"So you need a day off from the Internship?" Miruko asked.

"Yes. We have this new joint training, and both Professor Aizawa and Principal Nedzu say I should participate, since I'm going to be an important Hero if I complete my education." Izuku replied.

"Eh, sounds fun, sure."

"Really?!"

"Kid, I don't plan to hold you back from doing school stuff. It's the HPSC that wants you paraded around. I'm fine with giving you space."

"Thank you!" He bowed again, thankful. Truthfully, he had been worried he'd have to miss it, since he wasn't sure how long she planned to keep him on the mission before going back to school again.

"Eh, don't mention it. It's not my job to keep you under the spotlight all day every day." She sighed, pointing "They do it well enough."

Izuku followed the direction she was pointing at to see a video of himself on a large screen in the city center. He was just doing his normal patrol with Miruko, but Miruko had been cut out whenever possible, making it look like he was patrolling on his own. "Wow, that's subtle."

"They are pushing hard on the angle of the young Hero that defeated the League of Villain. Frankly, I'm worried."

"Why?"

"Because what happens when the League hits next time? You might be forgiven when they hit somewhere that is far from you, but if it happens in the same city and you can't catch them…"

"You think people would get angry at me for that?"

Miruko shook her head. "People aren't always rational. If they think Valiant is going to beat the League and he fails at it, they will get mad because their perfect Hero isn't perfect."

Izuku gulped. He knew what she meant. He had seen several Heroes that got a big hit in their careers when they failed at the task they specialized at. Combat Heroes that were knocked out and blamed for civilian deaths, Rescue Heroes that made a mistake saving lives… It was something a Hero had to worry about, after all.

"I guess I can only hope I can either be there to help or be too far to help… Although I know which one I would prefer."

"Valiant really is a good name for you, uh?" She slapped his back, "I like the attitude kiddo."

"Thanks, Miruko." He said smiling, but he did wonder what Tomura was planning. Himiko's big brother would make his move eventually, that was for sure. But what ingenious plan would he come up with this time?

-x-

"Stain, be honest with me. How is the training going?" Tomura asked.

"Your recruits were absolute shit when you handed them to me for training. Even the best ones, the ones you used as squad commanders, would fold immediately against any Hero."

"And now?"

"They have gone up from 'absolute shit' to 'mostly shit but not completely'." He shrugged, "It's been less than a month, Handjob. I can train them, but not magically make them good fighters." Stain said, mumbling something about not even wanting to work for Shigaraki, but Tomura handwaved it.

He sat down, thinking. What would the leader of a Villain group do now? He had built up his own name, but that wasn't enough to destroy Hero society by itself. Why, he wasn't sure. You'd think that the Symbol of Peace fucking failing at his task would make people freak out, but instead the fucking sheep had just gone for the younger copycat. What would dad do? What would his... enemy do?

'Izuku Midoriya…' He growled at the thought. The brat had singlehandedly ruined his plans both times, and the worst part was that for the second time he had used them against him. That was Machiavellian. Frankly, he was probably the best criminal around, barring dad of course. "What about Hero students?"

"Maybe. I wouldn't call them ready to face Himiko, Masutaro, or Midoriya, but those should be outliers."

Shigaraki frowned. Attacking 1-A again made no sense then. If he couldn't fight the main boss and the mid-boss, he might as well drop the idea entirely. 'This game is rigged. UA keeps getting S-tier pulls, meanwhile, I only got maybe two, while the rest ranges from D or C tiers that take forever to rank up or a few B and A tier that have hit their peak. What do I do with a bunch of trash mobs… Wait a minute.' "I got it!"

"You got what?"

"I have trash mobs!"

"… What?"

"I have a shit ton of low-tier mobs I can throw around! I didn't even realize it, but this is the perfect quantity over quality! I can't turn them all in S-tier level 80 like Muscular, even if I keep pressing the level-up button, but I don't need that! I need to get them to a B-tier rank, somewhere along the lines of level 30. Once we do that, I can arrange for them mini-Quests, like taking down a mid-tier Hero or committing some good old terrorism, like we did in the big night. If they succeed, that's experience points for them, and if they fail, we can have Kurogiri and Compress pull them out. Plus, once in a while we send in one of our actual S-tiers, and we get some free reputation points from them working with the League, even if they can't move higher in ranks and their level doesn't go up."

"… So, stripping away the stuff that makes me want to murder you and then commit seppuku for ever working with a guy that treats crime like a literal game, your idea is to do concentrated attacks on small and medium targets that one of your guys can't take out but a group can, making yourself known both for those and for having recruited several strong Villains."

"Yes, I just said that."

"… Fuck."

"What?"

"It's a good plan! Fuck! I hate the fact this good plan came out of a brain that could only express it like it's a goddamn videogame!" Stain sighed, "Either way, that's…"

"Good morning Togaraki!" Crust shouted, entering through the door. He looked at the room. "Oh, and who is this fellow?"

"This is Stendhal." Shigaraki said, gesturing towards the Villain, who was wearing his Vigilante attire. It was the obvious choice, given that they couldn't exactly explain how the Hero Killer would be present in a Hero Office without murdering the occupant, "He is a retired Vigilante that now works as an informer for me and other Underground Heroes."

"Oh?" Crust frowned, "I had heard of Stendhal. Quite violent, but I suppose we can all turn a new leaf. Well met friend."

Tomura was sure that, behind the mask, Stain was fuming, but apparently, he was at least smart enough to take the cover story offered. "Yes…" He managed to grumble, "I am here to give some information to Togaraki."

"Interesting!" Crust smiled, "Mind if I listen too?"

"Oh, he was already done. He was telling me that…" 'Fuck, what could he be telling about? Sody Roul is already my informer for dad's activities, so that wouldn't work… Oh, wait…' "He was telling me that there is some weird activity in the Yakuza world."

Crust raised an eyebrow, "Yakuza? It's still criminal activity, but considering the scope of your main investigation, I'm surprised you would also investigate such small-scale groups."

Tomura blinked, "Small scale?"

"Yes, why?"

"… Crust, do you know the Green Valley Clan?"

"… Miruko got you with her conspiracy theory about the Green Valley Clan being a massive underground organization, didn't she?" Crust shook his head, "I should have expected that, there is always some new Hero that gets swept into her beliefs, and given that your heart is devoted to justice, you instantly would have felt it was your duty to intervene!" The man smiled fondly, looking at Shigaraki with a proud expression, "It's true that it's bigger than most Yakuza groups, but we never found proof it's the gigantic organization she says they are. Don't worry, it's a common rookie mistake."

Tomura stared at him, then slowly, carefully, took a deep breath. 'Do not disintegrate the Number Six, Tomura, he is useful.' "What if I proved you Miruko is right?"

Crust smiled, "I'd probably owe you an apology and a favor."

"Well then, I guess I will have to get that apology soon." He grinned, "Until then, what brings you here, Crust?"

"I wanted to ask you for a coop mission, actually."

"… A coop?"

"Yep. I have a small gang on my radar that I want to take on, but I need some investigation done on them. I'd ask Nighteye, but when I called he said he was busy investigating some lead of his own, so I'm asking you."

"… Well, I do owe you. Which group?"

The man showed him the pictures of a trio. A woman with long, red hair, a blue and white wolf-man with a cigar, and a man with grey hair wrapped in grey bandages. "These three are wanted A-Class Villains. I have a possible lead on them being in Kyoto, but I need details. Do you think you could find them?"

Tomura looked at the three, and then back to Crust, "Are they dangerous?"

"The woman and the wolf-man, whose Villain names are Slice and Chimera respectively, definitely are. Some people actually call for Chimera being recognized as S-Class, but for now he isn't dangerous enough. The guy in wrappings less so, he calls himself Mummy. They used to work for a guy called Nine, but he vanished completely. His Quirk was degenerative if overused, so we think he ended up killing himself."

"Uhm… I see. So they are famous and dangerous. Any idea if they would join other organizations? To decide how to handle the investigation, you see."

"I doubt it. Nine was always unwilling to work for anyone else."

"Well then, we can't let them roam free, can we?" Tomura asked, and Crust smiled.

"I knew I could count on you Togaraki! Let me know if you need anything." He then frowned, checking the clock, "Well, duty calls. Goodbye Togaraki, let me know what you find out!" And with that, the man left the room. When they were sure he was gone, Stain turned to Tomura.

"You want to recruit them, don't you?"

"I love this job, the Heroes walk in and just tell me who I should recruit, and if those guys say 'no', I can just send those same Heroes after them." Tomura replied, "Also, I can do that easily, because I have a secret weapon."

"Is it the fact Nine is in a pod in the Doctor's lab?"

"… Wait how do you know that?"

"Compress. Says he is worried for the old man. It's unhealthy to spend that much time fawning over abominations against nature. Why does everyone in your organization have an unhealthy obsession with something?" Stain asked. Tomura stared at him. "What?"

"Nothing, I'm just waiting for the realization to hit you, but you are too stupid for it apparently."

Stain stared at him, and Tomura sighed. How was he, a traumatized child turned shut-in turned terrorist, one of the saner members of the League? He had no obsession at all, at least.

No his father didn't count, that's just filial love!

-x-

Uraraka jumped out of the way of a series of ice pillars, using her Zero Gravity to dodge them and then landing in close quarters against Shoto. The teen dodged the incoming fist and then responded by creating more ice to push her away, but Uraraka expected it and using Zero Gravity again made the ice float, growing unnaturally, while passing around it to deliver another punch.

Shoto stumbled back then his fire lit up, and Uraraka instantly stumbled back. He blinked. "Sorry." He retracted the fire back.

"No problem." The girl said, before turning a sickly green and rushing to the closest trashcan, leaning into it and immediately gagging. "Ugh, I think I went too far…"

"Makes sense, you used your Quirk a lot, even on yourself." Shoto replied, walking up to her with a handkerchief and a bottle of water.

"So have you, but you aren't puking in a trash can."

"My Quirk's side-effect doesn't make me nauseous, of course I'm not puking." He said, confused.

Uraraka rolled her eyes, grabbed the handkerchief, and cleaned her mouth, tossing it in the trash, before drinking some water to wash the taste away. "I was making a joke."

"Oh." Shoto frowned, "It was funny."

"Yes, I can tell, side-splitting." She said. Shoto smiled. He hadn't actually caught the joke, but so long as Uraraka hadn't noticed and thought he had found it funny, all was good. He looked at her as she snorted. He had now been assured by several competent sources that he was in love. Or at least that he had a crush. He wasn't sure what the difference was really. They both felt similar to a heart attack, apparently.

"You are getting a lot better." Shoto continued, not sure of what else to say. Usually, the research material he had found in the library under 'teen romance' was very varied, but a good portion of it said he was supposed to fall face first in Uraraka's chest at some point. Frankly, he wasn't sure how that was supposed to help. Wouldn't she dislike that and find it extremely awkward and uncomfortable?

Besides that, what he supposed were some sort of accurate report of teenage romances showed he was supposed to help her walk home, have fun with her on dates, talk about shared interests and generally spend time together. With that in mind, he had started with offering her training. She had instantly agreed, and Shoto had experienced another case of not-heart-attack, followed by a bubbling sensation in his stomach that Recovery Girl assured him was in fact not some sickness.

Love was bizarre, Shoto had decided. Having a crush was like being sick and the only cure was being close to the person you liked. Apparently, this was nice, romantic and accepted.

So weird.

He did like Uraraka though, so he had to deal with it. He could have said no and try to fall out of love, apparently, but… Why? Uraraka was cute, and nice, and seemed to like him as a person. He had to figure out some stuff, but he could do it.

"I can do it." He repeated, nodding.

"Great Shoto! I will get to pay you back for that restaurant!" Uraraka said, and Shoto blinked. "I-I mean, it's probably not going to be that nice, but I like the stuff and… Well, it will be fine. Thanks again Shoto!" And with that she rushed off.

Externally, Shoto remained calm and collected.

'What did I just agree to?'

Internally not so much.

-x-

Uraraka yawned as she laid on the bed. If things went to plan, she only had a week before moving in the dorms.

She would kinda miss her apartment. It was small, the bathroom broke often, there was no AC, the bed was too short…

…

No ok, she really wouldn't miss the apartment, unless the UA dorms were somehow worse. Standing up, she moved to the cooking area and grabbed some water, then her phone rung. "Hello? Ochaco Uraraka here!"

"Hi Uraraka, I'm Todoroki."

"Shoto? Doesn't sound like your voice…"

"Fuyumi." The woman at the other end of the phone clarified, "Sorry to bother you, but my brother isn't sure of what the plans for your next dinner are…"

"Oh? Nothing much, just eating something at my home. Nothing fancy, but I saved enough money we can take a pizza." She frowned, "I guess it's not much, but I can't really do much more…"

"And when will this be?"

"Mh? Oh, Monday night, after the Joint Training exercise they have announced recently. I figure we would be in the mood to hang out after it, you know? Dinner and maybe a movie, I have an old DVD player and some sci-fi movies."

"Great! Alright, thank you."

"No problem!" She said, and after saluting each other put down her phone, going back to drinking her water.

She was halfway through the glass when she realized she had just told Todoroki's sister she planned to invite him to her house on a night when they both would be 'in the mood to hang out' and promptly started to choke on the water.

'Goddammit Ochaco!'

She grabbed her phone. "Mom!" She shouted the moment the phone picked up.

"Oh dear. What's wrong Ochaco?" Her mom asked.

"I made a terrible mistake!"

"… Well Ochaco dear. I can't say I'm prepared to have grandkids, but if something went wrong there-" There was an audible clacking sound from her side of the line that Ochaco heard even over the sound of her face starting to steam from how red it was turning, "Oh dear."

"What is it?!"

"Your dad just pulled out his shotgun."

"Dad has a shotgu- No! Nevermind that. That's not what happened, at all! I haven't had s-s-s-intercourse! Seriously, why did you go there?!"

"Well dear, I know you have a boyfriend, and you live all alone…"

"He is not my- He is just- It's not about Todo- I mean it is but…" She paused, "Ok, listen mom, here is the thing, Todoroki is coming for dinner in a few days and- Did dad pump the shotgun again?!"

"… No?"

Ochaco sighed, "Look, mom, I don't plan to do anything… weird with Todoroki, but I'm worried he might be getting the wrong idea. Is that normal?"

"It's perfectly normal dear. Men are dumb and can misinterpret anything as advances. That said… Well, do you trust Todoroki?"

"… Yes."

"Then don't worry. Even if he has ideas, I'm sure he will be a gentleman about it. He is the son of the Number Two, he must have learned a lot about how to treat his partner properly."

'Sure, so long as it's about learning what not to do.' Ochaco thought, before sighing, "Alright mom, I guess you are right. I might be overreacting."

"Well dear, keep in mind your parents are here if anything happens."

Ochaco sighed, shaking her head. She had impulsively called, but really she knew they were right. Todoroki was… kinda weird, once you knew him better, but he was also really kind and well-mannered. Also, it wasn't like Ochaco knew he had any intentions. He was probably just thinking about it as a friendly meeting.

"Thank you mom. I know."

"Also…" She lowered her voice, "Just so you know, I am aware teenagers have urges, but if you could wait until you are a bit older that would be…"

Ochaco hang up the phone, face bright red again.

"Dammit mom…"

-x-

"Alright, Bakugo, here is the next part of the plan!" Ashido shouted, pointing at the blackboard she had carried in Katsuki's room. Frankly, he wasn't sure why he wasn't kicking them out yet. Probably because Mina was his only source for this stuff. "We are going to use operation Dual Wielding!"

"Use what?"

"It's the name of the file Nedzu sent with the details on the Joint Training." Kirishima explained, "No one knows why it's called that." She shrugged, "Either way, this is perfect for you."

"Why?"

-x-

"Because we will team-up with both our classmates and other classes from other schools, both in our grade and in different grades. And what matters for us are 'our classmates'." Tsuyu explained.

Jiro grinned, "Ah, I get it, you want me to team up with Momo…"

-x-

"And I would team up with Momo or Asui." Bakugo nodded.

"Or both. You did a decent progress, so I'm ready to at least let you interact with them." Mina said, "But I will keep an eye on you, Bakugo."

"What, you think I can't control myself?!" Bakugo shouted. Mina stared at him. "Come on, I didn't even put any cussing in there, give me a break." He said.

Mina sighed. 'Decent progress' for Bakugo was still so far removed from a normal person. The challenge of making him a guy you could date was amazing though.

She couldn't wait for the Joint Training between schools.

-x-

"And that's the plan." Tsuyu said.

"What if we can't team-up with them though?" Jiro asked.

"I still haven't figured it out, ribbit." Tsuyu admitted. Jiro frowned, before trying to think. What was a way out of this. Assuming they could team-up, there would be some way to do it. If it was random, their chances were minimal…

She suddenly remembered a conversation she had with her uncle. Maguma always liked to talk about his job, after all, and she had learned a lot from it.

-x-

"Jiro, do you know what's the best way to win the lottery with the least money possible?"

"Buying a ton of tickets?"

"Nope." Maguma grinned, "You buy only one thing."

-x-

"If we can't do it the Hero way, then we go with plan B." Jiro said.

"Which is, ribbit?"

"We do it the Yakuza way."

"… I don't know what that means." Tsuyu admitted. Uh, right, Jiro had forgotten that Asui, for all her natural attitude for a yakuza bodyguard, actually hadn't been raised in a yakuza group, just in a family with distant ties to it.

"Well, the way my mom put it, we…" She explained quickly, and Tsuyu blinked.

"Won't that be risky?"

"Eh, I mean, the worst they can say is no."

"No, the worst they can say is 'you are expelled'." Tsuyu pointed out.

"Fine." Jiro raised her hand, "Let's only do it if we are reasonably sure we can get away with it, is that alright?"

Tsuyu thought a moment, then grabbed Jiro's hand. "Alright, sounds like a plan."

-x-

The day of the Joint Training arrived fast. The first day of June, after a weekend that was frankly underwhelming since nothing of note happened. Masutaro yawned as he walked into class next to Himiko, giving a quick kiss on Tooru's cheek that she answered in kind, before sitting down at his spot. He waved at Izukun, and prepared for another day.

Soon after, Aizawa walked in, this time without the sleeping bag. Apparently, Nedzu had forced him to forgo it at least for the duration of the Joint Training, and apparently, Professor Aizawa hadn't taken that well if the way he cradled his coffee like a sailor clang to floating wood when the ship goes down. "Alright, let's get on with it." The Professor said, "Today we have the Joint Training with other classes from other schools. We picked at random which classes you will cooperate with. Some are from your same year, some are older."

"What is the exercise going to be, sir?!" Iida asked, raising his hand.

"Different exercises for different teams, but you will get the details once the teams are formed. For now, get ready, we are going to the USJ."

The class cheered. Despite the first experience not being the best, the USJ was a fun place to train at, when there weren't Villains trying to kill you.

Half an hour later, the Class arrived at the USJ. They moved out in an orderly fashion, with Iida leading them, walking in pairs. He stood next to Tooru, of course. He wasn't sure what was happening in the back, where Tsuyu, Jiro, Momo and Bakugo were playing a long tournament of rock, paper, scissor that had been ongoing since the tail end of the bus raid. The fact Momo played by creating actual rocks, papers, and scissors had been rather entertaining, until Aizawa had told her to cut it out to not waste her energies.

Suddenly, Momo cheered, stepping next to Bakugo, while Tsuyu and Jiro teamed up with a sigh. Masutaro shrugged. Everyone had their problems, he supposed.

Except Izukun. Looking at him walking next to Himiko, talking and laughing with her, Masutaro could tell he was on cloud nine. They had been together for over two weeks by now, but that wasn't going to make them any less lovey-dovey it seemed. 'Good for you Izukun.' He thought, before stepping in the USJ.

"Oh, that's 1-A! That's tots awesome! Valiant is like, super cool!" A voice shouted when they entered in the USJ, and Masutaro froze, stumbling forward. 'No…'

"You ok Masutaro?" Tooru asked. He nodded quickly, before looking around. 'No, no, no…'

About a hundred people were standing in the central area of the USJ. Among them were Shiketsu students. Masutaro's eyes flew toward the class, to the source of the voice he had heard shout first, before other people waving at his best friend had drowned it out.

And there she was. Camie Utsushimi.

Masutaro gulped.

And for a moment, he went back to being Yukio Utsushimi, Camie's little brother whose gas Quirk knocked out people instead of making them hallucinate.

'Fuck…' He thought. And he was sure, at that moment, that when Camie looked up at their class, she wasn't looking at Valiant. She was looking at him.

(XX)

New chapter! Sorry for the delay with my stories lately, seems my writing time is just a constant sacrifice.

Either way, we are back for False Love. Time for a very eventful Joint Training, don't you think?

Yup, our dear Masutaro is an Utsushimi, younger brother of none other than 'tots adorbs' Camie! Some people knew already, but I'm sure some are quite surprised. Than again, they both have gas-based Quirks, even if they have vastly different effects. Will Masutaro manage to avoid the scrutiny of his wicked cool sister?

I hope so, writing Camie is hard, man.

And we also have more romance stuff. Of course setting up Todochaco and whatever the fuck Bakugo and the girls are doing, but we also will go into Izuku and Himiko, of course. It's their first Hero exercise together, after all...

June is a busy month for 1-A: first the Training, then the dorms, then the exam, and then... well, more stuff is afoot.