The sun rose on a brand new day for U.A High School as Class 1-C walked through the halls of the school making their way to the main field where an assembly to start the semester was going to be held. Just a few days ago they had taken the provisional license exam. They had been training hard all summer to pass the exam, but after hearing just how difficult the exam was going to be there were many of them that had doubts on their chances of passing. Despite that however, all twenty-one of them had managed to pass and earn their provisional licenses.

"I still can't believe we did it." Vivi said, looking at her license. "I thought for sure I was going to fail when they said less than 10% would pass."

"That seriously was one crazy twist." Marcus said in agreement. "It just goes to show how serious they are about increasing the quality of heroes from here on now that All Might is retired."

"I wonder if everyone in Class A and B passed too." Sakura mentioned.

Nene narrowed her eyes as she looked on ahead of them. "Well it looks like we're about to find out for at least one of them."

Following Nene's line of sight, the rest of Class C saw what she was referring to. Monoma was walking their way with the rest of Class B following close behind.

"Well, well, if it isn't Class C." Monoma said in his usual condescending tone. "I heard you all passed the license exam. Good for you."

"And what about you? How many of you passed?" Fujino questioned.

"Heh, well-"

"Oh look! It's Class A." Sakura noticed as she waved to them. "Hey you guys!"

"I WAS TALKING!" Monoma shouted before quickly trying his best to regain his composure. "As for you, detestable Class A, I heard you had two people fail the exam!"

Multiple students from Class A looked on with nervousness at Monoma. The others couldn't blame them with how unhinged the Class B student seemed to act most of the time.

"What about you?" Kirishima smirked. "Were you the only one to fail, like with the final?"

"As I was about to say before…" Monoma spoke, glancing back at Class C. "We all passed!"

"That's great to hear." Alicia said. "Congratulations."

"It's hard to believe anyone in Class A failed though." Hikari mentioned. "Who failed?"

"Todoroki and Bakugo." Mineta spoke proudly. "The hierarchy of Class A has shifted! Soon I will reign supreme! Don't worry ladies, I'll be sure to give you all a piece of this hot bod even when I'm famous."

"... Can I blow him up?" Fujino asked.

"It's getting a lot harder to say no." Fiona admitted.

Iida cut the conversation short as he directed his class forward. "We should keep moving, lest we clog up the hallway for others. Come everyone, we have an assembly to get to."

Following Iida's lead, the students of Class A kept moving on through the hallway. Kendo looked towards Class C. "I heard that we'll be having classes as a group starting this semester. I'm looking forward to it."

"Joint classes, eh?" Hyde said as he cracked his knuckles. "I can't wait to prove myself as the indisputable top of the first years."

"Hyde, please try not to turn this too much into a competition. You'll wind up like Monoma." Daiki told him.

Not wanting to be late to the assembly, Classes B and C both followed after Class A to the main field. All of the students of U.A were gathered together in neat lines while the teachers were up at the front. It was clear that a majority of the students felt a little on edge with everything that had happened over the summer. On-campus housing was required not just for the hero students, but for all of the students at the school.

Principal Nezu walked up to the podium to address everyone. "Hey! It's the small mammal you all love, the principal!" he said, greeting everyone. "Recently the fur I'm so proud of has deteriorated in quality. It's hard for me to take care of it. This is something you can say about humans too. Even if you have a balanced diet with zinc and vitamins, the most important thing has to be sleep. Disturbing your lifestyle is the worst for your fur. So if you're trying to improve in hair quality, you should make sure to get enough sleep."

'I can't tell if he's trying to make a metaphor or if he's just that into his own fur.' Shiro thought silently.

Nezu continued his speech. "The cause of this disturbance in lifestyle is the incidents from this summer vacation I'm sure you already know about. The loss of a pillar. The effects of that incident have appeared faster than I could have imagined. There will probably be great chaos in society in the near future. In particular, this will be most apparent to those of you in the hero course. You must approach your activities outside of school, like the hero work studies, that mainly second and third years participate in, with a greater sense of caution and crisis than before."

The mention of "hero work studies" brought about a sense of confusion among the students of Class C. They all glanced at each other, but none of them seemed to have an answer as to what it was about.

"The air always feels heavy when we talk about gloomy things like this, huh?" Nezu spoke. "The adults are working hard to do something about that heaviness. We'd like you to learn that hard work from them and develop into capable people. All of you in the business course, general studies, support course, and hero course, I don't want you to forget that you're all the successors of this society."

With that, Principal Nezu's speech came to a close. After a few small words from some of the other teachers, the students returned back to their classrooms.

As they walked back, thoughts of the hero work studies that were mentioned were fresh in the minds of Class C. Between those and the rumored joint classes with Classes A and B, it was bound to be an eventful semester.

Shortly after Class C arrived at their classroom and sat down, Yamagori entered the room and stood at her desk. "Alright everyone. We'll be continuing regular classes starting today. I know you've all had a busy summer, but you'll need to focus on your studies as students again now. For today we'll be staying in the classroom, but this semester you're training will be harsher than anything you've experienced so far."

"Excuse me, Ms. Yamagori" Sarah asked as she raised her hand. "Could you tell us what the hero work studies that the principal mentioned are about?"

"Oh those? Well… I suppose it's best to tell you ahead of time." Yamagori decided. "Put simply, they're voluntary activities done outside of school. It's similar to your hero internships you did before, but closer to the real thing since you'll have a provisional license and as such be allowed to act at your own discretion during incidents within reason. However, keep in mind that they're not a part of school activities. That means you'll have an even bigger increase to your normal workload and may need to take makeup classes on occasion. On top of that, the school does not help seat you with any agencies like it did with the internships. You'll have to contact and convince them yourself."

"I see… It'll be extra hero experience for those of us that can participate in them." Marcus realized.

"Correct. Of course, first years typically wouldn't receive their provisional license and as such wouldn't participate in these. But given the recent incidents, the school is currently thinking seriously about your participation. I'll explain in further detail at a later date. For now, let's get class started."

King laid on his bed in his room, reading away at a book. Ever since Paradise had been forced to go into hiding, he had been forced to spend his days in the underground secret base where Genjiro and all of the organization's remaining operatives were. It was a vast series of tunnels, so he didn't feel too cluttered. But being unable to go to the outside for months on end was beginning to make him go stir crazy.

"To think we've been reduced to this." King muttered to himself as he flipped a page in his book. "It just goes to show how easy it was to dismantle the boss man's plans."

As the teen let out a yawn, he heard an announcement come from the loudspeaker. "All members of Checkmate are to report to Mr. Matsuhari's office at once. I repeat. All members of Checkmate are to report to Mr. Matsuhari's office at once."

King sighed as he put his book down and got up from his bed. He walked out of his room and made his way to the office of the leader of Paradise.

The underground base he now called home was a far cry from what he was used to. Before, he would be taking a fancy elevator up to the top floor of Paradise's main building in the city. But now he was forced to walk through hallways with dull grey walls and ceiling. Supplies were secretly delivered to the base regularly so there was no need to worry about running out. But outside of reading and training, King had nothing to do.

Put simply, he was bored out of his mind.

When King finally arrived at the door to Genjiro's office, he found Queen and Rook arriving at roughly the same time. Queen greeted the leader of her team with a smile.

"Hello King. Are you feeling well?"

"As good as can be expected I suppose." King replied with a nonchalant wave. "Either of you two know what the boss man called us here for?"

Rook shook his head. "No, I'm afraid this was just as sudden for us."

"Better get this over with and see what he wants then." King said. He opened the door and walked inside, followed by two of his teammates.

Just like with the rest of the base, Genjiro's office was a far cry from what it had been before the whole mess with Fujino Hatsu started. Besides the leader of Paradise himself, the others present in the room were his right hand secretary Emiri Kiriko, and Bishop.

"Punctual as always I see." King commented to his third teammate.

"I go where I am directed. It is as simple as that." Bishop replied. "It seems Knight is not here yet."

As if on cue, the door to the room opened once again and Knight walked in. He let out a yawn. "What's this about? I was having a nice nap."

"Hmph. You certainly seem rather carefree." Queen commented.

"Bored is more like it. There's nothing to do in this shithole." the boy said.

"You should try taking up a hobby. King himself has been reading quite often to pass the time."

"Unless it's manga or comics, I'll pass." Knight shot a smirk at Queen. "What do you do to pass the time? Dream about playing kissy face with Ki-"

The rest of the statement died on Knight's tongue as the poison syringe on Queen's back came centimeters from his face. The green-haired girl glared at Knight. "I suggest you shut your mouth if you don't wish to die right here and now."

"Alright, alright! Geez, somebody's pissy today." Knight said as he held his hands up in defeat.

"Ahem!" Genjiro coughed, getting back the attention of the five members of Checkmate. "Let me explain why I've called you all here. I doubt I need to remind you that despite this egregious setback, Paradise's goal remains the same. But we will need assistance to get back on our feet quickly."

"What do you want us to do? Stand outside grocery stores with buckets, asking for charity?" King commented sarcastically.

Emiri pushed up on her glasses. "You would be wise to watch your mouth, King."

"Now, now, that silver tongue is one of the reasons why I want King to help with this mission." Genjiro explained. "Put simply, I want to align ourselves with another group that's been making headlines recently. The League of Villains."

"Those guys that have attacked U.A repeatedly?" King questioned.

"Indeed. A talented, albeit young, group that has managed to deal blow after blow to this nation's society. And on top of that, they possess the mysterious creatures known as Nomu. Mindless soldiers capable of wielding multiple Quirks. I'm quite interested to know more about them." Genjiro told them. "Therefore, I am assigning you with locating the League of Villains and negotiating an alliance with them."

King shrugged his shoulders. "If it means being able to stretch my legs a bit, then sure. Sounds like fun."

Emiri tapped away at a tablet she was holding. "I've just sent you the data we've collected on leads as to their whereabouts. It should provide you with a good enough start."

King felt a buzz from his phone and took a look at the data from Emiri. "Understood. We'll head out right away."

"One more thing." Genjiro added. "I'm including another member to your team for this."

On cue, the door to the room opened. A girl in her early teens wearing a black hoodie walked in. Streaks of chestnut brown hair fell out from her hood.

"This will be your additional member for this mission. Pawn. She will be helpful in your mission once you locate the League."

King nodded understandingly. Checkmate was a specialized team for various high-level missions. However, there were occasions that a sixth member was temporarily assigned to the team if they had a Quirk that would specialize for their mission. Those temporary members were always referred to by the codename Pawn. Having a Pawn for the mission to capture Fujino Hatsu would have been helpful and could have possibly prevented the disaster that came, but there had been no time to get another member with the urgency of the situation.

Thankfully, now Paradise had nothing but time on its hands.

"I await good news." Genjiro told them.

"Leave it to us. I'm quite interested to meet this League of Villains myself." King said. He turned around and made his way to the door. "Checkmate, let's move out."

A few days had passed since the start of the new semester for U.A. Already, the students of Class 1-C were working hard to grow further as heroes. And today would be an important day for them to learn more about what it would take.

Yamagori stood at her desk and addressed her class. "Now then, today we'll be going into more detail regarding the work studies I mentioned the other day." she explained. "To help with that, I have some assistance from some who have experienced it firsthand." The woman glanced at the door. "You can come in now."

The door to the classroom opened and a trio walked in. The first was a muscular blonde male with bright blue eyes. The second was another male, though this one had pale skin, indigo hair, and a tired expression on his face. The final one was a girl with long periwinkle hair and royal blue eyes. All three of them were wearing U.A uniforms, implying that they were students.

Marcus blinked his eyes in surprise when he saw the girl among them. 'Isn't that the girl who was with Ryukyu during my internship? Nejire was her name if I recall.'

"These three are third years that stand at the top of all current U.A students." Yamagori told her class. "Also known as the Big Three."

The students of Class C stared at the three new arrivals in awe. The Big Three. The best of the best among U.A's student body. The ones closest to the status of pro heroes.

"Alright then. Please introduce yourselves. But keep it brief." Yamagori told the third years. "Amajiki, you can start."

The indigo haired boy looked at the students with a fierce gaze. The first years found themselves overwhelmed in an instant. But just as they thought Amajiki was about to say something, he turned around and faced the wall.

"I can't do this." he muttered. "It's just like with Class A and B. I try to imagine they're potatoes but all I can see is humans."

'Uhh… what?'

Since Amajiki didn't seem to be getting anywhere, the girl with them spoke up. "This is the flea, Tamaki Amajiki. As for me, I'm Nejire Hado. We were asked to talk to you guys today about work studies." She quickly scanned the room of students and widened her eyes. "Oh hey! It's Marcus! Hi Marcus!"

Marcus found his classmates all looking his way. Shiro was the first to speak up.

"Dude, you know her?! How are you acquainted with one of the top students in the school?!"

Marcus shrugged his shoulders. "She was at the same agency as me for my internship. I didn't even realize she was that big of a deal back then."

Nejire quickly moved on from Marcus and went around to other students in the class. "Hey, you're Satoshi, right? Do those wings you have for arms ever feel heavy? Oh, Fiona! What's it like with fins? Do you need to stay even more hydrated than most people? Oh hey, you're Hikari! Can I pet your ears?! They're so fluffy!"

"Ahem!" Yamagori coughed, interrupting Nejire, who had already begun to feel Hikari's cat ears. "Can we get back to the topic at hand?"

"A-Ah don't worry, Ms. Yamagori! Leave the rest to me!" the blonde male of the trio assured her. "My name is Mirio Togata!" He looked at the first year students. "You all look like you don't know what's going on. We're third years that have suddenly to explain about work studies, even though they aren't even required. Confusing, right? So I'll make things simple. Why don't you all fight me at once?"

It took a few seconds for Mirio's words to sink into the students. But once they did, a collective outburst was heard from the class.

"WHAT?!"

"It's the simplest way for you to understand what we've experienced." Mirio explained. "That is, assuming it's alright with you, Ms. Yamagori."

The teacher showed a slightly sinister smirk. "Sure. I think this will make for some good entertainment for me, as well as a good learning experience for them."

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Alicia muttered.

When the students of Class C were first introduced to the superstars of U.A's student body, the last thing they had been expecting was that they would be forced to fight one of them. Yet here they were, standing in the middle of training room Gama, wearing their tracksuits.

"Are you sure about this?" Sarah asked. "I get there's a handicap in place due to experience, but we've all fought with villains. Aren't you at too big of a disadvantage?"

"Not at all." Mirio told them. "Come at me anytime from anywhere."

On the sidelines were Nejire and Amajiki, as well as Yamagori who was sitting in a foldable beach chair. "Shouldn't you be encouraging your students?" Amajiki asked.

"No way. This is going to be great. I almost wish I had a video camera on me." Yamagori told him. "Plus, this will be a good way for them to all learn just how far they have to go."

A tense silence passed over the students of Class C and Mirio as the third year waited to see what the opening move of his twenty-one opponents would be. Finally, Fujino took the lead as she stepped up front. "I'll create an opening. Attack once he's off balance."

Seconds later, a small distortion appeared near Mirio. Fujino began the attack as she said her trigger word.

"Burst."

In that instant, an explosion engulfed Mirio. There was no way he could have escaped it unscathed.

"Now's our chance! Let's surround him!" Shiro shouted as he charged forward. Backing him up were the other close range fighters Marcus, Hikari, Jill, Fiona, Kenji, Vivi, and Nene. They quickly surrounded the debris cloud, waiting for Mirio to emerge. But to their surprise, the cloud of smoke died down and Mirio was standing right where he had been without a single scratch on him.

"No way…" Marcus gasped.

"He took an explosion from Fujino at close range. How does he not have a scratch on him?" Nene questioned.

"So that's the power of the new student I've heard so much about." Mirio said, nonchalantly stretching his arms. "Not bad. That was powerful, yet weak enough to avoid critically injuring someone. Excellent control."

Marcus soon saw an opening and acted on it. He charged forward, changing into his Full Wyvern mode. He still couldn't keep it in control for more than about a minute, but if Mirio was able to take an explosion from Fujino's Quirk without a scratch, then he couldn't afford to hold back. However, it became painfully clear that his transformation wasn't going to matter a few seconds later.

Just as Marcus attempted to knock back Mirio with a swipe from his talon, his attack didn't even make contact with the third year. Or rather, it did, but it went through him. Marcus phased through Mirio's body, with the only thing his body touched being Mirio's clothes that he was now holding.

'Wait… if his clothes are on me then what is he-'

"Ahhhhhh!" Nene screamed as she covered her eyes while her cheeks blushed red.

Mirio quickly brought his hands down to his groin, completely naked. "Sorry about that. My clothes are supposed to work with my Quirk, but sometimes they act a bit finicky."

'So he has a Quirk that lets things move through him? In that case, how do we-'

Marcus's train of thought was interrupted as he received a painful chop to the back of his neck from the third year, knocking him out instantly. Mirio then proceeded to quickly maneuver and dodge each of the attacks that came his way from the other students surrounding him. One shot to each of them was enough to put them in the same hunched over state as Marcus.

Standing afar, the rest of Class C gasped in disbelief as all of their close range specialists were taken down in mere seconds. They knew they were fighting someone with more experience than them, but even they hadn't expected such an incredible display of skill.

Mirio began running towards the students still standing. "Now to deal with the rest."

Knowing close range wasn't going to be to their advantage, Dan attacked with two long whips of water. But just like with Marcus, his attacks simply phased through Mirio. This time, the third year vanished underneath the floor of the training hall.

"Crap, where'd he go?"Hyde wondered. His question was soon answered however as Mirio emerged behind him, knocking him out with a single punch.

"Hyde- Gah, put some clothes on already!" Alicia exclaimed as she covered her eyes. This turned out to be a mistake however as Mirio took out her next.

None of the students seemed to be able to even touch Mirio as he had all of them unconscious or hunched over in the span of a few seconds. Once all of Class C was down for the count, Mirio shouted out through the room.

"POWER!"

Yamagori let out a sigh as she got up from her chair. "Well that was shorter than expected. But the result was easy to see coming."

A few minutes passed by as the students slowly recovered from the one sided beating they had just received from Mirio. Even though they had all been fighting him together, he seemed to have been able to take them all down while making it look easy.

"I tried to make it so you could avoid seeing my willy, but I apologize to the female students." Mirio said as he addressed them. "But hopefully now you get it."

"All I get is that you've got one hell of an amazing Quirk." Hyde grunted. "You could avoid every attack and you seemed to be able to warp too."

"Not exactly. It's not that I have a strong Quirk. It's that I made it into a strong Quirk." Mirio explained. "As you can probably guess, my Quirk is Permeation. It allows me to make my body slip through things. If I activate it throughout my entire body, then I can even slip through the ground. But since things that have mass can't overlap, when I turn it off I get repelled out from the ground. But altering my body, I can change the angle at which I get repelled, allowing me to "warp" as you put it. However, there are drawbacks. While my quirk is activated, my lungs can't take in oxygen. I also can't see or hear since light and vibrations just go right through me as well. So if for example, I want to go through a wall, I have to carefully activate my quirk through parts of my body one at a time in quick succession, or I'll get stuck."

Realization struck the class upon hearing this. Just the theory of it sounded like it was hard to do. Actually performing the task was probably even harder. For Mirio to be able to move so smoothly with his Quirk, it must have taken hundreds if not thousands of hours of intense training.

"When I first started here, I was in dead last. Being able to use my Quirk to act on the fly was tough. But what I needed to get to the top with my Quirk was one thing. Predictions. I had to predict what would happen faster than my opponent, sometimes even being tricky. And what allowed me to be able to predict so quickly and accurately was experience that I built up during my work studies. I built my predictions based on what I knew."

"That's… really amazing." Lilina said.

"In the end, experience is the most important thing for growth. In our work studies, we're not guests. We're treated as sidekicks and as pros. That can be really scary. Sometimes pros watch people die. But all of those scary and tough experiences are things you won't be able to find at school. I changed the experience I got during my work study into power and took the top spot. That's why I think it's something you should try and do even if you're scared, first years."

"Well, that should do for now." Yamagori said. "I think you all understand the advantage of taking part in work studies now. Consider what you learned here as you decide whether or not to seriously try and take part in work studies in the near future."

"Yes, Ms. Yamagori."

"Good. Now let's head back to class."

The League of Villains had gone through a trying time over the past week. First, they had met the leader of a yakuza gang named Overhaul. During that first meeting, they had suffered losses in the form of the death of Magne and loss of Compress's left arm. After that, they had met Overhaul once again a few days later. While the meeting hadn't resulted in any further deaths or injuries for the League, both Toga and Twice were now on loan to Overhaul's group.

On top of all this, the commotion caused from their first encounter had forced them to abandon their previous warehouse base. Instead, they were now using an old abandoned building that seemed like it could fall apart if a bad storm came over it.

Cougar took a bite of her canned tuna. Small meals like this was all they could afford these days. As she ate, Utocha let out a cough. His voice was already hoarse to begin with, but it seemed he had caught a small cold recently which made it even worse.

"So, anyone else up for a game of poker?" Cougar offered.

"It's not like we have any money to bet, so not really." Dabi told her. "Now keep it down. I'm trying to take a nap."

"Tch, you're no fun." Cougar said. "This is so lame. I'm practically dying of boredom."

"Well that's what happens when your face is put on the nation's Most Wanted list. We can't go outside without getting spotted and alerting the cops." Spinner commented.

"Yeah, yeah. I just wish something interesting would happen."

A second after Cougar said this, something changed throughout the room. The bodies of everyone there suddenly felt heavy. Utocha fell to one knee, struggling to stand up. Those sitting or laying down found it tough to get back up.

"The hell? What's going on?" Spinner asked.

"Don't tell me the heroes found us?" Utocha wondered.

The next thing they knew, the door to the room burst open with a forceful kick. Six teens that none of them recognized walked in.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Dabi said as he shot out a stream of blue flames at the group.

Before the flames could burn the group alive, a series of transparent golden walls of light appeared, shielding them from the flames. Thankfully, Dabi had the sense to hold back so the room didn't catch fire.

As Dabi's attack subsided, the gravity went back to normal and one of the mystery teens spoke. "Apologies for our sudden entrance. But I promise you, we mean no harm. We are simply here to talk."

"I suggest you get to the point quickly then." Shigaraki said with a glare. "I'm in a bad mood already as it is."

"Very well. Allow me to start by introducing ourselves. We are Checkmate, the top operatives of an organization known as Paradise."

"Paradise? Aren't you the group that was recently exposed for criminal acts and went into hiding?" Cougar asked.

"The very same." King confirmed. "Things have been rather difficult for us since then. A situation I'm sure you can understand."

"The point. Get to it already."

Shigaraki's tone showed that his mood was gradually worsening, so King continued. "To make a long story short, Paradise wishes to form an alliance with the League of Villains."

"An alliance?" Shigaraki rose from his seat. "We recently had someone else come asking for an 'alliance'. But that's a word that few seem to truly understand the meaning of. If you plan to have us join you as subordinates, that isn't an alliance. I don't like being looked down upon, especially if it's by a bunch of brats like you."

"You needn't worry. That is not the case for us." King assured him. "This alliance would be more of a… business partnership. Give and take."

"And what exactly is it you want from us?"

"At the moment, our leader is rather interested in the Nomu that the League of Villains commands." King explained. "We'd like some if at all possible."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not something we can do right now." Shigaraki told him. "The creator of the Nomu hasn't been very chatty recently. So I won't be able to introduce you to him."

'Well that's a bust.' King silently thought. "We'd settle for you introducing us to him once you hear from him."

"Hold on. You said this was a give and take partnership. What exactly is it you'll be giving?"

"You'll have to ask our boss for that."

"And where exactly is he?"

"Well-"

King was cut short as a strange phenomenon took over everyone in the room. Before anyone knew what was happening, black ooze spewed from their mouths. The ooze enveloped each of their bodies before vanishing with both Checkmate and the League of Villains.

The next thing both groups knew, they were no longer in the building that the League had been hiding out in for the past few weeks. Instead, they were in a dark room filled with large metallic pipelines. Vats filled with a strange blue liquid were along the side of the room. At the far end of it, there was a dark passageway. Neither group seemed to have any understanding as to what had just happened to them.

After King managed to finish coughing and breathe again, he took a quick look at his surroundings. "Where the hell are we?"

"That warping Quirk…" Shigaraki muttered. "So, you finally showed yourself, eh doc? Took you long enough."

"Don't get ahead of yourself Tomura. I didn't do it for your benefit." a new voice spoke.

All heads turned to the dark passageway at the end of the room. A small figure could just barely be made out from the shadows, but it was too dark to get any details.

"Who's the old man?" Knight asked.

"How rude. It seems manners truly are a rarity with the youth these days." the man said. "You may refer to me as Doctor for now."

"I assume the warping Quirk just now was your doing then?" King questioned. "Why did you summon us here?"

"You wanted to meet with the creator of the Nomu, did you not?"

"And you're saying that's you?"

"Indeed." he said. "Tomura can confirm it himself."

"Don't use me as some source of credibility." Shigaraki said with a scowl. "You go silent on me for this long, and when you finally make yourself known again it doesn't even have a thing to do with us? If I didn't know any better doc, I'd say you didn't have any respect for me."

"That's because I don't." Doctor told him. "Personally, I don't think you are worthy of being the successor to All For One as you are now. But I'd prefer not to digress from the topic at hand." He turned his attention to King and the other members of Checkmate. "I am rather curious as to what the leader of Paradise wants with my beloved Nomus however."

"You can ask him yourself." King said with a smirk. He glanced over to the hooded girl on his team. "Pawn. You're up."

"Of course." Pawn said as she stepped forward. Underneath her hood, her right eye began to shine with a pale blue light. A second later, a video screen popped up in front of her, as if her eye was broadcasting it. On the video was Genjiro, the leader of Paradise.

"A communication Quirk. I see your leader has the foresight to gather Quirks that are practical outside of combat in addition to those for combat."

"You flatter me." Genjiro spoke on the other end. "I assume you are responsible for the Nomu?"

"You assume correctly." Doctor confirmed. "I've been informed you have need for my Nomu. I'm curious to know what a man who controls hundreds of human soldiers with various Quirks could want with my children."

"While human soldiers provide the benefit of being able to follow complex commands, powerful creatures able to wield multiple Quirks at once could also prove useful." Genjiro explained. "Of course, I'd never be so upfront as to ask this with no compensation in mind. I have a proposition for you."

"And what would this proposition be?"

"I assume the Quirks that the Nomu use are taken from people and given to the Nomu, correct? Gathering lab rats for such things must prove somewhat difficult at times I'm sure. But as you know, I am in command of plenty of soldiers with powerful Quirks. And to be frank, some of them are… disposable if necessary."

"Intriguing. So you propose to let me allow use of my Nomu in exchange for providing me with live humans with powerful Quirks?" the Doctor asked.

"Indeed."

Doctor thought to himself. It wasn't a bad offer. But Paradise had already taken a recent blow to their credibility when the truth behind their organization was leaked. He couldn't be certain that such a group was worthy of using his Nomu.

"I am willing to consider this." the man said. "However, I have a condition."

"A condition?"

"Indeed. This group of yours standing before me claimed to be Paradise's top operatives, correct? If so, I'd like them to prove they can handle themselves."

"What do you want us to do? Fight you?" Knight asked with a chuckle. "Not much of a test if it's an easy win."

"Oh no. It is not me you'll be fighting." the Doctor said. It was hard to tell through the Shadows, but he seemed to smirk slightly. "I want you to help me with some early stage testing of my latest creation. The High-End."

A/N: Phew, this was certainly on the longer end for my chapters in this fic. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of the War on Paradise arc. And of course, Paradise wouldn't be complete without its elite team Checkmate. How will the rest of this arc play out? You'll just have to wait and see.