merlinoi: it's a mix of opinions, headcanons, and very canon events. midoriya must feel some sort of guilt for having a quirk when he found out he could have gotten through with just rescue points, and etc, etc. it only makes sense & it's humane of him if so. i wanted to somewhat flesh out his character!

...

"I still think it's embarrassing," Kugisaki whispers to him. Sitting at the farthest back of the bus while the Number Two Pro-Hero's son is right in front of them, Megumi, for the sixth time that day, hisses at Kugisaki that no, just because they have the whole back for themselves, does not mean that she can go off and stretch her legs. They, like a handful of others, ignored the seating arrangement by numbers. "I can't believe he just gave up the Class Representative position like that. Well, I never thought he was suited for it, and I would've voted for Yaoyorozu or Īda but you know, isn't that kind of embarrassing?"

Both Megumi and Kugisaki are clearly comfortable with their so-called 'Pro-Hero costume' because of how similar it is to their uniform and they do not want anything more than that. However, after the Battle Trials, the Support Department opted to add more creative liberties with the faint circular pattern now mirrored at the back, dark enough that you have to choose a proper angle to actually catch a sight of it but it is annoying enough that Kugisaki and Megumi are tempted to go to the Support Department to ask them to remove it but at the same time, they really don't want to make a fuss. Megumi does not really care as much as Kugisaki who is unbelievably irritated at the changes made. They remember scribbling down on their costume application that as much as possible, no changes should be made but of course, the Support Department just cannot listen.

"At least he's not the Rep anymore," Megumi offers.

"He creeps me out. I saw him muttering at the corner of the room yesterday when Kaminari sneezed and made his phone black out."

Megumi glances at the chattering students at the front side of the bus. Asui Tsuyu (Third Grade Curse and what the hell is a frog quirk, anyway) suddenly speaks right after Ashido. She turns to the aforementioned Midoriya. "Hey, Midoriya, I always say what I think no matter what's on my mind—" Midoriya shrieks her name. "It's fine. Call me Tsuyu, but anyway, your Quirk reminds me of All Might." Kugisaki raises an eyebrow and leans to the seat in front of her, interested for once.

Midoriya begans stammering, his body frozen and his eyes wandering everywhere. Megumi mimics Kugisaki's curiosity, crossing his arms. "Tha—that so—so?! Haha, bu—but mine isn't like," he trails off suspiciously.

Kirishima agrees. "Wait up, Asui! All Might never gets hurt. That's where the likeness ends. I'm kind'a jealous of that kind of simple enhancer-type Quirk, though! There's a lot you can do with one, and flashy too." He stretches his arms, sending a surge of his Quirk and hardening it in a blink of an eye. "My 'hardening' power isn't bad for punch-ups, but I hate that it's just not flashy."

"Well, I think it's an awesome Quirk! Definitely a Quirk that'll be of great use to a Pro-Hero!"

Ashido puts a hand on Aoyama's shoulder, another Third-Grade Curse that Megumi only glances over for now. "Pros, huh? But you know, Heroics has a lot about it that's more of a popularity contest too, right?" Kirishima thinks out loud, and Aoyama quickly responds with a compliment for his own Quirk: "My navel laser is both flashy and strong enough for a Pro."

"But it'd be bad if your stomach gets upset."

"I hate this conversation."

Megumi turns his gaze to Kugisaki, her voice silent but clearly heard only by him. She leans back to her seat with narrowed eyes. Her hair tickles the edge of her neck, her clothing familiar along with her permanently disgusted face. Her hands are clenched around the cloth of her top, eyebrows furrowed and her grimace deep. "Aren't Pro-Heroes supposed to be saving people? All they're caught up is popularity, flashiness—" She cuts herself off before she continues ranting on. She pulls her legs to her chest, having long since taken off her shoes. She puts her head on her knees. She is obviously close to blowing up on their classmates. The only thing holding her back is catching attention but she is so obviously annoyed, cheeks flushed and glaring at the front. "How can they even proudly say that they want to be a 'hero' when their motivation is something as low as that?"

Kugisaki is not an empathetic person. Everybody knows that. She rarely cares for others unless they affect the people she claims she treasures and if they affect herself. A selfish person. A very, very selfish person. But even selfish people like Kugisaki know what they want and thus, know what they actually are—and Megumi surrenders, in a way. "That's because they're not trying to be heroes," he sighs, "They're trying to be Pro-Heroes."

This statement, however, does bot faze Kugisaki's annoyance. She continues to glare at the people at the front of the bus. "If the people I'm relying on to save me are these kinds of people, I'd be so disgusted. They're all just glorified cops. If they want better Law Enforcement, they should have just allowed the cops to use their Quirks. Why do they even need 'Pro-Heroes'?" She rambles. "I'm not even going to start about Yaoyorozu's costume. I get that she needs to show as much skin as possible because of her Quirk but those heels? The lack of padding in her joints? She's just going to end up getting prone to attacks. All of them are so—" She runs a hand down her face.

Celebrities and Pro-Heroes become synonymous to one another before anyone knows it. There is All Might with the multiple brands he is working with from something as simple as underwear and candies, to something as big as gadgets and even housing subdivisions. Present Mic has a Radio Show and for what exactly? While people in Law Enforcement can have their own sidelines, the main reason why Present Mic takes in so much viewers is because of his status as a very popular Pro-Hero. Are 'heroes' even supposed to be popular? Are they even supposed to be ranked? In what way? The amount of people they saved? The gravity of who they saved? Their favorability? If they are talking about most solved cases, then it is supposed to be Endeavor at the top of the chain and not All Might. All Might who may be the strongest Pro-Hero but still pales in comparison to Endeavor in terms of amount of cases sold but still because the Unbeatable All Might, the Symbol of Peace, because of his charismatic smiles partnered with his unfathomable strength.

Every single time they enter this class, every single time they mingle with their classmates, the hypocrisy is only strengthened. Megumi continues to question this society over and over again with each passing day. And though his disgust grows, he tries to convince himself that at least there are many people who enforce the laws effectively but he struggles. He truly struggles. And as their classmates chatter about popularity and of Quirks, Megumi's disgust only grows. He looks at them from afar and wonders if these people truly deserve calling themselves heroes.

They are lucky enough to arrive in their destination before Kugisaki can fully blow up. As the last people to exit the bus, Kugisaki slams the door shut unconsciously, a bang faintly heard. Bakugō snaps his head to their direction from the crowd and squints before turning his attention back to Kirishima who drags him back. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint is as extra as the other facilities in UA and just looking at it makes Megumi wonder even more where the money actually came from because this is literally something like the USJ, the Universal Studios Japan.

"Flood wrecks, landslides, fires, and etcetera—this is a Practica Training Area that I created to stimulate all kinds of incidents and disasters. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint!" Announces the astronaut-like staff in the middle of the crowd. Megumi is pretty sure he has seen that Pro-Hero in the magazines in the convenience store; the Pro-Hero with one of the highest number of saved people.

"It's Space Hero: Thirteen!"

"He's the gentlemanly hero who does phenomenal work helping with disaster reliefs!"

"I've always liked Thirteen!"

Aizawa approaches Thirteen for a moment, sharing a few words before Thirteen goes back to talking to the students. "Before we begin. Just one thing, or two, or three—or four," she starts. She raises a single finger in the air, summoning a void. Megumi scowls when he sees the faint lines of air getting absorbed into the hole. "I'm certain you're all quite aware, but my Quirk is called 'Black Hole'. No matter what material may get sucked into its vortex, I'm afraid it will turn into dust."

Kugisaki shudders beside Megumi. "I thought it was just an exaggeration from the magazines but it's actually real," she comments just as Midoriya praises Thirteen's Quirk for its usefulness is rescue missions, most specifically in getting rid of rubble and debris.

Megumi, however, thinks otherwise, which is resounded by Thirteen who looks down gravely. "Yes. It is, however, also a power that could easily be used to kill people and in that way, it's not different from the Quirks around here—" Kugisaki elbows Megumi, nodding to Thirteen's direction in approval, finally calming down. "Naturally, in this society of superhumans, Quirks are strictly regulated, and the requirements for their lawful use enforced. We can tell at a glance that that is the make-up of this world. That being said, each of you possesses a Quirk that can go awry. One wrong step is all it takes to kill other accidentally. During Aizawa-san's Apprehension Test, you learned of your respective power's potential. And during All Might's Battle Trial, I think you took away a true sense of danger of brandishing those Quirks against one another. This lesson will serve as a fresh start! Let's get to studying about how to wield our Quirks for the sake of human life. Your Quirks empathetically do not exist to hurt others!"

Kugisaki crosses her arms, putting her weight on her right leg. "At least someone said it," she mutters.

"They're just in-training, after all," Megumi reasons but it falls dead in the air with the single brow that Kugisaki raised. He rolls his eyes. "It's not an excuse, I know." But they're civilians, he thinks to himself. Mere civilians who have nothing to their name and even less experiences to even be called suitable to be in this school. Megumi, after Yaoyorozu's quick defeat, after Kaminari who had an advantage over Kugisaki was also beaten down with ease, prefers to just see them as civilians instead of whatever they are supposed to be.

If Megumi just thinks of them as civilians, then their actions will not bother Megumi as much.

"That is all! You have my gratitude for listening so intently and patiently!" Thirteen bows, earning excited shrieks from Midoriya and Uraraka.

Aizawa calls for everyone's attention: "All right, first thing's first—"

The thing about sorcerers is that they are more physically capable than the average person. Their senses, physical strength, agility—all of those are better compared to a civilian; Kugisaki can easily throw an eighty-kilogram Itadori across the room and Megumi can also do so with both of them. Which is why Megumi and Kugisaki are the first to see it before anyone does, and they throw away all reminders of staying low, going with the flow, and keeping their mouth shut because Megumi steps forward and shouts: "Sensei!"

Aizawa turns around right as Megumi calls him, catching the sight of a dark purple portal floating in mid-air. A hand pokes out and—Kugisaki grabs Megumi's sleeve out of instinct as they watch a figure come out of the void, the same blueish hair that they had religiously avoided, the same hands that decorated each side of his face, and the same eye that seemed may as well be compared to that of a Curse. Kugisaki's voice dies down in her throat as Aizawa quickly warns his students: "Huddle together and don't move!"

Megumi clicks his tongue. Awful plan! His mind immediately goes haywire, focusing one thing and one thing only: enemies. There are enemies and therefore they must be stopped and they are just continuously pouring out of a portal (portal—portal; Itadori's hand, his wide eyes, Kugisaki's shout, Nitta-san who immediately runs, the feeling of getting squeeze dried and he feels like he is getting ripped apart and—a slap—Kugisaki's eyes are rimmed red but there are no tears but there—there is a portal and he) and with a whisper from Kugisaki, Megumi instinctively steps on his own shadow and tugs out the toy hammer Kugisaki told him to hold on to. "Thirteen! Protect the students!" Everything in Megumi's body is telling him that no, he does not trust how well Thirteen can control that destructive Quirk of his so he pulls Kugisaki to the back of the crowd, his fingers tight around her collar and she lets him.

Kirishima—that idiot!—puts a hand on his forehead. "What is this? Is this like a training pattern at the Entrance Exam?" He asks.

Megumi is cut off in shouting at him when Aizawa tugs down his goggles to his eyes. "Don't move! Those are Villains!"

As expected, the class erupts into panic and Megumi wants to grumble at them to shut up, do something instead of yelling around like civilians but his eyes are focused on nothing but the portal, staring at it as if trying to search for something familiar but what did the portal look again? He remembers getting pulled in it out of panic, reaching for Itadori as did Kugisaki but what did it look like again? The feeling of getting ripped apart is there but what did it look like? Was it as dark as that? Was it as purple as that? His hands are shaking, eager to search for the source of the portal to ask them if that portal is the same portal from back then, from months and months ago, the bane of his dreams, the object of his nightmares, the reason why Kugisaki wakes up too early sometimes and why he has no choice but to follow knowing what will await him when he sleeps—Megumi's fingernails scratch against one another as his classmates chatter, and chatter, and continue to talk like there are no enemies in front of them.

He tells himself to calm down. He forces himself to.

He has gone through too many battles to count and this will not be the last. He is a sorcerer, possessing the Ten Shadows Technique that only appears once in a few generations. He shouldn't be panicking over third-rate criminals! (But the portal—) He zones directly to Aizawa's voice: "Thirteen, do the evacuation procedure and try calling the school! These Villains know how to get around the sensors! There's a chance that there's an electrowave-type guy who'll do the interfereing!" He exclaims. "Kaminari! You too! Try contacting the school with your Quirk!" The boy only stammers.

Midoriya's eyebrows furrow. "Sensei! You're going to fight them alone?! Even if you suppress all of their Quirks, there are too many of them! The battle style of 'Eraserhead' is to capture the Villains after erasing their Quirks! Meaning, the main battle starts now—"

"A hero always has a trick up their sleeves."

Megumi lets goosebumps travel down his spine as Aizawa slides down the stairs, pulling out the capture tapes that he is most known for. He easily maneuvers around his enemies, experience evident in his movements. "Incredible! I forgot one-on-group battle is sensei's specialty!" Midoriya comments.

"This is no time for analysis! We have to evacuate!"

With another click of his tongue, Megumi lets both of his hands clasp together, earning a gasp from Midoriya. "Fushiguro, you—"

"As if I'll leave him alone," Megumi grits his teeth, feeling his shadows dance upon the arrival of his twin dogs. They quickly run for the direction of Aizawa but before Megumi can turn around and follow his classmates, the portal appears again and he freezes. His body is put to stone, the clouds of purple mocking him as they hover above their figures.

"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that," says the mist and and and Megumi has forgotten what the portals look like, the feeling kissing his skin like an old wound but Itadori is there, Kugisaki is shouting for him, and they are deep, deep in the ocean, "Greetings. We are the League of Villains. I apologize for the presumption but we took it upon ourselves to enter UA Academy, the base of Heroes. In order to engage with All Might-san, the Symbol of Peace, we were wondering if we were—"

"Quit yapping, Calcifer!" Kugisaki's familiar voice rings among the crowd, the familiar sight of her nail tearing through the air. But this proves useless when even her famed destruction merely goes through a portal, falling somewhere else. "Are you serious?"

Kirishima and Bakugō hastily follow suit with Kugisaki's aggression, each dealing their own attacks to the mist. A low hum comes out of the Villain: "That was quite perilous. To be expected. Though you may be mere students, you are also the world's 'golden eggs'," he remarks.

Thirteen tries to stop the three from continuing further, knowing how fruitless the outcome would be with their enemy being that masterful with his Quirk. "It's no use! Just run—" In a span of five seconds, Megumi is quickly reminded of everything he hates. The mist expands, and expands, and expands. The first thing he searches for is Kugisaki and in that instant, he remembers: like most Sorcerers, Kugisaki has heightened physical strength and she has no problem throwing Itadori across the room. And as the mist devours them, as Megumi shouts for her, Kugisaki kicks him out of the reach of the mist, making him stumble the ground and nearer to Īda's side.

The world is mocking him, he thinks, as Kugisaki is sucked into the mist and only a reassuring look is what he gets. "This isn't the first time this happened—" Is the last thing Megumi hears from Kugiskai before her body completely disappears.

...

It's official; Nobara has officially been pulled into portals for a grand total of three times in her history as a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Not that she really means to do it but the first time had been the fight against the Finger Bearer Curse, and much recently, against the Cursed Brothers. The latter had her reassuring Fushiguro the same thing, that it was going to be alright but she cannot get the look of despair in Fushiguro's face out of her mind. (The portal, the portal, the portal, the portal, the portal—) Her body did not feel like it was getting ripped apart. It was more comfortable than that, welcoming, cold but she felt like she was walking on clouds as she goes through it. In that brief instance she passed through the mist, she felt like she was in the skies, far from the nightmarish claws that dug to her skin and begged to tear her body into pieces. It was kinder than that.

Because of her admittedly embarrassing experiences in getting throw to portals, Nobara easily falls to her feet, knees bent and her hand clutching her hammer as tight as she can. A few meters away from her is Todoroki Shōto, classed as Second-Grade Curse in power and potential but should not even be a Third-Grade Curse in terms of his actual threat to their secret. And another handful of meters away from her is a crowd of Villains and this infuriates her even more. She already started her day out badly with how hypocrital her classmates had been, her temperature rising and rising with each second she hears them babbling about popularity in the same sentence as being heroes—and now, the Villains have arrived and the portal-mist (Itadori had been so, so, so close, so, so close and she reaches but her arms are too short, Itadori is too far, and she hates the sea) stretches around them—her Cursed Energy grumbles underneath her skin.

She glances at Todoroki. He can probably deal with this one his own, instantly freeze everyone in the vicinity but is holding back because of her presence. His hesitant look on her is burning at the back of her head. With an aggravated sigh and ignoring the typical string of words Villains use against their victims, Nobara switches her rubber mullet with her actual hammer, pulling out an array of nails along with them. "Todoroki, do me a favor and freeze them the moment my attack hits," she says, but she does not listen to whatever he has to say and quickly slams the butt of her hammer to the direction of the crowd.

Her nails move past the Villains, earning a startled but amused sound from them. "What? The little girl can't aim for shi—" Nobara turns her left hand into a fist, forcing the nails to stop in mid-air and the moment she releases it, so do the restricted explosions of her Energy. As promised, Todoroki's ice rushes to the Villains, freezing them up to their waist and trapping their arms with them.

"Scatter us and kill us all?" Todoroki resounds what the Mist-Villain had said only minutes ago. Nobara's eye twitches, now that she finally sees him from head-to-toe, not finding his costume appealing. Her blood boils even more. "Sorry to say it, but to me it looks like you're just a load of mooks who don't know their Quirks from their rear ends."

"Right. Now then," Nobara walks up to them, lifting her knuckles and punching one of them straight to their nose. She pulls their collar down to her height. "Why the hell are you exactly here, you bunch of third-rates?"

"As if I'll tell—"

Nobara throws another punch, the feeling of bones cracking under her skin giving her a sense of elation. Her temper slowly recedes, her mind narrowed to getting as much information from the man as much as possible. Her grin widens. "Todoroki's ice is powerful, you know. You'll quickly undergo necrosis with the rate it's going and," her fist rises again, this time with her burning nails in between of each finger, "You wouldn't want to be intimate with my toys, would you?"

The Villain shrieks, quickly responding with the details of their plan: All Might. They are trying to kill these children all because of some grudge against All Might, dragging innocent lives for the sake of putting down the Symbol of Peace, the reason why this society is still standing and apparently, they have a secret weapon, one who can rival even the strength of All Might, himself and just hearing him speak makes Nobara drop her nails back to her bag, and drives her fist deep into the broken nose of the villain.

Nobara does not dare let go of the Villain's collar. She contemplates: Megumi had told her once that these children, even Todoroki, are just civilians. She was never really told that she was a sorcerer because she had to protect other people but because it was always like that. If Todoroki was not around, Nobara would have done more than punch this Villain (and she remembers Itadori's face from the back of her mind, his eyebrows rising and his eyes looking at her disapproingly and she hates it). Not to mention, All Might is the Symbol of Peace. Hypocrisy and disgust aside, even Nobara and her narrowmindedness knows how important his existence is in keeping this society stable. All Might is the Symbol of Peace, the hope of everyone, the inspiration of everyone, and the Messiah. He may as well have started his own religion with how many people treat him as god already.

And a threat to the Symbol of Peace, a threat to the Messiah for the people is automatically 'The Devil'—the oni to Momotarō, the Eight-headed Dragon to Susanō-no-Mikoto.

Just hearing these Villains speak of a threat comparable to All Might will, no doubt, put fear on the masses after their hesitancy. Because All Might is the strongest so nobody can defeat him, right? Nobara is not sure about how strong this threat is and while she does not give two fucks about All Might, the personification of the system that she hates, she does not this world to crumble. She does not this Japan to fall to their knees because of All Might's loss and she has no plans in letting these children die for something as shallow as Villains wanting to defeat the Symbol of Peace. And if Itadori is here, no, she knows Itadori is here, she would not want him to live in such environment.

So Nobara pulls down the Villain even lower, watching the ice crumble with his weight. She whispers to his ear: "A pink-haired boy with marks under his eyes. Have you seen him around?" The genuine confusion on the Villain's face makes Nobara roll her eyes. She punches him again, this time, with the intention of knocking him out. Todoroki returns to her side after making sure the rest of the Villains are unconscious before they return to wherever Aizawa and the others are. She looks at him from head-to-toe, spotting no injuries. She quickly makes up an excuse: "Just a word of advice but white doesn't suit you. You look like you look good in blue."

Todoroki looks at her impassively, not in the mood for anything she is even saying. "I don't want to be classmates with a half-assed Shishio Makoto," Nobara adds but Todoroki's deadpanned expression only turns into confusion.

Ah, Nobara pauses, Rurōni Kenshin is from the nineties.

...

・ momotarou (桃太郎, peach boy) is a hero from japanese folklore. he was said to have been born from a peach and when he grew up, he left his parents to fight an oni.

・ takehaya-susano'o-no-mikoto (建速須佐之男命) is the shinto god of the seas and the storms. he is the younger brother of amaterasu and he is famous for slaying the eight-headed dragon, the yamata-no-orochi.

・ rurouni kenshin: meiji swordsman romantic story (るろうに剣心 明治剣客浪漫譚, rurouni kenshin: meiji kenkaku roman tan) or simply known as samurai x was a very, very popular anime and manga back in the late 90s to the early 2000s. even my mom was a huge simp for him which is, understandable. shishio makoto is one of its characters who is shown to have bandages all over his body.

・ note: for some reason, the linebreaks... don't appear? i'm going to stick with my own linebreaks now.

...

the grass is greener on the other side