Chapter 11

The two lay on the ground because of the pain, The Sword Princess stood over them looking down, "Riveria, can you heal them, please?" The Sword Princess asked a green-haired woman who just walked in, she nodded and walked over before crouching down and waving her hand above Yaoyorozu while mumbling something, before a green light consumed her hand and Yaoyorozu felt her pain fade away, she quickly moved over to Izuku and done the exact same thing, Izuku got up and quickly recognized her.

"That's Nine Hells!" Izuku shouted looking at the rather beautiful green almost jade coloured hair.

"Wait as in one of the most powerful women in the world, Nine Hells."

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far." Riveria said.

"You fought Stars and Stripes!" Izuku shouted at her.

"And lost." A man with light grey hair and dog ears said.

"Vanargand as well!" Izuku shouted once again only to the dog man's annoyance.

"Oh Oh, who am I?" A girl with wheat skin and white clothes had only covered what had to be covered said leaning in close to Izuku.

"Crusher!" Izuku shouted once again while blushing up a storm.

"Oh, he does know!"

"Ahem," Ais said. "Can you guys leave I'm trying to train them."

"We're just on our way out now." A small man with blonde hair and a spear said as he and some others made their way toward the staircase Izuku and Yaoyorozu had just walked up.

"Aww, but I wanted to play with Firebolt!" Tiona whined as she got dragged away by a small but yet very thick man with a massive axe in the other hand, at hearing her call him that Izuku began blushing much more than before.

They all exited the room, Izuku and Yaoyorozu turned to The Sword Princess, "They were only here to meet you two, they are on their way back to the Twilight Manor." The woman quickly said.

"So Miss Swor-" Izuku was cut off.

"Ais."

"Miss Wall-"

"Ais." She said once again cutting him off.

"Miss Ais." Izuku managed to say this time. "Why did you send an offer to us." Izuku asked trying to sound as nice as possible.

"I saw things I could fix, same goes for the fire and ice guy." Ais said, she then pointed over to Yaoyorozu. "You let your emotions get the best of you and that caused you to lose the entire thing." Yaoyorozu began looking down, she knew this already but to have someone push in front of her face like that hurt, Izuku saw the pain on her face and opened his mouth to try and argue back but was cut off as AIs swung her finger around to him. "And you were too obvious when you used your quirk, also what was that hand to hand combat, that made fighters all over the world look bad." Izuku felt like her finger was shooting the words right into his heart. "But I invited you here to help teach you to be better, so next time something like that happens you'll be ready and strong enough to win every fight." Izuku was about to say that he did win every fight but decided against it after remembering how much her kick hurt.

"So go put on your hero costumes and meet me back in here." The two teens walked toward another door on the floor they were on, Izuku entered the male changing room his costumes case in hand, he placed the case down and pressed a button on it, he opened it and saw something that didn't look like his costume at all, at the top was a note. - Hey Midoriya, so turns out I'm in charge of your hero costume, so I worked with the costume designer to make this baby, I call it Pyonkichi MK-IV I've made a few in the past but they've never been as good as this one, anyway I hope you enjoy using it. From your best friend Welf. - Izuku placed the note down and took the armour out of the case, it was white armour that covered both shoulders and lower arms covering his elbow, red orbs sitting just above the end of the wrist armour, a lightweight piece of chest armour that only covered the top half, at the top of was a little piece of metal guarding his mouth against attacks, two pieces of knee armour, on the left side of the armour of was red lines moving down, he had black under armour on with just under the knee boots and a pouch sitting on the right side of his hip, he put in his red contacts and noticed they felt different, the screen popped up with another message from Welf, - I worked with Hatsume to make these much better, so you can now wear them permanently. - As annoying as getting all his gear changed was he was rather thankful for it.

He walked out of the room and entered the gym again, they both looked at him for a second before Yaoyorozu spoke up, "What happened to your costume."

"Welf changed it."

"He can do that?"

"Apparently."

"He's part of the support course right?" Ais asked, both teens nodded. "UA gives every member of the hero course a person in the support course they can go to for costume changes, they've done that since even before I went there"

Izuku then wondered who Yaoyorozu's assigned support course student was.

"First thing we'll work on is close-range combat." Ais said to which both teens were looking pretty worried, "Yaoyorozu you'll be focusing on learning how to use that sword and shield you used during the tournament, Midoriya what weapon will you be using?" Ais asked.

Izuku thought about it for a second, he didn't really know how to use any form of weapon, he quickly remembered something, he reached his hand down and unsheathed his knife, "This."

"Do you know how to use it at all?" Izuku shook his hand, "Hand it to me." Ais took the blade and held it in her hand, she put it into a stabbing position, Izuku let out a small giggle toward the woman, she then once again spun on her left foot and slammed her right foot into his face again this time with less force but still enough to send him flying, Izuku slowly stood back up and Ais handed him his knife, she took a few steps back before drawing her sword, "I can't teach as well as Riveria but I can at least do this." She placed her sword down and held the sheath toward them, something about her changed and they both noticed this, Yaoyorozu created a sword while Izuku gripped his knife harder, "Good watch as much as you can." Izuku realised he'll have to learn to fight from firsthand experience.

Izuku felt his hand become clammy, the sweat building up made his grip lessen a tiny bit, the pressure from her eyes was overwhelming, the difference between them was clear to Izuku already and they hadn't even taken a step forward. "You're scared." Ais said staring at Izuku, Yaoyorozu dropped her defence to look at the teen, "It's okay to be afraid, fears tells you where the edge is, and when to stop, but there's something else." Izuku was not expecting to hear about his fears and didn't want to hear about them, her face never changing, Ais took a step toward Izuku. "I don't know what you're so afraid of…but at this rate, when you face it, you'll only be able to run away." Her words cut deep into him she was right, and he knew that suddenly he was pulled back to that day, standing right where Ais was, Shigaraki stood staring Izuku down, fear began running amok through him, he gripped tightly onto the blade adrenaline pumping its way through his veins, he takes a step forward then another, "YAHHH!" "Too slow." the feeling of the cold gym mat ran its way through him, there was a pain in his ribs, he saw her move, no that was giving it too much credit, he saw a blur smack him in the side.

He arose and brought his blade up and pointed it at the woman again, another blur and then slam, he felt her weapon slam into his stomach, pain shot through as he got sent backwards by the force of the attack, 'I can't breathe, it hurts, it hurts so much, I want to cry I want to, no I can't cry, not here.' "You aren't used to pain, but you can't be afraid of it." Izuku quickly got back to his feet, but before he could do anything she kicked his knee knocking him back down to the ground, his face slammed against the mat. "Being a hero means you can't leave any openings, don't give villains a chance, just try to follow my attacks for now." She said as Izuku stood back up and pointed his knife toward her, Yaoyorozu was just standing watching Izuku get beaten down, Ais rushed him again, Izuku was just barely managing to redirect her attacks, "We top heroes often say that some heroes are pulled around by their quirk," She said as three more hits make contact with different spots on Izuku's body, "People depend on their quirks, but ability and technique are different, even if you lose your quirk these skills will not fail you." Izuku saw a chance and swung toward her, "When people see an opening they become predictable." Ais said as she sidestepped his attack and elbowed him in the stomach knocking him back down to the ground. "Techquine and strategy, you lack both." She said staring down at his almost lifeless body.

Her cold glare then turned to Yaoyorozu who gulped.

Izuku slowly walked out of the changing room, bruises already making their way over his body, his entire body ached, he walked to the stairs and went down to the second floor, he walked in and saw Ais without her hero costume on setting a table for the three of them, she was wearing a white dress with a blue outline, the back of the dress was black, the dress itself went down to her thighs, Ais had made their food and Yaoyorozu was already sitting at the table eating her fill but it made sense as to why, during her training with Ais she had used her quirk a lot as Ais kept breaking everything she made. "Is every day going to be like this?" Izuku asked as he sat down and continued to eat.

"Yes." Ais very simply said, "The things we'll work on tomorrow is your quirk, you have a tendency to shout whenever you use it, that gives away the fact you're about to use it."

Izuku had never thought about it like that.

The rest of the meal went by pretty quickly and they made their way up to the fourth floor, they had spent the entire day training as they were pretty tired by the time they got up the stairs and into their rooms, Izuku laid down on the bed and remembered the fear he felt earlier.

He opened his eyes and saw that same man who had been staring at him in his dreams for the past few weeks, Shigaraki was once again standing there a few feet away from Izuku, he took a step and the sound it made was comparable to that of a knock, another step and another until he broke into a full charge toward Izuku as he was about to reach to him, Izuku shot up in the bed and heard the knocking coming from the door, "Come in!" He yelled loud enough for the person on the other side to hear, the door slowly began opening light seeping its way into the room, standing in the door was a girl with black hair that fell down to around her shoulder blades, "What's up Yaoyorozu?" Izuku asked sitting up a bit more in his bed, the girl seemed fidgety her fingers never stopping twiddling with each other.

She stepped inside and out of the light blending in the darkness rather well due to her hair, she slowly closed the door behind her as she took a few more steps toward Izuku who was still just sitting on the bed now a bit more confused and tense due to a girl being in what was technically his "room", "Sorry, but I thought I'd come to see how you were." Izuku slightly tilted his head while looking at the girl, her fidgeting had gotten worse as she spoke, Izuku noticed this and was about to ask her what she meant by that, then he followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at his arm, it clicked in his brain why she was here.

"Yeah, don't worry I haven't done that since the day of the festival." Izuku said his mood was clearly somewhat lowered by the conversation topic.

"Do you want to talk about anything?" Her voice was soft yet carried clear concern in it, something Izuku was still not fully used to yet.

Izuku sat there silent for a few seconds, Yaoyorozu took this time to sit down next to him on the bed Izuku let out a sigh, "The nightmares are still happening." He said simply, during the time after the sports festival the two had a long chance to talk about things, Izuku had explained about the nightmares but didn't mention anything else about his past deciding that while a lot of things are now out in the open he should keep some things to himself.

Especially about the last 10 months before entering UA.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Yaoyorozu asked her hands more fidgety than before.

"No, it's fine, just knowing that I have someone to talk to is enough, thank you." Izuku replied forcing a smile onto his face.

All of a sudden Yaoyorozu realised that she was sitting on a boys bed, in his room, at night, a pink hue dusted her face as she shot up from the bed and took a step toward the door, "Well if you need me, you know where to find me."

Izuku sat watching her back as she took another step toward the door, something within him didn't want her to leave, suddenly he felt his fingers wrap around something, he looked and saw his hand extended out grabbing onto her hand, she turned around to give him a side glance, something about the moonlight shining in through the window combined with the pink colour on her face, Izuku could only think how beautiful she looked at this moment.

"Ah sorry, it's nothing." Izuku pulled his hand back and grabbed his other hand, his face slightly red.

"Okay then." Yaoyorozu walked toward the door, her back facing Izuku, she stepped out of the room and slowly closed the door, "Goodnight." The door shut.

Izuku looked down at his hand and then looked out the window raindrops covering the glass. "Why did I reach out?"

After closing the door she placed her right hand over her chest, her face now fully red, 'Why is my heart beating so fast?'

Author's note.

I've been looking forward to this arc since the very beginning, so I hope I can do it justice.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I went a very Danmachi route for this chapter, so I'll be mixing throughout this arc.

I'll be getting the rest of the volumes of Danmachi come the end of this month so that's pog.

For those concerned, I'm fine now.