The next day, while Iida is once again shouting at everyone not to run, I make my way to homeroom class. Sero complains how it's too early for Iida's lectures on running and getting a good night's sleep.

After Midnight's modern art class we get a short break, where Kaminari points out how Mt. Lady, Edgeshot and Kamui Woods are forming a hero team. There've been a lot of team ups lately, ever since Kamino, but this one has the most hype. The class is now raving about making our own hero teams. Mina seems more into it than most of us.

"Uraraka! You'll make me float, okay? And I'll make it rain acid!"

"Isn't that a bit harsh…?"

"And I can get a boost from Sero's tape!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Koda, Shoji, and Jiro will do reconnaissance! Team Rainy Day!"

"Woooo…"

"What about us?!" Kaminari and Mineta shout, but Mina just waves them off.

"No thanks."

Momo makes the point that team ups mainly rely on the compatibility of the Quirks, which I couldn't agree more with. Maybe a team up with Kirishima and Bakugo could work, we'd be very offense-based. I think I'd be more suited to working alone though, I'm not sure yet.

I'm with them again for our training session in Gym Gamma with Cementoss, Sato joining us as well. While we all use Kiri as a punching bag to strengthen his Unbreakable move, I use this time to try and increase the speed of my tendrils. I'll attack with one, making it as fast as I can, and then disperse it and attack with another, repeating this in quick succession.

Bakugo asks if Zero will be training too, but I shake my head. If she's let out, it's only when I'm confident she won't go mental. And I'm not comfortable with the whole class knowing about her yet, not when so many of them still don't really trust me.

It's early October, and preparations are already beginning for Hallowe'en. On our day off, we pin up banners of orange and black, fake web is draped across the ceiling, and Momo makes fake skulls to put around the dorms. We won't carve pumpkins until closer to the time, so they won't go mouldy.

A few of us have made plans to go out as well. Shibuya has the best street parties! Centre Gai gets closed off to the traffic and this crazy party goes on until the early hours of the morning. Bakugo, Kirishima, Mina, Kaminari, Sero, Tokoyami and I will all be going down on one of the party trains they have on the 31st. It's gonna be a kinda joint thing for Tokoyami's and Kiri's birthday, as they both have them in October. They're free, it's bring your own drinks, the only money we'll have to spend will be on our own costume, and we'll leave and return while everyone is still in bed.

Originally, we were going to sneak out, but then we all agreed that was a bad idea ever since the trust got broken in some of us after Kamino. So we all went to Aizawa yesterday lunch, proposed our idea, and asked if we could go.

He said no.

But then Yamada and Kayama jumped in, singing how great of an experience it would be for us to go and relax like this. Go out, have fun, 'enjoy the wonders of being young'.

Aizawa still said no.

Then they offered to take us, to be our chaperones, so we wouldn't be going by ourselves. Now this only got a disapproving scowl, before being followed by a sigh of defeat and permission being granted. So now Kayama and Yamada are coming too!

Best. Chaperones.

I think Class A and B are joining together to have a little party on the Saturday before, but we'll be going to a real one after that and so don't really care for that one.

The seven of us sit in a group at the table, discussing our costumes on Saturday evening. Yamada is here too, lying across the floor watching Hallowe'en films with those of us who are still downstairs. Kyoka, Koda and Hagakure have gone to their rooms, as they're not really fans of the film genre. Neither is Yamada really: his shrieks shake the entire building.

"So what you all going as?" Sero asks, leaning forwards towards the centre. "I'm easily thinking mummy for me."

"I'm going as a cat!" Mina holds up Kaosu, who's looking particularly moody today. "I have my inspiration!"

"I thinking…devil or demon," Kaminari moves his hands up and down, as if weighing up the two ideas. "Red shirt or blazer, get the devil horns going, maybe some bat wings."

"Sounds pretty rad," I nod my head. "I'll probably go as a vampire or something — Shoto and I are thinking we might do matching outfits. Might let my purple fade out and re-dye it red."

Sero turns to Tokoyami, "What about you, man?"

"I do not know. Something that does justice for this celebration of darkness."

"I'm going as a werewolf." Bakugo leans back in his chair and puts his feet up on the table. "Gonna be the wildest monster you idiots have ever seen."

"Really?!" Kiri perks up. "That's great, we can be matching then!" Bakugo does not look amused… "I wasn't sure, but now I can go as Little Red Riding Hood, you can be the wolf, bang! Matching!"

But Bakugo jumps up onto his chair, shouting down at Kirishima. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I'D WANNA MATCH WITH YOUR DUMB ASS?!"

"SHUT UP!" We all look over to the sofas, where the class is glaring at us, the T.V. is paused, and Yamada has his hands on his hips and scowls. He's dressed in his casual get-up: hair up in a bun and thick rimmed glasses. "We are trying to watch a film, and Y'ALL ARE BEING TOO LOUD!"

"Shut up, yerself!" Bakugo snaps back. "You're making the most noise now, Voice Hero. Go watch your stupid film!"

While not the most diplomatic of responses, the rest of us quietly apologise to the rest of the class and Yamada, and we all return to what we're doing. Discussion turns from the costumes to what the party will be like. It's no secret that we're going, but it's something that's been made clear isn't a school trip either. It's purely personal, unrelated to school activities (this is what Aizawa later stressed, and I think that's because he's wary what the press will make of it if they somehow find out). Because Yamada is my godfather, we can use that.

Although, apparently the Cultural Festival is coming up early November, so we can't go too crazy because of that anyway. No clue what it even is, but the others seem to know of it and they say it's a busy time.

Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap.

I look up. What the hell was that? "Hey, anyone else hear this, tapping?"

We all go quiet, but can only hear the film that's playing.

Tap. Tap.

There! We all hear it this time, and begin looking around for the source of the noise. It sounds like someone tapping against the window, but Kaminari and Mina say there's nothing out there. I check to see if it's Kaosu walking about or knocking something off a shelf somewhere, but he's migrated to sitting on the back of one of the sofas, and is slowly falling asleep.

Scratch.

Scratch, scratch.

Tap.

Scratch, scratch, tap.

What is that? Once again I look to Kaosu, and then around the room. We all look around, trying to find the source of the noises. Clucky! Of course! The bloody chicken must be outside! I ask Tokoyami, who's up and about and closest to the door, to let her in.

We all laugh quietly at ourselves, for getting so wound up by a chicken, of all things! But as Tokoyami disappears into the hall, Mina is still looking out into the night, her eyes narrowing.

"Hey, something's moving out there…"

"Very funny," Kaminari jests as he sits back down. "'Wooooo, let's be scary for Hallowe'en!' I'm not that dumb."

"No, seriously — WAAAH!" Mina jumps back from the window, pressed up against the table. Her breathing is heavy, dark eyes are wide, and we all look over to the window as something thuds against it.

"What was that?" Bakugo asks quickly. Whatever made the noise is now gone.

"I swear," my senses go into high alert, "if this is Class B's idea of a joke, I'll kill 'em."

The T.V. is paused again now, everyone looking at us warily. Whether they're on edge from the film or us, I don't know, nor do I care.

Thud.

There it was again! We all shoot our gazes over to the window, where something dark throws itself against the glass. What was that?

"Oh dear Lord!" Tokoyami exclaims from the hall, before coming running back into the common room. Dark Shadow is out and screeching at the door they just came in from. Then there's that scratching again, but louder, more of it, like a thousand fingertips scratching against wood.

Oh my dear Lord!

'What sort of hell is this?!'

These monsters crawl through the doorway, filling the floor of the hall and climbing through on the walls. Some scuttle through on the ceiling, and I see that they're in fact, what look to be hundreds, of spiders. They're huge, the size of small dogs! And they just keep coming, spilling onto the floor and clambering up the walls when there's no more space.

Everyone is screaming, shouting, jumping up onto their seats. Yamada's eyes go wide and what goes to be a scream comes out as a weak, high-pitched squeak, before he hyperventilates and passes out.

"Some Pro." Bakugo rolls his eyes, now standing on the table, his hands crackling with explosions. The rest of us are on the table too, and everyone who can is readying their Quirk against these invaders.

The sea of hairy legs spreads right up to the kitchen, before they all turn their heads in various directions, shuffling around in their spaces.

"Are they...looking for something?" Momo asks, standing on the sofa with a baseball bat at the ready.

"Who cares?!" Mineta wails. We all shudder at Yamada, who's passed out body is being crawled over by all these giant spiders.

Then suddenly, they all turn rapidly to look at the same point and freeze. Their front two legs straighten out, up in the air, baring their fangs. They look to be as long as my thumb… The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and those shadows come out of my skin again like patchy feathers and ruffle up.

All the spiders are looking at me.

Now, I'm no expert on spiders, but I can guess a position like this is what they look like before they strike. No one moves, and there's this silence as a stand off breaks out between spiders and students. I don't dare take my eyes off them.

Then one of the spiders closer to the door starts moving. It pushes its way through the others until they shuffle out the way to make a path. We all watch this one spider scuttle across the floor and up the table leg. Everyone on the table shuffles back, and there's a moment where I think it's going to tip back or break. But it stays strong.

The spider makes its way up onto the table. Kirishima hardens one hand and slowly raises it.

"Wait!" I whisper, holding up my hand. "Look, it's got something!"

And indeed it has. Clasped in his horrifically huge mouthparts is a cylinder of web, about the size of two of my fingers, with something that looks to be inside it. The spider places the webby parcel down on the table, and then stares at me expectantly. Six black, beady eyes meet mine, and I slowly bend down to take the web.

I gently tear the web off, or I try at least. It's tougher than I expected, and just stretches, so it takes a bit more effort to break. Every now and again, I flick my eyes down to the spider. It's looking back at me still. Finally, I brush off all the web.

Inside the web is a rolled up piece of paper. I unroll it, and see there's something written in remarkably beautiful handwriting.

'Kurono

Please meet me tomorrow at the first warehouse east of the one where Zero was born, one hour after dark. And come alone. I found Hana and she isn't dead! I'm going to give her back.

Thank you for reading.

From Arachnid'

There's also a kiss that looks to be crossed out. I look back up at the spiders and sigh. This makes sense now...ish. Having seen I've read the note, the spiders all turn around at once and skitter out the doorway. Back into the hall and outside, we watch through the windows as their dark forms disappear into the darkness.

And just like that, they're gone.

The class instantly breaks out into uneasy murmurs, and mistrustful glances are thrown my way again. Tokoyami closes the front door, and everyone climbs down from their perches. I sit on the table, rereading the note through. Ochako and Aoyama gently wake Yamada up, and there's a tension in the air as everyone tries to process what on Earth that was.

"Well?" Iida asks in an almost accusing manner. "What does it say?"

I roll it back up and put it in my pocket. "We really need to get Aizawa."

Hello everyone! Yes I am still writing this. I've been very busy at the moment as I'm on a placement year and have been working all the way through the pandemic. I turn 21 in May so hopefully the UK's lockdown will be lifted by then. It's not as regularly, but I am still writing and have more chapters to release soon. I am also working on reformatting the fic, in that I'm merging every five chapters.

I've got a lot of exciting stuff planned involving my OCs, the current manga events, and the Faction Leaders (remember those OCs I mentioned a few chapters ago?). We're also going to see some more sneaky mentions and appearances of Etso, Illusionist and Magnitus belonging to onerandomanimefangirl (now on Ao3). Keep them all in mind as they're going to be important.

I hope everyone is keeping as well as they can and I send my best wishes.