My friends were making excellent progress in their work studies. Kirishima came on the news for his first fight.

"Your name! Your hero name's in the news!" Kaminari called out to him, holding up a phone.

"Tsuyu, Uraraka! This is too cool! Your names' here too!" added Ashido. "New recruits at the Ryukyu agency"

"Heh - pretty exciting I guess!" blushed Uraraka.

"Where'd they get that picture from?" asked. Asui

"I love it! Bet you've laready got hordes of fans, just like Mt Lady!" Ashido smiled.

"Provisional licenses or not, we are now heroes when we step onto those mean streets. Wonderful job!" I told them. Uraraka stared at me throguh broad, bright eyes. I turned away quickly to Midoriya and Kirishima to stay focused. "But a student's primary concern is academics! No slacking off now!"

"Gotcha, Iida!" said Kirishima. "We're ready to learn and all that."

"Yeah!" added Midoriya.

"You suck at school, though," Kaminari told Kirishima. "You gonna be ok?"

"SEnsei's gonna be giving me some extra lessons," Kirishima explained. "Maybe I should join you?" dded SEro. "KEeping up this doulbe life is tough."

"Everyone learns at their own pace," interjected Yaoyorozu.

"You always know just what to say!" Kaminari smiled at her. Again I felt that small twinge of guilt that she was a more warm and approachable class rep than I.

At last, Manual's call came in. As I headed out for the train station, I noticed that quite a few of my classmates seemed to be headed in the same direction - Jirou and Shoji, Yaoyoorzu and her friend from Class 1B, Ashido, Hagakure, and Aoyama; all of them were headed out at the same time.

"Oh hey, morning Jirou!" Ashido called out. "Going to your work study? Me too!"

"Yeah," Jirou replied. "First time back in a while, no costume."

"Good morning, all!" I salted them with a chop. "It seems too be a busy day for work studies."

"Indeed," said Yaoyorozu. There was something odd in her tone.

"I'll walk you kids," Midnight-sensei appeared out of nowhere. "No point in taking villain risks!"

"Thanks!" said Hagakure.

"Merci, mademoiselle," added Aoyama.

When we arrived at the train station, I noticed that the others were in fact going to the same downtown train station that I was.

Jirou asked Yaoyorozu, "I thought you were a little further out."

"Yes, I am. But today Mr. Majestic asked that I meet up in downtown Tokyo."

"As did Mr. Manual!" I added. "Strange coincidence."

"Did Mr. Musha asked you to meet here too?" Yaomomo asked Ashido, Hagakure and Aoyama. Ashido nodded. "YEp yep yep! What d'you suppose it's all about?"

"Must be a big deal," muttered Jirou.

Our group drew a large number of stares on the train, a very odd collection of young pro heroes. We all headed downtown and found ourselves headed, indeed, to the same place: A towering skyscraper in the heart of the city. We all took the elevator to the top floor. Through it all, I did my best to marshall the others and keep them from making too much of a fuss; of course, by now they'd all started to learn protocol.

In the conference room, many pro heroes were assembled. Mr. Manual and Arrow; Yoroi Musha, a top ten pro whom Ashido, Aoyama and Hagakure had been doing their work study; Death Arms, Uwabami, Tigress, Gang Orca, and Miss Midnight, who had somehow beaten us there.

I hurried over to Mr. Manual and Arrow.

"Manual-sensei! I recieved your instructions to meet you here! My classmates also recieved -"

"Yes, I know. Sorry for not warning you," said Mr. Manual, with a kind smile. "We wanted to avoid any information leaking."

I felt a little upset at not being fully trusted, but I refused to allow that to show. "I am honored to be here!"

Manual nodded and smiled at Arrow. "Give s a few minutes. We'll start the meeting soon enough."

"Sensei," I overheard Yaoyorozu saying to Majestic, "Is this it?"

"Yes, Creaty. Sorry for the secrecy, but we're trying to keep this meeting from catching too many eyes."

"And Miss Midnight," Yaoyorozu added. "Why are you here?"

"I got the summons from Majestic here," said sensei, smiling in an odd way at Majestic. "Thought it sounded exciting."

"What exactly is going on? You guys got a clue?" Ashido asked Jirou.

"Some idea," she replied. "But I figure they'll explain it all.

With a word, a gesture from someone, we knew it was time to assemble for the meeting. Majestic stood at the head of the table with a police officer by his side. I sat with Mr. Manual and Miss Arrow.

"We've been gathering information for some time," began the officer, "on this case. All of your agencies have had run-ins with this group of villains over the last few weeks. There have certainly been more, and a few agencies who did so that could not appear. Police around the country have been sharing intel, however, so between us we should have enough people to successfully explain. Everyone here has had an encounter with a villain in a Noh theater mask calling themselves after the seven deadly sins. They have been appearing frequently at a long series of disconnected crime scenes lately. We attained information from the Ryukyu hero agency that they recently encountered the ones known as 'Lust' and 'Greed', working with a telekinetic villain called MAgus to steal a large pile of forbidden goods. They could respectively paralyze and read the minds of victims nad demonstrate superhuman strength."

Well done fighting them, Uraraka.

Majestic turned to me. "Manual's agency?"

"We encountered a villain known as Sloth," said Mr. Manual. "She was also facilitating a theft. She could slow down teh human body with a wave of her hand."

"Ours," said Musha, "encountered Gluttony and Envy. Gluttony was capable of absorbing and dissolving matter. Envy has possession powers."

"And we," said Gang Orca. "Encountered Wrath." There was a silence, and he looked oddly at Tigress. "Who could paralyze victims with a scream. She was working with a mystery agency known only as NIGHTMARE."

A shudder passed around the room.

Majestic added, "And our agency encountered Pride, who can cause victims to lose equilibrium, which rounds out hte lot. Ours caused some seemingly pointless chaos, just as we were preparing to interview a murder suspect. The two events may be unrelated, but they may not be. There have been similar sightings at other crime scenes all over Japan. Their identities are unknown for certain, but there are many suspects. What remains to be done is to determine the point of all their criminal activity. That is what we are here today to achieve."