Uraraka was doomed. Completely doomed. And worst of all, her mother seemed to find her predicament amusing.
"At least you won't lack options." She said with a smirk "Your tastes seem to be quite varied."
"Mom, be serious!" Uraraka protested, her face red.
"But I am being serious." The older woman said "It's just a little bit refreshing to hear that teenagers will have teenager problems even in a superhero school." She put a finger on her daughter's nose "I assure you, finding your fellow classmates to be attractive is perfectly normal."
"But, But..." Uraraka stumbled over her words, incapable of expressing what she wanted.
However, her mother seemed to understand, and swept her in a hug before speaking "You're confused because this never happened to you before." She sighed "And considering how your previous classmates treated you, it's not a surprise that you never saw them this way."
Uraraka settled into the hug, thankful for the fact that they had chosen the sofa as the place to have that discussion. She could understand what her mother was talking about, but... "But what do I do about it, then?"
"Well, first of all, you can't ignore your feelings." She said "You need to pay attention to them, and understand them, and with that you'll be able to tell when they are affecting your behavior." Then she sighed "Just don't let those feelings drive you to treat your classmates differently, in either way."
Uraraka nodded. That had actually helped, though she still felt terribly embarrassed at the whole situation.
+0+
Despite that whole deal, and the fact that she was now studying at a straight-up school for superheroes, Uraraka's first week of classes was mostly unremarkable. She did get surprised with the opulence of the whole school, but apart from that first day, classes were pretty much normal, with the only abnormality being when Professor Aizawa gave them all slips of paper in which they could write out their requests about hero costumes, which would then be sent to the support department.
That was done on a Thursday, and Uraraka spent practically the entire day after school thinking about what she wanted her costume to be like.
And the next day, the paper she handed in was absolutely full of notes about her requests. Uraraka saw that most of the students had written much less, though Yaoyorozu also had filled her paper.
The first thing she thought about was having a first-aid kit readily available. She was certified, so it would be a waste otherwise. After some thought, Uraraka also decided to have retractable climbing spikes on her gloves and boots, for that extra bit of mobility.
Besides that, she asked for impact softeners all the way around her arms and legs, because if she ended up needing to go beyond her limits, it would be better to make it so the damage was as small as possible.
Finally, Uraraka asked for some kind of mechanism for seeing long distances, because it was just something useful to have in general.
When he got the papers, Aizawa said that the costume designers would have all of them ready for the following Monday. Uraraka wondered how that worked.
+0+
The day arrived, and it became clear astonishingly fast that it would not be a normal school day. Specifically, it became clear when All-Might himself entered the room.
"I am here... Coming through the door!" He spoke dramatically, leaning into the classroom.
Even though Uraraka knew him personally, she was still slightly overwhelmed by the situation, not to speak of the rest of the class, who all got extremely excited when he appeared.
All-Might was the greatest hero in the world, after all. However, looking around, she saw that Izuku had by far the biggest reaction out of all of them. In fact, he seemed to be inches away from having a stroke.
"I am here to train all of you, and what training would be better than actual battle?" He asked the class.
"Actual battle?!" There were exclamations of surprise.
"Yes. And that means you should go and put on your new hero costumes!" All-Might declared.
+0+
They were guided to a special dressing room within the school. All-Might pointed out a set of double doors on one end of the room and told them to through once they were finished. Each of the costumes was in a sealed black bag, all labeled with the names of the owners, so it was easy to find.
Uraraka entered into one of the private changing rooms and took out the many pieces of the costume, trying to figure out which part to put where. The helmet was the easiest part to understand, with the clear pink part being the visor, and the solid white part being the protection of the back of the head. A button on the side activated the telescope function.
She dressed herself one piece at a time, eventually finding the thick arm and leg parts, which obviously held the impact softeners she had requested. The gloves seemed to be the most special part, as she still had perfect dexterity, despite how thick they were, and could even get a sense of what she was touching.
Finally, after everything else was done, Uraraka simply compared the last few pieces of suit to figure out how to get her body protected. All parts had special mechanisms to lock them together once everything was properly set. Finally, she was ready, so Uraraka took a look in the mirror to see how she looked.
Most of the costume was colored silver, with joints and details in contrasting black and white. Uraraka did a kick and was impressed with how it didn't limit her mobility at all. Also, the costume seemed to make her arms and legs longer, and gave a pure impression of solidity. It seemed to say that "this person won't go down while there are people to be protected".
Uraraka liked it.
+0+
Now properly dressed, Uraraka walked towards the previously indicated doors, reaching an underground room that contained a replica of part of a city, with a street and a three-floor building. Apparently, that would be the arena for their battle training.
Most of her classmates were already there, and Uraraka took a look at their own costumes. The people from the support department did good work, there was a nice variety of stylish outfits. She particularly liked Hagakure's dress-like green costume, which was fancy but somehow didn't clash with her belt.
And then Uraraka had to turn away, embarrassed. She had seen Izuku, and his costume left his chest bared, showing that contrary to how he looked, Izuku was ripped, with well-defined muscles. However, turning away ended up being a bad idea, because looking back at the door, she saw Yaoyorozu coming.
Specifically, Uraraka had a very close view of the very skintight dark blue costume the other girl was wearing. A costume that really did a good job showing off Yaoyorozu's "assets". She really looked mature.
"Something wrong?" Yaoyorozu asked, seeing Uraraka's red face.
"N-nothing." Uraraka lied desperately "Just remembering something weird."
The other girl looked skeptical, but Uraraka was thankfully saved by All-Might.
"Now that we're all here, it's time for me to explain the combat training!" He spoke boisterously.
Uraraka and Momo walked up to where the other students were and listened to All-Might's words.
"This will be a battle between two teams of two students each." He started explaining "The battleground will be this empty building, to simulate fights against villains while indoors. One team will represent the heroes and the other will represent the villains.
"The villain team will start inside, next to their 'doomsday mechanism'. Their goal is to protect it for a certain amount of time. The hero team will start outside, and their goal is to reach and touch that mechanism before the time runs out. Any questions?"
There were quite a few. How would the teams be decided (random draw), was collateral damage acceptable (yes, but would result in losing points) and how much time would the battle last (ten minutes) were only some of the questions that All-Might fielded, but at the end of it all, when there were no more questions left, he brought out the random sorter to decide the first two teams to fight.
'Ochako and Asui(heroes) Vs. Yaoyorozu and Sero(villains)'
Uraraka looked at the electric quirk girl and found that all the awkwardness had disappeared. Now Momo just looked like an opponent.
+0+
Both duos were directed to their respective starting positions, where they would wait for the starting signal. Uraraka used that time to discuss strategy with her partner ("Call me Tsuyu", the girl had asked).
"Sero's explosions are powerful, but he can't use them in close range, so any one of us could defeat him just by getting close enough." Uraraka said "Yaoyorozu is the bigger threat here."
"I agree with you." Tsuyu said "We saw her skills during the gym tests. She has both speed and power, and it doesn't seem like she has weaknesses on any range."
"Not to mention whatever she's got on that gauntlet." Uraraka said.
She had been distracted before and not noticed it, but Yaoyorozu's costume included a gauntlet-bracelet that covered a good portion of her right forearm. It was big and looked heavy, but Momo didn't seem to have any problems lugging it around.
"Still, I'd recommend not getting too focused on her. The goal of this training isn't defeating the villains after all." Tsuyu said.
"Right. We'll win if we just manage to reach the enemy mechanism." Uraraka considered "We should be wary of possible traps, since we'll be heading into their territory. We should move together to take advantage of teamwork."
"I have pretty good senses and can heal." Tsuyu explained "So I should be the vanguard."
"Okay." Uraraka conceded. It felt weird to let someone else brave the danger, but Tsuyu was a heroine as well.
After that, the starting signal sounded, and both girls ran into the building.
+0+
Inside, the building really looked more like a set piece. Long empty corridors, rooms without doors... It looked like the building itself was built, but none of the things that should have been inside. The two ran through the corridors, checking every room with a glance, in search of their goal.
They didn't found anything, so the duo started going up the stairs to the second floor.
"Careful!" Tsuyu shouted suddenly, and crossed her arms in front of herself, multiplying them into a shield.
Uraraka didn't need to ask what was the problem, because a second later an explosion hit just in front of Tsuyu, forcing Uraraka to brace the other girl as to avoid her getting blown off.
"Ouch." Tsuyu complained in a deadpan, quickly healing her arms "Sero." She said.
"I'll charge ahead." Uraraka replied, before jumping over her partner and running up the stairs.
She saw Sero pretty soon, and he seemed to have been surprised by her quick charge.
His surprise lasted long enough for Uraraka to cross most of the distance between the two (he was at the top of the stairs) but Sero recovered quickly, throwing out an explosion in the halfway point between the two.
It was a smart move, as Uraraka could have outrun the explosion had he aimed directly for her. She was forced to stop and back away a bit, allowing him to run away.
Uraraka resisted the urge to run after him. Momo was still unaccounted for, and the enemies had already shown off their propensity for using traps. That particular floor was dark, and it would be hard to see things coming from a distance. She could already hear Tsuyu coming over anyway.
When the shapeshifting girl came, Uraraka briefly told her what had happened, and then the two resumed their pursuit, soon catching sight of another upwards flight of stairs. But before they could even reach it and start worrying about traps, there was another enemy attack.
There was a line of explosions running through the ceiling, coming all the way from the floor upwards. Those explosions wrecked the support of one of the steel beams above the corridor, sending it careening down.
Tsuyu once again stepped up to the plate, multiplying her arms and fusing them together into something that looked vaguely like a fly swatter. And instead of simply trying to block the beam, she swatted it to the side.
The impact was heavy, but Tsuyu could handle it, so Uraraka looked ahead to see if there were any other attacks coming.
And she saw a black form snaking down the stairs, in the direction of the steel beam, the one Tsuyu was currently touching. Without even thinking, she shouted "Careful!", and pulled the other girl away from the metal.
It was just in time. Electricity channeled itself through the beam, but was unable to harm Tsuyu. It looked like Momo was attacking as well.
With a touch, Uraraka activated the far sight to get a better idea of what that form was.
"Cables." Uraraka noted "She's controlling cables to channel her electricity. Is this part of her costume?"
Tsuyu took a look as well, and was just in time to see the cables retracting back up the flight of stairs.
"We're almost there." She said, and ran forward again, followed by Uraraka.
Finally on the third floor, they saw their goal. It was inside a room without doors two dozen feet ahead of them. Sero and Momo were standing where the door would have been. The boy in front and the girl behind.
Tsuyu and Uraraka ran in their direction, staying wary of other possible traps, but this time the duo seemed to be acting more straightforward. Sero seemed to be preparing for a big explosion, while Momo was controlling the cables that came out of her gauntlet, looking like they could pounce like snakes at any time.
The duo was halfway towards their opponents when Sero acted.
"Charge Bomb!" He shouted, and released a powerful explosion.
But merely powerful wasn't enough to describe the damage. He aimed well away from the two students, but the shockwave was strong enough to throw Tsuyu backwards like a ragdoll, even though she defended with the shield.
However, she did what she had to. Tsuyu had managed to protect Uraraka so she wouldn't get swept off her feet. Accelerating with all she had, Uraraka headed directly towards the opponents.
Then it was Momo's turn. She exchanged places with Sero and raised the cables, almost looking like she had telekinesis. Uraraka prepared to dodge them, intending to jump right over the duo and rush to the goal.
But instead of sending the cables towards her, Momo simply placed them on a triangular formation in front of her and set off a spark.
At that moment, something in the depths of Uraraka's brain whispered the words "dust explosion". And without thinking she stopped her rush and kicked out, once again drawing on the same level of power that had allowed the destruction of that giant robot.
The kick met the expanding shockwave of the dust explosion, breaking it in half and forcing both Sero and Momo to brace themselves to avoid Tsuyu's previous fate.
Uraraka grit her teeth to bear the pain. Placing her right foot back on the ground, she discovered that the costume had helped a bit. She could still put weight on that leg, but running was probably out of the question. Another kick like that would disable her leg entirely.
'Does that mean I only have eight shots?' Uraraka thought randomly, but then an idea surged forth from her subconscious.
"Tsuyu! Go for the machine!" She shouted, before charging One for All on her other leg and launching herself forward.
And now her other leg was hurting too. Still, it was worth it. Taking advantage of the shock her previous attack had caused on the two, Uraraka managed to cross a fair distance before they could react. It was not enough to attack them, but that had never been her intention.
Bracing herself for the pain, Uraraka raised her right index finger and channeled One for All through it. And slammed it into the ground.
The power of the strike caused a big part of the floor to collapse into the lower floor, taking Momo, Sero and Uraraka with it.
Hitting the ground, Uraraka checked her finger, and saw that she couldn't move it anymore. Apparently the protection of the costume was more based in area.
Snapping out of it, she saw that Momo had accelerated and was climbing the wall at a run, trying to get back. That wouldn't do.
Uraraka grabbed a piece of rubble from the ground and charged the next finger, using it to launch her projectile. She took a page right out from the opponent's book and threw it above Momo, instead of directly at her.
Unable to stop on a dime, her opponent was forced to jump backwards off the wall, and Uraraka saw Tsuyu leaping over the hole on the ceiling. After that, there was no way anyone could stop her.
"It's oveeeeer!" Came All-Might's voice over the speakers "And the winners are the hero team, Ochako Uraraka and Asui Tsuyu!"
Uraraka sighed in relief. That had been difficult.