I do not own My Hero Academia or any of its characters.
Warnings
Lee reached his foot up, pressing the handle downward before bending his leg to pull the door open a bit. Then, he took his foot back and stepped out of the way. Momo walked into the room, closing the door behind her and sighing, holding up a letter.
"You've got mail this morning," Momo said.
"Where was it?" Lee asked.
"On the floor just inside the building," Momo said. "Someone put it through the mail slot of the dorm."
"Does it say who it's from?" Lee asked, using his right big toe to pull his underwear drawer open and pulling out a pair of compression shorts with his teeth, dropping them on the bed beside his school uniform and exosuit.
"Sort of," Momo said, staring at the envelope. "A short-time acquaintance."
Lee stopped, eyes widening slowly. "A short time is...an instant. Open it. Read it to me. Also, can you please turn around while I struggle to get dressed?"
Momo nodded, turning around and opening the envelope.
While she did, Lee used the bed to push his boxers down low enough to push them off, then got his compression shorts on and pulled them up about to his knees before being unable to get them higher.
"Dear Mach, or perhaps you're...going by Black Racer now," Momo read, brow furrowing, "that was an outstanding performance in the Licensing Exam. It's good to know you're mastering your power to such a creative extent, though it's a shame your body remains as fragile as a piece of fine tableware thrown at a cement wall. I just wanted to let you know that I've been keeping as close an eye on you as ever, and that I'm not the only one. Stitch is very excited to meet that attractive friend of yours again, so is Inkling. But there's another point to this letter. We've come to the conclusion that the three of us, while extremely capable, as we've proven, are not able to bring you down alone. It pains us to admit it, but we've decided to find some more friends to join in on our next playdate." She stopped, glancing at the envelope and paling.
"What?" Lee asked.
Momo swallowed hard. "As a reminder of all the good times we've had we've...sent some copies of the pictures we took while we were...preparing for our first playdate. Enjoy. Instand, Stitch, and Inkling." She lowered the letter and glanced at Lee, who was sitting on his bed, shorts forgotten entirely, still stuck around his knees.
"Show me," Lee said quietly, venom dripping from his voice already.
"Lee, you shouldn't-"
"Show me!" Lee said more forcefully.
Momo hesitated before holding out the four pictures. They were worse than Lee had expected. He was expecting pictures of his beaten and abused sister, bound, gagged, and naked. Instead, Instant had sent pictures of his beaten and abused sister, bound gagged and naked, in the process of being raped by one of the three villains, all three appearing in the pictures, Instant appearing twice. Fury flooded Lee and electricity screamed along his spine for several long seconds before he managed to rein himself in, his electricity disappearing. Finally, his eyes fell from the pictures to his shorts. He grimaced and glanced at Momo, who sighed and nodded.
"You're going to have to figure this out," Momo said, walking over and sitting on the bed behind him and gripping the sides of his shorts.
He lifted up and she pulled them up over him before letting go. He thanked her, trying to will his blush away, and began to slip his exosuit on before it was too late. He was close, and she didn't say anything, but he knew she noticed his body reacting to her. After a minute, he slipped his feet into his boots and she knelt in front of him, securing the front and back of them. He stood and stepped into his pants, which were a lot looser than his shorts, and rocked back on the bed onto his upper back, allowing the pants to fall down his legs until they were in place. Again Momo helped him, zipping and buttoning them for him, both pretending it was nothing. Lee lifted his arms and Momo lifted the upper body of the suit under them enough to stick the magnets to his spine, then draped his uniform shirt over his shoulders, buttoning it in front. He sighed miserably.
"I feel helpless," Lee complained.
"You kind of are," Momo said. "How do you brush your teeth?"
Lee grimaced. "Iida kind of...forced me to let him."
"And shower?" Momo asked.
"I'm getting by with water showers, then deodorant, courtesy of an automated sprayer," Lee said, nodding his head toward one he'd borrowed from Midoriya, who said he bought it one of the numerous times his arms were broken.
"That's...a little gross," Momo said. "But I suppose there's not much else you can do."
Lee nodded. Not without asking someone to shower with me, at least, which is absolutely not happening. "Come on. If we take much longer we'll be late."
"You didn't get breakfast," Momo said.
"Yeah, I'm not in the mood to be fed in front of everyone," Lee said. "I'll wait until lunch when I can find someplace to hide, and work up the courage to sink low enough to ask someone to feed me like a child. Can you stick the letter into my pocket? I'm going to need to show the principal in case it becomes a problem."
Momo nodded, sticking the letter in his right hip pocket before following him out of the room and downstairs, finding Mina and Toru waiting.
"There you are!" Mina said. "Come on! We're gonna be late if we don't hurry!"
They left the dorms, jogging at the three girls' pace to the school and getting formed up with the rest of the class only a few minutes before the Principal began to welcome them back. His speech started with a lecture about proper care of your hair, or in his case fur, transitioning into talking about sleep being the most important and how his sleep cicle was ruined by the summer's events. Then it transitioned to having lost All Might as a pro hero, and how the world was changing. Villains getting bolder, heroes getting more timid. Then, he said everyone, especially the Hero Course students, needed to be more cautious. He mentioned hero work studies, but Lee wasn't sure what that was. He reassured them that the teachers were working hard to keep them safe, and that they should learn from their teachers' diligence. He finished by reminding them that no matter what course they were in, they were the ones who would inherit society, and therefor should strive to be the best members of society they could be. Next up was Hound Dog, the extra-curricular activities director, however, his speech was a bunch of barking and a howl at the end. Vlad King briefly translated his apparent rant by letting the school know two students had been in a fight the night before, Midoriya and Bakugo, both of whom were on four days of house arrest and extra janitor work around the dorm, and asked everyone to be more respectful. Then, they were dismissed.
A few minutes later, they were all seated in the classroom, Aizawa moving to the front of the class. "Okay, today we'll resume our regular classes and training schedule. I know a lot has happened recently, however, you need to switch gears and focus on your school duties. We're lecturing today, but this semester you'll have even harsher training than before."
"He can't mean that, right?" Mina whispered to Su, only for Aizawa to glare at them, his eyes glowing with his Quirk, hair floating up around him and his scarf doing the same.
"Like to share, Ashido?" Aizawa asked, Mina squeaking in surprise and fear.
"His icy stare is back!" Mina squeaked.
Su raised her hand, ribbiting. "Excuse me, sir. May I ask a question? What were those things the principal was talking about during the opening ceremony? I've never heard the term hero work studies before."
"I know, right?" Sero agreed. "That had me pretty confused too."
"I also have concerns," Fumikage agreed.
Momo raised her hand. "He said they're something the upper classmen participate in, correct?"
Aizawa sighed. "I was planning to talk more about those at a later date. But I guess telling you now is more logical. To put it simply, it's work outside of class, like the internships you did with hero agencies before, only closer to the real thing."
"Wait, then why do we work so hard at the Sports Fest!?" Uraraka shouted, raising her hand and jumping out of her seat.
"She has a point," Iida said. "If we have work studies, those of us who weren't scouted at the Sports Festival still have career paths.
"You gotta calm down," Sato said to Uraraka, whose eyes were wide with panic and who was trembling. "You're acting kinda nuts-o."
"This doesn't make sense!" Uraraka said.
"You'll be using your connections from the festival to secure a work study," Aizawa said. "It's basic networking. This isn't part of your normal classwork. It's discretionary for each student. That means, those who weren't scouted at the Sports Festival will have a hard time lining one up, I'm afraid. Originally, individual agencies recruited on their own, but there was lots of competition as everyone tried to recruit U.A. students, so this is how things ended up. Good enough, Ochaco?"
"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions, sir," Uraraka said, sitting back down.
"Now that you have your provisional licenses, you can help in real ways, for longer periods of time," Aizawa said. "Until now, there haven't been many first-years who have received their licenses. With the increased activity of villains, we're currently exploring the idea that you can participate in work studies as well. We'll explain more about the work study positions and what that entails at a later date, but for now, we've got other things to worry about. That's all. Sorry to keep you waiting, Mic."
The door slid open suddenly and Present Mic walked in. "First period is English! In other words, it's jam time! Been an age since I stood on this stage! You miss me!? We've got a lot to cover today, let's get rolling with it, ya dig!?"
"Excuse me, Mister present Mic?" Lee said in English, standing. "I need to speak with the principal about something unrelated to school, but which is important. Also, I have a translater in my neural implant. May I be excused for the time being?"
"Hm," Present Mic said. "If it's important, go ahead. Just try to be back before the last note."
"I'll try, sir," Lee said, leaving the room and walking to the principal's office. He knocked with his head, and when told to enter, he used his knee to slide the door open, then again to close it once he was inside.
"Hello, Lee," the principal said kindly. "How can I help?"
"I got a letter this morning," Lee said. "It's from Instant."
The principal's smile shrunk slightly and he walked over, pulling the letter out of Lee's pocket and reading it quickly. "I see. I'm assuming the pictures were of your sister?"
"Yes," Lee nodded. "They might be in the envelope. Please don't look at them."
"They are," the principal said, shredding the envelope, along with the pictures, keeping the letter. "How was the letter delivered?"
"Through the mail slot," Lee said. "Or, at least, that's what Yaoyorozu thought. She brought me the letter, and read it to me. She said it was on the floor below the mail slot."
The principal nodded. "So, he's decided to target you exclusively, or at least, he's come out and stated that he has been. And he's planning to gather more villains to ensure he kills you."
"Yes, sir," Lee said. "Instant's not a fool. He's smart. Anyone he recruits will be at least as dangerous as the League's Vanguard Action Squad, probably stronger. And Instant will likely use his Quirk to train them against mine."
The principal nodded. "And with a group of unknown numbers and abilities, all of which should be expected to be extremely dangerous, they could, theoretically, attack you anywhere. By delivering the letter, he's already proven that he can get onto school grounds, deliver a letter, and leave without setting off any alarms or sensors."
"How fast would that have to be?" Lee asked.
"Fast," the principal said. "Very fast. Even compared to you. He'd have to go from across the street in front of the school building to your dorm, deliver the letter, and then return in...well...in an instant."
"That's...what...a mile and a half?" Lee asked. "So...above the speed of sound, which would cause a sonic boom."
"Alerting everyone within hearing distance to his presence, as well as alerting all of the sensors nearby of an explosion," the principal said.
Lee frowned. "Maybe...he reached his speed somewhere else?"
The principal hummed thoughtfully. "It's possible. However, there is another option. Although rare, there have been recorded instances in which someone possesses a Quirk that allows them to manipulate time to some degree. However, all previous recorded instances have been small. One was a man possessing the ability to see ahead in time, giving him foresight up to two minutes ahead of himself in time's flow. Another was a young girl who could age something at an accelerated rate, but only if it was physically smaller than her and also inorganic. For Instant to be able to mimic your ability surpass your speed, and deliver the letter without being caught, his abilities would need to be an an entirely unheard of level. He would need to be able to freely manipulate time, halting it for an extended duration without it affecting him, slowing it for the world around him freely. Such an ability is incredibly dangerous, and also incredibly difficult to gage the full extend of, let alone deal with."
"He's also got a second Quirk," Lee said. "Every time he activates his Quirk, from what I've seen, fire comes out of his eyes, nothing big, but noticeable. During our first fight, he released an explosion of flames from his back to attack me, only for All Might to pull me out of the way. He hasn't used that Quirk to fight me again, but I think the flames in his eyes means that he has to activate both Quirks at once."
"Thereby giving you a sign that he's using his time-manipulating Quirk," the principal said. "It's not much of an advantage, but it is a small one."
"I know nothing can be done about this right now, but I thought I should warn you, at the very least, in case he becomes a problem for the school," Lee said.
"Thank you for coming to me, Lee," the principal said. "Head back to class. I'll have a discussion with the other teachers about how to proceed."
Lee nodded and again used his knee to work the door, heading back to class. The rest of the day passed by slowly, and by the time they got back to the dorms, half the class was either confused about the English they had learned, which Lee had promised to help Mina and Toru with again, along with Momo's help, and the other half talking about the work studies. Of course, they'd been absolutely forbidden to tell Bakugo or Midoriya anything about what they'd studied, not really a fair punishment, in Lee's eyes, but the one they had to suffer trough all the same.
"Ready to reteach what we just failed to learn?" Mina asked, beaming at Lee excitedly.
Lee chuckled. "Yeah. I'll be up in a minute."
"Okay!" Mina smiled, darting off to get ready.
Momo sighed and left to drop off her books before the tutoring session began as well.
"Toru, can we talk for a second?" Lee asked.
Toru nodded and followed him into the kitchen, where they were away from the others. "What's up? Did something happen?"
"Yes," Lee sighed. "But this isn't about that. That's just Instant being a pain in the ass again. What I wanted to say was...well...during the exam...after Shino knocked everyone out..."
"Oh God!" Toru squeaked. "You did see me!"
"I'm sorry," Lee winced. "I found you with your shoes knocked off, so I couldn't tell what position you were in. So...I used my neural implant to be able to see you long enough to put your shoes on you and pick you up, then turned it off again. I didn't tell you at the time because I knew you'd be flustered and embarrassed for the rest of the exam. Sorry."
"It's okay," Toru said, arms crossed over her chest.
"I swear I didn't stare or act like Mineta or anything," Lee promised. "I didn't look anywhere I didn't have to."
"I know," Toru said, hesitating before uncrossing her arms. "You can see me right now, right?"
"Yeah," Lee nodded.
"I suppose my blush is pretty obvious, then, huh?" Toru asked. "Can't pretend I'm not embarrassed."
"Personally, I'd say your blush is cute, but..." he smiled, and Toru's blush grew along with her smile.
"Thank you for letting me know," Toru smiled. "And for being as much a gentlemen as you could about it."
"Of course," Lee smiled.
Toru smiled, kissing him for a few seconds before pulling back. "Come on. We shouldn't keep Mina and Momo waiting."
Lee nodded and followed her up to the room, finding Momo already hard at work trying to get Mina to retain anything at all from the class.
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