I don't own Marvel or BNHA

Laura Kinney POV

Japan so far was living up to the hype her old man had built up. She had been apprehensive at first when he had suggested it, coming to Japan for hero schooling rather than staying in America and going to X's where he taught. But listening to his stories about his own time in the land of the rising sun, and the growth he experienced there, had convinced her that the trip was worth a shot, for a year at least. If she didn't like it she could always transfer back.

And while her old man didn't come with her, far too busy being a cranky old teacher, she was glad her friend Pony did. It gave her at least one friend she could speak english with. Both of them were struggling to get their Japanese down, although they knew enough to survive day-to-day, that didn't exactly make them fluent conversationalists. Pony was more upset by this than she was though. Pony always had been the more social one between the two of them. Laura was more than happy to just observe and not draw attention to herself. A habit stemming from both her personality and her rather twisted up bringing.

So when All Might barged into the classroom and announced the day's activities and gave them their hero costumes, Laura gave a wide smile to her friend. Pony grinned in return as they both collected the briefcases containing their hero costumes and made their way to the locker room to change.

Both their costumes were simple. Pony's was a simple red outfit accented by leather belts wrapped around her arms, midsection, and one on her head framing her horns. She also wore specialized boots over her hooved feet. Laura's own was a pair of black leather pants and matching tank top. The only armor was the thick pair of combat boots that came almost up to her knees. With her healing factor, armor would only slow her down and hinder her acrobatic fighting style.

Her old man had offered to have a suit based on his own made, but for the time being, Laura was content with a simple non-descript get up rather than the bright yellow and blue he had worn. Logan was one tough son of a bitch, and while she might one day step into his shoes as a hero, Laura knew it wouldn't be anytime soon. It also would be awkward wearing the uniform of one of Xavier's brightest stars at a rival academy.

Due to the simplistic nature of their costumes, Laura and Pony were two of the first out, only being beaten by Izuku Midoriya and Fumikage Tokoyami.

The raven headed boy wore a large black cloak over his entire person, only a pair of boots sticking out at the bottom. Midoriya on the other hand, was wearing a hodgepodge. His pants were a grey camo pattern, but were extremely baggy on him, and the waist was only held up by extremely tight elastic. Unlike his apparent friend he didn't wear boots, but rather hard soled sandals that could be easily removed, but provided no defense. His upper body was only clad in a dark green tank top similar to Laura's own, but the fabric tight against his skin contrasted with the absurdly baggy pants horribly. He quite honestly looked more like a dancer than a hero, the semi-vacant expression in his eyes as he conversed with the dark teen didn't help the matter either.

That train of thought continued as more of the class filed out of the locker room, each in their hero attire. What exactly was it about Midoriya that made the government fear him? He was already near the top of the class in raw strength based on Aizawa's test, and despite his dreamy state, he seemed to follow along in every class without issue.

She was all too familiar with the smell of quirk suppressing drugs, and the amount Midoriya reeked of was enough to put even her down for a good chunk of time, healing factor or no. All that, and he was still able to make it into UA. It was a little inspiring, Laura would admit. And that was coming from someone who had a living legend for a dad and regularly interacted with his old crowd.

Laura made a silent promise to herself to speak with him later, maybe she'd be lucky and Midoriya could speak a little english. At least to get the full story out of him.

"You all look EXCELLENT!" All Might praised as he watched Mineta arrive last, adjusting what looked like a mechanical diaper around his waist and muttering darkly under his breath. "Remember though, it is the hero who makes the outfit!" He continued his praise with a cheesy smile and thumbs up, his gaze moving swiftly over the students, pausing for a noticeable moment on Midoriya, who was following the number one hero's words with his usual blank expression.

Iida made to question All Might, along with several other members of the class, but All Might quickly shut them down.

"Listen up! Today's exercise will cover one of the most frequently experienced scenarios, an indoor raid!" All Might gestured to the fake city behind him as he said this. "With the multitude of heroes that regularly patrol, most villains avoid operating in the open daylight! They instead hide indoors and plot, leaving it up to heroes to find and detain them BEFORE they get a chance to execute their villainous schemes."

Iida began to loudly applaud as All Might finished his explanation while the rest of the students began to whisper among themselves. Midoriya in particular seemed to be moving above his usual speed as he made notes in a notebook that he had pulled from...somewhere.

"For this exercise, you and an assigned partner will be facing off against another duo in an exercise to test your ability in this field."

"All Might-sensei!" Iida interrupted as the hero pulled out a holographic display like what Aizawa had used the day before. "Why were these partners pre-made rather than allowing the students to choose their own partners?"

It was Midoriya who answered though, rather than All Might. "To seeeeeeeee where weeeeeee stand against eeeeeequal opposition." He said slowly, his voice slurred as it had been the day before. "Most heroes pair randomlyyyyyyyyyyyyy, but for now, UA wants toooooooooooo get a baseline." He explained to Iida and the rest of the class.

"Correct Young Midoriya!" All Might said, pausing for Iida to give a bow and apology. "Most of your matchups in this class will be determined by either myself or by chance, but as this is your first heroics class, Principal Nezu was the one who selected the pairings." Most of the class nodded at this, Laura included, as she began to scan the rest of her class.

She most likely wouldn't be paired with Pony, just to see how they would fair with the language barrier, and she was almost certain she'd be facing others near the top of their class. But the question was who would be her partner? Would it be another high ranked student, or someone lower to see if she could work with a less experienced member of the class?

"Each match will be a 2v2 match, consisting of a hero team and a villain team." All Might continued, finally displaying the pairings from the device in his hand. The villain team must hide a large explosive device somewhere on a street of buildings. The villain team wins by either lasting to the time limit or capturing both heroes! Conversely, the hero team must locate the villains somewhere on that street of buildings, and must place one hand on the bomb to win, even if they catch both villains, if they do not reach the bomb, they lose!"

The class took in his instructions while they studied the screen for their partners and opponents. While Kaminari complained about the exercise being weighted in the favor of the villains, Laura was pondering her matchup at the bottom of the board, the final match of the class.

Laura Kinney-Howlett and Izuku Midoriya vs Shoto Todoroki and Tenya Iida.

She was right, numbers 2-5 from the assessment test, leaving only top scorer Yaoyorozu not involved in the match, but given what she had seen, Laura knew this wasn't a slight to the girl. She had a large amount of potential, even she could see that. But in terms of raw combat ability, she'd fall short of all of them.

Midoriya was an interesting partner to have, Laura would admit. His raw strength would be very helpful in actual combat, but between the two of them, they'd have to rely on her nose to track down the bomb hidden by the villain duo.

"Young Shoji and Young Ojiro, you are the first villain duo, you will have ten minutes to prepare before the hero duo of Young Sero and Young Sato enter the field. Best of luck!" All Might finished with another smile and thumbs up. Sato and Ojiro nodded and left the group while the rest of the class followed back to a spectator booth, where a large series of screens showed the street they would be fighting on and several more inside the buildings themselves.

The match was a slow one, Sero and Sato managed to takedown Ojiro together when he ambushed them in one of the buildings, but neither of them had the tools necessary to discern where the bomb had been hidden. They managed to cover one half of the buildings with careful inspection, but they ran out of time before they could start on the second half.

When the four students returned, All Might gave the MVP to Ojiro for his efforts stalling the duo for as long as he did. And while he did commend the duo for sticking together as heroes and working together to take down a villain, it was a hindrance to them as a team because they had no searching capabilities, and slowed them down in their hunt. Shoji had emerged with the large fake bomb from one of the buildings they had been unable to search and prepared for the next set of teams.

The second round was a mirror image of the first. Pony and Mina hid the bomb and split up themselves. Asui and Kirishima's search netted them fights with their opponents, but even after a pair of victories, they were unable to find the bomb because the duo hadn't hidden it in either of their hiding spots, resulting in another villain victory.

Laura gave a chuckle when she heard her friend complaining about Mina not knowing a word of english and not slowing down her japanese enough for her to understand. At least they had won, even if it was a bit of a pyrrhic victory. That match's MVP was Pony because Mina admitted that with what little communication they could manage, it was her idea to hide the bomb separately from both of them.

Laura congratulated her still cursing friend in english, throwing a side eye over at Midoriya, who was still working in his notebook, only looking up to glance at the screens or in response to something Tokoyami said next to him.

The next match promised to be more interesting however, as for the first time, the hero team had someone capable of tracking the movement of the enemy team in Koji and his use of birds to scout the area. His partner Uraraka was quick to make use of the clutter in the building that housed the bomb as the duo overwhelmed Jiro while Kaminari was scrambling to get back to his teammate from where he was hidden. And while he did make it back fast enough to blast Koji with his lightning, Uraraka had already taken out Jiro with a rain of boxes and other clutter before moving onto the bombs and securing the first victory for the hero team of the day.

Koji got MVP for his scouting abilities and then holding back Kaminari long enough for Uraraka to get to the bomb, earning a silent blush from the rocky teen. Kaminari and Jiro were conversely criticised for repeating the strategy of past villains, despite the hero team being fully aware of what the likely strategy was. Even Uraraka got some criticism for her lack of caution flinging large objects around so close to the bomb. After three matches it was becoming more and more clear that while people like Kaminari and Kirishima had powerful combat quirks, if they weren't able to plan ahead and fight when and where it mattered, that meant nothing. Laura could tell most of the class was swiftly learning that heroics were a lot more planning and strategy than they were pure combat. Although if she was correct, that aspect would soon be put on display when it came time for the final match. Her own training under Logan and the likely training Iida and Todoroki had received from their own hero relatives, would be more than enough to put on a show. The one question was Izuku, who as far as she knew, while clearly powerful, lacked the connections the rest of the final match had.

The second to last match was surprisingly entertaining. Momo and Toru were the heroes, representing the top and bottom scorer from Aizawa's test, and against them was Mineta, the second lowest, and Tokoyami, the sixth place scorer and Midoriya's apparent friend.

When the match started, Momo was wearing a large pair of goggles All Might revealed were thermal goggles as she scanned the area, clearly looking for Mineta and Fumikage's heat signatures. It was only because of this she was able to haul the invisible girl away from several well thrown balls from the roof of the nearest building.

What followed was a game of cat and mouse between Mineta and the girls as he bounced across the rooftops on piles of his balls that had obviously been set up in advance. Mineta managed to tag Toru on her chest, and force her to dodge further throws into landing on one of his missed shots. While an unassuming perverted midget, it was clear Mineta was a lot more than he first appeared, and the fact that he was clearly bleeding from his head as he continued to use his quirk spoke to his intense desire to win.

Yaoyorozu finally managed to snag him with a lasso she created as he jumped between rooftops and dragged him back down to earth. While falling from several stories high was a problem and most definitely looked like it hurt, Mineta managed to land on one of his missed shots and bounce to safety, although one of his arms was still tied to his side.

Whatever he said to the much taller girl after that clearly upset the girl enough for her to create duct tape to put over the grape's mouth. From there, Yaoyorozu managed to free Toru by chipping away at the concrete the ball she was stuck to was on, but Mineta had done his damage. His balls were spread out over the entire street and were even blocking some of the entrances. Most devastating was that despite his capture, Mineta had eaten away at over half of the hero duo's time.

Now that he was captured however there was no stopping Yaoyorozu from repeating her earlier strategy and remaking her thermal goggles and leading Toru back to the first building Mineta had been perched upon. From there the winded Yaoyorozu and Toru entered the darkened building, only to be completely caught off guard by the massive shadow that knocked them back out into the street and onto Mineta's balls, leaving them both trapped and the villain team victorious.

Once the med bots pried Mineta's balls off the girls, a sentence he was giggling to himself about, All Might named him the MVP.

Much to Laura's surprise however, Mineta told everyone it was Tokoyami's idea to attack before they found the right building, to do more than just trap the building they were hiding the bomb in. Tokoyami shrugged off the praise and admitted the only reason he had the idea in the first place was because he listened to Midoriya's mutterings about the exercise, the parts that weren't slurred at least.

Regardless of who made the strategy, although Yaoyorozu gave Izuku a long appraising look, it was Mineta who managed to execute on the plan, even if it was Tokoyami who landed the final blow. And with their group finished, it was time for the final matchup, four of the top students in the class throwing down.

Todoroki and Iida made their way down a fresh street rather than the one Mineta had bobby-trapped to high hell while Laura and Midoriya waited in the waiting zone.

"Ideas?" Laura asked Midoriya in accented Japanese, who was only just now putting away his notebook, an intense expression his face despite the obvious drugs running through his system.

"Based on yourrrrrrrrrrrrrr name you are related toooooooooooo the American Herooooooooooo Wolverine?" Midoriya asked in slightly broken english, getting a blink of surprise from Laura, both for his language and knowledge.

"Yeah, he's my old man." She admitted in her own tongue, glad her partner could understand english. At the very least they could avoid the miscommunication Pony and Mina went through.

"You can traaaaaaaaaaack their scent to where the booooooooooomb is hidden?"

Laura nodded again, mentally promising to not underestimate Midoriya's mind again. Scent tracking was one of her old man's lesser known powers, for Midoriya to be aware of it meant he had researched into heroes a great deal.

"If Todorooooki wants to use more of his iiiiiiiiiiice, he'll rush us like Minetaaaaaaaaa." Midoriya said, his voice picking up slightly despite the slurs. "You have the refleeeeeeeeexs to beat Iiiiiiiiiiiiiida, make him chaaaaaaaaaase you into a buildiiiiiing. Limit his speeeeeeeeeed." Midoriya explained and Laura nodded.

It made sense. Iida had been complaining during Aizawa's test about not having enough time for his quirk to hit top speed. Likewise, Todoroki's displays of ice seemed to take little to no effort from the heterochromatic teen. He even managed to last second longest to Yaoyorozu's scooter in the endurance run because he kept a consistent ice trail to propel him. Both of them would benefit from having more space to work with, so having to fight actually inside the buildings would hinder them.

"Can you actually manage to hold them both off long enough for me to find the right building?" Laura questioned, her eyes taking note of their quickly dwindling time.

"Noooooooooo problem." Midoriya responded, going through a set of stretches for his arms. "I heeeeeeeeeld back yesterdaaaaaaaay because I didn't want tooooooooooo risk collaspiiiiiiiiiing." Midoriya admitted, her expression sheepish behind the suppressants.

"The drug knocks you out if you go overboard?" Laura clarified and Midoriya nodded. "Why'd you end up on suppressants anyway. It takes a lot to get drugged like that and you don't strike me as the type to run wild when unsupervised?"

"Anooooother time." Midoriya managed, gesturing to the expiring clock. Laura nodded and led Izuku out to the street, already taking deep breaths to pick up on Todoroki and Iida's scent paths.

Luckily, the duo only had been and out of one building, meaning that that was the building hiding the bomb. The downside; every building on the street was covered in a thick layer of ice and both Iida and Todoroki were waiting for them at the end of the street.

"Surrender heroes, for you stand no chance against our might!" Iida announced loudly, his arm chopping as he spoke.

"Nooooooooo can doooooooooo." Midoriya called back in Japanese before looking sideways at her. "Can you geeeeet through the iiiiiiice?" he asked in english, getting a nod from Laura.

"Far left building, one of the top floors." Laura responded quietly in english. On the off chance she couldn't make it to the bomb herself, at least Midoriya wouldn't be left guessing.

"Then perish heroes! MWA-HA-HA-HA!" Iida called back with an evil laugh and Todoroki let loose a tidal wave of ice from his right side at the hero duo. Laura made to dodge between buildings, but Midoriya stepped forward, bracing his right arm with his left as he swung his right fist at the incoming ice.

"SMASH!"

Being the first time she had heard him raising his voice, Laura was shocked at the amount of sheer strength that came from the drugged green haired boy. Todoroki's ice was shattered completely, and both villains were pushed back from the wind pressure alone. The ice lining the building on either side of them seemed to crack slightly as well.

Recovering quickly, Laura began her mad dash towards the building where the bomb was hidden while the villains were still reeling, not waiting for Midoriya's go ahead, it was clear from the strain on his face before he swung that using this level of power required an immense level of concentration on his part. With a fluid movement, Laura unleashed the stingers from her hands and carved through the ice covering the door like it was butter with the adamantium enhancements. Without even glancing backwards, Laura could hear the villain team quickly trying to recover and Iida blitzing after her as she made her way deeper into the building.

Now that she was inside, all Midoriya had to do was stall long enough for her to out maneuver Iida and find the bomb, and when faced with a direct challenge like Midoriya presented, she doubted Todoroki would turn away from the fight. Despite the differences in their quirks, it was clear he was Endeavor's son.

Reaching the stairwell, Laura leapt upwards, letting her physique lift her over the door frame and the stingers from her feet pop out and anchor her to the wall just above the door. Just like she expected, Iida slowed himself down to open the door and she pounced the second his armored form entered the room.

Legs locking around his arms, Laura swiftly wrapped a line of capture tape around Iida's head, marking him as captured, which All Might announced through the earpieces each student was wearing.

Good, just the bomb left.

Leaving Iida behind, Laura quickly made her way up the stairs to the top floor. While she was confident Midoriya could stall Todoroki, she didn't think the green haired boy could beat him, not while on quirk suppressants at least.

Once she reached the top floor, Laura quickly made her way to the corner room that Iida and Todoroki's scent led to.

And was met with a wall of ice.

Todoroki completely filled the room with ice. And while she might eventually be able to carve her way through it, she certainly wouldn't be able to within their time limit. Peeing intently through the ice, Laura could barely make out the bomb sitting in the far corner of the room. While Midoriya might be able to smash through the ice, that would probably put the bomb at risk. Which left her with one option,

"Midoriya, the bomb room is completely iced. I'll have to carve my way through from the outside to reach it. You have to keep Todoroki off me." Laura told her teammate through her ear piece, not waiting to hear a response before turning to an exterior wall. Unsheathing all of her stingers Laura made short work of the wall and began climbing along the exterior of the building using her stingers to keep her grip.

Carefully but still quickly, Laura moved sideways until she was on the exterior of the corner that held the bomb and began carving her way through the wall and the ice behind it, working to reach the bomb within.

Sparing a quick glance down at the fight below, Laura was shocked to see Midoriya more than holding his own against the son of Japan's number two hero.

Todoroki was clearly winded and his right side had a layer of frost covering it as his breath came out in visible puffs. While not down yet, Todoroki was clearly pushing himself. Midoriya on the other hand, looked extremely focused, but ready for more. His right arm was swelled three times its normal and completely a green-grey color. Despite punching the ice, his knuckles didn't even seem bruised.

As she quickly resumed her carving, Laura was reminded of another American hero her father had worked with in the past. The Hulk, the raging green behemoth that was only ever called in when the scenario required the absolute strongest. She had seen a video of him once, and his body looked extremely similar to Midoriya's arm.

It was suddenly why Midoriya was kept suppressed, and why he was still so strong none-the-less. Why he was put on a team with her for this exercise. The legacy of two of Japan's strongest heroes vs the legacy of America's.

Refocusing, Laura began to use both hands to slash through the ice, aware of the rapidly dwindling time they had left to recover the bomb, using her core muscles to hold herself upright while her foot stingers held her onto the wall.

It was with one last grunt of effort that Laura finally managed to carve away enough ice to see the bomb beneath. Setting her hand on the exposed part of the bomb, Laura took a great deal of pleasure from hearing All Might's announcement over the speakers.

"HERO TEAM WINS!"

AN:

That certainly took longer than I thought it would to get out. Damn. As one commenter said, so far it's been many chapters of intro and world building but now we have entered the meat of the story. Welcome to the chaos.

Yes, things are changed up a bit, but I figured UA playing a more active role in beginning lessons for heroics makes enough sense. And the four legacy students facing off is just Nezu having fun. This exercise also makes all the students think more, and those like Izuku, and Fumikage who has had years to be friends with Izuku, are benefitting from the increased focus on strategy. Didn't mean to slam on any character if that came across at all, although I may have overdone it a bit with Mineta. I like the perverted grape, sue me.

And the fruits of Izuku's labor revealed, one limb not in full Skaar mode, but enough there to halt Todoroki's partial ice waves. Just to make it obvious, Todoroki was NOT going all out so he didn't damage the buildings that might have held the bomb. Also makes him pause and regard Izuku's strength differently. I also hope I did a good enough job with X-23's character, props to those who figured it out, it was more than I thought would. I based her loosely on Wolverine himself, with a bit of her personality from the comics, but those tended to dissolve fairly quickly most of the time. Her origins here are similar to the comics so stay tuned for more on that.

Last point is my new year's resolution. MY goal is to post one chapter of SOMETHING every weekend, as in Friday, Saturday, Sunday. This is week 1 of that effort and if it comes to it, I've got several opening chapters written out that might make it to the internet, but we'll see what happens with my muse and schoolwork.

Happy Reading -Centurion Africanus