Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Vlad King's Green Bean
Chapter twenty-two: Moving on into UA
It was around mid-August when Izuku Midoriya entered UA grounds as both a student and as a resident. Indeed, Izuku, as well as all of the UA students, had just moved onto UA grounds, now living in the freshly finished dorm buildings located on campus. This was a move done to help ensure the safety for the students of UA in light of all of the moves that the League of Villains, now headed by the villain Dabi, were making. There was no place in all of Japan that was more secure than UA, aside from the villains' prison Tartarus. There on UA grounds, the students would all be safe to study; for the hero course students, they were free to study and train in safety so that they could work to become Japan's next generation of pro heroes.
Izuku had just finished unpacking his boxes in his dorm room in the Class 1-B dorm building; aside from various academic study materials and a collection of All Might merchandise, more or less everything that was in the room was there when Izuku had arrived. It was as Izuku was lining up a miniature army of various All Might figures on a shelf that he heard a knock at his dorm room door; going to open it, Izuku saw that he was being visited by his main friends in 1-B, Juzo, Yosetsu, and Nirengeki. "Hey guys, what's up?" Izuku asked.
"We just wanted to see how you're settling in," Yosetsu said, "Also, you know your buds over in 1-A, Uraraka and Tokoyami?"
Izuku became a bit interested, and a hint of worry bubbled up given Yosetsu's slight shift in tone which he picked up on. "...What about them?"
"Apparently," Nirengeki began, "Aizawa-sensei read the riot act to the whole of 1-A aside from Bakugo, Shinso, Mahou, Shizuo, and Yaoyorozu."
The green-haired boy became mildly alarmed. "What did they do?"
"From what we got from Kan-sensei since he got the gist of it afterwards," Nirengeki began explaining, "The girls of 1-A aside from Yaoyorozu and Uraraka decided to risk their necks on an illegal rescue mission to save Yaoyorozu from the League of Villains, and Uraraka and most of the boys knew about it but said nothing. Only Bakugo, Shinso, Mahou, and Shizuo out of the boys were excused since they were still out of it at the time thus they had no knowledge of it, and Yaoyorozu was excused because... well, she was kidnapped at the time."
"We also got it from Uraraka and Tokoyami that they and the rest of their liable classmates thought that they had talked the guilty girls out of doing the rescue mission," Juzo said, "Only to be shocked to learn that Ashido, Jiro, Hagakure, Kurata, and Yamamaya had acted anyway in secret. Kan-sensei also got it that Aizawa-sensei would have expelled all of 1-A aside from the five excused students had it not been for Al Might's retirement and the fact that the League of Villains were pressing Japan to have a need for more heroes than ever before."
Izuku was shocked to hear that Aizawa was being so merciless towards Class 1-A; sure, the five guilty girls had acted against the rules (although Izuku would later admit to himself that he could have seen himself doing something similar under different circumstances depending on who the League had kidnapped), but none of them had gotten hurt or worse, and they did bring Yaoyorozu back safely from what Izuku heard. Additionally, why scold all of 1-A aside from the five selected students? They thought that they had successfully convinced the five guilty girls out of going through with the rescue plan. Was the underground hero really that cruel of a man? Does he actually enjoy giving his students scares, to mentally and emotionally torture them?
Izuku felt his growing ire towards Aizawa grow even more.
The day following the students all moving onto UA grounds, Izuku and his classmates were in their homeroom when Sekijiro walked in. "Students, I've got some announcements to make," Sekijiro called out.
"What is it, Kan-sensei?" Itsuka asked as she raised a hand.
After Itsuka had put her hand down, Sekijiro explained, "The provisional hero licence exams are coming up. These exams are for the purpose of earning your Provisional Hero Licences, which will allow you to legally intervene with your quirks when lives are on the line." The whole of Class 1-B got excited to hear that they were getting ready to have a shot at taking their next major step towards becoming bona fide pro heroes. "However," Sekijiro went on, "These exams aren't easy. The average pass rate per exam is roughly five percent. To wit, we're going to be working on creating super moves to prep for the provisional hero licence exams, so as to give you all as much of a chance to pass as possible."
Although there was some nervousness in the air because of how risky the exams were, the 1-B students were still excited at the prospect of getting to work on creating super moves. As such, the Blood Hero told his students to follow him out to some training grounds located on campus, as they would be getting to work on creating their super moves effective immediately.
As all of the 1-B students followed Sekijiro, he heard his student Togaru say in a boastful tone, "Watch it, guys, Imma create a super move so powerful, it can even beat that dragon that the League of Villains has in their corner!" Sekijiro rolled his eyes at the mantis boy's boasting. Always facing forward as he led his class, Sekijiro's eye rolling was never seen by the students, nor did they see it when their teacher's expression took on a somber hint...
(FLASHBACK)
Sekijiro and the rest of the UA staff were having a meeting right after Aizawa and Sekijiro had shown their respective students to their new dorm buildings. After Aizawa explained how he had to scold (most of) his students, Nezu began the meeting in earnest. "Now then, I'm certain that we ought to address a few rather pertinent topics right off the bat," began the animal principal of UA.
"Yeah, no foolin'," Hizashi said, "Mainly like how we and the rest of Japanese hero society are going to deal with the League of Villains, especially since the Battle of Kamino Ward saw All Might have to retire and most of Japan's top heroes all get massacred!"
Toshinori, who sat near Nezu at the meeting table, pulled out a stapled together stack of papers, only a few sheets. "...Naomasa was able to get me these printed files on details taken from a journal dictated by the late All For One but written by the mist villain Kurogiri. Mainly, notes on the dragon villain Felgrand." Turning to look right at Nezu, Toshinori passed him the notes. "I figured that you're the best mind we have to figure out any manner of way to defeat Dabi's dragon."
Aizawa nodded once in agreement with the former Symbol of Peace. "Yes. The main reason why the League of Villains is such a threat is because of that monster that Dabi has at his beck and call as a bodyguard. If we can neutralize Felgrand, then taking down what remains of the League of Villains should be a piece of cake."
Nezu read through the first page of the notes quickly, but he paled a bit out of worry. "...Oh dear. It says here that Felgrand possesses a total of twelve quirks."
Most everyone at the meeting erupted into surprised outrage. "Twelve quirks?!" Higari cried out, "That monster has twelve quirks?!"
"Yes," Nezu replied somberly before he began listing off, "All For One had given Felgrand the quirks Dragon, Hellflame, Gigantification, a quirk called Overhaul, Super Regeneration..." Nezu paused, took a nervous gulp. "...New Order..." Continuing on, Nezu read aloud, "...Earth Flow, and quirks called Sound Mind, Sound Body, Control Weather, Stamina, and Acceleratle."
Sekijiro, as well as many others at the meeting, paled at the list of quirks at the disposal of the bodyguard that Dabi had at his disposal. "...Holy hell. No wonder he was able to tear apart even many of Japan's top heroes all at once."
"Silver lining," Toshinori spoke up, "Ryukyu, Mt. Lady, Endeavor, and Pixie-Bob were all 'rewound' by Young Eri to the points they were all at before All For One took their respective quirks, thus restoring them." The former Symbol of Peace shuddered involuntarily. "...But still, to have so many quirks, especially the quirk of Cathleen who is still missing..." Toshinori worried what might have become of the mighty woman who had once been a young girl who looked up to him. Although he heavily doubted it, Toshinori held out hope that Cathleen might somehow still be alive.
"Do the notes say how All For One was able to convince Felgrand to join him?" Hizashi asked.
Looking down at the notes, Nezu said, "...Actually, according to the notes, All For One claimed that he didn't need to do all that much to convince Felgrand. He already came with a desire to destroy All Might." Looking further at the notes, Nezu went on, "...Also, according to All For One, Felgrand was originally quirkless, but possessed 'such a naturally absurdly high capacity to receive and hold quirks' that he can safely have up to twelve. And this is without any sort of modifications. All For One says that Felgrand puts Gigantomachia, who is All For One's own bodyguard, simply to shame."
"All For One has his own bodyguard?" Nemuri asked, instantly sounding alarmed.
"But one that by All For One's own word is put to shame by Felgrand," Higari pointed out, "So it most likely will be easier to deal with than Felgrand itself."
Nezu nodded in agreement. "Indeed." Flipping through what notes he got, Nezu said, "Unfortunately, there's nothing in here about this Gigantomachia fellow, so we can't really begin to form any sort of strategy to deal with him."
"We'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open for anything and everything," Aizawa replied, "And when we get the info we need to move, we strike while the iron's hot." The rest of the people at the meeting all nodded in agreement. They then proceeded to cover a few more topics, but when the meeting let out finally, Sekijiro and some of the others felt less sure about dealing with the League of Villains than they did heading into the meeting.
(FLASHBACK OVER)
Sekijiro, as he continued to lead his students, wasn't sure if anything barring an absolute miracle coming in would let them bring the villains down, not without having to sink to lows that would make the heroes little better than the villains themselves. Hero society was looking like it'll be pushed to its absolute limits in a test to see if it can really stand up to villainy and win the day.
It was shaping up to be a test that Sekijiro wasn't so sure hero society is going to be able to pass.
Later, as Sekijiro was having all of his students practice on developing some super moves in preparation for the provisional licence exams, he was met up by Toshinori. "How are your students doing, Sekijiro?" Toshinori asked.
The Blood Hero gave a single affirmative nod. "They're all doing good. Midoriya especially, as he's clearly not only caught up to everyone else in class, but as left more or less all of them in the dust."
Toshinori turned to where Izuku was working on developing some new super moves. The former Symbol of Peace gave a single, affirmative nod. "Yes. I got it that he's now up to twenty-three percent of his quirk that he can safely use." As Izuku was working, he noticed Toshinori talking to Sekijiro, so he took a break and went over to see his mentor.
"What's going on, All Might?" Izuku asked.
"Oh, Sekijiro and I were just commenting on how well you and the rest of your classmates were progressing, Young Midoriya," Toshinori replied, "How do you think you're doing, though?"
Izuku looked down at his arms, a contemplative look on his face. "...I feel like I'm going to want to upgrade my costume," Izuku said, "At least reinforce the arms, to help support the new idea for a super move that I have in mind. Also." Holding his left hand in his right, Izuku went on, "I got the idea for a move where I fire a concussive blast of air at the target, but simply punching the air doesn't focus it enough. I tried flicking my fingers and that seems to do what I want, but it puts a lot of strain on my fingers. I feel like they might fly off if I put too much into it."
"The support department here at UA can provide you with what all you need," Sekijiro said, "Just give Power Loader a basic description of what all you need and he'll get right to work."
"You..." Toshinori added, "...May also wanna watch out for this particularly eccentric student in the support course that Power Loader says he has. This one girl named Mei Hatsume."
Izuku nodded in agreement. "Got it. Ask for Power Loader-sensei, avoid Mei Hatsume."
Sekijiro looked like he had some worry as well. "...You're close friends with Awase, Honenuki, and Shoda right? Bring at least one of them with you to pull you out of danger in case Hatsume gets wise." Izuku thought that he was seeing things, but he thought for a moment that he saw the Blood Hero involuntarily shudder, as if recalling a matter that wasn't of a particularly enjoyable nature. The green haired boy ended up bringing Yosetsu, Juzo, and Nirengeki with him over to the support department to go see Power Loader about the upgrades to his hero costume and gear that he wanted.
Later inside of the main UA building, Izuku along with Yosetsu, Juzo, and Nirengeki were walking along to make their way over to the support department. "Ah yes, the support department," Yosetsu said, "You know, Power Loader often wants me to help out with welding in the support department, given that my quirk is literally Welding."
"I can see why you'd be a boon in the support department," Nirengeki remarked, "You can use your quirk to do what others need specialized power tools to do. It's also a hell of a lot safer."
Juzo nodded in agreement, saying, "Well I for-"
*KABOOM*
Juzo was cut off when a door in front of him and the others blew off its hinges and flew right into the wall opposite of where the door was. An explosion from within had blown the door off, and when enough of the resulting smoke cleared, the boys saw that it was the door that led into the support department classroom. "...Yes," said the skull faced boy in a dry tone, "That."
Stumbling out of the doorway that lost its door just now was Higari himself, currently not in his giant robot suit. Waving the air in front of him, Higari coughed, "Oh for Pete's sake, Hatsume! Why can't you go even one day without risking blowing half of UA itself to the four corners of oblivion?!"
"But Power Loader-sensei, I was so sure that I had everything figured out perfectly this time!" a female voice called out, making Izuku and the boys turn to see a girl come stumbling out of the same ruined doorway. Aside from her eyes that seemed to have crosshairs in them and her pink hair that looked to be in tubes, this girl seemed more or less normal compared to the average that UA tended to offer.
As Higari and the now identified Hatsume coughed, Izuku called out, "Umm, Power Loader-sensei-"
"Ooh!" Hatsume interrupted upon seeing Izuku and the boys. Rushing over so quickly that she made the boys think she possessed a super speed quirk of some kind, Hatsume said, "And who do we have here? Boys looking for upgrades to their hero gear perhaps? Well no need to worry! I, the great Mei Hatsume-"
"-Is barred for working on stuff in the development studio for the rest of the week without supervision," Higari chimmed in, cutting Hatsume off and making her turn to look at Power Loader.
"...But, but Power Loader-sensei-"
"No buts," Higari said firmly, "I'll still allow you to shadow me while I'M helping the boys, and for small things I'll still let you work so long as I'm constantly keeping an eye on you. But you're barred from doing jack squat without me being there to make sure you don't blow us up again." Glad to see that Power Loader was keeping a firm eye on Hatsume, Izuku and his friends proceeded to explain why they were there. Higari then proceeded to invite the boys in so that he could help with what all they had came for.
...
A few days later, Sekijiro and Toshinori were supervising the 1-B students again during training while Izuku was showing off what all he can now do thanks to the upgrades to his hero costume; supports added to ease burden on his arms, plus some upgrades to the legs of his costume as well. The leg upgrades, when Izuku explained it to Toshinori later, allow him to use Full Cowl: Shoot Style, a style that focuses on using his legs to hit rather than his arms, further relieving burden on his arms. The former Symbol of Peace was impressed and proud to see Izuku develop so much.
As the 1-B students continued to train, Sekijiro and Toshinori were met up by Higari, who was carrying a box. Izuku was then called over, making him stop in the middle of his training. Some of the other 1-B students stopped as well to see what was going on. From where he stood with Juzo and Nirengeki, Yosetsu saw the box be opened, and Izuku pulled out a somewhat bulky pair of white gloves with covers over the backs of the wrists. Yosetsu was wondering what exactly those gloves were for as he and some of the other 1-B students saw Izuku put on the gloves, turn to look at some nearby trees, then looked like he was taking aim as he was looking like he was going to flick something at one of-
*THWOOM*
*CRASH*
To the surprise of the 1-B students, Izuku fired a concentrated air vacuum projectile at one of the trees, crashing right into it with the apparent force of a cannonball. "...He's got a ranged attack now?" Yosetsu said aloud, mostly to himself, out of sheer surprise over Izuku more or less snapping a (fairly thick) tree in half merely by flicking an air cannon projectile at it with his fingers.
Sekijiro wasn't fully able to hide his amused smirk at seeing Izuku progress so much. "...I take it that's a new super move, Midoriya?"
The green haired boy nodded in the affirmative. "Yes. I'm planning to call it Delaware Smash Air Force."
"A 'Smash' move, huh?" Itsuka said, smiling in a knowing tone, "A homage to All Might, perhaps?"
As Izuku blushed a bit in embarrassment, Sekijiro said to his students as a whole, "Class, let's move on over to Gym Gamma. We can continue working on your super moves in there." In reality, Sekijiro knew that Aizawa had Class 1-A there, and was going to 'accidentally' interrupt them, mainly so he can get a shot at showing off to the underground hero just how much Izuku had progressed.
The Blood Hero in particular wanted to see the look on Aizawa's face when Izuku demonstrates his Delaware Smash Air Force move.
A short while later, Sekijiro led Class 1-B to outside of Gym Gamma. He opened the doors and led his class in, only for them to see that Class 1-A were all hard at work developing super moves of their own. Aizawa himself was currently helping Shinso with learning some hand to hand combat skills; speaking of Shinso, his hero costume bore a striking resemblance to Aizawa's own.
And the underground hero had the nerve to accuse Sekijiro and Toshinori of showing favoritism to Izuku.
"Hey, Shouta!" Sekijiro called out, getting Aizawa and Shinso to drop what they were doing; likewise, all of 1-A dropped what they were doing. "My students need to use gym gamma now," the Blood Hero went on.
"Give us ten more minutes, Sekijiro," Aizawa said, "My students still need to work on their super moves for the provisional licence exams."
"Given the low pass rate of the exams," Shinso spoke up, "It's highly likely most of those taking the exams will fail." Shinso gave the 1-B students a serious look. "...Given how lax things are run in your class from what I heard, I suspect many of you lot in 1-B will fail, especially if my classmates and I run into you."
Holding up a hand, Sekijiro said, "Hold it Shinso, there's three different venues for the provisional licencing exams, in order to accommodate so many students from hero academies all over Japan taking the exams."
Stepping forward, Aizawa remarked, "Actually Sekijiro, there's been a change to that."
Sekijiro perked up a bit. "How so, Shouta?"
"I got it from Nezu, who got it from a HPSC representative," Aizawa said, "Instead of the provisional licence exam being divided up among three venues, all competing students will be going to Takoba National Stadium."
The Blood Hero's eyes widened a bit in surprise by that. "Three venues worth of hero academy students all in one venue? The venues average one-thousand, five-hundred and forty participating students per exam. Multiply that average by three-"
"Four-thousand, six-hundred and twenty," Kinoko spoke up, surprising Sekijiro, as well as Aizawa, some of the 1-B students near Kinoko, and a few of the 1-A students who were close enough to hear Kinoko.
"...She's right," Yaoyorozu spoke up, "We might very well be looking at the number of hero academy students at Takoba National Stadium being in the range of four-thousand, six-hundred and twenty for the upcoming provisional licence exams."
The underground hero arched a wry eyebrow at Kinoko before turning his attention to Sekijiro. "...Komori's math skills are good," Aizawa remarked, "No wonder Kirishima told me that he got help studying math from Komori for the finals a short while ago." Gently shaking his head, Aizawa went on, "Actually, for the upcoming exams, there's going to be a flat sixteen-hundred students per each venue all being concentrated at Takoba National Stadium."
"So forty-thousand eight-hundred hero academy students will all be at Takoba," Kinoko spoke up.
Over where some of the 1-A boys stood, Kaminari leaned towards Kirishima and harshly whispered to him, "Keep her as your math tutor, dude."
Back over where the senseis were talking, Sekijiro asked, "Why are near five-thousand hero academy students, from many hero academies all over Japan, all being concentrated at Takoba National Stadium?"
"According to Nezu," Aizawa began to explain, "The HPSC claims to not have enough funding to cover security for all three venues, especially since any security they give has to be beefed up per location in light of the events during the Battle of Kamino Ward. The HPSC figures that having all of the hero academy students competing in the exams this time around concentrated in a single location, then providing security for just that location, will be less expensive."
Sekijiro looked concerned, and understandably so. "...With so many students from so many hero academies all in one place, if the villains catch wind of it-"
"Hence why the other two venues will still 'be used' so to speak," Aizawa went on, "But are really decoys with nothing but skeleton crews running things to make it look like those venues are being used. That way, even if the villains decide to hit all three venues if they get the idea to try attacking the provisional licencing exams, they'll have to divvy up their forces. It'll also give time to evacuate the students at Takoba, especially since one of the decoy venues will be set up to look like a whole mass of students will be there. That's meant to get Dabi to send Felgrand there if the worse comes to pass."
"...So not only will all of the competing hero academy students all be in one location," Sekijiro said, "But one of the decoy venues will be set up to look like the real hot spot in case Dabi and his brood get the idea to attack the exams, in the hopes that Dabi will send his dragon to the decoy hot spot so as to give the students that will be at Takoba time to evacuate."
The underground hero nodded in the affirmative. "That's the idea. As much as what's possible is being done to ensure the safety of the near five-thousand hero academy students competing in the provisional licence exams this year."
Sighing in a resigned tone, Sekijiro said, "I just hope that the plan the HPSC has here will work."
"...I hope so too," Aizawa replied, before going back to argue for some more time in Gym Gamma so that 1-A can continue practicing their super moves for the upcoming provisional licence exams, set to be the most pack exam of its kind to date as four-thousand eight-hundred hero academy students, from the many various hero academies all over Japan, will all be concentrated at Takoba National Stadium. Aizawa would later agree with Sekijiro that it's extremely risky, but it's the best that can be done with what the HPSC can do.
They just have to hope for the best.
END, CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Author's notes;
This chapter sees the 1-A and 1-B students, among others, move onto UA grounds since UA's a boarding school now, the hero course students all prep for the provisional licence exams, and Izuku getting upgrades to his hero costume to relieve burden on his arms as well as give him Full Cowl: Shoot Style. He also got his Air Force Gloves early, meaning he gets to use Delaware Smash Air Force early (he's also at a little over twenty percent of One For All that he can safely use, something else that came in early). All in all, the 1-A and 1-B students of UA are now more or less ready for the provisional licence exams.
Speaking of, in my research on the provisional licence exam arc, I saw that there's apparently THREE venues per exam, partly so that students from the same school but different classes won't have to compete against one another. I used to think that only Takoba National Stadium was used. Also, I thought that a flat sixteen-hundred students took part, even though the exact number is fifteen-hundred and forty. For the provisional licence exams here, I bumped the fifteen-forty up to a flat sixteen-hundred, multiplied that by three to represent the total of three venues, and took the resulting four-thousand eight-hundred and sent the lot of them to Takoba National Stadium for the provisional licence exams while the other two locations are used as decoy locations to bait out Dabi's League of Villains.
There isn't anything that can possibly go wrong with that, right?