Chapter 6
"Did the Ratri clan give us any updates about the case yet?" Emma asked, laying on the grass comfortably.
She as well as Scarlett, Norman, Ray, Anna, Don, Gilda, Yuugo, and Lucas were lounging in their yard. It was a nice sunny day and the others had school to go to, so the remaining ones had opted to take a picnic lunch today. Just a nice change in scenery from all the exhausting and chaotic things happening around them.
Norman shook his head and resumed petting Emma's hair. "No. Nothing yet. If nothing comes up soon, we'll take it into our own hands."
"I agree," Yuugo said as Ray muttered something that sounded like 'you already said this…' "We're not going to just sit back and watch it all play out. When that happens, hell will be frozen over. This is our damn lives we're talkin' about."
Gilda was reading a fashion magazine as she questioned them, "How are we going to do it though?"
"I have a… few ideas," Norman replied vaguely.
Emma frowned up at him. "Could you be even more mysterious with that response?"
He laughed. "Sorry. But some ideas are… not the most ideal."
"Like what?" Ray queried as he threw a pebble across the pond, watching the gray object make ripples on the clear surface.
"We know basically nothing about them and the little that we do know are mostly guesses," Norman said. "But the one thing we do know is that for some reason, they're interested in Scarlett. The question is though, why? And how much do they know about her? Or us?"
Don sucked in a breath sharply. "You don't think they were a part of the farms?!"
"It's a possibility," Norman concluded. "It's just a suggestion though. There's also the possibility of a spy or mole. But with the security and the paranoia of the Ratri clan, I don't find it too likely. As much as I hate to say it, they're good with confidentiality. And stomping out rats."
"What if they know about the cursed blood?" Anna spoke up, her voice small.
Scarlett tensed significantly and Ray put his hand on top of hers in reassurance. She squeezed his hand slightly in thanks.
Lucas frowned deeply. "If they do… that's a huge breath in security."
"Only a certain amount of people actually know how much of the cursed blood a human needs to intake though, right?" Gilda pointed out. "Even I don't know how much is needed. Only the top members of the Ratri clan and Norman, Emma, Ray, Scarlett, and Anna know. It's super classified information."
"That doesn't make it much better though," Yuugo muttered. "If they do know, they can always leak that information to the public and suddenly every goddamn villain is going to come after us. No, never mind villains, all sorts of politicians and governments too."
Ray pursed his lips. "If that's the case, wouldn't they have done it already? What is making them stop from doing it?"
Norman grimaced. "I have a guess. It's likely that they don't want competition to get the cursed blood. Either that or there's no benefit from telling others about it. I don't know what that would be though. Like I said, we need more information."
"Speaking of ideas, what was your idea to lure them out?" Don asked as he took a bite out of his ham sandwich.
Norman hesitated, his caressing of Emma's hair ceasing for a moment. He then sighed and said, "Since we know that they are interested in Scarlett, then I thought… there's a possibility that we can use her to bring them out into the opent."
"You want to use her as bait?!" Ray yelled out.
"Ray!" Scarlett hissed. "It's fine." While she didn't want to appear vulnerable to the enemy, it was a sound and logical idea that could work if done right.
"No it's not!" Ray glared at her. "You're strong, but you're not invincible! Even you have to know that."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Scarlett demanded.
"It means that you don't care how much of a burden you have to carry," Ray replied. "You're like Norman and Emma in that sense. But you have to understand your limits! You don't have to suffer for us."
As Scarlett's retort died in her mouth, Emma broke it up.
"I don't want us to argue!" The ginger insisted. "The more we argue, the less time we have to solve this problem!"
"Emma's right!" Don agreed. "This is probably exactly what they want! Until we have a more solid plan, we need to prepare ourselves. No way are we going to get ambushed… like last time."
"I want to do something," Gilda declared, sitting straight up. "I'm not going to standby and watch it all unfold from the sidelines. What can we do?"
Norman looked at Don and Gilda's determined expressions. "For now, there isn't a lot to go on. But I think you guys should sharpen up your gun skills. It's been a while since you guys used them. You guys were some of the best users with a rifle."
Anna grimaced. "You think it's going to get that bad? Bad enough that we have to break gun laws to resolve it? I know that the Ratri clan could cover for us, but…"
The intelligent male rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming. "It's definitely a possibility. And we should be prepared for anything. You guys know what's up by now."
Don clenched a fist. "Yeah. We know that very well. But is training all we can really do?"
"Until we get new information, unfortunately, yes," Ray conceded. "And we're not using Scarlett as bait. End of story."
Scarlett bit back a defensive response. "Fine. So what you're saying, Norman, is that we have no choice but to wait for the enemy to strike back again before we can even do our first one?"
The white haired male sighed. "Yes. That's the situation we're in. Unless the Ratri clan actually finds useful information, we're essentially sitting ducks for the meantime."
Emma closed her eyes tightly, suddenly feeling a wave of exhaustion and frustration. "I hate this! Isn't all of this hiding and scheming stuff supposed to be behind us now? Why do we still have to do it?" Blue lightning crackled as she used her ability unconsciously before regaining her senses.
Norman hugged her tightly. "I know it's not fair. But nothing ever is. We just have to power through it. You showed me that, Emma."
Emma had a blush begin to bloom on her cheeks. "I-I didn't really do anything…"
Yuugo made a small snort. "Ok, break it up lovebirds."
Emma's blush grew brighter and Norman began to grow red on the ears.
Lucas let out a small laugh from their reactions. "Let's talk about something lighter. How were your classes and classmates?"
While Emma and Norman seemed happy about the people in their class, Ray and Scarlett both had annoyed and conflicted expressions.
The ginger grinned happily. "It's been amazing! I've already made friends with this girl named Kendo and… maybe Monoma? He's very confusing. I think he hates the other hero class for some reason and wants to find a way to 'be the better class'."
"Oh joy," Scarlett replied sarcastically. "Can't wait to meet him."
"Oh!" Emma gasped excitedly. "There's another American transfer in my class too! Her name is Pony Tsunotori. She's really friendly and I think she's from Texas! Unlike us though, it seems as though she has some trouble with the language. I've been helping her with it too."
"That sounds nice," Gilda said, smiling. "I bet she feels more welcomed with another American student. And the fact that it's you as well. She should feel very lucky."
"There's also Setsuna Tokage. She's one of the recommended students. She's… interesting at least. Very flirty and chatty. Plus she's a part of the Tokage group, one of the biggest business empires next to the Yaoyorozu group. And there's also Ibara Shiozaki! Her hair looks like it's made of vines! She can apparently control it as such, which is super cool! Personality wise though, she's strange… I think she is a Catholic? And very much like a… divine messenger from God."
Don snorted, causing the others to stare at him strangely. "I-I'm sorry, but that's just… really strange to hear."
"How so?" Anna queried as she grabbed an orange slice.
"We're not religious, but we do know that a god exists," Don replied as he took a bite out of his ham sandwich.
"The One?" Scarlett questioned irritatedly. "Geez, he infuriates me."
'She's got a lot of guts to say that about an omnipotent being,' Lucas thought. 'Well, it's nothing new.'
"So it's really strange to really think about other gods," Don finished awkwardly. "All of them just seem superficial. I bet especially Scarlett and Emma, who's actually met the god himself."
Lucas sighed. "I wonder how those demons are doing? I never would have thought I would actually be concerned for them."
"You and me both," Yuugo agreed with a bit of annoyance laced into his voice.
"Knowing Musica and Sung-Joo, I bet they're doing just fine," Ray reassured him. "There's probably some outlaws who are against not eating humans, but I bet it's just a minority. They can handle that. I trust them."
Emma looked down. "I miss Musica and Sung-Joo. Even Lord Giran and his servant. They were unrightfully punished and I hope they're doing fine now that Giran is nobility again…"
"Yeah," Scarlett agreed. "Giran was just misunderstood and left to go mad. Luckily he wasn't all gone though. But Leuvis? He can rot in hell, but I admit that if he has truly changed, then he'll be a big help for the others. Doesn't stop the fact that I'll kill him a second time if I somehow meet him again," she added with a sadistic and dark tone.
Don and the others sweatdropped. 'If they meet again, it'll be the end for us all.'
"Oh, right," Gilda realized. "We've never heard you really talk about your classmates, Scarlett. What do you think of them?"
"Annoying," she replied immediately in a blunt way, counting off her fingers. "Ridiculously naive, full of themselves, too happy-go-lucky, and extremely nosy."
Shakily, Anna responded with, "O-oh. That's very… nice?"
"Are all of them that bad?" Norman questioned in disbelief.
"Most of them," Scarlett said vaguely. "Others are… not so bad. Interesting, I suppose, for lack of a better word." She thought of Midoriya and the strange enigma he is.
"My class isn't that… crazy," Emma mused.
"I have an idea why," Scarlett muttered in annoyance. "My homeroom teacher is Mr. Aizawa. Eraserhead is his hero name. (A few of them snorted at that.) His quirk allows him to erase other quirks when he looks at them. It deactivates when he blinks. That's all I know. There could be more to it."
While some of the others already knew of this, those who didn't were shouting out in shock and indignation.
"What are we going to do about it?!" Gilda panicked. "Your powers aren't quirks, so won't it be strange if your powers aren't deactivated when he uses it on you?!"
"This is completely unprecedented!" Lucas massaged his forehead. "What's our best move? Is there a way to transfer her to Emma's class?"
Yuugo kept looking at the ravenette as if she'll disappear at any moment. "What if they find out?! Are they going to lock her away?! Dammit, I'll fight them tooth and claw before that happens! If they try to take 'er away, I'll punch in their teeth!"
Scarlett glowed red as she manifested several crimson hands in a chopping position and bonked them right on the head hard, Iida style. All of them yelped or winced in pain. "Idiots. You're overreacting. I can handle it. But can I actually get to what I was saying or do you want to bitch about this so loud that the police actually hear this?"
All of them immediately piped down, but still gave her glances of worry.
Norman laughed, being one of the few that didn't react loudly. "As forward as ever. That part of you never changes. So what were you saying, Scarlett?"
"My class is crazy because they probably put all of them in one classroom together," Scarlett explained. "I'm guessing they evaluate how we take down each of the robots or how we behaved in the exams. Aizawa is likely the teacher who takes the more… troubling students, because his quirk is the best to deal with them."
"But you hadn't done anything troubling in the exam?" Anna pointed out.
"True, but it's likely because I got first that I was placed in 1-A," Scarlett replied. "They want to make sure that I don't do anything stupid or reckless. Even though I didn't beat All Might's villain point record, I still was good enough to stand out a lot. And since they don't know if that's a good or bad thing..."
"How dare they!" Gilda exclaimed indignantly. "They don't have the right to do that!"
"I don't blame them for being wary of me," she admitted. "You guys know what I could do. And what I have done. They would be fools to not keep an eye on me."
Ray frowned at her. "Don't act like you're some sort of criminal or villain."
'But what I've done ARE villainous acts,' is what Scarlett wanted to say. 'I've killed innocent demons just to hide our existence. Before our old shelter was attacked, I easily killed demons with no remorse before I realized just how messed up it was. Even if they were absolute scum, shouldn't I have felt something when my blade or bullet went through them? And yet… I was cold as ice.'
"Because you're a natural killer," A familiar growling voice whispered in her mind. She immediately blocked it out.
"I wonder why Emma wasn't placed in 1-A then?" Lucas thought out loud.
Emma scratched her head as she thought. "I think they would have if it wasn't for one thing. When I got my acceptance message, Ectoplasm told me that my teamwork with Kendo impressed them and that they would like to see more of it."
"So they specifically had you and this Kendo girl be together," Anna finished.
"That's about it," Emma agreed. "Still not fair though," she added mutinously.
They continued to talk for a bit longer about more light topics. Gilda thanked Scarlett for her modeling as she got full marks and extra credit. Don mentioned how he found a group of kids playing soccer in a nearby park and how he's been hanging out with them. Yuugo and Ray found great entertainment after reaching the topic of the immediate creation of Norman's fan club. They continued to tease him until he suddenly stood up.
"I'll be going now. I have a few projects that I'm working on."
"Tsk. Cheap excuse," Ray snorted in a condescending way. Norman ignored the male in a very pointed way.
"For school?" Don questioned as he watched him give Emma a peck on the cheek.
Norman shrugged. "Some, yes. Others, no."
"Vague as usual," Ray muttered in annoyance. "Well, don't overwork yourself. It'd be a hassle if you'd suddenly died of overwork."
Norman let out a laugh as Emma's eyes widened in horror. "How cruel. Just a hassle? Nothing more?"
Ray glared slightly at him but then smirked. "You'd also have your entire fan club attend your funeral."
With that, Norman shuddered. "Please, no… I can't believe that there's that many girls that are interested in me."
"Well you are attractive and you emit a prince charming vibe," Don mused. "Even though you're not in the hero course, it looks like you've attracted a lot of attention. Man, it's all about looks these days, huh?"
Anna giggled. "Ray has a club too, but it's a lot smaller. Probably because Ray's… a bit scary and unapproachable at glance, even if he is handsome. Scarlett is the same."
Ray deadpanned at the sky. "Why. God, regular school is already such a pain."
As long as they don't cross the line, Scarlett wouldn't do anything. But that didn't mean she particularly liked it either.
As Norman leaves the others to go to his room, the others decided to wrap it up as well.
"You know, I haven't really been seeing you and Lucas doing a lot of work," Anna commented to Yuugo as she helped clean up the picnic.
"Well, with the occupation of heroes, there isn't as much of a demand for police officers," Lucas explained. "And Japan is basically the hero capital so there's even less of a need for police officers here. We do sometimes support the heroes, but we mainly just do investigation and interrogation."
"Anything interesting you're investigating?" Don asked excitedly.
Yuugo snorted. "I wish. We're mainly on standby right now and it's boring as hell. In fact, I'd rather be in hell than just sitting around like a damn dog."
Lucas elbowed him. "Don't be so dramatic. Besides, I'm sure an opportunity will show itself eventually."
'The question is though, do we want that?' Emma thought to herself, beginning to space out. 'Peace can be boring, but it's also safe. How willing am I to give up some peace for adventure or action?'
"Police officers are far too underappreciated though!" Anna frowned. "Their job is similar to heroes but they hardly get any praise. And they can't even use their quirks without special permission. It's too unfair!"
"Not only that… but the fact that guns are heavily looked down upon in this society," Scarlett added mutinously. "Police aren't even able to use them. The only ones who can are heroes with quirks relating to guns. That pisses me off. I can't even use my sniper when I do hero work because of that."
"It's not that you can't use them, but you'll likely get a lot of backlash for using firearms," Ray muttered. "It's the most irrational thing this society came up with yet. Guns take lives, but they can also save them. They caused a lot of trouble in the past, but that's because of poor law enforcement on restriction of guns. Now they're seen as an abomination or related to villany."
"You can't have everything, right?" Don sighed.
"No… you can't," Scarlett said quietly.
As they finished cleaning up and headed inside, Norman had just gone into his room. It was fairly plain and extremely clean for the most part. A plain white and gray poster bed, a well-made wooden desk, and a small circular table with matching chairs were the main furniture of the room. All of it was kept neat and tidy. Except for one corner: his workspace.
Unlike his desk, this was where he stationed all of his tools and information. On the wall was a bulletin with thumbtacks and pictures from the security cameras that connect to each other with red string. So far, the investigation was hitting a dead end. They needed more information. And although he said he would leave it to the Ratri clan for now, that doesn't mean he can't do a bit of investigating of his own.
"Well…" Norman smirked as he picked up a low quality image of the smoke person he managed to get from a security camera.
"Let's get started, shall we?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
It was another day at UA High School. And much to many of the students' disappointment, they still had to do the same subjects they did in junior high. That included English, Mathematics, and Modern Literature. There were some other subjects that they hadn't done before that they had to do now, such as Modern Hero Art History, and of course, the Heroics class. That however, much to their disappointment, was not going to happen for a few days.
'What did you guys expect?' Scarlett thought in annoyance when she kept on hearing Kaminari and a few other students whining about the courses. 'Just because this is a hero school, doesn't mean you can skimp out on other classes as well. They are just as important as heroics.'
They always had English class in the morning, with Present Mic as their teacher. He was irritating as hell to Scarlett, but at least he wasn't their homeroom teacher.
With a rather bored tone for someone like him, Present Mic asked them, "Ok, which sentence on the board is wrong?"
Mina, Kaminari, and Jiro sweatdropped a bit as they all thought, 'So normal…'
'So damn boring,' Bakugo scoffed internally as he rested his chin on his hand.
"Everybody, heads up!" Present Mic shouted to get them more pumped. "Let's get this party started!"
The smart students like Scarlett, Yaoyorozu, Midoriya, Iida, Todoroki, and surprisingly Bakugo all knew the answer.
"Come on! Give me that answer!" Present Mic yelled out as Yaoyorozu raised her hand to give her response.
It was unnerving to have Ectoplasm as a teacher at first due to his rather scary appearance, but many had gotten used to it quickly. And he was a good mathematics teacher so it was all good. ...There really wasn't much else to say. It's math after all. Who would spend that much time talking about numbers. (Not me, I can tell you that.)
Modern Literature was a rather boring class for many, but it wasn't because of their teacher, Cementoss. Many of the students simply did not like reading. Something that Scarlett couldn't wrap her head around. As a bit of a bookwork herself, (although not as much anymore in recent years), she couldn't comprehend their reluctance. Shouldn't she be the one complaining? After all, as someone who was used to reading left to right in horizontal lines, she suddenly had to do the very opposite. She lost count of the amount of times she messed up sentences from reading them wrong.
When they had their very first Modern Hero Art History class, it certainly made an imprint on all of them in some way. And the reason for that was their teacher, Midnight. She was a very well known hero who was also known for her… adult tendencies. From the very moment she stepped into the classroom to teach, all of them were shocked at how assertive and even promiscuous she was. Was it even allowed for a teacher to act this way not only in front of students but also to students?!
As you'd expect though, there were two perverts in the class who didn't exactly mind the sexy hero and her actions. Scarlett was irritated by their behavior, but Midnight seemed to condone it, and it would have disrupted the class if the ravenette did something. The fact that the scandalous hero didn't seem to mind it didn't help.
Lunch time is somewhere between all of those classes, with everyone going into the giant cafeteria to eat. It was the only time where Scarlett could be with her friends and so she wanted to make sure that she spent the time with them wisely.
Unfortunately though, Ray couldn't make it to lunch that day because he had to finish a support item he was working on. (Hatsume had continuously sidetracked him, much to his chagrin). Anna was also very booked in the nurse office due to an unusual amount of injuries that needed to be tended to and Recovery Girl couldn't do it all by herself. Norman as well had a meeting with some other business students and therefore couldn't come. It was just Scarlett and Emma.
"Where should we sit…?" Emma wondered as the two of them walked together with their home packed lunches.
Lunch at the school was free and apparently the chef, Lunch Rush, had amazing meals. However, Scarlett didn't feel safe eating unfamiliar food. She's already paranoid enough but ever since the encounter with the mysterious smoke person, it only went up. Now she feels as if anyone and anything could attack her at any moment and that she must always be ready and prepared. In fact, she had a small pocket knife hidden in the crevice of the sole of her right shoe for emergencies. The chance of the food being poisoned was small of course, but… well, home lunch is better anyways!
"Wherever you'd like," Scarlett replied monotonously.
"Hm… all the seats are getting filled up quickly… aha!" Emma pointed at a table near the window. "Let's go!"
Before the table was taken, they quickly sat down.
The ginger was fidgeting nervously, opening her mouth several times before closing it due to hesitance. After a few minutes of eating as well as whatever Emma was doing, Scarlett had about enough of it.
"Ok, what is it? Talk."
"Um…" Emma sweated and let out a nervous laugh. "I may or may not have a few friends that want to sit with me for lunch?"
Scarlett sighed. She really did not want to talk to more people. That wasn't what concerned her though. Even something like that wasn't enough to make her sister nervous. "...And?"
Emma looked sheepish. "You really don't miss anything, do you? Well… I also may or may not have told them a lot about you and that you're really cool, strong, and smart. And the fact that your status as first in the entrance exam is going around and adding to that. So… they might have a lot of expectations?"
Glaring at her with her visible eye, Scarlett said, "Idiot. Why the hell would you think that was a good idea?"
"I got caught up in the moment!" Emma protested weakly.
As if things couldn't get even worse, she heard a familiar voice call out her name.
"Scarlett? Is that you?" Hagakure skipped to their table with her school lunch. "Can I sit here? Is that alright?"
The ravenette didn't want to say no outright but instead was preparing an excuse, and about to say that Emma's friends were coming here. Unfortunately though, said girl had opened her mouth before she did.
"Sure!" Emma agreed happily. "I have some friends coming over, but we got room! Nice to meet you! I'm Emma Williams from class 1-B!"
Hagakure sat down right next to Scarlett, adding more to her annoyance. "You're an American like Scarlett? Amazing! I'll call you by your first name then, right? I'm Toru Hagakure! Please call me Toru!"
"Ok then, Toru!" Emma grinned. "Woah, but your quirk seems cool! You can turn invisible!"
"I'm always invisible," Hagakure corrected with a hint of resentment in her tone. "I can't turn it off, unfortunately. It's not very strong either."
"But still!" Emma leaned forward with bright eyes. "You'll be the perfect stealth hero!"
Hagakure had an invisible smile. "That's what I was thinking as well!"
"Where's Ashido?" Scarlett asked the see-through girl. Emma frowned when she noticed that ever since Hagakure sat here, her spine was super straight and her shoulders stiff.
Hagakure sighed. "Mina needs to do a makeup test since she flunked it the first time. That's why I'm not sitting with her today."
'Well, she's definitely not the brightest of the bunch,' Scarlett thought. 'I think she seems a bit too laid back about it though. She should take her grades more seriously.'
Emma perked up. "There they are! Kendo! Pony! Over here!"
Her voice was loud as she called out to her friends and Scarlett wanted to sink in her seat as her shouts got them a lot of stares.
The two students from class 1-B walked over to them with smiles on their faces and sat down on the two remaining seats.
"Hello!" Pony said in accented japanese. "It very nice to meet you! Name is Pony Tsunotori!"
"And I'm Itsuka Kendo," the other ginger in the group greeted.
"Hm?" Emma looked around. "Is Monoma not here?"
Kendo groaned in exasperation. "I need a break from him! We haven't even been together for that long, but I'm still so exhausted! He won't do anything during lunch right?" She clearly meant to ask the others that question but it sounded as if she's trying to convince herself.
Emma looked at her with a pitying smile. "That's why you're our big sister!"
"Oh, don't give me that title!" Kendo put her hands on her hips as she looked at the other ginger. "You're the big sister of the class! I'm just Monoma's nanny!"
Emma laughed in embarrassment. "Oh, I wouldn't say that…"
"That definitely sounds like you," Scarlett deadpanned. She immediately regretted speaking up as now the attention was diverted to her.
"Scarlett Evans, right?" Pony asked in english. "I'm so glad there's another American here! It makes me feel less out of place."
"I suppose…" Scarlett murmured, not making eye contact with anyone and trying to find a way to just phase into the background.
"And you're Toru Hagakure," Kendo said to the final girl.
"The one and only!" Hagakure exclaimed dramatically.
"You're amazing though!" Pony complimented Scarlett. "I heard you first in exam! And a perfect score on written!"
The others only had just managed to keep the winces off of their face from her broken Japanese. The girl was just too naive looking and cute. No one wanted to make her feel bad or awkward. It must be hard to adjust in such a new environment.
Scarlett groaned internally at Pony's comment. Stupid rumors… was it so hard to keep things to themselves? Was gossip really necessary? "Yeah. I did. But don't spread that around. Ok?" Her visible eye flashed dangerously at that last statement.
All of the others nodded frantically, not wanting to know what she would do.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Finally, in the afternoon, they had the class that everyone had been waiting for all day. Hero Basic Training. And the teacher of that class…
"I AM…"
All of them sitting at their desks, tensed in anticipation, knowing exactly who that voice belonged to. It was far too iconic not to know.
"COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" All Might yelled out, pulling the door open violently.
'That… is definitely not normal.' But Scarlett's thought hardly processed through her mind. Because All Might, the number one hero, is their teacher! She could hardly believe it. It was just unreal. What were the odds?
"It's All Might!" Kaminari exclaimed. "No way! Am I dreaming right now? Yo, someone pinch me! There's no way this is real!"
"Gladly," Jiro, who sat next to him, snickered, and pinched him on his ear.
"OW!" Kaminari yelped, glaring at the girl. "Sarcasm! Have you heard of it?!"
"Wow, he really is a teacher!" Kirishima had a large grin, completely pumped up.
Asui had a finger on her chin as she commented, "That's a costume from the silver age, isn't it?" The frog girl was observant as ever.
All Might was strutting in his costume to the front podium with his iconic grin. Midoriya was quickly getting into his fanboy antics, mumbling who knows what.
"This is giving me goosebumps!" Ojiro smiled nervously.
Putting his hands on his hips, All Might spoke. "I teach Hero Basic Training. It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of becoming a hero. You'll take the most units of this subject of course! Let's get right into it!" He showed them a white card with the word battle in red. "It's time for combat training!"
Bakugo had a scary smile on his face, clearly excited at the prospect while Midoriya seemed much more nervous, snapping out of his tangent.
Scarlett didn't show it, but she too was very excited. She wanted to see what it was like to train as an actual hero. While she knew the necessity of the other classes, it was admittedly boring, although she didn't complain about it out loud like some students. But this was a nice change of pace.
"And to go with that are… THESE!" All Might pointed to the left wall of the classroom, where they opened up to reveal containers for each of their costumes they requested. "Costumes based on your quirk registrations and requests you sent before the school term started!"
"WOAH!" Nearly every student exclaimed in anticipation.
Hagakure bounced up and down in her seat. "Finally! Our first steps to become heroes!" 'Although my costume is… not very desirable.' She suppressed a sigh. As a hero in training, she cannot act like this! Be positive and cheerful!
Otherwise… no one would notice you.
"After you change, head to Ground Beta!" All Might ordered the class.
"Yes, sir!" All of them chorused.
Iida suddenly raised his hand as they all grabbed their costumes. "Sensei! I have a problem here!"
"W-What's the matter, young Iida?" All Might questioned, sweating bullets. 'Oh no, did I already mess something up on my first day?!'
"There's no container for seat 10!" Iida announced, pointing at the empty slot.
Scarlett said nonchalantly, "Oh. Don't worry. I had my costume made somewhere else. That's why it's not there."
Ashido looked confused. "But why though?"
"I had some ideas that required… other materials and items," Scarlett replied vaguely, piquing everyone's curiosity.
"Let's get going!" Sero cheered. "There's only so much time! No time to waste!"
"Y-yes, what young Sero said!" All Might agreed, although for an entirely different reason. He only had so much time to teach, after all.
.
.
.
All Might was standing outside in Ground Beta, his hands on his hips. He watched as all the students walked out into the mock city in their brand new hero costumes.
"They say the costumes make the man, young men and ladies!" All Might proclaimed as he watched them step out. "Be fully aware. From now on… YOU ARE HEROES! You all look great! Now, shall we begin, you zygotes?"
"YEAH!" All of them yelled out as a chorus.
Kirishima looked at Sato with an impressed look. "Wow! That suit really defines your muscles! That's some serious abs you got there! Super manly!"
"Yeah!" Ojiro agreed. "You both look great!"
"Thanks! Kirishima, you got some muscle game too! Ojiro…" Sato looked at the tail mutant awkwardly. "Um… I bet you're a great martial artist!" 'I can't say that he looks so ordinary…'
"...Thanks…" Ojiro cried internally, knowing exactly what he was thinking about.
"WOAH!" Kaminari shouted out as he looked at Scarlett. "That's so badass!"
Hagakure looked at her friend with reverence and even a bit of jealousy. "You really do look great! I love the rose decals!"
"Thanks…" Scarlett muttered, flexing her hands in and out. 'I should think it'd look good. My god, Gilda and Ray have high standards…'
~0~0~0~0~0~
The Night of the Entrance Exam
"No, no, a mask is far too inefficient! It'll limit her eyesight even more than it is now!"
"But then how are we going to hide her identity?!"
"That's not even important! In this hero society, most heroes don't bother hiding their faces or even their real names and those who do just do them for aesthetic purposes! This isn't like a comic book! You know that!"
"And YOU know that she's a special case!"
Ray and Gilda were glaring at each other as they argued over Scarlett's costume design. Ray was supposed to just be doing designs for support items while Gilda would be designing the main costume. However, the two butted heads constantly as they disagreed about even the smallest, pettiest things.
Emma and Anna's costumes were already done and were to be made as soon as possible and with little disagreements to boot. However, Ray was rather stubborn about Scarlett's costume for obvious reasons. Scarlett found herself feeling all blushy on the inside about how much her boyfriend cared for her, but also berating herself and him at the same time. Herself because of the stupid giddy feeling and him because of how damn long it was taking them to decide. At this rate, they won't get a wink of sleep. It probably wouldn't have mattered with the ravenette anyways, due to her insomnia. But dammit, she was getting very tired!
"Idiot, it's not just her identity!" Gilda fired back. "Did you forget that her powers make her a bright red beacon? You WANT the enemies to just come right at her?!"
"You have to have trade-offs! Having a mask gives her too much of a disadvantage!" Ray retorted, holding his ground.
"Are you kidding?! It's the other way around that gives her too much of a disadvantage!" Gilda yelled. "And why are you barging in when I'M the one doing the costume designing! Go do your tech stuff or whatever!"
"I did my 'tech stuff' already! Clearly, you're the one who needs help!"
"Help my ass-!"
"Enough."
The two bickering teens stopped and slowly turned to look at Scarlett, or what was supposed to be her. Instead, they saw an absolutely terrifying demon with a very dark aura around her and also a deep smoldering gaze.
"I'd actually like to get some sleep tonight… So how about we pick up the pace? Right?" Her eyes flashed warningly.
The two of them had shivers run down their backs as they frantically nodded their heads in assent to the ravenette.
With that, they finished designing her costume with very little arguments. The two of them had decided to start working on their costumes the next day after some rest.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Scarlett was wearing a long black trench coat that reached between her knees and ankles and came with a hood. It had red rose decals on the front on her chest and a large one right on her back. It was also fully unbuttoned with the belt untied, for easier maneuvering. The coat came with inside pockets where most of her kunais resided. On top of all that, the coat was fireproof. Underneath the black gabardine material, she wore a long sleeved black shirt with a high collar and zipper that covered her mouth and the bottom half of her nose (as a compromise to the mask situation). They matched well with the black form-fitting pants with a stitched red design on each side of her waist. Her hands were fitted into black gloves with more rose decals.
There were also black laced combat boots that reached right below the knees that fitted not too tightly, but were still snuggly. Finally, to top it all off, a dark red utility belt that had all sorts of supplies on it such as more of her kunais, a small first aid kit, headache pills, smoke bombs, flash grenades, a few tranquilizer darts, and a few small bottles of Anna's healing tears. However, most of the supplies were also in the inside pockets of her coat along with her kunais.
Her utility equipment was rather limited though, considering that she wanted to be as quick as possible, not wanting anything to drag her down. That was why most of her items were also in the coat. If push came to shove, she can take off the coat and while dangerously low on supplies, they are also all in one place and there's a chance she can retrieve them later.
On her back was a black recurve bow with red details but there were no arrows interestingly enough. She decided to not have any due to them having added a lot more weight to her body. Instead, her energy manipulation can make arrows. Her sheath with her black katana was on the side of her waist. It also came with a special black tape made from the cursed blood that she could wrap around the blade for it to use in practice to avoid making injuries. The only thing that the blood infused weapon cannot break through is its own material, after all. On her ear was a small earpiece listening device for communication purposes with her friends. Her hair was in a low braid with her blind eye covered and kept there with the usual black pins. Over her right eye was also a red scouter that helps with her aim and to top it off, comes with a heat seeking function. This was a last minute touch from Ray.
"Woah!" Kaminari exclaimed, looking at her utility belt. "Are those KUNAIS?!"
"And a katana too!" Sero looked at the sheath in awe. "That's insane and so badass!"
'More roses,' Yaoyorozu noted. She remembered the silver ring with a red rose on it that the ravenette wore then and even now. Why roses? What was the importance of them to her? And she had a bow as well but no arrows to be seen? What was the point of the bow then? And why so many weapons? A katana, a bow, kunais, even smoke bombs and flash bangs. Paranoia or simply being prepared for anything? And even though Scarlett didn't have her costume made by the school, the material it was made out of was better than what even the school could dish out. Did she have a lot of money? Connections? What was it? She found herself curious about the other ravenette.
"Is that a scouter too?!" Jiro gushed. "Like what you see in those cool action movies?"
Scarlett turned to the side, not looking at the punk girl. "Y-yeah. It's to help improve my aim with my bow."
Aoyama sniffed disdainfully. "But the costume is not as good as moi!" He swished his sparkly purple cape. "It's not nearly as dazzling or attractive!"
Scarlett looked at him irritatedly. "Unlike you, I'm going for discreet. My powers bring a lot of attention to me so I wear dark clothes to compensate for it. That's why I try to cover my body as much as possible and why I went for a minimalized look."
"I see, kero," Asui croaked. "You're aiming for your costume to be more practical rather than to stand out."
"Why don't you wear a mask if you want to cover up your body?" Uraraka asked.
"It'll limit my eyesight," Scarlett explained shortly. 'How ironic that this costume was supposed to make me less noticeable but it's garnering the most attention right now… For goodness sake, Yaoyorozu looks like a damn stripper and only Mineta is looking at her right now… for the wrong reasons… should I hit him again? I might actually cause some real brain damage this time though. Then again, maybe that's for the best.'
"Then why don't you just uncover your left eye?" Hagakure questioned in confusion.
"Because I don't want to," Scarlett snapped, growing defensive.
Everyone immediately shut up and looked away awkwardly at that. Scarlett meanwhile berated herself internally for retorting so sharply. She really was bad at basic human communication.
Bakugo made a tch sound. 'Why is everyone so focused on that extra? Who cares about her fucking eye? I hope I get a chance to beat her… I'll show her and everyone else that I'm the best! I'm going to be the number one hero! First though… Deku needs to be put back in his place! Where the hell is he?'
"Jiro!" Ashido looked at her with bright eyes. "I like the aesthetic you're going for! It's like a punk rock type!"
Jiro let out a nervous laugh while twiddling with an earjack. "Yeah, that's what I was going for! A cool badass music type! I really like your eye mask too! Really ties the whole getup you have together."
Scarlett barely managed to take one look at Jiro's costume before looking away just as quickly. She closed her eyes tightly and took deep breaths.
Meanwhile, Midoriya was the last one to come out, with his costume made by his mom. It wasn't state of the art or even really standard hero equipment, but his mom made it for him with love, and that's what matters. A hero does need a starting point, and this is it! This is his very first costume! And he was proud of it!
Uraraka turned around and saw him standing there. "Deku! That looks so cool!"
"U-Uraraka?!" Midoriya was blushing underneath his mask as he stared at Uraraka because of her costume! It… it looked really good on her! He wasn't looking at her like that, no, no, no! It perfectly suits her bubbly personality as well as the astronaut theme matching her zero gravity quirk! He should add this to his notebook later...
"Your costume is so down to earth!" Uraraka complimented, a slight blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. "I should have written down what I wanted more specifically… I ended up having a skintight bodysuit. It's really embarrassing…"
Mineta, in what was supposed to be his bowl costume, but looked more like a diaper, was staring at the space themed girl with a pervy look. "The Hero Course is the best… If only Scarlett wore something more girlish… then it would have been perfect… Hagakure too! What a minx to be wearing almost nothing as her costume!"
Scarlett turned a deadly gaze to the grape boy, who shrieked in fear. "Wanna say that again, you grape head?"
Mineta as well as even those that weren't affected nodded their heads hastily.
Hagakure instinctively covered herself and then stopped due to realizing that it does nothing. She sighed internally. 'If only I had a better quirk...or if I can actually turn it off...'
All Might was grinning at all of them, although it turned a bit shaky when he caught Scarlett's gaze. He cleared his throat though and was about to speak when he caught Midoriya's costume. Immediately, he saw the bunny-like ears and the strange smile on the mask and knew that they were clearly inspired by him.
'It's so obvious!' He turned his head away and covered his mouth to keep himself from laughing. It was funny as well as embarrassing. No, now is not the time for this!
"Now, it's time for combat training!" All Might announced once he recovered.
"Sensei!" Iida raised his hand and it stuck up as straight as a pole.
Midoriya was next to him and had only recognized him due to his voice. 'Ah, that's Iida? His costume looks so cool! Everyone here has an amazing costume that shows who they are. Uraraka's quirk is gravity related so she's like an astronaut and while her costume doesn't relate to her quirk, Scarlett's gear shows her practicality and how… secretive she is? The only thing that's questionable is… why are there no arrows for her bow? Can I just not see them or is it something else?'
"This is a battle center from the entrance exam, is it not?" Iida questioned, his hand still up. "So will we be conducting urban battles again?"
"No!" All Might replied, holding out two fingers. "We're moving ahead two steps! As you probably know, most villain fights take place outside. But if you look at the statistics, you notice that atrocious villains appear indoors at a higher rate!"
All of them tensed at that. Indoor fighting means you're a lot more limited to what you can do. And it wouldn't look good if you would damage a lot of property no matter what.
"Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals…" All Might continued, "In this society filled with heroes, truly intelligent villains hide in the shadows! For this class, you will be split into villains and heroes and fight 2-on-2 indoor battles."
Asui had a finger on her chin as she pointed out, "With no basic training?"
'My exact thoughts,' Scarlett agreed. 'Everyone here is barely out of junior high! And now you're thrusting them into this? I can't tell if he's a bad or amatuer teacher or if he thinks that doing this would give them a good push.'
"This is a real battle to understand those basics!" All Might reasoned. "However, this time, the key is that there's no robot you can just beat up without a care!"
"How will the wins and losses be determined?" Yaoyorozu queried.
"Can we just beat them up anyways?" Bakugo demanded, cracking his knuckles threateningly, scaring Midoriya.
"Will the punishment be expulsion like with Aizawa-sensei?!" Uraraka fretted.
"How shall we be split up?" Iida asked in a snappy tone.
"Isn't this cape the most beautiful thing you've laid your eyes on?" Aoyama flourished his purple cape once again.
'That… has nothing to do with what we're even doing,' Scarlett deadpanned. 'And All Might looks like he's struggling there, so I'm gonna say he's just an amatuer teacher. Oh well, you have to start somewhere, right?'
"I-I'll answer all your questions!" All Might sweated frantically, pulling out a notebook that was rather small in his hands. "Now let's see…"
'A script?' Most of the class thought simultaneously.
'...DEFINITELY an amatuer.'
"Here's the scenario!" All Might began to explain. "The situation is that the villains have a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The heroes are trying to dispose the weapon! What they can do is catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon back in the allotted time. The villains need to defend the nuclear weapon or catch the heroes!"
"Wow!" Midoriya muttered excitedly. "How American!"
All Might then held up a yellow box with the word lots on it in black. "Teams and opponents will be determined by lots!"
"They're being decided so haphazardly?!" Iida exclaimed scandalously.
Midoriya answered this one easily. "Heroes need to be flexible and be able to work with other heroes, even if they are not acquainted with each other very well! I think that's what All Might is trying to go for here!"
Flexibility. Scarlett had a feeling this was going to be her issue. She preferred working with those who she's actually familiar with. Because she wants to know that the other person or people have her back and also wants to know their motives. If it was someone from the ex-resistance group, Scarlett would have no problems. However… this clearly wasn't the case.
"I see!" Iida nodded in agreement with the green haired male. "The discernement to look ahead…" He bowed at a perfect 90 degree angle. "Please excuse my rudeness!"
"That's fine!" All Might brushed it off. "Before we decide our teams however, I must introduce all of you to someone! Please come out, my dear!"
Coming out from around a building, much to Scarlett's surprise and everyone else's curiosity, was Anna. She was smiling at them angelically and it suited her costume perfectly for good reasons.
Anna was donning a pure white dress with wrist-length butterfly sleeves and a skirt that reached her knees with feathers on the bottom half. She also wore light blue slippers and had a thin golden headband on her head that had an almost invisible wire attached to it so that her halo appeared to be floating. On her back were small feathered wings to complete the angel look. Around her waist was a light blue utility belt similar to Scarlett's. It contained similar items such as the glass bottles of healing tears, a first aid kit, and headache pills. She also had empty glass bottles to fill up with more tears just in case, eye drops and lemons to make the tears come out easier, a small set of throwing knives, and even a tranquilizer gun with darts that are made from the same plant from the demon world. On her back, she had her own bow like Scarlett, only hers was golden and she also had a quiver filled with arrows. Anna also had an earpiece listening device and her blonde hair was completely straight until right below the shoulders where her hair was then braided.
Anna gave them all a small shy wave. "Hello, everyone. My name is Anna Fenette."
'An angel… a literal angel…' Was what all the males thought, a dazed look in their eyes.
All Might grinned at her. "You look lovely, my dear! As you all now know, this is Miss Fenette! In case you aren't aware, she is Recovery Girl's apprentice and while she is a hero-in-training like the rest of you, she will be a medical hero! I have her here today to see first hand what hero training will be like as well as be your medical aide if you have any injuries that need tending to!"
"Awesome!" Kirishima yelled out. "Glad to have you here!"
"A pretty girl tending to me?" Mineta started daydreaming, thinking about Anna in not an angel costume but a hot nurse one. "I wouldn't mind that…"
Scarlett was barely restraining herself from choking the grape to death. He dared to think of her sister that way? He's just asking for a beatdown. God, now she hoped that he was her opponent. Everyone near her shivered instinctively.
Anna had a noticeable eye twitch from that disgusting comment, but chose to simply ignore the pervert. "That's right! If you have any injuries, please don't be afraid to ask. It's a great opportunity for me to strengthen my pow- I mean, quirk."
Scarlett glared at her, trying to be discreet. Anna let out a nervous laugh, looking away from her friend.
Midoriya however, did in fact notice it and recalled that the two of them do seem acquainted with each other at the very least. He was too nervous about the mock battles to really think about it though.
All Might cleared his throat. "Now that introductions are done, let's get to the lots!"
Scarlett looked at the piece of paper she pulled out. It had the letter H on it. "Um… who is on team H?"
"That would be me, kero," Asui replied, coming over to her with her own slip of paper. "Let's do our best."
Scarlett nodded faintly. "Yes..." 'At least I didn't get Mineta… or Bakugo… or… Jiro… It still won't be easy to work with someone entirely new though.'
The teams were the following:
Team A: Midoriya and Uraraka
Team B: Todoroki and Shoji
Team C: Yaoyorozu and Mineta (RIP Momo, your sacrifice will not be forgotten)
Team D: Bakugo and Iida
Team E: Ashido and Aoyama
Team F: Tokoyami and Sato
Team G: Kaminari and Jiro
Team H: Scarlett and Asui
Team I: Hagakure and Ojiro
Team J: Kirishima and Sero
Yaoyorozu had a very clearly upset expression at being paired up with Mineta, but as the lady she was raised to be, she reluctantly accepted it. Most of the other students were pleased or alright with their teammates.
"Wow!" Uraraka cheered. "It must be fate that we're partners! I'm counting on you, ok?"
"Y-yeah! It m-must be!" Midoriya stuttered out, blushing behind his mask.
'It's so blindingly obvious that he's heavily inspired by All Might,' Scarlett noted. 'He's definitely a hero fanboy, but especially for All Might. Although I can't say he didn't affect me in some way, because it was his video that even got me to consider being a hero in the first place. I'll never admit that though.'
Anna looked at Scarlett with a nervous but encouraging expression. 'I know that it must feel strange to work with someone entirely new, but this is good! Since you've never been to school before, you have no idea how to interact with other students. Or… just people in general. Hopefully this will give you a good experience.'
All Might now had two different boxes, one black and one white. One was for heroes and the other for villains. He had a hand in each box as he said, "The first teams to fight will be…" He pulled out two balls with the letters D and A. "These guys! Team A will be heroes while Team D are the villains!"
'I sense something brewing,' Scarlett thought as she looked at Bakugo and Midoriya's expressions. 'I really don't like Bakugo though. He's clearly a pampered child who was never challenged or never met someone better than him before. So even though Midoriya's at a disadvantage, I hope he wins.'
"Everyone else, please head to the monitor room so that you can all witness the mock battle without any inconveniences!" All Might ordered.
All of the students did so. Scarlett didn't miss the looks Midoriya and Bakugo exchanged however.
.
.
.
Anna was immediately surrounded by everyone once they were in the monitor room.
"You're training under Recovery Girl? What is it like?"
"Your costume is so well made!"
"What's your quirk? It's probably healing related, right?"
"Mademoiselle! What do you think about my cape? Is it not beautiful? You're beautiful as well, but you can't possibly compare-"
'Stop asking about your damn cape!' Scarlett crossed her arms, holding in a scoff.
Anna nervously held her hands up. "Um, one question at a time please… What was the first one..? Oh! Recovery Girl is really nice! She can be strict at times but she always means well. Right now, I'm not doing too much. Every now and then I help heal students but she mostly makes me do errands. This is the first time I'm doing anything hero related, so I'm excited!" She had a dazzling smile on her face.
Kaminari was the closest to her and got a direct shot of it. It was so bright that his legs became wobbly and he ended up nearly fainting. "S-so… pure… and angelic…" 'To even see her in a degenerate way is a sin!'
Scarlett rolled her eyes as she looked back to the screens. 'I don't know any of them too well but I can at least somewhat guess what their game plan is. For sure, Bakugo would go straight for them to attack, going on offense rather than defense. He definitely won't really think of a plan and would just go straight for it. Especially with his grudge on Midoriya for whatever reason. That's another can of worms that I don't particularly care about. Iida would likely go more for a defense, but the question is if Bakugo's actions would make him switch tactics or not. And how he'll adapt to it. Midoriya is definitely a strategist of sorts. He'll likely come up with a plan to counter against Bakugo. Uraraka is more of a support and will likely just do whatever Midoriya tells her to do. When I officially met her, I immediately knew that was a big flaw of hers. She lacks initiative.'
All Might had a microphone and yelled into it, "LET THE INDOOR MOCK BATTLE BETWEEN TEAMS A AND D BEGIN!"
All of them, especially Scarlett and Anna with their enhanced hearing, winced due to their close proximity.
All Might looked at the screens but addressed everyone in the monitor room. "Everyone, please pay close attention to this battle. You may not be participating in it, but this may help you with your own battle! It may also help you understand what it means to be a hero! Take notes!"
The entire class nodded and looked at the screens with focused gazes.
'Young Midoriya…' All Might thought, adjusting his earpiece. 'Here, you are simply a normal student. I'll grade you strictly, without playing favorites. However, as you are still my successor, I'll be silently cheering you on!'
A monitor showed Midoriya and Uraraka sticking together and infiltrating through a window silently.
Anna stood next to Scarlett and whispered, "What do you think of this so far?"
"Well, going through a window was probably their best option," Scarlett murmured in reply. "And I think it's good that they've stuck together at least for now."
"Why is that?"
"Bakugo might be a reckless, egoistic jerk, but there's a reason why he got such a high score on the practical exam and the trials we had the other day. If it were only one of them against him, they would stand no chance. Even if it was two on one, it's uncertain. Midoriya's quirk is strong but it also hurts him back and leaves him vulnerable. Iida may be less of a problem for them but he's still no pushover. Uraraka's quirk won't be too useful since they are in a building. But I can think of a few ways for her to use her quirk creatively. I don't know if she's thinking about them too though."
"Hey Scarlett, Yaoyorozu," Sato called to them. "Who do you think has the best chances of winning?"
Yaoyorozu put a hand to her chin in thought. "It's likely going to be the villains. Bakugo and Iida can certainly make a good pair. They have the potential to balance each other out. Bakugo has power while Iida has speed. Midoriya's quirk is too much of an enigma to really determine how he'll do. Uraraka's quirk is not very well suited for an indoor environment like this one, so she's at a disadvantage. The heroes also have a lot of blind spots, so they're extremely vulnerable to surprise attacks."
"She's not bad," Anna whispered. "Her analytic skills are almost as good as yours and Norman's."
"There's still quite a bit she left out though," Scarlett muttered. "She'll need proper training and experience to truly be able to analyze others. It's good, but that's just from a bystander's point of view."
"Scarlett, ribbit?" Asui croaked. "What do you think?"
'Damn, I was hoping I can just brush them off and that Yaoyorozu's analysis would satisfy them.' "... I too believe the villains have an advantage. However, if the heroes play their cards right, they have a decent chance."
"How so?" Sero questioned.
All of them tuned in to see what the top student of the class thought, including All Might.
"Midoriya and Bakugo seemed to know each other quite well," Scarlett explained while holding back a sigh. "Which means that Midoriya can find weaknesses within Bakugo that we ourselves wouldn't know. Of course, it's also the other way, but with Bakugo's… abrasiveness, it's not too likely he'll actually sit down and think about it. That's another weakness that the heroes can use. Bakugo is the type to charge in, usually without a plan. He's easy to rile up and while too much anger can backfire on them, if they get him to have just the right amount of anger, with a series of smart and strong moves, they can defeat Bakugo."
No one said a peep as they listened to what she said.
"As for Iida, you were right about him having the speed as a great advantage. However, it won't be nearly as effective as if he were in a more open environment. We'll have to see how he'll move in this more enclosed space. And if you look at the cameras, (all of them looked to the monitor of him standing guard of the weapon), he's going more for a defensive strategy. If I were him, offense would be how I would play it. As Yaoyorozu stated, the heroes have lots of blind spots. He can easily capture the heroes in the blink of an eye if he catches them by surprise. And from how Bakugo is just raging through the hallways, he's going on the offense. With how one is defending and the other is attacking, it seems like a solid plan. Even though we can't hear their voices though, it was clear from how Bakugo brushed Iida off that they aren't on the same page. Already, the lack of teamwork is a potential factor for their downfall. On the heroes side however… just the fact that they are heroes gives them trouble."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tokoyami spoke up for the first time. He was his usual self, brooding in the corner.
Some, like Kirishima, Kaminari, and Ashido, looked a bit offended, but stayed quiet for once to hear her reasoning.
"Heroes don't know what to expect when they get into a fight," Scarlett replied. "They have no choice but to go in and hope for the best, maybe coming up with a plan as they fight. But that's harder than it sounds. Villains have a better idea of when the heroes come and they can pick their terrain to fight as well. Lots of heroes die or get hurt because of an unexpected factor. A villain doesn't just need a powerful quirk to beat someone. If they have any sort of intelligence or common sense, they can beat anyone. Even a veteran hero."
Anna sighed knowingly, smiling on the inside. 'A perfect explanation as always. Rather blunt and harsh though, isn't it? Well, at least their reactions make for some great entertainment. I'm not on the receiving end of it at least.'
Many of them were gaping, trying to process all the information given to them. Kaminari especially seemed to have short-fused without even using his quirk. Jiro rolled her eyes.
Although her jaw was not wide open, Yaoyorozu felt tense and shocked. 'Her analysis… was leagues better than mine in every way possible! She made so many observations that I never even noticed, and said several good points! Compared to her, my analysis was like a five year old saying 'the sky is blue'!' A twinge of jealousy went through her but it was pushed down forcefully. No, Momo! Don't do that to yourself. Your explanation was also good! Don't be so negative!
All Might felt uneasy as he stared at the seemingly nonchalant girl who was watching the monitors. 'Young Evans… first in the practical and a perfect score in the written. Something almost unheard of here. She has the aptitude to be a great hero… and a terrifying one as well.'
The number one hero has been in the scene for decades. As a veteran hero, he knows when he sees someone that has seen… something. Young Scarlett may show almost no emotion, but sometimes that in itself can also show emotion, if that makes any sense. The emptiness and cold look in her gaze. She's seen something. He's seen that look in many veteran heroes… including himself in the mirror.
But whatever it was, it had nothing to do with him. She has a right to privacy. Unless it was necessary, he saw no need to poke around his own student's life.
"Look!" Hagakure yelped, pointed a gloved hand at one of the monitors. "Bakugo went in for an attack!"
Sure enough, on one of the screens, there was smoke due to the aftermath of one of Bakugo's explosions. From the looks of it, Midoriya was able to act fast enough to push him and Uraraka out of the way with no injuries. The same cannot be said for his mask though, which was half destroyed.
"He really doesn't pull back his punches huh, ribbit?" Asui commented.
"That's totally cheating!" Kirishima looked ready to throw hands. "A surprise attack at the beginning? That's not manly at all!"
"It doesn't matter how manly it is if it is effective," Anna spoke up. "It's not cheating. Surprise attacks can give you the upper hand in a battle. It's a common tactic."
"She's correct!" All Might approved. "It's a strategy. And a sound one at that."
"Midoriya managed to save them though!" Ashido cheered. "The element of surprise is no longer on Bakugo's side!"
They continued to watch as Bakugo wasted no time in going in for another attack. He didn't even seem to adknowledge Uraraka even though she was right behind Midoriya. The explosive blonde had eyes only for the green haired boy. Immediately, Scarlett figured that the brunette could easily take advantage of this and overwhelm Bakugo. However, something happened that made even the ravenette pause in surprise.
Bakugo was charging in but then Midoriya had launched forward and grabbed the blonde's right arm. Uraraka looked pleasantly surprised at what had just happened and appeared to be cheering her teammate on. Midoriya was yelling something as he then positioned himself to do a shoulder throw. Bakugo choked on something as he was slammed to the ground with no hesitation.
'I didn't expect him to have combat experience,' Scarlett mused, a bit impressed.
As Bakugo recovered and slowly stood up, Midoriya was panting while saying something. Scarlett wished that she could hear what they were talking about, but not even her enhanced hearing can make her hear it from where they were.
Midoriya put up his fists for a fight, even though he was clearly very scared. But at the same time, there was resolution in his gaze. Bakugo looked furious.
"Man, I wish we could hear what they were saying!" Kirishima complained. "Bakugo looks pissed!"
"He's talking to his partner over the small earpiece I've given to them!" All Might explained while pointing to his own earpiece. "You can bring that, plus the building floor plan, and finally, this capture tape!" He held out a white roll of tape. "Once you've wrapped this around your opponent, it shows you have captured them!"
"There's only a time limit of 15 minutes, right?" Ashido pointed out. "And they have no idea what the villains are planning or where the weapon is! Scarlett's right, they're at a huge disadvantage!"
"Indeed!" All Might agreed. "She explained that excellently! (Scarlett pushed down a blush of embarrassment) This exercise also shows you how heroes must be able to turn the tables around on whatever predicament they're in! Besides, your homeroom teacher said this to you as well, didn't he? You know…"
All of them knew what he was about to do and they yelled it out with him. "PLUS ULTRA!" Some of them were more enthusiastic than others.
They continued to watch as Midoriya looked to be telling Uraraka to run while he blocked another attack from Bakugo, the capture tape in his hand. Unfortunately, he missed the chance to capture Bakugo, but at the very least, he got away from the explosive blonde intact.
"Woah, that guy's insane!" Sato exclaimed.
"He's not even using his quirk against the guy who placed 2nd in the entrance exam!" Sero added. "Go Midoriya!"
'Indeed… his fighting skills are impressive,' Scarlett thought. 'They could definitely use more refining, but impressive nevertheless. I didn't expect someone like him to be this good at close combat. His instincts seem pretty good as well. Maybe he does have a shot at winning this fight.'
Midoriya had run off after that and while Bakugo went to chase him down, he slowly found himself unable to track the hero down. As he ran through the confusing hallways, he grew more and more frustrated and finally yelled something out in anger, explosions popping in his hands.
Kaminari flinched at the look in Bakugo's eyes. "Man, I do not feel jealous of those guys! I would hate to have to go against someone like that!"
All Might's grin was still present but he was frowning inwardly. 'Young Midoriya told me before that young Bakugo thought highly of himself. But this is too much.'
At the same time, Scarlett thought, 'He's probably never met someone who could stand up to him like this. When new and unexpected events occur, one can act… irrational. Bakugo's getting his first taste of reality. The fact that there is always someone that's better than you at something. And the fact that the world doesn't revolve around him.'
Uraraka had managed to locate the weapon but due to Iida's… interesting villain act, she blew her cover due to her trying to stifle her laugh. Scarlett wanted to groan at her rookie mistake. But after all, they're all rookies, so there's no reason to complain.
Bakugo had finally caught up to Midoriya and they seemed to be talking to each other when Bakugo suddenly did something to his grenade shaped gauntlet that let out a giant explosion. Midoriya barely managed to avoid it.
"What on earth?!" Anna yelled out.
"That Bakugo guy is crazy!" Kirishima shouted. "All Might, you have to stop him!"
'He's right!' Scarlett looked at the hero teacher. 'Not only could that have KILLED Midoriya, but the building could have collapsed and killed all four of them! The battle must stop now! This is only supposed to be training!'
On the monitors, Iida seemed to be shouting into his earpiece, no doubt demanding what in god's name did Bakugo just do. Using the situation to her advantage, Uraraka used her quirk on herself to attempt to touch the weapon. Unfortunately, Iida outclassed her in speed and was able to grab the weapon and keep it away from her.
All Might was thinking about what Bakugo said, the smile on his face disappearing.
"If I don't hit him, he won't die!"
'Strangely enough, part of him is still sane. I don't know if it is small-minded or not, but..'
All Might spoke into a microphone and announced, "Young Bakugo, if you use that again, I'll stop the fight and your team will lose. To attack on such a large scale inside is inviting the destruction you should be protecting. That is a foolish plan for both heroes and villains! You will lose a lot of points for that!"
Bakugo looked incredibly frustrated when All Might said that.
'Are you kidding me?!' Scarlett wanted to shout. 'After all of that, you're letting the fight continue with nothing more than a warning?! The students' safety is potentially in jeopardy! And yet you're willing to take that risk for some training exercise?! This isn't even a real battle! Is All Might not as good or heroic as he is in the public… or is it just due to his inexperience as a teacher?'
Anna was just as furious. "All Might! You can't let this fight go on! Midoriya nearly died! All of them could have died! What's the point of me being here if my patients are already in the afterlife?!"
The other students flinched as the realization of what could have happened hit them hard. The mood was dimmed significantly.
All Might was deep in thought. 'Young Anna is correct. I should stop it. But… if I do, what would young Bakugo do in response to that? Right now, he's still somewhat in control of himself, although it's a bit strange to think of that. If I stop it now, will he lose his sanity? And this is a chance for young Midoriya to prove to himself and others that he truly belongs here as a hero! That it wasn't a fluke that he got in or favoritism that he wasn't expelled by Aizawa! But is it too much? Am I pushing it too far?'
Bakugo rushed in angrily towards Midoriya and as Midoriya was preparing to punch, the blonde suddenly used his explosions to maneuver himself above the other and deliver a strong blow from behind.
Scarlett was finding herself to be surprised over and over again. "Looks like he's not so much of a reckless idiot as I thought. He's still reckless… but that was a smart move."
"Woah!" Kaminari looked at the screen with wide eyes. "What was that?!"
Todoroki narrowed his eyes and spoke for the first time. "He's not the type you'd expect to be able to think, but… he's more strategic than he looks. He changed his course in a blast that doubled as a smoke screen and then did it again immediately."
Yaoyorozu nodded in agreement. "Getting a clean hit while fighting against inertia… requires fine lateral adjustments to the power of the explosions."
"Man!" Ashido complained. "He's way too good at this! It feels like he's cheating!"
"That's amazing!" Hagakure complimented the rich girl. "I would have never noticed that observation!"
Yaoyorozu gave a small smile to the invisible girl. "Thank you for your compliments." She looked at Scarlett with a frown however. 'I bet that she noticed that too due to her calculative gaze…' She shook her head. What was she doing? Don't compare yourself to someone else… but…
They continued watching as Bakugo was beating up Midoriya, not even bothering to capture him with the tape.
"Oi!" Kirishima yelled. "He's not even capturing him! This is too excessive!"
"This guy's just looking for a reason to beat him up!" Jiro added. "All Might, are you sure that this shouldn't be stopped?!"
'I must stick to my choice! I cannot waver now!' All Might convinced himself. 'I'm sure… that this is the step that young Midoriya needs to take to be a great hero!'
'Midoriya… looks a bit unnerving,' Anna commented to herself, seeing the green haired boy's facial expression, tears in the corner of his eyes.
Bakugo and Midoriya ran at each other with loud expressions, and immediately, everyone knew at that moment that things were just going to get more chaotic.
'Anna, get your tears ready,' Scarlett sighed, seeing that Midoriya activated his quirk and that Bakugo's gloved hand started to glow bright due to the explosions.
"Sensei, you have to stop this!" Anna insisted in a last attempt to save them.
All Might's grin was threatening to fall off his face as he was conflicted. Finally, he started to speak into the mic, "Both of you, sto-" He himself stopped instead as Midoriya shouted something to Uraraka through his mic.
Uraraka was seen suddenly hugging a pillar, leaving Iida and the rest of the students confused as to why she was doing so.
Right before the two students impacted, Midoriya yelled something out and instead of punching Bakugo, he stopped last minute and directed his punch upward, destroying the floors above them while also deflecting Bakugo's attack. The punch was so strong that it broke every single window and through every floor.
Iida was gaping behind his helmet as he exclaimed something.
Uraraka appeared to have activated her quirk on the pillar she was holding and then used it as a giant bat, hitting the smaller pieces of debris from Midoriya's smash attack. As the pieces of concrete hit Iida, he shouted out in panic. Uraraka took this chance and once again used her quirk on herself, flying over Iida and hugging the weapon.
Bakugo looked shocked but that slowly turned back into anger as he yelled something out to the badly injured Midoriya. But then it turned back to shock as Midoriya managed to say something in reply. The green haired boy then slowly fell down and went unconscious, the most beaten up out of all four participants by far. Uraraka was probably the second, looking as though she were about to throw up as Iida kneeled next to her in distress.
No one was able to say anything in the monitor room. How could they, seeing an unexpected victory from the hero team in such a way? Well, Scarlett wasn't speechless in the way the others were. She was fuming at how much more reckless that move did.
'Forget what I said earlier, THAT was the riskiest of things to do! That was Emma level of risk! No, not even she would try to pull off something so ridiculous! It's a damn miracle that the building didn't collapse from a punch that big! The only punch I've seen of that impact was… All Might…' Her eyes grew big at that sudden revelation as she turned to look at their teacher.
Finally, All Might said into the mic, "The first match of the indoor person-to-person combat practice… goes to the heroes!"
Author's Note:
Here is chapter 6! Sorry for those who expected it to come out two weeks ago, but it's finally here! FYI, all the side stories are canon to this story of course. You can easily skip them but I do not recommend that since they do add more meat to the story and characters. Plus, I think they're charming in their own right.
I've been seeing a lot of comments about what Scarlett's hero outfit was going to be. This was something I've envisioned for quite some time now. All of the suggestions in the reviews were great, but this was something that I knew suited her character perfectly. She is the type of character to choose utility and versatility over aesthetic. It took a while for me to figure out how to word that entire description, so I hope it makes sense! Same with Anna's costume design as well. Hopefully you guys are pleased with them.
Also, just as a heads up, a lot of the outfit choices are heavily inspired by this game I play called Love Nikki Dress Up Queen. I highly recommend it just for it's amazing outfits. Scarlett's pants are actually inspired by these pants in the game called Tranquil Rendering. You can see it on the Love Nikki wiki for a better description.
There isn't a lot going on in this chapter, mainly because I wanted to build up the characters more. As you can see, Hagakure has a sort of resentment over her own quirk, although she tries her best to be positive about it. We'll see how that plays out in the future. And then you also begin seeing what looks to be a somewhat inferiority complex from Yaoyorozu towards Scarlett. It's similar to what Anna and Scarlett had for a time, and I really want to flesh it out more. Norman is starting to do a bit of snooping around on his own as well. Out of the four main characters from Grace Field, he definitely has the smallest role in my eyes right now. I am hoping to give him some more presence in the story later on, and I have a few ideas as to how I can do so. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you again in two weeks!