Izuku hummed quietly as he shook his leg nervously in his seat. They had loaded the bus to the USJ without any major issues—though Iida has seemed momentarily surprised by the layout—perhaps because of a rich kid ideals of what public school bus was like—yet Izuku's anxiety was only growing. Though the weight in its consistency had become background pressure (one that kept steadily growing), his hands shook with little tremors as shivers as beings of electric fire raced along his bones. A sort of nausea had began growing somewhere in his throat that left tight and his jaws clenched. He hoped no one could see how he was feeling. But he could feel crimson eyes burning into the side of his head and he knew that Kacchan had in no way missed his jittering. He tugged at the material of his athletic suit, wishing he felt more equipped.

His humming grew more forceful, teeth clenched as he flexed his jaw.

"I generally say what's on my mind, Midoriya." Izuku's head snapped up nervously as he met Asui's gaze. Her mouth stretched into a thin smile before she moved her gaze forward and continued talking. "You seem nervous, kero."

"Whaa? NO! Not at all!" Izuku piped, hand twitching nervously against his forearm as he clenched down more tightly on the fabric, nails embedding themselves slightly into his skin.

"Hey hey-" Kirisihima interrupted from the other side of Asui. "Midoriya's so manly! It's probably just his anticipation to show off his stuff and rescue people! His quirk is so cool and multifunctional, after all!"

Asui nodded, placing a finger under her chin. "But you are rather jumpy for someone which such a strong quirk," she croaked. "The strength aspect yo showed in the ball throw reminded me of All Might."

A flash of another world crossed through Izuku's head-one where he hadn't died and he'd been able to accept his idol's quirk, to have his tutelage and the knowledge he was on his way to save as many people as All Might had- a world very like this but he would blush and stutter with the knowledge that he really did have that kind of power. In this one, his hands just clenched slightly tighter, enough to leave bruises on any one else, and he shook his head, shoulders hitching slightly. "I don't really think so."

Izuku could feel Katsuki's surprised glare on his neck-Kacchan probably figured that he would be fanboying over the idea, huh. Asui continued studying him, and he grew even further uncomfortable, wishing he could just disappear. Kirishima came to his rescue.

"Midoriya's right, Tsuyu! I mean, All Might doesn't hurt himself like that. Besides, Izuku's quirk is so manly, what with the floating and-" Kirishima paused. "Actually, dude, what is your quirk? It's so flashy! You described some of it to Aizawa-sensei the other day-something about atoms? Man, I'm not really smart enough to understand what all that was about."

At this point, most of the bus was listening in, and Izuku shrank slightly at the attention. "Um, its, well, it's physics negation so things with physics don't really work right around me so I was able to ignore gravity without just floating away and also being able to move forward without thrust and the that strength I shouldn't be capable of and also my atoms aren't naturally held together like they should be and-"

Katsuki slapped him harshly across the back. "Breathe you fucking nerd and stop rambling."

Izuku laughed nervously. "So, yeah. I can't really use the strength part of my quirk very well at the moment, so my quirks really not all that great."

"Nah man-I think it's super cool, plus you seem fit as hell! You'll be able to do a lot with it-not like my hardening." He allowed an arm to extend, and Izuku watched with wonder as the skin turned jagged and stony. "It's good in a fight, but pretty boring."

"Absolutely not!" Izuku enthused, leaning across Asui slightly to observe the arm. "It's really neat and more than enough to go pro! I mean, if you were able to up the strength of your hardening you'd be practically indestructible! Imagine how good it would be against villains who used concussive or especially cutting attacks! I bet you'd be great and rescue situations as well because you would be able to avoid being cut up by rubble! You could use it to burst down walls or tank people or-"

Katsuki shoved him again. "Stop your stupid fangirling you fucker," he growled.

"Meep."

Kirishima laughed embarrassedly. "Thank you dude! I haven't really thought about my quirk like that before, but you're absolutely right. I'm super pumped now!" He threw a hand into the air.

Aoyama broke in, sparkling about how popular appeal mattered, and Asui nodded. "You know, I thought since you hung around Bakugou-chan-" ("HAA?"Katsuki broke in at the suffix, and was promptly ignored) "-he wasn't that bad, but you guys really don't get along do you?" A few of their classmates voiced their agreements, and Izuku frowned slightly… He thought they were getting along really well?

"Yeah," Kaminari announced sagely. "Our jokes about you guys dating were clearly ill-chosen. Midoriya's too much of a cinnamon roll and Bakugou's personality is abundantly clear to be unpleasant crap."

"C-c-cinnamon roll?!" Izuku shrieked.

"HAAH? Who asked for the opinion of extras, Mr. Vocabulary? How about I beat you!"

Asui ignored the chaos and nodded. "In regards to quirk alone, the flashiest are Bakugou and Todoroki, but Bakugou-chan is too unhinged. He'd never be popular."

"WHAT'D YOU SAY, FROG FACE?"

Izuku stifled his giggles as he reached an arm out to keep Katsuki from lunging at Asui. It was really nice to see how the people here treated Kacchan like an equal, they didn't cower at all like people always used to. That was UA for you!

So caught up in enjoying the conversation, Izuku had almost forgotten about the weight of danger that lay draped across his spine. But even as he reached out to restrain Kacchan, it jolted along his back so sharp that he couldn't help the little gasp of pain and recoil.

"Look alive." Aizawa interrupted the boisterous bickering. (Had he been listening the whole time?) "We're here."

• • •

Izuku zoned out as Thirteen explained the Unforeseen Stimulation Joint, vaguely nodding along as Uraraka expressed her enthusiasm for the hero. It was getting really hard to the focus, the build up of pressure growing exponentially. He shifted warily, tuning out the lecture as he scanned the surroundings, turning in slight circles, an eye out for anything that might be wrong.

"Midoriya." Izuku jumped with a yelp as Aizawa spoke out tiredly from beside him. "You should be paying attention."

"H-hai." Aizawa glared sternly at him, beginning to return to Thirteen's side, but Izuku reached out and snagged his sleeve before he could think better of it. "Aizawa-sensei," Izuku whispered urgently. "We need to leave."

"What?" Aizawa looked at him, frankly dumbfounded. "What are you going on about."

"I-" What could Izuku say? What sort of proof did he have that something was going wrong? How could he admit to his knowledge without practically confessing to vigilante exploits? "S-something bad is going to happen. Really bad."

Aizawa sighed heavily, turning to face Izuku fully and laying his hands heavily on Izuku's shoulders. He searched Izuku's eyes intently. "I need more than that, Midoriya."

Izuku swallowed, unable to meet his teacher's eyes. "Villains." He finally muttered. "They're planning to attack us and we really, really need to leave."

"Midoriya…" Aizawa warned sharply, stepping away.

"Please," Izuku pleaded, voice cracking. "I swear I'm not lying we need to evacuate." He struggled through his pockets, pulling out the card that the police had given himto excuse him getting into dangerous situations. It didn't really apply here, but maybe it would lend some credibility, urge Aizawa to help save the students before it was too late. He fumbles it out and holds it up to show Aizawa-hearing his intake of breath, and quiet "So you are Midori then. Of course it would be you. I'm gonna need to have a talk with Tsukauchi about code names"-but Izuku was not really paying attention. Instead, he was gasping, dropping to the ground as the pressure ignited into a flame and pulled his gaze to a purple whisp in the center of the USJ by the fountain.

"A-Aizawa!" He yelled, throwing an arm in the direction of the portal. "We need to get the students out!"

The hero reacts with the ease and haste that Izuku had long admires, only shooting the quickest glance toward the portal before making his decision. "Thirteen!" his teacher bellows, pulling down his scarf. "Get the students out of here and protect them!"

Izuku struggled to lift his head through the searing fire, staring through blackening vision at the floods of villains that spill out of the dark portal. Horror spikes through him as the warning fades away (vanishes because a warning is pointless when its too late.)

His classmates don't have experience like the heroes do, an dawdle around as the villains keep spawning out of the black mass. "More robots…?" Kirishima asks, and Izuku whips around toward them, knowing he must loko absolutely frantic. " Villains!" He shouts, drawing their attention. "Real villains! We need to get out of here." It still takes a second, but suddenly his classmates are spinning and hustling their way towards the door that stands several meters away.

A slow spike and glimpse of a shred of black smoke. "STOP!" he yells, and his classmates are apparently ready to hand leadership over to him because they skid to a stop as best they can.

"Well," says the black smoke, growing bigger and developing a clean-pressed suit and metal neckbrace that glints in the light that streams through the glass above them. "I must say," he turns sickly yellow eyes toward Izuku. "I am quite impressed by your warning. I almost didn't make it in time."

Izuku shivers at the aura of death that surrounds the shadowy man, eyes drawn to a ghost that hangs by its side, bright blue hair dulled and form faint.

The man continues. "I suppose I'd better take care of you then. According to the schedule I received the other day, All Might was intended to be here?" The man hummed darly. "Shigaraki won't be happy about this. I suppose Shigaraki is correct then. Killing some kids would be the best way to draw him out." The yellow eyes flare and the black void extends to block out the sun.