Just before we get started, apparently some people took my A/N in the last chapter, "I just kinda needed something to space everything out." As an indication that I was getting burnt out. This was actually meant to say that I didn't want to go straight from the battle training to the USJ in order to avoid the pacing becoming far too speedy. I assure you, I keep myself healthy and happy whilst writing and have not become burnt out. So far the only bump in the road is balancing school and writing, but I've handled that plenty of times before, so there's no need to worry, thanks for your concern though!
Three days had passed since Izuku's perceived defeat. Since then, class had continued like any normal high school would as the teachers worked out some sort of outline for their students' Hero training. It had been boring and mostly trivial busywork. The stuff that Izuku did not miss from middle school. In fact, the only real interesting event that had taken place was the election for class president.
Izuku, unlike most of the class, chose not to vote for himself, instead choosing to vote for Yaoyorozu. It was something that she became extremely embarrassed over once she figured out who had been responsible for her position as vice-president.
Iida had gotten the role of president after he had displayed a decent amount of leadership qualities during a sudden campus alarm caused by the media.
Relations with his class hadn't really changed much since then. Bakugo and him were still on bad terms and they avoided each other every chance they got. Uraraka still appeared embarrassed everytime she was around him, likely thanks to her encounter with Igris. And Iida still appeared stiff and unmoving around him.
If there was one saving grace in the lack of development, it was that Todoroki had yet to change his icy disposition, or focus it at Izuku. He hoped this meant that the S-Rank student had yet to learn the identity of his brother's killer. But to him, that seemed like a false hope.
Izuku couldn't imagine the torture that Todoroki was going through. If he was ever to lose Sakura, he wouldn't rest until he found the bastard who took her life. It was this conviction in his own mind that made him so wary of his classmate. Of course, unbeknownst to him, Shoto was too disconnected to care about revenge.
Natsuo had seemed to be an evil, vindictive killer that held no real value for human life and because of that his death had left Izuku guilt free, right up until he knew of the man's family.
Endeavor was a top-ranking Hero, one of the best, and Shoto was a student striving to become a Hero himself. Had it not been for their familial ties to Natsuo, or the supposedly murderous Dabi, the Todorokis might've seemed to be a normal family with a quiet kid.
Izuku had done his best to avoid Todoroki the past few days and Yaoyorozu, who sat next to the heterochromatic teen, noticed. It had only taken her a moment of recollection to find the names of Raiders that Izuku had killed in self-defense.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" She asked him during lunch, before anyone else could join them.
Izuku made no attempts to hide what had been bothering him, he knew that Yaoyorozu was smart enough to know by now. "What can I do? I killed his brother." Izuku sighed, "On the off chance that he doesn't care for some reason, then I'm good, but if I tell him and he's pissed, he's an S-Rank. He could kill me, maybe even with my whole army going after him."
Yaoyorozu pursed her lips, unsure of the right answer, if there even was one.
"Midoriya!" A bubbly voice called out, "Are you excited for today?!"
Izuku dispelled the anxiety pressing down on his shoulders and smiled back at Uraraka, who did her best to avoid direct eye contact, "Yep! After the combat training, I feel like getting to see some rescue action is gonna be fun."
While Heroes in this world were far more often warriors than saviors, there were those select few that decided to use their immense power for far more tame activities. Ice magic and water manipulation turned away from icicle barrages and pressure jets that could cut people in half and instead became tools for fire fighting. Healers became doctors, much like Sakura was planning to do. And even those with only strength-type Quirks gave up their life of excitement and Villain hunting to lift rubble. It was inspiring and what many considered the true essence of a Hero. Izuku would tend to agree with that, but to him, it just wasn't lucrative enough to pay for his mother's medical bills.
"I hear All Might is supposed to be there," Iida said from behind Uraraka, a gleam in his eyes reflected into his glasses.
This sentence alone was enough to cast off any of the stress Izuku had been feeling today. He had met All Might once before, during the Entrance Exam, but he ran off to get ready for the parent-teacher meeting and had to give up any time to talk to his favorite Hero.
In fact, All Might was most everyone's Hero. He cleared the most Gates, did the most rescue work out of any of the Top Ten Heroes, and always did it with a beaming smile. He alone dissuaded most of the human Villain crime just by existing. He had been 99 percent of the inspiration for Izuku's E-Rank Hero life.
"I finally get to meet him… like for real this time! I wonder if I can get him to autograph my notebook."
"So Midoriya, I have to ask, are those Summons your Quirk, or your Awakening?"
Izuku looked at the girl opposite him on the bus's seating rows. She had long, dark-green hair, big eyes, a slender build and was wearing a bright green bodysuit. Izuku was pretty good with names, so he remembered her as Tsuyu Asui, a B-Rank who apparently was here to specialize in rescue work.
He hadn't talked to her much, or really at all to be honest, but her question certainly made him pause for a moment. Awakened abilities were pretty standard and only came in a certain mixture of powers. Mages had only certain types of magic, Warriors only had certain types of melee abilities, and Summoners were no different. Even amongst the S-Ranks of the Summoner class, not many could manifest more than a few Summons at a time. Because of this, if Izuku were to claim to be a Summoner, it would look especially suspicious.
"It's my Quirk," He answered after a moment of thought, satiating the girl's question, but causing Bakugo to squint his eyes in disgust who sat just off to the back of the bus, leaning on one of the rails.
"Man!" Kirishima shouted, "You got lucky with a Quirk as flashy as that. All I've got is this." He raised one of his arms, hardening it into a rock-solid, jagged limb, "I'd love to have something like yours, or Bakugo's, or even Todoroki's! Then there's no way I could be ignored as a Hero!"
Asui scoffed teasingly, "I don't think anyone like Bakugo is going to be admired with that sort of attitude."
"WHAT WAS THAT?!"
Kaminari chimed in, "There's no doubt that people would assume you to be a Villain, especially with that ugly look on your face."
"WHAT LOOK?!"
"Yeah! That's it!" Kaminari shouted enthusiastically at Bakugo's gnashing teeth and nearly glowing red eyes.
"Wow…" Izuku marveled as he watched the exchange, "Things really have changed since middle school."
The bus continued to bump and roll along the road as its occupants bantered back and forth. Yaoyorozu chose to remain silent, instead simply choosing to enjoy Izuku's presence next to her.
"Enough," Aizawa grumbled, standing and latching onto one of the nearby poles, "We're here."
Izuku imagined he could fill his Daily Quests quota simply by climbing the stairs at the USJ. The training facility was so massive that the stairs resembled mountains more than anything else.
Thanks to his Level, Izuku had almost no trouble scaling the hill, but not everyone was so lucky. Mineta, Kaminari, and Aoyama were all breathing heavily, their talents resting more with ranged abilities than physical enhancements.
Upon reaching the top and entering the USJ, the trio groaned once more. A long platform stretched out past the doors, leading to yet another staircase, this time angled to the ground.
"Why make two of 'em?!" Mineta shouted, "Just make the entrance on ground level!"
Kaminari sighed in agreement, slumping down to rest his already weary body to rest. "And they want me to do Hero work like this?!"
"Absolutely!" A robotic voice boomed towards them, "A Hero should always be ready to work, no matter their condition!"
Izuku pulled his amusement away from his tired classmates and focused his intrigue on the new voice, surprised to see someone in a puffy, spacesuit-like coat. More surprising, was that he recognized her as Thirteen, a Hero specializing in rescue, even with her surprisingly destructive Quirk.
As she recited a heartfelt speech about the teenagers with attitude and their immense power and responsibility, Izuku went back to his old ways. Reciting every little tidbit of info he had on the Hero, Izuku barely let the words tickle his ears.
What did manage to reach him was a different, entirely overwhelming force, something he'd never felt before. It was a darkness, but unlike his own Shadows, it held none of the same comfort they gave him.
Looking around, Izuku spotted nothing by the Rescue Zones, each of which was specifically created to emulate a certain environment. And then, he turned his attention forwards once more noticing the sporadic spouts of water pumping out of the fountain in the courtyard until it ceased altogether.
And then, a shockwave sent the class tumbling backwards onto their rears. Even Aizawa and Thirteen struggled in their attempt to remain upright. Bakugo, Todoroki, and Izuku appeared to be the only ones not struggling too much against the intense force.
In reality, while Bakugo and Todoroki simply faced the force head on, Izuku was forced to use Dominator's Touch and his immense Strength Stat in order to stand beside them.
"This chill, it's the same as the Double Lair… no… maybe even more."
The area around the fountain warped and partially vanished as a deep purple Gate burst into existence. While its inherent existence was commonplace in today's world, its qualities kept the students and their teachers on their toes. A purple portal had yet to be reported and one of this size was in no way commonplace. It stretched out in unnatural patterns, fanning the area with its intense force. And then, it broke all of the common sense of a Gate.
A humanoid hand reached through the misty Gate, pulling itself through and dragging a pale body covered in hands severed at the wrist.
Pausing just at the threshold of the Gate, it looked up to the platform, gazing at the students and teachers from behind the hand that covered its face.
[WARNING!]
[There are 1 nearby human(s) that intend to murder the player! Survive at all costs!]
"Humans?" Izuku muttered out loud, his blood running cold, "That thing… it's human?"
He found himself more stunned by that revelation than the System's dire warning, or even the figure's immense power. It defied all logic, all reasoning. He was not just an S-Rank threat, he might've even been considered SS-Rank.
Izuku wasn't even sure if he had gotten this same measure of energy off of All Might when he had first met him… "Wait… All Might… where is he?!" He spun around, realizing that the top Hero was indeed not present, "Wasn't he supposed to be here? Without him, do we even-"
Izuku's uncharacteristically panicked thoughts were cut out and massive bursts of energy echoed from the class. Somehow in unison, Yaoyorozu fired off her anti-material rifle, Bakugo shot off a concentrated explosion, and Todoroki sent waves of ice chasing after his classmates' attacks.
The man simply raised his hand, allowing the bullet and explosions to crash into it. But nothing happened. There was no explosion, or even any apparent force exerted, the two attacks just vanished. The same happened upon the ice reaching him. For just a moment, it appeared to encapsulate him, however, like the other projectiles, it similarly crumbled into nothingness. This decay even forced its way up back through the ice, destroying every last bit of it, all the way back to Todoroki's foot where the decay thankfully stopped.
With the attacks from their strongest classmates being annihilated like nothing, the group went silent. After all, what could they do against a monster like that?
Bakugo, of course, was nowhere near discouraged. "COME ON! HE'S JUST ONE VILLAIN! LET'S KILL HIM!"
As if to answer his question, the man, who was still a Gate Villain in the classes' eyes, tilted his head and waves of enemies began pouring from the still open Gate behind him.
Izuku's eyes widened as he realized that among the Villains, there were even more humans.
[WARNING!]
[There are 5 nearby human(s) that intend to murder the player! Survive at all costs!]
[WARNING!]
[There are 20 nearby human(s) that intend to murder the player! Survive at all costs!]
[WARNING!]
[There are 33 nearby human(s) that intend to murder the player! Survive at all costs!]
The number's increase slowed as the mixture of Gate Villains and Human Villains finally stopped spilling from the portal between worlds. The last to exit being a massive black monster with a beak-like mouth and exposed brain.
"A Nomu-type," Aizawa spat out as he pulled the goggles that rested around his neck up to his eyes, "I recommend everyone evacuates back to the bus now that communications have been cut off."
Izuku turned to his left, realizing Kaminari had been tapping at the headset on his head. For some reason, this spurred Izuku into chiding himself, "Idiot! You've faced worse than this before, stop getting distracted!"
"We're not going to let you hog all the fun for yourself!" Bakugo shouted, a demonic grin on his face.
Aizawa sighed and nodded to Thirteen, "It wasn't actually a recommendation you fool. Run while you still can."
"You aren't seriously going to fight them all on your own are you?!" Kirishima asked in shock.
"The majority of them are measured at a low B-Rank, that's enough for me."
Izuku found himself once more examining his teacher, doing his best to work out who this Hero was. He detected no Mana from him, as if he was hiding it, and he had yet to see his Quirk in action. He must've been at least high A-Rank or maybe even S-Rank to be so confident in such a lopsided fight.
Then Thirteen attempted to wave the students back to the entrance, "Come on! Let's leave this to Eraserhead!"
Everything clicked into place as Aizawa leapt off the stairs into battle and Izuku cried after him, "Wait!" But the pro didn't hesitate for a moment.
"What's wrong?!" Yaoyorozu asked him as she attempted to drag him back with the others.
Izuku gave her a grim look, "There's no way he can win… a C-Rank against all of those stands no chance."
"C-C-Rank?"
Thirteen grabbed the two of them with slightly inhuman strength and began pulling them away, "Leave this to him!" She shouted once more, "As that man is fond of saying, 'You can't be a Hero with just one trick.'"
But Izuku couldn't help but feel that dark pit of dread in his stomach and he shook off Thirteen's grasp, "Sorry, but you also can't be a Hero if you run away from everything. Come Forth." Nearly six dozen Shadows pulled themselves from Izuku, forming the Heroes' very own army, "Everyone else can run… but since they're here, I might as well get some experience," Izuku said with a sly smile.
Well, apparently homework is going to have a bigger impact on my writing than I expected! A five-day gap for me is pretty rare, so I apologize for the wait! Next chapter is going to be tons of fun for sure! Hope you enjoyed!