Chapter 2

Two hours prior to where we left off

Aizawa grumbled internally as he waited by the side of the bus for the substitute teacher for Toshinori to show up.

Honestly, how the hell had he run out of time with his Quirk this early in the day.

It wasn't even midday yet?

He understood that he was supposed to be the Symbol of Peace but he's supposed to be able to show these kids how to be heroes too.

He'll talk to him about it when he gets back.

The sound of rapid footsteps approaches him and Kanetsuki Kaito slides to a stop in front of him, clearly having sprinted to get here as fast as he could.

And was still somehow five minutes late.

"I'm so sorry Aizawa!" The new teacher blurted, doing his best to return his outfit to some semblance of respectability again.

Not that Aizawa really cared much. He slept in a sleeping bag in his own classroom whenever he could to make up for lost sleep.

This wasn't the first time that Aizawa had worked with the younger hero, although it was the first time that they'd worked together as teacher's at the very least.

And even knowing who he was, it was hard to associate the stumbling substitute teacher who occasionally functioned as Recovery Girl's back up as the man who'd held back the entirety of Kurobe Dam alone when it broke apart during a villain attack.

That was no small feat.

Aizawa rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb at the bus. "We're burning daylight Kanestsuki. Get on."

The new addition to UA nodded sheepishly and stepped onto the bus, taking one of the only remaining seats at the very front.

Aizawa followed him on, and with a nod to the bus driver took a seat next to his fellow teacher.

"What on earth are you wearing?" Aizawa asked dryly, taking note of his colleague's less then stellar appearance.

Kanetsuki sighed, one hand trying in vain to adjust his tie, while the other tried to arrange his brown hair into something resembling a decent haircut. "My Hero Outfit is at the dry cleaners." He mumbled, his eyes flicking to look away from the Underground Hero.

Aizawa didn't say a word, just stared at him with the same dry look on his face.

The younger man collapsed like wet carboard. "Alright it's on the floor of my apartment but it really needs to be at the dry cleaners. And I slept through my alarm this morning." He grumbled rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Again."

Aizawa stared at him for a moment, his mind running through the news reports for the day when he thought of the most likely reason. "That accident at Kyoto?"

"Yeah." Kanetsuki nodded with a small smile before it faltered again. "And I need to get a new car. Again."

Aizawa fought back a grin at that one.

One that Kanetsuki clearly saw if his reaction was any response. "Oh you think that's funny don't you Eraser?"

Aizawa let a small smirk appear on his face. "Well if you ever get sick of the hero business, I'm sure you could be a fantastic magician. You can make cars disappear faster than anyone I know." He remarked under his breath, the loud conversation of the students preventing his words from being overheard by them.

The look of barely repressed murder on the young hero's face had Aizawa fighting down laughter for the rest of the trip.


Midoriya Izuku stared in absolute mortification at the teacher sitting at the front of the bus that he'd mistaken for another student.

How could he have been so stupid?

He's so tall!

Of course he was a teacher.

Well not necessarily.

He could have been a student with a mutation quirk that caused him to grow taller.

Or a Gigantification quirk.

Or a…

"Deku-kun?" Uraraka Ochako's question interrupted Izuku's stream of thought, causing him to nearly leap out of his seat at her sudden closeness.

"Y-Yes?" he stammered out, trying his best not to flush red with embarrassment.

Ochako blinked at him for a second before shrugging and repeating her question, "Do you know who that person up the front of the bus is?" She asked drawing his attention back to the most recent cause of embarrassment at UA. "You've been looking at him the whole bus ride."

Izuku felt part of himself want to float away and die at that realization but fought through it. "His name is Kanetsuki-sensei." Izuku replied, now actively trying to not seem to be staring at the young teacher. "I think he's supposed to be a hero that specializes in rescues, so that's why he's coming to the USJ."

A hand suddenly chopped down into Izuku's view and he turned to see Tenya Iida gesticulating towards him. "That name is vaguely familiar to me, Midoriya-kun." Iida interrupted, continuing to gesture robotically as he did so. "I believe that he may have worked with my brother on one occasion, but I cannot recall it at this time. Although I do not approve of his appalling appearance. Why is he not wearing his hero costume?"

"Maybe it got destroyed in a fight with a villain and he still came to work without it?" Mina Ashido suggested, the conversation suddenly having spread to the rest of the bus.

"That would be super manly if that was true." Eijiro Kirishima enthused clearly imaging the dramatic fight in his head already.

"Maybe he's supposed to be playing the part of an off-duty hero, kero?" Asui Tsuyu hypothesized, trying to think of a reason that he would be dressed like that.

Yaoyorozu Momo's eyes sparkled at that. "Of course! Just as we can't predict where a disaster will take place, we also can't predict when a disaster will take place, so as heroes we should be able to leap into action even without our costumes or equipment." She deduced, nodding along as she said it.

Kaminari Denki shrugged his shoulders, seemingly not interested in the conversation. "I dunno, maybe he just forgot to do his laundry?" he suggested, scratching his head as he did so.

"Come on man he's a professional hero." Sero Hanta countered, lightly punching Kaminari on the arm. "He's gotta be an organized guy. I mean look at him."

The students stopped and looked forward at the new addition, a look of deep contemplation on his face.

"I wonder what he's thinking about?" Toru wondered aloud, the seemingly empty gloves twiddling their fingers.

Fumikage Tokoyami let out a low hum at that. "Perhaps he is thinking back on his past mistakes as a hero, and how he could improve upon them."


Did I leave the stove on again?

No, wait I didn't have breakfast, so I couldn't have left the stove on.

Unless I left it on last night and forgot about it?

Did I use the stove last night?

Gah, this is going to bother me all day isn't it.

Unless I get home and find my apartment complex on fire again.

Then it's going to bother me for even longer.


I stumbled off of the bus, doing on the best to make it look like I hadn't just almost fallen out of the exit.

God damn small stairs.

They are not made for people with feet as big as mine.

Not as bad as any of the old buildings the Association used to drag me around to but still, not great.

"Kanetsuki-kun!" a familiar voice called out to me, the slight distortion to it a dead give away. "This is certainly a surprise."

I let out a chuckle at that, bowing my head slightly as the spacesuit clad hero approached me, her yellow sneakers just as distracting as always compared to the rest of her outfit. "Just filling in the numbers until All Might can get here."

Thirteen seemed to pause at that. "He's not on the bus?" She questioned, confused as to why the Symbol of Peace would be missing.

Aizawa let out a yawn as he stepped off the bus, having slept the last half of the trip and rolled his shoulders letting out a series of bone breaking cracks. "He probably lost track of time doing an interview or something." He suggested dryly, turning to watch the rest of the students make their way off the bus being led by a…

"Oh my God it's a mini Tensei." I muttered under my breath, holding back a grin.

Aizawa chuckled quietly at that. "They might look the same but he's somehow even more socially awkward." He confided before walking up to confront the students.

As Aizawa began talking to the students I turned to Thirteen again, directing my attention back to our conversation. "Anyway, how have you been? The facility is looking a lot better than last time. Granted it couldn't really look any worse."

Thirteen laughed sheepishly at that. "Yeah." She admitted, seemingly embarrassed. "Turns out trying to increase the magnitude in the earthquake zone without ramping it up is a really quick way to get Cemenentoss to be upset with you for a few weeks."

I nodded at that, the image of half the facility having collapsed in on itself fresh in my mind.

I hadn't been much help that day, having still been on standby for overdrawing my Quirk earlier that week after the Blade Dogz had tried something especially stupid by holding a bus full of elementary school students hostage.

"But how are you doing, Kanetsuki-Kun? Getting enough sleep?" My colleague asked, her helmeted visage clearly examining my…less than stellar appearance.

"Could I lie and say yes?" I said sarcastically, stretching again as I did so.

God I miss my car.

My back is still killing me from fitting into Mic's bloody side car.

Not doing that again any time soon.

Thirteen laughed at that and moved forward to greet the students of class 1-A.

And hey look at that she's got a few fans among the group as well.

Oh I am going to have to tease her about that later.

The group started making their way up the stairs towards the massive enclosed stadium that was the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, making their way through doors so large that they could even fit people with Gigantification quirks that couldn't be turned off, like Godzillo.

God been a long time since I heard that name.

How many years has it been since he moved to the USA anyway?

"A shipwreck!" Thirteen began with a dramatic gesture pointing to the massive pool off on one side of the arena. "A landslide!" She continued pointing to the simulated catastrophe behind her.

Oh boy, she's really getting into this.

Don't laugh.

Control yourself Kaito.

Or she'll use her quirk to eat your fridge and say that a cat ate it.

Again.

I bit back a wince at remembering some of the more memorable excuses I'd heard from the Space Hero over the years on the job.

How could anybody be that bad at lying?

I have met literal five-year olds that were more convincing than her.

Granted some of them were using their quirks to help them along but that is besides the point!

But what can you expect from someone who called this place the USJ on purpose?

And looks like the students have the same reaction as literally anyone else that she's made that stupid joke to.

Chin up Thirteen.

One of these days, someone will actually laugh at your shitty, shitty pun.

"Before we begin, let me say one thing." Thirteen's said, drawing everyone's attention back towards her, myself included. "er, or two, or three, or four…five…six…seven."

I could literally see the enthusiasm start to drain out of the kids with each word that she said, so I subtle made a 'stay on target' gesture with my hands before she started rambling again.

"Everyone, I am sure you are aware of my Quirk, Black Hole." The Space Hero started, raising a gloved hand as she did so, the latches restraining the terrible might of her quirk. "I can suck up anything and turn it to dust."

Remarkably simple words that don't really do justice to just how terrifying that quirk could have been if Thirteen had been a villain, something I remain infinitely grateful has never come to pass.

"You've been able to use that Quirk to save people from all kinds of disasters, right?" The same green sprout that I'd nearly bowled over this morning was clearly a fan of Thirteen's work if his comments was any indicator.

And he wasn't wrong.

Thirteen was one of the premier rescue heroes for a reason, and her quirk allowed her to dispose of materials that would otherwise be a serious risk to heroes and civilians with ease, reducing them into harmless dust.

"Yes, but it is a power that can kill easily." Thirteen interrupted changing the mood of the class in front of her entirely. "Some of you also have quirks like that, right?"

She wasn't wrong.

Then again, these days it was hard to find a quirk that couldn't hurt someone if you tried hard enough, or used it improperly.

Even mine.

And I was a medic nine times out of ten.

"In a superhuman society, personal Quirks have been certified and stringently regulated, so that doesn't seem to be a problem at first glance. However, please do not forget that there are many quirks that can kill easily with one wrong step." Thirteen continued to lecture, the students now utterly captivated by

"With Aizawa's physical fitness test, you found out about the possibility of your own hidden powers, and with All Might's person-to-person combat training, I think you experienced the danger of using those powers against others. This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your Quirk's to save people's lives."

"You do not have powers so that you can harm others. I hope that you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others."

Now that's certainly something I could get behind.

Hell it was the reason I was a hero to begin with, and not following the one I was otherwise destined for.

And after that first rescue?

I haven't regretted that choice since.

The students broke out in applause and cheers as Thirteen gave a bow at the end of her speech.

"All right then, first-" Aizawa began before pausing as a the floodlights illuminating the arena suddenly turned off with a crackle of electricity.

A power outage?

On all three generators and the backups?

At the same time?

Aizawa's eyes widened slightly as he came to the same conclusion I did, spinning to scan the arena for anything out of place.

And sure enough the swirling purple mist was a very bad sign.

The sign of people coming through it was a worse one.

"Trouble." I called out to Thirteen, as I pushed my way past the students, rolling up the sleeves of my shirt as I did so.

"Gather together and don't move!" Aizawa, no Eraser Head barked at the students who were still looking around in confusion. "Thirteen, protect the students!"

Looks like they came to party.

The purple mist expanded even further into a massive wall and then they started walking through it.

"Don't move!" Aizawa ordered one of the students who had taken a step forward as if to see what was going on. "Those are villains." He informed them, grabbing his signature goggles and raising them up to cover his eyes.

I pulled my spare pair of gloves from my back pocket and put them on, the white cloth pulling tightly as I made a fist with my hands to ensure the fit was right.

Okay there's a lot of them but other than the handy individual at the back nobody that seems to be…

I felt my train of though derail and crash through the meager hopes I had amounted as a massive figure with black skin occasionally marked by rents that seemed to reveal the muscles bulging underneath stepped through.

The figure had a strange beaked mouth, and its brain was exposed to the open air, with it's eyes literally part of its own brain. The eyes moved strangely, almost jittering in place as they swung in one direction then the next in as way that the medic in me said should have been impossible.

Well looks like somebody didn't skip leg day.

Or arms day.

Or any day really.

At that moment the swirling purple void compressed suddenly, leaving a figure in a well kept suit, complete with tie but sans the blazer, with the addition of a metallic looking brace protecting the collarbone with the mist taking the place of his hands and face, but not his feet oddly enough. Two jagged yellow voids in the mist seemed to serve as the being's eyes.

Alright, make that three people in the not cannon fodder category.

"Thirteen and Eraser Head, huh? The teleporter spoke up clearly deferring to the blue haired individual with the hands all over him, "The teacher's schedule we received the other day said that All Might was supposed to be here, not some senior student."

Twitch.

You know what buddy?

Just for that, I'm going to punch you in the face.

I don't know how that works when you have fog as your main facial feature but consider me a bold innovator in that regard!

But the words that they said are troubling for all sorts of reasons.

They thought that the number one hero was going to be here, and the came anyway.

That speaks of either confidence or stupidity.

Possibly both.

Either is bad for almost exactly the same reason.

"The trespassing the other day was the work of these scumbags after all, huh?" Eraser Head growled, his hands flexing unconsciously as he did so.

"Where is he? I went through all the trouble of bringing this whole crowd, too…"

"All Might…" the apparent leader of this little group drawled on. "The Symbol of Peace…I can't believe he's not here."

Is he…complaining?

Seriously?

Who does this guy think he is?

"I wonder if he'll come if we kill some kids?" He asked hypothetically, and I could see the cracked grin that formed beneath the severed hand that served as his mask.

Well.

There goes any plans of going easy on these fools.

Aizawa tugged on his scarf, transforming it into the capture weapon that he had perfected the use of over a long and arduous career as a hero.

I sadly didn't have any of my gear with me.

God damn dry cleaning.

Guess I'll have to make do.

I heard the kids starting to talk amongst themselves and Thirteen as the crowd of villains approached, and I started scanning the crowd, looking to see if there was anyone that stood out to me amongst them.

A few were familiar, bottom of the barrel types that I didn't doubt that most of the students here could take on, but there was no one I could see that displayed an obvious Quirk that could have disabled the alarms.

Then again they have a teleporter.

If they had a lick of sense they wouldn't have kept their means of cutting us off from the outside world within our sights.

"Thirteen, start the evacuation. Try calling the school." Aizawa took command swiftly, not taking his eyes off the approaching threat. "These villains even had something to counter the sensors. It's possible someone with radio-wave-type powers is interfering."

I felt the need to add my own thoughts then, "They've probably got them hidden somewhere in the Arena, they wouldn't want to risk you cancelling their quirk and having the alarms go off."

Aizawa nodded at that, and directed one of his students to attempt to make contact with the school via their Quirk in an attempt to circumvent the enemies preparation.

"What about you sir, will you and Kanetsuki-sensei be fighting them alone." Midoriya spoke up, clearly concerned about what we were about to do.

Ah Kid, your concern feels nice.

But I think you should be focusing on yourself at the moment.

"You can't be a hero with just one trick." Aizawa said simply over his shoulder, before looking at me out of the corner of his eyes. "Stay with Thirteen. Keep the kids safe." He murmured quietly.

I patted him on the shoulder, an aura of white covering the Erasure for a moment before fading away. "If it gets too crazy down there, then I'm coming after you." I whispered out of the side of my mouth

Eraser Head glared at me for a movement before he vanished in a blur of movement, flying through the air towards the villains to deliver a good old fashioned beat down.

I forced my attention away from the struggle, the sounds of combat and grunts of pain from people who hopefully weren't Aizawa filling the air.

I grabbed Midoriya and forced him towards the exit that the others were already jogging towards. "We can look at the relay later kid, now it's time for you to get going." I said remaining in place at the top of the stairs.

I need to stay here in case any of the villains attacking Eraser Head try to get smart and run around him to go after the students while he's occupied.

I turned my attention from the people attacking Aizawa to the ringleader standing at the back and swore, suddenly not finding the teleporter at his place beside the leader.

Son of a…

I spun on my heel and sprinted after Thirteen and the students, trying to get there in time. An explosion rang out obscuring the front of the students for a moment before the black mist surged forward to engulf the students.

Oh no you don't!

I reached forward with my Quirk and tried to counter the enemy's movement and swore when it failed to take effect.

Goddamn space manipulation quirks!

Screw it.

Instead of focusing my Quirk outward I turned it inward and one moment I was agonizingly short of the students.

The next I was among them, reaching out with my arms to grab a hold of as many as I could in the moment of time I had to spare.

There was a moment of blackness and a vague recollection of movement.

Then I was surrounded by buildings consumed with flame, a student in a martial arts outfit with a tail sticking out of his pants by my side and a whole host of villainous looking types making their way towards us.

Alright then, we're in the Inferno Scenario room.

Could be worse, thank god we didn't have that girl with the Frog Quirk in here.

Looks like spiky head has something to say.

I moved forward and crashed my clenched fist into the side of his face, the intruder pirouetting once before he bounced off the pavement.

The other villains stopped and stared at me in shock at that.

Alrighty then.

Time to draw their attention off the kid and towards me the only way I know how.

"So when you all pay someone to have sex with you, and let's be honest, you're going to be paying a large amount, do they give you discounts based on how much of a failure you are? Honestly curious here." I asked with a smirk, extending a palm towards them and gesturing them to come at me. "Or is it more of a group discount kind of thing?"

There was a blur of movement from the side and I moved my hand to the side before holding it in place and watched as the speedster who'd tried to sneak up on me proceeded to knock himself out on my fist.

"I'm thinking 80/20 towards the failure scenario if I'm being honest." I continued conversationally even as I surged forward towards the group, lashing out with a serious of jabs that blurred into place, moving my other hand minutely to block an incoming sword with the palm of my glove that shattered into pieces after hitting it.

I made use of the stunned incomprehension upon the man's face as he stared at the jagged hilt that used to be his weapon when I rammed my forehead into him, his nose breaking audibly before he crumpled like a sack of potatoes.

Someone let out a grunt and was sent tumbling backwards and I turned to see my charge proving that he certainly knew what he was doing with that tail of his proceeding to dismantle the amateurs around him with a series of practiced movements that told me he'd been doing martial arts for quite some time now.

I flickered away from a series of projectiles that smashed into the building behind me and proceeded to step through the barrage of what seemed to be scales of some sort that a woman with a reptilian quirk of some kind was directing at me, before I swept one of her legs out from under her and slammed her into the ground so hard that her eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets.

She'll live.

"Magical…"I roared out, drawing back my fist as the masked foe before me recoiled, rising his hands to cover his face. "Punch!" I roared as my boot slammed upwards in between his legs.

The villain let out a wheeze like a collapsing balloon and slowly collapsed in between his legs.

Oh it's been an age since that one actually worked on someone.

My god these people suck at being villains.

I moved to catch sight of the haymaker that the last villain, one with some type of Strength enhancement threw at me, one of those over the top things that could have been telegraphed from the other side of the country and belonged only in movies and especially dumb fighters.

Three guesses which this one is and the first two don't count.

I could have dodged it with ease.

I caught it instead.

The man let out a scream as his hand met mine with a meaty crunch, his hand clearly broken badly as it met the immovable force that was me and failed to leave a dent.

Then I proceeded to clench my hand around said broken fist and squeezed, the villain's cries becoming decidedly more high pitched as he dropped to his knees and tried to tug his fist out of my grasp.

Now then what was this one's name again?

Mashashiro?

Wait no there was an another A in there somewhere!

"Mashirao! Are you injured?" I called out, drawing the students attention away from the unconscious or groaning rabble around us and towards myself.

"No sensei!" The martial artist replied quickly, his eyes still darting about to see if another ambush would spring upon us at any second.

"There's an exit to this zone three blocks to the left. Head that way and make your way back to the entrance." I directed him, my eyes scanning the area as well, coming to a stop briefly as I saw something glint at the top of the building next to me.

"What about you, sensei?" Mashirao asked, clearly torn between not wanting to abandon me and rejoining his classmates.

"I'll just finish up here and be right behind you." I promised, dragging the now unconscious villain out of the way and into the foyer of the building beside me. "Now get moving."

Thankfully he did just that, sprinting off towards the exit at his best speed.

As soon as he was out of sight I dropped the idiot I'd been dragging who let out a groan.

Now then.

I scanned the floor plan that was stuck on the side of the wall and took note of the best way to make my way to my destination.

Time for me to go have a conversation.


I quietly made my way through the doorway that led to the roof of the building,

There on the side of the building was a figure in what could barely be called an outfit, probably some discount Lycra that he'd painted to try and look cool, trying and failing to pull the draw of his crossbow into position, swearing colorfully as he did so.

"…se damn heroes! Thinking they're so much better then them, better then me." The man muttered darkly, trying in vain to fix the bolt in place. "Next time, I'm going to get them and they'll be sorry."

Well with an invitation like that, how can I refuse.

"Why wait?" I asked, walking casually out towards him, not trying to hide my approach in the slightest. "I'm right here."

The man in front of me swore and spun, the crossbow bolt now loaded into place.

"I wouldn't." I suggested politely, still slowly making my way forward.

"Screw you hero!" The man howled at me, firing the bolt at centre mass, I watched the bolt approach and pulled on my Quirk gently, feeling a touch of Haste flow through me as I seeming spun in place around the bolt, leaving it to clatter uselessly behind me as I continued to make my way forward.

There's a time and a place for such things, but sometimes dramatics, can have their use.

I mean look at this guy.

He's practically pissing himself after that one.

He hurriedly loaded another bolt into his crossbow, clearly trying to shoot me again.

"Why are you villains here?" I asked simply, still walking forward without a care in the world.

"Go to hell!" The man screamed, his voice cracking as he said it, his eyes wide as he fired another shot at me.

I pulled on my Quirk again, spinning to the left this time, before taking my same path and walking inexorably forward.

"Who are you working for?" I asked, trying a different path even as the fool before me continued to swear as he stumbled backwards, crossbow bolts clattering to the ground as his shaking grip struggled to reload his weapon.

At this point I was so close that it actually might be a struggle to dodge it.

Not without using more of my Quirk then I probably should.

The man in front of me seemed to have come to the same conclusion and his eyes shone with desperation as he clutched at his last shot at victory, firing the shot at near point blank range.

Like I said, it would be pretty hard to dodge this.

So I didn't bother dodging.

The bolt struck my shirt and snapped like a twig, bouncing to the floor with it's pointed arrowhead now a much flatter affair.

The crossbow dropped from the masked man's shaking hands at this point and he took a subconscious step back to get away from me.

Sending him tumbling over the edge of the building with a scream as he stepped into open air.

Before he vanished to his untimely demise I lashed out with a hand, grabbing him around the ankle with a grunt.

"Who needs arm day with a workout like this?" I muttered quietly as I hoisted the villain up, who was frantically scrabbling in the air for purchase.

"That could have been painful." I commented casually, as if I was merely talking about the weather and not literally holding this man's life in the palm of my hand. "Then again my hand is getting really tired trying to hold you up, so I might just let you go again."

"You can't do this!" The villain pleaded with me, his hands reaching desperately out for something to grab onto to pull himself to safety. "You're supposed to be a hero!"

I found myself nodding at that. "And you're the guy who came to this place with the intention of attacking children apparently." I said conversationally. "Who isn't answering my questions."

I pulled my hand away from the screaming excuse for a man in front of me.

He let out a scream, closing his eyes and throwing his hands in front of his face in a vain attempt to protect himself from the conflagration below.

What a punk.

I crouched down and poked him in the face with my ungloved hand, continuing to do so until the shaking criminal opened his eyes again.

I smiled at him, now face to face with the man still held by his ankle off the side of a building. "Now I am going to ask you. One. Last. Time." I said slowly, the bright sunny smile on my face slowly vanishing as I watched the blood that was rushing to this man's face strive to flee back down his body if how white he was getting was any indication.

"Talk."