Izuku woke up early the day they were going to have a field trip. Aizawa-sensei hadn't told them where they were going to go, but he had told them it was going to happen and that they were going to have a special instructor join them for the heroics lesson. Considering they already had All Might as a teacher, he wondered who else would be considered special, or did special just mean different? Aizawa was the one to say it and he excelled at subtle lies and misdirection, so it could be either.

He considered grabbing a different scarf for the field trip. Though the general design of them was more or less the same, every one of the scarves he had grown had come out distinctly different, whether that was in how they felt around him, what they were made of, or how they responded to him. The original scarf gave him the impression of a feral cat sometimes, though he was fairly certain that had to do with his first experiences with it. It had scratched him, after all. But once he figured out how to work with it and spent years wearing it all day every day, it seemed to like him, for lack of a better way to describe it. It was possessive and most in tune with his mental state, shifting or squeezing around him at the slightest thought to reassure him it was there.

The first scarf he had grown wasn't as soft as the original. There was a different mix of materials in it, a higher metal content from the scrap on the beach, and so it tended to be heavier and harsher against his skin. When it came down to it, that scarf was probably better for armor than the original, regardless of how itchy it would be. If he had to ascribe a personality to it, the second scarf was more like a guard dog. Or—and he was never going to mention this to anyone ever—a bit like Iida, with precise and decisive movements and actions. Izuku wasn't sure why a scarf was reminding him of his rules-conscious classmate or vice versa, but that was an observation he intended to take to his grave.

The second home-grown scarf was even softer than the original since he had sacrificed old clothes for it. He'd found it was a lot more subtle than the others and capable of more delicate movements. It looked the most like bandages when he was wearing it, and it ended up being the most passive of all his scarves. It was responsive, but not in the same way as the original as it didn't tighten around him at a thought unless he consciously wanted it to. It was the scarf he would reach for if he wanted to perfectly control everything his scarf did and have nothing extra happen. Other than the original, it was also the scarf he wore most around the house when he didn't intend to go out anywhere.

He hadn't had much time to work with his latest scarf, made from a couple of scavenged tires, some of the better scrap metal he'd found on the beach, yet another mound of ruined clothes, and part of the plastic bin he'd been keeping it in. He wasn't sure why the nanobots had eaten part of the bin and left some of the fabric and scrap metal untouched, but he wasn't going to argue with the results until he could actually alter the coding for the nanobots to tell them the ratios he wanted to incorporate. As it stood, the nanobots seemed to have built in ratios to keep the scarf in a manageable and wearable form. The itchiness of the first home-grown scarf was more like a wool sweater than a haphazard metal and fabric monstrosity, so he wasn't going to complain about a bit of eaten plastic.

With as much rubber as it had in it, he knew it was going to be good against electricity and electrical quirks even without testing it against them. The texture was a bit like leather against his skin, which was odd but not off-putting. Clearly it would be superior as armor compared to the first grown scarf and had slightly more utility uses than the more metal heavy scarf. Izuku could see himself relying on it a lot but taking a largely untested scarf on the field trip wasn't something he wanted to do. And he hadn't even had a chance to learn the personality of this one yet, which could be distracting and detrimental to his efforts depending on what they were doing.

In the end, he reached for the original scarf, which reached back for him like the possessive thing it was. Familiarity and function were far more useful to him than anything else in class, especially as this was going to be a heroics-specific field trip. He also didn't want to answer questions about why the material he was controlling looked subtly different if anyone was paying close enough attention to notice.

A trickle of anxiety he hadn't been consciously aware of settled the moment the scarf was wrapped around him and that, he figured, was just another reason to keep this scarf with him. It was only because of the original scarf that he was in the position he found himself in. The risk of getting caught by Eraserhead with his support item was worth it knowing he had done something people thought was impossible and gotten into the hero course without a quirk. No one else could say that and he was going to list it as his greatest achievement, if only in his head where no one else would see it.

His school bag was packed up with his homework already and he took it out to the table in the entryway so he could grab it on his way out the door.

Breakfast was a comfortably silent affair. His mom had been glad he talked to Aizawa about Aldera, especially given what they had found in his file, and he was glad, too. He hadn't mentioned Bakugou explicitly—he hadn't really mentioned any names—but it wasn't like it was going to stop the investigation. Part of him was afraid of what was going to happen now. He didn't honestly want Bakugou kicked out; he never had. He had taken a large step back from everything Bakugou had once represented in his life, had talked about his bullies with Uraraka and Iida, and they had talked about their experiences as well. Izuku liked to think he was getting over things, even though it was difficult to ignore what had happened to him. He had made it when everyone said he couldn't, that should mean he didn't have to listen to any of them.

Riding the train to UA was also a quiet affair. He was always careful to catch the train Bakugou wouldn't be on because even if they were trying not to associate with one another unless they had to, he didn't want to get stuck in a confined space with him. People would be around, people that would probably not want their train car exploded during their commute, but there was something suffocating about the atmosphere around Bakugou even when they weren't talking to one another. Sitting behind him in class was bad enough because his senses were still finely tuned to the slightest change in mood. He had always been able to tell when Bakugou was about to tip over the edge, and he would try to be better about not being in the way when that happened. At UA, he could get away with it as he'd never been able to before. At UA, no one was going to make him stay where he was clearly unsafe, and it shouldn't have been as earth-shattering as it was.

He arrived in class on time, working on his analysis notebook until Bakugou entered the room, then trading it out for his school supplies. He wasn't about to risk the notebook getting destroyed again even if things were a little better here. Not even Bakugou would go digging into his backpack for it, because it would be difficult to explain why he was doing it in any way that didn't seem bad.

The morning classes passed quickly, the anticipation for the afternoon field trip making everyone a little anxious and inattentive. Izuku knew his notes weren't going to be quite up to his usual standards because of how much his mind had been wandering. Still, there was an energy building in the room as it neared lunch that only got thicker once they got back.

Aizawa was waiting for them, slouched as usual at the front of the room as a clear sign that they should take their seats as soon as possible and cut off any conversations they were having. The lesson of don't waste time was firmly beaten into their brains, especially since they knew their teacher was willing to threaten them with expulsion. As they had discovered from a couple members of class 2-B, Aizawa had expelled his entire class the year before. The students had been utterly shocked that none of them had been expelled yet. Knowing it was a credible threat made everyone that much more nervous about everything they did. Izuku was trying to do his best to ensure that nothing was going to draw attention to him in a negative way.

"Now that you're all here," Aizawa said as soon as the last person was in their seat, "I'm sure you're aware that we're taking a bit of a field trip for this heroics lesson. Our focus is going to be on preparing you for disaster relief."

Izuku let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure he was up for another heroics class where he went up against his classmates. He and Uraraka had done well, but there was so much more to heroics than fighting villains. Disaster relief was the heart of rescue heroics, the same way information gathering tended to be the heart of underground heroics. But every hero needed to know how to handle disaster relief in the most basic of ways unless they wanted to become victims themselves. It composed a large part of the provisional licensing exam from everything Izuku had researched, even with its bent toward spotlight heroics and villain apprehension.

"It's up to each of you if you want to wear your costumes or your gym uniforms as some of them are ill-suited for the exercises we'll be doing," Aizawa continued. "Either way, get changed and meet at the bus in ten minutes."

Grabbing his case with his costume, Izuku dressed as quickly as he could, unraveling the scarf a bit so he would have more reach like before. Having trained with the capture scarf while cleaning up the beach, he knew both his suit and the scarf were well suited to a number of things that would fall under the vein of rescue operations.

He ran a quick inventory on all of the little pieces that he hadn't been able to use yet, ensuring that everything was properly secured and hadn't gone off in the costume case for whatever reason. Everything was fine. With everything in place, he dashed out to the bus well before the time limit.

Yaoyorozu and Asui were working together to organize people from a mingling crowd into a line running parallel to the bus. They had both elected to wear their costumes, as had the rest of the class. Aizawa had said some of the costumes would be a bit ill-suited to rescue work, but he wasn't sure which ones he was talking about. Depending on the scenario, different costumes could have different issues. If it were a water exercise, could Iida or Aoyama swim in armor? Having as much exposed skin as she did, Yaoyorozu might have trouble with a fire exercise, or trying to pick her way through rubble without getting hurt, but maybe she knew ways to mitigate that with something she could produce with her quirk.

"Midoriya," Asui said, as they were filing onto the bus. "You are mumbling."

Izuku winced. "Sorry, Asui." He rubbed the back of his neck even as the scarf tightened around him just a bit. "I didn't mean to irritate you."

"You did not," she assured him. "And call me Tsuyu. I just thought you would want to know that you were doing it. You don't seem to realize when you start."

He winced again. "No, I don't. It's a bit of a bad habit."

"I usually say what is on my mind. May I ask you a question?"

Confused, Izuku nodded as they settled into the seats near the front of the bus.

"Your quirk is similar to Sero's. Are you related?"

Izuku turned to look at Sero, who grinned at him. "I don't think so?" he replied. "I don't know anyone in my family with a quirk similar to Sero's and I'm a bit of an anomaly, anyway." He shrugged. "Besides, I don't naturally produce the tendrils like Sero does his tape. I can just control them."

"It's still pretty cool," Sero cut in. "I can only sort of control my tape. I can't make it do any of the fancy stuff you do!"

Izuku shrugged again. "I wouldn't call it fancy."

"It is, though." Kirishima offered him a grin full of sharp teeth that, unlike other such smiles he'd seen, wasn't menacing in the slightest. "My quirk isn't flashy or fancy at all. I can just harden my skin."

"But that doesn't mean it's not really useful! Hardening is really good for offense and defense at the same time! There's not many quirks out there that can say that," Izuku pointed out. "That's why people with more offensive quirks have to wear a lot of armor or try not to get hit. And why their strategy is to keep hitting it until it goes down." Like Bakugou, he thought bitterly.

"Like Bakugou!"

Izuku's head shot up, his gaze instantly looking for Bakugou, thinking he'd accidentally said what he'd been thinking out loud. Instead of glaring at him, Bakugou looked like he was trying to set Ashido on fire with his mind.

"What did you say about me, you fucking extra?" he roared, causing Jirou, who was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to him, to wince, cover her ears, and hide her ear jacks under her jacket.

"I mean, can you tell me it's wrong?" Ashido challenged. "We were in the same area for the entrance exam and your whole strategy seemed to be blowing up everything until it stops moving. I got a bunch of rescue points for sliding in to get someone out of the way of flying, flaming debris you caused."

Izuku knew he was probably horribly pale. He had never actually seen someone successfully talk back to Bakugou. Whenever he tried to stand up for himself or someone else, he tended to get blown up, and he had the scars to prove it. Aizawa was watching from the back of the bus and he wasn't intervening at all, which was both typical of teachers and, at the same time, not. Every teacher he'd known defended Bakugou regardless of what he'd done because they were so sure he was going to be a great hero.

Except this was Aizawa, and he'd made it clear the first day that no amount of influence would keep any of them in his class if he didn't think they had potential. That was the only reason Mineta was still part of their class.

He didn't have long to think about the implications of it all as they pulled up to a large glass dome that looked like a biosphere. As they got off the bus, he could see different environments inside it, small cities that looked to be crumbling apart, an expanse of open space that looked sort of like a small lake, the biggest fire pit he had ever seen, and even a mountain complete with snow.

"Welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!" Someone called to them as they gawked at the different environments inside. Izuku turned to see Thirteen, the rescue hero, walking toward them. "This is where we practice responding to real-world disasters in a simulated environment where we can control and change the variables. But you need to know that just because we have some control over the environment doesn't mean that it's not dangerous. The simulations are not the only variables in the field."

Aizawa slunk closer to Thirteen, a question in his posture. They tilted their head and surreptitiously held up three fingers, which caused Aizawa to sigh heavily and nod.

"Each and every one of you is a variable," Thirteen continued. "Your quirk is a variable that the simulations can't always account for, and certainly won't always benefit. My quirk is called Black Hole. I have the ability to suck objects in and tear them apart. If I were to use this ability without care, I am more than capable of killing someone. Many of you probably have the same experience. If you use your quirk irresponsibly, you can get someone killed."

Izuku went cold. He had never really thought about how most quirks had the capacity to kill. If Sero taped over someone's mouth and nose, they would suffocate. A hardened punch from Kirishima could probably kill someone as well. Someone Uraraka touched that was released from any significant height would suffer injury at the very least. If Iida dragged someone behind him at the speeds he was capable of, the resultant road rash could be bad enough to cause them to bleed out or get an infection they can't recover from. Even something as benign as Recovery Girl's quirk could kill if someone didn't have enough energy or stamina to be able to cope with the accelerated healing.

What did that mean for him, however? Since he was actually quirkless, he didn't have a power that could kill someone. Did that mean that he was safer to be around?

He scoffed to himself. Maybe safe enough to target. Most of his classmates went after him because he didn't fight back, overlooking or simply ignoring the fact that even if he did fight back, he would be the only one getting into trouble. Maybe that's why there were people who thought quirkless individuals were so fragile. They wrongly assumed that because they didn't fight back that they couldn't, completely missing how society would respond to someone without a quirk fighting back.

He'd been there before himself, wondering what the point of fighting back was when people were just going to turn on him anyway. He knew the statistics for quirkless deaths, how the majority of quirkless kids his age had committed suicide by now because nothing ever changed. He knew there had been a higher chance of him dying in a villain attack or in a back alley, of being denied medical attention in the name of a mercy killing. He knew that people didn't think someone without a quirk could amount to anything, much less do anything that would cause harm except be in the way.

But that didn't mean he had less of a capacity for harm than anyone else. Sure, accidents were more likely to happen with a powerful quirk like Bakugou's or Thirteen's or even Uraraka's, but any decision he could make, with or without the scarf to back him up, had the ability to harm other people. And just because he buried or redirected his anger didn't mean it wasn't there. He probably had more anger than most and using that could hurt people. With the capture scarves, he could do a lot of harm on accident, whether it was shifting the wrong piece of rubble—something he could do without the scarf—or trying to catch someone from falling without accounting for the change in momentum that would cause.

Perhaps instead of focusing simply on quirks, Thirteen should mention how costly mistakes and miscalculations can be in the field. That was what training was for, to mitigate the number of mistakes made in the real situation, but they needed to know what the cost of those mistakes might be before they learned how not to make them. Bakugou was one of the sorts of people who wouldn't do things differently from his usual methods until they stopped working, and Izuku was desperate (and a little vindictive) to see him in a situation where blowing something up accidentally cause far more harm than good.

"In the exercise All Might gave you, you should have seen the danger your quirks can pose to one another," Thirteen went on. "Rescue training is meant to offer a different perspective. Instead of focusing on capture and containment of a villain or villains, we will be working on how each of your quirks can be used to save people." They gestured for the class to follow them into the building. "Now this is a lesson we'll revisit many times during your time here at UA, but to start out with, let's focus on showing you the environments you're going to be working in today."

The interior of the USJ was set up sort of like a clock or a pie, where there were specifically divided sections that catered to a certain type of disaster, with concrete pathways in between them and a fountain at the central plaza. It was open and bright, and the glass ceiling of the dome was so high it hardly echoed as one would have expected from such a space.

But Izuku suddenly felt like he was being watched. Glancing around, none of his classmates were looking at him, but the feeling persisted. As he turned towards their teachers, both of whom were facing away from him, Aizawa straightened, grabbing his capture scarf, and turned toward the central plaza.

Izuku followed his gaze and watched as a figure emerged from a cloud of black mist. The person was slouching and covered in hands. Then, as though his presence was a catalyst, the mist expanded and more people were stepping out of it, spreading out to fill the plaza, all attention on the class.

"Is this another exercise?" someone whispered. "Like the robots at the entrance exam?"

Izuku couldn't find it in him to move, not even to shake his head. Aizawa wouldn't spring an exercise like that on them. He wouldn't go so far as to bring Thirteen in only to do something else.

"No," Aizawa told them, his voice far calmer than his stance. "Those are villains. Group up and stay together. Thirteen, you need to begin evacuating the students."

"Aren't there intruder sensors?" Yaoyorozu asked. "Shouldn't they be going off?"

"They must have some way of jamming the signal. This is definitely a coordinated attack. They knew there wouldn't be as many people here and it's a long way from the main campus. Which means they knew we were going to be here today." Izuku's blood ran cold as Aizawa turned to look at all of them. "Kaminari, you need to try signaling the school too."

Kaminari jolted. "Wha— Me? Yes, sir!"

Aizawa turned away again and started to step towards the plaza. "I'll hold them off."

A chill ran down Izuku's spine. "Sensei?"

Aizawa didn't turn back to look at him, but he halted. "What is it, Midoriya?"

Izuku looked between their teacher and the crowd of villains that only seemed to be getting bigger. "Be careful?"

He did turn his head to flash Izuku a grin that looked confident. "I'll do what I can."

As a group, they moved back towards the gate, Thirteen staying between them and the plaza full of villains. They were practically through it when some of the black mist that brought the villains appeared in their way and reformed into something like a human shape.

"Greetings," the mist person said. "We are the League of Villains. Please forgive our audacity, but we have come to UA, this bastion of heroism, to end the life of All Might, the Symbol of Peace." The villain made a show of looking back and forth. "We were given to understand that he would be here today, but it appears that is unfortunately not the case. No matter. My role in this remains the same."

The mist swelled suddenly, and then was sucked towards Thirteen, who had moved through the group while the villain had been talking.

"Iida, go," they shouted, attempting to wave them through the gate. "Run to the school and have them send help!"

"But—!"

Izuku caught Iida's arm. "You're the fastest! You need to! And take Kaminari with you! If he's out of range of the jammer, he can call for help sooner." To reinforce his point, he shoved Kaminari into Iida's arms. "Go!"

To his credit, Iida didn't hesitate. Kaminari squawked a bit when the taller boy threw him over his shoulder, but he didn't fight, and they were barely through the gate when the sound of familiar explosions popped in Izuku's ears. Apparently Bakugou didn't like sitting back and listening to their teachers. Hardly a new development, but Izuku would have hoped he'd have better sense than to throw himself into the middle of a fight with a villain who very clearly outclassed them.

But no, as he turned to look, Bakugou was throwing himself at the mist villain and Thirteen was forced to turn their quirk away before they hurt him. Kirishima had followed after him. The explosion had scattered a bit of the mist, but it was already coming back together as Thirteen tried to get them to back away.

A dry chuckle froze Izuku to his bones. "An admirable attempt, I congratulate you. But in the end, simply not enough. Begone."

The mist swelled again, surrounding Bakugou and Kirishima, as well as several others in the group. When the mist retreated again, the people it had surrounded were gone.

"What did you do to them?" Thirteen demanded. "Where are my students?"

"They're still in the facility," Shoji reported, ears formed on the ends of his extra arms. "They're scattered, but they're still here."

So, the mist villain could teleport a lot of people, but there was probably a distance limit, an entities limit, a destination limit, or some combination of the three. Considering the number of villains he'd brought in to one place from some unknown location or locations, he was betting on a destination limit and he didn't want too many people grouped together. There weren't enough zones in the USJ to separate them all into pairs and send them away.

"Iida and Kaminari are gone, at the very least," Izuku whispered, coming up beside Thirteen. "They should be able to bring help."

Thirteen tilted their head toward him. "Kaminari, too?"

"Once he's out of range of the jammer, he can get a message through to the campus like Aizawa was telling him to."

"Ah," the mist villain muttered. "A little strategist. How irksome."

Thirteen moved in front of Izuku. "Stay away from him!"

They turned their quirk on the villain again, but with an almost lazy gesture, he created a pair of portals that redirected the quirk towards Izuku. Several things happened at once. First, Thirteen shoved Izuku out of the way and he tripped. Second, the force of their own quirk tore into the side of their suit, ripping it open and leaving them exposed and injured. Third, another portal formed on the ground under Izuku and he started to fall through it, even as his classmates reached for him. Fourth, he was falling out the other end of the portal and landed hard on more concrete, with the gate of the USJ looming in the distance.

He shot to his feet, cold and warm at the same time as he realized he was beside the fountain at the center of the plaza, and he was not alone.

"Well," said a dry raspy voice.

Izuku turned to look at the man suddenly standing over him. The man was tall and thin, with shaggy pale hair that hung untidily around his face. Or what could be seen of it. He was covered in what looked like severed hands on his face, head, and arms. As Izuku watched warily, the man scratched at his neck with the jagged nails of one long-fingered hand and blood beaded up on his paper-white skin. Between the fingers of the severed hand on his face, Izuku could only see one red eye staring down at him. Behind the man, there was another lurking figure, dark and muscled and menacing with a strange beak and an exposed brain. The only comfort Izuku could draw from that image was that the person wasn't even looking at him.

"So," the tall man ventured, leaning close enough to make Izuku extremely uncomfortable even if the man weren't a villain. "What do we have here?"

So, I concocted some very ambitious plans because today is my birthday. A bit backwards to be giving a gift on my birthday, but every one of your comments is a gift and I love receiving them.

That being said, only one of the four chapters was complete when I came up with this plan on Sunday. Actually, I think only one of the chapters was complete when I woke up this morning. As each of the chapters is 4k+ and I only had about 1.5-2k done when I started this Sunday, I have written about 8-9k in the last 3 days. Apparently I work well with a time crunch and chicken-scratch chapter outlines.