"Welcome, students, to the USJ! USJ stands for Unforeseen Simulation Joint, and it's where students may go in order to hone their skills in disaster scenarios. A lot of you seem to forget that villains are not the only injustice in this world! Natural disasters may strike at any time, anywhere, with no warning, and they can kill thousands within minutes." Thirteen, a hero in a spacesuit, informed the gathered Class 1-A.
Izumi could barely keep her eyes open as she attempted to listen. She hadn't gotten back to sleep after waking up earlier in the morning.
"That's right!" All Might gave a thumbs up alongside his signature smile. "It's not a very publicly-noted thing, but a lot of heroes find their calling in the Search & Rescue industry. In fact, my stats may be a little out of date, but... for every one hero you see fighting criminals, there are as many as four heroes who work in support or rescue!"
'A one-to-four ratio?' Izumi thought, creaking her eyebrow upwards slightly. She slowly turned around and surveyed the class. That meant that, if the stats held up, it could be only four of them becoming combat heroes... Who would it be? She mentally berated herself as her attention snapped back to All Might. 'That's not how statistics work, Izumi... You know better than that!' Not every hero was from Class 1-A of Yuuei. Their stats were slightly different.
"You will all be split up and grouped into random trios, and then randomly split into different areas! You will receive further instruction when you get to your area," Eraserhead spoke impassively. "Here's the list." He clicked a button on a remote and the class' names started to get scrambled randomly. Minoru Mineta had rejoined the class the day previous, and his previously perverted personality had been toned down slightly as he became more aware of how fragile his standing was.
That still left an odd group out, with only two people. And, as luck would have it, Izumi was one of those two people. And, even 'better', she was stuck with the Ice Prince himself... Shoto Todoroki. She glanced at her adoptive father, quirking an eyebrow. 'Were these really random?' She challenged mentally, knowing the man would understand her thought process. He rolled his eyes. Izumi got the message nice and clear. 'Maybe.' For real, though, what were the chances of randomly picking the two strongest students in class, both of which had previous training with a Pro Hero, for the only group with two people. Unlikely, at best.
They were in the tornado zone, it seemed. Izumi fidgeted as she started walking over, fiddling with the goggles of her hero costume as she waited to put it on. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed All Might flex and head outside of the USJ, off to fight more crime most likely. He had waved the class off when they left on the bus, and Izumi had watched a livestream of All Might sightings on her phone while they were on the way there. In the 15 minute drive, he had stopped two criminals, and still managed to make it to the USJ before them. 'The difference between our skill level right now...' It frustrated her, goddamnit. How could there be that big of a gap?
For some reason, Izumi wanted to call out to him. Ask for him to stay. Not because she suddenly liked him now, no. Only because she still felt like something... terrible was about to happen, and she couldn't shake it. "So... what's your Quirk?" Izumi heard herself ask the boy beside her.
"Half Hot. Half Cold." The response was curt, but not impolite in tone. Merely... informative. Izumi frowned.
"What's it do?"
"I can make fire with the left side of my body, and ice with the right side of my body."
"Oh, you can make fire, too?" She had, like everyone else, seen his massive display of power during the Battle Trials. "That's... neat." She supposed it made sense. She knew who his father was, after all. It would be sorta weird for the prodigal son of Endeavor to not be able to use fire.
"Yeah."
"... Yeah..." She could tell he wasn't very interested in conversation, and it was sorta like talking to a brick wall, so she sighed and gave up for the time being. Hopefully, the frosty exterior would start to thaw as time went on, pun totally intended.
Izumi started to stretch as they waited for instructions. The tense feeling finally began to disappear from her body as she breathed deeply. Nothing bad had happened yet. There was nothing to be worried about.
What's that they say about tempting fate?
All at once, a suffocating presence began to fill the USJ. It felt... familiar, but also frightening. And that familiarity scared Izumi far more than the portal that had opened up in the main plaza, as well as the portals that opened up around them in the tornado zone. People slowly began to step through, and Izumi instantly recognized them for what they were. "Villains." She hissed. Todoroki's head snapped towards them.
"Okay."
A wide, lazy sweep of his arm sent ice hurtling across the area. It was mostly a desert canyon, although it flattened out towards the central plaza. Unluckily, Izumi and Todoroki had already made it to the far point of the canyon... which meant that they were as far away from their classmates as possible. Ice sprouted up from thin air, freezing villains as soon as they got out of their portals. They quickly began struggling, trying to move backwards, but the portals disappeared behind them.
They weren't anything special. 'It doesn't make sense... who goes through the trouble of organizing criminals to attack Yuuei, famous for its Pro Heroes and Security, but brings along street trash and weaklings?' The only thing that made sense was that they were cannon fodder. "They're extras. Something meant to keep us in place. Let's get through and get to the plaza as quickly as possible," Izumi communicated to the white-and-red-haired boy, who only nodded.
"Hey, don't underestimate us, girlie!" A villain cackled. "You may think you're big because you're at Yuuei, but-" the man yelped as his foot was dragged from underneath him, and another branch of Izumi's Attraction Quirk attached to his back and yanked the off-balance man towards the girl, who intercepted him mid-air and slammed him into the ground, knocking him unconscious.
"Holy shit..." Another one of the villains muttered. "What the fuck was that?"
Izumi Midoriya grinned, her green eyes shining viridian as battle lust started to roll over her body. "That was a taste of real power." She bit her bottom lip and concentration as she counted out the amount of villains present. There were thirteen down in the canyon with them, and who knew how many up top. "... Damn..." She breathed out quietly. "Todoroki," she called, catching the teen's attention. "Cover the top, I've got the ones down here."
Excitement was barely breathing in the boy's eyes. Apathy was drowning most everything out. "... 'kay..." Izumi smiled at him, then turned back towards the rest of the villains.
"Ready?"
"Thanks for letting us hear your plan, brat," Izumi whipped around as a lady with what seemed to be spiky hair leapt at her from a canyon wall.
Izumi pulled the woman's face towards her gloved fist, knocking her out quickly. "And thanks for announcing your presence. Honestly, I-"
"-Midoriya," Todoroki interrupted apathetically. Izumi paused, barely having enough time to brace herself against the extended punch of another villain.
"Shit," she hissed. She reached out and grabbed at a villain with five fingers' worth of Attraction, pulling him to her, and then hopped onto a canyon wall as he sailed towards her, then gave him the maximum force of Repulsion, slamming him into the other canyon wall. Behind the green-haired girl, she felt cold spread as Todoroki began to target the people above them.
"That was brutal..." One villain whispered. "She might've just fucking killed him, dude. This job ain't fucking worth dying for, man." He spoke to another guy next to him.
Izumi flashed the man a winning smile as she latched onto his insecurities. "That's right. I could seriously harm you, kiddos." She thought she heard a snort from somewhere, but ignored it. "Tell you what - you let my classmate and I pass here, and you don't have to worry about a snapped spine or brain trauma." She kept up the smile, sending shivers down many of her opponents' backs. "Sound like a deal?"
Her response was one of the villains sending a small iron ball towards her with a glowing slingshot. She dodged it, but the ball bounced off the wall, picking up speed as it did. Izumi growled. She knew how this would end, and she couldn't allow Todoroki to get hurt. She didn't dodge the next one, letting it ram into her arm. It hurt, but it didn't break anything as it wasn't fast enough yet.
"See? She's not invincible," the man with the slingshot yelled. "They're just two kids!"
A man with glasses and a button-up sighed. "You're such a brute. She took your attack because she knew she couldn't dodge indefinitely. Honestly, you should stop talking and-" The man's sentence was cut off as an iron ball knocked him out.
"Honestly, never liked that guy anyway," the slingshot man grumbled. Izumi tried to latch onto his weapon, but found the slingshot to be intangible. 'Quirk-made,' She thought regretfully. Lots of Quirk-Made weapons were intangible. Going for Plan B, she instead took his ammunition, pulling the balls to her, and then shooting them with great force back at him. He was down on the ground, coughing and definitely not getting up in the next ten minutes.
"Anyone else?" She challenged, smirking. The nine remaining villains shifted nervously.
"I-" A villain started speaking as he made to start running at her. Izumi latched one hand onto his upper leg and another onto his lower leg, pulling them in opposite directions. The stress quickly began, as the villain was held in the air. The two hands of Attraction and Repulsion were working against each other rather than moving him anywhere, so he was stuck.
"You?" Izumi asked, grinning vindictively. "You what?"
"I-I yield!" The villain shouted. Izumi dropped him instantly, and he caught himself on the ground, but stayed there instead of picking himself up, and put his hands on his head, "This shit ain't worth dying for, guys. They're not even paying that much." The rest of the group quickly followed suit, laying down and putting their hands on their head.
"Good choice, kiddos," Izumi pipped cheerfully. One of the villains growled and placed her hands on the ground and started pushing herself up, but Todoroki stepped and put a foot on the villain's back.
"Stay down." The woman froze, and slowly lowered herself back down.
As the duo of hero students started to jog towards the opening of the canyon, Izumi could've sworn that she heard someone whisper, "Insane teens..."
There were more villains outside. Izumi growled in annoyance. She also caught side of the plaza. There was a huge, hulking figure there, as well as two others, that were aside from a large group of villains. And... Izumi squinted, suddenly stopped as she caught sight of the figure fighting the villains. "Dad..." She whispered. "Todoroki!" The boy turned towards her, disinterest on his face still. "How fast can you get us to the plaza?"
"Midoriya, no!" Aizawa shouted as he saw the girl and her partner approach the group. She took no heed, though, and the duo slammed into a stray villain, knocking him out. The two quickly spread out, working individually from one another. "Get out of here, Izumi! That's an order!"
"No!" Izumi shouted back, pummeling another villain with direct hand-to-hand combat. She had already used her Quirk a decent bit with those other villains, so she was settling for only using it when necessary, increased the force of her punches by pulling the villains into them somewhat. She was only using one or two fingers at a time, though, she couldn't afford to run out of stamina. These were real villains, after all.
Eraserhead couldn't stop fighting in order to continue the conversation. More villains came, although they were certainly being thinned out quicker now. He hated to admit, but these two kids were definitely helping out by being here. He would much rather his daughter be safe, but... out of the twenty students in the class, these two were definitely the most reliable. That's why they had been grouped up for the USJ. The real issue was their independent natures.
"Hey, hey, hey..." The man with hands all over his body complained. "That's no fair... I was seeing Eraserhead-san in action... But, now, he has to protect you two, too." The villain suddenly dashed towards the student closest to him, Izumi. She shot backwards, but tripped over her boot, sending her stumbling towards the ground. She couldn't see the villain's face due to the hand blocking it, but for some reason, she knew that he was grinning.
'Why does he seem familiar?' She couldn't help but think as he closed in on her, his hand reaching out. If it wasn't for the hostile aura, it might've almost looked like he was trying to catch her fall. 'No visible weapon. No gloves. Contact-based Quirk? Five-finger contact is the most common form.' She analyzed as the feet turned into inches. All of the sudden, though, milliseconds before the hand came into contact with her, an elbow came into contact with the villain's midsection, sending him flying.
"D-damn," he wheezed. "That might've been your strongest attack yet, Eraserhead-san. You're so cool... Protecting your students... But you're slowing down. You still have enough left in you for a good fight, though, right? The adventurer shouldn't lose before fighting the boss."
"Midoriya, get out-"
"-No, no, no!" The villain chuckled. "I want to fight you, now. All Might isn't here yet, so I still have some time to spare." 'All Might?' Izumi questioned mentally. 'What do they want with him?' "And I won't let her interfere. Nomu, restrain her." Faster than Izumi could blink, her body was suddenly contorted as a massive arm grabbed her around the waist and another kept her arms stuck above her head. She struggled, writhing, wiggling, and kicking as hard as she could against her captor, but to no avail. It was like hitting a brick wall, literally.
Todoroki had gone off to fight more villains. Apparently, he had had faith in their abilities. "Tell you what, if you beat me, I'll let the girl go. But, if you lose..." The villain cackled. "I'll tell Nomu to break her bones one by one in front of you." He suddenly seemed a lot more villainous than he had a few moments ago. "Although... I'm not the final boss. Nomu is." The man cackled. The other person present, a shadow apparition, made no movement or noise. They seemed familiar, too. Out of breath from struggling, Izumi gave up on it.
"Don't worry about me, Eraserhead-sensei," she called.
"Quiet, NPC!" The villain growled at her. "You're not important here." Izumi flashed her teeth at him, but made no other movement. There was nothing she could do, after all. "You know, it's been difficult to see with how much you've been moving around, but there's a brief moment when your hair falls." The villain had turned back to Aizawa. The teacher grit his teeth. He wasn't willing to entertain the other man's monologue. He dashed forward, tossing out his scarf, but it appeared that this villain had something to back up his talk, unlike many of the fodder. He caught the scarf instead of getting caught up in it, but Shouta was experienced - he pulled the scarf towards him as he moved towards the blue-haired villain, pulling him into his punch.
It connected well, but instead of getting thrown, the other man grunted and smiled, revealing that he had caught Aizawa's elbow as it dug into his stomach. "But... the time in between those moments has been getting shorter." The black-haired Pro Hero struggled, but the villain was deceptively strong and held him still. Finally, as predicted, Eraserhead's hair fell, and Izumi gasped as the skin of his hero costume first began to turn to dust, and then, underneath that... her dad's arm began to crack as the villain activated his Quirk.
The dots connected in the vigilante's mind as she finally recognized the boy. She had never met him, no, but she had heard about him. Blue hair, a Quirk that turned things to dust... "Tomura Shigaraki..." She whispered. She said it far too quietly for anyone to reasonably hear, but for some reason, the person made out of purple fog snapped their gaze towards her, and she got the worst feeling that they had heard. Dread settled in her stomach as she began to consider the implications...
'Papa is behind this.' It made so much sense, too. It had been why, five years ago, instead of killing the Symbol of Peace, All For One had simply grinned and walked away after beating the man. Because he wasn't strong enough. Did that mean that All Might was strong enough, now? Strong enough to...
Aizawa broke away from the villain's grasp, gritting his teeth. His cracked elbow wasn't bleeding, but it still hung limply to his side. It seemed to be only surface damage, but maybe there was some nerve damage, too. "You're demented." He commented.
Shigaraki grinned wide enough to be seen past the hand covering his face. "Why, thank you." He took the initiative and dashed towards the Pro Hero, who swiftly evaded, although he stumbled a bit on the landing due to his arm. The game of cat and mouse continued for a few seconds until Tomura decided to change his game plan. "Nomu, go ahead and-" As predicted, Eraserhead leapt forward to interrupt the command, and Shigaraki's hand latched onto Aizawa's goggles, dissolving them. Aizawa's bloodshot eyes were strained as his hair rose up again, and the Decay stopped. Shigaraki chuckled as he began to count. "Thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two..."
"No!" Izumi screamed, understanding what was about to happen. She tore off the glove covering her left hand and let the skin come into contact with the 'Nomu' holding her. She barely had time to process the fact that there seemed to be five different Quirks within the beast. Rather than thinking, she mentally reached out and grabbed at a strand, pulling it towards her. The transfer was over in seconds, and the beast roared in pain and dropped Izumi as it stumbled backwards.
"What...?" The villain muttered as he took in the scene, his attention attracted by the girl's shrill voice. "Nomu, what-" His sentence was cut off by Shouta's fist toppling into his face, sending him flying back. He laid on the ground for the second before slowly rising to his feet. "Hah... Hah! Hahaha! AHAHAHAHAHA!" His laughter grew in pitch and frequency before he stared directly at Izumi. "So you're not just an NPC after all... I don't know what you did to Nomu, but it won't change anything in the end. After all, Nomu was bio-engineered to be the Anti-Symbol of Peace!" He declared.
Further conversation was disrupted by sunlight flooding into the USJ as the doors to the outside opened. "I am here!" The proclamation came. Shigaraki smiled.
"Yes... yes you are."
Izumi could do nothing but stare at the winds whipping around the USJ and the afterimages of the Symbol of Peace and the Anti-Symbol of Peace. She couldn't track them with her eyes, they were so fast. And all the meanwhile, Tomura Shigaraki didn't bother to do anything except monologue. "He's absolutely geared to destroy you!" The villain claimed.
'Destroy him?' Izumi thought. From what she knew of her birth father's plans, which, to be fair, was dreadfully outdated, that didn't make sense. 'It makes more sense to not destroy him. Maybe... a test?' She thought to herself. 'Unless his plan has changed...'
"Destroy me! Villains without true purpose like you? Pah!" All Might chortled. "Never!"
Shigaraki grinned maniacally. "This Nomu has five Quirks! Shock Absorption, Super Regeneration, Sixth Sense, Muscular Augmentation, and Reflect! He's the ultimate combination, designed specifically to counter you!"
"Shock Absorption?" All Might questioned, smiling as he threw another punch. "Not Shock Negation. That means there's a limit. All I have to do... is find it!" The blonde threw a strong punch that whipped the wind behind it, making Izumi gawk in awe. 'Power Stack... I can see why Papa wants it.' It was probably silly for her to still think of her sperm donor as 'Papa'. That didn't change the fact that she did it, though.
'Perhaps...' Izumi pondered as she stared at All Might's unfailing smile and unflinching fortitude, '... some of Power Stack's strength comes from its holder. I don't know if I could always stay positive like that.' Finally, All Might landed an incredibly solid punch that blew the beast's left arm clean off.
Shigaraki's tone didn't change, however. "That was a strong punch... If that had hit me, or anyone else here, that would've killed them instantly. Don't tell me you're aiming to kill, All Might-sama..." The honorific was sickly and offensive as the boy said it. "... eh? Why isn't his arm regenerating?" The villain froze. "Super Regeneration can regenerate limbs! Kurogiri, why isn't he regenerating?" The villain began to throw a tantrum, scratching a fingernail at his neck. Suddenly, he calmed down. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Nomu, Reflect!"
A brilliant flash of light blew through the entire USJ, and Izumi instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, which only made the sonic boom a second later worse as it impacted her ear drums. After a few seconds of no input, the pair of lime-green eyes blinked open, sunspots flaring in them. She was still disoriented, as if shell shocked, and what she was looking at didn't make much sense.
All Might... All Might's shirt had been blasted off, leaving him bare on his upper half, and dozens of scratches covered his skin.
"You see, now?" Shigaraki howled in delight. "Although he has to pause to regain his energy for a minute afterwards, Reflect allows Nomu to redirect all of the energy he absorbed with Shock Absorption! You've just been hit with every single punch you've thrown this fight! There's no way-"
"You'll..." A deep voice interrupted the villain's triumphant rant. "... need more than a cheap trick to defeat me, villain." All Might declared, his blue eyes blazing with fury as he squared his shoulders up.
Shigaraki's eyes widened. "Incredible... as expected of the Number One Hero... But, still, why did Super Regeneration stop working? Did you cheat, you bastard?" All Might grinned, although it was more twisted in pain than his usual smile.
"No, but I will end this!" All Might adopted a steady stance and breathed in, facing the Nomu, who was still recovering from its use of Reflect. He pulled back, and... his fist shot forward in an uppercut that launched the Nomu through the roof of the USJ building, which quickly disappeared from sight. The Savior of Japan huffed as he tried to catch his breath, blood still streaking all over his body. He sent a glance towards the remaining two villains.
"Cheater!" Shigaraki raged.
"Tomura Shigaraki," the ghastly figure intoned, "heroes have arrived." And, indeed, they had. Heroes were beginning to assort at the entrance to the USJ.
"I don't care!" The villain screeched. "I'll kill him myself!"
"You can not defeat him in your current state, Tomura Shigaraki. It would be best to retreat and regroup."
The young man growled in anger. "Damn it!" He screamed, making to run forward, but a gunshot rang through the air and sailed through his palm, cutting a hole clean through it. "Gah!" He quickly reconsidered. "... Fine! Take us back, Kurogiri."
"As you command, Tomura Shigaraki." There was no tone in the thing's voice as a portal began to envelop the two. Izumi tried to rush forward and grab onto them, but found that she wasn't fast enough. 'Why didn't All Might stop them?' She questioned as the duo disappeared, leaving not even dust behind. She looked towards the man, only a few feet away from her, and finally realized...
All Might was trembling. He seemed like he was spending all of his energy just remaining standing.
"Yo, Mido!" A voice came. Izumi twirled around and noticed Kirishima rushing towards the plaza. Izumi opened her mouth to speak, but was beaten to it by a powerful voice from behind her.
"It's okay now..." The Number One Hero assured. "I am here!" His fist raised up in his signature pose. Izumi saw that he was still shaking, though. She was amazed that he still had the strength to move, no matter how personal feelings about the man. After not only enduring the Nomu's attacks, but also his own, never mind the hero work he had been doing beforehand... 'The gap between us is even larger than I thought,' Izumi realized.
Before anything else could continue, though, cement walls rose up, completely encapsulating Midoriya and All Might. "We want to make sure all students are safe," Izumi heard the voice of Cementoss say from outside the faux room. "So, please gather in front of the gate. We will tend to the wounded here."
"Oh, that makes sense!" Kirishima exclaimed. "Alright, I'll do that! Hey, guys!" He called to an unknown group. "He said to gather in front of the gate!" The heavy footsteps shuffled away. Izumi was still mentally recovering from the experience, and so did not immediately turn around when she heard a deflating noise. It took a few moments until she was cognizant enough to look towards the noise, but she froze as she did. Steam was rising off from the center of the room, and...
Green eyes filled with confusion as they took in the scene before them. A tall, moderately-muscular man with no shirt, cuts and scrapes all over his body, spiky blonde hair, glimmering blue eyes, and a slightly sunken face. "What the fuck...?" Midoriya Izumi whispered, her mind understanding but her heart unwilling to accept it. "... Yagi-sama?"