Thirteen-sensei and Aizawa-sensei led us inside. The entry was a wide brick path, lined with trees on either side. THere was a thick, mesh net behind the trees, obscuring what was beyond them. The path led to a set of stairs that descended down a good thirty meters and ended in what looked like a food court. But a huge one, for a hundred or more people and all around it, with a giant fountain in the middle, spread out over at least a square kilometer...

"I designed this place," Thirteen told us, "With more than a little help, to make my dream come true. The Unforeseen Simulation Joint, or USJ for short, has just about any sort of environment you can expect to encounter in Japan. Urban with multi-story buildings and a working train system. Suburban with houses, mansions, and even a small scale indoor shopping mall. A field of grass lands, rice paddies, and small forest. A lake that can be fresh or salt water and has a wave machine. Rocky and mountainous terrain."

We looked out of the vast training arena. It was almost like a theme park, but without the rides. Thirteen gestured for us to follow, and started down the stairs.

"We can also control the weather," the rescue Hero continued, "From rain..."

A modest downpour began to drench the suburban zone.

"... to snow..."

The rain stopped, and snow fell on the mountain region instead.

"... and hail, lightning, fog, and even small scale tornadoes. We can also control the lighting to simulate any time of day or night. The USJ can simulate almost any kind of disaster in any weather conditions. It is at least in my opinion, the best facility in the world for rescue training. At least in my opinion, anyway."

We reached the bottom of the stairs, and it felt even bigger.

"So, here is what we will be doing today," Thirteen said brightly, turning back to us, "You will be dividing into four teams of five. Two of the teams will go with me, and two will go with Aizawa-sensei. You will alternate between being the rescuers, and acting as the victims. After the exercises this morning, we will come back here for lunch, and you will divide into four different teams, and repeat the process for the afternoon."

"Now you might be wondering how you are going to divide up," Thirteen continued, "or you might have recognized the box behind me. We will be using these to split you up, but perhaps not in the way you are expecting."

Thirteen lifted up a box. It appeared to be the box from the Heroes vs Villains exercise.

"Each of you will take a ball again, A through T. But only the A through H balls matter. For morning training, whoever picks the A, B, C, and D balls will be the team leaders. They will draft the rest of you onto their teams, and will also be in charge of their teams for the exercises. After lunch, we will reselect teams, with E through H acting as the leaders. However for the afternoon, the new leaders must not select anyone who was on their teams in the morning."

Thirteen paused, and looked around at us, "Teamwork and team structure are the key points to this exercise. The leaders must lead, and the team members must follow. Leaders must gather data, both on their own and from their team members. Don't just blindly give orders, be sure to listen to the input of your comrades. But in the end, you are in charge, and you must be firm and decisive. On the other side, team members almost have it harder. You need to follow directions. And you also need to know when not to follow."

"What's that mean?" Ashido-san asked.

"Well, let's say you were sent to search a partially collapsed house," Thirteen said after a moment's consideration, "And along the way you saw someone under a beam. So you decide to rescue that person instead. This might be the right move, the house could be empty. Or it could be the wrong choice, your team leader knows there is someone in the house, and already have someone else rescuing the person under the beam. By ignoring orders, the person in the house might not make it. Ideally you would report it in. Find out what your leader knows and has planned. Unfortunately, there also might not be time for that."

"This is a class," Aizawa-sensei interjected, "While we will be teaching you about the basics of rescues, we will also be grading you on how you do as a leader or team member."

"What do you mean by 'the basics of rescues'?" Ami prompted with a thoughtful frown.

"Mizuno-sensei has taught you about first aid, hasn't she?" Thirteen looked at her.

"You know my mother?"

"I know most trauma surgeons in Japan," Thirteen sounded a little sad about that, "She is very talented, and I respect her. But for today, we are not going to worry about first aid and potential injuries. Just on finding victims and freeing them."

"I don't get it," Hagakure-san admitted.

"Normally, you have to be careful when you rescue someone," I said, "Moving the person, or even just the rubble trapping them, it could make things worse. It could be the only thing keeping them from bleeding out or holding their organs in place."

Tsu and I shared a look. And I could tell that Ami, Mikoto, and Momo noticed.

"Exactly," Thirteen's tone picked up, "But that is not always the case. And there will be cases where even if moving them could be bad, leaving them would be certain death."

"Like a fire," Todoroki said softly.

"Yes," Thirteen confirmed, "It becomes less important that a victim might bleed out in five minutes, if they will definitely burn in two minutes. For today, we won't worry about that. Just find your trapped classmates, and remove them from the situation without making things worse."

I nodded, and so did most of my classmates. Thirteen held out the box, and we lined up. By the time I got to the front, there were only three balls left in the box, and A to D had already been picked. I reached in, and extracted the G ball. I glanced at my classmates, thinking about who I would want to select this afternoon. Though it would depend on who picked me now.

Hagakure-chan was the leader of team A. Ami had pulled B. Ojiro-san was holding the C ball. And Kirishima-kun was the last of the morning's captains.

The rest of us formed a semi-circle before the captains. Hagakure-chan's gloves and boots gave the impression that she was looking around at all of us.

"Hmm," she said, "I'll take Tokoyami."

"Ochako," Ami said immediately, but she gave me a regretful look.

"Cain-san," Ojiro-san decided after a few seconds' consideration.

"All right!" Kirishima barked, "Todoroki."

Then there was a pause, and Thirteen-sensei said, "The second round, and the fourth, you will draft in reverse order."

"So that means I go again?" Kirishima prompted. Aizawa-sensei nodded, and so Kirishima called, "Great. Iida."

"Midoriya-san," Ojiro selected me, and I moved to join Cassandra behind him.

"Momo," Ami said. Then through Guild Chat she added, 'Sorry Izuku. If you could openly use all of your powers, you would have been an obvious first choice.'

'It's okay,' I reassured her.

'Since it sounds like you are selecting teams,' All Might added, 'Young Midoriya, please disband your Party for today. It is an unfair advantage.'

I softly whispered the command to remove everyone. And while we were distracted by that, Hagakure selected both Koda-san and Mikoto.

"Kyoka," Ami chose.

"Shoji-san," Ojiro said.

"Asui-san?" Kirishima selected Tsu a bit more hesitantly. Then for his last pick said, "Mo-chan."

"Sero-san." was the last one to join our team.

"Ashido-chan," Ami took the acid-user.

"Aoyama-kun," Hagakure called him over, despite not having a choice.

"Alright, now that the teams are set," Thirteen told us, "here's each team's set of earbuds."

"Wait," Mo-chan objected, "How are Cain and Koda supposed to communicate through these?"

"Koda-kun can speak," Aizawa-sensei reminded her, "He just doesn't like to. As for Cain-chan, and really communications in general, that's up to all of you to figure out. Just be thankful we're giving you the earbuds. Logicially, you would be very lucky to have something so convenient in a real disaster."

"Teams A and C come with me," Thirteen said, "Teams B and D will be with Aizawa-san."

Thirteen led us the the suburban zone.

"We will be starting with a flash flood scenario," we were told, "And to mix things up a bit, Team A will be playing the victims first. In addition to your classmates, there will also be five animatronic victim robots to find and rescue. Team C, you can feel free to discuss general strategies, while I get Team A into position."

Hagakure's Team followed him, and the five of us formed a loose huddle.

"I want to explain my reason for picking each of you, and my expectations," Ojiro-san told us, "First of all, Cain-san. Your power to sense movement will be invaluable in finding the victims. Midoriya-san, your power should allow you to both move rubble and temporarily act as a support against additional collapse..."

He trailed off as water began to run down the fake street. Then he continued.

"Shoji-san, you can also move rubble well, thanks to your extra limbs. And your extra eyes and ears will make you a good secondary searcher. Sero-san..."

"I get it, you picked me because you didn't have many other choices," Sero sighed with a wry grin.

"No," Ojiro-san shook his head, "I was torn between you and Shoji-san in the third round. You have mobility, climbing and swinging with your tape. And while Midoriya-san can keep things from falling apart, you can actually hold them together without having to be there. The only reason I picked Shoji-san first was for his sign language. I wanted to make sure we had two people who could converse with Cain-san. Not only did I get that, I got the three best signers in the class, including Cain-san herself."

"For strategy," he switched gears slightly, "I think Cain-san and Moidorya-san should start together. The other three of us will go solo. We will split up and start searching, Cain-san and Shoji-san with your Quirks, and the rest of us just using our regular eyes and ears."

I glanced at Cassandra, and we nodded at each other. Cassandra's power would make a good cover for Ki Detection. Which wouldn't sense the robots, so we needed her power and Shoji's extra ears. I also had my Clairvoyance, though I was hesitant to use it, since Hagakure was out there.

The water was up to our ankles by the time Thirteen returned.

"Okay, as I said this is the flash flood scenario," Thirteen told us, "The height of the water will ebb and flow, as will the speed it moves. Your goal is to find the ten trapped victims, and move them to the safe point on the top of that market. You have thirty minutes, beginning now."


[Izuku Midoriya
Health: 654/696
Energy: 803/1186]

I was more tired than I would have expected, by the time we broke for lunch. We ran five scenarios; for the first four the teams alternated between being rescuers and victims like Thirteen had explained. But for the last one, we were all rescuers. Instead there were forty of the victim robots spread out through the town. They didn't look particularly human, but they breathed, had a heart beat, some could talk, and some could walk. And they were heavy, even with Drive 1 or 2 on. And I didn't want to use a higher level, since we were going to do this all day. At least we had some time to rest when we were playing the victims.

"How did it go for you?" Kyoka asked as Cassandra and I joined Ami's team at one of the six person tables. We had been served a meal of hotdogs and fresh fruit. Not unlike the amusement park the USJ resembled.

\Good,/ Cassandra signed.

"Yes," I agreed, "We were able to find everyone, and Ojiro-san did a good job of directing us."

\I think he has instructed martial arts classes,/ Cassandra added, and I translated for Ashido. Tsu sat at the table behind me, and Mo-chan slid in next to her.

"We did a rockslide in the mountain zone first," Tsu told us, "Then they cranked the snow up, and we had to do a blizzard rescue."

"Did you do okay?" I looked her over

"It was tough," she admitted, "but the thermal gel helped."

"Well done this morning, everyone," Thirteen called out, "In fact, you may have been the best group of first years I've worked with. So for the afternoon, we are going to adjust things, just a little. The basic structure will remain the same. But this time I want you all to pay attention to your bedside manner, so to speak."

"Bedside manner?" Iida-san said dubiously, "As in how doctors treat their patients?"

"Exactly," Thirteen agreed, "Just like a doctor, is important to consider what you say and how you present yourself. If you act worried, or complain, it will make things harder for the victims. They may panic, and that will make your job harder. Worse if..."

I missed the rest of the Thirteen's explanation has my head split open. Figuratively, not literally. I was not prone to headaches. I had them before, usually as part of some other illness. But never this bad, and not since I got The Gamer. Now it felt like someone had driven a rusty axe into my forehead horizontally, and was pounding it with a sledgehammer. I glanced around, and noticed Mikoto was holding her temples, too.

Then the lights flickered, and the headache faded to a dull ache, just barely noticable and unpleasant. The fountain behind us sputtered and stopped.

"What's that?" Shoji-san still had extra eyes at the end of two of his arms from searching, and now one of them was pointing up the stairs. In front of the entrance, a purple-edged cloud of black mist was pouring out of thin air. Then a hand appeared from the mist.

He was tall and gangly. He was dressed in a long-sleeved black shirt, and matching pants and shoes. His hair was white and his skin had a greyish tint. And to be honest, was in need of serious moisturizer. Vicious red eyes glared of from between the fingers of the hand covering his face. And not his own hand either. No, this guy had fourteen severed hands clamped on his head, neck, shoulders, body, and arms.

He was followed closely by a woman in a skintight, black and grey body suit. Her costume was torn in places and looked rotten in others. Her skin was also grey, but a deeper grey that was obviously makeup. Her hair was red on one side and blue on the other. She was also wearing a little domino mask, and casually swung a heavy looking sledgehammer.

Dozens more followed, most notably the huge bird faced man with the exposed brain. And I couldn't see them all, and didn't know most of them. But a few I did recognize. Finally, the mist resolved itself into a humanoid shape with glowing yellow eyes. He... it... was standing to the right of the hands guy, and sledge woman was on his left.

"What's this?" Kirishima set down his half-eaten dog and started to walk towards the stairs, "Some part of the training?"

"Stop," Aizawa-sensei barked, scaring the rest of the class. But not me; I was already there.

"Those are villains," I said, "She-beast. Grey Goro. Bug Weasel. I know a few others. They are low level thugs, but if they are here, I have too..."

"Where's All Might?" hands guy demanded in a high-pitched, grating voice.

"I dunno," sledge woman said, her Japanese betraying a heavy American accent, "Maybe he's in the toilet?"

"Sorry to say," Aizawa-sensei didn't sound sorry at all, "But All Might's not here. So maybe you could just show yourselves back out?"

"What?" hands guy shrieked, "I built up a battalion. Let Harley level up her squad. Did that stupid side quest to get the schedule. And now the boss isn't even here? All we've got is a support character like Thirteen, a low-rank troll Eraserhead, and a bunch of adds!"

A shiver went down my spine, and it wasn't Gamer's Mind calming me. The way he was talking... My friends all looked at me, no doubt thinking something similar.

"Even if he is not famous," the mist said, "Eraserhead is a high priority target. Sensei will be quite pleased if we can eliminate him."

"It's okay, Mistah S," sledge girl put a comforting hand on his arm, "We can just kill a bunch of the kids. That means All Might failed as both a Hero and their teacher. That will hurt him, right?"

He glared at her, and very deliberately put his hand on her face. Then, for just a moment, his eyes looked relieved. Then his stare returned, and the madness seemed to deepen.

"That's it, Harley," he seemed to realize, "This must be the sort of boss fight where you have to kill a bunch of minions for the real boss shows up!"

"analyze," I whispered, my need to know getting desperate.

[Name: Tomura Shigaraki
Race: Human (Quirk metagene positive)
Age: 20
Level: 29
Active Title: Leader of the League of Villains
Quirk: Decay
Anything Tomura touches with all five fingers (toes) on a given hand (foot) begins to break down and rot away to nothing. The only known ways to stop this are to sever the decaying part or disable his Quirk, though some healing Quirks may be able to slow the effect on living creatures. He cannot control this Quirk or shut it off.
Health: 720/720
Stamina: 508/511
Ki: -600/-600]

He didn't have The Gamer. Maybe he was just that obsessed with games? But then why didn't his power work on the sledge-woman? I glanced at her.

[Harley?
404 TARGET NOT FOUND]

"Why aren't the alarms going off?" Momo asked. I slipped my plate off the table, telekinetically pushing the food off.

"My phone isn't working," Ashido-san said. I handed the plastic dish to Tsu, and then signed a single word.

'All Might,' I shouted loudly into Guild Chat. And for a moment, my headache intensified again.

"Did anyone hear that?" I asked, vaguely enough that the rest of the class shouldn't get suspicious, but hoping the others knew what I meant. Cass and Ami both shook their heads.

"Don't bother," a wolf-headed villain shouted, "As long as Jammer's working, no signals are getting out, not even telepathy Quirks!"

"Who told you to speak?" Shigaraki turned around and placed his hand on the taunter's chest. Like Analyze had said, the victim gasped as his body began to turn into grey dust. Moments later, all that was left was a pile of what looked like ash.

"Anyone else want to spoil our plans and Quirks to the other raid party?" he barked.

"Thirteen," Aizawa-sensei said softly while that was happening, "I will hold them off. Take the kids and get them out one of the service entrances. Todoroki-kun, once I am on the steps, put up a wall of ice behind me."

"Sensei, you can't," Ami said.
"Let us help you," Mo-chan countered.
"Your power isn't suited for such a large group," I argued, "You use stealth against individuals or small groups."

"You can't be a pro if you are a one trick pony," he smirked as he lowered his visor.

"What are you waiting for?" Shigaraki complained, "Kill them!"

Eraserhead charged the stairs. So did the villains. Before either group reached the steps, I got the plate back from Tsu. Holding it by a very specific spot, I pointed it at first Villain in the pack.

"Hogwarts SMASH!" I shouted, and the plate rocketed at Grey Goro. It struck him between the eyes, and his head snapped back. Then he recovered, and caught the plate before if fell.

"What was that supposed too..." he trailed off speaking and dropped the plate. His four arms went limp and he crashed face first onto the steps, Tsu's oil paralyzing him.

"Gatling Railgun!" Mikoto yelled, and three of the thugs went down, probably with broken legs.
"Shabon Spray!" Ami's water bullets did less damage, just knocking the four Villains she hit over.

Aizawa turned to glare at us, but kept moving forward.

"We can at least thin the herd a bit first," Mikoto told him. Then he started climbing, and a vertical glacier hid him from view.

"Let's move," Thirteen told as sternly, "And once we are outside, Iida-kun, I want you to run as fast as you can towards the main campus."

The Space Hero disconnected something for hir wrist, and passed it to Iida-san.

"Keep triggering this. Once you are outside of this 'Jammer' Villain's range, this will put you through to UA's emergency line. Tell them what is happening here."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow that..." the voice of the mist echoed closely, and the next second he appeared in our path.

"Like we're going to let you not let us!" Kirishima shouted, jumping forward. Mo-chan immediately joined him, her red-lined broadsword appearing in her hands. The mist gestured, and they vanished. Then it began to flow over the rest of us. I pushed back as hard as I could with my TK.

"Not when our other comrades are waiting to meet you all," the mist's voice continued ominously.

Then I was falling. my vision filled with white.


Status Changes for Midoriya Izuku:

Attributes:
(W)it: 46 → 47
(I)ntuition: 48 → 49

Skills:
Analyze (W) – Battle Scan: 47→ 48
Ki Detection (D/I): 25 → 27
Climbing (S): 18 → 20
Tactile TK (I/D): 16 → 19
Telekinetic Aura (I) LB: 32 → 33
JSL (W/A): 13 → 15

Clairvoyance (I/W) : 4 → 6