Disclaimer: (See Prologue)
Chapter 12: Enter the USJ
Fear and confusion.
These were the two emotions that were overwhelming her senses as the girl and her mother ran through the woods. She had no idea what was happening, all she knew was that her mother had woken her up to the sight of her village burning.
Before she knew it, her mother took her by the hand and began running out of their home. The sight and sound of people being killed echoed in her mind; her father, the village's blacksmith, was one of those people she was unfortunate enough to witness being cut down by the unknown attackers.
Her mother continued to lead her through the woods; she did not know where they were going, only that they were headed for the direction of Mount Yorimuko.
As they got closer to the mountain, they reached a large clearing; the older woman stopped running when she saw a figure in front of them.
The figure was that of an armored samurai on his horse. His helmet was topped with two deer antlers and his mask had the image of an oni's snarling face with two large boar tusks protruding from its mouth.
Her mother pushed her behind her as she gripped her naginata with both hands, the only thing she was able to grab as they fled the village.
The figure dismounted and began walking towards them with malicious intent. He drew his katana as he continued walking, its blade, along with everything else, was void black; the light of the full mood didn't even appear to be reflecting off its metal.
It stopped in front of them once they were a few meters away from one another and took a stance, moving his sword to a low guard.
"Daughter," her mother said, not taking her eyes off the enemy, "I need you to run to Mount Yorimuko, you will find friends of your mother there; they will keep you safe. Understand?"
"Y-yes, mother."
"Go. NOW!" her mother shouted as she charged forward and locked blades with the figure.
She immediately started running across the clearing to the other side. The sound of clashing steel rang behind her; one clash rang dangerously close behind her, scaring her to run as fast as her child legs could.
She passed the figure's horse, whose only act towards her was just looking at her as she ran. After a few seconds, she reached the other side; she then stopped running and looked back, even though she knew she should've kept running.
Her mother and the figure continued their engagement without pause. After a couple of fast combos, her mother was able to create an opening. Without hesitation, her mother broke through the armored figure's guard and buried her blade in its neck, right under the mask.
For a moment, she felt relief. But the figure grabbed the far end of her mother's naginata and cut the pole in half, the fatal strike doing nothing to the figure. The demon closed the distance and impaled her mother with the black blade through the heart in an instant.
Everything became numb to her, unable to tear her sight away from the event unfolding in front of her.
She saw her mother fall to her knees, letting go of the cut pole she held; the demon's blade still impaling her. The figure grabbed her hair and forced her to look up, she saw it pull the blade of her naginata out of its neck as if it was nothing but a mild annoyance.
It then placed the blade edge against her throat and, in a swift motion, severed her head from her body. It then raised her mother's head to eye level, as it wanted to be the last thing her mother saw.
"Kaa-san." The hushed whisper was the only thing she was able to say.
The demon then turned to her direction, as if knowing she was still there. Regaining some of her senses, she started to run towards the mountain.
The sounds of the figure's horse moving through the woods was all she heard behind her as she continued towards Mount Yorimuko with all her might. After what felt like hours, she reached the base of the mountain. But was met with a sheer cliff face.
A whinny was heard behind her; turning, she saw the demon a few meters away from her sitting atop his steed.
With nowhere else to go, she picked up a small tree branch and held it in front of her as a means of defense. The dark samurai drew his katana and turned his horse to face her. With a shout, the monster raised his sword as his steed charged towards her.
Before the samurai could reach her, a hawk cried out as it swooped down and attacked the horse's head. Panicked, the horse veered off course, throwing its rider off its back as it ran off into the woods. As the armored figure picked himself up, a crossbow bolt embedded itself into his neck.
Just as she realized what happened, a new figure landed in front of her. Rising to a stand, the new figure's back was covered by a long mino; for a moment, she mistook it for a pair of wings in the darkness when it landed.
The dark samurai pulled the bolt out of his neck and raised his dark sword into a guard against the new figure. The new figure then unsheathed its own sword. Unlike the dark katana, the new figure's blade was a double-edged straight sword that shone a dull grey in the moonlight; however, she saw that the edges of the blade had a dull blue shine.
Upon seeing the sword, the samurai emitted a loud hissing sound. She then saw a mist of pitch black emerge from the woods, surround the dark figure, and then fade away; the samurai was no longer there.
The new figure sheathed its sword and turned to face her. Underneath the straw hat it was wearing, the figure's face was concealed behind a tengu mask.
The tengu kneeled to her eye level and spoke in a calm voice.
"Come, little one," her savior said, "I shall take you to my village in the mountain; you will be safe there."
A week has already passed since Izuku's school year has started; so far, nothing out of the ordinary has happened since the false alarm. Aside from the ordinary day-to-day, Izuku has gotten used to his role as class representative; the only downside he could see from his responsibility is that he sometimes has to stay in after school for long periods for his duties, meaning that he couldn't walk to the station with Yui, Ochako, and Tenya without having them miss their trains.
Other than that, everything was as normal as it could get.
Izuku saw Aizawa enter the classroom, he immediately led the class to rise and greet their homeroom teacher.
"Two seconds, not bad," Aizawa remarked on their efficiency, "take your seats."
The entire class took their seats and their homeroom teacher began his morning announcement.
"Alright class, today, you are all going to be in rescue training," he began, "We were supposed to start this portion of your hero classes last week, but because of the security breach last week, it was pushed back."
The class started talking out loud in excitement.
"All day hero training!" Mina exclaimed with a smile.
"This is great," Ochako stated, "Being a rescue hero is what I'm aiming for."
"Enough." Aizawa said loudly, activating his quirk with a glare, silencing the class. "Change into your hero suits or your gym uniforms and meet me at the front of the school, we'll be taking a bus to where the training will take place."
OOO
Soon enough, everyone in class 1-A were outside in their hero suits waiting for the bus to arrive.
"Deku, you changed your mask!" Ochako said, seeing Izuku's new headgear.
"Yeah, I did," Izuku said, taking it off and showing it to her, "my first mask got destroyed during the bomb exercise, so I made a request to the support department to modify the new one. It's now a helmet."
Izuku's new headgear kept its original design, but the 'ears' were now much shorter. The fabric was now made of a fitted hardened polyethylene armor plate with impact gel lining and a cotton layer lining the inside. His face mask is now a functional respirator mask and the eyeholes of his helmet now had protective lenses for added protection.
It was now a functional piece of equipment for his suit instead of an accessory.
"I also had my gloves reinforced so they won't be easily destroyed." Izuku added, showing the gloves to her.
"Cool," Ochako commented, "I think I should have my suit modified, too; skin-tight doesn't fit me well."
"What are you talking about," Izuku remarked, "you look amazing."
A pause happened between the two; then, Ochako blushed and turned away from Izuku, covering her cheeks with her hands.
"Oh my God," she thought, trying to calm her racing heart, "if he thinks I look amazing in skin tight, then I'll stay with skin tight. Wait, why does it matter so much to me what he thinks?"
Izuku looked at his friend's state with confusion, then realized the implication of what he said.
"Oh," he said internally, turning red as well, "still, I wasn't lying when I said she looks amazing."
"Midoriya, the bus has now arrived," Tenya announced, walking towards him while gesturing to said vehicle, "I recommend that you should have everyone assigned a seating partner and designate their place in the bus."
"Hmm," Izuku thought about it for a moment. It does sound nice on paper, but the act of assigning everyone a seat and a partner would take some time and a bit of his energy; and if there's one thing he knew about his homeroom teacher, it's that he doesn't like wasting time."
"That'll be unnecessary, Iida," Izuku told his friend, "okay, everyone, let's get on the bus; the sooner we get seated, the sooner we can start our rescue training."
"Midoriya, that is so disorganized!" Tenya objected as everyone started boarding the bus; Katsuki growled a bit, but still went in. "As our class representative, you must put effort into having every aspect of our class as structured and orderly as possible. Having no seating assignment will just take more time since everyone will be arguing on where to sit."
OOO
"Curses," Tenya said through clenched teeth, "I didn't know that the bus would be like this, having an arranged seating with this setup would have been a waste of time; forgive me for doubting you, Midoriya."
"It's fine, Iida, no harm done." Izuku said to him. As it turns out, the layout of the bus was not the usual kind, instead, the seats were running parallel with the bus' length and facing each other, allowing everyone seated to be able to communicate with each other.
"Hey, Midoriya," a flat voice said off the greenhead's side. Izuku turned to face the origin of the voice, which was Tsuyu, the other greenhead of the class.
"Yes, Asui?" Izuku asked the frog-like girl.
"Call me, Tsu," she reminded him, "I usually say what comes to my mind. I still find it fascinating that you have two quirks; though, I find it odd that your two quirks are not similar in any way."
"Hey yeah, that's true," Sero remarked, "looking into the past and making weapons out of fire are completely different power sets, even Todoroki's dual quirk is still elemental based; what gives?"
"I find it odd,too," Izuku admitted, scratching the back of his head, "Though, according to my doctor, I apparently have a mutation in my quirk factor. My fire armory is my hereditary quirk since it can be seen as a combination of my parents' quirk while ancestry is a mutated addition; still don't know how that works."
"Interesting," Tsuyu commented, saying nothing more.
"Man, Midoriya, you sure are lucky to have such a flashy quirk along with a cool quirk." Eijiro said, "I'm sure you'll be able to stand out as a hero, unlike me with my hardening." The crimson haired boy then emphasized his point by activating his quirk, displaying his arms that turned hard as rock."
"Don't put yourself down, Kirishima," Izuku reassured, "the ability to stand out depends on how you use your quirk, not the quirk itself. Your ability to harden yourself can give you a lot of potential ways to be flashy; you just have to be creative and how you use it."
"I see," Eijiro said, rubbing his chin, "guess I'll have to start brainstorming then, but I accept the challenge!"
"It won't matter, my magnifique quirk will still outshine you all," Yuga declared proudly.
"Until your stomach turns on ya," Mina added cheekly, causing Yuga to give her a look.
"Well, we're talking about flashy quirks, I'd say Todoroki and Bakugo have us all beat." Sero stated. The Two mentioned students gave no remark.
"I don't know about Todoroki," Tsuyu said, "But I know Bakugo won't get far in popularity as a hero with the horrible personality he has now."
"WHAT'D YOU SAY, FROG-FACE!? I'LL KILL YOU!" Katsuki roared.
"See what I mean?" Tsuyu remark, unflinching to Katsuki's shouting.
"She's right, you know," Denki said with a smile, looking at Katsuki, "We've known you for a week already and you've shown your personality to be a mix of hot garbage and an angry chihuahua."
"HAA!? SAY THAT AGAIN, I DARE YOU MOTHERFURCKER, SAY IT!" Katsuki roared.
"How vulgar." Momo commented, aghast at Katsuki's display.
"And fun, in a way," Ochako added, not even trying to hide her giggles.
OOO
Once the bus reached its destination, the heroes in training got off and made their way into a large, glass-domed facility. Entering the facility, the class was greeted with the amazing site of canyons, mountains, a small cityscape, a large body of water with a whirlpool and boat on it, and many more simulated environments.
"Whoa," Sero awed, " it's like we're in Universal Studios Japan; I always wanted to go there again."
"Eh, I prefer the Orlando park." Izuku thought to himself, having memories of both parks thanks to ancestry.
"Don't worry," a feminine voice said to the class, "this will be an experience you kids won't soon forget."
The voice came from a person in a bulky space suit whose space helmet was all black with two white marks in the front, giving the image of eyes.
"It's Space Hero: Thirteen!" Both Izuku and Ochako exclaimed with excitement.
"She's my all-time hero idol," Ochako said, fangirling, " I want to be a great rescue hero just like her."
"This facility of U.A. is where you will all be practicing your hero skills in a dynamic, yet well-controlled, environment for the next three years." Thirteen announced, "Welcome to the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short."
"So it's like Universal Studios." The class internally deadpanned.
"Thirteen," Aizawa whispered to the space hero, "where's All Might?"
"He overworked himself again," Thirteen replied quietly, "He'll join us as soon as he gets his rest."
"The big idiot," Aizawa hissed, "did he not learn from the last time he did that?"
As the teachers talked to each other, the class continued to take in the place.
"I gotta say, U.A. spares no expense when it comes to the hero course," Ojiro remarked, taking in the environment.
"What do you think, Midoriya?" Kyoka asked, nudging Izuku, "have any of your old folks seen anything like this."
"... I think one of them heard of a place in New York that has a training area that is really technologically advanced." Izuku answered.
"Really? Where?" Sato asked, curious of that fact.
"Enough talking." Aizawa stated, getting everyone's attention, "Thirteen will give you the ground rules before we begin your rescue training. Go ahead, Thirteen."
"Thank you, Aizawa," Thirteen said, "Like he said, there are a few rules that I have for this facility; three infact… or four… technically five...six."
"It's increasing." The class unanimously thought.
Before she could continue, Izuku started to feel a creeping sensation growing in his spine. It felt cold, hollow, and claustrophobic. As the feeling started to spread throughout his body, he began to feel it spread around him, as if it was engulfing everything inside the USJ. It continued to grow in intensity for Izuku, whose breathing started to be more shallow; It was as if the concept of fear and horror had manifested itself into a physical force.
What Izuku found most frightening was that he never felt this sensation before; but somehow, it felt familiar to him at his core.
"Deku, are you alright?" Ochako asked with a whisper, seeing the worried look on his face.
"... I got a bad feeling." Izuku whispered back to her, making her confused.
"Alright," Aizawa said, " let's get-"
He cuts himself off when he sees multiple dark purple rifts open up in the center of the facility. Emerging from them were numerous malicious looking people.
"Huh, are those part of the simulation?" Eijiro asked, seeing the gathering at the center along with everyone else.
"Everyone get back," Aizawa ordered, his voice leaving no room for arguments, "These are villains, real and dangerous."
Everyone in class 1-A tensed up when they heard what Aizawa said. Mentally preparing for the worst, Izuku strapped on his helmet and respirator, instinctively moving his legs into a ready stance.
Coming out of one rift was a pale, slender man with unkempt, pale-blue hair with multiple severed hands gripping his arms; one hand was covering his face.
"Are all our troops here and accounted for, Kurogiri?" the man asked, turning to the other man who came out of the same portal. This other man was dressed formally with a large metal collar around his neck and his head composed of black mist.
"They are, Shigaraki," Kurogiri answered.
"And what about our… player two?" Shigaraki asked, seemingly irritated to bring the subject up.
"He is on the sidelines to 'watch and learn', as you requested." Kurogiri answered plainly, " Though he stated that he will 'tag in when things turn south'."
"'When'?" Tomura asked, sounding angry that he was being doubted. He started scratching an itch in his neck.
"His words, Shigaraki, not mine." the black mist informed him.
"Whatever, as long as he doesn;t interfere with my plan." Shigaraki said. He looked to where the students and teacher were at and immediately noticed someone missing.
"Where's All Might?" Shigaraki asked, scratching his neck more, "we were told that he was scheduled to be here."
"Perhaps he is running late," Kurogiri said, "perhaps we should give him reason to hurry here."
"Might as well," the pale man said. "Alright everyone, you know what you were paid to do; go and wreck everything to hell!"