Disclaimer: Boku no Hero Academia characters and plot events belongs to Horikoshi Kohei.

To Be a Hero

fine line between

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A few days passed since the media uproar about All Might and peace returned to U.A.

"For today's hero basic training, it's turned into a class with three instructors. All Might, me and one more person," Aizawa announced with his usual tone, his droopy eyes staring back at the bewildered looks that his students were giving him. Sero Hanta raised his hand.

"Excuse me! What exactly will we be doing?"

The hero took out a card from his pocket and showed it to the class. It was similar to All Might's "BATTLE" card, except this one said "RESCUE". "Disasters, shipwrecks, and everything in between," he drawled. "It's rescue training."

Eh? That's not exactly Eraserhead's area of expertise, but it could be fun... Shiro pondered thoughtfully. Her Quirk was efficient at finding people quickly and she is able to manipulate the chances of harm to prevent causalities, so it seemed like a good training practice for her. The rest of her classmates also started to murmur excitedly about the training, but when the hero pointedly called out that he wasn't finished with announcements, they immediately quieted down again in fear of facing the man's wrath.

"You can decide if you want to wear your costume or not this time. There are probably costumes that limit your abilities... The training will take place off-campus, so we're taking a bus. Get ready and meet outside in ten minutes. Now shoo."

They didn't need to be told twice and immediately went to grab their hero suits and headed towards the changing rooms. After Shiro slipped into her suit and tied the ribbons securely in her hair, she met the others outside by the parked bus. Everyone decided to wear their costumes as well, but Midoriya was one exception. His suit did get destroyed during the combat training after all, and repairs from the support company takes a few days.

A shrilling whistle made everyone turn their attention towards Iida. "Class 1-A, gather round!" the class president ordered once everyone was present and pointed to the space in front of the bus. "Form two lines by your student numbers in order to make boarding the bus go smoothly!"

"Iida-kun's at full throttle..." Midoriya commented.

But as they all boarded the bus, the class president had turned from confident to sulking at his seat. Those sitting in the immediate vicinity of the male all gave him sympathetic looks. The bus wasn't exactly fit for his vision of seating, seeing as the front of the bus had two rows facing each other while the back of the bus had the two-person seating on each side and was facing forward.

Shiro ended up sitting next to Tokoyami in the first row of the left side in the back. Right across the aisle from her was Jiro, who was listening to music and Bakugou, who stared out the window. She found her seatmate to be quite reserved himself, but she didn't mind and closed her eyes to make the bus ride pass by quicker.

She was just about to nod off when another one of Tsuyu's blunt comments caused a cascade of responses that ended up triggering a certain hot-headed blonde.

"Bakugou-chan's always mad, so he doesn't seem like he'll be popular."

"The hell! You wanna fight!?"

"We haven't known each other that long, so it's amazing that everyone already knows his personality is crap steeped in sewage," Kaminari remarked with a smirk as the other blonde became increasingly offended.

"What's with that vocabulary, you bastard?! I'll kill you!"

I can't believe this... Kacchan is being teased...! Midoriya was in such a state of shock that he looked visibly disturbed. That's U.A. for you!

On the other hand, seeing that the tranquility of the bus was so rudely disrupted, Shiro grew irritated. "You're too loud," she uttered with her eyes still closed. Next to her, Tokoyami, too, had his eyes closed as he nodded along silently.

"Ha?" Bakugou's attention snapped towards both of them with anger burning his face. He was ready to jump out of his seat and fight someone. "How about I rip out those pigtails and stuff them up your damn ears!"

"Oh yeah?" she opened her eyes and challenged. "You said that last time but I don't see any progress made from your empty threats."

"I don't even fucking remember that but I'll fucking do it this time, Pigtails!" he scowled, but his lips were quirked up in an excited grin. She mirrored it.

"I'll see you try, Prickhead!"

"Fight me then!"

"Oh, I will!"

A wave of electricity zapped between their fiery red eyes as they glared at one another in contempt. They didn't get along, but they were always oddly in sync.

"How vulgar," Momo covered her mouth with revulsion and disapproval of the explosive male. "How can he talk to a female like that?" In response, Uraraka giggled besides the girl as she looked to be enjoying the lively conversation of the bus.

"But it's kind of fun to watch! Shiro-chan brings out the best of his reactions!"

"Oi, stop messing around," Aizawa warned from the front. The bus settled down as they finally approached a large glass-like dome structure. "We're here."

"Everyone, I have been waiting for you!"

As soon as the students stepped off the bus, they were greeted by a hero in a recognizable astronaut suit. Many of their mouths were agape with awe at the real person before them.

"It's the Space Hero: Thirteen!" Midoriya's fanboy mode kicked in, his fists curled with delight. "The gentlemanly hero who has rescued tons of people from disasters!"

"I love Thirteen!" Uraraka, too, could barely contain her excitement as she stared at her favorite hero who inspired her costume.

"Let's go inside without delay," the hero said, and the students followed obediently. Kaminari was walking besides Shiro at the back of the group and had a curious grin on his face.

"Hey, since you live with Aizawa-sensei and all, you must get to meet a lot of heroes! This must not be as exciting for you as it is for the rest of us."

The girl blinked at the blonde's assumption. With the nature of Aizawa's work often being solo or low-profile, the heroes who come into contact with him don't typically form long-term bonds. He wasn't the type to have relations outside of work, anyway. So like the rest of them, she's only heard or seen the heroes on television. She only personally know a few heroes, and one of them was the energetic Present Mic.

"Actually..." her ruby eyes sparkled slightly and there was a tiny dust of pink on her cheeks as she whispered with wavering composer, "I-I'm pretty excited, too."

W-What a cute expression...! If it was possible for Kaminari to be electrocuted by his own Quirk and got sent to heaven, then that was probably how he was feeling at the moment. At their small conversation, Iida turned around to quiet them down so that they could pay attention to Thirteen's instructions he presented the students what was inside the giant dome.

The inside was sectioned off according to the nature of the disasters. There was a shipwreck scene, a landslide, fire, windstorm, and much more. If each area didn't contain perilous disasters, one might mistake it for the Universal Studios Japan.

"This is a training ground that I made with different types of accidents and disasters," Thirteen explained with enthusiasm. "I call it the 'Unforeseen Simulation Joint', or USJ for short!"

It really is USJ... the students thought.

"Thirteen, where's All Might?" Aizawa inquired as he walked up to the hero. "He was supposed to meet us here."

"About that..."

The rescue hero explained in a low whisper about the situation to Aizawa. Shiro only picked up something about All Might running out of time and her head tilted in confusion. Does that mean he won't be joining us today?

"That's the height of irrationality," Aizawa sighed as he turned back to the students. "It can't be helped then. Let's just begin."

"Let's see.. Before we begin, let me say one thing... Or two... Or three... Six... Seven..." Thirteen counted off frantically as he gathered his thoughts. The hero was quite comedic in a sense. "Ah. Everyone, I'm sure you are aware of my Quirk, Black Hole," he finally began and demonstrated a small scale of his Quirk. "I can suck up anything and turn it to dust, and I use it to rescue people from disasters. However, it is a power that can kill easily. Some of you also have Quirks like that, right?"

Everyone looked around and thought about their Quirks. It was true, some of them did have powers that could seriously injure others if they wanted to.

"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 easily kill with one wrong step," Thirteen gripped his fist in an encouraging manner. "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 powers against others. This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use you Quirks to save people's lives!

"Remember, your powers are not meant to inflict harm. I hope you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others."

With the hero's speech coming to an end, the students roared with applause as he bowed. This is what it means to be a hero... Shiro was just as moved as everyone else. Like Eraserhead said, this is 'Plus Ultra'!

"All right then," Aizawa piped to calm down their bravos. He pointed to towards the center plaza where a large fountain stood. "First—"

BZZZZZT!

The lights around the dome flickered and many of them dimmed from what looked like a sudden power surge. The fountain also started sputtering random bursts of water, and suddenly an ominous black fog warped into view before it expanded across the area.

Aizawa whipped his head around just as a hand stretched out through the fog. "Gather together and don't move!" he ordered urgently as more people appeared out of the black fog. "Thirteen, protect the students!"

"Is this like the entrance exam where the lesson's already started?" Kirishima wondered as he peered over at the men and women coming out of the black fog. Midoriya also leaned forward with a step to take a closer look, but Shiro quickly grabbed both of their arms and pulled them back.

"S-Shiro-san?"

"The look on Eraserhead's face..." she revealed with a worried frown. Aizawa was putting on the goggles that masked his line of sight from his opponent's point of view, and his posture wasn't relaxed anymore. "I don't think this is a simulation anymore."

"Don't tell me..." Midoriya gulped in fear.

"Those are villains," Aizawa confirmed as the bindings around his neck flared. "Don't move."

"Only Thirteen and Eraserhead?" the voice behind the fog said. Gleaming yellow eyes appeared from the darkness as it morphed into a shapeless head. "The teacher's schedule we received the other day said that All Might was also supposed to be here."

"So these scumbags were behind the trespassing," the hero muttered. He should've known that villains were behind this since the media drew their attentions with the announcement of All Might being at the school. Damn it... He quickly ordered some of the students to perform certain tasks so they can try to get everyone out of USJ safely. He will deal with the villains.

"What about you, sensei?! You can't be thinking of a frontal battle..." Midoriya said with concern. He knows the stats and battle style of the hero from all the data he's gathered throughout the years. "Isn't your style based on capturing after erasing the enemy's Quirk? With so many of them..."

"You can't be a hero with just one trick, kid," Aizawa said. "Thirteen, I'm leaving the rest to you." The crowd of villains advanced forward as the hero jumped from the stairs to intercept them.

"Where is he? I went through the trouble of bringing this whole crowd, too..." A skinny man with many dismembered hands latching onto him said as he stood watch with another monstrous looking character. "All Might... The Symbol of Peace... I can't believe he's not here. Oh, but look..."

The man was greatly upset with the fact, but he was looking at the students with absolute malice.

"I wonder if he'll come if we kill some kids?"

It all happened too fast.

One minute Aizawa was ordering them to escape with Thirteen as he went off to face the onslaught of villains, and the next minute the fog villain had engulfed them under his dome of black fog after Kirishima and Bakugou attempted to attack him.

"Guys, move away!" Thirteen ordered, but the smoke was too thick and the hero tried his best to retrieve some of the students.

"My job is to scatter you and torture you to death!"

The villain's voice bellowed as Shiro felt her surroundings begin to swirl. She heard the sound of a metal armor behind her and determined that it might be either Iida or Aoyama. "Iida-san!" she shouted, hoping that it was the former.

"Shiro-kun?!"

Yes! "Your Quirk makes you the fastest our class, so you have to escape and get help!" she told him quickly, getting him close enough so that she could at least vaguely see him through the fog. He was holding Uraraka and Sato in an attempt to rescue some people out. "I increased a favorable probability field around you, so go—!" she gave him one last push before she got warped away.

"Shiro-kun!" Iida looked back at the mass of swirling fog, but there was no reply. Those that didn't make it out in time had all been scattered across USJ.

"Your classmate is right," Thirteen nodded at the stunned class president as the villain's fog retracted after finishing his job. "I also entrust this duty to you. Run to the school and tell them about what's happening here."

Iida looked conflicted, "But it would be a disgrace to leave everyone behind! Shiro-kun and the others—"

"Use your Quirk in order to save others! Your classmate wanted you to do the same thing, didn't she? That's why she got you out of there!"

The hero's words struck him as the students around him gave him determined looks. "We'll help in any way that we can, too!" Uraraka said as Sero and Sato pumped their fists.

"We got your back!"

Everyone... Iida nodded, a new resolve etched on his face as a burst of speed powered his legs. He felt that he was even faster than usual, and that could be contributed to the decrease in any chance of wind or natural resistance that Shiro gifted him. The fog villain tried to catch up to him, only to be intercepted and restrained by his helping classmates, and Iida reached for the door. I will not let Shiro-kun's or anyone else's efforts go to waste!

Splat!

Midoriya and Mineta were hauled onto the single ship in the middle of the shipwreck zone before Tsuyu climbed her way up as well. It seems like they were the only ones transported to this location.

"This has turned into a bad situation," the girl said, referring back to the villain's demand to see All Might. Midoriya nodded; he wasn't sure if the hero's absence was a good thing or a bad thing. But one thing was for sure...

"Looking at the big picture, those guys must've set up the media intrusion the other day to get information. They were waiting to pounce," he frowned.

"But it's not like they can kill All Might!" Mineta was convinced. The hero was the Symbol of Peace! He was the top hero for a reason! "Once All Might comes, he'll pound those guys! He'll this—! And that—!"

"Mineta-chan," Tsuyu interrupted. "Don't you think they are trying so hard because they have a way to kill him? Guys that strong just told us they would torture us to death, you know. I wonder if we'll be able to hold out until All Might arrives... Even if All Might comes, I wonder if we will all make it out in one piece..."

As the girl continued to lay out the reality of the situation bluntly, Midoriya couldn't help but get more concerned. She's probably right, but why are they doing this? Is it because he's the one and only Symbol of Peace? Because he deflects all evil? No, I mean...

The villains started emerging from under the water and were advancing towards them. There was no time to think about these trivial things.

...I don't care about the 'why' right now!

Through all the times he's observed his classmates and the example of All Might himself, if there was anything to learn, it was that he needed to be fast at acting. Sometimes there was just no time to mule over what ifs and whys; you just have to do it. That's how Bakugou could be so fast and good at what he does. That's how Shiro was able to keep up with Todoroki and send Iida out for help. That's how Iida was a better leader than him. That's how All Might could stay as the number one hero...!

"If those guys have a way to defeat All Might, then right now, we should be stopping whatever they're planning... By fighting and winning!"

And that was exactly what the students of class 1-A were all thinking.

Shiro was hanging on to the side of a half-submerged building with her kusarigama as she watched the villains that tried to ambush her plummet down the originally six-story building, instantly knocking them unconscious and probably breaking a few bones. Dislodging her sickle to get down as well, her left eye swirled to break her fall.

After Kurogiri warped them into his black fog, she was sent to the Landslide Zone on the side that was facing the central plaza. Here she encountered a handful of villains that came at her, but she quickly realized that they were of no serious threat. If anything, they were only at the level of common thugs.

They called themselves the League of Villains though, she thought as another villain swung at her. She dodged and used a ribbon to bind him, then she sent a punch to his face to knock him out.

Somehow this doesn't feel right, she frowned as she tried to see what was happening in the plaza. If there was any real threat, it was the fog guy and the other two villains she saw hanging by the fountain, but by the time the hero gets through the mass of weak villains, the chance that he'll be at his limit is extremely high.

I hope Iida got out to get help... she reached for one of the reserved smoke bombs in her utility belt as another wave of villains emerged. I need to see how Eraserhead's doing but these damn villains keep coming!

"You guys are really starting to piss me off," she growled and threw the bomb towards them before attacking.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Landslide Zone...

"'Scatter you and kill you', huh?" Todoroki recited as an icy cold breath left his lips. He looked at all of the villains he froze unimpressively. "I hate to say this, but you just look like guys with Quirks they didn't know what to do with."

"T-This guy... The minute we warped here..."

"Is he really a kid? O-Ow, shit..."

Todoroki walked down the path of ice with a frown marring his face. Two villains jumped out to ambush him, but they were clumsy and easily contained by the expansion of his ice. They're really just a rag-tag team of villains... he thought as he broke off the spear one villain was aiming at him before being engulfed by ice.

"Hey," he walked up to the frozen villain and stared at him without a speck of mercy in his heterochromatic eyes. "At this rate, your cells will slowly die. I want to be a hero, so I'd like to avoid something so cruel if possible... On what basis do you think you can kill All Might? What's your plan?"

The frozen villain looked absolutely terrified as Todoroki's right hand hovered threateningly before his face. "W-Wait!" he pleaded. "W-We were only told to follow them to defeat the heroes! They s-said they have a secret weapon a-against All Might!"

"Them?" Todoroki prompted further, the ice intensifying. "What's their secret weapon?"

"S-Shigaraki-san and Kurogiri-san! And I'm not sure, but they call it 'Nomu'! T-That's all I know! Honest!"

Hearing everything that he needed from the man, Todoroki used his left hand to released an intense amount of heat to thaw the area, making the villains drop like flies before they sunk partially into the now muddy ground. By now, the villains were suffering superficial frostbite and wouldn't be able to move from pain in a while.

Walking away from the scene, Todoroki determined that his next move would be to go towards the center plaza and assist Aizawa before help arrives. He noticed that there was traces of smoke coming from the other side and upon nearing it, sounds of combat could be heard. Someone got warped here with me.

He made out the moving figure to be the girl he was paired against during All Might's combat training and saw that she was holding her own despite not having a Quirk like his to dispose of multiple opponents at once. But it would take her a lot longer to defeat them all, so he decided to step in.

As soon as his foot made contact on the ground near her vicinity, she whipped her weapon towards him upon reflex thinking that he was another villain. Todoroki dodged the first one as a black ribbon shot out at him again with the intent to restrain him, and the villains around them used this opportunity to charge. With quick reflexes and overwhelming power, he froze the area completely while jumping forward to grab the girl so she wouldn't get engulfed in the blast.

His sudden appearance had surprised Shiro greatly and she twisted herself in a way that made Todoroki loosen his hold on her mid-air. "Todoroki-san?" she gasped when she saw who it was. But she was falling towards a pile of sharp rubble.

Todoroki quickly pulled her towards his body again while another wave of ice shot out from his right hand to smooth out the ground. They tumbled and slid down the icy path with Todoroki covering her the best he can before a wall of ice stopped them.

Shiro winced as she prop herself up. Heterochromatic eyes opened and stared up at her, and she felt herself grow as red as the male's hair upon realizing that she was on top of him. She scooted away as one arm attempted to cover her face, "Y-You jumped out of nowhere!"

Todoroki was silent and unbothered as he propped himself up, but Shiro's eyes furrowed when she saw that his left arm had a small gash. "You're bleeding!" she exclaimed as she kneeled back down by him. The gash wasn't too big, but blood was seeping out from the wound. She took his arm and tried to stop the blood. Todoroki watched as she worked diligently to clean the wound and then using a ribbon to bandage up his arm. Her touch was very gentle...

"This would've been avoided if you didn't decide to step in suddenly, you know," she mumbled before finishing up. He gave her a serious look.

"I don't doubt that you could take those villains by yourself, but I took cared of the rest so that you could save some energy. With so many more villains around, you don't want to run out of steam this quick."

She hated that he always had a some sort of level-headed comment for her. But, she was too zealous in trying to get through the villains as fast as possible that she accidentally attacked an alley. Her ruby eyes soften, "I know... But I have to get to Eraserhead. The villains are planning something... I have this bad feeling in my gut."

"You're not wrong about that," Todoroki nodded. "I was just heading over myself."

"Let's go together, then," she got up and extended a hand towards the male. He merely stared at it and she rolled her eyes. He was back to being cold. "It's my fault that you were injured. Just take it so maybe I can feel a little better about myself," she said. Though, he chose to stand up by himself and she let out an annoyed huff.

Walking side by side in silence, Shiro's foot suddenly made contact with a medium length metal rod and it rolled forward. She watched as the rod broke in half when it hit a protruding rock and the chain-link inside spilled out.

"Woah, these are like two-in-one nunchucks," she picked it up and reattached it. An excited grin made its way to her face. "This'll make a great weapon!"

"Is there a reason why you prefer using weapons over your Quirk?" Todoroki asked with mild curiously. First it was the kusarigama, the ribbons, smoke bombs, and now the nunchucks. There was more space on her utility belt to store more as well.

"Normally, my Quirk can do things like increase the chances that the ground you're standing on becomes seismically active or decrease the chance that a fatal blow will hit me, et cetera, but the extent that I can use it isn't limitless. My other ability, reality rewrite, currently takes about a quarter of my energy each use. It takes even more to rewrite on something large or someone extremely powerful though... Best case is I pass out, but worst case, I'll overstimulate my eyes and cause serious damage to myself," she explained with a shrug. "I'm slowly trying to increase my stamina, but I still have to train my Quirk to use energy more efficiently. Being versatile with weapons just gives me more options during battle."

"And if there's no weapon available?"

"I'll find a way," she said. "You can't be a hero with just one trick, you know."

The same words Aizawa said to Midoriya had come back to direct at Todoroki, and he realized that despite the girl and the Erasure hero was not related by blood, they were indeed very similar. "You're too much like Aizawa-sensei," he stated.

The ruby eyed girl blinked at him with thought. "Well, I do respect Eraserhead a lot... But I'm still my own person. Just like how you are your own person, Todoroki-san," she pointed a finger over his left chest. "So the person you choose to become is from your own heart, isn't it?"

"If it's you... It's okay for you to become who you want to be."

Todoroki widened his heterochromatic eyes at the trigger of memory that surfaced from the girl's words. But remembering his childhood, his left hand unconsciously curled into a tight fist. I want to be a hero... But not with this Quirk...

There suddenly was a giant explosion from the center plaza, and they snapped their heads over.

"We have to go!" Shiro prompted before taking off.

Quickly making their way to the scene of the giant explosion, the duo couldn't see much but smoke and villains and debris laying around. But as the smoke slowly cleared, they saw two things of great concern.

One, Midoriya had punched the black monstrous looking villain with his superhuman strength and that was what caused the demolition. Two, the other skinny looking villain with the hands was dangerously close to Tsuyu and Mineta, who had terrified looks in their eyes. But neither of those amounted to the concern Shiro had to what she saw next.

Half of a broken yellow goggle had been thrown near her feet. "Who..." she staggered towards where the other half of the goggle lie near a pile of destruction. "Did..." her breath was getting ragged, like it was caught in her throat. The ground beneath her feet had been upturned and rubble was everywhere. She stopped right before the pool of crimson blood mixed in with the rocks. Aizawa's arms were bent at concerning angles and he was unresponsive.

"...This?" The last word came out like a pathetic croak. "TELL ME!" she screamed, turning towards the two villains. Their attention landed on her completely and Midoriya was able to get Tsuyu and Mineta away from danger. Meanwhile, Todoroki held Shiro back so she wouldn't blindly jump into battle without any caution.

"Look Nomu, we have more players," Shigaraki commented amusingly. The single ruby eye that was visible between the gap from the hand was fixated on Shiro. "Let's clear them quickly."

Todoroki immediately got into a defensive stance when he heard the villain's order. Ice started to form rapidly from his right hand but then Shiro ran in front of him. "Aisaka!" he shouted, pulling her back so that his ice wouldn't impale her. "What are you thinking—!" he twisted her around but when her eyes met his, he saw that she was crying.

He widened his eyes; her tearful face laced with disbelief and horror really struck him. Perhaps it was because she triggered a memory earlier, because what he saw was his mother's crying face in hers. No... Don't cry... Please...

Angrily, he sent a wall of ice at the thing called Nomu as it roared, raising a giant arm just before the ice engulfed his body. Nomu smashed through the barrier and Todoroki gritted his teeth, sending another blast of ice towards the monster. But when the thing managed blast Todoroki into the air with his powerful fists, it snapped clarity back into Shiro.

No... she bit the bottom of her lip and wiped the rest of her tears away with resolve. I can't let him get hurt again because of me!

The air around Todoroki picked up and became heavy, allowing him to land gently onto the ground.

"Todoroki-san... Take cover."

The fastest way to get rid of them...

Todoroki grew increasingly concerned when he saw the girl's eyes. She no longer had tears in her eyes; instead, they were bloodshot as the two different colored dials spun rapidly.

"I'm going to rewrite their existence...!"

We're getting closer to revealing Shiro's past! Please leave a review :)