"Rescue training! So manly!"

Sitting back in his chair, Shouto chances a glance towards Hatake, watching. Assessing. The other had claimed himself and orphan raised by the Hero Commission, though Shouto does have a few questions about it all. His fighting techniques had been… questionable at best, though inarguably effective. He certainly shall not be giving the other his back again any time soon. Endeavour had never managed to beat a lesson into him as effectively as Hatake did in those thirty seconds they'd spent fighting. Thirty seconds in which Shouto hadn't been able to land a single hit, hadn't made contact once.

The day before, he'd looked upon his classmates in disdain; one had even broken a finger while using his quirk. This is what he has been trained for his whole life and then he's suddenly up against… well, this.

No, he hadn't felt validated until Hatake had stepped in. Because Hatake… Hatake was the closest one to him. The one who'd been trained to fight, trained for this.

That they are so very different is exceptionally strange indeed.

"You okay, Todoroki-kun?" And that the suffix, that's strange too. Hatake's birthday is in September (Shouto asked; that's what friends do, isn't it? And Hatake had said they were going to be friends, not rivals) but that is only four months earlier than his. He's not that much younger and yet, the suffix? He doesn't understand it, nor does he have any desire to as Fuyumi about it either. The thought of asking the Old Man doesn't even cross his mind.

"I am fine," Shouto states because he is. He has no injuries, he's ready for the task at hand. Though he as never performed any rescues himself, he has been drilled in the action for long enough; it should not be beyond the scope of his ability. They are at school, so even if by some terrible happenstance it is beyond him, he shall learn and improve. He shall become everything he needs to be with his ice and his ice only. UA, it's what he's been training for his entire life, what he's been working towards ever since his quirk came in. This job, this role, it's a serious business. As is showing the Old Man he'll become a great hero without his power.

"What the hell- Hatake! Are you reading what I think you're reading?!" It's the red-head with the hardening quirk, Kirishima if Shouto recalls correctly.

Turning questioning eyes on the one who sits next to him, Shouto peers over his shoulder to read the page; it'd be a fool's errand to twist and get a look at the front cover; with all the bumps they're going over, he's likely to bang his head on the bench in front.

Shouto gets exactly two and a half lines in before he registers what he is reading and, for the first time in years, feels his face heat, only in a way that has nothing to do with his quirk.

"Aizawa-sensei! Hatake-san had reading material inappropriate for a hero on his person!" Iida bellows, chopping at the air, as is his usual. The whole bus bursts into a rabble of chatter and Shouto takes the opportunity to sink back into his chair, pressing his cool forearm to his forehead, doing his utmost best to beat back the flush to his face.

How had Hatake even managed to get his hands on such a book? Natsuo would be proud to own that particular piece of literature given he still gets IDed. He complains about it often enough on his rare visit to their family home.

"Maa, I've got a spare copy, if you would like to read it?" Hatake holds up the book in question, only for Aizawa-sensei's scarf to snap around the raised limb.

"I'll be taking that, Hatake."

.

They arrive at USJ and are swiftly introduced to Thirteen, the space hero. Shouto has heard of him, of course, even if he doesn't run in the same circles as Endeavour. All of the other students proceed to act as if they're meeting their first hero, regardless of the fact their current high school experience consists of heroes working as their teachers. It doesn't make much sense to him, but Shouto remains quiet. Perhaps its his overexposure to his father, but he has no desire to go over there and pepper Thirteen with questions. Not like Midoriya is doing anyway.

"Maa, they're like overly excited puppies," Hatake coos beside him, his lone eye crinkling up into a curve in a clear visual display of happiness. Shouto wonders how he manages it, to be that expressive with near the entirety of his face covered. Not one scrap of Shouto's face is hidden by a mask, but none would ever claim him to be as expressive as Hatake is.

And that's when the portal opens up.

.

.

Izuku huffs out a breath as he hands, managing to turn the dead drop into a half-roll in the last second. A quick glance up as the portal closes and there's Hatake dropping in. For the first time since Izuku's laid eyes on the guy, he's blank. Totally, terrifyingly blank. He looks to Tsu, the other student staring back. She doesn't appear too phased, but Izuku is an expert at reading people; she's just like him. Shocked. Scared. Unsure.

Hatake… Hatake isn't.

He stands before them with his shoulders straight, head tilted to a side as he assesses the situation.

"Get up. There are villains here and we need to get back to Aizawa-sensei." Izuku scrambles to his feet, peering over the edge of the shipwrecked boat to see the other is right. There are plenty of others in the water, all looking up at them. Mentally, Izuku wheels through their options. Tsu's quirk is more close-combat at present and, though her tongue does have the range, she cannot take on all of these at once. Likewise, he could probably cause a good shockwave with a punch, displace the water and suck the villains into the space as the water rushes to fill the hole, but that'd wreck his arm. Given what he'd seen Aizawa-sensei facing as they left…

"Midoriya. Asui. Don't worry," Hatake states, jumping up onto the railings to peer down at those that stand (swim) between them and safety. "I'll protect you with my life." That's… that's strangely reassuring. Not quite up there with All Might's 'I am here' but it'd make a good catchphrase, reassuring the public and- and Hatake's holding lightning in his hand. Izuku gawks, even more so when it splits off and zips down to the water. The villains never stood a chance. In a blink, they're all floating belly up (thank god), and unconscious.

Wha-what the hell?! Hadn't Hatake attached himself to the side of a wall to stand on it? How does that translate to electricity? Is it something more complex than that, something on an atomic level, maybe splitting and joining bonds, or-

"Midoriya. Let's go."

.

They swim. Or rather, Tsu and him swim. Hatake continues to boggle his mind by walking atop the surface of the water leaving on a little ripple beneath each step. Izuku is desperate to ask, dying to, even. It's the most versatile quirk he's ever seen and, as soon as they're out of this situation, he's going to put the whole list of questions he has down on paper so he won't forget any.

"Just ask, Midoriya-kun."

"What is your quirk? I've never seen anything like it before and it seems to have so many different applications that I'm struggling to wrap my head around it." Pulling himself out of the water, Izuku shakes his head, water droplets flying everywhere.

"Maa, it's called Rebirth Recall."

"Rebirth- what?"

"I remember everything about my past life, including all the techniques I mastered within it." Hatake pauses, glancing over his shoulder and smiling. "They used to call me the man of a thousand techniques in that life."
A thousand techniques? That, that sounds pretty cool.

And clearly something speed related is one of them because the next moment, Izuku blinks and Hatake's almost all the way back to where they started.

.

.

Shota is pissed. His students have been separated, he's had to take down far more villains than he's ever gone against in one sitting before and there's still more coming. Nevermind the warper, the hand one, and the… creature-like being. So, yes, Shota is pissed. Pissed and worried and righteously furious. He's almost, almost, relieved when Hatake knocks the villain on his left out with a blunt force strike to the back of the head via sword handle. The kid hums and though he looks no worse for wears, he carries a still water scent. The shipwreck zone then.

"I told you to help the others," Shota grunts, spinning to incapacitate another while keeping his eyes on the one that's trying to flex his fingers for a quirk. As such, he completely misses whatever Hatake does to take down seven of the lot, witnessing only the aftermath of wires and more shuriken. Bloody ninja moves; where the hell did this kid crawl out of? Obviously, it's to do with the quirk, but hey-

"No, no, no!" I am not leaving without causing some damage!" It's handsy, snarling and near screaming at the one with the warp quirk. Deranged and dangerous, the severed hands are worrying enough on their own, but his mindset (given the fact he's wearing them like accessories) is what's troubling Shota more. He doesn't want the villain anywhere near his students. If he's the leader with a childish attitude like that, then chances are good his quirk is a dangerous one. Too dangerous to allow him to escape. Given that they'd come here with the explicit goal of taking down the Symbol of Peace… well, Shota is good, but he's certainly no All Might.

"Nomu! I don't like Eraserhead's. Get rid of him." And then, the fucking thing moves.

Shota curses, taking the punch to the gut and going down hard, a blow to the head following. A quick glance up as screams come from the opposite direction the villains show the majority of 1A has made it back, all looking a bit more battled than they should have done on a fucking rescue training trip. Gritting his teeth, Shota looks up to the hulking beast that's pinned him.

Just in time to see a hand blast through the thing's chest.

Shota stares, taking in the fingerless black glove, the crackle of white-blue lightning that still echoes around those fingertips as the Nomu screeches, near drowning out the chirping of a thousand birds (it's not human, it's not bleeding, is it even alive?).

Then, Hatake's hand is gone and Shota only has a moment to register that he's getting pulled away, head still ringing from the force of the blow.

"It's not human, it didn't bleed and it didn't register the pain. Some kind of regenerative quirk. This thing is supposed to take down All Might… Maa, I guess I have no choice."

Now Shota would have dearly liked to tell Hatake to get the hell out of the fight, to tell him he was just a student and that he needed to get the hell out and away. Help would be coming, he'd heard the warp villain inform handsy that one had gotten away. Only, he's a bit distracted by the way the air is rippling around the creature. It fluctuates and then, like a plughole had somehow been torn into the fabric of the universe, the beast is sucked up and away. There's nothing left but empty space and two dozen or so people staring. All but Shota, who looks to the one person who'd been talking prior to that.

Hatake's headband is up, his left eye uncovered and it's red, spinning with a questionable pattern expanding from the pupil. He takes careful note of the scar that bisects through the eyeball, something to discuss later when there aren't any villains around.

Villains that aren't doing anything at the moment.

When Shota glances up, he can't help the slight smirk that touches his lips at the sight of handsy. The villain's mouth is open, his shoulders slack and (if Shota were to guess what lay under the hand on his face) he's staring. It's as if he's stopped working, like he can't compute what has just happened. Not that Shota is any better. Not only can Hatake warp (and, untimely, the thought of why the fuck the little brat is always late crosses his mind) but he's smoothly removed the biggest bad the villains had brought along with them and stuffed it who knows where.

God, Shota hopes the kid had enough sense not to drop it anywhere unwise.

The warp villain looks to his companion, his behaviour increasingly nervous but handsy seems to be beyond words, to be beyond action of any kind.

Good.

Let the Wonderboy fuck them over too; at least they deserve it.