Rule #59a: Most memories end up bittersweet, in the end

3E GROUP CHAT!

FOREVER FLAT HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

FOREVER FLAT: Congrats on the apprenticeship with HEX CO., Itona!

PICTURE BOOK GRAD HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

PICTURE BOOK GRAD: Thanks.

BOX O' MOE HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

BOX O' MOE: દ૨૨ʏ₍⁽˚⑅̆˚⁾₎મ૨ıτന੨ડ!

Hey guys! What's everyone doing for the holidays?

FOREVER FLAT: As for me, I'm attending the premiere of my latest movie.
Attached Image: THE CELSIUS SISTERS movie poster
(In Cinemas Now! Starring Mase Haruna & Yu Kendall!)

BOX O' MOE: Fancy! Have fun~!
We expect pictures!
And ALL the juicy details!

SEMI-SENIORITIS HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

SEMI-SENIORITIS: We've got an extra week or two of holidays.
'Coz the schools being fumigated for 'roaches.

ENGLISH LASS HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

ENGLISH LASS: Did they have help…?
:D

SEMI-SENIORITIS: :P
No one will know…

ENGLISH LASS: Dun, dun, dun~!

FLASHLIGHT HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

FLASHLIGHT: DON'T GIVE HIM ANY IDEAS!

SEMI-SENIORITIS: Haha! Too late!

ENGLISH LASS: I'm headin' home to see the fam!
Who knows, Toru, might just see you there!

FLASHLIGHT: Maybe, who knows?
Weirder things have happened :)

FAKER HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

FAKER: Oooh! Bitch-sensei sighted!
Attached Image: Bitch-sensei seated outside
Drum Bridge Cafe with mysterious stranger

FLASHLIGHT: Ooo!
Is that Karasuma-sensei with her?
Hey, I picked up a 'Kuza pin, d'ya think she'll want it?

HOME BASE HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

HOME BASE: If not, then I'll take it!
What kind is it?

FLASHLIGHT: Uhhhhh, lemme check.
Aizukotetsu-Kai Syndicate

HOME BASE: THAT'S ONE OF THE BIG 'KUZA CLANS!
HOW'D YOU GET ONE OF THOSE?!

FLASHLIGHT: Uhhhhhh…
Sticky fingers?

PRESIDENT POVERTY HAS JOINED THE GROUP CHAT

PRESIDENT POVERTY: Is anyone going to class at some point this week?

FLASHLIGHT: I hope so!
Security's real tight here, but fingers crossed!

FAKER: I'll bring the napkins!

FLASHLIGHT: Then I'll bring the pudding!

PICTURE BOOK GRADUATE: If you're going, then don't forget your key cards!

FLASHLIGHT: Oh yeah, I gotta dig that out!
I think I know where it is…

PICTURE BOOK GRADUATE: Otherwise you'll meet…
THE GUARD DOG!
WAAAAHAHAHA!


It had been laughably easy to cross the fence and hike the mountain to her old classroom. Her hometown may have fenced off the area, glued signs to the chain-link fence that warned off trespassers and painted the entire area in rumours and heresy, but that was nothing in comparison to what they'd been through. In particular, a certain military-grade force field which had enveloped the mountain only a year previous, plus navigating all of the traps which they had lain in wait. If you brushed aside the undergrowth, you could still see the scorched marks where the dome had gone up.

Dressed in what she called 'Okutama Causal' (opaque tights, a golden peacoat, sunglasses, face mask, scarf, beanie & gloves), Toru easily picked her way through the overgrown undergrowth and along the beaten path. Featherlight steps trickled over the dirt path with only muscle memory reminding her where both the untriggered traps & landmines still lay. The bag of convenience store pudding idly swung back & forth in her grip as she went, practically skipping as the others fought to keep up with her.

It was odd being back in Okutama after so long; she drifted almost melancholily because to the invisible girl it felt like no time had passed and yet all the time in the world had gone by. But still, as soon as she stepped foot into her hometown she had returned to old habits at the drop of a hat! For example, she buried her invisible figure beneath layers of blocky colours & clothing in an attempt to fit in. At a young age, she'd quickly figured out that if she covered just enough of herself, she looked your regular girl at first glance; but it was only once you went in for another—closer—look that you realised just how different she was and in a town like this, hiding in plain sight was a good skill to have. That, and the ability to outrun/outmanoeuvre your adversaries.

"How much further?" Toga whined as she fought against the brambles entangled in her bun-bound hair.

"Nearly there" Toru replied (they weren't), although she had been saying that for the past few minutes and it was clearly starting to get on everyone's nerves. The teenagers in particular, who looked like they were about ready to rush ahead mindless of her words.

"Ugh! You said that, like, twenty minutes ago!" Dagger groaned in agreement, tossing their head back in exasperation.

"To be fair" Toru tossed back as she spun on her heel to face the group, walking backwards with ease. "This is the slowest I've ever had to walk up this mountain. And that's including the time we had to take turns in carrying Bitch-sensei up in a palanquin as punishment"

"Why'd you have a palanquin?" Dabi puzzled, trying to picture a bunch of middle schoolers hauling their teacher up the side of a hill. It sounded like the kind of punishment his father might of inflicted.

"Long story" Toru brushed off, "Not important"

"Then what the hell are we waiting around for?" One of the grunts grumbled as the pair of them hurried to the front of the group, and against Toru's better judgement, stepped off of the beaten path. "Let's just go already! We're wasting daylight—!""

"—No! Wait! Not all the traps are—!" Toru rushed out when she noticed just where the Liberation Front grunts had stepped. She didn't dare move to intercept, knowing full well that both Takebayashi Kotari and Okuda Manami (the demolition and poisons experts, respectively) had had full reign of the explosives when they had been trapping the mountain. And went it came to those two, well, 'restraint' wasn't exactly in their vocabulary.

KA~BOOM!

One-by-one the surrounding traps in the area were set off in a chain reaction that had the remaining group scurrying backwards. Toru, who had the misfortune of being at the front of the group, found herself quickly painted a dark red from the entrails of the two men before her. Blown sky high, the two grunts barely had time to blink before their lives were wiped from existence and their remains just showered down upon them like blood rain (Mercifully, the food contents had remained untouched; with only the packaging becoming splattered).

"…Gone" Toru ended half-heartedly as she blinked dumbly, wiping the goop from her face and tried her best not to think about what it was that had landed on her.

"Okay" Hawks ruffled his feathers in agitation as he tried to shake off the soot and gunk, "What the hell was that?!"

"The mountain's booby-trapped" Toru shrugged as if it were obvious as she plucked a tooth from her hair in disgust.

"And you didn't think to mention it sooner?!" Twice exploded, "That was awesome!"

"…We were trying to kill our overpowered teacher, keep the Hero Commission-contracted-military division out, and let's not forget that the rest of the school hated our guts" She replied candidly, "Of course we booby-trapped the mountain!"

"It wasn't the whole—whole mountain, right?" Dagger asked as they warily eyed up the pretty berries at their feet.

"Yeah" Toru shrugged as she gave up on getting rid of any more of the guts off of her face. There were bathrooms at the top of the mountain that should still be working, and if not, she could always go for a dip in the river. "Don't—don't touch those"

"Are the poisonous?!" Twice wailed in distress, hands clasped around his face in horror. It was clear from the indigo juice dripping from his chin that the man had already partaken in the wild fruits. "Am I gonna die?!"

"No, but you are going to hallucinate, lose your hearing and get numb tongue"

"Numb tongue?" Toga puzzled as Twice stuck out his tongue in an attempt to see if he actually could watch his tongue go numb.

"Your tongue goes heavy & lethargic for a couple of hours, making it hard to talk and stuff"

"Why didn't you say something sooner?!"

"Because we know not to eat them!"

"Well then, if that's the case I'm going up!" Hawks decreed as he took to the air in the hopes that leaving the ground would maximise his chances of survival.

"Wait—!" Twice called as he lunged for the fleeing avian, "What if you get blown up too?!"

"Aren't you gonna stop him?" Toga quirked an inquisitive brow at the not-so-invisible girl.

"Give it a minute…" Toru hummed in reply as she mentally counted down the seconds until the canopy traps were set off too.

WHOOSH! ZZZTTT!

"AAARRGGH!" Hawks' yelp could be heard over yonder as he suddenly found himself swarmed by more traps, this time these were ones of Itona's design. When Toru said they had booby-trapped the entire mountain, she truly meant the entire mountain. They didn't have to wait long before Hawks returned, singed around the tips and smelling of burnt chicken.

"Aaaaaannnnd he's back~!" Toga sang giddily.

"Okay, forest trail of death!" Hawks pouted as he alighted down next to Dabi (who couldn't help but snicker at his appearance), "Let's go!"

"Wow…" Dagger blinked dumbly as they watched the avian sulkily stomp up the path, "You guys did not spare any expenses, huh?"

"Nope" Toru agreed.

"It's almost worse than the clan's Hunts"

"Yeah…I guess?"

"You guess? Dude! Two guys just blew up right in front of you—!"

"—I told them not to step off of the path—"

"—And you just turned the Number Two hero into a burnt chicken!"

"I did say we trapped the whole mountain"

"…You guys are insane—"

"—We're not that bad—"

"—You're a bunch of mildly sociopathic teenagers who are learnt in the art of assassination, you're sleeper agents triggered by a single word, you lethally trapped an entire mountain—one that the locals think are haunted thanks to you—and killed an overpowered nomu? And to you, that's 'not that bad?!"

"Well, when you put it like that…"

"When you put it like that? When you put it like that? How're you still in the hero course?!"

"Uh…" Toru blinked dumbly at her friend's irritation, "The Hero Commission contracted us in the first place?"

"…Yeah, that'll do it"


Just as it had been easy enough to scale the fence surrounding the mountain, it was even easier for Toru to lose her tail as soon as she'd entered the dense undergrowth (she didn't mind showing others about her town or even her old school, but the mountaintop classroom was theirs and no ones elses).Though the League of Villains had traversed the forestry of the UA training camp with relative ease (although that was in part due to Dabi's lavish use of his blue flames), the small party now seemed to have a bit of trouble navigating the close busheries and all of its hidden traps. Which was good for the invisible girl because she could slip away relatively unharmed in the chaotic aftermath of the exploded Liberation Front grunts and the sudden wariness of the unknown traps splayed around them.

Trotting over the crest, Toru spotted the beloved classroom-turned-shrine on the horizon. It was just as she'd remembered it; weathered wooden panelling, scuffed windows and a bed of tulips lain out the front. It may have only been just under a year since she had stepped foot in this classroom, but still the memories lain here were strong and fond. "…Hey~!" A chipper voice sang from behind her. "Hey, Flashlight~!"

"Faker?" Toru turned at the call, only to find herself face-to-face with Ritsu's human body double, the indestructible Onaga Nise.

"It's so good to see you~!" The taller girl beamed, bringing Toru in for a tight hug mindless of the bags in their hands and the small patches of blood stick glued to the girl's form (she'd eventually given up on her bathroom idea and simply taken a detour to a nearby riverbend to wash off the gunk coagulating on her skin. Thankfully, she was wearing so many layers that all she had really needed to do was strip off the outer layers, dump them into the plastic bag in her hand and washed the few patches of skin which had been left exposed. Thank God for Okutama casual!).

"You too! I heard you got that Morail scholarship?" Toru smiled as she pulled back from the hug (the Morail Company was well known amongst the hero support agencies for using people as test dummies). Nise hadn't changed much in the short time that they'd been apart, the handsome girl still bore the violet locks which had (really) been her only connection to Ritsu, making her stand in as her human body double. But even then, Toru could already see the roots of her own darker hair colour starting to show through.

"Yes! I'm so excited!" Nise beamed, "D'you know that they only take a handful of new students every year?"

"Flashlight E-29" Plucking her old Kunugigaoka Junior High keycard from her pocket, Toru easily opened the classroom door. Nise went next, swiping her own through the door, less so to unlock it and more so that the computer (implanted by Itona) could log her in for the day. "Faker E-27"

"Oh by the way, what was up with that explosion before?" Nise wondered as the two girls shucked their shoes at the door.

"Oh, just a couple of wayward idiots" Toru brushed off as she meandered over to the hand drawn map (the one which had all the identified traps around the mountainside) pasted to the wall. Picking up one of the markers that sat idly by, she marked off the place where the traps had detonated, "They triggered some of the landmines down by the base"

"Anyone we know?"

"No" Toru lied (kind of. She didn't personally know the grunts).

"How big was it? Did you get any good looks?"

"No, not really, I was too busy trying not to die. But I did have to spend a minute or two picking teeth out of my hair"

"Cool~" Nise grinned, "I mean…eww!"

"Who're you kidding? Those landmines would've done diddly-squat to you!"

"That's because~" Nise spun on her heel and placed her hands on her hips in a poor imitation of All Might, "I'm indestructible! Nothing can harm me! Mwahahaha~!"

"Except for P. Specs" Toru smiled teasingly.

"Yeah…" Nise deflated a little, "She certainly came up with a lot of interesting stuff"

"Was it her idea to make the giant expired pudding?"

"Actually, I think it was Kayano's…"

"Ah…y'know, that does ring a bell…" Toru nodded in agreement as she took a running leap to slap the 3-E sign still hanging outside of their classroom. Nise followed suit with her much larger hand matching that of several hands already imprinted in the chipping paint.


Together, the pair wandered throughout the landscape of their old mountaintop classroom, going from room to room expressing various nostalgia-filled anecdotes of a bygone year. From the science lab where Okuda Manami cooked up various poisons to coat their rubber blades that only ended up changing Koro-sensei's facial features ("Horns! Wings! Blank! He's like an emoji!"), to the sports shed out the back of the field, where a surprising number of failed assassinations and…other shenanigans took place, ("Remember when Koro-sensei and Bitch-sensei went in there?" / "I didn't even know that teachers could DO stuff like that! And in class, too!").

They made a detour towards the staffroom to lay out their collection of napkins and pudding cups upon Koro-sensei and Yukimura-sensei's desks respectively and spared a few words of remembrance in regards to both of their late teachers. Their offerings to either teacher might've of seemed strange to anyone not in the know, but that was kinda the point to them being up here, wasn't it? The outcasts that was 3-E had been shunted out of the way so that they could be out of sight & out of mind. So, it would only make sense that a bunch of misfits would have seemingly strange customs such as this.

For a moment, they parted ways; one going towards the gardens where their tulips had been planted the year before, and one going towards the store room where the excess Anti-Sensei weapons lay waiting. As Toru rooted through the box of rubbery weapons that had proven to be useful on both Koro-sensei and other unnamed Nomu, she found herself quietly cursing herself as she lamented on the fact that she hadn't thought of doing this earlier. It was like Toga had said, Koro-sensei was widely considered to be the first successful nomu—high end or otherwise—so, it would stand to reason that the weapons produced take down their beloved teacher, would also work on the numerous nomus which seemed to be as common as roaches, these days. Which was why the albino was currently stuffing every available crevice with the weaponry. She didn't know if they would be useful at a later date (but knowing their luck), or if Momo could use them to replicate more, should the need arise. In either case, it was better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. (They—both Class 1-A of UA AND 3-E of Kunugigaoka—had learnt that particular lesson the hard way).


The sun had climbed higher up into the sky thawing the morning frost with its rays, by the time both girls reunited in their old homeroom that still stood in the middle of the main mountaintop campus. With another slap for good luck on the classroom sign before she entered, Toru easily slid through the doorway and into the dust-covered room. Flopping down behind her old desk in the back of the room [row five, seat twenty-nine], Toru happily helped herself to one of the pudding cups that she had bought, eagerly spooning the golden gelatinous substance into her mouth with a pleased hum. Across the way, Nise who had claimed her own golden pudding, set about placed a handful of blooming tulips into an old paint jar-turned-vase, which was either going to be set up on the podium or placed back on the desks in the staffroom. It was nice.

"So" Nise turned to Toru, spoon hanging from her lips, when she was done (re)arranging the flowers.

"So…" Toru drawled, shifting in her seat.

"We need to talk"

"Uh oh!" She teased, "Those four words are never good—!"

"—Hagakure" She cut in, voice stern.

(Hagakure, not Flashlight. This was serious).

"What's going on with you?" Nise pushed, "And do we (as in 3-E) need to be worried?"

Toru heaved a great put-upon sigh that seemed to rattle her whole body, exhaling in and shuddering out like some tire that had lost its air. "…Be cautious. They've got a doc who's interested in Koro-sensei's serum. Y'know, if there's actually any left after that thing on I-Island"

"What do you mean?"

"I—I mean, I, uh…There's…there's been so much—there is so much, I…I don't know where to start…"

"The beginning's always good"

"Beginning of what, though? Koro-sensei? UA? The League of Villains? Stain? The Paranormal Liberation Front? I just…I don't…"

"Spark notes, then" Nise suggested, shifting to a less intimidating stance as she perched atop Sousuke's desk. "Summarise the bits we've missed, and the bits we need to know about"

"Right, right, okay" Toru nodded, plonking her plastic spoon back into the empty pudding cup. "Well, the League of Villains—you remember them, right?"

"The ones who kidnapped you? The ones that were all over the news?"

"Yeah them, anyway, after their leader—All For One—was captured by the heroes and I killed Stain, they joined up with the Paranormal Liberation Front. You heard of them?"

"Kinda…" Nise hummed in thought, quietly taking note of the admission of Stain's real cause of death. "It rings a bell—not sure which bell—but certainly a bell"

"Anyway, so the villain groups joined forces"

"Wait—! Is that what the whole turmoil in Deika was for?"

"Yeah, I think so. 'Least, that's what I've managed to put together so far"

"Right. You were saying?"

"Anyway, so their one unit now and that's got the Hero Public Safety Commission up in arms"

"But what's that got to do with you?"

Toru's tongue darted out to wet her lips even as her mouth ran dry. "D'you remember our old employers?"

"The shiny men in business suits?" Nise cocked her head in question as a grainy picture came to mind. "The ones from the Hero Commission?"

"Yeah, them" Toru nodded, "They paid me a visit and extended the contract. I'm now playing infiltrator into the Paranormal Liberation Front, as my side-gig"

"They can do that?!"

"Apparently since I'm in the Hero Course and I was previously in their employ, they can do whatever the fuck they please"

"…Just be careful, okay? We don't want to see you on the news like that again" This time Nise was referring to both the Kamino Ward incident and the spattering of UA-related articles which seemed to be wrapped around the League of Villains or whomever the current big bad appeared to be.

"It's not like I'm asking to be in these kinds of situations!" Toru retorted with a huff, "And the TV thing is kinds part of the whole hero gig, so…"

"Yeah, well, your next exposé better not be in SVU: Dumbass Unit!"

"I'll try my best" Toru replied dryly.

"That's all we ask" Nise nodded in acceptance, voice fond.

"You guys too"

"Hmm?"

"You guys should be careful too, aside from possibility of the extending your contracts, I mean. I don't know what's gonna go down for sure, but whatever it is, I can almost guarantee that it's gonna be big and bad. Feels like everyone's gearing up for war"

"And you're gonna be right in the centre"

"Yeah, probably, knowing our luck"


It was practically dusk by the time Toru's little entourage of PLF escorts made their way up the mountain. Twice looked worse for wear (apparently having eaten more than his fair share of those berries), Hawks looked like he had tried to go for the aerial route more than once, if the burnt nugget effect was anything to go by and Dagger was practically dragging Toga along by the coattails; both girls huffing and puffing over the crest of the hill. It was too bad that both 3-E alumni girls had gotten tired of waiting by the classroom and had made their way over to the old pool hidden within the busheries. Dabi, for all his usual hotheadedness, looked so done with the world that it was almost comical; a word not usually associated with the burnt villain. Lethal? Yes. Comical? No.

"…FOUND THEM!" Dagger declared as she shoved her way through the overgrown bushes, nose twitching as she tracked the girls' scent like the hellhound she was.

"Finally!" Toga whined, flopping down onto the leafy ground next to where Toru sat, legs swinging idly in the cold water.

"Hey" Toru greeted cheekily as she tossed her head back to stare up at the frustrated and tired group that shuffled in behind. "What took you so long?"

"You…suck!" Toga wheezed from the ground, limbs splayed about all askew as she tried to suck in lungfuls of air. "This…mountain…sucks! You all…suck!"

"Have fun then?" Clearly they'd run into more than one trap on the way up, because even the slowest of students didn't take hours to hike up the mountain like they had.

"Screw you!"

"Pass"

Toru eyed the way Hawks perched himself on the end of the diving board, as he contemplated about whether or not taking a dive into the leafy refuse that currently blanketed the uppermost layer of the pool. In the background, she watched as Nise covertly shoved her damp feet back into her shoes, bundled her socks up into her pocket and made to quietly escape without attracting any attention from the already spent group around them. Or at least, that seemed to be the idea, but Toru wasn't the only one watching her.

"Hey, Flashlight!" Nise called across the water, her tone forcefully playful as she skittered back towards the treeline. Looks like they were going with Rule #27.

("What's with the 'Flashlight' schtick?" Dagger asked in the background).

"Hm?" Toru turned towards her old classmate, a wickedly calculating gleam in her eye. She didn't need to know what the girl was thinking, she could see it in her mirrored smirk because it was the same one she'd worn when they'd infiltrated that hotel back at camp.

"Race you to the bottom?" Nise was already pushing her way through the foliage before Toru could even yank on her shoes. "…LAST ONE THERE'S A FRIED NAPKIN!"

"WHA—?! THAT'S NOT FAIR! CHEATER!" Toru spluttered before racing after her, mindless of the group they'd left behind. It wouldn't matter if they'd tried to break in, Itona's security defence was impenetrable. And all the while, the sounds of the villains sounded in their behind them.

"WHA—?!"

"BUT WE JUST GOT HERE!"

"YOU GUYS SUCK!—WAIT FOR ME, MR UNICORN!"

"Ugh…Teenagers…!"

"You know you sound like an old man, right?"

"Shut it, bird brain!"

"Ooh! Bird brain! Never heard that one before"


HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION STATUS REPORT
PARANOMRAL LIBERATION FRONT INFILTRATION

HERO: PRISM

Retrieved excess Anti-Sensei weapons

Two PLF fatalities, two wounded

Pistol [Identity: Wan Hinata, Status: Deceased, Quirk: Dewdrop, Rank: Foot soldier]

Copycat [Identity: Suzuki Haruto, Status: Deceased, Quirk: Photocopy, Rank: Foot soldier]

Twice [Identity: Bubaigawara, Status: Wackerberry Poisoning, Quirk: Double, Rank: Lieutenant]

Hawks [Identity: Takami Keigo , Status: Second-degree Burns, Quirk: Fierce Wings, Rank: No. 2 Hero]