"'Sup, dickwad," Katsuki growled.
"Mornin'," Izuku muttered, stifling a yawn. Izuku had just gotten off the train, meeting up with Katsuki, who was sitting on a bench, and they were now exiting the station. They walked in silence until they reached U.A, where a crowd had gathered at the front gate.
"What the fuck?" Katsuki muttered, scowling harshly. "The hell're all these extras doin' in the way?"
"Looks like they're reporters," Izuku said, spotting the microphones and bulky cameras. Then, the reporters spotted them, and suddenly, the teens were surrounded.
"Hello there, are you two U.A students? You are, right? Can you tell us about what it's like to have the Number One Hero, All Might, as a teacher?" Izuku and Katsuki exchanged glances, before Katsuki bulldozed his way through the crowd, Izuku following close behind. Thankfully, nobody tried to grab either of them, or it might've gotten ugly. Still, that didn't mean they were simply going to allow them to leave. Each person that Katsuki shoved past protested loudly, and the rest of the crowd followed closely behind them. At least, they tried to.
The moment the boys crossed the front gate, a loud BEEP! sounded, and a metal shutter slammed shut behind them. They stared at it in shock.
"...Is that supposed to happen?" Katsuki wondered out loud.
"It is," Aizawa said, appearing out of nowhere. "People without a valid U.A ID aren't allowed onto the perimeter. It's a simple security measure. Anyways, you two get to class. If you're late to homeroom, I'm giving you detention."
"Good work on yesterday's combat training," Aizawa said, addressing the class once the bell rung. "I saw the videos, and have graded you based on your performance. Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, don't argue with your teammates. Focus more on the task at hand."
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Kay~"
"Mineta…"
"Y-Yes, Sensei?"
Aizawa gave the boy a withering glare. "Control yourself." The grape nodded rapidly. "Now, let's get down to homeroom business. Sorry for the late notice, but today, I'm gonna have you pick a Class Representative, and a Vice Representative. Do your voting, or whatever, but get it done by the end of homeroom." With that, Aizawa slipped into his yellow sleeping bag and rolled underneath the podium, determined to catch at least a few minutes of sleep.
That probably wasn't going to happen, given how the class exploded into noise moments after his announcement, but he could still hope, dammit!
At lunchtime, Izuku glanced around the table he was sitting at, and was more than a little disturbed by how crowded it was. Katsuki sat across from him, Spiky Ponytail next to him, and Glasses at his diagonal. Apparently, those two had gotten the representative spots, but he wasn't sure which was which. Not that he really cared. Further down was Round Face, who he'd saved from that big-ass Zero Pointer during the Entrance Exam, and Frog Girl, who was friends with Round Face. Izuku wasn't sure why all these people had to sit near him, but he just kept drinking his coffee, hoping they would go away. Or at least stop talking; the cafeteria was loud enough as it was without them adding to general noise.
"Midoriya-kun, are you not going to eat?" Glasses asked, looking incredibly concerned. Izuku took a long, loud sip, staring blankly at the blue-haired teen over the brim of his mug. The staring contest lasted for a solid ten seconds, until Izuku ran out of coffee, and began drinking air. He laid his cup on the table and sighed, somewhat disappointed. "Midoriya-kun, you didn't answer my question."
Izuku blinked. "You're still here?" he asked, making Katsuki bark out a laugh.
"Good luck gettin' that fucker to eat anything," Katsuki said snidely. "I swear, he lives off coffee. I don't even know if he drinks water."
Glasses gasped, affronted. "Midoriya-kun, it is incredibly irresponsible to skip meals! Especially when you are following a curriculum that demands so much energy, as U.A does!" he cried, chopping his hands robotically. "A balanced diet is essential to any growing youth, doubly so when they are pursuing such lofty goals!"
"Iida-kun is right, Midoriya-kun," Spiky Ponytail said, worry in her dark eyes. "I, of all people, know the dangers of not eating enough, since my Quirk relies on the energy I get from food."
"You know, you could probably ask Lunch Rush if you want something else. He accommodates people with special diets, right?" Round Face chimed in, and Izuku stared at her for a second.
"Who are you?" he asked bluntly. He may have saved her from being crushed to death, but that didn't mean he knew who the fuck she was.
"Wha-? Oh no, I didn't introduce myself, did I!? Oh gosh, sorry for being so rude! I'm Uraraka Ochako! We met at the Entrance Exam!" He was probably gonna keep calling her Round Face.
"I'm Asui Tsuyu," Frog Girl piped up, "But my friends call me Tsu-chan." They weren't friends, though, so he was gonna stick with Frog Girl. Or maybe Frogger. "And Ochako-chan's right; Lunch Rush is totally willing to make special preparations for people with unusual diets." She gestured to her tray, which had a small bowl of insects at the side.
"...Right," Izuku muttered, losing interest. Glasses began ranting about Izuku's unhealthy habits, and Izuku just pulled out his buzzing phone, completely ignoring him. "That's never good," he muttered, reading the Caller ID.
He let it ring out, and opened the voicemail. However, as soon as he put the phone to his ear, an alarm blared, and the students were being urged to evacuate the building. In the ensuing chaos, Izuku glanced out the window, and saw that the metal shutter that had blocked the front gate had disappeared, ash covering the ground where it once was.
Friday. The administration said nothing about the press breaking into U.A's campus a few days ago, but Izuku had seen the remnants of the U.A Barrier. He highly doubted that a few shitty reporters would be able to do something like that. Well, not unless they were that desperate to get a scoop, and didn't give a damn about the consequences. His musings were interrupted by his homeroom teacher.
"For today's Foundational Hero Training, I'll be assisting All Might, along with one more person who we'll meet at a separate location. Today's topic is Rescue," Aizawa said, holding up a blue card with the word on it. "Some of you may choose not to wear your Hero Costume because it's not suited for this type of work. Since the place is kinda far, we'll be taking a bus. Change, and meet me in front of the building. Don't keep me waiting."
"Class 1-A, gather round!" Glasses cried, blowing into a whistle he produced from god-knows-where. "Form two lines by your student numbers in order to make the boarding of the bus go smoothly!" Nobody listened, of course, barging past the Class Rep to climb onboard. Someone even yelled back at him that there weren't even rows on this bus, and Iida looked particularly depressed after that. However, he still remained outside, directing people through the double doors. His tenacity was admirable.
Izuku finally stood in front of Glasses, and had his foot on the first step, when his phone rang. He backed out of the way to allow some pink girl to enter while he pulled the device out of his pocket, lips thinning into a line.
"Midoriya-kun, now is not the time for that! There are people waiting on you!"
"Right, right," he muttered, stowing away the device and boarding the bus.
"Midoriya-kun, that can't be healthy," Momo said, staring at him in abject horror. They were sitting in the first section of the bus, where there was an open floor plan. Midoriya-kun was sitting on the right side, on the seat furthest back in their section, Momo on his left. Midoriya-kun looked her straight in the eye, then popped another sugar cube into his mouth.
"I literally have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're eating raw sugar cubes!"
"And?"
"And? That's incredibly unhealthy, unless you have a Quirk like mine or Satou-kun's, which would convert all that sugar into energy. Does your Quirk work like that?" she asked, partly to make a point, and partly because she wasn't sure if his Quirk actually did affect his diet.
"No," Midoriya-kun replied casually, slipping yet another sugar cube between his teeth. Momo felt like strangling him. Instead, she simply coughed into her fist, recomposing herself.
"Are you aware that eating high amounts of sugar is fairly unhealthy?" Momo asked, not even slightly patronizingly. "It can lead to many health complications, such as a drastic increase in weight, and an exponential increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease. And, of course, there is the high potential for cavities, which can be quite detrimental if left untreated."
"Mm-hmm," he grumbled around a mouthful of cubes- the last of it, apparently, since he tucked the empty bag into his pocket. He seemed rather sad, and Momo wanted to giggle. The sound of buzzing distracted her, though, and Midoriya-kun reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. He glared at the screen, and for a moment, his thumb hovered over the end call button, before he finally accepted it.
"What?" he answered bluntly. Momo heard someone talk on the phone for exactly five seconds, but no more, because the phone in his hands had been crushed in an explosion of plastic and circuitry. Momo shrieked, as did a few other people sitting around them. Bakugou-kun, sitting directly across from Midoriya-kun, lost control of his Quirk slightly, firecrackers popping off in his hand.
"Oi, the hell's wrong with ya!?" the blond barked, settling back in his seat. For a long while, Midoriya-kun didn't respond, instead staring at the mangled device in his hand. Then, he slipped it in his pocket and slumped back, falling asleep within moments. The other students were left staring at each other uneasily.
"A shipwreck! A landslide! A fire! A windstorm! And more! This is a training ground I've made to simulate many different types of accidents and disasters! It's called; the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!"
"Thirteen, where's All Might?" Aizawa-sensei cut in, walking closer to the Rescue Hero to have a quiet conversation. A few words were exchanged, and Thirteen held up three fingers, which meant nothing to Momo or the other students.
"...That's the height of irrationality," Sensei said loudly, sounding as exhausted as always. "Well, it can't be helped. Shall we begin?"
"Ah, let's see…" Thirteen began, "Before we start, let me say one...two, three, or four, or five, or six…" The astronaut continued on in that vein for a few more seconds, much to the bemusement of the class. "Well, whatever," Thirteen finally said. "Only one of those things is really important. And that's the fact that Quirks are dangerous. My Quirk, Blackhole, allows me to suck up rubble, making it great for clearing out disaster sites! However, could you imagine what would happen if I used it on a person?"
Many students shuddered, glancing around at each other, or at their own hands. Thirteen nodded, having expected and seen that reaction many times in the past. Momo considered the Pro's words. Her Quirk, moreso than most, had the potential for untold Villainy. The ability to turn Twinkies into firebombs was not something to be trifled with.
"That is the purpose of your training here at the USJ! With Aizawa-senpai, you learned the limits of your abilities. With All Might, you learned how to use those abilities in combat. And today, with me, you'll be learning to use those abilities to save people!"
Momo began clapping along with her fellow classmates, but slowed to a stop when she noticed Midoriya-kun shifting from foot to foot in a vaguely uncomfortable manner. Momo reached out to tap him on the arm, and startled when he swayed around her touch, reflexively pulling back slightly and hissing at her.
"What?" he growled, scowling furiously. She was unnerved by the sudden hostility, but forged ahead.
"Are you alright, Midoriya-kun? You seem quite anxious." He didn't answer for a moment, and she grew a bit more concerned. "Does it have something to do with that phone call on the bus?"
Midoriya-kun bared his teeth at her. "Mind yer damn business." He paused, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "And no, it's not that… I just feel like something's gonna happen. Somethin' bad." Between the certainty in his tone and his ominous words, Momo herself began feeling something foreboding in the air, and couldn't help a glance around the facility.
"I… Don't see anything," she said, hoping it would help set her classmate at ease. Liquid splashed across her face, and Momo was hit by the strong scent of iron. Confused, she looked to Midoriya-kun, to ask him what had happened, but he was gone. In his place, instead, was a hulking, purple beast that had to be nearly twice the size of All Might. It stared down its beaked face at her, blank pupils roving idly, bloodshot eyes set in an exposed brain. Absentmindedly, Momo brought a shaking hand to her cheek, and her heart stopped when she saw the crimson on her fingers.
Momo wasn't sure who screamed. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was one of her classmates, or whoever tried dragging her away from this monster, and failed because her body had locked up in terror. Aizawa-sensei's capture scarf wrapped around its upper body, but the thing hardly budged. Instead, it began reaching for Momo slowly, thick fingers ready to close around her face-
"That fuckin' hurt."
Then Midoriya-kun's back was in front of her, white t-shirt dyed crimson. The monster stopped moving, and a voice interrupted.
"You're still alive?" they asked, sounding pleasantly surprised. Momo turned her head enough to look, and came face-to-face with an unfamiliar man. He had light blue hair and an ashy complexion. A severed hand covered the upper half of his face, leaving just enough space for his crimson eyes, shining with madness, to peer through. "Leader-sama was right- you are hard to kill. Kurogiri, send 'em off."
Kyoka was more than a little bit concerned. She was currently a hundred meters or so in the air, free-falling alongside Yaoyorozu and Midoriya. In a flash of rainbow, Yaoyorozu produced a large sheet from her stomach, and managed to angle herself over to Kyoka.
"Hold on!" Yaoyorozu cried, struggling to be heard over the wind. It was only thanks to Kyoka's Quirk that she understood her, and she wrapped her arms around the tall girl's torso.
"Oi, Midoriya!" Kyoka called, gesturing to the boy to make his way over to them. Instead, he just rolled his eyes, then dove straight down like a torpedo. "Holy shit!" The girls exchanged glances- had they just watched their classmate kill himself? Well, they still had to worry about themselves, so Kyoka jabbed Yaoyorozu in the side, gesturing for her to open the parachute. Nodding hesitantly, the black-haired girl allowed the sheet to snap open, screaming out in pain when it yanked at her shoulders. They landed after a few seconds, and the dust from Midoriya's impact had finally cleared up. The green-haired teen was laying on his back in the center of a crater, staring at the sky.
"...Ow," he said dryly, sitting up. He climbed to his feet and brushed himself off as best he could, though the dust clung to the still-wet blood soaking his t-shirt. Satisfied that he was still alive, Kyoka examined the scene, and her heart dropped. Surrounding them were nearly two dozen thugs, all of which looked intent on beating them half to death. She quickly jammed an Earphone Jack into the ground, and listened. Yup, twenty-three heartbeats that didn't belong to her or her classmates.
"Um, Yaoyorozu, you got anything else in your stomach that could help us out?" Kyoka asked, backing up as the Villains took a few steps closer, tightening the circle around them. Wordlessly, Yaoyorozu Created two metal staffs, handing one to Kyoka, before taking up a stance. She looked like a professional. Meanwhile, Kyoka held her stick like a baseball bat, and hoped for the best. For a long moment, there was a tense standoff between the Villains and the Hero students, before the first guy broke the stalemate, charging Midoriya from the side with a battle cry. Without even looking, his fist flicked out, audibly shattering the guy's jaw and sending him flying into one of his comrades. Their heads slammed together hard enough to knock them both out.
"...You guys suck," Midoriya said in the ensuing surprised silence. His barb managed to snap the Villains out of their shock, and the majority of them charged him. A half-dozen went after Kyoka and Yaoyorozu.
The first guy ran blindly at her, fist pulled back for a heavy haymaker. Kyoka slammed her staff into the side of his head, and he went down. The next Villain was a girl with pigtails that stood up in the air, like a bull's horns. She lowered her head and charged at Kyoka, who simply whacked her with an overhead blow. When the Villain slammed face-first into the ground, Kyoka hit her again, just to be sure. She looked around, and saw no more Villains coming at her, so she turned around to help Yaoyorozu, only to find the taller girl surrounded by four unconscious Villains, wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead. Yaoyorozu turned to Kyoka, and the girls shared a small smile. Those little grins were wiped off their face when they turned to their third classmate, who was literally sitting on a pile of Villains. He stared down at them imperiously from his throne of bodies, grinding his shoe into the face of one of the unconscious thugs who was moaning in pain.
"Took you long enough," he said blandly, and Kyoka rolled her eyes. He hopped down to the ground, waving for them to follow him. "Let's go," he ordered, walking in the direction of the plaza at the center of the facility. He kicked a Villain in the head, flinging her unconscious body out of the way. Kyoka and Yaoyorozu exchanged wary glances, before jogging to catch up.
The plaza was, put simply, a disaster zone. Unconscious grunts littered the ground, many with limbs that pointed in the wrong way, leaking blood from broken noses, and the sheer number of broken teeth on the ground was disturbing. However, the worst thing, in Momo's opinion, was the purple monster that sat on Aizawa-sensei's back, bending his arm behind his back so far that it had to have been broken. The three students could only watch in horror as the beast grabbed Aizawa by the back of the head, then slammed his face into the ground so hard it made a crater. Blood splattered across the shattered earth, and Momo gasped. Loudly. The blue-haired man and his misty accomplice, who stood off to the side, simply watching the horrifying scene, glanced over to them. The blue-haired man rolled his eyes.
"This is what we get for sending a buncha two-bit nobodies after the golden eggs of U.A, I guess. Man, this planning thing's harder than I thought it'd be," he whined.
"Do not blame yourself for the shortcomings of your allies, Shigaraki Tomura. They were disposable, so it is to be expected that they are beaten like the fodder they are," the misty man said sagely. Momo vaguely remembered the now-identified Shigaraki calling him Kurogiri. Black Fog. A fitting name, if a bit uncreative.
Shigaraki sighed. "Yeah. I guess it doesn't really matter, anyways, as long as we have the Nomu. Speaking of which- Nomu, leave Eraserhead alone. Go play with that stupid green cockroach," he demanded, pointing at Midoriya-kun. With a bestial screech, the Nomu blurred into action, slamming into Midoriya-kun with the force of a thousand suns in a crimson explosion. Momo flinched, not very eager to get even more of her classmate's blood on her. Her cheek itched where the dried blood began cracking and chipping, and she had to force herself not to acknowledge it, or she might have a mental breakdown. The only thing she and Jiro-san could do was go and attempt to administer first aid to Aizawa-sensei, so that's what they did, hoping that the Villains would ignore them for now.
It'd been a long time since Izuku had been hit this hard. Every punch rattled his brain, threatening to tear his head from his shoulders. He was pretty lucky his spine was so durable, or it'd have been ripped apart long ago.
This speed… It's just like All Might. His mind cast back to that day, a few months ago, towards the end of his final year in Junior High. He'd been walking home along the same path as he always did, which happened to take him through a tunnel under a bridge. In that tunnel, a pile of sentient sludge had emerged from the sewers, attempting to capture Izuku and use his body as a meat puppet (which was both gross and incredibly aggravating. He'd had his body used by other people quite enough for this lifetime, thank you very much), only to be thwarted when the Number One Hero himself came crawling through that manhole cover. With a single punch, the slime Villain had been splattered across the road, All Might's fist moving so fast that Izuku could hardly even see it. The fact that this bird-faced freak could attain similar speeds was mildly concerning. At least he could keep up, even if it was only barely.
Izuku swayed around another earth-shattering punch, and retaliated with a fist to the throat. Absolutely nothing happened. Nomu's trachea hadn't been crushed, nor had his fist bounced back… Almost as if its purple skin had absorbed the force.
Incredible strength, speed on par with All Might, and Shock Absorption? Seems a little too convenient for one person to have all those traits rolled into one nice package… Almost like it's got multiple Quirks.
His body moved on autopilot, dodging the massive fists that tried to break his skull. His curly hair whipped around wildly in the conflicting wind tunnels, and he was thankful that it wasn't longer, else it might've obscured his vision even more than it already did. He quickly lashed out a few more times, jabbing at the liver, kidneys, and whatever pressure points he could remember, only to get no reaction.
Skin's too thick; gettin' into a slug-fest isn't gonna work. Weak spots… Does it even have weak spots, or does the Shock Absorption extend to them as well? Eyes are a classic, and the brain's pretty fuckin' obvious.
Izuku weaved past three blows, syncing himself up with the monster's mindless rhythm, before leaping a meter into the air and poking his index and middle fingers into one of its eyes. He hissed when his fingertips just bent backwards, the joints hyperextending- that answered that question. He received a thunderous blow to the chest for his trouble, shattering his ribcage and nearly crushing the majority of his vital organs. He rolled along the ground three times before finally managing to get to his feet, and by then, his fingers had snapped back into place, and his ribs had more or less knitted themselves back together.
The Nomu was on his ass in an instant, forcing Izuku back on the defensive. Not that he'd ever actually been in control of this fight.
Should I…? No, I might lose control. But, if it's just one bite…
The very thought of giving in to his primal urges made his stomach roar expectantly, his gut twisting into knots. The sudden pain left his knees weak, rendering him unable to dodge the next blow. Instead of trying to block, and have his bones shatter under the relentless force, he went with the flow and allowed himself to drop into a crouch, the giant fist skimming the hair on his head. Izuku almost tossed himself into a backwards roll when the Nomu's foot came down next to him, but a random realization came over him; there was no force behind the stomp. It didn't land with the intent to fracture the earth; the monster just had to balance itself after overextending. That was the key to winning this fight.
Wrapping his arms around the Nomu's massive leg, he yanked as hard as he could, sending the purple bastard to the ground. Despite its size, the Nomu was actually fairly light, probably only weighing around six hundred kilograms. Still gripping its leg, Izuku flipped the Nomu onto its stomach, then jumped onto its back. It took a bit of awkward maneuvering, but he managed to grab its arms, yanking them behind its back with as much force as he could. The monster fought against him, but with half its upper body off the ground, it simply couldn't find the leverage necessary to throw him off.
Izuku knew he couldn't keep this up, though. His mind was racing, looking for an alternate solution even as he looped his arms around the beast's thick wrists for a better hold. At some point, he'd slip, and the Nomu would get free. His strength might be great, but it wasn't unlimited, so he grimly held the struggling monster down for all he was worth, counting the seconds as they ticked by. Of the U.A staff, who were the most likely people to show up to rescue the students of 1A, only All Might would be able to handle a situation like this. Yet, something had kept the man from showing up to participate in today's exercise, despite it having been part of the plan. The chances of that same thing keeping All Might from showing up at the USJ was too great to rely on him, so Izuku had to find another way out of this.
Tightening his arms even further, to the point where he could snap a steel bar in half simply by squeezing it, Izuku began glancing around wildly, looking for something, anything, that could give him an edge. He was not expecting the ashen hand that reached for his face, stirring up memories he thought he had long since buried. He didn't register the pain that exploded through his head, or the slackening of his grip, or the way he was tossed through the air by the Nomu, whose screech pierced his ringing ears.
No, the only thing Midoriya Izuku experienced, in that moment when Shigaraki Tomura's fingers clamped onto his skull, palm covering his vision and Quirk eating away at his flesh, was terror.