Chapter 22- Rescue Training: Part 2
I felt the impact of my landing instantly, though it thankfully wasn't as hard as I was expecting, it still hurt like hell. After a second or so of shock, I tentatively tried to pull myself up, noting that nothing seemed to be severely injured. As soon as I stood up straight, I managed to focus myself into the situation a bit better, though there was still some fuzziness in my head.
That fuzziness was instantly cleared when I witnessed what had become of the area around me. An enormous crater now dominated a large piece of the Ruin Zone, every building in the vicinity having been utterly wiped out by the destructive power of the villain that we were arrayed against. I could already see the figures of some of my other students standing up tentatively as well, and it seemed that nobody was terribly injured by the enormous shockwave.
Adrenaline kicked in straight away, and I leapt up from my landing place and began to sprint towards the source of the crater, hoping that nobody was seriously injured by the villain. Aizawa and Thirteen were still absent, and they were likely too injured to assist in subduing this villain, at the very least they could probably call or signal for assistance from the rest of UA.
Bakugo was engaged against the villain, seemingly unphased by the raw power that the villain had displayed in destroying the equivalent of a few city blocks with a single punch. In a strange way I admired Bakugo's sheer grit, and the fact that he was seemingly willing to go into any fight no matter how low his odds of victory were, though it's entirely possible that he thought he could win on his own, regardless of how stupid that idea was.
The villain still held Todoroki by his vest in one hand, and his other was swinging through the air to swat Bakugo's explosions out of the air with contemptuous ease. Bakugo's manoeuvrability was keeping him out of the villain's grasp for the moment, but I doubted that that would be the case forever.
I kept on moving towards the edge of the crater, and I could vaguely see the outlines of some of the other students that had recovered from the blast standing on the edge as well, though they were seemingly unsure of how to proceed with the battle in front of them. As I surveyed the crater I noticed a group of my fellow students standing with each other, clearly planning out some kind of counter-attack to bring down this villain.
I clambered down the edge of the crater as quickly as I could manage, jogging over to join my classmates. Now that I was closer to the group, I could see which students were present: Mineta, Uraraka, Tsu and Iida stood in a half-circle around Midoriya, who seemed to be in the middle of one of his typical muttering spiels. This habit of Midoriya's was a strange one, but it always seemed to produce useful results, so I suppose it was a useful skill.
"Oh!" Midoriya said, noticing my presence "Shinso! You're here! With your Quirk we could…"
Midoriya's voice trailed off again into unintelligible muttering, and I was left standing around waiting for whatever it was that Midoriya was going to propose. The awkward silence that surrounded the group was occasionally punctuated by the distant sound of an explosion as Bakugo's bout with the villain continued.
"Midoriya." I cut in, not willing to spend the rest of the day listening to mumbling "Do you have some kind of plan?"
"Yeah! I do." He replied, looking between the five of us that surrounded him "here's what we do…"
It was an impressive plan, and I could certainly see the logic in it, though it relied on Bakugo keeping a cool head, which is something that I frankly thought to be impossible. Midoriya had assured me that Bakugo would pick up on the plan, and I didn't see any reason to keep arguing the point, so I resolved to follow the plan that Midoriya had set out.
My part in the overall scheme was simple, I didn't have any superhuman strength or ability to capture the villain, so there wasn't really a place for the overall scheme. Instead, I would dive into the fight, trying to trick the villain into replying to me, triggering my Quirk and ending the fight straight away. If that didn't work then I would fall back on my training and just keep the villain distracted long enough for the rest of the class to do their thing and get the villain out of the fight.
I admit, my confidence in the plan waned a bit when I got closer to the villain, he was a lot bigger than he looked from a distance, and he moved with a speed that I would think impossible given his size. I shrugged my shoulders in resignation and kept moving towards the fight, with neither combatant having yet seen me.
"Hey!" I called out to the villain as soon as I was close enough to be heard "Don't you want to fight me as well?"
The villain didn't respond, instead he simply lunged towards me with a fist outstretched, the limp form of Todoroki still clutched in his other hand.
Oh well, Plan B it is then.
I leapt out of the way of the attack and readied myself to counter whatever came next. The momentum of the villain's attack carried him past me, though he recovered quickly from the motion. This villain was likely far too strong to be hurt by any punch or kick I could throw at him, so continuing to dodge seemed like the better option.
"The hell are you doing here eyebags?" Bakugo yelled, sprinting towards the villain in what seemed to be an attempt to get straight back into the fight.
"Eyebags?" I muttered, before I remembered that Bakugo only seemed to call people by nicknames. Whatever, it wasn't the worst thing I've been called, and it was admittedly accurate.
"I didn't want to let you have all the fun." I shot back, feeling some adrenaline-fueled bravado in my mind. "There's no way that I'm letting a fight like this pass me by."
Bakugo just grunted and kept running towards the villain, his expression as wild and feral as ever. I just shrugged again and ran to join him, wondering how my life got to the point where I was following somebody like Bakugo into a fight against a villain that had just levelled a small city.
The villain reacted to the renewed assault against him with the same kind of cocky defence that I had seen him employing against Bakugo, and he seemed just as capable of defending himself against two opponents instead of one. Bakugo used his explosions to propel himself high above the villain's head, spinning around to face his target with both hands raised and ready to unleash powerful explosions. The villain turned to face Bakugo with impressive speed, and I tried to capitalise on this opening by kicking at the back of the villain's knee, hoping to hamper his impressive mobility by sending him to the ground.
As soon as my leg made contact I realised that I had made a mistake, the villain's leg was as hard as steel, and I was left feeling like I had just kicked a brick wall. The villain must have noticed the attack though, as he spun on his heel and unleashed a punch straight towards me.
I leapt out of the way of the surely devastating attack, the wind rushing past me that the punch had created was almost enough to send me falling back to the ground, but I somehow managed to keep my footing and stay near the villain. Bakugo tried for another attack now that the villain's back was turned to him, but a contemptuous swipe of the villain's hand caused Bakugo to be thrown back by the wave of air pressure that caught him in mid air
This brief reprieve in the fighting caused some of the other students to jump in, and the villain was suddenly ensnared in a large net with tape wrapped around it, an action I assumed to be the work of Yaoyorozu and Sero. For a moment the villain was still, clearly surprised by the sudden restraints that had been applied to him, and I foolishly let myself think that he might actually be stopped, if only briefly. Of course, I was proved wrong, and the net and tape were shredded into tiny fragments by a single motion from the villain.
He attacked again, this time lunging towards me with his fist pulled back, obviously ready to unleash one of his devastating punches. I lunged underneath the swing this time, ready to counter with a strike of my own, banking on the idea that the villain can't be totally invulnerable over his entire body.
It was admittedly quite shaky logic, but hey, I'd had worse ideas in the past.
This time my punch landed squarely, striking the villain in the left side of his abdomen, and I could feel that this hit had connected much more solidly. I heard a slight gasp of pain come from under the villain's hood, and he staggered back from the force of the hit. It took a moment for the villain to recover from the strike, and he was only shaken from this slight daze when Bakugo unleashed an explosion to the back of his head.
This seemed to shake the villain from his slight daze, and he reacted by grabbing Bakugo's outstretched hand without even looking for his target. He threw Bakugo straight towards me, another blast of compressed air accompanying the sheer force of the throw. I barely dodged the flying student, and I briefly lost my footing due to the sudden dodge, causing me to stumbled backwards from the sheer force that the villain exerted.
Bakugo sent out a few explosions behind himself in order to counteract the throw he had been subjected to, and he came to a stop right beside me, panting heavily from the exertion of the fight, a fatigue that I felt as well.
"This is ridiculous." I muttered in between gasps for air, wiping some of the sweat from my forehead "If they had a guy this powerful before why didn't he show up during the attack?"
"Who cares?" Bakugo spat, his hands sparking with small explosions "If this is too hard for you, get out of the way and let me handle it!"
"As if." I shot back, unwilling to let myself get talked down to "You sure you don't want to tap out? You can leave this to me."
Bakugo chuckled to himself, and I realised that that was probably the first positive emotion I had seen from him.
"He's got a weak point, right here." I pointed to the spot on myself that I had struck the villain in "It's the only time I saw him react to any attack we made."
Bakugo smirked again, and dropped into his usual fighting stance, though I did see him give a barely perceptible nod of his head. I readied myself to fight again, and the figure of the villain came back into sharp focus. We ran forwards, ready to engage with the villain again, and then I noticed a blurring green shape fly past me.
"That's the signal!" I shouted out to Bakugo, and I saw his face twist in frustration when he realised that he was expected to take part in Midoriya's plan.
Midoriya used one of Mineta's orbs to attack his glove to Todoroki, letting him grip the unconscious student and fly out of the villain's grasp, his speed enhanced by Uraraka, Iida and Tsu. Once Midoriya was clear of the villain he slipped his glove off and unleashed one of his finger-shattering attacks against the villain, subjecting him to a wave of force.
For a moment it seemed that the villain might be able to resist the attack, but Bakugo swiftly leapt in front of the villain to shatter that possibility. The explosive teen released a pair of enormous concussive blasts right into the villain's chest, sending him flying straight into a perfectly-placed piece of debris that was covered in purple orbs.
It was over, Bakugo's final explosion and Mineta's orbs had firmly bound the villain to a large chunk of debris, and all of his moving and squirming did nothing to loosen the hold of the sticky spheres on his body. Everybody in the class watched with bated breath for a few seconds, all of them as convinced as I was that the villain could still escape and continue to wreak havoc.
This tension slowly dissipated until it had disappeared completely, and a collective sigh of relief came from the entire class, and the knowledge that this threat was defeated permeated the group. Some sat down right where they stood, others found a suitable piece of debris before resting, and a few more made their way towards fellow classmates, or tended minor scrapes and injuries.
I watched closely as Bakugo stalked towards the villain, his hunched posture and clenched fists indicating that he was far from satisfied with the result of the bout. I was fairly content to let him take whatever measures he wanted to ensure that the villain was 'defeated', and I was sure that somebody would step in before he did anything serious.
I saw Bakugo raise a hand to do something undoubtably dramatic to the villain, with the captured foe twisting and moving even more dramatically, somehow intimidated by the prospect of Bakugo's explosions even though he was shrugging them off without issue a few moments ago. The villain gave one last movement of his head, trying desperately to escape before being struck by Bakugo. This last motion was marginally more successful, tearing the mask off of the villains head, revealing bright blonde hair and a familiar smile…
God damn it.
It was All Might.
Is this some kind of cosmic joke?
I was glad that everyone else nearby was too busy being shocked and surprised at All Might's sudden appearance to notice my own expression, as I wore a slack-jawed face of utter disbelief and exasperation, the kind of intense emotion I tried my best to avoid displaying.
Several of the students that were near All Might ran over and assailed him with a variety of reactions, ranging from surprise, to anger at being tricked. Bakugo's hands flashed with small explosions while Kaminari and Ashido seemed to be displaying a dozen contradictory emotions at once. It was understandable that some of the students would be annoyed at being tricked into thinking that there was an attack at the USJ so soon after one had actually taken place.
The purpose of this trick was clear enough though, the teachers of UA were clearly trying to teach us a lesson about mental fortitude and staying vigilant at all times. Heroes could be attacked without notice at any time, and it made sense to instil a wariness in us in order to make sure that we didn't get complacent. Aizawa had already beaten this lesson into my head during our training, though his idea of teaching me to stay wary involved knocking on my bedroom window at 2 AM and seeing how surprised I was. I was still a little irritated at that particular stunt he had pulled, though the following lecture about staying vigilant at all times was burned into my memory.
With the commotion settling down slightly, I paced away and sat myself down on a nearby chunk of debris, my ribs still aching from the grazing strike that I had received earlier. The sound of quiet conversation nearby alerted me to the fact that Thirteen and Aizawa were being confronted over any knowledge that they held of the deception that had taken place, though the Space Hero was unconvincingly denying the whole thing.
Aizawa was typically silent towards the accusations, not bothering to dispute or argue with the students that were still annoyed by the events that had just transpired. As I turned to see Aizawa walk away from the group of students, I could briefly see his expression under the bandages he wore as he briefly caught my eye. The expression seemed to be appraisal, but as soon as he realised that I had seen him, his expression turned dark again and he quickly walked away, leaving me confused once again.
I couldn't help but feel that I had gone against what he had wanted in some way, but any effort to think of what I had done yielded nothing, and I was getting more and more frustrated with myself.
My body still ached as I made my way through the halls of UA, heading towards the exit after an intense day of training. I walked along with Shoji and Tokoyami, Tsu having headed home early to take care of her family. Tokoyami and Shoji were discussing the day's events, and I could tell they were both still a little irked by All Might's stunt earlier today. I was still bothered by Aizawa's attitude during the day's events, and I was still unable to figure what I had done to cause this downturn in his demeanour towards me.
Hitoshi Shinso, report to the Principal's Office immediately.
The static burst of the school intercom surprised me, doubly so when I heard the contents of the message. I turned towards Shoji and Tokoyami in confusion, only to see that both of them looked just as confused.
"It seems I'm wanted elsewhere." I shrugged, trying to play off my own nerves "I'll see you tomorrow."
I got muttered farewells in return, and I turned on my heel and walked away from the pair, trying to remember where the staff offices were. When I was vaguely sure of their location, I moved through UA as quickly as I could manage, not wanting to keep the Principal waiting for whatever it was he wanted me for.
When I made my way to the door, I was overcome with another wave of nerves, one that stopped me from knocking straight away. I had only been contemplating how unnerving Nezu was a few days ago, and the idea of coming face-to-face with him wasn't my idea of a good time, especially given the strange absence of any information on the Principal. I eventually managed to steel my nerves enough to knock, though it was a little harder than I would have liked.
"Come in." The softly-spoken voice came from the other side of the door.
I obliged, swinging open the door and entering a surprising plain-looking office, still feeling nervous. The room was strangely unadorned, with none of the flourish and eccentricities that I would have expected from the Principal of UA. Everything was kept with an air of professionalism, and if I didn't know better I would say that the office was hardly used at all. There was a large wooden desk on one side of the office, and the centre of the room was dominated by a pair of large couches, upon one of them sat-
"Ah, it's good to see you Shinso." Nezu said, sounding calm and upbeat "Please, take a seat."
Feeling more than a little uncomfortable, I shuffled over to the opposite couch and sat down, trying to be as formal and polite as I could manage. There was a beat of silence as Nezu stared at me, and I managed to hold his gaze, sensing that I was being appraised in some way. Nezu eventually looked back down towards the table, holding out a small mug in his… paws?
"Tea?" Nezu asked, though I felt the insistence behind the offer.
I nodded my thanks and took the mug, sipping at the drink before placing it back down on the table. The tea was amazing, but it still didn't shake the feeling I had of being studied, and I was put in mind of a lab animal in some kind of strange experiment that it couldn't even comprehend.
"You're probably wondering why I've asked you to meet me here." Nezu's eyebrow raised as he spoke into his mug of tea "Hmm?"
"I'm assuming that it's due to the circumstances of my admission." I asked, raising an eyebrow and keeping my voice level in order to appear more composed than I felt.
"Very good." Nezu said, his eyes glinting in what I could only perceive as anticipation, which was a little unnerving "Aizawa mentioned that you were very perceptive, I'm glad to see he wasn't exaggerating."
"It's the only reason I can think of as to why you'd want to see me." I returned, sipping at my tea as the verbal spar wound on "It's the only thing that sets me apart from the rest of my class."
"Maybe…" Nezu trailed off, and I could see him thinking on what to say next "But I think you underestimate yourself; I like to think that every student has something that sets them apart from the rest."
"So why am I here?" I asked, confused as to why I was in my current situation if not for my unusual admission into UA.
"I admit that it was your admission that first piques my curiosity." Nezu replied, sipping on his tea again "But it was your personal profile that really caught my attention."
"How so?" I shot back, feeling a little more confident in this verbal spar we were engaged in "I can't say I've lived a particularly interesting life before I got to UA."
"That may be so, but that doesn't mean that there aren't interesting things in there." Nezu's eyes glinted again, and they seemed to sparkle in anticipation "Tell me Shinso, do you hate your Quirk?"
I wasn't expecting such a dramatic and direct question, and it caught me by surprise. I was about to tell Nezu that I obviously didn't, but I tried to think properly about the question, and I knew that Nezu might be annoyed if I just brushed his question off.
It was true that my Quirk had been the cause of issues and trouble in my life before, and there were days that I cursed the fact that I had been given such a power. Everyone around me seemed uneasy at the mere existence of my Quirk, even though they had never even seen it in action. Indeed, there was a period of about 2 years of my life where I didn't use my Quirk at all in the blind hope that it might go away.
But when I started training for UA, all of that changed. Aizawa had taught me how valuable and versatile my power was, and how it could be a potent tool for heroism. And my closest friends at UA had treated me no differently for my Quirk, and they even talked about how useful they thought it was.
"If you had asked me a few months ago, I might have said yes." I finally responded, though it took me a few seconds to gather up the courage to talk "But no, I don't hate my Quirk."
"I see." Nezu said, his voice sounding a little surprised, though I imagine he likely knew what answer was coming "I imagine that you had to deal with being judged for your Quirk before you came to UA?"
"Of course." I narrowed my eyes, not content on being on the back foot of this exchange anymore "But you already knew all of this, didn't you?"
"Very good." Nezu smiled again, though this expression was more than a little menacing "I must admit, I thought that Aizawa might have been exaggerating when he spoke about you, but now I think the opposite might be true…"
"So you came to judge me for yourself." I raised an eyebrow, a purely rhetorical question of course, but I was still interested to see how Nezu would respond.
"Indeed, and I must admit I've been rather surprised by what I've seen." Nezu finished the last of his tea, and stared straight at me "Thank you Shinso, I think that's all I require of you for now."
The change in Nezu's tone of voice was revealing, from conspiratorial whispers that we were conversing in back to his normal upbeat tone of voice. This change clearly indicated that our little verbal spar was over, and so I bowed and left the room, intent on returning home and catching some rest.
Nezu was certainly an interesting figure, and while I was still intimidated by him, I found our conversation revealed quite a lot about UA's enigmatic principal. I still had a lot of questions on my mind, questions that I intended to find the answer to.
Nezu didn't take his eyes from Hitoshi Shinso as the young man left the room, making sure that the student was truly gone before he indulged his habit of pondering his thoughts aloud.
"What an intriguing specimen." Nezu murmured, using the same language that human scientists had once used when speaking about him "I can see why Aizawa was interested in you, Shinso."
Nezu had taken it upon himself to examine Hitoshi Shinso after his conversation with Aizawa a few days ago, one that had affected the Principal of UA more than he would admit. It was regrettable that his conversation with Aizawa had escalated to the point of an argument, but given the nature of their discussion it was unsurprising that emotions were so high.
Nezu was often accused of being emotionless or callous towards those under his charge, as his superior intelligence often gave him a rather dispassionate view of those around him, especially given his past in a human lab, which he admitted he still held a slight grudge from. In truth, Nezu was deeply invested in the students under his care, and he considered it a unique privilege to train the next generation of heroes, both because it was a point of personal pride, and because it satiated his own curiosity on humanity.
It was because of this care that Nezu found himself arguing with Aizawa over the idea of training one of their students to be an Underground Hero, mainly due to the consequences of going into that line of work. Nezu was one of those few people outside of the Underground Hero community that was trusted with their secrets and knowledge of the way that they operated, though he was aware that they still kept some of their secrets from him. That wasn't an issue for Nezu, and he considered figuring out such secrets to be a good test of his intellect.
It was knowledge of these secrets that made Nezu reluctant to see one of his students engage with this section of Hero society, knowing the mental stresses it could place on a person. He recognised the necessity of the work, but that didn't mean that he liked the idea of somebody so young getting involved in it.
It was because of these doubts that Nezu decided to meet with Shinso in person, to see if he could gauge the young man's mental state and see if he was fit for the dark line of work that it seemed Aizawa had planned for him. Though their conversation was short, Nezu found it to be rather illuminating, as a being of his considerable intellect was able to glean facts from expressions and tone as easily as from words, and Shinso's subconscious reactions had given away a great deal.
Nezu was no stranger to holding a grudge against human society, and he had expected to see something similar in Shinso, and while that bitterness was present to an extent, it was far more subdued than Nezu was expecting to see. It seemed that his short time at UA had already given Shinso a sense of optimism that hadn't been present in him for quite a long time, and the sight of this optimism made Nezu rather reflective.
He had read Shinso's file, and while it was clear that he was academically and physically impressive, it spoke to social alienation and loneliness that was still unfortunately common in today's society. Despite that, it seemed that Shinso had bounced back rather remarkably, and had found his footing within UA rather quickly, even if he still had reservations about his Quirk and its usage.
But there was something else, beyond Shinso's carefully-hidden optimism and slight resentment towards the treatment he had received regarding his Quirk. Nezu could see what Aizawa could see in him down, though he was loathe to admit it, he had already shown that he was a natural at Underground Hero work. He knew he was competent in the practical sense, but Nezu was far more interested in the mind, and the brief glimpse he had gotten into Shinso's thoughts was most illuminating.
The conversation had set Nezu's mind at ease somewhat regarding Aizawa's plans for the young student, though he was still far from certain about whether or not the whole thing was a good idea. It was also clear that Shinso was unaware of the plans that Aizawa had for him, even though he had spoken about being a more unknown Hero that wasn't concerned with personal fame, he clearly didn't know the wider implications about what that really meant for him.
Nezu still had reservations, and it was clear that he would have to spend more time thinking before he came to a reasonable conclusion.
The Principal of UA High reached for another pot of tea and continued to think, his incredible intellect still uncertain on the fate and future of one of his many students.
Author's Note
Isn't exam time just the best? I can't remember the last time I felt this tired. Still, it's all over for now. All of the other edited Chapters are up now as well, there isn't anything massive being changed besides more Underground Hero hints, but I think the Chapters have come out better.
On another rewatch I realised how short and low on content the OVA was, and so I added the scene with Nezu to make this Chapter a suitable length. I hope it didn't detract from the story too much, and hey, it was an opportunity to drop more hints about my future plans for this story, which is always fun.
For those who didn't catch it, the bit where Shinso actually slightly hurts All Might is meant to be him unwittingly hitting All Might right in his injury, which would probably have a bit more of an effect on him, I hope that that came across properly in the chapter.
The Sports festival begins tomorrow, and will probably run for about a dozen or so Chapters, maybe more, depending on how things pan out. I'm excited to finally get to it, and I hope you all are too.
That's pretty much it for now, as always thank you for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow
And to answer some reviews:
OnlineOverlord15: It's one of the OVAs that were released separately from the anime, its canon status is a bit dubious, but I think it was fun to include anyway. I'm glad that you enjoyed the Chapter, and thanks for your continued support.
Raven Mordrake: Do you have a source for that? I've been looking around a bit and couldn't see this anywhere, and it seems a little strange to me that that would be the case.
Emrys Akayuki: The scene was written from Shinso's perspective, everything is from his perspective unless written in italics, which are third-person scenes outside of his perspective. I hope this didn't impede your enjoyment of the fic too much.
Guest: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you enjoy this new addition. I'm chalking this up to surprise and lack of opportunity on Shinso's part, though it's truthfully because I didn't want to end the encounter right there and then.
Red Rain: I'm really flattered by the praise for this story, and I hope that you continue to enjoy these new additions. I'm glad to hear you enjoy the friendship group I chose for Shinso, I was a little apprehensive about the characters I chose but it's good to see that the feedback has been positive about these characters and their relations.
