Hello! I am back with a new story. I've been pretty busy this summer, but I hope you've been enjoying yourselves. Autumn is coming, meaning that I'm going to get even busier when school begins. I'm planning to update a new chapter at least one per month, and hopefully, I can manage that.

Without further ado, let's proceed to the story. Please, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Sunset Lullaby

"So, when did it start again?" Uraraka asked, licking her strawberry ice cream. "Thanks, by the way, for the ice cream."

"You're welcome," Asui said. She had a vanilla ice cream.

"Do you mean the concert Uraraka?" Iida asked and checked his watch. "There's still 44 minutes left before it begins, but we have to meet Aizawa-sensei in front of the theatre ten minutes before the concert starts."

"That means we still have time to visit the candy stall near the ice cream kiosk!" Uraraka grinned happily. "I remember seeing some cheaper candy there."

"Or we can go to the hero merchandise store. I heard there's a limited edition of special hero merch packages that could include a rare All Might figure. It's on the upper floor," Midoriya suggested, but when no-one replied anything, he blinked. "What?"

"A true All Might fan through and through," Asui stated.

"That's our Deku!" Uraraka giggled.

"Nothing can change that fact," Tokoyami said, arms crossed.

Midoriya laughed and scratched his head, embarrassed. They were right. "Let's go to the candy stall then, okay?" he said and turned around. "I can visit the store later after the show."

"Are you sure? What if they are sold out by then?" Uraraka asked.

That's what Midoriya though, but when he said nothing, Iida spoke on behalf of him. "Then I guess we can separate for a moment. I'll go with Midoriya. Make sure to be on time at the meeting place."

They all agreed, and as Iida and Midoriya walked toward the stairs leading to the fifth floor, the latter student had a bright smile from ear to ear. The two slalomed their way through the thick crowd. There were so many people of all ages everywhere. The shopping area was large; it was like a mall. It was big for its location. Sunset Lullaby—a cruise ship so big that it could carry over four thousand passengers, excluding the two thousand workers, and on top of that, the vessel had seventeen floors in total. Most of them had cabins and staterooms starting from level six to thirteen, but there were many restaurants, swimming pools, two show halls, playgrounds, a fitness centre, a solarium, and the shopping area with two levels, which were the fourth and the fifth floor.

The seventh floor had even an outdoor park. The park's flooring was partly made of glass, serving as a ceiling to the shopping district. There were no other ceiling between the fourth and seventh floor, so bright afternoon sunlight shone all the way down to the fourth floor.

The shopping area was like your usual mall, but with fancy details like decorative pillars with twisting golden patterns, and the smooth tile flooring had different colors in some parts, forming a big sun, colored in various shades of red and orange in the middle. The fourth floor was the shopping district's main floor, and it was two wide winding stairways to the upper level. Between the stairs were two elevators for those who had difficulties using regular stairs. The next floor had walkways with glass railings crossing the open space between the shops.

"I still can't believe we got to go on this cruise!" Midoriya said in a bliss, looking around, eyes shining in pure excitement. "And this is only our second day on this ship. And we have three days left! There's still so much to see and experience."

"That's U.A. for you," Iida nodded, also smiling brightly. "The fact that classes 1-A and 1-B get to experience this for free. It's marvelous," he took a deep breath. "We have to spend our time efficiently."

"You're right about that," Midoriya agreed happily, and something caught his attention on the left. "What do you think those guys are? Some kind of event?" He meant people who wore identical red clothes with black armor pieces and simple dark masks which covered their faces completely. They looked very hero-like costumes and would've fit in a sci-fi movie. All of them carried a weapon that looked like a futuristic gun because of their sleek and round design. They didn't look very practical. "Are they meant for security or something? There are pretty many pro heroes already, though."

Iida swung his hand up. "I think they're part of a performance that is supposed to be tomorrow. I read about it from a notice board that had information about all events on this voyage. I can't recall the name of the show, where those men would take part in."

"Oh. Okay," Midoriya said, frowning. Something weighed his mind as he eyed the men in costumes, but he wasn't sure what was causing it. "It's weird how they wear their suits the day before the show. Maybe they have a meaning. Still..."

Iida glanced at his friend, who had fallen silent instead of doing his usual muttering. "Is everything okay?"

Midoriya flinched. "What? Yes!"

"Good. Let's hurry! We don't have much time before the concert starts."

"Yeah!"

"Hey! It's Iida and Midoriya!"

Midoriya looked to the way he had heard the familiar voice, and it took a second before he saw Kaminari and Ashido waving at them. They sat around a white table that had a light yellow shade in the middle, covering them from sunlight that came through a large glass ceiling. Next to Kaminari was Kirishima and Sero, they all had colorful smoothies.

"Where are you going?" Ashido asked, grinning when Iida and Midoriya walked to them.

"We're on our way to the hero merchandise store that is on the upper floor," Iida explained.

"Those smoothies look tasty," Midoriya pointed out, but then he noticed something was off. Their group wasn't complete. "Where's Kacchan? Wasn't he supposed to be with you?"

The students' smiles turned awkward. Kaminari and Ashido gave a nervous laugh as they looked at each other. Kirishima sighed deeply and Sero slowly facepalmed. "We may or may not have annoyed him to a point he snapped at us and left," Kaminari explained slowly, clearly ashamed.

"Annoyed him? I don't think that's all that happened," Sero noted sharply, making Kaminari shrink in his chair like he wanted to disappear.

"Left? Alone? Where to?" Iida demanded to know. "The concert is about to start. Everybody's supposed to be there. It's Aizawa-sensei's orders."

"He clearly stated that he wouldn't attend to the concert," Kirishima explained. "About where he went, we don't know for sure, because he didn't tell, but I bet he went back to the suite. Of course, I tried to stop him, but, well, he's stubborn, you know."

"Not surprising," Midoriya muttered to himself. He understood it far too well.

"Look, we're sorry!" Ashido clapped her hands together apologetically. "He left only minutes ago."

Iida thought for a moment. "I see. But—"

"I'll go get him," Midoriya announced and turned to leave.

"But what about the store? There's not much time left," Iida hurried to say.

"I'll visit the store later! After the concert," Midoriya said over his shoulder. "I'll be quick! See you at the show!" He ran off before Iida could stop him. The class representative called out to him, but he didn't stop. He felt terrible for leaving like that, but he may have a chance to catch up to Kacchan before he'd get all the way up. Their class' staterooms located on the twelfth floor. He checked the time from his phone and noticed a message from Todoroki.

Midoriya didn't open the message. He'd check it out later and put his phone back into his pocket. If he'd run all the way, he'd still make it to the concert. Or else Aizawa wouldn't be happy to find out about their absence. He didn't want to disappoint his strict homeroom teacher.

"We're early," Jiro said as she put her phone back into her shorts' pocket.

"But it's only five minutes until the rendezvous time," Yaoyorozu stated. "It's essential to be on time. Five minutes isn't that much time."

They had arrived at the theatre's lobby full of people waiting to get in. The hall was brightly lit, golden twisting patterns decorating walls and ceiling. The floor had a large red carpet covering most of the tile surface. In the middle of the lobby was a long counter with a marble lining, and behind it stood a couple of women, answering to guests' questions. There were also four long, dark brown sofas next to the walls, and on both sides of the counter located two large doors leading inside the theatre.

The upcoming show starred a singer who goes by the name Saga, who had an incredibly beautiful voice. Some said her voice is one of the world's best. She had started her career only a couple of years ago, and her popularity had skyrocketed after a few performances. Saga had fans all over the world, and now the students got to listen to her in person.

"Hey! Aizawa-sensei's over there!" Hagakure pointed ahead with her invisible hand. She had a bracelet to indicate where her hand was, just to make it easier for her friends. "Not everyone's here yet."

Todoroki checked his phone. Midoriya hadn't replied or read his message yet. Usually, he'd reply quite fast. He glanced toward where Hagakure pointed and saw Aizawa talking with Ojiro and Sato. Iida and Midoriya weren't here yet, which was somehow surprising. You'd think that Iida would've been the first one to come and with him Uraraka, Midoriya, Asui, and Tokoyami.

"Hi!" Uraraka greeted them from behind.

"Hi," Jiro said and tilted her head slightly. "Where's Midoriya and Iida?"

"They went to visit the hero merch store on the fifth floor," Asui explained. "They should be back soon."

Suddenly Iida emerged from the loud crowd together with Kaminari, Sero, Kirishima, and Ashido. Todoroki frowned slightly. Midoriya wasn't with them.

"Hello," Iida waved his hand. "Is everyone here?"

"With you five here, everyone except Midoriya and Bakugo," Yaoyorozu counted. "Where are they? I thought they'd come with you."

"They were with us," Kirishima said, shaking his head. "But stuff happened, and Bakugo left, then Midoriya went after him. If Midoriya manages to convince Bakugo to come here, I'd think they'll make it to the concert."

"But," Sero continued, giving Ashido and Kaminari a judgmental look. "He's quite angry, for some reason."

"It was an accident!" Kaminari whined with a long face. "We didn't mean to break his phone!"

"Really?" Jiro rose her eyebrow. "You broke his phone? Way to go, Kaminari."

"Hey, Ashido is to blame too!" Kaminari protested.

"Yeah, it's our fault," Ashido lamented, admitting their mistake.

Suddenly Aizawa appeared behind them. "Is something wrong?" he asked with a monotonous voice. "Good that you're in time, but there's still two missing. Where are they?"

"Oh!" Ashido jumped, surprised by her homeroom teacher's sudden appearance. "Everything's fine. Midoriya and Bakugo will be here soon!"

Aizawa looked at her suspiciously. "I sure hope so."

"Hey! Eraser Head!" called a firm man's voice. Aizawa turned around and saw class' 1-B homeroom teacher, Vlad King, approaching. "Have you seen Monoma? Everyone else from 1-B is here."

"No," Aizawa stated bluntly. "Did he go missing? Haven't anyone seen him?"

"I'm afraid not," Vlad King shook his head. "Somehow, his group managed to lose him. I'm not sure how that's even possible..." he muttered to himself. "Is everyone from 1-A here?"

"Midoriya and Bakugo are on their way. Hopefully," Aizawa said and checked the time. "They still have ten minutes to get here."

As the teachers kept talking, Todoroki left the group in silence. There were so many people now that the show was about to begin. It would be difficult for Midoriya and Bakugo to find their class in the vast crowd. He hadn't even noticed how many people were going to attend the event. Probably over half of the whole ship's passengers. They had begun flowing slowly into the theatre, and soon would be the students' turn.

This is why Todoroki decided to keep watch for the two late classmates so that he could lead them right to Aizawa and the others. He got out of the thickest part of the crowd and quickly walked to more open space. He looked around but didn't see either of them. Maybe he should go to a higher place where he could see more.

"Come on, you gotta help me find my brother!" said a bright but demanding young girl's voice.

Todoroki looked her way and saw a child with black braided hair. The girl wore dungarees and a white shirt. She clung onto a hand that belonged to a slightly uncomfortable Monoma, who was looking around as for searching something.

"I know, but it's not easy to find one person in this busy crowd," Monoma explained calmly. "You said he has very similar hair to yours, but short? And he wears dungarees as you do? Any more leads?"

"He's a bit taller than me," the girl noted, and Monoma's face fell into a grimace.

Todoroki knew that it would be almost impossible to find a child in a mass of people this big. Vlad King was looking for Monoma, right? He let out a sigh and went over to the impatient-looking girl and the frowning Monoma. "You've got a problem?" he asked bluntly, catching Monoma's attention.

The blonde's grimace changed to an egoistic grin in a second. "Ah! If it isn't Todoroki from the inferior class 1-A. What brings you here? Are you lost? Do you need me to take you to your class? Too bad, I don't have time for you right now."

Todoroki ignored Monoma's way of speaking. "Vlad King and the others are waiting for you." He turned to the girl. "What's wrong? Are you lost?"

"Yeah! I got separated from my brother, and—" the girl said when Monoma stepped between her and Todoroki.

"I don't need your help, so go on your way," Monoma said with a smirk, gesturing Todoroki to leave. "Don't listen to this boy, dear child. I'll take you to your brother."

"Wouldn't it be easier to search together?" Todoroki asked. He had no intention of leaving. "The show starts soon, so we don't have much time. You don't want to be late, do you?"

Monoma stared at the expressionless boy for a moment. "You've got a point," he admitted, still smirking. "I'll let you help me this time."

This wasn't what Todoroki thought he'd be doing just before the concert. He was supposed to look for Midoriya and Bakugo, but he couldn't just abandon the lost girl. Maybe he'll come across the two while searching for the girl's brother. Hopefully. Most likely, they'd be late anyway. Their suites were quite far on the fifteenth floor. Their homeroom teacher won't be glad.

"We're you going somewhere?" Monoma asked the girl. "Could there be someplace where he's waiting for you?"

"The concert. We were about to go to the show," the girl explained like she just remembered something obvious.

"So, he could be there already?" Todoroki asked, and the girl nodded. Then why were we going in the opposite direction? Todoroki thought to himself. "Okay, let's go back," he said instead.

"What's your name? I am Monoma," Monoma introduced himself.

"My name is Aya, and my brother's name is Yuya," the girl said and looked up at Todoroki.

"I'm Todoroki," he answered before she could ask.

"That's a beautiful name!" Monoma said to Aya. "How old are you and your brother?"

"I'm ten-year-old, and my brother's eleven. He's my big brother," Aya told them, and Monoma nodded understandingly.

"I see," Todoroki said, eyeing the people around them. No sign of Aya's brother Yuya, Midoriya, or Bakugo. Then he thought of something. "Hey, Aya. Why don't you call him? You have a phone, right?"

"Oh? Not happening," Aya shook her head. "My phone has no power."

"Well, you can borrow my phone," Todoroki said and pulled out his phone. He looked at the screen frowned. "Never mind, there's no connection."

"You didn't connect to the ship's network? You're so useless," Monoma rolled his eyes and laughed. "Here, you can use mine." He paused and frowned. "There's no connection."

Todoroki sighed. They had to continue searching. Maybe he should've told somebody when he left. Now he had probably just caused unnecessary worry to others without thinking this through. Especially Iida, but the class representative would understand his reason to be late. Now he couldn't inform him about it with a message or a call, though, because there was no internet connection. Aizawa would be one to get stressed too. Great.

"They still haven't come?" Aizawa asked, looking around, trying to spot his three missing students and Monoma. "Why did Todoroki leave too?" It was hard to be a teacher with such students. But mainly these three boys among few else had caused problems before, a few times he was sure he'd lose years of his life just because of the amount of stress. Every time there had to be at least one student to make simple things complicated.

Vlad King had begun to lead students inside the theatre in small groups because there weren't enough seats for everyone to sit on the same row. Now only Aizawa, Jiro, Sero, Awase, and Kendo were left. Aizawa would lead the rest in, but he had to wait for the four late students.

"You can go inside if you want," Aizawa said tiredly. "I can show you your seats."

"It's okay," Kendo said, smiling. "We feel responsible for losing Monoma so that we can wait."

Awase nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we'll wait too, right, Jiro?" Sero asked. "It was kinda my fault, also, that Bakugo left, though I wasn't the cause for it." He had told Aizawa what had happened, making their teacher's mood drop even lower than it already was.

"Right," Jiro nodded. "Also, I can hear them when they get close, so yeah, I'll stay."

Now the entrance to the theatre had mostly cleared. People had gone in, and the small group could hear loud cheers coming from the hall. The show had already begun. The doors to the theatre were closed, so it was impossible to hear what the host of the show said, but exited cheers followed silence.

There were still people outside the entrance, so they didn't have a clear view everywhere. They couldn't see if the students were coming their way. The internet connection was also bad, so that they couldn't call them either.

Aizawa shook his head. This was only their second day on the ship, and the students were already giving him a headache. Three more days to go. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to come to this cruise after all, but the cruise's organizers had asked if the first-year students could participate in an event—a show where the students would perform in their hero costumes. The proposal had aroused different reactions and opinions, some were against it, but most students wanted to participate, and so the U.A. staff had allowed it. The students had their hero licenses too, which improved their chance to participate. This also meant that there were fewer pro heroes on the ship. All Might and Present Mic wanted to come along too, but they were needed at U.A., so Vlad King and Aizawa were the only ones to go with the students.

And so, here he stood, stressing over every little thing. Vlad King was more positive about the entire thing, taking the performance as some kind of competition between their classes, and Aizawa couldn't understand why. The event was supposed to be more of a show of their individual skills than a competition. For Aizawa, his trial included staying alive during the cruise, and not dying of stress. Of course, he knew that a journey like this would most likely go well, and it would do good for the students, but his inner pessimism screamed that everything would go south sooner or later.

"It's weird, though," Awase said, wondering, and Aizawa looked at him.

"What do you mean?" Sero asked.

"That none of our phones are working as they should," the weld quirk using boy explained. "The internet connection was great just under half an hour ago, but now the ship's internet doesn't work at all."

"Maybe the wind is causing problems?" Kendo suggested. "It's pretty intense. And there's always a chance of technical issues. It's not that uncommon."

"Maybe," the boy said, adjusting his headband.

Aizawa listened to the students talking, making his own theories in his head. He noticed Jiro standing strangely still, her jacks slightly pointing to the doors leading to the theatre. "Jiro? Do you hear anything?"

Jiro startled, and turned to Aizawa, looking confused. "What?"

"I asked if you heard anything?" Aizawa repeated.

"I..." Jiro's expression was difficult to read as she pointed her jacks towards the exit. "I haven't heard their voices yet. The other sounds are making it harder to listen to specific voices."

The girl's left earlobe turned to point at the theatre doors once again, and Aizawa frowned. He couldn't hear anything coming from the large room, but of course, Jiro had better hearing than him. What further caught his interest was the fact that there were more of the masked men dressed in red and black costumes. They were standing near the entrance, and some were close to the door leading into the theatre hall. Casually talking in small groups, when someone in a group talked louder, their group members would hush them. Did they take part in the show?

Aizawa couldn't help but feel tense. Something about those masked men made him feel like he stood in the middle of a wolf pack. He looked at the students around him, who were all staring at the flowing mass of people outside, trying to spot Monoma, Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo. None of them didn't seem to have the threatening feeling he had. Such was the difference in their experience in a hero's job. Or Aizawa was just overthinking everything.

"Let's go outside," Aizawa said and urged the students to leave the theatre's lobby. He led the confused students next to a small store that sold tickets to different events. There was a poster on the window, telling that the tickets to the currently ongoing concert were sold out. The store was closed for the next hour, and there were no lights on.

Kendo frowned in confusion. "Why did we come outside? Wouldn't it be easier to wait in the lobby?"

"We can see if they get here," Aizawa said. There were no masked men near them, but there were those men all around the place, most of them were gathered at the lobby. "See those men?" he pointed at the masked men. "We'd better not be in their way. They could have something to do with the show." He didn't tell about his suspicions to the students. He couldn't accuse the suspicious men without any evidence.

"Oh," Sero said. "I see. Now I'm eager to get back to the theatre to see what they are here for." He crossed his arms with a grin. "But, I won't go back before those late comers get here."

"Hey," Jiro's trepid tone of voice caught their attention. She quickly plugged her jacks into the light-colored floor with smooth tiling. "What the hell is that noise?"

"What do you mean?" Aizawa asked severely. He glanced at the masked men, who had stopped talking with each other and headed into the theatre.

"I can feel faint tremors coming from far below. Explosions, maybe?" Jiro swallowed, listening carefully. "It's so far. I can't say for sure."

"What?!"

Alarm bells started ringing in Aizawa's head, and suddenly an explosion went off in the middle of the shopping district. It launched a chain reaction, smaller blasts going from the floor up along the walls, breaking mostly the lights, but when the explosions reached the level, where the park was, the glass ceiling shattered, and sharp glass pieces came raining down like raindrops glimmering in the sunlight.

Aizawa sprung into action and broke through the window to the ticket store. He grabbed the students with his capturing weapon and pulled them inside. Screaming filled the shopping area when people hurried under any cover they could find like shops, stalls, and tables. From what Aizawa could see, most of the people managed to get to safety in time. But when he heard shouts of agony, he leaped out of the store when most of the glass had hit the floor. The masked men came out of the theatre, their sleek sci-fi weapons in hands, some ran to the wounded people lying on the ground, some ran to the stores, where most victims had taken cover.

"Stay here, and stay low!" Aizawa demanded with such a grave voice that the students didn't dare to protest, they were too shocked to do so. "Go to the backroom! Now!"

Kendo was the one to recover first, and she pulled the others up. "Come on, let's go!" She made sure that everyone went ahead. The store was small and had few things in it, only the counter and cold shelves with drinks and snacks, so they didn't need to watch out for anything that could trip them over even though it was dark. Jiro leaped over the counter first, knocking over a magazine stand and a poster that had the prices of the tickets. She tried the handle of the door, and luckily for them, the backdoor of the store was open.

Aizawa couldn't take two steps when a couple of the masked men stood in his way guns pointed at him. He stopped in his tracks and used his quirk to erase their quirks, though he didn't know what they were. Without warning, one of the men shot past Aizawa into the room. Kendo shrieked and fell onto the floor before she could get into the backroom. Aizawa's heart skipped a beat as he turned around to see what had hit her. A bright red needle was stuck in her left shoulder.

"Halt right there!" one of the men said warningly. "His weapon won't kill her, but mine will. If you don't stop, that is."

Aizawa stayed still. He couldn't make a wrong move now. "Don't shoot her," he said as calmly as he could.

"As long as you don't try anything," the man said. "You three will come with us."

Three? Aizawa, though, surprised. So they hadn't seen all four students.

"You better come out, or we'll shoot someone."

After a short pause, Sero stepped out of the backroom into the men's view. The man with the needle gun pointed it at the boy. The student had a grim expression as he moved carefully to Kendo and lifted her from the ground. The girl seemed to have trouble walking, so Sero had to carry her. The man, who had shot Kendo, broke the door open with a powerful kick, still pointing his gun at the boy.

"Carefully now," said the man. "No sudden movements."

Sero glanced nervously at Aizawa as if trying to get mental support, and his teacher nodded almost imperceptibly. The masked men urged them to start moving toward the theatre. There was something off about the men, but Aizawa couldn't find out what it was. More importantly, no matter how frustrating it was, he'd have to do what the men told him to, or else they'd hurt the students. He saw other masked men gathering up civilians, both wounded and unhurt, leading them to different ways.

As they made their way through the glass filled floor, several gunshots broke the slowly growing silence, and they were followed by panicked screams: every new scream and groan bit into Aizawa's mind. There were a few pro heroes around, but they were incapacitated either by the needles or by forcing them to stop by threatening civilians.

Aizawa hated hostage situations from the bottom of his heart. They were extremely tough and dangerous to deal with. Especially with so many hostages and villains around, and this time his and Vlad King's students were involved. Fortunately, the two men hadn't seen Jiro or Awase. Now he was somewhat relieved that Midoriya, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Monoma weren't here. He was sure that things weren't going well in the theatre. Those students should be smart enough to avoid enemies and stay safe.

Then he realized that they weren't exactly the types to stay silent for too long.

Aizawa's stress level was about to advance to a whole new level.

Chapter 1: End

This is the end of the first chapter. I hope you liked it! The next chapter comes in September.

Comments are always welcome!