A/N: Hi everyone, I just have a quick heads up; this story is going to focus a lot on the mental health of the U.A. class and the methods of working through it. With everything they've been through in such a short time, it's WILD to think how much trauma there isn't even time to cover in the manga and anime. And, I dunno, I've been starting to sort out my own experiences, and writing helps me connect to that. Maybe it does for you too. :) Thanks again for reading!

CHAPTER 2

-The next morning-

'So tiiiiiiiiiiiired…' Ochako Uraraka could barely walk straight as she slowly made her way to homeroom. She'd barely gotten three hours of sleep last night, and while the thought of passing out at any moment was scary, nothing was more terrifying than Sensei Aizawa coming after her for skipping class. She was hoping to get to the room early so she could rest for a while before anything happened. Better be there asleep than in the dorm when class started, after all.

"Uraraka-san!"

Turning around, Uraraka caught sight of her friend quickly jogging to catch up to her. She should've known Ida would've been his usual punctual self this morning. Knowing how much of a worrier he was, she couldn't let him catch on to her fatigue or she'd get lectured, and this early, she couldn't handle that.

"Hey Ida! How are you doing this morning?" she asked, with bit more pep than usual, even for her.

"I'm doing fine, thank you. Just trying to loosen my muscles so I'll be in peak condition for our rescue practice."

"Oh no, I completely forgot that rescue ops was today.' Ochako groaned inwardly. She normally loved these classes, as her quirk was excellent in these kinds of missions. With how tired she was, though, additional nausea might send her over the edge. Maybe she could practice floating her backpack before class to get her body ready, or-

"Are you feeling all right, Uraraka-san? You're zoning out."

"Oh-oh y-yeah, I'm great! A bit tired, but otherwise ready for another day!"

Ida looked at her with concern. She wasn't one to wake up this early for regular reasons. In fact, he was very surprised when he'd come across her. Usually the only people he'd see on his way to 1-A were Yaoyarozu if they'd arranged to meet for class leadership activities, or occasionally Mei Hatsume dashing past him early to work on her…'babies' as she was fond of calling them. Perhaps he should question his friend a bit more on the matter…

As exhausted as she was, Uraraka could still read her friend's eyebrows quirking at her. Shoot, she needed to divert his attention fast or she'd be under a full interrogation!

"Y'know, I was just thinking that we all need to go plus-ultra for class today! Our teachers have been under so much stress because of us, if we do our best maybe it'll help them all feel better! What do you think, Ida?" she grinned at him. 'That should do it,' she thought.

Ida stood at attention with a proud grin on his face as the light gleaned across his glasses. "That's an excellent attitude for a hero-in-training! In fact, it makes me want to work that much harder today! Let's do it! Join me in my jog to the classroom, Uraraka! We'll be the best students out there or I'm not the class rep!" he proclaimed, already starting out before she could refuse.

'UUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. This is not what I had in mind today.' She sweat dropped as she watched him burst away, knowing if she didn't catch up he'd just get suspicious all over again. Taking a deep breath, she started out to catch up to him, grumbling under her breath.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow." Kirishima grunted to himself as he slowly limped his way through the halls to 1-A. The bandages may have finally come off, but DAMN it still hurt! He knew someday he wanted a rematch with Rappa, but good lord the guy hit like a freakin' truck. It'd be years before he could last more than a minute against him in another go-around.

'Since when does the villain get defeated, but the heroes look like they're the losers?' he thought to himself. Truth be told, he was embarrassed with how the fight had gone. While everyone had praised him afterward, and even Fatgum had nothing but glowing words for his apprentice, Kirishima still felt like he hadn't really done anything praiseworthy in the encounter. After all, it was Fatgum's awesome ability that had won the day. All he had done was buy a few seconds, and he'd barely managed to do that.

At least he was lucky enough that he could reflect on it afterward. Not everyone who had gone down there that day was so lucky,,, if only he'd been stronger…

'Gah, thinking like this is gonna get me nowhere! I've gotta get to class. If I up my pace, even with this limp I should be able to make it before…SHIT!'. His foot slipped on a puddle in the hall, probably someone's water quirk who'd forgotten to clean up after themselves. It was a common enough occurrence around here. Thank goodness for his quirk; he braced himself for the impact with the ground just in time.

'Oh what the hell, it even hurts to harden myself! Ugh, maybe this is what Midoriya feels like whenever his quirk breaks him…' Great, at this rate he might miss the entire school day before he can pick himself up.

"Get up, you idiot. You're embarrassing yourself."

"Bakugo, my man! Hey, how's it going?!" Kirishima grinned, recognizing his friend's sour attitude.

"Let's go, shitty hair, I won't be late cuz you wanna have some one-on-one time with the floor."

"Y'know, I'd join you but I can't-"

"C'mon" Bakugo grunts in annoyance while hoisting Kirishima to his feet by his jacket collar.

"Thanks man. Who knows how long it would've taken me to get up."

"This still from that fight you had with that second-rate wrestler?"

"Hey, he was tough! I'd like to see how you'd take a punch from Rappa! Probably would've been smacked right out of the building!"

"SCREW YOU, I WOULD'VE KNOCKED HIS LIGHTS OUT WITH ONE PUNCH!"

'Mmhm, sure. Maybe after you finish your extra classes you can send him a challenge."

"I'LL TAKE YOU BOTH ON AT ONCE, DAMNIT!"

"Sweet, we're here just in time. Hey Kaminari!" Kirishima hurried through their homeroom door over to their friend's desk, figuring he should let Bakugo off the hook before he did something drastic. While teasing his hothead pal was always fun, he wasn't healed enough to put up with those explosions of his right now. Better to have peace than a hospital bed.

"Hey guys, what's up? Bakugo, grumpy as usual?"

"SHUT UP, SPARKPLUG, OR I'LL BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure." One of the advantages of being friends with Bakugo (or as close as anyone could get to him) was knowing how bad his mood was in the moment. Kaminari could see this was only a Level 3/10 temper, so he could mess with him in moderation. Going back to his phone, he wanted to finish scrolling the news before their teacher snuck in.

"Wait, what's the report about?" Kirishima moved around the desk to get a closer look at the phone screen as Bakugo stomped over to his own desk. He'd only caught a glimpse, but he swear he'd seen a photo of those 8 followers on screen.

"Eh, it's just more stuff about the Yakuza gang you guys took down last week. They did a report describing each of the Eight Bullets, their quirks, personalities, blah blah blah."

"Wait, who cares about that stuff? They're villains. All that matters is we took them down right?"

"Haven't you been paying attention, idiot?" Bakugo asked while glaring over. "Ever since that Hero Killer, all the ordinary losers want to read about are the villains. Their powers, their messages. Hell, if they weren't wanted criminals they'd probably be getting interviewed by those stupid reporters."

"Hey, people are gonna follow the trends," Kaminari said, leaning back in his chair. "It used to be All-Might, but since he's gone the people are looking for a new celebrity to zoom in on. Still, it's weird to be training to be a hero and feel like the world is against you. Almost like the citizens don't know who to believe in."

"Well, then I"LL MAKE THEM BELIEVE IN ME! AS THE #1 HERO!" Bakugo jumped up, nearly igniting his desk in the process.

"Y'know, if you really want that to happen, being friendly to people instead of screaming would be a nice start."

"SHUDDUP!"

As the two continued to argue, Kirishima's mind had wandered to the view outside, looking out at the city. It was true, over the last few weeks, he'd been sensing the shift the pros were refusing to talk about. All-Might retiring, Endeavor taking over as #1, the League of Villains not only remaining at-large but even striking down to finish off the Yakuza. Something was changing.

'How could people not believe in us?" They'd given up so much already to be heroes, to help people. Dead heroes, Fatgum almost dying, hell, he almost died! It still sent a chill down his back to think about. In the aftermath in the hospital, it was too busy to really think about, but a few days later he'd realized just how close he'd been to being…gone. If Fatgum hadn't treated his injuries as quickly as he did,,, if Rappa had managed to get in a few more punches…

'Gah!' He punched his hardened fist into his palm. 'Stop it! STOP IT! Don't focus on that. I'm still here, I'll do what I can to-'

"Hey…hello, Kirishima?"

Eijiro broke out of his thoughts, looking quickly back at the pair.

"Oh, uh…yeah?"

Kaminari smirked at his absentminded friend. "I was just saying how jealous I am of you guys! I can't believe how much you four have been on the news cause of those work studies!"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess…"

"I mean, a few villain fights and you're practically celebrities! Maybe you could put in a good word for me, get me a share of that screen time, huh?" he joked.

"Um, sure. I-I, yeah, you know how it is! Just the perks of being a hero!" Kirishima bluffed. He really wished someone would change the subject. He was getting tired of everyone wishing they were in his shoes. It was a lot easier to look at it from the outside than experience those villains face-to-face…

As his electric classmate continued voicing his envy, Eijiro's skin prickled on his neck, and he looked over to see Bakugo glaring at him, like he knew exactly what his friend was thinking. Was he jealous of him too? He knew his friend was already frustrated over his remedial provision classes, but he didn't want him mad at him over this… Or was he angry with how poorly the fight against Rappa had gone? They were joking before, but he knew Bakugo couldn't stand being associated with anything weak.

And he was weak. Heck, the only real press he'd gotten over the Yakuza fight was video of him being wheeled out on a stretcher. What kind of hero looks that unmanly in front of the public? No wonder his friend was glaring at him like that.

"Anyways, when are you going back to Fatgum? He call you in this week?" Kaminari asked.

"Oh, uh, no. After the incident, all of our work studies have been stopped till further notice. Besides, Fatgum is still recovering from the fight. Same with Ryukyu, according to the news. And Midoriya's agency…well, y'know…"

At that moment, Kirishima lost his train of thought while Bakugo and Kaminari followed his gaze toward the classroom door. The student in question had just entered, uncharacteristically late for him. More startling though was how terrible Izuku looked. They'd had the rest of the week off after being cleared by the hospital, but Midoriya looked like he hadn't slept since. His hair was swept to one side from sleep, and despite it being so early he was breathing like'd he just run a marathon.

'Come to think of it,' thought Kirishima, 'I haven't seen the girls since they checked out before us either'. He glanced over to Tsu and Uraraka's desks. The frog girl was chatting with Mina and Toru, nothing weird about that. But Uraraka was passed out at her desk, a frown marking her normally peaceful face. Whatever dream she was having, it didn't seem like she was enjoying it.

'I wonder how they're doing with everything. They were actually in the final battle, unlike me. Fighting Overhaul and saving Eri, while I was already knocked out...so embarrassing…'

He didn't have time to go down that hole though, because Aizawa-Sensei appeared in the doorway behind his friend just then. Midoriya scurried to his seat when he realized the Erasure Hero was behind him while Mina poked Uraraka awake.

"A friendly reminder to you that when the bell rings, I expect you in your seats…and conscious." Aizawa glared at the students and began writing on the board. "Now let's begin." The students watched as he wrote the words "CAPTURE THE HOSTAGE" on the board.

Kirishima quirked his head. Weren't they doing Rescue Op's? That's what he'd heard from the others when he'd gotten back to the dorm yesterday.

As always, it was the class rep to ask the question they were all thinking. "MR. AIZAWA!" Ida's hand shot up straight into the air. "Weren't we supposed to be doing Rescue Op's today?! Why did you change the schedule on us so quickly?"

"Yes, I did say that. But I didn't specify the operation. You all just assumed I meant some sort of natural disaster. More often, you'll be dealing with villain-made events that are heavenly unpredictable and change by the minute. Maybe next time this will remind you all to never assume what's going on before you're on site."

"Now, with that out of the way," Aizawa continued as Ida retreated his hand, "This exercise will be styled around the westernized rules of Capture the Flag. We'll be going to Training Ground Beta, and you'll be split into five teams of four, all active on the field at once. Rather than have two teams go at a time, we thought it'd be best for you to compensate for as many opponents as possible, just like you might find in your pro days. A 'melee' style if you will. Each team will be assigned one hostage dummy to keep at their home base. You can hide them anywhere in your building. Once we begin, your task is to make it through the 20-minute time limit without losing your hostage to any other team, and collecting as many as possible in the meantime - "

"Wait a minute, sir" Mina jumped up to get his attention. "How are we supposed to play defense and offense at the same time? Can we bring the hostage with us?"

"Now, that wouldn't be wise" Yaoyorozu chimed in. "You wouldn't bring a hostage into a fight with a villain, the risk of injury would be too great…"

"Correct," Aizawa confirmed, bringing the attention back to the front. "You can only move the hostage to a location inside your home base. Anywhere else risks additional casualties. To answer Mina's question, think back to your provisional licensing exam. What changed during the second phase of the opertion?"

"OH, I get it!" Midoriya nearly burst out of his chair to continue his thought. "It's like when Gang Orca suddenly appeared during the civilian rescue! We had to both keep the health center safe while also keeping the attackers preoccupied. Otherwise, we would've risked both parties crashing together."

Kirishima couldn't help but crack a grin. Leave it to hero strategy to be the thing to get his friend to snap out of his daze.

Aizawa nodded. "Exactly. If you stay on defense only, you put yourself and civilians at the mercy of the villains' choices. The same goes for offense; getting in a drawn-out fight loses your time to analyze what else is happening around outside of your current predicament. The key here, you'll find, is control. If you can control the situation, the more likely you control the outcome. Otherwise, it's our same standards as always for these trainings. No extreme intent to harm, try to keep destruction to a minimum, you know the drill. I'll be assigning the teams, so don't even ask."

Several hands when down at that last part. 'Is he going to split us up based on our quirks? Or by pairing up offensive and defensive specialists to make more balanced teams?' If he were picking, he'd try to make sure each team had at least two more defense-based quirks on the roster. Any of them were capable of offense, but protection was a more difficult task. His hardening was great for getting into physical fights, and he could protect civilians by becoming Unbreakable, so he was feeling good about this. 'Huh, maybe this won't be so bad. I can prove that I can still be on the same level as everyone else.'

"Now for your pairings." Sensei pulled over a sheet from on top of his desk. The teams are as follows:"

"Team 1: Ida, Koda, Jiro, Mina."

"Let's do our best to succeed today, team." Ida said to his group, each giving him a determined smile.

"Team 2: Aoyama, Bakugo, Hagakure, Shoji."

"Great, more extras," grumbled Bakugo, earning him a swat from Hagakure.

"Team 3: Mineta, Ojiro, Sero, Tokoyami."

"HE SAID MY NAME FIRST, THAT MEANS I'M THE LEADER!" Mineta blurted.

"It's alphabetical, dummy" mumbled Sero.

"Team 4: Kaminari, Sato, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu."

"Oh man, we've got this in the bag! Electric, ice AND fire!" Kaminari grinned at his dual-powered teammate. Shoto gave him an eye roll for his efforts.

"And Team 5: Kirishima, Midoriya, Tsuyu, and Uraraka."

'Huh. The four of us…' Kirishima exchanged nervous glances with his three new teammates. He hoped this went better than the last time. 'No, it will. Can't get distracted.'

"Make your way over to the facility, everyone. You can travel in your groups to begin discussing strategy. Get into your equipment and costumes, and be in your designated home base in one hour. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir!"

Everyone quickly moved out with their groups to begin figuring out who'd be operating the offense/defensive positions for the training. Suddenly, it was only the fifth team left in the room, excluding Mr. Aizawa and his sleeping bag, of course.

"Looks like we're back together! Let's do this!" Uraraka pumped her fist in the air, which they all matched. But Kirshima couldn't help but notice the slight tremble in their hands.

As the girls began moving toward the door discussing the best way to use their quirks, Midoriya glanced and smiled at him before following. 'Jeez, wonder if my dark circles look that bad too,' Kirishima thought. As he closed the classroom door, his mind flashed back to the massive door of the Shie Hassaikai Compound booming open, causing him to flinch. He breathed in deeply, calming his nerves and running to catch up to his allies.

'Alright, no mistakes. No failures. Let's do this.'