The next day, Toshinori was sitting in his room, listening as the clock ticked and tocked, getting ever closer to the time. Each click seemed to make him more and more anxious.
Dammit, he thought, angrily gritting his teeth. Come on, you idiot. It's just teaching.
"You'll be taking them to the training area for a team activity," Aizawa had said earlier that day. "I've gotten the names down on a list for you to remember."
"Come on now, Aizawa! How can I be the Symbol of Peace and not have a good memory?" He let out a bellowing laugh.
"Very easily, as you've demonstrated." That shut him up quick.
Breathing deeply, he stood up and made his way to the door. Clenching the knob, he felt his chest tighten as his body swelled and his skin tingled with power.
And with that, All Might embarked on his newest journey, teaching at U.A.
Class 1-A sat in somewhat awkward silence as they waited for their teacher to show up.
After a moment, Mineta piped up.
"So….do any of you ladies-"
"I AM HERE!"
The door burst open.
"COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A HERO!"
The students all looked at him, mouths dropped like broken hinges.
"There he is," Bakugo said quietly, grinning.
"So cool!" Ochako squealed.
Shinso merely straightened up and stared attentively. This is it. It all started here. After the near miss the previous day, it was all uphill with All Might helping.
"I hope you're all energized, cause we got an exciting day ahead of us!" He reached to pull the remote for the locker doors out of his back pocket, flinching as he almost pulled out his teacher's manual.
"It's good to embody all the traits of a hero, but another crucial part...is lookin good!" He clicked the button and the costumes came out. "Put those on and meet me down at the training grounds!"
Shinso picked at his costume, trying not to notice the flashy design of the others. He didn't come from much, even so, his imagination could use some work. It was a simple U.A. gym uniform equipped with his two weapons, his AVC(artificial vocal cord) mask and his capturing cloth, similar to Eraserhead's.
"Can you believe that All Might's teaching us," an excited voice said behind him. Turning, he saw that guy, Ojiro standing there wearing a karate-suit.
"Yeah I can. Doesn't make any less overwhelming," he responded honestly. "Guess we really have to try our best."
Ojiro smiled sheepishly. "No kidding." He then pointed at Shinso's AVC. "So, what's that for."
Shinso hesitated to respond. Most conversations typically went like this. People were nice, and then they learned what his quirk was.
Well, I'm already in U.A. What harm is there setting boundaries?
"It's for my quirk," he started. But before he could finish, they heard a commotion. The short guy, Mineta had found a hole in the wall leading to the girl's room. He and a few others were arguing, with Iida being restrained from stopping him.
"Sheesh, that guy is sick," Ojiro said.
"I got it," Shinso said, grinning slightly. "Hey, grape head!"
Mineta whipped around before he could look into the hole. "What'd you c-"
He stopped suddenly, a glazed look coming over his eyes. The others watched, stunned.
"Whoa, what did you do?" Ojiro asked.
"DId you freeze him?" the red haired guy, Kirishima asked, waving a hand in front of Mineta's face.
Without answering, he gestured for Mineta to raise his fist.
"You're being immature. Punish yourself." In response, Mineta punched himself in the groin. There was collective 'oof' in the room. At that exact moment, he released the control and left the room, Mineta's wail of pain echoing behind him.
"Cool costume, Ochako," Asui commented.
"Thanks!" In reality, Ochako thought it could use some work. Despite her requests, the costume was skin tight and less padded on the arms and legs than she hoped.
"Can you believe what that Mineta guy did back there?" Mina asked incredulously, shaking her head angrily.
"What do you think happened to him in there?" Ochako asked. Just as they had discovered the hole and Jiro was about to plug it up, they heard him scream in pain.
"Yeah, he got punished, don't worry," Kirishima said sheepishly, walking up.
All three of them glared at him suspiciously.
"Hey, I was one of the guys trying to stop him! But the one that did," he pointed to a tall guy with messy purple hair, "he...I don't know, took control of his mind, made Mineta punch himself in the jewels."
Ochako looked at the boy, feeling a little apprehensive. A quirk that could allow someone to control someone else….that was a pretty scary power.
"I wouldn't want to fight him," Asui said.
As the group walked down the hall, Bakugo paid them no mind. All that mattered was the growing white entryway ahead of them and what lay beyond. He eagerly scratched at his gauntlets in anticipation.
Only one reason why they'd want us to bring our costumes. There's gonna be some action. Finally, he'd be able to prove himself to the Symbol of Peace himself! And with that, his first step to being number one would be taken.
All Might watched as the group emerged wearing their costumes. While they could use some work, they were still pretty impressive. To be fair, his own first attempt wasn't ideal.
"They say that clothes make the pros, young ladies and gentleman, and behold! You are the proof! Take this to heart, starting now, you are all heroes in training!"
With that, he went on to explain the training. While going over how the teams were set up, Shinso felt a little anxious. He knew it was only training, but the idea of being put on the villain side made him nervous.
The class knew of his quirk now, and from the way the avoided eye contact, they had already labeled him.
Whatever, I can get by.
Then All Might listed off the teams.
Heroes: Villains:
Ochako-Kirishima Bakugo-Shoto
Shinso-Ojiro Iida-Yaoyorozu
Etc Etc
10 min later….
"Hey, wait up!" Ojiro called as Shinso walked along with the rest of the group to watch the first match.
Shinso stopped and frowned. "What?"
"Um, we're teammates? We have to stick together and come up with a plan." He smiled, punching him lightly in the shoulder.
Well this is unexpected. Usually people gave him the cold shoulder after they saw what he could do. Either that or tell him what he should use it for. He wasn't used to getting playful sore shoulder.
Rubbing it, he smirked and said, "Alright. Let's go."
As they walked, Shinso looked to the other two they were going against, Iida Yaoyorozu. They were strong, fast, and had pretty powerful quirks.
More than likely, Iida will have told her about my quirk. He almost hit himself for his previous action. Arrogance wasn't going to help him in the long run, especially if people always placed him in the villain spectrum.
"We're going against a runner and a builder. All we have is your tail and my voice. Not the best odds."
Ojiro thought for a moment. "Yeah, and they're pretty sharp, though I think we'll know when Iida is coming, assuming he comes for us."
Shinso chuckled. "He is pretty loud. But we should prepare for any outcomes."
Ojiro suddenly snapped his fingers and grinned. "I might have an idea."
While Ochako and Kirishima waited at the bottom outside the building, planning how to attack, Bakugo and Shoto stood in awkward silence.
After a moment, Shoto finally spoke.
"So, what's the plan?"
Bakugo thought for a moment. "From I what I remember from practice, that girl can make things weightless and that guy can harden his skin. Against my fire power and your ability, it's a pretty easy fight." He smirked. Maybe All Might should've been a bit more careful when he picked the teams.
"Your blasts won't matter much if he can harden his skin, especially if they canboth fight in close combat. From what I've seen, neither of us are good in that area."
"Yeah right!" Bakugo scoffed, sending off a few blasts for effect. "With our quirks, that'll be enough. Explosions, Ice and fire? They won't stand a chance!"
Shoto shifted uncomfortably before responding. "I'm not using my left side."
Bakugo blinked. "What? Why not!?"
"None of your business."
"None of m- You're in U.A. dammit! You can't expect to get through with only half your power!"
Shoto shrugged. "I'll get by and it won't kill you. I'm pretty sure we can think of a plan."
Gritting his teeth, Bakugo stepped forward until he was a foot away from Shoto, who's cold, green eyes betrayed no emotion.
"Listen up, Icy Hot, don't think that just because you're pops is the number 2 hero that you get to slack off!"
That seemed to touch a nerve. Shoto, his eyes flashing with anger, roughly pushed him away, catching by surprise.
Barely catching himself, he looked up in surprise.
You little…!
"Hey! No fighting amongst ourselves now!" All Might's voice boomed from the microphone in his ear.
"But he star-" he stopped himself, and stood against the wall fuming. Looking up at Shoto, who was still glowering, he saw something that gave pause to his anger. Behind the anger in his eyes, there was something else.
Whatever it was, it stirred up a familiar feeling that he desperately tried to shrug off. That cold, tightening in his chest started up.
Shit, not now! He had to do something, anything! We're not gonna stand a chance if we don't work together. This rationalizing helped him calm down a bit, allowing him to do something he hadn't done before.
"Look….sorry if I offended you with….whatever I said." Shoto blinked, his surprise mimicking what Bakugo felt. "If we're gonna win this….we gotta….I don't know….communicate."
Shoto was silent for a moment. "It's fine. You're right, we gotta plan something." As the siren sounded, announcing the start of the match, Shoto spoke up.
"I got something that might work, if you're willing to be out in the open."
Bakugo grinned, pushing himself from the wall. "That's my specialty."
What am I getting myself into? Shoto thought.
Hey guys, I'd like to thank you all again for following this series! You may have have noticed that the chapters are coming out later than usual. It's been getting a little harder to write these up with finals week coming up, but I'll be able to finish the Part of this series more effectively after the next few weeks.
Stay tuned!