Author's Note: So I completely forgot that today is Saturday, which means that here's another chapter! This is also the end of what I have backlogged because I have been struggling with the next chapter this past week and a half or so. Anyway, there might be a chapter net week, there might not be. All depends on how quickly I'm able to get this next part done. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
Also, if you want to get into a place with other lovers of MHA, and specifically IzuJirou stuff, come on and join this Discord server that I'm on:
/eFtmT8cTbY
We're only kind of crazy, and not at all a cult... except, we also kind of are. Anyway, yeah, join that!
I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cross-posted on Ao3 as well. Leave a review if you want to. I welcome the feedback! See you next week.
"So you wanted to meet with us?" Izuku asked, unamused as he stared down Shouta Aizawa. He and the rest of his team were dressed in their vigilante costumes.
The day after the festival, Aizawa had contacted them, saying he needed to talk to them. He said it was an opportunity for the both of them. They tenuously agreed with the caveat that it would only be the seven of them meeting. Nobody else being brought by Aizawa.
"Yes, I did." Aizawa nodded.
"You also mentioned an opportunity. What is the nature of this?" Hitoshi asked.
"As you are aware, I am a teacher at UA. Specifically of class 1-A. I am told that you rescued Katsuki Bakugo from All For One. For that, you have my thanks." Aizawa bowed to them.
"We simply did what the heroes should have done. The heroes that got hurt simply rushed in. No surveillance, no tact, just brute force. And because of that, they were easy to stop." Izuku explained.
"I see…" Aizawa said. "Normally, people would say that brute force and sheer power are harder to stop. I'm curious as to why you think the contrary."
"It's easy to redirect power. This was a public area. They had to narrow their attacks' range in order to not damage too much. And when range gets narrowed, the attacks can be dodged or redirected. Power is only able to be used to its full extent if the attack connects."
"I'll admit, that makes sense. I wasn't expecting such an analysis of the heroes' shortcomings." Aizawa said.
Izuku stood up and started pacing. "When your goal is to change how people view the hero society at large, that is rather important."
"You're sounding a bit like Stain right now." Aizawa narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Stain was an extremist." Mei said. "We want to see changes, not death."
"We're getting off topic, Eraserhead." Kyouka said.
"You're right. My apologies. The opportunity that I have for you is this. I have been in contact with Principal Nezu as well as the teacher for the other first year hero class, Vlad King. We have all agreed that we would like you, Societas Requiem, to assist us in a hero course training exercise." Aizawa explained.
"Why us?" Himiko asked.
"You have taken down a villain that the police and some local heroes had been trying to take down for weeks, if not months. You did some of my jobs for me. You took down myself as well as two other UA teachers, three professional heroes. And you once again upstaged heroes in the rescue of Katsuki Bakugo. You all have embodied what we have been trying to teach our students this year. And as a group. A trait that has been a struggle for most of them to grasp." Aizawa explained. "If anyone could get them to learn that skill, it is you six."
"Should that not be your job?" Fumikage asked.
Aizawa sighed. "You're right. I should have done a better job as a teacher. I have failed on multiple accounts. I just want to help them now."
"Alright." Izuku stopped pacing. "We'll help. With some conditions, of course." He added.
"I should have expected as much." Aizawa shook his head.
"Yes, you should have." Izuku nodded. "Condition one, we receive information on the quirks of your students."
"Why is that?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow.
"Because we are obviously going to be playing the role of villains in this training. Villains will know the quirks of heroes, especially if they are public heroes." Izuku explained.
"That was the answer I was looking for. Very well." Aizawa nodded. "Your next condition?"
"This training will span the course of a week." Izuku said. "One little match per day. Us against a team of your students."
"And I'm assuming you have a reason for this as well?"
"What would the students in later fights learn if every fight was in a single day? We're only human. We'd like some time to rest between bouts. It should give your students some time to think about what happened as well." He explained. "Most of the time, villains will be fought at full strength."
"Acceptable. Anything else?"
"We help design the matches." Izuku said.
"At this point, I trust that you already have reason for it. I won't even ask why." Auzawa conceded. "What do you have in mind?"
"We'll need a bit to discuss this. Just a second." Izuku said, putting up a finger. The group huddled around Izuku. "What do we want?" He asked.
"They have to not destroy everything to get to us." Hitoshi offered.
"That is good, yes. Keep it coming." Izuku coached.
"We should play to our strengths while keeping a semi-level playing field." Kyouka said.
"Stealth, infiltration, mind games, taking out people given the opportunity, and lulling people into thinking we can't fight head to head?" Izuku asked. Kyouka nodded. "Fantastic."
"I want their blood…" Himiko said softly.
"I would also like it." Mei nodded.
"That can be arranged." Izuku nodded. "Anything else?"
"I wish for them to think through their defeat." Fumikage said.
"Ominous as always, NightHawk, but I agree." Izuku nodded. "Anything else?" When nobody else said anything, the group broke the huddle and turned back to Aizawa.
"Have you done any exercises where the two groups try to immobilize each other?" Mei asked.
"That is our standard baseline." Aizawa nodded.
"Alright. It will be a variation of that." Izuku said. "The heroes in training will need to capture us without being captured or incapacitated themselves."
"I feel like there's going to be more to this." Aizawa said, sighing.
"Oh, there will be. There will need to be hostages. Something that discourages sheer force. They have to take us out while not harming the hostages."
"Naturally. What else?"
Izuku thought for a few seconds, and then it came to him. "They will need to analyze their classmates performances as well as their own. Poor analysis will lead to poor grades."
This caught Aizawa's attention. And who will grade these?"
"You can if you want to, but I think we should." Izuku shrugged. "That's up to you."
"If you want to do it, then by all means." Aizawa said. "Is there anything else?"
"The last request is a little bit… more." Izuku said. Aizawa simply raised an eyebrow, so Izuku continued. "We want free-reign to do whatever we need to during the matches, short of death and massive bodily harm, of course."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Aizawa's tone darkened.
"We're not going to hurt them too bad. We just would like to conduct some of our research." Izuku said.
"Research?"
"You remember your encounters with Changeling, correct?" Izuku asked, gesturing to Himiko.
"The blood girl, yes. I remember." Auzawa nodded.
"Well, she and Overwatch are heading some research that we will be unveling the results of once we have results. But we need a lot of data, and your students could provide some very useful data. All we need is a bit of free reign." Izuku held his hands out like a showman.
"I can't promise that. I will ask Nezu, though." Aizawa offered.
"Your willingness to get this done does please me, Eraserhead. Talk to the chimera. We will be in contact again." Izuku turned around. He turned his head iver his shoulder to look at Hitoshi.
"Are we done here?" Hitoshi asked.
"Yes, we-" and with that, he had fallen under the effects of Hitoshi's quirk.
By the time that Shouta regained consciousness, he was alone.
"I hate when they do this shit…" He said, shaking his head. He sighed. This was going to be a whole thing. At least he had them interested. That was the hard part. With Nezu's interest in this group, it wouldn't be the most difficult, not that he himself coulf say anything about his interest. The problem would be the kids and their reactions.
The evening waned into night by the time that Shouta returned home. As usual, Emi was waiting at the door. "Did you talk to them?" She asked as the two of them walked inside.
"I did. They agreed on a few conditions." Shouta responded. He set some of his hero equipment on the counter and pulled up a chair to sit in.
"That sounds about right." Emi chuckled. "They are technically villains, you know. You can't expect them to work with what you want without them wanting something out of it." She moved behind him and began rubbing small circles into his shoulders.
"I'm well aware of the legality of their actions and what that means." Aizawa sighed into the massage.
"I think trying to protect them is noble, Sho. You know I do. Very noble. One of the many reasons I love you. Just be careful, okay?" She hugged him from behind.
"I will be careful, Emi. I'm always careful." Shouta said.
"Ahahahahahaha!" Emi burst out laughing. "That's a good one, Sho." She sighed, wiping a tear from her eye. "Logical is not always careful. From what you tell me about these vigilantes' combat skills and how they cover for each other's weaknesses, you're lucky you haven't had your face smashed a bit more. You're lucky the only real battle scar you have from them is that knife wound."
"I will be okay, Emi. I promise." Shouta said. He turned around and put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "I will be okay."
Emi smiled. "Okay. I trust you. I love you."
"I love you too." Shouta replied.
"Dinner is going to be ready soon. Will you be joining me?" Emi asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"I will in a few minutes. I have to call the rat." Shouta responded, standing up and walking towards his office.
"Tell him I said he's a piece of shit!" Emi yelled from the kitchen.
"You know I can't do that!" Shouta yelled back.
"He laughed when I said it!"
"Think long and hard about what your quirk is, and then think about what you just said." Shouta chuckled as he shut the door. He could hear Emi laughing even through the closed door. He sat down in his desk chair and pulled his phone out. He wasn't going to enjoy this call, he knew that. But he still had to do it. He dialed his boss's number and waited.
"Hello, Shouta." Nezu had picked up after three rings. "You have information, I assume?"
"Straight to the point, Nezu. No asking what kind of animal you are?"
"You and I both know that that's mostly to entertain the children and keep people from figuring me out." Nezu said. Shouta could hear the smirk from his side of the call.
"And since I know how you really are, it doesn't matter, right." Shouta said monotonously.
"Exactly. Appearances are everything in the information game. You know that."
"Yes, yes I do. Are we going to talk about what I have now?"
"Of course. I'm ready when you are."
Shouta sighed. "They agreed with a few conditions."
"As I expected. How many did you agree to?" Nezu asked.
"All but one. They want information on the students' quirks, they want to design the battle matches — that being they want hostages, they want all of the students to critique the performance of themselves and their classmates, and they want it to be team based defeat or capture style like we have done in the past — and they want the matches to span over the course of a week so they can rest between combats." Shouta explained.
"All of that sounds reasonable. What did you not agree to, Shouta?" Nezu asked.
"They said short of massive bodily injury and killing the kids, they want free reign. Specifically for a type of research that two members are conducting that requires blood."
"Is this the same thing that caused you, Nemuri, and Hizashi to have the knife wounds that hurt approximately two hours afterwards?" Nezu asked. He sounded amused.
"I would assume."
"Let them conduct their research. I would very much like to have a good relationship with then, both as UA High School and as Nezu the principal of said school. We might be able to find out what this research is."
"Might? That's not like you when it comes to finding out information." Shouta said skeptically.
"I know people who are proficient in information management when I see them, Shouta. This group is more than proficient in it. Given the information you have given me and the reports of your encounters with them, I have been able to uncover some information about them, but not too much." Nezu said.
"You have new information?" Shouta's enthusiasm climbed.
"In due time, Shouta." Nezu said simply.
"God damnit. Emi was right." Shouta sighed.
"Did she call me a piece of shit again?"
"Yes, she did." Shouta replied, being met with laughter over the phone. "She has no idea. She's just biased because she teaches at a rival school."
"You're right. She has no idea. Is there anything else, Shouta?"
"Nothing else, sir."
"Alright. We'll be enacting dorms soon. I'll see you for a bit while we talk to the parents. We have two weeks until classes start again. Just something to think about. Goodbye, Shouta. Enjoy your time with Emi." Nezu said.
"I always do. Goodbye, Nezu." And with that, Shouta hung up. While infuriating at times, that call was not as bad as it could have been. He sighed and stretched his back before he sent a message to Societas Requiem saying their request had been approved. He stood up and walked out to eat with Emi.
"You get that message, Izuku?" Mei asked from her computer terminal.
"Yes I did. We're good to go it seems. That means that we need to push production of some of your new babies, Mei." Izuku explained.
"I'm way ahead of you. The blood I picked from Himiko's stash was Midnight's. After breaking it down, I think I might be getting close to cracking how to put Somnambulist into a new baby." Mei said. "Think of how useful that would be! Making smoke bombs with a gas that puts people to sleep. Motion-sensor release triggered too! The 1,000 era babies are going to be amazing." Mei fangirled over her own discoveries.
"If anyone can do it, it's you, Mei." Izuku said.
"Any word from that Kirishima guy yet, Izu?" Kyouka asked from the couch. She and Himiko had been relaxing with the TV for a bit now, since they got home from meeting with Aizawa.
"Nothing yet. I'm hopeful, though. Especially once we fight them." Izuku said.
"Kirishima? The guy from UA's Sports Festival that was with Shouto the other night?" Hitoshi asked.
"The very same." Izuku nodded.
"What about him?"
"Kyouka and I ran into him at the festival. He was on the phone with Kacchan, and it was a oretty heated conversation. Apparently, Kacchan isn't coming back to UA. Kirishima took that pretty hard. He was talking about how the heroes were too slow and that we were the ones that saved him. He said he wanted to help people. I said I knew some people who knew us and then he gave me his phone number. I got into contact with Prometheus, and she set something up with him and myself." Izuku said. "I sent him a message last night, giving some time for the information to travel, of course, and he hasn't responded yet. He did say he couldn't promise an answer right now, so it's alright. We just wait now. Two students of UA we spies for us. Who would have thought?" Izuku chuckled. "We'll likely get more contact after our fight with the students. Speaking of, once we get the quirk information, we should get people grouped into teams against us."
"That's really smart, Izuku!" Himiko said, not taking her eyes off of the TV.
"Thank you. I have my eyes on a few other students in the first year as well. I'd like them all to be part of a single team." Izuku added.
"Oh?" Kyouka asked. She got up from the couch and moved to the kitchen table next to Izuku.
"Kirishima and Shouto are going to be on the same team. And then three other students stood out to me at the Sports Festival. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Juzo Honenuki, and Setsuna Tokage. I'd like the three of them to be on the same team as well. Keep the ones I'm interested in all together."
"Makes sense. They did have good showings at the Sports Festival." Kyouka agreed. "But isn't that Tetsu guy the same as Kirishima pretty much?"
"On the surface you might think so, but it looks like Kirishima can deal with more physical damage than Tetsutetsu can. Metal, on the other hand, can act as a lot of different things in relation to elemental attacks. Certain metals are fire resistant and cold resistant. Some work as excellent conductors while others act as insulators. Metal tends to resist acidic effects as well."
"You put a scary amount of thought into that." Kyouka smiled.
"It is a hobby of mine. Quirks are really cool." Izuku admitted.
"Speaking of, Izuku. Did you ever teat your new one?" Himiko asked.
"Oh, right. That's a thing." Izuku said. "I haven't yet, but I can now." He had sensed its presence in the few days since he had gotten it, but not frequently enough to remember it. He tapped into that feeling, and his head instantly hurt again. Time seemed to slow for everything except for his mind, and he was taling in so many different stimulants. Izuku guessed that with all of this, its purpose was to think faster and to take in information. Analysis was a pretty good name for it, then. Izuku turned it off, and things felt normal again.
"Did you do it?" Kyouka asked.
"Yeah…" Izuku said. The head pain persisted after he turned it off. "It increases the amount of information and stimulants I take in. And it feels like everything slows down except for my brain."
"Even your body?" Kyouka leaned forward.
"Yep. It's interesting. I'll work on it in the coming days before the combat matches." Izuku said.
"Sounds like a plan." Kyouka smiled.
The next few weeks were important for all of them. The total number of students was given to them as well as their quirks. With this information, they were able to delegate everyone into teams. Unfortunately, the numbers didn't quite add up to even teams. One team would have to only have five people instead of six, and every team had equal or more representation from 1-B than they did 1-A. Thankfully, that did let Izuku put the five people he wanted to keep an eye on into a single team with nobody else.
With this decided upon, the other teams were chosen by everyone in the group drawing names from a 1-A and a 1-B hat.
Through this totally foolproof method of choosing, the six of them were able to pad out some solid teams to face off against.
Team One consisted of Hagakure, Iida, Yanagi, Tsuburaba, Fukidashi, and Tsunotori. Team Two had Kaminari, Aoyama, Shiozaki, Rin, Awase, and Kamakiri. Team Three consisted of Sato, Shouji, Ojiro, Kodai, Monoma, and Kendo. Team Four was Sero, Yaoyorozu, Ashido, Kuroiro, Komori, and Bondo. Team Five had Asui, Uraraka, Koda, Kaibara, Shishida, and Shoda. Finally, Team Six were the five that Izuku had wanted together. Shouto Todoroki, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Tokage, and Honenuki.
The six of them were happy with the results and quickly sent the lists to Aizawa. Next, in preparation, Izuku went out with Kyouka to buy some of the notebooks that Izuku had written his original hero and quirk analyses in. Enough for every one of the students he would be facing.
The students' names were written on the front of each notebook. These would be what the students would be writing their own analyses in.
Mei had managed to figure out how to convert the quirk factor for somnambulist into a device. Like she had mentioned previously, she was able to create smoke bombs with the quirk. The testing of that caused Hitoshi and Fumikage to both pass out, but eventually, Mei was able to secure the design and make a good batch of them. About two for each person.
With the preparations complete, the six of them were confident in everything. They had gone over what footage they had of each fighter, their quirks, and any information that Aizawa and Nezu had decided to send them. And with that information, they were able to determine appropriate strategies for each student and how best to take them out, along with which quirks were especially wanted by both Mei and Himiko.
So when they had to meet in a designated location for Aizawa to shuttle them to UA, they were confident as he approached.
"It's good to know that you're still willing to go through with this." Aizawa said.
"Of course, Eraserhead. We thank you for meeting us here. We'd rather not give away where we stay just yet." Izuku said. They were all decked out with their costumes, gear, and knowledge that they needed for this.
"I can understand that. Very few people know where I live." Aizawa nodded. "Now, if you'll join me, I'll take you to UA." He turned around and waked towards his car. The alleyway they had chosen was far enough from their warehouse and also well hidden from outside prying eyes. The six of them piled into a car that was not big enough to hold seven people, but it was better than UA being able to track their van.
"It's surprising to us that you're the one picking us up. I figured you'd be teaching." Izuku said.
"I teach 1-A's homeroom. And I had All Might take over for me today. These kids are a lot. These last few weeks have been training for the provisional hero license exam, which the students took this last Friday. They all passed. One student from another school tried to sabotage one of my students, Shouto Todoroki, during the second half of the exam, but Todoroki was able to not have that happen. Ever since a few months ago, he's been more focused on getting stronger and doing better." Aizawa ended up rambling.
"That is strange indeed. He certainly is powerful. He is part of the reason why we have hostages. His power is one of the most crucial to narrow." Izuku explained.
"You've been doing an awful lot of talking, Snake Eyes. Are you always the most vocal of your group?" Aizawa asked.
"When it comes to leadership things, I've needed to be more vocal, actually." Izuku stated.
"Plus, he's really good at talking." Hitoshi said.
"Yeah, that!" Mei said.
"Whatever. Something to keep in mind is that these students have been working on super moves recently. On strengthening their quirks. If you think they're the same students as the ones you saw at the Sports Festival, you will lose."
"Thank you for the advice." Fumikage said.
"We don't plan on losing." Kyouka added.
"So it would seem…" Aizawa said. The conversation drifted into silence after that. The drive remained silent until the very last bit of it when they pulled up to UA.
"Alright. I'm going to lead you to ground Beta for today's match." Aizawa said. "You six will need to be hidden until I tell you to come out."
"Surprise factor. I like it." Himiko nodded.
Aizawa led them to a large city complex. How UA had so much money to just have these was beyond any of them, but this would be where today's action would be.
"I will be back with the kids soon. Go ahead and get out of sight. I will take them to close to where I am standing now. Do with that as you will." Aizawa then turned back towards the school and left.
"Are you guys excited?" Mei asked.
"I'm kinda giddy." Kyouka replied.
"Yeah! This is gonna be great. We're gonna scare the shit out of them!" Himiko said.
"We need to hide and be quiet." Izuku reminded them. "There are several scouts in the classes."
"Right!" The other five nodded. They hid behind some rubble not too far from where Aizawa had shown where he was going to take them. About five minutes later, the six of them could hear voices.
"Welcome to ground Beta. Here, Vlad King and I will be going over your heroics class for the next week." Aizawa's voice sounded.
"A week?! That's a crazy long exercise!" One student said.
"It won't be consecutive. But you'll see why it will be a week long endeavor soon enough." The other adult, apparently Vlad King, explained.
"So what's the deal? What are we doin'?" Another student asked.
"As you know, there has been a lot of failings by UA in terms of teaching and protecting some of the students. With two less students in 1-A, it's rather obvious, isn't it?" Aizawa said.
"Do not slander yourself, Aizawa-sensei!" A male student said. Five of the six recognized the voice as belonging to Tenya Iida.
"I am merely stating the facts. For heroics for this next week, you will all stay in the same teams. These are the teams." Aizawa said, followed by a rustling of paper. Gasps from students, high fives, and talking began to ensue after that. "Only one group will go each day. You will be working together to save hostages and stop a team of villains. Teamwork. That is crucial. In order to help with this lesson, we at UA have… outsourced a bit. You will all be fighting the same people. A group just like you all have been put into."
More murmurs. "Which group is it? Are they a famous hero group?"
"Oh, is it Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady?"
"No. My introduction will do them no good." Aizawa said. "If they would like to come out, you all will see who you will be facing this next week."
Taking that as when Aizawa wanted them to step out, Izuku motioned for everyone to follow him. He stepped out from behind the rubble, his teammates following him. As they stood before each of the students, aizuku couldn't help but smile as the students' jaws dropped.
They were all so taken aback that there was truly silence for the first time since they had gotten there. For a minute or so, until a kid with bright blonde and spiky hair loudly exclaimed, "What the shit?!"
