Hi again! I was going to wait to post this chapter but I really wanted to keep the story moving!
I did a quick edit but I apologize if there's any typos that I missed. Anywho, enjoy!
Chapter 3: A.R.C.S
A loud beeping ripped Shouto from his peaceful sleep. He rolled over and turned off the alarm on his phone. He sat up and stretched a bit, running his hand through the tousled red and white locks. His normal morning routine would be a quick meditation session before getting ready for class, but he barely got any sleep last night and was exhausted.
"Damn it," he cursed himself and his extremely vivid, although still PG, dreams centering on his raven haired classmate, "since when did I start dreaming about her?" He was just thankful that his teenage hormones didn't take things too far, otherwise there would be no way he could look at Yaoyorozu the same ever again. But his hopes backfired and the idea that she could be in more promiscuous positions wiggled its way into his mind. It was going to be a long day.
He shuffled down the stairs in the standard U.A uniform behind Mina and Hagakure. They noticed his presence and Mina began to walk backwards through the commons as she greeted him.
"Good morning, Todoroki!" her bright smile encompassed her pink face.
"Morning," he replied with the usual low level of enthusiasm.
"Ahh stoic as always," Hagakure giggled.
"Hi Tsu!" Mina called over to the frog-like girl who was just about to head out the door.
"Good morning you three," she looked over to Shouto, "did you not get enough sleep, Todoroki? You look tired."
"My dreams kept me up," he said.
"Todoroki has dreams?!" Mina squealed, "I bet it was something super manly like beating up villains." Mina laughed as she air punched and kicked an imaginary bad guy.
"Maybe it was a fantasy of him fighting a dragon and saving a princess!" Hagakure added, she wrapped her arms around her chest and lightly twirled thinking about the half and half boy on a horse in a prince's outfit.
"Or it was just a nightmare," the ever so blunt Tsu interjected, putting a finger on her chin. The other two girls stared blankly at her.
"It was none of those, but thank you for your concern." Hagakure and Mina shrugged and moved on, but Tsu wasn't so convinced. It wasn't really her place to butt in so she left it at that and joined them in their walk to U.A as the conversation moved away from Shouto and onto the upcoming team simulation exercise they would be doing that morning.
The classroom was loud as usual with Iida trying to calm everyone down before Aizawa-sensai would show up and scoot himself in with his yellow sleeping bag. Even in their second year he took every opportunity he could to squeeze in a nap where he could. The girls ran ahead of Shouto a while back to catch up with some of the other guys in their class so he was alone when he walked into the bustling room. He made a quick glance around and tried not to look in the back corner, but his eyes betrayed him and he snuck a glance, when he did, he made direct eye contact with Yaoyorozu. They held each other's gaze for a second before he darted his line of sight to the floor and walked to his seat. As he was unpacking his things, he eyed her out of the corner of his eye. Her straight black hair was up in her usual ponytail and her uniform was neat and clean. This was the same thing she wore for every class, but why did she look... different?
"How are you feeling Yaoyorozu?" the words came out before he could stop and think them through.
Her head perked up from her notes, "Oh! I'm fine really, it must've been from over working myself." She gave him a small smile and he could feel his heart beat faster.
"That's good," was all he managed to get out.
"Thank you for checking up on me."
His heart started to beat a little faster and he felt himself let out a little smile. "You're welcome."
She went to reply but the door flew open and their worn out homeroom teacher came in and slammed the overly large door behind him. The class immediately became quiet and everyone settled in their seats.
"Due to the increase in public villain incidents, we're going to practice using your quirks in ways that'll minimize civilian involvement and injuries by working in teams on the new U.A Advanced Response Civilian Simulator," Aizawa said. "Midnight will be running the test so head to Gym Beta, class dismissed." He wasted no time zipping himself up to nap and letting his jet black hair fall over his face. The 1-A students quickly packed up their stuff and made their way to the gym where Midnight was already waiting.
"Good morning!" she was standing in front of two shiny, large black spheres with giant monitors hanging on the gymnasium wall. "In order to be a pro-hero you must be able to quickly assess the potentially dangerous situation at hand while making it priority number one to keep the civilians safe," she gestured to the large spheres behind her with her whip, "these are the Advanced Response Civilian Simulators, or A.R.C.S. You will be placed in teams of two by random and when you step inside you will put on the hanging black helmet." She opened the door to one of the spheres and inside was a helmet with a visor over it as well as gloves and boots with wires attached to them. "You will then put on the gloves and boots, by wearing this equipment you will enter a virtual reality of the program's choosing with a random villain, random placed civilians, and a random mission-"
"Isn't it dangerous to use our quirks in such a small place?" Kaminari asked.
"Don't interrupt me," Midnight gave him a death glare and the students shuddered. "Right so random mission, villain, and civilians. The helmet will monitor your brain activity correlating with your quirk and will respond accordingly within the simulation, same with your hand and feet movement. Since you're in a large enough sphere, you can move freely without the risk of injuring yourself, however that does not mean you can take this exercise lightly. You will be strictly graded due to the computer's algorithm and my judgment based on your performance. There are mikes hooked up in the helmets so be sure to communicate with your team, we will be able to see and hear everything."
The class stared in awe at the new machines, watching them whir when Midnight flipped their switches on. Green lights flashed and one of the screens on the wall was white with a black line down the center. Buzzing and a couple clunks were heard and the large spheres, easily the size of a small classroom began to rotate and pivot on their stands as they warmed up.
"One more thing, since the machine is actively scanning your brain it will pick up on your subconscious thoughts, fears, and so on to potentially use them against you. This exercise is not meant to test your physical strength, but your mental strength. So if you feel you are unable to continue there is an emergency switch on the side of your helmet, flip it at any time you want to end the simulation."
Midnight hit a few buttons on the control panel and two names flashed up on the screen. MASHIRAO OJIRO and TSUYU ASUI appeared on the left and right side of the screen, respectively. The class cheered as they entered the spheres and geared up. Midnight made sure they were hooked up properly and then closed the door. She pressed a few more buttons and the screens went black.
Shouto watched the screen as his two classmates opened their eyes inside the simulation. It was like one of those first person shooter games being able to see through the person's eyes. The monitor below that one had a better camera view of the two in what looked like a suburban setting with constant trains, commuters, and school children around the streets. He noticed a large plume of smoke coming up from where one of the train stops was located. Tsu and Ojiro wasted no time reacting and ran towards the source of the explosion.
"Tsu is taking the high ground to see if the villain is airborne and get more insight on the situation while Ojiro is running on foot while trying to ease the scared civilians, they're actively communicating too which is extremely helpful when unsure of the situation," Momo said in observation only a few seconds into the first battle and already being able to see their plan. Her classmates nodded in agreement and Shouto never ceased to be amazed by her intellect.
"They found the villain already!" Sero shouted, looking at Tsu's view he could see that the culprit of the train car explosion was a lanky woman wearing an all-black jumpsuit that covered her whole body except her hands and with tubes running down and around her arms, legs, and neck. It looked like only water was inside those tubes but when she rubbed her hands together a silvery powder flew from her palms and onto the side of a different train car. The villain jumped up to a higher view and shot the clear liquid onto the powder. An intense explosion rocked the station and civilians panicked as they tried to escape the smoke and falling debris.
Tsu jumped into action, grabbing a child who fell with her tongue and swinging him to safety on the other side of the road. Ojiro finally caught up and thanks to Tsu's constant communication he was able to jump in and try to clear out any bystanders. The villain blew more powder into the air and she watched it fall on the ground by Ojiro, laughing she shot more liquid out of her tubes and onto the ground. The tail boy sprung out of the way and narrowly dodged the falling water, dusting off the powder from his shoulder.
"Tsu do you know what this is?" he called, jumping out of the way from the onslaughts of mini explosions created.
"I'm not too sure, ribbit, it looks like a chemical reaction. The powder and liquid alone look safe but they create an explosion when combined."
"She also doesn't get too close to the powder when she shoots it with the fluid so we should try close range!" he shouted at the frog girl. She nodded her head and they set off on their plan.
"Hey Momo, is it a chemical reaction?" Jiro asked.
"I couldn't say for sure, but the liquid looks like it's just water since it doesn't do damage to anything else it touches, knowing that and the reaction it causes when mixed with water the powder is probably some alkali element, possibly potassium?" the rest of the class looked at her in awe, including Shouto who was standing in the back of the crowd.
"I'd expect nothing less from our studious V.P!" Mina said.
As Tsu and Ojiro were getting close to defeating the villain, a small girl with black hair and round teary eyes came from the smoking train car. She was wearing a light green blouse and Shouto noticed she bore a striking resemblance to Tsu.
"Sissy!" the little girl shouted, rubbing her eyes. Tsu was about to yank off one of the tubes of water with her tongue when she heard the cry of her little sister, Satsuki. "Sissy! Samidere is hurt, he's not waking up!" Tsu stayed within close range of the villain as she tucked and rolled along the roofline, looking for an opening to strike or even escape. She rubbed her hands together and threw more dust towards the train station, some of it being blocked by the breeze created by Ojiro swinging his tail. Tsu's eyes followed the dust while her tongue wrapped around the main canister of liquid on the villain's back, she watched it land on the cement behind her little sister. With a good grip, she flicked her head then back down trying to smash the tubes, but while in the air, spurts of water shot from the nozzles. Tsu made no hesitation and released her captive while jumping to block as much water as she could from hitting the floor and at the same time grabbing her little sister and pulling her away from the expected explosion.
"Tsu!" Ojiro shouted, watching her turn her body to take the brunt of the explosion while keeping her sister just out of range. Another explosion blew Ojiro off the roof and onto the pavement, after the smoke cleared the villain was gone. Tsu was visibly injured, but she brushed herself off as her sister came running over and have her a tearful hug, and then the screens went black.
The doors on the two spheres opened, Midnight helped Tsu and Ojiro out of the gear and back on real ground. Shouto noticed that even the ever calm Tsu looked a little shaken up, but that was expected from something so realistic. "That's what Midnight meant about mental training," he thought to himself.
"That was a good start," Midnight commented, "with a little more quirk training you'll do much better."
"But the villain got away," Ojiro looked down to the ground.
"Yes, but you managed to direct a crowd of people away from the chaos which limited the injuries, and you," she looked at Tsu, "while you are a little reckless jumping into an explosion like that, you did save a life."
"Ribbit."
"Alrighty! Next two are…" she pressed one of the buttons on the control panel, "Todoroki and Jiro!" Shouto walked through the crowd of his classmates as they cheered them on.
"Good luck Todoroki," he heard Momo's voice through all the noise. The corners of his lips upturned as he nodded to Jiro and put on the helmet, gloves, and boots. Midnight came around to make sure he had it all hooked up then the door closed and he was swallowed by darkness.
I could totally see U.A having some weird simulator thing, it would make sense so they don't keep blowing up practice fields. I tried to make it as un-cringey as possible but I guess you guys will be the judges of that haha. It's really hard trying to think of cool and unique quirks, I don't know how the writers do it!
On a different note, I read/listened to one of the My Hero Academia Drama CDs (I didn't even know that was a thing) and the Ennichi Festival one was the cutest thing. I died a little.
But yeah, thank you guys for your comments, favorites, and follows! Stay beautiful!
