The next few days were tame. Classes went by and any attempts by Bakugou and Diana to have an argument quickly ended when they agreed to settle the score on Saturday. Still, talking about neutral topics and acting casual was hard given that there still existed a certain awkwardness between the heroes and their guides, and the other witches were still uneasy.
The only real excitement in that week was broom flying class, which really just amounted to the heroes facing off Diana, Amanda and the still "untouchable on a broom when getting quirks blasted at her for some reason" Akko.
Friday however, presented a new twist for everyone. Instead of broom flying, the heroes were going to be traversing one of the school's dungeons.
The three warmed up in the waiting room, while the witches sat on their desks, many of them wondering why they weren't going to traverse the dungeon as normal.
In between the two groups, Ursula cleared her throat and explained the situation. "Alright, I hope you're all prepared for something exciting!" she announced.
"Whatever it is, bring it on!" grinned Bakugou.
"So, you three are going to head down the stairs and into the depths below where you'll be tasked with collecting three treasures within the period. Simple enough?" Ursula explained.
Deku knew the catch. "Aren't there a bunch of monsters and magical traps in the area though?"
Ursula smirked. "And we've upped the usual caliber from what we would normally throw at the witches, given that we expect you all to be rather….unrestrained in dealing with them."
Diana rolled her eyes as she sat on the sideline, wishing the professors would have let her taken the more challenging entities. Still, she acknowledged it was necessary given how the heroes had a greater killing capacity.
Todoroki glanced at the witches. "Wasn't this where you all had to fight off some dragon that almost destroyed the school?"
"Yeah! And I used the Shiny Rod to take it down!" remembered Akko, while Diana face palmed given that her accidentally unleashing the dragon was one of her greatest failures.
Amanda gave the heroes some advice. "Just don't underestimate anything!"
Deku raised his hand, and Ursula let him speak. "So professor Ursula, what exactly is the educational value of this lesson?"
"Nerd!" went Bakugou and a good number of the witches.
Diana sighed. "I mean that's the whole point of this, right?"
Akko silently nodded in agreement, but more for the sake of Deku's dignity. She hated seeing things torture the lovable broccoli haired boy.
Ursula ignored the class. "Well, there's been little to no interaction between heroes and the magical spirits and beings that regularly plague our world. This is our chance to see how your quirks, which are bluntly very effective at fighting, would do when traversing treacherous magical locations."
"So it's a crossover between our combat simulations?" checked Todoroki.
"Something like that," nodded Ursula, directing the boys to wall filled with pinned photos. Many of them depicted generations of witches, and a few wizards too, in front of magical looking caves and fortresses that they all once infiltrated.
"For generations, witches and wizards have always been called upon to search and loot all sorts of magical dungeons. Each have their own twists and horrors, but the treasures that lie within them are plenty and bountiful as well." explained Ursula.
Deku pressed his face against the wall in awe, looking closely at all of the magical excavation teams. The photos had to have dated since the 19th century.
He gasped loudly. "Hey this witch looks just like you professor Ursula!"
The heroes and Ursula glanced at a photo depicting a woman resembling her dressed in camouflage, giving a professional salute while a group of similarly dressed wizards and witches glared at her.
Ursula laughed. "Oh that's my ancestor, also a Luna Nova graduate of course, with elite magical French forces in Vietnam. She was their brave leader, and they were supposed to be her loyal soldiers."
Ursula's smile dropped. "That photo was taken shortly before she was shot in the back of the arm because she wouldn't stop singing a song about Fortunate Sons or however the legend went." She would have mentioned that her ancestor's performances and beautiful voice were what partially inspired her to become Shiny Chariot, but that was revealing too much. Also she was sure her elite status was supposed to be classified information.
Akko called out from the bleachers. "So what are we supposed to be doing!"
Ursula pointed the witches to a magical screen perched on the walls. "We will be keeping track of the heroes' progress. We'll be be testing your ability to make observations and conclusions based on how quirks interact with a setting attuned for the magical."
Akko groaned at having to take notes.
"Are you going to get bored and fall asleep?" snarked Diana.
"Of course not! What if Deku gets hurt?" blurted Akko.
"I'm more concerned about the monsters honestly." admitted Amanda.
Ursula flicked her wand and magically opened the door to the dungeon.
"Alright, before I tell you three what treasure you have to look out for, is there anything you'd like to know?" inquired Ursula.
Todoroki placed a finger on his chin. "Shouldn't something like this be run by a professional hero first to account for all possible faults?"
"Don't worry, the traps and monsters are tougher than normal, but they've been adjusted for your level of...brutality. The point is to learn from you, and we'd obviously like you to be alive for the whole thing." explained Ursula.
Bakugou raised his hand as well. "And we get to keep the treasures, right?"
Ursula winked. "Normally I'd say no, but I myself placed the three treasures you all have to look for and get to keep! Inside a Contain And Tame unit are three golden age and Plus Ultra edition All Might trading cards that are still sealed in their packaging!"
WOOSH!
In that literal instant, the three heroes sped down the dungeon like there was no tomorrow, their quirks charged up to a powerful level as well. The speed at which they raced into the dungeon created a gust of wind that blew back the hair and hats of all of the witches, creating some minor annoyance.
After the brief shock, Ursula blinked and grinned. "I knew that would work!"
Akko defended the heroes to the still shocked witches. "Well, if it was a Shiny Chariot card, I'd do the same!"
Ursula whispered to herself. "If only those things were still in demand."
All the while, Bakugou, Todoroki and Deku were running as fast as they could down the staircase and into the depths of whatever waited for them. They didn't know how Ursula got her hands on those hero collector items, but they weren't complaining.
The area around them would have gotten darker and darker, but the light generated from their quirks provided a form of pseudo night vision. From the perspective of the witches, it was hard for Ursula to keep flashing between the magical cameras to keep track of their position.
A bunch of purple coloured magical bats suddenly appeared before the heroes, but the attempt of those critters to strike was cut short by Bakugou's explosion that burned them to crisp ash.
The force of his attack however also caused some of the bricks holding the structure in place to break loose or crumble.
Ursula buzzed on the intercom, communicators carried by boys blaring her voice. "Hey! Be careful! This is still school property you know!"
Bakugou had his arms grabbed by both Deku and Todoroki.
"She's right," called out Todoroki. "We can't get too excited."
"Even if it is for those precious All Might cards!" agreed Deku.
Bakugou shrugged them off. "This is our only chance to get those cards for a price doesn't cost us China's economy! And do you idiots need to be reminded that she mentioned we have to find them within the period?"
Deku and Todoroki were about to protest until the sound of a loud roar cut them off.
The heroes glanced at the direction of the sound and found a large hulking Orc coming at them, waving some sort of club as it readied to fight.
Of course, the entire thing was abruptly cut short when Bakugou fired an explosion at the greenskin, sending it flying and depriving it of the pummeling it wanted to have. The burned Orc crashed into a sort of ornate box behind it before its corpse vanished from the realm.
Todoroki raised an eyebrow. "Nice to know that our quirks still work on these things."
Deku's attention was diverted by another set of creatures. "Speaking of things, check those things out guys!"
Out of the box where the Orc crashed, a series of lizard like entities crept out. They were small salamander like beings, albeit with some clearly magical markings on them.
Needless to say, Diana and Akko's hearts skipped a beat when they realize what the heroes were looking at. Ursula meanwhile had hope, but was ready to pull the plug.
The heroes, who didn't know any better, crept towards the lizard like entities, the red and black one being closest to them.
Deku crouched down and stared at the creature. "This thing looks familiar to me. Although I thought it would be bigger."
The creature practically spat at Deku, screeching out loud to compensate for its small size.
Bakugou shrugged it off and raised palm. "Oh well, it's dead anyway."
An explosion was fired at the salamander like creature, only for it to not incinerate unlike everything else Bakugou had shot at with his attacks. Instead, the explosion had the opposite of the desired effect on the creature, as it swallowed the flames.
The creature grew in size, much to the shock of the heroes and the worry of the witches observing them in the waiting room.
'What the fuck!" blurted out Bakugou, as the now larger creature prepared to lunge at the trio.
Todoroki responded by setting the creature on fire with his attack, but also preparing his ice quirk in case his theory proved true.
As expected, the creature grew further, sprouting larger wings and revealing itself to be an unambiguous dragon. With its strength having multiplied, the dragon roared out loud and spat out a flame which the heroes thankfully managed to predict and dodge, having a pretty good idea of a dragon's general attacks from pop culture.
Deku bit his lip as he sidestepped from its flames. "This would be really cool if it wasn't going to kill us!"
The dragon's mouth glowed with another flame attack, only for it to abruptly meet its end once Todoroki shot a massive spear of ice through its throat.
The dragon didn't have a moment to comprehend the massive hole in its body as it fell and crumbled to dust.
Ursula's voice blazed on the intercoms. "Thank God, I thought I'd have to cancel this early."
The boys could have also sworn they heard Akko and Diana sighing in relief.
"So dragons absorb flames huh, well that's nice to know I guess." pondered Todoroki.
"And I guess that's what gave Akko and the other witches a hard time a while back," noted Deku. "I thought the dragons just absorbed magic."
"Speaking of which, we got a few more over there and they look pissed." noted Bakugou.
A number of other mini dragons all roared at the hero trio, pissed at the deaths of one of their own. In retaliation, Todoroki placed his hand on the ground and shot out a spiky ice floor against them, piercing and killing the red colored dragons.
The ones colored white however were a different story. They instead absorbed the ice into their bodies, reveling in the cold as they too grew into larger and proper dragons.
The two white dragons smugly grinned at Todoroki as they readied their ice breath. However, it seemed the lacked the ability to understand that the heroes had caught on to their attack patterns.
Todoroki and Bakugou each launched a blazing attack at the white dragons, dissolving both of them to ash before each of them could land a strike.
Deku took note. "So the white ones absorb ice. I guess we gotta pay attention to their colors."
"Speaking of which." Todoroki pointed to the last remaining mini dragon, colored blue.
Before anyone made a move, Bakugou quickly turned to his communicator. "Hey lady, what do the blue ones shoot out of their mouth?"
"Oh, blue dragons shoot out lightning." informed Ursula on the intercoms.
Bakugou smirked. "Well, good think Kaminari isn't here."
Deku charged up his own quirk to squash the mini dragon like a bug, any feelings of empathy for it long gone as he knew what they were capable of.
"Oh no you don't!" blurted Bakugou as he sent an explosion against the final dragon, taking it out without the chance for it to grow.
"But I had it Kaachan!" protested Deku.
"I see that electric pattern that sparks out of your body when you use your quirk! I'm not letting you fuck things up!" glared Bakugou.
"But my quirk isn't electric based!" countered Deku.
Todoroki shrugged. "Better safe than sorry?"
The heroes continued their search for the All Might trading cards. From the other side of the dungeon's door, Diana began jotting down her observations. "So dragons apparently don't absorb quirks like they absorb magic, unless the quirk corresponds to their element it seems."
Ursula agreed. "Right, I had a feeling that was the case, but there weren't any records of non magical dragon hunters to confirm this. At least I'm sure this applies to chromatic dragons. Ancient dragons just like to absorb magic regardless of the spell."
Akko raised her hand. "So you can't exactly just napalm a fire dragon right?"
"Apparently not." confirmed Ursula.
"You'll probably forget that and feed it the force of the sun the next time you meet one." snarked Amanda.
"So would Diana!" defended Akko.
"Oh shut up." hissed Diana. "Unleash one ancient dragon and the world never lets it go."
"There you go being mean again." pouted Akko.
All the while, the heroes progressed with their journey. No Contain And Tame unit was in sight. Various paths were explored, holes in the wall were peeked into and the insides of various creatures were inspected for treasure.
Soon enough, the sounds of various creatures and spirits speaking amongst themselves filled the ears of the trio.
"Does anyone speak monster?" frowned Deku.
"Bakugou what are they saying?" joked Todoroki.
"Fuck off." hissed Bakugou.
The whispering of the supernatural stopped for a moment. Then suddenly, a horde of creatures began creeping from the cracks and dark spaces in the dungeon, trying to swarm and charge the heroes.
"There's a lot of them coming at us now," gulped Deku as he charged his quirks. "I think they just formed a united front against us, they don't look like they're gonna break over petty differences."
Bakugou readied his explosions. "Aw, I appreciate their useless effort."
Todoroki ignited his flames and ice, and once he was sure there were no chromatic elemental dragons around, unleashed his fury with little restraint. Bakugou too rained an explosive fire on the magical army, while Deku moved at lightning speeds to crack the bodies of all that stood in his way.
The witches stared at the screen displaying the carnage. While they all had their own incidents in the dungeon that required them to vanish and destroy certain beings, the way the heroes were going about it practically amounted to a massacre. Furthermore, their attacks didn't exactly just zap a creature away from existence in a comical faction, but rather displayed the open brutality of killing something.
"If any of you need a bucket to vomit there's one in the corner." muttered Ursula as Lotte and some of the less strong willed witches almost fainted at the sight of flying guts.
Ursula called to Deku. "Can you tell us what you're fighting against?"
Deku's voice replied amid the sounds of violence. "A Gretchin? Wait, it's dead thanks to Todoroki's ice."
A sound of Deku's charged up leg hitting something was registered, followed by his confused voice "Was that a Genestealer? Yeah that's dead too."
For the next few minutes, the witches watched the confusing scenes before them, with only Deku's reports amid all the fighting being the source of any context.
"Salamander. Dead."
"Minotaur. Dead."
"Raptor. Dead."
"Flesh Tearer. Dead."
"Doom Eagle. Dead."
"Soul Drinker. Dead."
"Space Shark?...Dead."
As Ursula noted and feared, the three heroes didn't really know the full extent of their strength. When it came to facing off magical entities or robots, they would utilize a version of their quirk that had great killing potential. When it came to human enemies however, none of them exactly had the drive to kill yet, not even Bakugou, thus unknowingly holding back some of their attacks,
All the while, the witches began writing down their observations which more or less amounted to 'don't fuck with them if you want your body in one piece' which wasn't new news.
Akko's mouth had been agape the whole time, until Sucy pushed her chip up, finally snapping her back to reality. "Ms. Ursula! I think we're gonna have to summon more monsters next time!"
"No shit Akko." muttered Amanda.
Diana had another concern. "Ma'am, I'm more concerned about the fact that they seem to vanishing ethereal entities with no physical form with ease."
Bakugou's voice blazed on the intercom. "Easy blondie! The light from our explosive and flame attacks sends those ghost things packing. Straight out of a horror novel."
Deku agreed. "Yeah! It's just like with you and Dark Shadow back at the sports festival Kaachan!"
Diana quickly jotted that point down. It was at least pleasant to know that heroes with certain quirks could be called on spirit duty.
Soon enough, there was disarray in the dungeons. As numbers dwindled, the creatures that haunted the dungeon didn't exactly know how to work together anymore.
The entities began tearing each other down as they began fleeing from the heroes. Creature beat creature to buy time for their own escape while The Luna Nova Anti Hero Front and the Anti Hero Front of Luna Nova turned on each other for shelter.
Deku smiled as he stomped on a magic spider. "I was wrong! They did end up splitting! This is just like one of my communist party meetings!"
"So much for monster unity." muttered Todoroki as he froze the last minotaur.
Once the last of the creatures were supposedly gone, Bakugou stretched victoriously, until a noise took him by surprise.
"Meow!"
The group looked at the floor and saw a robot cat like entity skirting around their feet.
Todoroki groaned, suddenly realizing what the acronym of Contain And Tame was. "Why do I get the feeling that's the Contain And Tame unit?"
Ursula's happy voice rang. "You found the CAT unit! Great for catching vermin, but even better for storing treasure inside. Just pick it up and nab your prize boys!"
"Finally!" exclaimed Bakugou, who crouched to pick up the magitek CAT, only for it to dart into a crack in the walls.
"Get back here pussy!" gritted Bakugou, firing an explosion at the wall.
Deku whelped. "Kaachan! You could've just destroyed it and the All Might cards."
"Quit your whining! I know my strength." dismissed Bakugou.
The smoke cleared and sure enough, the CAT unit was untouched, albeit flipped to its side by the rubble.
"See!" gloated Bakugou as he walked on over, picked up the CAT, opened the compartment in its belly and revealed the prize.
Bakugou waved three glorious and ultra rare All Might trading cards in the sky, which were practically glowing despite the lack of light to reflect off of them in the cave.
The heroes split the three cards amongst themselves and were about to make a move, until something caught Todoroki's eyes.
Guys, I think we failed a spot check." noticed Todoroki.
Bakugou and Deku looked into the dark abyss, which quite literally stared back as pairs of green eyes resembling snarling eyes stared at the boys. Sounds of mechanical works and noises similar to a computer booting up were playing.
Ursula gulped upon seeing what was going on in the cameras. "Constanze, please tell me you built a bunch of magitek skeleton bots without permission and placed them in the dungeon."
Constanze shook her head no.
The lights in the hidden room behind the wall flared green, and illuminated a number of mechanical beasts resembling deformed human skeletons.
"Oh great, what now?" shook Bakugou.
Ursula began screaming through the mic. "Those are Necromundas! An ancient magitek race of robots that rebelled against their magical creators and were buried all over Earth! Get out now!"
"Where's the fun in that!" laughed Bakugou as he shot his explosive attacks at the rising magical robots, causing a number of them to explode.
Right before the three of them could make further attacks however, they witnessed something that got them on their toes.
Rather than staying dead, the blown up limbs of the destroyed Necromundas began magically piecing themselves back together. It was as if Bakugou's attack did nothing. They all could have sworn the Necromunda was laughing at them with its expression.
Deku flinched for a second and kicked off the head of one of them before it could finish rebuilding, only for the head to reattach itself just a moment after.
Todoroki took his turn by trying to burn and freeze the Necromundas, only for them to break out of the ice and reform any limb that was burned off.
"For the sake of our cards and lives, how about a tactical retreat?" suggested Todoroki.
The group wordlessly agreed and darted for the other side, only for them to instinctively dodge into cover once they sensed a series of projectiles being fired at them. Their instincts proved true as the Necromundas began shooting at the trio with a sort of spell-gun like weapon.
The magitek robots were now clearly gloating and giving out their mechanical laughs.
The witches watching were awestruck and horrified. For all their former prowess, the heroes were clearly outmatched.
"They're not gonna get killed right?" gulped Akko.
Ursula adjusted her glasses as she prepared to make her own venture down the dungeons. "No, but they will be stunned and taken prisoner, forced to polish metal skeletons for the rest of eternity."
All the while, the sounds were getting a little too real for the witches. The weapons of the Necromundas sounded like conventional gunfire, and the screams of the heroes were not helping either.
"We're fucking pinned down!" called out Bakugou.
"There's too many of them!" yelled Todoroki.
"Get down now!" roared Bakugou.
"They just keep coming!" cried Deku.
"They won't die!" screamed Todoroki.
"GAME OVER GUYS! GAME OVER!" screeched Deku.
Just as she was about to open the dungeon's door, Ursula froze in place as the sounds of the battle caused her to have visions of the past. Sounds her ancestor once heard in a similar situation amid her own battles. Much like the pinned down heroes, Ursula witnessed witches and wizards of a time long gone desperately trying to take cover amid a hailstorm of fire.
"Well Ms. Callistis, it seems France's greatest witch can't beat Vietnam's greatest commander!" gloated general Vo Nguyen Giap as lighting and rain surrounded him, holding her wand triumphantly while she dangled from a cliff.
"You won't get away with this Giap!" she hissed, still wondering how the hell he overpowered her.
"Oh, we already have! And we'll beat out those yankees trying to bail you out too!" laughed Giap, who then kicked her down, causing her to fall three feet into a puddle. A muddy puddle.
Diana waved a hand in front of Ursula as the latter mummered. "Ma'am, there's no way you're old enough to be having a Vietnam flashback, nor is it the right time!"
Ursula shook her head back to reality. "I'll have you know that certain witches can access the genetic memory of their ancestors."
Akko sprinted over and yelled into the intercom. "ARE YOU GUYS OKAY!"
"Oh yeah it's fine." said a surprisingly assured Deku.
"What!" went everyone in the room.
"Yeah, while you were freaking out, it turns out the best way to deal with them is to freeze and then melt them with not a single bit remaining for those shits to regenerate!" gloated Bakugou.
"And good think I can freeze the floor from cover." added Todoroki.
Ursula slowly stared at the screen, and witnessed the heroes having already turned the fight in their favor while she was having a second hand flashback. Deku distracted the Necromundas with his speed, Todoroki froze them, and then he and Bakugou would incinerate them whole without a metal scrap left over.
Ursula took a sigh in relief. At least there was no repeat of the ancient dragon incident.
Finally, the heroes laid eyes on the final Necromunda, this one decorated in some sort of ornate Pharaoh-like dress. Its break from the norm clearly signaled it as a leader, one pissed off at the loss of its minions like the demon commander the heroes fought days ago.
The Pharaoh Necromunda twitched its magitek eyes and laid down its spell gun. It was now the heroes' turn to gloat.
Instead, it began to roar and leak a smoky magical substance through its eyes and mouth. If it could speak, it would be obviously cursing the heroes, but it had another kind of curse in mind.
Even worse for the witches, the Pharaoh Necromunda's scream shut down the screen the witches were using to observe the heroes.
"What the!" screeched Akko.
"Come on, we're getting to the good part." muttered Sucy.
"Are they okay?" frowned Amanda.
"I can still hear them on the speakers." assured Diana.
"Right, they're fine, but that leader's scream cursed the screen." explained Ursula, trying to cast every spell she knew that could get it to work.
The final battle was almost over, even if the witches couldn't see the outcome.
Todoroki prepared to freeze it in place only for the Pharaoh Necromunda to self destruct on its own accord, sending the abnormal smoke it generated flying.
Luckily, Todoroki and Bakugou were out of the explosion radius, but the same could not be said about Deku, who got shrouded in the smoke before he could have time to react. Normally, such an explosion would have not hurt him, especially since he was mostly hit by just the smoke, but the Pharaoh Necromunda had another plan.
Bakugou and Todoroki quickly covered their mouths and noses, making sure to not inhale any of the smoke even though none of it was in breathing distance.
"DEKU!" roared Todoroki. "Are you okay!"
"Come on! That's a pathetic way to go out!" yelled Bakugou.
Suddenly, a voice called out from the smoke. It was in Japanese and rather high pitched. "Did we win guys?"
Bakugou's brain split in two and his mouth dropped. "No….just no…"
Todoroki was confused. "Deku is that you?" The smoke finally cleared and Todoroki shared Bakugou's expression. "Deku? Oh...no.."
Deku was there, technically unscatheted, but changed in an unfortunate way by the curse of the Necromunda that he didn't seem to notice. "Are we real heroes now?"
Bakugou was shaking with a mixture of horror and anger.
Todoroki took a moment to string his words together. "Yeah, and you should be speaking English by the way."
"Okay!" said Deku in english with his new voice. "Let's go!"
Ursula's voice blazed on the intercoms once more. "Guys, are you okay? I can't see you on the screen anymore."
"We're on our way back." muttered Todoroki.
"What happened to Deku?" also inquired Ursula.
Bakugou and Todoroki ignored her and guided the changed Deku.
The trio trekked back up to waiting room, thankfully encountering no more trouble or anomalies with the obvious exception of Deku's predicament. How they were going to explain this to Ursula and the other witches didn't matter as the end result would be the same.
On the other side, Ursula was pacing back and forth with the other witches waiting nervously for the heroes to return.
"Don't tell me they're dead!" frowned Akko, wondering what she'd do if Deku, Bakugou and Todoroki met their end in the dungeon. Her days of mourning aside, it was not going to help her cause if the promising next generation of heroes perished in a magical setting.
"I refuse to believe those knuckleheads would go down so easily." shook Amanda.
Lotte was biting her nails. "How many people have died completing this test?"
"Calm down!" groaned Diana, who was unable to hide her own anxiety despite her attempt at a facade. "Ursula is still clearly getting life signs from them."
Sucy closed her eyes in thought. "Yeah, but what if they're coming back in a form where they wish they were dead?"
"They are kinda walking too slow for people that should be in peak physical condition." noted Amanda, who tried her hardest not to gulp.
Now everyone was freaking out on the top of their lungs. Even the ever optimistic Jasminka had a neutral expression and was munching down her chocolate bars faster than normal. Many of the witches still had their major problems with the trio of heroes, but no one wished death on them, or them turning into murderous super zombies.
Ursula formed a magical megaphone through her wand. "Everyone relax! We'll figure out what to do when we see them!"
"You mean, IF we see them!" yelped Akko, which escalated the panic.
"NO!" yelled Ursula. "There's still life and their communicators are on, but they're refusing to answer for some reason."
"So it's the horrifically injured or turned into something grotesque outcome." said Sucy.
Suddenly there was a knocking on the door. Ursula rushed to the dungeon door, readying a wand to not take any chances, and looked through the cracks where she saw Bakugou and Todoroki waiting.
Ursula took a breath of relief and opened the door, Todoroki and Bakugou stepping forward. The rest of the witch students were relieved as well, instead returning to their normal worry of when Bakugou was going to detonate a random explosion.
"Did you retrieve the trading cards?" asked Ursula.
Todoroki held up the three All Might cards, which had stains from flames and tears from combat. They'd still fetch a rather high price on the market however.
"Wait! Where's Deku?" gasped Akko, on the verge of tears.
"That idiot got hit by some stupid gas from the robot thing and well...something shitty happened to him." stated Bakugou in a way that was more annoyed than upset.
"Wha-what!" freaked out Akko.
"Is he alright?" asked Diana, placing a hand on her lips.
"Yeah," sighed Todoroki.
"Did he come back with you?" questioned Ursula.
"Sadly," groaned Bakugou. "He's hiding behind the wall."
Todoroki hesitated before speaking. "But let's just say we'll need you to fix..."
"I need to see him now!" snapped Ursula.
Todoroki took a deep breath. "Deku, you can come out now."
"I AM HERE!" hopped in Deku, who was now four years old with his suit having also transformed into his All Might onesie. The Necromunda's smoke did a wonder on him.
After a brief pause of confusion, the maternal and big sister instincts of the witches kicked in.
They all screamed with absolute joy and adoration upon seeing the cute kid Deku, and stampeded to the young boy to shower him with affection. The suddenly confused and small Deku watched in terror as the witches raced for his attention.
"HE'S SO CUTE!" yelled Akko, who picked Deku up first and hugged him close.
Diana snatched him from Akko's arms, holding him up. "What a precious boy!"
Amanda leaped into the sky and grabbed tiny Deku. "I like this little guy!"
Sucy stole Deku from Amanda's arms. "He really gets to you doesn't he?"
Lotte swiped him from Sucy and gazed into his fragile eyes. "Who's a handsome little man?"
Jasminka scooped Deku up and patted him on the head. "I can't believe how much cuter he is!"
"GIRLS!" scolded Ursula, who confiscated the scared young lad and held him close. "In ten years, you all can have your own little boy to torture."
Ursula suddenly began nuzzling Deku's cheek with her own while shaking him wildly, a motherly grin on her face. "Besides, we don't want the poor thing to be too frightened now do we?"
"No fair!" shouted Akko. "I had him first!"
Diana readied her wand. "Doesn't mean you won't have to fight me over him!"
Ursula gave out a noblewoman's haughty laugh. "As if any of you can best me!"
The witches proceeded to wrestle and blast each other for control of tiny Deku's attention, or more accurately, silent gaze.
All the while, Bakugou and Todoroki watched with a mixture of envy and cringe on their faces. As much as the heroes and witches tried to dodge the elephant in the room that was gender during their time together, seeing the witches act so girly was jarring for the two.
"I didn't think it was possible to hate Deku as a kid even more until now." gritted Bakugou.
Ten minutes passed with no end in sight. Since it was the last class of the day, the witches really could go all night if they wished. God knew what would happen if the rest of the academy found out about it.
"They're gonna hug him to death at this point." muttered Todoroki.
"I wish," Bakugou readied two explosions in his hand. "Lethal force?"
Todoroki readied his ice and fire quirk on his hands. "Hmm, more like borderline lethal."
After a minor struggle they easily won, Bakugou and Todoroki evacuated the young Deku back to their guest room, outmaneuvering the stampede of cute-crazy witches. Todoroki took the extra precaution to seal their door and the hall around it with a wall of ice to discourage any more of little Deku's 'admirers.'
Carelessly tossed on his bed, Deku luckily reverted to his normal teenage form after an hour. Even his All Might onesie changed back to his suit. Of course, he still remembered being hugged and fought over by all the witches. Thus, he retained his 'eyes widened, mouth open and dead inside' expression until he fell asleep.
As for Todoroki and Bakugou, they enjoyed the silent afternoon and night undisturbed.