Chapter 21- Rescue Training: Part 1

The time of recovery that we had been given by UA passed by remarkably quickly, not least because I slept the majority of it away. It was the most sleep that I had had in months, and it was certainly nice to be able to simply let go of my worries for a few days and spend time on recovering from the ordeals of the USJ. My mother barely let me out of her sight for the whole four days, clearly the stress of finding out what had happened had gotten to her, I was hardly surprised given the circumstances. Despite my insistence that I was able to take care of myself, she still fretted about me over my whereabouts, and my efforts to try and calm her nerves were largely in vain.

I kept in contact with my closest friends from UA over those few days, and our discussions about what had happened were certainly enlightening in terms of the capabilities and experiences of my fellow students. Tokoyami confided in us that although Dark Shadow was weak to light, the opposite was also true, and the being was greatly empowered when Tokoyami was in a darkened environment. He also told us how the Quirk was influenced by his emotional state, and that he faced a constant internal battle to keep his power in check. It was good to see that Tokoyami felt comfortable enough to open up to us about something so personal, and even through written messages I could tell that he was emotionally conflicted in telling us about his Quirk, though he seemed relieved to have someone to talk to about it.

I hadn't heard anything from Aizawa in the last four days, though that was to be expected, given what had happened to him in the USJ. It was bizarre to see my teacher in a position where he was being so easily overpowered and outmatched by those he fought against. I had grown used to seeing him as a figure of calm control, and seeing that control rested from him was a terrifying reversal of status. I could only hope that he was on the road to recovery, and that the worst hadn't happened, no matter how much it hurt to consider that eventuality.

It was fairly surreal to see news about UA on national news, but the attack dominated headlines for days, with stern-faced anchors and reporters giving increasingly verbose takes on the events that had occurred in the USJ. Heroes were invited onto news programs to give their takes on the event, and certain reporters were hysterically proclaiming that this event could 'rock hero society to its very core'. Though I initially dismissed such a dramatic take, I found myself becoming more and more receptive to it as time wound on, especially in the face of what had really happened with the USJ, with no news site openly talking about Nomu and the climatic battle with All Might.

I even had the strange experience of seeing the Principal of UA, Nezu, talking in a press release about the attack and the new countermeasures that UA would be putting in place to ensure that such a thing never happened again. Due to Aizawa's insistence of running a Quirk Test on the first day rather than sending us to orientation, this was the first time I had seen the Principal of UA. He was apparently a rare example of an animal manifesting a Quirk, the power he possessed giving him intelligence far greater than even highly gifted humans, making him one of the most intelligent beings on Earth. Most of his speech was standard PR talk, with the Principal throwing out sentences about 'Safeguarding our valuable students' and 'Massive improvements to security infrastructure', the phrases a pure expression of pointless drabble that I usually ignored. Underneath this façade, however, was something far more fascinating, and something possibly far more dangerous. Aizawa had taught me a lot about lying and manipulation, as well as how to read these tells off of other people, using their expressions and body language to figure out the truth. The principal's expression was unreadable, but his body language suggested that he was also aware of these techniques and tells, even if he wasn't lying per se right now.

Did Aizawa know about this? Had he learned these things from Principal Nezu? Was the Principal hiding anything from the public?

It was all a little creepy to be honest, and I was unsure of what to make out of it. I considered messaging Shoji about it, but decided against it on the grounds that what I had written sounded utterly insane, and I had no intention of raving to a friend about a potentially manipulative Principal of UA, especially on a day off.

In the end, I filed all of this information under 'talk to Aizawa later', and left it at that, content to let UA's enigmatic figurehead slip from my mind for the moment. That turned out to be easier said than done though, and I stayed up well past midnight looking into the President of UA, only finally conceding to my exhaustion when four hours of combing through the corners of the internet failed to turn up anything beyond basic information on Nezu.

Soon enough, Monday had come around again, and I found myself walking the halls of UA towards room 1A, unsure of what exactly awaited me in the room. Homeroom always started the day, but Aizawa would unquestionably still be in hospital, and I doubted that UA had spare teachers that would be able to stand in.

I paced into the room, greeted only by the seated forms of the perpetually-early Midoriya and Iida, both of which greeted me upon my arrival, though their stiff greetings were a reminder of the tension left over from UA. Midoriya seemed to have healed from the injuries that his own Quirk had given him during the attack on the USJ, the sight of his broken bones already becoming a fairly frequent occurrence. I sat down and waited, watching idly as the rest of our class filed into the room and took their seats.

9 AM came and went, and there was no sign of whoever would be leading our class for the day. Idle chatter broke out amongst some of the students, though the tension in the room continued to simmer, preventing anybody from truly relaxing. Finally, at five minutes past nine, the door to room 1A swung open, and the sight of a familiar Pro Hero met twenty sets of eyes.

"Mr. Aizawa?"

"How are you here?"

"You're still injured!"

"You're being too professional!"

Nineteen voices cried out as the sight of our usual Homeroom teacher, walking into the room as if nothing was amiss in the slightest. This impression was shattered by the fact that every visible piece of skin on his body was wrapped in bandages, and both of his arms were in slings, and injury that he pointedly ignored as he leant onto his podium.

"Recovery Girl went a little overboard on her treatments." Aizawa muttered, his voice sounding as calm and disinterested as ever "I assure you that I'm perfectly capable of teaching."

Hearing that announcement brought a wry grin to my face, it was plain that Aizawa was lying about something, or a least omitting part of the truth. So it was with a mixture of concern and curiosity that I spoke up as well.

"Does Recovery Girl know that you're out teaching here?" I asked, doing my best to omit any curiosity from my voice.

"Well…" Aizawa paused for a second, and I could swear that I saw him flinch under his bandages for a second "What she doesn't know can't hurt her."

There was a general muttering from the class at that statement, though Aizawa shut it down fairly quickly.

"Now, today's lesson was originally going to be critique of your performance during Rescue Training, but as you know it was… cut short." Aizawa let that statement hang in the air for a moment, continuing after another pause "So to rectify this deficiency we will be returning to the USJ today to perform the training exercises we would have last week. Get changed and get to the bus in 20 minutes, don't be illogical and make me wait.

Aizawa then calmly turned and walked out of the room, doubtlessly going to try and catch some sleep in the school bus for a few minutes. The impact of his words persisted for far longer, and I could see the ripples of concern move through the class as my classmates realised what was going on. I admit, I also wasn't thrilled with the idea of returning to the USJ so quickly, going back to the site of the attack a few days after the event seemed strange to much of the class, and I was inclined to agree. On the other hand I could see the logic of Aizawa's actions, he wanted to test our mental fortitude and keep us from associating the USJ with a negative experience. We would have to return there countless times over the next few years, it was surely more logical to have us return immediately and get back to work.

I arrived in the changing rooms and changed into my Hero Costume quickly, pulling on the jumpsuit and tightening the straps of armour as fast as I could manage, drawing a few confused looks from the rest of my class. As I donned my support equipment, I realised that my capture tools were missing, an in place of them was a small note, written in shaky handwriting.

The Capture Tools are difficult to replace at such short notice, as they are a highly specialised item. You will have to work without them for the moment.

- S. Aizawa.

The note made sense, but something about the way it was written threw me off, something beyond the writing style which spoke to the author's injuries. It was this feeling that compelled me to change so quickly, and I rushed out of the door as urgently as I could without full-one running, as I tried to maintain at least an illusion of calm.

I made my way to the school bus far ahead of the rest of my class, and I jumped aboard to see Aizawa sitting on the first row of seats, one of UA's security robots taking over driving duties in light of Aizawa's injuries.

"Something's wrong." I deadpanned, not feeling the need to dance around the issue "What happened?"

Aizawa shot me a strange look, one that was superficially similar to his usual glare, but I could see other emotions hidden just below the surface. The hidden emotions were both varied and surprising, regret, internal conflict and… fear?

"I suggest you focus on the day's training." Aizawa muttered, turning away to look out of the window "There's a lot to do, and I don't expect you to waste your time on illogical worries."

I was briefly at a loss for words, Aizawa may have always been grumpy and plain-speaking, and he had been harsh and critical during some of our conversations about training. But he had never blown me off like that, and the act left me equal parts annoyed and confused.

Iida eventually caught up with me, congratulating me for being so eager to get to the day's activities, oblivious to the exchange that had just taken place. I silently made my way to my seat in the bus, sitting in a sullen silence that I used to disguise my contemplation. Even as my classmates chatted around me, I was left silent, a question ringing in my mind.

What had I done to offend Aizawa like that?

Returning to the USJ was nerve wracking, and every step I took into the facility raised my heart rate slightly until I felt like a total nervous wreck, my eyes flicking between as of the shadows that could have held someone waiting to spring another ambush on us. I could tell from looking at the class that I wasn't the only person experiencing this anxiety, as the majority of the class seemed to be far more subdued and cautious that normal.

Even the sight of Thirteen did little to raise the classes' spirits, though there was still marvelling at the constitution of UA Pro's, especially given the state that Thirteen was in the last time I had seen her. Thirteen and Aizawa briefly outlined what we would be doing for the day, explaining that we would be learning a variety of basic search and rescue techniques, and that this session would serve as a grounding for the more complex things that we would learn later on. It was clear that the USJ would be a constant throughout our three years at UA, as we were expected to learn a massive variety of rescue procedures during our time in the school, and everything would stem from these first few lessons. Thirteen also mentioned that we would later have 'optional courses' to take on later in the year, and that advanced rescue training was one of the options for heroes that were that way inclined.

As we made our way into the facility proper, it was clear that extensive repairs had taken place, as all of the damage done to the USJ seemed to have been completely repaired in the four days since the attack. Most notably, the hole in the ceiling that All Might had sent Nomu through was completely patched up, with no evidence that it had ever been there in the first place.

The memory of Nomu inevitably made me stare at the centre of the facility for several seconds, as I was half expecting the sight of the fog villain to greet me with a fresh horde of villains, ready to repeat to ordeal of the USJ all over again. A second passed, then another, then another, I knew I was being irrational, but I couldn't help but count the seconds as I searched the centre of the USJ for the slightest hint of black fog.

Eventually I realised that there was no imminent attack, and I sighed in relief as I felt some of the tension that I had been carrying around dissipate, though it didn't disappear completely.

I shook my head to clear my mind of any lingering doubts, knowing that spending the whole day worrying about the eventuality of another villain attack would only stress me out, as well as distracting me from the day's tasks. Though no matter how many times I told myself that, my doubt never vanished completely

Rescue training ended up being far more general than I had ever imagined, and my biggest takeaway was the revelation that the word 'Rescue' had a ridiculously vast amount of meanings, all of which I seemed to be learning at once. The training had started with Thirteen giving us a long lecture about a heroes' role in rescue and how they would co-ordinate with more conventional rescue services to save hundreds of lives in otherwise terrible situations. The lecture would normally have been rather boring, but Thirteen's experience and enthusiasm meant that it was fairly interesting to listen to, even though rescue wasn't really within my skillset.

We then moved on to basic first aid techniques and equipment, and this was something that Thirteen put even more emphasis on than normal, as the applications and responsibilities of learning these techniques were equally vast. Thirteen talked about how even combat heroes would benefit from learning as much first aid as they could, as it would let them treat themselves or a partner in the middle of a battlefield, preventing needless injury or loss of life.

I pledged to take that advice to heart, and so I threw myself into the exercises with as much commitment and enthusiasm as I could muster, and I dived straight into the exercises in front of me. The idea of being unable to help a fellow injured hero or treat my own injuries struck a chord with me in a way that I hadn't expected, so I did my best to commit everything being taught to me to memory.

The other rescue situations that we were faced with were just as wide and varied as the medical knowledge that had been imparted onto us earlier, and the solutions were equally varied. Our exercises ranger from mountain rescue to firefighting and everything in between. It would have been exhausting in any other situation, but the hectic speed with which we moved between exercises and situations was enough to keep everybody wide awake and alert.

I had to admit that the experience was enjoyable, Thirteen's breakneck pace of teaching took some adjustment to get used to, but it was highly informative once we were all on the same wavelength. I knew that future lessons would likely be far more in depth than what we were doing now, but I could at least enjoy all of the variation that we were faced with today. The shadow of the USJ seemed much less imposing after a few hours within the building, and it seemed that the rest of the class agreed as we got caught up in the exercises we were performing. It was far from a leisure activity, and it was as difficult as any other work that UA gave us, but the fresh experience made it far more bearable.

Aizawa's attitude was still off, and it was bugging me more and more as the day went on. He was short and snappy with the entire class, and he spoke as little as he needed to for the entire day. The rest of the class wrote this off as him just being grumpier than usual, and they didn't let the behaviour of our Homeroom teacher throw them off, though there was the occasional remark from a student that was out of his earshot. I knew that this behaviour was highly unusual, and I wasn't the only one, as even Thirteen seemed a little thrown off by the way that he was acting, seeming slightly flustered when she spoke after Aizawa.

Stranger still was the way that I kept seeing Aizawa glancing at me throughout the whole day, as I would occasionally look up from my work at the time to see him looking at me with the same strange mixture of emotions that he had displayed earlier on the school bus. I kept reading different emotions from him everytime I looked, though the most prominent one seemed to be what I could only interpret as pity, which bothered me no end. As soon as Aizawa could see me looking towards him, he would switch back to his icy glare, and pace off somewhere else. He hadn't said a word to me the entire day, which again left me wondering if I had done anything to offend him. In the end I simply resolved to ignore the glares he was sending my way and focus on my work, even though my confusion remained.

We moved between the zones of the USJ at breakneck speed, Thirteen going into long spiels about the function of the various zones and what disasters that they were made to simulate. Japan was unfortunately still prone to a multitude of natural disasters and cataclysms, and so such knowledge would always be valuable. This didn't even include the vast swathes of destruction that could be caused in fights between heroes and villains, and Thirteen even mentioned that fact that man-made destruction was far more common and wide-reaching than the ravages of nature upon the earth. Villain attacks had levelled city blocks in displays of destruction that could rival the atomic bomb, and so the job of a rescue hero was never really done.

Though Thirteen was often solemn and serious, she balanced this attitude with a near-endless enthusiasm for teaching the techniques she had so frequently deployed on her own missions, and she breathlessly spoke on more than one occasion about how honoured she was to have the opportunity to pass on her lessons to the new generation of heroes. She was clearly in her element, and her enthusiasm was infectious in the way that it spread through the rest of the class, raising their spirits as the day went along. I might have been as enthusiastic as the rest of the class as well, were it not for the solemn presence that stood to Thirteen's side, and the confusion that it brought.

We had been practising our Rescue activities for a hours on end, with a still-sullen Aizawa and a more enthusiastic Thirteen directing us between various exercises and procedures throughout the various zones of the USJ. It was admittedly interesting to learn about this aspect of a heroes' duty, even though I was dimly aware that I would have few opportunities to actually put these skills into practise given my Quirk.

Our current activity was reminiscent of some kind of game of hide-and-seek, though on a far greater scale and in imitation of a real-world disaster. We were performing this activity in the Ruin Zone, which was where I had led the counterattack with the Brainwashed villains, and where I had met several of my classmates fighting against a horde of villains.

There was no evidence of this confrontation left in the entire zone, and I marvelled at how quickly and efficiently UA had been able to repair and clean up the USJ, speaking to their truly vast funds and staffing pool. Even with Cementoss in their roster, this couldn't have been an easy job, and it was clear that UA valued this facility greatly.

The activity involved fifteen members of the class being concealed throughout the USJ, being placed in areas and situations that were reminiscent of people that had been involved in real disasters, trapped in building and under debris. The remaining five of us were sent to try and find and 'rescue' our classmates, having to comb through the area in the most efficient manner possible, as we would be graded on how quickly and safely we were able to find and retrieve the rest of the class.

Alongside me were the other four 'Seekers' and the five of us moved through the urban environment in a spread-out wave. Midoriya was moving from place to place, not using his Quirk for fear of injury to both himself and anyone that was under debris, so he instead focused his efforts on finding our classmates and traversing the area. Uraraka was using her Zero Gravity to move large chucks of debris out of the way with relative ease, though she did have to pause whenever she became too nauseous to use her power, but even with that setback she was a valuable member of the team. Kirishima's Hardening let him tear through weaker structures with ease, and with little regard for his own personal safety, as falling debris was only a minor hindrance, and he used this fact to enter the most dangerous areas of the zone with no hesitation. Yaoyorozu was the last member of the team, and she proved her versatility by creating various piece of medical and rescue equipment within an instant, letting us perform more complicated rescue manoeuvres far easier.

It was going well so far, the exercise had barely begun, and we had already found six of our classmates and retrieved them from their hiding spots, sending them back to the muster point we had been instructed to set up. I would have liked to have had Shoji or Jiro on the team, as their hearing would have made the exercise almost trivial, but even without this advantage we were still making good progress.

We were making our way along one of the main streets of the area, having met up to co-ordinate our next move. Our planning was cut short by the sound of a large crash, and the appearance of a large dust cloud blowing through the street that we stood on, obscuring our vision for any great distance. As I frantically rubbed my eyes to try and clear them of the sudden rush of dust, I could hear Uraraka shout something out, and although I couldn't make out what she said, the confusion in her tone was evident.

The dust finally began to settle, and our view of the street gradually returned to us. The obscured figures of my teammates slowly faded back to normal, the four of them looking as confused by the appearance and source of the dust cloud as I was. I paced over to Midoriya, who was also blinking to clear the dust from his eyes.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, my voice deepened by the Artificial Vocal Chords, which I had strapped to my face after hearing the initial crash "Did one of the buildings collapse?"

"I don't know." Midoriya croaked, his voice strained by the amount of dust still in the air "I-"

Midoriya suddenly cut off, his surely lengthy spiel ended before it could even begin. I was about to press him on whatever it was he was about to say when I saw his expression. All of the colour had drained from his face, and his eyes had widened at whatever it was that he had seen. I turned to follow his gaze to see whatever it was that had spooked him, and the sight that greeted me was a terrifying one.

It was a villain, that much was obvious, if not only for the sheer feeling of menace that seemed to radiate from the figure. The villain was massive, at least 7 feet tall and seemingly built out of pure muscle, giving him a hulking and brutish appearance. His outfit was a black undershirt and military-style pants, there was also a bulky red belt that surely contained various supplies or weapons. The villain also had large spiked shoulder pads strapped to his outfit, and the entire ensemble was capped of with a crude gas mask that covered his entire face, lending him a distinct air of ambiguity.

It was only after looking at the villain's appearance that I noticed another detail, one that almost stole the breath from my lungs. The prone form of Shoto Todoroki was clutched in the villain's hand, the hulking adversary carrying the unconscious student by his vest with contemptuous ease. This sight dialled the alarm bells in my head up to maximum, that fact that this villain had subdued one of the most powerful students in our class without us evening noticing meant that he was likely to be incredibly powerful, and the fact that he wasn't carrying a single injury himself drove this impression even further into my mind. At the very least, Todoroki seemed to be uninjured, just knocked out, though this meant that the villain likely planned to use our classmate as a hostage.

The villain carried himself with contemptuous arrogance, the aura of a sheer conquering force seemed to emanated from the figure, and the ease with which he moved indicated that he seemed totally confident in his current situation. Arrogance was usually a weakness that I could exploit for a quick and decisive win, as most villains massively overestimated their own strength and capabilities, and as such they would reveal key weaknesses. Something in the back of my mind told me that this villain's arrogance was entirely justified, and any attempt at observing a weakness in the villain yielded nothing.

"You shouldn't have come back here so soon young heroes." The villain growled, his voice distorted by the gas mask "You might have won last time, but don't think for a moment that this means you're safe."

"What do we do?" Yaoyorozu asked, her composure wavering somewhat in the face of this new adversary.

"Aizawa and Thirteen are still injured, and the rest of our class are unaware of what's going on." I replied, rolling my shoulders in preparation "We can't let this guy get the drop on them."

"Kirishima, Shinso, the three of us will fight this guy together." Midoriya added, the usual stammer in his voice gone "Uraraka, look for an opportunity to use your Quirk on this guy, Yaoyorozu, see if you can create a signal to let everybody know what's happening."

After affirmation from the everybody, Kirishima, Midoriya and myself lined up to array ourselves against the villain. We dropped into fighting stances, Kirishima activating his hardening with a grunt of focus.

"Very confident, I'm almost impressed." The villain chuckled, though there was no mirth in his laugh "I'm curious to see how you will deal with this attack, I think you'll find it's a bit beyond you."

Before anyone could react, the villain pulled his hand upwards, thrusting it towards the sky before bringing it down to the ground in a powerful arc, the speed of the action was incredible, and it seemed to barely take an instant.

The affects were instantaneous, a massive shockwave flew our from the villain's fist, flying off of him in every direction with the sheer force of his strike. The attack also sent an enormous ripple through the ground, sending chunks of concrete and dirt flying outwards from where the villain stood, apparently completely unphased by unleashing such a devastating attack.

As soon as the wave reached me, I was flung from my feet, unable to do anything to resist the sheer force of the attack. I could barely see the forms of my fellow rescuers being thrown away by the attack as well, though they quickly disappeared from sight in the cloud of debris. As the ground rushed towards me, I held my hands in front of my head, hoping to lessen the impact.

Then everything went black.

Author's Note

I was unsure about including the first OVA initially, as I felt it didn't really add a lot to the story and was only really made for the sake of it. After writing this my opinion hasn't really changed, and I'm sceptical as to whether or not this will really add anything to the story overall.

That said, it does serve as a nice buffer between the USJ and the Sports Festival, and I like having a Chapter or two of downtime between arcs in order to make the pacing a bit more steady. As well as that, I had several people asking if I was going to include the OVAs and the movie or not, and I was aware that people wanted to see them.

At the very least, this section won't drag on for too long, and should all be wrapped up by tomorrow. Also the second OVA and the movie are far better and more important to the story than this OVA, so that's something to look forwards too.

I'm glad to see that people are interested in the 'Lie' and the Underground Hero stuff that I was hinting at last Chapter, I feel like I'm going out on a limb with that, and I hope the risk pays off. It's the part of the story that I'm most excited to write about, and I think it will be my most unique contribution so far.

And now to answer some reviews:

Amelia831: All for One's plans are always going to be concerning for anyone involved, and I'm glad to hear that you're interested in what's going to happen to Shinso. I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the story, and I hope you continue to enjoy it as we go on.

Shade: Thank you for the kind words, I hope that you enjoyed this next addition to the story. Shinso's an interesting character, and I agree that it will be interesting to see him interact with other characters in MHA.

Evergone the Great: I'm aware that the last Chapter was light on events, but I thought it was needed to set up future plot threads. You're correct in saying that MHA is a fun anime, even though it is sprinkled with its darker moments. I'm definitely planning on exploring a darker side of the universe, but don't worry, it's not going to get super dark or stray away from the MHA canon tone too far.

StandupSitdown: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the Chapter, I certainly enjoyed writing something different for a change. Nezu's definitely a fun character, and this certainly won't be his last appearance. I'm glad to see that you're interested in the thing I'm hinting at, I personally can't wait to reveal it. Good catch on the typo, that's been fixed.

Alexanderjuarez499: I'm not too sure of the delay of Shinso's power in canon, and as far as I'm aware there has never been a definitive number shown in canon. For the purposes of this story I'll probably say that people have the respond within a minute or so, otherwise Shinso would be insanely overpowered.

That's about all for now, thank you all for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow for the conclusion of this OVA.