which were all attached to a single metallic ring. Selecting one seemingly at random, the man inserted the key into a receptacle, twisting it.

The effect was immediate, Jayluf felt a shudder through his entire body as the car's inner workings roared to life, vibrating the entire car, his seat included. His whole body was shaken, his flesh, bones, even down to his cells. Despite being a bizarre sensation it had felt oddly pleasing, in a way. A breath escaped his mouth as his mind struggled to keep up with the over stimulation. 

But it hadn't ended there. With a mighty rev, the automobile began to move forwards and away from the sidewalk they had been parked at mere moments ago.  They were moving , Jayluf realized with anticipation. This was really happening. 

Not knowing if he'd get a chance like this again in the future, he turned his head to the left to stare out of his window and drink in the scenery. It was strange to be sitting completely still, yet to have the outside world beyond the glass pane begin to move by rapidly. We really are leaving the base… we're going…

Outside.

It was almost a struggle to process. After all these months and years of training, he was finally leaving. It was almost unbelievable. Even with his stunted emotions, disbelief was rattling through his body as he watched them pass by Nohken Industries buildings and vehicles. If he had been told a long time ago that he would be departing from his home in the laboratory to be let outside the base itself, he would have dismissed it as a mere falsehood. Something like that would surely be inconceivable, impossible, even.

 Yet here he was, sitting inside a limousine and being driven right up to the entrance gates of the Nohken Industries base itself in order to leave.

As the vehicle passed by the gate, multiple armed soldiers positioned there stared at them intently, as if waiting for someone in the car to make a sudden or aggressive moment. But no one in the car would ever do such a thing, so why were they leering at him like that?

Odd.

Then the journey began. As the car picked up more and more speed, Jayluf soaked in the sights as much as he could. The first thing he noticed, besides how endless the road ahead seemed, were the trees. Trees. Trees, trees, trees! Trees were stretched as far as the eye could see, all tightly packed together on the sides of either lane of the road. Sure, he'd had a small tree in his outside pen, but these were proper trees, the real deal. They towered over everything around them, with brown stalk bodies with little ridges and imperfections, complete with the top sprouting with hundreds of gorgeous green leaves fluttering in the wind. 

If only he had the chance to get out and touch them, smell them, maybe even taste. 

As their vehicle drove off the curved rode to join onto a larger, straighter road, it picked up more speed, and the trees began to morph together into a blur of brown and green whizzing by his sight, the effect fascinating him. It felt somewhat… familiar? Had he dreamed about something similar?

But before he was able to ponder on the sense of deja vu, a new point of interest was the fact that their limo was no longer the only vehicle on the road. Other people had their own cars, and had decided to use the very same road that they were on now. Every car was different in some shape or size, but had similarities to others. Some were small boxy cars that had sharp edges, others were medium round cars that looked rather irritating to ride in, and the bigger ones were either boxy or round, or a mix of both. 

At first glance, it appeared as if all of the cars were heading in the same exact direction; straight forward on the seemingly endless straight line. But the longer Jayluf observed, he realized that some cars would actually change their spot in a subtle way. 

An empty area that could fit a car would be in front of a green car on one side, and the blue car next to them seemed to wish to fill in the spot its neighbor currently inhabited. A wordless communication happened via a strange exchange of where the blue car flashed the lights on one side, and the green car would speed up to fill in the spot. Afterwards, the blue car would adjust itself by slowly moving to the now vacant area. 

The more Jayluf watched did he notice that it was happening almost every minute or so, a car would flash a light on the back to indicate which way they were going to move their car, and wait for the chance to snag the opening in order to reach their intended direction. Some would not need to wait, some did. It was a strange, yet delicate dance. 

“Jayluf?” 

Jayluf’s eyes widened as he was pulled out of his trance. Angling himself to the right, he looked inquisitively towards his caretaker. “Yes, Miss Hunee?”

She smiled. “I know this might be a lot to take in, and you might be a bit overwhelmed. How are you feeling?”

The  un-voiced question did not go unnoticed. She was asking if he was feeling any emotions. Jayluf honestly couldn’t say. Maybe he was, and he just didn’t realize it at the moment. But he could definitely say he was not bad right now, all of his cells were excitedly working in perfect harmony to absorb as much information as they could, and his synapses had been constantly firing from how much new things he’d experienced under the span of ten minutes. 

“I think…” he began. “I think I am feeling more than adequate. I think I am feeling very good.” 

Her smile told him it was the right thing to say. 

“I’m very glad to hear that Jayluf, I’m just glad you haven’t fainted or anything.”

“Me too.”

New shapes in the corner of Jayluf’s eyes caused him to snap back towards the window to see that the endless sea of trees had vanished, now replaced by signs of civilization. There were houses, complexes, and buildings scattered everywhere. 

Some of the structures featured neon lights, or flashing screens that played strange footage of a cartoonish character performing bizarre actions like jumping up and down while talking, although he couldn’t hear it due to him being inside the car. 

Although it was weird, Jayluf couldn’t help but wonder what the neon lights screens looked like at night. Night was something he’d very much like to see in real life, as his only exposure was a picture or two from being educated on day and night cycles. And since he was never allowed outside to go to his pen if it wasn't day, he’d never gotten the opportunity to see it. He’d had dreams about it as well, where he’d see dozens of white glittering dots carelessly scattered across a black sky, complete with a gargantuan moon perched in the middle.

He’d do anything to see the nighttime sky. Perhaps… “Miss Hunee?”

“Yes Jayluf?” Miss Hunee stopped writing in a small notebook she’d stored in her pocket, presumably for jotting down notes. “Something wrong?

“If I pass the entrance exam… could I possibly be rewarded by being able to go out to see the night sky the day after?”

Blinking, the woman tapped her chin with the eraser end of the pencil nestled between her pointer finger and thumb. “I suppose I can speak with the higher ups about it, it shouldn’t be too hard to set up if you do well enough to please them.”

Jayluf’s cells wiggled with anticipation at the suggestion. “Thank you Miss Honey.”

There was so much to do in the outside world, and so much to see in it. If he was lucky, he’d be able to witness it all when he became a hero.

Jayluf's arrival at U.A. had been anything but subtle. The limo had pulled up close to the walkway that led to the entrance of U.A. 

The building was a unique structure that was actually quite baffling to the naked eye, as it almost looked as if it was shaped like the letter "H". 

As he stepped outside of the car to stand up on his feet, he heard a strange whirring noise behind him, causing him to turn around and see that the car window had been rolled down to reveal Miss Hunee's bashful face. 

"Heheh, I almost forgot something really important! Lean forward a little please."

Obeying, Jayluf tilted his head forwards slightly, and felt something attach itself to his neck. He raised a hand to feel around something metal clinging to his neck. 

"It's a tracker and health monitoring device!" Miss Hunee said. "Think of it as like a choker a doctor would use. Here…"

She rolled the window up slightly, allowing Jayluf to see his own reflection. Angling his head, he managed to get a good look at the device. It was a silver metal collar of some sort, with a single red LED light in the middle.

"It's so we can keep an eye on ya during the exam," continued the woman. "Now remember, I know there will be a lot to take in, and at certain times it might seem too much to bear. But just try to do whatever the objective is for the exam. I'm aware that being near kids your age for the first time will be jarring, but do your best to take it in stride." She gestured to the people behind him."Try to understand that some people aren't all the same here. People in the real world look, talk, walk, sound, and act completely different to others. So just, do your best to be understanding of them, yeah?"

Jayluf could only blink at first, as it was indeed quite a lot to take in. "I will… try my best to perform acceptably,  ma'am."
"Perfect!" Exclaimed Miss Hunee as she started to roll the window up. "Have fun, best of luck, stay safe, butmostimportantlydontfai-"

The window slid shut.

Before he was able to even consider trying to get Miss Hunee's attention to have her repeat what she'd said at the last second, the limo revved to life and drove off.

"Whoa… that kid has his own Limo?"

Jayluf turned back to the entrance of U.A. at the sound of a previously unrecognized voice. He remembered that there were people his age now, not scientists in their very late twenties or early thirties that were several inches higher than him, like the ones he'd been adjusted to back home at the laboratory. It definitely was jarring, that was for sure. 

A handful of students continued to stare. "So cool…how much do you think that cost?"

"No idea," said another. "His shirt says Nohken Industries, maybe it's a company he works for?"

"Nohken Industries? Isn't that the one pharmaceutical company?"

There were so many of them, all different shapes and sizes. It reminded Jayluf of seeing all the varied cars on the highway. 

Although a handful of students were still peering at him in a not so subtle manner, he knew that he couldn't stand there and ponder why they were doing that. The exam most likely did not wait for late students. 

So he stepped forward, continuing onwards into the crowd of students who all were walking in the same direction. 

Except one. 

Some distance ahead Jayluf spotted a single student who was standing completely still, not moving a single muscle. Curious as ever, Jayluf slightly adjusted his trajectory so that he was now walking towards the broccoli haired boy. 

But before he could get close enough to get a better look, the student took a single step forward…

And promptly tripped, falling downwards face first. 

Jayluf could only watch the boy plummet to his pre determined fate with the sidewalk, as he was too far away to intervene, and wasn't fast enough to reach the boy in time, even if he had tried to run. 

But before the broccoli student's skull slammed into the cement, a brown haired girl who happened to be walking alongside him noticed, reached out, and pressed her hand to the boy.

And then the boy had… stopped falling?

Jayluf blinked. That didn't make any sense. What had happened? 

Upon second glance, he saw that the boy was now being suspended mid air. The boy was floating! But how?

The girl gently reached out and used both of her hands to adjust the boy's body snd posture so that his feet were now holding him up.

Smiling warmly, the girl put her hands together and began to speak to the green haired boy, but it was inaudible to Jayluf himself, as he was too far away to hear whatever words were being spoken. 

But Jayluf had waited long enough. Thoroughly intrigued in the boy, Jayluf set aside his objective of getting inside in favor of walking in the direction of the two in front of him in order to close the distance between them.

When he'd gotten close enough to hear, he managed to hear a snippet of their conversation, at least the end of it.
"-o our best!" Said the brown girl with a winning smile as she turned and waved. "See ya!"

Without another word, she'd walked off, leaving Jayluf and the green haired boy in silence. 

Before he'd been able to get a word out of his mouth, Jayluf had been abruptly cut off because of the boy suddenly making the strangest guttural sound he'd ever heard, being so loud that even some bystanders had turned in surprise to see what the commotion was.

Jayluf took the opportunity to announce his presence. "Hello."

Upon hearing someone else's voice, the boy had quickly ceased his bizarre mating call to whirl around in surprise and stare at Jayluf with wide green eyes. "E-Eh?" 

"How did you do that?"

"M-Me? D-Do what?"

I was behind you when I witnessed you suspending yourself in the air, I saw your feet were not touching the ground at all. How did you accomplish this? Was this your… quirk?" The word "quirk" felt alien to Jayluf's tongue for some odd reason.

A look of utter befuddlement had been plastered on the boy's face before he quickly shook his head. "N-No! Th-that quirk wasn't m-me! Mine is… w-well, it's a secret! B-But the floaty thing w-was because of the nice g-g-girl!" A tinge of red appeared on the boys cheeks. "She s-saved me!"

So he'd wrongly assumed, Jayluf realized. "I see now, I am in error for assuming without asking. My apologies, stranger."

"S-Stranger? I uh, m-my name is Midoriya!" The boy squeaked, turning back towards the building. "B-But the exam is starting soon, s-so we should go! B-Bye!"

Without another word Midoriya turned away and began speed walking towards the entrance. 

Jayluf was not far behind, either. Due to months and months of training sessions, hearing an instruction being given to him caused him to instinctively obey, causing him to trail after the nervous wreck of a boy. 

To say that Izuku Midoriya was a complete nervous wreck today would probably be the world's biggest understatement of all time. Not only was he applying to be a hero, he was applying in U.A! The U.A! Now he was inside the U.A. High School Hero Course Exam Orientation to learn details on what was going to happen today.

He'd hesitantly entered the auditorium and sat down by… Bakugo. He hoped he didn’t mind. The lights were still on, so he assumed it might be a few minutes before it began. A perk of arriving early.

"Is this the correct location?" said a voice beside him.

He nearly leapt out of his seat. Whirling to his left, he was shocked to see the shorter boy from earlier. After being picked on so much for being kind of small, it was somewhat weird seeing someone much shorter than him. It was difficult to tell what the boy was thinking, as his thick black hair was covering his eyes.

"Y-You again?" Midoriya stuttered. "You followed me?"

"You instructed me to."

"I… instructed you to?" What did he mean by that? 

The boy's expression did not change from the blank look he had earlier. "When we first encountered one another, you said that 'we should go', so I followed."

E-Eh??? He thought my stuttering was a command for him to follow me? Who is this guy? And he just obeyed it without question or second thought?! Does he just do whatever anyone tells him? "I-It wasn't a command! Sorry!"

"Understood. Apologies for my inability to understand. Would you like me to go away?"

"N-No!" Midoriya squeaked, suddenly feeling a bit guilty for some reason. "Y-You can sit by me if you want. It's just, w-well, you shouldn't do whatever someone tells you to do just because they tell you to."

"Why not?"

"Why n- B-Because! What if someone was a person you shouldn't be following? What if they were a villain?!"

"But you are not a villain."

"Well y-yeah but, my point still stands! You can't just go around obeying any command from every stranger! What if someone tried to take advantage of you?"

"Why would someone do that to me?"

"Sorry kid, I'll just have to borrow your body for a bit…"

Midoriya shuddered, having a flashback to the Slime Villain, the image of it lunging towards him when he'd been alone and vulnerable was still burned in his mind, even months after. "Because there are bad people out there…" He swallowed the urge to vomit, remembering the horrible sensation of the villain forcing itself into him. He really did not like body snatcher villains. "And they don't care who gets hurt. They only care about themselves, and their own selfish desires." 

The stranger appeared to take several moments to absorb the new information. "I find your reasoning… logical. I understand now," said the boy. "I apologize for my error."

"Y-You don't have to apologize. Just… try and remember that for next time. We should only be listening to the teachers here."

"Affirmative. Thank you, Midoriya."

"Ah… I g-guess I'll fully introduce myself. I-Im Midoriya, Midoriya Izuku. D-Do you want to tell me your name?" Wait, was it weird to suddenly ask for someone's name like that? "You d-dont have to if you want to, I mean if it feels like I'm p-pressuring you to reveal personal information-" 

"My designation is Jayluf Viller. I am usually addressed as merely Jayluf."

Designation? The way this guy speaks is… unique? "I uh, w-well it's nice to meet you, Jayluf!"

A third voice decided to make themselves known. "Shut up Deku. Stop talking so damn loud." 

The angry blonde’s voice caused Midoriya to reflexively shrink into himself a little "S-Sorry Kacchan!" He squeaked, and threw an apologetic glance towards Jayluf. “T-That’s my childhood friend, s-sorry about him…” 

"Kacchan?" Jayluf parroted, leaning slightly forward past him to get a better angle of the explosive student. 

Immediately Midoriya’s anxiety kicked up, fearing that his new acquaintance might unintentionally set off a screaming fit by unintentionally angering Kacchan. "W-Well that's w-what I call him, it's n-not his actual name..."

However, Jayluf didn't appeared disturbed or upset in the slightest. "Greetings Kacchan, I am-"

"Shut the fuck up,” Bakugo snarled, “you worthless ass extra. And don't talk to me."

Immediately Jayluf's mouth snapped shut, and promptly leaned back into his seat to stare straight ahead, expression still blank as ever. 

Midoriya had an awkward smile as a sweat drop rolled down his face. Don’t tell me he registered that as a command too? Didn't I just mention the teachers being the ones in charge? But before he was able to ponder Jayluf’s bizarre behavior, it got even worse.

“Midoriya, what did you call him?” 

The question caught him slightly off guard. “What do you mean?” 

"Friend. You called him a friend. What is… a friend? That sounds... familiar."

His mind went blank. What is… "a friend?" Is… is he pulling my leg right now? "A-Are you trying to be funny or something?" Is he doing some sort of bit or joke?  

"I am not funny."

He's not kidding… he's serious? What kind of upbringing did this guy have?! How do I answer this?! I have so many questions!

Recomposing himself, he took a deep breath. "O-Okay, well… a friend is like. Someone you know, and you like them, and they like you. B-But only the platonic like! I didn't mean to imply the like as in like like. So y-yeah…"

Several seconds passed with Jayluf absorbing the information. "Are we friends?"

"E-Eh? You want to b-be friends with me? I-I'm just, I mean, a-are you sure? I-I'm just a quirkle-"

No… wait. I'm not quirkless. Not anymore. Not since this morning . He could still feel the horrid sensation of swallowing a hair strand. He shivered. Eugh… 

"We know each other, do we not?" Jayluf' said. "And we do not dislike one another, either. By that logic, we are friends, correct?"

Not exactly! We barely know each other! But… "Well… I g-guess…? Okay, s-sure!" Midoriya had no idea if he'd run into Jayluf after today, but if they both passed the exam, there was a chance they'd bump into each other. Although his mother told him to make friends, he didn't think it'd happen this soon! First, the really nice girl… now Jayluf. I hope I run into that girl again soon….

"Affirmative. You have reached 'friend' status Midoriya. Congratulations on your promotion."

I don't know if I'll ever get used to the way he talks… "T-Thanks? I'm g-glad we're friends too."

Jayluf nodded.

But before anything else could be discussed, the lights began to slowly dim, and the chattering students started to quiet down abruptly. Midoriya looked over to the stage. Was the briefing about to begin?

His new friend seemed somewhat alarmed, his eyes gluing themselves to the ceiling. "Midoriya, the light function in this room is failing. What is happening?"

"D-don't worry, I think the briefing for the practical part of the exam is starting. They're just dimming the lights so we can see the screen."

"Screen? You mean that large square on the walk is an actual scre-"

"SHHH!" Snarled a student from in front. 

Midoriya took quick notice of the fact that Jayluf was still speaking at the same volume, despite everyone else in the auditorium quieting down, and the two were now getting rather dirty looks from students sitting near them.

"J-Jayluf!" He whispered quickly, "W-Whisper, you're making people mad!"

Jayluf began to catch onto the unwanted attention as well. "Okay. I will whisper." He said, voice lowered. "I apologize, Midoriya." 

He apologizes a lot... "It's okay… j-just be ready to watch the briefing." I heard Pro Heroes were teachers here… I wonder if that's actually true. If it is… 

THUNK THUNK THUNK

His train of thought was brought to an abrupt halt by the sound of spotlights flickering on one by one, as the giant television screen on the wall activated, proudly presenting the U.A. Logo, and on the stage where the spotlights were illuminating stood…

N-No way… Midoriya thought giddily. 

“FOR ALL YOU EXAMINEE LISTENERS TUNING IN… WELCOME TO MY SHOW!” the yellow haired Pro Hero, who stood on stage. 

It was Present Mic. THE Present Mic. Midoriya was so moved, he could have cried right then and there. 

“EVERYBODY, SAY HEY!”

Complete silence. 

“WELL, WHAT A REFINED RESPONSE! THEN I’LL QUICKLY PRESENT TO YOU THE RUNDOWN OF THE PRACTICAL EXAM!”

Before Midoriya could begin to properly geek out, he felt a small tug at his shirt. 

“Midoriya…” Jayluf said softly. “Who is that?”

“ARE YOU READY?” Present Mic continued in the background. 

Midoriya’s jaw dropped. Who is… does he really not know? “Y-You don’t know?! It’s the world famous Voice Hero; Present Mic! People like me listen to him every day on the radio! All the teachers at U.A are Pro Heroes! How could you not know that?!”

“Present Mic…” Jayluf echoed. 

“Shut up.” Bakugo muttered.

“AS IT SAYS IN THE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS, YOU LISTENERS WILL BE CONDUCTING TEN MINUTE MOCK URBAN BATTLES AFTER THIS!”

As if responding to his voice, the screen behind him flipped the U.A. logo into what looked to be a diagram of English letters. 

“AFTER THE PRESENTATION, YOU LISTENERS WILL HEAD ON OVER TO THE SPECIFIED BATTLECENTERS! OKAY?”

Silence. 

“Specified battle centers?” Jayluf questioned. 

“It means that they won’t let you work with friends,” Bakugo said, glaring at both boys. “Now I won’t be able to crush you, Deku. Dammit.”

After a quick inspection of his own card, Midoriya saw that he was not in the same battle center as Bakugo. “You’re right!” He said. “Even though our executive numbers are the same… we’re assigned to different battle centers.” 

Jayluf held out his own card in front of Midoriya. “It says I am assigned to C.”

Midoriya rubbed the back of his head. “Ah… I’m B… Sorry Jayluf.” 

“Do not apologize. It was out of your control. It does not bother me.”

Well that’s… good, right? 

Present Mic jabbed a thumb to the screen behind him, which had changed to show a picture of a city and three dark outlines of robots. “THERE ARE THREE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAUX VILLAINS FOR YOU TO BATTLE WITH! YOU EARN A SPECIFIC AMOUNT OF POINTS DEPENDING ON WHICH ONE YOU DEFEAT! THE WAY YOU DEFEAT THEM IS BY USING YOUR QUIRKS! WHEN YOU DEFEAT ONE, YOU’RE AWARDED POINTS!” He pointed at the crowd. “OF COURSE, ATTACKING OTHER STUDENTS AND OTHER UNHEROIC ACTIONS ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED! THIS IS A HERO SCHOOL, AFTER ALL!”

“Excuse me!” called a voice from in front. A tall student with glasses was standing up, raising one arm straight up. “May I ask a question?”

“OKAY!”

One of the spotlights above switched on to highlight the student in question. 

“On the printout! It says there are four types of villains, yet you say that there are three!”

A glance on the printout told Midoriya that the student was correct, a fourth robot’s shadowy figure was displayed as clear as day. Was it a misprint, as the glasses student implied? If true, that would be rather sloppy.. But it had to be some sort of mistake!

The student was still talking. “We examinees are in this place because we wish to become exemplary heroes!” Spinning around, he pointed an accusatory finger at Midoriya. “And you two, the one with curly green hair, and the one with the black hair! You two have been whispering and muttering! It’s distracting! If you two are on a pleasure trip, you should leave immediately!”

Never did Midoriya want more than to just crawl into a little ball and vanish from reality. He didn’t mean to be muttering, now he and his new friend were in trouble… His red flushed red. “S-Sor-”

“Who are you?” 

To Midoriya’s surprise, it seemed that Jayluf had decided to butt in as well. 

“What?” said the student.

“Who are you?” Jayluf was staring at the student, head tilting to one side. “Are you a Pro Hero?”

Midoriya’s eyes widened. He hadn’t been expecting that to be a question.

The question seemed to take the accuser off guard for a moment as well. “N-No? But everybody here is trying-”

“You speak as though you have an authority here of some sort. I was told only Pro Heroes were employed as teachers here, by that logic, they are the authority.” 

Despite his words, Jayluf’s tone betrayed no anger or spite. It seemed as if he was genuinely curious about the situation. 

“You are not a Pro Hero,” he continued. “My conclusion is that you have no authority here. Why do you speak as though you do? Do you not trust the teachers to do their job?"

“You're putting words in my mouth. I had merely wished to point out the error on their printout!”

Jayluf blinked. “What if it is not an error?”

“Excuse me?”

"The teacher, Present Mic, has not finished speaking. What if he has the answer you seek already?" Jayluf turned to Present Mic. "My caretakers have taught me that it is best to let your superiors finish speaking. Perhaps it is possible he has not reached that section of the orientation?"

The student opened his mouth, then stopped. "I… I had not considered that as a possibility, no" He turned to face Present Mic. "Is this why you have not mentioned it yet, teacher?"

"CORRECTAMUNDO, IN FACT, I WILL PROCEED TO EXPLAIN IT NOW!"

"O-Of course! Apologies for the interruption!" Bowing, the student quickly sat down, but not without Midoriya noticing the quick glare the student had thrown in his direction. Yikes.

"WHEW, I THOUGHT THAT WAS NEVER GOING TO END," piped Present Mic as the spotlight switched back off. "BUT YES, BOTH OF THOSE STUDENTS HAD VALID POINTS, BUT IN DIFFERENT ASPECTS. GLASSES KID WAS CORRECT IN THAT I HAD SAID THERE WERE THREE BOTS INSTEAD OF FOUR. BUT THIS IS WHERE MISTER OFF BRAND PROTAGONIST WAS CORRECT, IN THAT I HAD NOT GOTTEN TO IT FOR A SPECIFIC REASON! I HAD NOT MENTIONED THE FOURTH ROBOT BECAUSE IT IS A MODEL THAT YIELDS NO POINTS. THAT'S RIGHT, ZERO! ZILCH! NADA!"

The screen changed the graphic to show the colored version of the robot. "THIS ZERO POINTER SERVES AS A WAY TO BREAK UP STUDENTS, AND SEPARATE THEM. AN OBSTACLE, IF YOU WILL. IT'S NOT WORTH FIGHTING, DUE TO ITS HUGE STRENGTH AND SIZE. BUT DON'T TAKE THAT AS A CHALLENGE TO GO AND FIGHT IT. BECAUSE THERE IS NO POINT IN SCRAPPING THIS BOT, SINCE, YKNOW, ZERO POINTS." He shrugged. "I MEAN, IT'S NOT AGAINST THE RULES TO ENGAGE WITH IT, BUT WITH THE LIMITED TIME YOU HAVE, CAN YOU LISTENERS REALLY AFFORD TO BE MESSING WITH IT?"

Midoriya inspected the graphic on his card. Zero pointer… how big is this bot?

"AND FOR THOSE WORRIED ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO TELL WHICH BOT IS A ZERO POINTER, DON'T WORRY. YOU'LL KNOW WHEN YOU SEE IT. THAT’S ALL FROM ME TODAY, BUT I’LL GIVE YOU ALL A PRESENT, OUR SCHOOL MOTTO! THE HERO NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE ONCE SAID THAT A TRUE HERO IS SOMEONE WHO OVERCOMES ALL OF LIFE'S MISFORTUNES. GO BEYOND! PLUS ULTRA!"

The phrase Midoriya knew by heart made him grin giddily. I'm going to be… a hero! I just have to pass this exam!

Chapter Text

Although Jayluf was aware of Miss Hunee's instructions from earlier to stay focused, he still couldn't help but let his eyes wander around. After the presentation had ended and the students had been excused to head to their respective battle zones, Jayluf had only a few moments to say his farewells to his new Midoriya and "Kacchan". 

Kacchan had seen fit to snarl at Jayluf and push him aside, but Midoriya had nervously smiled and waved, an expression Jayluf had not been familiar with. Waving was apparently a greeting and a way to say farewell without having to speak. 

Having absorbed the new information, Jayluf had "waved goodbye" to Midoriya, and had watched as his new friend walked away.

When they'd been let back outside, Jayluf had been directed towards a giant car that was very tall, long, and square. Upon inquiring on what it was, Jayluf had immediately received strange looks from the students around him, but they eventually had told him it was called a "bus". Buses were giant machines built to transport a large amount of people at once, using an apparently much more powerful engine to move. While cars could allegedly fit a decent amount of people, buses seemed equipped to be able to carry up to ten or more people, maybe twenty! 

The inside was quite different compared to the limo. While the limousine prioritized comfort, the bus focused only on being able to have seats at all. It sported a very metallic inside, with hard plastic seats and steel handlebars on the sides of the seats closest to the automatic door. 

The automatic door was quite interesting to Jayluf, who intentionally let everyone before him enter first just so he could climb on, turn around, and watch it slide shut.

Although the seating was not comfortable, Jayluf did not care for comfort. After all, not many things bothered him. His focus was more on the fascinating sensation of the bus's giant engine revving to life as the entire bus seemed to rattle, it was much more prominent than the limousine engine, and to feel and hear the power was quite exhilarating. 

Although it did not go as fast as the limo, it was still hypnotic to look out the window and watch the world move while he didn’t move a muscle. Jayluf made a mental note that he would not mind going on a bus again. Unfortunately the bus ride did not last very long, and had stopped. The students had been ushered out in front of what was presumably the battle zone. The battle zone seemed to be a giant city encapsulated by giant walls on each side, effectively preventing anything from escaping. The towering barriers had reminded Jayluf of the same walls at base back home. 

But although his interest was in the wall, he quickly found himself being disoriented by the other students who were now less spread out than before. There were so many different students, all unique with both look and scent. Some looked completely normal, some had animal attributes on their bodies, either prominent or barely noticeable. Others had bizarrely shaped heads, or elongated fingers. 

Everyone slowly moved in the direction of the gate, which was the entrance to the faux city. 

People simply stood and continued to idly chatter amongst one another, causing Jayluf to feel slightly confused. Were they not supposed to go when it opened? Or was there a countdown? 

“Okay!” Present Mic yelled through a loudspeaker. “Start!”

Upon hearing the command, Jaylufs conditioning kicked in, and he obediently began to sprint forward past the other students. Passing through the entrance gates, he decided to take a sharp left. 

“W-What?” said a student. 

“Did he just?” said another. 

“But Present Mic did say-”

“What are you waiting for?!” cried Present Mic. “There are no countdowns in real fights!”

Ignoring the sound of other students scrambling behind him, Jayluf continued sprinting forward, intent on scoring as high as he possibly could. However, he was somewhat uncertain how he’d accomplish it. He’d used his quirk on punching bags, but never on an actual moving thing. But then again, it was a robot.

“Jayluf!” 

If he had been capable of being scared, Jayluf might have fallen on his face at the sound of the very familiar voice seemingly coming from nowhere. As he continued running, he glanced left and right in an attempt to deduce where the sound had come from. No one was near him. 

“Jayluf!” The voice repeated. “Down here, on your collar!”

Wait a second, he recognized that voice! His eyes searched frantically for his caretaker. “Miss Hunee? Where are you? I cannot see you. Have you changed size?”

“I’m not actually here Jayluf, I’m contacting you from the radio inside the collar we strapped on you! I’m here to help you! It’s actually more than just a tracker, we can also monitor your life signs and stuff, pretty high tech!”

Jayluf risked a glance behind him to see that no one was following him. “Is that allowed?”

“Considering the fact they said you were allowed to bring whatever equipment you wanted, it’s obviously allowed! Even if they said that you can’t help each other, they didn’t say anything about radio contact! It’s what we call a loophole! Something Nohken specializes in! Now focus up! You’ve probably got bots near you!”

Increasing his pace, Jayluf readied himself to follow whatever commands were given to him, just like they trained him to do. “I’m ready.”

“We have a rough idea of where you are, satellite imaging is very handy! You’ve got a giant wall to your left, right? Then you probably should only worry about bots coming from in front or to your right!”

The sound of something whirring made Jayluf look to the right to spot a giant one eyed machine a good distance away. It had two metal arms, an elongated neck with a small angled head at the end. It balanced itself on one wheel, its red glowing eye glaring at him as it started to move towards him. 

"I've spotted a one pointer." Jayluf said, eyeing the giant number painted on its side. 

"You'll have to use bio-form Jayluf!" Miss Hunee called. "I know you don't like to, but it's the only way you're gonna be able to take down these bots!"

Gritting his teeth, Jayluf knew he had to obey his superiors. "Yes ma'am."

Channeling all his focus into his cells, he flexed his arms and hands to give the mental "okay" for his cells. Claws out.

Upon receiving the instructions, his cells near his hands began to move quickly, vibrating violently as they rewrote the genetic structure of muscle, bone, and flesh of his hands. 

His pale hands quickly turned a shade of dark red from the sudden increase of blood, swelling and swelling like a balloon until finally, the skin burst open. His fingers and nails deformed, morphing and stretching themselves out longer and longer, until they resemble thick black claws. His hands were now swollen red clawed weapons, glistening with exposed muscle and blood red flesh. 

Claws are out, his cells informed him cheerily. 

The skin of his hands hung loosely from his wrists like popped balloons. Hissing, he quickly flicked his hands to where the skin would slap against his clawed palms, allowing for quicker reabsorption by his cells for use later. "I'm ready Miss Hunee."

"Great! Now swing!" Cheered Miss Hunee from the radio. "Claw it to pieces! Rip 'em to shreds!"

Now that the training bot had gotten close enough, Jayluf brought up his right arm, waited until the one pointer was in just the right spot, and swung as hard as he could.

The sensation of his claws tearing through metal was a very peculiar feeling, but it definitely was not an unsatisfactory one. He'd aimed right for the exposed neck, which seemed to be its weak point. Sure enough, his claws had ripped straight through, thoroughly decapitating the bot and ending its artificial life. 

Jayluf made a mental note of how it had been weaker than he expected it to be, perhaps because these machines were built to be destroyed?

"It's down."

The sound of Miss Hunee clapping her hands together was audible. "Great job Jayluf, but that was only a one pointer! Get to scrapping more of them, before the other students get their hands on them!"

Continuing to hug the giant wall, Jayluf kept passing alley after alley until he was surprised by a bot literally lunging out at him from behind a corner of the building in front of him. It sported four stubby legs, two glowing eyes, and a bizarre tail that arched upwards. The number two was painted boldly on its body. 

It threw itself at Jayluf too quickly for him to react, slamming the blunt end of its tail against the boy's chest. He tumbled backwards, groaning as he idly instructed his cells to numb the sharp pain in his ribs and sternum. 

This one appears to be more aggressive. Getting back to his feet, Jayluf eyed the bot preparing to lunge once more. And lunge it did, lashing with its tail the same way it did before.

However Jayluf had been expecting this attack, and threw himself to the right to dodge the aggressor's tail. 

Using his legs to propel himself, Jayluf lunged towards the two pointer that still was in the middle of retracting its tail. Seizing the opportunity, he brought his claws down, and sliced through the tail. The bot stumbled back in surprise, as its only offensive weapon was now gone. 

Taking advantage, Jayluf dug his hands into the robot's head, and tore out what he presumed was the head.

Indeed it was, for the machine had stopped moving as it sparked and fell over to the ground, signaling its defeat.

"Another robot has been disposed of," Jayluf said.

"Good, keep going Jayluf!" Miss Hunee said. "You've only gotten two!"

Stepping up the pace, Jayluf proceeded forward, and took a right as the alleyways had ended in favor of the street that separated the blocks of buildings which would lead deeper into the maze of a city. 

Peering around, Jayluf failed to spy any more machines for him to destroy. However, he did hear a sound that was new to him. He focused on it. It sounded like a humming, or whirring? 

A shadow above him made him abruptly aware of the fact that a large object was coming towards him at a rapid speed. 

Before he could even raise his arms, the metal arm struck him in the face, sending the boy flying backwards and landing on his face.

"Is everything okay?" Miss Hunee squeaked. "Your vitals jumped up!"

Jayluf noticed a tooth had been knocked out of his mouth from the attacking robot. Picking it up and pressing it back into his gums, he glanced up at the machine. "I'm functioning. I just got surprised by a flying bot. I believe that is the three pointer."

"Are you able to take it out?"

"If I am able to bait it down, yes." 

The three pointer whirred loudly as it flew around for another attack, its red eyes glued to Jayluf.

Just a bit closer…

Picking up speed, the robot began to move down towards him, intent on using the same swooping move from earlier. 

Now!

Angling himself backwards, Jayluf thrust his clawed digits upwards to the sky, catching the three pointer on its underbelly, slicing through metal like butter. Mortally wounded, the three pointer sputtered and beeped as it carried toward the ground, crashing into the wall. 

While the students in the battle zones smashed as many bots as they could, they were all under the watchful eye of several Pro Heroes gathered in a dimly lit room, with several screens, each displaying a different student currently in the exam.

Principal Nezu, a small rodent-like creature, sat in the middle of the front row, sipping a cup of tea cheerily. “In this practical exam, the students have not been informed of the number of villain robots, or their locations. They have a limited amount of time to use in a huge area." 

The screen closest to him flickered to show a panicking green haired boy running for his life.

 "Their only choice is to lead the villains out in the open for them to dispose of," he continued, "or try and hunt them down themselves. They have to use everything they have. Either their ability to gather information, or mobility to use in different situations." 

The screen changed to show a boy with multiple arms on top of a building, and changed to a student wearing glasses.

"They must also be able to keep calm in the face of danger. And of course, their ability in combat. These are things every hero needs in order to be able to keep peace in the streets of society. Those who are able to show these traits in this test are given points based on their performance." 

“This batch of students seem to be quite promising, and interesting, like that one that seems to be using a radio.” a female voice said from behind. 

Cementoss, a Pro Hero sitting beside Nezu, raised an eyebrow. “One of them is using a radio?”

The female Pro Hero Midnight, pointed to the screen adjacent to her. “It seems that way. The short one with that weird brand name uniform wearing the strange collar. I saw him talking, and since he constantly looks down to that collar while it flashes, I'm guessing that it might be some sort of radio device.”

“Is that even allowed?" Cementoss said as he squinted to get a better view of the boy in the frame, who was using his claws to rip the wires from a One Pointer. "Getting assistance from the outside is surely against some kind of rule, isn't it"

Nezu chuckled to himself, stirring his tea with a small metal spoon. “Well… I suppose we did say any equipment is allowed. I’m actually somewhat tickled that someone really tried to exploit this previously undiscovered loophole."

A gas mask wearing cowboy hero to the right of Nezu tilted his head curiously. "You don't seem very bothered by it."

He could only shrug. "Like I said, it amuses me. What interests me though, is that company name. I’m betting that same company might have provided that student with the radio collar as well.”

Other teachers looked closer at the monitor, barely being able to make out the blurred logo on the erratically moving student.

“Nohken Industries…” 

Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Does the name sound familiar to you Nezu?” 

“Perhaps. But it’s not the first time companies used entry students as a product placement. Sponsorship isn't exactly unheard of. But this is a discussion for another time, as we should get back to the rest of the students in the exam. I believe it’s time to release the zero pointer.” 

“Indeed. Their true test is yet to come” said Cementoss, reaching forward to press a shiny red button on the console.

Jayluf was starting to feel rather confident that he would be able to pass this test. He’d destroyed several bots by now, and was moving on to look for more nearby. 

Miss Hunee seemed to feel the same way. “Good job!” she said. “With how you’re doing now, I’m sure you’re going to pass this test no prob-”

Whatever she was going to say was abruptly cut off by the loudest crashing sound Jayluf had ever heard in his life. His head whipped in the direction of the sound, spotting large plumes of smoke coming between the giant buildings in the city. 

What was that?

He stared blankly for several moments before realizing that Miss Hunee was still hollering at him from the collar. “W-What was that, Miss Hunee?”

“I said what in the world was that noise?! There was a boom sound and then you stopped responding!”

“I don’t know what caused it…” He glanced down at the ground as it vibrated. “But I have a feeling it is something rather large in size.”

“Crap!” Miss Hunee cursed. “They must have released the Krak- I mean, the Zero Pointer! Make sure to steer clear of it!”

Jayluf began to back up slowly as the zero pointer appeared from the smoke. 

It was colossal. Perhaps the biggest thing Jayluf had ever seen in his entire life. The Zero Pointer was nothing like the pixelated display during the presentation earlier. This machine was several times larger than advertised, dwarfing all the other robots, and was so large that it actually was taller than the BUILDINGS surrounding it. 

“Steer clear. I can accomplish that.” Jayluf said as he turned to run, but halted in his tracks when he had glanced behind him for a final take. 

He saw students running for their lives from the giant, but the students also happened to be ignoring a few point bots that weren’t in the direct path of the zero pointer. Extra points that he could obtain, if he was quick enough!

“Miss Hunee.” Jayluf said as he turned and began to jog in the direction of the mayhem, “I have to get near the zero pointer, there are several bots still functioning, and it would be in my best interest for me to destroy them while the other students are distracted by the zero pointer."

"You're gonna what?!" Cried Miss Hunee in disbelief. Several moments passed until she sighed in defeat. "Ugh! Alright, fine! But don't let it see you!"

Jayluf nodded. "Got it." Turning around, he decided to backtrack towards the giant wall and hug left in order to go behind the zero pointer that way, to ensure that it would not spot him. Even if he couldn't see it through the ridiculous amount of smoke and dust it kicked up on occasion, the noise made it quite easy to guess where its current location was. Exiting a nearby alley, he was now in a large street a bit deeper in the city, with the zero pointer in front of him, its back thankfully turned as it appeared to be searching for students. 

He had managed to run into two bots, both one pointers. Both were disposed of rather easily, and he could now see two more bots squeezed into an alleyway with a dumpster. Sprinting into the alley, he impaled the one pointer with a clawed hand, leaving it to crumple to the ground. The three pointer was unfortunately just a bit too quick, for even though Jayluf managed to score a hit in, it wasn’t enough to bring the bot down. Sparking, the damaged but still functional bot hovered upwards out of reach, its navigation systems somewhat intact. 

Staring, Jayluf decided to ignore it. I will not be able to waste time trying to climb after it. I should head back out into the street, and search for any stragglers for me to take down.

Searching even proved to be a challenge, for when Jayluf had exited the alley, there was so much smoke being kicked up that anything outside of a twenty foot radius was practically invisible to him. He needed to be doubly aware now if he wanted a chance to scrap any more bots. 

He didn’t need to look long for bots, because the sound of crashing and groaning metal gave Jayluf pause, causing him to angle his head upwards… 

To see six glowing eyes staring right at him. 

“Miss Hunee,” Jayluf quickly reported, “It appears the zero pointer has spotted me. What should I do?”

“What should you d- Run you dolt! Run away to the nearest place you can squeeze into!”

“The alleyway.”

“THEN GO!”

Not needing to be told twice, Jayluf quickly spun around and retreated towards the alleyway that he came out of, the zero pointer hot on his tail. The machine's massive body smashed into the sides of buildings and crushed the ground with its treads as it pursued the much smaller human. 

Reaching his destination, Jayluf squeezed himself into the alleyway and quickly turned around to see that the giant bot had been right on him. He quickly took several steps back in caution as the giant robot glared down at him, as if it had a certain distaste for him.

But it didn't stop there. Pressing its face against the top of the other buildings, the zero pointer attempted to fit its massive head between the two buildings into the alleyway. After several moments of it not working, it brought its massive head back up, and reached forward with its massive right hand. 

But even that proved too narrow for even the hand, as the sides smashed against the corners of the buildings, preventing the zero pointer access to Jayluf. 

It cannot get me.

But as the machine retracted its claw, the still circling three pointer was unfortunately in the direct pathway of the claw, smacking into it and causing to to spark even more, black smoke spewing out of its head. 

It began to fall. 

Right towards Jayluf. 

Eyes widening in surprise, Jayluf began to back up as quickly as he could, realizing the damage that could be done if that bot landed directly onto him.  Sure he could heal smaller injuries but he had no clue what would happen if it was a serious injury like a giant robot falling on him. 

He managed to take five steps back in slight panic before he felt himself falling backwards. But how? He wasn't one to fall over on nothing.

Unfortunately for him, he'd forgotten that the one pointer that he defeated earlier, was still lying down on the ground, and when its elongated neck caught the back of his heel, it caused him to plummet to the ground.

Smashing the back of his head against the pavement, Jayluf's vision went fuzzy, his head throbbing in pain as his cells became very active to alert him of the damage to his head. 

But he didn't have much time to recover, for several moments later, everything went from bad to much, much, worse.

Although Jayluf had put enough distance between him and the robot to prevent it from smashing into his torso or head, he hadn't backed up enough to save himself entirely.

For when he had just almost gained his bearings from the blow to his head, the three pointer had finally landed. And unfortunately for him, his leg had been sticking out just a little too far.

And then…

PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN his cells screamed.

Jayluf's eyes went huge as his entire world was filled with the most horrible pain imaginable. The sensation of his leg bone suddenly snapping and puncturing his flesh was agonizing, forcing him to open his mouth to let out a raw scream of unfiltered agony. 

As tears ran down his cheeks, the boy lashed out in pain and panic, desperately trying to pull his leg from under the offending deactivated robot that was pinning his limb  to the ground. 

His cells were firing every neuron and pain sensor they could as they rattled around in panic. MAJOR DAMAGE! LIMB FUNCTIONALITY COMPROMISED! they screamed in warning. As if he didn't know that!

"JAYLUF?!" Cried Miss Hunee. "YOUR READINGS JUST WENT OFF THE CHARTS! REPORT!"

Jayluf was only able to say one thing. "IT HURTS! IT HURTS MISS HUNEE!” He sobbed. “IT HURTS IT HURTS!"

He needed to get out of this place, but his leg was still trapped! The robot had to be dealt with NOW. Sobbing as snot leaked from his nostrils, Jayluf blindly began to claw away at the robot, using his right leg to push against the side of the robot. 

After what seemed like long minutes passing, he laminated to dig through enough solid metal to pull his leg free from under the robot. Or at least, what was left of his leg. The sensation of his leg being moved caused even more pain to flare up, as he felt the exposed bone drag against the ground, forcing Jayluf to let out another scream.

His cells were flying around inside his leg. They didn't know what to do. NUMB? HEAL? NUMB OR HEAL? They couldn't do both at once, and they've never regenerated an injury like this before, at least as far as Jayluf could remember. They needed to be given an order. WHAT IS PRIORITY?!

"NUMB!" Jayluf cried pathetically, his voice several octaves higher than usual. He didn't care about how badly he'd bleed out, he just wanted to escape this pain, this horrible, indescribable agony. It felt like his entire leg had been set ablaze

Upon receiving the command, his cells went to work, soaring through his body to silence and muffle any pain sensor or pain related neuron in his body that could possibly give Jayluf any discomfort.

Several seconds passed by before Jayluf's gasps of suffering simmered down to only quiet sniffles. Although the horrible pain had been dimmed significantly, his leg still throbbed in pain. 

"JAYLUF!"

Oh. How long had she been yelling? "M-Miss Hunee… I…" he sniffled. "I'm here."

"Jayluf, thank God! I was freaking out when you started screaming! Wait… do I hear you crying? What happened?"

"R-robot landed on my l-leg."

"How bad? Can you look and tell me what it looks like down there?"

Trying to crane his neck forwards without moving his leg too much, Jayluf leaned forward to inspect the damage.

God, where wasn't the damage? The robot's weight had caused his leg bone to literally give out and snap. The skin color on his leg had gone from his normal pinkish pace to an ugly yellow and dark purple bruising. And the back of the limb was the worst, his leg bone sticking out and completely exposed, the jagged edges of the snapped bone were in plain view. The flesh that had been torn open and displaced from the bone slicing through now hung loosely like loose meat on a drumstick. The wound was still spurting out blood, due to Jayluf's cells currently being occupied by keeping him from passing out in pain.

"M-Major damage to left leg, m-my ability t-to walk has b-b-been compromised. Th-The bone is sticking out of the back of my leg."

What's happening…? Why is water coming out of my eyes? Am I feeling… an emotion? I don't like this. I need help.

"P-Please send help. I need urgent extraction. P-please…?"

"D-Damn it! Okay Jayluf, we're on our way! Just hang on! Dammit, where are the teachers for situations like this?!"

Unbeknownst to both parties, the smoke from the zero pointers mayhem was blocking some of the cameras, and even if they hadn't been obstructing the view, the Pro Heroes were currently being distracted by a monitor displaying certain broccoli haired teen leaping up hundreds of feet in the air directly towards a zero pointer with his fist raised for a smashing punch. 

"Jayluf! We've gotten clearance to enter on UA property, and are getting directions to your battle zone. Can you at least try moving towards the entrance gate of your battle zone? Doesn't matter if you drag yourself  or hobble on one leg, we need to get to you as soon as we can."

Slowly turning himself over to rest on his stomach, Jayluf let out a small whine of agony as his pain receptors vehemently protested the slightest movement of his broken leg.

"I… I don't know if I can…"

Miss Hunee wasn't taking no for an answer. "That's an order, Jayluf."

Even though he was completely off his game, his training still was burned into his mind, and he knew he had to follow orders. "Y-Yes ma'am."

Hissing in pain, Jayluf reached forward and dug his claws into the ground, pulling himself slowly out of the alley way, letting out a gasp of pain every few seconds as he moved towards the giant wall that would lead him right back to the entrance.

A few moments of him slowly dragging half crawling passed by when he heard a whirring noise.

Eyes widening, Jayluf turned his head 

Oh no. Not now! He couldn't defend himself from this! He was too exposed and in too open of an area. Panic bubbling in his chest, he started to hyperventilate in terror as he watched the one pointer roll towards him, its metal arms raised to attack. 

Only for a flying horn to suddenly impale the offending bot in the head, killing it instantly. 

"Oh mai gawd, ar yuu okey?” asked a feminine voice that Jayluf did not recognize.

From what he could tell in his dazed state, it was a voice with a very broken accent, as if the words being spoken were one the speaker was unfamiliar with. 

Swiveling his head around to the other side, Jayluf spotted his rescuer running towards him in full view. 

It was a female teenager, sporting long  flowing blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a rather round face. Her round hourglass figure led to her legs and feet, or hooves. From her hair were two massive horns that were pointed upwards. 

"Yur leg looks relee messed up!" She spoke once more, her broken accent being painfully thick. 

Jayluf glanced down at his leg. "Y-Yes…"

"Jayluf, who is that? I hear someone talking!" Miss Hunee said through his collar. "Is it a teacher?"

"N-No" said the girl, brows furrowed in concern. "Im nadah teecher! Imma nuther stoodint!" 

"Please, can you help Jayluf?" Begged Miss Hunee. "Just to the entrance, he can't move on his own and we're running out of time-"

"Uv coarse I can help!" The girl cried. "My quirk let me moof mai hornz! I can carree people with it no problum!"

"Do it then! And Jayluf, hang on!"

"O-Okay…" whispered Jayluf, his cheek now resting against the ground from exhaustion. 

Suddenly, her horns shot out of her head, and impaled the sleeves of his shirt. Two more did the same for his pant legs, although thankfully the one supporting his injured leg had simply placed itself under it, to prevent his leg from hanging limply. 

"Eye can moov yu with my hornz, but it might hurt! On tree. Won, too… TREE!"

Jayluf let out a yelp of pain as he felt himself being elevated into the air by his limbs, his body still very much against any movement of his leg at all as blood still freely leaked out.

"S-Sorree!" Squeaked the girl.

And then Jayluf felt himself being moved forward, the girl sprinting as the four horns floated behind her, carrying him along.

"Th-thank you…" he said.

The next few minutes became somewhat of a blur to Jayluf as he was being transported. He fell into a trance of a sort as he watched the ground move in a blur, feeling the wind blowing against his face as his mind went blank from focusing on making sure his cells dulled as much pain as possible. If not for the still stinging pain in his lower limb, he could have said being carried like this was somewhat pleasant.

The sound of a distant horn being blared made Jayluf faintly aware of the exam officially ending. He didn't really have the strength to dwell on it too much, the only thing he wanted to do was sleep. 

However he was lucid enough to feel a small pang of regret at the blood trail he was leaving behind. The cells being left behind would dry up and die under the sun's merciless rays. 

It was a waste, and while he knew he could have focused on healing, he didn't want to feel pain. Right now, pain was a very scary thing.

"Okie," said the girl. "I think this iz the entrance!"

Sure enough, it had been the entrance, and as soon as they stepped outside, the girl spoke once more. "Whoa! Izzat a limozeen?"

Faintly grasping her words, Jayluf summoned the strength to move his head up to look to see a familiar looking car pulling up towards them. 

And strangely enough, a sound to his left made his ears perk up. A new sound that was increasing in volume. It sounded… like an engine? 

A glance to his left revealed a rather bizarre sight. It looked like the same student from the auditorium during the presentation, the one who had inquired about the supposed error on the cards and had accused Jayluf and Midoriya about being tourists or something.

In the students arms was what appeared to be… a small old lady? 

"Jayluf!"

The sweet sound of Miss Hunee's voice brought him from his dazed state, causing him to look back to the stopped limo and see Miss Hunee climbing out of the vehicle. 

He'd never felt so relieved in his life. "Miss Hunee," he whispered,  "you're here… I request assistance…"

"Oh god," Miss Hunee said as she spotted what was left of his leg, "it's worse than I thought. We need to get you medical attention as soon as possible, help me put him in the car and we can-"

She was abruptly cut off by the student from before coming to a screeching halt near them, kicking up gravel and some dust. 

"That won't be necessary," said the old woman as she was gently placed down by the student carrying her. 

"Look whoever you are, Jayluf is in urgent need of medical care, if you want to say something it'll have to wait!"

"Pardon my interruption!" Said the glasses student. "But this woman here is a Pro Hero! Her name is Recovery Girl, and her quirk can heal almost any wound, even being able to fix broken bones! I've seen it myself! Please allow her to heal your friend!"

"She's a Pro Hero?" Echoed the horned girl. 

Miss Hunee stared for a few seconds indecisively before clenching her fists. "Fine! Do it now!"

"Of course of course. Young lady, hold him closer would you?"

Jayluf felt himself being moved to the left, presumably where the alleged Pro Hero was standing. 

He didn't know her quirk worked, but when he heard the sound of stretching skin, he looked up.

Only for a pair of lips to press directly against his forehead. 

He blinked.

Um, what?

"Eh?!" Cried the horned girl. 

Jayluf was about to question what the nurse had done, only to feel a brand new sensation he never thought he'd feel. His cells were moving on someone else's command. He felt his leg move and twist, and he hissed in pain, but the pain lessened more and more as flesh was sewing itself back together and broken bone was knit. 

His cells were baffled as well. Although they cooperated and followed the orders without question, they still rattled with confusion and uncertainty from the fact that they had been given instructions from an outside force that was alien to them. 

The green glow stopped, and Jayluf realized the pain was gone. Looking at his leg he saw that his leg looked brand new. "I-It worked…" he said.

"Now that the life threatening issue is solved." Recovery Girl began, "would you like to tell me how you got that Injury? So many broken limbs today…"

"A flying robot was hit by the zero pointer, it fell and landed on my leg after I tripped." Jayluf spoke plainly, thoroughly exhausted from the whole experience. "It had been hurting too much for me to try and heal."

"Falling robot… ugh, I always knew flying bots would be trouble, I'm going to speak with Nezu after this about those things… Anyways, you said something about healing? Is that your quirk? I had assumed it was your… claws that was your quirk."

"I… guess?" Jayluf replied. "My quirk is Cellular Command, and I can use it to command my cells to do things like heal me faster, or to numb pain. It also lets me change body parts at will. I call that ability Bio-Form." 

Upon the mention of his claws, he focused on reverting his meat hands back to small human sized hands. Boosted by the kiss, the skin wrapped itself over muscle and flesh almost immediately, and his hands were back to normal.

"I see…" said Recovery Girl. "Fascinating." 

The horned girl waved in front of Jayluf’s face. "Hello hi! Do yu want mee to poot you down now?"

"That's fine." Jayluf said, relaxing as he felt himself being lowered to the ground. "Thank you for saving me."

"O-Oh, no problim! My name iz Pony by the way!" 

"Jayluf. Do you want to be friends?"

The sudden question seemed to catch Pony off guard. "R-Really? I mean uh, uv coarse!"

"Okay."

"Well I'm glad you two are friends and all," Recovery girl started. She turned to the woman in the lab coat. "But I must ask, you're 'Miss Hunee', right? How did you get here without having a visitor pass?"

Miss Hunee immediately placed a disarming smile. "Well, I look after Jayluf! I'm a representative of Nohken Industries, and when I heard he was injured, I made sure to let the person at the intercom know that if they didn't let me save Jayluf's life, I'd see them in court."

The nurse seemed to bristle at the casual mentioning of a court threat. "So you threatened one of U.A.'s employees? Am I correct?"

Miss Hunee shrugged. "Look, I had no idea that U.A. had a hero that can magically fix any injury. All I knew is that Jayluf was bleeding out, crippled, and far away from any medical assistance. I won't apologize for trying to save his life when he got injured from YOUR school exams. Flying robots? Giant robots? Seriously?"

"I will concede on the three pointers, as I always disliked them," Recovery Girl said. "But the zero pointer was always meant to terrorize, if it actually was risking killing or severely injuring a student, its programming would stop it."

Miss Hunee said nothing as she helped Jayluf back to his feet. 

"But if you're a representative of that company, why are you interested in U.A.? Are both of you just representing your company?" She turned to Jayluf. "Tell me young man, why did you apply to become a hero? Money? Fame? Attention for that company that made that shirt? Was it your dream?"

Jayluf faintly remembered Miss Hunee's words of wisdom from yesterday. "Dreams are silly," he parroted. 

Recovery Girl blinked. "That's not exactly an answer." She sighed. "Oh well. Here…"

Jayluf's eyes widened in curiosity as he felt something being placed into his hands, looking down to inspect the objects. "What are these?"

"Those are gummies, Jayluf." Miss Hunee said quickly. "It's food, eat it." She turned to the shorter woman. "Sorry, we've never given him gummies before, candy in general, actually?"

The old Pro Hero raised an eyebrow. "A kid never having eaten candy before? That's a first."

Jayluf plopped the gummies into his mouth, chewing and moving them around in his mouth experimentally. They were squishy, sweet, and took no effort to break up between his teeth. The soft texture and the fruity flavors produced a rather pleasant experience. 

"FEEZ ARE GUD," He said. 

"Jayluf, chew with your mouth closed." Miss Hunee reprimanded. "Well, now that's out of the way and the exam is over, I think it's time for us to head out. Thank you for helping him get out of the battle zone miss uh, Pony, was it?"

"Y-Yeah! Noh problum!" Pony said bashfully. "It wuz nice meeting you Jayluf! I hope we both pass! But Maybe we could exchange cell phone numbers in case one of us doesn't pass? I'd like to see you again!"

Jayluf stared at her blankly for several seconds. "What's a cell phone?"

Shota Aizawa had assumed that now the entrance exams had ended, he'd be able to go home and sleep. He hadn’t had to do much while the exams had taken place. (Why had they even asked for his input on that anyways?) But to his displeasure,  he’d found himself being summoned with a handful of other teachers by Nezu. Upon entering, he saw that Midnight, Snipe, Present Mic, Cementoss, and Nezu himself were already in the room and seated. 

“Ah, Eraser! Nice to see you arrive! I apologize for the sudden summoning nearing the end of the work day, but I figured it best to do it now while some of the other teachers were still here. It’s unfortunate I missed All Might and the others, but I suppose I can discuss it with them the next time they’re here.”

Aizawa sighed as he plopped down in the nearest open seat, which was unfortunately right by Mic. “What’s going on Nezu? Why did you call us here?”

“Well, I wished to make you all aware that I’ve taken an interest in a certain student, one I think you all should do well to keep an eye on. He’s a student related to the minor breach earlier today. 

Snipe sharply looked up towards Nezu. “There was a breach today?” 

“A minor one, yes. Allow me to explain. During the exams, a corporate car not associated with U.A. had threatened the door security to let them in, because apparently the people in the car were associated with this student. The alarm didn’t go off, but I was made aware not long after the exams ended.”

“And which student is the one you find so interesting?”

Nezu simply produced a tablet from under the table, and tapped a few times before flipping it around to show the rest of the staff. A picture showing a short teenager with black hair that covered his eyes and ears presumably speaking to the green haired boy that had punched the zero pointer.  “His name is Jayluf Viller.”

“So, were the people in the car his parents?” Midnight wondered. “If so, that’s a probable factor in this. A rich parent being snobby, scaring one of our newer employees into letting them in. It’s not the first time we’ve had to handle something like this.”

“Agreed,” Aizawa said boredly. “It’s probably just an idiot citizen assuming they have power over others.”

“Surprisingly, no, they’re not his parents.” Nezu countered. “In fact, he doesn’t even have any listed parents. The woman in the car had dubbed herself his ‘caretaker’, and nothing else. And it also appears  that he has no real birth records, only forged ones.”

That had gotten Aizawa’s attention. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“When I found out about the fake birth records, I decided to do some digging. I’ll show you what I found, starting with the company name on the limousine, and on Jayluf’s clothes.”

“Nohken Industries…” Snipe said. 

“That’s them.” Nezu said, turning the tablet back around and tapping it again. “Nohken Industries is a rather large company that had originally began as a humble pharmaceutical company, providing both prescribed and over the counter medicines. They managed to make a small fortune with their success, big enough to the point that they branched out their pharmacies to multiple cities.” 

Mic frowned as he idly scratched his chin. “So, they’re a pharmacy?”  

“They once were. When they began to grow in popularity over the decades, they expanded their product line to other things, like clothing, groceries, and even military related products.”

“Military related?” Aizawa questioned. We’re not talking tanks, are we?

Nezu pushed the tablet back out as he flipped it back to show the other teachers the screen, which now was displaying an old photo of construction being done in the middle of what appeared to be a forest. “A few decades ago, they managed to become so big that they had the money to legally purchase a large chunk of land to build a nicely sized base. A headquarters, if you will. If I recall correctly, it was heavily scrutinized by other countries and was accused of trying to become a military power.”

“Are you saying that they have their own private military?”

“Indeed,” hummed Nezu. “They do have their own small force, but they claimed it was merely security for protecting company secrets. It’s amazing that it’s still legally standing, they have armed guards, helicopters, military grade Humvees, stuff you’d see at a USA air base. However, it’s still not very large, as it’s only large enough to protect their property, and nothing else.” 

“I highly doubt their company secrets validate them having an armed force, that kind of military force like that is used for stuff like guarding Area 51.” Aizawa said humorlessly. A store brand arming themselves to the teeth? Give me a break. 

“I’m inclined to agree with Eraser,” Cementoss said, clasping his hands together. “With such a large base, military presence, and countless stores, how on earth did it manage to slip under the radar? Shouldn’t it be a prominent topic in news articles online?”

“A very astute observation,” Nezu said. He turned the tablet back to him to tap a few times once more. “That’s the interesting part, because when they had almost finished their headquarters, they abruptly made the bizarre financial decision to close all other stores across Japan at the exact same time, selling it to other pharmaceutical companies and grocery store brands who had sought their locations for ages.” He showed the screen once more, which displayed a before and after image of the Nohken Pharmacy and the modern one being a generic brand that had bought the space. 

“Strange, is it not?” Nezu hummed thoughtfully. “They had taken all of their stores, resources, and money, and squeezed it all into a single chunk of land. They still sell their products, but they only ship it to other stores. A rather risky move from a financial perspective.”

“But… why would they do that?” Mic said. “You said their corporate power was all over Japan, it could have completely taken over as the main brand of stores, but they decided to just abandon ship? Why destroy all those sources of revenue in favor of a gamble like that?”

“My theory is that they wish to stay under the radar,” Nezu said as he brought the tablet back, tapping away on the screen yet again. “Decades ago when they had gotten national attention from the purchasing of weapons and military grade equipment while they finished their headquarters, that was when they had decided to suddenly close every store they had to huddle up behind their walls. And judging from our and presumably the public’s lack of knowledge, it has worked to an extent. So far, the only drama they’ve faced recently is them being under fire for how much gas or diesel is wasted by their transport trucks, the ones that deliver their products to other stores across the country.” He flipped the tablet to show the others several headlines of articles publicly shaming Nohken for their lack of green energy. “Apparently it's a rather lengthy drive to their headquarters, since it’s in the middle of a forest and miles away from any city in Japan. Doesn’t matter what type of energy is used, gas or electric, it doesn’t change that quite a lot of energy is being burned. ” The tablet was flipped away again. “Of course, some people have energy related quirks or can produce biofuel, but I don’t think Nohken will ever be able to escape from being under fire from green or earth activist groups.”

“So… do you think that this Jayluf kid is like, a criminal? An immigrant?” Mic questioned. “Because although the display earlier was pretty suspicious, I don’t know if it means we should all be focused on that. Why do you find it so interesting, besides the weird history?”

Nezu spared a glance up from behind the tablet. “Well, because they’ve taken a sudden interest in hero society.”

Aizawa frowned. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, remember everything I’ve told you about Nohken Industries, do you remember a detail being missing? Nohken Industries has never been associated with anything related to the Hero side of society, and they never made any brand deals with hero groups or companies, either. Now suddenly, after over a hundred years of existing as a company, do they take a sudden interest in U.A.”

“I will admit,” Cementoss began, “that is rather… odd.”

“Quite. They have Jayluf Viller, who as you saw in the security footage, apply for the entrance exams. They drop him off via a limousine while having him wear an outfit that is sporting their brand name for everyone to see, practically making the boy a walking advertisement.”

“Well, that isn’t exactly unheard of,” Midnight said. “We’ve had students be sponsored by other companies to test out their gear in either the entrance exams, or during their entire stay at U.A. in general. There is a chance that the fake birth records are from illegal immigration, which at worst, would get the kid deported.”

“Possibly. But I have a feeling this Jayluf boy is something they value greatly. I believe that Jayluf is not merely a walking advertisement to them, but something much, much, more. So important to them, to the point where they’re willing to put a tracker on him.” 

All of the teachers' eyes widened at the same time in surprise.

“A tracker?” Aizawa repeated. 

“Yep!” Nezu said cheerfully. “Take a look here!” He flipped the tablet back around to show a video feed showing a limousine. “Our security cameras picked this up at the beginning of the day.”

Aizawa and the other teachers leaned forward to observe the footage being shown. A small limousine pulled up, the door swinging open and Jayluf climbing out, only to be stopped and turned around, and an arm from the rolled down window reached out, placing a metal collar with a red line going through the middle around the boy's neck. 

“The woman that had been in the limousine from later that day had placed this metal collar on him.” Nezu continued as he turned the tablet back around.  “The very same metal collar that we saw earlier and had simply believed to be a fancy radio. I now believe it is also a tracking device, and possibly a way to monitor his vitals, depending on how paranoid these people are. But I can safely assume it is both, because at the presumed time Jayluf was injured, did the limousine attempt to enter past the road entrance gate that led to the battle zones.”

“Well, it’s not exactly illegal to have that sort of gear…” Mic said.

“Perhaps, but here’s something interesting that happened roughly an hour ago. I received an email from Nohken Industries themselves.”

The revelation piqued Aizawa’s interest. “Personally?” 

“Personally,” Nezu echoed. “Not the U.A. public address on our website, my personal email. It was an apology from Nohken explaining their shame in how one of their employees acted on our property and for how Jayluf had gotten himself ‘into trouble’ with our robots. Along with it, was a check, they claimed it was to cover for whatever money that they apparently thought we spent when tending to Jayluf’s wounds.” He turned the tablet to them. “Odd, since their employee knew that Recovery Girl was the one who fixed him up in near seconds, as you can see here in the footage. Most companies would just send a simple thank you card, or a gift basket out of professional courtesy. But most companies wouldn’t apologize for someone under their employment getting injured by our legal property. It’s bizarre, isn’t it?”

“Bizarre, yes.” Snipe said. “But not exactly suspicious.”

“I’d agree, if it wasn’t for the final part of the email, where they attempted to subtly urge me to accept Jayluf into our school.”

“They did what?” Mic said in disbelief. 

“You heard me right. The final part was them explaining how although they regret what happened, they still hoped that Jayluf would be accepted, claiming he’d be able to become a great hero, change the world, that usual kind of drivel.” 

“Well… people begging for their kid to be accepted isn’t new…” Midnight said hesitantly. 

“It isn’t, I will concede on that. But with all the factors combined, to me, it doesn’t add up. Think about it. Nohken Industries, a company that had existed for over a hundred years, suddenly takes a huge interest in the hero part of our society. They roll up out of nowhere up to U.A.'s doorstep to drop off a prize pony child that’s probably been trained by them, with a collar being slapped on so they can know his every move. They’ve forged fake birth records and certificates just for him, and presumably erased any trace of his old self in favor of the new one.”

“Okay, yeah that’s pretty suspicious.” Mic admitted with a scowl. 

“And out of all the schools in Japan, they choose U.A. If they had simply wanted to advertise, there’s probably two or three hero schools on the way to U.A. from their headquarters, yet they still decide to bring him here, the number one hero school in Japan. After all the years of them trying to keep out of the headlines, they choose the school that gets the most buzz on social media and news websites?”

Aizawa began to think. Yeah… something’s not adding up…

“But while they’re going for the most popular hero school, they haven’t really advertised it at all. Something like this would usually be paraded by the company, a child prodigy that is going to enter U.A.? But they haven’t made a peep about it outside of slapping their logo on Jayluf’s shirt. It’s almost like they don’t want too many people taking notice of their sudden shift in business interests, at least, not yet.”

“Do you think they have something up their sleeves?” Aizawa said. 

“Maybe, maybe not. But one thing I do know is that they seem to think they have control over the situation in itself. Considering the email they sent both apologizing with a check to appear as humble as possible and get on our good side, but also a subtle nudge to allow the kid into our school. Their employee also acted like she was higher rank than one of our own employees on U.A. property. Finally, the fact that they slapped that tracking device on the clueless kid's neck so they’d know his every move. It’s clear to me control is a major factor to them. And after everything I’ve found out today, I think I can say that they might be trouble.”

“Then… are you going to expose the kid then?” Aizawa wondered. “Have him get deported?”

“Actually, no. I’m allowing Jayluf Viller to enter U.A. as a student in class 1-A.”

The underground heroes' eyes went huge. “W-What? My class? But its already full-”

“We can fit one more desk in there Eraser. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Why?” Midnight cut in. “I am curious, why reward Nohken for its behavior? They clearly want Jayluf inside U.A. walls, and have acted very suspicious along with the fact they’ve already committed a crime with the forged birth records. Why give them what they want when we could just stop whatever they’re up to here?”

“Because,” Nezu said with a smile, “If we rejected him, he’d probably just end up being shipped off to another prominent Pro Hero School. The fact they’re trying U.A. first, to me that says a lot about their confidence. And I doubt that whatever they’re up to, is exclusive to U.A. itself. I think that it would be better for us to keep their ‘prized pony’ close where I and other Pro Heroes can keep an eye on him. If they want control, I will grant the illusion to them. But it is only an illusion, and nothing more. So that’s why I’d like you all to keep an eye on Jayluf when he enters our school.”

“Do you think he’s a spy or something?” Snipe said cautiously. 

“Honestly, I don’t think so. Reviewing footage from when he was here earlier, he’s obviously a fish out of water in regards to socializing. I don’t think keeping secrets is something he’d be very good with. And if he was a spy, I don’t think slapping on a very obvious collar to let everyone know that he was being tracked is something to use for someone trying to be undercover.”

Cementoss put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. “So, you do not think he is a spy then? Do you believe there’s something more than meets the eye to him?”

“Call it a gut instinct. Even if he’s not a spy like I’m assuming, it’s probably best not to risk that.” Nezu shut off the tablet and hopped out of his chair. “Welp! That’s it, meetings adjourned! I’ll be sure to bring the other teachers up to speed when they return during the next work day.”

Glancing at each other cautiously, the other teachers nodded and began to file out of the room, leaving Nezu by his lonesome. 

When the door slid shut behind him, his smile vanished. Nezu prided himself as a very intelligent creature, one capable of outsmarting of most humans around him. But he had almost made the same mistakes that his fellow teachers had made. At the beginning when the drama with the woman in the limousine was brought to his attention, he had made the same assumptions his fellow teachers did, and was ready to brush off the whole thing as something that would be forgotten by next week. Even after he had seen the collar during the exams, he’d written it off as a mere radio, a clever way to get assistance without breaking any rules.

But it was only when he’d decided to look at footage from the morning, and saw the electric collar being attached to Jayluf’s neck, did his thought process change. The cold metal clamping around the boy’s throat, how sometimes he moved his head around and tried to adjust the tight metal object in discomfort. 

Something was wrong. 

Nezu reached up to his own neck, massaging phantom pains that had suddenly flared up when he’d heard the harsh snap of the collar constricting Jayluf’s neck. He’d keep an eye on Jayluf, and Nohken Industries. A very, very, strict eye. 

Nohken Industries was trouble. 

Chapter Text

The rest of the day after his injury had been somewhat of a blur to Jayluf.  After he had been healed up, he'd befriended a student named "Pony", who requested something called a "cell phone number". 

Upon inquiring on what a cell phone was, it was explained to him that a cell phone was a sort of electronic device used for communication, similar to a radio. However, it did not use the same waves as a radio, and also had a functional display called a "touch screen". 

Pony had seemed amused when Miss Hunee had showed Jayluf what a cell phone looked like, and giggled when he began fiddling with the phone in fascination.

Who could blame him for being enamored with such a whimsical piece of technology? This was completely different from a radio. The display showed multiple small pictures or logos neatly packed into rows of four, ready for someone to select them for use.

In regards to controlling the machine, it used something called a "touch screen", which was a glass screen that responded to physical touch. If he swiped left, the strange icons would go to the left. If he swiped right, they'd go right instead. 

However he did not get much time to play with it, as Miss Hunee had quickly confiscated it to save what was apparently Pony's number for later use. After that, he barely managed to give a farewell before being ushered back into the limousine by his caretaker. For some reason, he wanted to stay a bit longer, even though minutes before he had been screaming himself hoarse.

Unfortunately Miss Hunee had told him they needed to return home soon, and so she had buckled his seatbelt, and gave the driver the "okay" to take them back home.

For the first time during the middle of the day, Jayluf had felt extremely exhausted. So exhausted in fact, that when he idly focused on the droning white noise of the road against the tires of the limousine on the highway, he'd fallen asleep. 

The trip home had felt much quicker, likely due to him being unconscious for the majority of the drive. When he'd been woken up by Miss Hunee, he'd seen that they were already back at the base, behind the walls that kept them isolated from the outside world.

For some reason, Jayluf had wanted to go back out.

But that wouldn't happen, for he'd been escorted right back to his room by Miss Hunee, who'd insisted on doing an "evaluation".  So now he was sitting in his bed, back in his white pajamas, and patiently waiting for Miss Hunee to begin. 

The woman in question gripped a pen and clipboard in her hands as she wheeled up her office chair to his bed. 

"Now!" Miss Hunee exclaimed as she clicked her pen. "Let's get this started! The orders from the higher ups that I'm to ask you questions about the exam, and your job is to answer. Sound good?"

"Affirmative."

"Excellent! Basic stuff first, what did you think of the exam?"

"It was a very challenging test."

"Well, I mean other than that! I guess I should have specified, but were there any things you really liked about it?"

Jayluf blinked. Things I liked about it? It was difficult to hold the exam in a positive light, given what had happened near the end. He pondered silently for several moments before answering. "Well… I suppose I enjoyed being outside in such a large open area. I found the warm air very pleasant.. I liked how the outdoors smelled compared to back at the base. The base smell has a very different aroma compared to the scent of the battle zone."

"Probably because the base is spewing out so much pollution every waking minute," Miss Hunee hummed as she scribbled down something on her clipboard. "This place practically burnt our nostrils out, nose hairs included. You get used to it after a while, but it is a rather rancid stench."

"I prefer the new scent, far away from the base." 

"Can't say I blame you. Now, second question, so listen up. How did it feel to be around people that were your age? I'm sure it must have been weird after being around us adult scientists for all your life!"

Jayluf glanced upwards at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling idly as he considered his response. "It was… a very jarring experience, and somewhat overwhelming when we were huddled close. Everyone had their own unique scent and look. I recall feeling somewhat overstimulated to the point I felt somewhat dizzy."

Miss Hunee raised an eyebrow. "Oh. In a bad way? Like, your brain was jumbled?"

"Negative. It was merely just the large amounts of information being absorbed in such a small period of time. That is all."

"Good, good. Next, what did you think of the U.A. High School? Was it as impressive as you thought it would be?"

"It was very tall, and its structure was a very peculiar shape."

"No no. I mean like, do you think it'll be a good hero school?"

"I see. Well, it appears to be very well equipped to instruct students how to become heroes. Their presentation on the entrance exam was very informative and provided the details necessary."

"Great. Your thoughts on the physical exam itself? Do you believe that it might be too difficult for some students?"

Jayluf paused for a moment. "Well…." He considered that while some of the robots were quite easy to destroy, they also managed to get a hit in, and it hadn't felt very good. "I believe that while it is logical that the test should be physically demanding for students who need to prove their worth, I do think that the giant robot, the Zero Pointer, I do not know if that was a necessary component."

“Why do you say that?”

“Because from what I have witnessed, the Zero Pointer has an unfortunate habit of causing…” he thought about the robot hitting the three pointer and falling down. “Collateral damage.”

“I suppose that’s valid criticism. How did it feel to use your quirk against active combatants like robots? Did you feel any rush of emotion? Happiness? Excitement to use your quirk?”

“Negative.”

“I thought as much. Oh well. Well, how would you rate your performance?”
“I destroyed many robots, so I can safely assume my performance was acceptable, at least until the end. It was my ignorance of danger that caused my injury.”

"How did you feel about making 'friends' with other people? I know friends as a concept is a bit unknown to you, so it must be quite unique. You made two right? The green hair and then the pony girl?"

The question made Jayluf stop to think for several moments. Friends until today was something he didn't know much about, and now he suddenly has two out of the blue. "I believe that… it is good for me to have made friends."

"Well, That's a rather good outlook to have, especially considering the point is to have you fit into society." Miss Hunee clicked her pen as she stood up from her chair. "Well, I think that's it for today Jayluf! Thank you for answering so diligently! I'll get these to the higher ups in no time. Now what we need to do is wait for the test results. Which usually takes a week. Fingers crossed, right?" Finally, Miss Hunee turned, and began walking away towards the door.

"Wait." Jayluf called.

The woman halted her March, and threw a glance over her shoulder. "Something wrong Jayluf?"

"May I… make an inquiry?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you just?"

"What? What did I do just now?"

"Make an-" Miss Hunee let out an exhale. "Eh, never mind. It wasn't funny anyways."

Jayluf blinked in confusion, not grasping what the woman had been trying to say. "Okay."

"But anyways yeah, go ahead! Ask your question."

"I am merely curious, why did you want to have this evaluation so soon after the exam had ended? You said yourself that we have the entire week before any exam results could come in, and I've never seen you so excited over making such simple inquiries. "

"Well Jayluf," Miss Hunee began. "I thought it would be best to get these questions out of the way while the experience was still fresh in your mind, especially when you had felt emotions!"

"I felt… emotions?" During the exam? He didn't recall any time. 

"Remember? When you were hurt by the falling robot and your leg got crushed? You had cried, remember? You, who is never bothered by anything, and has an extreme lack of emotions in general."

"I…" Jayluf pondered for a moment, tilting his head. "I am unsure if that would count."

"Yeah. You did! You were SCARED! And you're never afraid of anything before, but you were terrified for your life! I remember hearing you sob and sniffle over the radio, and the readings from your collar were all over the place."

She is… correct. Jayluf realized. "But… how?"

"A good question!" Miss Hunee hummed. "I think it was because of the injury itself! The extensive physical damage to your body caused a reaction to occur, allowing you to feel proper emotions! You were feeling fear, uncertainty, and panic in full force." She scribbled down a few extra notes on her clipboard. "It seems extensive physical trauma seems to unlock your normally fogged up brain. At least, for a certain period of time, since when you were healed, you quickly went back to your old self. Fascinating, isn't it?"

The suggestion made Jayluf reflect on himself as he absorbed her words. She was right. He'd felt emotions. He'd FELT.

The last time he'd slightly felt even the slightest bit of something akin to panic was when he'd been trapped in that dark room, when the situation forced him to grow an eye to be able to properly see. 

He could still recall the sensation of terror, fear, and panic. He could still feel the crushing weight of the three pointer on his trapped leg as he vainly attempted to free it. The unbridled terror and uncertainty as he felt his limb crumple under the intense pressure as his leg bone snapped, it had hurt. He needed to get it off. I'm dying. He needed to get it off get it off GET IT OFF ME -

"Jayluf?"

His eyes snapped up towards Miss Hunee, who was staring at him curiously. "Y-Yes Miss Hunee?"

"Are you alright? You just sort of started to stare at me. Was kind of weirding me out."

Jayluf decided right then and there that he did not like feeling afraid. He didn't like pain either. "Oh. I'm okay Miss Hunee."

He hoped he would never have to feel like this ever again.

Miss Hunee frowned. "Well, if you say so. I'm going to go turn these notes in to the other lab people, but meanwhile, I'll let you talk to your new friend."

Jayluf tilted his head. "My new… friend?"

He realized that Miss Hunee was holding her cellular device towards him.

NEW MESSAGE #1

(06:20) Jill Hunee: Hello. Is this Pony from the U.A. High School entrance exam? This is Jayluf Viller. You may not remember me, but earlier today, you had helped me escape the battle zone when I had been severely injured. I am borrowing Miss Hunee's "cell phone" device to send you a "text message" via "message app". 

(06:25) PonyPower: yse 

(06:25) PonyPower: yes its me sorry jayluf its me pony hiii 

(06:26) PonyPower: sorry if like giving my number was weird i dont like want you to get the wrong idea or anything haha still having trouble believing youve never used a phone before

(06:31) PonyPower: Jayluf?

(06:32) Jill Hunee:  Apologies. Using this device is rather complicated. I have never used a cellular phone before, nor have I “texted” anyone. This is my first time trying to “type” using the touch screen, and I have to use my individual fingers to find the letter or symbol I wish to use. It is a very arduous task to accomplish. 

(06:32) PonyPower: O u can like use your thumbs and like hold the phone in both hands if you want i can liek show u with a picture if thats okay? 

(06:32) Jill Hunee:  Very well. 

(06:33) PonyPower: Ok lemme get up gotta walk to the mirror hold on also ill use selfie cam so it might look kinda weird but dont worry about it 

(06:34) PonyPower: Ok here 

(06:34) PonyPower:   Image.png 

(06:35) PonyPower: Ok so you see how im using the palm area below my pointer finger? You do that with both hands and you press it to the phone to hold it in place since you will be using your thumbs to type and stuff. 

(06:36) PonyPower: Same goes if youre like using one hand but its risky you might lose grip and drop it and it didn’t look like miss honey or whatever her name was had a protective screen. 

(06:36) Jill Hunee: Acknowledged. I will try adjusting. 

(06:36) PonyPower:  U might need a bit to get used to it so be careful lol

(06:36) Jill Hunee:  What does that mean?

(06:37) PonyPower:  What does wat mean?

(06:37) Jill Hunee:  LOL. What do those letters mean. 

(06:37) PonyPower:  Wat

(06:37) PonyPower:  Omg “what does lol mean”

(06:37) Jill Hunee:  What does “OMG” mean?

(06:38) PonyPower:  WHAT DO YOU MEAN “What does omg mean” ROFL

(06:38) Jill Hunee: I don’t know what you mean by “ROFL”. 

(06:38) PonyPower: Jayluf oml 

(06:38) Jill Hunee: I don’t know what “Oml” means either.

(06:39) PonyPower: please stop 

06:39) Jill Hunee: Did I do something wrong?

(06:39) PonyPower: No no just stop give me a minute your killing me

(06:40) Jill Hunee: You’re dying? I can call someone if you don’t have medical assistance

(06:40) PonyPower: Jayluf no im not dying just wait a second please i'm okay everything is okay just let me get my bearings

(06:40) Jill Hunee: Are you certain you are all right? 

(06:40) PonyPower: Yes im okay don’t worry. Just give me a second

(06:41) PonyPower: Okay look ill explain what at a time are you ready for this 

(06:41) Jill Hunee: I am prepared. 

(06:42) PonyPower: Ok so look what I texted were like texting phrases, its like the beginning letters of a multi word expression squeezed into a few letters. LOL is like "laugh out loud" like you think something is funny. 

(06:42) PonyPower: OMG is like "oh my god" to express shock or surprise. ROFL is like something really funny so your “rolling on floor laughing”. OML is like a more formal or dignified OMG since its "Oh my lord" 

(06:42) PonyPower: People use these in text conversations all the time trust me

(06:43) Jill Hunee: Very well. Those are very peculiar phrases.

(06:43) PonyPower: I guess lol 

(06:43) PonyPower: I hope you can get ur own phone soon, if u get accepted u will definitely need a phone of ur own

(06:44) Jill Hunee: I can ask Miss Hunee about it. If I am fortunate enough, I will be able to obtain it within a week when the exam results come in.

(06:44) PonyPower: O ya I wish me didn't have to wait so long for the friggin exam results. Makes the wait literally agonizing ;_; I hope both of us got in tho. I feel like when I saved you I may or may not have lost point opportunities 

(06:45) PonyPower: Omg i just realizes wat i sed im not saying that I'm mad I had to save you or anything if it sounded like I was blaming you. I would definitely take saving you over passing a dumb exam

(06:45) PonyPower: Sorry again.

(06:46) Jill Hunee: I suppose you may have risked failure by rescuing me. I apologize for getting injured, causing you to assist me.

(06:46) PonyPower: You shouldn't apologize for getting hurt Jayluf omg 

(06:47) Jill Hunee: Why not? You are correct with your observation, me getting incapacitated and forcing your hand may have cost you from achieving enough points to enter U.A.

(06:47) PonyPower: Jayluf you can't mean that

(06:47) Jill Hunee: Why would I not? It is a logical conclusion to come to. You could have had the chance to dispose of the villain robots were it not for me. This exam is a very important one, is it not?

(06:48) PonyPower: Not as important as you Jayluf! Your a human being! This was just a dumb exam that if i failed I could redo it next year! Human lives don't get a redo when its over!

(06:48) Jill Hunee: I have considered your points and I have come to the conclusion that your logic is valid. I understand.

(06:49) PonyPower: Ok im glad to hear that 

(06:50) Jill Hunee: I apologize, but I fear I must end this conversation here. Miss Hunee has just informed me that she wants her cell phone back, and I must give it to her. I must close the conversation for now.

(06:50) PonyPower: Aw okay. I hope u get a phone of ur own so we can talk more. Bye bye!

(06:50) Jill Hunee: Goodbye.

Pony hummed to herself as she closed the direct message application, adjusting her posture in her bed in an attempt to make her position more comfortable.

She began to ponder on her thoughts about Jayluf. Jayluf was certainly a rather interesting person, to say the least. He was weird, not not weird in a bad way! In fact, he was quite nice.

Although one could easily find his behavior somewhat bizarre, something about his abnormal behavior was endearing to her. Even though he spoke formally like some sort of highly sophisticated person, his knowledge on modern technology that was the norm was basically nonexistent, which she found odd. 

How could someone not know about cell phones? It was unheard of. Cell phones have existed for like, forever now! Although it was odd that Jayluf hadn't known about cell phones, Pony herself had found it somewhat amusing explaining what texting words meant. 

He didn't know what "LOL" meant… I'm still reeling from that revelation.

Even while most of Jayluf's odd behavior was amusing, Pony didn't find all of it endearing. Mainly, the conversation about him costing her the exam was when alarm bells had begun ringing in her head. 

Originally when she had sent that message, she realized what it likely could be interpreted as, and had a miniature panic attack. 

Because it had sounded like she had blamed him for her possibly not passing the physical exam, like it was his fault for almost bleeding out in the middle of an alleyway. 

She already knew that one of two options would happen. The first being Jayluf being understandably angry with her words and lashing out at her for saying such horrible things. The second possibility would be the boy being understanding and forgiving her, and moving the conversation on to a different topic.

But neither of those happened. Instead, Jayluf had agreed with her original statement, claiming that it would make sense if she had decided to focus on winning the exam, instead of saving him.

The thought that Jayluf found it logical for her to prioritize winning a stupid competition over saving someone who was dragging themselves to the exit as they were dying… 

It horrified her. 

Why on earth had he said such an awful thing? It didn't make sense. It was a hero school for crying out loud, why would it be better to not save someone in danger?!

Sure, Pony did remember the nurse hero and Jayluf discussing him having a sort of "healing" quirk, or something. She'd managed to only catch bits and pieces of the conversation, but she deduced that it wasn't a very strong healing quirk. And there during the exam, he'd been clearly unable to use it, meaning it was likely a weak healing ability. 

Was it because the healing quirk was why Jayluf had casually dismissed the possibility of him not being helped while having a crushed leg? Maybe it was stronger than Pony thought?

But if it was, why had he been sobbing and dragging himself to the gate? It didn't add up. It didn't make sense. 

She came to the conclusion that Jayluf had been dying, and while he did have a healing quirk, it was very likely the boy had been ignorant to the idea that some injuries just might be too much for him to bear.

There was also a third option on why Jayluf would be fine with bleeding out all alone. One that Pony had refused to entertain, even for a second. But the more she pondered in silence, the more the thought made itself known. 

Was the reason Jayluf was perfectly fine with the suggestion of being left behind was because he didn’t value himself as a person? If that was true, did that mean he was depressed? The fact that his entire personality had completely changed back at the entrance exam. When she’d heard his screaming and traced it to his location, Jayluf had been acting normally for someone who was injured. He’d been crying in pain, panic, and fear. He also showed slight gratitude when she carried him to the entrance. 

But then when the nurse hero had used her quirk on him, mending his broken bones and stopping the pain all together, it was as if a switch was flipped on him. Any humanity was almost entirely gone, and the boy had simply worn a blank, hollow, expression. 

His voice was devoid of any emotion as well, a monotone voice that was more akin to a voice of an emotionless robot than a humans. 

Even during the text conversation she had with him, he somehow conveyed the same blank empty personality in text form. It was like a machine or bot had been talking instead of a human being. 

Pony knew she was no doctor, or expert on human psychology in general obviously. But she remembered when she’d read online about symptoms of depression, or the way depressed people acted in social situations. 

Some would try to act completely normal and smile, as if nothing was wrong at all in their lives, hiding their pain from friends and family alike. Others would be open about their despair, not attempting to pretend that everything was okay. 

But in some other cases… depression would cause a person to be a completely blank slate emotionally. What had it been called again? Emotional blunting, maybe. It was a complete regression of emotions, causing the person to numb almost all emotions, both positive, and negative. What was left was just a borderline emotionally dead person, someone who was more akin to a zombie that would shuffle around aimlessly in their lives. 

Pony began to think hard. If Jayluf was indeed depressed, what had been the cause? Definitely not money, considering he’d been picked up by a woman in a limousine, so it was unlikely he had poor living conditions. He didn’t have any bruises on him either, so it wasn’t abuse either.

Or maybe he did have bruises, and she just didn’t see them because of the nurse hero’s quirk. 

Maybe the reason for his state was because of lack of social interaction? That was definitely a probable cause for Jayluf’s hypothetical depression. Considering he didn’t even know what a cell phone was, Pony doubted that the boy got much socializing. Heck, the first thing Jayluf had said to her after introductions was simply if she wanted to be his friend!

She was well aware she was making a lot of assumptions about a person she’d just met today.

But if it was true that he didn’t have friends, then the possibility of his mental state being in poor condition was actually quite high. She could attest to the importance of needing friends. When she’d arrived at Japan with barely being able to speak a single word in the country's native tongue, she’d been a bit of an outcast. So when she’d gotten friends in her school who would talk to her and would interact with her constantly, she’d been eternally grateful. 

Of course, nothing lasts forever, since it’s rather common for children and teens alike to change schools, they had to part ways. Obviously they kept in touch with online social apps on their phones, but it wasn’t the same. She remembered the devastation of being separated, knowing they wouldn’t be able to sit down at the lunch table and hang out. The pain of not having friends and having to let go of friends was horrible to experience.

She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to have grown up her entire life without friends like Jayluf presumably had. Did he even know what it was like to have friends? God, she hoped so. But if not…

Did that mean that Pony herself was Jayluf’s first friend in this new chapter of his life? If she could even consider herself a proper friend. In fact, Jayluf was more of an acquaintance than an actual friend to her on a technical level, considering they barely had time to speak to each other before parting ways. Not to say she didn’t want to be friends with him or anything! Of course she’d like to be friends with him! 

If she was indeed his first friend, she’d do everything she could to make sure that whatever happened, she’d do her best to be a good friend. Even if one of them did not pass the exam, whether it be her or Jayluf, she’d still try her darndest to be a good first friend to him. 

But she could only be a “first friend” to Jayluf if she was correct with her assumptions about the boy. She knew very well she had assumed many things about someone she barely knew, and the fact his depression and lack of friends could just be a scenario conjured up in her brain caused by her inability to not overthink every little thing. 

Overthinking was something Pony was still working on. She’d stop doing that someday soon, hopefully. But even if Jayluf was just lacking in emotional expression and wasn’t depressed at all, she didn’t want to take that risk. Maybe she was projecting onto him, she honestly couldn’t tell. Even if she barely knew him, and it would probably be considered weird to some people that she was making it her goal to help a boy that she’d just met that day. 

In her defense, helping others is what heroes do, right? And she was attempting to enter Japan’s biggest Hero School ever, so it made sense!

Hopefully this was just a huge misunderstanding created from paranoia, overthinking, and maybe the slightest sprinkle of projection. But from now on, she’d do her best to keep in contact with him, maybe at least check up on him every once in a while, nothing too dramatic, just in case..

ONE WEEK LATER…

Time was something Jayluf Viller usually did not care for. At least, he did not pay much attention to it, since it really did not mean much to him. Time was something he really only considered when he was wanting to know how close to bedtime it was, and that was pretty much it.

But now, time had seemed to go by at such a painfully slow pace, because for once in his life, he was actually waiting for something. He was anticipating something. 

“Jayluf!” Cried a voice from the side. Slowly sitting up from his bed, Jayluf glanced to the side to see none other than Miss Hunee walking in, a strange white square held in between her left pointer and middle finger. 

“Miss Hunee?” He said. “What is that in your hand?”

Miss Hunee grinned. “A very good question! Guess what? Your exam results came in! And before you ask, the results are inside the paper, so you’ll have to open it and see.”

The exam results? He quickly threw his legs over the bed and onto the floor, standing up. “They have finally arrived?” 

“Finally indeed!” Sang Miss Hunne, holding it out to him. “Fingers crossed!”

Not hesitating, Jayluf accepted the offered object, and began to inspect it. She had said to open it, correct? How was he going to do that? 

Should I just tear it in half? 

Positioning both hands at each corner, Jayluf began to pull as hard as he could.
A loud ripping sound could be heard as the paper packaging gave way to the strain, and split in half, revealing a small metal device that dropped to the floor. 

He blinked. “What is tha-”

Suddenly, the metal device made a bizarre whirring noise, and the top suddenly lit up, and in a flash, All Might himself was inside the room. 

Jayluf’s eyes widened in surprise. “What is this? How is All Might being displayed here?”

“I AM HERE!” cried the world famous hero. “AS A PROJECTED PRE-RECORDED MESSAGE, INSIDE YOUR ROOM!”

Jayluf tilted his head. A projection? What is happening? I thought the exam results from U.A. were inside the envelope. Perhaps he is associated with them? 

The muscular Number One hero let out a loud laugh. “Greetings young…” All Might paused, leaning to the side and squinting, as if he was reading something off camera. For a split second, it looked as if his eyes narrowed for the briefest of moments. “Jayluf Viller! I am here to give you very good news in regards to your exam that you took last week! You have scored just enough points in order to pass, meaning that your future is here at U.A.! Congratulations!”

“I…” Jayluf said to himself, “I passed?”

Miss Hunee quietly cheered from the side.

“Not only that,” All Might continued, “But the principal himself has been so pleased with your results, he’s recommended you for one of the top classes, Class 1-A!”

“The principal!” Miss Hunee said from beside him. “Lucky you! Your quirk must be something special for it to get the attention of the principal!”

“So be ready young Jayluf!” All might said as he pointed at the camera. “Your future as a hero starts at U.A.! I hope you’re ready!”

Jayluf straightened his back as he stared at the hologram. Was this… pride? Pride at the fact that he had passed?

Whatever he was feeling, he knew for certain that now, he was finally going to become a hero.

Chapter Text

APRIL

Surprisingly, the month of February had come and gone rather quickly to Jayluf. But that was likely due to the fact that he'd gone most of his life without a phone. It had also helped that his schedule had gone back to normal, save a few extra details.

One of those details being that after he had gotten his results, Miss Hunee had popped up and revealed a surprise gift for him, giving him his very own cellular phone for personal use. It had been already set up with a "wifi and data provider" (he did not know what those were) meaning it was ready to use. Well, for use under "supervised watch" according to Miss Hunee. She mainly instructed him to get used to using it as much as possible. Even if he had texted one before, using the phone as a whole was still a very bizarre experience for Jayluf.

Even if it was a fascinating machine, it still slightly off putting at times to him. The lack of a physical button or switch in favor of the smooth glass screen used to operate it being one of those reasons.  He was still mesmerized by swiping and watching symbols and colors move. It was amazing what technology could do. He discovered his phone had an add on called a "HD 4K Camera". Which was used to take "photos".

The word "photos" made Jayluf somewhat confused. Why were there three different words for that? Photos, pictures, and images. They all meant the same thing, but at the same time they didn't?  For if someone were to use the camera, they would "take a picture" on a cellular device, it would actually be considered an "image" but the area where all the images were kept was called the "photo storage". It didn't make sense. When he'd asked Miss Hunee about her thoughts on the matter, her only response was that "words are stupid sometimes". Although she had added that if something simple like photos confused him to that extent, she hoped that Jayluf wouldn't find about "pee en jees". 

Jayluf had no idea what those were.

He'd been granted texting privileges as well, although there were heavy restrictions on when he was allowed to. The first reason being something about "social media addiction" or something. Jayluf did not know what social media was, either. The second reason being Miss Hunne wanted him to keep up on his studies in order to prepare for school.

When he'd begun texting Pony again, she'd been thrilled to inform Jayluf that she had passed the exam, something to do with "rescue points". She had been even more happy when Jayluf informed her that he had passed himself, but the girl had seemed somewhat dismayed when he revealed that his class was Class 1-A. Upon asking the reason for her lackluster reaction, she sadly told him that she was assigned to Class 1-B, meaning they were in completely different classes.

According to Pony, the only way they would be able to interact in person during school hours was during lunch time. When asking Jayluf about times when to or when to not text him, she had seemed bewildered when he explained to her that he was only allowed to have a large text conversation a few times a week.  After Jayluf told Pony that it was a rule put into effect by Miss Hunee, her response had been to accuse Miss Hunee of being something called a "helicopter mom".

It didn't bother Jayluf too much, he was well adjusted to not being allowed to text, so the days he went phone free were relatively painless. 

Another thing he had been training as the weeks passed by was his Bio-Form, mainly its capabilities inside his body with parts like his muscles.  He was able to make small body parts like eyes, and change some parts of his body such as his claws, but Miss Hunee had suggested doing both. When he inquired for her to elaborate, she suggested trying to "make your leg or arm muscles bigger".  Muscles had been something Jayluf never gave too much thought on, considering the most he did with them was sometimes numb them for short running exercises. 

But he had been interested at Miss Hunee's suggestion. The idea that he could easily become stronger by moving some of his cells around was very appealing, so he began to train bio-form under supervision. 

Unfortunately he did not make too much progress as planned, for only his leg and arm muscles now performed only slightly better under strain. Originally, he had been only able to numb two limbs, but now he was able to handle three, although the numbing effect was slightly weaker than if it had just been the original two. 

Although he had gotten somewhat better with his claws transformation time, being able to force the mutated hands to break though his skin more easily. The transformation however was still as messy as ever, the top layer of skin breaking apart and hanging off his wrists like an exploded wet balloon. The time needed for the loose flesh to be absorbed back into his hands was still the same amount as before, meaning he only improved half of the ability. 

Miss Hunee had said it had reminded her of an animal molting. 

The last thing he had been training was his pain receptors and self repairing abilities, mainly their ability to work together to fight against outside harm and pain at the same time. A hazmat scientist had come into the room with multiple scalpels assembled neatly on a thin metal tray, and explained that they needed to test his stamina when attempting to handle different parts being harmed at once. Cuts were nothing to Jayluf, so he allowed  them to do as they wished. The process had been easy at first, but when the scientist began making larger incisions into his wrists, his cells were starting to struggle. 

He eventually had asked the scientist to stop, but the unidentified man insisted on allowing "just a few more cuts". Jayluf had begun to feel dizzy when the training was over, feeling his arms sting. His cells had begun to get exhausted, protesting as they struggled to keep up with the constant damage to his body. Although it had hurt quite a bit, it had been nothing compared to the leg incident, meaning he could have an easier time focusing on mending his wounds, starting with the blood going back where it belonged. 

He did not like that training session.

And when his first day of school had finally arrived, Miss Hunee had seemed certainly ecstatic. She'd presented to Jayluf with a brand new outfit that was the official standard uniform of U.A. students, one that was mandatory to wear. After he donned his new outfit, he'd been escorted out to the limo just like during the morning of the entrance exam. Everything was the same, the bitter smell of the factory air, the warm air blowing against his face.  He had missed the sensation, and welcomed it for as long as he was able before he'd been shoved into the limousine. The smell of the limousine had been nice as well, and the soft seating. At least he'd be able to experience each day he went to school.

When the limousine had pulled up as close as they could to the high school, the door had popped open, and Jayluf had officially arrived at U.A. 

Now in the present, Jayluf stared at the intimidating large building, and took one step forward.

"Jayluf! Wait a second!"

He turned around to see Miss Hunee with an apologetic grin. 

"I almost forgot!" She continued. "Here, this book bag is for you to use, so don't forget it!"

Holding out a brown backpack, she handed it over to Jayluf, who adjusted the straps to wrap around his shoulders.

The woman smiled. "Now you're almost ready, except for one last thing" she held out a shining object.

Recognizing the object, Jayluf leaned forward, allowing the woman to clip his collar on with a snap. The red bulb flickered on as it activated. 

"One last thing, Jayluf. This collar has the radio removed, so you'll be on your own when you step inside that school."

Jayluf tilted his head. "The radio was removed? Why is that?"

"The higher ups had a discussion, and agreed that an active microphone that's never able to be switched off being used in a highschool is a quick way to and I quote: 'catch a case'. That, and we got an email from the principal, a rather lengthy one. I'd rather not go into details."

"Why would catching a case be bad?" Jayluf wondered out loud.

"I'll explain another time, Jayluf. Now go! You don't want to be late for your first day of school, right?"

He nodded. "Affirmative. Good bye Miss Hunee."

"Bye bye! Stay safe Jayluf! Have fun! I'll pick you up later today!"

And just like that, the limousine drove off, leaving him in the dust. Turning back towards the building, he walked forward.

The lack of students swarming the hallways was quite disorienting to Jayluf. It almost made the hallways somewhat even bigger and endless. The only positive was that he was able to see outside the giant glass window, which showed the brilliant blue sky.  The boy aimlessly wandered around the long stretching corridors, his eyes glued to every door he passed. He needed to find Class 1-A. Turning a corner, he started to wonder what would happen if he was late. Would he be punished? Expelled? He hoped not, especially considering he had just gotten in.

When he'd started to think that he just might miss his first class, a strange sound pulled him from his thoughts. A strange repetitive noise that sounded like something hitting the floor again and again in rapid succession. Jayluf realized that this was the sound of shoes hitting waxed flooring. They were footsteps. Very fast footsteps, which meant whoever it was running very quickly, and they almost seemed to be getting louder and loude-

Something slammed into him from behind, and he fell down face first, his head hitting the floor.

Late, late, late! Was the only thing Izuku Midoriya had on his mind as he charged through the empty hallways of U.A High, desperately searching for the initials "1-A".

Man All Might is gonna be so disappointed if I'm late on the first day of my future career as a hero!

The day had not started out the way he originally envisioned it when he had woken up. When he realized he had slept past his alarm, and he had desperately thrown himself out of his bed, getting ready for school as fast as he could, only stopping to have a heart to heart with his mother. 

And now I'm late! Not that he blamed his mother or anything for holding him up, it wasn't her fault he slept past the alarm. 

1-A, 1-A, come on! Where is it? Why is this school so huge?! I should have asked All Might for a map!

He approached a sharp left turn. Come on, come on! Class 1-A! Where the heck is-

THUMP 

Midoriya let out a yelp as he crashed into something in front of him, sending him stumbling backwards. His reflexes allowed him to keep himself from falling over, but only barely. "O-Ow, what was?-"

His eyelids went wide open as he looked to see what appeared to be someone lying on the floor face down. It didn't take long for him to deduce that the person had been knocked to the floor. 

Midoriya realized that he had just rammed into an innocent stranger full speed, and had caused them to fall face first and slam their skull into the waxed surface.

Oh no! "O-Ohmygosh! I am s-so sorry!"

It was the first day of school, and the first person he had encountered was now kissing the floor due to him barreling into them at full speed! Desperate to try and amend the situation before it got any worse, he quickly rushed forwards to kneel down and help the possibly injured student to their feet. "I d-didn't mean to do th-that!" Squeaked Midoriya as he slowly guided the stranger up from the floor to their knees. "I swear IwasjustlookingformyclassandIhadnoideathatsomeonewasinfrontofmeohmygodareyouokayifyouarebleedingIcantrytogetyoutoanurse-"

"I am… functional. No apologies are necessary for something that was out of your control."

Oh… "R-Really? You're not mad?"

Wait. Functional?

The stranger began to rise up, turning to face him. "Why would I be mad about an accident?"

Midoriya stopped for a brief moment, caught off guard by the odd question. Something about this guy is familiar…. When the stranger had faced Midoriya in full, something in his brain clicked. Wait… that black hair covering their eyes… the pale skin… the bizarre speech pattern… the short height … "Do… Do I know you?"

The stranger silently stared back for several moments, as if absorbing the question. "You claim we have met in the past?" His head tilted downward, then back up, studying Midoriya. It was impossible to tell if he had been squinting his eyes.

"Y-Yeah!" Midoriya said, lighting up as his brain finally made the connection. "Th-The entrance exam over a month ago! You s-sat by me in the presentation, remember?"

The stranger tilted his head curiously. "I believe… Yes, you are in my memory. You are Midoriya, are you not?"

"Y-Yeah! You remembered my name? A-And my name is Izuku Midoriya. I uh… I… I f-forgot your name. Oh my gosh I'm so s-sorry that I forgot!"

"Greetings once more Midoriya. There is no need for apologies, for I can simply tell you my title again. My designation is Jayluf Viller." 

"R-Right, Jayluf!" Midoriya said, still somewhat bewildered at Jayluf's bizarre way of speaking. That certainly was going to take time to get adjusted to again. Wait, Jayluf is here then… "S-So you passed the exams?! T-That’s great to hear! How h-have you been?"

"I am functional. My current task is finding the classroom assigned to me."

"Oh y-yeah? What class were you assigned to?"

"Class 1-A."

"W-wow, really?! I'm in th-that class too! Small world h-huh? Funny you mention it b-because I was looking for it too because I was late… when I had… ran into… you."

Midoriya remembered why he'd been running in the first place.

"WE'RE LATE!" 

Jayluf seemed somewhat caught off guard by Midoriya's outburst. "Midoriya?"

Fainty recalling Jayluf being one to follow commands, he grabbed Jayluf's wrist. "Y-You said 1-A, r-right? Come on! We're late!!! Follow me!" Curse my attention span! He began running forward, hoping that Jayluf would follow the command. The sound of Jayluf’s footsteps, combined with the fact the wrist in his grasp did not rip itself free from his fingers, told Midoriya that the command was being followed.

“Come on… come on, can’t I catch a break?”

Blessedly at the very last moment, he saw it. Class 1-A was right in front of him. Well, it HAD to be 1-A, considering the fact that the door had it plastered on. 

"Jayluf! It's here! We made it!"

Both students came to a skidding halt in front of the surprisingly large classroom door. But as he reached out, he paused.

Class 1-A… the highest scoring students would be in this class. The best of the best. Would that mean that there was a strong possibility that the two scariest students were here too?

He shook his head. No, there were probably other classes they got put into. The chances of them being in his class was pretty low.

Confidently opening the door, he was greeted with the (un)pleasant surprise that was Kacchan and the glasses-wearing student having an argument.

Midoriya blinked. Crap.

Aizawa Shouta was a man who did not have much patience for trouble. When he'd seen who'd been accepted for his class, his gut had told him that this new batch of kids were going to be trouble.

Especially that broccoli haired one. Ever since he'd watched the kid deck the ginormous zero pointer straight in the face whilst the other teachers whooped and cheered like it was some sort of entertainment program. That quirk, whatever it was, was a very dangerous one. But powerful quirk or not, it seemed that the kid had absolutely no awareness of the things around him, because somehow, no one had noticed him yet.

Broccoli head was now being confronted by the glasses kid. Yet they still hadn't noticed him yet. In fact, so far, none of the students in the classroom had noticed him yet.

Well, except one.

For when the two had begun making idle chatter, a small amount of movement from the corner of Aizawas eye grabbed his immediate attention.

A very short boy, with pale skin and black hair had seemingly noticed Aizawa, and turned towards him. 

But the boy said nothing. In fact, the kid's face didn't even change expression, showing no surprise or look of bewilderment to the fact a fully grown adult was on the floor and cocooned in a sleeping bag.  Instead, the boy drew closer, taking a step forwards, and squatted down to get a better look at him.

Aizawa briefly wondered what the kids' problem was, until he took a closer look. Wrapped around the kids neck was a silver metallic collar, with the middle having a glowing red light. He frowned. He knew this kid. This was Jayluf Viller, wasn't it? The kid that had been given an exclusive spot in Class 1-A, thanks to Nezu, who had shoved the kid into his classroom at the very last minute. What had been the principal's reasoning? Oh, right. Jayluf was associated with "Nohken Industries", the company that was apparently acting "suspicious". Nezu had said he had a "hunch" or something. 

Because of a "hunch", Aizawa had to squeeze another desk into the back of his classroom. That was another thing he was not very big on. The fact that the number of students was now an odd number. If he somehow didn't expel this class after today, there would be hero exercises that usually required teams of two, but now thanks to Jayluf…

Guess one of the teams would now have a third.

And even if Nohken Industries was trouble, he was beginning to doubt that Jayluf was of any threat. First off, the boy was so extraordinarily lacking in muscle, he'd probably fall over from a strong gust of wind. It didn't help that the kid was also pretty damn short. Not as short as the one with purple balls on his head, but still, the kid was pretty small. It wasn't dwarfism, mostly what appeared to be simply bad or unlucky genetics. If Jayluf somehow made it as a hero, Aizawa hoped that the kid would not depend on using intimidation to scare criminals and villains. After being given over a month to stew on it. He was beginning to very much doubt that the kid was of any concern or threat. 

Still…

He glanced at the glowing collar, still clamped around Jayluf's neck.

He'd keep an eye on him, just in case.

Still staring, Jayluf still spoke not a word to Aizawa, seemingly content to just look on with mild curiosity. 

Aizawa glared back at the silent boy with annoyance in his eyes.

He was too tired for this. 

The only positive that Aizawa could think of for Jayluf is that he seemed to be attentive at least. Either that, or the kid had just accidentally spotted Aizawa while daydreaming.  But considering that the other students hadn't noticed him yet, he was betting on the former.

A brown haired girl had sprinted up from the left to start making small talk with the broccoli head kid, who was still standing in the doorway. 

She hadn't noticed him either, somehow. Aizawa inwardly scoffed. How had she not seen him? Did being wrapped up like a sad little burrito make for good camouflage? Did he really blend in that well with the floor? Or did every student here save for Jayluf have an extreme case of tunnel vision?

The girl immediately started to speak about the zero pointer being smashed, Aizawa realized that this was the girl that the green hair had saved. She was Uraraka Ochaco. The jogging of his memory reminded him that the green hair was named Midoriya. Well, at least Uraraka seemed to have an excuse for the tunnel visioning on the first day.
Didn’t excuse the others for having the attention span of a goldfish.

Unsurprisingly, Midoriya seemed to immediately blush and cease to function mentally as his face turned tomato red.

Aizawas eye roll was almost audible. Kids these days. 

Movement from the side caused him to focus back towards Jayluf. The kid was still crouched down, but now was currently reaching out towards him with a small pale hand, seemingly intent on touching him. 

Nope . “Don’t even think about touching me.”

Jayluf’s arm reeled backwards, as if his hand had been burned by Aizawa’s words.

Ignoring how the other students seemed to clam up as they finally noticed his presence, he glared at them. "You should all go home if you are here to make friends." As if spurred by his words, Jayluf rose halfway to his feet almost immediately, as if he was about to go home, but freezing before he could completely stand. 

The kid finally opened his mouth to speak. "I will make an inquiry. Who are you?"

The pro hero rolled his eyes. And he talks like a robot. Fantastic. God, I don't get paid enough for this. Let's just get this over with. "Welcome to class 1-A." He droned, ignoring the bewildered reactions of the students who still seemed to be processing the situation, he downed an entire juice packet. "I'm your teacher, Aizawa Shouta."

"You are our teacher?" Jayluf echoed. "So you are the authority here. May I ask, were you being serious when you instructed me to leave? I would not mind making friends, but if it hinders my progression.. what would that mean?"

"It means to stop talking."

Jayluf did just that.

Rising from his sleeping bag, he tiredly unzipped it and tossed it to the floor.

"Now this might be a bit sudden…" he held up a spare gym uniform.  "But would you all please put on these gym uniforms and come outside."

Jayluf reached out.

"Not this one."

His arm went back down.

"You're too small for this one. Here." He tossed the outfit towards the green problem child. 

These kids better impress.

Expelled. 

Expulsion meant that Jayluf would be removed from the school permanently if he came in last place. His first day was not going as he expected. When he and the others had gotten into their uniforms by Mr Aizawa, they'd been dragged outside for something called a "Quirk Assessment Test".

Even with his dulled mind, Jayluf had been caught very off guard by the threat of expulsion. Was this a normal thing for schools? Judging from the shocked reactions of the students, he assumed not. 

The purpose of these tests were to see how effective people were with their quirks, as Aizawa had described at the start, giving one of the students Jayluf recognized as "Kacchan" a ball, and instructing him to throw it by using his quirk.

The explosion had made Jayluf and several others flinch, watching as the ball went flying into the sky, vanishing from sight.

Aizawa explained that they were allowed to use their quirks as much as they wanted for these tests. Jayluf did not know how cellular command or bio form would help him for these, but he'd try his best.

The first test was a simple short sprint run, where the student would race against another student to the finish line a few feet ahead. Well, excluding Jayluf. Apparently the odd number of students meant that someone would have to run alone, and the student chosen had been him. In his defense, sprinting wasn't exactly his thing. Sure, he could go at a decent speed, such as in the exam, but that was because he'd gone at a pace that had suited his needs. Now the situation called for him to run as fast as his little legs would carry him.  When he'd crossed the finish line, the robot had called out that his time had been eight seconds. It wasn't the worst.

The second test was grip strength, where all of the students had been given strange metal devices they were made exclusively for squeezing as hard as possible. Unfortunately, Jayluf had been given a rather small one to fit his hand, meaning that even if he wanted to Bio Form his hand into a claw, it wouldn't fit. He still did not have much muscle control either, which is why he couldn't just buff his finger muscles up, not without a mutation occurring. And even when he tried asking for a retry with a bigger one, Aizawa had shut him down.

"Real life doesn't have second chances," Aizawa had said.

Jayluf came second to last.

The third test was a "long jump". Jumping was easy, but a long striding jump? That wasn't exactly something he'd been very adjusted to doing, which is why he'd jumped high instead of far, and had been rewarded with a face full of dirt.

He'd come last.

At least the dirt had smelled nice.

Fourth test was something called "side stepping". This wasn't as bad as some of the previous tests, as for this one he simply numbed his leg muscles. He didn't do as bad as some of the others, but he definitely was not the best, like the small purple ball hair student who saw fit to use his quirk to bounce side to side. 

Fifth test was just throwing the ball as far as he could. Not wanting to come in last, Jayluf made up his mind that he'd try to use Bio-form when it was his turn. Sure, he couldn't have much control in muscles, but surely the claw had muscles in it, right? He'd torn through robots with them, and he'd done it without having to struggle with it. It had to mean something. 

Before his attempt at throwing, it had been Midoriya’s turn to pitch. Jayluf hadn’t really known what Midoriya's quirk was, so he had been somewhat intrigued. 

But when the boy had thrown the ball, it had only gone several feet before falling down.

What had happened?

Before any more confusion could occur, Aizawa explained that he had used his quirk on Midoriya. "Erase" it had been called. Midoriya seemed to recognize the quirk, identifying the teacher as  the underground hero known as "Eraserhead".

When Jayluf had asked what an "underground hero" was, the glasses-wearing student had explained that they were pro heroes that worked outside of the public eye, meaning they were relatively unknown to the masses, excluding hard-core fanboys. Jayluf didnt know what a "hard-core fanboy" was, but with the logic being presented, he'd assumed that Midoriya was being labeled as one of the "fanboys". 

Upon Midoriya's second try, he'd used some sort of strange green lightning that was probably even more potent than Kacchans explosion. The ball had almost vanished from sight, piercing the sky as it accelerated upwards. 

Wow.

Kacchan had reacted rather badly, charging towards Midoriya before being grabbed by the teacher, who used some strange capture device that wrapped around one's body. 

And now it was Jayluf's turn.

Clutching the ball in his left hand, he activated Bio-Form, allowing his cells to flow and reconstruct his biology at a whim. He felt them flowing into his right hand, the flesh under the skin moving and pulsating. As his hand began to become red and swollen, the skin stretched as it attempted in vain to keep together. But as always, it did not hold. His new hand bursted free from the skin, his old skin exploding wetly with crimsons dribbling from his new hand. His old skin still hung uselessly from his wrist as always.

However, some of the students did not seem to find it very appealing.

"Ew!" cried the pink one. "That's disgusting!"

"What kind of a messed up quirk is that?!" The purple one blurted out. 

"That's gross," the red haired one said. "But also pretty cool! Looks strong!"

A yellow haired student pumped his fist. "It's pretty damn gnarly if you ask me!"

"J-Jayluf?!"

Jayluf looked up to see Midoriya in the crowd of students, who all were staring at his new hand, wide-eyed. He tilted his head. "What is it?"

"A-Are you okay?" 

Am I okay? "I am functional. Why do you ask?"

"W-Well doesn't that h-hurt? There's blood everywhere and-"

"Jayluf." Aizawa cut Midoriya off abruptly. "This is your quirk, right?"

"Affirmative."

"Then you're fine. Throw the ball and let's move on."

Nodding, Jayluf obediently placed the ball into his swollen palm, and threw it as far as he could. 

Aizawa glanced down at the device in his hand. "A hundred feet. Not bad. Let's move on, everyone."

Sit ups were the sixth test they were to take. They were no challenge.

Seventh was something called "toe touch". When he realized that his little arms were too short, he attempted to Bio-Form, but nothing happened.

Unable. Exhaustion rate is high. His cells complained. Having already gone through the process of rapid mutation once, and returning his hand back to normal, they were thoroughly drained, and Jayluf not eating anything today hadn't been too helpful. 

I'm hungry…

He had to settle with failure for the exercise too. 

The eighth one was a long distance run, where all the students had to run to a goal in a certain period of time. This wasn't too horrible for Jayluf, for on one hand, he didn't have to sprint as fast as he could. But on the other hand, there were no breaks, unlike in the exam where a robot usually meant Jayluf could rest his legs for several moments as his arms did most of the work.

And this was a much longer run than the sprint test. Meaning that both his legs and lungs had to be put to use, and since he lacked the control to numb both at the same time. In the end, he chose his legs, which caused him to be a panting mess at the end, but at least his legs weren't hurting.

But when he spotted Midoriya, who was currently collapsed on his back and panting, Jayluf had been curious. Why was Midoriya doing that? Was that a normal thing to do after exercising? Walking over to Midoriya, he sat by the boy and lay there on his back, copying him. At first, Midoriya had seemed somewhat confused, staring as if he wanted to say something. But after several moments of no words being exchanged, the boy simply looked away from Jayluf and back up to the sky.

When the time for the results to be presented he had stood alongside all the other students, awaiting judgment.

"And," Aizawa said. "Here are the results." 

A holographic screen flickered on, and Jayluf looked for his name. 

There . Nineteen out of twenty one. 

He’d passed. So that meant, he wasn’t getting expelled, then. That was good. 

The sound of a shuddering breath being taken caused Jayluf to glance up to Midoriya, who was staring at the results screen in shock. 

A quick look back showed that Midoriya was in last place. And that meant Midoriya was to be… expelled.

Midoriya is… sad, isn't he? That's what he is right now, right? The boy was gripping his hand with the broken finger, eyes watering up.

“By the way,” Aizawa said with a lifeless smile. “None of you are getting expelled. The whole thing was a lie, in order to give you the push to try your hardest. Sorry.”

All of the students stared, absolutely mortified. 

Jayluf took several moments to absorb the new information. “So… that means Midoriya is not getting expelled. That is good.”

Aizawa turned to face him. “Why are you so happy? You his friend or something?”

“W-Well,” Midoriya squeaked. “W-We sort of really only talked to each other like-”

“Yes,” Jayluf cut in. “We are friends.”

Midoriya sighed. “I… I guess we’re friends then.”

“I remember you, pipsqueak.” A new voice cut in, causing Jayluf to glance to his left. It was “Kacchan” who was approaching him. 

“You’re that short brat from the entrance exam, who talked like he was some sort of genius.”

Jayluf looked up. “Yes, I remember you as well. You are Kacchan, correct?”

“Don’t call me that, you damn goblin. It’s Bakugo, and if you say ‘Kacchan’ again with that squeaky ass guinea pig voice, I’ll blow you to bits.”

The grape haired kid chuckled from the side. “You’re gonna blow him?”

A snarl from Bakugo shut the student up. 

“Very well,” Jayluf said. “I will call you Bakugo.”

Aizawa sighed. “Midoriya, take this note to the nurses office and get yourself fixed up. To everyone else, the classroom has handouts with the curriculum and stuff in them. I suggest you read them over carefully. Tomorrow will be filled with even more rigorous tests, so don’t get comfortable.”

Why on earth had the Number One Hero been spying on his class? Aizawa hadn’t realized it until All Might had approached him, talking about how it was past “April Fools”. 

“Because, you see potential in that boy as well? Is that why you kept this class?”

“As well?” Aizawa echoed, eyes narrowing in an accusatory manner. “So, you see some sort of potential in that one kid, huh? Explains why you were spying on him. Bit odd to be playing favorites.”

All Might raised his hands in an surrendering fashion. “I was merely here to observe the class and erm, Jayluf! Nezu did instruct us to keep an eye on him, did he not? It was best that I wasn't spotted anyways, so I am in no way playing favorites.”

Aizawa had seen kids caught with their hands in cookie jars that were better liars than this guy. “Then why did you bring that one kid up? Your first thing to say when I didn’t expel them all was to point out the kids’ performance. You seem very supportive of him.”

All Might could only glance to the side. 

“Is that how a teacher should be acting?” Aizawa continued, “I only didn’t expel them all because I saw potential. If I didn’t see potential, they’d be kicked out of this school in mere moments. Even if Nezu doesn’t want that collared kid going anywhere, I’d expel that kid too. 

Turning and walking away, Aizawa glanced back on more time towards All Might. “Nothing crueler than letting a dream end midway.”

As Jayluf finished packing the aforementioned notes from before into his book bag, he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. Midoriya had just finished packing his own bag with notes, but was still letting out a hiss of pain from the broken finger as he stood up to leave. 

Feeling something akin to concern, Jayluf trailed after him, just in case he needed any help getting to Recovery Girl. 

In the hallway, Midoriya didn’t take long to notice the smaller boy tailing him. “Jayluf?” he said while raising an eyebrow. “W-What are you doing?”

“I am following you.” Jayluf replied truthfully. 

“Yes, but the exit is the other w-way, isn’t it? I’m not leaving yet, I have to make a stop at the nurse. I just wanted to grab my notes first.”

“I am aware.”

“T-Then why are you following me?” 

The question confused Jayluf somewhat. “You are my friend, Midoriya. You are injured. I have suffered injury before as well recently, and I am able to identify with feeling great pain such as you have today.”

“I-Identify…? W-Wait, are you saying you broke a bone recently?”

“Affrimative. During the events of the entrance exam a month back, a falling robot had unfortunately landed on my leg, snapping the bone and causing it to stick out of the back of my leg.”

Midoriya flinched. “You mean like, it was literally sticking out of the b-back?!” He shuddered. “T-That sounds horrible!”

“I can agree, for it was quite painful. I hope you did not suffer any major injury during the entrance exam yourself, Midoriya. You did not, right?”

The question caused the boy to glance to the side in an almost guilty fashion. “W-Well, m-maybe. B-But anyways, this is just a broken finger! I’ll b-be fine! I uh, I appreciate the offer, but I can make it to the n-nurses office on my own, promise! I won’t n-need an escort or anything!”

“Ah… I see…” Jayluf said slowly as he stared at Midoriya. 

“E-Eh, b-but wait!” Midoriya said. “A-Alright look, how about this? If y-you wait by the entrance door, we can walk out together! I-Is that okay with you?”

Blinking idly, Jayluf considered the offer. “That is… satisfactory. I will await for you by the entrance.”

Without another word, Jayluf turned and walked off.

To Midoriya’s surprise, Jayluf did indeed wait for him. He’d found the boy standing by the door completely still giving no acknowledgement to the other students who gave him weird looks. For some reason, he thought that Jayluf would have lost patience and left. “Jayluf. Y-You really did wait for me?” I can't believe he pulled the puppy eyes on me earlier! I'm a sucker for those!

“We are friends Midoriya, and I said that I would wait for you. I will always wait for you.” Jayluf said

The wording caused Midoriya to cringe slightly. “M-Maybe word that better next time? O-Out of context, t-that last part kinda sounded like a heartfelt confession from a romance film.”

“What is romance?”

Midoriya sweatdropped. Did he really just ask that?  “W-Well it’s a thing with… I’ll tell you another time, I’m uh, not the best person to talk about this sort of thing.”

As they exited the school, several students passed them due to the low speed they were walking. Midoriya gave a weary glance at his now bandaged finger. “Eh… it feels like all my energy is sapped. Recovery Girl’s quirk really makes me exhausted…”

“Midoriya!” A voice from behind called loudly.

Both boys halted upon hearing the loud voice, and whirled around to face whoever had wanted to speak to Midoriya. He recognized the glasses and tall figure instantly. 

However, Jayluf did not. “Who are you?” 

“I am Tenya Iida!” Iida said loudly. “I said so earlier! Weren’t you with Midoriya when I introduced myself?”

Jayluf idly scratched an itch on his arm. “I was not listening to you at that time.”

“How were you…? Ah, that is right. Our teacher had been lying on the floor had he not? I suppose that explains it. But yes, I am Tenya Iida! And you?”

“Jayluf Viller is my given designation.”

“Designation?” Iida repeated in a somewhat dumbfounded fashion. “You are quite odd with your words, but well spoken at the same time? It is good to meet you again.”

“Again? You imply that we have met before today?”

“D-Don’t you remember Jayluf?” Midoriya said. “A-At the entrance exam, when y-you and I were talking, and Iida called us out for it? It was when Present Mic was explaining how the exam w-worked?”

Jayluf seemed to squint, as if he was having trouble recalling the past events. “I see.”

“Although on the topic of the entrance exams,” Iida continued, “I would like to apologi-”

“Do you want to be friends?”

Iida blinked. “What?”

“We both know each other now. And we do not dislike each other. That means we are friends, correct?"

The sudden change of direction seems to catch Iida off guard. "W-What? That's… That's not exactly how befriending someone works! But…" He began chopping the air. "I mean, I suppose we will be classmates from now on, and socializing is very important to mental health and welfare!" He put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. I suppose it would not hurt to try. Very well then Jayluf. I guess we will be friends!"

And just like that, the three began walking together, with Jayluf in front of Iida and Miodriya for some odd reason.

"Hey!" Called yet another voice. "Going to the station? Wait for me!"

Midoriya's face gained a tinge of pink upon hearing the voice, he knew exactly who it was. It was her!

Iida also seemed to recognize her. "You're that infinity girl, right?"

"Yeah! I'm Uraraka Ochaco! You're Tenya Iida, and you are Deku Midoriya, right?"

"D-Deku?!" Hearing the nickname coming out of her mouth was definitely jarring to Midoriya. 

Her expression changed to one of confusion. "Isn't that your name? It's what the explosion boy kept calling you?"

"W-Well actually it's sort of a mean nickname…"

"Well, I think it sounds kinda cool! I honestly like it!"

"THEN I'M DEKU!"

Iida immediately looked at him in complete surprise. "M-Midoriya?! Didn't you just say it was an insult?"

He blushed. "I… I can't explain it…"

"But anyways," Uraraka continued. "I was wondering, what did you guys think of the-" she trailed off. "Wait, is there someone behind you two?"

Iida’s eyes widened. "Oh, right! I completely forgot!" He stepped to the side, allowing Uraraka to see Jayluf, who was standing at attention.

"O-Oh!" Uraraka said in surprise, "I'm sorry for not greeting you before, I just didn't see you down there!" She paused, her eyes widening, as if she'd said something she wasn't supposed to. "I uh, I didn't mean to say 'down there' in a mean way. I'm sorry!"

"Why are you apologizing?" Jayluf said as he looked up at her.

The question seemed to make Uraraka hesitate. "E-Eh? Well it's just uh, since I may have accidentally called you short when I really didn't mean to."

"Why would you not want to call me short?"

"Well b-because you may have gotten mad at me for saying it?"

"Why would I get mad?"

“B-Because I don’t think you would want to be called short?” Uraraka sounded like she was beginning to doubt her own reasoning. 

To Midoriya’s dismay, Jayluf kept going. “Why would I not want to be called short?”

“Well you… I…I mean it's sometimes used in a derogatory way towards people of um, your… stature?" 

"What is derogatory?"

Although Uraraka looked to the other two students desperately for some sort of assistance, Iida could only stare at Jayluf incredulously. 

Offering a shaky grin and a shrug, Midoroya raised a hand to derail the conversation. “W-Well, anyways, Uraraka, this is my friend!”

Relieved for the topic change, she smiled. “A-Ah, I see! Uraraka said shakily. “I’m uh, Uraraka Ochaco!”

“My title is Jayluf. Jayluf Viller. Do you want to be friends?”

“Title? I mean uh, sure! Let’s be friends!”

And just like that, Jayluf Viller had made two new friends on his first day of school.

All things considered, it went rather well in his opinion.

But this was only the beginning.

Chapter Text

IMPORTANT READ ME

Ok so like when I first wanted to do this photo, I had no idea how long it would take. 

And this was because when I was choosing Jayluf's height, I didn't want him towering over everyone, and wanted a height more humble.

So I decided to put him near the small end, not as small as Mineta, but "Short" so to speak. 

So his height is 143 CM, and I was like "Yep looks good" and then when I got a height chart of Class 1-A and applied Jayluf's height... (Izuku is 166cm according to the chart)

HE BARELY REACHED THE TOP OF IZUKU'S TIE, I WAS SCREAMING

I was flabbergasted how short he was, but instead of just making him the same size as Izuku to save drawing time, I had to redo a new body with limbs and torso adjusted accordingly. 

So yeah, I'm keeping him little as it is! I find it somewhat endearing! And I have the art so you know what Jayluf looks like, and how tall he is! 

Apologies for my poor art skills by the way, I'm sure it'll be an eyesore to some, and for that, I apologize!

Without further ado, enjoy SMOL JAYLUF! Let me know what you think of Jayluf in the comments! See you all next week!

UHHHHH VERY VERY LATE UPDATE HERE. I did more measuring out of paranoia, and it turns out if I apply his height in the picture, he's actually smaller than what I thought he was, LOL! The reason why was I used the Class 1-A height Chart I found on reddit and imgur, but the lines were in twos (2, 4, 6, 8 cm) when I thought they were ones! So I was applying it incorrectly! After checking with an online height chart, I managed to deduce that he's roughly 137, and not 143! But instead of just sizing him up to actually 143, I'm still keeping Jayluf small! So now he's 137cm! Sorry for the confusion!

Chapter Text

Upon climbing back into the limousine after his first day of school at U.A, Jayluf had immediately began talking to Miss Hunee about the events that had transpired, going into detail about how their teacher had tricked them.

When he had spoke of the teacher's deception, Miss Hunee seemed somewhat amused. "Interesting," she hummed to no one in particular, "so U.A likes to lie, huh? Unexpected."

Jayluf shifted in his seat, feeling the seat belt rub against him as it held his body in place. "Do you think that is a bad thing, Miss Hunee?"

"Well, it depends honestly."

"On what?"

"Well," Miss Hunee began. "Deception can be a very useful tool. Believe it or not, it can even be used for good." She winked playfully.

Jayluf looked at her thoughtfully. "Have you ever lied?"

She smiled. "Not a day in my life."

Jayluf blinked. "Okay."

"Now," Miss Hunee continued, "You mentioned he put you through these tests in order to see what everyone's quirks were capable of, right?"

"Correct."

"And how would you say your abilities had performed, at least compared to the entrance exam?"

"It was enough for me to succeed in passing the test. I would say the performance was… satisfactory."

Miss Hunee scribbled down more notes on her clipboard. "Satisfactory is good! Although I'm wondering how much strain your teacher put you through, since the readings on your collar were constantly spiking throughout the day. He made you all do quite the workout, huh?"

Jayluf nodded in affirmation. "He had us perform multiple exercises in a row, to push us to our limits."

"I suppose that makes sense, to an extent. Still, your heart rate was all over the place, which means it was intense for even you. This Aizawa character is quite interesting."

"Is there a problem with him?"

"Oh nothing, just saying that because well, threatening with an expulsion on the first day? That's completely unheard of! We're lucky that he was pulling your leg. U.A really does do everything it can to get the best of the best."

Jayluf considered her words. Perhaps it did make sense that a pro hero school would attempt to push everyone to do their best.

"Anyways, I wanted to ask, have you made any new friends there?" Miss Hunee said. Suddenly, she hesitated, and wore a frown on her face. "Or... are friends not allowed? I'm not up to speed on the societal hierarchy of modern hero schools." 

"I made two new friends."

"That's great to hear! What were their names?"

He took a moment to search his memory. "Ochaco Uraraka and Tenya Iida. I had also encountered someone from the entrance exam. Izuku Midoriya."

"Someone from the exam?" Miss Hunee wondered. "What are the odds, huh? Speaking of, did you encounter that girl you text? Pony something?"

Jayluf shook his head. "I did not see her. As she mentioned in the past, she is in a different class than I."

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you'll see her tomorrow."

Jayluf stared at the car floor. "Perhaps."

"Still, this was very informative, Jayluf. Last question. How do you feel about your future career at U.A High? Are you looking forward to going back tomorrow?"

Jayluf considered his answer for several moments. "I would say, yes. 

Miss Hunee smiled. "I'm pleased to hear that. Everyone here at Nohken is also looking forward to seeing your career progress. We all are."

Surprisingly on the second day, Jayluf had been lucky enough to spot Iida, Midoriya, and Uraraka when he'd climbed out of the car. Jogging up to catch them, he slowed down when he was behind Midoriya.

Midoriya seemed to hear Jayluf, glancing behind in a slight alarm before relaxing. "J-Jayluf," he squeaked. "You scared me!"

"Oh, good morning Jayluf!" Uraraka said cheerfully. "We were wondering where you were!"

Iida chopped the air. "It is good to see you are also here on time before the beginning of morning classes."

"I apologize for scaring you, Midoriya." Jayluf said as he caught up to them.

Midoriya waved it off, a nervous smile.on his face. "I-It’s okay! I uh, it's good to see you again!"

They began to walk towards the school entrance with Jayluf in the back, Iida in the front, and Midoriya and Uraraka side by side in the middle. 

"Actually," Uraraka began, glancing behind. "I've been wanting to ask you something Jayluf, if it's alright?"

"Affirmative."

"What uh… what is on your neck? That little doohickey?"

Jayluf glanced down. "You are referring to… my collar?"

"It's a collar?" Midoriya said. 

"That is correct." Jayluf replied as he absent-mindedly fiddled with the device. 

Uraraka squinted as she took a closer look. “Why is it all lit up like that? More importantly, why are you wearing it?” 

“It is a device designed to monitor my vitals, so that my caretakers are able to take better care of me.”

“Oh! So it is a health related sort of machine?” Iida said.

“Oh thank goodness…” Uraraka sighed. “I was going to ask why U.A allowed it because I thought it served a, um, different purpose.”

Midoriya frowned. “W-Wait, health related? Y-You’re not like, ill or anything, right?”

“Negative.” Jayluf replied. He wondered why Midoriya would assume that he was ill. He really didn’t even get sick at all, actually. “My health is at optimal levels.”

“Then…” Midoriya continued, “Why would they need to monitor your body?”

Jayluf paused. Why would they? That was a good question. Miss Hunee had told him it was just so they could keep an eye on him. “I do not know…”

“Maybe it’s a prototype for a new invention from those Nohken guys?” Uraraka suggested. “Like maybe they’re giving it a test drive before selling it?” 

Midoriya seemed to be preoccupied with his thoughts, until his eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had a realization. “Oh! Maybe it’s related to Jayluf’s quirk?”

“What do you mean?” Iida said curiously. 

“Well,” Midoriya continued. “R-Remember yesterday, when we saw Jayluf use his quirk?” 

Uraraka shuddered. “Yeah. That looked nasty Jayluf, no offense. It really looked like it hurt.” 

“I am adjusted to using it,” Jayluf offered. “But it does damage me by technicality, I suppose.”

“S-So,” Midoriya said as he gestured at the machine. “M-maybe that’s why they’re having you w-wear it? S-since your quirk is like… a little risky?”

Jayluf glanced down at the passing sidewalk. It did make sense, if that was the actual reason. It seemed logical that Miss Hunee would want to know how he was doing, even if they knew everything about his quirk, and how he could repair himself when given the time. “Perhaps… that is the most likely reason for the collar, Midoriya.”

Midoriya sighed. "Well, whatever the real reason, I'm just glad you're n-not sick."

"Actually Uraraka," Iida began. "May I ask, you mentioned the word Nohken in regards to Jayluf's collar. What did you mean by that?"

"Didn't you see the logo on Jayluf's ride yesterday?" Uraraka said as she jabbed a thumb behind her. "It said Nohken Industries! So, maybe that company also built Jayluf's collar."

"That is correct." Jayluf said. 

"Oh I was right? Cool!" Uraraka said with a wry grin. "And speaking of the limousine, you are really lucky, Jayluf. Being able to have your own limo? That's awesome!"

Jayluf looked up at Uraraka. "It is not mine. I do not own any vehicles of any sort. It is merely the car I am allowed to ride.

The girl rolled her eyes in slight amusement. "Yeah I know you don't own it yourself, it's obviously owned by the Nohken guys. I'm just saying, it's pretty cool you get to ride it here! I wonder what the inside of it would be like!"

"The aroma inside the vehicle is quite pleasant."

Uraraka blinked. "Thats…. That's not exactly what I would consider a highlight of being in a limo. Do you have any favorite parts? Besides the erm, smell?"

"The seatbelts are very interesting." Jayluf said. 

The three students beside Jayluf sweatdropped. 

When school had started that day, the first real class had been English class, taught by none other than Present Mic himself, who Jayluf remembered as the person who had been at the entrance exam. It was very odd to see him up close after only seeing him from a distance in the past.

English in itself could have been worse, but it had been somewhat interesting in comparison to other subjects. English itself was an entire language, not just a mere subject where they just had to recall a fact or a mathematical process. It wouldn't be as easy, but for now, it didn't seem to be giving him much trouble. 

But afterwards, they had been let out to the cafeteria for "lunch". The school cafeteria was a huge open area full of tables and seating in order to house a large number of students at once. Students here were allowed to purchase food for consumption. Compared to the one back home, this cafeteria was at least twice as big. The cafeteria was full of smells and aromas that were new to him, even compared to the one back home. Not to say the one back home was odorless, since once upon the time the smells of the food there were new to Jayluf, but eventually after being told to ignore it, he became nose blind to them.

Unfortunately, Jayluf had no money or funds to use, but it did not bother him very much, eating was not a very high priority to him. But he still instinctively trailed after Midoriya into the food section, as he did not know where else to go. He knew enough about cafeterias to know that he shouldn't grab a tray if he didn't plan on eating, so he went empty handed.

And he would have gone through the whole line like that had it not been for the boy in front of him, who had glanced behind and noticed Jayluf lacking a tray.

"H-Hey um, Jayluf?" Midoriya said. "Why aren't you grabbing a tray?" 

"Why would I grab a tray?" Did he need to if he came in here? Was that a rule here? Even if he wasn't going to buy any food?

"W-Well," Midoriya stuttered. "If y-you're gonna buy food, you need to put it on something, right?"

Jayluf shook his head. "Negative. I am not buying food."

"Y-you're not eating?! Why?"

"I lack any sort of money."

Midoriya seemed puzzled now. "Then why did you… follow us into the line?"

"You are my friends. I also have nowhere else to go. So I followed you."

The answer seemed to strike something in Midoriya, judging from the slight change in expression, but it settled back into a neutral one. He sighed. "R-Right… I understand. B-But still, you shouldn't have to skip meals. H-How about… I'll buy you a bowl of something? I still have some extra yen that was originally for my hero costume…"

Midoriya? Buy me something? "Why?" Jayluf blurted out, utterly confused. 

"Why? B-Because!" Midoriya said as he added a bowl of white rice to his tray. "You shouldn't have to go the whole school day without eating!"

"Why?" He'd survived on not being fed before. After all, going without food had been one of the training exercises he'd gone through. What difference did one meal make?

"Not eating isn't healthy!"

Jayluf's head tilted. Was that true? Was skipping meals unhealthy? He had recovered fine when he'd done it before in the past, but if Midoriya was right… "But… I do not have anything to repay you with." He was missing something… but what?

"I-It’s okay!" Midoriya said in a reassuring tone, moving along with the line. 

His foggy mind searched for a logical explanation. "But… would it not make more logical sense for you to use the money on yourself? You do not owe me anything…"

"Jayluf," Uraraka called from ahead in the line, apparently having overheard the discussion. "It's called being nice! Don't worry about it, and just accept it!"

"Y-Yeah!" Midoriya chimed in. "You don't have to w-worry about it! When you're training to become a hero, you need a good diet! All M-.... M-My MOM would be distressed if I started skipping my meals. I'll just grab you some white rice, with teriyaki chicken on top. Is that alright with you?"

Jayluf watched curiously as Midoriya grabbed one last bowl and filled it with white clumps then topped it with strange orangish wet chunks of meat. The chicken, perhaps?

"O-Oh right, one more thing." Midoriya said. "Do you use chopsticks, or other utensils like forks and such?"

"What are chopsticks?" Jayluf wondered out loud.

"...Fork then."

After checking out, all four students found themselves a lone table, a six seater, but empty seats weren't a problem to begin with. 

As the three began to eat their meals, Jayluf stared at his bowl. But before he could even begin to think about eating it, a voice from the side called his name.

"Jayluf! Hullo!!!" 

All four students glanced to the side to see a young teenage girl running up to them. She had blue eyes, blonde hair, and rather large horns.

Jayluf blinked. Horns? "Pony?"

"Hay! Ya! Itz me!" Pony cheered, her limited knowledge of the country's language still prominent as ever in her speech. "Haow haf you bin?"

Uraraka watched curiously. "Jayluf, do you know this person?"

"Wait a minute…" Iida said. "You look familiar… were you not the student who escorted Jayluf to the entrance during the exam, when he shattered his leg?" 

Pony smiled. "Ya, datz me! My naym iz Pony Tsunotori! Just cal me Pony! I am from class wun bee!" 

"1-B?" Midoriya repeated audibly. "How is your teacher there?"

"Hopefully nothing like ours," Uraraka said quickly. "Mister Aizawa is like, super scary!"

Pony shrugged. "Well, our teecher contruls blood!"

None of them noticed the way Jayluf twitched upon hearing the word "blood". 

"But aneewayz… Can I sit by Jayluf?" Pony said. 

"W-Well of course!" Midoriya said. He spared a glance towards Jayluf as the other student sat her tray down by Jayluf's still uneaten chicken and rice. "You never said anything about her yet."

"I had no reason to."

"Ya! It's too bad though Jayluf," Continued Pony. "I wish yu cud haf gotten into my class! I just hope that there won't be any sort uf class rivalry." 

Iida nodded. "It would be against the very principle of the school to be having something so childish such as a class rivalry."

"Hey…" Midoriya began. "Jayluf?"

Jayluf looked towards Midoriya."Yes Midoriya, what is it?"

Midoriya rubbed the back of his head. "Aren't you going to eat?"

Jayluf blinked, realizing that he still hadn't touched the meal offered to him. "Apologies. It is just a lot to take in. My food back home did not have an aroma such as this, and was not covered with strange liquids."

"You mean… the teriyaki sauce?" Uraraka said in confusion. "What kind of food are you usually fed back home?"

Jayluf could recall the process by heart. "I would go to a part of the cafeteria where meat was cooked fresh in front of you. The chef would usually take out a piece of meat for me, cook the raw meat until it was edible by human consumption standards, and give it to me. For other people, he would do the same. Except for theirs, he would put a black or white powder onto the meat before cooking."

Pony looked up in shock. "W-wait ar yu saying they didn't flavor your food at all? They just gave you flayvorliss meat?"

"Wait, like with no spices?" Uraraka added. "That's crazy!"

Iida put a hand to his chin. "You did not mind the lack of any flavor?"

"I did not mind. I do not eat much with flavor. Flavor is something I never was very much concerned about." Jayluf paused. "Except, there was one time where I had been fed something that had some sort of flavor, a canned meat called spam."

Pony flinched. "Spam?! Ewwww! That stuff is so gross!"

"W-Well," Midoriya cut in, "M-Maybe you'll like this!"

"Y-Yeah!" Uraraka said. "Lunch Rush's cooking is amazing! Give it a try!"

Nodding, Jayluf turned to look down at the bowl, the still steaming meal somehow not having cooled off. Picking up the fork, he gently impaled one of the chicken pieces, and scooped up some white rice with it. He brought it to his mouth, and took a bite.

Flavor. 

Jayluf's entire world was filled with pure, unrelenting, flavor.

Immediately, his mouth was filled with new sensations that he wouldn't even dare to imagine as the fresh food came into contact with his tongue. 

His taste buds were assaulted by a combination of sweet, tangy, sour, and slightly spicy tastes. It was a dazzling combination that made him feel almost dizzy. 

The white rice being mixed with the chicken was a very exquisite combination.

The warm meat was tender, soft but not too soft, slickened with sauce that danced on his taste buds in an extravagant harmony. The white rice was white, fluffy, and squishy but slightly firmer than the chicken, to where it was distinctive from the chicken when he chewed. The chicken, the sauce, the rice all combined, it was an impossible thing, yet possible. 

He never thought he’d ever feel this way.

The rush of these new feelings was almost completely overwhelming. It was scary, wondrous, and amazing at the same time. 

All these new feelings made Jaylufs chest feel like his chest was swelling. What was happening to him?

And more importantly, did he deserve to experience something like this? Midoriya had done this for him. Jayluf wondered if he was worthy to be indulging in such an amazing experience. 

His head was buzzing.

His chest had to be swelling.

Were his eyes watering?

PLUP

Something wet had hit the table.

"J-Jayluf?" Midoriya cried out, drawing the attention of the other students at the table. "A-Are you crying? What's wrong?!"

Looking down, Jayluf saw that tears had escaped from his eyes, sliding down his cheeks and slapping wetly against the lunch table. Why was he crying? This wasn't something to be sad about.

He didn't know.  The weird feeling in Jayluf's chest persisted. He knew he had to show gratitude of some sort. To show Midoriya how much he appreciated this incredible gesture. 

Slowly turning as he swallowed his first bite of real food, he looked over to Midoriya, as tears fell down his cheeks. “Midoriya…" Jayluf sniffed. "t-thank y-you…”

Midoriya looked confused, but wore a smile anyways. “Y-You’re welcome?”

Jayluf continued to eat on while savoring every bite, the others watched with slightly nervous but mostly endearing smiles. 

For once, Jayluf could say for certain that he was… happy. 

For now, at least.

Chapter Text

Jayluf couldn't wait until school ended today, because there was no doubt the moment when he would sit down in the limousine later that day, Miss Hunee would ask him about his day. And if she did, he would tell her that he had a new favorite part of the day. 

Lunch. That was his new favorite thing at the moment. It was hard to believe. Who knew that such a simple act such as eating a meal could be so amazing?

As he walked back towards the classroom with his friends, he wished that lunch had not ended so soon. When the bell had rang, he and the others from Class 1-A had to say their farewells to Pony, who said she'd try to meet up with them after school hours from now on, which sounded just fine to Jayluf.

When they had gotten up to leave, Jayluf noticed that for some odd reason, he couldn't help but walk in a rather bizarre way. When Uraraka had noticed, she'd turned her head in his direction.

"You've got a bounce in your step, Jayluf." she had told him. "I guess that means you liked your lunch?"

Jayluf had no idea what a bounce in his step meant, but he knew for a fact that he definitely liked his lunch. So he nodded. Now as they were entering the room and sitting down in their chairs, he still couldn't help but think of the food, how the lingering taste of the teriyaki chicken and white rice still persisted on his taste buds.  The thought of being able to eat that kind of food again… his cells bounced around in delight at the idea. I like lunch .

As his mind wandered while everyone finished settling down into their chairs, Jayluf took notice of the strange fact that Mr.Aizawa wasn’t here yet. That was odd. Where was the teacher? The bell had rang, and everyone was already sitting in their seats. 

Did something perhaps happen?

And if Aizawa came in, what tasks would be given to them as a whole? Would it be written work? Physical work? If it was physical, would he try threatening them with expulsion like in the past?

Jayluf honestly had no clue. But whatever Aizawa had planned th-

"I AM…"

A loud voice that was so powerful that it nearly shook the room, suddenly jolted Jayluf from his thoughts. Immediately he was at attention. What was that? Instinctively looking around for the source of the voice, he spotted Midoriya in the corner of his eye, who happened to be the only other person reacting to the voice by lighting up with a huge grin on his face. 

But as Jayluf opened his mouth to inquire about Midoriya's reaction…

"ENTERING THROUGH THIS DOOR LIKE A COMPLETELY NORMAL PERSON!"

The door to the room suddenly slid open rather quickly, almost violently, and Jayluf saw what he thought to be what was probably the biggest person he'd ever seen in his entire life.

The stranger was built extremely well, with large bulging muscles that were visible through their clothing advertised clear strength, might, and power. Their costume was one Jayluf did not recognize, but at the same time, the more he stared, the more it seemed somewhat familiar to him? 

The brilliant red suit, the flowing blue cape, the yellow gloves and boots, the coloring scheme seemed so familiar to him. The strangers jaw was very defined as well, it seemed their whole body was muscle. The hair was the most prominent part, a golden shade of blonde, with the hair going up into a strange “V” shape. 

Jayluf blinked. Wait… I know that hair… I’ve seen it before… This is… “All Might?”

It was! It was All Might! The All Might! The number one hero that he'd seen so many times in the video Miss Hunee had shown him in the past! The only hero he really knew was here, in his own classroom! All Might… here? How is this possible? Why is he here?

Jayluf could only stare in disbelief as his brain cells struggled to comprehend the sight in front of him, desperately attempting to differentiate whether what he was seeing was real or not.

As All Might began to triumphantly march into the room with a big grin, the other students lit up with excitement at the sight of the number one hero.

"It's…" a spiky yellow haired student uttered. "It's All Might!!!"

A red haired student pumped his fist with a smile on his face. "Cool! So he's really a teacher at U.A?! That's so awesome!"

The statement from the student made Jayluf pause for a brief moment. All Might… is a teacher here? I did not know this…  How did he know? I wonder if Miss Hunee will be interested to hear about all this?

A girl that Jayluf remembered being a good jumper rested her finger on her chin in an inquiring manner. "Wait, isn't that a costume from the silver age, isn't it?"

He tilted his head, yet again being confused by a student's inquiry. Silver age? What is a silver age?

As All Might strided to the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom, the students continued to chatter in excitement. 

"It's style is completely different from his normal one!" said a student with a large tail. "It's giving me goosebumps just looking at it!"

If Jayluf's brain hadn't been preoccupied with juggling so much information at once, he might have noticed All Might throwing a quick glance at him. Mainly, at the metallic collar that still happily clung to his neck. 

"Why yes!" hollered the overly buff man. "It is I, All Might!! Why am I here, you may ask?! I am here…TO TEACH BASIC TRAINING!" He stuck a finger up. "But not your average basic training, no! I will be teaching you all HERO BASIC TRAINING! It's a subject where you all will train in vastly different ways, in order to learn the basics about being a hero! Given the importance of this subject, this will be the subject where you all take the most points!"

As his brain absorbed the new information, Jayluf could only look on in still somewhat bewilderment at the revelation. Not only was All Might a teacher at U.A, but he was going to be teaching in the very class Jayluf was in!

All Might let out a laugh, flexing his arms dramatically as his arm muscles bulged to an almost comedic extent. "Well, let's get right to it, shall we? Today's assignment is what we'll do today, and that is…" he suddenly ceased flexing, and with a quick movement of his right arm, whipped out a paper card, which had the word "BATTLE" printed on the front in full capital letters.

"We're going to do COMBAT TRAINING!" All Might finished.

Although Jayluf had not physically reacted to the news, two students in the front had quite visible reactions.

"Combat…" Bakugo growled, a psychotic grin on his face.

"T-Training?" Midoriya squeaked out, his eyes widening from fear.

But All Might kept going. "And to with that… are THESE!" He pointed to a wall to everyone's left, and the wall suddenly began to hiss as panels slowly slid out from the wall.

"Costumes that are based on all your quirk registrations, combined with your own requests that you sent before school began!"

As the rest of the class looked at the panels with excited expressions on their faces, Jayluf was still absorbing what All Might had said. Costumes…  

Costumes were the gear or uniform that a hero wore when on duty. Jayluf remembered that, at least. However, he had no idea that there was a program where he could send in requests for a costume. In fact, he didn't remember sending in a "quirk registration" either.

And when he counted the amount of panels that had come out of the wall, he found that it had been two short, which meant there weren't enough costumes for the whole class. He also hadn't brought a costume of his own, either. 

In conclusion, it means I do not have a costume to change into. 

This presents a problem . 

So, what could he do? Change into a gym uniform and perhaps hope for the best? Inform the teacher of his failure?

"Now!" called All Might as he jabbed a thumb to the now exposed costume containers. "Take your costumes to the locker room, and after you kids change, meet me at Ground Beta!"

"Yes sir!" cried out every student enthusiastically, except for Jayluf. 

As his classmates in front of him began to rise and walk towards the entrance, he internally debated on the next course of action. He had to follow the teacher's command to go to the locker room, but at the same time, he had no costume to change into. 

But that didn't mean he could just sit idly by in his chair, for he still had to partake in the hero training anyways. Forcing himself to rise from his chair, he began to allow his legs to guide him behind Midoriya, who was nearing the door.

“Young Jayluf, a moment of your time?”

Jayluf halted in his tracks, the booming authoritative voice causing him to freeze up momentarily. Rotating himself to face the person addressing him, he saw that All Might was facing towards him, his smile as prominent as ever. 

The size difference was clearly obvious, the seemingly giant adult towered over Jayluf, who was forced to look up in order to look into All Might’s eyes respectfully. The hero had a strange pose, with his hands on his hips, yet his hands were clenched into tight fists. Was it a heroic pose of some sort? 

“Yes sir?” Jayluf said.

“It has been brought to my attention that you have no costume yet, am I correct?” All Might questioned, raising one eyebrow. 

Jayluf’s eyes widened. How had All Might known that he had no costume, when he hadn’t even told him in the first place? As far as he could recall, he had not mentioned it to anyone at all. Did All Might have some sort of ability or quirk that allowed him to read minds? “Yes..?”

All Might let out a boisterous laugh. “Judging from your reaction, I’m guessing you’re probably assuming I have some sort of mind reading quirk or something!”

Jayluf’s eyes were now wide as saucers.

The pro hero let out another chuckle. “Worry not, young Jayluf! I have no mind reading quirk or anything like that. The reason why I knew you did not have a costume was because of a visitor earlier today!”

A visitor? Jayluf tilted his head. What did a visitor have to do with a costume? “A visitor?” he repeated. 

All Might nodded. “Yes indeed! While you were in class, a car pulled up to the entrance gate, and low and behold, a rather frazzled young lady had stepped out of the vehicle!”

Jayluf still did not understand. “Why was this woman here?”

“A very good question! See, she apparently told the person working the intercom that she had meant to surprise you that morning with this!” All Might proceeded to reach under the teachers desk, and pulled out what appeared to be a briefcase.

Jayluf knew very well what a briefcase was, he'd seen people back home carrying them around. It was a thing made to carry papers or office supplies.

But this was no ordinary briefcase. This briefcase was a strange glass or plastic briefcase that had silver metallic edges. It also appeared to be somewhat electric, for the face of the briefcase seemed to be glowing slightly. It wasn’t bright enough to be an LED, but it still seemed to have some sort of electronics inside that allowed for illumination. The briefcase’s face had a faint blue glow, with the middle being a bright white logo that almost looked like an “O”.

Wait… I recognize that logo. He took a closer look. “That briefcase is… Nohken Industries property.” Which could only mean… He looked up at All Might. “The woman that was in the car was Miss Hunee?”

“Right you are! CORRECT!” All Might beamed, almost shouting the last word in loud english. “She had told us she had forgotten to give it to you, so she came back just in time while you kids were at lunch! Lucky for you!”

“Miss Hunee… had a costume made for me?” Jayluf said.

His response made All Might’s smile dim for a brief moment, as if he hadn’t expected the question. “W-Well, yes! You didn’t think they would make a costume for you to use?”

Jayluf eyes wandered back down to the briefcase still lying on the desk. “I suppose? I do not remember them mentioning a costume, or asking me if I wanted one.”

“Well,” All Might said as he gave a thumbs up, “She did say it was a surprise! But either way, what’s important is that you have a costume now! Head on down to the locker room with the others, and get changed!”

Nodding, Jayluf reached out to pick up the briefcase, but stopped half way. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he needed to speak his mind. And since he was speaking to All Might this very moment, he’d take the chance. “Sir, may I make a statement before I depart?”

“Hmm? And what would that be?”

“I would like to say… It is a great honor to be able to receive your instruction. I have seen videos of your heroics as far as I can remember being under Nohken’s care. You were the only hero I had known of until recently.”

For some reason, the words seemed to make All Might pause, before he simply waved a hand in the air. “Why, how kind of you to say, young Jayluf! However, you say that I had been the only hero you knew of?”

Jayluf nodded. “Miss Hunee did not want me to be exposed to technology too much. She said it was bad for a developing child. However, she did allow me to watch videos of you for good behavior. She even allows me to use your hero aid in the morning.”

“Hero aid?” All Might questioned.

Nodding, Jayluf pulled up his left sleeve to expose the most recent hero aid, clamped to his arm securely. 

Leaning forward slightly, the massive man’s eyes seemed to light up. “Ah, I recognize that brand! Those are none other than the classic silver age bandages! I remember, we had made a deal with a corner pharmacy to allow them to exclusively sell those, which had me with an alternate looking silver age costume! Other stores have the normal silver age ones, or my more modern one! It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen that brand!” The pro hero scratched the back of his head. “Actually, I’m surprised the deal hasn’t expired…”

“Miss Hunee allows me to use one every day,” Jayluf said as he pulled his sleeve back down.

“Every day?” All Might repeated as he leaned back to his full height. “Why would you need bandaging every day? Do you have some sort of injury or insect bite that won’t go away?”

“Negative,” Jayluf replied as he shook his head. “The bandage is for the small puncture wound from the sample Miss Hunee takes from me every day.”

All Might’s posture faltered slightly. “Sample?”

Jayluf lifted his left arm. “Miss Hunee will come in every morning to take a small blood sample from my arm. When she is finished with her task, she will put a bandage on it, and it is always the All Might variant.”

For a brief moment, it looked as if All Might’s brows were furrowed down, and his smile had faltered. But when Jayluf blinked, the pro hero’s face was back to normal. 

Maybe he was seeing things. 

“I see…” said All Might. “That is very informative… But anyways, be sure to hurry up now! Your hero costume won’t put itself on, will it? Take your costume, and head on out!”

Reaching down, Jayluf brought the surprisingly weighted briefcase to his chest with both hands. “Yes sir.” He turned, and sped walk out of the room, too fast to notice that All Might had reached out to try and stop him.

“Jayluf, wait! I  was going to suggest carrying it with the handle…” All Might mumbled halfheartedly.

Izuku Midoriya wouldn't consider himself as a person who had an ego. His self esteem was usually in the negatives most of his life. Heck, until he had met All Might, he had always considered himself a quirkless nobody. 

Even though he was currently in the locker room admiring his costume in the mirror while the other male students began to leave, he wasn't admiring himself. No, in reality he was actually just admiring his mothers fantastic craftsmanship.

Before the school year had begun, he had created a plan to make his own costume, and he’d use his allowance to pay for the supplies required. But his mother had surprised him with an already made costume, based on the notes and doodles he'd absent-mindedly scribbled into his journal when brainstorming for designs. 

He smiled as he did a small pose. Mom really is amazing. Perhaps it would look silly to some, with the bright green coloring and the cartoonish smile. The ears were rather prominent as well, combined with the large eyes and mouthpiece, it might look more akin to a rabbit hero compared to what he had originally based the costume off of design wise.

Or who he had based the costume off of.

Izuku sighed. Sure, maybe the costume design had been a bit excessively inspired by All Might, but he wasn't about to apologize for that. All Might was his Number One hero!  In his opinion, it had enough unique factors to it that didn't make it just a costume that resembled All Might's, it was its very own thing!

Although he wanted to keep getting a complete look at his costume, he remembered that he should probably get a move on. I should probably head on out, everyone else was already out of the locker room, it's just me in here now.

Or so he had thought. 

The sound of the entrance door to the locker room made him jolt in surprise and reflexively twist his head around to see who was at the door. Perhaps someone had forgotten a piece of their gear, or costume? 

It had been neither. In fact, it was someone who Izuku hadn’t even recalled changing into their costume yet. 

Jayluf Viller stepped in, clutching a strange glowing rectangular object to his chest. The object had a white logo that seemed somewhat familiar to Izuku. 

Wait, isn’t that the same logo on the limousine? The company that owns the limo? What had it been called? Nohken something, right?

Jayluf slowly looked around, scanning the room until his eyes presumably settled on Izuku. 

“Oh,” Jayluf spoke softly. “My apologies. I had not realized someone else was still changing.” 

And he turned towards the door, presumably to leave.

He’s just leaving?! “W-Wait a second Jayluf!” Izuku sputtered out before the boy could completely exit. 

Jayluf halted in his tracks.

“I… I’ve just finished changing,” Izuku explained. “I was just looking at the mirror, you know, to see how it looks.”

Jayluf slowly turned around, and took a few steps towards him while having a slight squint on his face. "Midoriya? Is that you?"

"Y-Yeah!" Izuku stuttered out, confused on how Jayluf did not recognize him.

Oh wait. I'm wearing a mask. Duh. 

"So that is your costume?" Jayluf said. 

"Yeah, it is!" Izuku replied quickly, scratching the back of his head. "I uh, I know it's n-not the coolest looking, or the most technologically advanced in design or form compared to everyone else's costumes, but I'm proud to wear it. W-What do you think?"

In response to the inquiry, Jayluf leaned forward slightly, eyeing the costume from head to toe in complete and utter silence. "It's… very well made," he finally said. "Its design is unique."

Izuku was taken aback for a moment by the unexpected compliment. Oh, I was just expecting a yes or no… "Well th-thanks!"  he said with a bashful smile. It was good to hear that both his own design and his mother's craftsmanship held up in a pro hero school. 

"You're welcome." Jayluf replied.

Izuku suddenly realized something that he had forgotten. "Oh, y-yeah! Where were you earlier? If you don't mind me asking… it's just, I thought I heard All Might stop you, but I didn't want to interrupt, so I just kept walking with the others." He glanced nervously at the metal collar, still secured around Jayluf's neck. He didn't want to assume, but…  "Did… something happen?"

"Oh. That." Jayluf adjusted his hold on the glowing square from earlier, holding it out for Izuku. "He had stopped me to inform me of the fact that Miss Hunee had personally delivered this to the school." 

Izuku squinted as he tried to decipher just what the object was. "What is it?"

"It is a briefcase, containing my hero costume." Jayluf replied as he pulled the box back to his chest.

They even made him a costume? “Oh th-that’s great!" Izuku gave a half-hearted thumbs up. "All Might must have had a long talk with you, huh?”

“Negative.” 

Izuku blinked. Eh? “But… didn’t you just get here? I thought you were implying you chatted with All Might all this time…”

Jayluf shook his head. “I arrived at the locker room here several minutes ago.”

“Then…” Izuku began with a dumbfounded expression, “What have you been doing all this time while everyone was changing into their clothes?”

Turning towards the door, Jayluf adjusted the briefcase so that he would be able to point with a free hand. "I was merely posted outside the door there, waiting for the other students to finish."

Frowning in confusion under his mask, Izuku scratched the side of his head. "Why were you just waiting?"

Jayluf gestured his left arm in Izuku's direction. "I cannot change into my costume while other students are near."

Oh. "I see… d-does being around other people undressing like that make you upset?" For some odd reason, even while he spoke, Izuku considered the possibility that he was maybe prying into business that was very much not his business. Should I have not said that? He didn't want to make any assumptions about Jayluf. 

"Because, Miss Hunee had explicitly told me that I should not be seen without my clothes on." Jayluf moved his free arm back around the briefcase. "She also said I should not see other people without their clothes on either."

"Oh. Well, I uh, suppose that's fair, and completely reasonable." Izuku shuffled awkwardly in place. "I guess you're waiting for me to leave then? Want me to uh… wait by the door?"

"Only if you wish to do that. I would not wish to keep you if you had something else to attend to, I will not mind being left behind."

Izuku nodded, slowly walking towards the door in order to give his friend privacy. Stopping at the door, he turned to give a friendly wave. "A-Alright. I uh, I'll see you at class?"

"Affirmative," came the smooth reply. 

Flexing his hands in his gloves experimentally as he passed through the exit, Izuku allowed the door to swing shut behind him, and he took a step forward.

Then stopped.

He wished he didn't have a clue why he stopped, but he knew himself better than anyone. Which was why he also knew that he was obviously feeling guilt at the idea of leaving Jayluf behind. 

But it's not like anything bad would happen if I left Jayluf by himself! One part of his mind argued. He clenched a fist. But… he tried to escort me to the nurses, and then he waited for me when I broke my finger yesterday… He could still recall the image of Jayluf patiently standing by the door.

Sure, maybe Jayluf was…  a little bit different than most people, but the kid clearly wanted to help others around him, and that was a good trait to have.

Yet at the same time, it had seemed Jayluf had no comprehension of the idea of someone helping or being kind to him. Izuku recalled when the simple act of kindness of buying food for him had ended up with the smaller boy tearing up.

Izuku remembered what Jayluf had told them about his food situation back home.

It had seemed like the kid was adjusted to people not being kind to him at all. 

"I'll wait for you Izuku."

"I will not mind being left behind."

It seemed like Jayluf would be kind all of his life, but expected no kindness from anyone in return. It wasn’t a very cheerful thought process, but at the same time, Izuku found that he could sympathize with that sort of mindset. 

As his eyes flickered back towards the door, he felt a strange sense of guilt. What sort of hero would he be if he didn't try to help those that needed it? Taking a breath, he relaxed his fists. I won't leave him behind. Having made up his mind, he planted his feet by the door, leaning up against the wall, quietly waiting for Jayluf to finish.

A minute or two had passed until he had finally heard the locker room door opening once again, and turned around to see Jayluf, fully dressed in his costume. 

And Jayluf's costume was certainly… unique. 

His top appeared to be a dark blue zip up hooded jacket made out of a combination of cotton and polyester, the latter material usually seen on waterproof winter coats. Slightly lighter blue lines were scattered all over the jacket, forming bizarre yet unique patterns and shapes that seemingly served no purpose, but that sort of thing was common with hero costumes. 

The upper left part of the chest area sported a rather familiar looking logo, the same one that had been on Jayluf's briefcase earlier. The hood was the more unique part of the jacket. White arrow-like patterns ran along the edge of the opening of the hood, seemingly mimicking the hood of a winter coat that would usually have fur sewn into them.

Unlike gloves like most other hero costumes had, Jayluf's hands were instead covered by polyester baby blue colored mittens.

The lower half of Jayluf's costume was a bit less unique in regards to aesthetic and design, his pants merely being a dark shadow of blue that seemed to be also made of polyester as well. 

His shoes were blue and white boots, the bottom being completely white, while the upper part was a deep blue. Strange black rings went up the shin area to the top of the boot. The boot lacked any laces, instead having black straps on where the laces would usually go. 

But as Izuku did a double take of Jayluf's, he suddenly realized that the hood of the jacket was holding Jayluf's hair in place, preventing it from flopping down and covering anything.

Like Jayluf's eyes.

Izuku blinked. He could see Jayluf's eyes. And Jayluf's eyes were… not exactly normal.

Large, unfocused, orbs that were colored a solid dull grey stared at Izuku. Combined with the fact Jayluf's facial muscles were completely relaxed, his skin being considerably pale, and the fact his eyes lacked any life or light of any sort, it had almost seemed like he resembled a corpse that was somehow still standing up post mortem. 

He shook those thoughts away, forcing himself to shrug off whatever unsettled feeling he had broiling around in his gut, and gave a weak thumb up as he attempted to recompose himself. "W-Well, th-that's a great looking costume, Jayluf" he managed to stutter out. "It's uh, festive?"

Jayluf tilted his head. "What is festive?"

Izuku rubbed the back of his head. "O-Oh, I was being slightly humorous. I meant festive as in like Christmas, since it kind of looks like a snow suit."

"What is Christmas?"

"What is-" Izuku blurted out, realizing mid sentence what Jayluf had just asked him. He's kidding right?   "You don't…" Alright before I go crazy, I need to regain control of this conversation. He held up his hand. "Okay, we're having that discussion another time. For now, it's on hold." 

“But I’m not holding anything.”

Izuku liked Jayluf just fine, and he wasn't really annoyed or anything, but he didn't want to get into another feedback loop to the point of Jayluf asking something like 'what is paper'.  "Anyways,” he said slowly. “I'm saying your costume is good. Do you… like your costume?"

"It is satisfactory, but…"Jayluf looked down and reached below to his still undone jacket zipper, and began to fiddle with it, attempting to press the metal parts together by force. "I am unable to attach these parts together."

For several silent moments, Izuku stared at Jayluf, waiting for the boy to suddenly claim that he was joking, or pulling a fast one on him. Jayluf did neither. In fact, he simply continued meddling with his jacket zipper, attempting to yet again force it together. 

"Y-You…" Izuku began, terrified of the response he might receive. "You've never used a zipper before?" Please don't say it.

Abruptly, Jayluf ceased playing with his zipper, looking up to Izuku. He tilted his head to one side, as if confused. 

Izuku's eyes widened as he clenched his fists, recognizing what that head movement from Jayluf indicated. No, no, don't do it Jayluf. Please don't!

"What is…" Jayluf began.

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut. Stop!

"...a zipper?" finished Jayluf. 

The taller boy had attempted to let out a raspberry, but the noise that had escaped his mouth was less of a raspberry, and more of air being forced through his teeth. He put his hands to his head as he angled his face upward to the ceiling, sliding his hands down until they went back down to his side. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"I apologize, Midoriya. I did not intend to frighten you," Jayluf offered.

Deep breaths, deep breaths. Izuku put his hands together and took a deep breath to compose himself. "Oooo…Kay. Jayluf, a zipper is a device used to seal an opening in a quick manner. It's designed to be reusable, being able to be sealed, opened, sealed, and so on."

Taking another breath to regain his cool, he continued. "Jacket zippers require the user to put the big tooth on the end of one zipper row into the slider that zips it all up. It's also on your backpa-" he stopped. "Wait, how do you now know this? Isn't there a zipper on your book bag?"

Jayluf shook his head. "My backpack is opened and sealed using small metal pieces inside the stitching. Miss Hunee says they are called 'magnets'."

Running a hand through the rabbit-like ears on the mask, Izuku sighed. "Right. Okay, Jayluf. I'll show you later how to do it, alright? But for now, we need to get to the training site with everyone else, so would you be okay if I zipped it up for you?"

"It would not trouble me."

"Right then, let me just…" Izuku said, reaching forwards, silently hoping his gloves wouldn't  get caught in the chain. Jayluf's eyes followed Izuku's hands, curious to what he was doing.

Taking the large tooth from the left row of teeth, Izuku carefully inserted it into the diamond mouth of the slider, hearing a satisfying click noise. 

Jayluf’s head was now angled downwards, quietly observing the process taking place.

On the bright side, the zipper was one of quality, and was not like the cheap hard plastic brand zippers usually seen on small coats made for kids who would outgrow said coats in a year or two. 

Reaching down with one hand to grasp the bottom of the jacket in order to keep the chain steady, Izuku took hold of the pull with the other hand, and started to move it upwards.

A quiet zipping noise was heard as the slider was carefully guided to the top of the chain, effectively sealing up the opening in Jayluf's jacket. "There!" he declared. He took a step back, allowing Jayluf to observe his now zipped up jacket. "Now your costume is complete!" he continued, looking at Jayluf in in his full glory. "What do you think?"

Jayluf looked up at him. "Thank you Midoriya. I will say, this zipper thing is rather… odd. It is much more convoluted than my boot straps."

“Boot straps?” Izuku echoed. 

Jayluf silently got on one knee, reaching down to his right boot, and grabbed the end of the strap. Pulling up, an audible tearing sound could be heard as the strap was ripped free. 

Izuku squinted. Wait… “Jayluf, do you have… velcro straps for your boots?”

Lowering it back down to re-fasten the strap, Jayluf patted it firmly a few times, securing it before he rose back up to his full height. “Is that what they’re called?” he said. 

Glancing down at the smaller boy's boots, Izuku shrugged. “Well, yeah. But velcro is something for kids' shoes. Why on earth would they give you those instead of laces?”

“You refer to shoelaces?” Jayluf questioned. 

“Well yeah,” Izuku replied. 

“Perhaps,” Jayluf began. “It is because of Miss Hunee. She had said something in the past, if I can recall correctly, she had said something about her not always being there to tie my shoes for me.”

He doesn’t know how to tie his shoe- Izuku forced himself to stop, and simply held up a hand. “Right. Okay, well, we should get going. We don’t want to be late for hero training, right?”

Jayluf nodded, and began walking off, Izuku taking a second to catch up, due to seeing the back of Jayluf’s costume. 

Unlike other hero costumes that just had the same patterns as the front, or a big symbol or letter, Jayluf had a combination of the symbol, and letter. On the back of Jayluf’s jacket, Izuku could see two large words in bold font, and an even bigger logo.

NOHKEN

INDUSTRIES

He stared for a few moments before he jogged to get slightly ahead of Jayluf, in case the other boy didn’t know where to go. “Y-Yeah, let’s go.”

He didn’t know why that logo had given him a strange sense of unease. 

Ochaco Uraraka stood diligently, her arms behind her back as she almost bounced in place from excitement. She was idling along with other students in Ground Beta, all dressed up in their fancy Hero Costumes.

Hero. It was almost hard to believe. Here she was, enrolled in the top hero school in Japan, with the class teacher being the number one hero! (Well Aizawa technically was their teacher, but still!) Even though her reason for becoming a hero would probably be considered not very heroic by some, she was still proud to be here! Months ago, this would only have been something possible in her dreams, yet now she stood here in the top hero class, with All Might just a few feet away from her in all his glory!

Said hero seemed to be in the midst of  appreciating the class's costumes. "That's great stuff everyone!" All Might said. "You all look cool!"

Taking a glance around, Uraraka could safely agree with that statement. Well, mostly. Some costumes were the classic type of hero getup, where they just had multi-colored designs around their clothes with little to no flair. Some did have flair, such as the explosive kid with the spikey hair. 

Some of them looked less like costumes, and more like high tech gear, like the knight armor. She had a hunch with how the legs had exhaust tubes, that the person wearing the knight armor was Iida.

And then there were the outright bizarre costumes, such as the one the small grape kid was wearing. Like what in the world was that design? It had taken her several minutes to put two and two together and figure out that the weird white part of grape kids costume was NOT a diaper, but instead a grape BOWL.

Still, out of everywhere on the costume to put it on, he decided that he wanted it there? I can understand going along with the aesthetic of your quirk and all but that is the worst place to put said bowl. AND WHY DID HE COLOR IT WHITE?!

As for Deku…

Uraraka frowned. Wait, where is Deku? She did a quick recount of all the students, looking for the slightest hint of greenish hair, but the only green she could find was the one frog girl. 

Before she could begin to ask around if anyone had seen him, the sound of footsteps behind her caused her to whirl around to see a green figure running out of the shadows.

Green! That's gotta be Deku! Jogging towards him as the boy looked around, she jogged over to him with a big grin on her face, waving in a friendly manner. "Deku! Over here! Hey!"

Upon spotting the approaching girl, Deku seemed to freeze in place, eyes going wide as he got a full view of her costume. "U-U-Uraraka?!"

"Deku, your costume looks so cool!" Urarska cried. "It's actually really down to earth compared to the other costumes here! Like uh… mine." She shuffled uncomfortably in place while her cheeks flared up. "I uh, probably should have specified what I wanted… my costume was uh, very skin tight. I wish mine was less restrictive like yours is."

"N-No, I m-mean, uh, your c-costume looks a-a-amazing Uraraka!" Deku managed to squeak out in a rather high pitched tone of voice. "S-Sorry that I'm a bit l-late…"

She waved off his nervous antics. "No problem Deku! Did you have trouble putting on the first time? I definitely did…"

Deku frantically shook his head in denial. "O-Oh no! Nothing l-like that! I was j-just, waiting for the last person to finish."

Last person? But he's by himself? "But, I don't see anyone else with you…" Uraraka trailed off. "Who was left?"

For a brief moment, Deku's eyebrow was lifted upwards, as if confused. But then he lowered it, his eyelids widening in an understanding manner. Wordlessly, he took a single step to the right, revealing the form a smaller boy had been behind him the whole time. Jayluf Viller stood in front of her, complete with a costume.

Jayluf seemed to do a double take upon spotting Uraraka, as if he had just registered the fact she was now standing in front of him as if she had magically materialized in front of him.

"Uraraka," Jayluf spoke, his dull and monotone voice the same as it always was. "Greetings."

Uraraka had also done a double take, when she realized that she was now able to see Jayluf's face in full. He definitely wasn't ugly or anything, but the way his large grey eyes seemed to stare right through her, she'd admit it was kind of unsettling. It was as if his eyes had no light in them. 

Either that or he was in desperate need of eye drops.

But on the bright side, his costume actually didn't look half bad! "H-Hey Jayluf!" Uraraka managed to blurt out after regaining her composure. "That costume is uh, unique? You kind of look like an Antarctic explorer!"

While she turned around to face a blushing Deku again, she failed to see Jayluf abruptly freezing in place upon hearing the word "antarctic". Or how he slowly lifted his arms to stare at his own gloved hands with huge unblinking eyes, as if in complete trance. 

"Anyways, Deku, we-" Uraraka started, but was cut off.

"Well well!" Called a booming voice from up front, "Glad to see you two finally decided to join us!"

Uraraka whirled around to see All Might, who was glancing between both Deku and Jayluf. 

"S-S-Sorry sir!" Deku managed to squeak out, a bashful expression on his face as he rubbed the back of his head. "I-I-I was j-just helping Jayluf w-with his costume, he was h-having trouble, a-and I didn't want t-to just leave him behind-"

No one noticed Jayluf lowering his hands down, and taking a shaky breath.

All Might put up a hand. "I'll let it slide this time, first day and all! But try not to have it happen again!" Turning to the rest of the students, he threw up a friendly thumbs up and began walking away to the front of the group. "Now you zygotes, it's time for some combat training!"

Uraraka shuffled. Ugh, now that he went back to the front I can't see him, gotta move to a better spot . Glancing to the side, she saw Deku, who seemed to have the same idea.As she settled in a spot she was comfortable with, questions were already beginning to be asked. 

"Teacher!" said the student in the knight armor.

Oh yeah. Uraraka thought. Definitely Iida.

"This is the combat arena from the entrance exam, correct? At least one of them, I mean." Iida gestured around them. "Will we be battling against villain robots once more?"

"Nope!" All Might cried, pointing a finger upwards. "We're actually going to be taking the initiative, and jump ahead some steps! Most of the time, the public exposure to villains are usually the villains seen outside, since they are making no effort to hide themselves as they battle heroes." 

He pointed to a building behind him. "But in reality, the more devious and atrocious villains are smart enough to stick to the indoors! In the society of heroes, smart villains do their best to stay out of sight!”

"So…" Uraraka began. "If not robots, what will we be fighting?" I hope it's not something like hand to hand, I'm not good with close quarters stuff…

"Each other!" Came All Might’s jovial reply.

"Wait, without any basic training at all?" Croaked a girl in the front. "We are already going to be doing that?"

"Yes!" All Might beamed. "This is a real battle between students! You'll fight each other instead of robots, with this, you'll begin to understand the basics of being a hero in modern day! Any questions?"

Several students began to speak at once.

"How will these teams be chosen?"

"Will there be multiple rounds between a specific pair of teams?"

"Can we still pummel the enemy team, even if it's training?"

Uraraka managed to stumble out her worries about the class as well. "W-Will losing result in us getting expelled?" I don't wanna get expelled…

"How will said teams be broken up when they're chosen?"

"Isn't this cape cool?"

The sudden volley of inquiries seemed to overwhelm All Might for a moment, who put a hand to his forehead. "Okay, okay! I'll answer all your questions with a single explanation!"

Without another word, All Might dug into a pocket, producing what appeared to be a little booklet. 

Uraraka thought the small booklet in All Might's giant hands was actually kinda cute.

"OK let's see here…" All Might muttered. "Ah! Ahem… Teams of two students will be battling inside a large building! One team is the heroes! The other being villains! The villain team will start inside the building, being tasked with guarding a nuclear weapon that they must protect until the end of the round." 

All Might flipped to a new page. "The hero team will be forced to begin from outside, and may either sneak in, or just use the front door. Their task is to either find and secure the weapon by touching it, or find and capture the villains! Although be warned, the villains are also able to capture you. Their main goal is to keep the weapon safe until time runs out!"

All Might glanced at something inside the booklet. "Oh, and one more thing, teams will be chosen via random drawing lots!"

"D-Drawing lots?!" Iida sputtered out. "Teams are being picked in such a haphazardly fashion?"

Uraraka couldn't help but agree. Random drawing lots? That's something a kindergarten teacher would do when there was a group project or something! But before she could open her mouth to voice her disapproval, she'd been cut off by Deku.

"Well Iida, in the real world of heroes, sometimes pros are forced to create small makeshift teams with heroes from other agencies, like when they're on the job!" Deku said with a reassuring smile. "Maybe this is a way to simulate that?"

Uraraka smiled. Deku seems to know a lot about hero stuff. I wonder how much he knows about the world of heroes?

Iida nodded slowly, a hand going to the chin of his helmet, seemingly satisfied by Deku's answer. "I see! The discernment to look ahead!"

"Uh, Mr All Might sir?" piped up a female voice. 

All Might lowered the booklet, looking around until his eyes landed on a purple haired student, who's ears had headphone jacks hanging off. "Yes?"

"You said teams of two,” she continued. “But there are an odd number of students!"

"Whaaat?" cried a pink girl with horns protruding from her head. "No there's not! There's…" 

She whirled around to face the group of students, quickly muttering numbers as she counted the students one by one. "Twenty!" She finished. "There are twenty students!'

"Twenty one." A new voice called out.

The girl turned to see a boy who's costume was half ice themed, staring at her with an unimpressed expression. 

She raised a challenging eyebrow. "What?"

The ice boy lifted his left arm, pointing to something out of view behind the group of students. "There are twenty one students. Not twenty."

The entire class including Uraraka turned around slowly, to see what the boy had been pointing at.

Standing there was none other than Jayluf Viller himself, who had not moved from his initial position from early, causing him to be completely obscured by the taller students in front of him.

Oh. Uraraka thought to herself. I thought he would follow Deku like he usually did. Did I say something wrong to him earlier?

"A-Ah, right. I didn't even see him there," the pink girl said bashfully, embarrassed at her error. "S-Sorry."

"He has been here the whole time?"  A multi-armed student muttered. 

"Why is he just standing back there?" The red haired student blurted out.

The grape head from earlier had a frown on his face. "He’s not even saying anything. What a weirdo..."

"Well, to the question you asked young lady," All Might began, "It seems that one team will get an extra member. I will choose a team at random, and that lucky team will get Jayluf added to their team!"

"E-Eh?" Uraraka stuttered. A third member? That's not a fair fight at all!

"But doesn't that make one of the battles unfair?!" cried yellow hair. 

All Might chopped a hand in the air in a manner not unlike Iida. "A valid point! But remember, in the world of heroes and villains, real life doesn't play fair! That is something you all need to remember!" Lowering his hand, All Might let out a cough. "Now, I can answer one more question, since we've got to get a move on while we still have daylight. Does anyone have a last question to ask me?"

"Excuse me, All Might sir?" a voice piped from the back.

It was a rather tinny and soft voice that Uraraka recognized. She and a few other students turned back around to see Jayluf, who still hadn't moved from his spot, raising his right hand, which was still barely visible due to his unfortunate height.

"I have a question." Jayluf said.

"Go ahead." 

Jayluf gingerly lowered his arm. "You informed us that this is a hero class. Yet, now some of the students are to be labeled as villains? Why would we train to be villains, when we all have come to this school to be heroes? Is not becoming a villain something we are trying to avoid? I do not understand why we would want to act as villains."

Uraraka frowned. That actually is a good question. Kind of weird they’re having such an emphasis on villains all of a sudden.

But All Might didn’t appear taken off guard in the slightest. “This is merely training, young Jayluf! While your concerns are understandable, a good lesson to remember is that heroes are sometimes forced to think differently than normal!”

Jayluf stared blankly, his expression not changing. "I see…"

Despite his seemingly indifferent expression, the slight change in the tone of his voice gave Uraraka a gut feeling that he wasn't completely satisfied with All Might's explanation.

All Might pumped a fist upwards. "Now that we're done asking questions, let's begin! The teams will be chosen first! Then which teams will fight which! First team is… Izuku Midoriya and Ochaco Uraraka! You are a hero team!"

Oh wow! Me and Deku are on a team?! Uraraka lit up, and turned to face a blushing Deku, who was now seemingly shaking in place. "Wow! It must be luck, or maybe even fate!" Uraraka cried. "Let's work together, Deku!"

Deku had turned away, his eyes wide, his face a tomato red as he almost fainted from shyness. 

The control room was unlike anything Jayluf had seen before in regards to technology. Technology was still a fascinating thing to Jayluf, even if the outside world constantly upped his exposure to it. But the control room was whimsical, borderline magical even. It was a large dark room, lacking any tables or seating for leisure, but it did have one giant screen that glowed a somewhat eerie yet comforting green.

Beeps of machinery inside the terminal could be heard, sounds that he never heard before in his life. The room had a pleasant slightly warm temperature to the point of being warmer than other rooms, but not enough to be uncomfortable. There was a very bizarre smell of metal and rubber, likely the fans from the running computers pushing out the scent from inside the terminal.

As all the students that were not in the training exercise yet moved to the front of the room, Jayluf found himself near the back. 

“Okay everyone!" All Might called from the front of the group. "Pay attention as much as you can. You all need to think as well, you're about to witness a real battle!"

Jayluf's focus on the new sights and smells would have to be put on hold.

Even as the class peered at the screen to watch video feeds of both teams, Jayluf felt something was wrong. Something wasn't right. Villains. The word echoed in his head, refusing to leave his mind. All Might was encouraging them to be villains, or to at least act as them.

Why?

All Might had said it was merely training, and that's all. But then at the same time, Jayluf remembered him mentioning that these are supposed to be real battles. 

He did not like it.

He also did not like the faint creeping feeling in his stomach that became more and more prominent the more he thought about the villain team. Clenching his fists, he stared at the floor.

This wasn't right. Nothing is supposed to bother me. Is this bothering me? Is this what being bothered feels like? I do not like this feeling in my stomach. His cells all shuddered in discomfort, his agitation beginning to rub off on them as well.

"Hey."

A voice suddenly cut through Jayluf's thoughts, pulling him out of his miniature crisis for a brief moment. Looking up, he saw a face he had interacted with before. A tall female student with black hair wrapped into a large ponytail was standing in front of him, looking at him with black grayish eyes.

Jayluf blinked. 

The girl raised one eyebrow. "Are you alright?" She spoke with a low tone, as if she did not want to bring attention to herself. 

Jayluf took a breath, attempting to regain his composure and stave off whatever bad feeling was swirling around inside him. Adjusting his posture so that he no longer stared at the floor with clenched fists, he gave a simple nod. "I am… functional. But something does not feel right about this."

The girl frowned. "Are you referring to earlier, when you had voiced your doubts to All Might?"

He nodded again.

She glanced in the direction of All Might for a brief moment. "I don't think it's something to worry about. After all, it's just training. Don't worry too much, alright?"

The girl moved away, likely going back to her spot to get a better view of the live video feed, leaving Jayluf alone to his thoughts.

Training. It is training. He repeated the phrase over and over again like a mantra to himself in his thoughts. Just training. Training. Before his thoughts could wander once more, Jayluf forced himself to turn and look at the giant screen in an attempt to focus on the battle.

Only for him to get a full view of Bakugo lunging towards Midoriya and Uraraka with a psychotic grin, palms sparking and crackling. 

As Midoriya pushed Uraraka and himself out of the way, an explosion went off, throwing up smoke and dust. But even though Midoriya had managed to avoid the attack, he did not escape unscathed, for half of his mask had been burnt off.

"A surprise attack from the start?!" cried the grape head. "Already?!

"Bakugo, that's cheating, man!" yelled the spiky red head. "Surprise attacks like that aren't manly at all!"

But before anyone else could voice their disagreement or distaste, All Might began to speak. "A surprise attack, cowardly or not, is still a strategy. You must remember that these students are in a real battle now."

Jayluf's eyes widened upon hearing All Might's words. Real battle. But training? It does not add up. He looked over at the Pro Hero. "But sir, I do not understand how it is a real fight when you had said this was merely training?"

"Indeed it is," All Might replied coolly. "But they are still in an actual battle, training or not. There are no boxing gloves or safety equipment for this. But be assured that I will stop it if any of the students goes too far."

Jayluf looked at All Might hard for a few moments, digesting the words before diverting his attention back to the screen. 

"Wow, the way he avoided that attack though was like a scene from a movie" cheered a girl with completely pink skin and hair. "That Midori is like, the coolest!"

His head whirling in the girl's direction, Jayluf tilted his head. She knew Midoriya? Who was this? Did Midoriya know her? "How do you know his name?" 

The girl raised an eyebrow upon hearing the question, as if the inquiry had puzzled her. "Uh, we were given all of our classmates names. Weren't you paying attention?"

Pausing for a moment, Jaylluf hesitated to give an answer. Were we? He was sure he was mostly paying attention in class, but maybe not enough? The red head seemed to know Bakugo’s name. Perhaps the girl was right? Maybe he needed to pay more attention sometimes?

But before he could begin to give the girl a reply, the spiky yellow hair suddenly jabbed a finger towards the screen. "Look! Bakugo’s going for another attack!"

Eyes immediately gluing themselves to the screen, Jayluf observed as Bakugo had lunged at Midoriya like before, his arm raised to let out another explosion.

Only for Midoriya to effortlessly dodge again, this time grappling the offending boy's arm, and proceeding to body slam Bakugo into the floor.

Jayluf blankly stared at the screen. He blinked. 

Wow.  

For some odd reason, he had begun to hope Midoriya would win the fight. It didn't matter who won in reality, Midoriya losing or winning wouldn't bother him too much. Yet, he found the idea of Midoriya winning a much more preferable outcome. 

As the screen displayed Bakugo climbing to his feet, Midoriya had begun to speak several words to his opponent, who seemed to immediately shout back, yet for some reason would not look at Midoriya. 

Well, Jayluf assumed they were shouting. Both parties had wide eyes and their mouths opened very wide with each word. That meant they were shouting, right? Other people in the control room seemed to think so, at least. 

"Eh? What the heck is Bakugo saying?" The red head questioned, his arms crossed. "We can't make a lick of whatever they're talking about, we have no audio, and the cameras themselves are in fixed positions.

"He's not talking to them" All Might explained, his eyes temporarily removing themselves from the screen to glance in the students direction. He tapped a strange metal device in his left ear. "He's actually speaking to his partner via a wireless radio."

"Do we get wireless radios?" one student said.

"All teams will be able to equip them," he replied. "Each team will also have a plan of the building’s layout, along with capture tape, which can be used to capture your opponent by wrapping it around them."

Jayluf glanced at the small earpiece curiously. Wireless radio…  

His mind poked around where his memories were stored, eventually managing to recall the fact his own collar used to have a wireless radio as well. He remembered talking to Miss Hunee through the collar during the entrance exam. 

He wondered why it had to be removed, he did not mind talking to Miss Hunee.  It was a shame that there were cases that wanted to be caught, or whatever Miss Hunee had said to him the other day on why they had to remove the radio in the first place. 

“Teacher,” began the pink girl from before, “The time limit is only fifteen minutes, and the heroes have no idea where the weapon is located, right?”

“Correct!” All Might said.

"But… doesn't that like, leave the hero team at a clear disadvantage? How is this fair to the heroes?"

"It's not about how fair it is," All Might said as he gestured towards the screen. "This is a real fight. And in real fights, heroes need to learn how to be able to turn the tables in any situation, no matter how dire!"

He abruptly turned to face all of the students in the control room. "Besides, didn't Aizawa tell you? You all know the school motto…"

Suddenly, everyone in front of Jayluf seemed to light up all at the same time with smiles and wide eyes, confusing him slightly. What is happening?

Pumping a massive fist in the air, All Might's smile grew even wider than before. "Please everyone, say it with me!"

Jayluf looked from side to side, befuddled on what he was supposed to say. Say what with him? What is going o-

"PLUS ULTRA! All the students suddenly shouted out unanimously, pumping their fists in the air as well.

He didn't understand. Plus what? What are they doing? Am I supposed to be doing that?

Seeking guidance, he desperately scanned the room for Midoriya, in order to see if he was doing it as well. 

But Midoriya was not there. Midoriya was in the battle exercise.

Jayluf then tried to see if he could perhaps see if Iida was doing it.

But Iida was not there. Iida was currently in the battle exercise. 

Jayluf glanced to his side, what about Uraraka?

But Uraraka was not there, for she was currently in the battle exercise.

Completely out of options, Jayluf settled to just gingerly raise a mitten fist, mimicking everyone else in the room to the best of his abilities. Unfortunately, everyone had already put their hand down, leaving him as the only student awkwardly holding his arm up.

An ice covered student to Jayluf's left gave him a judgmental side eye, staring at him as if he'd grown another head.

Jayluf could only blankly stare back.

"Sir," a student spoke up from the front of the group. "Bakugo, he's…"

Upon hearing the name, Jayluf immediately looked back up to the display, getting a glimpse of Bakugo once again engaging Midoriya in close combat, with Uraraka sprinting off in a random direction, presumably to find the weapon on her own.

Even though Bakugo was stepping up his aggression, Midoriya seemed to be easily matching his every move. Bakugo had swung, missed, and angrily threw out his foot in an attempt to kick the other boy in the face.

Midoirya caught it, much to everyone's shock and amazement.

"This guy's insane!" A rather buff student dressed in yellow called out from the side.

Even Jayluf, who was surprised yet again at Midoriya's superior combat skills. As he watched Midoriya pull out the capture tape to wrap around Bakugo’s leg, he began to think. Just how strong was Midoriya? He knew that Midoriya had strength, for when he threw the ball on their first day. But he didn’t seem to be using his quirk here, this was pure raw muscle.

Jayluf was well aware that muscle and strength was not his speciality, at least while he wasn't using his Bio-Form as a crutch to quickly gain muscle. No matter how much training Nohken put him through, he could never bulk up. It was if his body wanted to stay this way.

"Totally!" The yellow hair from before chimed in. "He's not even using his own quirk, and yet he's still fighting the dude who came frickin first place in the entrance exam!"

Unfortunately Midoriya's victory did not last very long, as Bakugo quickly caught on to his plan, and twisted his leg to free it from the tape. Before long, he had managed to send Midoriya stumbling backwards with an explosion, allowing him to regain his footing. Now clearly irritated, he took a threatening stance, inviting Midoriya to take the offensive this time.

So Bakugo can quickly learn how to adapt… Jayluf wondered to himself. 

Surprisingly, Midoirya did not accept the invitation, choosing to instead spin around and sprint away in the opposite direction. Several students were caught off guard, including Jayluf. What was Midoriya doing?

Bakugo had run after him as well, only to quickly discover that Midoriya had given him the slip, forcing him to search room by room.

"Pssst. Hey."

A feminine voice snapped Jayluf from his television trance, forcing his attention towards the speaker.

It was the pink girl, who somehow managed to weasel to the back where he stood now. She gave a friendly wave, a small grin on her face.

"Greetings." Jayluf automatically blurted out, unsure of what the girl wanted.

"Yeah, hey." She whispered. "I figured since those two are having a wild goose chase, I could answer your question from earlier. You asked how I knew Midori's name, right?"

It didn't take Jayluf very long to find the memory, given how fresh it was. "That is an accurate summation, yes."

"Well, like I said earlier, the names were mentioned." She continued. "All Might announced the names of the students in each team one by one while he reached into that box thingie, and the first one was Midori and the girl, her name was Uraraka I think?"

Her words made Jayluf pause for a moment. Has All Might really said all the names? "If that is so, then you are correct. I had not been listening."

The girl's eyes widened briefly, as if she hadn't expected the response. But her lips curved upwards in amusement as she waved a hand. "It's no problemo, since to be fair, I can be pretty forgetful sometimes too." 

She rubbed the back of her head in a bashful manner. "Especially when it comes to written exams… But anyways, that's how I know their names! It's also how I know your name! Jayluf, right?"

He nodded. "That is my designation."

"Coolbeans." She replied, giving a friendly thumbs up. "My name's Mina Ashido."

"I understand. Would you like to become friends?" He said.

Ashido looked at him for a brief moment, before eventually relaxing. She shrugged, a careless grin on her face. "Eh sure, why the heck not? We're gonna be seeing each other for the rest of the school year anyways, and it'd be weird if we were just strangers to each other the whole time."

Jayluf's cells bounced around as they received the information that yet another friend had been acquired. Her name was quickly rushed to his brain's memory storage. 

“W-Whoa!”A voice yelled out. 

Jayluf turned to see that the yellow haired student was pointing at the screen with a rather unsettled expression.

“B-Bakugo’s really steaming right now, it’s actually pretty terrifying!”

A look to the screen showed that Bakugo was still searching around for Midoriya, and his lack of success seemingly angered the boy even more, yelling out words that were once again inaudible for all of the students in the control room. 

The side camera showed that Uraraka was having a standoff with Iida, but Jayluf wasn’t too interested in that, as his eyes were glued to Bakugo’s screen, because the the hotheaded student had suddenly slowed his angry descent, and began to creep slowly down a hallway. 

Jayluf leaned closer to the screen. What is he doing?

It looked like they were going to have yet another brawl.

But Bakugo appeared to have other plans. Lifting his arm up, Bakugo fiddled with something on his gauntlet, which was a strange green thing that swelled up at the end, and pulled a ring at the end. Then the gauntlet began to brightly glow at the end, almost as if it was powering up. Bakugo continued to speak unheard words. 

What is he doing? Jayluf wondered.

However, All Might seemed to know exactly what was going on, for when Bakugo pointed it and pulled the pin, he grabbed the microphone. “Young Bakugo!” He shouted suddenly, spooking almost everyone in the room from the loud volume. “STOP! Are you trying to kill him?!”

Jayluf’s head turned abruptly towards All Might upon hearing the words. Kill him? What’s going on? What is Bakugo doing? Is Midoriya in danger? Did it perhaps have to do with the glowing gauntlet? “All Might sir, what is happening?” 

Glancing at the screen displaying Midoriya, he could see that his friend's face had an expression of raw terror. Was Bakugo’s arm device really some sort of weapon? Did it really have the ability to really hurt Midoriya?

Other students seemed to think so. “Sir!” The red head cried. “That Bakugo is really out of his mind! He’ll kill Midoriya!”

Something began to twist and squirm inside Jayluf’s stomach. A new feeling that he swore he had not felt before. It was one that did not feel good at all, but at the same time, it felt like it was pushing him. 

Something was pushing him to do…

To do…

To do what?

Suddenly the sensation increased ten fold, and he felt the strange urge to… do something. He wanted to do something about what was happening on the screen, yes! He wanted to stop Bakugo from hurting his friend! But before he could make any movements…

The gauntlet went off.

Immediately both Midoriya and Bakugo’s respective screens flashed a bright white, obscuring any possible viewpoint on what was happening. The loudest crashing sound Jayluf had ever heard pounded his eardrums, and the entire room shook from the explosion.

Immediately several students began to voice their panic and worry, scared and unsure on what was happening

That explosion had been Bakugo! Jayluf attempted to spot Midoriya by scanning every screen, searching for the slightest hint of green. Although the white light had dissipated, both of the screens in that area had been completely obscured by thick smoke.

He… he couldn't allow this to continue. He couldn't just sit there and allow Midoriya to be hurt. He needed to do something.

He needed to act.

Before he could register his movements, Jayluf found himself turning towards the exit, and his feet began to move him forwards.

"Wait, is he going to-?"

"Jayluf, where are you-?"

He ignored the half hearted protests coming from the other students behind him. 

He'd reached the exit, one more step and he would be out of the roo-

"Jayluf," an authoritative, booming voice echoed across the room from where All Might stood. "STOP."

And Jayluf stopped. Not because he wanted to, but because he'd heard that type of voice before so many times in the past. The harsh tone. The commanding voice, he'd heard it so many times in the past before, back home. So many times, that he had lost count. Spoken by angry, irritated voices, voices that instructed him to do as he's told. 

To OBEY. 

His body reacted on instinct, his conditioning kicking in at maximum, causing his muscles to all simultaneously tense, effectively freezing him in place.

"You cannot interfere with the battle, Jayluf." I understand your concerns, but let me make sure that young Midoriya is alright!"

Forcing himself to slowly turn around, Jayluf ignored some of the looks he got from his classmates as his eyes hovered over both Bakugo’s and Midoriya's screen, looking for any sign of life. 

Was Midoriya okay?

Eventually, the smoke had slowly cleared, and Jayluf saw the image of Midoriya on the ground. Blessedly, it seemed the boy was using his arm to keep himself propped up while he sat on the ground while talking through what Jayluf presumed was the wireless radio mentioned before. 

Relaxing, Jayluf slowly walked back to his original spot to watch the screens.Midoriya was okay. That was what mattered.

Midoriya actually seemed completely fine, aside from what appeared to be some burns on his arm alongside the soot and grime from the explosion that Jayluf had just realized had blown an entire HOLE in the wall.

He stared hard at the smoldering hole, still sizzling and smoking from the rapid change in temperature. If Bakugo’s gauntlets did that to mere walls… 

If that explosion, if that had hit Midoriya head on…

Thankfully it did not. But now was obviously the point in time to cancel the battle, right? Jayluf remembered that All Might had said that he would stop the battle if it had gone too far. And the giant explosion obviously was too far, right?

"Young Bakugo!" All Might shouted sternly. "The next time you do that, the round will immediately end early, and your team will be declared the losers."

Jayluf's head abruptly turned to All Might. Next time?

"To let out such a large-scale explosive attack while still indoors, is inviting the destruction of the fortress you should be protecting!" All Might continued. "That is a foolish plan, and it is one that will cause you to lose many points!"

Next time.

It echoed in Jayluf's mind. Next time? All Might is continuing the battle? He could not keep silent any longer. "Sir, I have an inquiry to make."

All Might glanced behind to look at the much smaller boy. "What is it?"

"Why are you not ceasing the battle?"  Jayluf looked back to the screen. "Midoriya has been hurt. Why are you allowing this to continue?" 

He did not understand. All Might, the number one hero, was not going to help someone in need? Jayluf didn't understand. He didn't want to understand.

All Might said nothing in response, staring at Jayluf with a seemingly conflicted frown before turning back to look at the display. 

On the screen, it appeared that Midoriya had mostly regained his bearings, since he now stood up, seemingly ready to face Bakugo one last time. The other boy charged, but this time let off a smaller explosion right in Midoriya's face while jumping, and using the same explosion to propel himself OVER Midoriya. Upon landing, Bakugo hit Midoriya again with yet another explosion, stumbling him.

The other students were saying something about the fight, but Jayluf ignored them, his eyes glued to the screen.

Bakugo apparently was not finished, he threw a right swing into Midoriya's back, and while the boy was stunned, threw him onto the floor with a loud thump.

This was too much. Jayluf knew that Bakugo enjoyed hurting Midoriya. 

Others seemed to agree. "This is a lynching!" Ashido cried from in front of Jayluf. "Bakugo could just use the capture tape and end it now!"

A strange student with pure dark hair and a strange curved mouth nodded in agreement. "Those are not the actions of a hero…"

Jayluf found himself agreeing. Yet All Might seems to want this to happen, for Bakugo to act as a villain… Does he care that Midoriya is getting hurt?

"I thought Midoriya was good," yellow hair said. "I mean, he still is, but Bakugo is a powerhouse, it's just too much for Midoriya to handle."

Before Bakugo could get another hit in, Midoriya managed to scramble away on all fours before clambering back to his feet, fleeing the fight once more. 

“H-He’s running away again?” Ashido said with a worried expression. 

“It’s not a very manly thing to do,” said the red head. “But it’s all he can really do in this sort of situation, given his odds against Bakugo.” he frowned. “But for some reason… I feel like something’s off. What’s he up to?”

His comment gave Jayluf pause. Was the student implying that Midoriya had a plan of some sort? But what was there to do? Both sides were locked in a stalemate, meaning that when the time ran out, the villain team would win. The only thing that Jayluf noticed was that Midoriya was running considerably less faster than last time, allowing Bakugo to keep up without breaking a sweat.

The camera’s changed as Bakugo continued the chase, until Midoriya abruptly stopped in place, and turned around to face his pursuer. They immediately began shouting at each other, but this time, while Bakugo began to spark his palms, Midoriya’s entire arm began to… glow?

Jayluf had never seen that before. He was aware of Midoriya having some sort of strength based quirk, sure. 

But it almost looked like some sort of power was surging in the boy’s arm. 

Raising his fist, Midoriya held his arm up to presumably punch Bakugo, and both began to charge at each other.

"Teacher!" The red head cried. "This looks really bad! We need to stop them!"

"Please sir," Jayluf persisted. "We need to help Midoriya, and prevent him from being injured."

All Might still did not reply, the only visible acknowledgement was him gripping the microphone a bit tighter than before.

The two boys on the camera were nearing each other, both having their quirks at the ready.

"I said we need to stop this!" yelled the student. 

All Might did nothing.

"Sir, Midoriya is going to get hurt." Jayluf repeated, this time with a bit more force.

Finally, it seemed that his begging managed to get through to All Might, who grabbed the microphone at the very last second. "Both of you, sto-"

Then All Might stopped talking, reeling back as if he heard or saw something that Jayluf hadn't.

He stared at All Might. What is he doing? Why did he sto-

Impact.

On the camera, Midoriya swung his fists upwards, purposely missing Bakugo and instead sending a huge gust of wind through the ceiling.

And then the ceiling above that one. And the next. It kept going until it finally escaped through the roof of the building, breaking the glass of every window through the whole building. 

Jayluf watched, at a loss for words at what had just happened. That was Midoriya's quirk? It was insanely strong, considering it tore through concrete like paper. 

"Whoa! Uraraka got the weapon!" A voice said from the left of Jayluf.

Glancing to the other screen, he saw that Uraraka was currently clinging to the weapon with a happy smile on her face, complete with a devastated Iida watching in horror. 

They… they won? Jayluf realized. If Midoriya has such a strong quirk, why had he not used it before when… when he…

His thoughts came to a crashing halt when he saw Midoriya. 

Midoriya… looked horrible. His left arm was completely burned, which was used to shield his face from Bakugo’s explosion, while his right arm was a sickening red and purple. Midoriya's arm was broken.

Jayluf watched as Midoriya seemed to speak to Bakugo for a brief moment. Of course it was not able to be heard, but whatever Midroiya had said to him must have been something unsettling, considering how the blonde's face quickly gained an expression of fear and shock.

And just like that, Midoriya went limp, slumping to the floor, unconscious.

"Hero…Hero team…WINS!!!" All Might suddenly shouted cheerfully, as if there was nothing wrong with the world.

Jayluf could not help the way his eyes quickly snapped to the right where All Might was. Why was he being so cheerful after what had just happened? He did not stop it, again. Why did he not stop it?

He took another glance at Midoriya's still form. 

He looked back to All Might.

All Might had allowed Midoriya to be harmed. 

Bakugo harmed Midoriya.

Jayluf did not like it.

Chapter Text

Hi yall! This probably isn’t what you wanted to see, but I gotta do it. Before you ask, it’s not exactly a hiatus, but more of an announcement of the small little changes I’m doing right now. 

What I’m doing isn’t a hiatus since it’s not as long, you could consider it a miniature hiatus, more of an “under construction” kind of thing. I want to let you know what the current plan is, and the future plan is. 

The reason for this is because I’m planning on implementing multiple things.

The main one being a tumblr for this fic! Why you may ask? Well, consider that this fic is also on fanfic net, but unfortunately that website does not support images outside of the cover image for your story, or profile picture. Yikes. Another thing is that for all the images that'll be on this story on ao3, I don't want people having to scroll through text walls if they're wanting to look at another pic. (Idk if anyone will want that since i cant draw LOL) but I can put them all neatly on my tumblr when it's fully set up with tags like "Chap 1, chap 2," stuff like that!

So, I’m currently in the process of creating that tumblr right now. And you’ve probably guessed, but I am planning on making more images for the story. I know I’m not the best artist, and some of yall might consider it preschool tier garbage, but my art or this fic isn’t a professional hobby, it’s a fun activity I’m doing because it’s something I’m passionate about. Even if it’s just a small little fic, I haven’t had this much fun writing in… well, a long time. So it might take longer for chapters to come out. 

What I’m aiming for is by next week to hopefully have the next chapter and another image. The aftermath of Izuku's battle, and Jayluf’s own battle during the class battle arc were going to be originally one chapter, but it’s highly likely they will be two separate chapters, unless I somehow finish them both and they look too short without each other.

And I should have the tumblr completely set up hopefully by the end of this week, I’m still setting everything up, privacy settings, etc. (Gotta be safe! I'm also setting up a discord profile for my fanfic account, cool right?)

Another thing is that I’ll probably post another image along with another image I’m now working on: Miss Hunee! So yall will know what she looks like! It’ll either be at the end or start of the next chapter probably. I don’t want to have another post here just for the Miss Hunee ref specifically because this is another “non chapter” which I don’t want people thinking there’s a certain number of chapters but almost one fourth are actually pics, lol.

Future plans far from now is post S1, I might go on a hiatus for the sole purpose of trying to fix up previous chapters to make it more readable. Seeing how many people dropped the story after the first chapter made me think that maybe I could be doing better, so that might be a thing, I don’t know. It depends on how I feel whenever that happens. Let me know what yall think, are they fine on their own or would a fix up later down the road help? And yeah I'm asking for input because this will be one of the rare times I don't delete an update chapter/announcement in a fic but that's mostly because of the art posted along with it, hehe!

So yeah, I’m gonna be getting on that, and I’m very sorry for seemingly slacking on writing. I've just been working on a lot of things at once, so I’m posting this to clear it up. I hope you can all understand, because working on this fic is fun, but I am trying my best to organize it.  

(PS I hope yall like the little art along with this chapter, it was a pain but fun to design with the construction motif. He’s holding a traffic cone/pylon for those who don’t know what he’s holding. And no, he has no idea what a traffic cone is in general, or a construction helmet :P See you soon, hopefully in the next chapter! Again, so sorry for the delay, I hope yall can forgive me! Bye!)

Chapter Text

"HERO TEAM… WIIIIIINS!" 

As the loud voice echoed across the entire room, Jayluf stared at the screen in complete silence alongside the other students in the room, all of them still in the middle of processing what had just happened. The screens presented multiple angles of the hero and villain teams respective students, allowing the class to see the aftermath of the battle.

There was a giant hole in each floor, all in the middle and lined up almost perfectly, due to Midoriya's quirk throwing up a gust of wind that broke through every ceiling earlier. Dust and debris were everywhere, due to the destruction caused by Midoriya and Bakugo.

One of the cameras showed an unflattering angle of Midoriya crumpled on the floor. His back, face, arms, upper body  were all covered in burns and scorch marks. His right arm was colored a disgusting purple and red due from his entire arm being broken from the use of his quirk. Lines of blood also seemed to be spread across the arm from an unseen open wound. He wasn't moving, the only telltale sign that he was alive was the rise and fall of his chest, meaning he passed out from either exhaustion or pain. 

Another screen showed Uraraka, who didn't appear to be damaged too much from the battle, save for some marks of debris on her costume and scrape marks and bruises when she had tumbled to the floor after her first attempt to grab the weapon. But she was in no fit state. In fact, her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she collapsed on her knees, desperately pressing her hands to her mouth. Her entire body spasmed as she dry heaved, unable to stop. 

Above the two screens displaying the hero team, two more monitors showed the villain team. One showed Bakugo, who was completely injury free, without even the slightest scratch on him, even after being tossed around by Midoriya once or twice beforehand.  But even with his seemingly untouched appearance, his mental state was another story. His eyes were wide open, his irises were small, and he was breathing extremely heavy. It almost seemed like he was about to collapse.

The other camera showed a different angle of Uraraka, revealing that Iida was on his knees right by her, a nervous expression on his face. He was gently rubbing her back in what was presumably to soothe her in an attempt to prevent her dry heaves from turning into something much more messy. 

Some of the students standing in the room by Jayluf had turned away, unable to look at the grisly scene of Midoriya’s battered form, or Uraraka’s constant physical gagging. But Jayluf found himself unable to tear his eyes from the sight of Midoriya’s barely moving form.

As his eyes settled on Midoriya’s brutalized arm, Jayluf could not feel anything good from looking at it. 

The fact was, Midoriya had been hurt severely, even before he had used his quirk, he’d been beaten and burnt by Bakugo, who seemed to take an extreme amount of pleasure in the act of attacking him. 

And All Might, the Number One Pro Hero of all time, had refused to even stop it at all. The whole time, he’d just watched as the boy had been pummeled by his classmate and had done absolutely nothing to stop it. 

When he spared a glance to where the Pro Hero stood, Jayluf was not expecting for All Might to not be there anymore. When he looked around, it seemed that All Might had apparently completely vanished when Jayluf hadn’t been looking. Upon Asking Ashido about where All Might had gone, she had told him that apparently All Might had left the room shortly after the announcement of the hero team’s win in order to bring the two teams back here. Sure enough, upon a glance at the camera, he could see All Might had suddenly materialized the scene of the crime, standing over Midoriya as two machines were gently loading him onto a stretcher. 

Jayluf wondered briefly how All Might had gotten there so fast. 

Even as the students around him suddenly began to quietly chatter amongst themselves about what they just witnessed, he had tuned them out, for his mind was currently on something else.. His thoughts had eventually wandered back to his main focus, what Bakugo had done, and more importantly, how All Might had handled it. It just didn't add up to Jayluf. No matter how hard he tried to process it, it just wouldn't make sense to him. Why did this happen? Why on earth would Bakugo, a student training to be a hero, in the hero school, do such horrible things? It was awful. 

Cruel. 

Unlawful.

Villainous.

Why would Bakugo act like such a villain, even if he'd been playing the role of one in the class exercise? Why had he taken such joy in hurting Midoriya? 

And why had All Might, the number one Pro Hero, simply watched as the violence happened? Why had he ignored the desperate pleas of the students around him who'd begged him to halt the match?

Another glimpse at the camera showed the Hero in question had suddenly turned and approached Bakugo from behind, who was now stricken and visibly panting, as if he was about to pass out right then and there. However, he seemed to freeze upon All Might placing a giant hand on his shoulder. After speaking to Bakugo for several moments, All Might lifted his hand as he turned to gather Uraraka and Iida for the return trip. 

Bakugo's strange reaction was somewhat interesting to Jayluf. Was Bakugo distressed because he'd lost? Or was he actually feeling some sense of guilt at that moment? Was he not proud of his actions? It would be the correct line of thought, compared to the first. It would be better to be upset about hurting an innocent compared to just being angry at not winning, would it not?

Jayluf found the idea of Bakugo showing remorse over his actions the more preferable choice. But he likely wouldn't know the truth until much later.

Several minutes ticked on at an extraordinarily slow pace as the students awaited for All Might to return. When the others considered sending someone out to check where they were, All Might had suddenly walked right through the door, abruptly flicking on the lights and causing many of the students to be disoriented.

"WE HAVE RETURNED TO THIS ROOM!" All Might shouted, "IN ORDERLY FASHION!"

And behind in tow were Bakugo, Uraraka, Iida, and-

Midoriya. Jayluf realized. 

Midoriya was missing. 

Midoriya wasn't with them. 

Where was he? Weren't the robots carrying him here? Were they just slower? Jayluf threw a glance to the doorway, half expecting to see the robots roll Midoriya in on his stretcher. Yet no one came. "Where is Midoriya?" Jayluf suddenly spoke as he scanned the area around the doorway, just in case.. "Was he not being carried here by the robots?? Is he alright?"

All Might simply raised a giant hand at the question. "Worry not! Young Midoriya is currently recovering from his injuries in the clinic!" The hand twisted into a thumbs-up. "He is quite safe and sound."

His injuries… Jayluf thought to himself. Those were because of Bakugo. "I see." 

As the three remaining students positioned themselves by All Might as he stood by the Hero and Villain boxes, he gestured for everyone to come closer. "NOW EVERYONE! GATHER ROUND, WE NEED TO DISCUSS THIS MATCH IN DETAIL!"

That was a suggestion Jayluf found somewhat appealing, considering he had several concerns about the battle he thought would be relevant to the discussion. Although he did not move too close anyway, since it wasn't like he could see over any of the other students currently towering over him anyways. He could hear just fine, and also see All Might since he was huge.

"So, let's go over the match you have just witnessed. Victory or course went to the hero team, yes!" All Might held up a cautionary finger. "But I wanted to address an important factor of that battle… It doesn't matter whether you are on the winning team, or the losing team, there will still be someone who goes above and beyond, plus ultra! And that is who we call the 'MVP', so to speak!"

As the phrase thudded against his eardrums, Jayluf found himself unable to identify what that word meant. A what? "What is that?" He said softly.

Even with his soft-spoken inquiry being almost barely audible, someone had managed to hear him. The person in question being Ashido, who turned and leaned back to face Jayluf. "MVP is someone who's like the top performer of a team. It's a video game term I think was coined decades ago in America. It's short for 'most valuable player', so to speak."

Jayluf tilted his head. "What is a video game?"

For a brief moment, Ashido simply stared at him in complete silence. She slowly raised an eyebrow before responding. "Okay, since you're probably yanking my chain with a question like that, I'm not even going to dignify it with a response." She blinked, realizing what she'd just said. "Well, that was already technically a response to your question. So is this. And that. Dang it, never mind." 

Ashido turned back to the group of students, who were still in the process of asking about what All Might was talking about.

"Who was the MVP?" Said one student.

The question made Jayluf pause for a brief moment, pondering the question himself.  Who could be considered the most valuable in the match? Well, considering that the hero team had won thanks to mostly Midoriya's actions, it was obvious that he'd be considered as the-

"A very good question!" All Might suddenly spoke. "And I'd say that for that match, the MVP was none other than young Iida."

The entire room including Iida himself had looked up in complete surprise at the response. 

Even Jayluf had been thrown off for the briefest of moments at the unexpected answer. What? Had he possibly misheard All Might? He must have misheard. Midroiya had clearly gone above and beyond in order to win, almost destroying an arm in the process, surely that was worthy of recognition?

While Jayluf obviously had no ill will towards Iida, it was still extremely unexpected to hear that was who All Might had chosen. Iida being the MVP? That was… odd. Given Midoriya's performance through the battle from start to finish, shouldn't it be Midoriya receiving the title, and not Iida? Jayluf began to think. Was he missing something? He had to be missing something, right? 

Other students seemed to be curious as well, such as the frog girl, who leaned forward inquisitively, a finger resting on her chin. "It's neither of the members of the winning team, Midoroya or Uraraka?"

For a split second, Jayluf was thrown off by the frog girl, specifically how did this strange girl know Midoriya and Uraraka's names? A brief dig into his memory gave him a quick reminder of Ashido's words earlier when he and she had a brief conversation about the very same topic. Specifically, the part when she elaborated on the students' names being shown on a board or mentioned out loud a few times in the past.  

But back to the original problem, Jayluf found himself silently agreeing with the frog girl's question. It wasn't even Uraraka either? It was Iida? 

Strangely enough, All Might seemed to be somewhat puzzled at her question, as if he didn't know why himself, despite him making the claim mere moments ago. All Might leaned forward with an eyebrow raised. "Hmm… why is that?" He hummed innocently. "Why is that?" He suddenly flung an arm upwards. "DOES ANYONE KNOW?!"

For a moment, no one said a single word, still obviously confused. The silence was broken by a single arm being raised into the air. "Yes teacher, I believe I know the reason why."

Who was that? Jayluf couldn't see who it was, due to being behind some rather tall students, one with multiple arms, one that was rather buff, and another wearing a strange helmet.

I'll have to just get a look or two. Jayluf then proceeded to do a few small hops to see over the shoulders of the much taller students, in order to deduce whose arm was being held up.

First hop. He managed to make out a decently tall girl, who's costume was rather lacking in protection, exposing a lot of skin, which was odd. 

Second hop. Her red vest was accompanied by a strange large light brownish belt that was wrapped around her waist. 

Third hop. She also had a huge ponytail. 

All Might pointed at the girl. “Yaoyorozu, isn’t it? What do you think?”

Yaoyorozu… Jayluf thought, his cells hurriedly escorting the newly obtained knowledge to his memory.

“Well,” Yaoyorozu began, “from watching the match myself, it became clear that Iida had adapted to the context of the training the most.”

Jayluf hadn’t been expecting that answer. And apparently neither did All Might, whose smile wavered for a second or two, as if he hadn’t been expecting that as an answer.

"Another thing to address is that it appeared Bakugo seemed to be targeting Midoriya exclusively out of what I can assume is some sort of a personal grudge," Yaoyorozu continued. "given how emotional they seemed to get when they spoke to each other during the fight. We couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it’s obvious it was something personal.”

Jayluf tilted his head. Grudge ?

“And as All Might mentioned beforehand, Bakugo’s large-scale attack was a foolish move to perform indoors. And speaking of damage, there is also the account of Midoriya damaging his own body with his quirk. His plan was also rash, and wasn’t thought through enough.” 

Her eyes flickered over to Uraraka. “Uraraka also made the mistake of letting her guard down in the middle of the battle because she did not take the fight very seriously, and that led to her final attack being both extremely dangerous and reckless.

Jayluf did another little hop to catch a glimpse of Uraraka, who was still standing by Iida, Bakugo, and All Might. He also noticed a vacant spot by Uraraka, a spot where Midoriya would have been standing, had he not been injured to the point of needing excessive hospitalization. 

Jayluf didn’t like that Yaoyorozu was speaking about Midoriya when he wasn’t here to even defend himself. Wasn’t that a bad thing to do?

Ignorant to his inner debating, Yaoyorozu gestured towards Uraraka. “If she had treated the paper mache' weapon as a real bomb, then she would not have done a final move that was so destructive to the environment around her.”

Uraraka was now deflating slightly, a solemn expression on her face as she stared at the floor. 

As the girl continued to speak, Jayluf wondered if Yaoyorozu would take the opportunity to stop, since she seemed to be upsetting the other student. It was the right thing to do, wasn't it? Yaoyorozu had made her point, so she’d stop, right?

Unfortunately, Yaoyorozu kept talking. “And in regards to Iida, he actually prepared himself for his opponent’s arrival, assuming it would be a fight over the weapon, which made him late in the final attack from Uraraka." She ran a hand through hair briefly. "Honestly, the reason why the hero team won was only because it was merely a training exercise, and they took complete advantage of it. They were practically breaking the rules at that point.”

Jayluf didn’t feel like he was really experiencing any emotion at that moment, not really. Yet at the same time, something in him was stirring at those words, his cells were thoroughly disturbed, bumping into each other as he absorbed what Yaoyorozu had just said. When he finished, he deduced that he didn’t like what Yaoyorozu was saying, nor did he like how much she accused the hero team of what they did wrong, when the villain team had made glaringly obvious mistakes themselves. 

Jayluf came to a single conclusion. Yaoyorozu was wrong. Wrong about multiple things. But most importantly, Midoriya had not taken advantage of anything, and he’d been hurt, and All Might had stood by. Her logic did not make sense to him. 

And Jayluf knew at that moment, he had to correct her errors. “No.”

The room had suddenly ceased any audible noise, going dead silent. No one said a word. 

Yaoyorozu slowly twisted herself in his direction. Well, he assumed that she did, because he could only see her weird ponytail, and it was a bit difficult to decipher what direction she was facing at the current moment.

“Excuse me?” She said, “Who said that?”

Jayluf raised his mitten covered hand in the air without hesitation. “It was me.”

The ponytail moved erratically around until it eventually began moving to the side, and Yaoyorozu walked around the other students surrounding her, and eventually stopped right in front of Jayluf. She looked down at him. “Now, what did you say?”

“I said no.” Jayluf stated plainly. “I believe you are in error, for both points.”

She frowned. “And may I ask why you believe that? What is your counterargument?”

Jayluf knew nothing about counting arguments, he had not been in enough disputes to the extent of where he needed to begin to mark down the number of how many he’d experienced. However he knew exactly why he believed she was wrong. 

“Midoriya was the em fee pee.” He said slowly, pronouncing the unfamiliar phrase a bit slower than his normal talking speed.

Yaoyorozu arched a single doubtful eyebrow upwards. “You believe that Midoriya should have the title of MVP, despite what All Might said? Interesting. How so?”

All Might raised a finger. “Ah, maybe we should-”

“Because he acted as a hero should, did he not?” Jayluf was aware he did not have an overly excessive collection of knowledge in regards to how heroes acted on the job, in fact, the most he’d seen of heroes were purely through videos of All Might videos shown to him back home. But since All Might was indeed the Number One Hero, Jayluf assumed that his current knowledge on the topic would surely suffice.

Heroes protected the innocent.

Heroes stopped the villains.

Heroes saved everyone they could.

That was what heroes did, right? “He had pushed Uraraka out of the way at the beginning, when Bakugo had attempted to harm them both with a surprise attack, protecting her from any harm from the explosions. He had also managed to keep Bakugo away from both Uraraka and Iida, to prevent Bakugo from possibly attacking her and reuniting with his teammate. His plan also helped her get to the weapon, combining their final attacks in order to win. Without Midoriya’s actions, the hero team would have surely lost. His actions were surely one of what a hero would be, and this is a hero class, is it not?”

Yaoyorozu put up a hand. “You have valid points Jayluf, but I believe you are missing my point. Yes, while this is a hero class, and there was a hero team, remember that there was the villain team as well. Remember, All Might was speaking about the overall MVP of the exercise itself, meaning it wasn’t heroism being exclusively scored.”

“But even if it is not judged by heroism, Midoriya still performed extraordinarily, compared to Iida.” Jayluf retorted.

Yaoyorozu calmly gestured towards Uraraka, Iida, and Bakugo, who were still standing by All Might.  “To the untrained eye, one would likely say Iida just simply stood by the weapon for the majority of the match, and did nothing except move around and move some objects in the room, then stand around some more. 

She lowered her hand back down. "But in reality, he had saved the villain team from losing multiple times, and his actions had almost saved the match for him and Bakugo.” 

Upon the mention of the other students, Jayluf did a quick hop to get a quick glimpse of Iida and Uraraka, who were watching Yaoyorozu. Their and several other pairs of eyes landed on him for a split second before gravity pulled his feet back towards the solid linoleum floor.

“Are you trying to see?” said the buff student in yellow. 

“Do you um... need us to move?” uttered the multi-armed student.

“Only if you wish to,” Jayluf replied bluntly.

After a brief moment of glancing at each other, the two bigger students awkwardly shuffled to the side, allowing Jayluf to get a much better view of All Might, Iida, and Bakugo.

“Anyways,” Yaoyorozu suddenly cut in, drawing Jayluf’s attention back to her. “It was because of him protecting the weapon being the reason why his team came so close to victory. After all, it’s supposed to be the top priority of both the hero AND the villain team. He prepared himself for Uraraka’s arrival by cleaning everything up as well.” 

Her words were not very convincing to Jayluf. Sure, Iida had done some good, but compared to what Midoriya did? What he’d accomplished? There was an obvious choice on who had done more for their team.

Yaoyorozu held up a finger. “Had he not been there to protect the weapon, Uraraka would have just touched the weapon, and the round would have been lost then and there. While I don’t disagree that the hero team did plenty of good, we cannot ignore the flaws in their actions and planning. And as I stated before, the hero team were basically breaking the rules at that point.”

The mention of them breaking the rules caused Jayluf to tilt his head in confusion at her logic. Breaking the rules? Had she not seen what Bakugo had done? “You speak as if the hero team were the ones purposely violating the rules. But didn't the villain team also break the rules as well?”

Yaoyorozu frowned. "And how do you suggest that they broke the rules, since you seem to be so sure?"

Jayluf merely raised a gloved hand to point in the direction of Bakugo. "Remember what Bakugo had done In the middle of the match? When he had cornered Midoriya, and prepared to use his special attack with his equipment, All Might had attempted to directly intervene himself over radio contact, telling Bakugo to stop."

Yaoyorozu did not seem impressed. "I had already addressed Bakugo's foolish indoor attack."

"I was not finished." Jayluf said. "Bakugo, despite being warned by All Might to not use the attack, ignored the direct command. Even when he knew it could…" he paused. "It could possibly kill Midoriya. Bakugo, disregarded a direct order from his teacher, who also happens to be All Might, the Number One Hero."

"W-Well, I suppose that-"

"Bakugo had broken the rules. Not practically, or technically, he just broke them. The authority must be obeyed. And even after the attack, he continued to harm Midoriya unnecessarily, despite the fact that he could have used the binding material that was provided to him at the start."

Ashido waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, he was kinda violent, Yaoyorozu. Like seriously, he could have been like, not totally psycho when he was fighting with Midori."

Jayluf glanced out of the corner of his eye curiously, to see if Bakugo was going to join the conversation, to maybe defend the actions during the battle.

Yet surprisingly, Bakugo did not even seem to be aware of the conversation happening. In fact, it appeared as if he was completely ignorant to anything around him, his mind elsewhere as he stared at the floor with wide eyes.

"Well…" Yaoyorozu said suddenly, pausing for several seconds, as if pondering her next words. "I suppose you do have a point there in regards to Bakugo. But still, it does not excuse the hero team’s errors. And while Bakugo maybe should have used the binding tape, he had no way of telling when Midoriya was actually down for the count. Remember, it was a real battle, All Might even said so himself earlier.” 

There it was again, that phrase. Real battle. Jayluf didn’t understand. “But why? I do not understand this. We are supposed to be training, yet we are expected to so readily harm our fellow students? Should not the training be the focus here, instead of the battle?

“Jayluf,” Yaoyorozu began softly. “The battle is the training. It’s why we’re here in the first place. Heroism isn’t just rescuing cats from trees or helping old women cross the street. In the line of work of heroes, we will be fighting real battles against real people.”

“It does not matter what we will be doing in the future,” Jayluf replied. “It still does not make sense. This is a hero school, yet we are being encouraged to fight amongst ourselves? Does hurting each other help us learn?” His eyes landed on All Might for a brief moment before going back to Yaoyorozu. “Is that why All Might did not interfere with Bakugo after Bakugo’s massive attack?”

Jayluf began to somewhat doubt himself the more he considered Yaoyorozu’s words. Was there supposed to be a lesson? If things like that could happen in the line of real life hero work, was that why All Might did not do anything to stop it after? Because it was part of the training? To show them what happened to heroes in their jobs? He shook his head briefly. No, All Might would not want that to happen, surely not! Right…? “Was that why All Might stood by and allowed Midoriya to be continuously harmed, even while the other students tried to get him to halt the fight early before anything bad happened?” 

He lifted his hands up and wrapped them around himself instinctively as his eyes wandered towards the floor. “Was… Midoriya getting injured the outcome he wanted? Because of it being a real battle?”

Due to his body facing Yaoyorozu and his eyes being glued to the floor, Jayluf did not see All Might flinching back as if the man had been socked in the face.

Yaoyorozu put her hands on her hips, a displeased expression plastered on her face as she stared down at him. “No! Of course not! How could you say such an awful thing? All Might doesn’t intend for any of us to be hurt in any shape or form here.”

Jayluf immediately looked back up towards Yaoyorozu defiantly. “I don’t understand… If All Might does not wish for any of us to be harmed, why did he refuse when he had the chance to stop the battle between Midoriya and Bakugo? Why did he not acknowledge the other students begging him to stop the match? This is a hero school, is it not? Shouldn’t the act of harming another student be considered bad, or something a real villain would do? Even if one side is playing as villains, isn’t this wrong?”

Yaoyorozu opened her mouth, paused, and glanced to the side, as if she was unsure about the answer she was about to give. Glancing to the side towards where All Might and the other students were watching intently, she took a small breath before answering.  “I will not disagree that hurting fellow classmates excessively should obviously be discouraged. But in regards to how All Might handled the fight, you said it yourself, we should obey the authority, so you should also understand it isn’t our place to question said authority here. Considering the fact he is the teacher to the top class in all of U.A. and that he’s the Number One Hero, he probably has much experience in teaching and training heroes like us.”

Jayluf silently absorbed Yaoyorozu’s explanation as he stared up at her. She was right, but at the same time, she was incorrect. She was correct in regards to having to obey the higher authority no matter what, that was obvious. But at the same time, something felt off. Of course All Might knew a lot about teaching people about becoming a hero, but what he did earlier just… it did not feel right. 

And why was Yaoyorozu trying to brush off what had happened to Midoriya so casually, as if it was a dropped pencil or book? Wasn’t almost killing someone a very bad thing? Like a really bad thing? Was it normal for people to respond like that in a situation where someone is almost killed? Shouldn’t the hero try to stop the attempt in the first place if they had the opportunity to do so? “But…”

“Look,” Yaoyorozu abruptly cut in, letting out a sigh. “I’m assuming that Midoriya is your friend, correct? I think it is fair to say you might be reacting too emotionally. I understand being protective of your friends, but you need to realize that sometimes things need to be seen from a different, more critical angle.”

She held up her hand in a disarming manner. “We should always start with the basics to develop depth of learning here. All of us should strive to change, and do our best to devote ourselves to becoming heroes wholeheartedly.”

Jayluf simply stared back, unflinching.

Yaoyorozu relaxed her hands, letting them hang loosely on her sides. “In order to accomplish that, you might have to adjust the way you think or react to specific situations. It might be a difficult thing to do, but I promise you it’s not impossible. Not everything in life is simple. It’s not all black and white like it is in fiction, real life is much more complicated, and going in with the wrong mindset might backfire later down the road.”

But to Jayluf, the situation was very simple. It was a simple thing to understand. Midoriya was hurt because of what Bakugo did. All Might did not stop it, despite having the chance to stop the fight multiple times. Why couldn’t she understand that simple concept? Why was she wanting to move past it so quickly? Jayluf blinked multiple times, his brain cells starting to strain from the excessive thinking being done. 

“I’m not asking you to completely change yourself as a person,” Yaoyorozu quickly added, "or outright change your way of thinking entirely. I am just merely suggesting that you try thinking outside of the box for once. I know how easy it is to act purely on one’s emotional state, and how it sometimes might be a struggle to control. But, if you manage to control your feelings, it will greatly help you in the future.”

Jayluf was somewhat confused. Was she suggesting that he was acting on emotions, and wasn’t thinking? He was being completely logical here! “My.. emotions?”

“Emotions will cloud your judgment, Jayluf.” Yaoyorozu said calmly. “If you let it influence you too much, you will find yourself becoming an extremely biased person, which I don’t think is something you want to become, right?”

“I am not being influenced by my emotions.” Jayluf retorted. “I am simply stating the facts of what happened.”

“But you are,” Yaoyorozu cut in. “You’re focusing on Midoriya by not listening to me, and treating as if the injuries he received are suddenly making his mistakes irrelevant. You’re refusing to acknowledge the major errors that he had made.”

“You are refusing to acknowledge what he’d accomplished,” Jayluf replied.

“Ahem.”

Before both students were able to begin bickering once more, the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat caused them to look to the side to see All Might, who had a rather stern expression on his face. “I apologize, but we have to move onto the next class battle. Your debate will have to wait until after class today, because today this class will take up the rest of the day.”

Jayluf didn’t know if he’d been imagining it, but it almost sounded like All Might’s voice had a slight amount of strain. 

Yaoyorozu immediately bowed in an apologetic manner. “I apologize sir, I did not intend to cause a scene.”

Jayluf would have mimicked her body movement, had he been looking at her in the first place. However, he blankly stared at All Might, the events from the previous battle still fresh in his mind. “I apologize.” he blurted out.

All Might looked at him for several seconds before his smile suddenly went back up, his personality abruptly changing. “It is alright! Everyone, let’s change locations, and start the second match! Tackle this training after thinking about what we had been talking about before!”

“Yes sir!” Everyone called out at once, save for Jayluf.

Everyone began to file out of the room, following All Might who was in front of the line. But before Jayluf could go and place himself at the back of the line, someone tapped his shoulder, causing him to look behind him to see a certain brown haired girl with a meek look on her face. “Uraraka?” 

“Hey, Jayluf…” Uraraka said softly. 

“Is there something you require of me?”

“Ah, no. I was just uh, I’m just making sure that you’re alright. Are you… okay?”

Jayluf blinked. “I am functional at the moment.”

Uraraka let out a short and dry chuckle, almost as if she’d been expecting the response he gave. “Ha… well, that’s good to hear I guess. I just uh, I wanted to say, thanks for standing up for Deku when he wasn’t here to defend himself. It was a very nice thing to do, and I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”

“I was merely stating the facts.”

Uraraka rubbed the back of her head. “Although, I hope you know that uh, Yaoyorozu I think her name was? I uh, I hope you know that she wasn’t targeting Deku specifically out of malicious intent or anything like that. And although I didn’t like being called out like that, she was kinda right that I made mistakes...”

“But you still won.”

“Yeah,” She muttered. “But it doesn’t erase the mistakes that I made, or suddenly make them irrelevant. I probably should have taken that fight more seriously, it’s just, Iida was acting so goofy, I couldn’t help myself. Anyways, we should go, yeah? Don’t wanna lag behind or anything. Let’s go watch the next battle.”

“The next real battle,” Jayluf corrected. 

Uraraka simply let out a snort. “Pffft, very funny. Come on, let’s go.”

She turned and exited the room, leaving Jayluf to his own thoughts. 

Real battle. He’d heard that phrase so many times today, it was starting to sound like white noise. Even if these were “real battles”, he wouldn’t hurt another student. He wouldn’t be like Bakugo. Even if it was part of the assignment when it was his turn, he wouldn’t use his quirk on another student. Jayluf knew his claws were able to tear through metal robots like they were made of nothing.

His eyes wandered down to his small mitten covered hands. 

One could only imagine what his claws could do to the human body.

Chapter Text

After Midoriya's battle, time seemingly moved along at a somewhat bizarre haze, mainly because of the fact his mind was still in the slow process of sorting out the previous events that had transpired just a few minutes ago. Excessive amounts of information in a short period of time was either something he could handle easily, or with great difficulty, depending on what type of information was at play. Things like new smells and tastes were overwhelming to him, but at the same time his cells didn't have as much trouble absorbing them and storing them, due to them being simply physician sensations.

When it came to matters such as spoken information in large volumes in a small span however, it was when it would usually begin to cause his cells to be overwhelmed, forcing them to separate into smaller groups to try and transfer everything smoothly as possible. Speaking of information, Yaoyorozu had certainly provided his brain with plenty of new information to juggle at once, due to her rather lengthy lecture during their brief debate in front of the class earlier. Even after being given time to stew on it and was slowly starting to sort things out, he couldn’t help but still find it rather difficult to make sense of her words and logic. 

Eventually, after careful consideration of Yaoyorozu’s advice, and applying it to the current situation at hand, Jayluf came to an eventual conclusion. 

He was in the right. Even after comparing Yaoyorozu’s words, Jayluf still felt his reasons were more logical, at least compared to what Yaoyorozu had said. He really did try to see it from her point of view, but it just wouldn’t click for him, no matter how hard he tried. Midoriya was the major reason why he was unable to change his mind.

When the other teams had been set up to fight, Jayluf had paid little attention, the battles passing by at a blur to him, due to him not being focused on them the slightest. In all honesty, he did not care for them, the most interaction he had was standing in silence alongside the other students as they all watched each battle take place one by one. Some of the fights had appeared to be somewhat fair, both sides having an even amount of power in regards to their quirks.

Others however, were horribly one sided, the prime example being when a student wearing a costume that appeared to be half ice and half fire had instantly taken down the villain team by freezing over the entire building at the start of the match, not even allowing the villain team to gain their bearings and instantly holding them in place. They had to watch as the ice boy nonchalantly walked up to the weapon, and gently touched it, giving the hero team the win.

Although Jayluf wasn't too focused on them, he was well aware now of the fact that multiple students in his class had extremely powerful quirks, and made his own quirk look quite insignificant. He wasn't threatened or afraid in the slightest, but he knew it was something to be probably vigilant of. 

However time seemed to instantly return back to normal when he'd been snapped out of his trance by All Might, who announced that it was now time for Jayluf's team to battle. It had been somewhat of a slap to the face when he'd been promptly informed that he was to be on the villain side, not the hero, which was not very nice news to receive. He’d stared at the floor for several moments as All Might had continued to speak. Even if I am on the villain team, I will not act as a villain. I will not act as Bakugo has.

His team was called "Team J'', and was composed of three students, one obviously being himself, and the other two being two other students he hadn't met yet. Heeding Mina’s words from before, he tried to pay attention, and this tjme he had managed to actually catch their names from All Might. The one with the spiky hair and sharp teeth was named “Ejiro Kirishima”, whose costume was rather lacking, and was more aesthetic than function. The second student, the one with the jet black hair was called “Hanta Sero”, his costume was a strange black and white, the chest area resembling teeth, and wore a strange helmet with a reflective visor that could be flipped upwards to expose his face.

Their opponents on the hero side were from Team H, the heroes being two students. Fukimage Tokoyami, who’s costume was more of a black coat instead of a costume, almost like a shadow of some sort. Alongside him was a girl completely clad in green, a girl named “Tsuyu Asui '', who wore rather bizarre headgear that didn’t appear to serve any purpose besides possibly holding her hair up in a similar fashion to how Jayluf’s hood did.

Before they had all exited the room to make way to the battle arena, Jayluf had been stopped by Mina, Iida, and Uraraka, who all wished him good luck in his match, and reassured him that Midoriya would be fine, even if he didn’t come to the rest of today’s classes. 

Only managing a halfhearted nod, Jayluf simply turned and trailed behind All Might and the strangers that were to be his allies in this “real battle”, still unable to stop himself from thinking about Midoriya’s condition. Upon arrival they’d been given a speech about taking the fight “seriously” and the mention of that tired phrase of “real battle”. When the Pro Hero brought up the subject matter of them thinking and acting like villains, Jayluf had instinctively tuned that out, blankly staring forwards until his superior had finished speaking.

When they had been allowed to enter the building, they’d been provided with a location of the weapon they needed to protect, along with the tape and the strange ear radio device, which was turned on and off via pressure from two fingers on the top and bottom. Jayluf experimentally played with the device, listening to the clicking sound of it being switched on and off being somewhat enduring as he fidgeted with the foreign object. However, he did not get to play with it for long.

“Well!” said the black haired student from the side as he touched the weapon.  “All Might said we’ve got five whole minutes to prepare? That’s fair. You two can call me Sero!”

The spiky red hair from before gave a strange gesture where his hand was balled into a fist, and his thumb was pointed upwards. “Nice! I’m Kirishima! Looks like we’re a team of three, so that definitely gives us an advantage with numbers! Good to be introduced to ya properly Sero!” he glanced downwards to Jayluf, who said not a word.

Jayluf blinked indifferently, his face not betraying a hint of whatever he was feeling. 

Despite appearing to be slightly put off by the hollow stare, Kirishima still maintained a friendly grin. “And uh, nice to meet you too. It was Jayluf, right?”

Jayluf nodded. “That is correct. Do you want to be friends?”

Kirishima’s right eyebrow moved upwards. “Huh?”

“You know what my name is, and I know what your name is.” Jayluf explained as a matter of factly. “By that logic, that makes us friends, correct?”

Before Kirishima could respond, Sero held up a finger. “Jayluf, I uh, I don’t think Kirishima is automatically your friend just because you and him swapped names…”

Wait… what? Jayluf stopped, looking directly at Sero. “What…? Is this not how friends are made?”

“W-Well," Sero stutered. "I uh, I’ll be honest, not exac-”

“Aw come on, don't be like that!" Kirishima cut Sero off abruptly, his grin from earlier returning. “Ashido thinks you're cool, so I'll trust her judgment and say you're cool too! After all, we’re both gonna be heroes together right? Wanting to create bonds with your fellow students is a pretty manly thing to do!"

"Okay." Jayluf replied, giving only a gentle nod. 

Sero only managed a weak shrug. "Um… alright I guess?"

“Cool!” Kirishima exclaimed, his hand clenching into a fist as he held it up. “Also Jayluf I uh, saw you made friends with Ashido earlier, right? Funny story, I actually kinda know her myself! Although me mentioning her before probably gave that away, heh.”

The information sounded somewhat interesting to Jayluf. I had not seen them interact at all. He tilted his head inquisitive, keen to learn more. “So you are Ashido’s friend?”

“Well, yeah! Technically!” Kirishima’s grin suddenly appeared to be more forced, as he rubbed the back of his head. “W-We kinda went to the same school, and one time there was a villain, and then we actually sat by each other on the day of the entrance exam, it’s a bit of a long story, which I wish I could tell, but since we’re on the clock, it’ll have to wait.”

Immediately Jayluf glanced downwards, to see the only thing below them was only the floor, and nothing else. “But we’re not standing on any clocks," he pointed out.

Kirishima frowned. "Huh?"

"Anyways," Sero quickly butt in. "Now that we've got… whatever that was out of the way, I think it's fair to say that now would be an excellent plan to come up with some sort of plan." He suddenly gained a wide grin on his face. "Although that is if we even need one in the first place. It's three of us versus two of them, it's basically a guaranteed win for sure!"

"Nah," Kirishima replied, shaking his head with his eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed in a pensive expression. "I disagree with that, one hundred percent. One of the things I learned in the past is to never underestimate anyone, doubly so when quirks are involved. That one ice kid being a prime example. It would probably not be a very smart move to just assume they'd throw in the towel because we have Jayluf in tow."

Sero shrugged. "Okay, fine then. So plans… Maybe an ambush? Hide somewhere and then jump out and wipe the floor with them?"

Kirishima scoffed, crossing his arms. "Come on man, an ambush is unmanly, and you know it. Besides, we're all on camera, and even if the other students can't hear a word we're saying, they'll all see if we just hide in a corner to take a cheap shot." His lips curved upwards.  "My quirk doesn't do the whole hiding shtick! It’s to face the oncoming danger, head on!"

"Alright then," Sero said. "But even if we do attack them head on, we can't just leave the weapon by itself. If one of them managed to find it unguarded, it's game over." He frowned, putting a hand to his chin. "But we can't be at two places at once…"

Suddenly, Sero's eyes lit up. "Unless… maybe we could?"

"What do you mean?" Kirishima blurted out. "What are you playing at?" 

Jayluf tilted his head, also somewhat interested in what Sero had just suggested. Two places at once? Did one of their quirks allow them to do such a thing? Did they make a copy of themselves? "How do you propose we accomplish this? Do you have a quirk that can accomplish this task?" 

"No no," Sero quickly stuttered out. "I don't mean literally, I was kind of hinting that maybe one of us could go out by themselves, and y'know, scout the building out and look for the heroes?"

"Wait, wait," Kirishima said quickly, his hands raised. "Slow down. You mean like, one of us to leave the room here and go out there, completely isolated from the rest of the team, while two of us wait by the weapon?"

Sero smiled. "Yeah! Exactly! And uh, actually…" he slowly rotated his body to face Jayluf. "I actually was thinking… maybe you could be the guy to go take point and stake out the area, while me and Kirishima defend the weapon incase of them getting to us first?"

Jayluf blinked. "Take point?" 

"Yeah!" Sero exclaimed, an excited smile now prominent on his face. "Look, hear me out. We've got these radio gizmos thingies, right? Which means that even if we're all split up somehow, we all would have a clear way of communication!" He threw a glance towards Kirishima. "And like you said, we can't underestimate these guys at all, so what if we had Jayluf sneaking around out there, reporting stuff about the enemy team! Like what they were doing, or where they were going, or how close they were to us, that kind of thing. It'd be a huge help!"

Kirishima paused for several seconds, considering Sero's idea. "But what if he gets spotted by the hero team?"

Sero looked back down at Jayluf. "Well, even if Jayluf gets found out, he can still allow us to prepare ahead of time by giving us a heads up on where they are and what they might be up to before he presumably gets captured. Or um, pummeled."

Whatever intrigue that had been on Kirishima’s face had completely vanished at the last part, his expression now being one of pure disgust. "Bro, what!? That's not very manly at all!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Sero quickly squeaked out in fear, his hands raised in surrender by his head. "Relax! It's just a suggestion, and the outcome is one that could probably happen! It's not the worst idea anyway, like there's three if us, which is even more of a reason to have someone utilize the third number in an intelligent way! Better two of us guard the weapon, and there's no harm in getting to know what they're doing via eyes out there before they actually get here, right?"

"Still," Kirishima countered, his disgruntled expression still not being completely gone, "you could maybe, I don't know, maybe think about acting somewhat considerate to Jayluf before you suggest throwing a fellow classmate to the wolves?"

For some bizarre reason the very last word of Kirishima’s sentence seemed suddenly extremely intriguing to Jayluf, causing him to perk up slightly in curiosity. Wolves? Something about that sounds… familiar. 

"Look, look," Sero said in an attempt to dissuade Kirishima’s irritated state, "that last part just slipped out, okay? I'm sorry. If it bothers Jayluf that much, then we can do something else.

Effectively being pulled out from his trance, Jayluf quickly snapped out of it and looked back up towards Sero. "It does not bother me."

"Oh r-really?" Sero blurted out, caught off guard at Jayluf's sudden cooperation. "I mean uh, sure, yeah! Of course it doesn't, it's a good plan!"

Kirishima warily eyed Sero as he turned to face Jayluf. "Are you sure man? You can just wait with us if you want, or ask if someone else could go instead of you. There's no shame in it if you feel like you're being pressured or forced into this."

Jayluf angled his head towards Kirishima as he used a mitten covered hand to scratch at an itch on his face. "It is the best tactical move."

Kirishima stared for several moments, his pensive look from earlier returning, looking as if he wanted to argue or add more. Eventually, his features relaxed. "Alright, fine. If you wanna go out there, I won't stop you." He smiled. "Pretty manly to go by yourself, Jayluf! Just remember to use your radio, alright? We gotta keep tabs on each other and stuff during this battle."

Jayluf nodded in affirmation. "I will keep you updated on whatever findings I encounter."

"Great!" Called out Sero, who suddenly pumped a fist into the air. "Then we got ourselves a plan, team!"

Kirishima could only offer a half hearted shrug. "I suppose we do. Better than no plan I guess? Although, we should discuss how we're going to fight together if they reach us, Sero."

But before they could start swapping information about their quirks or fighting styles, a blaring horn sounded from somewhere outside, indicating the start of the current match.

"Crap, already?!" Sero cried out in shock, his eyes going wide. "Five minutes felt like one minute, ugh!  Guess we'll just have to have to be quicker about that. Alright Jayluf, are you ready to go?" 

"Affirmative." Jayluf said, turning and exiting out of the room without saying another word. 

As the two remaining students watched Jayluf slink out of the room, Sero raised an eyebrow. "He's kind of a weirdo dull guy, isn't he?"

Kirishima responded with a disapproving side eye.

The hallways in the building seemed almost endless to Jayluf as he tread onwards through, the walls stretching forever with no end in sight, and when he did find a turn, it would start all over again. The only signs of it not being an endless path were the occasional empty room that did not appear to serve any purpose, and how each floor had a staircase. Even if there was no sign of the enemy team, Jayluf was still extremely vigilant of the possibility of running into them, his eyes continuously scanning every single wall, floor, and ceiling he came across.

The only thing really worth mentioning was that there was always a corner he would sometimes turn into, and see that this specific hallway was structurally the same exact hallway Bakugo had attacked Midoirya in during their fight. He could still see Bakugo's crazy smile, hands still sparking and popping.

His hand twitched. He wouldn’t be like what Bakugo was. A villain. It didn’t matter what he was supposed to be here in this battle, he refused to act in such a horrid way. He would be on the “villains” for this scenario, sure. But he would not be a villain.

Occasionally, his teammates Kirishima and Sero would speak to him through the small radio in his ear, eager to hear if he had any updates to give them in regards to the enemy. Three times in a row he had to reply that nothing had been found, and each time they sounded more and more dismayed. Jayluf wondered what the hero team was planning, especially considering that neither party had run into each other yet. Would they have an ambush? A frontal attack head on? There were so many routes and ways to use, it was only a matter of time before they-

Turning a corner, he froze on the spot.

On the right wall, was someone STICKING to the wall, as if it was completely normal. It was a female student clad in a green costume.  The arm sections had black stripes, outlined by smaller yellow lines on either side of the black one. Her large hands were covered with light brown colored gloves, accompanied by strange wrist rings. On her feet were strange shoes that resembled the feet of some strange animal that he didn’t recognize. Yet at the same time, it looked sort of familiar to Jayluf. 

As Jayluf continued staring, he saw that her head had dark green hair, being held in place by some strange headgear that seemed to resemble goggles of some sort. Her face had wide, blank eyes that upon landing on him, froze and peered at him blankly.

For several moments, neither party moved, both simply staring at the other with a blank, disinterested, flat expression, either too surprised to speak, or just waiting for the other to make the first move.

After a painful ten seconds had passed, the girl suddenly raised a finger to her ear, pressing inwards. "Tokoyami," she spoke, her voice monotone and emotionless, "I found one of them who's all by himself. The one in blue. Jayluf, I think. Yeah, the little guy with the mittens."

Oh right. We all have radios, not just the villain team. Calmly imitating her actions, he raised his own hand to his ear, feeling for the round metallic device. "Sero, Kirishima. A warning, I believe they have split up."

"What makes you say that?" Kirishima's voice echoed from the radio speaker. 

"Because I have found one. The green girl." What had been her name again? Jayluf honestly couldn't recall, his attention span had been all over the place. 

"Whoa!" Sero called. "So they split up?! Aw crap, what if he's headed for us?! Either he's an idiot, or his quirk is something scary! Especially if he thinks he can beat us by himself!"

"Relax man, we'll be ready!" Kirishima quickly said. "Jayluf, good luck! We'll keep you posted if he decides to show up near us!"

"Affirmative." He switched off the radio. 

"The green girl?" The frog girl said suddenly, loving her hand back to the wall. "For your information, this green girl has a name, you know. That name being Asui Tsuyu." 

Despite her words seemingly indicating that she was offended by Jayluf's forgetfulness, her expression or voice did not change or waver in the slightest. 

"I am aware of you having a name, Asui." Jayluf replied coolly, the new name feeling weird on his tongue. "I was merely unable to remember it properly."

Asui blinked. "Oh? Am I just that forgettable?" she questioned. "Or are you just trying to anger me into a reckless attack?"

"I did not say you are forgettable." Jayluf countered. "Only that I was unable to remember your name."

"That's basically the same thing." Asui pointed out. 

"I disagree." Jayluf replied.

"If you say so," said Asui, thoroughly unconvinced. "Still, it's a good thing I found you. Judging from your one sided conversation, your other two teammates are guarding the weapon. You being here instead of with them will definitely make it easier for Tokoyami, considering he only has to deal with two people now instead of three. Looks like splitting up was indeed the right choice here, ribbit."

So they thought of it as well… Jayluf slowly raised his mitten covered fists in a fighting stance. "My team thought the same, so I suppose it is indeed an optimal strategy to use in a scenario such as this."

In response to his threatening posture, Asui simply clung to the wall as she peered down at him in an almost bored manner, completely unintimidated at his stance. Her eyes soon wandered lower and lower until they landed on Jayluf's mittens. "Hmm... Aren't you going to use your quirk? Your claws, I mean. I remember you using them yesterday"

Her inquiry made Jayluf hesitate, his eyes flickering down to his currently raised fists. The question had made his cells inside him warily squirm about, uncertain if they were about to be utilized for transformation and combat related purposes. My claws…

Would he use those claws? The very same claws that he used during the entrance exam. The same claws that sliced, maimed, and ripped apart metal and steel robots as if they had been held together by paper and glue. If he were to try using those claws on a person, a living, breathing, squishy person…

He shook his head. "Negative. I will not use my quirk on you, Asui. Nor will I ever."

Asui tilted her head, it being the only indication of the slightest amount of surprise at Jayluf's answer. "You're seriously telling me that you're not going to use your main and basically only method of attack in a fight?"

He nodded. "Correct."

Suddenly, Asui began to make a strange movement, where she bent down even closer to the wall she currently clung to, causing Jayluf to pause. Was she going to attack?

"Then that is a very foolish decision on your part, Jayluf." Asui said.

And abruptly the girl launched herself forwards, using her powerful legs to propel herself off the wall in a surprise attack, and when she was in mid air she twisted her entire body around to where her heeled feet were now aimed directly towards Jayluf. 

While he was in no way a master in hand to hand combat or martial arts in general, Jayluf was no fool. He had enough brain functionality and knowledge of combat to recognize an oncoming surprise attack, and to have the sense to dodge it. Quickly angling his body to the side, he just barely managed to avoid a solid plastic heel embedding itself in his jaw, feeling the wind against his cheek as the heel sliced through the air.

With seemingly inhumane reflexes, Asui immediately adjusted her body again in order to make a smoother landing on her feet. But Jayluf wouldn't just sit idly by and wait for her to recover. While he wouldn't hurt her, he wouldn’t just allow her to attack him freely. Twisting himself around, he clenched his left fist, and rammed the knuckle straight into Asui's back as hard as he could.

Unfortunately, even with how hard he had thrown the punch, his arm had no real strength, due to his tiny build and even tinier muscles. His quirks Bio-Form was the direct causality for muscle gain in the first place, and without it, he had little strength at his disposal. 

POMF

With no muscle, there was no loud sound of a direct hit, or the sound of a fist striking a spin, instead the only sound audible was the sound of a fist cushioned by soft thick cotton making contact with a polyester costume. It was less of a punch, and more like a slightly harsh push.

Asui was sent stumbling only a mere foot from where she had originally been standing, allowing her to quickly recover to regain her balance. She whirled around to face Jayluf. "What on earth was that? Was that supposed to be a punch?" She said incredulously. "I barely felt that. Do you have absolutely no muscles in those arms?"

"It is merely because of my quirk," Jayluf explained as he readjusted his stance. "My quirk which allows my claws to grow is also what allows rapid muscle swelling. Without it, I am just at my normal strength." 

Instead of immediate retaliation, Asui looked at him for several seconds before she responded. “So, is there a specific reason why you won’t use your quirk on me?”

“I have no desire to hurt you.” Jayluf said plainly, which was true. He would “fight”, if that's what All Might wanted, but he wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

Asui’s head tilted to the side ever so slightly. “So… you’re saying you’re holding back on purpose, because you think you’ll hurt me?” Her eyelids lowered. “Let me guess, because I’m a girl, right? I do not like being underestimated, ribbit.” Without saying another word, she threw a quick kick with her right leg towards Jayluf.

Jayluf had only barely managed to throw his arms up as a makeshift barrier to absorb the impact, which sent him stumbling backwards in a rather clumsy manner. “I…I am not under… esti… mate ing.” He replied as he regained his footing to recover from the hit. He’d heard that word before, but it still felt rather odd on his tongue as he forced out each syllable. “Nor does it matter that you are a girl. I just do not wish any harm on you, because I am not a villain.” He threw a punch with his right arm, but this time Asui had seen it coming from a mile away, she angled herself backwards, easily avoiding the clumsily performed strike.

“You’re not a villain?” she repeated. “I’m pretty sure All Might said otherwise earlier, when he held up your name that came from the villain box, and not the hero one.” 

Jayluf thrusted his torso backwards to avoid Asui's next kick, this one being aimed at his stomach. It seemed Asui favored her legs when it came to physical attacks. “It does not matter to me what All Might says. To harm a fellow student here, that is the sort of action a villain would perform, not a hero. I will not do such things, even if the school wants me to.”

Before Jayluf could retaliate with another possible swing or kick of his own, Asui had stepped backwards out of range, almost as if she’d sensed his intentions. “You do realize,” she began, “that fighting one another is literally part of the current assignment, yes? The assignment that they will literally grade us on?”

“I do.” Jayluf said, undeterred by the underlying threat of a bad grade. That was probably the least of his worries for today.

His response seemed to give Asui pause, as if she hadn’t been expecting such an answer. “That’s a very quick way to fail a subject, and considering what subject we’re currently on right now, I think it is one you should very much want NOT to fail. Especially considering it’s the literal first week of school.”

Attempting to take her off guard, Jayluf decided to lash out with a boot covered foot, which Asui didn’t foresee. The boot planted itself into her stomach, sending her stumbling sideways into the wall. “It does not matter to me,” Jayluf said. “If failure is the end result of my actions, then so be it. I will not harm innocents, no matter what the school says. I will not be like Bakugo.”

Suddenly using the wall she had been leaning against as support, Asui lunged forward, changing it up herself by using her fist instead of her foot, which made contact with Jayluf’s chest, sending him to the floor. Crawling backwards to avoid any more punches, she stood on all fours as she peered at him. “What? Like Bakugo? What do you mean you won’t be like Bakugo?”

Slowly rising to his feet, Jayluf temporarily used his Cell Command to dull the aching in his chest. He looked back up to face Asui, who was still on her hands and feet, watching him intently. “Bakugo had hurt Midoriya during their battle. Those actions, those are the ones of a villain.” He still remembered the image of his friend’s burnt form. 

Surprisingly, Asui’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “Ah, I see now,” she said. “So that’s what this is all about, is it?”

Attempting one last surprise attack, Jayluf lunged forwards, attempting to take advantage of Asui being on the floor via a kick. But in reality, it was what she had been expecting, for when he had almost reached her location, she suddenly sprang up, jumping all the way to the ceiling, and sticking herself to its surface. Opening her mouth, a pink slimy tendril suddenly lashed out, darting towards Jayluf at a rather incredible speed.  Unable to process what it was in time, Jayluf felt it wrap itself tightly around his body, forcefully pressing his arms to his torso, effectively binding him in place. He eventually realized that this was Asui’s tongue, which seemed to have incredible strength. But it was even stronger than he thought, for it then lifted him up OFF the floor, and all the way up right in front of Asui. 

Now he was suspended quite high off of the ground, which in normal cases, wouldn’t be too much of a concern. But when it came to the hallways of this building, their walls and ceiling were much much higher, several yards, almost half of a story at first glance. His legs dangled helplessly as he glanced to the floor. If Asui decided to drop him, it obviously wouldn’t kill him, but the landing would probably be very unpleasant, doubly so when accounting for his costume offering no real protection.

She used her elongated tongue to bring her target closer... Something about that feels familiar... Slowly angling his head up to face Asui, Jayluf gave her a rather indifferent look. “Are you going to drop me?” He wondered out loud. Although he obviously had no desire to fall, he would prefer if he got a warning before it happened. 

Asui held up a disarming hand. “No, but if you struggle I might accidentally drop you, so don’t do that. But I figured it’s best if we cut the fighting, since constantly swinging and kicking when trying to have a conversation isn’t going to work out too well.”

Jayluf blinked. He hadn’t been expecting that as an answer. “What do you mean? What did you wish to speak of?”

“Bakugo, the hot head.” Asui said. 

Jayluf tilted his head. “What about him?”

“You’re still mad at him, right? You seemed upset with All Might somewhat too as well.”

Emotions were still not something Jayluf himself was too familiar with exactly. “I do not believe I am mad.” In reality, he was simply displeased at the chain of events before, and the actions of Bakugo and All Might being specific parts.

Asui didn’t appear to buy his answer for even a second, her eyebrows rising in doubt. “Is that so? All evidence to the contrary.”

“Evidence? What do you mean?” Jayluf asked, not recognizing the word “contrary”. 

“Earlier,” Asui started, “you began that whole debacle with that girl earlier, I think her name was Yaoyorozu? When she had begun to speak about the villain side, I didn’t hear you let out a single peep. Yet later on, when she began to constructively criticize Midoriya’s team, you didn’t hesitate to give her a piece of your mind. Sound familiar?”

Jayluf didn’t understand what she was trying to imply. “I did not give her any of my brain matter, or any of my organic material in general. And my claim of her criticism being incorrect due to my belief of Bakugo’s actions being wrong is not a sign of me being mad.”

“If you’re truly not mad,” Asui began, “what exactly do you feel about that then?”

“It is simple,” Jayluf said as a matter of factly. “In regards to what happened between Midoriya and Bakugo, I believe that All Might, Yaoyorozu, and Bakugo are all in the wrong. I believe that I am in the right.”

“That much is obvious,” Asui muttered. “The part about you thinking you’re right part.”

Even with her monotone voice, Jayluf still thought she did not believe him. “Do you believe I am in the wrong in this?”

“Well, I didn’t exactly say that,” Asui hummed, dipping her head forwards slightly in an incredulous manner. “I will say that from what little I’ve seen of Bakugo in action, it’s safe to assume that he gets angry very easily, almost too easy actually. He definitely has a temper, and has a lack of self control emotionally. Although there’s no excuse for the stunt he pulled with that grenade gauntlet of his earlier, especially considering that it even got All Might himself worried. He strikes me as the type of person who would not claim any sort of responsibility for his lack of self control.”

“So,” Jayluf began, slightly taken off guard by her agreeing. “You agree with me, in regards to what Bakugo did during the battle?”

“To an extent,” Asui quickly corrected. “But in regards to what All Might did, I can completely agree that he should have pulled the plug on the whole fight early instead of waiting.”

“Pulled the plug?”

“It means that he should have stopped it before.”

Jayluf looked down in thought. “So… you also agree that All Might too, was in the wrong?”

“Well, yes, and no.” Asui said. “I just personally believe he could have handled it much better, not to mention more professionally. All things considered, he did kind of fumble it quite badly.” She glanced to the side momentarily.  “Honestly, I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t end up being a PR disaster, or a legal disaster.”

“Pee… arr?”

“But anyways,” Asui continued, “the point I am trying to make here is that while you and Yaoyorozu were both busy arguing, neither of you didn’t even think to address what is probably the most obvious factor of the whole situation.”

Jayluf blinked. “We… addressed all of them already, did we not?”

Surprisingly, Asui shook her head. “No, we did not. What neither of you mentioned, was the possibility that All Might maybe, just maybe, merely made a mistake. Ever consider that?”

His thoughts coming to a crashing halt, Jayluf attempted to process what Asui had just said to him. What had she just said? “What?”

“Look, both sides of the argument were one sided and uninformed. Yaoyorozu seemed convinced that whatever All Might chose to do, he was in the right, and that we should blindly follow whatever choice he made since he’s our teacher and the Number One Hero.” She gestured to Jayluf with her left hand, somehow not losing her grip on the ceiling. “On your side, while you believed that he was in the wrong, you also seemed to be convinced that All Might purposefully continued the battle out of pure malice towards Midoriya instead of simply calling it off. Both of you were so focused on who was right and who was wrong, neither of you saw that it was just an obvious mistake, and nothing more than just that. A mistake.”

A mistake… It made sense to Jayluf, but at the same time it didn’t. He obviously disagreed with All Might’s choices, even if it was “right”, but the idea of the Number One Hero making a mistake sounded unheard of. “All Might… making a mistake? But he can't make mistakes… can he?”

“Why not?” Asui retorted quickly.

“Because…” Jayluf began, unsure of his answer. “He is the Number One Hero, is he not?”

Asui stared for a second before she finally seemed to absorb what he said. “Jayluf, do you really think All Might isn’t capable of making mistakes because he’s the Number One Hero?”

While Jayluf obviously disagreed with what All Might did, he was still conflicted since Yaoyorozu portrayed as All Might being the one to never make a mistake. “I… don’t know?”

Asui shook her head. “If you honestly think that All Might isn’t capable of messing up, like ever, you have a very unhealthy and unrealistic mindset.” 

“I… have an unhealthy mind?”

In a rare moment of showing emotion, Asui let out a frustrated sigh. “Jayluf, do you even realize what you’re saying right now at this very moment?”

Having no idea what she was trying to say, Jayluf could only shake his head. 

“Look,” Asui said in an exasperated tone, “what you need to understand is that while yes, All Might is indeed the Number One Hero, he also happens to be something that you and I are as well. Do you know what that is?”

“We are all…” Jayluf began. “Heroes?”

A look of disbelief flashed on Asui’s face before it quickly vanished, being replaced by her normal blank expression. “No. What we all have in common, is that we are all human.”

Human. The word echoed in Jayluf’s mind loudly, the word so unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. Human. Yes, of course, I am a human too! Why did he hesitate to believe that for a moment? He shook the thought from his head. “H-Human?”

“Yes…” Asui said slowly, as if explaining a concept to a child. “We are all human here, and do you know what that means?”

Jayluf had no idea how to answer that question. What did it mean to be a human? There were so many factors in being a human, where was he supposed to start for this sort of thing? "We… are alive?"

His answer seemed to make Asui deflate slightly. "No Jayluf… it means that because we're all human, it means we're all capable of making mistakes. Even someone like All Might can make a mistake every once in a while, no matter how hard they try. It's simply in our nature as humans." 

"So… you are meaning to say that All Might refusing to stop the battle was not because he wanted Midoriya hurt," Jayluf said as he looked up to Asui, "but instead because he made a mistake?"

"It's a very likely reason why he made the decision he did." She rubbed the back of her head with her right hand. "While I obviously can't say with complete certainty, because I don't know what All Might is thinking, just that I think him goofing up is more probable than what you thought."

"But…" Jayluf began. "Shouldn't he not make mistakes?" 

"Of course," Asui quickly said. "He definitely should be setting the best example for all the students here. But remember, All Might isn't a perfect hero. No one is perfect, no matter how hard they try to be. In their line of work, Pro Heroes are bound to eventually mess up. It's basically inevitable for them. Problem is, they happen to usually succeed a lot more than mess up. While it is a good thing, such a clean track record also comes with an unfortunate side effect; expectations.”

“Expectations?” Jayluf echoed.  

Asui nodded. “The more a Pro Hero flawlessly performs, the more the average civilian will begin to expect them to always be that way, flawless with no mistakes or mess ups. And with the Number One Hero, everyone basically expects him to make absolutely no mistakes. Almost all of Japan’s population expects him to be the utmost perfect hero, with not a smudge or stain to deter the ‘perfect’ status they’ve given him.”

“Should they not expect him to be the best hero?” Jayluf inquired. All Might was the Number One for a reason, was he not?”

“I never said specifically,” Asui countered. “I’m just saying that to expect a single person to be absolutely perfect, with no flaws or imperfections is a very bad thing to do. Combined with the fact that society already as a whole basically expects no errors from All Might, you all are unknowingly placing a colossal weight onto his shoulders, which can become a great burden over time.”

Jayluf stopped. “A… burden?”

“Yes. And shouldering a burden like that can slowly eat away at a person’s integrity. I don’t mean to assume obviously, but while he’s smiling for the cameras and the fans while handing out autographs with a friendly thumbs up, every move he makes is under the watchful eyes of thousands or even millions of people. Those same people are the ones unintentionally adding to his burden by expecting him to be perfect.”

“Do you think I am adding to his burden?” Jayluf questioned. He didn’t like the idea of being a reason why All Might messed up. 

“Yes and no, like I just said, it’s basically unintentionally.” Asui adjusted her posture slightly, shifting her legs slightly back more. “I honestly can’t blame you, given the amount of borderline propaganda on television and the internet about how great All Might is and how he’s basically untouchable, and I haven’t even touched upon how said propaganda is basically completely unneeded when you see how powerful All Might really is. Defeating a villain with a single strike and changing the weather forecast? It’s no surprise that people would eat that stuff up.”

“So… how do I not add to the burden?” Jayluf said hesitantly. 

Asui lifted a finger. “Well, start by lowering your expectations. When expectations get inflated to that level, a single mistake can make people react rather… negatively. It can get to the point where a person could go from a highly respected person to purely being defined by their failure. It was what you almost did earlier, with Yaoyorozu, by causing unintentional collateral damage.”

“Damage?” Jayluf repeated, “Who had I damaged? I do not remember attacking anyone there…”

“Earlier. When you suggested that All Might continued the test because he wanted Midoriya to be hurt specifically. But All Might would never want a student to be hurt on purpose, and knowingly causing someone pointless suffering is literally torture.”

Torture… Jayluf remembered when the researcher had come into his room, and began to use his medical incision tools to slice his skin open, and while it hurt, it was for their research, so what they did to him by definition, was not torture then. “I see…”

“And what you failed to do as well was to consider the environment and people around you before you began to speak. Think about it,” Asui said while holding up a hand, gesturing to everything around them. “We have all literally just begun our school year here at U.A., and everyone in this class are basically strangers to one another. No one really knows each other that well, meaning no one really trusts each other yet at all, because we have yet to form such a bond.”

Jayluf looked down. “Are you saying… that I should never speak my mind?”

“No, I didn’t say that,” Asui replied sternly, poking Jayluf on his forehead. “Don’t twist my words. I just mean that you shouldn't ALWAYS speak your mind, no matter the situation. As someone who always speaks what comes to my mind usually, I learned that there are certain times when speaking openly about your thoughts on something is not a good idea. Or that there are certain times when just speaking about a specific topic on your mind in general is not that great of a move either. When I did speak when I wasn’t supposed to, there were consequences.”

“So… I said something wrong then?” Jayluf assumed. 

“Yes,” Asui said. “While you were right about All Might being wrong for what he did during the battle, what you suggested about him wanting Midoriya to be hurt, a rumor like that can easily spread. And rumors like that are prone to spread unease and mistrust, especially between the students and the school itself, and damaging the connection that basically keeps a school functional would have dire consequences.”

Jayluf stared in surprise. He honestly had not been expecting that to be a risk just because of him speaking his thoughts to defend his friend. “So I’ve damaged the connection between the school and the students in our class?”

“Well not yet,” Asui quickly reassured. “But if you continue to act that sort of way, it might just happen over time. Better not to risk it, right?”

“Then… What should I do?” Jayluf asked. He didn’t want to cause harm to the school itself, nor did he think that what he did could cause such damage.

“Well, I’d suggest maybe changing your way of thinking. Yaoyorozu was half right when she asked for you to maybe change how you thought or saw things, but she was wrong with the reasoning to do so.”

“What do you suggest I do then?”

“Maybe instead of constantly calling out and focusing on what All Might did wrong, maybe try to address it directly to him in a less crowded room. And probably apologize, if you can. Because it was a rather rude thing to do, even if you didn't mean to be rude, it was kind of in poor taste."

"Apologize? Even though-"

"I know," Asui quickly cut in. "I know. But consider that in the situation that happened, there is no one in the one hundred percent wrong, but that doesn't mean you, Yaoyorozu, or All Might were in the complete right either." She gestured towards the wall. "Everyone could have done something to handle the situation better. It would be best for everyone if we try to amend the already fragile trust between the students and teachers. We have to be willing to work together for the future, as heroes."

Jayluf stewed silently on her speech. So, not everyone was completely wrong, but at the same time not completely right either?

"Look at it this way, Jayluf. All Might is the Number One Hero, right? Someone who would protect the innocent and stop them from being harmed. What do you think is more likely? All Might willingly allowing a fight to continue because he wants one of his own students to get blown up and their arm broken? Or unpleasant consequences happening because of him simply making an error in his judgment about the students that he knows next to nothing about, because he's known them for like an hour?"

There was some sense to Asui’s words, oddly enough. She was acknowledging that All Might had made an error, and wasn’t the correct one in this scenario. But perhaps he had indeed made a mistake, and didn’t mean harm to Midoriya? It made sense to Jayluf. I guess even Pro Heroes can make bad mistakes… “Perhaps you may be correct… but…” Something still felt off. Something in him didn’t want to just brush aside what had happened. It clung to his mind and wouldn’t let go.

Asui seemed to have caught on to how he was feeling. “Jayluf, I can tell that you’re still emotionally bothered about it, and I’m not saying to forget about it. I understand something like this can’t just be moved past immediately, and you might need a bit of time to move on from those emotions. I just do not wish for you to be continuously acting based on emotion, like Yaoyorozu had said. Even if someone does something that seems completely out of character, don’t immediately assume the worst case scenario of them being a bad person or something, especially when you don’t know all the facts.”

Jayluf thought about it. “So… Do you think I should apologize?”

“That would be a good start, I should think.” Asui replied.

“Do you think All Might will accept it?”

She shrugged. “I’d like to think so. It is All Might after all. And I think he might be more understanding of your viewpoint, now that he’s heard it from your point of view properly. After all…”  She turned her head to look at something to the side, Jayluf following suite to see what appeared to be one of the strange boxes on the wall. A security camera. “He’s been listening to every word we’ve been saying during the start of this whole discussion.” Asui stated. “I remembered that he’s able to hear everything we say over the radio, and while you shut yours off, I may have left mine on accidentally. I wonder what he’s thinking right now.””

Silence.

Then suddenly, All Might’s booming voice came over the intercom. “HERO TEAM, WIIIIIIINS!”

She tilted her head. “Hm. Interesting, I guess Tokoyami managed to handle your teammates. Anyways Jayluf, do you think you can do that from now on?”

Jayluf, not caring about the loss due to him being dizzy from even more information as his cells hurriedly worked together to try and effortlessly store the data, nodded. “I suppose you are somewhat right. I’ll try changing, and I apologize for not thinking straight.”

“Thanks. It might be hard,” Asui hummed. “But I think you’ll be able to pull through.”

Blinking, Jayluf tilted his head curiously. “Do you want to be friends, Asui?”

Asui had a small smile on her face. “Call me Tsu, ribbit.”

That's it for this chapter, check below for the notes! But this is added here because I completely forgot to add the Miss Hunee/Jayluf reference picture with the accompanying color palette I used for each one! So here's Miss Hunee, in all of her glory! BOOM! 

Chapter Text

Hey guys! I'm finally happy to announce that this fic has it's own tumblr! It's the first tumblr I made for a fic, so it's pretty exciting to me! It's main purpose is mainly interactions/art posting for chapters, since sometimes art doesn't work here on AO3, and for my fanfiction readers! (Since fanfic net does not allow images, bleh!) I usually check it every once in awhile every day, but I'm not an active poster right now (Like I'll use it always for my art posting, and will interact if the rare chance a fan interacts with me on there obviously, I just don't make posts/reblog every day XD) 

So, if you're interested or mildly curious, my new Tumblr is @pixienohken  If you wanna come and say hello or something, idk, I'll respond the best I can (as long as its not flaming or hating XD) Whether you wanna ask a question about the story, or my OC's in said story, or in the rare case maybe fanart, you can my tumblr with that @!

Now onto the second part and arguably more important of this post, you read the title right, this fic actually has FANART! I'm still so excited that it happened, and I'm so happy I finally get to show you all! I've never gotten fanart in my ten plus years of writing crappy fanfiction, so this is legit a first and a gamechanger, and honestly changed my entire viewpoint on this story! 

The first ever fanart was given to me by a very kind person by the name of BadEye, and I'd like to shout out their tumblr @badeyeingir where they've posted the arts that they've given me permission to repost here, which I'm about to! They've also given me permission to make this shoutout post itself obviously! They drew multiple pieces of Jayluf, and one of Miss Hunee! (Like I said this is the first fanart I've ever recieved so I'm like super thrilled and if I'm feeling down I'll go and look at the art and it's just AHHHH I love it so much! If you can, please maybe check them out! They draw awesome dragon stuff and some MHA stuff as well! Also I'll add some flavor text extracted from the chapter to the accompanying picture, just to spice it up! without further ado, here go!

First up is a remade version of my cover art (which is on my tumblr!) And it depicts a chilling (pun not intended) scene of Jayluf in the antartic! I love the backgrounds, it's honestly gorgeous, and Jayluf's face staring right at the camera is honestly spooky stuff! (This won't have the flavor text since it's not a scene :P but the next ones will)

Next up is Jayluf himself, who is ever so cute and super smol, even when he's right by Midoriya! This is also a reference to that height chart I posted a few weeks back. Fun fact, Jayluf is actually 137cm, meaning he's the second smallest in 1-A, but he still towers over poor Mineta XD

He remembered now, he was Jayluf Viller, a human being roughly fourteen years old in human years. Combined with the fact he was a very unimpressive one hundred and thirty seven centimeters tall and was sporting a very thin build, he was not very intimidating to the average person. His skin was creamy pale, not unpleasantly to the point of being gray or seemingly undead like a vampire, but bleached enough to look like he didn't get much sun, which he didn’t. The only plus to the lack of sunlight exposure was that his skin was very smooth, soft, and quite squishy to the touch. 

His hair was a solid black, and while it wasn’t too impressive length wise, it was long enough that it would obscure his eyes from sight if he refused to don a headband. The hair in the back had been allowed more leniency to grow, almost reaching his shoulders. His dull grey eyes were the most peculiar, lacking a certain light that normal human eyes usually held, to the point where some of the people around him in the past had said his eyes sometimes looked like the eyes of a corpse.

This next picture is an honestly amazing scene from chapter three, when Jayluf is in the entrance exam, when we get our first look at Jayluf's Bio-Form claws! I love how they resemble almost swollen wolf claws, and the skin with the blue veins is honestly a gnarly but sick detail which I love! The flesh hanging off is honestly sweet, and almost exactly how I imagined it! It's honestly fantastic, and the fact that someone drew this is just jawdropping! He's gonna go swipe up some bots for sure! TRIGGER WARNING: Blood and Gore, but that was advertised on the fic itself, so you should be expecting such things, right?

Channeling all his focus into his cells, he flexed his arms and hands to give the mental "okay" for his cells. Claws out.

Upon receiving the instructions, his cells near his hands began to move quickly, vibrating violently as they rewrote the genetic structure of muscle, bone, and flesh of his hands. 

His pale hands quickly turned a shade of dark red from the sudden increase of blood, swelling and swelling like a balloon until finally, the skin burst open. His fingers and nails deformed, morphing and stretching themselves out longer and longer, until they resemble thick black claws. His hands were now swollen red clawed weapons, glistening with exposed muscle and blood red flesh. 

Claws are out, his cells informed him cheerily. 

The skin of his hands hung loosely from his wrists like popped balloons. Hissing, he quickly flicked his hands to where the skin would slap against his clawed palms, allowing for quicker reabsorption by his cells for use later. "I'm ready Miss Hunee."

Well, this next one is none other than my other OC, everyone's favorite female scientist, Miss Hunee! Posting this now, it's a reminder that I had forgotten to post the reference picture on the last chapter (Which has been amended, don't worry!) She honestly looks beautiful, and the fact they managed to bring her to life just by using my ehhhh art of her is nothing short of amazing! I love her gentle smile here, and her curly hair is sooo detailed, and I can't get enough of her antennae sticking out like that! XD I hope I can be able to draw on this level! Here she is, in all of her glory, MISS HUNEE!

But while he knew the voice that woke him belonged to a scientist, he recognized it was no ordinary scientist. The feminine, angelic tone told Jayluf exactly who was by his bed. He looked to his left. "Good morning, Doctor Hunee."

Beside his completely white bed stood Doctor Jill Hunee, a thirty year old adult woman with long blonde hair and slightly orangish skin. Even with her flowing locks, they were unable to hide the two antennae that were proudly sprouting out of her head. The fluffy antennae were very soft and flexible, starting thin at the bottom but eventually swelling at the top with a rounded end, not unlike a cartoonist depiction of a bee's antennae. Her white lab coat covered an orange and brown striped sweater that clung to her form. Her eyes, while solid black with no white, had a sparkle in them that helped to make them appear actually somewhat natural.  

"Well good morning Jayluf! And please, you're making me feel like an old crone! I told you to call me Miss Hunee."

Call me cliche, but I decided to save the best for last, and this is honestly my absolute favorite of the bunch. This is Jayluf Viller, fully decked out in his iconic hero costume! I adore how he looks in their artstyle, and this picture is the one I always come back to because I just can't get enough of it! Some people might not like his costume, but just looking here reminds me of how much I love it! Also, they covered a little goof I just realized, I haven't drawn Jayluf with his collar on yet, OOPS. I did technically draw it on my art of his costume, but it got covered up by the hood since I'm not good enough yet I guess! I really like the little amongus Jayluf in the background !XD Okay, now that I've got the professional bit out of the way... OMG I LOVE THIS PICTURE OF JAYLUF SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I LOVE LOOKING AT IT, I LOVE HIS CUTE LITTLE FACE AND HIS LITTLE DULL GREY EYES, I LOVE HIS MITTENS AHHHH M I T T E N S HE LOOKS DANG CUTE IN THIS ARTSTYLE MY HEART IS MELTING ABABABABAB I CANNOT OVERSTATE HOW GLAD I AM I GAVE HIM MITTENS, AND HIS LITTLE BOOTS, THIS PICTURE MAKES ME SO HAPPY IT'S JUST INSTANT SEROTONIN BOOST HE'S SO FRICKIN CUTE I COULD DIE AAAAAHHHHH I'M SO HAPPY

And Jayluf's costume was certainly… unique. 

His top appeared to be a dark blue zip up hooded jacket made out of a combination of cotton and polyester, the latter material usually seen on waterproof winter coats. Slightly lighter blue lines were scattered all over the jacket, forming bizarre yet unique patterns and shapes that seemingly served no purpose, but that sort of thing was common with hero costumes. 

The upper left part of the chest area sported a rather familiar looking logo, the same one that had been on Jayluf's briefcase earlier. The hood was the more unique part of the jacket. White arrow-like patterns ran along the edge of the opening of the hood, seemingly mimicking the hood of a winter coat that would usually have fur sewn into them.

Unlike gloves like most other hero costumes had, Jayluf's hands were instead covered by polyester baby blue colored mittens.

The lower half of Jayluf's costume was a bit less unique in regards to aesthetic and design, his pants merely being a dark shadow of blue that seemed to be also made of polyester as well. 

His shoes were blue and white boots, the bottom being completely white, while the upper part was a deep blue. Strange black rings went up the shin area to the top of the boot. The boot lacked any laces, instead having black straps on where the laces would usually go. 

But as Izuku did a double take of Jayluf's, he suddenly realized that the hood of the jacket was holding Jayluf's hair in place, preventing it from flopping down and covering anything.

Like Jayluf's eyes.

Izuku blinked. He could see Jayluf's eyes. And Jayluf's eyes were… not exactly normal.

Large, unfocused, orbs that were colored a solid dull grey stared at Izuku. Combined with the fact Jayluf's facial muscles were completely relaxed, his skin being considerably pale, and the fact his eyes lacked any life or light of any sort, it had almost seemed like he resembled a corpse that was somehow still standing up post mortem.

And there it is! Most of their incredible fanart for yall to see, but please do go and check out their tumblr, I'm forever grateful to them!

But, now that whole bit is over with, I wanted to say something real quick to those who haven't clicked off for some reason yet. Seeing these photos, it honestly was a sort of a wakeup call. I sometimes wondered if my garbage writing was any good at all, if it was even readable to other people in the first place, and I sometimes get a bit down and mopey like last chapter, but I'm over that mood now, and it's something I'm still struggling on. But when I was looking on the photos on the day they were posted, it was honestly amazing. it made me realize that some people actually liked the character's I wrote, and liked them as people. Even to the point where a person with a life of their own and hopes and dreams, decided to take the time out of their day to draw something for me, for FREE. Do you realize how crazy that is?! It's crazy! It also made me realize that I for once, actually love my own story, this story is something I'm honestly truly passionate about, which hasn't happened in awhile! So, this is a fic that will very likely be finished, because I honestly want to keep writing more about this, about Jayluf, about the Thing in MHA! So even if I don't get any comments at all, this art is enough to remind me that someone out there, even if it's one person, will still like what I write. It's honestly an encouragement I've needed for a while, and I'm forever grateful to redeye for taking the time to do this for me. Even if I never get fanart from anyone else until the end of the story itself, I honestly am content with what I have. 

So thank you redeye! Thanks for being an awesome artist, and thank you reader! I hope you liked the last chapter, and I hope to see you next time!

Chapter Text

After the announcement of the victory of the Hero Team, Tsuyu had gently lowered Jayluf down back to the floor, carefully unwrapping her tongue so as to not accidentally pull him forward and knock him down.

She gave him a rather sheepish look as she hopped back to the floor, standing back on two legs. "Sorry for dangling you off of the floor like a lure from a fishing pole," she said. "I may have forgotten to consider that some people here may not like heights."

"Apologies are not necessary." Jayluf responded. He tilted his head to one side. "Also, what is a fishing pole?"

Tsuyu proceeded to give him a bizarre look with lowered eyelids and raised eyebrows, but the expression quickly reverted back into her normal blank one. "Okay, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that last part. Come on, let's head back to the entrance."

Making their way back to the main entrance, they saw that Sero, Kirishima, and Tokoyami were already there at the exit patiently waiting for them. Appearance wise,, there was quite the difference between the two groups. The three boys were covered in scrapes and bruises that they had presumably gotten during their battle, while Jayluf and Tsuyu were practically spotless.

Upon spotting Tsuyu and Jayluf, Kirishima's eyes lit up, and he gave a friendly grin as he waved. "Hey, there you are Jayluf! We were wondering where you guys were! Let's all head back!"

As the students grouped up and began walking towards where All Might and the other students waited, Kirishima rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "Sorry we lost Jayluf, Tokoyami got the one up on us, but I assure you it was a manly as heck battle!"

Sero sighed, gripping his fist. "Man, I can't believe we lost… especially a two versus one scenario! I can't believe I was so weak! All that effort of me getting tossed around just for a loss to stain my grade sheet."

Putting a hand on Sero's shoulder, Kirishima shook his head. "Nah man, don't think like that! You were a great fighter, and the fact you stood your ground and faced danger head on, I think that's pretty manly! Even if Tokoyami managed to get to the bomb, it doesn't mean you were weak! It's just a different quirk."

"Any quirk can be the most efficient." Tokoyami hummed as he wrapped his cape around himself. "It merely depends on the environment at hand. Dark Shadow would be probably less viable if it was a small hallway, while your tape would be able to be used much more efficiently. One comparison I suppose I could make was that it was a situation similar to the boy with the ice powers, but it's the environment being the key factor, instead of the quirk."

"Um…" Sero uttered, not entirely sure how to respond. "Uh huh. Yeah, sure. I guess? Anyways, environment or not, I still am not a fan of getting these bruises."

"I apologize if any excessive harm was caused," Tokoyami said, bowing his head slightly. "Dark Shadow is sometimes difficult to keep in check, especially if it's an indoor environment."

"No worries," Kirishima quickly piped up from the side. "It was one heck of a scrap, the first I've been in that was a proper fight!" He turned to his teammate. "And come on Sero, getting your first battle scars should be something to be super proud of!"

Tsuyu lifted a finger to her chin. "They won't be battle scars if they decide to have Recovery Girl fix you guys up."

Kirishima's face fell. "Oh. Uh, I hadn't considered that. Still, even if they get healed, they'll still be battle scars in a figurative sort of way!"

Intrigued at the unknown phrase, Jayluf tilted his head. "What are battle scars?"

"What?" Kirishima whirled to face Jayluf, his eyes widening and jaw dropping. "You don't know what those are?"

Jayluf shook his head.

"Well," Kirishima began hesitantly. "It's an injury that was healed, one that happened during an event that is significant to your life! Do you have any like that?"

"I don't think he's ever been in a proper fight," Sero said from the side. "Look how frickin' soft he looks. If he got into fights, he'd have a lot more scars."

Jayluf considered his answer, idly searching his brain for anything that fit the description. Eventually, he remembered one thing that had happened. "There is one event that was similar to the description you had given."
"Ha! Looks like you're wrong Sero!" Kirishima snickered. "Anyways, wanna tell us what happened?"

"During the entrance exam," Jayluf began. "One of the machines fell off of a roof, and came into contact with my leg, snapping it."

Everyone stared in silence for several seconds at the extremely brief explanation.
"Are… are you serious?" Sero blurted out, staring in bewilderment, his eyebrows raised high.

"Yes." Jayluf said honestly.

"Oh…" Kirishima said, his smile gone, his happy expression now replaced by one of slight concern. "I'm sorry to hear that man. I uh, didn't mean to bring up any bad memories or anything trauma related. Sorry if that upset you."

"It did not upset me," Jayluf replied. "I was merely stating what had happened."

"Are you… okay man?" Kirishima asked hesitantly, eyebrows furrowed slightly in worry.

I do not feel any different than I usually do. "I am okay."

Kirishima simply stared for several seconds before his expression relaxed. "Alright… if you say so Jayluf, I won't press you on the matter."

Sero raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms. "Speaking of everyone's battle scars, what happened with you two?" He gestured at Tsuyu and Jayluf. We're covered in bruises, yet you two look practically untouched. Did you two even fight?"

Jayluf blinked. They were on opposing teams, of course they had. "Yes. We fought."

"Really?" Sero replied, eyes narrowing in doubt. "You two had a legitimate fight? And somehow neither of you have even a scrape?"
"I took it easy on him," Tsuyu said simply, waving off Sero's doubtful inquiry.

Sero didn't seem convinced. "Didn't All Might say to treat this as a real battle?" he questioned. "Why would you take it easy on him?"

Tsuyu simply raised a hand, gesturing towards the shorter boy next to her. "Look at him." Her eyes flickered down to Jayluf's mitten covered hands. "Me going all out would be equivalent to kicking a puppy." She looked back up to Sero. "Would you kick a puppy, Sero?"
Sero quickly raised both hands in front of him. "O-Obviously not… I was just saying…"

Not understanding the situation, Jayluf looked at Tsuyu in confusion. "What is a puppy?" He asked innocently.

Upon hearing the question, Sero deflated. "Right. I guess I see your point, Tsuyu. So you just… had this 'soft fight' for the whole match?"
We merely fought for the first half of the round," Jayluf said. "Then Tsuyu and I spoke to each other for the rest of the match."

"So you just… chatted for the rest of the round?" Kirishima said. "Why's that?"

"It wasn't idle friendly chat," Tsuyu hummed flippantly. "We were discussing personal matters. Nothing that you should be concerned about."

"So… were you two just having personal alone time or something?" Sero questioned, his eyes squinting in doubt.

"I suppose we had alone time," Jayluf answered truthfully. It was true that they had been alone for an extended period of time when they spoke, excluding the presence of All Might and the students watching through the television screens.

"W-WHAT?!" Sero sputtered, whirling his entire body to face Jayluf and, eyes wide and mouth agape. He was now walking sideways. "Y-You don't mean…"

"Oh hush," Tsuyu said quickly. "It's not the type you were thinking of. It'd be in your best interest to get your mind out of the gutter, especially considering the fact you're in a pro hero class. Your immediate assumptions make me wonder what you do when you're home alone, ribbit."

In the gutter? Jayluf wondered. Where? He glanced around, eyes searching for any gutters or ditches, yet he found nothing. What was Tsuyu talking about?

Sero stumbled over his words. "H-Hey! In my defense, the way he worded that sounded really bizarre, you have to admit that at least!"

Tsuyu wasn't having any of it. "The only bizarre thing here is probably your browser history."

"Asui!" Sero whined.

Quickly putting his hands up in the air, Kirishima put on a slightly awkward smile. "Alright alright, simmer down,, we are almost back. We need to get there and report to All Might. He's probably been waiting for us. Sero, maybe tone down the immaturity, yeah? And Asui, Sero's our classmate, not Peking Duck, so maybe relax with the roasting?"

Finally when they arrived, All Might quickly went into the process of reviewing the match. Unsurprisingly, Tokoyami was the student who was dubbed the MVP, given him juggling both Kirishima and Sero while being able to get to the bomb in time. Strangely enough, All Might did not bring any attention to Jayluf and Tsuyu's interaction, and the students did not mention it as well.

Soon enough, they had been all instructed to make their way towards the next room they'd use to watch the last few matches. On his way out, Jayluf had been greeted once more by Ashido, Uraraka, and Iida, who introduced themselves to Tsuyu, Sero, and Kirishima respectively while they walked together with the rest of their classmates. Although the three students were not too familiar with the other three, save for Ashido and Kirishima, they had been quickly assimilated into Jayluf's ever increasingly large friend group

While the last two matches played out, Jayluf once more had fallen into the loop of occasionally glancing towards the door in the hopes to see Midoriya somehow returning. To his dismay, the same result as the previous times continued to play out, with no sign of Midoriya at all.

When the final battle between the hero and villain teams had finally commenced and finished, All Might had gathered everyone up outside near the entrance of the battle zone, giving his congratulations to both the winning and losing teams for doing their best. He instructed all the students to change into their school uniforms, and head back to the classroom.

Jayluf had attempted to take the opportunity to try and speak to All Might about what he had said earlier that day, since his talk with Tsuyu had changed to the way he thought about the situation. To his and everyone else's shock, All Might had spun around on one heel, and sprinted out of the exit so quickly that a gust of air was kicked up. Jayluf was left staring at the empty space.

Maybe he'd get the chance another time?

Per All Might's instruction, the students filed into their respective locker rooms, excluding Jayluf, who once again stood outside of the boys locker room by the door, patiently waiting for the other boys to finish changing back into their uniforms. Aside from getting an odd look or two from some of them, none reacted to his choice to idle by the door. When he went in by himself to change, he calmly went through the motions of taking off the costume and putting his school uniform back on. As he took his boots off and grabbed for his civilian shoes, he noticed that the Nohken Industries logo was imprinted on the soles of his shoes, alongside another symbol or shape he did not recognize.

The odd symbol seemed oddly familiar, despite him not being able to properly recognize it. The shape reminded him of how continents were structured.

As he arrived back at the classroom, his costume case in hand, he trailed back to the end of the row of desks, slipping back into his seat. The rest of the classes went by at a tolerable pace, with Jayluf once again looking to the door in the hopes of the return of his friend, yet his hopes were all for naught, for once again, Midoriya did not return.

When they were finally let out, the rest of the students surprisingly did not all depart, instead choosing to hang around the classroom and chat. Not wanting to leave without knowing if Midoriya was safe, Jayluf decided to sit in his chair and wait. There wasn't much to do unfortunately, at the moment all he could really do was stare at the door, because when he had inquired about Midoriya, Aizawa had told him that his friend was in a "staff only" room. Staff Only meant that he did not have access, since he was a student.

Still, as he sat there, he would have preferred if they had told him more on his condition aside from "he's alive". Perhaps he could inquire again, but he had no idea where any of the teachers were at this mome-

"Jayluf! Hey man!"

Abruptly being pulled out from his thoughts, Jayluf looked up from his desk to see Kirishima approaching him from the front of the classroom, softly waving. Standing or sitting behind the redhead were a handful of other students chatting quietly in a group.

"Hey, bud!" Kirishima said, slightly leaning down while jabbing a thumb behind him. "Me and the others are going over the fights we all had today, we're reviewing each other's battles so we can know more about each other! Ashido suggested that I ask you to join our little group over there!"

"Yeah yeah!" Ashido called from the huddle. "C'mon Jayluf, it'll be fun! Come and join us!"

Jayluf looked towards Kirishima, and the group, then back to the door. Well, they weren't going anywhere, right? And being in groups was something normal students did apparently. I suppose it would be okay for me to be in their little group. I will still be in the classroom, and I want to stay in the classroom to wait for Midoriya. "Very well," He said, standing up and trailing after Kirishima, following him to the others.

Upon getting a closer look, Jayluf saw that the group consisted of Kirishima, Ashido, Tsuyu, a large boy that he did not know yet, and he could have sworn there was another student, but perhaps he had misremembered?

"Yo!" Said the larger student, who towered over Jayluf. "I'm Sato!" He pointed a thumb towards his giant chest. "Good to meet you properly!"

Jayluf blinked. "My name is Jayluf Viller. Do you want to be friends?"

Sato grinned with one eyebrow raised. "Well, considering the factors of us being in the same class, and we're currently chatting on friendly terms in a little friend group, it'd make me look like a total jerk if I said no, right?"

Does it? Jayluf wondered, his head turning to the side curiously. He didn't know how to correctly identify what would count as a "jerk".

Sato sweatdropped at the lack of Jayluf's response, the silence making the situation slightly more awkward. "I uh, that was me trying to be funny."

Jayluf blinked.

"I'm saying that yeah, sure, w-we can be friends." Sato finished, not enjoying the slightly awkward exchange.

"Understood." Jayluf replied.

"Anyways, what were you guys saying before?" Sato said, glancing over to Kirishima and Sero.

"Oh, right!" Kirishima said suddenly. "Yeah, I was saying Sero, while I think your quirk is really cool, you might need to increase your agility in order to use it to its maximum power!" He gestured with his arms.

Sero groaned as he put his face into his hands. "Ugh… you're right to an extent but… I wish I had an awesome quirk like yours. I feel like I got put up against the worst quirk that makes my quirk look completely useless. How's a guy gonna become a Pro Hero when all I can do is shoot frickin tape out of my arms…"

"Hey, you passed the exams!" Kirishima said. "That counts for something, right?"

For a moment he considered his friend's advice. "Well I guess, but still…"

"Think about it, you managed to get into frickin UA, man. You managed to fight your way against crazy robots, smashing them up, even helping some people too! The success rate for the entrance exam is so low! its like, one of out a thousand!"

Sero smiled. "Yeah… I did! Heh! Maybe it's not so bad! I just wish that-"

"Psst, hey, you!"

A new voice behind Jayluf brought his attention elsewhere, causing him to turn around in order to find the source of the unidentified voice. Unexpectedly, when he had finished turning, there was no one there. Where did that voice come from? Was someone here with an invisibility quirk? Or hiding?

"Down here, professor eyesight."

Jauf suddenly realized that the person speaking to him was not invisible, nor hiding. They were simply shorter than him. Much shorter, in fact, which Jayluf had not been expecting, having been adjusted to everyone around him being much taller than him.

It was a short boy who seemed like they lacked normal hair, instead having strange purple balls that seemed almost rubbery as they glistened under the room boy had his arms crossed, eyebrows raised. "Hey hey." He said.

Jayluf blinked as he stared at the stranger. "Greetings."

"Yeah, hey." The boy continued casually. "Say, you were the dude earlier who fought that frog girl, right? Her name was like… Asui?"

"We had only fought during the first half, yes." Jayluf said. "I am Jayluf Vil-"

"Viller," the boy cut him off. "Yeah yeah yeah.. I've heard. Mineta Minoru, charmed."

"Do you want to be frie-"

"Sure whatever," Mineta interrupted once more, waving his hand back and forth. "But back what's important, during your match earlier, man, you're so frickin lucky!" His hands clenched into fists. "You gotta tell me all about it! I was practically gnashing my teeth in jealousy while I saw that whole thing play out!"

"Lucky?" Jayluf questioned. That was a word he wasn't expecting to be applied to the situation at hand.

"Uh, obviously!" Mineta whispered fiercely. "And not so loud, keep your voice down, will ya? Don't want the girls behind you hearing us, ya know? Anyways, you really gotta tell me what that was like! Man, seeing you wrapped up by her long tongue, god, I wish that was me! I honestly didn't even know she could do that in the first place!"

Jayluf didn't understand what Mineta was talking about. "What do you mean?"

Mineta did not acknowledge the question. "What was it like man? Tell me! Her tongue… It looked completely lathered in her fricken saliva… Was it really wet and like, dripping with saliva?!"

Jayuf absorbed Mineta's completely bizarre question, and he considered what he could recall detail wise in regards to the moisture content of Tsuyu's tongue. From what he could recall, her tongue did not appear to be lacking any moisture, or show any signs of any dehydration. "From what I can recall… I suppose her tongue was indeed wet." He stopped. It had been wet, yet when Tsuyu had released me, costume did not have any wet marks or show signs of being soaked in any shape or form. Odd.

It seemed that was the response Mineta was seeking, for when he heard Jayluf's answer, he began to water at the mouth. "Dang… you lucky dog you…" He quickly wiped his mouth with an arm. "W-Was it warm…? Warm and maybe… HOT?"

"It did not feel cold, and not lukewarm." Jayluf responded. "So, using the process of elimination, I believe it was warm."

Mineta appeared to drool even more somehow. "Man, if I had been the one wrapped up in that hot girl's warm wet tongue… I swear, I'd think about it every night! It'd be a core memory for sure! I wish that could have happened to me!"

The hypothetical sounded very odd to Jayluf. "You… want to be dangled several feet up in the air above the ground?"

Mineta squinted his eyes for a brief second before they went huge. "Huh? N-No! I'm not a fan of heights, I'm talking about when you got to have her whole thick tongue wrapped around you like that." He clenched his fists. "To feel it pressing up against your body… It would feel…so good…"

"I do not see how it would feel good." Jayluf replied bluntly. It didn't really make much sense to him.

"W-What?!" Mineta blurted out, slightly gawking in shock. "What are you talking about? Come on dude, the hot wet tongue all over you…wasn't that an amazing sensation?"

Jayluf however, did not find the fact his touch receptors being functional something to be very thrilled about. "No."

Mineta blinked in bewilderment, as if struggling to grasp Jayluf's immediate reply. "Are… are you serious right now?"

"Affirmative, I am not deceiving you." Jayluf said.

Now Mineta's expression was both confused, strained, and shocked. "Okay, okay, let's back up for a moment."

Jayluf glanced behind him. Backing up now would be an impossibility, due to my friends being behind me. To back up now would cause a collision.

But before he could voice the issue, Mineta snapping his fingers brought him back to the conversation.

"Hey, pay attention." Mineta muttered. "As I was saying… Let me get this straight. You did not enjoy Asui wrapping her super wet, thick, and hot tongue tightly around your body?"

"Correct."

"Even though you're a guy…" Mineta continued slowly, putting his hands together flatly. "And Asui is a hot girl with a fantastic rack and body… you seriously didn't enjoy it even for the slightest moment?"

"I did not." Jayluf did not see how Tsuyu's elevated body temperature was relevant.

Several moments passed by in silence as Mineta appeared to absorb Jayluf's response. "Wait… so you as a guy not liking the girl… that could only mean…" He raised an eyebrow. "Jayluf… are you like one of those people who are… you know…?"

Jayluf blinked. He genuinely had no clue what Mineta was speaking of. "I do not know, Mineta."

Mineta's face went blank. "Oh. Okay. So you're like… questioning, then?"

"Questioning?" Jayluf echoed. He stopped for a moment. Well, I had just asked a question…Therefore I am… "I suppose I am questioning right now."

"I guess that explains some things…" Mineta muttered. "So you're like… possibly swinging both ways at the same time, huh?"

Glancing downwards, Jayluf saw that his arms, body, and legs were completely static. No swinging movement was happening at all. He softly shook his head. "No, I am not swinging both ways."

"But…" Mineta began. "But you literally JUST said you were questioning a second ago, right?"

"I did." Jayluf said.

Mineta frowned. "But now… suddenly you're not questioning?"

"Yes. I am no longer questioning." Jayluf replied. He was answering now, and no longer inquiring.

"But… but…" Mineta uttered, his frowning expression warping into complete and utter confusion. "You said… about… what? H-How were you questioning before, but right now you're suddenly not questioning?"

"Because I am not questioning now," Jayluf said. It was an obvious thing, he was merely stating facts now, not asking questions. "In fact, you are the one who is questioning now."

Mineta's eyes went huge, as he coughed, choking on his own saliva. "W-What?!" he cleared his throat, hitting his chest with a fist. When he finished, he looked back up at the other boy. "What are you talking about?! I'm like the straightest, most hetero dude in this entire school! I am NOT questioning, not at all! Whatever gave you the impression I was?!"

Jayluf tilted his head innocently. "Because you are right now." He was sure of it, those were questions Mineta had asked, right? They were certainly worded that way.

For several painful seconds, Mineta was left staring at Jayluf, eyes wide, mouth open, eyebrows scrunched, unable to formulate any response to Jayluf's replies. It looked as if his brain had completely short circuited.

But before Jayluf or Mineta could say anything to continue the conversation, a voice called from behind.

"Jayluf!"

Turning around once more, Jayluf turned around to see Ashido waving at him once more. "Come on Jayluf, you're missing the conversation! I gotta tell you about my match! I know you watched it on the screen with the others, but you gotta hear it from my point of view!"

Glancing behind him, Jayluf saw Mineta still staring into space, as if he'd mentally been shut down. "Goodbye, Mineta." He said, taking a few steps forward to rejoin the small group in order to listen to Ashido.

"Okay okay," Ashido blurted out excitedly. "Jayluf, you probably saw how I won the match earlier, right?"

Jayluf tried to remember what had happened during Ashido's match, but could not really recall much, excluding when she had accidentally burned the cape of her teammate. Most of the time, Jayluf remembered staring at the door in case Midoriya came back. "I do not remember much."

Ashido's excited expression fell. "Y-You mean you weren't watching me?"

He shook his head. "After my match with Tsuyu, I spent a majority of the time checking the door, incase of of the possibility of Midoriya returning."

"Midori?" Ashido questioned. "OH! Ohhh, okay! I see. You were just waiting to see if he came back after he got taken to the nurses! You were pretty worried then, huh?" Her smile quickly returned. "Aww, that's so sweet!"

Sero held up a finger. "Wait, so you were just staring at the door in case Midoriya magically came back all better? That's kind of creepy…"

"Nothing wrong with being concerned for your friends," Sato countered with a shrug. "Doesn't really sound too outlandish to me."

"Yeah!" Kirishima chimed in. "Wanting to make sure your friends are okay is a pretty manly trait to have! What's so creepy about that?"

"I-I don't know, it's just the idea of him staring at the door…" Sero looked into Jayluf's grey, dull, and lifeless eyes for a brief moment before shivering. "It just sounded kind of off to me. S-Sorry."

"Apologies are not required." Jayluf replied.

"Anyways!" Ashido said before the tension could increase any more, "What you missed out on Jayluf during my match, is that I used my acid to melt the ceiling above. What we did is that Aoyama, I think his name was, played the distraction, and while he was using his neat laser quirk, I made two holes with my acid, one to distract them, and one that was actually close enough for me to hop down! She grinned. "And when I got down to the floor, they were too far away, and I just touched the weapon, winning us the round!

"I remember seeing that!" Kirishima said, giving a thumbs up. "That was really smart on your part Ashido! Definitely proves that ya can't brute force every single problem!"

"I'm still bummed I didn't get to really have a proper clash with anyone," Sato muttered. "But, Kirishima is right on the money there! Smarts can definitely give you the edge you need in a fight."

Sero, on the other hand, did not appear to be very convinced. "I don't think 'smarts' can save me from being thrown around by a giant shadow bird," he grumbled, holding up his right arm. "I'm still nursing the bruises from that fight."

"Maybe you just don't have enough smarts," Tsuyu suggested from the side.

Sero sputtered in protest.

However as the conversation went on, Jayluf once again could not help but allow his eyes to wander to the door, still holding on to the hope that by some miracle, Midoriya would materialize in the doorway.

"Still waiting for him?" 

Turning around, Jayluf's eyes landed on Ashido, who had a small smile on her face. "Yes," He answered truthfully.

Ashido gestured towards the door. "Then if you wanna hang around the door, you can do it. We won't take offense. Don't feel pressured to stay in the conversation," Ashido said.

"No worries Jayluf!" Kirishima said, giving a toothy grin. "We'll be fine without you, don't worry."

"Don't worry about Minoru," Tsuyu said, glancing at the grape-headed boy who was now idly sitting at his desk and staring at Jayluf through squinted eyes. "I think he's too busy recovering from the psychic damage you dealt to him earlier."

Although Jayluf did not know what psychic damage was, he simply nodded, proceeding to stand up and walk towards the door.

Only for him to be shoved to the side by a completely silent Bakugo, who stomped out of the door, and left without a word. Blinking in surprise as he absorbed what had just happened, he readjusted his previous position, and once again awaited the return of his friend.

Several minutes had passed, and when Jayluf had just began to worry that maybe something had happened to Midoriya in the nurse's office, the door had suddenly slid open.

Low and behold, Izuku Midoriya was standing at the door. His appearance was everything but flattering, still wearing his hero costume, which was battered and barely intact due to Bakugo's attacks, still having the burn marks as plain as day. One of his arms was in a sling and wrapped thickly in bandaging, for some reason not having been healed by Recovery Girl. His expression seemed somewhat dismayed, as if something had upset him.

Judging from the way Midoriya jumped and his eyes flew open upon realizing that Jayluf was in front of him, it was safe to assume Midoriya hadn't been expecting the boy to be right by the door.

"J-Jayluf?" Midoriya squeaked out in surprise, his sad expression from earlier being replaced by one with complete shock.

"Hello, Midoriya." Jayluf greeted, his back straightening from the sight of seeing his friend alive and well.

"W-Well hey!" Midoriya stuttered. "S-Sorry, were you about to leave out of the door? Sorry if I almost ran into y-you or something…"

"Negative," Jayluf responded. "I was awaiting your inevitable return from the clinic."

"W-Waiting?" Midoriya said. "Y-You mean that you were just standing right in front of the door, just to wait for me to come back?"

"Correct," Jayluf answered. "I had been waiting for a majority of the day ever since you had been transported away after your battle trial."

Midoriya sweatdropped, a nervous smile forming on his face. "Y-You were really waiting for me for that long? W-Well I guess th-thanks? It was very n-nice of you to be concerned…"

"Oh hey!" Someone in the room called from behind Jayluf. "Look everyone, Midoriya's back!"

Multiple pairs of shoes were heard thudding against the ground, and when Jayluf had considered turning around, he had been unintentionally abruptly bumped to the side.

It did not go unnoticed by Midoriya, who's awkward expression flipped to one of concern. "H-Hey, careful of Jay-"

"Good work Midoriya!" Kirishima cried with a large grin, holding up a fist. "Man, we had no idea what you were saying during your match earlier, but you were definitely fired up about something!"

Sero gave a friendly thumbs up. "Yeah! We had no idea what you were shouting about, but it was still hype! "I honestly can't believe you managed to go toe to toe with frickin Bakugo! That dude placed first place on the entrance exam!"

"You did a GREAT job dodging Midori!" Ashido cried.

"You guys did all that in the first match," Sato said. "So everyone else had to give it their all too! You guys were inspiring!"
"You were far from elegant, but…" someone said.

Jayluf did not recognize that voice. Who was that? Was that someone he did not know?

"You did a GOOD JOB DODGING!" Ashido repeated.

Turning, Jayluf tilted his head. "You already said that."

Midoriya's face turned beet red from the sudden excessive praise coming from all angles. He looked left and right erratically as he seemed to struggle with handling all of the compliments coming at him all at once. "E-Eh?!"

"I'm Kirishima Ejiro!" Kirishima said, jabbing a thumb towards his chest. "Me and the others were going over the training!"

"Name's Sero! Hanta Sero!" Sero chimed in.

"I am Yuga Aoya-"

"I'M MINA ASHIDO!" Ashido called. "YOU DID A GOOD JOB DODGING!"

Jayluf's eyes perked up. Wait a second. There was that unrecognized voice before Ashido. Who was that? Looking around, he scanned the area of where he assumed the voice had come from, until his eyes settled on a patch of shiny blonde hair accompanied with purple sparkling eyes.

The boy stared at him, blinking innocently.

Jayluf blinked back.

Eventually, the purple eyes wandered downwards, until they seemed to focus on something near Jayluf's neck. "That is a very fancy necklace you have there," said the stranger. "It is a necklace, is it not?"

The words gave Jayluf pause. Neck… lace…? A lace… around my neck? His small hand hesitantly hovered around his collar, still clamped around his neck. "You mean… this?" he asked.

"Indeed mon ami!" The boy responded. "I must say, your necklace looks quite expensive! It shines quite brilliantly, I must say!" He dramatically batted his eyelashes while putting a hand to his cheek. "But even with all that glowing, I am sorry to inform you that I myself have several necklaces at home, and they sparkle so much more, no lightbulbs needed!" His hand moved down to his chest. "Why? Because they are all adorned with brilliantly stones that are much shiner than your necklace!"

Jayluf's hand lowered from his own neck. "Apologies are not necessary for having shiner stones."

"Très bon! So humble too!" The boy replied. "You may call me Yuga Aoyama, little friend. You are looking at the person who will become the most sparkling hero in all of Japan!"

"I am Jayluf Viller." Jayluf said in his monotone voice. He was considering asking Yuga to be his friend just like the others now that they had swapped names, but Yuga had already called him "little friend". Did that mean he already was aware of how the process worked? Did that mean he did not have to ask? It certainly seemed that way.

Aoyama waved a hand in the air. "So I've heard." His purple eyes wandered and eventually landed on something behind Jayluf. "Oh," he said. "Looks like your other friend is here too."

Other friend? Which one? Jayluf swiveled around in the direction of where Aoyama was looking, and saw that Uraraka had re-entered the room, who was looking towards the doorway where Midoriya had been.

The same space was now completely vacant, and Midoriya was nowhere to be found.

Jayluf was not someone who easily became alarmed, but that didn't mean he would hesitate to start searching for Midoriya, who seemed to have disappeared yet again. Quickly walking up to the doorway, Jayluf looked around. "Midoriya?" He blurted out.

"Jayuf," Uraraka spoke up from the side, grabbing his attention. "If you're looking for Midoriya, he literally just left while your back was turned. He said he needed to talk to Bakugo. I don't know why. If you run to the exit now, you should be able to catch up with him."

Midoriya had just left? Me staying here after normal time was for Midoriya, and I must leave anyway. He nodded. "Thank you Uraraka." Without another word, he spun around on one heel and marched out of the room, intent on finding Midoriya yet again.

As he exited the room, the other students watched on in mild curiosity.

"Well," Kirishima wondered out loud, turning to face Ashido. "He's definitely loyal to Midoriya, that's for sure."

"The way he keeps following him around is kinda weird." Sero said boredly. "He's like a lovesick puppy."

"Oh hush!" Ashido said. "I, for one, think it's very sweet that he cares so much for his friends."

Jayluf Viller was no runner, but that didn't mean he would take his sweet time and walk everywhere at a leisurely pace. Needing to catch up to Midoriya was his priority, meaning now was a time for an increased speed, so he had changed his normal pace to a slightly faster speed walk.

He ignored any of the few remaining students wandering the hallways, who likely were giving him strange looks for his bizarre walking speed. He had higher priorities at the moment.

Finally, he had reached the exit, he had exited out of the door, noticing the brilliantly orange colored sky. Scanning his surroundings, he quickly found that Midoriya was standing several yards in front of him. Farther away was none other than Bakugo, who was standing right at the entrance gate.

Midoriya seemed to be speaking slightly inaudible words towards Bakugo that eventually became more and more audible. When Jayluf finally reached a proper speaking distance, he opened his mouth to speak to Midoriya, but before he could get a word out…

"The truth is…" Midoriya began. "That my quirk… it's something I received from someone else!"

Whatever words Jayluf had been about to speak were quickly forgotten when he heard what Midoriya had just said. Had he possibly misheard? It sounded like Midoriya was saying that he got his quirk from another person. His cells quickly stored the information, hungrily snatching and dragging the newly acquired knowledge into the deeper recess of his brain.

But how was that possible?

"I can't say who I got it from. I won't," Midoriya continued, ignorant to Jayluf standing right behind him. "But I will say that it's like those comic books we read when we were kids… but here it's actually real!" The boy glanced downwards at his hand. "On top of that, I still really can't control it properly, at least not yet, not without hurting myself. As of right now, it's just a borrowed power that I haven't made my own yet…" the boy looked back up towards Bakugo. "That's why… that's why I'm going to-"

Whatever statement or speech Midoriya had, was quickly cut off by a new sound suddenly making itself known. From the entrance gate came a sound that was feminine, high pitched, and slightly angry. It was someone's voice.

"JAYLUF VILLER!"

All three students immediately looked towards the entrance fate almost simultaneously in surprise so they could see the origin of the voice was none other than…

Miss Hunee?

Indeed it was Miss Hunee, who was currently standing at the entrance gate, tapping her foot impatiently as she stared at Jayluf expectedly, a displeased expression on her face. "Miss Hunee?" Jayluf blurted out loud.

Midoriya seemed to jolt in place, spooked by the sudden voice that was only a foot or two away from him. He quickly turned around to gawk at Jayluf in surprise. "J-Jayluf?!" He squeaked in surprise. "H-How… How long have you been standing there? D-Did you-"

"JAYLUF!" Miss Hunee shouted again, this time with a bit harsher of a tone. "IT'S TIME TO GO!"

Bakugo glared at Miss Hunee in annoyance, obvioisly displeased with the sudden yelling near his ear. " OI! STOP SHOUTING YOU OLD HAG!"

Miss Hunee's head snapped towards Bakugo, a very unhappy expression plastered on her face. Glancing at Jayluf for the briefest of moments, she lowered her voice to the point of it being almost completely inaudible to Jayluf's ears.

Jayluf had been unable to hear a majority of whatever Miss Hunee had said, excluding the final word, which had been "up".

Whatever the full sentence had been, one notable thing had been how one particular unheard word had made Bakugo react quite visibly, his eyes widening in shock as his mouth hung slightly open.

Unfortunately Jayluf knew he did not have time to ponder on whatever Miss Hunee had said, for she had given him an order and he was to obey. "Coming, Miss Hunee!" He called out, casually walking past Midoriya, who was still stumbling over his words.

"J-Jayluf w-wait, did you h-hear me say-"

"JAYLUF. Now." Miss Hunee said. "We're late enough as it is!"

His conditioning kicking into maximum, Jayluf's pace increased as he sped walk towards his caretaker. "Coming, Miss Hunee. Apologies Midoriya," he managed to call out as he quickly paced towards the gate entrance. He passed by Bakugo, who was still completely bewildered and speechless at whatever Miss Hunee had said before. He glanced at the blonde teen for a split second. "Hi Bakugo. Bye, Bakugo."

Reaching his destination, he stared up at Miss Hunee, who had her hands on her hips. She reached one hand out to gently chop the boy's head.

Jayluf gave no response.

"Jayluf…" she said softly. "What on earth were you doing? It has been almost thirty minut-"

She did not have the chance to finish her inquiries however, due to yet another voice calling out loud.
Well, more laughing then simply calling out.
"HA HA HA HA!"

A burst of wind was kicked up as a speeding blur whizzed by both Midoriya and Bakugo, and stopped abruptly in front of Jayluf and Miss Hunee, startling both of them. The familiar visage of the Number One Hero gave Jayluf pause. "All…Might?"
"YOUNG… JAYLUF… IS HERE!" All Might shouted as he jabbed an arm towards Jayluf, and in his hand he held a familiar blue glowing box.

"My… case?" Jayluf said slowly. He abruptly remembered that he had completely forgotten his case in the school building when he chased after Midoriya.

"Haha!" All Might laughed. "Indeed it is! It would be unfortunate if you had left this on the first day of using it, young Jayluf!" He jabbed a thumb behind him towards the school building. "Luckily, your classmates noticed it when you chased after young Midoriya! It appears this case seems to have a habit of being misplaced, doesn't it?"

Miss Hunee immediately put on a smile, giving a little bow in gratitude. "Oh, thank you All Might! It was quite kind of them to help Jayluf! It's an honor as always to be able to see the Number One Hero in person!" She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "We'll try to prevent the whole forgetting the case thing from becoming a habit, I promise! I apologize for not sticking around earlier to thank you properly. I've been a bit buried with work duties and such, and it means I'm usually on a time constraint."

Letting out a chuckle, All Might rested his fists on his hips, doing his classic pose. "Ho ho! I unfortunately can relate, I know what it's like to be on a time limit in my line of work. It's good I caught you two last minute!"

"And we're very grateful," Miss Hunee said quickly, her smile the same as before. "Ahem." She nudged Jayluf. "Jayluf. Say thank you…"

"Thank you, All Might." Jayluf said. "I wanted to speak with you earlier, but I did not get the chance to. I wanted to speak about what I had said about you during Midoriya's battle trial…"

"No worries, young Jayluf!" All Might replied, waving a giant hand in the air as if brushing the whole situation off. "While I suppose some of your grievances were quite valid in that instance, I am very proud that you decided to heed the words of your fellow classmates. It definitely will help in building trust with each other!"

Miss Hunee glanced down at her watch, and her eyes went huge when she realized what time it was. "Welp, it was an honor All Might, but unfortunately as I stated before," She pointed towards her wrist. "We are very much on the clock, as I'm sure you are as well with your work as a teacher. I need to get him back home where he belongs."

"I am indeed on the clock! I hope back home, he is treated well! A bright young student such as him deserves a proper upbringing!"

Jayluf might have been imagining it, but he could have sworn All Might had been looking directly at his collar for a split second.

"Only the best treatment!" Miss Hunee said, her upbeat tone sounding considerably strained.

All Might gave a thumbs up, and turned around. "Now young Bakugo, there is something I wanted to address…"

"Jayluf, we're going." Miss Hunee said, her smile vanishing as she took the case from his hands, turning around and walking towards a white limousine that appeared to be different than the one he had taken before. "Treated well?" She muttered under her breath. "The hell is he talking about…"

As he trailed behind, Jayluf was unable to hear the rest, obediently following her towards the new automobile. "Miss Hunee? What car is this?"

"New model," Miss Hunee replied flippantly. "I'll explain later. We need to get home as soon as possible."

He was quickly hurried into his usual spot in the left back passenger seat, the soldier in the driver's seat being the same one as before. However, while Miss Hunee buckled his and her own seatbelt while giving a thumbs up to the driver to drive, Jayluf realized that the inside was much different as well, not just the outside. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the inside of the car were colored a much lighter grey, and the car doors and windows had a wooden stripe in the middle.

The most obvious change however, were the seats. No longer the dark black from before, they had been changed to house the classic Nohken Industries blue and white combination. It oddly matched well with Jayluf's jeans and shoes, which were the same shades. In between their seats was some sort of miniature platform or table, that housed two circular dents that looked like it would be able to hold a beverage cup. On the spine between their seats was the Nohken Logo proudly printed on for everyone to see.

However the scent was mostly the same, but it was still very pleasant, and the roar of the engine and vibrations felt the same as well.

As the car began to pick up speed as they drove away from U.A. High, Miss Hunee leaned back in her seat, putting her hands to her face in what seemed to be exhaustion. "Geez…"

Jayluf watched in curiosity. "Miss Hunee?"

"Sorry, Jayluf," she responded quickly. "I'm fine, it's just…" she let out a sigh. "I'm sorry about that earlier. It's just been a hectic day for me. This is definitely one of my off days. Before you ask, the reason we changed cars is because the one before was slightly too long. The higher ups said something about it being for easier turning and how crashes would make the company look bad, but if this thing gets any shorter, can we even call it a limo anymore?"

"What about the changes to the interior designs?" Jayluf wondered out loud.

"The changes to the inside were because of the weather," Miss Hunee replied, gesturing to the blue seats. "They said because of it being spring and eventually summer, they think it would give the company a better look if we weren't being cooked alive from the sun being on pitch black seating and such, which I'm glad for because I do not like the idea of being baked alive on a drive because of the car being out in the sun for too long." She gave a tired smile. "Hey, you match with the seating. It's like you almost blend in."

Jayluf glanced down. "I suppose I do."

"Now," she said as a matter of factly. "Let's get to what the hack happened earlier. Where on earth were you? Why didn't you come at the usual time?"

"I had decided to stay because I wanted to wait for Midoriya's return," Jayluf explained.

"Midoriya?" Miss Hunee echoed. "One of your friends, right? Why were you waiting for him? Did he get held up or something?"

Jayluf glanced downwards at the floor as he recalled the events of Midoriya being injured to the point of needing to be transported to the clinic. "He had been hurt badly, due to a fight with a classmate, named Bakugo."

"A fight?" his caretaker said, suddenly looking up to him, her interest seemingly suddenly heightened. "Bakugo you say? So that brat from earlier. Do tell, how did this happen? Was it a locker room fight, hallway fight, or maybe even in the classroom?"

" Negative," Jayluf said. "It was part of a class assignment. All Might had paired us up into Hero and Villain teams, and pitted us against each other in battles."

"Did he now…" Miss Hunee said curiously. "How very out of character for a hero to do something like that." Suddenly, she reached down into her coat pocket, pulling out what appeared to be a very large black cellular phone, the spine also having the Nohken Logo printed on it.

"Is that another cellular phone?" Jayluf asked curiously, interested in the new device Miss Hunee held.

Tapping on the screen, Miss Hunee raised an eyebrow as she side-eyed Jayluf. "Oh this? Heavens no, this isn't a phone. This is just a tablet. It's like a phone, but much bigger. Although a tablet lacks some certain bits and pieces. It cannot make cellular calls like a cell phone, and has less functionality in other aspects, I won't bore you with the details. It can, however, use wifi, so if you have an app that uses wifi to call other people who use said app as well. They gave it to me for note purposes and other work stuff." She turned the back of the tablet to directly face Jayluf. "Thankfully they actually had one that was in black, and not blue and white. That color is really starting to overstay its welcome in some instances, so I'm glad they had this."

"Wifi?" Jayluf repeated.

"I'll explain later. Anyways, to the more important stuff. How was your day today? Anything noteworthy you'd like to bring up?"

Noteworthy? Jayluf strained to remember other things that had happened, digging into his memories in order to find anything of interest. "I believe my day… was good? The school had its very own cafeteria for meals. It was very large, and the food there was very good. It tasted much more pleasant than the food back home."

"I'm glad their food was good!" Miss Hunee said, but stopped. "Wait, their food… how on earth did you pay for a meal?"

"Midoriya used some of his money to buy me a meal. I believe it was called Teriyaki Chicken and white rice."

"He did? How very nice of him. Looks like you have some very good friends if they're willing to buy you food from the cafeteria." She squinted. "Wait a second… the cafeteria.. Oh, right!" She rubbed the back of her head bashfully. "I uh, owe you an apology for that. The reason why I didn't give you any money was because I honestly did not know you needed to pay for your meals at U.A. I guess I made the foolish assumption that the billionaire Number One Hero School would be able to afford giving the students that go there free lunches." She rolled her eyes. "God forbid a child that's signing up to put their life on the line to protect the innocent gets a meal without having to fork over cash, right? It's why I got chewed out earlier today."

"Chewed out?" Jayluf repeated.

"Sorry, I mean I got yelled at by my bosses." Miss Hunne put a hand to her forehead. "Today was one problem after another, starting with when I had forgotten to give you lunch money, they had gotten angry at that. Then I even got even more flak because I had forgotten to give you your case with your costume in it. And now… I'm probably going to be lectured for another hour again because of the fact we're getting home late."

"I'm sorry, Miss Hunee." Jayluf said.

"It's fine. It's just, like I said… bad day for me. I'm not looking forward to arriving back at base, that's for sure. Anyways, what happened that day? You had lunch?"

Jayluf considered what else had happened during the meal earlier. "Well… I believe I felt emotions multiple times today. Stronger than the usual type."

Miss Hunee's disheartened expression vanished in a second, her eyes lighting up. "Really?! That's great news Jayluf!" She began to tap on her tablet once more. "Why not tell me more about it?"

"Well…" Jayluf began, straining to remember the recent events. "When I had first began to eat the food Midoriya had purchased for me, all I could think about is that how good it had tasted, and the sensations I had felt were so new and good, I had felt my eyes water, and my throat and chest felt strangely tight, but not in a painful way."

"You… you cried?" Miss Hunee said in shock.

"I…I do not know?"

More tapping against the screen. "I see, I see," Miss Hunee muttered. "That's good to know, emotions are very important, you know! I'm glad you were able to feel some, even if briefly." Her eyes flickered up to Jayluf. "Any other strong emotions or reactions to anything you think I should be aware of?"

Other strong emotions…? Jayluf searched his memory once more, to see if he'd be able to scrounge anything else up. "Well… I suppose I had a rather strange reaction to something someone had said about my costume."

"Oh?" Miss Hunee hummed absentmindedly as she tapped away on her tablet. "Do tell."

"Well… Miss Hunee… does the word 'Antarctica' mean anything to you at all?"

Miss Hunee didn't say anything.

Taking the lack of a response as a sign for him to continue, Jayluf kept talking. "Because… one of my friends, when she saw my costume, she said I looked like an 'antarctic' explorer. I do not know why, but it seemed to cause a strong emotional reaction from me, and I don't know why it had made me feel that way.

Still no response.

"And after that, when my team had been put into a battle, one of my teammates mentioned 'throwing me to the wolves'. I do not know what wolves are either, but it still caused me to feel a slightly strong reaction emotionally. It was not as strong as the previous one, but I still felt odd."

The silence was deafening.

The only audible things now were the sounds of the car engine, and the sound of the tires moving against the highway road

Slowly looking to the right, Jayluf saw that Miss Hunee was no longer tapping at her tablet. In fact, she wasn't even looking at it at all. She was staring right at him, her smile from earlier had completely vanished in favor of a completely blank expression. She said not a word. She didn't move either, as she had been frozen in time.

"Miss Hunee?" Jayluf said.

"What… what was that you said?" Miss Hunee said slowly, her tone monotone and hollow. "What word? Tell me Jayluf."

"Antarctica." Jayluf repeated. "And then, wolves. Does… does it mean anything to me?"

Several seconds passed before Miss Hunee's blank look vanished in an instant, in favor of a cheerful smile. "Oh, no Jayluf! My bad, I uh, my mind was somewhere else."

"Are either of those words important?" Jayluf inquired.

"Maybe! To you, probably not! But to see you react to two words like that, it's very interesting!"

"So you think me reacting to some words is very important?"

"Of course they are!" Miss Hunee said, holding up a single finger in a "matter of fact" manner. "Never ignore a coincidence Jayluf! Every single detail from your life during your stay at that school, is very important to me, and to everyone back home."

Jayluf nodded. "I see."

"You want to know what I think?" Miss Hunee asked as she continued jotting down notes on her tablet. "I think you're reacting that way because it was probably something in one of your dreams! It's probably not relevant to anything in real life."

"So… it is nothing to be worried about?"

"Not at all! But even if it's just dream stuff, I'm still writing down everything you've told me today in my notes! Something tells me that everyone back home will be VERY interested in today's events. It also might cut me some slack from them chewing me out! It's a win-win!"

"They will?" Jayluf asked curiously.

Miss Hunee slowly turned to him, a smile growing on her face. "I guarantee you Jayluf, they'll be hooked on what happened to you today."
Jayluf blinked. "I see."

As Miss Hunee went back to her notes, Jayluf couldn't help but longingly stared out of the window, wishing that he'd be able to see night time. He'd have to settle for the orange evening glow of the sky. Maybe sometime soon, he'd be able to see the moon and the stars outside of his dreams.

Chapter Text

Today was a brand new day.

Jayuf had been slowly awoken to the faint yet familiar sound of Miss Hunee's gentle voice pulling him back to reality out of his deep slumber. Oddly enough, he didn't remember dreaming at all last night. No extravagant dreams of seeing stars fly by, or landing and seeing new life forms. Had he dreamt at all? It was impossible to tell, he had zero recollection of the night before. 

All that he could remember was what happened before he fell asleep. He remembered lying down on his mattress after being sent to bed by Miss Hunee, closing his eyes, and promptly blacking out. The next thing he remembered was now, as Miss Hunee had woken him up. He didn't have a weird dream, or a weird moment where he had woken up in the middle of the night. It was a night that was completely normal. When he'd told Miss Hunee about it, she had responded positively. She responded that normal was good, and that it was a sign of progress that he wasn't having a "silly dream". 

The rest of the morning was rather “normal” as well. The same process of Miss Hunee collecting a blood sample, the Hero Aid being applied to the open wound, same as usual. He had gotten dressed, received his hero costume suitcase along with his bookbag. Although today, Miss Hunee had handed over some yen, telling him that it was to be used for his lunch. He had never used money before by himself, so the idea seemed a bit intriguing. She had also quickly apologized again about forgetting to give him money yesterday, which he brushed off. It didn’t really bother him. 

Nothing ever did, mostly.

The process of leaving the facility also went as usual, a masked soldier at the driver's seat while Miss Hunee had buckled his seatbelt and settled into her seat. As they left, Jayluf found himself once more mesmerized by the incredible sight of the endless green trees stretching on for seemingly miles, cars speeding by so fast they were basically a blur. He wanted to touch a tree someday.
The sights and smells of civilization were always fascinating too, so much so that it made him dizzy just thinking about it. The neon signs, moving people, the entire world seemed alive and moving. It was simply unbelievable, all of the warping and shifting, he could barely comprehend it. Although everything seemed going normal, everything had gone upside down when they had arrived at the school. 

Jayluf looked up from his car window to see that a crowd of people were seemingly gathered around the entrance gate to the school for some reason. Who are those people? Why are they there? What is happening? He looked to the side, gently reaching out and grasping Miss Hunee’s sleeve, pointing towards the commotion. “Miss Hunee, people are gathered around the school entrance.”

Miss Hunee’s eyes flickered with confusion until she had glanced towards the crowd of strangers, and her relaxed expression had quickly formed into a sour one. “Ugh, great. Driver, can we please maybe have the limo a bit farther when we stop on the side of the road? I’d rather them not notice our vehicle.”
Nodding silently, the driver had suddenly stopped the vehicle, and Miss Hunee climbed out of the seat, walking over to Jayluf’s side in a rush. “Come on Jayluf, let’s get this over with. Never thought we’d have to deal with them already…”

“Who are those people, Miss Hunee?” Jayluf inquired curiously, interested in why the people were swarming the gate in such a manner. “Why are they gathered outside?”

“Those are reporters.” Miss Hunee said, irritation in her tone as Jayluf had grabbed his suitcase and backpack. “They are probably one of the worst parts of society as a whole, and contribute nothing to the world. I do not like them.”

Jayluf was slightly taken aback, not expecting Miss Hunee having a sudden mood shift. “Why? What do they do?”

Miss Hunee had begun walking with him on the sidewalk as they slowly approached the group in order to reach the gate. “Once upon a time, they reported on things that were actually important. But nowadays, they just stick their nose into places and things that aren't really their business, or concern. Probably one of the worst parts of society as a whole.”

“Oh.” Jayluf said blankly. 

“I hate them so much…” Miss Hunee muttered under her breath. “Walk with me Jayluf, the last thing I want to do is indulge in their idiocy. We’ll just walk by them, and squeeze you past the gate.” She held up a hand to his back, guiding him gently to match her walking pace as they approached the school.

However, when they eventually reached their destination, Jayluf had noticed that among the “reporters”, he noticed several people that he immediately recognized as his friends. Why were they among the group of reporters? He also realized that they were talking directly to his friends. 

“Hey you!” one of the female reporters shouted at Izuku Midoriya, who looked horrified by the excessive attention. “How are All Might’s classes!?” She and several other reporters held up strange objects Jayluf had never seen before.

"I… I…" Midoriya stammered out as he backed up slowly toward the school. "I uh… I think I need to go to the nurses…"

"Midoriya?" Jayluf said as he approached his friend, causing a frustrated sigh from Miss Hunee behind him. "What is going on?"

Upon hearing his name being called, Midoriya (and several reporters) looked over in surprise at the small boy. "J-Jayluf? How long have you been standing there?"

Before Jayluf could reply, the other reporters had reacted to his presence quite abruptly. 

"Hey look!" One reporter cried, "Another student!"

"H-Hey," Miss Hunee began, attempting to guide Jayluf away from the several strangers now approaching him. "Don't go near hi-"

Jayluf suddenly found a strange object he had never seen before shoved towards his face. It was some sort of black metallic cylinder that had some sort of swollen head at one end, which was the end currently facing him. He did not understand what this new object was, or why the woman was offering it to him to take.

"Please tell us," began the woman. "About your class with All Mi-"

Reaching out towards the object, Jayluf gently took hold of the swollen end, and realized the end was actually quite soft, and squishy. As he pulled his arm back, he was also surprised to see that the soft head slid off smoothly.  Confused and somewhat curious, Jayluf brought the object up to his face, realizing that it was actually hollow. This was some sort of strange cotton piece that covered the bulbous end of the metal cylinder. “What is this?” he inquired.

“H-Hey!” cried the woman. “W-What are you doing?! Stop grabbing at my microphone!”

Jayluf looked down at the object in his hand, experimentally squishing and pressing it in his hand, enjoying the sensation of it against his fingers. It was soft, pleasantly so too. “This is a microphone?” It certainly did not look like a microphone to him. 

“No, that’s not the microphone!” growled the reporter as she snatched back the soft object. “That’s the cover screen for the microphone, you stupid kid!” She promptly replaced it back to the cylinder. 

Looking at the object, Jayluf curiously peered at the cylinder. “That is a microphone?”

“Obviously!” she hissed, glaring at him in irritation. “Have you been living under a rock?”

“Hey!” Miss Hunee finally intervened, forcefully pulling Jayluf backwards and placing herself between the two. “That is ENOUGH! What’s wrong with you?!” Miss Hunee said, gathering attention from the other reporters and the few students still hanging around. “Yelling at a kid?! Leave him alone!”

“He tried to steal my property!” the woman replied. “You saw him literally reach out and take it, right in front of the cameras!”

“But you wanted me to take it,” Jayluf said quietly from behind. 

The reporter gave him a completely bemused look. “No I didn’t! What on earth gave you the impression I wanted you to take my microphone?!” 

Jayluf tilted his head, as if the answer was obvious. “You held it out towards me, which usually indicates you want a person to take the object you have in your hand.”

“W-What? No!” The woman sputtered, as if bewildered by Jayluf’s logic. “I was holding it out so you could talk into it! That’s what microphones are!”

That did not make sense to Jayluf. Microphones were for talking to people far away. This woman was right in front of him. “Why would I talk to the microphone, when you are right here?” 

“So the viewers can hear what you say, duh!” the woman gestured towards the reporters behind her. “Also, stop asking questions, I’m the one asking questions here!”

Viewers? Jayluf wondered. “Who are the viewers? Why can’t I ask questions?” He did not understand how this process of reporters worked, and it was getting more convoluted to him every moment. Glancing behind the woman, Jayluf eyed that several of the reporters held large black boxes that rested on their shoulders, some which were being pointed directly towards him. “What are those large objects?” 

Finally, the woman seemed to deflate, as if losing strength from Jayluf’s ongoing barrage of questions. Some of the other reporters around her also seemed to be getting somewhat exhausted from the constant inquiry. 

However, before Jayluf could ask anymore questions an unlikely savior suddenly spoke up. “Jayluf,” Miss Hunee said sweetly. “Maybe you should run along and get to school, okay? You might be late!” she put a hand on his shoulder, slowly guiding him towards Midoriya, who had looked absolutely bewildered at what he had just witnessed. 

Nodding, Jayluf walked towards the entrance gate, passing through and joining his friends. “Okay. Goodbye, Miss Hunee. Goodbye, reporters.” 

“Hey,” said one male reporter. “I recognize that logo on that limo! That’s Nohken Idustries!” 

Miss Hunee rolled her eyes. “Oh boy…”

After they’d gotten into the school, they had all headed towards their classroom, seating themselves and silently chatting amongst one another as they awaited for their teacher to arrive, who had been dealing with the reporters. 

When Aizawa finally arrived, everyone surprisingly quieted down by themselves, as they prepared for what their assignment would be today. 

“Everyone,” Aizawa began in a tired tone, his eyelids halfway shut as if he was seconds from falling asleep on the spot. “We have a main assignment for our homeroom today. It’s a simple task. All of you must choose a class representative.” 

Representative? Jayluf echoed in his mind. He had never heard of that. “What is a class representative?” He questioned out loud. 

Immediately, Sato and the white and red haired boy, who were sitting closest to him, turned and stared at him with perplexed expressions on their faces, the other classmates following suit. 

But before any comments could be made on Jayluf’s lack of knowledge, Aizawa had beaten everyone else to the punch. “A class representative is a person who is chosen to represent the class in itself, including feelings, concerns, or interests about the school or class they are enrolled in. It’s a task with an extremely high responsibility, not one to be taken lightly.” He looked towards the other students. “Now… who will be class representative?”

As soon as the question had left Aizawa’s lips, the entire class seemingly erupted in chaos. 

“HEY! Hey hey!” Kirishima yelled first, standing up from his desk and waving his arms in the air with excitement. “I wanna be the class representative!” 

“Me too!” Kaminari called from the side, staying seated but still raising an arm enthusiastically. 

“I’d like to do it too,” called one girl with dark hair, one that Jayluf did not recognize. 

Aoyama made a dramatic pose. “This is a job for m-”

“I’LL DO IT! I’LL BE THE LEADER!” Mina cut him off, leaping from her chair, waving her arms erratically side to side in a flapping motion as she bounced up and down. 

More and more students eventually joined in the chaos, talking and yelling over each other over who would be chosen, and was beginning to become too much for Jayluf to absorb at once as he tried to listen and understand everyone at the same time. 

Even Midoriya seemed to be caught up in the excitement, raising his hand slowly. “M-Maybe I could..”?
“SILENCE PLEASE!” Boomed a loud voice from the back of the class. Surprised, everyone turned around in shock at the command, immediately quieting down. 

As he was in the very very back of the class, Jayluf instead had to look to the side to see that Iida had been the one to take command of the situation. 

“Everyone!” Iida continued, “This is something we should be handling much more maturely! This is a job with a very serious responsibility of leading others! It’s not just a task anyone can just take up because they want to!”

Slowly, the other students began glancing at each other, some slightly embarrassed at the yelling they had done just moments ago. 

“It is a calling that requires the trust of the others around you!” Iida said. “If we all really want to have a leader, we should utilize democracy, and hold a vote! That vote will pick the most suitable leader!”

That seemed to confuse some of the students.

“Why suggest something like a vote?” Kaminari said, frowning. 

“We haven’t even known each other for very long,” Tsuyu piped up from the side. “We still need time to build trust with one another, we can’t possibly know right now who to trust.” 

“Yeah…” Kirishima chimed in, a slightly confused look on his face. “How do we know everyone will not just end up voting for themselves? If they do that, doesn’t that kill the point of the election in the first place?”

“Don’t you think that’s why whoever receives the most votes in the first place, they could be considered the most suitable leader for the class?” He looked up towards Aizawa. “What do you think, teacher?”

“Don’t care, honestly.” Aizawa said, suddenly lying down and wrapping himself in his sleeping bag. “Just decide before the end of the homeroom.” He promptly closed his eyes, falling asleep almost immediately. 

The events after that were a sort of a blur to Jayluf. After Iida had calmed the class down enough to take a proper vote, had the class each submit a vote for whoever they wanted.
Jayluf had voted for Midoriya. He didn’t know why, but it was the first name he thought of, and decided that it was the best choice. He’d imitated some of Midoriya’s actions several times in the past, and it had never turned out bad or backfired. Surely that meant Midoriya was an obvious choice in regards to being a leader, right? It made sense to Jayluf. 

After the final vote had been casted, and the results had been shown, it had been revealed that the winners were Midoriya in first place, as he managed to gain the most votes, while in second place came Momo, who had been named something called “deputy representative”.
What was a deputy?

After their class had ended, they all had been excused to lunch, which was something Jayluf had been genuinely looking forward to. Was it excitement he felt for eating? Anticipation? He honestly had no idea. But as he almost wiggled from smelling the rice and chicken as the bowl was placed on his tray, he knew whatever he was feeling, it definitely wasn’t a bad feeling.

And as he’d sat down with Iida, Uraraka, and Midoriya once again, he didn’t wait long before he took a bite of the delicious food. And when he did, it had been just as incredible as last time.

It was a fantastic combination of tangy, sweet, and slightly spicy that just settled on his tongue in such a pleasant way, and the white rice as always absorbing some of the flavoring to the point of it tasting just as good as the chicken, Jayluf felt as if he’d never get tired of this. He wiggled slightly in his chair as he ate his meal.

It appeared that his enjoyment was visually apparent as well, for he heard giggling to the side. 

"Good, right?" Uraraka said with a smile on her face. 

Due to his mouth being full, Jayluf was unable to respond back with words, so he settled to reply with an audible "mmm!" sound as he rocked back and forth.

"It's still really hard to believe that you never really had properly flavored food until yesterday," Uraraka hummed as she enjoyed her own rice. "It's a good thing that Deku had the kindness in his big ol heart to buy you some food yesterday!" She turned to face Midoriya, beaming. "Isn't that right Deku?"

Midoriya, not expecting the sudden praise, or the way Uraraka had suddenly learned in his direction, quickly went red faced as he bashfully rubbed the back of his head. "O-Oh, w-well, you know, I-I'm s-sure one of you would have d-done the same! I-It's always good to be kind, r-right?!"

As Midoriya began muttering from shyness, Jayluf realized that someone was missing from their table. Looking left, then right, he slowly came to a conclusion. Pony was missing.  Swallowing his bite, he turned to the others. "Where… where is Pony?"

The other students began looking at each other in confusion.

Iids frowned, putting a hand to his chin somewhat thoughtfully, also intrigued at the absence of Jayluf's friend. "You mean, your American friend with the horns? I have not seen her at all today. Not even before school had begun." 

Uraraka shook her head slowly. "Actually, I haven't seen her either, and I usually see her in the hallways between classes."

Midoriya, who was busy picking up a small piece of steak from his rice with chopsticks, shook his head in negative as well. After he chewed and swallowed, he glanced towards the vacant spot Pony had sat last time. "I haven't seen her at all. Maybe she's having, y’know, a sick day?"

Jayluf tilted his head at the suggestion. "A… sick day?"

"Yeah, Deku might be right!" Uraraka chimed in. "Think about it! She's from a totally different country! She's probably being exposed to so many new germs and stuff, so even stuff like basic colds here might affect her more than us. Have you ever traveled on vacation and got sick with the local sickness or cold?"

Sick? Jayluf stared at her blankly as the word bounced around in his head. "Negative. I do not get sick."

Iida raised an eyebrow. "Not ever? You're saying that you do not get sick at all? And that you've never gotten sick in the past?"

"I cannot remember getting anything about being sick," Jayluf answered honestly. "My memory does not have anything like that at all." However, he did remember something about sickness being mentioned to him in the past… He dug into his memories, straining as he blindly searched for something about sickness. "But… I do not get sick because…"

Midoriya looked over. "What's wrong?"

Finally finding the missing link, Jayluf's eyebrows rose as he turned back to his friends. "I remember now… Miss Hunee had told me that I have something she calls a… cellular advantage in regards to microscopic organisms."

"Huh." Uraka blurted out. “That sounds… pretty cool actually! Must be nice to never get sick or throw up, huh?” Suddenly, her face fell almost abruptly, frowning in thought. “Then again… you never got to have any sick days off for school… talk about a double edged sword.”

Jayluf blinked, curious to what a double edged sword was. Although he never got the chance, due to Midoriay suddenly speaking up. “Either way, I think it’s safe to assume Pony is perfectly fine, probably just sick or something, Jayluf. There’s no need to worry about it.”

Giving one glance towards the empty space, Jayluf finally went back to his meal. “Okay…”

As the four students continued eating, Iida had eventually glanced back up towards Midoriya. “By the way,” he began. “I wanted to give you my congratulations on being elected as class president, Midoriya. You were probably the best choice in all honesty.”

Midoriya, once again not expecting sudden praise, blushed slightly as he gave a flattered smile. “T-Thanks Iida! I’ll do my best!”
“I’m surprised you didn’t vote for yourself,” Uraraka said as she took another bite of her fried rice on her plate. “I honestly thought you seemed to be somewhat hinting you were the best class president material earlier today. No offense.”

“Even if I do want to be the class president for 1-A,” Iida began, “there is still the issue of me not realizing the basics of what it is to be a hero. Like during the entrance exam, when Midoriya had leapt up to save you from the zero pointer, I realized that I was the one who was wrong. I thought Midoriya had been there for personal reasons, and did not truly seek to be a hero but…” He sighed. “I realized it was I who was the person making a mistake. I didn’t even try to help you when you had been in danger, yet Midoriya risked himself to save you. Because of that, I believe Midoriya is the best choice for a class president.”

“I see… that’s fair.” Uraraka hummed to herself. “Say, Iida, this is kind of a weird question, but do you come from like a rich family?”

“R-Rich family?” Midoriya echoed. “Where did this come from, Uraraka?”

Jayluf had no idea what the word “rich” meant. Rich? What is rich?

Although it seemed Iida was almost somewhat guilty upon being asked. He glanced to the side nervously as he steeled his expression. “Is it that obvious? I attempted to not reveal that part of me, because I was afraid people would possibly treat me differently because of my status. But yes… my family does happen to be wealthy. My family is one of the several generations of Pro Heroes in Japan. Are you familiar with the Turbo Hero, Ingenium?”

Jayluf did not know of any heroes with that name. 

But Midoriya certainly seemed to, judging from the way he suddenly lit up with a huge smile. “I sure do! He’s a popular pro hero who has like, sixty five sidekicks at his Tokyo Agency!” Suddenly, his eyes seemed to sparkle. “W-Wait, don’t tell me… is Ingenium… your…?”

Flashing a smile and a slightly dramatic pose, Iida pushed his glasses up his nose. “Yep! Ingenium is my older brother!”

“WHOA!” Uraraka said in awe. 

“So cool!” Midoriya chimed in, almost wiggling in place from excitement. 

“He’s an honorable hero who respects the rules, and leads others by example.” Iida continued. However, his smile fell slightly. “However… I do think it’s too soon for me to be leading others… especially since Midoriya was able to realize what the judges wanted for the exam before me.”

As Iida continued talking, Jayluf took a moment to ponder on Iida’s words. What was it like, to have someone blood related to you, who was also a world famous hero? Was that good? Bad? The way Iida had spoken of it gave Jayluf pause. What had Iida meant by “treated differently”? Was it in a good way? A bad way? Perhaps if I ask Midoriya, he could….

His thoughts were cut short by what possibly was the loudest alarm he’d ever heard in his life. It was deafening, screeching as it blared through the entire cafeteria. 

A loud electronic voice suddenly came through unseen speakers.  “There has been a level 3 security breach! Everyone please evacuate outdoors!”

Every student in the cafeteria almost immediately went on high alert. Students were standing up from their chairs in shock and fear, looking around as they tried to grasp the sudden alert. 

“I-Intruder?!” Midoriya cried out in surprise. 

“I’ve never seen this happen before!” said one student Jayluf was not familiar with. “This must be really serious!” several more students had stood up and began running for the exit.
For Jayluf, for some reason he’d never felt so anxious in his life. An alarm. An ALARM was going off. His heart thudded against his chest, and his vision became almost fuzzy, incomprehensible even. He… he needed to get out. An alarm. He needed an escape. An alarm meant they knew that… that…

That what…? Why am I so distressed at an alarm? The fog that constantly was in his brain had suddenly returned with a vengeance. What had he been thinking about? Jayluf strained, furrowing his brow as he tried to put together his scattered thoughts, but before long a tugging on his arm had brought him back to reality.

“Jayluf, come on! We got to go!” Midoriya cried, grabbing Jayluf’s wrist, and pulling him forwards, forcing Jayluf to stumble after Midoriya, instinctively mimicking Midoriya's pace and direction. 

Only a few seconds had passed before all the students tried crowding into the exit, Jayluf, Midoriya, Uraraka, and Iida all getting caught into the swarm of students as they had tried to exit as fast as they could. 

Unfortunately for the four, almost every student in the school seemed to have the same plan of using the hallway closest to the exit, because when they had managed to reach said hallway, it was almost completely crowded with no wiggle room. Tens to maybe over fifty students were now squeezing past and against one another in a desperate bid to escape.

It had not taken long for Jayluf to be separated from the others, being caught in between other kids pushing and shoving each other in a panic to get away from whatever threat was in their school. 

As much as he tried fighting against the flow, he was being pushed farther and farther away from his friends. But for a brief moment, he thought he spotted an opportunity, one that he could perhaps exploit. If he moved just right, he could start making his way back towards Midoriya and his friends. 

Taking the risk, he stepped forward when he saw a vacant area. Unfortunately, he failed to see the student coming from the side.

Suddenly being shoved back, he struggled to regain his footing, only to be spun around until another student also rammed into him, and the last thing he saw were the metal divider pieces that held the large windows in place rushing towards his face. He felt a sharp pain in his head, and everything went black. 

And then he was… running?

Running, running… was he dreaming? Maybe. He didn’t know. He wasn’t flying in the dark like other dreams, no, he was running… in the white? He was surrounded by white, cold, blistering white with freezing winds. Why was he running?

The sound of a loud crack behind him, caused him to look behind him as he fled. In the air was a small helicopter, and it was hot on his tail. 

Another loud crack sounded from the helicopter, and a bundle of snow to the side was violently displaced. They’d almost hit him. He couldn’t stay here, he needed to run, and find shelter from his attackers, maybe find some other people. And when he found more humans, he’d… he’d…

He’d what? What was he doing? Why was he running again? What was going on?

He looked ahead, and saw it. A large structure ahead, completely untouched human facility. One that promised warmth, and more importantly, a place to hide. 

When Jayluf came to, he realized that he was not in the hallway full of students anymore. In fact, he was in a room that was actually quite empty. He looked around, and saw that he was in some sort of medical room, it somewhat reminded him of his home back at the base.

"Well, looks like you're finally up!" Said a tinny voice from the side, causing Jayluf to look to his left and saw a small elderly lady in some sort of costume that looked somewhat familiar to him. 

Digging into his memories, Jayluf actually managed to fish out a name. "You are… Recovery Girl?"

"Well, good to see someone remembers me!" Recovery Girl huffed. 

"What has happened? Why am I here?" Jayluf said.

"You took a very nasty fall young man! You should count yourself lucky you didn't get a concussion!" The woman made a strange tsk sound. "It was only because of your friends rushing you here that I was made aware of what happened! I wish they had gotten the student who had ran after they accidentally shoved you into the window, because that was very inappropriate behavior." 

"My friends?" Had they brought him here?

"Well yes! After your fall, apparently they got to calm down the crowd and had them clear a path so that they could quickly take you here. Those kids definitely are heroes at heart…"

"I see…" Jayluf said. So his friends had helped him. That was good.

"But enough talk," The woman said quickly, "you've been out for a bit, you should get back to class before you miss hero class."

Jaylufs eyes widened for a split second. "I understand. Thank you, Recovery Girl."

"Don't mention it, now get outta here! Go on, git!"

Jayluf had returned to his classroom to see his classmates looking up in surprise, Midoriya being the most surprised. 

"Jayluf," Aizawa greeted in a bored tone. "Very classy timing, we were just about to move into basic hero training. Sit down at your desk."

Obediently Jayluf walked around and calmly sat at his desk.

"Oh, and by the way, Iida has been chosen as the new class representative by a unanimous vote from the other students."

Jayluf tilted his head curiously. Didn't the students vote for Midoriya?

But before he could inquire on the seemingly sudden change, Aizawa continued speaking. "For today’s basic hero training, it's going to be a class of three teachers instead of just one. The three teachers will be me, All Might, and one other teacher."

Sero raised a hand. "Sensei, what will we be doing?"

"You will be doing rescue training," Aizawa responded smoothly, flashing a card with the word "rescue" printed on the face. "Disasters, shipwrecks, and basically everything in between."

"Rescue training?" Kaminari said, slightly off put by the idea. "Sounds like it'll be a lot of work for us this time."

Behind him, Kirishima lightly slapped his shoulder. "Dude, this is the duty of a hero! It's why we enrolled here!" The redhead grinned. "My arms are totally ready to rumble!" 

Other students also seemed somewhat excited. "No one can beat me in water, ribbit!" Tsuyu exclaimed in excitement. 

"Oi, I'm not done." Aizawa continued. "You all can choose whether you wear your Hero outfit or not. Just whatever you do, decide quickly. Just consider the fact that some of your costumes may or may not possibly hinder your abilities and quirks. Just remember to decide quickly." 

He activated the switch for the wall to dispense all the costume cases. "Also, the training will take place off campus this time, so we're taking a bus."

Dismissing the class, the students that went to change into their costumes headed for their respective locker rooms. 

Jayluf once more waited for everyone to be finished before he went in and once more changed into his costume. When he exited, he saw that Midoriya was waiting for him. Trailing after his friend, Jayluf followed him until they reached a door that led to the outdoors where all the other students and a bus waited for them.

"Oh, Deku! Jayluf!" Uraraka called out, jogging up to them with a grin on her face. "There you two are, I was wondering where you were!" Suddenly her face fell. "Wait… Deku, where's your costume?"

Midoriya suddenly began rubbing the back of his head. "A-ah, well, the thing is my costume was in need of repair ever since my fight with Kacchan, s-so I'm just tuning my gloves and mask, since that's basically all they could salvage…"

A shrill sound suddenly pierced the relaxed silence, causing everyone to turn towards Iida to see him blowing a whistle, instructing everyone to line up so they could enter the bus. However, when they all got in, it seemed that Iida was expecting the bus seating to be a different type, since he began muttering about it after everyone had been seated.
Jayluf had been seated between Midoriya and Tsuyu as everyone else settled into different spots, and the truck took off. 

For several minutes there seemed to be an awkward silence where no one really wanted to talk, it seemed, until Tsuyu suddenly moved and began to speak. “I say what comes to mind,” Tsuyu said. She bent forward, looking at Midoriya. “Midoriya.”
Midoriya immediately straightened up. “Y-Yes Asui?!”

“Call me Tsu.”

Midoriya had a slight blush on his cheeks as he looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. “R-Right…”

“Your quirk, it sort of reminds me of All Might’s quirk.” Tsuyu said simply.

That sounded somewhat familiar to Jayluf, causing him to glance and look at Midoriya directly. Didn’t he hear something about that yesterday? Its priority had been not very high since he was mainly focused on heeding Miss Hunee’s instructions. 

“R-REALLY?!” Midoriya squeaked out in terror, immediately finding his lap very interesting. “B-But, w-we’re basically nothing a-alike, m-my quirk is totally different…”

However, Kirishima, who was seated to Tsuyu’s left, came to save the day. “Wait a second Asui, when All Might uses his quirk, it doesn’t hurt his body at all. They just look similar, that’s all.”

Midoriya seemed to exhale in relief. “Y-Yeah…”

“But still,” Kirishima continued suddenly.  “Your quirk is pretty cool, you can do a lot of flashy stuff!” He thrust out an arm, activating his hardening quirk. “My hardening is pretty effective, but it’s not very flashy or noticeable. I wish it was at least more easily noticed in some way, y’know?”

Kaminari, who was sitting across the four students, lazily gestured towards them. “Hey, having a quirk that can be easily spotted isn’t always better, or inherently flashy.” He gestured towards Jayluf. “Like Jayluf, your big meat hands are kind of gnarly, big, and very noticeable. But they aren’t very flashy, and more kind of weird, and gross with how big they are.”

“So you think big hands are gross?” Tsuyu suddenly cut in, staring blankly at Kaminari. 

“W-Well no, I wasn’t-” 

The frog girl lifted her right hand in the air. “My hand could be considered bigger than others. Do you think my hand is gross, or weird?”

“N-No!” Kaminari vehemently denied. “Of course not!”

“Then why say that about Jayluf’s quirk?” Tsuyu retorted.
“I was just, I was trying to maybe make a point about… nevermind…” Kaminari said. “S-Sorry, Tsuyu. Sorry Jayluf.”

“Hm.” Tsuyu said. She turned to Jayluf, who was still blankly staring ahead with no expression. “Jayluf, don’t be dismayed by your quirk.” She brought up her hand towards him. “My hand size was something I struggled to deal with when I was younger, but now I’ve learned to accept it. Everyone with quirks likely has a body part that might seem abnormal if they compare their body parts to others, but it’s not abnormal at all. In fact, it's quite normal now.”

Turning his head, Jayluf blankly inspected Tsuyu’s hand, and compared it to his, bringing up a mitten covered hand to compare sizes.
“Although I will ask,” Tsuyu said as both parties lowered their limbs. “What is the purpose of your collar? I’ve noticed it before but never considered asking about it until now.”

Jayluf glanced down, fiddling with the metallic ring gripping his neck, the red light still shining as bright as ever. “It is to monitor my vitals, and health.”

“Oh.” Tsuyu said. “Are you sick, or something?”

“I do not get sick.” Jayluf responded blankly. 

“It kind of looks like a sci-fi device,” Kaminari said suddenly, eyeing the device with a raised eyebrow. 

“What is sci fi?” Jayluf said curiously, tilting his head. 

Kaminari’s expression scrunched into a seemingly disgruntled expression as he craned his head forwards slightly, but he did not respond audibly, staring at Jayluf with that same bewildered expression. 

"Everyone," Aizawa suddenly called from the front of the bus. "Quiet down, we're here."

In front of Jayluf was a huge dome shaped building, one he'd never seen the likes of. It was ginormous. It wasn't as big as Nohken Industries as a whole but as a single structure? It was one of the largest. 

As they all piled out and approached the building, they were stopped by a figure in perhaps the strangest outfit.

This person wore a giant white costume, thick with some sort of material that looked very difficult to move around in. 

However, everyone else seemed to recognize them.

"Th-that's The Space Hero Thirteen!" Midoriya said excitedly.

"Who?" Jayluf inquired, curious of the identity of this stranger.

"W-What?!" Uraraka whispered harshly from the side. "How can you not know thirteen?! They're only one of the most famous heroes ever!"

"Y-Yeah!" Midoriya nervously chimed in from the side. "They're a really famous rescue hero, their quirk black hole making them one of the most efficient heroes in rescuing people trapped under debris! Each one of her fingers can produce a powerful suction that literally can suck in light!"

"Hello, Thirteen." Aizawa said. 

"Hello, Aizawa!" Thirteen said. "And Hello to all of you! Welcome to a facility made of my own design. It is a facility made to train heroes in rescuing people from any sort of event or environment! I call it the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!"

Aizawa looked around. "Where is All Might?"

Thirteen glanced sheepishly to the side. "Ah, about that…" they whispered something to Aizawa that was completely inaudible to Jayluf. Whatever it was though, caused Aizawa to roll his eyes.

"Now, for all of you here!" Thirteen suddenly proclaimed, turning and holding their arms out in a grand fashion. "I have something to say before we begin, well two things. Actually, make that three… I have quite a few things now that I think about it…"

Some of the students sweatdropped at the suddenly awkward feeling of the environment.

"But there is something I want to focus on mainly," Thirteen continued. "And that is your quirks. Mainly, your capabilities with them." They raised a single hand, flipping open one of the lids of their gloves. "As some of you know, my quirk is Black Hole, I'm able to produce an intensely powerful suction that increases with each finger lid I open. This makes it very useful when I'm rescuing people trapped under collapsed buildings or heavy machinery."

Some of the students smiled in excitement.

"But, there is also another side to this quirk. Although it is surely a blessing that I have this power to rescue other people, if I used it against a living person, it would surely destroy them."

The excited mood from the students simmered down almost immediately. 

"While that is a dark thing to think about, it is something you all must consider as well. Your quirks, they are powerful, but you must consider the dangers they carry as well. Any of you could harm a person to the extent of killing them. This training is also going to help you all get a better grasp on your quirks capabilities. But before I tell you more, let’s take a look inside, and I will give you the basics on what we’re going to do.”

All the students excitedly followed the Pro Hero inside, and were greeted with the fantastic view of the inside of the USJ. 

“This looks like a frickin amusement park!” Kirishima said. “Like Universal Studios or something! Awesome!”

“This certainly must have been expensive…” Iida hummed as they walked further into the building, approaching what looked like stairs.

Suddenly, the lights started to flicker, some shorting out, and others even bursting. 

Jayluf looked up. What was that? He looked to the teacher for an explanation, but Aizawa was looking around, looking alert and tense. What was happening?

In the middle of the arena, a dark shadow suddenly seemed to form from thin air, a strange liquid like material, and out of them stepped out several strangers that Jayluf did not recognize. Who were those people?

“EVERYONE!” Aizawa shouted, spooking all the students and causing them to immediately tense up. “STAND BACK!”

“Mister Aizawa?” Kirishima said worriedly. “What’s happening?”

“Thirteen! Protect the students!” He held his arms up. “Those are villains!”

Chapter Text

Jayluf stared in slight disbelief alongside the other students. It just seemed completely incomprehensible what he was seeing. He stared at the villains emerging from the shadowy fog, still not able to believe what was happening. How could villains be here? The very idea was inconceivable to him. This is a hero school, not a villain school. Villains can't be here. It is impossible. And although as much as he denied the idea of villains invading their school, here they stood, right in the middle of a U.A facility. It didn't matter what Jayluf thought was possible, this was real. Jaylufs eyes scanned over the swarm. There were so many villains to the point of him beginning to lose count due to how many were stepping out of the shadowy liquid like fog. It was a seemingly endless supply.

Although Jayluf felt no fear, he was still very alert, his cells all shuddering uneasily. However, the other students were very visibly disturbed and frightened, with several stepping backwards. The students had shock, disbelief, and terror on their faces. 

"W-What?!" Kirishima stuttered out in an obvious attempt to regain his cool, his eyes wide and mouth open. "Villains? There's... There's no way they could have gotten into U.A… it's… it's the biggest hero school in Japan!"

Kaminari shuddered. “A-And yet… here they are.”

“Sensei,” Yaoyorozu said from behind, approaching Thirteen, her temperament surprisingly cool and level headed. Her face didn’t betray a single ounce of panic or fear. “What about the trespasser sensors we have around the school? Shouldn’t those be going off?”

Although most of their attention was focused on the villains standing in the middle of the facility, Thirteen briefly risked glancing behind their shoulder to consider Yaoyorozu’s question. “Well.. we do have them but…” they trailed off, as if not sure their answer would satisfy.

But some students did not care to let the teacher finish the answer. "The real question is," began the red and white haired boy that Jayluf still did not know the name of. "Did the villains all appear here in a single concentrated area in the USJ? Or, could they possibly have appeared around the entire school campus?" He glanced around, a calm but determined look in his eyes. "Either way, the sensors are seemingly not responding anymore, meaning that there is a high possibility of them having a villain who's quirk is specifically made to suppress or even outright disable these motion sensors." His eyes eventually settled back on the huge group of villains. "They chose this isolated part of U.A for a reason. Yes, they are indeed fools for attacking the number one hero school, but they're not dumb either. This attack was obviously very clearly planned, crafted with an objective in mind."

Judging from the lack of objections from any of the other students, it seemed that his observation was very likely to be correct.  Other students were now even more anxious at the idea of being completely cut off from the rest of the world while being surrounded by villains, beginning to nervously glance and chatter amongst one another as they tried to piece together what they'd do next.

"W-What objective, th-though?!" Mineta sputtered, terrified at the possible implications. 

Even as the students seemed to begin panicking, Aizawa managed to have a surprisingly calm attitude about being possibly trapped with villains. "Thirteen." He began, starting to simply walk forwards and heading directly towards the villains below. "Start the evacuation. Try calling the school, too. I have a feeling that they have someone with some kind of quirk that can counteract the sensors with some sort of radio wave quirk, so you all need to get out of this building, now." He momentarily halted his march, his eyes settling on a certain yellow haired student. "Kaminari, try contacting anyone you can with your earpiece. Maybe it has a stronger signal and a better chance of reaching help. Doesn't matter who you reach, just let people know what's going on here."

"R-Right! Got it, sir!" Kaminari stuttered out anxiously, beginning to fiddle with the earpiece nervously in order to presumably switch it on.

Satisfied by Kaminari's cooperation, Aizawa continued walking towards the seemingly endless swarm of villains before them, seemingly not bothered by their numbers in the slightest.

Izuku, who was watching from the side, reached out in protest upon seeing his teacher walking towards the threat. "B-But, S-Sensei!" He squeaked out nervously, "Y-You can't possibly b-be thinking of taking on all th-those villains down there y-yourself! A-Aren't you at a m-massive disadvantage? Because your quirk is erasure, then using y-your binding wraps to subdue your targets one at a time! I-It's not made for huge g-groups!"

Despite the worried rambling behind him, Aizawa did not appear nervous or uncertain in the slightest. He threw a glance behind him. "Kid, one thing you're gonna need to learn in this line of work, is that becoming a hero means that being a one trick pony ain't gonna cut it. Trust me." His eyes landed on the other teacher. "Thirteen?"

"Eraser?"

"I leave the rest to you."

And without saying another word, Aizawa threw himself forwards, leaping off of the top of the staircase in the most spectacular manner, his robes flowing in the wind, and immediately charged the villains without fear. 

Surprisingly, the villains appeared to almost have been expecting Aizawa to charge them, as a handful of them immediately lined up side by side. They grinned cockily as they lifted their arms and hair in what Jayluf presumed was them preparing whatever offensive quirks they had to use against the Pro Hero. But when they all moved to attack, nothing had happened. The cocky expressions on the villains from before quickly vanished in favor of complete shock and befuddlement, as they all began to blubber out questions of why their quirks suddenly did not work. They did not get very long to ponder over their quirks ceasing to function, for while they'd been distracted with questioning their performance issues, Aizawa had already closed the distance between them and himself. 

The closest villain barely had time to even react or manage to get a glimpse of the black blur heading straight for him before a boot had slammed into his head, knocking him out cold.

The second villain nearest to the pro hero quickly attempted to bark out a warning before she was suddenly encased in tape and was thrown unceremoniously towards the third villain. 

All of the other villains began shouting and attempted to charge Aizawa, which ended with them getting punched or kicked. This process repeated several times in an extremely short timespan with Eraser making very quick work of the uncoordinated villains who were obviously over dependent on their quirks. He used his wrapping binds to throw the smaller villains towards the more heavier ones as makeshift projectiles.

Jayluf stood beside Midoriya as they both watched their teacher continue to thrash the villains. It was a fascinating thing to watch how Aizawa almost seemed to flow in combat, it looked so natural. 

Unfortunately he did not get to watch long, because of the second teacher still with the group. "Jayluf, Midoriya, come on! We have to evacuate now!"

Jayluf instinctively obeyed, turning around and beginning to head back to regroup with the other students. "Affirmative." 

"R-Right!" Midoriya chimed in, also beginning to run towards the group.

As they fled, Jayluf couldn't help but glance behind his shoulder. Aizawa was alone out there. Would it be okay to leave him? Was it the right thing to do? Thirteen seemed to think so, they certainly had no protest to the baggy eyed teacher going off on his own. When  Jayluf neared the exit door with the other students, their escape was abruptly halted due to a bizarre giant shadow on the ground seemingly materializing out of thin air, sprouting off the floor, twisting, morphing, and swelling into a giant barrier of darkness that effectively prevented any escape from the facility. Before anyone could question what was happening, a deep, booming voice that Jayluf had never heard before began to speak.

"Apologies," said the mysterious deep new voice. "But I'm afraid we have made the choice to allow ourselves into your school facility."

The shadow twisted itself into what Jayluf could assume was a face. It had glowing yellow slit eyes. Well, it looked like eyes.

“We are the League of Villains, and today we have made the choice to attack your school with one single unified goal in mind. What is that goal? Well, it is to stomp out and eliminate the shining beacon of light that is the Number One Hero, All Might!"

Immediately several students flinched back in horror upon hearing the announcement from the villain. They were going to WHAT? Kill… All Might? That was not possible, surely All Might was invincible, was he not? Some of the kids began to mutter in fear, unsure of what to do next. 

Thirteen was quick as they flicked open one of the caps on their fingers to presumably use their Black Hole quirk on this strange shadow villain, but unfortunately two students had been quicker. Kirishima and Bakugo had leapt forwards, both with sharp toothed aggressive grins on their faces as they both lunged to attack with their quirks fully on display. Kirishima swung as hard as he could with his hardening quirk activated, whilst Bakugo threw out his palm while letting out a huge explosion directed at the villain’s main body structure.

Both students had even bigger smiles now, convinced that they already won the fight. “Had you ever considered the possibility that you’d lose to us first?!” Kirishima chuckled cockily, watching as the villain appeared to dissipate from sight.

Unfortunately for the two students, their victory was only momentary, because not even five seconds later did the shadowy villain suddenly reform his shape as if he hadn’t been attacked several moments ago. “Oh my…” he began, his tone almost mocking. “You all are certainly golden eggs compared to the rest. Even if you’re just mere children in costumes, you still are the number one hero class in all of Japan. However, it matters not, unfortunately for you I intend to complete my task. What is the task? Well, it is quite simple. My job here is to scatter each and every one of you, and torture you all until your deaths!”

Without delay, the villain seemed to almost throw his strange shadowy mists directly towards the students, the quirk flowing in a strange inhuman fashion as it flew at the alarmed students so quickly, that no one had the time to respond or fight back in any shape or form before it reached them. When it finally made contact, many of the teens yelled or screamed in alarm, some not hesitating to huddle together, as if numbers would somehow cancel out whatever ability the shadowy winds had. 

Jayluf however, did not know what to do. He didn’t have any orders to follow. What was he supposed to do to counteract these shadows? Run? Attack? Perhaps join the huddle in the middle? Whatever move he wanted to make did not matter sadly. He suddenly saw several stay dark strands snake over towards him and under his feet, causing him to suddenly be sucked into them. His vision was engulfed in complete and utter darkness.

He was falling. He did not know where he was falling. He did not know how he was falling. He definitely did not understand why he was suddenly falling, all that he knew was that he was… well, falling.

As he plummeted downwards towards an unknown destination, the shadows around his vision suddenly vanished, and his eyes strained to quickly adjust to the second abrupt change in lighting. Blinking while his vision adjusted, Jayluf looked around to see what appeared to be the top of the USJ dome, at least, the ceiling of the dome, which meant he was still inside the USJ. He was aware of two new things. So the villain’s quirk was some sort of quirk that could instantly transport anyone somewhere else to presumably whatever location the villain wanted. He was still inside the USJ. 

The last one meant he was falling towards the ground, though. 

Twisting his body in an awkward attempt to regain his bearings, Jayluf’s limbs flung and wiggled around as he desperately tried to turn and avoid landing on his spine, but unfortunately gravity was pulling him downwards much faster than he’d been anticipating, and after several seconds of nothing, he slammed on something that wasn’t the ground, in fact it felt very hard and metallic. And he began rolling. The fact that he was rolling to one side meant that he had landed on something not flat, and was perhaps a slope, or rounded dome not unlike the dome of the USJ itself. 

During his descent down towards wherever the slope led, he managed to catch very VERY brief glimpses of several colors being blurred together. There was red, orange, yellow, green, and finally brown. His body in its entirety was very upset with the strange feeling of plummet downwards at very high speeds, his cells were protesting the entire time while his world spun around and around.

He tried to get control of the situation by activating Cellular Command and instructed his rattling microscopic comrades to numb the pain receptors as much as they could. Since the first "landing" had caused a decent amount of pain, he figured when he was done rolling off whatever he landed on, the second impact would probably hurt even more.

And when he finally stopped rolling and began falling for a few short moments, his theory was proven correct. Slamming into the ground, his entire form had a rush of pain as his body slammed into cheap dirt, his cells working overtime to keep him from feeling what was probably excruciating agony from the impact.

Dazed, he lay on his back, staring up once again at the ceiling, which was somewhat  blurry due to his sluggish state. It took what felt like several long minutes for his vision to readjust itself. Slowly trying to move himself, the throbbing pain told him that without his numbing ability, he would probably be in a lot more pain than what he currently was now. 

Blinking as his vision slowly returned, he forced himself to begin to sit upwards, dirt staining the back of his entire costume, the mittens included. Pushing himself to his feet, he dizzily stumbled, taking a moment to regain his balance. As his dazed state began wearing off, he remembered just what the current situation was, and his dizziness was quickly replaced by a feeling of alertness. Taking a moment to regain his bearings, he began to mentally go over the situation with himself. The current situation was that he was confused, lost, and his friends and teachers were separated from him. Worst of all, they were currently under a surprise attack from some sort of villain group. What had the shadow villain claimed the name of their group was? The League of Villains?

Now that the situation was figured out, the thing he had to do was find out where he was, and decide what to do from there. It seemed a good idea to first begin with finding out how far the entrance door was from here. Looking to his right, he saw that very far away, he could faintly make out the entrance to the USJ. Well, he assumed it was, the staircase certainly looked familiar. And also the fact that he could see a blurry image of a man dressed in black fighting against several villains was also a giveaway. He was definitely some distance away from the entrance now, thanks to the shadowy villain. It would definitely be a lengthy walk to get back.

The second thing he needed to know was to see whatever he'd landed on. That had been a rather big fall earlier, and he wanted to see just what kind of structure caused such a tumble. Glancing behind him, his eyes settled on what appeared to be a domed structure. A domed building inside a domed building. Was that a normal thing? He'd seen a brief glimpse of this structure when he'd first entered the USJ with his classmates, but hadn't gotten much of a look before they'd been attacked, so it had been just a weird half circle building with some colors blotches on it.

Now that he was seeing it up close, one of the first things he quickly noticed about it was the warm air. It felt as if heat was somehow coming from inside of this strange dome, like it was being produced in there, which meant that inside that building was likely much hotter than it was out where he was standing. His assumption was proven correct when he took several steps closer, and felt the sensation of warm air brushing against his face. 

Not only that, but along with the hot air constantly being pushed outwards, there was a brand new scent accompanying it. It was one that Jayluf had never seen before in his life, yet at the same time it felt familiar. It was a smell of scalding heat, bitter chemical reactions, decay, and… burning. It was smoke he smelled. Fire. Something was burning in there.

How did I know it was smoke? 

Slowly looking upwards, he managed to get a good look at the colors on the top of the dome. Now that he was getting a much closer look, he could see that this was no ordinary design for a building. Instead of pleasant colors lined up neat lines or patterns, this was the complete opposite. 

The top of the dome was a bright red decorated with strange yellow and dark red patterns. Well, they were less of patterns, and more like random blotches that had no real discernible consistent shape to them. It almost looked like a blob that was spreading to consume the brighter red under it entirely.

Jayluf swallowed. Something felt off. What exactly was the purpose of this dome? This was a place to simulate rescue, was it not? He remembered the teachers mentioning simulation. Why was this building put in here along with the other structures? Was it made to simulate a place that was hot and smoking? A place that was on fire? It made more sense now. The red on top was representing fire, there was definitely no doubt about it. So was it for heroes in training like himself and his friends to simulate rescuing people from burning places?

My classmates… Jayluf thought. 

That's when he remembered. His classmates. When the villain had used the strange shadow warping ability, Jayluf had seen it also swallow up some of his classmates, just like it had to him. If they had been engulfed by the shadows as well, it was likely they were also dropped in a completely random location in the USJ like he had been.

The possibility hasn't come up until now, but did that mean that maybe some of his classmates were in need of help? Maybe the shadow villain had dropped some of them near the fire dome? Or maybe even inside the dome? Maybe the students were now trapped?

Jayluf had no way to be sure, but maybe, just maybe, he could tread further inside to check? Taking a few steps forward, he began to approach the giant dome. Surely it wouldn’t hurt, right?

But as he drew closer, the sensations from before almost tripled.  When the full combination of the heat, the smoke, and the image of the red angry streaks that represented flames hit him all at once, his body reacted violently. He barely had time to keep his balance as he suddenly stumbled backwards quickly as he felt what was possibly the largest spike of anxiety in his life.  For when he'd taken a single inhale when he was closer, he could feel the awful sensation of rancid smoke and each and every individual cinder rushing down his throat and burning into his lungs. The smell was disgusting, a hot bitter scent that assaulted anything that came into contact with it. It almost felt like his nostrils sizzled from the heat. The image of fire embedded itself into his mind, and he couldn’t get it out no matter how hard he tried. 

The smells and sensations combined with each other, it all just screamed "wrong". Jayluf realized that even his own body was rebelling against the idea of going in, for he realized that even his own cells were rattling in complete protest. They were almost screaming at him to back away from the dome and run, run as far as he could in the opposite direction as if the dome's very existence was a danger to him. Looking down, the boy realized that his arms and legs were trembling violently, as if the ground under him was shaking. His lungs felt insufferably hot as if they were being burned with every breath he took near the dome, forcing him to resist the instinctual urge to cough. If he did, he feared he might hack up his lungs. His heart thudded against his chest, every individual beat striking his ribcage like a hammer, causing him to lift one of his hands to his chest to try and calm himself as his heart pounded over and over again. 

Fire. Smoke. Burning. Bad. Very bad. All of these are bad.

That dome wasn't good. Something about it was just so horribly wrong. He couldn't go inside the dome. He just… couldn't . He needed to get away from this thing now . Clenching his fists, he turned and began to walk in the opposite direction, hoping that no students were trapped inside. He could only hope that no one was trapped inside, if they were then-

"Ah, well well well!" Called a new voice Jayluf had never heard before, cutting off his line of thought as he turned in the direction of the person speaking. The voice was definitely within his vicinity, and sounded very close.

His eyes eventually settled on what appeared to be an adult woman with light brown hair with pigtails, slightly tanned skin, and brown eyes. Her outfit was definitely…it showed her arms, legs, and belly. Her clothes were made of a dark pinkish flexible latex, clinging to her form rather tightly. Near her wrists were extremely large gauntlets that served an unknown purpose. 

Who was this woman? Jayluf had never seen her before. This stranger had seemingly just appeared after he and his friends had been attacked by villains. Was this one of them?

"Looks like a straggler got separated from the flock, huh?" continued the woman. “Here I was, thinking that I was gonna be cooped up with the other villains to attack the teachers up front, but I decided that maybe I’d give a hand in hunting down any stragglers that the weird portal dude was dropping off. I figured I’d check around, and I barely had to look before I found you, a willing lamb to the slaughter! Lucky me!”

Jayluf blinked, his expression still blank as ever, now that he’d recovered from… whatever that was a minute ago. “You were not with the teachers.” He pondered on her words, and suddenly realized that she’d claimed that she’d been with “other villains”. Other villains. That could only mean one thing. He stared at her. “Who are you? You are a villain, correct?”

The woman let out a short, barking laugh. “Wow, we got a genius over here, was it that obvious? Yeah I’m a villain, you dumbass kid.” She rolled her eyes. “Points for observation. Since you’re about to die, I suppose I can tell you that my name is Martial Hair. Pleased to kill you.”

Jayluf simply looked at her for long moments, before he remembered the words from the shadow villain from earlier before they’d been scattered. “So… if you are with the other villains, I suspect your intention here is to harm me, and possibly my classmates.”

Squinting her eyes, the woman looked at him, as if confused by his eerily calm attitude. “Was it that damn obvious? Is your entire shtick just saying the dumbest shit with a resting bitch face? Yeah, I’m here to kill you, idiot.” She began grinning. “Rest assured though, it ain’t personal. I’m just a gal doing her job. And also the fact that I also love the idea of impaling some higher class snot nosed brat. You people always thought you were all that because you were on top of the class.” Her hair drills suddenly began spinning so quickly that it became a blur, they were more like drills now, which meant they were definitely dangerous. "Sorry, kid. It's as I said before, it ain't personal."

Jayluf’s reflexes barely had any time to react to the threat as he realized that the drills were spinning and extending and growing forwards at an incredible rate, and were now aiming right at him as a projectile. Time almost seemed to slow down as he narrowly attempted to twist his body away from where the hair drills had been aimed towards. He managed to mostly save himself from any bodily harm, save a single cut on his right shoulder, courtesy of the drill tip grazing him at the very last second. The incision stung greatly, but Jayluf couldn't command his cells to numb the pain receptors due to him being focused on staying alive via dodging the attacks from the homicidal villain still standing in front of him.

Martial Hair grit her teeth, seemingly displeased at her attacks being dodged by the boy. "Little shit…" she snarled. "Hold still would you?"

As another drill attack was launched directly towards him, Jayluf had a brief moment of realization, a moment of clarity, even. This… This was really happening. This woman truly was a villain. He was fighting a true villain who wanted to kill him. This was no test of any sort. This wasn't some overly extreme class activity. This wasn't some sparring section with a fellow classmate. No. This was a matter of life and death in a fight between Jayluf and this villain. In order to survive, he needed to fight to live as hard as he could.

He narrowly ducked to avoid another attack from the drills, feeling the wind as the drills sliced through the air. This process repeated itself several times, Martial Hair launching both drills, and Jayluf dodging in return. It seemed to be working. That was, until the villain decided to play a trick, launching only one drill, then while Jayluf had been busy twisting out of the way to dodge the first one, the second one lunged forward, aiming directly at him. He didn’t have any time to dodge, even though he’d seen it coming straight for him and had already registered it as an incoming threat. 

It felt like time slowed down as Jayluf felt the tip of the hair drill stab into the side of his torso, piercing through his costume and going directly into his abdomen. He barely had any time to recover, the blow sending him backwards and tumbling to the ground. His entire stomach area seemed to scream in pain, forcing him to frantically activate Cellular Command to try and dampen the strength of his pain receptors to numb the injured area currently erupting in fiery agony, so that he could focus on the threat. It hadn’t hurt as much as his leg injury during the entrance exam, nothing would probably be able to top that, but it still hurt quite a lot. In fact, it had hurt enough to the point where he instinctively opened his mouth to vocalize his pain via a yell. Struggling to his fours then eventually back to his feet, he clutched at the stomach wound while he hissed in pain, the blood soaking into the material of his clothing. 

His reaction seemed to greatly please Martial Hair, who let out a sharp laugh while watching Jayluf writhe in pain. "Aww, poor little weasel. A simple cut to your tummy and you're already whining?" Martial Hair taunted, her eyes glued on him while she had a manic glint in her eye along with a crazed smile. "Maybe you're finally beginning to realize that this ain't school practice no more kid. This is real life, and unfortunately, real life is cruel. And the reality is that you're gonna die here. Along with your friends."

Staring at her as he clutched his wound, Jayluf realized that the villain was completely correct. This was no practice test, no fake fight where the teacher could intervene at any given time, or where the combatants would possibly hold back with no real harm being done. This was real life. A matter of life, and death. These villains here wanted to kill everyone. Slaughter innocent people. Jayluf knew at that very moment that he couldn't let that happen. It wouldn't happen. "Yes…" he began slowly, "you are correct. This is no simple test. This is real." 

Martial Hair seemed mildly amused, grinning psychotically while tilting her head. "Well, at least you have the brains to realize that you're about to be six feet under."

Ignoring her attempts to provoke him, Jayluf gingerly brought his hands together, and carefully pulled off both of his mittens, allowing them to flop down to the ground. He couldn’t take any chances. Not anymore. There was just too much at stake here. “Because this is no test, I’m afraid I have to incapacitate you in order to prevent you from possibly causing any harm to my fellow classmates and friends.”

The statement did not seem to phase the villain. Martial Hair simply let out a bemused snort. “Whoaaa there kid,” she mocked, waving her hands side to side. “You’re taking off the kiddie gloves? I’m shaking in my boots over here.”

Jayluf blinked at her, not knowing what to make of her blatant mocking of his actions. But she was right. “That is correct, I am taking them off.”

Her eyebrows raised incredulously. “Wait… you’re serious? You actually are gonna try that? What do you think is gonna happen? You're gonna suddenly power up because of friendship or some shit to wipe the floor with the evil bad guys?" She rolled her eyes. "This is real life, kid. This ain't a TV show. And you are definitely not the main character. You're not saving anyone, and you are certainly not stopping me."

Jayluf glanced down at the wound in his abdomen. He was now very well aware of what Martial Hair's quirk was, and what it was capable of, especially against living things. A precision focused quirk like that could do a large amount of harm to him if he wasn't more careful. If his friends were also hit by that sort of attack…  He shook the thought away as he stared at her. "Not exactly," he replied. Although he didn't have a clue what Martial Hair was babbling about in regards to this mysterious "power of friendship" or how it was used to presumably clean flooring. 

He was more focused on the fact that he was facing death, and his only chance to survive this attacker was him going all out. It was time. As he forced his breathing to slow, he became more aware of physicals sensations, such as his heart beating, or the feeling of muscles twitching. Raising his hands, he directed all of his focus inwards as he activated Cellular Command. Immediately he felt his cells responding to his call. In fact, they were already on high alert. He'd been so focused on the villain, he hadn’t even noticed that his cells were screaming about the danger, and the wound to his stomach had them out in overdrive to clot the wound. 

High danger! His cells had cried out. He was well aware of the danger now obviously, he just needed to adapt to the current threat. Jayluf took a deep breath in, and gave one simple instruction to the billions of microscopic organisms inside him.

Initiate Bio-Form. Claws out.

The response was immediate. Bringing claws. 

Jayluf began to feel the familiar sensation of his cells moving and readjusting themselves at an accelerated rate as they began to aggressively vibrate themselves. An extremely vast amount of heat was produced as cells duplicated themselves, stretching and twisting themselves in order to alter the genetic structure of Jayluf's hands. His normally pale skin on his hands abruptly changed to a pinkish color, then began to turn darker into a sickly blood red as his skin began to move. His hands started to seemingly swell as the veins  were bulging, almost moving like a liquid. His hand muscles quadrupled their normal size, the sudden increase making the skin strain as it attempted to stretch itself in order to keep his insides from becoming out. Although its attempt to adjust to the muscle growth failed soon after, the muscle swelling became too much for the skin to handle, and finally…

The skin gave way, unable to strain itself anymore. 

Normal human hands exploded into a messy show of raw flesh, blood, and bone. Blood spurred everywhere, sloughing and dripping to the ground in dark red piles. In the place of his hands were meaty flesh muscle hands, with bone sticking out the back of the hand, whilst black razor sharp were now sticking out of the tips of his fingers, still dripping blood. Now prepared for combat, Jayluf readjusted his passive casual stance into a much more aggressive and combat ready one, prepared to take the fight to the villain head on. His expression did not change in the slightest, his emotions still nonexistent as usual. 

The eruption of gore had seemed to stun Martial Hair, who stopped and stared in shock, hesitating for several seconds as her eyes widened in a mix of surprise and horror. She almost seemed to gawk at the way Jayluf’s ragged flesh that hung from his forearm was limply hanging like the remains of a popped balloon. "The fuck?!" Martial Hair shouted loudly.

Jayluf calmly stared at the villian with a blank expression, intently watching her every move in case she lashed out. 

Martial Hair seemed occupied with staring at the grisly sight that was once a pair of normal human hands. Her nose crinkled up in disgust at the extremely pungent stench that was raw flesh. "Goddamn…" she uttered, managing to snap herself back into a combat stance of her own. But this time, it was a much more defensive one. She seemed apprehensive. "The hell kind of a quirk is that? That's a damn villain's quirk if I've ever seen one."

The statement seemed to confuse Jayluf for a moment, causing him to tilt his head while he blinked indifferently. "That is very flawed logic. I am a hero. You are a villain. I am a hero. Therefore, my quirk cannot be one belonging to a villain."

Martial Hair's facial expression fell for a single moment before readjusting into one of disgust.  "True. I've seen thousands of body morphing quirks in my time. All of them are weird and gross in their own special way. But yours? Disgusting doesn't even begin to describe it. That is not normal." She gestured towards the blood on the ground. "Your quirk is straight up abnormal . Whatever the hell it is, it's horribly WRONG. Something in my gut is telling me that you don't belong. Your quirk doesn't belong."

Jayluf actually considered her words for the briefest of seconds, giving him pause as he stewed on what the woman was saying. After thinking about it, he eventually settled to ignore whatever she was talking about, shaking his head and preparing to attack. Even if he was slightly intrigued on what the villain meant by his quirk being "not normal", he needed to focus. This was a life and death situation. "It does not matter if I am abnormal or wrong. Whether I belong or not, I will stop you. " 

"Tch," Martial hissed as she began revving up her hair drills once more. "I suppose you're right about that, kid . Mutating freak hands or not, you're still gonna die today. Nothing will change that, I promise you."

Without delay, Both of Martial Hair's drills suddenly lashed out as they curved and homed directly on Jayluf in a surprise effort to catch him off guard. 

But this time, Jayluf had been expecting this attack. And he wasn't going to dodge this time, either. He simply had to wait until the drills were close enough to him.

Closer…

The drills screeched as they cut through the air between them. 

Almost…

NOW!

Putting as much force into his arms as he could, Jayluf swung his clawed hands outwards in a motion not unlike someone swimming. In a blur, his claws slammed against the hair drills as the tips of each offensive weapon made contact with the other at just the right moment. The energy from the insane amount of friction kicked up sparks while the opposing sides clashed in an attempt to overpower the other in order to be granted a possible chance to strike.  In the end both sides eventually canceled the other out, sending both parties stumbling back slightly from Jayluf's successful parry. 

Regaining her footing and balance, Martial Hair growled in irritation as she began spinning her hair drills up once more. "Tch. Not bad," she hissed as she glared with wide eyes. "But this is a real fight. You may have those claws, but clumsily smacking away my drills isn't going to be enough to beat me."  Her hair drills reared upwards as they reached their maximum spinning speed. "My quirk doesn't take much energy from me, meanwhile you're putting your entire body into each and every swing. You're gonna get exhausted eventually." 

Jayluf paused. He knew the woman was correct, even if exhaustion would take much longer to kick in due to his ability to numb the pain of exhaustion with Cellular Command. But that meant he'd have to choose between his limb muscles, lungs, or the gut wound that still stung somewhat now. Defensive play wasn't going to cut it. No. This time, he would have to go on the offensive while simultaneously fending off any drill attack sent his way. It obviously was an extremely risky move, but there wasn't a choice anymore. Before he could begin advancing towards his target, Jayluf was forced to lean back at an awkward angle to prevent himself from being sawed in half, courtesy of a surprise attack from Martial Hair's left drill performing a nasty undercut. 

He responded in kind by swinging his right claw towards the extended drills as hard as he could, sending it backwards and forcing Martial Hair to regain her balance. 

Snarling, Marital Hair launched both drills in a similar manner as the first, but immediately angled their trajectory downwards towards Jayluf's legs, catching him off guard. His reflexes kicked in just fast enough that he managed to hop backwards, his legs going outwards and avoiding a cheap blow being done, and the drills only pierced the soil where he'd stood just mere moments before. 

Scoffing at the failed surprise attack, Martial Hair refrained from making any comment, instead she lunged forward silently, reeling back her drills and launching from both sides in a pincher form attack. Just like before, Jayluf fended off both drills via swiping his claws at them, once more causing her to stumble slightly before she got her balance back. This time, Jayluf went on the offensive, forcing the villain to fend off the swipes of his claws.

For several minutes, they continued this loop. It was a delicate yet deadly dance of constant attacking, blocking, dodging, and counter attacking. It was a violent stalemate where each side didn't seem to have any real advantage as they searched for an opening in their opponent's defenses. It was impossible to tell who would come out on top. 

But as both sides clashed, Jayluf very swiftly realized that a stalemate wasn't something he could afford, not in this situation. At this very moment while he fought the villain, his friends were at the entrance or possibly scattered around the entire USJ, and under attack by who knows how many villains. Every moment he spent here put them in more danger than before. But that meant he needed to end the fight as quickly as he could.

But how?

He didn't know yet. The current situation was not working in his favor, excluding that he was still alive. Blinking, Jayluf tried to force his brain to focus. The problem was both of them were only able to use close ranged melee, with his claws against Martial Hair's drills. Although he could swipe them away, she could also fend his claws off, and each time they collided it sent them stumbling backwards. 

How could he stop that from happening? 

Looking down at his claws, it dawned on Jayluf that his claws, although mutated and deformed an ungodly amount, were still his hands. 

Hands meant he could grab things. One example being the hair drills when they were inevitably thrusted out towards him. His mutated hands were able to cut through metal, surely they could take the punishment of grabbing a hair drill and possibly getting cut up. If he grabbed her hair, it was possible he could force Martial Hair to come closer by pulling on the hair drills. 

It was a risky play to do, Jayluf knew his claws were definitely not as articulate or dexterous as his normal hands, since they're mainly used to just cut through things. But they had to be somewhat able to grab something, right? 

It seemed to be worth a try. 

Cautiously advancing towards Martial Hair in order to close the distance between each other while simultaneously fending off more of the attempts on his life, Jayluf patiently awaited for the opportunity to present itself.  When Martial Hair had finished lashing out with another attack that used only a single hair drill, she finally launched both of her hair drills, in a pincer attack to impale him from both the right and the left. 

It was now, or never. 

Quickly bracing his legs to prevent too much pushback from impact, Jayluf waited a single moment longer than he usually would have, before he threw his arms out and placing his hands directly in the path of the drills. 

When his hands had made contact with the drills, there was an immediate painful burning sensation in Jayluf's hands as Martial Hair's quirk immediately penetrated the softer flesh on the outside, tearing through it like butter. Jayluf ordered his cells to dull as much as he could. But as the drills cut into the muscle, it did not take very long for the drills to reach the deeper parts of his mutated hands.  Layer after layer the flesh became thicker and thicker until there was no muscle, where thick bonelike structuring that was composed of both his normal finger bones, and the hard metallic black organic material that were Jayluf's claws. 

When Martial Hair's drills had reached the material that had been used to parry them all this time, Jayluf curled his "fingers" as much as possible, forcing the stiff digits to flex and bend, curling them around the thick organic weapons. Almost as soon as he had successfully grabbed the drills, he felt them quickly jam up inside his hands due to the bone obstruction. 

Well… it was now or never. Putting as much strength as he could into his arms, Jayluf braced and pulled as hard as he physically could on the drills. 

Abruptly Martial Hair's head was jerked forwards from the sudden force, causing the villain to widen her eyes in surprise and yell out in pain from the sudden violent pull on her hair. She clumsily stumbled forwards, instinctively awkwardly swinging her arms forward and throwing her legs out to attempt to balance herself and to also prevent herself from falling flat on her face.  Shockingly, she managed to prevent herself from succumbing to gravity, but by the time that she had recovered from what had just happened, it was too late for her to react. Even if she realized what had happened, there was no time. 

Jayluf had already released the woman's now limp and inert hair drills, and had taken just a few steps, which was all it took for him to successfully close the distance between them, due to him pulling her towards himself. Rearing back his left arm, he angled his claws, and swung upwards as hard as he could, aiming his battered limb directly towards Martial Hair's face. 

Time almost seemed to slow for Jayluf when his claws had reached their intended target, the sound around him becoming muted. For some odd reason, the boy suddenly became extremely hyper aware of everything around him. He could feel the way the wind felt against his body as it seemed to tickle his flesh while his claws sliced through the air, cutting through any resistance with impeccable speed.  Minutes seemed to pass by as the claws made their way towards the intended target. After what felt like forever, they reached their destination. When he made contact with the target, Jayluf could feel the way Martial Hair's skin was pressing up against his claws for the briefest of moments, a microsecond at best. Then the flesh finally gave way to the greater pressure, the seams of skin breaking apart as boney claws pierced through, and began tearing through skin as if it was made of wet paper. The inertia from his original swing was strong enough that his claws continued cutting into Martial Hair’s face, even as the claws went upwards. Reaching one side of her face, Jayluf’s claws finally finished the full swing, and he reeled his arm back. 

Time seemed to return to normal, and Jayluf noticed that he could now begin to hear things normally again as well. Well, it wasn’t normal exactly, since he could hear some sort of a very loud monotone sound that went on continuously for several seconds. What was that sound? Focusing on the sound as best he could, Jayluf realized that it almost sounded like a person’s voice. Martial Hair’s voice?

Jayluf calmly realized that the sound was simply someone screaming. Martial Hair was screaming, well it certainly sounded like she was screaming. There was also the fact that there was absolutely no one else around, and since Jayluf knew he wasn’t the one screaming, it had to be her. As she screamed, she began desperately backing up, almost tripping over herself in an effort to put distance between herself and Jayluf. 

Something unexpected happened. Watching the woman’s pathetic attempt to flee, it triggered an odd sensation in Jayluf, one that he’d never felt before. For some unknown reason, he felt like allowing Martial Hair to continue backing away was a bad idea. He couldn’t just allow her to get away.  Instinct took over Jayluf’s actions. He had to stop her.

He couldn’t allow his prey to escape.

He lunged forward, and reared his right arm to swing at Martial Hair, this time aiming a bit lower in order to slash at her neck. It might take her head off, but Jayluf was willing to take that risk.  But before he was even halfway finished with his swing, his attack was unintentionally blocked by Martial Hair, who by some dumb luck had instinctively brought her hands to clutch at her face in pain. Along with her hands were the thick metal gauntlets that were clamped to her arms, which created an accidental makeshift barrier between her neck and Jayluf’s claws.

It did not protect the villain from any damage however, due to the force Jayluf had put into his swing, the swipe immediately shattered both gauntlets, and Martial Hair was thrown several feet away, and landed in a pathetic pile before she quickly recovered and sat up to grab at her face yet again. 

If he'd had been wrong about her screaming earlier, she was definitely screaming now.

Approaching her, Jayluf could see that the villain was not unconscious, instead sitting upwards on the ground, hinting that the pain was too great for her to even stand. Her face now sported what looked like for angry red diagonal incisions, which had been courtesy of the claw attack moments before. The cuts were continuously gushing out a semi thick crimson fluid that rolled down her face and neck, soaking into her clothes and spilling down and splattering on the ground they stood on, the cheap dirt being stained. Miraculously, despite the damage done to her face, the woman’s eyes were somehow intact. 

Martial Hair howled in agony. “AAAAAARGH! FUCKIN- FUUCK!” She clutched at her wound with her right hand, her left hand being used to balance herself from collapsing onto her back due to her leaning backwards. “Y-YOU FUCKING…. YOU AAAAAAGH!” She let out several quick gasps in rapid succession, hyperventilating as the adrenaline seemed to wear off while another wave of pain assaulted her.  “OH FUCK! HOLY FUCKING SHIT MY F-FUCKING FACE IT…” Her pained howls and hate fueld rambling quickly diminished, being replaced by muffled whimpers and quiet gasps of agonized crying. "Oh God, oh f-fucking God oh shit it h-hurts so fucking m-much… it h-hurts so damn much…"

Jayluf stared in complete silence. He had no idea what to make of this whole thing. He’d wounded her, yes, but anyone could see that she was still very much awake and aware. Still active.

Still alive .

Active and alive meant only one thing: She was still a possible threat. 

He needed to eliminate the potential threat once and for all, right?  A second wind from her while his back was turned was definitely a possibility. He couldn't take the risk of her recovering, not when his friends' lives were at stake.

Slowly bringing his foot up in front of the other, and then the other, he began to move himself towards Martial Hair. He walked towards her with purpose, his legs moving faster and faster each step, his claws still dripping a combination of her blood and his own to the ground. 

In her pain induced delirium, Martial Hair somehow managed to notice the aggressor making his way towards her. She began awkwardly crawling backwards frantically in an attempt to escape. 

It wasn't until he was close enough to raise his claws did Martial Hair eventually realize how close the boy was to her, and what he was about to do. Her eyes went wide in horror and terror.

Holding up her free hand she was using to drag herself backwards, she desperately tried to keep Jayluf from finishing the job. "WAIT! W-waitwaitwait-” she sobbed out as tears ran down her wounded cheeks, mixing with the blood that rolled down her face. “P-Please… I s-s-surrender! I g-give up! You w-win! I’ll do w-whatever you want!” She cried, hiccuping and gasping.

Jayluf braced himself to bring the claw down on her head, his muscles primed to swing downwards.
“I’M SORRY!” She screamed. “I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

He halted his movements for a brief moment. 

“I-I’m s-sorry! P-Please don’t kill me… I-I don’t w-wanna die… I’m s-sorry…” She clutched at her wound in agony as she cried. 

Jayluf didn’t understand. Why was he hesitating? He had the villain at his mercy. She was no different than the robots that had attacked him. He had every right to finish the job and assure that she would not harm any of his friends. Yet for some odd reason, it felt like something inside him was pushing to spare her. But… why? Staring at the villain, he saw her continuing to curse from the pain and beg for mercy. He saw the way she stared at him in complete and utter terror, tears, mucus, and blood running down her round face. He saw her chest frantically moving from her panicked gasps. He did not feel good… 

But… why?

Shouldn’t he not feel bad? This was a villain. A villain! A villain who had been intending on attacking and killing him, and all of his friends for no reason. He was in the right here, not her.

And yet… it felt like something was eating away at his heart. Had he made some sort of error that he'd missed? He was victorious! He'd won! He'd survived! 

Yet… something was leaking through the fog in his brain, slithering down and gripping his heart. It was barely noticeable and easily ignored with how muffled it was, but now that Jayluf noticed it…

He needed to… 

Needed to…

Needed to do what?

Shaking his head, Jayluf lowered his claws. Something inside him was telling him to not kill the villain. But he defended himself, so why did it dislike the fact he clawed her face in?

He wouldn't kill her. 

But the other negative feeling about injuring her… he decided to ignore it, since this villain had allied with other villains bent on murdering teenagers. He was in the right here, whether his heart agreed or not. He defended himself, and in turn defended his friends from this woman.

Turning, he walked past the villain who was still gasping in agony as she clutched at her face. Seeing some sort of commotion near the water area, he decided to head there. 

Hopefully, he'd be able to find some of his friends soon. 

His claws dripped with blood, soaking the man-made soil underneath his boots. Whose blood it was, he did not know. 

It didn't matter.

He had friends to save.

Chapter Text

“Midoriya, we’re just peeking to see how things are going over here, okay?” Mineta said, fear lacing his tone as he, Midoriya, and Tsuyu waded towards the shore of the man-made lake.

“Ribbit…” Tsuyu croaked anxiously, looking for any chance of a villain somehow having escaped Midoriya's sticky ball plan.

“I know, I know," Izuku whispered back. I promise we’ll leave the instant it’s dangerous.” In truth, he wanted to just leap up and help his teacher, but he knew better than to mindlessly rush into danger. He frowned. Although looking back, I do that alot…

As they neared the edge of the lake, they managed to get a pretty good view of their teacher, Eraserhead, who was currently juggling what looked to be over a dozen villains, who were clambering and swinging and lunging in a desperate attempt to kill him. However, he seemed to be handling them with ease, simply tossing them into each other, kicking them in the face, or just dodging their attacks. Although one villain stood out from the others. This one was slightly shorter than the others, and wore completely bizarre gear. Hands were clamped to his body all over, and the hands had red wires attached to them.

Izuku blinked. Wait, he looks familiar… Wasn't he the one that first appeared when that portal villain arrived earlier? Izuku put a hand to his chin, frowning as he began to think. Why hadn't this villain engaged with Eraserhead before at the very beginning? Why had he let the other villains go first? Maybe a coward? Or perhaps… he is a higher ranking villain compared to the others? A commander, or even the leader?

"Twenty Three seconds." Was all that the villain said, reaching out to grab Eraserhead's elbow.

Whatever the importance of this villain held in regards to the hierarchy of the "League of Villains" (That had been the name, right?) This seemingly more important one was now charging right for Eraserhead, who very quickly noticed the newcomer to the battle.  "The final boss?!" Eraserhead shouted in alarm as he charged right back, no doubt intending to send this villain flying away with a kick or a punch like the others before.

But when they came into contact with each other, Izuku immediately knew something wasn't right. Something was off.

"I've been watching the way you fight all this time, Eraserhead." The hand villain said, giggling at the Pro Hero's confused frown. "You've been slowly needing to blink more and more this entire fight, yet somehow you keep your eyes open. But even if you could keep them forever, it doesn't matter. See, when your head is perfectly angled like this, the mop you call your hair flops just perfectly in front of your eyes, blocking your view of me. And that allows me… to do THIS!"

Izuku stared in horror as the skin on  Eraserhead's elbow began to literally flake and CRUMBLE away as if it was being disintegrated. Well, it WAS being disintegrated. So that was the villain's quirk. He can disintegrate things he touches.

Eraserhead quickly leaped backwards as he hissed in pain, shielding his bad arm from the hand villain as he attempted to regain his footing. He unfortunately did not have much time to however, as more nameless villains ran forward, attempting to take advantage of his injured state. Amazingly, despite being down one arm, Eraserhead adjusted his fighting style to a one handed technique, using his legs as his offensive weapon, kicking anything that got too close as he ducked and weaved out of the way. The villains around him still found themselves on the receiving end of a boot. It wasn't long before the next wave of villains had already been taken care of.

Izuku couldn't help the small grin on his face. "He's incredible…" he whispered to the two students beside him. "Even when he's injured he still finds a way to adapt!" It was no wonder he was chosen to choose the top class.

"Ribbit…" Tsuyu croaked in response.

Mineta looked up at the taller boy. "Maybe… maybe he could beat them all?" He asked, the slightest tinge of hope in his tinny voice.

But before Izuku could respond, they were cut off by the surprisingly loud sound of the strange hand villain cackling at the sight of Eraserhead's efforts. 

"Well done!" Said the villain, slowly clapping dramatically. "You certainly do live up to the 'Pro' in 'Pro Hero'." He lifted a single finger, a grin on his face. "Unfortunately for you…I am not the final boss."

Hope quickly turned to despair as the three students realized that Eraserhead wasn't by himself, because something was now standing right by him. 

A terrifying giant creature that could only be described as a beast, stared at the Oro Hero. It was several feet taller than any of the students or teachers, maybe even All Might. Its entire frame, arms, torso, and legs were all pure thick muscle. Purplish black skin covered its entire body, save for the top of the head. No, the head did not have any skin at the top. It was just its… brain exposed to the open air like some sort of horrible mutation gone wrong. It's mouth… well more of a beak, contained a row of thick teeth that glistened in the sunlight as if they were made of steel, and it seemed like they were perfect for crushing bones. Its eyes, if they could even be called that, were two white spheres with the smallest black dots in the middle. The soulless orbs searched around aimlessly until they settled on what was standing in front of them. 

Eraserhead was quick to react, immediately adjusting himself to give this creature a very sharp kick in the body before it could react. 

But as if it had foreseen the attack, the creature had been faster, swinging a giant fist towards the teacher, and scoring a direct hit which sent Eraserhead sprawling on the ground, to the shock of the three students. Eraserhead wasn't finished, even if he was now collapsed on the ground. He snapped his head up towards the new threat, his eyes glowing red in what Izuku could assume was an attempt to Erase whatever strength quirk this beast had. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Before Eraserhead could even react to his own quirk failing, his head was slammed into the ground by the creature's giant hand. 

"Sorry about that," taunted the hand villain as he watched from a safe distance. "You're probably wondering why your little quirk erasure didn't work." He lifted his arms in a jovial fashion. "It's because this fellow's quirks don't work like normal ones. He is the final boss. Who is he? Well, I'll tell you. He is the Anti Symbol Of Peace, the bioengineered NOMU!"

Eraserhead, despite bleeding from his head and being pinned to the floor, attempted to break free, but the "Nomu" simply responded by twisting Eraserhead's arm. And kept twisting it until…

Izuku instinctively flinched at the awful SNAP sound of his teacher's arm being broken. He heard Tsuyu gasp slightly, and Mineta's pitiful whine.

The villain was giggling to himself as he watched the utter brutalization of Eraserhead. "You can erase quirks. That's wonderful. But… it's not impressive. Let's be honest, in the face of overwhelming power…" he gestured to the genetic monstrosity, "you might as well be quirkless."

Izuku, Mineta, and Tsuyu all stared as they spectated the event in utter horror and terror.  Were they really about to watch their own teacher's death? Where was All Might? Why was this happening?

Well, what's done is done.  

Those were the simple words Jayluf Viller thought to himself as he turned away from Martial Hair, who was currently incapacitated, on the ground, bleeding, but still very much alive. 

Even if what he'd done to her mere moments ago still lingered somewhat in the back of his mind, he still knew it was the right thing to do, and it had been completely necessary to harm her in order for his survival. He glanced at his blood soaked claws, constantly dripping blood, slime, and other fluids that usually are supposed to be inside the body. He flexed slightly, watching the stiff appendages move . 

She would have been a threat to me, and others .

But the thought of Martial Hair was quickly being put to the side as he forced his mind to focus on the present in favor of the current commotion ahead. His grey eyes scanned the area from which that huge explosion he'd just heard came from.

As Jayluf neared the area of interest, he began to see slightly recognizable shapes accompanied by shapes he did not recognize.

Near the entrance stairs was his teacher Eraserhead, fighting villains with one seemingly injured arm, ducking and kicking any villain that was within range. Jayluf wondered what could have done that kind of damage to Eraserhead's arm. The way the muscle was exposed, it looked as if the skin on his arm had disintegrated away. Who or what could have done that?

But Jayluf managed to spot more familiar faces to his right. He managed to barely make out who appeared to be Midoriya, Asu- Tsuyu, and Mineta all submerged up to their chests in water, peeking out as if they did not want to be spotted. Behind them was the remains of the massive craft Jayluf had seen when they had first entered. It looked to be the receiver of whatever explosion he'd heard earlier. Many questions became apparent as his brain juggled to store all of the new information.

Why were his friends hiding? Was it not their job to fight villains?  Did they fear fighting the villains? Had one of them received an injury? If so, was that their reason to hide? Did they have anything to do with that massive boom earlier?

But before he could conjure up more inquiries in his mind, or even consider approaching his friends, he quickly lost interest in favor of a brand new sight out of the corner of his eye. 

Standing behind Eraserhead was a… beast. That was one word for it. Standing at what could be approximated to be twelve feet in height, was a giant muscled beast covered in black tar skin, with its brain exposed. It looked unnatural. The beast had suddenly appeared right beside Eraserhead, grabbing him, and then brutally slamming the teacher's head into the ground. 

Jayluf heard what he thought was someone talking, and he glanced to the side, and his eyes settled on a newcomer. This smaller, lanky  man whose costume was covered in what appeared to be hands, was talking, pointing, and chuckling at the whole display of Eraserhead getting brutalized by the beast. The man only seemed even more amused when the monster snapped Eraserhead's arm like a twig. A whisper of what could possibly be described as alarm flared up in the pit of Jayluf's stomach. This wasn't good. His teacher could possibly die. So, how could he stop it? Well, it appeared that the hand villain seemed to be in charge of the giant beast that was hurting Eraserhead, judging from the way it responded to the villain's gestures. So, if he perhaps took out the one in control, the beast would cease to function, saving his teacher from death.

Jayluf felt like this plan would work. It made sense to him, so there was only one thing to do now. He had to make his move now, while the villain was still preoccupied with mindless rambling. Readying himself, Jayluf allowed his feet to guide him, one foot in front of the other, he began to slowly walk towards the villain, who had his back turned to the boy. The slow walking turned into a stride, then a speed walk. Eventually he began jogging, which then turned into running, and finally a full blown sprint. He raised his right arm up, lifting the clawed hand in preparation to swing his arm. The best move he could make was to go for the neck. It was the weakest part of the body, and he needed to stop this villain as soon as he could. One good cleave should be able to do the job. 

He swung.

His claws whistled through the air, accelerating towards the target at a deadly speed. Right when Jayluf assumed he might have an easy win, the hand villain managed to hear his approach at the last second, flick his head behind him, and throw himself to the side. The villain was just fast enough to effectively dodge the would-be killing blow. 

Jayluf quickly stopped his sprint as best he could, turning around to see the villain regaining his footing from bending their body to the side. 

The villain glared at him in shock, anger, and the slightest amount of disgust. "You… you little weasley NPC," he snarled angrily, "trying to sneak up behind me to get a cheap hit for a quick win?"

Jayluf simply blinked indifferently. "I thought it would be in my best interest to use any advantage possible." He answered honestly, as he adjusted his stance to one more prepared for battle. "So when I saw that your back was turned, it appeared to be a good opportunity to use. Also, I am not a…" Jayluf tilted his head. "En… pee… see." 

"It is extremely obvious you're not one of my NPC henchmen," the hand villain hissed. "So that can only mean one thing… you're one of those Hero in training brats, aren't you?"

"That is correct," Jayluf replied, getting into a battle ready stance. His meaty claws dripped blood, plasma, and other fluids that were supposed to stay under the skin. 

When the villain's eyes hovered over Jayluf's claws, his anger seemed to simmer down slightly, his hateful glare dissipating into what appeared to be amusement. "And yet… you just tried to murder me, despite claiming you're a hero." The man let out an oddly pleased sounding giggle. "You literally just tried to cleave my head off, or at the least split my neck open. You literally just tried to murder a person in cold blood."

"I do not murder people." Jayluf replied.

The villain tilted his head in amusement. "Really? Then why when my guard was down, did you swing for the one spot on a person's body that can bleed out the fastest. I saw where you swung, you went right for my neck." He mockingly ran a finger across his own neck. "If I hadn't ducked to the side at the very last minute, you would have happily sliced my jugular open and watched me bleed out."

Jayluf hesitated, not understanding whatever point the villain was trying to make.

"I find that… somewhat fascinating," the villain said as his head tilted in the opposite direction. "I wonder, what kind of hero would do that? Sneak up on someone who's guard is down and unable to defend themselves, then try to cut off their target's head? Doesn't sound very heroic to me."

"It does not matter." Jayluf replied automatically. "I am a hero. And my technique was not cold blood, I was merely following my instinct. I saw that you are commanding that giant creature attacking my teacher. So I assumed in order to stop the creature was to stop you, so I am justified in my attack on you."

The villain seemed interested in his claim. "Hmmm…" he cooed, "Instinct you say? What are you, some kind of animal?"

Animal. For some odd reason, that word seemed to slightly bother Jayluf. He didn't know why, it was just a mere word. But he steeled himself and focused on the manner at hand. "I am not an animal. And my attack on you is because you are hurting my teacher. It is not cold blooded to wish to remove the threat to my teacher. You are hurting him."

"Oh boo boo," the hand villain mocked as his expression became one of annoyance, blatantly disregarding Jayluf's accusation. "It's not personal, brat. We just need a little message to be sent for when All Might gets here. We don't want other Pro Heroes stealing his thunder, do we?"

Jayluf blinked in slight surprise. All Might was coming here? He did not recall the teachers mentioning he was coming to this facility. This was the first he'd heard of it, and it was coming from a villain. That was odd.

"Oh he is," continued the villain, glaring daggers at the boy. "Or more importantly, he better. Because if he doesn't, the only thing he will be tutoring are the rotting corpses of a bunch of kids."

Jayluf, having enough of the small back and forth talking, raised his claws defiantly as he stared down the villain. "It does not matter if All Might is coming or not. Your creature is hurting my teacher. Please order it to release Eraserhead. I will not ask again."

His threats were merely met with a barking laugh from the villain, who literally waved off the threat as if Jayluf was a mere insect. "Oh please," he chuckled. "An NPC like you has absolutely no authority here. However, I will say, you've got spine for some snotty nose brat. Like earlier, you tried to get a quick win in a pvp fight via a critical attack from behind?" He put his hands up slightly. "That is a ballsy move. I'd say it's even straight out of the Fromsoft book, even."

Jayluf blinked, not understanding half of what the villain was talking about. He didn't know what a "frum soft" was, but he did not care. "All mammals have spines, I assume you are trying to distract me, which will not happen. You will release my teacher, or I will subdue you."

"Oh how! Really now?" The villain replied, leering at Jayluf in a mocking manner. "You really think you can go toe to toe with me? You already seem to be hurt yourself, you know." He gestured towards the red wound in Jayluf's abdomen, the hole in his gut courtesy of Martial Hair during their fight earlier. 

Jayluf glanced down, noting how most of the bleeding had stopped due to how his body had finally had time to clot the wound properly, but not having closed up the wound itself. "My wound is of no consequence. I have survived my previous encounter with a villain." He had already ordered his cells to close the wound, but combined with his cells morphing his hands into his claws and the adrenaline pumping through his body to keep him conscious, the small wound seemed to be a secondary concern.

Even at the mention of the apparent defeat of one of his minions, the hand villain did not appear to be deterred or impressed in the slightest. "Oh please, those were worthless NPCs, their IQ is that of a classroom goldfish. The fact you managed to get hurt still tells me you're not very strong, either." He clenched his fist. "You are brave, sure. But you're quite stupid. Wanting to fight even while there's a hole in your stomach isn't intelligent. You're just a stupid NPC thinking he can go toe to toe with anyone. But if you still think you're a hero, allow me to prove you otherwise."

And then the hand villain seemingly lurched himself forwards, sprinting towards Jayluf at a surprisingly fast speed, charging with his right hand raised to presumably swipe downwards. Dodging backwards at just the right moment, Jayluf threw himself backwards, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by the offending hand. He watched as the villain's limb continued its path towards the ground due to no longer having a person to grab, and when the hand had made contact with the dirt…

The ground began to literally break apart, disintegrate, and crumble.

So that is his quirk. Jayluf thought to himself, watching how the brown soil and dirt grayed and crumbled away into nothing. The villain's quirk was capable of breaking things down, but required direct contact with the target. Jayluf made a mental note to avoid such a quirk. Even his cells wouldn't be able to regenerate fast enough to counter something like that. Swinging his claws forward in an attempt to swat away the villain, Jayluf attempted to get a cheap hit in, but the hand villain was much too fast, and rolled to the side in a smooth recovery. The boy was well aware that he would have to be much more cautious when it came to dealing with this hand villain, at least compared to Martial Hair from earlier. Yes, both of the villains' quirks had similarities in the fact that their quirks were strictly melee based and the fact that both quirks could eat through flesh quite easily. But the hand villain did not require to charge up his attacks before lashing out.

That was a main causality for why Jayluf was now engaging so hesitantly, the last thing he needed right now was to be grabbed and disintegrated. In an effort to quickly end things, he instinctively went for the villain's neck again, his claws roaring through the air. But the villain had somehow already expected this move, throwing his head backwards and ducking away.  As both parties regained their footing and readjusted their fighting stances, Jayluf realized that he did not have all day. His teacher was currently in a bloody pile on the floor, and he needed to step it up. He made a mental note that perhaps now was the proper time to switch tactics.

While this villain had a deadlier quirk than Martial Hair, it lacked the range, which is something Jayluf could work with. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he charged, once again going for the neck in what appeared to be an extremely predictable move. The villain, expecting this move, again ducked backwards, his arms sticking forwards to  instinctively balance himself. That had been what Jayluf was waiting for. He lashed his left claw outwards, risking a swipe, and his claws slicing into the villains palms and fingers were an indicator his gamble had paid off. Although his claws hadn't penetrated as deep as it had compared to Martial Hair's flesh, it was still a significant enough wound to force the villain to back up while hissing in pain. 

"Oh, you little shit…!" The villain snarled angrily whilst blood freely dribbled from his hand, droplets falling and splatting against the ground. "You think because you got a lucky hit, you're all that? Allow me to prove otherwise." He lunged out, anger fueling his movements as he began swiping at Jayluf more wildly in rapid succession. 

Eyes glued to the villain's movements, Jayluf adjusted accordingly, dodging and ducking just like before. Sure, the villain was thin and had spindly limbs, which gave him some reach compared to Jaylufs small size, but Jayluf was faster due to said size. They couldn't play this game forever, Jayluf was well aware of that fact. If he had any chance of getting past this villain, he would have to get a good hit in. But he would have to take a risk of getting closer to the villain currently attempting to disintegrate him. He needed to make a move. Following the pattern if each of the villains strikes, his eyes glued to the fingers. He waited for just the right attack…

The villain swung his right hand outwards, curving towards his left in a side strike attempt.

Now.

Taking full advantage of the perfect angle, Jayluf changed from a dodge to moving his body closer towards the villain, and threw an uppercut at the villain's face. Although it barely missed the villain's neck, his claws managed to get a perfect bullseye on the hand clamped to the villain's face, knocking it off from his face and sending it flying several feet away, and landed on the ground. 

As the hand lay still on the ground, the villain seemed to recover somewhat quickly, blinking dizzily and feeling his face before his eyelids flew upwards with utter panic and horror in his eyes as his hand hovered around his face to feel for something that was no longer there. Wildly looking around, his eyes seemed to be moving at a mile a minute as he turned to search for his missing hand. Finally his eyes landed on it, and the villain desperately ran out and reached out to grab it. "NO!!!" the villain cried out in utter despair. 

The seemingly terrified reaction gave Jayluf pause. What on earth could have been the reason for why the villain would have such a violent and audible reaction to the hand being knocked off? Was it vital to their health? Was it actually part of his body? Was it associated with his quirk?

Although he was seemingly panicking, the villain’s panic attack ended as soon as the hand was replaced on his face, his muscles and posture relaxing. "I think I've had quite enough of you," the villain said, not even turning to face Jayluf. "But I'm sure you being turned to a red paste after being smashed into the ground will improve my mood."

Before Jayluf could even begin to absorb or question whatever that could have possibly meant, his eyes spotted a giant shadow towering over him from behind. He barely had enough time to whirl around to check whatever was behind him, before he managed to get a glimpse of a huge dark fist barreling towards him. Jayluf let out a cough as the giant fist rammed into his stomach and chest, the force throwing him backwards several yards away and crashing into the dirt, effectively knocking the wind out of him while also aggravating the still healing gut injury. And a few broken ribs seemed to possibly be a factor as well. Trying to force himself to recover from being unceremoniously tossed like a ragdoll, Jayluf looked up to see the giant creature that had been attacking Eraserhead standing over him, staring at him with its inhuman beady eyes. 

It thrust an arm out towards him, and Jayluf jumped backwards to avoid it, but it seemed that the creature was faster than he'd anticipated. It seemed to have been expecting him to do that move, and as he was dodging backwards, it managed to grab his leg. He tried to hack away at the hand with his claws, but the creature's skin seemed to be surprisingly stiff, as his razor sharp appendages seemed to just scratch the thick hide, which quickly vanished as well. Meaning that the creature had some sort of regeneration, even for the most mild of cuts or scratches. He’d have to find somewhere vulnerable. It lifted him up with one hand, dangling him as it prepared to lift its arm up once more. Gravity was in full force as Jayluf felt himself being hoisted upwards, and then slammed body into the ground.

Ow.

Then it did it again. And again.

And again.

As the pain increased, he became increasingly dizzy and disoriented with each slam as he struggled to command the cells that weren't currently preoccupied to dull the pain as much as physically possible so he could regain his bearings and form a plan. 

He needed something to give him just a few seconds to get away, something to force the creature to stop its constant slamming. 

The eyes .

No matter how tough a creature is structurally, the eyes are usually one of the most fragile parts of the body. The same could possibly be applied to this creature. Even if it somehow had an unknown quirk that shielded its eyes that Jayluf did not know about, he could assume that it was still not as strong as the thick skin covering the main body. A large amount of pressure in a small area was bound to cut anything open. It was a risk he was willing to take. He had no other choice, after all. He just needed to time it just right… wait until the creature lifts him again and…

Just as the creature was halfway lifting him overhead, Jayluf waited until he was in the right spot, and swung his right and left claws towards the creature's face. When he felt contact, he pressed his claws in as hard as he could, burrowing his clawed fingers in deep, causing blood to sputter out of the wounded area.

The creature abruptly stopped its attempt to body slam him, then let out a horrible shrieking sound that almost sounded akin to a human screaming. It angled its arm back and launched it forward, throwing Jayluf several feet away. Jayluf was rewarded with a face full of dirt. It was impossible to know if he'd completely blinded it, or only minorly inconvenienced it. Well, it had definitely pierced through at least. As he climbed to his feet, he became acutely aware of another sense going off, his hearing was picking up something. 

Footsteps, rapidly approaching him from in front. But before he even was able to completely turn around, he felt a hand being pressed on his chest. Turning, he saw the hand villain gripping his chest.

Nothing happened.

Not waiting to see if the villain’s quirk would eventually kick in, Jayluf simply swung in retaliation, which the villain managed to dodge by quickly letting go and weaving backwards to avoid being sliced. Although it was good that Jayluf hadn’t disintegrated, the boy couldn’t help but wonder why the villain hadn’t used his quirk on him? Did it just not work?

The answer was revealed not a second later due to the villain growling under his breath. “Tch… I will say…” He said, turning to look behind him. “You’re pretty damn cool… Eraserhead.”

Jayluf’s head snapped towards the same direction to see that the villain was indeed speaking to Eraserhead, who was still somehow conscious. Despite being brutalized and beaten down, the Pro Hero was managing to stare right at the hand villain, his eyes glowing red and canceling the disintegration quirk out.

“But I have honestly had my fill with any and all interference now,” continued the villain, glaring at the hero on the ground. He jabbed a finger towards him. “Nomu, keep our Pro Hero Friend down for the count, but don’t kill him. I’m going to have that pleasure myself, when I’m finished dealing with this brat myself.”

The Nomu moved to the command, and Jayluf saw that somehow its eyes had already grown back. So its regeneration was extended to every part of its body it seemed. 

“Now then,” said the hand villain, walking towards Jayluf. “No quirk canceling to save you from my grasp this time, kid.” 

Jayluf merely blinked. “It makes no difference to me.” 

Despite his bravado, Jayluf felt that the recent events were beginning to take their toll on his body. His cells were weaker, exhausted, they had been mutated, injured, and the body slamming had made him several times more sore. He could hear them complaining and calling for him to rest, but he wouldn’t stop, not now. While his energy felt almost completely gone, there was some fire left for this battle. He lunged forwards, and their delicate yet violent dance of battle began once again. This time, both parties were more in tune with their opponent, having had time to learn and memorize fighting patterns and speed allowed both of them to adjust accordingly. 

The villain was adapting a bit too fast. Jayluf had managed to scratch a bit of the villain's arm, when the villain retaliated and lunged forward, Jayluf of course merely moved his upper body, expecting another arm to reach out to grab him. But the hand villain had seemingly adjusted, and instead lifted his right leg and threw a rather sharp kick into Jayluf's chest. The impact was rather nasty, making Jayluf let out a gasping cough noise as the wind was knocked out of him while he flew back and landed in the dirt.

This wasn't going to be easy.

Midoriya stared hard, his eyes glued to the exchange between Jayluf and that strange villain as they battled in close quarters combat. 

Tsuyu and Mineta were still with him, their lower halves of their bodies still submerged in the water, as exposing themselves probably wouldn't be the greatest plan.

Although he had been feeling a bit more re-energized, the adrenaline from earlier was definitely missing now. In fact, the past few days of his body constantly being battered and harmed, it seemed that it was finally catching up to him. Even with the healing quirk from Recovery Girl helping him heal his broken body, he still only had a few days of sleep, which didn't seem to be enough to recover from the constant wear and tear on his body. 

But as he watched the fight, he still was readying himself to join in and help his friend in peril. He needed to save Jayluf! And Eraserhead, too! "I'm… I'm gonna go and try to help them," Izuku said to the two students behind him. 

"Midoriya…" Tsuyu croaked cautiously.

"W-What? No way!" Mineta whispered harshly. "What happened to leaving as soon as it got dangerous? What happened to not being involved?!" 

"We're not in danger." Izuku spoke earnestly. "Jayluf and Eraserhead are. Is that not enough?" 

Tsuyu had the same blank expression as she lifted a finger. "We are all in danger. This entire building is not safe."

"Midoriya." Mineta blurted out, suddenly changing the direction his head was facing, seemingly staring at something else. 

"Mineta, please.. we have to-"

"MIDORIYA." Mineta whisper-yelled, his fierce tone making Izuku pause. 

Izuku turned, confusion on his face. "What?" 

"LOOK." Mineta sputtered, pointing a shaking hand towards something else in the distance. 

Izuku turned and looked in whatever direction Mineta was so desperately gesturing to, and when he did…

Izuku froze. He could see the Nomu pinning Eraserhead to the ground in the distance, the teacher being bloodied and beaten… and the Nomu…

Was standing. And staring right at them. It peered at them with beady eyes, its mouth slightly open, with drool coming out of its mouth. 

Izuku felt as if fear itself was paralyzing him. His heart thudded against his chest as he felt a completely overwhelming sense of dread grip his chest. It knew . It knew they were there, and they couldn't hide. He stared at the Nomu, looking into its soulless eyes aimed right at him. It looked not unlike an expression a predatory animal you'd see in the wild would have mere milliseconds before lunging for the kill and tearing its prey to bloody ribbons. But yet, it didn't move. It was almost like it was merely waiting for them to make the first move. As if it was just wanting a reason, an excuse to launch forward and tear them limb from limb. It wanted them to run. It NEEDED them to make some move to justify a reaction.

Izuku felt his body refuse to move as he suddenly felt… tiny. He felt small in a way that it reminded him when he was a toddler, being pushed, punched, or burned by his bullies, except this fear was increased tenfold. He tried to prevent himself from hyperventilating. He was faintly aware of Tsuyu attempting to pull on his arm, because he was now standing up at his full height and could be seen by everyone there.

What… What do I do?

Jayluf could safely say if he had the choice, he'd avoid this place in the future if it meant he wouldn't have to be ambushed like this again. They could train somewhere else next time.

It was much more preferable when his targets were robots that barely had the brain power to dodge in the first place. Fighting extremely smart villains who had a very good sense of combat and skill was exhausting, especially since they didn't just sit there and allow Jayluf to claw at them. Another thing is they definitely hit harder than the robots he fought. 

And the villain that had managed to hit him pretty hard was already preparing for another attack while Jayluf was getting his bearings back. He'd just received a nasty kick aimed directly at the open wound, and now he was scrambling to his feet. The hand villain was also preparing for another attack.

But before either side could make contact with the other, a strange swirling smoke seemed to manifest near the hand villain's vicinity, growing and growing until it was a decently sized ball of smoke. 

Jayluf managed to recognize what the smoke was, and he quickly backed away. He knew this smoke. It was the smoke from earlier, when this had all started. This smoke had come from the villain who had originally attacked him and his friends and had scattered them throughout this facility. The same one who'd dropped him onto the fire dome.

Surprisingly, the hand villain also seemed equally caught off guard by the sudden arrival of the smoke villain. He glared at the taller villain. "The hell are you doing?" The man grumbled, "Can't you see I'm a bit preoccupied in a PVP session?"

Despite Jayluf not being able to comprehend even half of what was just said, the smoke villain seemed to understand perfectly. "My apologies, young master." He said in a surprisingly sheepish tone as he glanced to the side, as if he was awaiting for someone. "But I must unfortunately inform you that one of the students has regrettably escaped my grasp due to the interference of several other students in their class. I managed to incapacitate the Pro Hero protecting them, but at the very last moment one slipped through the door." He bowed his head in shame. "There is now without a doubt that the student called for help, meaning that reinforcements for the students are currently en-route." He glanced behind him again. "I predict we only have a few minutes before the cavalry arrives."

Jayluf paused as his brain tried to work out what that meant. But he eventually realized that it meant that help was coming. They were going to be rescued!

But apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say to the hand villain, because when the smoke villain had finished his quick report, the hand villain seemed to freeze for several seconds, as if he needed a moment or two to absorb new information like Jayluf did. Then the villain suddenly reached up to his own bare neck, arching his fingers, and began to scratch. But he didn't stop. The scratching continued until his skin turned reddish pink from irritation. "You… you damn failure." The hand villain almost gasped out in pure unadulterated anger. It appeared that the smoke villain had said the wrong thing. "You idiot!" The hand villain continued. The scratching increased until specks of red began dripping from the dark red scratch marks. "If… if you weren't the only sway out of this shithole, I would have killed you for this!"

Jayluf paused, slightly confused. Kill? Why would the hand villain kill the other villain? Were they not allies? Why is the villain hurting himself? I do not understand.

Right when it seemed like the hand villain was about to plunge his nails into his own neck, he abruptly stopped his frantic scratching, suddenly cool and collected. "I see," he said in a surprisingly calm tone. "Game Over then, right? That's honestly too bad."  He suddenly turned to his left, and looked right at Midoriya, Tsuyu, and Mineta, who stared back in fear and terror. "Well," continued the man, his eyes settling on Tsuyu first. "If I'm not getting first place, then I'm going to take a consolation prize. I think killing a few kids will do. Should eat away at the reputation of this damned school as a bonus."

Before Jayluf realized what was going on, the villain had turned and was now sprinting towards the three students at a shockingly fast pace. Time slowed to a crawl for Jayluf. He had a flash of when the hand villain had disintegrated the ground earlier played in his mind. If that villain touched his friends… He realized that the villain was going to kill his friends. 

Midoriya.

Tsuyu.

Mineta.

They were going to die.

His legs almost seemed to automatically propel him forwards towards his target, each step launching him closer than the last. He needed to stop him. Despite the villain's longer legs, Jayluf was still faster on foot. He'd have to be quick. He'd have to hit him hard and fast. One swipe at either the villain's outstretched arm, or at his neck would do the job. Either would do, as long as it stops the villain. It would definitely have to be a very strong swing, but Jayluf knew he could manage.

As he ran towards the villain, the small amount of fear he'd been feeling was being replaced by a new sensation.. He had a bizarre sense of anticipation, a sense of euphoria. His heart was pounding, his lungs burning. Adrenaline seemed to be flowing in every cell. For the briefest of moments, the mental image of killing the villain seemed to please some… primal part of his mind. He just needed to swing, and it would be over. He was going to win. He was going to win! Just a few more steps… 

But as he rapidly approached his target, a smoking portal suddenly opened up not in front of him… but in front of Tsuyu’s face? The villain's open palm disappeared as it entered the portal, sparing Tsuyu of whatever quirk he had. 

Jayluf knew that had been the smoke villain that had made that portal. The portal villain saved Tsuyu? Why?

But then Jayluf felt himself stop, something had made contact with his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Something had directly halted him and he looked down to see another small smoke portal had materialized right in front of his stomach area, and now the villain was merely pressing his hand against Jayluf's middle. 

It wasn't hurting either. And Jayluf looked closer, he'd realized why, his eyes widening in abject horror. His stomach was grey and cracking away like stone. He didn't feel any pain because his cells were killed so quickly, they did not even have time to cry out in alarm or send pain signals because they disintegrated so quickly. Every last one of his cells were being destroyed. There would be nothing of him left. 

As his body crumbled away right in front of his very eyes, Jayluf began to panic.

I'm dying. I'm going to die. 

I don't want to die. Please don't let me die.

Miss Hunee, help me.

For the first time, Jaylud felt unbridled terror and dread. He wasn't going to survive this. This was it.

Jayluf stared in horror as his body deconstructed itself, and could only watch as the grey decomposition spread to his shoulders.

Being consumed by complete panic and fear, he did the only thing he could do. Jayluf turned to Midoriya, who stood alongside Mineta and Tsuyu, who were frozen in terror and stared at him, horrified expressions on their faces.

Jayluf let out a gasp as a tear slid down his cheek as his chest and throat began to calcify in front of his very eyes. 

"M-Midoriya?" Jayluf choked. 

And he finally fell apart. 

Jayluf Viller was dead.

Midoriya screamed.

Chapter Text

Izuku Midoriya lied in his bedroom at home, silently staring up at his bedroom ceiling with a blank expression on his face. Well, mostly blank, excluding the bags under his eyes, and his reddish eyes. He didn't know how long he'd been quietly laying on his bed, as he'd somewhat lost track of time several hours ago. 

He was completely quiet, aside from the occasional hiccup that escaped from his mouth, due to how much he'd cried earlier that day. He'd never felt so horrible in his life. He'd felt like he wanted to throw up ever since he bothered trying to eat a bit of lunch, the nausea and stress making him feel sick to his stomach. His body had begun to tremble at random occasions, and it would take several minutes for him to be able to stop the trembling each time. How long had he'd been crying? Hours? Maybe even an entire day? He didn't know anymore. Time was irrelevant to him. But as miserable as he felt at that moment, deep down, he knew he deserved to feel like this.

Because I'm a failure . 

Failure. The word stung his chest and mind, wrapping around his heart like barbed wire, yet Izuku knew it was the truth. He was a failure.

He had failed one of his only friends. Jayluf Viller, a boy who had been barely fourteen years old. 

An extremely spiteful and angry part of him cursed himself. Cursed the villains. He even cursed the world for what happened. 

To make matters worse, his own self consciousness would not grant him peace. Intrusive and negative thoughts constantly slithered into his brain every once in a while.

Why are you so upset? A dark and repulsive part of his mind whispered innocently. You barely knew him. Why are you so worked up? You're being overdramatic, like you lost Mom or something. You knew him for like, three days. Get over it. 

Izuku felt his hand twitch from both hurt and anger at his subconscious, his digits curling up into fists. Shut up. He inwardly snarled. 

The command seemed to have worked for now, since that part of his inner thoughts had coincidentally silenced itself. 

Good. 

It was hard to believe what had happened was only… how long had it been since the USJ had been shut down and evacuated? It had only been a day, right? The school had graciously given Class 1-A the day off to recollect and recompile themselves, and if one wasn't enough, they had also offered the option to just skip the rest of the week. If they did, the school had promised them that they wouldn't penalize them for it. 

In other words, the school wanted to give Class 1-A a break both physically, mentally, and emotionally. But for some reason, they'd been asked to keep quiet about the death of their classmate to themselves until the teachers figured out exactly what had happened before they could make an official statement to the press. 

Izuku on one hand had just taken the time to grieve for his friend. Grieve for Jayluf. His friend. He sometimes wondered if he was the only student who mourned.

Do I even deserve to mourn Jayluf, since all of this was my fault? He wondered.

Yesterday after the attack on the USJ, Izuku had remembered waking up in the infirmary, and lying beside him had been none other than All Might himself, who was reduced to his skeleton form. It hadn't taken long for Izuku to completely break down right in front of his idol when he had tried to explain what had happened. He'd screamed and sobbed when he described Jayluf's… death. Izuku knew he had looked completely and utterly broken, which in some regard, he was. 

All Might, bless his innocent heart, had attempted to reassure the boy and explain that what happened wasn't Izuku's fault, he had been merely outmatched and against impossible odds in order for him to save Jayluf.

No. Izuku thought as he turned over in his bed. He understood what All Might had been trying to say yesterday. He valued his mentor's kind words more than anything. But a small part of him was more than aware that All Might didn't see the whole picture. Izuku knew that what had happened was his fault. He could have done… something to stop the villains. He could have done… MORE. What exactly, he didn't know, but he knew he could have done something. 

To make matters worse, during the attack that fateful day, just mere moments had passed after Jayluf's death when All Might had busted down the door to the USJ, and had fought the Nomu. It hadn't even been a minute. If he had just done something when Jayluf was alive… But he hadn't. He'd done nothing. 

Izuku gripped his head.. And because of that, Jayluf is dead, you damn useless Deku. He's DEAD. Jayluf… I'm so sorry…

As glistening droplets slid down his face and fell down, Izuku couldn't stop himself from starting to quietly sob once more, gasping and hiccupping as he pressed his face into his hands. His throat was hurting. His chest was hurting. His entire body was hurting. His body curled into the fetal position as he seemed to slightly spasm and shake with each sob that wracked through his body. 

It's not fair. It's not fair.

He was supposed to be a hero. A HERO. A Hero, whose purpose and sworn duty was to protect the innocent and those unable to defend themselves when in danger, or under threat. But when the time had seriously come for him to save an innocent life who was under threat from evil… 

He had frozen up, and done nothing. 

Because I was afraid of a stupid monster. 

Another agonizing sob managed to wretch itself free from Izuku's lungs and chest as the boy had flashes of the past in his mind. He could still perfectly recall the horrified expression etched onto Jayluf's face when the villain began to literally DISINTEGRATE Jayluf right in front of Izuku and his friends. He could still remember how Jayluf had slowly turned to stare right at Izuku, quietly and wordlessly begging for salvation. The only thing Jayluf had managed after was to simply say the name of his only friend before crumbling away into literal dust.

Another painful sob was squeezed from his body as Izuku couldn't help but remember the complete and utter fear in Jayluf's eyes. He was just a little boy. Iuzku scrunched his eyelids shut, as more tears formed began to burn his eyes, the hot spewing liquid felt like boiling water as they were forced out from his retinas, cast out onto his cheeks, rolling and splatting on his pillow. 

He'd been crying for so long, he didn't even know when he'd started. Izuku recalled how his mother, the poor woman, had tried her best to help her grieving son when he'd finally arrived back home after being allowed to leave the school. He hadn't done much, simply breaking down and embracing his mother. When she'd begun to rub his back and speak comforting words as if he was a toddler, Izuku had clung to her like a lifeline, falling to his knees and sobbing into her shirt as he screamed himself hoarse.

As much as he wanted comfort now more than ever, he lacked the strength to even get out of his bed. 

Although his physical self wasn't too active at the moment, his mental self was a different story. His mind sometimes had run crazy with ideas, scenarios, or plans on what he could have possibly done better to save Jayluf. They haunted his mind, even when asleep. Last night had been the worst of it, for when he finally had been able to fall asleep from sheer exhaustion after hours of crying, his mind had quickly latched onto the idea from when he was awake, the idea of how he could have saved Jayluf. Izuku was obsessed with it so much, it had gotten to the point where his fixation had leaked into his dreams.

And oh, what a terrible, cruel, horrible thing his subconscious was. It showed him dreams, scenarios where he’d leapt forward, saving Jayluf from a cruel demise, and holding out while All Might saved the day like he always did. Or scenarios where Izuku had managed to defeat the villains and rescue everyone in the USJ, and Jayluf had still been alive. And then when Izuku had woken up in the middle of the night, he'd realized that it had all been a dream, and that Jayluf was gone. It didn't take long for despair and pain to grip his chest before cried himself to sleep again. It was beyond torture. 

As his eyes slowly fluttered shut from exhaustion, he could only hope that he'd be spared of any cruel dreams like before. Hours later, in the morning, he woke up to be greeted by his concerned mother, offering to let him stay home for a few days. Her eyes silently pleaded for the boy to accept the offer, yet there was a glint of something else, as if she was afraid that she knew what her son’s answer would be. 

It had been tempting. So, so, tempting. But Izuku declined, because even after his failure, and his mind self-depreciating to the point of him crying over and over again, some part of him wanted to keep going. Some small ember still burned to be a Hero. He still had the righteous urge to do good, and to help those in need. And that ember was more than enough to keep Izuku moving forward.  As childish as it was, he forced himself to think; what would All Might do? And Izuku already knew the answer to that. After all, the answer had been staring at him from every corner of his room in the form of toys and posters. All Might would smile, and keep going. He would smile and protect the innocent.

So Izuku would smile, too. He still had friends who would be there for him, and he still had One For All. Despite his pain and self hatred, he’d force himself to smile. Jayluf would not die for nothing. He lost his life trying to save me. I won’t waste the life that he valued so much to the point he died to protect.  Izuku would smile and save the day. He would make his mother, All Might, and... Jayluf proud. Despite the tears that threatened to spill out once again, he forced himself to give a thumbs up to a very worried looking Inko Midoriya, who immediately engulfed him in a tight hug, demanding that he’d be careful, and that if he needed anything, she’d be there for him, and that she loved him. He’d returned the hug, promising her that he’d do his best. He wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt. 

No one will die again, not on his watch. 

ONE DAY AGO…

Today was a brand new day.

Jayuf had been slowly awoken to the faint yet familiar sound of Miss Hunee's gentle voice pulling him back to reality out of his deep slumber. Oddly enough, he didn't remember dreaming at all last night. No extravagant dreams of seeing stars fly by, or landing and seeing new life forms. Had he dreamt at all? It was impossible to tell, he had zero recollection of the night before. 

All that he could remember was what happened before he fell asleep. He remembered lying down on his mattress after being sent to bed by Miss Hunee, closing his eyes, and promptly blacking out. The next thing he remembered was now, as Miss Hunee had woken him up. He didn't have a weird dream, or a weird moment where he had woken up in the middle of the night. It was a night that was completely normal. When he'd told Miss Hunee about it, she had responded positively. She responded that normal was good, and that it was a sign of progress that he wasn't having a "silly dream". Although during their conversation, Miss Hunee had kept looking down at a small piece of paper in her pocket and squinting before she sometimes responded.

Odd.

The rest of the morning was rather “normal” as well. The same process of Miss Hunee collecting a blood sample, the Hero Aid being applied to the open wound, same as usual. Although today, after he had gotten dressed, Miss Hunee proceeded to inform him that he’d missed a day of school, and that he’d also forgotten his hero costume case at the school, and he’d have to carry his costume in a temporary bag. He didn’t remember forgetting it, but he trusted his caretaker.

Another odd thing that happened was Miss Hunee had handed over some yen, telling him that it was to be used for his lunch. He had never used money before by himself, so the idea seemed a bit intriguing. She had also quickly apologized again about forgetting to give him money yesterday, which he brushed off. It didn’t really bother him. 

Nothing ever did, mostly.

The process of leaving the facility also went as usual, a masked soldier at the driver's seat while Miss Hunee had buckled his seatbelt and settled into her seat. But Jayluf had noticed a strange scent on Miss Hunee that he'd never smelled before. It wasn't pleasant, it was actually not pleasant. When he’d asked her about it, her face had formed a grimace, and she’d muttered something about farm animals being disgusting. 

He didn’t know what to make of it.

As they left, Jayluf found himself once more mesmerized by the incredible sight of the endless green trees stretching on for seemingly miles, cars speeding by so fast they were basically a blur. He wanted to touch a tree someday. The sights and smells of civilization were always fascinating too, so much so that it made him dizzy just thinking about it. The neon signs, moving people, the entire world seemed alive and moving. It was simply unbelievable, all of the warping and shifting, he could barely comprehend it. 

Although everything seemed to be normal, Jayluf had noticed something was off when they had initially arrived at the entrance gate of U.A. After Miss Hunee had put his collar off and waved goodbye as she climbed back in the vehicle, he'd went right through the gates. When he’d gone through, and began walking towards the entrance on the usual path, he realized that he didn’t see any of his classmates, which were usually easily spotted. Sure he saw other students, but these were from different classes. He did not see any of his friends or classmates from Class 1-A. 

But he still had friends there it seemed.

“Chay-luf!” A feminine voice that sounded somewhat familiar called out to Jayluf. “Haiiii!”

Turning around, Jayluf was greeted with the sight of a very familiar girl, whose blone hair and horns were a dead giveaway to their identity. “Pony..?”

Pony Tsunotori gave a wide and friendly smile as she waved, running and stopping in front of the shorter boy. Panting, she recomposed herself and grinned. “Yaaa! Iz meee! How ar yu?” 

“I am…” Jayluf paused. “Functional. Have you seen any of my friends from Class 1-A?” 

Upon hearing his inquiry, Pony’s smile faltered slightly. “Oh…” she began. “Haf yu not herd wut happened?”

Jayluf tilted his head curiously. “I have not heard anything besides you speaking to me.”

“Well…” Pony said with a slightly worried look in her eyes. “Sumthin happened to Class 1-A yesterday. Villenz, I think? Ya, the villenz attacked the students!”

Immediately Jayluf’s curiosity doubled upon hearing her answer. Something had happened to his friends? And villains were involved? “What do you mean, villains? Villains? What happened? Are my friends okay? Where are they now?”

Pony struggled to make sense of Jayluf’s barrage of inquiry, waving her hands frantically. “Wait, wait, slow down, I am hafing truble understanding! Japanese stil rustee!”

Jayluf registered the command, halting his speech abruptly, and looked silently at Pony, awaiting his next command. 

Glancing to the side, Pony took a deep breath before letting out some air. "Wel,  they did nawt tell us much, and…" she stopped. "Wait… wur yu not there for it? I thought I saw yu yesterdae!" 

Jayluf shook his head. "Negative. Miss Hunee informed me that I had missed a day of school." He could only assume that he'd just slept through the other day, since it was the one that made the most sense.

Frowning, Pony put a hand to her chin in thought, pausing several moments before relaxing and shrugging half heartedly. "Huh… may be I wuz just tyred? But aneewayz, the school are nawt telling us much. Wutever happined with thuh villanz wuz enuf to give Class 1-A a day off. Thay are kinduh keeping hush hush abowt this hole situation, so I can not tel you much. Sorree!"

Jayluf's mind began to think. I have missed a day. According to Miss Hunee, I seemed to have slept through an entire day. So while I was hibernating, a villain  group attacked the school? How bad is it? What happened that would force the entire school to give us a day off?

"Wait, ackshually…." Pony suddenly chirped curiously, bringing the boy back to the real world. "That maeks me wunder… Why on erth are you heer? Didunt they call you to noteefie you of getteeng the day off?"

“No…” Jayluf muttered thoughtfully. “I have not been informed of any schedule adjustments.” That is odd… Miss Hunee did not mention anything about a day off, either. "Perhaps they had forgotten?" He offered. 

Pony put a hand to her chin in thought. "May bee? I dun noe… I dun think the school wud furget to do sumthing that important." She shrugged. "Oh well, aneeways, if yur the onlee membor of Class 1-A currentlee uhtending school tuhday, I dun think yull git in truble. Maybee you cud liek… cach up on missing werk? Maybee ask them wutz goin on with why they didunt call yu off?"

Jayluf considered Pony’s advice for several seconds, allowing the multiple suggestions to register in his head while his brain cells were busily transporting it all to his memory. Finally, he nodded, albeit slowly. "Very well… I suppose I will inquire with my teachers in regards to what has happened in my absence."

"Cool!" Pony said as they walked together. "Well. I gottuh branch off since mai class iz the uther waye, so see you! We shud text agen sumetime!" She turned back while walking towards a staircase. "But wee need to cach up at lunch thoe for reel!" She gave a friendly wave.

Jayluf nodded at the idea of lunch as he continued walking towards his destination. "Affirmative. Good bye." 

While nearing his destination, Jayluf noticed the lack of any of his classmates, but it did not surprise him now, due to Pony’s information. He would simply ask Aizawa some questions when he got into the classroom, and hopefully his inquiry would be quickly answered.

Slowly sliding the door open, he saw his teacher sitting at his desk just as he expected him to be. Well, he thought it had been Aizawa at first, but upon second glance, he realized that it wasn't his teacher. Sure, it was a fully grown man who had the same exact raggedy clothes, a slouched posture, and long black hair. But Aizawa usually didn't wear white bandages and gauze around his entire face, arms, and hands. The man was shakily using one of his bandaged hands to slowly scribble indecipherable things on a piece of paper.  Aizawa didn't use bandages… So it couldn't be Aizawa… could it?

Jayluf slowly looked up and down at this stranger who still had yet to notice his presence. Who is this man? Why is he wrapped in bandaging? Was he injured or attacked? Why is he sitting in my teacher's seat? Where is Aizawa? Bemused, he tilted his head, letting his hair fall to the side slightly. "Who…" he began softly, "are you?"

The man turned his head to face Jayluf for a brief moment to glance at the boy before going back to looking down at the piece of paper. But not even a fraction of a second later did he quickly do a very abrupt double take. 

Suddenly the man stood up quickly, as if surprised or shocked by something, wincing and letting out a short grunt of pain before he turned his entire body to face Jayluf. "What…?" Began the man, taking a step backwards, accidentally bumping into his chair during his mini retreat. "What the FUCK?"

Jayluf blinked, taken aback by the sudden increase in the man's voice. He stared up curiously.  Have I accidentally scared this man? He is very alarmed. He felt his cells rumble warily. What could have caused a reaction like that?

"There is no way in hell…" continued the man, still staring at the smaller boy. 

Wait… Jayluf thought as he listened to the man's voice. It sounds somewhat… familiar? This man in bandages… Could it really be? "Mister… Aizawa?" 

In response to Jayluf's words, the man flinched as if he'd been slapped in the face, his breath increasing in speed from either fear or agitation. He continuously looked at Jayluf from head to toe. "No… you're not here. You're not real." He began shaking his head. "Right. I just need to get more sleep… I'm just having a sleep deprived hallucination. Hallucinating damn dead people isn't that uncommon after injury…"

Jayluf didn't understand. What is a sleep deprived hallucination? Is it like a weird dream? Who is dead? "I am real… I do not understand, Sensei…?" 

That had been apparently the wrong thing to say, since Aizawa took an abrupt step back at the name. "Whatever trick my brain is playing on me, I'm not buying it," the man growled, his shaky tone replaced by one of growing aggression. "You're not here. Get out." 

"But I am real?" Jayluf questioned, then hesitated. Am I real? What counts as being real? Is anything real? But before his mind began to wander too far on unanswered inquiries, he forced his mind to the matter at hand. "I do not understand. I am your student." 

"Who the hell are you?" Aizawa snarled, his voice seeming to raise even more, wincing in pain for a brief moment before returning to his slightly defensive stance. 

Oh… Jayluf realized. The teacher forgot about me… it seemed to explain everything so far. Perhaps the injury was related to Aizawa's lack of memory? "I am Jayluf Viller. My designation is T-1962582. I am a student of Class 1-A in hero studies. You are Mister Aizawa, or Eraserhead. You are the teacher of Class 1-A, correct?" 

"This is… some sort of trick." Aizawa began, attempting to use his least restrained hand to attempt to press presumably a switch of some or button kind under his desk. Due to how bandaged his body was, it appeared he had VERY limited mobility, forcing him to step closer to desk and lower his body at a rather bizarre angle. "But it doesn't matter. You're not leaving until we know who the hell you are, and what you think you're doing wearing someone's face. MY STUDENT'S FACE."

The man's words gave Jayluf pause. What was he talking about? Wearing his student's face? He would NEVER wear someone else's face. Why would he do that? "I do not wear other faces."

But before Aizawa could find whatever he was looking for under his desk, a new voice added into the fray stopped the whole conversation between both parties entirely. 

"Now Eraser, there's no need for that!" A small tinny voice spoke up from behind Jayluf. "Apologies for my interruption, but I saw Jayluf's arrival on the school cameras, so I came here as quickly as I could without raising too much alarm. I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding just waiting to be explained and laughed off in the future!"

"But this isn't something small at all." Aizawa retorted warily to the unknown voice, still leering at Jayluf. "We have to alert the whole school NOW."

"Oh please, there is absolutely no cause for undue alarm!" Continued the invisible newcomer, not acknowledging Jayluf's confused head tilting in the slightest. "Kicking up a fuss won't help anyone. 

Hold on, who…? Jaylufs eyes searched around the room, but saw no one. So that could only mean that this person was right behind him, right? Temporarily forgetting about Aizawa's utterly bizarre appearance and behavior in favor of this new voice, Jayluf twisted his body to turn around entirely in search of this new voice, but to his surprise, he saw nothing.

Strange… I thought I heard someone else just speak…?

"Ahem!" Piped the voice abruptly. "Down here!"

Down where? Jayluf wondered. Looking left to right, he finally had the idea to angle his head downwards. Down… oh.  

It appeared there was indeed someone standing behind, he just didn't realize that they were just shorter than him. Well, Jayluf assumed that they were a person at first, but getting a good look at the newcomer made him even more confused. 

This was no human being, that was for sure. It appeared to be a non-human lifeform. Upon first glance, it was a short mammalian creature covered head to toe in brilliant white fur. Its head was large, with a round snout that stuck out rather far. A shiny little nose was on the end of the snout. Its face featured black, beady, and shiny eyes that sparkled with intelligence. Covering one of the eyes appeared to be a very old scar, long since healed. Accompanying the large head were two somewhat stubby arms, with four finger digit paws on the end instead of human hands. Finally, a swooshing tail hung out from behind, occasionally moving from side to side.

"Who…" Jayluf began, utterly bewildered at the sight of this creature. "Who are you?" 

The creature simply grinned. "Me? I am someone who is just delighted to finally speak to you in person, Jayluf Viller." 

"You wish to speak to me…?" Jayluf repeated slowly, attempting to register all of the new information about this creature while holding the conversation. 

"Of course! You may call me… Nezu!" said Nezu, the Principal of U.A. High School. "I've been looking forward to meeting you. Believe me when I say this, we have so much to discuss with each other."

Chapter Text

This was no human being, that was for sure. It appeared to be a non-human lifeform. Upon first glance, it was a short mammalian creature covered head to toe in brilliant white fur. Its head was large, with a round snout that stuck out rather far. A shiny little nose was on the end of the snout. Its face featured black, beady, and shiny eyes that sparkled with intelligence. Covering one of the eyes appeared to be a very old scar, long since healed. Accompanying the large head were two somewhat stubby arms, with four finger digit paws on the end instead of human hands. Finally, a swooshing tail hung out from behind, occasionally moving from side to side. 

He didn’t know why, but something about the small size and fluffy appearance, he found it… strangely endearing. "What are you?" said Jayluf. If he couldn’t know who he was, he wanted to know what this thing was. 

"A very astute question,” replied Nezu. “I wonder… What could I be? Am I… a rat? A cat? A dog? A mouse? No… I am…” He thrust his arms upward in a grand pose. “The School Principal!"

Jayluf blinked as he registered this new information. Principal… Upon reaching into his memories, he faintly remembered hearing how schools had something in their hierarchy called a “principal”, but he didn't know what they were. The only thing he was aware of is their high ranking. He stared at the small white creature. So this is what a Principal is… Jayluf thought to himself, pleased that he now had a label for this species.

"You may call me Nezu!" The principal replied.

“Nezu…”Jayluf repeated softly. Several seconds passed until he realized that they had just exchanged names. "Do you want to be friends?"

"Why, that sounds like such an absolutely splendid idea." Nezu cheerfully replied. "Of course I would. After all, probably best we get to know each other, right?" 

Jayluf nodded. 

Nezu extended his arm, and when Jayluf merely stared at him, Nezu’s eyes widened for one second before quickly retracting his arm. "Sorry, hanging around All Might has sort of rubbed off on me." 

Jayluf tilted his head. "What was that?" 

The small creature paused for a moment. "Ah, that was a Western greeting. It's called a handshake.”

Before he could stop himself, Jayluf had imitated the greeting, thrusting his arm forwards and holding it out.

Jayluf reached across, and felt his hand make contact with Nezu’s hand. But he realized it was less of a hand and more like a… paw. He absent-mindedly squished his hand. Paws… squishy toe beans… he knew if he had paws of his own, they'd do well in snow. He blinked. Wait, what?

“You’ll have to forgive your homeroom teacher’s… behavior,” Nezu piped up, yanking Jayluf from his inner thoughts. “He’s erm… feeling slightly under the weather, to put it lightly.” He gestured towards Aizawa behind Jayluf, who was still standing with wide eyes, and had put a few steps of distance between himself and Jayluf.  

“N-Nezu,” Aizawa began shakily, his eyes presumably glued to Jayluf’s relaxed form. “This kid is-”

“I know, I know,” Nezu cut him off abruptly, albeit with a gentle tone. “But I can handle it from here. Trust me.”

The baggy eyed hero teacher looked as if he wanted to argue, or say more on the manner, until he finally deflated slightly. It could be assumed that he was looking away, but it was impossible to tell due the face he was entirely mummified in bandaging. “Fine. I’m letting the others know. The last thing I need is them calling me about this damn mess.”

Nezu simply nodded. “Of course. I was going to do that anyway, but I suppose it would save me some time if you did it instead. Now…” he looked back up towards Jayluf. “Young Viller, would you walk with me? I think it would be best if our conversation took place somewhere else.”

Jayluf instinctively began to follow the creature as it exited the classroom. 

“We will be able to discuss things in detail in my office.” Nezu continued as they began walking down the long hallway. “But I assure you, you are not in trouble of any kind. There are just some things happening in the school that have everyone a bit… shaken, putting it lightly.”

Jayluf glanced down as he attempted to match the walking speed of the much smaller creature. “Where are my classmates?” He hadn’t seen them at all today. Pony had said something about a ‘day off’ for Class 1-A.

Nezu hummed absentmindedly. “Ah, my apologies, but we were not expecting any of Class 1-A today at all, due to the recent events. I’ll give it to you straight, none of your friends are here today.”

“Why is my teacher wrapped in bandages?” Jayluf blurted out without thinking. “I heard something about villains being at the school.”

“Already? That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Nezu said as he folded his short arms behind his back. “Word around gets fast, but it wasn’t exactly being hidden in the first place. Yes, unfortunately villains were here at the school, they had somehow managed to infiltrate our walls. Your fellow classmates were attacked by villains in an ambush in a UA training facility. Thankfully, no one was killed, but several people were hurt, such as Eraserhead back there.”

The thought of villains being inside school grounds was something Jayluf did not like one bit. “Were… any of my friends hurt?”

Nezu’s bright smile fell slightly. “Unfortunately Midoriya was put in the clinic with several broken bones, but he seems to have made a full recovery thanks to our Nurse.”

“Broken bones…” Jayluf echoed, why did that sound so familiar? “Midoriya… has broken bones before…?”

Nezu’s smile curved upwards. “It seems like it’s a skill he’s becoming very good at, hm? But he needs to learn how to control his quirk, lest he wants his hero name to be something like ‘The Shatterer’ or ‘Glass Cannon’.” His smile turned into a more serious frown. “Although I am hoping he gets a hold of it, since Nurse isn’t very happy having to treat him almost every day. That, and no hero should have to actively injure themselves so grievously just to attack with their quirk.”

“I see…” Jayluf said. “But… my quirk must require self harm in order to function as an attack.”

“Indeed,” Nezu agreed quickly. “But you seem to have a knack for a certain type of slow regeneration, from what I’ve seen. Midoriya unfortunately does not.”

Jayluf nodded. Nezu had a point. “Well… what will happen to me? I missed a day of school…”

“That’s perfectly fine!” Nezu said abruptly, waving his left paw in the air in a dismissive manner. “After we chat in there, I’m sure your teachers are very curious about your situation, so to speak. And they’ll be able to teach their respective subjects, save for Eraserhead.”

“In there? Where?” Jayluf repeated. Where was here exactly? He hadn’t been paying too much attention to where they were walking due to being so absorbed in the conversation at hand. 

“Yup.” Nezu hummed as he gestured to the door in front of them. “My office!”

Nezu’s office was one that seemed to be much nicer than other offices, a large office with several cabinets, a stove, and two couches surrounding a small wooden table. His desk was definitely the highlight. The desk and chair were very nice, but behind the desk was a giant window that allowed anyone who looked through it to see almost the entire surrounding school campus, and parts of the city. It was very a very grand sight to behold.

“Ah,” Nezu said as they entered his office, “Where are my manners? Would you like some tea? I already had begun heating some water up ahead of time.”

Jayluf’s ears perked upon hearing the word. “Tee?” What did that word mean? “What is Tee?”

Nezu began coughing abruptly. “W-What is tea?” He repeated in disbelief.  He put a paw over his mouth in shock. “You don’t know what tea is? You poor boy… Tea is only the second most popular drink in the entire world!”

Jayluf tilted his head. “What is it?” This tea sounded very interesting.

Nezu glanced down to his wrist, inspecting his watch. “Well… I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to explain. I’ve got time. Ahem.” He cleared his throat as he walked over to one of the couches, sitting on it and waiting until Jayluf mimicked the motion. When they both were seated, he continued. “Well, tea is a beverage, but it’s one that’s made from water and the leaves of a plant known as ‘Camellia Sinensis’. Which is the primary ingredient of tea.”

“So… you drink water that is made from… leaves?” Jayluf inquired, blinking. That did not sound very good.

His question caused the Principal to chuckle. “Not exactly my little friend. This is much more complicated. I could explain in detail, if you’re wanting to hear it?”

Jayluf nodded. This “Tea” for some reason piqued his interest, and he wanted to know everything about it. “Affirmative.”

“Well,” Nezu began, “The beginning of tea starts with the leaves being  put through a technique called ‘processing’, but that is also several steps in order to accomplish said processing. The leaves are collected from the plant, they are spread out over metal holders called ‘troughs.’ Then they’re left alone for roughly twelve or so hours before the leaves begin to dry and wilt away.”

“Dry…?” Jayluf said. “But… isn’t that bad?” 

“If we were trying to grow the plants, yes.” Nezu replied. “Harvesting means you take the plant out of the ground with the intent to use or consume it in some way. So after they’ve been wilting away for long enough, the next step is a thing we call ‘rolling’."

“You roll the plants around?” 

“No, no. The leaves are rolled separately to break the cell walls inside the leaves to initiate oxidation.”

Jayluf obviously recognized the term “Cell Walls”, as he was very familiar with cells in general. The other term, he was not familiar with. “Ocksi…day shun?”

“Oxidation,” The principal corrected. “It’s a rather fancy word for when something is exposed to oxygen, or more simply put, the air itself. For example, an apple being bitten into, and the whitish insides eventually turn brown, due to being in direct contact with oxygen.”

“What’s an apple?” Jayluf blurted out. 

The question seemed to cause Nezu’s cheerful grin to waver a split second before going back to a normal smile. “W-Well, that’s something for a different time. Let’s not get too off track, shall we? Ready for the next step?”

Jayluf nodded. Apples…

“Alright, although we need the oxidation to happen, too much can cause the leaves to eventually go bad, so what we have to do is merely blast the leaves with heat.”

“Heat…?” Jayluf said. Heat wasn’t something he was very big on for some reason.

“That’s right, heat!” Nezu replied. “Heat can help dry out the leaves even more, since we have them right where we want them. If we wait too long for them to dry naturally, too much oxidation could occur, which is not what we want. And I mean really dry. We’re talking about… roughly five percent moisture being leftover from before.”

“Why does it need to be so dry?” Jayluf wondered out loud. It sounded somewhat excessive.

Nezu lifted a finger. “Well, because if we let them dry naturally, too much moisture will be left. And where there’s too much moisture, there’s mold. And we don’t want mold, do we?”

“What is mold?”

“Mold is…” Nezu frowned slightly. “Well, it’s nothing good. I guarantee you wouldn’t like it. I’ll explain that another time, along with the apple. But back to the topic at hand, we’re on to the final step for the tea leaves, and that one is to sort them. It would be amazing to live in a world where all the tea leaves are always perfect, wouldn’t it? But alas, the sad truth of the matter is that there are always bound to be unwanted factors in batches of tea leaves.”

Jayluf hummed curiously. “Unwanted factors?”

“Stuff that isn’t what you want in or on tea leaves. Examples being impurities, leftover stems from the plant or leaf itself, or rolled up leaves that did not oxidize or get blast dried properly. All of those need to be removed.” Nezu had a twinkle in his eye. “BUT…. it’s after the bad ones are removed do we finally have good leaves to use, which means we can finally use them to make the tea.”

“How is tea made from the leaves?” Jayluf asked earnestly. There seemed to be so much in just readying the leaves, what sort of complicated process would be used next? He didn’t know.

“Well, it’s actually somewhat simple. The leaves are then crunched up and put into a small little thing we call a ‘tea bag’, and you take the bag, and simply put it into some hot water. You slowly boil it until the flavoring is released, and it’s mixed with the hot water. But the tea bags… that’s for normal tea. If we did something that was more traditional, I suppose we’d use a small ceramic, or maybe even something like an earthen ware kyuusu. But for today, I think we’ll just do normal tea bags. I don’t think we need to try different types of tea for now.”

“There are different types of tea?” 

“Oh, you sweet summer child, bless your innocence. There are SO many tea types, it’s almost impossible to name them all by memory alone. But I suppose I could make two types of tea, since one is a flavor you might prefer over my favorite flavor.” Nezu got up and walked over to the stove as he began preparing the tea. “Personally I like myself a good cup of black tea. But that might be somewhat bitter for you, so I’ll make you a different kind. I think sweet tea is up your alley.”

“Sweet tea?” Jayluf said, intrigued. Sweet sounded nice. 

“Mhmm,” Nezu hummed as he began stirring the pot. “I’m going to take a wild guess, and say you maybe haven’t gotten too much sugar in your life. In that case, I think I’ll prepare the western variant of sweet tea for you.”

“Western variant? What does that mean?” Jayluf wondered. “Is it different?”

Nezu grinned wryly. “Well, western sweet tea is just like normal sweet tea, excluding the fact that more sugar is used. Actually, it depends. There’s two types of western sweet tea. North Sweet Tea, and South Sweet Tea. Southern is different because their recipe uses enough sugar to take down five fully grown elephants.”

Elefint? Western? Sugar? Jayluf wondered. "What's an elefint?”

Despite raising an eyebrow, Nezu refrained from commenting on Jayluf’s question. “But anyways, the tea is almost done, so just let me put in a slightly healthier dose of sugar, and then you’ll have yourself some sweet tea.” He poured some of the tea in a small cup, and stirred in some sugar. He gently brought the cup towards Jayluf, and held it out. “Here.”

Jayluf looked at the hot cup which rested on a small plate. It held a unique scent that was entrancing, but also appealing as well. The smell wasn’t a hot and tangy scent like the teriyaki chicken had been, but it was still good in its own unique way. As his hands gripped it, he immediately retracted upon feeling the searing heat from the drink, which had already transferred to the cup. 

Nezu merely let out a small chuckle. “Sorry there, it’s best to let it cool a little before you take your first drink.” The small mammalian teacher looked back to his own cup, blowing on it several times in an attempt to reduce the temperature for his beverage. He then took a small sip, looking satisfied whilst doing so. 

Curiously observing the technique, Jayluf craned his head down in the same manner, imitating the action by gently blowing on his tea as well. He did so for several long moments, until he finally risked touching it again. It wasn’t unbearably hot like before, so perhaps it was cool enough? Bringing it slowly to his mouth, he risked a sip, and the warm liquid finally came into contact with his tongue.

Sweetness. Nothing like the chicken.
Sweetness was the only thing that could describe the overwhelmingly powerful sensation of flavor as the tea soaked his taste buds in sugar. It was an unrelenting, pure, raw flavor that he’d never tasted before in his entire life. It was jaw droppingly incredible, it made him speechless. It was such a light and pleasurable flavor, it felt like his entire brain was waking up from the sensation alone. Jayluf’s eyes widened abruptly as he struggled to process so many good feelings at once whilst trying to comprehend the taste. 

When he’d finally swallowed, Nezu looked up, a mildly amused look on his face. “So, what do you think of tea so far?”

Jayluf responded by taking a larger sip of the tea immediately, relishing the bliss of total flavor, his eyes sliding shut momentarily, causing an amused chuckle from the principal.

“I figured you’d like it,” Nezu continued. “Tea always cheers me up when I’m in a bit of a bad mood. Tell me, what is your favorite part? I’m guessing the sugar is your favorite part, right?”

Even though he swallowed the tea, Jayluf couldn’t help how his entire body was overwhelmed with just utter sweetness and pleasure, he could only manage a slightly high pitched “Hmm!” while wiggling in place. He LOVED tea. 

His principal took another sip of his own tea as he watched the spectacle. “I’ll take that as a positive reaction to the sugar part. Every kid your age has the same reaction to sugar, heh.” Nezu chuckled. “So I suppose I can’t blame you for your reaction.”

Several long moments passed until Jayluf managed to compose himself enough in order to properly speak. “Sweet… is new to me… I have never had sweet. I think I very much like sweet.” 

Nezu nodded. “I’m glad that it is Jayluf.” He however refrained from bringing up that he remembered when Jayluf had been unfortunately injured in the entrance exam. Recovery Girl had given him one of her sweet candy gummies in order to boost his recovery after healing him. He made a mental note of Jayluf forgetting it. “I’m delighted that you’re liking the tea Jayluf, however, would you mind if I asked you some questions now that we’re all settled in?”

Jayluf straightened his posture. “I am ready.”

“So…” Nezu said, suddenly producing a notebook and pencil from under the table after setting his teacup on the table. “By your recount, you were absent yesterday, is that correct?”

“That is correct.” Jayluf replied. “Miss Hunee had informed me when I had woken up from bed that I had missed a day of school. I slept through an entire day it seems.”

“Interesting…” Nezu said as he watched curiously. “Oh well, I suppose it happens to all of us. You must have been very tired…”

“I suppose…”

“Well, do you have anything you wish to ask personally about the attack that happened?” Nezu inquired as he glanced up at Jayluf. “I can assume you have some questions about it.”

Jayluf blinked, processing the question. “How… did the villains attack?” He eventually whispered out. It seemed impossible. U.A. should have impenetrable defenses against something like this…

“A fair question,” Nezu replied. “They unfortunately had a villain that somehow was capable of creating multiple portals, which allowed several groups of villains inside school grounds, and they also had managed to bypass the security alert itself.” He frowned, a troubled expression flashing on his face. “None of the teachers had been alerted to their presence, and no alarms were triggered. It is… very troubling that something like this happened so early in the school year.”

Jayluf took another sip of tea, failing to suppress another excited wiggle. He absolutely loved sweet tea. He’d never get tired of it, ever. "Mmm. Who… were the villains?" 

"According to the students, they claimed themselves to be an organization called… the 'League of Villains'. Certainly a mouthful." Nezu said. He made a face. "Very subtle too."

"Subtle?" Jayluf repeated. He liked how that word sounded. "What is subtle?" 

"It's… actually I'll explain later." Nezu said.  "But I'm sure someone has told you some of the details already… but your teacher being injured in such a way has shaken the school. A lot of people are on edge right now."

"Is that bad?" Jayluf chirped. 

"I'd say so, yes." Nezu said. "Other teachers are constantly on the lookout whenever an outdoor activity takes place. Thankfully nothing else has happened yet… but we can't be too sure it's over."

Jayluf looked down, staring at his muddy reflection in the tea. Villains… although I am confident I would survive an encounter with this "League of Villains", I do not know if my friends can… "Do you think they will attack once more?"

"I can't say… but I don't think it's ever just one attack when it comes to groups like these…" Nezu frowned.  "But enough about that, I wanted to ask some more personal things about you Jayluf, if that's alright?"

Jayluf tilted his head. "About me?"

"Yes. As a principal and teacher, it's my duty to make sure my students are at their 100% in health and mind. I just wanted to ask you some questions you may or may not have been asked previously." 

The boy nodded in affirmation. 

"Jayluf, how would you say your life at home is?" Nezu said bluntly. 

"At… home?" Jayluf repeated. "You refer to my life at Nohken? My life is good. I like living in Nohken, and I like being with Miss Hunee." Jayluf answered truthfully. Miss Hunee and Nohken were his world. "Every day I get to do something new."

"I see…Forgive my curiosity Jayluf, but I'm a person who happens to be very intrigued by jewelry and such. What sort of necklace is that? It's… very interesting to me." 

"Neck…lace?" Jayluf repeated. It sounded familiar, but if Nezu was referring to something on his neck…"Oh… this is not a necklace. This is my collar." Jayluf swore for a moment that he saw Nezu flinch or twitch, but when he blinked, Nezu was sitting still.

 "A collar…" Nezu whispered, his voice strained. "Interesting. Might you tell me about it, and why you have it on?"

"Oh. Miss Hunee gave it to me as a gift. It is for health purposes. My quirk alters my body structure, so she and the other scientists can use this to monitor my location and vitals at all times." Jayluf said. 

"That's rather… Ahem, thoughtful of them." Nezu replied, going for another sip of his own tea. "And you're okay wearing it? You don't feel uncomfortable at all?"

Jayluf absentmindedly reached up to adjust said collar. "No. It does not bother me. At first it felt odd, but I adjusted to it very quickly. It is perfectly fine."

"Is that so?" Nezu replied. "And it doesn't bother you that you have to wear it? 

"It does not." Jayluf said. 

"Let's say hypothetically you had the option to take it off. Would you?" Nezu inquired. 

"Only if that is what Miss Hunee and the other scientists that I live with wanted." Jayluf said. 

Nezu raised an eyebrow. "So, you live with scientists then?" 

Jayluf shook his head. "No. I live in a room by myself. The scientists either come into my room, or take me to the laboratory for testing."

The sound of tea being drunk stopped abruptly. Nezu seemed to freeze in place for several painful seconds before he finally lowered his cup before looking at Jayluf.  "Pardon me. What was that last bit?" 

"They… take me into the laboratory. For testing." Jayluf repeated slowly. 

"Testing…" Nezu said. "That's……. very interesting. What sort of testing do they do?"

Jayluf blinked. "Anything I suppose. Sometimes they have me do physical things, or they will just perform an experiment." 

Nezu's face fell for a single fleeting moment, and although he almost instantly managed to put a smile back on, it had not been fast enough for Jayluf to not notice.  

Jayluf tilted his head upon seeing the expression. Had he said something wrong? "Is something the matter?"

"N-No. Nothing." Nezu said quickly. "I just lost my train of thought. My apologies. And you are perfectly fine with what they do to you there?" 

"I am very content with my life at Nohken. They are training me to become a hero. That is why I am at this school."

"Is there anything you wish they'd let you do?"

"Well…" Jayluf began. "I have never been able to really see the night sky." 

Now Nezu's face fell without any attempt to mask his displeasure. "Ever? Why….?" He said, genuine confusion in his voice. 

"Because I am required to go to sleep at certain times due to Miss Hunee's instructions, and I sleep, unless I have a weird night,” Jayluf said. "But Miss Hunee says to ignore them."

"Weird night?" Nezu repeated, interested.

"Yes.” Jayluf said. “Sometimes I have woken up in the middle of the night, wanting to do something more than anything else. I had an urge once to hide butcher clothing. I can’t remember last night too much… only…a feeling?”

"What does it feel like?" 

Jayluf squinted, focusing. He couldn’t remember anything… except that it was… “It was cold.”

"I see… well I will not pressure you. Sorry if the cold is something you find uncomfortable." Nezu said quickly.

"No." Jayluf said simply. He didn't find the cold uncomfortable in the dream. In fact, it sounded oddly appealing? To lie in the ice and sleep, until he was found and woken up-

"Jayluf?" 

Nezu's voice cut through his thoughts. Jayluf blinked and stared. "Apologies. What did you say?"

“I was merely inquiring back to the other topic from before. I would like to make you and your… caretaker an offer. Perhaps this evening, you and her could stay at the school, so that you’ll be able to see what the night sky looks like. I believe you would very much enjoy it!”

Jayluf paused, considering his words. The night sky… and with Miss Hunee… it sounded… nice. “I… will ask Miss Hunee. I think that sounds like something I would want to do.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that!” Nezu said cheerfully, reaching for his tea. “Me and the other teachers love to help students experience new things in their career as future heroes.” Suddenly, the pocket vibrated, and Nezu fished out a small phone. His smile fell. “Drat and curses. I might have missed a meeting with a teacher in regards to hero studies. I am sorry Jayluf, but we will have to cut this meeting short, if that is alright?” 

Jayluf nodded. “Affirmative. Should I return to my classroom?”

Nezu paused, then nodded. “Actually, yes. Eraserhead is probably not in the classroom right now due to homeroom being over already, which is probably for the best.” He turned and looked up at the boy. “Listen. I know the rest of the class has the day off, but I have a feeling that you’re wanting to learn as much as you can, correct?”

Jayluf nodded. He wanted to learn as much as he was able to. 

“Then, I’ll send the other teachers a quick message, I’m sure some of them were wanting the extra break time, but they’ll understand for sure. All the other teachers will be there to teach their respective subjects. Ectoplasm for Mathematics, Midnight for History, Present Mic for English, and so on. I’m sure they’ll be very curious to speak to you one on one as well.”

That sentence confused Jayluf slightly, but he nodded. “Affirmative. Shall I head back to Class 1-A now?” 

“Yes, I believe so.” Nezu said. “I will head out here soon, as soon as I clean up and make the office room presentable.” 

Jayluf bowed his head. “Very well. I hope I helped with my answers to your questions, and I apologize if any of them were lacking.”

Nezu waved it off. “Oh no, don’t you worry, Jayluf.” He smiled. “You’ve helped me a lot today. 

Jayluf gave a simple nod, and turned and left the classroom.

Nezu stared as the boy closed the door shut. “More than you know.” 

He turned, walking to a drawer that was by the tea cabinet, and took out a cotton swab. Returning to the table, he gently dragged both sides across the top where Jayluf had drank from. Turning back towards the drawer, he reached in and pulled out a plastic baggie. Carefully using his teeth and remaining free hand, he opened the resealable baggie and placed the cotton swabs inside. He repeated this with several cotton swabs and baggies until he was satisfied.  Behind his chair that he had sat in was a single small white container with the curved top, complete with an orange biohazard symbol on the side. Pulling off the transparent plastic lid, he put each baggie into the container, before sealing it shut with the lid.

He frowned upon seeing his work. Perhaps some would say that resorting to this already was uncouth and one of paranoia, but he had a bad feeling about this entire situation, and felt that this was likely a move that could possibly pay off in the future. Whoever or whatever Jayluf was, he and Nohken had Nezu’s full attention. A child dying? Sending the said child that had died a day before? What game were they playing?  But he wouldn’t stress over it too much. He wanted to see how Miss Hunee would react. Anything would give Nezu some more insight into this whole situation. He wouldn't react like Nohken was expecting him to. No, he was no human, he was something much smarter. He'd wait.

As if on cue, he received a message via mobile email. Curious, Nezu opened it. A message from Nohken Industries themselves. Now that was something. An apology about him missing a day… interesting. 

He’d talk to his fellow teachers very soon.

Jayluf walked back towards his classroom, as he pondered about what Nezu had asked him. He couldn’t remember what he’d dreamt about. Or so he thought… After digging into his mind as hard as he could, the boy managed to recall something. He’d been… what had been doing? He’d been…

Floating.

Yes, Yes, he had been been floating! Why did he feel the sensation of floating? He didn’t know. What had happened last night?

He didn’t know. 

He’d seen cold white fields, towering structures of rock… and faint lights miles away? He didn’t understand what he’d been seeing, only that it had felt… familiar.