Gran Torino looked at the six students he had been assigned to. Since Midoriya had figured out Full Cowling, he had expected the rat to let him go home, but he had been adamant about his role. After all, he had pointed out, it would raise questions if he fired a teacher assistant after just hiring him, or if said teacher assistant left on his own. Moreover, he was sure Gran Torino would find other students to teach.

'Tch, I will punt Toshinori for this. I was enjoying my semi-retirement.' He shook his head and looked at the group he was leading, before pointing his cane at the tall, black-haired girl. "You! What's the long face?"

The girl – Yayoro-something, she was in the same class as Midoriya – seemed startled a moment, before straightening up. "N-Nothing sir, I was just thinking."

"Alright Just Thinking." He grinned at the groans he heard from the other students and the even more confused expression on the girl's face. "Who are you again?"

"I-I'm Momo Yaoyorozu sir. From class 1-A?"

He stared at her.

"I-I was in the team that got second place at the Sports Festival!"

He still stared at her for a long moment, then shook his head when she seemed unable to think of a better descriptor. Not everyone figured out what his question actually was, even if those zygotes needed to figure out fast that he wanted them to refer to themselves with their Hero name. It was a fundamental moment in the life of a Hero-in-Training, both to build their confidence and to figure out if they really wanted to be saddled with the name for the rest of their lives.

"Well, no matter!" He said instead when the girl with long earlobes – Jiro, that name was short enough he could remember it – "Now listen here you zygotes. This is the Flood Zone." He pointed at the lake-sized pool and at the yacht in the center of it. It was far enough that it couldn't be reached just by jumping with most Quirk. He could manage, of course, but they had made sure to assign a group without flyers or swimmers to it. "Your job is simple. The yacht in the center has been stolen by a Villain, who took the crew hostage, but during an earlier confrontation with the Heroes it got damaged. The villain, whoever they might be, is currently busy repairing it, so your job is to reach it before he does, subdue him, save the hostages and recover the stolen yacht."

Yaoyorozu – yes, he had memorized her actual name, he wasn't a jerk – raised her hand, "So we fail the exercise if we either can't reach the yacht, can't subdue the villain or the yacht sinks, is that correct?"

"Great point… Who are you again?"

"I got first place in the mock exam earlier this week!"

He shrugged, "Doesn't ring a bell." Both her and the girl next to her seemed incensed now, while a few students from the other schools snickered. He frowned and pointed his cane at the other students. "Save your laughs for when you have accomplished something. Either way, Yoyo-whatever, you are mostly right. The yacht sinking would cause environmental damage, and would be expensive to recover, not to mention it would put the hostages in danger, and the other two are fairly obvious."

"Do we know how much time we have before the villain finishes his repairs?" One of them, a guy from Shiketsu, asked.

"Nope."

"And when does the exercise start?" A Ketsubutsu student added.

"It's been going since I started talking."

The zygotes groaned and rushed to work. He smiled.

-x-

Momo was a bit upset. She wasn't used to being angry, but between Professor Aizawa switching her spot with Tsuyu – something she really felt was unfair, she had won that rock, paper, scissor competition fairly – and thus giving the frog girl a good chance to bond with Bakugo – wh-which wasn't why she wanted to team up with him, of course, she just figured she might take it as a nice bonus but really it was more because their Quirks had good synergy. Definitely that – and now she was stuck with a teacher that didn't even want to remember her name.

"You ok?" Jiro asked. She coughed in her fist while looking at the girl. The fact the words 'my first kiss' were the first thing that popped in her mind when she looked at her face made Momo blush a bit, stammer and look away.

"I-I'm fine." She managed to say, "W-We should probably focus on the exercise, right?"

"… Right. But don't let what he said get to you, alright? You are pretty memorable Yaomomo." Jiro said with a smile, patting her back.

"Y-Yes, of course." She coughed, "Now, uhm, does anyone here have a Quirk they think might be useful?"

Of course no one did. The two Ketsubutsu students had one a hardening Quirk, the other an aim Quirk. The Seiai students had a hologram Quirk and a Quirk that made hammers appear from her back, and the others were similarly mostly gifted in either short range combat or support.

Momo wasn't sure of what to do, but thankfully an older student from Shiketsu stepped forward. "If you have Creation, can you make the parts for a boat? Even just a raft would be enough."

"I… I guess, but I would be very taxing." She replied, "And how do you plan to weld them together and reach the ship?"

"I have a glue Quirk, and one of our teammates has a propulsion Quirk." The teen replied.

Momo nodded, and quickly created three pieces to form the full boat. By the end she was pretty tired, Jiro catching her before she stumbled.

"Alright! Amazing work!" The Shiketsu student said, "We want to organize this carefully. Three people should stay here to keep in contact. The rest should come to the ship to help."

"I will stay." Jiro offered instantly, "And I think Yaoyorozu should stay too."

"Fair enough." He looked at one of the Seiai student, the one with Holograms, who nodded and also stayed back, while the rest crammed onto the rowboat. One of the Ketsubutsu students pushed the boat, and 'launched' it, making it travel toward the target.

"We didn't really get to do much." Momo bemoaned. She knew support was important, but still, she kinda hoped to show off a bit.

"I mean, they wouldn't be there if it wasn't for you." Jiro countered, "I'm the one that isn't doing anything."

"Hey, that implies I'm also not doing anything…" The Seiai student said.

"N-No, not what I meant, I mean, we are helping with support, right?"

The Seiai girl nodded, before taking out from a bag a few bottles of water. "Do you want one?"

"Why do you have that many bottles?"

"Quirk requirement. Projecting the hologram makes me thirsty."

"… Fair enough. Say, who do you think is playing the Villain-"

Suddenly an enormous shield emerged from the ship, sending two students flying.

-x-

"You asked Crust to play the Villain?!" Mic shouted, staring in disbelief, "You know that Crust gets into everything he does too much! He will probably try to murder them for real!"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Mic is right." Aizawa said.

"See, he agr- What do you mean 'I can't believe'?!"

"Now, now." Nezu said, "First of all, Crust is a good Hero, he will control himself." On the screen, a Ketsubutsu student was hit with a shield and sent flying, reaching half-way through the lake before he finally landed. Aizawa, Mic and several teachers from other schools turned to stare at him. "See? He was only sent that far. It's fine."

"… Also, if you got Crust to play the Villain there, who did you get for the other terrains?"

Nezu smiled. Aizawa felt the need to hide himself in a corner and cry for mercy.

-x-

"Is that Miruko?!" The Welding Girl shouted, looking at the figure standing in the middle of the conflagration zone, laughing maniacally with a group of plastic civilians trapped behind her.

"Nope!" The Hero, dressed in a black and red leotard that was basically a color inversion of her usual white and blue outfit, grinned, "I'm the Villain Dark Bunny." She said with a grin, "Run, little bitches, or the rabbit will kill you all."

"Fuck that!" Bakugo shouted, "We are fighting!" He paused, and glanced at Tsuyu, "… We are fighting right?"

"Go nuts, it doesn't sound like we have an alternative." The frog girl said with a thumb up.

"Hell yeah!"

-x-

"You invited Miruko?!" Mic asked, then paused, "Wait, right, we already did for the Sports Festival. But how did you convince her to come back?"

"Oh, I didn't have to do anything. She said she was bored without her intern around, and I offered a fun day off."

"A fun day off of beating up our students?" One of the other teachers asked.

"Absolutely."

"I'm not sure I can approve-"

"She has the group with Romero Fujimi."

"Well damn, why didn't you say so earlier." The Isamu teacher sat down, "Kick his ass!"

"Problem child?" Aizawa asked another teacher from Isamu.

"Spends all his day shouting at others or claiming he will be number one. Absolute torture."

"… I relate so much with this man."

-x-

"Second group in." Professor Ectoplasm said, pointing to the dome that formed the Downpour Zone. Masutaro raised an eyebrow. The other group couldn't have been inside for more than ten minutes. He shrugged and followed Ectoplasm in.

"The assignment is simple. This is a map of the Downpour Zone." The teacher said, handing them a map with four marked locations. "You have to get there, check for anyone in danger, and get any potential civilian out. You can assume other Heroes are doing the same in other areas."

"That doesn't seem too bad." One of the Seiai girls said. Every single other student turned to glare at her, "Yeah I know. Sorry. That came out before I could stop it. I beg for mercy."

"There is no mercy at UA." Ectoplasm replied, "Only a rat god and his whims." And with that, the man walked away.

"… Man your teachers are hardcore." One of the ninja students said.

"No. No, they are just realistic." Masutaro replied. "So, uhm, there are four locations, should we…"

"Probably." One of the other students nodded, "Groups of three?"

"Oh, oh!" Camie raised her hand, "I'm tots going with Masutaro!"

"Are you sure you shouldn't go with someone else…" Masutaro looked at the other students.

"Nope."

"No."

"Go for it."

"Amazing idea."

"Sounds like a good team."

"Totally."

"The best."

"Could probably win against all of us together."

The remaining students nodded energetically, and Masutaro sighed. "Alright, form the other teams and let's go."

Everyone did so, Tooru standing next to him – really close, man that was nice – and Camie set herself on the other side. "Let's keep it fresh guys!" She said waving to the other teams as they spread off to reach their locations.

Masutaro sighed as the thee walked toward their goal. It was on the eastern side of the town, so it should be a quick walk, all things considered, though with the rain that was coming down Masutaro wasn't feeling super confident if there was any enemy to fight. His gas didn't spread well in the rain, Tooru's was visible thanks to the rain – and oh boy, was he trying to not stare too much at what the rain highlighted of his girlfriend – and his sis- Camie's Quirk probably had a shorter range. At least he had to assume.

"I wish I had an umbrella." Tooru grumbled. Masutaro quickly took off his jacket.

"Here, I hope this helps."

Tooru grabbed it, thanking him, and as he turned he noticed Camie staring at him. "So, like, is she your gf?"

"Sh-She is!" He admitted.

"I am!" The invisible girl nodded.

"OMG, that's super cute! Tots adorable!" She turned to look at Hagakure, "Great catch sis! He sounds like he is really honest and reliable."

Masutaro froze for a moment at the comment. The tone Camie had used at the end there… No, she couldn't recognize him. Big sis was book smart, but she definitely wasn't exactly bright. And he had a different hair color, was at least more muscular than he used to be thanks to his training, and even his voice was probably a bit less high pitched, not to mention his face was also slightly different.

He really prayed all that was enough.

They reached the building and walked in, looking around. Masutaro held his gun- Support Item close. They had been told to treat this like a Villain attack, which likely meant there was going to be an attack from said Villains.

"Should we split up?" Hagakure asked, "To search the building faster. Definitely not because I want you two to be on different floors and I can't think of another way to do that. Ahah. That's crazy."

"… We didn't say anything."

"I know, just saying that's not the reason."

Masutaro made to point out that was a the perfect way to get ambushed like a B-Movie side character, but then realized that meant he could stay away for Camie. 'On one hand, grades. On the other, not having to spend an awkward time with my sister. Goodbye grades, it was nice being a goo- a dece- an ok student.'

"Alright, uhm, I guess, Camie can take the ground floor, I will take the second floor, and Tooru will take the third floor?"

"Sounds… peachy!" Camie said, "I'm so doing this!" And she walked off to go inspect the ground floor. Masutaro gestured toward Hagakure to follow him.

"You do know you have nothing to be afraid of, right?" He asked. Literally, Camie should have been the safest girl from Hagakure's perspective, on the ground that Masutaro wasn't Jaime Lannister.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about." Tooru said, in the tone Masutaro could tell was her pouting. "I'll go upstairs, alright? You check this floor, then we meet back up with the Shiketsu girl."

With that, she ran upstairs, leaving him behind. Masutaro sighed. "I don't get it." He murmured, as he opened the first door of the floor, "I try my best." He said as he checked inside the room, finding nothing of note, before closing it, "Did I look at another girl before?" He wondered, opening the second door, "I mean, I did look at Yaoyorozu's Booborozus while she was in her costume, but that was before I got a girlfriend, dammit!" He checked the room and slammed it closed, "And it was Mineta's fault anyway. Seriously, if he spent half the time he spends talking about boobs trying to be a cool guy, he would have a harem by now."

He opened the third door, and was welcomed by the figures of three kids huddled together. Of course, they were made of plastic. "I am here!" He declared sarcastically from behind his gas mask, "Gasman at your service kids. Can you walk?"

The three kids didn't answer, on account of the fact they were made of plastic. Rude but understandable. He stepped forward and checked them for any injury. It looked pretty dumb to do it on plastic figures, but he did found one of them had a large cut in the plastic, complete with some fake goo meant to represent fake blood. He quickly bandaged it, then told them to stay still – eh – and moved outside, to go call the others.

He had just the time to send a message to Hagakure saying 'Found three kids." Before he looked up to see Camie standing in front of him. "Uhm… Hi?" Camie slammed a hand on the wall next to him. The useless part of Masutaro's brain said something along the line of 'Good Kabedon, but she needs to work on the technique.'

Unfortunately, most of Masutaro's brain was the useless part, so he only managed to add "I'm not a school girl" before she stared at him.

"Why are you here?"

"Is that a philosophical question? Because 'Why are we here' is kind of big. Uhm, so according to Shinto…"

"Why are you at UA, Yukio?!" She hissed.

'She knows, she knows, she knows, wake up brain, we need to work.'

'No.'

'Oh come on!'

'This is your mess!'

'You are my brain, we are in this together!'

"Stop wasting time and answer!" She growled. Alright, this was a 'big sis is angry' moment. He had only seen his older sister angry like this twice, once when their mom had punished her for some prank Yukio had pulled – he didn't remember what it was, just that it involved a cellphone, Camie's gas and the police – and the other when the two had a fight and he had flushed her entire beauty case down the toilet. That had taught young Yukio the two important lessons of 'never destroy a woman's beauty case' and 'you can't flush a whole beauty case down the toilet, it gets stuck'.

"Uhm…" He coughed, "My name is Masutaro…"

"Bull and shit, lil bro. You think I can't tell who you are just because you changed hair color, changed your face slightly, are a bit taller and a bit more muscular?"

"Uhm, I'm not Yukio, again, but I think the answer would be yes?"

"Yukio!"

"Masutaro."

"Do you have any idea how worried mom is?!"

"I don't on the ground that my name is Masutaro and my mom died ten years ago." He replied, using his cover to mask his anger. Oh sure, she was worried, totally. The mom that had forced him his entire life to become a Hero, calling him always 'disappointing', calling his Quirk 'dangerous and worthless at once', claiming that 'if he couldn't be like his big sis what was the point' was probably crying her eyes out for little Yukio Utsushimi. "Look, I don't know what your problem is, Utsushimi, but we are in the middle of an exercise, right now. We get grades for this, and there are three kids that need rescue in that room. Can we take care of them first? We are Heroes, right?"

Utsushimi moved closer, glaring at him, and he didn't flinch, staring right back. He didn't hate his big sis, honestly. He was jealous, and maybe angry at how blind she was about their mom's failings, but he knew that, for all her weaknesses, she was a genuinely good person. Her problem was being airheaded and having too much goodwill.

They were staring each other in the eyes, unmoving, and Yuk- Masutaro made to say something, when a cough echoed in the room. They both slowly turned to see Hagakure. Well, not exactly see, but she was pretty recognizable.

Then their eyes went wide, when they noticed who was behind her.

"Hello, Heroes." Edgeshot said, pointing a kunai toward his girlfriends' back, "Want to fight?"

-x-

"Did you invite the entire top ten or something?!" A Shiketsu teacher shouted.

"Alas, it wasn't possible. I got Miruko, Wash, Edgeshot and Crust, but the others were too busy or were All Might."

All Might, in his buff form, waved awkwardly when they all turned at once toward the Number One, before he registered something, "Wait, someone has Wash?"

-x-

Uraraka gasped as she ran through the Landslide Zone. They had been told their mission was to find a small family that had gone missing in the landslide. Simple enough, their team could easily climb up, especially by using Todoroki's ice. Even finding the family was a piece of cake.

Nowhere was it mentioned that she was about to be murdered by death bubbles!

"Uraraka!" Todoroki shouted, before freezing the road behind them and pulling her toward a ruined building half-covered in mud. They panted, and she took the chance to look around. Only four of them left, a student from Isamu and one from Seiai with them. Plus, of course, the plastic family. She was tempted to use them as a blunt object, but she doubted it would help.

They tentatively looked outside of their hideout, and stared at the figure.

"Washwashwashwash!" He cackled maniacally, surrounded by giant bubbles. Their teammates trapped inside were uselessly trying to break through, but their multi-layered bubbles seemed unbreakable. Wash, the walking washing machine, considered number one cutest hero, the friend of all children, raised a hand, and a torrent of bubbles appeared, replacing the ones Todoroki had frozen, the only reason the four of them were still running.

She promised herself that if they survived, tonight he was going to have the best dinner of his life.

'Oh my…'

'Shut up brain not now!'

-x-

"God have mercy on their soul, for Wash won't." All Might concluded, "So, who did you call to fill in the other areas?"

"Oh, Crust suggested a friend of his. Very amiable guy, actually, we shared a tea and discussed his ongoing investigations."

-x-

Izuku stared at the incomprehensible image in front of him.

Tomura Shigaraki was someone he knew well. He was always around when he was training with Stendhal – mostly to laugh at his pain, admittedly – and was the second in command of the League, running things while All for One was away. Well, technically Himiko was running things, but she seemed fine with letting Tomura do 'his thing'. Izuku found it mildly problematic that his girlfriend was so nonchalant about letting her terrorist brother do terrorists stuff, but then again 'You should get more involved with the family business' wasn't exactly something he could say to her when said family business was taking over Japan.

Shimura Togaraki, Shigaraki's Hero persona who had discovered personal igiene, was someone Izuku had met once, but he had looked him up online. Somehow, the Underground Hero with only a handful of completed cases – apparently he had stopped several crimes on patrol, which brought up the uncomfortable image of Shigaraki comparing his successes to Izuku's and declaring himself the better Hero out of spite – was also someone Izuku knew.

Shimura Togaraki standing in front of him, accompanied by a lizardman and a woman with a face mask, while lowering his sunglasses slightly and honest to god winking at the crowd was something he hoped he never had to see ever again.

Dadan Tadan, judging by his flustered expression, didn't agree. He refused to entertain the image for another moment.

"Uhm. Are we here to save you?!" He asked.

"Nah, we are the Villains. As you know, it is society's role to stomp on those that have issues with themselves and their Quirk, tossing them aside and destroying them when they try to rise up to defend themselves, so today we shall play that role."

"That is a very… specific scenario." Intelli commented.

"Oh, it's quite common. So many people just wish to be themselves but are shackled by society. When those people rebel against those bonds, it is the job of the Hero to stop them."

Izuku rolled his eyes and made to answer. "Well-"

"Oh, wow, he is kinda right." Izuku turned so fast toward the Seiai Vice-President that he felt pain in his neck.

"What?"

"I mean, he is saying that not every Villain is just a criminal that is trying to put together a get-rich-quick scheme, conquering the world without a reason, trying to organize a pointless genocide or torturing children, right?"

-x-

Wolfram, All for One and Overhaul sneezed all at once. In the room that was once the sancta sanctorum of Humarise, a pile of ashes was slightly blown away by a sudden gust of wind.

-x-

Several students nodded at her words, and Izuku swore he saw them turn toward Togaraki showing… admiration?

"I mean, yes, but if they are still hurting people…" Izuku tried to say, before Togaraki clapped.

"Well then, I see someone understand the assignment. Good job, miss, good job." Togaraki lowered his sunglasses and winked again. Who told him that?! Who taught him to do that?!

-x-

Hina felt the need to smirk slightly. Hopefully, that meant Shigaraki had understood the… gentle lessons she had given him on how to put up a charming persona as a Hero. After all, Hina held hostage his Homework folder. He better not ruin it.

"Something funny?" Dabi asked.

"Your face."

"Suck a dick Hina."

"You wish."

-x-

"I understand your point too Valiant." The Isamu girl, Sekigai, said, "Of course we still have the duty to stop them and save people, but understanding their point of view is important, isn't it? We need to figure out who is in need of help and who is a genuine criminal."

'He is a genuine criminal!' Izuku wanted to shout. Instead he forced himself to smile. "Of course Sekigai. You are right, naturally. We are Heroes, of course we should try to save everyone."

The girl smiled proudly, before Intelli interjected, "As Valiant says, you are still a Villain, mister Togaraki, so we shall stop you."

"Of course. And I shall endeavor to stop you from stopping me." Togaraki declared, pushing his sunglasses back on and showing a perfect smile that was so at odds with Shigaraki he could swear his brain crashed for a moment, "Sorbe, me and Iguchi will do our best for that."

"Am I wrong or he is getting really into it?" Himiko asked, leaning toward Izuku.

"You mean your brother is getting into being a Hero that plays a Villain, or that he is getting into being a Villain that play a Hero that plays a Villain?"

"Yes?"

"I figured." Izuku activated One for All. Alright, a revenge match for the USJ didn't sound bad actually. He did like the idea of punching Shigaraki for that.

-x-

"Well, he seems a nice guy." One of the teachers said, "But I need to ask, what is this supposed to teach them?"

"Well, first of all, that sometimes even Pro Heroes are faced with incredibly bad odds." Nezu replied. With All for One back, it was a lesson he felt his students needed to understand. Sometimes, things were so bad that even working together, the best you could hope for was saving those around you.

"I see. Makes sense, though it is a bit unfortunate as a theme for a cooperation event. I suppose another point is that together they can achieve something alone they could never, right?"

"Indeed." Nedzu nodded, "And then there is the third lesson."

"Which is?"

"UA is a really cool school of course." Nedzu declared. The teachers groaned.

One of them frowned. "Wait, there are six zones, right? Who got the sixth one?"

-x-

"Mwahahah!" Tensei Iida laughed uproariously from his spot atop the Mountain Area, "I am a really evil man!" He declared, his sidekicks doing their best to keep up their dignity.

Pony raised an eyebrow, and turned to look at Tenya. "So it's a family thing." She summarized.

Iida was too busy pretending he wasn't seeing that to answer.

(XX)

Part 2 of the Operation Dual Wielding Arc. Some interesting stuff going on for sure, especially with Masutaro. The pairings are about to face various Heroes. Will they come out on top?
Well, Midoriya probably. Shiggy is good but Valiant is trained by Miruko and all. And is not like Shiggy can use his Quirk.

Right?

... Right?

Aside from that... Well, the good thing is that this test isn't about defeating the Villains, I suppose.

Next week, the climax of the arc. Hope you are ready ;)