Rule #3b: Look underneath the underneath

After Hawks dropped her off on her balcony with a cheeky farewell as she returned his jacket to him, Toru quickly made her way inside and thanked her lucky stars that the avian hero at least had the decency not to drop her off at the front door where she would have undoubtedly been accosted by their homeroom teacher and/or Tokoyami. Or God-forbid Todoroki; she could only imagine what kind of scandalous theory the heterochromatic boy would come up with if he saw her return in her underwear in the arms of the number two hero.

Either way, the invisible girl was barely able to quickly shove herself through her usual morning routine and rush to school with a piece of toast hanging from her mouth, slide into the classroom (with a passing greeting & query from her friends about her absence at breakfast that morning) and into her seat mere moments before Aizawa trudged in behind her.

"Right, the bell already rang, so…" Aizawa greeted as he walked in the door and they all raced for their seats, hoping against hope not to attract his ire so early in the morning. "Okay…It's time to stop playing around and be more serious. Things get harder from here"

So what? Toru thought aghast, These last few months have been child's play? I think not!

"Even though you only have your Provisional Licenses, you've been given the certification to act as heroes at an official capacity. Or at least most of you have; two of you remain in supplemental courses"

"Tch" Bakugou scoffed tersely from the seat behind her.

"From this moment on, we'll be kicking your training up a notch. So be prepared"

At that, alarms that Toru didn't know were there, popped from the walls and the blackboards blared an emergency message across it. Principal Nezu's voice sounded almost cheerful over the loudspeaker and Toru had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing aloud at his tone.

"Emergency drill! Emergency drill!" Nezu chirped. "Hypothetical villains have infiltrated the UA High School grounds. Assistance from Hero Courses 1-A & 1-B requested. Class 1-A report to Training Ground Beta and Class 1-B to report to Training Ground Gamma. Please change into your hero costumes & report as soon as possible!"

"YOU HEARD THE ANNOUNCEMENT, EVERYONE!" Iida needlessly bellowed over the blaring alarm as everyone rose from their seats and made their way over to the costume rack which had ejected itself upon cue. "LET'S DO THIS!"


Once everyone was trundled up in their winter hero costumes (most having added a lining of fur, wool, a cape or sleeves to their designs), they made their way over to their designated training ground as requested. "At the moment, our tactical information is limited, but we know villains have infiltrated Ground Beta" Iida informed the rest of the class as they all stood upon an outcropping roof that overlooked the scene of the crime. Currently, all they could see was a large plume of smoke rising steadily into the air, northwest of them. "Even this is only a drill, we will carry out this mission as though lives are on the line"

Knowing us,Toru thought pessimistically. It's probably our lives on the line. No one piss off Todoroki, Midoriya or Bakugou!

"We need to understand the situation better" Momo piped up. "Reconnaissance squad? If you will?"

"We're on it!" Jiro smirked, tugging on her gloves as Koda stepped forth to whistle for any birds that were hanging around in their vicinity.

"Bird friends!" Koda called softly to the pigeons who answered his call. "Please look for damaged buildings and people in need!"

"Northeast, 900m out, there's something definitely going down!" Jiro reported as she listened to the sounds around her via the earphone jack plugged into the concrete at their feet.

"I confirm smoke from an explosion in that direction" Shoji agreed as he sprouted a series of eyes and ears that peered around in that direction. "A building's collapsed near the river. It's currently ablaze, but I don't see any villains in the area"

"Roger that!" Iida nodded as the rest of the class began to trickle back down to the street where their vice class president was currently using her Quirk to create a large rickshaw for them to use.

"No time to waste!" Momo thumped her creation down onto the ground and turned to face the others with a certain amount of pride settled on her features at having created something so large and complex. "We need an extinguishing squad to race to the scene! Ingenium!"

"Right! Shoto"

"I've got this" Todoroki agreed cooly before none-so-gracefully climbing into the back of the cart.

"I'll join as well" Tokoyami followed suit alongside Aoyama & Sato who clambered into the vehicle, making it sink a little lower to the ground.

"Oh no!" Koda's startled exclamation suddenly crackled over the walkie talkie clipped to Iida's belt just as the armoured hero slipped behind the driver's wheel. "Someone got swept away by the river!"

"A victim?" Iida perked up, sounding all too happy about the whole thing, in Toru's opinion.

"It's our turn now, Grape Juice" Tsu's tongue snapped out and latched onto the purple boy as she hopped into the back of the cart with ease. "We'll save 'em!"

"Yeah!" Mineta cheered as he soared through the air for a brief moment before falling face-first into the cart.

"Rescue squad and Extinguishing squad are moving out!" Iida decreed as he raced off. "Ingenium! GO!"

"WE'LL BRING UP THE REAR!" Midoriya called out after them as Bakugou dragged Kirishima & Kaminari off in the other direction in search of the aforementioned villains.

The remaining hero students had barely made it a few streets down before a second explosion rocked the training ground. Originally Toru would've guessed that the explosion was the result of Bakugou's temper, but the explosive blonde was still behind them, leading her to believe that it must have been these 'villains' that they were looking for.

"Another explosion?!" Midoriya panicked as the second plume of smoke rose steadily into the sky in front of them.

"The smoke looks denser than it was before" Ojiro noted.

"This isn't good" Momo agreed. "We can't let the flames spread!"

"So, like, just put out the fire?" Mina questioned from her right.

"Yes!"

"Then we've got a move for that! Uravity! Cellophane!"

"Yeah?" Sero grinned as he skidded to a stop just as Ochako shot forward to launch Mina into the air with her Quirk. "Bring it home, Pinky!"

"Team Rainy Day, on the scene!" Mina cheered as she latched onto the tape fired at her so as to not float off into space, and rained down a ring of acid around the burning building. The new moat around the burning building helped to stop the spread of the flames as Aoyama stepped up to the plate.

"And moi!" Aoyama shot off a series of lasers at the remnants of the building's foundations, bringing it down on the fire and suffocating it. In turn, from the other side of the city Todoroki encompassed the remaining embers in a glacier that would hold true against the fire for sure, this time.

"…BE CAREFUL!" Jiro's voice suddenly ripped through the silence next as she picked up on something closing in on her classmates. "SOMETHING'S HEADED IN YOUR DIRECTION!"

And that was all the warning Toru's group was given before they were all taken off of their feet by a shockwave that had them falling ass over kettle in their attempts to stay upright. The flying bits of rubble and stray surges of light certainly didn't help matters; in fact, Toru found herself trying not to fall off of the piece of rubble that had caught her in the stomach upon landing.

"Wait—it can't be!" Ochako gasped upon seeing that her senpai was to be their opponent for the drill.

"Hey! Hey! There are still villains to deal with!" Nejire grinned from where she hovered above them in a numbered tank top that looked like the ones they used for sports games. In her grip, Mina was tightly bound by the same tape she had used to stop herself from floating away. "D'you guys remember me? I'm a villain today! Did you know that?"

"So Hado's playing a bad guy in this drill?" Midoriya summarised as he was helped to his feet.

"Not just her!" Amajiki called from behind them at the other end of the street. Although where Nejire sounded almost excited to be participating in this drill, Amajiki was far less enthused. "I'm also a bad guy"

"Amajiki's here too?!" Midoriya worried at his arrival. And with good reason; here stood two thirds of UA's Big Three.

"…Man, why'd they have to drag me into this? I feel like everyone's staring! I'll just pretend they're all potatoes—yeah! There are no heroes here, only starches!" Amajiki murmured to himself as he stared down at his own numbered shirt. Nodding once more to himself, the he then turned on his heel and began to walk away, calling over his shoulder as he went. "I'M GOING HOME!"

Um…Toru blinked.

"Wait a minute, is he really just taking off?" Ochako gaped at the third year's retreating back.

"I think maybe he's confused?" Ojiro tossed out there.

"Hey! Stop this, Amajiki!" Nejire called out after her shy friend, making him pause and turn to look back at her. "You can't bounce! You have a big part to play! And don't any of you move either! It'd be real bad! Because I'm a fearsome villain right now!"

The statement would've made more of an impact if the periwinkle-haired girl wasn't giving the first years twin peace signs and a cheeky grin like she was taking a photo with friends. Something must've caught her eye behind her, as the third year suddenly spun on her heel (Toru marvelled at how she could do that in the air) and aimed her palm at whomever lay on the other side of the glacier. "I told you not to move! What didn't you get? Naughty kids like you must be punished! Full Charge! Output Level: 30%"

Toru and the others had to crouch down and shield themselves from the aftershock on the attack as both Todoroki's ice shattered and Nejire's glittering light tore through the city with a vengeance, sending up clouds of smoke to suffocate them all. The tinkling sound of more ice could be heard over her classmates' cries alerting Toru to the fact that Todoroki had been able to shield himself and the others just in time.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT AMA—I mean, VILLAIN?!" Midoriya cried out as they once more clambered back to their feet.

"…To go home" Amajiki replied much to their disbelief.

"Well, then…" Ojiro asked, "Why're you still here?"

"Coz if I leave, Hado will get mad at me"

Yeah, she can be pretty scary! Toru shivered as her thoughts turned towards the dance lessons she had shared with Oishii and Nejire. Slave driver didn't even begin to cover it.

"Not to mention Mirio, he asked me to do what I could to become proper heroes as soon as possible. He's counting on me to push you" Wings exploded from his back, one hand morphed into a clam shell whilst the other formed a series of tentacles as resigned determination settled on his features. "So I'll stand and fight!"

"They're doing this to make sure we get stronger, huh?" Midoriya murmured as everyone fell into a series of fighting stances.

"I'm grateful, but this is not gonna be easy!" Sero replied.

As the girls spun to face Nejire whilst the boys remained opposite Amajiki, Toru caught Ochako's eye and on some sort of unspoken command she rose to her feet & readied herself to retrieve Mina. There was a beat of silence as Toru's eyes trailed up towards where Mina hung in the air; she too must've caught Ochako's eye because she nodded determinedly to the brunette down below. Toru could almost feel her legs coiling as she prepared to launch herself forward, hands ready to clamp onto her pink friend.

"RELEASE!" Ochako quickly slammed her hands together, releasing her hold on Mina who quickly dropped towards the ground as gravity took hold of her once more. It was more than enough to surprise Nejire who hadn't been expecting it (despite having worked alongside the gravity girl in work studies) and Toru easily took advantage of it.

Launching herself upwards, Toru wrapped her arms around Mina, carrying her bridal-style as all three of them plummeted back to earth. "Gotcha!" Toru chirped.

"There you are Hagakure! Found you!" Nejire smiled even as she swung out her other arm to right them and attempted to add the invisible girl to her collection of hostages. At the same time Nejire was doing this, Toru quickly encompassed herself and Mina inside a bubble of violet that easily sliced through the length of tape connecting them to their senior. As the two bounced and skidded back to the ground, Sero quickly shot out another strand of tape this time binding Nejire, before Momo pinned her to one of Todoroki's slabs of ice with a net, much to Nejire's chagrin.

"Thanks guys!" Mina gushed as Ochako & Toru did their best to unravel the tape binding her.

Whilst this was going on, the boys had finally taken the initiative and taken on Amajiki with Ojiro going in first. Even from the other end of the street, Toru could hear the impact of Ojiro's muscular tail against Amajiki's anthropomorphic limbs and winced in sympathy as she imagined the bruises each of them would wear tomorrow. But soon enough the blonde found himself entrapped by Amajiki's limbs, leaving Midoriya to land his attack, only for some reason he appeared to purposefully miss which confused Toru. Midoriya had never held any qualms about not holding back before, so why now?

Anyhow, the greenette was shoved away so that Amajiki could land another, more purposeful attack on him; at least that was the idea until the last of their classmates finally rocked up. Kirishima burst onto the scene as he quite literally used himself as a battering ram to knock Amajiki off course. "Hey, thanks!" Midoriya called as the red head sent up a small dust cloud when he landed.

"Here he comes! The big bang!" Kirishima grinned as he turned back to watch the red car racing towards them with a snarling Bakugou on the front and a stressed Kaminari behind the wheel with the car's battery wires shoved down his throat.

"PREPARE TO BE MURDERED!" Bakugou shot forward like a rocket off of the bonnet of the car, towards the petrified third year and Toru couldn't help the put upon sigh that fell from her lips.

"Why does he always have to yell death threats at everyone?" Mina agreed, hands on hips.

"I dunno" Ochako hummed. "Is it a boy thing?"

"The ones in our class do have a weird thing with bloodlust" Toru nodded.

"Hey…" Sero petulantly whined off to the side as the girls gossiped about them. "We're not that bad!"

"BURN IN HELL, VILLAIN!" Bakugou's bellow did not help his argument.

"…Okay, that doesn't count"

"Yeah, okay, sure" Mina laughed as the drill was called in the heroes' favour.

"The drill is over" Nezu's voice came over the training ground's loudspeakers. "The drill is over"

Of course, Bakugou just had to have the last word. The miniature explosions that usually sparked in the blonde's palms seemed bigger in his agitation and upon seeing this, Toru quickly threw up a force field around herself and her surrounding peers with a startled yelp (those being the girls and Sero) just as the blonde—predictably—blew up. Ash blackened the area, blocking everything and everyone from view and she could almost picture the plume of smoke circling up into the air in the shape of a skull.

"Quick thinking Toru!" Mina clapped her friend on the back in appreciation.

"That Bakugou, he's always doing this!" Ochako groaned as she helped their vice-president to release Nejire from the net.

"Hey what happened to the others?"

"I 'unno" Toru shrugged, before jumped at the sudden appearance of said classmates who banged up against the exterior of the bubble and slid down it like condensation on a window.

"Ooh!" Mina winced in sympathy when she saw that the boys had taken the brunt of Bakugou's attack despite being behind him. They lady about the broken street absolutely smothered in dust & dirt with the occasional singed shirt and hair that had ballooned into impressive afros. Toru didn't want to think what the blonde in question or Amajiki looked like after that. Their afros however, were works of art.