...Festivities...

"The school is doing what?"

"A school festival," Aizawa said, "The school holds it every year."

"Judging by how the year has gone for this school, two attacks on its students that somehow got past the school, doesn't it seem extremely irrational to hold an event where all of the students will be in one place?"

"I can understand that point of view, I brought it up in the meeting while you were out earlier. But Nezu said that it would be better to show that we wouldn't bend to the acts of Villains against the school. And that is understandable too, it would be setting a bad example for students if we had to change everything about the school because of a few Villains."

"I suppose that I'll be on guard duty when it happens," Aurdel stood up.

"There shouldn't be any Villain groups that are actively going for the school. You essentially crushed the League in a single battle, their leadership was dismantled. And as for the Shie Hassaikai, I don't think they'll be going after us because of the participation of you or our students against them."

"Complacency and misunderstanding is usually how these kinds of things happen in the first place. After all, I'm assuming that the League of Villains wasn't on anyone's radar until they attacked the school. Nor did they expect the League to attack at the camp."

"I didn't say we wouldn't be cautious of events that happen. The Hero commission reached out to us specifically regarding the safety of our students, telling us not to hold the event at all. Ultimately they allowed us to, but were being forced to completely shut down the event if anything happens."

"Sounds reasonable enough. What events have been planned for the festival?"

"I wouldn't know, you'd have to ask the students of each class that."

"I thought the festival was being planned by the school?"

"As a whole? It is. But the individual events are going to be decided upon by each class. It wouldn't be right to take creative freedom away from them." Aizawa raised an eyebrow, "Haven't you ever been to a festival?"

"Plenty, none school related though."

"Sounds like a boring childhood."

"Believe me it wasn't, but for the wrong reasons." He stood up with a sigh, "Have the students already been told?"

"Not yet, that's what homeroom is going to be about. They're going to have the day for preliminary planning and gather materials." He raised a finger, "And we're not supposed to help them plan or really participate, not unless they come up with truly no ideas or come up with one that's too absurd."

"You want me to tell them?"

"Sure," Aizawa pulled himself into a yellow sleeping bag, "There won't be much to do today, and I'm tired. So you can go nuts."

"Fair enough," Aurdel walked out of the staff room, and towards the homeroom for Class 1-A. In his mind he was still playing out the events of the previous night, where he'd been out on the streets and encountered the Rabbit Hero: Mirko following his putting down of a robbery by Villains.

"And who are you?" At the time he'd met her, he really didn't know who she was. He'd heard of her sure, but he'd never really bothered to take the time and put the list of pro-Heroes in the country to memory.

"I'm surprised you haven't heard of me tough guy, the name is Mirko," she jerked a thumb towards herself, "I've been hearing things about you, like people saying that you were extremely strong and I wanted to see that for myself since you were getting all the big fights."

"Is there something special about that? I'm just doing what I'm supposed to be doing, stopping Villains. And frankly fighting people that are stronger than me is something I'm used to."

"Are you kidding?" She'd laughed, "I don't work with an agency or anyone else, so when I eventually saw the way you charged in fist held high and laying down heavy beatings to any Villain that came in your way it was something that piqued my interest." She pointed a finger up, to his chin, her long ears brushed across his face unintentionally as a result. "That's why I'm going to be offering you a challenge. If you can defeat more bigger and tougher Villains than me, I'll consider offering up a partnership to you."

He'd raised an eyebrow behind his helmet, "If you didn't need a partner before, why do you think you'll need one in me now? On top of that, what leads you to believe that I need a partner?"

"Strong Heroes need to stay together," she tried to put an arm around his shoulder, but she was nowhere near tall enough to do so. "So what do you say? Do you accept my challenge or not?"

"Fine, I'll accept your challenge. But if things don't go the way you like then there's no option to back out of it."

"Me? Backing out?" She snarkily remarked, "The only time or way I'll back down is if I'm dead, and if that's going to happen it's going to need something a lot tougher than me." He shook his head remembering the conversation, it sure was odd but he'd had worse.

He pushed open the door and found the class somewhat rowdy.

"Sit down everyone, class is bound to begin soon!" Ida said in his usual stiff but energetic manner, waving his hands around.

"You're the only one still standing class rep," Kirishima said idly, frustrating Ida who wanted to both lead and set an example. Aurdel cleared his throat, signaling that he was going to start the class.

"Mr. Aurdel? Where's Mr. Aizawa?" Mina asked.

"I offered to take over for today, let him get some extra sleep." He stood behind the main desk, "It's not like there will be much to do anyways, at least schoolwork wise."

"Why do you say that sir?" Ida asked.

"Well, you're going to be using today to begin your plans and preparations for the UA school festival."

"A completely normal high school event!" The class shouted, surprisingly. Or unsurprisingly, he really didn't know what passed for a normal event here since he wasn't from here nor had he even attended high school.

"It's going to be on you guys to create and set up your own event, the only reason for us having to take it upon ourselves is if the event is too dangerous or if it's horribly inappropriate. I think those who have their suggestions singled out by that criteria should know who they are, and I won't listen to any complaints from them." Bakgo and Mineta both grumbled, Bakugo having probably wanted a tournament to the death and Mineta some kind of topless event. "Otherwise any event is up for grabs, just a matter of what you think up of and are physically capable of doing."

"Sir," Ida stood up, "I think that I and Yaoyaorozu as class reps should be the ones to help the class brainstorm and organize ideas."

"Of course, I was about to say that. The floor is yours." He stepped away, allowing the two students to take the lead in the front of the class.

"Alright! Anyone who has an idea, please raise your hand so that-" And before the boy could even finish, the class already had hands shooting up shouting to be picked on. "Such enthusiasm, Kaminari!"

"I say we do a maid cafe! And if you already thought of that idea, rethink it but as twice as good!"

"Not, we'd be providing the other classes with a service! Uraraka!"

"A Mochi stand! My family has a recipe that's to die for!"

"Sweets certainly would be good for a festival! Kirishima!"

"An arm wrestling competition, TetsuTetsu has been bugging me about having a rematch!"

"Intense and with personal honor to be won, thrilling! Koda!"

"A-A petting zoo!"

"Animals always do help to soothe people! Tokoyami!"

"A banquet for the disciples of darkness."

"A banquet with such an edgy theme would certainly be interesting! Aoyama!"

"My own sparkling show!"

"I don't know what that is but you are certainly enthusiastic! Hagakure!"

"A fun house!"

"I have no idea what that is but I'm sure it would be interesting! Sato!"

"A crepe stall!"

"Perfect for eating on the go! Mina!"

"A dance!"

"Energetic and dazzling! Midoriya!"

"A Hero quiz!"

"I don't think there's anything else you could have answered with that wouldn't be more like you! Asui!"

"We could sing a round of the Frog Song!"

"Very appropriate! Todoroki!"

"Handmade soba."

"After all it is your favorite! Bakugo!"

"A deathmatch!"

"Something we were already told not to do!"

"We could do a kind of skit," Jirou said, without having to be called on.

"That could work!" As Ida diligently picked on people, Momo wrote down the ideas on the board. In the end nineteen ideas were put up on the board, as any idea that Mineta tried to propose was duly and correctly ignored. As for the rest, Sero suggested an Asian cafe, Ojiro a dance performance, Shoji a takoyaki stall, Ida a presentation on local history and Yaoyorozu a study session. Suffice to say it was a very comprehensive list, and probably one that he wouldn't have come up with himself.

"It looks to me that you have a few redundant items on your list," Aurdel said, looking it over. "Two cafes, several stalls and stands, in general a lot of food ideas, and even two different ideas for dances. If you going to be coming up with ideas you have to narrow it down by coming up with a theme."

"A theme?"

"Yeah, when you're going to be doing something with a purpose it's usually because it's trying to express or do something. Say with the maid cafe, Ida said that it would be serving others. You need something like that."

"Others…" Midoriya murmured, "Maybe… We could do something for the other courses and classes?"

"We don't need to do anything for those extras," Bakugo said grumpily, "If we do anything it should be to show off our strength."

"Kacchan, I'm sure you know that the other classes aren't exactly happy with us," he sounded a little nervous and cautious saying it. "First with the attack at the USJ by Villains while we were in there, then when we had the sports festival you made a pretty rude declaration and our class ended up dominating the main event, then there was the attack at the training camp because the Villains were trying to get to you and most recently a few of us took part in that hideout raid that got into the news. To them it probably looks like we're getting and hogging all the spotlight away from any of them."

"If they didn't get it it means they didn't deserve it," he proclaimed. "That first thing wasn't our fault, and then after only that happened they started to hold a grudge. Everything else came because we were just better than them."

"You might be right to say that they're holding a petty grudge, but we still have to let them know that we acknowledge their frustration," Kirishima explained, Bakugo scoffed.

"Then perhaps we can do something to ease that frustration?" Momo suggested, "Something to break the ice."

"Sure, but one of your study sessions isn't going to do that. They're nice and all but I don't think that anyone really wants to think of their schoolwork when they're at a festival," Kaminari said.

Yaoyorozu looked a little hurt, "I just wanted to help others out."

"Help out… Maybe we should do something around that? Something to boost spirits!" Uraraka said, getting an idea.

"I don't think that's a bad idea," Sero said, "It would just be a matter of picking something to do that. Music would be good, or a skit like Jirou suggested."

"Maybe we could combine ideas?" Mina suggested, "If you're just playing music there's not much interaction to it, same with a skit. But maybe if we combine music and dancing, it'll be a winning combination!"

"Just remember," Aurdel reminded them, "You have to be capable of doing it yourselves. It wouldn't make sense to do something you can't actually achieve."

"Don't be ridiculous, I can easily teach them all how to dance!" Ashido said, proud. "And for the music, Jirou can teach us what to do!"

"Huh?! Where is that coming from?!" Jirou said, a mixture of nervousness and embarrassment.

"That's right!" Hagakure said, "Your room is amazing, and you looked so happy when you were teaching us how to play!"

"Knock it off, I'm not that good," she twirled her earphone jacks.

"Are you kidding me? Your room is like an instrument store in there! I don't think I've ever seen so many instruments in one place, you can even play all of them!"

"Well just the basics..,"

"Now hold on!" Mineta shouted, "If we're going to have music we need some awesome vocals, and let me tell you I'm a killer!"

"Really? I don't know about you, but I got a manly voice that's perfect for singing," Kirishima jerked a thumb to himself.

"It depends on the kind of the music played, but moi truly has the kind of voice that goes with anything." Aoyama and the others demonstrated their singing ability. Or rather Kirishima and Aoyama had, Mineta had done little more than making barking noises. None of them really had a suitable voice. But before they could decide who would be doing the singing, the bell rang. Aurdel moved from where he'd positioned himself.

"You have the rest of the day off to figure things out for the event, hopefully in that time you can choose who does what."

"Aren't you going to be staying with us while we decide?"

"If I thought any of you were going to kill each other over something as simple as a festival plan, I would. But the angry pomeranian isn't as mad today so it'll at least be minor if something happens."

"Who are you calling an angry pomeranian?!" Bakugo shouted, standing up from his desk.

"You can go back to your dorms if you need something from there to help with your brainstorming."

"Wait then, where are you going?"

Aurdel raised an eyebrow behind his helmet, "Where do you think? To do my job."

"Alright, what's this about another Villain group?" Aurdel said, folding his arms as he walked into Nighteye's office.

Nighteye placed the tips of his fingers together, "They're a relatively small group, compared to what the League of Villains was trying to accomplish. The Creature Rejection Clan. They're also practically ancient, first starting up when quirks were just being discovered and became more and more prevalent. Initially they just protested against people who were 'mutated' by their quirks, but eventually they turned to violence and became a notorious group of Villains. As of recent they're more akin to a cult and carry out attacks against people who they think are unnatural."

"You think they're going to target the school?"

"Most likely. Despite the large increases in security that have begun since the first incident, Villains have not been deterred. That's why preemptive action needs to be taken before something happens."

"But given I haven't seen any attacks recently, neither you nor the police have a warrant on their main base of operations."

"Nothing recent, no. But we managed to find out about a case that had gone cold after a suspect in a crime went missing while searches went on. The statute hasn't run out. Therefore we're using the older warrant to take them down as a whole."

He shut his eyes, "I know that it sounds ironic coming from me, but that doesn't seem like it should be legal even if it technically is."

"That's a fair analysis, but for now it will simply just have to work in our favor."

"Is there going to be anyone coming in with me as backup?"

"No, it'll just be you. A police unit had been arranged to take away the Villains once you've secured them all."

"Sounds cut and dry. What's their facility like? The information I get the better."

"Their main residence is within a mansion, surrounding it is a rather standard brick wall topped with barbed wire. The entrance is secured by a gate with an intercom, though I doubt you'd have trouble needing to get through. The outside is always guarded by a pair of their members, and there are normally around four guards patrolling the main yard of the estate. As for how many people they actually have in the mansion we don't know. However a generous guess would be at around two dozen individuals, including their leader."

"Whom is?"

"Currently we don't know what, you'll be fighting that out once you've made your way in."

"Alright. I'm breaking into a secure mansion in order to capture a group of extremist cultists who are planning an attack on a high school," he shook his head, "Are there any priority targets? If they're cultists I don't doubt that they'll willingly be taken away and fight to the death."

Nighteye sighed, "Ideally you'll take all of them in. But if that's not possible then you have to at least take in their leader, along with any specific members."

Aurdel thought to himself for a moment, "By the way, I'm going to need some additional paperwork done for what I'm planning to do."

"Bubble Girl can handle that for you."

"Very well."

...Double Aught Nine…

Aurdel loaded the stun rounds into his Beretta, surveying the mansion. Just like Nighteye had said there were two guards outside of the walls, armed with weapons. He screwed on the silencer to his gun, then took aim. They weren't aware of his presence and could easily be taken down. He lined up his shot from the side and fired twice for the first man, then twice again for the second. Within less than a few seconds of the rounds hitting the men they slumped to the floor unconscious. Quickly he ran up to where they'd been, policing their weapons and restraining them on the ground next to the wall. Then he searched through their pockets, eventually retrieving a keycard that allowed him to open the gate via a scanner. Theoretically he could have climbed over the wall or broken down the gate, but he didn't want to cause unnecessary damage to the location given his plans. Carefully he opened the gate and stepped into the front yard of the mansion, surveying the area around him for possible threats. He saw only one for the four guards that he was told to expect patrolling the yard. He was about to line up a shot again when he noticed more figures approaching on his motion detector. So rather than be spotted and turn this into a full on firefight, he ducked into a set of bushes and stayed out of view. Two men walked up and past him, eventually coming over to the man he'd seen before. "You see anything?"

"Nope, ain't been nothing. I don't know why they have us patrolling out here when we could be taking part in the ritual, no one is gonna attack us."

"You sure?" One of the others said, "I think he's right to be cautious, if people outside manage to get wind of what we're planning it'll be a big hammer of shit coming down on us."

"Nobody is gonna find out what we're doing. Besides, people shouldn't be against us. They should be against those damn mutants. And if they want to fight with us let them come."

"I think you're just getting stir crazy from standing out here for so long. Go inside, we'll cover your area." One of them left, and the other two began to patrol again. Certainly the group was up to something. He ran out from the bush and grab the two men from behind by wrapping his arms around their necks. Then, before they could respond, he dropped them down to the ground like dead weight. They were alive of course, but wouldn't be conscious for a while. He took their weapons and ran around the back, where he found the last guard standing outside.

"Who the hell-? It's you-!" Before the man could shout a warning, Aurdel shot him twice with his gun then reloaded. He slumped backwards, falling on his rifle. The outside was clear, now to get inside. He creeped up to one of the windows around the back, peering inside. No one was there, and it had appeared to have been in disuse for quite some time. So carefully he pried the window open from the outside, making sure to use as little force as possible to prevent shattering it. Once it was open he climbed in and shut the window behind him. Surveying the room again he found that there were two doors. By his own intuition he figured that one of them led to a guest bathroom, and the other out into the hallway. He carefully put his helmet up against the latter, listening for any noise. There was the sound of idle conversation as two men walked past the door, one of them being the man who'd come in from outside. He opened the door quietly and watched as they walked, eventually coming out and following them down the hallway. He took notice of a creaky floorboard that one of them stepped on, and avoided it to-

Snap. One of the floorboards he stepped on to prevent stepping on the creaky floorboard broke cleanly in half. He shut his eyes for a moment out of frustration as the sound echoed around the relatively empty mansion, then brought back out his pistol. He put down the two men who'd been walking and had turned to see him. Well, stealth was no longer an option. He holstered the pistol and pulled the Benelli M4 off of his back. With bean bag rounds in his shotgun he stepped out of the hole in the floorboards and walked down the hallway. He clearly heard the sounds of furniture being flipped and hasty preparations being made. "How the hell did someone get this far in?"

"I don't know, maybe he killed those guys stationed outside."

"That's even worse! This asshole is going to pay!" He stopped in the middle of the hallway, having heard the two voices come from a nearby room. When he eventually crept his way forward he stood next to the door, his motion tracker detecting five individuals inside.

"There he is, behind the wall!" A third man shouted, a pair of small arms fired at him through the wall and had the impact absorbed by his shields. He spun around and charged through the door with the shotgun, firing six times as he came about. Two of the shots missed but the rest hit their mark and four of the men went down holding their guts as the beanbags hit them. The fifth man was wielding what looked like a pitchfork, alongside wearing a skull mask on his face. He charged straight at Aurdel. Aurdel kicked his leg up and the pitchfork went flying from the man's hands and into the ceiling, alongside dislocating his shoulders from the force. He then slammed the barrel of the shotgun into the man's stomach, knocking all the wind out of him and breaking a few ribs. After that he used the butt of his rifle to knock him down to the floor."

He reloaded his shotgun with additional beanbag rounds, "Now, tell me about this ritual of yours." He pointed the gun straight into the man's face.

"I… I ain't telling you shit!" Aurdel stomped his foot down onto the man's right hand, completely destroying it. "GAH!" He recoiled backwards in pain.

"You've got a lot of body parts left, don't make me have to do the same thing to the rest of them."

"F-Fuck you!" The man shouted at him. Aurdel stomped down again, this time onto his right knee. "GAAAAAAAH!"

"Talk."

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!" The man grit through his teeth, biting down so hard on his lip it bed and tears welling up in his eyes. "The others are downstairs doing the rites for our attack, it was supposed to be for good luck!" He let out a painful squeal, "The others are all down there, we were just supposed to guard the mansion!"

"Traitor!" One of the men that he'd shot with the shotgun earlier pulled out a knife and stabbed the man he was interrogating, Aurdel quite literally backhanded them with enough force that he felt the man's cheekbones and jaw shatter.

The man who had been stabbed was dead, nothing he could do to help him. So to make sure these guys stayed down he pulled back out his pistol, putting two stun rounds in each of them before leaving again with shotgun in hand. He had a layout of the building on his HUD so it was easy to find where the entrance to the basement was. He kicked the door off of its hinges, sending it crashing into the two men who were waiting for him in the stairwell. He slid down the stairs, firing his shotgun into a man who was standing at the very bottom with another pitchfork. He stood up quickly and found that there were a half dozen cultists, all armed waiting for him. On a table nearby they had a woman strapped down, presumably to be used as a sacrifice for their ritual. "Kill the sanctum intruder!" The man who stood at the head of the group said. One of the men raised his hand and extended his fingers towards Aurdel, shooting off projectiles from the tips of his fingers. They were easy to avoid but judging by the holes they left in the wooden walls behind him getting hit would not exactly be pleasant. Another man scooped his hand through the air as if he was grabbing hold of it. A ball of ice appeared in his hand, of which it was lobbed directly at him.

His armor's systems screamed as the frozen ball flew past him, flying into the wall and instantly freezing it while causing a massive shift in the room's temperature. The temperature that it had reached shouldn't have been physically possible and caused his shields to temporarily shut off. The men continued to fight with him all the while. Seeing the largest threat he fired the shotgun several times towards the man who'd thrown the ball at him, two to the chest and one to the head. He flew backwards from the impacts. He wasn't dead, but he was paralyzed from the neck down. Aurdel used the weapon as a small bracer as a man came running at him with a pitchfork, breaking the blades on its side before turning the shotgun around and using the weapon like a baseball bat to crack it against the man's skull. Unless the other man, he was, for sure, dead. His head violently snapped to the side as he fell over, it almost looked the skin and flesh had even ripped apart from the attack. Three of the remaining four charged at him, each one determined as much as the other to kill him. But it wouldn't happen.

The man firing the nail bullets came close, a bad move for someone with a ranged ability. With a swift move Aurdel was able to put both arms behind his back, twisting them out of their sockets and leaving him unable to move them. The two others both had pitchforks and assaulted him from both sides, though neither were able to penetrate through his rough undersuit or his armor plating. Gracefully he slid away from both of them, leading them both into each other as they'd been charging at him. The two men fell upon each others' weapons before dropping to the ground. "You will pay for the transgressions you have set forth on this day, you have no idea as to what you will cause!" Their leader shouted at the top of his lungs, removing his face. It was scarred beyond belief, probably from years of getting into physical and extremely violent fights. Aurdel simply upholstered his Beretta and shot the man twice with stun rounds, he fell to the ground.

"Yeah well, keep the padded cell warm for me." He walked over to the table, breaking the restraints that were holding down the woman. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but they drew all this weird crap all over me," he helped her up.

"It looks like permanent marker, should come off with a few days of washing." He activated his comms, "This is Spartan to police unit A-1E5, mansion is secure. Several Villain casualties are present, a few will need treatment at the hospital. A civilian was also discovered and released from their capture."

"Copy that, we're on our way."