Chapter 3

The next day was filled with excitement for (depending on the individual) either the favourite or least liked lesson of the curriculum. Although Argent was a lot less popular than All Might (he was THE Symbol of Peace after all) she was still the number eleven ranked hero.

"Welcome to Foundational Hero Studies. I already told you that you would need to train on your own for the sports festival, but that does not mean that I am going to let your education in similar fields suffer. From what I heard All Might simulated a bomb threat scenario with varying success last week, but because he decided not to write anything of value down and the video tapes were deleted for privacy reasons, I am left with nothing."

"Oh no... Do we have to repeat that now?" asked Denki. He had no desire to repeat his less than stellar performance from last time and embarrass himself again.

She fixed him with a glare:
"To answer your question, Kaminari, yes and no. This time you will be dealing with a hostage situation."

"Oui! I shall save the damsel in distress and be the shining knight this world desires!" proclaimed Yuga, earning himself the confused stares of the whole class.

Ignoring him the diminutive hero continued:
"Two of you will be the villains and two of you will be the heroes."

"So far so good." mumbled Izuku nervously. He too did not wish to re-experience the slightly traumatic events of the first exercise. Although compared to actual villains trying to kill his friends, Kacchan trying to hurt him was nothing new.

"And one will be the hostage."

"Darn it."

Tenya raised his hand and butted in:
"Ms. Argent, will be randomly chosen again? And why are we playing the hostages? We are heroes in training not civilians!"

Izuku couldn´t contain himself. Wasn´t it obvious?

"That is because we can´t always predict what´s going to happen to us. Even with our powers we could be caught unaware and held hostage. For example if a villain took your partner captive then what do you do? It will happen to at least one of us at some point and this exercise is designed to prepare us for that! We need to also know how to behave as hostages safely so that we don´t endanger other when they are trying to rescue us."

"Very good Midoriya. And no, you will not be randomly chosen. That would be counterproductive to a controlled test of your abilities."

"Um, didn´t All Might say-"

"Don´t interrupt me again if you don´t want detention."

Absolute silence suffocated the classroom.

"The rules are as follows: The two villains will attempt to move from one end of the training area to the other with their captive. If they touch the yellow line on the eastern wall they win. To do this they may use any means necessary to a reasonable degree. Quirks are allowed, but please refrain from action that may seriously harm or debilitate your classmates. Is that understood?"

"YES MS. DEGURECHAFF!" intoned the crowd of nervous students.

"The heroes naturally start on the opposite side of the field and will try to... Bakugou are you listening? What do you think real pro heroes should do in this kind of situation?"

With a look that practically screamed 'Are you shitting me?' he huffed:
"Stop the bastards obviously."

"Incorrect. Does anyone care to explain why?"

Momo instantly held her hand up which earned her a nod from Argent.

"The top priority of a hero should be to save the hostage and then apprehend the criminals. The whole mission would be a failure if the victim gets abducted or worse – killed."

"Completely right. You should always prioritize saving people over beating the villains as a general rule. Of course there are exceptions, but you will likely cover those next year. You have a question Uraraka?"

"Ehm... Are the hostages allowed to fight back? I mean... ehm... how realistic is this going to be?"

"An excellent question. Yes they will be able to fight back, but not in the way you think. First, their hands are going to be tied together with capture tape behind their back and you are not allowed to break it! Only the hero team or the villain team may unbind them if they so choose. Secondly, if the villains feel threatened enough by either the heroes or their prisoners then they will be able to kill you."

Shocked gasps rang out.

"Not really of course. What are you thinking? If they can immobilize their target on the ground for longer than five seconds then that counts as a kill. In that case the heroes are going to automatically lose, but the villains also give up their leverage and will be mercilessly hunted down. If they cannot reach the border during the next minute they will be announced as captured."

"That sound´s kinda cool actually..." whispered somebody.

"Dude, didn´t you learn anything from the first day? You jinxed it!"

Fortunately Argent seemed to ignore the remark and instead sent the student to the locker rooms to change into their costumes.

~[#҈#]~

Many liked to think that while Nedzu was incredibly intelligent he obviously couldn´t know everything that happened in his school. That was true to a certain extent, but those people also forgot that he had access to some of the most advanced design and production facilities in the world together with a sheer unending stream of fresh and innovative minds that could build him whatever gadgets he desired. It was funny really, he mused, that a species which would have died out long ago if they had not embraced progress, so often forgot about what technology could do for them.

Individual humans were weak.

Although the age of quirks had somewhat remedied that fact, it still held true for the majority of the population. To bridge the gap and become more powerful they could either join a collective and search for protection in a group or they could use science to achieve the impossible. From experience he could tell that only the second option worked reliably. Too bad then that technological progress has been brought to a near standstill with the rise of superhuman powers. The humans had romanticized their organic skills while forgetting that the most awe-inspiring thing, nature itself, left them with so many unused possibilities.

Intellect and understanding reigned supreme, even against super-strength or speed. It always had and it always would. For those who knew how to play the strings of the universe were the ones in control over those that blindly followed them. It was the 'Mind over Body' principle and Nedzu had proved it to be correct an uncountable amount of times. (Well, actually he could count them, but that was not the point.)

In its most basic application that meant that even a small, powerless rodent like himself could kill All Might if he wanted. All it would take would be an untraceable amount of poison in his tea or a direct bullet to the head or a room full of Fluor gas. It would be ridiculously easy really and that terrified him.

Not because he feared himself, that would be pathetic.

But because anyone not blinded by the propaganda of the Hero Public Safety Commission and similar organizations could easily see through the great lie that quirks were the most powerful thing a person could possess. That it was what gave them value and identity.

In reality that could not be further from the truth. Did having hands give you an advantage over someone with no hands? Of course. But if that person lost their hands in an accident? Then they were just a useless as the other one. And more importantly, what if the handless person learned to work with their feet? As silly as this metaphor was it still applied to the world of quirks.

Nedzu didn´t need a surveillance quirk or one that let him look through walls or turn invisible. He had an army of robots and cameras and bugging devices tirelessly reporting everything of importance in his domain to the comfortable safety of his office.

He had wandered off topic again, hadn´t he?

Nedzu chuckled to himself. Sometimes hyper-intelligence also had its downsides.

Anyways, at the moment he was watching the live feed of Degurechaff´s first exercise with class 1-A. Tiny spider-bots, barely visible to the naked eye were recording her body language and heat signature while cleverly hidden cameras all over the campus were tracking her facial expressions down to the most minute twitch. Long-range directional microphones captured her every word, although that was not really necessary as his lip-reading software already automatically translated whatever she said.

He could do that with every person who set foot on school grounds (and even most people in the world when he hacked himself into the traffic camera network). While not legal, he was careful to never leave a trace that would point these 'cyber-attacks' to him. (Which also was redundant considering that nobody had ever noticed him breaking into the system at all.)

Perhaps he should send an anonymous tip to improve digital security to the government...

Oh, he was getting sidetracked again.

Silently he sipped at his lukewarm tea as he watched with rapt attention how Degurechaff treated her students. She was efficient, professional if not a bit too reserved sometimes. Her unwavering focus on her pupils brought him joy. To think that she would take her job so seriously and become so comfortable in her role already...

The HPSC had sent her résumé four days ago. It had included a provisional teaching licence which he strongly suspected to be fake pretext to infiltrate his school. When would the girl have had the same time to learn pedagogy after all? All the signs pointed to the reality that she had spent most of her short life getting stronger to quickly climb the public hero rankings. If his hunch was correct then that meant the girl had been drilled on how to properly treat school children in only three days. Impressive.

In such a short amount of time she seemed to have integrated better than Toshinori did during his three month crash-course.

Was she a trapped genius like him? Had she been forced into the life of a marionette for the HPSC despite a mind that understood too much and learned too fast?

The pain in her eyes had disappeared, Nedzu noted with interest.

Had he deluded himself about the memory of that fateful day?

Maybe she had found peace and slipped back under the blessed veil of obliviousness?

Or had she just learned to hide it from this cruel world that sought to exploit one´s every weakness?

~[#҈#]~

Izuku excitedly scribbled into his notebook. This lesson was so interesting! He got to learn so much about the character of his classmates! While he would have rather discovered more about their quirks instead he knew that a psychological evaluation was also important to determine their optimal strategies as heroes.

For example Kouda had hesitated to 'kill' his hostage Sero despite the game not being real and as a result had ended up tangled up in the tape he produced. A potential weakness that was endearing, but could cost his life if not corrected.

Bakugou had been as angry as always end had blasted off without listening to his teammate. Unsurprisingly his aggressive strategy had gifted him the win, although Ms. Argent seemed pretty displeased with it.

He himself had been picked as a hero together with Yaoyorozu which he guessed had something to do with the fact that he couldn´t really use All Might´s quirk at the moment. Yaoyorozu could basically create anything she knew the atomic makeup of, so he could fight with access to support items. Indeed her flash-grenades had been the key to victory for them both against Hagakure and Mina. (He was calling another girl by her first name! How cool! His mom would be proud if he had the courage to tell her about it.)

Suddenly someone shook his shoulder and he instinctively flinched.

"Deku, lesson is over. We have to go."

"Y-yes, Ochako."

He could feel his cheeks flushing red.

~[#҈#]~

"You wanted to talk to me after class, Miss Degurechaff?

"Yes, I want you to explain a few things to me. Specifically, the fire aspect of your quirk."

Shoto's fist clenched at his side and his voice involuntarily grew tight as he asked:
"What about it?"

"Does it only allow you to create small flames?"

"... No."

"Then why do you only use it to free your opponents caught in your ice during training exercises?"

"Why is it any of your business how I use my quirk?"

"Because I'm your teacher, which you should keep in mind when you are talking to me. Now answer the question."

"Tch. It's because I can become Japan's top hero without using my father's flames. My ice will be enough alone."

"I see, so you openly admit that you haven't been performing to the best of your abilities this entire time, and your reasoning for doing so is nonsensical."

Shoto grinds his teeth and grits out, "If that's all you needed to say, am I free to go?"

"You are not until I dismiss you, which depending on the rest of this conversation, might be on a permanent basis."

"What are you saying?"

"That you are very close to being expelled from this school, Todoroki Shoto."

"What? You can't do that!"

"Actually, as I can file a formal complain to the principal about your behaviour within five minutes, it would be rather easy. Seeing as Mr. Aizawa has expelled entire classes for less, I think it would be approved immediately."

"But you wouldn't. I'm the top student of my year and son of the number two hero in the country. UA wouldn't risk the public backlash."

"Any negative press generated from your expulsion would pale in comparison to that brought about by having a lazy and careless hero associated with this school. Especially when, not if, but when you inevitably let someone die because you didn't utilize your quirk to its fullest. UA has a reputation of producing the finest heroes in Japan, and having someone as arrogant as yourself become an alumnus would tarnish that reputation."

"Then I'd just go to another school. Any hero school in the country would take me."

Tanya shrugged behind her desk and leaned her elbows on it, fingers crossed in front of her.

"Perhaps, but expulsion is a black mark on your record, and when the reason behind it is revealed, it will form a powerful stigma around you. It's cost versus benefit at that point. Do they risk dealing with such a troublesome, albeit prestigious student who may very well become a subpar hero? The potential negative association you'd bring them might very well be enough to dissuade any from accepting you."

Shoto was practically shaking with cold fury by now, but managed to ask:
"What do you want?"

"It's quite simple, actually. You are going to go speak to the counsellor, Hound Dog about whatever your issues with the fire aspect of your quirk are, while also utilizing said fire during training exercises from now on. If I feel you aren't giving your all during these exercises, I won't hesitate to expel you, understand?"

The young man did not answer as he glared at the diminutive woman, but she simply quirked a brow and repeated herself.

"I asked if you understand, Todoroki."

"... I understand. I'll use his fire during exercises," he says, voice low. "Once I graduate and become a pro-hero, I can prove to you and everyone else that my ice is enough."

Tanya hummed and leaned back in her seat, picking up a paper on her desk and reading it, no longer focusing on the boy.

"We'll see," she said simply. "You are dismissed."

Shoto held his glare for a few seconds longer before he turned around and stiffly walked out of the classroom.

Tanya would wait a few weeks to see what her colleague, Hound Dog, had to say about the issue and how much the boy began to improve before she decided whether to follow through with her threat. Should worst come to worst she would need to bring the issue before the principal and convince him to expel him for his dangerous arrogance. Since she had no authority to do so without his approval the whole affair could potentially get quite tedious, so she rather wanted to avoid that. Nonetheless, even if it meant more work for her, she would give her best and make the most rational decisions. She worked HR in a previous life after all, and was no stranger to firing underperforming employees.

... Hopefully this one wouldn´t try to kill her for it this time, though.