Chapter 3: At First Sight

Still hiding within the blankets of dust that had filled the air from All Might's landing, Leia watched with silent awe as the muscled figure, who strode out from the crater, announced his arrival with his booming voice. His statement of telling his allies not to fear was steady and certain, sparking a flame of hope and relief that spread like wildfire amongst his students.

The Symbol of Peace was here.

No one could touch them now.

What more was there to fear?

At that moment, the frantic and panicked cries she had heard from the children transformed into ecstatic cheers of joy and victory while paralyzing fear struck deeply within the villains' heart as they gazed upon the world's top hero standing above them with a look of intense rage written on his features.

All Might was here.

Their time of being tossed around like playthings by the villains was over.

Courage filled the students, and they rallied together to counterattack their enemies without hesitation, ignoring the prospect that they could be injured. After all, All Might was here. No harm could come to them now.

There was nothing to fear.

Their Hero never lost.

One gaze upon the confident figure brimming with righteous anger quieted any possible doubts the students could possibly have in his ability to win. Their faith in him was absolute.

I guess that is what makes him the world's best hero, Leia thought with admiration, just his presence Is enough to inspire hope in a bleak, seemingly futile situation.

He's amazing.

"Leia! Can you—"

Leia snapped out of her reflections at All Might's urgent call.

"Just go and have some fun with their leader and leave the minor villains to me," she interjected with a confident smirk, "I'm more than capable of handling that pathetic lot."

All Might looked with a slight bit of concern at the woman who had landed here with him. He had never heard of a hero by the name of Leia. Perhaps she really disliked the media… but hell, even he had heard of Eraserhead before he had arrived at the U.A., and he would swear that there was no one that hated the media and attention more than the class 1-A teacher.

"The students—" began All Might with concern apparent in his voice.

"I'll watch over them. Don't worry. Nezu wouldn't have asked me to be the guard if I couldn't handle this."

That's a truth I'd never argue with.

"I leave them in your care," stated All Might solemnly, and with one last look in her direction, he took off towards their leader, intent apparent on his face.

Leia watched as he disappeared from her view. "His takeoff really is incredibly fast," she muttered to herself. With a sigh, she stood up and brushed off the dust that had gotten over her clothes.

Well, time to get to work.

Leia sprung high up into the air, almost reaching the domed ceiling of the USJ, and surveyed the situation. There were students everywhere.

She immediately noticed the green-haired boy she had seen earlier being cornered by a giant creature that she had never seen before.

The creature was simply disgusting. Revolting.

Its black humanoid body was unnaturally muscular and littered with red inflamed scars; large beady eyes which framed its bird-shaped head sat snugly on the exposed, moist tissue of the brain, and its beaked-mouth was wide open, revealing sharp teeth that formed into a sadistic grin.

Its tongue lolled out of its mouth, covered in the saliva that dripped from the roof of its mouth to the head of the green-haired boy who was frantically struggling in a losing fight to free himself from the creature's iron grip.

She made to move towards the child when she saw a blur with yellow hair heading the boy's way.

All Might would save him, she calmly decided, and she switched her attention elsewhere only to notice that a mob of villains was now moving towards a small group of children who were gathered in the area meters below her, standing on the top of the USJ stairs by the entrance.

They formed a protective circle around a white fallen figure with a space-helmet…

Thirteen!?

Leia's heat pounded as she sped downwards towards her past teacher, the wind became a loud roar to her ears as she fell, her eyes burned, and within a millisecond she landed directly in front of the students. The ground collapsed under the impact and the students were forced back from the wind that now swirled dangerously around her. She caught the wide-eyed gaze of the girl with shoulder-length brown hair that she had seen earlier this afternoon as the girl stumbled back.

Before the girl could open her mouth, Leia bit out with anger sparking in her eyes, "What happened to Thirteen?"

The students, who had originally been eyeing the approaching villains now quickly shifted their attention to the larger possible threat that had materialized in front of them.

An enemy? An ally?

"An ally," Leia responded in a clipped tone, having read the students' expression. "Name's Leia. Now answer the question," she urged impatiently with a slight growl of annoyance.

The brown-haired girl opened her mouth and was about to speak when a pink-skinned girl shrieked, "Behind you!"

Without turning around, the wind behind her formed a barrier instantaneously, capturing the bullets that the villain had sent at her and allowing them to fall harmlessly to the ground.

She sniffed with disdain. Really, they had some guts launching ranged attacks at her, after all, any tangible substance that travelled freely in the air was hers to control.

A flick of her fingers swept the villains off the stairs, suspending them momentarily mIidair before she accelerated their downwards fall. In a flash, the villains who had just seconds ago been closing in on the students were now lying broken on the ground by the base of the stairs. Dust rose from the force of the collision as their bodies hit the ground, and a sickening crunch rang across the USJ as their bones shattered. They were incapacitated—just shy of death.

They would not be rejoining the fight again any time soon.

Leia cleared her throat. "Sorry, you were saying?" she asked.

The brown-haired girl was now staring at her with fear and horror.

Right. Heroes aren't supposed to kill. I guess I shouldn't have let the kids see that.

There was a moment of tension in which the students looked as if they were about to take Thirteen and high-tail the hell out of her vicinity. Leia sighed.

I guess I shouldn't have let the kids see that.

She supposed that she hadn't behaved very hero-like. But then again, it had been years since she had worked as one, and in her travels, she had never been required to hold back when fighting any stray villains that crossed her path.

"They're still alive," said Leia after a student made a move to carry Thirteen and run, "I haven't killed them—if that is what you are concerned about."

"But how can anyone survive that?" asked a boy with white hair in a quivering voice.

"Ah. The knowledge on the human body and the precise position and force which causes specific bones to break is useful in that endeavor," answered Leia in what she hoped to be a friendly smile, "I usually only use my quirk defensively or to increase my agility when fighting during my typical day job."

She made sure not to mention that she had not attended her typical day job for years.

"However," Leia's face lost her smile as her voice became serious, "time is of the essence right now. Is it not?"

Eyes wide, the students hesitantly nodded in agreement as a single thought ran through their minds:

Better ally than foe.

"So?" prompted Leia, "Who did that to Thirteen? There's no way a common villain would have been able to do him in."

The students exchanged several glances at each other before they gave a small nod to the brown-haired girl who then blurted out the story, "It was the shadow villain!" she cried, tears forming as she remembered the incidence, "Thirteen tried to suck him in, but the villain somehow managed to turn sensei's quirk against himself—"

"Wait, how did he do that?" asked Leia with morbid curiosity.

"I don't know," the girl blubbered, "all I know is that in one moment sensei's quirk was aimed in front of him, towards the shadow, then in the next moment, another shadow had formed behind and was using sensei's own quirk to rip his back open."

A warping quirk.

That's going to be difficult to deal with… I can't randomly attack then since I won't know when or where he may materialize to transfer the attack onto an ally, or worse, a student.

Well, she thought grimly, a quirk of that strength must have a weakness…

"So he looked like a shadow? Did you see a physical body? An anchor?" questioned Leia.

"Yeah, he—"

Leia's attention was interrupted when she heard All Might command, at who she assumed to be the students, to take Aizawa, who was unconscious, back to the entrance.

An unconscious student?

Leia quickly swung around and spotted three students hurrying towards her as fast as they could while carrying, who she assumed to be, the unconscious student.

The green-haired boy was among them.

So All Might has the situation in control over there.

Leia observed with relief as she took note of a short kid with a purple suit and a girl with long, kelp green hair that was hurrying over with the green-haired boy in her direction. She debated about whether she should lift them with her quirk and bring them to her or if she should go and launch a frontal assault on the villains with All Might to wrap up the fight.

Ultimately, she did neither of the options.

She had just lifted off the ground to check on the students that were in the other zones when suddenly, from the corner of her eyes, she saw the green-haired boy shift the black bundle he had been carrying to the frog-like girl before sprinting back to the scene of the fight.

Back to All Might's side.

What the hell is that idiot doing!?

Leia growled in frustration. He wouldn't be able to help in the fight—if anything, he'd just be in the way.

Within a second, Leia disappeared from the USJ entrance only to reappear in the distance between the green-haired boy and the unconscious student. She grabbed a solid handful of the boy's costume and twisted it so that he was facing her.

"Where do you think you're going?" she snapped.


One moment ago, Midoriya's gaze had been fixed on the familiar figure of his mentor, All Might, and in the next moment, he found himself staring into emerald green eyes that shone with irritation and a hint of worry.

Where did she come from!? He thought, slightly freaked out. She was not there one second ago.

From the corner of his eyes, he watched as Asui and Mineta leapt to his defence as they moved to attack the stranger.

"Wait!" he cried hastily.

They paused.

"She's not an enemy… at least I don't think so?" he trailed off uncertainly as he shifted his gaze to the lady who had now released her grip on him. There was something familiar about her.

He had definitely seen her before. Once. Very long ago on television.

Her golden hair which glimmered under the sunlight that streamed in from the glass-panes of the USJ building accented the beautiful flecks of gold within her emerald eyes, giving her an almost ethereal appearance. He watched the wind which had been building up as she had prepared to defend against his friends' attack settle back into a gentle breeze that wrapped around her.

The breeze altogether stopped when the lady opened her mouth to reply.

"Correct. I came in with All Might to provide backup until the other teachers arrive. And you would be?" Leia asked as she reevaluated her opinion of the young boy. He was smarter than he looked if he had been able to determine her as an ally that quickly.

Her quirk stops working when she speaks? Izuku pondered.

Wait.

Could she be Sylph!? The hero who got her name for her ethereal beauty and the way she would literally dance through the air as she fought her opponents without uttering a single word? The one who disappeared just as quickly as she appeared when the fight was over, leaving the public wondering if she was actually a fairy—a figment of their imagination?

"You're Sylph," said Midoriya in awe, "You appeared in only one interview, your debut, and ever since then, you've never shown up on any other videos—well you were there, just you were moving too fast. Then five years ago, you vanished."

Leia's eyebrows lifted in surprise. It was true. The only clear image that the media had been able to capture had been during her debut interview. The boy must have been a hardcore hero fan to know something this obscure. She didn't think that even All Might had figured it out yet.

She had her moment of fame during her debut like all the other new heroes did, but when she had suddenly disappeared, the media had not been able to reach her, and soon, all that remained to her name was mystery.

Eventually, the public, due to the lack of videos, lost interest.

"Oh, I'm Midoriya Izuku," he added with a slight blush after realizing that he had not answered her question.

"Sylph," she replied shortly, somewhat irked by the fact that someone had figured out her name. Her plan had been to meet up with her mentor as Leia, enjoy a short fight with All Might, before hightailing out of the country.

Her life had been bliss when the media had disappeared and even more so when she had dropped her job as a Hero to wander the world. She had no desire to go back to the way things were before.

Leia watched as Midoriya's face beamed with joy at the simple act of having guessed her name right. "Why are you heading back to the fight, Midoriya?"

At this question, his face fell. She clearly did not know about his mentor's condition otherwise she would have been there, helping him. He couldn't tell her either because he had promised to keep the condition a secret.

But still. He needed to be by his mentor's side.

Depending on how long the fight stretched, All Might could be in danger.

Leia watched with curiosity as conflicted emotions raced through Midoriya's eyes before a desperate glance was cast in All Might's direction.

I'm missing something. It isn't idiocy that caused the boy to run back to the fight.

As a teacher and a hero, she would have been bound to keep the students and civilians safe. They were the priority, even above All Might and the other heroes.

However, she currently was neither.

A small mischievous grin crossed her face. The rules don't technically apply to me yet.

"Midoriya?"

"Yes?" he questioned with a slight tilt of his head.

"I'll allow you to go if you promise me two things."

His innocent eyes lit up, and he nodded his head vigorously.

"First, you must remain a safe distance away," began Leia. I might be able to find a hint of what's going on with him and All Might if I allow him to go, "promise me this because if anything happens to you, I'd rather not have to face the number one hero after the fight is over."

Midoriya's eyes brightened at her words. "Of course! I promise!"

"And also, I need a promise that you won't tell anyone you saw 'Sylph' today." Leia straightened up with a casual air of nonchalance though her gaze bore sharply into his. "I have no intentions of letting anyone know where I am, and all it takes is a wisp of a rumour for the media to come hounding after me."

He nodded understandingly though he seemed saddened by the news.

"I promise." he answered seriously before he sprinted back to the fight.

Leia decided that she would quickly wrap up the situation of the unconscious student before she followed Midoriya to keep an eye on him. Just in case. She really did not want to risk All Might's ire if the boy did become injured.

She turned around to face the two remaining students who were carrying the unconscious body. "I suppose that you heard what I told Midoriya?" she asked with an arch of her eyebrow.

"We won't tell anyone that Sylph was here," they recited back when they saw her gaze harden at their stunned silence.

Leia dropped her gaze and her lips pulled up into an easy smile. "I'll be giving all of you a quick lift back to the entrance if that's all right?"

"Of course—kero," the frog-girl replied.

"Great. I'll carry that student—just so he won't be jostled around too much during the trip," said Leia without looking at the unconscious body.

"Student?" questioned the short purple-suited boy.

"Yeah, the unconscious student that All Might told you to bring to the entrance."

Leia watched with slight confusion as the frog-girl exchanged a glance with the short boy.

"Actually—kero," the frog-girl began slowly, "He's Aizawa-sensei, our teacher—kero."

Teacher? Now that she looked closer, she realized that the body was taller than the students. Dressed in all black, his presence had felt so negligible when compared to All Might's that she had not given him a second glance.

Wait if he's unconscious, doesn't that mean that both of their teachers were defeated by these villains?

Suddenly, Leia's concern for All Might as well as Midoriya, who was at the site of the battle, grew exponentially.

All Might was powerful. That was a fact. But could he take on the villains who had wiped out two heroes who had been handpicked among the thousands to teach at U.A. High School? Perhaps. But then there was Midoriya's reaction. It bothered her. It was almost as if he didn't believe…

Almost as if he doubted All Might's ability to win against the villains.

Was All Might not the invincible man the media portrayed him to be?

Does Midoriya know something that I don't know?

A sense of urgency coursed through her.

She definitely had to wrap up her end as soon as possible.

Leia lifted the unconscious man as gently as she could, so as not to irritate his injuries—he was terribly injured. One of his elbow smelt of burnt flesh. The skin had peeled off, leaving the muscles to be directly exposed to air, bleeding. That must be painful. His head, which seemed to be slightly dented, was bleeding profusely so that blood covered the majority of his upper face. It appeared as if it had been repeatedly smashed into the ground. His nose might be broken as well, she thought in panic.

Was he even still breathing?

Quickly, she placed a finger below his nose.

She waited.

And waited.

There was nothing. No intake of air. No release of air.

His nose was definitely not functioning.

Hovering her palm above his mouth gave slightly better results.

A wave of relief rushed through her when she felt him take small gasps of air and release shallow puffs of breath at irregular intervals. He was hanging on. But just barely.

He needed first aid.

Immediately.

"I'll be moving towards the entrance now," Leia announced to the students.

She tucked Aizawa closer to her body so that his head was now leaning against her arm in an upright position as she prepared to fly. At the students' nods, she lifted them up, and together, they floated at a slower, more careful pace towards the USJ entrance.

Leia's shirt was stained with the man's blood by the time they had reached the entrance. The students who had been protecting Thirteen, looked up in relief when they saw Sylph with Asui and Mineta, but when they saw the pale, still form of the figure Sylph was carrying, overwhelming worry and horror filled them. They raced over to Sylph, who had just landed, to check on their teacher.

Cries of "Aizawa-sensei!" surrounded Leia as the students hovered around her in concern, trying to get a glimpse of their teacher's condition.

"He's alive but needs medical help immediately," announced Leia as she strode through the students to Thirteen who was now, with the help of the pink-skinned girl, propped up and awake.

"Leia," Thirteen greeted weakly.

"Thirteen," Leia returned worriedly, "how bad are your injuries?"

"I'll live if that's what you're asking," he gave a lame chuckle. "But you should bring Aizawa to Recovery Girl. He doesn't seem to be doing too well—to put lightly."

"Yes about that, All Might may need help—"

Immediately Thirteen's eyes narrowed at his old student. Did she know of All Might's condition? No, she didn't he decided. She had always been very good at analyzing situations and making appropriate conclusions; she had probably seen something that had caused her to make this specific conclusion, and if so…

They needed their backup.

Taking on an authoritative voice, Thirteen cut-in, "He might need help, and the best way for you to get help is to head back to U.A. and bring the other pro-heroes here. Bring Aizawa to U.A. and bring the reinforcements back to USJ."

"But what about the students?" Leia asked.

"They'll be fine. They're all stronger than they look," said Thirteen fondly as he glanced at the circle of students hovering around him protectively, "Besides, the three strongest villains are focused on All Might. They have what they want, so they probably won't be attacking us over here. You've taken care of most of the other villains, so just let me handle the rest."

Worry and doubt must have shone in Leia's face as Thirteen chuckled, "I'll be fine. Trust your teacher."

"Not my teacher anymore," she rallied with a weak smile, "but yeah, that plan is sound."

Turning to the other students who had been listening in to their conversation, she asked, "is there anyone who wants to return with me to U.A.?"

Leia had expected a bunch of hands to shoot up, but to her surprise, she was met with grim, determined faces. They would stay. She smiled. They really were a strong class.

"Then I'll be back," Leia promised solemnly before taking off carefully with Aizawa in her arms.


Leia travelled at a significantly slower speed compared to when she had All Might to guide her. She had to fly more carefully this time with a heavily injured man in her arms—she had to control the wind currents so that they flowed around her while maintaining her speed, rather than allowing it to pelt her face like she would usually allow it to do. It wouldn't do to jostle the man in his precarious condition.

She still didn't have her goggles, and this time, she didn't have All Might to guide her either, so she couldn't close her eyes.

Three minutes.

It was almost three times the time she would have needed if she had her goggles.

She grimaced. Please let me make it in time, Leia prayed as she tightened her grip.

As she sped through the skies, she chanced a glance on the injured man and noticed, now that there were no students for her to divert her focus on, that he looked familiar.

A slender man with a mop of shoulder-length blood-stained black hair and a ripped scarf. If he had yellow goggles, she would have sworn that she was currently carrying Eraserhead.

Actually, the chance of him being Eraserhead was very high. While she couldn't perfectly tell his features from his blood-covered face and broken limbs, the choice of clothing, and the lack of presence suited for an underground hero was largely in his favour.

Eraserhead?

She glanced at his face inquisitively, pondering as the wind whistled around her at high speeds as she headed to U.A.


My students are in trouble, he thought with panic uncommon to his normally calm disposition as he watched the villain with a decaying quirk reach for his student. Using his last dregs of strength, he cancelled the quirk.

The villain had turned around with a mocking smile and had said something to him.

But by that point, he couldn't hear.

The next thing he knew, his face was once again brutally forced into the ground by the monster. He felt excruciating pain when his nose shattered from the impact. His mouth, muffled by the ground, allowed no oxygen to pass through.

He couldn't breathe.

For the first moments, it was agony, then soon enough, a strange numbing sensation had taken over his senses and lethargy had lulled him to darkness.

His last thoughts before blessed oblivion overcame him was when All Might would show up.

His students were in danger.

But he couldn't, and to some degree, didn't want to, awake from the pain-free darkness his mind was trapped in.

The more he tried to resurface to consciousness, the more he experienced the blinding pain that had forced him to black out in the first place, and he returned to the shadowed depths of his mind. He wandered around in anxiety within the darkness. What was happening outside? Were his students alright?

Suddenly, the force locking his head on the ground lifted, and he felt himself being carried by strong arms before he was dragged somewhere by people who were shorter than him—probably his students, he mused.

All Might was here, he thought with relief, and backup would probably be here soon. At this thought, he allowed himself to surrender to temporary unconsciousness.

It was a while later when he came to.

He carefully probed the surface of consciousness and found that while it would still be excruciatingly painful to resurface, it might be bearable. As he neared consciousness he became aware of certain things.

The arms that now cradled him were soft, not very muscular.

Heartbeats.

Though his hearing had been damaged, he could distinctly hear the steady heartbeats as his head leaned against a soft chest. Whistling sounds, that sounded rather similar to wind, surrounded him, but strangely enough, he felt not a breeze as he lay immobile in the arms.

Safe.

Tentatively, he cracked his eyes open—just a slit, and at this, blinding agony hit him full force as he returned to consciousness. His eyes teared up from the pain, and a lone tear trickled down his face.

He felt the arms holding him shift as if they sensed that he had awoken.

Beautiful emerald eyes flecked with pieces of gold which reflected the sunlight filled his vision just before he submitted to pain and slipped back into blissful unconsciousness.