It was kind of disturbing to see even a training city as destroyed as this one was. Very few buildings around them were actually still standing, many having become nothing but rubble to decorate the place.
The roads and pavements were cracked and lampposts laid across the ground. It looked like someone let an amped up Bakugou loose on the place. At best.
Mina had shot off far ahead like he'd instructed her to, skating over the debris with ease and grace as she looked for any of the victims. Midoriya meanwhile moved much slower, waiting for a moment at each alley and listening carefully for the slightest sound to alert him to anyone.
He briefly wondered if he could reverse engineer their thought processes over where they chose to pretend to be victims before shaking the idea out of his head. That would be abusing the fact it was a training exercise and make it redundant.
"Help! Someone!" A voice suddenly cried out, and Midoriya's eyes widened as she quickly picked up his pace, running into a nearby street Mina missed and finding Jirou up ahead, leg 'trapped' under some scaffolding.
"Hang on, I'm here!" he said in what he hoped was an assuring voice, dropping to her side and carefully prying her out, lifting the rubble away and moving her out from underneath. Once she was safe, he knelt down and gently prodded at it, as he turned to her. "How bad does it hurt?"
"Like hell." She said, clearly not even trying to act like it actually hurt much to the greenette's internal amusement.
"What's your quirk?" He asked simply, and the purple haired teen looked at him like he grew second head.
"You know exactly what my quirk is Midoriya-"
"We've never met before." He said simply, and the girl's eyes lit up as she realized what he meant. With a light blush of embarrassment, she quickly explained.
"I can hear thins way better than most people, and control my earlobes like extra appendages." She said simply, the greenette nodding along to her explanation.
"Great. If it wouldn't be too much trouble miss, could you please try to see if you can hear anyone else nearby?" he asked simply, and she nodded as her Earjacks plugged into the ground.
"Well uh.. Ashid- I mean, a pro is helping what I think is a man out somewhere nearby." She said, opening her eyes and turning to him. "Other than that, noth- LOOK OUT!"
He turned confused, before his eyes widned as he saw a wall of cement travelling straight at them. With no time to come up with a better plan, he lifted his finger and fired off a one hundred percent flick at it, causing it to explode apart.
He let out a cry of pain as his finger broke, and the cement cleared to reveal Cementoss, one of their teachers, waiting there with his hand thrown out. 'A faux villain?!'
"Not all disaster areas will be barren of foes who wish to stop you in your tracks. More often than not there will be stragglers… can you adapt?"
As he said that, he summoned yet another wall but with the time to actually react now Izuku spun on his heels and picked up Jirou bridal style, causing a massive blush to break out on the girl's face while he bolted around the corner, ignoring how carrying the girl like this was massively hurting his newly broken finger.
He kept running, making a few turns until they were a safe distance away, where he took a moment to catch his breathe.
"Dude… Please… put me down. This is so fucking embarrassing…" Jirou whined, facing away from him and causing a small blush of his own to form, quickly setting her onto her feet, and aiding her to a nearby bit of rubble to sit on while he dealt with the villain.
"Sorry. I'll be right back, after I deal with the villain!" He said, running back around the corner and into the street. When he arrived however, the pro's back was turned to him and he followed his line of sight only to see Mina helping Sero along, the tape boy faking a broken arm.
A wall of cement barrelled towards them and the greenette reacted as quick as he could, running towards Cementoss. "ASHIDO! LOOK OUT!"
The girl turned confused, before her eyes went wide and she quickly fired out a massive spray of acid, melting the cement just in time while the fusion teen dropped near the faux villain and swept his feet out from under him, dropping him to the ground and quickly getting atop him.
"There, try to get me now and you'll trap yourself." The greenette said, hand on the pro's chest who just looked at him bemused.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked, throwing his hands up to try to catch the teen in a delicately crafted creation of cement. Unfortunately for him, Midoriya had anticipated that, quickly pulling the pro up into it while dodging out the way at the same time.
"Mina!" He shouted, quickly running to her side, knowing the cement prison wouldn't hold the man for long. He looked at her with a determined look and quickly began to give her instructions. He'd had an idea about her quirk he'd been meaning to bring up for a while and now was a good a time as any. "Fire at him with as high a viscosity and as low a toxicity as possible. Make it so it pretty much can't melt anything if you can and fire!"
She quickly complied, not having time to ask why and throwing a massive blast of the type he requested at the villain, watching in amazement as his movements got slower as hs struggled.
"Hey, what the?! What is this! I can't-"
"What the…" Sero and Mina muttered at the same time, and the fusion teen let out a small happy laugh, turning to his friend.
"Your acid can be used as an adhesive as well… Turned sticky instead." He explained simply, hurrying to Sero's side and shaking his head. "Come on, there might still be another fake villain around. I found Jirou so let's get you to her for now."
"Uh, right!" Mina said, before letting out a cute little giggle of joy at the new trick she'd just learned from the greenette. They quickly got the tape-producing teen to the purple haired girl, sitting him down beside her and taking a quick breathe.
Suddenly pink arms grabbed the greenette into a quick happy hug. "Thank you for the new trick!"
His face blushed bright as he gently held her back, causing Sero to laugh at them until Jirou suddenly hit him in the arm with a bemused look of her own.
"H-hey come on J-Jirou, that could aggravate his injuries." He pointed out in a gentle reprimand, letting go of Mina and looking around. "By the way, can you hear anyone else now?"
The Earjacks shot out again, plugging into the ground and after a moment, the purple haired teen's look became one of puzzlement. "I can hear… snoring? From thay building over there!"
Following her pointing, they saw a building that was still one of the few standing at the end of the street. Midoriya sighed, already having a good idea of who would be there as he turned to his partner. "Ok, you should go on ahead and scout it out, I'll take Sero and Jirou to safety and meet back up with you before we do anything!"
"Alright." Mina nodded, turning and making her way toward the building. The fusion teen turned back to the two 'victims' and helped Jirou onto her feet, while gently guiding Sero along at the same time.
They walked in relative silence for the most part, so Midoriya could keep an ear out for anymore potential threats but they ran into none, eventually arriving at the gates where Sero's gaze turned teasing now that they didn't have to worry about a potential fight.
"You know dude, Ashido seems pretty eager to hug you today." He said with a grin, causing the greenette to blush and Jirou to shake her head as she rolled her eyes.
Still, Midoriya decided to just ignore him for now, turning with a wave as he ran back into the city, weaving through alleys to get back to the building he'd left the acid girl at quicker.
He soon arrived, seeing her waiting for him outside and the two quietly began making their way up the stairs, near to the top. They got near to doorway when the girl suddenly held him back, pulling his attention to her.
"Midnight has Kirishima and Uraraka just by that door." She whispered, before frowning. "I'm not good at holding my breath for long, you?"
"Don't need to be." He said with a small grin, reaching for his metal mask and quickly securing it around his face. It was literally designed to combat Midnight's quirk, when he was putting the costume together and now he finally got to use it for that.
His eyes turned to his costume and he let out a sad sigh, before reluctantly tearing a large patch of the fabric off and passing it to Mina quickly, who wrapped it over her mouth and nose like a bandana before they leapt in.
"Hmm? Oh your finally here." Midnight said with a sultry tone, grinning at her new prey. It faltered after a moment. "Aww, you aren't going to let me use my quirk? That's a shame."
Midoriya and Mina walked in calmly, facing her down and she cracked the whip in her hand, licking her lips. "Still, you dare fight me heroes?"
Ok, he needed an elegant, well thought out plan. He had… well the plan part was there at least.
"Fight? I don't want to fight." Midoriya said, confusing her for a moment before he suddenly launched at her like a madman, grabbing her arm before she could react and activating her quirk. "I want to fuse!"
They barely stayed together for more than a moment, the green and black light of their fusion covering up whatever their combination actually looked like from the others. Midnight not wanting to fuse quickly caused them to come apart again but it was just enough time for her to become distracted and off balance, letting Izuku aim for her feet the same way he did with Cementoss.
As she fell to the ground, he grabbed the whip out of the air and turned, throwing it to Mina who grabbed it and immediately melted it down, before turning and using her newly acquired technique to trap the pro.
"Hey come on, what the heck?!" the woman asked, struggling with all her might against the fast setting substance, unable to get out. "Oh come on!"
The two heroes-in-training grabbed the two unconscious 'victims' and hurried out of range of the pro's sleeping quirk, before attempting to wake them.
"Hey, Ochaco, you there? It's me.." Midoriya tried, gently cradling her head and clicking near her ears. "It's Izuku. I'm here…"
"mmm…No Izu… we can't have another cat…." She murmured from whatever dream she was having, causing the Mina and Midoriya to share confused but amused looks.
"Ocha, come on, time to wake up." He said gently, causing her eyes to flutter open slowly, before a look of confusion came onto her face. Midoriya just smiled softly. "Heya."
"Izuku?" she asked, before suddenly bolting up. "AH! I FELL ASLEEP IN CLASS!"
"Relax sweetie, that was Midnight's quirk. We're still doing the exercise." Mina quickly assured her, before frowning and gesturing to the red head she had before her. "Unfortunately seems like Kiri is way worse affected by it."
"I'll carry him, you help Ochaco get her bearings." Midoriya said, hurrying over and lifting the red head onto his shoulders, as they all began to make their way to the gates.
They kept an eye out for any more dangers at first but soon lapsed into comfortable conversation, the girls giggling together and Izuku just enjoying being with them.
He couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was but both of those girls had a talent for making him feel like everything was ok with the world as long as they were just… there.
They eventually reached the observation room, as Kirishima finally began to stir while Midoriya set him down and everyone congratulated the two as Aizawa drawled out that they passed the exercise.
"Alright!" Mina exclaimed excitedly, running to her partner and going for a high five, which he had no choice but to return. As their hands connected however, a squelching noise alerted them all to the fact that there was still adhesive on the pink skinned girls hand. "Oh… Oh shoot."
"Uh…" Midoriya tried to pry his hand off, as the girl pulled in the other direction but neither of their palms would come apart, as the greenette's blush began to worsen. "Mister Aizawa?"
"No you can't go to Recovery Girl." He said simply, hiding a massive grin under his bandages. "You'll need to recovery your energy before the old woman can heal your finger and this isn't a health problem. Live with it."
"Ahh… well guess we have to!" Mina said with a shrug and a nervous laugh, as the boy's face turned bright crimson.
And that's how they got stuck for the rest of the day being made to hold hands the entire time. The girl had taken it in stride, interlocking their hands while the greenette tried not to combust.
He'd be lying If he said he didn't enjoy it however. All in all, not a bad way to begin their two weeks before the sports festival began, though the rest of the training to come wouldn't be anywhere near as eventful.
The festival itself… Well now THAT was a whole different story!