That was a much better reception than I had expected for this fic. But hey, I am not complaining!

Without further ado, next chapter!


Chapter 4

The next day was as boring as a regular class. I would have frankly slept through if it wasn't for the fact that I'd need to know at least some stuff for the exams. It was only after lunch that I got interested in the proceedings of the class.

"I HAVE… COME THROUGH THE DOOR! LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"

I laughed at the ridiculous entrance, while everyone else seemed awed that the number one hero was going to be a teacher there. After he swiftly explained what the class was about, he beckoned me over. Curious, I went to him.

"Yes?"

"Korai-shounen! Your quirk registry had the costume column empty. I believe you stated that you did not want a costume. May I know why?"

'Ah, so that's what it was,' I thought as I smiled. "I plan to be an underground hero. A costume that can be attributed to me kinda goes against the idea, doesn't it?"

"But wouldn't you still want to have a costume that can be recognized? Like, say, your homeroom teacher, Eraserhead?"

"Not at all," I replied with a smile. "Fame will get in my way. As long as I get compensated for my work, I don't particularly care for fame or recognition."

All Might seemed bummed at my words, but the smile never left his face. "Interesting thought process," he said anyway. "I'd still recommend a costume since they can provide extra protection that your quirk might not be able to provide. Do consider it. Now, go! Let's meet at the Ground Beta."

And with a swift pat on my back, he disappeared.

"That was manly!"

I didn't have to turn to know that it was Kirishima. I laughed instead. "It's not being about manly; it's about being clear about your goal."

"And that's manly!"

"Yeah, yeah."


"Let's see what you're made of, you embryos!"

As All Might explained what the training was going to be, I hazarded a glance towards all my classmates. Mind you, the girls looked awesome. Most of the guys did too. Of all costumes, I'd only really question Mineta's—which honestly looked like he was wearing a diaper. I had no clue why he would wear something like that, but I chalked it up to it being because of his quirk… somehow. I would have to ask him later if the design was the way it was because of any special reason. I doubted that but gave him the benefit of doubt. I wasn't particularly hopeful about the reason but hey, everyone deserved a chance as long as they weren't a convicted criminal.

It wasn't until lottery drawing started that I realized with a start that there were an even number of people after all—which was strange. I had thought my presence would be additional, not that I'd be substituting someone from the canon. After a long look around, I realized that the invisible girl wasn't in the class anymore. Of all people, somehow, Mineta was in but Hagakure was out.

…UA badly needed to overhaul their entrance exams.

And so, as luck would have it, I got paired with Ojiro as Team I.

After the explosive Izuku vs Bakugou match, we were put up against Hero Team B: Todoroki and Shoji.

Of fucking course.

With a sigh, Ojiro and I made our way to the starting position. I could easily see that the guy wasn't really confident about winning. That made sense. Because honestly, even I was wondering if I could do something. I racked my brain for something airy that I could use to beat them. Since Ojiro and I were villains, we probably were free to do whatever with our bomb.

During the ten or so minutes we had to strategize, I had a chat with Ojiro.

"So, any plans?" I asked, willing to wait and see what the tail-guy had in mind. I already had something cooking in my mind but before verbalizing it, I wanted to see what my partner had in his mind. After all, I couldn't exactly carry the entire class on my back; they wouldn't be ready for the bullshit coming next year—that is, if I am not able to stop it. (Hey, I had grown fond of the people here!)

"Not sure honestly," Ojiro replied, his tail swishing. "I mean, it's Todoroki. He's a recomm-"

"Uh uh," I interrupted his negative verbiage. "Let's focus on the task at hand. As villains, we know the hero team's quirks. Can we use that knowledge to our advantage?"

"Let's see… Todoroki's quirk is Fire and Ice. Shoji's is Replicant Arms," Ojiro started slowly as I nodded at him. "From what we have seen, Todoroki only uses Ice. Shoji's tentacles can replicate parts of his body so he can eavesdrop on us without us knowing. And… yeah, that's about what I know."

I put on a thinking expression. "I don't know anything more either," I muttered just loud enough for him to hear it. "Still, with what we know, we should be able to do something."

He seemed surprised. "You have something in mind?"

"Yeah, somewhat…" I petered out, trying to figure out a way to handle Todoroki. I knew he wouldn't use fire at all but his ice was dangerous. In Shoji's case, he was simply physically strong. Neither of us were strong enough to take them both head-on.

"Can you pick up the bomb with your tail?" I asked eventually.

"A bit difficult given the width but yes, I should be able to," Ojiro said as he glanced over at the bomb.

"Perfect." I smiled. "Then I think we should be able to do something after all." I paused as my eyes scanned his collar. "Remove the mic for a second."

"Eh?"

"Just do it. I don't want my plan to be heard by anyone in the audience either." I grinned, a twinkle in my eye.

Ojiro must have noted it for he did follow my action and removed the mic, curiously staring at me. "Alright, what is it?"

"When the bell rings, move the bomb to another building ASAP," I instructed. "And then stay there. Try to be as discreet and quiet as possible; we don't want Shoji to hear or see you in the other building. In the meantime, I will be removing the oxygen on all the lower floors so the two of them will suffocate."

"What the fuck."

I laughed at his disbelief and concern. "Don't worry. I am well aware of the repercussions so I will make sure they only pass out at most. And that's why I want you to be on the same level as our heroes. In case I overdo it, I want you to keep an eye on them and report their status to me. But stay out of their range at all costs. If they see you while they are hyperventilating, they might try some last-minute, desperate attack. We don't want that now, do we?"

He mulled over the plan for a few moments. Then, he glanced at me, the worry still clear in his eyes. "I am fine with the plan, but I still have to say that it is dangerous. I hope you know what you are doing."

"I know what I am doing. But I won't be able to see what I am doing," I pointed out. "That's where you come in. Take them by surprise if you need to and run away. No need to fight them head-on. They are too strong against us."

He nodded in understanding, the apprehension receding from his eyes slightly.

As soon as the starting bell rang, we acted. Ojiro took the bomb with him and jumped to a nearby building of the same height. He immediately ran away from the edge of the roof as quietly as he could and entered the building, disappearing from my sight.

At the same time, to make sure his actions couldn't be heard. I separated the air in and around the building from the air outside. Having Air Control as a quirk meant I could quite literally create a vacuum space anywhere as long as it had air in it. And in real world, that meant everywhere.

A vacuum bubble formed all around the building just as I saw the ice freezing the hallway I was in. I jumped letting the ice form under me before landing on it. Now, the next part was to create another bubble around my enemies so I could siphon out the air inside.

My earpiece crackled and I heard Ojiro's voice coming through. "I see them on the first floor. Shoji is near the entrance and not moving. Todoroki is walking swiftly towards the staircase… and now he's climbing."

"Got it," I replied.

I focused in the area Ojiro had mentioned and formed a large vacuum bubble around where I assumed Shoji to be, and then started siphoning the air out from the bubble. It only took a few seconds before he started feeling suffocated. At the same time, I created yet another vacuum bubble around the staircase entrance of my hallway, waiting for Todoroki.

My earpiece crackled again. "Shoji is on his knees and seems to be fiddling with his earpiece. Todoroki has just climbed through to third floor… He's now waiting there, listening… He's running back down. Shoji ISN'T MOVING!"

He shouted the last part out making me wince. I released the second vacuum bubble I had created around Shoji, letting the guy breathe.

"Todoroki has just reached Shoji. Shoji is waking up," Ojiro reported much more calmly. I supposed he was glad one of his classmates wasn't going to kill his other classmate. "This time both of them are moving together." Ojiro continued.

"Alright, ranged attacks from there now, Ojiro," I commanded. "I have made sure they can't hear you from that building, so use that to your advantage; use any sort of rubble you find and slam it their way. We'll continue wasting their time like that."

"Roger."

And that was how Team I won. Ojiro and I coordinated like this, keeping the hero team on their toes, and attacking them either through air or with rubble that Ojiro picked from different buildings. I was genuinely quite surprised to find out that neither of our opponents were all that adaptable.

All Might congratulated us when we returned before turning to the spectators, awaiting their insights and opinions.

Yaoyorozu Momo would, of course, be the first.

"Yes, Yaoyorozu-shoujo?"

"The MVP in this match would be Haru," she said determinedly. "His team was against a team with two powerful quirks. Neither of his team had a quirk strong enough to take them head-on. Despite that, Haru devised a plan to use his and Ojiro's quirks differently. There was also the fact that they moved the bomb itself to another building. Villains do not play fair so this is not a wrong move, and it still ensures that the villains' goals are achieved. I do not know what Haru himself was doing, unfortunately, but it was effective as it prevented Shoji from moving."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "On the other hand, Todoroki-san depended too much on his ice quirk and did not plan anything. He also did not keep track of time their team lost due to the continuous barrages. But he had excellent quirk control and kept his teammate from freezing which is a major plus point. In case of Ojiro-san, he used his simple quirk extremely effectively by using his tail to jump from building-to-building and smash things inside to create his own projectiles, that he then shot at the hero team. Because of his continuous movement, it wasn't easy to pin him down and as they were in a civilian area, Todoroki could not use his ice quirk too widely or it could have damaged the other buildings. In case of Shoji-san…" She faltered at that point, but her point was made.

"Excellent insights, Yaoyorozu-shoujo," All Might said, his smile still plastered on his face but his voice betraying his disbelief. "Now then, Korai-shounen, would you like to explain what you did and how you used your quirk?"

I glanced around, noting the curious stares I was getting. Todoroki was the only one who looked indifferent but he was leaning in nonetheless. Izuku, on the other hand, was chuckling quietly, while Bakugo looked uncharacteristically muted.

I smirked and glanced at All Might. "Not right now. Let them figure it out. My quirk is nothing special. It just requires a bit of thinking on others' part to understand how it works. And I want to keep that secret as long as I can before the intelligent people of the class"—I glanced at Momo with a smile— "figure it out."

All Might laughed as usual, while some of the others groaned.

"Come on. That's not fair!" Mina exclaimed, pointing rather shamelessly at me. "How are we supposed to learn if you don't tell us?"

I just laughed. "And pray tell me how you are going to know a villain's quirk when you start working as hero," I said dryly. "It's not like you will know a villain's quirk upfront when you heed a call for help. All you will have will be clues about how the villain interacts with his surroundings and himself to figure out his quirk and deal with it appropriately."

"Brilliantly said, Korai-shounen!" All Might said as he turned towards his students. "As an actual hero, you will rarely know what quirk you are going to face. The only way to figure it out is during a fight. Use this opportunity to figure out Korai-shounen's quirk and see if you get it right. Now then, next teams…"


Later, I stood outside the nurses' office, silently and inadvertently eavesdropping on the conversation between All Might and Recovery Girl. I had wanted to visit Izuku but had forgotten All Might would check on him first. As such, I was waiting outside for their conversation to finish. And those two were not taking care of reducing their voices. It was therefore no surprise that I heard Recovery Girl saying 'This is the disciple you granted your power to'.

Talk about an excellent way to learn more about everything.

I continued waiting patiently, listening, until All Might suddenly walked out. He froze for a moment when he saw me before closing the door. He hesitated briefly before turning towards me. "Uh… how long were you outside?"

I shrugged nonchalantly, never breaking eye-contact with him. "Long enough to have heard 'This is the disciple you granted your power to'."

All Might froze; then sweated bullets. "Uh… she meant it-"

"Oh, it's fine, All Might," I said with a disarming smile that only served to make him sweat harder. "I know neither you nor Izuku really want to explain it all so I won't force you to. But"— I leaned in towards him to whisper, a huge smirk on my face— "it explains why the number one hero was directly training Izuku."

If he was sweating bullets before, he was now sweating an entire waterfall. To think it would look so real in this new world of mine... It was rather disconcerting than funny.

He joined his hands and bowed. "Please, no matter what happens, do not tell anyone this. It is an extremely confidential secret that must never go out."

"You have my word," I said and sighed, before looking at him wryly. "Confidential secret, eh? In fact, extremely confidential. So confidential that you just had to say that loud enough for me to hear."

All Might coughed and cleared his throat awkwardly. He seemed to want to speak something but after a moment of consideration, dropped it. Nodding, he repeated his request and left. I imagined he would probably go have a chat with Nezu before leaving. I did not envy him.

Chuckling to myself, I entered the nurses' office and nodded at Recovery Girl. She must have known I had come for Izuku as she gestured towards him. Izuku lay there asleep and looking mostly healed. Recovery Girl must have worked her magic.

I stared at the unconscious friend of mine before turning towards Recovery Girl. "He'll be fine, right?"

"As good as new." She paused for a moment before continuing, "But he should really try to not break his bones. I can only heal him so many times. It's not like my power undoes all the damage; you know?"

I nodded simply and glanced at Izuku once again, before turning back. "Well then, I will head back to my class."


I did not expect to be greeted as noisily as I was when I walked into the class. When Ojiro and I had returned from our battle, we had already seen the expectant glances, but All Might had been super quick about starting the next match. The time of his buff form definitely did not have anything to do with it. No, sir, it did not.

Nonetheless, it was obvious to me that many of my classmates had wanted to say something to me. But before they could, I had run away to check on Izuku first. So, when I returned, I was swamped by them all.

"I have no idea how you managed to come up with a plan to beat Todoroki and Shoji," Kirishima exclaimed.

"What is your quirk?" Mina asked, beaming. "Will you tell us now?"

"Your match got us pumped even more," Satou declared as he came up behind the other two.

They swiftly introduced themselves, and I smiled and reintroduced myself. As I did, I noticed Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Shoji themselves walking towards me.

I waved at Shoji. "I hope you are fine now."

Shoji took that as his cue to enter the conversation. "I'm fine. I'm still not sure what you did in the battle but it was effective in immobilizing me."

I simply grinned. "What if I tell you I wasn't immobilizing you?"

"Well, you weren't technically," Shoji corrected himself. "But you were effective in that direction."

I laughed and nodded. "I was trying to."

"Haru," Yaoyorozu called but before she could say anything, Aizawa-sensei came in and shepherded us back to our seats.

I sent her a knowing smile, and nodded at her. "Let's talk later."


After school, I tailed Izuku when he ran from the class in a hurry. This was a good time to get in the know of his secret. As soon as I saw them, I stopped just close enough to hear Izuku stating that he got his quirk from someone else. As he went on talking, I smirked to myself. Also, Bakugo did notice me but his focus was mainly on Izuku who finally finished with stating his wish to Bakugo after making the borrowed quirk his own.

Bakugo blustered and flustered and cried, and finally said, "Enjoy your win! It'll never happen again, dammit!"

He started walking away, but then paused to stare at Izuku and pointed at me. "And you should be careful about who is around."

Izuku froze and turned to me. I grinned mischievously and walked to him. "So…" I started, immensely enjoying Izuku's reactions. "Borrowed quirk, eh?"

"I- I- don't know what you're talking about."

"Shut up. You suck at lying."

"No, you heard nothing!"

"You really think I can forget what I overheard?"

"… try to?"

I guffawed and slapped his back, making him take a few steps towards All Might, who was now walking towards us. Bakugo was a distant speck at the end of the street.

"So…" I said as All Might walked within hearing range, "Judging from what I have overheard so far and seen so far…" I paused as I put on a thoughtful expression. In my mind, however, I was laughing my ass off at Izuku's disbelief and concern, and All Might's confusion. "…Izuku! You have a quirk that's so special that it requires All Might himself to train you. I know you borrowed your quirk so the most likely chance is that All Might is the one who lent you the quirk."

It was an 'Aha!' moment indeed for whoever had seen and known the same things I had. But for Izuku and All Might, it was the end of the world.

All Might cleared his throat. "Korai-shounen, what makes you think so?"

"Well, I overheard you before, and now, Izuku as well," I replied honestly. "Both of you suck at keeping secrets. Or being aware of your surroundings for that matter."

The two OFA users exchanged glances before looking back at me again. "It stays a secret."

I promised them it would.